Metatextually, this character was a Sixties creation that made irregular appearances for years afterward, most often appearing in badly-researched time-travel pieces from the start of the Roman Empire forward. Eventually some bright spark got the idea of having him appear in the modern day as a costumed hero rather than a resident of the past. He showed up more often in this role but never got a solo book. As a nod to his creator, his first appearance in costume was established to be the same date in the Sixties that the character was originally published - in a story set far in the past.
Praevalidus (civilian identity: originally Mercurius Atticus Octavianus, modern day Atticus Roman)
Three years after becoming Emperor Augustus, Octavius Caesar initiated a project meant to enhance his soldiers into veritable demigods. A hidden college of scholars and priests from across the known world was assembled, and the Imperial Legions were dispatched to gather the esoteric materials, strange relics and cryptic writings they called for. Before long the first experimental processes were ready, meant to meld divine powers with mortal men. The test subjects were legionaries were who "volunteered" (often by dissatisfied commanders) and losses were high, but eventually there were successes.
The first "Praevalidus Miles" (roughly "Mighty Soldier" in English) was a ten-year veteran named Atticus, who survived being immersed in a vat of carefully-diluted water from the river Styx. Previous attempts had left the subject either simply dead or frozen into a still-living statue of iron that took weeks to starve to death. Atticus not only came out unharmed, he'd acquired a portion of the Greek hero Achilles' invulnerability. Sage advice ("Get in there and really wallow around. Dunk your head. Keep your eyes and mouth open. Maybe spread your cheeks a bit.") had avoided the weak spot problem, but the protection wasn't as total as the legend claimed and he could still be cut or bruised if hit hard enough. The process was far from perfect and the survival rate was still very low, but it was a success, and spurred further experiments. By the time Augustus passed away the Roman Emoire had over a dozen super-soldiers with a variety of powers and the college became a fixture that would last almost as long as the empire itself.
For reasons unknown, Atticus remained the most successful of his kind and underwent other procedures that granted him the reflexes worthy of one of Mercury's offspring, bonds with a variety of exotic Egyptian divine weapon/tools that somehow merged into a strange gestalt form, and the power to change his shape into a bull-like Greek monstrosity. Someone eventually noticed that he'd acquired immortality at some point, which started a brief furor as the mortal scholars struggled to discover how to duplicate the effect. Nothing came of it, nor (as far as anyone knows) did any of the other Praevalidus Miles through the centuries become ageless, though none died of old age.
After this discovery, Atticus was increasingly used to hunt down likely resources for more and more extreme experiments, something which earned him the (largely ineffective) wrath of minor deities, spirits, and stranger things. He kept coming back with the goods, and lived through dozens, hundred, and eventually thousands of procedures. Few of them added discernably to his abilities, but the options available to him for shapechanging and with his equally morphic weapon grew and grew. The only major change came, ironically, from a failed shattering curse that let him send out short-lived duplicates of himself to aid himself and his allies.
Regrettably, for all his growing power he couldn't be everywhere, and his fellow super-soldiers never achieved the same heights, nor did their ranks ever exceed twenty active members at a time. There were less than eight others just before Rome was sacked in 410 AD, and from then till the final fall in 476 Atticus fought alone.
He survived to mourn the glory of Rome, but in the end he moved on to a wandering life, fighting for what causes he deemed worthy, dealing with occasional manifestations of his many curses, and encountering the strangest people. Many were oddly-clothed people who demonstrated powers akin to his own, all of whom claimed to have come from other times in the past or future when questioned. Many seemed confused at first, having expected to appear somewhere else, and some were quite hostile about it. Atticus and the more friendly travelers eventually worked out that something about him seemed to attract those who were out of place in time to his vicinity, perhaps another of the curses laid on him. He found he was anchored in time himself, and could only travel through it by passing passing one day after another.
Having eventually reached the present day of the campaign, the modern Atticus has adopted the rather grandiose supranym of Praevalidus and joined the hero community. After thousands of years spent fighting he no longer takes things as seriously as once did, although he's still quick to take action when needed.
If encountered earlier in his long lifetime (a likely occurrence) he'll be very different, almost always a mysterious military man of some kind, and often unhappy to see yet another lot of strange meddlers cross his path. That said, he knows good from evil, and will aid time-lost heroes as best he can.
Description: A solidly-built man, a little short by modern standards. His outfit varies depending on the era you meet him in, but always has a military feel to it if it isn't an actual uniform. If he's caught up to the current day of the campaign he'll have adopted a costume for show, with blue pants, black boots, and a red tunic top with blue detailing. His signature weapon is polymorphic (even splitting into multiple blades or ever-loaded bows and infinite javelins) but can't adopt the form of anything more recent than 476 AD. His voice is powerful but coarse, with what might be an Italian accent. Most of the many languages he speaks are dead, or barely recognizable to modern speakers.
Gender: Male Age: Born 50 BC (appears ~25) Height: 5'8" Eyes: Brown
Hair: Dark Brown, Curly Skin: Deep Mediterranean Tan Build: Sturdy
Background: Adventurer Power Source: Cursed Archetype: Close Quarters Combatant
Personality: Decisive Health (G/Y/R): 28/21/10
Powers: Arsenal of the Gods d10, Agility d8, Duplication d8, Shapeshifting d8
Qualities: Close Combat d12, Eternal Roman Super-Soldier d8, History d8, Leadership d6
Status: Green (28-22) - d8 / Yellow (21-11) - d8 / Red (10-1) - d8
Abilities:
Green
Millennia of Practice (I) Whenever you roll a one on your dice, you may reroll any number of those dice. You must accept the results of those rerolls,
More Than Mere Weaponry (A) Take any two basic actions using Arsenal of the Gods. Use your Min die for each.
Principle of Mastery (A) Overcome in a situation that uses your powers in a new way. Use your Max die. You and your allies each gain a Hero Point. Minor twist: How did your powers fail you in the moment? Major twist: What side effects are you suffering from your powers? RP: You have thoroughly studied your own powers and are proud of your mastery of them. You understand a good deal about the metaphysics of your powers.
Principle of the Veteran (A) Overcome a tactical challenge using knowledge of a previous conflict.. Use your Max die. You and your allies each gain a Hero Point. Minor twist: What about the current conflict affected you emotionally? Major twist: How are you withdrawing from the current conflict? RP: You remain clear-headed under intense combat situations.
Unmatched Skill (A) Attack using Close Combat. Use your Max die.
You Actually Fell For That Trick? (A) Attack a minion using Shapeshifting. Whatever that minion rolls a save also becomes an Attack on on another target of your choice..
Yellow
Call Up the Legion (A) Boost all nearby allies using Duplication. Use your Max + Mid dice. Hinder yourself using your Min die.
Chimeric Form (A) Boost yourself using Shapeshifting. Then, either remove a penalty from yourself or Recover Health using your Min die.
No Defense (A) Attack using Close Combat. This Attack ignores all penalties and Defend effects, and no reactions can be taken against it.
Red
Countless Lives Within Me (A) Hinder yourself using Duplication. Use your Min die. Recover Health equal to your Max + Mid dice.
Monstrous Evasion (R) When you are Attacked, Defend against that Attack and Boost yourself using your single Shapeshifting die.
Unshaken (I) When you use an ability action, you may also perform any one basic action using your Mid die.
Out
Aid My Allies! (A) Boost an ally using Arsenal of the Gods.
Tactics
Praevalidus has spent almost 2000 years training himself in the fighting arts and his own supernatural powers, but he's still pushing to improvise and master new tricks. This shows up first in his Millennia of Practice dice-fixer and recurs in the supremely versatile More Than Mere Weaponry ability, which he'll often use to Attack and Boost, storing up small bonuses for later use. If there are minions (especially strong ones) he loves using You Actually Fell For That Trick? to use them to attack a more durable threat while also wearing them down. If he needs big single-target damage his Unmatched Skill in melee provides it. Principle of the Veteran is quite easy to use thanks to his long and conflict-filled life, and Principle of Mastery encourages innovative uses for his grab-bag of powers.
In Yellow, No Defense lets him deal with even the trickiest foes under the most difficult situations. Chimeric Form offers a stronger Boost option combined with either penalty removal or self-healing, often with some bonus support from earlier turns. Call Up the Legion summons temporary duplicates that grant powerful bonuses to his allies at the cost of some strain to himself, and is one time he might not want to reroll a one.
Red opens up a chance to make a quick return to Yellow Health with the combination of Countless Lives Within Me and Unshaken. His Monstrous Evasion reaction improves the chances of living long enough to do that combo. and provides yet another moderate bonus for he to work with when he does.
Even when Out his morphing, semi-sapient driven weapon continues to hand out bonuses with Aid My Allies!
Design Notes
This hero got a rather extensive writeup because he was a birthday request from a fellow player my current PbP game, and I figured I'd better give him some extra effort.
Some of his powers are worth further description:
Arsenal of the Gods is a collection of multiple weapons and implements stolen from the divine regalia of half a dozen pantheons. It manifests as whatever weapon or tool Praevalidus desires, with the limitation that nothing more recent that the early 5th century AD is available (which is when he stopped getting regular upgrades). The thing can do miraculous staves or paired blades easily enough, but any sort of firearm is far beyond its time. It's also become semi-sentient and can follow instructions to a limited degree.
Duplication creates temporary copies of Atticus, usually dressed in Roman Legionary uniforms. He can vary their appearances to copy later periods of his lifetime, up to and including his hero costume, but the days of Rome are just easier for him.
Shapechanging is limited to any of a wide variety of mythological creatures captured from fables across the breadth of the Roman Empire. The menu of available forms is largely drawn from Greece, Rome and Egypt with a few additions from Western Europe.
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