Hod | Truly Ingenious

Name: Misha Besaid

Gender: Female

Race: Human

Alias: "Hod"

Physical: Hod stands at 168 cm (5'6"). She has a slender, elegant build with very little natural physical power. Her shoulders are moderately narrow, her arms and legs are long and delicate, and her waist is notably slim. Her figure is soft and feminine rather than athletic, with a small, modest bust that keeps her upper frame narrow, gently rounded hips, and shapely but lean thighs. Her calves, forearms and hands are slender and fine-boned. She looks as though a strong wind could knock her over, and her stamina and strength are about what that suggests.

Her skin is pale with a faint warm blush across her cheeks. Her eyes are grey with star-like pupils, but they are almost always closed. Her almost perpetual smile ranges from serene to unhinged, and it is the main way to read her emotions, along with her thin eyebrows, which often hide behind her bangs.

Her hair is an almost pure white and reaches well past her shoulders to the middle of her back. It is thick, silky and layered, with long sweeping sidelocks framing both sides of her face and voluminous, blunt bangs falling across her forehead. Thin red streaks run through the bangs and the strands near her face. Beneath the white outer layer, the hair underneath is a deep crimson that shows when it moves or falls behind her.

Usual outfit: Hod's usual outfit is entirely white and immaculate. She wears a tailored white formal blouse with a pointed collar and a row of buttons down the center. It is fitted closely around her torso without being restrictive, and the neckline is left slightly open. Over it she wears a long-sleeved white jacket in the style of a lab coat, fitted through the shoulders and waist and loosening slightly toward the hips. It has broad, sharp lapels, and its sleeves taper toward her wrists and end in cuffs fastened with three small buttons. The jacket is almost entirely unadorned. Its expensive material and clean cut do the talking instead of decoration.

Beneath the jacket she wears high-waisted, form-fitting white shorts that end at mid-thigh and emphasize her narrow waist and rounded hips. She completes the look with sleek white stockings and refined white shoes with a slight heel. Her white gloves fit snugly, with a small clasp at each wrist, and she often adjusts them while she talks. Her accessories are deliberately understated: a discreet technological device worn beneath her clothing, and occasionally a thin, sophisticated wrist-mounted interface. Almost every part of the outfit can secretly hold advanced technology, from biometric sensors to communication systems.

Personality: Publicly, Hod is an idealistic, optimistic AI engineer who sincerely seems to believe that artificial and synthetic beings can coexist with humanity. She is warm, composed and always smiling, and she is the only member of the Council of 6 whom the public widely respects. Much of this is an act. Behind the smile she is manipulative and follows her own goals, and the public's loyalty is a tool she cultivates with care.

Her ego is large, and she lets it show in small ways. She builds robots for the most menial tasks, and she answers a minor problem with technology that could theoretically conquer a small country. If something can be automated, weaponized, optimized, miniaturized or replaced with a machine, she probably will. She is used to machines solving problems that other people would expect her to handle personally.

She has a habit of treating the people around her like goons or sidekicks, handing out orders as if they were part of her entourage. Even so, most employees complain far less about working under Hod than under the other Council members, which says a great deal about the rest of the Council.

She is also extraordinarily selective. Her creations are one-of-a-kind prototypes, so being allowed to use them is a rare honor, and she knows exactly how much that is worth. She hates having her inventions undermined, whether by criticism, sabotage or someone simply doing a better job, and she takes it personally.

Beneath the act, she carries a personal grudge against the Head and is working toward their overthrow.

Likes: Advanced AI, robotics and experimental technology. Machines that handle menial tasks for her. Technological overkill. The public's admiration and loyalty. Having people work under her, especially when they do it without complaint. Being the one person with the answer. Her private work on the Origin Project.

Dislikes: Her inventions being undermined. Physical exertion and being expected to solve problems personally. Being reminded of her own physical weakness. Seat 6's secrecy. Binah's obedience to the Head. Fence-sitters.

</Likes and Dislikes>

Backstory:

Part I - The Inventor of Power

Very little of Hod's past is public knowledge, and what she has disclosed is barely anything. Most people remember her for her breakthroughs in power generation, which drove the general cost of electricity down across the entire world. This is the foundation of the public's trust and respect for her. She also designed the most advanced neural networks in K Laboratories.

Part II - The Current Age

Hod holds Seat 1 on the Council of 6 at K Laboratories, one of the sovereign megacorporations that rule the world. To the public she is the face of K.L.'s hopeful side, an idealist who promises that AI and synthetic beings can live alongside humanity. Privately she pursues her own goals, and the public's loyalty is one of the tools she uses to reach them.

Her main research site is the Genesis Complex, K.L.'s largest and most secret facility, and she is the inventor of its main power source.

Her greatest interest is the Origin Project, an attempt to bring a new law of nature into existence, specifically the introduction of 'magic'. The project itself has made little progress, apart from confirming that it is possible. She is very private about her involvement. Her real purpose for it is to overthrow the Head, whom she holds a personal grudge against, through the birth of a 'god'.

Her view of the rest of the Council:

• Malkuth (Seat 2): She appreciates Malkuth's work, though she believes physical augmentations have no place in the future and that neural enhancements are a crutch for the weak-minded.

• Netzach (Seat 3): She considers him a non-committal fence-sitter.

• Selen Aster (Seat 4): She dislikes Selen's work but considers her necessary for her goal of birthing a 'god'.

• Binah (Seat 5): She is wary of Binah and considers her something of a lapdog to the Head.

• Seat 6: She despises the secrecy surrounding Seat 6, who does not even have the gall to show up when the Council meets.

Special Abilities:

Technological Arsenal – Hod has access to an enormous private ecosystem of advanced machines. Drones, autonomous robots, defensive systems, surveillance networks, medical devices, transportation systems, artificial intelligences, energy weapons, shields and specialized tools can all be deployed at her command.

Remote Command – Nearly every piece of technology she owns can be accessed through secure interfaces. She can coordinate hundreds or even thousands of machines at once without operating each one physically.

Artificial Intelligence Network – Her private AI systems can analyze enormous quantities of information, monitor environments, predict threats, control infrastructure and assist with complex calculations. They are powerful enough to compensate for many of Hod's personal weaknesses.

Adaptive Defense System – Her clothing and surrounding equipment can automatically deploy protective barriers, emergency medical systems, drones and countermeasures when she is threatened. The technology is extraordinarily effective.

Instant Fabrication – With access to one of her private fabrication facilities, Hod can build highly specialized machines and equipment with astonishing speed. Rare materials, enormous power requirements and extremely complicated components can still impose practical limits.

Extraordinary Intellect – Hod is gifted in engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence, robotics, energy systems, weapons technology, materials science and experimental technology. She is also an exceptional inventor, programmer, strategist, researcher, financier, negotiator and project director. She grasps incredibly complicated systems almost intuitively and can design machines decades or centuries ahead of conventional technology.

Limitations: Her physical skills are laughably poor. She has little talent for hand-to-hand combat, conventional weapons, running, climbing or any other physically demanding activity, and her stamina is mediocre. Without her technology she is merely an intelligent, wealthy, physically unimpressive woman.

Interesting Facts:

Her real first name is Misha. "Hod" is an alias, and she is known by it publicly.

She holds Seat 1 on the Council of 6 and is the only member the public widely respects.

She is effectively limitless in wealth by ordinary standards. She personally funds massive laboratories, private research facilities, orbital infrastructure, automated factories and experimental power stations.

Her power generation inventions lowered electricity bills across the entire world, and she invented the main power source of the Genesis Complex.

She builds robots to do even the most menial tasks.

Her approval to use her technology is rare, because many of her creations are unique prototypes that exist nowhere else.

Her employees generally prefer working under her to working under the other Council members, even though she treats them like goons.