The Amber Banshee
From Handbook of the Union Universe
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| The Amber Banshee | |
| The Amber Banshee | |
| Player: @Dante | |
| Origin: | Mutation |
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| Archetype: | Blaster |
| Level: | 50 |
| Primary Set: | Sonic Attack |
| Secondary Set: | Energy Manipulation |
| Epic Set: | Energy Mastery |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Saffron Lorna Mackenzie |
| Identity: | Public – previously secret |
| Aliases: | Shadowsong |
| Species: | Human/Fey |
| Date of Birth: | 8th August 1987 |
| Age: | 21 |
| Height: | 6'0" |
| Weight: | 142llbs |
| Build: | Thin |
| Eye Colour: | Green |
| Hair Colour: | Ginger |
| Skin Complexion: | Pale, heavily freckled |
| Distinguishment: | Has a thin red scar running from the base of her skull down her neck. |
| Medical Status: | Healthy |
| Financial Status: | Comfortable, part-time librarian at Steel Canyon University |
| Religion: | Agnostic |
| Sexuality: | Heterosexual |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Brian Mackenzie (Father Karnac), Katherine Mackenzie (Mother – Deceased), Mark Mackenzie (Brother), Nathan Lowe (Cousin) |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Naturalised American |
| Ethnicity: | Caucasian |
| Legal Status: | Legal US Resident with no criminal record |
| Place of Birth: | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Education: | Skyway City High School, Paragon City |
| Occupation: | Singer / Part Time Librarian |
| Group Affiliations: | Field Commander in the Militia |
| Base of Operations: | The Dugout, King’s Row, also SwallowTail House, Talos Island |
| Residency: | 4th Floor Apartment, SwallowTail House, Talos Island |
| Known Powers | |
| Able to sing notes that destabilise the molecules of her target. Able to repel herself and other objects by matching her own molecular vibration to the target. | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Minor psychic abilities, reasonably fit with a degree of athletic prowess. | |
| Equipment | |
| Kevlar armoured leather jacket. Small medical device issued by Vanguard. | |
| Awards and Collections | |
| Honorary member of the Cabal for her work in Croatoa. | |
| Licenses and Certificates | |
| Hero License. Motorcycle License. | |
| IC Accessibility of Article | |
| Information is available through the Militia, Freedom Corps, Hero Corps, Vanguard, and PPD Databases. Known at Steel Canyon University from her public performances at the students bar. | |
Created at the beginning of the Militia, I was tired of dark, brooding characters and wanted to be someone lighter, more innocent and, well, 'normal' I guess. An everyday person struggling with real issues in a crazy world. - @Dante
Contents |
[edit] Affiliations
- Field Commander of the Militia.
- Friends with Crimson Archer, Force Commander, The Portent, Coile, Tygerboy, Wild Child, Stygian Minx and Masked Angel.
- Former piano student of Dante Carver.
- Keeps in contact with her childhood friend Tara Phillips, despite the fact that she now works in the Rogue Isles under the alias of Scorpio Rose.
[edit] Personality
Saffron is friendly, somewhat shy and sometimes painfully naïve. She likes to believe the best in people and can be painfully disappointed when they do not live up to her expectations. She leads very much from the heart and can therefore sometimes make decisions based on her emotions and gut feelings.
Saffron sometimes struggles with resolving herself to hero life. She often considers herself too cowardly or frail to be any use to anyone, despite having proven herself in combat time and time again. Her low self esteem has caused her to shy away from any type of leadership role, preferring to stay at the back of the group and not be noticed, even if she is potentially the loudest there. Despite this reluctance, she has accepted a position as a Field Commander in the Militia due to her work in keeping the team together.
When angered, Saffron can be aggressive and short-tempered. Once riled, she has been known to become reckless and hotheaded, throwing herself into battle with little regard to her safety. She cares a lot about her friends and the Militia and often feels guilty for not being able to help more.
[edit] Motivation
When she was 17 years old, Saffron’s father disappeared. There was no explanation for his disappearance. Deciding that the police were less than useful given the vast number of people who go missing in Paragon every day, Saffron fashioned herself an outfit from her gym costume and her father’s leather jacket and took to the streets to try and find any information about her missing parent.
Saffron finally found her father in summer 2008, discovering that he had been the victim of the Devoured Earth who had changed him to become one of their Devoured horde. With the help of the Militia and The Shades of Darkness, she was able to restore him to humanity. Further details can be found under his entry as Karnac.
Saffron continues to fight because she cares. About the city, its people and her friends. Even though her main goal has been achieved, being a hero remains a vital part of her identity, despite her occasional desire to quit.
[edit] Powers
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[edit] Abilities
Saffron has a mutated larynx which provides her with three sets of vocal chords. This gives her a vocal range of 17 octaves and a measured volume in excess of 245 decibels. Coupled with her ability to sense the natural vibration of people, places and objects, she can sing notes that destabilise the molecular structure of most things. In a way, her ability to sense vibration connects her to the world and she has been able to trace people by their unique vibration. Doing so however, requires a lot of concentration to try and filter out the cacophony of sounds around her. When in combat however, she is able to set up a feedback loop with her target, zeroing in on their frequency and then singing it back to them. This typically is enough to knock the victim unconscious. Having undergone training with the clan of Fey in Croatoa, she has been able to refine her abilities somewhat and is able to sing targets to sleep or stun them using a series of focused sounds.
Her ability to find the frequency of her targets also allows her to match her own vibration to them. This enables her to repel them away from her, or herself away from the ground at heights of over 100ft. She also carries a small medical device that was issued to her by Vanguard at the beginning of the Rikti invasion.
[edit] Vulnerabilities
Despite her powerful voice, Saffron is vulnerable to attack having no defensive powers other than her speed and her athletic ability. It has been speculated that her matching her vibration to her targets could in some ways destabilise her own molecular structure but so far there has been no evidence of this.
Of all of her weaknesses, her heart is often the easiest to attack and she has been successfully manipulated into difficult situations in the past due to emotional blackmail, leading her to take unnecessary risks.
[edit] Equipment
A standard Cellular Restorer, issued to her by Vanguard which she carries at her waist. Her leather costume is lightly armoured and can resist some small arms fire. She also carries a standard hospital teleporter in case of emergencies.
[edit] Character Origin
Saffron Mackenzie first encountered her mutant powers at the age of 14 when walking home from gym class with her older brother Mark. When accosted by a gang of Skulls, Mark attempted to stand up to them and received a knife to his gut for his troubles. Saffron’s reaction was to scream, a howl that knocked both the gang and her brother unconscious.
After Mark was admitted to hospital, Saffron kept her secret for years, using her abilities to further her music career, her impressive voice landing her several roles in the school’s choir. Once her father disappeared, she decided to start using her voice more as a weapon and took to investigating the various gangs in the area, specifically those who specialised in kidnapping people. Although initially unsuccessful, her actions were more than enough to bring her to the attention of the Ministry as it recruited heroes for its new team, The Militia. Saffron was recruited into the group and has grown up within it, learning to use her powers effectively. As the Militia is her home, she has come to regard it as a second family to her.
[edit] Recent History
In November 2006, Saffron returned to her family home of Edinburgh to investigate allegations that her mutation was not entirely natural. Following an encounter with the Cabal, she was lead to believe that Fey magic ran in her bloodline. Her investigations took her to the remote town of Kilngavie on the west coast of Scotland where she uncovered the history of her great-grandmother, Lorna Mackenzie. It transpired that Lorna, as well as being the spitting image of Saffron, had been a full-blooded Fey known as Shadowsong who had crossed to the human world after falling in love with William Mackenzie. Unfortunately, Saffron’s return led to her being mistaken for her great-grandmother and prompted the local Fey clan to stage an invasion of the village after years of being cut off from the rest of their kind. Saffron was forced to confront her own kind, leading to a final battle near the abandoned iron mines where she unleashed her loudest scream to date. She was able to collapse the mine, burying the perverted Fey under tonnes of iron rich earth, thus preventing them from escaping. She returned to Paragon in no doubt as to her origins and has since attempted to reconcile her Fey blood with her human desires.
Saffron’s caring heart then led her down her darkest path yet. Investigating the death of her Militia team-mate Nightsparrow, she was kidnapped by a Hand of Andros operative known as Charisma. Charisma tortured her and tried to manipulate her into revealing information about her family and team-mates. Saffron refused and was eventually forced to kill when her vocal chords were chemically treated by Charisma to become a lethal weapon. This became Charisma’s undoing when she slipped when detaining Saffron, allowing her to sing. Her voice liquefied Charisma and a number of her guards, a memory Saffron has done her best to suppress since.
Although recaptured by another Hand of Andros operative, Michel Sanders, Saffron was rescued from her imprisonment by a combined force of Militia and Silent Tempest. Her colleague and friend Crimson Archer had obtained information on her location by granting three wishes to a playful Faery known as Dryadora. During the mission, Crimson Archer lost his left eye, Tygerboy suffered painful acid burns, Coile lost his powered armour suit and two Militia members, Redsight and Dante Carver were killed. The cost of retrieving her has weighed heavily on her shoulders and led to her temporarily becoming a more vengeful banshee, her kind heart closed to all emotion. It was only the intervention of Crimson Archer who, with his confession of love to her, prized open her heart and prevented her from being lost to vengeance forever.
She has recently lost her mother who apparently committed suicide when she discovered her daughter’s identity. While at first, this was another blow to Saffron’s confidence, she has recently began to suspect that the suicide was in fact murder when it transpired that Katherine Mackenzie knew of her daughter’s other occupation all along.
After the fall and rise of the Militia, Saffron became one of its Field Commanders, responsible for field operations. Although reluctant to take the role, she appears to have succeeded in keeping the voluntary team together and in good spirits. Her investigations into her father’s disappearance finally yielded fruit and she was able to save him from the clutches of the Devoured Earth. Since then, she has maintained the Militia’s Drop In Centre in Kings’ Row until its destruction in December 2008.
During a routine Patrol in Bloody Bay, Saffron encountered the villain, Nadja Romanov who was attempting to escape with some arcane treasure. During the encounter, Nadja sliced off The Amber Banshee's ear and escaped. Although the ear was sewn back on leaving only a small scar, Saffron has maintained an interest in the Arachnos agent ever since.
[edit] Additional Information
For a while, Saffron maintained a secret identity to protect her family from any enemies that she might have encountered. She has since lost that due to there being few of her family left.
Saffron is also a talented singer/songwriter and for a while maintained a spot at the student union bar, performing successfully to her peers on Wednesday nights. This brought her to the attention of Soundstage Records who offered her a recording contract. Unfortunately, this dissolved due to her abduction by Charisma. Since her return, she has successfully launched her first album, Distant Shores, in Spring 2008. Although enjoying a moderate success, her music career remains small scale but with a dedicated audience.
[edit] Trivia
Saffron wears a small wooden charm around her neck and is very protective of it. It was given to her by Nightsparrow shortly before she died. Saffron continues to wear it in memory of her fallen comrades and to remind her that nothing lasts forever.
Categories: Female | Fae | Mutant | Blaster | Hero | The Militia | Character
