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Paladin background

Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2007 1:28 pm
by EvilGenius
I sent this to Ken, but I'm posting here for reference. It's kind of long. :)

Paladin Origins

Ever since Charlemagne “Charles” McInnis could remember, his father, a medeival history professor, would tell him tall tales of the adventures of chivalry and knighthood. Young Charles was enthralled by their exploits, and their sworn duty to protect the weak against those who would use them evily. Charles loved all of the tales, from Arthur and the Knights of the Round to Ivanhoe to Robin Hood to tales of secret societies and the Knights Templar. But his favorite tales were those of the great king Charlemagne and his 12 Paladins.

As Charles grew older, it was apparent that he possesed a great intellect and a natural aptitude for science.

<more history stuff>

While in college at MIT, Charles started working on the project that would change his life forever. Alarmed by the rise of all of the “superpowered” individuals and especially the relative inability of standard police forces to deal with the increased threat, Charles started developing a mobile weapons and protection platform to help give the edge back to the forces of Law and Order. Thus was the beginning of the powered armor that would eventually be known as one of the premier standards in law enforcement, the Paladin Armor.

In a related line of research, Charles started to look for ways in which the interface for the armor could link directly to the wearers brain, making the armor a true extention of the wearers will. The most promising line of research was in nanotechnology. Alas, Charles sponsors did not share his enthusiasm for injecting human soldiers and police with nanotechnology. Frustrated by their unwillingness to authorize further nanotech testing, Charles proceeded by injecting himself with a wide array of nanotech.

The nanotech suceeded beyond Charles wildest dreams. He found himself able to interface directly with computers and issue commands to them from a respectable distance.

Charles started to put his Paladin armor research on hold while he further developed the nanotechnology. Within a year, he was able to develop several useful abilities due to the nanotech that he was injecting into himself. Alas, his sponsors were not happy that he failed several benchmarks for developing the Paladin armor and took the research Charles had already completed and shut down his funding.

Embarrassed by the dissolution of his main project and overriding goal, Charles devoted the next 9 months to perfecting the first version of the Paladin armor, nicknamed “The Squire” (due to the fact that it was only a working prototype) [in game terms, this armor was proably PowerLevel 2]. Featuring enhanced strength and resiliance and speed (on foot), the Squire armor far outshone what the government had been able to do with the Paladin research.

Impressed, the government re-opened the development project and in the next few years Charles produced several more advanced sets of armor, dubbed “Champion” [Power Level 4], “Knight” [Power Level 6] and “Myrmidon” [Power Level 8]. At the height of the project, the Myrmidon armor provided great strength and protection, flight, basic armament and a comprehensive communications/sensor array. Although the government was immensly satisfied with the results, Charles knew there was more he could do with the armor. Charles tried to convince the project leaders that the next best step was to fully envision his dream and create the ultimate armor, which he dubbed Paladin class, which would rely upon the nanotech interface to increase efficiency and effectiveness tenfold.

Once again the government was unconvinced and decided they already had “Paladin class” powerarmor and they started to put the Myrmidon armor into production along with a more heavily armed varient and started winding down the project.

Undaunted, Charles decided to continue his work in private, reasoning that just as before, if he completed an advanced set of armor on his own, which demonstrated the increased efficiency and usefulness of his nanotech approach, the government would reconsider. Thus the superhero Paladin was born.

During the year that it took Charles to perfect his design and build of the true Paladin armor, the government put the earlier design into field use at the superhuman prison known as the Lockdown facility.

It was during the finalization of Charles’ new Paladin armor that destiny intervened.
[need to read setting sourcebook]
Charles donned the new Paladin armor and took part in the big apocolyptic fight where the main hero was killed.

As a result of his long work with the government, Charles has the feats “Benefit – security clearance” and “Contacts”.