Banished Pantheon
3.1 History
The world was once full of gods. In its infancy, humanity had not yet lost touch with the spirit realm. Indeed, we lived in concert with it, propitiating the paranormal at every significant event in our lives. These spirits were manifestations of the worlds natural life force. They were reflections of the greater Gaia that encompasses all of earthly existence. Long before our predecessors used their first rock as a tool, these spirits knew sentience, intelligence, song and poetry. They in turn taught these wonders to humankind, guiding them up the long ladder of evolution. In return the spirits fed and thrived upon the emotional and psychic devotion of their human protégés.
For some spirits, to feed and thrive was not enough. They wanted to feast. And so the made the leap from helpful spirits to benevolent gods. They demanded not just thanks and gifts from humanity, but worship and devotion. The savage humans began to build shrines and say prayers, and these eventually grew into temples and involved ceremonies. Some men began to devote their entire lives to the new gods, becoming shamans and later priests. In turn, the gods grew in power as they feasted upon the worshipers devotion. Where once they could make a plant grow strong and healthy, now they could cause whole forests to spring to life. They controlled the rains, the beasts, the winds, and the sun. the former custodians of nature had evolved into its masters.
Still, each spirit could not escape its original nature. Weather spirits could not control animals. Emotional spirits could not impact the physical world. Each gods true nature defined its divinity. So they banded together into groups so that they might work together and hold sway over all creation. These pantheons would then lay claim to a specific area or tribe of humans, fighting off any interlopers who came to poach upon their worshipers. The pantheons were quite devoted to their individual tribes, for as the tribe prospered and grew, so did their power and influence.
Inevitably, as tribes became civilizations, and villages became cities, clashes between pantheons grew more and more common. Over the centuries many pantheons were lost with their worshipers, while others grew and prospered to dizzying heights. A battle between gods was always a terrible thing, invariably spilling over into the mortal world in the form of plagues, natural disasters, and even outright war with other nations. Often the gods would fight alongside their human followers, shrugging off mortal spears and arrows as they sought to kill as many of the opponents worshipers as possible.
One pantheon, which originated in what we know today as Sub-Saharan Africa, earned a particularly ferocious reputation amongst the divine. Led by a trickster god called Lughebu, the Pantheon decided that the constant tending to the needs of worshipers was a slow and painful way to gather the spiritual energy upon which they thrived. Lughebu had discovered that fear and sorrow could feed a god just as well as love and devotion. There had long been gods who traded in such dread emotions, but even they gathered worshipers unto them usually people wanting to stave off the gods wrath. Lughebu and his Pantheon decided to follow a different path, and harvest the negative spiritual energy directly.
By cutting themselves off from the shackles of worshipers, Lughebus Pantheon was free to wander the world as they pleased, taking their prizes as they pleased. For many centuries they did just that, preying on the weaker pantheon, often going to war with the gods, destroying their people to the last wailing infant and then dispatching the fallen pantheon to oblivion. It was in a particularly hard fought example of these inter-deity wars that one of Lughebus compatriots, a God of the Hunt called Mteru, made a terrible discovery. While the fear and sorrow of human was sweet and wondrous, the last gasp of a fallen god was pure ambrosia. Once he had shared his discovery with his fellow dark gods, the entire Pantheon became addicted to consuming the life force of other deities.
Now mere mortals were as gruel: enough to sustain their hunger, but never enough to satisfy it. The Pantheon began to roam across Africa, hunting down more and more powerful gods for their fire. With each brutal success the Pantheon itself grew more potent, absorbing the energy and abilities of those they defeated. The rest of the continents gods could no longer ignore threat the Pantheon posed. They overcame their local rivalries and past feuds to unite against the ravaging, cannibalistic gods that sought to devour them all.
The Pantheon and the alliance of gods met in battle in the verdant plains of north Africa. They fought a cataclysmic war that lasted for entire generations, fighting back and forth across the continent. With 100 gods for each of the thirteen members of Lughebus Pantheon, the two sides were evenly matched. The war took a terrible toll on the surrounding countryside, killing tens of thousands of worshipers and stripping the earth bare of all life. By the time the war was finished, the lush forests and plains had been transformed into the desert we know of today as the Sahara.
During the war, all but the five strongest members of Lughebus Pantheon fell to the divine host. These last five had in fact consumed the essences of their fallen comrades, leaving them all the stronger for their losses. The alliance of gods knew that they needed another approach, and so turned to a single, relatively obscure god who had long fought at their side. She was Teilekku, and she had been a spirit of knowledge. Now she was the first god of True Magic. She had discovered magic through her own worshipers: the ability to bend, shape and tear reality through shear force of will. This magic differed from divine and spirit powers because it transcended its origins. A master of magic could affect anything in this world and beyond it, not just her own realm of spirit influence.
Teilekku taught her fellow gods a powerful magical ritual that she had devised, one that would defeat the evil Pantheon, although not in a way they expected. Instead of striking the enemy down on the field of battle, the goddess powerful magics created an illusory army of gods for the Pantheon to devour. The five ravening deities fell upon the false prey, who feel easily before their might. As Lughebu and his comrades consumed their prizes, the second part of Teilekkus spell began to take effect. The magical energies surged through the evil gods bodies, driving their own spirits out of their physical forms and into the Spirit Realm. The sudden release of such massive energies all at once tore Pantheons divine bodies to shreds, leaving them no anchors on the physical world. The spell had effectively banished the Pantheon to the spirit realm, where they could no longer meddle directly with the affairs of gods and men.
The banished Pantheon raged impotently against the barrier between our world and the spirit realm. Without any anchor or calling in our world, they had no way to pierce the wall. Since they had long ago eschewed any pretense of gathering worshippers to themselves, there was no one on the mortal plane who could create such a link. Moreover, the remaining gods who had defeated them were doing a very good job of erasing any trace that the Pantheon ever existed, so that within a generation they would be completely forgotten by humanity.
Lughebu and the rest of the Pantheon spent much of their remaining energy trying to find some breach in the barrier, but this proved a waste. Finally, resigned to their fate, they decided to make the best of their situation. The spirit world is a vast, bizarre realm populated by pale afterimages and memories of the real world. It is a land of ghosts, forgotten gods, and nascent spirits waiting to be born into the world. The Pantheon spent countless lifetimes learning its ways and carving out their own kind of territory within the spirit world. They learned how to look through the barrier into the physical world, and even how to manipulate the dream spirits and send formless nightmares into the minds of sleeping children. They ruled over a horde of lesser spirits and demons, twisting them into malicious beings of pure negative energy and emotion. All the while they bided their time, waiting for a chance to once again feast upon the souls of gods and men.
One of their favorite ways to pass the time was watching scenes of great suffering and despair in the mortal world. Even through the spirit barrier they still gained some miniscule nourishment from such events, like dehydrated men licking condensation from a stone wall. Thousands of years had passed, and they were now enjoying a period of particular depravity and evil, with human tribes selling each other into slavery to white men from the north. While certainly the world had seen such savagery before, this was a new height for evil since the Pantheon had learned to gather fragments of energy from the other side. The five gods flocked eagerly to any point of depravity and despair, especially amongst those who worshipped any of the gods that had banished them so long ago.
On one instance when the suffering was particularly great, in the hold of slave ship bound for the West Indies, Lughebu The Trickster felt the fabric separating the two worlds had grown particularly thin. He had long ago mastered the art of sending formless nightmares across the gulf between worlds, but now, for the first time he was able to send more coherent dreams; dreams that included his name. He had finally discovered the secret of breaking through the barrier at least in some small manner. It was a start, something to build on. At first he and his kin sent nightmares and visions to make a bad situation worse, hoping to eke out more sustenance through the barrier. Only later, after a few years of this largely futile exercise, did the sorrow starved Lughebu think clearly enough to see this breachs full potential.
Lughebus mind thought back to a time so far gone that he scarcely remembered it. A time when he had been a lowly trickster god and Neanderthal man had left him berries to leave them be. To a time when he had worshipers. It was obvious that there were no gods looking after these poor slaves. They would be hopeless and desperate, willing even to devote themselves to the perverse desires of the Pantheon. And through their worship, he and his fellow banished gods would find a way back into the world. Then they would feast once more.
The Pantheon began to send dreams to the most desperate and yet strong willed of the slaves, both in the American Colonies and in the West Indies. Unfortunately for them, very few were willing to relinquish their old gods from Africa. The voudon practitioners held sway over many, and their gods were still jealous and powerful. Worse yet were those who had succumbed to the white mans god. They proved entirely intractable. All that was left for the Pantheon were those few dark souls who had already turned away from any path that might lead to salvation. This ended up working well for the dark gods though, for such evil men and women proved the perfect conduits for their malicious plans.
These evil men and women became the first Shamans, worshipers and devotees of the Pantheon who could serve as conduits for their power and desires. The Shamans established small coteries devoted to carrying out the banished gods will. The first trick they learned was how to send the negative energies from human sorrow and pain across the spirit barrier to feed the gods. In return the Lughebu and company would aid their worshipers as best they could, chiefly by providing information they had glimpsed through the barrier about the enemies of the Shamans. At first they could not interact directly with our world or their worshipers.
However, as their power grew, the Pantheon discovered more and more cracks appearing in the barriers. A crack is actually a poor metaphor, since the cracks were actually temporary and mobile: they were the Shamans themselves, and their victims. The Pantheon discovered that when the Shamans sent souls across the barrier, they opened a two-way passage, through which they could in turn send their own evil spirits and negative energy back. Although not nearly big enough for the gods themselves to slip through, they could send their spirit minions to possess the discarded bodies of the Shamans sacrifices. They could even lend a part of their power to the Shamans themselves.
Throughout the 18th Century, the Pantheons cult of followers grew slowly, reaching its height at the turn of the century in the United States. It never numbered more than a few hundred individuals spread out across West Africa, the Caribbean, and the Southern American colonies. It was in America that the cult really took root. With no established indigenous religions to compete with aside from Christianity, the predatory gods found fertile soil for their machinations. Their power continued to grow throughout the 19th Century, with the gods keeping a careful balance between culling worshipers from both the black slaves and the white masters. It needed the misery and desperation of the slaves and thus found many willing worshipers amongst them. At the same time the Pantheon did not want to give the slaves enough power to destroy the institution that was causing them so much delicious sorrow.
With the coming of the Civil War, the Pantheon had a few golden years where pain, suffering and death were in such abundance that the barrier with the spirit world weakened even further. In the chaos of war, the Shamans of the Banished Pantheon went wild in some regions, and with the help of their dread gods discovered that they werent the only ones that could receive divine energy from the other side. This was the first appearance of the zombie-like Husk, which would come to exemplify the Pantheon in future years. The Husks were bodies whose souls had been sent on to feed the evil gods. The gods then sent back one of their enslaved spirits to possess the body and give it a new and terrible life as a zombie.
The end of the war also brought the end of slavery, but not the end of misery in America. The Shamans and their gods took up with the many new hate groups that had begun to appear amongst the white population. Although they never supported any particular groups agenda, they did recruit from their ranks for their own purposes. The chaos of the Civil War had given the Pantheon a taste of added freedom and power, and it was something they longed to return to. When, decades later, the Great Depression struck, they thought they had found their chance.
With so many millions unemployed and desperate, The Pantheon and its Shamans launched their biggest initiative ever. For the first time since their banishment, they were going to try and manipulate human history on a grand scale. They placed their operatives throughout the nation and were preparing to bring about a violent class war between the poor and the rich in America. Their plan encompassed both temporal and spiritual elements, with the Shamans using their powers to influence leaders on both sides of the coming war. They didnt care who won they simply wanted the conflict.
Fortunately for America, the 1930s brought more than the Great Depression alone. It also brought a new breed of heroes, men and women willing and prepared to deal with threats like the Banished Pantheon. The shadowy Mister E was one of these heroes. A founding member of the Midnight Squad, he and his compatriots dedicated themselves to fighting any evil with supernatural origins. Mister E had contacts throughout the occult world and had heard rumors of the Shamans and the devotion to some long forgotten pantheon of evil gods. While pursuing another case, he happened upon a meeting where one of these evil priests was using his powers to sway a large group of unemployed men. He listened closely as their small role in the coming class war unfolded.
With his brilliant analytical mind and mystic insight, he immediately recognized that this group was only part of a much larger conspiracy. He single handedly broke up the meeting and managed to capture the Shaman leading it. The foul high priest refused to talk, but Mister E found evidence on him that led him to another Pantheon cult. This time it was a group of bankers and financiers secretly worshiping the Banished Pantheon on the rooftops of their luxury apartment buildings. They too had instructions that would ultimately lead to a violent class struggle. After hed brought these sinister silver spoon sybarites to justice, he gathered the rest of the Midnight Squad together.
Their then ensued a secret war in the shadows that lasted for almost an entire year. The Midnight Squad struck first, crippling the Banished Pantheons conspiracy and preventing the imminent class war. The war in the shadows had just begun. The Pantheon struck back focusing their assaults not on the members of the Midnight Squad, but on their families, friends, and loved ones. As always, the evil gods went for pain and anguish over direct action. Mister E alone remained immune to such assaults, because his life and identity were a secret even the gods in the spirit realm could not plumb. He stood strong and fast against the Pantheon and his fellow heroes, nearly crippled with grief and doubt, rallied around him. Eventually the heroes proved victorious, capturing or eliminating almost all of the Pantheons Shamans and smashing their witless cult conspiracy to smithereens.
The defeat was so resounding that Lughebu and company could scarcely act on earth for another decade, a particularly harsh blow since it meant they missed out on any chance to capitalize upon the horrors of World War II, which happened just a few years later. Slowly they rebuilt their power base in America, still feeding off hate and sadness and grief. With each race riot, government brutality, and national tragedy their strength grew. By the end of the century they had recovered a fair amount of their former influence, but still not enough to attempt anything as audacious as what they had tried in the 30s.
Then the Rikti invaded. The pain, the horror, the anguish, the fear. It was almost overwhelming after so many decades of deprivation for the Banished Pantheon. They released their Shamans upon the war torn world, creating hordes of Husks to add fuel to the fire. With so many other, more pressing threats, The Pantheon was able to act largely without any serious interference from the worlds heroes. Back in the spirit realm, the gods were salivating with hunger. They poured forth all their energy into empowering their Shamans. It was then that Lughebu discovered an entirely new opportunity. The massive amounts of death and destruction had so weakened the spirit barrier and inflamed the Shamans that the trickster god was able to actually possess his devotee for several hours, transforming their human forms into a physical manifestation of the god himself.
Creating avatars of themselves in our world was akin to flinging wide the jailhouse doors as far as the gods were concerned. Although at only a fraction of their true power, it allowed them to once again walk the earth and carry out their every depraved desire. Lughebu believes that transforming Shamans into Avatars is only the first step on the path to freeing themselves entirely from the spirit realm. Now the Banished Pantheon is determined more than ever to set itself free and to wreak bloody havoc upon the entire world.
3.2 Beliefs and Goals
More than anything, the Banished Pantheon yearns to return to Earth as free creatures. Such an event would be a disaster on par with the Rikti Invasion, as these five beings by themselves could level whole continents with their powers. Fortunately, at present there seems no way for them to break the cures laid upon them, but even so their power and influence on earth continues to grow now that they can project their avatars into the bodies of their worshipers. What they need is a source of power equal to that of the gods they used to devour with such abandon, but gods are few and far between in the modern world.
However, there is a new kind of god emerging, a very different type of being whose energy The Pantheon is just now developing a taste for: super powered heroes. Heroes are, in many ways, modern gods. They have powers and abilities beyond mortal men. They receive the praise, adulation, and even worship of those whom they serve and protect. The more fame they accrue, the more esteemed they are and seemingly the more powerful they become. Whether they realize it or not, when a hero receives the cheers and support of a grateful city, the experience leaves a residual energy on their spirit. The more people praise their name, the more spiritual residue builds up. This is the stuff of confidence and the aura of mystique that surrounds so many celebrities and heroes. The more a hero revels in his or her fame, the stronger the energy becomes as they tap into it subconsciously.
As a result of this phenomenon, the gods of the Pantheon have taken a special interest in conquering famous heroes and stripping away these auras of worship that have built up around them. The process comes naturally to any of the gods avatars, which can consume the delectable aura as they defeat a hero in battle. They do not have to kill the hero. Indeed, they prefer not to. Instead they like to humiliate and temporarily or permanently cripple their foes. This not only produces the added bonus of sorrow and pain for the gods to feed on, it also makes it easier to strip away the fame aura since the hero himself comes to believe he is not worthy of the accolades he has earned.
Ideally there would actually be some sort of in game effect associated with fighting the Banished Pantheon. For instance, when their minions defeat heroes they lose extra Fame. Another interesting option would be to allow them to strip away unspent influence points or even to destroy unused favors. On the flip side they shouldnt be quite as tough as their difficulty level would suggest because of the added penalty. You could also balance the Pantheon by giving higher Fame rewards for defeating them, or giving them higher XP rewards than normal.
Overall, the Pantheon seeks to sow sorrow at every turn. Pain and suffering are their bread and butter, and without a constant stream of agony and stolen souls, their power will begin to whither and die. Thus, the more of the city they can bring under their baleful influence, the better. Ultimately it would be grand if the entire metropolis felt their presence on a daily basis, becoming a necropolis of the spirit. But then again, they have a lot of competition.
3.3 Behavior Patterns
The Husks and Chambers make up the vast majority of the Pantheons earthly army, and the evil gods are pretty free with their least powerful minions, setting them loose anywhere and everywhere they can. Because of their slow speed, Husks and Chambers work best in large groups, so it is very rare to see just one or two of these zombie-like creatures wandering the streets alone. The Pantheon likes to release Husks and Chambers in large herds all at one time rather than maintaining a constant flow of them into the citys populated areas. Thus there will be days when suddenly an area is flooded with Husks and Chambers, while weeks will go by without a single walking cadaver showing its face on the streets. These mass releases are designed to cause maximum terror and fear amongst the local population. There is invariably at least one Shaman in the vicinity, to help reap the dark harvest the gods of the Banished Pantheon demand.
It is however much more common to find solitary corrupt spirits roaming about the city and leaving chaos in their wake. The corrupt spirits love to cause their own brand of mischief wherever they go, and their flight power gives them a great deal of mobility. They are liable to pop up literally anywhere, although the Midnight Squad has taken precautions to ward some parts of the city against them.
Recruiting new Shamans is always a priority for the evil gods, since without them they can neither feast on stolen souls nor manifest themselves in our world as avatars. While anyone would be convinced that the Banished Pantheon has great power, it takes a certain type of person to be not only convinced, but seduced by such creatures. A fair amount of time and energy goes into cajoling a potential Shaman into the Pantheons ranks. Thus a significant portion of the groups energies goes into taking care of worldly matters relating to their new initiates. Invariable evil to the core, a new Shaman wants revenge upon everyone in the world who ever did him or her wrong or even pissed him or her off. The gods encourage their priests to carry out these vendettas, and are more than happy to send corrupt spirits to terrorize ex-lovers or soul sucking Husk to demolish an old work place.
Lughebu has recently developed quite an interest in the lost city of Oranbega. Although they do not truly understand magic, the gods know that it is the key to their imprisonment and they want to learn more. Thus they have begun to send exploratory parties down into the underground city to recover whatever magical artifacts and items of power they can. This has led them into conflict with the Circle of Thorns on more than one occasion, but they generally try to avoid the evil magician and explore areas that the sorcerers have not yet claimed for themselves.
In the chaotic days following the Rikti War, Lughebus increased powers sensed a sleeping god underneath the cemetery in Dark Astoria. It was the dead god Mot, whose evil power outstripped even the Banished Pantheon. The greedy Lughebu wanted to drink from Mots divine essence and so commanded his followers to launch an assault on that city zone. The overwrought authorities fled before the zombie hordes and abandoned Dark Astoria altogether. No one yet knows why the Banished Pantheon has claimed Dark Astoria as its own; Lughebu is still trying to figure out how to tap into Mots power without waking him up.
3.4 Enemies and Allies
The Pantheon will happily ally with anyone and everyone who asks for their assistance, as long as the end result is more pain and suffering in the world for them to feed upon. Since they have very few temporal goals, their agenda seldom conflicts with those of other villain groups. The flip side is that they very rarely actually care if their erstwhile allys agenda gets fulfilled. Indeed, as often as not, when things turn bad for their ally, they will change sides, since they can feed of an allys fear and loathing just as easily as an enemys.
The one exception to the above assertions is the Circle of Thorns. As mentioned earlier, Lughebu and the rest of the Pantheon have a great fear for and interest in all things magical. They do not understand magic and cannot work it themselves, but they want to learn. They believe that there is a magical key to their prison and they think that the Circle of Thorns might be able to help them find it. Thus they try to work with the magicians whenever possible. Unfortunately for them The Circle is only slightly cooperative. Each group tries to exploit the other without really helping them. This leads to more than a few scuffles between the groups, particularly down in the caverns of lost Oranbega.
Several villain groups find the Pantheon to be as great a threat to them as the citys heroes do. Crey Industries has no use for the group, considering them pests and a threat to call of their plans. Likewise the Fifth Column feels much the same way, being disdainful of their African roots and their chaotic nature. Nemesis, as always, feels free to manipulate them to his own ends, and often succeeds in doing just that. The Freakshow basically appreciate the groups nihilism and chaos causing tendencies, and frankly to really understand what theyre dealing with.
The Rikti present another interesting case. Their world long ago abandoned gods and religion of any sort. They know nothing of magic or the spirit world, and frankly are more than a little skeptical about the whole thing. Theres no denying the Banished Gods power though, and they think it can be used to their advantage. After all, they care little for what happens to humanity, they just want to win the war. They believe that the Pantheon is, like themselves, an invading army from another dimension. As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The Banished Gods are equally wary of the Rikti, since the aliens are emotional blanks to the evil deities. The Rikti cant be Husk, their souls cant be harvested, and they produce no delicious negative emotions to feed upon. Lughebu has made some overtures of cooperation with the Rikti, but thus far the two have not worked out any kind of formal alliance.
The Dawn Patrol stands as the greatest opponent of the Banished Pantheon. They have been fighting and defeating the villain group since the 30s, and until the Rikti Invasion, they were viewed as a nuisance group. Now that the evil gods can manifest their avatars on earth, fighting them has become a much higher priority for the hero group. They are now quite proactive in seeking out Shamans and concentrations of Husk before they can attack the city. Their magicians have also begun to develop special charms and enchanted items designed to negate the powers of the Corrupt Spirits. They give these out as favors to their trusted allies and members.
3.5 The Future
The Banished Pantheon has big plans for the future. While destroying souls to create Husk is certainly useful, it is not the ideal fate for every man woman and child. No, they are much better used as a renewable resource of anguish, at least until the gods can escape their prison entirely and roam the world at will. With this in mind, Lughebu has begun to develop a semi-complete stage of possession, wherein a spirit is implanted into a human being whose soul is still there. The human spirit will remain dominant, and the poor victim unaware of what has transpired. Nevertheless he or she will become a walking beacon of some negative emotion, infecting themselves and everyone around them. The Midnight Squad will need to come up with some way to exorcise these spirits or eventually the whole city will fall under their gloomy sway.
There are also plenty of other malevolent creatures from the spirit world that the Pantheon would like to slip through into our world. At this point only the Corrupt Spirits can traverse the barrier, but soon the gods might find away to send larger, more fearsome spirits to our world to wreak havoc. Beings like the monstrously huge Juggernauts of War or the sprawling Spirits of Chaos.
All is not necessarily dark in the future. Should the situation ever become incredibly dire (such as the gods themselves being free), the world could well see the return of Teilekku, the goddess of magic who first banished the evil deities many millennia ago. She would offer new powers, abilities, and items to who would follow her in her crusade against the banished gods.
Poison � Sabbath
Carnival of Shadows
3.1 History
Venice in the 17th Century was a city-state in the early stages of a long and swirling decline. It’s role as the preeminent trading center in Europe was soon to be overshadowed by the Dutch and the eventually the English. Yet there still remained a great deal of wealth and power in the island city, and with it came a commensurate level of hidden and not so hidden debauchery and sin. While the nobles and merchants of Venice put on a show of piety and moral uprightness, in private many of them were hedonists to the core. Wild orgiastic parties and illicit love affairs with beautiful courtesans were the rule of the day, as were experimentations with darker practices, including black magic. Magicians, fortune tellers, alchemists, and sorcerers all worked the Venice scene, scamming nobles, priests, and captains of industry alike, sometimes with real magic, sometimes with simple chicanery. It was a time of great opportunity for those willing to seize it by any means necessary.
At the center of this whirling cavalcade of flesh, greed, and magic, was a mysterious woman named Giovanna Scaldi. A native of nearby Padua, Giovanna had grown up in a relatively poor farming family and under normal circumstances would never have had much hope of achieving much beyond the status of milk maid or farmer’s wife. But Giovanna was different than all the other girls. Giovanna turned out to be a powerful mutant with impressive psychic abilities. It took Giovanna until the age of 15 to realize just how powerful she actually was. Up until that time she had simply thought the world revolved around her, as most children do. Whatever she asked of people, they did for her. Her parents doted on her and never made her do chores. Her friends always agreed to play whatever games she chose and were very generous to her. The local baker always gave her free sweets whenever she stopped by for a treat. She became a spoiled, bratty young woman that no one had ever been able to say no to – mostly because she was subconsciously using her psychic powers to control their minds.
It was only when her demands grew more costly and her parents lost their land due to unpaid taxes that the true extent of abilities became revealed. When soldiers came to drive them off her land, Giovanna told them to go away. They did. But then they came back, so she told them to just forget about the whole thing and never come back. They did. When new soldiers came, they had orders to not ask politely – they bore torches and immediately set fire to the farmhouse, with Giovanna and her family still inside. The young psychic rushed outside in a panic, and in her fear and anger shouted that the men should be burning each other, not her house. They did. Giovanna’s parents were astonished, and more than a little frightened. They couldn’t understand what was happening, but they knew that Giovanna was the cause. But Giovanna knew exactly what was happening. In that moment of crisis everything became clear to her. She could make people do whatever she wanted. She was, basically, a god.
Suddenly she was very tired, so she made her father carry her to the nearby home of a wealthy merchant while their family farmstead continued to burn. She told the owner that she needed to sleep in his no doubt very comfortable bed and that when she awoke she’d need some food and wine and the undivided attention of the best dressmaker in Padua. The owner was more than happy to comply. Giovanna had already practically forgotten about her family. A girl of tremendous insight and a voracious appetite for personal satisfaction, she had no doubt about what she wanted next from life, and there was only one place she knew of that she could get it: Venice.
Giovanna several months more in Padua, during which time she experimented with the true limits of her powers, all the while amassing the money, clothes, and knowledge she would need to take on Venice on her own terms. She learned that there was a significant difference between merely suggesting simple things that a target might be inclined to do anyway, and forcing people to behave against their nature. She could force anyone to do anything, but she found that exercising her power for extreme purposes tired her out very quickly. The subtle path would always be the path of least resistance for her. Although she could not read minds, Giovanna could read people, and had become a pretty astute judge of character. And since everyone secretly longs to reveal their heart’s desire, forcing people to reveal their hopes and dreams usually required very little of her power. Once she knew a person’s motivations, manipulating them became very easy – simply a matter of guiding their path towards a mutually agreeable conclusion. In this manner she acquired the money and support she needed, not by simply forcing people to hand it over, but by convincing them that they wanted to help her.
Upon arrival in Venice, Giovanna through herself into the whirl of social life in La Serinissima. Posing as a Duchess, she had no problem finding lodgings in a wondrous palazzo and inserting herself directly into the highest levels of Venetian society. She attended all the best parties, was surrounded by suitors and potential lovers, and generally lived a kind of fairytale life made up of beautiful people and beautiful places. However, despite her powers and worldly airs, she remained very much a naïve young girl in many respects. She remained largely unaware of some of the darker “secrets” of life in Venice, and for several years was content to turn a blind eye to tales of hedonism and devil worship. Giovanna was living the life of a storybook princess, and would hear of nothing that might disturb her fantasy existence.
It was only as she matured and began to grow bored with her life that she truly began to discover the forbidden pleasures that Venice truly had to offer. For Giovanna, it was like an alcoholic discovering wine for the first time – she knew at once that she had finally found her place. She dove into this mysterious and sensual world head first, opening herself up to all manner of experience. She took the scene by storm, and soon became famous for hosting the most decadent and imaginative parties in the city. But the pleasures of flesh and food were not what interested her most (although she certainly enjoyed them). For her, the most intriguing aspect of this secret world, was the occult. Although she had not spent much time thinking about where her miraculous powers came from, part of her had of course always wondered what made her different. The teachings of the Church certainly offered no explanations. She had discussed the matter with several priests and then been forced to wipe their memories (a very tiring undertaking) when they accused her of being in league with Satan. As far as she was concerned, the priests were as corrupt and venal as any man or woman she knew and could not possibly offer her true insight. She thought that perhaps these various occultists and men of mystery and magic could offer a fresh perspective.
Giovanna’s powers allowed her to quickly separate the frauds from those few who had real mystic insight. She confided in one of them about the true nature of her abilities, a man who called himself Uriel di Inferno, an obvious pseudonym. The two became very close and Uriel became a regular sight at Giovanna’s parties. Soon the two began hosting occult ceremonies and gatherings as well. Uriel himself had some talent with black magic and had on occasion consorted with demons, but he abandoned those disciplines once he saw what Giovanna could do. Whatever the source of her mysterious powers, she was no demon. Uriel decided it would be much better to bargain with a young woman rather than an ancient demon. He helped Giovanna to explore the full extent of her powers. Using their parties and mystic rituals as a cover for their experiments, the two discovered just how talented she truly was. She could effectively influence any number of people within the sound of her voice, urging them to perform acts that didn’t go against their basic nature. She could force her will upon at least a dozen individuals at a time, although this left her drained and weary. She could also take over a person’s mind and body completely, possessing them and controlling their body from within. This last power left her unconscious during the possession and bed ridden for hours afterwards, but opened a whole new range of possible mischief and entertainment.
One thing that Both Giovanna and Uriel noticed was that her powers didn’t drain her energy nearly as much when she used them during one of their parties. It was as if she fed upon the energy of the partygoers around her, especially during the times of highest debauchery. Uriel, with his background in demonology, hypothesized that Giovanna gained some sort of sustenance when she touched the mind of someone engaged in sin of some sort. The individuals own sense of excitement at breaking the rules lit up their souls, like throwing fuel on a flame. The brightly burning souls of these sinners warmed Giovanna, giving her strength to continue for far longer than would normally be the case. Some more experimentation revealed that, if Giovanna attended her parties and scarcely used her powers at all, then she came out of the experience with tremendous energy – in fact the first time she tried it she couldn’t get to sleep for a week, and only found slumber after using her powers to directly control several noblemen in a rather embarrassing fashion.
It was obvious that somehow Giovanna took energy from the souls of sinners, a revelation that not only delighted her, but also caused her to sink further into depravity and immoral acts. Her rapacious hunger for new and more exciting extravagances of the flesh and mind became legendary throughout the city. She became more and more adept at siphoning off energy from the souls of those around her, so that with each passing week her power grew stronger and stronger. She could now control the minds of almost anyone in the city, as long as she had touched their mind in person at least once before. Her sinful soirees spilled out into public plazas and even the Doge’s palace played host to some truly astonishing events. Giovanna had the entire city in her grasp – or at least the part of the city she cared about; the nobles, the merchants, and the beautiful people were all under her sway.
Although many of the higher-ranking clergy were eager participants in Giovanna’s fetes, there were plenty of pious priests, monks, and nuns who were outraged at what was going on. For her part, Giovanna paid them no mind. When one would occasionally make a public show of protesting the Sodom and Gomorrah lifestyle of the city’s rich and famous, she would simply summon them to her and melt away any thoughts of challenging her or her friends. But not all challenges were public. Letters and messengers were sent to Rome. While the official dignitaries from the Papal Court immediately fell into Giovanna’s web upon arrival, the secret investigators from the Inquisition did not. The Pope learned the truth about what was going on in Venice – that the so-called Duchess Giovanna Scaldi had turned the entire city into a godless brothel thanks to her pact with the Devil himself. Reports of Giovanna’s powers made it clear that she could control any normal man or woman who came into her presence. Fortunately for him, the Pope had in his arsenal a man who was far from normal.
Come the Inquisitor
Brother Abelard Vernoux was, much like Giovanna, a Mutant, although one with a very different kind of mutation. He had a kind of special empathic ability that allowed him to not only absorb the emotions and thoughts of people around him, but also the qualities of animals, plants, and even inanimate objects. For example, when his teachers told him to show iron like discipline, he drew upon the strength of iron to not only toughen his resolve, but his skin as well. He was the perfect student of course, because he always knew just what his teachers wanted to hear. For many years he hid his special gift from them, knowing empathically that they would not understand it, even though he knew in his own heart that it was a gift from God.
Predictably, given that he was a walking miracle, Abelard entered service in the Church and became a monk. A fervent Catholic, he chose the battlefield as his venue of choice, and throughout the religion-oriented 30 Years War, he acted as a confessor, advisor, and officiant for the armies of Catholicism in their war against what he perceived of as heresy. During his time on the battlefield, Abelard slowly began to reveal his powers, using them to help soldiers in need, sniff out enemy spies, and sometimes even to sway the course of battles. Always he couched these occurrences in terms of miracles from God – answers to his prayers. In the religious minded zeitgeist of the day, these explanations were not only accepted, they were welcomed. Brother Abelard developed a reputation as one of the most zealous and spiritual men in Christendom.
After the Peace of Westphalia ended the war, Brother Abelard was not ready to give up the fight against heresy. If he couldn’t fight the Protestants abroad, then he would be sure to do his best to stamp out any signs of heresy within those lands still loyal to Rome. He joined the Inquisition. There his powers proved most useful, as he was able to sniff out the merest whiff of heresy or impiety in a person’s mind. On more than one occasion he became the target of assassins, since everyone knew that once Abelard was on the case, he would always get his man. But in those dire times his more physical manifestations of power protected him, allowing him to transform himself into steel to deflect blades or fire to scourge his attackers of their sins (and lives).
And so it was that the Pope turned to Brother Abelard, now in his 60’s but still looking like a man of no more than 40, to deal with the massive outbreak of heresy in Venice. The Inquisitor was more than happy to serve the Bishop of Rome. The mutant monk set forth immediately, and unlike many of his fellow Inquisitors, he traveled alone. He found that having a retinue not only slowed him down, it sometimes led to difficult questions. Not everyone – especially members of the suspicious Inquisition, was willing to believe that his powers came from God and not witchcraft.
The Inquisitor arrived in Venice unheralded and largely unnoticed. His arrival happened to coincide with one of Giovanna’s grand parties, a lustful affair that spread out across all of the Piazza San Marco, the Doge’s Palace, and even into the Cathedral itself. Needless to say, the Inquisitor needed little proof of the heretic horrors that had gripped Venice in their clutches. He reached out into the minds of those around him and quickly figured out just who was responsible for all this mayhem. Giovanna was at the height of her power, and every beautiful or wealthy person in Rome was under her sway. Her image blazed like a beacon in the minds of everyone Brother Abelard touched.
Abelard found Giovanna inside the Doge’s palace, holding court over a shameful display of noblemen disporting themselves in a most embarrassing and irreligious manner. He ordered that this sinful behavior be ceased at once and that Giovanna Scaldi be seized as a heretic and a witch. Giovanna just laughed, and as she chuckled the rest of the room followed suit. Deciding to play with her newfound opponent for a while, she let Brother Abelard rave on for several more minutes. The monk became more and more enraged as he tried to reach out into the minds of these sinners and their witch-queen. But he could not overthrow her power. Finally, as Brother Abelard approached Giovanna on her throne, she grew weary of his presence. She reached into his mind to turn it off.
And nothing happened. Brother Abelard’s own mental mutations protected him from Giovanna’s power, although he did sense her mind probing at his. However, her concentration failed when he slapped her harshly across the face, sending her sprawling across the floor. No one had ever struck Giovanna before. No one had even raised their voice to her. She reached out into the minds of the assembled nobles and ordered them to tear this troublesome monk to pieces with their bare hands. As the mob descended upon him, Abelard absorbed the strength of the marble floor into his skin, protecting him from their fists and bites. Although he didn’t want to hurt them, he had no choice. He lashed out, sending them flying across the room in heaps of shattered bones and ruptured organs.
Giovanna had already fled the room, frightened of what was happening. She had never known failure or setback in all her life. She sought out Uriel, all the while sending more of her thralls after Brother Abelard. He rampaged through the city, beating down everyone that Giovanna threw in his path. Although Giovanna had been absorbing soul energy for years now, her powers were not inexhaustible. After a twelve hour chase through the city, she finally collapsed, and only with Uriel’s help did she manage to find a safe hiding place from the monk’s wrath.
Abelard quickly reestablished Church control over Venice, breaking down Giovanna’s conditioning and igniting an Inquisitorial furor within the population. The lower classes had long been left out of Giovanna’s excesses and had come to resent the flagrant and disturbing immorality of their community leaders. Those leaders, now free from Giovanna’s influence, were contrite and repentant, eager to save themselves from being tortured by the Inquisitor or burned at the stake. The whole city through itself at Abelard’s feet, who promptly ordered them to tear the city apart if that’s what it took to find Giovanna Scaldi.
Frightened and desperate, Giovanna knew that she couldn’t hide for long, but she had no idea how she could escape either. It was her friend and confidant Uriel who came up with a rather radical solution. He had long been investigating the nature of Giovanna’s power, and had determined that Giovanna could project her entire soul and mind out of her body and into someone or something else. It was clear that Brother Abelard could read minds, so he might detect Giovanna if she put her mind into another body to escape the city. But what if she put her mind into a specially prepared object? Uriel knew several spells that he thought might enable an item to carry a soul, at least for a time.
Not knowing what else to do, Giovanna agreed. She chose an enamel mask that she thought looked a bit like her and Uriel performed the necessary rites and rituals. Giovanna projected her entire soul into the mask, something she had never done before, even with a person. Her body died immediately, and all the world went dark for her. She knew nothing of the outside world. The plan was for Uriel to spirit her out of the city and find a suitable body for her to possess for her own.
Unfortunately for both of them, their scheme did not go according to plan. Abelard himself caught Uriel as he was trying to slip out of the city on a hired boat. He now knew all about Uriel’s close alliance with the wanted Giovanna Scaldi, and he seized the wanton wizard and brought him to the Cathedral for questioning. Years of being Giovanna’s consort had taught Uriel how to shield his mind from mutant psychics, and Abelard was unable to break him. He even resisted torture, finally dying of a heart attack while on the rack. Meanwhile, like the possessions of every other sinner in the city that Brother Abelard had found less than fully repentant, Uriel’s personal belongings were sold to raise money for the church, including a lovely but otherwise pedestrian porcelain mask.
Vanessa DeVore
In July of 2000, a pretty young Art History named Vanessa DeVore arrived in Venice during a weekend trip from Florence, where she was studying. Vanessa was overwhelmed by the beauty of the floating city and wondered about its dark streets in a kind of Stendahl Syndrome induced daze. She had long waited for this moment – and was making the most of her time in the city where her grandmother claimed she had distant ancestors. Venessa was herself a low-level empath, capable of intuiting and even absorbing other peoples emotions and sometimes even their thoughts. She also happened to be a distant blood relation of Giovanna Scaldi.
Vanessa found herself wandering into a dusty, decrepit curio shop in one of Venice’s less traveled corners. As she poked around, looking for a souvenir, she came across a once beautiful wooden box containing what must have been at one time a lovely porcelain mask. The wooden case had warped slightly and was covered with scratches and scuffmarks, while the mask itself had become discolored and chipped in several places. She felt strangely drawn to the piece, and made the shopkeeper an offer he gladly accepted.
All the way to her hotel room, Vanessa grew more and more obsessed with trying the mask on. She had planned simply to drop it off and then head out for more sightseeing, but by the time she arrived, all she could think about was finding the right materials to clean the mask properly. A trained art restorer, Vanessa could work wonders with a little soap, water, and a toothbrush. She settled down with the mask and over the next few hours carefully restored at least some of its former glory. Then, her work complete, the next step was obvious. She put it on.
The mask had passed through many owners in the hundreds of years it had been passed about Venice, but never before had someone been so perfect a match for the dormant psyche of Giovanna Scaldi. She had felt her distant cousin’s arrival almost as soon as Vanessa set foot off the train in Venice. In fact, it was the first thing Giovanna had felt in a very, very long time. Up until that point, she had existed in a void, alone with her thoughts for the intervening centuries. She had long ago given up straining against the confines of her porcelain prison, and had in many ways gone quite insane. But Vanessa’s presence snapped her out of her madness – at least to a degree – and now the time was at hand. She would be free once more!
When Vanessa put on the mask, Giovanna’s mind flooded into hers, nearly overwhelming her. The sudden melding of two sets of memories drove Vanessa’s body into shock. She collapsed to the floor unconscious. As she lay there, her mind and Giovanna’s fought for control over the body, even as they exchanged information about their respective worlds. Their thoughts, emotions, memories, and morals combined in a kind of psychic soup, until many of the boundaries between the two were eroded completely. Neither could win the titanic battle of spirits for total control. It was only the next morning, when the maid found Vanessa sprawled on the floor and removed the mask, that the conflict ended.
Frightened and badly shaken, Vanessa packed the mask away and eventually returned home to Paragon City, ostensibly to finish her graduate work. Instead, she spent her time learning everything she could about Giovanna Scaldi and the mysterious mask. She consulted with some of the city’s foremost experts on occult matters, including several prominent members of the Midnight Squad. They ascertained that while the mask itself did have magical properties, Giovanna’s power was entirely psychic based, rather than mystic in origin. She was, in all probability, a mutant.
Sorting through the memories that Giovanna passed onto her during their mind meld, Vanessa knew that Giovanna had been a powerful psychic, capable of influencing and even controlling other peoples minds. She also knew that Giovanna somehow fed on the souls of those who “sinned.” The access to such power was quite tempting, but Vanessa was too frightened to put the mask on again, even though it called to her constantly.
Then events forced her hand. When the Rikti invaded, Vanessa felt as powerless as anyone. These aliens were overrunning the city from every direction. There was nowhere to run and it seemed that the heroes were dying as quickly as the attackers. Vanessa knew she had to do whatever she could to fight back against these strange monsters. She took a chance and put the mask on. The two psyches fused once more, but this time Vanessa was ready for the shock and had prepared her own mental defenses. She prevented Giovanna from totally taking over her mind and even came to an accord with the woman in the mask – they needed to work together or the aliens would destroy both of them.
Unfortunately, it was not as easy as that. As it turned out, Giovanna’s power could not be used to control the alien Rikti minds. But the two women would not give up that easily. In desperation they began to lock onto several of the nearby soldiers, taking them over and then coordinating their fight against the aliens. Because there was instant telepathic communication between them and because they now behaved orders without any fear for their own safety, they became a much more effective fighting unit. As Giovanna used her power more and more, Vanessa’s personality receded into the background. Giovanna used her puppet soldiers without mercy, sacrificing them without a second thought if it meant killing or harming just one more Rikti.
Vanessa/Giovanna fought on like this for twenty hours before their body finally collapsed from the strain. Luckily they were unharmed during their blackout period, and after a quick meal they launched themselves back into the action. The next day, as her power began to drain, Giovanna tried in desperation to latch on to any source of energy she could find. But pain and suffering were not the kinds of “sins” that had once fed her. As unconsciousness welled up within her, she sunk her mental claws into one of the heroes she had been controlling, trying to hang on. The result was a sudden flush of energy that came on in a flood. It took her a moment to realize what had happened – she had ripped the hero’s soul completely from his body and then devoured it.
This new twist on an old power was enough to even horrify Giovanna. She recoiled at what she had done, although it exhilarated her at the same time. Ironically, it was Vanessa who saw the true potential of this terrible gift. It meant that they could keep on fighting, indefinitely if need be. As long as their were souls to scavenge then they could do their part to fight off the Rikti menace. And so they kept on fighting. They quickly discovered that they couldn’t rip out just anyone’s soul. In fact, it had to be someone that they had been dominating for at least a few hours. Only after they had stripped away a person’s natural mental defenses could they tear a soul free.
This restriction served them well enough – and kept them fighting throughout the war. They assembled around them a cadre of heroes and soldiers that fought exclusively under their telepathic command. They even volunteered their puppets for the final assault on the Rikti stronghold beneath Paragon City. Their entire force served on the Alpha Strike team and, like most of the heroes involved in that operation, they died when the Rikti portal was destroyed. With the last of their minions lost and no ready souls to devour, Vanessa/Giovanna collapsed, and slept for the first time in seven months.
When she awoke nearly a week later, Vanessa was in a hospital bed, and wasn’t wearing her mask. She missed Giovanna immediately, and longed desperately for a return of the power she had once share. Although still sick and weak from her long exertions, Vanessa checked herself out of the hospital and returned home to find the mask sitting on the floor where the paramedics who found her had left it. She couldn’t wait to put it on, and soon her thoughts flowed warmly into those of Giovanna. Like two old friends or long lost lovers, they merged together once more and extended their telepathic tendrils out into the world around them.
They had done their part to save humanity, and now they deserved a reward. Vanessa’s body was still sick and in need of medical attention, but a public hospital was such an unpleasant place. Instead they used their mental powers to summon doctors, nurses, and attendants to their side. These enthralled professionals tended to her every need, including emptying their bank accounts and helping Vanessa DeVore buy a much larger, more luxurious penthouse apartment. Vanessa told herself that she had earned this kind of treatment, while Giovanna simply reveled in the return to a level of luxury with which she was once intimately accustomed.
Vanessa found herself quickly enmeshed in a bit of a moral quandary. She felt bad about using her/Giovanna’s powers merely for self-gratification. It took only a few weeks for her body to fully recover, but by that time she had grown very accustomed to being waited on hand and foot – due in large part to Giovanna’s own proclivities. Neither of them wanted to see their newly comfortable lifestyle come to an end. She also wanted to continue fighting the Rikti – to “earn” her comforts, but she didn’t quite feel justified in dominating heroes and devouring their souls anymore. After all, the most dangerous time had passed, and the authorities and remaining heroes didn’t really need her help coordinating against the few remaining aliens.
It was at this point the Giovanna began to assert herself more strongly, seducing Vanessa with a flood of memories of the good old days when she had ruled the Venetian upper classes as a queen of leisure and debauchery. Through the prism of Giovanna’s memories, Vanessa saw those days as idyllic and a happy time. She didn’t see the harm Giovanna had done, nor the inherent horror of controlling other people’s minds just for your own pleasure. Giovanna convinced Vanessa that they needed to recreate her old version of Venice here in Paragon City. There would be no need to scavenge souls away from people – they could feed off the sins of their new “friends,” and create their own little version of paradise.
And so Vanessa DeVore went from art student to freedom fighter to the party queen of Paragon City. She followed in Giovanna’s footsteps, introducing herself into and then quickly coming to rule Paragon City’s upper-class social scene. She gathered around her a number of young, wealthy, and beautiful men and women and proceeded to try and control them all while she lived off their sinful souls. But a curious thing had happened since Giovanna’s 17th century exploits. The modern day concept of sin held very little weight with the twenty-something party set. No matter what they did, the partygoers never felt the secret shame that they were sinning. Vanessa/Giovanna had no regret and sin to scavenge. While trying to influence nearly a hundred guests, she nearly collapsed at her first major event. At the last moment she reached out and sucked away the soul of one unlucky man. He died instantly, but Vanessa was rejuvenated. So much so in fact, that she was able to wipe all memory of the man’s death from the minds of her fellow revelers. He was forgotten and the party continued.
And so Vanessa and Giovanna learned that, if they wanted to exercise their power without limits, then they would have to sacrifice others to their cause. The question was, could it possibly be worth it? How would they justify such behavior, even to themselves? By now Vanessa had become addicted to the power that Giovanna gave her, and she was unwilling to step back away from it now. It was then that once again fate took a hand in Vanessa DeVore’s decision making process.
One of Vanessa’s favorite partygoers was a young woman named Rachel Morris. Rachel was on her way home from Vanessa’s latest party when she was attacked and waylaid by members of a street gang called the 8th Street Muertos. Vanessa was in contact with the young woman during the entire attack and felt every minute of her pain – unfortunately she was caught at a weak moment and didn’t have the energy to dominate the attackers. At the last moment she decided to take Rachel’s soul and then used that energy to wreak her terrible vengeance upon the gang members. She controlled each of them, forcing them to torture and then kill one another in ways best left to the imagination.
Vanessa had found her excuse – she would create a place in the world that was safe for her and her friends to enjoy life to the fullest. And the only way to create such a safe zone was to make sure that anyone who tried to stop her or hurt her friends, would die a most excruciating death. The first step was to destroy any last vestige of the 8th Street Muertos, and for that she needed a little bit of help. She gathered together ten of her dearest friends – all young and beautiful women – and telepathically showed them how Rachel had died. They were both horrified and incensed, ready to take blood vengeance on whoever was responsible.
Vanessa needed her volunteers to act as eyes and ears in the assault on the Muertos. She would look through them and then possess the gang members, and if she had to, she would sacrifice one or more of them to finish the job. As it turned out, she discovered that she could do more than just look through the eyes of her volunteers. She could actually imbue them with some of her power. Empowered by Giovanna’s telepathic insight and their own outrage, the women were transformed into true psychic street fighters. They pulled knowledge of fighting directly from their foes’ minds and used it against them, all the while anticipating their every counter attack. There was no need for Vanessa/Giovanna to control the minds of the gang members – their newfound squad of femme fatales was more than equal to the task.
This revelation gave Vanessa/Giovanna a new twist for her future plans. Not only could she provide a safe place for those she cared about, she could actually empower them. They could, with her help, become super powered heroes, and thus a true force to be reckoned with. She soon began to recruit in earnest, picking and choosing those she licked best to be admitted into her inner circle. She soon had several hundred close followers, all of who willingly submitted to Vanessa’s psychic presence in their minds. Their consent allowed her to ride along in their minds with minimal effort and empower them when necessary, but it was still a drain on her resources. Ultimately, if the group were going to succeed against all their many possible enemies, they were going to need a regular source of souls. Thus the Carnival of Shadows were finally born.
3.2 Beliefs and Goals
The Carnival of Shadows exist principally to cater to the needs and desires of Vanessa DeVore and the Giovanna personality that lurks within her body. In return, Vanessa has created for them a luxurious and safe environment in which to enjoy themselves with whatever pleasures they desire. All she asks in return is service in the ongoing battle against her many and varied enemies. Of course, since Vanessa operates within the minds of each and every one of her followers, they’re always happy to do whatever it is she asks of them.
The most important thing for Vanessa is that she have a constant supply of souls to keep her power level at its peak. If her power begins to fail, then the whole enterprise will fail, since everyone’s allegiance and powers stems from her own psychic abilities. As Vanessa continues to expand the size and scope of her coterie, she needs more and more souls. Fortunately for her – but unfortunately for everyone else – she has learned how to devour souls through her servants. She no longer needs to have a direct connection to the victim. Still, the process is not instantaneous. It takes between two and five hours to successfully break down a person’s willpower and resistance. Only then can Vanessa feast upon the soul stripped bare for her consumption.
On average, Vanessa requires two souls per night to keep herself at full strength. This allows her to not only be in touch with all of her loyal subjects but to directly dominate her less willing servants and still have the energy to have a little fun each evening. Thus there are usually several dozen teams of Carnival of Shadows sent out onto the streets each night looking for potential victims. Vanessa prefers a certain type of soul – one that is willful and possibly violent, and usually (but not always) a man. Her few remaining wisps of conscience force her to choose “bad” people over “good” people, but her definitions of bad have become increasingly harsh. Someone who fails to curb his dog or speaks harshly to a cab driver often gets tagged as bad, especially if he or she meets the other criteria.
Vanessa prefers to devour the souls of less attractive people, both physically and socially. She feels that in doing so she is “culling the herd” and somehow making the world a better place. She’s loathe to destroy anyone or anything that she considers beautiful, and would much rather recruit an attractive man or woman into her cult than devour their soul. Likewise, she has a special fondness for artists, writers, musicians, and actors. She will almost never kill someone with talent, unless her survival depends upon it. Of course, only Vanessa’s definition of talent is what’s important in this consideration, and her tastes are decidedly retro. She loves classical music, opera, and Renaissance and Baroque painting and poetry. More than one aspiring punk rock star and modern artist have been devoured without Vanessa even pausing to consider that they had any talent.
Few people are aware of just what Vanessa and her Carnival of Shadows are doing. When someone has their soul ripped out of them, the usual result is a very mysterious death – one that appears to be of natural causes just because an examining doctor cannot find any definite cause. It’s usually dismissed as a stroke or heart attack, and rarely does anyone suspect foul play. The Ring Mistress’ themselves are quite adept at covering their tracks. Their mental abilities allow them to alter the minds of key witnesses and cover up the lost time in a person’s life that occurs while they’re being systematically tortured and psychically abused in preparation for being served to Vanessa. Some mystic heroes have gotten an inkling that something weird is going on, but the truth has yet to be revealed to anyone outside the Carnival of Shadows.
When The Carnival of Shadows find themselves in a “wartime” situation, as Vanessa calls it, then the number of souls required each day rises dramatically. Vanessa has had to fight off incursions into her affairs from several other villain groups, including both the 5th Column and Nemesis. In both cases she engaged in tough, nasty fights with her foes, resulting in scores of dead on each side. In the course of these battles (both of which she won) she ended up consuming as many as one soul an hour for much of the conflict. Of course, many of these were captured enemy soldiers, but a fair portion were also people taken from the streets when matters grew desperate. Likewise, whenever she has any conflict with the Rikti, she must also find more victims, since Rikti souls remain unreachable for her. Thus whenever the Carnival of Shadows find themselves in a crisis, mysterious deaths suddenly spike throughout the city.
With her energy supply intact, Vanessa’s next highest priority is recruiting new members into her every growing cult. She is very particular about the kind of people she allows into her inner circle. Only the most attractive, charming, and talented women get to be actual full fledged members, privy to her most intimate thoughts and powers. But Vanessa knows that there is value to be found in many other humans as well, and she has places in her organization for everyone who strikes her fancy. Men and women who do not qualify for higher rank still serve within the Carnival of Shadows community and can benefit greatly from Vanessa’s largesse – as long as they don’t mind having their minds controlled by their superiors.
The kinds of people Vanessa wants in the Carnival of Shadows are exactly the same kinds of people whose souls she usually avoids devouring: beautiful people with talent and charm. Since the end of the war, more and more of Paragon City’s wealthy young men and women have fallen under the Carnival of Shadows’ sway. Many of the best and brightest of them have become members, giving themselves over to Vanessa’s control and in return receiving a life filled with luxury, excitement, entertainment, and power. Most of them maintain their day jobs (if indeed they have jobs beyond their trust funds and investments) and funnel most or all of their earnings into Vanessa’s coffers.
As a result of its very wealthy and influential membership, the Carnival of Shadows do not need to spend much of their time or energy on fund-raising. Carnival of Shadows don’t knock over banks or rob jewelry stores. As often as not, their members own the banks and stores. Where the group does come into conflict with the law is when other wealthy family members, financial advisors, and legal representatives begin to grow suspicious of the way their friends and clients suddenly start pouring all their funds into foreign bank accounts under Vanessa DeVore’s control. They start asking uncomfortable questions and generally making life unpleasant and controversial for Vanessa’s followers, not knowing that in doing so they are running a terrible risk.
The Carnival of Shadows continue to spend a fair amount of time resolving these little conflicts. Often times the problem can be made to disappear through the careful application of memory wipes and telepathic domination. Other threats are more intractable, in which case more extreme measures are called for. The Carnival of Shadows are not afraid to kill anyone who stands in their way – feeding their soul to Vanessa and then covering up the disappearance as best they can. Several heads of large corporations and scions of notable Paragon City families have died in such conflicts, a fact that is beginning to draw more unwanted attention to Vanessa and her activities.
Let’s Get This Party Started
It is not hard for Vanessa to convince the young, wealthy society set to join her little group. After all, she throws the absolutely best parties in the city. Although no reporter has ever managed to infiltrate one of these fabulous and decadent soirees, everyone who’s anyone has heard of them. Admittance is strictly by invitation only, and anyone lucky enough to receive an invite immediately becomes the envy of all his or her friends. Vanessa does not automatically dominate and absorb every guest into her cult. Indeed, probably only 1 in 20 partygoers end up being offered a place in the Carnival of Shadows. Most just help provide the company, conversations, and new blood that any party needs. However, Vanessa does surreptitiously touch the mind of each and every guest, not only tweaking their emotions and thoughts to improve the party atmosphere, but also digging for any valuable or interesting secrets they might have. As a result of these psychic probings, Vanessa is one of the most well informed individuals in the city.
Not all of the parties are elegant penthouse dinner fetes or ballroom fundraisers. These are but the public face of Vanessa’s diversions. The real fun is for members only. When just the Carnival of Shadows gather, all inhibitions are let loose and their mistress organizes some truly wild and inventive diversions. Vanessa and her followers take great pride in exercising their powers over lesser people – and lesser people pretty much describes everyone in the city who’s not them. Thus they have no compunctions about embarrassing, inconveniencing, maiming, or even killing others, as long as it’s done in the furtherance of a good time.
One of the most common and enjoyable activities are the infinitely cruel and aptly named Ring Mistress Hunts. These range across some of the more wealthy and interesting parts of the city and are a source of endless amusement for the Carnival of Shadows who participate in them. Surprisingly, the object of the hunt is not to collect souls precisely, although if the hunters happen to find any particularly appropriate victims, Vanessa certainly won’t turn them down. Instead the participants scavenge for emotions and experiences. For example, a common goal is to frighten as many men over 50 as possible, with extra points being awarded for inducing heart or panic attacks. Other goals include: causing pain, seducing and then maiming individuals, tormenting city officials or right-wing ideologues, and actually slicing off specific body parts. Participants usually manage to work up quite a frenzy as the night progresses, and violence and the spilling of much blood are inevitable results.
Another popular variation is the so-called “out of house” party, wherein the Carnival of Shadows seize a building or home for a night and make it the center of one of their wild and crazed Bacchanals. Office buildings, laboratories, warehouses, and apartment buildings are all fair game for such events. The partygoers torment and mind control any occupants unlucky enough to be caught inside and often do significant damage to the structure itself. Vanessa has been known to target specific buildings belonging to those that displease her for some reason, be it because of their political beliefs or because they have interfered in her affairs or those of her followers.
By far the most ostentatious and deadly of all the Carnival of Shadows’ entertainments is the so-called Dread Carnivale. This event was meant to be an annual tradition, but Vanessa had so much fun with it that she has them on a monthly or sometimes bi-weekly basis. In these events her costume-clad cultists pull out all the stops. Vanessa usually stores up a supply of souls for the occasion, devouring enough essences to make her drunk with power. She then releases her people upon the city, using her mind control abilities to their fullest potential. The Ring Mistress’ use their powers to make the world around them perform as entertainers. Innocent bystanders are made to sing, dance, cavort, and debase themselves for the amusement of the mask wearing Carnivale goers. The Ring Mistress’ themselves get into the act, abusing, maiming, and often killing the “performers” for their own amusement.
The Dread Carnivale often serves as an initiation rite for new members. The Euphoria Vanessa feels when gorging upon so many souls is passed down to all her intimate followers, causing them to become inebriated with power and the lust for perverse entertainments. New members find this heady mix of emotions almost too much to bear – but they also become instantly addicted to the feeling, falling all the more under Vanessa’s sway in the process.
Recently Vanessa has been sending out a watered down version of the Dread Carnivale into the streets of Paragon City and beyond in an effort to recruit new members and draw more energy.
Loftier Goals
Ultimately though, once the partying is done, Vanessa (inspired by the Giovanna portion of her personality) does not want history to repeat itself – she doesn’t want to be driven from power and have to end up spending another 200 years trapped inside a mask. Thus she is being much more careful about securing her self and her followers from outside attack. But she knows that the only way to be 100% safe is to control her environment, including everyone else around her. And that means taking over the minds of everyone in the city, or at least influencing them to the point where they can’t possibly hurt or hinder her. After she secures Paragon City, then she’ll see about the rest of the planet.
Although Vanessa is still very picky about what kind of people she lets into her inner circle (after all, in many ways these people are actually inside her mind much of the time, a very intimate experience), she does want to have some degree of influence over everyone else as well. The poor, the ugly, the unpleasant, and the morally righteous might not appeal aesthetically, but they have a power of their own that cannot be safely ignored. Thus Vanessa is currently seeking a number of different avenues for reaching out to a much wider audience and tweaking their sensibilities and thought patterns to more closely match her own.
One of the key aspects of Vanessa’s plans for world domination is an ever-increasing influence over media and pop culture. Paragon City long ago surpassed New York as the cultural and fashion center of the United States. Super powered heroes have long been big-time stars and popularity attracts more popularity. The worlds of fashion, music, theater, and even movies all look to Paragon City’s societal elite to show them the way. As it happens, close to three-quarters of those elites are now firmly under Vanessa’s sway, an accomplishment she’s quite proud of. In other words, to a very large extent, Vanessa DeVore decides what is and isn’t cool in the world.
Although her personal tastes may run to classical music and 17th century costumes, she knows that such antiquated styles would have a hard time reaching today’s teens and hipsters. Instead she bites the bullet and promotes various vacuous pop starlets and cardboard cutout teen heartthrobs as a succession of next big things. Each one moves popular tastes a little more in Vanessa’s direction, making anyone who has listened to and enjoyed their music or seen their movies just that much more susceptible to her mental control. This is a long term plan to be sure, but once a generation of the world’s youth has grown up enjoying Vanessa’s entertainment products, their minds will be so weakened and ready for her that she hopes to be able to control millions of people at once.
In the present day she rules the entertainment industry – or at least her part of it – with an iron fist. She mentally dominates agents, actors, directors, producers, and anyone else with any say in what gets on the air. Although she uses mind control for much of this work, occasionally brute force intimidation and blackmail are also necessary tactics. More than one recalcitrant director or actor with his or her own “vision” has ended up dead, insane, or in jail.
Recently Vanessa has begun to use the media as a tool against those who stand in her way, particularly heroes who harass her operations. The normally fawning media seldom criticizes heroes, especially in the wake of the Rikti War, but that’s not the case when Vanessa is crossed. She has been known to unleash the full fury of her media connection on a troublesome hero, from slander pieces, to jokes on late night television, to investigative reports on their personal lives. These can become a huge distraction for a hero, sometimes even leading to legal difficulties, paternity suits, and emotional collapses.
Of course, rather than slander heroes, in many cases Vanessa would like to simply control them outright. This is often quite a challenge, as most heroes have, almost by definition, very strong wills that are not easily broken. They also usually have many friends who are also heroes and who might have the power to detect when one of their associates is having his or her mind controlled. Thus Vanessa is very careful about which heroes she attempts to seduce into her ever-growing cult. She tends to choose loners with big egos, heroes who think so highly of themselves that its easy to play to their pride. After all, heroes are the superstars of the modern world, and many of them love a good party as much as anyone and Vanessa DeVore gives the best parties.
She periodically holds events to honor various heroes, although never for their good works. They’re always designed to laud a hero’s more egocentric attributes, like the annual Best Dressed Hero event or the Most Eligible Single soiree. These affairs have quickly become a mainstay of the young, hip hero set and give Vanessa plenty of opportunity to quietly scope out possible recruits and, at the very least, get incriminating videos she can use for blackmail at a later date.
As a result of these efforts, Vanessa has already brought several dozen high profile heroes under her sway. While they continue to do their good deeds in public, privately they’ve become totally enthralled to Vanessa. Many of them serve within the Carnival of Shadows as Harlequins, wearing costumes designed by Vanessa instead of their usual garments. In these guises they serve The Carnival of Shadows’ needs, participating in their wild events and finding victims for Vanessa to consume.
3.3 Villains
Attendants
The Attendants are the basic soldiers of the Carnival of Shadows. They are modeled, after a fashion, upon the classic Attendants of several centuries ago – young, strong, servants who’ll handle any task their mistress gives them. These Attendants are universally young, athletic, good looking and female, although they seldom have the financial background or social skills to make them truly acceptable to Vanessa as dinner companions. Instead they are relegated to the status of servants – to be seen but not heard and to work tirelessly.
While Attendants might wear more traditional servant attire when performing their duties at one of Vanessa’s more public parties, heroes are only likely to knowingly encounter them when they’re dressed for battle. Like all members of the Carnival of Shadows, Attendants wear masks. In their case these are usually one of three colors: Dark Blue, Dark Green, or Dark Purple. These masks are stern, handsome male faces with ruby colored eyes. They wear wigs of straight, white hair pulled back into a ponytail. Their torsos are covered by heavy leather, sleeveless tunics that expose their muscular arms. They wear knee length leather pants that end at the knee, below which are black tights and black shoes. The color of the clothing in each case matches the color of their mask. Overall the cloth ing is highly decorated and yet still menacing. These are combat outfits with a touch of style thrown in.
The Attendants are indeed formidable Since she views them as front line, easily replaceable soldiers, she has no qualms about overloading their bodies with power and stimulants. Her fine control over their minds reaches deep into the subconscious, autonomic brain functions. She can actually control the flow of endorphins, adrenaline, and hormones into their bodies. Thus the Attendants have had all of their physical abilities increased far beyond the normal maximums for a human. As a result, few Attendants would be expected to live more than a few years before their hearts burst, but at least they will leave a beautiful corpse.
Beyond their physical prowess, the Attendants possess a number of other powers as well, most of them psychic in origins. First of all, they are all resistant to psychic attacks, as are all members of the Carnival of Shadows. Vanessa’s mental domination means it is often impossible for other psychics to have any influence over the brains of her minions.
Each of the three different colored uniforms represents a different style of Footman, with different extraordinary abilities and equipment. The Dark Blue clad Attendants are the melee focused soldiers. They wield the Footman’s Sword, a saber designed to focus psychic energy, which consequently crackles around the blade and giving it an extra bit of bite. Blue Attendants can also project this lightning-like effect directly from their hands when they’re forced to engage foes at a distance.
Dark Green soldiers are equipped with the Footman’s Musket, a silver and wooden musket that fires bolts of pure psychic energy instead of musket balls. These not only have a much higher rate of fire than an old-fashioned musket, but they’re armor piercing and are strong enough to telekinetically tear through the side of a tank. Dark Green Soldiers are also adept at moving quickly, even at superhuman speeds, allowing them to maintain range against their targets.
Dark Purple Attendants wield the bulky but deadly Hand Cannon, a device that looks like a bazooka sized, ornate cannon. It uses telekinesis to fire a variety of different ammunition types. Explosive shells are always a favorite, causing significant damage over a wide area. For close in work, the cannon can also produce great gouts of sticky, napalm like flame, much in the tradition of a flamethrower.
Soulless Strongmen
Most of the time, when the Carnival of Shadows suck a soul from one of their victims, the person dies immediately. But sometimes, in certain rare instances, they’re left merely in a coma. Everything seems to work right, biologically speaking, but there’s simply no spark of consciousness in the body. At first Vanessa would have her soldiers leave these victims for the hospitals to care for. Then she discovered that she could actually possess and dominate them, just like any other person. These soulless bodies were not great conduits for power, like her Ring Mistress’ or even the Attendants, but they could serve as useful guards and soldiers. Since they feel no pain and have no will of their own to resist her domination, Vanessa now keeps all of these Soulless ones as a kind of special guard and strike force, using them on missions she would not normally risk her dear Ring Mistress’ on.
The Soulless have a monstrous appearance, their faces usually twisted by the strokes that left them comatose. Preferring not to witness such unsightly visages, Vanessa has them wear ominous iron masks, giving them the appearance of prisoners. The masks have glowing green eyes, a purely theatrical touch that Vanessa liked. The Soulless have very large, hulking, muscle-bound bodies, the product of manipulation and psychic surgery that has turned them into truly freakish creatures. The prisoner theme of the iron mask extends down the body, as the Soulless are wrapped in chains and wear iron bands around their wrists and ankles. Scars and burns cover their exposed flesh, often carved into intricate patterns by bored Ring Mistress’ looking to have some fun.
In battle, the Soulless wield large, single headed axes, modeled after the blades used by traditional headsmen. These weapons have been honed to a razor sharp edge through fine control telekinetics, and can cut through metal or stone. Their powerful legs allow them to leap great distances, closing with their opponents quickly and brutally. For those they can’t chase down, they can also release a soul-wrenching field of darkness by opening up a window to the worlds of the dead, draining the life from anyone in their vicinity. As mindless puppets, the Soulless are immune to all fear, mind attacks, and anything else that relies on one’s opponent’s state of mind.
Harlequins
The Harlequins are the male members of the Carnival of Shadows’ inner circle. Their minds have nearly completely joined with Vanessa’s, and although they retain much of their original personality, they have given up a great deal of free will. The Harlequins are second only to the Ring mistresses themselves when it comes to power and privilege within the group. They participate in all of the group’s wild events and public parties. Indeed, behind their masks lurk some of the most famous and wealthy socialites and heroes in Paragon City.
The Harlequin costumes are a cross between fetish gear and the classic clown-like Harlequin costume. Like all members of the Carnival of Shadows, they wear masks. These masks are either bright silver or gold and are laughing, clownish faces. The masks also incorporate dark red leather hats with four floppy arms, like a traditional harlequin’s headgear. Instead of ending in bells, floppy arms end in metal spikes. The rest of the Harlequin’s costume is a predominantly dark red, tight fitting leather suit that is somewhere between festive clown and fetish sheik. They wear spike gauntlets and high heeled black boots with spiked toes. Stripes and checker patterns accent the legs, arms, and torso of the costume, and come in three color varieties: yellow, white, and black.
Yellow Harlequins use torches to breathe fire on their opponents.
White Harlequins juggle and throw knives.
Black Harlequins are snake charmers.
Ring Mistresses
The Ring Mistress’ are the crème de le crème of Shadow Carnival society – the women who have been personally recruited, trained, and mind molded by Vanessa DeVore herself. Each of them is an extraordinarily powerful psychic in her own right, made so by Vanessa’s unlocking the full potential of their mental powers that lies dormant in every human being’s mind. They wear skimpy, bright colored costumes and masks, a look that has even become popular with certain fashion designers.
The Ring Mistress’ each view themselves as a kind of princess, or at the very least duchess. They universally have little regard for anyone but themselves and of course their mistress. Many of them are fashion models, actresses, and socialites whose beauty has already made them rich and famous. Even without their mental powers they would have little trouble twisting men around their fingertips, but now they can pretty much make any normal person do whatever they want. They are utterly without inhibition or empathy for the rest of the world. As far as they’re concerned, this world is theirs and we’re just around to act as servants, window dressing, or playthings.
The Ring Mistress’ do not really need weapons, but they like to carry them anyway, almost as accessories to their outfits. The Ring Mistress Whip is an integral part of the torture process that Ring Mistress’ use to break down a person’s defenses before feeding their soul to Vanessa. The Whip not only slices flesh, but it tears at the mind as well, dragging up traumatic memories and creating hallucinations and panic attacks in anyone it cuts. This is both a fear inducing effect and a huge distraction for anyone that takes damage, making it hard for them to concentrate on the matter at hand – whatever it may be. The Ring Mistress Claws are a set of three blades that a Ring Mistress straps to her wrist. They crackle with a psi-electric charge when used in battle and can even project bolts of energy at opponents. The Ring Mistress’s Staff is a long, thin golden rod with an ornate red design running in a spiral down its length. The staff is a powerful telekinetic focus that allows the Ring Mistress to create force fields both to protect herself and to damage and ensnare opponents.
In addition to whatever weaponry they wield, all Ring Mistress’ have a common set of powers. Their Telekinesis protects them from physical attacks and, more obviously, allows them to fly at great speeds and with impressive maneuverability. They are also shielded from all kinds of psychic attack. On the other hand, they each have the psi-blast power as well, making them very dangerous foes to anyone without a properly shielded mind. Finally, they can use their psychic powers to manipulate their own bodies, which not only keeps them in top physical form, it also allows them to heal themselves when damaged.
Illusionists
These twisted versions of stage magicians use Illusions to assault their opponent’s minds and bodies.
They dress in costumes that would be appropriate for a court noble in Italy, in the 17th Century, with metallic colors, as well as other rich colors such as burgundy.
Their powers are those of mental and physical illusions. That is all they need to disorient and defeat the foes of the Carnival.
Technology
The Carnival of Shadows are not one of the technological powerhouses within the greater community of villainy that exists i
Poison � Sabbath
Circle of Thorns
3.1 History
Here they are, the Circle of Thorns, the largest, most powerful mystic group in City of Heroes. They run the gamut from levels 1 to 50, with minions and monsters operating at every level of society. The true nature of the Circle should remain a secret as long as possible, as should their ultimate goals, which are as apocalyptic as any villain groups and more insidious than most.
3.2 History
The history of the Circle of Thorns really begins tens of thousands of years ago, well before the group’s current “founder,” Baron Zoria, ever read his first forbidden tome. Indeed, the original Circle of Thorns ruled over a vast ancient empire that spanned much of the Eastern United States. Called Oranbega, the empire existed as a center for magic, enlightenment, peace, and prosperity for close to a thousand years. It’s lofty towers and massive temples stood as testaments to the magical and philosophical prowess of a nation unparalleled in human history. A nation that ultimately, succumbed to the same forces of fear, bitterness, and hate that have laid low so many other great peoples in the millennia since.
The Era of Magic is a time lost to our modern history. There are no records and precious few artifacts from this era, and until recently there was no proof that such wonders ever existed at all. The rediscovery of lost Oranbega beneath Paragon City now offers proof that civilization and magic once went hand in hand, and that humans from 20,000 years ago were well advanced beyond savage cavemen. Oranbega and its fell due to a series of terrible disasters and wars, but their memory lingered on, giving rise to many a myth about lost cities, sunken beneath the waves or hidden under the earth. The true story is much more complicated.
The founders of Oranbega began life as normal, primitive men. They did not reach their heights through a long process of cultural evolution. They had gods who lifted them straight from the mud and mire to a world of marble and crystal. Twenty thousand years ago, man and god lived much closer to one another. As described in the Banished Pantheon, gods are simply powerful nature spirits that have attracted workers and banded together to found pantheons and shepherd tribes or nations of humans through life. In return they receive energy and power from their worshipers. The last days of the great war with the Banished Pantheon saw the rise of a new kind of power: magic. The African goddess Teilekku first discovered magic and its reality bending abilities. She used it to defeat Lughebu’s evil pantheon and save the world from a quick and miserable end.
Impressed by her newfound abilities, more than a few deities from throughout the world sought to learn magic’s mysteries from Teilekku. She agreed to try and teach whoever would learn, but it turned out that only a handful had enough discipline and ability to even begin to master magic’s secrets. Those who did however came away with the key to a vast new source of untapped power. One of these was the god Ermeeth, a Middle Eastern god of language and communication. He made the next big leap in the field of magic: he decided to try and teach magic to his human worshipers. It turned out that mortals made better students than gods, and soon he was teaching not only his high priests, but also anyone else who wanted to learn. An entire nation of humans began to master the ability to control reality itself through sheer force of will.
Ermeeth’s discovery raised much more alarm than appreciation amongst the other gods. Even within his own pantheon, the other deities turned against them. They quickly realized that, with magic at their command, the humans would no longer have any need of gods, especially gods that couldn’t help them with their sorcery. Ermeeth’s former comrades in godliness demanded that he either strip away the magical power or be destroyed. He chose a third option, and led a quick and bloody coup. The other gods had been right of course: the humans with magic no longer needed gods, and with Ermeeth’s power and direction they had already gained enough power to destroy their old gods. The revolution had begun, and Ermeeth meant to raise all mankind up and rid the world of meddlesome, manipulative gods forever.
But faith is a powerful thing, and few humans were willing to abandon their gods so easily. While Ermeeth and his nation of wizards prospered, their neighbors came to view them as a kingdom of demons, bent on destroying the world. The old gods used all their influence to inoculate their worshipers against Ermeeth’s very dangerous ideas about human freedom and magical empowerment. Thus ensued a brief stalemate. Ermeeth found himself hemmed in on every side, but no one was strong or brave enough to attack his Magi nation directly. However, forces began to mass against Ermeeth, including another of Teilekku’s star pupils, the goddess Hequat. Hequat was every bit the master of magic Ermeeth was and she had even taught some of her worshippers a few tricks. But she was firmly against revealing all of magic’s power to the mortals, for she saw that they could never handle such power responsibly. Disaster would certainly ensue.
Hequat’s priests and magicians specialized in counter magic, making them the perfect foil for Ermeeth’s followers. The goddess allied with the other local deities and marched on Ermeeth’s lands, her armies protected from the sorcerers’ spells that rained down upon them from Ermeeth’s followers. The war proved devastating for both factions, but ultimately Hequat carried the day. Ermeeth and a few thousand survivors were driven into the sea, and thought defeated for all time. The other gods rejoiced in their victory and returned to their old lives. Only Hequat remained worried. Ermeeth had escaped and she knew he would not rest until he had rebuilt his magic nation.
The Founding of Oranbega
Ermeeth’s followers did not die when the invaders drove them into the Eastern Mediterranean. Their god and their own magics protected them, allowing them to make a long march along the bottom of the sea floor, breathing water as if it were air and living off the flora and fauna of the sea. Afraid to show their heads anywhere in the region, the refugees walked for months, making their watery way through the straits of Gibraltar and on up into Europe. Even here there were gods who had heard of Ermeeth and his demonic ways and the refugees found no welcome. And so they built great wooden ships and set sail across the great ocean, eventually finding a new home in the unclaimed lands of what would one day be known as North America.
They found the land still in the grip of a glacial ice age, and otherwise uninhabited by humans of any kind. It was there’s to do with as they pleased. Free from worries or constraints, the refugee magi set about molding the new world to their own unique vision. Ermeeth set them free upon the land, encouraging them to indulge their every whim and fancy. They set about building a great city unlike anything the world had ever seen. They carved their first metropolis from the very ice that covered much of the land, shaping it into dazzling crystalline towers and dotted with magical green houses and warmth giving enchanted stones. They called their magical city Oranbega, and the meant to live their for all eternity.
With some encouragement from Ermeeth, they created a new form of government, based not on bloodlines or strength, but upon the concepts of equality and freedom. Their magic allowed them freedom from many of life’s most basic concerns such as food and shelter, giving them the luxury to concentrate on the finer aspects of art, must, literature, and sport. Yet despite their great power they were still human and needed laws and governance to live peacefully with one another. They created a ruling council whose membership rotated each year. An annual lottery was held to determine who would serve so that no one man or woman could develop too much of a taste for power. Citizens who served on the council did so out of a sense of duty and responsibility. It was of course a great honor, but one few people sought out. One Oranbegan poet likened service on the council to the thorn on a rose – a necessary discomfort for an otherwise beautiful existence. The simile stuck, and the council became known as the Circle of Thorns.
As the centuries passed and the ice began to recede, Oranbega grew and grew. Towers of stone and crystal replaced the melting ice. The population exploded as more and more fertile land became available. Their magics grew as well, with great strides being made in many of the more esoteric fields of magical inquiry. Oranbega was not a perfect place of course. Men will be men and there was crime, jealousy, and even murder. But the Circle of Thorns and those they deputized to their cause maintained the peace. They knew no war and needed no army. They even eventually came to have little need for their god. Ermeeth’s plan had always been to raise his human followers up so that they no longer needed divine help. He had achieved his goal. Two thousand years after the foundation of Oranbega he slipped away, returning to the old world. He was scarcely missed, having become little more than a myth amongst the Oranbegans by that point.
Ermeeth crossed the ocean once more, returning to his native land in the Middle East. There he sought to recreate the same experiment, and raise up another nation of men to be free from divine chains. Unfortunately for him, Hequat was waiting for him. She sniffed out his plan just as he began, and descended upon him in great fury. Almost crippled by the lack of worship for hundreds of years, Ermeeth could do nothing but flee. Hequat gave chase, sending her sorcerers after the troublesome god. Ermeeth managed to make it back to Oranbega, but he did not arrive alone. Hequat’s minions had found the hitherto undreamed of glory that was Oranbega. Suddenly frightened and overawed, the sorcerers retreated back to their homeland to report their findings to the goddess.
Hequat knew no fear, but she did see the vast and horrible potential in what Ermeeth had helped create in Oranbega. This miraculous city of magicians had the power to overcome the entire world and all its gods. It was a sleeping dragon that could awaken at any moment. For now their peace-loving, insular world-view was all that was keeping the rest of the world safe from their tyranny. She knew that she had to find a way to protect herself and the rest of the world’s gods from this menace. She wracked her brain for an answer until she suddenly realized: Ermeeth had already shown her the way. She would create her own city of magicians, but one founded on love for the gods, not disdain, and one with a desire for war and conquest, not peace and philosophy.
The Founding of Mu
Hequat gathered about her the most promising pupils in the land and picked the very best of these. Once she had 500 men and 500 women of sufficient quality and devotion, she led them on a trek that mirrored the one Ermeeth and his refugees had made thousands of years before. This time, instead of creeping along the dim-lit sea floor, the pilgrims traveled in luxury ships, attended by slaves who waited on them hand and foot. The sailed out beyond the Pillars of Hercules and into the Atlantic ocean, finally landing upon a tremendous island that lay at the center of the Atlantic. Today this island is long vanished beneath the waves (more on that later), but at the time it was just over a thousand miles in diameter. It was a lush, semi-tropical land where dinosaur-like creatures still roamed free and food, water, and building materials were abundant. Hequat named it Mu.
The settlers quickly made a new home for themselves. Under Hequat’s direction they built up a great city of bronze and stone, at the heart of which sat a tremendous temple to Hequat herself. There she sat enthroned, receiving only the highest priests and most powerful wizards into her presence. She gave them a code of law based on piety and devotion to her and the safety of Mu. Children were trained from birth in both the ways of magic and the arts of war. The people of Mu enslaved a race of Neanderthal-like hominids who still lived on the island, breeding them to be the perfect workers. Mu grew over the centuries to become a place of stern laws and harsh lives. Even the most powerful citizens lived a spare, relatively luxury free existence. Their piety and studies took up all of each waking day.
Hequat reveled in her great success. Over the centuries Mu expanded to encompass the entire island, with a population of several hundred thousand. As the sole god of this magical nation, she alone reaped the benefits of their devotion. She became extraordinarily powerful, as was her plan, for she had no intention of letting her own followers ever have the ability or the frame of mind to cast her aside as the Oranbegans has discarded Ermeeth. Nor had she forgotten about her old rival. She sent a constant stream of spies to monitor Oranbega’s status. There was still no word of Ermeeth, but the people continued to prosper and grow in a peaceful, idyllic manner.
The people of Mu had long learned from their dread goddess that there was a kingdom of demons to the west. She had taught them to fear and hate Oranbega, turning it into a kind of hellish prison in the minds of her people. Although none of them had ever set foot on the western shore, nor seen an Oranbegan, they hated the people with a passion. The Oranbegans were The Other, the Enemy, Evil Incarnate who would someday come to devour their children and destroy their home. They learned to credit Hequat alone with protecting them from these foul marauders. And so, when the goddess judged that the time was right, they were ready. It was time to invade Oranbega.
The War
In Oranbega they had no idea that doom was sailing through the air in sky ships, ready to reign down magical terror on their fair cities. It had now been three thousand years since the city’s foundation, and still it remained a safe, secure, and mostly happy place. They had no true army or even police force. The Circle of Thorns each year called for a draft of peacekeepers that would help enforce the laws. Like the Circle itself, being a Peacekeeper was a year long job that almost everyone eventually held. Only those convicted of serious crimes were exempt from the Peacekeeper lottery. Thus most of the citizenry had a small amount of experience in police work, but there were no professionals, nor were there any trained soldiers. There simply had never been a need. The only thing resembling a war had been an ill-conceived rebellion that some disaffected youths had led a thousand years before, and the Peacekeepers had put that down with minimal bloodshed.
The Mu sneak attack came at dawn. The invading army traveled in magical sky ships, made from an enchanted wood that floated in the air and driven forward by sails that harnessed supernatural winds. As the first Oranbegans saw the sky ship from miles away, they were stirred with wonder, not fear. They called to their friends to come and see, and soon thousand had gathered to behold the approaching ships. All were eager to meet these new visitors from another land. Then the fire started pouring down from the sky, and those thousands died in a deadly inferno. Panic ensued as the peace loving Oranbegans fled in terror. This first battle was almost entirely one-sided, with an entire city of some 50,000 innocents falling prey to the Mu invaders. The enemy had seized a beach head for the continuing war and they offered up human sacrifices in thanks to their goddess for her guidance and protection.
Ever an intelligent and resourceful people, the Oranbegans quickly understood what was happening and rallied to defend their homeland. The Circle of Thorns called up everyone who had ever served as Peacekeeper and ordered them to seal off the area taken by the invaders. The Mu warriors found themselves soon surrounded by magical wards and protections – force fields, walls of fire, swirling whirlwinds, and gaping chasms suddenly appeared to halt their advance. Their own magicians worked hard to counter the magic, tearing apart the conjurations almost as quickly as the Oranbegans could summon them. As more and more Mu troops arrived to reinforce the vanguard, it seemed only a matter of time before they broke out and started attacking more cities. Still, the delaying tactic bought the defenders more time to organize their counter attack.
The Circle of Thorns took personal command of Oranbega’s ad hoc army. They formulated a basic strategy for using their magical abilities offensively and tried their best to pass on the knowledge to their new soldiers. When the Mu finally broke through the barriers, the Circle thought it was ready. The two armies met in a battle which the Circle quickly lost all control over. Each Oranbegan “soldier” ended up reverting to pure instinct, fighting with their magic as best they could. The Oranbegans outnumbered the Mu and matched their sorcerers in magical ability, but without discipline the Oranbegans were doomed. After a hard fought, week-long battle they were forced to retreat, having lost well over half their number.
The war continued in this manner for the next year, with the Oranbegans quickly learning the basics of warfare, but the Mu always staying one step ahead of them. The invaders slowly marched up the coast, destroying the Oranbegan cities in their wake. When only the northernmost quarter of Oranbega remained, the defenders realized that the time had come for desperate action. One member of the Circle, a woman named Tya, was Oranbega’s foremost authority on Earth magic. Her abilities alone had saved the armies from utter destruction on more than one occasion. She suggested that instead of just retreating the army this time, they retreat the entire city. She had conceived of a plan to sink the remaining cities beneath the Earth’s surface, protecting them from the invaders’ sky ships and offering them fortified positions from which to counterattack. The Circle agreed with the plan, since a number of them had secretly begun to work on their own scheme for finally winning the war.
Sinking Oranbega proved a success. It was certainly the last thing Hequat and her soldiers expected from the Oranbegans, and they weren’t sure how to deal with it at first. Attempts to magically induce earthquakes or flood the underground city proved ineffective against Tya’s powerful enchantments. The only positive aspect for the Mu was that they now seemed to have the Oranbegan’s trapped. With no entrances or exits from the subterranean halls, it seemed that they only had to lay siege and starve the enemy out.
The Circle of Thorns had other plans. Three of its members had, before the war, been deeply involved in a new field of magical study – other worlds. Their research had led them to discover both the spirit world (where, among other things, the Banished Pantheon was trapped) and the demonic planes. These latter were dimensions parallel to our own that were home to powerful, war-like beings. These demons seemed to have been somehow imprisoned there long ago, and desperately sought release. The Circle reckoned that it might be possible to make a deal with some of these demons, drawing upon their warlike nature and experience to help turn the tide of war against the Mu.
The most experienced members of the Circle met deep within the depths of Oranbega, locked in a chamber warded against any attempts by the demons to break free. They summoned forth a demon prince – a truly terrifying being unlike anything they had ever dreamed of in their worst nightmares. The Circle held fast though, and bravely began to bargain with the Demon. They agreed upon a deadly bargain. The demons would provide the Oranbegans with infernal weaponry to use against the Mu. In return, the demons would receive the immortal souls of everyone that died by one of these weapons. The Circle readily agreed, seeing no down side for themselves in the arrangement.
The Demon Prince presented them with 5000 Infernal Swords. The Circle emerged from their sealed chamber and began to distribute the weapons to their best fighters. The soldiers of Oranbega chosen to wield these weird weapons named them after their leaders, calling them the Thorns of Oranbega, or simply Thorns. Indeed, the weapons had a certain thorn-like appearance and were made from an unknown semi-organic substance. These Thorn blades heightened the user’s magic powers and had powerful anti-magic built into them. When the first company of Thorn Wielders sallied forth against the besieging Mu, they took their foes totally by surprise. The Thorns sliced through the magical shields and protective spells of the Mu, and soon enough the Oranbegans were reaping a deadly harvest for their demonic allies.
Just after this great success, with the war finally turning in the Oranbegans’ favor, the year-long term of the Circle of Thorns time in office ended. It was time for a new lottery and new leadership. The sitting Circle thought this a bad idea indeed. Only they had experience with the Demon Prince, and putting someone else in charge could lead to disastrous results. Besides, they had acquired valuable experience in war and leadership. Surely no one else was as qualified as them for the job of leading the nation in this troubled time. The Circle proposed a new law granting them another year in office. The public, deeply shocked by the past year’s horrors and enthused by this first victory, gave the Circle what it wanted. Three millennia of tradition were overruled and the Circle stayed in power.
Political matters taken care of, the Circle launched an all out offensive against the invading Mu warriors. All 5000 Thorn Wielders attacked the main body of the Mu force, with tens of thousands of magic using auxiliaries in reserve. The Mu were still trying to figure out what had happened the first time, and the Wielders threw them into utter disarray. The siege broke as the Mu fled to their sky ships and retreated back south. The Oranbegans followed as best they could, but few had the power to fly and they were not enough to bring down the retreating ships. The Mu reinforced the fortress they had built at their original beachhead and awaited support from the home island. A few days later the Oranbegans arrived at the walls of the Mu fortress, but they found that even their demonic blades could not cut through the enchanted steel walls. Once again the war settled down into a siege, but this time with the tables turned.
Pandemonium
The Circle of Thorns now had a taste for victory and it wanted more. The Mu fortress could easily hold out for a year or more and the enemy could flee anytime it wanted thanks to its sky ships. Although Oranbegan builders had already begun work on their own flying vessels, the Circle did not want to wait and risk letting the enemy escape. Since their first experience with the helpful demon prince had turned out so well, they decided to return to him for more aid.
The demon prince was indeed happy to see them once more. He lauded their great victories on the battlefield and thanked them heartily for all the souls they had sent plummeting into his infernal homeland. The Circle told him of their newest troubles and the prince pretended to think about it for a bit. Then he seized upon an answer. While he had no weapons that could pierce the walls, he did have some demonic followers who could no doubt do the job. The Circle was welcome to summon them forth and use their abilities to help end the war. In return they would have to do nothing more than make a sacrifice to him of all the victims they took once they breached the walls, and of course promise him that no one inside would be allowed to survive the siege.
The Circle at first balked at this idea, wary of letting powerful beings from another world into their own. But the prince assured them that the demon warriors would be summoned back home once the battle was won. The Circle finally agreed, and began the process of summoning forth 999 demon warriors. The demons were fearsome, clawed beasts that were only part corporeal. Their devilish torso’s rose out of noxious mist and they had the ability to pass though solid objects. When the Circle appeared on the battlefield with these creatures, even the most stalwart soldiers recoiled in fear. The demons didn’t even wait for a command to attack. They simple glided on up to the fortress wall, cackling evilly and conversing in their native tongue.
The demons passed straight through the previously impenetrable wall. The Oranbegans could hear screams of terror and the dying coming from inside. Less than half an hour later the doors swung wide. For a long moment the gateway stood empty. The Thorn Wielders, poised to charge, stood unsure. Then a mass of Mu soldiers came running into the doorway. The Thorn troops charge to meet them, cutting them down as they tried to leave the fortress. It soon became obvious that the Mu men and women weren’t sallying forth to break the charge. They were trying to get away from the demons that had overrun their fortress.
A great and bloody massacre followed, as the Thorn Wielders were overcome with a vile bloodlust equal to that of their demonic allies. When the Circle entered the fortress they were appalled at the carnage. Only a handful of Mu soldiers remained, along with one of their smaller sky ships. The Council ordered the fighting stopped and called forth the shocked survivors of Mu. They told the Mu to go home and tell their leaders that the war was over and never to return. The terrified soldiers thanked the Circle and gladly beat feet back to their home island. The war finished, The Circle gathered up all 999 demons and brought them back to the capital. They summoned forth the demon prince and thanked him for his help, asking him also to retrieve his demons warriors.
The prince refused, saying that the Circle had broken the bargain. They had failed to sacrifice every single person in the fortress. The demons would stay until the last defender was sent into the inferno. The Circle protested and entreated the demon prince to make an exception. He refused. Over the course of the discussion he turned the tables on the Circle, raising doubts about the wisdom of their decision. Certainly the Mu would not give up so easily? They were an evil, war loving people and would return again in force. Surely the best course of action was to pursue them back to their homeland and destroy them before they destroyed Oranbega. The demon prince even went so far as to generously offer more aid in this endeavor – a fleet of demonic ships to transport the Oranbegans to Mu and destroy their enemies forever.
Beguiled by the prince, the Circle agreed, and three nights later the Oranbegan army set sail in the demon’s black iron ships. They made the journey in record speed, arriving at Mu just four days later, and landing their army of demons and horn Wielders under the cover of night. The Mu had no idea they were under attack until the invaders were among them, running rampant through the streets of their capital city. It was mass terror and chaos, not a battle. Thousands fled to the Temple of Hequat that dominated the city center. The Oranbegan invaders and demons drove the fleeing citizens foreword, until they were all concentrated in the temple precinct. For some reason the demons could not cross into the sanctified ground, and the Thorn Wielders felt their swords grow uncomfortably hot whenever they tried to cross the temple threshold.
Inside the temple, the survivors prayed for help from their goddess. And she answered. Hequat appeared upon her throne in all her glory and power, enraged the Ermeeth’s descendants had brought this upon her beautiful iron city. She unleashed her fury upon the invading army, casting bolts of pure magical energy that exploded in their midst. Their own spells offered some protection, but the onslaught was so severe that even the demons were forced to retreat. Watching from afar, the Circle of Thorns panicked at the sudden appearance of a real live goddess. With their own god long forgotten, they turned to the only higher power they knew: the demon prince.
He offered them the same deal once more, only with stronger penalties for failure. He would give them the power to conquer Mu if they would promise to destroy every one of the inhabitants in sacrifice to him. If they failed, they must agree to sacrifice their own people instead. Apparently panicked and jumpy, the Circle agreed immediately to these terms. Pleased, the demon prince instructed them on how to summon forth a number of great Leviathans, water dwelling demons each a mile long. They would be more than a match for the Mu and their goddess. Meanwhile, a group within the Circle, led by the sorceress Tya, devised a failsafe in case the demon prince turned on them once more. They returned to Oranbega while the rest of the Circle raised up the Leviathans.
Hequat had never imagined such creatures could exist in the world. Indeed, the Leviathans came form the infernal seas, and were not of Earth. Mile long, whale like creatures, they had gaping maws a hundred yards wide and were covered with lashing tentacles. There were seven of them in all, great, world shaking beasts that caused tidal waves as they leapt from the sea and came crashing down in the waves. They began to physically tear the island to pieces and drag it into the sea, even though most of the Oranbegans were still on the island as well. Hequat saw that the day was lost and she prepared to flee, taking as many of her followers with her as she could. The Oranbegans were too frightened to try and stop the fleeing sky ships. They were already running back to the demon ships, fearing what the Leviathans would do to them.
It took the massive sea creatures less than a day to drag the entire island down into the sea. They disappeared with it, perhaps returning to their infernal home. Perhaps remaining in our ocean depths. Hequat and the people of Mu fled in every direction on the compass, seeking safe land, well away from water, wherever they could find it. This was the great Mu Diaspora that spread the ten thousand surviving warrior-magicians out over the entire world. They would settle and breed with local populations, forgetting much of their bygone glories, but retaining the magical ability that ran in their blood. Today their descendants still walk the earth, although most don’t know it. These are the men and women with the greatest potential for learning magic, including all of the great wizards and witches in history. Her base of power fractured and defeated, Hequat’s own power waned and she returned to her native land to find new devotees.
The deeply shaken Oranbegans returned home, not knowing about the deal the Circle had struck with the demon prince. While Tya and her followers gathered all the Oranbegans in the giant Plaza of Wisdom, the rest of the Council summoned up the demon prince. He no longer hid his glee. Their lives were now forfeit to him! He told them to prepare themselves for his demonic hordes, who would rip the flesh from them and grind their bones between their teeth. This was, of course, what he had planned and hoped for all along. The Circle agreed, saying their lives and bodies were the prince’s to do with as he pleased. This was Tya’s signal. She and the entire assembled population of Oranbega wove a powerful, soul-wrenching spell. They severed their spirits from their physical forms even as the demonic horde fell upon them. Their lives were given to the demons, as agreed, but their souls remained free, cheating the prince of his greatest prize.
The terms of their contract fulfilled, the demon prince had no choice but to recall his legions and leave the ghostly Oranbegans in peace. Although they had lost their bodies, they retained their spirits, their city, and their magic. It was not a perfect existence by any means, but it was one they could live with. And so, after the most disastrous year in their long, long history, the city of Oranbega began to find a new path for itself in the world. They continued to study the mysteries of magic and philosophy, although they now added demonology and spirit lore to the mix. Since time no longer truly had any meaning for them, they quickly forgot about it, just as most of the world soon forgot about them. For millennia they drifted silently through their stone halls, undisturbed by the sprawling human civilization that was growing above their heads.
The Modern Era
Thousands of years later, rumors and myths about lost Oranbega still persisted in mystic circles, just as the memory of Mu gave rise to tales of Atlantis and other lost cities. Finding Oranbega, a city of wizards, became a kind of Holy Grail for some magicians. But it was not until a strange confluence of events led to the formation of a new Circle of Thorns in 1898 that the city’s true location came to light. The Baron Zoria believed himself a mystical master, but was really just a charlatan like so many other late 19th century spiritualists. As fate would have it though, he was also a descendant of Mu, as were the individuals he gathered about him. They were not the first group to try and contact the spirits of Oranbega. The ghosts had heard many such entreaties over the years and had ignored them all. But Zoria and his group were the first who, as a whole, stank of the corruption of Mu.
This time the Circle of Thorns answered the pleadings of Zoria, intrigued and a little alarmed that men of Mu still sought them after all these eons. Zoria’s mind was an open book to them and they saw he did not even know his own mystic heritage, nor that of his comrades. Still, this was an worrisome turn of events. The spirits did not want to have another conflict with Mu or its descendants. And so they decided to co-opt the séance circle. They offered Zoria and his group true magical power in return for their devotion. They sent across the spirit thorns that Zoria and company impaled themselves with. These magical implants allowed the true Circle of Thorns to work through Zoria’s group and interact with the world directly.
15,000 years or so had passed since the Circle had last looked in on the surface world for any serious amount of time. What they saw interested them, especially at first when they mistook technology for magic. For several years they simply watched through their human counterparts, taking in this new information. They allowed Zoria and his friends to use their power as they pleased, thinking it would provide a good insight into how modern day man would behave when given a true dose of power. The Circle was unimpressed, although to be honest it was not easy to impress a ghost who’s been studying the deepest mysteries of magic for longer than recorded history. Still, they wanted to know more and so guided Zoria back to Oranbega. He and the others with imbedded thorns became the first living beings to enter the underground city since the end of the war with Mu. Its subterranean splendor was the last thing they ever saw.
The ghostly Circle of Thorns, like all the other Oranbegans, had grown detached from any moral compass they might have had when they still wore flesh. In 15,000 years of bodiless magical research, their entire worldview had become a dangerous combination of egocentric and coldly clinical. They certainly no longer thought of themselves as human and viewed human beings as just another subject for research and experimentation. Thus they didn’t think twice about obliterating the souls of Zoria and company and assuming control of their bodies. For the ghosts these bodies were vehicles, something to be put on when necessary and parked in storage when not in use. They allowed the ghosts to walk the surface world and interact with it once more, something they could not do otherwise since their ghostly forms were restricted to within Oranbega.
For the next few decades the Oranbegans experimented with their new vehicles. They discovered one very important trait: there were certain magical rituals that required a body to perform, including anything to do with summoning and controlling demons. The Circle of Thorns had always had an interest in demonology, ever since they first contacted that sole demon prince. Now that they’d had thousands of years to study the subject, they had learned where they made mistakes with the demon prince the first time and how they might better harness demonic energies in the future. One important lesson they’d learned is to always offer up a sacrifice sufficient to deflect the demon’s interest away from you personally.
The Circle began using its bodies to perform demonic rituals upon the unsuspecting population of Paragon City – which now lay directly above their own sunken city. They also began recruiting new members into their ghostly cult. The process of stealing a body is in many ways voluntary and if they wanted more flesh, they’d need more recruits. Throughout the 20’s and into the 30’s they prospered as a cult and learned a tremendous amount through their bloody rituals. It wasn’t until 1933 that their plans hit their first roadblock. A hero named the Dream Doctor discovered the cult and waged a personal war against the Circle of Thorns. Naturally, the powerful magician also happened to be descended from the Mu, making his interference all the more galling.
Unprepared for a fight with super powered heroes, the Circle withdrew to their hidden city. They decided that they had learned so much in the few decades they’d been active on the surface world, that it would behoove them to take a few centuries and really examine all of the data they had acquired. They thought themselves done with humanity for the most part. They still occasionally took their bodies out for a spin to collect some supporting information or perform a few small rituals, but they steered clear of the attention grabbing rituals that had got them in trouble in the first place.
Then came the Rikti. It turned out that the invading aliens came from a dimension where matter and energy themselves are just ever so slightly different than they are in our home dimension. The difference is so slight as to be undetectable by most scientific equipment, but it makes a big difference when it comes to magic, which requires ultra-specific details. The result: The Rikti could blast right through the thousands of cloaks, shields, wards, and charms that protected Oranbega from discovery. They did just that not too long after the invasion began, when they were looking for hidden caves to set up their staging areas. This proved a turning point in the war for the Rikti, as the Circle of Thorns panicked and rallied all its energies to drive the aliens from their sacred home.
But the damage was done. The 15,000-year-old spells that had warded the city were not easily replaced. The Oranbegans could create temporary illusions and protective barriers but not enough to cover every possible entrance to the city. Their doors lay open to anyone who dared pass through them. The children of Mu would come again and finish the job that their forefathers had started. The Circle went into emergency overdrive, once again recruiting heavily and summoning a variety of demon allies to bolster their forces. They uncovered the long forgotten Thorn Blades and started to find new bodies for the original Thorn Wielders. After 18,000 years of uninterrupted civilization, they refused to go down without a fight. Of course no war or invasion came crashing down upon them. The humans still knew little of their existence and nothing of their true nature. Since they killed everyone who ventured into their realm during and after the war, there is both interest and fear associated with Oranbega. The Circle has a short time to rebuild and plan before the humans start making more concerted efforts to discover their secrets. They know that this grace period won’t last long. The Children of Mu cannot be trusted to live in peace with others. The time has come to finish the war once and for all.
3.2 Beliefs and Goals
First and foremost, the Circle of Thorns wants to secure Oranbega and their immortal ghosts from all outside harm. They’ve grown accustomed to immortality and have no intention of giving it up anytime in the foreseeable future. Since their walls have been breached, safety means temporal power that can protect them from the many and varied dangers that threaten them in this world of ours.
The Circle has identified three major threats to their security, two of which are immediate and one that could be a problem in the long run. The most immediate problem is the Rikti and their super powered foes. Both groups have access to Rikti technology and other dimensional travel. It was the Rikti who inadvertently destroyed Oranbega’s defenses, and thus far the circle has discovered no way to replace them with something the Rikti couldn’t feasibly break a second time. Since humanity’s heroes have co-opted so much of the Rikti’s technology, they are now both equally threatening. Indeed, the human heroes are more dangerous, since they seem actively bent on harming the Circle, while the Rikti have learned to simply steer clear of the ghostly wizards. Ultimately the Circle needs to either destroy or firmly enslave both of these threats.
The second major class of threat is magic that they don’t understand. While they have spent more time studying magic than all the rest of humanity put together, their researching has been necessarily limited by their ghostly forms. Living magicians have made great strides in other areas, and the Circle wishes to learn as much about these discoveries as possible. Thus they want to exert total control over all magical activities in Paragon City and eventually the world. They’ve begun placing agents and Followers in any group or community that has even the slightest interest in magic. They also keep a close watch on all stores that sell mystic items of any kind.
Finally there is the lingering issue of the Mu. The Oranbegans have an almost irrational fear of the Mu and are thus quite concerned about the formation of a new Mu nation. They’ve spent a great deal of time and energy developing spells and enchantments to help them track down every body on the planet that comes from Mu lineage. Those already in Paragon City are under constant watch (including some of the city’s most powerful magical heroes). They will not be taken by surprise a second time.
In order to accomplish any of these goals, the Circle needs more willing victims that they can steal bodies from. Thus recruiting new “members” is a large part of The Circle’s current activities. They present the world with a number of different front groups and cults, each designed to appeal to a different kind of person. From dangerous, satanic style cults to new-age book clubs, the Circle extends its tendrils out into the community. The more they do so, the more attention they get, both positive and negative. Since the people’s souls are utterly destroyed when the ghosts of Oranbega seize their bodies, there has been no one who “recanted” their conversion or expressed any ill will towards the Circle. Of course, their families and friends tell different stories.
With the constant incursions from heroes, sewer monsters, extra dimensional warriors, and treasure hunters, Oranbega is not the safe sanctuary it once was. The Circle is considering taking rather radical steps to distract trespassers and give them a firmer foothold on the surface world. They plan to raise a portion of their buried city back above ground, creating an Oranbegan enclave right in the middle of Paragon City. They then plan to declare themselves a sovereign nation and sue the US government for the right to live in peace. They can definitely raise the city anytime they want, although it will mean destroying a number of city blocks that are currently inhabited. As for the rest of their plan, only time will tell. Certainly it will draw much of the focus away from the underground city and turn it on the newly raised portion.
Finally, the Circle has recently discovered a rather interesting fact. Their pact with the demon prince stipulated that they must kill every last person from the nation of Mu. Tya’s clever shortcut around the deal gave up their bodies but not their souls. Recent studies by Circle demonologists have concluded that, were the Circle to finally fulfill the terms of their pact, then they could in fact get their original bodies back. All they have to do is kill every single living descendent of Mu (of which there are about 250 million in the world). The Circle currently needs Mu bodies to work their magic through, but a day will come when they have taken all they need. Then, quite possible, the time for genocide will have come.
3.3 Behavior Patterns
The Circle of Thorns exhibits a wide variety of different behavior patterns. It is a huge organization, potentially as large as the population of Paragon City itself. The Circle has a number of different initiatives in place to help achieve its goals. Most Oranbegans still prefer to keep to their caverns and subterranean halls and only venture onto the surface world for very specific reasons.
The most common types of Circle of Thorns minions found on the surface world are Followers and Demon Brood. The Followers are usually moving about on some specific mission, either leading some satellite cult or running errands for their superiors. Except or Guides, they always travel in groups for mutual support. They don’t go looking for trouble and will not attack unless approached directly by a hero. This doesn’t mean that they’ll wait for the hero to strike the first blow. If he seems threatening, they’ll strike first. The Demon Brood on the other hand will strike first under any circumstances. The lesser brood are often let out onto the surface world to hunt for victims. They enjoy preying on civilians and heroes alike, since each victory makes them more powerful.
The Circle has begun searching out likely locations into which they will raise a portion of the city. As such it is not impossible to find higher ranking Thorn Casters and even the high wandering about (with a guard of Demon Brood attendants) scouting locations and making magical measurements. These higher-ranking individuals never linger long and are always part of some important mission to retrieve a magical artifact, help convert a new member, or destroy some particularly loathsome enemy.
Down in Oranbega itself, you’re liable to find all manner of Circle minions, often quite involved in the group’s various schemes and research projects. Oranbega is not one contiguous city, but rather a vast network of cave systems, each connected to the larger web via teleportation circles. It is literally impossible to walk across the city (unless you’re a ghost). When intruders do find a breach, the mages seal off any exit teleport gates, limiting the damage to one area. The deeper one gets into the city, the more dangerous the guards become. While the outer areas are half abandoned, the inner chambers have hosts of demons and powerful mages protecting them.
3.4 Enemies and Allies
The Circle of Thorns is playing its cards close to the vest. Although most of the world recognizes them as a potential threat, few realize just how dangerous and homicidal the group really is. After all, the group helped fight off the Rikti during the war and seems to still attack the aliens whenever they can. It’s not unheard of to see the two groups openly fighting in the sewers or even on the streets. The Circle cultivates this positive public opinion as best it can, trying to keep its most nefarious activities in the shadows. The fact that recruits seem to join the group willingly and come from all parts of society also helps. While the public still distrusts the group, they don’t see it for what it truly is.
Other villain groups have expressed a keen interest in working with the Circle. The Devouring Earth, The Banished Pantheon, and even the Tsoo all are interested in further plumbing the secrets of Oranbegan magic. The Circle works with these groups and other mystic minded villains in order to further cement their control over magical enterprises and possibly find new recruits. The Circle knows it has the upper hand, and has become quite adept at keeping their own secrets while at the same time pulling out every bit of knowledge they can from their “allies.”
As far as non-mystic groups go, the Circle has little use for them. They are all viewed as threats, particularly the Rikti and the Lost, as well as the Fifth Column, whose underground bunkers threaten Oranbega. The Fifth Column and the Circle of Thorns often come into direct conflict, although for now they try and give each other enough space that conflict isn’t always necessary. Crey Industries has sent out some feelers to the Circle but all of them were rejected. The two groups now largely ignore one another. Nemesis has not dealt with the Circle directly, but he has sent several of his agents to infiltrate their cult. While all of them were lost to the Oranbegan ghosts, Nemesis now has a much better idea of what the Circle is up to and its true nature. He does not like what he sees.
The main hero organization opposed to the Circle of Thorns is of course The Midnight Squad. Their enmity goes back to the 1930’s, and is now stronger than ever. The Circle makes constant probing attacks against the Squad and its members, hoping to find a weakness. They would desperately love to convert one of its heroes to their cause, but thus far they have had no luck. For their part, the Midnight Squad wants to learn all it can about Oranbega and is constantly sending patrols down into the city to try and map its ever shifting dimensions.
3.5 The Future
One of the most likely future developments is the return of Hequat. The goddess had many interesting adventures after the fall of Mu, and she has definitely managed to survive down to the modern day. She has only recently learned about the reappearance of Oranbega, an event that interests her keenly. She is currently investigating Paragon City and doing her best to divine what their intentions are. Once she discovers them, she’ll formulate a plan of her own: the rejoining of the lost tribes of Mu. She will begin to gather powerful Mu descendants from around the world and teach them the true extent of their natural born power. Then she will once again renew the war with her ancient enemy, this time posing as a force for good.
Also inevitable is the time when the Circle raises a portion of Oranbega above ground. This should be an entire new zone unto itself, located on the outskirts of the city. Or, for more drama, you can completely level an existing zone to make room for it (which would be pretty cool I think). This new zone will have much higher level Circle Members wandering freely in the streets, since they will view the area as their home. It would be particularly interesting if the zone weren’t actually a hazard zone, but was instead open to humans freely. The Circle would do this in order to gain the trust of the city and the world community. Of course dark deeds would still transpire in the shadows, but the zone itself would be ostensibly habitable.
Another possible publicity move is the Circle declaring an all out campaign to rid the world of the Rikti for good. They could launch a series of offenses and ask for recruits in their struggle, promising magical powers in return. This would swell their ranks and do wonders for their public image. It would also mean thousands of hapless volunteers would lose their souls forever. Even the heroes might start working for the Circle, thinking them a force for good, at least in this instance. Succumbing to evil’s seductions should carry a price, once the truth comes out. The culmination of these events should be the reveal of the Oranbegans’ true history and the real fate of all those who join the cult willingly. It will mark a change in tactics for the Circle, as they must find new ways of expanding their power, perhaps by expanding into other dimensions.
Poison � Sabbath
Clockworks
3.1 History
Paragon City has seen more than its fair share of inspired inventors. Many of the world’s greatest scientists, engineers, and tinkerers live in the city. Some of them even use their skills to make gaudy costumes that allow them to fight crime. And then there are men like Russell Brandt, who never quite seems to get the recognition he deserves (or at least that he thinks he deserves). Russell was a mechanical prodigy from an early age, mastering his tinker toys and erector sets and moving on to home made go carts, radio controlled robots, and anything else he could get assemble from the scrap he salvaged at the junkyard. A career in engineering seemed obvious, and Russell did well at Paragon Polytechnic his first three years
Then came time for his final year. Having long ago learned everything the professors could teach him in class, Russell’s entire final year was devoted to a single independent study. His graduation depended upon it. He spent the whole school year designing a kinetically powered robot – a walking, fully functional version of a small dog. Russell had experienced a real breakthrough in his thinking over the summer and he was thrilled to put it to the test in the lab. His friends and advisors couldn’t see how his blueprints would possibly create a working machine, but every time he showed them his tests in action, the thing seemed to work.
When the final day came and Russell presented his finished robo-dog to the faculty, all were quite impressed. They criticized the schematics he’d presented as being vague on may key details, but the yapping, playful, ball catching robot dog certainly seemed impressive. They asked Russell to step out of the room while they consulted about his final grade. Curiously, once Russell was gone, the robot immediately ceased functioning. Nothing the professors did could get it to perform even the simplest function. They called Russell back in and the dog started working immediately. A little quick experimentation discovered that the robot dog was just a hunk of useless metal unless Russell was in the room. Suspecting some trick, the faculty delayed giving a grade until they could further investigate what was happening.
As it turns out, Russell Brandt is not quite the amazing inventor he thinks he is. He’s certainly a very capable engineer, but his insights are actually the result of a rather tragic psychotic break. The truth is, Russell is a powerful telekinetic mutant, one of the most advanced ever recorded. His telekinetic abilities really came into their own while he was in college, while at the same time some vital link with reality was severed in Russell’s mind. Russell thought he had discovered a new advance in mechanical engineering, a spring and gear system that could provide hours of kinetic energy powerful enough to motivate large-scale machinery. With a simple wind up key, you could have robots as powerful as those on an assembly line, with no electricity whatsoever. This idea was, of course, quite insane, but Russell’s nearly limitless telekinetic power allowed him to fool himself into thinking he’d made a world-changing discovery.
His failure in front of the engineering faculty only further unhinged him. He didn’t wait for a formal review, but instead left school without a word, stealing much of the engineering lab’s equipment in the process. He set himself up in an abandoned warehouse in one of Paragon City’s less fashionable neighborhoods. His first night there a group of thugs broke into his new lab, trashed the place and would have beat him to a pulp had not his robot dog suddenly activated and leapt to his defense. This was of course Russell’s own telekinesis responding to the threat, but he didn’t know that. What he did know was that he needed protection. He set about creating the first version of what he called Sprockets: diminutive humanoid robots with vicious tempers who could serve as both lab assistants and security guards. He made them mostly from scrap metal and scrounged pieces, so that even he was surprised at how quickly they came together and how ingenious his system really was.
Russell’s goal was at first quite benign. He wanted to prove his theories to the world, revolutionize how machines are built, and save the planet from its reliance on fossil fuels. He continued with his research but soon found he didn’t have the equipment or raw materials that he needed. With no money and no friends, he decided that he could just take what he wanted. He programmed his Sprockets to begin stealing things for him. This was a major leap for Russell’s powers, though he didn’t realize it. His mental abilities had expanded exponentially over the past year, so that he could unconsciously control scores of his “robots” often up to several miles from his actual location. In additional to telekinesis he could remote view any location where one of his creations traveled, thus allowing them to follow their “programming.” This limitation on only “seeing” locations where his robots are is purely psychological. He could probably project his mind anywhere on the planet if he fully understood his own tremendous powers.
It didn’t take long for Russell’s robotic crime wave to attract the attention of the city’s police and heroes. Things started to go from bad to worse when two of his Sprockets killed a police officer who was trying to prevent them from stealing a spool of copper wire from a cable company van. Not only was the police force up in arms, but so were the city’s heroes. A massive manhunt began for the man behind the robots, although in his elf-induced exile, Russell was hardly aware of it. He was too busy building more Sprockets so they could steal him more stuff. When the cops raided his warehouse, all hell broke loose. In the gunfight that ensued, the warehouse caught fire, and three more policemen died in the ensuing blaze. Russell himself escaped, carried away on the shoulders of six of his robots while the rest held the SWAT team at bay.
The only person to see Russell’s escape was a brooding hero who called himself The Blue Shield. Known for his close cooperation with the police (he was himself once a cop), the Blue Shield had made it his special mission to hunt down this robot-making cop killer. He tracked Russell to his new hiding place, where the inventor lay coughing and dazed from smoke inhalation. When word came over the radio that three more officers were down, the Blue Shield lost his already short temper. He descended upon the inventor and his robots in a righteous fury, smashing the machines to pieces and beating Russell into a bloody pulp. He checked the villain’s vital signs after the twentieth kick to the head and found him dead. He left the broken body in a heap and went to go help fight the fire.
But Russell did not die. His brain would not allow it. His spectacular psychic abilities allowed him to cling to life, keeping his nervous system alive in spite of the body’s total shut down. He subconsciously reached out and telekinetically assembled a makeshift body from metal, plastic, glass, and wire. It was a crude creation, but it did the job. Russell’s brain had been saved. He crept off into the night, finding himself another abandoned warehouse to set up shop in, and left his broken body – sans brain – in a heap behind him.
That was the night the Clockwork King was born. In a trauma-induced hallucination, Russell saw himself as ruling over a perfect world of beautiful machines. Only partly conscious, he dreamed of massive assembly lines churning out hordes of stunning, perfectly loyal robots. It was a world where humanity no longer had any place and where no one would ever bother him again. When he finally came to his senses he found that weeks had passed and that a small part of his dream had come true. While he slept, his mind had built more Sprockets, who had in turn built themselves a king. He had a new body and a new calling in life.
And so The Clockwork King began to build his kingdom from the ground up, establishing it firmly on a base of scrap metal. As it turned out, his timing couldn’t have been better, at least in terms of the amount of scrap heaps that he’d soon have to scrounge from. The Rikti Invasion caught him unawares of course, and when the aliens started pouring into our world, the King ran for cover. He and his Sprockets holed up in a warehouse and waited for the furor to pass them by. Once it finally did, they poked their heads out once more, and saw a devastated city.
This was a perfect opportunity for the Clockwork King to establish himself. He set up an assembly line and started pumping out Sprockets at record speed. He then dispatched them out into the city to help with the clean up. He thought that if he could show how useful his robots could be, society would begin to accept him. The Sprockets did help clean up, and at first the confused city government was thankful for their aid. In those grim days it was hard to tell who was good and who was evil. Instead of returning the scrap and debris to designated areas, the Sprockets kept their finds, using them to build more Sprockets.
Amazingly enough, it was a reporter named Maggie Greene, not a hero, who discovered what was really going on. She followed the Sprockets around for several days, trying to figure out who they belonged to. When she finally did uncover their assembly line, her pictures made the front page. Especially the one of the disturbing Clockwork King himself. The newspaper article drew the attention of the Regulators, who sent a few heroes around to check in on this mysterious robot factory. The Clockwork King panicked. It’s entirely possible that a peaceful solution could’ve been found, after all, the King was helping and only stealing scrap metal. But it was too late. The skittish King set his army of robots upon the unlucky heroes, who barely escaped with their lives.
Thus began the still ongoing war between The Clockwork King and the city’s heroes. He’s not regarded as the most dangerous threat in the city. He’s not even on the top ten. But he is a constant nuisance and he seems to be growing more dangerous, not less.
3.2 Beliefs and Goals
Since The Clockwork King no longer considers himself human, he has little compunction about killing anyone who stands in the way of his plans. Fortunately for the world, his psychic powers can currently only operate through the façade of one of his mechanical creations. This very significant limit on his abilities ensures that his ability to do harm remains relatively weak. Still, while he may not match the Rikti as a world-shaking threat, the average citizens who fall prey to his attacks can scarcely tell the difference.
One of The Clockwork King’s primary goals is recognition for his true genius. He still resents the way the faculty treated him all those years ago and he finds it impossible to understand why the scientific community hasn’t embraced his discoveries with open arms. He has developed an idea that the multinational oil and computer corporations are behind this plot to deny him the Nobel Prize. He figures that they must know that his inventions would put them all out of business. Likewise the money-soaked politicians who act as mouthpieces for the evil corporations are no better. Thus the King has taken to kidnapping scientists, engineers, and reporters and trying to prove the value of his discoveries to them by force. This never ends well.
Curiously, one of the stranger alliances that The Clockwork King has formed is with radical environmental groups (although not the Devouring Earth). Since he uses entirely recycled parts for his creations, he gets a certain amount of credit from such groups. Moreover since his devices work entirely on gears, springs, and pure mechanics (and telekinesis), they produce no harmful byproducts and cut down on fossil fuel emissions Several groups have taken the Clockwork King up on his offers to help them strike back at the multinational corporations that are polluting the Earth (which he doesn’t care about) and denying his inventions a place in the world (which he cares a great deal about).
Russell does not have his robots fight alongside the activists, but rather uses them as a source of information. These groups actually pass on suggestions to The Clockwork King on targets that might be partially responsible for his troubles getting recognized. In fact, most of the eco-terrorist leaders have figured out that whatever the Clockwork King’s technology is, it’s not perfect, since none of the devices he’s given them work after he and his minions leave. Still, they find him an easy dupe to manipulate and have no qualms about using his strength to further their agenda.
There is also a certain jealousy factor at work in the Clockwork King’s activities. He hates it when others receive recognition for their discoveries while his miraculous advances go unnoticed. Petty revenge has motivated a number of attacks, from killing newly famous scientists to attacking specialty shops selling the latest gadgets to disrupting school science fairs.
The King also wants to keep his army of robots growing ever larger and stronger. This isn’t easy, since a number of them get smashed to pieces and melted down by heroes every day. Still they are quite easy to manufacture and in a city with so much ruin, there’s always plenty of scrap material free for the taking. He hopes to someday have an army large enough to actually overwhelm the entire city. To do that he needs money, space, and resources, and so the wave of robot committed crime continues to sweep through the city.
Ultimately he hopes to establish an actual assembly line somewhere in Paragon City that can pump out a steady supply of robots and other creations. He wants to make cars, motorcycles, power generators, and other, more useful items that he could sell to the world at large. Whether or not this would work remains in doubt, since the limits of his power might not allow him to give life to that many different objects at once. On the other hand, it’s entirely possible that he could do just that. He has the psychic potential to reach his mind out to the entire city at once, and perhaps his planned line of cars and household devices is the way in which he’ll trick his brain into letting him do just that.
And of course, like every villain, The Clockwork King longs to be king of more than just his mechanized minions. He wants to subject the entire city to his rule, creating a utopia that’s free of those who would scoff at his discoveries, and ultimately free of other people as well. He wants to mechanize all of Paragon City, and turn it into his own private erector set. For now though, he must content himself with lesser ambitions. His power is building, although very slowly thanks to the efforts of the city’s heroes. As long as they stay on the job, it’s unlikely he’ll ever realize his dreams. Unless of course one day he wakes up and realizes just how frighteningly powerful he really is.
3.3 Behavior Patterns
The Clockwork King’s minions can theoretically appear anywhere in the city, although in practice their activities are restricted fairly significantly by both heroes and rival villain groups. The King is not shy about sending his robots out into the world to do his bidding. As much as he has affection for them, they are all pretty easily replaceable. The Sprockets are by far the most commonly seen minions, with bands of them skulking around any ruined building or abandoned factory that might offer some choice salvage materialThe Clockwork King regularly undertakes relatively significant criminal enterprises, usually in the form of attacking someone who has somehow earned his ire. Kidnapping, the destruction of property, and theft are all on the daily menu for the King and his robot minions.
The Clockwork King has no permanent base of operations, as much as he would like one. Every time he’s tried to establish a headquarters, the city’s heroes always discover it and quickly root him out. He has taken instead to setting up operations in a number of different, temporary facilities, so no one attack can cripple him. He prefers old warehouses and particularly likes abandoned factories. Anywhere where he has plenty of space to set up his assembly lines and gather raw materials for more robots. He does everything he can to keep these facilities a secret, posting guards up to half a mile away to make sure no one follows his scavengers back to their lair. Discovery is inevitable however, and few factories remain hidden for more than a month.
Taking out a factory is no easy feat, especially for the lower powered heroes who are often forced to contend with the Clockwork King. Every factory has a Sprocket Prince that is “in charge” of all activities there. There are also smaller factory sites and staging areas that are used almost exclusively by Sprockets. These are usually hidden in ruined buildings or old warehouses and serve as lightly guarded command and control centers for their scavenging and scouting operations. Taking out these advance bases is much easier, although they usually have hordes of dangerous Sprockets in and around them.
The Clockwork King himself keeps a low profile. He is constantly on the move from place to place, although how he gets there is something of a mystery, even to him. In fact he has the ability to teleport, although he would never admit it to himself, since it doesn’t fit into his twisted worldview. He’s never done any experiments with teleportation; therefore he can’t consciously do so. Instead he simply moves from base to base and edits his memory of the journey. Since his minions have no memories of their own, there’s no way for them to contradict his recollections.
3.4 Enemies and Allies
The Clockwork King has little in the way of allies, especially amongst other villain groups of his caliber. The Tsoo are superstitious thugs and vermin, scarcely worth his time or notice (for what it’s worth, they feel the same way). He has had no contact with larger villain groups like the Circle of Thorns and The Fifth Column.
Only Crey Industries has shown any interest in The Clockwork King, and even that is done in an indirect manner. Crey has rebuffed The King’s attempts to show them his wondrous discoveries and as a result the company is at the top of his hit list. What he doesn’t know is that the regular visits he has from various interested parties and possible investors are all actually agents of Crey. The Countess knows his machines are a fraud, but she’s very interested in the amazing psychic mind that powers them. She’s learned all there is to know about Russell Brandt, and hopes to some day use him for her own purposes.
The Devouring Earth has also taken an interest in the Clockwork King, although his very existence is anathema to them. He is in many ways their opposite, but he has some common ties to the environmental movement. The Devouring Earth is looking to exploit the King as well, encouraging them to attack enemies on their list as well as his. The fact that The Clockwork technology seems entirely non-polluting does intrigue The Devouring Earth, as does their penchant for recycling old materials for their machines. They’re better than most human, but ultimately abominations that must be destroyed.
The Freakshow admire the group’s outré designs and easy violence, but have little else in common with the group. They do find the King’s minions a good source for high quality scrap metal, and often they’ll attack groups of Sprockets just for access to the raw materials. Nemesis also sees the Clockwork King and his robots as little more than a source of raw materials for his technology. As a true master of clockwork mechanics, he sees how much of sham the King is and sees little use in the bottle-in-a-brain. The Rikti flat out scare the Clockwork King and he does everything he can to avoid them. For their part, they scarcely notice him.
3.5 The Future
In his immediate future, the Clockwork King wants to build and design more robots He knows that he’s in a kind of super-villain arms race and that he’s far behind groups like the Fifth Column and Nemesis. He longs to play in the big leagues some day and is working towards that goal. Over time, he should successfully expand, become more and more of a threat as his arsenal increases.
He also is considering making some machines that are actually designed to be worn by humans. A line of scrap built power armor. He would try and sell these to humans, mostly criminals, in an attempt to both win wider recognition for his technology and to gain some human allies. Of course the armor would still require his psychic energy to work, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be effective tools.
There will come a time when the Clockwork King’s psyche finally shatters and the true telepathic potential within him comes roaring out. At this point Russell Brandt will go from being a low level villain to one of the most dangerous people on the planet. This could be a real opportunity to change the villainous landscape, creating a whole new psychic oriented villain group around Russell even as the Clockwork King falls. The vaguely goofy low level boss from way back in the beginning suddenly becomes a top level threat, the heroes’ roots coming back to haunt them.
3.7 Minions
There is only one living being associated with the Clockwork King, and that is Russell Brandt himself. He has never sought any human followers and certainly no one has asked to join up with him. Even when he still had his body, Russell was not the most socially adept of men. Now that he’s a brain floating in a Plexiglas bowl, he’s even less appealing. Thus he surrounds himself entirely with robots. All of them have been equipped with simple speakers that supposedly link to their mechanical “brains.” It is a measure of the Clockwork King’s madness that he believes a simple collection of gears can produce artificial intelligence. He often spends hours talking to himself through his different machines, but he can also use them to communicate with others, including his victims.
So far there seems to be no limit to the number of robots the Clockwork King can control and give life to with his psychic powers. Before his near-death experience and his transformation into a brain in a fishbowl, while he slept the group’s activities fell dramatically. The robots would be sluggish or entirely non-mobile, with only their master’s unfocused dreams to motivate them. Now that he no longer sleeps, there is also never any period of downtime for the hundreds of robots.
Each robot is only as strong as the materials it’s made from and Russell’s desire to keep it functional. They are built entirely from scarp and recycled materials. The Clockwork King values form and function over aesthetics and so never bothers to do much in the way of cleaning the raw materials or painting them beyond simple designs. His creations have a universally rough, weathered, and rusty appearance to them. The machines rarely include any kind of electronic equipment beyond what you could find in the discount bin at a Radio Shack. Certainly there are no computers or microchips involved in their functioning. Authorities and heroes have by now captured hundreds of these robots, and how they actually function remains a mystery. It seems impossible that the collection of pieces found can produce the results that eyewitnesses swear to. For his part, The Clockwork King never much minds when one of his servants falls into enemy hands. He figures that each time it happens there’s a chance some engineer or scientist will finally see his true brilliance.
The Clockwork King never designs his robots with combat in mind. He instead tries to make functional, useful machines that can perform a variety of tasks, including defending themselves and him in battle. He often adds weapons as an after thought, and never uses traditional firearms. Again, he prefers to give his machines tools that they just happen to be able to use as weapons when needed. See the Technology section for full descriptions of the weapons his robots carry or have attached to them.
Poison � Sabbath
Crey
3.1 History
The true history of the Countess Crey is a mystery to all but a very few people in the world. The public story goes something like this: The beautiful and talented Clarissa Van Dorn, after graduating from some of the finest private schools in New England, traveled to Europe for her own Grand Tour. While there she met and fell in love with the dashing and very wealthy Count Alphonse Crey. The two had a whirlwind courtship followed by a grand wedding and a year long, round the world honeymoon. The new Countess Crey then returned to Zurich to help run one her husband’s many holdings, a modest but profitable medical research firm called Crey Biotech. Shortly thereafter the Count fell into a mysterious coma, a state in which he lingers to this day. Since then, his talented and beautiful wife has done an amazing job managing the family finances and has turned Crey Industries into one of the three most profitable and powerful corporations in the world.
Almost all of that official story, except the part about turning the company into a global mega-corp with astonishing power, is absolutely false. For starters, Clarissa Van Dorn’s real name is Julianne Thompson and she never went to any private schools at all, let alone the finest in New England. In fact, she’s the product of Paragon City’s fine public school system and is probably one of the ten smartest people in the world. Her whole life has been a carefully planned march towards this ultimate goal. She planned every step up to the top while her fellow seventh graders whiled away their hours contemplating who liked whom and who wasn’t cool. Julianne knew damn well she was cool.
Unlike your stereotypical 13-year-old super-genius, Julianne hid her talents behind a veil of mere excellence. Good student, popular classmate, pretty girl, and obedient daughter, she excelled without showing off. Living the normal life occupied about a quarter of a percent of her mind however, leaving her plenty of time and brainpower to spare for more weighty matters. She saw an unlimited future for herself, a world where all doors lay open before her. She would be president, a captain of industry, a great inventor; she would be whatever she pleased.
Then, in her seventeenth year of life she discovered something many intelligent young men and women find – not the opposite sex, but rather a cause. Social injustice, the devastation of the Earth’s environment, political corruption, racial inequality: they all called out to her. As it turned out, the world was a pretty nasty place and Julianne was smart enough to see that most of the world’s leaders weren’t willing to take the steps necessary to fix it. In fact, most of them didn’t even have the brains to see what the necessary steps were. Thus young Julianne decided that it fell to her to fix the world’s wrongs. Throughout college she tried the normal paths – political activism, local politics, journalistic commentary and punditry, even lobbying elected officials. She accomplished more than most would ever dream and yet left it all feeling decidedly unsatisfied. The simple truth was, she could not make a real difference, not legally at least.
Illegally remained a route untested for the young genius. When an important environmental law came before the U.S. Senate, Julianne learned that a single Senator on the governing committee was keeping the otherwise popular bill from being brought up for a vote. She was clever enough to dig up some rather embarrassing and incriminating information about the Senate committee chair. She even managed to insinuate herself into a position where she could threaten the Senator with blackmail if he didn’t vote for the environmental law she wanted passed. What she didn’t realize was that the Senator had resources of his own, including a super-powered security consultant whose telepathic powers saw right through Julianne’s scheme and whose super strong henchman worked her over pretty good before turning her over to the cops.
Five years in a federal prison gave Julianne time to rethink her strategy. Growing up in Paragon City she knew all about super powered heroes, and she even knew that many of them worked for the government. However, it had never occurred to her that a corrupt and venal Senator would have super powered thugs on his payroll. Heroes were supposed to be shining examples of more rectitude and virtue, not lackeys for the coal mining lobby. She had simply failed to account for them in her plans, a mistake she would not again repeat. Now in fact they became the focus of her new future. Now she knew that heroes could be bought, just like anyone else. With enough money and resources Julianne could harness that kind of power to her intellect, and truly could change the world.
During her stay in prison (serving three years of her five year sentence before being paroled), Julianne gave a lot of thought to what her next move might be. Like many prisoners, she spent a lot of her free time studying heroes – not so she could defeat them the next time around, but in order to find some that she could work with. When she received parole, Julianne sought out some of the greatest living heroes in America, hoping to join forces with them, to offer them the guidance and direction they so obviously needed to help change the world. She saw herself has the head of a new worldwide hero organization that would fix the world’s problems. Naïve? Yeah, sure, but she had to try. As one might expect, few superheroes had any interest in taking advice from a twenty-something ex-con. Those few doors she managed to open were uniformly slammed shut in her face.
Fine. Whatever. Screw them. She’d find her own heroes, build her own army. And that’s exactly what she set out to do. First though, she needed financial and political backing and she needed it fast. Subsuming feminist pride beneath a growing megalomania, she set off for Europe, a wealthy husband firmly in her sights. Knowing full well that convicted felons seldom win prominent husbands, she created a new identity for herself. Creating a false background was just one of several useful skill she had picked up while in prison. She found a young woman from a good family named Clarissa Van Dorn. Clarissa’s wealthy parents had died in a boating accident when she was sixteen and Clarissa herself had fallen into a deep depression, withdrawing from society to live alone in her family home. Julianne tracked her down and offered Clarissa a chance to do good – if she would allow Julianne to use her identity for a while, she could accomplish great things in the world. After all, Clarissa wasn’t doing anything with her pedigree, so why shouldn’t she “loan” it to this perfect stranger who’d just gotten out of a federal penitentiary.
Clarissa was frankly horrified and frightened. She refused. Julianne, like many incredibly intelligent people, had a hard time understanding why it was that Clarissa couldn’t see the beautiful simplicity of her plan. Didn’t she know what was at stake? Couldn’t she see past her own selfishness? Julianne refused to take no for an answer. When the young woman tried to call the police, Julianne pulled the cord from the wall. When the poor girl tried to make a run for it, Julianne tackled her, all the while still trying to convince the terrified Clarissa that she was making the wrong decision. Finally, Clarissa grabbed a chef’s knife from the kitchen and threatened Julianne with it. In the ensuing struggle both women were cut – but it was Clarissa’s wound that proved fatal.
Although she was shocked at what had happened, more than anything Julianne was angry. Why would no one listen to her? What did she have to do to get someone to just do the right thing and follow her lead? Fine. It was over now, and she knew exactly what she had to do. The plan would proceed as she had laid it out. She would become Clarissa, woo some European moneybags, and have the resources she would need to realize her ambitions. Julianne had picked Clarissa because the two were roughly similar in size and age. Some hair dye, a new hair cut, and the right clothes were certainly enough to let her pass as Clarissa for passport purposes. After that, the rest would be easy.
With false pedigree and upper class manners in hand, she took the European blue bloods by storm. The new Clarissa did not have much experience with fancy parties or the jet set lifestyle, but she was an attractive woman and a very quick study. Her ability to speak five languages fluently helped as well. She quickly mastered the craft of to coquette and set about finding just the right husband for herself. She settled upon Count Alfonse Crey, widely regarded as one of the most eligible bachelors in Europe. Known not only for his wealth and influence, Count Crey also had a profoundly conservative reputation. The relatively hedonistic culture of upper class youth in Europe offended his refined sensibilities. He wanted, and in Clarissa found, a prim and proper, dutiful and adoring wife. And of course, his doom.
But it was not the Count’s title or conservatism that attracted her (although his firm rule about no sex before marriage was to her liking in this particular case). The real attraction was his family’s extensive holdings in the fields of technology and bioengineering. She was particularly intrigued by a company called Crey Biotech, which had done some remarkable research into the origins of mutant powers in super powered heroes. After her initial rebuff at the hands of Paragon City’s heroes, she had spent a lot of time trying to figure out how she could make her own super powered individuals. Perhaps Crey Biotech would offer her the key to unlocking that power for herself.
After much feigned trepidation and coyness, Julianne finally relented to the Count’s marriage proposal. Their engagement was the toast of the town and their wedding was one of the gala events of the year. As they set of on a round the world cruise on the Count’s private yacht, Julianne was already planning her next move. She had long been hinting to the Count that she wanted to become involved in the family business, particularly with the biotech firm. Alphonse had hinted that he would allow her to do just that, but it turned out that the two had very different ideas about what a woman should and should not do when it came to business. The Countess wanted to run the company and direct its research. The Count wanted her to have a powerless seat on the board and preside over charity dinners. Julianne was not amused.
The trip was cut short, largely because the Countess feigned seasickness for much of the time. The two returned to the Count’s home in Zurich and the Countess began to move her timetable forward. While she had hoped for a relatively free and empty marriage, the Count took his vows very seriously. Julianne even made several attempts to set the Count up with beautiful mistresses, just so she could make some time for herself, but the Count’s virtue remained intact. There was seemingly nothing she could do to be free of him. She used her empty seat on the board of Crey Biotech as an excuse to leave him at least once in a while, and it was on one of these trips that she met a promising young scientist named Rudolph Bein. Bein was a brilliant researcher who had a knack for pissing off the wrong people. He was going nowhere at Crey, but couldn’t leave the job because his prospects of finding another were very slim.
The Countess took Bein under her wing and promised him great things if only he could help her solve one little problem – her husband. The Countess gave Bein a sample of her hsuband’s DNA and asked the brilliant young geneticist to come up with a tailor made disease that would incapacitate but not kill her husband. A rather inconvenient pre-nuptial agreement that Julianne had been forced to sign ensured that there was no way she could benefit from the Count’s death. However, she did manage to get his power of attorney in case he was incapacitated, and so the only logical solution was to remove him without killing him.
It took Bein a year to synthesize the formula, during which time the Countess played the role of a good and dutiful wife even as she prepared the ground for her eventual takeover. She tricked or convinced her husband to remove many of the corporate officers she did not think she would be able to control when her time came. Meanwhile, she strengthened her ties to those whom she could trust. She learned all the ins and outs of the Crey business empire, until the time finally came for her to step up and fill the role she had picked out for herself.
The tailor-made drug that Bein had created worked perfectly. The Count seemed to come down with a mild cold, but 48 hours late he fell into a deep coma. The Countess hired the best doctors in the world to find out what was wrong with her beloved, knowing full well that they would fail. The Count had fallen prey to some mysterious malady and the best minds in medicine could do nothing to help him. Knowing the importance of appearances, the Countess made a grand show of her devotion, seemingly dropping all other activities to focus on finding a cure for this terrible disease – whatever it was. In fact, although she dropped out of the charity dinners and meaningless social engagements, she was busier than ever. She quickly and quietly secured her position as the true power behind Crey Industries, firing or otherwise eliminating anyone that stood in her path.
Then she shocked the world by announcing that Crey Industries was moving its world headquarters from Zurich to Paragon City. The ostensible reason for this sudden shift was that the brightest minds in science and technology could be found in Paragon City and the Countess wanted to be close to where she felt sure a cure for her husband would someday be found. In fact, The Countess wanted to return to her home town, where she would be closer to her true research subject: the world’s greatest heroes.
Away from the old European Board members and investors, the Countess was now free to run her company as she saw fit. After buying up a whole building for her and her husband, she set upon the American biotech industry like a hungry lioness. She began to acquire new companies left and right. If a company wouldn’t sell or was beyond her means, she’d simply hire away their best researchers (sometimes with blackmail as an extra incentive for jumping ship) and then steal any patents and secrets the recalcitrant rival might still possess. Within a few years Crey Industries had come to dominate not only the biotechnology sector, but also medical technology and most importantly, pharmaceuticals. Crey now held the patents to seven out of ten of the world’s most used prescription drugs. 95% of American households had at least one Crey product in their home. Her husband’s family company now had an annual income close to a trillion dollars.
Of course those massive profits never showed up on any of its financial statements. Crey’s accountants were experts at hiding the true extent of the company’s holdings. When the SEC decided to actually investigate the biotech giant, they found out just how dangerous the life of a government oversight accountant can actually be. Crey had bought and paid for a number of agents in the FBI and lawyers in the Justice Department, all of whom came down fast and quiet on the SEC investigators. It didn’t take long for them to give Crey a clean bill of health and move on to other, less deadly targets.
There was however, one exception. One SEC investigator just happened to be the cousin of a mid-ranking hero in Paragon City who called himself the Invisible Flacon. More of a detective than a brawler, the Invisible Falcon heard his cousin’s horror stories and became intrigued by Crey Industries and its mysterious Countess. His flight power combined with his invisibility made him a great spy, and he didn’t have to think twice about breaking into Crey’s Paragon City headquarters. He was looking for any kind of incriminating evidence, but he certainly wasn’t prepared for what he found.
The Falcon floated silently through the hallways, invisible to everyone and everything. He passed through the legitimate seeming front offices and paused long enough to look over a few managers’ shoulders and memorize their passwords to the office network. He then managed to slip into the labs. Not being a scientist, he had no way of knowing if what the people were doing was legitimate or not, but he continued gathering data and taking pictures with his digital camera. He floated deeper and deeper into the building, hoping to find his way into the Countess’ office (which strangely didn’t appear on any maps of the building). He never did find that office – but he did stumble upon something much more incriminating.
Deep beneath the building he found a complex of secret labs, obviously the site of the company’s top-secret research and development. Here again, he could not make heads or tails of what exactly they were doing, but he took plenty of pictures anyway. Then he found a room where even an untrained observer could ascertain that something was very, very wrong. In a room the size of a football field he found row upon row of coffin sized Plexiglas tanks, each containing a human body attached to some sort of life-support machinery. Scientists roamed up and down the aisles, periodically checking monitors or injecting drugs into the IV’s that kept these bodies alive. Crey Industries was no hospital, and there was no way this was even close to being legal. The Invisible Falcon snapped more pictures and then prepared to make his escape.
But of course he never did escape. Crey security had identified him as soon as he entered within half a mile of their building. They had monitored his every movement since he entered the door. Electronic jamming equipment would have kept him from sending any signals if he had ever tried. Electro Magnetic Pulses had already erased the memory card in his camera, while x-rays had ruined any film he might have carried. The Countess herself watched his progress from her office once he penetrated the secure areas. She wanted to see just how far he would go, and maybe find out who had sent him. Once he tried to leave he found himself sealed in a stairwell that was quickly pumped full of anesthetic gas. The Invisible Falcon was never heard from again. His cousin tried to raise an alarm, but no one listened. There was no proof that he had ever gone into the Crey building. Crey agents had cleared out his home, and an impersonator was seen on the city streets in several locales. As far as the world was concerned, he had run off on his own. Who could say for sure with an invisible man?
In fact, The Invisible Falcon joined those bodies held in tanks deep beneath the Crey office tower. Not all of them were heroes with super powers. In fact, only half of them were. The rest were clones of those heroes, made by combining and recombining genetic material from those captured heroes in attempt to grow her own force of super soldiers. Ever since she came to Paragon City, the Countess had been secretly and slowly collecting fallen heroes. Most of these had not been direct victims of the Crey Security forces, but rather they had died in the regular course of their duties and Crey retrieval teams had been there to snatch up the bodies. However, about one quarter of them had been targeted as individuals possessing genetic materials that the Countess and her scientists wanted to use in their research. For these select subject “accidents” had been arranged or, as with the Invisible Falcon, impersonators had left the impression that the missing hero had left the crime fighting life of their own accord. The great thing about killing and capturing heroes is that most have secret identities, making a police investigation into their disappearance much more difficult. No one’s even sure who it is that’s gone missing.
The Countess called her top-secret program the Revenant Heroes Project. It was the next stage in realizing her long-term goal of having her own cadre of totally loyal heroes to do her bidding. Unfortunately for the rest of the world, she’d all but forgotten about all the reasons she wanted to work with heroes in the first place. Her youthful idealism about changing the world and making it a better place for one and all had been subsumed with in her obsessive drive to win at all costs. Her stated reason for developing the Revenant Heroes sounded nice enough: she wanted a reliable, super powered security force that could counteract any possible threat and yet not seize power for themselves (or even think for themselves for that matter). However, the truth was, she simply wanted it to show the world that she could. That in fact, she could have anything she wanted.
It was her old friend and co-conspirator, Dr. Bein, who oversaw the program. His unsurpassed knowledge of genetics provided amazing results, especially when it was combined with the nearly limitless resources of Crey Industries. The ability to experiment upon live, or even dead heroes propelled his research much faster than government-sponsored programs that operated within the guidelines of morality and ethics. Like many, at first he went down the path of trying to find an actual serum or treatment process (such as the one used by the 5th Column), but he decided that ultimately this would prove too time consuming and complicated for only meager results. He soon set off on a new course, one he called Recombinant Cloning.
The Recombinant Cloning technique isolates the individual physical and genetic characteristics that give a hero his or her powers. All of the DNA comes from mutants or humans who’ve been altered in some way. Magical powers don’t reside in the genes and therefore aren’t useful for Crey’s purposes. Dr. Bein developed a process for growing what he calls Blanks – bodies made from adaptive cells that can accept donor material cloned from super powered beings. Thus once he has established a genetic line for a particular power, he can keep growing it and implant it in as many Blanks as he cares to.
Although developing this process and extracting the power genes was incredibly difficult and expensive, it turned out to be the simplest part of the procedure. The Revenant Heroes had powers sure, but getting to use them effectively (or indeed at all) proved much more difficult. The Blanks had the minds of infants. The next step was to develop a speed learning program that could train the Revenants in a reasonable amount of time, but this proved very difficult as well. After years of work, the project still had yet to produce a super powered individual capable of even testing in the field.
Growing more and more frustrated, the Countess herself stepped in to oversee the project directly. Although Dr. Bein resented the intrusion into his territory, he was in no position to argue. Especially once the Countess figured out a solution to his problem. She reasoned that, if they could copy a dead person’s powers and reconstitute in endless iterations for their Blanks, then there must be some way to copy a live hero’s knowledge and training and propagate it as well. Dr. Bein agreed that this would, in theory, work, but that no one knew how to copy memories. No one even really knew hoe memory worked. The Countess just smiled knowingly and went shopping.
What she was buying was companies and research firms, along with several think tanks, two churches, and a university psychology department (the last through a multi-million dollar endowment). The Countess was looking for the world’s foremost experts on memory, and in Kane-like fashion she managed to buy up most of them. Unfortunately, what most of them told her was that the one person she needed was Dr. Carole Friedken, and she wasn’t going anywhere. The seventy-five year old, Nobel Prize winning scientist had the keys to Crey’s quandary locked inside her brilliant mind. The Countess just needed to find the right lever to pry it open.
Cash wasn’t going to do it. Dr. Friedken lived comfortably and needed nothing. The Countess made offers to the scientist’s favorite charities, but the older woman remained unimpressed. She knew very well that Crey Industries was up to no good. At the very least they would use her discoveries for some sort of crass, commercial product, but Dr. Friedken suspected that the Countess had much darker plans up her sleeve. She wanted no part of them. Even blackmail and intimidation failed. The doctor had no family left and felt no fear for her own life. The only person close to her was her assistant Paul, and even he stood firm in the face of threats and bullying. Or at least that’s what the Countess led the Doctor to believe.
In fact, buying off Paul had been exceptionally cheap – just a few million dollars. Paul was a mediocre scientist who had long ago given up on ever making any great discoveries of his own. Instead, he had been proud to work alongside someone as brilliant and innovative as Dr. Friedken. But every man has his price it seems, and Paul had his own future to look out for, and that of his family. While he gained his boss’ trust by standing up to Crey’s intimidation tactics, he was secretly passing on her files and data to Crey scientists. But the true breakthrough’s remained hidden even from Paul. Dr. Friedken had her own plans for the future, and she wasn’t about to let anyone else interfere with them, even her trusted Paul.
The good doctor had discovered not only the truth about how the brain stores memory, but also how those memories can be copied. She had been secretly developing a process whereby she could transfer her thoughts and memories into another brain, or possibly even a computer, if one powerful enough could be found. All she had to do was solve the final problem – finding a suitable new host for her thoughts – and then she would be free from her dying body. Unfortunately for her, Crey decided to move her timetable forward. The files Paul had stolen provided Crey’s researchers with plent of clues about Dr. Friedken’s research, but no firm answers as to how the memory transfer could be accomplished. Since every other tactic had failed, the Countess authorized direct intimidation.
Crey thugs came to Dr. Friedken’s home and physically assaulted her, making it clear that she was dead if she didn’t start cooperating soon. Knowing she had little time left, she finally confided in Paul. She needed his help to download her mind into a computer before it was too late. Paul was shocked, but he agreed to help his old mentor. He would make sure she was safe, but then he would give her technology to Crey. Thus everyone would be happy. The process was complex and used incredibly experimental and unreliable machinery, but it worked. All of Dr. Friedken’s memories had been transferred into a machine. Her body remained much as it always had, although she was left weakened by the traumatic process. Paul then made the call to Crey.
The Countess’ agents stormed through the lab and took everything, including Dr. Friedken herself. Now that they understood the process completely, they decided it might be useful to harvest the inventor’s memories directly from the source. They also took the computer into which she had downloaded her memories, just to be sure. Paul received his reward and a plum research position at Crey Industries to provide an excuse for the new income. However, when the company’s scientists examined the computer containing Dr. Friedken’s memories, they were shocked. Although some of her memories were in the machine, in fact most of them were somewhere else. Dr. Friedken, suspecting treachery from her assistant, had transferred herself out into the Internet as a whole, spread out across millions of computers around the world.
There was no putting the genie back in the bottle when it came to Dr. Friedken, and as far as they could tell, she might not have even “survived” the transfer. So the Crey scientists put their worries about the missing doctor’s memories aside and got on with unraveling her research, and eventually her mind. The Countess now had the tool she needed to program her Blanks and turn them into true heroes. It took less than a year for Bein and the other researchers to figure out how to isolate memory strings and even instincts and subconscious patterns. They could literally dissect a person’s memory and put it back together any way they pleased, including mixing and matching memory strings from different subjects.
Initial tests with the Revenant Heroes proved even more successful than anticipated. These vat grown heroes could actually use their powers, follow orders, and still think for themselves when it came to solving problems and dealing with tactical situations. Emboldened by this tremendous success, the Countess ordered the live capture of more and more heroes. She wanted the best memory strings and genes for her Revenants and she wouldn’t take no for an answer. It was becoming harder and harder to cover up all of these disappearances, and Crey’s activities were beginning to attract unwelcome attention from top tier heroes like The Statesman.
Things might have gone very bad for Crey very quickly, were it not for one thing: the Rikti Invasion. The alien invaders overran the city with alarming speed and devastating power. Fortunately for Crey, the Rikti advance spy drones had failed to recognize the Crey headquarters building as a first tier target. The Countess was very careful about testing her Revenant Heroes, making it extremely difficult even for the aliens to trace them back to her. Thus, unlike the headquarters of many defense contractors and hero organizations, she and her company survived the first few days of the war relatively intact.
This brief reprieve gave her time to organize a stalwart defense. Indeed, she was more ready to defend her holdings than anyone else on the planet. For years she had been quietly kidnapping heroes and then holding them in captivity for experimentation. That’s not the kind of activity you undertake without a well trained and very well armed private security force. In the months leading up to the war she had begun to anticipate possible attacks by teams of heroes, possibly even entire organizations like the Freedom Phalanx. As a result, she had been beefing up security even more, arming her troops with the most advanced weaponry and armor money could buy. She never dreamed that it would be extra-dimensional aliens her troops fought against, but they acquitted themselves well during the war.
The Countess fought a very defensive war. She did not combine her forces with those of the re government or the hero groups, but rather concentrated on fortifying and protecting her own holdings. The Rikti learned soon enough that the troublesome and well-equipped Crey soldiers presented little threat as long as the invaders left them alone. As a result, the Rikti soon began bypassing Crey guarded facilities entirely, unless there was some overriding strategic purpose to assaulting them. Quick to pick up on this fact, the Countess began to offer protection to other companies, particularly rivals whom she had yet to acquire or fully infiltrate. In exchange for stock grants, free patent licenses, and seats on various boards, the Crey security teams moved in to secure many of the city’s other most important and prestigious tech companies. In the panic and desperation brought on by the invasion, many CEO’s made decisions they would later severely regret.
With so many people dying in the streets, including heroes, the Crey retrieval teams were working overtime. The Countess’ one contribution to the world-wide war effort was to offer deeply discounted medical supplies and pharmaceuticals to the human armies and heroes. In addition, Crey trained combat medics went into the field to help tend to and retrieve the wounded. What no one knew was that, in the chaos of the war, the Crey medics were diverting the most promising and powerful heroes that fell into their hand into Crey research facilities rather than hospitals. The hidden Crey labs swelled with new research projects, and the Revenant Hero Program suddenly had a cornucopia of genetic material and memories to choose from.
Meanwhile, Crey had a whole other set of retrieval teams out in the field, although these were not looking for the bodies of heroes. They were looking for Rikti technology. It was obvious to one and all that the Rikti tech level far exceeded the best our planet had to offer. As such, any piece of Rikti weaponry or equipment was a potential goldmine of new patents and inventions. The government and many hero groups were also snatching up the captured tech as fast as they could, and Presidential orders forbade civilians from keeping any Rikti devices they found. Never shy about ignoring laws and Presidential orders, the Crey teams continued to snatch up as much Rikti-made material as possible.
It was only after the dramatic end of the war that Crey finally revealed its Revenant Heroes to the world, although of course it didn’t call them that. Indeed, the group presented themselves to the world as a brand new hero organization, born out of the ashes of the Rikti War and dedicated to securing the city and helping to rebuild it after the massive devastation that had laid it low. They called themselves the Paragon Protectors. They all wore tailored jumpsuits and helmets that hid their identities. They said that they operated not as individuals but as a team, and that their identities weren’t what was important – it was the work that mattered above all else. They offered to help any business or residence that needed protection from the hostile world around them. It soon became clear that hey weren’t a traditional hero group at all. The Paragon Protectors were just what their name suggested – guards. They’d secure a location against attack, but they weren’t planning on actively hunting down and capturing villains.
That limited role was fine with most people. Guards and police were just what the war-torn city needed at the moment. Soon the Protectors were guarding important locations all over the city, including all the places Crey Industries had helped protect during the war. A month later the Protectors announced that the Countess Crey had offered to personally sponsor the Protectors as a contribution to the safety and future prosperity of Paragon City. From that point on the two groups became more and more tied together in the public eye, with each good deed done by the anonymous heroes reflecting well upon their corporate sponsors. The two became, in many ways, inseparable in the public consciousness, which was appropriate since the Countess’ scientists had grown every single one of the heroes in her labs.
Now Crey Industries is poised to make its next great leap. If even half of its current plans come to fruition, the corporation will become the largest and most important corporate entity in the world. It will also have an extraordinary influence over the health, safety, and general well-being of millions, maybe even billions of people. Which is, of course, just how the Countess Crey wants things to be.
3.2 Beliefs and Goals
The Countess Crey has so many short-term goals that she has all but lost track of her long-term ambitions. The original drive to change the world for the better is pretty much forgotten, replaced instead by a general feeling that she knows what’s best for all involved and she’s not going to let anyone or anything get in her way. Overall she still sees herself as a very positive force in the world, and not as a villain at all. She’s all about the ends justifying the means and at this point has no qualms about using any means necessary to achieve her goals.
There is however, a bit of a schizoid disconnect between what she’s actually doing and what she tells herself she’s doing. Sure, she wants to make the world a better place, but she can’t worry about that right now. First she has to secure her position. One might think being the wealthiest woman in the world would be pretty secure, but the Countess sees enemies in every rival business and costumed hero that’s out there. Not to mention the alien invaders and other trouble makers. Until all of that is brought under control, she feels compelled to devote all her time and resources to making Crey stronger and stronger. Once she’s got everything under control, then she can turn her attention to good works and so forth.
In the meantime, the ceaseless expansion of Crey’s holdings and influence continues. In the wake of the war, Crey Industries is seeing its most successful and profitable year ever. The company continues to expand on all fronts, both legal and illegal. The Paragon Protectors are becoming more and more accepted and have become one of the more trusted security icons in American Culture (surpassing Brinks and even rivaling the Freedom Phalanx and Hero Corps). Crey activities on each of these different fronts are discussed below:
Consumer Products
Crey Industries continues to be the leading pharmaceutical producer in the world, making a pill for seemingly every disease and occasion. Although there are a dozen different subsidiary companies that develop and market these drugs, the head researchers at Crey control the direction a research for every single drug the company makes. These head researchers in turn report directly to the Countess. Taking a cue from the tobacco industry, many of Crey’s more expensive and popular drugs have been specifically engineered to be addictive over time. Thus, continued sales are assured. Pharmaceuticals still account for over one-third of the corporation’s annual income, so the Countess protects its drug business fiercely. Not only does it squash the competition, it also spends millions upon millions of dollars buying off congressmen and FDA officials in order to ensure speedy approval for all of its products, no matter how dangerous.
More recently, Crey has begun experimenting with Rikti derived chemical compounds in their drugs. They’ve been particularly successful with formulae based upon samples recovered from The Lost and other Rikti sites. The Crey research staff has been working tirelessly to try and isolate the mutagenic effects that transform the Lost into monstrous beings. So far they’ve had some solid successes and are on the verge of a major breakthrough that will have vast implications for both the Revenant Hero Project and the world of prescription medicine.
The first product to hit the shelves is a prescription injection designed to quickly close and regenerate wounds. It is already in common use in most clinics and hospitals in Paragon City and has recently begun shipping across the country. It has also become popular with heroes, who can get a prescription from their doctors to carry the hypodermics in the field. In combination with the emergency teleportation system, this serum, marketed under the name Wound Wise, have saved thousands of lives already. The serum works by actually morphing the skin, bone, muscle, and nerves, causing them to heal themselves. This happens at an exceptionally rapid rate – taking seconds rather than weeks or months.
What no one outside of Crey Industries knows is that Wound Wise probably has some very serious long-term side effects that no one is aware of right now. Repeated usage (common in heroes, law enforcement, and military personnel) causes a gradual and seemingly irreversible degradation of the human DNA. Over the long term this will undoubtedly cause radically increased cancer rates at the very least. At the worst, it might actually end up transforming the users into monsters not unlike the Lost themselves. The Crey scientists are working on alleviating these deadly side effects, although newer and safer formulae might only show up in the serums given to Crey security personnel – not the Wound Wise sold to heroes.
Of course Crey makes a whole host of consumer products aside from pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. They’re also a major supplier for all kinds of medical and scientific hardware, from electron microscopes to simple centrifuges for chemists. There’s virtually not a lab in the world that doesn’t have at least some piece of equipment manufactured in a Crey owned plant. Unlike the pharmaceuticals business, the scientific equipment part of Crey Industries usually loses money each quarter. The company sells its products at rock-bottom prices, yet provides some of the most advanced and reliable equipment in the world. What no one realizes is that most of that equipment, especially more advanced electronic and computer controlled devices, have special hardware and software designed to monitor every single output the device gives. When the Crey-employed technician comes by to do the regularly scheduled maintenance, he simply pops out the memory card and replaces it. Crey then employs an army of analysts to sift through and catalog all this data. Just one more way that Crey stays on top of the competition.
Only recently has Crey begun to break into providing products for the home (beyond medical related goods). Many of these items are actually the result of research on Rikti technology that produced surprising results. For example, a Rikti based ceramic is being used to make cheap, attractive, looks and feels like porcelain and yet is virtually indestructible dinnerware and is now available in most department stores. In a similar vein, Rikti military rations have an exceptional composition that is delivers vitamins and protein more efficiently than any natural food source. Thus, Crey now produces a top selling line of snack bars that are very popular with amateur and professional athletes alike. None of these items are particularly dangerous or inherently evil, although the research that led to them is certainly questionable. Still, the public at large might well find the idea of eating alien food off alien dinnerware to be more than a little unappetizing.
Forbidden Tech
The Countess Crey has become almost obsessed with Rikti technology. She has lobbied hard against laws restricting private access to alien artifacts and has lobbied even harder to win her companies the Rikti research contracts that the government has been handing out since the war’s end. She sees the Rikti as the classic Chinese crisis – danger and opportunity perfectly intermingled as one. She knows that understanding the various Rikti inventions can catapult her corporation’s tech level decades into the future, putting her well beyond the reach of any of her rivals. She also knows that if any of those rivals get the edge on her when it comes to Rikti tech, it could spell doom for her company. Therefore she is doing everything she can to find, buy, or steal anything Rikti that she can.
In fact, unknowingly, Crey Industries has been dealing with a number of different actual Rikti, who have been selling their technology to Crey and other companies while disguised as human dealers. Crey has no idea that they are actually buying from the Rikti, although it’s uncertain how she would react if she did find out. Like most humans, she has no love for the aliens. On the other hand, now that the war is over, she might indeed consider working with them, although only in a very guarded and controlled manner. Her goal would primarily be to find out more about the Rikti and their operations on Earth rather than to trade money for technology. Both sides would no doubt be waiting for the ideal moment to drive a knife into the other’s back.
While Crey has received hundreds of patents based on Rikti technology (both legally and illegally obtained) they still have yet to get their hands on the holy grail of Rikti devices – the body modification chambers used to transform Rikti into humans and vice versa. While there have been some damaged models of the device recovered, the Rikti take tremendous precautions about this technology, folding in a variety of security devices into its design. Any tampering with the machine results in an explosive self-destruction that makes it almost impossible to reconstruct the machine or even discern its original design. If Crey could get its hands on a working chamber, it would dramatically speed up and improve their Revenant Hero Project. The two technologies could be combined to pump out a steady stream of trained, loyal, and very powerful super powered soldiers – everything the Countess might need to crush all of her enemies.
One area where Crey lags sorely behind the competition is in the area of weaponry. The Delgado-Harris Corporation has been able to easily maintain its competitive edge over all its rivals and has thus won most of the government contracts for studying captured Rikti weaponry. The Countess has ordered her own weapons research firm to close the gap, and there are several weapon designs based on Rikti energy rifles now in R&D. However, the Countess doesn’t place much emphasis on conventional weaponry. She’s looking to her revenant heroes as the ultimate weapons in the war against heroes, aliens, and business rivals alike.
Revenant Heroes
The so-called Paragon City Protectors are the Countess Crey’s pride and joy. The Protectors’ first appearances during the war didn’t arouse too much interest. Back then there were still so many big name heroes and organizations that another super powered private security firm didn’t make much of an impression. But unlike the established groups, the Protectors actually survived the war. Well, actually that’s not true. All of the original Protector clones are either dead or inactive, replaced by second and third generation Revenants with higher power levels and greater memory/skill enhancement packages.
Since then, the Protectors have gone on to become the security firm of choice for elites and Fortune 500 companies. Their main rival is Hero Corps, which operates on a very different model. While Hero Corps uses freelance heroes and takes on single jobs for a wide variety of clients, the Protectors only work on long-term contracts. A company or even a wealthy individual signs an agreement with the Protectors for a term of anywhere from one to five years. During that time, the Protectors agree to handle every aspect of the client’s security, from handing out pass cards to employees to patrolling the halls to going out and finding thieves and would be saboteurs. In a city where a group like the Freakshow is just another street gang, it pays to have super powered protection on duty 24 hours a day. You can’t always count on some random hero showing up on time.
Of course the connection between the Protectors and the Countess Crey is a great secret. As far as the rest of the world knows, the Crey Industries is simply the Protectors’ largest client. Although there have been rumors of a connection between the two, the Crey accountants have covered their tracks well and there is no obvious paper trail connecting the two. The Countess is helped in this subterfuge by various city and state laws that have been passed over the years to help ensure the anonymity of super powered heroes. Since the Protectors obviously take great care to preserve their true identities, even from their clients, they fall under the aegis of these old laws.
The public excuse for keeping the identities of revenant heroes under the helmet is two-fold. One, the Protectors don’t want any one hero to be seen as larger than the team as a whole. They want their customers to have faith in the organization and the individuals who comprise it without becoming attached to a particular superstar. Two, the Protectors themselves allegedly lead normal lives with family and friends and don’t want their true identities exposed to those they fight against. In fact, the truth is also two fold, although the reasons are very different. The clones often have very similar or identical features to one another, especially if they possess similar power packages. As such, it would be readily apparent that something strange was going on if their faces could be seen. Secondly, the identities of various Revenant Heroes are entirely interchangeable, as are the memories. Thus the Protectors sometimes need to shuffle or replace personnel within a given client’s security detail. Anonymity prevents the client from being aware that one Mr. Jones has been substituted for another, newer model.
Hiding the truth about the Revenants is the most important task for the Paragon City Protectors. Not surprisingly, there has been a great deal of interest in who these mysterious heroes are and where they come from. Numerous tabloid papers and television programs have put up large cash rewards for pictures of the Protectors out of uniform. Most of the official Protector facilities have paparazzi stationed outside of them around the clock, hoping to snap a picture of a recognizable hero or possible Protector. So far they have had no luck. Indeed, many of them have been very, very unlucky.
Crey knows better than to openly attack reporters. That would only serve to bring more attention to the matter. At the same time, since there’s no known connection between the Protectors and Crey, so the Countess has a little more latitude about what it can do to counter the investigations of pesky reporters and private eyes. First and foremost, as one of the largest companies in the world, Crey buys a lot of ad space on television and in publications of all kinds. They can thus put a great deal of pressure on media outlets that publish stories critical of the Protectors. But sometimes that’s not enough. Sometimes Crey needs to take more drastic measures. Noisome reporters end up having their bank accounts drained, compromising photos spread across the Internet, their taxes audited, and even their own lives threatened. Rather than forcing their victims to give up reporting on the Protectors, the Crey operatives take a more comprehensive approach – they make sure the reporter quits the business entirely. This policy not only makes for fewer free journalists, it makes it difficult to pinpoint an exact reason why the reporter was targeted, again deflecting attention away from the Protectors.
Of course, the Revenant Hero Project is not designed solely as a private security force. Indeed, the whole business of the Paragon City Protectors is really just the first stage of a much larger endeavor. The Protectors do serve as top-notch security officers and they have a startlingly high success rate when it comes to defending their clients. At several million dollars per month, the service had better be that good. But of course the real advantage for Crey is not the income, but the access. As part of their service contract, the Protectors have access to almost everything they’re supposed to be protecting, including internal computer networks, files, vaults, and more. Anything their customers try to keep hidden from them inevitably gets discovered anyway. Thus Crey Industries now knows almost every corporate and private secret about each and every one of the Protectors’ clients. With several government security contracts now coming up for bid, they’re access to pilfered knowledge is set to increase even more in the coming year. As one might imagine, Crey makes great use out of all this intelligence.
Meanwhile, as the Protectors fight the various other villains set on attacking their clients, they get live-fire training and new memories and skills to add to the growing database of power and memory packages for the next generation of Revenant Heroes. Soon enough the process will be perfected, and the Countess Crey can embark upon the next stage of her great endeavor – the replacement of existing heroes with clones that are totally under her control. She knows that, as long as other heroes stand in her way, she can never be fully secure. While her Revenants might be as powerful as most heroes, they do not have the personality or popularity of some of the more famous heroes in the world. Her plan is therefore quite ambitious: to replace each and every hero in the world with a clone under her control. It might take billions of dollars, thousands of Revenants, and decades, but she has all of those things. She can be a very patient and methodical person when necessary.
Right now the Revenant Memory Implantation process is imperfect. Individual skills and sets of data (like how to use a power or operate a vehicle) can be reliably copied and transferred. It is more ephemeral characteristics like personality, emotions, and speech patterns that are difficult to transfer. Of course it’s entirely within Crey’s current abilities to transfer an entire mind into a Blank body, but that’s only useful if the mind is already loyal to the Countess. The real remaining challenge is altering a mind subtly enough to ensure utter loyalty to the Countess and yet retain the essence that makes them who they are. Crey researchers are closing in on this goal and have already begun field tests.
Their first attempt to have a clone pass as a known hero was only a partial success. The hero was close enough to fool casual acquaintances and fans, but her husband began to suspect something was wrong. The program had to be aborted, the husband killed, and the clone was used to fake a disappearance (the real hero was safely in Crey custody during all this). More tests are under way. Soon, between the Rikti biomorphs and the Crey clones, it will be all but impossible for anyone to be sure they’re talking to the real deal when they’re in Paragon City.
3.3 Business Opportunities
Although it sometimes seems that way, Crey Industries does not own every business in the city. Indeed, there are some very lucrative and important industries that have thus far escaped any touch of the Countess’ hand, although that is sure to change in the near future. One of the biggest and most important is the Emergency Teleportation system that heroes and police personnel use in times of crisis to evacuate wounded directly to hospitals. Developed by engineers from the long defunct Portal Corp and based upon captured Rikti technology, the citywide teleportation network promises to revolutionize the way the world travels. Right now it is still very expensive and a little untested and so not used very much by the public at large. While the industry is still young, there’s a chance for someone else – like Crey, to sweep in and take advantage of the situation.
It frustrates the Countess to no end that, although she has no control over the teleporters, the medical treatment most heroes receive when brought to a hospital is done almost entirely with Crey products (including Wound Wise). She would like nothing better than to have control over the entire process, from first call to the final bill. Unfortunately for her, the government is deeply involved in the teleportation network, working in concert with Portal Corp. It was government money that paid for the installation of the teleportation transceiver stations that are spread throughout the city and the government still tightly controls access to the transport matrix. Thus, Crey’s usually bold and illegal acquisition strategies can’t be used in this case.
So instead Crey has to take a more round about path to victory. Of course the company has already stolen all of the plans for the teleporters, and has a number of hidden cameras, computer taps, and other devices sending them a steady and torrential stream of data about the teleportation network and how it works. They could, if they wanted to, build their own network right now. They certainly have the money. But they can’t get government permission to do that, and so they wait and lobby hard for a change in the system. Crey operatives are busy searching for any bit of leverage they can find over the federal, state and local officials who have jurisdiction over the teleporter contracts. They’re pouring massive amounts of money into lobbying and sometimes outright buying of politicians.
But the Portal Corp has its own lobbyists as well, and the two companies are engaged in a bitter feud on Capital Hill. Slowly but surely, Crey is winning this battle. The giant company simply has more resources to throw at the problem. But things are still progressing too slowly for the Countess’ tastes, so she has ordered a stepping up “alternative measures” including blackmail, kidnapping, and even assassination if it proves necessary. She want utter control over the teleportation network within the next year, no matter what it takes.
Of course there are many sound business reasons for wanting to take control of the emergency teleportation system, but none of them really factor into the Countess’ single-minded drive to take the industry over. She sees other opportunities as well. First of all, it would allow her Revenant Heroes much more flexibility. They could travel anywhere in an instant, hitting hard and then disappearing without a trace. Right now the matrix keeps records of who goes where and when, so no one using the citywide system does so in private. The Countess wants control over those records so that she can hide her movements.
Much more importantly, it can be a powerful tool for use against her enemies. The teleportation system is still an imperfect process and occasionally accidents do happen. Thus it would be easy to make a troublesome hero or two disappear into the ether without raising too many questions. Or, in less extreme cases, they could simply misdirect the transport to delay a hero’s medical treatment. At the very least, they could monitor the activities of their enemies and keep track of their medical condition and possibly their weaknesses and patterns. Finally, Crey researchers are working on a way to siphon off DNA samples from heroes in transit. This would allow the Countess to secretly obtain thousands of samples for her Revenant Hero Project without ever having to worry about alerting suspicion by kidnapping heroes (although there’s no way to steal memories during the transport process, so some kidnapping would still take place).
3.3 Prison of Tomorrow
Prisons are the next big project for Crey Industries. More and more states are turning to private companies to run their prisons, especially when it comes to special facilities designed to hold super powered criminals. These super-max prisons are very expensive to build and staff, often requiring guards with super powers as well – not an easy thing to find. Unless of course you’re the Protectors and can just grow as many guards as you need in Crey’s vats. The first pilot Protectors Detainment Facility is just about ready to go online in Paragon City. The Countess hopes this will be one of many such facilities across the country. Certainly no one else can match her bids for constructing the prisons, since no one else has free, super powered labor at their disposal.
Previously such prisons required advanced technology and incredibly tough walls and bars just to hold a moderately powerful super villain. Prisoners were often kept within experimental dampening fields meant to obviate their super powers, but it proved impossible to design such a machine that worked in all cases. Often times it was necessary to simply dope the prisoners up, leaving them unconscious in artificial comas. This was recently determined to be cruel and unusual punishment by the Supreme Court, necessitating a new way for controlling high-risk, high-power prisoners.
The Protectors offer an “old school” approach to imprisonment. Their facilities don’t use any special machinery or even unusually thick walls. Instead they rely entirely upon their super powered guards to keep the prisoners in line. Everyone in the prison knows that, if they try anything, the guards have the power and the permission to come down on them with superhuman force. A few good beat downs by the eerily quiet and super powerful guards, and most prisoners are too scared to try making trouble twice. Those who do usually don’t live to try a third time.
For the Countess, the Protectors Detainment Facilities offer yet another source for super powered DNA and memories of how to use them. Every prison will have a state of the art hospital ward that just happens to include all the material needed to take samples for cloning and for recording memories. Indeed, it is the memory theft that makes the guards so effective. In addition to their super powers, every Protector gets regular uploads from the prisoners’ memories, allowing them to predict outbreaks and crimes before they even happen. In the future, the guards themselves will in large part be clones of the prisoners, possessing all the powers and expertise of a hardened super villain but still totally loyal to the Protectors and the Countess Crey.
3.4 Plausible Deniability
With all of their illegal activities it’s important for the Countess Crey to maintain a buffer between herself and those who do her dirty work. After all, each day hundreds of crimes both corporate and violent, are committed in her name. Any one of them has the potential to land her in jail, if indeed any proof of her involvement could ever be found. Therefore, the Countess has gone to extreme lengths to make sure that nothing illegal can ever be traced directly back to her. Given that she is a very involved and hands on leader, this requires a very careful balancing act. But The Countess has spent her entire life on the high wire, and knows just where to step when.
The corporate organization of Crey Industries is incredibly Byzantine and convoluted. If you look at the official corporate power structure, the Countess has very little actual authority over anything. None of the responsibilities for making decisions actually fall within her purview. She’s not even a member of the Board of Directors. Her sole official title is President Emeritus, which carries with it no duties or responsibilities. This is of course a legal fiction designed to insulate her from any legal action. She absolutely controls everything at Crey Industries, working through puppets and lackeys who she pays extremely well to be her yes men. At the same time, she has thick files on each of them, and super powered thugs on speed dial ready to harm them and their families if they step out of line. The Countess does not screw around and expects absolute obedience. And she gets it.
Even the corporation itself is protected within a labyrinth of dummy corporations and independent research facilities. For example, all of the most dangerous and illegal research takes place not in Crey owned facilities, but rather in independent research firms that happen to have gotten a grant from a think tank or foundation that happens to receive its funding from a company that Crey Industries holds a minority share in. Of course the Countess controls the research firm, the foundation, and the funding company, but not on paper and not in any way that would show up in a court of law. She holds together her entire financial empire through sheer force of will, a feat made somewhat easier by the fact that she now controls her own private army of super powered heroes.
The many illegal and questionable activities that the Revenant Heroes get involved in are also done under the umbrella of plausible deniability. As has already been shown, the Paragon Protectors are not officially linked to Crey in any capacity, although many suspect that the two have closer ties than they’re letting on. Even within the group, it is often all but impossible for authorities or heroes to ascertain exactly which Protector is responsible for which action. The Countess even recently engineered a very public “scandal” within the Protectors, wherein a group of the anonymous heroes went rogue. This fictitious rogue element is now blamed anytime the Revenants are caught doing something illegal. While the “revelation” about the rogue element did hurt business for a while, the damage was minimal because the only client the alleged rogues were protecting was a Crey Industries subsidiary. Thus none of the real clients had their security compromised – at least as far as they know.
When the layer
Poison � Sabbath Maybe you could post these up on Google Docs in the form of a PDF downloadable file?
If you want CoH lore on Google Docs, go here:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BypR...N2M/edit?pli=1
It's not the story bible - but it's quite a few parts of it.
Some of the stuff they wrote in 2004 will blow your mind when you see how they used the idea in more recent content - check out Red Widow's inevitable return and Romans bringing Mot to Dark Astoria.
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
I love you.
Edit: holy crap, the original intended ending of the Hess TF:
o This will be a slug fest for the players who will have to wade through villains and try to
take out the boss. We will use the Arch villain escape scripting code that Mark K. has
developed for this mission scenario.
o If the players take down the Boss before he reaches the head, they win
o If the boss makes it to the hatch before the players take him down, the hatch will close
and a count down will start- the head of the robot now becomes a villain, which the
players can attack. Should they destroy the head before the timer runs out (Tunable timer,
so we can test and adjust for gameplay balance) the hatch will open and the head model
will get swapped out with a destroyed version. The Villain will come out and fight the
Heroes.
o If the players do not meet any of the above goals, and the timer runs out, the head, or
possibly the entire robot will take off through the roof and the mission will be failed.
o Players are sent to an instanced Destroyed city zone. This could be anyplace Paragon
city; the Giant Robot is marching through the ruins. This is a result of our heroes not
being able to stop the robot in time. Other Mek men are climbing through the rubble and
in the streets while pedestrians run away in terror!
o Players must fight and destroy the giant robot to complete the mission. This mission
completion will give different cool stuff from winning while on the island.
www.SaveCOH.com: Calls to Action and Events Calendar
This is what 3700 heroes in a single zone looks like.
Thanks to @EnsonsDeath for the GVE code that made me VIP again!
Is the "Mister E" mentioned in the BP story the original name for the Dream Doctor?
Quote:
They kept that bit.
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Originally Posted by Leandro
while pedestrians run away in terror!
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@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
I only have these as TXT files, so Google docs wouldn't really make a difference to here.
Devouring Earth
3.1 Overview
The Devouring Earth is a mid to high-level foe for players. It consists entirely of monsters of various sorts, all with a nature or animal origin to them. They are all bipedal, although few of them conform to traditional human bodies, often having inhuman limbs and/or heads. The group is meant primarily to be found in caves and active in ruined zones. They are particularly fond of wooded areas like parks and forests.
3.2 History
There’s a theory known as the Gaia Principle that maintains that the Earth’s worldwide ecosystem is resilient as a whole, and that as a whole it can adapt to any challenge that might come its way. While the principle might hold true when faced with threats from the natural world, humanity has proven an especially deadly foe for Gaia. In just a couple of centuries, mankind has done tremendous damage to every level of the global ecosystem; damage that might well prove irreparable. Scientists and environmentalists have cautioned about impending ecological doom for decades, but few in power have taken their warnings as seriously as they should. Faced with opposition from any number of powerful, anti-environmental interests, the environmental movement has had few victories, and many of them proved Phyrric.
When protests, lobbying, grass roots organizing, and even pro-eco terrorism all failed to seriously stem the tide of ecological disaster, one man despaired of ever saving the world through conventional means. Hamidon Pasalima was born on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi to a poor family with strong roots in the Bugis culture. The Bugis are a fierce, proud sea faring people who, like many in the third world, still live their lives very much in nature’s shadow. Young Hamidon proved quite the prodigy and was the first in his community to leave Sulawesi for a more formal college education in Jakarta. There he studied biology and ecology and went on to get a PhD from Oxford before returning to home to help protect his native ecology. Hamidon learned the same harsh lessons countless other activists had learned before him, and rather than futilely fight on, he decided to take more drastic measures.
Hamidon had worked on one of the foremost molecular biology research staffs in the world during his time at Oxford, and had developed some startling original theories of his own that he hadn’t shared with his fellow scientists. Back in Sulawesi, he was once again exposed to spiritual and magical systems that played such an important role in his family’s belief system. Rather than eschew his ancestral knowledge as most scientists would, he embraced the rituals passed down through the generations. Like many another disheartened soul, he turned to the metaphysical for comfort when the terrestrial world seemed to offer nothing but bitter disappointment. He found much more than comfort. Within the magical practices he discovered the key to unlocking the vast potential within his own scientific theories. While magic and science failed individually to protect the world’s environment, Hamidon saw how, together they could be used to teach the earth to protect itself.
As an environmentalist leader in a third world country, Hamidon faced one final hurdle before he could make his inspiration a reality. He had no money. He had no lab. He had no scientific equipment. In fact, there wasn’t anywhere in the Eastern Hemisphere that had the equipment he needed. Even with full access to his old facilities at Oxford he couldn’t have completed his task. There had been a well-equipped lab in Japan, but it was destroyed during the Rikti war, as was a comparable facility in Sydney that might have served his purposes. And so, his only option was to try and gain access to the equipment at the Paragon Technical Institute in Paragon City.
Hamidon had never been to the United States, and his Oxford academic credentials had long expired after a decade of working with the radical environmentalist fringe. He made the long journey to Paragon City and requested time in the labs anyway, revealing a part of his theories in hopes of inspiring interest amongst the Institutes research faculty. The Institute firmly but politely refused his entreaties. His past protests had landed him on more than one FBI and State Department watch lists. Ever inventive when faced with a crisis, Hamidon decided to turn his notorious past to his own advantage and used his eco-terrorist contacts to hook up with an Earth Liberation Front cell that was active in Paragon City.
The Earth Liberation Front had been sabotaging industrial facilities, freeing research animals, and destroying the storefronts of chain coffee shops for several years. In Paragon City they had a particularly effective cell that included two super powered activists with Invisibility and Telepathic powers that time and again gave the cell access to heavily guarded locations. They welcomed the famed Indonesian environmentalist into his ranks, and once he revealed his plan to them, the cell readily agreed to help him out.
Hamidon and his team broke into the Molecular Fusion Lab over Christmas break, taking advantage of the holiday to work in the lab for several days without interruption. Hamidon had done much of the groundwork in less advanced facilities, and he needed the Institute’s equipment for the final stage in his master plan. Surrounded by Earth Liberation Front activists dressed in traditional ceremonial garb, Hamidon presided over a powerful magical ritual that, combined with the lab’s equipment produced the final product of Hamidon’s dream: a living, self replicating colony of sentient bacteria with the ability to warp living material on a molecular level. He called the creation The Will of the Earth, and he was prepared to release its fury upon the city and then the entire world of man.
As it turns out, it’s hard to conduct an hours long ritual in a university laboratory without attracting some attention. Half an hour after his grand success, Hamidon and his Earth Liberation Front comrades were busy collecting themselves and their materials when campus security burst in on them. They security guards held the dozen or so conspirators at gun point while they radioed their situation to the police. Just after they finished their call the invisible Liberation Front member over powered them. Hamidon and company managed to make it out of the building and were loading their van up when a costume clad hero with flight boots landed in their midst and began swinging. The hero also wore infrared goggles that clearly revealed the invisible terrorist and thus he was the first to fall.
Hamidon saw all his dreams crumbling under the fists of this tights-wearing interloper, and so in desperation he opened the canister containing the Will of the Earth and exposed himself to it. At the same time he prayed to the great Earth spirit for the strength to protect the world and his friends from this super powered foe. The magically infused bacteria colony worked just as Hamidon had foreseen, and in moments it had transformed the rogue scientist into a colossal creature of whipping, elephantine tendrils. The monster that was Hamidon destroyed the poor hero with ease, consuming most of the environmentalists as well.
The creature that Hamidon had become still retained the original man’s intellect, but at that moment it was an intellect suffering from sever emotional shock at what had happened to him, at what he had become. When three more super powered heroes appeared, two of them with powerful ranged energy attacks, the Hamidon thing’s animal instincts took over and it fled. It’s amorphous, tentacled form moved with surprising speed and, despite its girth proved quite capable of slipping down into the city’s sewer system. The daring heroes pursued, but eventually lost Hamidon when he slipped out of the sewers and into an adjoining network of caves.
Wounded both physically and psychologically, The Hamidon thing came to rest in a dark, damp cave while it tried to wrap its mind around what had just happened. Over the hours and days that followed, it was scarcely aware of what was happening, even as its body adapted and set down roots into the surrounding Earth to draw out nutrients to keep it alive. Nor did it understand the full significance of the pools of bacterial secretions that were slowly forming around its monstrous form. Only when it heard a sickening plop and felt a piece of itself fall to the ground did it truly stir from its torpor.
Over a period of several days the mutated bacteria in The Hamidon’s system had been working its magic on the former Earth Liberation Front activists that it had devoured in its initial frenzy. The creature had thought its former friends long dead, but the Will of the Earth had other plans for its former servants. The devoured activists were remade inside the crucible that was the Hamidon. Once their transformations were complete, they emerged from their wombs fully formed, terrifying bipedal monsters with tentacles for arms and lamprey like circular jaws for teeth. The eyeless, plant like former men and women each had a limited Telepathic ability taken from the genetic material of the psionic mutant that had worked with the activist group. The Will of The Earth absorbed the telepathic talent and made it its own, allowing the devoured creatures to communicate with the Hamidon and each other, as well as giving them the ability to perceive the world around them.
The Hamidon came to think of these creatures he’d “given birth” to as The Devoured, and he understood innately that this was how his path would proceed. The more he devoured and thus exposed to the Will of the Earth, the more able the Earth would be to fight back at the pestilent humans that threatened it. And so the Devouring Earth was born, a movement of monsters bent on destroying everything that human civilization had ever created and restoring nature’s rule.
The Devoured went forth from The Hamidon’s cave, seeking new victims to force into the Earth’s growing army. These first forays were far from subtle, with the Devoured burrowing up from beneath the ground in broad daylight and snatching innocent civilians as they recreated in a city park. As such events are wont to do in Paragon City, this quickly brought the attention of several nearby heroes, who ended destroying half of the Devoured before they knew what had hit them. A deadly melee ensued in which the heroes ultimately prevailed, but not without some losses of their own. One of the heroes, an altered human with super strength and resilience, fell under the combined onslaught of three of the Devoured. Although two of these creatures died in the ensuing moments, one of them managed to escape with the fallen hero in its clutches.
Only two of the original fifteen devoured managed to make their way back to The Hamidon’s cave, but they brought the body of the fallen hero with them. The Hamidon quickly devoured the hero, and in its frenzy it caught up its other two servants as well. A few days later the monster regurgitated its meal, this time as three new Devoured, each stronger and tougher than the originals. Once again The Will of the Earth inside Hamidon had broken down the innate powers of the fallen hero’s super powers and distributed it out to his followers, much as it had with the fallen activist’s telepathy. The plan for future success became obvious. The more super powered heroes The Hamidon could devour, the more powerful its minions would become.
In the meantime, the thing had had another revelation. It did not need to devour just humans. No indeed, the Will of the Earth could work its magic upon anything that The Hamidon ingested through one of its many orifices. The scientist still lurking within its twisted psyche lighted upon a particularly ingenious use of a very common resource in its dank, dark cave: mold. The Mold came out from the transformation with limited intelligence and psychic abilities. On its own, a psychic mold still has little value, but the telekinetic abilities it developed allowed it to create a powerful body for itself out of the surrounding rock. The mold adhered to piles of rocks, forming a cement like bond that joined the stones together into humanoid forms that could move with surprising speed and power.
These Rock Troops became the base for The Hamidon’s growing army. Although not nearly as intelligent or versatile as The Devoured, they could still do tremendous damage to the world of men. The Hamidon can easily produce the intelligent mold that holds the Rock Troops together, ensuring a constant supply of devoted, if dim-witted soldiers. Their first task was to capture more raw material for their creator to devour and reconfigure. The Hamidon had learned from his previous mistake, and this time employed a little more subtlety in his attack, choosing night in a densely wooded park for his next assault.
Under the command of one of the Devoured, a group of twenty Rock Troops tunneled their way into the park and set themselves up in ambush. The Devoured acted as a decoy, attacking a group of late night joggers and attracting police and then super powered hero attention. A team of three young heroes answered the calls for help and chased the Devoured into the deep woods. They cornered him in a small clearing filled with piles of rocks. As they moved in to capture the strange creature, the rocks sprang to life, assuming their Rock Troops forms, and pounced upon the hapless heroes. An hour later they repeated the process, and by the morning the Hamidon had nearly a dozen super powered genetic codes to munch on.
Pleased with the success of his mold made Rock Troops, the scientist that still lurked deep in The Hamidon decided to look elsewhere in the natural world for more useful fodder. He turned to the bountiful vegetation throughout the city and twisted them into his devoted Devouring Creepers. Likewise, the Hamidon mutated a fungus into the hideous Mushroom Men.
Obviously these repeated Devouring Earth body-snatching missions did not go unnoticed by Paragon City’s heroes. Word soon got out about the mysterious monsters and their tactics for tricking and ambushing lesser heroes. The Dawn Patrol at first suspected it was the return of their foe from the 60’s, Major Mutator or someone following in his perverted footsteps. They made a large-scale investigation into the attacks and, to the horror discovered just how much worse the Devouring Earth is than Major Mutator ever could have been.
A team of heroes working for the Dawn Patrol set up a sting operation designed to capture the Rock Troops and Devoured in the act of snatching a hapless hero. One of their most powerful heroes, an invulnerable brawler named Gate Smasher, pretended to fall prey to the Rock Troops’ assault. His comrades then followed the Rock Troops back down into their caves, confident they could get to the bottom of the matter. They did just that, although they got much more than they bargained for. The Team managed to penetrate The Devouring Earth’s inner sanctum, where The Hamidon sat enthroned amongst his creation, just in time to see the monster devour Gate Smasher whole, the invincible warrior kicking and screaming as he went down one of the abomination’s many gullets.
Then it became obvious that The Devouring Earth had trapped the heroes, not the other way around. The walls came alive with Rock Troops, who were immediately joined in battle by hordes of other monsters. Only Kid Lightning managed to escape the slaughter and report back the horrifying results. The Dawn Patrol immediately responded with full force, converging on the cave from all over the city. Unfortunately, by the time they go there, the cave was deserted. All that was left was a 30,000 word rambling Manifesto of the Devouring Earth, written on the cave walls in the blood of the fallen heroes.
An hour later every news organization in Paragon City received a copy of a video tape showing the slaughter of the Gate Smasher’s Dawn Patrol team, along with copies of the manifesto, also written in blood, but this time on sheaves of paper made from pressed and dried moss. The author was Hamidon, but he did not identify himself, instead referring to the his group as The Devouring Earth and proclaiming his intention to wipe the polluting carcasses of man and its corrupt technology from the face of the planet. It ended with the now oft-repeated phrase “The time has come for the Earth to reclaim itself from the defilers and devour its foes.”
Since they announced their existence to the world, the Devouring Earth has widened its activities to include the whole gamut of anti-industrial terrorism. No longer do they simply raid pet shops or capture lone heroes. Now they launch full-scale assaults on those who they view as the most egregious offenders. The Dawn Patrol has taken the lead in fighting back the monster menace of the Devouring Earth, but every hero in the city runs the risk of coming to grips with these bizarre creatures.
Interestingly, the Dawn Patrol and everyone else on the surface world assumes that the Devouring Earth is actually a human group of some sort, with human leaders. Linguists have examined all of the blood written communications and determined that an educated English speaker who was well versed in the policies and polemics of the radical pro-environment fringe wrote them. As a result, the Dawn Patrol has wrongly focused its investigations on other radical environmental groups, thinking that there must be some sort of link. Ironically, this wrong headed persecution is actually driving these other groups towards the Devouring Earth’s camp, although for the moment The Hamidon seems uninterested in working with other humans of any kind.
The Hamidon currently holds total control over two areas of the city: Eden and the Hive. The Devouring Earth is partway through the process of rendering Eden back to a primeval state, while the Hive is Hamidon’s own personal paradise. He has a piece of himself operating in the Hive and producing a constant flow of troops to assault the city.
3.3 Goals
The Devouring Earth’s ultimate goal is to wipe mankind from the face of the earth entirely. They do not see any way in which humanity can ever be trusted. History has shown that 99% of the time humans choose their own needs and comfort over those of the planet and their non-human neighbors. Sure, there’s the occasional tribe or individual that lives in harmony with nature, but they are few and far between, and not worth saving.
The Hamidon is quite smart and knows full well that his goal of zero humans is, at best, a nearly impossible task. Certainly in the short run the Devouring Earth cannot hope to make any serious dent in the human population. While the Rikti war did help move the process along, that’s small consolation since the alien invaders are just as bad, if not worse than the native human defilers. So the Devouring Earth has a number of other goals that it wishes to achieve in the near future; stepping stones towards the final cleansing.
First and foremost, the Devouring Earth needs to expand its resources. While Rock Troops, Devouring Creepers and Mushroom Men are cheap and plentiful, they are of limited use. The Devouring Earth needs to swell its ranks with intelligent, capable creatures. The limiting factor here is of course The Hamidon itself, which can only produce a dozen or so creatures at any one time. As much as it galls it, The Hamidon has come to realize that it needs humanity’s scientific equipment to create more of the transforming Will of the Earth that turned Hamidon into the monstrous and powerful progenitor that he is today.
Once it can replicate itself over and over again, the Devouring Earth will be able to expand its operations tremendously. To do this, the group needs a variety of scientific and mystic resources and has thus begun raiding any facility in Paragon City that might have the parts it needs. Likewise The Hamidon has commanded its followers to find as many scientists and mystics as they can so that it can devour them and steal their knowledge.
The next most important goal for the Devouring Earth, one it’s pursuing in parallel with its “research,” is the taking of territory on the surface that it can hold for its own. The Devouring Earth is forced to spend most of its time in caves and tunnels beneath Paragon City. This fact enrages The Hamidon, since it believes that the Devouring Earth has every right to walk freely on the face of the Earth. Moreover, many of the higher order creatures that make up the Devouring Earth do not like the caves, particularly the creatures based in large parts on plants.
The current fractured state of Paragon City offers a golden opportunity for the Devouring Earth to stake out a claim. In two zones, the Devouring Earth has set up more or less permanent habits on the surface world. They have also made forays into some of the larger and more densely wooded parks within the inhabited regions of the city. Meanwhile, outside the city the Devouring Earth has set up numerous retreats and safe locations within the woods and mountains surrounding Paragon City and has plans to start expanding into the ocean as well. However, since The Hamidon still desires a constant flow of fodder, especially super powered fodder, the majority of the Devouring Earth remains within the city walls (or beneath them).
Not all of the Devouring Earth’s goals are so immediately practical and worldly. The Hamidon puts equal importance on spreading the message. While The Devouring Earth may wish to see all of humanity gone, they generally don’t make this desire common knowledge. Their message is still quite radical: humanity should submit to the will of the Earth and serve nature, not the other way around. Few people would agree with such radical beliefs, but those few can still be useful to The Devouring Earth. The Hamidon does not yet wish to cut all ties with humans, not as long as there are those who can support him in his efforts. These human allies provide valuable information about likely targets and flagrant environmental offenders; information the inhuman creatures would have a hard time getting themselves.
To this end, The Devouring Earth almost always leaves some sort of message or a piece of its manifesto behind whenever they attack a location. Often written in the blood of those that fought them, these messages lay out the many sins against the world that mankind has wrought. The messages are usually specific to the target that the Devouring Earth has attacked. For example, when they assault the offices of a multinational bank, they’ll leave scrawled on the walls a statement implicating all of the polluting factories that the bank has provided funding for. The Hamidon is very careful to make sure that there aren’t any lies or misleading facts within these horrifying screeds. He believes that the truth is bad enough to frighten anyone. While most people have trouble separating the message from the, for some the message does get through. On a couple of rare occasions, the Devouring Earth’s allegations have actually led to formal investigations by the EPA.
Still, for the most part the world’s humans have proven less than receptive to the Devouring Earth’s propaganda. This rejection comes as no real surprise to Hamidon, who is already pursuing more subtle strategies. The vast numbers of humans it has devoured has given The Hamidon an intimate knowledge of human and animal brain chemistry that is previously unparalleled in scientific history. More than any other being on the planet, it knows how the brain works. Up until recently it has used this knowledge to create the many minions that serve the Devouring Earth. Now it realizes that it can actually create specific chemicals that alter how human brains work.
These chemicals are not simple, brute force drugs like LSD or Prozac. The Hamidon can create and secrete specially designed chemicals that actually create specific thoughts and feeling within the human mind. The Devouring Earth has begun releasing such chemicals in gaseous form at the scenes of their attacks. Anyone who breathes in a sufficient dose of the chemical feels a sense of empathy for the Devouring Earth’s cause; they believe for a short while that what theses monsters are doing is actually justified. Once of The Devouring Earth’s major new initiatives is to release more and more of these chemicals into human society, possibly even contaminating the city’s water supply in an effort to really change how people think about the environment and the horrifying monsters that would save it.
3.4 Look and Feel
The Devouring Earth never uses any sort of man-made technology, with the lone exception of The Hamidon itself, which is trying to assemble is own lab so he can create more progenitors like it. First and foremost this means that none of the minions wear clothing of any kind. Every one of these things should seem a monster and have no trace of human civilization. The color schemes are also all very natural, earth tones. Browns, dark reds, and other Quake style colors predominate, except for plant-based creatures, which should be a bright, vibrant green.
3.5 Behavior Patterns
The Devouring Earth is among the most proactive of all villain groups. They have the fervor of the most zealous religious fanatics and, unlike many groups; the minions have literally been created for to serve their master’s will. As a result, the Devouring Earth’s minions do not do much lounging about waiting for something to happen. The Hamidon believes in keeping the pressure on both its followers and its enemies, so there is always some sort of Devouring Earth operation taking place somewhere in the city.
Since they live underground for the most part, the Devouring Earth does most of its traveling via tunnels, sewers, and abandoned subways. Never ones to be confined by the creations of man, the Devouring Earth likes to dig their own caves and tunnels whenever possible. The mold that makes the Rock Troops possible can quickly breakdown rock and move it out of the way. A mass of rock mold can dig tunnels as fast as a foot every couple of seconds through solid stone and much faster through soil. The Devouring Earth usually collapses these tunnels once they’ve used them so that no one else (like the Lost or the city’s heroes) can follow them back to their bases.
Devouring Earth minions patrol the tunnels, caves, and sewers beneath Paragon City within a mile of each of their “bases.” The Hamidon wants to ensure its own safety at all costs and relies on its soldiers to keep all intruders well away from the chambers where it breeds. Anyone wandering about beneath the city has a good chance of running into a creature from the Devouring Earth. Occasionally hapless spelunking heroes will even chance upon a skirmish between the Devouring Earth and The Lost.
When they do surface, the Devouring Earth’s minions have a particular fondness for parks and anywhere else there is open greenery. The Hamidon views parks as prison cells; places where humanity is holding nature hostage. Freeing such places from mankind’s tyranny is always a primary goal. The Devouring Earth does not want the people of Paragon City to feel safe in their parks. Of course this could well have a counterproductive effect, as a few neighborhoods have started paving over their parks in order to make them less appealing targets.
The Devouring Earth now plans to start trying to actively take back parts of the city and return them to a more natural state. Thus for the first time, Devouring Earth minions walk openly during the day in some parts of the city, particularly the abandoned Zones where they have a free reign to do as they please. The plant based Devouring Creepers are particularly common sights above ground, since they thrive on the sunlight and don’t fare to well beneath the ground.
3.6 Allies & Enemies
It’s fairly safe to say that the Devouring Earth does not get along with anyone, aside perhaps from a few other radical environmentalist groups. They certainly have no ties to any of the other major or minor villain groups. Indeed, some of them they view as particularly egregious examples of why humanity deserves to be wiped from the face of the earth as quickly as possible.
The Devouring Earth’s greatest rival and favorite target amongst the other villains is The Lost. Since both groups operate from the cave network beneath Paragon City, they’re constantly skirmishing over territory. More importantly, The Lost are an actively polluting force in the world. Their horrible mutations and frequent use of radiation and bio-hazardous material leaves a wake of disease and corruption in their path. Thus Devouring Earth often goes out of its way to attack concentrations of The Lost, while the Lost themselves never fail to strike down a minion of the Devouring Earth when they have the chance.
Crey Industries rivals The Lost for the top spot on the Devouring Earth’s hate list. Were it not for the constant presence of The Lost underground, Crey would probably have no rivals at all. Before Hamidon even dreamed of founding the Devouring Earth he was protesting against the many excesses and crimes that Crey Industries had inflicted on the Earth. Thus, like any other major industrial corporation in the world, the Countess’ mega corporation has become a prime target. Moreover, as one of the foremost research firms in the world, Crey offers a tempting target for The Hamidon in its quest for advanced technology to continue its experiments.
The Rikti present an interesting case. The Hamidon has had limited contact with the aliens, since they tend to teleport away whenever they run into a Devouring Earth contingent. It has only managed to devour a few of the aliens, but this has taught him much. Most importantly, he is the only non-Rikti on Earth who realizes just how close to human the Rikti are. The fact that they come from an alternate Earth offers great potential. Perhaps the Devouring Earth can find nature-loving allies on one of these other worlds. Still, although their technology doesn’t pollute as much, the Rikti and their war have done significant environmental damage and the Devouring Earth views them as a dangerous enemy of earth.
Nemesis too is largely a mystery. His technological focus makes him a natural enemy, but since he largely operates on the surface world and in great secrecy, the Devouring Earth has had little contact with him. The Fifth Column do have underground bases and are definitely technologists and so are no friends of the Devouring Earth. Thus the villain groups tend to clash whenever they run into each other. The Circle of Thorns operate out of Oranbega, a realm the Devouring Earth cannot seem to penetrate. The Hamidon is very curious about their magical abilities, since they far outstrip its own. It hopes to establish contact with magicians and possibly learn their secrets and so refrains from any kind of conflict with them. The Freakshow are scientific abominations and deserve death like any other man.
When it comes to hero organizations, the Devouring Earth often finds itself at direct odds with its old enemy the Dawn Patrol. Ever since the Gate Smasher tragedy, The Dawn Patrol has made a special point of tracking Devouring Earth activities and trying to destroy the villain group. The Hamidon has come to view its ongoing duel with the group with a bit of amusement, and enjoys doing anything it can to especially aggravate or terrorize its members.
As for origin types, the Devouring Earth always has need of new raw materials for The Hamidon. Altered Humans, Mutants, and heroes with Magical Powers make the best grist for the mill, so whenever possible the minions will do their best to defeat and capture such heroes. Of course they also hate those heroes who rely on technology, like gadgeteers and cyberware heroes. They regard the latter in particular as an egregious affront to nature.
3.7 Future Developments
The Devouring Earth has big plans for the future. As a fledgling group, it is just getting started. What happens in Paragon City will prove the model for all of the group’s future activities.
The group’s very nature means that it always makes sense to add more monsters to their ranks. All of these future creatures should involve the natural world in some way, as this is the only kind of material that The Hamidon has to work with. Non-bipedal creatures are the next logical step, particularly a series of monsters based on insects and large four legged predators. The Hamidon could also turn dead humans into zombies using the same mold used to create the Rock Troops. These would probably be walking weapons, loaded up with sacs of exploding acid or poisonous and sent into populated areas to release their deadly weapons. Granted, current real world political conditions might make such creatures inappropriate for this game.
The Hamidon will also soon learn that, despite its tremendous power, it cannot go it alone in the world. It will work harder to reestablish its ties to other, human eco-terrorist groups. The Hamidon will supply them with technology in return for their help spreading the Devouring Earth’s influence across the globe. In a similar vein, the various mind-altering chemicals that the Devouring Earth has released into the world will begin to take effect. More and more humans in Paragon City start to empathize with the Devouring Earth, against all possible reason.
The Devouring Earth will also seek safer refuges outside of Paragon City, particularly in wilderness areas and in the Hamidon’s homeland of Indonesia. Of course, right now The Hamidon has no way of moving its vast bulk across great distances and so remains stuck in Paragon City. However, it has begun to develop seeds that grow into Devouring Creepers that it can ship overseas to prepared growing locations (with the help of its forthcoming human allies). Likewise, it is very easy to ship of container of mold anywhere in the world, as long as you have a human ally to go to the post office for you. In the near future the Devouring Earth will have established footholds all over the world.
The largest area for expansion will prove underwater. While mankind has certainly done its share to hurt the oceans and waterways, they still remain largely untouched by the hand of man. The Hamidon will begin to experiment with aquatic creatures as well, creating fish and shark men, giant battle squid, ultra-fast growing coral, and other aquatic nightmares with which to ravage humanity. This underwater expansion will invariably lead them into conflict with any other civilizations dwelling beneath the waves.
The ultimate goal (in the short term) is the creation of new progenitors like the Hamidon itself. Once the Devouring Earth gains this ability, and can place the beast makers all over the world, their global reach and impact will become truly terrifying.
Poison � Sabbath
Freakshow
3.1 History
Daniel Watson’s biggest problem in life during the early 1990’s was deciding what tie to wear to work. A handsome, successful young businessman, Daniel was one of the up and coming go-getters in Crey Industries’ mergers and acquisitions department. He oversaw the forcible takeover of dozens of small research firms and independent laboratories, each time earning himself a big fat bonus check in the process. He has money, women, power, and all the legal and illegal fun he could handle. And yet, despite all of his money and influence he was never really happy. Truth be told, he hated his life.
If Daniel had been able to swallow his pride and see a therapist, he might have found out that a prescription anti-depressant would wash those hate-filled feelings away. But Daniel has never been one to swallow his pride, so instead he wallowed in his hate. He became even more cut-throat in the business world and more vicious in the backstabbing office politics of Crey Industries. But of course all this made him all the more depressed. His life had no meaning, no purpose beyond self-gratification. And yet he didn’t really care about other people all that much either. He didn’t hate them, but he felt no motivation to help them.
And so finally he snapped. Daniel had never been a violent person. He’d never been in a fight in his life. As he prowled the streets of his upper income neighborhood one sleepless night he chanced upon another young businessman very much like himself. He even vaguely recognized the man, who was drunk and returning home after a night of revelry. Daniel stopped him to ask for a light and then hit him. He kept on hitting him. Daniel pounded the poor drunken yuppie into unconsciousness. He stole the man’s wallet and watch and ran off into the night. He had never felt so alive…so happy. For the first time in his life he felt really and truly fulfilled, like he’d done something good for once.
Over the next month Daniel got into a fight almost every night. He had no formal training, just a body sculpted on exercise machines at the gym and a ferocious temper. He always fought men like him – wealthy, young, cocky, and handsome. He felt glorious. For the first time in years he slept like a baby, was pleasant to work with, and actually showed some consideration towards his co-workers. Life was finally seeming worth living. But of course this is Paragon City we’re talking about, and no crime wave goes unpunished. One night when Daniel went on the prowl for a yuppie to beat, he found a costume clad hero instead. This time it was Daniel who received the beat down, and a stern talking to as well.
This defeat at the hands of a young, inexperienced hero proved a very sobering moment for Daniel. He tried to give up his nightly brawls but found he couldn’t get any sleep. He tried amateur boxing, martial arts, and wrestling, and while the violence was there, the risks and rewards of his illegal assaults were still missing. He still couldn’t sleep. And then, one night, as he worked out at the all-night gym, he finally just snapped. He stood up on a weight bunch and let loose with an eloquent, if crazed tirade about the chains of bondage that society imprisons us all within. He declared himself a free man and called on others to join him – to experience absolute freedom to live as they pleased and take what they wanted from life. He then took a pair of 40 pound weights and started smashing the gym up. He was quickly tackled and thrown out, his membership revoked.
As Daniel sat on the sidewalk, panting and exhilarated, two men who had been inside the gym came up to him. They said they liked what he said – and what he’d done. They felt the same way. One was a heart surgeon, the other a successful lawyer. Both hated their lives as much as Daniel seemed to. Neither of them could sleep. Daniel said he had just the cure: the fancy uptown bars would be closing soon and there would be plenty of prey on the streets.
Thus was born the Freakshow – a group of stressed, whiny yuppies who couldn’t get to sleep unless they were jumping other yuppies in the streets and pounding them into the pavement. The group grew and grew, expanding out to include men and women from all walks of life. The police and heroes had a hard time tracking the gang because it had no name, never stole anything, and seemed totally random in its choice of victims. One hero had a theory though, a man calling himself The Red Raptor who had, over a year ago, stopped a single crazed businessman named Daniel Watson.
The Red Raptor tracked Daniel down and, using his ability to fly, easily followed the businessman from his offices at Crey Industries, to his apartment, and then back out into the night. The flying hero watched from above as Daniel met up with more and more of his friends. He looked on as they prowled the back alleys looking for prey and then, just as the group prepared to pound on a financial analyst out for his evening jog, The Red Raptor swooped down and engaged the enemy.
Even the lone hero was more than a match for the dozen or so men that Daniel had with him that night. None of them had any real training, while the Red Raptor had his speed, flight, and martial arts expertise. The hero finished the lot of them off in under a minute. He gave them another stern talking to and let it be known that he was watching them. With that he flew off into the night sky. Daniel felt more enraged and more impotent than he ever had in his entire life. He was apoplectic. Then he thought about his job, and a plan began to form.
In the preceding week Daniel had overseen Crey’s acquisition of a medium sized biotech firm that had developed an experimental drug designed to help fight pain. As a surprising and welcome side effect, it not only made the user immune to pain while keeping him alert and awake, it also increased strength and endurance. As part of his duties in the acquisition, Daniel still had access to the company’s labs and samples of the drug. The next morning he went and made a big show of wanting to see everything again. He managed to distract the company managers and steal several dozen doses of the drug.
That night he distributed the serum to his cohort and went into the middle of an empty lot and called the Red Raptor out. As he suspected, the flying hero had been watching him. Thinking he had another easy victory at hand, the cocksure hero landed in the middle of the group and prepared to beat them all once more. But it didn’t happen that way. Instead Daniel and company, juiced on the powerful drug, beat the Red Raptor, breaking his every bone before leaving the dead carcass draped atop a pile of garbage. The group had never felt more alive – they’d made their first kill.
Now Daniel knew that this drug, called Excelsior, was the key to unlocking all of his future dreams. He returned the next day and stole more samples, but he knew he would need a much larger supply. Indeed, he needed a way to manufacture the drug for himself. Stealing the formula was easy enough, but finding someone to synthesize it for him would prove more difficulty. In the meantime he needed a large enough supply to carry him and his friends through until they could start making their own. Once again his Crey connections came in handy. He was able to learn about a truck carrying a large supply of the drug to a local hospital for trial studies.
The next day, Daniel and his friends dressed in wild, punk rock inspired clothing, died their hair, donned masks and injected large doses of Excelsior. Then they carried out the first of what would be many daring daylight robberies. They waylaid the truck carrying the cases of Excelsior, tipping it over with their bare hands and ripping off the back door. Laughing manically they ran off with several months worth of drugs, while one of them stayed behind long enough to spray paint the words “What a Freakshow” on the truck’s roof. When Daniel asked the young accountant why he’d done that, the man said, “I dunno, seemed like it’d be fun. And it was.”
The nightly news led with the story of this bold attack by a group of clownish thugs calling themselves the Freakshow. Daniel and his buddies liked the sound of it and so the name stuck. They were now officially a gang, albeit a gang with day jobs that paid in the six-figures. This made them one of the better funded gangs out there, as each member cashed in his 401k, sold his stocks, and put everything he had into the Freakshow’s first and most important product: making their own Excelsior. All the while their membership continued to grow, with new members coming from many other parts of the city.
The Freakshow’s crimes were seldom as well planned and executed as the truck heist. Instead they would simply head out into the city and do as they pleased. Their wild hair, piercings, makeup, and clothes not only hid their identities, they also helped them let loose all of their inhibitions. They followed Daniel’s first and only precept: Take what you want, but be ready to fight for it. They stole alcohol, food, and drugs for parties. They trashed fancy restaurants and jewelry stores just because they could. They got into fights with other gangs, and with plenty of costumed heroes. Sometimes they won, sometimes they lost, but they always had fun doing it.
Fate smiled upon the group when they found a gifted young scientist who was willing to join the gang. He brought with him all the expertise needed to synthesize Excelsior. Once the Freakshow stole the equipment and raw materials, the drug factory was up and running. The gang’s membership soared, as they started selling the drug on the streets or sometimes just giving it away. People who sought direction or meaning in their otherwise hopeless lives flocked to the gang for the fun, freedom, and power it offered them. The Freakshow became a regular part of the underground party scene in Paragon City. Sometimes they would crash a party and make it even better – giving out drugs and favors and just kicking things up a few notches. Other times they would crash a party and just trash it – fighting everyone there. Sometimes they’d do both. Any way it went down, it was always exciting.
Not surprisingly, Daniel’s performance at work was beginning to suffer. He scarcely paid attention to his duties, and were it not for his innate ability to cover up mistakes and spread blame onto others, he probably would have been fired much sooner. As it was, he held his job just long enough to learn about yet another technical acquisition by Crey Industries. This time it was the Delgado-Harris Cybernetics firm. They had been developing new advances in replacement limb and organ technology with military applications. In other words, they were making cyborgs. Daniel was intrigued. Already growing greedy for strength beyond what Excelsior could give him, he saw great potential in this new technology. It also appealed to him aesthetically, since he had recently become a big proponent of tattooing and body piercing and modification.
Daniel ended up inviting Delgado-Harris’ chief engineer out to dinner and the two hit it off almost immediately. Risking everything, Daniel invited the man, Victor Bluceck, to come to a party with him. It was, of course, a Freakshow gathering. Daniel knew that if Victor didn’t join that night he’d have to kill him. Fortunately Victor took to it like a fish to water. Freakshow had found another member – and this one brought with him some very special knowledge that would change the gang forever.
With Viktor on board, Daniel needed to find a way to steal the parts and equipment necessary to build his own cybernetic enhancements. Ultimately a clever plan eluded him, so the Freakshow went with its old standby: overwhelming violence. The gang assembled, juiced up on Excelsior and one night simply stormed the Delgado-Harris labs in force. They overran the security guards and handily dealt with a trio of heroes who happened by. Using stolen trucks they carted off several tones of equipment before setting the entire building ablaze.
The group set up its first cybernetics lab in a sprawling warehouse that Daniel had purchased at bargain prices through his connections at Crey. It took a few more raids and truck heists to get everything else Viktor needed, but within a month they were ready to try out their new toys on a live subject. Ever the leader, Daniel insisted on going first. He through a huge party of course, to celebrate his rebirth. He had quit his job at Crey earlier that morning and now announced that he was taking the leap – he would live the Freakshow life for the rest of his days and give up the name his parents had cursed him with. Now he was nothing – and as nothing he was utterly free. He was Dreck. Daniel went away when Viktor removed his arm and replaced it with a clunky, deadly mechanical limb that could crush steel. Now there was only Dreck.
The crude cybernetic limb would not have worked with a normal person – which is to say, someone not already addicted to Excelsior. The crude nerve attachments and muscle implants caused intense pain. Fortunately, as long as Dreck kept taking his drug of choice, he never felt a thing. Seeing how powerful their leader had become, the other Freakshow members lined up to be next. Of course there was only so much cybernetic equipment to go around – much less than the demand. Thus a trend was set that persists within the Freakshow to this day. The cyberware went not necessarily to the first in line or the most senior members of the gang, but rather to those strong enough to fight off anyone else who tried to take it from them. And of course once they had their mechanical limbs or other implants, they were very much stronger indeed.
In this spontaneous rumble for replacement limbs, several different Freakshow members emerged as among the strongest and most ambitious in the gang. They also proved to be among the most capable of the group’s new leaders. Among them was a dominating young woman named Eve Van Dorn, who took on the new name Clamor. There was also an outspoken veteran named Ralph Francesco, who took the name Bile. Both Bile and Clamor had been active in the Freakshow for quite some time and it was no surprise that they were able to assume the mantle of leadership. The third new leader was surprising – a scrawny 17 year old boy named Ike White managed to win his way to the front of the line through sheer tenacity and willpower. He took the rather fitting name Upstart. These three became Dreck’s top lieutenants and each soon attracted a devoted following of Freaks willing to follow their every command.
Word of the gang’s new found robotic power spread quickly through the city’s underground, and new members flocked to the gang. Between the drugs, the parties, and the radical body modifications, the Freakshow appealed to the most desperate and depraved elements, as well as those looking for a total escape from their lives. Of course this flood of new members only increased the drive for more cybernetic parts and more drugs. It didn’t take long for the gang to grow into a major criminal force within the city.
It also didn’t take long for the new made leaders of the gang to start asserting themselves more strongly. For his part, Dreck had no particular ambitions for the Freakshow beyond the simple heartfelt desire to create a group where everyone fought together to live as free as they pleased. As long as the group as a whole remained committed to this ideal, he refused to give any more direction. He viewed his main job as making sure there was always plenty of Excelsior to go around and a steady supply spare parts and new technology to keep the body modifications coming. Achieving those two goals usually meant dealing with police and do-good heroes and proved more than enough of a challenge for Dreck to handle. If he started caring about anything else then he wouldn’t have time to party – and then what would the point be?
But others saw greater potential within the group. Here was a veritable army of powerful men and women with nothing to lose and a burning hatred for the establishment. Some thought it would be a shame to waste such potential. If the members wanted to destroy things so badly, why not direct their destructive impulses towards some socially responsible or politically active goals? As a result, numerous different sub-factions within the Freakshow began to emerge, each forming around the ambitions and personalities of an individual leader.
Clamor was one of the first to form a politically minded coterie. In her former life she had been an organizer for anti-globalization movements and other, more radical left wing causes. She rallied about her Freaks willing to fight the forces of globalization and one-world economies. Her troop continues to thrive to this day, attacking, pranking, and otherwise disturbing the various multinational corporations and government offices that maintain offices in Paragon City.
Bile took a more philosophical approach to his group. He preached a doctrine of self-empowerment and freedom from the “toxic memes” of modern day life. Bile’s group targets media outlets, schools, and other institutions that try to influence the way people learn and think. Bile’s group believes empowerment must come through absolute freedom of information. They’ve been known to use the Internet to spread any secrets they find themselves in possession of – no matter who gets hurt as a result. Because of this use of the ‘Net, Bile is often referred to as “Bile the Technophile.” They also support various guerilla theater and free speech movements. On a slightly tangential note they’re also promoters for radical local bands and proponents of music trading and copyright busting/piracy.
Upstart has perhaps the most radical agenda of all. He is a through and through anarchist and his followers are devoted to smashing all forms of authority in the world. Upstart established one of the larger sub-groups very quickly, primarily because his philosophy is quite simple to execute: attack and destroy anything that represents “the Man,” which turns out to be almost anything at all.
As these three and other leaders emerged within the Freakshow, the group as a whole became much more active in the city. Where once they were a dangerous gang of thieves, now they became a coalition of dangerous and disruptive social disruptors. As a result, they suddenly received much more attention from both local law enforcement and the city’s heroes. With so many of the Freakshow’s new targets highly placed and wealthy corporations, there was tremendous political pressure to deal with the group as quickly as possible.
In the first of what was meant to be a series of crackdowns, a team of experienced heroes led by a hero calling himself Max Justice ran a year long campaign to round up the sub-group they found most dangerous: Upstart’s anarchists. In the end they were successful, or so they thought. They captured Upstart and brought him to trial, along with hundreds of his followers. Sentenced to life in prison, Upstart’s movement seemed sure to die off. But others picked up where he had left off, and the anarchist corps within the Freakshow continues to operate today, only they have numerous different leaders instead of just one.
Max Justice and his crew might well have continued rounding up different parts of the Freakshow one by one, but the Rikti invasion suddenly interrupted their plans. During the war even the Freakshow members banded together with the city’s heroes to fight the alien menace. Certainly the Rikti seemed willing to attack the cybernetic gangsters as they were the army and heroes. After the war, with the city and world still in chaos, the Freakshow pretty much took up where it had left off. Max Justice was crippled during the war and most of his crew killed or driven into retirement. Ever since the Freakshow has continued to grow, with more and more people asking themselves why they have to live in a society with walls, gates, and rampant corporate greed. Feeling powerless and hopeless they turn to the Freakshow for an escape from it all. And if your idea of escape is body alteration, drugs, crime, violence, and self-mutilation, then the Freakshow is the place for you.
3.2 Beliefs and Goals
The Freakshow does not have any one, overarching goal. Indeed, to have such a single minded purpose would belie the gang’s very existence. They exist to enjoy a kind of freedom and even hedonism that simply do not exist in civilized society. For many it seems that the Freakshow want to overthrow society and bring about a state of global anarchy. Indeed, for some of the members this is no doubt true. There is no prescribed doctrine and so each member is free to think and feel as they please. If there is one rule in the Freakshow, it is “Take what you want, but be prepared to fight for it.”
Although founded on the idea of freedom of thought and self-gratification, it turns out that most people aren’t that comfortable making ideological decisions for themselves. Those who join the Freakshow seek guidance and direction as much as anyone else. They’ve made the big decision for themselves: they’ve dropped out of society and become rebels. Now they need to how to be a rebel. As head honcho and spiritual guru to the Freakshow, Dreck stays above such issues. He guides the group from above and makes sure it adheres to the core principal of freedom from any constraint. He is the sole person who can get the entire Freakshow rallied around any specific goal. This seldom happens though, unless the Freakshow’s very existence is somehow threatened.
The one rule that Dreck and his Enforcers insist upon being honored is absolute freedom within the group. No one is forced to join, anyone can leave whenever they want. No one has to do anything they don’t want to do and there are no obligations to anyone except yourself. This presents some problems from time to time, but not as much as you might think. Certainly there is theft and infighting within the group, but it is relatively rare. Moreover, the Freakshow members are pretty good at policing themselves. Someone deemed harmful to the group as a whole it liable to end up dead or beaten until he learns his lesson. Dreck is fine with this kind of justice. After all, everyone should face the consequences for their actions.
Below Dreck are the other gang leaders within the Freakshow. Each has its own philosophy that compliments the group’s core beliefs and applies them to the world at large. Clamor and her cohorts take much of their ideology from the anti-globalization movement, particularly focusing on the malfeasance of big companies. Bile focuses on freedom of information and expression and promotes a certain kind of independent artistic spirit while lashing out at anything else. Upstart’s followers continue to honor his pursuit of total anarchy in America. There are of course dozens of other groups within the Freakshow, some consisting of only a handful of members, others comprising hundreds. It is also perfectly feasible for a single Freak to belong to several different sub-groups. Indeed, they often cooperate with one another and swap members back and forth. They rarely compete directly with one another, although spirited contests do take place fairly often (such as which group can blow up the most chain coffee shops in a single day).
One factor that all of these sub-groups have in common with each other is that they all feel that violence is indeed the answer. Unlike the many protest groups and political movements they take their cues from, the Freakshow have no use for protest, peaceful marching, and non-violent demonstrations. For the Freakshow the answer is always violent, direct action.
3.3 Technology
The Freakshow doesn’t develop any special technology of their own. They simply use things created by others. They’ll occasionally tinker with them or even heavily modify them (in the case of the cyberware arms) but they invent next to nothing on their own. When it comes to weaponry, they only use what they can beg, borrow, or steal. They have very limited access to high tech weaponry such as laser weapons, although a few such devices do fall into their hands from time to time.
The only real technology they can claim as their own is the drug Excelsior, which the original maker long ago abandoned as too dangerous and addictive. The effects of Excelsior are almost immediate, giving the user a boost in all physical attributes and a temporary boost to hit points.
3.4 Behavior Patterns
The Freakshow’s decentralized organization means that some part of the group is always active somewhere in the city, and like a hydra, if you cut off one head, two more will seemingly grow to replace it. The group’s behavior patterns fall into two distinct categories: activities that support the gang as a whole, and activities that support a particular ideological constituency within the group.
When it comes to the larger group behavior, robbery tops the list. The Freakshow members have no jobs and produce no products besides the drugs they use to keep themselves from collapsing in pain from their implants. As a result, they must steal everything they use, from party supplies to electrical generators and weaponry. Roving gangs of Freakshow members constantly rob citizens, shops, offices, labs, and anything else they can get their hands on. They tend to prefer to steal from the upper classes rather than the lower, though if they grow desperate or bored, they become less discriminating.
Of course the commodity most in demand is cybernetics. The Freakshow has no capacity to produce its own cybernetics. The group’s chop shops are all temporary structures where back-alley surgeons can implant and tinker with the existing electronics, but there’s no way they could manufacture computer chips, precisely machined parts, and other materials necessary even for the crude contraptions they use. Much of Dreck’s time is spent organizing or just encouraging raids on laboratories, factories, warehouses, and arsenals to get the parts the group needs. In Paragon City the theft of these kinds of parts is so rampant that, even with increased security, anyone who deals in them expects to lose 10-20% of their stock to theft.
Since the war there has been an even tighter clamp down on such high-tech parts and security has gotten even tighter. As a result Dreck has had to start making other arrangements to meet the demand. He now has some more traditional business deals with several manufacturers, including a number of subsidiaries of Crey Industries. Some of the smaller companies he simply blackmails, threatening an all out attack by the Freakshow if they don’t pay a weekly tithe of parts. Others, like Crey, he offers to do favors for – attack competitors, take out meddlesome heroes, and so on. Dreck keeps these arrangements a secret from most of the rest of the group, especially his more ideologically fervent followers like Bile and Clamor. Out of respect they don’t ask too many questions. As long as the parts keep coming, they’re happy.
The other key ingredient for Freakshow happiness is Excelsior. Although they long ago gathered the knowledge and equipment necessary to make the drug, they still need the raw materials, some of which are quite rare. Keeping a steady supply of the drug is absolutely vital for the group’s continued existence. Without it those with cyberware enhancements would soon become crippled with pain and their bodies would begin to reject the implants. The results would be catastrophic. One of the most organized and forward thinking things Dreck has done is to secret large emergency stashes of the drug all over the city – a kind of strategic drug reserve in case the flow of raw materials ever gets cut off. Meanwhile, the chemicals for the drug keep flowing in much the same way as the cybernetic parts do. The Freakshow steals most of them and Dreck secretly trades for some, especially the rarer and more expensive ingredients.
The final key ingredient in making the Freakshow a success is the parties. The whole point of joining the Freakshow is to free oneself from the constraints of society and live a happy, joyful life. How can you do that without frequent parties? Well, according to the Freakshow, you can’t. As a result, a sizable portion of the group’s energies goes into preparing for and holding massive, drunken celebrations. Of course all the food, beverages, and even the locations have to be stolen first, and entertainment secured. The gang contains a number of talented DJ’s and musicians and the parties themselves often attract talent from outside the Freakshow. Within a certain segment of the city’s population, it has become all the rage to attend Freakshow parties whenever possible. While deadly brawls and random violence are de rigueur at such events, the added danger only heightens the enjoyment for these thrill seekers. And, inevitably, a few of them never leave, choosing to join the gang and make it a lifetime commitment.
The various sub-groups provide the driving force behind most of the Freakshow’s many other activities. Each has its own list of targets it likes to concentrate on. Clamor and company go after big business. Bile attacks media outlets and stages his own thought provoking events. The Upstarts smash government property whenever and wherever they can. All of the groups are particularly fond of various kinds of pranks, some of them quite dangerous. Computer hacking, identity theft, forgery and vandalism are all integral elements for every group.
Another politically active sub-group has recently sprouted up, although this one doesn’t have any particular leader as a driving force. Calling themselves the HypoCritix, they are a band of vicious pranksters who take great pleasure at revealing hypocrisies within the modern world. They watch the activities of politicians, government officials, corporate executives, and leading members of society for any sign of misbehavior. Naturally they seldom have to wait long. Once they see something that strikes them as particularly outrageous, they strike. They usually try to invoke some kind of poetic justice. For example, a moralizing politician found cheating on his wife would end up kidnapped, drugged, and photographed with a bevy of brothel workers. They are seldom subtle in their techniques, and someone almost always gets hurt in the process. They can also be quite enterprising when it comes to investigating potential targets. On more than one occasion they have found evidence the police would have missed, although its admissibility in court is usually in doubt.
There are also sub-group’s that don’t have any particular political aspirations, but are rather bound by some common interests. One of the more important groups is the Wrenches, the tech-heads who take it upon themselves to help the rest of the gang maintain their cyberware and install new upgrades onto their comrades. Each member is responsible for providing their own parts and equipment, but most people end up trading with others for what they need. The Wrenches’ skills are in such high demand that they never have to find anything for themselves or go out and fight. They get all the parts, drugs, drinks, food, and fun they can handle, as long as they keep their friends in working order.
One of the more interesting sub-groups is the Terminal Ward, made up exclusively of members with serious health problems for which there are no cures. Obviously this is a relatively small group with a very high rate of turnover. The Terminals jack themselves up with cyberware and fill their systems with Excelsior just to keep moving and active. With nothing left to lose, they’ve decided to throw themselves into the world of the Freakshow and do whatever they can to fully live out their last days on earth. This desperation makes them extremely dangerous and deadly – two qualities the other Freakshow members find very admirable and useful.
Another sub-group within the Freakshow calls itself IDX. They specialize in information and identity crimes, and their most important function is erasing any computer or paper trail a Freakshow member might have left in the “real world.” IDX not only hacks computer networks, it also blows up records halls, destroys family homes, and does anything else necessary to remove every trace that a Freak ever existed. They’re also quite adept at creating new ID’s when needed, although it’s usually impossible to disguise a person with a mechanical arm’s true nature.
3.5 Enemies and Allies
The Freakshow have very few permanent friends or sworn enemies. As with so many other aspects of their unruly lives, there’s little predictability and even agreement upon how to feel about the other groups operating in Paragon City. Of course everyone agrees that the heroes are the enemy, but beyond that, different factions will inevitably work with any other villain group when the mood strikes them. Some bonds are stronger than others however.
There is for example a contingent within the Freakshow that very much supports and admire the 5th Column. While their fascist ideology repels some, others admire their relentless crusade to tear society down to the ground. While the Freakshow might not like the new society that the 5th Column wants to build, that’s a battle for another day. For now it’s fun to help the funny men in their uniforms smash things up, especially when the pay is good.
On the issue of pay, no one can compete with Crey Industries. No one in the Freakshow knows for sure how much the Countess Crey knows about the ties between Dreck and Crey Industries, but it’s safe to assume that she has some idea. If so, she doesn’t seem too worried or angry about it. While some Freakshow crews do attack Crey targets from time to time, it is more common to see Crey paying Freakshow to perform some unsavory task, such as burning down a rival company’s corporate headquarters or stealing some prototype invention. The relationship with Crey is especially important since the company continues to be a major source for spare parts and new cybernetic enhancements.
At the other end of the spectrum are the Rikti, with whom the Freakshow has no real dealings – or so they think. Even the drug addled mind of a Freakshow thug has some residual feelings of devotion to the Earth as a whole, and few of them want to see their planet ruled by aliens. However, the Freakshow has worked with the Lost on numerous occasions, not realizing that the group is in fact a human wing of the Rikti invasion plan. The Freakshow have a definite affinity for the homeless savagery of the Lost and it’s not uncommon to see the two groups working towards a common goal.
As for the more mystically oriented groups, well, few members of the Freakshow have much faith or interest in such matters. The Circle of Thorns even scares the group to a certain extent, given how incredibly powerful and mysterious they are. The one exception is the Banished Pantheon, which seems to have just the right kind of nihilistic attitude for many Freakshow crews. Thus, while not common, it occasionally happens that the two groups will work together.
3.6 The Future
In the coming months and years, the Freakshow’s fragile coalition of different sub-groups will begin to fracture apart. Dreck holds the group together through his personality and his continuing ability to provide the cyberware and drugs that are so important to the group’s continued survival. Once the more politically active sub-groups find out the kind of deals Dreck’s been cutting with groups like Crey, fractures will begin to develop. The group will splinter into several different distinct criminal organizations, each of which will quickly evolve along its own line.
Clamor takes her group of anti-corporate activists and is the first to break away. They form their own group of hard-core radicals who eschew the pleasure seeking attitudes of the Freakshow for a much more militant activism. The group becomes almost paramilitary in nature, carrying out a highly organized campaign of guerilla warfare against corrupt corporate interests.
Bile’s group of free idea loving individualists get swept up in a kind of technology collective, supporting the free software and music movements and the creation of a kind of computerized hive mind. They drift away from the main Freakshow not out of malice, but because it is no longer possible for the rest of the gang to communicate with them, or even understand what they’re talking about. Their technophile, hive mind discourse alienates anyone outside their group.
Upstart’s followers also grow disgusted with Dreck’s pandering to “the man” and so they also break away, letting loose a self destructive, anarchic wave of violence and terror on the city. While destined to burn out, the question remains: how much damage can they do before they die?
Finally a new sub-group will emerge, only to be quickly ousted from the main gang. A group of young Freaks begin experimenting with a new kind of body-modification, one based on stolen Rikti technology. The Rikti have been using this technology to transform the Lost. Now Freakshow members begin using it to transform themselves. The use of alien technology gets them booted from the Freakshow and they start their own gang of body morphing hooligans.
3.7 Villains
The Freakshow’s minions are primarily differentiated by two factors: the amount of cybernetic enhancements they possess and the amount of Excelsior that has built up in their systems. The stronger, tougher, and more charismatic a person is, the more cyberware they’ll manage to get their hands on. Indeed, there are members who have been in the gang for years and still have no cyberware simply because they lack the strength of will to fight others for it. As for the Excelsior, the gang makes as much as its members want, so for the most part anyone who wants it has access to a normal daily dose. Over time, the drug builds up in the system, permanently changing the nerve and muscle structures and eventually producing more profound mutations and distortions in the body. As a result, unlike some drugs that lose their efficacy over time, Excelsior becomes more and more effective as the months and years of continued use pass by.
There is no formal hierarchy of any sort within the Freakshow. Dreck alone has some sort of invested authority because he founded the group and many see him as a kind of spiritual guru. Other leaders, like Clamor and Bile, only “lead” because people like what they have to say and agree with their various schemes. Anyone can have such a scheme and exert such influence. It’s not at all uncommon for a member who’s been in the gang less than a month to sway a clutch of much more experienced and powerful members to his cause and end up leading them into battle. Of course, they’ll give up on him as soon as they find something more interesting to do or lose faith in him, but never let it be said that the opportunity wasn’t there.
3.7.1 Freaks
The Freaks make up the vast majority of the Freakshow membership. They are generally members who have been with the group for only a few weeks or months. As with any gang, there is a high level of turn over amongst these low level troops. They’re the most likely to get caught be heroes or police, the most likely to die in action, and the most likely to quit once they realize what they’ve gotten themselves into. Unlike many other criminal organizations, the Freakshow does not care if people leave the gang after deciding they don’t like it. After all, freedom is the group’s byword, and it’s something they truly believe in. Thus across the city one can find hundreds of former members, many of whom look back on their time in the gang as a period of youthful indiscretion. More than a few still maintain loose ties with the group and continue to support its basic beliefs.
Since Freaks have not yet had any cybernetic implants, many of them still live double lives. They work by day and party, rob, and fight by night. More importantly, many of them hold decent, sometimes even high paying jobs. The group still appeals to the nihilistic drives lurking deep within the city’s professional class. Thus the Freaks are continually valuable resource for the Freakshow. Eager to please and be a part of the gang, they often steal valuable technology and information from their day jobs and pass it on to the gang.
Freaks arm themselves with whatever weapons they can lay their hands on. Without any cybernetic enhancements, they rely solely on the drug Excelsior to give them an edge in combat. Fortunately, it’s quite an edge, putting even the newest Freak head and shoulders above your average thug when it comes to strength, toughness, and accuracy with a weapon.
Poison � Sabbath
The Malta Group
3.1 History
The 1960’s were a turning point for the twentieth century in ways that historians today are only beginning to understand. Of course there were the well-known advances in liberalism, civil rights, and political awareness, but it was also the decade that saw the birth of the modern super powered hero. The gaudy costumes, devil-may-care attitudes, and wildly powerful heroes of the 1960’s reinvented how the modern world thought about its heroes. No longer did they work in the shadows, secretly fighting crime. Nor were they necessarily soldiers fighting for the military. They were each individual personalities, with their own foibles, desires, agendas, and powers, and a lot of them could level whole city blocks with their powers. It was the 1960’s that cemented this concept of the hero as Other. They lived amazing lives and fought bizarre enemies that the rest of us could only cower in fear before. The public at large looked up to the heroes – but more as rock stars and pop culture icons than true heroes – chiefly because their battles seemed so far removed from the common experience. It was almost as if they weren’t part of the “real” world.
This public perception of heroes was, in truth, the outgrowth of another revolutionary change that came into its own during the 1960’s – a secretive shadow government that operated entirely outside the public eye. While the Cold War became hot in places like Korea and Vietnam, most of it was still being fought behind closed doors and in dark allies. The NATO and Warsaw Pact had a very uneasy public detente, but in secret they were tearing at each other’s throats through espionage and covert operations. So the government let the people have their flashy, costume clad, pop heroes, while they secretly used super powered individuals of their own to fight their shadow war with the enemy.
In 1956, the United States had passed an abusive law known as the Might for Right Act. It allowed the government to secretly draft anyone possessing super powers into military service, which included working for the CIA and FBI. Other NATO countries followed suit, particularly Great Britain, which had had an equally invasive law on the books since World War II. These draftees didn’t receive fancy costumes or inspiring code names. They were anonymous soldiers sacrificed as pawns in the great chess game of the cold war. They served as spies, assassins, and even rabble rousers, using their powers according to instructions from their handlers. Those who refused to cooperate were subjected to torture, hypnosis, and mother mind control techniques to ensure their loyalty. Minorities were particularly hard hit by the Might for Right Act, with hundreds of black heroes being pulled from their homes and forced to serve at the CIA’s behest.
Most of these draftees worked under the aegis of the Titan Project, CIA’s code name for its division of para-human operatives. The Titan Project’s director and creator, Roger Vrabel, was an old-school intelligence community mandarin who had been around since World War II. He was one of the main architects of the Might for Right Act, although no one but a few key senators he had in his pocket new this to be the case. During the War he had worked closely with a number of super powered soldiers, and he saw immediately how useful they could be if they had proper direction and control. He also saw that World War II was only the beginning, and felt that the Soviet threat loomed as large as Hitler ever had. Vrabel was thus horrified when, after the war, all of the heroes were released from military service and sent home to lead their own lives. What a terrible waste of trained operatives!
Vrabel spent the next decade trying his best to recruit super powered individuals into the intelligence community, but he had very little luck. Being a hero meant public adoration and fighting crime on your own terms. Few people wanted to act out of the spotlight, and those that did weren’t very interested in taking orders from the CIA or Army Intelligence. It was only through sheer force of personality and the efforts of a few dedicates super spies that Vrabel managed to maintain a respectable level of super powered intelligence assets. But with each passing year, recruiting became more and more difficult, and Vrabel grew more and more frustrated. Finally, he resolved that more drastic measures were needed. Thus, he used his influence (and the powers of some of his psychic agents) to ensure the passage of the Might for Right Act.
The next decade, from 1956 to 1967, was a golden time for Vrabel. He founded the Titan Project as an umbrella organization for drafting, training, and using super powered assets. The Project had jurisdiction over all super powered assets in the United States government, including those in the Justice Department, the Secret Service, and even the military. Any agency or branch of the military that wanted to use a super powered individual in its operations had to go through the Titan Project and, ultimately, Vrabel. The Project’s scouts combed the country looking for possible draftees. They avoided high profile heroes, instead choosing to find subjects before they’d had a chance to make a name for themselves. Vrabel had several psychics on staff who could detect dormant super powers as well as a trained sorcerer who was terrific at sniffing out magical potential.
Likewise, the scouts tended to avoid anyone from middle-class or upper-class families – basically anyone who could afford to hire a lawyer. The Might for Right Act did have provisions for avoiding the draft, and any decent attorney could navigate said provisions to find an out for his or her client. Vrabel wanted to avoid anything resembling a public fight in the courts over his supers draft, so his scouts steered clear of troublesome targets. As a result, most of those recruited in the Titan Project were poor minorities who had no way of standing up to the process. The nation never new about or missed most of the “heroes” that ended up getting drafted into service and Vrabel got his own private army.
The Titan Project’s activities and operations focused almost entirely upon combating the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, along with, to a lesser degree, China. Like most cold warriors, Vrabel was obsessed with defeating the Soviet Union (not without cause). He used his super spies with care and finesse, because even with the Might for Right act’s powers, the Communists still had more super powered resources to put into the field (since there were no private super powered heroes behind the iron curtain). Inevitably, the casualties were high, but so was Vrabel’s success rate vs. the KGB. At the time, the CIA and the Titan Project only had a passing interest in domestic villains and out of control heroes. They pretty much left those kinds of problems to the “private sector” heroes as Vrabel called them.
That changed in 1966, just as Vrabel was increasing the size and scope of the draft to include even more heroes for the war in Vietnam. Among those drafted were three black heroes who had been operating in Paragon City as a team for over a year. Vrabel’s scouts mistakenly assumed that no one would miss these three enough to put up a fuss if they were drafted. What they didn’t count on was that the three would put up quite a fuss themselves. Already, elements in society were beginning to turn against the war and the impending draft. The mood of the nation was changing and black empowerment was on the rise. And so it was a tremendous surprise to Vrabel when Roger Washington, Georgia Reynolds, and Hakeem Muhammad not only refused to report as required under the Might for Right Act, but actually brought suit against the CIA.
The three heroes immediately jumped into the forefront of national media attention. They claimed, with some justification that the CIA was targeting blacks and minority heroes for recruitment. They challenged the legality of the Might for Right Act and began to publicly draw attention to some of the abuses Project Titan had been perpetrating in the last decade. Vrabel made the mistake of trying to strong-arm the three heroes by sending a team of his operatives to seize them and bring them into custody. The retrieval team found itself facing not only the three super powered heroes, but several dozen sympathetic heroes and a whole army of reporters. Luminaries from the Statesman to Martin Luther King spoke out on their behalf and brought pressure to bear on President Johnson. The case ended up being fast tracked through the courts and, in 1967, the Supreme Court declared the Might for Right act unconstitutional and ordered all those drafted under its auspices freed from service.
With that wave of the judicial wand, Vrabel’s whole organization came crashing down around him. Within a few months he was down to one fifth the manpower he had possessed in 1966, even as the war in Vietnam escalated. Seeing their enemy weakened and vulnerable, the KGB took this moment to launch its own massive espionage offensive, rolling up CIA spy rings throughout Western Europe and assassinating hundreds of agency intelligence assets. Three “friendly” dictatorships in Africa went over to the Soviets and the CIA lost ground in two dozen other countries. Their West Berlin station house was literally gutted, with no survivors.
Meeting in Malta
Retreating on every front, Vrabel was not alone in his anger at what had happened. His counterpart in England at MI6 was also suffering similar setbacks and, without American support, was losing agents and operatives almost as quickly as the CIA was. The same was true for West German Intelligence and the Israeli Mossad. Vrabel called for an emergency meeting of the most influential and experienced men in the Western Intelligence agencies. This was not to be a meeting of the agency heads – appointed politicians who would come and go. No, this was a secret, off the books meeting amongst the career intelligence officers who had real expertise and real knowledge. They were all men like Vrabel, people who put the mission and the good of the service before all else.
Under the auspices of Vrabel’s counterpart at MI6, Neal Macintosh, the meeting was held at a secret location in Malta. Each of the seventeen men who attended arrived in total secret and there were no records kept or recording made. Outside of those seventeen original Malta Group members, no one can say for sure what was discussed or, for that matter, who exactly was there. The men debated, plotted, and planned for 53 straight hours, during which time they managed to change the face of covert operations forever and launch a criminal conspiracy that still endures today, perhaps stronger than ever.
The Malta Group all agreed that super powered beings presented an enormous challenge to not only the intelligence community, but to the entire world. With the Warsaw Pact and China “nationalizing” their super powered assets in the most repressive way possible, the West had to come up with a solution to the so-called “hero-gap” problem. But the trend for hero involvement in government activities was moving the wrong way. Super powered beings wanted to be independent, to do their won thing and fight crime in their own way. Or, just as likely, they simply wanted to be criminals themselves. Either way, they weren’t lining up to join the ranks of MI6 or the CIA.
The Group realized that they needed to find a way, no matter what the cost, to ensure a steady supply of super powered operatives if they wanted to have any hope of turning back the Communist menace. They also realized that, in the West, publicly employing heroes, even under the auspices of a top-secret government organization, was no longer feasible. The events of 1967 had shown that the courts would side with individual liberties and civil rights over security needs and the war on Communism. The Malta Group needed super powered assets that could not possibly go crying to the Supreme Court when they stubbed their toes. They needed assets like the Soviets had – totally under their own control.
The only way for the Group to get what it wanted was to step beyond the laws that governed their respective lands. None of the seventeen men had any super powers of their own, but they were all extremely good at what they did. They knew that their best asset was their ability to out think and out spy anyone else in the world, at least when it came to espionage. Certainly they could out think and manipulate a bunch of tight-wearing, overconfident super beings. While famous for many different things, few heroes were known for their incredible intelligence. It was just a matter of applying the right levers at the appropriate times.
The Group thus decided on a complex course of manipulation, blackmail, fraud, intimidation, and mind-control. They would use every tool in the spy’s toolbox, and they would do so without any moral compunction. In their fear and frenzy over losing their most powerful assets, the Group members had managed to convince themselves that the super beings weren’t really people. They were assets. Their powers were, by all rights, the property of their respective governments. Anyone who refused to help was unpatriotic and, at heart, a communist. And since any good patriot would agree to help if asked, there was no reason to ask for volunteers anymore. The “bad” heroes would be forced to comply in any event and telling the “good” heroes about the Group’s existence would needlessly compromise security. Thus everyone would receive the same treatment, and everyone would play along or face the consequences.
But first things first. Being experts in the field, the Group knew that the first thing they had to do was set up a whole new network of agents to carry out their plan. The genius of their scheme was that it put reliable, normal humans at the heart of its operation. The Group members knew how to recruit and retain normal agents, and by making them the fulcrums of power, they could ensure stability and reliability. No longer would the Group’s members have to rely on mercurial and egotistical super beings to behave like professional spies. The Group now just assumed that the super powered assets would be as uncooperative as possible but, thanks to the field operatives’ expertise, they would have no choice but to do as they were told. Thus, upon leaving Malta, the Group’s various members set about funding and creating its new network of spies.
Funding the Malta Group was the easy part. Each of the members had access to secret bank accounts, covert ops budgets, and a host of other secret money sources. The Group stretched its fundraising abilities to the limits and raked in millions of dollars within just a few months – more than enough money in 1968 for what they had planned. Recruiting reliable agents was more problematic, but nothing the Group’s founders couldn’t handle. For his part, Vrabel cherry picked his most trusted operatives in the CIA, detaching them from their current duties and encouraging each of them to “retire” from official government work. He then transferred them to “secret source” status, which allowed him to pay them out of the CIA’s budget without anyone asking for detailed information on who they actually were. They were in turn told that they had become black ops contract workers tasked with finding disloyal and criminal super powered beings within the United States and the rest of the world.
Only a few hundred agents actually made it into the “inner circle” of the Malta Group. That is to say, only these most trusted operatives realized they were working for a new covert agency that was operating outside the boundaries of any specific government agency or, for that matter, any specific government. These were the analysts, operations planners, and other upper level personnel who helped manage the daily flow of information and who carried out the more delicate operations. Most of the day to day work was to be done in piecemeal by contract agents and operatives still working for the various intelligence agencies. Since all 17 Malta founders still held positions of power within their respective agencies, it was relatively simple for them to occasionally divert operations and resources in a manner beneficial to the Group’s various schemes.
Modus Operandi
The basic strategy for the Malta Group was – and is – very simple. They use their tremendously effective ability to gather information on anyone, anywhere to gather intelligence on various super powered beings, whether they be “heroes” or “villains.” They then comb through that data looking for any way they can leverage that hero into doing their bidding. For some beings, it’s as simple as finding their price and then offering to pay it for them. Others will work in exchange for information or expertise that the Group can give them. But there are also plenty who won’t do the work unless they’re threatened in some way. The Group has no compunctions at all about making threats. By far the most common threat was revealing a hero’s secret identity. Very few beings wanted to live life in the public eye 24/7. Public disclosure meant the hero’s enemies and fans would not only know where he or she lived, but where their families and loved ones could be found as well. Few heroes were willing to take the risk, especially if what they were beings asked by the Group didn’t seem too egregious or wrong. Those he needed more convincing fell prey to more serious forms of blackmail and extortion, including false legal charges, physical threats against loved ones, and worse.
The Group’s first targets were those super powered beings they knew the most about – the former members of the Titan Project and other veterans of the cold war super spy game. Vrabel and the other members had no problem getting copies of their already extensive files on these subjects. Once their field agents were in place, providing more up to date data, it was a simple matter to apply the screws and get these former soldiers back on the “team” again. By late 1969, The Malta Group was up and running with a whole new cadre of effective – if unwilling – super powered assets.
Winning the Cold War
The next twenty years saw the Malta Group leading the charge against communism around the world, although very few people knew it at the time. The CIA and MI6 continued to use their own agents and handful of super powered assets, but they had very limited success compared to the Malta Group – largely because the Group was busy stealing away their best agents, their resources, and their opportunities. With all forms of restrictive oversight and bureaucracy removed from the covert operations process, the Malta Group could move fast and strike hard. They showed no compunction about killing their enemies, including people they thought just might be their enemies.
The new Malta offensive took the KGB by complete surprise. They had no idea where these new operatives were coming from or even what their goal was (aside from killing off their own agents). The Kremlin’s super spies had thoroughly penetrated the established Western Intelligence services, and even their moles within the CIA and MI6 had no idea that the Malta Group even existed. Thus, it was almost impossible for the KGB to strike back. Moreover, this mysterious new enemy’s tactics were far different from those formerly employed by Western intelligence. They seemed much more interested in killing off communists than in gathering intelligence.
Indeed, this was exactly the Malta Group’s new strategy. They no longer worked for any particular government and so were no longer particularly interested in gathering traditional intelligence about things like troop movements, nuclear secrets, and political maneuverings. The Malta Group had become entirely absorbed in the goal of winning the super powered spy game. Nothing else mattered to them, and since they had no other concerns, they became extremely good at.
Group controlled assassins picked off anyone and everyone they could find in the Warsaw Pact that possessed super powers. They were largely unable to directly attack established powerhouse groups like the Defenders of the Motherland, but they cut great swathes of death through the lesser heroes – particularly those involved in espionage. The Group employed many of the same techniques they used at home to “recruit” super powered agents. They used their spies on the ground to identify super beings and their weaknesses. Then, they would either use that information to force the subject to help them or, if the subject wasn’t useful or couldn’t be turned, they would kill him.
In several cases the Malta Group was able to wrap up entire networks and even military units comprised of super powered assets. Once the Group got its fingers into one individual, they could torture/blackmail/manipulate him or her into revealing information about every other super powered being they knew. Even in the closed society of the Soviet Union, super powered beings tended to congregate or at least keep tabs on each other. They then shared this information with the Group’s agents – a fate much preferable to the other option. Usually, all the Group had to do was threaten to leak a false lead to the KGB claiming the person was a spy for the west in order to ensure cooperation.
The 1970’s were a decade of tremendous success for the Malta Group. They rolled back Soviet bloc advances and liquidated or turned hundred of super powered beings. As a result, the Soviet Union’s super powered arsenal was all but crippled, with the exception of a few high profile teams. Of course, the Malta Group’s losses were also quite high. Few of their coerced operatives survived more than three missions, but such high casualty rates had always been part of the Group’s plan. The important thing was that their intelligence gathering network remained largely unscathed, and so they were able to continuously replace lost assets through their strong-arm techniques. By the end of the decade, the super spy war had been all but won.
The 1980’s began with the Cold War still a firm fixture in the world political scene, but for the Malta Group it was the beginning of some significant changes. Most significant of all was the death of Roger Vrabel in 1982, followed less than six months later by the passing of his counterpart Neal Macintosh at MI6. These two old cold warriors had been the driving force behind the Group’s success and had been the de facto leaders since its inception. While both deaths were of natural causes, they still caused a firestorm of controversy and suspicion within the Group’s ranks. There was no formal system for running operations – everyone had always just done whatever Vrabel and Macintosh told them to do. Now the different department heads and field officers began scrambling for influence and control within the Group, and cliques began to form almost over night.
The two main factions were those who believed that the Group should continue in its present course of fighting Communist super spies and those who argued for an expansion of the Group’s brief to include other targets and operations. Even within the secretive and small bureaucracy of the Malta Group, inertia and momentum count for something, and the second, more radical faction was outvoted. A council of five Directors was established to run things and they in turn chose a Chief of Operations to oversee all operations. Although this new arrangement was more than sufficient to keep the Malta Group as a working organization, the group did lose much of its momentum. The number of new recruits and new operations steadily decreased over the decade, a process that was only hastened by the warming of relations between East and West.
New World Order
Even as their group atrophied around them, the so-called radicals within the Malta Group were busy secretly plotting a new future for the organization. When the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union fell, the old guard within the Group was at a loss as to what to do. They had geared their entire existence towards fighting an Armageddon-like battle with the Soviet Union, only to see it collapse from within in a relatively peaceful manner. They had no idea what to do next. There was even talk of disbanding the Group now that the war had been won. Not surprisingly, the radicals had other plans.
For the previous five years this secret group within a secret group had been diverting operational resources to its own pet projects. They’d gotten involved in everything from smuggling arms and drugs to freelance assassination and mercenary work. They hadn’t quite lost all moral grounding – they still fought for causes they thought were right – but they had begun to go very far a field from the traditional war on communism. Indeed, most of theses ultra-secret operations were aimed at helping “promote capitalism,” or, in other words, aiding Western based multinational corporations in their efforts to expand business interests in the third world.
One of the biggest early clients for the radicals were European owned diamond dealers who controlled the African mines. The company had relied on mercenaries to defend its mines against local rebels, but when several dozen super powered beings started fighting for the rebel cause, they were forced to abandon their mines. No established hero team would go into the country to confront the native heroes, mostly because the heroes tended to agree with the rebels. The cabal within the Malta Group saw an opportunity here and offered to help the diamond dealers out. They used Group controlled heroes to attack and eventually kill all of the troublesome rebels, and within a few months control of the mines was restored to the diamond merchants. The Malta Group had just served its first private interests and picked up a healthy paycheck in the process. Of course the radicals kept the payment for themselves, and continued to perform other such jobs on the side, all the while being careful to avoid tipping off their more conservative fellow Group members.
Thus, when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Group’s leaders had their crisis of faith, the radicals were well prepared to step in and seize the reins of command. The conservatives scarcely put up a fight. They didn’t want to give up all the power they’d accumulated as being part of the Group, but they simply didn’t have the vision to see where to go next. The radicals’ revealed their recent activities and showed that the Group could still be an effective, powerful force in the world. After they got over their outrage at being duped, the conservatives were forced to agree, and they eventually adopted the radical plan. After all, they were only human and deep down the profits, power, and success that the radicals had accumulated in secret was tremendously appealing.
For only the second time in its history, the entire group met once again in Malta. They there restructured the entire organization from the ground up, moving resources from Europe and Russia to other nations, both in the third world and the first. America had always been a primary recruiting ground for the Group, so the organization in the States remained relatively the same, even increasing in power slightly. With the death of world-wide communism ad a political force, the group agreed upon the need to focus their efforts towards a loftier goal – something that they felt would make the world a better place and secure their position in it. They came up with a list of priorities and goals, most of them centered around working closely with the military industrial complex and multinational corporations to ensure a world economic climate that was ideal for corporate capitalism’s growth and prosperity. This goal would include protecting and serving those governments that were friendly to this ideological goal and destruction of those groups and governments who opposed it.
With their new goal firmly set, the Malta Group didn’t need to change its methods very much. Although the enemy might be different (And more diverse) now, the key to victory was still the same – the judicious and forceful application of super powered individuals. Heroes were themselves starting to become global forces. The rise of the corporate Hero Corps proved a perfect example – it was possible to organize and utilize super powered beings for any purpose. The Malta Group selected itself as the secret police force of this new era of globalism, and controlling heroes who stepped out of line was their new beat.
Even as they continued to blackmail and recruit heroes from their traditional stomping grounds, they saw a whole new realm of options open up to them. With the opening up of the Eastern Bloc, the Malta Group was at the forefront of exploiting the new open markets. Not only did they want to encourage capitalism in the fledgling democracies, they wanted to snatch up as many of the unaligned super powered beings as possible. While two decades of covert assassinations had taken a serious chunk out of the Soviet super reserves, there were still plenty of low power or previously untouchable candidates for recruitment. Even better, many were willing to work for money or other favors, negating the necessity of the strong arm tactics the Group usually resorted to in the Western world. Of course the Group’s operatives got all the information they needed to use such tactics anyway, just in case.
Hundreds of new recruits flowed into the Group’s operational teams, although few of them knew who or what they were actually working for. Indeed, most were led to believe that they were working for a variety of different groups, many of which allegedly hated one another – just one more way to deflect suspicion away from the Malta Group’s true nature. Among the many new recruits was a scientist who, while not super powered herself, had been part of the Soviet super soldier program. In exchange for a few hundred thousand dollars, she gave the group access to something almost priceless: the keys to a secret Soviet research facility that was virtually unknown outside of those who had worked there.
The group carefully and quietly moved in on the remote Siberian installation. Even with all their intelligence gathering about Soviet super being projects, they had never heard of this facility – not even a hint. What they found was effectively a cyborg factory, a fully functional assembly line with hundreds of complete and partially complete cyborgs all sitting in stasis waiting to be activated. This program had been the Soviet response to the series of setbacks they had experienced at the hands of the Malta Group (although they didn’t know who was responsible at the time). Developed in absolute secrecy, the cyborgs were meant to turn the tide in the war of assassins that was being waged in the super spy community. But the program took much longer than expected to produce results and now, with the new government, funding had dried up. And so the Malta Group just bought its own private cyborg army.
Of course the units were not ready to be put into the field – they still needed extensive work and resources. Some within the Group thought they should be destroyed. The Malta Group’s strength had always been that it had no permanent super soldiers or bases – there was no way for their enemies to strike back. Taking on these cyborgs would require a lot of time, money, expertise, and facilities that they didn’t have right now. While these were all valid points, ultimately the leaders simply could not pass up the opportunity. They spent millions moving the entire facility and all the cyborgs out of Siberia and into a more secure location in Germany, where it remains to this day. It took another five years and tens of millions of dollars to get the cyborgs working again, but by the mid 1990’s, the cyborgs, called Titans within the Group, were online and carrying out operations.
The Titans were not the only new addition to the Group’s arsenal. The more they worked on the behalf of large corporations, the more access the Group received to high technology weapons and devices. For all their influence and espionage capability, the Malta Group had never been a particularly high-tech organization. Except for buying the latest and greatest surveillance gear every year, the Group didn’t need much in the way of fancy weapons or powered armor. They worked their “recruits” using traditional, proven spy craft techniques. Vrabel himself had never been a proponent of high technology, preferring instead to rely on highly trained humans to make the right decisions and see the mission through to completion. But times were changing and the Group was growing. It was time to gear up.
The Group began to augment their Titans with more high tech weapons and supplement their offensive power with permanent teams of highly trained and well armed commandos. Although they still used coerced heroes and mercenary super beings for most of their ops, the Group found that more, and more, it needed its own standing army to ensure security and retain maximum flexibility. They also began constructing a series of more permanent bases across the globe, although they never created any central command center that could serve as a juicy target for their many enemies. The Group remained almost as amorphous and ghostly as ever, except that they maintained a few islands of permanency.
In the years leading up to the Rikti Invasion, the Malta Group continued on its dual path of fostering corporate capitalism and keeping radical and rogue super beings in check. To be fair, most of what they did was for the greater good, because most of the people they fought were not only a threat to their corporate interests, but to the general welfare of humanity as well. Terrorist groups, mad scientists, and secret cabals bent on world domination all fell prey to the Group’s ruthless attacks. But “most” is not “all” and the Group certainly played a part in supporting numerous corrupt regimes and exploitative multinational corporations as well. They also took on more than a few radical or activist heroes who had done nothing wrong (besides getting in the Group’s way). Within the super powered community, the Group began to earn a fearsome reputation, particularly for the bloodthirsty Titan cyborgs, which remained the only readily identifiable sign of the Group’s involvement in a particular incident (and they seldom left many witnesses).
When the Rikti Invasion came, the Malta Group was as surprised and alarmed as anyone else. Unfortunately, there was little they could do about it. Eighty percent of the Group’s offensive capability was in the form of coerced super beings who did their bidding out of fear or for money. With the whole world besieged by aliens, almost all of these individuals put aside personal concerns in order to fight the invaders. The Malta Group had no leverage when their operatives believed the whole world was coming to an end. Likewise, the Group’s intelligence networks were of little value against an enemy that could teleport and didn’t use any known form of communication. Nevertheless, the Group did what it could, using its Titans and special forces units to help fight off the Rikti as best they could.
By the war’s end, the Group had suffered heavy casualties, just like everyone else. But, their disparate structure and traditional reliance on a disparate command and supply chain made them more resilient than most. Once the war was over they were able to pick up the pieces and start again where they had left off. For the first year or so after the war, the Group concentrated on rebuilding. Most of their former operatives had died during the war, so they needed to surveil and blackmail a whole new generation of heroes. They also needed to recruit more normals for their commando teams and Titan units. All of this took time and money, but eventually they returned to something approaching their former level of effectiveness. But it is only recently that the Group has begun setting new, post-invasion goals and preparing for a new century of operations.
3.2 Goals
For the first few decades of its existence, the Group wanted nothing more and nothing less than the complete and utter destruction of communism and the Soviet Union. Since that war was won, they have gravitated towards a more general posture of being pro-corporate capitalism and anti-radical and rogue super being. The leaders of the Malta Group imagine themselves as the protectors and heralds of “democracy” and “freedom.” In reality, their ideals are at best autocratic and at worst despotic. Even worse, nearly all the Group’s ideology is tinged with a Christian air; their “new world order” mysteriously omits the other religions.
Their part in the fall of the Soviet Union has infused the Group with a new enthusiasm: they can win. But, the Malta Group also knows that they alone cannot win the fight against “rogue” states, and they are more than willing to instigate the world’s powers into action. As a result, the Malta Group does its best to force Western nations into action and even into full out wars with countries that the Malta Group has targeted.
Setting Priorities
Beyond this overarching goal of total domination, the Malta Group has a number of less obvious, but still vitally important ambitions that it hopes to realize in the next few years. Ever the pragmatists, the Malta Group fully realizes that there is no way they can ever truly control all the world’s heroes (barring some bizarre and unexpected event). Therefore, they have broken super powered beings down into a number of different Priority Groups or, as they say around the office, simply Priorities. The Priorities are as follows:
Priority One (Red Threats): These are the super powered beings who present a clear and present danger to the United States and/or humanity as a whole. These are beings that the Malta Group has decided it cannot safely try to manipulate or deal with in any way. The only viable option is to destroy them. The vast majority of Priority One targets are readily recognized villains – people like Nemesis or Requiem that no one would disagree were menaces to society. Like the hero organizations of old, the Malta Group uses its influence and intelligence to try to eliminate these foes as quickly and with as much finality as possible. Of course, not all the Priority One targets are as powerful as Nemesis. Most are much lesser lights who are nevertheless deemed utterly irredeemable – psychopaths, some aliens, monsters, demons and other supernatural entities, and basically anything else the Group can’t fully comprehend or deal with get thrown into Priority One. It is not unheard of for some non-villains or even heroes to get thrown into this Priority as well, especially if they’re seen as a threat to the Group in some way.
Unlike the Hero Organizations of old, the Group deals with these so-called Red Threats with maximum force. They do take prisoners and they do not hold trials. As far as the Group is concerned, being put in Priority One is a death sentence. How adamantly the Group pursues executing that sentence depends on the vulnerability and imminent threat of the target. For example, Nemesis is perceived as a very dangerous threat, but he is also incredibly powerful. It would take all of the Group’s resources to try and take Nemesis down, and even then they probably wouldn’t be successful. Thus, the Group continues to gather intelligence and harass Nemesis when they can without exposing themselves too much. On the other hand, a lone super powered psychopath or some poor child possessed by a murderous demon are relatively easy targets to take out. In these cases, Malta Group hit teams will be on the way in moments to take out the Priority One target as quickly and quietly as possible.
Priority Two (Usurpers): Priority Two Targets, also known as Usurpers, are an interesting group. They are, for the most part, individuals who would not uniformly be classified as villains by an objective judge. They are, instead, radicals and activists who have utterly devoted themselves to a cause that the Malta Group doesn’t agree with. This means that, more often than not, the Group would like to see them dead or disabled. However, it also means that they are not beyond intimidation, manipulation, and even “recruitment” to the Malta Group’s uses. In short, they’re not insane or unreachable.
Many of these Usurpers are in fact part of revolutionary or counter-revolutionary groups scattered around the world. Many are, in fact, known super-powered terrorists, making them legitimate targets for any kind of abuse the Group wants to heap on them (at least, that’s the Group’s assessment). However, The Group has been known to work with terrorist and revolutionary groups on many occasions, especially when doing so can help advance some greater cause. The terrorist’s propensity for violence and radical devotion to a cause makes him or her relatively easy to manipulate. The Group loves to sick terrorists on one another or have them attack some other target that the Group wants eliminated. It seldom takes more than a few whispered lies and some false intelligence to set the super powered patsies into violent motion. As long as a Priority Two target remains useful to the Group, it will let them live. As soon as they can’t control it any more or find no further use for it, they eliminate the target and move on to the next one.
Unfortunately, a large number of Priority Two targets are not terrorists at all. They are simply super powered activists of one type or another who use their powers and position to fight against causes that they believe are unjust. Environmentalists, anti-globalization activists, human rights workers, and others have all been thrown into Priority Two simply because they oppose one of the corporate or governmental interests that the Group represents. As far as the Malta Group is concerned, there is no difference between real terrorists and these activists. Both should be manipulated as long as it is practicable and useful and then they should be eliminated. Indeed, it has become a favorite tactic to pit true terrorists and activists against one another, ensuring a mutual destruction of both groups and deflecting any suspicion from the Group itself.
Priority Three (Unknowns): Unlike the first two Priorities, Unknowns being classified an Unknown is not necessarily a death sentence. Instead, it means that the subject merits increased observation and investigation to determine his or her actual status. Most of theses Unknowns are super powered beings that either operate in areas of the world where the Group doesn’t have many resource or those that have recently emerged onto the scene. As soon as the Group identifies an Unknown, it does everything it can to gather enough data to reprioritize the target. Sometimes a target can languish in Priority Three for months or even years, something that the Group Analysts find infinitely frustrating.
In order to fully reprioritize a target, the Group must have proof of the person’s powers and intentions, as well as some firm grasp on his or her background. More often than not this information comes from passive surveillance and some behind the scenes investigation. The Group never has to actively interfere in the individuals life. However, for those particularly tough nuts to crack, the Malta Group does have procedures for what they euphemistically call a Litmus Test. They create a series of situations for the target and observe how he or she reacts. These can include attacks, attempted bribes, false information, and threats to the target’s friends and families. The Litmus Test firmly identifies which priority the target belongs in, assuming it doesn’t kill the person in the process (which is not as uncommon as one might hope).
Priority Four (Potentials): The Malta Group defines any super powered being that they can possibly control with safety and security as a Priority Four Target or, Potential. The vast majority of the world’s heroes and villains (and non-aligned super beings) fall into Priority Four. Potentials do not present any immediate threat to the Group or to those institutions and individuals that the Group feels are important. Every Potential has a file in the Group’s databases that records all the known information about his or her origins, powers, background, family, and friends. The Group accumulates this data over time, usually through carefully culling newspaper and media articles, police reports, and other public and confidential databases. The Group is tied into every information source on the globe and has hundreds of analysts working to sift through the data for informational gems on super beings. The Malta Group monitors every electronic transaction, every telephone call, every newspaper report or mention on a Web log that has anything to do with a Potential. Often their computers know more about the subject’s life than their own family and friends.
Actual agents are seldom dispatched to surveil Potentials unless they show particular promise. After all, there are thousands upon thousands of these beings out there, and even the Group has limited resources. When a very promising Potential is identified, then the surveillance teams spring into action and start looking for some lever with which to manipulate and/or recruit the target. Or, if the Potential is showing signs of becoming dangerous, the surveillance teams come up with enough information to reclassify the target as Priority Two or One.
It should be noted that there are a great number of “petty” criminals that the Group leaves within the Potential prioritization. The Malta Group does not concern itself with local crimes unless they directly impact its interests. For them, there is little difference between a master thief and a vigilante hero. Both are potential assets until they prove themselves either useless or a direct threat. The never ending struggles between costume clad heroes and their masked nemeses do not concern the Group – unless of course they can be used to control and deceive an asset.
Priority Five (Assets): Assets are those individuals who have, by one means or another, been compromised and recruited into the Group. Some are paid mercenaries, others are unknowing dupes, but most of them are working under threat of blackmail or exposure of some secret. Priority Five targets live under constant surveillance by the Malta Group through both electronic and human intelligence gathering resources. The Group does not want any of its recruits to be able to make a single move without them knowing about it. After all, their intimidation and control techniques rely upon their ability to force others to cooperate and prevent them from seeking help out of fear for the consequences. As soon as the asset feels he or she has any freedom to act without consequence, they will rebel against the Group.
The Malta Group classifies an Asset as Operational when he or she is engaged in some mission or errand on the Group’s behalf. The Group usually has several hundred active assets operational at any one time. While operational, a team of up to a dozen agents and analysts keep an eye on the operative and make sure he or she plays along. These handlers (as they are known) are fully empowered to terminate the Asset if necessary, although this is always an option of last resort. If additional threats/bribes/promises don’t ensure cooperation, then deleting the Asset is the only option. The Group seldom takes prisoners, wanting to limit its direct exposure to targets as much as possible.
The majority of Assets remain in Reserve status until the Group needs their special talents for a specific operation. Reserve Assets are still subject to constant monitoring, usually by electronic means. These reserve Assets only have three or four handlers working them at a time. Each of these smaller handler teams is usually responsible for monitoring multiple assets (typically between five and ten). The Group never makes its presence felt when monitoring an Asset in reserve unless absolutely necessary. Many targets begin to think that their ordeal is order – that perhaps the Group has forgotten about them or decided to let them off the hook. They are always wrong in this assumption. The Group never forgets, and never lets anyone off the hook.
Priority Six (Untouchables): The final Priority Class are the Untouchables. These are super powered beings that the Group recognizes as being both not harmful to their goals and too powerful to directly manipulate or turn into assets. The prime example is, of course, Statesman. Before he disappeared he was the archetypical Untouchable. No one in the Ground wanted to get his attention or, worse yet, draw down his wrath. They steered clear of him and let him do his things. If he had ever learned of the Group (which he didn’t) and decided to come after it, he would have been reprioritized as a Priority One Threat and the Group would have done what it could to neutralize him. These days there are very few Untouchables left. Most of the surviving seven great heroes fall into this category, as do some other powerful individuals scattered around the world. Likewise some villains fall into this category, like the Archonate. Others have alliances with the Malta Group or some influence within its ruling elite, like the Countess Crey.
The Group hates the fact that there are people that are beyond their power to corrupt or influence. As a result, they have decided to make it a goal not to allow anyone else to become so popular, powerful, and untouchable that they must be categorized ad Priority Six. Any hero, no matter how noble her actions or how much good they’ve done for the is subject to what is known as Priority Six Sanction. Under these circumstances the group takes the necessary steps to halt the hero’s (or villain’s) rise to untouchable status. This is seldom something as crass and obvious as an assassination. More likely, they start a smear campaign against the hero’s reputation, followed up by a staged incident where it’s impossible for the hero to do the right thing. Sometimes all it takes is a tarnishing of the hero’s image to stop his or her rise. The target continues to work as a hero, but doesn’t have the influence and status they once possessed. Most commonly though, the hero is forced into retirement in disgrace, having been shown to be undesirable or reprehensible in some way. This often works especially well for the Group, since the hero now becomes a Potential or an Asset with relative ease.
Politics by Any Means
While the manipulation and control of super powered beings is the Malta Group’s primary brief, they also have extensive expertise in the field of political maneuvering. After all, the Group’s power stems not from any super abilities or special technology, but rather from their expertise as spies and politicians. For decades they have secretly siphoned off billions of dollars from Western governments, all the while ensuring that they had all the legal cover and political support necessary for their operations. It should come as no surprise then that they Group is as adept at working the halls of government as it is at making super beings do what they want. The only difference is, with politics, the Group tends to be a little subtler.
The United States and Western Europe remain the strongholds of Malta Group power, although the organization has extended its influence to every continent. While in Asia, South America, and Africa the Group often engages in bribery, chicanery, and even bullying to get what it wants from local governments, it does not have the deep seated political roots that it maintains in the NATO nations. The United States and Britain in particular hold special places in the Group’s heart, and in these countries they have almost unrestricted access to the ruling elites.
Fortunately for the Malta Group, unlike heroes and villains, politicians are inherently for sale to the highest bidder. The Group does not need to resort to mind control techniques or even black mail to get its way as long as it has legal (or at least semi-legal) ways in which to influence key members of government. Through a number of shell corporations, think tanks, and political action committees, the Malta Group gives tens of millions of dollars to candidates during every election cycle in both the United States and the UK. Most of these go to a few particularly powerful and influential committee chairs or legislative leaders. In return, they almost always lend a friendly ear to whatever suggestion the Malta Group has to make.
Thus while the governments no longer directly fund the Malta Group out of their various military and intelligence budgets, the Group is usually able to make all of its money back and more by winning special funding or government contracts for its shell corporations. The Group also makes even more money by selling it’s influence to others who don’t have such access, such as client corporations or even other governments. But money is just a side benefit for the Group. The real purpose of buying political interest is their desire for political and legal cover for their activities.
First and foremost, the Malta Group has managed to secure for itself blanket immunity from investigation or prosecution by the Justice Department in the United States. There hasn’t been an Attorney General in the past decade who wasn’t either directly paid off by the Malta Group or part of an administration that the Group had bought and paid for. The FBI and other groups simply don’t investigate the Malta Group, and all it takes is a few phone calls to wave them off a particular subject. The Group can even (and has) get away with murder, since the local cops are as likely to succumb to pressure from their political bosses as the FBI is.
But wait, there’s more. Not only do the Justice Department and many local law enforcement agencies (including the Paragon City Police Department) turn a blind eye to the Malta Group’s crimes, they also provide assistance when called upon to do so. The Group almost never uses government or police personnel (although they can if the have to in an emergency), but they do have open access to law enforcement’s files, databases, and lab facilities. The Group can call upon expert forensic teams to provide them with analyses of a location, or they can simply have the cops cordon off a few city blocks while they carry out some sensitive operation. The law enforcement men and women drafted for such duty never have any idea who they’re working for – they just no that someone very high up the chain of command told them to do as they were told.
The Malta Group’s interests stretch beyond the immediate need for help on the ground or protection from investigation. The Group really wants to change society and how it works. They want to make the world safe for big business capitalism and they want to bring the world’s super beings under iron clad control. Ultimately, doing this requires changing the laws of the land. And there is no law the Malta Group would like to see restored more than the now-defunct Might for Right Act.
Thus the Group is exerting tremendous pressure upon its political assets to slowly but surely revive the Might for Right Act and allow the government to unconditionally draft super beings into service. Although the Group has plenty of assets on its own, it would love to be able to cut out the rigmarole of blackmail and intimidation and just be able to order whoever they want to do whatever they want. Of course public opinion is opposed to the law’s revival, and the Supreme Court has declared it utterly unconstitutional. Therefore, the Group has a long road ahead of it before it can revive the hated statute. But they can be patient, and they’re experts at playing the long game. Already they’ve begun to groom a number of prominent federal judges who would be likely Supreme Court nominees. By their reckoning, they need to secure three more seats on the nation’s highest court in order to overturn the Might for Right decision. All the pieces are almost in place, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see justices start dying off under mysterious circumstances in the not to distant future.
3.3 Methodology
The Malta Group has dozens of different techniques for obtaining and controlling assets, each of which is worth a story or two in and of itself. The Group things nothing of shattering a person’s life and putting him or her through hell if that means they can accomplish their mission successfully. No particular technique is unique to a particular kind of asset. That is to say, there isn’t a one size fits all solution for recruiting heroes into the Group’s service. Each individual require special attention that’s appropriate to his or her own weaknesses and pressure points. In general though, there are several broad categories into which all the
Group’s methodologies fall:
Money: The simplest and least reliable form of control is money. There are thousands of mercenaries out there, many of them with super powers, who claim that they’re willing to do anything for money. As it turns out, that’s not quite true. They’re willing to do anything for money as long as it doesn’t sound too dangerous or go against their own personal best interests. Worst of all, more than a few of them are willing to sell out completely to another master if they get offered more money. The Malta Group doesn’t like working with assets who they don’t have some form of real leverage over. Thus they rarely ever employ mercenaries on anything but low priority operations. Often mercenaries are hired to attack some location or guard some facility purely as a distraction while other assets carry out the real operation elsewhere.
But money can be a great motivator if the asset is desperate enough. More than a few heroes and villains have gotten into serious debt through gambling, drug addictions, or just lousy financial sense. Loan sharks, dealers, and bookies banging at the door can make a man quite desperate, especially if he has a public image to maintain. In these instances the Group is more than happy to help a hero out and pay his debts – once he’s performed a small favor of course. Unlike traditional loan sharks who buy a person’s loan and continue to demand repayment, the Group likes to simply clear the debt for the asset (after the job is done of course). This makes the asset grateful and ensures that he feels like he got a fair deal. The Group feels that if someone was stupid enough to get in debt over their head once, they’ll probably do it again. Especially if the Group uses some of its other agents to help seduce the asset into borrowing more money, thus creating a never ending cycle of debt and repayment through action on the Group’s behalf.
Blackmail: Everyone has secrets of one sort or another. The real question is, what would you do to keep the world from knowing your secrets. For most people, the answer is not very much. Letting the world know that you secretly read romance novels is not the kind of thing that’s going to make a person commit crimes in order to keep the truth hidden from the world. Plus, even if the secret got out, no one would care. But heroes are celebrities in this modern era, and lots and lots of people care about each and every little thing they do. Furthermore, many heroes fall into the “work hard, play hard” mentality. They risk their lives every day and sometimes, when it comes time to blow of some steam, they get carried away. This can lead to some embarrassing behavior.
But of course the biggest secret many heroes have is their true identity. Many heroes prefer to act pseudonymously so that they can maintain a private life outside of their business as heroes. Secrecy protects their family and friends from reprisals and helps ensure their security during downtime. The secret identity also offers some legal protection, insulating the hero from lawsuits and criminal prosecution on those occasions when he or she accidentally steps over the line. The public exposure of one’s secret identity can be a life-changing catastrophe.
The Malta Group is, of course, expert at finding out secret identities, embarrassing details, and much darker, more dangerous secrets as well. But even so, there’s only so much a hero will do to avoid revealing his identity or that a villains will undertake just to avoid having his secret base outed to the authorities. Most blackmail victims are called upon to do smaller tasks – things they probably would have done anyway. For example, the Group uses heroes to attack villains or unknown super beings, painting them as utterly evil (even if they’re not) in order to assuage and guilt the blackmailed asset feels about doing something just to preserve his identity. Likewise, with villains, the Group has them steal things or attack locations they normally wouldn’t mind taking on, and usually allows the asset some profit out of the deal as well.
But when the Malta Group comes up with some really nasty, incriminating information, then they can really put the screws to someone. A super being guilty of murder, treason, drug trafficking, or some other heinous crime is a dream find for the Group. After assembling incontrovertible proof of the asset’s guilt, they lay it out nice and simple: do what we say or all this proof goes to the press and the police. Few people have the will to stand up to such a threat, and once they get going they Group never lets go. Invariably the asset is made to commit more and more crimes, making him or her that much more susceptible to blackmail. Sometimes the Group even send the asset on missions that serve no other purpose than to rack up more crimes on his or her conscience. Once an asset has fallen this low, there’s no escape. They serve the Group until they die or are caught red handed by the authorities. Those few that try to make a run for it seldom succeed.
Threat: While blackmail is of course a kind of threat, it is not the only one in the Malta Group’s arsenal. Sometimes, it is necessary to more directly threaten an asset’s well being – or the well being of his or her family and friends. Threatening a subject into doing your bidding is a tricky business, and not everyone responds well to it. The most valiant and brave of heroes will stand up to the threat, making it ultimately useless (although the Group always carries out its threats, without exception). The Group has therefore become quite adept at identifying those assets who are most susceptible to threat and then latching onto them. Individuals with high levels of fear and overblown senses of self preservation make particularly tempting targets. The ideal candidate cares mostly for himself, and will do whatever he needs to do to survive. Eventually, such subjects become used to working under threat of death, and even become reliable in a certain way.
Threatening someone’s loved ones is a trickier undertaking. In all threat based assets, there is a strong desire to somehow trick the Group and strike back at them. This desire is dramatically increased when someone feels a strong sense of duty or love for his friends and family. Since the Group is expert at spotting any attempts to strike back at them, they usually foil rebellious assets before they can act, but even so, it can distract from completing the mission objectives. Once the mission is over, the asset invariably does everything he or she can to find out who was behind the threat so that they can protect their loved ones from any future menacing. Therefore, assets brought into operational status via threats usually have some very specific power or access and are rarely used fo
Poison � Sabbath
Quote:
Yeah, surprised to see how well seeded a lot of that stuff is.|
Originally Posted by Golden Girl
If you want CoH lore on Google Docs, go here:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BypR...N2M/edit?pli=1 It's not the story bible - but it's quite a few parts of it. Some of the stuff they wrote in 2004 will blow your mind when you see how they used the idea in more recent content - check out Red Widow's inevitable return and Romans bringing Mot to Dark Astoria. |
More amusingly though is how much they had planned for City of Villains at that point (bear in mind, this doc references Citadel as Bastion, and BABs as being in Kings Row).
Supposedly issue 7 ("expansion 7") was going to introduce Avilans and their floating city as well. Guess those plans didn't work out so well. Wanna see how many Blood of the Black Stream references there are now...
Nemesis
Nemesis is the badest bad guy there is. In a world filled with very evil and loathsome beings, Nemesis surpasses them all. He’s not necessarily the most powerful (though he’s quite powerful) and he’s not necessarily the most evil (but he’s very evil). He is without a doubt the smartest and most ambitious villain out there. Nemesis is famous for his schemes within schemes, his long term planning, and his seemingly infinite patience. Heroes should never quite know what to expect when they fight Nemesis and, as often as not, in fighting him they’re actually helping him further some larger scheme. Any encounter with him or his minions should always strike fear and doubt into a good person’s heart.
3.1 History
Like so many other great villains in history, Nemesis began life as a toy maker. Born Gerhardt Eisenstadt in 1804, he was the youngest son of won of central Europe’s preeminent noble families. The Prussian Eisenstadt house had manufactured swords and armor since the middle ages and had expanded their product line with advances in technology, producing cannon, muskets, and other military hardware. During the Napoleonic Wars the family found its greatest fortune ever, supplying both the Prussian and Austrian and even Russian armies with arms throughout the 15 plus years of war. The family went from very rich to fabulously rich, and Gerhardt, born in the midst of the war, grew up in the lap of luxury.
Spoiled and pampered by overindulgent parents, Gerhardt could have lived the rest of his days in utter sloth and debauchery like so many of his siblings did, were it not for a special present his father bought him on his twelfth birthday. Designed by a famous Swiss clock maker, it was a child sized clockwork horse that could actually walk under its own power, carrying the young Gerhardt into many an imaginary battle. Gerhardt was fascinated and delighted with the mechanical horse, thinking it the most wonderful thing he had ever seen. More than anything he wanted to know how it worked, how it was possible for man to create something the mimicked life thus.
Throughout his teens Gerhardt devoted himself entirely to the study of clocks, gears, mechanics and metallurgy. His father hired the famed clock maker who had created the horse to come to the Eisenstadt estates and serve as his son’s tutor. The boy’s immense intelligence soon became obvious, and within less than a year he had learned everything his teacher knew and was making new innovations and improvements every day. In the workshop his father built him, Gerhardt created all manner of wonders for his young cousins, nieces, and nephews. He took great delight in the joy one of his pouncing mechanical kittens or flying songbirds gave to his relatives. For the adults he produced ingenious clocks that acted out different parts of family history at each hour and musical jewelry boxes that cleaned their contents automatically. For his favorite family chef he created an automatic potato peeler and dicer.
Gerhardt was understandably quite proud of his creations, as was the rest of his family. The sole exception was his brother Tobias. Now responsible for running the family business, Tobias constantly derided his brother’s toys as “mere trifles” and urged him to focus his obvious talents on more useful inventions. Such a mind could revolutionize the arms business, creating weapons never before seen on the field of battle. Gerhardt had no interest in improving muskets or making cannon more accurate. These were simple, uninteresting tasks for which he could spare no time. Tobias continued to pester his youngest brother, urging him to help the family and Prussia with his talents. These remonstrations bothered Gerhardt more and more until finally he relented. He told Tobias that if he left him alone for one year, he would produce a new and wondrous weapon for him.
Gerhardt moved his workshop to one of the family’s small country estates and forbade anyone to disturb him while he worked. A year passed and Tobias sent word that he wanted to see his weapon. Gerhardt said that, in one week, on Tobias’ 40th birthday, he would present his brother with a present he would never forget. The year away from the rest of the world had given Gerhardt time to think, to plan, and to dream. He knew that in a certain way his brother was right; he did want more from life than making clever toys. He also knew that he didn’t want anyone else controlling his life, especially his brother Tobias. How dare he? How dare he, little more than a glorified bean counter, dream that he might bend an intellect like Gerhardt’s to his feeble will? These thoughts festered and grew in the genius inventor, feeding into his dreams.
And so Tobias’ birthday came and Gerhardt returned home with a large wooden case resembling an over-sized coffin. He sealed himself away in a drawing room to prepare his present for its unveiling. An hour later he invited brother Tobias and the rest of the family into the room. There stood a seven-foot tall metal man. Not a suit of armor, but a finely articulated metal man with its musculature wrought in silver and bronze, handsome steel and platinum facial features and a molded head of golden hair. The metal form recreated every human joint and point of articulation, a life sized clockwork man that moved with a disturbingly natural gait. The whole family was awestruck. All but Tobias, who simply pointed out that, as fine as the creation certainly was, it was no weapon. It was just another toy.
Gerhardt assured him that nothing was further from the truth, for no weapon was good without a soldier to wield it, and Gerhardt’s mechanical soldier could outfight and out last any man in the world. Tobias scoffed, but Gerhardt ignored him, and pressed a sword into his creation’s hand. He handed another blade to his brother and urged him to test the metal man’s skill. Tobias, suddenly wary, tried to demure, but it was too late. Gerhardt had created the mechanical man to automatically attack whoever held the handle of the sword he had just put in his brother’s hands. The metal thing lunged forward with superhuman speed, impaling the dumbstruck Tobias on its blade. With machine precision it withdrew the blade just as quickly and then swung it in a deadly arc that cut Tobias’ head from his shoulders. “There is your weapon brother,” said Gerhardt, who strode out of the room and the house, leaving his mechanical man standing like a statue, its clockwork muscles exhausted and now useless. It had performed its single task.
Gerhardt returned to his countryside workshop to continue his work in peace. Of course the murder of one of the richest men in Europe could not go unnoticed, and none of the family felt particularly safe with their young mad genius out on the loose, so troops were dispatched to bring the lad in. The unsuspecting cavalrymen found Gerhardt’s country estate to be a nightmare of mechanical booby traps and deadly automatons. The whole troop was lost, as were the next three squadrons of soldiers sent into the region. Finally an entire regiment descended upon the estate, burning and shelling everything in their path. When they finally breached the reinforced steel walls and fought their way past the murderous metal crocodiles, they found Gerhardt in the basement. He surrendered quietly and came along in their custody. Were it not for the extreme heat of the day and the oven like conditions of the carriage they chained him in, it might have been days before they realized they had captured a fake. As it was, the heat melted the wax skin, causing quite a fright before the soldiers figured out they had been duped.
The real Gerhardt had slipped into France long before the first soldiers arrived at his old workshop. He had already set up another workshop outside Paris before he murdered his brother, and it was here that he continued his research. The French authorities, not wanting to cause an international incident, agreed to allow the Prussians to try and capture Gerhardt themselves. Unfortunately for them, the events in Prussia all but repeated themselves, with the young inventor’s contraptions laying waste to the Prussian mercenaries sent to kill him (all pretense of a trial having been abandoned at this point). And so began a ten-year period during which Gerhardt crisscrossed his way back and forth across Europe, becoming the most notorious criminal of the age.
The entire continent buzzed with stories of the notorious Gerhardt Eisenstadt and his devious machinations. Ever since he was thirteen Gerhardt had been stealing money and precious gems and objects from his family, and so was quite well funded for his adventures. Whenever he needed some ready cash he’d steal it, usually with the help of his automatons. Gerhardt dropped his given name and began calling himself the Prussian Prince of Automatons. Everywhere he went he left chaos in his wake, earning many admirers amongst the lower classes for his daring deeds and the panache with which he defied the authorities. The Prince always stole from government institutions and noble families, never harming the poor or even middle class. His reputation soared, and soon he could count on aid and comfort from the poor and petty thieves in any city in Europe. It was during this time that an English paper, reporting on a recent spate of crimes in London, declared him the Nemesis of the Nobility. And so the name stuck, with the poor and underprivileged calling him Prince and the rich and established calling him Nemesis.
The truth is, that Nemesis did not care one bit for the poor. Nor did he particularly hate the rich. For him the entire rigmarole was a kind of game. He viewed his fugitive status as a way to test his intellect against the greatest detectives and generals in Europe, all the while honing his machines in the crucible of battle. He never targeted the poor because, frankly, he never thought of them as worthwhile opponents. Even the brightest noble was not his equal, but at least they were in the same league. All the same, he immediately saw how useful his popularity with the little people could be and was happy to foster such support.
From 1825 to 1837 Nemesis ran roughshod over Europe. Nine times out of ten, the only reason the local authorities or military ever found him was because he sent them clues to his whereabouts. He always tried to make the conflicts as personal as possible, taking the time to get to know intimate secrets and details about the noblemen who faced off against him. Of course Nemesis’ concept of a game was more like mass murder for the rest of the world. With machines his only constant companions, Nemesis had grown detached from human feelings. For him snuffing out a human life carried no more moral significance than stepping on an ant. In his dozen-year game of wits he was responsible for the deaths of over three thousand men and women, including several hundred titled nobles and one sitting monarch.
The reign of terror finally came to an end on the island of Malta in the winter of 1837. There, three warships from the British navy shelled Nemesis’ island fortress of twelve straight hours before sending in marines. The soldiers fought their way through the rubble until they finally found Nemesis and his bodyguard of elite automatons equipped with rapid firing rifles. Only when two small cannon were brought to bear did the Prussian Prince of Automatons finally fall. Or so it seemed. In fact for the past two years the Prussian Prince of Automatons had been just that: an automaton. In 1835 Nemesis had finally created his greatest machine ever, a duplicate of himself. For two years the automaton played the part of Nemesis, faring almost as well as its creator, and fooling hundreds of humans who had aided or worked for it.
The real Nemesis was already in the Americas, pursuing a new strategy. He had grown tired of his game and wanted room to expand his horizons a bit. The Americas at this time were still in a state of flux, and Nemesis believed he had a chance to claim some unclaimed territory for himself. His time in Europe had taught him a valuable lesson: no nation would tolerate him, at least not if he wished to live a free man (Nemesis’ definition of “free” being somewhat different than most people’s). The only resort was to create a nation of his own. America appealed to him because it was mostly settled by those of European ancestry and he would thus be able to rule over civilized men. He had no desire to reign over savage tribes in Africa or debased Chinese in the Orient. No, for him it was a kingdom of educated white men or none at all.
Nemesis had no desire to enslave a nation, he merely wanted to rule one absolutely and without challenge. He had enjoyed the misplaced devotion of Europe’s criminal underclass during his decade of gamesmanship, but he longed for a higher class of devotee. He wanted to create a country where his mechanical creations would serve man’s every need, freeing them to create art, music, and poetry without having to concern themselves with manual labor or politics, or any thought of self governance. Indeed, in Nemesis’ utopia – the very utopia he seeks to build still – the citizens are really little more than happy cogs in a great machine of his design, each producing some effect for the greater good and glory of their magnificent ruler.
He had originally planned to journey out west and seize some territory in the California region, but as it turned out he would not get past the Mississippi River for many decades to come. Nemesis first laid foot on American soil in the port city of Charleston, South Carolina. Although he had of course read about slavery, this was his first actual exposure to it, and he liked what he saw. For the moment his automatons lacked any lasting power source, requiring constant winding and setting of gears. Slaves on the other hand were nearly self-sustaining, provided you gave them some simple food for fuel. What’s more, they could be taught a wide variety of tasks. They were just what he needed to perfect his technology.
Nemesis traveled around the South for several years, acquainting himself with the land and its resources. Finally he settled on the mountains of North Carolina as his new home, purchasing several hundred square miles of land for his own, along with several hundred slaves to do his bidding. The year was 1840, and Nemesis himself would not come down from his mountain until 1863. During those twenty-one years his slaves built him a castle fit for a king and burrowed miles upon miles of tunnels and mines through the mountains. Meanwhile, Nemesis began to attract devoted followers, men and women of good breeding and education who nevertheless fell under his charismatic sway. He created his dream kingdom in miniature, a cult-like environment where his word was law and machines and slaves provided for the privileged few.
Then came the Civil War. Nemesis was scarcely aware of the outside world at this time, busy as he was with his own researches and ruling over his small group of three score devotees and few hundred slaves. It was only when a shipment of rare metals he had ordered from Europe was seized by a Union blockade that the mad monarch of the mountain felt the need to investigate this war matter and see what he could do about it. Once it became clear that the invading Union armies threatened not just his shipments but his whole way of life, Nemesis stirred from his torpor and set about trying to help the south win the war.
By now it was late 1863, the war was going badly for the South, and Nemesis was an old man. Still, undaunted by his age, he dressed himself and his followers in suits of armor equipped with built in repeating rifles, musket proof armor, and strength enhancing servos. They rode upon mechanical steeds, powerful steel beasts that could outrace a locomotive, shrug off artillery shells, and fir small cannon balls from their chests. This was the first time Nemesis had been seen in public in close to thirty years, and few remembered reading of his exploits in Europe. It didn’t take him long to make a name for himself once again, as he became the scourge of the battlefield in every engagement he and his iron clad soldiers participated in. His tiny cavalry troop seemed everywhere in the Eastern Theater of operations, intercepting Union Cavalry units, cutting rail roads and lines of supply, and generally putting to shame the exploits of J.E.B. Stuart. General Grant offered a staggering $10,000 bounty for the metal monster’s head.
But it was a war the South could not win, even with Nemesis’ miraculous mechanical horsemen. They were after all just a few dozen men, and this was a war fought by millions. The North proved victorious, and when they were finished with the rebel army they came looking for Nemesis. By now his fame had carried back to Europe where many still remembered him. Bounty hunters, the scions of wronged noble houses, and adventure seekers from across the continent flocked across the Atlantic to help bring the mad Prussian to justice. General Grant sent his old friend General Sherman and an entire division to seize Nemesis’ mountain plantation. Thanks to the advice of several of the European bounty hunters, Sherman knew better than to make a casual march up the mountain to arrest the Prussian. Instead he surrounded the mountain, fortified his positions, and began to shell Nemesis’ compound from afar.
Nemesis had not expected this. Caught up in the romance of war and his own victories on the battlefield, he had expected an overconfident Sherman to march on his position. The sudden rain of artillery fire caught him unprepared and out of his armor. The red-hot shrapnel tore through his right leg, nearly cutting it off at the knee. He barely managed to fit himself into his armor, which had built in tourniquet and first aid mechanisms to help tend to his wounds. He then succeeded in rallying his troops, who mounted their automaton horses and, following their wounded leader, charged downhill into Sherman’s lines.
For the second time that day, Nemesis was caught short by Sherman’s preparations. Having seen in person just how unstoppable Nemesis and his raiders could be, the general had prepared a row of deep pits filled with mud and water and hidden under dry leaves. The iron clad horsemen rode straight into these pits, their heavy armor and mounts dragging them down into the muck. Only Nemesis and two of his soldiers managed to clamber out of the trap. The rest drowned, their previously impenetrable armor sealing their fates. Ever elusive, Nemesis did manage to escape, even with the hills swarming with thousands of soldiers. While his men provided a distraction he slipped into one of the many hidden tunnels that honeycombed his mountain.
This was the mad genius’ first true defeat, and its taste was too bitter for words. He lay in hiding for a whole week while the soldiers swarmed over his property, carefully disarming booby traps and uncovering his secrets. Although the military never found most of his most secret vaults and workshops, they made them effectively inaccessible by dynamiting the entire mountain and collapsing most of the caves. Nemesis now had nothing but the armor on his back and his own mind. A despondent and defeated sixty-one year old man, he burned with a desire for vengeance so bright, it’s a wonder the U.S. soldiers couldn’t see him as he fled into the night.
Although beaten and mutilated, Nemesis was far from finished. Decades of living as a fugitive had taught him to always have at least two or three safe places to hide. He had established several safe houses throughout the south, one of which he holed up in for several months while he made himself a new leg. This limb of steel and gears proved to be his greatest invention yet and he was quite proud of the gold, steel, and platinum creation. He then set out for his last and greatest refuge: a defunct silver mine located in the Rocky Mountains.
Nemesis knew that his time left on earth was short and that he would die if he couldn’t figure out a way to prevent old age from ravaging his body. The mountain retreat had a fully equipped workshop, which he soon supplemented with new materials and equipment of his own design. The mine itself was defunct by the standards of the day, but it only took Nemesis a few weeks to invent automated mining equipment that made the facility more productive than ever. He secretly laundered his ingots through a network of friendly bankers, making them very rich and providing him with funds for research and development.
In the next decade Nemesis did manage to come up with a way to avoid the reaper’s call, although it was not as elegant as he might have liked. He decided that, if the organs could be replaced, then old age would not be a problem, just as his new mechanical leg more than replaced his flesh and bone limb. However, he had more difficulty replicating the human body’s functions than he had thought he would. Biology was never his strongest subject and his mechanical solutions to the various problems he faced resulted in a body not nearly human at all. It didn’t help that heart and liver disease in his own body accelerated the time table on him. He needed a solution now and so he reverted to the same device that had saved him once before: his armor.
Nemesis’ miraculous clockwork armor soon evolved into a steam powered, walking life support unit that just happened to mimic all the functions of the human body. He still wears this same suit today, although each year brings new improvements and embellishments. There is very little man left inside beyond the brain and central nervous system. Even these have mechanical augmentations installed in the last few years. This mechanical body became his obsession. At first he was sorely disappointed that he could not find a more elegant solution, but he is not a man prone to dwelling on his failures. Instead he came to appreciate his body of gears and pistons for the true expression of genius that it was.
Now it was the dawn of a new century, and Nemesis had cheated death. Nothing seemed impossible to him. After thirty years of super-efficient mining, his mine now truly was stripped bare. It was time to move back east and take care of some unfinished business. With unlimited time on his hands, the villain new that he could and should play the long game. Take time to gather his forces and put together a plan that would leave him sole ruler over the nation that had once handed him his first defeat. He would be Emperor of the Americas one day, and then the world see what a true leader could do with such vast resources at his disposal.
He began slowly, gathering about him a group of young men who were suitably impressed with his genius and sympathetic to his autocratic philosophies. He used them as front men to apply for patents on some of his lesser inventions. These he then began to sell on the open market and thus fund his new corporation: Southern United Manufacturing. His timing was perfect, for the company was fully operational and had a reputation for fast, cost effective, and high quality machine parts when the Great War broke out in Europe.
Nemesis made a fortune selling arms and machine parts to every nation in the conflict. His submersible cargo ships avoided the blockades for the more clandestine runs and his super transport zeppelins made the Atlantic crossing in record time carrying surprisingly large cargos. Southern United Manufacturing made millions, and more than doubled its profits once the United States entered the war. The success also brought tremendous attention from the press, government, and business community. Nemesis’ puppet corporate leaders took all the credit and handily deflected any investigations away from their leader.
The Roaring 20’s were even more profitable, as Southern United Manufacturing expanded its shipping and sales network worldwide. Nemesis decided to move the corporate headquarters to Paragon City, allegedly because of its amazing port facilities and booming economy. In reality he had more nefarious plans. Paragon University was fast becoming one of the foremost research facilities in the world, and Nemesis wanted to know everything they did. His company became one of the largest patrons of the school, particularly in the sciences. For the next twenty years, Nemesis personally recruited the best and brightest of the world’s scientific community, directing them towards his own research.
The twenties also saw Nemesis once again dipping into criminal activities. He saw the immense wealth to be made in bootlegging of course, but more importantly, he saw the value of making firm underworld connections he could exploit later. He funded innumerable gangs and crime syndicates throughout the country, giving them cash to run their rackets and supplying them with military grade hardware to defend their turf. Sometimes, just for the fun of it, he’d play one gangs off against the other in order to have his more inventive weapons tested in live combat situations.
Nemesis became quite enamored with organized crime. Some of the more flamboyant gangsters reminded him of his youth. He became more and more intrigued by this easy way to make money, especially in the early 30’s, when gangsters pretty much controlled Paragon City. Maybe he had finally found the key to seizing control of his own fiefdom. He was contemplating his future as the crime kingpin when The Statesman made his first appearance. The time of the super powered hero had arrived, and Nemesis was not ready for it. He planned on a national and worldwide scale. He bought and sold whole police precincts and federal agencies. He didn’t know what to do about lone vigilantes with super powers.
By the end of the 30’s the heroes had managed to smash the syndicates to smithereens. Nemesis had insulated himself from his puppet crime lords well enough that the heroes never truly discovered his role (although they heard many rumors of an elusive crime boss named Nemesis). Nemesis continued to expand his legitimate business concerns, especially in the arms and munitions fields. With the coming of war to Europe, he once again started shipping war materiel to both sides of the conflict. All the while he was working on a plan to deal with these new costume clad avengers.
As it turned out, once America entered the war, most of the costumes went with the U.S. Army to fight in Europe and the Pacific. This gave Nemesis some breathing space but it also gave him cause for concern. He did not like the idea of the heroes acting in coordinated military operations. Singly he was now sure he could beat them, but ganged together and properly led, they would prove an altogether more challenging obstacle to his ambitions. And so, while America fought and his factories produced the weapons and ammunition they fought with, Nemesis quietly set about building his own army.
This first Nemesis Army was composed almost entirely of automatons, with a few loyal humans in key command roles. He had designed the army to carry out his precise plan: seizing control of Washington DC while the nation’s heroes were still busy overseas fighting the war. He waited until he thought the moment was ripe – just as victory in Europe seemed assured. Then his army swooped down on the nation’s capital, quickly overwhelming it and taking congress and the Supreme Court hostage, along with the majority of the city’s population. President Truman was lucky enough to escape, thanks to some quick thinking heroes who spirited him away.
Nemesis followed up this bold strike with similar assaults all over the nation, seizing local government officials, state houses, governors, mayors, and anyone else in authority that he could get his hands on. He then released his final masterstroke, a deadly nerve agent that only he had the cure for. Everyone in those captive cities would soon die if he were not legally made Emperor of the Americas. Miraculously, America’s heroes made it back from Europe in time to stop Nemesis, their combined powers and intelligence just barely proving a match for Nemesis’ intricate scheme. One of the main reasons for his defeat was the inability of his automatons to adapt to any deviations from how Nemesis had envisioned events unfolding. For all their mechanical genius, they could not keep up with a real human brain.
Nemesis escaped capture, but in the wake of his defeat he lost nearly everything he had. His close links to Southern United Manufacturing came to light and the government seized the entire corporation and all of its assets. Moreover Nemesis himself came to be seen as an evil threat like unto Hitler or the Japanese. He would remain atop the FBI’s most wanted list for the next six decades and became a kind of boogey man for the entire nation. He holed up in Paragon City, secreted away within a workshop he had prepared ahead of time for just such an eventuality.
He spent another twenty years in relative isolation, rethinking his reliance on automatons and researching new and better ways to integrate man and machine. He dramatically improved his own life sustaining armor during this time as well as making bold new discoveries in the field of cybernetics. When he finally began recruiting followers once again, he did so slowly. Nemesis did not want the world to yet know he was still active. So he began leaking out his technology to small time crooks and villains, creating a continuing stream of meddlesome super villains who plagued Paragon City throughout the sixties and seventies. All the while he was perfecting his creations and using the money these illicit activities brought in to rebuild his lost fortune.
The mad genius had new plans for his newest public appearance when, in 1988 Dr. Brian Webb smashed the dimension barrier and discovered how to travel to alternate realities. Nemesis became immediately obsessed with this new discovery, something he had never even dreamed possible. He turned all his resource and intellect on seizing the portal technology for himself, and in short order he succeeded. Indeed, he succeeded so well that no one in Dr. Webb’s lab or the Portal Corp were even aware that their designs had been stolen. Nemesis built his own dimensional portal and began sending automaton probes into hundreds of different dimensions, gathering as much information as he could about each of them.
The way the portal technology works, it’s much easier to travel to an alternate Earth that is widely divergent from our own than it is to find one that is very close. Nemesis spent several years looking for just that: a world just like our own, but with one key difference: where he had succeeded in his plans in taking over the United States in 1945. Nemesis did find an Earth where the South had won the Civil War and his counterpart had used his technology to turn the Confederacy into the most powerful nation on Earth, but his alternate had died of old age in the 1890’s.
Finally he found a world where Nemesis ruled over a nightmarish North America as absolute tyrant. Surrounded by nothing but automatons and sycophants, he had turned the continent into a giant, mechanized police state where brave heroic revolutionaries fought to overthrow his rule and the entire population lived as slaves. This was not the benign utopia that Nemesis envisioned himself creating, and it shook him to the core. Worse yet, his autocratic counterpart discovered him and the two engaged in a deadly battle of wills that lasted for over a year before Nemesis managed to engineer a stalemate and seal off travel between the two dimensions.
In all his travels and extra-planar explorations, one world intrigued Nemesis much more than any other. When he first discovered it he was sure that he had found a way to travel not just to other Earths, but to other worlds as well. This was an Earth ruled entirely by alien looking beings, beings we now know as the Rikti. Nemesis approached this world with care and caution, spending several years covertly studying it. He soon discovered that it was indeed an alternate Earth, only one that had been inordinately influenced by some other worldly culture thousands of years in its past. The Rikti were in fact humans, although millennia of genetic modification had transformed them into monstrous creatures.
Nemesis to this day is the only native to Earth who understands Rikti communication, an insight that owes as much to luck as his own brilliance. He used this knowledge to eaves drop on various secret Rikti communications and to discover the lay of their complicated political scene. The Rikti were a technologically advanced people, but they were no more peace loving than humans on our world. They were in a state of heightened paranoia and war mongering not unlike Europe immediately prior to World War One. Nemesis saw immediately how he could use that to his greater advantage.
The made master of mechanics made a series of powerful automatons modeled after some of Earth’s greatest heroes, including The Statesman. He then sent them through the dimensional portal to attack several key Rikti religious and cultural sites. The Rikti heretofore had no knowledge of extra-dimensional travel, although they had advanced teleportation technology. These strange alien attackers created a wave of panic and anger that circled the Rikti globe. Who were these aliens? Why had they killed thousands of innocents for no conceivable reason? Where had they come from? Nemesis left the Rikti just enough clues to help them figure out some of the details, including that they the attackers were some sort of warriors from another dimension.
For his final masterstroke, Nemesis lured the Freedom Phalanx into a sense of false confidence. He made several “mistakes” that led The Statesman and his comrades right to his “secret base.” Nemesis then led them on a merry destructive chase through the city, allowing them time to gather a sizable squadron of heroes to help capture him. He then “let” them corner him in the headquarters of the Portal Corp (he didn’t want them to discover he had his own inter-dimensional portal technology). There he narrowly escaped through an open portal that he had set for the Rikti home world.
When the band of heroes followed him through, they found themselves in the central plaza of one of Rikti Earth’s greatest cities at the height of a military parade. Nemesis was nowhere to be seen. The Rikti assumed this was another sneak attack and immediately attacked the heroes. Several humans fell in battle, as did hundreds of Rikti before Statesman managed to fight his way to the portal and affect their escape. And so, without realizing it, the opening volley of the Rikti War had been fired. Three months later the Rikti invasion fleets started appearing over Paragon City.
Nemesis now had his earth shattering war that he had schemed for. He knew that Earth’s heroes would find a way to repel the invaders, and that if they didn’t he could step in and make them think that they had. It was merely the first step, paving the way for his future plans. Now it’s time for phase two.
3.2 Goals
More than anything, Nemesis wants a nation of his own to rule. More exactly, he wants a piece of the Untied States to rule (perhaps all of the US). For the moment though, he’ll be happy with Paragon City. He is very pleased with how well his Rikti gambit worked out for him, although things did get a little out of hand. Fortunately his role in the war remains a mystery. Otherwise he’s confident that the Rikti would turn on him and agree to a lasting peace with humanity. However, for the time being matters are just as he wants them. Large portions of the city have been rendered uninhabitable and there are villains, monsters, and dangers lurking around every corner. The city is just barely holding together in the face of total chaos, and Nemesis hopes to push it over the edge.
His primary offensive right now is the use of his Macro Assembler technology (see Technology section below) to take over buildings and sometimes entire city blocks in the still inhabited neighborhoods of Paragon City. He is using this process primarily as a test bed for the technology and as a distraction for the city’s heroes. He wants to find the weaknesses in the tech so he can release a new and much more insidious version of it in the near future.
Meanwhile he plans to use his more legitimate resources (such as front companies and corporate holdings) to purchase real estate throughout the city, particularly in and near the ruined areas. Outside these seem perfectly normal, if under utilized buildings. Just enough real business gets done there to allay any suspicions. Inside though, Nemesis is building a series of fortresses. He plans to ring the city with these hidden urban fastnesses and then unleash the entire network when the time is right. He guards these building incredibly well, both with soldiers and with his schemes of distraction. Any time a meddling hero or government official shows too much interest in one of the locations, he lets loose some horror on the city in a nearby location. As often as not he manages to manipulate one of the other villain groups into creating this distraction, making it all the harder to trace the devilry back to him.
Nemesis also continues to recruit new soldiers into his army. By the time the fortresses are complete he hopes to have ten thousand highly trained soldiers, all armed with his latest inventions. He is very careful who he brings into his fold. For the moment he is focusing all of his efforts on young men in the police and military who are disenchanted with their role in the world. These are men who feel that they should be the real heroes but instead they see all of the glory going to costume clad freaks. They yearn to be special and powerful as well, and Nemesis has the tools and technology to make them just that.
Nemesis knows that few men will fight for him if they think he’s evil. Even more importantly, he knows that he cannot take control of the city and the nation if he does not have some popular support. The people will not subject themselves to the rule of an evil tyrant willingly. Theoretically he could subject them to his will through force, but that is not his plan. Instead he will make them see him not as an evil genius but as a benefactor and a bringer of the peace. He tells his soldiers that he alone (with their help of course) has the foresight, the technology, and the audacity to drive the aliens, monsters, and villains from the face of the Earth. His soldiers already believe they are members of a great crusade for the good of mankind. Nemesis aims to make the rest of the world think the same thing.
He plans to first turn the city against its heroes, making them appear as villains, or at best ineffectual. The first step in achieving this goal has already begun: the systematic replacement of high and mid ranking city officials with life-like remote controlled automatons. These doppelgangers have been introduced into the city government and are slowly altering policy to make life more and more difficult for the heroes. In some cases entire families have been replaced or even entire social circles so as to fend off any suspicion. The automatons are not independent robots. They each have an assigned team of pilots who control their every action from inside Nemesis’ various secret fortresses. This ensures that they can respond in a lifelike manner to any situation.
Nemesis knows that he must start slowly since the city still loves its heroes. Thus far he is responsible for the new laws requiring all heroes to register themselves and their powers with a single city office. He has made this registration process relatively lengthy and onerous, and plans to add more red tape as time goes on. It also gives him access to a complete list of heroes at work in the city and what their capabilities and weaknesses are. He next plans to make Hero Organizations and Super Groups register their facilities, rosters, and give a regular accounting of their actions to an oversight board. Since they are deputized law enforcers, they have to be held accountable. Here again Nemesis is collecting valuable information for when the time comes to strike.
Cleverly, Nemesis is playing both sides of the ball on hero issues. Under the guise of a hero-friendly city government he is placing restrictions on their behavior and collecting information. He has also replaced a number of anti-hero or hero-control activists and is working through them and the courts to make life harder for heroes. He recently drove through a large, class action lawsuit against the Freedom Phalanx for damages attendant to failed efforts to protect the city. As a result laws requiring hero insurance have been passed and the cost of failure for a hero continues to rise at an exorbitant rate. He has also proposed a law that would make heroes criminally liable for any deaths that occur when they have taken responsibility for handling a dangerous situation. While unlikely to pass a city council vote yet, the law is a harbinger for Nemesis’ plans in the future.
At some point the city’s heroes will have to discover this far-reaching body-snatching plot and hopefully do something to expose it. Of course the automatons are not only cunningly crafted replacements, they are also deadly killing machines. As ever with Nemesis, his plot has multiple levels: the replacements give him influence in the government and they are also powerful weapons ready to be unleashed when he needs them.
The next logical step is of course the replacing of the city’s most popular heroes with more advanced automatons. This is easier said than done, since killing a hero of any stature is quite difficult and all of the hero organizations have numerous measures designed to make sure that everyone is exactly who they say they are. Nevertheless, Nemesis is very pleased with the success of his replicants and is eager to reproduce the results on a larger scale.
Once the city’s greatest heroes become its greatest shame, Nemesis plans to step in and begin to establish himself as the champion of the downtrodden people. He well remembers how helpful it was to have a good reputation in his early days on the run in Europe. His failed attempt to make himself Emperor of the Americas after world war two made him just about as popular as Hitler. His actions since then have done little to win the public over. But once their heroes are gone, Nemesis plans to use his Army to wipe away other threats to the city, starting with the lesser gangs and minor villain groups. He knows that this alone won’t be enough, but it’s a start.
The final masterstroke will be the returning of the Rikti. Nemesis has recently discovered the single greatest secret in the world right now: why the war ended. He knows how the heroes that went to the Rikti home dimension sealed it off from all portals. He also knows how to break that seal. Doing so will require all of the technology and energy he’s amassing in his growing network of fortresses. When the time is right and the heroes are at their weakest, he will use the towers to secretly break the seal, letting the waiting Rikti invaders pour back into our world and start another invasion, this time localized in Paragon City. Then the tower fortresses will reveal themselves to the public and Nemesis will drive the invaders back, reseal the portal and set himself up as the hero of the hour.
With the city in ruins from a second invasion, he will then release his second generation Macro Assemblers to rebuild the metropolis in record time (and in his image). These second generation machines will be much more powerful than the current models, capable of transforming the most devastated and villain infested regions into safe, clean, beautiful neighborhoods. Neighborhoods that will, of course, be totally under Nemesis’ control. He will have built his utopia from the ashes of the city he burned, and the people will thank him for it. Or that’s the plan anyway.
3.3 Technology
Nemesis is one of the most brilliant scientific minds in the world. Indeed, in his current state, he little more than a brilliant mind inside a metal body. For over 180 years he has devoted much of his time to perfecting the science of mechanical engineering, from his early clockwork toys to his modern day marvels made from micro fibers and super powerful semi-conductors. One of the hallmarks of his creations is that they seldom, if ever fall in line with other technologies. Nemesis is too proud and too scornful to rely on the research of others. He does not read science journals or even use technologies designed by anyone else. Every single piece of equipment in his arsenal is based on his own research and designs.
Nemesis’ studies have made him a master of materials and mechanics. He can work wonders in steel and has created innumerable mechanical devices. It is only in the last century that he has begun to branch out into electronics and biology, and while he has made some amazing discoveries, these areas still lag behind his mechanical innovations. For all his work with recreating life in metal, Nemesis has had a very hard time recreating the mind of a man. His original mechanical brains could fool an unknowing onlooker for a time, but only as long as a carefully planned for set of circumstances prevailed. Even today, after a century of research, Nemesis’ computers and micro-mechanical brains do not surpass the abilities of a powerful desktop home computer.
From the beginning the automaton has played a crucial role in all of Nemesis’ activities, but he has never sought to replace mankind with machines. Rather he wants to alleviate mankind of every kind of base physical labor so that the best and wisest among us can focus our intellects on higher matters, like art, music, and poetry. The automatons then always serve very basic, labor-intensive functions for Nemesis. They manufacture weapons and materials. They dig mines and tend fields. They serve as guards and front line soldiers. They are always subservient to their human masters and generally quite expendable. The whole point of having automatons is to free himself from worries.
Nemesis developed his science in an age of steam and he has never abandoned it as his source of power. While his fuel is more often uranium than coal, he still generates power for his devices by boiling water under high pressure and using it to move his gears and pistons. Nemesis steam tech is literally centuries beyond anything ever developed in the rest of the world and is just as, if not sometimes more efficient than its battery and gasoline powered equivalents.
Much of Nemesis’ technology revolves around heightening man’s abilities and giving him new ones. Nemesis is a great admirer of the human form and the ideal human specimen, and he misses his own body very much. He still regrets that he never had the time or expertise to save the body he was born with, but he intends to do much better by his loyal followers. In the past hundred years he has never ceased experimenting with new and more lifelike limb replacements. Today he has developed a plastic compound that perfectly mimics human skin. He often lays this over metal mesh frame that provides extra protection for the bones and organs beneath. His artificial muscle fibers and bone enhancements also make replacing a damaged limb with a stronger, faster one a routine process. The result of all these enhancements are soldiers who look like men and have the brains of men, but who may well be artificial in every other respect.
Nemesis has not switched over from his archaic steam powered body to one of these newer models because he has already made so many alterations and special modifications to his suit of armor that he truly feels that it is a part of him. He does not wish to look like a normal man anymore. He’s proud of his appearance and his prowess. Still, he understands and appreciates that most men want to look like men. Indeed, he wants his troops to look as human as possible, as it will make it easier for his future subjects to respect and even admire them.
Macro Assemblers
The most obvious form of technology that Nemesis has unleashed upon the world is his so-called Macro Assemblers. Indeed, for the past eighty years he has bent much of his intellect and will towards the realization of his dream that led to this literally world changing technology. The Macro Assembly technology is the result of his desire to build structures and even entire cities to match his exacting specifications. A supreme egoist, Nemesis feels that his own artistic, aesthetic, and architectural sensibilities far outstrip those of anyone else and he is such a perfectionist that he doesn’t trust others to make his vision a reality. Therefore he decided to design buildings that would assemble themselves to his exact specifications.
The Macro Assemblers are designed to function totally independently of any human direction. They are, in effect, fire and forget construction workers. A single basic Macro Assembler is a automaton about the size of a semi-truck and trailer. It is mobile, intelligent and full of a dizzying array of automated tools and basic materials. Once set in motion, it proceeds to break down any and all local materials and resources and rebuild them into working drones, building materials, and defense mechanisms. Most significantly, the Assemblers are self-replicating and so can spread Nemesis’ technology and vision over an entire city.
The machines usually begin by targeting a large high-rise building or other prominent structure. They then rebuild it from the inside out, totally devouring the existing structure and replacing it with the baroque techno-nightmare style that Nemesis is so proud of. The machines spread out like a virus, feeding on anyone and anything they come into contact with. Even biological materials (like people) can be broken down and used for fuel, turned into glue, or otherwise made useful.
Knowing full well that most people won’t stand idly by while his machines reinvent their cities, Nemesis has equipped his Macro Assemblers with a wide array of defense mechanisms. Indeed, the first things any building receives during its makeover are automated guns along with weapons drones to patrol the perimeter. The buildings are smart enough to recognize Nemesis and his troops and allow them free access to the facilities. All other intruders will find the revamped building a deadly, sometimes nearly impregnable fortress.
Each individual part of the machine contains all the necessary knowledge and resources to rebuild the whole. There is never a central brain or command center that controls the Macro Assembler matrix. Thus it becomes very difficult to remove the mechanical infestation once it has begun. One must go through the entire building carefully, paying special attention to the interiors of walls and duct work – places the Macro Assemblers are especially fond of hiding in. Thus far the city’s heroes and licensed contractors have been able to keep the infestation from running too rampant, but it is a tough struggle, and Nemesis is far from finished with exploring all the possibilities his Macro Assemblers have to offer.
Loot
When heroes defeat Nemesis minions, they’re likely to find all manner of different steam-tech devices and weaponry. Listed with each of the soldiers below are the weapons and body enhancements that they are regularly equipped with. As more and more scientists get a chance to study these devices, it has become possible to implant them in heroes as well. Unfortunately, without the service equipment and spare parts that Nemesis and his troops have, they seldom last very long. The weapons are also quite popular with some heroes, as they are among the most effective firearms ever created. Unfortunately they use specialized kinds of ammo that are very expensive to replace. Finally, there are a number of scientific and government organizations who have standing requests for any samples of Nemesis technology so they can hopefully gain better insight into the man and his machines.
Soldiers of Nemesis
These are desperate times, full of desperate men who lost everything they had during the war, including their faith in our government and our heroes. Nemesis has always known just how to touch such men, how to win them over to his cause. Ever since his defeat after the Civil War, Nemesis has known that machines were not quite enough. He needs the insuperable might of the human mind to truly bring out the full potential in his technology. Even more importantly, he needs people, live people, to look up to him and revere him as their leader. At the same time, Nemesis is really very picky about the kind of men he lets devote their lives to him. Only the truly talented and worthy can enter into his service, men who come from respectable backgrounds and show a degree of culture, intelligence, and education.
It’s not necessarily easy to come by people who both meet his qualifications and are willing to fight for a mad inventor bent on world domination. Somehow, Nemesis always finds a way. He knows just when and how to reach young, well-bred men at the moment they’re most susceptible to his offers. He promises them glory, riches, power, respect, and even immortality, all of which he fully intends to give them once their plans reach fruition.
Nemesis thinks experience is the best teacher, and loves to throw his troops into dangerous situations and see how they handle themselves. Despite their rigorous training, these live fire exercises (usually against heroes) result in numerous casualties and a high percentage of wounded. Fortunately for the soldiers, Nemesis employs a fast response medical emergency system almost as effective as the one that saves Paragon City’s heroes from death. He can replace their destroyed and broken pieces with new, stronger synthetic ones.
Decades ago how much of your body was now mechanical was a good indicator of how long you had been in Nemesis service. Today that tradition has been formalized, so that now as one progresses through the ranks, one receives more and more artificial supplements and replacements. Of course wounded and maimed men still receive the medical attention they need, so occasionally a soldier receives an enhancement before his ranks would require it. By the time they reach the highest ranks, all that is left of a soldier is his brain and central nervous system, much like Nemesis himself.
Ranks, procedure, and etiquette are as strict in Nemesis’ army as they are in any military force in the world. At the same time its traditions are somewhat old fashioned, harkening back to the 19th Century, when Nemesis’ aesthetic first took shape. There is a great deal of formality and tradition but there is also a kind of gentlemen’s club attitude, especially amongst the officers. These are not soldiers who feel themselves the servants and protectors of the nation. They are a warrior class who feel that they are better than the rest of the world, both because of their force of arms and because their culture is superior.
The soldiers of the Nemesis Army do not have the normal ranks one would find in any modern day army. Instead they are classified by their role on the field, which is in turn defined by the weapons they carry and the enhancements in their bodies. Harkening back to his youth, Nemesis has named each troop type after an early 19th century soldier type. He has always had a fondness for cavalry, although the days of mounted men riding into battle are long gone. Still, he honors the equestrian tradition and his own days astride mechanical horses, by classifying some of his troops according to archaic military terms usually associated with horsemen.
Each unit type has a coordinate officer type who oversees a squad of troops. Officers are men who have shown extraordinary ability and devotion to the cause, and they are promoted along a different track than the basic troops. Thus Lance Corporal, the lowest “officer” rank, commander of Chasseurs, gets promoted directly to Subaltern, not into the ranks of the Armigers (the next infantry rank). This dichotomy creates a class difference between the rank and file and the officers within the Nemesis Army, which is just how Nemesis wants it. He still very much believes that blood and breeding and even race count for something and likes to reward such good qualities by placing them in the officer corps. At the same time, he cannot afford to lose the support or the manpower available from the lower classes, and so he admits them into the soldier ranks, where they can rise quite far over time. It is, however, nearly impossible to break into the officer class if one does not have the right credentials.
Officers all carry ceremonial sabers, given to them personally by Nemesis (or possibly by one of his look alikes). These sabers are designed to be upgraded with new functionality as the officer moves up the ranks. To lose one’s saber is a source of tremendous shame, and officers cling to them tenaciously. Should one ever fall into the hands of the enemy, the unlucky officer seeks to do everything in his power to retrieve it. The saber’s blade is of course razor sharp, but it also has a number of micro channels and power conduits embedded in its surface and handle. The handle is hollow, allowing for the insertion of a number of different upgrade modules that can radically change the weapon’s utility in battle. The specific saber types are described with each officer type below.
All officers also benefit from another perk. They have the same kind of emergency teleportation safety net that heroes in Paragon City do. When their life signs reach critical, they are automatically summoned back to a Nemesis medical facility for immediate treatment. Thus permanent casualties amongst the officer corps are quite unusual.
Unit Composition
There are nine different kinds of soldiers in the Nemesis Army, each tougher in battle than the last. When players encounter these troops, they should always confront them in units. These units comprise a mix of officers and different troop types, and combined they have a fair amount of flexibility and interesting differences in combat.
Below are units unit composition rosters, representing the ascending difficulty levels of how the players should encounter the Nemesis Army. They might actually encounter elements of the unit in pieces, i.e., the Line troops and officers could be encountered alone, then the line troops, officers, and support troops, and then line, support and a handful of elite troops all together. After that they would start with the next grouping of three soldier types. Listed after each unit type is its threat level relevant to the rest of the army (i.e., Chasseurs aren’t really level 1, but they are the lowest level in the army).
First Tier Unit
20 Chasseurs (lvl. 1)
4 Lance Corporals (lvl. 2)
8 Carabiniers (lvl. 2)
2 Cornets (lvl. 3)
3 Cuirassiers (lvl. 3)
1 Lieutenant (lvl. 4)
Second Tier Unit
20 Armigers (lvl. 4)
4 Subalterns (lvl. 5)
8 Fusiliers (lvl. 5)
2 Color Sergeants (6)
3 Hussars (lvl. 6)
1 Captain (lvl. 7)
Third Tier Unit
20 Lancers (lvl. 7)
4 Lance Sergeants (lvl.
8 Grenadiers (lvl.
2 Sergeant Majors (lvl. 9)
3 Dragoons (lvl. 9)
1 Colonel (lvl. 10)
Line Troops
Line troops make up the bulk of any military force that Nemesis dispatches to do his dirty work. They are armed with some form of utilitarian, multi-purpose weapon reminiscent of an assault rifle. They are also usually relatively adept in hand-to-hand combat as well, since heroes have a tendency to get in close when they fight.
Chasseur (lvl. 1)
Chasseurs wear blue uniforms and have visors on their helmets. They have no implants or enhancements aside from a basic communications unit inserted behind the left ear. All troops have these radios that allow them to receive orders and talk with any other soldier within a two-mile radius.
Chasseurs carry the basic Nemesis assault rifle, which is an ornate weapon with a relatively standard bore barrel. These are much like the weapons any modern army uses and fire bursts of rounds with each pull of the trigger. Attached to the underside of the rifle is a large, serrated axe head that can be used to deadly effect in close combat.
Lance Corporal (lvl. 2)
Lance Corporals also wear blue and have visors on their helmets. Additionally they have an officer’s crest atop their headgear and spike epaulets. They have basic implants that increase their strength and endurance to top normal human levels. Their sabers have no special abilities as of yet, but are still deadly in hand to hand combat. They also carry a standard issue pistol, which is an ornately decorated 12 shot revolver that fires explosive shells.
Armiger (lvl. 4)
Armigers wear red uniforms and have visors on their helmets. They have strength and toughness implants that make them much more difficult to defeat in combat than Chasseurs. Furthermore they have sub-dermal implants in their hands and forearms that make their punching and striking power significantly more deadly than a normal punch.
Armiger’s carry heavy, blunderbuss looking Storm Rifles that fire single, large bore shells like a shotgun. These armor-piercing shells have depleted uranium tips and are designed to penetrate personal body armor or a hero’s super tough skin with relative ease. They do not fire scattershot and actually have quite a long range and a semiautomatic rate of fire. They carry no additional hand-to-hand weapon since their hand implants fulfill that role.
Subaltern (lvl. 5)
Subalterns also wear red uniforms and visors, again with the officer’s crest and shoulder spikes. They have the same strength and stamina upgrades as well as the fist and forearm implants. Additionally they have reflex boosts that make them much quicker in combat and more accurate with their ranged weaponry. Their sabers have an energy sheath upgrade, which surrounds the blade in a bright nimbus of power and causes additional damage to opponents. They carry the standard officer’s pistol as well, again with explosive shells.
Lancers (lvl. 7)
Lancers wear black uniforms with visors. They are easily the most recognizable and feared line troops because of their unique weaponry. As their name suggests, they carry long spear like weapons that they refer to as lances. These are not ordinary spears. While they do have a wicked barbed blade at the end of them, the shaft is also a rifle barrel that fires incendiary shells. This makes for an especially deadly combination in close combat, since any time the lance point strikes something it automatically fires the weapon, creating a flaming burst of white phosphorous that causes sever damage.
The Lancers themselves have the strength, stamina, and dexterity upgrades of other troops. Their sub dermal plating extends far beyond the hands and forearms and covers the torso and legs as well, providing them with highly effective body armor. They also have leg muscle enhancements that allow them to run much faster than normal, making it easier for them to engage their enemies with the lances at close range.
Lance Sergeant (lvl.
Cornets wear black uniforms, with visors, officer crests and shoulder spikes. They have all of the same enhancements as Lancers, plus a cybernetic eye that includes night vision and infrared imaging capabilities. These vision enhancements allow the Cornets to see invisible enemies as well as operate under low light conditions. Their sabers have a flame upgrade that causes their blades to be wreathed in fire and then eject a
Poison � Sabbath
The Praetorians
Overview
For a very long time it was thought that Earth was the center of the universe. Then, in the 16th Century, Copernicus discovered that the Solar System was actually Heliocentric. Our earth is the center of a universe though, the center of a dimensional universe. Primal Earth, as it is called by the researchers at Portal Corporation is right in the center of a vast array of dimensions. Only a fraction of them have even been detected, let alone explored. One of those worlds is Praetorian Earth, ruled by a group that is the dark mirror of the Freedom Phalanx. In their world, they are the pinnacle of paranormal power. They have recruited and organized paranormals into a force that has conquered and enslaved almost everyone in their world. A resistance formed by a few paranormals who escaped the Praetorians grasp is fighting a losing battle. With their own world firmly under their thumb the Praetorians began to grow restless. Tyrant was having more and more insubordination, and then he received a gift. Statesman was on an exploratory mission for Portal Corporation and ran directly into Marauder, who he mistook for Back Alley Brawler. The ensuing battle drew the attention of several other members of the Praetorians. Statesman would almost certainly have been able to make his escape until the sight of his Sidekick Ms. Liberty, twisted into Dominatrix, critically distracted him. The Praetorians struck in that moment and were able to capture him. Even after a great deal of torture, including tremendous mental anguish inflicted by Dominatrix, after she realized his vulnerability to her, Statesman revealed little about Primal Earth. It was enough for Tyrant to set Neuron on a path to duplicate the Portal technology. Now Tyrant holds Statesman for the time he will be ready to strike against Primal Earth.
Organization
The Praetorians represent all the ideals of the Freedom Phalanx, twisted and corrupted. They value conquering and subjugation.
Tyrant (Arch-villain)
This power hungry version of Statesman believes firmly that Might Makes Right. He has conquered his world and like a modern day Alexander he is now turning his eye to ours. Tyrant rules with heavy hand, and it is only through the fanatical loyalty of Neuron and his creations that Tyrant retains his throne so easily.
Visuals: Statesman with darker colors. Perhaps a spikier, more ominous helmet
Powers: Leadership, Invulnerability, Super Strength, Flight, Regeneration
Infernal (Magic Arch-villain)
On Praetorian Earth Infernal never had Numina’s guidance to temper his drive to control more and more demons. When he first arrived on Praetorian Earth, Diabolique encouraged him to bind more and more demons into his armor until they corrupted his spirit. With the darkness came power and soon Infernal had become stronger than his guide. He is extremely power hungry and is happy to cross over to Primal Earth, where there may be more demons for him to use.
Visuals: Infernal with no changes
Powers: Axe, Invulnerability, Fire attacks
Minions:
Demon (Minion, Lt.) – These vicious creatures serve Infernal only because he forces them too. By subverting their will through the use of ancient mystic rituals he creates permanent servants. If his control begins to wane over a particular demon, he performs another ceremony and binds it permanently into his weapons or armor to increase their strength.
Demon Lord (Boss) – Occasionally Infernal is able to find a more powerful demon to subjugate. It takes a much greater effort to control them so he cannot use them as frequently but he still has a significant number under his sway. One of the greatest dangers Infernal faces is losing control of one of his Demon Lords.
Diabolique (Magic Arch-Villain)
Tammy Arcanus was born with great Magical powers on Praetorian Earth, just like she was on Primal Earth. Unfortunately they manifested very differently. As she reached adolescence she began exploring her powers before she was trained. She used astral projection to cast her spirit forth. So intoxicated was she by the new wonders that she was discovering she returned to her body too late to link with it. She watched helplessly as it withered and died without a spirit. Tammy’s father tried to save her but he was too late to manage anything other than keeping her spirit bound to earth. For his trouble Tammy blasted her father and turned him into her first spirit minion.
Visuals: Numina with dark purple. Insubstantial like Ancestor spirits if possible.
Powers: Mind control, Kinetic Boost/Force Field, Flight
Minions:
Ghost (Minion) - These incorporeal spirits have been caught before they could travel across the veil by Diabolique’s dark magic. In binding them to this world she also forces them to do her bidding. They are tormented and distraught but are forced to serve the twisted mystic.
Wraith (Lt.) – After being in Diabolique’s service for some time Ghosts are imbued with some of her potent mystical energy. Combined with their tortured existence this makes her Wraiths fearsome foes indeed.
Poltergeist (Boss) – Bound to the earth for so long and subjected to Diabolique’s corrupt power, eventually each of her minions snap. When they do their powers increase proportionally. They no longer care if they can ever escape; they simply want to destroy the living.
Shadowhunter (Magic Arch-Villain)
Infused with the fury of the Wild Hunt, Shadowhunter roams with his Pack, cutting down everything in his path. He loathes humanity for the most part and his alliance with Tyrant is an uneasy one at best. It is held together by the fact that Tyrant cares nothing for the wilderness and is happy to give it over to Shadowhunter. If Tyrant ever begins to strip the land for resources, things will quickly unravel.
Visuals: The Woodsman with darker earthy colors. He should have a wild and primal feel
Powers: Earth Powers
Minions:
Omega (Minion) – These creatures are the bottom of the food chain in the Pack. They are humans that have been recently turned by the Pack and are not yet fully accepted. They are forced to prove themselves every day. If they are not accepted as Pack, then they are torn apart.
Beta (Lt.) – When the Pack has approved of an Omega, they are immediately protected and treated well. It is an instant transition with no going back. Once someone is Pack, death is the only thing that will break that.
Alpha (Boss) – These minions stand boldly at the pinnacle of the Pack. They are leaders by right of combat and dominance. They will fight to the last because they know defeat might mean a fall from the top.
Marauder (Natural Arch-villain)
Bred for battle, Marauder loves nothing more than fighting and destroying his enemies. Most perceive that he serves Tyrant like a vicious dog but he only follows the leader of the Praetorians for the slaughter.
Visuals: Back Alley Brawler with scars/tattoos.
Powers: Martial Arts, Invulnerability
Minions:
Rampager (Minion) – Marauder recruits only the most hungry and violent men into his ranks. He trains them hard enough to either turn them into rock or kill them. Those that graduate from this regimen are disciplined and deadly.
Wrecker (Lt.) – Marauder is extremely adept at spotting leadership potential and tactical aptitude. When he sees these qualities in one of his men he gives them the chance to lead small groups and operations as a test. There is only one price for failure.
Destroyer (Boss) – If a Wrecker shows a high success rate, Marauder gives them one final test: pick a Destroyer and defeat him in single combat. The fight is to the death. If the Wrecker wins, he has a new title and greater responsibilities. This test is typical of the Darwinian approach that Marauder is committed to.
Dominatrix (Arch-villain)
Being the daughter of a famous and universally loved super heroine never sat well with Dominatrix. She rebelled from a very young age and when she hit puberty and her powers kicked in she decided enough was enough. After killing her mother, the infamous Miss Liberty, she started making a name for herself. She caught Tyrants attention and has been serving him loyally, in all capacities, ever since.
Visuals: Ms. Liberty in leather
Powers: Invulnerability, Regeneration, Hold, Immobilize
Minions:
Servant (Minion) – To be bound to Dominatrix is an honor that must be earned. Going without sleep and other trails of endurance are given to candidates to prove their worth. Passing means a term of servitude where complete obedience is expected.
Trainer (Lt.) - Trainers are very important to Dominatrix’s organization. They teach the new Servants to fight effectively and work as a unit. They also fill the position of tactical leader in combat quite often.
Lady (Boss) - The Lady is the mistress of all she surveys. She is responsible for a number of Trainers and Servants. There is a strong bond of fealty that goes both ways in these relationships. With power comes responsibility.
Chimera (Arch-villain)
When his parents were killed by the villain Doppleganger, Chimera was given the opportunity of a lifetime. Doppleganger took the boy under his wing and trained him to be the worlds’ premiere silent killer.
Visuals: Manticore
Powers: Stealth, Crossbow, Katana, Superleap
Minions:
Cockatrice (Minion) - These low rank servants of Chimera have only the most rudimentary skills with poison. They can create a toxin that will slowly damage their target but is almost never fatal unless combined with other attacks.
Basilisk (Lt.) - As Chimera’s servants advance through the ranks they continue their mastery of weapons and poisons. The Basilisk coat their weapons with a poison that will dull their enemies reflexes and make them easier to finish off.
Gorgon (Boss) - These combatants are among the most feared that the Praetorians can field. Their weapons are coated with a poison that will paralyze their opponents. This allows them to easily capture or defeat them at their leisure.
Siege (Tech Arch-villain)
The masterpiece of Neuron, Bastion is the most advanced android ever created on Praetorian Earth. Neuron used Tyrants DNA patterns to create him, making him virtually indestructible and extremely loyal.
Visuals: Bastion with Tyrants color scheme
Powers: Super Strength, Invulnerability, Flight
Minions:
RAM Series I (Minion) - This early prototype of the Robotic Attack Module was created very soon after Siege. It is fairly rudimentary and limited in its powers. It has none of Sieges intellect or creativity but can still pose a threat.
RAM Series II (Lt.) – The second series of Robotic Attack Modules was more successful than the first but still did not accomplish what Neuron had hoped. It became increasingly apparent that Siege was a once in a lifetime creation.
RAM Series III (Boss) – The most recent Robotic Attack Module poses the greatest threat. Neuron abandoned his old plans and concentrated on making these units powerful and durable. With that focus the Series III easily became the most successful of the RAM units.
Nightstar (Boss)
This android is the creation of Anti-Matter as a testament to his love for Dominatrix. Nightstar is patterned after her in the same way that Siege is patterned after Tyrant. Neuron considers it an inferior design but Anti-Matter knows that one day victory will be his.
Visuals: Luminary
Powers: Power Blast, Flight
Minions:
SPECTRA Series I (Minion) - Not to be out done by Neuron, Anti-matter created the SPECial Tactical Robot Army to serve Tyrant. The Series I was the prototype and is therefore the least efficient model.
SPECTRA Series II (Lt.) – When Neuron developed a new Robotic Attack Module series, Anti-matter did the same with the SPECTRA. Despite certain design differences the two models are comparable in practice.
SPECTRA Series III (Boss) – The SPECTRA Series III is the most advanced design that Anti-matter has created to date. Some of his other creations are more powerful but none have the efficiency of the Series III.
Battle Maiden (Arch-villain)
Drawn from War Earth, Battle Maiden uses high tech medieval weaponry.
Visuals: Valkyrie with more weapons
Powers: Medieval Weapons
Minions:
Champion of Mourning (Minion) - The first thing that is taught to the Champions of War Earth is that you must always respect those who fall in battle. It does not matter if they are your comrades or your enemy, all those who give their lives to combat must be remembered.
Champion of Battle (Lt.) – To defeat the enemy in front of you and take the battle is the second lesson of the Champions of War Earth. They believe that if you cannot hold your place in the line then not only will you fall, but so will your comrades around you.
Champion of War (Boss) – The final lesson of the Champions of War Earth is that you must consider each action in terms of the larger picture. If you sacrifice too much to win one battle then you may lose the war. The highest rank of the Champions is always filled with master strategists.
Neuron (Science Arch-villain)
Neuron is the creation of his own twisted scientific experiment. He gave himself complete control over his body’s nervous system. Once he and Anti-Matter worked together as friends but of late a rift has formed between them. Neuron’s creation of Siege and the favor that garnered him with Tyrant, is the primary cause of discord between them.
Visuals: Synapse with darker colors and possibly scars or a “stitched” look
Powers: Electrical Blast, Electrical Control, Superspeed
Minions:
Electrode (Minion) – The basic model of minion designed by Neuron was originally blueprinted to be a laboratory assistant. It is excellent at following simple commands and would have been well suited for tasks a scientist did not have the time or muscle for. Neuron quickly realized that the metallic minions could be used as attack drones and adapted his plans on the fly.
Circuit (Lt.) – A more powerful version of the Electrode unit, this minion can sometimes cause trouble for a single opponent. A group should be able to easily defeat it however due to its limited power supply. It has excellent offensive capabilities and should be dealt with carefully if more than one is present.
Inhibitor (Boss) – The Inhibitors are sometimes said to be the most difficult of Neurons creations to deal with. They are built to make it difficult for any opponent to do what they are good at. This ability to negate the strengths of their foe makes them a frustrating, and potentially deadly opponent.
Bobcat (Arch-villain)
Bobcat is a scientific hybrid between a woman and a feline predator. It took many painful operations to get her to the state she is now in, so her state of mind is violent and feral. Neuron is the only person she trusts, and her instincts even override that at times.
Visuals: Minx with more cat features
Powers: Claws, Super Reflexes
Minions:
Alley Cat (Minion) – The lowest rank of those who serve Bobcat is filled with strays. She searches the streets of the city for those who have nowhere else to go. She prefers those who have been injured in some way, mentally or physically and bear a grudge toward the ones that hurt them. Bobcat offers her Alley Cats something to fight for...and against.
Lynx (Lt.) - After an Alley Cat develops some skill he is moved to a leadership position. They have to be tough to attain this status but they must have compassion for their comrades as well. Bobcat will not tolerate cruelty among her group.
Ocelot (Boss) – The most important quality that Bobcat looks for when moving one of her people to the rank of Tiger is trustworthiness. If Bobcat cannot hold someone at their word, they will never succeed in her group. Woe to anyone who betrays her.
Anti-matter (Arch-villain)
Trapped within his powered armor, Anti-Matter used to be Tyrants primary scientific consultant. He and Neuron were once the best of friends and created the Clockwork of Praetorian Earth together. Of late his theories have been more and more radical causing Tyrant to lean on Neuron for research and analysis. Unbeknownst to anyone Anti-Matter had cracked the Portal tech. He is waiting to reveal his breakthrough in order to garner favor from Tyrant and his true love, Dominatrix.
Visuals: Positron with more black in his armor
Powers: Radiation Powers, Flight
Minions:
Nuon (Minion) – Anti-matter equipped his creations with the ability to generate energy and channel it into attacks. Although they appear somewhat similar to Neuron’s minions and to the Clockwork of Primal Earth, they are mechanical constructs and obey only the master of radiation.
Meson (Lt.) – Anti-Matters constructs are designed to work together but occasionally there will be a specific task that he wants accomplished. The Meson unit is almost always assigned to these duties. They carry more logic circuits and can more easily follow complex instructions.
Baryon (Boss) – The Baryon are the most powerful of Anti-Matters constructs. They generate an intense amount of radiation and must be carefully contained when fighting in area with a civilian presence.
Mother Mayhem (Mutant Arch-villain)
This twisted psion is Tyrants closest advisor and possibly his biggest threat as well. She is organized and has large numbers of minions she has driven to her particular brand of insanity in her special asylums.
Visuals: Sister Psyche
Powers: Mental attack powers, Flight
Minions:
Child of Anger (Minion) – Mother Mayhem places promising patients in her special facilities and then stimulates their rage centers until they are primed killers. She then overlays clear and commands directly into their minds and turns them loose. They can’t be bargained with, they can’t be reasoned with and they absolutely will not stop...ever.
Child of Rage (Lt.) – Mother Mayhem continues to prod her minions, pushing them farther and farther down a very particular path of madness. Once they are to this level they no longer feel pity, or remorse, or fear...only rage.
Child of Hatred (Boss) – At this point Mother Mayhem has pushed her ‘children’ to the point that they can feel nothing but hatred for everything around them. They simply want everything around them to die.
Malaise (Arch-villain)
On Praetorian Earth the villain Malaise was never counseled by Sister Psyche, instead he was one of the ‘patients’ at one of Mother Mayhem’s facilities. With the ability to control his madness and inflict it on others, he quickly rose to a position as her favorite.
Visuals: Malaise
Powers: Mind Control, Debuff, Slow, Sleep
Minions:
Crazy (Minion) – Malaise has the mutant ability to project his insanity into the minds of others. He has slowly adapted to his altered version of reality but the instantaneous placement of his skewed view upon others drives them mad.
Lunatic (Lt.) – Most of the people affected by Malaise never recover. They certainly don’t without help. No one has been able to detect a pattern in those he infects, but once they enter the world that exists in his mind they are never the same.
Maniac (Boss) – Some of those affected by Malaise’s insidious powers attain some modicum of control again. They also see the world the way he sees it. These poor creatures become his most trusted servants. Some believe that if enough of them are created the world might turn into the topsy-turvy madhouse that Malaise sees everyday.
Black Swan (Arch-villain)
Born with a connection to Shadow Earth in the Netherworld, Black Swan can channel energy from that dimension into attacks and defenses. She is served by minions that some say she draws from Shadow Earth and others say are created by stealing pieces from the shadows of her victims.
Visuals: Swan
Powers: Dark Melee, Dark Armor
Minions:
Minor Shadow (Minion) – These small shadowy beings serve Black Swan loyally. They seem to have no desires or motivations of their own. Some people say that after they encounter them they experience a chill for up to several weeks. They can channel dark energy into focused blasts.
Shadow (Lt.) - Although there are no clear visible differences between these minions and the Minor Shadows, it is obvious that they can draw on a greater reserve of power. Something about their essence makes them stronger. It is uncertain where that energy comes from but the most popular theory is that they are created with a more direct connection to Shadow Earth.
Master Shadow (Boss) – These servants, of Black Swan are obviously different in both size and power from their smaller counterparts. They have achieved a mastery of Shadow energy that can only be surpassed by the dark lady herself.
Poison � Sabbath
This is really all there is to this document.
The Praetorians
Overview
For a very long time it was thought that Earth was the center of the universe. Then, in the 16th Century, Copernicus discovered that the Solar System was actually Heliocentric. Our earth is the center of a universe though, the center of a dimensional universe. Primal Earth, as it is called by the researchers at Portal Corporation is right in the center of a vast array of dimensions. Only a fraction of them have even been detected, let alone explored. One of those worlds is Praetorian Earth, ruled by a group that is the dark mirror of the Freedom Phalanx. In their world, they are the pinnacle of paranormal power. They have recruited and organized paranormals into a force that has conquered and enslaved almost everyone in their world. A resistance formed by a few paranormals who escaped the Praetorians grasp is fighting a losing battle. With their own world firmly under their thumb the Praetorians began to grow restless. Tyrant was having more and more insubordination, and then he received a gift. Statesman was on an exploratory mission for Portal Corporation and ran directly into Marauder, who he mistook for Back Alley Brawler. The ensuing battle drew the attention of several other members of the Praetorians. Statesman would almost certainly have been able to make his escape until the sight of his Sidekick Ms. Liberty, twisted into Dominatrix, critically distracted him. The Praetorians struck in that moment and were able to capture him. Even after a great deal of torture, including tremendous mental anguish inflicted by Dominatrix, after she realized his vulnerability to her, Statesman revealed little about Primal Earth. It was enough for Tyrant to set Neuron on a path to duplicate the Portal technology. Now Tyrant holds Statesman for the time he will be ready to strike against Primal Earth.
Organization
The Praetorians represent all the ideals of the Freedom Phalanx, twisted and corrupted. They value conquering and subjugation.
Tyrant (Arch-villain)
This power hungry version of Statesman believes firmly that Might Makes Right. He has conquered his world and like a modern day Alexander he is now turning his eye to ours. Tyrant rules with heavy hand, and it is only through the fanatical loyalty of Neuron and his creations that Tyrant retains his throne so easily.
Visuals: Statesman with darker colors. Perhaps a spikier, more ominous helmet
Powers: Leadership, Invulnerability, Super Strength, Flight, Regeneration
Infernal (Magic Arch-villain)
On Praetorian Earth Infernal never had Numinas guidance to temper his drive to control more and more demons. When he first arrived on Praetorian Earth, Diabolique encouraged him to bind more and more demons into his armor until they corrupted his spirit. With the darkness came power and soon Infernal had become stronger than his guide. He is extremely power hungry and is happy to cross over to Primal Earth, where there may be more demons for him to use.
Visuals: Infernal with no changes
Powers: Axe, Invulnerability, Fire attacks
Minions:
Demon (Minion, Lt.) These vicious creatures serve Infernal only because he forces them too. By subverting their will through the use of ancient mystic rituals he creates permanent servants. If his control begins to wane over a particular demon, he performs another ceremony and binds it permanently into his weapons or armor to increase their strength.
Demon Lord (Boss) Occasionally Infernal is able to find a more powerful demon to subjugate. It takes a much greater effort to control them so he cannot use them as frequently but he still has a significant number under his sway. One of the greatest dangers Infernal faces is losing control of one of his Demon Lords.
Diabolique (Magic Arch-Villain)
Tammy Arcanus was born with great Magical powers on Praetorian Earth, just like she was on Primal Earth. Unfortunately they manifested very differently. As she reached adolescence she began exploring her powers before she was trained. She used astral projection to cast her spirit forth. So intoxicated was she by the new wonders that she was discovering she returned to her body too late to link with it. She watched helplessly as it withered and died without a spirit. Tammys father tried to save her but he was too late to manage anything other than keeping her spirit bound to earth. For his trouble Tammy blasted her father and turned him into her first spirit minion.
Visuals: Numina with dark purple. Insubstantial like Ancestor spirits if possible.
Powers: Mind control, Kinetic Boost/Force Field, Flight
Minions:
Ghost (Minion) - These incorporeal spirits have been caught before they could travel across the veil by Diaboliques dark magic. In binding them to this world she also forces them to do her bidding. They are tormented and distraught but are forced to serve the twisted mystic.
Wraith (Lt.) After being in Diaboliques service for some time Ghosts are imbued with some of her potent mystical energy. Combined with their tortured existence this makes her Wraiths fearsome foes indeed.
Poltergeist (Boss) Bound to the earth for so long and subjected to Diaboliques corrupt power, eventually each of her minions snap. When they do their powers increase proportionally. They no longer care if they can ever escape; they simply want to destroy the living.
Shadowhunter (Magic Arch-Villain)
Infused with the fury of the Wild Hunt, Shadowhunter roams with his Pack, cutting down everything in his path. He loathes humanity for the most part and his alliance with Tyrant is an uneasy one at best. It is held together by the fact that Tyrant cares nothing for the wilderness and is happy to give it over to Shadowhunter. If Tyrant ever begins to strip the land for resources, things will quickly unravel.
Visuals: The Woodsman with darker earthy colors. He should have a wild and primal feel
Powers: Earth Powers
Minions:
Omega (Minion) These creatures are the bottom of the food chain in the Pack. They are humans that have been recently turned by the Pack and are not yet fully accepted. They are forced to prove themselves every day. If they are not accepted as Pack, then they are torn apart.
Beta (Lt.) When the Pack has approved of an Omega, they are immediately protected and treated well. It is an instant transition with no going back. Once someone is Pack, death is the only thing that will break that.
Alpha (Boss) These minions stand boldly at the pinnacle of the Pack. They are leaders by right of combat and dominance. They will fight to the last because they know defeat might mean a fall from the top.
Marauder (Natural Arch-villain)
Bred for battle, Marauder loves nothing more than fighting and destroying his enemies. Most perceive that he serves Tyrant like a vicious dog but he only follows the leader of the Praetorians for the slaughter.
Visuals: Back Alley Brawler with scars/tattoos.
Powers: Martial Arts, Invulnerability
Minions:
Rampager (Minion) Marauder recruits only the most hungry and violent men into his ranks. He trains them hard enough to either turn them into rock or kill them. Those that graduate from this regimen are disciplined and deadly.
Wrecker (Lt.) Marauder is extremely adept at spotting leadership potential and tactical aptitude. When he sees these qualities in one of his men he gives them the chance to lead small groups and operations as a test. There is only one price for failure.
Destroyer (Boss) If a Wrecker shows a high success rate, Marauder gives them one final test: pick a Destroyer and defeat him in single combat. The fight is to the death. If the Wrecker wins, he has a new title and greater responsibilities. This test is typical of the Darwinian approach that Marauder is committed to.
Dominatrix (Arch-villain)
Being the daughter of a famous and universally loved super heroine never sat well with Dominatrix. She rebelled from a very young age and when she hit puberty and her powers kicked in she decided enough was enough. After killing her mother, the infamous Miss Liberty, she started making a name for herself. She caught Tyrants attention and has been serving him loyally, in all capacities, ever since.
Visuals: Ms. Liberty in leather
Powers: Invulnerability, Regeneration, Hold, Immobilize
Minions:
Servant (Minion) To be bound to Dominatrix is an honor that must be earned. Going without sleep and other trails of endurance are given to candidates to prove their worth. Passing means a term of servitude where complete obedience is expected.
Trainer (Lt.) - Trainers are very important to Dominatrixs organization. They teach the new Servants to fight effectively and work as a unit. They also fill the position of tactical leader in combat quite often.
Lady (Boss) - The Lady is the mistress of all she surveys. She is responsible for a number of Trainers and Servants. There is a strong bond of fealty that goes both ways in these relationships. With power comes responsibility.
Chimera (Arch-villain)
When his parents were killed by the villain Doppleganger, Chimera was given the opportunity of a lifetime. Doppleganger took the boy under his wing and trained him to be the worlds premiere silent killer.
Visuals: Manticore
Powers: Stealth, Crossbow, Katana, Superleap
Minions:
Cockatrice (Minion) - These low rank servants of Chimera have only the most rudimentary skills with poison. They can create a toxin that will slowly damage their target but is almost never fatal unless combined with other attacks.
Basilisk (Lt.) - As Chimeras servants advance through the ranks they continue their mastery of weapons and poisons. The Basilisk coat their weapons with a poison that will dull their enemies reflexes and make them easier to finish off.
Gorgon (Boss) - These combatants are among the most feared that the Praetorians can field. Their weapons are coated with a poison that will paralyze their opponents. This allows them to easily capture or defeat them at their leisure.
Siege (Tech Arch-villain)
The masterpiece of Neuron, Bastion is the most advanced android ever created on Praetorian Earth. Neuron used Tyrants DNA patterns to create him, making him virtually indestructible and extremely loyal.
Visuals: Bastion with Tyrants color scheme
Powers: Super Strength, Invulnerability, Flight
Minions:
RAM Series I (Minion) - This early prototype of the Robotic Attack Module was created very soon after Siege. It is fairly rudimentary and limited in its powers. It has none of Sieges intellect or creativity but can still pose a threat.
RAM Series II (Lt.) The second series of Robotic Attack Modules was more successful than the first but still did not accomplish what Neuron had hoped. It became increasingly apparent that Siege was a once in a lifetime creation.
RAM Series III (Boss) The most recent Robotic Attack Module poses the greatest threat. Neuron abandoned his old plans and concentrated on making these units powerful and durable. With that focus the Series III easily became the most successful of the RAM units.
Nightstar (Boss)
This android is the creation of Anti-Matter as a testament to his love for Dominatrix. Nightstar is patterned after her in the same way that Siege is patterned after Tyrant. Neuron considers it an inferior design but Anti-Matter knows that one day victory will be his.
Visuals: Luminary
Powers: Power Blast, Flight
Minions:
SPECTRA Series I (Minion) - Not to be out done by Neuron, Anti-matter created the SPECial Tactical Robot Army to serve Tyrant. The Series I was the prototype and is therefore the least efficient model.
SPECTRA Series II (Lt.) When Neuron developed a new Robotic Attack Module series, Anti-matter did the same with the SPECTRA. Despite certain design differences the two models are comparable in practice.
SPECTRA Series III (Boss) The SPECTRA Series III is the most advanced design that Anti-matter has created to date. Some of his other creations are more powerful but none have the efficiency of the Series III.
Battle Maiden (Arch-villain)
Drawn from War Earth, Battle Maiden uses high tech medieval weaponry.
Visuals: Valkyrie with more weapons
Powers: Medieval Weapons
Minions:
Champion of Mourning (Minion) - The first thing that is taught to the Champions of War Earth is that you must always respect those who fall in battle. It does not matter if they are your comrades or your enemy, all those who give their lives to combat must be remembered.
Champion of Battle (Lt.) To defeat the enemy in front of you and take the battle is the second lesson of the Champions of War Earth. They believe that if you cannot hold your place in the line then not only will you fall, but so will your comrades around you.
Champion of War (Boss) The final lesson of the Champions of War Earth is that you must consider each action in terms of the larger picture. If you sacrifice too much to win one battle then you may lose the war. The highest rank of the Champions is always filled with master strategists.
Neuron (Science Arch-villain)
Neuron is the creation of his own twisted scientific experiment. He gave himself complete control over his bodys nervous system. Once he and Anti-Matter worked together as friends but of late a rift has formed between them. Neurons creation of Siege and the favor that garnered him with Tyrant, is the primary cause of discord between them.
Visuals: Synapse with darker colors and possibly scars or a stitched look
Powers: Electrical Blast, Electrical Control, Superspeed
Minions:
Electrode (Minion) The basic model of minion designed by Neuron was originally blueprinted to be a laboratory assistant. It is excellent at following simple commands and would have been well suited for tasks a scientist did not have the time or muscle for. Neuron quickly realized that the metallic minions could be used as attack drones and adapted his plans on the fly.
Circuit (Lt.) A more powerful version of the Electrode unit, this minion can sometimes cause trouble for a single opponent. A group should be able to easily defeat it however due to its limited power supply. It has excellent offensive capabilities and should be dealt with carefully if more than one is present.
Inhibitor (Boss) The Inhibitors are sometimes said to be the most difficult of Neurons creations to deal with. They are built to make it difficult for any opponent to do what they are good at. This ability to negate the strengths of their foe makes them a frustrating, and potentially deadly opponent.
Bobcat (Arch-villain)
Bobcat is a scientific hybrid between a woman and a feline predator. It took many painful operations to get her to the state she is now in, so her state of mind is violent and feral. Neuron is the only person she trusts, and her instincts even override that at times.
Visuals: Minx with more cat features
Powers: Claws, Super Reflexes
Minions:
Alley Cat (Minion) The lowest rank of those who serve Bobcat is filled with strays. She searches the streets of the city for those who have nowhere else to go. She prefers those who have been injured in some way, mentally or physically and bear a grudge toward the ones that hurt them. Bobcat offers her Alley Cats something to fight for...and against.
Lynx (Lt.) - After an Alley Cat develops some skill he is moved to a leadership position. They have to be tough to attain this status but they must have compassion for their comrades as well. Bobcat will not tolerate cruelty among her group.
Ocelot (Boss) The most important quality that Bobcat looks for when moving one of her people to the rank of Tiger is trustworthiness. If Bobcat cannot hold someone at their word, they will never succeed in her group. Woe to anyone who betrays her.
Anti-matter (Arch-villain)
Trapped within his powered armor, Anti-Matter used to be Tyrants primary scientific consultant. He and Neuron were once the best of friends and created the Clockwork of Praetorian Earth together. Of late his theories have been more and more radical causing Tyrant to lean on Neuron for research and analysis. Unbeknownst to anyone Anti-Matter had cracked the Portal tech. He is waiting to reveal his breakthrough in order to garner favor from Tyrant and his true love, Dominatrix.
Visuals: Positron with more black in his armor
Powers: Radiation Powers, Flight
Minions:
Nuon (Minion) Anti-matter equipped his creations with the ability to generate energy and channel it into attacks. Although they appear somewhat similar to Neurons minions and to the Clockwork of Primal Earth, they are mechanical constructs and obey only the master of radiation.
Meson (Lt.) Anti-Matters constructs are designed to work together but occasionally there will be a specific task that he wants accomplished. The Meson unit is almost always assigned to these duties. They carry more logic circuits and can more easily follow complex instructions.
Baryon (Boss) The Baryon are the most powerful of Anti-Matters constructs. They generate an intense amount of radiation and must be carefully contained when fighting in area with a civilian presence.
Mother Mayhem (Mutant Arch-villain)
This twisted psion is Tyrants closest advisor and possibly his biggest threat as well. She is organized and has large numbers of minions she has driven to her particular brand of insanity in her special asylums.
Visuals: Sister Psyche
Powers: Mental attack powers, Flight
Minions:
Child of Anger (Minion) Mother Mayhem places promising patients in her special facilities and then stimulates their rage centers until they are primed killers. She then overlays clear and commands directly into their minds and turns them loose. They cant be bargained with, they cant be reasoned with and they absolutely will not stop...ever.
Child of Rage (Lt.) Mother Mayhem continues to prod her minions, pushing them farther and farther down a very particular path of madness. Once they are to this level they no longer feel pity, or remorse, or fear...only rage.
Child of Hatred (Boss) At this point Mother Mayhem has pushed her children to the point that they can feel nothing but hatred for everything around them. They simply want everything around them to die.
Malaise (Arch-villain)
On Praetorian Earth the villain Malaise was never counseled by Sister Psyche, instead he was one of the patients at one of Mother Mayhems facilities. With the ability to control his madness and inflict it on others, he quickly rose to a position as her favorite.
Visuals: Malaise
Powers: Mind Control, Debuff, Slow, Sleep
Minions:
Crazy (Minion) Malaise has the mutant ability to project his insanity into the minds of others. He has slowly adapted to his altered version of reality but the instantaneous placement of his skewed view upon others drives them mad.
Lunatic (Lt.) Most of the people affected by Malaise never recover. They certainly dont without help. No one has been able to detect a pattern in those he infects, but once they enter the world that exists in his mind they are never the same.
Maniac (Boss) Some of those affected by Malaises insidious powers attain some modicum of control again. They also see the world the way he sees it. These poor creatures become his most trusted servants. Some believe that if enough of them are created the world might turn into the topsy-turvy madhouse that Malaise sees everyday.
Black Swan (Arch-villain)
Born with a connection to Shadow Earth in the Netherworld, Black Swan can channel energy from that dimension into attacks and defenses. She is served by minions that some say she draws from Shadow Earth and others say are created by stealing pieces from the shadows of her victims.
Visuals: Swan
Powers: Dark Melee, Dark Armor
Minions:
Minor Shadow (Minion) These small shadowy beings serve Black Swan loyally. They seem to have no desires or motivations of their own. Some people say that after they encounter them they experience a chill for up to several weeks. They can channel dark energy into focused blasts.
Shadow (Lt.) - Although there are no clear visible differences between these minions and the Minor Shadows, it is obvious that they can draw on a greater reserve of power. Something about their essence makes them stronger. It is uncertain where that energy comes from but the most popular theory is that they are created with a more direct connection to Shadow Earth.
Master Shadow (Boss) These servants, of Black Swan are obviously different in both size and power from their smaller counterparts. They have achieved a mastery of Shadow energy that can only be surpassed by the dark lady herself.
Poison � Sabbath Thank you for doing this!
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
Rikti
3.1 History
In order to understand the Rikti and where they come from, you must first understand the nature of the universe. Bear with me a minute here. As is now known, thanks to the efforts of the Dr. Brian Webb, the universe itself is divided into countless alternate dimensions, each moving forward through time at roughly the same pace. Some of these alternate realities are nearly identical to our own, with differences that would be unnoticeable to even the most observant visitor. Others diverge significantly in certain areas (such as who won World War II) but remain recognizable as our own Earth. There also exist alternate Earths that went down a divergent path long, long ago, such that now they seem entirely alien to us. The Rikti Earth is one of these.
10,000 years ago, the so-called Rikti Earth (the residents would just call it Earth if they were to speak English) looked very much like our world did. It had even had its own versions of Oranbega and Mu, both of which had already disappeared from the face of the planet when first contact with an alien race took place. Travel between the stars is very, very rare, even across the vast multitude of alternate realities. The times and distances involved are so vast, that only the most technologically or magically advanced societies can even contemplate it. As it turns out, breaking the dimension barrier between realities is much easier (not that it’s in any way easy or even very common). Thus, most of the “aliens” that have visited our Earth come from other dimensions, not other planets. However, on the Rikti Earth they received visitors from a genuine alien world. True extraterrestrials.
The residents of Rikti Earth in those days were human just like us, and equally primitive. Most of the world was in a stone or wood age culture of one sort or another, with a few city-states advancing into the realm of metal working. The great magics of Mu and Oranbega were gone, but religion and magic remained as powerful forces in the everyday lives of most people. Then the Progenitors came. The aliens arrived in a single starship that had just made a three thousand year journey through space at near-light speed. They were one of several hundred such ships that had fled their home world in the wake of an uncontrollable environmental disaster that rendered the entire world uninhabitable in just a few years. The aliens, already talented astronomers, had located a number of potentially habitable worlds but had never visited them because of the tremendous distances involved. Now they had no choice. They constructed space-worthy arks, each large enough to hold a few hundred passengers along with vast stores of food, technology, and complete DNA databases of their home world’s flora and fauna.
The fate of the other arks remains a mystery, but the one that landed on the Rikti Earth found a new, and mostly habitable home. The ship had first made a series of orbits around the planet, carefully mapping it and studying its population centers. They chose a relatively remote, desert location in what we would call the Middle East as their landing point – somewhere well away from any sentient observers. The air was breathable but only just so. They took soil, air, and water samples, monitored themselves closely and, after a few months of undisturbed living, decided the place was safe to live in.
Their original plan had been to find a nice quiet corner of the globe, set up their own little settlement and start to slowly rebuild the world they had left behind, only this time learning from their mistakes. The Progenitors (as they would later be known) began to transform their environment, rejuvenating the desert landscape with soil and plants from their home world. They built a gleaming city of glass and crystal in which to live, set up a representative government to replace the militaristic system that had existed on board the ark, and generally settled in for the long haul. They knew that, eventually they would come into contact with the locals, but they meant them no ill will. The people were so primitive that, to be honest, the Progenitors scarcely gave them a thought. The spear-wielding natives were certainly no threat to the aliens, and the planet was largely empty. There was plenty of room for both species and would be for millennia to come.
Then disaster struck. More precisely, disaster had struck the moment they started breathing Earth air without filters, but they didn’t realize it for many months afterwards. Something in the air – some radiation or bacteria or virus or just some nasty quirk of fate had rendered them all infertile. Their dream of repopulating this new world with their own kind had come suddenly crashing to Earth. Of course they tried with all their might and intellect to find some cure – some possible processes for undoing the damage. Cloning, artificial fertilization, and every other attempt to circumvent the problem proved futile. It seemed that they were doomed to be the last generation of their kind, possibly in the entire universe.
Despair set in, and for some it led to madness. There were desertions – colonists who took whatever they could carry in a small vehicle and then ran for the hills. There were suicides – males and females who couldn’t bear to try and live a life when there was no future. There were murders – desperate Progenitors who let the stress get to them and lashed out in misplaced anger against their fellows. And then, finally, there was an answer – a ray of hope from, of all people, a philosopher. If ever anyone had doubted the utility of sending a philosopher along on the ark (and many had), all those doubts were laid to rest when The Philosopher had an inspiration that transformed Rikti Earth (and possibly our own world) forever.
The Philosopher realized that there was one other possible way that their heritage and society could persevere. Their great achievements in art, culture, science, literature, and every other aspect of sentient endeavor were their true legacy, not their genetic material. It is the collective memory that makes a culture persevere through the ages. What your ancestors accomplished defines their greatness, not how they gave birth to the next generation. While they could not pass this greatness onto their own, biological progeny, there were those on their new home world who could benefit from their millennia of experience and achievement – the humans.
There was much debate amongst the surviving Progenitors about the Philosopher’s radical notion. They all viewed the humans as a decidedly lesser species, and most doubted that the primitive beings were capable of truly learning the way the Philosopher suggested. The Philosopher agreed. The humans, as they were at the time, were not capable of truly understanding the true glories and wonders of Progenitor culture and technology. Therefore the only logical path was to change the humans – alter them until they could fully take on the mantle of the Progenitor’s legacy.
Progenitor bio-technology was quite advanced, especially in the area of biomorphic modification. For centuries they had manipulated their own bodies to increase brain capacity, improve physical strength and endurance, and even alter their forms for aesthetic purposes. Progenitor culture viewed the body not as sacred, but rather as clay for the artist’s vision – a starting place from which to build better beings. As a result, the average Progenitor lifespan was hundreds of years, if treated properly with biomorphic procedures. It would hopefully be just enough time to adapt the technology to humans and bring them up to speed.
Teams were sent out to surreptitiously capture humans for experimentation. The hunters were quite careful not to reveal themselves or to leave any sign of their passing. They took specimens from around the globe, sampling the full range of human tribes and primitive cultures. Adapting the biomorphic technology proved more difficult than first anticipated. The human bodies were simply not as resilient as a Progenitor. The mutagenic gels and morphing chambers had to almost be redesigned from scratch in order to properly modify a human form. It took close to fifty years of hard work to finally perfect the system.
The end result was a series of relatively quick and painless procedures that could alter a human into something the very closely resembled a Progenitor. Some of the alterations were on a genetic level, but here they had to be careful, as they did not want to pass on the genetic defect that had rendered them all infertile upon arriving on Earth. Therefore the majority of the changes were instead structural. Implants of vat-grown musculature and skeletons. Warping of flesh and enhancement of brains and nervous systems. The process worked best on an adult human, but the Progenitors had also developed a modification regimen for transforming children and even infants as well (although these latter cases required several more treatments as the child grew into adulthood).
Early results proved quite encouraging. The modified humans were smarter, tougher, longer-lived, and more pleasing to look at than their apish origins would have suggested. The poor souls subjected to these experiments assumed the Progenitors were some kind of gods. It was only once their bodies had been modified enough to understand the kind radio-telepathy used by Progenitors for communication that they learned what was really happening. This first generation of the transformed consisted of about 300 individuals, the majority of whom became completely devoted to the Progenitors and their cause. The human mods were honored to have been chosen as the heirs to so great and noble a culture. They had enough genetic diversity that they could propagate the species for many millennia to come, ensuring the Progenitor legacy.
But not everyone went along with the plan. A few dozen malcontents managed to use their enhanced brains and abilities to slip away from their captors – a development that both delighted and horrified the Progenitors. They were pleased that their creations had proved so resourceful and intelligent. No human could have escaped thus. But of course they couldn’t allow the escaped mods to run free through the world, exposing the Progenitors’ existence to other human cultures. The results could be disastrous – probably for the humans.
Indeed, the results were disastrous, pretty much for everyone involved. Not surprisingly, the very alien looking escaped mods could not go back to their homes. When they tried, they were seen as demons and monsters. All of the runaways had gone their separate ways, each taking some Progenitor weaponry or other technology. Even a simple sidearm was more than enough to level an entire village. Unable to return home and unwilling to submit to the Progenitors, the mods tried to set themselves up as warlords or gods. They walked into towns and shot down anyone who didn’t immediately fall to their knees. The Progenitors managed to hunt most of the escapees down, but not before events had spiraled far out of control.
This was still a time for gods on what we now call Rikti Earth. Just as the Banished Pantheon and other gods once walked the world openly, so to did the gods on the world the Progenitors had come to. Blind to all matters magical and spiritual, the aliens hadn’t even realized such powerful beings existed. As for the gods, only a few knew of the Progenitors, and none of them cared to get involved with the unknown beings, at least as long as they pretty much kept to themselves. Now the escaped mods had made ignoring the visitors an impossibility. Their worshippers were crying out for protection from these horrible demons. The gods had to answer if they were going to preserve the source of their power – that being the faith humans put in them.
The Progenitors had managed to recapture or kill all but three of the escaped mods. This final trio had joined together, combining both intellect and resources to make a more formidable foe. They had also stolen some of the most powerful weapons in the aliens’ arsenal, making a simple frontal assault undesirable. So far the Progenitors had managed to avoid losing any of their own, a trend they wanted very badly to see continue. Thus they were unwilling to take any great risks. The Trio meanwhile had succeeded in setting themselves up as “gods” in the Tigris and Euphrates river valley. Well, if not actual gods, then they had at least cowed the local population with a liberal use of plasma weaponry. But before the Progenitors could move to stop them, the original gods of the valley made their move and showed the Trio what true gods are really capable of.
Divine Jihad
Divine spirits, or gods, are supernatural beings that predate mankind and feed off the power of devotion and prayer. It’s a very simple equation – the more people pray to a god, the more powerful that god becomes and the more it can in turn help its devotees. The people of the Tigris and Euphrates were praying awfully hard, and few of their actual prayers were directed at the cruel and alien Trio. Their gods heard their prayers from the beginning of course, but were afraid to act. The gods had little direct power over the Trio because the body modification process had transformed them into something no longer wholly of this Earth. A god of death who could normally strike down a mortal with a single thought held no sway over the aliens’ mortal soul. At first the gods were willing to cede a bit of authority to these new gods, but it soon became clear that the Trio would not accept just a small piece. They wanted it all.
And thus the gods did finally march into war with the aliens. While they could not directly affect the aliens’ emotions, thoughts, or fates, they still had mastery over the world around them. The Trio had built a shining steel ziggurat from which they planned to rule over the entire river valley. Thousands of humans had been herded together at its feet to offer praise and sacrifice to the alien “gods.” Even while the other Progenitors prepared their response from a thousand miles away, the army of the gods struck. Bursts of Divine Lightning crashed down upon the steel ziggurat. Hurricane force winds drove desert sands to scour the metallic surface clean. The earth beneath its foundations shook with fury, bending and tearing the false temple. Meanwhile a rainbow of divine energies protected the gathered humans from the terrible tempest that rage about them.
For all their technology and advanced weaponry, the Trio had no chance against this array of natural disasters. Two of the three died from some combination of electrical damage and wounds sustained as the ziggurat was torn apart around them. The lone survivor was gravely wounded, but still alive. The warrior gods moved in to finish the attack, wielding spears of pure light and armored in clothing spun from prayers and devotion. As it turned out, prayers and devotion make great armor against the swords of men and other gods, but do little to stop a concentrated stream of plasma. The survivor killed three of the war gods before the others struck him down. The native deities had their victory, although it had not come without a price.
As the gods strode forth to receive the praise and adulation of their people, a flotilla of Progenitor Sky Sleds arrived with the intention of eliminating the Trio. They circled the scene of the fallen ziggurat several times, trying to understand what had happened and who these strange and apparently powerful entities were. With thousands of worshippers looking on and hearts full of rage that the Trio had killed three of their own, it didn’t take long for the assembled pantheon to decide on a course of action. The winds began to pick up, the sky filled with thunder, and the warriors raised their spears to hurl them at these flying aliens.
Ever cautious and having seen what happened to the Trio’s ziggurat, the Progenitor strike team decided that discretion was the better part of valor. They immediately fled the scene at supersonic speeds, not even giving the gods a chance to attack. In their wake they left several hundred micro-drones: robotic spy machines the size of insects that could feed them information, audio, and images from up to a thousand miles away. The Progenitors needed more data about these strange beings, and they needed it fast. For their part, the gods were happy to have scared the aliens off, but they knew the war was not over. It had just begun. They sent their own servant spirits and animal servants to trace the Progenitors back to their base of operations.
For a while both sides gathered information and readied themselves for battle. The Progenitors did not want a war. In fact they were pleased that the gods had taken care of the Trio on their own – that meant the Progenitors hadn’t had to risk their own skins. They made several attempts to parley with the gods, but the gods rejected all attempts at peace talks out of hand. They felt that the aliens posed a threat that had to be dealt with fully and completely.
And so the war between aliens and gods began in earnest with the deities of the Tigris- Euphrates river valley marching en masse upon the Progenitors’ base, accompanied by adventuresome and angry gods from other nearby cultures. They battered the base with lightning, wind, and hail. They sent plagues of stinging insects, tore the ground open with earthquakes and even rose a vent of hot lava up from the earth’s core. But the aliens were ready. They had analyzed the Trio’s destruction, and were prepared for such an attack, even on this unprecedented scale. Force fields protected them from much of the damage, and the rest they were able to repair with relative ease.
As the second wave of attack came – the gods themselves dressed for battle – the Progenitors let loose with their own defenses. They had armed their modified humans with advanced weaponry, sending them out to meet the gods in battle. Always fearful of their own mortality, the aliens decided to sacrifice all their heirs now and find more later. The battle raged for a three days and three nights, but in the end the aliens proved victorious. Although they lost all but a handful of their mods, the gods of the Tigris-Euphrates had been destroyed.
This first war with the gods set the pattern for everything that was to come. The gods would give no ground and brook no talk of peace with the aliens. The Progenitors could not maintain a secure environment as long as the gods were still gunning for them. And it was at this point that they realized that the gods would keep coming, maybe forever, as long as the people believed in them. While a plasma weapon can destroy a gods’ physical form, its essence lingers on unless one of two things happens: another god consumes it (as the Banished Pantheon does on our own world) or people stop worshiping it. Already the gods that the Progenitors had just defeated were reforming in their temples back home. The micro-drones reported the divine resurgence to their masters, causing great alarm amongst the Progenitors. They needed time to make new human mods if this war truly was destined to continue, as seemed likely.
Once again, it was the Philosopher who provided the key to victory. He realized that once again it was the humans that would offer a solution. They just needed to change their methodology for transforming the people of Earth into mods. He pointed out that the best way to destroy a faith is to replace it with another faith. In a sense, the Trio had the right idea: the Progenitors would need to set themselves up as gods so the humans would stop worshipping (and therefore empowering) their enemies. He further proposed including the body modification and training program within the ritual tradition of this new religion they were creating. Thus transmogrification would become an act of faith. The mods would not be devils but rather angels.
Although many of the more scientific and rationally minded Progenitors felt profound unease at this plan, they could not possibly argue against its strategic merits. And so the aliens moved their base of operations from the remote desert to the center of the Tigris-Euphrates valley, where they proceeded to build a great crystal and steel temple-city. They fought the gods once again, defeating them before they could recover their full strength. After that, it was a simple matter to become divine. Their advanced technology provided food, shelter, entertainment, learning, and safety. Within a few short years they had one over most of the population. The old gods began to fade away and tens of thousands of men and women underwent the transformation and training process.
It was a process that, once begun, could not be undone. As their power grew, the old gods of neighboring regions grew jealous and worried. They joined together in war against the alien gods. The Progenitors had no choice but to expand their sphere of influence. Within a generation their priest/generals had march upon and seized both the Indus and Nile river valleys and adjoining lands. In another generation they would take the Yangtze as well. A hundred years after that and the entire globe would worship the aliens and begin transforming themselves into likenesses of their new gods.
Heirs to the Throne of God
Even as their followers and future heirs spread out across the globe, the Progenitors themselves were finally dying. Before he died, the Philosopher had codified the process of initiation and revelation that modified humans must go through on their path to becoming heirs to the Progenitor legacy. None of the aliens had intended to set up a religion, and ultimately they wanted to replace ritual and worship with rational thought and individual achievement. But they knew that as long as the threat of other gods remained present in the world, then the new religion needed to stay in place for the safety of all.
Thus, the Path of Salvation that humans embarked upon when they were first modified consisted of thirty-three steps. The vast majority of these steps involve learning the basic tenets and philosophies of Progenitor society. These beliefs ennoble such ideas as a balance between individual achievement and honoring the greater good; a fundamental respect for art, poetry, and literature; and a obedience to laws and social contracts. The process also included a direct education experience, forgoing formal schooling and instead planting ideas and knowledge directly in the person’s head. This teaching tool works differently depending on the individual, but even the most adaptable human takes years to process and assimilate all the knowledge. Thus it can take half a lifetime for an average human to complete the entirety of the Philosopher’s Thirty-Three steps.
Only those who completed the entire process learned the truth about the Progenitors. By the time they learned the truth, mods were ready for it. They had been purged of most religious tendencies and now understood their true roles as heirs to a great culture and society. They also understood the importance of keeping up the religious façade. The best of the best amongst the thirty-three steppers were groomed to take their places as gods, fulfilling the duties and identities of the various Progenitors as they died off. The Philosopher himself was the last to go, hanging on tenaciously for several decades more than any of his fellows. During this time he made sure that the system was totally secure and free from problems.
The upper tier of world society now centered around fulfilling the roles and duties of the 97 gods that the original Progenitors had established (one for each surviving Progenitor who had helped pacify the planet). Each god had, as he or she died, established his or her own Lineage. These Lineages were comprised of thirty-third ranked mods who had received special knowledge and training relevant to that particular god’s area of responsibilities. Each of the 97 had taken on a specific role in maintaining the world society/religion. Some controlled crops and food production, others manufacturing, others law enforcement and political affairs. They were really just bureaucrats dressed up in divine regalia, but this division of authority, power, and responsibility ensured continued prosperity and progress.
The Lineages produced both the successors to the 97 godheads and served as staff for the different deities and their duties. The Lineage system was so successful that there was a completely smooth transition from the original Progenitors to their heirs. They had realized their goal of passing down every last vestige of their knowledge and accomplishment, remaking Earth in their image. By the time the Philosopher finally died, he did so with a sense of relief and hope. His legacy was secure. All that was worthwhile and important in his culture would continue.
The Golden Age
It is not to an understatement to say that the world underwent a lasting and almost entirely peaceful golden age for thousands of years after the Lineages were established. The 97 godheads ruled according to their teachings – for it was almost impossible for them to think in any way besides the way that they had been taught. Their brains had actually been changed to accommodate the Progenitors’ ideals. There was no war, and eventually the last of the gods and all of the world’s magic were driven from the world forever. The earth became a technological paradise that knew nothing of disease, hunger, or war.
The body morphing process now began in early childhood. While still born physically human, society viewed this original body as but a crude, rough hewn, thing, waiting to be rebuilt in the image of the gods. All through infancy, childhood, and puberty, the bodies of every child on earth underwent a series of transformations, all the while receiving direct downloads of basic knowledge and social skills. There were no schools. All learning and socialization came through direct programming. They were brought up to believe in the 97 Gods and to eschew all other forms of religion and philosophy as nonsense. Until the age of around 30 when they completed the 33 steps of transformation and enlightenment, they were viewed as legally children, unable to make any but the simplest choices for themselves.
Thus did the strictures of religious orthodoxy and restrictive law keep the fires of youth in check until they could be tempered with wisdom and true knowledge. The young people performed all of the more menial tasks in society, from manufacturing and servant duties to tending the fields and maintaining machines. For them such work was a religious duty, part of their walk down the path to salvation. It was also a time for simple pleasures and learning, a time when expectations were low and children were allowed to have fun with their lives.
Once one reached adulthood (i.e., completed the 33rd step) then it was time to join one of the 97 Lineages and start working for the betterment of society as a whole. The Progenitors had placed a deep seated desire to improve and expand the knowledge base of their society. Each of the 97 Lineages was tasked with pushing forward development in a particular field of endeavor, such as physics, technology, art, literature, philosophy, or astronomy (to name but a few). The Philosopher knew that a society as ordered and controlled as the one he had helped create would have a tendency towards stagnation and stasis. Therefore he had been sure to inculcate his heirs with a need to do better and discover new things.
While discovery and creation might not have been as fast or free as they were on worlds that allowed for more diversity of ideas and methods (like our own), the millennia of peace and prosperity allowed the mods to make slow and steady progress. They managed to vastly improve upon the existing technologies, all the while adapting their training procedures to incorporate these new inventions. Standards of living grew higher and higher, until even the lowliest jobs for children were simple and pleasant tasks rather than grueling work.
By far the most important discovery came from the Lineage of Physics. A long-term goal had always been to return to the stars from which the Progenitors had come, possibly making contact with other explorers who had set down on other worlds thousands upon thousands of years ago. They of course knew where the other colony arks had journeyed to, but they had no efficient means of communicating with them. They had received several signals in the past thousand years concerning the arrival of other Progenitors on other worlds, but all of their news was still thousands of years old. The speed of light seemed an impossible barrier to break.
Instead of breaking the barrier, the Lineage of Physics had been working for several centuries on finding a way around it. Eventually this endeavor led to the discovery of teleportation, a powerful tool that revolutionized the entire world. The face of travel, commerce, and even how people lived changed forever. The teleportation technology was actually an outgrowth of the basic body morphing process, which broke down molecules to their atomic essence and then reformed them. Teleportation technology rapidly broke down the molecules completely and then transported them instantaneously through space and reformulated them upon arrival. Although it took quite a while to perfect, rapid and perfectly safe teleportation soon became commonplace throughout the world.
The problem of interstellar travel remained, since the teleportation process required compatible transmitters and receivers at both ends of the transport. Even the more advanced teleportation devices used today still require the establishment of a teleportation matrix that covers a whole city or even country (such as the hospital matrix used in Paragon City). But there was one hope. The Lineage of Physics built a massive teleportation receiver and then sent the plans for its construction to all of the other Progenitor colonies. Once the thousand year travel time for the transmission is complete (which should be soon now) then the other Progenitor worlds will be able to build their own transceivers and travel directly to and from Earth without the long wait.
The other great, world changing invention of the Golden Age came from the Lineage of Education. In addition to creating and updating the learning programs used to inject information into young people’s heads, they also had the responsibility for improving the technology. One of their most significant advancements had been a network of small implants that they inserted directly into the brains of each living being. This simplified the info dump process, eliminating the need for some of the more bulky and expensive equipment that had been used previously. Then came a dramatic refinement on the implant network, a system that allowed the implants to act as both receivers and transmitters of data.
The result was instant, artificial telepathy. Anyone with the new implants could now choose to transmit words, images, and other data directly to anyone else with an implant. Although not nearly as efficient as the education downloads, this data transfer allowed a whole knew kind of communication. Within a generation the sound of speech all but disappeared from the planet. Artificial telepathy became the sole form of discourse in the world. Even books and video images disappeared, replaced instead by transmitters that contained the stored memories of the thought and events. Art, theater, science, politics, and every other aspect of society changed forever.
Radical Elements
The Lineage System held society together for thousands of years, seeing it through its golden age and up to the present day. It is only recently that cracks have begun to form in the seams, and new intellectual and cultural forces have begun to challenge the established order of things. The mere fact that everyone receives the same exact education for the formative years of their life and the general attitude of reverence and awe that surrounds any concept that came from the original Progenitors meant that dissent was very rare and seldom very intense.
Some might find it surprising that the first great radical movement came not from the Lineage of Philosophy (which had long ago stopped coming up with new ideas and instead concentrated on defending and propagating the old ones). Instead it came from the Lineage of Journalists, an arm of the 97 that had slowly but surely grown more and more radical over the centuries. From the beginning the Journalists were as much watchdogs as reporters. Their job was to let everyone know what everyone else was doing. They had exclusive rights to poke their noses into the goings on in any of the other 96 Lineages.
Within the Lineage of Journalism was the Commentariate, a group whose job it was to opine upon events, synthesize information, and provide useful and detailed analysis of the news. For millennia the Commentariate had toed the party line and helped ensure that all the other Lineages did the same, but then a reform minded Commentator came to power. Widely recognized as a brilliant writer and incredibly persuasive thinker, the new Commentator seemed destined for eventual elevation to God of Journalism. But then he began producing commentaries and thought-articles that challenged some of the fundamental beliefs that held society together.
The Commentator began to argue that the 97 Lineages and the 33 Steps of Education were having a stultifying effect on thought and even evolution. He decried the lack of original thought in the world. These positions were unpopular, but not enough to lose him his job. It wasn’t until he produced his final thought-article that the true extent of his revolutionary fervor came to light. The Commentator had dug deep into the Progenitor archives and uncovered a number of documents and studies from before the Divine Purging. These studies were made before the idea of modifying all of humanity had ever been imagined. Back then the Progenitors had planned to live in peace and harmony with the native humans. They had done a careful study of humanity’s cognitive abilities and potential and found that it closely matched and possibly exceeded their own.
In other words, left to their own devices, humanity could have created just as great a civilization as that of the Progenitors, maybe even greater. Moreover, since it was now known the other Progenitor colonies had been established on at least half a dozen other planets, their culture did persevere, presumably without having had to resort to the radical tactic of remaking the local species’ in their own image. The Commentator went on to conclude that the only logical conclusion was that the 33 Steps and 97 Lineages were accomplishing nothing more than the utter stifling of natural human achievement. He called for an immediate end to the False Religion and 33 Steps system of education. He called for a world of Free Thinkers, not slaves to alien knowledge.
As one might imagine, this call to arms did not go over very well. While the laws of the land protected free speech, particularly within the Lineage of Journalism and the Commentariate, they did not stop a wave of popular discontent. The Commentator’s thought-article went out with the morning Media Transmission, so several billion people received it directly into their minds before the Lineage of Journalism had a chance to pull it from broadcast on the other side of the globe. As a result, it took less than half an hour for several hundred million death threats and calls for imprisonment to flood into the Commentariate’s headquarters. The God of Journalism himself called the Commentator before her and demanded that the Commentator retract his thought-article and denounce it as a hoax. He of course refused. Since he had broken no law he could not be imprisoned, but that did not protect him from losing his job.
The Commentator was transferred to a meaningless bureaucratic position within the Lineage of Journalism (removing someone from a Lineage entirely is quite rare). There he languished, unheard but not forgotten. Out of the two billion individuals who had received his original thought-article, the vast majority hated him for it. Only a tiny fraction took his message to heart – which still amounted to several million individuals whose entire life outlook had changed forever. Slowly, carefully, they began to find one another. In secret they formed underground networks of would-be revolutionaries. They shared their thoughts and ideas on how to someday bring down the tyranny of the Progenitors’ Lineages and free the true potential of their long suppressed humanity.
The burgeoning revolutionary movement called itself the Free Mind Coalition, and for the most part worked in secrecy. Every time they made any kind of public declaration of principals or intent, the popular backlash was so negative that they were forced to withdraw. The Lineages themselves took no direct legal action, but mounted a spirited propaganda campaign against the Free Minders. Not only did the Lineage of Journalism decry the group at every opportunity, but the Lineage of Education began to alter its thought transfer protocols to include teachings specifically designed and created to deaden the appeal of Free Mind Coalition ideals.
The Coalition was not without its own propaganda techniques. They had members with expertise from all of the 97 Lineages and so had all the expertise they needed to mount a truly effective counterculture offensive. They first inoculated themselves against thought-propaganda by developing a process to rewrite their educations and filter out unwanted thought processes. This reeducation was a radical step, something that had never been attempted before. Therefore there was no law against it. Slowly but surely the Free Minders were building their own society and culture hidden within the folds of the Lineage System. Each day brought new converts and worldwide their number swelled into the hundreds of millions. The Lineage Gods were growing nervous and began seeking any excuse to act more directly against the Free Minders.
Finally, bolstered with enthusiasm by their success, the Coalition went too far. They developed and began to use a subliminal thought-broadcast system designed to weaken and undermine the teachings of the Thirty-Three Steps. These devices broadcast thoughts designed very specifically to break down the education programming and bypass the filters against uninvited thoughts. This flagrantly violated a number of different thought-protection and mind-privacy laws. The Lineage of Law and Lineage of Justice had the perfect excuse to crack down on the Coalition.
The resulting crusade against the Free Minders succeeded in driving the group entirely underground and imprisoning most of its most influential thinkers and leaders. The standard penalty for any crime had long been re-education, a process whereby the criminals memories and inclinations were totally broken down and rebuilt from scratch, leaving them a productive member of society once more. To the Free Minders, such a fate was especially horrifying, as it went against everything they believed in. Many chose suicide over reeducation, becoming martyrs to the dying cause.
The revolutionary thought group did survive, but only as a shadow of its former self. Indeed, had it not been for the inter-dimensional war with Earth, the group might have disappeared forever. But there remained a fervent radical cadre that was prepared to take the Free Mind Coalition’s beliefs to its logical conclusion and who operated in the strictest secrecy. They believed that not only was the Progenitors’ education program a menace, they also revolted against the entire concept of body-morphing. They pooled their resources and, in hidden safe houses and underground facilities scattered across the globe began to do the unthinkable. They raised normal, unmodified human children.
They called themselves Body Purists. There have never been more than ten or twenty thousand of them on the entire planet, and until very recently the rest of the world – even other Free Minders – had no idea that they existed. Hidden away in their secret underground or undersea domiciles, they embarked on an ambitious plan to bring humanity back to what it once was. Children are raised the natural way, with no body modification or thought implants. They even communicate using a spoken language, something that hasn’t been heard on the planet for hundreds of years.
The Body Purists had access to the same files and archival material that the Commentator had originally used to make his case for a restoration of human based thought. For the Purists, these files were like religious texts. They combed every inch of them for the minutest details about human life before the Progenitors had come. Among the gems they found were comprehensive descriptions of the ancient religions and the war against the gods. Having rejected the 97 false gods of the Lineages, they decided to revive worship of the old gods. With the help of sympathetic Free Minders (who had retained their morphed bodies), they collected artifacts and ancient tablets from the times before the war. Prayers, ceremonies, and sacrifices became commonplace within the secret society of Purists.
Slowly but surely, in largely unseen ways, this renewal of faith in the defeated gods began to bring magic back into the world. The long dead deities began to awake, making their presence felt in dreams and through signs and portents. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to keep the fires of faith burning. Were it not for the Interdimensional War, such a small body of extremists might not ever have had any lasting impact on the world. As it turned out, they played a very large role indeed.
The Interloper
There had never been any exploration of other dimensions. Indeed, their entire existence remained firmly rooted in the realm of they hypothetical. There had been some discussion of them while the Lineage of Physics was working on teleportation, but since the group had moved on to cold fusion and nanotechnology, the topic was largely forgotten. Thus when Nemesis discovered the world in his interdimensional travels, they had no way of detecting his presence. The Prussian Prince of Automatons was fascinated by this strange alternate Earth inhabited by aliens. Having never encountered true extra-terrestrials, he saw a whole new world of possibilities opening up before him.
One of the things that both intrigued and vexed Nemesis the most was the method of communication these alien beings used. Or, more specifically, the lack of any kind of obvious speech or written language at all. His equipment could not detect any radio transmission or psychic energy because the thought transmitters used a process based on teleportation technology that is nearly impossible to detect without knowing what you’re looking for. Of course the amazing teleportation technology that the aliens used also grabbed Nemesis’ attention, and it was by pure chance that his investigations into the teleportation network clued him in to the artificial telepathy process.
Even after this discovery it took Nemesis several months to unravel the complex and multi-layered language of pure thought. A lesser mind would probably have been driven insane if exposed to the barrage of thought-transmissions that Nemesis subjected himself to. Eventually though he did crack the language and began to unlock the fascinating history of this alien world and its residents. First and foremost he was amazed to discover that they were actually human beings, although in their own language they called themselves Rikti (which was the Progenitors’ word for their own, alien race). Nemesis had to learn more, so he began abducting individual Rikti and interrogating them, pumping their minds for every last piece of knowledge. He was careful to cover his tracks very well, taking only a few Rikti from widely disparate locations and Lineages.
From his “studies” Nemesis came to several key conclusions. First of all it was obvious that the Rikti were much more advanced, technologically speaking, than the humans of his own home dimension. Second, their world spanning, monolithic government and society meant that once he found the right level to move them, he could manipulate an entire planet’s prodigious resources at once. All he needed to do is find the right lever. He found the key deep in the Rikti’s history, dating back to the time of the Progenitors when there was a great war with “gods.” Nemesis presumed these gods were super powered beings of some sort, much like the ones that plagued him so back on his home world. The war with the gods was the last major war the Rikti had known and it had happened thousands of years ago. By this time the enemy gods had become bogeymen – the stuff of legends, stories, and primal nightmares. If Nemesis could tap into the power of that fear, he would have his lever.
The Rikti had a very small standing army, whose role was mostly that of a deterrent against any kind of radical terrorist or revolutionary attack that might conceivably arise. Such threats had only manifested a handful of times in the past few thousand years, but since the Lineage of War existed, so to did the army. Still, it was amongst the smallest and least influential godheads in the world when Nemesis began to weave his deadly web. The Lineage of Justice had responsibility for enforcing the laws and maintaining the peace. The average enforcement officer did not carry lethal weapons, since most crime was non-violent or involved fist fights and simple brawls. Since only members of the Lineage of War could carry lethal weaponry, violent crime was all but non-existent on Rikti Earth.
Thus the Rikti were ill-prepared when Nemesis launched his attack. He had spent over a year creating perfect automaton reconstructions of some of the most notorious gods from the Rikti’s ancient war. In addition he had created some equally impressive replicas of Paragon City’s greatest heroes, including the Statesman. Thus he had an automaton force consisting of a fearsome mélange of his greatest enemies and the mythical threats to the Rikti way of life. All told there were some 50 automatons, each with the capacity to deal massive damage in a very short period of time. Nemesis sent his creations through a portal into one of the more densely populated regions of Rikti Earth. The automatons carried out a lightning strike, taking care to be seen and remembered by as many Rikti as possible. They destroyed a few buildings – killing hundreds in the process – and then had a short, deadly, one-sided encounter with local law enforcement. With thirty dead law enforcement personnel in their wake, they returned to the dimension from whence they came.
Thought-transfers and memory downloads of the attacks spread across the planet in mere hours. The whole world was stunned. The Lineage of history quickly confirmed that some of the attackers were identical to the most fearsome of the old gods that the Progenitors had fought. The Lineage of Governance called an emergency meeting of the 97 Godheads, something that usually only happened once every ten years. They needed answers and they needed a plan.
Meanwhile, deep within their hidden caves and secret lairs, the Body Purists also heard stories of the old gods attacking. No one was more amazed than they were that their prayers had been answered in so dramatic and public a manner. The attack spurred on their faith to new heights. For the first time they actually believed with all their hearts that the old gods really were out there. And so their belief began to make it so, and the old gods’ power grew more and more. So to did the Body Purist movement. They found a number of new recruits in the weeks and months after the attack, people who’d had their core beliefs shaken and were looking for answers. While 99.999% of the Rikti population responded to the attacks by rallying behind their government and their civilization, that small percentage lost their faith entirely. The Body Purists were, in some cases, there to give them a new one.
The long-dormant Lineage of War immediately took the lead. They called upon the Lineages of Engineering, Manufacturing, and Education to help ramp up a massive weapons manufacturing and military training program. They also set the Lineage of Physics on the task of finding where these gods had come from and how they had hidden themselves. Nemesis had expected as much from the Rikti and had left enough clues and residual energy signatures that he knew the Rikti scientists would begin to piece together the puzzle.
Meanwhile, back on our own world, Nemesis was busy setting the second stage of his plan in motion. He undertook a series of high-profile missions designed to gather Paragon City’s greatest heroes together in an effort to capture him. He then led them on a merry chase through the city that ended in the headquarters of the Portal Corp. He had already prepared the scene and had, an hour or so before, sent a pulse of energy through the portal that he knew would alert the Rikti to its location. Nemesis seemed to flee through the portal – although in fact he used another doorway to a much safer locale, tricking the pursuing heroes into thinking he’d gone to the Rikti Earth. Determined not to let their quarry escape, the heroes followed him through, only to have the portal snap shut behind them.
Three months to the day, on the anniversary of the Trio’s destruction at the hands of Rikti Earth’s old gods, a band of a dozen human heroes stepped out onto Rikti Earth in a plaza smack dab in the middle of one of the world’s largest cities. Immediately the locals began to flee in terror while the human heroes looked on in confusion. While they tried desperately to re-open the portal home, the Rikti military began to descend on the plaza, using teleportation devices. Nemesis had added one extra flourish to his trap. He had set up a hidden thought transmitter beneath the surface of the plaza where the portal had opened. It began broadcasting thoughts and images of war, death, and religious fervor for the old gods. The Rikti of course thought it was Statesman and company stating their intentions. They immediately opened fire.
The resulting conflict between Rikti and heroes lasted for over an hour and raged throughout the city. Three of the heroes died in the battle along with close to 1000 Rikti soldiers and civilians. Still inexperienced at war and decidedly out matched by the powerful heroes, the Rikti armed forces had a tough time of it. For their part, the heroes wanted no part of this fight and were doing the best they could to simply find their way home again. Eventually that’s exactly what they did, re-opening the portal and fleeing back to the safety of their own Earth. They shut the portal behind them and began to mourn for those they had lost. For the heroes it was just another wild, albeit tragic adventure. They had been through equally challenging encounters scores of times.
For the Rikti it was another, even more Earth-shattering moment. The gods were back, and apparently they were more powerful than the histories said. It was their worst fears writ large in the devastation on the city streets. Now all of society bent itself towards the fight against the returning gods. The Lineage of War’s number swelled, as over 50% pf the newly educated children were funneled into War’s ranks as they finished their 33rd Step. This unprecedented step swelled the ranks of the Lineage into the tens of millions, all of whom began to receive new and special training.
Meanwhile, the research minded Lineages turned all their efforts to creating new weapons to fight these old gods. They developed battle armor to protect their soldiers and more powerful plasma and energy weapons designed to pierce the toughest god-skin. They also began to weaponize the various drones and robots that played such an important role Rikti society, creating scouts and cannon fodder for the impending war. The Lineage of Morphology developed new body modification techniques to increase the strength, endurance, and reflexes of the soldiers as they went into battle.
But one problem remained? Where were these gods? How could they find them? Fortunately for them, Nemesis had left enough clues for them to figure out the truth. These gods had come from some sort of parallel dimension, a theoretical concept that now proved to be absolutely true. With the entire Lineage of Physics working on the problem, it only took six months for them to discover the secret of interdimensional travel. In truth, the research behind the teleportation system had already done most of the work. It was simply a matter of looking at old data from a new perspective and a different set of assumptions. The Rikti created their first dimensional portal 8 months after the evil gods had last attacked them.
The Lineage of War dispatched spy drones through the portal to our world in an effort to learn more about the enemy and where they came from. The truth of the matter was readily apparent. These were not the same old gods they had fought before. No, this was something much worse. This was an alternate Earth where the Progenitors had never come with enlightenment. It was a place where the gods paraded about in gaudy costumes and meted out justice or death as they saw fit (the Rikti had a hard time telling hero from villain). It was a savage, warlike place where humans were barbaric enough to still wear their birth-bodies without modification. Their intent was now obvious – the humans and their gods wanted to invade the Rikti so they could spread their backwards and disturbing faith.
The Rikti only knew one way to react to a threat like this. In all their great and glorious history there had been but one true war – Progenitors vs. Gods. The Progenitors had won by destroying every last god and every vestige of their faith. The Rikti would have to do the same to this other world if they ever wanted to be 100% safe and secure. And so plans were laid for the invasion of Earth.
Invasion: Earth
The Rikti planned well for their invasion. They spent months using robotic drones to scout the entire globe. They learned the world’s major languages, discovered out to monitor and decode their public and private transmissions, and made a rather detailed catalog of their military capabilities. They also spent as great deal of energy trying to learn all they could about the Earths gods, or “heroes” as the natives called them. While they did achieve a greater understanding of these heroes, compiling a detailed catalogue or threat analysis proved difficult. Many heroes keep secret identities and have private lives despite their rather public antics. As such, the Rikti had no clear estimation of just how tough fighting the world’s super powered heroes might be.
The Lineage of Economics began to press for some kind of forward movement on the invasion plan. The Rikti economy was beginning to stagnate and faced a possible depression due to the radical shifts away from a service/luxury oriented economy to a military/industrial focus. The Lineage of War, after much debate, finally agreed. They had learned all they could about the foe. Their plans were solid, their goals clear. The time for war had come.
The Rikti attack plan’s success centered upon fully exploiting the element of surprise. Therefore, they wanted to attack as many key targets at once, before the humans could mount an organized defense. While their teleportation and dimensional portal technology would allow for quick assaults on relatively unprotected targets, the troops would have no support once they got to the other side. Therefore, before the big invasion that everyone on Earth remembers, there was a series of much smaller, but equally important incursions. The Rikti sent through advance teams to set up bases of operation beneath their target cities. Hidden deep beneath the ground, these secret fortresses would serve as command and control centers once the true invasion force arrived. Together the bases would also form a teleportation matrix, allowing the soldiers to use their teleporters to move in and out of combat while on Earth. Without such an established matrix, their teleportation equipment would have been useful.
The most important role for these bases though was to serve as fortified gateways back to the home dimension. Maintaining a sizable and permanent dimensional portal requires a great deal of energy and technical expertise, so rather than have multiple portals spread all over the planet, they decided to establish one main entry/exit point in the largest base – the one located beneath Paragon City. The teleportation matrix would then link the other bases to the portal. Of course, in an emergency, the other bases had the equipment to open up their own doorways home, but the God of War did not want 28 different established entrances to the relatively undefended home world.
The fact that the Rikti managed to establish their bases in almost complete secrecy (a few people did notice, but no one believed them) in just a few weeks is a tribute to their ingenuity and drive. With the bases established and their supply lines secure, it was time for the true invasion. Back on Rikti Earth, one of the greatest logistical efforts in history was undertaken – the establishment of tens of thousands of portals all around the globe, each corresponding to a different, precisely chosen location on Earth. There were a few technical problems and snags that caused a delay before the entire network of doors was established. During this delay people on Earth had a chance to react to the strange portals opening up in their skies. While this partially reduced the effectiveness of the surprise attack, the War God would not divert from the plan – the troops would go in only once all the portals were active.
When they were ready, about an hour later, the Rikti simultaneously attacked the world’s 28 largest cities, spread out around the globe, committing their entire strike force at once. The effects of this first strike were absolutely devastating, destroying power grids, jamming communication networks, blowing up fuel depots, and striking hard and fast at military bases, government buildings, police stations, and super powered hero organizations. Then the heroes started fighting back, especially in places like Paragon City where there were large numbers of them.
The general progress of the war is well known – massive casualties on both sides, a slow but steady grinding away of the heroes as wave after wave of heavily armed Rikti and their drones attacked human held positions. Paragon City was lucky enough to have heroes strong enough to preserve at least some of the neighborhoods. Other places like London and Mexico City were much less fortunate – they were both basically burned to the ground, utterly destroyed in those first few days by the massive Rikti battleships and other heavy weaponry.
The Rikti had put a lot of faith in their super-sized battle craft. Although nothing like them had ever existed in Rikti history, the researchers at the Lineage of Innovation had manage to develop near perfect battle platforms. Armed with banks of plasma cannons and protected by powerful force fields, just one of the flying ships could take out an entire city. Conventional human weapons were totally ineffective. Only a large nuclear blast could have taken one down. But because the craft came through the dimensional barrier directly above their target cities, the humans could not safely use nuclear weapons without also destroying the city they were trying to protect. Even worse, the huge ships teleported directly from one target to the next, ensuring that they were never out of proximity to heavily populated areas (at least until they were done depopulating them).
What the designers of the battle craft could never have anticipated was that a single, ultra powerful hero could do more damage than a nuclear weapon. Especially if that hero was the Statesman. Although the huge war ships did trillions of dollars of damage and killed tens of thousands of human soldiers, heroes, and civilians, not a single one of them was still in the air after the third day of the war. The world’s heroes concentrated all their efforts on taking out the flying behemoths. Some of the most powerful, like Statesman, could simply tear into them with their bare hands. Others used more subtle means – including magic, teleportation, and other powers the Rikti hadn’t been able to prepare for. The loss of these incredibly advanced and expensive weapons systems so early in the war was a huge blow to the Rikti. Right away they knew that this would not go as planned.
The war settled down into a more conventional battle, with the significant difference that instead of one or two fronts, it was now being fought on more than 50 fronts as the Rikti spread out to other targets. Their ability to teleport meant that the Rikti could attack virtually anywhere at any time, giving them a huge tactical advantage. Any time the Rikti learned of a concentration of supplies or the location of any kind of command center, they would attack it – either with soldiers or just by teleporting high explosives to the location. It took three months for Earth’s greatest scientist, Dr. Steven Sinclair, to come up with a way to block the teleporters, and even this was only effective within a relatively short radius of the jamming device. Still, it allowed humanity to secure at least some especially vital locations from Rikti teleporters.
The War Comes Home
Meanwhile, the humans were desperately searching for some clue as to where these aliens came from. Statesman was one of the few surviving heroes who remembered humanity’s single previous voyage the Rikti home world. The others had already died in the war at that point. He directed Dr. Sinclair to go through Portal Corps’ old records and see if there was any more data available about the aliens. Surprisingly, the Doctor found a fairly extensive file on the Rikti, who had apparently been visited once before by Portal Corp employees. The file said that they were an advanced, aggressive race and that communications had been established. The beings even learned to speak English. The report also suggested that the Rikti version of Earth was running dangerously low on natural resources and could either be a potential trading partner or a dangerous enemy. Dr. Sinclair presented his fellow heroes with the bad news – the Rikti could talk but apparently they didn’t want to. They were desperate and ruthless and there would be no talk of peace.
Of course the entire file was false, planted in the Portal Corp records by Nemesis in an effort to fan the flames of war. Nemesis knew the Rikti well enough to realize that a peace agreement was indeed possible. Fortunately, the Rikti method of artificial-telepathy was so alien that it didn’t show up as either psychic or radio communication. As long as Nemesis could keep a wall of ignorance between the two sides, the war would continue and the world would grow weaker. Then, in its most desperate hour, Nemesis would ride to the rescue, drive back the alien hordes, and be hailed as the new Emperor of Earth.
The one mistake Nemesis made was not altering the Portal Corp records of exactly where the Rikti dimension was. With this knowledge, Dr. Sinclair was able to reverse engineer a device that could detect energy signals emanating from that specific other dimension. It was through this device that the heroes learned just how the Rikti were sending reinforcements to their armies here on Earth. Beneath Paragon City, deep within Rikti held territory, was a huge portal – the sole permanent gateway to Rikti Earth. If they could s
Poison � Sabbath
Rikti continued
With both the Lost and the Scavengers operating effectively, the Rikti bio-techs have recently decided to see if they can find other uses for the biomorphic waste ooze. Indeed, they have actually had to find ways to produce extra waste material beyond what would emanate from normal use of their existing body morphing chambers because they have so much demand for it. Plans are currently in development to create an airborne or water borne version of the ooze that could be used to dose large swaths of the city at once.
Spare Parts
Meanwhile, as their biological machinations unfolded, the Rikti’s plans for leaking technology to compliant human corporations were also succeeding better than anticipated. The companies all rushed the Rikti-based products into production, creating a sudden influx of power sources, computer processors, communications equipment, energy arrays, and high-strength ceramics that are all crucial elements of Rikti technology. The Rikti front companies that supplied the original technology had shares in the patents, providing the aliens with a source of income with which they could legitimately purchase the equipment and parts they needed to renew their war effort.
First and foremost, the Rikti set about reestablishing their own manufacturing base. Rikti factories are complicated, delicate systems, but when all the parts are in place they work with amazing efficiency. The factories are also very adaptable, capable of being switched over easily for the production of a wide variety of different products, from weapons and battle armor to medical equipment and teleportation gear. Once just a few secret factories were up and running, the Rikti soon had the ability to manufacture everything they needed, as long as the flow of raw materials and specialized parts kept coming from the humans.
With their confidence returning, the Rikti decided it was time to once again go on the offensive. For a long while they had remained hidden, fearful of being found out while their resources were so depleted. Now it was time to take the fight back to the humans and to wage a guerilla war that would terrify the whole world once again. The Lost had been the first wave of that attack, but they were crude weapons – a cudgel. Now the Rikti needed an army that was more precise.
Rather than risking large numbers of Rikti soldiers in battle, the aliens began to manufacture robotic drones to act as front line troops. Drones had previously played a role as spies and intelligence gathering devices, but had only limited use in actual combat situations. On the Rikti home world, robots performed a number of simple functions, particularly in manufacturing, resource gathering, and food production, but the Lineage of War had always resisted relying on them for combat purposes. Once again, the dire straits of the Earth-bound Rikti caused a shift from tradition, and as soon as the factories were up and running, they began producing military grade drones.
The first model, and by far the most common, were simply a modification on the standard intelligence gathering drones. Capable of flight, these ovoid drones were equipped with powerful camera lenses and electronic eavesdropping equipment as well as energy weapons. More than one human observer has noted that the drones look like satellites, which is in truth not far from the truth. The original drones were sent up into orbit around the planet, their lenses being more than strong enough to spy on activity on the ground. It is only in recent months that the Earth’s heroes have finally cleared the skies of these prying alien eyes. The Rikti simply adapted to original pattern, adding weaponry to make them formidable foes in their own right.
The primary goal of these drones originally was to engage the enemy directly and learn as much as they could about them. In effect, the drones were sent out on “suicide” missions to do battle with any heroes they could find. They of course recorded and scanned the heroes in detail, transmitting the data back to the Rikti in real time. If the drones managed to kill a hero, all the better, but even if the heroes won, the true purpose of the drones was still fulfilled.
In the course of about three weeks, the Rikti flooded the skies above Paragon City with the drones. Each drone would then identify a hero and move to engage its target. Other drones made sure not to attack the same target, but rather fanned out and looked for other options. From the heroes’ viewpoint, suddenly it seemed as if the skies were alive with malevolent robots. No one could even be sure where they came from at first, although scientists eventually identified them as being of Rikti design. This was the first large scale Rikti resurgence in some time, and it got everyone on the planet more than a little worried. But then, just as suddenly as they had started, they stopped – or almost stopped.
The Rikti continued to send out occasional flights of drones either to harass specific heroes or to gather intelligence about a certain subject. But the huge waves of attacks stopped after the drones stopped returning new results. The Rikti had managed to get video and detailed scans of roughly 95% of the heroes then active in Paragon City, along with police and military resources active in the city. This provided them with an extensive and detailed database about their foes, allowing them to plan their coming offensive much more effectively. Once they’d identified the heroes they saw as the greatest threats, they sent much smaller spy drones, like the ones used before the war, to follow potential targets, learning their routines and even their secret identities. The Rikti planned to use this knowledge to launch a series of pinpoint strikes when their enemies were at their most vulnerable.
Meanwhile, the Rikti engineers continued to work on more advanced and tougher combat drones. They came up with a variety of different designs, field-testing all of them against weaker and less well known heroes. Only a few of the designs proved effective, but the Rikti have since gone into production on these new model killing machines and hope to see them in action and in force very soon.
3.2 Goals
The Rikti have a huge number of goals, all of which are steps towards their two great objectives: get home or remake Earth in their own image. They fully realize that both projects could take lifetimes to accomplish and are more than willing to put in whatever time it takes. The strategists have broken their overall scheme down into a number of individual goals, each of which represents a different front in the war against humanity.
Contact with Home
With all the conventional means of returning home exhausted, the Rikti have still not quite given up hope that they might some day find a way back to their native dimension. One of the first things they discovered when they started looking for methods to re-open the portals was that only their world seemed off-limits. They could still travel to other dimensions, although none of them had Rikti living on them as far as they could tell. Portal exploration is a dangerous, time consuming business, and it is only recently that the Rikti have felt comfortable expending time and resources on it. They have begun to send explorers (mostly drones) to other dimensions, hoping to find one either close to their own home or at least one that still has access to the Rikti home world. Although finding such a shortcut around the spell that cuts Rikti Earth off from the rest of the multiverse will prove impossible, the Rikti might well find some new allies in their ongoing war against humanity.
As part of their exploration effort, the Rikti have taken a serious interest in both the history of Portal Corp and any new efforts on the part of humanity to once again start visiting other dimensions. With their influence over the spread of Rikti-based technology into human hands, they want to make sure they have a stake or at least a spy in every laboratory that’s doing extra-dimensional research. If anyone, anywhere learns something that might help the Rikti get home, they want to know about it.
Finally, the Rikti believe that they have one other, very wild hope for winning the war. It’s a long shot, but one worth pursuing. It is not known precisely why the Progenitors never came to Earth in this reality, but the Rikti have managed to establish that other Progenitor ships did reach other worlds. Just like the other Progenitor worlds back in the Rikti dimension, the Progenitors in our universe have broadcast signals out into space alerting the other space arks of their locations. The broadcasts currently reaching Earth are between 800 and 1500 years old, depending on their point of origin, but they prove that the Progenitors are indeed out there.
The Rikti hope to find some way to breach the communication gap – to sidestep the speed limit on interstellar communication. They’ve already leaked what relevant information they have to their unwitting human allies in the technology fields. If they can find some way to transmit plans, frequencies, and settings for a teleportation set-up on another Progenitor world, then they can establish a link between the two star systems. The assumption is that any Progenitor created world would come down on the side of the Rikti in a war against humanity. Whether or not this is true remains to be seen.
Guerilla War
The ongoing guerilla war is just about to enter stage two. Since the end of the initial invasion and the closing of the portals, the Rikti have kept a low profile. Now that they’ve had a chance to rebuild their weapons caches and drones, they’re ready to start attacking on a regular basis once again. If contacting other worlds and finding a way home are long term goals, the guerilla war is a short term endeavor. The war is being fought under the assumption that it will be possible to reestablish contact with the home world sometime in the next few years. If that’s the case, the Rikti want the humans to be as weak and unprepared as possible when the second invasion force comes through the portals.
The first order of business is to kill or incapacitate as many heroes as possible without taking heavy casualties. The drone reconnaissance missions laid he groundwork for this effort. Now that the Rikti have detailed files about most of the world’s heroes, they can properly plan for their attacks. The Rikti soldiers themselves try to avoid open fights in the streets – they leave such things to the drones, the scavengers, and the Lost. Instead they prefer to set up complex and clever ambushes or assassinate their targets from afar. They try to strike at heroes when they are most vulnerable and when the Rikti can attack from a position of overwhelming strength. The increasing numbers of heroes active in Rikti contested cities makes their job harder and harder, but the heroes were the key to Earth’s first victory, so the Rikti plan to do everything they can to eliminate humanity’s most powerful weapon.
Of course heroes alone are not the only part of humanity’s defense. Indeed, with the rapid growth in weapons technology that resulted from the study of captured Rikti equipment, the conventional soldiers will soon be better equipped than ever. If the trend continues, it will only be a matter of time before human soldiers are a match for the Rikti, at least in terms of firepower. Obviously this would be a disaster for the Rikti war effort, since they owe much of their initial success to their overwhelming technological superiority. Therefore, the Rikti continue to make deadly attacks against military targets, particularly weapons development and training facilities. They are actually having some success as well. More and more, people and governments are coming to rely on their super powered heroes rather than their military for protection. Recruitment is down and in the economic disaster following the war, the defense budget was cut just like everything else.
The second most important target is the Earth’s defense infrastructure. From the Rikti point of view, one of the most frustrating aspects of losing the first invasion was that their advanced force field technology fell into the hands of the humans. Paragon City is home to a particularly infuriating use of the technology – the force field walls that divide the city into neighborhoods and secure areas make it difficult for the Rikti to move with ease. The force fields do interfere with Rikti teleportation matrices, forcing the Rikti to travel underground when they want to move between regions. Therefore the Rikti plan to do everything they can to destroy the force field network in Paragon City and other major metropolitan areas.
Of course the human’s own teleportation network is another source of consternation. Casualty rates amongst heroes have declined dramatically since the emergency medical transport system was put into place. Thus far most of the Rikti’s efforts to jam or disable the teleportation network have been unsuccessful, but it remains a high priority for them. Thus hospitals and other emergency medical institutions are new favorite targets for the Rikti soldiers, a chance for them to often kill two birds with one stone – striking a hero while he’s weak and disrupting the infrastructure that helps make him better.
The fact that the Rikti are themselves somewhat responsible for helping the humans learn the ins and outs of their technology is not lost on them. The humans provide valuable resources for the Rikti, although the aliens often need more than they can afford or are willing to buy with the money earned from their secretly held patents. Therefore, a large portion of the guerilla war’s focus remains squarely on stealing manufactured parts and raw materials for their own factories. Their ultimate goal is to siphon off as much of the production of parts as they possibly can while still leaving the human companies with enough money to stay in business and keep producing more.
Finally, there is the infiltration aspect of the guerilla war. The Rikti continue to body-morph more and more of their soldiers to look like humans. Although this puts them under severe emotional and physical stress, their value as undercover assets more than makes up for the costs. It was only very recently that human authorities discovered that the Rikti could make themselves look human, a revelation that incited a wave of panic throughout human society. Now that the humans realized that the Rikti could be anywhere among them, there was nowhere on Earth that felt safe.
At first the Rikti were quite upset when their secret was revealed. The ability to act human without any possible suspicions being aroused had allowed them to carry out their technology leaking scheme with relative ease. Now everyone is suspicious. The Rikti have decided to use the paranoid zeitgeist to their advantage, making lemons out of lemonade if you will. Human impersonators have now become very adept at shifting suspicion onto completely innocent people. A whole cadre of infiltrators now focuses exclusively on framing normal people as Rikti spies or impersonators. The object is to drive the planet into a frenzy of fear that effectively paralyzes the people with paranoia.
The cadre’s operations range from relatively simple things like planting Rikti made communicators and simple weapons in people’s homes and then calling the police to much more elaborate ruse’s. Recently the Department of Homeland Security has developed a complicated and expensive testing process that can detect whether or not a subject has ever been modified by Rikti body-morphing technology. In response to this test, the Rikti have taken to kidnapping innocents, rendering them unconscious and then altering their bodies in subtle ways – not enough for even the person to notice, but enough to render a false positive on the government test. The poor victim goes to sleep a human and wakes up a “Rikti,” and doesn’t even realize what’s been done to him. At the same time, the Rikti themselves are already well on their way to developing a body morphing process that the test won’t be able to detect.
Other infiltrators have more traditional duties. The Rikti have gone to great lengths to get their agents into government, military, and law enforcement agencies. Since the war devastated all of these groups, there has been a great deal of new personnel hired in the last six months. With records destroyed and identities lost during the invasion, performing an accurate background check is very difficult. The Rikti infiltrators use all these loopholes to their advantage and have managed to get close to 100 agents set up in various sensitive government positions. For now they are deep sleeper spies, not even passing on intelligence on a regular basis unless it’s particularly vital. When the time comes, they will be ready to strike – probably crippling their various employers in the process.
But of all the Rikti imposters, the most devious and dangerous are the false heroes. The Rikti have always seen the god-like super powered heroes as their most dangerous foe. Unlike the military or police, the heroes don’t have any central command system for the Rikti to infiltrate. Instead heroes work through a network of friendships, acquaintances, and contacts. Penetrating that network has proven a significant challenge, but not on insuperable one. There are currently seven false heroes working in Paragon City right now. Three of them have earned quite a bit of renown as agents of Hero Corps, while the rest are freelance agents and heroes who have developed substantial webs of contacts. All of the Rikti false heroes appear totally human and use technology as the source of their powers. This allows them to both blend in and be easily replaced by another body-morphed Rikti should some tragedy befall them.
Swelling the Ranks
The Lost represent the largest growing aspect of the Rikti offensive, even more so than the ever-increasing drone arsenal. The Rikti want to push recruiting even more, expanding the ranks of the Lost beyond just the homeless and hopeless to anyone and everyone they can get their hands on. While there are various initiatives aimed at winning the hearts and minds of the humans (see below), the fact remains that the easiest way to turn a human front an enemy to an ally is to turn him into a Rikti. Thus, the Lost and their Rikti masters are both in the process of testing new ways to deliver the biomorphic ooze to larger numbers of humans, especially military and police personnel as well as heroes.
The most obvious method has proven the most successful – the Lost have begun to package the ooze in syringes or vials and sell them as street drugs. The ooze’s effects aren’t nearly as euphoric as some of the hard street drugs, but they make up for this lack of false joy with a good dose of increased strength and toughness. The drug, known on the streets as ooze, is becoming more and more popular, especially among gang members. The Tsoo have already forbidden their members to use the drug, or even to sell it. Ooze is just beginning to have its transformative effects on the early-adopters. The Lost watch their customers closely, and as soon as they begin to exhibit signs of monsterism, they snatch the poor addict off the street and bring him into the Lost’s ranks. Now the monster-addict has a home and a never ending supply of his new drug of choice. It really is the perfect strategy.
Right now the Rikti can’t manufacture enough of the substance to make a large impact on the illicit drug market, and so they’ve begun to look for human partners in their endeavor even as they ramp up their own production facilities. A weakened variant of the ooze formula has been given to a less than above-board pharmaceutical company called IJP Inc. IJP specializes in sports related drugs, particularly various kinds of steroids. The modified ooze represents the best new strength-building drug to come along in quite some time and is not detectable by current drug tests. As a result it has become quite popular amongst amateur and professional athletes. The reduced dosage means that it will take longer for the drug’s body morphing properties to manifest themselves, which is just as the Rikti planned. In a year there will be tens of thousands more addicts across the United States, none of whom know that they are turning into monsters. By the time they do it will be too late – their addiction will be full blown and the only refuge they’ll be able to find is in the arms of the Lost.
Hearts and Minds
The Rikti know that as long as the human will to fight remains strong, they will always have an uphill battle. Of course, popular opinion could not be more against the Rikti and their cause. After all, the invaders nearly destroyed all of modern civilization with their attack. Nevertheless, the Rikti hope to, over time, win some support from the human population. Already with the Lost they are bringing humans to their cause, albeit through trickery and addiction. But there are also more subtle methods in play. For instance, music has begun to play an unexpectedly important role in the battle for human hearts and minds.
In their home world, the Rikti prison system uses a sound based therapy combined with telepathic projections to calm and reform prisoners. The sound pattern is keyed to certain base instincts and brain functions and ends up having an effect not dissimilar to a mild narcotic. This aural bombardment results in serene, easily influenced prisoners who become much more susceptible to rehabilitation. When the Rikti started taking prisoners during the war, they decided to use the same process to pacify the humans. While they could not transmit the telepathic messages, the sound therapy did have a pacifying effect.
After the war, several recordings of this sound regimen made by prisoners got released on the Internet. The sounds soon got mixed into dance tracks by various cutting edge DJ’s and have since become a popular form of music in their own right. The euphoric effects remain intact, making the music actually addictive to those who listen to it. Through pure chance, one of the Rikti infiltrators heard the music playing on a subway passenger’s headphones and recognized it for what it was. She reported the finding and soon Rikti researchers had a complete picture of what was going on. A sizable group of human youths were becoming addicted to Rikti prison music.
The Rikti have not been slow to capitalize on this hot new trend. They have been doing everything they can to fuel the fever for music with a Rikti beat. Their researchers have been experimenting with other tonal arrangements and then releasing them as bootleg recording over the Internet. The plan is to create a whole range of emotional and psychological triggers – music that inspires happiness or sadness, panic or calm. In and of itself it’s a relatively weak lever with which to manipulate the humans, but the Rikti plan to combine it with other strategies for greater results – such as swaying elections, paving the way for other hearts and minds operations, and so on.
Musical mind control is but one aspect of Rikti technology that has begun to have a profound effect on human society. There is also a widespread craving to own and use Rikti technology. Although there have been several laws passed that require that any and all Rikti artifacts be turned over to the authorities, there is still a great amount of social cache attached to owning your own piece of the alien invasion. Indeed, there are numerous informal clubs and secret gatherings devoted to finding and swapping Rikti devices. One might think that most of the items would have been snatched up by now, and indeed that’s true – at least as far as actual items lost by the Rikti during the war. Now it is the Rikti themselves who are keeping the black-market awash with new product.
The Rikti have begun to manufacture and release large numbers of small, relatively harmless items into the black-market through their infiltrators. Just as the seeded the high-tech companies with samples of their basic technology, now they’re giving finished goods to collectors who will take them home and hide them away. Some of the more common items include nano-edged knives that cut through steel, life-sign scanners that detect all the biomass within 50 feet, listening devices for spying on your neighbors, signal jammers that keep your neighbors from listening in on you, small hand guns that can stun a human at 100 yards, and so on. They’re also releasing some rarer and more powerful weapons and equipment as well.
The income gained from these sales is a purely secondary benefit. In fact, all of these items have secret tracking devices and hidden explosives built into them. Many also include monitoring equipment that allow the Rikti to see and hear everything going on in the room. Finally, about 1 in 10 of the black-market items contain low frequency broadcasting devices that send out inaudible but very effective mind altering pulses that subtly shift the owner’s behavior and psyche. Taken together, the various modifications comprise a phalanx of secret levers that the Rikti are introducing into society at large. It’s estimated that as many as 50,000 people in Paragon City alone have at least one Rikti artifact hidden away somewhere. For now the rigged items give the Rikti more eyes in the world of humanity and a way to subtly influence the people. In the event of an all out war, that’s roughly 50,000 hidden bombs that can be detonated on command.
The Brotherhood of Our Other Selves
Strangely, one of the most successful movements to win human support for the Rikti didn’t come from the aliens at all. Humans have long had a fascination with aliens, and even after a deadly and terrifying war, there were still some who believed that the people of Earth should make friends with the Rikti, not fight them. The largest group of such individuals is the much-maligned Brotherhood of Our Other Selves. The group’s original leader, a man named Kevin Simpson, had bounced around the UFO enthusiast scene for two decades, writing various books about aliens from the Pleiades and how they contact us through dreams. Then, during the war, he managed to stumble on a real truth about the Rikti. Really, it was there for anyone to see, but most people couldn’t look past the Rikti’s appearance to put the pieces together. The Rikti came not from space but from an alternate Earth. Therefore they must be highly evolved humans. Therefore, they were our brothers, not our enemies. The war was just a big misunderstanding.
The fact that Kevin Simpson was absolutely right has been largely lost in the controversy over his flamboyant personality, cult-leader status, and general reputation as a nutcase. Thus few people paid much attention to his wild theories. Even those who knew he was right – top clearance government officials and heroes, refused to give him any recognition or acknowledge his claims. Simpson’s new Brotherhood of Our Other Selves languished in relative obscurity with less than 1000 members worldwide. Then, one day a world-class hero named Terrence Jackson, better known as Commander Conqueror, heard Simpson on a call-in radio show. Jackson had served with distinction as a hero for over a dozen years and had fought bravely during the war where he had been severely wounded. No longer in the hero business, Jackson still had plenty of fans and pulled a lot of weight in the world.
The retired hero had already come to many of the same conclusions that Simpson had, although he’d yet to put all of the pieces together. The war had not only crippled him physically, it had also touched him deep down inside. He believed with all his heart that it had been a misunderstanding – that something very wrong had happened to both sides of the conflict. He thought the only way to finally put an end to the conflict was to try and make peace with the Rikti and find out what it was they truly wanted. Simpson’s on-air interview hit all the right buttons for Jackson. The next day he tracked Simpson down and joined the Brotherhood of Our Other Selves.
Jackson’s alliance with the Brotherhood was international news. Although many derided him for the decision and hundred of thousands quit his fan club and sent hate mail, tens of thousands listened to what he had to say and joined the Brotherhood’s ranks. Within a few months it became the leading proponent for peace with the Rikti and launched a series of initiatives to make contact with the aliens. Once it became public knowledge that there were Rikti infiltrators posing as humans, the Brotherhood was thrilled – that meant there must be some way to talk with the aliens. Eventually, they go their wish.
The only problem is, the Rikti don’t want peace. Not even a little bit. But they are happy to uses these peace-loving activists for their own purposes. Despite the fact that the Brotherhood is correct about the war being the result of a misunderstanding, the Rikti don’t believe this fact any more than most humans do. They’ve all heard the human side of the story – that the Rikti invaded without warning, but the aliens assume this to be propaganda. They know what happened when the heroes attacked their city and they know what needs to be done.
Several Rikti infiltrators have made contact with the Brotherhood, pretending to want to open peace talks. However, the infiltrators refuse to meet with anyone but members of the brotherhood – they claim they just don’t trust the human governments. In fact, the Rikti want to keep any unfriendlies at arms length from their infiltrators and so don’t want to knowingly expose an operative to hostile forces. The Rikti are slowly but surely leading the Brotherhood on – giving them just enough to go on and continue to build their membership. The more humans who look upon the Rikti with hope and friendship instead of fear and loathing, the better.
The Rikti have begun feeding the Brotherhood talking points and pretty much telling them anything they want to hear while making no promises to stop fighting. Already a good percentage of the Brotherhood has been funneled into The Lost, swelling that group’s ranks. At the same time, the Rikti have begun using infiltrators to give money to the Brotherhood’s political lobbyists in hopes of influencing government decisions in their favor. While they don’t expect the U.S. government to declare an end to hostile relations, they do want the restrictions on ownership of Rikti technology and the listening to Rikti music to be lifted. That way they can get more of their trick technology and mind altering tunes into the public sphere.
The one intriguing thing about the Brotherhood is that they seem as interested in reestablishing contact with the Rikti dimension as the aliens themselves are. The Rikti of course support this endeavor fully, and have given the Brotherhood some key advice and technological support. Although the aliens doubt that the humans will have any more luck than they have, there’s no harm in letting others carry on the research. Perhaps the human perspective will catch something the Rikti scientists have missed.
Living Space
Based on the very real possibility that the Rikti are stuck on earth for a long time to come, they have begun to make plans for a prolonged stay. That means, first and foremost, having secure and secret bases of operation where they can retreat and live in relative peace. There are of course very few, if any places above ground that would be suitable for such a base, especially in this day of advance spy satellites and increased states of heightened alert. In a move that, not surprisingly, mirrors the same decisions made by the Body Purists on their home world, the Rikti have taken to building their facilities underground and on the ocean floor.
The underground bases fall into two broad locations – those located near or under population areas and those in the wilderness. The urban bases are the most common and the smallest in terms of square footage. All of these bases are purely military in function and are really more supply depots and staging areas than actual bases of operation. Most of these were built before or during the war, although the Rikti continue to add new bases and modify existing ones. Up until recently, most of the Rikti on Earth lived in facilities like these – cramped and overflowing with machinery and defense systems. Originally they were all linked to the home world by a teleportation network, but since the portals closed they’ve been cut off from their normal supply bases. Recently, non-combat personnel have finally been able to move out of the urban bases to the newer wilderness facilities.
The wilderness bases are set deep underground far away from any lost cities, subway tunnels, or sewer pipes. There are currently five large and twenty-seven small bases of this type scattered around the globe. One of the large ones is deep beneath the Appalachian mountains, not to many hundred of miles from Paragon City. All research, manufacturing, and medical activity takes place in these isolated bases. The only way to access them is through either teleportation or burrowing through at least two miles of rock. The Rikti even teleport in their air and water supplies, so there is never any link to the outside world. Thus far, no humans have become aware of these bases, which is just how the Rikti want matters to remain. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, all the Rikti on the planet live in their forward deployment facilities beneath the cities.
The wilderness bases serve as refuges for the Rikti, serving not only as manufacturing and research centers, but also as a place for rest and recuperation. They include underground parks with plants and animals from the home world (recreated from DNA samples or by bio-morphing terrestrial life forms), restaurants, and entertainment centers. The Rikti do their best to provide all the comforts of home, although right now the amenities are pretty bare bones. Nevertheless, a furlough to a wilderness base is always appreciated by the front line troops.
The establishment of these secure areas has allowed for the inception of a new, long-term program: breeding. If the Rikti are going to be on Earth for decades (or even forever), then they need to perpetuate their species, or rather, their traditions, because of course at birth they are still human. Although it’s hard for humans to tell the difference at first glance (or even on closer inspection), the Rikti do have both male and females on Earth in roughly equal proportions. The Rikti long ago did away with any kind of gender discrimination once bio-morphing made it impossible for anyone to claim that one gender was physically or intellectually superior to another. Males and females serve together in all the 97 Lineages as equals.
Normally procreation during a war violates the credos of the Lineage of War, but as with so many other things, desperate times have called for desperate measures. Now the Demi-Gods are actively encouraging their followers to breed. Once a pregnancy happens, the fetus is removed and brought up in a secure machine environment in one of the large wilderness bases where it is brought to term. After that, the parents do retain parental rights, although most children will be brought up by care facilities while the biological parents perform their duties in the war effort. Thus far there have been several thousand pregnancies, but the program is less than four months old, so there have been no births. The Rikti hope to have as many as 5,000 births within the next year and another 10,000 the year after that. Obviously this is a long term project that will require decades to see benefits, so the bases where these children are being brought up (and morphed from humans into Rikti) must be kept secure and secret at all costs.
The newest initiative is the establishment of underwater bases on the ocean’s floor. Only one small base has been built thus far, in the Atlantic Ocean about 500 miles East of Paragon City. It is an exploratory facility that serves as a launching pad for various drones that are searching the sea floor for natural resources and potential allies. There are several civilizations beneath the waves that even the humans don’t know about. The Rikti hope to establish diplomatic relations with these other societies and bring them into the war against the humans. They have already begun experimenting with bio-morph procedures to create Rikti capable of living and breathing underwater and a great pressures.
One of the more controversial proposed programs has yet to go into full effect, but it is in the test phase. The Rikti are exploring the idea of creating Infiltrator Communities – entire neighborhoods or small towns composed of nothing but bio-morphed Rikti posing as humans. These communities would allow for more detailed cover stories and provide safe havens for infiltrators and soldiers alike. The controversial aspect of the program is to allow the infiltrators to breed true – to have children and retain their human appearance but bring them up in the Rikti way. This concept flies in the face of every Rikti tradition and has not yet been approved, but some feel that it is the only way to ensure that the Rikti legacy survives, no matter who wins the war.
Magic and Mysticism
The one area where the Rikti remain most blind is the area of magic and religion. Ever since the war with the gods thousands of years ago, the Rikti have eschewed anything that smacked of the supernatural. When they arrived on Earth, they found that the supernatural is everywhere and it can be most deadly. Even though they don’t realize what’s happened on their home world (if they did, they would fear magic all the more), they got a taste of its power when they accidentally revealed the underground city of Oranbega and thus roused the anger – and armies – of the Circle of Thorns.
As much as the Demi-Gods of War might wish it otherwise, the Rikti realize that they must come to terms with these powerful forces, and so one of their latest initiatives centers around finding out more about magic. The Rikti are not even sure where to begin. Their most logical potential ally, the Circle of Thorns, wants nothing to do with them. After all, it was the Rikti who uncovered their secret city and inadvertently shattered the protective spells that kept it hidden and safe. Every contact between the two groups results in fighting, and the Circle seems capable of even sniffing out the Rikti infiltrators.
Therefore the Rikti have resulted to cruder means – kidnapping magicians and interrogating them fro what they want to know. As it turns out, a lot of self proclaimed mystics don’t know nearly as much as they pretend to, and don’t stand up well to torture and invasive mind control techniques. The Rikti have learned a lot, but most of it is nonsense that contradicts other things they’ve learned. The few real mystics they’ve gotten their hands on tend to be less forthcoming and much harder to keep in custody. Still, they have managed to learn a thing or two and their magical knowledge base is slowly expanding.
The Rikti investigators toyed with the idea of dealing with demons, but soon enough figured out that this was a bad idea after just one negative experience with the creatures. The Rikti don’t like anything they can’t control, and demons and spirits make them very nervous. Thus they’re of two minds about a recent proposal by members of the Banished Pantheon. The followers of those malevolent gods would like nothing more than to work with the Rikti. After all, the alien invaders have been the greatest cause of chaos and suffering in human history – the first to really devastate the entire world at once. The Pantheon are pleased to offer the Rikti anything the want, but so far the Demi-God of Diplomacy on Earth remains torn – she doesn’t trust the demonic creatures but sees a great opportunity.
Efforts by the Rikti themselves to practice magic on their own have thus far proved not only unsuccessful, but counterproductive. Much as on their own home world where the Body Purists have awoken long-dead gods, a few of the would-be Rikti magician have aroused similar religious feeling within their own hearts. Two of these even went so far as to start worshipping human gods and, although they protested their continued loyalty, were judged unfit for duty. The Demi-God of War ordered their minds completely wiped and rebuilt from scratch in an attempt to scourge the viral meme of religion from Rikti society. Since then direct magical experimentation by Rikti researchers has been strictly off-limits, although a few continue on in secrecy. What will become of their occult investigations remains to be seen.
3.3 Behavior Patterns and Culture
3.3.1 Culture Shock
Being isolated from their home world and their native culture has had a profound effect upon the Rikti on Earth. All told there are probably 100,000 of the aliens hidden away in various underground bases, and fully three quarters of them are trained soldiers. This last point is particularly important, because it’s indicative of a greater truth: of the 97 Lineages that make up Rikti society, only 14 have representatives on Earth. All of these are in the military, medical, or science fields, with no representatives from the arts, culture, philosophy, education, justice, or other non-military Lineages. This lack of diversity has had a profound effect on the stranded soldiers, since all of them are used to having those other parts of society active in their lives. Not only is it a morale problem, but the lack of diversity is actually beginning to change the way the Rikti on Earth think.
All Rikti receive the same basic education, which includes beginner level knowledge of and appreciation for all 97 of the Lineages. They know enough to understand each Lineage’s basic tenets and functions and have the core philosophies down. What they lack are the various skills necessary to fully perform the duties of the Lineages. None of them know how to act or play instruments or write legislation or organize an urban renewal plan, but they know what all of those things should look like when they’re done properly. The Rikti refer to this level of knowledge as “Evaluatory,” meaning that everyone knows what everyone else’s job should look like when done right. This ability to evaluate is crucial to Rikti society since it keeps the various Lineages honest – they can’t shirk their duties or radically change their responsibilities because everyone will notice that the Lineage isn’t doing the job it’s supposed to do.
Now the Rikti on Earth are being forced to, in effect, reverse engineer the duties of all the other Lineages. They know what laws are supposed to accomplish, so when they write new codes of conduct for their military personnel operating undercover they have a general sense of what to do. The same goes for composing music or running the business side of their technology trading program with the humans or anything else. The Rikti are finding this shift in thinking a challenge, but certainly not an insuperable one. Indeed, the most amazing thing about the whole issue is that Rikti are beginning, for the first time in millennia, to think outside of their own Lineages. This is almost unprecedented in Rikti culture, but it is an unavoidable consequence of the current situation.
The result is basically a total breakdown of the Lineage system. Because there are so few Rikti and so much to do, everyone has to wear at least three or four different hats. Whoever’s best at or most enthusiastic about something is usually the one who ends up doing it. As the Lineages break down, chains of command and areas of responsibility have also become muddled. For instance, there was no one from the Lineage of Manufacturing on Earth when the portals sealed, but manufacturing has become an important part of the current Rikti strategy on Earth. Setting up the new factories fell upon the shoulders of members of the Lineages of Engineering, Physics, and War, all of whom thought that they should be in charge. Ultimately it was someone from War that took command (as is often the case), but in the process he had begun to think of himself not just as a soldier of War but also as a new Demi-God of Manufacturing. He was not the first or last Rikti to see the wide-open situation as an opportunity for personal advancement.
Two factions have formed within the Rikti society. On the one hand there are the so-called Restructurists, who believe that the Lineage system should be entirely abandoned while on Earth and that either a new system developed or the whole undertaking put under the authority of the Lineage of War. Since the majority of Rikti on Earth are soldiers, it should come as no surprise that this is the more populous faction. Then there are the Traditionalists who believe that the Rikti on Earth should try and recreate the system that has worked so well on their own world for countless generations. They want to re-establish all 97 Lineages by transferring members from War into other areas of responsibility.
The Traditionalist program seems needlessly disruptive and over ambitious at first glance. After all, the Rikti are fighting a war, not running a society. But many now believe that they will never be able to return home and that their only hope for peace is to remake this Earth as the Progenitors once remade their own home world. Furthermore, a number of Rikti see great advantage for themselves if they were allowed to be founding members of one of the other Lineages. Once the war is over and the humans conquered, they will be bale to become Gods and Demi-Gods in their own rights, an honor few would be able to achieve back home. Even if contact with their native dimension gets reestablished, the war on Earth will continue until victory is complete. When that happens, the Earth will need its own gods too. Either way, the Traditionalists feel that they have much to gain, both personally and as a people, from establishing the Lineages now.
So far, the Restructurists rule the day, but as the war lingers on and time passes, it becomes more and more clear that the Rikti might never be going home. Thus the Traditionalist movement receives more and more support. Already some Rikti have begun training themselves for roles in the different, currently unrepresentative Lineages. The leaders of the faction have begun to form their own Shadow Lineages, unofficial groups that study and train for the day when they will assume their new duties. The Demi-God of War in charge of all affairs on Earth has decided to let these Rikti do as they please – as long as they perform their normal duties as expected. He fears (rightly) that any attempt to crack down on the Traditionalists might cause a severe breach in morale and possibly even split the Rikti on Earth permanently.
3.4 Relations With Other Villains
Let’s face it, no one likes the Rikti. After all, they nearly destroyed the entire planet, which wouldn’t have good for any of the various villainous agendas out there. Even the Banished Pantheon needs fear to feed on. Nemesis himself was surprised at how devastatingly effective the Rikti invasion force was. He lucked out – the invasion was stopped, and even he’s not sure why – and his plans continue forward as anticipated, in spite of events, not because of them.
That having been said, there are other villains who work with the Rikti, although many of them don’t even realize it. The Rikti know exactly how hated they are, and have gone to great lengths to secure other means of finding and then exploiting new allies. Their human-looking infiltrators are their greatest asset in this effort, and they have used them effectively, even since their existence became public knowledge.
The Rikti allies fall into several categories, the first of which are those that don’t realize (or won’t even admit to themselves) that they’re working with the alien invaders. First among these is Crey Industries, which has benefited more from Rikti technology leaks than any other company. Crey provides many of the manufactured parts the Rikti need to make their weapons, armor, and other equipment and it sells them under the table and in violation of several laws. In return, Crey has made billions upon billions of dollars from Rikti based products and patents. It’s fair to say that Rikti technology leaks accounted for at least a third of the company’s profits in the last six months. With numbers like that, the Countess is unwilling to look to closely at her new best friends. In return, the Rikti avoid attacking any Crey owned or operated facilities, and even the Lost holds back on fighting Crey. The close economic alliance between the two is too vital for the Rikti to risk disrupting it.
Another unknowing ally is Vahzilok, who has also benefited from Rikti tech leaks. In return he has provided corpses and live bodies that the Rikti use in their biomorphing experiments. Vahzilok has also provided many new members for the Lost. While he knows he’s working with the Lost, he has no idea that the Rikti are actually behind the monstrous vagabonds. If he did, he would pull out of the alliance completely, but for now the two groups help each other in the pursuit of their individual goals.
The Banished Pantheon is a willing ally, although one the Rikti don’t trust. Luckily, the Pantheon doesn’t ask much in return. They want the misery and pain and desperation that the Rikti cause. Therefore, they’re happy to do whatever they can to help the invaders fight their war. They are a constant source of information for the Rikti, although sometimes they like to play both sides against the middle. On more than one occasion they’ve tipped the Rikti off about some choice target and then given the same information to some heroes, ensuring a titanic battle that spills over into the streets and causes chaos. The Rikti don’t trust the Pantheon, but often times their information or assistance is too valuable to be ignored.
As he has been from the beginning, Nemesis is still takes a secret role in influencing Rikti affairs. While the aliens are aware of Nemesis and his followers, the two groups rarely clash. The Rikti certainly have no problems or qualms about fighting Nemesis, but the mad genius usually manipulates matters so that it makes more sense for the aliens to avoid a fight rather than seek one out. In the meantime, Nemesis watches the aliens closely. He desperately wants to know why contact with the home world was cut off, but he also wants to know what the Rikti are up to. He plans to keep the fires of war stoked so that the Rikti can eliminate as many heroes and governmental authority figures as possible. Then, at the last moment, he will sweep in and save humanity from the aliens when their heroes could not. At least that’s the plan.
The rest of the groups pretty much universally despise the Rikti. The 5th Column thinks they’re a huge threat to humanity and pure Aryan living. The Devouring Earth has it on strict authority from Gaia that the Rikti are no good for the planet under any circumstances. The Clockwork King doesn’t much care for them, but is honestly too wrapped up in his own delusions to get involved. The Freakshow see them as just another set of potential oppressors, probably worse than the status quo. The Sky Raiders are largely veterans of the war against the Rikti, and their feelings haven’t changed. The Circle of Thorns fears them and still hates them for shattering Oranbega’s shield. The Tsoo hate them as well, because they’re bad for business.
To sum up, the Rikti don’t have many friends. They also don’t need very many. Even cut off from home, they are the most powerful single force on the planet right now. It is only their own caution and the devotion of a world full of heroes and allied armies that keep them at bay. Like the British of old, the Rikti have no permanent allies, only permanent interests. Their most abiding interest is getting home. Failing that, they will rule this planet and remake it in the image of their own land, just as the Progenitors did.
Poison � Sabbath
Sky Raiders
3.1 History
Colonel Virgil Duray served his country with distinction for close to two decades. First as an Army Ranger and then in the elite Meta Force anti-super villain unit, Col. Duray led his men into countless dangerous situations and always came out victorious. A fervent traditionalist and devout believer in codes military honor and traditional American values, Virgil Duray is that last person you’d expect to go rogue. But then again, it’s often the zealous traditionalists who are among the first to crack when the world takes an unexpected turn.
The Joint Command Special Threat Response Battalion (JCSTRB), nicknamed Meta Force by its members, was the U.S. military’s most recent response to the threat posed by super powered villains and other so-called high power-concentration threats. They received special training, the latest advanced equipment, and worked along side some of the most powerful super powered heroes in the military. From its inception in 1995, Col. Duray was a part of the unit and personally led troops into battle on over 100 missions from 1995 up until the Rikti Invasion. During the Rikti war the Meta Force was at the forefront of the fight, and consequently it suffered terrible losses. Its 85% casualty rate was the highest in the armed forces during the war, including 100% of the team’s super powered members.
After the war the survivors, including Col. Duray, were weary and depressed, but ready to fight on. Their unit received upgraded equipment, including newly designed jump packs that would help them fight the Rikti in the air. They were re-imagined as a rapid response force to counter remaining Rikti forces. The unit was now much smaller than it once was, but all the members were combat tested veterans who had fought together throughout the war and were all fanatically loyal to Col. Duray. As for the Colonel himself, he accepted his new assignment stoically, but he was growing uncomfortable. He resented the fact that the world had to rely on heroes, not the military to win the war against the Rikti. He also despised the idea that non-U.S. agencies like the Vanguard and other foreign influences. The Colonel was very uncomfortable trusting so much to foreign nationals and civilian heroes with no chain of command or discipline.
The night before Duray’s new squad was set to deploy he received a knock at his door. He woke up to find a package of files, photos, and computer disks on his front stoop. He spent the next six hours pouring through every document, horrified at what he saw. The package contained seemingly incontrovertible proof that the Freedom Phalanx had been responsible for starting the Rikti War and that they had done so as a conscious grab for power. Over the next two weeks Duray followed up every lead he could, and always the package’s information proved accurate, even about the most top-secret information. Duray had no choice but to believe it was true. Finally, he shared his findings with his top officers and NCO’s. They all agreed, their country and the entire world had been betrayed, sold out to the super powered men and women who had now set themselves up as the ultimate power in the country. When, a day later, the order came down that Duray’s unit was to be transferred under the direct command of the hero controlled Vanguard, that was the final straw.
Duray and his men never reported to their new duty station. When the commanding officer of the base sent someone around to find the colonel, she discovered that the entire unit had disappeared, along with all of their equipment. Duray and his men had gone AWOL, taking several billion dollars of experimental high tech weapons systems with them. Thus the Sky Raiders were born, and soon made their presence felt in the city.
Duray retained a network of both retired and active military contacts, many of them sympathetic to his new situation. Duray and company picked pseudonyms and took to calling themselves the Sky Raiders. Through Duray’s contacts they began hiring themselves out as mercenaries, specializing in working for conservative and corporate interests around the country. These mercenary activities funded their continued existence and allowed them to pursue their more personal goals: the elimination of any foreign military or super powered presence in America and the cowing of the costumed heroes who did not work directly for the government of the United States, particularly the vigilante heroes that plagued the skies over America’s great cities.
The Sky Raiders’ first few raids on heroes were deadly affairs. The strike teams used their jet packs and sky skiffs to tremendous effect, shooting down a number of flying heroes before they knew what had hit them. For several days no one knew for sure what was going on, but the skies were certainly no longer safe. At this point Col. Duray made a rare mistake and overextended his forces. When a large group of flying heroes banded together to “take back the sky” they managed to catch the Sky Raiders spread across the city and defeated large number of them piecemeal. This disaster probably would’ve ended the Sky Raiders then and there. Without any capacity to train, and more importantly, equip new soldiers, they were doomed to die out. But of course there was no way for them to make their own jump packs, sky skiffs, and other ultra-modern weapons systems. To do that they needed help.
It was then that a backer stepped forward, a man named Tyrone Lockhart. Mr. Lockhart came to the Sky Raiders through one of Col. Duray’s less savory military contacts. He said that he had used intermediaries to hire the Sky Raiders as mercenaries on several operations and was greatly impressed with their performance. He also hinted that he had read some of the same documents that Col. Duray had read about the Freedom Phalanx’s involvement in starting the Rikti War. Most importantly however, Tyrone Lockhart owned Lockhart AeroTech, one of the largest and most important defense contractors in the United States. He offered to covertly supply the Sky Raiders with replacements and spare parts for their equipment as well as access to new technologies he was developing. In return they would help him to continue the fight against the corruptive foreign forces that were so intent upon tearing America apart.
Col. Duray and his men were very impressed and fought on with renewed commitment to their cause now that they had such a powerful and firm base of support. They have since grown into a significant threat to Paragon City, which they still consider to be their home base and primary target zone. It has the highest concentration of heroes and Rikti, the two things they hate most in the world. It has also proven very easy for Mr. Lockhart to supply them with new weaponry and recruits as long as they operate out of Paragon City, since he apparently has many ties there. The Sky Raiders do still perform mercenary missions all over the world, usually on the behalf of some corporation or small government that is having a super powered problem of some sort. They always return home though, and continue to haunt the skies over Paragon City, looking for prey.
When Lockhart first approached him, Duray was obviously wary, and did an extensive investigation of the man and his history. Everything checked out and now the two have become good friends. What his research did not reveal is that Lockhart is in every way a servant of Nemesis. The villainous mastermind planned the entire thing from the beginning. Nemesis keeps a close eye on all military and political leaders and marks those who are discontent or who have strong scruples that can be easily manipulated. He saw great potential in Col. Duray, and engineered both his unit’s transfer to Vanguard direction and provided him with the package of information about the Freedom Phalanx starting the Rikti war. After all, it was Nemesis himself who set the invasion in motion, so he was ideally placed to frame another.
Nemesis has had control over Lockhart AeroTech since World War II and has always maintained an iron hold over the entire Lockhart family. Tyrone Lockhart, the current owner, is devoted body and soul to serving his master and will do anything asked of him. He provides Nemesis with the perfect lever for controlling the Sky Raiders. For now he lets the group do what it wants – because what it wants is what Nemesis wants. He wants the heroes diminished in power and stature. He wants a renewed vigor for the government and the military industrial complex because he feels he can control them. And when the time comes for his big move, he will fold the Sky Raiders into his own ranks for the final strike on the heroes of Paragon City.
3.2 Goals and Beliefs
The Sky Raiders have one overarching principal: loyalty to each other and to True American Values. True American Values are of course defined by Duray and company and comprise a disturbing mishmash of right wing beliefs and patriotic prattle. They feel that the government has betrayed the people and that the United States has divested itself of its authority and handed the reins over to foreigners and unruly costumed avengers. To them this is a betrayal over everything the American Flag stands for.
The group’s main goal then is to eliminate all these evil influences upon America, and as far as they’re concerned, the ends justify almost any conceivable means. They are willing to lie to anyone, including themselves, if it helps get the job done. They live in their own little world of conspiracy theories where logic has no place and where only those who agree with them deserve to live.
First among the many targets that they have chosen for themselves are the heroes with super powers. While there might well be some justification to worrying about super powered individuals who answer to no authority when exercising duties commonly regarded as police work, the Sky Raiders have blown these concerns well out of proportion. They think all heroes are bad for America unless they specifically work for the United State Military. But since the whole government and military have been corrupted by foreign influences, even those heroes are now fair game as far as the Sky Raiders are concerned.
Second on the hit list are foreigners. Anyone not born in America to American parents is considered a foreign influence and therefore fair game. The rabid, xenophobic streak in the Sky Raiders’ rhetoric is a relatively new development, but it has become an important part of the group’s ideology. This belief has been fostered to a certain degree by the group’s operations overseas, where they earn a great deal of money by killing peasants and revolutionaries at the behest of dictators and multi-national corporations. The Sky Raiders have had all their prejudices reinforced about the third world and many have taken the horrifying stance that non-Americans are little better than animals.
Third on the hit list are of course liberals. Anyone who is even vaguely left of center is liable to come under direct and deadly attack from the Sky Raiders. They have in the past assassinated several journalists and at least one politician. They are also notoriously loose in their definitions of “liberal” and have attacked individuals that mainstream society would consider very conservative, but who the Sky Raiders see as still too liberal based on their fanatic standards. The Sky Raiders have been particularly vehement in their attacks on anyone proposing peace treaties with the Rikti or any other enemy of foreign origin.
Fourth comes anyone else that they get paid to kill. The Sky Raiders are mercenaries and they have expensive needs. They will, in fact do just about anything to make an easy buck, throwing their principals aside and lying to themselves about the ends justifying the means once again. Their mercenary work mainly involves political assassinations, large scale industrial sabotage, and the suppression of disruptive forces in other countries.
One of the most disturbing recent developments is the strengthening of ties between the Sky Raiders and certain radical elements within the US armed forces. Col. Duray still has many friends in the military, some of which hold similar political views and others who are more concerned about results than politics or morals. The unscrupulous generals find money in their black ops budgets to hire the Sky Raiders to do all the dirty little missions they’d love to do but can’t. With each success, the rogue military leaders grow bolder, using the Sky Raiders to not only carry out military ops on American soil, but sometimes even against civilian targets. Duray is especially happy at this development, since he sees it as the first step in a military coup that will some day take back the nation from the liberal traitors who have sold it out.
3.3 Behavior Patterns
The Sky Raiders are at their best in the out doors, where there’s plenty of space for them to maneuver around in. But of course the down side to being outside is that everyone can see you if you’re not careful. So the Sky Raiders make their bases of operations within tall buildings and sometimes even warehouses with easy access to the air. The avoid underground regions as much as possible, both because of the enclosed spaces and because so many hostile groups are active in the subterranean regions of Paragon City.
As their name suggests, the Sky Raiders are masters of the quick strike raid. They are not interested in holding territory for long periods of time or establishing permanent bases of operation. Their tremendous mobility, recently augmented by long-range teleportation capabilities within Paragon City, allows them to move in and out of the urban environment with relative ease. Even the radar systems built into the war walls have a hard time tracing their stealth equipped aircraft and jet packs.
Whenever possible, the Sky Raiders opt to catch their targets out of doors, where they can use their flight and maneuverability to the greatest advantage. When operating indoors, they usually shed their jetpacks and rely on their teleportation troops and new jump bots to give them the element of surprise. Although they’re certainly not cowards, they are not brave to the point of foolishness and will always make a tactical withdrawal when it’s appropriate.
When carrying out missions for a paycheck, the Sky Raiders are much more, well, mercenary. They only fight when the odds are in their favor if at all possible. They seldom wish to risk their lives for another’s cause. This seldom gets them in trouble, since they rarely take on jobs where they think they might have real difficulties. After all, they’re one of the most advanced fighting forces in the world and unless their enemy is alien or has super powers, there’s not much they can’t defeat.
3.4 Friends and Enemies
The Sky Raiders have very strong feelings about some of the other villain groups operating in Paragon City. They of course hate the Rikti with an burning passion, but they know all to well that they’re not strong enough to challenge the aliens unless they catch them in a strategically viable situation. They reluctantly steer clear of the aliens unless an opportunity presents itself. They’re unaware, like most people, that the Lost are in fact part of the Rikti hierarchy and so have not brought their animus to bear against the vagrant monsters (although they certainly have no love for them).
The Sky Raiders also hold a special hatred for the Freakshow, which they see as one of the most dangerous and disruptive forces in the city. Their anti-social, often ultra-liberal politics clash violently with the Sky Raiders’ own belief system. The two tangle fairly often, although their behavior patterns seldom lead them to cross one another directly.
Criminal groups in general, like gangs and particularly the Tsoo are also seen as a plague by the Sky Raiders, but they are not above working with the syndicates when it suits their purposes. They of course distrust the Tsoo’s foreign background and large immigrant membership, and the two clash more often than not.
The Banished Pantheon and the Devouring Earth are viewed us utterly alien and horrifying. They’re monster and pests and should be destroyed, but the Sky Raiders are not going to go out of their way to involve themselves in such matters. Far better to let the traitorous heroes spill their own life’s blood fighting such monstrosities. Let the two groups kill each other off.
The 5th Column offers an interesting conundrum for the Sky Raiders. Their history of anti-American activities makes them a logical enemy for the Sky Raiders, but these days the two groups seem to have a lot more in common than not. The Sky Raiders have begun to come around to the idea of working with their fellow right-wingers.
Crey Industries probably has the closes ties with the group, although they seldom use them in Paragon City. They do however hire the Sky raiders for numerous missions abroad, especially in Africa and Asia where Crey has many developing interests. The Sky Raiders respect Crey and are always happy to work for the mega-corporation. As for Nemesis, well, the Sky Raiders have little contact with him, at least as far as they know. Of course he’s the one who’s really pulling all of the strings, but the Sky Raiders don’t realize it. Nemesis’ tremendous influence over the group allows him to ensure that their interests never seem to conflict.
The Circle of Thorns is a total mystery to the Freakshow and is, frankly, something they don’t think about. Being at their best under an open sky, they have no interest in going down into the depths of some mysterious underground city.
3.5 Future Developments
In the future, once teleportation devices become more commonplace in teams of heroes, the Sky Raiders will come to play a more significant role in the ongoing war to control the teleportation slipstream. They will also develop a new type of unit from accidents that take place in the teleportation process – mutant like creatures who were once soldiers but who have been warped by the imperfect teleportation mechanisms used by the Sky Raiders.
Also at some point in the future the Sky Raiders’ close ties to Nemesis will be revealed. This will no doubt cause extreme turmoil within the group, but it should end up with the group being rolled up into Nemesis’ organization, much as the Lost are part of the Rikti.
Poison � Sabbath
Gangs of Paragon City
1. The Superadine Connection
This coalition lead by the Family is trying to return the drug Superadine to the streets of Paragon City. Their primary base of operations is Talos Island but they have holding areas in Skyway City as well. Recently they have established a strong presence and begun pushing Supes on the streets in the Atlas Park area. Their primary rivals are the Smugglers and the Tsoo.
King’s Row
The Skulls
Background: King’s Row has always been a rougher, darker side of town. Even when the garment factory was at the peak of its production this area had a grittier feel to it. In the present day this shadowy reflection of the brighter parts of the City has become a haven for a gang that call themselves the Skulls.
Initially this group struggled to maintain a foothold. They were few in number and despite their combat prowess and ritual magic they were in danger of being driven out. It was about this time that Sebastian Frost began looking for a gang to be his presence in King’s Row. He got word of the Skulls and arranged a meeting with them and the largest other gang in the area, the Shadows. Frost proposed that the gangs merge and become part of his operation. He sweetened the pot by explaining how much profit they could count on when Supes hit the street again. There were dissenters but after several of them were killed by Trolls Frost had brought with him, the rest saw reason. Having the Trolls as allies instead of enemies made a lot of sense to everyone present.
The former Shadows brought numbers and knowledge of the streets of King’s Row to the union. The Skulls brought fighting techniques that they began to pass on to the others through training sessions. To this day it is not unusual to find Skulls members on the Streets of the Row in the middle of a combat class.
The Tsoo have recently taken notice of the increased activities of the Skulls and are not pleased by their growth and incursion into Tsoo territory. Tension often erupts between the two groups.
Look and Feel: All the Skulls use skull style face paint. The thugs have outfits that are primarily grey. Lieutenants and bosses tend to black.
Hierarchy: Fatal, Lethal, Baneful, Baleful, Grim, Pernicious, Ruthless, Grave
Elegy, Hymn, Lament, Dirge, Requiem
Powers: Thugs will use knives, bats and guns. Lieutenants and bosses might add powers indicative of mental abilities.
Skyway City
The Trolls
Background: Most people are not entirely sure how the Trolls came to exist. Some say that the bridges of Skyway City were built and the Trolls simply came with them, others blame the Rikti Invasion. The truth is rooted on the streets of Paragon City. It has always been public knowledge that Superadine is extremely addictive but no official studies were ever done to determine the effects of the drug over a lifetime. The oldest Trolls are all examples of what can happen to a longtime Supes addict. They have had their strength and endurance permanently increased, but are twisted and misshapen as well. Their skin has also been tinted green by the process. The leader of this gang is simply known as Grendel. He was once a close friend of Sebastian Frost, the leader of the gang known as the Family. He was dosed with Superadine by a rival within the Family and was transformed into the first Troll. Grendel was like a wild beast for a time. He hunted down and killed the man that drugged him and several other key Family members. As always, Sebastian Frost saw an opportunity where others might have seen a problem. He found Grendel hiding out on the streets in Skyway city and offered him a deal. Frost would back him and give him the opportunity to run his own gang. In return Grendel would cease his attacks on the Family and help Frost with his Supes operation. Grendel grudgingly accepted on one condition. He asked Frost to help him create more beings like him and thus the Trolls were born.
Superadine is the core of this gang. Taking the drug has been turned into dares, rites of passage, and even rituals. They hold the drug in reverence and embrace the changes that it causes within them. New members are often given the “Test of Tolerance”. They are given a large dose of the drug and if they cannot remain conscious and functional they are not allowed in. They are taught to spread the drug with an almost religious fervor. Finally there are ceremonies wherein a group of Trolls all take Superadine and go on a rampage together. This willingness to embrace all the effects of the drug both positive and negative makes them deadly in combat.
The Trolls believe strongly in the survival of the fittest. To transition to the leadership of the group one must first serve in the position of Gardvord. All lieutenants in the group are called by this title which is derived from the name of a legendary troll chaser or killer. It is the duty of each Gardvord to test those beneath him and weed out the weak ones.
Look and feel: As previously mentioned the leaders of the Trolls are hulking greenish brutes. The longer they have taken Supes the more it has affected them and the higher up they are likely to rise in the gang. The lower echelons tend to tattoo and modify their bodies to try and emulate their masters.
Hierarchy: The five ranks of thug in the Trolls are as follows: Trollman, Trollkin, Jutal, Joten, Gyger. Lieutenants are Gardvord and bosses have names like Caliban or Morlock.
Powers: The Thug rank Trolls will have minor powers from the Regeneration, Super Strength and Earth Grasp power sets. The Lieutenants and Bosses will add powers from Stone Armor and higher level Earth Grasp powers.
Independence Port
The Family
Background: Sebastian Frost was born in Paragon City during the height of the drug war of the 1970’s. His father Harry was one of the chief drug connections on the streets at that time. Harry eluded the grasp of the Regulators for many years. After the attacks by the Regulators and the Dawn Patrol on South American and Central Asian drug fields left a vacuum of narcotics, most of the street dealers panicked. Knowing that something would fill the gap, Harry saw it as an opportunity. He kept his eyes open and his ear to the ground which is how he heard about Superadine. Superadine or Supes as it came to be known was a modified version of the soldier enhancement formulas developed by the US Army during WW II. Harry heard that someone was making enough of it to flood the streets. After some discreet inquiries he managed to get in touch with the mysterious group that was manufacturing the new drug. After some delicate negotiations Harry became the primary street contact for Superadine. Numerous dealers jumped at the chance to work for Harry and get back on the gravy train.
During this turbulent time Harry tried to keep most of his activities a secret from his son. He wanted a better life for him.
“Someday you will make your mark on this town Sebastian.” He would say.
Most of the boy’s friends worked for his father however and Harry couldn’t hide everything from the lad.
Sebastian was devastated when his father died during an assault by the Back Street Brawler on a Supes warehouse. Shortly after his father’s death, while still grieving intensely, Sebastian found a secret room in their house and it was only then that he discovered the depth of his father’s connection to Superadine. There were notes, a great deal of money and a small reservoir of the original soldier enhancement drug. Among all of this Sebastian also found a letter from his father. In it Harry expressed hope that the boy would never find these things and encouraged him to destroy them if he did. The words entreated Sebastian to make something of his life.
Torn with grief and rage the boy injected almost the entire dose of the enhancement drug into himself. Instead of dying as he might have wished in that moment when Sebastian woke up he was…different. The drug had made him stronger, faster and most definitely tougher. He also found that his grief was replaced by a burning sense of purpose. He would do something with his life. He would build the strongest criminal organization that Paragon City had ever seen. Sebastian gathered his friends from the streets to him and formed the Family.
The first step was finding a way to create a close approximation of the soldier enhancement formula. Sebastian hired top chemical engineers who, after a great deal of work, were able to do so. The process was extremely expensive however. The pure drug would have to be saved for Family members only. From there Sebastian instructed his scientists to cut the drug and make enough of the much more addictive Superadine to satisfy the users in Paragon city.
To assist him in spreading this vile substance Frost has made deals with two other Paragon city gangs. The first is the Trolls. The inner circle of the Trolls were all used as test subjects for the various incarnations of Supes that Frosts scientists were creating. They were made more powerful by these tests but were also twisted by them. Most importantly for Frost they became addicted to the drug. He uses that addiction to keep them in line. The other gang that Frost is using is known as the Ronin. Frost forged two gangs together to form a stronger gang to represent him in King’s Row.
With the help of these allies Frost has been able to begin making Supes readily available on the street again.
Look and feel: The Family has become roughly equivalent to an enhanced version of the Mafia. Positions in the group are often given to family members or close friends and passed down thorough the generations. The upper echelon dress in suits and even the low level members never look ratty. Every member of the Family has been given small doses of the soldier enhancement formula and is therefore stronger and tougher than the average thug. Upon promotion to Lieutenant the dosage is increased and when a Lieutenant is made a boss he becomes almost as powerful as Sebastian Frost himself. This edge has kept the Family at the top of the food chain for years.
Hierarchy: The five ranks at the bottom of the Family are Tough, Runner, Dealer, Cleaner, and Consultant. Lieutenants are addressed by the title Foreman and their last name. Some examples would be Leland, Marko, or Pierce. (Note: These names will all reference the Family of Evil Mutants) Leaders of the Family simply go by their names such as Sebastian Frost, Erik Cassidy or Black Tom. (These will reference Evil Mutant Leaders.)
Powers: The Family thugs will have powers from the Invulnerability, Weapon Master and Firearms sets. Lieutenants and bosses will add powers from the Kinetic Boost, Super Reflexes and Empathy sets.
2. Smugglers Run
This group is dedicated to distributing art treasures and antiquities throughout Paragon City for fun and profit. There is a darker side to their operation that only the leadership of the Warriors, the gang at the top of this particular food chain, is aware of. Their primary rival is the Superadine Connection who they are fighting with for control of Too Dark Park. Recently they have also garnered the attention and hostility of the Circle of Thorns.
Atlas Park
The Hellions
Background: Once upon a time there was a second rate gang called the Hellions in Atlas Park. Their leader was called Nick Pocker. Pocker had always wanted the Hellions to be power players in the Paragon City gang scene but in a town filled with tech, magic and supers they just couldn’t get off the ground. Then along came Odysseus. He offered Pocker the deal of a lifetime. He would make certain that the Hellions could not only defend their turf but increase the size of it. He would see that their ranks stopped shrinking and started growing. He would give them everything they ever wanted and all of it would come through the power of a little idol. He told Pocker it would bring them good fortune.
Nick was skeptical at first, even derisive but Odysseus remained resolute. He told the ganger that he was going to leave the idol and let Nick decide. If it helped the Hellions he would be back to talk about the future. In the face of this wealthy mans determination and never being one to look a gift horse in the mouth Pocker figured he might as well give it a try. After accepting Odysseus’ “gift” things changed almost immediately. That night the Hellions attacked a rival gang and defeated them utterly. The rival members still alive promptly joined up and literally overnight the Hellions turf and numbers almost doubled. The trend continued for a week and at the end of that time the Hellions owned Atlas Park.
Odysseus came back at that time and offered the gang a new deal. He would let them keep the idol and give them the opportunity to get their hands on more objects like it. In return they would have to help him distribute certain items on the black market and one other request that he would name later. Intoxicated by his new found position and power Pocker jumped at the deal.
Since that time Pocker has realized that no gift is without a price. The Hellions have had great fortune but all their members are darker and more sinister than they used to be. Nothing seems to matter to them anymore other than accumulating and passing on the items that are passed to them through Odysseus’ organization. Pocker knows that his people are being twisted, he knows that he is likely the most twisted of all. The kicker is that he just doesn’t care.
Recently the Circle of Thorns has begun to suspect that the mystical backing the Hellions are receiving is the work of their ancient Demon enemy. They have no proof, just a cold fear that is slowly forming in their stomach. They are starting to investigate the Hellions and the Warriors. It could be some time before they find anything concrete. In the meantime they should take that most basic of advice, always trust your gut.
Look and feel: The Hellions have taken to wearing vests similar to the ones the Warriors use but theirs are darker. The Lieutenants vests are marked with arcane symbols. The bosses wear demonic masks in addition to the other regalia.
Hierarchy: Seeker, Fallen, Imp, Initiate, Acolyte, Destroyer, Serpent, Snake, Deceiver, Trickster, Tempter,
Powers: Thugs will have Weapon Master and Firearms. Lieutenants and/or bosses will add powers from Dark Cast and Dark Armor.
Steel Canyon
The Outcasts
One of the more common manifestations of powers in Paragon city is the manipulation of the elements. One example of this was a young man named Leonard Calhoun. Leonard only ever wanted one thing in life. His dream was to be a hero. At an early age he developed the power to generate intense blasts of heat and cold. He grew up admiring the heroes of Paragon City and was determined to be like them one day.
When Leonard was in his teens he thought he had found his chance to prove himself. He was at the local convenience store when a man with a gun rushed in to rob the place. Leaping into action Leonard attempted to disable the thief with his powers. Unfortunately in his excitement the young man lost control. He not only froze the robber in place but caught the store clerk too. When he attempted to free the clerk with his flame a fire broke out. In the resulting chaos the building burned down and several people were killed. All of this occurred during a time when public opinion on supers was very low. Leonard placed himself in the hands of the justice system convinced he would be exonerated. Much to his chagrin however he was convicted and sentenced to prison. Leonard was stunned at first, not knowing what to do. The dream of a lifetime had turned into a nightmare. Then, while being transported to the Ziggurat something inside him snapped. If he was going to be treated like a criminal he would start acting like one. Quickly overpowering his guards Leonard escaped.
Adopting the identity Frostfire, he began a crime spree. During that rampage he was robbing a bank when someone else burst through the door in a flash of electricity. Leonard thought it was a hero at first and prepared for a fight. It turned out that the newcomer was a petty criminal known as the Spark who was there to rob the bank as well. The two teamed up to defeat the police officers who arrived on the scene a moment later and the Outcasts had begun.
Frostfire and the Spark soon realized there were many individuals who had powers in the city similar to theirs. Some were hopeful heroes like Leonard whose dreams had also been shattered. Some had larceny in their heart and were hoping to get noticed by one of the big players in Paragon City. All of them had something in common. They had a small amount of power and they wanted more. Since then the Outcasts have rapidly become a powerful force in Paragon City. They have taken over Steel Canyon and are just starting to get noticed by the city’s heroes as a serious threat.
Their alliance with the Warriors is a development that both groups would prefer to keep secret.
Look and feel: The Outcasts all have outfits that imply costumes. The lower level members might simply be color coordinated or have a symbol on their outfit. The further up they get the more they look like full fledged super villains.
The Outcasts are more powerful than the average gang but they are smaller in number and not very well organized. Frostfire is nominally in charge but most of the other members, particularly the Spark chafe upon occasion. The Spark was primarily responsible for brokering the deal with the Warriors which is not altogether pleasing for Frostfire.
Hierarchy: The lower echelons of this gang are separated into groups based on types of powers. Their titles are: Shocker, Pyron, Terran, Borealis, and Freon. The lieutenants and bosses will all have code names like Coldsnap or Cumulous. (Alternatively the Lieutenants names could be drawn from the Flash’s Rogues Gallery like Leonard Calhoun)
Powers: Thugs will have one ranged power chosen from Electricity, Fire, Earth, Air or Ice. Their melee attack will be either Super Strength or an appropriate elemental attack such as a power from Fiery Fray. Lieutenants and bosses will have more potent elemental attacks.
Talos Island
The Warriors
Background: David Odysseus Hill was everything that his father Walter could hope for. He was strong, healthy and above all else, clever. Walter began grooming him from an early age to take over his import/export empire. Walter specialized in moving rare and exotic items from place to place at a huge profit. David received the best classical education and physical training that money could buy. His father constantly sent him abroad to learn the business. Eventually Odysseus began assisting with the operations and even initiating some of his own. It became clear to Odysseus, as he liked to be called, that simply continuing his fathers business would not satisfy him. Wanting more, he began looking into the acquisition of items that were legally questionable. One of these dealings changed his life forever.
Odysseus was following the trail of an ancient Greek urn that was purported to have mystical powers. In the course of his investigation he stumbled across a cult that worshiped the demon prince enemy of the Circle of Thorns. Odysseus tracked the cult to their lair in a series of caverns near the sea. He snuck in to the caverns and found himself on a rock ledge overlooking the cultists in the midst of a ritual to the demon prince. Moving to get a closer look Odysseus made a critical misstep. The rock of the ledge crumbled beneath him and he fell into the midst of the cultists. They seized him and were about to kill him when the prince himself intervened. For many years the prince had been searching for ways to gain a stronger foothold on the earth. In David Odysseus Hill he saw such an opportunity. The demon bargained with the young man. He would spare Odysseus’ life, remove all obstacles to the power than he had always dreamed of, and through the ancient urn unlock the full potential of his mind. In return the prince simply asked that Odysseus distribute certain objects that the demon wanted “found”. Seeing no downside to the bargain the young man accepted and a pact was sealed that would affect Paragon City for years to come.
Carrying the urn with him Odysseus returned home immediately and found out the first obstacle to his climb to power had already been removed. His father had died under mysterious circumstances on the very same day that Odysseus was in the caverns. Steeling himself to the conflicting emotions he was feeling Odysseus began to create the plan he would need to keep his end of the bargain he had made with the demon. His first step was recruiting for his cadre of Warriors. He knew that he would need a force to back his rise to power. Odysseus knew that the urn was the key. All Warriors have some exposure to the urn through their training. The higher a soldier is in the organization the more exposure they get. This boosts their martial skills. Of course Odysseus takes many precautions to make certain that none of his men will ever have the direct connection to the urn that he does.
With the Warrior training regime in place he began to look at what other groups in the city could assist him. There were two obvious choices to his mind, the Outcasts and the Trolls. They had power to be used and were waiting for direction. The Outcasts happily accepted his offer but his meeting with Grendel did not go well. The Troll rejected him out of hand, a rebuff that Odysseus would not soon forget. Determined to make the Troll Lord pay Odysseus began to use one of the “trinkets” that the demon prince was providing to bolster the strength of a small time gang called the Hellions. This demon influenced power allowed them to become the top gang in Atlas Park almost overnight. Eventually Odysseus hopes to use the Hellions to drive the Trolls out of Skyway City.
Look and feel: The Warriors is currently one of the largest gangs in Paragon City. Its members are recruited from all over the city but they must have one common trait, the ability to fight and fight well. From there they are trained to be superb soldiers. Discipline and skill are clear in all their actions. The foot soldiers all wear leather vests. Lieutenants will add helmet style headgear and the bosses will have stylized mask/head coverings.
Hierarchy: The new members are organized into groups that are named for ancient Greek city-states. Members start as Minoan Warriors and grow through Megarian, Corinthian, Athenian and finally become Spartan Warriors. Lieutenants in Odysseus gang take the names of Greek warriors such as Achilles, Ajax or Patroclus. The bosses are named for Greek leaders and Kings like Theseus or Agamemnon.
Powers: Thugs in the Warriors will have higher level Weapons Master and Firearms powers as well as Invulnerability. Lieutenants and bosses will add Psychic blast and Mental Control.
Poison � Sabbath
Tsoo
3.1 Overview
The Tsoo replace the Yakuza from the original design. They are still an Asian gang and they should be able to use many of the existing models without too much tweaking. Their defining characteristic is their tattoos, which all follow the same pattern but which are applied in a modular fashion and in three different colors. This should make for easy to see and implement differences between the different types of Tsoo minions. They are a relatively low power group, comprised entirely of humans with weapons and some super powers. They can use both low level technological and magical items.
3.2 History
Ever since The Statesman and his fellow heroes started their war on organized crime in the 1930’s, Paragon City has been a tough place to be a gangster. Few gangs have the wherewithal to fight off super powered heroes for long, and even those that do often find themselves confronted by super powered villains trying to muscle in on their territory from the other side. Nevertheless, gangs continue to spring up every year – the unfortunate and inevitable result of repressed social groups whose youth find themselves without any other hope for a better life. These social groups tend to be ethnic minorities, whether it be Italian and Irish mafias that date back to the 19th century or black, Hispanic, and Asian syndicates that have come onto the scene in more recent times. As long as these groups stick to small time crime they tend to avoid drawing heroic attention, but inevitably they make a play for the big time and end up getting beat back down in a hail of costumed fists.
One of the more successful gangs in the last decade was a splinter group from a Hong Kong based triad. The triads confined their activities to the Asian communities in Paragon City and inculcated a culture of silence that kept all but a few local heroes unaware of just how expansive their syndicate was becoming. The triad ran protection rackets and dominated the drug trade in their neighborhoods, and was especially harsh on non-Chinese immigrants. They held the entire community in a fear, and even the local heroes couldn’t crack their wall of silence. When they came close they soon found that the triad had a few super powered enforcers on it staff as well. Perhaps the gang would have eventually drawn the ire of some big time heroes, but as it happened the triad came into contact with what turned out to be a much more dangerous foe.
Paragon City has had one of the larger and more active Hmong communities in America since the late 1970’s. The Hmong are ethnically Chinese people who immigrated to Southeast Asia thousands of years ago, settling in places like Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, many Hmong allied themselves with the United States, serving as local guides and guerilla fighters from the early 60’s on through to the end of the war. When North Vietnam won the decades long conflict, they were brutally repressive towards the Hmong, as was the hellish regime in Cambodia. Tens of thousands of Hmong fled their homes, many of them eventually ending up here in the United States and Paragon City.
The Hmong community in Paragon City is more famous for its tight knit social circles and annual dance productions at the Asian Cultural Festival than for its gang activity. Still, almost all of the immigrant Hmong grew up in and around war and soldiers. Many of the men and some of the women have been fighting since they were strong enough to hold a gun or a knife. Like the rest of the Asian community, they originally submitted to the triad’s abuses, because it was easier to go along than to fight. But as the Chinese gang became more and more nasty towards non-Chinese Asians, the Hmong, especially the younger men and women born in America, grew restless and resentful. All they needed was a leader to catalyze them.
Tang Tub Ci was born in Laos in 1960. From the age of ten to the end of the Vietnam war he served as a scout and sometimes a demolitions expert and even assassin for the U.S. special forces operating in Laos and Vietnam. The name Tub Ci means, roughly, Bright Son, but the soldiers took to calling him Tubby because he was so incredibly thin. Tubby quickly became one of the US Army’s favorite local operatives. He was utterly fearless and a very quick study. He learned English quickly and by the end of the war was trusted to call in air strikes, carry out assassinations of Viet Cong officers, and even allowed to lead missions. By the time the US withdrew in 1975 he was an astoundingly accomplished soldier. Tub Ci’s parents both died during the war, but the 16-year-old Tub Ci managed to make it over to America on his own, lying about his age.
Once here he ended up in Paragon City, where he tried to find other ways to use his talents. He worked a number of menial jobs before the boredom got to him and he started running with some of the local gangs. At the time there were no Asian gangs, so Tub Ci hooked up with an African American gang. His years of working with American soldiers, many of them black, helped him bridge the cultural gap, and his skill with knife and gun made him an undeniable asset. It was during this period, in the mid-to late 80’s that the Tubby nickname resurfaced, although it transformed into his current moniker: Tub E Tang. Tub E saw one gang after another fall to pieces once it got big enough to attract costume clad attention. Eventually even the wily Tub E fell into the hands of a do-gooder hero and ended up sentenced to ten years in prison.
The Paragon City Correctional Center is a dangerous place, and not just for the criminals. It is a vast melting pot of crime and evil, housing not only your typical lawbreakers, but your super powered ones as well. While the prison is well equipped to handle such prisoners, it can do little to stop their influence and knowledge from passing out into the rest of the population. For the whip smart Tub E, being in prison was like going to graduate school. He learned from the best and picked up more than a few tricks along the way. More importantly he found the time to delve into his own cultural roots, and thanks to a few other, older Hmong inmates found out the true potential that lay within him.
One of those fellow Hmong prisoners was Pha Xiong, another Vietnam War vet who had also fought with the French in the 50’s. Pha Xiong proved to be a great mentor for Tub E, teaching him the hidden truths behind the Hmong’s traditional animistic religion. Tub E learned to communicate with the spirits of his dead ancestors and to call upon them for strength and guidance. He also learned the deadly, untraditional unarmed combat style that Pha Xiong had pieced together from years of study and practical experience. Tub E and his fellow Hmong learned a great from Pha Xiong, but Tub E himself was always a multiculturalist. He also learned a thing or two from dozens of other experienced inmates, picking up what proved to be a deadly combination of magic, tattoo artistry, money laundering techniques, and tips on fighting costumed heroes.
When Tub E stepped out of prison on parole in 1995 he changed his name back to Tub Ci and set about perfecting the skills he had acquired in prison. As more and more of his jailhouse comrades also got paroled, Tub Ci formed a small coterie of followers. They weren’t quite a gang – not yet. They worked together, they trained together, and they learned together, but they knew better than to cross swords with the justice system before they were ready. Tub Ci taught them what he had learned and the group focused on three very special and deadly skills. One they perfected the hand-to-hand combat style Pha Xiong taught them as well as the guerilla warfare and firearms skills Tub Ci had picked up in Vietnam. Two they learned the Hmong traditions of ancestor worship, learning to tap into the ancient resources that flowed through their blood. Three they each received tattoos.
The tattoo process Tub Ci developed in prison incorporates several different traditions and is a testament to the man’s rather eclectic education. The tattoos incorporate a special ink composed of rare Chinese herbs and medicines as well as the blood of the wearer’s enemies. The style is an eclectic Asian-Celtic fusion incorporating magical symbols from a number of different traditions. The needles used are prepared and blessed using magical techniques from the West Indies. The result is a mystic mélange of melanin enhancing designs that give the wearers special powers and abilities. Preparing the tattoo materials takes many months and even then only allows for the inking of a small area. Thus over time the group slowly built up their tattoos and thus their preternatural power. By the time the Chinese Triads started muscling in on the local Hmong community, Tub Ci and his friends were ready.
Just as the Triad pressure was becoming unbearable, Tub and company presented themselves to the community as The Tsoo (roughly translated as the Destroyers). They broke up a well known Triad gambling house in a most public and spectacular manner, leaving just enough survivors to make sure word got back to the Triad bosses about who was responsible. Naturally a vicious gang war ensued, with the Triads immediately coming after Tub Ci and the gang with all guns blazing. The Tsoo were ready, having set up a classic ambush for the bull headed triad mooks. The Chinese hit squad died to a man, some without ever knowing what hit them. Word of these two, quick victories quickly got out and new recruits came pouring in from the disaffected Hmong youth. In the war-ravaged economy of modern day Paragon City, many of them were jobless and disaffected. The Tsoo offered them a chance to strike back at the harsh world around them.
The gang war with the Triads ended up being a tougher business than Tub E had originally anticipated. The Chinese were relentless, better armed, and had more men. Their super powered enforcers proved every bit as tough and resilient as the Tsoo’s tattooed soldiers. As the Triads called for reinforcements from outside Paragon City, things began to look dire for the Tsoo. Then a miracle happened. Tub Ci insisted that his followers always begin any undertaking with prayers to the ancestors. It was during one of these prayer meetings that they discovered that the tattoos have an additional mystic property – they act as conduits to the spirit world and the Tsoo’s ancestors. Ancient warriors and leaders from generations of Hmong crossed over from the spirit world to empower the Tsoo in their hour of need. This was the final boost that pushed the gang over the edge and allowed them to smash the Triads for good.
Tub E and his gang immediately set about taking over all of the rackets and illegal operations the Triads had run for years. The Asian underworld had a new ruling class, and it was the minority Hmong. Like his Chinese predecessors, Tub Ci enforced a strict code of silence on the community so as not to attract unwanted hero attention. Unlike the Chinese, Tub Ci did not discriminate or unduly persecute other ethnic groups. It was only by drawing on both his own cultural traditions and the best teachings of other groups that the Tsoo had managed to become so successful. Tub Ci was not about to change tactics now. He began recruiting non-Hmong members into the gang almost immediately.
Anyone was welcome as long as they obeyed the gang’s rules and followed its basic beliefs. For all its ancient teachings and animistic trappings, the gang is still a very modern, very youth oriented group. The members wear the latest fashions, listen to the coolest music, and carry the deadliest firearms they can get their hands on. It’s members walk the streets with arrogant swaggers and pistols tucked under their shirts. While there was some groundswell of support when the group first ousted the Triads, most of the city’s Asian community now sees them as nothing more than another horde of lawless thugs. The majority of Hmong and other ethnic groups love the law and look forward to a day when all these gangs are gone for good. But Tub Ci and his crew have bigger plans for Paragon City, and they have no intention of disappearing anytime soon.
3.3 Goals
The Tsoo want nothing less than to control all of the drug trade and protection rackets in Paragon City. Tub Ci dreams of starting a Hmong criminal dynasty with all the other gangs and crime syndicates united under the Tsoo’s banner. But Tub Ci is nothing if not a realist, and he knows that he might never achieve this goal. Still, there is value in setting one’s sight on the highest peak and he means to do everything in his power to get there. It also means that he’s in no rush, and is willing to take the time to do it right.
What Tsoo doesn’t want is to challenge any of the powerhouse villain groups. He knows better than to fight an enemy he can’t possibly beat. Fortunately for Tub Ci, most of the major players have their own twisted agendas that don’t necessarily have any impact on the more traditional criminal enterprises that the Tsoo is involved in. Indeed, as often as not the schemes of groups like the Rikti, Nemesis, and the Fifth Column are as detrimental to Tub Ci’s operation as they are for the rest of the city. If it wasn’t so dangerous, the Tsoo would have no qualms about taking out any of these more dangerous groups.
This doesn’t mean that the Tsoo are scared, just prudent. In fact, they’re one of the most proactive gangs Paragon City has seen in a long time. The Tsoo’s first goal is to wipe out or absorb all of the competition. Anyone selling drugs, running a card game, or working a protection racket had better be paying tax to the Tsoo or they go up on the target list. The Tsoo have totally consolidated several neighborhoods and are working on spreading their iron fist out across the city. They’ve already begun to send raiding parties into other regions in an effort to expand their holdings.
Among the many challenges that the Tsoo faces in achieving its goals is the fact that they need good soldiers and lots of them. Tub Ci has widely cast his recruiting net wide, but he plans to extend its range even further. Most of the city’s disaffected youth have managed to find some outlet for their thuggish instincts by now. With so many seductive villain groups, there’s always a door open for someone with hate or anger in their heart. Tub Ci is looking beyond the hopeless and into the homes of the middle class. He has planned a number of different recruiting initiatives designed to bring suburban blood into the gang and extend its reach into hitherto unreachable regions.
In order to draw people into something has dangerous and deadly as the Tsoo, Tub Ci knows that he has to offer them something they both can’t get anywhere else and want very badly indeed. The traditional answers have been money and drugs, both of which the Tsoo offers by the handful. Drugs have always been a particularly insidious means of reaching the middle class, but seldom enough to draw large numbers of them into the gangster lifestyle. While the Tsoo continues to do a brisk business in the old favorites (cocaine, heroin, crystal meth, marijuana), Tub Ci has been getting inspiration from his ancestors about some less well-known narcotics.
This new drug is based on an ancient herbal medicine used to give warrior’s strength and courage on the eve of battle. Tub Ci’s ancestors spoke to him in his dreams, giving him the formula for the potent potion. Tub Ci then took the recipe to his drug chemists and asked them to synthesize it, giving it a little kick in the process. The result is a new street drug called Huam Cheej, which roughly translates from Hmong as Death Rattle or Dying Breath. The drug has been on the streets for a few months now and already has a following. Users know it by a variety of names: HC, Cheej, Cheese, and Rage. This last describes the effects pretty accurately: users get a speed like sense of increased energy and euphoria coupled with a large dose of very aggressive, very angry emotions. The desire to hurt, maim, and kill become very heightened. The drug does not usually cause a loss of control or induce a berserker state, but simply increases aggressiveness ten or twenty fold.
With only the Tsoo able to provide Cheej, more and more addicts are coming into Tub Ci’s territory from around the city. The dealers are targeting mainly middle class kids and young people, focusing especially on athletes, club kids, and anyone else engaged in regular physical activity. Once they’ve been lured into Tsoo territory, Tub Ci’s pushers not only sell the drugs, they also seduce them with various entertainments designed to compliment the way an user feels when their on Cheej. Loud, raucous parties are a nightly event in Tsoo territory, usually held in abandoned warehouses or empty lots in bad neighborhoods. These parties offer a heady mix of drugs, flesh, and violence, all tailor made for the Cheej head.
The most popular events are the nightly no-holds-barred fights. Men and women participate, squaring off against one another and fighting with a Cheej induced fury. The Tsoo’s soldiers take bets on the action and keep an eye out for the best fighters. In addition to the fights there are the Hide and Hunt nights every week. Here anyone can pay to participate in a kind of foxhunt, although instead of foxes the hunters track down human prey wired on Cheej. Weirdly enough, Cheej addled youths actually volunteer to play the “fox.” Most of the time they merely receive a fierce beating, but if someone manages to elude capture for the whole night without going to the cops or a hero, they earn tremendous respect in the community. Most of the time they receive an immediate invitation to join the Tsoo as a soldier. Likewise those hunters most adept at catching “foxes” also earn praise from their fellow druggies.
These recruiting techniques are proving quite effective. By making membership in the gang a symbol of physical prowess and status as well as a reliable source of future drugs, Tub Ci has made “Tsoo Clubbing” the new hot trend among the city’s youth. The best of these misguided middle class men and women end up serving in the Tsoo while the rest simply provide more fun and funds for the gang. Although recently the local papers have done several pieced on the Tsoo parties, so far the police and heroes view them as mostly harmless. Certainly a bunch of kids getting a little crazy does not compare to the threat posed by alien invaders or super villains. This reaction is just as Tub Ci planned. He keeps the darkest and most dangerous aspects of the parties a secret while he lets less damaging stories of drugs and sex leak out to the press.
Once he’s gathered enough trained gangsters under his wing, Tub Ci plans to make the next big move in organized crime. He wants to start gathering political influence by bribing or blackmailing the city’s ruling class. Already he has several sons and daughters of influential families in his gang. Unfortunately for him, his recent successes have earned him the attention of the Regulators and so his hero related problems are starting to become more and more serious. Only time will tell if the city’s heroes can put a stop to his ruthless expansion.
3.4 Behavior Patterns
The Tsoo follow pretty typical crime syndicate behavior patterns. Their Soldiers are pretty much out on the streets night and day. They like to hang out on corners and in parks or empty lots. From here they sell drugs, watch over the block, and hold court for those paying them protection money. For the most part they won’t harass a hero who comes by, as they’re seldom looking for trouble. At the same time, the Cheej in their system means they’re liable to go off at the drop of a hat, and don’t need much of an excuse to start a fight. Rival gangs and other criminals are not welcome under any circumstances and come under immediate fire. Gangs of soldiers usually have a few low ranking Ink Men in their midst, just to watch over them and make sure they behave. The nightly parties, street fights, and hunts draw large crowds of both gang members and civilians. These are wild affairs and not for the faint of heart. All ranks of Tsoo attend the parties and watch over the fights and hunts. Heroes are definitely not welcome, and Ink Men guards are usually stationed around the perimeter to keep outsiders at bay.
The Tsoo also engage in many more proactive undertakings. They seldom trust soldiers to participate in a robbery or other job, so most of the individuals involved are either Ink Men or Enforcers. The Tsoo usually choose quick, smash and grab targets like jewelry and electronics stores as well as banks and check cashing places. Their crimes tend to be pretty straight forward, with obvious goals: get money or take revenge on some rival gang. When not on a job or at a party, the higher ranking Tsoo members spend their time in one of the gang’s many hideouts. Most of these are in warehouses and apartment buildings that the gang has either seized or legally purchased. These hideouts are seldom actually very secret, but they always have heavily armed and alert guards. They serve as palaces, courts, and barracks all in one. Local citizens who live under the Tsoo’s thumb come to the hideouts to pay protection money, ask for favors, and otherwise pay homage to Tub Ci and his gang.
3.5 Enemies and Allies
The Tsoo do not have many allies in the world, nor do they want them. They’ve declared open war on all of the other crime syndicates, and they’re doing a pretty handy job of winning that war. They obviously need no allies there. Amongst the larger villain groups, they are either regarded as too small time to matter or direct competition to be crushed. The Freakshow in particular view the Tsoo as a threat, and the two gangs clash whenever they come into contact with one another. Since the Freakshow tend to be tougher and more dangerous than the Tsoo, Tub Ci and his gang avoid the cyberpunk thugs, at least for the time being.
The Circle of Thorns took a brief look at their magical tattoos and then dismissed the gang as insignificant. They leave the Tsoo be. The Fifth Column on the other hand despises the gang, as it despises all threats to authority and their fascist ideals. At the same time they see the value such gangs have in destabilizing the corrupt American regime. Thus they let the Tsoo be as long as they don’t get in the terrorist group’s way. Crey Industries, Nemesis, and the Rikti all ignore the gang, with the occasional exception that Crey has been known to sell them weaponry from time to time, when they can afford it.
Poison � Sabbath
Okay, that is all I have. I left out the Rularuu one, since it was mostly musing, very little background.
I hope you enjoyed this incredible treasure as much as I did! I absolutely love the amount of lore that went into this game and wish I could have gotten my grubby fingers on the game bible. A lot of what you saw here should have been in the CoH RPG books, but those never came to be.
If you copy this lore elsewhere, make sure to give credit to the authors at Cryptic Studios.
Oh, and if any dev wants to send me more reading material, there's tons of new lore, I bet... *coughnodgewink*
Poison � Sabbath
A few (okay, many) years ago, I got my hands on these documents. By now they're completely outdated and retconned, but I always enjoyed reading them. I assume they were written by Rick Dakan and/or Jack Emmett and/or other original Cryptic members.
Before they collect dust on my HD forever, I hope you enjoy the read.
Fifth Column
3.1 History
The Fifth Column came together under that code name only in 1939, but its principal members had operated together for some time before that, starting with the groups infamous leader, Requiem. Born in 1900 as Ridolfo Uzzano, Requiem grew up in the small independent Republic of San Marino, nestled in Northern Italy. From an early age Ridolfo was destined for a life in the church. His parents dreamed of their son becoming a bishop or even a cardinal one day, thus bringing long missing honor and respect to their family. Ridolfo went along with these plans readily enough. The Church fascinated him from an early age, especially the more mystical and even occult aspects of theology. He studied hard and seemed pious enough. Then the First World War came when he was just 14. Like so many others of his generation, the unparalleled death and destruction of that war shook him to his core. Unlike many others, he liked the feeling.
Ridolfo stayed with his church studies but his heart was no longer in it. More and more he looked back to the age of an Imperial Church, when the pope ruled with an iron fist and directly or indirectly commanded armies. The power and respect accorded a priest still attracted him, but the religion did not. In 1922, just as he was preparing to be ordained for the priesthood, he found a new religion: fascism. Fascism was on the rise all over Italy at that time, and the independent nation of San Marino was not immune to its allures. Ridolfo became a leading member of the young party, urging his fellow citizens to join with the greater cause for Italian prosperity. Fascisms roots did not sink deep in San Marino, so Ridolfo and his friend called upon Mussolini and the Italian Fascist Party to help bring/force the city into the fold. Ridolfo soon found his homeland too small for his ambitions, and having earned Il Duces respect, asked to serve the dictator directly.
Ridolfo served as a minor fascist functionary in Rome for several months, often disregarded and disrespected by his older, Italian comrades. Chafing under his menial duties, Ridolfo sought to put his religious training to use in the pursuit of his ambition. He convinced Mussolini to pressure the Pope into giving him access to the Vatican Archives. In return he promised to find ancient Roman and Papal doctrines that would help further cement Mussolinis claim to ultimate authority and win the hearts and minds of his people. With access to the great libraries and archives of Rome and the Vatican, Rifolfo began to unearth dread secrets and mystic texts that few others knew even existed.
All of his scheming and research had a singular goal: Ridolfo wanted to find something, anything, that would set him apart from the herd. Something that would make him special, give him power over others. At first he thought he might find what he sought amongst the various forbidden tomes on black magic and witchcraft that the Vatican kept locked away, but Ridolfo had no interest in selling his soul to demons or any of the other unpredictable forces of hell. One story did strike Ridolfos eye an apocryphal tale of the last Roman Emperor in the west, Romulus Augustulus. According to this tale, in 476 the emperor was spirited away by a secret society in Vienna known as the Path of The Dark. There they preserved his bloodline and his power through some sort of dark magic. Ridolfo knew that this was just the kind of propaganda Mussolini was looking for if he could find someone directly descended from the last Roman Emperor and manipulate them into ceding power to Il Duce, it would be a nice symbolic gesture. Of course it was these stories of dark magic that interested him most.
Ridolfo went to Ravenna and began his search for signs of the Path of the Dark. He had very little luck at first. There was simply no indication in any historical records that such a group had ever existed. But Ridolfos instincts told him that the people here were hiding something, especially the older residents of Ravennas most ancient neighborhoods. Unable to get them to talk, he decided to use his position in the Fascist party to force some answers out of them. Under threat of torture and death one old woman finally broke, revealing that the Path still existed and thrived beneath an ancient chapel.
Ridolfo found the chapel and the hidden stairway beneath the altar. He descended warily into darkness so deep that it swallowed up his lanterns light without illuminating anything. Ridolfo went down into that darkness and did not return for three months. His fellow fascists reported him dead, and the old folks hed bullied sighed with relief. They thought that hes gotten what he deserved. In fact, Ridolfo was very much alive, although he soon took on a new kind of life that few could possibly understand. There he encountered a race of primordial beings composed of pure darkness called the Nicti. In his last, impotent days as emperor, Romulus Augustulus had stumbled upon these beings and offered them his life in exchange for protection. He ceded them dominion over the city of Ravenna and had a series of special vaults and hidden, underground fortresses created for their use. He also founded a secret society of humans devoted to worshiping the Nicti, known as the Path of the Dark. In return, they spirited him away when Odoacer descended on Rome.
The Nicti are beings of pure darkness who existed before the world was even created, and any contact with direct sunlight causes them immense agony although it does not kill them outright. They can however infuse a human body (or any living creature for that matter) with their own dark energy. The result is a hybrid being that can walk in light but still weild the fantastic darkness control powers that every Nicti possesses. The fusion of life and dark is painful and often fatal for the human recipient, so few humans are brave enough to try it. Romulus Augustulus was one. Ridolfo Uzzano was another. The fusion gives the human immortality, something Augustulus had used to full advantage. As leader of the Path of the Dark he had secured his rule over Ravenna, controlling it from beneath and living a life of luxury in the darkness of his hidden caverns. Ridolfos appearance was like a breath of fresh air he had the ambition and drive that Augustulus had lacked for 1500 years. He made the young man swear allegiance to him and indoctrinated him into the Path of the Dark. He gave him great power and sent him forth into the world to spread the darkness. His only duty was to seek out those strong enough to undergo fusion with a Nicti and send them to Ravenna. Otherwise, he was free to follow the path his ambitions set for him.
The transformation left Ridolfo with skin that actually absorbed light and a host of super powers. Having been reborn he took on a new name inspired by his church upbringing Requiem. He literally flew to Rome and offered his services to Mussolini. His timing could not have been better. Under other circumstances the dictator might have fled in terror before such an apparition, but at that moment Fascist Rome was being terrorized by some mysterious person calling himself the Freedom Fighter. The police and army were powerless to stop this mystery man, who seemed to have miraculous powers. The Freedom Fighter was beginning to rouse popular support against the fledgling fascist government, not to mention his constant attacks on party officials and military leaders. Mussolini made a deal with Requiem take care of the Freedom Fighter and he would have a place in the new government and all the support he could ever want.
The battle, when it finally happened, lasted less than thirty seconds. The Freedom Fighter had no super powers of his own. He was simply a brave, resourceful man dedicated to fighting tyranny. His gadgets, daring, and skill were a match for the entire police force in Rome, but Requiem was a whole other order of power. He lay in wait in the shadows for the Freedom Fighter to appear. When the mystery man did, the darkness took form, reached out, and grabbed him. The poor young man never knew what hit him as the dark tendrils crushed every bone in his body. Requiem delivered the corpse personally to Mussolini, who thanked him somewhat warily.
As reward Requiem was given his own palazzo in Tuscany from which he was tasked with squashing all resistance to the Fascist government, especially from secret societies, cults, and the newly emerging super powered heroes. From 1924 to 1936 Requiem led a brutal campaign up and down the Italian peninsula. He killed thousands of resisters and several dozen emerging heroes. He also sent back a handful of candidates for Nicti fusion to Ravenna in order to fulfill his duties to the Path of the Dark. All that time he built up his own power and amassed his own followers men devoted to the fascist cause and to Requiem personally. Requiem became a true believer in the tenets of Fascism and when a chance to fight for the cause on a larger stage presented itself, he accepted.
For all his devotion to Il Duce, Requiem had also become a great admirer of Chancellor Hitler in Germany. He made several visits to Hitler in the mid-30s. The Fuhrer was very intrigued by Requiems powers and wanted to know everything he could about them. His devotion to the Path prevented Requiem from disclosing any sensitive information to the German, but the two men did become close. When The Spanish Civil War erupted in 1936, Hitler sent planes to help the fascist government there and suggested Requiem go as well. Mussolini reluctantly agreed to Requiems request. He headed to Spain to fight against the handful of heroes who had sailed over from America to help fight fascisms spread. This was his first experience with truly powerful heroes and Requiem relished the challenge. He defeated all who opposed him until he first came across a super strong, super tough American hero named The Steel Bull.
Nothing Requiem could do could hurt the Steel Bull, while his own powers kept him safely out of the American heros crush grasp. At a loss, Requiem turned to Hitler for help. He knew that the Nazis had been developing their own. Hitlers researches included the occult, but were mostly centered on science-based methods of empowerment. One of the more controversial scientists was a mountain of a man named Othman Doul. Othman was an Austrian inventor of questionable ethnic heritage. His outspoken, gruff, uncultured manner had won him few friends in the Third Reichs reaches. Still, he was a supremely gifted inventor, especially when it came to new weapons systems. Hitler decided to put Othman to the test and sent him to Spain to help Requiem.
The two did not get along well. Othman found Requiems powers interesting but ultimately trifles compared to the future science offered. Requiem found Othmans demeanor coarse and offensive. They never did come to like one another, but in Spain they earned each others respect. Othman and Requiem confronted the Steel Bull on the field of battle, and none of the weapons hed brought could penetrate the heros steely hide. Requiem had to use his darkness powers to hide them both and spirit them away, and even so Othman was severely wounded. He has however managed to scrape off a sample of the Bulls skin before they fled the field. IT wasnt long before the resourceful Othman created a special bullet capable of making a small but deep hole in The Bulls skin. They confronted him again, Othmans weapon was successful and Requiem used the hole to introduce a tendril of darkness into the Bulls body, which quickly ripped him apart from the inside.
With their sole remaining champion defeated and their armies routed, the freedom fighters in Spain soon fell before the new fascist government. Othman and Requiem returned to Germany to report upon their success. Requiem now proceeded to help the Nazis do what he had already accomplished in Italy: root out and destroy any super powered or secret resistance. Othman Doul made special weapons and even armor to equip the storm troopers under Requiems command. Meanwhile, Hitlers other super soldier programs were continuing apace, principally under the direction of a doctor and biologist named Dr. Ehren Haff.
Dr. Haff was not necessarily the most faithful of Nazi Party members. He did not believe in the inherent superiority of one race to another. Indeed, he thought all humans to be relatively equal in their imperfection. He believed truly and deeply that only science and medicine could truly create a superior race. Dr. Haff developed a series of special formulae and radiation treatments designed to create the perfect soldiers. In 1938 he had his first major success: he created a formula that, when administered properly along with surgical adjustments and so forth, resulted in a human specimen with incredibly strong muscles, damage resistance, and speed. Unfortunately the process left the subject looking decidedly inhuman. Indeed, the very first time Hitler saw one of Dr. Haffs creations he said they looked like vampires. Thus the name stuck: Vampyri.
Hitler and the leaders of the Reich were not pleased with Dr. Haffs Vampyri. They were monstrous, obviously base creatures, despite their impressive physical prowess. They did not fit the image of the golden haired Aryan superman that the Nazis wanted to promote in the world. Hitler was quite disappointed. In an effort to convince his Fuhrer that the vampyri were truly the next phase of human evolution, Dr. Haff administered the treatment to himself, becoming one of the disturbing creatures. This metamorphosis only served to make him even more of a pariah within the Reich.
As Nazi Germany extended its power and influence into neighboring countries it became clear that a massive war was brewing. It was also clear that the United States could potentially play a deciding role in that war, should it choose to become involved in European affairs. The Reich decided that it would be best to start covert operations in America as soon as possible and to have agents in place to both influence and undermine American society and war plans.
Requiem had been snubbed and largely ignored since his return from Spain. The SS were jealous of his power and quickly outmaneuvered him politically. Hitler no longer took meetings with him and his assignments tended to be routine and unimportant. When he heard of the plans to send a covert team to the United States he quickly volunteered to lead it. Hitler agreed to his request and took the opportunity to rid himself of two other important but noisome underlings: Dr. Ehren Haff and Othman Doul. The trio was sent by U-boat along with several squads of commandos, and no one ever really expected to see them in Germany again.
Thus in 1938 the 5th Column was born, although it had yet to take on that name. Requiem retained the name he had chosen as a code name. He had earned a bit of a reputation in fascist circles and he planned to use that fame to recruit support from sympathetic Americans. Othman Doul chose the code-name Vandal, while Dr. Haff took the rather obvious but fitting name Nosferatu. The three men and their soldiers snuck onto a deserted beach on a moonless Nacht, with Requiems powers providing all the extra cover they needed. They were just 20 miles north of their destination: Paragon City.
For the first year Requiem and his team remained entirely in the shadows (often quite literally). Each of the three commanders took a full twelve months to set up operations. Requiem spent most of his time playing the role of spy sneaking into government and military buildings, stealing top secret data and then sending it back to the Fatherland. Vandal and Nosferatu spent their time setting up their labs and machine shops to carry on their work. Vandals first task was to design himself a suit of self-powered armor to help protect him in battle. He also worked furiously at creating a series of radio controlled automatons and drones that could be used to augment their meager strike force when it came time to attack. Nosferatu began work on a second generation formulae that would have less drastic effects on the human body, all the while improving upon the original Vampyri formula. He created dozens more vampyri to guard the secret labs and underground bases the team was building.
Requiems secondary task was the recruitment of more soldiers from the local population. At this time, before the war broke out, there were a disturbingly large number of pro-fascist or at least sympathetic individuals in the U.S. With the Great Depression still lingering and isolationism a very popular political stance, Requiem had fertile ground to sow his seeds of hate. Using all the fascist propaganda scare tactics he knew, Requiem managed to win over several dozen fanatics to his cause. These he sent out across the country to find more like minded souls. All the while a trickle of recruits came from Germany and Italy usually very competent but politically inept soldiers and officers who had done nothing wrong but who had crossed someone in the Party elite. Requiem and company welcomed them one and all.
In 1939 Requiems team began to operate in earnest, moving from simple espionage to full fledged sabotage. They began small and clever, disguising their attacks as accidents or random violence rather their true nature. A gas main would break just below a munitions factory, causing an explosion. A drunken truck driver would lose control of his vehicle carrying explosives and smash into and army bases gates. And ships boiler would malfunction and explode, gutting the vessel and sending it to the bottom. Requiems darkness powers combined with Vandals ingenious sabotage devices allowed the group to destroy millions of dollars worth of war materiel and kill hundreds of innocent people without raising any suspicions.
Well, almost without raising suspicion. Fortunately there was one her who wasnt fooled. In late 1940, as war raged in Europe, a member of the Freedom Phalanx, Dr. Mnemonic, noticed what was happening. He noticed the statistical leap in accidental deaths and decided to investigate some of the scenes. His planet-sized intellect quickly discerned that it was murder and sabotage not an accident at all. He soon linked several other accidents to the same culprits and had strong suspicions that the Germans were somehow behind it all. He then laid a rather clever trap offering up a notoriously accident-prone ship carrying vital cargo. His trap worked, although he failed to catch anything. Although the Freedom Phalanx had the ship surrounded, Requiems powers allowed him to slip in unnoticed and plant the sabotage device. As he was leaving he noticed one of the heroes flying high above. Requiem flew high and intercepted the unsuspecting hero, entangling him in tendrils of darkness and dragging him away into the Nacht.
Nosferatu used every trick in his torturers book to interrogate the hero and quickly broke the poor soul. The fascist saboteurs now knew that the Freedom Phalanx was on to their existence. Indeed, now that one of their own had fallen, they would be even more interested than before. It was time to move on to phase two. The 5th Column stopped operating in total secrecy and now made an attempt at misdirection. Vandal had been hard at work on his automatons and had come up with a number of different attack robots that could operate fairly effectively and independently in the field. The 5th Column launched a series of very public attacks using some of these robots robots designed to look like Communist creations. Colored red and emblazoned with the Hammer and Sickle, these humanoid mechanized beasts terrorized the east coast for the next six months.
The communist attacks quickly became known in the press as the Red Robots and served their job well. Even Dr. Mnemonic was fooled or distracted enough to pursue Vandals carefully crafted false leads instead of the true menace. Requiem and Nosferatu were left to run their intelligence and sabotage operations. Throughout 1940 and the first half of 1941 they focused almost entirely upon gathering as much data as they could about the American military and its plans for entering the war. Requiem spent a lot of his time in Washington D.C. during this period, even infiltrating the White House on several occasions. Nosferatu continued to use his Vampyri to try and sabotage U.S. attempts to send aid and war materiel to Britain and the Soviet Union, all the while putting the final touches on his Ubermenschen formula. Vandal provided weapons and sabotage devices for the Vampyri and ran the Red Robot attacks against infrastructure and political targets.
The group was providing an invaluable service to the Nazi regime, but Hitler had other plans. He suspected the Americans would enter the war at any time and knew that the Japanese planned to attack Pearl Harbor. And so, not wanting to be one-upped by Japan, he ordered Requiem to gather all his might for a single attack on the American fleet gathered at Paragon City harbor. Requiem was loathe to reveal his power so blatantly, but the Fuhrer would brook no argument. And so, on Dec 7, 1941, the Fifth Column (still not known by that name) revealed itself to the world.
A fleet of cargo ships and navy escorts had assembled in the safe harbor of Paragon City with plans to steam out the next morning. Guarded by several heroes trained in anti-submarine warfare, it was hoped that the large fleet could safely penetrate any u-boat patrols and reach Britain with its cargo of munitions and other supplies fully intact. Instead, it never left the harbor. Although they all opposed the plan, Requiem, Vandal, and Nosferatu executed it perfectly. Most historians remember only the hordes of Vandals flying robots and rocket-equipped soldiers. Few are even aware of the vampyri who swan below and placed limpet mines or that the Nacht before Requiem himself assassinated all of the heroes assigned to defend the fleet. It was all over in a few minutes, and not a single ship remained above the waves.
Taken with the even more devastating losses at Pearl Harbor, the country was frightened and outraged. The enemy had struck them at home, and done so with seeming impunity. The U.S. immediately declared war on the Axis and began to mobilize both soldiers and heroes to fight the war. The Nazi attack on Paragon City had not been without its own casualties: several dozen soldiers had died and a number of Vandals robots shot down. As a result Dr. Mnemonic had plenty of evidence to sift through in his investigation. He quickly realized that the Red Robots had been a ruse to distract him. The same hand had obviously designed the flying robots and advanced weaponry used in the attack. This was proof that the Germans had been active in the U.S. for over a year, a thought that frightened the good doctor.
The papers went wild with speculations about the nefarious Nazis responsible for the attack. It had obviously been the work of spies and saboteurs stationed right here in the United States. More likely than not, they still hid within our midst. Papers talked of a Fifth Column operating in secret against freedom and democracy. As the Germans had thus far failed to identify themselves, the name stuck.
Requiem and company now entered a new phase of the war. There were police, military, and heroes all searching for them. The time for drawn out plans and fake accidents had passed. The insurgents began a campaign of guerilla warfare and terrorist style attacks. They took to lightning raids on power facilities, steel plants, bridges, factories, docks, and other infrastructure targets. They stayed well away from the hardened military targets such as naval bases and army facilities. With civilians taking most of the casualties, the military and heroes were forced to hunt the 5th Column down rather than wait for them to attack a well-defended target.
Requiem only risked one more large scale engagement. When the 1st Hero Brigade gathered in Liberty Plaza before shipping off across the Atlantic, he knew he could not pass up such a choice target, no matter how great the risk. Requiem massed almost his entire strength for the attack, but this time he lacked the element of surprise. Dr. Mnemonic had predicted such an attack and the Freedom Force and Hero Brigade had prepared accordingly. The resulting battle was the bloodiest and most destructive that Paragon City had ever seen. Dozens of heroes fell, but their losses were nothing compared to those suffered by the 5th Column. Hundreds of robots and flyers were destroyed and scores of soldiers killed. Even a dozen or so vampyri fell in battle. This was Requiems first great defeat and he did not savor it. He knew well enough that the time had come to quit the field, and so he retreated, beaten for the moment.
With most of the countrys heroes shipping out to Europe, Asia, and Africa to help fight the war, only a few remained to directly combat the 5th Column. While its terror attacks were certainly troublesome and were causing millions of dollars of damage, they still didnt compare to the worldwide threat posed by the Axis overseas. Only a handful of experienced heroes remained in the States, and almost all of them focused their attention on fighting Requiem and his followers. For six months the 5th Column laid low, launching diversionary attacks using robotic forces. Since the United States had entered the war the Reich had stopped sending Requiem new recruits and with patriotism running at a fevered pitch it was impossible to recruit from the local population.
The 5th Column never truly recovered from the loss at Liberty Plaza. It continued to harass and cause trouble throughout the remained of the war, but as the American economy and industrial base kicked into war time overdrive, the small acts of sabotage and destruction became less and less significant. Seeing this, Requiem redirected his efforts against the countrys remaining domestic heroes, carrying out a personal vendetta against them. With little or no direction from Hitler, the group was free to act as it pleased. Noseferatu all but withdrew from the war, preferring to carry on his experiments in a secret underground lab. Vandal spent more and more energy testing bizarre and experimental weaponry, more out of his own curiosity than in an effort to help win the war for Germany. Requiem continued to fight on with what troops remained, but he had ceased to be much more than a terror for the heroes of Paragon City and other parts of the East Coast.
When the war ended, Requiem and the rest of the 5th Column faded away as well. Defeated and demoralized, the three villains decided to lay low and disappear rather than risk facing trial as war criminals. Requiem arranged for them all to flee to South America. He ventured into Europe and managed to destroy all official record of their existence, although he was almost caught on several occasions. Post-War Europe was awash with super powered spies and soldiers, making any kind of clandestine activity extremely dangerous. He then returned to South America and helped his cohort set up a new base of operation a secret mountain fastness where all three of them could carry out their researches in relative peace and security.
Vandal was happy to have a well-equipped workshop where he could develop his engineering marvels without interruption or pressure for immediate results. An aging man with a heart problem, he worked first to ensure his own long life, developing implants and systems to replace his failing organs and give him what could easily amount to eternal life. Then he began to dramatically improve upon the simple, nearly mindless robots that had served the 5th column so well before and during the War. Nosferatu had now perfected his vampyri formula. A full course of treatment took less than a week and resulted in a total transformation without any ill-effects. The vampyri had incredible strength, toughness and speed and were immune to most types of damage, including bullets. The Ubermenschen formula proved more troublesome, and over the ensuing decades he went through thousands of test subjects culled from the neighboring villages. Eventually he did perfect the formula, achieving some truly remarkable results.
Meanwhile, Requiem planned. Having never before suffered a defeat so complete, he yearned for vengeance. He had little love for South America, viewing it as a backwards, corrupt, and morally vapid place that was still largely the domain of savages under lesser races. Nor did he want to return to Europe, which to him stank of defeat and capitulation. No, he wanted to return to America, only this time as a conqueror. Easier said than done of course, and Requiem knew this. While giving Vandal and Nosferatu everything they needed to conduct their research, Requiem set about building an army of his own.
For the next 30 years he traveled the globe promoting the cause of fascism. He supported guerilla groups, right wing government cabals, and political parties. All the while he sought new recruits and sent them back to South America for training (and occasionally experimentation). He operated under a number of different aliases and was wanted by Interpol as three separate people. He stayed away from America though, knowing that, with all the heroes there, it was still too dangerous for him.
As his confidence and drive began to loose steam Requiem received a summons from the Path of the Dark. He had largely ignored his masters for quite some time and they were not pleased. He made a pilgrimage to Ravenna and prostrated himself before his dark masters. They chastised him for his lack of faith and forced him to remain in their black lair for a full decade. Vandal and Nosferatu suspected him dead and went their separate ways (neither had liked the other very much) becoming villains in their own rights. All the while Requiem received wisdom, power, and strength from his constant devotions to the Nicti.
Reinvigorated with the power of the Path, Requiem left Ravenna and sought out his old allies. Vandal was running a crime syndicate in Rio while Nosferatu had set himself up as some kind of feudal vampiric lord in the mountains of Peru. Neither was satisfied and when they saw what Requiem had brought with him, they agreed to get the band back together. The Nicti had given Requiem a new group of followers humans who had fused with Nicti to create the terrifying and powerful werewolf-like Nacht Wolves. All agreed that the next logical step was returning to Paragon City and taking vengeance upon the nation that had shamed and defeated them.
With no Hitler to force their hand, the 5th Column took its time preparing for their triumphal return. They operated entirely under the radar in the United States for over a decade before they made their stunning debut in the wake of the Rikti invasion. Indeed, they might well have waited another decade had they not seen a great opportunity in the invasions aftermath, with so many of the greatest heroes dead or missing. The city was weak and ripe for the taking.
Requiem and company had used their time to prepare well for their attack. They had dispatched recruiters all over the country to bring fresh, committed blood into the organization. As their number swelled, Vandal was hard at work using a new technology he had developed digging and mining machines that could hollow out a cave network in record time. The 5th Column riddled the ground beneath Paragon City with tunnels and caves, setting up scores of secret outposts and fire bases beneath the city streets. There they trained and housed their troops, manufactured their robots, and prepared for the coming war.
When the Rikti invaded the 5th Column was as surprised as anyone. They took a wait and see attitude, fighting off more than a few Rikti incursions into their bases but otherwise keeping a very low profile. If the war had gone too badly they would have stepped in to help beat back the aliens, but Requiem had faith the Statesman and his fellow heroes would eventually beat back these beast men. He was right, and moreover he was pleased with the result: not only did the humans win, but they managed to lose the vast majority of their most powerful heroes in the process and destabilize the entire world economy. Paragon City was carved into a patchwork of chaotic, often untamed zones. Now was the perfect moment to attack.
And so, for the first time in over 50 years 5th Columnists stalked the streets of Paragon City. They followed much the same pattern as before, striking in secret at targets of opportunity, not revealing their presence until a group of heroes including Statesman discovered them. At first the venerable hero could not believe his eyes. The 5th Column was back with a vengeance and at the worst possible time.
3.2 Beliefs and Goals
The renewed and reformed Fifth Column wants nothing less than to create a fascist state in America. From there it plans to expand outwards and bring the entire world to heel under a single, beneficent ruler. Their readings of Plato and Aristotle, along with other philosophers justify their contention that it is morally right for a self-selected elite to rule through deception, hyper-nationalism and state-sponsored ideology. They appeal to the basest, most self-deceitful instincts in humanity. They tell themselves and their followers that they are better than everyone else, and that once the war is over, the world will for the first time know peace and prosperity in every corner of the Earth.
They justify the mass destruction and killing that accompanies their crusade with a particularly twisted form of Social Darwinism. They are the fittest physically, morally, and ideologically therefore they will survive where all other will perish. They have grand plans for a time when iron laws will keep everyone in America safe from crime and free to life a fulfilling life, but in the meantime they must first tear down the corrupt, morally degenerate society that exists solely to exploit and abuse the average citizen. They promise a return to some mythical, heroic golden age when everyone knew there place in society and everyone was happy with a select group of white, male rulers making all their decisions for them.
The Fifth Column appeals to a wide variety of hates and discontents. Their propaganda takes the most vitriolic complaints from both the political right and left: The U.S. government seeks to control your life. It is morally bankrupt because it recognizes the rights of women, gays, and non-whites. The democracy has been entirely subverted by special interests so that rich, greedy elites use the tyranny of the masses to control the lives of normal, working class men. Pornography, gambling, video games, movies, and television rot the minds of Americas youth. Most importantly it appeals to a twisted kind of patriotism: America has forgotten its roots to the point where now there is no real America: its all a corporate controlled moral cesspool thats forgotten the meaning of words like honor and nationalism. Everything is for sale. Everything is permitted. Nothing is sacred. All are equal even those who arent.
This heady fascist brew wouldnt pass the laugh test for most educated people, but there are plenty of weaker minds out there that readily fall for the Fifth Column line. What sets the Fifth Column apart from all the other militias and extremist groups is that these fascists have very real power to offer those who put on a uniform and mask. They will indeed make you a literal superman, assuming you have the guts, strength, and determination to rise through the ranks. A new recruit has every expectation that one day he will indeed be, if not better, then at least stronger, tougher, and more dangerous than 99.5% of the worlds population. Thats a very tempting offer, and more and more people take them up on it each day. The Rikti invasion proved a special boon to the 5th Columns recruiting drive. Many felt powerless in the face of such a seemingly unstoppable foe. The 5th Column offered them a way to get some of that power for themselves.
Requiem continues to exploit this feeling of weakness and insecurity that many feel. Most of 5th Columns propaganda these days focuses on spreading the fear that the government cannot and will not protect the common man when time comes. The leaders squabble, look after their political leaders and rely on paid costumed heroes for their safety. It is up to the moral, honorable man to take his future in his own hands and fight with the 5th Column. Requiem also makes much use of the Rikti ability to transform themselves into humans. They stress that aliens could be anywhere, including in the government including even amongst the citys so-called heroes. Only the 5th Column has the technology, organization, and will to constantly test all of its members to ensure none of them are aliens. Or so they claim.
All of these claims help support the 5th Columns most important talking point: heroes are not the saviors, but the oppressors of mankind. The 5th Column teaches that heroes are a menace because they have no control. They are free agents who cause ten times more chaos and destruction than they do good. They have stolen the power that should rightly belong to the good and decent men of the world. They set themselves up as gods and lord their powers over common, morally upright men. That power must be restored to those who deserve it racially pure, morally upstanding men.
Thus the ultimate goal for the 5th Column is quite simple: eradicate anyone who disagrees with them. Once theyve achieved universal approval for their ideology, then the world will be at peace. Anyone who disagrees with that ideology is thus an enemy of the peace and must be eliminated forthwith. Simple.
3.3 Behavior Patterns
The Fifth Column runs constant operations in Paragon City. Their basic philosophy is to stay on the offensive at all times, masking their more long-term schemes with a never-ending series of small raids and attacks. The group expects a high turn over and casualty rate, especially amongst its lower ranking troops. Thus MekMen are very popular for basic harassment missions, as are Iron Valkyries. Wolfpack bots are too expensive and important to be frittered away on distractions.
These harassment attacks take all forms, from thefts and raids designed to provide funds and equipment to the cause to kidnappings, bombings, and terror attacks designed to do nothing more than scare and distract the local authorities. Hand in hand with every attack there is always a propaganda message to justify it. The 5th Columns strict and hateful ideology make it easy to find an excuse to attack almost every decent, civilized person in the city. Race, creed, political leanings, corporate affiliations, friendships, education, and even the clothes they wear have all served as excuses for death and terror. The 5th Columnists always leave pamphlets or other media behind to explain their actions.
The lower ranking troops do not usually operate directly out of the many underground bases that the 5th Column maintains throughout the city. Vandal has built some truly amazing drilling and building machines that make creating an underground cave network much easier than one might imagine. Nevertheless, the 5th Column values these facilities and does not want cannon fodder level captives revealing their location to every fledgling hero who manages to capture one of them. These lower level soldiers have their own hideaways sometimes in sewers or caves, but more often in abandoned buildings or warehouses.
The underground facilities serve as launching points for more serious attacks on the city and its heroes. They are of course much sought after by heroes and law enforcement, but the villains have proven very skilled at hiding them. Some connect directly to the underground levels of existing buildings while others are accessed through existing cave or sewer tunnels. The caves allow the 5th Column to move around beneath the city with relative freedom, although they must avoid Rikti, Lost, Devouring Earth, and other threats as they travel.
Requiem and friends are masters of patience and long-term planning. They will set the seeds for an operation months or even years in advance. They have placed moles and infiltrators throughout the city, using their influence only when necessary in order to preserve their security. These long-term operations are usually aimed at the total destruction of some valued capitalist or democratic institution. They dont just rob banks, they drain their assets, destroy their buildings, discredit their officials, and terrorize their employees. A crusading left wing politician does not just have his name smeared, he is assassinated, framed as a pedophile, discredited as a liar and drug addict, and has his entire family and most of his friends brought to ruin. They have learned the lesson that you should never leave an enemy any room to strike back. Defeat him utterly and move on to the next target.
While politicians, scientists, writers, artists, journalists, actors, police officers, and military leaders are all viable targets (basically anyone who promotes a world view counter to their own) the favorite targets of such operations are heroes. The 5th Column wages a constant war against heroes, plaguing them with ambushes and harassment attacks. But when they set their sites on eliminating a hero entirely they take their time and study the heros every facet. They often start by attacking him where hes weak family, friends, loved ones, and cherished institutions. Then they move in for the kill, exploiting his weaknesses and cutting him off from any possible sources of aid. They dont always succeed, but when they do it is invariably final and spectacular.
The Fifth Columns quest for real social change in the United States has led it to form a legitimate political party that ostensibly has no ties to the terrorist activities of the parent group. Known as the American Empire party, it seeks to create a United States where wise laws and benevolent rulers ensure safety, prosperity, and moral certitude for every man woman and child. A place for every person and every person in his place. Not surprisingly, this is not the most popular political party in American history. Nevertheless, it does have its adherents and serves its two main functions: a legal way for Requiem to distribute his propaganda and an outreach tool for finding new recruits. The 5th Column is very scrupulous about hiding any direct ties to the group and so far it has avoided being classified as a domestic terrorist supporting group.
Of course theres more than one way to manipulate politics. Requiem knows that almost every politician has a dark secret or two that they dont want the public to know. He uses his Nacht troops and Vampyri to gather sensitive information on every politician, right or left wing, in the city. He doesnt use it for blackmail or to influence the process he just releases it to the public through various media contacts. When there are no secrets worth revealing he has his troops plant false evidence and then reveals that. Requiem wants total dissatisfaction with the current U.S. government at every level. The more people become dissatisfied, the more likely they are to turn to extremes, like his own American Empire party or the 5th Column itself.
One of the least talked about but most pervasive activities of the 5th Column is its propaganda machine. The group puts out a constant stream of fascist and hate literature under a bevy of different publishing fronts. They also maintain several dozen right wing Web sites. They even have a pirate radio station that broadcasts in Paragon City on an irregular basis. Most of the propaganda is ridiculously right wing and extremist, but some of it hides in sheeps clothing. These publications mimic more accepted right wing ideals and then serve as gateways to the publications that more accurately present the 5th Columns twisted message.
Finally the 5th Column is doing its best to win the hearts and minds of the people it hopes to rule white, fascist males. If you fit into this decidedly narrow category then the 5th Column will do a great deal to help you, even if you dont ask for it. They secretly pay bills, arrange for employment opportunities, provide scholarships for children to attend right-minded schools and so on. While these charity operation have had only limited success, they do sometimes win over support from someone who would otherwise view the group with disdain.
3.4 Enemies and Allies
As one of the largest and most powerful villain groups in Paragon City, the Fifth Column has little need for allies, but it certainly has many enemies. Their very ideology, casting themselves as heroes in the face of oppression and moral failure means that they must openly oppose most of the other villain groups. In truth Requiem has little use for any of them, although hes not above manipulating and using them when it suits his needs.
The Rikti are of course dire foes. The 5th Column fights them as ferociously as it fights the citys heroes and they are always sure to trumpet their successes every time they defeat an alien cohort or uncover a hidden nest of invaders. The Rikti dont even distinguish between heroes and the 5th Column. As far as theyre concerned, both are equally dangerous.
Lesser but equally evil groups like the Banished Pantheon and the Devouring Earth also draw a similar amount of hatred and disdain. The Banished Pantheon is viewed as a mongrel religion for lesser races and a bane to all decent, civilized men. The Devouring Earth are merely monsters in need of extermination, like any other pest.
The 5th Column views the Circle of Thorns with a kind of fearful respect. Requiem senses in them a power even greater than that of the Nicti and he is loathe to cross them until he understands them better. The group has little to do with magic and so leaves such occult matters to the Circle and its followers. Their party line is that such practices destroy the moral fiber of man, but they do not actively seek a conflict with the underground sorcerers.
The 5th Column has some hopes for groups like Freakshow and the Sky Raiders. Both represent radical political statements that are anti-government. Although neither has an ideology that is on the face of it compatible with the 5th Column, Requiem thinks he can subvert them both and win them over. So, for now, he sometimes works with these groups.
Crey Industries is considered as much of an enemy as the Rikti, and for many of the same reasons. While Requiem has nothing against the Countess personally, he recognizes that corporate greed and malfeasance are great motivators and that by acting directly against the company he appeals to the prejudices of his constituency. The two are locked in a bitter, continuing feud, although Crey is too powerful for the 5th Column to attack directly.
As for the lesser groups like Vahzilok, the Tsoo, and the Clockwork King, Requiem scarcely pays them any mind. The Tsoo are of course despised for racial reasons while the Clockwork King is thought a madman. Nosferatu has taken some interest in Vahziloks work, but the two groups have had little direct contact.
3.5 The Future
The future for the 5th Column involves branching out their activities and searching for new paths to achieve their victory. Even with a decade of planning and laying groundwork for their assault, the 5th Column has not had the quick victory it hoped for. The influx of new heroes and rival villains has made their task much more daunting than they ever imagined. At this rate, America will not fall into fascism any time soon if indeed it ever does.
One of the most major changes will be dramatically increased cooperation with the Path of the Dark. Right now only Requiem even knows where the Nacht Wolves truly come from and who the Nicti are. In the not too distant future the beings of pure darkness will extend their tendrils into Paragon City, unleashing a whole new horde of foul creatures.
The 5th Column will also begin to take a very strong interest in portal technology, something that right now they have very little exposure to. Their primary goal will be to reestablish a link with the forbidden world of Axis America. If they can bring the Reichsman and other alternate-Earth Nazis onto their dies, they would have a much greater chance for victory.
Although Requiem rules the 5th Column with an iron fist and has substantial support from his subjects, there are small factions of discontent. Some of the vampyri and Ubermenschen have taken their own propaganda to heart and view themselves as better than the rest of the world, including their leaders. A cabal of them is likely to split off and form its own, competing villain group, possibly with a very different, radically left wing ideology.
Finally there will be the 5th Columns very public push to exterminate the Rikti once and for all. They will create a new hero group devoted to fighting the aliens and recruit heroes into its service. No one will know this is actually a 5th Column front group which Requiem can manipulate into not only attacking Rikti but other targets that he falsely identifies as Rikti Controlled or Rikti Influence or even Rikti Sympathetic. Even player heroes will get sucked into this group until they come to realize its true nature.