From: "S A Rudy" <sarudy@hotmail.com>
Subject: ENIGMA: Overdue Character Bio
Date: Tue, 09 Jun 1998 09:28:05 PDT



Character: Dr.  Jacob Shrike (Deathshrike)

Author: Sylvia A.  Rudy

Conditions for Use: Dr.  Shrike was one of the worlds most
respected scientists once.  In fact, his work on genetics used
to be the standard textbook until he became, er, no longer PC.
In the course of his research, he found several ancient texts
on (in his own words) "the mystical science of a long forgotten
race so profound you can only comprehend it as magic".
Conveniently enough, his abilities are so so much like magic,
it's indistiguishable even to other mages.  (i.e.  Kyria's
//dispel magic// will work.)

Dr.  Shrike is an intellectual snob and very much an elitist.
He thinks that the modern habit of catering to the lowest
common demonimator is weakening the race as a whole - among
other things causing an overpopulation of inferior stock.
While this may not sound too bad on paper, he's started to act
on it.  He is deeply offended that nobody seems to appreciate
the service he is doing humanity.  After all, he is at once
strengthening the gene pool and freeing up the world's natural
resources for those best able to exploit them.

Probably his most famous exploit (the one mentioned in his
Nemesis interview) was the time he cut off a small mountain
nation and infected the entire population with a lethal virus.
He then set up a "clinic" with the cure.  He tested everyone
who came for his standards of "superiority".  The superior got
the cure, the inferior got sugar water.  All told, he finished
with about a forty per cent survival rate.  After the scandal
went public, the media dubbed him "Deathshrike."

Deathshrike doesn't actually tend to target superheroes
because, in general, supers are exceptional examples of
humanity.  (Flat Stanley may be one of the few exceptions).  He
just swats them because for some reason they keep getting in
the way of his work.  

The simplest way to play Deathshrike is as a pompous, arrogant
windbag who thinks he's Better Than You (tm).


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