Roster
Minions
The full list of Soul Scavengers minions has not been disclosed, but it is
believed that all members of this cult are female.
Current HQ: Unknown
Turf: Unknown
Levels: Unknown
Villain Finder
·It is unknown how heroes will encounter the Soul Scavengers, but given
the group’s seemingly magical nature, it’s likely that the Dream Doctor and the Midnight Squad will have missions
leading to the cult.
Tactics
·Unknown
Combat Recommendations
·None at this time
Rewards
·Presumably Magic-based Inspirations and Enhancements, including Relic,
Focusing Device, and Otherworldly Entity.
History
Although a fairly recent addition to Paragon City’s rogues’
gallery, the history of the Soul Scavengers actually begins in the 17th century with the bizarre life of Giovanna
Scaldi. Little is known about Scaldi save that she was a Venetian sorceress who founded a female cult that “transcended
social and economic boundaries and centered on a heretical concept of cleansing one’s soul of all sin by actually committing
and then ritually rejecting the sins themselves.” The cult commanded a large following, but Scaldi’s radical beliefs
did not sit well with the leaders of the Inquisition. Scaldi was eventually charged with “perverting Venice’s
youth,” hunted down, and executed. Many of her followers were accused of heresy and killed as well, seemingly putting
an end to Scaldi’s beliefs. By the end of the 17th Century, all that remained of Scaldi’s cult was
an ornate Carnivale mask belonging to the sorceress.
Scaldi vanished into history, becoming nothing more than a footnote amid the
many horrors of the Inquisition. Her mask, meanwhile, traded hands many times until it found its way to Vanessa De Vore centuries
after Scaldi’s death. A Paragon City
resident and student of American Art History, De Vore discovered the mask while visiting Venice.
At the time, she had no idea that the antique she purchased from some remote shop was actually a powerful magical artifact.
However, when De Vore returned to Paragon City
and donned the mask, the artifact “forever adhered to her face.”
Under the influence of the mask, De Vore “set about recruiting followers
in much the same way Giovanna Scaldi had centuries before. For the first few years Vanessa managed to quell the more destructive
impulses that the Mask was sending her brain, but after the Rikti invasion (which Vanessa’s multiple personality-stricken
brain decided was actually an attempt by Hell to take over the Earth), she and her followers decided that the Rikti had polluted
the entire citizenry with their hell-borne sin. Here the Giovanna Scaldi part of her psyche reared its head and the next step
was obvious: forceful scavenging of souls from each and every living being.”
Under the leadership of the possessed De Vore, “the Soul Scavengers prowl
the city looking for particularly egregious sinners and proceed to magically and physically rip their souls from them. Whatever
it is they take, it still leaves the victims dead or brain dead, and Vanessa and her followers seem capable of using these
scavenged souls for their own magical rituals. The now deadly cult has become a real danger and the Midnight Squad has taken
a close interest in their activities. But with so many other threats besieging the city, the Soul Scavengers are able to keep
their bases of operation hidden and continue to wreak havoc in the city’s streets.”
