Mr. Rot
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| The Artist | |
| Mr. Rot | |
| Player: @TopHat | |
| Origin: | Science |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Corrupter |
| Threat Level: | 41 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Classified (Adrian Valentine) |
| Known Aliases: | Black V, Lord of The Deadlands |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | Classified (28) |
| Height: | 5'11" |
| Weight: | 180 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Blue |
| Hair Color: | White |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | United States Citizen |
| Occupation: | Career Criminal, Thief, Spy |
| Place of Birth: | Classified (Paragon City, RI) |
| Base of Operations: | Classified (Steel Canyon) |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Classified (Margaret Valentine, Joseph Valentine (Deceased)) |
| Known Powers | |
| He can summon a living darkness and manipulate it to feed off of and drain his victims, envelope an area in darkness, trap victims, and create portals used to teleport. He also radiates an aura that can reduce anything to dust and when focused he can spread this aura out further to attack his enemies. | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Rot is trained in hand-to-hand combat, espionage, has skill in the use of gadgetry, and certain chemicals. He also has a wit that often lets down the guard of his opponents. | |
| Equipment | |
| Rot usually only carries his communicator and a trusted set of lock picking tools. He has also been seen carrying a utility belt with various gadgets, chemicals, and specialized goggles. | |
| No additional information available. | |
Mr. Rot is the main villain of player TopHat. He was made as one of the many attempts to create a villain the player could feel interest in as well as find an AT that he could stand. Rot is the first and only to withstand the test of time. He represents an attempt to capture everything the player enjoys and quotes from his favorite villains - of which there are many. One inspiration is difficult to pinpoint, but he is generally the selfish thief type.
Contents |
Affiliations
- Mindswipe - Rot's current "Boss." Rot treats him in a friendly and joking manner but considering Mindswipe's powers and what Rot has uncovered about his origins, Rot always remains slightly on guard when dealing with this associate.
- Mr. Mud - Rot's teammate and the man who invited Rot to join the Rogues Gallery after seeing him in action. Both are men interested in getting the job done and forgo the grander schemes of world domination that most villains fancy. Because of this, they work well together under a common understanding.
Supergroup: Rogues Gallery
Personality
Little is known of what Mr. Rot was like before he took on his current alias and that's the way he likes to keep it. His crime life before becoming a metahuman mostly consisted of corporate espionage and he maintained a civilian life separate from his "work." It is possible that he still maintains such an arrangement. He learned to enjoy secrecy and so he keeps his name, past, and as much information as he cares to to himself. As a result, he never removes his mask and no one knows whether what happened to him had an even greater effect on him beyond his powers. Unlike many villains in the Rogue's Isle, Rot is not concerned with being a "Big Bad." He is there for the money and considers what he does as work. He's always looking for the next big job and he prides himself on his skills. At heart, he enjoys and takes pride in this work. It is an art for him and he considers himself a powerful artist. In addition, he does respect human life even now that he has become a walking plague. He likes to avoid killing others and thinks that causing serious injury is the sign of a messy job. However, if the work requires it he is willing to make exceptions. Along with a certain amount of ego, Rot carries a flippant attitude and will often goad his opponents and teammates alike. Irritating them only increases the enjoyment he gets while in the field and will often use it as a tactic to make himself seem a fool then show off what he can really do. Rot also has a taste for collecting information on those around him. He has a knack for researching a person's life though his allies or foes may not realize it. Often, he knows more about them then they'd like and enjoys keeping his knowledge secret unless he wants to surprise them with it.
Character History
Childhood
Adrian's life began quite normally, which is to say that it had its blessings and its curses. His father was policeman and protector of the peace by day and an abusive alcoholic father and husband by night. Margaret Valentine was a devoted wife and mother. While she could never find the inner strength to break her love of her extremely flawed spouse she protected her son from her husband's blows and tried to give him enough love to make his home a happy one. Of course, no amount of love could protect the boy from the realization that his mother was loyal to a man that left her bleeding and bruised when she took the number of punishments meant for her son. He always wished and fantasized that his father would fall at the hands of some gang member, villain, even his mother's - or better yet his own.
On his seventeenth birthday, Adrian's mother tried to throw her son a great party with all his friends and his favorite foods. She arranged for Joseph to be treated at the local bar and to be kept there until the party was over. Unfortunately, this night did not turn out to be the Kodak moment Margaret had hoped. Joseph broke away from the bar a bit too early. He came home and to Margaret and Adrian's humiliation he flew into a rage saying that his house had been taken over by delinquents. The beautiful cake that Margaret had worked on ended up covering her entire body after it was flunk at her from across the room. The teens ran away in the face of Joseph's rage as he picked up a bat and started wildly swinging. A crack came down and shattered Adrian's arm. His mother lunged at Joseph and pushed him down.
Joseph dropped the bat but he lumbered towards Margaret as she ran to hide the beating from her son upstairs. However, tonight Adrian's rage had reached a climax and he picked up that bat and ran after his parents. With all of his strength he brought a powerful swing onto his father's back. Joseph turned his fury to his child. The mother screamed. There was a struggle between the man and the man-to-be and in a few moments Joseph was at the foot of the stairs with a broken neck.
When the police came Margaret said that he had come home drunk, which many witnesses confirmed, and he had accidentally fallen down the stairs by accident. From then on Adrian took care of his mother and they formed something much more like a family.
Adulthood
Adrian grew up working many odd jobs to try and provide for himself and his mother. At the same time he proved to be an exceptional student. He became a popular infatuation for the girls in his class being an athletic young man with penetrating blue eyes but ultimately a mystery. His responsibilities and focus did not give him time for the social frivolities of the average teens.
He graduated high school and went to Paragon University. Though his professors said he was amazingly intelligent and could excel in whatever field he focused on he graduated college in order to go to Paragon Police Academy. He wanted to be a real protector - what his father never was. Again, he worked at his career and took care of his mother at home. In a year, he had achieved honors from his superiors and the recognition of the CIA. He went to work with them as an agent and received training in espionage and undercover work. He took to the new career very well of course and learned German, French, Spanish, and Japanese, multiple martial arts, how to go undercover, and the most advanced in covert techniques. He was one of his divisions top agents and the pride of his mother's life. In general, Adrian's life was a great one. It was peaceful, he was successful, and relatively happy but there was little beyond his responsibilities. The peace ended very abruptly.
Adrian, under pressure, had been partnered with Rupert Welling to infiltrate a Malta base in Germany. Though Adrian felt he could do it on his own his superiors wants him to have backup. The job was get in, find the needed information, destroy said information, and get out - or at least those were Adrian's instructions. Rupert had agreed with Malta to sabotage the operation and deliver confidential CIA information to them while making sure that Adrian did not escape.
The two worked to get into the base and just when Adrian thought they had success, things turned. Rupert triggered the alarm to bring all the base guards to the agents' location. Adrian was ready to kill Rupert before he was taken down but the sappers were too quick. He collapsed and Rupert walked out with his money, returning to the US to report that Adrian had turned out to be a double agent and had tried to deliver information to Malta. Rupert went on to say that he had tried to stop agent Valentine and was able to mortally wound him but the Malta data could not be captured and the confidential CIA files had been lost. Adrian was declared dead and his name dishonored.
Adrian was tortured for information by Malta but was able to escape their custody just before he was to be executed. Scarred and battered he traveled Europe and tried to make contact with the US. However, he soon discovered his dead and blacklisted status. In his condition Adrian decided to go underground and heal his wounds before making a sure-to-be difficult return. Money and resources were a concern and Adrian turned to his seedier contacts - the members of the underworld he learned to count on. They knew of his skills and connected him with those that were in need of them. He worked under the alias "Black V" and became popular with corporations to remove difficult political obstacles and competitions.
Soon, Adrian amassed what he needed and flew to America under the name Rupert Black. He tracked his betrayer, watched him, and followed his crooked dealings. While Rupert was in the midst of making another business exchange with Malta Adrian attacked. He brought both parties down, made sure the evidence was clear, and left a few papers and such items that would help the CIA trace that event back to the many others that Rupert had engaged in. Before leaving Adrian slit Rupert's throat with an artistic flourish of the wrist and finally turned his back on his life.
Though that fixed one thing on Adrian's agenda there was still the fact that he was legally dead. He sought out his mother after she had received the news that his name was cleared. Even if he was still thought to be a traitor he knew she still loved him but he could not bring himself to knock on the door. He watched her from outside - her quiet relief and sorrow tempered by her pride. Adrian decided to walk away. She was happy and he was cutoff from his life. He realized he had been dead for so much of his life and now he had thrown it away to make room for a new one. Adrian embraced it. He would live under many aliases, lies, and work for many people with much money. There were always customers to keep Black V busy but Adrian never forgot his mother to whom he sent weekly checks of a substantial amount. He certainly missed her but he found a perverse pleasure in being a nameless shadow outside of normal society and free of weighty responsibilities. Adrian Valentine wanted nameless oblivion instead - and he found it. A new agent for hire with lethal wit was born.
Path to the Deadlands
1642 – Igor Belanov opens the way to The Deadlands – a world in which there exists only darkness, decay, and unseen monstrosities. The magician is infected with a disease that, while it increases his power, causes his body to wither away. He goes on a rampage through Moscow, spreading the disease in his wake and dying in twenty-four hours of his exposure. Groups of magicians contain the magical infection and seal it away in an underground tomb.
2.27.2006 – Archaeologists uncover the tomb and the plague begins to spread anew. Heroes from Paragon travel to the site and contain the disease again in a containment unit built for the purpose.
3.13.2006 – The containment unit is stolen from the Freedom Phalanx Vault by agents of Crey Industries.
3.14.2006 – Crey’s biotech division begins studying the disease using mystical and scientific means to create a vaccine and allow for the weaponization of the “Rot Disease.”
4.8.2006 – Adrian Valentine – a corporate thief and spy – is hired to retrieve a sample of the disease and the experimental vaccine for a rival company. He gets both but not without raising the attention of Crey’s personal army. A battle ensues in which the vial of the disease sample that Adrian carries breaks. Everyone, including him is exposed.
4 AM, 4.8.2006 – What appears to be a living man slowly becoming an aged corpse breaks into Paragon Hospital and grabs the first syringe it finds. Adrian injects himself with the vaccine and goes back out into the night. He falls into an alley and sits in the shadow waiting for death. To his surprise, he melts into the darkness.
5.2.2006 – A new villain appears in the Rogue Isles with the ability to call upon a living darkness and wither whatever comes into contact with him. He says he comes from The Deadlands and he calls himself Mr. Rot.
The Rogue Isles
With his new powers and identity Adrian decided to move his operations to the lucrative Rogue Isles where the jobs and prizes were far bigger. There, he met Mr. Mud. On one of his first bank robberies Mr. Rot was intercepted by this already well-known thief who was coming to take the bank for himself. The two clashed briefly until Longbow forces came to apprehend them. With minimal effort they wrecked the Longbow squad and in the end Rot threw Mud what he thought he deserved for the effort. Though upset by the rival thief's arrogance, Mr. Mud recognized his skills and extended an invitation to The Rogues Gallery. Since then Mr. Rot has been worked alongside the group and with them he has risen to become a well-known villain in the isles coming into conflict with many powerful heroes and villains.
Powers
The Deadlands
Rot has formed a permanent connection with The Deadlands, a pocket dimension with its own sentience. It is a world completely devoid of and that negates light. Also, it devours whatever matter with which it comes into contact and makes its part if its blackness. Rot does not yet know how the pocket dimension was formed but he is trying to find out. What he has discovered is that it is accessible through the use of magic but otherwise difficult and magical beings sense his power, which suggests that the dimension and its origins are magical in nature. Also, the dimension has a certain sentience within it. Though it cannot communicate or has shown signs of acting in an intelligent manner, Rot has felt its impression and psychically sensitive individuals can feel the impression of another conscience within him. The dimension seems to carry within it feelings of ravenous greed, selfishness, and desire. It craves to take everything into itself.
The late administration of the vaccine pulled Rot out of The Deadlands as it was drawing him into itself. The result left him with one foot in the living world and the other in the world of anti-life. He is now a part of it as an autonomous extension of it. He can extend its influence into this world to achieve various affects.
Decaying Touch
Because of his connection with The Deadlands, Rot carries an aura that eats away at whatever he comes into contact with. He can extend this aura to attack his enemies. He prefers to give low doses of his devouring touch, which leaves the victim feeling terribly ill or he withers away their equipment. In stronger doses he can leave them a dried up corpse that seems to have been dead for years.
Darkness Manipulation
Extensions of the pocket dimension into ours can be used to drain away energy and transfer it into Rot and the allies he chooses. He uses it to envelope an area in darkness, and ensnare his opponents. The Deadlands sentience is something that is essentially against life and so living creatures feel a deep instinctual fear in its presence. Because of this, Rot can also create an aura around him that instills intense fear in those around him.
Teleportation
Rot can also take himself and others through The Deadlands to reach distant locations.
Shadow-Garb and The Hollow
Rot has come to understand his connection with this world and has created a new form for himself that connects him more directly to his power source. He calls this his shadow-garb. In it he has greater strength, speed, agility, and resistance to damage. He treats this as a ceremonial garment that represents his mastery over the The Deadlands and he often wears it when he spends an extended period of time there.
With the creation of his Shadow-garb, Rot has also created a sanctum for himself inside The Deadlands that he calls The Hollow. So far, he has allowed no other inside nor does he know if anyone else could see it the way he does. He forged it from the dimension itself and it floats in the same center of the void continuously. It a citadel that seems to be made up of multiple jutting spires both on top and the bottom. It contains various chambers in both halves of it. There, he is able to rest or hide as he pleases away from anyone's grasp. It is also where he hides his personal stash of wealth and booty.
Hound
Recently, Rot has learned to communicate and control an animal-like manifestation of the Deadlands. He can summon an amorphous darkness that has the same powers as himself and obeys Rot's orders. Often, it will take the form of a giant hell hound, which is why Rot calls this manifestation "Hound." It also acts like an extremely aggressive dog - wanting to bite and ingest everything while also being extremely protective. Rot has often been observed commanding it to hold back it's fury. In battle Rot also commands Hound to take a more human form in order to provide a decoy to confuse the enemy. Hound cannot be killed or destroyed as it simply reshapes itself but its energies can be expended or disrupted thereby banishing it back to the pocket dimension.
Magical Abilities
Early in his career Mr. Rot had no interest in understanding in using magic. However, the nature of his powers gives him a vast magical base from which he can perform an array of complicated spells if he had interest in learning any. In his brief alliance with Ghost Widow she commented on this and taught him certain ways to harness this potential. Mr. Rot is still an undisciplined magical being but he has learned spells that do not require much concentration and has refined his traditional powers.
Skills
Rot has training in advanced stealth techniques, multiple languages, martial artist, advanced computer systems, gadgetry, basic chemicals compounds, and he possesses acute detective skills. He also considers his wit an ability. It allows him to not take himself or the dire situations in which he finds himself too seriously, which can throw off his opponents and allows Rot to keep his cool.
Equipment
Though it has mostly been retired, Rot has occasionally been seen in his previous costume that he used in his espionage work. It carries specialized lenses and a utility belt that contains many small gadgets to help him on his jobs. He still carries his trusted lock picking set simply because he feels naked without it though he rarely needs them now with his powers.
Vulnerabilities
Rot's greatest weakness would be his ego. He believes in his abilities and knowledge of his opponents. However, even he is not always perfect.
Adversaries
- War Play - Mr. Rot was responsible for the accident that created this villain and when she discovered this, she began her assault on him. The two created much havok and destruction, which was eventually stopped by Mindswipe who invited the woman into their ranks. Now she is a hateful teammate.
To Contact This Character's Creator
- In-game: @TopHat.
- CoHGuru Forums: TopHat
- Official Forums: TopHat
