Ivory is a member of KODIAK, the Vozrozhdeniye-developed science guardian team to gain international prominence after the coup. Her bleached skin and inky black hair have become a fashion statement emulated by women throughout Western and Eastern Europe, who have no awareness of Ivory’s dark past.

Concept and Art: Joao Marques
Abilities and Origin: Thom Chiaramonte and Joao Marques

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IVORY

Name: Alena Gordeyeva
Affiliation: KODIAK

Attributes:

Melee: 40
Reflex: 30
Muscle: 20
Vigor: 30
Acumen: 35
Observation: 25
Will: 15

Life: 120
Influence: 75

Abilities:

Physiological Enhancement: Along with the Attributes above, the posthuman process has granted Ivory resistance to physical damage [30 AP] and energy damage [10 AP], and her Life regenerates at an equivalent rate (Life lost to physical attacks is regenerated at a rate of 30 points per round, energy attacks 20 points).

Edged Weapon Attack: Claws: Ivory’s claws are non-retractable, and cause Edged weapon damage [30 AP], halving the effects of physical Body Armor.

Origin:

Alena Gordeyeva was a moderately successful lingerie model in Russia, whose career was on the rise, having been asked to model for a European runway show by a high-profile French designer. Unfortunately, she had also become of interest to Anoly Lemenov, an influential don in the Russian mafia who controlled the territory surrounding and including Kiev. Lemenov used connections within Moscow to prevent Gordeyeva from acquiring a travel certificate, and made certain the authorities in France were made aware of a low-level criminal fugitive attempting to escape the local authorities by trying to travel to Europe under the guise of professional modeling activity. Her reputation and travel status unfairly compromised, and her modeling contract within Russia suddenly terminated over the conspiracy of her supposed rampant drug use and fugitive status with the local authorities in Moscow, Gordeyeva was despondent and bewildered by her nearly overnight change of fortune, when she received a visit from Lemenov’s agents.

Realizing with clarity the futility of resisting the wishes of boss Lemenov, Gordeyeva agreed to return with the agents to Kiev, and become a guest of Lemenov at his palatial estate. Guest status, of course, included what amounted to prostitution, as she was provided fabulous clothes, jewelry and a massive suite in the mansion, but was expected to be on call to be Lemenov’s companion, along with the dozen or so other woman on the grounds. Convinced of her lack of options, and desiring some of the finer things to which she had just started becoming accustomed before her career’s collapse, Gordeyeva took to the task of pleasing Lemenov. Like all things she committed to do, she would only settle for being the best at it, and soon became Lemenov’s favorite companion, and enjoyed the greatest influence among the household, despite her youth. Within three months, she had survived two assassination attempts, presumed to have been orchestrated by other companions at the palace but designed to appear as accidents, and her resilience became even more threatening. Lemenov was merely amused, though he took note of Gordeyeva’s resourcefulness. Indeed, when her chief rival, Tania Vilidovich, was found drowned and stuffed into the palatial infinity pool’s filter compartment, Gordeyeva was granted a Maserati, as a sign of lemenov’s pride in her. Of course, she wasn’t allowed to leave the property in it.

In the months preceding the Vozrozhdeniye Coup, the Russian mob became aware of the impending change to their political reality, and while the majority of the loosely-interconnected mafiyas dug in and attempted to secure their fortunes and influence with the soon-to-be overthrown Gritsai administration, certain dons, Lemenov among them, saw the inevitability of their changing fortune, and chose not to resist it. Realizing that the ideological construct of the Vozrozhdeniye movement was incompatible with the style of corruption under which the mob thrived in modern Russia, they soon realized that the way to secure power in the changeover would have to be to gain bargaining chips in secret, to undermine aspects of the coup that would be able to potentially weaken the new government if the dons who took this route were threatened under the new regime. As agents for the Vozrozhdeniye movement began scouting for potential recruits for the soon-to-be KODIAK program, Lemenov saw a perfect opportunity to gain a very powerful leverage point: his own posthuman insider.

Utilizing all of his lower-echelon connections, he arranged for Gordeyeva to be planted in Moscow with a false employment cover, as a bodyguard for the jewelry trade. Her connection to Lemenov was masked, her brilliant blonde hair shortened and dyed an inky black, and after some training by Lemenov’s own security detail, Gordeyeva was placed in a Moscow-based jewelry house as a the bodyguard of a local diamond entrepreneur, who unfortunately owed Lemenov a hefty sum. Steering the Vozrozhdeniye scouts in her direction, Lemenov’s plan worked perfectly, and she was invited to participate in the still-secret posthuman development program the new regime-to-be had been clandestinely preparing.

For her part, Gordeyeva wasn’t stupid. She saw an angle to gain independence from Lemenov’s influence, through close ties with her new hosts, the potential for personal power that would render her less beholden to Lemenov and his subtext of the threat of violence towards any companion that dared deny him, and frankly, an opportunity to be a part of something unique and exciting, as her modeling career had once been. She became one of the earliest graduates of the KODIAK program after the fall of the Gritsai administration, and was installed as the science guardian Ivory.

Within weeks of KODIAK’s highly publicized debut, two incidents occurred that would change her relationship with Lemenov forever. First, a small-time journalist, under surveillance for sedition by the new government, was recorded preparing to publish an article claiming to expose Ivory as a former model and mafia whore. Second, Lemenov summoned Gordeyeva to his estate as an early test of her obedience, using well-masked intermediaries to deliver the message so as not to alert the Vozrozhdeniye intelligence operations at the capital. Gordeyeva saw this as an opportunity to address both the questions about her past, and the tenuous connection to Lemenov. Traveling covertly, Gordeyeva kidnapped the elderly journalist, delivered him to Lemenov’s estate, and then decimated Lemenov’s security detail through silenced weaponsfire. She then forced the weapon into the journalist’s terrified hands, and sent him hurtling into Lemenov’s bedchamber, where the don, and a host of his companions, were sleeping off a weekend bender. The ensuing panic saw many of the women injured, and Lemenov critically wounded by the journalist’s desperate defensive attack, before he was strangled by lemenov himself. In the aftermath, Ivory entered the room, and seeing Lemenov still struggling to breathe from his chest and neck wounds, carefully, softly nicked the obese man’s jugular in order to cause him to bleed out more rapidly. Police were summoned, and found the crime scene to be the fatal shootout between an unstable, delusional former journalist and a loathsome criminal. Ivory returned to Moscow and continued in her role as a member of KODIAK, relieved to have freed herself of the past once and for all.

What she did not know, however, was that Lemenov survived the assassination attempt, and was in intensive care, in hiding tended to by one of her former companion rivals who had also survived the attack, but did not know of Ivory’s involvement. Lemenov suffered brain damage, unable to communicate, but events would be set in motion to threaten to reveal Ivory’s secret in the future.

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You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Universe Gallery.

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