Wind-Rider Hero
Real Name: Ororo (last name, if any, is unrevealed).
Occupation: Protector, weather goddess.
Identity: Publicly known.
Legal Status: Presumably a citizen of either Kenya, Uganda, or Wakanda, no known criminal record in any of these countries.
Other Aliases: "Silverhair".
Place of Birth: Unrevealed.
Marital Status: Single.
Known Relatives: None.
Group Affiliation: Sometime partner of the Panther.
Base of Operations: Mobile across Sub-Sahara Africa.
First Post-Reboot Appearance: LOST WORLD OF WAKANDA #26.
History: The origins of the woman known to the public as Wind-Rider are presently unknown; she has revealed her given name to be Ororo. She first appeared a few years ago in the area around Lake Victoria in Africa as a young woman in her mid teens, using her ability to manipulate the local weather to assist the local Bantu tribes in preventing droughts. These actions led her to be worshipped by the people of western Kenya, eastern Uganda, and Wakanda as a nature goddess, or at the least the avatar of one.
Ororo first met T'Challa, the new ruler of Wakanda, during his rite of passage in finding a rare herb that grows in a secluded valley along Wakanda's northern border with Kenya and Uganda. As she assisted him in this trial, a romance blossomed between the two, and she accompanied him back to the royal palace in Wakanda. It was as a royal guest in Wakanda that she was given her current uniform; "attire suitable for a goddess" is how T'Challa's royal outfitter put it, though Ororo was quick to point out that she was no goddess, at least not one like Thor and Hercules over in America.
Ororo later assisted T'Challa in protecting Wakanda's Great Vibranium Mound against Ulysses Klaw, who intended to exploit the properties of this unique metal. She later accompanied T'Challa to a meeting of world leaders in New York City, despite the fact that the two have not yet married.
Age: 20.
Height: 5' 9".
Weight: 155 lbs.
Eyes: Blue.
Hair: White.
Uniform: Originally none; presently a black leather strapless leotard with gold trim, thigh-high black boots with three inch heels and gold trim, gold bracelets, a black cape with gold trim attached to the leotard via gold-colored loose over-the-shoulder connectors and the bracelets, and black tiara. Her tiara hides a number of lockpicks.
Strength Level: Ororo possesses the normal human strength of a woman her age, height, and build who engages in moderate exercise.
Known Superhuman Powers: Wind-Rider possesses the ability to control the weather over a variable area that has not yet exceeded a ten mile radius, usually restricting herself to a mile radius. She is able to generate localized winds which enable her to fly or carry up to two other people aloft, small rain clouds which produce either a gentle drizzle or a torrential downpour, thick pea-soup fog, and call forth lightning from the sky.
As a side effect of her powers, Ororo is unaffected by temperature extremes, remaining comfortable in cold mountain air while wearing next to nothing or walking across the sands of the Sahara during the hottest part of the day without incident. It is unknown whether she'd be able to handle arctic temperatures or the inside of a volcano; the latter seems highly unlikely.
Occasionally, when she lets her concentrations slip, the weather in her local vicinity has been known to reflect her mood; clear skies when cheerful or stormy when upset or frustrated.
Unknown to Ororo, she possesses the potential to become a powerful sorceress.
Other Abilities: Ororo is a skilled survivalist. She is also a skilled pickpocket and lock-picker, though where she learned these skills is currently unknown.
Limitations: Ororo is deathly claustrophobic, and will panic when trapped in an enclosed space with no apparent way out.
1,763 points
Attributes: ST 11 [10]; DX 13 [60]; IQ 11 [20]; HT 12 [20].
Secondary Characteristics: Dmg 1d-1/1d+1; BL 24 lbs.; HP 13 [4]; Will 14 [15]; Per 12 [5]; FP 12 [0]; Basic Speed 6.25 [0]; Basic Move 6 [0]; Dodge 10.
Languages: Arabic (Accented) [4]; English (Accented) [4]; Swahili (Native) (Native Language) [0].
Cultural Familiarities: Middle Eastern [1]; Sub-Saharan Africa (Native) [0].
Advantages: Absolute Direction [5]; Appearance (Very Beautiful) [16]; Burning Attack (Lightning Bolt) 5d (Damage Modifier: Surge, Arcing, +100%; Increased 1/2D Range ×10, +15%; Malediction: Long-Range Modifiers, +200%; Overhead, +30%; Variable, +5%; Weather Control, -10%) [110]; Combat Reflexes [15]; Control Weather 10 (Natural Phenomena, +100%; Persistent, +40%; Requires Concentrate, -15%; Super-Effort, +400%; Weather Control, -10%) [1,230]; Create Water 3 (Persistent, +40%; Weather Control, -10%; Alternative Ability, ×1/5) [4]; Fit [5]; Flight (Affects Others 2, +100%; Planetary, -5%; Weather Control, -10%) [74]; Hard to Kill 3 [6]; Hard to Subdue 3 [6]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Magery 0 [5]; Obscure (Fog) 8 (Area Effect: 1.2 miles (Variable, +5%), +525%; Ranged, +50%; Alternative Ability, ×1/5) [22]; Outdoorsman 3 [30]; Reputation (Benevolent Weather Goddess) 4 (All the Time; Small Class of People) [6]; Street-Smart 3 [15]; Temperature Control 10 (Weather Control, -10%; Alternative Ability, ×1/5) [9]; Temperature Tolerance 3 [3]; Voice [10]; Weather Control Talent 4 [20].
Perks: Cloaked [1]; Pressure Tolerant Lungs (Thin) [1].
Disadvantages: Charitable (9) [-22]; Guilt Complex [-5]; Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents) [-10]; Phobia (Claustrophobia: Enclosed Spaces) (6) [-30]; Sense of Duty (Nature) [-20]; Truthfulness (9) [-7]; Wealth (Struggling) [-10].
Quirks: Broad-Minded [-1]; Distinctive Feature (Long Mane of White Hair) [-1]; Enamored With T'Challa [-1]; Expression ("Bright Lady!" or "Goddess!") [-1]; Formal Speech [-1].
Skills: Artillery (Lightning) (A) IQ+1 [4] – 12; Brawling (E) DX+0 [1] – 13; Breath Control (H) HT+0 [4] – 12; Camouflage (E) IQ+3 [2] – 15*; Carousing (E) HT+1 [2] – 13; Climbing (A) DX+1 [4] – 14; Current Affairs/TL8 (Lake Victoria, Africa) (E) IQ+1 [2] – 12; Escape (H) DX+1 [8] – 14; Fast-Draw (Knife) (E) DX+1 [1] – 14†; Filch (A) DX+1 [4] – 14; First Aid/TL8 (Human) (E) IQ+2 [4] – 13; Fishing (E) Per+3 [1] – 15*; Forced Entry (E) DX+1 [2] – 14; Hiking (A) HT+0 [2] – 14; Judo (H) DX+0 [4] – 13; Jumping (E) DX+0 [1] – 13; Knife (E) DX+2 [4] – 15; Knot-Tying (E) DX+1 [2] – 14; Lockpicking/TL8 (A) IQ+3 [12] – 14; Naturalist (Earth) (H) IQ+2 [2] – 13*; Navigation/TL8 (Air) (A) IQ+5 [1] – 16*‡; Navigation/TL8 (Land) (A) IQ+5 [1] – 16*‡; Observation (A) Per+1 [4] – 13; Pickpocket (H) DX+1 [8] – 14; Running (A) HT+0 [2] – 12; Search (A) Per+0 [2] – 12; Shadowing (A) IQ+3 [2] – 14§; Stealth (A) DX+1 [4] – 14; Streetwise (A) IQ+3 [2] – 14§; Survival (Desert) (A) Per+3 [2] – 15*; Survival (Jungle) (A) Per+3 [2] – 15*; Survival (Plains) (A) Per+3 [2] – 15*; Swimming (E) HT+1 [2] – 13; Thrown Weapon (Knife) (E) DX+1 [2] – 14; Tracking (A) Per+1 [1] – 14*; Urban Survival (A) Per+2 [1] – 14§; Weather Control (H) Will+6 [12] – 20#; Weather Sense (A) IQ+5 [4] – 16#; Wrestling (A) DX+0 [2] – 13.
Starting Spending Money: $2,000 (20% of Starting Wealth).
* Includes +3 from Outdoorsman.
† Includes +1 from Combat Reflexes.
‡ Includes +3 from Absolute Direction.
§ Includes +3 from Street-Smart.
# Includes +4 from Weather Control Talent.
Role-Playing Notes:
Wind-Rider is strong-willed and independent. Although she accepts that she is worshipped as a living goddess or avatar of a goddess by the people living around Lake Victoria, she does not actively seek out worshipers. She will act to stop activities she feels are abhorrent to nature, such as human sacrifice and poaching for sport. She is a caring soul and will seek to alleviate suffering wherever she finds it.
Wind-Rider is deeply religious, worshipping an as-yet-unnamed goddess (presumably the Bantu nature goddess).
Design Notes:
1. I haven't decided yet whether Wind-Rider is a mutant (with Mutant Psionic, -10%) or if her powers are magical (-10%) in nature. There's evidence to go either way; even in the mainstream comics her status as a mutant has occasionally been called into question after it was revealed her mother's lineage was that of a line of African witches. She personally believes her powers were granted by the nature goddess she worships (which would be Divine, -10%). As such, I've listed "Weather Control, -10%" as her power modifier without describing exactly which it is.
2. I have been asked, "why call her 'Wind-Rider' and not 'Storm'?" The answer to this is that, in the comics, the name 'Storm' was given to her by Xavier when she joined the X-Men; references to her youth had folks calling her either by her given name or by the epitaph 'Wind-Rider'. There is no logical reason I can think of for her to take the name 'Storm' while still living in Africa.
3. I'm uncertain as to the tech level of the Lake Victoria area. Is it TL8, TL6 (early 20th Century), a split TL with access to TL8 but unable to naturally support more than TL6, or some other TL? As such, I've not adjusted Ororo's native TL from the campaign baseline of TL8, though some skills – most notably Current Affairs and Navigation – I can see her having at a lower TL (though not likely to go below TL6).
4. I’ve deliberately kept some of her past shrouded in mystery. Was she a child thief in Cairo, like her mainstream counterpart? Evidence certainly points that way, but why reveal all the details in her first few appearances?