High Evolutionary

Category : Comic Books

Subcategory : Marvel universe
Type : Other
Game System : DC Heroes (Blood of Heroes S.E.)

High Evolutionary V1.0

By Dr. Peter S Piispanen

Source of Character: Marvel Comics

Helper(s): www.wikipedia.org (History, Powers and Abilities, and part of the Personality
section), Mike

Game Stuff

High Evolutionary

"It may have taken a slide down the evolutionary ladder to enable me to slough off my
madness, but I am lucid once more. Furthermore, my perspective on both the Human
race and my life's work has been profoundly altered by the experience. I have been to
both ends of Human evolution. I have known first-hand the humble origins of life on this
sphere, as well as the ultimate genetic destiny of the Earth's highest lifeform, Man. My
encounter with the Beyonders has demonstrated to me that Mankind's genetic destiny is
not glorious enough. Left to our own natural path, we will never be the equal of the
Beyonders. Thus, someone must guide the path of Man's evolution and provide a catalyst
to further our race's genetic potential. This someone, of course, must be me. I hereby
assume proprietorship of Man's racial destiny. Under my guidance, the Human race will
evolve further than the Beyonders, further than any other race of beings in existence! No
matter what it takes, I shall not stop until Man reigns supreme in the universe !"

"I know only that there is now but one way to preserve the uncounted souls I have
evolved on Counter-Earth... one way to keep the World-Devourer from destroying my
greatest creation : I must challenge Galactus to fight to the death - his life or mine !"

High Evolutionary

Dex: 05 Str: 05 Bod: 10 Motivation: Seeking Knowledge

Int: 20 Wil: 20 Min: 14 Occupation: Geneticist, Would-be Evolutioner
Inf: 05 Aur: 08 Spi: 08 Resources {or Wealth}: Unlimited
Init: 030 HP: 120
Powers: Awareness: 08, Comprehend Languages: 15, Continuum Control: 20, Danger
Sense: 08, Energy Blast: 20, Flight: 35, Growth: 08, Matter Manipulation: 25, Mental
Invisibility: 12, Mutation: 25, Shrinking: 12, Speak with animals: 12, Spirit Travel: 15,
Transmutation: 25
Bonuses and Limitations:
Danger Sense is extended so that the High Evolutionary will detect whenever any
of his creations are in danger (+5)
Matter Manipulation and Transmutation also work on living organisms and can
evolve or devolve their genetic makeup (+3)
The High Evolutionary can select the effects of Mutation himself -- no random
element involved
Speak with Animals works with any and all types of animals

Skills: Gadgetry: 22, Medicine: 16, Scientist: 24

Advantages: Area Knowledge (Wundagore Mountain), Expansive Headquarters
(Counter-Earth and the new Citadel of Science on the Moon of the Counter-Earth),
Genius, Immortal, Insta-Change (other evolutionary states), Scholar (Biology, Genetic
Engineering, Mutation, Robotics)
Connections: Adam Warlock (Low), Reed Richards (aka Mr. Fantastic, Low), Thor
(High)
Drawbacks: Catastrophic Irrational Attraction (Genetic research and evolution),
Psychological Instability (ranging from non-existent to Catastrophic at times)
Equipment: Cyborg Exoskeleton [/DEX/ 08 /STR/ 10 /BODY/ 18 /MIND/ 18 /SPIRIT/
18 INT 04 WILL 04 MIND 04, Acuity: 15, Invulnerability: 10, Regeneration: 10, Sealed
Systems: 25, Advantage: Life Support (All), Bonus: Regeneration will bring back the
armor-clad High Evolutionary even from beyond death (+5), but this rare ability is treated
as a Catastrophic Marginal Power limitation. Notes: The Exoskeleton is designed to
always and automatically protect the High Evolutionary against any perceived threat,
including from himself ; it will force the High Evolutionary's actions to self-defense,
including free use of his powers, if he is under attack or to rebuild himself]

To evolve the High Evolutionary:

Herbert Edgar Wyndham started life as a normal human being, but with a genius intellect
and a fanatical interest in genetic science. The stats presented in the main body of this
writeup represent the 'typical' High Evolutionary, when he is merely a couple fo hundred
thousand years ahead farther along the evolutionary ladder than mainstream humanity.
The 'typical' High Evolutionary is extremely advanced and powerful enough to create a
planet from scratch and fill it with any type of desired life in a matter of months, as he did
with Counter-Earth. There are two other important forms to keep in mind, the original,
human Wyndham and the final, God-like Evolutionary.

In the beginning, long before Herbert Edgar Wyndham evolved himself all the way to the
human end he was physically but a common man although with a genius intellect. During
his early adventures, when he had just started to evolve animals, had just created an
armor to protect himself against predators around the Wundagore area, and just started
calling himself the High Evolutionary with his evolved animals, he had much lower stats.
The stats below are to be used in his earliest possible adventures, and later stats will
range all the way up to his current stats.

High Evolutionary (earliest era)

"But this talk of a demon from the bowels of the Earth gets tedious ! I'm a scientist,
confound it ! Demons just don't fit into the rational scheme of the Universe !"

"I've been wounded too severely. There is no more hope. The High Evolutionary is
dying ! And yet.. perhaps.. there is one final experiment I have never performed. I have
yet to use.. my miraculous ray.. upon a human subject. If I have calibrated my genetic
accelerator accurately.. within seconds.. I shall become what man will be.. at the end of a
million years !!"

High Evolutionary (earliest era)

Dex: 04 Str: 03 Bod: 04 Motivation: Seeking Knowledge

Int: 13 Wil: 13 Min: 07 Occupation: Geneticist
Inf: 04 Aur: 04 Spi: 06 Resources {or Wealth}: 009
Init: 020 HP: 045
Skills: Gadgetry: 13, Medicine: 07, Scientist: 14
Advantages: Area Knowledge (Wundagore Mountain), Expansive Headquarters
(Wundagore Citadel of Science), Genius, Scholar (Biology, Genetic Engineering)
Connections: Dr. Jonathan Drew (High), Jessica Drew (aka the future Spider-Woman,
High), Knights of wundagore (High)
Drawbacks: Catastrophic Irrational Attraction (Genetic research and evolution)
Equipment: Cyborg Exoskeleton [/BODY/ 08, Invulnerability: 06]

Furthermore, the High Evolutionary can, at any time, evolve himself into the final form
of Man, which is a gigantic God-like, non-corporeal being with utterly alien psychology ;
if he allows this change to occur, the Evolutionary will no longer care about anything but
pure universal knowledge, leaving everything earthly behind at once, ceasing any activity
he might have been involved in, and essentially becoming a new NPC until he, somehow,
changes back to his normal, earlier physical form. The God-like High Evolutionary
probably has powers in the range of Galactus with permanent Self Link (Spirit Travel) 25
active and is not even seen by most beings. In this state, he will roam around the universe
seeking knowledge, until he finds reason to become corporeal again, or if he is somehow
summoned back, at which point he returns into being the 'typical' High Evolutionary
again.

Background

Real name: Herbert Edgar Wyndham

Other aliases: Lord High Evolutionary, Mankind's Greatest Geneticist, The Master of
Evolution
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: None
Group affiliation: None
Base Of Operations: Mobile
Height: 6'2" Weight: 200lbs (without armor)
Eyes: Brown Hair: Brown

Powers and Abilities

Although his powers have fluctuated over the years, The High Evolutionary has
demonstrated god-like powers due both to his experimentation on his own genetic code
and his cybernetic exoskeleton. The High Evolutionary's exoskeleton provides him with
an uncanny degree of protection from physical, energy, psionic, and mystical attacks. It
also provides life support (filtering/recycling his air and providing sustenance when
needed), and contains a complete record of his genetic code. If he is badly damaged, the
suit can heal his wounds, including, in one instance, restoring him to life after the Hulk
had beaten him into goo.

Aside from these abilities, it is unclear which of the High Evolutionary's abilities are
derived from his exoskeleton and which are psionic abilities gained via self-mutation.

He has shown an ability to rearrange matter and create matter from nothing (including the
creation of chemical elements and compounds, complex mechanical items, missiles, and
even living beings), astral projection, a danger sense (akin to Spider-Man's quasi-
clairvoyant Spider-Sense), energy blasts, enhanced senses (including ESP), force field
generation, size alteration (he once grew as large as Galactus, and fought him to a
standstill), and telepathy (including communication with animals), making himself
understood to any being regardless of language, making himself and others invisible, and
probing the minds of others to seek out information. The High Evolutionary is a master
geneticist, and is highly skilled in a number of other scientific fields.

History:

Herbert Edgar Wyndham was born in Manchester, England. While a student at Oxford in
the 1930s, he took an interest in the work of heretical biologist Nathaniel Essex (in
actuality, the disguised form of the X-Men villain Mister Sinister), and began
experimenting with genetic manipulation, building a machine with which he attempted to
"evolve" the rats in his mother's London basement.

While attending a genetics conference in Geneva, Wyndham was approached by a

mysterious man (in truth, the outcast Inhuman geneticist Phaeder) who handed to him
papers containing blueprints for cracking the genetic code. With this information to
bolster his experiments, Wyndham successfully developed a serum he dubbed "Isotope
A." Although expelled from the university for his single-mindedness, he finally
succeeded in evolving his pet Dalmatian, Dempsey, into a humanoid life form with the
intelligence of a chimpanzee. Dempsey, unfortunately, was shot by hunters, and
Wyndham realized that such creatures as he would create would have no place in the
human world.

In partnership with scientist Jonathan Drew (father of Jessica Drew), Wyndham moved
his experiments to the seclusion of Wundagore Mountain in the small Balkan nation of
Transia. Discovery of the uranium on the land (inherited by Drew's wife) provided vast
funding, and they bought more land from local baron Gregor Russoff. Assembling a
"citadel of science" designed by German scientist Horace Grayson (father of the future
Marvel Boy) and built by Moloid slaves supplied by Phaeder, the pair continued their
experiment until Drew's daughter fell ill from uranium poisoning, and was placed into
suspended animation to save her life. Subsequently, Drew's wife was attacked and killed
by a werewolf (Russoff himself, victim of a family curse), and Drew left Wundagore;
Wyndham, on the other hand, developed a suit of protective silver armor for himself and
continued his work.

Now joined in his work by research assistant Miles Warren (future supervillain the
Jackal), Wyndham was able to make more and more radical breakthroughs, including the
genetic acceleration of some local animals into the half-human, half-animal beings that
he dubbed his "New Men". When Jonathan Drew returned to Wundagore, possessed by
the ghost of the 6th Century magician Magnus, he warned that the citadel had been
constructed upon the place where the malevolent Elder God Chthon had been banished.
He began to train the New Men in the ways of combat and chivalry of his time, until they
eventually came to refer to themselves as the "Knights of Wundagore," and to Wyndham
as the "Lord High Evolutionary".

In 1958, Magnus's fears came to pass when Baron Russoff attempted to use the ancient
magical tome known as the Darkhold to cure himself of his lycanthropy, inadvertently
freeing Chthon from imprisonment. The Knights held him off and Magnus was able to re-
bind the demon; however, on this same night, a pregnant woman named Magda sought
refuge at the citadel and gave birth to twin children there. Although she died in childbirth,
the moment of Chthon's defeat coincided with the birth of the children, and the baby girl
was touched with the demon's magic. Wyndham attempted to find foster parents for the
children, but when met with failure, they were placed in stasis for decades until suitable
candidates were found. Raised by Gypsies Django and Marya Maximoff, the twins grew
up to be the superheroes Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, the latter wielding chaos
magic as a result of Chthon's influence.

Wyndham eventually saw the world as a far too confining place, so he converted his
scientific research citadel into a spaceship, exploring the stars with his New Men. He
later settled his New Men on a planet, Wundagore II, while he stayed on one of the
planet's moons and began work on a detailed replica of Earth to be located on the
opposite side of the Sun. Although Counter-Earth was supposed to be evolved into a
paradise, the Man-Beast (one of the New Men) corrupted the process, and Counter-Earth
became an imperfect world.
By this time the High Evolutionary had adopted Adam Warlock and bestowed him with
the Soul Gem, dispatching him to redeem Counter-Earth. Eventually, one of Galactus's
Heralds discovered this Counter-Earth, but the Fantastic Four persuaded the World
Devourer to seek sustenance elsewhere. During its construction, the High Evolutionary's
Counter-Earth was targeted for collection by the Beyonders (not to be confused with The
Beyonder). Agents of the Beyonders manipulated Adam Warlock into murdering the High
Evolutionary to allow theft of Counter-Earth, but he was revived by Moondragon and
Warlock's counterpart, "Her." The Evolutionary pursued the Beyonders to rescue his
world, but he himself reported that his mind snapped when he saw their vast museum-
ship, and how effectively insignificant he was compared to these alien beings.

The Evolutionary became increasingly unstable and maniacal. His attempt to end his own
life was prevented by his own suit. He returned to Earth, in hope to find something strong
enough to overcome his armor and end his miserable life. He goaded the Hulk into
attacking him, and Hulk succeeded in smashing his armor; the malfunctioning armor then
devolved the High Evolutionary into a mass of one-celled organisms. However, it was
only a matter of time before the suit's circuits reorganized itself and restored the High
Evolutionary to his previous state.

His death and subsequent re-birth gave the High Evolutionary a new insight into the
future of mankind. Rather than being a benevolent yet distant protector, as he had been
with his New Men, he would take a direct hand in molding the future of humanity, so that
they might one day be as powerful as the Beyonders he had witnessed.

The High Evolutionary later came into conflict with a number of superheroes, notably the
Avengers and Adam Warlock when he tried to forcibly mutate (or "evolve") the
population of the Earth with his "Evolution Bomb" (in the crossover storyline The
Evolutionary War). The Avengers stopped him, though Hercules was exposed to the High
Evolutionary's Genesis Chamber and became "more than a god," evolving out of
existence. After seeing what happened to Hercules at the end of the Evolutionary War, the
High Evolutionary decided on a new plan. Rather than advancing humanity, he would
create all-new gods and immortals. He took his Citadel of Wundagore spaceship into the
Black Galaxy for raw materials, and had some success in creating new lifeforms. He and
his creations were on-hand to witness the birth of a new Celestial, but viewing this event
with all his hyper-evolved senses drove the High Evolutionary back to madness.

In the Quicksilver series, it was revealed that the High Evolutionary's genetic code had
become unstable, accounting for his periods of mania and aggression. With the help of
the New Men Bova and Delphis, the Evolutionary was able to restore himself to an un-
evolved human state and mental stability using Isotope G.

The High Evolutionary is now an occasional ally of Thor and other superheroes. He
recently confronted his mentor Sinister alongside the X-Men when Sinister took over his
satellite-based device (which temporarily stripped all Mutants of the x-gene that grants
them their powers) and altered it to mutate large sections of the populace.

The High Evolutionary had a run in with the Lord of the Savage Land in early 1998.
After a battle with Thanos, Shanna had been givin the power of the terraformer that
allowed the Savage Land to exist within the antarctic wild. The Evolutionary became
aware of Shannas evolution when Ka-Zar came to him for advice on his wifes problem.
The Evolutionary quickly fell in love with Shanna and atempted to take her and her son
Matthew away with him to evolve into a planet of their own. With the help of the tribes
of the Savage Land, Ka-Zar saved Shanna and put an end to the Evolutionarys schemes.

Description:

The High Evolutionary wears a very interesting silver armor, complete with helmet and
red clothing. See illo for the details.

Personality

Not even as a normal human was Wyndham interested in pursuing normal human
relations. Apparently born a genius, he found a fanatical interest in genetic research early
on, and the application of it into forced evolution. Decennia before his peers, he built his
first evolutionary machine in the basement of his mother's house and spent every waking
hour in that lab. He cared little for that his mother sacrificed every penny and even the
house to further his dreams; he appeared to take the completion of his ambitions for
granted. He was very lucky in many ways, and received unique help along the way, but
still took all of that for granted. With gained knowledge came further distancing form
humanity. Philosophy about the way of life came much later after he had reached major
successes.

Over the years, his character has thus varied between that of a weary, well-meaning
creator to that of a mad scientist who is willing to do whatever is necessary to further his
goals of evolving a better, less-brutal world. Although menacing during his maniacal
phase, the Evolutionary's history also contains more than one example of his desire to be
responsible, creative, and kind. He is, by no means, a standard-fare villain, and has levels
of sympathy and complexity to the character. The High Evolutionary has been
manipulated by both the Beyonders and the Celestials, cosmic races that have interfered
with human evolution in the past, indicating that his work might perhaps be a threat to
their own. Even at his most unstable, the Evolutionary has never killed and has always
demonstrated a paternal love toward even his most flawed creations. At one point, he
offered to (and did) restore the Savage Land after it was destroyed by Terminus. The
Evolutionary has tried to teach his New Men the virtues of heroism, and played a key role
in saving the Earth from Chthon. He has also served as a benevolent father figure to
several Marvel characters, including Adam Warlock, Quicksilver, and Thor. Though made
personally wealthy by uranium deposits, the Evolutionary has also provided for a
generous financial trust for the people of Transia, ensuring economic stability for the
nation. Of course, he now has access to the unlimited wealth of other worlds, such as the
Counter-Earth. On several occasions he has gone to considerable lengths to protect young
children, including the critically ill Jessica Drew, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, and
Pietro's daughter Luna.

A fanatical man of science, he originally did not believe in anything supernatural, but
eventually accepted its existence as another form of science. Somewhere along the way,
over the years, he lost much of his human feelings and ways, although he has always very
deeply cared for his subjects. He usually plays the benevolent, yet distant, protector role,
and believes it impossible that any of his creations would wish him ill.

He will pursue any action that grants him further knowledge about things he has not
experienced or seen before. A major part of his psychological makeup, possibly from
having lived most of his life alone with his subjects, he needs to convince himself that he
is a God, because if he is not then he is absolutely nothing in the cosmic scheme of
things. He can most often uphold this illusion and behaves like a benevolent paternal
being to most humanoids. His only good friend was Dr. Jonathan Drew, who shared his
interest in genetics, and with whom he could feel like a normal human being. His self-
delusion, of being a God, will unravel if he faces beings much more powerful than he is,
such as the Beyonders, and he will then turn utterly depressed and even suicidal, until he
manages to evolve himself into another more balanced form.

The High Evolutionary's evolutions, from a single cell to the ultimate of Mankind has left
him with traumatic and profound experiences and psychological scars (some have
theorized that his entire genetic makeup is unstable and leads to bouts of insanity and
depression) and as a result his psychological makeup is less human than ever before.
Considering the Beyonders' aggressive pursuit of Counter-Earth from its earliest stages,
and the subsequent destruction of the planet while under their care, some may speculate
that the Evolutionary's sanity was subtly undermined by these cosmic beings in order to
prevent him from performing future experiments. His methods are utterly alien, his
motives impossible to understand and his science beyond anybody's understanding. Now,
he only exists for bettering and evolving Mankind into the rulers of the universe (see
Quote).

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