The Order of the Crimson Lotus

This is an excellent bit of back story on the Order and introduces a major villain in the T’Keron/Valmaz fusion but we need a little more to turn the Order into an enemy group. In my 25+ years of comic book nerd experience I’ve found that 99.99% of the time a secondary character is fused/joined/merged with an evil entity the evil entity either takes complete control or corrupts the secondary character to the point the evil en tity is the power behind the throne (primary characters constantly struggle with the evil entity for control supplying vast amounts of storyline drama.) Also the secondary character generally retains their heroic looks and can fool others into thinking everything is fine until the evil entity is ready to reveal itself (on the other hand, primary characters tend to look like a beast from hell and be treated as such causing even more storyline drama.)

This being the case Valmaz, Lord of Demons, would be in control but the fusion would appear to be just T’Keron. T’Keron/Valmaz would travel back to Infernal Earth and convince the Order of the Crimson Lotus that K'Varr (Infernal) had been the one fused with Valmaz. T’Keron/Valmaz would then teach Order how to “bind” more and more powerful demons into their weapons and armor in order to combat Infernal’s “evil” allies from Primal Earth. In reality these “bound” demons would corrupt and eventually control the Order to the point where the Order would serve Valmaz. Valmaz could then conquer Infernal Earth and then set his sights on Primal and/or Praetorian Earth.

APPEARANCE
The Order of the Crimson Lotus would draw on two sources of inspiration for their appearance, Infernal and the demons from the Demon Summoning (DS) powerset. Looking at Infernal, he’s wearing medieval armor and carries battle axe so the Order would bind demons to medieval weapons and armor. If I were to compare DS demons to the existing COX demons on a “horror” scale, the DS demons would be a step or two above the existing ones. Their skinless bodies and skull heads are a bit more disturbing than the existing demons (although I keep think of the demonlings as hot, mild, and garlic Buffalo wings but maybe I’m just weird.) Putting these two elements together would give the Order of the Crimson Lotus a fantasy/horror theme for their appearance. The building blocks of this fantasy/horror theme would be:

Demon Armor and Shields – Armor pieces with engraved demon faces and lots of unnecessary hooks, spikes, and blades .

Skull Heads/Helms – Basically horror based skull heads/helms. Fanged human skulls with serpent tongues, sheep/bull skulls, wolf/canine skulls, snake skulls,
etc.

Skinless Style – Any piece that has a Monstrous Fur or Hairy style would have a Skinless style. Basically, no skin like the DS demons.

Demon Weapons – Weapons with lots of unnecessary blades, teeth, and cross guards like Kit Rae’s weapons.

Also, I’d like to see this fantasy/horror theme be an unlockable costume set for players like the Roman Costume Pieces and Weapons are.

POWERSETS
The Order of the Crimson Lotus’s primary powerset would be Demon Summoning. The secondary powerset could be Willpower or Invulnerability with No FX. A support class using Pain Domination would definitely fit the theme. A weapon using, melee class would also fit in. Dual Blades with either WP or IN would be a good choice. Also, all classes would have working demon wings and flight.

INFERNAL EARTH
I’d envision Infernal Earth to be a mirror dimension of Primal Earth but rather than the relationship being good/evil like Praetorian Earth it would be science/magic. The Infernal Earth counterparts of Primal Earth science and technology based characters would be magic users and vice-versa. For example, Positron’s Infernal Earth counterpart would have forged and enchanted a powerful suit of armor (hmm, maybe Infernal is his dimension’s Positron) while War Witch’s counterpart would be a great inventor. As for what an Infernal Earth zone would look like I’d stick with the fantasy/horror theme and go for an Eastern European, Romanian look based on the great horror novels. Thick evergreen forests, swift rivers hurtling through deep channels, inaccessible mountain fortresses, lightning filled skies, etc.

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.