Application for Siren's Pull
Player Information
Name: Reg
Age: 26
AIM SN: regasssa
email: regasssa [at] hotmail -dot- com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes
Currrently Played Characters: 3; Clark Kent (isitablurred), Eric Northman (vampingitup), Sylar (fixesclocks)
Conditional: Activity Check Link: HERE
Conditional: Official Reserve Link: HERE
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Nolanverse (DCAU)
Canon Format: Movie
Character's Name: Henri Ducard/Ra's Al Ghul (dragonvariation)
Character's Age: 43 (ish, from appearance)
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. N/A
What form will your character's NV take?
A simple phone circa. 2005 like this.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: Only human abilities; Ra's can fight on par with NV's Batman, because he taught him everything he knew, has excellent planning and deductive skills, but has nothing supernatural about him.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them?
Illusionist
In the lieu of powers from his own canon, I propose giving Ra's the power to create illusions. Naturally this comes with a few caveats of its own, since otherwise the power would be too much, and in recognising this possibility I would like to mention that care will be taken in its use including a permissions post to include/exclude those who don't want to or would be able to see through such illusions.
These illusions will develop in power and flexibility as Ra's learns to use them; in the beginning he will begin to believe that he's seeing things as a result of the power spontaneously triggering, but as he learns to control it he will be able to create gradually more complex illusions. The power is semi-telepathic; so he has to apply the illusion purposefully to people. Those with psychic resistance would therefore be immune, or able to pick apart the illusion. People who were not known to him as he cast an illusion would not be able to see it, so for example if he made a group of people think they were being attacked by a swarm of hornets, but another person was watching unseen from a window, the person at the window wouldn't see the hornets, no matter how real they were to those being attacked by them.
The complexity of the illusions themselves depends on the following:
. scale
. number of people influenced
. number of senses influenced
. distance of mind affected
. time
The higher one of these is, the lower the others must therefore be, most drastically in the beginning, and continuing as the skill develops. For instance at full power (a year down the line) Ra's may be able to create twenty ninja versions of himself (sight, sound, touch, interactivity) to fight five other newcomers for twenty minutes, or he might be able to create a thousand ninjas for an hour (just sound and sight) to impress just one person, or he might be able to make the whole of the city (just sight) see a butterfly for a few seconds. The sliding scale automatically balances itself.
Ra's is effectively restricted by any great use of his power as he would be if he run a race. At first even small illusions will be exhausting, but as it develops only full use of his powers will exhaust him. It may take anything up to a day for him to recover completely, rendering its use in battles necessarily definitive, should he be exhausted in the process and therefore a sitting duck.
Weapons: Ra's carries a small armoury with him, but prefers the intimacy of bladed weapons. He has three throwing knives, six throwing stars, and a wave-bladed dagger--all of these concealed.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: HERE
Point in Canon: At the end of Batman Begins, when he closes his eyes.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: N/A
Character Personality:
Before diving into the details of Ra's' personality as a whole, it's important to recognise that he, like Bruce, uses masks and distraction to hide his true identity. As Bruce says: "What cheap parlour tricks," and indeed it is. The man who is truly Ra's al Ghul, the Head of the Demon, introduces himself to Bruce as Henri Ducard; a man who finds him in prison, gives him a purpose and teaches him to conquer his own fear. Ra's al Ghul is described by Ducard himself: "(he) rescued us from the darkest corners of our own hearts", and this is precisely what Ducard does with Bruce.
To do what he does, and be who he is, Ra's carries an air of confidence that would border on arrogance were it not supported by a wealth of experience, by his training and his sharp intelligence. He is Ra's al Ghul, leader of the League of Shadows, whose eyes are everywhere; an organisation that relies on obedience and precise order to act without being seen, heard of, or noticed. This requires, at its head, a tactician with focus and balance, someone who will do what is necessary, who feels no fear, and has no pity. Ra's does demonstrate pity, during his training sessions with Bruce (such as when he fell into the melted ice), but it is empathy for function that motivates him even then--Bruce is his future protegee, and though he teaches hard lessons, he still needs him alive when they're concluded.
Like any chessmaster, Ra's is focused and attentive to his task, a critical thinker who can follow any particular action through to its conclusion--almost any action. He can predict that Bruce is going to interfere, so he attempts to put him out of commission while he works. He plans and schemes, and develops his moves years in advance. In turn, the League of Shadows plants itself at Gotham's core. Policemen, judges, politicians, (implied: Wayne Enterprises board managers); anything that will advance their plans, or be useful as they come off.
Just as the League of Shadows itself is quiet, and infinitely patient, so too is Ra's. He is a cool collected man, especially during battle, and projects all the elements of a true leader. As he tells Bruce "If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an idea, and if they can't stop you, then you become something else entirely. Legend." Ra's himself is a legend, and when he speaks, he speaks with a calm efficiency, all his words chosen to deliver his message both quickly and elegantly. He is classically trained by his manner of speaking, which is contrary to modern day phrasing, and applies a sharp and toxic wit, especially to those who are utterly irrelevant to the League of Shadows--he doesn't even acknowledge Rachel when she's standing right in front of him.
Nothing of Talia is mentioned in the film, but she is in fact mentioned in the novelisation of the film. A small influence of Ra's history will come from the novel once I get my hands on it (I only heard about this difference last week, while writing this app, and the novel is already on order.) Ra's does however briefly touch on his wife, saying that she had been taken from him, and as he goes on to say (as Henri Ducard, in the process of gaining Bruce's trust) "Anger gives you great power, but if you let it, it will destroy you--as it almost did me." The only thing that saved Ra's, he claims, was taking vengeance
As implied a moment ago, the question of Ra's relationship with Bruce is a difficult one to quantify. On one hand there is Henri Ducard, who is both a mentor, earning respect and trust, and a friend; the one man in the burning mountainside fortress that Bruce goes out of his way to try to save. On the other there is Ra's, the man who says "No one comes out. Make sure." While he burns Wayne Manor to the ground with Wayne himself inside. And: "Now if you excuse me I have a city to destroy." No pity, no hesitation; cold as ice and utterly heartless, he is willing to spare no-one.
The question is--does Henri Ducard as Bruce knows him really exist - did he ever exist - or is his mentorship and camraderie merely an act. Perhaps the former once, before Ra's learned how cruel the world is. Now Henri Ducard is a tool, an act put on to charm, to school Bruce into the role that Ra's has for him so that he simply won't question what he has become when he becomes it. In this, Ra's demonstrates acting skills, and a formidable ability to manipulate the wills and conscience of others with words. Just as in his work, in words he is a tactician too, and he always wins. Morality, ethics, if he is used to his methods being questioned, he is also used to bringing people around to his way of thinking--and if that fails simply killing them.
Most notably, however, to develop the kind of close relationship that he did with Bruce meant removing himself temporarily from the League's workings. They trained sometimes far away from the fortress, camping overnight on glaciers and mountainsides, inevitably meaning that Ra's was away from his purpose, and proposing that training Bruce to join his cause was either critical to the plan for Gotham, for the future of the League of Shadows, or both. To spend such time on the process inevitably meant that it must be important.
Unlike the League of Assassins (Demonfang etc.), there is no motivation of cleansing the earth for the earth's sake within the League of Shadows. The purposes are several. Secondary purposes are to be the hand of justice that the world needs; beyond beaurocracy, unafraid to simply kill murderers and thieves, and cut out the rotton core. Firstly, however, their role is to act as a check against human corruption; "Every time a civilisation reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance." They break whole civilisations; the fall of Constantinople, the Black Death, the Great Fire of London, the Sacking of Rome; all things claimed by Ra's to be the acts of the League of Shadows. It is something that they have done before, efficiently and without hesitation, and there is no doubt at all that it will be Ra's key motivation in Siren's Port. It has already been described by Gotham's Port-ins as worse than Gotham, something that is unlikely to escape Ra's' notice.
Though at one point, Ducard says of Ra's al Ghul "Is (he) immortal? Are his methods supernatural?" the truth is that they are very far from such. We see, in fact, that the methods taught to Bruce are no more supernatural than science, strength, skill and practice. Batman is a monster to Gotham, something to fear, but certainly not human. That is what Ducard teaches Bruce to become, and it is what he employs in concealing his own identity. Unlike the comics, where Ra's al Ghul is said to be hundreds of years old (even he claims to have lost count), this Ra's is apparently a successor to an organisation, someone given the name--or so at least it would seem.
The choice is personal, but since the Nolanverse cautiously errs away from the magical side of Gotham and its supernatural villains and heroes, I will be crossing over choice little of the comics canon, but for perhaps some of his relationship with his daughter. Most importantly no Lazarus pits.
Henri Ducard in the comics is interesting in himself. He trained with Batman, (and also Tim Drake) and much like Nolanverse's Ra's deals out his own brand of justice. However in the comics the two men are not the same person; Ra's is Ra's, and Henri Ducard is Henri Ducard, while Nolan's Ra's is just one of those men wearing the mask of the other. (It is deliberately difficult to tell which.) Friction between AUs in regard to this is certain. "Surely a man who spends his nights scrambling over the rooftops of Gotham wouldn't begrudge me dual identities?" It's almost uncertain whether there is a disconnect to even Ra's himself, or whether in fact he is legitimately both Ducard and al Ghul. Fortunately he's not likely to tell anyone.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: N/A
Character Plans: Short term plan is: quietly skulk around, maybe introduce himself to a few people as Henri Ducard, action logs and anonymous posts, imposing himself on like minded villain types, and developing his power, slipping 'League of Shadows' and 'Ra's al Ghul' into enough conversations that the name begins to be spread around as though they've always existed. 'Have you heard of the League of Shadows' 'Supposedly a man named Ra's al Ghul' etc. With the idea of forming said League in the long run and potential terrorist plots in the far flung future.
Appearance/PB: Qui-Gon Jinn--I mean Liam Neeson or alternatively how can anyone who is supposedly that intelligent commit such a gruesome fashion faux pas? That cape with that sword, what was he thinking.
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[Text/Private/French]
Ra's al Ghul's Journal -- Entry #1
Having arrived in a universe altogether foreign to me, I attempted at first to acclimatise myself to the surroundings. This was remarkably easy. Siren's Port is much like any large city of its kind. Once no doubt splendid, the heights to which the greatest of its citizens has flown is maintained only by the misfortune of any and all that it can crush beneath its weight. The 'fat cats', then, sit at uncanny heights on a foundation of the weak and decrepid (forced to ever greater and more unjust ends to ensure their survival) and would topple easily with just the slightest push.
Moving amongst its underbelly is for the most part a simple affair, made difficult only by the interruption of the Darkness, and the creatures therein. If there were ever an apt allegory for the spread of a civilisation's vile disease, poisoning the will of the people and staining the very ground on which they live their worthless lives, then the Darkness is it. When the sun's light falls, it spreads thick and cloying over everything, throttling the life out of the very air itself. Its existence - as is the existence of this island - is a blight.
Those who live here live out their lives knowing that to die in the Darkness means to become a part of it permanently; such is, as you can imagine, a discomfiting thought. With every death within it the Darkness grows--when does it end, and what will happen if its presence exceeds the confines of this mysterious 'Core' which supposedly prevents its impact on the rest of the world?
None the less, people have been helpful. They answer my questions, except for the one they cannot answer: "What is the League of Shadows?" and then I allow them to leave, knowing that they will ask others that same question. What is the League of Shadows. A work of genius, if I do say so myself.
Bruce is here, but he is different; he has a family, and so, it appears, do I. A grandson by Bruce himself; I admit I would have never have thought of it, and certainly not permitted it. He is still headstrong, still so sure that his way is right. Yet I have hoped, and will continue to, that he will learn in time. These people are not worth saving; they have no interest in saving even themselves.
[Anonymous text/English-Universal]
A moment of your time is all I ask, and in it, the answer to a question that has busied the minds of some of the world's greatest and consequently most idle thinkers. Your philosophical standing is not crucial here, merely answer by instinct.
Is it permissable to deliberately cause unhappiness, destitution or even death to the few, if the resulting consequence is the happiness and well being of the many?
Before you answer, consider:
- Natural selection is seen in nature as a rule; the weak and the sick are picked off by predators, improving the overall health and natural resistance to predators in the long term.
- Human hunters interfere with this process not by killing the weak and sick, but by seeking out the most powerful and fertile beasts, and instead killing those.
- Humans do not suffer from natural selection. The weak and sick are provided the means by which to live in comfort, even reproduce. They are not predated on.
- The value of human life as defined by the Port. From prices placed on people's heads (alive or dead), to the difference between those rich living in their private enclaves and those poor in Sectors 9 and 10, who live without Darkness proofing and what would many would call the basic human right to a safe and comfortable environment.
- If you can bend your mind around the concept, then consider also the role of slavery in the city. Are their human rights the same as yours? Are yours the same as a natural citizen's?
Third Person Sample
You know how to fight six men; we can teach you how to engage six hundred.
It was a debate that had raged for generations; could one man ever truly be more powerful than one million? All men were flesh and bone, all tired--even him. Words were a mere facade that stood between a clever man and the mob, but those who held such power with words were usually men of some standing; Presidents, Emperors, Kings, and all those, too, had fallen to their knees and quivered at the power of the League of Shadows.
And yet one man - one man; a vigilante in a mask, albeit one trained in their ways - had risen up, and with the power of his will, his misplaced desire to save his fetid pit of a city, he had thrown plans that had been in motion for decades to the wind, and severed the head of the demon himself.
That was what Ra's remembered--dying. The impact of the monorail train as it hit the ground hundreds of feet below, of feeling the impact rip through his legs, shattering every bone before it flung him backwards with wreckage, twisted metal and broken chairs. He didn't remember the fireball, but he did recall heat, and a sickening pull in his stomach.
You know how to disappear; we can teach you to become truly invisible.
Since arriving in the Port, that was what he had done, drawing in his cloak of invisibility, biding his time. Vengeance ate at his mind, but ninja were patient, and he could wait years to secure his hold on the city if he must. There was impulse, too--he didn't want to wait for his revenge, what would waiting achieve? Every second that ticked past was an opportunity for Batman to be 'ported out', and where would be his justice then?
He had killed Ra's al Ghul - I don't have to save you - not once, but twice, and for all that this was a different man, the similarities were sufficient to burn at the very heart of his soul every time the word was mentioned; that dark masquerade--the Batman.
The flaws were the same. The emotions. Only the histories were changed.
And there had been whispers:
You must become more than just a man in the mind of your opponent.
At first it had been hard to use his power, but it had quickly become useful to practice it--the art of creating money, for example. Sitting out in the street and placing an imaginary wallet on the ground, he studied the ethics of the people who passed by. Some would gather the wallet up, look around, then fish through it for money. They would take it, drop the wallet on the floor or in the bin, then carry on. Some would walk around it for a while, look around as though wondering what the trick was--or if he was generous, in some few cases looking for the genuine owner, before doing the same. Some would pocket it without question, pretending it was natural, as though recovering their own wallet, and the rare few souls would not look for money but straight to the ID, scanning the information, the photograph, before noticing Ra's and coming over.
The money always vanished after ten minutes or so--it was always more of a crushing blow for the truly corrupt as it was for those who desperately needed it. The corrupt would phone their friends and crow and make plans, but the poor, the downtrodden, were so used to the world's tricks that it came as no great surprise when it turned out to be an illusion.
Ra's al Ghul became a whisper. He employed the work of hushed rumours and frightened conversations, whispered his name to those who were truly insane and let their ramblings go on to frighten others. The League of Shadows, too, was murmured behind dark screens and eyerolled over close table tops. Nobody spoke the words, and yet everyone who needed to know knew them, and the information trickled down.
It was only ever a matter of time; of waiting.
Only a cynical man would call what these people have "lives".
People would always disappoint you. The ones you loved would always die. The world was a cruel and unjust place, and this city even more so. But he alone was constant. He would never learn; that was why he had been such an excellent choice to serve by his side, and one day inherit the League from him. But he was too unpredictable, and Ra's had misjudged him.
An error he would not make three times.
Player notes:
When I considered a fourth character at the beginning of this month I had my mind on James Gordon from this same universe. The question was, did I think I could play him sufficiently seperate to Clark; both are alligned lawful good, both close friends to Batman, and while Clark usually keeps to saving the day rather than crime fighting, with such things as anti-vigilante legislation possibilities etc. the lines just cross way too often.
However, I've had a good run on keeping Clark from being too involved with villains; he's not gone crashing in to solve any of Batman's problems, and I have found that there's plenty enough murder, mischief and mayhem in the city to keep him square away from the other characters I play. I hope I've set a good example re. keeping characters well away from each other. There was one close call re. accidentally ending up with Clark setting up an interview with Phoenix that was simply assumed.
The most important things that are seperating Ra's and my other characters are the following: first, Ra's is an agitator, not a combatant, and he will try to do most of his work from behind the scenes. He will not actively be breaking any laws, much like a mob boss it would be hard to link him to anything specific, and this means that he is by far the least likely character to be engaged with Superman, Sylar or anyone else for that matter. Secondly, and more important re. Clark; Ra's is a Gotham villain, and Clark has sworn to Bruce not to involve himself with them, a promise that he keeps to rigidly.
I hope to get Ra's involved with corners of the Port that I haven't been able to play with throughout my time here. He will be looking for mercenaries, assassins, perhaps even people to train one on one with him, and I hope to branch out and seek out new CR, especially in the first few months while he is engaging in his game of whispers with the city.
Name: Reg
Age: 26
AIM SN: regasssa
email: regasssa [at] hotmail -dot- com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes
Currrently Played Characters: 3; Clark Kent (isitablurred), Eric Northman (vampingitup), Sylar (fixesclocks)
Conditional: Activity Check Link: HERE
Conditional: Official Reserve Link: HERE
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Nolanverse (DCAU)
Canon Format: Movie
Character's Name: Henri Ducard/Ra's Al Ghul (dragonvariation)
Character's Age: 43 (ish, from appearance)
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. N/A
What form will your character's NV take?
A simple phone circa. 2005 like this.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: Only human abilities; Ra's can fight on par with NV's Batman, because he taught him everything he knew, has excellent planning and deductive skills, but has nothing supernatural about him.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them?
Illusionist
In the lieu of powers from his own canon, I propose giving Ra's the power to create illusions. Naturally this comes with a few caveats of its own, since otherwise the power would be too much, and in recognising this possibility I would like to mention that care will be taken in its use including a permissions post to include/exclude those who don't want to or would be able to see through such illusions.
These illusions will develop in power and flexibility as Ra's learns to use them; in the beginning he will begin to believe that he's seeing things as a result of the power spontaneously triggering, but as he learns to control it he will be able to create gradually more complex illusions. The power is semi-telepathic; so he has to apply the illusion purposefully to people. Those with psychic resistance would therefore be immune, or able to pick apart the illusion. People who were not known to him as he cast an illusion would not be able to see it, so for example if he made a group of people think they were being attacked by a swarm of hornets, but another person was watching unseen from a window, the person at the window wouldn't see the hornets, no matter how real they were to those being attacked by them.
The complexity of the illusions themselves depends on the following:
. scale
. number of people influenced
. number of senses influenced
. distance of mind affected
. time
The higher one of these is, the lower the others must therefore be, most drastically in the beginning, and continuing as the skill develops. For instance at full power (a year down the line) Ra's may be able to create twenty ninja versions of himself (sight, sound, touch, interactivity) to fight five other newcomers for twenty minutes, or he might be able to create a thousand ninjas for an hour (just sound and sight) to impress just one person, or he might be able to make the whole of the city (just sight) see a butterfly for a few seconds. The sliding scale automatically balances itself.
Ra's is effectively restricted by any great use of his power as he would be if he run a race. At first even small illusions will be exhausting, but as it develops only full use of his powers will exhaust him. It may take anything up to a day for him to recover completely, rendering its use in battles necessarily definitive, should he be exhausted in the process and therefore a sitting duck.
Weapons: Ra's carries a small armoury with him, but prefers the intimacy of bladed weapons. He has three throwing knives, six throwing stars, and a wave-bladed dagger--all of these concealed.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: HERE
Point in Canon: At the end of Batman Begins, when he closes his eyes.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: N/A
Character Personality:
Before diving into the details of Ra's' personality as a whole, it's important to recognise that he, like Bruce, uses masks and distraction to hide his true identity. As Bruce says: "What cheap parlour tricks," and indeed it is. The man who is truly Ra's al Ghul, the Head of the Demon, introduces himself to Bruce as Henri Ducard; a man who finds him in prison, gives him a purpose and teaches him to conquer his own fear. Ra's al Ghul is described by Ducard himself: "(he) rescued us from the darkest corners of our own hearts", and this is precisely what Ducard does with Bruce.
To do what he does, and be who he is, Ra's carries an air of confidence that would border on arrogance were it not supported by a wealth of experience, by his training and his sharp intelligence. He is Ra's al Ghul, leader of the League of Shadows, whose eyes are everywhere; an organisation that relies on obedience and precise order to act without being seen, heard of, or noticed. This requires, at its head, a tactician with focus and balance, someone who will do what is necessary, who feels no fear, and has no pity. Ra's does demonstrate pity, during his training sessions with Bruce (such as when he fell into the melted ice), but it is empathy for function that motivates him even then--Bruce is his future protegee, and though he teaches hard lessons, he still needs him alive when they're concluded.
Like any chessmaster, Ra's is focused and attentive to his task, a critical thinker who can follow any particular action through to its conclusion--almost any action. He can predict that Bruce is going to interfere, so he attempts to put him out of commission while he works. He plans and schemes, and develops his moves years in advance. In turn, the League of Shadows plants itself at Gotham's core. Policemen, judges, politicians, (implied: Wayne Enterprises board managers); anything that will advance their plans, or be useful as they come off.
Just as the League of Shadows itself is quiet, and infinitely patient, so too is Ra's. He is a cool collected man, especially during battle, and projects all the elements of a true leader. As he tells Bruce "If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an idea, and if they can't stop you, then you become something else entirely. Legend." Ra's himself is a legend, and when he speaks, he speaks with a calm efficiency, all his words chosen to deliver his message both quickly and elegantly. He is classically trained by his manner of speaking, which is contrary to modern day phrasing, and applies a sharp and toxic wit, especially to those who are utterly irrelevant to the League of Shadows--he doesn't even acknowledge Rachel when she's standing right in front of him.
Nothing of Talia is mentioned in the film, but she is in fact mentioned in the novelisation of the film. A small influence of Ra's history will come from the novel once I get my hands on it (I only heard about this difference last week, while writing this app, and the novel is already on order.) Ra's does however briefly touch on his wife, saying that she had been taken from him, and as he goes on to say (as Henri Ducard, in the process of gaining Bruce's trust) "Anger gives you great power, but if you let it, it will destroy you--as it almost did me." The only thing that saved Ra's, he claims, was taking vengeance
As implied a moment ago, the question of Ra's relationship with Bruce is a difficult one to quantify. On one hand there is Henri Ducard, who is both a mentor, earning respect and trust, and a friend; the one man in the burning mountainside fortress that Bruce goes out of his way to try to save. On the other there is Ra's, the man who says "No one comes out. Make sure." While he burns Wayne Manor to the ground with Wayne himself inside. And: "Now if you excuse me I have a city to destroy." No pity, no hesitation; cold as ice and utterly heartless, he is willing to spare no-one.
The question is--does Henri Ducard as Bruce knows him really exist - did he ever exist - or is his mentorship and camraderie merely an act. Perhaps the former once, before Ra's learned how cruel the world is. Now Henri Ducard is a tool, an act put on to charm, to school Bruce into the role that Ra's has for him so that he simply won't question what he has become when he becomes it. In this, Ra's demonstrates acting skills, and a formidable ability to manipulate the wills and conscience of others with words. Just as in his work, in words he is a tactician too, and he always wins. Morality, ethics, if he is used to his methods being questioned, he is also used to bringing people around to his way of thinking--and if that fails simply killing them.
Most notably, however, to develop the kind of close relationship that he did with Bruce meant removing himself temporarily from the League's workings. They trained sometimes far away from the fortress, camping overnight on glaciers and mountainsides, inevitably meaning that Ra's was away from his purpose, and proposing that training Bruce to join his cause was either critical to the plan for Gotham, for the future of the League of Shadows, or both. To spend such time on the process inevitably meant that it must be important.
Unlike the League of Assassins (Demonfang etc.), there is no motivation of cleansing the earth for the earth's sake within the League of Shadows. The purposes are several. Secondary purposes are to be the hand of justice that the world needs; beyond beaurocracy, unafraid to simply kill murderers and thieves, and cut out the rotton core. Firstly, however, their role is to act as a check against human corruption; "Every time a civilisation reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance." They break whole civilisations; the fall of Constantinople, the Black Death, the Great Fire of London, the Sacking of Rome; all things claimed by Ra's to be the acts of the League of Shadows. It is something that they have done before, efficiently and without hesitation, and there is no doubt at all that it will be Ra's key motivation in Siren's Port. It has already been described by Gotham's Port-ins as worse than Gotham, something that is unlikely to escape Ra's' notice.
Though at one point, Ducard says of Ra's al Ghul "Is (he) immortal? Are his methods supernatural?" the truth is that they are very far from such. We see, in fact, that the methods taught to Bruce are no more supernatural than science, strength, skill and practice. Batman is a monster to Gotham, something to fear, but certainly not human. That is what Ducard teaches Bruce to become, and it is what he employs in concealing his own identity. Unlike the comics, where Ra's al Ghul is said to be hundreds of years old (even he claims to have lost count), this Ra's is apparently a successor to an organisation, someone given the name--or so at least it would seem.
The choice is personal, but since the Nolanverse cautiously errs away from the magical side of Gotham and its supernatural villains and heroes, I will be crossing over choice little of the comics canon, but for perhaps some of his relationship with his daughter. Most importantly no Lazarus pits.
Henri Ducard in the comics is interesting in himself. He trained with Batman, (and also Tim Drake) and much like Nolanverse's Ra's deals out his own brand of justice. However in the comics the two men are not the same person; Ra's is Ra's, and Henri Ducard is Henri Ducard, while Nolan's Ra's is just one of those men wearing the mask of the other. (It is deliberately difficult to tell which.) Friction between AUs in regard to this is certain. "Surely a man who spends his nights scrambling over the rooftops of Gotham wouldn't begrudge me dual identities?" It's almost uncertain whether there is a disconnect to even Ra's himself, or whether in fact he is legitimately both Ducard and al Ghul. Fortunately he's not likely to tell anyone.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: N/A
Character Plans: Short term plan is: quietly skulk around, maybe introduce himself to a few people as Henri Ducard, action logs and anonymous posts, imposing himself on like minded villain types, and developing his power, slipping 'League of Shadows' and 'Ra's al Ghul' into enough conversations that the name begins to be spread around as though they've always existed. 'Have you heard of the League of Shadows' 'Supposedly a man named Ra's al Ghul' etc. With the idea of forming said League in the long run and potential terrorist plots in the far flung future.
Appearance/PB: Qui-Gon Jinn--I mean Liam Neeson or alternatively how can anyone who is supposedly that intelligent commit such a gruesome fashion faux pas? That cape with that sword, what was he thinking.
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[Text/Private/French]
Ra's al Ghul's Journal -- Entry #1
Having arrived in a universe altogether foreign to me, I attempted at first to acclimatise myself to the surroundings. This was remarkably easy. Siren's Port is much like any large city of its kind. Once no doubt splendid, the heights to which the greatest of its citizens has flown is maintained only by the misfortune of any and all that it can crush beneath its weight. The 'fat cats', then, sit at uncanny heights on a foundation of the weak and decrepid (forced to ever greater and more unjust ends to ensure their survival) and would topple easily with just the slightest push.
Moving amongst its underbelly is for the most part a simple affair, made difficult only by the interruption of the Darkness, and the creatures therein. If there were ever an apt allegory for the spread of a civilisation's vile disease, poisoning the will of the people and staining the very ground on which they live their worthless lives, then the Darkness is it. When the sun's light falls, it spreads thick and cloying over everything, throttling the life out of the very air itself. Its existence - as is the existence of this island - is a blight.
Those who live here live out their lives knowing that to die in the Darkness means to become a part of it permanently; such is, as you can imagine, a discomfiting thought. With every death within it the Darkness grows--when does it end, and what will happen if its presence exceeds the confines of this mysterious 'Core' which supposedly prevents its impact on the rest of the world?
None the less, people have been helpful. They answer my questions, except for the one they cannot answer: "What is the League of Shadows?" and then I allow them to leave, knowing that they will ask others that same question. What is the League of Shadows. A work of genius, if I do say so myself.
Bruce is here, but he is different; he has a family, and so, it appears, do I. A grandson by Bruce himself; I admit I would have never have thought of it, and certainly not permitted it. He is still headstrong, still so sure that his way is right. Yet I have hoped, and will continue to, that he will learn in time. These people are not worth saving; they have no interest in saving even themselves.
[Anonymous text/English-Universal]
A moment of your time is all I ask, and in it, the answer to a question that has busied the minds of some of the world's greatest and consequently most idle thinkers. Your philosophical standing is not crucial here, merely answer by instinct.
Is it permissable to deliberately cause unhappiness, destitution or even death to the few, if the resulting consequence is the happiness and well being of the many?
Before you answer, consider:
- Natural selection is seen in nature as a rule; the weak and the sick are picked off by predators, improving the overall health and natural resistance to predators in the long term.
- Human hunters interfere with this process not by killing the weak and sick, but by seeking out the most powerful and fertile beasts, and instead killing those.
- Humans do not suffer from natural selection. The weak and sick are provided the means by which to live in comfort, even reproduce. They are not predated on.
- The value of human life as defined by the Port. From prices placed on people's heads (alive or dead), to the difference between those rich living in their private enclaves and those poor in Sectors 9 and 10, who live without Darkness proofing and what would many would call the basic human right to a safe and comfortable environment.
- If you can bend your mind around the concept, then consider also the role of slavery in the city. Are their human rights the same as yours? Are yours the same as a natural citizen's?
Third Person Sample
You know how to fight six men; we can teach you how to engage six hundred.
It was a debate that had raged for generations; could one man ever truly be more powerful than one million? All men were flesh and bone, all tired--even him. Words were a mere facade that stood between a clever man and the mob, but those who held such power with words were usually men of some standing; Presidents, Emperors, Kings, and all those, too, had fallen to their knees and quivered at the power of the League of Shadows.
And yet one man - one man; a vigilante in a mask, albeit one trained in their ways - had risen up, and with the power of his will, his misplaced desire to save his fetid pit of a city, he had thrown plans that had been in motion for decades to the wind, and severed the head of the demon himself.
That was what Ra's remembered--dying. The impact of the monorail train as it hit the ground hundreds of feet below, of feeling the impact rip through his legs, shattering every bone before it flung him backwards with wreckage, twisted metal and broken chairs. He didn't remember the fireball, but he did recall heat, and a sickening pull in his stomach.
You know how to disappear; we can teach you to become truly invisible.
Since arriving in the Port, that was what he had done, drawing in his cloak of invisibility, biding his time. Vengeance ate at his mind, but ninja were patient, and he could wait years to secure his hold on the city if he must. There was impulse, too--he didn't want to wait for his revenge, what would waiting achieve? Every second that ticked past was an opportunity for Batman to be 'ported out', and where would be his justice then?
He had killed Ra's al Ghul - I don't have to save you - not once, but twice, and for all that this was a different man, the similarities were sufficient to burn at the very heart of his soul every time the word was mentioned; that dark masquerade--the Batman.
The flaws were the same. The emotions. Only the histories were changed.
And there had been whispers:
You must become more than just a man in the mind of your opponent.
At first it had been hard to use his power, but it had quickly become useful to practice it--the art of creating money, for example. Sitting out in the street and placing an imaginary wallet on the ground, he studied the ethics of the people who passed by. Some would gather the wallet up, look around, then fish through it for money. They would take it, drop the wallet on the floor or in the bin, then carry on. Some would walk around it for a while, look around as though wondering what the trick was--or if he was generous, in some few cases looking for the genuine owner, before doing the same. Some would pocket it without question, pretending it was natural, as though recovering their own wallet, and the rare few souls would not look for money but straight to the ID, scanning the information, the photograph, before noticing Ra's and coming over.
The money always vanished after ten minutes or so--it was always more of a crushing blow for the truly corrupt as it was for those who desperately needed it. The corrupt would phone their friends and crow and make plans, but the poor, the downtrodden, were so used to the world's tricks that it came as no great surprise when it turned out to be an illusion.
Ra's al Ghul became a whisper. He employed the work of hushed rumours and frightened conversations, whispered his name to those who were truly insane and let their ramblings go on to frighten others. The League of Shadows, too, was murmured behind dark screens and eyerolled over close table tops. Nobody spoke the words, and yet everyone who needed to know knew them, and the information trickled down.
It was only ever a matter of time; of waiting.
Only a cynical man would call what these people have "lives".
People would always disappoint you. The ones you loved would always die. The world was a cruel and unjust place, and this city even more so. But he alone was constant. He would never learn; that was why he had been such an excellent choice to serve by his side, and one day inherit the League from him. But he was too unpredictable, and Ra's had misjudged him.
An error he would not make three times.
Player notes:
When I considered a fourth character at the beginning of this month I had my mind on James Gordon from this same universe. The question was, did I think I could play him sufficiently seperate to Clark; both are alligned lawful good, both close friends to Batman, and while Clark usually keeps to saving the day rather than crime fighting, with such things as anti-vigilante legislation possibilities etc. the lines just cross way too often.
However, I've had a good run on keeping Clark from being too involved with villains; he's not gone crashing in to solve any of Batman's problems, and I have found that there's plenty enough murder, mischief and mayhem in the city to keep him square away from the other characters I play. I hope I've set a good example re. keeping characters well away from each other. There was one close call re. accidentally ending up with Clark setting up an interview with Phoenix that was simply assumed.
The most important things that are seperating Ra's and my other characters are the following: first, Ra's is an agitator, not a combatant, and he will try to do most of his work from behind the scenes. He will not actively be breaking any laws, much like a mob boss it would be hard to link him to anything specific, and this means that he is by far the least likely character to be engaged with Superman, Sylar or anyone else for that matter. Secondly, and more important re. Clark; Ra's is a Gotham villain, and Clark has sworn to Bruce not to involve himself with them, a promise that he keeps to rigidly.
I hope to get Ra's involved with corners of the Port that I haven't been able to play with throughout my time here. He will be looking for mercenaries, assassins, perhaps even people to train one on one with him, and I hope to branch out and seek out new CR, especially in the first few months while he is engaging in his game of whispers with the city.