The Mystery Man

Capes and Cloaks and Masks, oh my! Inigo: "Who are you?" The Man in Black: "No one of consequence." Inigo: "I must know." The Man in Black: "Get used to disappointment." -- _The Princess Bride_ "What are you?" "I'm Batman!" The Mystery Man is a relatively new Archetype, though its roots are thought to spring from the legends of mystery knights, known only by nom de guerres and the color of their armor. Because of the power associated with this indeterminacy of identity, the archetype is also sometimes called The Masked Man. Please note, however, despite the word "Man" in the Archetype name, avatar-hood is not limited to men.

Attributes: The power of this Archetype springs from a handful of related concepts: the inability to predict the actions of an unknown personality, the power of mystery itself, and the ability to draw on the strengths of two personalities (or souls?) in one body. These attributes give the Mystery Man a superior position when dealing with other people, often based on the fear of the unknown. The last attribute of a "dual-soul" allows the Mystery Man to transcend normal human limits, since there's really twice as much of him, in a sense. It's important to note that the character is not a Split Personality. The Mystery Man is choosing to express portions of his personality only while Masked, and express the other while unmasked. It's a conscious choice, and effectively doubles the range of his personality. Vide Peter Parker's ability to avoid his shyness when hiding behind the mask of the irrepressible Spiderman. That flamboyance was always a potential of Peter's, but he never expressed it until he could hide from recriminations behind a mask.

As a servant of Order, the Mystery Man can do much good by stepping outside of the strictures that bind ordinary, law-abiding folk. Through his doubled nature, he can survive the rigors of coloring outside of the lines for the greater good without imperiling the status quo. As a servant of Entropy, he can cause terror unimaginable: the devil you don't know -- cannot know -- is always worse than the devil that you do.

Taboos: The Mystery Man must balance his Mask Time and Secret Identity Time. The stress of channeling pure Mystery in human form is great. Every 6 hours Masked, the Mystery Man must make a Stress Check against Self. The rank of this Stress Check accumulates as time passes. At 6 hours, it's a Rank-1 check; at 12 hours a Rank-2 check; at 18 hours a Rank-3 Check; etc. Time spent actively (not sleeping) in the Secret Identity reduces this accumulated time. Accumulated Mask Time may only be reduced to zero; one cannot "store up" a pool of Secret Identity Time.

Example: Dan is secretly the Mystery Man known as the Owl. He's tracking a serial killer, and spends 12 hours on Monday night as the Owl, tracing leads. During that time, he makes 2 Self checks, one at Rank-1 and one at Rank-2. He goes home and crashes for 8 hours. He wakes up, puts on a clean trench coat and domino, and hits the streets again. After 6 hours of hunting, he must make a Rank-3 check against self. The time he spent sleeping did not reduce his Mask Time. He fails, freaks out, and decides to call it a night. He sleeps for 8 hours again.

On Wednesday, he runs some errands as Dan, the Secret Identity. This takes about 4 hours. He goes out to dinner and a movie with his buddies, still as Dan. This takes another 4 hours. Now, when he suits up after midnight as the Owl, his accumulated Mask Time is only 10 hours (18-8=10). He can be the Owl for 2 hours before needing to make a Rank-2 Self check.

Also, the Mystery Man must not reveal or allow anyone to reveal his dual identity to the world at large, or suffer the drop of his Avatar: Mystery Man skill to 0. Whenever someone new discovers the truth of the dual identity, the Avatar:Mystery Man skill drops by 1d10%. After that, as long as the people who know the secret (like a faithful servant, love interest, or sidekick) keep quiet, the Mystery Man suffers no additional loss. The size of this group of people "in the know" is limited to the tens place of the Mystery Man's Avatar. Other avatars do not count against this limit. Their mystical nature means they are in tune with similar forms of power, and will not disrupt the delicate tension between identities.

Symbols: Obviously, the mask is the prime symbol for this Archetype. Capes are also popular, as are body-suits, coins, question marks, and playing cards, as well as any specific symbol that the Mystery Man chooses to associate himself with.

Suspected Avatars in Pseudo-History: Numerous Knights of the Round Table, at one time or another; Sir Percy Blakeney (the Scarlet Pimpernel), Dr. Syn (the Scarecrow), Don Diego de la Vega (El Zorro), John Reid (the Lone Ranger), Kent Allard/Lamont Cranston (the Shadow), Richard Wentworth (the Spyder), Britt Reid (the Green Hornet), etc.

Copyright Chad Underkoffler, posted on the official UA website July 18, 2002