River Crosser - The Chosen One - The Mutant Messiah - Leader of the Super-Mutant Nine

darth_paul on July 3, 2010

The first of a series of character profiles that I will be adding periodically, River Crosser is the leader of my main characters, The Super-Mutant Nine; he is a mutant basilisk lizard, a species that is also known as the “Jesus Christ Lizard” for their ability to run on water. Because of that, I've very much made it a part of his character as the archetype of the “Christ-like figure.” He is the “chosen one” and the rest of the Nine are the “Apostles” who follow him and together they will change the world for the better. As for his design and character development, He actually was the first one that I created for the team, but I can't remember whether or not putting him in command of a team was the original intention for him or not. I just know that when I had first started creating my own original characters, that he was one of the first that I ever created, and that I just always wanted to make a basilisk lizard character since they are my favorite animals. So, anyway, he eventually became the leader of this team of elementally powered mutant super-heroes that I had created, and really he's one of the few whose design really hasn't changed that much over the years. Originally I think that his “skirt” - that is the lower part of his robe/tunic under his belt was longer, but then I realized that since he's a runner, he really can't have a long robe, so I modified it somewhat to be more like something that ancient Greeks or Romans would wear, a sort of Marc Anthony or Julius Caesar type garb since he eventually became a prince of a tribe and the leader of the SM9, and the more form-fitting shortened design solves the problem mentioned above of allowing him to use his speed powers and also allows me to utilize him as more of a fighter now, when before I was pretty much using him as kind of the stand back, doesn't get to much involved type of leader like Prof. X when I really want him to be more active in leading the team and actually doing some fighting with the rest of them. ;-)