Category: Character Bios

Biography: Dead-Eye Sammie

Biography: Dead-Eye Sammie

Samantha “Dead-Eye Sammie” Alcro is one of the most notorious and dangerous mercenaries in the galaxy. Known for her no nonsense attitude toward her work, plus her cold, ruthless professionalism makes her both someone to be feared and at the same time, an individual whose services are highly sought after. Even though she has no mystical force, her skill in combat, her resourcefulness and her high powered mech suit make her a deadly adversary. One who can even go toe-to-toe with a Taman Knight, as Shi-ria found out. Yet there is much about Dead-Eye that remains a mystery.

Long before she was “Dead-Eye Sammie”, she was simply Samantha Alcro. A small child born into a working class family on the planet of T’nubria, in the Torathol Empire. A world that had been conquered an annexed by Torathol over a thousand years ago. Despite Torathol attempting to suppress the culture of the T’nubrians, they still maintained their reputation as brave warriors, though some regard them more as savages. This is in part due to the Torathol Empire having a rigid caste system, one where one’s status and opportunities in life depended on what race and or species they were. A human with a mystical force such as magical essence, was regarded as being better than a non-human citizen of the Empire such as a demon. Being a human from T’nubria, automatically placed Samantha Alcro into a higher ranking in Torathol’s social hierarchy, though as often was the case, this was how it worked in theory, not necessarily in practice. Being from a working class family, coupled with their lack of a mystical force, greatly hindered any opportunities to make a better life for a young Samantha Alcro.

While her family wasn’t wealthy, they did manage to live a happy and relatively comfortable life until one day when T’nubria was struck by a planetary catastrophe. T’nubria was in a binary star system, orbiting the twin stars known as “Tenu” and “Bria.” Like Earth, T’nubria was the third planet of this system. Unlike Earth, T’nubria had a unique relationship with the fourth planet in the system, Voral. Voral had an elliptical orbit. Thus, periodically, T’nubria and Voral would switch positions. T’nubria would be the fourth planet from Tenu and Bria, while Voral would be the third until their paths crossed and they switched back. One day, according to rumours, the Imperial Space fleet of the Torathol Empire had been testing a top-secret weapon on the smaller star of Bria, which resulted in the star collapsing. The government of Torathol naturally denied this and tried to cover it up, but there was no covering up the results of their mishap; the collapse of the star shifted the orbits of the planets in the system, causing T’nubria and Voral to crash into each other. Voral, being the smaller of the two planets, was destroyed. While T’nubria survived, the damage left a lasting mark on the planet. The western hemisphere of T’nubria was decimated, while what remained was buried under the dust and dirt, all that remained of Voral. The clouds of dust and dirt became so thick that they blocked out the sun completely, creating what we commonly referred to as a “nuclear winter.” Without sunlight, every plant and tree on the planet withered and died. Temperatures dropped so low that blizzards and blinding snow storms, something unheard of in the tropics, were now the norm for the planet as a whole. Billions of lives had been lost in the cataclysm. Those fortunate enough to survive were forced to flee their home and start a new life elsewhere.

Those with money could afford to resettle on different worlds within the Torathol empire or other worlds outside the empire. The rest of the refugees, which included Samantha’s family, were now homeless and destitute. Born into a working-class family, Samantha’s parents had little in terms of finances. Despite this, they managed to scrape together what little funds they had to afford passage on a cargo freighter to escape T’nubria. Unfortunately, that was all they could afford. The problems of massive inequality in Torathol, made possible due to the autocratic monarchy’s racist policies and strict caste system, meant people like them had very few options, if any, to advance up the ladder of society. Without money and deeply in debt due to the massive corruption of the empire’s vast, privatized, for-profit infrastructure, Samantha’s parents had no choice but to sell themselves and their daughter into a life of slavery. A life that once again, thanks to the massive corruption and caste system, meant that slavery was still legal in the Torathol Empire, while other worlds in the galaxy had long since outlawed such practices. As a teenager, Samantha ended up being sold off to a powerful crime boss who forced her to work in the sex trade industry. For a generous fee, her owner would offer this young woman to various men to satisfy whatever carnal desires they had. Despite both her owner and his customers valuing her only for her body, she grew cunning and resourceful enough to learn how to take care of herself. Part of her job would sometimes be to seduce a target, usually someone her owner wished to have eliminated, and subtly kill him. Usually she would seduce her target, get as much information out of him as possible, and then murder him via poisoning his food or drink. One such client was the owner of a company that was manufacturing a prototype mech suit for the military. It was Samantha’s job to murder the owner while her fellow slaves had the task of stealing the mech suit. Unfortunately for Sam and her fellow slaves, they were caught in the act. The mission nearly ended in failure until Samantha was forced to don the suit herself and use it to rescue her fellow slaves and kill their target.

With this stolen mech suit now in her possession, Samantha decided rather than hand it over to her owner to sell on the black market to the highest bidder, she instead decided to keep it for herself and use it to win her freedom as well as liberate her fellow slaves. Thus she murdered her owner and became a wanted criminal. Despite her owner and his various clients being interested in her only for her body, they failed to realize that she was no dumb blonde. With her quick learning and ability to think on her feet, she figured out how to use the suit and later, modify it into the protective armour she still wares to this day. In order to make ends meet, Samantha used her newfound suit to become a mercenary for hire. For a fee, she would steal, extort, or eliminate anyone her clients hired her to deal with. Her targets always wound up staring at her with their dead eyes frozen in looks of horror. Thus earning her the nickname “Dead-Eye.”. Her suit provided her with many advantages. It provided her with protection, allowing her to survive in environments that would otherwise be hazardous or even deadly to a human. It also greatly enhanced her strength and protected her from attacks that would have otherwise injured or even killed her. The suit also had various sensors built into it, allowing her scan her surroundings for hidden traps as well as thermal scanners to detect other lifeforms and even see through solid matter such as walls, to monitor where security personnel might be when attempting to break into a secure location. But perhaps the suit’s greatest advantage was that of concealing her identity. With the helmet hiding her face, the body having a gender neutral design, plus the suit’s vocal modulator disguising her voice, everyone simply assumed Dead-Eye was male. Thus, Samantha Alcro, or “Dead-Eye Sammie,” as she came to be known, did nothing to stop this misconception. Since Dead-Eye Sammie was a dangerous criminal wanted on several planets, it made for the perfect cover; the authorities were so busy looking for him, they failed to notice her even when standing right in front of them. Thus, she developed a dual identity. In her suit, “he” was Dead-Eye Sammie, the notorious male mercenary—ruthless, cold, silent and deadly. Outside the suit, she was simply “Ms. Alcro,” the go-between. Anyone who wanted to hire Dead-Eye for a job had to go through her. She took care of all the meetings and arrangements while“he” did the actual dirty work.

Having won her freedom, she set out to do the same to her parents, only to discover that they had been killed by a notorious Thalien crime lord. Dead-Eye never forgot this, and she vowed to make him pay for what he did. Ironically, this man—unaware of her true identity and the fact that he indirectly murdered her parents—contacted her in order to hire Dead-Eye for a job to eliminate a witness about to testify in court about this man’s various criminal activities. Travelling to Thalia, Dead-Eye carried out the job successfully, ensuring that said witness never lived to testify, for which her client paid her handsomely for. Little did he know he was also about to pay for his crimes with his life. With the job completed, Dead-Eye showed up at her client’s mansion unannounced one evening. When questioned why “he” was there, Dead-Eye removed her helmet and revealed her secret identity to this man. He was shocked and angered by the deception, but his anger was nothing compared to hers. Revealing that he was the one responsible for the murder of her parents, she repaid the favour, ensuring that his murder was both slow and excruciatingly painful. When his wife found out, she attempted to contact the authorities. To prevent this, Dead-Eye had been forced to eliminate her as well. Unlike the now elderly Thalien man, his wife had nothing to do with any of his crimes. She was half his age, merely a trophy wife, an arrangement which suited this young woman just fine. As long as she was wined and dined at the fanciest restaurants, shopped at the most prestigious and expensive stores, wore the latest in designer clothing and jewellery, and most importantly, didn’t interfere in her husband’s “business” dealings, she got to live the high life while he paid the bills. In a way, the life of this trophy wife wasn’t that much different from Samantha’s back when she was a sex slave. While this woman had it much better than Samantha ever did, a gilded cage was still a cage, even if this woman willingly chose to live in said cage. The difference was that Dead-Eye’s reasons for killing this crime lord was an act of revenge, a personal matter. For his wife however, she was simply a liability, a loose end to be tied up, nothing more. Dead-Eye felt sympathy nor hatred toward this woman. Like many of her victims, it was simply a job to be done. Yet, Dead-Eye had no idea how this simple quest for vengeance would alter her life in a way she never imagined.

With this Thalien mob boss and his trophy wife eliminated, Dead-Eye prepared to leave when the sound of a baby’s cry caught her attention. Following the sound, she entered a nursery where Dead-Eye discovered a small girl, only a few months old, in her crib, crying out to her mother, who would never come again. Normally, Dead-Eye didn’t care about such things; as far as she was concerned, this was just a job to do. It was nothing personal; she just did what she was hired for, and whoever got hurt in the process didn’t matter. However, this time, it was different. This job was personal. She had been laser-focused on getting revenge against the one who took her parents, she never stopped to think whether this man had a family of his own. She had been so obsessed with revenge that she ended up becoming no different than the very man she just eliminated. Now, how long would it be before this small child grew up and decided to hunt down Dead-Eye to avenge her parents? Looking down at this small crying child, Samantha was suddenly transported back in time, back to her own childhood and the painful memories of herself as a young girl, sobbing while her parents had been taken away from her while she could do nothing about it. She allowed her inner darkness to warp and twist her until this very moment when the horrifying truth struck her head-on; she had become the very thing she despised. She had become no different than the man who took her family from her. Perhaps it was this startling revelation combined with a twinge of guilt, or maybe she simply saw herself in this little infant. Still, whatever it was, Samantha Dead-Eye Sammie Alcro couldn’t bring herself to abandon this small, helpless child, nor could she bring herself to kill the child. Dead-Eye had never even thought about becoming a mother. Family was a liability she couldn’t afford in her line of work. Nonetheless, she was directly responsible for this child now being an orphan. She couldn’t just wash her hands of this, take off, and leave the child to fend for herself. Thus, before departing, Dead-Eye picked up the small child, gently cradling her in her cold, metallic arms, and carefully left the house, leaving behind whatever life this child would have had. This little girl was Dead-Eye’s responsibility now. If nothing else, Dead-Eye wanted to make sure this girl was spared the tragic lifestyle she had to endure.

[Updated] What is a ‘Mystical Force’?

[Updated] What is a ‘Mystical Force’?

You’ve all heard the term ‘Mystical Force’, but what exactly does it mean?

“All beings radiate a life force, but some have an additional ‘Mystical Force’. Mystical Forces are divided into three main categories: Magical Essence, Demonic Aura and Spiritual Powers. Though on the surface these powers seem identical and indistinguishable there are subtle differences between them.

Magical Essence:

Is the generic term for beings with magic powers (called mages), regardless of what type of magic it is. The characters of Mystic and Noonien are two examples of characters with Magical Essence as their Mystical Force. Magic powers may be hereditary, natural to the species/race or from other/artificial means (magic potions, objects, and so on) Depending on the exact nature of the powers it may be necessary to recite incantations to engage specific spells. However, if one is powerful enough in their magic skills, they need only to think of the desired effect to make it happen, such as Mystic or Noonien simply casting a spell with a wave of their hand, rather than performing an elaborate ritual, or even saying a specific magic phrase for different actions to be taken.

Demonic Aura:

The generic term used to describe the powers demons have. Demonic Aura, like Magical Essence, can be natural to the race/species but is also hereditary and is passed down from one or more of the parents. Thus a human with a demon for an ancestor can inherit Demonic Aura via it being passed down through the generations, though in that case their Demonic Aura is generally weaker and may even not be noticeable (the individual may not even be aware that they have it). Unlike magic, the powers of Demonic Aura are less direct. Demons generally use their powers to enhance their abilities (strength, speed, stamina, healing). In some cases it may allow the user to change their appearance and or form (gaining claws/wings and so on) Any other powers/abilities their Demonic Aura gives them are more general in nature and unlike Magical Essence they don’t require spells or incantations to work. Tokijin is an example of a character with Demonic Aura as his Mystical Force. Despite the name, individuals with Demonic Aura don’t get their powers from the Devil, as the Order of the Cross claims, it would be more accurate to describe their abilities as natural traits of their race/species. Demons are simply another species living on Earth. Despite their appearance and abilities, they’re not much different than humans. Like humans, some are kind and compassionate, some are malevolent and hostile and most simply want to live normal lives. It is simple prejudice for being different from humans that makes people fear and hate them.

Spiritual Powers:

Is the generic term used to describe the third main type of Mystical Force. Characters like Shi-ria, Sister Rose and the other members of the Order of the Cross are examples of characters with Spiritual Powers as their Mystical Force. Spiritual Powers are more vague than the other two and are the most difficult to achieve. Unlike Magical Essence or Demonic Aura, Spiritual Powers take years of training and discipline to master. Most people who have these powers usually have strong spiritual/religious beliefs. They also tend to be monks or nuns (though this isn’t necessarily a requirement) and they tend to live simplistic non-materialistic lives in order to strengthen their spiritual beliefs and powers. Like Demonic Aura, Spiritual Powers are used to enhance one’s abilities (strength, speed, stamina, healing) as well as providing a form of ESP (such as visions of the future, a warning or ‘feeling’ of danger and so on). Some (like Shi-ria) believe that these powers lie dormant in everyone and with proper training and practice, anyone can learn to harness these powers. Others (like the Order of the Cross) believe this power only appears in certain people chosen by God and by extension, those who aren’t ‘chosen’ by God who have similar powers must have gotten them from the devil. While Spiritual Powers are developed through training, the time it takes one to develop such powers and their skill level may vary based on the individuals. Some have to train long and hard to master Spiritual Powers while others are just naturally gifted.

It should also be noted that these three categories are not mutually exclusive. For example, if a mage and a demon were to conceive and child then that child could theoretically have both Magical Essence and Demonic Aura. So which would choose? What’s your Mystical Force?

(Update) CHARACTER BIO: SHI-RIA

(Update) CHARACTER BIO: SHI-RIA

Shi-ria is a Taman Knight who was born and raised on the planet Thalia. As a young child she was orphaned and found living on the streets of the city of Kalshiya, in the Dekanta province with her adopted brother and sister Rirk and Kurai. As children, the three of them made their living stealing whatever they needed to survive. Thinking only of themselves, they believed the rest of the world didn’t care about them so they saw no need to be concerned with how their actions harmed others. One day they had been caught stealing by a group of merchants who were prepared to take revenge upon them. Fortunately they were saved by a Taman Knight named Kalai-Udon, who sensed within the three of them a strong ability to tune into the Taman. He gave them a choice: remain on the street as thieves where they’d either wind up in jail or dead, or become his apprentices and train to become Taman Knights, an ancient religious order of Thalia. Given the choice, the three picked the later, moved in to the temple of the Taman Knights and began their training.

As an apprentice Shi-ria displayed great skill and strength. However, such skills made her arrogant and caused friction due to her reckless ‘leap before you look’ attitude, which contrasted with Kuria’s more serious, no nonsense approach. Many of the other apprentices gave Shi-ria the nickname “the fearless fool”. As a result of Shi-ria’s irresponsible and immature behaviour Kurai often grew irritated with her, causing the two of them to argue frequently. This often caused Kurai to give in to her anger. It was during one of these arguments that Shi-ria managed to drive her sister into a fit of rage, drawing on the power of the Koldar (her inner darkness), Kurai overpowered Shi-ria and almost killed her, had it not been for the intervention of their master. Following this event, Kurai was abducted by a group of Koldar Warriors (dark counterparts of the Taman Knights) who believed themselves to be ‘real’ Taman Knights, while at the same time believing the legitimate branches of the Taman Knights were a twisted perversion the original teachings of Princess Alderoth, the founder of this religion and the first officially recognized Taman Knight. The Koldar Warriors, thought that negative emotions like anger and hatred made them powerful, while love and compassion weakened them. The Koldar Warriors believed that their twisted views were correct and had tried to turn Kurai into one of them as part of their larger plan to destroy the Taman Knights and create a galaxy spanning theocratic empire where all non believers would either be forcibly converted or destroyed. Fearing that her actions led Kurai to give in to her inner darkness, Shi-ria, like a Koldar Warrior, had given into emotion rather than logic. Rushing off to confront this cult and rescue her sister without a proper plan, Shi-ria found herself alone against scores of armed enemies.

Meanwhile, the Koldar Warriors had been searching for an ancient magic scroll that would have allowed them to instantly teleport anywhere across the galaxy, allowing them to spread their dark religion and destroy all those they deemed unworthy. Originally, they used Shi-ria as a test subject and sent her off to a remote, backwards planet called Earth. There this reckless, foolish Taman apprentice found a teenage girl named Chiyoko and began training her as an apprentice. Thus the sins of the teacher were passed on to the student. Originally Shi-ria would later die only for Chiyoko to later give in to her own inner darkness and become a Koldar Warrior. However a woman named Scarlet Knightwalker would later travel back in time and alter history, ensuring those events would never happen. Thanks to Knightwalker’s intervention, history had been altered and Master Kalai-Udon along with the other Taman Knights discovered what the Koldar Warriors were doing and rescued both Shi-ria and Kurai, while Knightwalker secretly took the magic scroll, thus preventing the Koldar Warriors from creating their dark, theocratic, galaxy spanning empire.

Thanks to Knightwalker’s altering the past, Shi-ria wasn’t sent to Earth and remained on Thalia to complete her training and become a full fledged Taman Knight. This incident is what helped shape Shi-ria into the Taman Knight she is today. It caused her to grow into a more responsible, more rational, more compassionate and selfless person. She quickly excelled becoming the second youngest person to obtain the rank of Taman Knight (Kurai being the youngest by only a few months). It was also thanks to the above mentioned incident that Shi-ria learned not to be so rash and give in to emotion, learning to calm her mind so she could think her way out of any situation. As a result, she has a relaxed, easy going attitude which makes her very friendly and personal. This combined with her spiritual growth allows her to act both as diplomat as well as warrior. Being able to resolve conflict by talking while still being able to defend herself and others when necessary.

Despite Knightwalker altering the past, another sorceress named Zolida is determined to prevent history from being altered any further. Thus she later sent Shi-ria to Earth. Like in the original timeline, Shi-ria would again find this teenage girl named Chiyoko whom she would train as an apprentice. The difference this time was that Shi-ria was older and more mature. Having used her Taman powers to look into the future, she saw the original future Scarlet Knightwalker came from but also saw another possible future; one where she didn’t die and Chiyoko wouldn’t become a Koldar Warrior. Now Shi-ria, along with Scarlet Knightwalker, Mystic and Noonien work to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself, despite Zolida’s attempts to ensure that it does.

(UPDATE) Character Bio: Aanjay

(UPDATE) Character Bio: Aanjay

Aanjay is an antagonist from Mystical Force. Her first appearance was in volume 2: Angels and Demons. Aanjay is a sorceress who was once engaged to Noonien before he met and later married Mystic.

Like Mystic and Noonien, Aanjay was born in the country of Aryavarta with magical essence as her mystical force. When she and Noonien were small children their parents arranged for them to be married. However, shortly afterwards the people of her village discovered her family had magic powers. Due to prejudice against their sorcery, the people of Aanjay’s village killed her parents and burned her house down. Aanjay managed to escape and was taken in by Noonien’s family and raised along side of him. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done. Aanjay decided that since ordinary humans feared and hated those with a mystical force, she’d give them a reason to fear and hate her. From that moment on, she vowed to make humanity pay for what they did.

As she grew up into a young woman, she along with Noonien and Mystic, enrolled at the Academy of magic and alchemy, a prestigious school for mages located in the city of Andropolis on the planet Orathos. There Aanjay learned about magic and how to control her powers. Unfortunately, she only thing she was really interested in learning was how to use her powers to get revenge on the humans who killed her parents. As the years went on, that need for vengeance warped her mind to the point that she became no different than those who killed her parents. Like those humans who killed her family because they were different, she feels humans are an inferior, savage subspecies and must be destroyed.

During their time at the Academy, Noonien tried to help Aanjay to get over her hatred. He tried to show her that by plotting to destroy all humans without a mystical force, all she was really doing was giving people more reasons to fear and hate mages. It was during this time that Noonien first met Mystic. She too tried to help Aanjay see that anger and revenge were ultimately self destructive but Aanjay was already too far gone. Due to Aanjay’s growing darkness, Noonien found himself less attracted to her while simultaneously beginning to fall in love with Mystic. Noonien tried to find a way to tell Aanjay that he was going to break off their arranged marriage so he and Mystic could marry instead. Unfortunately, whenever he tried to talk to Aanjay about this, the conversation always ended up turning back to Aanjay’s plans to make humanity pay for what they did to her.

A short while later, Aanjay returned to the village where she grew up and confronted the people who killed her parents. Upon revealing herself to be a sorceress to the village, an angry mobbed formed, preparing to do the same thing to her that happened to her parents years earlier. Unlike her parents, who has no desire the harm their fellow villagers, Aanjay felt no such compassion for them. Thus she murdered the entire population of the village in cold blood.

Upon returning to the Academy, Aanjay was confronted by Mystic and Noonien. They finally decided to tell her about their relationship, unaware that Aanjay had already figured it out. Unable to find the right words, Mystic instead tried to explain telepathically. That was when Mystic and Noonien read Aanjay’s mind and learned about her massacre at the village. Horrified by her actions, they reported this to the Headmaster whom had Aanjay expelled for her crimes. Now a fugitive, Aanjay teams up with a demon named Jimomaru, who like her also holds a grudge against humanity. Together their plans are to ultimately show humans why beings with a mystical force are superior and to hunt down humans the way humans have hunted and persecuted them.