Melea Zines- The Queen of Hearts

Appearance:

Melea is an extremely thin black woman. This goes far beyond healthy limits, as she resembles an anorexia sufferer. Her hair is mostly gray and cut short to top her face, which is largely scarred, including a missing left eye. She usually wears a tattered black dress, but has changed into more practical clothing since the fall of her god. Her remaining eye is grey and glows different colors when she's using her powers. She usually covers the missing eye with a black eyepatch made from a simple cloth. Her voice is deep for a woman, thickly accented, and somewhat slow in everyday conversation.

The Sorrow of the Foe is heavily padded, adding thickness to Melea's body and limbs. It almost resembles a puffy snow coat and snow pants. It's mostly a deep ocean blue, although there's blood splattered in some areas that never washed out. Her elbows and knees have metal pads on the outside connected to light machinery underneath to increase her strength. Her head protection resembles a motorcycle helmet. It is the same color as the rest of the Sorrow, with a clear visor shaped like oversized goggles. Geometric white markings wrap in bands around the neck and forearms, resembling local tribal designs. They are more detailed on the green sash around her waist.

Personality:

Through years of seeing nothing but the worst of the world, Melea has a thick shield of cynicism constantly raised, and seems oddly unemotional despite her powers. She has dropped her interest in the Swallower of Worlds, seeing him as weak. She seeks to save the world, whether it likes her help or not. Free will is such a small cost to avoid the horrors she has seen.

History:

Melea Zines was born in a small country in Africa. It was a wartorn land, with multiple factions fighting for supremacy. Before she was five, her entire home village was assimilated by one of the armies. She was kept on, first as insurance to make her parents compliant, then eventually used as a soldier and sex slave when her parents died. In her mid teens, her powers began to manifest. Once she learned how to harness them, she killed off the army that had ruined her life, filling them with rage to cause them to kill each other, horribly and slowly. Those who survived either killed themselves or went irreversibly mad when she turned fear itself upon them.

Powers:

Emotion Manipulation- Melea can harness and control emotion directly. She can use this to turn foes against each other or to her side, as well as a few other appilications, such as creating constructs and even creatures of emotion. This is basically her only real power, but she uses it to its full extent.

Multilingual- Can speak many languages.

Experience- Considering the youth of most of the world's heroes, her decades of experience give her a deadly edge.

Gunner- Melea learned to fight at an extremely young age and still knows her way around a gun. Her single eye makes it difficult to use handguns, but she's still capable of using a rifle with impressive precision, as little as that helps her against most Hidden World members. She is also skilled in close combat as trained by multiple armies around the world, but not strong enough for it to help her against superhuman foes.

Gear:



Sorrow of the Foe- A suit of padded power armor, the Sorrow turns Melea from a regular human to a low-level superhuman. Her movement and attack speeds are raised, but her reflexes remain human. She is also a good deal stronger and more durable than usual, but it is still not enough to make her competitive with stronger Hidden World inhabitants. For this reason and the obvious, she prefers not to fight directly, using her manipulator powers or her minions instead.

Theme:


Battle Theme:



Kuracongo:

Kuracongo is a small, landlocked country between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo. After gaining independence from Belgium in 1960, Kuracongo was locked in intermittent civil wars. These have kept it underdeveloped and without infrastructure, one of the poorest nations on the planet. Upon taking over, fixing this was Melea's first task. The capital, renamed Umshidi, has been remade, carefully planned from the center to be easily navigable and pleasing to the eye. The country received criticism for the use of prisoners, including war criminals, as slave labor to build and maintain the city. Melea released public statements that the United States used prisoners for agricultural labor, and she was doing nothing different. The UN chose not to press sanctions, although human rights watch groups continue to investigate and track events, currently interested in restrictive freedom of speech laws and a lack of press other than the government.

Besides discussions on human rights, Kuracongo has become known as a tourist destination. The country was always beautiful, but now it is safe. Many of the former poachers have been hired to manage large parks to draw in western tourists, and much of Umshidi was left in older states, buildings from the colonial era kept for historical relevance, replete with a museum and many shops selling various souvenirs like locally produced pottery and beads made in traditional styles.

Government-wise, Kuracongo is a dictatorship, or an absolute monarchy, as Zines styles herself an empress, appealing to local myths of a future king who would unite their lands and forge a new empire. Local elections for cities or small regions have been allowed, but Melea is known for removing and replacing mayors who she disagrees with. There is no official persecution based on religion, with Christianity the most popular religion by far and Islam a distant second. Zines herself has claimed to be a Christian when interviewed on the matter, but shows little interest in religion otherwise, and in private, she has made many attempts to contact various gods for aid and grown frustrated when the only divine attention she gains is MOG's.

Top Brass:

Gregor Novák, Head of Research



Gregor is one of the most brilliant minds alive today. He's lucky this is the case, as otherwise Melea would have killed him long ago. He mixes an insufferable pick-up artist attitude with his genius. He can't resist women of every species, which wouldn't be such a problem if he didn't insist on telling them that. This sexual harassment extends even to Melea and Terenty, the only women he frequently works with. Rich before even being hired by Melea, he is mostly interested in her for access to the mysterious stones only she has.

Increasing his already prodigious engineering skills, he bears the Mark of Vulcan. This takes the form of a burn scar over his eye, growing as he summons more fire, killing him if it spreads over his body. He can transfer physical damage into progression on the scar's growth, surviving even mortal wounds this way. When not in use, the mark shrinks back to a normal size. In addition to what flames normally do, he can shape metal on the fly with them. He can form shields, weapons, or even machinery in seconds.

Terenty, Field Agent



A rusalka from Russia, Terenty found herself moved from a life of hedonism by Melea's ideals when the two met and has become one of her most loyal followers. She is normally stoic and serious, but shows more life when partying is involved, slipping back into her love of drink, drugs, and sex (and eating her sexual partners, a vice she cannot stop as it is required for her to live). Even in her stoic exterior, she is constantly introducing Melea to her favorite music, and is a singer herself, if not a professional one, with a voice equally suited for opera and hard rock. Staff karaoke night was her idea.

In addition to the raw strength she carries in her massive frame, Terenty is able to use a seductive charm through her voice and appearance to lure in prey. Even those not attracted to women feel a slight desire to get closer, into melee range where her overpowering might can work. She can also seep water from her skin for manipulation if there isn't water already around to use. While doing this, she can become extremely slippery and move her body like it's boneless. She is weakened in dry conditions and by things that dry her out, like bright sunlight and heat attacks.

Umshidi, Bodyguard



Umshidi is Melea's newest bodyguard, a hulking metallic man pulled directly from Melea's desires by the mysterious Madam Elizabeth. As a result, he is even more loyal than Terenty and is in fact incapable of disobeying her orders. Umshidi only manifests when Melea desires it, and cannot move far from her body. It is this and his ability to summon barriers that make him suited entirely as a bodyguard. Despite his wings, Umshidi cannot fly. He only uses them as massive, bladed weapons. He only speaks to Melea, not seeming to even recognize other people unless they post a threat. It may be a mistake to even speak of Umshidi as a being in his own right rather than a figment of Melea's will.