So apparently my app was too long...so you're getting two posts
Ultimate One Universe
Character Application
Character Name: Bruce Wayne/Batman
Alignment (Hero, Villain, Walking the Line): Hero
Character Speech Font and Color: Georgia Black for Bruce/ Bold Georgia Black for Batman
Powers and Abilities: Bruce has no powers of his own, though through over a decade of training he has molded his body into a living weapon. He is versed and proficient in over a dozen forms of hand-to-hand martial arts, has peak level human endurance, strength, speed, durability, dexterity, and agility, as well as a master of a multitude of non-lethal weaponry and gadgetry. Through his time training abroad, Bruce has become an expert on the criminal mind. His time with Stick and League of Assassins taught him to be a master strategist on the battlefield as well as an unrivaled stealth warrior. He is an expert tracker and hunter, and is an able marksman with non-lethal throwing objects.
Bruce is also exceptionally brilliant. He is adept at forensic science, engineering, and architecture. Thanks to the riches left to him by his parents and the resources of his family’s company, Bruce is able to design and build any gadget he thinks may help him in his fight as Batman.
Character Origin/Backstory:
Childhood
Bruce Wayne was born to industrialist Thomas Wayne and his wife Dr. Martha Wayne in the early 1980s. Thomas, CEO and leader of Wayne Enterprises, was the most wealthy man in Gotham City, the Wayne’s ancestral home. Once a proud and prosperous city, Gotham had largely fallen into despair and crime in the years following the great depression. Wayne was the only large company left keeping the city afloat, and he spent quite a bit of money to combat the poverty and crime that had begun to choke his city. Martha, an accomplished doctor, ran the city’s hospitals as well as free clinics for those that could not afford proper health care. The two were Gotham’s favorite children, and Bruce immediately became the city’s darling.
He was raised on the grounds of Wayne Manor, looked over by Thomas’s old friend and the Waynes’ head of security Alfred Pennyworth. Alfred was a former Marine in the Royal Army who had been saved on the battlefield by Thomas, who at the time had been serving as an American Marine. Alfred loved the boy as if he was his own, and tutored young Bruce until he was ready for school.
In Bruce’s eighth year, his father could no longer stand by as Gotham descended further into chaos. He decided to run for mayor, throwing his hat into the ring against rival businessman Oswald Cobblepot. Cobblepot was a ruthless businessman who had put many of his competitors out of business. The campaign was brutal and contentious, and came to an abrupt, tragic end one cold fall night. As the Waynes walked along a city street, they were gunned down in front of Bruce by a supposed mugger and left dying at his feet. Cobblepot was elected mayor, and Bruce was left without his family.
But the Wayne’s deaths brought with them an unexpected consequence. The city rallied around their desire to change for the better, and Gotham made strides in cleaning itself up, even though corruption still ran deep.
Adolescence
Bruce, from that day on, was raised by Alfred. He went on to attend high school in Gotham, insisting to Alfred that his place was in the city which his parents loved. There, he made friends with two kids who often walked the wrong side of the tracks in Harvey Dent and Selina Kyle. Dent, whose father was an abusive alcoholic, was brilliant but rebellious, and his girlfriend Selina helped bring that side out of him even more. The trio often found themselves in trouble, and Wayne reveled in his new friends and sense of freedom.
Life at home, however, was different. The night his parents died never left Bruce’s mind, and his desire for revenge was strong. He had convinced Alfred to train him in combat, and began laying the ground work for his life’s mission. He decided that he would eradicate crime from the streets of Gotham one way or another. Along with the combat training from Alfred, Bruce delved into psychology, criminology, law, and engineering. He setup a dojo and meditation area in the caverns below Wayne Manor, a place his father had taken him as a child. It was here he had remembered his first true fear as a child, the bats that circled around the ceiling.
When Alfred realized Bruce had learned all he could from him, and seeing how reckless he was being with his friends, he was sent to the nation’s premier boarding school for further education. Before leaving, Bruce and Dent had a falling out after Harvey discovered Selina had been cheating on him with Wayne, shattering the trio’s friendship. At boarding school, Bruce met fellow heir Tony Stark. The two instantly became rivals, often sniping at one another in the halls and class. Bruce saw Tony as a pompous, loud-mouthed jerk, and Tony saw Bruce as a dour, boring, wet blanket. Still, the two had a begrudging respect for each other’s intellect and skills.
College and Disappearance
Bruce graduated tied for the top of his class with Stark, and then attended Princeton pursuing a double minor in forensic science and engineering. He let on that he planned to study law following his undergrad, but in reality Bruce was planning something grander. Wayne knew that he’d never be able to destroy crime within the confines of the law. Police and federal agents had rules. They had jurisdictions. Bruce knew he needed to form his own path and fight crime on his own terms. He coordinated with Alfred a plan to disappear and travel the world, searching out new teachers and masters to learn how to successfully wage a one man war on the criminals of Gotham City.
After his graduation, Bruce embarked on a solo backpacking trip across the world. During a stopover in Africa, Bruce faked his death, prepared numerous false identities, and began his journey. The world mourned the sad story of Bruce Wayne, while the man himself began his mission in earnest.
Time Abroad
Bruce’s first stop brought him to the secluded country of Wakanda. Bruce managed to get into the country by posing as a mercenary loyal to the Cult of the White Gorilla, a rebel group attempting to overthrow the Black Panther dynasty. While with the group, Wayne learned of an assassination attempt against the next Black Panther, T’challa. At his coronation, Bruce foiled the attempt and became fast friends with the country’s new monarch, who helped his new friend by teaching him to be a master hunter as well as guerilla battle tactics. When Bruce felt he had learned all he could from T’Challa, he left Wakanda and disappeared yet again.
The next round of training came in Paris, under the master detective and manhunter Henri Ducard. The two manage to track down some of Europe’s most wanted criminals, and Bruce learned the subtleties and nuances of detective work. The partnership ended in tragedy, however, as Bruce learned Ducard was imprisoning men he saw as competition. The detective was attempting to set up a criminal empire across Europe of his own. Bruce ended these dreams of glory by delivering Ducard and evidence against him to the authorities in secret.
Bruce eventually landed in a Latverian prison by mistake, a situation he was rescued from by a mysterious woman. She beckoned him to come to a hidden compound in the Andes Mountains where he could truly learn how to end injustice. He did as she asked, and was lead to the League of Shadows and its leader, Ra’s al Ghul. Ra’s told Bruce he knew his true identity and sent his daughter Talia to retrieve him. The Demon’s Head said he saw great potential in Bruce, and that his organization wanted to wipe out crime and injustice in the world as Bruce did. Ra’s offered him a place at his side, which Bruce gladly accepted.
The next years were filled with training the likes Bruce had never experienced before. He became proficient in several forms of hand-to-hand combat, ninja weaponry, theatricality, deception, distraction, and stealth. Ra’s heralded him as his greatest student ever, much to the chagrin of the man known only as Bane, Ra’s’ second in command.
During this time Bruce also fell deeply in love with Talia, and the two became engaged. It was not meant to be, however. Ra’s informed Bruce of his plan to rid the world of injustice through terrorist tactics and weapons of mass destruction. Ra’s believed that the only way to fix the world was to cleanse it of most of humanity. Wayne rebelled against his former master, destroying the League’s headquarters. Bruce believed himself to be the only survivor of the struggle, and disappeared back into the world.
His final stop during his time abroad came with the ninja master Stick, and his organization the Chaste. Here Bruce refined his training from the League of Shadows while battling the nefarious ninja cult known only as The Hand. It was also during his time with Stick that Bruce met and befriended blind warrior Matthew Murdock, who was on a similar quest for justice as himself.
Prodigal Son
After his stint with the Chaste, Bruce decided he was ready to return to Gotham. He was retrieved by Alfred, and the two friends happily reunited. During Wayne’s absence Alfred had constructed a base of operations for his war on Gotham’s crime in the caverns Bruce had once used as a dojo. Alfred claimed to the builders it was a garage for the classic car collection he was going to buy after inheriting Bruce’s fortune. Instead, Alfred had turned it into a sophisticated command center to help Bruce respond to any threat imaginable.
When the Wayne private jet landed in Gotham, the rumors had already spread about Bruce’s return. When the stairs dropped to the tarmac, a mob of reporters greeted him as he stepped of the plane. His return sent ripples through the Gotham power base. He was instantly the richest and most powerful man in the city, which ruffled the feathers of the mob bosses, who had once again put the city in their strangle hold. Entrenched mayor Oswald Cobblepot also was put on edge, worried the boy would take up his father’s crusade to be mayor.
Bruce had no desire to do so, however. In the months following his return, he played up his cover as a billionaire playboy while also secretly gathering intel on the mob families of Gotham, as well as the corrupt politicians.
Resurrecting a Company
Gotham wasn’t the only thing that required saving on Bruce’s return. His family’s company was in the process of a hostile takeover by rivals Oscorp and Sionis Pharmaceuticals. Norman Osborn, a titan of scientific thinking, desired Wayne Enterprises’ manufacturing arm to turn his company into a true titan of industry, and Roman Sionis wanted Wayne’s chemical research department. In order to save the company, Bruce put in his own bid for leadership, infusing vast amounts of his own cash to ensure the others’ bid failed. In the aftermath of this, Wayne CEO Lucius Fox stepped aside to allow Bruce to lead the company. Bruce kept Lucius on, and appointed him head of special projects.
Finding Allies
Wayne began sifting through the Gotham police force, searching for cops he knew he could count on when his fight began in earnest. Only five names crossed his radar: Detective Renee Montoya, Detective Katherine Kane, Detective Crispus Allen, Detective Harvey Bullock, and Lieutenant James Gordon, head of Gotham’s Major Crimes Unit. Gordon had been the best cop during Gotham’s short lived love affair with decency after the Wayne murders, and he shot up the ranks quickly before being left in his current position. The other four worked for him, and did their best against the rising tide of corruption.
There was also Bruce’s former friend Harvey Dent, now an assistant district attorney vying for the top job. Dent was running on a platform to fight corruption in the government and had already made plenty of enemies in the upper echelons of Gotham. Wayne figured Dent wouldn’t be happy to see him, but he needed someone like Harvey in a position of power.
Bruce’s final cog in his machine was Lucius Fox, head of special projects. Bruce came back to the company his family had built, and Fox stepped aside to allow him to be CEO. The two became fast friends, as Lucius and Thomas had once been. Bruce confided in Lucius his plans and asked for material help, which Fox agreed to.
Becoming the Bat
The months after securing the partnership with Lucius were spent in the new command center, building his arsenal. Bruce knew through his training that criminals were a fearful bunch who used their power to ensure they were feared even more. In order to prey off their fears, he decided to cloak himself in his own great fear. Crafting a costume that gave him the visage of a bat, he became the Batman. He, Lucius, and Alfred spent their free hours crafting gadgets and weaponry to aid him in his quest.
Finally, Bruce was ready. He had his symbol, he had his targets, and he had his weapons. Gotham’s time for justice had come.
What Makes This Version "Ultimate": Bruce and his world in this game will be an amalgam of the different Batman mythos (Earth One, Dark Knight Trilogy, Post Crisis) as well as melding and folding in of the Marvel universe. I’ve also changed up some of his Rogues for the game, as well as bringing in some characters destined to be legacy characters down the line and changed their origin.
As the game begins, Bruce has been back in Gotham for about a year and a half before starting his vigilantism. He’s spent that time mapping crime families, Gotham’s corruption, and the rivalries within them. Along with this, he’s solidified Wayne Enterprises as a powerhouse yet again, much to the chagrin of the corporate raiders who had desired the company.
What can you bring to the RPG: What I hope is a compelling take on the Batman mythos as well as an interesting take on the city of Gotham an its inhabitants.
