Fei the Pigeon

Fei, also known as Fantasmo, is a seventeen-year old male Mobian pigeon gifted with paralysis inducement. He is an antagonist in Dimitri Chronicles, a series created by Chamesthehero. Introduced in Reign of Darkness, the first installment of the series, he is the supreme leader of Genesis. Like many others, this pigeon is an orphan with a troubled past. Debuting in The Moonlight Pledge, Fei adopts the name of Fantasmo to spread his tyranny across Wingstrong Orphanage. Only those brave of heart and searchers of freedom were able to oppose him in the end.

Fei is a bird whose negative views on the outside world stems from his own harsh experiences. Despite having the intention to protect those under his wing, he finds himself enjoying striking fear in the hearts of people for them to know his inner pain. However, beneath the mask, Fei does want to believe the world is good; he only needed proof.

Character © to Chamesthehero/Lolcraft98/ProLuxray. In order of the usernames on Sonic Fan Character Wiki, deviantART, and Youtube, respectively.

Physical Description
Fei is a yellow-green-colored pigeon with kelly green-colored feathers who boasts an above-average height. Like the other members of his species, he features an orange-colored beak and a regular avian tail. He once had two orange-colored eyes before his right eye was blinded, attaining a hazy white color.

This bird has his hair brushed sideways towards his right. Being the tyrant of his orphanage, he dresses fashionably. He wears a tie-less tuxedo with boots, gloves, and rings on his wrists and shins, and a cape. His most prominent clothing that makes him more mysterious is his white mask that hides half of his face.

In the past, Fei's looks rendered him a proper juvenile modeling career. However, beneath his mask, the right side of his face is terribly cursed with violent, red scars that blinded him. He still boasts a slim figure.

Personality
Fei is a ruthless, calculating individual who tends to contemplate about the true nature of the world. A cynical bird that calls himself a realist, carrying numerous psychological and literal scars, he trashes the idea of a goodhearted world outside the cage he decided to trap his fellow orphans in. Because of both his charismatic and especially intimidating demeanor, people have a hard time ignoring his every command. Needless to say, this bird is also arrogant. His charming looks is one of the things he prides himself in, though beneath the mask, his self-consciousness becomes much easier to understand.

In addition, his tyrannical tendencies lead him to completely disregard the pain of others; he feels like the only one in pain.

Assuming the role of an unforgiving leader, Fei was once a sadist that is fond of making sure his audience knows what exactly happens with those that oppose him. Another possible explanation would be that he wants others to feel his pain and displace his anger at the world on them, though he would never admit having such childish motive.

Despite radiating a strong cynicism, deep down, Fei wants to be proven wrong. He is prone of asking figurative and philosophical questions to others about good and evil, light and darkness. In a sense, his heart is fragile; perhaps he himself turning good is the proof he needs to believe in people once more.

Background
Fei was born into a poor family of six pigeons in the streets of Central City, the capital of the United Federation in the northeastern continent of Eurish. Having alcoholic, unemployed parents, his four older brothers and him had to appeal to petty thievery in order to pay for their small rented house. By then, the young pigeon was not aware of what he was doing, but obeyed his mature older brothers anyway.

Thing was, surprisingly, Fei was the prettiest member of his family. His cute, innocent appearance predicted a very handsome bird in the future. He was so pretty, in fact, that when he was asking for money in the streets, in one particular evening, he was offered the opportunity to become a juvenile model.

This idea was phenomenal for someone like him. With his paycheck, young Fei would earn a considerable amount of money and provide for his family. The optimistic fellow believed they could even become rich and live a more comfortable life than what they had. The pigeon took the job and happily started working.

His brothers became increasingly envious of their sibling. His job made the "earnest" risking of their lives completely obsolete and that was little of the pride they had left. As a consequence, they came up with a plan of their own. They started to secretly hold off the money Fei got from their parents.

In one fateful evening, after returning home from a photo-shooting, he noticed that his brothers were not home as usual, and instead left a note mentioning how they stole his money and ran away from home. While an optimistic Fei was not so shaken by it since he could earn all his earnest money again, his alcoholic parents displaced their frustration on their own remaining child, severely injuring his face.

His shrieks were more than enough to alarm the neighborhood and the local police department to eventually arrest both parents. Losing their custody of their child, the news about the juvenile model made it to the headlines and revealed his wounded face. With such hideous scars, his career was finished for good.

Traumatized and psychologically withdrawn, little Fei was sent to the local orphanage in the city. No one ever wanted to adopt an intimidating-looking child like him no matter how mellow he was. Fei was excluded from everyone else. People were not interested in him, and that warped Fei's view on the world. Since he had no one choice, he sought power to oppress; power to make others feel his pain.

In one particular night, a large thunderstorm that covered the skies of the entire world occurred, seemingly originating from the lower parts of the continent. Although Fei was sleeping when it happened, when he woke up the next day, the pigeon's ambition became true as he gained a supernatural power himself.

Since then, much about Fei became unknown. Under a new name and new-found power, he quickly rose to power as no one dared to oppose him. His speeches about protecting those in orphanage from the harsh reality that resided outside garnered him many followers, which would later become the Genesis faction.

Those that did not side with him became the Saturnites. The latter faction later crumbled under the ability that rendered the Saturnites' leader's powers useless, and joined them. Fei also set up the Vogel Ceremonies, weekly public aggression towards the indifferent to make a point about not having opposition.

After some time of stability in his tyranny, a new faction arose to oppose the Genesis. Their name was the Dreamcasters. The Dreamcasters were mysterious and audacious, openly challenging his rule but never revealing their identities. Since then, Fei tried to eliminate this threat before they caused revolution...

Strengths and Powers
Being the leader of the orphanage's biggest faction, Fei possesses fine leadership skills that, combined with his enigmatic demeanor and classy looks, grants him a strange alluring charisma. Perhaps the occasional public beat-downs to those that oppose him makes everyone all the more obedient out of fear.

The public speeches Fei delivers can be convincing to those weak of heart; they prey the most on those that are desperate for protection and sad orphans that have no concrete plans for the future. He is a natural chess-master, waiting for the opportunities to cowardly strike opposition when they are more vulnerable. His sadistic tendencies show no discrimination towards people from any age group at all.

Although a menacing tyrant, Fei is not so special when it comes to physical ability. This pigeon has the standard strength and speed of a teenager of his slim stature that performs minimal exercise. Because of this, many people might underestimate him at first glance and wonder how come he is in power; they are most definitely unaware of his true power that allows him to enslave even those stronger than him.

Paralysis Inducement
Fei has the supernatural ability to generate red sparks from his hands. Once caught by such power, this red electricity renders organic organisms stripped from completely of their movements temporarily. Even the fastest of people become immobile, granting him an advantage over more speedy foes.

Whenever using this power, this bird's eyes become red like the electricity from his hands. In addition to sending small, but effective shocks from his fingers, once charged for enough time, Fei can also release a shock-wave around him so intense the paralysis could affect one's heart and be fatal.

Fei regularly uses his powers as a form of intimidation and trapping his foes. With his opponents vulnerable, this bird can either ask his larger grunts to deliver brutal punishment or mercilessly beat them down himself. Needless to say, most foes have difficulties remaining conscious even when their paralysis is gone.

Ultimately, his supernatural power does have its shortcomings. Fei must be minimally concentrated in order to generate his sparks, and overusing it causes in its failure. His powers do not work on cybernetics or machines, and some people with very incredible sheer strength can break through his sparks.

Creation and Development
The creation for this character came about during my community-service hours in a Halloween festival. While glancing at the spooky decorations all-around, many concepts for fan-characters were generated. Vampires, werewolves, ghosts... one of them had to take part in my main series as an antagonist.

Initially, Fei's persona, Fantasmo, was called Jack-o-Birdie. The villain would be impatient and self-conscious about his short size. His original design, based on a witch, featured him wearing an over-sized wizarding hat akin to the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter. He would have magical powers and everything.

However, in comparison to the other villains in the installment, Fei seemed flat. And so, his character was revamped into something that highly resembles the titular figure from The Phantom Of The Opera. Like the other villains, his attitude is meant to be a contrast to his main enemy's optimistic demeanor.

Overall, Fei is a nice character. He contributes to possibly one the biggest on-going themes in Reign of Darkness: the battle of idealism versus cynicism. Should people believe in and fight for a better tomorrow, or have no faith in the world and enslave everyone using the little power they have over everyone else?

Friends and Allies

 * The Genesis
 * Wingstrong Orphanage's staff

Neutral

 * The Saturnites (has their cooperation, but not entire loyalty)
 * Scalar the Cheetah
 * The factionless in the orphanage

Enemies

 * The Dreamcasters
 * Maxwell the Fox - his moral counterpart (formerly)
 * Lazuli the Fox - his arch-nemesis (formerly)

Fun Facts

 * His attire is inspired by the main character of The Phantom of the Opera.


 * Fei's powers are meant to spark a contrast with Maxwell.
 * While the latter's powers make him go fast, the former's power deprives them of their speed.
 * Fantasmo stems from the Portuguese word for ghost, fantasma.
 * The character's first name, Fei, stems from the Portuguese word for ugly, feio.
 * This was meant to allude to his ruined facial appearance and sinister heart.
 * Otherwise, Fei is the Chinese surname meaning "winged", alluding to his species.