Difference between revisions of "Astral Aegis"

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.

Strength & Durability

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.

Her durability, on the other hand, is something she is able to make full 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 both for her teammates, and for citizens who find themselves in harm's way. However, while a bullet might ricochet off her, she does have major weaknesses that can be exploited if they're discovered.

Telepathy

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.

Telekinesis

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.

Illusion

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.

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.

Radiation

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.

Training

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.

Aversion to Violence

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.

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.

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.