Where has Nighthawk been?

The Lives of Nighthawk

Nighthawk has been my favorite character, my alter-ego, since 1991 or 1992 - somewhere around there. I've played her in every RP campaign I've ever been in; not always for very long, especially if she's required to be level 1 again and underground (which has happened twice). I've written stories from her viewpoint also; currently she is being written into the world of the Moogle War - a collaborative writing project of the Final Fantasy Mailing List (ffml@yahoogroups.com). This is where her power as a World Walker comes in; she enters these worlds and remains for however long I am there, then she returns to Seromath with the memories (but not always the abilities) of that campaign. This is a list of where she's been and how it's affected the character's viewpoints.

Marvel

This was what made Nighthawk into a World Walker. A...sort of friend, long story...was gaming in my AD&D group at the same time he was running a Marvel campaign. He decided when I joined his group that Nighthawk would be a cool addition to his campaign, but that she would be too weak to be much good. So, she didn't enter Marvel-Earth through one of her planet's Gates. Instead, a powerful being from the Marvel universe hauled her bodily into the campaign by threatening the lives of her people. She ranked there as an Alien, and the GM improved her skills amazingly. She could fly faster than a 747, could see dust motes on Mars, carried her own portable atmosphere around, was quite a bit stronger and even more dextrous...Of course, she couldn't use her magic. It takes an elf 50 years to acclimatize to a new world even in an AD&D campaign where magic is roughly similar, and Marvel's magic system is very different. She still retained all her psychological differences (claustrophobia, fire-fear..) and behaved as though things could affect her even when they couldn't because she didn't understand the full extent of the changes she'd undergone. Time-wise, she was there during the 80s basically, though I've never decided just when she eventually found her way home - only that she had to become immune to high levels of heat, because the GM decided her way home was in the heart of a volcano. The level of pollution on that Marvel-Earth was such that only in elemental Fire was there enough congruity for a Gate back to Seromath.

What did she learn, and what did she keep? Well, she learned how to adapt to different magical systems, and more importantly how to bring her own magic with her. Marvel abounds with psychics, and she picked up a low-level teleptathy here too, that she can use when communicating with her own kind. She also broadened her understanding of technology and of humankind, though this was mostly limeted to guns (way more fun than bows) and to mutants, an already ostracized bunch. The GM specialized in emotional/psychic enemies, so Nighthawk's personality became a lot less flexible during this time as she had to continually resist mental pressure from outside herself.

Moogle War

The Moogle War is loosely based upon the Final Fantasy RPG series that has games on the Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sony Playstation and Gameboy. Magic in this series tends to be focused on Para-Elements such as Ice and Lightning as well as pure Elemental attacks. It takes place in a time frame that AD&D players would understand as a Golden Age or Age of Legends, where gods go walking around of an evening and all sorrts of strange and implausible (even by fantasy standards) events can occur. Even so, it has ancient technologies about that very few understand (since most people use the standards of bow and sword). I entered this campaign/story near the end of the Third Moogle War, and brought 300 soldiers to fight with Nighthawk. Since it's collaborative, I don't have quite as much control as I would like, and Nighthawk has occasionally acted unsure or openly fearful. Here's the story of her involvement:

Nighthawk, back on Seromath, discovers in her crystal ball a threat on the world of Moogle War that could endanger her kingdom. The Moogles, a violent, sex-mad race of little white teddy bears with pink bat wings, are nearing a new Gate to Seromath - near the last outpost of elves on that world. Worse, if they should discover the Gate and go through it, the terminus on the Seromathi side is only a few miles from her kingdom's border. The humans of Moogle War have a chance to defeat the moogles, but it's a chancy thing. Unwilling to risk the chance of such a vile, and violent race discovering and using the Gate before it fully closes (in a few months time) for the next few thousand years, Nighthawk calls for volunteers in the Guard for a suicide mission; prevent the moogles from reaching and discovering the Gate and its power. 300 of her people agree. The King, although against the mission, ultimately allows her to send the small force forth.

Nighthawk's powers, as such, didn't change on this shift; the worlds of Moogle War and Seromath aren't all that different in fundamental respects. What has stood her in good stead this time are her memories; remembering the tales of bards in her homeworld, and the workings of technology on Marvel-Earth. The reason this turned out to be useful was that - once on the world and committed to a course of battle - she discovered the presence of a Hero, a person whose life is touched by the gods. Knowing this sooner, she would not have entered the war, but she's rather stuck for it now. You want more information, go to egroups and check out the FFML archives :)

What has she learned, what will she keep? Well, on this trip Nighthawk has gotten a valuable lesson in caution; in very little time she's gotten way over her head, and her people will pay the price. She's also completely lost any trust she had for the human race; after seeing what the humans of Earth, Seromath, and Moogle War do, she's decided they're all alike and not fit for more than target practice. While she still attempts to give individual examples of humanity a chance, it's more a case now of them trying to prove they're different than of earning her trust from an even standpoint. The Hero she discovered has played no small part in this judgement; she had thought of Heroes as noble examples of the species, but as it turns out her education was a bit lacking on that score. On her return to Seromath, this will likely result in even tighter security around Variel. Her combat skills have been given a major workout on Moogle world also, so she should be a force to be reconed with even on the ground and with an unfamiliar weapon.

Endnote: Nighthawk and Aelis Re were involved in Moogle War 3 and the beginning of Hillion Dynasty.