Professor James Moriarty
Professor James Moriarty, also known as Mister M, was a late Victorian/Edwardian British mathematician and high-profile criminal mastermind, best known as the Napoleon of Crime and Sherlock Holmes’ arch-enemy.
Description[]
James Moriarty is a tall, thin man with a large, round forehead and deep-sunken piercing eyes. He usually walks with his shoulders stooped and head slightly advanced, giving him a distinctly sinister reptile-like appearance. He prefers to wear a dark jacket, a cloak and a top hat.
History[]
Background[]
James Moriarty was born either in late 1830s or early 1840s in a well-respected middle-class family. Endowed with brilliant analytical mind, Moriarty received first-class education. Writing a revolutionary treatise upon Newton’s Binomial Theorem at the young age of 21, he paved himself a road to a well-off scientific career and won the Mathematical Chair at Cambridge University. Despite this, even at the very start of his professional path, Moriarty displayed a sinister inclination towards crime and using his intellect for the nefarious goals. Due to dark rumors, centered around his persona, Moriarty was forced to resign his position and leave to London, where he settled as an army coach.
It is at the Empire’s capital Moriarty had finally found a place, where he could put his skills and ambitions to a good use. For several years professor was busy with building a powerful and well-coordinated criminal empire, which had, basically, encircled the whole of London and even penetrated the government’s offices. Operating his empire from the shadows, Moriarty took every effort to cut or cover any potential ties between the crimes carried out by his numerous agents and himself.
Duel at Reichenbach Falls[]
It was just a matter of time, before world’s most celebrated detective- Sherlock Holmes- stumbled upon first traces of Moriarty’s criminal activity. On course of several next years Holmes began to realize, that behind some of the crimes he and his assistant Dr. Watson solved there must be some kind of an organizing force. The detective saw in these crimes same touch of an artist he himself often demonstrated in solving them. Holmes made his life goal to expose and destroy the force mentioned.
Moriarty and his right-hand man, Colonel Sebastian Moran, traced Holmes and Watson to Switzerland, where a trap was prepared. At the Reichenbach Falls a false note separated two friends. Moriarty and Holmes both prepared to settle their scores above the bottomless abyss of falling water, the former concerned with nothing but the physical destruction of the latter, even at the cost of his own life. A battle of two arch-rivals ended up in Holmes’ favor: he managed to throw Moriarty into the chasm, apparently to his death.
Mister M[]
This, however, was not the case. Though badly injured, Moriarty survived the fall and was rescued from the river by Colonel Moran. He injected his superior with a special stimulating drug, known in Africa as “taduki”, with the help of which Moriarty managed to find enough strength to be brought to a secluded Alpine hospital, where he spent several months recovering from the injuries. His apparent defeat was only the beginning.
Operating under the alias Mister M, Moriarty would slowly but surely accumulate his lost power and influence in order to locate and use his resources. While gathering enough resources and using his influence to buy loyalty from some of the most influential and pivatolly important individuals in history, he would also unearth machinery that looked to far exceed the development of his era which were later revealed to belong to the Church of the Broken God.
World War[]
Moriarty began planning and executing a scheme to draw Europe into a continent-wide war. Though the Great War was at first believed to simply just be a case of anarchy and social unrest from enraged middle and lower class citizens it was a cunning plot by Moriarty to pit the German, Russian, and British empires against each other mainly to acquire shares in multiple war profiteering companies to rebuild his fortune and power.
In 1914, his cabal was complete where they were stationed in their own secret headquarters atop a mountain-top. Moriarty now has his own network of agents, including the Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin, a trusted adviser to Tsar Nicholas of Russia. Moriarty gifts all of his associates rings depicting a phonetic symbol he chose for them in aid of their cause as well as the weaponry he manufactured from the study of Mekhane's machinery. His first order of business is to have Gavrilo Princip assassinate the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, something he manages to eventually succeed in despite the interference of Ian Thatch and Simon Bruttenholm.
All the while, the British Paranormal Society would be founded and gathered by Herbert Kitchener, the Secretary of State, and had them travel all across Europe where they are met with Moriarty's network agents, wielding an assortment of advanced weaponry as well as their own breed of supernatural powers as well. Eventually, it culminated in the Society confronting Moriarty himself at his base before having them destroy some of his factories in the long run. Moriarty revealed himself to be the enigmatic Mister M and was delighted to see Holmes also survive the fall at Reichenbach, musing to himself that he and the detective are truly destined to do this forever.
Death[]
Holmes and Thatch take on Moriarty two on one, all while their allies combat and destroy the remaining members of the cabal and their armies, only to discover that Moriarty's physical abilities have been enhanced thanks to the African drug "taduki" and was able to fend off the two men. Even with Mina Harker's aid they had a difficult time against the Napoleon of Crime until Holmes, using his past experiences with his battles against Moriarty, guided the two to find a blind spot as Moriarty could never expect a tactic and action that goes against the usual strategies of his opponents.
Finally overcoming him, Thatch manages to stab him in the thigh, causing him to jolt back in pain and allowing Holmes to shove him over the edge. Held by his scarf over the edge of the mountain, Moriarty remains unfazed, taunting Holmes over how not even death could truly drag him down to the next life and promises to return. In response Holmes actually agrees with him but adds that death would not take him either until he puts in more effort to make sure Moriarty never comes back. He then slashes through Moriarty's scarf with Watson's Victoria Cross, dropping him to his death.
Personality[]
James Moriarty possess a genius-level intellect on par with Sherlock Holmes himself, but, unlike the Great Detective, the professor utilized his unique logical mind for crime and self-advancement, as well as, to a certain extend, for both narcissistic and sadistic pleasure.
Moriarty is a sociopath, who will stop at literally nothing to achieve his goals. He views ordinary people as pawns and intellectually inferior cannon fodder in the game he plays. Building a well-hidden but mighty criminal empire upon human suffering and death, Moriarty saw himself above the human and religious laws. Crime for him was, in many ways, the same thing it was for Holmes- a tool against boredom and a playground for the demonstration of his intellectual superiority.
For most of the time Moriarty acts in a very calm and immaculately polite manner, befitting his logical and calculating personality. Despite this, the professor is prone to emotional outbursts when feeling threatened or when the events unfold against how he planned them originally. At times like this Moriarty is incredibly dangerous and can lash against subject(s) of his wrath- both directly and indirectly.