[center][img]http://i1049.photobucket.com/albums/s400/EmperorAquaman/Marvel/Doctor%20Doom/DOOM_by_pacman23_zps574984ba.jpg[/img][/center] | Identity | Victor von Doom | Origin & Backstory | [b]1968-1973: Birth and Exile[/b] [hider]Victor von Doom was born to Cynthia and Werner von Doom in Latveria at the start of the 70s as the country was in the midst of turmoil. The Soviet Union, the dominant military and political power in the region, was putting pressure on the Latverian people to join the USSR. The Latverians had long been a fiercely proud and independent culture and had no desire to succumb to Soviet rule. Unfortunately, the Soviets were not a patient or forgiving group, and rolled their military might into the country, marking the first, and only, time that Latveria was invaded by an outside force. The Soviets killed the Baron who ruled over the country and installed their own puppet, while loyalists went underground to start a resistance. Doom’s parents were part of said resistance, yet celebrated the birth of their son. Werner was a doctor and and a trusted part of the inner council, while Cynthia was a spiritual leader as well as a practitioner of witchcraft. Werner disapproved of his wife’s use of the magical arts, but knew he’d never stop her from it. Instead, he focused his energies on keep Victor away from that side of his mother’s life. Werner discovered the boy had a keen mind, and learned quickly. Werner foster the boy’s growing curiosity, though Cynthia also delighted Victor with small magic tricks.The family was relatively happy, even with the tumultuous situation that surrounded them. That was shattered when the Soviet forces eventually discovered the Resistance’s hiding place. While the two forces clashed, Werner tasked his friend Boris to take Victor with him and escape. Before Victor left, however, he witnessed his mother cast a spell that opened the ground beneath both forces, swallowing the majority of both in hellfire.[/hider] [b]1975-1986: Love, Loss, and Science[/b] [hider]Boris, Victor, and Boris’s daughter Valeria escaped Latveria and Eastern Europe before fleeing to the United States. There, Boris used funds that Werner had squirrelled away to create a comfortable life for his new family. Victor, whose mind was still developing at a rapid rate, was a prodigy in the states. He learned faster than other children, and quickly raised through his schooling. All the while, Victor and Valeria fell deeply in love as they grew up together. Boris approved of the match, as he saw great things in the boy’s future. Happiness it seemed was not meant for Victor von Doom, however. In her mid teens, Valeria was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Victor was devastated, but rarely left her side, even as he was finishing his primary schooling at the age of 16. The two young lovers took comfort in each other as their days dwindled. Valeria passed, and something changed in Victor from that day forward. He became colder, more focused on academia, and less full of life. He graduated high school, and moved onto university where he studied biology, chemistry, and engineering. His main goal, at the time, was to ensure no one ever had to lose someone as he had lost Valeria. During his time in college, Victor met fellow child prodigy and science genius Reed Richards, and the two quickly became friends. They delighted in comparing notes and trying to one-up each other in a friendly competition based in science. The two impressed every professor they came inn contact with, and most believed they would help usher in a new golden age of American discovery.[/hider] [b]1987: Mysticism and Hatred[/b] [hider]While Victor reveled in his scientific achievement, there was still something in the back of his mind that he could never forget. The sight of the power of his mother’s magic was burned into his mind. He had never recovered from the loss of Valeria, and he believed that maybe there was a way to save her from death by learning the tools his mother never had a chance to teach him. Victor threw himself into the study of the mystical arts as he did everything. He learned spells as quickly as he learned equations and theories, and soon became a respectable sorcerer in his own right. Reed was skeptical of all the things his friend claimed he could do, but was never moreso than when Victor told Reed he had a plan that would combine magic and science in order to recall his beloved from the great beyond. Victor asked for his friends help, giving him calculations and a design to finish while Victor worked on the necessary spells. Reed, thinking magic folly, did not follow Doom’s instructions to the letter, instead changing things as he saw fit. The two's relationship had become strained thanks to the emergence of fellow genius Sue Storm, who had come into their life. Reed was smitten with Storm immediately, while Doom had no desire to continue to share his glory with yet another person. Still, the public loved the two more amicable geniuses, while Doom shrunk into the shadows. When it was time to test the machine, Doom’s magic conflicted with the new calibration and backfired, scarring his face. Doom raged against Richards, believing he had cost him his opportunity to see Valeria again. Victor swore revenge against Reed and Storm, and cut off all contact with his former friend. In the months that followed, Victor became even more secluded as he graduated with advanced degrees in all the fields he studied.[/hider] [b]1988-1991: Man in the Iron Mask[/b] [hider]After graduating, Victor von Doom disappeared from the world. He traveled into the dark corners of the globe looking for greater instruction in the ways of magic, as well as a way to increase his own power in the world. He studied under every teacher he could find, learning the different kinds of magic from each corner of the earth. The charismatic and passionate Doom also found others drawn to him in ways he didn’t respect. Many called him a natural leader, which gave him an idea. The Soviet Union was beginning to falter, and that presented Victor with an opportunity to seize power for himself. He went to the CIA and proposed they supply him with the necessary weapons and funds to break the communists’ hold on his homeland. The agency, seeing this as an opportunity to take Latveria’s plentiful natural resources out of Soviet hands, gladly accepted and sent Doom to start recruiting an army. Before returning to his homeland, however, Victor constructed a high tech and mystically enhanced suit of armor which was modeled after traditional Latverian armor. Over this, he cloaked himself in the traditional dark green of the country’s flag, and reemerged in Latveria. Many of the people, who hated the Soviet way of life, joined with their new leader. With the CIA’s weapons and funding, Doom broke his country free in a short, but bloody, revolution. What the Americans did not anticipate, however, was Victor declaring himself monarch of the now sovereign nation, back unanimously by the people. Doom told his CIA contacts that there would never again be a foreign hand in the leadership of Latveria, and that he would see to it they never interfered with his people’s lives.[/hider] [b]1991-2000: Consolidation of Power and Clashes with Fantastic Four[/b] [hider]The first few years of Doom’s reign was focused on keeping the Soviets out of the Latevrian region and getting his country back on track. Doom may have been a power-hungry man, but he genuinely cared about his country and its people. He allowed them to ellect their own senate to help him govern them. Their military was fairly weak, but they got by on the power of Doom himself. Victor struck fear into the hearts of the region, not to mention the international community. NATO and the UN, as well as SHIELD, started surveillance on the monarch. Doom jump started Latveria’s technological and educational efforts, hoping to bring his people to the west’s level in unprecedented time. He also opened his borders to companies like Oscorp and LexCorp, offering them huge tax breaks to bring laboratories into Latverian borders. Doom still desired more, however. His lust for power and revenge against Reed Richards came to a head in 1993 when Richards and his team were going to fly their experimental rocket for the first time. Doom, still bitter over Richards’s accidental sabotage years earlier, had one of his agents infiltrate the rocket and sabotage it in turn. The spacecraft malfunctioned, but turned out to be a mistake on Victor’s part. The four were transformed and given amazing powers. The Fantastic Four, as they were named, became America’s famous superpowered adventurers. Doom was driven half-mad with his failure. While the senate continued to run the country’s advancement, Doom spent his time locked away in his throne room plotting against the Fantastic Four. He designed combat robots he designated the Doombots against them, angered and ancient, subterranean race known as the Moloids to attack them, and even called forth mystical horrors. None of his plans worked, yet Doom kept trying, hiding behind his diplomatic immunity and vast power to escape any jail time. Their adversarial relationship went on for nearly a decade, and Doom never tired. [/hider] [b]2001-2004: Superheroes and Changing Priorities[/b] [hider]On September 11, 2001, the world changed around Victor von Doom. The emergence of Batman and Superman sparked the beginning of a new age of superheroes. America followed by revealing their new Captain America. Wonder Woman graced the shores of man. Tony Stark became the Invincible Iron Man, among many others. Doom was no longer a big fish in a small pond, and he found his plans were foiled time and time again with less effort from his enemies. In order to combat this, Doom decided to redouble his efforts in the political sphere. He began reaching out to the neighboring countries, proposing an alliance of economic, technological, and military might. Apart they would never be superpowers, but together they could be a force to be reckoned with, and none would dilute their cultural heritage again. Initially, Doom did this to secure his own safety, but on a diplomatic trip to Transia that all changed. He came into contact with “the Twins”, two mutants who called Transia home. Wanda and Pietro Maximoff were amazing to Doom, who rarely had come into contact with mutants. Wanda, whose powers were tied to the very fabric of the universe, could see murkily into the future. Doom asked her to share her gift with him, and what he saw shook Doom to the core. He never shared it, but it changed him. He brought them into his inner circle, and from then on he redoubled his efforts in making his country one of the safest and most technologically sound. The neighbors liked what they heard from Doom, and many signed up. In 2004, Victor von Doom introduced the world to the Latverian Union, cementing his status as an important world leader.[/hider] [b]2005-Present: Change the Future[/b] [hider]In the time after the Latverian Union, Doom began his secretive plan to do what he could to change the future he saw in Wanda’s vision. He upped production of Doombots, intending them to be Latveria and her allies’ first line of defense. He also send Silver Sable and the Wild Bunch, a group of Symkarian mercenaries to hunt down HYDRA bases in search of artifacts that Doom required. At the present, Victor has finally tracked down one of the ancient weapons he needs to put his plans into motion. While Victor may believe he has the best intentions for humanity, his methods will always be questionable, and he will not suffer fools who disobey the will of Doom.[/hider] | Attributes | Victor is one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world, rivaling even the Sorcerer Supreme Steven Strange. He was taught at a young age by his gypsy witch mother, and later completed his own training during his years of exile from Latveria. Even while he was honing his mind as one of the smartest men on the planet, Doom knew his mystical arts would be the key in achieving his goals. Outside of the mystical arts, Victor is one of the finest scientific and strategic minds on the planet. The only man smarter, much to Doom’s chagrin, was Reed Richards. Doom’s vast intellect has allowed him to design his powerful suit of armor, which grants him enhanced strength, durability, various defense mechanisms, infrared and night vision, as well as multiple mystical properties, including splinters of the rumored True Cross. As monarch of Latveria, Doom has diplomatic immunity and vast resources at his disposal. | Character Notes | [hider=Allies] [b]Count Werner Zytle[/b] - The leader of the country of Vlatava and member of the Latveria League. Zytle is known as “Count Vertigo” in criminal circles and is one of the world’s most prolific drug kings. His public face is much more reputable, and is seen as an affable leader of Vlatava. [b]Silver Sable and the Wild Bunch[/b] - A group of Symkarian mercenaries that Doom has hired to seek out HYDRA and AIM targets he desires intel from. They believe they are searching for HYDRA war criminals who ran after Doom stabilized the region. In reality, they aren’t wrong, but they’re also tracking down potential targets that Doom is searching for. [b]Wanda and Pietro Maximoff[/b] - Twin mutants from Transia who helped Doom and the Latverian Union while they were quagmired in the country. Wanda and Pietro are now trusted agents of Doom.[/hider] [hider=Enemies] [b]The Future Foundation[/b] - The Future Foundation has opposed Doom at every step. Reed Richards, the leader of the group and Doom’s sworn enemy, is the only man who Doom admits can match his intellect. Ever since Doom’s supposed “reformation”, Reed has kept a close watch on his old rival. The other members of the Foundation dislike Doom, though he holds them no ill will as long as they stay out of his way. [b]SHIELD and The Avengers[/b] - America’s superhuman peacekeeping force, and their “trained monkeys”, as Doom calls them, have kept an annoyingly close watch on him since the formation of the Latverian Union. Doom doesn’t see the Avengers as much of a threat, as their only heavy hitter is a potentially unstable Captain Atom. [b]The Justice League[/b] - The Justice League is considered by Victor as his biggest threat. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman in particular are worrying to him. Still, he does his best to keep his movements hidden from them.[/hider] | Character Goals | Doom is possibly one of the greatest threats there is in comic books. As one of the few PC villains in the game, he’d be able to interact and interfere with any hero that happened to get in his way. I have, at the very least, one incredibly Doom-y arc that I’m going to start with, and see where it goes from there. Doom will believe he’s in the right in this game. He believes in the needs of survival over the needs of keeping people alive, and he’ll do whatever he needs to in order to reach his goals. | Sample Post | [b]Fortress von Doom Doomstadt, Latveria[/b] The cold winds of Latveria swirled around the parapet as Doom surveyed his lands. Latveria was a gorgeous country, and Doom’s heard swelled with pride as he overlooked the gothic-styled city that was the beating heart of the country. The roofs of the city stabbed into the air like spikes waiting for the gods to fall on them, and behind the city the Doom’s Crest Mountains created a natural barrier that had protected this city from harm in nearly every major war. Doomstadt, and in all reality all of Latveria, was a natural fortress. It was this fact that allowed the country’s vast natural resources and ecological diversity to stay mostly intact throughout the centuries. Doom smiled at the thought that this was now his. But not only his. The people of Latveria were once again under their own rule. True, he was their monarch, but he allowed them democratic elections for the senate. He listened to the officials when he agreed it was the best course of action. On top of that, he had other matters to attend to outside the running of the country. “Lord Doom,” a mechanical voice said from behind him. Doom turned to face on of his many mechanica bodyguards and doubles, designated the Doombots. They were as advanced as any robotics on the planet, and were as deadly as nearly any fighting force. “Ambassador Gorzenko has reported back from the Latevrian League meeting. Everything went well, though you absence was noted.” Doom nodded. The League had been invaluable to stabilizing the region he now more or less ruled. The Soviet rats that had grabbed power here as their ship sank had nearly ripped the region apart, and he and his allies had put it back together. Now they led Eastern Europe towards a golden age the region had never seen. The people were healthier and happier, their economies boomed, and their technological levels quickly were matching the rest of the west. More importantly, however, their progress struck fear in the rest of the world. Fear kept people off balance. Fear blinded people. Fear allowed Victor von Doom to make his way towards his endgame. Most would see his plans as evil or disgusting. In reality, Doom knew it was necessary for humanity’s survival. They were on their way towards annihilation. They knew it not, but Doom had seen it, and he would not allow it to come to pass. “What of the search?” Doom asked his mechanical servant. “One base was discovered in the Alps, my lord,” the Doombot reported. “We can have a force ready to attack it in hours.” Victor turned back to look over his city and seethed, “No. I shall do this myself. It has been too long since our enemies knew the wrath of Doom. Prepare three guards. I will leave at nightfall.” Soon Doom would secure the first piece of his puzzle. After that, the rest of the pieces would fall into place quickly. In the end, Victor would have all he needed to do what needed to be done.