We came, we saw, we kicked some arcs!

Dude,

If you have Praetoria 1-20 on your conscience, I think you can safely tell Melissa that she now has a serious contender for the "favourite Dev" nomination.

Playing through the first twenty levels of Praetoria has been some of the most engaging story telling not only in City of Heroes, but in just about any game I've ever played (and I have to say 'just about' only because of giants such as Planescape: Torment).

If that's not on you... uhm... well, you're still swell!

I enjoyed and still do (was leveling up another toon to see how the playing a loyalist acting like he is a traitor would work out) rnjoy Praetoria. Great stories and a breathtaking environment over there.

Thanks for helping to create that world!

Pro,

Thanks for Praetoria and all the work you and Paragon Studios have done!

I guess you really are a "Pro!"

And words cannot express how much I want PS to succeed in their talks with NSleaz- oh God, where is the strikeout key when you need it?

I can't even think about them. But if they sell and the Paragon Studios team goes on in any form, I'm there for all of you.

Meantime, we're all making as much noise as we can and spreading the word. If nothing else it will show you how much all of you meant (and still mean) to us.

Seeing as you're so proud of Praetoria, Protean, it gave me the following characters:

Zahir Rolando: A roboticist injured in a terrorist bombing at a restaurant in the Magisterium, that cost him the life of his boyfriend and his legs. With new robot legs based on Type 40 Clockwork parts, he began working for the PPD as an R&D tech, before travelling to Primal Earth to try and help stop a war. On Primal Earth, he works as a freelance consultant as well as the owner of Rolando Pound Storage in Independence Port, where he takes his bots out to deal with Devouring Earth in the area.

Maxine 'Maxi' Pound: 4 foot tall, strong and tough, she was a PPD 'Special Officer' partnered with Zahir. On Primal Earth, she works as a construction worker and demolition woman.

Zachary 'Zack' Tanner: Syndicate Assassin gone road ronin, he now runs an on-foot courier business in Paragon City using his 'authentic ninja skills' gained in his time with the Syndicate. Zack's Packages: He'll take care of your package, as if it were his own.

Constance Svanhildr: Former 1st Major in the IDF, an old but young soldier who fought in the Norwegian Armed Forces against the Hamidon and lost an eye in the process. Deserted the IDF after the marching orders came to invade Primal Earth, having signed up to fight the Rikti. Currently works as a porter in a retirement home in Paragon, as well as taking down Devouring Earth with her bare hands.

Lil Five: The Companion Clockwork from another player's house, managed to re-activate and against all odds made her way to Primal Earth with a very mouldy scrambled egg for breakfast. Was given to Zahir, who repaired her with WarWorks parts and updated her programming. Work as the store manager and assistant at Rolando Pound Storage. Mother hen of the RP Storage lot.

Jonathan Wong: Anti-Syndicate Task Force member, martial artist who went rogue to rescue his sister from experimentation. Now works at the Chinese Embassy in Paragon City, specialising in dealing with cases of Praetorian-Chinese Refugees.

Amanda Wong: Gifted young woman experimented on for work in a Special unit of the IDF utilizing stealth and assassination, was rescued by her brother and brought to Primal Earth. Works at Wong's Emporium, a store on Talos Island owned by the Primal Jonathan Wong.

Thank you for providing the setting to let these characters come to life, and for countless other stories.

Protean,

Thank you. Thank you for the stories, for the creepily clean city with the empty playgrounds, for the hours of entertainment.

Thanks for letting me chauffeur you & The Net around...you are absolutely hilarious and I will miss seeing you at HeroCon...I mean the Player Summit.

~Siren

*waves* Don't mind me, just reading the forums at 12:30 am.

All but one of my masterminds are from Praetoria, all having escaped there at different points in the past. The real reason for this is that I started to play seriously when Going Rogue came out, and I am a hero-kinda guy. And playing through Praetoria was a good, streamlined way to level that gave me the option of making my masterminds heroes. Viola.

i had 2 characters go through praetoria

one was a kin melee/ninjitsu stalker which i had named PPD Assassin

the other was a fire/MA tank named Blazing Resistance

now guess which sides of praetoria each was on

On-topic, I never finished the Praetorian arcs - a situation I am rectifying. (So much stuff I need to do at least once, still.) What I have seen, I really liked.

I think I do get why a lot of folks seemed to dislike the morally "gray" nature of Praetoria (or seemed to prefer to believe it was actually some obfuscated black-and white). There's something comforting and maybe a bit escapist in the idea of unambiguously good people fighting unambiguously evil people.

Personally, I enjoy stories that show there's a wide band of gray between good and evil immensely. Some of my favorite television, movie and even comic entertainment through the years has been the stuff where good and evil were ... let's say less than clear-cut.

So, thank you!

And I will see the rest before I go.

Thank you for Praetoria, thank you for the stories, thank you for all the plot "tweeeeests", thank you for the Stepford Wives vibe.

Thanks for letting me play in it.


PS - How can we be sure you're the REAL Protean?

Thank you, Protean, for making Praetoria much more than an eye-patch/goatee mirror universe of evil twins. Praetoria became so vast and compelling, with urgency and sinister Hamidon tendrils scraping the edges of a glass snowglobe of a dystopic utopia.

You approached a world of black and white, or blue and red, and gave us a much more mature branching plotline of shades of grey. You gave us a playground and showed us that too far on any path was extremist insanity, and it was almost impossible to take part in life changing events without getting one's hands dirty.

You gave us shades of grey and made City of Heroes really really interesting. With the great sadness weighing me down that City of Heroes is coming to a close, I feel a triumphant victory that Emperor Cole was defeated. I got to see him up to the very end of his crumbling empire, and felt like I really made a difference in saving the many refugees of innocents, and powered people that joined us to become heroes and villains in a new world full of hope.

Hi Protean,

I want you to know that I was honored to have my trivia contest entry scored by you in 2009, even if I totally blew it when we got up in front of everyone for the final showdown.

Thanks for keeping the CoH lore alive, and for doing your best to expand it. I really enjoyed Praetoria (even if I do wish it had been 40-50 content with Primal characters going undercover as Praetorians), and loved seeing my choices impact my characters' futures.

Thanks for the ambushes, too. I love 'em, as long as they don't involve Sappers or the Ladies of the Infinite Caltrops.

I hope you continue to do well in the future, wherever you wind up.

-Liquid