Michael Corvinus - Character Information
Background
Michael Corvinus came about primarily after I had been playing Star Trek Online for a while with the ACI. I wanted to create another alternate character as an outlet for yet another one of my interests: paramilitary and covert operations situations.
I created Michael Corvinus to be, essentially, the culmination of many years within covert operations and field intelligence groups. As such he was highly trained in most infiltration and sabotage situations, as well as being extremely well trained in small unit tactics, guerilla warfare tactics and situations, and insertion techniques. As a relatively new character, I didn't get a chance to play him as much.
Being that he was designed to be a covert operations operative, he was never imagined to ever have any sort of ship command.
Family Name
Many people, after I created the character and before I'd written a biography for him, assumed that I'd 'stolen' the family name Corvinus from the well known Underworld Series movies about vampires and werewolves. This is certainly not the case at all, particularly since I didn't even recall that name being a part of the movies until after the accusations started (I wasn't much of a fan of the series).
I have been a huge history buff for most of my life, particularly military history, but Ancient History has always been one of my biggest passions as well, with Ancient Rome being one of my favorite subjects (particularly as I got older). When I created the character of Michael Corvinus, I wanted to make him have ties to Ancient Earth in some way, and so I tied the two together ('present day' Star Trek Online and Ancient Rome) by having Michael's family descended directly from the Corvinus gens, while still living in Italy as well.
The actual real world name of Corvinus comes from Ancient Rome. The first time the Corvinus family comes into Roman history is via Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, a Roman general, who was involved in the political intrigue between Marcus Antonius (commonly known as Mark Antony) and Augustus (Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian after his adoption by Julius Caesar) that led to the Liberator's Civil War. Marcus Corvinus fought in the Battle of Philippi under Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus (the Younger), both of whom were involved in the murder of Julius Caesar. After that battle Marcus switched sides and began fighting for Marcus Antonius (for reasons which are still largely unknown), but soon afterward switch allegiance yet again and fought for Augustus. He was appointed as a Consul in 31 BC, and took part in the Battle of Actium - later, after suppressing a revolt in Gallia Aquitania (modern Western France) he was granted the honor of a Triumph in Rome. He was also influential in Roman literature, writing many works (all of which have been lost unfortunately).
Interestingly, the Wallachian-Hungarian family of Corvin, which is fictionally supposed to be the root of the Lycans and Vampires in the Underworld series, claimed to be descendants of Marcus Corvinus. However, there is hardly any historical evidence to support this claim, which seems to have come from Matthias Corvinus Hunyadi's biographer Antonio Bonfini.