Wanted: SteamPunk Supervillain

[Bliss]

I've lost some stories recently, and have this idea that I want to play. I need someone to play a steampunk-style victorian-era supervillain against my progressive, wealthy heiress; I'm anticipating a longing/obsessive relationship, rather like Dr. Horrible.

Plotline is as yet undetermined and open for discussion.

Apply here or by PM. As always, I am choosey, and this is not first-come, first serve. Preference will be given to applicants with appreciation for an antihero.

-Bliss

[PhantomPistoleer]

You know, I think it's great that you're setting something like this up.

I'm a big fan of the steampunk genre.  If I had the opportunity, I think I would play a villain with the same ambition from A Letter in Scarlett (spoiler if you haven't read Sherlock Holmes:  he wouldn't be dying!)

Good luck finding a player! :)

[Bliss]

I've read quite a bit of Sherlock Holmes, but that particular one escapes me at the moment. Could you elaborate?

[PhantomPistoleer]

A Letter in Scarlet is a published Sherlock Holmes story that is accepted as taking place first in canon timeline.  It introduces Watson and explains how he comes about to live with Holmes.  The mystery revolves around the brutal death of two people.  Sherlock Holmes discovers the man who does it.  Now, there is a huge disconnect in the story because Doyle spends about 100 pages on Sherlock Holmes figuring out who committed the crime, and then, he spends 100 pages describing the villain-- one who everyone can sympathize with.

The villain is this ranger/cowboy who meets this woman he falls in love with.  The woman is the adopted daughter of a hunter who settles down in Mormon territory but doesn't follow the Mormon creed.  The daughter becomes beautiful so suitors begin to make their desire for the girl known; except, these suitors already have three or four wives and the father does not approve.  So the mormons begin to terrorize the family until the ranger steps in and secretly provides for an escape into the mountains.  He is out gathering firewood when the father is killed and the girl is seized by the mormons.  By the time he makes his way back to the Mormon city, the girl is dead from fatigue/broken heart/what have you.

Well, the two suitors flee to England because the ranger has sworn to kill them.  He manages to kill them, but Sherlock Holmes is able to capture him.  He tells them the story of what happened and why it happened, and the two detectives and the agent from Scotland Yard feel sympathy, but still, he must suffer for his crime.  However, the ranger admits that he will probably be dead by the morrow because there is something wrong with HIS heart.  And so it happens that Sherlock Holmes' first published victory is all but bittersweet.

[Bliss]

Ah, now that you describe it, it has a ring of familiarity to it. So which characterization did you mean, the ranger? Or one of the suitors?

[PhantomPistoleer]

Ur, um, the ranger.  Except he wouldn't fill the supervillain role in a steampunk story without minor tweaks:

Devoid of love, he has become a murderous killer.  Maybe the wealthy heiress has a resemblance to his doomed love.

He could have worked tirelessly to overthrow the Mormons, and in turn, organizations of equal religious organization (the Church of England, the Catholic church, etc.; making him exceptionally wealthy Victorian terrorist).

You would have to add a few talents to him too to make him equivalent to Fu Manchu or Jack the Ripper, though.

[diadochoi]

Sorry, I don't want to butt in but this has really chimed a bell with me.

How about the Steam Punk archetype of the misunderstood world changer, i.e. Captain Nemo, Dr Jekyll, the Invisible Man, or Scorpiio from the Simpson's

A man with a dream who lets nothing stop him. a genius no doubt but a genius the people cannot/do not accept.

I'd have the supervillian having invented something, something truly amazing. An hysteria reliever (some form of masturbation device)? A personality corrector (to change/control people's behaviour)? A purifier (something to decriminalise a criminal)? a steam robot companion for the lonely?

He would be able to fund his own personal army and servants from his other inventions, like gummed paper or something.

This would make him astonishingly powerful. Like a small country in just one man.

He believe's he is a benevolent tyrant. But he is still a tyrant. He still tries to impose his will on everything because he knows best.

He is trying to save the world.

The world doesn't want to be saved.

[Bliss]

Ooh... Very interesting concept. Drop me a PM so we can discuss. ^^