User Profile

History:
Corliss's story begins when he was nine years old. A child with an active imagination, he would often abandon household chores to sit and dream up fantastic adventures, hiding from his parents and brothers in the branches of a certain tree near his family's property. One day a fierce storm kicked up while he was in his hiding place. As he tried to climb down, he lost his grip and fell...

When he landed, it wasn't on the ground in his world, but in one of the canals in Iasion. He was fished out by some locals, and sent to a group home for newcomers too young to fend for themselves. Two nights later, he discovered his powers: what he could only imagine in his homeworld he could create as illusion in Payatt.

It was an ideal skill for a lonely child in a strange world--a way to redirect attention toward himself without giving any outward appearance of doing so. Largely ignored by the other children at first (at best just a tag-along hanging around the fringes of the group), he found that creating a more sociable "friend" to join in their activities and then invite him over got him into their good graces faster than working to prove himself worthy of their interest on his own.

As he got more experienced, he became bolder with his "scenarios." When he was a teenager, monsters and street thugs began to have a tendency to attack people when Corliss was just around the corner... at which point he would come to the rescue. Halith de Cordova, the current mayor of Iasion, was one of his rescuees when she was thirteen, and to this day is convinced she owes Corliss her life. At the time, she showed her gratitude by having her older brother (then her chief "advisor") hire him to protect her while she was out in the city.

Corliss was happy with this, but continued to play superhero in his spare time. It wasn't long before people began to voice the opinion that he should expand his protective responsibilities to include the general populace. The Cordovas placed him with the Civilian Peacekeeping Corps in the district closest to the palace. Finding that his skills were as effective frightening criminals into submission as they were frightening people into relationships, he rose quickly through the ranks. Now, at twenty-seven, he is Inspector General with the ICPC.

Throughout the years he has maintained his relationship with Halith and the Cordova family. He still sees Halith in particular as his responsibility. When her brother died suddenly, Halith found herself forced to handle more and more of the administrative duties he had covered for her, to her considerable anxiety. Corliss has been quietly manipulating both individuals and popular opinion (making scandal is easy when you can summon up whatever visuals you want) to strengthen her position.

With her power base within the city now secured, Halith de Cordova is looking to extend the boundaries of her influence, and Inspector General Adenson is more than happy to help...

Personality:
Corliss has built his entire life and identity by deceiving and manipulating people, but has done so without malice and rarely with any greater design than winning someone's respect or gratitude. (Unless it involves Halith--then he's an uber-protective scheming bastard.) He doesn't look down on the people he deceives as fools or suckers, mostly because in his mind there is no deception. He's not targeting people, he's just making sure he meets them on his terms--his "scenarios" being the only way he can do that.

Even though Corliss works with people all the time and knows a lot more than most about what makes them tick, when you get right down to it, the prospect of interacting with them scares him to death. Since he discovered his powers, he's almost never just walked up and introduced himself to someone. He prefers to use his illusions to "herd" people in his general direction in such a way that a meeting, one in which he will have control of the situation, will be inevitable.

A big part of the reason he's fixated on the rescue scenario is his childhood preoccupation with adventure stories full of rescues and close calls. The other part is that his first "adventure" in Payatt consisted of being fished out of the canal. Casting himself as rescuer and not rescuee, to him, is the only way to guarantee that he will be in control of events. The few close friendships he has formed are genuine, and his involvement in Halith's rise to power began as a selfless project. But he now controls virtually the entire power structure in Iasion, able to make or break just about anyone with a thought. And power corrupts...

Powers: Corliss's powers work on two levels, visual and telepathic/suggestive. Thus he can make his illusions seem to have actual substance by planting false sensory input in people's minds. However, he has to be within sight of the person for the use the second, more complex component. Illusions created from a great distance or in an area obscured from view are strictly visual and would be insubstantial should anyone attempt to touch them.

Friends (1):

Mutual Friends (1):

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