Full Name: Richard Mackenzie
Alias: White Death, Great White Death
Age: 25 (Born 2020)
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Caucasian, Scottish/English/Brittonic descent. Canadian national.

Hair: Dark chocolate brown, almost black in some lights.

Eye color: Grey-Blue

Body: Slim but athletic.

Height: 5'10"

Weight: 148lbs

Hometown: Hope, British Columbia, Canada

Affiliation(s): Canadian Armed Forces (formerly)

Personality:
Calm and reserved, can come off as cold sometimes, but polite and respectful others. Richard can be quiet at times, but he’s more than willing to talk in the right circumstances. He is generally in control of himself, and that’s the way he likes it.

White Death, however, shows a different side of him. Cold. Brutal. Detached. Violent. White Death may be calm, but all energy he doesn’t waste in emotions is transferred to him brutally murdering villains, criminals, and the other lowly scum of the Earth. For your typical street criminal, White Death tries to be quick and efficient in taking out his opponents. For those individuals who are particularly vile, White Death will try his very best to ensure he takes as much time with his job as possible.

The greater the crime, or the more innocent the victims, then the more “creatively cruel” White Death becomes to the villains.

Likes:
- The outdoors. Particularly enjoys hiking.

- Mountains

- Rain

- Black coffee with some sugar. Orange juice. Typical “breakfast” drinks.

- History (including books, online content, and artwork)

- Various kinds of music, though different styles of rock tend to be closest to his heart. Contrasts slightly with his more “classical” tastes or interests.

- Guns (the tool of his trade).

- Swords, knights, and medieval stuff. Enjoys the idea of heroes who fought for justice in a bygone era, even if they were few in number.

- Kind/respectful/polite people. At least reasonably so.

- Various other things. Some of which he keeps private. Very private.


Dislikes:
- Extreme heat. He’ll tolerate it, but it’s not his preference.

- Alcohol. Doesn’t drink.

- Smoking. Doesn’t smoke.

- Drugs (including weed). Doesn’t use them. However, he doesn’t make a fuss about others using, so long as it isn’t killing themselves or others. Ditto to smoking and drinking.

- Pointless bravado, narcissism, and self-aggrandisement. Hubris.

- Child abusers. No sane person likes these people. Richard likes them even less. But he does like hurting them. And killing them.

- Criminals in general that cause harm to others (especially to innocent people).

- Chaos, confusion, disorganization. It gets people killed.

- Many of the “hero” organizations. He sees them as bureaucratic or overbearing, and that they lose their ability to be effective by trying to be micromanaged.

- Villain organizations. Obviously.

- Despite Richard’s past occupation, he has had occasional trouble with “authority”. He does respect authority, but he has directly disobeyed authority on a number of occasions. As such, he dislikes authority he views as either incompetent, or morally corrupt. And authority that fits that description is authority he will not listen to.

- Relying on his powers. Richard values the skills he has developed as a human, and it’s important to him that he be a capable fighter without needing his powers. Certainly he uses them, but he generally prefers his human abilities over his cape powers.


Fears:
- The people he loves being harmed or killed.

- Death (as most sane people would).

- Nonexistence. An existential fear, but a fear nonetheless.

- That he’s doing the wrong thing.


Skills:
- Skilled firearms user. Good with pistols, automatic rifles, shotguns, and rifles (bolt action, semi-automatic, etc.).

- Capable of hitting a target at considerable distances without using a scope (something he’s practiced since youth, and something that plays into his name).

- Can effectively use various pieces of military grade equipment (weapons, communications tech, etc.)

- Some mechanical skills he picked up in his youth and his time in the army.

Costume Identities:
Richard wears a simple outfit. Black tactical shirt, pants, and boots, with additional light armoring in black. Over the shirt he has a black, light-weight, bullet proof tactical vest, and his “mask” is a modified black "balaclava". On the upper parts of the sleeves of his black shirt (in the place where a flag would be on a military uniform) is a simple, black rectangular patch with a white circle on it, and a white line going through the middle of the circle. In ancient Greece, it was a symbol of death.
Uniform
Mask


Equipment:
- Two Pardini PC/GT pistols, one Silver, the other Black. The silver one has the name “Excalibur” etched onto it. The black one has the name “Durendal” etched onto it. Richard has these holstered with him for most combat areas.

- An MP5A3 submachine gun. The name “Tizona” is etched onto it. Richard uses this in most general combat.

- A Franchi PA3 shotgun. The name “Colada” is etched onto it. Richard usually uses this weapon when in a more confined combat area.

- .50 Caliber Beowulf AR-15. The name “Hrunting” is etched onto it. Richard mostly reserves this for “absolute necessity” situations. A gun built for hunting monsters.

- A black, carbon steel Tactical Machete. The name “Joyeuse” is etched onto the blade. Richard carries this in a sheath generally attached to his back.





Background:

Richard was born on April 16th, 2020 in the small Canadian town of Hope, British Columbia. He grew up there on a rural ranch property, to a relatively normal family who had a relatively normal life. The only thing not “normal” was perhaps Richard’s grandfather, the somewhat wealthy owner of a manufacturing company operating in a few different countries. But Richard’s family wasn’t anyone famous, or fabulously wealthy, just better off than many others. And that took time, effort, and a lot of risk on his grandfather’s part.

What changed Richard from being a regular kid happened in 2031, when he was 11. His younger brother Anthony (8 at the time) had gone missing. Several other children had gone missing in BC recently, and this was just one more to send the province into a panic. The family did everything they could to find Anthony, tried to hire private detectives, everything. Nothing came of it.

5 months later, a man was arrested trying to cross from Ontario into the state of Michigan. He was carrying photographs, and other various pieces of evidence that tied him to the kidnappings, and his other atrocious crimes. A week later they recovered Anthony’s body in British Columbia, as well as the bodies of seven other young boys and girls in both BC and Ontario. The man arrested plead insanity, and due to that and his age was sent to a mental health institute for the next 13 years.

This moment changed Richard forever.

The once innocent, blissful child became a bottle of pure, distilled, righteous hatred. His life began to revolve around the things he could have done to save his brother, the other children, and so many other people who’ve suffered. And what went from thoughts of hatred went to thoughts of violence.

This wasn’t all that was on his mind of course. He became keenly interested in history, particularly WW1 and WW2, as well as medieval history and Ancient Mesopotamia. It was through these interests that he came across the real-life legend of Simo Häyhä, the “White Death” of Finland. He was a sniper who had killed hundreds of invading Russians, without a scope, burying himself in snow, and landing killing blows on targets hundreds of feet away from him. The skill and ability to manage this in such extreme conditions inspired Richard. As he got older and was allowed to shoot in target practice, he trained without a scope.

As he grew older and the internet became more accessible to a young boy, he began to watch movies online. One film that caught his attention was from the 70’s or 80’s, focusing on a small group of New Yorkers who’d been terrorized by gangs and street thugs. Eventually, the victims decided they had had enough and decided to deal with the threat more violently. It likely took inspiration from real life vigilantes like the “Guardian Angels”, though they were less violent by far.

By all accounts Richard seemed normal to most people around him. He enjoyed sports, was relatively social, and even did a little bit of acting at school. So it came as a surprise to many people around him when, upon graduation from High School, he immediately signed up with the Canadian Armed Forces.
Richard, being a persistent young man, pushed to be trained as a regular infantryman, a sniper, and as a mechanic. He excelled in the first two, and he managed to be decent as a mechanic, enough that he would be called on for some maintenance jobs. By the time he was 19, he was deployed to <REDACTED> to serve with coalition forces.

It was during the war that his powers became active, these specifics (and his time in the army) will be listed in the “Power Origins” section. Later in his career however, there was considerable tension between Richard and his superiors, and in 2044 he left the army and returned home to Canada.
When Richard returned to Canada, it was just in time to learn that a piece of unfinished business had just been released from a mental institute. His brother’s killer, who had apparently shown “remorse”, “regret”, “considerable progress”, and “real change” was to be released back into the world. Of course, he was expected to “check in” regularly with a parole officer, but he was old, and expected to live out the rest of his days quietly.
Richard had other ideas.

Just one missed parole meeting and a national search began for the “reformed” killer. For months police across Canada, and both Canadian and US border services, worked tirelessly to find this man. To this day not a single glimpse of him has been found. No photos, no eyewitness accounts, no stolen vehicles. The man was never seen again. Alive or dead.

Police investigated some of the families to the killer’s past victims, including Richard. But he was just hard at work working for his grandfather, far away from his brother’s killer. No evidence linked Richard (or anyone else) to the killer’s disappearance. The White Death had meted out violent justice for the first time, and certainly not the last…

Powers:

North Wind -
[Shaker – 6]

Richard can slow down particles and energy in an area around him, resulting in a drop of temperature in that area. When utilized with his other powers (provided there is sufficient moisture around) this can also be used to create a miniature snow storm in the area (more on this later). So far he has demonstrated that he can achieve temperatures as low as -15 to -20 degrees Celsius, but it’s possible he could manage even lower temperatures.

White Out -
[Shaker – 6 / Stranger – 4]

By lowering the temperature in an area sufficiently, and focusing his energy on creating particles of snow, Richard can create a miniature snow storm. When done correctly, this creates a small area of obscured visibility, allowing Richard a brief moment to retreat/escape if it ever becomes necessary.

Ice Creation/Manipulation -
[Shaker – 7/ Blaster – 2 / Striker – 5 / Changer - 7]

As with the rest of his cold generation abilities, by slowing the movement of particles Richard is able to create and manipulate ice in a variety of ways.
1. Ice Projectiles (Blaster): Richard can create ice spikes to be used as projectiles. However, his skills of moving them in this way is quite limited, usually it requires another force to use them as actual projectiles (including the manual use of his body, ie. Throwing them).

2. Ice Armor (Changer): As the ice spikes would indicate, Richard can form ice into designs suitable for melee weapons, and also for temporary armor. As this is only ice, and creating ice also takes time, armor is usually a very temporary measure, and only manages to absorb some damage. Very much an emergency use technique.

3. Ice Weapons (Changer): The ice weapons Richard creates can be a little more durable than the armor (if their shape can be maintained) and can be effectively utilized for a longer time than the armor. Weapons include “ice spikes”, daggers and other blades, and “knuckle dusters”. The ice knuckle dusters are probably the sturdiest, as they can be made more quickly, more durable, and absorb shock quite well. They also pack quite the punch.

4. Freezing (Blaster/Striker): While Richard can’t exactly “project” an attack, he can manipulate particles at some distances, meaning that he is capable of forming ice over something either close to him, or that he is touching. Touching generally works faster, but this can be used to freeze objects, or even people. While it has proven difficult so far, theoretically Richard could even turn the moisture in a human body into ice, causing near-permanent, potentially lethal damage. This usually takes considerable time however, a lot of energy, and mastery. As of now, Richard has not mastered this ability.



Power Origins:

While Richard was in the armed forces, he demonstrated great skill in pretty much everything he was asked to do. He was a decent mechanic, a solid infantryman, and an exceptional sniper. But he had a lot of trouble with authority. Richard was frequently being reprimanded by superiors for not using his scope on sniper operations, and his protests that he was “better without one” did not convince them. They didn’t prevent him from continuing as a sniper on occasion, but he would often sneak the scope off when he thought he could get away with it.

His comrades understandably were confused by his behavior, and they didn’t feel much better when he explained the “competition” he was having with a Finnish sniper from WW2; Simo Häyhä, the “White Death”. Richard didn’t want to be as good as Simo, he wanted to be better than him. Shoot from a further distance, kill more enemies, and miss fewer shots than the now dead veteran had done. Some of the soldiers were bothered by this for a while, not sure he could be trusted with their lives.

It took a few years, but eventually he did gain their trust, and two nicknames. Some of the soldiers would refer to him simply as “The White Death”, hinting that he was continuing on the legacy of Simo. Others would refer to him as “The Great White Death”. Because he was Canadian.

His skills eventually caught the eyes of the Joint Special Task Force (JSTF), Canadian Special Forces. Richard was never fully brought into the JSTF, but he was used as one of their primary snipers on various missions, and as a result also ended up working alongside US troops.

And that’s how everything changed for him. Richard was sent with a special convoy with both Canadian and US troops, they were supposed to be securing a new location deeper into enemy territory. This was going to dislodge the enemy and allow coalition forces to operate in a wider area. But someone had tipped off the enemy. Rockets were fired at the convoy, blowing up several of their vehicles, and killing several dozen soldiers.

Richard’s truck skidded off the road and crashed but avoided being hit by direct rocket fire. He managed to crawl out of the wreck, and was trying to regroup with the rest of the soldiers so they could prepare a counter attack. Another rocket flew by, hitting another vehicle and creating another explosion. This time a piece of shrapnel was propelled right into Richard’s skull. Everything went black in an instant, and his body fell to the ground.

Several days later, Richard awoke in an army medical tent, head splitting with pain, but otherwise alive and in one piece. His bed was also covered in a thin layer of frost, in temperatures above 30 Celsius. Richard doesn’t remember anything of how his powers were first activated, but soldiers who recovered him from the convoy all stated there was a layer of frost across him, and sporadic chunks of ice littering the area around him.

The army worked hard to get Richard back into fighting shape, and to train him to use his powers for more combat-oriented roles. This was something he was heavily resistant too as he preferred relying on his “human skills”, rather than on his “luck of the draw” powers. Regardless, he spent some time learning to hone them, but soon found himself back in standard missions for the military.

A few months after this had all occurred, in 2016, Richard was sent on what would be his last mission. The details are ones Richard doesn’t like to speak about, but whatever did occur led to a series of disputes between himself and his military superiors. In the end, he was permitted a “voluntary release”, though this may not have been given to him very easily.