Lore AMA... coming soon...ish

Yeah, I'd go for "Can we get all the Kheld lore?" too...

1. How, given that the Kheldians are extragalactic to begin with and have the ability to move... fairly quickly, can Twilight Son actually be the "last" Kheldian?
1a. Or is he the "last" as in "last he knows of" or "last in the galaxy?" (The latter still being a bit of a stretch, given the simple *size* of the galaxy, but still possible, I suppose.)

2. Were there any plans to go back and beef up the VEAT stories? Especially the latter half - which do, still, feel rushed to me.

2a. Or even, potentially, plans for each "branch" of the VEATs to have their own stories explored? (Difficult given dual/triple builds, I know.)

3. How do Khelds reproduce, given they're energy beings - splitting? Something similar to a cyst? Do they actually have something like gender other than what they take on from hosts?

4. Was Shadowstar a Warshade before coming to Earth, or did she undergo a change of heart sometime during her stay?

5. Blood of the Black Stream - how much backstory/basis IS there/was there in the lore bible? (Yes, I *am* still on about that!) Aside from "existing in ancient egypt" and being some technomagic mix (which makes me wonder about any ties to the Nictus/Warshades.)

6. We had a CCG, which at one point had mention made of possibly giving in-game benefits, though I don't believe that was ever actually implemented. Was the introduction of super packs in the form they were a nod to that or just coincidence? (Does anyone even remember that first part?)

7. "Science lord." Any actual tie to canon or just something made up for the comic?

8. Do Peacebringers use anything similar to Cysts for anything?
8a. If a Warshade (or group) created cysts, could a PB use them, or would it be harmful?

9. Would the Kheldians original homeworld still exist, and as anything other than a ruin? (Given the whole "genocidal war" of the Nictus.)
9a. I keep picturing any sort of "cities" they'd natively have as almost crystalline... would they even have "cities" as we'd think of them?

10. Were there any plans to have us visit the Rikti homeworld? Could we have visited the Kheldian homeworld? Ouro back to the "golden age" of the Mu and /or Orenbanga? Anything looking possible to go underwater to see the Coralax cities, or was that still "just can't make it look right?"

11. AE: What do you think could have been done better? There was a lot of potential in it - if money and other resources werent' an issue, what would you have liked to do? Not just in terms of "adding stuff to the system," but would you have (say) had arcs vetted by people before publication to find exploits, to categorize, etc? (IE, "farms are fine, but they're going into the farming tab, here's a PVP-enabled arc, it goes into the PVP tab, that one's heavily exploitive, reject and patch" that sort of thing.)

12. Did you *really* not roll your eyes at the whole end-of-VEAT-arc meta-speech by Statesman needing to somehow shoehorn in an explanation for power proliferation? Did you ever want to just yahk that out and redo it? (Sorry, but that was just *painful.*)

13. Kheld arcs again - the Nictus start making plans to make the Earth a new Nictus homeworld, yet they'd been here since ancient egypt if not earlier. Were we basically, given nuclear power, etc. just hitting a point where the Nictus could kick plans into high gear because of our technological level? (Otherwise... why not just take over earlier, with less resistance?)

See my Guides and Tutorials

Hi everyone, so, there was a thread starting this already and I took the liberty of compiling everything from there onto a google document. Please add your own and pass it on!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...m5fIVs7Z4/edit

Appreciate the effort, but definitely feed the family first *then* quench our thirst for knowledge.

I, too, would like to know about the plans (if any) for the moonbase or space station.

Also, what was the deal with Battalion? Backstory, artwork, etc.

Were there plans to actually build new things where the various workers have been toiling for years? (Such as by the north tram in Steel.)

How were the Menders and Ouroborus going to shake out?

-- Was Mender Silos "our" Lord nemesis, or was he from another Earth?

1. About when did the current implementation of "Incarnates" come into the story and how much shuffling did you have to do to accommodate them?

2. What plans did you have for Ascendants and how would they fit into the story and Prometheus?

3. Was Prometheus ever intended to be an actual story participant, or was he just a means to put context behind the various iTrials?

4. What organisation do the Merit Vendors belong to, who's in charge of them and what is their story? Who designed their costumes?

5. If Mender Silos is Lord Nemesis, how did he break the "Carbon Law" which limits people to only travelling ~5700 years from "current time" in either direction.

6. Silos manages 11 means of time travel, of which the Pillar of Ice and Flame is one. The Dream Doctor mentions travelling through the Dreamspace to be another. Have you planned for the other nine? Is it canon there are no more than the 11 or are those just the ones we know about?

7. How does Holsten Armitage fit into either Time After Time's Project: Destiny and Mender Silos' Coming Storm? Were there any plans to give the man a Steven "Science" Sheridan makeover?

8. Can you confirm that you handle discontinuity within a character's own experience as time line alterations? For instance, characters who I started in Galaxy City are told that, in an alternate timeline, the Shivan meteors fell on Atlas Park, instead.

9. Who are the "natives" of the Shadow Shard and why do they refer to themselves as "the people of Paragon?"

10. What, in practical terms, is the Shadow Shard? Is it just a weird-looking physical dimension, or is it, as one mission suggests, "inside the mind of a god?" The latter would explain how Lanaru's madness could "break" the world.

11. What's at the "bottom" of the Shadow Shard? Say I fell of an island and the safety net teleporters failed. How far would I fall and what would I fall towards?

12. Who and what is Rularuu? Where did he come from? What does he have to do with the Soldiers of Rularuu monsters? What purpose do Faatim, Ruladak, Lanaru and the others who aren't in the game serve?

13. Who would win in a chess match - Nemesis or Nemesis Rex?

14. Who or what is Lughebu?

15. What do literal religious gods constitute in City of Heroes and how can multiple real and fictional pantheons manage to coexist when the stories behind them kind of contradict each other?

16. What is Prometheus bragging about having given to mankind when it was Ermeeth who gave mankind magic and kick-started the first real empire of the world - that of the Oranbegans?

17. Who is the Prince of Demons/Demon Prince and what is his stake in the Oranbega/Mu war? What was his plan and what was he really after?

18. Can you confirm that after The Eternal Nemesis storyline, there is no longer such a thing as the "real" Nemesis, as his mind is instead spread over a network of automatons with artificial brains?

19. What were your plans for Reichsman before we burned the writer of the Khan TF at the stake? Was he intended to take over the 5th Column as a leader? Was there ever intended to be a real revival of the group with a new visual or at least a new agenda?

20. When did the "Nicti" become alien and why? Was it always planned from the start or was this ad-hoced?

21. When, in his personal story, do we see Requiem circa the Imperious Task Force? He's still wearing his 5th Column uniform and fielding 5th Column troops, but was this before he defected to the Council, or is he leading this operation in secret while also working for the Council?

22. Who, exactly, is the Freedom Corps division "Longbow" supposed to represent? Are they just a catch-all term for non-player heroes (explaining why every hero in villain storylines is a Longbow agent) or are they an independent entity?

23. What became of Hero Corps? Was their service ever accepted? Were they corrupt and had they actually sold out to Crey?

24. Who is the Lady Grey and why does she know so much about Incarnates? Is she the "Lady of the Lake" who gave Hero 1 his sword Excalibur like I suspect she is?

25. Who is "Incandescent" and were there any plans for her to show up in the actual game, instead of only being mentioned in storyline? What would she have looked like? Was she hot?

26. How restrictive is the "Origin of Powers" plot thread and the notion of Pandora's Box giving birth to super powers. Are we supposed to trust the contacts on their word (say, Sister Psyche, rest her soul, saying Mutants didn't exist prior to the splitting of the atom) or can we claim that this only affected SOME people?

27. Were villain characters circa City of Villain's release in 2005 really supposed to want to be Arachnos agents and are rumours of this being downsized from an original intention of having villains join a number of pre-existing NPC villain groups true?

28. When, exactly, do the events of our future as a "might and frighting Incarnate" (aka, Mender Ramiel's first mission) take place? It has to be more than 5700 years in the future or past for context to make sense, but wouldn't that put it beyond the events of the Coming Storm?

29. Who are the ghostly reflections I fight all throughout Mender Ramiel's arc, do they have anything to do with the Shadow Shard reflections and do they really share a sort of extra-temporal intelligence that allows them to see time travel events in the proper order even though that's incompatible with chronological order?

30. Who or what are the Talons of Vengeance? Are they really agents of the Furies or are they, instead, just monsters - the Children of Lamashtu?

That's all I have for the moment. I'll post more if I think of anything else.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

1. Is Sister Psyche really dead, or could she eventually reincorporate if she found a new body?
1a. Was Manticore going to eventually become a villain?
1b. Was Scirocco eventually going to become a hero?

2. Was there ever going to be redemption for Hero1 and the Rikti?

3. How did Hamidon really get from the Hive to the Abyss?

4. Where there ever any even slightly serious discussions about more Villain only zones? Possibly villains annexing one or more Shadow Shard zones?

Alot of good questions in this thread. I'm looking forward to the answers! ho I'll be sad to hear what could have been and never got to see it...

Things I'm most interested in hearing about:

1. Incarnate system- where it was headed and what it's final powers would be, as well where the story arc would take us.
2. Battalion- who are they?
3. Coming Storm- what was it?
4. What other mecanics where they going to implement in the game.
5. New zones/powers on the way?

Thank you for your time and comitement to this game over the years.

- Pictures of Battalion. What is the Coming Storm?
- What are they building in Port Oakes?
- What happens to the Dream Doctor in the End?
- For that matter, what is the relation between Rularuu and Dream Doctor?
- Why did Lord Nemesis become "good" in the future? (Mender Silos)
- What are the 13 methods of time travel?
- Who are the mender members actually? Lazarus, Tesseract, etc.
- What happened that led to the first Incarnate mission where Oroborous had collapsed?
- In Primal Earth, who is Penny Yin's mother?
- What was the Blood of the Black Stream?
- What happens in the end to Tyrant?
- Does Scirroco ever become good?
- Does Ms Liberty become evil?
- Is Lady Grey the Lady of the Lake?

Hoorb!

What's the deal with the Shivans? What happened to the heroes of Operation Vishnu?

Has The Center any real superpowers ? If yes, what are they ? If no, how is he able to keep Requiem on a short leash ?

Did Manticore actually shack it up with Swan (et al) or was that just a plant to further unbalance Sister Psyche ?

1./ What, exactly, was Malta after in Cimerora?

2./ The sibyls on the ITF mention Phoebas, who is apparently their deity. Is 'Phoebas' simply a spelling variation of Phoebus Apollo? If not, who is Phoebas?

3./ How was Daedalus able to make use of Malta tech?

4./ Apart from being the scene of Fifth Column and Malta activity, how does the future history of Cimerora relate to Paragon City? Why was this particular ancient village a target?

5./ Was there ever a plan to actually unleash Burkholder's giant robot on Paragon City?

(I could swear that during the very first weeks I was playing the game, I saw a Titan-sized 5th Column Mech Man in King's Row. This may have been a part of the Issue 3 event. It was not a Paladin, that much I know. It may have been a bug; IIRC if the game tried to spawn an NPC that it couldn't find, it often spawned a Mech Man.)

<《 New Colchis / Guides / Mission Architect 》>
"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison

I keep posting this in the wrong place. 3rd time is the charm.


"Does this mean it's over? There are tons of effort out there still trying to change NCsoft's mind. Last we heard was there were talks going on internally."

ok let me see.
1. Who were the various other menders, we knew Silos was Nemesis but Dream Doctor talks of them all having sinister secrets.
2. What was the future of ouroboros and was any thought given to the risks of time travel and why our heros couldn't simply flashback and warn Statesman for instance or kill Wade before he even started hiring villains to rob the Midnighters for him.
3. Were there plans to involve Malta and their plots a bit more? They would hardly have liked every super power becoming incarnate and even harder to control. How do you blackmail a person that can fight armys single handedly, which we do in several places in the Dark Astoria arcs?
4. Were there plans to update or advance more story arcs and story lines a bit more? Things that our characters are meant to discover themselves become common knowledge or revealed in other places.
5.Was Synapse really managing to date two supermodels at once? If so why did we never get their costumes and why couldn't we?
6. was it Statesmans incarnate destiny that resulted in so many alternate worlds connected to primal earth revolving around him? And if so were there plans for more around other true incarnates, i assume all those people who had versions in Cimerora are incarnates whose destiny is to keep being reincarnated in some form wherever the well is involved
7.For that matter who is the good double that we meet and where are they from?
8. Were player characters ever going to become too big for the well?

Turns out all my unanswered questions are either about features instead of lore, or have already been asked. Except for one.

Were we ever going to get back into Galaxy City? If so, what was being planned for it?

Can you export all data about building toons to Mid's so I can fantasize about finished toons?

I'd like to echo what others said about wishing you luck on the job search. That's clearly your top priority and I respect that.

If you do find time to share some stories, I'd like to know more about Ouroboros and the Shadow Shard. No specific question; I just don't feel like I've ever really understood the big picture in those two areas. Also the Blood of the Black Stream. What was the idea there?

Also, one very specific question: What shocking thing did BABs and States find when they uncovered the source of Superadine? Was it just the reality-piercing power of the drug, and the cruel human experiments, or was there something else going on?

Just Said No To Superadine, Monument 4, Inscription

In March of 1986, with the mystical aid of the Midnight Squad, the Back Alley Brawler managed to track local Superadine distribution to a secret lab beneath this building. Little is known about the lab's contents. It is simply known that the Back Alley Brawler and the Statesman swore their comrades to secrecy after the battle.

Will keep this brief.

• Was Dream Doctor lying about Ouroboros?
• Did Manticore view Psyche as a life partner or just a distraction for his amusement?
• Given Malta's secrecy, how do we end up meeting Director 11 (and Gyrfalcon) when it took weeks (if not months) of research to uncover Director 17?
• Is Positron a Killer GM? If so who has bitten it the most in his campaign?
• Is Indigo Crimson's daughter or a real good friend?

1. Where did Lord Recluse went after Statesman died?
2. Will Lord Recluse join the Freedom Phalanx with Ghost widow since Statesman and Psyche is gone unless they will be reincarnated someway?
3. I hope there will be Signature arcs for all the Villains/Groups (Hellions, Skulls, Lost, etc) in the game so we could know a story about them.

Can we please get a full list of which NPCs were incarnates (and incarnates of who/what)? Requiem managed to become stronger than Reichsman, and Ukon Grai is.... Ukon Grai. Are they incarnates? How about DJ Zero? Blue Steel? And is Imperious secretly Zeus? A child of Zeus? If not, why does he have Statesman's powers?

..Actually, let's go with that. Why does Cimerora have such /clear/ analogs for certain modern-day characters?

And what's the deal with Lady Gray?

Ouroboros and Nemesis- what's the real story there?

So many lore questions, so little time....

1. Was Sister Psyches death going to have a profund effect on Manticore (i.e. was he going evil)?

2. Was Scirocco going to be redeemed?

3. For those who didnt/can't/won't see Beta - which Praetorians survived and what became of them.

4. Was Lord Recluse going to be redeemed and what was on the cards for Arachnos?

5. Tell us the full story of Mender Silos and Ouroboros! Were they good guys or evil? Were we right to trust them?

6. What WAS the coming storm (other than an invasion)?

7. What happens at the end of Pandoras Box?

8. Does Desdemona continue as the leader of the Carnival of Light? What becomes of them in any event?

9. Was there ever going to be a Praetorian Stefan Richter?

I cant think of anything else at the moment.

Just exactly how did Null the gull get into Pocket D?

SSA2 on villain side featured the creation of their own organization. Where there plans to further this organization in further SSAs, in effect making the villains an enemy group the heroes could fight against?

It sounds like you were wanting to focus more on Lore questions... But, since there are a lot of other feature questions out there -

Were there any plans to implement a Personal Nemesis system? (Yes, I am kind of hung up on this... but it would be COOL! ! !)

If so, how far did the plans get? Was it completely scrapped, shelved, developing?