Nava-Verse Hero Biography: Joinkhaah "Maniac" Manneil

Joinkhaah "Maniac" Manneil is a currently–living Joiemgaw born on the twentieth day of the Ninth Cycle of Age 810 as the second child of a lower–middle–class family who took up the profession of mechanics and metalworking at a younger age than that at which most others of his race begin seriously dabbling in their eventual careers and quickly proved himself to be a prodigy in the field. Upon discovering this knack, Joinkhaah Manneil subsequently dedicated himself to his craft, improving his skills further and eventually rising through the ranks of society and above his fellow aspiring metalworkers until he, at the young age of twenty–four, had founded and successfully established his own private manufacturing corporation, Manneil Metallics. In the Fifth Cycle (the most active business season on Wegneheck) of Age 836, not long after its initial rise to prominence, Manneil Metallics was made an official partner of the greater, Prime Galaxy–wide Joiemgaw Media Corporation (specifically the mega–conglomerate's engineering branch), and Manneil himself an official major shareholder and executive of said corporation, placing him in the top ten percentiles within the top single percentile of the overall Joiemgaw population in terms of wealth, power and fame.

For the next few years, Joinkhaah Manneil lived in comfortable luxury and laziness, more–so than the average Joiemgaw in his position would, while his business continued to prosper and with the tycoon himself no longer doing any more manual work of his own since scoring the deal which had ensured that he would be set for life and eventually ceasing to even actively oversee his company's production processes. Then, during the exuberant celebration of his thirtieth birthday, Manneil experienced a traumatic brush with death. His party was crashed by a gunman, a vengeful close relative of a lower–class person who had been killed as a result of a faulty vehicle produced under the Manneil name, which the unfortunate victim, the nephew of the eventual gunman, had just barely been able to afford. The automobile had been produced subsequent to the point at which the company's founder, a self–made man who had initially gotten to where he was through hard work and dedication, had ceased all active participation in the production of his business' products. The attacker had previously sued Manneil Metallics for his nephew's death, but failed to get anyone convicted, to win any reparations and even to make the incident widely–known publicly, all due to the efforts of Manneil's quick–acting and highly corrupt lawyers and publicists, who had shot both the court case and the potential scandal down with Joinkhaah Manneil's only direct role in their actions being a proverbial rubber–stamping. Note that the gunman was, rather conveniently, "honorable" enough to announce his motives during the attack in just about as coherent a manner as one could while committing mass homicide, saving officials most of the trouble they would otherwise have had to go through to figure out said motives.

The resulting shootout left six dead, these fatalities consisting of the gunman plus five aristocratic clients of Manneil Metallics, and eight wounded, these injured including Manneil's older sister and Joinkhaah Manneil himself, both of whom were shot in the head and rendered comatose. Joinkhaah's sister, Splindink, with whom he was (and still tries to be) very close, remained unconscious for three cycles and, upon waking up, had suffered serious brain damage, including memory loss, from which she is unlikely to ever fully recover. Manneil himself, meanwhile, woke up a mere eight days after the attack, and was considered to have made a full recovery soon thereafter, but was in fact a greatly changed man. Shortly after learning all that had happened and returning to his then–nonexistent duties as head of Manneil Metallics, Joinkhaah delivered a public address announcing that he was now a born–again follower of God and would from this point onward personally work to restore consistent quality control to his company's products while abandoning and renouncing his previous hedonistic lifestyle that he believed had led to the recent tragedy.

Despite initial, widespread and understandable, given that the shooting had brought the incident which motivated the perpetrator, as well as the executive's recent history of laziness and carelessness, to public light, doubts and insinuations of the contrary, Manneil meant all of this. He would soon prove this by immediately reforming both his company and his own personal behaviors, returning to direct, manual metalworking to the point of working part–time in assembly lines alongside the lowliest of his employees, and never relapsing back into the negligent lack of input that had led to the accident which had led to the shooting that had led to his epiphany which had led to his present reform.

Now, the "story" of Joinkhaah Manneil could very well have ended, in regards to major events and contributions concerning him, right here, being a simple inspirational and heartwarming tale of redemption, etc.

It did not.

 

The wealthy Joiemgaw, in his efforts for atonement and self–reinvention, went much further than this, and indeed, further than anyone had initial reason to expect.

Starting in early Age 841, Manneil, a completely average specimen of his kind in terms of physical strength for most of his life up to this point and rather out–of–shape due to his laziness over the past few years which he had just recently given up, began practicing a self–imposed regimen of daily, heavy exercise which soon intensified further and escalated into bodybuilding. In time, his physical condition came to match his level of societal status; that is to say, it was now in the top fraction of the highest one percentile among all Joiemgaws, which are generally not known for physical prowess. Joinkhaah's personality also began to change further beyond its initial shift toward altruism, evolving into something arguably less purely good yet also arguably more actively heroic and inarguably more awesome. While becoming noticeably more eccentric and bombastic in public appearances, he began demanding that he be given total privacy while working in his studio, an activity which he seemed to spend more and more time doing daily with each passing twenty–four–hour period, and eventually declared the studio off–limits at all times to anyone and everyone but himself. Concurrently, many strange, large orders calling for various, often obscure and rare, supplies and raw materials were personally made and paid for in full by Manneil, whose publicists took efforts, this time on direct orders from their boss, to keep these orders on a low profile while the providers were likewise paid generous amounts of interest for not making news of them.

This strange behavior and secret activity continued, and somewhat escalated, for almost two years, throughout which Joinkhaah Manneil, in spite of all the strange – downright suspicious, even – things he was now doing on the side, still ran and oversaw the core operations of his business just as he had promised he always would; he had become an extraordinarily busy and active man. Public rumors of him going insane or even planning some violent atrocity such as a bombing made the typical rounds that most rumors do during this period of time, but these never gained enough leverage to receive significant media attention or warrant any official investigations of Manneil's person and property.

The truth was finally revealed, unveiled by Manneil himself, on his own thirty–second birthday. The date of his birth now being shared with that of the tragedy that had altered his life and several others', it had seemed that any and all future celebrations of Joinkhaah Manneil's birthday would be tainted by memories of the shooting, and indeed, he himself had wisely refrained from holding any public festivities on his thirty–first birthday, A.K.A. the shooting's first anniversary. For his "sweet sixteen–times–two", however, he appeared to be "making up" for this, preparing a bigger party than any he had previously thrown and inviting more people than ever before, even including some low–level manual workers of Manneil Metallics whom he had chosen based on a raffle. When the eve of Manneil's birthday and of the party arrived, the turnout was disappointing, with many of those invited failing to show up, in most cases due to bad memories regarding the shooting two years ago, concerns regarding the host's strange behavior and reclusive activities as of late, or a combination of both factors. This, however, did not discourage Manneil from doing his best to thrill and wow those who did attend with the reveal of the bonafide arsenal of personalized, optimally–modified munitions, equipment and conveyances that he had created for use in his coming adventures.

As he explained both to those relative few who were there to see the initial, formal unveiling and to a wider audience in a public announcement the following day, Joinkhaah Manneil had been inspired by the recent "superhero" movement, the foundations of which had been laid by the Mulshian Fire–Egg starting roughly one hundred years prior, and intended to join in on it, having planned to do so since shortly after his initial post–coma epiphany but only now being fully prepared to begin his heroic endeavors in earnest. He had spent the majority of the past two–year period drafting, crafting and perfecting the array of equipment he would now make use of as a galaxy–traveling noble mercenary whose deeds would better the name and reputation of Joiemgaw–kind and whose earnings would all go towards Manneil Metallics' production funds, further bolstering the company's reliability both practically and "symbolically".

Initial reactions to these announcements were, predictably, of a sentiment that can be accurately summarized with the following statement, which was printed word–for–word in multiple publications: "It is official: Manneil has lost it." Numerous Manneil Metallics shareholders began withdrawing their investments, while the company's general market performance started declining almost immediately. Joinkhaah's public appointment, in the form of a responsible up–and–coming businessman working in his field and being similar to how he himself had been as a younger man, of a potential successor in the case of his being killed while out adventuring, a scenario that the debuting hero–to–be considered unlikely and said as much of, did little to help the situation. Regardless, Manneil was not discouraged, and determined that he would prove those who doubted the feasibility of his being a viable adventurer wrong.

Surprisingly enough, he actually managed to follow through.

 

Since around the start of Age 843, Joinkhaah Manneil, whose preferred moniker in regards to his adventures is "Maniac Manneil", has been active as one of the Prime Galaxy's most prominent "superhero" mercenaries, and possibly the most successful and longest–operating non–mutant among the various adventurers that have taken after the example originally set by the Eggmen over the past century. To this day, he continues frequently touring both Wegneheck and various other venues throughout space, performing acts of bombastic, gadgetry–assisted heroism and using the money he demands and receives in exchange for his good deeds toward constructive purposes within his business, which he still manages competently, to continue ensuring that it remains the best, most stable and reliable company it can possibly be. Following its owner's initially surprising just about everyone by proving to be a capable interplanetary champion and not getting killed, Manneil Metallics rose back up from the pits of recession almost as quickly as it had fallen into them in the wake of the widespread belief that said owner had gone completely insane, and has continued flourishing ever since. Maniac Manneil's heroics have also helped improve the long–dubious reputation of Joiemgaws in general in the eyes of many other peoples, which was another stated original goal of his. He has killed more than one hundred people, all of them violent criminals, grievously injured several hundred more, almost all of them violent criminals, and verifiably saved several thousand lives while never killing a single innocent and only ever injuring a few, each of whom he has voluntarily paid massive reparations to. On a related note, there has never been another fatal accident involving a Manneil Metallics machine that has been deemed to be the fault of the company rather than of any user since the deadly automobile malfunction which led to the fateful birthday shooting.

Manneil has, in his case unfortunately, inspired several other Joiemgaws, all of considerably lesser wealth and skill than he, to attempt imitating him without undergoing the same long–term preparations and training firsthand and without having access to the same caliber of equipment, resulting in most of these copycats being swiftly and ignominiously slain in the field of action. The man himself, though, has always made clear his disapproval of those who would emulate his extremely dangerous activities, stressing repeatedly that what he does has required, and continues to require, years of dedicated, hard work, genuine passion and top–notch resources, a notion that the two years he spent training and preparing for his superhero career before actually starting it can always attest to. Today, Maniac Manneil is still considered to be the only "true" Joiemgaw superhero out there, and he is also considered the most famous Joiemgaw currently alive as well as one of several roughly equal contenders for the distinction of being the wealthiest member of his kind, with his estimated net worth being more than 100,000,000,000 Galactic Common.

Very recently (that is, within the past three years), it has been theorized more widely than ever before that Joinkhaah "Maniac" Manneil's eventual transformation from the corrupt and slothful executive he had become during the years leading up to the shooting that changed his life forever into the audacious, muscular adventurer he is known as today may have been the result not only of epiphany but of a form of brain damage resulting from the piece of shrapnel that had entered his head and whose effects came with a delay. In other words, more and more evidence seems to suggest as of late that he really is insane in at least some form. Maniac Manneil himself has been informed of this possibility, but has dismissed it – not as untrue, necessarily, but as irrelevant. He maintains a strong sense of pride for the way he is now, believing his current way of life as a hero–for–hire to be the destined and ultimate realization of his potential as a person and stating that even if trauma–induced mania is involved, few can argue against the notion that the end result has ultimately changed him for the better and is, furthermore and in Manneil's own words, "totally cool, awesome and badass".

And indeed, one would be hard–pressed to find any significant number of people who would argue against that notion.

 

• On Maniac Manneil's arsenal of equipment that he relies upon throughout his heroic exploits, it was, again, all personally built by him over a period of roughly two years and utilizing levels of technology so advanced and materials so top–quality that the resulting creations could never be viably mass–produced due to being too costly and time–consuming to make. His array of paraphernalia includes various weapons, both lethal and somewhat less–lethal, specialized armors with features such as heat–resistance and water–breathing apparatuses, gadgets for almost any situation, such as infrared and X–ray goggles, automatic door–unlocking devices and a jetpack, and multiple vehicles. Most of these items are based in some way upon the foundations of previously–existing technologies, though Manneil's versions are, without exception, all personalized in some unique way and altogether functionally superior to their original, more common counterparts. There are a few exceptions; that is, completely original and unique creations of Maniac Manneil, however, and the most notable of these is the machine that is considered the mercenary's signature vehicle and "trump card" and which has been selected from among all the items in his armory to be showcased here alongside the man himself.

This machine is the "Mannserker", a three–story–tall armored tank with the rough likeness of a very angry–looking Joiemgaw. This heavily–armed battle mech sports what Joinkhaah refers to as a "composite" aesthetic design, with his biggest source of inspiration while designing it and its "face" in particular coming from his sister, Splindink, whose initial awakening from her coma had overjoyed him, even with her being in a mentally incomplete state, and helped give him the initiative to fully commit himself to his until–then–only–contemplated pursuit of a greater, grander purpose in life. While incorporating elements of his sister's visage into the tank's appearance, though, Manneil did not directly model the Mannserker's Joiemgaw likenesses on Splindink alone, instead opting to give the machine a more unique, "independent" appearance that also incorporated some of his own features as well as a few "random" creative details not specifically borrowed from anyone or anything in particular.

Joinkhaah Manneil currently continues to keep the designs and blueprints for all of his equipment, including and especially the Mannserker, strictly classified to everyone besides himself, and has said numerous times that the secrets to replicating his powerful creations will not be made available to any outside party until after he is dead.

Done