Again, the Paragon Times avoids the Hard Hitting Questions. What the people of Paragon City really want to know: when is MAGI finaly going to install locks on the Archane Artifacts vault!
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and t he descendants of Hequats Mu
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OMG! Gilgamesh made a typo! DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY!
And here I thought it was going to be an article about why Azuria keeps her job after losing dozens of magical artifacts, plus letting every hero keep something as dangerous as the hub of the Wheel of Destruction. 
Live arcs: 517377 and 517381
Virtue: Quickshot. Swiftwind. Aliuneidis. Gizmodeus. Dasher. Fiver. Inuit Acer. Daniel Darke. Cerebral Flame. El Halcon.
Intel Core2Duo 2.4 Ghz 4 GB RAM**NVIDIA Geforce 9600 GT set to 1280 x 1024**Windows Vista 32 bit
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To this day, these pantheons and their followersthe Banished Pantheon, the Oranbegans Circle of Thorns, and the descendants of Hequats Muare in a deadly struggle for earthly preeminence and they will use any and all resources, even other villain groups, to achieve this end.
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Banished Pantheon - check.
Circle of Thorns - check.
Descendants of Hequat's Mu - hehehe, you thought we wouldn't notice, didn't you?
HEQUAT = HECATE, the Goddess of the Witches. The villain group associated with the descendants of Mu is the COVEN.
So, the arrival of Croatoa should be VERY interesting!
Rock on, Gilgamesh.
Well, actually the end of the article mentions that the MAGI folks as well as the magic origin heroes are the descendants of Mu. The coven makes sense too, though.
I note the story's a bit different from Mu's perspective. The way Akarist told it, Hequat was more or less a total nutjob trying to kill the Oranbegans because she was Ermeeth's ex. I don't recall seeing a link between Tielekku, Hequat, and Ermeeth before, but the "You gave the humans magic? You must die!" thing sort of puts Tielekku in a much worse light than she seemed after the Scroll arc.
I do find it mildly ironic (and somewhat irrational, which makes me lean more towards Akarist's interpretation of Hequat) that in order to destroy the civilization that Ermeeth taught magic to, Hequat taught magic to another civilization that wound up becoming the source for all the people who know magic today. Yep, that worked out real well for keeping magic from the humans.
The thing that bothers me most is the vaults are actually in Galaxy City. Head on over to the headquarters there and check em out. Placard in front of the vaults doors is interesting too.
I forget the name of the guy over in galaxy but Azuria shouldn't take all the blame for bad things happening. Even though she is head of MAGI.
-RedRider
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Well, actually the end of the article mentions that the MAGI folks as well as the magic origin heroes are the descendants of Mu. The coven makes sense too, though.
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"The blood of Mu shall rise, and it shall wash across the ocean and the land. The power that lies dormant within these humble rocks cannot remain so forever."
Does that sound heroic to you?
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"The blood of Mu shall rise, and it shall wash across the ocean and the land. The power that lies dormant within these humble rocks cannot remain so forever."
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Hmm. The Blood of the Black Stream, perhaps? One wonders...
Synchrotron, level 50 Radiation/Radiation Defender
Fighting crime on Champion since 2004
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I do find it mildly ironic (and somewhat irrational, which makes me lean more towards Akarist's interpretation of Hequat) that in order to destroy the civilization that Ermeeth taught magic to, Hequat taught magic to another civilization that wound up becoming the source for all the people who know magic today. Yep, that worked out real well for keeping magic from the humans.
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No. The deal wasn't to keep magic from humans, it was to keep the gods from being displaced by magic-wielding mortals (who probably wouldn't be mortal after their aquirement of incredibly vast powers), and they're definitly not displaced, so Hequats mission succeeded.
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Well, actually the end of the article mentions that the MAGI folks as well as the magic origin heroes are the descendants of Mu. The coven makes sense too, though.
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"The blood of Mu shall rise, and it shall wash across the ocean and the land. The power that lies dormant within these humble rocks cannot remain so forever."
Does that sound heroic to you?
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It does if...
you are The Blood of the Black Stream!
din-din-da! One of the forthcoming Epic ATs.
Fills a hole too. Let's see:
Natural: Peacebringer, Incarnate
Science: Warshade
Mutant: Coralax, Avilan
Magic: Blood of the Black Stream
Tech: Unknown
Tech could use a real Iron Man workalike, say the "Power Armor" AT where you
get some melee, some blasts, some misc abilities, and function as a kind of
scrapper/blaster/defender.
Yes, yes, one-star me for putting the merpeople and winged people as Mutants,
but I think it fits. And they're kinda opposites, so it's like the PB/WS split.
Aww, I didn't guess right.
...double or nothing on the Tech Origin guy next time!
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No. The deal wasn't to keep magic from humans, it was to keep the gods from being displaced by magic-wielding mortals (who probably wouldn't be mortal after their aquirement of incredibly vast powers), and they're definitly not displaced, so Hequats mission succeeded.
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They look more or less replaced to me. Tielekku's gone, Hequat's gone, Ermeeth's gone, the "dimensional entities" are pretty much non-present...nobody's worshipping anyone in Paragon that I see except the Banished Pantheon (who are currently being fought by us mortals, not by gods). The only gods that actually show up are evil (except Faathim, but he's from another dimension). I think a good case could be made that yes, the gods have been replaced in Paragon City, although technology and scientific progress had as much to do with it as magic-wielders. There's no need to call on a god for protection when you can just call up your Tanker buddy.
Azuria is a traitor to humanity I tell you!!
Every single time I bring something back to her
for safe keeping, she LOOSES it! Every time!
My god.... THE NEKOPAN HAS RETURNED!
Interesting perspective on the war with Oranbega by Azuria. I wonder what kind of conversations exist between herself and Akarist -- they have entirely different opinions of what happened out there. That may be because of the different perspectives; Oranbega maintains that they were attacked by Mu first, with the Muvians devastating them and forcing them to withdraw to North America from their home in Africa, whereas the Muvian Azuria insists that Oranbega was targeted due to its magical abilities as an "affront to the gods" thing.
Oranbega also maintains in its histories that Ermeeth and Hequat were former and now estranged lovers, and that the mighty Hequat came with Muvian sky ships to burn Oranbega to the ground.
For what it's worth, this poster agrees with Akarist in most things -- Hequat's actions in the past were at best questionable and at worst genocidal. She's also been implicated in a sort of genetic breeding experiment, wherein she continually refined the strain of humanity she had serving her to such a powerful point that they were well-nigh unstoppable. It's conceivable that some of that strain still exists today, in the form of Mutant heroes and villains.
However, what IS certain is that Azuria is being deliberately deceptive, or is very, very ignorant of Oranbega's perspective, which she has no excuse to be, since she has the Oranbega summoning premeir as a semi-permanent guest.
EDIT: Darn. Lots of other people made these points before. Ah well. Oh, and the Blood of the Black Stream is entirely possible as a Muvian AT -- sort of the result of Hecate's eugenics program.
I am so glad you are all talking about the article instead of the writer. These little stories make our world more complete and interesting.
Biggest understatement of the week
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We all take our responsibilities seriously, she emphasizes in response to the accusations of incompetence that have surfaced in light of several unfortunate incidents involving the theft of magical artifacts from MAGIs vault.
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The vault gets raided about five times a day. And by low level villians for the most part.
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She's also been implicated in a sort of genetic breeding experiment, wherein she continually refined the strain of humanity she had serving her to such a powerful point that they were well-nigh unstoppable.
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Hmm...I don't remember that one. Was that in the Envoy of Shadows arc?
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However, what IS certain is that Azuria is being deliberately deceptive, or is very, very ignorant of Oranbega's perspective, which she has no excuse to be, since she has the Oranbega summoning premeir as a semi-permanent guest.
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I think the "timeline" as far as missions and story arcs go is rather flexible, since it has to account for heroes running the missions at different times. We all know Nemesis is around, and by the end of our careers, so do our contacts, but the contacts are still always going to have the "Could Nemesis really still be out there?" reaction during the first few Nemesis missions on any hero. The interview with Azuria could be from before Akarist arrived, on the assumption that most heroes haven't gotten there yet.
Well Im a bit confused by the article
First:
o Lughebu wants to feed on humanitys pain, fear, and suffering. Ok: Lughebu bad.
o Teilekku leads the benevolent pantheons and stops him. Ok: Teilekku good.
Even I can grasp that nice clear black & white relationship
But then:
o Ermeeth wants to teach secrets to humans and make them magically empowered beings who are not dependant on the gods. Ok: Ermeeth
good? (sounds a bit like Prometheus to me)
o Teilekku doesnt like that (no more worshipers for the gods, got to keep those human cattle in their place) so her understudy Hequat beats up on Ermeeth. Ermeeth flees & founds Oranbega. Hequat founds Mu. Some basic mutual destruction and memory fades occur. Ok: Teilekku & Hequat... not so good?
It doesnt sound like Teilekku and Hequat are still in the good category. Actually during the Envoy of Shadows arc Akarist specifically described the people of Mu as into eugenic breeding and blindly followed their God to the extent that they attacked a peaceful nation without warning. That does not sound very different from the description in this article... embellished maybe, but not fundamentally different. No matter the perspective (article or Akarist), Mu is beating on Oranbega. And per the article, the reason is to keep the humans toeing the line and dutifully worshiping their appropriate pantheon of gods. So... old Oranbega: good? Old Mu: Bad?
Now fast forward an epoch or two. The CoT (old school Oranbega) have gone bad and the descendants of Mu have flipped over to being the good guys? I could see getting a bit bitter after existing as a ghost in a buried city for a few thousand years but how did the racially bred people of Mu, the empire founded to keep magic empowerment from Humans, turn good?
Is this an example of fickle gods (Teilekku ) being a bit good & a bit bad for humanity at the same time? And even if the ghosts of Oranbega are now evil shades, it sounds like they once were the ones with the moral high ground??
well I think there is much more to the Orenbega/Muvian conflict that either side is telling us. Of course each is going to distort it to their benefit. Thing is the Circle also uses demon summoning which I think has changed the focus of Oranbega as a whole. I think there is a whole history within we haven't heard about. Later alternate dimension missions imply the Oranbegans were once peaceful so is possible someone took over.
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The CoT (old school Oranbega) have gone bad and the descendants of Mu have flipped over to being the good guys?
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Not necessarily. Some of the descendants of Mu are heroes, but by no means all of them. As Azuria says:
'To this day, these pantheons and their followersthe Banished Pantheon, the Oranbegans Circle of Thorns, and the descendants of Hequats Muare in a deadly struggle for earthly preeminence and they will use any and all resources, even other villain groups, to achieve this end. We at MAGI are dedicated to defeating them all.'
Dedicated to defeating THEM ALL. So, the Mu line has baddies involved as well as heroes. I'm convinced that the Hequat/Hecate link means that the Muvian villains are the Coven. They would be the 'pureblood' Muvians, the ones in whom the blood of Mu is strongest.
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I could see getting a bit bitter after existing as a ghost in a buried city for a few thousand years but how did the racially bred people of Mu, the empire founded to keep magic empowerment from Humans, turn good?
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And, in the process, became the source for the magic empowerment of most of humanity. Fun, isn't it?
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o Ermeeth wants to teach secrets to humans and make them magically empowered beings who are not dependant on the gods. Ok: Ermeeth
good? (sounds a bit like Prometheus to me)
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Even the names are similar. Ermeeth - Prometheus.
I think the problem with Ermeeth from Mu's point of view was that he wanted all humans to have magical powers - perhaps learned magic as opposed to inherent, bloodline-derived magic. Tielikku was already teaching magic, but one suspects she was only teaching it to certain people. (Perhaps she was only teaching it to WOMEN?) Individual Muvians presumably had magical powers - perhaps they were the ruling elite.
So, with the fall of Mu, the concentrated magical 'blood of Mu' is diluted into humanity's various descendants, giving them inherent (if dormant) magical abilities.
And making anyone with Mu blood a threat in the eyes of the CoT. Even if they are from Ohio.
Azuria and MAGI. Loved the explanation for the Mu.
Good job Gil