It's honestly depressing me that I didn't know who Paul Steed was until I read that article in whole. ;__; His story is pretty inspiring, I would have liked to at least known about him during his lifetime, not just as a fan of Quake and Quake-based games, he sounded very authentic as a person. That quote of his about "being real" deeply resonated with me.
In a way, Steed influenced OA also. Angelyss? That's pretty much three Steed characters in one.
Wow, I never would have guessed, until now, you had a huge source of inspiration for characters like Angelyss; that's like the character I mainly play as too. I really should look into some of Steed's character designs, since I haven't played Quake 1 or 2 outside the shareware versions.