These were six female Overmen code-named Tyche, Phoenix, Lupa, Daydream, Psyche and Lament, recruited by The Amazon to aid her in the creation of Minerva. They all survived the war for Minerva (although it was a close-run thing in the case of Psyche and Lament), and went on to hold important posts in the first Minervan government.
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Of lower-class Jewish-German origin, with telekinetic powers, from Munich. Originally a seamstress, Ruth had to work day and night to support her crippled father (her mother being dead and she having no siblings). Unfortunately the place where she worked fell under new ownership, and the new owner, who was very anti-semitic, had Ruth sacked. Unable to find other work, Ruth turned her hand to crime. In 1892, while attempting to shoplift, she suddenly developed telekinetic powers. After practise, using her powers and boosted intellect to assist her, Ruth's criminal career was much more successful. Unfortunately in 1894 she was captured while robbing the home of a particularly sadistic German industrialist. Rather than turn her over to the Police he decided to have her tortured and killed, and her body 'disposed of'. Before Ruth could be killed The Amazon, who had been searching out the source of rumours of a super-powered thief in Munich, burst in, and rescued her, killing the industrialist and his assistants in the process. Unfortunately, by this time Ruth had already been blinded, and was in a very bad way. Pausing only to make the industrialist's house look like it had been the victim of an ordinary burglary, The Amazon took Ruth off to care for her. Although Ruth recovered from her injuries fairly quickly, her eyes were destroyed. However, as time went by she discovered that her telekinesis was somehow providing a substitute by 'touching' her surroundings at range. When she had recovered The Amazon offered her a place in Les Liberatrices, which she accepted on the condition that The Amazon provide for her family. The Amazon readily agreed and she became second in command of Les Liberatrices under the name Tyche (the blind Greek goddess of fortune), in part due to her very high intelligence. After the taking of Minerva Tyche became the first Chancellor of Minerva, her very high intelligence and organisational skills making her an obvious candidate for the job. Like The Amazon she never married.
Tyche was 5'3" tall with long wavy dark hair, usually worn loose and a swarthy complexion. Originally fairly pretty, Ruth's torture left her with numerous scars and eyes which were nothing but empty pits; she usually wore a black bandage around her head to cover them.
Tyche in Champions terms.
Of lower-class Belgian origin, from a small farming village near St. Hubert. Originally the daughter of a poor farmer, she always wanted to get off the farm and to the big city where she could become a star. When she was eighteen, in 1889, with her parents blessing she left the village and travelled to Paris to stay with a distant relative while she found her feet. Although she found her relatives easily enough, it was obvious that she would soon be forced out by them, as they were poor and miserly. She looked around, and eventually found a place as a can-can dancer, something she found she enjoyed very much. She moved out of her relatives and into an apartment she shared with two friends, who were also can-can dancers. One evening in 1893, while Irma and her flatmates were leaving the club where they danced they were accosted by some rich drunken patrons who wanted to become more friendly with them, and were sufficiently drunk that they wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. The three girls were dragged off into an alley where it was obvious what was about to happen. Suddenly Irma felt herself become very hot inside and almost before she knew what was happening she was flying and had manifested a sword of energy with which she seriously wounded one of the men, and forced off the rest. As her friends looked at her in astonishment she somehow managed to turn the sword and the flight off, and they quickly made their way back to their apartment. The next day it was all over the newspapers that some upper-class gentlemen had been the victims of an unprovoked attack by a mad female Overman, and unfortunately the report included her name. Shortly afterwards the Police, and Bastille and Firebrand of the Imperial Guard, turned up to take her into custody. Although she tried to escape Irma was rapidly overcome and captured. Her friends were also arrested on suspicion of being accomplices. The next thing Irma remembered was awakening in a forest clearing outside Paris, with her friends, the three of them having been rescued by The Amazon and Les Liberatrices. The Amazon told the three of them what had happened, and pointed out that regardless of anything they could do, their old lives were over. She offered them places with her instead - Irma in Les Liberatrices, and her friends in L'Armée pour Liberation de la Femme. After thinking about it and discussing it for a while they agreed and went off with The Amazon. Under the name Phoenix Irma was a valuable addition to Les Liberatrices, especially after she discovered how to form an almost impenetrable shield from the same energy she used to form her 'sword'. As time went on Irma found herself growing away from her friends, due to the divergence of their lives, although they still remained fairly close. In the battle for Minerva, like the rest of Les Liberatrices she was invaluable, and after the war she became involved in keeping Minerva safe from French and Spanish attempts to retake it and was a founding member of the Monitors. In the late 1920's The Amazon determined that Irma's powers involved the creation and control of fusion plasma. After intensive study The Amazon was able to duplicate these abilities artificially, leading to the worlds first 'hot' fusion reactor, and from there the first commercial fusion reactor, which came on line in Minerva in 1936. Surprisingly, after the war for Minerva Irma fell in love with, and married, an ex-Spanish man and although they didn't have any children they were very happy together.
Irma was 5'8" tall with long red hair, usually worn in a plait, blue eyes, freckles and a slender but athletic build.
Phoenix in Champions terms.
Of lower-class Italian origin, with the ability to turn into a powerful semi-lupine form at will. Originally from a small village near Cosenza in the south of Italy, the daughter of a poor farming family, Julianna was married off to the son of a neighbouring family at the age of fifteen. Although initially fairly happy, Julianna's temper led to a lot of beatings from her husband. His temper was also not helped by a bad year for the crops, and he began to drink heavily, and beat her more and more, often for purely imaginary things. One day in late 1894 they had an even more blazing row than normal, and Julianna suddenly changed into a humanoid wolf form and fought back, leaving her husband bleeding on the floor. In panic she ran to the church, thinking she had become some demonic creature of Satan and praying to God for help, only for a mob to form in order to destroy the demon they thought she had become. Julianna was forced to run, and although the mob chased her she easily escaped into the surrounding countryside. After resting and praying, she found that she could turn back into her human form, but she knew that there was no way she could ever return home. In despair, and unable to commit suicide due to her Roman Catholic faith, she wandered the countryside, living off the land, and avoiding contact with people. Occasionally she had to use her powers to avoid trouble, but she tried to avoid this due to her belief in their diabolic origin.
In 1896 she was finally tracked down by The Amazon, who wanted her to join her army. Although originally sceptical The Amazon was able to persuade her to at least give it a try, and they left together. As time went by and Julianna found a place, acceptance, self-respect and education in the Amazon's army she came to accept that her place was there, and threw herself into it heart and soul. When the war for Minerva came she played a crucial role in several battles. With the end of the war she became involved in keeping Minerva safe from French and Spanish attempts to retake it and was a founding member of the Monitors. Shortly after the opening of Minerva's borders in 1908 she married a newly Minervan citizen from Italy, one of the small number of male troops in L'Armée pour Liberation de la Femme, and in due course had several children.
In human form Julianna was 5'6" tall and very pretty with very long light brown hair, usually worm in a bun, and grey eyes. In lupine form she was 5'8" tall, muscular and furred with a short-muzzled wolf-like head, grey eyes, a tail, dog-like legs and human arms with claws on the fingers. In this form, in a strange way, she was as pretty as in her human form.
Lupa in Champions terms.
Of lower-class French origin from a village near Quiberon in Brittany. Mireille was always an absent-minded girl who lived very much in a world of her own, which was somewhat irritating to her staid, hardworking parents. However, she was very good with animals, so she often got to look after the families sheep during the day. Mireille had no problems with this, as it let her daydream the days away. One day in early 1895, while having an exceptionally vivid daydream, she suddenly found that she could project her daydreams into the air, for all to see (although no-one apart from the animals she was tending did see her when she originally found she could do this), and cloak herself in illusions so as to become invisible. She played with her powers as time went by, and discovered that she could also generate light of sufficient intensity that she could damage things, and also generate a blinding flash of light in a large area. She had a lot of fun playing tricks on her family until they made her stop, but rumours began to circulate around the countryside of Mireilles strange powers.
At about this time Les Liberatrices were in the area, raiding a French naval base for weapons and equipment. The Amazon heard about Mireille, and brought Les Liberatrices to investigate. They found Mireille with her family, and after assuaging their initial worries, The Amazon managed to persuade Mireille to join them. Her father had no real problems with this, as he was something of a closet revolutionary himself, and Mireille found the idea of all these other strange powers interesting, so she went off with them. She fought valiantly in the war, and afterwards seemed to drift further and further out of touch with the real world, her only contact being apparently permanent light-sculptures which she produced in several places around the country. Unsurprisingly, Mireille never married.
Mireille was 5'2" tall, with a slight build, dark, shoulder length wavy hair and blue-green eyes.
Reverie in Champions terms.
Of middle-class Portuguese origin, from a family of middle-class landowners who lived in a village near Coimbra. From an early age Angela was something of a headstrong rebellious tomboy, always wanting things her own way and to do what she wanted. When she was 17, in 1889, she discovered that she could do things to peoples minds by touching them. Her father, a loyal citizen, if not very intelligent, reported this to the Portuguese government, who soon arrived in order to take this Overman into government service. However, this was not what Angela wanted to do at all, and when they tried to force Angela to go with them she discovered a new ability - she could teleport! After teleporting off and hiding, Angela returned after the government men had gone and took clothes and money (after giving her father a fright with her mental illusions), and ran off, never to return home.
After wandering around for a time Angela joined a travelling circus as a fortune teller, and it was here, in late 1892, that the Amazon found her and recruited her, after a very long period of persuasion, as the first member of Les Liberatrices. Although she fought usefully and valiantly in the war Psyche's innate over-confidence often caused her to take unnecessary risks, and in one case almost lead to her death. After the war for Minerva, Angela became the countries first Minister of the Interior. Although she never married, she did have a number of lovers over the years and one child, a son, who was born in 1908.
Angela was 5'4" tall, with a swarthy complexion, light brown eyes, an athletic build and dark straight hair, usually worn long in a bun.
Psyche in Champions terms.
Of upper-class French origin, born and raised in Paris. As she grew up Anne-Marie couldn't help but notice all the poor people who lived in squalid conditions near the houses of the rich, especially following the French defeat by the Prussians in the 1870's. When she asked them about it, her parents brushed off her questions, saying it was the natural state of things for there to be poor people off whom the rich lived. When she was eighteen Anne-Marie started to secretly work for a philanthropic organisation, helping the poor behind the backs of her parents. This could not go on forever, however and at last her parents discovered what she was doing. They confronted her, and told her that if she did not stop this 'degrading' activity then they would disown her. Anne-Marie thought things over, then decided that being disowned was better than no longer helping the poor and walked out, leaving her appalled parents behind. From then on, although life was no longer as opulent, it was much more satisfying, and Anne-Marie was happy. In 1888 Anne-Marie was involved in an epidemic of cholera. Things being very busy, at one point she absolutely had to be in two places at once. There was a sudden very strange splitting sensation, and suddenly there were two of her, side by side, sharing their thoughts as if they were one. Although initially shocked, Anne-Marie found this new ability very useful (fortunately no-one had seen her initial splitting in two), and with experimenting, discovered she could actually produce up to three duplicates at once. She also discovered she had some kind of healing abilities, which also came in useful. Although she thought she had kept her Overman activities secret, in 1893 Anne-Marie was approached by the Amazon and persuaded to join her L'Armée pour Liberation de la Femme, which she did under the name of Lament.
In L'Armée she proved invaluable, both as a combat medic, and also due to the mind-link between her duplicated forms which allowed rapid communication between different parts of L'Armée. Although quite badly injured in the war for Minerva, and in fact losing one of her duplicates, Lament went on to become Minister of Health and Social Affairs after the war, and married one of the male members of L'Armée pour Liberation de la Femme, although she never had any children.
Anne-Marie was 5'6" tall, with very short dead straight blonde hair, grey eyes and a slender build.
Lament in Champions terms.