Simon Arkangel
Director Simon Arkangel (a.k.a. the Benefactor | The Man In White)
Overview
Like many a science-based supervillain, he is interested in defeating mortality: his own, and then anyone's who can pay. Unlike some supervillains, he attacks the problem by finding talented minds and providing them whatever resources their unethical hearts may desire. Arkangel pays his brilliant resources well, provides luxuries, and annihilates any obstacle or distraction along the way. The heroes have yet to pin anything on him after all these years, because he simply has too many villains who think he's Evil Santa Claus.
Appearance
Seldom seen even by those he controls utterly, Simon Arkangel is a very upright man in the most exquisite white hand-stitched Anderson Sheppard suit. He has faintly smoke-tinted silver frame glasses; smooth white hair worn just a little long, and a neatly-trimmed white beard. His eyes are a medium blue.
On several notable occasions, the only glimpse any hero has had of Simon Arkangel at all has been that black-gloved hand grasping the silver intricately-carved top of his black cane. Smart money has generally been on getting out of the place before more of Arkangel came into view.
Personality
Simon Arkangel is a polite, genial, reserved older man of the extremely wealthy world. He behaves graciously and with dignity at almost all times, never running or bellowing or even making excessively energetic gestures. Almost all human beings fail to measure up to his private standard of "genuine sentience", but he seldom allows any hint of this disregard to show; instead, he treats his tools (and his potential tools) with civility ... until the moment comes when his goals are better served by snapping their minds like twigs. His voice has the barest hint of an accent, but that might be an affectation.
Affiliations
Simon Arkangel is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Infinity Inc, a polite way of saying he is the ultimate benefactor and benefiter of all projects undertaken by that life-extension company. A powerless Board of Directors exists only to help control any political figure that must be quieted for a length of time; in effect, Arkangel is the only authority figure to be found.
Arkangel is careful to burn no bridges until he sees an overwhelming advantage to doing so. Many of his former employees, whether short- or long-term, leave his service with excellent benefits of the sort that cannot be gained any other way: near-miraculous cures for medical ailments, positions of uncontested control in out-of-the-way locations, prestige, rare possessions. Only willful incompetence is punished harshly.
Some employees are fanatically loyal purely because they have seen incompetent supervisors abruptly dropped into the pool of test candidates.
As a result, Arkangel has hidden connections in some unusual locations: an experienced lieutenant in another supervillain's organization here, a semi-retired archival clerk at a research-and-development facility there, an overseer in a militia's investigative branch somewhere else. All know that their former employer rewards well the first person to smuggle in a new bit of data within the areas of his interest; all know that luxuries are spawned -- or families harvested -- on the advancement of Arkangel's dream.
History
Records conflict on the origin of the man now known as Simon Arkangel. Almost certainly, that is a pseudonym. The man has disappeared from all public knowledge repeatedly, often for years, only to drift back into view in another part of the world entirely. He is always wealthy. He is always in excellent health, despite his apparently advanced years of age. He always travels with impunity, though he is less often seen in nations that strictly enforce a life-respecting code of ethics. Certainly he is no immortal: no record of any person matching his description can be found before the early nineteen hundreds.
He may have siblings.
He does not, however, invite personal inquiry.
GM facts:
Spoilers for Out-of-Character knowledge not accessible to current Player CharactersSimon Arkangel has two brothers known: Michael Arkangel aka the High Evolutionary, and Johann (Arkangel) Schmidt aka Red Skull.
The brothers do not get along.
They are all from an era when dignity and respect were valued on more levels of society. Mr. Arkangel calls only his intimates by their personal names. No one has any reason to feel comfortable addressing him as "Simon" save his absolutely closest friend (*if* he has one!) and even that only in private communication. I suppose the brothers might address one another by personal name, if they ever spoke to one another directly at all.
Red Skull and Jean-Claude Gironde are mortal enemies.
Simon Arkangel does not actually have a mortal enemy.
That might explain a few things.
Species
Professions
Children
Gender
male
Eyes
medium blue
Hair
white, thick, straight and smooth
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
pale white
Height
6'2"
Weight
160 lbs or 72.6 kg
Aligned Organization
Ruled Locations
Comments