Miles Norton

Basic Information

Name: Miles Norton
Player: Brian Kirkland
Essence: Questing
Nature: Architect
Demeanor: Pedagogue
Age: 45
Concept: Rogue Scientist
Miles Norton: Character Sheet

Background

Miles Norton is the only son of Charles and Louise Norton. He was born on February 29, 1964 in a small town in rural Nova Scotia, Canada. His father moved there in 1962 as part of an assignment to an oil and gas exploratory mission off the coast of Halifax. There he met his wife and within one year they were married. The family relocated to Denver, Colorado after the five-year assignment and Miles has lived in the state ever since.

Miles attended the University of Denver and earned his Ph.D in Particle Physics. He went on to become a professor at the university following the completion of his coursework. It was near the beginning of his 20-year teaching career that he met his wife Cassidy. The marriage produced two sons, Chance (19) and Cecil (16). Chance is a freshman at the University of Denver and works with his father at his lab. The marriage eventually ended in divorce 6 years after Cecil's birth. After the children were born, Miles became more heavily involved in his research and neglected his duties as a father. Cassidy maintained custody of the kids, but they are on good terms and Miles is welcome to see them any time.

Miles has always been involved in special, highly theoretical projects at the University of Denver and was one of the students' favorite professors. He made many trips to Illinois and Switzerland to help Fermilab and CERN design and construct their particle accelerators. In his later years at the university, he began to focus more on relativistic and time theory principles and his researched bordered on the fringe. Many became skeptical of his work, but his opinion held much weight in the field due to his previous contributions.

In January 2009, academia abruptly turned against him after his startling discovery. It was during this period of research that Miles awakened as a Mage. Miles published a paper titled, "The Realignment of Spacetime," which contained many theories that challenged traditional physics. Due to his newfound abilities, he was able to grasp a new understanding of relativity and spacetime, and he pursued and published those ideas. The extent at which academia pushed him aside was startling and unexpected. He backed up his claims with substantial data and proof. Instead of challenging his ideas with counterarguments, his colleagues pushed him away. The university withdrew funding for his projects and dismissed him from the university faculty.

Miles vowed to continue his work, as he felt he was onto the biggest discovery in human history. He moved his research to a small garage northeast of the Denver city center, near the intersection of I-70 and I-270. It just so happened that this discovery shed light on what he deemed the "realignment of spacetime." He challenges Einstein's theory of relativity by introducing other planes of spacetime. He speculates that these planes interweave, loop, and collide in currently unknown ways, but that the current "spot" in time that civilization currently occupied was rapidly progressing to such an intersection. The consequences of hitting such a moment in time are still unknown to him, but all his theories are catastrophic to say the least.

Personality

As one could expect of any particle physicist, Dr. Miles Norton's personality is best described as quarky.

Redshift Labs

Redshift Labs was the company founded by Dr. Norton in February 2009 after his ousting at the University of Denver. Miles has hired several students from the University, including his son Chance, to work at his lab and continue his research. The company makes no money and is run purely on the financial reserves of Dr. Norton. The lab is located in an industrial park garage northeast of the Denver city center, near the intersection of I-70 and I-270.

The business is entirely legitimate but makes no money. It is incorporated with the government and taxes are paid in full. The garage is nondescript and is not easy to find unless one knows where to look. It is in the middle of a large array of industrial garages and consists of one truck-sized garage door with a standard door next to it. The locking mechanisms are a combination of keycard and PIN number entry. The door has a small company logo next to it.

Miles secured a second lab in the Digital Steel Chantry at the Denver International Airport. He has moved the critical pieces of his work to this secure location due to the threat posed by the Technocrats. He still runs mundane operations out of his second lab and has downsized his workforce to just two employees, his son Chance Norton and another assistant Zela Astrada.

Employees

Chance Norton Age: 19 Chance Norton works the night shift at Redshift Labs. He is the son of Miles Norton and is following in his father's footsteps at the University of Denver. He is currently a freshman and plans on going into a field of physics, though he hasn't decided which. He's had some difficulty with the faculty at the university by virtue of being Miles's son.

Zela Astrada Age: 27 Zela Astrada works the day shift at Redshift Labs. She was one of Dr. Norton's brightest students. She began work on her Ph. D in particle physics but hard economic times forced her to take a year off of school. Unlike most of the faculty and students at the University, Zela believes that Dr. Norton's work is at the verge of a major breakthrough and wants to see out the conclusion, whatever the cost may be to her reputation.