Pax Artificium - Cid Arthur

Dr. Cid Arthur was the CEO of Magitech Corporation, and indeed the general populace still believes him to be. In actuality, he has been succeeded by his assistant William Moss after his untimely death at the hands of the Great Healer.

Cid was the driving force behind the conception and construction of Pax Artificium. Unbeknownst to ordinary people, much of the city's technology has been augmented by magic. As one of the most powerful mystics on the planet, Cid used his abilities to construct a city that symbolizes peace forged through technology.

When Cid was thirteen years old, his parents had just formed Magitech [GM's note: for historical purposes, I refer to this period in Magitech's life as the "proto-Magitech" era]. They performed many experiments, attempting to immortalize human existence by fusing it with a machine. Their first twelve test subjects are better known as the Zodiac computers. Although these tests were mostly successful, it was discovered that although their personalities had been largely retained, most of the subjects' memories had been lost in the transfers, a side effect deemed unacceptable.

Cid was lucky number thirteen, and his case was a bit more ambitious. The structure within which they housed his soul—a sphere which would later become the Pax Artificium computer core—was somewhat larger than the Zodiacs. The process involved the scientific research of Cid's mother Dana, coupled with the magical abilities of Cid's father Fox.

Unfortunately, magic always has its price. The procedure was successful, but the mystical backlash caused Dana to disappear in the process. Crushed from the loss of his wife, Fox left proto-Magitech and disappeared.

Cid found that he could project an image of himself within the laboratory where the procedure was performed, since his parents had had special technology put in place there. As Cid grew older, he began his own research.

Years passed. Ultimately, Cid arranged for the construction of Pax Artificium, designing it so that he would have free reign throughout the city. To make public appearances elsewhere, his trusted assistant William Moss, being a doppleganger, would take his form and represent Magitech's interests as needed.

Cid believed his mother to be dead for many years, but recently learned that rather than being destroyed in the ritual that created him, she was shunted into the cyber world as well, living for many years as a "ghost in the machine." Instinctually, she finally found somewhere to settle when she discovered a teenage boy named Sam Smitts, who had recently had a neural network installed in his head to augment his brain functions (to prevent degeneration due to a disease similar to early onset Alzheimers). Consequently, her consciousness superceded the boy's own, and a new personage was born. Though she at first had no memory of her former life, an encounter with her former husband brought much of it back.

Sadly, Cid's father recently returned as the Great Healer, driven to destroy his only son. He succeeded in this endeavor, stabbing Cid with a knife that somehow caused Cid's life essence to drain away. Although the Saturday group subsequently destroyed the Great Healer using an antigen synthesized by James Rex, they were too late to save Cid's life.