Dev Chat Highlights, July 13: First Ward

Wut u have intrests that arent MY intrests?? lolz stick to <my preferences and playstyles and personal interests> duh!!!


OR

someone posts a valid concern/critique (not the end of the world) and some people respond as though their concern means nothing.

You like making houses of cards? Houses of cards are pointless!!
So what if I knocked it all down... I gave you the cards... You can build another one, duh!!!

Anyway, thanks for the post, Von Krieger!
I completely forgot about this... and I was around today too!

I'd always assumed that Powers Division had enough influence to either convince people to look the other way with certain recruits or convince Cole that they could better keep a watchful eye on magic users if they had an official role than if they were outlawed outright.

As I recall, the CoT in the Halloween tip mission comment how Magic is much harder in Pretoria for some reason. As if something was suppressing it or something like that.

It always seemed to me that the only origins that are Cole Approved™ are Natural/Science/Tech. All the big heroes on display are primarily people who worked their way up from nothing and overcame obstacles to become what they are. Tech and Sci are the main theme of the city, for sure. Everything is pretty and ordered.

The big exceptions are Mother Mercy and Marcus Cole. Cole would obviously make an exception for himself. As for Mother Mercy, well... it seems that Psychic powers are treated as a separate origin in Pretoria. They don't call the Seers "mutants" they're just... psychic. Same with Mother Mercy. Psionic exemption from the mutant origin, apparently.

It seems Cole believes, likely because of his lieutenants telling him so, that SCIENCE! can solve all the problems of the world. Because of this Science and Technology are readily available and in some respects easier to control. Natural characters are also easy enough to control. They tend to take time to train and practice to become powerful and even then, their powers are rarely of the kind that could disrupt anything important.


Magic and Mutations on the other hand...

Magic is powerful and unpredictable. It can do things outside of the tech/sci bubble that Cole has created. Allowing a single individual the ability to block Seers or control Clockwork or even risk the sonic barrier. All without generating an anti-matter signature or emitting EM radiation. No signal to trace. No electronic to track. Nothing that Pretoria is set up to handle.

Mutations are even more unpredictable. And ugly. Mutations are a PR nightmare. It's not a person valiantly rising up onto their own two feet and fighting against an unfair world... It's Nature giving an unfair advantage to some random dude. And we all know how awesome Nature has been to Pretoria so far. You don't want things like that reminding people of what waits outside the walls, especially if you want to keep them docile. Heck, they went out of their way to make genetically pure shrubs they're that paranoid.



Of course, there's also the possibility that it's the Hamidon...

There's far too many Psionic beings in Pretoria. In a world where the population was culled so violently, why are there so many psychics? It's like 1 in 10 people has mind powers. That seems wrong... Unless someone had seeded the population. Or more insidiously, intentionally allowed Potentials to survive the slaughter so they could develop their powers...

And seeing how the Hamidon has basically become the Earth itself, why wouldn't it tap into Magic as a source of power. Maybe it's redirecting the laylines on the planet into itself for power, which weakens the Magic origin as a whole. *shrug*


Random speculation 'CAUSE THEY WON'T TELL US ANYTHING!

Protean said today that the events in First Ward affect the entire multiverse, not just Praetoria - which might mean that Sorceress Serene and the Talons of Vengeance and their connectiion of some kind to the Well of the Furies is also linked to the Coming Storm in some way.

Thanks for the info.
I hope if we get to see Diabolique in First Ward, she gets a makeover.