A little about Zolo: HFN Samurai

I decided that I would talk about the HFN members as I was telling the story of 109. I'm going to start with Zolo because, (spoiler alert?) she was the first HFN character I had 109 'investigate'. The method that I finally developed for my RP is that each story arc would revolve around - or at least visit in some form - each HFN character, going in no particular order.

Zolo was created by our youngest friend, Gigi. From what I understand, Zolo was a character she had created before she officially started RPing, and when we brought her in, I gave her the same criteria I gave everybody else: create whoever (or whatever) you want. Gigi decided to port over her pre-made character.

Zolo's back story was originally written that she was from Earth, although I never decided if this was cannon. The only other member in our group to have been from Earth was Lucky, and his background was fairly ambiguous. I eventually decided that in the HFN universe, Earth was a veeeeery far away planet. So, having two characters from the same distant planet seemed pretty unlikely to me (it's unrealistic to have two characters originate from Earth, but having a half-vampire, half-werewolf is totally a-okay). I did have other reasons though. The fun thing about being a storyteller is that if someone's back story or history clashes with the story itself, you have the power to change it. :)

Gigi wrote that Zolo was living in a dojo with a slew of other samurai children when their dojo was attacked by a dark and mysterious enemy. All of her peers were killed in the attack and she escaped into space. Now, the other reason I had to change it up a bit was due to the fact that I decided the whole "gifted" thing mid-story. When I did so, I required that each character have an explanation for their gifts. When it came to Zolo, we (Gigi and I) kind of drew a blank.

To explain: Zolo's gifts are pretty interesting. One: she cannot feel any pain (or much of anything, for that matter). Two: she's ridiculously skilled with bladed weapons. Her later weapon of choice ended up being an unrealistically long sword (it's FINE, as long as she's not from Earth!). Three: she has poisonous blood and is immune to poison. (seriously, could you imagine the probability of two human-like characters being from Earth? It's absurd!) Four: she has a strange affinity to animals of all sorts. In our defense, you try explaining that gift set in one backstory.

Anyway, it was eventually revealed that the mysterious attacker that assaulted Zolo's dojo was a particularly sinister branch of the Revolution. This gave her a reason to be out and about in space and to join HFN - to exact revenge.

Unfortunately, Zolo never saw the conclusion of her own story arc in-game. Even though the Revolution was defeated, the branch that had done her so much wrong has split from the main well before the war's conclusion. When my wife and I moved and the HFN story was put on indefinite hold, I had been in the progress of combing through and ending each character's respective story. We simply never got to Zolo.

Now, this will be some spoilers for everybody (including HFN members), but as it turned out, I had come up with an explanation for Zolo's powers after all!

**Official HFN Spoilers**

I mentioned Willard Hamm in a previous post, but didn't go into any detail (and I won't here, that will be another day). What you do need to know is that Hamm dedicated his life to the creation of gifted - for better or for worse. He was not a nice man and didn't have many morals. He wasn't above kidnapping and experimenting on all sorts of living organisms. Bringing Zolo into an ever-expanding club, she had once been a project of Hamm's. The whole life she remembered was fabricated by the evil scientist, up to, and possibly even including, the Revolution's involvement in her life.

**End Spoilers**

Now, let's skip a bit. In 109's time, Zolo is long gone, but her legacy lives on. Because I never decided what HFN's official fate was during the war (or even if they were a part of it at all), I wanted to leave things as ambiguous as possible, so any history about HFN in 109 is completely legend; it could be the truth, and there's probably some truth to it, but it could just as easily be completely wrong.

This is the legend told to 109 (as told by Byra Sturge):

When the war broke out, HFN fought. Of course, we all know that it was a war the gifted couldn't possibly win, so naturally HFN eventually fell. When Turel, HFN's face leader, was killed, HFN crumbled. Having realized that the war was a lost-cause, Zolo retired to a distant planet. The planet was fairly primitive and didn't have space travel, nor did they know the existence of the gifted. As such, Zolo was regarded as a god.

She lived the rest of her life as an idol. Her people constructed a massive temple for her, and obeyed her every command. She had her followers collect and bring to her thousands of animals from around their world, where she kept them (all of them) as pets in her temple.

Of course, the Alon were still searching for her, and eventually found her. The people of her planet saw them as alien intruders, here to kill their god. Of course, they were no match for the advanced technology of the Alon and were nearly wiped out. Then, Zolo's animal pets rose up to defend her. The sheer number and power of the creatures was enough to drive the Alon back permanently.

When Zolo finally died of old age, her people constructed a massive tomb. For the next hundred years, animals of all sorts and sizes would flock to her grave at the end of their lives and die surrounding her. Eventually, the people of the planet had the technology to bring her tomb where they thought it belonged: in the heavens. They constructed a massive floating island around her and the thousands of animal bones that littered the land.

As you now know, that floating island was called Lud.

Zolo's people continued to worship her, eventually developing the ability to harness the spirits of the animals that Zolo loved so much. Truly gifted members of the people could even summon these spirits, imbuing their energy upon their own skin in the form of magnificent tattoos.

Byra is a very curious and adventurous girl, fascinated by the history of her people, so naturally, she wanted to see the resting place of the god they worshiped.


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Wow, that was longer than I expected. Oh well, a long lunch break for me today~!

A little about the guardians...

When I told my players to write up character backgrounds for their original HFN characters, I was simply looking for a brief "this is how I got to where I am" sort of story. However, I always encourage creativity and details. Whenever I tell Sydtronic this, I always see a little gleam in his eye.

Syd really likes to be creative and loves to write stories. Whenever I tell him to write up a background for a character, it gives him an excuse to exercise that creative muscle. This was definitely the case with Kaze. This is the paraphrased story he gave me.


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On the planet Canadanse, there is a legend of nine guardians. The guardians are powerful spirit animals, each tied to a different element. They protect the world of Canadanse and it's people. Every so often, the guardians take mortal form by imbuing their power in nine chosen people of the world.

These nine chosen gain the ability to mold and bend their respective elements to their will. In addition, they inherit their respective guardian's qualities and, in the most powerful cases, even gain the ability to shift their form into that of the spirit itself.

The chosen are usually born in order to serve a great purpose that the guardians wouldn't be able to handle in their spiritual forms. These purposes usually come in the form of protecting the Canadanse people from some great evil or oppression. Sometimes, it's to lead the people to a greater enlightenment or to advance their understanding of the guardians themselves. No matter what the reason, the appearance of the chosen is regarded as a very important time in their history.

The chosen are usually identified at a very young age and are taken from their homes and brought together at a temple on Mt. Kouseiyouso. There, they are trained and raised together under a set of ideals and morals by the monks of the temple. This ensures that the chosen will not only know how to harness their intense powers, but not to abuse them.

Of course, during the time of 109, things have changed with the oppression of the Alon. During their reign, the legendary chosen are considered nothing more than nine more cursed monsters ready to be unleashed on the innocent people of the galaxy (and they have good reason to believe such due to the events that transpired with them in HFN). Of course, even though times have changed, the legend sure hasn't, and the cycle of the guardians continues. Alon or no Alon.


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Thanks to Silverain's initiative in making Adriana one of the chosen from Sydtronic's lore and not making her one of the nine elements that Syd had picked out (fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, ice, spirit, light, and dark), it left me with the challenge of coming up with eight more elements that didn't overlap with Syd's. The task was actually a lot of fun. I had to really stretch it in some cases, but overall, I'm happy with the results (even if I did have to get a little abstract with a couple). So far, my players know of maybe half of these elements, but I'm very excited to get to them.

Oh, Syd, if I screwed up on any of the lore, please let me know.

A little about the Alon...

The Alon are easily my favorite thing about the HF universe. Perhaps because, as the storyteller, I'm the one in control of them, or because the very idea of them interests me. In reality, it's probably a combination of many things, but there's nothing I love more than to talk about them.

To me, the Alon are not only a very interesting subject of conversation, but the most terrifying thing imaginable for the gifted, and therefore, the players. The Alon are not only a constant antagonist for them, but a deadly effective one at that. In addition, they're not considered to be the bad guys by society at large (of course, that depends on what point in the time-line you're looking at). Probably worst of all; the Alon are successful. Their presence has not only persisted, but dominated since the days of HFN all the way down to 109 with little wavering.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I think I'll start with how the Alon began...


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It all began with one man named John Marcus Alon. John had a fantasy of striking it rich easily and quickly and living out the rest of his life in luxury. That fantasy was just that until the day that John met a scientist down on his luck. The scientist, named Willard Hamm (who's name is arguably more infamous to my players than the Alon, but we'll get into that some other time) had had his funding on his life's work cut. After the two brilliant men got to talking, John's fantasy became a very real possibility. You see, John wasn't evil, but he was cunning and charismatic. Joined with the mind of Hamm, he was able to launch his dream into reality.

The first thing he did was find five other influential and able people (but not intelligent, mind you). He gathered them all and ranked them with numbered titles, himself being One, Hamm being Two and so on. Using the titles as aliases, the seven started a mass recruitment. They called themselves the Revolution and brought on hundreds of thousands of weak-minded and lost teenagers. Seven (as they called themselves) told these masses that they were forming a revolutionary army to overthrow the corrupt and sinful governments of the galaxy.

The Revolution, at its core, was little more than a mix of a pyramid scheme and a cult wearing the face of an unstoppable army. The recruits would forfeit everything they own upon joining and would then be brainwashed by Hamm into thinking that they had undergone intense training for three years. They were then split up and assigned different positions under each of Seven. These 'teams' had specific jobs and duties within the Revolution. The most blunt of their activities involved raiding portions of planets for their resources and even resorting to pirating. Some of the money all these endeavors was divided amongst Seven and spent on furthering the Revolution's technology and supplies. Most of it however, went straight into John's pocket.

During the main duration of the Revolution's existence, John was living peacefully in luxury far away from his army.

It was during one of the Revolution's mining raids that HFN became involved in a classic case of 'wrong time, wrong place'. When HFN became aware of the Revolution's 'goals', they took it upon themselves to stop the army. Considering the extreme lack of skill and competency within the Revolution, HFN was able to carve their way to each of John's generals and one-by-one take them out. When John's income started rapidly drying up, he naturally investigated. What he discovered shook him to the core.

Being a greedy and unscrupulous, but not an evil man, John saw a group of horrible and unstoppable monsters cutting through hundreds and thousands of lives like butter. He then looked at the rest of Seven and saw that they had become monsters as well, and worst of all, Hamm seemed to be creating these demons.

Wrought with fear and rage, John acted quickly. He immediately cut all ties to the Revolution. He sold off the entirety of his luxuries and all of the shoddy Revolution equipment, ships, and weapons as he could and went into hiding.

When the smoke cleared, the Revolution was no more.

Over the course of the next several years, John began recruiting a real - if small - army. He used every ounce of money he had leftover from the Revolution to outfit his rag-tag group with proper equipment and training. Then, when he was ready, he struck.

John's return took HFN by surprise, launching a second war. Unfortunately, it still wasn't enough and HFN emerged victorious, finally killing John once and for all.

But of course, that isn't the end. The remainder of his army (still calling themselves the Revolution) broke away from a military standpoint and went into a political movement. They moved slowly, but surely. It started with protest groups, raising awareness of the gifted (and coining the term ' cursed'). Over years, they gained support and finances on dozens of planets, constantly growing. They eventually had the money and resources to begin 'rehabilitation clinics' in which they took willing gifted in to scientifically and psychologically purge them of their gifts. These clinics weren't always successful, but they did work half of the time. During this process, the Revolution kept logs and information on the various gifts and abilities they saw.

Of course, the Revolution wasn't the only group working against the gifted. Less-reputable and chaotic gifted didn't do their kind any favors. Whether for personal gain, acts of revenge, good deeds gone awry, or simply unable to control their powers, more and more people began to see the gifted through the Revolution's eyes: as cursed monsters and demons - walking time bombs waiting to go off. Eventually, the Revolution gained enough pull to form law-enforcement-type groups on many planets. These groups started as peacekeepers, but rapidly evolved into forcing unwilling gifted to undergo 'treatment'. Of course, they were met with resistance.

Then, the inevitable finally happened. A group of Revolution peacekeepers got into a fight with a particularly unlucky gifted. The fight rocketed out of control, leaving hundreds of innocents killed. It was the last straw. The Revolution took the opportunity to finally come forward with the history of their group and it's founder. They changed their name to the Alon in honor of him and plead to the governments of the galaxy to allow them to take up a military stance against the gifted.

Almost all of these governments agreed.

What followed amounts to little more than genocide. The Alon used the information that they had gathered on the gifted to create weaponry specially designed to combat the intense and unbelievable powers of the gifted. The Alon continued to allow willing gifted to receive treatment - a truly traumatic experience for many - the unwilling were hunted down and either forced to undergo treatment and testing, or more commonly, killed.

The gifted fought a hopeless battle. They were unorganized, with conflicting goals and motivations, while the Alon were organized and united under a single cause. The more the gifted fought, the worse the battle became as more and more innocent people took side with the Alon with each bloody clash. The Alon continued to gain support, money, resources, and knowledge about the gifted, making them an unstoppable and unrelenting force.

The Alon have never stopped their hunt.


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To me, what makes the Alon so scary is the fact that they are successful. They hunt down and find gifted. They cure those who can be cured and those that can't are killed or worse. The Alon's technology allows a dozen soldiers to stand toe-to-toe against a gifted who could easily slaughter a hundred men with a snap of a finger. The Alon are a very real and very dangerous threat to the gifted, and almost idolized by everybody else.

There is so much to say about the Alon, but this post has gone on long enough. I'll pick up again some other day. Thanks for reading.

A little about the gifted...

In the Happy Force universe, the gifted  - or cursed, depending on whose point of view you look at them with - are defined as anybody who has extraordinary abilities not normally possessed by the species. This covers the gambit from super-strength to shooting spikes out of your elbows.

There are three major groups of gifted: overt, covert, and invisible:

Overt are the kinds of gifted that cannot easily hide their abilities. Mutations, wings, physically built-in weapons (I hesitate to call them natural) etc. In 109, Wade falls into this category. He has to wear a huge gauntlet over his arm and wear special clothing in order to hide the demon and his wings. examples of this type of gifted in HFN are Alex, Willard Hamm, and later versions of Trio (or Tres, if you prefer).

Covert types are those whose abilities are hidden until used. Elementals tend to fall under this category. Adriana is our Covert 109 member. She looks relatively normal until she starts popping in and out of shadows like they were doorways. Other examples (from HFN) include Kaze (early Kaze, that is), Ne' Sonya, early Trio, Aiden, Turel, Zolo... heck, just most of HFN.

Invisible types are the hardest to define and identify. These are the kinds that are gifted in game-terms (they have gifts on their character sheets) but the gifts are impossible to directly identify, even while they're in use. Augmented gifted also fall under this category (as augmented gifted are made so by a special object or tool that can be removed from them). These tend to be social or luck-based gifts. Rad, being based almost entirely off of luck, is our 109 rep. the other half of his gift set centers around his gun, giving him an augment. Lucky and Jeanie are our invisible gifted from HFN.

After those three groups, the branches of the gifted tree become very numerous: we have elementals, augmented, psychic, social, healing, mutations, transformations, etc. etc. There is room for error, of course. In order to define a gifted with super strength, one would have to look at the record of strength for that species and then have a margin for error. Therefore, the world's fastest man or the most believable (ha!) psychic would not qualify.

Then, there are two different types that every gifted on the above lists fall into: evolving or not. All player characters are considered evolving gifted. As they play and gain experience, they buy new gifts and abilities. In-game terms, they are mutating and evolving - their powers are constantly growing and changing. Non-evolving gifted are just that - non-changing. Their gifts are at their peak. They won't be gaining any new abilities or powers by living their lives. The latter type are much more rare, and so far I can't think of any examples in our campaigns, but they definitely exist.

According to our universe, the gifted have been around for a long time. Legends and stories of them (exaggerated or otherwise) have been passed down on almost every planet since anybody can ever remember. So we look at it this way: Greek mythology? Gifted. Super heroes in comics? Gifted. Movie monsters? Gifted.

It's just a loose idea, but it serves it's purpose for our cause. Is any of this really relevant or need information? Yes. for you see, the gifted aren't all considered good. In fact, there are a lot of people in the universe that see gifted as a threat. And most of them aren't content to simply stand by while the gifted (or cursed...) do as they please and evolve into what essentially boils down to gods-among-men.

That's where the Alon come in.