Cybermage
From Champions MUSH
| Cybermage |
|---|
|
| Alignment |
| Heroes |
| Public Identity |
| Dr Ellbeth Wryd |
| Affiliation |
| n/a |
Cybermage, aka Dr. Ellbeth Wyrd, is one of Colonial Bay City's lesser heroines. She is also an author of considerable renown, comfortably wealthy from book royalties, and an acknowledged expert in the Supernatural. Her remarkable expertise in computer programming and systems hacking is less well known however. Ellbeth makes frequent appearences on local HoloVid shows as a guest on literary programs or in discussion groups. She edits an E-magazine of short stories by local authors and visits schools in the city to give creative writing seminars.
Contents |
Description
The fusion of racial backgrounds, an English father and Egyptian mother, resulted in a youthful exotic beauty that has been restored by the magical rejuvenation that she experienced recently, giving an almost classical Mediterranean appearance. She's no longer overweight as she'll readily tell you, repeatedly. Attentive green eyes with a distinctly humorous glint look outwards behind semi-mirrored sunglasses from a olive complexioned face, a knowing gaze suggestive of having seen a lot, forgiven most and forgotten little. A silver clasp gathers her hair into a long ponytail of snow-white hair down her back. She wears a shimmering full length hooded mid-grey damask robe hemmed with dark sable fur, belted at the waist with a white slash and held shut at the neck by a silver owl brooch, the hood thrown back. A long polished oaken staff inscribed with arcane runes is held in her left hand while her right hand holds a state of the art laptop computer.
Origin
Invited to be a guest speaker at WorldCon 2050. That certainly wasn't too bad was it? She would have gone anyway but it's always nice to have one's accomplishments acknowledged. The fancy dress day was invariably a fun spectacle. In a previous year she had gone dressed as a Klingon officer and had even learnt the Klingon language for the occasion. This year Ellbeth decided to go as her fantasy mage character from the AD&D group she played with. Perhaps she might have preferred to go as her Amazon warrior if only... sigh... too many good dinners and too little exercise was the problem. No, a nice matronly female magician was certainly more in accord with her current plumpness.
Not that shopping for a complete set of magician's ceremonial regalia is the easiest thing in the world. Still it was proving to be an interesting afternoon. Ellbeth had never realised there were quite so many small curio shops hidden away in side-streets and down alleyways. This one was surely the most bizarre she had come across so far. She didn't even recognise most of the items in the dingy little showroom.
The dirty tarnished brass lamp was an exception. That at least was something she recognised. She rubbed it. That's what you do with brass lamps isn't it? But you don't really expect a genie to emerge. Not really... Ellbeth stood rooted as the misty form solidified. What was her wish? Er... Ur... I wish I had everything necessary to be my mage. That was the first thing that came to her mind. Finding a real live genie's lamp is likely to disrupt anyone's thinking. There was the obligatory flash of light and Ellbeth was suddenly dressed and equipped exactly like her fantasy mage. Oh, hell, she thought, after a brief moment of shock, why didn't I wish for my Xena clone warrior. Young, fit, competent and a body to kill for. Okay, woman, next time think before wishing.
Still there were compensations. A few experiments, some trial and error, followed by a little remedial repair work to the mansion, demonstrated that she not only had functional magical items identical to those on her mage's character sheet but also possessed the ability to cast the spells known to her fantasy character. On the other hand there were also a couple of minus points. It was a little bit late for her to regret making use of the AD&D group's house rules to take hunted by demon cultists and a vulnerability to damage from sharp weapons as disadvantages for a few extra points of skills.
Powers
Personality
So when you are already a best-selling novelist, a millionaire from the proceeds of your very first magical adventure book 'Isis Arising', working on your seventh novel 'Signs, Sigils and Serpents', with an honorary doctorate from the Colonial Bay City State University as a result of several generous donations to the library fund, a renowned public speaker and television literary commentator, and you suddenly gain magical abilities, what on earth do you do? If you are the fifty-five year old daughter of an Egyptian mother and a impoverished English aristocrat who has been brought up with a deep reverence for life and the British aristocratic code of honour there is only one option available.
If she is to take up the challenge of becoming a caped, or more accurately, robed crusader then she knows she will need to work with companions. So what could she bring to such a hero team, except for a large mansion to provide a base of operations, an extensive library equipped with a powerful mainframe computer connected to virtually every public database on the planet with an expert system program to help utilise that huge collection of data, a cellar that was perfect for a training room after some judicious reinforcing of the walls, and a few million dollars? That should be enough Ellbeth figured. She hoped so because, let's be honest about this, after decades of playing fantasy and science-fiction roleplaying games she finally gets to do it for real. Ellbeth is having the time of her life! It's still new enough that she gets a thrill every time she finishes an incantation and sees the magical energies swirling at her fingertips.
And it's not like she was a shrinking violet who couldn't cope with problems. Ellbeth has been knocking around the world, and been knocked around by the world, since she was a child. First with her parents and then on her own. Ellbeth could give the old time film hero Indiana Jones a run for his money if they ever bet on who had the most frequent flyer miles clocked up. A childhood spent hanging around the archaeological digs her parents were engaged on in Egypt, Greece, Italy and Scandinavia. Studies in classical literature at London University for her BA. Then the job as a Latin translator for the diocese of Westminster and her first real romance, Richard Mathews. But that didn't last and four years later she was engaged in volunteer work in southern Africa. After that Ellbeth took several years out, travelling and hitch-hiking around the globe, supporting herself by writing travelogue articles and contributing to the Rough Guide to the World.
Confident, competent, and really quite pragmatic pretty much sums Ellbeth up. She's definitely on the side of the heroes but sometimes her methods are debatable. Justice is what motivates Ellbeth and respect for legal nicities comes a long way behind that. She enjoys helping people and is having a wonderful time using her magical abilities. No request to Ellbeth for aid is likely to go unanswered.
Relations
Ellbeth tries to maintain good relationships with Colonial Bay city's hero community. She has a good working relationships with Random Factor and Barricade of Starguard Gamma, Yutaka Yamaoka, Rebound of New Blood, and Dancing Coyote. Somewhat strangely she has had little contact with Fate. There's no hostility on either side as far as she is aware, it's simply that they rarely seem to become involved in the same incidents.
Three individuals are especially important to Ellbeth. Harry Fernchurch, a traditional English butler and chauffeur and also an excellent chef. Max, a friendly AI who resides in her laptop or occasionally in the mainframe system at her mansion. Sonya Wryd, her adoptive daughter. Sonya is a pilot working for the Hellcats mercenary group and definitely shares Ellbeth's taste for adventure.
