I have made a lot of various characters and NPCs over the
years Felosial is one of my all-time
favorites. When I used to watch Deep Space Nine, I
admired the idea of a Section 31. The thought that the perfect Federation
had an ultra-secret section within it that no one seemed to know of or at least
admit to. Steven Behr, one of the main writers of Deep Space Nine,
said in the 1999 reference companion to the series, "Why is Earth a paradise in the twenty-fourth
century? Well, maybe it's because
there's someone watching over it and doing the nasty stuff that no one wants to
think about." By Starfleet Charter:
Article 14, Section 31 states: The Federation is to allow for extraordinary
measures to be taken in times of extreme threat. Such measures included malicious sabotage of
enemy installations and technology, biological warfare, and preemptive
assassination. Or as Odo said, " Interesting, isn't it? The Federation claims to abhor Section 31's
tactics, but when they need the dirty work done, they look the other way. It's a tidy little arrangement, wouldn't you
say? " 2375 ("The Dogs of War”) Sloan, an operative of Section 31
said this of himself, "The Federation needs men like you, doctor. Men of conscience. Men of principle. Men who can sleep at night… You're also the
reason Section 31 exists – someone has to protect men like you from a universe
that doesn't share your sense of right and wrong." Sadler,
the actor that portrayed Sloan on Deep Space Nine, had this to say about his
character, " I thought of [Sloan] as an Ollie North character. He does what needs to be done, what he feels
needs to be done. He breaks all the
rules, all the rules of the Federation, in order to keep the Federation safe,
or so he thinks and deeply believes. It’s
that same argument that went down with the Iran-Contra affair and Ollie North. You do what needs to be done and somebody’s
got to do it. I remember thinking, 'How
freaking cool is it that the Federation, this honorable group, these honorable
people for all these years, had this little worm in there who's been changing
history for decades” So,
DS9 was the first time I really thought of a Utopian society would have to do
and condone evil things to keep it safe and pure. I then read Remo
Williams. If you have not seen the movie, do not, just do not. The
movie does not do the book justice. It even has a white guy play as a
caricature an Asian character. I cringed while watching his
scenes. But the book series was awesome. The premise was during
Kennedy’s term as president, he was being pressed by all sides to answer the
threat of the Russians, Cuba, and the Chinese. Drug lords and other
unsavory types were running rampant in America. Kennedy, with the
help of his staff, created a secret department. The department would only
have three constant individuals within it. The Director, the
teacher/mentor, and the operative. The president and
all his predecessors could contact the director at any time. They could
not give him any orders except one. Disband. The
president could ask that the department do something such as to take care of
some clandestine activity. If the Director agreed, then it becomes the
Director’s problem. The Director would figure out how to take care of the
problem. The president would have no more contact with the
department. If the president felt the department had overstepped its
bounds, then the only command he could issue to the department was
disband. All actions would cease, and the department would disband,
never to reassemble again. This way the department could carry out
missions without any overwatch or fear of the government. The White House could only end all
activities of the director and his section. In
the movie Serenity, which was based off Firefly the TV series, there was a
character called simply the Operative, he worked the Federation, he was their
secret weapon that was called forth when everything was going
wrong. Here is what he said about himself and his job, The Operative : If your quarry goes to ground, you leave no
ground to go to… Capt. Malcolm Reynolds : I don't murder
children. The Operative : I do. If I have to. Capt. Malcolm Reynolds : Why? Do you even know why they sent you? The Operative : It's not my place to
ask. I believe in something greater than
myself. A better world. A world without sin. Capt. Malcolm Reynolds : So, me and mine
gotta lay down and die... so you can live in your better world? The Operative : I'm not going to
live there. There's no place for me
there... any more than there is for you.
Malcolm... I'm a monster. What I
do is evil. I have no illusions about
it, but it must be done. Finally,
there was Jack Nicholson’s character from A Few Good Men, “You can’t handle the
truth! …Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be
guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do
it? You?
You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a
greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the
marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I
know. That Santiago’s death, while
tragic, probably saved lives. And my
existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don’t want the truth because deep down in
places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me
on that wall. We use words like honor,
code, loyalty. We use these words as the
backbone of a life spent defending something.
You use them as a punchline. I
have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises
and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then
questions the manner in which I provide it.
I would rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and
stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a
damn what you think you are entitled to”. When
I first bought Complete Divine and I saw they created The Shadowbane Inquisitor
and the Church Inquisitor, I was ecstatic. I thought that
Dungeon and Dragon was finally catching on the idea that placing everything
into Good and Evil alignments did not really work. Then I looked at the
alignment qualifications for the Inquisitor and saw it was Lawful Good or
Lawful Neutral. It was a rip off. Then I saw that DnD was
also putting in some stupid wannabe made up organization that the Shadowbanes
had to belong. I tossed out this stuff and settled that all religious
organizations would have operatives that would root out corruption from within
and throughout their flock. Then the idea for Felosial came to me. She
was born and raised before the Great War (also known as the War of Demons) and
fought for her homeland. While defending her village with the other
clerics and warriors, her countrymen fled their homes. What the
demons left of her homeland was nothing but scorched earth. Felosial was
devastated. She saw the atrocities firsthand of what the demons and
their human soldiers were capable of. She stared for a long time
into that abyss she saw the world turning into by Demogorgon’s armies and that
abyss stared back into her. She relented her god and swore
allegiance to another god. Set, God of Destruction and Death. Set’s
soul name by Egyptian mythology is Bad Day, because it was a bad day when Set
was created. Felosial felt it was bad
day when her home was destroyed, it was a bad day when her friends and family
was killed. It was bad day when she saw and understood the truth that
world is not all good and that evil exists and must be destroyed no matter
what. Felosial
using the power of her new religion went forth and spent the rest of war as a
constant threat to Demogorgon’s forces on earth. Though Morgan Foulbane
and his party traveled to the abyss to face Demogorgon himself, Felosial was
just as important on earth fighting the demonic forces. Her ways were
ruthless and not everyone agreed to them. But she always had positive
results. Where she traveled, the forces of Demogorgon fell. Where
the armies of the demon lord slept, soon plague and destruction visited.
After
the war, suspicion and distrust from the various churches and kings arose over
Felosial. They did not feel safe with such a loose cannon running around
the countryside, on the other hand, with the new threat of Vaparak on the
horizon, could they afford not to keep her? They called her to meet
with the heads of state. An agreement was met, Felosial would not
pursue evil unless she was called forth by either the heads of the church or by
one of the kings. She would bide her time. The council
could not command her, they could only ask her to take up their cause. If
they did not call for her, she would remain at rest, in prolonged
vacation. She would not interfere with local laws, politics, or
matters. She would only act if she were requested by the council.
If she agreed to whatever matter caused them to summon her, then the matter
would be taken care of how ever she saw fit. She would not be a delicate
scalpel of the council. She would be a sledgehammer against the evil in
the world. She would be a loose cannon that would be aimed at
corruption.
Years
would pass and no one would call for her. She would spend the time at a
monastery or within some ancient library reading and studying. She
would often stare deeply into a fireplace and know that when she died, she
would be condemned to an eternity of flame.
A day would come, and she would be summoned. She would go,
sit and over a glass of wine, she would listen to the request of the
council. If she felt it had merit, she would agree to their
mission. Then the hunt would begin. The hunt would only end
when she found all the evil that she had been brought forth to destroy was
killed. Where she traveled, many were guaranteed to
die.
