MAGNETO

Real name: Unrevealed, but believed to be Erik Lehnsherr
Occupation: Mutant Activist/Terrorist
Identity: Magneto is publicly known as a mutant, though his real identity remains unknown to the public.
Legal status: Currently wanted by the U.S. Government for various crimes.
Other aliases: Magnus, Magneto, Master Of Magnetism, many others
Place of birth: Gdansk, Poland
Marital status: Widower
Known relatives: Magda (wife, deceased), Anya (daughter, deceased), Wanda & Pietro Maximoff (children), unnamed others.
Group affiliation: Leader of the Brotherhood
Base of operations: Unrevealed
First appearance: August, 2000
History:

The man who would become Magneto was most likely born to the name Erik Lehnsherr, in Poland. His early childhood was one of tragedy as while still a child the Nazis interned him and his family in Auschwitz. The rest of Erik's family died there, but somehow he managed to survive. It was in these camps he met the woman Magda, who would later become his wife, when he killed a guard to save her and they escaped. It is possible Erik's mutant powers unknowingly aided in his escape, deflecting bullets for example, but at this time he was unaware of them.

Erik and Magda moved to a village in the Ukraine, where they married and had a daughter, Anya. Erik worked as a blacksmith. It was a quiet, peaceful life for the most part, and Erik was the happiest he had ever been. One day, during a fight over wages, Erik's mutant powers first manifested themselves knowingly, as he caused a metal pipe to float across the room and strike his boss. Erik knew he caused it and revelled in the power, but it had consequences as his boss later led a mob to burn down his house. Erik saved his wife, but his daughter Anya perished in the fire. So distraught over his daughter's death, when the mob closed in to finish the job, he used his powers to kill them all, leaving only Magda alive. But Magda was terrified at the man her loving husband had become, especially when he began talking about striking back against all oppressors, everywhere. She fled in the night to get away from Erik, not yet having told him she was pregnant. She later died in childbirth, far from Erik.

At first, Erik spent much of his time searching for Magda, but without success. He also began on a voyage of discovery of his nature. Although his boasts of striking back against oppressors was done in a fit of anger, Erik did want to use his powers to prevent the grinding down of the oppressed he had already seen. To do that, he had to discover if there were others like him, with powers beyond what normal men could do. He studied physics, psychology, and finally genetics. He also travelled the world, looking for Magda, mutants, or meaning.

At one point in his travels, he spent a night with a married Russian woman named Kaylina, who was fleeing her abusive husband. Although it was only for one night and the two never even exchanged last names, or saw each other again, the relationship resulted in a pregnancy. Kaylina carried the twins to term, but gave them up for adoption to Django and Marya Maximoff, a couple travelling nearby, who raised them as their own children. Neither Erik nor the children are aware of these facts at this time.

While in Israel, Erik met and befriended another mutant, Charles Xavier while working to help psychiatric patients, and the two shared the secret of their abilities, and other knowledge of mutants they had. The two faced off against Baron Von Strucker at one point, after which Erik tried to recruit Xavier to his cause. The two had differing views, but were close enough that they discussed the issue at length. Finally, Xavier declined, and though they parted on friendly terms, Erik felt the need to move on. When he left, he took a huge cache of Nazi-era gold, taken from Strucker.

Using this money, Erik set himself up with identities in different countries and improved his mind and knowledge through study. He also paid people to keep him abreast of certain types of news stories. Erik never actually told them to look for mutants, or people with strange powers... that might only alert others who were looking. Instead, he focused on anomalous events. Freak weather patterns, geothermal disturbances, even mysterious deaths were all brought to his attention, and he followed up on the most promising of them. In some cases these seemed to be just coincidences, but in others he found mutants, and his Brotherhood began to form.

When he heard about the Black Prom, Erik knew the time was soon approaching when mutants would be the target of discrimination and oppression, like every other 'different' group has been. He saw it as his responsibility to make sure that did not happen.

Now calling himself Magneto, Erik operated in secret in the year following the Black Prom, almost exclusively seeking out and recruiting more mutants to his cause. Sometimes they accepted, and sometimes they refused, but a distressing number of times he came too late. Many people he identified as mutants had either died or disappeared, and since most people didn't believe mutants existed, no one would believe a conspiracy to wipe them out, as Magneto feared. Even some of his early recruits vanished without leaving word, and Magneto feared the worst. He knew that he would have to make the existence of mutants impossible to deny, and protect the Brotherhood. He began work on a secret base to house his group as part of the latter goal, and for the former he planned a demonstration.

Magneto made his presence and the existence of mutants in general, clear to the world at the First International Symposium on Mutant Origins and Issues, held at Columbia University in August of 2000. There, with the aid of some of his acolytes, he gave a speech, then removed the roof to reveal an astonishing display of aurora borealis. He also promised the end to the wildfires raging across the western US at the time (this promise was apparently kept). At the same time, he warned that should mutants be oppressed, he might next come not bearing gifts, but a sword.

Weeks later, at the United Nation's Millennium assembly he forced his way in to deliver a speech asking for mutants explicitly accorded the same rights as humans in the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and for the U.N. to investigate the possibility of a mutant homeland.

Height: 6'2" Weight: 190 lbs.
Eyes: Grey Hair: Silver-white
Unusual physical characteristics: None
Strength level: Magneto possesses the normal human strength of a man his half his age, and of his height, and build, who engages in intensive regular exercise.
Known superhuman powers: Magneto possesses control over the fundamental force of magnetism, at levels unparalleled by any other known mutant. He has been seen to lift and reshape metallic objects from afar. On at least one occasion he has also produced an aurora borealis effect in the sky. Given the vigor he has for his age, it is possible his aging process is slowed somehow, but this is unconfirmed.
Other abilities: Magneto is well-versed in genetics, electronics, and physics, and is fluent in several language. He also has excellent leadership skills, and collecting loose change from couch cushions is a snap.
Weapons and paraphernalia: Magneto sometimes wears a helmet he designed to protect him against mental domination, and a suit of armor.
Other notes: None.