Post by Doctor Cyber on Jun 18, 2012 12:49:33 GMT -5
Real name: Philo Zeiss
Alter Ego: Zeiss
Status
Occupation: Criminal, Mercenary, Assassin
Martial Status: Single
Legal Status: Citizen of Switzerland with criminal record
Group Affiliation(s): Moxon Mafia
Origin
Place of Birth: Zurich, Switzerland
Known Relatives: Parents (deceased), Viktor (uncle)
History
Philo Zeiss was raised in Zurich, Switzerland. His parents died when he was a child, and he was left under the care of Viktor, his old uncle. Viktor worked as a gardener for a Sicilian expatriate, and when he died the Sicilian, seeing a kid left alone in this world, took him under his wing out of loyalty toward his old gardener. The man was still a don in the mob, and noticed Philo's eyes - cold, gray eyes that according to a local superstition were the eyes of death.
"Knowing" that the boy would be a master of violence, he had him accompany his enforcers so he could watch. Then, training started - and, indeed, Philo had formidable talent for the martial arts, and found great solace in them. When he was old enough, he joined the Sicilian's enforcers and soon was the don's bodyguard and main soldier. He was very, very good - no one could touch him.
The Sicilian asked Zeiss to risk an experimental surgical procedure so he could reach the next level, that of the superhuman martial artist. Zeiss immediately agreed despite the considerable risks - he believed he owned his life to the don. The operation worked, leaving him with superhuman reflexes and efficiency, and able to see the world in slow motion - as well as to perfectly recall, and replay in his head, the moves of his opponents.
When the don died due to old age, Zeiss became a freelance bodyguard for top crimelords in Europe, gaining a very good reputation at his trade. He kept on training for years and years, as he wouldn't be satisfied by anything but being the very best in the world. In this quest, he heard about the Batman, an undefeated master of many fighting arts. His next step was moving to the US and, more precisely, Gotham - so he could have a shot at the Batman. He also gained powerful backers who were interested in sponsoring his attempt at killing the Gotham gladiator.
His first fight against the Batman very nearly resulted in a flawless victory. Thinking himself ready, he was ordered by unknown underworld operators to take out the Batman. For this, he became, with the help of the Penguin, the accomplice of Jeremy Samuels. Samuels, the former head of the Wayne Enterprises security, had gone criminal after the senseless death of his family and was known to be a very intelligent professional. Zeiss had him stage two daring heists. The first was intended to be foiled by the Batman, while Zeiss watched him for afar. The robbers were actually all trained martial artists, allowing Zeiss to record an entire live fight in his head, using his photographic memory. He accompanied Samuels on the next hit, and engaged the Batman in combat, dominating him with seeming ease.
However, Samuels suddenly had a change of heart when he realized Zeiss was going to actually kill Batman, and raised his gun. He was shot dead by the police - from their angle of view, it looked like he was going to shoot the Batman from behind - but a stray bullet from his Uzi shattered Zeiss' goggle. Zeiss had to flee. Although the hit had failed, he had not compromised anything and remained quite a mystery for the Batman.
When Bruce Wayne met Zeiss next, he was the personal bodyguard of Lew Moxon. Moxon had been the legit frontman for the Gotham mob twenty years ago; he had gone as far as to enter the political race to be elected Mayor. This turned sour, and after his connections were revealed he had to pay a fortune in lawyers and leave the US, only coming back in recent years. Moxon was back to reclaim his former throne, and a top level, superhuman bodyguard wasn't a bad investment.
Getting a clear photo and a good look at Zeiss allowed Wayne and Oracle to determine who he was, though. Moxon was quickly targeted for death, and the killer was none other than Deadshot. Deadshot cleverly played the Batman against Zeiss and while they were fighting, he shot Moxon - who was critically injured and left paralyzed but not killed outright. Although Zeiss had nearly lost his principal, it was widely and correctly considered to be due to Batman's intervention. Zeiss had also demonstrated he had a gift for getting under Batman's skin with his smug attitude.
Moxon's daughter, Mallory, a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne, then inherited his assets and launched a ruthless war against the Odessa mob in Gotham, who had hired Deadshot. Zeiss headed those efforts with ruthless efficiency, killing three key Russian mafia lieutenants and correctly predicting Batman would try to intercept him when he made his move on the current boss. Zeiss' plan was good - he dispatched the Russian's bodyguards and took his little girl hostage to prevent Batman from stopping him, while making sure his partner, a sniper, had a clear shot on their target. However "Santa Klaus", a lunatic escaped from Arkham Asylum and pumped full of a drug prepared by the Joker wandered across the scene and decided to kill everyone. In the confusion, the Batman rescued the kid and the sniper mistakenly chose to shoot Santa Klaus. To escape, Zeiss triggered large explosive charges he had set through the building, eliminating the sniper so he wouldn't talk and providing him with a clear getaway.
Batman, however, next had a stroke of luck - he accidentally discovered the month-old corpse of a man wrapped in a rug and stuck inside a chimney. The man was discovered to be an occasional courier for a gadgetry expert living in Gotham - Rex Cooke. Cooke had repaired Zeiss' goggles after they had been damaged by the Batman, and Zeiss had killed the courier to cover his traces. His fingerprints had been left on only one place - the old batteries of the TV remote - but it was enough to link him to the murder. As Batman confronted Zeiss, Zeiss quickly gained the upper hand - but suddenly Batgirl came in through the window and, surprising Zeiss, kicked him hard enough for the Batman to take away Zeiss' goggles. Zeiss was so big on his single combat narrative that he simply didn't expect the Batman to cheat. He took Mallory Moxon hostage, wanting his goggles back and a free pass out of here - but then the wheelchair bound Lew Moxon entered the room and ordered him to leave his daughter alone and surrender, which he did.
Zeiss spent a long time in solitary, but eventually got out when the mob needed him for a complex hit. Catwoman had recently eliminated Black Mask, who until then ruled over the East End of Gotham, and the mob was a part of the various operators who wanted to fill the vacuum. They had Zeiss broken free during transport. Zeiss trained with men provided by the Penguin to regain his edge, then devised his strategy. He had a posse of ex-Joker henchmen make a move on the East End so he could study Catwoman in action. Then, he employed psychological warfare - stabbing Slam Bradley, and later briefly taking hostage one of the Alley Town Irregulars, slashing his face to leave him with a scar, and shooting down random East Enders to remind Catwoman how vulnerable was someone who wanted to protect such a large expanse. He was quite certain Catwoman would not fight as well when angry - an assessment the Batman shared - and he had seized the initiative and confronted her physically at the time of his own choosing.
When Catwoman and Zeiss finally fought, Zeiss's psychological warfare and extraordinary speed and skill allowed him to ruthlessly maul Selina, breaking one of her arms and stabbing her in the belly. He told her that he actually didn't care about the contract - by killing her, he wanted to strike at the Batman, and to start destabilizing him badly. Just before he was to inflict the coup de grace, however, he was stabbed through the chest with a sword by an elite agent of the Beti-Ma. Zeiss was then taken to a hospital.
Characteristics
Age: 34
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 197lbs
Eyes: Grey
Hair: Reddish brown, but currently shaved bald
Unusual Features: The bald look is the most recent one. Zeiss' eyes are special - they are quite often completely bloodshot, and he often wears some sort of staples maintaining his upper and lower eyelids wide open in order to increase his field of vision. Zeiss moves in an extremely efficient way - in fact, when he's fighting, he hardly seems to be moving.
Personality: Zeiss is an intense warrior with a capital W. He's smart, ruthless, brutal and always thinks tactically, planning ahead and using all available means to reach his goals. He studies the weak points of his opponents, and develops clever strategies - but nothing too complicated and intricate, so his plans tend to survive contact with the enemy. Whether strategically or physically, he will seize the initiative and not let it go. He's not a hired thug, and makes his own plans. He enjoys using psychological warfare and using the red buttons and weaknesses of his opponents.
Zeiss is very, very big on being the top dog, the ultimate fighter, the toughest mofo in the world. It is almost a religion for him. He acts very calm, cool, confident, in control, like a man who is always on top of everything - and he usually is. There are probably overcompensation issues in that. He is very articulate, but calmly smug. Failure can make him very intense, emotionally - he actually begged Moxon to have him back after Deadshot crippled him. This failure affected him enough he simply followed Moxon's order to surrender during the next confrontation - he simply couldn't fail the man twice, and his Sicilian code of honor made it mandatory to follow the orders of his boss to the letter. Zeiss considers it a matter of life and death to be totally loyal to the capo, and keeping his mouth shut - the omerta.
Zeiss really doesn't like leaving witnesses, and will often take out people he has to associate with who could reveal information about him. He knows how his secrecy and rep can be powerful weapons, letting him move in the underworld like a ghost.
Being extremely intense, Zeiss tends to go all-out. Combined with his formidable skill and speed and his psy ops Schtick, that can make fights even against world class martial artists very one-sided.
Powers
Philo Zeiss is a world class martial artist and athlete. Not only is he able to engage such exceptional fighters as Catwoman or even the Batman, but he does so with an incredible amount of speed and skill. He is a quite noticeably better fighter than the Batman, and superior to Catwoman. Not only is he an incredibly well-conditioned athlete, but his optic nerves, frontal lobes and spinal columns have been altered to give his superhuman speed - he can see the world in slow motion.
Known Powers:
Known Abilities:
Strength Level: Peak human strength.
Weaknesses:
Misc (optional)
Equipment:
Goggles: Zeiss owns an intricate pair of goggles whose lenses act as high-speed camera shutters, allowing him to perceive the world as a super-rapid series of freeze frames - much like the bullet time effect. With his enhanced nervous system and his photographic memory, he can precisely study those images and analyze an opponent's combat style. After having watched somebody fight in this way, he is particularly redoubtable, able to predict and counter most of his opponent's best moves. He continues to study freeze-frames he acquires even as he fights - however, if he is deprived of the goggles, he loses a major asset.
Transportation: Nothing special
Weapons: Knives: Zeiss carries a lot of knives that he uses in hand to hand, or to throw.
The grey represents Zeiss’ skill against an opponent he has studied with his goggles.
Sample RP Post
Alter Ego: Zeiss
Status
Occupation: Criminal, Mercenary, Assassin
Martial Status: Single
Legal Status: Citizen of Switzerland with criminal record
Group Affiliation(s): Moxon Mafia
Origin
Place of Birth: Zurich, Switzerland
Known Relatives: Parents (deceased), Viktor (uncle)
History
Philo Zeiss was raised in Zurich, Switzerland. His parents died when he was a child, and he was left under the care of Viktor, his old uncle. Viktor worked as a gardener for a Sicilian expatriate, and when he died the Sicilian, seeing a kid left alone in this world, took him under his wing out of loyalty toward his old gardener. The man was still a don in the mob, and noticed Philo's eyes - cold, gray eyes that according to a local superstition were the eyes of death.
"Knowing" that the boy would be a master of violence, he had him accompany his enforcers so he could watch. Then, training started - and, indeed, Philo had formidable talent for the martial arts, and found great solace in them. When he was old enough, he joined the Sicilian's enforcers and soon was the don's bodyguard and main soldier. He was very, very good - no one could touch him.
The Sicilian asked Zeiss to risk an experimental surgical procedure so he could reach the next level, that of the superhuman martial artist. Zeiss immediately agreed despite the considerable risks - he believed he owned his life to the don. The operation worked, leaving him with superhuman reflexes and efficiency, and able to see the world in slow motion - as well as to perfectly recall, and replay in his head, the moves of his opponents.
When the don died due to old age, Zeiss became a freelance bodyguard for top crimelords in Europe, gaining a very good reputation at his trade. He kept on training for years and years, as he wouldn't be satisfied by anything but being the very best in the world. In this quest, he heard about the Batman, an undefeated master of many fighting arts. His next step was moving to the US and, more precisely, Gotham - so he could have a shot at the Batman. He also gained powerful backers who were interested in sponsoring his attempt at killing the Gotham gladiator.
His first fight against the Batman very nearly resulted in a flawless victory. Thinking himself ready, he was ordered by unknown underworld operators to take out the Batman. For this, he became, with the help of the Penguin, the accomplice of Jeremy Samuels. Samuels, the former head of the Wayne Enterprises security, had gone criminal after the senseless death of his family and was known to be a very intelligent professional. Zeiss had him stage two daring heists. The first was intended to be foiled by the Batman, while Zeiss watched him for afar. The robbers were actually all trained martial artists, allowing Zeiss to record an entire live fight in his head, using his photographic memory. He accompanied Samuels on the next hit, and engaged the Batman in combat, dominating him with seeming ease.
However, Samuels suddenly had a change of heart when he realized Zeiss was going to actually kill Batman, and raised his gun. He was shot dead by the police - from their angle of view, it looked like he was going to shoot the Batman from behind - but a stray bullet from his Uzi shattered Zeiss' goggle. Zeiss had to flee. Although the hit had failed, he had not compromised anything and remained quite a mystery for the Batman.
When Bruce Wayne met Zeiss next, he was the personal bodyguard of Lew Moxon. Moxon had been the legit frontman for the Gotham mob twenty years ago; he had gone as far as to enter the political race to be elected Mayor. This turned sour, and after his connections were revealed he had to pay a fortune in lawyers and leave the US, only coming back in recent years. Moxon was back to reclaim his former throne, and a top level, superhuman bodyguard wasn't a bad investment.
Getting a clear photo and a good look at Zeiss allowed Wayne and Oracle to determine who he was, though. Moxon was quickly targeted for death, and the killer was none other than Deadshot. Deadshot cleverly played the Batman against Zeiss and while they were fighting, he shot Moxon - who was critically injured and left paralyzed but not killed outright. Although Zeiss had nearly lost his principal, it was widely and correctly considered to be due to Batman's intervention. Zeiss had also demonstrated he had a gift for getting under Batman's skin with his smug attitude.
Moxon's daughter, Mallory, a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne, then inherited his assets and launched a ruthless war against the Odessa mob in Gotham, who had hired Deadshot. Zeiss headed those efforts with ruthless efficiency, killing three key Russian mafia lieutenants and correctly predicting Batman would try to intercept him when he made his move on the current boss. Zeiss' plan was good - he dispatched the Russian's bodyguards and took his little girl hostage to prevent Batman from stopping him, while making sure his partner, a sniper, had a clear shot on their target. However "Santa Klaus", a lunatic escaped from Arkham Asylum and pumped full of a drug prepared by the Joker wandered across the scene and decided to kill everyone. In the confusion, the Batman rescued the kid and the sniper mistakenly chose to shoot Santa Klaus. To escape, Zeiss triggered large explosive charges he had set through the building, eliminating the sniper so he wouldn't talk and providing him with a clear getaway.
Batman, however, next had a stroke of luck - he accidentally discovered the month-old corpse of a man wrapped in a rug and stuck inside a chimney. The man was discovered to be an occasional courier for a gadgetry expert living in Gotham - Rex Cooke. Cooke had repaired Zeiss' goggles after they had been damaged by the Batman, and Zeiss had killed the courier to cover his traces. His fingerprints had been left on only one place - the old batteries of the TV remote - but it was enough to link him to the murder. As Batman confronted Zeiss, Zeiss quickly gained the upper hand - but suddenly Batgirl came in through the window and, surprising Zeiss, kicked him hard enough for the Batman to take away Zeiss' goggles. Zeiss was so big on his single combat narrative that he simply didn't expect the Batman to cheat. He took Mallory Moxon hostage, wanting his goggles back and a free pass out of here - but then the wheelchair bound Lew Moxon entered the room and ordered him to leave his daughter alone and surrender, which he did.
Zeiss spent a long time in solitary, but eventually got out when the mob needed him for a complex hit. Catwoman had recently eliminated Black Mask, who until then ruled over the East End of Gotham, and the mob was a part of the various operators who wanted to fill the vacuum. They had Zeiss broken free during transport. Zeiss trained with men provided by the Penguin to regain his edge, then devised his strategy. He had a posse of ex-Joker henchmen make a move on the East End so he could study Catwoman in action. Then, he employed psychological warfare - stabbing Slam Bradley, and later briefly taking hostage one of the Alley Town Irregulars, slashing his face to leave him with a scar, and shooting down random East Enders to remind Catwoman how vulnerable was someone who wanted to protect such a large expanse. He was quite certain Catwoman would not fight as well when angry - an assessment the Batman shared - and he had seized the initiative and confronted her physically at the time of his own choosing.
When Catwoman and Zeiss finally fought, Zeiss's psychological warfare and extraordinary speed and skill allowed him to ruthlessly maul Selina, breaking one of her arms and stabbing her in the belly. He told her that he actually didn't care about the contract - by killing her, he wanted to strike at the Batman, and to start destabilizing him badly. Just before he was to inflict the coup de grace, however, he was stabbed through the chest with a sword by an elite agent of the Beti-Ma. Zeiss was then taken to a hospital.
Characteristics
Age: 34
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 197lbs
Eyes: Grey
Hair: Reddish brown, but currently shaved bald
Unusual Features: The bald look is the most recent one. Zeiss' eyes are special - they are quite often completely bloodshot, and he often wears some sort of staples maintaining his upper and lower eyelids wide open in order to increase his field of vision. Zeiss moves in an extremely efficient way - in fact, when he's fighting, he hardly seems to be moving.
Personality: Zeiss is an intense warrior with a capital W. He's smart, ruthless, brutal and always thinks tactically, planning ahead and using all available means to reach his goals. He studies the weak points of his opponents, and develops clever strategies - but nothing too complicated and intricate, so his plans tend to survive contact with the enemy. Whether strategically or physically, he will seize the initiative and not let it go. He's not a hired thug, and makes his own plans. He enjoys using psychological warfare and using the red buttons and weaknesses of his opponents.
Zeiss is very, very big on being the top dog, the ultimate fighter, the toughest mofo in the world. It is almost a religion for him. He acts very calm, cool, confident, in control, like a man who is always on top of everything - and he usually is. There are probably overcompensation issues in that. He is very articulate, but calmly smug. Failure can make him very intense, emotionally - he actually begged Moxon to have him back after Deadshot crippled him. This failure affected him enough he simply followed Moxon's order to surrender during the next confrontation - he simply couldn't fail the man twice, and his Sicilian code of honor made it mandatory to follow the orders of his boss to the letter. Zeiss considers it a matter of life and death to be totally loyal to the capo, and keeping his mouth shut - the omerta.
Zeiss really doesn't like leaving witnesses, and will often take out people he has to associate with who could reveal information about him. He knows how his secrecy and rep can be powerful weapons, letting him move in the underworld like a ghost.
Being extremely intense, Zeiss tends to go all-out. Combined with his formidable skill and speed and his psy ops Schtick, that can make fights even against world class martial artists very one-sided.
Powers
Philo Zeiss is a world class martial artist and athlete. Not only is he able to engage such exceptional fighters as Catwoman or even the Batman, but he does so with an incredible amount of speed and skill. He is a quite noticeably better fighter than the Batman, and superior to Catwoman. Not only is he an incredibly well-conditioned athlete, but his optic nerves, frontal lobes and spinal columns have been altered to give his superhuman speed - he can see the world in slow motion.
Known Powers:
- Agility/Reflexes/Speed: He easily moves faster than the human-eye, and most superhuman eyes. His speed, agility, reflexes, body coordination, and balance are superhumanly enhanced. He also has a low form of superspeed that allows him to attack rapidly.
- Photographic Memory: Zeiss has the ability to recall not only words and pictures, but also the fighting styles he sees. Combined with his googles, which slow things down and take freeze frames, he can learn and know exactly how an opponent fights. He can recall things he has seen as far back as 10 years.
Known Abilities:
- Acrobatics: Zeiss has trained in gymnastics and martial arts ‘acrobats’. This has helped him to become one of the most agile men in the world. He can do anything involving flipping, jumping and soaring through the air.
- Athlete: Zeiss is in peak-human shape. He maintains a strict regimen of exercise that keeps his body in the utmost condition. He is performs gymnastics, martial arts, weightlifting, and aerobics, keeping himself constantly primed and ready for battle, should the need arise.
- Criminal Underworld: Zeiss has spent a lot of time in the underworld and knows about cities in general and how to find his way around and whatever he needs within them. Given time he can figure out the criminal hierarchy of any city. He is also thoroughly familiar with the Moxon Mafia and Italian Mafia.
- Demolitions: Zeiss is skilled at setting up, arming, and disarming a variety of explosive devices.
- Escape Artist: Zeiss has trained to learn the ability to escape from nearly any trap or cell. This ability has come in very handy when he has occasionally been temporarily bested by an enemy.
- Infiltration: Zeiss has great skills in breaking into even heavily guarded facilities with security systems rivaling any on Earth, capable of picking locks, bypassing cameras, and sneaking past or defeating security guards with little trouble.
- Martial Arts: Zeiss is one of the most skilled hand to hand fighters in the world, and has studied a vast array of martial arts as well as martial arts practitioners. He is able to mix and match his moves to the situation. Combined with his ability to read and know his opponents moves, Zeiss is a true threat to any fighter.
- Multi-Lingual: Because his early life took him around the world, he learned many languages. He is fluent in English, Swiss, German, French, and Italian.
- Psy Ops: Zeiss has a remarkable ability to get under the skin of people and psychologically destabilize them. By observing them, hitting all their red buttons and striking where it psychologically hurts, he manages to make his opponents angrier, less focused and less efficient. This takes some prep work, but if he can work on it, it is pretty efficient, even on high-willpower people like Catwoman. He was even able to make the Batman angrier and more volatile with a relatively short verbal fight.
- Ranged Weapons: Zeiss has worked with masters of ranged weapons. He rarely uses firearms, but does use knives in melee and ranged.
- Stealth: Zeiss has spent years learning to be both silent and invisible to those who are looking for him, and is one of the most stealthy villains in the world. He is familiar with the techniques and the tenets of Japanese ninjitsu, moving silently and invisibly through even crowded areas.
- Weapons Master: Zeiss has studied many weapons and the general fighting styles associated with them. He is capable of fencing, fighting with a knife, and the weapons associated with any number of martial arts.
- Willpower: Zeiss has the intestinal fortitude to fight the likes of Batman, and is more than capable of resisting mind control and see through illusions.
Strength Level: Peak human strength.
Weaknesses:
- Mortal: Zeiss is entirely human. His body is just as susceptible to injury or disease as that of anybody else.
- Mafia Code: Follows the code of Omerta: “Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward. Whoever cannot take care of himself without police protection is both. It is as cowardly to betray an offender to justice, even though his offences be against yourself, as it is not to avenge an injury by violence. It is dastardly and contemptible in a wounded man to betray the name of his assailant, because if he recovers, he must naturally expect to take vengeance himself.”
- Vendetta: Zeiss harbors a personal vendetta against the Batman, and considers himself a superior combatant and strategist in comparison to the Dark Knight. His single-mindedness for defeating Batman in single combat has interfered with Zeiss' success on at least two occasions.
- Goggles: Those people that Zeiss has not studied before fighting them tend to give him more trouble, especially if they are close to his skill. He has relied on them too long, and if they are damaged in a fight, he will most likely retreat, even if he is still the far better combatant.
Misc (optional)
Equipment:
Goggles: Zeiss owns an intricate pair of goggles whose lenses act as high-speed camera shutters, allowing him to perceive the world as a super-rapid series of freeze frames - much like the bullet time effect. With his enhanced nervous system and his photographic memory, he can precisely study those images and analyze an opponent's combat style. After having watched somebody fight in this way, he is particularly redoubtable, able to predict and counter most of his opponent's best moves. He continues to study freeze-frames he acquires even as he fights - however, if he is deprived of the goggles, he loses a major asset.
Transportation: Nothing special
Weapons: Knives: Zeiss carries a lot of knives that he uses in hand to hand, or to throw.
The grey represents Zeiss’ skill against an opponent he has studied with his goggles.
Sample RP Post
Codeword: