Games - Lord Recluse

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	Games - Lord Recluse

Lord Recluse is a fictional super-villain and archnemesis of the super-hero Statesman, from the PC videogames City of Heroes and City of Villains, created by Sean Michael Fish.

Biography

Lord Recluse was originally the man known as Stefan Richter, an American of Austrian descent, and a big technocrat. His father, the Austrian immigrant Rudolf Richter, took it upon himself to care for Marcus Cole, whose mother had died in childbirth while his father drank himself to death. Stefan and Marcus soon became best friends, and served together during the Great War.

After Marcus' deadly exposure to Boche's mustard gas, the two became thieves and partners in crime in search for the fabled Fountain of Zeus, in hopes of curing the deadly ailment. After stealing an ancient Greek scroll, an early version of the historian Herodotus' "Histories", from a London museum, the two set out to locate a long-lost Greek island called Praxidae which was said to house the mythical Well of Furies, a place where the ancient Greek gods' nectar and ambrosia was prepared, beneath which also the Fountain of Zeus resided. After locating the island and drinking from the fountain, both Marcus and Stefan were endowed with god-like powers that rivaled those of the demigods from ancient myths and legends, and curing Marcus' lungs in the process. Before leaving the island, however, the two uncovered an artifact thought to be the mythical Pandora's Box, inscribed with the words "Here lies power." Upon opening the box, which stored all of the creativity of humankind for the last thousand years, its power was released unto the world, effectively starting another Golden Age of super-powered heroes.

After the collapse of the cave in which the fountain and the box were housed, Stefan was washed into the open ocean. By then, Stefan came upon a revelation in which he would use his newfound power to pave the way to a new age of science for mankind, officially marking his descent to evil. After the events that took place on the island of Praxidae, Stefan joined a shady Italian-based organization named Arachnos, then lead by the mysterious figure only known as the Weaver, and was put in charge of the group's American branch based in Paragon City, Rhode Island. During his time within Arachnos, Stefan quickly climbed ranks and became known as the man called Recluse.

Physical changes also started appearing, with Stefan's eyes progressively beginning to have almost allergic reactions to bright light, and steadily growing red and burning with malevolence, a sign of his status as an evil demigod; his back, through Stefan's focused manipulation of his dark power, began developing a hump which later grew into six massive arachnid-like arms. Upon further enhancement, the arms were outfitted with super-strong steel claws, made from a fictional alloy called proto-steel. Completing his transformation, he became known as Lord Recluse, and Stefan Richter was no more.

After Recluse's battle with Statesman, Marcus Cole's alter-ego, after the events of Brass Monday, the evil mastermind went into hiding. During this unspecified time-period, Recluse came into power as Arachnos' leader, wether through force of subterfuge is unknown, and established his base of operations on the Estoile Islands, nicknamed the Rogue Isles, a fictional archipelago off of the American east coast.

Powers

Lord Recluse posseses super-human levels of strength, speed, and stamina. He also has three pairs (or six arms) of arachnid-like claws sheathed in proto-steel armor. While Lord Recluse isn't as strong as his archnemesis, the Statesman, his intellect, amplified by the powers of the Fountain of Zeus and Pandora's Box, rendered as the most powerful on the planet. The official site lists him as a mastermind type character, who are known to summon henchmen to aide them in their fights. While the player controlled mastermind can only controll and summon up to six henchmen, Recluse's status as the leader of Arachnos obviously allows him to controll thousands more.

Sources

' by Robert Weinberg

' Official Website

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Lord Recluse ]

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