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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Davies" data-source="post: 8348290" data-attributes="member: 30538">Illuminatus<img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-sNBvnLL/0/e9a81ace/S/illuminatus-S.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Up to a point, the story of George Collard is almost identical to that of the man who was first his greatest rival, then his nemesis -- Andrew Lewis, aka the Iconoclast. They were both wealthy and intelligent young men who were, in 1947, recruited as agents of the Golden Mean, and given training that turned them into physical paragons to match their intellect. The difference came in their motivations. Lewis apparently viewed the Golden Mean's goals as impossible, and was only interested in living an exciting and interesting life. Collard was a true believer in the group's agenda, and intended to one day become its leader and thus the secret ruler of America, and in time the world.They did not get on, in other words. On several occasions during the following decade, Collard interfered with Lewis' missions for the secret society, usually failing to cause them to fail, but generally making them harder than they had to be. As Lewis didn't particularly care whether he succeeded or not, as long as he had a good time, this didn't bother him, but on one occasion he was annoyed enough by the interference to retaliate in kind, and caused a major operation that Collard was supervising to fail in a particularly humiliating manner. And Collard couldn't prove his involvement at all.Soon after this, the Golden Mean ordered Lewis to infiltrate the Institute, resulting in the birth of the Iconoclast. Still smarting over his failure, Collard tried to sabotage this operation in turn, but repeatedly failed -- either due to bad luck or because Lewis was actually taking this particular assignment more seriously than he usually did. His frustration boiled over, and Lewis developed a costumed identity of his own, trying to become the Iconoclast's archenemy under the name Illuminatus. This didn't work either, and for a time Collard went into hiding, certain that Lewis had to have recognized him -- that stupid mask didn't really cover anything, after all -- and would report him to the Golden Mean's leaders, this time. When he finally realized that this was never going to happen, Collard achieved a new level of anger and spite. He resolved to continue his career as Illuminatus, but he was done trying to just interfere with the operation. He was going to kill the miserable bastard who viewed him as so irrelevant. (Ironically, it seems that Lewis believed that Collard was actually under orders to help him.)They clashed again and again through the next decade, with Illuminatus becoming one of the members of the Agents of Destruction at one point. When one of the leaders of the Golden Mean discovered his activities, Collard reluctantly agreed to become the other man's personal agent, gaining access to greater resources for his war against Lewis in exchange for a loss of autonomy. Yet no matter what sort of brilliant scheme he devised, the Iconoclast found his way out of it, and often sent Illuminatus to jail ... from which he was promptly (but sometimes not too promptly) freed by his patron.And then the Iconoclast died, and Collard presented it to the Golden Mean as his ultimate triumph over their renegade member. (Of course, he hadn't actually had anything to do with it, but they didn't know that.) With a certain amount of reluctance, they gave him a seat at the table on the condition that he abandon his costumed hijinx, which he was more than happy to do. He would have enough on his plate scheming to become the first among his supposed peers, after all.Six years later, he had achieved that goal, but the Golden Mean that Collard commanded was a hollow shell compared to the organization which had recruited him. Two-thirds of the other leaders had stopped bothering to attend meetings, and his efforts to compel their return were thorough failures. Too late, it became clear to Collard that while he was a cunning strategist -- if perhaps not quite so cunning as he believed -- he lacked the ability to persuade others to follow his strategies, and had gradually seen the ability to force them to do so slip out of his hands.Collard thus responded favorably to the invitation he received from Pythia, delivering what remained of the Golden Mean's assets into the hands of the Insurgency she was creating in exchange for the title Director of Subversion. Like all of the Directors, he schemed to gain power at the expense of the rest of them with the goal of eventually toppling Pythia and seizing control of the organization. But the Insurgency was not the Golden Mean, and his fellows were perfectly willing to answer his schemes with lethal force. George Collard was murdered in 1987, after one of his plans annoyed General Estrella just a bit too much.Iluminatus -- PL 8Abilities:STR 3 | STA 2 | AGL 4 | DEX 4 | FGT 6 | INT 6 | AWE 4 | PRE 5Powers:Striking Strength: Strength-based Damage 2 - 2 pointsAdvantages:Agile Feint, Assessment, Benefit 3 (millionaire), Connected, Contacts, Defensive Roll, Equipment 8, Fascinate (Deception), Improved Hold, Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, Jack-of-all-Trades, Languages 3 (several), Power Attack, Redirect, Taunt, Uncanny Dodge, Well-informed.Equipment:40 points of equipment as needed.Skills:Acrobatics 5 (+10), Athletics 5 (+8), Close Combat: Unarmed 5 (+11), Deception 8 (+13), Expertise: High Society 4 (+10), Expertise: Streetwise 4 (+10), Insight 6 (+10), Intimidation 6 (+11), Investigation 5 (+11), Perception 7 (+11), Persuasion 3 (+8), Ranged Combat: Throwing 5 (+9), Sleight of Hand 6 (+10), Stealth 7 (+11), Technology 6 (+12), Vehicles 6 (+10).Offense:Initiative +8Unarmed +11 (Close Damage 5)Defense:Dodge 9, Parry 11, Fortitude 4, Toughness 4/2, Will 7.Totals:Abilities 74 + Powers 2 + Advantages 25 + Skills 44 + Defenses 13 = 158 pointsComplications:Power--Motivation. Nemesis (the Iconoclast.) Secret (identity, true masters.)Note: Character concept by Voltron64.</blockquote>

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