Enigma

Enigma is a spy working for the government of Nos, on the planet of Kadis. Like nearly all citizens of Nos, Enigma is a sein, but, unlike other seins, Enigma has the ability to look fully human. In fact, Enigma doesn't just look like a particular human, but can alter its appearance to look like different people. This ability has made Enigma an enormously useful tool to the Nosan government, albeit one that some charge is seriously misused.

History

Enigma began life as a relatively ordinary android, manufactured on Beratin. (Enigma certainly wasn't his name originally, but any records that should list his original name are sketchy and contradictory.) When he heard about Nos, however, one of the few sein-dominated states in all the Dupliverse, Enigma quickly made his way there, along with some valuable information purloined from his homeworld. He then made a deal with the daemons of Nos, offering to turn over his stolen information and enter their service as a spy and infiltrator in return for the government's funding some experimental conversions that would allow him to alter his form and effectively disguise himself as an arbitrary human. Of course, this ability would make him even better as a spy and infiltrator, he reasoned, so it would be in the daemons' interest anyway.

With some persuasion, the daemons agreed to Enigma's deal, and since then, he has remained faithfully in their service. For forty years now, Enigma has worked as an agent of the Nostra daemons, and seems set to continue indefinitely to do so.

Appearance

Before his conversion, Enigma was an unremarkable android, with silver skin dotted with tiny gold plates. Now, however, it's moot to ask what he looks like, since he can so widely vary his appearance. His appearance is however he wants to appear at the moment; he has no single appearance. His body is covered in a special skin capable of changing color or texture at his desire, and underlain by a layer of small extensible servomechanisms that can expand and contract to change the contours of his form—especially his face. Enigma can take on a near-limitless variety of appearances, and has fine enough control even to mimic particular individuals. Nor is there a "default" appearance he reverts to at rest; the mechanisms simply remain as they are when he last placed them.

There are some limitations to Enigma's alterations. While he can take on any normal human shape, he cannot assume shapes that are not basically humanoid; his underlying structure still mandates an essentially humanoid form. Thus he could imitate most humans, and even many androids, but would never be able to pass as, for instance, a nelde or a kaya. He also can't mimic people who are missing major features—or who have extra ones. A missing nose, Enigma might have no trouble emulating, but he couldn't convincingly mimic a person with a missing arm or leg, or a person with an extra arm grafted on. (Although, granted, missing limbs are rare in the Dupliverse anyway.)

Employment

Enigma has no official job title; he works for the Nostra government, but appears on no records, or at least no records that are publicly accessible. Even within the government, his superiors don't refer to him by any particular title; they simply refer to him as "Enigma".

While his employment may be, in some sense, unofficial, however, it is for all that nonetheless real and significant. Enigma is sent out on missions that demand the utmost secrecy and subterfuge. His special abilities combined now with his many years of experience mean that he seldom fails at anything he is set to accomplish. Enigma is, of course, particularly well-suited for missions that involve impersonating a specific individual, and is often sent out to do just that. This may or may not require him to dispose of the real individual first; if it does, Enigma has no qualms about doing so. Utterly ruthless, he will do anything to advance Nos's cause, and if anything sometimes has to be reined in from going farther on a mission than his employers want him to. Even what his employers do charge him with is unpalatable to many Nosan citizens, not to mention people elsewhere; some of the missions he performs go beyond what most people are morally comfortable with. Of course, the daemons do their best to keep such missions secret, but there are nonetheless occasional leaks.

Goals and Personality

Enigma seems to be devoted entirely to his job, perhaps not so much because of any deep loyalty to his country as simply because he enjoys his work. His occupation allows him to indulge in all the things he most relishes, including the feeling of power he gets from deceiving his foes and paving the way for Nos's victories. Even his free time, when he's not working, he spends thinking about his upcoming missions and fine-tuning his plans, and coming up with new possible tasks to suggest to his superiors. If he has any hobbies that don't directly relate to his work, he has kept them a well-maintained secret.

If there is one thing that does worry Nos's superiors about Enigma's personality, it is his complete contempt for humanity, and for other biological life. Nos overall has a reputation as antibiotist, but Enigma's attitude goes beyond even that of the average Nosan. It's not so much that Enigma hates biological organisms; rather, he seems to be completely indifferent to them, regarding them as no more worthy of sympathy or consideration than a rock or a screw. While he doesn't actively go out to take life, and doesn't exult in humans' pain or destruction, he doesn't go out of his way to avoid it, either, and thinks nothing of hurting, maiming, or killing if it seems more convenient than the alternative.