Heraclea

What the game really needs is a Galaxy City counterpart to Peregrine Island.

I have donated inf from my 50 for a costume contest exactly once. Did it in Galaxy, of course. I may do it again, this time for a character tell bind contest.

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I wonder is the in game story line will follow the Comic story line….

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You think people complained about nerfs before? Just wait till you see. . . . .

21/21. A number of these were gotten by process of elimination. If there's no red in it, you can probably rely on the fact that it ain't the Crimson Avenger. . . .

I would try to set up some kind of instanced indoor contact who would be, at least for the duration of a story arc, valuable. Maybe they sell the next larger size inspirations than ordinary contacts. Make them worth knowing. Give them a personality. They might be behind a door that can only be opened by someone running the arc.

Then, at some point during the arc, she disappears! Or you open the door of her office, and you are greeted instead by a mob of Skulls! The Skulls have finally gotten to her. This launches a chained mission in which you interrogate Skulls, find the hideout where they are keeping her, and when you do the rescue, you aren't rescuing 3 Generic Victims, or just finding Glowie McGuffin, you are rescuing a valuable ally, someone with whom you or the team have an ongoing relationship.

You might make these timed missions with the possibility of failure. Failure means losing that contact; success means she remains available in the rest of the game.

Heraclea

Real name: Heraclea Semiramides
Powers: Invuln/SS
Origin: Magic

Heraclea comes from a remote island of female warriors who still worship the gods of classical antiquity, all of whom were gifted with warrior skills by the goddess Vesta. All her life, Heraclea has been fond of smashing things; something she came to regret after she broke an ancient amphora by her general rowdiness. As such, she was ordered to serve as a gladiator. She lost an eye in the process fighting wild beasts and legendary creatures in the arena, but she survived and became one of the most famous gladiators on the island.

To redeem her place in society, she was selected to come to Paragon City on a mission to recover an ancient artifact that had been stolen by the Circle of Thorns mages. Upon seeing conditions in Paragon City, and in particular the number of women who are captured by Thorns wizards or preyed upon by petty gangsters, she decided to remain in the area to teach them to stand up for themselves.

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I don't know if anyone has mentioned it in this post, I didn't look through all 24 pages, but the late 5th column was the name of a rogue faction from the V series/movies.

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A fifth column, generally, is a group of people who are citizens of one country but who sympathize with its enemies, especially during a war. It basically refers to potential spies or saboteurs: people who will assist an invading enemy when battle is joined.

Barca is also the surname of Hamilcar Barca and his son Hannibal, who fit the Romans during the Second Punic War.

There are a number of references to Paragon City being originally called New Carthage or Nova Carthago in-game; one came up during the Soul Thorns mission. Paragon City was apparently founded in the seventeenth century, named New Carthage back then, and the Circle of Thorns or a related cult was active at that time as well. This would appear to contradict the received idea that the Circle of Thorns was founded by Baron Zoria, who was a contemporary of Crowley, and active in the 1920s. Then again I'm geeking. . . .

At any rate, Barca (and Dido) in Dark Astoria would appear to relate to Carthage. Dido was the mythical foundress of Carthage; she had the hots for Aeneas, as related by Vergil in The Aeneid.

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Elemental metal. Atomic number 55. Never, ever, mix with water!

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And don't feed it after midnight either!

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Joule also the Metric System (SI)'s unit of Energy, and isn't obscure at all. I believe the SI unit for Work is the Watt, but I'm a bit rusty.

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If you use the metric system, the Skuls win.

FWIW, the names on the Magic SO enhancements also mean something:

Joule is an obscure unit of work measurement in physics, rather like a foot-pound. It was named after James Joule, an English physicist from the late nineteenth century.

Grey appears to reference the Gray Aliens, the standard model extraterrestrial with the large staring eyes and elongated body.

Hermes is the Greek god of messengers, speed, and stealth.

I find these names far less satisfactory than Li Tieh Kuai, Crowley, and Nectanebo.

FWIW, Nectanebo, Li Tieh Kuai, and Crowley are the names in the Magic/Natural DOs. They are all names of semi-historical figures.

Crowley = Aleister Crowley, a magician who was involved in the Golden Dawn in turn of the century England, and led a rather scandalous life.

Nectanebo was one of several pharaohs of the last native Egyptian dynasty, before Egypt was conquered, first by the Persian Empire, and then by Alexander the Great, and then by the Romans.

Li Tieh Kuai is "Iron Crutch Li", one of the eight immortals of Taoism. He was apparently fond of out of body experiences, and one of his students found him apparently dead, and cremated his body. When he returned, he had to take over the body of a crippled beggar, while of course keeping his magical kung-fu powers; thus the Iron Crutch.

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STRIGA Isle

Striga - a pretty pink plant that's parasitic. Home to the Vampyrs...

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Striga < Latin strix, originally a kind of owl. Now striga in Italian means a flying witch or various sorts of night-faring spooks.

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The Serpent's Teeth - ok, this one is a long one. Zeus steals Europa, sister of Cadmus. Cadmus is charged by his father to seek her out. Athena helps him out. He has to slay a serpent, and when he does, Athena instructs him to plant the teeth in the ground. He does, they turn into warriors and fight each other. When 5 remain, they build Cadmus the City of Thebes and install him as king. Teiresias is a descendent of one of these men who sprang from the Serpent's Teeth. His relevance to the Odyssey is that Circe instructed Odysseus to journey to the land of the dead to speak with Tiersais, the only woman (apparently, s/he changed sexes several times in his/her tale) in the underworld allowed to retain her intellect and sanity by Prosepine, and consult her about a way to make it home. Told you it was long.

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In Greek mythology, another "serpent's teeth" were given to Jason (ex: Argonauts) to sow; they sprung into living warriors. Ray Harryhausen made them skeletal warriors in the Jason and the Argonauts movie.