what does it say that all my thoughts run to villains? Most have been named, so I’ll just add
countess bathory
In that motif—Bram Stoker, Vampire Slayer.
Abe no Seimei, Japanese equivalent of Merlin (lived 921-1005 or thereabouts, in the midst of the incredibly effete Heian period). Skilled at divinations, untangling esoteric spiritual influences, and laying the smackdown on unruly demons. Supposedly, his mother was a fox-- no, I mean literally.
He pops up all over the place in anime/manga, but the depiction of him in the movie Onmyoji, as a sly trickster-wizard (played by famed kyogen actor Nomura Mansai), is an especially fun one.
And he was bulletproof!
That’s may be true, actually.
For other alleged abilities, google the Cox & Combes rap song “George Washington”, but that may not be accurate.
I have been incredibly busy the past day or so and i won’t really have time until Monday to go through these. I just wanted to dive in and say thanks people. some great names.
By the way, Jack Churchill caught my eye as i was skimming through so i took the time to follow that link. Awesome. Have to shoehorn him in somewhere.
Jack the Ripper: invisibility.
Phineas Gage: indestructible.
Alister Crowley: spirit medium.
King Midas: transmutation. So what if he’s legendary?
The Oracle of Delphi. So what if there was more than one of her?
Florence Nightengale: healing.
Archimedes. Heaven only knows what his talent could be, but it’d be damned impressive.
Well, I’ve heard that if Archimedes stood in the right place, he could move the world.
Tycho Brahe. Superhuman eyesight. Cyborg, but only the nose.
Has anyone mentioned Albertus Magnus, or Roger Bacon?
For your Jack 1 & 2, you could create someone or embellish a real person’s story:
John Caius was a physician in England in the 16th Century. He had a brilliant mind, and more interestingly - the power to control the weather. In his early research he tried altering the weather in England to help control the “sweating sickness” in the 1550s (which he eventually cured). He continued to experiment with weather patterns, trying to bring favorable rains to avoid famine in England and Europe, without drawing any notice from those who might suspect him of sorcery.
However, in the 1581 he met with his old friend Francisco Hernandez*. Dr. Hernandez told him of the plague that was wiping out the natives in Mexico, and mentioned that a massive drought there was making the problems worse. What’s more, the same thing had happened a quarter-century earlier - a massive drought and outbreak of disease that killed millions. Comparing notes, Dr. Caius realized that those events coincided with his alteration of weather patterns. Even though the connection between his experiments and the drought in the New World could not be proven, he became wracked with guilt and vowed never to tamper with the weather again.
Somehow, though, the trail leading to him was discovered by agents of Her Majesty. Dr. Caius was imprisoned when he refused to use his powers for the good of England. Details of his life were rewritten, and his identity was switched with the records of another man, Jack Kaye. Since Kaye had died in 1573, Dr. Caius had officially been dead for over ten years when he was imprisoned.
Once, and only once again, he was convinced to affect the weather directly. In 1588 threats to erase even more of him from history, combined with appeals to him to save England in her hour of need, convinced him to bring down a storm on the Spanish navy. After this, he positively refused even to treat the Queen as a physician.
While he was imprisoned, he was not idle. His became contemplative, and began to read many of the stories and histories that were available to him. In the long hours in his cell he began to write - and he wrote plays and poems. Since his name could no longer be attached to his work, another false identity was used. This time a young actor from Stratford named William Shakespeare became the public name for the doctor’s plays.
A few interesting references can be found in the works of Shakespeare. The Tempest is the obvious one (near his death he wanted to recount some of what had happened to him), but Dr. Caius had been even more daring earlier, in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Here he actually wrote himself into the play, using a secret code disguised as broken English. He also gives this character in the play a line referring to his switched identity : “You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby.”
*(Philip II’s personal physician. Dr. Caius was physician to some of England’s monarchs, including Queen Mary.)
edit: Although the connection between the megadrought in Mexico is unproven and unlikely, those who have studied it feel that Dr. Caius was indeed responsible for starting the “mini Ice Age” with his powers.
Jack Ketch was the royal executioner under Charles II. His actual life isn’t particularly interesting, but he was so famous as Charles’s hangman that his name became synonymous with death himself. Quite a legacy for someone whose chief accomplishment in life was botching the execution of the Duke of Monmouth. Clearly, there’s something darker to this man’s story than is recorded in conventional histories.
Isn’t it obvious? They were one and the same!
How about Samuel L. Clemens (aka Mark Twain) as a 19-century version of Prof. Xavier? His quick & scathing wit quickly outclasses his enemies, & they cower before their better.
Lobohan, I like your ideas re M.C. Escher.
Love, Phil
Baron Münchhausen possessed the power to warp reality in a cartoon-like way.
How’s about Kaspar Hauser? One could accept Hauser’s account of his life, and grant him all sorts of mental powers for having survived that upbringing. Or one could accept the theory that Hauser was a particularly imaginative scam artist, and one with telepathic powers of persuasion.
Or you could get really weird - Hauser was a transmogrified mouse, or cat or other animal, raised in a secret lab, and then released, so the power that created him could see if the transformation would be convincing to people who met him out in the world.
Probably an experiment from the laboratories of St. Germain.
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Harald Hardråde is a very interesting character, but even more so might be Olav Haraldsson - his descendant. More commonly known as St. Olav, Olav Haraldsson christened Norway during the thirteen years of his rule and - reputedly by sheer strength of will - forced through the Christening Law which effectively banned slavery (of “trells”), the setting out of weak children, poligamy, enforced strict and very harsh laws against rape and robbery of women and was forced into exile much because he practised equality of law. In the period between the stating of the new law and his exile, he reportedly travelled around the country and held courts for the commonry ("-ting").
Betrayed by even his army, Olav was sent out into exile by the invading king of England and Denmark, Knut the Mighty. In exile, he was offered the throne of Bulgaria by the Jarl of Novgorod, which he declined because he felt compelled to return to Norway. Eventually, he did and - through some militarily bad decisions - met a larger army in Trønderlag and was defeated at Stiklestad in 1030. After the battle, a farmer dug up the body - upon which the hair and nails were said to have grown considerably - and buried it in Nidaros. (Trondheim, today) The Nidarosdomen (the principal seat of the lutheran Norwegian state church) was built over his grave and is still where Norwegian regents are crowned. The popular name for Olav is today “Olav den Hellige” or Olav the Holy.
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Norse history holds a lot of relatively obscure people who could easily be characterized as having superheroic abilities, such as Egil Skallagrimssôn, who was reportedly being chased through a Norwegian winter landscape by the King’s tax collectors and “came to a cliff three man-lengths wide, on the other side of which there was another cliff where another twenty of the King’s men stood gathered - upon which Egil jumped the cliff and slew them all, except one man whom he let live.”
If you’re particularly interested, Snorre’s “Heimskringla” (or: The sagas of the Norwegian kings") or the istoria de antiquitate regum Norvagiensium, the stories of the Norwegian civil wars are all great resources. Egil’s saga (shorthand: “Egla”) might be the most interesting of them all, as far as your curiosity is served.
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Egil Skallagrimsson (“Egil Skullgrim’s son”), son of Skallagrim Kveldulvsson (“Skullgrim Nightwolf’s Son”) was born in Iceland after his father emigrated from the Norwegian west-country after Harald Hardråde killed Skallagrim’s brother, Torolv Kveldulvsson. Egil grew up to be the most renowned bard of Norway, reciting a poem of his own make already at age three, a bit of a hard-ass, killing his first man at age seven and, excitingly, a sorceror. (Of the forbidden maleficium kind)
He was ugly and a right bastard. He threw up on, and squeezed the eye out of, a host who had offered him sourmilk instead of mead when he came thirsty to his farm. In a holmgang - trial through a fight to the death - he bit the throat out of his opponent Atle Skamme because he felt his weapon’s edge lacked bite. He fell out repeatedly and violently with the paranoid high-king Harald Hardråde. Upon coming to Norway he almost immediately got on a bad foot with Eirik Blodøks (Eirik Bloodaxe, son of Harald Hardråde) and - years later, when Eirik ruled Britain after having been ousted as King of Norway - when his ship capsized outside Northumberland, he quoted a poem in front of this enemy - who Egil has raised “nidstang” against - that let him keep his head.
And, being the rank opportunist he was, he died an old man over the age of 80 and I just realized I really have to reread Snorre :p.
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Sorry for the rambling. Just thought the relationship between Egil, Harald, Olav and the others might be interesting for you to explore in your campaign.
Other characters worth mentioning might be the German, Walter Schuck (whom I’ve had the great pleasure of meeting), aircombat ace with over 200 registered kills and 500 combat missions (who’s still alive) and his at-the-time counterpart of Tony Blackmoore, British combat ace.
I’d go with another explanation, which is one of my pet fanwanks for the DC universe. That there’s a subtle superpower I call “Super-competency”. People with this power can achieve ultra-Olympic level skill in any field they seriously train at. In hand-to-hand combat, they can beat up ninjas for practice. In gymnastics they can ride an avalanche downhill by jumping from boulder to boulder. And in archery or target shooting they can hit a 1mm target at 500 meters, on a moment’s notice. In intellectual pursuits they have immeasurably high (>200) IQs and are often polymath geniuses like Leonardo or Sherlock Holmes. My presumption is that all the non-paranormal heros like Batman or Green Arrow have this power.
Say…what d’ya supose the Man in the Iron Mask’s deal was? Time traveler? Hideously inhuman mutant? Had the “evil eye” and couldn’t control it/be trusted with it?
Third Army Chaplain during WWII was able to craft a prayer which gave the army clear weather for the Battle of the Bulge.
Eddie Rickenbaker, WWI flying ace. (Good eye hand coordination, ability to breathe in a rarified atmosphere, etc.)
“Jumpin’ Joe” Beyrle, badass by any definition.
Another chap I’d suggest would be Desmond Doss. Not quite bullet-proof, but one could suggest he had a small TK ability to shield himself and the troops he was trying to help. Plus, he had big brass ones. Which is always worth some hero points.
How about your own namesake?
Arnold von Winkelried, medieval Swiss hero
He could have a sort of self-sacrificing power–the ability to perform superhuman feats at great cost to himself.