Diabolique (City of Heroes)

"It is a shame then, that you have come all this way to stand in my realm, just to die. I tried to be gracious... tried to give you a less agonizing death, but you persist. Now, you will suffer a torment unending. I am Death Incarnate! I am the ruler in this realm! And if you will not die for me willingly, then I shall see death forced upon you!"

- Diabolique

Diabolique, once known as Tammy Arcanus, was a character in the MMO, City of Heroes. Though originally appearing as an evil-alternate reality doppelganger of the main-reality's super-heroine, Numina, she was expanded upon in the issue Going Rogue, when players journeyed to her home reality of Praetorian Earth. In Praetoria, Diabolique is revealed to be the bound soul of a deceased mage, in-service to Emperor Cole - lord of Praetoria and himself the extremist version of Primal Earth's main hero, Statesman. Diabolique views her service to Cole as slavery and is fully aware of her actions and capable of voicing her vitriolic opinions at her forced servitude but unable to refuse direct orders, as a result she went searching for any sort of power in her spare time that might free her. She would eventually become a blight on both realities once she finally had achieved freedom.

Dis-Numina
In the main reality of the game or "Primal Earth" as it is called, Tammy Arcanus is a mage with the secretive arcane group called The Midnight Squad A.K.A. Midnighters. The Midnight Club was founded to combat the evil cultists in the Circle of Thorns, but their purpose grew and eventually keeping power magics out of the hands of the Circle meant hoarding it in their secured head-quarters - The Midnight Club. Years spent studying  the various dangerous artifacts the safe-guarded, in combination with the founding member, Dream Doctor, being a powerful wizard meant the Midnighters, themselves became well versed in the concepts of magic. Tammy Arcanus was the daughter of member, Tommy Arcanus - himself part of a long family-line, who made a point to study magic as members of the Midnighter Squad. The Midnigher Squad kept their existence a secret from the general public, so when they mysterious Tommy and Tammy Arcanus showed up to stop a super-villain named Red-Threat, it seemed to the public as if the two had no link further than happening to have magic-powers and bein just two extra meta-humans on the scene to stop the explosive Soviet super-criminal. Red Threat had the power of radiation and was prepared to turn himself into an atomic bomb once it looked like he was looking at either death or a life sentence. Tammy used the only spell she knew that could even remotely stop such destruction and astrally projected herself out of her body and into Red Threat, possessing him to stop the reaction dead in it's tracks. Red-Threat was rendered comatose from the reaction combined with the spell, but as the explosion was set to go off as Tammy was possessing him, it would resume as soon as she left, so keeping the city safe, meant staying in Red-Threat's body, even as it was sent to a secured holding facility. Eventually Red-Threat would die of natural causes and Numina was freed from his body, but by then both her father and her original body had died. Tommy still exists as a haunted skull in the Midnight Club who watches the club as a true ghost, though one with no malice and thus no means of physically manifesting but happy his daughter is safe and free. Numia reunited with Statesman - an ageless demi-god, who could vouch for her and joined him as a pseudo-ghost to help protect the city in her state of semi-undeath.

In the alternate reality of Preatoria things took on a different turn, Tammy was also the last in a long-family-line of Midnighters, but her father was kept so busy with his duties that when her mother died, she raised herself and became obsessed with magic. Tammy took-up necromancy and without a guide her experiments went awry. Tammy projected herself out of her body to become a pseudo-ghost, but she did so so much and purely as means of fun she eventually forgot to return in-time and her mortal body died of starvation/dyhydration. Her father, guilty bound her spirit to himself and tried to bring her back as a ghost. Tammy turned on her father and killed him as act of rebellion then raised his corpse and bound his soul as undead thralls. Tammy caught the attention of Emperor Cole, who used the binding - still in affect even in Tommy Arcanus's dead/undead state make her his guardian ghost. Tommy's charm acts as an anchor, without it Tammy would fade into nothing, so she never destroyed it, but it also means she must serve it's possessor. With Emperor Cole, or Tyrant as his critics call him, in possession of the charm, Tammy is stuck compliant to Praetoria's tyrant.

Tyrant's Minion
Emperor Cole is an Incarnate, a being imbued with a conceptual manifestation of power on a fundamental level. He drunk from an inter-dimensional nexus point called the Well of the Furies, said to be the receptacle for the gods of old, where such powers reside when not employed by a specific god. Because of the Well Tyrant and his Primal Earth equivalent were effectively demi-gods, Statesman refused to become a full god for fear the Well would corrupt his judgment, in Praetoria however, Cole accepted but with that power came an extremism and lust for power. He fought a mad-scientist turned Incarnate named, Hamidon, and embodiment of the planet's wrath, and was showered with praise for saving the world from the ecological monster. Though Cole wishes to rebuild the ravaged world he frequently sacrifices human rights in his pursuits, though he keeps such methods a secret from the general public. For such secret and often dirty work he considers the likes of a ghost servant quite valuable.

Tammy maintains her own will, opinions, and awareness but is simply compelled to obey all direct orders given, even as she resents following them. In an effort not to arose too much suspicion from Tyrant, Tammy does not push the limits of the "direct orders" part of her binding - for fear Tyrant might start giving her more and more specific orders she can not find loop-holes in, or provide her with standing orders that prevent her from acting on her own agency between such orders. Cole is aware of Tammy's discontent, even if not of the limits of her bound loyalty and so nicknamed her "Diabolique" - fancying her a sinister ghost kept under-control only thanks to his just will. In her original appearance before Praetoria was rounded out in Going Rogue, Diabolique was one of the many evil doppelgangers of the game's main heroes/heroine, serving Tyrant. In Going Rogue she remains only a passing mention in the main-part of Praetoria but starts to appear in-the-ectoplasm once the heroes/villains/Praetorians are sent to/return to, Praetoria in it's First Ward region.

First Ward Arc
The First Ward is ground-zero of Hamidon's attack. It is a part of Praetoria Emperor Cole has tried to reclaim but is heavily contested by The Resistance - as well as various other competing parties. The veil between life-and-death, magic and mortal worlds is weak in the First Ward, with ghosts frequently appearing. Additionally Praetor Shalice Tilman, AKA, Mother, AKA Mother Mayhem - as the Restiance call her, has a psychic mental hospital out in the First Ward which, while secure, has attracted all manner of psychic phenomena to the region. Diabolique is kept patrolling the region as Cole's eyes and ears. Officially she is there looking out for Praetoria's interest and there to report and act as a trouble-shooter in the contested paranormal zone; Unofficially she is frantically searching the region for something, anything powerful enough to free her from Cole's service. She will be encountered once the quests in the arc bring the player to the north-eastern region in the grave-yard. Diabolique starts off claiming she represents Cole's greater order, however as the story unfolds it will become clear her primary goal there is the location of magical forces strong enough to free her. But with Cole exposed by then as a true Tyrant, Diabolique is easily able to pass herself off as some-one who is more than happy to help undermine him.