Wheeling Jesuit University/People/Father Rom
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Born in July of 1870, Father Rom, or His Serene Highness Frederick Schönhausen von Lauenburg "Du Werdest Eine Krankenschwester Brauchen" Moltke, was to become one of the shortest lived Immortals in Jesuit history. Filled with grandiose plans for the development of a utopian society under his leadership, Father Rom’s rise and fall is to this day a major case study in what happens when you let the Germans run anything…even a little school in West Virginia.
Triumph of the Will[edit | edit source]
In the great German tradition of stubbornness in the face of tremendous odds, Father Rom willed himself into being in 1870 following the start of the Franco-Prussian War. With the tides of historical forces at an all time high in the region, Father Rom began his life in the charged political atmosphere of late 19th century Germany; a world of Bismarck, war and a whole lot of whoop ass. Having emerged from the ether during this period gave the young Rom many ideas about how the perfect state should emerge.
His early childhood was marked by war and social upheaval which taught the young Rom to despise free thought. This hatred was suppressed until a group exercise in school gave Rom the chance to lead a group in a simple exercise to see who could make the most money by adding up different sequences of tasks to get the most money. Rom decided that this was wasteful and that the class could be more efficient if the teacher just told the students the answer and then would order them to march around the room. After sitting through two of the groups results Rom became enraged and soon after people in the room began to act just as he wanted them too. He quickly realized he was projecting his will upon the others and began to take advantage of this.
This was just the beginning for little Rom as he found a mentor in Father Haig, a Jesuit priest then traveling through Europe documenting the latest in scientific research. Haig was an organizational genius and saw in Rom the potential to become a very powerful and wise Jesuit. Haig took Rom under his wing, against the wishes of many other Jesuits, and began to teach him how to focus his powers. Rom was a quick study and was soon helping Haig convince many scientific institutions to back his research.
Fall From Grace[edit | edit source]
In 1890 Haig and Rom traveled to the United States where they hoped to convince Nikola Tesla to help them perfect their interdimensional portal(a variant on Fed Acker Huang's portal on the front of Campion/McHugh). However, Rom was beginning to grow tired of this work, feeling his power was being wasted and as such petitioned Immortal Jesuit Emperor Fed Acker Huang for membership. Despite being banished to another dimension, Huang managed to get his nomination approved and on January 1, 1898 Rom became a Jesuit. Shortly thereafter he broke ties with Haig, who had become suspicious of his young apprentice.
Upon becoming a Jesuit Rom was leveled up and was eager to test his new powers. At the suggestion of a bored and slightly bitchy Lundius Superbus, Rom started the Spanish-American War. By using his awesome powers of suggestion and mind control, Rom was able to convince the vast majority of Americans and even a few Spaniards that the war was justified. Having succeeded in his test, Rom went back to Germany where he could feel historical forces gathering.
WWI[edit | edit source]
Having succeeded in pulling the United States and Spain into a war Rom was interested in trying it on a larger scale, perhaps this time with more tangible results for himself. Convincing the young Serbian national, Gavrilo Princip that killing the Archduke would be a good thing, Rom watched a Europe plunged into war. However, Rom was ill-prepared for a war on a continental scale and it proved too much for him. Being unable to convince both the Germans they were going to win and the British, French, Russians and Americans they were going to lose, Rom was forced to break off his projections and the German high command realized they didn’t want to fight this war and called it off. They invited everyone over to tea and then gave away part of their county to make up for things. They even offered to pay for the cab ride home, not realizing that 5 million cab fares would be pretty expensive. Bogged down by debt and the loss of the war they couldn’t remember starting, Germany fell into ruin.
This hurt Rom greatly as he had intended to build his world wide empire from Germany and now found the country to be entirely unsatisfactory for that purpose. The realization that he had started far too big too fast led him to join a small fledgling group in the hopes that if he started small he could build it into something far more powerful than ever before. It was around this time Rom came across National Bocialism – not to be confused with National Socialism, which is icky and no fun. Finding the ideas well suited to his goals as well as finding the uniform rather snazzy, Rom set out for America once more where he hoped he could find an organization that could provide the frame work for his new super race.
WJU - Electric Boogaloo[edit | edit source]
Having heard that his former mentor had sought out a small college in Byrdopolis, Rom decided to start there. He learned that Father Haig had since long departed and that his successor, Father Donahue, was on the way out. Rom sought to expedite the process by convincing the Board of Directors that Donahue was planning on using his time travel powers to go back and destroy Fed Acker Huang, the board dispatched Father Donahue. Rom then nominated himself as the heir to the throne and was appointed September 1, 1939.
Donahue had left WJU in a perfect position for Father Rom to initiate his plan. Following the failure of the Jesuit Rebellion of 1933: The People, Peasants, Soldiers, and Seamen Have Goddamn Rocket Launchers, Father Donahue had been forced to strengthen campus insecurity as well as make certain provisions for the office of the president in time of crisis. By feigning an attack over the schools boards by the "insidious savages led by DeChanta-Kahn", Rom began a steady expansion of the campus’ boarders. Finding the DeChanta Tribe no match for his newly brainwashed army, Rom turned his attention to the other end of campus, desiring to take back the Back Gate as well as the great steppe and its fertile lands beyond it, calling it Operation Lebensraum. Rom also reinvented the WJU Civitan for his own purposes. Knowing that he would need loyal troops to carry out his will, Rom infused in the group the very essence of his ideals and used them to enforce his rule both at home on campus as well as in the newly acquired lands. However, by the winter of 1941 it was evident that while the Back Gate would tolerate being rejoined with the campus, it would not permit expansion beyond its own yellow steel and thwarted every attempt to penetrate it. With losses mounting Rom was forced to reevaluate his position on campus.
Der Untergang[edit | edit source]
By mid 1943 things were changing for the worse and Rom could feel his powers weakening. Forced to conscript even more students into the Civitan, Rom had to use more and more brutal methods ensure the continuation of the expansion. This began to breed contempt among many in the student body; especially the literate ones and they began to plot against Rom. Fearing Rom would export his expansion beyond the region, members of the International Student Terror Cell took action. By using Rom’s own fears against him, they tricked him into doing battle with the Back Gate directly. Rom’s powers being useless on the largely inanimate gate, Rom suffered serious injuries weakening him greatly. Upon his retreat an unidentified member of the cell finished Rom off.
Following his death, his body disappeared and it is believed that members of the Civitan that were still loyal to him hid his body in the hopes of being able to clone him some day. With the fall of Father Rom the Board of Directors sought to take the University in a new direction as well as to distract people from the fact that Rom had violated the sovereignty of several neighbors and blown millions of the schools money. His former home and office, across from Donahue, was torn down after his death and the material was reused to build a bus stop at the front gate. The spot remains empty to this day and it is considered cursed by most students.
Powers[edit | edit source]
Rom had several powers, his primary being mind control and the supreme power of suggestion. It was said these were so powerful he could impregnate a woman by merely suggesting it and could also similarly predict the door prize at many cocktail parties.
On a Side Note[edit | edit source]
The bus stop burned down in 1992 after Father Stark touched it while waiting for the bus so he could stop the Cissegaran invasion. He forgot he was wearing his Jesuit Battle Armor.
|- style="text-align: center;"
| width="30%" |Preceded by:
Father Donahue
| width="40%" style="text-align: center;" |President of WJU
1939 - 1944
| width="30%" |Succeeded by:
The Leader