In CoH I had a character idea using the asymmetric ‘robotic’ arm which I turned into a Broadsword/Regeneration Scrapper. With a few ideas stolen from the ‘Iron Giant’ movie, I envisioned a ‘regenerating’ robotic character.
[URL=http://s105.photobucket.com/user/fireheart5150/media/My%20Characters/Clang1.jpg.html][IMG]http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m207/fireheart5150/My%20Characters/th_Clang1.jpg[/IMG][/URL] (click for bigger images) [URL=http://s105.photobucket.com/user/fireheart5150/media/My%20Characters/Clang2.jpg.html][IMG]http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m207/fireheart5150/My%20Characters/th_Clang2.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
After CoH, a friend was trying to get me involved in a supers RPG (WtC), grabbed my character-list and said, "Let's make Clang in the WtC system."
So I started writing, trying to explain the character, had a Bunch of different memes and ideas trying to be expressed and came up with something I really liked. Basically an expansion of Clang’s more basic old CoH biography, but drawing in more background and lore. In the end, I made him an unusual ‘Enforcer’ type.
[h2]Name: Clang[/h2]
[h3]Identity: Clang[/h3]
[b]Archetype:[/b] ‘Enforcer’
[b]Primary:[/b] Big Sword
[b] Secondary:[/b] Toughness and Self-Repair/Healing
[b]Movement:[/b] Super-Speed and Super-Jumping
[h3] Clang’s Story [/h3]
Excavating a 50,000 year-old quarry site, University archeologists found a strange bit of metal, crushed beneath a 20-ton megalith. Under the huge stone, they discovered a giant, man-like figure, crafted of some unknown alloy. They shipped the metal-man back for further study, but the crate was mislabeled in the warehouse and lost in storage.
Ten years later, a careless handyman dropped a live wire across the inert form causing it to suddenly spring to life! Confused by his new surroundings, the ancient automaton went into escape and evasion mode, leading campus security on a wild chase. After escaping the campus, it sought out another strange object hidden in a private warehouse of unearthed antiquities. A slagged, time-worn, precious device, melted down and forged into a two-handed battle-blade, which he handles single-handed.
After the hullabaloo settled, students from the university found the old robot huddled under a pedestrian bridge and befriended him. They took him to the student union and set him up with an out of the way seat, where they could visit him any time. The students set him up with a bootleg account on the local wifi network and introduced him to the internet. Passers-by noted the immobile form sitting in the dim corner, but presumed it was just some student prank, or art project.
Asked for his name, the ancient automaton emitted a sound like a broken bell, so the students started calling him ‘Clang’. Over time the students learned that he had originally been programmed as a guardian and worker, but now he had to find a new purpose, unless he could find his way back to his origins.
Which were odd. The students eventually worked out that he had come in support of an expedition from an advanced extradimensional humanlike society. They speculated that there had been some sort of terrible accident, causing the android to be crushed under the huge stone, other equipment was damaged, and the expedition withdrew in a panic.
His sword had been a communication and recall device, before it was damaged and later forged into a blade by historic humans, and it still resonates with the original signal. However, there’s no telling if anyone can receive or respond, across the barriers between dimensions and time. Still, even after all that’s happened, Clang can use the ‘Space Antenna’ to send and receive signals from great distances. With it in hand, Clang can always access the Internet, save in places that are shielded from radio waves.
Eventually, the students encouraged the ancient guardian to take his mission out into the world, to join a crisis response team and be a hero. After due consideration and research, the android took steps to do so.
Just one warning – Clang is a cannibal.
**Clang eats metals to power his ancient reactor and regenerate damage. Other robots happen to be tasty. High-quality refined metals, like those used in vehicles, industrial machinery and, yes, automatons, are especially appropriate for his power and repair systems, so they ‘taste’ good to him. Composite materials, like plastics are more like ‘candy’, a light, sweet snack, but not as ‘filling’, not as useful to his systems.
[h3]Appearance and Personality[/h3]
About 7 feet tall, give or take the fin-like crest atop his head, his form is long and slender, save for the comparatively massive right forearm and hand. He is formed of a strange, silvery-brown alloy, or perhaps that’s a form of rust.
Clang is a being of few words, rarely saying more than ‘yes’, ‘no’, or ‘maybe’, despite understanding dozens of this world’s languages. He may, rarely, be abstracted enough to not pay attention to his surroundings, due to surfing the internet, but otherwise, he always knows where he is and what’s going on. He just quietly does his job.
What do you think?
Be Well!
Fireheart