Story line?

Hi, as a part-time player that comes and goes, it's easy to get lost in the overarching story lines. I looked on the main COH site, and there is a history section, but I couldn't find more current information.

Is there anywhere that I can read everything that happened with Praetoria, the war and such so that I can have a better idea of what's going on? I understand that there are probably missions I can run (and will) to get this but I would really like to just read through it.

Thoughts?

I'm probably gonna get ninja'd here...

The basic gist is this: Praetoria is an alternate Earth where Hamidon was allowed to grow and gain power unimpeded. He wiped out most of North America, with pockets of humanity clinging to survival.

I'm not sure what happened first: First Ward getting destroyed, or Cole defeating Hamidon, but in either case, it was a failed test of the Sonic Fence system: The Devouring Earth were able to dig up from underneath and destroy the city.

Learning from their mistake, Cole and Keyes (And possibly Neuron) built a new fence system around what would become known as Praetoria. This supposedly kept the DE at bay while Cole and co build a new society.

The new society was stringently enforced, however. Psychic police, restriction of freedom, forced conscription of anyone with any abilities into the "powers division". It didn't take long for some people to realize something was wrong. And so you had "The Resistance", lead by Calvin Scott, who had a chip on his shoulder because his wife's body was taken over by "Praetor Tilman", aka Mother Mayhem.

Then Cole found out about "Primal Earth". Apparently, its very existence was a threat to Praetoria, so he acted quickly and decisively to take it for himself. This would serve two effects: Empower him with even more of The Well's favor (which he would need in the future), and keep the Hamidon pacified.

The Hamidon. Which was supposed to be dead. Apparently, Cole fought the creature to a standstill, and asked for a truce: he would prove humanity's worth to the Hamidon if it just gave him time. However, with a whole new world of humans who were just as spoiled and rotten and corrupt as anyone, the Hamidon would see that humans were unworthy, and destroy Praetoria.

Plus, there's the Battalion, a race which EATS power... specifically, Wells (or things like it as they exist on each planet and in every reality).

This "Well" I'm referring to is the Well of the Furies, which initially empowered Statesman and Lord Recluse, and is the empowering source behind "Incarnates": Beings granted enormous power, so long as they show strength of character, strength of will, and just plain old strength!

Cole had the most of this, but it still wasn't enough to defeat the Hamidon, nor would it be enough to confront the Battalion. So he sought to gain more of the Well's power by conquering Primal Earth. But as the forces of Primal Earth fought back (at the behest of Prometheus, an ancient God who once unleashed humanity's potential against the wishes of Zeus) -they- became empowered by the Well.

The Incarnates struck several blows against Coles regime: They disrupted a plan to brainwash the Resistence. They destroyed Praetoria's main munitions depot. They took over the Keyes reactor complex. Cole's capacity to wage war was severely weakened, also thanks to using a large number of forces to strike primal Earth, which had all been beat back. However, things weren't all peaches and cream: the Battalion took this time to launch a strike against us, destroying Galaxy City.

Along with the Resistence, the Incarnates found out Cole's terrible secret: That Hamidon was alive... and ANGRY! Cole could no longer live up to his promise, and now Hamidon, which had been gaining strength, was ready to turn against humanity once again! The Incarnates then took to the airwaves, and told their story to TPN while fighting off the Imperials. And they seemed to convince the public....

This wasn't enough, though. Mother Mayhem stretched the Psychic Seer network to its breaking point, forcing the Incarnates to confront her so that the populace would be free to make their own choices.

In the midst of this, Mot, the God of Death, re-awakened and took over Moth cemetery in Dark Astoria. He is defeated, but then his essence is used to empower Diabolique, who tried to become the new Goddess of Death. She's taken down, allowing the Incarnates to finally get back to the main problem: Cole.

And so it is. With only a few lieutenants remaining (the rest having been incapacitated or captured), and with almost everyone in Praetoria having evacuated to Primal Earth, the Incarnates launch an all out strike against Cole himself. He drops a nuke at the battleground, showing just how far he'll go to achieve victory. The Well gives him more power than ever before, but with some adaptive thinking and raw might, the Incarnates take him down.

And that's about where we're at right now.

As far as the backstory - In WWII, Praetorian Cole pretended to die by nuke.

He re-appeared after the DE/Hamidon surfaced (years ahead of Primal Hamidon) and the US government decided nuke Shroud City, Cole's hometown.

He ended up "winning" and getting "elected" ruler of the world, etc. Then leads into Steele's bit above.

Double thanks here. I don't suppose there is anywhere, aside from in missions, to read the story in more detail? I like running missions, but a bunch of this happens in Incarnate Trials or Task Forces where I don't often get time to read what is going on/being said before people just start punching things...

Dell: A lot of the pre-amble is on the going Rogue character bio pages. The rest is pretty much very brief plot synopsis of the I-trials, with a little bit of Sutter, Apex, and Tin Mage thrown in, as well as events form the last few issues. The parts about the Well is all gathered from talking to Prometheus in Ouro.

I missed/left out a few things (like how Calvin Scott's wife isn't ACTUALLY his wife and he's actually deluded, Desdemona's role in the trials, etc), but mweh =)