Charisma Epoch: Apart from her unpleasant and conceited personality, Charisma is best known for being the daughter of Epoch - the Magellenverse's greatest champion - and she really hates that. Everything she does is in his shadow, and even when she tries to do something that has nothing to do with her famous father - like being a pop diva - it still brings criticism that any success she has is only due to him. It also attracts the attention of Epoch's enemies - especially those that crashed her concerts, attempting to strike at him through her.
So why has she decided to become a cadet at Magellan? And, given her demeanour, why has the Academy accepted her? A clue might be found in Counsellor Freya Foster's file note above - that Epoch's cadetship at Magellan was similarly difficult and, given he worked out alright, the Academy has similar hopes for his daughter. Freya has however sounded some doubts (Boundaries - 2.23).
Charisma's mother - Evangaline Epoch (not married or related - she had her name changed) - was a normal human ('norm') who was fanatically obsessed with the handsome young superhero Epoch. She desperately wanted to have 'his child' but would have been physically incapable of having sexual intercourse with the very strong Epoch - however she did manage to obtain a sample of his sperm without his knowledge (that's a story for another time!!) and successfully impregnated herself. Fortunately for her, Charisma wasn't super powered in the womb or Evangaline might have had a hole kicked in her belly.
Epoch was unaware of his daughter's existence for a number of years until Evangeline had a total mental breakdown once Charisma's powers began to develop at age 8. Epoch took custody of Charisma and she went to live at Magellan Island. Despite his best intentions of being a good father, his commitment to super-heroing made him somewhat absent from her life. He's tried to make up for this by giving her anything she wanted - spoiling her in the process.
Charisma's powers are expected to ultimately be a diluted version of her father's, since she is half super-powered and half 'norm' - although that may ultimately mean nothing as many super powered individuals are the offspring of two 'norm' parents. It does appear however that she gained no particular enhanced ability from her mother.
Although mostly invulnerable, Charisma has noticeable weaknesses to radiation and especially to electricity. She can withstand a fair bit of pysical punishment however. Her rating in the Chandra Scale is [cf]5.5-[r]3.5-[te]6.5-[ep]6-[t]10-[c]5-[es]2
- Concussive Force: 5.5
- Radiation: 3.5
- Thermal Extremes: 6.5
- Environmental Pressure: 6
- Toxins: 10
- Cutting: 5
- Electrical shock: 2
First appearance: Brawl [1.36]
Special appearance: Charisma's "Kiss Me" Tour 2008 (this was originally a voting bonus from 2005, Charisma's attempt to carve out a pop career for herself goes horribly wrong! Slightly NSFW!!)
Tags: (I'll link these if and when these are available in the Classified pages) [Epoch] [Magellan Justice Academy] [Sista Superior] [Chandra Scale] (for a beta discussion on the Chandra Scale, see here)
xmung's notes (some ruminations on the character by the artist!): Possibly people would have more sympathy for Charisma living in her father's shadow if she wasn't so unpleasant! I really like writing for her though because she's always going to stir up trouble and it's usually going to back-fire in her face.
Charisma was one of the second batch of cadets I created when I decided to expand the Magellan concept. From the outset she was to be "the daughter of one of the major super-heroes in the Magellan universe" - although I can't remember if I had actually even created Epoch at that stage or not. Her pop star 'credentials' and outright bitchiness were also described in my initial character notes for her. Going over those notes has been interesting - it reveals that 'her favourite hobby is herself', she is 'often repulsed by some of the "freaky" students in her year', she hates 'having to live in a dorm with others', she 'has broken some bones from pushing herself too hard (not indestructible after all)' and, finally, that she's 'not liked by many of the girls but lusted after by most of the boys'.
A lot of the history about her mother (described above) came out of discussions in the forum and may not quite tally with what's written here (but the stuff here should be taken as correct).
