Difference between revisions of "Astral Aegis"

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| name = Astral Aegis
 
| name = Astral Aegis
 
| player = @Punkrocket
 
| player = @Punkrocket
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| operations = Millennium City, MI
 
| operations = Millennium City, MI
 
| relatives = (undisclosed)
 
| relatives = (undisclosed)
| age = 17 equiv.
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| age = 18 equiv.
 
| height = 5'4"
 
| height = 5'4"
 
| weight = ?
 
| weight = ?
 
| eyes = Yellow
 
| eyes = Yellow
 
| hair = Dark brown
 
| hair = Dark brown
| complexion = Red?
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| complexion = Red
 
| build = Light
 
| build = Light
 
| features = Stripes, shading around eyes, fangs
 
| features = Stripes, shading around eyes, fangs
| fame = 2
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| fame = 3
 
| alignment = Neutral Good
 
| alignment = Neutral Good
 
| identity = Private
 
| identity = Private
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| citizenship = N/A
 
| citizenship = N/A
 
| occupation = Registered hero
 
| occupation = Registered hero
| education = Quvanian Priesthood
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| education = Aruvath-Quvana
| marital = Single
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| marital = Chaste
 
| powers = Strength, resilience, telepathy and telekinesis.
 
| powers = Strength, resilience, telepathy and telekinesis.
 
| paraphernalia = N/A
 
| paraphernalia = N/A
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| resistance = 10
 
| resistance = 10
 
| stamina = 6
 
| stamina = 6
| dexterity = 3
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| dexterity = 2
| agility = 5
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| agility = 4
 
| combat = 3
 
| combat = 3
| regen = 4
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| regen = 2
| energy = 3
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| energy = 2
| psionics = 4
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| psionics = 5
 
| telepathy = 8
 
| telepathy = 8
 
| willpower = 5
 
| willpower = 5
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| tech = 1
 
| tech = 1
 
| intelligence = 8
 
| intelligence = 8
| knowledge = 5
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| knowledge = 6
 
| charisma = 4
 
| charisma = 4
| bravery = 9
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| bravery = 6
 
|}}
 
|}}
  
[[File:AstralBanner.png|center]]
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The heroine known as '''Astral Aegis''' is a powerful alien who has wound up a refugee on Earth. Among humans, her natural abilities are veritable superpowers, and she has begun to use them to safeguard Millennium City - the city that has welcomed her despite her differences and become her home.
  
<div style="font-size:20px;color:#000000; background-color: #009999">'''History'''''</div>
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Blending her extreme strength with the telepathic prowess of her individual caste, Astral Aegis has all of the tools to be a powerful, global hero. However, between a lack of training and her own, often irrational fear of causing harm to the much more fragile world she now inhabits, she is far from reaching her potential - and the only thing holding her back is herself.
<br>
+
  
'''The Invasions'''<br>
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Though Astral Aegis is known among some heroes, she is arguably better known to the city under the guise of a teenage girl named Viola Reilly - a vagrant originally from Aberdeen, Washington, who now lives on minimum wage in Millennium City, working as a cleaner and shelf-stocker for a local library. This guise has allowed her to grow more accustomed to human culture, and she's used her job to learn more about society - being close to books never hurts when you're in need of a little extra knowledge.
  
 +
<br>
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<div style="font-size:20px;color:#FFFFFF; background-color: #000000"><center>'''History'''''</center></div>
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<br>
  
A backwards species, as violent and warlike as any other primitive society, the Quvanian race, while unified, could hardly be considered a true nation. They had no real technology, no governing structure -- indeed, they seemed to have no signs of culture whatsoever. More animalistic than civilized, they were looked down on by the more advanced races in the sector, and largely left to their own devices. With a barren desert planet, there was really nothing to be gained from interacting with such a people, other than a tremendous headache.
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The planet '''Quvanial''' lay on the fringes of space, a mess of arid wastes and volcanic activity. By human standards, the planet would be inhospitable due to a combination of extreme gravity and heat waves enough to burn most known life alive. However, some forms of life did flourish, most notably the '''Quvanian species''', for which the planet was named. A splintered tribal society, the Quvanians possessed naturally high intellect and powerful bodies, allowing them to master their harsh landscape. Despite their intellect, they were also subject to strong animalistic urges, including a '''dangerous bloodthirst'''.  
  
It was a good policy, until they learned to develop portals. It was never clear how they were able to do it, but it spelled disaster for neighbouring planets. Not only were they violent, but they possessed a trait nobody knew they had -- telepathy. As soon as their invasion force touched a planet, the chaotic network formed by their collective telepathy created an effect as if a constant screeching in the minds of their adversaries. It demoralized, terrified, and even killed.
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This bloodthirst led to considerable in-fighting among the various tribes, until technology advanced to the point that they were able to construct a series of portals allowing them to travel across the stars, without ever having to learn to navigate space. Just how such a primitive people were able to develop this technology is something of a mystery, but its effects were immediate. With access to new planets - and new peoples, the Quvanians finally began to unite under a single banner, in the name of '''conquest'''.
  
Their collective abilities made them a dangerous enemy, but what made them even worse was their mindset -- they did not invade for material goods, nor for political means. They invaded to invade, for no other reason than because they could, and because they wanted to. In a span of two hundred years, they wiped our nearly all other life in the sector. Only fragments of sentient life survived their assaults.
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A combination of what amounted to ‘superpowers’ on other planets, and an unstable natural ability for telepathy that was turned into a devastating weapon when used en masse against entire populations, allowed the Quvanians to be very successful in their conquest - to the point that they caused the collapse of civilizations, and even the extinction of entire species. Worse still, these invasions served little purpose other than to satiate their natural bloodthirst. They didn’t bother with the natural resources of the planets they conquered, nor did they take much in the way of technology or even loot. They merely moved onto the next planet, ripe for attack.
  
 +
This all came to an end when a man named '''Azeni''' rose to prominence in Quvanial. Claiming to have had a spiritual awakening, he was able to suppress his animalistic urges and totally quell the bloodthirst through a combination of training and focused meditation. He called this the '''‘Way of the Aruvath-Quvana’''', and began to spread the word. Although he certainly had his opponents, his teachings steadily transformed the deadly species into a largely peaceful society.
  
'''Aruvath-Quvana'''<br>
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The core of these teachings was to '''resist temptation and desire''', and to separate the mind from the body. The mind became associated with self-control, intelligence, morality and purity, while the body was associated with instinct, ferality, and ultimately, danger. The ultimate achievement was to live a life balanced perfectly between the duality of mind and body, but only the very highest echelon of the new priest caste (the Aruvath-Quvana) were to ever attempt this, for fear of losing the control that had been gained.
  
In the aftermath of the invasions, a man named Azeni rose to prominence on Quvanial. He was markedly different, having shut himself off from the telepathic network that dominated the species. Learning to shut down his primal instincts, he began to teach others a new way of life. This way, called the Aruvath-Quvana, eventually transformed what was a primal species into a peaceful, burdgeoning civilization. The core of his teachings was to learn to resist tempation, desire, and separate mind from body. The mind was associated with such domains as self-control, intelligence, morality and purity, while the body was associated with instinct, ferality and ultimately, danger. To live in a fashion balanced between the duality of body and mind was to achieve perfection, but such an achivement was also regarded as too dangerous to be attempted.
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'''Uzira El’istia''' was born only a hundred and fifty years after the Aruvath-Quvana came to dominate society. She was born into the priest caste and selected for training. Displaying a natural inclination towards telepathy, to the point that she displayed a '''passive ability for empathy''' that few were able to boast, she was quickly pushed forward to advanced training. Although her ability for empathy was seen as a powerful tool, there was also some fear that it would render her more vulnerable to negative emotions should she come into contact with other species.
  
The political structure that was created by the Quvanians, now calling themselves the 'children of Aruvath-Quvana' was one of castes. The highest caste was that of the priesthood, which adopted the term 'Aruvath-Quvana' as its own name. These priests were to be taught at an early age to master Azeni's teachings, so that they might go on to promote peace and well-being among their people, and prevent any from falling to the old ways.  
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As she got older, her advancement ground to a halt. Her early promise was tempered by her inability to grasp fully the discipline of the Aruvath-Quvana, often neglecting her studies to explore and play with wildlife. She was threatened on numerous occasions with ejection from the caste, but these threats were empty; her curious nature brought the ire of her elders, but it wasn’t dangerous enough to warrant real punishment. She was allowed to continue neglecting her studies, living as idyllic a life as one could on a planet as harsh as Quvanial.
  
 +
It wouldn’t last. Her blissful existence came to a screeching halt when a long-forgotten people arrived at Quvanial, bearing the memories of atrocities that had been committed by their people in the centuries before. These people, the '''Korana''', had discovered that the Quvanians, despite their nigh-impervious nature, had no natural resistance to high levels of radiation. Consequently, they were able to equip their small fleet -- the last remnants of their people -- with enough firepower to gain their revenge. The Korana had first tested their weapons upon the small pockets of primal Quvanians that had been left behind on conquered planets, ensuring their effectiveness for the siege to come.
  
'''Uzira'''<br>
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The siege that came was easier than the Korana could ever have expected. While some rose to the occasion and did attempt to fight off the attackers, many Quvanians, for fear of returning to the old ways, remained entirely passive, allowing their cities to be destroyed and their people to be slaughtered en masse. Only the priest caste showed any real commitment to resistance, but they were powerless before the radiation weaponry. The Aruvath-Quvana eventually made a decision; their destruction was assured so long as they remained on planet, and so they '''scattered across the stars''', sending priests, academics and diplomats through the portals they hadn’t used since their conquering days.
  
A mere one hundred and fifty years after the rise of the Aruvath-Quvana, a young girl named Uzira El'istia was born and selected by the priest caste for training and induction. She displayed a natural inclination towards empathy, and the advanced training given to the priests was deemed neccessary to teach her to disconnect, to save her from any negative impact from other's emotions -- and to save others from the possibility of her projecting her emotions upon them.
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Uzira was late to the evacuation, and had to spin up a portal on her own. Having no knowledge of how to operate them, she didn’t arrive at any of the destinations her kin had fled to; she arrived on a small, but technologically advanced planet far from Quvanial - Earth. Initially arriving in '''Aberdeen, Washington''', she travelled across the United States, learning the language as she went. To attempt to conceal her non-human identity, she used her telepathy to fashion an illusion. She became '''Viola Reilly''', a vagrant girl with a tendency towards wearing warm, woolen cloaks to keep dry and warm.
  
Growing up, she was average at best. She never really struggled with her studies, but she didn't really excel at them either. She didn't quite take to the discipline of the Aruvath-Quvana as much as she was expected to, to the ire of her elders. She narrowly avoided removal from the caste on a number of occasions.
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When she eventually arrived at '''Millenium City''', Uzira was able to find acceptance as an alien refugee by the city’s heroes. Desiring to give back to the same people who had so graciously accepted her, she herself registered as a hero under the name of '''‘Astral Aegis’''', using her natural abilities to act as a guardian for the people of the city. Performing feats ranging from stopping armed robberies to saving beached whales, she has been a successful heroine thus far… but she’s yet to face a real challenge, and she had demonstrated an extreme aversion to violence, causing her to hold back in fights even more than she already has to; there are serious questions as to whether she could ever go toe to toe with a dangerous villain and come out on top.
  
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<div style="font-size:20px;color:#FFFFFF; background-color: #000000"><center>'''Powers'''''</center></div>
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<br>
  
'''Siege of Quvanial'''<br>
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The '''physical strength and durability''' of an average Quvanian is far in excess of any ordinary human. On Earth, Uzira displays what is considered superhuman strength, on par with the world’s prevalent superhuman strongmen. The only apparent limitation to her strength is that which she places upon it for fear of causing harm to those around her. She rarely displays even a fraction of her overall strength, even in the heat of combat.
  
As peaceful as Quvanial had become under the Aruvath-Quvana, the memory of the atrocities their people had committed was far from gone. One of the planets they had nearly wiped out, inhabited by the Korana people, had been quietly rebuilding. Through developing an array of weapons designed to spew radiation, per the Quvanian's weakness, they were able to equip their small fleet with enough firepower to wipe out any Quvanian resistance - and that's exactly what they did. First they located and eliminated those Quvanians who remained behind on the planets they had ravaged a century and a half ago, and then they besieged the homeworld itself.
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Quvanian durability on the other hand is something she is able to make full of use of. Able to shrug off all but the most serious of blows, she lives up to the name ‘Aegis’ by allowing herself to take the brunt of the assault for both her teammates, and for citizens who find themselves in harm’s way. However, while a bullet may ricochet off her and a knife snap, there are limitations to her body which could come back to haunt her if her enemies discovered them - radiation being the one that led to her species’ near destruction.
  
Despite efforts to fight off the attackers, Quvanial was never able to field its full strength. Even in the face of massacre, their new philosophy prevented them from using their telepathy against the invading fleet. Without that in their arsenal, the radiation-based weaponry was enough to stave off any counterattacks during the months-long bombardment of the planet, which would see the race all but extinct. Knowing full well the predicament they were in, the Aruvath-Quvana began to evacuate priests, academics and diplomats via short and long range portals. Uzira was one of those evacuated.
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In addition to sheer physical power, Quvanians are built as '''hunters'''. Possessing sharp claws and fangs (although Uzira has filed her claws down to the point they’re no more harmless than a human fingernail), '''a superior sense of hearing and smell, and the ability to see clearly in low lighting''', these same abilities that originally enabled Quvanians to hunt on their harsh planet also allows Uzira to be an effective crime-fighter, whether she’s in the dead of night or the bustle of day. However, this also renders her more vulnerable to certain forms of assault - sonic waves, for instance, are particularly threatening.
  
 +
Quvanians also have a natural, but unstable '''telepathic ability'''. As a member of the Aruvath-Quvana, Uzira’s telepathy was honed to the degree that she can use it in a focused way. However, due to the serious moral and ethical constraints of the Aruvath-Quvana, she believes that to invade or read a mind without express consent is a serious breach of privacy, and one that can lead down a dangerous path. As such, she will never attack or manipulate the mind. However, she is fully willing to use her powers in the form of telekinesis, to enable her to fly.
  
'''Earth'''<br>
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As her flight is governed by her '''telekinetic ability''' and not by her body, her speed in flight is much less impressive than her speed on the ground. However, it allows her to keep a weather eye on the city below and bypass obstacles. '''Flight''' is perhaps her most noteworthy application of her telepathy, but she also uses it for the purposes of forming an '''illusion'''. It takes an extraordinary amount of time for her to be able to master any one illusion, which is why she has taken to concealing herself with a single illusion ever time  - that of Viola Reilly - and does not (and cannot) change identities to suit the occasion.  
 
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<br>
Arriving on Earth shortly after, Uzira found herself struggling to keep herself disconnected from the suffering around her. She was afflicted by headaches and blackouts connected to her empathic abilities. She eventually got these under control, but the experience convinced her that the human race was in dire need of assistance. She chose to take on the image of one of Earth's heroes in order to reassure people of her benevolent intentions, and adopted the name 'the Astral Aegis'. Through a brief, consensual telepathic link with a stray alien of another race, she was able to learn the language in extraordinary time -- though certain aspects still give her trouble.
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It didn't take long for Uzira to prove herself as a hero, performing feats ranging from stopping armed robberies to saving beached whales. Through her actions she has become accepted among the heroes of Millennium City, to a degree. The citizenry of the city have been slower to take to her, given her distinctly inhuman appearance.<br>
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<br>
 
<br>
<div style="font-size:20px;color:#000000; background-color: #009999">'''Powers'''''</div><br>
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<div style="font-size:20px;color:#FFFFFF; background-color: #000000"><center>'''Weaknesses'''''</center></div>
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<br>
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Despite the the extreme strength of the Quvanian species, there are nonetheless serious weaknesses that can be exploited by those that are made aware of them. The most notable of these is their susceptibility to radiation. While almost all living things suffer under radiation, Quvanians have such an aversion to it that it causes serious damage at an accelerated rate despite their otherwise incredible resistances. The power of their senses is also an issue, as any form of attack which relies upon one of those senses (blinding light, sonic/sound attacks and the like) is amplified to that degree.
  
'''Strength'''<br>
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Other than the natural weaknesses of her species, Uzira herself is also at a disadvantage when it comes to fighting a competent opponent. Though she is able to come out on top of most fights she’s in through her physical superiority alone, a trained combatant could prove too much for her as she has had no real combat training of her own. Anyone of equal strength, or with a way of bypassing the issue of strength entirely, could make short work of her.
  
The physical strength and durability of an average Quvanian is far in excess of any ordinary human. On Earth, Uzira displays superhuman strength on par with many of the world's prevalent superhuman strongmen. The only apparent limitation to her strength is that which she has placed upon it; she will not display anything more than a fraction of her overall ability in combat, even against super-powered foes, due to a fear of causing irreparable damage.
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Finally, Uzira’s personality itself can be considered a weakness. Although she has a strong desire to protect those around her and a will to carry on in the face of pain, she has no stomach for causing pain herself. Even the most violent, unrepentant criminal would find mercy from Uzira, even at inopportune times. Her own species’ history also comes in to play; she believes that anyone can find redemption no matter what crimes they’ve committed. In some cases this may be a good quality to carry, but it also means she can be naive when dealing with criminals on a personal level.<br>
 
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'''Telepathy'''<br>
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Uzira has a high potential for telepathy as all Quvanians, with a somewhat rarer affinity for empathy connected to this. Though potent enough to be considered a power, it never comes into play during a fight, due to the moral and ethical constraints of the Aruvath-Quvana. She believes that to invade or read a mind without express consent is a major breach of privacy, and a dangerous one at that. Due to her unwillingness to use it to her advantage, her telepathy could almost be considered a weakness, as it provides a signal strong enough that other telepaths could track her with ease if they desired.
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'''Telekinesis'''<br>
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While Uzira was trained in telekinesis as a priestess, she can barely affect anything beyond her own body. It is through her telekinesis that she is able to fly. Some in the priest caste are trained to a point that they can even create solid energy through their telekinesis, but Uzira is far from this, and without an elder to train her, it is unlikely she will ever progress much farther than she already has.
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'''Illusion'''<br>
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Through a mixture of telekinesis and telepathy, Viola is able to create an illusionary form about herself, allowing her to better fit into human society. This form is that of a girl of equivalent height and weight, but wholly human. While in this form, she identifies as 'Viola Reilly', a young woman from out of state who simply hasn't gotten herself on her feet yet in the city.
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This ability to form illusions can extend past merely shrouding her own appearance, but it takes an extraordinary amount of time for her to be capable of sustaining any one image. It is for that reason that Viola Reilly never seems to change appearance despite being a fictitious figure, and why she doesn't have multiple aliases to suit different occasions.<br>
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<br>
 
<br>
<div style="font-size:20px;color:#000000; background-color: #009999">'''Weaknesses'''''</div>
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<div style="font-size:20px;color:#FFFFFF; background-color: #000000"><center>'''Personality'''''</center></div>
 
<br>
 
<br>
'''Radiation'''<br>
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Uzira is something of an enigma to many of her peers due to her personality which, at times, can seem contradictory. When aiming to socialize, particularly while under the guise of Viola Reilly, she is cheerful and curious, always looking to meet new people, learn new things, and explore new places. On the other hand, when it comes time for her to keep up with her meditation, something she does for hours each day, she becomes reclusive and rejects all social contact, becoming annoyed when bothered, even if it’s for a serious matter.
  
Though it is not entirely clear why, the Quvanian species has a crippling weakness to radiation. Though the radiation given off by electrical devices is not normally sufficient to induce any sickness, direct radiation or any large leak could severely weaken, sicken or kill. It is through this weakness that the Korana were able to nearly wipe them out during the siege of Quvanial. Her weakness is not yet known to any major enemy groups in Millennium City, and it could be devastating for her if it was discovered.
+
She doesn’t always quite grasp the complexities of human interaction, either; her sense of humour is sometimes suspect as she doesn’t understand many of the references people will make, and she takes things entirely too literally. She can take something as simple as a good natured ribbing as a serious and informed complaint, and a joking dare as a genuine challenge to her own ability which she must then undertake. Despite her struggles in adapting to human social conventions, she has begun to form a human identity; while Viola Reilly began as a simple disguise, it has started to become an integral part to her own self-identification.
  
 
+
Although unwavering and uncompromising in her morality, there is a danger to Uzira as well; though she has never displayed any violent tendency herself, there is a distinct possibility that if she were to suffer a major emotional collapse or begin to neglect her own philosophy, she could start to revert to a more primal way of mind, like her people did in centuries past. This could turn her, an otherwise sweet and goodly person, into a threat not unlike those she’s promised to help defend against. Luckily, she’s usually too busy being fascinated by ladybugs and smelling flowers to be emotionally comprimised.<br>
'''Training'''<br>
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+
Uzira has been trained in basic telekinesis and taught in a number of academic subjects, but she was never given any real combat training. Against an opponent with strength similar or greater to her, it is painfully obvious. Against most enemies, she can coast through a fight without looking out of place simply due to having a considerable physical advantage over them, but against someone with strength close to hers or a way to bypass her strength, she struggles considerably.
+
 
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'''Aversion to Violence'''
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Uzira doesn't want to hurt people. At all. She doesn't want to embarrass, she doesn't want to break bones, she doesn't even really want to bruise them. Though it's not a physical weakness on her part, it's what holds her back from her potential the most. Even a violent and unrepentant criminal is treated with care and given enough mercy to qualify Viola for a girl scout's badge.<br>
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<br>
 
<br>
<div style="font-size:20px;color:#000000; background-color: #009999">'''Personality'''''</div>
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<div style="font-size:20px;color:#FFFFFF; background-color: #000000"><center>'''Friends'''''</center></div>
<br>
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Uzira is something of an enigma to many of her peers, who fail to understand her motivations and her behavior. She is both peaceful and surprisingly gentle for a hero, keenly aware of the pain she is forced to cause. Although friendly, she has the charisma of a cereal box. While she's outgoing enough to actively seek out others in the interest of engaging with them and learning about them, her conversational prowess isn't going to win her any awards. Her sense of humor doesn't always work to her favor, she has a tendency to revert to the social etiquette of her own species, and sometimes she just plain doesn't understand people. Homonyms and pop culture references are the bane of her existence.
+
 
+
Though she is almost unwavering and uncompromising in her morality, there is a possibility that if she were to suffer a major enough collapse or neglect her own philosophy, she could revert to a more primal way of mind in line with her species' past. This could lead to her being unruly, violent and even murderous, and it's unlikely she would be able to pull herself out of this state without considerable outside help.<br>
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<br>
 
<br>
<div style="font-size:20px;color:#000000; background-color: #009999">'''Friends'''''</div><br>
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'''Lifewarder'''<br>
  
'''Lifewarder''' An alien that Uzira met early in her time on earth, A'ri has helped Uzira adjust and has provided her with a home. The two have become friends, with the much older A'ri serving as something of a guardian, almost motherly figure to her. Unbeknownst to Uzira, A'ri comes from one of the species that hers nearly wiped out a couple centuries ago, with A'ri being old enough to remember this firsthand.<br>
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An alien that Uzira met early in her time on earth, A'ri has helped Uzira adjust and has provided her with a home. The two have become friends, with the much older A'ri serving as something of a guardian, almost motherly figure to her. Unbeknownst to Uzira, A'ri comes from one of the species that hers nearly wiped out a couple centuries ago, with A'ri being old enough to remember this firsthand.<br>
  
 
[[Category:Character]]
 
[[Category:Character]]

Latest revision as of 16:25, 8 August 2015


AstralBanner.png


Astral Aegis
Player: @Punkrocket
AstralProf.png
Biographical Data
Real Name: Uzira El'istia
Known Aliases: Viola Reilly
Gender: Female
Species: Quvanian
Ethnicity: Aruvath-Quvana Caste
Place of Birth: Quvanial
Base of Operations: Millennium City, MI
Relatives: (undisclosed)
Characteristics
Age: 18 equiv.
Height: 5'4"
Weight:  ?
Eyes: Yellow
Hair: Dark brown
Complexion: Red
Physical Build: Light
Physical Features: Stripes, shading around eyes, fangs
Status
Fame:
██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██

Local

Alignment:
LG LN LE
NG TN NE
CG CN CE
Identity: Private
Years Active: 2013-Present
Citizenship: N/A
Occupation: Registered hero
Education: Aruvath-Quvana
Marital Status: Chaste
Known Powers and Abilities
Strength, resilience, telepathy and telekinesis.
Equipment and Paraphernalia
N/A
Physical Attributes
 
   Strength
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    Weapon
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   Durability
AttributeBar10.png
   Armor
AttributeBar1.png
 
   Speed
AttributeBar6.png
   Reflexes
AttributeBar4.png
 
   Resistance
AttributeBar10.png
   Stamina
AttributeBar6.png
 
   Dexterity
AttributeBar2.png
   Agility
AttributeBar4.png
 
   Combat
AttributeBar3.png
   Regen
AttributeBar2.png
 
 
Non-Physical Attributes
 
   Energy
AttributeBar2.png
   Psionics
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   Telepathy
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   Willpower
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   Sorcery
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   Tech.
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   Intel.
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   Knowledge
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   Charisma
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   Bravery
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MaekadaBoxSlim created by @Maekada


The heroine known as Astral Aegis is a powerful alien who has wound up a refugee on Earth. Among humans, her natural abilities are veritable superpowers, and she has begun to use them to safeguard Millennium City - the city that has welcomed her despite her differences and become her home.

Blending her extreme strength with the telepathic prowess of her individual caste, Astral Aegis has all of the tools to be a powerful, global hero. However, between a lack of training and her own, often irrational fear of causing harm to the much more fragile world she now inhabits, she is far from reaching her potential - and the only thing holding her back is herself.

Though Astral Aegis is known among some heroes, she is arguably better known to the city under the guise of a teenage girl named Viola Reilly - a vagrant originally from Aberdeen, Washington, who now lives on minimum wage in Millennium City, working as a cleaner and shelf-stocker for a local library. This guise has allowed her to grow more accustomed to human culture, and she's used her job to learn more about society - being close to books never hurts when you're in need of a little extra knowledge.


History


The planet Quvanial lay on the fringes of space, a mess of arid wastes and volcanic activity. By human standards, the planet would be inhospitable due to a combination of extreme gravity and heat waves enough to burn most known life alive. However, some forms of life did flourish, most notably the Quvanian species, for which the planet was named. A splintered tribal society, the Quvanians possessed naturally high intellect and powerful bodies, allowing them to master their harsh landscape. Despite their intellect, they were also subject to strong animalistic urges, including a dangerous bloodthirst.

This bloodthirst led to considerable in-fighting among the various tribes, until technology advanced to the point that they were able to construct a series of portals allowing them to travel across the stars, without ever having to learn to navigate space. Just how such a primitive people were able to develop this technology is something of a mystery, but its effects were immediate. With access to new planets - and new peoples, the Quvanians finally began to unite under a single banner, in the name of conquest.

A combination of what amounted to ‘superpowers’ on other planets, and an unstable natural ability for telepathy that was turned into a devastating weapon when used en masse against entire populations, allowed the Quvanians to be very successful in their conquest - to the point that they caused the collapse of civilizations, and even the extinction of entire species. Worse still, these invasions served little purpose other than to satiate their natural bloodthirst. They didn’t bother with the natural resources of the planets they conquered, nor did they take much in the way of technology or even loot. They merely moved onto the next planet, ripe for attack.

This all came to an end when a man named Azeni rose to prominence in Quvanial. Claiming to have had a spiritual awakening, he was able to suppress his animalistic urges and totally quell the bloodthirst through a combination of training and focused meditation. He called this the ‘Way of the Aruvath-Quvana’, and began to spread the word. Although he certainly had his opponents, his teachings steadily transformed the deadly species into a largely peaceful society.

The core of these teachings was to resist temptation and desire, and to separate the mind from the body. The mind became associated with self-control, intelligence, morality and purity, while the body was associated with instinct, ferality, and ultimately, danger. The ultimate achievement was to live a life balanced perfectly between the duality of mind and body, but only the very highest echelon of the new priest caste (the Aruvath-Quvana) were to ever attempt this, for fear of losing the control that had been gained.

Uzira El’istia was born only a hundred and fifty years after the Aruvath-Quvana came to dominate society. She was born into the priest caste and selected for training. Displaying a natural inclination towards telepathy, to the point that she displayed a passive ability for empathy that few were able to boast, she was quickly pushed forward to advanced training. Although her ability for empathy was seen as a powerful tool, there was also some fear that it would render her more vulnerable to negative emotions should she come into contact with other species.

As she got older, her advancement ground to a halt. Her early promise was tempered by her inability to grasp fully the discipline of the Aruvath-Quvana, often neglecting her studies to explore and play with wildlife. She was threatened on numerous occasions with ejection from the caste, but these threats were empty; her curious nature brought the ire of her elders, but it wasn’t dangerous enough to warrant real punishment. She was allowed to continue neglecting her studies, living as idyllic a life as one could on a planet as harsh as Quvanial.

It wouldn’t last. Her blissful existence came to a screeching halt when a long-forgotten people arrived at Quvanial, bearing the memories of atrocities that had been committed by their people in the centuries before. These people, the Korana, had discovered that the Quvanians, despite their nigh-impervious nature, had no natural resistance to high levels of radiation. Consequently, they were able to equip their small fleet -- the last remnants of their people -- with enough firepower to gain their revenge. The Korana had first tested their weapons upon the small pockets of primal Quvanians that had been left behind on conquered planets, ensuring their effectiveness for the siege to come.

The siege that came was easier than the Korana could ever have expected. While some rose to the occasion and did attempt to fight off the attackers, many Quvanians, for fear of returning to the old ways, remained entirely passive, allowing their cities to be destroyed and their people to be slaughtered en masse. Only the priest caste showed any real commitment to resistance, but they were powerless before the radiation weaponry. The Aruvath-Quvana eventually made a decision; their destruction was assured so long as they remained on planet, and so they scattered across the stars, sending priests, academics and diplomats through the portals they hadn’t used since their conquering days.

Uzira was late to the evacuation, and had to spin up a portal on her own. Having no knowledge of how to operate them, she didn’t arrive at any of the destinations her kin had fled to; she arrived on a small, but technologically advanced planet far from Quvanial - Earth. Initially arriving in Aberdeen, Washington, she travelled across the United States, learning the language as she went. To attempt to conceal her non-human identity, she used her telepathy to fashion an illusion. She became Viola Reilly, a vagrant girl with a tendency towards wearing warm, woolen cloaks to keep dry and warm.

When she eventually arrived at Millenium City, Uzira was able to find acceptance as an alien refugee by the city’s heroes. Desiring to give back to the same people who had so graciously accepted her, she herself registered as a hero under the name of ‘Astral Aegis’, using her natural abilities to act as a guardian for the people of the city. Performing feats ranging from stopping armed robberies to saving beached whales, she has been a successful heroine thus far… but she’s yet to face a real challenge, and she had demonstrated an extreme aversion to violence, causing her to hold back in fights even more than she already has to; there are serious questions as to whether she could ever go toe to toe with a dangerous villain and come out on top.


Powers


The physical strength and durability of an average Quvanian is far in excess of any ordinary human. On Earth, Uzira displays what is considered superhuman strength, on par with the world’s prevalent superhuman strongmen. The only apparent limitation to her strength is that which she places upon it for fear of causing harm to those around her. She rarely displays even a fraction of her overall strength, even in the heat of combat.

Quvanian durability on the other hand is something she is able to make full of use of. Able to shrug off all but the most serious of blows, she lives up to the name ‘Aegis’ by allowing herself to take the brunt of the assault for both her teammates, and for citizens who find themselves in harm’s way. However, while a bullet may ricochet off her and a knife snap, there are limitations to her body which could come back to haunt her if her enemies discovered them - radiation being the one that led to her species’ near destruction.

In addition to sheer physical power, Quvanians are built as hunters. Possessing sharp claws and fangs (although Uzira has filed her claws down to the point they’re no more harmless than a human fingernail), a superior sense of hearing and smell, and the ability to see clearly in low lighting, these same abilities that originally enabled Quvanians to hunt on their harsh planet also allows Uzira to be an effective crime-fighter, whether she’s in the dead of night or the bustle of day. However, this also renders her more vulnerable to certain forms of assault - sonic waves, for instance, are particularly threatening.

Quvanians also have a natural, but unstable telepathic ability. As a member of the Aruvath-Quvana, Uzira’s telepathy was honed to the degree that she can use it in a focused way. However, due to the serious moral and ethical constraints of the Aruvath-Quvana, she believes that to invade or read a mind without express consent is a serious breach of privacy, and one that can lead down a dangerous path. As such, she will never attack or manipulate the mind. However, she is fully willing to use her powers in the form of telekinesis, to enable her to fly.

As her flight is governed by her telekinetic ability and not by her body, her speed in flight is much less impressive than her speed on the ground. However, it allows her to keep a weather eye on the city below and bypass obstacles. Flight is perhaps her most noteworthy application of her telepathy, but she also uses it for the purposes of forming an illusion. It takes an extraordinary amount of time for her to be able to master any one illusion, which is why she has taken to concealing herself with a single illusion ever time - that of Viola Reilly - and does not (and cannot) change identities to suit the occasion.

Weaknesses


Despite the the extreme strength of the Quvanian species, there are nonetheless serious weaknesses that can be exploited by those that are made aware of them. The most notable of these is their susceptibility to radiation. While almost all living things suffer under radiation, Quvanians have such an aversion to it that it causes serious damage at an accelerated rate despite their otherwise incredible resistances. The power of their senses is also an issue, as any form of attack which relies upon one of those senses (blinding light, sonic/sound attacks and the like) is amplified to that degree.

Other than the natural weaknesses of her species, Uzira herself is also at a disadvantage when it comes to fighting a competent opponent. Though she is able to come out on top of most fights she’s in through her physical superiority alone, a trained combatant could prove too much for her as she has had no real combat training of her own. Anyone of equal strength, or with a way of bypassing the issue of strength entirely, could make short work of her.

Finally, Uzira’s personality itself can be considered a weakness. Although she has a strong desire to protect those around her and a will to carry on in the face of pain, she has no stomach for causing pain herself. Even the most violent, unrepentant criminal would find mercy from Uzira, even at inopportune times. Her own species’ history also comes in to play; she believes that anyone can find redemption no matter what crimes they’ve committed. In some cases this may be a good quality to carry, but it also means she can be naive when dealing with criminals on a personal level.

Personality


Uzira is something of an enigma to many of her peers due to her personality which, at times, can seem contradictory. When aiming to socialize, particularly while under the guise of Viola Reilly, she is cheerful and curious, always looking to meet new people, learn new things, and explore new places. On the other hand, when it comes time for her to keep up with her meditation, something she does for hours each day, she becomes reclusive and rejects all social contact, becoming annoyed when bothered, even if it’s for a serious matter.

She doesn’t always quite grasp the complexities of human interaction, either; her sense of humour is sometimes suspect as she doesn’t understand many of the references people will make, and she takes things entirely too literally. She can take something as simple as a good natured ribbing as a serious and informed complaint, and a joking dare as a genuine challenge to her own ability which she must then undertake. Despite her struggles in adapting to human social conventions, she has begun to form a human identity; while Viola Reilly began as a simple disguise, it has started to become an integral part to her own self-identification.

Although unwavering and uncompromising in her morality, there is a danger to Uzira as well; though she has never displayed any violent tendency herself, there is a distinct possibility that if she were to suffer a major emotional collapse or begin to neglect her own philosophy, she could start to revert to a more primal way of mind, like her people did in centuries past. This could turn her, an otherwise sweet and goodly person, into a threat not unlike those she’s promised to help defend against. Luckily, she’s usually too busy being fascinated by ladybugs and smelling flowers to be emotionally comprimised.

Friends


Lifewarder

An alien that Uzira met early in her time on earth, A'ri has helped Uzira adjust and has provided her with a home. The two have become friends, with the much older A'ri serving as something of a guardian, almost motherly figure to her. Unbeknownst to Uzira, A'ri comes from one of the species that hers nearly wiped out a couple centuries ago, with A'ri being old enough to remember this firsthand.