Overlord/Warlords

[Zaleramancer]

Subject of Interest #35
Subject Name: Ansel Cedric, "Alex"
Sex: Unknown, either.
Race: Unknown, any.
Age: Unknown.
Allegiances: Can be presumed to work for a minimum of five organizations at once.
Profession: Spy, Information Broker, Assassin, Mercenary, Consultant.  

History

Knowledge of Cedric's pre-Event history are fragmented, likely due to his/her own actions. Even before acquisition of shapeshifting power, Cedric was still skilled in disguise and misdirection. This is likely what allowed him/her to be employed under at least four different intelligence agencies in three different countries. During the Event, Cedric was imprisoned in the old United States, to be tried for leaking information to middle eastern countries. Further information from after his inevitable escape are lost due to the collapse and chaos of the Event itself.

Cedric doubtlessly played part in political intrigue during the rise of various overlords. S/he remained unidentified until Cedric's actions in the assassination of a petty overlord of Central America came to light. Once it did, the pattern of his/her actions became apparent and association with the rise of the creaking remains of federal government in Northeastern North America, the overthrow of the People's Republic and even the Crimson Massacre. However, very few are aware of this knowledge, and some Overlords use it as a method of coercion (Quite unaware how little Cedric appears to care).

At the present, Cedric is believed to be working under the fallen President, various Overlords in Asia and Europe and possibly an emergent power in Australia.  

Psych Profile

Cedric is pathologically untrustworthy. S/he is very deceptive, paranoia and cautious. S/he appears to be motivated entirely by the thrill of game, being more than willing to lower prices in return for a greater challenge. Cedric prefers subtle and indirect action, rather than direct conflict. However, S/he is highly pragmatic and very skilled in self-defense.

The primary reason Cedric continues to be employed is due to both a high degree of skill, and a general fear of what he/she would accomplish if not carefully watched.

Risk Assessment

Cedric is skilled in disguise, infiltration, vocal mimicry, assassination, hacking and torture if needed. Despite a lack of interest in direct conflict, He/she is nonetheless very dangerous when forced into it.

A very powerful and extremely skilled metamorphic shapeshifter, Cedric's only real limitations are conservation of mass and a need for a humanoid shape. While the superficial aspects of skin tone, hair color, face shape and body form are impressive, his/her manipulation of internal organs and structure are simply astounding.

Vital organs are often in a constant state of flux, bending and moving even as they preform their functions. Gray matter is distributed throughout the body in a way that makes mind reading or mental influence difficult or impossible,  transform bone into jagged knife-like protrusions, and is capable of forming cavities in which items of importance, such as firearms or documents, can be safely hidden.

Due to the flexibility of a shapeshifting body, Cedric is more than capable of escaping most bonds, as well as contorting to avoid attacks, or engage people from odd angles.

Beyond simple combat readiness, Cedric is also a consummate professional when it comes to infiltration and disguise, methodically researching the necessary measures to preform a given role. Dialect, Cultural references, Vital knowledge are researched and memorized, to avoid the mistakes more amateur shapeshifters make.

Precautionary Measures

In determining if Cedric has infiltrated your organization, there are methods available. While shallow mental scans will only reveal a carefully constructed mentality, deeps scans will reveal a difficult to penetrate mental cloud- a usual sign. Physical methods, such as DNA testing, work occasionally, though his/her usual method of inducing chimerism  in cells most often used in genetics testing usually fools. Penetration vision, often called "X-Ray Vision" by laymen, is capable of revealing his/her odd internal structure.

Methods utilizing magic, or divine invocation are often more effective. Magic, which typically ignores most physical laws, can often pick up on the aura or soul of Cedric, allowing for easy identification. Far from being a fool, Cedric usually employs some purchased method of magical protection from such spells.

Once he has been identified, the process of removal can begin. Simply revealing that his/her cover has been blown usually causes Cedric to swiftly depart, because a compromised identity is rarely useful to Cedric. While direct conflict is rarely necessary, capture or termination could be induced by utilizing biokinesis to halt shapeshifting, then using most typical weaponry.



I tried to take Shapeshifting to it's logical conclusion.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 Yep, sounds about right.

[Zaleramancer]

Oh, and if we're going to be using Vampires and stuff, we might as well define what kind we're using.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 Alright, then. Which kind do you need to know about?

[Zaleramancer]

Any and all.

I need to know these things.

Does everyone die over the weekend? Almost no one shows up then. :/

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 Sorry...

Anyhow, you know my tendency with supernatural creatures. I can't choose just one type. I like vampires who can fly and walk up walls and shapeshift and all that, so abilities and weaknesses vary. Maybe a clan of werewolves here that can shift without the moon, or a zombie horde there, or some vampires with average strength but immunity to sunlight. For the sake of good plot, I only ask that power and weakness are balanced to the best of your judgment. All vampire power + no vampire weaknesses does not a fun plot make, until the very last and ultimate arcs.

Furthermore, most folks we face will be plain old supers, anyhow, not supernatural. Though I think this should go without saying, coming across half-demons (be they cambions or Nephilim) should be a special thing. Not like those annoying Mary-Sues talking about their werewolf boyfriends and vampire brothers and fairy cousins and half-demon besties and whatnot (~kawaii desu ne! ).

[Zaleramancer]

And I like for there to be some semblance of logic in the setting.

Magic A is Magic A, after all.

If this was "Oh, now Magic is popping up along with Superpowers", I'd be fine with a bunch of strange and contradictory Vampires and Werewolves and Zombies and Faeries.

But, according to what GV proposed, this is an Unmasqued world.  These things have been here for ages, and are only now coming out into the daylight.

So having so many different types is kind of silly, unless there's some central reason behind it.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 They vary similar to human races. Some have abilities and weaknesses that others do not. Does there need to be more logic behind it than that? I can always come up with some more.

[Zaleramancer]

Yes. Yes there does.

Where did they come from? Why do they differ? What about all the other critters?

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 Oh, certainly, you don't want me to bring Celadon into this. They come from an unknown other dimension, each race by its own means. Let's just leave it at that, if you don't mind.

They differ simply from mixtures and changes in genetics. Human intermarriage (some of whom, shapeshifting humans paired with shapeshifting mythical species), gradual genetic adaptation, the occasional magical dabbling.

And as I said before, only a few supernatural creatures are known for a fact to exist. Mages, Demons (including Incubi and Succubi), Vampires, Werecreatures, Ghosts, Zombies, Dwarves, Giants, Extraterrestrial Aliens, and the half-human children of the aforementioned (including Cambions and Nephilim).

All others, like Fay, Goblinoids, Djinni (including Genies), Unicorns and Angels remain pure speculation, except the occasional ones manifested into the world by various superhumans.

[Zaleramancer]

I'm disliking this more and more.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 Why?

[Zaleramancer]

I don't think it makes enough sense for me to be happy.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 What doesn't make enough sense? How much more logic, besides that which I've offered, do you need to put into the fact that supernatural creatures exist? Srsly, I'm all ears...

[Zaleramancer]

I need a sensible backstory. They popped in from another dimension makes no sense what-so-ever.

Having dozens of contradictory types without any logic besides genetic adaptation (They're dead), or magical alteration makes no sense to me.

More over, I'm having trouble adapting the world I've built in my head to the fact that the supernatural has gone from being so rare that most people would find it ludicrous to common enough to be rumors.  

[Celadon's Penultimate]

...*sigh*

I was trying my best not to just up and invoke Celadon; to those of you with less knowledge of Celadon, it would seem like authorial hocus-pocus and handwavium. Though, it isn't.

Technically, the Celadon backstory entails that I, the Penultimate, was killed on Celadon by some successful villain, thus triggering Gaugamon to destroy the planet. However, before the planet was destroyed, I entreated to the Elementals to spare as many of the panicked masses as possible. They did this by opening portals to whatever worlds the fleeing creatures wanted to head to. Naturally, since Earth spawned a being fit to be named Penultimate, many were curious about Earth (and optimistic about its useable resources), and thus emigrated there. This was about the time in the world when a great lot of Earth's population had already been wiped out. And their descendents live in the present day of that Earth's timeline, under cover of magic and other concealment, until the Australis event, when a comet arrives and interacts with the atmosphere in such a way that it reveals the supernatural creatures for what they are.

I could come up with another explanation, but the point is, I didn't think the supernatural creatures would play such a huge role as to need any in-depth explanation like that. Likewise, explaining my existence after my apparent death in that universe would be a big headache. Not to mention, I wouldn't think we'd need it until WAY later in the story. For the most part, we'd be battling humans and superhumans, not supernaturals, right?

Though, if that's not enough, or that explanation doesn't jive with you at all, then I can always try to devise some more for you, or something different.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

I like the Dresden Files. I like the way it handles supernatural things.

Harry Dresden fights and interacts with different supernatural things. A lot of different, diverse supernatural things with different powers. But they're all explained and categorized.

There are three courts of Vampires: Red, While, and Black, and between them they cover just about every interpenetration. But they do it consistently. Whites can feed on emotions and walk around in the daytime, reds are horrible batlike monsters wearing flesh suits with narcotic saliva, Blacks are walking corpses that have been on the decline ever since someone wrote Dracula AKA The Big 'ol Book of Black Court Weaknesses. Black And Red both drink blood.

They don't deviate from these variances. You can tell how a Vampire is going to behave just by knowing it's court.

That's the type of consistency Zale wants, I think.

[Zaleramancer]

That seems very You-Centric. :?

[Zaleramancer]

Yes.

I like categories.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 It's not me-centric. It ends with me "dying", remember? But it is Celadon-centric. I told you, I try to keep everything I make within the same universe, or at least the same mythos. It makes things much easier to remember for me.

Though, like I said, that doesn't have to be written in stone.