Jacob and Lucy Atrum were two ordinary parents, so it stands to reason that their only daughter would be ordinary too . . . right?

Well, nothing like this is certain in a city like Paragon, but as fate would have it, Dawn Atrum was indeed an ordinary girl.

She went to school, got average grades, never got into too much trouble, and lived an ordinary life. Until she met an Undead entity.

Instead of running in fear as most would, she started a conversation with the creepy-looking creature. The creature introduced itself as VileTerror and after a long, friendly chat, Dawn decided VileTerror wasn't like the undead that the movies talk about. She could see that VileTerror was not going to try to eat her brain or steal her soul. Eventaully Dawn noticed she was running late for her T.A. session at the local collage and said "goodbye" to her latest aquaintance.

When she got home she told her roommates about the experience, but they were hesitant to believe her. It wasn't the fact that Dawn had met a scary creature that surprised them, but the fact that she said it wasn't really that scary and actually quite polite. They decided in private that Dawn might have been deceived by the creature and that she should be sent to M.A.G.I. or something to be checked out. After placing a phone call it didn't take very long for a mystic to teleport into their common space. He showed his I.D. and demanded that Dawn come with him, but she refused, claiming her thesis was more important. The mystic took this as a sign that she had something to hide, even though she really did just want to finish her thesis, and he teleported her away without her concent.

She was brought to Azuria and questioned. As soon as Dawn mentioned the name of the creature she met, Azuria knew all too well there wasn't need for concern. You see Azuria was VileTerror's first contact when it came to Paragon City, and she and it had often had heated debates about what defines something as "undead" and the nature of "evil". Azuria didn't care for VileTerror much, but she admitted that none of VileTerror's actions offered any reason to worry about the meeting between Dawn and VileTerror. Azuria let Dawn go and had the mystic who took her apologize.

A week or so passed and the mystic was still feeling guilt ridden. So he went down to Pandora's Box and looked for a gift that he hoped would make Dawn accept his apology. He found a lovely black hat which, according to the store owner, actually lost all its magical powers since no one had used it in so long. The mystic brought the discounted hat to Dawn, who graciously accepted the gift and forgave the mystic.

Some more time passed. One afternoon Dawn was walking home from the Yellow Line in King's Row when a couple of Skulls jumped her. She was feeling mighty bold, and instead of cowering in fear waiting for a hero to come save her, she decided to talk to the Skulls. Dawn chatted with the Skulls for several minutes and actually convinced them to go mug somebody else in exchange for the shirt she was wearing. Dawn wasn't happy about walking home in just her bra, but she didn't mind overmuch since she was still alive and her wallet wasn't stolen.

She was just about to walk up the steps to her apartment when she was tapped on the shoulder. There was VileTerror, holding her shirt. She sniggered and put her shirt back on. Apartently VileTerror had rendered the Skulls that had Dawn's shirt unconscious when they attempted to mug a prostitute and recognized the shirt they had as Dawn's.

Dawn and VileTerror sat on the doorstep talking with eachother for a while longer until VileTerror complimented Dawn on her new hat. She mentioned its origin and VileTerror pondered a moment. VileTerror then told Dawn a story of an acient fabric which necromancers once used. It was made from the hair of certain demons and believed to give great powers of suggestion. It couldn't actually change the mind of someone, but could convince them to see a given scenario from another's perspective.

Dawn pondered a moment and then asked VileTerror to give her the power she needed to protect herself. Usually VileTerror wouldn't give such a request much thought, but either the power of the hat, or just the fact that VileTerror thought Dawn to be rather intellectual caused VileTerror to grant Dawn's request. And so Dawn was granted the ability to channel a bit of VileTerror's power and a bit of the Underworld's power, but was not granted the ability to actually possess either. In addition she was given the ability to siphon others' souls, IF those others grant her their souls. Dawn and VileTerror parted ways, but not before VileTerror asked Dawn to think about joining the official Paragon City Undeath Supergroup. Dawn knew she'd have to become a hero to join, but something about it just seemed very appealing.

So Dawn finished her final term papers and graduated. Since she had been majoring in philosophy, she figured it'd be tough to find a career and becoming a professional hero just seemed all the more appealing at this point. So now she roams the streets along with all the other heroes and collects souls for VileTerror from criminal and citizens alike.





Story as it appears in-game:
Dawn Atrum actually possesses absolutely no super powers of her own. Her only power is that of persuasion. She was able to convince a powerful Underworld entity to grant her a small fraction of its power at the cost of absolutely nothing. However, she would like to reciprocate the generosity of her benefactor by sending a few souls its way. As such she has been appropriating the souls of the criminals she defeats by convincing her targets of the uselessness of their souls. She has even been able to convince several law-abiding citizens to give up their souls. Unlike more malevolent soul mongers who often disable their victims’ ability to produce a new soul, Dawn allows her targets to regenerate their souls. Truthfully the technique required to stop soul regeneration is beyond Dawn’s understanding . . . though she wouldn’t use it even if she knew it.