Maxwell Anderson Mercer is the founder of the Æon Society. Along with his friend Michael Daemon Donighal he received his powers as a result of the Hammersmith Incident. In the Aberrant Era, Mercer is described as a paramorph, and possessing the nearly unique ability to travel through time. As time goes on, although how Mercer goes about traveling through time may be unique to him, others (specifically novas) will learn their own ways of how to move about through time.
- Maxwell: According to Behind the Name, this personal name derives from an Old English phrase meaning "stream of Maccus". In addition, the compound derived CGS unit, the maxwell, abbreviated as Mx, is the unit for the magnetic flux. The unit was previously called a line. The unit name honors James Clerk Maxwell, who presented the unified theory of electromagnetism.
- Anderson: "Son of Andrew," which in turn derives from Greek ανδρος (andros), "of a man." Thus, andros-son is "Son of Man," a term applied to Christ.
- Mercer: According to Behind the Name's surname section, this was originally an occupational name for a trader, from Old French mercier. Also cognate with "mercy," the leniency or compassion shown by one person to another.
Mercer's time-travelling abilities are somewhat unstable; he is able to appear at a particular time period through force of will, but at least initially he was "unstuck in time", leading to him bouncing to various points in the future. His insight into future events led directly to his founding the Æon Society. He continues to lead the society from the shadows, hopping between eras.
Abbreviated History[]
Due to the vagaries of time travel, Mercer's history will be provided in subjective chronological order, from his own perspective.
- 1889: Mercer is born.
- Early 1900s: Befriends Michael Donighal, possibly because the senior Donighal was one of Mercer's teachers.
- 1918: Mercer rescues the young Whitley Styles from the hands of a Thuggee cult of Kali.
- 1922: Mercer is invited to the demonstration of Dr. Sir Calvin Hammersmith's new telluric engine. The engine explodes and catapults Mercer through time.
- 1942: Mercer meets his older self, older versions of his friends, and discovers that he's responsible for the creation of an organization called the Æon Society for Gentlemen. Mercer's elder instructs his junior on his time-travel abilities.
- 1998: Mercer appears shortly after the Galatea explosion, and witnesses the explosion of novas.
- 2061: Mercer experiences the apex of the depredations of the Aberrant War.
- 2122: Now nearly two hundred years in the future, Mercer arrives at the moment of the Venezuelan Phenomenon. He sees how Earth has recovered from the war and unified against the Aberrant threat.
- 1923: Mercer returns to his own time with a grand vision of the future, and founds the Æon Society.
- 1942: Max meets his junior and instructs him on his time-travel abilities.
- 1943: Max and the rest of Æon battle his friend Donighal in the guise of Dr. Primoris. The battle goes poorly, and Primoris vanishes at the end. Mercer claims to be content with the resolution, but grows increasingly despondent.
- 1945: A man claiming to be Mercer's son Michael appears on the steps of the Æon Society's Chicago chapter. While all his friends are surprised, Mercer is not. He also won't admit the identity of the mother.
- 1950: Mercer vanishes from public view. His son claims that he will return when he is needed.
- 2008: Mercer has apparently returned, and was overheard on at least one conference call with the rest of the Æon Council. He also assumes control of Project Pandora from his granddaughter Margaret A. Mercer.
- 2122: Mercer and Whitley Styles exchange several OpMails. They discuss the upcoming Venezuelan Phenomenon, and later determine that it's about time that the truth about Nippon comes out (presumably the fact that they still have novas).
Background Information[]
The following was posted to the WW forums on March 2, 2006, by Andrew Bates:
- It is fact within the Trinity Universe (based, for what it's worth, on my own original establishment of the character's concept) that Mercer is unique, his time manipulation powers being based on neither Quantum nor subquantum energy. Just how he does it remains unknown.
- Far as that goes, my personal take is that the Hammersmith Event awakened within Mercer an awareness in the fourth dimension. He remained a normal human, but could now perceive and move through time. As a (very) rough analogy, compare it to someone who suddenly gains the ability to see or walk. Not unlike learning to walk, it took a while for Mercer to grow skilled with this ability and he stumbled around a bit in the meantime. To extend the comparison further, Mercer does have limits just as there are limits to how fast normal people can run, how far they can see and the like. He can do some incredible stuff, but he can't hop to the beginning of the universe. By my thinking, he can go perhaps 500 years from his anchor point (the early-/mid-20th century).
- So does this mean other humans could discover this ability? Sure, just as they could become psions or novas. It's the rarest of the three options, though — so far, Mercer's the only to have it, and he's scores of generations ahead of the evolutionary curve.
- Not that any of this is canon or anything, just drawing from my notes on the guy.
Appears In[]
Adventure! Core Rulebook (Stats)
Adventure! d20
Aberrant d20
Terra Verde
Asia Ascendant
Mentioned In[]
Trinity Players Guide (Mentions rumor that Mercer still runs the Trinity)