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[howisaraven]

PLAYER
Name: Sammy
Age: 31
Personal Journal: satrugha
E-mail: asobu.ka at gmail.com
AIM/MSN/etc: aim: satrugha

CHARACTER
Name: Edward Nashton (Enigma)
Canon: DC Comics
Age: probably in his 30s.
Timeline: At the end of Trinity.

Personality:
Enigma is extremely bright and technologically-minded. He is considered the smartest man on his world. He is capable of inventing things beyond imagination, surpassing anyone in his world. With his knowledge, he’s also dabbled in the sciences and has a vast understanding of tactics and strategy. He as a large obsession with riddles and puzzles, as well.

His knowledge of strategy causes him to come across as a criminal mastermind. He is capable of devising massive schemes, orchestrating the players and predicting the results with frightening accuracy. For one of his most involved schemes, he impersonated his positive-matter self, Riddler, to utilize his mirror’s resources. Impersonating the Riddler, he manipulated many of Gotham’s villains to steal artifacts that were needed to perform the trinity spell. The only person who figured out who had crafted such a scheme was the Riddler himself.

While seeming like a villain, Enigma is actually good at heart. He is capable of love and affection, though rarely does he ever seem to show it. (It only ever comes out when he’s doing his best to protect Stephie). He tends to come off as very level-headed most of the time, capable of talking Morgaine down from her path of burning Europe to the ground, but the moment she talks about his own home or Stephie, he becomes rather antagonistic. He’s prone to emotional outbursts whenever anyone attempts to harm her.

He spent some time on the wrong side, believing it would help fix his own world. His lapse of judgment was caused mostly by an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. His family had been murdered, his own team was slaughtered. He felt as if this were the only way. The actions he took during that time are something he greatly regrets and works to make up for his past mistakes. He wants to do right by the world and hopes to clean up the villainy in his own world.

Enigma is incredibly determined and dedicated to complete his goal of saving his own world, sometimes to a point of obsession. It seems to blur his logical thought at times, even bringing him to destroy another world to protect his own. He does see the error in his ways, and becomes extremely determined to reverse everything he'd messed up.

Enigma has a tendency to hole himself away and observe the world from a distance. He often watches events through monitors, keeping his distance from the action. He keeps very few people close to him, including Stephie (while in the SPHERE) and previously the members of Justice underground. He tends to be a solitary creature, though he has no trouble communicating with others and forming friendships. Enigma can be rather open-minded with people, as he is fully aware of other worlds existing and that not all are the same. He seems to have a tendency to people-watch, often observing them from a distance.

He has a strange obsession with Batman. He is often referred to as Batman’s counterpart in both technology and intelligence and serves as the Batman-like piece in the anti-trinity. He has extensive knowledge about Batman, his skills, and his tech, as well as knowledge about his villains. Strangely enough, it’s Batman who indirectly saves his life and returns him back to his home world.

Enigma also has a strong link with his questionmark-shaped staff. Like his positive-earth counterpart, it's a symbol of being the Antimatter Riddler, but it seems to be more an extension of himself than other versions of Riddler. While he doesn't always emote, the way he holds his staff often does it for him. He grips it with both hands and clings to it when he's uncertain or feels guilty. He's presented it a few times as a sign of power, holding it out with one hand. He is rarely seen without his staff. It is so well encompassed into his being that when he takes on a god-like form, the staff does too. becoming an extension of himself literally.

Background:
Comicvine | DC Wikia

The two links cover most of Enigma’s backstory, though there are a few key elements they leave out. Before becoming the Quizmaster, Eddie was fascinated by the idea of parallel dimensions, discovering the existence of other worlds very early on, perhaps even before the Syndicate had discovered them. He didn’t share information about them but he learned something very troubling: his own world was a mirror of all others in existence. It was a place where crime thrived and the good guys were driven into hiding. This discovery eventually lead to his masquerade as Quizmaster.

Quizmaster formed a team of other underground heroes which were all mirrors to villains on the other worlds. He called it the Justice Underground. Quizmaster had a vast network of underground connections that helped the JU operate and interfere with the actions of the Crime Syndicate. The Syndicate eventually caught up with the JU, killing or maiming most of the members, and driving Quizmaster into hiding. The Syndicate eventually caught up with him, burning off half his face and murdering his family.

Fast forward to after the Trinity spell has been cast the first time, about half-way through the series. To achieve his goals, he’d slipped into villainy, joining up with Morgaine to destroy the positive-matter world, which would in turn reverse his own to a world that was worth living in.

As the anti-trinity was attempting to close all the rifts which had formed across the world, Enigma saw something that began to change his perspective. For some time, Stephie had been bothering him about what he was doing, telling him that he was destroying another world for their own. She’d stayed with him, despite her objections. Enigma understood her objections, but continued on the path heartlessly. He still had some good left in him, as he did intervene with Morgaine’s senseless destruction of Europe.

However, while he was watching his own men close the rifts that had formed across the world, he witnessed a woman, the positive-matter counterpart to his own wife Sarah, running in fear. She was killed by the process of closing the rift, and it horrified him. His outlook completely flipped back to where he initially was. He began objecting to Morgaine’s misuse of power, but he continued to go on with the plan of finishing the trinity spell properly, despite his own hesitations. He’d come too far to stop.

When the trinity spell fails a second time and the real trinity appears, the anti-trinity went into desperation mode. They went to strike a deal with Krona, an ancient scientist fascinated by the need to talk to planets and the cosmos. (Interestingly enough, Krona was responsible for the creation of Enigma’s antimatter universe when he toyed with the big bang.) Krona wanted to use Stephie’s soul to create a new worldsoul, causing Enigma to completely snap and flip sides, opening fire on Morgaine and Krona. His new friend Xor jumped in to help, giving them enough time to escape. From then on, Enigma attempts to foil Morgaine’s plans, nearly resulting in his own death when Despero impales him through the heart. Stephie’s SPHERE was also damaged beyond repair, leaving her soul without a place to go. Godly Batman saved Stephie’s life, and she in turn saves Enigma’s. The two return home and begin anew to help bring hope to their world.

Abilities:
Enigma’s greatest asset is his intelligence. He is considered the smartest man alive on his homeworld, and his inventions and strategic decisions do often reflect this.

For example, he built something called a Sub-Plasmic Heuro-Elective Retribution Engine (S.P.H.E.R.E). This giant sphere is capable of transdimensional travel (even with transdimensional barriers put up), firing off energy and electric-based bursts, flying, and various other things. It housed the soul of his daughter. While it only seemed to buzz, Enigma could understand it when Stephie (his daughter) spoke through the circuitry. The SPHERE was pretty strong, and Enigma often stood on it as a quick means to travel. His shadow form served as a replacement means to travel later on.

Using S.P.H.E.R.E. to power a space fortress and talking back to his AI

Enigma also created a questionmark-like staff he carries with him everywhere. It is his primary weapon and is capable of generating great amounts of electricity only in bursts, usually focused, though he has produced shockwave-like attacks. It is unclear how this staff is powered, but as with his other creations, it was something within. His staff gains a greater deal of power when in his god-like form, yet again the extent isn't fully developed. More than likely, it is simply burst damage on a greater scale.

Enigma using his staff like a shockwave
Creating bursts with his staff

Enigma is also capable of creating technology to harness magical and supernatural power as a power source. To fuel the trinity spell, Enigma creates a machine that runs on the power of a cosmic egg and brainwashes scientists to work on it for him. The only time the comic shows him working is when he's building S.P.H.E.R.E. in his underground laboratory, using high tech to weld and power his creations. All other cases of his building is done off-page.

Strategic-wise, Enigma is able to craft incredibly complex plans. For example, he impersonates his own positive-matter self to get Riddler’s allies to help him out with gathering magical artifacts needed for the trinity spell. This ends up getting his positive-matter self in trouble, as at this point in continuity, positive-Riddler is working on the side of good.


Physically, Enigma has very basic skills. He’s not a brawler, nor is it truly known if he even knows hand to hand combat. However, he’s been shown to be very nimble on his feet, capable of dodging attacks and balancing himself on his S.P.H.E.R.E as it flies about.


Due to the trinity ritual, Enigma obtained a godlike form which turns his body into a shadow with a giant green question mark down the front. The actual powers of this form are completely unknown as Enigma never uses them (unlike his counterpart, Morgaine, who decides to throw fireballs and decimate cities) nor is it known if he gained any sort of godlike power in the first place. Given his affinity with technology, it’s probably the latter. He prefers to use his staff for combat instead, pushing whatever godlike powers he attained aside. He can take this form at will, becoming a shadow to transport himself over long distances or make himself bigger or smaller. It’s truly unknown how or why he kept the form after the events of Trinity, as everyone else lost or gave up theirs. It is possible that when Stephie (and indirectly Batman) saved his life, the power was sealed inside of him.

Enigma’s shadow form and manifested staff
Another drawing of his god form
Using his power to counter Morgaine
Enigma's last panel in the comic showing him using a teleportation-like ability and wishing to do the right, less violent thing despite all the power he and Stephie acquired in the events of the series.

Notes:
An interesting note which doesn't fit anywhere else is that Enigma, like everyone else in his world, has situs invertus. His heart is on the right side.

First Person:
[ Enigma's the observant sort, and observing is what he likes to do. He's perched himself up on a wall, one leg drawn up to his chest, the other dangling down the wall. He wraps an arm around his questionmark-staff, letting it lean against his shoulder as he watches whoever may pass by. This place is a puzzle, and Enigma certainly enjoys puzzles. This one, however, was perplexing. This world doesn't match up with what he'd observed thus far, but his knowledge of the multiverse mostly contained the positive matter Earth, the keystone world which affects all others.

Certainly this doesn't mean there aren't similarities. While there had been no sign of his daughter, there had been signs of bats, perhaps a consistency in this world and the next. This place isn't too bad, but it's still not too good either.

He'd been relatively quiet since his arrival, brooding and watching. Old habits die hard. But perhaps some interaction isn't a bad thing. At the first passer-by, he proposes a question. ]

How is a raven like a writing desk?

[ a riddle. Certainly something light to start a conversation. ]


Third Person:
He thought he was done with world jumping. He truly did. With the loss of Idol-head, his ability to world jump had been severely stunted. And with his newfound purpose and power to fight the Crime Syndicate, he had no reason. He and his daughter became somewhat of a dynamic duo, attempting to defy the rules of their mirrored world.

And yet there he stood, dumbfounded on the train station platform. He couldn't remember how he'd gotten here. He couldn't remember leaving his backwards world. He was just here now. Signs posted on the nearby wall caught his attention, drawing him closer. He tapped the bottom of his metal staff on the ground as he perused the postings.

"Ruby City..." He'd never heard of the place. It was in English, at least. The signs seemed informative enough, welcoming even, but peering around the train station walls, the place before him didn't exactly have the same mood. The place was well-kept but somehow it felt empty. He glanced back at the train tracks for a moment before deciding to proceed farther and into the city. He was the curious sort. If something had drawn him into this other world, he wanted to know all about it, to study it and find a sense of familiarity.