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#23 - Manitou Dawn
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Inukchuk

Dawn, a millennia-old guardian of the continent of North America, was already a time-tossed refugee and guest of the Justice League before the world fell apart. In support of her husband, Raven, she traveled to Four Corners in an effort to assist him in pacifying the disruptions of the leylines as engendered by the Spectre. However, when the Society caught wind of their efforts, Dawn and other native folk in the area began to fight a losing battle that ultimately resulted in Ravens death. Bequeathed with the name of Manitou, Dawn has returned to Zonn Zorr to seek her Inukchuk - that power which by its very existence gives her the nameright of Manitou.

According to Manitou Dawn, Inukchuk is the quality of Manitou, the very essence of a Manitous ability as they transcend from servant of the land to source of the land itself. Dawn seeks her Inukchuk, for her husbands is lost to her. Each Manitou has their own Inukchuk. Recently, as she has begun to train Data 7 in shamanic rituals, Dawn revealed he was the key to helping Dawn find her Inukchuk, which Dawn believes will allow her to better aid the resistance of Zonn Zorr against the tide of Anti-Life. During the uprising led by Kobra, Dawn used Data 7's powers as her totem, growing in rapid size to stand as the towering guardian of the spring.

Dawn possesses the capacity to rank in the overall Top 10 for this campaign, when all is said and done. For me, I greatly enjoy her unique brand of stoicism, born of both a tranquility of spirit and also as a shell and defense against the harsh world around her. Dawn is a widow - of a sort; without Manitou Raven, she is more than a grieving, bereft wife. Dawn floats adrift, given only one instruction by her dying husband: take up his mantle and carry on for him. For Dawn, the objective is to try and cobble together the various pieces of their past life together and try and find wisdom in those memories now tragic.

I love Dawn because she comes at every situation in a different, almost alien angle. She doesn't practice the magic of the present - her powers are earthen and elemental in nature, cribbed from an era thousands of years ago. Dawn doesn't understand the modern world - although she does not fear. She also doesn't experience wonderment at her surroundings. Instead, she sees the world around her as a burden - her lonely burden, a world given to her for care and custodianship. I really yearn for more small scenes with Dawn. For example, the Data 7/Dawn interaction was just so quiet and meaningful, filled with the potential for something grander to come. I think there is just so much versatility in the character both from the "game" perspective of the campaign and also from the storytelling perspective.

#22 still isn't the last of the bottom halfers to fall on this list.