The Southern Star

Originally founded in WWII, the Southern Stars assisted the war effort on both the home front and abroad. They continued as an active team after the war but were forced to disband in the mid-1960s by a paranoid government who feared they had Communist leanings. The team remained disbanded until the early 1980s when a group of young heroes gathered to fend off an alien menace. They remained together for almost a decade, but was disbanded shortly after their headquarters was bombed, resulting in the deaths of several of their members. The remaining team members reformed briefly in the early 1990s to address King Ormor the Aquarian’s attack. A few short months later, Australia became embroiled in the Terminus Invasion, with a beachhead having formed in Federal City. This convinced the Southern Stars of their need to remain together to face threats ordinary forces couldn’t defeat.
During the intervening years, a number of heroes from Australia and abroad have joined the ranks of the Southern Stars. The team has a charter that allows fielding a maximum of seven heroes as active members at any one time, but members are held on reserve basis and are ready to be called to the frontline at a moment’s notice if needed.
The team is headquartered at Star Mansion in Federal Centre. The land upon which the headquarters is built is sovereign Warrangina land, provided for the team by Wandjina, as is their headquarters.
DEADEYE THE HUNTSMAN Born blind, Olympic archery gold medalist Jeremy Heck’s hearing was highly developed, allowing him to substitute it for sight in almost every circumstance. He was able to discern size, shape, distance, even relative speeds based on the way sound propagated and warped around objects.
A happy-go-lucky man, Jeremy is quick with a joke or a taunt. He enjoys a drink with mates and loves his sports, especially Australian Rules Football. While he loves Australian Spirit like no other, he strongly dislikes Blue Ensign, and the two clash on almost any subject.
THE AUSTRALIAN SPIRIT Sharon Duncan is a great, great, granddaughter of the original Blue Ensign, and second cousin of the current Blue Ensign. Like her cousin, she was recruited by the Australian government as a potential recipient of the Paragon Project, though she failed the testing process due to an allergic reaction to the drug. However, due to exposure to the process, she gained the ability to become insubstantial.
Joining the Southern Stars, Sharon’s training, personality, and tactical skills quickly led to her being voted the team’s leader, a position she has held for some time.
Sharon is a confident and strong woman. She uses her position to champion women’s rights, and is actively opposed to any form of discrimination based on gender, race, ability, or sexuality. She has also formed an intimate relationship with Deadeye.
DWARFSTAR David Wong is of Chinese decent, tracing his ancestry back to the original immigrants who arrived in Australia during the Great Gold Rush. David married Alice shortly after graduating and joined her at ASTRO Labs where an accident involving an experimental singularity generator changed everything; he was imbued with the abilities to shrink to almost microscopic size, fly, and fire energy blasts. Donning a costume he became the superhero known as Dwarf Star. Unlike Alice, David wasn’t emotionally altered by the accident, but he does like the changes that have occurred in his wife. The accident has proven to be a bonus to their marriage, and he enjoys the benefits that being a public super-powered couple have afforded them.
NUADA SILVERARM Patricia McPherson was a highly respected archaeologist with NFU. Her research led her to seek out the tomb of the legendary Celtic king of the Tuatha, Nuada Silverarm. After discovering the tomb, a freak accident left her trapped beneath tons of rock, severing her left arm at the shoulder. Dazed and bleeding, Patricia found a relic in the ruins and felt compelled to place it, a silver arm against the ragged remains of her shoulder. Without knowing why, she placed her right fist into the palm of the relic and shouted, “Airgetlam!” With a blinding flash of light, Patricia was transformed into Nuada Silverarm.
Patricia and Nuada share the same body, but their minds are quite separate, and the dominant mind is that which belongs to the current body. The submissive mind can communicate with the dominant mind, often making it appear as if Nuada or Patricia is arguing or in a discussion with nobody. In times of great stress, the submissive mind can occasionally overcome the dominant mind, leading to what appears to be out of character behavior.
Patricia is a rather slight, attractive woman of Irish decent with red hair, fair skin, and grey eyes. She wears glasses and keeps her hair in a bun and in this form, the arm looks and feels like a normal organic arm. She finds Nuada to be a boor, and doesn’t like transforming into him, as he often refuses to transform back. Patricia often has to apologize for Nuada’s excesses.
The arm, a product of both magic and technology, increases Nuada’s strength, endurance, and resistances to superhuman levels. Nuada also possesses the legendary sword, Claiomh Solais, which is surrounded by a field of energy, allowing it to cut through anything, including magic, illusions, dimensional barriers, and solid matter.
RED GIANT Alice Wong, a brilliant scientist at ASTRO Labs, was developing, along with her husband David, a singularity-based power generation system. Their work was proceeding well when an accident caused a prototype generator to explode. Instead of killing them, the Wongs were endowed with super powers.
Alice gained the abilities to grow to immense size and to increase her personal gravitic field, allowing her to draw objects towards her. The accident also left her emotionally changed. Once a gentle woman, shy and reserved, she is now outgoing and exuberant. She revels in her powers, and loves using them. She maintains a height of 7’, even out of costume, and has no qualms with being a public figure.
YOWIE Karl McGavin was a reporter with the Federation Star, a prominent Australian newspaper headquartered in Federal City. He specialized in reports about superhuman activity, and prided himself in being able to present a “man on the street” point of view. It was during one of his on-the-spot reports that he found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time; he was caught in a magical backlash as a villain named the Shout summoned a spirit from The Dreamtime, fusing his essence with that of a legendary cryptid known as a yowie, which is similar to a yeti or sasquach.
Reshaped into the form of the “mythical” yowie, he has long, shaggy brown fur, short walrus-like tusks, phenomenal strength, endurance, resistance to injury, and the ability to breath underwater. While his body has changed, Karl is still a gentle, inquiring soul. Karl continues to write for the Federation Star, taking full advantage of his position with the Southern Stars to get his stories.