Post by raptorman on Jun 16, 2019 20:35:00 GMT -5
Name: Astrid
Age: 658, Appears to be mid-30s
Gender: Female
Race: Varangian, 1st Generation Praetorian
Alignment: Lawful Good
Power Level: High-Tier High (9)
Timeline: Modern/Futuristic
Appearance: Astrid is a woman of slightly greater than average height whose frame is deceptively delicate in appearance. She has extremely pale skin, long lustrous silver-white hair, and vivid yellow eyes that stare with a weight that ill befits her apparent age. Were she to smile it would light up her face, but that rarely happens and most commonly she is seen with an expression of resolve or worry. When in casual non-combat situations she favors dresses, and has a taste for more elegant attire in general. It is most common to find her in the white uniform of the Praetorians.
Like all Varangians, Astrid has a combat form that she dons by growing out a protective suit from her body. Like all Praetorians, Astrid's combat form is uniquely shaped by her powers and attributes. In her combat form she is fully covered by a suit of ornate appearing white armor. This armor is shot through with veins of black that almost seem to writhe and move on their own within the solid material. Her head is covered by a winged helm, and between and outside of the wings emerge two pairs of silver spines. In this form she has a pair of white feathered wings that emerge from her back. Her wings are armored with the same white material that makes up the rest of her armor, leaving only the feathers exposed. The feathers glow faintly with a radiant light at all times.
Astrid also has an additional form. By fully embracing the plagued part of her dual nature she undergoes an additional transformation. In this final state she looks similar to her base combat form, with the following changes. Her armor is now an inky dark gray and the formerly ornate armor now possesses twisted growths of black material covering it. Cracks form and ooze an inky liquid before closing again and her wings are a twisted mass of skeletal bone and oozing tar.
Personality: Astrid is a guardian, a protector, an unflinching defender of her people who will sacrifice herself for them and fight against impossible odds to grant them even moments of safety. Her devotion to duty and willingness to do whatever it takes to accomplish her task is truly admirable and a core aspect of her personality. "If there can be no victory, than we will fight forever." A philosophy that she and her people have had to embrace simply to stay sane in the centuries long war waged against the plague has certainly been internalized by her over her centuries of life and combat. Upon an initial meeting with Astrid and if one did not interact with her subsequently to have it disproven she could appear to be somewhat one dimensional in her personality. In truth there is more to her than single-minded devotion to protecting her people. She has a genuine love of teaching and educating, in those rare occasions during the war when her presence was not required either to engage in direct conflict, or to work with later generation Praetorians she would often be found leading educational classes for citizens or assisting in the care of children. She also enjoys fiction, particularly stories of a world where the plague never came, or set in the time before the eternal war. For the brief interludes when she is reading such texts she can escape from the reality and the burden that was placed upon her.
History:
Astrid is one of the 10 1st Generation Praetorians to have been created. She was conceived in the relatively early days of the war, when the Varangians had just retreated into Sanctuary. She, along with her 9 brothers and sisters were intended to serve as the vanguard of the empire, invincible, incorruptible, unstoppable soldiers who would make it possible to return to Earth and reclaim it for its people. Like her brothers and sisters Astrid was an experiment, the first of her kind and she was unique even among them. Astrid was meant to be the greatest of her kind, a holy warrior who would be completely inoculated against the corruption of the plague. Her birth and the birth of her siblings were celebrated, and they were held forth as a symbol of hope to a desperate people. These would be the champions who would in conjunction with advances in technology and steadfast determination, allow for the retaking of lost Earth. Alas that was not to be.
Training and growth took time, and by the time Astrid and her siblings had reached sufficient maturity to be deployed the plague had begun its slow inroads into the Sanctuary itself. Initial deployments were great successes, the powers of the Praetorians drove back the plague and its creatures, and Sanctuary was once more secure. The next step was retaking lost Earth, purging the plague from the world. But when the armies of the Varangians attempted to retake their home they were met with failure. The Earth as it had been was no more, instead it had begun an infected and corrupted breeding ground for the plagued. Still they made the effort. In this effort the first of the original Praetorians fell and casualties were immense.
For Astrid this came as an eye opening moment. It was the point at which the reality, that she was not enough, that she and her siblings were not capable of being the invincible spearhead to the retaking of Earth they had been meant to be. The effect this experience had on the first generation varied, for Astrid it solidified her determination to protect her people, whatever it took. The war would ultimately continue for hundreds of years. Time in which she would fight in countless battles against the plagued ones, in which she was called forth again and again to protect and defend her people. She saw the creation of the others, the 2nd, and then the 3rd generation of Praetorians and eagerly did her part in training them. Each new advance meant a new chance of victory, or as it slowly became increasingly about, a postponement of the inevitable defeat.
The situation had grown steadily more dire, portions of the Sanctuary itself had been abandoned to the plague. Battles raged nearly constantly against the twisted and corrupted things that emerged from the corrupted lands. New rifts opened at random across the Sanctuary to pour forth more of the twisted things. The Great Leader, architect of the escape to Sanctuary, the creation of the Praetorians, and much of the Varangian technology conceived of a new plan. Through the study of the rifts and the methods used to create Sanctuary itself in the first place a method had been devised to link with the past, allowing escape. Once there, the Varangians would conquer their past world, and have centuries to prepare for when the plague arrived, vigilant and ready to destroy it before the spread could begin.
Astrid did not take part in the invasion. She was deemed too necessary to the front lines against the plague. The first she knew of the troubles in the invasion came as more and more of her forces were withdrawn and sent forth through the portals. She held the plague at bay with what she had left for as long as she could but ultimately she could not hold forever. As the plagued ones overran defensive positions and poured into what remained of the Sanctuary she protected all she could, embracing her own plagued nature to fight as long as possible, defending one of the last settlement vessels which had been damaged and unable to flee through the portals. She fully expected to fall there, that her forever had come to close, at least until unexpected reinforcements appeared. Some she knew well, her kin, and even the Great Leader, some she did not, people from the world they had attempted to invade.
The plagued ones were temporarily driven back, long enough for the vessel to launch, and then together with the unlikely coalition she took part in the battles to reach the heart of the Sanctuary and trigger its destruction....
Following the war, and the peace negotiations that granted the remnants of the Varangians a new home, Astrid, along with her two remaining first generation siblings have taken on leadership roles within the survivors. So far much of what she has done has been attempting to see that the Great Leader's plans, with some modifications (like not converting the locals), are carried out. For her it is difficult to adjust to the absence of the war, something she never really believed would come pass, at least not since she was a child flush with youth and optimism. But she soldiers on and takes pleasure in her ability to continue to protect her people, even if now it is from less dire threats in general. With the fall of most of her siblings, including the others who normally fulfilled the training role, she has largely taken over the role of educating the remaining 3rd generation Praetorians, and will likely oversee the 4th once they are mature enough.
Powers: As one of the first generation Praetorians Astrid was shaped to be an ultimate weapon, an invincible and incorruptible warrior of great power who would defeat the plague and allow for the reclaiming of Earth. She possesses significantly increased strength, speed, durability and intelligence compared to a baseline human being. She further possesses limited technopathic abilities and as all of her race can, can manifest a protective exoskeletal suit. The list of powers below specifically focuses on those powers that she is unique or relatively unique for her kind in possessing.
Flight: Astrid is capable of flight, and while she does possess wings, they are not actually used to propel her through the air. They do assist greatly in maneuvering though. She is highly maneuverable and capable of flying fast enough to easily exceed supersonic speeds. A combination of her protective armor, her regenerative properties, and warding fields serve to insulate her from damage while performing such high speed maneuvers.
Positive Energy Manipulation: She is a conduit for positive energy and possesses the ability to shape it, discharge it, and manipulate it. One of the most common ways she does so is through the use of her wings. Her feathers are essentially crystallized repositories of positive energy and she can fire them at enemies as a hail of explosive projectiles. The process of regrowing her feathers does take some time, and after a few barrages she will need to abstain from using that ability for a minute or two before unleashing them once more. By combining her positive energy manipulation with her ability to create warding fields she can encase foes in what is essentially a microwave and expose them to extremely high levels of lethal radiation. She can also simply unleash this radiation from her body, though she tends to avoid this due to the risk of injuring others.
Enhanced Healing Factor: By virtue of the plague essence within her, Astrid heals extremely quickly. Shattered limbs will heal in a few minutes, great gashes and gaping wounds are more an inconvenience than anything else. Further the individual parts of her body retain functionality even when significantly damaged allowing her to operate with some degree of efficiency even when with shattered limbs and the like.
Warding Fields: One of the most useful abilities that Astrid possesses is the ability to erect warding fields that serve to either isolate threats, or protect herself and others. She is able to generate these fields at will, though maintaining more than two or three small fields is beyond her abilities and more than a single large one will push her to her limits. Most frequently she uses this ability in conjunction with her positive energy manipulation powers, or else as a shield.
Plague Angel: Astrid was intended to be immune to plague, inoculated by the small amounts of it that were infused into her in her creation. The plague infusions would ultimately have more impact on her than was initially intended and bestow upon her several traits. First, unless she actively attacks or engages the plague, those spawned by it and the corrupting force itself will ignore her. Second is her healing factor. And third is her ability to transform into a final state by fully channeling the corrupted essence within her. In this final form Astrid possesses some additional abilities and loses access to positive energy manipulation.
Equipment:
Astrid's Swordspear: Marvels of technology, tailored to be used by a single being and no other, infused with the essence of their wielders and built to synergize exclusively with them, the weapons of the first generation Praetorians are a marvel themselves. Astrid's personal weapon, a great spear with an elongated blade at the end of it is nearly indestructible. Infused as it was with her essence the spear is actually capable of regenerating itself should it be damaged and is capable of cutting through nearly anything through intrinsic channeling of her matter manipulation normally only accessible in her plagued state. Matter literally shreds itself and parts in the path of the blade making almost all defenses impotent against it. It further serves as an conduit and battery for her positive energy. As she wields it the weapon slowly gathers a charge from her and stores it up. This positive energy reserve allows her limited access to her positive energy powers even in her plagued state. In fact it is only through the use of her weapon that she can make use of her ultimate attack. While in her plagued state Astrid channels her matter warping together with her positive energy from her spear in order to unleash an attack of pure annihilation, forcing the positive energy and the twisted energy of the plague to coexist just long enough to wreak untold destruction upon her target.
Assorted Praetorian Equipment: The Praetorians all have access to a host of advanced equipment. Sophisticated reconnaissance drones, energy weapons, gravity manipulating devices, ect. Astrid will typically have access to the full suite of communication devices and make use of the drones, but will rarely have too many other pieces of equipment on her as she seldom needs them.
Weakness:
Children: Astrid has been forced to do countless things in her long existence. But the hardest thing has been when she has been called upon to slay those who were infected by the plague. One of her first deployments saw her forced to execute a group of children who had been corrupted when a rift opened within their school. The scars of this have lingered. If necessarily she will engaged children and childlike beings in combat, but she will be reluctant to do so, and she will at least initially hold back due to her desire to avoid causing harm to them. For one who views herself as a nurturer and protector, having to fight against those you exist to protect is extremely difficult.
Instability: In her plagued state Astrid gains access to increased power but she also fully immerses herself in the plague. Her will and sheer determination keeps herself under control and forces the plague within her to obey. But there is always a risk that should she falter she could lose control, and to her the risk that she might lose control, even for a moment and harm others is such that she will only utilize that form in the most dire of circumstances.
Protector: To some degree Astrid is easy to predict. She will do anything and everything to protect her people. This focus and devotion is admirable but also exploitable and makes it easy to draw her out and confront her.
Age: 658, Appears to be mid-30s
Gender: Female
Race: Varangian, 1st Generation Praetorian
Alignment: Lawful Good
Power Level: High-Tier High (9)
Timeline: Modern/Futuristic
Appearance: Astrid is a woman of slightly greater than average height whose frame is deceptively delicate in appearance. She has extremely pale skin, long lustrous silver-white hair, and vivid yellow eyes that stare with a weight that ill befits her apparent age. Were she to smile it would light up her face, but that rarely happens and most commonly she is seen with an expression of resolve or worry. When in casual non-combat situations she favors dresses, and has a taste for more elegant attire in general. It is most common to find her in the white uniform of the Praetorians.
Like all Varangians, Astrid has a combat form that she dons by growing out a protective suit from her body. Like all Praetorians, Astrid's combat form is uniquely shaped by her powers and attributes. In her combat form she is fully covered by a suit of ornate appearing white armor. This armor is shot through with veins of black that almost seem to writhe and move on their own within the solid material. Her head is covered by a winged helm, and between and outside of the wings emerge two pairs of silver spines. In this form she has a pair of white feathered wings that emerge from her back. Her wings are armored with the same white material that makes up the rest of her armor, leaving only the feathers exposed. The feathers glow faintly with a radiant light at all times.
Astrid also has an additional form. By fully embracing the plagued part of her dual nature she undergoes an additional transformation. In this final state she looks similar to her base combat form, with the following changes. Her armor is now an inky dark gray and the formerly ornate armor now possesses twisted growths of black material covering it. Cracks form and ooze an inky liquid before closing again and her wings are a twisted mass of skeletal bone and oozing tar.
Personality: Astrid is a guardian, a protector, an unflinching defender of her people who will sacrifice herself for them and fight against impossible odds to grant them even moments of safety. Her devotion to duty and willingness to do whatever it takes to accomplish her task is truly admirable and a core aspect of her personality. "If there can be no victory, than we will fight forever." A philosophy that she and her people have had to embrace simply to stay sane in the centuries long war waged against the plague has certainly been internalized by her over her centuries of life and combat. Upon an initial meeting with Astrid and if one did not interact with her subsequently to have it disproven she could appear to be somewhat one dimensional in her personality. In truth there is more to her than single-minded devotion to protecting her people. She has a genuine love of teaching and educating, in those rare occasions during the war when her presence was not required either to engage in direct conflict, or to work with later generation Praetorians she would often be found leading educational classes for citizens or assisting in the care of children. She also enjoys fiction, particularly stories of a world where the plague never came, or set in the time before the eternal war. For the brief interludes when she is reading such texts she can escape from the reality and the burden that was placed upon her.
History:
Astrid is one of the 10 1st Generation Praetorians to have been created. She was conceived in the relatively early days of the war, when the Varangians had just retreated into Sanctuary. She, along with her 9 brothers and sisters were intended to serve as the vanguard of the empire, invincible, incorruptible, unstoppable soldiers who would make it possible to return to Earth and reclaim it for its people. Like her brothers and sisters Astrid was an experiment, the first of her kind and she was unique even among them. Astrid was meant to be the greatest of her kind, a holy warrior who would be completely inoculated against the corruption of the plague. Her birth and the birth of her siblings were celebrated, and they were held forth as a symbol of hope to a desperate people. These would be the champions who would in conjunction with advances in technology and steadfast determination, allow for the retaking of lost Earth. Alas that was not to be.
Training and growth took time, and by the time Astrid and her siblings had reached sufficient maturity to be deployed the plague had begun its slow inroads into the Sanctuary itself. Initial deployments were great successes, the powers of the Praetorians drove back the plague and its creatures, and Sanctuary was once more secure. The next step was retaking lost Earth, purging the plague from the world. But when the armies of the Varangians attempted to retake their home they were met with failure. The Earth as it had been was no more, instead it had begun an infected and corrupted breeding ground for the plagued. Still they made the effort. In this effort the first of the original Praetorians fell and casualties were immense.
For Astrid this came as an eye opening moment. It was the point at which the reality, that she was not enough, that she and her siblings were not capable of being the invincible spearhead to the retaking of Earth they had been meant to be. The effect this experience had on the first generation varied, for Astrid it solidified her determination to protect her people, whatever it took. The war would ultimately continue for hundreds of years. Time in which she would fight in countless battles against the plagued ones, in which she was called forth again and again to protect and defend her people. She saw the creation of the others, the 2nd, and then the 3rd generation of Praetorians and eagerly did her part in training them. Each new advance meant a new chance of victory, or as it slowly became increasingly about, a postponement of the inevitable defeat.
The situation had grown steadily more dire, portions of the Sanctuary itself had been abandoned to the plague. Battles raged nearly constantly against the twisted and corrupted things that emerged from the corrupted lands. New rifts opened at random across the Sanctuary to pour forth more of the twisted things. The Great Leader, architect of the escape to Sanctuary, the creation of the Praetorians, and much of the Varangian technology conceived of a new plan. Through the study of the rifts and the methods used to create Sanctuary itself in the first place a method had been devised to link with the past, allowing escape. Once there, the Varangians would conquer their past world, and have centuries to prepare for when the plague arrived, vigilant and ready to destroy it before the spread could begin.
Astrid did not take part in the invasion. She was deemed too necessary to the front lines against the plague. The first she knew of the troubles in the invasion came as more and more of her forces were withdrawn and sent forth through the portals. She held the plague at bay with what she had left for as long as she could but ultimately she could not hold forever. As the plagued ones overran defensive positions and poured into what remained of the Sanctuary she protected all she could, embracing her own plagued nature to fight as long as possible, defending one of the last settlement vessels which had been damaged and unable to flee through the portals. She fully expected to fall there, that her forever had come to close, at least until unexpected reinforcements appeared. Some she knew well, her kin, and even the Great Leader, some she did not, people from the world they had attempted to invade.
The plagued ones were temporarily driven back, long enough for the vessel to launch, and then together with the unlikely coalition she took part in the battles to reach the heart of the Sanctuary and trigger its destruction....
Following the war, and the peace negotiations that granted the remnants of the Varangians a new home, Astrid, along with her two remaining first generation siblings have taken on leadership roles within the survivors. So far much of what she has done has been attempting to see that the Great Leader's plans, with some modifications (like not converting the locals), are carried out. For her it is difficult to adjust to the absence of the war, something she never really believed would come pass, at least not since she was a child flush with youth and optimism. But she soldiers on and takes pleasure in her ability to continue to protect her people, even if now it is from less dire threats in general. With the fall of most of her siblings, including the others who normally fulfilled the training role, she has largely taken over the role of educating the remaining 3rd generation Praetorians, and will likely oversee the 4th once they are mature enough.
Powers: As one of the first generation Praetorians Astrid was shaped to be an ultimate weapon, an invincible and incorruptible warrior of great power who would defeat the plague and allow for the reclaiming of Earth. She possesses significantly increased strength, speed, durability and intelligence compared to a baseline human being. She further possesses limited technopathic abilities and as all of her race can, can manifest a protective exoskeletal suit. The list of powers below specifically focuses on those powers that she is unique or relatively unique for her kind in possessing.
Flight: Astrid is capable of flight, and while she does possess wings, they are not actually used to propel her through the air. They do assist greatly in maneuvering though. She is highly maneuverable and capable of flying fast enough to easily exceed supersonic speeds. A combination of her protective armor, her regenerative properties, and warding fields serve to insulate her from damage while performing such high speed maneuvers.
Positive Energy Manipulation: She is a conduit for positive energy and possesses the ability to shape it, discharge it, and manipulate it. One of the most common ways she does so is through the use of her wings. Her feathers are essentially crystallized repositories of positive energy and she can fire them at enemies as a hail of explosive projectiles. The process of regrowing her feathers does take some time, and after a few barrages she will need to abstain from using that ability for a minute or two before unleashing them once more. By combining her positive energy manipulation with her ability to create warding fields she can encase foes in what is essentially a microwave and expose them to extremely high levels of lethal radiation. She can also simply unleash this radiation from her body, though she tends to avoid this due to the risk of injuring others.
Enhanced Healing Factor: By virtue of the plague essence within her, Astrid heals extremely quickly. Shattered limbs will heal in a few minutes, great gashes and gaping wounds are more an inconvenience than anything else. Further the individual parts of her body retain functionality even when significantly damaged allowing her to operate with some degree of efficiency even when with shattered limbs and the like.
Warding Fields: One of the most useful abilities that Astrid possesses is the ability to erect warding fields that serve to either isolate threats, or protect herself and others. She is able to generate these fields at will, though maintaining more than two or three small fields is beyond her abilities and more than a single large one will push her to her limits. Most frequently she uses this ability in conjunction with her positive energy manipulation powers, or else as a shield.
Plague Angel: Astrid was intended to be immune to plague, inoculated by the small amounts of it that were infused into her in her creation. The plague infusions would ultimately have more impact on her than was initially intended and bestow upon her several traits. First, unless she actively attacks or engages the plague, those spawned by it and the corrupting force itself will ignore her. Second is her healing factor. And third is her ability to transform into a final state by fully channeling the corrupted essence within her. In this final form Astrid possesses some additional abilities and loses access to positive energy manipulation.
- Matter manipulation: Channeling the fundamental warping power of the plague Astrid gains the ability to shape and control matter. Her manipulation infuses the matter in question with the twisted and corrupted energy of the plague itself and makes her attacks that utilize it additionally destructive.
- Plague control: An extremely niche power. Astrid's will is strong enough to on a small scale overpower the collective intelligence and drive of the plague. She can seize control of and manipulate plagued beings within range and can even command the essence of the plague within them to destroy itself. Such efforts are very draining and she can only sustain them for a short period of time.
- Regeneration: An upgrade to her normal enhanced healing factor. In this state Astrid is composed nearly entirely of the plague and nearly any injury heals in seconds as her flesh simply flows back together. Sufficiently powerful attacks can temporarily destroy parts of her, but even such damage will quickly regenerate as she grows back limbs and other parts, up to and including her head.
Equipment:
Astrid's Swordspear: Marvels of technology, tailored to be used by a single being and no other, infused with the essence of their wielders and built to synergize exclusively with them, the weapons of the first generation Praetorians are a marvel themselves. Astrid's personal weapon, a great spear with an elongated blade at the end of it is nearly indestructible. Infused as it was with her essence the spear is actually capable of regenerating itself should it be damaged and is capable of cutting through nearly anything through intrinsic channeling of her matter manipulation normally only accessible in her plagued state. Matter literally shreds itself and parts in the path of the blade making almost all defenses impotent against it. It further serves as an conduit and battery for her positive energy. As she wields it the weapon slowly gathers a charge from her and stores it up. This positive energy reserve allows her limited access to her positive energy powers even in her plagued state. In fact it is only through the use of her weapon that she can make use of her ultimate attack. While in her plagued state Astrid channels her matter warping together with her positive energy from her spear in order to unleash an attack of pure annihilation, forcing the positive energy and the twisted energy of the plague to coexist just long enough to wreak untold destruction upon her target.
Assorted Praetorian Equipment: The Praetorians all have access to a host of advanced equipment. Sophisticated reconnaissance drones, energy weapons, gravity manipulating devices, ect. Astrid will typically have access to the full suite of communication devices and make use of the drones, but will rarely have too many other pieces of equipment on her as she seldom needs them.
Weakness:
Children: Astrid has been forced to do countless things in her long existence. But the hardest thing has been when she has been called upon to slay those who were infected by the plague. One of her first deployments saw her forced to execute a group of children who had been corrupted when a rift opened within their school. The scars of this have lingered. If necessarily she will engaged children and childlike beings in combat, but she will be reluctant to do so, and she will at least initially hold back due to her desire to avoid causing harm to them. For one who views herself as a nurturer and protector, having to fight against those you exist to protect is extremely difficult.
Instability: In her plagued state Astrid gains access to increased power but she also fully immerses herself in the plague. Her will and sheer determination keeps herself under control and forces the plague within her to obey. But there is always a risk that should she falter she could lose control, and to her the risk that she might lose control, even for a moment and harm others is such that she will only utilize that form in the most dire of circumstances.
Protector: To some degree Astrid is easy to predict. She will do anything and everything to protect her people. This focus and devotion is admirable but also exploitable and makes it easy to draw her out and confront her.