They’re tough, they live to fight, and they enjoy inflicting pain.

Brutes are one of the Archetypes you will be playing in City of Villains, and in the first of a regular series, here you’ll get a sneak peek at the creation of a Brute....

Hit Points: High
Damage: High
Role: Melee
Primary Powers: Melee
Secondary Powers: Defense

Brutes live to fight, and as a Brute, you will revel in hand-to-hand combat. With strong offensive Power Sets designed to inflict pain and impressive defenses to take it, you’re the best there is in a straight melee fight. Protracted battles only make you mad, and the madder you get, the more damaging your attacks become. You build up Fury as you attack and are attacked, multiplying your base damage potential dramatically. This unique combination of powers makes your strategy one of speed and aggression.

Brutes of the Rogue Isles

Black Scorpion
Known for his unprecedented strength and deadly use of poison blasts, Black Scorpion is legendary for his savage behavior. Once a ruthless mercenary, Ernesto Rodriguez became the Black Scorpion after donning the bio-mechanical suit constructed by the reckless but brilliant Dr. Bowen. During a mission gone wrong, Rodriguez discovered the doctor working on this now infamous armor. Rodriguez tortured the scientist to learn the suit’s secrets, then killed him. Having ripped most of the workings of the suit from Bowen, Rodriguez transformed himself into Black Scorpion. His only clear goal is to incessantly improve his own armor, gaining raw power through technology, engineering himself into an unstoppable Brute. Though mistrusted by most Arachnos agents, Black Scorpion’s unbridled hunger for power makes him a relentless warrior. Coupled with his low intelligence, this appetite makes him the perfect servant for Lord Recluse.

Wretch

Trapped beneath a ruined building on the same mission that claimed Ghost Widow’s life, the man once known as Paul Marino survived on rats and raw sewage for days. As the contaminated sewage soaked into Marino’s infected burns, he slowly began to transform. Ghost Widow’s spirit was his only companion throughout his gruesome metamorphosis from man to Brute. Now driven by a potent combination of fear, hatred, betrayal, longing, and guilt, Wretch serves as Ghost Widow’s corporeal executor with steadfast devotion. His powerful smashing attacks are deadly, and few dare confront Wretch in his mission to protect the woman he faithfully serves.

The Oborotaen

Born on his family’s sprawling estate in the Russian countryside, Karl Volishkav’s first memory is of the wolf attack. It was a crisp fall day fading into the soft twilight of evening when the vivacious Nina Volishkav decided to wrap her infant son, Karl, in his fur lined carriage for a stroll along the garden path. As she pushed the carriage among the barren trees, the snow-muted sounds of the nearby forest were pierced by a lone wolf howl. Nina swept Karl into her arms and tried to run, but to no avail. Although he was barely one year old, the sickening sounds of the wolf’s attack and the dying screams of his mother were forever etched in Karl’s mind.

Karl lay helpless but unharmed in the blood soaked snow until morning. At dawn, his father stumbled onto the horrific scene. After searching all night for his wife and son, Baron Volishkav was unable to handle the sight of his mutilated wife. In his trauma induced madness, the Baron became convinced that it was in fact his own son Karl who killed his beloved Nina. According to local legend, an Oborotaen stalked the forests, killing innocent women and children as they traveled between villages. Half man and half wolf, the Oborotaen was greatly feared by the villagers, and they rarely traveled the footpaths alone.

Over the next year, the Baron became increasingly certain that Karl was an Oborotaen and, one evening, Karl’s nanny found the Baron standing over his crib with a knife. The very next day he was sent to live with his uncle Victor in Paragon City. With access to his family fortune, Karl was sent to the finest schools and raised by his kind uncle with everything a young man could desire, lacking only a mother’s love. Handsome, with sparkling blue eyes and a sweet smile, Karl was known as a reserved, polite, and rather shy young man. He excelled at school and eventually attended Oxford to study genetic engineering and stem cell biology.

Although outwardly a calm, gentle man, Karl battled with overwhelming hatred for himself, sure that he was responsible for his mother’s death. Perhaps he had inherited his father’s mental instability, for young Karl was convinced that the spirit of a wolf had entered his body the night of the attack. He began to seek ways to bring about his physical transformation into a true wolf-man. Building from stem cell experiments that had created chimera-like creatures, Karl eventually went to work with the famous Dr. Leonard Bowen. Dr. Bowen was working on ways to combine animal and human into one through the use of bio-engineered armor. Eventually known for creating the armor worn by Black Scorpion, the ill-fated Dr. Bowen ran a secret lab where Karl helped to develop a serum that encouraged genetic fusing between human and animal cellular systems. One interesting side effect of this serum was the ability to harness the animal’s instinctual fury, leading to berserker-like aggressive behavior in human test subjects.

Despite the potentially dangerous side effects, Karl spent weeks developing a specific formula to fulfill his totemic destiny. Finally perfecting the formula, Karl retreated to his uncle’s mansion and injected the specially prepared wolf serum into his own arm. Expecting an epiphany of joy at being reunited with the animal he believed he shared a blood pact with, Karl was horrified by the rage and anger that swept through him. Every ounce of inner anger, insecurity, and self-hatred was funneled through the inhuman cravings that swept his trembling body. Feeling himself filling with strength yet overwhelmed by intense pain and unnatural, violent urges, he collapsed onto the floor.

Karl awoke hours later to find the Paragon City police hovering over him. As he was roughly dragged away in handcuffs, he saw his uncle, dead on the floor next to him. If not for the man’s clothing, Karl would not even have been able to recognize him. Looking down, he saw his transformed body covered in the blood of his uncle, and Karl realized that he had finally fulfilled his destiny to become a true Oborotaen. Now half-man, half-wolf, The Oborotaen rages against his confinement in the Zig, like an animal building up hatred for those who cage him.

ORIGIN
The Oborotaen gained his powers through Science. Dr. Bowen’s genetic fusing serum caused his transformation into a wolf-man creature.

PRIMARY POWER
Once the transformation to wolfman was complete, The Oborotaen was filled with Super Strength. This allows the Brute to use raw power to knock back his foes while dealing out massive damage.

SECONDARY POWER
With his increased strength came Invulnerability, granting him the ability to resist damage and other negative effects, eventually rendering him almost entirely unstoppable.

AVATAR SELECTION
Although tall for a man, The Oborotaen does not get his incredible powers through size but through the alteration of his genetic structure.

COSTUME CREATION
The serum Karl injected into his blood stream dramatically altered his genetic makeup, infusing his once human shell with wolf stem cells. The resulting changes included a dramatic shift in his physical appearance, such as a wolf-like face, a thick growth of fur across his body, and structural changes to his skeletal frame. For this reason, his costume focuses on the monstrous costume options to create a wolf-like appearance.

BREAKOUT
Unsure of the true potential of his newfound powers, The Oborotaen ventures forth into the Rogue Isles to meet with Kalinda. After being broken out of the Zig, the creature that was once Karl Volishkav is ready to unleash a lifetime of pent up fury against those he believes to be his natural prey, human beings. By working his way up the ranks of Arachnos, he seeks power so that he might fulfill his destiny as The Oborotaen.