Meriquai Falls - Inspirations

As any roleplaying game designer can tell you, a campaign setting is never created in a vacuum, not even one as "small" as the City of Spirits. Many people have inspired me, either by their impact in my life or by example through their writing. Many of these examples have translated directly into characters within Meriquai Falls.

Today, I've decided to compile a list of certain characters in Meriquai Falls and discuss briefly who inspired each one.

• Crimson-Hawk: Darren Davenport represents all of the positive traits I possess, magnified suitably for a superheroic campaign, with a sprinkle of my humility and low self-esteem.
• Backdraft: By contrast, Drake Roberts represents all of my self-centered egotism and need for attention, along with the desire to "do the right thing" in order to gain that attention.
• Reverb: Brian Davenport is based on my brother, William, in that he is more athletic than Darren, joined the Air Force, and is a natural leader.
• Shotgun Rider: Ronald Davenport is based on my father, Don. An adventurous soul with a gritty, get-things-done attitude, Both Ronald and my father share a past in the military as a small arms expert.
• Prairie Maid: Technically, Jasmine Davenport (nee Owlspeaker) is inspired by my mother, Jackie, though I took some creative liberties in constructing Jasmine's ethnicity and background. Jasmine does, however, share my mother's caring personality, determination to succeed, and the willingness to lay down her life for those she loved.
• Vengeance: Jackson Sullivan is inspired by the Silent Knight, a character created by Jody Slyman based loosely on himself. While sharing similar motives and skills, Vengeance and Silent Knight utilize vastly different tools and backgrounds.
• Amethyst: Lyssa Sullivan (nee Kellerman) is inspired by the Mind Mistress, a character created by Jody Slyman. Mind Mistress herself was originally based off of a person Jody knew, but since I have never met this person, it is safe to assume that Amethyst is completely fictional.
• Vixen: Trina Sullivan is based off of a what-if question... I'd asked Jody Slyman if he had a daughter, what would he name her? Then I constructed another what-if scenario... What if Jackson Sullivan and Lyssa Kellerman had a daughter, how would she grow up and what powers would she have. Vixen quickly grew to become a centerpiece character in Meriquai Falls.
• Nastarius: The fey archmage, the closest thing that Meriquai Falls has to a "Sorcerer Supreme," is based off of a character created by one of my best friends, James Rankin.
• Gracelynn Willow: Gracelynn Johnson is inspired by the mother of my sons, Dee Waugh, right down to her spitfire personality and never-say-die attitude.
• Phalanx: The powered armor wearing current head of IRON, Kristoff Jameson, is inspired by one of my best friends, Chris Jennings.
• Sworddancer: Kristy Angela Morales is based very loosely off of a girl I knew in college. Christine was a Wiccan priestess, sharp as a whip, and very easy on the eyes. Although I haven't seen Christine is quite a few years, her impact on my life continues on in the form of Meriquai Fall's resident mystical anti-hero.
• Live-Wire: For his birthday, I created a character for my cousin, Trevor. Based loosely on the hero of the Infamous video games, Cole MacGrath, Trent MacDailey is a survivor of the attack of the  Con Rắn Cháy on North Meriquai Falls in 2008.
• Professor Epoch: Professor Epoch is a gender-bending cross between the Timemaster from Classic Enemies and Tempus from Champions Presents.
• Refractor: To emulate Refractor's terrifying ability to alter reality around him, I drew inspiration from the character sheet of the Infinite Man, from Scott Heine's supplement, Alien Enemies.
• Short-Circuit: The cyberkinetic villain, Eddy Watts, is based off of a character created by one of my best friends, James Rankin.
• The Totems of Retribution: The concept of the Manitou and his spirit-imbued followers, Coyote, Eagle, Buffalo, and Bear, along with the concept of Grandmother Spider, are lifted nearly whole-cloth from the pages of Dean Shomshak's excellently written supplement, Creatures of the Night: Horror Enemies. I did take the liberty of modernizing the concepts... the Manitou has lived for centuries, resurrecting himself in a new body after each death, to become a much more cosmopolitan villain and the Totems themselves do not transform into beast-men, making them even more dangerous in that they can disguise themselves easily.
• The Black Dragon Clan: The Inner Circle of this mystical Vietnamese assassin clan with a blood feud with the Korean warrior Rising Moon clan is based loosely off of Yooso, the villain group created by Aaron Allston for his beloved 1990 supplement, Ninja Hero. The clan's leader, Shadow Fang, is inspired by the Classic Enemies villain, Black Claw (with a little bit of Dragon Master sprinkled in).
• The Mythos: The Celtic gods of the Mythos (Taranis, Lugh, Mabon, Mannanán, Morrigan, and Rhiannon) are adapted from the Pantheon from Scott Heine's supplement, Alien Enemies.
• Many Villains: Many of the villains in Meriquai Falls owe their existence to the many authors who have written for Green Ronin Publishing. More specifically, I drew inspiration from the many generic archetypes that were published for Mutants & Masterminds. Did I have an Unscrupulous Billionaire? Okay, let's create Sigmund Winters and his assassin daughter, Dominique Winters. Did I have an Evil Robot? Yeah, that's already covered by the Huntress, the android who went rogue from the Imperions. Did I have a Sinister Simian? Let's get creative, make him a powerful mentalist and call him Doctor Marmoset. Yeah, I said it... Doctor Marmoset! Grovel in fear at the superior intellect of Doctor Marmoset, you pathetic humans!