Just a note so as not to confuse any of your readers: If we're talking Nazis in wartime, we're talking WW II, not WW I.
Champions Universe: News Of The World outlines the history and the membership of the Justice Squadron from its original incarnation during the war, up until that book was published in 2007. The most recent edition of the setting's foundation book, Champions Universe, from 2010, features the identical team lineup, but one would expect that to have been shuffled by now.
During what time period did you want to know who the members were?
During what time period did you want to know who the members were?
If I knew the '85 lineup (or closest too), I could work from and around that. Knowing the 90s and present day (2019-2022'ish their stories pick up again when Northwatch frees the majority of the living Watch Dogs from Toy Maker's lair) might also help with future stories.
I couldn't help but commit a draft of this scene for Day Of The Destroyer I had been picturing to paper a bit. As skimpy as it is, I wanted to get it done before any of it faded or altered. When working within canon or with existing canon IPs, I dread digging too deep into embellishing details that undermine continuity in any way. So my Rakshasa scene was skimpy, my Ravenspeaker scene was skimpy. It just happens, lol.
Well, 1985 is fairly easy, as the team's historical lineup is pretty well documented in Champions Universe: News Of The World. Besides Vanguard and the Drifter, the team included the powered-armor inventor Digitak, father of future Squader, Electron; Skygirl II, with gravity-manipulation powers, actually the niece of original Squader Vita-Man who used his biochemical discoveries to mimic the first Skygirl; Tomahawk II, a young (at the time) Native American with mystical powers and his enchanted namesake weapon; Brawler II, an experienced fighter with superhuman strength, son of the first Brawler; and Crusader, "a masked vigilante who had some knowledge of the occult." (Note that all the predecessors of the "II"s were also Justice Squadron members.)
Crusader was killed by Takofanes in 1987, which is about the time Brawler II and Skygirl II retired. Two other heroes joined the team in the years before the Battle of Detroit: Brawler III, third in the family line and one of the world's strongest superheroes; and Goblin, "a mystical shapechanger from an alternate Earth ruled by demons." Goblin died at the hands of Dr. Destroyer during the Battle, and Digitak was seriously injured and had to retire. And of course, Vanguard also lost his life that day.
Between 1993 and 1996 three other heroes joined the Drifter, Brawler III, and Tomahawk II: the aforementioned gadgeteer Electron, who by that time was using a modified version of her retired father's armor; Blink, a versatile mutant teleporter and Ravenswood Academy alumnus; and Flashover, a reformed criminal with fire powers resembling the Human Torch bestowed by Teleios.
The last-named, 2010 lineup still officially included the Drifter, although by that point he mostly worked solo. (I have no idea why Cryptic would change him to a cyborg in CO, other than to advertise costume parts.) The rest of the team was Brawler III (team leader by then), Tomahawk II, Blink, Flashover, and Superstar, a former delinquent and another Ravenswood alum, a mutant with formidable cosmic-energy powers. He replaced Electron who married and left the Justice Squadron in 2005.
When trying to visualize the present-day lineup, you need to keep the ages of the members in mind (Drifter is ageless, so he can certainly still show up). Tomahawk II was born in 1960, Blink in 1965, Brawler III in 1966, Flashover in 1976, and Superstar in 1980. The latter two are likeliest to still be active. Tomahawk II would almost certainly have turned his identity and role as the champion of his tribe over to a successor by now, as the first Tomahawk did with him. Who'd be filling out the rest of the team is up in the air.
I should also mention that since the 1970s the team has been headquartered in a mansion in the Brooklyn Heights area of New York. This seven-story building is 1920s-era elegance on the outside, modern and high-tech on the inside. Its location and purpose is known to the public, and the first two floors are open to tours of the museum, public meetings and functions, gift shop, and the like.
A vast amount. DD has an entire 200-page source book devoted to him. Book Of The Destroyer covers his life history, his personality and plans, his incredibly varied technological resources, Destroyer's unique hidden bases around the world (and beyond), and his legions of soldiers and agents, mundane and super.
Obviously that's too much to just summarize here. Is there a particular aspect of the character you're interested in?
The thing I'm most after/interested in right now are the bulk of Destroyer's primary super powers, as well as any go-to tech he keeps within his standard ('80s-'90s) field loadout.
One of the deaths in the Battle For Detroit that stood out for me was that of Goblin, particularly after seeing that artists depiction. It would seem as though Goblin was manipulating the meteor doomsday device, or examining it in horrified awe when Destroyer came upon him and snapped his neck. Then is seems the cavalry arrived moments after to blitz him.
To me, this gave Destroyer a chillingly malicious and sinister context that I loved. I've been developing this along with concepts for Goblin's backstory, personality, motives, etc. In my version he somehow gets ahead of the group to infiltrate and gather intel, basically trying to sneak around. I had one idea that his teammates and allies have him sneak into the hideout using a duct, vent, or some means of unconventional access, and he can hide and help everyone get to Destroyer quicker. Destroyer figures out he's coming, and he hides in the darkness, lulling Goblin into a sense of being alone as the environment of his lair overwhelms and distracts the hero. He can hear Glacier freaking out, Grond Ting off his cell door, and he noticed the meteor device, which warrants his full attention as he starts to deduce what the screen is showing. Making his up the catwalk, his defenses are entirely down. AS the light from this massive screen baths his face in red light from each Meteor marker, Destroyer's silhouette silently gliding downward behind him, in frame over his shoulder. As he mutters the words, "Good god, no..." Destroyer's gauntlets enter frame from behind Goblin's left profile and with a look of utter horror as his mouth is covered, Destroyer snaps his neck.
I want to develop Goblin as a figure you really hurt to see die this way.
I can see why you'd guess the figure up on that platform was Goblin, and the scenario you postulate led to his death. The narration of the start of the climactic battle in Book Of The Destroyer differs from that, and there's more than one way he could have ended up there; but dramatic license is certainly justifiable if it makes for a better story. Hero Games have changed details themselves from edition to edition and book to book. Let me transcribe a little of that battle description from p. 25 of BOTD, then some of the details about the Doctor's battle tactics, then run down his "field loadout" of tech.
When the assembled heroes finally broke into Destroyer's control room, Tiger told him, "at long last you're going to face justice."
“Contemptible fool, do you think that in finding me, you’ve beaten me? No man defeats Destroyer!” He raised his arm, and a Destroyer-Beam lanced out, blowing a hole right through Tiger’s chest. The force of the blow smashed the lifeless body back into the wall.
The heroes began to swarm up toward him, but his first attack was not his last. The Destroyer-Beam lanced out twice more, and Vigil and Icestar both lost their lives. Then they were upon him, and for a time he revelled in using his awesome strength instead of his weapon. He delivered a blow so mighty it broke Goblin’s neck, and hit Johnny Hercules so hard that fragments of the hero’s sternum and ribs tore apart his heart. He smashed Eclipse with a control console he ripped from the wall, crushing her pelvis and nearly her skull.
This next part comes from DD's tactical description in his write-up for Champions Villains Volume One: Master Villains p. 18:
Doctor Destroyer rarely engages in combat himself, preferring not to soil his hands with such menial tasks. He usually sends a robot duplicate or other flunkies instead. If he does fight, he begins battle without employing any advanced tactics — he simply stands there and blasts away at his foes, knowing they cannot withstand his attacks for long. He prefers single attacks, but will resort to Multiple Attacks if necessary, or to impress onlookers. If his enemies somehow resist, avoid, or counteract his attacks, he quickly adapts, using his intellect and tactical insight to find ways to lay them low. Superheroes who mistake his arrogant approach to combat for a true lack of tactical sense are in for a shock.
Also from that page: Destroyer’s armor comes equipped with systems designed to make him as physically
superior to superhumans as he already is intellectually. His Primary and Secondary Weapon Arrays contain blasters and other weapons powerful enough to kill or harm even the likes of Grond and Ripper, and his defensive systems (ranging from the natural defenses of his armor, to walls of force he can generate at range) protect him from most types of harm. He can fly, effortlessly lift hundreds of tons of weight, and perform many other astounding feats. With his vast technological resources, he can add to or adapt his armor for specific situations if need be.
BOTD breaks down the capabilities of the Doctor's armor from 1992, which are essentially the same as his most recent armor, just at a somewhat lower power level. His Primary Weapons Array is a variety of "Destroyer-Beams," the most powerful personal energy weapons invented to date, each with a different configuration. DD's Secondary Weapons Array, which he can fire along with his Destroyer-Beams if desired (although that drains his energy reserves faster), includes a lesser version of his Destroyer-Beam, a "Sensory Overload Cannon," a "Tangleweb Projector," and a "Synaptic Interference Generator" which can disrupt a range of biological functions.
Destroyer's armor is made of a super-strong metal of his own invention, which he calls Destreum, giving him great protection from physical and energy attacks, and which he can reinforce further with a projected force barrier. It also includes technological defenses against mental attacks, life-support systems, and a wide variety of sensory enhancers and protectors. The armor has rapid flight capability, and a teleporter which can almost instantly transport DD thousands of miles.
The Doctor has access to many modular additions and upgrades to his armor, which he will change out in his laboratories depending on what he anticipates needing in a given situation. Common ones include an Augmentation Beam to enhance the abilities of his followers; a gravitic Tractor Beam; a Flight Enhancer to increase his flight speed; a mind-controlling Mental Domination Crown; an additional Psychic Shield if he anticipates facing a powerful mentalist; an Intangibility Web rendering him immaterial and untouchable, able to walk through walls, etc.; and a Stealth Field making Destroyer undetectable to sight, hearing, or radar.
I think I can work with all of this. Action and combat is what I specialize in and luckily, a villain like this can be done pretty well if you set it all up properly and for the right reasons.
My Destroyer is going to have god-like power by terrestrial standards, and like, everything we've gone over so far lines up with that. But I want to give him some additional dimensions that may not come across in a glaring way from what one can gather on their own. I want him to have actual super powers that he's enhanced through scientific means, as well as receiving boosts, bonuses and buffs from his gear. I conceptualize him like some kind evil version of Batman in-that he combines tech and tactical prowess to dominate any unprepared foe by simply adapting to the situation and having the type of grueling physical capacity to see it through.
On another note, I have developed my big Vanguard scene. Regardless of how it played out in the pnp editions, I like mine. I've developed a Vanguard who - through his staunch, undying liberal senses - has long been trying to save and bring together not just one city, or country but the entire world. He's never been able to do enough, be in enough places. He spends 3 days rescuing flood victims in Haiti and providing valuable manpower for humanitarian aid, calling in favors from his entire network of allies and associates, only to return home and see that he missed an earthquake in Indonesia and a super villain leveled half a city block, killing two rookie heroes...
This Vanguard carries the entire worlds problems on his shoulders.
Initially, when the meteors are discovered along with Goblin's remains, Vanguard wants to rip DD in half with his bare hands Black Adam style. But instead he's reminded that they will need him in space to help out. With GREAT, unrelenting reluctance, Vanguard leads the orbital team into action, trusting Tiger, Icestar and Johnny Hercules to take care of business down in the lair. This is something that is not easy for him, but he figures he'll help the orbital team real quick and get back before in time to fillet Destroyer (not that he takes him lightly, just the gravity of it all has him gunning for DD's head at this point).
Upon discovering that the largest meteor had been trailing behind the pack and would no doubt cause another ice age almost instantaneously, the orbital team is literally in a state of numb panic. They are soiling their super suits, but they get to work like the veterans they are. They get to blasting chunks off any way they can, but power levels are low from skirmishes with Destroids and minor villain cameos, and this thing isn't losing significant mass fast enough.
As his comrades feverishly blast away at this behemoth space-rock, Vanguard is having an existential revelation as he glances between our little blue planet and the monstrosity baring down upon her. He calls out to the others, "Stop! ... Save your strength, please. The others may need you."
A Placeholder hero, another senior figure among the present protagonists tells him if they just keep going they can wear it down. They have to try. Vanguard explains that it has to be him, he's the only one strong enough to split it to the core, and they ALL know it.
Stopping their assault on the asteroid, the others plead with him to stop and just think first. They aren't sure even Vanguard could survive the impact. With a warm, tranquil smile and a seasoned professional authority, he commands them all to give he and the space-rock some room and in a blink of the naked eye he vanishes into super speed, leaving them in concerned awe, some maybe even calling out for him to reconsider still.
We see Vanguard breach the atmosphere, flying over the planet, taking it all in. Every sight, sound, scent. He lands of the peak of a mountain and gives a speech to all the protags through their intercoms and this greatly influences the way heroes operate and treat each other (which ties into the whole Watch Dogs story arc I mentioned before) as well as becomes the initial catalyst for the plan to rebuild Detroit into a pillar of humanity for the whole world.
After the speech, he braces, sets himself up to launch, and catapults off the planet and into the meteor. He impacts a bit late so the shattered bits of the meteor cascade over the atmosphere like fireworks of the gods for half the world to see. Vanguards remains fall to earth among some of this smaller debris and is recovered later by some of his closet allies from the orbital team.
This death rocks the entire world to its core, because he was everyone's hero. He looked them all in the eyes and spoke to them in their own tongue. Abroad he was known as being American, but not as an American Hero. He was everyone's hero.
Per every reference to Vanguard in books, he was the CU's analogue to Superman, and everything you just described is consistent with Superman. I imagine an "official" Vanguard would be much like this.
I think in my version, all the heroes battle destroids after responding to the initial crime wave for a mass villain mop up. During the villain mop up, destroids are unleashed on everyone, hero, civilian, law enforcement, military, and the villains who took the job. Some flee, or fight alongside heroes, like my OC, Black Magic, who was using the situation to her own advantage before the desteroid attacks.
After Digitak hacks into a few busted up destroid units, she discovers there is a signal pinging to and from every unit from a fixed location. They follow the source and find the baited base. Upon arriving, all destroids divert their paths and attention to the heroes at the base, and they encounter heavy defenses and traps making their way down into the bowels. This is when Goblin has snuck deeper into the base whilst the others hold off destroids at the entrance, and another team tries to fight their way in the conventional way.
Upon gaining access the massive central chamber where DD ambushed and killed Goblin, Gigitak finds him and whilst holding his body, has the same realization he did. As she informs the others over their coms that meteors are headed into our orbit as they speak, the cell door containing Grond, Glacier and Mega Shark (I forgot his name already, lol) pop open one by one, and a battle with three super villains ensues.
This delays the meteor response team, and weakens everyone. Later they split up into the ground and orbital teams, with the ground team confronting DD deeper into his lair, when he kills many of them before my OC Paragon arrives, taking Destroyer beams like paint balls. IN the KigaVerse, this enrages and troubles DD, and he makes his beams even stronger than they would be present day in canon. If this goes well, I will plan a last hooray story for him in present day beyond Multifaria, which I may even get into as it brushes against Northwatch's established mythos, with SD being behind Kiga's release.
I know we've been hard into vanguard and destroyer, but I'm currently working more on the Watch Dogs end of everything to organize the plots for each story and figure out how to do DoTD in terms of the scale.
Right now my focus has shifted to the nature of several things in existing Champions lore.
1: Chi
Chi plays a huge role in Ricky's story and powers. The dragon Hanlong has been scrapped entirely. The power of the Dragon Warrior now has a totally different origin. "The Abbot" was one of the first Shaolin masters and one of history's greatest chi masters, if not the greatest (assuming Batuo is used by Champs in some capacity, so for now, he's just known as The Abbot). His control over and honing of chi was so powerful that as he was dying (possibly fighting the DD early into the history of the tournament or even pre-tournament), he channeled almost all of his chi into a special essence which he bestowed upon his most trusted brother. This created the first Dragon Warrior. All of his chi and knowledge and mastery of kung fu honed into this chi essence, as well as a psychic link to The Abbot's own spirit. Every dragon warrior since has also been linked into this essence, and their additional knowledge and stylistic mastery has been added to this essence. When facing the DD, a Dragon Warrior will be aided by the spirits of past Warriors to boost their chi and courage in the critical moment of the fight.
Since his death, Abbot resides in Shambhala. The subject of my next inquiry.
2: Shambhala
This is one of those ones that has become crucial to Ricky's mythos, but I won't be torn apart if it doesn't work. I'll name it something else and tweak it.
In the KigaVerse, it is much like its real world analog. An afterlife for those who have reached enlightenment. In my verse it is safeguarded from almost everything. It takes a force of great inter-dimensional power and near god-like awareness to even locate it, let alone get in. I mean it's the Forbidden Kingdom. However, the Death Dragon and its various [probably non-Banner] minions are well known for trying to bend this rule and get in to cause chaos, ultimately trying to destroy it. A lot of the warriors who defeat the DD are granted access by the Chinese Gods. Being in Shambhala has a mystical effect on the mind and soul. You are yourself still, 100%, but your troubles, worries, stresses, and mortal bonds of jealousy, rage, etc are willingly and mindfully washed away.
It is essentially a paradisal island at the center (sort of, and yet not) of an endless, boundless sea of crystal-blue, tropical water. Abbot has a monastery at the center of the island, and when arriving, no matter who or what they are, they wash up on a rough but gorgeous coastline, confronted by a vibrant belt of jungle sitting just beneath and in front of Abbot's massive, sprawling monetary, which is the gateway to the Kingdom itself. You cannot gain access tot he Kingdom and citizens (don't think it'll ever be shown in the verse) without being given access by Abbot. You can't get to Abbot inside the Monastery without passing the Seven Deadly Venoms, the spirits of China's greatest enlightened warriors (medieval heroes). Not even Ricky stood a preacher's hope in hell of defeating even one of them. He had to reason with them.
I guess I want to know how everything lines up, and more info on the nature, physiology, science, and applications of chi in PnP.
In the case of ch'i, you should face no problems. Champions examples of ch'i use cover the gamut of legend and folklore, as well as contemporary novels and comic books. There's even a rare source of instruction for ch'i techniques reminiscent of the Dragonball manga/anime series. So nothing you describe is improbable for this setting.
Now, Shamballah on Champs Earth is an actual physical location. It's fairly extensively described in a book I've mentioned in connection to other of your lore inquiries, Hidden Lands. I'll just summarize the major points, and you can decide what you want to adapt, change, or ignore.
The origin of Shamballah is lost in the mists of time. It lies hidden within an enormous cavern inside Mount Everest in Tibet. There are numerous obstacles to finding and entering it, both physical and mental/spiritual. Only people with skill, will, determination and patience can win through. The cavern itself is kept comfortably warm due to underlying lava flows. The "city" of Shamballah has about 200 permanent residents, and usually a dozen or so visitors from around the world.
There's magic woven into the place which prevents aging and sickness while one remains there. If someone dwells at Shamballah for less than fifty years, they can freely return to the outside world at any time, where they'll start to age normally again. However, beyond half a century a body becomes dependent on that magic, so upon leaving the cavern a person will swiftly wither and crumble to dust. There is also a permanent "spell of understanding" over the area which allows all inhabitants to understand each other's languages.
The purpose of Shamballah is as a repository of knowledge of the martial arts and related mental and spiritual disciplines. Practically every martial art known, contemporary and historical, can be studied there. The rulers of the city are the nine Immortal Monks, each a great master of several MA styles. Several of them are also formidable sorcerers. There are other monks in the city who are nearly as skilled.
Deeper beneath Everest lies another cavern, with a very different city, Agharti. Agharti is the dwelling and prison of fifty Dark Monks of tremendous skill but also profound evil. They're bound to it by spells laid down ages past by the Shamballans. The entire cavern radiates an aura of evil so intense, anyone spending extended time there will have their souls corrupted by it. Visitors who are good and/or weak will have to fight their way to Agharti, but those who are both strong and evil are allowed to enter the city. There they may find a master willing to train them in forbidden MA secrets, so as to spread their evil to the wider world.
Interestingly, the spells that imprison the Dark Monks have no effect on visitors, and the Shamballans don't prevent outsiders from leaving Agharti or returning to the outside world. At least one official Champions supervillain was trained at Agharti.
Let me know if you'd like more info on any of the points above. But it does seem to me that given your expressed interests, Hidden Lands would be a worthwhile investment.
I hate to jump around, but that last query was tied up nicely, thank you. I think I'll make Abbot's afterlife some kind of refuge the Chinese gods created to preserve histories greatest warriors for... something, or some time they may be needed. Or it may be where the Dragon Warriors reside, sprits intact to aid the current mantle holder when the time comes. It should only enrich the fun of developing this even further.
I have to dive deep into Dr. Yin Wu's history, motive and psychology for Wrath of The Dragon. He will be a linchpin fixture in this story, which is only fitting, but I want to develop a really juicy plot where the odds are stacked against Ricky, with Wu being infuriated by the notion that this puny, wet behind the ears 18 year old kid being a Dragon Warrior. He despises the fact that fate has bestowed him with such a gift, foreseeing some kind of dark omen of coming disaster. He makes Ricky prove he is the Dragón Warrior with a special series of tests they have for it. When it is confirmed, Dr. Wu doubts Ricky's ability to survive the elemental trials.
Dr Wu even comes to find that he is overcome by dark thoughts akin to those of Hi Pan. He seriously debates ways to steal the Abbot's power from Ricky, but Ricky, despite being alone and having almost every odd stacked against him, overcomes and wins the favor of Dr. Wu. By the end, although Ricky can see his is a dangerous, evil man himself, they have a common enemy, and he respects Wu for his power, authority and intelligence. Wu respects Ricky for his courage, tenacity and creativity.
However, these feelings aren't realized completely on Dr Wu's side until after Rick'ys corpse emerges from the dimension he fights the DD in. I wanted Ricky to have a bit of impact on Wu's development, as any story should have.
The whole tournament is silent when Ricky's body emerges and the tournament hands approach to scrape him off the floor when Dr. Wu stands up, sternly raising a hand and says: "Stop! This boy was a Dragon Warrior. Chosen by the Abbot...and we will honor him as one."
But that ramble aside (omg):
I came here to ask/brainstorm about an artifact I need for the [soon to be renamed] Sentinels team story. It's called Phantasma, and follows the team of [ mostly] Canadian heroes who were close to Northwatch and formed a group to cover more than the scope of Steelhead/Cold Front tasks. This was something Northwtach was adamant, restless about his entire run. "We can, should be doing MORE." But Cold Front limited him to Cold Front missions.
In the plot, they are hunting down Rakshasa across the globe (if necessary) to arrest him at the besthest of Derringer and alot of inter-national higher ups, for crimes against Canada (releasing Kiga). They have special international permissions to hunt him, but only in certain countries, and there are restrictions on the actual use of powers.
They are taken on a wild ride that is designed to show the breath and depth of Rakshasa's intellect, craftiness, and power of mass scale illusion. Hence the name Phantasma. But it also has a double meaning.
On Rakshasa's end, and what has him all over the radar, is that he's on a mission to find a MacGuffin artifact. This MacGuffin is what I'm trying to locate within lore, or brainstorm.
He's looking for an ancient, near-divine relic that gives the user unfathomable power over illusion, one could rightly say, reality...
Something Rakshasa would personally want, and get to thinking is his own idea. When really (double meaning), Destroyer was behind it all, waiting for him to do all the heavy lifting. Just as Rakshasa has tricked everyone and makes a B-line for the MacGuffin, a Destroyer beam tears a glorious hole through his chest and...he drops dead.
This was going to lead to Destroyer obtaining it, probably killing a [renamed] Sentinel, and starting a big Destroyer story.
Any ideas on what this MacGuffin could be, or could I just invent something - and if so; what might help ground this MacGuffin in parts of existing lore?
I'm aware of three official Champions artifacts with the power you want. One of them, although it has the least description of the three, would seem the best fit for the story you describe, so I'm going to outline that first. If that doesn't work for you, we can look at the others. This artifact also has the potential to lead from or into the story you just mentioned, if you want to, since it's linked to Dr. Yin Wu.
I'm sure you're aware that Palash Krisharan (Rakshasa) serves Dr. Destroyer, in fact is one of his most trusted servants. Given that Rakshasa enjoys great luxury and power due to his high status in DD's organization, and that Destroyer is infamous for the horrific punishments he visits on those who betray him, Palash would need to be confident that the artifact will give him enough power to defy his master. I personally believe there should also be an explanation for how Rakshasa learned of this artifact.
The Jade Mirror of Transcendence is an item out of Chinese legend (at least on Champs Earth). Yin Wu sought it for decades, intending to use it to transform the entire Earth into the image of imperial China, with himself as Emperor. But he finally determined that the original Mirror no longer exists, and so resolved to recreate it. This would require him to locate and assemble many rare substances and other appurtenances, a time-consuming task.
But Yin Wu has the luxury of time, thanks to another of his great discoveries, the acme of Chinese alchemy, the Pill of Immortality. It's how the Doctor has lived for over a thousand years. Now, what no one on Champs Earth knows about Dr. Destroyer, is that he doesn't have the luxury of time. DD has invented very effective antigeria and cloning techniques, but his unique genetics which produced his incredible intellect also prevent those techniques from working on him. His armor slows his aging while he wears it, but can't stop it. If Destroyer were to learn that Yin Wu knows the secret to eternal life, he would stop at nothing to obtain it.
What I propose is that DD sent Rakshasa to infiltrate Dr. Yin Wu's organization to obtain the Pill of Immortality or the method of its creation. But instead of or in addition to that, he also learns of the Jade Mirror. Yin Wu has gathered some of the necessary ingredients, and has finally located the remainder. With the ultimate temptation in front of him, Krisharan steals the items and knowledge for the Mirror and sets out to obtain the rest, justifying your sending him wherever on the globe you want to go. You could also let him dupe any other members of Dr. Destroyer's organization into assisting him, since Rakshasa is known by all of them to be high in the Doctor's favor.
Does that sound like it will work for you, or should we explore the other options?
(I'd also suggest that when DD catches up to Krisharan, you shouldn't have him kill the traitor immediately. He'll want to take his time and get creative. Destroyer's armor includes non-lethal subduing weaponry.)
My idea was that Destroyer uses this MacGuffin item to rewrite history, making himself the prolific white knight figure of the 20th and 21st centuries. He's literally the President elect of the USA in my follow up story, Dawn of The Destroyer. We open with DD in a dark room, picking up his new age (current CO version) helmet, and pause before placing it on in ominous fashion. Hovering gracefully just off the ground, he exits into the bright threshold of a doorway contrast heavily against this dark room. We cut to him exiting a large, bright structure, which, as we pull out, we can quickly, and to our horror, identify as the White House. Destroyer raises him arms at either side to the ovation of roaring crowds of adoring citizens near-mad with zeal and teary-eyed with love. We keep pulling back as Destroids can be seen on guard beneath massive blow-up floats of Destroyer and his various robot minions. The floats have an eerie, cartoony sort of vibe that hammers home the fact that the people of America literally love him.
We come to find that Vanguard never existed. And known historic heroes of the golden age are villains, mostly slain by DD in his seemingly impossible array of heroic feats. Millennium City doesn't exist, because he never destroyed Detroit (OR, I'm playing with Vanguard being a villain in this perverted reality of DD's, and that, after being defeated by DD, he retreated to space and came back, throwing a meteor into Detroit). And America has been invading the entire world, aided by a new and horrifically well-oiled side of DD's technological might we've never seen before. Many countries are war torn, Destroid-run annexes of the United States of Destroyer.
Certain individuals with access to information and influence from higher powers, such as Ravenspeaker, are made aware of this gross perversion of reality, and start a movement to take him down and restore the natural order.
I'm proposing that, Destroyer has also had the Mirror on his mind for a long time, and has been grooming a loyal minion who happens to be an illusionist who longs for the kind of power Destroyer lords over him, to go after this thing and take all the heat for him. used his superior intellect and mastery of manipulation to place the information about the Mirror into Palash's path without Palash knowing it came from Destroyer. Rakshasa then, thinking it's his own idea, years later, goes after the Mirror on his own. He finds the real Mirror after a trail of clues and riddles leading to the location, take Palash and those pursuing him across a good portion of the world. I want to make the key Dr. Wu missed something very tricky and elusive, justifying how he was never able to ground it in reality. My first, fledgling idea here, is that it has been suspended in a state of self-perpetuated concealment from reality. To anyone just looking for it without specialized knowledge and tools/means, it's literally "not here".
(EDIT: The idea of him killing Rakshasa came from the finality, cruelty, and genius (from a villain's point of view) of it, as the implication of it all was that Rakshasa had fulfilled his purpose in Destroyer's long-term plan for him. And how I imagine it playing out, the move Rakshasa pulls during the big peak of the climax to trick everyone and get a head start on at least one quasi-speedster (Northwatch II), also worked on Destroyer JUST enough so that he had to kill him or he would have touched the mirror and could have done who knows what within a few synapsis firing off. I thought it through a little more than it seems with such a blunt outcome, but I score the whole thing in slow motion to My Way by Sinatra. I really want to give Rakshasa this grand, smug, "villain you just love to hate" kind of depiction. He seldom slows down to worry, or makes the scene too dramatic. He's brave, confident in his every step, every backup and escape plan.)
I thought about this a little more and I must thank you for this help and that fantastic idea. During Shaolin Kid's story, Wrath of the Dragon, featuring Dr. Wu, I can have Rakshasa appear as a detailed cameo. Since Ricky (Shaolin Kid) has no idea who Rakshasa is or what his game is, would have no reason to suspect him in any way. I was torn on what little easter egg to put at the very end of WoTD, and this is literally perfect. Rakshasa rifling through the cache of Yin's research on the Mirror, starting his research and resulting in his quest some years later.
I'll probably need your help with Paragon's stories coming up. I finally have his story arc mapped out and it will see him face several scenarios and key foes. First is Lemuria/Arvad, and someone put up a nice, robust Lemuria page on Primus I already benefited from.
Lemurian King
Arvad's attack of Arcadia, with a severe injury prompting him to have visions generated from his power, which I call the Infinity Engine, sent by God (also gives Arvad and Hazor time to square off and settle their old beef a bit). These visions are what lead him to become obsessed with discovering the source of this power, and provided him with the hint that there are no answers hanging around earth. Visions of the cosmos and great structures and civilizations within it, compel him to leave Earth and begin to explore.
Malvanus Invictus
Now... lol. Here's where it gets fun. I'll be needing some info on the Malvan Empire and more specifically, their arenas (I don't want him to end up back in our system, on the moon, you know?). I want Paragon to be ambushed and captured by ummm, what's-his-name, sorry. The Overseer of the arena, and the Roman Empire simp, as he begins to explore outside our solar system; almost as if they were waiting for a moment to capture him.
They have intricate systems and safeguards against him, despite him being very, very powerful at this point (but this story makes him even stronger, cause he's really, really going to need it for the next few... lol). I haven't fully figured all of that out yet, as he is like wow.... lol. Hard for them to outright contain his willpower, but not impossible. I'll get there soon enough, it's just a future thing.
They force him to compete, it's a bit cliche, but he'll probably play ball to help those suffering under the tyranny of the arena and Malvan, as well as some kind of leverage What's-his-name holds over him. He will rise up and overthrow the whole thing (for now).
Ashfall/Ascension
Then, after already being set up in the last story, Paragon encounters and becomes involved in a galactic movement to crusade against Xarriel, a member of the race who created his species, so very long ago.
Ashfall is a somewhat veiled reference to Ashraal, the Forgotten Planet (as dubbed in the KigaVerse), and I really need to know more surrounding this cosmic singularity, as well as the scope of Xarriel's powers and abilities. This story carries over into Ascension, Paragon's finale, where I'm pretty sure they double kill one another, or the movement defeats Xarriel, but only after Paragon dies ensuring the W in the clutch. Because somehow, he has to reach God. And I went over and over, up and down the notion of him "adventuring through the multiverse to reach God's door and kick it down." Not working for me, this time out. His purpose is to merge with god, after leaving behind a new Infinity Engine on Earth in the form of his son, Hazoren. Part human, Part Empyrean, taken in by a Hazor who now cares about and respects Paragon, vs wanting him jailed and interrogated. Anyway, yeah. He was like a probe of emotions, memories, moments, experiences, etc, on Earth. My developer notes site God's motive being much larger here, with these "Infinity Engine probes" existing en mass throughout the history of life in our cosmos. God can see and govern everything, all at once, His perception of sensory is altogether unfathomable to even me as the dev in this case, however, he can't... "Be human". It's the same data, but processed differently through these probes.
As far as the Malvans go, they're pretty much the definition of Clarke's Law. Very little of what one can imagine is beyond the capabilities of their fantastic technology. Even cosmic entities like the Galaxars don't try to meddle with Malva. The only reason the Malvans would not be able to contain or control your Paragon, is for you to decree he's so ridiculously overpowered that no one could. However, I have a couple of lore-based suggestions as to how that could be accomplished, which I'll share momentarily.
From your description of Paragon, it's unlikely even the Malvans could find gladiators to give him enough of a fight to be entertaining, which is the whole point of their games. However, in this setting the technology exists to suppress super-powers down to manageable levels. Earth uses such tech in its super-prisons like Stronghold, and if Earth can do it, you can be sure the Malvans can duplicate and exceed their capabilities if they wish. In addition, while the Malvans seem to prefer their gladiators to be willing, and reward such handsomely, when faced with a prospective gladiator who refuses to fight and who causes trouble, they can erase that person's memories, and reprogram them with a whole new personality. You can use either or both of those methods to keep Paragon tractable, until you decide the circumstances are right for them to stop working.
(The "Praetor" of the Lunar Games is called Tateklys, which translates as, "The Fashionable One." Almost no one even remembers what his birth name is. Note that the lunar gladiatorial arena is a branch operation. Although the broadcast lunar games are very popular back home, the Phazarian Arena on Malva is where the height of the games are held.)
Malvan recorded history extends back over eight hundred thousand years. At its height their empire covered half the Milky Way. But they fell into an eons-long conflict with the rulers of the other half, the hideous Elder Worm. The Malvans eventually triumphed and destroyed the Worm or drove their remnants into hiding, but unknown to them the Worm had cast a magical curse upon their whole race, sapping their drive and ambition, eventually turning practically their entire populace into decadent dilettantes. Rare Malvans, such as Tateklys, can transcend the curse and do more with their lives than just relieve their boredom.
Around 110,000 years ago the Malvan Empire started to fall apart as their subject worlds declared independence, and the Malvans couldn't be bothered to stop them. Today the "empire" consists of Malva itself, with about 80 million Malvans plus their slaves, and a dozen other star systems holding around 15 million colonists total. They still have two subject races, the Roin'esh who are held because Malvans find their shape-shifting powers very entertaining, and the Thrull, whose spirits were so crushed by many millennia of subjugation that they simply don't care.
As for Xarriel, he's this universe's Thanos/Darkseid analogue. His planet of Ashraal may not be a good point of origin for your Paragon, but in another sense Xarriel would fit perfectly.
The entities known to a very few sapients as the Progenitors are immortal energy beings millions of years old, possessing great cosmic power and fantastic scientific knowledge. They've conducted hidden experiments on organisms on many planets including Earth, trying to promote the rise of sapient species and guide the evolution of their full potential. But several centuries ago one of their number, Alaxar, asserted that his kind should take a more active role in actually directing lesser beings, essentially ruling them. That dispute prompted Alaxar to leave his people and wander space, contemplating what to do next.
Alaxar happened to pass near the world of Ashraal when an ambitious Ashraalian scientist was testing a device to tap the cosmic energy inherent in the universe, which would provide virtually unlimited power. Alaxar was caught in the vortex of energy as the device was activated, drawing him into it and blocking the tremendous flow of energy until it exploded, killing the entire planet. But that event created a new composite being brimming with power, fusing the scientist's craving for glory and adulation with Alaxar's arrogance and desire to dominate, plus a vastly expanded consciousness of the universe. The new being named himself Xarriel (or maybe "themselves," since as a compound personality he always refers to himself in the plural, like royalty), and resurrected the entire populace of Ashraal, now as his utterly devoted slaves.
Xarriel overall is probably the most powerful official Champions Universe character actually given game mechanic stats. His "Cosmic Fires" can accomplish nearly anything he can imagine, but his deadliest attack is his "Xarralian Helix" warping space and time. Xarriel sees himself as the incarnation of the universe itself, "remembering" all the way back to the Big Bang. In other words, what you say you want Paragon to become, in a sense Xarriel already is. As you can see, officially Ashraal wouldn't be a good origin choice for your character, but the Progenitors would be. They already created the superhuman Empyreans on Earth, who knows what experiments they're conducting on other planets?
The only reason the Malvans would not be able to contain or control your Paragon, is for you to decree he's so ridiculously overpowered that no one could.
When it comes to Paragon, you have to remember he's not some guy I wanted to be strong, he's a vessel for a fragment of the God who created everything we're speaking of. Knowing very little of the Malvan other than a general concept of their power, I just wasn't sure how they could control a God Spawn who draws power from a source no technology can "shut down, dampen, or disable". To me the notion of hitting a switch and pausing the power of The Almighty One, was just too much from the perspective of the Malvan's ridiculously OP power as a plot device. I am trying to reconcile a balance between it being difficult for Paragon to just go beast mode and escape, and putting things in place that tie his hands in terms of free will. For example the Earth being threatened in an elaborate bluff, fellow gladiators who need his help. Things that can lend further depth and layers to the reason for him not just going buck wild until they kill him or he escapes.
But you also have to remember, Paragon has more restraint at this point than most characters you're going to find who, on a genetic level as creations, treat conflict like it's a game or sport.
As for Xarriel, he's this universe's Thanos/Darkseid analogue. His planet of Ashraal may not be a good point of origin for your Paragon, but in another sense Xarriel would fit perfectly.
Paragon is Arcadian, born on Earth. The name is in reference to Xarriel, and where the event took place, as Xarriel is a large figure in the story. Strong as Xarriel may be, he doesn't have as much potential as Paragon, as his power is literally a God Engine. With Paragon it was never about him doing a big super-landing with all the tools he needs to completely break combat scale and dominate anything that moves. He's actually the opposite for 90% of his journey.
Rather than Superman, think Goku... Always needing to get stronger or he will die. Paragon is a Infinite Potential Engine. He has no [power except that God Spawn power that allows him to evolve new powers.
Could any Infinity Engine ever be as strong as God? No. Half as strong? No. Could one somehow collect cosmic energies and cast spells and rival a being like God? Literally impossible, unless in PnP. Not in the KigaVerse. But could that Infinity Engine kill a Progenitor? If things go right, Paragon can. But it's the same reason Malvan memory technology won't work on him. He's got God stuff running through his blood. The Empyreans psychics can't even track or interact with his mind. No psychic can.
It throws campy little comic book gadgets and science for a loop when you are talking about God's power, not your run of the mill cosmic accident, heavy water inhalations, lightning bolts, mutations, etc. God took a bit of his own power and put it in this Empyrean child at birth.
The only reason the Malvans would not be able to contain or control your Paragon, is for you to decree he's so ridiculously overpowered that no one could.
When it comes to Paragon, you have to remember he's not some guy I wanted to be strong, he's a vessel for a fragment of the God who created everything we're speaking of. Knowing very little of the Malvan other than a general concept of their power, I just wasn't sure how they could control a God Spawn who draws power from a source no technology can "shut down, dampen, or disable".
In other words, you're literally doing exactly what I said.
Whatever. You write what you want, I'm just here to facilitate.
Rather than Superman, think Goku... Always needing to get stronger or he will die. Paragon is a Infinite Potential Engine. He has no [power except that God Spawn power that allows him to evolve new powers.
Goku gets stronger because he's repeatedly challenged by stronger and stronger opponents. He has to push himself to be able to beat them. He's frequently in danger, and he's been defeated a number of times, including being killed. He has challenges to overcome, which is the essential component of drama.
IMHO a closer manga/anime analogy to what you're describing is One-Punch Man. His creator says that Saitama/OPM is a protagonist as he would be at the end of his story, inserted at the beginning of his story, when he's too strong for any competition. As such, his existence is boredom, for lack of any real challenges. That series is in large measure a satire of its genre. To the extent that characters are going on journeys of evolution, it's the supporting characters around Saitama. They're the ones who provide the drama, in contrast to the lead character.
Paragon is your creation. You're the writer, you get to decide where he is on his journey at any point, what would be capable of challenging him. This is a comic-book world, a genre where a writer has decreed that Spider-Man defeat Firelord a herald of Galactus, and Wolverine beats Lobo who can manhandle Superman.
If you want to write just to satisfy yourself, that's fine. If you want others to be entertained, I would advise not letting your love for a character and a concept get in the way of telling a compelling story.
Paragon has been hard for me to explain clearly because the concept has evolved and adapted so much since inception. It started when I learned of Empyreans in-game and investigated a bit more. I believe it was here I found the Being Empyrean thread, and learned a bit of their origin story and of Arcadia, etc. Since that point in like 2020 or so, I was haunted by fleeting notions of how it could all fit into or have consequences for my AU. I really think this part of the Champs Earth and this larger story arc is so good, but seems severely restrained, perhaps even to its own detriment at this point. IN other words, I felt like so much could and should be done with this, aside from a perpetually all-powerful and cool, yet inconsequential trinket of lore.
I had no idea how to do that, still don't know how it could be done outside of my AU, but it's teeming with a potential improve the entire Champions tapestry if it's taken further in a direction that makes sense for the characters, particularly surrounding Hazor and his motives.
Skip some time. I learn of Champions direct analog to the Christian God. The all-powerful creator of the multiverse. This, if you recall, broke the scale of everything in my creative process and grasp of the Champs universe. I mean I was like, W.T.A.F o.O. lmao. Good times. This stayed with me, like I openly admit it and this directly lead to Paragon's creation - but there was one more factor.
Shortly after I put my Au down for a bit (never actually stopping background development in my head... It's a sickness), I watched the Black Adam movie.
Now look, I liked the movie, not as a genius film, a great story, or a great BA adaptation... I don't have to feel any of those things to like it. What I liked was the first time seeing Dwayne Johnson pick up a real, actual acting job, since Be Cool. But I was impressed by the leap it [hopefully] made in cinematic "super" hero material in terms of depicting... SUPER POWERS...
And yet still, I felt like... "Really Warner/DC? This is your god-level character? For shame." lol If you remember the talk about Black Adam before it came out, the word god when describing his power level was thrown around... A LOT.
These three factors which stayed with me for a while lead to Paragon's fledgling inception.
I don't make these types of characters unless they are villains. Northwatch, Shaolin Kid, even Red Lotus, none of them are OP or glory whores in their narratives. They don't shrivel in modesty until the story is boring, but they don't railroad continuity to get it done. It's not like me to create snowflakes for the sake of saying "Look how powerful my thing is." This was more of an idea that coalesced over about a month. Using notes and some memory I can kind of walk you through it.
It started with the idea of how to use God in the KigaVerse. What could I do with that, how could he be used, why would he be used? Could I get a character to him somehow aside from the cliche dead character meets God, which doesn't fit into a storyline, it's just for the character. So I kinda gave up on that angle, and started trying to... as weird as it sounds, put myself in the character of God. I imagined I'm writing God. Using my extremely limited knowledge of his nature and full scope of his creation, what his motives would be. Does God have motives? He must if he created existence and everything in it. I started playing around hard. To list bullet points would be an exercise of futility, but I came to the conclusion God could not by definition be a singularity in the grand scheme of existence. I know this is where you'll lose interest because we've probably slipped off the canon cliff here. But where did God come from? What is he/she/it? Should we go further than this within the narrative? No, and we won't. But thinking this way, I was able to - to some degree - classify God as an entity like any other. It has a genesis (which shall forever remain unknown but serves a purpose to know), a function and purpose.
Like an itch that had to be scratched, God swelled with an energy and compulsion to let it out like a fleeting wave of excitement we let out as a scream or fist pump, God began the process of creation, expelling energy and matter against the void like a plume. I'm sure there are elaborate creation myths for literally every corner and pocket dimension of this universe (she's a heavy gal, but we love her for it), but this how I had it going down for development's sake. In our universe, the was visible and tangible as our beloved Big Bang.
Then I started thinking about what now? I know, if I recall, he gazed into something which created a reflection of him, creating the Qliphoth,. or some such? I forget and apologize, but that always stayed with me too, and I always kept that close to the chest when thinking about wtf are the motives of something like this in terms we can understand or process as concepts?
I decided that for as long as their have been sentient life forms to show an an investment in or care for, God has been creating Infinity Engines within sentient beings at birth. This bestows them with protections from psychics, because similar to Jean Grey trying to read Jehovah's mind, she either won't find it, or...Well we all read the Old Testament, right? But they can also evolve abilities in conjunction with their willpower and their actual knowledge and experiences. Think of like gleaming, not spontaneous imagination creation type nonsense. He can't just think and have a new power. He has to witness and slowly try to develop a power (some are very, very hard), or be taught it by another. I urge you to have a bit of faith until I can start writing full stories and you can see the level of my creative responsibility.
When I saw Black Adam I wanted to make one of the many characters in the spirit of Sentry, Beyonder, Shazaam, etc, without creating a villain like I always do with that scale of power. It just works better, unless you have a great character who has an epic, emotional backstory you chop at the bit to get development and closure on... That's what Black Adam didn't give me that I really wanted and was left hanging on.
What's tough to understand about Paragon's story when you hear about his power, is how good his backstory and overall story arc are. The defensiveness when you know characters and power scales and game stat logic, is only natural. You, like anyone would, probably drift away from interest and into, OP wrecking ball vehicle vibes.
I made him a child of Arcadia, the greatest civilization on Earth, and one holding they key to humanity's fate... hostage in a cell. lol. I really liked Hazor's storyline and even the Arvad bit, I'm sorry. People will want me dead for fucking with this, but I like it ^.^.
Hazor's father had a secret child under circumstances which left him virtually unable to claim responsibility for it. I haven't fully fleshed that out yet, I need MORE info, lmao. But either it was the lover or sister of his friend, or she was a bit too young for Arcadian culture at that time (not like YOUNG, just, how we'd look at a 40 year old man with an 18 year old girl today; Welcoming judgment). Something to where this child had to disowned entirely, and the mother sworn to secrecy, which she completely understood. This child is Paragon's father. He grows up unaware of this fact, until Arvad informs him of it... I do not know yet how Arvad knows, but it's essential to the plot that he does. It all comes around. Thinking little of it, Paragon's dad goes about his humble life, eventually having Paragon. Very soon it becomes evident to the locals that this child's mind is undetectable, although a normal, healthy baby when all tests are performed by a close friend. A small group of family and friends have gathered to warn the father and figure out what to do before it reaches more formal attention.
Paragon's grandmother goes to his father and tells him the truth. That Hazor is his brother, and he is Prince of Arcadia. She feels that Paragon's mind is undetectable because is chosen to be something more, although she's not sure just what.
When Arvad hears (through some means of spying, either tech or servants) this man, a lost prince, has had a son who's mind cannot be detected, he hatches a plan to seed chaos for Hazor. He tries to have baby Paragon handed over to Hazor, hoping to then play on his soft nature to ensure the baby will live, then convince him to raise it as a warrior and take advantage of this rare gift. Of course, much later, he planned to play Paragon and Hazor against one another (this is over 5000 years ago btw, long before the great betrayal), eventually using the knowledge of his royal blood to manipulate an adult Paragon into opposing uncle Hazor and vying for the throne. Of course, none of that was able to come to fruition, but this was Hazor's plan he came up with to take advantage of a situation on the fly.
Instead, Paragon's family is warned of arvad's approach and his dad sneaks Paragon out of Arcadia, leaving him in the savage, primitive, post-Ice Age Scandinavian wastelands. He grows up not knowing who he is, where he's from or what he can do. Only that he is immortal, and can heal from anything but a fatal wound given enough time. This causes problems for him and has to move around a lot, migrating from culture to culture every hundred years or so. He develops very little powers his first 2000 years. He becomes fast, strong, durable. Enough to be one hell of a soldier and warlord during the early developments of cultural man.
He's not one of those, "Been a top tier OP hero since Moses wore diapers. Was there for every major world event you're interested in," types of assholes. He was just a modern medieval man until Arvad found him and began to manipulate him, making him wonder who he is and who he is meant to be. Arvad tried to take him back to Arcadia, but he wouldn't go, instead defeated Arvad and foiled the local plot Arvad was involved in (the plot of his origin story, still in development).
Then we don't see him for a long time. He develops a lot of speed and strength and can fly and teleport, as well as learned to communicate telepathically and let others into his mind to speak, through an old love interest in his Origin story. You see Arvad kills her, which is why Paragon ends up tossing him in the Enemy box. Anyway, when he meets the Watch Dogs, they teach him a lot more powers to develop, and the reason he was in Detroit was because of the power culture in the late 80s. Noctunrus I (Nathaniel Grier, a Batman-like character I am fleshing away from being an obvious analog, and who Paragon also named his son after), teaches him that true power has nothing to do with the abilities or magic or tech you possess. That the mind is your greatest weapon, grit, training, and he wisdom to know how and when to apply them, as what defines true power; and consequently, character.
In 2001, his father finds him and brings him back to Arcadia, where they try to arrest him (not like a hostile, "You've done wrong" arrest, but a, "we need to talk and stuff" kind of arrest), and he won't allow it. I'm still developing this plot, but basically Arvad is also involved and it basically sees some of his supporters pulling funny stuff messing with Arcadia and Hazor's family, as well as dropping the bomb on both Paragon and Hazor that Paragon is their long lost nephew, a super powered prodigy destined to take him down and begin a new age.
This is just a hedache for Hazor and Paragon, who is like, "WTF? I want NONE of this." But it creates a lot of drama and speaks a tiny bit to Hazor's whole, "What to dooo? What to dooo?" plotline. It's lighting a fire under the **** of his leadership.
Insert Arvad's master plan to wreak a bit of remote chaos on Arcadia. Three-way dance of Hazor & Paragon trying to stop Arvad's chaos, hazor trying to take Paragon in, Paragon trying to peacefully leave afterward.
Hazor let's Paragon go peacefully, but warns him that the next time he comes to Arcadia, he won't leave until he submits to simple process.
Then in 2021, Arvad attacks Arcadia, and Paragon arrives to help. Again, Paragon is overwhelmed despite having some powers at this point, lol. The magnamar or w/e it's called, might be the thing that dummies Paragon, but something hurts him really bad. Really, really bad. Coma bad. Hazor has to finish the conflict, bad. The notion that he's born making Speedsters strive to be faster, or super villain brace in fear, is wrong.
After this, Hazor's people nurse Paragon back to health, and Paragon and Hazor reconcile their differences and BS, with Paragon telling Hazor he can start over, do it right this time. Although Arvad did a number of Arcadia, and they do need to rebuild, he's talking about his son, Hazoren.
A year prior to Arvad's invasion, Paragon had a son with a human woman. Empyrean, Human, Heir, Infinity Engine. When he left Earth, he asked Hazor to honor one simple request. He gave him the location of the house he built with his wife, and told him go there, he'd know what to do when he got there.
Hazor goes in Paragon's finale, discovering his human wife, which is a surprise for him, but then his son comes out of the house, and Hazor realizes what he meant by doing it right this time. Hazor realizes he's been given a truly miraculous gift for all of Arcadia, and potentially mankind...
I disagree on it not being compelling. The glance of judgment upon his power is just damning. I feel it does a very good job without uprooting Arcadia's canon and taking it in wild directions.
Now, see, I do find this backstory compelling. It's full of character development, of external and internal obstacles for Paragon to overcome. I enjoyed reading it, and I applaud you for it. I also note that you highlight his process of gradually discovering what he is and the full extent of what he can do. It isn't just a switch going off, it's a progression.
For purposes of the part of the story you started our current discussion with, IMO all you need to do is accept that at that point Paragon is not yet at a stage in his self-discovery where the Malvans can't handle him, which is completely reasonable in context. He will be, in fact having to overcome whatever the Malvans do to keep him in line could be what pushes him past that threshold. That would be pretty Goku-like.
I think I can help with some of Paragon's backstory you're still stuck on, though. Hazor and Arvad's parents, Amlin and Marya, were among the twelve original Empyreans, known as the Ancients, created by the Progenitors. Another Ancient was named Ogurn, who loved Marya, but she was drawn to Amlin, and they became a couple. After the Progenitors left Earth the other Ancients chose Amlin to be their leader due to his wisdom and nobility, but Ogurn secretly nursed Jealousy toward Amlin over Marya, over the others esteeming Amlin over him, and for Amlin having authority over him (although Amlin never abused it).
10,000 years ago Ogurn's jealousy boiled over into physical violence against Amlin. Ogurn gathered a few powerful followers, took over the royal palace, and declared himself King of Arcadia. For a while the two sides were at a stalemate, until Ogurn initiated open civil war. The climax was Amlin and Ogurn fighting one-on-one, apparently killing each other. (Amlin did die, but unknown to anyone, Ogurn still lives, buried beneath the surface of Antarctica.) This event prompted nine of the remaining Ancients to leave Earth in search of the Progenitors, to find the reason those aliens created them.
My suggestion is that some time during all of that, Ogurn raped Marya. Logical development, changes nothing about the official history, and plenty of motivation to hide the truth from the resulting child. And how did Arvad know? He was a prince of the royal family in good standing at the time, he undoubtedly participated in the war on Amlin's side, and he's the strongest Empyrean telepath after Amlin himself. It would be surprising if Arvad didn't know.
The fact you say Paragon's mind can't be read is also useful. The law-keeper of the Empyreans, Enforcer Ashima, is their most powerful telepath besides Arvad. She spends much time scanning the globe for the minds of new Empyreans produced by sex between her kind and humans. When she finds one, they're formally inducted into Empyrean society, after which they're mostly free to do whatever they want, Obviously Ashima would not have been able to detect Paragon.
I'm going to wax a little pseudo-theological, and address the nature of God in the Champions Universe.
CU cosmology is inspired by the Kabbalah, although not following it in all details. Multiversal existence is laid out on the Sephirothic Tree of Life, with multiple "worlds" arranged in a type of metaphysical hierarchy. At the apex of the Tree of Life is Kether, "the Crown." Kether lies outside of Time, and reaching it requires overcoming terrible obstacles, physical, mental and spiritual. Only the most determined and enlightened of beings can touch it.
In Kether, Everything becomes One. Someone who reaches Kether will see everything, in fact be everything, the whole multiversal expanse of time, space, and dimension. Any being capable of reaching Kether would become God. Since time is meaningless in Kether, to everyone else in Existence, that being will always have been God. In fact everyone who ever has or ever will reach Kether, is also God.
In philosophy this is what's called "the uncaused cause," that which is responsible for the beginning of everything, but which itself has no beginning or end. Conceptually, it's unnecessary to define an origin for God. That's the linear, limited, mortal perception of existence. You can choose to define one if that's necessary for your story, but for this setting it isn't.
But you should know that it's not necessarily a single step from our mundane universe to Kether and God. The Four Zoas, and the Prime Avatars which govern them, are the fundamental concepts and forces that shape all of Reality: Order, Chaos, Nature, and Artifice. (This feature of the CU is inspired by the metaphysical poetry of William Blake, although again with modifications to suit a superhero universe.) Other Avatars or Archetypes within the Zoas govern more specific elements of reality, such as Time and Death. If you wanted some beings to oppose Paragon on his march toward Godhood, you could find them here.
One such official entity could be useful to you. The Trickster is an Archetype of Chaos, embodiment of randomness. It exists to shake up any established order, to cause unexpected events, beneficial or harmful. When intervening directly on a mortal plane the Trickster usually possesses a local god-level being of similar temperament to act as its avatar, channeling a fraction of its infinite power through that being, e.g. Loki, Hermes, Raven or Sun Wukong. Whether it does this to a purpose or pure whim is a subject of debate. Some people hold that the Trickster serves a necessary function, challenging and testing life and sapient beings to make them strong and advance their evolution. Others assert that the Trickster is simply proof that the true nature of existence is capricious, unjust and uncaring.
If you want, the Trickster could be behind any tribulations Paragon encounters on his journey. You could even make it responsible for the Infinity Engines -- they sound like just the kind of spanner the Trickster likes to throw into the works.
Thank you. And the Ogurn idea works perfectly. As dark as the concept is, it almost fits Paragon's tragic, restless figure perfectly.
Everything else is working very good. Marya would have, out of shame perhaps, and to deny Ogurn the satisfaction of the spectacle, given the infant to a friend among the common populace, far away from the life of prying nobles.
I thank you for that. Sincerely. This is just great!
BTW for anyone reading this who's curious, all the details about the Champions Universe's mystic cosmology, as well as a great deal about magic, other dimensions, and major supernatural NPCs, are in the book titled The Mystic World.
The one issue I'm seeing is minor to his story as a whole, but takes away from the ending a tiny bit. Him being a legitimate heir to Arcadia was important only because of his son and Hazor's plotline of wanting Arcadia to take a more direct role in humanity's future on top of Arvad showing Hazor that Arcadia is far from indestructible. I had aimed to strongly suggest through the tone of Hazor's plot and development, that he may groom Nathaniel Hazoren to be the next King, using his human and Empyrean genetics to literally embody the ideal, as well as his power to lead and protect Arcadia and Earth. I was even going to possibly follow through on this, prolonging Tyrannon's arrival in the KigaVerse to keep magic around just a bit longer, and proceed with a new set of stories surrounding Hazor's kingdom, Hazoren being set up to become King, a ton of external conflict there from all directions, and now I could use Ogurn, which works so well.
I'm curious about the current Princes of Arcadia. What are they like in terms of who among them is objectively fit to take over?
But I'm also curious about Arvad's history and nature as a villain. Allow me to give what I'm using so far to give you a beter idea of what needs to be addressed for the AU and stories.
My Arvad is a very evil man in our real world terms. I don't aim to make him a pure, cut and dry monster, but he has 0 regard for human life. Similar to the way some humans can take a gun and shoot a squirrel for causing too much backyard chaos, my Arvad will kill a human for being there, similar to a spider in bed sheets; you just want it gone, and you're kinda offended to find it there.
He's cold, calculating, but a disturbingly efficient master of deception, espionage, and general secrecy. I envision Arcadia as this genetic and technological garden of Eden where the citizens have a steadfast sense of loyalty to country and fellow man. A culture where deception and treason are swiftly and decisively uprooted. This finds my Arvad as a master of moving from complete silence, with a vast network of agents under his employ who are well taken care of, believe in a better Arcadia under HIS rule, and also fear his wrath should they fail or betray him, because he will kill them and he is more than capable of avoiding any suspicion using his genius intellect, cunning nature and legion of zealots.
But he's also been periodically terrorizing mankind from behind the curtain for as long as he has resented Hazor's affection and admiration for them. He finds Hazor's philosophies surrounding man to be a deplorable mockery of Arcadia and the Empyrean blood that surges through his veins. He hates mankind, but in the short term, understands they are simply a way he can exert passive-aggressive attacks on Hazor.
In the KigaVerse, Arvad has a pronounced history of perusing among the mortal populace incognito, causing all sorts of havoc, as well as areas still in development. Things like gathering a network of support outside of Arcadia using powered servants he interacts with under a persona which allows him to do smooth, pleasant business with them, but secretly awaits the day he takes the throne, and can begin exterminating and enslaving humanity.
He essentially wants a world where every last inch is ruled by Arcadia, so he can begin making Earth an interstellar actor in a unified and strictly expansionist capacity.
Very interesting. Regarding Arvad, I can tell you that a lot of what you suggest for his history matches the account in Hidden Lands. Arvad is described as truly evil, through and through. Achieving the greatest understanding of the nature of evil has been a deliberate goal of his all his life. Vain, arrogant, depraved, cunning, conniving... that's only a few of Arvad's character flaws. And he did spend tens of thousands of years wandering among humans, often as an advisor to rulers, prompting them to torture, massacre, and other atrocities. He actually spent very little time in Arcadia, and only made a show of returning around two centuries ago, claiming he was committed to helping his brother rule.
However, not long after Arvad's return, Hazor appeared to go insane. In moments of lucidity he instructed his people to imprison him and turned rulership to Arvad. But it was discovered that Arvad had used an artifact to enhance his already potent mental powers and manipulate Hazor's mind. After his treachery was discovered Hazor exiled his brother, but Arvad made his way to Lemuria, where he took control of their Bronze King and had it declare him rightful ruler of Lemuria. Arvad intended to use the Lemurians to seize the throne of Arcadia. His driving goal is to prove himself superior to his brother.
Per HL, Arvad has little love for his fellow Empyreans, and actively despises his Lemurian subjects. Contrary to your proposal, he actually admires and loves Humanity, but for the opposite reasons most might cite. Arvad is enamored of our base nature, our cruelty and violence, our capacity for deception and betrayal. He often claims he never knew true evil before he learned it from us. Under Arvad Lemuria sided with the Nazis during WW II, and before the Lemurian civil war had a trade deal with ARGENT, so he still kept contact with the surface world.
Arvad's character issues become more complicated after Cryptic Studios took the Champions IP, and instituted their Lemurian civil war. When Arvad sought superheroic help, he claimed that his time ruling Lemuria had changed him. He had come to care for his subjects, and wanted to save them from being dominated by their cruel gods after those Bleak Ones returned. Most Empyreans distrust Arvad, and believe this is just a ploy to help him regain his throne -- obviously with good reason. It's up to you as to whether and how you want to deal with that issue. (Personally I think Cryptic just wanted there to be a "good guy" faction for PCs to support. It's hard to choose a side in a fight between two bullies.)
Arcadia is a valley and small city in Antarctica, with a comfortable climate and a screen of illusion maintained by devices left behind by the Progenitors. It has about three hundred permanent inhabitants (the majority of Empyreans live incognito among humans) and is indeed a Utopian environment -- Arvad complained that evil was nearly unknown among them. Empyrean technology is among the most advanced on the planet, but they don't seem to make extensive use of it. Robots handle most of the city's more mundane tasks, and Empyrean powers render most other tech unnecessary. (There's more to Arcadia than that, but I'll leave those details in Hidden Lands for now.)
The current Empyrean "royal family" appears very small. Hazor's wife Talilla, a great warrior, died fighting the Lemurians five thousand years ago. Their son Zoltar was Crown Prince and commander of Arcadia's defenses for many millennia, but was killed over a millennium ago in battle with a monster called Kikada off the coast of Japan. Zoltar's son Archon took over both his father's roles. One of the physically strongest Empyreans, Archon is a soldier by temperament and experience, and a tactical and strategic genius. He fought in many wars among humans, and was a member of the famous Sentinels superhero team for several years. Archon also has a profound distrust and hatred for Lemurians. No other "princes" are mentioned.
Hazor is very fond of Humanity, and believes we're on the verge of an evolutionary leap to rival the Empyreans themselves. He generally prefers to leave us to find our own way forward, but has helped us covertly in various crises over the ages, particularly during the superheroic era. But he's very concerned that the humans of great power on Earth today pose an existential threat, and is contemplating taking a more direct hand in guiding us.
How you would handle the succession issue is up to you. Empyrean rulership appears on the surface to be a monarchial lineage, but I get the impression that's more of a general agreement among Empyreans than a hard and fast rule. Hazor was named leader for his wisdom by concensus after Amlin's death, and Arvad was accepted as king at Hazor's request during his "madness," rather than his grandson Archon. Empyreans have few laws, and among such a small population I imagine it's not usually hard to come to agreement on most issues.
(P.S. As I noted in a topic elsewhere on this forum, Champions Online is obviously past 2020 with no invasion by Tyrannon as originally scheduled in the official timeline. Cryptic has after all changed a number of things from previously published Champs history to match their vision, and your "Kigaverse" is plainly an alternate timeline itself. I think you're quite safe ignoring that event for the foreseeable future.)
I like that Arvad hates his own people and admires humans for their primitive nature. This just makes it way easier and more fun to write. I can work form this to make him a more compelling and interesting villain than I would have the other way. This is perfect because it can create a dynamic early into his story that sees Arvad trying to corrupt mortals around him, and Paragon having to address and try to correct that conflict. He's a true neutral by his nature which is partly due to the Infinity Engine within him. It always pulls the wielder toward a true neutral center, although it's theoretically possible for them to become heroes or villains. Early on as a child-young adult, he has no sense of complex moral alignments, he's just a growing, changing person being influenced by his surroundings and the tribes he lives among. But by the time he a few thousand years old, he has known many lands, tribes, cultures, wars, horrors, etc. By the time he is a warlord in our beloved ancient times, fighting among Sumerians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Vikings, Romans, etc, he has begun to develop a concrete, futuristic sense of morality. Always an advocate of honor, even skirting the line of defiance in the face of law or authority, and when the soldiers went about enjoying the spoils of war, he always took strong exception to the...more carnal pleasures. This, as you can imagine, caused him a lot of trouble and conflict among various armies and lands, and further contributed to his perpetual migration as well as the Paragon we meet in the 80s. A man untrusting of people, uninspired to help, and largely a hermit.
I guess my only questions from that which are immediate and kind of important, is: How does Archon truly view humans?
My immediate thoughts were of how unique is this view of Hazor's on humanity? How much of a special president and vision has been set through that, or is it something everyone else just embraced? Perhaps Zoltar shared this view, it being instilled carefully in him over thousands of years. But how did that trickle down? Moreover, how did his time spent fighting among and alongside mortal men in those most immoral of militaristic eras, impact his core view on humanity? Does he feel they are his emerging superior, or does he feel they ought to be reigned in to serve the will of Arcadian interests? < That doesn't even have to be as nefarious as it can sound.
Beyond that, in my Jade Mirror stories, Eve of The Destroyer & Dawn of The Destroyer, Ravenspeaker is one of the (maybe only) people who are given their memories of the true timeline back. Raven finds a way to dispel the mirror's effects on Billy completely, knowing it will piss Billy off just as much, but for different reasons. Billy sees this is a gross injustice, Raven is just kind of like, "Pecking order, bro." He's a bit jealous/offended, etc. I mean I'm sure there's an argument that proposes he'd relish in the chaos and perversion. But imagine you're the trickster God. You take pride in your personal brand of chaos, but you maintain a natural balance. You don't go buck-wild and break reality.
Then along comes Doctor Destroyer. This nutty, whiley mortal who once peed and pooped in his own under garments. He pulls the biggest long con in the history of Earth. His work in just one master stroke flips everything upside down and causes global instability, destruction and chaos.
I'd be a little bit pissed.
Anyway. Ravenspeaker's first move is to obviously gather some local allies in Canada. Then they make for M. City where Ravenspeaker uses his limited but intimate knowledge of the Champions team members to locate James Harmon (III?), and then Nighthawk.
Nighthawk is one of the only true timeline heroes who is still active and using their suit, name, gear, etc. Basically every last "hero" we knew/know of, had a complete and debilitating rewrite to their life. The ones Destroyer personally hated or was defeated by, became villains who he then gave a glorious, very publicly documented death. For some reason, call it sheer willpower, blame it on Destroyer knowing nothing about the man behind to the mask to make the mirror work on him, it's a mystery right now, but Nighthawk is still Nighthawk. Except... The hero we know him to really be deep down, is not visibly present. To himself, the public, the law, and Destroyer, he's America's greatest menace. A feared, ferocious predator of the night that shreds Destroids to pieces and vanishes like a ghost or supernatural monster.
I actually have a theory for why Nighthawk and a few others still have the rough outline of their true lives, I just didn't know how solid it was against canon Nighthawk. But I might as well share it now and try to see.
My idea is that Destroyer accomplished this flip of hero & villain in bulk with a generic command, if you will. That basically turned all heroes into villains, and villains into heroes. A Theme of Destroyer's America is reversal of morality, and this fits into it. With custom tweaks to individuals he knew like Vanguard and Defender, he was able to customize their rewrites, making the Harmon family lower class average joes.
But the theory suggests that this sweeping concept of turning hero to villain and villain to hero, didn't effect people like Nighthawk, who are neither hero nor villain deep down, but both.
It's also worth noting, to my dismay at revealing something from the inner-circle of juiciness, that KigaVerse Destroyer knows the identities and monitors the lives of MANY heroes who actively or have historically opposed him. Ones he's interested in, has plans for, figures he needs to watch out for. It's in development, but he has a highly, highly advanced, semi-automated, remote global espionage system in place. Using his satellites and other sub-orbital equipment as well as concentrated and varying degrees of ground-level equipment to spy on America, heroes, his followers, anything he wants, within a wide stretch of reason. But of course, he has to know about it. It's not magic. He has to have knowledge and leads to pursue first.
In fact, when he disappears in '92 in my AU, none of his followers are in on the plan. They assume he is dead. This is key because I spent a long time debating this and mulling it over in the character of someone like my Destoryer. If I were him, 1) I'd have it laid out SO well, they wouldn't need to know I was alive, 2) I wouldn't risk it being discovered in any way, through one of my minions being psionically compromised, tortured, or a meeting being discovered in any way by anyone from outside my circle, and 3) I'd use this as a valuable opportunity to truly test the fortitude of my servants, and see who has to be culled...
Only Destroyer knows Destroyer is alive in my AU, and for basically that entire time, during his downtime, he's been watching...
Anyway, that explains things like him targeting the lives and lineages of heroes in my AU.
So I need info on the Hawk himself. Whatever we have, if anything. I know my in-game research turned up nothing from players. He's apparently the great enigma.
I'll answer your questions as best I can when I get more time, but for the moment, I have a suggestion. Rather than Nighthawk as the character who is still active, use Foxbat. Freddy Foswell was never really hero or villain, although he's played at being both. He wasn't living in the real world before Destroyer's plan, so you could argue the shift in reality wouldn't affect him the same way. What it might do is flip him from deranged and comical, to stable and competent. Freddy is actually quite intelligent and skilled, and with focus could be very effective. And it would be unsurprising if Destroyer considered Foxbat not worth the thought to change him.
Personally, I'd be entertained writing about a Foxbat who subverts everyone's expectations of Foxbat.
But whatever, as I wrote above, I'll address your questions anon.
I should mention it's probably Detroit they go to, not M. City, to find James in a bar, fresh out of his last stint in jail for robbery (his dad is very sick The Harmon's seem as though cursed and broken in this Destroyer timeline). This is important near Dawn's conclusion because the moral dilemma inevitably rises, that if we restore the timeline, we'll be killing an entire city (Detroit). But if we leave it the way it is, we'll be killing M. City, and a bunch of heroes. It's dilemma for the characters who love Detroit and don't remember the true timeline, or M. City. They are trusting Billy and any others who know the truth beyond a shadow of doubt.
Seeing this Foxbat may lean perfectly into all of this, and lend further weight to the plot dynamic. Not that I'm suggesting it becomes a huge decision whether or not to fix Destroyer World, lmao. It's just some who only know and can remember it, get nervous, and they have that wonderful geeky comic-book conversation about causality, how we can speculate the mirror works, etc. There's a nice bit I've planned to that where the skeptical, nervous members of the group ask those such as Billy what this Millennium City is like, if it's really worth probably dying in the here and now. And those who can recall it speak of it's majesty, nobility and humanity. And after the events of Eve and those in Dawn leading up to this, it's supposed to hammer home hard, especially for those like Nighthawk and Defender, and as mentioned above, Defender has a huge, inspiring arc in these stories.
All right. Since I can't interpret what parts of Champions lore you consider important to keep and which ones you want to change, I'm going to just transcribe the official information about each of the characters you specified, relevant to understanding what their beliefs and attitudes are. I'm going to start with the Empyreans as described in Hidden Lands, and will get to Nighthawk soon.
"Hazor is the current ruler of the Empyreans... at least to the extent that such a disparate group can be said to have a single leader. Universally acclaimed for his wisdom and thoughtfulness, he’s accepted by nearly all Empyreans as the ultimate arbiter of disputes between them and the organizer of any sort of concerted action or activity by the Empyreans (particularly of a military nature). Born in the “Second Generation” some three hundred thousand years ago, Hazor is among the oldest active Empyreans. He became ruler about ten thousand years ago as a reward for his great efforts in restoring stability to Empyrean society in the aftermath of the battles with Ogurn and the departure of Amlin and the other Ancients."
"Hazor is one of about three hundred Empyreans to make his full-time home in Arcadia, where he lives in a splendid palace decorated with countless invaluable works of art he has commissioned and collected over the centuries. He spends much of his time with Ashima (his assistant and the enforcer of his laws) and Garon (the only Empyrean significantly older than he, and with whom he can share insights into Empyrean history). Hazor is deeply interested in the general activities of his people, and with Garon spends much of his time cataloguing and recording their various achievements in different fields."
"Hazor is also very concerned with the fate of ordinary Humanity. He’s seen mankind develop from near animals to intelligent — worthy beings gradually approaching the evolutionary level of the Empyreans themselves. The recent increase in superhuman mutations fascinates and worries him. He believes it signifies a new stage of human evolution, but he’s also concerned that Humanity may not be quite mature enough to handle its new levels of power and technology without destroying itself. Hazor is torn between his desires to protect and nurture Humanity so Humans can become more Empyrean themselves, and his fear of contaminating the natural evolutionary process by revealing the existence of Humanity’s “older brothers.” So far, he’s contented himself with merely observing, interfering only when Humanity has been threatened by outside menaces like the Lemurians or the Gadroon (and then only providing secret assistance). But under the right circumstances, he might take a more active hand." (HL p. 53)
"Archon is the current Crown Prince of the Empyreans and grandson of King Hazor. A member of the “Fourth Generation” of Arcadians, he’s a little over three thousand years old. His father, Zoltar, was the Crown Prince for countless centuries as well as Commander of the Empyrean military in its campaigns against the Lemurians and other threats. Zoltar died over a thousand years ago in combat with the bizarre monster called Kikada, and his mother Aleja followed Shaderon into Silence in the mid-eighteenth century." ("Silence" is one of those additional bits about Empyrean life I mentioned, which I could describe if you want, but I don't believe is relevant to your story.)
"Archon also has spent considerably more time among Earth’s superhuman community than any other Empyrean. He first met the Fabulous Five in 1966. He fought alongside the Sentinels against a Lemurian attack in 1973 and was so impressed with their bravery and warrior spirit that he joined their team for several years. He remains close friends with Diamond and several other heroes from that period, most of whom are retired now."
"From an early age Archon took after his father as a master of combat and general militaria, regularly leading Empyrean forces in their battles against Lemurians and other forces that threatened Arcadia. As he grew older, Archon became fond of living among Humans through various fictitious identities. Usually he takes on the role of a soldier, because he’s fascinated with war and the study of tactics and strategy. In this manner he participated in most of the major wars of Earth’s recent history, from the Peloponnesian War to the Gulf War, usually serving as a low-ranking officer or enlisted man and eschewing the use of his powers (though of course his superhuman durability made his activities virtually risk-free)."
"Archon is first and foremost a soldier, most comfortable on the battlefield and fascinated by the art and science of tactics. He believes combat in the name of a worthy cause is inherently ennobling, and his definition of “worthy” is probably broader than that of most superheroes.
Because of his warlike demeanor, he had frequent conflicts with some of his teammates on the Sentinels, particularly over his willingness to kill his opponents. Though Archon was never entirely convinced by these debates, he was willing to follow Sentinels guidelines and did not kill anybody during his time as a superhero (though he has killed opponents since leaving the team).
Archon is absolutely devoted to protecting innocents and noncombatants, and his bravery and loyalty are above reproach. Despite his fascination with war and combat, he has a generally positive outlook on life, and is fairly easy to get along with. His largest “blind spot” is Lemuria. He’s regarded Lemurians as “the enemy” for so long that he tends to see Lemurian plots behind every negative event, and absolutely will not consider working with them or treating them as anything besides foes to be defeated... and if possible, exterminated." (HL pp. 144-45)
All right. Since I can't interpret what parts of Champions lore you consider important to keep and which ones you want to change,
I don't want to change anything from PnP lore. I want all of my creations to more or less, nicely line up and coexist with PnP canon. Of course discrepancies will arise, but there's almost nothing from lore that passes through my perception that will not go in as is was created to be. I tinker, but I try very hard not to betray the root or purpose of a thing. Like playing with a toy just to see how easily it breaks.
Not exactly a replica, but this was fun. Glad I decided to buck up and just do it. Been wanting to since I started recreating the characters from that artwork.
As you can see I played around for my KigaVerse version, but I feel the essence of '92 Destroyer was captured over-all.
By the way, I don't use any of these characters in the game out of respect. I keep my Ravenspeaker and Justiciar cosplays around for display, but don't level them up or anything. More of a celebration of the characters.
When Mark Whittaker was a college student, he was academically and athletically gifted, with a positive outlook on life and a bright future. That changed when VIPER agents broke into the university computer lab intending to steal electronic components. Mark tried to stop them, but a grenade blast put him in the hospital with facial scars (not hideous disfigurement, but still very noticeable). Mark seethed over the injustice of people like VIPER ruining people's lives and getting away scot-free. When he got out of the hospital he began a two-year program of intense training in criminalistics, infiltration, martial arts, as well as technical skills for the building of gadgets to assist him in combating criminals. Then he hit the streets as Nighthawk.
Mark's personality changed radically after the VIPER attack. He became driven to fight injustice and evil. He dropped out of school, living on money from a few inventions he patented, devoting himself wholly to crime-fighting. But he learned that many supervillains were beyond his ability to handle alone, so when Defender was recruiting for his new Champions team Mark presented himself. He became the team's resident detective, but he and Defender often clashed over their differing views and methods, which finally led to them coming to blows, and Nighthawk leaving the team. Eventually they came to an understanding, and Nighthawk partially returned as a reserve member of the Champions. While on his own Nighthawk recruited supers with grudges against VIPER, both heroic and villainous, for a dedicated anti-VIPER team which he called "Project Mongoose."
(The above is summarized from the Champions superhero genre book, and the Champions Universe: News Of The World setting supplement.)
Now I'm going to touch on my own opinions, for which there is no official backing but which to me seem logical. IMHO Mark Whittaker's change in personality is 'way out of proportion to his origin event. Looking at it from an in-universe perspective, my conclusion would be that the grenade explosion caused some kind of brain damage which went undiagnosed. If you were to accept this premise, it would make an excuse for why he was not fundamentally changed by Dr. Destroyer's alteration of reality.
Or I can just have him be a villain like others. IN the proposed idea, he can still be Nighthawk, just with a different motivation. In my idea Nighthawk was known as a villain because he robbed banks to fund his research and development of gear and wasn't above collateral damage, even citizens or cops/heroes trying to stop him getting hurt.
Over time he began to realize that Destroyer was the true and great enemy, all that is wrong with America and Detroit.
James is from a family of lower class individuals now, I mean they have a horrible family history from tragedy to deaths and rampant illness claiming lives. Word around Detroit is, The Harmon family is cursed. James II, however, was an honest, humble, hard working man who, when Defender was a teen, became violently ill with cancer. This started James III down a dark road of criminal activity to make money for medical care and treatments, a wheelchair and other expenses caused by the dramatic life change. But with the help of Billy Edenshaw, Both Mark and James learn of their true selves. That they are supposed to be heroes and friends. This resonates with them both in an existential way, and they come around in the end to fight Destroyer with the others, Defender landing the shot that strikes him down.
Nighthawk had been battling Destroyer from the outside for years. Part of what he was doing was gathering and reverse engineering Destroid technology. He already had modified personal destroid beam gauntlet models, a bunch of stuff. After Billy talks to them, neither have much outward interest in becoming heroes and dying fighting Destroyer. Nighthawk especially knows the risk, as I have the way he operates all mapped out, and he has to move like a demi-god ninja to survive, planning his attacks very carefully and using advanced tactical maneuvers, so he is keenly aware of how suicidal Billy'\s plan is.
But after this, Nighthawk just can't let it go. The notion that somewhere out there is a world opposite his own, where he is the good guy he always wanted to be, haunts him. He goes directly to James to try to find out if it's true in some way and just commiserate. Events shortly after, including the passing of James Harmon II, cause Nighthawk to inspire James to fight, and he gives him a sort of quasi-reverse engineered destroid suit.
Vanguard rang the bell and got his powers, but ended up becoming evil (still developing this). He and Destroyer entertained and shocked the masses for decades before in '92, they had a showdown over the skies and in the streets of Detroit and ending over the New York harbor, where it was believed that Vanguard was killed after Destroyer shot a beam through the right side of his abdomen and let his lifeless corpse splash into the murky depths of the Atlantic.
Destroyer had let heroes live before, simply to kill them another day. He's relishing in the chaos and hijacking of reality. So he didn't bother to finish him off, but the world assumed he was dead. Vanguard shows up during the final battle, still developing who meets him and how, how that plays out, but someone meets him in a veiled scene where you're pretty sure who it is, but it's not fully confirmed. I think it'll be Nighthawk, rallying the "villains" to their true calling of defeating Destroyer.
So they all start far from heroes, but end up fighting against Destroyer, simply for the ideal of a better world, whether Billy is just a crazy Canadian, or not.
Foxbat is going to be the Nighthawk analog of this world, in a group of villains that are now heroes, more or less the Champions analog of this world.
I'm wondering who might make for a good "Anti-Champions" (not their real name) lineup alongside him?
EDIT: Oh shoot, in addition to trying to figure out a lineup for the Destroyer World Champions, I was wondering the canon history on Destroyer's '92 helmet that was left over. What happened to it? Where should it be now?
I'm curious because in Phantasma, at one point I had the idea that Rakshasa is proving so elusive to capture that they try a rues of sorts using his recovered helmet and a fake Destroyer suit the crew back at Steelhead cooked up, with Derringer borrowing the helmet. Someone then dresses up like Destroyer, trying to disarm and trap Rakshasa. It was really funny, but also kind of like a forerunner to Destroyer himself appearing, as they keep saying, "But it won't work, Destroyer is dead. Rakshasa will know this."
So just out of curiosity, I was wondering where the helmet lay on display, or if somewhere in canon it was melted down to forge something new? Was it symbolically destroyed? Cast into Lake Michigan? Buried under Millennium City?
While I have you next, I'd like to ask the favor of letting me know how you personally feel about my planned outcome for Lemurian King, the story where Arvad attacks Arcadia.
In my version, Arcadia is nearly in ruin, Archon is killed by the Mandragalore (this is a future topic for here), which deposits a bur in Paragon's ****, and he pulls a "Superman vs World Engine" on the thing, launching himself through the Mandragalore using his super speed (which is very, very fast. One of Paragon's things was when he helped clear Destroids from around Detroit in '92, he pushed himself very hard out of panic, and other speedsters present were able to observe him, and it opened their eyes to the realization they could be faster, too if they pushed themselves. It's part of why he's given the mantle Paragon) to destroy it. But this leaves him in a coma, and Arvad continues on toward the palace, killing an entire battalion of Praetoains before Hazor catches up, flying in to stand between Arvad and the entrance to the palace.
The brothers stand off and talk. Hazor begs him to stop, the view of a ruined, blazing Arcadia behind Arvad as he holds the sword he forged in the pits of Lemuria. They have a very good sword fight in the old ways, and Hazor is able to narrowly secure a victory, but even in defeat, Arvad won't stop, overwhelming one of the praetorians who secure him, releaving him of his sidearm and opens fire, killing multiple present before shooting at Hazor. One of his inner circle, a primary character from these stories and Arcadia, blocks the shot, taking it for their king. As they are falling to the ground, Hazor rushes his brother, again pleading him to "Stop this", but Arvad raises the weapon and Hazor side steps in wide and to the outside of Arvad's outstretch right ar. using his sword's blunt side, Hazor forces Arvad's weapon-hand downward as the shot rings off, and in the same motion, Hazor follows up by thrusting his sword up the length of Arvad's right arm, on the inside, and through his chest. He holds him all the way to the ground and weeps, apologizing, telling him he wished he'd just stopped. Arvad grins, eyes closing.
Hazor goes a little numb, and his attention goes to his people and kingdom. He looks out at Arcadia with complete defeat and sorrow.
Arvad is buried as a Prince of Arcadia, but quietly and by the decree of Hazor. He and their mother are among, if not the only people in attendance aside from those performing the ceremonies.
Why?
I felt it had to be done. I felt like if Arvad was going there to destroy Arcadia and prove his superiority over Hazor, he would do a bang-up attempt. If he was going to kill Hazor, he wouldn't stop until someone had to kill him. Preatorian or supporting cast? Felt it cheapened him and the powerful story between these two brothers. Him being defeated and arrested or banished? Felt like it was inconsequential and lacked true development potential for Hazor. I really, really, really like the character of Hazor now. And this really did it for me. This development. After I came up with this it really endeared him to me on a human level, and really made the weight of his leadership and the strength of his personality and compassion so tangible. It lead to the type of ending I gave for him and Paragon, as I mentioned. It's a really powerful, emotional ending after all the stories, and it stands primarily on the shoulders of Hazor's esteem and heart.
I chose the song CLoud by Elias Lewter for after Hazor kills him, when he is holding him, up to Arvad's funeral. It's really powerful and speaks to Hazor as well as the pain Arvad's torment caused him, even down to the last breath. One last victory in forcing Hazor to commit murder on the steps of the palace.
Well, let me look at your requests in order, starting with the "anti-Champions." A few candidates would be fairly obvious, e.g. Witchcraft's evil twin sister, the sorceress Talisman. For the counterpart to Ironclad I'd go with his old rival from the Malvan arena, the alien Fassai named Tren Tarrec Dazeur, called Herculan on Earth. I would substitute Photon, a flying light-wielding villain, for Sapphire. You could replace Kinetik with either Vector or Thunderbolt (technically "Thunderbolt II," since there's another Thunderbolt who used the name first). Just be aware that Vector is possibly the most powerful speedster on Earth, while Thunderbolt is far less formidable. And personally, I like the idea of substituting criminal armorer Wayland Talos for Defender, because that would mean reversing not only his obsessive hatred for superheroes, but his cowardice which leads him to sell tech to supervillains rather than using it himself to attack superheroes.
All of these villains are fully described and illustrated in Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains.
According to a passage on p. 150 in the setting book, Champions Universe (the one for the Fifth Edition of the Hero System -- current edition is Sixth), the shattered fragments of Destroyer's helmet were recovered from the ruins of Detroit and "remain locked in an ultra-secure PRIMUS vault near Washington, D.C. to this day." This is the only reference I know of to the status of that helmet after the Battle of Detroit.
As for your story, I'm not going to comment on it as a story, because you're writing what you want to write, and changing what you want to change. I'll just mention what the source material says in relation to the details you raise, and you can decide if you want to incorporate or ignore them.
Am I correct in remembering that you wanted to change the name of the Empyreans to Praetorians, and that's who you mean when you use that term? If so, I want to note that the permanent population of Arcadia is around 300, and from all the implications I've read, I doubt all the Empyreans alive in the world today number much more than a thousand. A modern "battalion" falls within those numbers, so keep in mind what killing that many of them would imply. Also, Hazor and Arvad's mother, Marya, left Earth with the other Ancients ten millennia ago, and has not been heard from since.
I'm aware of only one Empyrean who might sometimes fight with a sword, of human manufacture. Empyrean powers are normally more effective than such weapons. In particular, Hazor has the ability to reshape inorganic matter, rendering a sword useless, unless it's made of some miracle material. Lemurians utilize distinctive personal weapons, one of which, called an ignaetior, does have a sword-like blade, but it's hollow and can also release bursts of fire, smoke, or blinding light through holes in the blade. The blade itself is made of an extraordinarily hard synthetic crystal called crystallos, so maybe it could resist or delay Hazor's power.
I like this Bizarro Champions line-up! ^.^ Especially Talisman. I have to have Witchcraft in the stories now, too.
By Praetorians, I mean Elite royal guards charged solely with protecting the palace and Hazor and his kin.
Don't kill my sword fight scene.
I gathered from the PRIMUS page entry on Lemuria that Arvad was forging a sword in Lemuria. A "weapon worthy" of going to war with Arcadia.
I thought it was weird, too. Could be misremembering.
So the details could change, but the Mandragalore parts are staying, and Hazor kills Arvad. Won't be a popular choice, but I don't shy away from death when it's at the detriment of everything. Too often this happens in comics especially. I like closure and the benefits it brings everyone.
IN my style of story telling, an event like that doesn't happen without mass destruction, or important, history-altering deaths. I could have brought the Mandragolore out and had it smash a gate, kill a hundred guards, injure paragon and malfunction or something, be magically disabled with plot device tech by side characters in Mickey Mouse form, but I am more true to the spirit of comics I grew up on. Where major events come with major consequences the next issue cannot just ignore. Characters you loved aren't where anymore. Sure they'll be back next year XD but that year was etched in our hearts and minds. I like the meaty stuff you can't say didn't matter when the dust settles.
Few fallen towers and an arrest doesn't make for a good story to me when you have so much history and lore behind it. That moment, whether the producers at the time knew it, was Arvad's final chapter. To just say he's defeated and survives is to collar and shackle him so the Champions IP can use him for another day.
I would recommend dropping the praetorians. The population of Arcadia is too small and law-abiding to need a dedicated guard cadre. If there's need for defense of Arcadia Hazor will call upon his people to mobilize, led by Archon. Although there is a Watch Tower at the gates to the city, manned nearly continuously by Chard, an Empyrean with incredibly enhanced senses (think Heimdall from Norse mythology).
A sword for Arvad is news to me. I couldn't find a reference to it in PnP or for CO. The only weapon I've seen mentioned as being "forged" to attack Arcadia is the Mandragalore. When the Lemurians first triggered it the device exploded, scattering its fuel core across the planet. Arvad has for decades sent his agents to look for fragments of the core to reassemble it. (Those individual fragments have the potential to transmute matter, even elements, for those with the knowledge or skill to use them. In the wider world they became known as the Philosopher's Stone.)
If you want a sword fight, I'd give Arvad an ignaetior as described above. Hazor's powers could craft a sword for him if needed. The buildings of the city are made of "advanced materials that resemble gold or brass" (HL p. 51), while an ignaetior's blade is "scorched-black in color" (ibid p. 127), making for a nice visual contrast.
EDIT: I have one thought about where this sword idea might have come from. Arvad's illustration from Hidden Lands includes a sword. There's no mention of it in the text, but Arvad's preferred costume is reminiscent of a Roman emperor. I think it was just a flourish the artist added for effect.
The Praetorians were just a result of trying to flesh out the world around Hazor. It's not much of a problem to axe their concept.
But now one must ask the question, what are Hazor's powers? When I said he flies in to stand between Hazor and the Palace, I meant on some mode of transport, vs doing the Suoerman landing. And originally, he actually came out of the palace, and wrote off a small group of Lemurian troops before Arvad was forced to deal with him. I just didn't and still don't think it gives a character like this a good look if his Kingdom is being destroyed by his brother and he sits inside, just because in the story, outside it is not going good until Paragon handles the Mandragalore. I don't like the notion that his kingdom is potentially falling, his people potentially dying outside, and he lingers, hoping for the best. trusting in those who look to him for leadership as they die protecting his throne. That did not sit well with me, or give his character the sort of moral fiber and heroic predisposition the Paragon stories needed him to have. However, having said that, It's no problem for me make it more canon, and have Paragon's impact of Hazor's development make him more of a heroic, honorable King who regrets not leading the charge with Archon. Who teaches Hazoren to lead his people by example, to inspire his warriors by example, and strike fear in the hearts of his foes and their followers alike by example(not that Hazor would teach him to be a warmonger or anything, just chewing on it out loud), and not some far-off uttered decree.
It would just be a shame to kill the scenes in Arcadian Son when Hazor springs into action. I can be Archon just as easily and I think I've already subconsciously made the change, but it was great to see Hazor come to life in that one particular scene because of how it was literally a three-way dance between Paragon, Hazor and Empyreans, and Arvad's sycophant's/minions. It's no problem to swap Hazor for Archon in this instance, but I dread the notion of removing Hazor from action and plot too much.
It would have been satisfying to make you wait and wait to see Hazor do anything, and then finally see him kick some ****. But I guess looking at it now that Paragon's whole story arc has been mapped out, it will be better to make people wait (to Hazor's detriment a tiny bit) to see him walk out of the palace alone, and **** about 30 Lumerian soldiers up.
Oh, right, Lumerians. Thought that was a typo for a moment, then I remembered that's one of the lore details you did want to change.
You know, it's extremely uncommon for generals to grab a rifle and join their troops on the front lines. Normally they stay back so they can observe the whole flow of battle and make tactical decisions. And if the White House was assaulted, I doubt anyone would expect Joe Biden to start acting like Rambo. But I do get that you want a specific dramatic effect for your story.
All Empyreans are physically superhuman to a varying extent, are ageless, can survive environmental conditions that would kill a human, and can fly, although their top velocity can differ vastly one from another. Because of that last, they don't seem to bother much with artificial transportation, so I'm afraid Hazor pulling a Superman would be more likely from a lore perspective. Practically all Empyreans also have at least some degree of shielding against mental intrusion, probably because so many of them are telepathic. That's likely why Arvad needed an artifact, "the Eye of Ogurn," to amplify his power enough to madden his brother. (There's no more info as to what the Eye of Ogurn does or even why it's named that. But I'll turn back to that momentarily.)
As for Hazor's non-standard abilities, "His primary powers include transmutation and manipulation of objects (but not living tissue) on an atomic level using an advanced, specific application of telekinesis; he can change the shape of objects or even their molecular composition. He uses this ability to create art in his spare time, casting giant sculptures in metal and stone with the force of his mind. It’s rarely useful in combat because it takes too long (transmuting a man-sized object takes him about a minute), but he can sometimes deform weapons, ruin devices, and the like." (HL p. 53) Plainly Hazor is more commander than warrior, but if you really want him to kick much "Lumerian" @$$ personally, I suggest that he break out the Eye of Ogurn to boost his matter transmutation (which nothing says it couldn't do). That won't kill any of the attackers, but all their weapons suddenly turning to slag would still be pretty impressive, and nearly as effective.
BTW the bulk of any Lemurian combat force is made up of their Mole-Men slaves. Lemurians are the officers leading them. They also use metallic golems in humanoid or animal configurations, as well as baroque-looking vehicles.
I have been banking up a lot, but right now, as it's come up and I kind of want to start looking at it more closely, I'd like to know like... Hmmm. I guess what I want to know is, if Tyrannon were to invade in 2030, what would be the most likely first contact? If there was someone who could somehow detect this approach or arrival via technology, for example the NEXUS in Canada, or something in Millennium City designed to detect solar anomalies post-Qualar. Perhaps Doctor Kraa and his mysticism? I'm looking for a secret scene to place at the end of what is the end of the first era of the KigaVerse (maaybe the end, not sure. Looking into Tyrannon now). I want the end to be the last hooray Destroyer story I mentioned a long time ago when we spoke of our feelings on the nature of his arc in the '92 Detroit incident. I had mentioned I felt basically the exact same way you did about it, and mentioned I might try to do one last hooray story for Destoryer, trying to tie this up in a way that.. I won't say vindicates Detroit, I believe M. City and their collective efforts to remember and prevent has done this already, but in a way, sort of makes up for his sins whilst at the same time leaning into them.
Like I made it so he purposely faked his death before the entire world, with only robots and maybe one trusted servant who would likely be my own creation if he has nothing like it existing in canon. Some type of quasi-human, cyborg or something to where it could never be compromised to reveal his secrets, motives, plans, anything other than the nature of construction, if even that. Something with protocols that override things like human nature (self destructs, memory wipes, etc). He did this so that everyone would without any shred of doubt for even a moment believe he was dead. This gave him complete and absolute anonymity and impunity to operate from the shadows in untold capacities since '92 onward. But it also let the final stage of his master plan take shape. It was set up long ago. The seed was planted in Rakshasa's head. Destroyer made sure Rakshasa knew about the mirror, something if Destroyer had begun to pursue himself, he'd never have time to complete as the heroes from all corners of the earth, even governments, would pounce on him at the first wiff of the mirror and his name in the same sentence. He let Rakshasa lead him straight to the mirror, drawing minor heat from Canadians who Destroyer describes as "insignificant kurrs", doing all the heavy lifting for him.
Using the mirror he was able to create global destruction and pervert North America into a bastion of Destroyerness, converting its military industry into a hybrid monster infused with heavy destroid elements, all of which he controls, and for the most part direct the forces. He corrupts society and the paradigm of hero and villain, killing so many beloved super heroes. So in a big way its designed to have him take the hatred for his character even further. But you get to see Detroit again, Vanguard gets a kind of revenge and Destroyer is killed in this reality (so are a ton of others like Ravenspeaker, but) before the mirror is located and used to reverse Destroyers work before his Omega Protocol (a series of doomsday failsafes in the event of his death, one being another orbital platform attack (Vanguard dies destroying) destroys half of America and lower Canada.
The heroes make it in the end so Destroyer died in the '92 incident, undoing everything he had done since.
In the secret scene, I had wanted someone to make the discovery of Tyrannon's approach, signaling at least a few more stories.
Who do you think might make a good candidate to be the one to discover or detect the approach of a foreign invader? I don't mind who they are, or where it is. Could be a bit character, or an organization. But the leading modern figures there would help to know.
Let me start by touching on the Dr. Destroyer situation, since there's some background there that might help you. I have to say, though, that I always thought how Steve Long chose to have Destroyer fake his death was rather flimsy, given how many times in the past Destroyer had used teleportation to escape capture at the last moment. Although it's not in the official record, during the climactic confrontation of the Battle of Detroit I would have had DD pretend to try to teleport but fail, as though his armor's system was damaged in the fight. Maybe he implanted a false override in his base's systems for Electron to discover, making it appear that she'd disabled his teleporter. That would make his feigned suicide more credible.
Again officially, only two beings were aware that the Doctor still lived, his two most loyal servants, Gigaton and Rakshasa. Destroyer even placed mental blocks in them to prevent them from revealing his continued existence, and from having their minds read about that truth. So your notion of his implanting a desire to find the Jade Mirror of Transcendence in Rakshasa does not seem improbable. Although it's not specified anywhere, I would expect one other "person" to be aware that Zerstoiten was still alive: Sennacherib, his incredibly advanced Artificial Intelligence which controls Destroyer's automated facilities. Sennacherib is programmed for absolute loyalty to DD, and is protected by sophisticated encryption and stealth systems. If you want one being on Earth to continue to act as his proxy, this would be the likeliest one.
When the Doctor escaped his orbital cannon, he withdrew to Zuflucht ("haven"), a base he'd constructed in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which no one knew of, and even Sennacherib had no record of. So it was all but impossible for anyone to discover him. Destroyer remained at Zuflucht until 2009, working on upgrades to his technology. He originally intended to proclaim his return in 2002, but Shadow Destroyer's appearance caused him to delay that to gather more data on his imposter. He tracked Shadow Destroyer to the Multifarian in 2009, and attacked him there. But DD underestimated Shadow D's resources, and was defeated and captured, leading to the events of the Resistance story arc in CO.
I have specific suggestions regarding your Tyrannon questions, but it's pretty late where I am and I'm pretty tired. If you could please excuse me for now, I'll return to address them tomorrow.
All right, I'm back. I'm going to throw out a range of options I can think of to address your intentions, and you can pick whatever seems best to you.
As I see it, a possible incursion by Tyrannon would have two aspects, magical and extra-dimensional, which individuals or groups sensitive to either phenomenon might respond to. On the magical front, two official characters would be well suited to your purposes, the Drifter and the Witness. The Drifter you are probably familiar with from CO, but the Witness is written up in Hidden Lands, where he's presented as a very clear analogue to the Phantom Stranger from DC Comics. Both of these mystics can receive dreams or visions of future events, but they're defined as being "vague and unclear," hence would work story-wise as a warning, but not as a battle plan. Either character would serve well if you want the initial hint of what's to come to be perceived only by an individual, but the Drifter would likely be pro-active in response, being a long-established superhero and member of the famous Justice Squadron. The Witness often gives warnings and hints about major supernatural and other threats to heroes, and occasionally fights directly alongside them; but at other times does nothing overt, as if he's under orders by some greater power not to interfere. (He still may give covert aid even in those circumstances.) Hence the Drifter would be best if you want the person with the initial warning to alert and rally the defenders, while the Witness works better if you just want them nudged along in the right direction.
If you'd rather use an organization as the vessel for your foreshadowing scenario, I would suggest UNTIL's Project Citadel, which was established in the wake of Istvatha V'han's full-scale invasion in 2004. Although primarily focused on countering V'Han, Citadel's mandate includes "coordinating with similar agencies and superheroes around the globe to establish a worldwide alert network to detect and counteract dimensional intrusions of any sort." (Book Of The Empress p. 197) The methods by which it detects such intrusions aren't specified. It might involve special surveillance tech, e.g. satellites and ground systems; or data analysis of reports of phenomena that could be inter-dimensional; or a combination of the two. As of the last published word on the subject (2012), Project Citadel was under the direction of Major Alexander Shumeykin of Russia, so your scenario might depict him receiving intelligence reports and realizing their implications.
It's not impossible that agents of Istvatha herself might pass on information to Citadel's network. Tyrannon is a rival to her as a dimensional conqueror, and she'd definitely like to thwart his intentions toward a planet she herself has designs on.
On the level of putting clues together and recognizing their significance, that's the main work of the Trismegistus Counci when it comes to supernatural threats. They're often the first ones to do so, and it's their policy to notify heroes who are better equipped than they to confront it directly. If you went that route, for purposes of your story I'd recommend using Alicia Blackmun, who CO players are familiar with and who's particularly friendly with Witchcraft.
One other possibility covers all the above bases, but might or might not be to your purpose. VIPER's patron deity, the serpent-god Nama, has the power of prophecy. He had foreseen the rise of several great threats even to himself in the modern era, and created VIPER to protect him from those threats. In circumstances like what you propose, Nama would almost certainly turn to VIPER first, which could translate to noticeable increased VIPER activity as they prepare for Tyrannon's assault. But Nama has also been known to order VIPER to assist the world's defenders directly, as during the first Demonflame incident. Nama has patronized heroes in the past as the mood struck him, so secretly slipping a warning to one or more of them would be in character.
Let me know if you have further questions or needs.
Drifter is probably my guy, as he will be in previous stories through the Justice Squadron. In this case I'd have him receive these dreams and visions earlier on with them being so vague only a studied Champions fan would be able to strongly suspect what they all mean. Over time, I would find ways of keeping Drifter around (I don't do a lot of JS stories as it stands, just their origin story, more or less as Vanguard's second story) more, and have these premonitions increase in frequency, intenstity and detail, until someone else detects the first contact itself.
But for plot reasons, now I'd like to know more about Istvatha.
I chose to make Dawn & Even of Destroyer in the spirit of DoTD, where they are forced to fight him, but Tyrannon I had wanted to be a much bigger plot with the "battle" itself being largely impossible without external forces of some kind. There needed to be a big hail mary element to how Tyrannon was defeated. This could be a good route to go.
Itsvatha V'han, "Empress of a Billion Dimensions" (actually "only" about 100 million) is one of the biggest bads in the entire setting. Born with the ability to move through time and across other dimensions, as well as being ageless, V'han has accumulated a mind-boggling amount of real estate over the whole Multiverse. She has a vast military armed with advanced technology, as well as a cadre of thousands of superhumans. She seems to be motivated by the belief that she's best able to rule well, and indeed, most conquered territories experience a notable increase in quality of life. War and crime are vigorously suppressed, corruption is ruthlessly rooted out, discrimination for race or religion or gender is not tolerated, poverty is significantly alleviated. Her empire shares technology improving medicine, agriculture, communication, manufacturing and transportation. Travel between dimensions increases trade opportunities. Most regions can retain their previous governmental systems as long as they don't violate any of those principles. The Empress is actually well thought-of by the great majority of her subjects.
OTOH Istvatha makes no allowances for protest or criticism of her rule, and resolute armed resistance or rebellion against her is harshly punished, up to and including the destruction of entire planets and extinction of whole races. She greatly prefers that new regions accept her dominion peacefully, but she's the epitome of "making an offer they can't refuse." And she doesn't give up. Earth (and allies) has turned back two invasion attempts so far, but at last word she was planning her next campaign. Being ageless, she's supremely patient.
Book Of The Empress is an entire source book devoted to Istvatha V'han's history, personality and motivation, goals and plans, government organization, technology, military, and a representative survey of dimensions in her immense empire. Obviously that's too much to summarize here, but a very abbreviated intro to the character appears in Champions Villains Volume One: Master Villains. If you have specific questions I can try to answer, but as always I have to keep Fair Use limits in mind.
I'd actually like to use her post-Tyrannon, if at all.
Her nature and the absolute scale of her power and resources compared to anything conceivable aside from the Kether, she'd be better involved post-Tyrannon when Earth is at its lowest possible point, and individuals longing for the magical, super powered wonder and possibility of the old days will be desperate to any sort of helping hand that presents itself.
I feel like plot holes on the back end will develop if she is involved, or it'll become so much work around writing it so she doesn't just destroy Tyrannon, turning Earth into a inconsequential battlefield they are fighting over control of. Especially if she is aware enough to know Tyrannon's presence even has a chance of impacting the Kether leak that infuses the Milly way with an abnormal abundance of magic.
I had thought that, maybe she DOES know Tyrannon could mess Earth up, turning it into a plain, unremarkable, essentially defenseless against extra-normal attacks of any kind, and purposely wanted it in this condition to enslave and reempower in her own image.
Not sure, but I think I will look into other routes for Tyrannon, as it presents very unique opportunities, in terms of what I'm working with alone.
Hazor and his Arcadians as well as Empyrean citizens fighting alongside Earth with the Champions and others. A chance for the Arcadia - Earth story arc to finally get along a bit more, and have that carry into the aftermath of Tyrannon, when magic, powers and tech begin to either away. When an era of uncertainty and relative darkness unseen at first creep in. I actually put a lot of thought into this era, how I could do it, what I could do in there.
I have questions. What about the external forces like Gods?
I'm thinking Ravenspeaker. Why wouldn't Raven's powers still feed him abilities? Was the Kether leakage literally a conduit for everything? Or did it literally give even local, dimensional Gods a greater scope of capability to make their willpower a tangible force?
I'm guessing "Kether leak" is a concept you're using for your story. The books have never defined where magic comes from, or why it waxes and wanes over different areas at different times. The conceptual entities probably know, but they don't confide in the likes of us.
Istvatha V'han's resources may be practically infinite, but she still has to maintain order throughout her epic domains, and guard them from external threats, notably Tyrannon and Skarn the Shaper, who are both rival dimensional conquerors to her. Hence she can't just pour limitless troops and materiel into any one campaign of conquest, or attacks against her rivals. So I wouldn't worry about her "destroying" Tyrannon.
Per The Mystic World p. 61, the magic of the gods generated by human belief only functions within the Inner Planes near to Earth. It has no effect on beings from the Outer Planes. For example, in 2001 Skarn invaded the dimension of Faerie for Champions Earth, and easily defeated the war-gods of six pantheons in personal combat. He could use his magic against them, but they could only employ their physical strength against him. Now, I had a discussion some years back with Dean Shomshak, author of TMW, in which he posited that said limit on an Earth god's magic might only apply to god-level entities from the Outer Planes, not minor beings. Moreover, Dean asserted that divine avatars crafted to exist on Earth, or Earthly mortals empowered by the gods, could use all their powers to battle Outer Planes creatures. Dean's purpose was to explain why the gods don't protect the Earth from extra-dimensional invasion themselves, i.e. it falls to Earth's superheroes to rise to the occasion.
So, to use your example, the god Raven couldn't fight Tyrannon, or for that matter Istvatha, with his magic, but Ravenspeaker could.
They go away, along with all other "super" abilities radically beyond what can exist in the real world. Advanced alien tech continues to work for the most part, because it doesn't depend on the influence of magic to "loosen" physical laws.
The decline isn't immediate, though. In the previous official timeline, it took a couple of years for magic to fade away completely. The gods don't disappear either, they just can't manifest on Earth any more, or exert any meaningful direct influence.
Comments
Champions Universe: News Of The World outlines the history and the membership of the Justice Squadron from its original incarnation during the war, up until that book was published in 2007. The most recent edition of the setting's foundation book, Champions Universe, from 2010, features the identical team lineup, but one would expect that to have been shuffled by now.
During what time period did you want to know who the members were?
If I knew the '85 lineup (or closest too), I could work from and around that. Knowing the 90s and present day (2019-2022'ish their stories pick up again when Northwatch frees the majority of the living Watch Dogs from Toy Maker's lair) might also help with future stories.
I couldn't help but commit a draft of this scene for Day Of The Destroyer I had been picturing to paper a bit. As skimpy as it is, I wanted to get it done before any of it faded or altered. When working within canon or with existing canon IPs, I dread digging too deep into embellishing details that undermine continuity in any way. So my Rakshasa scene was skimpy, my Ravenspeaker scene was skimpy. It just happens, lol.
http://primusdatabase.com/index.php?title=(KigaVerse)_Watch_Dogs:_Day_Of_The_Destroyer
Crusader was killed by Takofanes in 1987, which is about the time Brawler II and Skygirl II retired. Two other heroes joined the team in the years before the Battle of Detroit: Brawler III, third in the family line and one of the world's strongest superheroes; and Goblin, "a mystical shapechanger from an alternate Earth ruled by demons." Goblin died at the hands of Dr. Destroyer during the Battle, and Digitak was seriously injured and had to retire. And of course, Vanguard also lost his life that day.
Between 1993 and 1996 three other heroes joined the Drifter, Brawler III, and Tomahawk II: the aforementioned gadgeteer Electron, who by that time was using a modified version of her retired father's armor; Blink, a versatile mutant teleporter and Ravenswood Academy alumnus; and Flashover, a reformed criminal with fire powers resembling the Human Torch bestowed by Teleios.
The last-named, 2010 lineup still officially included the Drifter, although by that point he mostly worked solo. (I have no idea why Cryptic would change him to a cyborg in CO, other than to advertise costume parts.) The rest of the team was Brawler III (team leader by then), Tomahawk II, Blink, Flashover, and Superstar, a former delinquent and another Ravenswood alum, a mutant with formidable cosmic-energy powers. He replaced Electron who married and left the Justice Squadron in 2005.
When trying to visualize the present-day lineup, you need to keep the ages of the members in mind (Drifter is ageless, so he can certainly still show up). Tomahawk II was born in 1960, Blink in 1965, Brawler III in 1966, Flashover in 1976, and Superstar in 1980. The latter two are likeliest to still be active. Tomahawk II would almost certainly have turned his identity and role as the champion of his tribe over to a successor by now, as the first Tomahawk did with him. Who'd be filling out the rest of the team is up in the air.
I should also mention that since the 1970s the team has been headquartered in a mansion in the Brooklyn Heights area of New York. This seven-story building is 1920s-era elegance on the outside, modern and high-tech on the inside. Its location and purpose is known to the public, and the first two floors are open to tours of the museum, public meetings and functions, gift shop, and the like.
On a side note: What do we know of Destroyer's backstory, that you can shed some light on?
Obviously that's too much to just summarize here. Is there a particular aspect of the character you're interested in?
One of the deaths in the Battle For Detroit that stood out for me was that of Goblin, particularly after seeing that artists depiction. It would seem as though Goblin was manipulating the meteor doomsday device, or examining it in horrified awe when Destroyer came upon him and snapped his neck. Then is seems the cavalry arrived moments after to blitz him.
To me, this gave Destroyer a chillingly malicious and sinister context that I loved. I've been developing this along with concepts for Goblin's backstory, personality, motives, etc. In my version he somehow gets ahead of the group to infiltrate and gather intel, basically trying to sneak around. I had one idea that his teammates and allies have him sneak into the hideout using a duct, vent, or some means of unconventional access, and he can hide and help everyone get to Destroyer quicker. Destroyer figures out he's coming, and he hides in the darkness, lulling Goblin into a sense of being alone as the environment of his lair overwhelms and distracts the hero. He can hear Glacier freaking out, Grond Ting off his cell door, and he noticed the meteor device, which warrants his full attention as he starts to deduce what the screen is showing. Making his up the catwalk, his defenses are entirely down. AS the light from this massive screen baths his face in red light from each Meteor marker, Destroyer's silhouette silently gliding downward behind him, in frame over his shoulder. As he mutters the words, "Good god, no..." Destroyer's gauntlets enter frame from behind Goblin's left profile and with a look of utter horror as his mouth is covered, Destroyer snaps his neck.
I want to develop Goblin as a figure you really hurt to see die this way.
When the assembled heroes finally broke into Destroyer's control room, Tiger told him, "at long last you're going to face justice."
“Contemptible fool, do you think that in finding me, you’ve beaten me? No man defeats Destroyer!” He raised his arm, and a Destroyer-Beam lanced out, blowing a hole right through Tiger’s chest. The force of the blow smashed the lifeless body back into the wall.
The heroes began to swarm up toward him, but his first attack was not his last. The Destroyer-Beam lanced out twice more, and Vigil and Icestar both lost their lives. Then they were upon him, and for a time he revelled in using his awesome strength instead of his weapon. He delivered a blow so mighty it broke Goblin’s neck, and hit Johnny Hercules so hard that fragments of the hero’s sternum and ribs tore apart his heart. He smashed Eclipse with a control console he ripped from the wall, crushing her pelvis and nearly her skull.
This next part comes from DD's tactical description in his write-up for Champions Villains Volume One: Master Villains p. 18:
Doctor Destroyer rarely engages in combat himself, preferring not to soil his hands with such menial tasks. He usually sends a robot duplicate or other flunkies instead. If he does fight, he begins battle without employing any advanced tactics — he simply stands there and blasts away at his foes, knowing they cannot withstand his attacks for long. He prefers single attacks, but will resort to Multiple Attacks if necessary, or to impress onlookers. If his enemies somehow resist, avoid, or counteract his attacks, he quickly adapts, using his intellect and tactical insight to find ways to lay them low. Superheroes who mistake his arrogant approach to combat for a true lack of tactical sense are in for a shock.
Also from that page: Destroyer’s armor comes equipped with systems designed to make him as physically
superior to superhumans as he already is intellectually. His Primary and Secondary Weapon Arrays contain blasters and other weapons powerful enough to kill or harm even the likes of Grond and Ripper, and his defensive systems (ranging from the natural defenses of his armor, to walls of force he can generate at range) protect him from most types of harm. He can fly, effortlessly lift hundreds of tons of weight, and perform many other astounding feats. With his vast technological resources, he can add to or adapt his armor for specific situations if need be.
BOTD breaks down the capabilities of the Doctor's armor from 1992, which are essentially the same as his most recent armor, just at a somewhat lower power level. His Primary Weapons Array is a variety of "Destroyer-Beams," the most powerful personal energy weapons invented to date, each with a different configuration. DD's Secondary Weapons Array, which he can fire along with his Destroyer-Beams if desired (although that drains his energy reserves faster), includes a lesser version of his Destroyer-Beam, a "Sensory Overload Cannon," a "Tangleweb Projector," and a "Synaptic Interference Generator" which can disrupt a range of biological functions.
Destroyer's armor is made of a super-strong metal of his own invention, which he calls Destreum, giving him great protection from physical and energy attacks, and which he can reinforce further with a projected force barrier. It also includes technological defenses against mental attacks, life-support systems, and a wide variety of sensory enhancers and protectors. The armor has rapid flight capability, and a teleporter which can almost instantly transport DD thousands of miles.
The Doctor has access to many modular additions and upgrades to his armor, which he will change out in his laboratories depending on what he anticipates needing in a given situation. Common ones include an Augmentation Beam to enhance the abilities of his followers; a gravitic Tractor Beam; a Flight Enhancer to increase his flight speed; a mind-controlling Mental Domination Crown; an additional Psychic Shield if he anticipates facing a powerful mentalist; an Intangibility Web rendering him immaterial and untouchable, able to walk through walls, etc.; and a Stealth Field making Destroyer undetectable to sight, hearing, or radar.
My Destroyer is going to have god-like power by terrestrial standards, and like, everything we've gone over so far lines up with that. But I want to give him some additional dimensions that may not come across in a glaring way from what one can gather on their own. I want him to have actual super powers that he's enhanced through scientific means, as well as receiving boosts, bonuses and buffs from his gear. I conceptualize him like some kind evil version of Batman in-that he combines tech and tactical prowess to dominate any unprepared foe by simply adapting to the situation and having the type of grueling physical capacity to see it through.
On another note, I have developed my big Vanguard scene. Regardless of how it played out in the pnp editions, I like mine. I've developed a Vanguard who - through his staunch, undying liberal senses - has long been trying to save and bring together not just one city, or country but the entire world. He's never been able to do enough, be in enough places. He spends 3 days rescuing flood victims in Haiti and providing valuable manpower for humanitarian aid, calling in favors from his entire network of allies and associates, only to return home and see that he missed an earthquake in Indonesia and a super villain leveled half a city block, killing two rookie heroes...
This Vanguard carries the entire worlds problems on his shoulders.
Initially, when the meteors are discovered along with Goblin's remains, Vanguard wants to rip DD in half with his bare hands Black Adam style. But instead he's reminded that they will need him in space to help out. With GREAT, unrelenting reluctance, Vanguard leads the orbital team into action, trusting Tiger, Icestar and Johnny Hercules to take care of business down in the lair. This is something that is not easy for him, but he figures he'll help the orbital team real quick and get back before in time to fillet Destroyer (not that he takes him lightly, just the gravity of it all has him gunning for DD's head at this point).
Upon discovering that the largest meteor had been trailing behind the pack and would no doubt cause another ice age almost instantaneously, the orbital team is literally in a state of numb panic. They are soiling their super suits, but they get to work like the veterans they are. They get to blasting chunks off any way they can, but power levels are low from skirmishes with Destroids and minor villain cameos, and this thing isn't losing significant mass fast enough.
As his comrades feverishly blast away at this behemoth space-rock, Vanguard is having an existential revelation as he glances between our little blue planet and the monstrosity baring down upon her. He calls out to the others, "Stop! ... Save your strength, please. The others may need you."
A Placeholder hero, another senior figure among the present protagonists tells him if they just keep going they can wear it down. They have to try. Vanguard explains that it has to be him, he's the only one strong enough to split it to the core, and they ALL know it.
Stopping their assault on the asteroid, the others plead with him to stop and just think first. They aren't sure even Vanguard could survive the impact. With a warm, tranquil smile and a seasoned professional authority, he commands them all to give he and the space-rock some room and in a blink of the naked eye he vanishes into super speed, leaving them in concerned awe, some maybe even calling out for him to reconsider still.
We see Vanguard breach the atmosphere, flying over the planet, taking it all in. Every sight, sound, scent. He lands of the peak of a mountain and gives a speech to all the protags through their intercoms and this greatly influences the way heroes operate and treat each other (which ties into the whole Watch Dogs story arc I mentioned before) as well as becomes the initial catalyst for the plan to rebuild Detroit into a pillar of humanity for the whole world.
After the speech, he braces, sets himself up to launch, and catapults off the planet and into the meteor. He impacts a bit late so the shattered bits of the meteor cascade over the atmosphere like fireworks of the gods for half the world to see. Vanguards remains fall to earth among some of this smaller debris and is recovered later by some of his closet allies from the orbital team.
This death rocks the entire world to its core, because he was everyone's hero. He looked them all in the eyes and spoke to them in their own tongue. Abroad he was known as being American, but not as an American Hero. He was everyone's hero.
After Digitak hacks into a few busted up destroid units, she discovers there is a signal pinging to and from every unit from a fixed location. They follow the source and find the baited base. Upon arriving, all destroids divert their paths and attention to the heroes at the base, and they encounter heavy defenses and traps making their way down into the bowels. This is when Goblin has snuck deeper into the base whilst the others hold off destroids at the entrance, and another team tries to fight their way in the conventional way.
Upon gaining access the massive central chamber where DD ambushed and killed Goblin, Gigitak finds him and whilst holding his body, has the same realization he did. As she informs the others over their coms that meteors are headed into our orbit as they speak, the cell door containing Grond, Glacier and Mega Shark (I forgot his name already, lol) pop open one by one, and a battle with three super villains ensues.
This delays the meteor response team, and weakens everyone. Later they split up into the ground and orbital teams, with the ground team confronting DD deeper into his lair, when he kills many of them before my OC Paragon arrives, taking Destroyer beams like paint balls. IN the KigaVerse, this enrages and troubles DD, and he makes his beams even stronger than they would be present day in canon. If this goes well, I will plan a last hooray story for him in present day beyond Multifaria, which I may even get into as it brushes against Northwatch's established mythos, with SD being behind Kiga's release.
I know we've been hard into vanguard and destroyer, but I'm currently working more on the Watch Dogs end of everything to organize the plots for each story and figure out how to do DoTD in terms of the scale.
Right now my focus has shifted to the nature of several things in existing Champions lore.
1: Chi
Chi plays a huge role in Ricky's story and powers. The dragon Hanlong has been scrapped entirely. The power of the Dragon Warrior now has a totally different origin. "The Abbot" was one of the first Shaolin masters and one of history's greatest chi masters, if not the greatest (assuming Batuo is used by Champs in some capacity, so for now, he's just known as The Abbot). His control over and honing of chi was so powerful that as he was dying (possibly fighting the DD early into the history of the tournament or even pre-tournament), he channeled almost all of his chi into a special essence which he bestowed upon his most trusted brother. This created the first Dragon Warrior. All of his chi and knowledge and mastery of kung fu honed into this chi essence, as well as a psychic link to The Abbot's own spirit. Every dragon warrior since has also been linked into this essence, and their additional knowledge and stylistic mastery has been added to this essence. When facing the DD, a Dragon Warrior will be aided by the spirits of past Warriors to boost their chi and courage in the critical moment of the fight.
Since his death, Abbot resides in Shambhala. The subject of my next inquiry.
2: Shambhala
This is one of those ones that has become crucial to Ricky's mythos, but I won't be torn apart if it doesn't work. I'll name it something else and tweak it.
In the KigaVerse, it is much like its real world analog. An afterlife for those who have reached enlightenment. In my verse it is safeguarded from almost everything. It takes a force of great inter-dimensional power and near god-like awareness to even locate it, let alone get in. I mean it's the Forbidden Kingdom. However, the Death Dragon and its various [probably non-Banner] minions are well known for trying to bend this rule and get in to cause chaos, ultimately trying to destroy it. A lot of the warriors who defeat the DD are granted access by the Chinese Gods. Being in Shambhala has a mystical effect on the mind and soul. You are yourself still, 100%, but your troubles, worries, stresses, and mortal bonds of jealousy, rage, etc are willingly and mindfully washed away.
It is essentially a paradisal island at the center (sort of, and yet not) of an endless, boundless sea of crystal-blue, tropical water. Abbot has a monastery at the center of the island, and when arriving, no matter who or what they are, they wash up on a rough but gorgeous coastline, confronted by a vibrant belt of jungle sitting just beneath and in front of Abbot's massive, sprawling monetary, which is the gateway to the Kingdom itself. You cannot gain access tot he Kingdom and citizens (don't think it'll ever be shown in the verse) without being given access by Abbot. You can't get to Abbot inside the Monastery without passing the Seven Deadly Venoms, the spirits of China's greatest enlightened warriors (medieval heroes). Not even Ricky stood a preacher's hope in hell of defeating even one of them. He had to reason with them.
I guess I want to know how everything lines up, and more info on the nature, physiology, science, and applications of chi in PnP.
Now, Shamballah on Champs Earth is an actual physical location. It's fairly extensively described in a book I've mentioned in connection to other of your lore inquiries, Hidden Lands. I'll just summarize the major points, and you can decide what you want to adapt, change, or ignore.
The origin of Shamballah is lost in the mists of time. It lies hidden within an enormous cavern inside Mount Everest in Tibet. There are numerous obstacles to finding and entering it, both physical and mental/spiritual. Only people with skill, will, determination and patience can win through. The cavern itself is kept comfortably warm due to underlying lava flows. The "city" of Shamballah has about 200 permanent residents, and usually a dozen or so visitors from around the world.
There's magic woven into the place which prevents aging and sickness while one remains there. If someone dwells at Shamballah for less than fifty years, they can freely return to the outside world at any time, where they'll start to age normally again. However, beyond half a century a body becomes dependent on that magic, so upon leaving the cavern a person will swiftly wither and crumble to dust. There is also a permanent "spell of understanding" over the area which allows all inhabitants to understand each other's languages.
The purpose of Shamballah is as a repository of knowledge of the martial arts and related mental and spiritual disciplines. Practically every martial art known, contemporary and historical, can be studied there. The rulers of the city are the nine Immortal Monks, each a great master of several MA styles. Several of them are also formidable sorcerers. There are other monks in the city who are nearly as skilled.
Deeper beneath Everest lies another cavern, with a very different city, Agharti. Agharti is the dwelling and prison of fifty Dark Monks of tremendous skill but also profound evil. They're bound to it by spells laid down ages past by the Shamballans. The entire cavern radiates an aura of evil so intense, anyone spending extended time there will have their souls corrupted by it. Visitors who are good and/or weak will have to fight their way to Agharti, but those who are both strong and evil are allowed to enter the city. There they may find a master willing to train them in forbidden MA secrets, so as to spread their evil to the wider world.
Interestingly, the spells that imprison the Dark Monks have no effect on visitors, and the Shamballans don't prevent outsiders from leaving Agharti or returning to the outside world. At least one official Champions supervillain was trained at Agharti.
Let me know if you'd like more info on any of the points above. But it does seem to me that given your expressed interests, Hidden Lands would be a worthwhile investment.
I hate to jump around, but that last query was tied up nicely, thank you. I think I'll make Abbot's afterlife some kind of refuge the Chinese gods created to preserve histories greatest warriors for... something, or some time they may be needed. Or it may be where the Dragon Warriors reside, sprits intact to aid the current mantle holder when the time comes. It should only enrich the fun of developing this even further.
I have to dive deep into Dr. Yin Wu's history, motive and psychology for Wrath of The Dragon. He will be a linchpin fixture in this story, which is only fitting, but I want to develop a really juicy plot where the odds are stacked against Ricky, with Wu being infuriated by the notion that this puny, wet behind the ears 18 year old kid being a Dragon Warrior. He despises the fact that fate has bestowed him with such a gift, foreseeing some kind of dark omen of coming disaster. He makes Ricky prove he is the Dragón Warrior with a special series of tests they have for it. When it is confirmed, Dr. Wu doubts Ricky's ability to survive the elemental trials.
Dr Wu even comes to find that he is overcome by dark thoughts akin to those of Hi Pan. He seriously debates ways to steal the Abbot's power from Ricky, but Ricky, despite being alone and having almost every odd stacked against him, overcomes and wins the favor of Dr. Wu. By the end, although Ricky can see his is a dangerous, evil man himself, they have a common enemy, and he respects Wu for his power, authority and intelligence. Wu respects Ricky for his courage, tenacity and creativity.
However, these feelings aren't realized completely on Dr Wu's side until after Rick'ys corpse emerges from the dimension he fights the DD in. I wanted Ricky to have a bit of impact on Wu's development, as any story should have.
The whole tournament is silent when Ricky's body emerges and the tournament hands approach to scrape him off the floor when Dr. Wu stands up, sternly raising a hand and says: "Stop! This boy was a Dragon Warrior. Chosen by the Abbot...and we will honor him as one."
But that ramble aside (omg):
I came here to ask/brainstorm about an artifact I need for the [soon to be renamed] Sentinels team story. It's called Phantasma, and follows the team of [ mostly] Canadian heroes who were close to Northwatch and formed a group to cover more than the scope of Steelhead/Cold Front tasks. This was something Northwtach was adamant, restless about his entire run. "We can, should be doing MORE." But Cold Front limited him to Cold Front missions.
In the plot, they are hunting down Rakshasa across the globe (if necessary) to arrest him at the besthest of Derringer and alot of inter-national higher ups, for crimes against Canada (releasing Kiga). They have special international permissions to hunt him, but only in certain countries, and there are restrictions on the actual use of powers.
They are taken on a wild ride that is designed to show the breath and depth of Rakshasa's intellect, craftiness, and power of mass scale illusion. Hence the name Phantasma. But it also has a double meaning.
On Rakshasa's end, and what has him all over the radar, is that he's on a mission to find a MacGuffin artifact. This MacGuffin is what I'm trying to locate within lore, or brainstorm.
He's looking for an ancient, near-divine relic that gives the user unfathomable power over illusion, one could rightly say, reality...
Something Rakshasa would personally want, and get to thinking is his own idea. When really (double meaning), Destroyer was behind it all, waiting for him to do all the heavy lifting. Just as Rakshasa has tricked everyone and makes a B-line for the MacGuffin, a Destroyer beam tears a glorious hole through his chest and...he drops dead.
This was going to lead to Destroyer obtaining it, probably killing a [renamed] Sentinel, and starting a big Destroyer story.
Any ideas on what this MacGuffin could be, or could I just invent something - and if so; what might help ground this MacGuffin in parts of existing lore?
I'm sure you're aware that Palash Krisharan (Rakshasa) serves Dr. Destroyer, in fact is one of his most trusted servants. Given that Rakshasa enjoys great luxury and power due to his high status in DD's organization, and that Destroyer is infamous for the horrific punishments he visits on those who betray him, Palash would need to be confident that the artifact will give him enough power to defy his master. I personally believe there should also be an explanation for how Rakshasa learned of this artifact.
The Jade Mirror of Transcendence is an item out of Chinese legend (at least on Champs Earth). Yin Wu sought it for decades, intending to use it to transform the entire Earth into the image of imperial China, with himself as Emperor. But he finally determined that the original Mirror no longer exists, and so resolved to recreate it. This would require him to locate and assemble many rare substances and other appurtenances, a time-consuming task.
But Yin Wu has the luxury of time, thanks to another of his great discoveries, the acme of Chinese alchemy, the Pill of Immortality. It's how the Doctor has lived for over a thousand years. Now, what no one on Champs Earth knows about Dr. Destroyer, is that he doesn't have the luxury of time. DD has invented very effective antigeria and cloning techniques, but his unique genetics which produced his incredible intellect also prevent those techniques from working on him. His armor slows his aging while he wears it, but can't stop it. If Destroyer were to learn that Yin Wu knows the secret to eternal life, he would stop at nothing to obtain it.
What I propose is that DD sent Rakshasa to infiltrate Dr. Yin Wu's organization to obtain the Pill of Immortality or the method of its creation. But instead of or in addition to that, he also learns of the Jade Mirror. Yin Wu has gathered some of the necessary ingredients, and has finally located the remainder. With the ultimate temptation in front of him, Krisharan steals the items and knowledge for the Mirror and sets out to obtain the rest, justifying your sending him wherever on the globe you want to go. You could also let him dupe any other members of Dr. Destroyer's organization into assisting him, since Rakshasa is known by all of them to be high in the Doctor's favor.
Does that sound like it will work for you, or should we explore the other options?
(I'd also suggest that when DD catches up to Krisharan, you shouldn't have him kill the traitor immediately. He'll want to take his time and get creative. Destroyer's armor includes non-lethal subduing weaponry.)
My idea was that Destroyer uses this MacGuffin item to rewrite history, making himself the prolific white knight figure of the 20th and 21st centuries. He's literally the President elect of the USA in my follow up story, Dawn of The Destroyer. We open with DD in a dark room, picking up his new age (current CO version) helmet, and pause before placing it on in ominous fashion. Hovering gracefully just off the ground, he exits into the bright threshold of a doorway contrast heavily against this dark room. We cut to him exiting a large, bright structure, which, as we pull out, we can quickly, and to our horror, identify as the White House. Destroyer raises him arms at either side to the ovation of roaring crowds of adoring citizens near-mad with zeal and teary-eyed with love. We keep pulling back as Destroids can be seen on guard beneath massive blow-up floats of Destroyer and his various robot minions. The floats have an eerie, cartoony sort of vibe that hammers home the fact that the people of America literally love him.
We come to find that Vanguard never existed. And known historic heroes of the golden age are villains, mostly slain by DD in his seemingly impossible array of heroic feats. Millennium City doesn't exist, because he never destroyed Detroit (OR, I'm playing with Vanguard being a villain in this perverted reality of DD's, and that, after being defeated by DD, he retreated to space and came back, throwing a meteor into Detroit). And America has been invading the entire world, aided by a new and horrifically well-oiled side of DD's technological might we've never seen before. Many countries are war torn, Destroid-run annexes of the United States of Destroyer.
Certain individuals with access to information and influence from higher powers, such as Ravenspeaker, are made aware of this gross perversion of reality, and start a movement to take him down and restore the natural order.
I'm proposing that, Destroyer has also had the Mirror on his mind for a long time, and has been grooming a loyal minion who happens to be an illusionist who longs for the kind of power Destroyer lords over him, to go after this thing and take all the heat for him. used his superior intellect and mastery of manipulation to place the information about the Mirror into Palash's path without Palash knowing it came from Destroyer. Rakshasa then, thinking it's his own idea, years later, goes after the Mirror on his own. He finds the real Mirror after a trail of clues and riddles leading to the location, take Palash and those pursuing him across a good portion of the world. I want to make the key Dr. Wu missed something very tricky and elusive, justifying how he was never able to ground it in reality. My first, fledgling idea here, is that it has been suspended in a state of self-perpetuated concealment from reality. To anyone just looking for it without specialized knowledge and tools/means, it's literally "not here".
(EDIT: The idea of him killing Rakshasa came from the finality, cruelty, and genius (from a villain's point of view) of it, as the implication of it all was that Rakshasa had fulfilled his purpose in Destroyer's long-term plan for him. And how I imagine it playing out, the move Rakshasa pulls during the big peak of the climax to trick everyone and get a head start on at least one quasi-speedster (Northwatch II), also worked on Destroyer JUST enough so that he had to kill him or he would have touched the mirror and could have done who knows what within a few synapsis firing off. I thought it through a little more than it seems with such a blunt outcome, but I score the whole thing in slow motion to My Way by Sinatra. I really want to give Rakshasa this grand, smug, "villain you just love to hate" kind of depiction. He seldom slows down to worry, or makes the scene too dramatic. He's brave, confident in his every step, every backup and escape plan.)
@bulgarex
I thought about this a little more and I must thank you for this help and that fantastic idea. During Shaolin Kid's story, Wrath of the Dragon, featuring Dr. Wu, I can have Rakshasa appear as a detailed cameo. Since Ricky (Shaolin Kid) has no idea who Rakshasa is or what his game is, would have no reason to suspect him in any way. I was torn on what little easter egg to put at the very end of WoTD, and this is literally perfect. Rakshasa rifling through the cache of Yin's research on the Mirror, starting his research and resulting in his quest some years later.
Lemurian King
Arvad's attack of Arcadia, with a severe injury prompting him to have visions generated from his power, which I call the Infinity Engine, sent by God (also gives Arvad and Hazor time to square off and settle their old beef a bit). These visions are what lead him to become obsessed with discovering the source of this power, and provided him with the hint that there are no answers hanging around earth. Visions of the cosmos and great structures and civilizations within it, compel him to leave Earth and begin to explore.
Malvanus Invictus
Now... lol. Here's where it gets fun. I'll be needing some info on the Malvan Empire and more specifically, their arenas (I don't want him to end up back in our system, on the moon, you know?). I want Paragon to be ambushed and captured by ummm, what's-his-name, sorry. The Overseer of the arena, and the Roman Empire simp, as he begins to explore outside our solar system; almost as if they were waiting for a moment to capture him.
They have intricate systems and safeguards against him, despite him being very, very powerful at this point (but this story makes him even stronger, cause he's really, really going to need it for the next few... lol). I haven't fully figured all of that out yet, as he is like wow.... lol. Hard for them to outright contain his willpower, but not impossible. I'll get there soon enough, it's just a future thing.
They force him to compete, it's a bit cliche, but he'll probably play ball to help those suffering under the tyranny of the arena and Malvan, as well as some kind of leverage What's-his-name holds over him. He will rise up and overthrow the whole thing (for now).
Ashfall/Ascension
Then, after already being set up in the last story, Paragon encounters and becomes involved in a galactic movement to crusade against Xarriel, a member of the race who created his species, so very long ago.
Ashfall is a somewhat veiled reference to Ashraal, the Forgotten Planet (as dubbed in the KigaVerse), and I really need to know more surrounding this cosmic singularity, as well as the scope of Xarriel's powers and abilities. This story carries over into Ascension, Paragon's finale, where I'm pretty sure they double kill one another, or the movement defeats Xarriel, but only after Paragon dies ensuring the W in the clutch. Because somehow, he has to reach God. And I went over and over, up and down the notion of him "adventuring through the multiverse to reach God's door and kick it down." Not working for me, this time out. His purpose is to merge with god, after leaving behind a new Infinity Engine on Earth in the form of his son, Hazoren. Part human, Part Empyrean, taken in by a Hazor who now cares about and respects Paragon, vs wanting him jailed and interrogated. Anyway, yeah. He was like a probe of emotions, memories, moments, experiences, etc, on Earth. My developer notes site God's motive being much larger here, with these "Infinity Engine probes" existing en mass throughout the history of life in our cosmos. God can see and govern everything, all at once, His perception of sensory is altogether unfathomable to even me as the dev in this case, however, he can't... "Be human". It's the same data, but processed differently through these probes.
Anyway, that's what I have.
- Lemuria/Arvad
- Malvan/Arena/TopVillain
- Ashraal/Xarriel & Powers
From your description of Paragon, it's unlikely even the Malvans could find gladiators to give him enough of a fight to be entertaining, which is the whole point of their games. However, in this setting the technology exists to suppress super-powers down to manageable levels. Earth uses such tech in its super-prisons like Stronghold, and if Earth can do it, you can be sure the Malvans can duplicate and exceed their capabilities if they wish. In addition, while the Malvans seem to prefer their gladiators to be willing, and reward such handsomely, when faced with a prospective gladiator who refuses to fight and who causes trouble, they can erase that person's memories, and reprogram them with a whole new personality. You can use either or both of those methods to keep Paragon tractable, until you decide the circumstances are right for them to stop working.
(The "Praetor" of the Lunar Games is called Tateklys, which translates as, "The Fashionable One." Almost no one even remembers what his birth name is. Note that the lunar gladiatorial arena is a branch operation. Although the broadcast lunar games are very popular back home, the Phazarian Arena on Malva is where the height of the games are held.)
Malvan recorded history extends back over eight hundred thousand years. At its height their empire covered half the Milky Way. But they fell into an eons-long conflict with the rulers of the other half, the hideous Elder Worm. The Malvans eventually triumphed and destroyed the Worm or drove their remnants into hiding, but unknown to them the Worm had cast a magical curse upon their whole race, sapping their drive and ambition, eventually turning practically their entire populace into decadent dilettantes. Rare Malvans, such as Tateklys, can transcend the curse and do more with their lives than just relieve their boredom.
Around 110,000 years ago the Malvan Empire started to fall apart as their subject worlds declared independence, and the Malvans couldn't be bothered to stop them. Today the "empire" consists of Malva itself, with about 80 million Malvans plus their slaves, and a dozen other star systems holding around 15 million colonists total. They still have two subject races, the Roin'esh who are held because Malvans find their shape-shifting powers very entertaining, and the Thrull, whose spirits were so crushed by many millennia of subjugation that they simply don't care.
As for Xarriel, he's this universe's Thanos/Darkseid analogue. His planet of Ashraal may not be a good point of origin for your Paragon, but in another sense Xarriel would fit perfectly.
The entities known to a very few sapients as the Progenitors are immortal energy beings millions of years old, possessing great cosmic power and fantastic scientific knowledge. They've conducted hidden experiments on organisms on many planets including Earth, trying to promote the rise of sapient species and guide the evolution of their full potential. But several centuries ago one of their number, Alaxar, asserted that his kind should take a more active role in actually directing lesser beings, essentially ruling them. That dispute prompted Alaxar to leave his people and wander space, contemplating what to do next.
Alaxar happened to pass near the world of Ashraal when an ambitious Ashraalian scientist was testing a device to tap the cosmic energy inherent in the universe, which would provide virtually unlimited power. Alaxar was caught in the vortex of energy as the device was activated, drawing him into it and blocking the tremendous flow of energy until it exploded, killing the entire planet. But that event created a new composite being brimming with power, fusing the scientist's craving for glory and adulation with Alaxar's arrogance and desire to dominate, plus a vastly expanded consciousness of the universe. The new being named himself Xarriel (or maybe "themselves," since as a compound personality he always refers to himself in the plural, like royalty), and resurrected the entire populace of Ashraal, now as his utterly devoted slaves.
Xarriel overall is probably the most powerful official Champions Universe character actually given game mechanic stats. His "Cosmic Fires" can accomplish nearly anything he can imagine, but his deadliest attack is his "Xarralian Helix" warping space and time. Xarriel sees himself as the incarnation of the universe itself, "remembering" all the way back to the Big Bang. In other words, what you say you want Paragon to become, in a sense Xarriel already is. As you can see, officially Ashraal wouldn't be a good origin choice for your character, but the Progenitors would be. They already created the superhuman Empyreans on Earth, who knows what experiments they're conducting on other planets?
When it comes to Paragon, you have to remember he's not some guy I wanted to be strong, he's a vessel for a fragment of the God who created everything we're speaking of. Knowing very little of the Malvan other than a general concept of their power, I just wasn't sure how they could control a God Spawn who draws power from a source no technology can "shut down, dampen, or disable". To me the notion of hitting a switch and pausing the power of The Almighty One, was just too much from the perspective of the Malvan's ridiculously OP power as a plot device. I am trying to reconcile a balance between it being difficult for Paragon to just go beast mode and escape, and putting things in place that tie his hands in terms of free will. For example the Earth being threatened in an elaborate bluff, fellow gladiators who need his help. Things that can lend further depth and layers to the reason for him not just going buck wild until they kill him or he escapes.
But you also have to remember, Paragon has more restraint at this point than most characters you're going to find who, on a genetic level as creations, treat conflict like it's a game or sport.
Paragon is Arcadian, born on Earth. The name is in reference to Xarriel, and where the event took place, as Xarriel is a large figure in the story. Strong as Xarriel may be, he doesn't have as much potential as Paragon, as his power is literally a God Engine. With Paragon it was never about him doing a big super-landing with all the tools he needs to completely break combat scale and dominate anything that moves. He's actually the opposite for 90% of his journey.
Rather than Superman, think Goku... Always needing to get stronger or he will die. Paragon is a Infinite Potential Engine. He has no [power except that God Spawn power that allows him to evolve new powers.
Could any Infinity Engine ever be as strong as God? No. Half as strong? No. Could one somehow collect cosmic energies and cast spells and rival a being like God? Literally impossible, unless in PnP. Not in the KigaVerse. But could that Infinity Engine kill a Progenitor? If things go right, Paragon can. But it's the same reason Malvan memory technology won't work on him. He's got God stuff running through his blood. The Empyreans psychics can't even track or interact with his mind. No psychic can.
It throws campy little comic book gadgets and science for a loop when you are talking about God's power, not your run of the mill cosmic accident, heavy water inhalations, lightning bolts, mutations, etc. God took a bit of his own power and put it in this Empyrean child at birth.
In other words, you're literally doing exactly what I said.
Whatever. You write what you want, I'm just here to facilitate.
Goku gets stronger because he's repeatedly challenged by stronger and stronger opponents. He has to push himself to be able to beat them. He's frequently in danger, and he's been defeated a number of times, including being killed. He has challenges to overcome, which is the essential component of drama.
IMHO a closer manga/anime analogy to what you're describing is One-Punch Man. His creator says that Saitama/OPM is a protagonist as he would be at the end of his story, inserted at the beginning of his story, when he's too strong for any competition. As such, his existence is boredom, for lack of any real challenges. That series is in large measure a satire of its genre. To the extent that characters are going on journeys of evolution, it's the supporting characters around Saitama. They're the ones who provide the drama, in contrast to the lead character.
Paragon is your creation. You're the writer, you get to decide where he is on his journey at any point, what would be capable of challenging him. This is a comic-book world, a genre where a writer has decreed that Spider-Man defeat Firelord a herald of Galactus, and Wolverine beats Lobo who can manhandle Superman.
If you want to write just to satisfy yourself, that's fine. If you want others to be entertained, I would advise not letting your love for a character and a concept get in the way of telling a compelling story.
I will now put away my soap box.
I had no idea how to do that, still don't know how it could be done outside of my AU, but it's teeming with a potential improve the entire Champions tapestry if it's taken further in a direction that makes sense for the characters, particularly surrounding Hazor and his motives.
Skip some time. I learn of Champions direct analog to the Christian God. The all-powerful creator of the multiverse. This, if you recall, broke the scale of everything in my creative process and grasp of the Champs universe. I mean I was like, W.T.A.F o.O. lmao. Good times. This stayed with me, like I openly admit it and this directly lead to Paragon's creation - but there was one more factor.
Shortly after I put my Au down for a bit (never actually stopping background development in my head... It's a sickness), I watched the Black Adam movie.
Now look, I liked the movie, not as a genius film, a great story, or a great BA adaptation... I don't have to feel any of those things to like it. What I liked was the first time seeing Dwayne Johnson pick up a real, actual acting job, since Be Cool. But I was impressed by the leap it [hopefully] made in cinematic "super" hero material in terms of depicting... SUPER POWERS...
And yet still, I felt like... "Really Warner/DC? This is your god-level character? For shame." lol If you remember the talk about Black Adam before it came out, the word god when describing his power level was thrown around... A LOT.
These three factors which stayed with me for a while lead to Paragon's fledgling inception.
I don't make these types of characters unless they are villains. Northwatch, Shaolin Kid, even Red Lotus, none of them are OP or glory whores in their narratives. They don't shrivel in modesty until the story is boring, but they don't railroad continuity to get it done. It's not like me to create snowflakes for the sake of saying "Look how powerful my thing is." This was more of an idea that coalesced over about a month. Using notes and some memory I can kind of walk you through it.
It started with the idea of how to use God in the KigaVerse. What could I do with that, how could he be used, why would he be used? Could I get a character to him somehow aside from the cliche dead character meets God, which doesn't fit into a storyline, it's just for the character. So I kinda gave up on that angle, and started trying to... as weird as it sounds, put myself in the character of God. I imagined I'm writing God. Using my extremely limited knowledge of his nature and full scope of his creation, what his motives would be. Does God have motives? He must if he created existence and everything in it. I started playing around hard. To list bullet points would be an exercise of futility, but I came to the conclusion God could not by definition be a singularity in the grand scheme of existence. I know this is where you'll lose interest because we've probably slipped off the canon cliff here. But where did God come from? What is he/she/it? Should we go further than this within the narrative? No, and we won't. But thinking this way, I was able to - to some degree - classify God as an entity like any other. It has a genesis (which shall forever remain unknown but serves a purpose to know), a function and purpose.
Like an itch that had to be scratched, God swelled with an energy and compulsion to let it out like a fleeting wave of excitement we let out as a scream or fist pump, God began the process of creation, expelling energy and matter against the void like a plume. I'm sure there are elaborate creation myths for literally every corner and pocket dimension of this universe (she's a heavy gal, but we love her for it), but this how I had it going down for development's sake. In our universe, the was visible and tangible as our beloved Big Bang.
Then I started thinking about what now? I know, if I recall, he gazed into something which created a reflection of him, creating the Qliphoth,. or some such? I forget and apologize, but that always stayed with me too, and I always kept that close to the chest when thinking about wtf are the motives of something like this in terms we can understand or process as concepts?
I decided that for as long as their have been sentient life forms to show an an investment in or care for, God has been creating Infinity Engines within sentient beings at birth. This bestows them with protections from psychics, because similar to Jean Grey trying to read Jehovah's mind, she either won't find it, or...Well we all read the Old Testament, right? But they can also evolve abilities in conjunction with their willpower and their actual knowledge and experiences. Think of like gleaming, not spontaneous imagination creation type nonsense. He can't just think and have a new power. He has to witness and slowly try to develop a power (some are very, very hard), or be taught it by another. I urge you to have a bit of faith until I can start writing full stories and you can see the level of my creative responsibility.
When I saw Black Adam I wanted to make one of the many characters in the spirit of Sentry, Beyonder, Shazaam, etc, without creating a villain like I always do with that scale of power. It just works better, unless you have a great character who has an epic, emotional backstory you chop at the bit to get development and closure on... That's what Black Adam didn't give me that I really wanted and was left hanging on.
What's tough to understand about Paragon's story when you hear about his power, is how good his backstory and overall story arc are. The defensiveness when you know characters and power scales and game stat logic, is only natural. You, like anyone would, probably drift away from interest and into, OP wrecking ball vehicle vibes.
I made him a child of Arcadia, the greatest civilization on Earth, and one holding they key to humanity's fate... hostage in a cell. lol. I really liked Hazor's storyline and even the Arvad bit, I'm sorry. People will want me dead for fucking with this, but I like it ^.^.
Hazor's father had a secret child under circumstances which left him virtually unable to claim responsibility for it. I haven't fully fleshed that out yet, I need MORE info, lmao. But either it was the lover or sister of his friend, or she was a bit too young for Arcadian culture at that time (not like YOUNG, just, how we'd look at a 40 year old man with an 18 year old girl today; Welcoming judgment). Something to where this child had to disowned entirely, and the mother sworn to secrecy, which she completely understood. This child is Paragon's father. He grows up unaware of this fact, until Arvad informs him of it... I do not know yet how Arvad knows, but it's essential to the plot that he does. It all comes around. Thinking little of it, Paragon's dad goes about his humble life, eventually having Paragon. Very soon it becomes evident to the locals that this child's mind is undetectable, although a normal, healthy baby when all tests are performed by a close friend. A small group of family and friends have gathered to warn the father and figure out what to do before it reaches more formal attention.
Paragon's grandmother goes to his father and tells him the truth. That Hazor is his brother, and he is Prince of Arcadia. She feels that Paragon's mind is undetectable because is chosen to be something more, although she's not sure just what.
When Arvad hears (through some means of spying, either tech or servants) this man, a lost prince, has had a son who's mind cannot be detected, he hatches a plan to seed chaos for Hazor. He tries to have baby Paragon handed over to Hazor, hoping to then play on his soft nature to ensure the baby will live, then convince him to raise it as a warrior and take advantage of this rare gift. Of course, much later, he planned to play Paragon and Hazor against one another (this is over 5000 years ago btw, long before the great betrayal), eventually using the knowledge of his royal blood to manipulate an adult Paragon into opposing uncle Hazor and vying for the throne. Of course, none of that was able to come to fruition, but this was Hazor's plan he came up with to take advantage of a situation on the fly.
Instead, Paragon's family is warned of arvad's approach and his dad sneaks Paragon out of Arcadia, leaving him in the savage, primitive, post-Ice Age Scandinavian wastelands. He grows up not knowing who he is, where he's from or what he can do. Only that he is immortal, and can heal from anything but a fatal wound given enough time. This causes problems for him and has to move around a lot, migrating from culture to culture every hundred years or so. He develops very little powers his first 2000 years. He becomes fast, strong, durable. Enough to be one hell of a soldier and warlord during the early developments of cultural man.
He's not one of those, "Been a top tier OP hero since Moses wore diapers. Was there for every major world event you're interested in," types of assholes. He was just a modern medieval man until Arvad found him and began to manipulate him, making him wonder who he is and who he is meant to be. Arvad tried to take him back to Arcadia, but he wouldn't go, instead defeated Arvad and foiled the local plot Arvad was involved in (the plot of his origin story, still in development).
Then we don't see him for a long time. He develops a lot of speed and strength and can fly and teleport, as well as learned to communicate telepathically and let others into his mind to speak, through an old love interest in his Origin story. You see Arvad kills her, which is why Paragon ends up tossing him in the Enemy box. Anyway, when he meets the Watch Dogs, they teach him a lot more powers to develop, and the reason he was in Detroit was because of the power culture in the late 80s. Noctunrus I (Nathaniel Grier, a Batman-like character I am fleshing away from being an obvious analog, and who Paragon also named his son after), teaches him that true power has nothing to do with the abilities or magic or tech you possess. That the mind is your greatest weapon, grit, training, and he wisdom to know how and when to apply them, as what defines true power; and consequently, character.
In 2001, his father finds him and brings him back to Arcadia, where they try to arrest him (not like a hostile, "You've done wrong" arrest, but a, "we need to talk and stuff" kind of arrest), and he won't allow it. I'm still developing this plot, but basically Arvad is also involved and it basically sees some of his supporters pulling funny stuff messing with Arcadia and Hazor's family, as well as dropping the bomb on both Paragon and Hazor that Paragon is their long lost nephew, a super powered prodigy destined to take him down and begin a new age.
This is just a hedache for Hazor and Paragon, who is like, "WTF? I want NONE of this." But it creates a lot of drama and speaks a tiny bit to Hazor's whole, "What to dooo? What to dooo?" plotline. It's lighting a fire under the **** of his leadership.
Insert Arvad's master plan to wreak a bit of remote chaos on Arcadia. Three-way dance of Hazor & Paragon trying to stop Arvad's chaos, hazor trying to take Paragon in, Paragon trying to peacefully leave afterward.
Hazor let's Paragon go peacefully, but warns him that the next time he comes to Arcadia, he won't leave until he submits to simple process.
Then in 2021, Arvad attacks Arcadia, and Paragon arrives to help. Again, Paragon is overwhelmed despite having some powers at this point, lol. The magnamar or w/e it's called, might be the thing that dummies Paragon, but something hurts him really bad. Really, really bad. Coma bad. Hazor has to finish the conflict, bad. The notion that he's born making Speedsters strive to be faster, or super villain brace in fear, is wrong.
After this, Hazor's people nurse Paragon back to health, and Paragon and Hazor reconcile their differences and BS, with Paragon telling Hazor he can start over, do it right this time. Although Arvad did a number of Arcadia, and they do need to rebuild, he's talking about his son, Hazoren.
A year prior to Arvad's invasion, Paragon had a son with a human woman. Empyrean, Human, Heir, Infinity Engine. When he left Earth, he asked Hazor to honor one simple request. He gave him the location of the house he built with his wife, and told him go there, he'd know what to do when he got there.
Hazor goes in Paragon's finale, discovering his human wife, which is a surprise for him, but then his son comes out of the house, and Hazor realizes what he meant by doing it right this time. Hazor realizes he's been given a truly miraculous gift for all of Arcadia, and potentially mankind...
I disagree on it not being compelling. The glance of judgment upon his power is just damning. I feel it does a very good job without uprooting Arcadia's canon and taking it in wild directions.
I tried. ^.^'
For purposes of the part of the story you started our current discussion with, IMO all you need to do is accept that at that point Paragon is not yet at a stage in his self-discovery where the Malvans can't handle him, which is completely reasonable in context. He will be, in fact having to overcome whatever the Malvans do to keep him in line could be what pushes him past that threshold. That would be pretty Goku-like.
I think I can help with some of Paragon's backstory you're still stuck on, though. Hazor and Arvad's parents, Amlin and Marya, were among the twelve original Empyreans, known as the Ancients, created by the Progenitors. Another Ancient was named Ogurn, who loved Marya, but she was drawn to Amlin, and they became a couple. After the Progenitors left Earth the other Ancients chose Amlin to be their leader due to his wisdom and nobility, but Ogurn secretly nursed Jealousy toward Amlin over Marya, over the others esteeming Amlin over him, and for Amlin having authority over him (although Amlin never abused it).
10,000 years ago Ogurn's jealousy boiled over into physical violence against Amlin. Ogurn gathered a few powerful followers, took over the royal palace, and declared himself King of Arcadia. For a while the two sides were at a stalemate, until Ogurn initiated open civil war. The climax was Amlin and Ogurn fighting one-on-one, apparently killing each other. (Amlin did die, but unknown to anyone, Ogurn still lives, buried beneath the surface of Antarctica.) This event prompted nine of the remaining Ancients to leave Earth in search of the Progenitors, to find the reason those aliens created them.
My suggestion is that some time during all of that, Ogurn raped Marya. Logical development, changes nothing about the official history, and plenty of motivation to hide the truth from the resulting child. And how did Arvad know? He was a prince of the royal family in good standing at the time, he undoubtedly participated in the war on Amlin's side, and he's the strongest Empyrean telepath after Amlin himself. It would be surprising if Arvad didn't know.
The fact you say Paragon's mind can't be read is also useful. The law-keeper of the Empyreans, Enforcer Ashima, is their most powerful telepath besides Arvad. She spends much time scanning the globe for the minds of new Empyreans produced by sex between her kind and humans. When she finds one, they're formally inducted into Empyrean society, after which they're mostly free to do whatever they want, Obviously Ashima would not have been able to detect Paragon.
CU cosmology is inspired by the Kabbalah, although not following it in all details. Multiversal existence is laid out on the Sephirothic Tree of Life, with multiple "worlds" arranged in a type of metaphysical hierarchy. At the apex of the Tree of Life is Kether, "the Crown." Kether lies outside of Time, and reaching it requires overcoming terrible obstacles, physical, mental and spiritual. Only the most determined and enlightened of beings can touch it.
In Kether, Everything becomes One. Someone who reaches Kether will see everything, in fact be everything, the whole multiversal expanse of time, space, and dimension. Any being capable of reaching Kether would become God. Since time is meaningless in Kether, to everyone else in Existence, that being will always have been God. In fact everyone who ever has or ever will reach Kether, is also God.
In philosophy this is what's called "the uncaused cause," that which is responsible for the beginning of everything, but which itself has no beginning or end. Conceptually, it's unnecessary to define an origin for God. That's the linear, limited, mortal perception of existence. You can choose to define one if that's necessary for your story, but for this setting it isn't.
But you should know that it's not necessarily a single step from our mundane universe to Kether and God. The Four Zoas, and the Prime Avatars which govern them, are the fundamental concepts and forces that shape all of Reality: Order, Chaos, Nature, and Artifice. (This feature of the CU is inspired by the metaphysical poetry of William Blake, although again with modifications to suit a superhero universe.) Other Avatars or Archetypes within the Zoas govern more specific elements of reality, such as Time and Death. If you wanted some beings to oppose Paragon on his march toward Godhood, you could find them here.
One such official entity could be useful to you. The Trickster is an Archetype of Chaos, embodiment of randomness. It exists to shake up any established order, to cause unexpected events, beneficial or harmful. When intervening directly on a mortal plane the Trickster usually possesses a local god-level being of similar temperament to act as its avatar, channeling a fraction of its infinite power through that being, e.g. Loki, Hermes, Raven or Sun Wukong. Whether it does this to a purpose or pure whim is a subject of debate. Some people hold that the Trickster serves a necessary function, challenging and testing life and sapient beings to make them strong and advance their evolution. Others assert that the Trickster is simply proof that the true nature of existence is capricious, unjust and uncaring.
If you want, the Trickster could be behind any tribulations Paragon encounters on his journey. You could even make it responsible for the Infinity Engines -- they sound like just the kind of spanner the Trickster likes to throw into the works.
Everything else is working very good. Marya would have, out of shame perhaps, and to deny Ogurn the satisfaction of the spectacle, given the infant to a friend among the common populace, far away from the life of prying nobles.
I thank you for that. Sincerely. This is just great!
BTW for anyone reading this who's curious, all the details about the Champions Universe's mystic cosmology, as well as a great deal about magic, other dimensions, and major supernatural NPCs, are in the book titled The Mystic World.
I'm curious about the current Princes of Arcadia. What are they like in terms of who among them is objectively fit to take over?
But I'm also curious about Arvad's history and nature as a villain. Allow me to give what I'm using so far to give you a beter idea of what needs to be addressed for the AU and stories.
My Arvad is a very evil man in our real world terms. I don't aim to make him a pure, cut and dry monster, but he has 0 regard for human life. Similar to the way some humans can take a gun and shoot a squirrel for causing too much backyard chaos, my Arvad will kill a human for being there, similar to a spider in bed sheets; you just want it gone, and you're kinda offended to find it there.
He's cold, calculating, but a disturbingly efficient master of deception, espionage, and general secrecy. I envision Arcadia as this genetic and technological garden of Eden where the citizens have a steadfast sense of loyalty to country and fellow man. A culture where deception and treason are swiftly and decisively uprooted. This finds my Arvad as a master of moving from complete silence, with a vast network of agents under his employ who are well taken care of, believe in a better Arcadia under HIS rule, and also fear his wrath should they fail or betray him, because he will kill them and he is more than capable of avoiding any suspicion using his genius intellect, cunning nature and legion of zealots.
But he's also been periodically terrorizing mankind from behind the curtain for as long as he has resented Hazor's affection and admiration for them. He finds Hazor's philosophies surrounding man to be a deplorable mockery of Arcadia and the Empyrean blood that surges through his veins. He hates mankind, but in the short term, understands they are simply a way he can exert passive-aggressive attacks on Hazor.
In the KigaVerse, Arvad has a pronounced history of perusing among the mortal populace incognito, causing all sorts of havoc, as well as areas still in development. Things like gathering a network of support outside of Arcadia using powered servants he interacts with under a persona which allows him to do smooth, pleasant business with them, but secretly awaits the day he takes the throne, and can begin exterminating and enslaving humanity.
He essentially wants a world where every last inch is ruled by Arcadia, so he can begin making Earth an interstellar actor in a unified and strictly expansionist capacity.
However, not long after Arvad's return, Hazor appeared to go insane. In moments of lucidity he instructed his people to imprison him and turned rulership to Arvad. But it was discovered that Arvad had used an artifact to enhance his already potent mental powers and manipulate Hazor's mind. After his treachery was discovered Hazor exiled his brother, but Arvad made his way to Lemuria, where he took control of their Bronze King and had it declare him rightful ruler of Lemuria. Arvad intended to use the Lemurians to seize the throne of Arcadia. His driving goal is to prove himself superior to his brother.
Per HL, Arvad has little love for his fellow Empyreans, and actively despises his Lemurian subjects. Contrary to your proposal, he actually admires and loves Humanity, but for the opposite reasons most might cite. Arvad is enamored of our base nature, our cruelty and violence, our capacity for deception and betrayal. He often claims he never knew true evil before he learned it from us. Under Arvad Lemuria sided with the Nazis during WW II, and before the Lemurian civil war had a trade deal with ARGENT, so he still kept contact with the surface world.
Arvad's character issues become more complicated after Cryptic Studios took the Champions IP, and instituted their Lemurian civil war. When Arvad sought superheroic help, he claimed that his time ruling Lemuria had changed him. He had come to care for his subjects, and wanted to save them from being dominated by their cruel gods after those Bleak Ones returned. Most Empyreans distrust Arvad, and believe this is just a ploy to help him regain his throne -- obviously with good reason. It's up to you as to whether and how you want to deal with that issue. (Personally I think Cryptic just wanted there to be a "good guy" faction for PCs to support. It's hard to choose a side in a fight between two bullies.)
Arcadia is a valley and small city in Antarctica, with a comfortable climate and a screen of illusion maintained by devices left behind by the Progenitors. It has about three hundred permanent inhabitants (the majority of Empyreans live incognito among humans) and is indeed a Utopian environment -- Arvad complained that evil was nearly unknown among them. Empyrean technology is among the most advanced on the planet, but they don't seem to make extensive use of it. Robots handle most of the city's more mundane tasks, and Empyrean powers render most other tech unnecessary. (There's more to Arcadia than that, but I'll leave those details in Hidden Lands for now.)
The current Empyrean "royal family" appears very small. Hazor's wife Talilla, a great warrior, died fighting the Lemurians five thousand years ago. Their son Zoltar was Crown Prince and commander of Arcadia's defenses for many millennia, but was killed over a millennium ago in battle with a monster called Kikada off the coast of Japan. Zoltar's son Archon took over both his father's roles. One of the physically strongest Empyreans, Archon is a soldier by temperament and experience, and a tactical and strategic genius. He fought in many wars among humans, and was a member of the famous Sentinels superhero team for several years. Archon also has a profound distrust and hatred for Lemurians. No other "princes" are mentioned.
Hazor is very fond of Humanity, and believes we're on the verge of an evolutionary leap to rival the Empyreans themselves. He generally prefers to leave us to find our own way forward, but has helped us covertly in various crises over the ages, particularly during the superheroic era. But he's very concerned that the humans of great power on Earth today pose an existential threat, and is contemplating taking a more direct hand in guiding us.
How you would handle the succession issue is up to you. Empyrean rulership appears on the surface to be a monarchial lineage, but I get the impression that's more of a general agreement among Empyreans than a hard and fast rule. Hazor was named leader for his wisdom by concensus after Amlin's death, and Arvad was accepted as king at Hazor's request during his "madness," rather than his grandson Archon. Empyreans have few laws, and among such a small population I imagine it's not usually hard to come to agreement on most issues.
(P.S. As I noted in a topic elsewhere on this forum, Champions Online is obviously past 2020 with no invasion by Tyrannon as originally scheduled in the official timeline. Cryptic has after all changed a number of things from previously published Champs history to match their vision, and your "Kigaverse" is plainly an alternate timeline itself. I think you're quite safe ignoring that event for the foreseeable future.)
I guess my only questions from that which are immediate and kind of important, is: How does Archon truly view humans?
My immediate thoughts were of how unique is this view of Hazor's on humanity? How much of a special president and vision has been set through that, or is it something everyone else just embraced? Perhaps Zoltar shared this view, it being instilled carefully in him over thousands of years. But how did that trickle down? Moreover, how did his time spent fighting among and alongside mortal men in those most immoral of militaristic eras, impact his core view on humanity? Does he feel they are his emerging superior, or does he feel they ought to be reigned in to serve the will of Arcadian interests? < That doesn't even have to be as nefarious as it can sound.
Beyond that, in my Jade Mirror stories, Eve of The Destroyer & Dawn of The Destroyer, Ravenspeaker is one of the (maybe only) people who are given their memories of the true timeline back. Raven finds a way to dispel the mirror's effects on Billy completely, knowing it will piss Billy off just as much, but for different reasons. Billy sees this is a gross injustice, Raven is just kind of like, "Pecking order, bro." He's a bit jealous/offended, etc. I mean I'm sure there's an argument that proposes he'd relish in the chaos and perversion. But imagine you're the trickster God. You take pride in your personal brand of chaos, but you maintain a natural balance. You don't go buck-wild and break reality.
Then along comes Doctor Destroyer. This nutty, whiley mortal who once peed and pooped in his own under garments. He pulls the biggest long con in the history of Earth. His work in just one master stroke flips everything upside down and causes global instability, destruction and chaos.
I'd be a little bit pissed.
Anyway. Ravenspeaker's first move is to obviously gather some local allies in Canada. Then they make for M. City where Ravenspeaker uses his limited but intimate knowledge of the Champions team members to locate James Harmon (III?), and then Nighthawk.
Nighthawk is one of the only true timeline heroes who is still active and using their suit, name, gear, etc. Basically every last "hero" we knew/know of, had a complete and debilitating rewrite to their life. The ones Destroyer personally hated or was defeated by, became villains who he then gave a glorious, very publicly documented death. For some reason, call it sheer willpower, blame it on Destroyer knowing nothing about the man behind to the mask to make the mirror work on him, it's a mystery right now, but Nighthawk is still Nighthawk. Except... The hero we know him to really be deep down, is not visibly present. To himself, the public, the law, and Destroyer, he's America's greatest menace. A feared, ferocious predator of the night that shreds Destroids to pieces and vanishes like a ghost or supernatural monster.
My idea is that Destroyer accomplished this flip of hero & villain in bulk with a generic command, if you will. That basically turned all heroes into villains, and villains into heroes. A Theme of Destroyer's America is reversal of morality, and this fits into it. With custom tweaks to individuals he knew like Vanguard and Defender, he was able to customize their rewrites, making the Harmon family lower class average joes.
But the theory suggests that this sweeping concept of turning hero to villain and villain to hero, didn't effect people like Nighthawk, who are neither hero nor villain deep down, but both.
It's also worth noting, to my dismay at revealing something from the inner-circle of juiciness, that KigaVerse Destroyer knows the identities and monitors the lives of MANY heroes who actively or have historically opposed him. Ones he's interested in, has plans for, figures he needs to watch out for. It's in development, but he has a highly, highly advanced, semi-automated, remote global espionage system in place. Using his satellites and other sub-orbital equipment as well as concentrated and varying degrees of ground-level equipment to spy on America, heroes, his followers, anything he wants, within a wide stretch of reason. But of course, he has to know about it. It's not magic. He has to have knowledge and leads to pursue first.
In fact, when he disappears in '92 in my AU, none of his followers are in on the plan. They assume he is dead. This is key because I spent a long time debating this and mulling it over in the character of someone like my Destoryer. If I were him, 1) I'd have it laid out SO well, they wouldn't need to know I was alive, 2) I wouldn't risk it being discovered in any way, through one of my minions being psionically compromised, tortured, or a meeting being discovered in any way by anyone from outside my circle, and 3) I'd use this as a valuable opportunity to truly test the fortitude of my servants, and see who has to be culled...
Only Destroyer knows Destroyer is alive in my AU, and for basically that entire time, during his downtime, he's been watching...
Anyway, that explains things like him targeting the lives and lineages of heroes in my AU.
So I need info on the Hawk himself. Whatever we have, if anything. I know my in-game research turned up nothing from players. He's apparently the great enigma.
Personally, I'd be entertained writing about a Foxbat who subverts everyone's expectations of Foxbat.
But whatever, as I wrote above, I'll address your questions anon.
I should mention it's probably Detroit they go to, not M. City, to find James in a bar, fresh out of his last stint in jail for robbery (his dad is very sick The Harmon's seem as though cursed and broken in this Destroyer timeline). This is important near Dawn's conclusion because the moral dilemma inevitably rises, that if we restore the timeline, we'll be killing an entire city (Detroit). But if we leave it the way it is, we'll be killing M. City, and a bunch of heroes. It's dilemma for the characters who love Detroit and don't remember the true timeline, or M. City. They are trusting Billy and any others who know the truth beyond a shadow of doubt.
Seeing this Foxbat may lean perfectly into all of this, and lend further weight to the plot dynamic. Not that I'm suggesting it becomes a huge decision whether or not to fix Destroyer World, lmao. It's just some who only know and can remember it, get nervous, and they have that wonderful geeky comic-book conversation about causality, how we can speculate the mirror works, etc. There's a nice bit I've planned to that where the skeptical, nervous members of the group ask those such as Billy what this Millennium City is like, if it's really worth probably dying in the here and now. And those who can recall it speak of it's majesty, nobility and humanity. And after the events of Eve and those in Dawn leading up to this, it's supposed to hammer home hard, especially for those like Nighthawk and Defender, and as mentioned above, Defender has a huge, inspiring arc in these stories.
"Hazor is the current ruler of the Empyreans... at least to the extent that such a disparate group can be said to have a single leader. Universally acclaimed for his wisdom and thoughtfulness, he’s accepted by nearly all Empyreans as the ultimate arbiter of disputes between them and the organizer of any sort of concerted action or activity by the Empyreans (particularly of a military nature). Born in the “Second Generation” some three hundred thousand years ago, Hazor is among the oldest active Empyreans. He became ruler about ten thousand years ago as a reward for his great efforts in restoring stability to Empyrean society in the aftermath of the battles with Ogurn and the departure of Amlin and the other Ancients."
"Hazor is one of about three hundred Empyreans to make his full-time home in Arcadia, where he lives in a splendid palace decorated with countless invaluable works of art he has commissioned and collected over the centuries. He spends much of his time with Ashima (his assistant and the enforcer of his laws) and Garon (the only Empyrean significantly older than he, and with whom he can share insights into Empyrean history). Hazor is deeply interested in the general activities of his people, and with Garon spends much of his time cataloguing and recording their various achievements in different fields."
"Hazor is also very concerned with the fate of ordinary Humanity. He’s seen mankind develop from near animals to intelligent — worthy beings gradually approaching the evolutionary level of the Empyreans themselves. The recent increase in superhuman mutations fascinates and worries him. He believes it signifies a new stage of human evolution, but he’s also concerned that Humanity may not be quite mature enough to handle its new levels of power and technology without destroying itself. Hazor is torn between his desires to protect and nurture Humanity so Humans can become more Empyrean themselves, and his fear of contaminating the natural evolutionary process by revealing the existence of Humanity’s “older brothers.” So far, he’s contented himself with merely observing, interfering only when Humanity has been threatened by outside menaces like the Lemurians or the Gadroon (and then only providing secret assistance). But under the right circumstances, he might take a more active hand." (HL p. 53)
"Archon is the current Crown Prince of the Empyreans and grandson of King Hazor. A member of the “Fourth Generation” of Arcadians, he’s a little over three thousand years old. His father, Zoltar, was the Crown Prince for countless centuries as well as Commander of the Empyrean military in its campaigns against the Lemurians and other threats. Zoltar died over a thousand years ago in combat with the bizarre monster called Kikada, and his mother Aleja followed Shaderon into Silence in the mid-eighteenth century." ("Silence" is one of those additional bits about Empyrean life I mentioned, which I could describe if you want, but I don't believe is relevant to your story.)
"Archon also has spent considerably more time among Earth’s superhuman community than any other Empyrean. He first met the Fabulous Five in 1966. He fought alongside the Sentinels against a Lemurian attack in 1973 and was so impressed with their bravery and warrior spirit that he joined their team for several years. He remains close friends with Diamond and several other heroes from that period, most of whom are retired now."
"From an early age Archon took after his father as a master of combat and general militaria, regularly leading Empyrean forces in their battles against Lemurians and other forces that threatened Arcadia. As he grew older, Archon became fond of living among Humans through various fictitious identities. Usually he takes on the role of a soldier, because he’s fascinated with war and the study of tactics and strategy. In this manner he participated in most of the major wars of Earth’s recent history, from the Peloponnesian War to the Gulf War, usually serving as a low-ranking officer or enlisted man and eschewing the use of his powers (though of course his superhuman durability made his activities virtually risk-free)."
"Archon is first and foremost a soldier, most comfortable on the battlefield and fascinated by the art and science of tactics. He believes combat in the name of a worthy cause is inherently ennobling, and his definition of “worthy” is probably broader than that of most superheroes.
Because of his warlike demeanor, he had frequent conflicts with some of his teammates on the Sentinels, particularly over his willingness to kill his opponents. Though Archon was never entirely convinced by these debates, he was willing to follow Sentinels guidelines and did not kill anybody during his time as a superhero (though he has killed opponents since leaving the team).
Archon is absolutely devoted to protecting innocents and noncombatants, and his bravery and loyalty are above reproach. Despite his fascination with war and combat, he has a generally positive outlook on life, and is fairly easy to get along with. His largest “blind spot” is Lemuria. He’s regarded Lemurians as “the enemy” for so long that he tends to see Lemurian plots behind every negative event, and absolutely will not consider working with them or treating them as anything besides foes to be defeated... and if possible, exterminated." (HL pp. 144-45)
I don't want to change anything from PnP lore. I want all of my creations to more or less, nicely line up and coexist with PnP canon. Of course discrepancies will arise, but there's almost nothing from lore that passes through my perception that will not go in as is was created to be. I tinker, but I try very hard not to betray the root or purpose of a thing. Like playing with a toy just to see how easily it breaks.
Not exactly a replica, but this was fun. Glad I decided to buck up and just do it. Been wanting to since I started recreating the characters from that artwork.
As you can see I played around for my KigaVerse version, but I feel the essence of '92 Destroyer was captured over-all.
By the way, I don't use any of these characters in the game out of respect. I keep my Ravenspeaker and Justiciar cosplays around for display, but don't level them up or anything. More of a celebration of the characters.
Mark's personality changed radically after the VIPER attack. He became driven to fight injustice and evil. He dropped out of school, living on money from a few inventions he patented, devoting himself wholly to crime-fighting. But he learned that many supervillains were beyond his ability to handle alone, so when Defender was recruiting for his new Champions team Mark presented himself. He became the team's resident detective, but he and Defender often clashed over their differing views and methods, which finally led to them coming to blows, and Nighthawk leaving the team. Eventually they came to an understanding, and Nighthawk partially returned as a reserve member of the Champions. While on his own Nighthawk recruited supers with grudges against VIPER, both heroic and villainous, for a dedicated anti-VIPER team which he called "Project Mongoose."
(The above is summarized from the Champions superhero genre book, and the Champions Universe: News Of The World setting supplement.)
Now I'm going to touch on my own opinions, for which there is no official backing but which to me seem logical. IMHO Mark Whittaker's change in personality is 'way out of proportion to his origin event. Looking at it from an in-universe perspective, my conclusion would be that the grenade explosion caused some kind of brain damage which went undiagnosed. If you were to accept this premise, it would make an excuse for why he was not fundamentally changed by Dr. Destroyer's alteration of reality.
Over time he began to realize that Destroyer was the true and great enemy, all that is wrong with America and Detroit.
James is from a family of lower class individuals now, I mean they have a horrible family history from tragedy to deaths and rampant illness claiming lives. Word around Detroit is, The Harmon family is cursed. James II, however, was an honest, humble, hard working man who, when Defender was a teen, became violently ill with cancer. This started James III down a dark road of criminal activity to make money for medical care and treatments, a wheelchair and other expenses caused by the dramatic life change. But with the help of Billy Edenshaw, Both Mark and James learn of their true selves. That they are supposed to be heroes and friends. This resonates with them both in an existential way, and they come around in the end to fight Destroyer with the others, Defender landing the shot that strikes him down.
Nighthawk had been battling Destroyer from the outside for years. Part of what he was doing was gathering and reverse engineering Destroid technology. He already had modified personal destroid beam gauntlet models, a bunch of stuff. After Billy talks to them, neither have much outward interest in becoming heroes and dying fighting Destroyer. Nighthawk especially knows the risk, as I have the way he operates all mapped out, and he has to move like a demi-god ninja to survive, planning his attacks very carefully and using advanced tactical maneuvers, so he is keenly aware of how suicidal Billy'\s plan is.
But after this, Nighthawk just can't let it go. The notion that somewhere out there is a world opposite his own, where he is the good guy he always wanted to be, haunts him. He goes directly to James to try to find out if it's true in some way and just commiserate. Events shortly after, including the passing of James Harmon II, cause Nighthawk to inspire James to fight, and he gives him a sort of quasi-reverse engineered destroid suit.
Vanguard rang the bell and got his powers, but ended up becoming evil (still developing this). He and Destroyer entertained and shocked the masses for decades before in '92, they had a showdown over the skies and in the streets of Detroit and ending over the New York harbor, where it was believed that Vanguard was killed after Destroyer shot a beam through the right side of his abdomen and let his lifeless corpse splash into the murky depths of the Atlantic.
Destroyer had let heroes live before, simply to kill them another day. He's relishing in the chaos and hijacking of reality. So he didn't bother to finish him off, but the world assumed he was dead. Vanguard shows up during the final battle, still developing who meets him and how, how that plays out, but someone meets him in a veiled scene where you're pretty sure who it is, but it's not fully confirmed. I think it'll be Nighthawk, rallying the "villains" to their true calling of defeating Destroyer.
So they all start far from heroes, but end up fighting against Destroyer, simply for the ideal of a better world, whether Billy is just a crazy Canadian, or not.
Foxbat is going to be the Nighthawk analog of this world, in a group of villains that are now heroes, more or less the Champions analog of this world.
I'm wondering who might make for a good "Anti-Champions" (not their real name) lineup alongside him?
EDIT: Oh shoot, in addition to trying to figure out a lineup for the Destroyer World Champions, I was wondering the canon history on Destroyer's '92 helmet that was left over. What happened to it? Where should it be now?
I'm curious because in Phantasma, at one point I had the idea that Rakshasa is proving so elusive to capture that they try a rues of sorts using his recovered helmet and a fake Destroyer suit the crew back at Steelhead cooked up, with Derringer borrowing the helmet. Someone then dresses up like Destroyer, trying to disarm and trap Rakshasa. It was really funny, but also kind of like a forerunner to Destroyer himself appearing, as they keep saying, "But it won't work, Destroyer is dead. Rakshasa will know this."
So just out of curiosity, I was wondering where the helmet lay on display, or if somewhere in canon it was melted down to forge something new? Was it symbolically destroyed? Cast into Lake Michigan? Buried under Millennium City?
While I have you next, I'd like to ask the favor of letting me know how you personally feel about my planned outcome for Lemurian King, the story where Arvad attacks Arcadia.
In my version, Arcadia is nearly in ruin, Archon is killed by the Mandragalore (this is a future topic for here), which deposits a bur in Paragon's ****, and he pulls a "Superman vs World Engine" on the thing, launching himself through the Mandragalore using his super speed (which is very, very fast. One of Paragon's things was when he helped clear Destroids from around Detroit in '92, he pushed himself very hard out of panic, and other speedsters present were able to observe him, and it opened their eyes to the realization they could be faster, too if they pushed themselves. It's part of why he's given the mantle Paragon) to destroy it. But this leaves him in a coma, and Arvad continues on toward the palace, killing an entire battalion of Praetoains before Hazor catches up, flying in to stand between Arvad and the entrance to the palace.
The brothers stand off and talk. Hazor begs him to stop, the view of a ruined, blazing Arcadia behind Arvad as he holds the sword he forged in the pits of Lemuria. They have a very good sword fight in the old ways, and Hazor is able to narrowly secure a victory, but even in defeat, Arvad won't stop, overwhelming one of the praetorians who secure him, releaving him of his sidearm and opens fire, killing multiple present before shooting at Hazor. One of his inner circle, a primary character from these stories and Arcadia, blocks the shot, taking it for their king. As they are falling to the ground, Hazor rushes his brother, again pleading him to "Stop this", but Arvad raises the weapon and Hazor side steps in wide and to the outside of Arvad's outstretch right ar. using his sword's blunt side, Hazor forces Arvad's weapon-hand downward as the shot rings off, and in the same motion, Hazor follows up by thrusting his sword up the length of Arvad's right arm, on the inside, and through his chest. He holds him all the way to the ground and weeps, apologizing, telling him he wished he'd just stopped. Arvad grins, eyes closing.
Hazor goes a little numb, and his attention goes to his people and kingdom. He looks out at Arcadia with complete defeat and sorrow.
Arvad is buried as a Prince of Arcadia, but quietly and by the decree of Hazor. He and their mother are among, if not the only people in attendance aside from those performing the ceremonies.
Why?
I felt it had to be done. I felt like if Arvad was going there to destroy Arcadia and prove his superiority over Hazor, he would do a bang-up attempt. If he was going to kill Hazor, he wouldn't stop until someone had to kill him. Preatorian or supporting cast? Felt it cheapened him and the powerful story between these two brothers. Him being defeated and arrested or banished? Felt like it was inconsequential and lacked true development potential for Hazor. I really, really, really like the character of Hazor now. And this really did it for me. This development. After I came up with this it really endeared him to me on a human level, and really made the weight of his leadership and the strength of his personality and compassion so tangible. It lead to the type of ending I gave for him and Paragon, as I mentioned. It's a really powerful, emotional ending after all the stories, and it stands primarily on the shoulders of Hazor's esteem and heart.
I chose the song CLoud by Elias Lewter for after Hazor kills him, when he is holding him, up to Arvad's funeral. It's really powerful and speaks to Hazor as well as the pain Arvad's torment caused him, even down to the last breath. One last victory in forcing Hazor to commit murder on the steps of the palace.
All of these villains are fully described and illustrated in Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains.
According to a passage on p. 150 in the setting book, Champions Universe (the one for the Fifth Edition of the Hero System -- current edition is Sixth), the shattered fragments of Destroyer's helmet were recovered from the ruins of Detroit and "remain locked in an ultra-secure PRIMUS vault near Washington, D.C. to this day." This is the only reference I know of to the status of that helmet after the Battle of Detroit.
As for your story, I'm not going to comment on it as a story, because you're writing what you want to write, and changing what you want to change. I'll just mention what the source material says in relation to the details you raise, and you can decide if you want to incorporate or ignore them.
Am I correct in remembering that you wanted to change the name of the Empyreans to Praetorians, and that's who you mean when you use that term? If so, I want to note that the permanent population of Arcadia is around 300, and from all the implications I've read, I doubt all the Empyreans alive in the world today number much more than a thousand. A modern "battalion" falls within those numbers, so keep in mind what killing that many of them would imply. Also, Hazor and Arvad's mother, Marya, left Earth with the other Ancients ten millennia ago, and has not been heard from since.
I'm aware of only one Empyrean who might sometimes fight with a sword, of human manufacture. Empyrean powers are normally more effective than such weapons. In particular, Hazor has the ability to reshape inorganic matter, rendering a sword useless, unless it's made of some miracle material. Lemurians utilize distinctive personal weapons, one of which, called an ignaetior, does have a sword-like blade, but it's hollow and can also release bursts of fire, smoke, or blinding light through holes in the blade. The blade itself is made of an extraordinarily hard synthetic crystal called crystallos, so maybe it could resist or delay Hazor's power.
By Praetorians, I mean Elite royal guards charged solely with protecting the palace and Hazor and his kin.
Don't kill my sword fight scene.
I gathered from the PRIMUS page entry on Lemuria that Arvad was forging a sword in Lemuria. A "weapon worthy" of going to war with Arcadia.
I thought it was weird, too. Could be misremembering.
So the details could change, but the Mandragalore parts are staying, and Hazor kills Arvad. Won't be a popular choice, but I don't shy away from death when it's at the detriment of everything. Too often this happens in comics especially. I like closure and the benefits it brings everyone.
IN my style of story telling, an event like that doesn't happen without mass destruction, or important, history-altering deaths. I could have brought the Mandragolore out and had it smash a gate, kill a hundred guards, injure paragon and malfunction or something, be magically disabled with plot device tech by side characters in Mickey Mouse form, but I am more true to the spirit of comics I grew up on. Where major events come with major consequences the next issue cannot just ignore. Characters you loved aren't where anymore. Sure they'll be back next year XD but that year was etched in our hearts and minds. I like the meaty stuff you can't say didn't matter when the dust settles.
Few fallen towers and an arrest doesn't make for a good story to me when you have so much history and lore behind it. That moment, whether the producers at the time knew it, was Arvad's final chapter. To just say he's defeated and survives is to collar and shackle him so the Champions IP can use him for another day.
A sword for Arvad is news to me. I couldn't find a reference to it in PnP or for CO. The only weapon I've seen mentioned as being "forged" to attack Arcadia is the Mandragalore. When the Lemurians first triggered it the device exploded, scattering its fuel core across the planet. Arvad has for decades sent his agents to look for fragments of the core to reassemble it. (Those individual fragments have the potential to transmute matter, even elements, for those with the knowledge or skill to use them. In the wider world they became known as the Philosopher's Stone.)
If you want a sword fight, I'd give Arvad an ignaetior as described above. Hazor's powers could craft a sword for him if needed. The buildings of the city are made of "advanced materials that resemble gold or brass" (HL p. 51), while an ignaetior's blade is "scorched-black in color" (ibid p. 127), making for a nice visual contrast.
EDIT: I have one thought about where this sword idea might have come from. Arvad's illustration from Hidden Lands includes a sword. There's no mention of it in the text, but Arvad's preferred costume is reminiscent of a Roman emperor. I think it was just a flourish the artist added for effect.
But now one must ask the question, what are Hazor's powers? When I said he flies in to stand between Hazor and the Palace, I meant on some mode of transport, vs doing the Suoerman landing. And originally, he actually came out of the palace, and wrote off a small group of Lemurian troops before Arvad was forced to deal with him. I just didn't and still don't think it gives a character like this a good look if his Kingdom is being destroyed by his brother and he sits inside, just because in the story, outside it is not going good until Paragon handles the Mandragalore. I don't like the notion that his kingdom is potentially falling, his people potentially dying outside, and he lingers, hoping for the best. trusting in those who look to him for leadership as they die protecting his throne. That did not sit well with me, or give his character the sort of moral fiber and heroic predisposition the Paragon stories needed him to have. However, having said that, It's no problem for me make it more canon, and have Paragon's impact of Hazor's development make him more of a heroic, honorable King who regrets not leading the charge with Archon. Who teaches Hazoren to lead his people by example, to inspire his warriors by example, and strike fear in the hearts of his foes and their followers alike by example(not that Hazor would teach him to be a warmonger or anything, just chewing on it out loud), and not some far-off uttered decree.
It would just be a shame to kill the scenes in Arcadian Son when Hazor springs into action. I can be Archon just as easily and I think I've already subconsciously made the change, but it was great to see Hazor come to life in that one particular scene because of how it was literally a three-way dance between Paragon, Hazor and Empyreans, and Arvad's sycophant's/minions. It's no problem to swap Hazor for Archon in this instance, but I dread the notion of removing Hazor from action and plot too much.
It would have been satisfying to make you wait and wait to see Hazor do anything, and then finally see him kick some ****. But I guess looking at it now that Paragon's whole story arc has been mapped out, it will be better to make people wait (to Hazor's detriment a tiny bit) to see him walk out of the palace alone, and **** about 30 Lumerian soldiers up.
You know, it's extremely uncommon for generals to grab a rifle and join their troops on the front lines. Normally they stay back so they can observe the whole flow of battle and make tactical decisions. And if the White House was assaulted, I doubt anyone would expect Joe Biden to start acting like Rambo.
All Empyreans are physically superhuman to a varying extent, are ageless, can survive environmental conditions that would kill a human, and can fly, although their top velocity can differ vastly one from another. Because of that last, they don't seem to bother much with artificial transportation, so I'm afraid Hazor pulling a Superman would be more likely from a lore perspective. Practically all Empyreans also have at least some degree of shielding against mental intrusion, probably because so many of them are telepathic. That's likely why Arvad needed an artifact, "the Eye of Ogurn," to amplify his power enough to madden his brother. (There's no more info as to what the Eye of Ogurn does or even why it's named that. But I'll turn back to that momentarily.)
As for Hazor's non-standard abilities, "His primary powers include transmutation and manipulation of objects (but not living tissue) on an atomic level using an advanced, specific application of telekinesis; he can change the shape of objects or even their molecular composition. He uses this ability to create art in his spare time, casting giant sculptures in metal and stone with the force of his mind. It’s rarely useful in combat because it takes too long (transmuting a man-sized object takes him about a minute), but he can sometimes deform weapons, ruin devices, and the like." (HL p. 53) Plainly Hazor is more commander than warrior, but if you really want him to kick much "Lumerian" @$$ personally, I suggest that he break out the Eye of Ogurn to boost his matter transmutation (which nothing says it couldn't do). That won't kill any of the attackers, but all their weapons suddenly turning to slag would still be pretty impressive, and nearly as effective.
BTW the bulk of any Lemurian combat force is made up of their Mole-Men slaves. Lemurians are the officers leading them. They also use metallic golems in humanoid or animal configurations, as well as baroque-looking vehicles.
Like I made it so he purposely faked his death before the entire world, with only robots and maybe one trusted servant who would likely be my own creation if he has nothing like it existing in canon. Some type of quasi-human, cyborg or something to where it could never be compromised to reveal his secrets, motives, plans, anything other than the nature of construction, if even that. Something with protocols that override things like human nature (self destructs, memory wipes, etc). He did this so that everyone would without any shred of doubt for even a moment believe he was dead. This gave him complete and absolute anonymity and impunity to operate from the shadows in untold capacities since '92 onward. But it also let the final stage of his master plan take shape. It was set up long ago. The seed was planted in Rakshasa's head. Destroyer made sure Rakshasa knew about the mirror, something if Destroyer had begun to pursue himself, he'd never have time to complete as the heroes from all corners of the earth, even governments, would pounce on him at the first wiff of the mirror and his name in the same sentence. He let Rakshasa lead him straight to the mirror, drawing minor heat from Canadians who Destroyer describes as "insignificant kurrs", doing all the heavy lifting for him.
Using the mirror he was able to create global destruction and pervert North America into a bastion of Destroyerness, converting its military industry into a hybrid monster infused with heavy destroid elements, all of which he controls, and for the most part direct the forces. He corrupts society and the paradigm of hero and villain, killing so many beloved super heroes. So in a big way its designed to have him take the hatred for his character even further. But you get to see Detroit again, Vanguard gets a kind of revenge and Destroyer is killed in this reality (so are a ton of others like Ravenspeaker, but) before the mirror is located and used to reverse Destroyers work before his Omega Protocol (a series of doomsday failsafes in the event of his death, one being another orbital platform attack (Vanguard dies destroying) destroys half of America and lower Canada.
The heroes make it in the end so Destroyer died in the '92 incident, undoing everything he had done since.
In the secret scene, I had wanted someone to make the discovery of Tyrannon's approach, signaling at least a few more stories.
Who do you think might make a good candidate to be the one to discover or detect the approach of a foreign invader? I don't mind who they are, or where it is. Could be a bit character, or an organization. But the leading modern figures there would help to know.
Again officially, only two beings were aware that the Doctor still lived, his two most loyal servants, Gigaton and Rakshasa. Destroyer even placed mental blocks in them to prevent them from revealing his continued existence, and from having their minds read about that truth. So your notion of his implanting a desire to find the Jade Mirror of Transcendence in Rakshasa does not seem improbable. Although it's not specified anywhere, I would expect one other "person" to be aware that Zerstoiten was still alive: Sennacherib, his incredibly advanced Artificial Intelligence which controls Destroyer's automated facilities. Sennacherib is programmed for absolute loyalty to DD, and is protected by sophisticated encryption and stealth systems. If you want one being on Earth to continue to act as his proxy, this would be the likeliest one.
When the Doctor escaped his orbital cannon, he withdrew to Zuflucht ("haven"), a base he'd constructed in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which no one knew of, and even Sennacherib had no record of. So it was all but impossible for anyone to discover him. Destroyer remained at Zuflucht until 2009, working on upgrades to his technology. He originally intended to proclaim his return in 2002, but Shadow Destroyer's appearance caused him to delay that to gather more data on his imposter. He tracked Shadow Destroyer to the Multifarian in 2009, and attacked him there. But DD underestimated Shadow D's resources, and was defeated and captured, leading to the events of the Resistance story arc in CO.
I have specific suggestions regarding your Tyrannon questions, but it's pretty late where I am and I'm pretty tired. If you could please excuse me for now, I'll return to address them tomorrow.
As I see it, a possible incursion by Tyrannon would have two aspects, magical and extra-dimensional, which individuals or groups sensitive to either phenomenon might respond to. On the magical front, two official characters would be well suited to your purposes, the Drifter and the Witness. The Drifter you are probably familiar with from CO, but the Witness is written up in Hidden Lands, where he's presented as a very clear analogue to the Phantom Stranger from DC Comics. Both of these mystics can receive dreams or visions of future events, but they're defined as being "vague and unclear," hence would work story-wise as a warning, but not as a battle plan. Either character would serve well if you want the initial hint of what's to come to be perceived only by an individual, but the Drifter would likely be pro-active in response, being a long-established superhero and member of the famous Justice Squadron. The Witness often gives warnings and hints about major supernatural and other threats to heroes, and occasionally fights directly alongside them; but at other times does nothing overt, as if he's under orders by some greater power not to interfere. (He still may give covert aid even in those circumstances.) Hence the Drifter would be best if you want the person with the initial warning to alert and rally the defenders, while the Witness works better if you just want them nudged along in the right direction.
If you'd rather use an organization as the vessel for your foreshadowing scenario, I would suggest UNTIL's Project Citadel, which was established in the wake of Istvatha V'han's full-scale invasion in 2004. Although primarily focused on countering V'Han, Citadel's mandate includes "coordinating with similar agencies and superheroes around the globe to establish a worldwide alert network to detect and counteract dimensional intrusions of any sort." (Book Of The Empress p. 197) The methods by which it detects such intrusions aren't specified. It might involve special surveillance tech, e.g. satellites and ground systems; or data analysis of reports of phenomena that could be inter-dimensional; or a combination of the two. As of the last published word on the subject (2012), Project Citadel was under the direction of Major Alexander Shumeykin of Russia, so your scenario might depict him receiving intelligence reports and realizing their implications.
It's not impossible that agents of Istvatha herself might pass on information to Citadel's network. Tyrannon is a rival to her as a dimensional conqueror, and she'd definitely like to thwart his intentions toward a planet she herself has designs on.
On the level of putting clues together and recognizing their significance, that's the main work of the Trismegistus Counci when it comes to supernatural threats. They're often the first ones to do so, and it's their policy to notify heroes who are better equipped than they to confront it directly. If you went that route, for purposes of your story I'd recommend using Alicia Blackmun, who CO players are familiar with and who's particularly friendly with Witchcraft.
One other possibility covers all the above bases, but might or might not be to your purpose. VIPER's patron deity, the serpent-god Nama, has the power of prophecy. He had foreseen the rise of several great threats even to himself in the modern era, and created VIPER to protect him from those threats. In circumstances like what you propose, Nama would almost certainly turn to VIPER first, which could translate to noticeable increased VIPER activity as they prepare for Tyrannon's assault. But Nama has also been known to order VIPER to assist the world's defenders directly, as during the first Demonflame incident. Nama has patronized heroes in the past as the mood struck him, so secretly slipping a warning to one or more of them would be in character.
Let me know if you have further questions or needs.
But for plot reasons, now I'd like to know more about Istvatha.
I chose to make Dawn & Even of Destroyer in the spirit of DoTD, where they are forced to fight him, but Tyrannon I had wanted to be a much bigger plot with the "battle" itself being largely impossible without external forces of some kind. There needed to be a big hail mary element to how Tyrannon was defeated. This could be a good route to go.
OTOH Istvatha makes no allowances for protest or criticism of her rule, and resolute armed resistance or rebellion against her is harshly punished, up to and including the destruction of entire planets and extinction of whole races. She greatly prefers that new regions accept her dominion peacefully, but she's the epitome of "making an offer they can't refuse." And she doesn't give up. Earth (and allies) has turned back two invasion attempts so far, but at last word she was planning her next campaign. Being ageless, she's supremely patient.
Book Of The Empress is an entire source book devoted to Istvatha V'han's history, personality and motivation, goals and plans, government organization, technology, military, and a representative survey of dimensions in her immense empire. Obviously that's too much to summarize here, but a very abbreviated intro to the character appears in Champions Villains Volume One: Master Villains. If you have specific questions I can try to answer, but as always I have to keep Fair Use limits in mind.
Her nature and the absolute scale of her power and resources compared to anything conceivable aside from the Kether, she'd be better involved post-Tyrannon when Earth is at its lowest possible point, and individuals longing for the magical, super powered wonder and possibility of the old days will be desperate to any sort of helping hand that presents itself.
I feel like plot holes on the back end will develop if she is involved, or it'll become so much work around writing it so she doesn't just destroy Tyrannon, turning Earth into a inconsequential battlefield they are fighting over control of. Especially if she is aware enough to know Tyrannon's presence even has a chance of impacting the Kether leak that infuses the Milly way with an abnormal abundance of magic.
I had thought that, maybe she DOES know Tyrannon could mess Earth up, turning it into a plain, unremarkable, essentially defenseless against extra-normal attacks of any kind, and purposely wanted it in this condition to enslave and reempower in her own image.
Not sure, but I think I will look into other routes for Tyrannon, as it presents very unique opportunities, in terms of what I'm working with alone.
Hazor and his Arcadians as well as Empyrean citizens fighting alongside Earth with the Champions and others. A chance for the Arcadia - Earth story arc to finally get along a bit more, and have that carry into the aftermath of Tyrannon, when magic, powers and tech begin to either away. When an era of uncertainty and relative darkness unseen at first creep in. I actually put a lot of thought into this era, how I could do it, what I could do in there.
I have questions. What about the external forces like Gods?
I'm thinking Ravenspeaker. Why wouldn't Raven's powers still feed him abilities? Was the Kether leakage literally a conduit for everything? Or did it literally give even local, dimensional Gods a greater scope of capability to make their willpower a tangible force?
Istvatha V'han's resources may be practically infinite, but she still has to maintain order throughout her epic domains, and guard them from external threats, notably Tyrannon and Skarn the Shaper, who are both rival dimensional conquerors to her. Hence she can't just pour limitless troops and materiel into any one campaign of conquest, or attacks against her rivals. So I wouldn't worry about her "destroying" Tyrannon.
Per The Mystic World p. 61, the magic of the gods generated by human belief only functions within the Inner Planes near to Earth. It has no effect on beings from the Outer Planes. For example, in 2001 Skarn invaded the dimension of Faerie for Champions Earth, and easily defeated the war-gods of six pantheons in personal combat. He could use his magic against them, but they could only employ their physical strength against him. Now, I had a discussion some years back with Dean Shomshak, author of TMW, in which he posited that said limit on an Earth god's magic might only apply to god-level entities from the Outer Planes, not minor beings. Moreover, Dean asserted that divine avatars crafted to exist on Earth, or Earthly mortals empowered by the gods, could use all their powers to battle Outer Planes creatures. Dean's purpose was to explain why the gods don't protect the Earth from extra-dimensional invasion themselves, i.e. it falls to Earth's superheroes to rise to the occasion.
So, to use your example, the god Raven couldn't fight Tyrannon, or for that matter Istvatha, with his magic, but Ravenspeaker could.
The decline isn't immediate, though. In the previous official timeline, it took a couple of years for magic to fade away completely. The gods don't disappear either, they just can't manifest on Earth any more, or exert any meaningful direct influence.