Nazis, Nictus, and Facists, oh my!

I've been reading over in the "Is Issue 20 the most hyped issue ever?" thread and really got interested in the side conversation going on over there. It's really good info so I thought it should deserve its own thread. I had always thought that the 5th Column was an Axis organization comprised of German Nazis primarily along with their allies, the Italian Facists. However, the more I look at it, it seems the opposite is true.

Compound that with the fact that Arachnos was also an Italian organization backing the Facists before Recluse took the reins (according to the novels)... Was Italy at the forefront of the Axis during WWII, instead of Germany?

Perhaps in the "City of" universe, in a similar twist of fate that made Paragon City, Rhode Island that world's equivalent of our New York, something changed (perhaps the existance of Arachnos?) that made Italy the more prominent threat?

I'd rather ignore the real-life politics/rumors about why/if it was changed in game, and discuss why/what changed in Primal Earth's history of WWII to make it different from ours, and that created and led to the 5th Column/Council today. There's a lot of retcons and adjustment to story so the full answer may be more complicated than it seems.

By the way, who's the Dev in charge of Co* history/stories nowadays?

That'd be Manticore.
And no, not really, the Third Reich was still the major nasty in Paragon WWII, what with the Storm Korps and the 5th Column and all that.

WWII pretty much played out the same way, albeit with super powers.

Quote:

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.

Quote:

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

Actually, the dev you want now is Protean, the current keeper of the lore bible. Manticore left a while back, I believe.

I will definitely be rejoining the conversation this evening, when I get back to the computer.

@SpaceNut - My 50s, AE arcs and current projects at ParagonWiki

I can't help but wonder if my particular post created this thread (mentioning that the 5th Column and Council could be split into three factions which were Nictus, Jetpack Hitler comic book style Nazis and Italian Faschist with a metahuman program).

World War 2 played out pretty much how it played out in our universe, however when an en masse deployment of meta humans was made at D-Day (I believe) it was discovered that not many of them could take a direct hit from a tank shell or even a machine gun nest (Statesman and Invuln/* or */Invuln Tankers, Scrappers and Brutes were probably the exception) so instead of deploying them as a huge metahuman army they were formed more into Commando groups (think Sergeant Fury's Howling Commandos but with metahumans or rather Nick Fury's Howling Commandos).

The Storm Korps was the Nazi version of this, the Dawn Patrol was the British version (a metahuman SAS) and the Japanese version was called the Imperial Wind.

The Fifth Column were Nazi infiltrators put in place by Hitler before the war had even begun to try to stop America entering the war and to sabotage any of the war efforts.

The irony of Protean taking over after Manticore is staggering

Touching on the Nictus lore a bit...

The Kheldians (energy balls of alien life) arbitrarily floated out there in space and lived a lifespan of approximately 10 human years. Then one day, someone wanted to live longer and built a device to drain the essence of others to add it to himself. Those who used the device were drastically altered and became known as the Nictus. The other Kheldians weren't too appreciative of that kind of behavior, destroyed the device and began hunting down the Nictus like an angry mob. The Nictus fled and eventually wound up on Earth in, like, the millionzoic era. They hid there for a time, but the Kheldians eventually found them.

The Kheldians and Nictus both have the ability to merge with other beings to create what has been repeatedly stated as a brand new being. When they do this, they don't tend to age. I've not heard it one way or the other if the host ages, but context seems to suggest that they don't. Kheldians are immortal, baby!

Those unbound Nictus hiding on Earth couldn't live there for long; the atmosphere is toxic to them. So where they couldn't infect a host (no Kheldian binding can take place involuntarily), they huddled together. If enough of them were packed in a tight space, they'd create a solid mass called a Shadow Cyst. These crystals have the interesting property in that they can teleport Nictus across cosmic distances instantly. The Nictus planned to plant these cysts and build their forces in such a way that they could overwhelm the planet and make it their homeworld. It's an alien invasion from the inside out.

Arakhn is stated as being the leader of the Nictus. Certainly true of the Nictus on Earth, and apparently the leader of all of them anywhere. Her ultimate goal is to take over the planet and take the fight back to the Kheldians.

So what's she doing in the Council? Well, that's where the Center comes in. Requiem and Arakhn formulated a plan for world domination, and Requiem followed through with his end of the bargain, but Arakhn never did her job and off the Center. She'd spare his life at every opportunity she had to end it. Requiem chastised her for this misplaced affection, but has not been successful in changing it.

I'm not clear on the relationship between the Council and Arachnos, but apparently that's covered in one of the novels. What I can say, however, is that Requiem (prior to becoming Requiem) was involved with one or the other and the Center had Arakhn around his little finger before she even joined up. Arakhn gave the orders to send Requiem to Ravenna to be infected by Nictus, but she didn't expect that he'd be ultra powerful when he came back.

Somewhere along the line, Requiem teamed up with Vandal and Nosferatu and started the 5th Column. There's a big hole here in my knowledge of the game lore, and may be subject to the effects of the intended retcon that never fully happened.

There's also the disturbing connotations about how N-Fragment Implants are some of those near-death Nictus, imbued into the Galaxy band soldiers, the Void Hunters and the Super Soldier Serum (for added kick, and possible lycanthropy).

So, those wacky Nictus are up to some insidious stuff.

And the hints that Requiem's past being linked to finding a bound Nictus in Italy from an ancient time. I actually expect that Requiem going into the past of Cimorea to make his bid to take over was nothing of the sort, but a Xanatos plot to make sure that the invasion in the past failed in a specific way to make sure that he ended up being created.

Still here, even after all this time!

Ok, finally back to the thread, and I wanted to post a few links:

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Path_of_the_Dark

I wrote this from scratch a while back to help put all the Nictus storylines together.

@SpaceNut - My 50s, AE arcs and current projects at ParagonWiki

I agree, i20 is very overhyped. What's with that NDA anyway?

Quote:

Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

Nothing is worse than the Zombie attack happening while you are on a Numinas Task Force and you have to wait for it to end so you can finally get your zone kills.

The worst part about that was that the Zombie attack followed us to 3 zones. It was the longest Numinas ever.

I find most zone events to be an annoyance more than anything, but that's just me. If people like them great that's fine, just not for me. You can park someone AFK somewhere and come back and your toon is dead. More of a nuisance really. As long as they let NPCs still spawn during that zombie crap I wouldn't have a problem.