Epiphany
Proverbs 17:9
Scyleia Lancaster
Parents: Hestia, Aphrodite, Demeter, Athena and Artemis (after a fashion)
Alignment: Righteous Hero
Personality: Scyleia is the sun in an overcast sky. She seems subdued, lessened by tragedy, by a weight she carries or perhaps simply a weight once shared that's now hers to carry alone. Despite her somber seriousness, Scyleia is at heart a tremendously solid, stable woman. With centuries of experience and endless memories of golden beaches and sunny skies, Scyleia rarely loses her perspective on how lasting tragedy is. She can be surprised but is rarely startled, can raise her voice but rarely needs to. She speaks simply, firmly and with the natural charismatic authority of someone who's lived through just about every situation one can expect. Scyleia doesn't react well to wild, erratic personalities and tends to withdraw, becoming almost stonelike especially if argued with. It's very easy to end a conflict with her, though, as long as the other party's willing to smile and shake on it.
Despite her sorrow, Scyleia glows with compassion, empathy and wisdom anchored by a strong moral compass. While she doesn't presume to chart anyone else's course for them, neither does she allow others to push her into wicked, evil acts.
Appearance: Scyleia has the flawless pale skin of a photoshopped model and thick, black sable hair that falls past her shoulders. Her physique is feminine but fit, with an hourglass shape and taut arms. In many ways, she has the idealized beauty of a Greek sculpture. And in many ways she seems as cold as one. She is exactly the woman that men say should smile more. Dark grey eyes seem shrouded, storm-swept or perhaps storm wrecked. Her voice has the pitch and cadence of a trained singer and her contralto can raise goosebumps when she's impassioned, rare as that is these days.
She chooses not to wear a costume, instead favoring whatever clothing seems reasonable for the mission. Most of the time, she favors a v-necked shirt, blue jeans and a leather jacket for warmth and comfort.
History
Thousands of years ago, five goddesses fashioned the Amazon Themysciraians out of clay. Each was imbued with the spirit of a woman who'd been horribly victimized by men. Each was commissioned to spread a message of love, hope and peace with humanity. And each suffered horrible captivity at the hands of Hercules before finally being freed, not through their merits but through divine intervention.
Like most of her sisters, Scyleia bore her relative exile on Paradise Island with a kind of stoic grace, content with the peaceful land and the duty of guardianship over a terrible evil beneath the island. She loved several times over the centuries, practiced the arts of war with her fellow Amazons and honed several crafts to a level of mastery that comes from having nothing but time to perfect one's work. And like the others, Scyleia endured much including Darkseid's domination, Imperiex, the destruction of Themyscira and its reconstruction. But it was the events of Circe's domination of her queen, Hippolyta, and the Amazonian attack on Washington D.C. that led to Scyleia's divergence from the rest of her kind.
As punishment for their invasion, the Amazons involved had their memories wiped and were spread across the Earth. For Scyleia, that meant ending up in Star City as Cylle Walker, a potter of some note whose clay sculptures were highly sought after. Within a year, she met a police Lieutenant, Kimberly Lancaster and within another, they'd married and conceived a son they named Nathaniel. After some years together, Zeus appeared and restored her memories and abilities, offering to bring her home to be with the people she'd spent centuries with. Tearfully, she accepted.
Scyleia regretted that choice every day for the past sixty years.
After Alcatraz
The first Scyleia heard about the disaster that broke the Justice League came when Themyscira's Princess, Diana, returned to share the account of heroism's failure. Turning her attention to the Patriarch's World fully for the first time in decades, she discovered her wife Kimberly had perished as well, slain by one of the released Metahuman criminals as he rampaged through Star City. Seeing their sister's heartbreak, Scyleia's Amazonian friends took up a vote and reached enough consensus to allow her to return to bury Kimberly. Scyleia gratefully took leave of Paradise and descended instead into the fallen world of Man.
She found it so much more broken that she could have imagined. Star City has resisted the slide to ruin better than some cities but her old neighborhood had fallen into poverty over the past half century. When she met her son, a grandfather himself now, Nathaniel wouldn't even speak to her. And when Scyleia attended Kimberly Lancaster's funeral, she heard from the many lives her wife had touched, discovering a hundred stories of hardship. The Amazons had been fashioned by the Goddesses to bring peace and harmony to the world; clearly in their absence, peace and harmony were farther away than ever.
Returning to Themyscira, Scyleia once more stood before her sisters. This time, she spoke passionately of the state of Men and the help she would give them. Princess Diana was sympathetic with her loss but less sympathetic with the world she wanted to save. The Amazons had closed their borders long ago. Venturing forth would endanger Scyleia and bring attention once more to the reclusive island. Besides, they already had a representative, the male Thrall who bore Chains of Servitude to restrict his power. If Scyleia insisted on leaving, she would do so under threat of wielding only a fraction of her might. The offer, meant to dissuade her, was accepted.
Now Scyleia returns to Star City, a place she barely knows after so long away. To a family she doesn't know at all except for their patriarch, a man she abandoned as a boy. To a city in need of heroes, albeit one diminished and with little experience in dealing with the streets.
Powers: Diminished Amazonian Physiology
- Enhanced Intellect: While Scyleia lacks the swiftness of comprehension she had on Themyscira, she's still a very fast learner and picks up languages and skills with remarkable ease.
- Superhuman Strength: Strong enough to punch through drywall, throw a man across the street, or bench around a thousand pounds.
- Superhuman Durability: Can shrug off most conventional blows and weapons with little effect. Bullets and superpowered weapons can inflict severe damage.
- Superhuman Stamina: Able to function for several days without sleep, work tirelessly for a day with little effect, survive with little food for weeks and resistant (though not immune) to disease and poison, etc.
- Superhuman Agility: Able to run approximately 50 miles an hour at peak, with reflexes swift enough to dodge or block most melee weapons though no longer swift enough to block bullets.
- Highly proficient with nearly all ancient weaponry, including swords, maces, spears, bow and arrow, etc.
- Schooled in warfare, military tactics and formation as well as small group fighting. Not trained to face modern tactics or armaments.
- Master potter, as well as an excellent painter and mason.
Weaknesses:
- Diminished: The Chains of Servitude binding her Bracelets cost most of Scyleia's divine power. While still markedly stronger and tougher than a human, she's perhaps a quarter as strong as she once was.
- Anachronistic: Everything Scyleia knows about modern live is half a century out of date. She has little useful experience with communication, modern computing, or how people live now. She also has little understanding of the modern tactical situation, of how humans wage battle now, and she has less experience dealing with guns than most police officers to say nothing of vigilantes or superheroes.
- Honorable: Scyleia is a fundamentally righteous woman who protects the innocent over punishing the guilty. She's also a fierce advocate for the power of change and reformation. Canny adversaries (and team members) can potentially exploit that.
- Bracelets of Submission. Scyleia principally uses her fists and feet in battle, supplementing her attack and defense with the indestructible gifts from Aphrodite. Her bracelets are as indestructible as Wonder Woman's and she's typically able to parry swords and conventional piercing weapons with her bracelets. Although she was once an adept practitioner of Bullets and Bracelets, her diminished speed is no longer fast enough to handle gunfire much less anything stronger.
- Potentially any ancient weaponry the League can provide, depending on a specific mission (likely to bring a sword when facing a known opponent with armor, bow and arrows when facing a ranged adversary, etc.).
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