The GUARD's Current Roster: Hera, Olympian, Maker v8, Gaia, Magistrate XVI, Echo, Splendor
Pantheons and spiritual realms of Earth
Hera
| Helen Troy
Powers:
Density Control (immovability protection super strength),
Telepathy, Telekinesis (Flight), ESP, Super Charisma
History: She's the ex-wife of Zeus, mother of Ares. Hera
was an alien traveler with only low-level telepathy and telekinesis
when she arrived in ancient Greece. Her legendary beauty brought
he to the attention of Zeus, who took her as a wife. Her She
was given immortality by Zeus on their wedding day. She is
3,729 years old. Her powers have increased considerably in
the intervening millennia. She dumped Zeus once he lost most
of his godly powers after the fall of both the Greek and roman
civilizations (as the people of the world stopped worshipping,
a Gods power dwindles). Since then, she has been lover to
many important men in her day, usually influencing matters
behind the scenes. New attitudes about women and power have
brought about changes in her. Now she considers herself the
power and men are hers to toy with. She will be no ones consort.
She has had a very sexual affair with The Olympian. The GUARD
has merchandising rites to her likeness and posters, dolls
and pinups of her are common. There is even a Hera look-alike
porn actress known as Helen Troy who is famous for only doing
scenes with an Olympian look-alike who goes by Jason Argos.
(In fact it is actually they - but that is not known to anyone
save the two of them). Hera has a voracious sexual appetite,
a wicked sense of humor, and little to no sense of shame or
modesty.
The
Olympian | Stavros Vox, Jr., Jason Argos
Powers:
Super Strength, Super Speed, Super Dexterity, Flight
History: He spent his infancy and early childhood cris-crossing
the globe in search of legendary objects. These included 3
antiquities that were created in the forges of Hephaestus
and blessed by 3 of his fellow Olympians: The Gauntlets of
Ares, The Sandals of Hermes, and the Golden Girdle of Zeus.
Stavros Sr. had just acquired the 3rd item from
a less than reputable relic hunter, but he was double-crossed.
The relic hunter's cohorts invaded the Vox's Minoan estate
and Vox Sr. was murdered. Stavros Jr. (only 8 at the time)
had been in the storage room when his father hit a panic button,
sealing him in. He was eventually drawn to the items and began
to play with them. He happened to utter the word warrior in
Greek and found himself transformed into an extremely powerful
young adult. He broke out of the panic room, found his father
dead, and beat the killers to near death before flying off.
Hera discovered The Olympian flying wildly over Athens with
no clothes other than the artifacts or memory of his identity.
He was in an enraged state and covered in blood. With her
telepathy, she calmed him, and brought him home (not knowing
he was actually a transformed youth). The press has called
him her ÒBoy ToyÓ and she does treat him as such. She believes
leftover power of the fires of Olympus spontaneously created
him, a man of myth made flesh. He believes whatever she tells
him. He is a kept man. He loves to party, and play games and
VRG adventures. He comes across as the least mature of the
group, pausing often mid-battle to taunt and ridicule enemies.
He also seems to revel in usage of his powers more than some
of the more mature members of the team. The GUARD has merchandising
rites to his likeness and posters, action figures and pinups
of him are common. Stavros Vox Jr. has been missing for 7
years. The Olympian is still unaware of his true identity.
His Olympian hasn't aged a day since Hera found him, but his
true form is 15 now.
Maker
v8 | Dr. Micah Takachi
Powers: Super Intelligence, Machine Control. Shapeshift
(limited to technology), Energy Control and Absorption
History: the origin of the sentient robot life form known
as Maker is a matter of public record. The Technician, a founding
member of The GUARD was a reluctant adventurer at best. Considered
the superior intellect of his time, Dr. Takachi preferred
lab work, but often Technician and his gadgets were called
upon in a crisis. Micah was mortally wounded while saving
a school full of children from a collapsing skyscraper. He
was able to create the gadget that teleported out the all
children, but was forced to stay behind to operate it. In
his last moments, dying under mountains of rubble, The Technician
successfully downloaded his intellect and memories into a
nanotech probe with self-replicating ability. The probe rabidly
absorbed bits of metal and technology from the building rubble
and in minutes Maker stood where The Technician had fallen.
Maker is a groundbreaking figure in the battle for what some
have called "machine rights" because he is engaged
in a legal battle to have himself declared a life form. Maker
keeps a backup of his consciousness in case he falls in battle,
as he has done 7 times in the past. He is highly susceptible
to magnetism control and must recharge fully every 24 hours.
Gaia
| Gea Teramaggia
Powers: earth & water control (elemental movement)
Animation (limited earth), Weather Control (fog, lightning,
rain, snow)
History: She's the GUARD's resident mystic. Gaia is a
descendent of the original Arcadia, daughter of Lucifer and
his sister Diana. Her bloodline has spawned many powerful
witches and sorceresses. Her grandmother raised her to believe
in the magic and power found resonating within the earth and
her oceans. She tried to avoid he family's destiny but was
drawn back upon the path to magic in the late 70's when she
was drawn into an epic battle pitting the great mages of this
Earth vs. those of another. She never strayed from the path
again. Though not a true sorceress, Gaia IS a very powerful
witch. Though La Vecchia, (called The Old Religion) is the
name given to both black and white witchcraft in Italy and
Sicily, its foundations trace back much farther - to times
of and before the Romans and Greeks. She is generally demure
in her attitude unless enraged sufficiently. She prefers that
her ability to create and mentally manipulate earth and water
should be used more often to help those in need than to wage
war. Though battlefields that she's fought on can be littered
with mammoth columns and structures made of earth, she generally
redistributes the earth back to where it belongs before leaving.
History: The universe that this earth and its galaxy exist
within is only one of many. An alien civilization called the
P'Trai is dedicated to the study of matter and energy on every
level - from the smallest sub-atomic particles to the furthest
reaches of unknown dimensions. Through their advanced technology,
the P'Trai can create, cage, and age a baby universe to maturity
and eventual entropy, galaxies, planets, suns, stars, sentient
beings and all. Through detailed observation of these caged
universes, they discover and test all manners of scientific
theories in every discipline. Though P'Trai scientists generally
give little or no thought to the sentients in their caged
universes, other more humane P'Trai have brought about changes
in the legal status of the inhabitants of these caged universes.
The P'Trai science division has been forced to develop a program
to create legion of protectors, each one created solely to
maintain order and balance in an inhabited sector in one of
the caged universes. This earth is one planet within a caged
universe, and the member of the GUARD known as Magistrate
is its appointed protector.
The
Magistrates are an amalgam of 64 sentient beings plucked at
random from the sector of the universe they are meant to protect.
All knowledge and memories of these beings are swimming in
his mind.
Magistrate
spends most of his off duty time patrolling the far reaches
of the universe. He is very serious most of the time, but
occasionally exhibits behaviors that are uncharacteristically
odd (such as transforming into a human or alien no one recognizes
and introducing him or herself, then switching back to Magistrate
without seeming to be aware of what just occurred). He also
sometimes finds himself speaking in their voices, switching
voices and personalities in a flash. The GUARD has been lucky
enough that this hasn't happened on camera yet, but there
have been witnesses.
Echo
| Taban Patera
Powers: has control over time in his immediate vicinity
(super speed and slowdown), Precognition, Mach One Punch,
and can summon a limited number of temporal duplicates of
himself.
History: Echo comes from an alternate future timeline
in which The GUARD failed to take the initiative in killing
its foes. They were eventually killed and crime, corruption
and villainy thrived. He was one of many genetically engineered
humans used to keep criminals one-step ahead of the law through
the use of precognition. The precogs spent their lives in
isolation tanks, hooked up to telepathic sensors that read
their visions. Since they were engineered to live in the dark,
they have no eyes; early prototypes found that vision interfered
with the accuracy of predictions. Echo's power flared due
to a vision he saw foretelling the eventual destruction of
his reality and he traveled deep into the past, 5 years before
The GUARDs present. There he began manipulation of events
to create a future he liked better, no matter the cost. He
joined the group just months before the pivotal world events
of 1994 (see timeline), which he in fact set in motion to
enrage the GUARD into taking action. Echo is an intensely
driven hand-to-hand combatant who fights by knowing his opponents
every move in advance. He sees only the future; he cannot
see his present, as he literally has no eyes. Though he appears
otherwise human, most people think he is the most frightening
member of the GUARD. His arrival to the GUARD heralded the
beginning of a change in membership and the center of power.
Echo, Hera and The Olympian, are the driving force behind
The GUARD. Although Echo is blind he can "see" though
his precognition ability that allows him to see one step ahead.
Splendor | Splendor Ligero
Powers: Creates solid animated objects out of light, blinding
flash, superflight
History: She is the newest and also the youngest member
of the GUARD (except for Olympian's true age). She began as
a friend of The Olympian (who likes to run with a fast young
celebrity crowd) and eventually joined the team. She took
advantage of her newfound celebrity as a GUARD member and
releases a soulful yet danceable pop album that was well received
by her target audience. She's 21 and an out and proud lesbian
diva with a Foxy Cleopatra vibe and a penchant for the 70s.
Her father was the supervillain known as Shimmer, but his
abilities were instantly transferred to her upon her birth.
He retired from the criminal scene, knowing only that his
powers were gone. He was able to invest his criminal earnings
wisely and his family never wanted for anything. Splendor
grew up a spoiled rich girl who liked to party. Her powers
lay dormant until a combination of unlicensed psychedelics;
techno music and a killer lightshow somehow caused her abilities
to trigger. Thinking she was just tripping she mentally took
control of the lightshow, reshaping and animating it for her
own pleasure, creating impossibly intricate dancing constructions
of solid light, much to the drooling delight of the mesmerized
youths in the crowd. Splendor began to make a name for herself
creating psychedelic living lightshows for the rave crowd
until The Olympian befriended her at a Hollywood party. They
became fast friends and he soon sponsored her for GUARD membership.
Pantheons
and Spiritual realms of Earth: Gods past and present are
brought into existence and power by the faith of their believers.
Some are more active in creating believers and increasing
their power base. The ONLY living gods have in the citizens
of the earth is in increasing the number of worshippers and
therefore their own power. They fear one thing alone, the
fate of gods once no one believes. The worship of mortals
is intoxicating and once a god has lost it a melancholy takes
them. Most give up their will to exist and become as statues
in the Hall of Lost Gods. Since the beginning a few lost gods
have found the will to reawaken, but only those who still
burn with the strongest human emotions - love or hate. ANY
god in ANY pantheon that was ever worshipped has existed in
some form (If you want to petition GM for a god - find me
a documented cultural reference to the god we'll talk).
The
Green: is an ethereal plane from which all plant energy
resonates. Each type of vegetative life resonates with a different
energy that combines with energies from other plant life forms
to weave the great tapestry that is the Green. Visually, it
appears to be an endless plane enshrouded in an obscuring
green mist. At the center of the Green lies a clearing containing
a grove of trees older and taller than anything on Earth.
The 111 trees found in the circle of the Parliament of Trees
are not solid, but are a spiritual focus for vegetative energy.
Human consciousnesses can spend no more than 48 hours in the
Green without risking madness.
The
Red: is an ethereal plane from which all animalistic energy
resonates. Visually it appears to be an endless plane of frenzied
activity. Nothing is languid or solid. Abstract shapes and
colors constantly shift, appearing and fading, swirling and
combining into an ever-changing representation of the circle
of life. Human consciousnesses can only spend hours in the
Red without risking madness.
Events
in the Green and Red realms are symbiotically linked, what
affects one affects the other.
MAJOR
EVENTS TIMELINE: These are the MAJOR events. Only events
that have had a major influence on the development of the
Earth to its current state of affairs are listed. One can
take for granted that multiple times each year The GUARD saved
countless hundreds of thousands from natural disasters, war,
and terrorism.
1940-s
1950's - With the help of a 3 low level telepaths, the
mob beat the FBI. No Mafia Don or "made" man has
EVER done time or turned states evidence. Certain elements
of government have been secretly under their thumb for decades
without detection. There has never been any successful case
made against any senior member of organized crime. No member
of the mafia caught and tried in a court of law has ever given
up another member. In most cases the operate just within the
boundaries of the law
1994
- Ground Zero Event
November
3rd - a relatively minor villain known as Hazard
threatens The GUARD by holding a scientific research station
in Romania hostage with a bomb that (he later claimed accidentally
- it was Echo who caused the malfunction) explodes in mid-threat.
A radioactive blast spreads across Eastern Europe, killing
most of the population. Hazard's ability to absorb forms of
energy and release it in the form of an electromagnetic field
was overloaded and he released and incredibly powerful electromagnetic
pulse. The EMP spread far beyond the area of affect covering
half the earth, knocking out all power over an entire hemisphere
for from 12 minutes to 45 days (depending on local abilities
to get things back on).
November
4th - The day the GUARD was unanimously empowered
by UN Resolution 423 (s/res/423 (1992)). This gave the GUARD
legal sovereign nation status for their undersea North Pole
fortress. This status also allowed them to operate outside
the laws of other nations.
November
5th - Final draft of resolution is delivered
to the GUARD. They immediately locate Hazard as he is still
alive and within 5 miles of ground zero. He had absorbed major
amounts of power from the blast, but was confused, enraged
and distraught at the destruction he'd caused. The GUARD was
determined and with the whole world watching in multiple angles
TVR (eventually -areas that had no power saw the footage once
power was restored) they were able to drain his excess charge
and cut Hazard to pieces, literally. This event brought the
team to a new level of fame, power, and world popularity.
1995
- The GUARD begins to hunt down and kills anyone who has
harmed or threatens to harm others with superhuman means.
Some of these kills were public and others were clandestine.
By 1999, 367 individuals with superhuman abilities and criminal
records for crimes ranging from endangerment, to kidnapping
or murder were either killed during apprehension when caught
in the act (often broadcast live on TVR), or simply vanished
without explanation.
1996
- The GUARD employs the PR agency of Siegel and Schuster
to take care of public relations. With their help the world's
confidence in the GUARD increased exponentially. With the
technical expertise of Maker v3 they added one of The GUARD's
most powerful allies to the team. The MATSE, a Mobile Airborne
TVR Signal Emitter. These self powered hovering spheres can
record action around them in full Televirtual Reality and
broadcast the signal to a satellite network that broadcast
it live to the GUARD channel. The world began a whole new
appreciation for what their heroes do for them.
1997
- Maker engineers a new clean power source for the world.
Using advanced earth technology along with bits of alien technology
that The GUARD has accumulated over the past 20 years; Maker
v4 constructed a massive satellite dish, located outside Abaton,
WI. This dish absorbs ambient energy of almost any type lightwaves,
microwaves, radio waves etc), digitizes it and stores it as
light in a virtual space defined by a reflective surface which
amplifies the initial energy almost infinitely. The energy
can then be broadcast from the dish to a satellite array capable
of distributing it to a worldwide network of power hubs.
1998
- The GUARD is confronted by doppelgangers of themselves.
The rough looking bunch claimed to be from the future, but
were in fact from another dimension where The GUARD had banded
together as a group of villains. After defeating them and
sending them back to their own dimension, without their powers,
The GUARD develops a dimensional tesseract technology that
allows them to create a highly advanced headquarters of unlimited
size in another dimension. With their global popularity and
celebrity, their headquarters at the North Pole no longer
offered the seclusion it once did.
2000
- The GUARD turns its attentions to nuclear disarmament.
Both the team as a whole and individual members of The GUARD
bring many dictators, terrorists and other world leaders with
documented blood on their hands to justice, and assist in
helping citizens create a new democratic government (Still
too soon to tell how these governments will progress).
2001
- Maker engineers a new cleaner burning petroleum substitute.
The last of the world's nuclear arsenal is moved off world.
The GUARD put a stop to all environmentally unsound oil related
industrial activity. They also repel an alien armada and a
giant asteroid, all on live TV.
2002-2003
- Many factions of citizens of varied nations of the world
begin to agree about something for the first time, the immediate
dismantlement of the armies of the world. This sentiment,
though ridiculous in the world of 10 years ago, is beginning
to take root in the minds of people everywhere, as are newly
forming religions worshipping The GUARD.