Ghost Widow



"I have not forgotten your recent betrayals. Nor shall I ever forget. But I am bound to Arachnos, and thus to my Lord Recluse."

- Ghost Widow; City of Villains

Ghost Widow is a character in the online video-game City of Heroes, and was added along with the rest of the super-villain organization, Arachnos, in the expansion of City of Villains that allowed for players to play as super-villains as well as super heroes. Ghost Widow is one of four patrons to the leader of Arachnos, Lord Recluse. As a patron of Archnos she is one of Lord Recluse's four right-hand super villains and among the most infamous villains in the game.

Background
Ghost Widow is the head of Arachnos's psychic assassins and spies, the Night Widows. She is distinguishably not a meta-human with ghost like abilities but is an actual ghost. In 1989 Belladonna Vetrano was killed during a mission for Arachnos. The details of the mission are unclear except that she and her team were authorized and prepared to use lethal force. The mission however was a failure and an explosion claimed most of the team except for a solider named Paolo Marino, Ghost Widow's love interest and leader of the team's tactical support. After the explosion Arachnos deployed a follow-up team lead by a mystic called Mu'Rakir who reported seeing Belladonna's angry ghost slaughter the rest his team. Lord Recluse sent his Mu mystics back to the site to free her from being bound by vengeance and bonded her instead to Arachnos. As a result Ghost Widow can freely move beyond the place of her death now but the very thing that anchors her to the world of the living also binds her to Lord Recluse's service. Ghost Widow retains her free-will more or less but is compelled to obey Lord Recluse's direct commands. Over the years Ghost Widow has grown tired of her unconditional servitude but can not leave Lord Recluse service. Because her service to Arachnos now IS her unfinished business Ghost Widow can no more stop serving them than she could will herself out of existence and her waning personal loyalty to Arachnos or desire to retire are non-factors and she is simply instinctively compelled to obey Lord Recluse.

A good example of Ghost Widow's fealty in-spite of her personal feelings is the Strike-Force against Reichsman. Once the player villains of the Strike-Force find that Reichman's had a device that protected him unless fed other overriding superpowers they sought the help of Lord Recluse to trigger the machine to fight Reichsman. Lord Recluse was willing to have his Patrons walk into a power sapping trap to stop the villain Reichsman, he ordered them to do this to help the player villains who were leading the charge. Ghost Widow was the only Patron who realized before-hand she would be sacrificed and went along anyway simply because she was commanded to, however she was not commanded to cooperate and so once she was in front of the power-sapping trap she turned on the player characters, saying she would aid Arachnos because she had to but that she refused to go without a fight. Lord Recluse made her the head of the Night Widow division of Arachnos and she serves in establishing training methods for the Night Widows and Fortunatas both in talent and loyalty. Ghost Widow has a superiority complex as well as noticeable paranoia. She considers herself more talented than the rest of Lord Recluse's inner circle and is always suspicious that they may try to strike at her in their envy of her talents. She considers, Captain Mako and Black Scorpion to be barbaric and petty and thinks Scirocco's kind demeanor is some sort of smokescreen, all of which has lead to her combination of paranoia and egotism among her fellow patrons.

Powers and Abilities Ghost Widow has the standard ghostly ability to phase-shift through objects, become partially or completely invisible and has the power to fly. She also has the power to siphon the life-force right out a person's body and a few random members of Arachnos have witnessed her reaching into people's chests and ripping out their souls resulting in instant death. Ghost Widow has the power to draw negative energy from the after-life which she can project or radiate as dark blasts. Presumably she still has physical training as a Night Widow but it is rarely seen employed since she has ghostly powers now. Ghost Widow has displayed extra-sensory perception which allows her to sense other ghosts and has a telepathic link to members of the Night Widows and Fortunatas. Ghost Widow's favorite move is called Soul Storm, a hold move which affects all levels regardless of resistances or rank, the move summons the souls of those Ghost Widow has slain to bind and levitate her foe in the air as their life force wastes away.

Night Widows Night Widows are actually composed of two sets. The first group are the Night-Widows that have training in martial combat especially agility, weapon finesse and have expert experience remaining unseen. The Second Group are called the Fortunatas or simple “Seers”. Fortunatas are put through extensive training regiments designed to draw out and enhance psychic powers. Fortunatas are capable of using telekinesis, mental suggestion, mental domination, clairvoyance and projecting psionic blasts. Night Widows used to be all female but in recent years the Widow training has expanded to men as well. Ghost Widow tends to send Night Widows into assassination missions and Fortunatas on spy missions.