| Introduction
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xxxxx"I am a woman, a mutant, a thief, an X-Man, a lover, a teacher, a goddess. I am all these things. I am Storm, and for me, there are no such things as limits."
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| History
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Ororo Munroe is a child of two worlds -- of many worlds. Of the world. Her mother, N'dare, was a princess and priestess on the Serengeti Plain in Kenya, who found love with American photojournalist David Monroe. They lived happily in Manhattan, where they had their first and only child, Ororo, but she was only six months old when they returned to Africa.
Cairo had drawn them like a lodestone; there was no better place for David to document the world, in its glory and horror. Unfortunately, in this nexus of human conflict, things got fatally up close and personal when a plane, off course during an Arab-Israeli conflict, crashed into their home. David and N'dare died quickly, but five-year-old Ororo did not, and was trapped with their corpses beneath the rubble for a very long time until she managed to escape. From such incidents, lifelong traumas are born.
In the end, the story of Storm is the story of someone constantly amid chaos and destruction, subjected to the very worst of human nature, who refuses to let it destroy her confidence, her identity, and her sense of purpose. This was only the first time.
There have been many others: being used and abused by a modern-day Fagin, Achmed el-Gibar, who turned a homeless orphan into a highly skilled homeless orphan thief, was the next. The streets of Cairo were hard, and they hardened her, but ultimately she took mostly the right lessons from them, rather than the wrong.
So too, when in perhaps the first hints of her mutant power's awakening, she felt an inexorable draw to the south, did she face another terrible trial and emerge from it stronger than before: in an attempted rape, she struggled with and ultimately killed a total stranger, and swore to never again take another human life.
Her journey across Africa was filled with other adventures, but her destination was ultimately her ancestors' homeland; by then her powers had awakened fully, and she was careening wildly out of control. But the tribe accepted her, and helped her discover her ancestry as the princess of one of the oldest royal families in the world, and eventually worshipped her; in turn, from them she learned the true meaning of responsibility, kindness, and control.
Or at least she'd thought as much, until she was found by a man she had tried to pickpocket years ago in Cairo, a Professor Charles Xavier. Explaining to the teenager that her seemingly supernatural abilities came not from divinity but evolution, he found success in convincing her that her great powers came with greater responsibilities than the local tribes. The world needed her help. Knowing too that the world was connected, and that to help one place was to protect all of them -- and curious, generally, to see more of them -- she followed Charles out of Africa and into his nascent School for the Gifted.
There she discovered how much she still had to learn about those traits most precious to her, that dedication, compassion and discipline were worth fighting for, but that what was most worth fighting for was not herself, but others. She also learned a great deal of western culture, gradually acclimating to America until, at a glance, all that remained of her heritage was proclaimed by the color of her skin and the shadow of an accent. In this endeavor she was most helped by Scott Summers and Jean Grey, two other students with whom she bonded closely, as both a slightly older sister and, at least initially, a naive outsider in need of their help.
In Charles she found the first genuine and caring father figure she could really remember, outside of her tribe, and his integrity became hers. She dedicated herself absolutely to his ideals, a passionate adherent to the principles of peace. In time, she became articulate enough to teach these ideals to others, especially through the lessons of history, and stayed on at his school as a staunch pillar of support to students lost in the emotional morass of both their teenage hormones AND the discovery that they are what the world seems to hate and fear the most.
Of course, she also stayed to promote his ideals outside of the school, through actions taken with the X-Men. It does not escape her keen awareness, the irony of being the instrument of violence to promote peace, and though she follows Charles' instructions without hesitation, she never enacts them without regret for their necessity.
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| Personality
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Passionate - Passion runs strongly through Storm, much moreso than her typical serene exterior indicates. There's a reason for this: Storm's powers tend to feed very strongly from her emotions, and feed back into them in turn; riding high upon the energies of nature, she can become an avenging angel or wrathful goddess very quickly. Too quickly. The thought of wanton destruction is nearly as intolerable to her as the idea of accidentally taking a life. To avoid such outcomes, she is a disciple, if not always a master, of self-discipline; and so Ororo is calm. Very calm. Dangerously calm. Until she isn't, and few people have the capacity to get quite as furious as she. When grace and peace need to give way in the name of doing what's right and opposing what's wrong, Ororo Munroe fights. But she doesn't do it lightly, and she doesn't do it without agonizing over the betrayal of Xavier's ideals of peaceful co-existence, either. She's forced to work very hard indeed to maintain her serenity, before and after; in that sense, the battle never stops. Still waters run deep.
Compassionate - Storm has witnessed, and, to a degree experienced, suffering the likes of which Westchester and even New York City hardly dare to dream of. She has also seen great beauty in the wide world, and acquired, from the juxtaposition of these two elements, great empathy. She is kind, truly compassionate, in a way that can never be weakness. Sometimes, this leads her to lose control, when those she cares for are threatened -- and she cares for practically everyone, at least to some degree. She dearly wishes to practice true pacifism, but has reluctantly accepted that the world she lives in is unlikely to allow that to ever be the case -- and works tirelessly, therefore, to change the world, rather than her ideals. Her good nature can usually be exploited... once.
Intelligent - Ororo enjoys the mental trifecta: she is smart, wise, and worldly. Although she lacked access to formal education growing up, her native curiosity and intellect made her a voracious learner of whatever she could find -- though many of her courses of study were illicit at best. Upon being brought into Charles Xavier's world, her academic education expanded ferociously, to the point that she is a very capable teacher in the school. She is often found with a book; she never takes access to them for granted. While she, too, can be rash and headstrong, she is often wiser than the average hot-blooded mutant in the room, both because of her experience with emotions helping her to understand others', and because of her experience, period. It's easy to dismiss the African woman as an exotic innocent, but Storm has been a thief and an adventurer, a priestess and a goddess, and any naivete about the Western world has long since been washed away with the help of her fellow X-Men, especially Jean Grey. She knows well how to navigate slums as easily as the savannah, and that no one, no matter how well-intentioned, is too well-intentioned to lie.
Dedicated - Storm takes responsibility very seriously; responsibility to Charles, to her friends, to the X-Men, to the school. Sometimes too seriously; it's easy to forget that all of the burdens of the world aren't hers to bear alone, the way she was accustomed to doing on her own for such a long time. Regardless, it is very difficult to convince her to shirk her duties, and generally the only viable argument is that a greater duty calls. She isn't so bound to her loyalties that she cannot think for herself; in the end, it is her personal responsibility to decide what is right, and then do it, that overrides all others.
Nurturing - Storm's power often frightens her, which is why she works so hard to control her emotions, but she basks in the glory of what she creates, rather than what she destroys, be it the intricate whorls of a windstorm or the greening of a plain after she's called the rain. She finds joy amongst sorrow, if only fleeting moments. Day to day, she is a gardener, careful, measured, and restrained, as she nurtures plants and people with love and tenderness, while appreciating the odd unexpected wildflower, and pulling the occasional weed. She is usually patient, quiet, and contemplative, while doing so.
Phobic - Storm has two major fears, above and beyond her day-to-day concerns about the well-being of her loved ones and the world. One cripples her, and one empowers her. She is extremely claustrophobic, after having been buried in rubble with the corpse of her mother for a very long time; sometimes, sufficient dire need can help her overcome this enough to at least escape the situation, but more often she becomes nearly helpless with panic, or worse, overcome with anger, which can lead to terrible destruction. She faces this fear every single day, everywhere from subway stations to small commodes, and she defeats it constantly in similarly minor ways, but it's always with her. Being held down, especially grabbed from behind, triggers another instinct entirely, related to the first time she ever took another life. It takes a great deal of care on her part to not repeat the exercise, if startled in such a way.
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| Powers
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At her highest level of ability and control, Storm is as great and terrible a mutant as there is in the world; she's on the Omega-Level shortlist, though nobody is known to know it yet, least of all her, and she may never find out (because this is a relatively low-powered setting).
What she does know is that she sees the world as beautiful, ever-changing energy patterns, which she can mold or sculpt to her desire. She feels nature on a very fundamental, intuitive level; her link to the world itself is a real, if intangible, bond. This energy absorption, expression and redirection manipulates the elements, especially the weather. She can summon the wind (and fly, though she currently lacks the control to fly others accurately or safely, something that post-Statue of Liberty she is practicing constantly) in everything from a soothing breeze to literal blasts of air pressure, the rain, snow, heat, sleet, hail, fog... and perhaps most iconically bolts of lightning, which she has sufficient control over to use nonlethally if she desires (which is essentially always the case). She does best with a little time and a little space to get things working the way she wants; the best way to shut her down is to keep her on the defense in close quarters, though even this is not always enough, because the variety of effects she can achieve is only matched by her creativity in their use. Her only limitation is nature, and nature is infinite in its variety. So, while she can create indoor rainstorms, she can't make it rain potatoes, unless there's a truckload of them in hurricane-reach.
She prefers to clean up her own mess, so to speak, by drawing the water, air, heat and cold from surrounding weather patterns, and then putting things back where they came from later on. It's easier to create a storm than disperse it, though, and any drought she alleviates with a rainstorm had to get its water from somewhere, and this sense of interconnection leads her to use her greater power wisely and sparingly.
She is not totally immune to weather effects, but she's awfully close; deserts and tundra hold no fear for her any longer. However, she can easily be hurt by fire, ice, and electricity, but especially the latter she can often redirect or counter, unless the shock is of such a quantity of energy -- or so surprising in its source -- that she can't handle it.
She also knows that these energy patterns not only respond to her conscious mind but her unconscious heart; the weather reacts to her emotional state. When she is sad, the heavens weep with her. When she is frightened, a cold snap might suddenly take upstate New York. And when she's angry, the thunderstorms and blizzards know no bounds. She therefore works constantly to keep her feelings in check, a battle far more intense and protracted than any external enemy. Her abilities are also powered by her physical energy; if she does too much, she can literally work herself to death. She may be able to link to alternative pools of energy such as the Earth's electromagnetic field, but has never tried.
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| Skills
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Academics - Ororo is not technically even an elementary school graduate, but she has a college-level education courtesy of Charles Xavier. Her own insatiable curiosity has done the rest; while not the most geeky of the bunch, she's got a strong sense of history, literature, and culture, and a functional knowledge of science and technology. 'Functional' is definitely the operative word there; she's well-read and practiced in matters that pertain to her, like how to maintain and use the X-Jet and the latest in mutant genetic research, but random esoterics are often beyond her immediate knowledge base, if not her ability to use Google.
Survival - Ororo learned how to survive on her own throughout Africa, and she is adept on the back streets of slums as she is alone in the wilderness. This includes elementary first aid; while she leaves the doctoring to Jean, she can certainly perform in emergency situations. Tangentially, she is an extraordinarily accomplished pickpocket and lockpick, phenomenally sneaky, and well capable of scaling balconies and boulders alike. The better part of two decades in the glorious West has yet to break her of habitually secreting lock picks upon her person at all times.
Self-Defense - Even without her powers (especially since, without them, she need not keep such concentration on locking down her emotions), Ororo is quite capable of taking care of herself. Achmed El-Gibar taught her the rudiments of hand-to-hand combat in Cairo, skills she refined by necessity over the years, traveling and adventuring. She's far from the most accomplished martial artist she knows, but where she lacks in technique she makes up for with discipline and cunning -- fighting smarter rather than harder, more often than not, because when you learn to fight on the streets rather than in the dojo, you learn to fight dirty, to fight to win. She is also an excellent marksman.
Empathy - Through a lifetime's attempted mastery of herself, Storm has learned much of the nature of her own emotions, and can often apply those lessons to understanding other people. This is as useful for drawing out a lie as it is to gauge someone's moods, needs, and desires. She is an accomplished, if informal, counselor.
Gardening - Ororo's close link to the forces of nature perhaps aids in her care and keeping of botanical gardens at Charles' mansion, but mostly her skills derive from passion and practice. When she has lost her calm, tending her secret stash of bonsai in the attic is one of the most reliable peaceful contemplations she knows.
Leadership - When Charles found Ororo, she had already learned the fundamentals of lessons like responsibility and respect, and from such things, great leaders are built. Although Scott is the official leader of the X-Men, and she gladly defers to his authority, she has learned much more from watching him, and how Charles bosses him around and generally runs the school. Her own style of leadership is a little less affable grandpa and a little more tough but fair mama bear, but she certainly doesn't hesitate to take charge in a crisis, if necessary, and discharges such duties with dignity and grace. She lives the change she wants to see, trying to be a good example for others, when the time comes for them to step up and take the lead.
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| Trivia
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- Somewhere in the X-Mansion, there is photographic evidence of the time seventeen-year-old Ororo's classmates convinced her that a mohawk would be just the way to help her fit in on the streets of the United States. It was a bad prank, but instead she owned it completely for several delightfully punk years.
- Ororo often wears jewelry, but it is universally crafted of combinations of wood, stone, woven fiber or fabric. An especially sturdy leather lanyard is almost always around her neck, but whatever pendant hangs from it is always beneath her neckline, never visible.
- Fluent in English, Swahili, and Spanish. Conversational in Portuguese, French, and German.
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| Connections
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Friends
Foes
And everything in between
- Ororo, in her usual serene manner, tends to simply fill whatever classes need a teacher any given semester rather than requesting any specific assignment; her knowledge base is broad, and she never begrudges a request to brush up on a subject in order to teach it. To the extent that she has a preference, she tends to teach a lot of history, ethics, anthropology, philosophy, and politics, all of which are inextricably interconnected in her mind. She also often teaches Ecology, which is no less bound to the rest. The first step to enjoying her instruction in Danger Room sessions is to ask her, and many students do not think to, given her gentle nature. Those who do are almost universally surprised by the experiences that follow, which are rarely fun in any conventional sense, but a powerful means to address and expand one's limits, while provoking a great deal of thought.
- Ororo is always available to be a student's individual advisor. Want Storm as your personal mentor? Contact her in game!
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| Gallery
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| Ororo Munroe
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| Codename
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Storm
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| Birthdate
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1982-12-01
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| Species
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Mutant
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| Affiliation
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X-Men
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| Alignment
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Grace and peace, except when they need to give way in the name of doing what's right and opposing what's wrong.
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| Powers
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Energy sculptress, especially of weather.
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| Occupation
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Woman, mutant, thief, X-man, lover, teacher, goddess.
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| Registration Status
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Registered (6)
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| RP Hooks
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| Sun and Shadow - Ororo had many adventures across Africa in the 80s and 90s, and she spawned quite a few legends to go with them.
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| Savagery and Civilization - She's had no few in the glorious West, as well, especially in New York. Her touch is more often than not a soft one, both literally in her choice to defuse crisis with grace and dignity, and figuratively in that such situations usually involve someone in need of protection.
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| Teacher and Student - Ororo is among the first of Xavier's students, and the first generation of subsequent alum-teachers at his school. She both knows, and is known by, most people affiliated with the School, as a creative, patient, gentle yet relentless teacher of ethics and history, both in and out of the classroom.
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| War and Peace - Storm was one of the first X-Men; she's been a steadfast anchor of the team, the eye of its storm, virtually since its inception. For someone with the ability to fry enemies with but a thought, she's notoriously reluctant to commit violence. To enemies of peaceful co-existence, she is among the most prominent pieces to remove from the board.
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| Sky and Sea - Storm flies a lot; not for nothing is 'Windrider' among her many monikers. Since it's dangerous to fly where she might draw undue attention, such as Westchester, she often flies over the ocean. It's entirely possible to simply run into her up, up in the air.
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