Thomas Wield

Thomas Wield is a character set in the now-defunct City of Heroes MMO.

He serves as Deputy Police Chief in the Paragon City Police Department.

Character History

Early Years

Thomas Wield was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a small coastal city that, surprisingly, had no local heroes at the time.

Portsmouth prided itself in ordinary people. Ordinary fire fighters, ordinary police officers, ordinary city leaders. While children idolized Statesman and the other heroes of the Freedom Phalanx, they would grow up and learn how to deal with issues without putting on a cape and mask.

Thomas always wanted to be a police officer. He loved the idea of law and order prevailing over the chaos he saw on TV. He saw heroes as part of the problem, not part of the solution.

When he graduated from high school, he applied himself to the local police force and was accepted. He attended New Hampshire Police Training with a specialty in tactics and special weapons. In the Portsmouth Police Department, Officer Wield was a cool and methodical law enforcer. He earned respect from his fellow officers and rose to the rank of lieutenant. He married his high school sweetheart and together they had one child, a son.

Then the Rikti invaded.

Even though the city had no heroes, the Rikti still sent patrols. Wield did what he could to help keep the peace, but it also meant that he had to take action against the local "troublemakers" that wanted to fight back. He wasn't happy about that, but he told himself that he was doing it to keep the rest of the city safe.

Paragon City

After the invasion was routed, he got a call from newly-appointed Police Chief Conrad Bochco in Rhode Island. Bochco was looking to rebuild the police force in Paragon City, and he was looking to do it without heroes. Bochco quietly confided in Wield that he saw heroes as a disease that he wanted to have purged. He pointed out that Paragon City was singled out for extreme destruction from the Rikti because of their heroes and he strongly felt that the first step to ridding the problem was in getting rid of the heroes. But, of course, with Statesman and his Freedom Phalanx and Freedom Corps riding high after the war, such talk was almost blasphemous. So Bochco wanted Wield to help make the city inhospitable to heroes.

Wield accepted the challenge and was put in charge of rebuilding the city's police union. He was the first elected president of the new Paragon City Police Union, with the promised goal of making the policeman the new "heroes" of Paragon City.

2007

Just prior to the Second Rikti Invasion of 2007, Wield had to take a leave from the police due to a family emergency. Because of that, he was not present during the crackdown on police abuses that was spearheaded by heroes like the Libertarian Avenger and by the city through special investigators like Jimmy Hellfighter.

As president of the police union, he was cushioned from much of the criticism of his strong support of the officers that were accused of corruption and gross abuse of power. He also weathered the calls for his resignation following the announced retirement of Bochco, who shouldered most of the blame of the abuses.

Following this incident, it is said that his vocal hostility towards heroes escalated even further. Some officers claimed that Wield expressed desires to execute heroes on the spot. Most comments were dismissed, though, as simply coming from stress following the family emergency, and because of the increased hostility from the Rikti.

New Command

Following the death of Deputy Chief Glenn McMillian, Wield stepped down from his leadership role within the police union and accepted the role of Deputy Chief. His first action was to shut down the Hero Shield project and permanently reassign Captain Paragonna to the Awakened Division, promoting her to the full rank of Captain.

While some saw this as Wield's gradual "acceptance" of heroes in the police force, the truth was he simply wanted any trace of McMillian's "hero-loving" legacy isolated from the rest of the force.

Wield put greater emphasis on the heavy-armor and psi-active divisions, quietly training them to take down super-powered beings. While he easily excused this as taking a more pro-active role in thwarting the villains from the Rogue Isles and from Arachnos, Wield was also preparing his men for the day that he gives the order to have all the heroes arrested and expelled from the city.

Some of Wield's other decisions done in secret, including the gradual return of all of the officers that were expelled from the police force that were part of the original Blue Dog Squad, including Cade Williams, who legally changed his name to William McCade. Having been forced to step down from a leadership role in the police union as part of his promotion, Wield used his influence to have McCade become union vice-president. This would ensure that McCade would have unquestioned support from every officer on the police force.

Powers and Abilities

This character is a member of the Paragon City Police Department.

Wield has been given advanced police training in both lethal and non-lethal weapons.

Related Information

According to creator BattlerockX/David 2, Thomas Wield was patterned after various characters portrayed by veteran film actor Michael Ironside.