Name: Michael Edward Stanton
Other Names: Wraith
Origin: Salishe-Sidhe Nation, NAN, 20
Race: Human (American Indian and Japanese descent)
Age: 38
Height: 6'8"
Weight: 226 lbs
Eyes: Dark, dark brown
Hair: Black
Distinguishing features: Has a full-back piece that is the markings from the hood of a cobra, with the words "Rest In Peace, Brother" above it; a tattoo on his shoulder of the Marine Corps emblem
Relatives: Phillip Arrais Stanton (brother, deceased), Rebecca Elizabeth "Phoenix" Stanton (sister)
Relationships: None
Skills: A master of the sword, the bow and arrow, and the knife. Has such a gift for thrown ballistic weapons that even such harmless objects as credit cards, pens, nails, cotter pins, and the like become lethal objects. Can catch thrown weapons and even arrows shot in his direction out of the air...and be able to toss them back. Can walk without leaving footprints, even in knee-deep snow. He is a master tactician, particularly when it comes to small-team tactics and strategy. Stealth is another of his specialities - he can cross nightingale floors without making so much as a squeak. Can also shift forms into a more shadowy, insubstantial, vaporous state that can't be touched, and has the ability to teleport using shadows. A list of powers is below.
Powers:
Arrow Cutting
The Adept with this skill can consciously affect the speed of missiles approaching him, slowing them down to such an extent that he can easily knock them aside with his hands or weapons. If the Adept is feeling especially cocky he can catch the missile in midflight. Using this power, an Adept can deflect knives, shuriken and even arrows, although he can't deflect bullets (bullets travel too fast to be appreciably affected by this power).
Astral Perception
The adept has the ability to see into the astral plane via Astral Perception, but cannot use astral projection. This enables the adept to perform astral combat, but the adept cannot cast spells.
Body Control
The physical adept using body control has such control over his/her body that he/she can resist the effects of gases, drugs, and poisons.
Combat Sense
The adept with combat sense power has an almost sixth-sense about an area and any threats around him/her.
Distance Strike
By focusing the magical energies at his command, the adept can send a bolt of magical energy at his target when making an unarmed attack from a distance.
Note that this sort of attack cannot be defended against by normal means of dodging or blocking, as it is not an actual physical attack, but a magical one.
Empathy
The adept with the empathy power is able to pick up on the moods and emotional states of other people within their line of sight. By focusing, if the person in question is in physical contact with the adept, those emotions can be altered.
High Jumps
By focusing power into making the body lighter and the leg muscles tight like springs, the adept can launch him/her/herself large distances. Use of this power allows the adept to jump vertically up to six times normal vertical jump, or jump horizontally up to six times normal horizontal jump.
Improved Ability
(Sword Combat/Katana, Unarmed Combat, Throwing Weapons, Stealth, Bow)
The physical adept is able to, by focusing and applying his powers, magically enhance his abilities in a specific skill, or in this case, skills.
Improved Physical Attributes
(Increased Quickness x3, Increased Strength x3, Increased Toughness x2)
With this ability, the physical adept can raise a Physical Attribute (only Body, Strength, or Quickness), but not a Mental Attribute.
Improved Physical Senses
(Thermographic vision, high/low frequency hearing, enhanced smell, enhanced touch, flare compensation, sound dampening)
These improvements include low-light or thermographic vision, high-frequency/low-frequency hearing, enhanced smell or taste, and so on. Unless an improvement involves radio or similar technological phenomena, anything that can be improved by cyberware can be improved by this power.
Increased Reflexes x3
Self-explanatory. The adept is able to act and react faster than the average, unenhanced human, in this case three times faster.
Killing Hands
The physical adept may use his magical force to turn his Unarmed Combat attacks from Stun to Physical damage. When using Unarmed Combat, an adept with Killing Hands may choose to do either the normal Stun damage or the improved Physical damage. In short, the damage done, rather than simply stunning an opponent, will cause actual physical damage.
If this power is used in conjunction with the Distance Strike ability, the magical energy will inflict physical damage rather than stunning damage.
Not that this power is not truly a physical attack in either the ranged or melee forms, and so cannot be defended against by normal means, as the damage caused is not truly a physical attack, the adept’s hands serving as channels for the magical energy.
Magic Resistance
The adept with this power has a strong unconscious resistance to sorcery and other targeted spells, resulting in his ability to shrug off magical damages. Unfortunately, it also makes him resistant to the effects of magical healing and other beneficial spells.
Missile Mastery
The adept with this power has such a developed talent for throwing weapons that normally harmless items such as pens, playing cards or paper clips can be turned into deadly weapons.
Rapid Healing x6
The adept recovers more quickly than normal from all forms of injury, using magical energy to boost the normal healing process.
Rooting
This power allows the adept to extend the force of his aura to "root" to the ground with the expenditure of a moment's concentration, becoming a literal immovable object, able to strongly resist being knocked down, thrown, levitated or otherwise moved against his will.
Sonic Scream
This power allows the physical adept to create a yell/scream that can be heard from a great distance. The force of this scream is so great that it can shatter glass, deafen people, or even knock people out.
Traceless Walk
This power gives the adept to walk over surfaces which would normally leave evidence of her passing (such as snow, sand, mud, or thin paper) without leaving a trace. The adept makes no noise from contact with the ground, although gear or clothing may still make noise. This power is only active when the adept is actively trying to be stealthy, and does not let the adept walk over liquid surfaces.
Weaknesses: Hemophiliac, enjoys pissing the bad guys off, and loves his alcohol!
Persona: Wraith has a very strong, very outspoken and honorable personality, but that is belied by his casual and sometimes caustic way of speaking. When he's planning a mission or called upon to lead, though, the former Marine comes out like a million-candlepower spotlight through thin fog.
Items:
Sword: Nagamasamune
Qualities: Magical blade
Origin: Inherited from his mother
Form: A simple, elegant, finely made katana, crafted in the old traditional way of swordmaking dating back to ancient, feudal Japan, of folded steel with a pearl of orichalcum embedded in the hilt.
Purpose and Function: Nagamasamune is an enchanted sword specifically made for the striking down of blood spirits as well as actual physical combat. Its razor sharp edge and superb construction make it excellent for striking both magical and mundane targets.
The Fifth Amulet of Avalon
Qualities: Indestructible, only separable from the owner by being gifted, magical item
Origin: See here.
Form: The Fourth Amulet is a teardrop of jet-black stone which glows golden in the center, giving it the appearance of having a flaw of gold metal in its heart. It is always fastened to its owner by silver.
Purpose and Function: See here. Grants Wraith the ability to shift to a shadowy, 'wraith-like' form and the ability to access shadows as though they were portals to wherever he likes.
Bow: Compound T-STAR 'Sniper Bow'
Origin: Custom-made to his specifications by a private corporation.
Form: A compound bow, entirely black.
Purpose and Function: This compound bow was made following research into hyper-flexible 'memory' materials. Whereas most bows can shoot a pretty fair distance, this bow canfire arrows with such power that they can reach ranges comparable to a good high-power rifle and still have lethal velocities. Coupled with custom-made arrows with a variety of tips (including explsoive and shock-tips), in a competent person's hands this weapon is the ultimate in silent, stand-off striking power, and is just as lethal and capable at short range.
Facts about Wraith
Wraith's moniker is not one of his own choosing, but rather was given to him in his Marine Corps days, for his ability to slip around in complete silence and to vanish seemingly into thin air. Now, of course, he can do that literally, making the name all the more appropriate.
Wraith is one of the most (if not THE most) powerful physical adepts of the Seattle Metroplex area...which means the whole world, for all intents and purposes. What really, truly makes him stand out, what makes him unique, is his ability to move in complete, utter silence.
When viewed magically, Wraith doesn't seem to exist, unless one is looking very, very carefully. Even if someone can see him, though, he appears to be nothing more or less than a perfectly normal human.
Wraith has a long-standing hatred of a corporation called Aztechnology for killing his older brother, and spent the majority of his shadowrunning career before coming to RhyDin causing as much damage to them as he could. He came to RhyDin through a 'portal' he found in one of their corporate structures, which he destroyed just as he jumped into it, and found himself here.
Theme Song: "The End is the Beginning is the End" - The Smashing Pumpkins
Fight Song: "Control (Juno Reactor Instrumental)" - Traci Lords
History
Wraith was born Michael Edward Stanton, in the Salish-Sidhe nation of the Native American Nations, the second child of a Native American father and a Japanese mother. His father was an exceptionally gifted shaman and his mother an elemental mage, so their children being magically gifted was a foregone conclusion, for the most part. When they were killed in a magical accident, Michael was too young to really remember them, unfortunately, and he, his brother and his sister ended up being sent to an orphanage.
He had been there for a short time when he was adopted by a UCAS Marine Corps colonel, one Jackson Thomas. The colonel's wife had died recently, and they had never managed to have children. He had it in his mind to adopt a child and raise him, taking him from a disadvantaged position and doing his best to raise him right.
Unfortunately, the colonel had gotten more than he bargained for with Michael, who was not only an impetuous and rebellious child, but a very smart one as well. Many was the time when Michael was growing up that Jackson would go to check on him and find that the boy had slipped out of the house without a sound. If anyone had asked the colonel, he would have smiled and said, "That boy's got a gift...he just needs direction."
That direction would be something Michael would get. Around the time he reached fourteen, Micahel and the colonel had an altercation that ended up getting a little physical on Michael's part. The argument started over grades and Michael's bad attitude towards the colonel, whose disciplined lifestyle and rules infuriated the boy. As the argument got more and more heated, however, Michael finally felt something snap inside him, and he threw a punch at the old man.
The colonel was caught completely by surprise, partially because the boy had actually thrown a punch, but mostly because the punch was delivered with such speed that the boy was moving almost too fast to be seen, and the colonel was knocked to the floor.
Michael, of course, was horrified by what he had done. He immediately rushed to the old man, trying to help him up, but the old man just laughed as he got to his feet - almost as if he hadn't even been touched, in fact. "Boy, I knew you had it in you," he said, to Michael's bewilderment. "I just didn't know how much of it you had."
The colonel, it turned out, was waiting for this - the first sign of Michael's magical ability, manifesting itself. He went on to explain just what he knew about the boy's magical skills, those fo the physically adept. And as it turned out, to the boy's wide-eyed wonder, the colonel knew a lot about it, because he had gifts of a similar vein.
From then on, Michael's whole life changed, and for the better. The colonel showed him discipline, structure, but advised him not to lose his ability to think for himself, and showed him how to keep that mindset. He also trained him in unarmed combat and arranged for him to participate in sports, martial arts, archery, and other formalized combat training.
The formation of the man who would, in later years, be called the Wraith had begun.
When he graduated from high school, through his adopted father's connections, Michael was able to get into the UCAS Naval Academy for Marine Corps Officer training, where he continued to accel at a rate that pleased not only his father but his instructors as well. He showed a particular affinity for small-group tactics, and even managed to impress his instructors with his capacity to think creatively.
In his junior year at the academy, however, tragedy struck - the man he had come to love and call his father died of a stroke in the middle of the night. For most, this would have been a blow that might have halted a great career, but not for Michael. The old man had once told him that his greatest asset would be his brains and the will to carry on even through the darkest of times, and Michael had plenty of both. He dedicated his remaining year and a half at the academy to his father, and graduated valedictorian of his classs. His speech he dedicated to his father, who had been a well-known and greatly admired man.
He served for eight years in the Marines before the incident that ended his career finally came. He and his unit were in South America, helping the local government deal with terrorist attacks that had been targeting not only military, but also civilian targets, when his team walked into a well-orchestrated ambush. His team, unfortunately, was wiped out, with he being the sole exception. He had managed to survive because he had seen it coming, but was unable to convince the officer in charge of the expedition that it was imminent, and so had left his unit behind. From his vantage point, he was able to see it all happen. His squad managed to cripple the assault force that had ambushed them, thus enabling him to finish them off, but the damage was done.
He was summarily court-martialed and the blame for the loss of the squad was laid on his shoulders. In deference to his father, however, and his otherwise fine military service, he was dishonorably discharged from the Marines.
That blow, again, would have finished most men. Wraith, however, remembered what his father had taught him, and instead moved back to Seattle, where he marketed his skills in the shadows, selling his services to whomever would have need of them. He also, in that time, managed to be reunited - completely by accident - with his sister and brother. In that same meeting, though, yet another tragedy came to pass, as his brother was killed shortly thereafter by an Aztechnology Blood Mage, using his brother's sacrifice to fuel his dark magics.
From that point on, Wraith re-dedicated his life to causing that corporation as much hell as he could, and managed to succeed - he ended up on their most wanted list, and when you're on a list like that, it usually means they want you dead. Still, he persisted, sometimes being paid, other times not, but always with one goal in mind. He even managed to turn a tidy profit doing it.
One fine day, though, he was contacted by a stranger, a woman with an offer to do a job for her - simply to raid a dragon's keep. As the dragon was dead and the keep up for grabs to anyone who could find it, it didn't necessarily present a problem, and he was even offered a percentage of the hoard. Naturally, he took it.
And it was there he would find a box. A very special box, containing four black amulets connected to silver chains. Along with a sizable bit of treasure, he managed to keep it, and used all of his contacts to find out what it was, and even who to ask about it - but asking would mean he might have to take a trip to another world, and would most likely not be able to get back home.
The portal he was told to find was in the basement of an Aztechnology building, and of course, before he flung himself into it, he had to do as much damage as possible. What with his knowledge of explosives and demolition, he was able to bring the whole thing down and jump into the portal before it collapsed on him.
And that is how he ended up here.
