Real name: Charles F. Xavier
Occupation: Adjunct Professor, Genetics & Development at
Columbia University
Identity: Xavier's status as a mutant is secret
Legal status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record
Other aliases: None as of yet
Place of birth: Westchester County, New York
Marital status: Single
Known relatives: Brian & Sharon (parents, deceased) Cain
Marko (stepbrother, missing)
Group affiliation: X-Men
Base of operations: Columbia University, New York City
First appearance: June, 2000
History:
(Subject to revision as Xavier works on his private autobiography.)
Charles Francis Xavier is the son of nuclear physicist Brian Xavier and British historian Sharon Xavier. Loved very much by his parents, Charles never learned of his father's heritage. Brian Xavier had become a leading researcher in his field, but his true motivations dealt with a quirk in his lineage. Having met Sharon while visiting Europe, the couple fell in love while working together to uncover the past of the Xavier name. Brian's research centered on Einstein's theory of alternate dimensions and the Rosenberg bridge. During an experiment Brian released some sort of creature, succeeding in sending it back only by triggering a minor atomic explosion, killing himself in the process. Charles, a young boy at the time with an incredible psionic potential already emerging, sensed his father's death and started having nightmares about what happened.
Sharon was unable to deal with Charles's nightmares by herself, so for the good of her son she remarried. Dr. Kurt Marko, one time colleague and rival of Charles's father, agreed to marry Sharon in hopes of stealing the Xavier fortune and all of Brian's research. Moving onto the Xavier estate in New York's Westchester County with his son from a previous marriage, Cain, Kurt immediately started beating Sharon and Cain, though not Charles. Cain knew Charles was not being beaten, and out of jealousy and fear began bullying Charles. Charles nightmares, strangely, had ceased with the arrival of Kurt and Cain.
Young Charles knew something was wrong with his family, and somehow formed a minor psychic rapport (his first true mental contact with another) to his step-brother, Cain. After Cain was beaten badly one night, Charles went to him and tried to convince him to tell someone about their 'father'. Cain learned that his step-brother had psionic abilities and hated Charles ever since for intruding on his mind. Sharon, having continued with her research, learned something more about Brian's ancestors and their connection to the worship of some sort of ancient being. Kurt learned of Sharon's research and beat her nearly to death, burning most of her notes as well. On her deathbed Sharon begged her son to help Kurt and Cain, and to finish her research and learn his true heritage.
Shortly afterward, then thirteen year old Charles Xavier stopped his step-father from killing his step-brother. Charles then faced off against Kurt, who was really partially possessed. Charles's powers were strong enough to free Kurt. Cain, however, was all but insane with pain, rage, and what he had witnessed, and accidentally triggered an explosion in the lab. The freed Kurt Marko managed to save both Cain and Charles, but he himself surcame to smoke inhalation.
Charles's expenditure and early emergence of his mythos mutancy affected his physical body, most noticeably it caused his hair to fall out completely. Graduating high school at the age of fifteen, Xavier went to Bard College in Annandale-On-Hudson at 16. His father's work and heritage denied him, his mother's research all but wiped out as well, Charles studied biology and mythology, earning his bachelor's degree in biology in just two years. Unsatisfied with his limited knowledge and roadblocks he encountered at Bard, he went on to be accepted into Graduate School at England's prestigious Oxford University. There he earned his degrees in genetics and biophysics, all the while trying to discover the source of his abilities and what it was about his ancestry that was so important. Obscure myths, legends, and folklore lead him to start dabbling in the study of druidism and ancient Celtic religions. Xavier's research starts to be noticed in certain circles around this time.
Charles meets Moira MacTaggert while at Oxford. The daughter of Scotland's Lord Kinros was also a brilliant scholar of genetics. The two share much, including his secret abilities. They co-develop a theory of mutation, borrowing heavily from the works of Darwin and Essex as well as their own research. Moria's marriage was pending annulment, and the two planned to wed. Before they could, however, Xavier finished his studies at Oxford and was promptly drafted.
Shipped off to Asia, Charles served alongside his step-brother Cain. Deep in the jungle, during a firefight, Cain deserted their company as an unnatural fear coupled with his hatred for his step-brother. Sensing something amiss, Charles followed in an attempt to bring Cain back. The two stumbled upon an ancient temple. Cain was drawn to a gem, which, when he grabbed it, triggered the collapse of the temple. Xavier barely escaped and, believing Cain dead, left the scene with only a small stone statuette.
Later on, while recovering from injuries in a M.A.S.H., Xavier befriended psychiatrist Daniel Shomron, surgeon Martin Wittfield, and later to become author Jonathon Carradine. It was shortly after his recovery, and maybe a month before his service was up, Xavier received a letter from Moira who broke off their engagement. Devastated, he tried to resume his research but couldn't, and took to wandering.
Wittfield and Xavier met again on the Greek island of Kiniros. Wittfield had become another confidante of Xavier, and the two had all but disproved the earlier hypothesis of random mutation causing Charles's powers. Showing Martin the statue and explaining much of his childhood, Xavier enlisted his aid in his research. Wittfield, following some obscure lead he had uncovered, traveled to Egypt. From there, months later, he sent one letter to Xavier, speaking of some connection with Pharaohs and the pyramids. Xavier lost contact with Wittfield and went to Cairo, but never heard from his friend again.
In Cairo, Xavier senses and tracked down another touched by Nyarlathotep (though Xavier still has not learned the creatures name or that it is even a singular entity). Amahl Farouk and Xavier dueled on the astral plane, Xavier for the first time beginning to really sense something wrong with the world. On the psychic field Xavier again defeated Nyarlathotep, Farouk dying a physical death. Knowing that whatever gave Farouk his powers had not only been behind the abusive nature of Kurt Marko but also had something to do with his abilities, Xavier remembered his promise to his mother. Determined to learn all he could about the source of his abilities and what it was that had been the obsession of both Farouk and his own father, Xavier vowed to find a way to protect humanity from whatever it was.
Traveling to Israel to visit his friend Shomron, he worked for awhile helping with the psychiatric patients. One of Shomron's, a survivor of the Nazi Death Camp at Dachau, was Gabrielle Haller. Xavier, relying heavily on his telepathy, healed Gabrielle's mind, curing her schizophrenia. The two began a relationship.
While in Israel, Xavier encountered and befriended Erik Lensherr, who would later go on to become Magneto. Xavier and Erik worked together to help psychiatric patients, and at one point faced off together against Baron Von Strucker. Erik attempted to recruit the young Xavier to his cause, but in the course of a long debate on ethics and morality, Charles declined. Erik left, along with a substantial cache of Nazi-era gold.
Parting company with Gabrielle, Daniel, and Erik, Xavier traveled to Tibet to meet up with Carradine. Johnathon had been researching tales of a forbidden walled city in the Himalayas. Xavier, Carradine, and an expedition of six others camoe upon the acient dwelling and fell prey to Lhakdor, a creature more than human who was practicing dark rituals towards an unknown end. Captured, Xavier watched as each member of his party was tortured, driven mad, and killed. Carradine sacrificed himself, giving Xavier the chance to fight back. Utilizing his psionics on a level unlike he had since facing Farouk, Charles disrupted Lhakdor's rituals. Lhakdor unleashed a host of undescribable horrors, which would have overwhelmed Xavier had he not utilized a device which triggered an avalanche, burying the city and sealing the put from which poured the abominations.
In the destruction, Xavier was caught by a falling boulder. His legs crushed, he was trapped. Dragging himself to the ruins of Lhakdor's library, Xavier found a test which vaguely referred to the rituals and beings Lhakdor believed in. The man of science would have discounted the book but for what he had witnessed in the city. His mind about to crack from all he had seen, the isolation, and the pain, Xavier sent out a mental summons as far as he could project.
Found and rescued, Xavier was airlifted to a hospital in India. There he remained in a catatonic state for almost two weeks, wishing in his troubled mind that he would die and not have to deal with his crippled legs, let alone the horrors he had witnessed. An American nurse, Amelia C. Voght, cared for him and spent most of each day helping Charles rehabilitate. The two were instantly attracted to one another, Amelia being the only thing that pulled Xavier out of his suicidal stupor.
The two fell deeply in love, more deeply than Xavier had ever felt towards another person. The moved in together in Bombay. Xavier didn't tell her about his condition, afraid of scaring her away. However, as much as he tried to ignore his abilities, his past, and his promise, he found himself developing a strange new machine. Based on some of his long-dead father’s experiments, the device heightened psionic potential and, coupled with his own powers, could detect and pinpoint people like himself on a global scale.
Voght discovered the schematics after they had been living together for three months. She herself was different, cursed with strange, inhuman abilities, and felt as if Charles was using her. After revealing his own powers and goals towards her, her protests settled down and everything seemed to return to normal.
Partially convincing Amelia that they could help others like themselves, Xavier returned with her to his estate in the United States. He began construction of a vast, underground complex as a safe haven from the world. With Amelia's help, he began to compile a database of possible "mutants." Cerebro, though refined, was still far from absolute. Its readings included a high percentage of false positives, requiring personal verification. The more Xavier told Amelia of his past, the more frightened and unsure she became.
Finally, following the completion of the underground complex, Amelia announced that she was leaving, and that she would have no part in Xavier's mad crusade. Frustrated and afraid, maddened by the potential loss of that which was most important to him, Xavier seized control of Amelia's mind and began to alter her thoughts. He caught himself and withdrew, ashamed and disgusted at himself, but the damage was already done. Amelia left, more terrified and frightened of Xavier than ever before. After she left, Xavier swore to himself that he would never become that which he sought to stop and would never, ever abuse his powers again.
Sinking into a deep depression, Charles dove into his research once more. He received a Pd.D. in anthropology at Columbia, but spent most of his time as a recluse in private study. He worked on refining both Cerebro, and his own telepathic abilities. Receiving word from Moira in England, Xavier returned to Oxford to help her with research concerning several of her patients. The two reformed a close friendship and Xavier studied at Oxford again, this time receiving an advanced degree in psychiatry. The two worked together forming ideas on how Xavier could protect and train mutants, as well as battle those forces he sensed were gathering. Their discussions remained academic and theoretical in nature, plans for a future neither felt was immediate.
Upon receiving his M.D., he returned to teach at Columbia in that field he most specialized in: human genetics. He took up stewardship of the Human Genome Project at Columbia, overseeing their efforts to unravel a portion of the genetic code Xavier secretly believed harbored the key to mutant powers: Chromosome 13. Xavier also began to dabble in occult studies, forging connections with like-minded academics elsewhere in the world. He also began to force ties within the law enforcement community, hoping to obtain better insight into the government's experiences with the occult and unusual. Xavier's research began to gather considerable attention within the genetics community, though he kept the most radical theories and findings unpublished.
The next decade would find Xavier garnering a reputation as a true renaissance man, as well as one of the few truly educated and scientific professors who believed in the supernatural. His telepathic abilities, which he had honed to an exact science, were a complete secret outside a very few of his closest companions. Much of his time was spent traveling, investigating, dabbling in sorcery, and documenting. The extent of his travels and outside research forced him to reduce his time at Columbia, where he remains an adjunct professor with their Genetics & Development program. He has learned of a sizable number of mutants as well as having witnessed a few more minor scenes that would drive the ordinary man mad.
The catastrophic events that shook Maine early in 1999 came as a complete shock to Charles. That such explosive power could manifest itself was something he had predicted long ago, but to actually see those predictions realized - that was the shock. That it could come so soon, and with so little warning! Not even Cerebro had registered Kairee Black until her powers had fully manifested on that tragic night. Rushing back to America, Xavier kept tabs on the investigation and the public reaction, while quietly organizing a symposium to discuss the "coming out" of mutants, where they came from, and how society might integrate with them.
Resuming active contact with Moira, he blew the dust off their old ideas concerning a group to protect innocents from the harm mutants could cause. How to formally gather and train them in secret. While he had a handful of mutants whom he had groomed with these concepts in mind, no "team" like the X-Men yet existed. With the need for such a group clear, Xavier began his preparations.
Height: 5'10" Weight: 155 lbs.
Eyes: Brown Hair: Bald
Unusual physical characteristics: Xavier was crippled years ago,
and no longer has the use of his legs.
Strength level: Xavier possesses the normal human strength of a
man his age, height, and build, who engages in intensive regular exercise.
Known superhuman powers: Xavier possesses the most powerful
telepathic mind on the planet. His strength of will, depth of experience,
and potency on the astral plane is unmatched by any human living today.
Other abilities: Xavier is a living example of the classic
Renaissance Man. He is a world class geneticist, engineer, psychologist,
and scholar.
Weapons and paraphernalia: None
Other notes: None