12 Months 12 Characters. The Shapeshifter

[death tribble]

Well the 1st November starts and as I will be out and about severeal times this month I want to get an early start on this.

The Shapeshifter was what the board members decided they wanted and so here it is. But what kind of Shapeshifter do they want ? 

Something like a werewolf ? Or Terminator 2's Robert Patrick ? Or Plastic Man ? Or Metamorpho ?

That is the first question to decide.

[kahuna's bro]

a chameleon boy[ from the legion of super-heroes]  type of shape shifter would be  nice

[Hyper-Man]

a chameleon boy[ from the legion of super-heroes]  type of shape shifter would be  nice

 

That's just impossible, man!

 

 

[GhostDancer]

Merlin is a shapeshifter and a poet.  He is a cambion: born of a mortal woman, sired by an incubus, the non-human wellspring from whom he inherits his supernatural powers and abilities. The name of Merlin's virgin princess mother is Adhan, as stated in the oldest version of the Prose Brut. Merlin is begotten by a demon on a virgin as an intended Antichrist. This plot is thwarted when the expectant mother informs her confessor Blaise of her predicament; they immediately baptize the boy at birth, thus freeing him from the power of Satan. The demonic legacy invests Merlin with a preternatural knowledge of the past and present, which is supplemented by God, who gives the boy a prophetic knowledge of the future. Merlin matures to an ascendant sagehood and engineers the birth of Arthur through magic and intrigue. Later, Merlin serves as the king's advisor until he is bewitched and imprisoned by the Lady of the Lake.

Merlin advising King Arthur in Gustave Doré's illustration.

According to Geoffrey, owing much to Nennius, Merlin was discovered when the British king Vortigern was trying to erect a tower. The tower always collapsed before completion, and his wise men told him the only solution was to sprinkle the foundation with the blood of a child born without a father. Merlin was rumoured to be such a child, but when brought before the king, he revealed the real reason for the tower's collapse: below the foundation was a lake containing two dragons who destroyed the tower by fighting. The red and white dragons represent the Saxons and the British, and their final battle is a portent of things to come.

A giant helps Merlin build Stonehenge. From a manuscript of the Roman de Brut byWace (British Library, Egerton 3208).

Merlin created Stonehenge as a burial place for Aurelius Ambrosius. Merlin's magic enabled Uther Pendragon to enter into Tintagel in disguise and father his son Arthur with his enemy's wife, Igraine. 

Merlin, from the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493).

The poet Robert de Boron lays great emphasis on Merlin's power to shapeshift, on his joking personality, and on his connection to the Holy Grail. This text introduces Merlin's master Blaise, who is pictured as writing down Merlin's deeds, explaining how they came to be known and preserved. 

The Prose Merlin contains many instances of Merlin's shapeshifting. He appears as a woodcutter with an axe about his neck, big shoes, a torn coat, bristly hair, and a large beard. He is later found in the forest of Northumberland by a follower of Uther's disguised as an ugly man and tending a great herd of beasts. He then appears first as a handsome man and then as a beautiful boy. Years later, he approaches Arthur disguised as a peasant wearing leather boots, a wool coat, a hood, and a belt of knotted sheepskin. He is described as tall, black and bristly, and as seeming cruel and fierce. Finally, he appears as an old man with a long beard, short and hunchbacked, in an old torn woolen coat, who carries a club and drives a multitude of beasts before him (Loomis, 1927).

In the Livre d'Artus, Merlin enters Rome in the form of a huge stag with a white fore-foot. He bursts into the presence of Julius Caesar and tells the emperor that only the wild man of the woods can interpret the dream that has been troubling him. Later, he returns in the form of a black, shaggy man, barefoot, with a torn coat. In another episode, he decides to do something that will be spoken of forever. Going into theforest of Brocéliande, he transforms himself into a herdsman carrying a club and wearing a wolf-skin and leggings. He is large, bent, black, lean, hairy and old, and his ears hang down to his waist. His head is as big as a buffalo's, his hair is down to his waist, he has a hump on his back, his feet and hands are backwards, he's hideous, and is over 18 feet tall. By his arts, he calls a herd of deer to come and graze around him (Loomis, 1927).

A manuscript found in Bath from the 1420s simply records a "Merlyn" as having helped Uther Pendragon with his "sotelness" or subtleness, presumably but not necessarily magic. 

Nimue, The Lady of the Lake, shown holding the infatuated Merlin trapped and reading from a book of spells, in "The Beguiling of Merlin" byEdward Burne-Jones.

In the Lancelot-Grail and later accounts, Merlin's eventual downfall came from his lusting after a huntress named Niviane (or Nymue, Nimue, Niniane, Nyneue, or Viviane in some versions of the legend), who was the daughter of the king of Northumberland. In the Suite du Merlin, for example, Niviane is about to depart from Arthur's court, but, with some encouragement from Merlin, Arthur asks her to stay in his castle with the queen. During her stay, Merlin falls in love with her and desires her. Niviane, frightened that Merlin might take advantage of her with his spells, swears that she will never love him unless he swears to teach her all of his magic. Merlin consents, unaware that throughout the course of her lessons, Niviane will use Merlin's own powers against him, forcing him to do her bidding.

When Niviane finally goes back to her country, Merlin escorts her. However, along the way, Merlin receives a vision that Arthur is in need of assistance against the schemes of Morgan le Fay. Niviane and Merlin rush back to Arthur's castle, but have to stop for the night in a stone chamber, once inhabited by two lovers. Merlin relates that when the lovers died, they were placed in a magic tomb within a room in the chamber. That night, while Merlin is asleep, Niviane, still disgusted with Merlin's desire for her, as well as his demonic heritage, casts a spell over him and places him in the magic tomb so that he can never escape, thus causing his death.

Merlin is a major character in many works, including T. H. White's collection The Once and Future King and the related The Book of Merlyn. White's Merlin is an old man living time backward, with final goodbyes being first encounters, and first encounters being fond farewells.  -excepted from wikipedia.

Of course, by 2013, such a Merlin is a teenager, and perhaps has only a knowledge of the future which he's already lived, in addition to LS: Longevity bought several times.  As the campaign progresses, he grows very slowly, imperceptibly younger (Zero point Physical Limitation).  He chose to attend Ravenswood Academy to try to regain his other abilities, if not more.  At this point, given that he ages backwards, his mom is yet to be born, though his immortal, immoral father is in the picture.  I like Distinctive Feature: Pale Grey Eyes...per the last illustration, "The Beguiling of Merlin" painting by Edward Burne-Jones.  Whatcha think?

[death tribble]

Merlin to me is magic rather than shapeshifting.

[GhostDancer]

Isn't the magic simply the sfx?  That said, yes, Merlin is more commonly thought of as a mage, rather than a shapeshifter, not that one always precludes the other.

[death tribble]

I would rather we made this purely a shapeshifter that a beginning player could do rather than playing someone who has a wider variety of things that they can do. I appreciate the work and thought you put into this, however.  

[GhostDancer]

I have no objection to a Chameleon Boy type build.  Since we're not building licensed characters in this 12 months series, let's "file off the serial numbers," make the character androgynous "It's Pat!" or female, and not an alien.  Mutant's been done - see Teen Titan's Beast Boy and Marvel's Mystique.

 

I played a shapechanger demon, Tatsu (Japanese, "Dragon"), in our Hell School Teen Champions game, long before the genre book.  She did the right things - for the wrong reasons.  

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

I've always been partial to full body morphs, like the Metal Men, Metamorpho, or Sandman.

[death tribble]

So what would the likely stats be ?

STR and CON may be dependent on the form but SPD 5 and DEX 23 to fit in with the standard.

But what about INT and EGO ? If like Sandman or the Metal Men or Metamorpho they were not directly responsible for their creation then INT 10 and EGO 10 ?

Arguments in favour and against please ?

[GhostDancer]

I think we need to nail down the sfx before we get to the Characteristics.  Dust Bunny does not have a high STR, for example.