TheDeepBlue

I'll say it again: Cole wanted to invade Primal Earth, slaughter any resistance there, and enslave the remaining population before any of this Incarnate business even began. You can't handwave that no matter how much of a pretzel you twist your arm into.

Note that the fences work both ways. They're one of the reasons why most Praetorian citizens knew nothing about the reality of First Ward.

Asking someone who's is literally brainwashed and/or on drugs and/or at risk for thought police looking into their brain for their honest opinion on things isn't likely to generate an accurate answer. In any case, Primal Earth does have to look after its own interests first, then it can get a good bead on what the common Praetorian wants once we've dealt with the Hamidon. It's not like the Resistance is going to be completely in charge; folks like Provost Marchand still exist...as well as folks like Mr. G...

Prometheus confirms that the Rikti are attached to humanity's Well.

Okay.

1) Prometheus is aware of events and people existing on multiple Earths. When he says that the Furies were among the first humans to discover the Well, you might be well off believing that they were among the first on any of the Earths, and not necessarily Primal Earth. The Talons, similarly, aren't from Praetorian Earth and may not even be from Primal Earth.

2) To the Talons and the Furies, there is no difference between upholding oaths and upholding morals.

Master Midnight has a slightly more relevant bit to say supporting this as well but DeVore's arc information isn't complete on ParagonWiki. I suppose when I said that the Talons are punishing humanity on Primal Earth for its lack of morals, I should have specified that they're punishing Primal Earth for a perceived lack of morals.

3) The Talons didn't get to Primal Earth's past. The Talons have been around for a very, very long time, probably even before Cimerora. That's why they're already familiar with you when you encounter them in Dark Astoria.

Several of Prometheus' dialogue trees are unlocked as you complete Incarnate Trials. However, there's a new one,

"Care to explain why you've never told me I could ascend to become like a 'well', Prometheus?"

unlocked by defeating Diabolique in Praetor Duncan's arc, but I think that one is locked behind a tree unlocked by a Keyes Island completion, "I have earned the right to know more about the Well." That's where this information is.

Also, our Well isn't human; it's been around before humanity, but it initially chose to represent humanity across the universes.

That's not a Hydralisk. That's one of his fully-developed heads.

Strange eons.

Because he got tired of having Tyrant rip up his tentacles. Under Tyrant's lead, the Praetorian Guard and their allies and Devouring Earth were fighting to a stalemate. It was Tyrant who managed to convince Hamidon to form the initial truce under the guise of being defeated, and that negotiation, according to Prometheus, was a display of power that got the Well's attention focused on Cole in the first place.

Who knows? There's still time to find out when we finally meet the guy. Maybe Tyrant was getting killer rolls on CHA that day, and Hamidon's nucleus temporarily grew three sizes. See aforementioned 'display of power'.

From Tyrant's Going Rogue bio:
In any case, I suppose it's not really the reason itself, but a truth. Everything below that was Primal Earth's justifications for each significant conflict in Praetoria, though.

That's rubbish. It's explained in the arcs that they believe the world has become irredeemably morally bankrupt, and in chasing Diabolique to Dark Astoria they found an incredible opportunity to use for their goals. They and their thralls in the Knives of Artemis are headhunting as many powerful people around the world as they can get away with to empower Mot so it will do the work of bringing vengeance to the whole planet, i.e. wiping out humanity. They believe that after that's finished, the Furies will have the power to destroy Mot, which wouldn't work in the end since, as Diabolique explains as you fight her in Praetor Duncan's arc, Mot is becoming so powerful that he's beginning to Ascend.

The Talons are the reason why Mot's power is increasing more rapidly than expected during the course of the arcs. If you keep playing you'll find out just how much of an effect the Talons' work had.

Makes you wonder where the Furies are in all of this, saying 'Hey, you idiots, don't empower the eldritch death monster.' Marcus' restaurant doesn't need that much tending, even if he isn't around any more.

Trying to stop Mot from becoming too strong to fight is hardly tangential.

Okay, I was under the impression that you weren't that far yet. So, I'm not sure why you're saying some of the stuff you're saying.

During their last fight. Remember the psychic shooty-beam stuff?

Cole: "Humanity can really do better than this. Give me time and I can show you."

And then he made Praetoria. And then he found another source of humanity that could potentially tick off the Hamidon: us.

He didn't allude, I'm pretty sure he outright said it.

1) We are defending Primal Earth because Cole decided that he couldn't keep up his end of the bargain with Hamidon if he didn't keep all humans under control. This is what the deal was before anyone learned about the Battalion.

2) According to Prometheus -- 'Bearded Smurf' -- allowing the Well to make Tyrant the one and only being capable of even laying a finger on the Battalion is strategically unsound; the only way we would get enough power to fight the Battalion ourselves would be to beg some off of him, like what's happening with his lieutenants and the IDF. Prometheus doesn't want humanity's potential to be limited (quite that much) by the whims of any tyrant, be they Cole or even the Well itself. Hopes and dreams aside, that too would be strategically unsound given the context of the next imminent invasion.

3) War is hell. If you'd run just about any of the iTrials, you'd know...
a) ...that Seige and Nightstar came up with a plan to use mindwashed Resistance soldiers to run suicide attacks on the population to boost the regime's own popularity when they rushed in and saved the day; Mother Mayhem approves. The BAF trial occurs to stop the mindwashing and protect both Praetorian citizens and Resistance allies. Primal Earth's hand was forced.
b) ...that taking out Lambda Sector would greatly reduce the regime's military capabilities; a strike against it has fairly simple reasoning. This is part of Primal Earth's offensive.
c) ...that all of the crayons in Anti-Matter's box snap after he watches us roll over the IDF being led by Bobcat, his rival Neuron, Marauder, Seige, and his own creation Nightstar. He decides that the proper way to show Cole that he was the only one powerful enough to stop Primal Earth in the first place is to completely melt down and explode Keyes Island and everything above, below, and around it while beating on us at the same time. Even if the citizenry survived the horrifying matter/antimatter reaction, there would be nothing left to power the sonic fences and hold back the Devouring Earth. Primal Earth's hand was forced, but this event also gives us control of an important part of Praetoria.
d) ...that the Praetorian public has no reason to believe that Cole is a noble protector, since he never actually defeated the Hamidon and their entire survival depends on Cole making them completely docile and subservient to his will. They were also told little to nothing of Cole's planned invasion of Primal Earth and the intended slaughter of most of the metahuman population or other resistance (this bit is actually revealed in the 1-20 gold side story). They can keep hanging out under that guy, or they can throw their lot in with us. This is part of Primal Earth's offensive; it's always a good idea to have the backing local population. Their world might be getting chaotic, but it's not quite our fault, and we're trying to do something in their interest. We certainly didn't start the conflict. It started when Tyrant made a deal with Hamidon to enslave all humans everywhere.
e) ...that if there's any indication that Cole does not care about the free will of his people, it's the global mindwashing he allows Mother Mayhem to implement herself to try and keep his popularity up. You could consider this incidental to Primal Earth's offensive, but stopping it just because it's not right is good too.
f) ...that we didn't destroy his world. His world destroyed his world with nuclear fire, the Hamidon destroyed it again with the Devouring Earth, and he destroyed a good part of his own city with a Tartarus-fueled hissy-fit. I don't think ground-punching Nova Praetoria was in Primal Earth's game plan.

Sam, don't listen to the people in this thread pumping their fists and howling "YEAH, WE KILLED THOSE SUCKERS". Right now, the only confirmed signature fatalities are Seige (dominated by Metronome), Nightstar (probably, maybe someone gave iVY an upgrade with the leftovers), Malaise (trapped in Seer Network/Tilman's Mind after Tilman's defeat, his mind crinkled anyway after we beat him the first time in the trial), and Mother Mayhem (probably, but she didn't leave us much choice. Really!). Anyone else is either in hiding or in traction.

I think Midnight Hour was happening right around the time 300 was released in theaters.

The Talons aren't exactly 'Praetorian'; they are probably going to be showing up for a while until we have a nice polite sit-down with the Furies themselves. I'd expect this will happen around the time the Well starts bawling for help from his most loyal followers as a result of us kicking Tyrant's butt.

Well, to be honest, the 'Dreamspace' concept sort of popped up unexpectedly. The only foreshadowing we had on it is the Doctor's mention of it in the Midnighter Archivist clue; we still don't know what it is, what function it has among the other branches off of reality like the Spirit Plane, Psychic Plane, Ether Plane, Netherworld, Hell, etc, etc.

Not necessarily; it may mean only that the laws of nature in the CoH multiverse are not the same as ours. Suppose that the speed of light in the CoH universe was a tightly-enforced rule rather than an absolute law; there would have to be some deeper rule or law behind it to govern when/how that rule could be ignored. This different set of laws could be set in such a way that allows magic to exist and be used on the different Earths our PCs visit.

It is absolutely significant, at least, when comparing reality to CoH or even a hypothetical CoH without magic to what we play now. That's a good observation.

So, from what I've read so far, your concern isn't so much that magic is ingame, your concern is that you perceive it to be a force lacking rules, limits, and defining mechanics, and you believe that if its use becomes a 'core driving focus' then that lack of rules, limits, and defining mechanics will spread to the writing of the game itself.

I mean, can people assume that's your argument is, in the stead of 'I don't like magic ingame because I can't believe in it ingame that much?'

In any case, you seem to be focusing on one aspect of a problem I brought up some pages back, regarding 'we don't know what the heck [magic] is,' which is evidence that this is a subject of increasing concern and/or importance that the writers should give a shot at hashing out. That said, I don't think there would need to be an explicit list of rules. I think defining some principles that fit what we've got of magic ingame so far would suffice for the time being, enough to separate the Magic Origin from the Well's 'magic'.

Technically, if what you say is true - that he doesn't know what he's talking about - then he would have to be enlightened before he could understand that he should be embarrassed.

I was always under the impression that most historical representations of Atlantis described what could be considered a higher level of technology.

Not sure if this will change perceptions at all, but I do feel the need to post it, just so it's here.

The most precise definition we have ingame for 'magic' is given by War Witch in Percy Winkley's arc:
I suppose this definition could apply to some extent for a wide range of non-magical abilities for characters ingame. It really does require more precision.

I think pretty much everyone now can agree that the, eh, ingame explanation is that the Well is what is powering super powers. Anybody who has super powers has made the decision to take some part of humanity's potential from the Well; anybody who wants to become Incarnate needs to find some way to get more of that potential from the Well. There's not really any mention of the mechanism behind how we use whatever Incarnate abilities we get. Not even in the Lore power descriptions. No, it just says where the essences come from, not how we access them.

So what's powering the Well? Apparently, it's humanity creativity and imagination, and that stuff goes into the Well somehow. Humanity wants people with super powers, so there are people with super powers. You could say that this is people bending, shaping, and tearing reality through their own will again through the Well, and I would agree with that.

What I'm saying is that I believe the explanation for how the Well works is more definitive and satisfying than the explanation for how Magic works. The Well is meta; we don't know what the heck Magic is, and I think that's the root of the problem behind why people are having trouble telling the difference.

Ageless Radial offers general +Debuff Resistance. My Dark/Dark Brute uses it.

Oh, so this is why villains never get the big win. :3

The hospital yet again.
She's my LVL 32 Ice/Cold Corruptor. Soloing, she currently struggles with end and HP issues against three even con minions. Don't get me started on three +1s.

I was talking to someone with an Ice/Thermal the other day about Corruptors in general, and he explained that when he solos, he typically has his attacks slotted for some Slow to keep guys out of melee and slots -ToHit in Bitter Ice Blast. He BIBs the strongest guy in a group and cuts loose with Frost Breath and Ice Storm. I assume debuffing happens in there somewhere. He seemed mystified that I was having difficulty soloing Ice/Cold. Currently, my attacks aren't slotted for any of that, since I've been trying to keep damage up. Am I really just Doing It Wrong or what? Any tips?

I currently plan on making this build for Winterlocked; it's similar to Silas' Ice/Cold build here.

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Fine. I put your name in the name field and looked for the keyword "interview", and looked at the posts meeting those criteria made in the last three months.

Thread one.
Okay. The development team saw a chance to create a paradigm shift and took it, choosing something that they decided would create a large one. Not seeing a requisite for pettiness or vendettas here.

Thread two.
Still not seeing anything.

Here is the Intrepid Informer with the quote that you've probably selectively etched into your memory:
Yeah, I raised my eyebrows the first time I read that, too, but I didn't have a reason to think much of it beyond deciding that it was a fairly bold statement.

Tell me, at what point did you decide to ignore the part where killing Statesman had been previously discussed as a group, decided against, then brought up again much later and discussed as a group again, where it was decided that it was a more acceptable plot line? How can you be sure that a desire to separate Paragon from its roots at Cryptic was the actual motivation for deciding to kill Statesman and/or Sister Psyche? How would you know if the statement above isn't just how Miller ended up feeling about the death of Statesman, instead of being at cause for it?

Look at this!
If the development team was really so vindictive and determined to remove something they perceived as a blemish on what they wanted to be 'their' game, why would they care what you think?

You have not proven anything. You are merely extending your last post.

Suppose this is true. Can you prove that he makes such decisions purely out of spite? Are you paranoid enough to believe that he doesn't like the players, now?

I would say it still isn't anywhere as appalling as promoting character assassination of real people, which is what some people are doing in this thread, just because a couple of their favorite super-pretendy heroes got canned, regardless of the quality of the story behind the action.

Are any of you who are attempting to judge the character of a person, whom most of you have never actually known, actually stopping to take a breath and step back from this thread just so you can see the level of crazy being put into it? Do you ever think about what you're thinking about? This is exactly the reason why I automatically dismiss any claims made by the player base that it can plan a better story than the folks currently in development actually planning out the real game, barring a substantially good idea. I cannot approve of any situation where the inmates are running the asylum.

If you, yourself, think it's a stupid idea, why are you continuing to defend it or pay it any mind at all?

Again?

We're having this discussion again?

What is this 'spite' that people think Matt Miller has for Jack Emmert, anyway? Where does this idea even come from? Or do you personally dislike the character deaths so much that the only way you can accept that they were allowed to happen is to blame it on some petty backroom conspiracy? Do you print out these quotes by the developers, pin them to a corkboard, and connect them with strings of yarn, too?

I'd considered that, too, but Zeus was human.

Well, I finally did find the part that opens up this dialogue branch: I believe it's after Praetor Duncan's arc because Diabolique does blurt out that Mot is close to becoming a Well on its own as you fight her. I'd thought that the information was contained in the redacted DD intro arc.

Oh, they probably do, I just think that they enjoy your posts.

As a nitpick, I don't think those are battleships. Still should be a hefty number, though.

That's not how they 'dealt' with Wade, that's par for his personality: whining when he's losing.

At least, it was.