Life for Manuel de la Rocha was always two ways, there was the reality and there was his reality. The reality of the situation for Manuel de la Rocha is that he was born into an impoverished family who were descendents of ancient noble Romans. He was a thin frail young boy in Castile, Spain and was constantly picked on by his schoolmates who were bigger and stronger than he was.
In his reality, Manuel de la Rocha was born into Spanish nobility that could trace their lineage all the way to ancient Rome. He was rich and lived the true life of a courtesan, given anything and everything he wanted. He was the epitome of the upper class and enjoyed his station in life. He had many friends and was very popular in school.
The time when true reality and his imagined reality collided comes when Manuel reaches puberty and develops his rather nasty mutant power of empathy. Once he realized that he was a mutant and how powerful he was, then that was the true birth of Empath. The ability to not only feel what others were feeling, but also the ability to make others feel a certain way, gave this little monster much relish. He immediately started using his powers to get many people to like him, but to also embarrass, humiliate, and overall destroy those who bullied him. It was during one such demonstration of his abilities at his school that led him to the attention of Emma Frost, and the Hellfire Club.
Empath was one of the first students recruited by Ms. Frost for Massachusetts Academy. Unknown to the majority of the students, there was a cabal of mutants that she gathered and formed the Hellions. Manuel was given the codename of Empath and he joined his teammates in training and controlling their abilities. These Hellions were the antithesis of Charles Xavier's students in the X-men and New Mutants. These student were taught the negative side of their abilities and were baptized into villainy.
Their first outing as a group brought them into conflict with none other than the X-Men themselves. This group of powerful mutant teenagers kidnapped the mutant Banshee and took over Cheyenne Mountain, where they took over the NORAD station. During the confrontation, two things are revealed about Empath. One is just how awesome his powers really are, as he is able to knock out a weakened Prof. X with help, he is able to manipulate a whole room of soldiers to panic and even make Nightcrawler fight recklessly and without regard. Another thing that was revealed is just how much Empath is afraid of direct combat. The mere sight of Wolverine popping his claws was enough for him to pass out. The mission a failure in Empathâs eyes. He swears to never be humiliated that way again.
After the New Mutants suffer memory loss from interaction with the Beyonder, they are brought to the Massachusetts Academy for help and integration into the Hellions. Empath uses the opportunity to emotionally torture some of the team, as well as Sharon Friedlander and Tom Corsi. He made the later two fall into a sexual frenzy and fall madly in love with each other. However, Magik proves to be immune to his powers and when the New Mutants are freed they kidnap him, but he is rescued and humiliated by Thunderbird, the Hellion leader.
During the time that the New Mutants were Hellions, Empath manipulated Magma into falling in love with him. His manipulation was so deep that she forsook her New Mutant teammates and remained a Hellion with Empath. While throughout his years as a Hellion, Empath has tried to manipulate others into falling into love with him. Emma Frost was able to psionically defeat the troubles student. Firestar eventually overcame his manipulation, due in part to the nature of her powers and her sudden immunity to his powers. Magma was not so lucky, but there were hints that she genuinely loved him. For his part, it seems that Empath genuinely loved Magma. So much so that the two left the Massachusetts Academy to Nova Roma, Magma’s home.
The two have since remained there and were fortunate enough not to return to the Massachusetts Academy as the school and most of its mutant students were killed by the Right. At this time, it was revealed Empath had been manipulating Magma. She grew so furious that she raised a volcano and pushed him into it. She and others believe him to be dead. In reality he has survived that incident and has been recovering from his injuries, waiting to unleash his revenge.
Overview: Empath is a modern day Niccolo Machiavelli. "The Prince" and "The Art of War" by Niccolo Machiavelli are his bible and he has transformed his life to become that book. He is a modern-day mastermind, preferring behind the scenes puppetmastery to overt action. He is sneaky, sly, and evil. He will do whatever it takes to get what he wants whether it is to amass fame and fortune or harm and endanger others. He maintains a calm, cool, and collected manner, but will lash out viciously if he needs to, especially when it comes to his family. However, Empath is not a man without a heart at certain times, as he genuinely fell in love with Magma.
Machiavellian: He is a cutthroat and a bully, but not in the sense of a strong schoolyard bully. Instead, he enjoys being an intellectual and emotional bully. With his powers, he can literally make people feel however he wants them to feel which is typically one of two ways: to love him or to hurt them!
Evil: A direct quote from Charles Xavier sums up Empath nicely, "Manuel enjoys utilizing his talent. People are no more than servants or toys to him. There is no kindness or generosity in him. If there is a living definition of evil, it may well be he."
Coward: Under the superficial exterior of a mastermind belies the fear and dread of a child. He detests violence and physical interaction of battles and prefers behind the scenes malice.
Empathy is the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another. Through means of his mutant abilities, Manual de la Rocha is an empath and is able to sense, read, identify, and determine at any given time the emotional state of sentient life forms, whether it is one person or group of persons (maximum eight people)
Another aspect of his abilities is emotion control. Empath uses this ability to varying degrees, but only to a maximum of eight sentient life forms at a time. He can manipulate one emotion at a time, affecting eight targets within the same region during that time. He can vary the amount of control and manipulation over his targets. He can strengthen an emotion already felt by an individual by giving a push to that particular feeling. He can create emotions within his victims having them feel a certain way about someone or something. Or he can exert complete control over his victim or victims turning them into emotionless zombies. He can control people through their emotions that they would do whatever he commands.
While Manual is no Picasso or Rembrandt, he is an art lover. It is the pseudo-elitist in him that has made him an aficionado of the arts. He is familiar with most art forms and artists and is able to note standout up and coming artists. He knows what will sell and what is junk art. He, himself, is not an artist, but enjoys spending much of his free time in museums and in art galleries.
Since the reality of his situation as a child was that he grew up in poverty and to keep up the air that he puts on as a 'noble' and 'aristocrat.' Manual has established himself as a savvy businessman. He is able to note and play upon the emotions of those in the wealthy class to the point, that he has set up a nice small fortune for himself built off manipulating and using his empathy skills to work a room and network, receiving tips that are always reliable.
Manual is a history buff, in particular history relating to Spain and the Roman Empire, which the two intersect heavily. Most of his research into history came as he researched his familyâs history as Spanish and prior to that Roman nobility. Upon learning that it was true that the de la Rocha's were indeed nobility, he has used this information as bragging rights and access to any fortune may come his way.
To assist with better control of his powers, Empath is familiar with human behavior and what role emotions play on behavior or what emotion will elicit what behavior and response. While he is not a licensed psychologist, he knows enough to assist in his powers and predict what use of empathy will deliver the most anguish to his victims and most joy for him.
Manual is an expert liar. Perhaps one of the best and through careful use of his powers, he can almost always make someone believe him. In fact, he is so adept at using his powers that he is able to tell when someone is lying and when someone is telling the truth based on their emotional response when speaking a lie or a truth
Manual was born and raised in Spain. Thus, he is fluent in Spanish and all its myriad forms, from the purist Castilian Spanish to its less than pure forms spoken in South America and the Caribbean. He detests speaking the muddied Spanish spoken in outside of Spain.
DE LA ROCHA FORTUNE: Manual grew up impoverished in Castile, Spain, but his family are descendants of Spanish and Roman nobility. Upon developing his mutant powers, one thing that Empath has worked on was restoring his family name and through deceptive use of his power and psychology, he has amassed a small fortune in working to reestablish his family as aristocracy.
MASSACHUSETTS ACADEMY: While the academy has been destroyed by the Right, Empath was one of, if not, the best student Emma Frost taught. His expertise with his powers, in his mind, surpassed all the other Hellions. Though, he was not liked by his teacher, there was a sense of mutual comradeship as both realized how dangerous the other was. And so, Empath may from time to time rely on Emma or any of his Massachusetts Academy classmates/alum for assistance.
NOVA ROMA: While he was ultimately expelled from Nova Roma and believed to be dead when Empath resided there. He was well respected and a consort to Nova Roma's leader's daughter, Magma. Should he return and be able to use his powers, he can establish himself as a very powerful person within that community.
EMPATHY: Empathy is not a resource in and of itself, but through careful and deceptive use of his powers, Manual can make himself desirable and attractive to others. Make others admire, and perhaps even worship him. He has no problem making others fall under his thrall and giving to him whatever he wants or desires.
NOBILITY: Through his love of history, Manual was able to determine the veracity of the claim made by his family that he is descended from Spanish and Roman nobility dating back centuries. Though his nuclear family grew up in poverty, Empath has been working to regain the fortune and recognition due to him and his family name and is considered by some to be a true noble, in the loosest of terms.
There are people that Empath has attempted to use his powers on that proved too strong for even his empathy to affect. Those have included Emma Frost who was able to not only stop Empath's direct attack on her, but she was able to use her telepathy to attack him. A very tired Professor X was almost defeated by Empath, but he still had enough resistance to stop the attack. While telepaths are not immune to his powers, those with strong iron wills can halt or stop the attack by exerting much effort. Someone like Captain America or those with similar wills could, possibly hold off an empathic attack or Empath would need to exert maximum, often exhaustive, effort to enthrall someone like that. However, it is not impossible as he was able to manipulate someone with the strong will like Magneto.
Firestar is a special case when it comes to Empath. She has been manipulated in the past by him to the point where she thought she was in love with him. However, Firestar's increased control of her powers has been able to scramble his ability and her microwave pulse is able to scramble the wavelength on which his powers worked. This occurred post-continuity, but may prove the case here. This immunity that Firestar has may also extend to people with similar microwave-based powers.
Empath enjoys a good fight, but one that he can watch and in particular one that he has caused. However, he is loathe, nay fears, direct physical confrontation. When confronted by the mere presence of Wolverine and his claws, he fainted. He is not a fighter and lacks training in any fighting skill. When confronted with direct violence or harm to his direct person, he will faint or flee if he is not able to affect the attacker empathically.
Due to the nature of his power, Empath truly believes himself better than everyone else. He suffers from a God complex and believes himself untouchable. He is so arrogant and has manipulated so many people that it is difficult for him to maintain any sort of true friendship and he is never sure if anyone he comes across is genuine. He himself is not and so he will find others to be just as distrustful.
Magik has proven herself completely immune to his empathy attacks. While Professor X, the greatest telepath on the planet, had to mentally fight off Empath's attack, Magik is completely immune. Empath is unable to read her or influence her in anyway. This ability may be due to her time in Limbo or due to her demonic/magical nature. This immunity may also extend to other people with demonic natures or magical abilities.
Empath is able to sense and detect the emotions of sentient beings around him. At times, he must concentrate, making a concerted effort to or he will find himself overwhelmed and caught up in extremely powerful. He may become lost, confused, or find himself feeling that same emotion.
