| Identity |Kyle Rayner
The (other/future) Green Lantern of Sector 2814
| Origin & Backstory |Kyle Rayner was born to Aaron and Mara Rayner, an agent of ARGUS and a recipient of Social Security respectively. Early on in Kyle's life, Aaron died on duty. But because of this, his mother's checks were padded beyond the standard payouts to those on the program. Though there is no mistaking he has no special non-civilian clearance, many high-ranking government officials recognize the Rayners for the family's sacrifices towards a better world.
Growing up in Los Angelos, Kyle managed to go through the severe LA gang wars relatively unscathed, having learned when to wear what colors and how to peacefully defuse conflicts. Even from elementary school though, he had been surrounded by the gangs at all times and had long been under pressure to join them. Over the years he has been panged by seeing his own friends attempt to kill each other because of who else they were friends with, the colors they'd worn, misinterpreted gestures, and even their own ethnicities.
Through it all Kyle had chosen to express himself through art, the pencil being his most reliable companion. His sketches have even won citywide contests and been nominated for national attention. Kyle is without a doubt a gifted art student with specialized skill in biological forms and still lifes. Most often his works are photorealistic, which has led to him being sought out by friends, despite quaking with fear ant time someone would peek over his shoulder.
Because of his gift with the pencil, he was sought out by a local gang. Afraid of being attacked if he rejected their request, he accepted. All in all, he was taught to use a tattoo gun and forced to portray the gang's logo on a fleshy canvas thirty-two times over. Now thoroughly affliated with the gang, Kyle told his mom. His mother, as one would expect, struggled for a solution. A panicking fit convinced her to pack their bags almost instantly, going from Los Angelos to New York City.
Once in New York City, he was enrolled in the nearest High School, Midtown, where he found himself socially isolated. It wasn't that he necessarily felt there was no one he could relate to, but there was no one he wanted to relate to. Against his own will, he was enrolled in the art club where he exchanged sketches, paintings, and ideas with his peers. Before long, he was drawn into the groundbreaking craze that was superheroes. He began to draw masks, costumes, and weapons in his free time before applying himself to studying history.
By investigating the exploits of the previous Justice Society, he gained a love of studying history and passionately nurtured a love for superheroics. A short while later, he created his own speculative fiction comic series that touched on the lives of the original Flash, Hourman, Green Lantern, and captured them all in stunning detail. His comics capturing the Golden Age of superheroes has since developed a cult following on the internet and has a popular Myspace page.
Having overcome the temptations of gang recruitment and avoided succumbing to a life of total dysphoria, he feels somewhat self-confident in his ability to follow through with his decisions and intends to make the world a better place by following his dreams.
| Attributes |CreativityHe recognizes that there is more than one way to skin a cat. This is useful when probing seemingly invincible enemies for a weakness. Even if his ring is, for some reason, ineffective he is prepared to perform environmental attacks, deception, or legitimate diplomacy if the need be.
DrawingKyle is capable of drawing highly realistic images with a pencil at (relatively) high speeds. For this reason, any constructs he makes are likely to have a large amount of nooks and crannies, assuming they're not simple geometrical shapes.
Green Lantern RingThe flagship tool of the GLs allows the wearer to craft holographic, green masses out of concentrated light, directed by their own willpower. Auxilary functions include wireless communications, access to a comprehensive galactic encyclopedia, atmospheric synthesis, and a universal positioning device.
Indomitable WillpowerNecessary for all Green Lanterns is the ability to face their fears. Kyle is certainly capable of doing so, which the ring is able to detect despite his youthful naivety masking his bravery from other sentient life forms.
| Character Notes |Kyle suffers from Women in refrigerators syndrome. Listing people he cares about or is involved with would be bad news. But you can expect to see Lanterns, Guardians, various alien species, Soranik Natu, Amon Sur & Black Sun, and the Spider Guild. Kyle is highly unlikely to really be alone. I figured it would be beneficial for storytelling purposes to adapt his tendency to create construct companions from simple battle strategy to character development. So expect a decent amount of imaginary friends (see Circle of Fire for further elaboration of the concept).
| Character Goals |What is the nature of the story you want to tell?It's about great power and great responsibility. Optimism and realism. Freedom and security. But mostly its about feeling like everyone's counting on you, trying to live up to their expectations, filling giant shoes, and figuring things out on the fly. Kyle is steeped in idealism and a simple sense of justice, but doesn't always know how to make the best of his circumstances.
Is this just another Green Lantern?Yes, for once. He doesn't carry the entity Ion, he isn't the focus of an experiment, and he wasn't a vigilante beforehand. He's Kyle Rayner, an Earthling artist and millenial. But that's probably a welcome change. He'll be the equivalent of a Green Lantern Spider-Man, with his mom worrying about him and his responsibilities competing personally and epically.
How many other people's territory are you crossing into?That of @Gowi and @Morden Man. If there's any involvement with Relic, the Nova Corps, or the Black Lanterns, it isn't my idea. Instead, a focus of mine is going to be the many aliens out there who need the protection only a Green Lantern could offer. Naturally I'll dip my hand into Gowi's bowl of Manhunter action. But by and large, my plans are not a rehash of New Guardians, Blackest Night, or any recent GL "events". Despite wanting to focus on aliens for assignments, Kyle will be drawn back to Earth emotionally for visits whenever he can, whether he is reprimanded for spending time on the third rock from the sun can be decided by the Oans (worked out between myself and the other Lanterns).
What are your major influences?The rules of engagement in Green Lantern fiction have changed since Geoff Johns took over. Rather than ignoring his impressive body of work and contributions to DCs most unique superhero, I choose to acknowledge it and add it to all that has come before. Throughout the nineties, Kyle Rayner was the only Green Lantern. These are my greatest influences. Even though there are thousands of other Lanterns, Kyle will feel the weight of his sector on his shoulders and often there will be no one to lift it off. Despite the Oan army's numbers, there aren't exactly a lot of them to go around. And the story I want to tell is about the individual underqualified for a job that no one could ever hope to live up to.
Do you have any immediate plans?Yessiree Bob. First off, Kyle's life will be abruptly interrupted by a recruitment into the Corps with no explanation initially. He won't be aware who Carol Danvers was initially. After a few increasingly difficult training sessions, it's directly off to battle on Mars where he'll face hard contact against an oppressive bunch of White Martians. Spinning out of the chaotic battle is drama I won't elaborate on for the time being.
Alt any time throughout the training period I would be delighted for him to be met by Alan Scott, as I'd imagine them getting to know one another. In all honesty it would be really neat given they are completely different generations of Lantern.
| References |
I think this is the best look you've had with Kyle during your last like three attempts with the character, I could nitpick (Los Angelos? It's Los Angeles, right?) Though I obviously would like to work with you at some point, and I do need to talk to you about your martian plans through PM. But if Wraith and EE dig it, it seems kosher.
Shayera SandersAlias: Hawkgirl
Race: Thanagarian // Gender: Female
Height: 5'5" // Weight: 123 lbs
Age: 24 // Hair: Red // Eyes: Blue
Affiliations: None
Occupation: Exile
Color Code: Sheyera Sanders' Speech Color.
Backstory
Shayera was like any other Thanagarian child. She was given as much of her childhood as possible before throwing her to the wolves at the age of five. Beaten down with introduction to hand-to-hand combat, it didn't seem she was very gifted. In fact, many of her peers and instructors thought her as one of the weaker ones because of her more sensitive nature. However despite her more emotional state, she found a surprising inner strength that would often shock her peers time and again, while still somehow keeping hold of a somewhat more gentle aura.
As she continue to progress into teenage years, they were given a chance to finally learn melee weaponry after mastering hand-to-hand combat as best as one could by that age. Since Shayera had been somewhat lacking in the past and despite her will to push through, no one expected her natural talent for melee combat. So when she started to exceed her peers, she got reactions that ranged from praise when it came to the instructors, but contempt and jealousy when it came to her peers. This left her feeling alone and abandoned and if it weren't enough for a teenager, the fact that she had an eye for women also painted another target on her back for being ignored and teased.
Still, she pushed onwards because she had to. For those falling behind, they were exiled outside the cities no matter how much parents, family, or friends loved them - it was law. Yet the hardest part was to come towards her late teenage years. It was called mental training where you'd be subjugated to all forms of attacks: verbal, fear, anger, sadness, suggestions, manipulation, brain-washing, and even trained mind magic wielders. It was without say that this stage is where most students would fall out, however this was also the only stage you had a second chance to pass due to it's hardship and the fact that everyone was proven skilled and ready for combat.
It was not enough to say Shayera had passed with excellence. Instead, she was often praised as one of the truly gifted in being able to keep out outside influences - passing with flying colors at every turn. By this point and with given training before the tests, she had enough will to pull through anything and create barriers as if by second nature. Though some saw this as a double-edged sword when it came to her loyalty to the Empire, the Empire still saw potential in her.
At graduation (age 20), agents practically dragged Shayera away from her parents to attend special training. This was not training however and instead to proved to be previously 'illegal' experiments performed by the very same people that banned it's use. By using the most strong-willed students, for only they'd survive such an ordeal, they attempted to infuse Nth metal with Thanagarians. They did this by the use of nanobots and liquifying the semi-sentient, magical metal and hoping that one of the student's bodies might actually accept the transfusion.
By some miracle or perhaps fate, Shayera was one of the very few select to survive the process, it having secretly killed off hundreds of students due to rejections. What the Empire refused to acknowledge though was that Shayera's strong will was a double-edged sword that turned to cut it's master. With the use of her new found powers, she forced her way to an escape pod and launched out of their reach before they knew what had happened. The utter quickness of her escape was shocking and by the time they made it to the tracking program, she had already disabled the beacons on the pod.
Eventually the pod found it's way to Earth at the year 2005 and crashed a mere forty miles off of the coast of Themyscira. The isolated nature of Diana's island and protective magic net over it kept Shayera's pod from being read across the world as a potential threat. Though the world may have been largely ignorant of the Thanagarian's arrival, the Amazons saw this intrusion of their waters as a threat, giving Hawk Girl little chance to recover from the wreckage before being attacked.
Abilities
• Enhanced Strength: As a Thanagarian, she possesses naturally higher strength than any human. Though this isn't at the level of super strength. (Note: A later ability will augment this down the list.)
• Flight: All Thanagarians are winged creatures born from the subtleties of magic. Therefore can they not only fly as you might expect, but they may also sustain flight for long periods of time without flapping their wings.
• Minor Magical Resistance: Being born from small traces of magic, Thanagarians can resist minor spells easily, but are still subject to more powerful ones like many creatures.
• Enhanced Endurance: Thanagarians can take quite a beating compared to most mortals, but a sword will still cut through their skin, it just makes a noticeably less impact.
• Enhanced Sight: Seemingly Thanagarians take on the image of hawk-people and that isn't that far-fetched as they also have the eyesight of a hawk. This is up to 8 times sharper than a human, or having 20/2.5 vision (in other words, seeing something at 20 feet that a normal human has to be 2.5 feet away to see). Though this is more of a magical nature, seeing as their pupils don't grow larger to zoom in, but is rather aided by an innate magic.
• Nth Metal Infusion: Due to Shayera's unique condition, her body has been enhanced by an infusion of Nth Metal, a magically charged native metal of Thanagar. This allows her the use of super-strength (lesser than Wonder Woman and Superman), super-endurance/invulnerability (also lesser), regeneration, and tolerance to extreme temperatures.
Skills
• Melee Combat Mastery: Trained like many Thanagarians at the age of five, she has nearly mastered all forms of melee combat to where she is comfortable with any sort of given weapon. Even if the weapon is alien to her, she can quickly understand it's shape, size, and weight effectively. She prefers, however, a mace.
• Hand-to-Hand Journeymen: By mastering melee combat, she has sacrificed part of her usual training but is never-the-less skilled with hand-to-hand combat, at least enough to hold off an attacker until she can get another weapon in her hand.
• Advanced Battlefield Knowledge: Having grown up in a combat-focused culture, she has learned and been drilled in various warfare tactics, able to think quickly on the field as well as analyze her opponents movements.
• Iron Will: Shayera was especially gifted in the arts of locking one's mind from external influences and thus has a consistent defense against any mentally-charged attacks or even subtle attempts at breaking in. Even mind magic usually has a fair bit of trouble breaking through these walls.
Weapons
• Modified Nth Mace: From Thanagarian culture, it is a basic mace that has been modified to have more weight at it's top. However from other view points, it's surface has also been lined with Nth Metal, making it stronger, lighter (only to hold, does not effect impact), almost impossible to break, and magically charged.
• Nth Dagger: A basic dagger that's been lined with Nth Metal, giving it the same qualities as above as well as making it sharper. With effort (or enough strength) you could cut through other metals like steel.
• Nth Short Sword: Same as the dagger, but with a longer reach.
Character Goals
My character goals aren't complicated as of right now, but mostly speaking, I want to explore an interesting combination of having Diana and Shayera together. Beyond that very exclusive interaction, I want to explore Shayera's exile into an alien world, her coming to terms with her new infusion, and generally trying to find her place in the world. Potentially at a later time, it would be nice to explore the Thanagarian military coming to collect their 'property' as it were and possible reactions from other heroes at this point (hopefully she'd be a somewhat welcomed member in some way). Though these goals leave a lot of opportunity to 'go with the flow,' I think exploring important questions like this will be fun.
References
• Legend by Fire
• In Murky Waters
Seems fine, I always preferred the science fiction route of Hawkgirl than the mythological fantasy route. I don't have any problems with it. GM staff? What'cha think?
