Who are The Cipher?

Character illustration by Luis-Gabriel Leal, using the character creator in the “City Of Heroes / City Of Villains” computer games.

-Background: To the world at large, The Cipher is a mysterious vigilante, a coated and hooded mystery man who has struck terror into the heart of New York’s underworld. His face is hidden by a strange black mask, the eyes covered by eerily glowing blue goggles. His voice, described by witnesses, sounds like “a multitude of voices, speaking at once.” He deals death- with strange, silenced pistols- when his prey shows resistance to the law’s efforts… which is often. Criminals and the law both are baffled by The Cipher’s seeming omnipotence: he seems at times to be several places at once, frightening in the manner he can’t seem to be pinned down. Who is The Cipher?

The appropriate question should be: who are The Cipher… his identity is actually several separate people.

They were a secret commando squad from the Great War (WWI, of course) who, in the course of one particular mission, came into possession of a large treasure they “liberated” from the Kaiser’s forces. Each touched by tragedy, they reformed in New York after the war to take on a new war… the war on organized crime. Their appropriated treasure funds their efforts to destroy criminals.

To instill fear in the criminal heart, they devised a single identity they could unite behind, a figurehead that would disguise them and create the illusion of a powerful single foe. And so, all four highly skilled former soldiers can wear the disguise of The Cipher, and he can seem to be in multiple places at once to the unwitting.

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-Gear:
*The Cipher’s mask is, on the outside, a simple black cloth mask with deeply blue-tinted goggles to cover the eyes. However, the mask hides some surprisingly high-tech features.

A modulator is built into it, changing the speech of the wearer into a synthesized false voice. This serves to heighten the character’s mystique, as well as disguise the true voice of the wearer.

The goggles are made from a synthetic “glassite”, created in a lab, that provide a superior night-vision in the dark. The drawback, however, is that the lenses glow blue in the night. The goggles can be both a boon and an Achilles heel to the wearer.

The mask is fastened with a special “trap”: unless a special procedure is used to undo the fasteners, a small built-in sleeping gas canister will be set off. This is to protect the wearer of the mask in case of capture: whoever tries to remove the mask will be knocked out immediately. The Cipher team members take an antidote for this sleeping gas on a daily basis, preventing their knockout in this situation.

*The Cipher’s pistols are a special make, not found anywhere else in the world. The integral silencer provides stealth without impeding the bullets’ velocity, while an extended magazine clip ensures less need to reload in a heated firefight.

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This series will be harder to write, but I think it provides plenty of chances for unusual character interactions and storylines. Opinions, anyone?