Earth 10 Zatava

Metaphor:

Family Inheritances

Rogues Gallery

This is a quartet of key magical players in the LA area city of Darkness Falls where Zatava operates, balancing and playing off of the local power structure, with the occasional Monster of the Week. Darkness Falls was originally an African American community built on unincorporated land between several Sundown Towns. Derogatorily mapped as Darkie Falls, Blacks lived here when the unofficial rules kicked them out of the surrounding towns at sunset. In the 1930’s the Arab prince Jason Dark, through his influence in state politics, took steps to make it a legal town and laid the foundations of what is now one of the country’s most prominent medical collages. Though the town now has revenue from LA commuters, Stoke College remains the bedrock of Darkness Falls’ finances.

Jason Dark

Jason Dark is around to appreciate that, being a Vampire. Earth 10’s Vampires origins are in the Arabian deserts, creatures of wind and water that threw in their lot with dark forces. Jason Dark is one of these, but eschews much of his power. He can still drain the blood from a man, has inhuman reflexes and his size is under his control, changing in a gust of wind from the size of an insect to that of a bear, but that is all he allows himself. Otherwise he relies on his intellect, centuries of understanding of human weaknesses, and magical artifacts to supplement his power. This includes is a cloak of shadow stitched together with the essence of another Vampire that gives him several of his old abilities (flight, invisibility, becoming a shadow, summoning a fog) at no risk to himself. His other prize possession - a mirror that allowed astral travel - was lost months back. Jason’s unnatural state is not masked so he always works via catspaws.

Marinette

The owner of several bars, restaurants and nightclubs in Darkness Falls, this striking Haitian woman is the social force in Darkness Falls, having moved here with the first wave of entertainers to open a small bar. Twenty-five years later she owns or indirectly controls most city venues. Marinette is also a powerful Voudun, having made pacts with a half dozen Loa. She can call on them to act on other people or have them ‘ride’ her to directly grant her powers, most commonly manifested as telekinesis, personal magnetism, hypnosis, emotion control, and bursts of superhuman strength or combat prowess. She also has a magical artifact – a choker stolen years ago from the Sirens – that gives her powerful vocal abilities: she can unleash screams that will shatter walls, minds, or souls and mimic voices.

Marian

The young woman Marian was rescued by the international adoption and child welfare agency Open Arms and was raised in their Darkness Falls orphanage. She developed an intense love of the place, organization and community and has decided to make this place her home, and to transform it utterly unto a utopia not like anywhere else on this Earth. Being the seventh reincarnation of Nicholas Flaumel with an intuitive understanding of alchemy she might succeed. Marian has a wide variety of magical spells and alchemical potions at her disposal, – she is able to create ice, snow, earth, and trees almost at will with potions secreted about her person. She is also damnably intelligent and strong willed, if a little inexperienced. Marian is still consolidating her powers and has little influence compared to Jason and Marinette, but she is young with a scary amount of potential. Marinette is terrified of her, wants her dead and also wants not to engage her wraith, while Jason likely maneuvered her presence here for subtle reasons of his own.

Angel

She is a literal angel who fell voluntarily to spend a life with her mortal love Kwane Kaine. Kwane is the son of the Darkness Falls chief of police, a hacker and thief who worked for the smugglers using the Open Arms charity as a front. Angel has joined him in his pursuits in a downward spiral from her former state of grace. Angel lives in a swanky high rise apartment in Darkness Falls city center; since her arrival Kwane has broken with his boss and his father, and is now in hiding in Angel’s magically shielded sanctum while Angel ostentatiously keeps the attention of both the hunters on herself. Being made of the thoughts of God she has an array of powers – she can take the shape or powers of any creature in God’s kingdom, she is immune to harm from the physical world save for sheer brute force disrupting her body, she is super-humanly brilliant and charming, and millennia in the Host has left her skilled with all physical combat. Her sanctum holds a powerful artifact – a mirror that when gazed into will allow astral projection – that she and Kwane stole from a manor house on the outskirts. No way that comes back to bite her.