Forge

Forge is an almost completely unknown quantity. His name, and his company's name, come up often in scientific circles and among the upper echelons of government, but the average citizen doesn't even know he exists.

Background
Jonathan Silvercloud had a destiny. As a child, it was discovered that he possessed a great deal of mystic potential. From that point on, his upbringing was supervised by Naze, the shaman of his Cheyenne tribe. He was trained extensively in the mystic arts in the hope that he would be able to take over as the new shaman when Naze eventually died.

Things went well enough for a long time. Jonathan showed a great deal of promise as a student and learned voraciously from his teacher. Not only did he learn to use magic for a variety of effects, but he was also schooled extensively in Cheyenne lore and in the traditions of his people. He was taught to live close to the Earth and learned to hunt the way his ancestors had. Despite the strictness of his education, Jonathan was a relatively happy youth.

As is usually the case, his mood and outlook began to change drastically when he was a teenager. When he was fifteen, people began to notice that he was abnormally proficient with all things technological. His traditional education left him very little time to tinker around with mechanical appliances, but when he did mess with them, he found that he understood them completely. He could even improve pieces of machinery with ease. Gradually, he became fascinated by anything having to do with technology and began to neglect his shamanistic studies. This became a source of conflict between him and Naze. For a while, Jonathan continued his studies. Eventually though, when he was twenty, he decided that it was time for him to leave and see what else was out there.

The young man tried his hand at several things after leaving his tribe. His natural mechanical aptitudes were quickly recognized, and he was snatched up by a leading electronics company despite his lack of higher education. This seemed to be his dream job, but like many other men, he felt the call of adventure. There was a conflict going on, so he decided to enlist in the Army and serve his country overseas. He didn't intend to be anything other than a grunt, but he was unable to disguise his gifts completely. Soon he became the guy that everyone came to when their weapon or vehicle didn't work. He was promoted rapidly to Sergeant. His gifts quickly came to the attention of higher levels, and he was even offered a position with SHIELD. He chose to remain with his platoon.

His duties kept him from getting as much action as he would have desired. He would request to go out on patrols as often as possible. During one of his patrols, his platoon was attacked with a combination of explosives and small arms fire. The attack was so devastating the most of his buddies had either been killed or injured. With no other reinforcements on the way, Jonathan had a dilema. He decided that it would be better to use his shaman training than to face inevitable death. He did a conjuring ritual from behind cover, and summoned a demonic presence to defeat his attackers. Unfortunately, he had never learned to control such a force properly, and after it killed his attackers it turned on the rest of his platoon. Everyone was killed, and the ordeal left the young Sergeant Silvercloud with only one leg before he was able to return the demon to its home.

The ordeal made Jonathan swear off magic forever. He spent a bit of time recuperating in a veteran's hospital. While there he began to work on improving the artificial leg that he recieved. The challenge helped him to keep his mind occupied, and off of the oppressing guilt that he felt. When he was released, he lived off of his disability for a while, continuing to work on his leg. By the end of the year, he had made a leg that was so sophisticated that it functioned even better than his original leg had.

With such an advanced artificial limb as a presentation tool, it wasn't hard to find investors for his new company. It wasn't long before the wealthy disabled were sporting limbs that had been hand-crafted by him. Silvercloud himself began spending most of his time holed up in his factory tinkering on things and studying rival products. He soon grew bored with making artificial limbs and kept looking for new ways to use his rapidly-developing talents.

The man became fabulously wealthy, even though he never actually put any of his designs into large-scale production. He preferred to keep his business small, and would simply provide a company (or a government agency) with prototypes. They were then faced with the task of finding workers capable of replicating the product. This allowed him to maximize his time and productivity. It also allowed him enough time to enjoy his life.

For a while, there were rumors in tabloid articles about a Mutant Menace. As the idea of mutants became more widespread, Jonathan found himself questioning whether his gifts were simply the products of a prodigious intelligence, or if they had a slightly more bizarre origin. He became obsessed with finding out more about mutants. Eventually, he came into contact with a man named Charles Xavier who could answer all of his questions. Xavier confirmed his suspicions, and introduced him to a bunch of ideas that blew Jonathan's mind. Chief among these was the idea of renouncing old human identities, and defining oneself by what one could accomplish, rather than by a musty old name picked out by one's parents. Jonathan began publicly calling himself Forge, and made no secret about his mutant status. Despite identifying himself openly as a mutant, Forge continued to develop products for the government. This has kept him shielded from most anti-mutant sentiment, and the general public doesn't know who he is, much less that he's a mutant. Within mutant circles, however, Forge is seen as a bit of a sell-out.

Forge has lately begun to seek ways to help the plight of his fellow mutants, albeit quietly. He has started to take meetings with leaders in the mutant community, trying to find creative ways to help mutants and humans peacefully coexist.

Personality
MUTANT: Forge has basically renounced his old human name. He signs paperwork 'Forge'. He makes employees call him 'Forge'. He introduces himself to strangers as 'Forge'. He isn't ostentatious about his mutant origin, but he doesn't make it a secret and will freely admit to being a mutant if it ever comes up in conversation. He's proud of being a Native American, and he's proud of being an American, but he identifies more with mutantkind than any cultural classification.

CHEYENNE: Despite viewing himself primarily as a mutant, Forge is also very aware of where he came from. He often wears pieces of Cheyenne jewelry or clothing. He's become a bit of a pariah to his old friends and family, but he still is very interested in preserving his Cheyenne heritage.

WORLD CITIZEN: Being a mutant, Cheyenne, and American, Forge likes to think of himself as being above the petty rivalries of cultural groups and nations. He is not, of course, without personal biases. As he has continued to educate himself, he has learned to see beyond such things, at least in part.

ANALYTICAL: When exposed to a new idea or situation, Forge is unlikely to take anything at face value. He will question things until he feels that he understands them. He tends to be very skeptical of any development, whether it be scientific, political, or philosophical.

ODDBALL: Forge is usually the most unique person in any room he's ever in. A Native American who lived on a reservation and trained to be a magician but then built a robt leg for himself and discovered he was a mutant and became really rich is unlikely to have a great many things in common with most people.



FOCUSED: When he's working on a project, Forge tends to give it his undivided attention. This is both because of the way that his powers work, and due to his own obsessive personality. If he's working on something especially difficult, he can temporarily forget everything else, including things like eating and sleeping. This has occasionally caused resentment when he neglects to attend an engagement because he got busy building a new type of robotic eggbeater.

FRIENDLY: He isn't Mister Congeniality, but Forge usually makes an obvious effort to be nice to people around him. Like anyone else his moods often vary, but he's typically a fairly affable person.

SERIOUS: Forge doesn't play practical jokes on people. He doesn't watch cartoons. He doesn't collect lunchboxes. Most of his time is spent either inventing or running various aspects of his business. With his free time, he tries to keep up to date on new developments in technology and take meetings with mutant rights organizations. He isn't quite a stick in the mud, but he's usually too busy with actual work to be interested in frivolity or silliness. Occasional exceptions do occur though.

SUPERIOR: Even though he wouldn't ever admit to it, Forge feels like he's better than most people around him. Especially humans. He's used to being the smartest man in the room, and this makes him act arrogant every now and then.