The Brotherhood of Assassins
(So, I definitely thought I’d end this hiatus with something smaller and more manageable... but the Batman Bad Blood animated movie came out and I wound up on a real League of Assassins kick. So, here we are!)
An ancient secret society spanning back countless generations of human history and spanning the world over, the original Brotherhood of Assassins:[League of Assassins/Brotherhood of Mutants] existed as a rigidly traditionalist organization fixated on old tenants and practices honed to a fine art, the last head of which was the [Sensei/Lord Darkwind], The Father of Assassins. By the old laws of avowed secrecy the masters assassins had long kept their techniques confined to inter-familial relations, the basis of the earliest global networking of the organization in days long since lost to memory. Accordingly, under his tutelage, his children [White Ghost/Lord Deathstrike] and [Deathstroke/Lady Deathstrike] would be groomed to inherit his legacy through both the Brotherhood itself and through his efforts to create a perfect human weapon. To this end The Father of Assassins, had begun an elaborate operation of recruiting, and more often abducting, orphan children on which to conduct his frequently fatal, if not debilitating experiments —procedures deemed too dangerous to risk the lives of the precious few family members of the true blooded assassin families— But as The Father’s project began to bear fruit concerns spread of the new powerful illegitimate assassins.
It was in the midst of this human-weapon project that The Father found [meta/mutant] subjects to be most useful for surviving his more extreme experiments. As his minions began targeting [meta/mutant] children, who were often easy targets having already been rejected by their families and communities, they quickly ran up against [Ra’s al-Ghul/Magneto] and his growing child soldier forces, and the conflict escalated to war. In a reluctant but pointed maneuver [Ra’s al-Ghul/Magneto] saw the disaster that a prolonged battle with The Brotherhood would mean for his forces and opted to surrender under specific terms. His forces would be absorbed into The Brotherhood but he would remain their direct commander, and he would oversee the experiments to ensure they adhere to his own standards for treatment. On the surface this defeat seemed to spell the end for [Ra’s al-Ghul/Magneto]’s efforts at [meta/mutant] liberation, but with time his master plan would reveal itself;
As the project proceeded seemingly to [Sensei/Lord Darkwind]’s plan, [Ra’s al-Ghul/Magneto] moved to make himself and his [meta/mutant] child soldiers indispensable to The Brotherhood’s operations. As the project reached a state of apparent perfection [Sensei/Lord Darkwind] even offered up his own daughter, [Deathstroke/Lady Deathstrike], his heir to the head of The Brotherhood of Assassins as the project’s final masterpiece. But in the moment of The Father’s triumph, [Ra’s/Magneto] peeled back the mask of his long deception: his powers over magnetism. Having at first feigned powerlessness over the project’s pivotal rare alien metal, [Nth Metal/Adamantium], [Ra’s/Magneto] slowly engineered the project to his own designs, a series of human weapons to which his powered rendered him utterly untouchable.
But a hostile take over would mean exterminating his opposition, of which there were many and with it inevitable losses. Instead, [Ra’s/Magneto] leveraged his position to deal [Sensei/Lord Darkwind] an irrecoverable blow: He would keep silent about the project’s failure on the condition that he be allowed to marry into the right of succession and take control of The Brotherhood of Assassins by the order's own traditions. And so [Sensei/Lord Darkwind] was forced to admit the most thorough defeat: The loss of his life’s ambition, of his honor, his organization, and his daughter...
And so would begin the incredibly strained relationship of [Ra’s/Magneto] and [Deathstroke/Lady Deathstrike]. Ultimately the ambition of all three of [Sensei/Lord Darkwind]’s children would be to avenge their father and/or take control of The Brotherhood of Assassins themselves.
For [White Ghost/Lord Deathstrike] the eldest child, first son, and by most accounts rightful heir to the role, the overcoming of his father’s failings would be an indisputable victory over the man who disgraced and disowned him. Injured and grievously disfigured in training as a child, [White Ghost/Lord Deathstrike] instead honed his skills as a tactician and diplomat; but his complex about his physical capabilities and about his appearance make him quick to anger, petty and spiteful.
[Deathstroke/Lady Deathstrike] harbors perhaps the most complicated feelings about this. She already had a problematic relationship with her father, in which she excelled at all fields of study just as he wished her to, yet found herself always wanting in his eyes, never good enough. It was out of her twisted and misguided need for her father’s approval that she volunteered for the human weapon project. Yet her father’s defeat at the hands of her new husband was equally infuriating and earning of her ire. but her position as an acting co-leader of The Brotherhood is secure in her husband’s hands. If she is to exact revenge it must be done with great precision or not at all, and so while her siblings feverishly scheme to surpass her and her husband, she schemes in more indirect ways...
[Nyssa Raatko/Reiko] seeks to do justice to her father’s name by fulfilling his legacy and perfecting the human weapon project he started, overcoming even [Ra’s/Magneto]’s innate advantages over the core design. She is a skilled fighter in her own right, but easily the runt of the litter among her sisters. What she lacks in physical prowess however she makes up for in dynamic and innovative problem solving, eye for detail, and raw willpower and laser focus. She benefits from remaining on relatively good terms with all her siblings, as her ambitions don’t include leadership.
[Talia al-Ghul/Mystique] Youngest child but a force to rival all but her eldest sister. She is a [meta/mutant] with shapeshifting powers that make her an unmatched master of disguise. She has lived her life in the shadow of her overachieving sister, [Deathstroke/Lady Deathstrike], and has always aspired to overtake her position. Indeed, she doesn’t seem to resent [Ra’s/Magneto], even being willing to try and seduce him, if it could mean taking her sister’s place by his side. But when this tactic proves impotent, she quickly sets her sights on [Batman/Professor X], as a man rivaling [Ra’s/Magneto]’s prowess, instead.
As is the way of the family, the siblings see their ambitions take shape through their children... [Deathstroke/Lady Deathstrike] gives birth to twins:
[Jericho/Scarlet Witch] wields a fearful psychic power to alter the perception of others upon eye contact. At its weakest implementations this creates small lapses in the five senses. When enough senses are altered with enough precision however entire dreamlike states of delusion can be inflicted. These dream states can be used to cover for other operations, create false memories, interrogate, and brainwash. But the use of the power has its own powerful effects on [Jericho/Scarlet Witch] herself, as she must consciously navigate and maintain the illusion from inside it, along with the victim. In its most potent form, it can even trap multiple people in shared or even individual dream states at great mental strain to her; and she can even willfully lock herself into a dream state where she must battle her own subconscious to escape.
[Ravager I/Quicksilver]: A much more straight forward assassin, he is blindingly fast in everything he does. He is however, also arrogant and at times sloppy. He is something of a momma’s boy and does everything he can to live up to her paragon assassin status. Although it is not readily apparent due in large part to his accelerated healing, his constant reliance on his super speed is something that slowly tears away at his body on a molecular level. When this becomes apparent he is advised to keep under certain speeds and restrict extreme acceleration and deceleration to a few times a day, warnings he at first adheres to; but eventually he resigns himself to an early grave and instead dedicates the full capacity of his powers to helping his sister and mother in their own ambitions.
[Ra’s/Magneto] brings into the fold his own daughter from a previous marriage, [Ravager II/Polaris]. In an attempt to spare his daughter being involved with The Brotherhood of Assassins, [Ra’s/Magneto] initially sends her to stay in the care of his once friend [Batman/Professor X]. There she is raised with the other child vigilante [metas/mutants], and develops a relationship with schoolmate, [Speedy/Havoc], until her identity becomes known to The Brotherhood. It becomes clear that so long as she is conveniently positioned as an enemy of the assassins, [Ra’s al-Ghul/Magneto]’s enemies within the organization will take every opportunity to target her to get to him. And so, with great reluctance, he brings her into the organization himself, where he can keep her close at hand and where she can be privy to all her enemies’ tactics and means.
[Talia/Mystique] gives birth to [Damian/Nightcrawler], The Son of Night, and trains him in no uncertain terms to be the bane of her eldest sister and brother-in-law. Often with no particular end game in mind she will send him to [Batman/Professor X] just to put her siblings on edge. [Damian/Nightcrawler] as a result of his dual custody situation and his mother’s frivolous spite, sees few consequences to his actions that can’t be waited out or run from. He is mischievous and spoiled, but in ways naively and innocently playful.
[Nyssa/Reiko] has no children of her own, but in the pursuit of a better human weapon, she does craft her own proteges...
[Red Hood/Wolverine], A student of [Batman/Professor X] once thought dead after a gruesome encounter with [Joker/Mister Sinister], his body was salvaged by [Nyssa/Reiko] and his natural healing factor amplified. With his seemingly infinite healing capacity he was a perfect physical specimen for an extreme version of the human weapon procedure. What she hadn’t considered was that with his vigilante background he wasn’t bound to work for The Brotherhood; but then maybe all she had cared about was using him as a proof of concept for her design. After a brief stint working as their agent, [Red Hood/Wolverine] escaped The Brotherhood’s custody, but would never truly return to academy of the man who left him for dead.
[Mara al-Ghul/X-23]: When The Brotherhood lost [Red Hood/Wolverine], [Nyssa/Reiko] quickly began to lose favor with members of the organization. As her funding dwindled and her supply of test subjects fell short, she turned to the support of her family. Namely, [White Ghost/Lord Deathstrike]; As the two siblings with the least raw power behind them a joining of forces was apt in the face of their sisters’ powerful offspring. Offering up his own daughter, specially trained to be all the assassin her father could’ve been and her cousin’s equal, as the next human weapon subject.
[Heretic/Daken], The Prodigal Son: As a further step in the ongoing human weapon project, a clone of [Red Hood/Wolverine] is bred, put through an accelerated aging process, and trained to be the perfect assassin. But his accelerated growth proves problematic to his mental development; he becomes self aware of his own lack of experience and his inability to deal with other people on a social level, even as a ruse. This quickly develop into an identity crisis in relation to the surrounding predecessors and siblings; He sees in them what he should be, could be, and won’t be. He’ll never be the heir to The Brotherhood, he’ll never be a beloved child like [Damian/Nightcrawler] or [Ravager II/Polaris], he’ll never be a hero like [Red Hood/Wolverine]. All he can hope to be is the perfect weapon...
Honestly, there is so much more tangled web of interrelations to yet tackle with this combination of groups (Bronze Tiger, Deadman, Richard Dragon, Cheshire, Mastermind, Avalanche, Pyro, Destiny, etc...) but I’ll stop here for now and leave the rest to your imaginations...
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