Superteam specializing in the paranormal? Hmm... closest thing to that would probably be The Night watch, an informal group of four mystic heroes from Britain who band together to fight supernatural evil. If you're not talking superhuman-level power, the Trismegistus Council is a worldwide association of benevolent occult scholars who study and watch for supernatural threats, and often act as a resource for magic-based heroes.
Many superteams have a mystic member or two, and some organizations have specialized branches for dealing with the paranormal, e.g. UNTIL's Project Hermes task force.
EDIT: I had to separate "Nigh****ch" into two words due to the profanity filter. :rolleyes:
thanks for the info LL. Was asking cause I plan to have a character that runs a paranormal investigation business out of his truck, and was wondering if there would be anyone he might have run into in "the field".
Guess it wouldn't hurt to have a little Trismegistus interaction ^_^
Tappan is from the PnP game, years before Champions Online. But the last time he was referred to in a published Champions book was in 2004, so what his status might be today, that side of the IP is currently silent on.
What book was he in? Are there illustrations of a character sheet for him?
I believe the last official mention of him (not counting CO) was in the Arcane Adversaries sourcebook, which also provided info on the Kings of Edom.
Also: Vulshoth looks weird.:eek: Not mentioning the evil twin Tappan has(had?) at the back of his head.
Arcane Adversaries is indeed the book to find Tappan Arkwright's Fifth Edition HERO character sheet and an illo, although he looks pretty nondescript, aside from the disturbing detail that LoTA put in black letters above.
Vulshoth may be one of the less weird-looking Kings of Edom, actually. Some, like Deizzhorath or Orogtha, are so alien it's difficult to describe them in words.
Arcane Adversaries is indeed the book to find Tappan Arkwright's Fifth Edition HERO character sheet and an illo, although he looks pretty nondescript, aside from the disturbing detail that LoTA put in black letters above.
Vulshoth may be one of the less weird-looking Kings of Edom, actually. Some, like Deizzhorath or Orogtha, are so alien it's difficult to describe them in words.
The references to Little Brother makes so much more sense now. Geez.
On the point of Tappan... Am I correct to assume that there are different 'dynasties' of Kings of Edom, so to speak? We have the Kings of the Cannibal Hall (King of Lost Hope, Queen Beyond the Pale etc.), but we also have the other Kings (Vulshoth, Deizzohorath etc.)
BTW: How do you pronounce Deizzhorath?
I would have gone for Dai-Zo-Wrath with a short and hard a in wrath, but as a non-english speaker I still have my doubts...
On the point of Tappan... Am I correct to assume that there are different 'dynasties' of Kings of Edom, so to speak? We have the Kings of the Cannibal Hall (King of Lost Hope, Queen Beyond the Pale etc.), but we also have the other Kings (Vulshoth, Deizzohorath etc.)
Nobody knows how many Kings of Edom there actually are. There's a strong implication in DEMON: Servants Of Darkness that the ones named in Arcane Adversaries are not the same Kings as the five that DEMON is dedicated to freeing. All the Kings of Edom came originally from now-dead Qliphothic universes, ravaging the Multiverse for billions of years until finally defeated and imprisoned by a coalition of other mysterious great powers. The five Kings which Luther Black learned of from the Liber Terribilis implicitly share one such prison.
As to factions among the Kings, "If the Kings suffer any disputes among themselves, lesser creatures do not know about it. Knowledgeable dimension lords and cosmic entities warn that if one of the Kings escapes bondage, it will surely free its brothers before long." (Arcane Adversaries p. 41) Tappan Arkwright and his cult are described as worshipping the Kings of Edom as a whole.
I should probably also mention that Champions Online has established three of the previously named Kings of Edom -- Esleggua, Mgatrraor, and Orogtha -- as being the Rastrinfhar, the creator-gods of the Lemurian race. They're not presented as a "faction" among the Kings anywhere else, though.
However, there are yet more mighty entities of the Qliphoth which may or may not be related to the Kings of Edom, and which don't seem to be bound like the Kings, such as the Ravens of Dispersion, the gods of the Elder Worm, and the "Presences Beyond" which apparently empowered Shadow Destroyer and Sharna-Gorak the Destroyer. How much overlap there is among these groups is also anyone's guess.
Bottom line, these creatures are so alien in their thought processes that it's difficult to assign humanly-recognizable motives to them.
Does anyone know if there is a force in the CU that can manifest a being out of a strong emotional state from a group of people. For example, an being of vengeance brought into existence by a communities need for justice, or a being of patriotism formed from collective pride in a country?
Thanks in advance for any help. I've looked thru all the 5th and 6th edition books I have and haven't found anything even close.
Does anyone know if there is a force in the CU that can manifest a being out of a strong emotional state from a group of people. For example, an being of vengeance brought into existence by a communities need for justice, or a being of patriotism formed from collective pride in a country?
Thanks in advance for any help. I've looked thru all the 5th and 6th edition books I have and haven't found anything even close.
This answer may or may not be completely wrong. I am aware that when humans, and possibly all living (sentient?) beings experience strong emotions they create "atavisms" based on their feelings that exist within the Astral plane. Cosmic manisfestations of certain philosphies or concepts may appear (eg: The Reaper and Entropy on lore). Another answer would be the beings of Faerie, who exist if enough people believe in them (from my understanding).
Does anyone know if there is a force in the CU that can manifest a being out of a strong emotional state from a group of people. For example, an being of vengeance brought into existence by a communities need for justice, or a being of patriotism formed from collective pride in a country?
Thanks in advance for any help. I've looked thru all the 5th and 6th edition books I have and haven't found anything even close.
This answer may or may not be completely wrong. I am aware that when humans, and possibly all living (sentient?) beings experience strong emotions they create "atavisms" based on their feelings that exist within the Astral plane. Cosmic manisfestations of certain philosphies or concepts may appear (eg: The Reaper and Entropy on lore). Another answer would be the beings of Faerie, who exist if enough people believe in them (from my understanding).
LordofTheAbyss, you're definitely on the right track. Atavisms formed by a group of people experiencing the same emotion, e.g. a group religious experience or a traumatic event, are particularly powerful and may be able to manifest in the physical world. Some suspect the monstrous supervillain called the Reaper may be an atavism of the fear of death. (See The Mystic World for more on atavisms, and Champions Villains Vol. 3 for background on the Reaper.) Atavisms aren't usually subtle of personality, though, being spawned from raw primal emotions.
The most powerful hero of the British Isles, the entity called Albion, claims to be "the living embodiment of the
nobility and heroic nature of the British people." (Champions Universe p. 78) Then there's The Constable, a member of the Canadian hero team StarForce. He's a revenant, the ghost of a murdered police detective reincarnated in physical form, who seems to epitomize the ideals of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. (The Constable is detailed in Champions Of The North.) The leader of the Denver superhero team called the Alliance, Captain Glory, is "a formerly fictional comicbook character brought to life by a teen psychic named Peter Filanger in 1994." (CU p. 72)
The entities of Faerie, and other of Earth's "imaginal realms," are a slightly different case, being the products of the collective belief of a large number of people over an extended period of time. The gods, monsters, and races of legend and folklore which inhabit Faerie are real living beings, but behave just as they're described in myth. The supervillain Entropy was once a murdered petty criminal, who was returned to Earth with powers of chaos and destruction via a pact with a malevolent supernatural entity. The mystic hero called the Drifter has a similar origin.
Triuimph0422, the bottom line is that there's plenty of precedent in the CU for the kind of character you suggest, and several potential origins for it. I would say you can easily justify making it just as you envisage it.
i have a few questions, is alchemy practised in the champions universe?
Yes, both the Western and Oriental traditions. While I can't think of any official heroic alchemists offhand, at least two prominent villains are masters of it.
can a manchineel tree be given sentient features by absoring draysha through the soil?
I'm not aware of anything comparable to that having been documented in the CU to date. However, there is a plant-man villain called Thorn who has the power to temporarily animate plants as mobile monsters under his command, so creating a permanently sentient plant sounds at least possible. There are also other mutagens in the setting besides VIPER's so-called "draysha gas."
I have something in mind, but if draysha works for you, I say go for it.
is there a super advanced version of a hadron collider in champions?
Don't know of any official ones, but there are people who probably have the knowledge and resources to build such a thing if desired, such as Dr. Destroyer or Mechanon. They're unlikely to be open to visitors, though.
The speculations about the real-world one sound spacey enough for most comic-book-style plots.
I'm not aware of anything comparable to that having been documented in the CU to date. However, there is a plant-man villain called Thorn who has the power to temporarily animate plants as mobile monsters under his command, so creating a permanently sentient plant sounds at least possible. There are also other mutagens in the setting besides VIPER's so-called "draysha gas."
I have something in mind, but if draysha works for you, I say go for it.
ohh i'm open to any other ideas or suggestions
wrote:
Don't know of any official ones, but there are people who probably have the knowledge and resources to build such a thing if desired, such as Dr. Destroyer or Mechanon. They're unlikely to be open to visitors, though.
The speculations about the real-world one sound spacey enough for most comic-book-style plots.
Broadly speaking, yes. I'd need more details of what exactly you mean by "race" and "energy wielding" before I could offer more specific suggestions.
my bad, when i said race i meant species, as in aliens and energy wielding? like can they throw pue energy, shape it into weapons release it in sizeable bursts to vaporize enemies, that sort of thing and thank you.
Well, the origin of Mr. Zombie, a member of the supervillain team the Brain Trust, involves artificial life experiments performed by the team's leader, the Overbrain. The experiments failed, but some of the materials from the Overbrain's abandoned laboratory leaked into the ground of a nearby cemetery, and reanimated a recently-deceased person as a grotesque superhuman monster. After that, the same substances creating a sentient plant being doesn't seem like that big a stretch.
my bad, when i said race i meant species, as in aliens and energy wielding? like can they throw pue energy, shape it into weapons release it in sizeable bursts to vaporize enemies, that sort of thing and thank you.
I thought that might be what you meant, but that in conjunction with "monks" was what made me seek clarification. I can think of a couple of ways to go based on official Champions Universe lore, aside from creating your own original species with the capabilities you desire.
There are a couple of official races in the Milky Way of the Champions Universe who have energy control and projection powers, the Az'arc'a and the F'woosh, but both normally exist as intangible energy beings. In the past a F'woosh was forced by its fellows into the body of a human, living symbiotically and granting its host fiery energy powers. Almost nothing has been revealed about F'woosh society, so they could very well have "monks." What references there are to the F'woosh appear in the Champions PnP book Teen Champions.
Another possibility, if you want a character who was trained by "aliens" rather than actually being one, involves the origin of the supervillain Lam Kuei. He accidentally discovered a dimensional portal to a realm of "spirit beings," who taught him powerful martial arts secrets, including how to project his ch'i in destructive ways such as you describe. Lam Kuei is fully detailed in Champions Worldwide.
There's more than one hidden temple on Champions Earth where extraordinary martial-arts techniques and powers can be learned, but they're generally not of the "energy-throwing" variety.
If you want more clarification of any of the above, or they don't work for you for some reason and you'd like other alternatives, please post a follow-up.
Who are the least pleasant, most militant angels in Elysium, specifically the rank/type. I can already guess it will be one of the Abrahamic ones.
The Mystic World tends to agree with you: "The Abrahamic angels are currently the most active and militant Elysian spirits. Most of them are not warm and fuzzy benefactors of mankind. Only the Angels of Mercy fit that modern, watered-down conception. Older lore says that angels punish as often as they reward or assist." (TMW p. 32)
Champions-specific books don't go into a lot of detail about angels; a Hero System sourcebook for multiple genres of gaming, The Ultimate Mystic, provides more general information. Since the same author wrote TUM and TMW, it's reasonable to assume he meant much of the former to be applicable to the latter.
With that in mind, The Ultimate Mystic describes a few notable classes of angel. Angels of Wrath and War exist to battle demons and punish the wicked. Angels of this class include the Aishim ("Flames") and Aralim ("Valiant Ones"). Angels of Punishment or Vengeance include seven who rule over the divisions of hell, and the archangel Kezef (angel of wrath and destruction). Guardian Angels may ward individuals or holy sites, but the mightiest of them drove Adam and Eve from Eden, and still guard it with fiery swords.
Angels with these functions may also belong to one of the three highest orders of angel: the Cherubim, Seraphim, and Thrones. Archangels may be any of these, or unique beings -- most named angels in lore are archangels. God creates angels for specific purposes, so their attitudes and behavior are often very narrow and rigid.
Note that all this is a superficial condensation of angelic lore with gaming in mind, often drawing from contradictory sources. I also want to repeat that the angels, demons etc. in Champions are defined as being the products of collective human imagination and belief, not the "real" entities of their faiths.
On the purpose of this theme has there ever been any information detailing possible interactions between Elysium and the Netherworld regarding the Qliphothic Realm? Do angels seek to destroy it?Do the demons actually "like" it?
Thanks in advance.
Well, the origin of Mr. Zombie, a member of the supervillain team the Brain Trust, involves artificial life experiments performed by the team's leader, the Overbrain. The experiments failed, but some of the materials from the Overbrain's abandoned laboratory leaked into the ground of a nearby cemetery, and reanimated a recently-deceased person as a grotesque superhuman monster. After that, the same substances creating a sentient plant being doesn't seem like that big a stretch.
I thought that might be what you meant, but that in conjunction with "monks" was what made me seek clarification. I can think of a couple of ways to go based on official Champions Universe lore, aside from creating your own original species with the capabilities you desire.
There are a couple of official races in the Milky Way of the Champions Universe who have energy control and projection powers, the Az'arc'a and the F'woosh, but both normally exist as intangible energy beings. In the past a F'woosh was forced by its fellows into the body of a human, living symbiotically and granting its host fiery energy powers. Almost nothing has been revealed about F'woosh society, so they could very well have "monks." What references there are to the F'woosh appear in the Champions PnP book Teen Champions.
Another possibility, if you want a character who was trained by "aliens" rather than actually being one, involves the origin of the supervillain Lam Kuei. He accidentally discovered a dimensional portal to a realm of "spirit beings," who taught him powerful martial arts secrets, including how to project his ch'i in destructive ways such as you describe. Lam Kuei is fully detailed in Champions Worldwide.
There's more than one hidden temple on Champions Earth where extraordinary martial-arts techniques and powers can be learned, but they're generally not of the "energy-throwing" variety.
If you want more clarification of any of the above, or they don't work for you for some reason and you'd like other alternatives, please post a follow-up.
those races sound very interesting but can all energy state creatures take on a body of flesh? and will this weaken their ability to manipulate energy? how do they stay in one place and not just dissipate into energy particles? Also is there another alternative to making a plant sentient? i like the mr.zombie idea but from what i know Manchineel(name of my character) is a tree more inclined to warmer climates i believe so would there be any experiments maybe taking place in africa or similar places? again thank you, i know this is a lot
Got a quick question... Is VIPER's Supreme Serpent's true identity (Edgar Lancelyn Essec) known to the various hero groups (e.g. Champions, UNTIL, etc.)? Does he even maintain an identity outside of VIPER?
I checked Coils of the Serpent, but if it's in there I must have missed it.
Got a quick question... Is VIPER's Supreme Serpent's true identity (Edgar Lancelyn Essec) known to the various hero groups (e.g. Champions, UNTIL, etc.)? Does he even maintain an identity outside of VIPER?
I checked Coils of the Serpent, but if it's in there I must have missed it.
On his character sheet it's written "Secret Identity" so I'll go with that. However, does he still appear in public (not counting VIPER business)? He is around a 100 years old and if he admits he is Edgar Essec I believe people will suspect him. I'll just guess that while his identity isn't known to the authorities he keeps a low profile, enough not to actually need a secret identity.
On the purpose of this team has there ever been any information detailing possible interactions between Elysium and the Netherworld regarding the Qliphothic Realm? Do angels seek to destroy it?Do the demons actually "like" it?
Thanks in advance.
I can think of nothing specifically mentioned about the attitude of the powers of Elysium or the Netherworld toward the Qliphothic universes themselves. However, I think it's safe to say that not even demons would like them. The Qliphoth isn't Hell -- it's the antithesis of everything else in the Multiverse. Qliphothic realms don't resemble any human conception of Hell, and most are hostile to matter, energy, even spirit from our cosmos. The evil of demons is at least recognizably human evil; the inhabitants of the Qliphoth don't think or feel in ways humans can understand, beyond the most basic drives and concepts.
One thing is repeatedly emphasized, though: no power of any of the dimensions in the Multiverse wants the Kings of Edom to be freed. They're all aware of the threat the Kings present to everything that exists. The only ones who serve the Kings are deluded fools or insane. (Whether Luther Black fits either category is debatable.)
It's highly questionable whether any powers of the Inner Planes could do anything against the Qliphoth, anyway. The Mystic World notes that the magic of the gods of the Inner Planes has no effect on entities from the Outer Planes, which would likely include the Qliphoth.
Got a quick question... Is VIPER's Supreme Serpent's true identity (Edgar Lancelyn Essec) known to the various hero groups (e.g. Champions, UNTIL, etc.)? Does he even maintain an identity outside of VIPER?
I checked Coils of the Serpent, but if it's in there I must have missed it.
On his character sheet it's written "Secret Identity" so I'll go with that. However, does he still appear in public (not counting VIPER business)? He is around a 100 years old and if he admits he is Edgar Essec I believe people will suspect him. I'll just guess that while his identity isn't known to the authorities he keeps a low profile, enough not to actually need a secret identity.
I did find this bit on VIPER: Coils Of The Serpent p. 28: "Although he spends most of his time in VIPER's Mbang Mountains headquarters, the Supreme Serpent sometimes decides to go out into the world and walk among men to observe them. Disguised as Roger Essec Jr., his son's son, he mingles with normal society, always carefully observing the rich and powerful with his serpent's eyes."
One thing's for sure, the PnP Supreme Serpent is nothing like the posturing, costumed Serpentor knockoff who appears in the CO Serpent Lantern adventure. I figure he's just a patsy Essec set up to take the fall if the scheme fell through.
those races sound very interesting but can all energy state creatures take on a body of flesh? and will this weaken their ability to manipulate energy? how do they stay in one place and not just dissipate into energy particles? Also is there another alternative to making a plant sentient? i like the mr.zombie idea but from what i know Manchineel(name of my character) is a tree more inclined to warmer climates i believe so would there be any experiments maybe taking place in africa or similar places? again thank you, i know this is a lot
The manchineel tree is native to Florida, the Caribbean, Central America, and northern South America. No location for the Overbrain's former laboratory is specified, but even if you confine his activities to the United States, wouldn't Florida be warm enough?
If that still won't work for you, you can use Thorn, the villain I mentioned in my previous post. Thorn is a human-plant hybrid resulting from an experiment gone wrong (or right, from his point of view), who wants to protect and "liberate" plants from exploitation by other animals, particularly humans. He's a botanical genius, and creating other sentient plants as companions would probably be something he'd both want to do and be capable of.
As I wrote earlier, little has been revealed about the F'woosh, other than that they survived their star going nova by transforming themselves into "living flame." Judging by the human who was made host for one, their power is not much if any decreased by being in a physical body. OTOH the Az'arc'a evolved in a high radiation belt surrounding a gas giant planet, and are naturally made up of coherent energy. They can't survive long in a gravity well as strong as a planet's, unless they're in some type of protective vessel. One Az'arc'a became the companion of a Malvan who provided a robotic body allowing it to explore planetary surfaces, the first of its kind to do so; but it can't use any energy-projection powers while inside the robot.
How do energy beings not dissipate? This is a game based on comic-book physics, that's how.
The manchineel tree is native to Florida, the Caribbean, Central America, and northern South America. No location for the Overbrain's former laboratory is specified, but even if you confine his activities to the United States, wouldn't Florida be warm enough?
If that still won't work for you, you can use Thorn, the villain I mentioned in my previous post. Thorn is a human-plant hybrid resulting from an experiment gone wrong (or right, from his point of view), who wants to protect and "liberate" plants from exploitation by other animals, particularly humans. He's a botanical genius, and creating other sentient plants as companions would probably be something he'd both want to do and be capable of.
As I wrote earlier, little has been revealed about the F'woosh, other than that they survived their star going nova by transforming themselves into "living flame." Judging by the human who was made host for one, their power is not much if any decreased by being in a physical body. OTOH the Az'arc'a evolved in a high radiation belt surrounding a gas giant planet, and are naturally made up of coherent energy. They can't survive long in a gravity well as strong as a planet's, unless they're in some type of protective vessel. One Az'arc'a became the companion of a Malvan who provided a robotic body allowing it to explore planetary surfaces, the first of its kind to do so; but it can't use any energy-projection powers while inside the robot.
How do energy beings not dissipate? This is a game based on comic-book physics, that's how.
I hope that helps.
That is some pretty cool stufff and i guess i can go with Thorn .So about the Az'arc'a what about making an energy field around them that they can stay sustained within(sort of like an invisible protection field,
the idea i had for my energy monk character was that they were energy beings who became as such by studying the 'energy flow' of their planet and to assimilate with it to prolongue life and a self defense, is that viable?) thanks again
Back in the dim ages of Champions there was an energy based automaton bound together by magnetic fields. It was some sort of probe which was damaged, so afaik its origin is a mystery .. but who might create such a thing? An energy based life form of some sort?
1991
August 8: The Ultimates and the Griffin (whom they had tricked into helping them) battle Firewing over a misunderstanding in Milwaukee. The battle spreads to a role-playing game convention. Cavalier II is present, but is unable to stop the battle and spends most of his time protecting innocents. Firewing has an upper hard until Plasmoid almost kills him with an energy blast. Firewing leaves, swearing that he'll get revenge.
Lord Liaden
Decuple Millennial Master
Obsessed Member
Re: 5th Edition Version Of CU Character: Plasmoid ??
I haven't seen one for Fifth Edition. But in case you weren't aware of it, I want to mention that the 4E sourcebook Enemies Assemble includes a modified version of the Ultimates, and expands on the background and powers of Plasmoid. Might be worth a look if you have access.
Plasmoid doesn't seem to fit into the current CU continuity of Milky Way Galaxy civilizations. However, we know other galaxies in the setting are inhabited by advanced sapients, so he may have originally come from one of those.
So about the Az'arc'a what about making an energy field around them that they can stay sustained within(sort of like an invisible protection field,
the idea i had for my energy monk character was that they were energy beings who became as such by studying the 'energy flow' of their planet and to assimilate with it to prolongue life and a self defense, is that viable?) thanks again
Of course it's viable. If it sounds good and is internally consistent, comic-book physics will handle it.
As a default the Az'arc'a don't have something like that, but there's no reason one of their brilliant scientists couldn't have invented such a thing. FWIW here's some background info about the Az'arc'a:
The Az'arc'a (the apostrophes represent ultrasonic vowels Humans cannot perceive or pronounce) are a species of energy beings, composed of ions bound by electric fields. They are native to the radiation belt surrounding a gas giant world in the Galactic core, but have spread to similar environments all through the central parts of the Galaxy.
Az'arc'a Biology
To a solid being, an Az'arc'a appears as a spherical or circular mass of pulsing rings and/or loops of plasma occupying a volume about 10 meters across. Some have a symmetrical appearance; some are asymmetrical collections of energy pulses, some seem to change appearance at will. They communciate by radio, light pulses, or inducing vibrations in metal structures to create sound.
Reproduction among Az'arc'a is asexual; individuals rich in energy divide into two offpsring, each with the parent's memories. Over time the older memories fade, but most Az'arc'a can recall things that happened millennia ago. Individuals who spend long periods traveling at lightspeed may have even older memories.
Az'arc'a Society And Culture
Az'arc'a cannot live on planets, but can interact with material beings in spaceships or stations. They can move through normal space at velocities up to the speed of light. Since they have limited ability to manipulate physical objects, they have no technology to speak of, but their knowledge of mathematics, physics, astrophysics, and cosmology is profound.
Material beings dealing with Az'arc'a can only trade in energy and information. The things Az'arc'a find interesting are mysterious - some of them love to hear music (via radio), others collect mathematical theorems, codes, detective stories, or new prime numbers. In exchange they give out knowledge of their own, typically physics data, astrogational information, or Galactic history.
(See also my post following this one.)
To tell you the truth, what you describe for your "energy monks" sounds like a reasonable origin for the extra-dimensional "spirit beings" I mentioned in connection to the supervillain Lam Kuei, who are given almost no background in the PnP game. After all, ch'i is described as a type of energy, and the explanation for martial-artist blast attacks in everything from the Street Fighter video game to Dragonball Z.
However, if you have a very specific idea about what you want your alien race to be, IMHO you're better off just creating your own original one. There's more than enough room in the Champions Milky Way for their planet.
Back in the dim ages of Champions there was an energy based automaton bound together by magnetic fields. It was some sort of probe which was damaged, so afaik its origin is a mystery .. but who might create such a thing? An energy based life form of some sort?
Yes, the classic Champions villain Plasmoid. There's no sign of it or of the race which created it in current official Champions continuity. However, there is a similar entity who's now official, a gladiator in the Malvan arena called Plasmarax (fully written up in Champions Beyond). Plasmarax also has no memory of its origins, but the Malvans believe it to be the result of an explosive collision between an Az'arc'a energy-construct vessel, and another ship of an unknown physical race. Plasmarax is a roughly humanoid-shaped mass of energy, so dense that it has quasi-physical properties.
To clarify, the timeline you link to above is not for the current official Champions Universe. It's a fan custom creation that combines events and characters from the current setting with those from earlier incarnations of the CU, plus material from other settings. As such it's a very unreliable guide to what's "true" in the recent PnP game or in Champions Online.
Would you have any interest in a member of an alien plant race? There are a couple of existing precedents in the setting.
Of course it's viable. If it sounds good and is internally consistent, comic-book physics will handle it.
As a default the Az'arc'a don't have something like that, but there's no reason one of their brilliant scientists couldn't have invented such a thing. FWIW here's some background info about the Az'arc'a:
The Az'arc'a (the apostrophes represent ultrasonic vowels Humans cannot perceive or pronounce) are a species of energy beings, composed of ions bound by electric fields. They are native to the radiation belt surrounding a gas giant world in the Galactic core, but have spread to similar environments all through the central parts of the Galaxy.
Az'arc'a Biology
To a solid being, an Az'arc'a appears as a spherical or circular mass of pulsing rings and/or loops of plasma occupying a volume about 10 meters across. Some have a symmetrical appearance; some are asymmetrical collections of energy pulses, some seem to change appearance at will. They communciate by radio, light pulses, or inducing vibrations in metal structures to create sound.
Reproduction among Az'arc'a is asexual; individuals rich in energy divide into two offpsring, each with the parent's memories. Over time the older memories fade, but most Az'arc'a can recall things that happened millennia ago. Individuals who spend long periods traveling at lightspeed may have even older memories.
Az'arc'a Society And Culture
Az'arc'a cannot live on planets, but can interact with material beings in spaceships or stations. They can move through normal space at velocities up to the speed of light. Since they have limited ability to manipulate physical objects, they have no technology to speak of, but their knowledge of mathematics, physics, astrophysics, and cosmology is profound.
Material beings dealing with Az'arc'a can only trade in energy and information. The things Az'arc'a find interesting are mysterious - some of them love to hear music (via radio), others collect mathematical theorems, codes, detective stories, or new prime numbers. In exchange they give out knowledge of their own, typically physics data, astrogational information, or Galactic history.
(See also my post following this one.)
To tell you the truth, what you describe for your "energy monks" sounds like a reasonable origin for the extra-dimensional "spirit beings" I mentioned in connection to the supervillain Lam Kuei, who are given almost no background in the PnP game. After all, ch'i is described as a type of energy, and the explanation for martial-artist blast attacks in everything from the Street Fighter video game to Dragonball Z.
However, if you have a very specific idea about what you want your alien race to be, IMHO you're better off just creating your own original one. There's more than enough room in the Champions Milky Way for their planet.
OH i would love to hear the alien plant races and also i have a name in mind in case i had to create my own alien race, they are called "Fi'lurhian" (inspired by furians from chronicles of ridick) and are generally peaceful people but can defend themselves if they are threatened tough this generally does not happen due to their mastery of energy that flows through their home planet....or something like that. Sounds like an Az'arc'a would make an interesting nemesis.
The easiest one to justify using is the Prylenish. Their homeworld, Sha-Prylen, was conquered in Earth-year 1995 by the imperialistic Hzeel race. Several members of the Prylenish royal family escaped their world and ended up on Earth, where they were taken in by Ravenswood Academy (the school for superhuman youngsters outside Millennium City), using the cover of groundskeepers.
Prylenish can gradually "grow" into other shapes, including humanoid ones, which lets them blend with the local population. They also have an empathic bond with other plants. These abilities are limited in scope, but many alien races can manifest superpowers (although in almost all cases with less frequency, at a lower average power level, and/or over a narrower range of powers, than humans can). It would be reasonable for a super-"human" Prylenish to have stronger or other plant powers. The Prylenish are described in both Teen Champions and Champions Beyond.
The other option would require a little more creativity, but has interesting role-playing potential. Almost two million years ago the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter was a planet, home to a sapient botanoid race called the Phytians. When their civilization had reached the equivalent of modern-day Earth, a technological supervillain destroyed Phytia and all its inhabitants in a botched attempt at blackmail using a doomsday device. But perhaps, for example, one superpowered Phytian survived the cataclysm in suspended animation in an escape vessel, but the ship was damaged and drifted through space... only recently crashing on Earth. (There's more info about the Phytians in Champions Beyond, although not much.)
The easiest one to justify using is the Prylenish. Their homeworld, Sha-Prylen, was conquered in Earth-year 1995 by the imperialistic Hzeel race. Several members of the Prylenish royal family escaped their world and ended up on Earth, where they were taken in by Ravenswood Academy (the school for superhuman youngsters outside Millennium City), using the cover of groundskeepers.
Prylenish can gradually "grow" into other shapes, including humanoid ones, which lets them blend with the local population. They also have an empathic bond with other plants. These abilities are limited in scope, but many alien races can manifest superpowers (although in almost all cases with less frequency, at a lower average power level, and/or over a narrower range of powers, than humans can). It would be reasonable for a super-"human" Prylenish to have stronger or other plant powers. The Prylenish are described in both Teen Champions and Champions Beyond.
The other option would require a little more creativity, but has interesting role-playing potential. Almost two million years ago the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter was a planet, home to a sapient botanoid race called the Phytians. When their civilization had reached the equivalent of modern-day Earth, a technological supervillain destroyed Phytia and all its inhabitants in a botched attempt at blackmail using a doomsday device. But perhaps, for example, one superpowered Phytian survived the cataclysm in suspended animation in an escape vessel, but the ship was damaged and drifted through space... only recently crashing on Earth. (There's more info about the Phytians in Champions Beyond, although not much.)
I think i'll choose the Phytians, my character could be wary of technology after the destruction and technological supervillain? like mechanon? or less powerful? Also how much information is there regarding those Alchemist Villains? thank you as well, i'm enjoying all these tidbits of lore
I think i'll choose the Phytians, my character could be wary of technology after the destruction and technological supervillain? like mechanon? or less powerful? Also how much information is there regarding those Alchemist Villains? thank you as well, i'm enjoying all these tidbits of lore
You're welcome. Please understand, though, that "tidbits" is all I'm really comfortable disclosing from Cryptic's IP on an open forum. That's why I keep mentioning the books where more info can be found.
Champions Beyond only mentions "The Phytian equivalent of a powerhungry gadgeteer supervillain" who discovered some of the incredibly advanced technology of the Progenitors, the immortal alien race responsible for the evolution of the Phytians (and the human race, for that matter).
The alchemist villains I was thinking of are fully described and PnP-game-statted in the Champions Villains trilogy. Cornelius Liefeld is a prominent member of the Silvestri clan of black magicians (CV Vol. 2). The immortal Taoist sorceror Dr. Yin Wu is probably the premier master of Chinese alchemy (CV Vol. 1) The Mystic World also describes the Kayvanzadi, a lineage of Middle Eastern alchemists and magicians claiming descent from the greatest living mistress of the art, the ageless beauty Zarrindokht.
You're welcome. Please understand, though, that "tidbits" is all I'm really comfortable disclosing from Cryptic's IP on an open forum. That's why I keep mentioning the books where more info can be found.
Champions Beyond only mentions "The Phytian equivalent of a powerhungry gadgeteer supervillain" who discovered some of the incredibly advanced technology of the Progenitors, the immortal alien race responsible for the evolution of the Phytians (and the human race, for that matter).
The alchemist villains I was thinking of are fully described and PnP-game-statted in the Champions Villains trilogy. Cornelius Liefeld is a prominent member of the Silvestri clan of black magicians (CV Vol. 2). The immortal Taoist sorceror Dr. Yin Wu is probably the premier master of Chinese alchemy (CV Vol. 1) The Mystic World also describes the Kayvanzadi, a lineage of Middle Eastern alchemists and magicians claiming descent from the greatest living mistress of the art, the ageless beauty Zarrindokht.
oh i understand, i still appreciate that you do what you are doing though :P , one last question, how truly powerful is celestar? some where i saw he was one of the strongest in the champions universe.
By reputation and PnP game stats, Celestar is in the top rank of superheroes on Champions Earth, along with the likes of Tetsuronin and the Drifter. Relating that to villains, he's roughly comparable to Firewing, and one rung down the ladder from Dr. Destroyer and Takofanes.
That is quite impressive :O and I just came up with another question (sorry) are their any planets in the CU that have a really high surface gravity that would harbor species that would be super durable and super fast as well?
... are their any planets in the CU that have a really high surface gravity that would harbor species that would be super durable and super fast as well?
Several high-gravity planets harbor sapient species, including Belaxia, Kadilia, and Toracta. Their natives are stronger and more durable on average than humans of comparable size (with actual natural armor plates in the case of Toractans), but not usually to the degree of being superhuman. Belaxians and Toractans are much shorter and more massively built than humans, while Kadilians look similar to humans but are several inches taller on average. Belaxians can have superpowers, but their supers are almost exclusively ultrastrong "bricks." Kadilian supers are nearly always bricks, speedsters, or shape-changing metamorphs, and can't have mental powers.
The most physically powerful race in the Milky Way come from Korun, a huge, dense, highly volcanic world with a superheated atmosphere near the galactic core. The Korundar are a silicon-based lifeform, 6-8 meters tall, with four legs and two arms, and rocklike flesh that's mildly radioactive. They're a little slower-moving than smaller species, though.
EDIT: Another interesting candidate for a super-strong alien is the humanoid Donburil. Their bodies contain a high proportion of metals, making them heavy and strong and their tough skins a shiny gold. It wouldn't be hard to imagine a super-Donburil resembling Ironclad of the Champions.
As usual, all these races are described in more detail (including PnP-game stat templates for typical members) in Champions Beyond.
On the subject of super-powered races, there's one bit of history about the inter-dimensional conqueror, Istvatha V'han, revealed in the recent Book Of The Empress, that really struck me. V'han's forces once invaded a dimension including a planet called Korath. Its inhabitants, the Korathon, were aggressive and ambitious, as well as being being immensely strong and durable. Imagine an entire planet of Gronds, only intelligent. The Korathon had already begun to forge an interstellar empire.
V'han's invasion force was repeatedly thrown back by the Korathon's incredible physical power. Not only had she failed to conquer them, she worried they would one day attack her own empire. So she decided to travel back in time and prevent Korath from ever coalescing into a planet, thus completely erasing the Korathon from the time stream. The Empress did place one captured Korathon, a notable military hero, in a temporal refuge to prevent him from being wiped out with the rest of his race. She then subjected him to thorough brainwashing, making him her loyal servant, and added him to her superpowered Imperial Battalion.
How much does ancient history, at least after the agricultural revolution, differ between our universe and the Champions universe? More specifically, did the crusades occur?
All the events of recorded history, up until 1938 when the modern Age of Superheroes begins, happened practically the same as in the real world. For much of that time magic was present on Earth, so the supernatural was a factor. While magic didn't significantly alter the course of history, some events which are mythical in reality, like the rivalries of the gods played out in ancient Greece, or the era of Camelot, actually occurred on Champions Earth.
The story of civilization in the CU is much older than in real life, though. Ancient aliens have meddled with human evolution for hundreds of millennia. Ages of human and non-human civilization, often utilizing powerful magic, stretch back tens of thousands of years earlier than in the real world. More than once those ages ended in a cataclysm which destroyed their civilizations and reshaped the surface of the planet.
I just noticed that in the timeline of 6th edition CU Major Violette Boudreau, head of UNTIL's Project Hermes, was murdered in 2005, and yet she appears in Champions Online, and is a prominent figure in the Demonflame Adventure Pack. is this one of the variations noted between official lore and the CO interpretation?(e.g: Timothy Blank in CO/King Cobra in lore?)
Also: Thank you for the answering of the Elysium/Netherworld/Qliphothic question.
I just noticed that in the timeline of 6th edition CU Major Violette Boudreau, head of UNTIL's Project Hermes, was murdered in 2005, and yet she appears in Champions Online, and is a prominent figure in the Demonflame Adventure Pack. is this one of the variations noted between official lore and the CO interpretation?(e.g: Timothy Blank in CO/King Cobra in lore?)
Also: Thank you for the answering of the Elysium/Netherworld/Qliphothic question.
I think of it as one of the points of variation, and an odd one, to be honest.
I suppose the Major Boudreau of CO could be a daughter of the same name... but that's rather lame, even by comic book retcon standards.
To clarify, the timeline you link to above is not for the current official Champions Universe. It's a fan custom creation that combines events and characters from the current setting with those from earlier incarnations of the CU, plus material from other settings. As such it's a very unreliable guide to what's "true" in the recent PnP game or in Champions Online.
Thanks for that, on first reading through it I didn't realize that.
All the events of recorded history, up until 1938 when the modern Age of Superheroes begins, happened practically the same as in the real world. For much of that time magic was present on Earth, so the supernatural was a factor. While magic didn't significantly alter the course of history, some events which are mythical in reality, like the rivalries of the gods played out in ancient Greece, or the era of Camelot, actually occurred on Champions Earth.
The story of civilization in the CU is much older than in real life, though. Ancient aliens have meddled with human evolution for hundreds of millennia. Ages of human and non-human civilization, often utilizing powerful magic, stretch back tens of thousands of years earlier than in the real world. More than once those ages ended in a cataclysm which destroyed their civilizations and reshaped the surface of the planet.
Thanks. Assuming that the crusades happened pretty much as they did here, do the templars exist as well as a generic conspiracy theory world conquering trope? And if so, is there any truth behind it in the CO universe? My current nemesis is a templar, with the assassin's creed style trope pretty much played straight, and I'm worried if that's breaking canon or not.
I think of it as one of the points of variation, and an odd one, to be honest.
I suppose the Major Boudreau of CO could be a daughter of the same name... but that's rather lame, even by comic book retcon standards.
Thank you.:) Had a "mind blown" moment there, tried searching for any information for the possibility of an hoax or a back-to-life sort of thing, but I guess Cryptic did not want to introduce a new face to UNTIL.
The daughter/clone/imposter(?)/any other comic-book-esque possibility does provide some oppurtunities for a quest line/comic book series or the like.
Thanks. Assuming that the crusades happened pretty much as they did here, do the templars exist as well as a generic conspiracy theory world conquering trope? And if so, is there any truth behind it in the CO universe? My current nemesis is a templar, with the assassin's creed style trope pretty much played straight, and I'm worried if that's breaking canon or not.
Hmm... well, the Templars aren't a factor in the official Champions Universe. There's no NPC with that group as part of his or her background, and no organization descended from it active in the present day as far as has been revealed. That doesn't mean you couldn't add them if that works best for your nemesis' background. OTOH this being a comic-book based setting, there's no shortage of world-conquering conspiracies. Some of them have their more overt manifestations, including VIPER and DEMON, although much of those groups' activities and influence go on under the radar.
However, if you wanted to tie your nemesis more to the canon setting, there's another group much closer in style to the Assassin's Creed-brand Templars. The Circle of the Scarlet Moon is a villainous occult organization which got its start in France in the late Eighteenth Century. Since then its influence has spread across Europe and North America, and increasingly into the Third World. The styles of ritual magic practiced by Circle members are more subtle and less combat-effective than the usual comic-book "supermagic." Few even of the Scarlet Moon's leaders have the power to stand up to most superheroes in a straight fight. However, over generations the Circle has shrewdly used its magic behind the scenes to amass enormous financial, political, and social power. Many Circle members are millionaires, and some are billionaires. Others hold high political office, or wield great influence over those who do. Few people outside the organization even know it exists, and those who do are almost never able to find proof enough of its activities to stand up in court.
When threatened, the Circle of the Scarlet Moon will first bring indirect pressure to bear on its enemies: lawsuits, hostile takeovers of their financial assets, the attention of law-enforcement in the Scarlet Moon's pocket, or scrutiny and smear campaigns by Circle-controlled media. Covert magical curses and subtle mind-affecting spells are also in their arsenal. People close to heroes opposing the Circle are particularly at risk. If more direct force is required, the Circle will hire whatever power-level of mercenaries it has to, up to and including supervillains.
Some background and membership for the Circle of the Scarlet Moon is in the Champions Universe sourcebook, and the group is greatly expanded upon in Champions Villains Volume Two: Villain Teams. BTW two members of the Circle are the parents of Witchcraft of the Champions, and her evil twin sister Talisman.
I am deeply excited about the upcoming Book of the Empress, and hope to purchase it when I have the chance. For those that I believe already have it (because of Kickstarter contribution and the like) I would like to add a couple of questions (if such can be done and if answers can, in fact, be provided):
1st- Not really a "lore" question, but exactly how much information is provided about the Multifarian in BoTE? It is significant? I'd like to create a possible backstory for a Multifarian character, and although I don't have anything defined I was worried that it may contradict new info provided in the book.
2nd-Is there any "highly resilent" (eg: questionite, just not usually found on Earth) that the Empress' legions use or that is at least mentioned?
Thanks, that does sound like what I'm looking for, sort of. Also, any info no the Selenites? Are they still around?
I'm not sure where the Selenites were detailed before Champions Beyond (6th and theofore most recent edition), and if the following overview adds any further information than what you might have known/read in the past.
The Selenites are mentioned and detailed in Champions Beyond. Both the origin (GM's vault) of the Selenites and Selenus itself, along with their basic history, enslavement by the super-villain Revenger (IMO a really cool character) and the whole anti-human conspiracy that slowly has been establishing itself within the Selenites. That's a brief overview and I'm sure that others may add a more detailed description, if you require or wish.
i have another question, has Millenium city ever been hit by a solar storm?
Can't find any official phenomenon like that, at least in MC. However, a number of heroes/villains have access to superpowers due to freak solar flares or similar events, if it is of any use to you, you can ask about suggestions regarding them, their powers and possible origins for similar heroes. On a side note, some of these events happened outside the Earth and directly into space. (Examples include the supervillains Photon and Sunspot and the heroine Victory)
Comments
thanks for the info LL. Was asking cause I plan to have a character that runs a paranormal investigation business out of his truck, and was wondering if there would be anyone he might have run into in "the field".
Guess it wouldn't hurt to have a little Trismegistus interaction ^_^
What book was he in? Are there illustrations of a character sheet for him?
Also: Vulshoth looks weird.:eek:
Not mentioning the evil twin Tappan has(had?) at the back of his head.
Arcane Adversaries is indeed the book to find Tappan Arkwright's Fifth Edition HERO character sheet and an illo, although he looks pretty nondescript, aside from the disturbing detail that LoTA put in black letters above.
Vulshoth may be one of the less weird-looking Kings of Edom, actually. Some, like Deizzhorath or Orogtha, are so alien it's difficult to describe them in words.
The references to Little Brother makes so much more sense now. Geez.
BTW: How do you pronounce Deizzhorath?
I would have gone for Dai-Zo-Wrath with a short and hard a in wrath, but as a non-english speaker I still have my doubts...
Nobody knows how many Kings of Edom there actually are. There's a strong implication in DEMON: Servants Of Darkness that the ones named in Arcane Adversaries are not the same Kings as the five that DEMON is dedicated to freeing. All the Kings of Edom came originally from now-dead Qliphothic universes, ravaging the Multiverse for billions of years until finally defeated and imprisoned by a coalition of other mysterious great powers. The five Kings which Luther Black learned of from the Liber Terribilis implicitly share one such prison.
As to factions among the Kings, "If the Kings suffer any disputes among themselves, lesser creatures do not know about it. Knowledgeable dimension lords and cosmic entities warn that if one of the Kings escapes bondage, it will surely free its brothers before long." (Arcane Adversaries p. 41) Tappan Arkwright and his cult are described as worshipping the Kings of Edom as a whole.
I should probably also mention that Champions Online has established three of the previously named Kings of Edom -- Esleggua, Mgatrraor, and Orogtha -- as being the Rastrinfhar, the creator-gods of the Lemurian race. They're not presented as a "faction" among the Kings anywhere else, though.
However, there are yet more mighty entities of the Qliphoth which may or may not be related to the Kings of Edom, and which don't seem to be bound like the Kings, such as the Ravens of Dispersion, the gods of the Elder Worm, and the "Presences Beyond" which apparently empowered Shadow Destroyer and Sharna-Gorak the Destroyer. How much overlap there is among these groups is also anyone's guess.
Bottom line, these creatures are so alien in their thought processes that it's difficult to assign humanly-recognizable motives to them.
I haven't seen any official pronunciation guide. How I pronounce it is just a guess no more justified than yours.
Thanks in advance for any help. I've looked thru all the 5th and 6th edition books I have and haven't found anything even close.
This answer may or may not be completely wrong. I am aware that when humans, and possibly all living (sentient?) beings experience strong emotions they create "atavisms" based on their feelings that exist within the Astral plane. Cosmic manisfestations of certain philosphies or concepts may appear (eg: The Reaper and Entropy on lore). Another answer would be the beings of Faerie, who exist if enough people believe in them (from my understanding).
LordofTheAbyss, you're definitely on the right track.
The most powerful hero of the British Isles, the entity called Albion, claims to be "the living embodiment of the
nobility and heroic nature of the British people." (Champions Universe p. 78) Then there's The Constable, a member of the Canadian hero team StarForce. He's a revenant, the ghost of a murdered police detective reincarnated in physical form, who seems to epitomize the ideals of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. (The Constable is detailed in Champions Of The North.) The leader of the Denver superhero team called the Alliance, Captain Glory, is "a formerly fictional comicbook character brought to life by a teen psychic named Peter Filanger in 1994." (CU p. 72)
The entities of Faerie, and other of Earth's "imaginal realms," are a slightly different case, being the products of the collective belief of a large number of people over an extended period of time. The gods, monsters, and races of legend and folklore which inhabit Faerie are real living beings, but behave just as they're described in myth. The supervillain Entropy was once a murdered petty criminal, who was returned to Earth with powers of chaos and destruction via a pact with a malevolent supernatural entity. The mystic hero called the Drifter has a similar origin.
Triuimph0422, the bottom line is that there's plenty of precedent in the CU for the kind of character you suggest, and several potential origins for it. I would say you can easily justify making it just as you envisage it.
can a manchineel tree be given sentient features by absoring draysha through the soil?
is there a super advanced version of a hadron collider in champions?
is there potential for a race of energy wielding monks?
thank you lol
Yes, both the Western and Oriental traditions. While I can't think of any official heroic alchemists offhand, at least two prominent villains are masters of it.
I'm not aware of anything comparable to that having been documented in the CU to date. However, there is a plant-man villain called Thorn who has the power to temporarily animate plants as mobile monsters under his command, so creating a permanently sentient plant sounds at least possible. There are also other mutagens in the setting besides VIPER's so-called "draysha gas."
I have something in mind, but if draysha works for you, I say go for it.
Don't know of any official ones, but there are people who probably have the knowledge and resources to build such a thing if desired, such as Dr. Destroyer or Mechanon. They're unlikely to be open to visitors, though.
The speculations about the real-world one sound spacey enough for most comic-book-style plots.
Broadly speaking, yes. I'd need more details of what exactly you mean by "race" and "energy wielding" before I could offer more specific suggestions.
my bad, when i said race i meant species, as in aliens and energy wielding? like can they throw pue energy, shape it into weapons release it in sizeable bursts to vaporize enemies, that sort of thing and thank you.
Well, the origin of Mr. Zombie, a member of the supervillain team the Brain Trust, involves artificial life experiments performed by the team's leader, the Overbrain. The experiments failed, but some of the materials from the Overbrain's abandoned laboratory leaked into the ground of a nearby cemetery, and reanimated a recently-deceased person as a grotesque superhuman monster. After that, the same substances creating a sentient plant being doesn't seem like that big a stretch.
I thought that might be what you meant, but that in conjunction with "monks" was what made me seek clarification. I can think of a couple of ways to go based on official Champions Universe lore, aside from creating your own original species with the capabilities you desire.
There are a couple of official races in the Milky Way of the Champions Universe who have energy control and projection powers, the Az'arc'a and the F'woosh, but both normally exist as intangible energy beings. In the past a F'woosh was forced by its fellows into the body of a human, living symbiotically and granting its host fiery energy powers. Almost nothing has been revealed about F'woosh society, so they could very well have "monks." What references there are to the F'woosh appear in the Champions PnP book Teen Champions.
Another possibility, if you want a character who was trained by "aliens" rather than actually being one, involves the origin of the supervillain Lam Kuei. He accidentally discovered a dimensional portal to a realm of "spirit beings," who taught him powerful martial arts secrets, including how to project his ch'i in destructive ways such as you describe. Lam Kuei is fully detailed in Champions Worldwide.
There's more than one hidden temple on Champions Earth where extraordinary martial-arts techniques and powers can be learned, but they're generally not of the "energy-throwing" variety.
If you want more clarification of any of the above, or they don't work for you for some reason and you'd like other alternatives, please post a follow-up.
The Mystic World tends to agree with you: "The Abrahamic angels are currently the most active and militant Elysian spirits. Most of them are not warm and fuzzy benefactors of mankind. Only the Angels of Mercy fit that modern, watered-down conception. Older lore says that angels punish as often as they reward or assist." (TMW p. 32)
Champions-specific books don't go into a lot of detail about angels; a Hero System sourcebook for multiple genres of gaming, The Ultimate Mystic, provides more general information. Since the same author wrote TUM and TMW, it's reasonable to assume he meant much of the former to be applicable to the latter.
With that in mind, The Ultimate Mystic describes a few notable classes of angel. Angels of Wrath and War exist to battle demons and punish the wicked. Angels of this class include the Aishim ("Flames") and Aralim ("Valiant Ones"). Angels of Punishment or Vengeance include seven who rule over the divisions of hell, and the archangel Kezef (angel of wrath and destruction). Guardian Angels may ward individuals or holy sites, but the mightiest of them drove Adam and Eve from Eden, and still guard it with fiery swords.
Angels with these functions may also belong to one of the three highest orders of angel: the Cherubim, Seraphim, and Thrones. Archangels may be any of these, or unique beings -- most named angels in lore are archangels. God creates angels for specific purposes, so their attitudes and behavior are often very narrow and rigid.
Note that all this is a superficial condensation of angelic lore with gaming in mind, often drawing from contradictory sources. I also want to repeat that the angels, demons etc. in Champions are defined as being the products of collective human imagination and belief, not the "real" entities of their faiths.
Thanks in advance.
Got a quick question... Is VIPER's Supreme Serpent's true identity (Edgar Lancelyn Essec) known to the various hero groups (e.g. Champions, UNTIL, etc.)? Does he even maintain an identity outside of VIPER?
I checked Coils of the Serpent, but if it's in there I must have missed it.
On his character sheet it's written "Secret Identity" so I'll go with that. However, does he still appear in public (not counting VIPER business)? He is around a 100 years old and if he admits he is Edgar Essec I believe people will suspect him. I'll just guess that while his identity isn't known to the authorities he keeps a low profile, enough not to actually need a secret identity.
I can think of nothing specifically mentioned about the attitude of the powers of Elysium or the Netherworld toward the Qliphothic universes themselves. However, I think it's safe to say that not even demons would like them. The Qliphoth isn't Hell -- it's the antithesis of everything else in the Multiverse. Qliphothic realms don't resemble any human conception of Hell, and most are hostile to matter, energy, even spirit from our cosmos. The evil of demons is at least recognizably human evil; the inhabitants of the Qliphoth don't think or feel in ways humans can understand, beyond the most basic drives and concepts.
One thing is repeatedly emphasized, though: no power of any of the dimensions in the Multiverse wants the Kings of Edom to be freed. They're all aware of the threat the Kings present to everything that exists. The only ones who serve the Kings are deluded fools or insane. (Whether Luther Black fits either category is debatable.)
It's highly questionable whether any powers of the Inner Planes could do anything against the Qliphoth, anyway. The Mystic World notes that the magic of the gods of the Inner Planes has no effect on entities from the Outer Planes, which would likely include the Qliphoth.
I did find this bit on VIPER: Coils Of The Serpent p. 28: "Although he spends most of his time in VIPER's Mbang Mountains headquarters, the Supreme Serpent sometimes decides to go out into the world and walk among men to observe them. Disguised as Roger Essec Jr., his son's son, he mingles with normal society, always carefully observing the rich and powerful with his serpent's eyes."
One thing's for sure, the PnP Supreme Serpent is nothing like the posturing, costumed Serpentor knockoff who appears in the CO Serpent Lantern adventure. I figure he's just a patsy Essec set up to take the fall if the scheme fell through.
The manchineel tree is native to Florida, the Caribbean, Central America, and northern South America. No location for the Overbrain's former laboratory is specified, but even if you confine his activities to the United States, wouldn't Florida be warm enough?
If that still won't work for you, you can use Thorn, the villain I mentioned in my previous post. Thorn is a human-plant hybrid resulting from an experiment gone wrong (or right, from his point of view), who wants to protect and "liberate" plants from exploitation by other animals, particularly humans. He's a botanical genius, and creating other sentient plants as companions would probably be something he'd both want to do and be capable of.
As I wrote earlier, little has been revealed about the F'woosh, other than that they survived their star going nova by transforming themselves into "living flame." Judging by the human who was made host for one, their power is not much if any decreased by being in a physical body. OTOH the Az'arc'a evolved in a high radiation belt surrounding a gas giant planet, and are naturally made up of coherent energy. They can't survive long in a gravity well as strong as a planet's, unless they're in some type of protective vessel. One Az'arc'a became the companion of a Malvan who provided a robotic body allowing it to explore planetary surfaces, the first of its kind to do so; but it can't use any energy-projection powers while inside the robot.
How do energy beings not dissipate? This is a game based on comic-book physics, that's how.
I hope that helps.
the idea i had for my energy monk character was that they were energy beings who became as such by studying the 'energy flow' of their planet and to assimilate with it to prolongue life and a self defense, is that viable?) thanks again
From here, highlight mine
or here:
Would you have any interest in a member of an alien plant race? There are a couple of existing precedents in the setting.
Of course it's viable. If it sounds good and is internally consistent, comic-book physics will handle it.
As a default the Az'arc'a don't have something like that, but there's no reason one of their brilliant scientists couldn't have invented such a thing. FWIW here's some background info about the Az'arc'a:
The Az'arc'a (the apostrophes represent ultrasonic vowels Humans cannot perceive or pronounce) are a species of energy beings, composed of ions bound by electric fields. They are native to the radiation belt surrounding a gas giant world in the Galactic core, but have spread to similar environments all through the central parts of the Galaxy.
Az'arc'a Biology
To a solid being, an Az'arc'a appears as a spherical or circular mass of pulsing rings and/or loops of plasma occupying a volume about 10 meters across. Some have a symmetrical appearance; some are asymmetrical collections of energy pulses, some seem to change appearance at will. They communciate by radio, light pulses, or inducing vibrations in metal structures to create sound.
Reproduction among Az'arc'a is asexual; individuals rich in energy divide into two offpsring, each with the parent's memories. Over time the older memories fade, but most Az'arc'a can recall things that happened millennia ago. Individuals who spend long periods traveling at lightspeed may have even older memories.
Az'arc'a Society And Culture
Az'arc'a cannot live on planets, but can interact with material beings in spaceships or stations. They can move through normal space at velocities up to the speed of light. Since they have limited ability to manipulate physical objects, they have no technology to speak of, but their knowledge of mathematics, physics, astrophysics, and cosmology is profound.
Material beings dealing with Az'arc'a can only trade in energy and information. The things Az'arc'a find interesting are mysterious - some of them love to hear music (via radio), others collect mathematical theorems, codes, detective stories, or new prime numbers. In exchange they give out knowledge of their own, typically physics data, astrogational information, or Galactic history.
(See also my post following this one.)
To tell you the truth, what you describe for your "energy monks" sounds like a reasonable origin for the extra-dimensional "spirit beings" I mentioned in connection to the supervillain Lam Kuei, who are given almost no background in the PnP game. After all, ch'i is described as a type of energy, and the explanation for martial-artist blast attacks in everything from the Street Fighter video game to Dragonball Z.
However, if you have a very specific idea about what you want your alien race to be, IMHO you're better off just creating your own original one. There's more than enough room in the Champions Milky Way for their planet.
Yes, the classic Champions villain Plasmoid. There's no sign of it or of the race which created it in current official Champions continuity. However, there is a similar entity who's now official, a gladiator in the Malvan arena called Plasmarax (fully written up in Champions Beyond). Plasmarax also has no memory of its origins, but the Malvans believe it to be the result of an explosive collision between an Az'arc'a energy-construct vessel, and another ship of an unknown physical race. Plasmarax is a roughly humanoid-shaped mass of energy, so dense that it has quasi-physical properties.
To clarify, the timeline you link to above is not for the current official Champions Universe. It's a fan custom creation that combines events and characters from the current setting with those from earlier incarnations of the CU, plus material from other settings. As such it's a very unreliable guide to what's "true" in the recent PnP game or in Champions Online.
The easiest one to justify using is the Prylenish. Their homeworld, Sha-Prylen, was conquered in Earth-year 1995 by the imperialistic Hzeel race. Several members of the Prylenish royal family escaped their world and ended up on Earth, where they were taken in by Ravenswood Academy (the school for superhuman youngsters outside Millennium City), using the cover of groundskeepers.
Prylenish can gradually "grow" into other shapes, including humanoid ones, which lets them blend with the local population. They also have an empathic bond with other plants. These abilities are limited in scope, but many alien races can manifest superpowers (although in almost all cases with less frequency, at a lower average power level, and/or over a narrower range of powers, than humans can). It would be reasonable for a super-"human" Prylenish to have stronger or other plant powers. The Prylenish are described in both Teen Champions and Champions Beyond.
The other option would require a little more creativity, but has interesting role-playing potential. Almost two million years ago the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter was a planet, home to a sapient botanoid race called the Phytians. When their civilization had reached the equivalent of modern-day Earth, a technological supervillain destroyed Phytia and all its inhabitants in a botched attempt at blackmail using a doomsday device. But perhaps, for example, one superpowered Phytian survived the cataclysm in suspended animation in an escape vessel, but the ship was damaged and drifted through space... only recently crashing on Earth. (There's more info about the Phytians in Champions Beyond, although not much.)
You're welcome.
Champions Beyond only mentions "The Phytian equivalent of a powerhungry gadgeteer supervillain" who discovered some of the incredibly advanced technology of the Progenitors, the immortal alien race responsible for the evolution of the Phytians (and the human race, for that matter).
The alchemist villains I was thinking of are fully described and PnP-game-statted in the Champions Villains trilogy. Cornelius Liefeld is a prominent member of the Silvestri clan of black magicians (CV Vol. 2). The immortal Taoist sorceror Dr. Yin Wu is probably the premier master of Chinese alchemy (CV Vol. 1) The Mystic World also describes the Kayvanzadi, a lineage of Middle Eastern alchemists and magicians claiming descent from the greatest living mistress of the art, the ageless beauty Zarrindokht.
Several high-gravity planets harbor sapient species, including Belaxia, Kadilia, and Toracta. Their natives are stronger and more durable on average than humans of comparable size (with actual natural armor plates in the case of Toractans), but not usually to the degree of being superhuman. Belaxians and Toractans are much shorter and more massively built than humans, while Kadilians look similar to humans but are several inches taller on average. Belaxians can have superpowers, but their supers are almost exclusively ultrastrong "bricks." Kadilian supers are nearly always bricks, speedsters, or shape-changing metamorphs, and can't have mental powers.
The most physically powerful race in the Milky Way come from Korun, a huge, dense, highly volcanic world with a superheated atmosphere near the galactic core. The Korundar are a silicon-based lifeform, 6-8 meters tall, with four legs and two arms, and rocklike flesh that's mildly radioactive. They're a little slower-moving than smaller species, though.
EDIT: Another interesting candidate for a super-strong alien is the humanoid Donburil. Their bodies contain a high proportion of metals, making them heavy and strong and their tough skins a shiny gold. It wouldn't be hard to imagine a super-Donburil resembling Ironclad of the Champions.
As usual, all these races are described in more detail (including PnP-game stat templates for typical members) in Champions Beyond.
V'han's invasion force was repeatedly thrown back by the Korathon's incredible physical power. Not only had she failed to conquer them, she worried they would one day attack her own empire. So she decided to travel back in time and prevent Korath from ever coalescing into a planet, thus completely erasing the Korathon from the time stream. The Empress did place one captured Korathon, a notable military hero, in a temporal refuge to prevent him from being wiped out with the rest of his race. She then subjected him to thorough brainwashing, making him her loyal servant, and added him to her superpowered Imperial Battalion.
The story of civilization in the CU is much older than in real life, though. Ancient aliens have meddled with human evolution for hundreds of millennia. Ages of human and non-human civilization, often utilizing powerful magic, stretch back tens of thousands of years earlier than in the real world. More than once those ages ended in a cataclysm which destroyed their civilizations and reshaped the surface of the planet.
Also: Thank you for the answering of the Elysium/Netherworld/Qliphothic question.
I think of it as one of the points of variation, and an odd one, to be honest.
I suppose the Major Boudreau of CO could be a daughter of the same name... but that's rather lame, even by comic book retcon standards.
Thanks for that, on first reading through it I didn't realize that.
There's a link to the truncated version of the current timeline in my sig, adjusted for recent events in Champions Online.
Thanks. Assuming that the crusades happened pretty much as they did here, do the templars exist as well as a generic conspiracy theory world conquering trope? And if so, is there any truth behind it in the CO universe? My current nemesis is a templar, with the assassin's creed style trope pretty much played straight, and I'm worried if that's breaking canon or not.
Thank you.:) Had a "mind blown" moment there, tried searching for any information for the possibility of an hoax or a back-to-life sort of thing, but I guess Cryptic did not want to introduce a new face to UNTIL.
The daughter/clone/imposter(?)/any other comic-book-esque possibility does provide some oppurtunities for a quest line/comic book series or the like.
Hmm... well, the Templars aren't a factor in the official Champions Universe. There's no NPC with that group as part of his or her background, and no organization descended from it active in the present day as far as has been revealed. That doesn't mean you couldn't add them if that works best for your nemesis' background. OTOH this being a comic-book based setting, there's no shortage of world-conquering conspiracies.
However, if you wanted to tie your nemesis more to the canon setting, there's another group much closer in style to the Assassin's Creed-brand Templars. The Circle of the Scarlet Moon is a villainous occult organization which got its start in France in the late Eighteenth Century. Since then its influence has spread across Europe and North America, and increasingly into the Third World. The styles of ritual magic practiced by Circle members are more subtle and less combat-effective than the usual comic-book "supermagic." Few even of the Scarlet Moon's leaders have the power to stand up to most superheroes in a straight fight. However, over generations the Circle has shrewdly used its magic behind the scenes to amass enormous financial, political, and social power. Many Circle members are millionaires, and some are billionaires. Others hold high political office, or wield great influence over those who do. Few people outside the organization even know it exists, and those who do are almost never able to find proof enough of its activities to stand up in court.
When threatened, the Circle of the Scarlet Moon will first bring indirect pressure to bear on its enemies: lawsuits, hostile takeovers of their financial assets, the attention of law-enforcement in the Scarlet Moon's pocket, or scrutiny and smear campaigns by Circle-controlled media. Covert magical curses and subtle mind-affecting spells are also in their arsenal. People close to heroes opposing the Circle are particularly at risk. If more direct force is required, the Circle will hire whatever power-level of mercenaries it has to, up to and including supervillains.
Some background and membership for the Circle of the Scarlet Moon is in the Champions Universe sourcebook, and the group is greatly expanded upon in Champions Villains Volume Two: Villain Teams. BTW two members of the Circle are the parents of Witchcraft of the Champions, and her evil twin sister Talisman.
1st- Not really a "lore" question, but exactly how much information is provided about the Multifarian in BoTE? It is significant? I'd like to create a possible backstory for a Multifarian character, and although I don't have anything defined I was worried that it may contradict new info provided in the book.
2nd-Is there any "highly resilent" (eg: questionite, just not usually found on Earth) that the Empress' legions use or that is at least mentioned?
Thanks.:)
I'm not sure where the Selenites were detailed before Champions Beyond (6th and theofore most recent edition), and if the following overview adds any further information than what you might have known/read in the past.
The Selenites are mentioned and detailed in Champions Beyond. Both the origin (GM's vault) of the Selenites and Selenus itself, along with their basic history, enslavement by the super-villain Revenger (IMO a really cool character) and the whole anti-human conspiracy that slowly has been establishing itself within the Selenites. That's a brief overview and I'm sure that others may add a more detailed description, if you require or wish.
Can't find any official phenomenon like that, at least in MC. However, a number of heroes/villains have access to superpowers due to freak solar flares or similar events, if it is of any use to you, you can ask about suggestions regarding them, their powers and possible origins for similar heroes. On a side note, some of these events happened outside the Earth and directly into space. (Examples include the supervillains Photon and Sunspot and the heroine Victory)