Millennium Universe Overview

[DShomshak]

Oh, Tiamat's motives are pretty clear in the Epic of Creation. She wants revenge.

 

The gods are descended from Tiamat and her husband Apsu. They become numerous and noisy. This bothers Apsu enough that he resolves to destroy them despite Tiamat telling him (more or less) to chill. The gods learn of Apsu's intent, however, and strike first, killing him. This sends Tiamat into a rage. She creates an army of demons and monsters and deputizes her son/new consort Kingu (or Qingu) to lead them. As a token of Kingu's command, Tiamat gives him the Tablet of Destiny.

 

The gods are terrified. Only Marduk dares to fight Tiamat; as his price for acting as the gods' champion, he demands rulership of the gods, which they grant. He fights and kills Tiamat and captures Kingu, taking the Tablet of Destiny for himself. The gods split Tiamat's body and use the halves to create the heavens and the earth. The gods execute Kingu and make humans from his blood so the gods won't have to do all the work themselves.

 

In the Millennium Universe, the story isn't completely accurate. In the Epic, Tiamat is never a threat to humanity; she died before humans existed. When she appeared in Iraq, though, she seemed to know about humans already (though not the modern world). Her arch-enemy Ninurta has also confirmed that the Epic of Creation is a propaganda piece that takes liberties with the real events. Humans were already around when the gods fought Tiamat. (Also, the gods' real champion in that fight was Ellil, not Marduk. When the Babylonians transcribed the Epic, they made their patron god Marduk the hero -- but the text slips up at least once. Later, the Assyrians made their god Asshur the hero. So it goes.)

 

In the 21st century, Tiamat's main goal remains vengeance on the gods. She cannot personally enter Terra Mythica, though, so she has to attack them through proxies or indirectly. One option for her is to convince all humanity to worship her so people forget the gods. Another option is to annihilate humanity. Either way, she expects the gods to die when no humans remember them. (Which is plausible but not certain. See Spells of the Devachan for what may happen to forsaken gods.)

 

Dean Shomshak

[DShomshak]

Btw I do enjoy the stories. Did you have the villains first then the PCs design Heroes? Or were the Heroes first then you designed the villains? Or a combination of both?

The megavillains came first. If a player had suggested a cool megavillain, though, I'd likely have used it.

 

Dean Shomshak

[DShomshak]

THE COMING OF NIGHT TRAIN

 

This one presented me with a bit of a puzzle as GM.

 

We had played several Avant Guard adventures. The team had fought many of the campaign’s megavillains and encountered a few of the NPC heroes and lesser villains. They’d also accidentally traveled in time to the French Revolution and received a hint of how superheroic ages begin (by nipping one in the bud). The last adventure took them to Cuba where they fought a Monad swarm assault.

 

At the climax of the adventure, Nomad tried hacking into Monad Prime’s programming to gain the team a tactical edge. As he does so, Doctor Thane shimmers into visibility behind him and sticks a spike into Nomad’s head. He feels a large program pass through him and into Monad Prime and start propagating through the Monad hive-mind. Doctor Thane remarks, “That should supply a suitable labor force,” and vanishes again. The whole assault stops. Monad Prime and all the surviving robots leave.

 

Around the world, the Monad launches a string of attacks that keep the world’s heroes (and many villains) occupied. Nomad and Doctor Future track down a Monad autofactory and find it reconfiguring itself for space flight. The hives all launch for the Moon and converge on Professor Proton’s old base, Chandragar. Doctor Future looks ahead to see what the future holds and says, “There isn’t one.” Doctor Thane is about to destroy the universe.

 

Annoyingly, I had to put the campaign on hold for a while after that as life intervened. When we were able to pick up Avant Guard and play “Thane Against the Universe,” a former member of our gaming group had returned. So… How to fit in a new character in the middle of a two-part adventure?

 

The new PC can’t come from the upcoming future timeline because there isn’t one. He could be just some other hero who joins the team, but that means leaving the premise of the campaign and the team. Oops.

 

So I had the new guy be a hero Doctor Future had already pulled from a doomed future, but who hadn’t stuck around. Specifically, I made him the last member of another Avant Guard team. The team that died, and nobody’s heard of because that history was unmade and altered. But time travelers are glitches: When history changes, they don’t.

 

At the start of “Thane Against the Universe,” therefore, I had Doctor Future calling the hero Night Train and begging him to join the expedition to the Moon. He knows Night Train never wanted to see him again, with reason, but this time he really really needs him to come back. So he does, and the adventure can go forward.

 

(They did stop Doctor Thane, though only by Doctor Future maneuvering himself and Thane into the field that was about to catalyze the decay of the false vacuum, while activating a dimensional shunt to send them all somewhere else. Possibly nowhere. Hero and villain disappeared, there was a kaboom, and the Monad-built base started unbuilding itself. Load-bearing villains, gotta love ‘em.)

 

Night Train’s player didn’t give me a lot to work with for the character’s background. Night Train comes from a future in which the Warlock succeeded in opening a gateway to Hell and releasing an army of demons on the world. The Warlock was conquering the world section by section: A few decades into the future, he was conquering the US. John Stanley Hill was a soldier, a fairly brilliant engineer, and an enthusiastic marathon runner. He led the project to develop a battlesuit for rapid attack of demon-held territory; it was ironically named the MAGIC suit (Man Amplifier Ground Intrusion and Combat). While it augments the wearer’s strength, it especially enhances running speed and reflexes: from DEX 18, SPD 4 and 9” Running to DEX 28, SPD 7 and 30” Running! [in case I haven’t mentioned it before, we’re still using 5^th ed.] Night Train also has a Speed Fighting martial art; the battlesuit then adds a headlamp and siren (Flash vs. Sight and Hearing Groups) and a smoke generator that creates opaque lines of Darkness. The choice of weapons and character pseudonym suggest that Mr. Hill has a peculiar sense of humor. When Doctor Future originally recruited Night Train, he was the last survivor of the MAGIC suit commando team.

 

Since rejoining Avant Guard, Night Train has become the team’s unofficial government liaison. The US military wants to keep an eye on this powerful super-team; in return for being that eye, Night Train has cadged a broken Monad transport that he and Csongor repaired, increasing the team’s mobility.

 

Dean Shomshak

[DShomshak]

In another day or two, I hope to post the final "Coming Of..." PC profile. Then this thread is over, unless anyone has questions.

 

Dean Shomshak

[DShomshak]

Last PC origin story (so far):

 

THE COMING OF HUNTSMAN

 

May, 2015: “I know you,” the man insisted to Night Train. “I’ve seen you before this. But I can’t think how or where. How do I know you?”

 

“I’m with Avant Guard,” Night Train said. “You’ve seen me on TV. Lots of people have.”

 

The man waved this away. “I know that,” he snapped. “That’s why I’m here. In New York. I saw you on TV, that thing with Doctor Thane — and I remembered seeing you before that. I feel like I should know you. But I don’t. Why?”

 

Night Train made soothing, patting motions with his hands. “That wasn’t my first outing as a superhero,” he told the large, broad-shouldered man. “Those missions weren’t as famous, but you saw some pictures from back then. You just don’t remember exactly when. Go home. If you’re on something, sleep it off. Enjoy your life, and don’t worry about it.”

 

The big man glowered, not pacified. “I am not on anything,” he growled. “I do know you, somehow. And I am not letting go.” He clenched his fists. “You know me, too. I don’t know why you’re lying, but I will remember. And then I’m coming back.” He stalked off.

 

Night Train sighed. And I wasn’t even in my armor. God, I hope he doesn’t remember.

 

For his sake, too.

 

August, 2015: Michael Smith rejoined his wife Hannah at the embarkation gate. “All squared away,” he said. “Finally.”

 

Hannah smiled. “Show some empathy,” she said. “The hammers and blades are bound to make security people twitchy.”

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Michael grumped. “But they’re in the baggage compartment. It’s not as if I could get to them if I were some crazed terrorist fiend.” His scowl twisted into a crooked smile. “Honestly, you’d think they’d never heard of a professional swordsmith and armorer before. I’m a guest at the Atlanta Renaissance Faire. I’ve even been on Forged in Fire. Once.” He snickered and fluttered one hand skyward. “I’m a star. Treat me like one!” They laughed and got in line.

 

An hour later, cruising at 10,000 feet, Hannah was deep in her novel and Michael flipped through the latest issue of Modern Blacksmith. A man came down the aisle of the plane. The hairs at the back of Michael’s neck prickled and he looked up, tensed, as the man walked past his seat. The man looked younger than his steel-gray hair suggested. Gray slacks, plain white shirt, open gray jacket. He glanced down at Michael glowering up at him and cocked an eyebrow. Then he moved past, reached the cabin restroom and went inside.

 

Get a grip, Michael thought. You’re in no danger here. This is not Afghanistan. He hadn’t felt the PTSD in more than a year now, thank God and Hannah. Though the night terrors had come back after seeing that hero, Night Train, on television. Hannah was worried. Michael wasn’t sure she’d believed his story about a business trip to see antique weapons in a New York museum. (Though he had done so. Keep your word. Don’t slip up, they’re watching.)

 

Now again. Michael felt he knew that steel-gray man. Hated him. Which was ridiculous, but he couldn’t shake the feeling: They were in danger. He tightened his lips and firmly looked back down at his magazine, but didn’t see it.

 

The door of the restroom opened. A passing flight attendant gasped, screamed, fell, and Michael heard the sizzle of burning flesh. He sprang from his seat, turned, reaching for weapons that were not there—

 

Hellhound. Here. The figure had the body of a powerfully muscled man but had skin like burnished steel. A wolf’s head, legs and tail. A pelt of flame. Claws, glowing orange, smoking as blood burned off them.

 

Now everyone was screaming. Some people cowered in their seats. Others tried to run, jamming the aisle. Hellhound ripped them apart as he stalked up the aisle, his jaws wide. Laughing.

 

Everything but Hellhound faded from Michael’s notice. He crossed his thumbs over his second and third fingers, index and pinkie fingers extended, then crossed his forearms over his chest. The words came easily: “Zazas Zazas Nasatanada Zazas!” The words to open the gates of Hell, echoing like they came from the Pit instead of a human throat. And he wore his armor again, with his shield on his left arm and his axe in his right hand. Axe? Yes, axe, for Hellhound. It cut the deepest.

 

Michael roared, “Everybody — DOWN!” Everyone who still could move dove for the floor, clearing Hellhound’s way. The monster leaped, claws outstretched. Michael brought up his shield. Hellhound slammed into it but slid an arm around it. Searing pain slashed across his gut as Hellhound’s claws melted their way through his armor. Michael smelled the burnt-pork odor of his own cooking flesh as he doubled over and fell.

 

“Too easy,” Hellhound growled. “You’re out of practice, Huntsman. I could have killed you any time. And your wife. At least this way, you die with a lot of company.” He turned and loped for the door to the cockpit. It was locked, but fell open after a quick slash across the hinges.

 

Huntsman. I’m Huntsman. Memories spurted into his mind like blood from a cut throat. His family — his first family. The battles, the blood on his hands, not all of it human. He had never been in Afghanistan. So much grief, rage and utter despair.

 

But he remembered how to use his panoply. As he struggled to his feet, gritting his teeth against the pain in his gut and the tumult in his head, his armor and shield shimmered with firelight as if a blaze surrounded him. Shift the defense for heat, not claws.

 

“HELLHOUND!” he bellowed. “I already killed you once — this time, let’s see if it takes!”

 

The pilot and copilot were out of their seats. The captain fired a pistol; Hellhound hardly noticed the bullets. The copilot raised a fire extinguisher, good, good! but moved too slowly. Hellhound opened his jaws and breathed fire throughout the cockpit. There may have been two short screams among the roar of the flames and the hiss and pop of burning plastic.

 

Huntsman lunged and swung his axe at Hellhound. The monster turned to face him just in time so Huntsman struck a glancing blow, gashing a metal shoulder instead of chopping off Hellhound’s head. Hellhound still snarled in pain, but riposted with another blast of flame. Most of it splashed off the shield, raised just in time. The rest stung but Huntsman hardly noticed it.

 

They traded blow after blow. Sometimes Huntsman struck first, sometimes Hellhound; The monster gave up breathing fire to try rending Huntsman with his claws. Huntsman decided he needed to stun his foe more than chop wounds in his metallic flesh; the axe shifted in his grip to a massive, flanged mace. One powerful, lucky blow sent Hellhound staggering back into the smoldering ruin of the cockpit. He tripped over the bodies, but rolled back to his feet immediately and lunged again for Huntsman, jaws agape. Huntsman narrowly deflected the monster with his shield.

 

Hurtling through the air with no control, the plane began to tilt. I have to end this quicker, Huntsman thought. The next time Hellhound lunged at him, he jumped, kicked off a seat and vaulted over him, somersaulting to landing behind the monster. He swung the mace in a roundhouse blow, straining every muscle to hit as hard as possible. The mace smashed into Hellhound as the monster turned; a shoulder blow again, but the impact knocked Hellhound off his feet to sprawl, tongue out and lupine head wobbling, across a pair of seats. Before Hellhound could recover, Huntsman struck him again and again until the monster lay still.

 

The plane was tilting more to the side and the nose was turning down. The surviving passengers cowered in the seats of on the floor, sobbing, whimpering, praying. Some peeked out to stare at Huntsman, as terrified of him as they had been of Hellhound. Including Hannah. Her fear quenched his battle fury like a bucket of ice water.

 

“Hannah,” he said. He lifted his visor, showed her his face. He tried to keep his voice gentle. “Please. It’s still me, though I… I can’t explain now. But please, if you ever loved me, ever trusted me, trust me now. I will save you.” He lifted his mace in a dramatic flourish and raised his voice, trying to project strength and confidence. “Fear not! I will save all of you!”

 

The mace shifted in his hand to a black iron scythe. He strode down the aisle to the rear of the compartment, near the outer door and the door to the coach section. People shrank away from him. He swung the scythe in a circle. The air screamed as it cut and bled a trail of fire — and then the circle was a window showing a wooded slope. Nearby passengers stared but did not move, still in shock.

 

“Hurry! Through the door. You’ll be safe on the ground.” The plane shuddered. A middle-aged black woman prayed for Jesus to protect her, then spasmed to her feet and ran through the ring of fire. She laughed then.

 

“It’s okay!” she called. “Sweet Jesus, it’s okay!” then the other passengers scrambled and staggered up the aisle to the gate of fire — the plane’s nose was dropping now. One man fumbled to pull his luggage out of the overhead rack before his companion told him to forget it, they had to go now. Hannah and a few others kept their heads enough to support or drag the wounded and the dead and dying, then drafted other passengers to help them. The crowd in the plane shrank and the crowd on the Appalachian hillside thousands of feet below them grew. As Hannah hesitated at the gate, Michael said, urgent and low, “I promise I will explain. Don’t worry. I will always come for you.” And then she was through. Safe.

 

“Damn you.” Hellhound growled. I should have hit him one more time. The wounds in his metal skin had almost closed. “You’ve spoiled everything. Your death would have become part of my ascension. But I can settle for spite.” Raising his claws, he ripped a huge gash in the side of the plane.

 

The plane spun as wind whipped through the gash and the hull peeled apart, section by section. Hellhound was first to blow away, with a laugh that was part howl.

 

No! There were still almost a dozen people on the plane, a flight attendant and the last from coach. The plane flipped end over end as it tore apart, scattering people across the Appalachian sky. As the wind battered him, Huntsman saw a contrail of fire as Hellhound loped away through the sky.

 

But he remembered. “Brimstone!” he bellowed. “To me!” And his legs wrapped around the barrel of his steed, familiar from so many rides, while the stirrups appeared around his boots. He didn’t need the reins: at a signal from Huntsman’s shifting weight and knees, the coal-black horse dove at a full gallop, its hooves striking puffs of fire and smoke from the air. Huntsman swing the scythe again to restore the fire-gate as they galloped from one falling person to the next, pulling each person from the air and through the gate to drop safely on the ground. At the end, Huntsman’s vision darkened from the fatigue, but he grabbed the last person; the flight attendant. He couldn’t keep the gate open any longer. “Take us down,” he mumbled as he slung her behind him on Brimstone’s back and shoved the reins at her. “Horse knows the way.” Then he slumped forward and clung to Brimstone’s neck, panting and head spinning.

 

After several seconds he collected himself and straightened up. The flight attendant had one hand in a death-grip on his belt but held the reins in her other hand. Her face shone in a mixture of terror and delight. “Nice horse!” she babbled with a manic grin. But they were going down. A minute later, Brimstone cantered down to land on a mountain meadow surrounded by pine trees. The woman seemed paralyzed. Huntsman gently took the reins back from her, helped her down, then dismounted himself. The flight attendant collapsed then, sobbing; but a minute later she was back on her feet, hugging and petting Brimstone, tears still running down her cheeks.

 

How a magical construct of a horse manages to look so smug is beyond me. He didn’t have the heart to dismiss the steed, though. Anyway, they’d soon need Brimstone again to find the others. Michael hoped someone had a satellite phone to call for help.

 

And then? Then he needed to find Avant Guard. The new Avant Guard. He hoped their fate would be better than that of the team he’d been in. He walked a few steps from the flight attendant and his steed. His visor was back down, but he didn’t want her even to see his body language. It might frighten her.

 

The tumult of shame, grief and rage boiled up again. The things he had done. First serving the Warlock, dark lord of the world. From village blacksmith to demon-powered warrior, one of the Warlock’s huntsmen, as the price of protecting his family. While he fought and killed for his master, they would be safe from the demons the Warlock let amuse themselves among his mortal slaves. And he had killed. He killed men and women who defied the Warlock, or who merely failed to obey completely enough. Is loyalty proven, the Warlock sent him to battle his supernatural foes: all the gods and spirits who were not of Hell. Most to kill; a few to capture and carry back to the citadel of Megiddo.

 

Then the shock when the order came to kill an entire village — and one old woman cried Not me, my son serves our Lord! But the imp who rode on his shoulder tittered and said, Her too, the Master says to kill them all. The wild ride back to his own village, cutting portals through space to cross a thousand leagues, only to find everyone dead or dying — father, brothers and sisters, their children. He had slain the demon sent to slay them, but it was too late.

 

And the souls, rising like trails of mist from the dying, drawn away on a spectral wind. Drawn to Megiddo.

 

Michael remembered his blind rage at the betrayal, his ride to Megiddo and his frenzied fight through the army of witless mortals and demon minions that surrounded the fortress. Into the labyrinth of massive, gloomy halls and chambers. The fight with other elite servants of the Warlock — including Hellhound. They were winning through sheer numbers when the other man appeared hovering just above Michael, a strange device in his hands casting a brilliant light in a wave around them that seared his enemies’ flesh and drove them back.

 

“The Warlock is destroying the world,” Doctor Future said. “Killing everyone, everyone. Sacrifice to turn him into a god. More than a god. You can’t stop it here, now, but come with me and we can stop it another way!”

 

He’d taken Doctor Future’s hand and they’d disappeared down the whirling course of Time. But as they disappeared, he’d felt the burning claws of Hellhound fasten on his shoulder. Michael jammed his elbow back to slam Hellhound in the ribs, felt him fall away. When he understood what Doctor Future had done, he hoped Hellhound would be lost in time. Let him hunt dinosaurs, yes? Or keep falling back to the start of time, and die in the First Light. No such luck. Hellhound emerged just a year after them, and of course he sought out his master once again. But he didn’t arrive in time to stop Michael — again the Huntsman, but for a better cause — and Doctor Future, and other allies gathered from doomed futures, from stopping the Warlock’s rise. That time, at least.

 

Other battles, then. Avant Guard fought Helix and his monsters, stopped Baron Frost from dislodging the Antarctic ice cap to flood the world, killed Professor Proton as he threatened to detonate every nuclear weapon and reactor in the world. He killed Hellhound. The Warlock too, though it didn’t take. They had also saved many lives, even persuaded a few villains to live within the law. For a time, Michael Smith had felt righteous.

 

If not for Contessa…

 

Did the woman have no sense at all? Did she really think she could bend a mind as brilliant and broken as Doctor Future’s to her will without terrible consequences? She twisted all their minds, made them help her as Doctor Future built a Telepathic Amplifier to make her Queen of the World. More, to let her condition minds for permanent obedience. But by then, Doctor Future was no longer himself. Other personalities, fragments of people he might have been, wrestled for control of his mind. Some of them were very bad, and had other uses for Contessa’s machine.

 

Night Train had barely escaped enslavement, and he broke Huntsman free from Contessa’s spell. They fought Contessa, and  they fought their teammates. Night Train was a soldier, but he had not armed himself to kill. In the end, Huntsman was their executioner. And they fought their leader, their mentor, sometimes their patient, so often their friend. By then the machine was active and beyond control. Huntsman had shot Doctor Future with his pistol of sin, hitting his mind again and again until something like his original personality emerged from the chaos. By then, Night Train was too wounded to go on. Doctor Future gave Huntsman his time-harness, programmed it to go back and seek him at an earlier time. Huntsman must tell him not to create Avant Guard; give him records of the megavillain plots so he and other heroes could foil them in other ways.

 

And then Huntsman killed him so that Paul Yerblonsky, Doctor Future, could die as himself — and a hero.

 

Back in time. Babbling out his story while timelines collided in his mind, waving the data chip with the files from Doctor Future’s later self. Begging not to go mad, not to remember what he’d done.

 

Doctor Future had saved him. He’d built his own machine to alter minds. Suppressed Michael Smith’s memories of being the Huntsman, given him a new life as a man of the 20^th and 21^st centuries. Not the happiest life, but one that accounted for his strength, his skills as a blacksmith and armorer… and his nightmares, hypervigilance and temper. He had seen too many buddies die on his tours of duty in Afghanistan. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Such a bland, antiseptic name for the damage to his soul and his horror at himself.

 

His life was a lie. Now, his true memories restored, Michael Smith wished he could have lived in that lie forever. After all, it had brought him to Hannah. She had healed him more than all the therapists and their talk and drugs. They had even talked of having children.

 

Was it all gone?

 

Later. Hellhound still lived, and he had spoken of his “ascension.” Following Michael onto the plane had been part of some greater deviltry. He must become the Huntsman again, at least for a while, and rejoin Avant Guard. He turned back to the flight attendant, who was trying to feed Brimstone some grass.

 

“Time to go,” Michael said. He tried to keep his voice firm but gentle, reassuring. “People will worry about you. We shouldn’t keep them waiting.” He lifted her up to sit in front of him this time. Michael twitched the reins, and Brimstone leaped into the air.

 

Dean Shomshak

[DShomshak]

Huntsman is the replacement character for Nomad: Nomad's player thought he should take a hiatus since the Monad is (for the moment) destroyed. He also thought that the team needed someone with ties to the occult side of the Millennium Universe, and thought that the writeup I did for Hell Rider (see CV3, Arcane Adversaties or Creatures of the Night: Horror Enemies) could be trimmed and tweaked into an excellent PC. So that's what we did. The horse is made a simple Flight Power (with a UBO so someone else can take the reins if need be), but Huntsman still has the morphing weapon Multipower. There's also a Multipower of auxiliary Powers bought through the armor, such as different forms of Damage Reduction. Nothing's on a Focus; it's Restrainable or OIAID.

 

The musical score for "The Coming of Huntsman" is the track called "The Hunt" from Jerry Goldsmith's score to Omen III: The Final Conflict, for the wild ride and battle before Doctor Future appears.

 

Dean Shomshak

[TheQuestionMan]

Bump

[DShomshak]

Any particular reason why?

 

Though I could post more if anyone's interested.

 

Dean Shomshak

[TheQuestionMan]

Reference for my own Champaign Setting.

[Amorkca]

I'll raise a glass to that... :-)

[DShomshak]

Well, QM, I'm glad if any of this helps you with your own work.

 

And since Amorkca asks... Let's see, did I post any of the villain dossiers yet? Here's the latest draft of Tiamat's dossier, showing what the public knows about the Queen of Chaos. Enjoy! --DS

 

 

DOSSIER: Tiamat

 

      Name: Tiamat                                            Date of Birth: Not Applicable

      Appearance: Tiamat takes either of two forms:

      Human form: Stunningly beautiful woman standing 5’ tall with bronze skin, long, loosely waved black hair and iridescent eyes. She typically wears scanty outfits consisting of little more than jewelry and a few wisps of silk, but usually including some form of large tiara or headdress. She can grow six-inch claws at will.

      Dragon Form: Classic dragon, about 200 feet long, with four legs, tail and batlike wings, covered in iridescent black scales.

      Occupation: Self-proclaimed goddess

      Legal Status: Stateless person wanted worldwide for diverse and innumerable crimes.

      Threat Rating: Maximal and existential

      Known Background: Tiamat claims she is the primordial water-goddess of Mesopotamian mythology. She grants that the gods, her descendants, defeated her, but disputes that they killed her and made Heaven and Earth from her body. At the last moment, she escaped by traveling forward in time.

      Tiamat appeared in dragon form over the Persian Gulf in November, 2003. After surveying several ruined cities in southern Iraq and destroying military forces that tried to intercept her, she flew to Baghdad, assumed human form and demanded that the soldiers who confronted her submit and worship her as Goddess and Queen of the World. An unknown Iraqi soldier broke the spell of Tiamat’s supernatural charisma by screaming “Allahu Akbar” and firing upon her. Tiamat resumed her dragon form, destroyed the Iraqi and American troops in seconds and transformed the ruins of Saddam Hussein’s presidential palace into a ziggurat temple to herself. She defeated Coalition and Iraqi super-soldiers just as easily until the god Ninurta, newly arrived from Terra Mythica, confronted her. Tiamat retreated only after Ninurta struck her several times. (Ninurta also transformed Tiamat’s ziggurat back into the remains of Saddam’s palace.)

      Since then, Tiamat has threatened many countries and, at times, the entire world. She does not let a year pass without some scheme of conquest or an attack on her enemies, the gods. Some of the more notorious incidents include:

      • In 2004, Tiamat tried to claim the island of Bahrain (which she called “Dilmun”) as her capital and the start of her new world empire. She destroyed a U.S. Navy battle group sent to stop her, including an aircraft carrier. Tiamat retreated only when she had to fight Ninurta and at least 10 other superheroes and super-soldiers.

      In the same year, Tiamat invaded a meeting of the UN General Assembly to demand that every member state submit to her. The delegates did so, but their governments did not. Hostage negotiators persuaded Tiamat that annihilating the General Assembly was beneath her dignity; she departed after inflicting nothing worse than sarcasm. (Six delegates later killed themselves.)

      • “Generation of Vipers”: In 2005, Tiamat transformed the members and clergy of a Phoenix, Arizona megachurch into weresnakes. Tiamat’s avowed goal was to insult the Abrahamic faiths and denigrate Yahweh, whom she claims to remember as a petty tribal god. No one knows why she picked that particular church. After nearly a week of terror, Ninurta found most of the weresnakes and lifted the curse from them — which Tiamat said was the second phase of her humiliating scheme.

      • In 2006, Tiamat attacked Moscow in an attempt to seize the Russian government. Russia’s military lured Tiamat away and sacrificed a nearby town in a nuclear attack upon her. Though it was hoped the attack killed her, she reappeared several months later.

      • In 2008, Ultra Force Nippon barely stopped Tiamat from regressing all of Japan to Medieval conditions and ruling as its Dragon Empress. She slew all but one member of the team, but ultimately retreated.

      • In 2009, Tiamat tried to enslave the Egyptian Gods using a powerful grimoire called the Book of Thoth. Ninurta and the heroic mage Dervish foiled the scheme, but Tiamat escaped with the Book of Thoth. A week later she used the book to turn a section of the Nile to blood, just because.

      • In 2011, HyperStrike! found Tiamat ruling a remote swathe of central Africa, harvesting the prayers and souls of its people to empower a weapon intended to destroy Terra Mythica. Ninurta (then a member of HyperStrike!) fought Tiamat while the other heroes fought her Dragon Warriors and a horde of lesser demons and monsters. The battle gave cover for the mystical supervillain Drummer, in an ad-hoc alliance with the heroes, to destroy the weapon. HyperStrike! also confiscated the Book of Thoth from Tiamat and returned it to the Egyptian Gods.

      • In 2012, Tiamat ambushed Ninurta after his fight with Professor Pain and tried to transfter his divinity to one of her cultists. The attempt went badly awry, forcing her to ally with Ninurta and the sorceress Eweji in order to restore their powers and stop the new supervillain Mace.

      • In 2013, Tiamat took over an American nuclear base in an attempt to launch a nuclear strike on Terra Mythica by launching ICBMs through magical portals. Avant Guard stopped the plan with the help of its new member Anunit, Tiamat’s daughter from a future in which the plan succeeded.

      • In 2015, Tiamat allied with Avant Guard despite her differences with various members in order to stop Doctor Thane from destroying the Universe.

      Known Powers: In her human form, Tiamat is superhumanly strong (able to lift more than a ton) and resilient, and is incredibly quick and agile. She can run faster than an Olympic sprinter, fly, or swim with even greater speed. Tiamat can strike with magically-enhanced force or grow claws able to rend almost anything.

      More importantly, Tiamat wields magic of great power and infinite variety, apparently by mere will. Some of her spells have an “iridescent water” effect, reflecting her nature as goddess of the Primordial Chaos of salt water that supposedly preceded the world’s creation. Tiamat can enhance her magic even further by writing cuneiform tablets she calls duppu shemati or “Tablets of Destiny” (a call-back to the original Tablet of Destinies that signified her rulership of the Universe, later seized by the Mesopotamian Gods). The only limits on her spells appear to be that she must be able to describe something in archaic or mythic terms (she does not control modern technology very well); and to affect wide areas, she must erect monuments called kudurru that proclaim her ownership of the area between them.

      As a dragon, Tiamat is large and strong enough to rip apart battleships with her claws or swat planes from the sky with her wings or tail. Moreover, she exhales blasts of the “waters of chaos” that dissolve anything they strike, transform matter, or impose a variety of dangerous or impeding environmental conditions. Tiamat can also transform the watery blast as it leaves her mouth to create a stream of any sort of matter or energy: fire, lightning, poison gas, molten gold, high-velocity crystal shuriken, anything.

      In either form, Tiamat manifests an aura of bright light that strikes awe into everyone who sees her. Tiamat can use her “Mantle of Radiance” to inspire fear, submission, love, or belief in whatever she says. Only the most strong-willed or strongly-motivated people can resist Tiamat’s Mantle of Radiance. Most people eventually recover or can be prompted to resist the effect, but whenever Tiamat uses her Mantle of Radiance some of the witnesses become her worshippers. Tiamat has few highly-developed skills, but with her magic and her Mantle of Radiance she doesn’t need them.

      Known Associates: Hundreds of thousands — perhaps millions — of people worldwide revere Tiamat as their Goddess and Queen. A small fraction (though still many thousands) join her inner cult and work actively to further her plans, hoping for the ultimate reward of being transformed into one of her super-powered Dragon Warriors or a lesser monster or demon. Of the humans Tiamat has empowered as her Dragon Warrior acolytes, the most powerful and highest-ranking are her consort Storm Dragon (see dossier) and her high priestess/BFF Cerastes (see dossier). Other known extant Dragon Warriors include Carnosaur, Cockatrice, Jormungandr, Lieutenant Viper, and Salamander. Several other Dragon Warriors have died over the years. Fortunately, statements gleaned from Tiamat and her minions suggest that Tiamat cannot simply empower new Dragon Warriors as needed: Mortals must possess special “qualities of soul” to become nascent demigods.

      Tiamat never allies with other supervillains, but on rare occasions she accepts brief truces with heroes when their interests align. If the heroes are careful, these truces do not always end in sudden-but-inevitable betrayal. Tiamat shows no sense of honor, but she won’t fight against determined opposition when she sees little to gain; and she sometimes likes to seem gracious in her omnipotence.

[Lord Liaden]

I love mega-villains. For me, the purest kind of superhero story is one in which the heroes have to deal with threats that all the resources of mundane humanity can't handle.

 

This sounds like a worthy incarnation of the Dragon of Chaos, Dean.

[DShomshak]

Glad you like it, LL. And now here are Tiamat's two most powerful acolytes, Cerastes and Storm Dragon:

 

DOSSIER: Cerastes

 

      Name: Rahil Masoud al-Najafi                   Date of Birth: 1971

      Appearance: Arab woman, 5’3”, fit but not obviously muscular; curling, shoulder-length black hair, green eyes, cuneiform tattoo on her left shoulder. Her Cerastes form is a 6’ tall, muscular woman with lightly scaled, dark purple skin, batlike wings, a tail, two pairs of horns, slitted eyes, and large claws on her fingers, toes and wing joints. She wears a bikini of bronze plates and small disks, plus a fanny pack of small terra-cotta tablets on cords for her magic.

      Occupation: Former museologist; now full-time supervillain acolyte of Tiamat.

      Legal Status: Iraqi citizen wanted for numerous charges of theft, robbery, assault, murder, insurrection, and trafficking in stolen antiquities.

      Threat Rating: Moderate

      Known Background: When Tiamat appeared in 2003, al-Najafi had Master’s degrees in history and Assyriology; she worked at Iraq’s National Museum of Antiquities. By her own account, al-Najafi sided with Tiamat almost at once, attracting the notice of her new goddess by spray-painting cuneiform messages on rooftops. Al-Najafi became Tiamat’s first guide to the modern world and, shortly thereafter, her first new Dragon Warrior. Her pseudonym, Cerastes, refers to a kind of desert viper that the ancient Enuma Elish lists as part of Tiamat’s original army of demons and monsters.

      Cerastes assisted Tiamat in most of her schemes between 2003 and 2007, including the ‘Generation of Vipers’ incident and Tiamat’s assault on Moscow. She kept her dual identity secret in this time, completed her doctorate in Assyriology, and published influential papers on ancient Mesopotamian languages, artifacts and culture. The source of her insight became obvious when her dual identity was exposed in 2008 during Tiamat’s attempt to regress Japan to a Medieval society and rule as its Dragon Empress. Since then, Cerastes/al-Najafi has continued to act as one of Tiamat’s chief lieutenants. Tiamat apparently permits her some independent activities, such as her 2010 ‘Dragon’s Auction’ plot in the Seychelles that resulted in the death of several black-market antiquities dealers and an inconclusive three-way battle with the enigmatic sorcerer Avernus and the Warlock’s minion Hellhound.

Known Powers: Cerastes has two forms, human and dragon-woman. Over the years she has imbued her human form with more of the power of her draconic form. In either form, she can lift 25 tons with ease and is superhumanly tough and agile. Like other Dragon Warriors, Cerastes manifests a “Mantle of Radiance” to stun other creatures with awe. She often uses this at the start of combat in hopes of striking first. Her demi-divinity protects her from reptile venoms and blunts the effect of many magical and chemical attacks. Cerastes detects supernatural forces by scent and sees in the dark. She knows how to create minor mystical powers by scribing cuneiform tablets.

In draconic form, Cerastes’ claws rend steel; by sweeping her wing or tail through an area, she can hit small or nimble opponents who evade her claws. She can also evoke a corrosive black energy to darken an area, scorch enemies, or incinerate them. Her wings enable her to fly. Changing forms requires several seconds of concentration.

      Known Associates: Member of Tiamat’s cadre of Dragon Warriors. Only one incident is known of Cerastes cooperating with any other superbeing: In 2009, Cerastes and the sorcerer supervillain Zohar struck a truce to seek the Book of Thoth, a grimoire of legendary power. When they found it despite clashing with the Special Bureau of France, they turned on each other and the book was torn in half. Tiamat herself recovered the other half from Zohar; he is reported to have expressed both murderous anger and grudging lust for both Tiamat and Cerastes. (HyperStrike! captured the book in 2011 and returned it to Thoth.)

            Notes: Al-Najafi’s formal title within Tiamat’s cult is Ushumgallu, the Babylonian name for the cerastes viper. Various media called her “Night Dragon,” but al-Najafi considers this intellectually lazy to the point of insult. She threatened to kill the last journalist to use that epithet.

 

DS

[DShomshak]

And now here's Tiamat's consort, Storm Dragon. Proof that any man can become greater than he was if he's inspired by love of a good woman. Or something.

 

DOSSIER: Storm Dragon

 

      Name: D’Shawn Barker                            Date of Birth: 1988

      Appearance: Black man, 5’10” with a lean, athletic build, black hair cut very short, brown eyes, and a cuneiform tattoo on his left shoulder. As Storm Dragon he is a 6’3”, massively muscular dragon-man with jet-black scales, batlike wings, clawed hands and feet, and bone spurs on his elbows, knees, and wing joints, wearing red trunks.

      Occupation: Former robber, now full-time supervillain serving Tiamat.

      Legal Status: US citizen wanted in several countries for numerous charges of property damage, assault, robbery, murder and insurrection.

      Threat Rating: High

      Known Background: D’Shawn Barker was born in Jacksonville, Florida, but he grew up in Akron, Ohio. In 2007 he began using his weather-control powers to commit thefts and robberies throughout the Midwest under the alias “Storm Raider.” He avoided capture by staying mobile and confining his crimes to smaller cities with no resident superheroes.

      In 2009, however, Barker changed his pseudonym to Storm Dragon and issued statements declaring his allegiance and love for Tiamat. He dropped out of sight three months later; it is believed that he spent the next several months battling addiction to cocaine. Barker became active again in 2010, attempting high-profile robberies, killing several people in the process, and attacking the superhero Silverlash. (The fight was inconclusive.) In 2011, Barker attacked the cathedral in Chicago, murdering the Archbishop on his own altar before a gold-plated idol of Tiamat’s dragon form; he also severely damaged the building and injured or killed dozens more people in doing so. The Windy City Warriors captured him. Barker was held at the Joliet, Illinois maximum security prison.

      Before Barker could be tried, Tiamat rescued him by melting the prison and more than 500 inmates and staff into a salt-water lake. Storm Dragon reappeared a month later able to assume his dragon-man form. Since then, Barker has been Tiamat’s chief lieutenant and consort.

      Known Powers: Storm Dragon has two distinct sets of powers. His weather-control powers are apparently the result of inborn mutation, as no “origin event” can be discerned in Barker’s life. Storm Dragon can fly and evoke wind, lightning, and various forms of precipitation for many different functions. In addition to controlling the local weather, he can enhance his punches with lightning or extreme cold, trap opponents in tight whirlwinds, raise concealing fog, throw lightning bolts, create ice slicks or induce the bends through rapid changes in air pressure. He can perform up to three distinct feats at once.

      In his dragon-man form, Storm Dragon additionally becomes strong enough to lift at least 100 tons. He can fly using his wings instead of weather control (and can fly faster by applying both) and is nigh-invulnerable without the need for his protective shield of wind, hail and lightning (though he can use this power to increase his defenses even further). His claws and fangs are supernaturally hard and sharp, able to rend steel.

      In either form, Barker can manifest the awe-inspiring Mantle of Radiance that is characteristic of Tiamat and her minions. He maintains a layer of untainted, temperate air around him that protects him from inhaled toxins or extremes of temperature or pressure.

      Storm Dragon’s wide range of powers give him more tactical options than he usually needs. While he can blind opponents with fog, reduce their mobility with ice slicks, trap them in whirlwinds or whittle them down with pressure sickness or hypothermia, usually he just throws lightning bolts or punches and grapples.

      Storm Dragon has never been observed to cast spells using the cuneiform-inscribed tablets that are characteristic of Tiamat and several of her other minions.

      Known Associates: Before his infatuation with Tiamat, Barker is not known to have associated with any other supervillains. Since becoming Storm Dragon, he has acted only in company with Tiamat and her other Dragon Warriors.

      Notes: Barker’s transformation into Storm Dragon is unstable. If he is unconscious or dazed from a powerful attack, Barker might revert to his weaker, human form. Attacks that debilitate him also cause pain to his Dragon Warrior form.

      Within Tiamat’s cult, Barker is formally known as Kingu after Tiamat’s son, consort and champion from her war against the Mesopotamian gods (as described in the Enuma Elish). Barker shows great jealousy toward anyone who seems to challenge his position as Tiamat’s lover and most powerful minion.

 

DS

[DShomshak]

Campaign note: Storm Dragon sometimes has reason for his jealousy.

 

You may recall (from Anunit's origin story) that Avant Guard member Thing Fantastic knocked out Storm Dragon while pretending to be trying to impress Tiamat. Well, he *did* impress her.

 

Several adventures later, the solo vignette for Thing Fantastic dealt with Tiamat appearing before him and tossing him a tablet of destinies. It transformed him from a creature of rock and rubber to a gorgeous male model with a bodybuilder physique. She then took him for a night on the town, ending with an hour of brain-melting sex in a posh hotel room. When TF woke up, Tiamat was gone and he was rocky again.

 

TF knows Tiamat is trying to subvert him away from the team. He can't help but be sweet on her, though, and wonder if she could not be reformed. We shall see what happens the next time they meet. And maybe some other shoes shall drop.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Lord Liaden]

I believe I can adapt Storm Dragon and Cerastes as part of your Sons of Kingu cult for my modified Champions Universe games. I've been wanting to use that group, but hadn't come up with interesting unique characters for it. Thanks, Dean.

[DShomshak]

That should be easy enough, since I raided my old Sons of Kingu characters for Tiamat's Dragon Warriors. I never got to use them much in my old campaign, so I'm glad I can recycle them.

 

Oh, and here are illos I did for Storm Dragon and Cerastes.

 

DS

[DShomshak]

And, since I brought the file to print out at the library, I might as well post the dossier for one of the lesser Dragon Warriors, Salamander. It's scant, but not much of her background is known to the public. --DS

 

DOSSIER: Salamander

 

      Name: Terrie Edwards                              Date of Birth: 1976

      Appearance: Large snake from the waist down, humanoid from the waist up with a head midway between snake and human; covered in mottled brown and bronze scales with light bronze scutes along the belly; large, slitted green eyes.

      Occupation: Former paralegal; current professional criminal and insurgent.

      Legal Status: Canadian citizen wanted for assault, murder, arson, subversion and numerous other crimes.

      Threat Rating: Moderate

      Known Background: It is not known what drew Terrie Edwards to Tiamat’s cult. In reconstructing her past, her first known criminal action for the cult was to steal confidential documents from the Toronto legal firm where she worked and pass them to the cult. (It is not known why the cult wanted this information. It may have been merely a test of loyalty.) In 2012, Edwards switched jobs to another firm that was engaged in legal action against Tiamat’s cult. Edwards killed several members of the firm and burned down its offices around the bodies. Edwards was severely burned herself, though her role in the crime was quickly discovered. Tiamat visited Edwards in the hospital, slew the police officers guarding her, and transformed Edwards into a Dragon Warrior. Edwards took the name Salamander and refuses to answer to any other.

      Salamander participated in Tiamat’s capture of a U.S. nuclear missile base in 2013. Avant Guard captured her at this time. Two months later, before her trial could be completed, Salamander vanished from her jail cell. Since then she has participated in various other criminal and insurgent activities with Tiamat and her fellow Dragon Warriors.

      Known Powers: Salamander is significantly stronger and quicker than a normal human, to an extent that has not been quantified. Her scales are strong enough to deflect small arms fire.

      Salamander evokes and projects fire. She can exhale a jet of flame; project rays from her eyes that inflict heatstroke; or radiate fire from her entire body. Salamander can bite: Her fangs not only penetrate virtually anything, they inject a “flame venom: that slowly burns victims from the inside. She is herself virtually immune to fire.

      In common with Tiamat and other Dragon Warriors, Salamander evokes an awe-inspiring, luminous “Mantle of Radiance.” In 2015, Salamander was seen to use the magical cuneiform “tablets of destiny” characteristic of Tiamat and her “children.”

      Known Associates: Salamander has never worked with anyone except Tiamat and her fellow Dragon Warriors.

[DShomshak]

Here's a megavillain I haven't had a chance to use yet in my campaign. I hope to do so soon, though.

 

Not to be confused with the Contessa from Worm. I came up with my Contessa long before Worm came out; she's mentioned in my "Megavillains" article in Digital Hero, lo these many years ago. Still, what's a cool name between friends?

 

DOSSIER: Contessa

 

      Name: Marietta Secchi                              Date of Birth: 1979

      Appearance: White female, 5’5” tall, slender build, mouse-brown hair (when not dyed), gray eyes. Her “costumes” usually consist of designer gowns or other high fashion with a ballistic cloth underlayer. Only if she expects immediate physical danger does she wear a padded ballistic cloth costume resembling a riding habit, typically dark blue with gold trim.

      Occupation: Former socialite; now full-time criminal and subversive.

      Legal Status: Italian citizen with a criminal record, wanted in most of the world for innumerable counts of robbery and attempted conquest.

      Threat Rating: Maximal

      Known Background: Marietta Secchi comes from a North Italian family that can trace its noble title back to the 17^th century. The Secchis’ fortune declined in the 20^th century, but they remained fixtures in the Milanese social scene. It is not known when or how Marietta discovered or obtained her telepathic powers; she claims she is a mutant. By 2003, however, she was using her powers to steal money and jewelry to support a more opulent lifestyle than her family’s wealth would allow. At this time she kept her criminal identity secret under the pseudonym of the Contessa. In 2004, facing arrest as the Milanese police closed in on her, Secchi tried to take over the city government — seeking not only to quash the investigation but to have herself made mayor. She failed and was arrested, convicted and imprisoned. Secchi escaped four months later, and the Contessa became a full-time criminal.

      Over the next four years, Secchi developed her “mutant supremacist” ideology, transferring her stated entitlement to wealth and power from her aristocratic heritage to her mutant powers. She was also captured and escaped three more times. In 2008, she spent her accumulated loot to find the supervillain Red Giant (q.v.) His “Dynatron” vastly increased Secchi’s telepathic powers and added psychokinesis; but the machine also scarred her and burned out her eyes. After healing for several months and learning to use her new powers, the Contessa tried to conquer Italy by paralyzing everyone in Rome. Her show of power backfired as thousands of people died from vehicle accidents, doctors paralyzed mid-operation, and numerous other causes. The Italian government vowed to bring the Contessa to justice no matter the cost. Rather than pursue the fight, Secchi fled the country.

      The Contessa reappeared a few months later in North Korea. Here she tried to control dictator Kim Jong Il and the rest of the country’s high command into making her co-ruler and declaring the country the new mutant homeland. A few days later, a sniper — believed to be an agent of the People’s Republic of China — shot and nearly killed Secchi. She barely escaped with her life. Contessa tried to conquer the military dictatorship of Myanmar in 2010, ending a few weeks later in the Battle of Yangon.

      Since then, Contessa has tried to rule Belarus, Swaziland, Turkmenistan and (again) North Korea. Although Secchi became subtler, controlling leaders without declaring herself, she was exposed within a month each time and her psychic regime overthrown. On the other hand, Secchi pulled off numerous super-robberies such as forcing the officers of Lehman Brothers investment bank to transfer all their ill-gotten gains to her Channel Islands bank account. Contessa also stole the Peacock Throne of Iran, hoping to use it when she becomes Queen of the World, but lost it to other villains.

      Most recently, Contessa paralyzed the entire city of Damascus, and the Islamic State’s capital of Raqqa a few hours later, and invited the US or UN to occupy both cities and thus end the Syrian Civil War. No response was given before the assorted super-soldiers backing the Islamic State and the Assad regime converged on the two cities and forced Secchi to flee once more.

      Known Powers: The Contessa is the world’s most powerful telepath. She can make anything with a mind do nearly anything, probe even the deepest thoughts, create hallucinations impossible to distinguish from reality, or simply command opponents to lose consciousness. Only a few people have ever resisted her powers using specially-created technological or magical mental shields. What’s more, Secchi can affect groups of people or objects, though her control is not so great. Secchi can act at a distance by targeting a person’s mind or by clairvoyance: Though her power is reduced even further, it has been sufficient to make security guards unlock vaults for her. If Contessa concentrates for an hour, she can accumulate enough psychic force to affect everyone within several miles — whether inflicting hallucinations, inducing particular actions, or (most infamously) paralyzing everyone. She incidentally absorbs the languages known by the people around her.

      Secchi’s psychokinesis is powerful enough to lift and throw main battle tanks or juggle a dozen compact cars. She has also performed feats or extraordinary control such as psychokinetically sending a cloud of poison gas back on the people who attacked her with it, or remotely lifting a gun to shoot another criminal who betrayed her. She protects herself with a shield of psychokinetic force and can levitate herself at more than 100 miles per hour.

      Contessa’s power has one major limit: She apparently cannot inflict any long-term change on anyone’s mind. Though her compulsions are strong enough to last for hours, they generally wear off within a day. Thus her latter attempt at conquest involved nudging leaders, making them think their actions were their own idea, rather than brute-force control. On the other hand, Secchi appears to have considerable skill at mundane social manipulation.

      Another limitation is that Secchi lost her eyes. She can see only by telepathically borrowing the senses of the people around her. While Contessa can see things that are not in her immediate area, she cannot see anything that no one else is looking at.

      Known Associates: The Contessa prefers to work with other mutant supervillains, whom she promises a place of power in her aristocratic mutant regime. Since almost no one else believes in Contessa’s mutant-supremacist ideology, most allies — even mutants — still insist on cash. Secchi has a reputation for paying very well and for dealing honestly with her hired help. Nevertheless, she has no regular partners.

      Captured allies typically claim that Contessa mind-controlled them into assisting her crimes. This has never been confirmed. If Secchi does influence her allies, she does so subtly.

      Notes:

      Psychological Assessment: Insults and humiliation can drive Secchi into a rage. She also appears unshakeable in her determination to rule the world for mutantkind. She shows no other strong obsessions or derangements. Moreover, while Secchi is not notably bright, she learns from her mistakes and can spend weeks or months researching a country she intends to conquer or a place she intends to rob: She rarely just walks into a scheme expecting to crush all opposition by raw, spur-of-the-moment power.

      Resources: As a criminal of worldwide notoriety, the Contessa does not legally own anything. Nevertheless, despite official denials she is known to have bank accounts in the Cayman Islands, Channel Islands, Liechtenstein, and probably other havens of gray finance as well. She is certainly a billionaire. Former allies say she entertained them at villas and penthouses in Italy, Monaco, New York City and other locations. While some properties might be commandeered from their owners, Secchi likely owns some of them through proxies; most likely the ones with contingents of heavily armed security guards who seem to know her.

[Lord Liaden]

I'd just like to add that Tiamat here bears a strong resemblance, in style, power, even origin, to the Serpent Queen, aka Tiamat/Echidna/Apophis, from The Algernon Files superhero campaign setting source book published by Blackwyrm Games. The 5E Hero stats for that villain would make a good starting template for this one, as would the write-ups for her followers.

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/store/product/143-the-algernon-files-20-pdf/

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/store/product/469-the-algernon-files-20-book-pdf/

 

.

[DShomshak]

Well, I suppose it was too much to hope I'd been the first to think of using Tiamat as a megavillain. Ah, well. (For that matter, one reason I never considered writing a supplement about her and her Dragon Warriors is that she'd also be too much like the Shadow Queen from CV1. No really original ideas, I guess.  )

 

Dean Shomshak

[Lord Liaden]

Hey, no criticism of you intended, Dean. There's no saying whether you came up with the idea before Blackwyrm did. Your creation of the Dragon is years before TAF. Besides, mythology predates all of us by a good bit.   But really, after nearly eighty years of comic-book superheroes, it's very unlikely for anyone to come up with a concept that doesn't resemble something already done by somebody somewhere.

[DShomshak]

Oh, I wasn't taking it as criticism. Just ruefully acknowledging that it is indeed difficult to find a good idea that hasn't already been used, or won't be used again by someone else. I mean, Creatures of the Night: Horror Enemies came out about the same month that another company came out with a book of horror game monsters called... Creatures of the Night.

 

(It was a darn good book, too, grr.)

 

(Though calling my book CotN was Bruce Harlick's idea, not mine, I can't say he was wrong, either.)

 

Dean Shomshak

[DShomshak]

Now for a couple dossiers that might be a little more controversial. People take their religion seriously, and not everyone likes it when someone uses it as grist for fiction. But religion is a powerful motivator, and not always in a good way. If we're talking about motivations for extraordinary people and extraordinary deeds, I don't think it's honest to leave out religion.

 

DOSSIER: Heroes of Faith

 

Few motivations surpass religion in power. Quite a few heroes see fighting crime and defending the innocent as an expression of their faith, whatever that may be: Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Voudon, whatever. A few heroes are actually in holy orders. Here are some examples:

 

Dervish

Turkey’s super-sorcerer hero really is a dervish, a member of that mystical sect of Islam. Selim Korkut’s trance-devotions and natural talent attracted a teacher from another world. He accepted tuition in thaumaturgy to learn more of god’s creation. When Selim learned about the mystical threats to humanity, both home-grown and invading from other realms, he saw a greater calling: If he does not defend the faithful — and the rest of humanity — from these threats, who will?

 

The Dervish believes God guided his teacher to him, and his alien mentor doesn’t say he’s wrong. The Phlegran sorcerer Zalatrex has met many self-styled gods on many worlds. None are anything close to Supreme Beings. But Zalatrex has also seen many instances of the right person being in the right place at the right time to do good; he won’t rule out the possibility of a guiding hand.

 

Doña Llama/Lady Blaze

Miami’s resident heroine comes from the city’s Cuban-American population; she is primarily of African descent and a devotee of Santería. Paloma Barba-Guzmán worked in a chemical factory when the CROWN baron of South Florida, Lord Scorch, decided to burn down the factory as an example to other businesses that didn’t pay tribute. In the chaos, Paloma was first doused in several experimental chemicals, then ignited by Lord Scorch’s thermite gun. Instead of dying, though, she gained flame projection powers.

 

While Paloma drove away the CROWN agents, she then found she couldn’t entirely  stop burning. Her santero helped Paloma seek help from the Orishas, the gods of Santería. In a trance, she contacted the orisha Chango, god of kingship, war and fire. Chango helped Paloma learn to control her flames. He also bade her to join the fight against CROWN and other villains, for Chango is a righteous king who both cares for his people and takes no crap from anyone.

 

As Doña Llama, or “Lady Blaze,” Paloma was instrumental in capturing Lord Scorch and busting his CROWN barony. She continues to fight crime in South Florida. She has also become active in exposing and opposing injustice that hides behind law, such as sweetheart deals between big business and local politicians, attempts to purge black citizens from voter rolls, and rampant use of civil forfeiture to harvest wealth from drug gangs without ever shutting them down.

 

Father Pete

Chicago’s “man-mountain monsignor” doesn’t use a Secret Identity or pseudonym. For years, Peter Holowycz didn’t recognize his mild, uncontrolled mutant power of density control. Helix spotted him during a visit to Chicago on other business, however, and his experiments on the priest fully activated his power. Father Pete broke loose from Helix’s restrains and joined Hyperion and other heroes in driving away the mad master of genetics. Father Pete has been a member of the Windy City Warriors ever since. Not only is he the team’s “brick,” Father Pete usually handles public relations and liaising with government as he has quite excellent social skills. The Chicago cops especially like Father Pete: They appreciate a hostage negotiator who is charismatic, persuasive, and bulletproof. Walking through walls is good, too.

 

Father Pete still works full time as a Roman Catholic parish priest. (Despite the popular epithet, he is not a monsignor, and he isn’t a particularly big man: He just has the mass of a mountain, when he wants.) He considers fighting super-crime an extension of his priestly duty to help humanity however he can. Father Pete also visits captured supervillains in prison, trying to steer them onto a better path.

 

Poor Clare

Sister Marta Catanzaro could have made a good living in IT. Instead she took a vow of poverty as a non in the sister order to the Franciscan friars, called the Poor Clares. She handled computer services for the Roman Catholic Church in her native Florence, Italy. Sister Marta’s computer work made her a target for the Monad in its assault on Florence; her mental resistance to hubot conversion only made her more valuable to the robotic hive-mind as a potential service node, prompting the Monad to invest more effort in assimilating her. When international heroes finally defeated the Monad, Sister Marta emerged heavily cyborged, with vast knowledge of Monad technology and with an innate power to control other machines.

 

The Monad was not wholly gone from Sister Marta’s mind, though. She continues to resist through her faith, pitting God against Machine. Fighting supervillains is simply part of her struggle to stay human, reminding her that every life and soul matters. She is principally a gadgeteer, though her cyborg body makes her resilient enough to fight supervillains toe-to-toe. Her “costume” is simply the brown habit and black veil of her order.

 

Serpentine

Before Coil or Anunit, Serpentine was the world’s half-snake hero. Cassidy Smith was a devout member of the Glory of God Ministry Church in Phoenix, Arizona when Tiamat cursed the pastor and congregation to become weresnakes. Cassidy went mad with horror from her transformation and fled her husband, home and old life. As a result, the Mesopotamian hero-god Ninurta couldn’t find her to remove the curse. Cassidy live on the streets for two years, eating rats and pets when she randomly changed into a huge snake.

 

Two years later, the heroine Spinnerette found Cassidy when she was in Phoenix for an unrelated case. Spinnerette caught the weresnake and consulted the only mystical hero she knew, Nevermore. The hero of Baltimore used his “necro-psychic” powers (allegedly received from the ghost of Edgar Allen Poe) to restore Cassidy to some mental coherence and control of her transformation. She tried to return to her old life, but her husband rejected her for still being cursed by the “pagan devil” Tiamat and for consorting with the “ungodly” Nevermore. Cassidy left Arizona to take the name of Serpentine and become a founding member of the Southern Sentries. She resolved her crisis of faith by vowing to turn Tiamat’s curse into a gift with which she could help others.

 

In 2012, Serpentine married her teammate Dyna-Man and semi-retired to Atlanta, Georgia. She now says her most important roles are wife and mother to their two small children, and she is proud to be a stay-at-home mom. When the Atlanta police need help against a supervillain and the Southern Sentries are busy elsewhere, though, they can call on Serpentine for help. In return, the Atlanta PD supplies a SWAT team as babysitters.

 

Yellowcap

Few mortals know the origin of the brutal vigilante called Yellowcap who terrorizes criminals from Liverpool to Newcastle. He resembles and aging hooligan: a stocky man in late middle age with grizzled hair and fiery red eyes, wearing a black leather jacket, work pants, big stompy boots and a saffron-yellow workman’s cap. He also carries an iron pikestaff. He is in fact a redcap — a murderous faerie of the North Country — who was converted to Buddhism by exiled Tibetan monks who settled in Britain, just as they converted demons of the ancient B’on faith of the Himalayas and Tibet. Like those demons, Yellowcap has become a dharmapala, or “guardian of the Dharma,” turning his violent nature to the cause of enlightenment.

 

In Yellowcap’s case, guarding the Dharma consists of beating the tar out of criminals as a way of introducing them to the Noble Eightfold Way. Criminals throughout the North Country fear Yellowcap’s boisterous shout of “OI! Desire brings suffering! You desired what ain’t yours — now you’re gonna suffer for it!” Yellowcap is an incredibly vicious fighter: “Dirty Infighting” doesn’t begin to describe his use of curb stomping, eye gouging and kicks to the groin. His pikestaff can club or skewer his foes physically or spiritually. The police try to catch Yellowcap, but honestly, they don’t try very hard. He’s caught too many supervillains who’ve killed too many cops… and time in the hospital is more certain than time in jail.

 

--DS

[Lord Liaden]

Honestly, I thought your idea of distinguishing the gods materialized out of human faith, from the "true" gods they only resemble (whether or not such deities actually exist), was a great way to work religious themes into a super game world without stepping on anyone's religious beliefs.

 

Mind you, nowadays not many people in this part of the world seem to care. We have numerous movies and television shows with main characters who are demons, angels, even God Himself. Heck, one ongoing series has Lucifer as its protagonist.