Ravenswing

Tiberian Bluff, overlooking Imperial City at night. Awesome view. If it wasn't for the mobs you could just imagine the couples necking.

You need two basic concepts to play your Praetorian:

1. Do you support the Cole Regime?
2. Do the ends justify the means?

You are not required to stick with either choice all the way through. Essentially those are Loyalist or Resistance and how hardline are you.

Other than that, Praetorians are people.

Good start. You're good, have to keep an eye on you.

Paragon Pets is a modelling agency run by Anastasia Kade. I think there is a Handbook entry for it, so you may not have got there.

Perfect Partners is an escort agency run out of an office in FF.

The Tattler from my plot notes:

The main offices of the Tattler are in the Blyde Square district of Steel Canyon. It occupies three floors of one of the tower blocks south-west of the main square.

The presses, when the roll, do so in a warehouse in the Argosy Industrial Park, Atlas Park.


Hope those help.

Lunchtime News Broadcasts, March 9th 2011

"Reports are coming in of an explosion in the Gemini Park district of Galaxy City. The area around the Quality Donut Shop off Gemini Park has been cordoned off by PPD units with assistance from the fire department. Initial statements made by the police appear to indicate that some sort of suicide bomb was involved and that there were two casualties: the shop assistant, who has not been named, and the hero Gunwitch. Both victims have been transfered to the Cygnus Medical Centre for treatment."

There are actually worse things than playing a male character.

Double wammy! Can't log in to my master account. Can't send a support request because it refuses to accept I have an account.

This now, officially, counts as the dumbest idea I've seen implemented in ages.


Oh, I've tried to change the password on my master account three times in recent months and it while it says the password has changed, it never actually has. Perhaps NCSoft should get the BASIC security right before messing up the rest of it.

I suppose I was a little surprised to get Gunwitch (on Union).

The one that always gets people is my level 14 (I think, maybe 12) Emp/Dark Defender, Glory. Every time I take her out someone will ask how I managed to get that name, assuming since she's level 14 that she must be new. No, she was created on day 3 of the EU servers, that's how I managed to get the name!

Business As Usual
Paragon Tattler, February 21st 2011
No one can stop the Tattler! And no one, not even the FBI can stop us bringing the truth to you. This is Hillary Richards, the new editor of the Hero Column after the sad demise of our own Erica Mitchell, and I am here to assure you that Erica’s legacy is not forgotten. I am here to make sure that Paragon’s heroes have no secrets from their public.

As some of you may have seen reported in other media, the Tattler was raided by an FBI cyber-crimes squad last week. I can tell you that no hacking is carried on by our reporters, so that begs the question: why the raid? We believe that this was the result of one of Erica’s investigations and that someone is covering up the activities of a hero. Perhaps someone who decided Erica’s investigation needed to be ended permanently. Well, you can’t scare the Tattler into silence and we will not stop until we have justice for Erica Mitchell.

In other news, well known church-going hero White Cross was seen partying with a number of half-dressed young women, including one with horns and bat wings, in Pocket D on Saturday night. Is the moralistic young man leading a double life? The Tattler thinks so.

(( If anyone actually has a character called White Cross on Union, sorry, this isn't meant to be you. ))

Paragon Tattler Editor Murdered
Paragon Times, page 2, February 19th 2011
Three days ago the Times reported on the death of Erica Mitchell, editor of the Hero Column at the Paragon Tattler. While the only police statement has been to indicate that further investigation has suggested that foul play was involved, the Times has learned that Miss Mitchell was murdered and that several heroes and villains are under suspicion for the crime.

Reports of fire at the death scene have prompted suggestions that the notorious Flambeaux may have been involved. Her dislike of reporters is well known, and the Tattler has reported negatively on her in the past, though not recently.

The more recent Tattler columns have suggested other suspects, in particular Tiger White and the Gunwitch. However, in her last column, Miss Mitchell implied strongly that she was investigating something regarding the Gunwitch. In particular, her finances and the means by which she was recently able to provide large amounts of money to King’s Row charities. Following this publication, the Tattler was raided by the FBI, sources suggesting that the two events were connected.

As of last night, the Gunwitch was unavailable for comment. The lead investigator on the Mitchell case, Detective Todd Cooper, stated, ‘We currently have no suspects in the murder of Miss Mitchell. The Gunwitch is assisting with our enquiries in an advisory capacity. No other person is currently suspect for evidentiary reasons and any speculation regarding Miss Mitchell’s killer is entirely premature.’

The Omega Slot...

After six months of running a 52 player raid every day you will have sufficient components to build your Omega slot power.

Using it you will be resistant (100%) to all damage and mez effects, while your own damage will be unresistable (100%) and you'll critical on every third attack. You will have a +10 level shift.

You will then be two shotted by a minion on entry to the first Incarnate raid you walk into.

Why do you play a god?

Minor backtrack, I have one character, rarely played, who might be a goddess.

Her name is Glory. She's about level 12. When she does come out, people constantly ask me how I managed to get the name, to which the answer is simply that she was created the day after launch and never levelled.

Glory might have been a gooddess who was somehow destroyed. You can't destroy energy, so the energy went somewhere else, and made a cute little girl with wings who sometimes just knows who people she's never met are. An empath, she hates it when people are sad or angry, and does her best to cheer everyone up. She's basically a comedy character, though she had her little bits of pathos back when GG was a young RP meet.

I never really decided whether she really was a goddess, or something else. She thinks she might be, but she doesn't let it go to her head.


Oh, she was created as a dichotemy, an Emp/Dark Defender, she was the archetypal mother goddess figure, healing with one hand, destroying with the other. An angel with its wings dipped in blood.

Paragon Tattler Raided
Paragon Times, page 2, February 16th 2011
In a surprise turn of events, the offices of the Paragon Tattler were raided yesterday afternoon by an FBI cyber-crimes unit investigating claims of email and telephone hacking. Computers and paper documentation were confiscated.

The Tattler issued a statement to the effect that they were guilty of no such criminal activities and would be seeking full restitution for loss of business. No issue of the Tattler was published today.

There was no FBI spokesperson available for comment. They cited national security issues for their silence.


Later editions carry the following on page 1
Tattler Hero Columnist Found Dead
Erica Mitchell, the editor for the Paragon Tattler’s Hero Column was found dead in her apartment this morning. The body was found in her bedroom by a maid. Reports indicate that there was evidence of burning around the body, but police were unwilling to give a cause of death at this early stage.

Mitchell’s career went from little known hero to newspaper editor, and she was known for her scandalous, some say much-raking, attitude to publishing stories about the private lives of Paragon City’s heroes.

Editor in Chief George Pearl said, ‘Erica will be missed. She was an exceptional journalist and a fine hero in her time.’

Reporter Hillary Richards, who has been named as the new Hero Column editor said, ‘Erica taught me all I know about producing a successful newspaper column. I only hope I can live up to her standards.’

Hanky Spankey
Paragon Tattler, February 15th 2011
Breaking news on the Tiger White front and, as I predicted in my recent article, it’s bad news for all you guys out there. It seems that the lusty heroine spent the night before Valentine’s on the beach in Talos, a popular spot for couples seeking romance, with none other than the Gunwitch. The two beauties were, according to our evidence, very much engaged with each other.

Furthermore, the Tiger was heard saying that she would be having a very busy time this year, having so many women to keep satisfied. Included in the list were the Gunwitch’s double, Nitoichi, and that Internet favourite, Fanservice Girl, who we recently reported had a new partner. Tiger White certainly is a busy girl, perhaps there’s some part rabbit in there as well as the cat.


In other news, the Tattler is looking into various large charitable donations made around King’s Row. Someone has been spreading the cash around, which appears to be a good thing, but we have heard rumours that the money may be coming from a rather dubious source. Is there a high class call girl out there masquerading as a heroine? The Tattler means to find out!

"Why do you play a god?"

Beacuse I need the players to interact with a god as part of a plot.

Off-camera, War Crow became a god for about a microsecond before he realised what a horrible mistake he had made and gave it up forever.

I don't do god characters, or even horribly powerful ones. They bore me.

"Why do you play a demon/devil?"

I don't. They're overdone and so boring.

So what’s the Gossip, Erica?
Paragon Tattler, February 12th 2011
That’s the question I get asked most often when I’m out and about. I’m Erica Mitchell and people all around Paragon City know that I’m the person to come to for the best news about the Hero Community in this town. Me and my team of newshounds are constantly on the lookout, ears to the ground, hunting down the stories that people want to keep secret from you, the discerning public. So what is going on out there on the streets and in the bedrooms?

Well, with Valentine’s just around the corner, more than one heroic couple seems determined to spice up their love life. We brought you news of Sister Psyche visiting Frederick’s, but then she’s always been the one for the risqué outfits so really, is that anything new? Considerably more surprising is that Tiger White, long thought entirely unavailable for the male half of the world, was seen in Venice with Shadowe and his long-term love-interest, Fea. Now, call me a stick in the mud, but I don’t believe those Italians one jot! That’s one cat who won’t be changing her stripes, oh no. Sorry guys.

So who is seeing who? And when I say seeing, I mean seeing every little bit. Well, the aforementioned Tiger White and her wife, the Mistress of Gravity, continue to work their way through as many people as they can persuade under a sheet. From what I hear, the Tiger has become a little slower in her old age, settling for quality rather than quantity perhaps? Still, compared to her, the remainder of the community is distinctly boring. Playboy millionaire Shadowe seems to have settled into a steady relationship with firebrand, fire-fighting pin-up, Fea. Rumour has it that Nitoichi, the sexy swordsmistress with the gun-wielding double, has settled down with someone in the Unity Vigil, though exactly who is a mystery. One rumour has it that her new beau is Quickfrost of the New Vigilants, but frankly, I don’t buy it. That young man’s one cold fish and hardly seems the type to attract such a hot catch. Speaking of that double, the Gunwitch has been seen out dancing, ballroom no less, with Tiger White. Hard to believe there isn’t some private dancing going on there too. Even Fanservice Girl, long a favourite of the Internet crowd, seems to have shacked up with a new unknown heroine, a blond bombshell with legs to die for.

Of course, it isn’t all sex and good times out there, and more and more the trouble is coming from the heroes we’ve come to think of as our protectors. We revealed that the Gunwitch is the Praetorian double of Nitoichi, and she’s not the only one. It seems that the Gunwitch is a force for good, but then she arrived at a time when her ‘sibling’ was busy murdering a Longbow officer. Nitoichi was tried and found not guilty. Her mind was elsewhere when she tortured and mutilated Maria Keys, or so we are led to believe. Can we be sure that she won’t turn bad again, or that the Gunwitch won’t follow in her footsteps? Can we really be sure of any of these heroes we put so much stock in?

When I was out there fighting the good fight, ‘Hero’ meant something. What is that word now other than a convenient label for those vigilantes we deputise and hope they won’t hurt us while they rain down vengeance on the criminals overrunning our fair city. Hope: something we have in short supply these days, but you can always count on the Tattler to give you the news, straight up.

(( The article is accompanied by a picture of an attractive woman in a skirt-suit. She has red skin and red irises, and a slightly alien look to her features. ))

Paragon Tattler, Feb 8th 2011
The Tiger Turns?
I'm sure that many of our male readers will consider this very good news: It seems that one heroine long thought to be very much batting for the home team may have relented.

Tiger White, aka fashion icon Ellie Stoneberg, was spotted by Italian reporters, apparently out for a secret tryst with none other than our own sexiest couple of the jet set, Richard Huntington and Shanna Connell. A confirmed, and married, lesbian, Stoneberg has long been considered off limits to the city's male population. It seems, however, that the incredible charms of the good doctor have finally won her back, at least part of the way. Clearly Huntington has a thing for shorter women, and all we can say here at the Tattler is "you lucky, lucky man!"

Industrial Heir and Girlfriend Kidnapped
Paragon Tattler, February 7th, 2011
Though the family of Brian Belltram, heir to the Belltram Industries manufacturing empire, tried to keep it quiet, the Tattler has discovered that he recently returned to the States after having been kidnapped by pirates in the South China Sea.

Beltram was yachting in the region with his girlfriend, model and ex-stripper Star Gabriel. The Tattler has previously reported on the scandalous behaviour of the pair in various LA clubs and the disapproval of his family. However, it is believed that a ransom of some $5 million was paid for their release. However, one rumour suggests that a lone agent, possibly an android of some kind, rescued the couple from the pirate vessel.

Miss Gabriel is currently in hospital, recovering from the ordeal. It is believed that the couple's two bodyguards and all other crew members were killed during the kidnapping. Neither Mr beltram, not his family, were available for comment.

The (Gun)witch and the Swordsmistress
Paragon Times Sunday Supplement, February 6th 2011
Nitoichi has been a known heroine in Paragon City for more than two years now, not one of the best known, but with some notoriety, particularly in Galaxy City, her home town. While she has done some of the typical, hero-style, world-saving activities, what she is best known for is her work with Vanguard, her modeling career, and her recent trial. Young, attractive, and an expert swordswoman, she is constantly ready to put her life on the line to keep the Rikti in check.

Recently, however, another young hero baring a striking resemblance to Nitoichi has appeared on the streets of King’s Row, and in the pages of some of the tabloids. She goes by the name of the Gunwitch, a title given to her by the Skulls who have a particular fear of her. Rather than swords, Gunwitch wields a pair of custom pistols, and her eyes are cybernetic.

Following the recent press coverage of Gunwitch, speculating on her origins and why she looks so much like Nitoichi, the two heroines came into the Times offices to tell their story.

PT: Nitoichi, Gunwitch, thank you for doing this interview. It’s rare that relatively private heroes give them.

G: Well, with the recent speculation… wild speculation about me in the press, I thought it would probably be for he best if I told my story, and I’d like to thank Nitoichi for agreeing to do this with me.

N: It’s the least I could do, sis, all this kind of affects me too.

PT: Sis? So you two are sisters?

N: Straight to the point then. No, we aren’t sisters, exactly, but we’re obviously very alike and we have developed a very close relationship. She’s very much like the sister I never had.

G: The truth is that I’m her dimensional alternate from Praetoria, so some of the speculation is true.

PT: Doesn’t that make one of you two evil? At least, that’s the popular conception of Praetoria.

G: I think people have the wrong opinion of Praetoria as a whole. I can’t say I blame them, but then Praetorians have the wrong opinion of this world too. What you’ve seen of my world are incursions by people doing bad things, usually duplicates of those you know of as heroes. It’s easy to think that Praetoria is a complete mirror of here.

N: But actually that’s a huge simplification. I’ve done a few trips into alternate realities and what they basically are are worlds that look like ours, but with subtle changes which can make huge differences. Some diverge early and turn into something really weird, some have skipped major changes in history like the dinosaurs never died out, some are a little ahead in time, some a little behind, and some have only really diverged recently, like Praetoria.

G: For Praetoria things changed when our governments decided nuclear weapons were the answer to the Korean War. As a reaction, the creature you know of as Hamidon started a war which mankind was losing. It was only through the actions of the Praetorian version of Statesman that Hamidon was defeated, but the cost was huge. There is only one major city left, Praetoria City, and that’s where I grew up. It’s different from here, and I grew up differently. Praetorians are just like normal people, good, evil, and everything in between.

PT: Yes. The reports we have suggest that Praetoria has a lot of advanced technology, it’s heavily militarized, and there have been some leaks of a repressive society ruled by mind control and drugs. Is that why you left?

G: In a way. There’s a conflict going on over there between Emperor Cole’s administration and the Resistance. I got involved, it cost me dearly, and I want nothing to do with any of it.

N: In some ways, the place is utopian.

G: It is, but if you want to live there then you have to live by Emperor Cole’s rules. If you don’t want that, then you probably end up underground with the Resistance.

N: However, I ended up having to leave school to take care of my brother, invalided in the Rikti Wars. [Gunwitch] went to university, got two degrees, and lived up to her potential.

G: The Clockwork servitors we have take care of the menial jobs leaving humans to be creative. That’s where the advances in science have come from. That’s how I was able to spend time developing my inventions.

PT: That sounds like a good point to address the most obvious difference between the two of you, Gunwitch’s cybernetic eyes. You actually designed and built these yourself?

G: Yes, though I had the surgery done by someone else.

N: We’d like to make it quite clear that neither of us condone elective self-surgery.

G: Quite. My cybernetics are designed to operate as a linked system with my guns. The original aim was to create a weapons system which could be used by the Praetorian Police Department.

PT: But the police there preferred not to test your system on volunteers from their ranks?

G: Oh no, I’m sure they could have found volunteers, but I refuse to test something on someone else if I can test it myself. If I don’t believe it’s safe enough for me to use, it’d be kind of nasty to try it on another person.

PT: And the appearance of it? Couldn’t you have made your eyes look more like your original eyes? I assume they were the same as Nitoichi’s?

G: Yes, they were. I went for functionality rather than aesthetics. If I’d have given them natural looks, I’d have restricted their function. To be honest, back in Praetoria it was a problem, but here everyone is pretty comfortable with them. I mean, compared to people who look like demons, or cats, or people who can turn into giant lobsters, my eyes are pretty unremarkable.

N: And it does help people distinguish us. There are a few other physical differences, but the eyes are most obvious.

PT: So what are the differences?

N: We use different shampoo. My hair is redder.

G: And I have blond streaks.

N: And I’ve always disliked physical augmentation, even cosmetic. I have one tattoo on my ankle, but her ears are pierced and mine aren’t.

G: She’s fitter than me. I did gymnastics when I was younger, but all the sword practice has built up her muscles. You can tell if you compare us directly.

N: On the other hand, if you’ll pardon the crude comment, she’s got better boobs.

PT: Are there less obvious differences? Differences in personality, perhaps.

N: Of course. The most extreme is what I mentioned before, I don’t like body augmentation and [Gunwitch] has her cybernetics. I’m not even sure why I don’t like it, maybe something I don’t remember from my childhood that never happened to [Gunwitch].

G: We have different kinds of confidence. [Nitoichi] is more extrovert than me, but I’m more, um, naturally confident.

N: I was a bit plump when I was younger, her gymnastics kept her slimmer. I had to learn to be what I am now, and sometimes I over-compensate a bit. Despite that, there’s no way I could have done what she had to do to survive.

G: When I first arrived here I was being hunted by Praetorian security forces, I had no money and no legal way of making it. I needed to stay off the map so I turned to the only profession an attractive young woman has at her disposal in such circumstances. Thankfully, that’s behind me.

N: Beyond that, though, we’re fairly similar. Same sort of sense of duty which keeps us doing what we do. Neither of us is evil, we’re both just people. We both do the best we can with what we have. We don’t always get it right, but we keep trying.

G: That’s what I’d like people to take away from this interview regarding Praetorians, if anything. We aren't that different from people here. We’re just people, ordinary people, trying to do our best with what we have.

PT: Thank you Nitoichi and Gunwitch. It’s been a pleasure.

(( The picture to go along with the article can be found here. ))