Michael Arkangel
Lord Michael Haribert Arkangel (a.k.a. High Evolutionary)
Overview
A genius geneticist, significantly older than he looks, Michael Arkangel benefits from (and expands upon) his mother's work. He faked his death on a human genetics project that was no longer moving in a direction he liked. He took up a crafted identity, abandoning family ties, to start fresh with a completely different approach: uplifting animals into "Nu-Men".
He currently resides in the small Balkan nation of Transia, reigning as "Lord Michael" to the residents of Wundagore Mountain while occasional outside visitors might call him "the High Evolutionary".
Appearance
His white hair and neatly-trimmed beard frame the sort of classic Bavarian square face seen throughout all of history. Michael Arkangel does not wear designer suits because he does not lower himself to tawdry commercial transactions at all; his clothing is always hand-made, from scratch, by craftsmen native to the current area. He does not have a preferred "look" but he will usually reach for cloth samples in cranberry red before anything else.
What most of Arkangel's former underlings tend to remember in his absence is not his face, or even his voice, but his long, sturdy, faintly scarred, oh so clever fingers.
Personality
Michael Arkangel is definitely a "Mad Genius" type with questionable morals. They're far more compassionate morals than the other Arkangel brothers (Simon and Johann), but in the end he still views anyone who is not a Mad Genius as "mere" something or other. Definitely not on his level. So, subconsciously, not entirely qualifying as "people" in his estimation. It's okay to experiment on "mere metahumans" or on those whom he realizes he could evolve to "greater" states of being. He means well! He is uncomfortable when he sees one of his subjects suffering. He just thinks the solution is to erase the pain via Mad Genius biotechnical applications, not to avoid causing it in the first place.
Affiliations
After he left Infinity Inc, Michael wandered around central Eurasia for a while until he had a concrete idea of what he wanted to do in his next project. He partnered with Mobeus Arcane, a genetic engineer, to implement the "Nu-Men Project" and equip the enhanced subjects with the necessary accoutrements to serve Arkangel's will and needs in future works.
History
Records conflict on the origin of the man now known as the High Evolutionary. Almost certainly, "Michael Arkangel" is a pseudonym, probably adopted as a very young man. He is always of comfortable financial resources. He is always in excellent health, despite his apparently advanced years of age. He always travels carelessly, certain that no political barrier will apply to a mind as marvelous as his own, though he is less often seen in nations that waste their residents' time on a lot of silly bureacracy. Certainly he is no immortal: no record of any person matching his description can be found before the early nineteen hundreds.
Michael Arkangel worked on early stages of the Hybrid Minion project at Infinity Inc, under the name "Dr. Michael Wyndham". Once the design phases were complete, his interest was satisfied; his attention wandered to the next interesting challenge. He drew up a proof of concept for using the "braintaping" technology from Hybrid Behavioral Design combined with Sample Cloning from another I.I. project to create quickly-functioning duplicate minions. Something about the entire idea of copying our own work left a bad taste in Michael's mouth, to the point that he argued against the existence of his own corporate division. (Perhaps it was something about the detailed notes from previous employee, Nathaniel Essex?) "Dr. Wyndham" left the company around the time that Acquisitions collected Thomas Arcane as the template from which Hybrid Delta 007e would be created.
Lady Jessica was a case of Michael's past sins coming back to haunt him. He would have helped her anyway, of course! But she is a living reminder that he once led a project to turn people into part-animals and that they suffered terribly throughout. (A much better solution, he decided long ago, was to turn animals into part-human persons.) He has not told Jessica that she is genetically incompatible with basically everyone she knows. Of course, he has never told the rest of the Knights that none of them will ever have children because they are all "proofs of concept".
Contrary to some alternative timeline options, Michael never used the braintaping process to hide some of his own files in the Hybrids. He did, however, actively participate in design, edit, and overwriting of braintape files into various Hybrids. He might secretly have been the reason the Infinity Inc Hybrids were so resilient to mental strain for so long!
GM facts:
Spoilers for Out-of-Character knowledge not accessible to current Player Characters
Dr. Michael Wyndham "died" when the Bloodwyrm Project hit an unexpected snag and the subject lashed out. Simon Arkangel, who knew Dr. Wyndham's actual identity, sincerely grieved the death of his younger brother despite their many differences in viewpoint. If he knows that Michael actually faked his death in order to strike out on his own without interference, Simon can never forgive this callous disregard. He will bide his time, but he will eventually harvest any useful technological advances which "the High Evolutionary" (Simon is too mature to roll his eyes, but these colorful monikers are a sign of a frail mind!) may have developed.
Current Location
Species
Honorary & Occupational Titles
- High Evolutionary
- Lord
- Doctor
Professions
Children
Current Residence
Gender
male
Eyes
grayish blue
Hair
white
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
ruddy white
Height
6'2"
Weight
200 lbs or 91 kg, usually
Aligned Organization
Ruled Locations
Comments