Hester's Locket

Hester's Locket is a very powerful device of legend in The Gerosha Chronicles of Dozerfleet Comics. Its origins as part of the franchise trace all the way back to the year 2001, when it was first defined in Hyper-Uber-Proto Gerosha (Earth-G0) for a re-imagining of The Scarlet Letter that tied in with a class assignment for the Dozerfleet founder's high school American literature class. It later becomes the signature weapon of Hea Pang, sidekick to the Gray Champion.

Necklace and pendant
The necklace is made of plated gold, and contains the Beamer's Ruby inside it. It's opening for the ruby's viewing is shaped after a stylized letter "A," which allows the ruby's beams to be guided. The locket was designed by Miles Wealthington, a friend of John Domeck. There is otherwise relatively little that is special about the pendant itself. Combined, ruby and necklace/chain are the most prized possession in Gerosha mythos; surpassing even the Gerosha Stone.

Beamer's ruby
See also: Marlquaan

The Beamer's Ruby is one of themany Marlquaan-bonded rubies sought after by the Society of the Icy Finger. It doesn't grant to whomever possesses it immediate powers, but it does give the wielder the ability to reflect its beam off a surface so as to give or take powers away from someone else. Marlquaanites can be created or de-powered through it. Powers may also be transferred. It is activated by the will of its wielder, but can go off by accident if the wielder is in a sufficient state of emotional distress. It seems to be one of the most self-protecting of the Marlquaanite rubies, and has even shown an ability to be used to destroy other rubies. The ruby can be used up to three times on someone before a cooldown refactory period goes into effect. It can de-power someone from an Ultraviolet Spectrum Marlquaan bond to no bond; but it can only power someone up to a Red Spectrum bond.

Creation
At some point in history, the Marlquaan struck several places on Earth in a massive storm surge. A pile of rubies became Marlquaan-bound in various different ways, and were scattered throughout Europe. In China, the substance "nin-chyo" was also forged by the storm. General Feng Shoo took notice of the latter phenomenon. The rubies were eventually discovered, but fights erupted over them. Around the early 17th century, a cult known as the Society of the Icy Finger decided it would secure all the rubies for themselves. They believed this would make them gods in their own right. While the massive Grand Ultimates' Ruby was the most dangerous and powerful, one of the most useful was known as the "Beamer's Ruby." This is because it could be used to give or take powers away from another with a beam that would emit from the ruby. It worked best if the beam were reflected and hit the intended target, rather than a direct beam.

A So-Called Heretic
Main article: A So-Called Heretic

John Domeck and Miles Wealthington team up to keep as many rubies as possible out of the Icy Finger's reach. However, their spies are everywhere. Miles uses one of the rubies to become a being known as "Oraphim," named after the angel type. He battles a dangerous Marlquaanite known as the Shrouded Entity all the way to Greenland, where he is able to trap the Entity in an ice prison deep underground and not far from the Magnetic North Pole. Some time before all that, he created the golden chain necklace and pendant to store the ruby inside of, as a disguise. As John battles to keep the other rubies' locations a secret, Miles gives the Beamer's Ruby necklace to a prisoner in Boston named Hester Prynne for safekeeping. He fails to inform her right away of its true properties.

Hester later accidentally activated the ruby inside her necklace, and de-powered her ex-husband Chillingworth with it as Chillingworth was about to use his freezing powers to kill Dimmesdale during the latter's public confession of adultery. It was not long after the ruby's true power was revealed that a society began to keep the necklace's origins a secret. For the short duration of Hester's public sentence, she made an embroidery scarlet letter to replace the necklace. It came to be dubbed "Hester's Locket," and was passed from one secret bearer to another for many generations. Miles stylized the beam controller to ideally guide the beam, and discovered it looked like a letter "A." After it was given to Hester, the jailer stated that the "A" could come to symbolize "adultery." This is why Hester was made to wear the necklace publicly. Knowledge of a hidden "scarlet letter chain necklace" made its way back to the Icy Finger, which became as obsessed with finding Hester's Locket as it was with finding where in the time stream John Domeck had washed ashore - so they could kill him whenever he was.

Chillingworth's Revenge
Main article: The Gray Champion: Chillingworth's Revenge

The Hester's Locket went for many years without being used. As it passed hands from one to another, it eventually found its way to the Ramirez family in Cuba. The Ramirezes fled Cuba for Florida after a time, to get away from Castro. In 1995, they found and adopted Marge Domeck, who arrived in 1995 after the Marlquaan storm sent her there. Marge would grow up to become the superheroine known as Mapacha. The Ramirezes looked for worthy successors to come in their lifetimes who would be able to put the locket to use pragmatically, especially as they saw Icy Finger activity growing at an alarming rate. Their wish came true when Gray and Hea Pang arrived with Tabitha and the Medsors in Florida, looking to learn more about the locket's history and find a way to defeat Chillingworth II.

The locket passed ownership hands from Anna Ramirez to Hea Pang, and the latter was able to use it in battle against Chillingworth successfully. Hea became its official guardian from that point onward.

Sodality
Main article: Sodality (series)

Hea and the locket were trapped together in a Marlquaanite prison container at the orders of Judge Terry Beliah, who only knew of Hea's existence but not that she had the locket. Tabitha Pang was also captured in this manner, as was Team Gray. Upon her being rescued, Hea immediately joins the Sodality. SCALLOP officials are surprised to see her alive and well. Lex promises her a job with SCALLOP should she ever want to return to being a direct affiliate. One of Hea's first major tasks is traveling to the Netherlands with the locket.

Beliah's men foolishly revive the Shrouded Entity, and it's up to Hea Pang to defeat him. However, he is a Blue Spectrum bond. This means that it will take a new Oraphim, the combined efforts of the Gray Champion and Extirpon, and three blasts with the locket to de-power him. The heroes' strategy works, at the expense of losing their new Oraphim. Hea later promises Extirpon that when he does find a suitable replacement for his title, she will de-power him so he and Pam can get married and live their lives together in peace.

Battle for Metheel and aftermath
Main article: Sodality: Battle for Metheel

During the events of Battle for Metheel, Hea is forced to travel back in time and destroy the Grand Ultimates' Ruby before King Morzhuk can get his hands on it. She leaves her present copy of the locket in the present, and instead recruits Hester to the Sodality to use the past locket. After the two women safely destroy the Grand Ultimates' Ruby using the locket with help from Kicked Deer, they're attacked by Icy Finger goons. Pilltar arrives in the past, both to rescue Hea and to allow Hester and Pearl time to escape on foot.

Hea eventually give the locket to her daughter Tabitha. It is used to transfer the powers of Extirpon from Eric Stanley Opendi to Eddie Castral Pintal. John Domeck bestows the Gray Champion mantle on Roy Bernald similarly. The locket becomes a sort of last resort for use in battle afterward, as its power makes it too dangerous and attractive to be allowed much publicity.

Inspiration
In 1994, the young Dozerfleet founder read parts of a Disney Adventures magazine comic crossover event called The Legend of the Chaos God. Beginning with a TaleSpin-related comic piece, the villain Solego was introduced. He was depicted as being trapped inside a red, mystical ruby that much never be combined with the. That issue carried over with a Chip and Dale, a Goof Troop, and later a DuckTales tie-in. There would have been a finale Darkwing Duck tie-in, but the Dozerfleet founder was unable to secure a copy of that issue.

The look for Solego's chain and ruby had a lasting impact on the Dozerfleet founder. In 2001, his classmates in Traci Backus' American literature class at Holt Lutheran High School were all assigned to read The Scarlet Letter. The class was expected also to draw various sketches of events from the book. The Dozerfleet founder reinterpreted much of the book's contents in his artwork, resulting in Hyper-Uber-Proto Gerosha. The locket was blamed for Chillingworth being depowered, not the revelation of Dimmesdale's confession. Rather than slowly grow weak and die, Chillingworth is showing as his powers backfiring as he is de-powered. He is blown into millions of pieces of icy chunks of flesh.

Around the same time, the Dozerfleet founder read "The Gray Champion" in class. A class assignment included writing fanfics about the Champion's return. This was later also incorporated into Gerosha mythos, leading to an idea for The Gray Champion: Modern Legend. That story would later become part of a volume called The Gray Champion: Modern Legends. The story itself would be renamed in 2011 to The Gray Champion: Freedom's Apparition. However, the initial story leaves out significant plot relevance for Hester's locket. Also in 2011, the sequel was named The Gray Champion: Chillingworth's Revenge. As Chillingworth II arrives to complete the Icy Finger's 400-year-long bounty on John Domeck and destroy Team Gray, the team must join with Mapacha and track down the locket of legend. It was decided that Hea Pang made an easy modern parallel to Hester, so the story was written to have the locket become Hea's property. In 2010, a prequel was first proposed for the Modern Legends volume. That prequel later became A So-Called Heretic.

The locket's power later was made to prove useful both to Sodality in its fourth season and to Sodality: Battle for Metheel. It became the primary tool by which the Shrouded Entity could be defeated, as well as becoming the de-facto way to retire heroes within the Sodality of Gerosha.

Design
The locket's basic appearance in either Sims 2 or Sims 3 involved heavy amounts of searching for template necklaces that could be worn. The front golden plate design is generated for concept art screenshots using Photoshop, while ensuring a sort of "glowing red ruby" is visible through the "A" carving.