I do have another suggestion, one that dovetails with Kigatilik more directly. It's also more improbable, but given comic-book coincidences it's hardly impossible.
During the Golden Age of superheroes, the greatest enemy of the heroes of Canada was the Ice King Vultok, ruler of a realm in the dimension of Faerie called the Land of Ice. Vultok worshiped the imprisoned Kigatilik as a god. In 1945 Vultok stole a prototype atomic bomb, but in a confrontation with heroes in the underground domed palace he had built in the North, the bomb was accidentally detonated, killing Vultok and his followers. But in recent years Vultok has returned from the dead, and once more allied with Kigatilik.
UNTIL maintains surveillance of the entrance to the radioactive ruin of Vultok's palace, but it's not hard to imagine magical beings finding a way to slip past them. If Vultok investigated his former palace, he might have found an artifact altered or created by the collision of the most destructive product of science, with the magic of Faerie; a magic which reacts against and negates the forces of science. Naturally if Vultok found such a thing, he'd bring it to Kigatilik's attention.
(Vultok's story was originally sketched out in Champions Of The North for Hero System Fifth Edition, and elaborated in Golden Age Champions for Sixth Edition.)
I love it. This almost perfectly facilitates a number of things I need. It could be the artifact that can dislodge an area from our space-time, effectively veiling it from our plain of perception. This is what Tilingkoot wanted to use on Steelhead after the Hunter Patriots ceased control of it (which they try twice). It could also be the McGuffin that created the "KigaVerse" as it was meant to be a branch of the timeline where Kiga was given a secret advantage he uses to orchestrate a grand plan against everything. Were it not for Derringer's staggering network of influence, allies and power, it never would have been discovered in time, forcing Mark to attack, costing Northwatch his life. But they do seal him away in the Frost Tomb again. In my original AU, Jason helped save the trapped heroes before being struck down by Kiga, but I since learned that they were already released.
But with Kiga being sealed away for a bit and Tilingkoot having been vanquished by Chinook and the Bigfoot tribes, Northwatch II has no primary villain. I was looking at Telios for the job, but Vultok provides something that fits the mantle a bit better and continues the same story arc. Not that it really matters much as she comes in just before Tyrannon, lol. But I have a few years to work stories with her between Destroyer World and Tyrannon.
I've broken the Au into eras, with everything from ancient Arcadia and Egypt in Paragon's Origin, to Vanguard and the Justice Squadron's origins, up to Day of The Destoryer, are the 1st era.
It picks up again after that with my RPCs stories like Shaolin Kid and Northwatch. That's the 2nd era and it ends with Dawn of the Destroyer, when they fix reality and kill Destroyer in '92. I have plans in the works to lend consequence tot hat as well. Gigaton basically becomes worse than Destroyer for blunt aggression and heavy handed evil. But That needs careful consulting so as not to betray continuity. I know little of Gigaton as of right now.
Actually.....
I really like the idea of his AI basically going into tunnel vision mode, keeping the machine running. Manufacturing new tech, new robot Destroyer doubles that basically haunt the world in his wake to this day.
I like the idea that some minions like Rakshasa fear the Ai more due to it's unrelenting drive and complete lack of humanity, whilst Gigaton, in the absence of Destroyer himself, defies the AI.
The third era is going to be wrapping up various story arcs and character arcs before the big invasion. Then comes the grey, murky area of the AU. After Tyrannon... I think the portion of aftermath and the decline of magic will be the last portion of the 3rd era.
The 4th era is that dark, dystopian stretch where... I want desperately to fix things... Like anyone should be by now, I'm deeply invested in this world and what makes it what it is. What makes it special and meaningful. Even though I've said before I like consequence. I thrive on it. You need it. However, this is one time I feel an overwhelming compulsion to fix things. I want to go back and stop Tyrannon from reaching Earth. But I decided a while back to not go that route, and the Destroyer World fix I had in the works facilitated the scratching of that itch perfectly. But like I mentioned before, that's when I want Istvatha to come along, under the genius guise of a benevolent goddess who has heard our cosmic cries of suffering and felt our yearning for the former days of our civilization's glory and heroism.
So would Istvatha prefer Earth in it's former state or current? Would she prefer it to have magic and all the potential that goes with, or would she rather a powerless, dystopian backwater to rule?
I'm trying to get a sense of how she comes at this, what her goals are and how much fun I can have with this. Like what if she also wants to restore Old Earth in some capacity?
You have considerable leeway to interpret V'han's intentions toward an Earth such as you describe. Obviously a "powerless" world would be easier for her to conquer, which might appeal to her given how stubborn "super" Earths tend to be to bend the knee. But Istvatha takes very seriously her stated goal to rule conquered lands to their benefit, and after conquest would immediately channel significant resources into rebuilding a devastated world and caring for its people's needs. Any attempts to interfere with that by native factions or entities would be met with resolute and ruthless suppression.
The Empress's sympathies are definitely with science and technology as the basis for societies under her governance, but she doesn't ignore the potential of magic. Amidst her all-embracing bureaucracy, the Ministry of Mystic Affairs has millions of scholars devoted to studying mysticism in all its forms and facets, and recommending ways for V'han to use her magical resources for the benefit of the Empire and her subjects as a whole. If your Kigaverse offers some unusual or distinctive magic, she'd certainly want to try to exploit it.
But she is a ruler. What aspects of her rulership would easily cause tension among governments or emerging new wave heroes?
Right now I am using the "I'm a Goddess " plot to root her introduction to Earth in the basis of lie, casting a much more sinister, unnerving tone to it all when she's revealed to be an interdimensional conqueror, rather than a deity of any kind. This easily creates a situation where human nature creates mistrust and a hesitation or resentment toward this person's absolute rule.
I'm scared it's going to be too grey of an area in terms of the conflict. I WANT her to be partially .... Not "good" but just. Fair. I love that she comes with benefits (that sounded odd) and isn't just some Tyrannon 2.0, but I need the hook. I need that twist where it becomes clear that she has to go.
I'm interested in what happens in PNP lore? Is Champs Earth still under her control?
And when does the magic begin to come back timeline-wise?
Champs Earth is not under V'han's control as of the latest published word on the subject. Per the original official time line her third and final invasion occurred in 2017, and was initially successful; but the Champions managed to capture the Empress and negotiated her oath to not return to their dimension for a millennium, while their universe's peoples would not cross into her territory.
It's not unprecedented for Istvatha to pose as a goddess. During her initial campaign to conquer her home world of V'ha, she recruited soldiers from an extra-dimensional species called the Golugk who worshiped her after she demonstrated her powers to them. But that tends to happen with more primitive civilizations. Besides, on Champions Earth the Empress had announced who she was and her intentions in the preface to her first invasion of 1998 (she always offers newly discovered worlds the chance to surrender peacefully). So she is is already well known by this point. If it's important to you to stick with the goddess motif, I'd recommend setting your Kigaverse time line before that date of first incursion.
IMO a simpler and more effective "hook" would be to present object lessons as to what happens to those who reject V'han's, ahem, benevolence. There are applicable and illustrative precedents. The Empress prefers to keep local officials on in new capacities if she’s satisfied as to their loyalty to her, and their general competence. "If problems persist (as they often do in cases of longstanding racial or religious differences), it’s not unknown for her to resolve the issue by killing everyone involved — in short, by committing genocide on a massive scale — and then opening the territory for settlement by more rational, mature people. For example, if the Empress ever conquers Champions Universe Earth, it’s likely that significant portions of the Middle East, Africa, and the Indian subcontinent will be “scoured” (as the Imperial Legions puts it) and then made available for other Humans to settle." (Book Of The Empress p. 149)
When superhumans are involved the lessons are even more immediately apparent. By Imperial law, all superhumans in the Empire automatically become members of what's called "the Imperial Battalion." If a superhuman’s powers manifest in childhood, they're taken from their home and raised to become a superhuman soldier; otherwise they're inducted whenever it’s discovered they have powers. The Empress makes allowance for superhumans whose powers aren’t effective in combat or who have religious/moral objections to fighting. They serve in some noncombat capacity, but they still serve.
Battalioneers receive generous pay, perks, benefits, and status with the Empire. The Empress prefers that they join willingly. But any superhuman who refuses to serve is subject to imprisonment and even execution, depending on the nature of their refusal. If a super tries to actively evade induction, those penalties are extended to their family, and any friends or colleagues who assisted them or even knew about their powers and didn't report them. In extreme cases when a superhuman is so valuable that V'han doesn't want to kill them, but so intractable that no other alternative will work, she'll subject them to very effective mind control techniques to turn them into her loyal minions.
For your last question, per the original official time line, super powers return to the Milky Way Galaxy in the year 3000, when a Human scientist named Matharas Kolvel experiments with piercing dimensional barriers. His efforts will somehow restore magic to an even higher level than in the 21st Century. Almost overnight, the whole range of classic super powers become possible again. (This sets up the basis for a "Galactic Champions" campaign reminiscent of DC Comics' Legion of Superheroes, or the original future-era Guardians of the Galaxy from Marvel Comics.)
Oh my god... lmao. So she should have invaded 3 times already. Okay that changes the game with her. I can't take a character that has been a part of historic lore that many times and just say "nah, she doesn't even show up until way later." One might think, eh, no harm, no foil. But to me, that's what I hate about adaptations/remakes/reboots/revivals. Do *IT*, or something else. XD Haha. That's just me though. First thing I think is, so many characters have a story there, some may have met their end there. To say that never happened cheapens what really did happen.
This may be a thing I have to work in now. XD lmao This is getting SO big. -.-
So now I'm curious as to the dates of each invasion, what super groups or key figures were involved (any who lost their lives are especially important to me), and how each was thwarted in summary.
I like that in the last one the Champs were able to capture her. That is just great and I can't wait to sink my teeth into that plot. That is right up my ally.
I'm curious as to when the champs formed, as well as when Defender started his career in heroics? Like I've always been curious about the Champs origins. When they all started, who was around at the time Detroit was destroyed. The MMO, although I appreciate all it does and how hard it did try, does a very poor job of addressing these things. One the one hand it creates this pretense like you're supposed to know EXACTLY who everyone is, what they are like, supposed to understand the precedents they set and ideals they stand for, where they are from, what they are about, what they do, who they fight, etc. And that makes you feel immersed in something bigger than the game you're playing, akin to DC or Marvel. But then you never really get a full depiction of any of it. There are no backstory quests you can play as these characters in, nothing of the sort, which you are heavily left wanting. It's almost like there was a deal to protect book sales or something. hahaha
But yeah, I'm greatly curious as to the basics in this regard.
I hate to double up on such intensive rounds, but I need a deeper dive into Jeff Sinclaire's life.
-Wife(ves)/Any significant love interests, any who died
-Kids
-Significant figures surrounding his personal life
-Significant Nemesis's
I get the sense much of this isn't really included in most cases, but rather chooses to focus on campaign relevant stuff like heroics, tragedy, and the growth and achievements of the mantle before the person barring those exceptional cases.
But any help would be great. I am working on a wife for Vanguard, someone who is there from his origin on. Someone Destroyer targets and uses against him in the Justice Squardon story. I get to do the atmospheric fall & saving super catch scene properly, you know, where they don't barrel into the girl as super speeds, shattering her rib cage. XD
I'm right on the edge of buying Hidden Lands. Like right there. I have that hesitation I cannot break, but I am getting so close. I have to pump out a Shaolin Kid story that just needs Westside/M. City/Red Banner information, but I can probably manage as it is a very intimate story about the power of the Dragon Warrior itself, and how it came to Ricky, who is the last Warrior to face the DD before Tyrannon puts the galaxy on hiatus. I may look into anything that can improve his stories first.
But am almost there.
I have further developed Abbot's Kingdom. There's backdoor mechanics that I want to keep mysterious, but it's a Kether-like dimension of existence, so I want it to actually exist within the Kether, but again, I'm leaving it all open. The only way in is through the Abbot's Monastery.
The Monastery is located at the heart of a large island suspended in time and space, adrift in an endless sea of crystal waters where the sun never sets. Because it is not a physical dimension, no one never ages or gets hungry or full or thirsty here, although can eat or drink and will enjoy it just the same. Ricky samples fruit from along the coastline when the DD sends him there via deathblow to be defeated by one of his minions, who made it into the Monastery somehow and imprisoned The Abbot.
I have been going HARD on the cannon development here. I sort of wanted a Dragon Warrior, the one before Azure Dragon, or second before him, that was somehow corrupted beyond mere manipulation. Some kind of incident or encounter with a powerful mage or mystic that corrupted his core, turning him against the Abbot and toward team DD. This caused the Abbot to begin a war of philosophy and faith for the soul of this DW. I haven't figured out how yet, but I wanted him to find or be taught a way to cheat the Seven Venoms mystic perception (they know who the Abbot has invited/permitted, and who he has not; they know who/what does not belong, and they destroy it. Because the only 2 ways of arriving period, are by being granted access by the Abbot, or sent by Team DD. The Chinese Gods deal strictly through the Abbot with regards to affairs of this dimension, so they are the only 2 conventional, time-honored ways, and the Venoms are the defense system). Then he could ambush the Abbot and overpower him, leading to the Abbot summoning Ricky prematurely to help the venoms free him.
I am working on the lore of the dimension and Abbot themselves, and how the Chinese Gods came to create this place using the Kether. It's essentially the Kingdom of The Dragon Warriors. It is populated by Dragon Warriors and those they have asked the Abbot to join them. So some Dragon Warriors have brought their entire network of family and friends within reason. It is a paradisiacal afterlife where the DWs are called upon all once to aid the living vessel in the critical moment of their fight with the Dragon Warrior when they face him every 60 years in Earth time. But to the Warriors in the Kingdom, that event happened once, for all of them. And when they all did it that one time, it affected the fight of every single Dragon Warrior who ever fought the Death Dragon.
I thought that was a cool developer concept to hide in there.
I'm working on it all, but I like it and will be keeping it for sure.
I have been working on Wrath of The Dragon, and Dr. Yin Wu. I even have a short list of actors I would want for him.
Donnie Yen with good wardrobe and makeup would have the solid martial arts basis for a few scenes I need my Dr. Wu to be in. One of those scenes is when Dr. Wu and Ricky are alone, and he tests Ricky with surprise martial arts attacks using ancient, obscure techniques and styles only a Dragon Warrior with the knowledge and skill of the Abbot would be able to effectively respond to, counter, or even mimic. One of them that he uses is an ancient, rare form of tiger claw which Ricky is able to mimic and fight in, but Dr. Wu is just a bit more adapt and practiced with it, and out of tight, complex hand exchange, Dr. Wu uses his forearm positioning which he had laid out like a trap, to power Ricky's shorter guard downward, allowing the nails of his right hand to extend unanswered and scratch Ricky's face.
Dr. Wu had applied a specialized chi poison to the tips of his nails. This poison is designed to react to and attack the chi in a desired victim, in the cases of amplified, alpha level chi subjects such as Dragon Warriors, who are like a walking quasi-dormant superconductor for chi, the poison goes to work with haste, producing a non-lethal fever-like array of symptoms. IN anyone without a strong, active reserve of chi, it will have no effect at all and be passed through the system harmlessly.
This is a test The Watchers have for Dragon Warriors, and Yin Wu uses it on Ricky to be sure.
Another is the fight with the Death Dragon itself.
I figured there's no way the DD can come into our dimension to fight. There would be too many souls on hand to absorb for power, just from the tournament grounds. And I mean he'd be here. From what I've learned of him, his presence would immediately start to cause chaos and destruction to rip through China like jetstreams of DD mojo.
Instead I have Ricky ritualistically anointed to enter a pocket dimension that serves as the arena for this contest every 60 years. Lacking any information on what that might look like aside from that one Hi Pan mission where you fight him on a special map, right now that dimension is a black void the DD can manipulate. He creates a version of Westside in his own image to rattle Ricky before and at the start of the fight. He creates both a normal Ravenswood, and one where he's killed all the students, etc, etc. He messes with Ricky a lot, and one of the larger ways he does this, is by becoming both his father, and Dr. Yin Wu.
He's never seen his own father, so that's just a dirty, evil play to pull on an 18 year old kid, but Dr. Wu really, really intimidates him by design; just innately. So to take Wu's form is the ultimate mind-play to gain an advantage, and it works for a while.
Donnie could be good for Lee Feng or Yin Wu.
I picture Dr. Wu as Hiroyuki Sanada. It just happens. But Chow Yun-fat fan as well. Not that any of that really matters, lol. But it's fun to imagine it all in motion.
I have developed my Vanguard WWII scene. Before Jeff ever sets his gaze upon the Bell, he serves in WWII, primarily in the capacity of a translator, but he still fights with his unit as most would and did. I haven't figured all this out yet as it hinges some on what comes before in the story, but his Squad is are on the move within Germany. Recall, they are a specialized AXIS buster unit, so they aren't operating under the direct umbrella of Allied operations; essentially they are scrambling after a mission.
They stumble upon a concentration camp predominantly filled with polish prisoners and ambush the German sentries, officers and staff. I want them to have more than one powered individual and at least one super solider, I think maybe the Original Northwatch, Mark Derrigner, or both. Anyway, once the commotion has settled, the Sgt. is able to better try to figure out what the hell this place is, at first assuming they were POWs, American, Canadian, or English. As Polish prisoners begin to emerge in huddled masses, shades of the more sinister truth begin to percolate in many of their minds. Elderly, women, children, nary a fit fighting body in sight.
AS they begin to speak Polish, Jeff can understand both Polish and German, and the commanding German officer begins to spout out a diabolical speech intended to make the prisoners fear and refuse cooperation with the Allies. In it he tries to reassure them that they are playing a vital role in the Vanguard of German supremacy. Jeff can piece together that entire families are here being held prisoner, some waiting to see missing relatives as they speak, from this speech. Another German speaking member is also piecing together the same information as crying Polish prisoners are pulling on him from through the fence. He snaps and shoots the German Officer, setting off a feverish moment of chaos as the prisoners back up, all expect for one who is saying to Jeff over and over, "Justice. Justice."
This whole event has a profound effect on Jeff in a few obvious ways and is the driving force behind his persona and work ethic as a hero. I can't think of a better motivating origin moment for that type of character of that age, tbh. Like few other things can live up to the man he becomes as Vanguard, imo.
@bulgarex I recall you saying you didn't really want Jeff to have PTSD because he's too strong of a hero in later situations for it to make sense. (I disagree with that entire sentiment. It holds the potential to carry the message of "If you have PTSD, you couldn't be a hero". I think we all agree that is wrong. I know what you meant - I think - fully. That Vanguard could not do what he does as Vanguard, with the pois, steadfast courage, and clear head, if he suffered from legitimate Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It would hinder him when aliens are invading entire cities, etc, ec, etc. We all should get that, but I just disagree. I don't think it has to be the classic, guns make me clam up, or, loud noises and bangs rattle me and can send me into psychosis. It does not have to be that stereotypical of how we see it in films and on TV, where Marines spent 45 minute episodes in the streets of an American city, trapped in a pychosis-fueled delusion that they are still at war. This is what they called shell shock, and comes from front line, active engagement combat. It has many degrees, but that is the one that, yes, MANY men have come home with since WWI. They just didn't participate in data-based studies. The US military did a poor job of understanding this up to and after Vietnam. [Just because you asked, DOES NOT mean they gave you the entire picture of their mental health. Many of them died in silence about how bad it really was] Make no mistake. As a man who's family is STEEPED in service going back 4 generations, War. Is. Hell. You do not go to war and come back the same person, even if you present the same in your day-to-day.) But I needed there to be times when he's not stoically professional. When you see that he is more than an ideal, but a man. There have to be moments where you see beyond the iconic exterior. The two moments I chose were then in WWII, and when they lose Crusader. He carries that loss personally as his own failure, and it crushes him.
So you have this one incident where he and Mark and NorthWatch [OG] free a concentration camp. And although Jeff is among those who keep their composure and head for command through it all, actually helping to focus everyone up, you can see without a doubt this has reached deep inside of him and squeezed something.
Then later, you have a singular moment when, when he's finally alone, he has a man cry for his young friend who fought to his death to protect hundreds of civilians. And Digitak II comforts him.
I don't think that makes him less Superman'ish, but more.
Wait -wait -wait. It's also hugely important to explain that, in the KigaVerse, Crusader's knowledge of the occult leads him to be aware of the legends of Takofanes, and highly, borderline obsessively suspicious of his impending return. For bits of the first story [as part of his story arc] and the beginning of Rise of Takofanes (2nd KV JS appearance), Crusader tries to get the Squad invested in looking into Takofanes with him, but few of them see the level of clear evidence to divert time or resources from the plethora of global missions they already juggle.
So when it happens, Takofanes emerges, and Crusader is the first to respond, he's given no chance by the end but fights with the heart of a God and does enough to save hundreds. But when the Squad arrive, Takofanes is already annoyed with Crusader and wants him dead, so he binds the big box threats, like Vanguard momentarily to finish Crusader off.
Vanguard has to watch with the others as Crusader is heroically cut down after already being beaten and magic'd half to death, knowing that he didn't listen.
@bulgarex I hope these strange times find you well and in good health.
I have gone the step further and finally developed my Bell of the Chosen. I'm sticking to Vanguard's original origin here because i believe these moments to be iconic and not to be "fixed". Played with? Maaaaybe.
He guards the expedition to Tibet, and during a sever blizzard, the group gets broken up along a long, harsh trail. Organizing the head of the pack, Jeff heads back to muster as many of the rear as he can. One by one he brings them back, but when going back for the last man, he becomes lost and reaches the Nyingpa Temple by morning, exhausted and near frozen to death, still insisting he must find the last man.
When the monks finally get him mobile and talking, all he wants to do is get back to find the man, dead or alive. They allow him to go over and over, but he accompanied by a monk each time. Jeff and this monk become friends during his time there, and he comes to see the hero in Jeff as he risks frostbite time and again, just trying to recover a body for his family.
Over time Jeff gives up, and actually starts to fall in love with the Temple and it's teachings. He decides to stay and worship as well as train a bit.
Now this temple has guarded the Bell of the Chosen for thousands of years, as I'm sure you know. This temple has long used this Bell as part of their tradition and training their monks. When a young monk reaches a certain point in his studies and training when his masters believe he or she is ready to begin the real journey they are given the task of hiking the series of steps up the mountain to the Hall of the Chosen. Once there, they are instructed to simply pray and rest for the night within the Chamber, do nothing else, touch nothing else. In the morning, pray and meditate until high noon, and then ring the bell...
The catch is, when the monk steps before the Bell to ring it, the bell judges them. All of their guilt, shame, fear, all of their darkest thoughts and desires or fears of them, come forth, and they are broken down in a moment of true humility, each and every time. It is a valued test meant to humble the student before he begins his journey toward enlightenment and monkhood. No one can ring the Bell, because it humbles them telepathically to the point they understand they are not worthy to even behold it.
After about six months of staying in the temple and providing the monks with a refreshing, entertaining new student, Jeff is given the task of hiking to the Hall of the Chosen to meditate and be humbled. That night, As Jeff is trying to just pray before he rests, he can swear he hears the faint, disembodied gong of a bell. He shakes it off, thinking the monks are messing with him from further down the mountain. He hears it again and again until it disrupts his prayer so loudly he thinks the bell itself made the gong...
He gets up, and as he gets closer to the bell, he can feel in compelling him toward it. He picks up an ancient, musty mallet that hasn't been touched in perhaps thousands of years, maybe more. With one hesitant swing, he cracks that brass and the monks down in the temple basically break character for the first time in thousands of years, lol. They literally run up the mountain to see what they hell happened.
It's during his monk training that he begins to realize that he has a battery of enhanced physical properties, as well as some new abilities like flight. That's when he realizes he cannot stay. That he has a gift the whole world can benefit from if he can become something more than just a man. If he can dedicate the rest of his life to being a Vanguard of Justice and peace.
So I have been working at length on my 5 year decline concept. After Tyrannon is thwarted in the KigaVerse, it takes magic 5 years to completely dissipate on us. During my scene where I montage the major changes, I wanted to hit on many of the major characters and what happens to them, the major, fantastic elements and properties of the world that would cease to function or exist, and the ramifications that would have on our Champs world and society. As I'm poking around, looking at iconic characters, I come across a heartbreaking, profound instance in Dr. Silverback...
I have him and Kraa understanding before this scene that magic is dying. Although they can't be totally sure yet, Silverback is sure he will lose his humanity and intelligence, and although Kraa refuses to let it show, he suspects as much as well. By now [2030], Silverback has a young female protégé who idolizes him like a father and for his unparalleled genius and beautiful mind. She has a borderline attraction to him personality, as she is in her 30s, not "young-young". Anyway, during the scene showing all the changes, Doc Silverback, knowing he will lose himself, works his hands to the bone trying to retrofit aspects of his existing breakthroughs and current new research to adapt to the coming change and still function. He accomplishes a lot for heroes and forces of justice around the world, inventing some new, viable tech across the board that leaves a lasting legacy on what's left of the world after 2035, but one day his protégé comes into work and finds a confused, scared silverback gorilla huddled in the corner of the lab.
It's a super, super heavy moment the way I have it envisioned. Just heart wrenching. This whole Tyrannon twist is a big one. It's so absolute and extreme, not at all what you'd expect, and so tragic. But that makes it SO good. Any hero universe from Capitol to DC would be so lucky to have such an era of story telling rife with tragedy yet lined with this almost fitting beauty. Humanity has to get by for a while on it's humanity. I look at it like a test the universe gives humanity. Can you make it without the tech and magic and powers and heroes to save you? When there are no villains to cause upheaval and chaos, who among us will rise to fill that void? Who among us will continue the legacy of those like Defender and Nighthawk and Vanguard?
There's something so satisfying about it although it's so bizarre because when you unpack it, the tragedy and loss is staggering.
Now I'm not sure about this one, but when it comes to the 5 Year Decline, I have been gazing upon Arcadia with an unforgiving analytical frame of mind.
IN my train of logic, when the Milky Way "dries up", no magic functions here anymore. This means if an alien ship with advanced, extra-mundane levels of tech, was to enter the Milky Way, they would be left with a small and closing buffer zone where their tech can still draw power from nearby magic. However, if they do not correlate their widespread system failures in time and keep advancing into our "dried up" galaxy, their tech will fail indefinitely, stranding them and likely killing them, one way or another. Any organic biological properties their race has evolved naturally would still remain, but their "supers or mutants or Augments, would become ordinary aliens of that given race.
So, in that same Trian of thought, anything the Progenitors did here in the Milky Way, was powered largely in part to magic... This means Empyreans are Augments. Not naturally evolved under the tyranny of Einstein's laws. KigaVerse Empyreans begin to lose powers, age, and die.
To the Arcadian society, this a profound moment of loss and lamentation that transcends time as we know it - I man just imagine. But they come to embrace it and turn it into a thing of beauty. Most of them welcome their passing after a life of immortality and isolation. Their one wish is for humanity to learn from it's mistakes, and their one regret is not helping them more.
Before Arcadia becomes a ghostly metropolis, Hazor and his people come forth, working with world leaders to broker the relative peace already in motion after the movement to stop Tyrannon.
But over time, Hazor passes away and with his passing, Arcadia is considered to have ended. In keeping with his wishes, those who outlive him travel the world teaching the world about Arcadian philosophies in the hopes they can still leave an Arcadian legacy behind for the world. They call themselves "Echoes".
The very last scene in the KigaVerse is of an empty but still stunning Arcadia. We pass through all the major locations from old stories, and end in the Palace, where we see Prince Nathaniel Hazoren, now a grown man and the last Empyrean. He is trying to tap into his dormant Ketherin [Infinity Engine} powers, which there is a teaser that he is able to do.
I needed to end on some kind of hopeful note beyond the morbid, exhausting tragedy of the Decline. I mean.. it's bad, lol. In a beautiful way, but bad.
So, Paragon's origin story is once again being amended to fit perfectly snug [relatively speaking] into Arcadian, and Hazorian cannon. I know I need Hidden Lands to really do this, lol. And like this comes with so much anxiety, tearing down a whole origin to look at it and figure out how to make it function better, but it has to be done and this is where the reward is. I'm going to do what I can meantime, but Hidden lands is basically a must here. I can't do this without Hidden Lands, but on the same hand, it had better be more than a PnP campaign primer. It needs to be an introduction to Arcadia as if one is going to create something from it. If that subtle distinction makes any sense. A campaign primer can easily and effectively give any garden variety Champs Dungeon Master a basis to create their own campaign involving it that won't outright offend fellow enthusiasts. Whereas a full and proper introduction to Arcadia itself will teach someone exactly what the nuances of this society are, how they have evolved and what that means for the society today. So someone doing a hardcore Arcadian project isn't going to stumble on their detail at any time.
I really need the ladder, as this is not a campaign, but a novella story. If this isn't a full and robust intel report on everything within Hazor's domain of rulership, down to flora and fauna, and how they are used, I will need to invent my own KV elements, anyway.
This is where i have been torn on the investment, combined with personal issues I have had in the past with online spending (RTSMMOs -.-''''). I have conditioned myself to say "you don't need this".
But I really need to morph and reshape the nature of Paragon's origin. Hazor sending for him and all that doesn't line up. The Hazor I've composited and fleshed out would not pose ANY amount of threat to any child, regardless of the abilities it is presenting, for his father to hide him away... unless he knows how evil Arvad is. Unless he knows Arvad is a telepath.
Playing it out, Paragon is born, and within a short while, it is going to be discovered that no telepath can detect his mind, although he is clearly a perfectly healthy baby showing signs of sight, hearing, and vocal abilities. This ability of Paragon's was one of the first, because I knew if he was going to grow up among humans, not knowing who or what he is, Arcadia's psychics couldn't be able to detect him or he'd be brought in, and his dad would know this and never have sent him. Here's where it gets murky and is open for what exactly happens.
I need to set up some kind of Arvad plot here. A BIG one that will pay off in the end. And I keep looking to Ogrun.
Advanced alien tech continues to work for the most part, because it doesn't depend on the influence of magic to "loosen" physical laws.
This aspect is confusing to me. I've rationalized it several ways. One is that other galaxies do not have the swell of concentrated magic that the Milky Way does, and therefore, their technology did not evolve and develop under the influence of magic to propel everything forward. This would mean alien tech from galaxies with a low to non-existent presence of magic would still function.
The other is sort of Hero Games approach to it. I'm not exactly fond of the murkiness and flimsiness of cohesion here. It proposes that magic didn't even influence any aspect of our presently known/used technology throughout the ages, until very recently, when things in the Champs Earth/Milky Way begin to appear that are beyond our real world tech. This mean no real world tech happened to have involved magic, in a galaxy heavily influenced by magic. It also means for some reason, aliens can have wild tech that still works, but none of our will unless we invent new stuff. So in a way, it implies that the sciences we were working with to develop our cool tech, was rooted in magic. This creates a veritable shitstorm of conceptual and continuity issues when you really unpack it for use.
In my verse, everything in out branch of the Tree of existence is powered by magic. There's no non-magic galaxy, and if there is, they aren't making FTL drives...
So yeah, all alien tech depends on the same aspects of natural laws ours did. When Destroyer used the Jade Mirror in 2026, the moment of the event itself sent out a massive beacon of magic energy. Something akin to 80-100 years of Earth history was re-written in an instant. The kind of power required to achieve this sent out a sort of signal, not unlike most of the most powerful, primordial forces in our universe, they leave behind or send out a trace residue, evidence of a powerful celestial event that occurred. In a similar way of thinking about it, the Mirror sent out a massive WoW signal across every other branch, or at least, far enough for Tyrannon to feel it...
The heroes barely thwart Destroyer, and a handful of them use the information Ravenspeaker passed on to use the Mirror to reverse everything Destroyer changed and they add in one little footnote; Destroyer dies in '92 from his own orbital blast. But when the heroes use the Mirror again to fix things, that's when Tyrannon uses the moment of the event. When the burst of magic culminates and activates, Tyrannon opens a door to our galaxy and world...
You'll never have the last laugh with Destroyer. Not if I'm writing it. XD
I have it so that in '87, the teams did not have the special, extreme-range, compact coms devices that they did in '92.It's too early, and the plot here, as well as in DoTD, wrap it around.
I'm working out the fine inner trappings, but Crusader suspects Takofanes is coming. I'm taking my sweet **** time developing how and why that is. I don't want it to be something hokey. I have it so that part of this is due to visions Drifter has had and speaks to Crusader about to warm him to be careful. Drifter is among the only ones who supports Crusader when he suggests they find ways of preparing for and detecting a Takofanes emergence.
In First Flight, their KV origin story, Drifter has this vision, warns Crusader, and he begins to investigate. When he is looking for it and snooping in the right places, he sees or hears signs or warnings of his return - but again, I'm avoiding the hokiness if it kills me.
When Crusader encounters Takofanes, he has no way of alerting the Squadron, who are on a mission elsewhere. The Watchdogs get wind of the incident and leave the JS an alert with details which they find when they return, as the alert sets off an alert on Digitak II's arm module.
BY the time they respond, it's too late. Crusader has fought with the Dogs but they all got messed up. Takofanes even gets around to trying lightning magic on Anvil and almost hills him (a foreshadowing of what Destroyer does to him when the weakness is finally revealed in this scene).
After Takofanes kills Crusader, I have Vanguard and Brawler beat. the. fucking. breaks. off of Takofanes. I mean Vanguard is swinging for the fences until Takofanes grows weary of assessing them since neither have any real magic, and he starts to take care of business.
It's looking like everyone might die until Vanguard goes beast mode and proves Takofanes wrong by throwing up a Magic Resistance Buff XD and just powers through certain spells to do crit damage on on Tako's corpse-like physique.
He eventually vanishes in a climactic moment where I have it so Takofanes exchanges an unspoken moment with Vanguard that confuses and infuriates him, before he vanishes. This scene is intended to depict Takofanes being impressed by him in some mild capacity, and deciding that he will be his champion to accomplish his mysterious ends. It's a foreshadowing of the next Takofanes story when he revives a ton of fallen heroes and villains from KV stories. including Vanguard and Crusader. This is a difficult thing for the heroes who have to face the evil corpses of their beloved friends or the hideous ghosts of old enemies come back to haunt them.
After Crusader's death in this manner, Digitak II is inspired to invent the extreme-range coms and get them into the proper distribution lines for ALL heroes to have them. It comes around when these are used in '92 to greatly increase the amount of response to the Detroit Incident, as well as improve the speed with which they were able to respond.
It also comes around for the JS when Vanguard uses the coms to give his iconic [KV] speech.
This has become a sort of development blog. But here's to hoping my mentor is in good health and enjoying the finer things in life.
I have developed Ricky's story arc up to the end of his run as Shaolin Kid, and with that is now paired the story of Red Lotus, as the end up being intertwined by not only a Red Banner BS lie (that the DD has domain over all the dead, implying that if Lotus, then known as Hiroyuki or Kuroi Kaze, served the banner, he could get his wife and daughter back), but also by a sort of warrior code.
Hiro was feared Yakuza enforcer for years in his youth. He trained in military tactics and weapons in addition to martial arts making him a chi master. He was a valued asset of the Yakuza operating out of Takashima. So valued that the corrupt, clandestine overlord over Japan, Masaki Nakajima, recruited him into a special augmentation program he had developed. Whilst most were soldiers, Hiroyuki was a Yakuza thug. But somehow, Hiro outclassed every last candidate and became the forerunner of the entire project. His augmentation took like he had been born with it, and the scientists suspected his familiarity and bond with chi had a lot to do with it.
He spends years as part of a special team of supers, mutants, and even a supernatural spirit entity by the name of Hitobashira, who was buried alive as part of a ritual of the same name, and -insert secret developer notes- struck a deal with the Death Dragon to be his immortal Champion. Hito's motives, operations, and history are ENTIELY unknown to anyone in the Champs world; just he and the DD. He would seem to work in mysterious ways for a Champion of the DD, but it very well be that it is just a period of hiatus in the present day. No one knows how Masaki came to have his [feigned] loyalty, or why he would agree to service, but Hito is the most loyal, obedient and stoic of the entire team. His affiliation to the Banner comes as a complete revelation at the end.
Also in the team, and leading it for some reason, is an American mutant who goes by the handle, Double-Barrel, as he prefers a custom-made high tech energy shotgun with twin barrels. He leads the team in addition to the private mercenary army Masaki uses for protection and ground level enforcement.
Masaki used this team to run his own little Japanese CIA operation without the support of knowledge of the army or government. Why? Masaki was a yakuza member just like Hiro, from Takashima. The Yakuza helped him break into legitimate business and build a secure foundation around him. Then Masaki used this black ops super team to consolidate their shared power position across the country to the point they even have the Tokyo police in their pocket, and the military nor government know Masaki is the phantom with a 60% share of power over Japan.
Hioryuki ends up marrying and having a daughter. This changes everything for him and he wants OUT. Masaki isn't done yet. He needs more from him. Hiro is strung along for 4-5 years of his daughter's young life, doing missions and growing a conscious. Finally when she is 5, he let's Hiro go.
Two years later, Hiro is chilling, enjoying a peaceful family life. Masaki has finally brought his vision of total power to fruition, and is now growing paranoid. He wants all loose ends taken out to prevent his future downfall or exposure leading to complications. The agent he worries about most, is Hiro. He knows how close he is to his wife and how honest they are with each other. He's always felt a resentment, almost hatred from Hiro's wife, so he is sure Hiro has told her things.
He has Double-Barrel deploy on Hiro's house to take him out and orphan the girl.
Hiro and his family are creatures of habit, however prepared they may be. But on this day, everything went wrong. Nothing was as it should have been, and Double-Barrel is a f***ing moron.
The daughter is not at school, she is at home with a stomach flu. Hiro is not there, he is headed into town to get some medication for the girl.
Double-Barrel decides to just kill everyone, and hide the bodies in the lotus pond of their backyard. A fateful mistake for a lot of souls in Japan.
When Lotus comes home, he begins to suspect something is wrong and goes into panic-fueled beast mode. Annihilates everyone in the house. Double-Barrel decided to leave because he overthinks it and gets nervous that those among them can't handle him if he comes back to the ambush instead of being caught in one. He was right, however cowardly.
Lotus snaps and kills everyone. I mean everyone. the biggest, most secure yakuza stronghold in Japan goes down in 9 minutes. The Tokyo Police HQ gets raided and everyone dies. All of the team members, except Hitobashira, are killed. The Nakajima Corp building is smashed and everyone dies.
That's when Hito regenerates a fresh[?] heart and goes to Hiro, telling him in not so many words, "Serve my master the Death Dragon, and he may give you your family back."
Years later he is the annoyed servant of Hi Pan. After he killed Masaki, he let go of everything. The twisted ball of hatred within him from his psychotic break never goes away, but that beast mode killer instinct is not there anymore, until something happens.
Up until now, Ricky's story is about he and the DD, with Hi Pan being the embodiment of the DD until Wrath of The Dragon. But in the next story, something tragic happens that is really the culmination of Ricky's coming of age.
In Way of The Warrior, Lotus has had enough and wants the power of the Dragon Warrior so he can kill Hi Pan and gain a communion with the DD. He tries to ambush Ricky, but kills his girlfriend Mya, instead as she is lying in his bed, also with short, silky black hair. When Lotus sees what he did, it sends him into another psychotics break as Mya is about the same age as his daughter would have been, and he does not favor killing females, at all.
Ricky catches a glimpse of a remorseful, distraught Lotus fleeing the scene out the fire escape.
After grieving the loss of his soulmate, he elects to go to Hi Pan. Recall Ricky has defeated the DD in the last story, so the Banner are very weary of testing him flat out. Hi Pan knows he has to get the drop on him next time they meet. Ricky has hit up some Banner thugs in a rather uncharacteristic fashion for the intel he needs, and they sold Lotus out. Hi Pan is infuriated, and agrees to double-cross Lotus with Ricky.
Lotus argues with Hi Pan when Hi summons him into a line of questioning, and Hi pokes Lotus with the lie that because Ricky bested him over and over, and Lotus let him get tot he Tournament, the DD would never give his family back.
Lotus goes into the fight with Ricky at origin Story levels of focus and willpower.
Hi Pan along with a bunch of senior devotees watch the fight in judgement of Lotus. They have.... The best fight I've ever written. But it eventually becomes clear that Ricky was going easy to prove a point by not slowing down, but gradually turning it up. He destroys Lotus with his own blade.
Immediately he is hit by it. He, at just 19, has killed a man. A warrior who was his equal if not better. He is traumatized. And as it's sinking in, the banner bodies just fade away, slowly, nonchalantly leaving Lotus there to literally rot. Ricky is appalled by them and gives Hi Pan a look that makes hi Pan a little paranoid.
Weeping and having no idea what he is doing, he hoists Lotus over his shoulder and takes him to the harbor where he gives him a warriors' burial, setting him afloat in the water his his swords in hand. At this point he considers Shaolin Kid dead, and stops fighitng crime to start fighting suicidal depression.
Later, in his first story as White Talon, Hi Pan tries to get the drop on him by kidnapping members of the Westsiders, who are like his family, and he kills Hi Pan, lol. He fights a serious darkness for awhile that's purposefully hard because you want him to be the fun-loving, pure-hearted kid you know. But it's a story of a boy who has to fight for the problems of adults.
I am still developing the parts of Ricky's story after he kills Hi Pan. He hopes in his naïve youth that it will disrupt the banner's hold over the city, although he did it out of protective rage.
But instead of disrupting the Banner, nothing really changes except a decree is sent down the chain of command that Ricky is wanted dead by the Cult, no questions asked. Attack on sight. Now this isn't something all devotees honor tot he letter. A large group likely would to avoid seeming afraid or be reported as defying said decree. But several devotees who bump into him, will often ignore the decree to fight another day. In his early years, Ricky does a lot to disrupt Pan's lower ranks, building bonds of friendship or respect with many Banner fighters.
When Hi Pan is killed, a replacement is sent directly from China. I have conceptualized him as a hardcore, unrelenting zealot of the DD. A stoic, sadistic, ice cold mastermind and cruel brute. He makes Hi Pan seem weak and cartoonish, and lacks any of the personal flavors and shades of self-interests and selfish motives. He is a devote servant in mind, body and spirit, and runs a much more grass roots, old world outfit than Hi Pan did. He quickly and ruthlessly elevates the Banner's status to the forerunner among the gangs and criminal groups in M. City using the members he brings in from China behind him. His own hand-picked loyalists and enforcers who shake things up in M. City's gang scene and back everyone else into a corner.
He wears a black Dragon mask carved from an animal skull, and is a martial master in addition to being twice as powerful as Hi Pan when it comes to the arcane.
I am planning a major last hoorah story for this when Ricky ends up dying. That exact scene has to be planned out and conceptualized perfectly because I know what I want to happen more or less, it just need a delicate plot to set up first. Basically Ricky sacrifices himself fighting a Death Dragon manifestation the Banner managed to summon and unleash upon Westside. Ricky, backed by the abbot, has to use his Chi to protect the life essence of the entire city whilst members of the Champions and other cameo appearances help the Westsiders vanquish the DD's manifestation.
But before the DD dies, he begins to set his focus and wrath upon Ricky, who once again, foiled his designs. He makes a desperate, hailmary play by attacking Ricky's vulnerable life force. his ch'i is spread out like a web across the city, coating everyone like a shield to stop the DD from eating their life force. But this is leaving Ricky's life force almost naked, and weakening him toward unconsciousness by the second. The DD devours Ricky's soul as he is being cut down, and they both die together (well, the DD doesn't die, but his summoned avatar is vanquished).
And I want to do a story where heroes from around M. City avenge him by taking out Hi Pan's successor, whom I mentioned has caused a lot of upheaval to call for it anyway. So for some of those heroes like the Champs, it's less of a "let's avenge Ricky" than it is for Kodiak or the Westsiders.
For about a year now I have been trying to decide what happens to the essence of Dragon Warrior when Ricky dies. IN earlier incarnations of his death, before it was even fleshed out, I had him pass it on to one of the Westsiders, or one of the supporting characters from their stories. After more was developed and Ricky's story arc began to take shape in a clear direction, I decided Ricky would have a hard time giving this power to anyone he cared about, or was too young like he was, etc. Ricky would look at it, and think of someone like Nighthawk. Who is already capable, and could handle the real burden of it, which is not the power, but the destiny of any DW. To have to protect the power from those who seek it, to inevitably fight the Banner or face failure as a warrior. To fight the DD and all that goes with that (in my universe, things are less campy in-that, you don't fight a Death Dragon without... not being traumatized, but... Imagine tomorrow you had to train to fight an ancient, pure evil Chinese Dragon god... and you did it. Would you come back to your normal life the same? Nothing different about your psyche, how you view the world? What you can be bothered or disturbed by?
When Adewale (Azure Dragon) gave Ricky the power, Ricky says "I don't understand." and Adewale says back, "nor did I Mr. Feng. Nor did I."
This is supposed to tell you everything you need to know about what lies in store for this innocent, unprepared young man. A short life of fighting evil that inevitably leads to a cosmic death match with the Death Dragon.
But in this version, The DD devours Ricky's soul, so he dies instantly. I could have it so the DD destroys the lineage of the Dragon Warriors then and there. Or, if we recall, the Dragon Warrior essence is ch'i energy. It's how it was created, how it's passed on, and where it draws all of it's power from. Ricky's Ch'i was spread out across every soul in M. City at the time, even plants and animals.
There is almost unlimited play room here, and I like that. The Abbot is the true master control unit for the DW power, I know as a matter of [KV] cannon, the Abbot could in theory manipulate the energy up until the 5 Year Decline, when he is isolated from Earth.
I think I have figured the Magic bending physics problems out. My mind is so weird I had to share this. Some of you will love it.
Imagine, as a thought experiment, a circular, squishy membrane (physics). When you push against it, it has some give, but not much, just a tough membrane.
We submerge it in a liquid labelled Magic. This soaks into the membrane making it very pliable. We can now push long, complex shapes into the membrane and stretch the shape.
We drain the Magic solution off and add an new solution labeled Tyrannon. This attracts and absorbs all of the Magic solution.
We drain Tyrannon off and let the membrane sit for 5 days.
When we return, the membrane has dried up and hardened. To push on it now is like pushing on the inside of a giant tennis ball.
In short: Tyrannon turned the galaxy into a tennis ball.
So we all get it, magic makes physics pliable and able to be manipulated drastically compared to real world sciences.
So for centuries as mankind advanced through the ages, our technology levels never pushed against physics until very recently. It makes sense now that I have conceptualized how the mechanics actually work. It bends physics.
So my version stays the same, Alien worlds are bound by the same physics, and their advanced technology is bending physics.
Several years ago a CO friend and fellow Super Leader came to me for help. They had come up with a Lycanthropic sorcerer character by the name of Hocus Lupus. They wanted my help coming up with an origin and backstory for him that layout out the foundation for a lush, passive sphere of story archs are plot elements around him - like any good character has.
I immediately thought the nature of his being was so compelling, a good story could easily exist there and make it all that much better. I liked the idea of duality being one of his main concepts, and the struggle between the two forces within him.
His mother we decided was a powerful sorceress out of the Vibora Bay area, but a member of an elite, venerated magic order that is clandestine and secretive, but of the best intentions. Hocus's innate relationship with the arcane forces comes directly from his mother's blood, which always has arcane energies surging through it. It is literally a part of her biology acting to boost and aid her normal bodily functions, as well as protect against disease, telepathic attacks, and magic attacks.
His father, however, is responsible for his lycanthropic form. Unlike his father, Hocus cannot become human, he is perpetually stuck as a werewolf. His father is basically the opposite of his mother. An evil mastermind and ruthless, power-hungry super villain. He is a menacing figure who is extremely powerful for any werewolf, being able to fight like a chi master, as well as use magic, and having a genius intellect. IN addition to all of this, he rules a vast and powerful Lycan organization based out of Vibora Bay.
It's this character, this Lycan super villain that I swung back around to recently. I was looking to make a new character for the Westsiders, someone to fill a specific role in the dynamics. I created Timber, a lycanthropic teenage boy who attends Ravenswood's Westside campus. I decided his Hocus's father would make the perfect father for his as well. This will let me make us of a KigaVerse version of this villain we created together, because I really like this guy. He's not your average villain. IN Hocus's stories he comes to Hocus as the benevolent, well-meaning father who just now discovered he had a son. He manipulates the socks off Hocus, slowly leading him into his violent, primal world of Lycanthropy. Eventually Hocus realizes he is being groomed to join an super villain group, and that his father is just cut & dry evil genius material. That's when he is able to use information he gathered spending time around dad to locate his mother, and learn about his other side.
Ultimately Hocus is torn between two opposite sides vying for his loyalty, and has to choose who to become and why. It was a really, really good story for a really special, cool character.
I am eager to have this villainous father also discover Timber, who is much younger and more innocent and vulnerable, although he has his Westsiders family, which is an advantage Hocus never had.
Right now I need to look into Ravenswood and any sanctioned Young Super Groups they have.
For what I need, using one isn't really an option.
In the Westsiders story lines, a young super group is established as competition for the Westsiders. Whilst the Westsiders are a ragtag group of misfit screw-ups just trying to figure out as they go, these teens are prodigies. Superstars of Millennium City and the surrounding County, equated by many in the press and public opinion as the Young Justice Squadron. They are an image of perfection in every thing they do. And they vex the Westsider's every step taken in their shadow. The Westsiders just don't like them, lmao. They are "too clean" as Tiber puts it. But they are also too. damn. good. at what they do. It's as thought they have some kind of secret...
In the Westsiders series, there are two stories centering around a massive plot by the Kings of Edon to make Westside ground zero for the assimilation of our dimension into the Q'liphoth.
The first story is Some Like It 'Photh, where the Westsiders become suspicious that something is wrong and end up on the scent of Kevin Poe, who quickly makes them and leads them straight into a trap. He's more confused than anything, but pissed they are putting heat on his every move.
Turns out Poe is also figuring on something not being right, and has no interest in joining the Q'liphoth. In the end of Some Like It Photh, the Westsiders discover that the Young Justice Squadron (not real name), are actually imbedded agents of the Kings of Edom, but it takes a second story to take them down and finally bring some respect the Westsider's way.
So, given that they are all villains, I need to create the team, lol.
Paragon is still being developed, because parts are...I just don't know where i sit with them. Particularly his involvement in DoTD. He may just be in isolation for that, and present at the funeral for Detroit, because there's a super good, important part of that scene for him where he realizes society is worth fighting for.
I have to perfectly smooth out the details of everything surrounding his dad, Avrad, Hazor, and his birth/abandonment. I feel like I know Arvad will be why it's done, he might even be the one who does it as part of a huge retooling where Arvad routinely visits him and grooms him to be his Archon (more or less, of course). But I don't know, I have to perfect it so it is a snug mesh with canon again more or less, and is compelling at every level.
But he does befriend the Watch Dogs in 1984, joins them for a bit, and decides he has to travel the world to try to help more, like Vanguard did. He later admits he was trying to globe trot and save everyone like a great human man from America, but couldn't figure out how to do that.
When he first encounters Arcadia, he is brought there by his real father, but a wedge is driven between Paragon and Archon immediately because as his father is trying to explain himself and appease the situation, Archon has no regard or respect for his authority when a stranger has been smuggled into the kingdom. He's just saying, "stranger, you must accompany me so we can clear a few things up." If you recall Paragon has a lot of trauma from growing up with humanity and being a warlord most of our pre-dark age history. He does not trust kings, generals, armies, or especially, walks to chat with them. He's very standoffish. Archon is having none of that. I am still working out if there is a conflict between them and some sentries, but Arvad ends up being the true villain of that story.
When he gets to meet Hazor he thinks the 'king has taken his father' so he goes to the palace to free him, finding out his father has gone to Hazor to explain everything at last. Hazor knew the story, but didn't know the identity, as his mother and father had concealed it, then left the planet with the others.
Hazor wants him to join his people at long last, but he says he has no people, and a bad history with Kings.
Now, in Lemurian King, the next Paragon story, Arvad attacks Arcadia after assembling enough philosopher stones to get the Mandragalore operational. He marches on Arcadia with the Army of Lemuria and the Mandragolore, he and his most loyal Arcadians, about 3, 1 a sleeper agent he had inside Acradia until he rallies in Lemuria for the siege.
They use the Mandragalore to destroy the gates and defenses around it, before marching in the front door. The Lemurian army and Arcadians go to war in the streets. The Mandragalore destroys parts of the city, before Archon can get to it he is intercepted by Arvad, and takes the opportunity to defeat and arrest him. They face off.
Here I had to make a difficult call. Instead of just having the Mandragalore kill Archon, I have it so he is defeated by Arvad. Maybe not killed, but defeated and wounded, for sure. This may taste bad for purists, but I had to 1, prove Arvad is a legitimate, intimidating threat and formidable adversary, even if you "foil his plans" and defeat his minions. There's no "gotcha, Buster" kind of moment. But I also need to make the narrative seriously call into doubt whether Hazor can take Arvad. That is SO key for the flow of the story and moment. Because it's a Hazor step up. I mean it really let's him have his Alexander of Macedonia moment where it's like "okay. You've done enough. It's over."
The funeral scene has been changed to Archon's, but you seen Hazor paying his respect to the the Arvad he can remember being a good brother. Even if that's the kid from centuries ago.
Atlantis gives me so much anxiety, I almost want to avoid using it/them, but at the same time, I am a huge fan of the Atlantis legends and myths, even conspiracies. Like I am a really, really big fan of this and know a fair bit about what is out there. For this reason I worry that the CU version won't be all I want it to be. Very few uses of Atlantis in pop culture have been for me. It's usually the magical kingdom that literally lives underwater. It's used this way literally 99% of the time when it is a real, functional location within IPs. I mean, what else do you do right? Your city is sinking, or was hit by a flood, just learn how to make everything work underwater. Another Tuesday. It's sort of either that or it was destroyed and you use it as a plot element.
I dislike this approach for so, so many reasons. The flimsy internal logic of how it all went down/works. How inaccessible it really becomes to the world around it, and the big, actual bone to pick with this are the direct holes in the concept itself. You almost need to shoehorn elements into the story to make it work. Not even get what you need out of it, but to make it work without the viewer pausing to go, "so they just quit?" I mean you're talking about a fabled, advanced civilization, often suggested to have tech more advanced than ours if you can stretch yourself far enough across space-time to force that into making sense on any level without adding yet more by saying Aliens must have given it to them. But you're talking about a pillar of humanity that had an ACTIVE, pivotal role in the world it occupied. Atlantis was the world leader in trade, commerce, sciences, religion, etc. By Plato's account it was the hub of the pre-ancient world.
So, if they are advanced enough to be hit by a flood, or have their entire local geography be slowly swallowed by the ocean, and just figure something of that magnitude out, why do you simply give up being Atlantis? Sure, trade becomes harder, being a Hub of any kind becomes harder. But why do you not rebuild? Found land cities? Keep up relations with what is left of the world? Why do you disappear and leave everyone else for dead?
There are a lot of holes in it that almost require you to go to work inserting elements for structural support. Oh, "they took it all as a sign from their gods, yadda yadda, went into self-imposed exile." "They just couldn't figure out how to operate from the ocean floor after they managed to make their city viable there. You know? There's a bit that needs to be rationalized and explained into place, which I know CU has done, just not exactly how they have.
Well, it's happening. After hibernating all winter as I usually do, I began doing a round-up of all info readily available on various Champs IPs used in the KigaVerse.
I finally got some answers to questions surrounding Defender. The fandom wiki I found gave a good little outline on him that will help anyone get a firm little grasp on who he is and where he came from. It came with some answers to burning questions I had.
1: When did James start his career? After the Battle For Detroit (exactly what I had wanted to begin with).
2: What is his relationship to M. City? Moved there after his solo efforts in NY as a rookie Defender were challenged by a particularly harsh defeat at the hands of a Viper team.
3: When did the Champs form? Defender formed them after moving to M. City.
I have everything I need to finally move forward on a KigaVerse Defender series. He will have an Origin, and I will probably do a NightHawk Origin story and a few Champions stories before they come into other stories like Dirge of Takofanes, my Destroyer stories, and others like White Talon's finale when they rally to answer Cecil Cross' city-wide alert and help vanquish a Death Dragon manifestation.
I just feel compelled to inject a bit of KigaVerse sauce into the filler. Such as giving him a tiny bit more tangible motive the audience can get behind a lot more naturally. "My dad and his dad's dads were all great men, so I have to become the greatest, bravest man alive." Might not do it anymore, sadly. Same problem I encountered with Foxbat's origin, feeling I needed to lean into it hard to weave a believable path from "No more comics, buddy" to "I shall become Foxbat". I knew I had to like, not change how it happens, but flesh it out to a journey any reader or fan can enjoy as a character study.
But with Defender it was like, he may really need a bit more, because this is Defender. With Foxbat it kinda works given just a bit of character components. Defender needs to be an instant classic.
I might actually do a Defender, Nighthawk, and Witchcraft origin. Something is just bothering me a little here. Normally I understand that you can't establish every member of every team in this kind of format. Often there are just too many characters, and the point is the team, not making sure each member has a distinct, individual identity and story beforehand. Sometimes you have to make it about the team, and do a bang-up job of what you have. We've seen this done several times, some better than others.
But one thing my creations always suffer from is an imbalance of male central roles. It just happens because I often don't do enough to structure things when they are first formulating. When I get ideas or a muse within them, I let to happen, only poking and prodding after the fact in order to really pull apart and break down what this idea is and where it's true value resides. In the case of the KigaVerse, it began with me just creating characters for CO. So many were male. As a male I understand and can do males best, so I gravitate toward them. Over time, I had a lot of central male IPs pile up and had to shoehorn females alongside them every step of the way. Even now, it's a lot of male characters, not enough females.
Going into Champs, I don't want to make the same mistakes by focusing on James and Mark, then jumping into Champions stories. Witchcraft and Talisman are two characters I want to learn about and work with. I love siblings at odds. Whilst I can't say I've ever had a bad sibling hatred, conflict of beef, but I know a range of feelings surrounding this all-too-well.
I'm taking my time and really thinking about what I can do here and how I should do it. There may be a way to make Defender's story(ies) about more than himself as a way to better illustrate the character. For example, in the Watchdogs stories, I knew very early on where this was going; Day of The Destroyer. I started really thinking about that event when I learned more, I visualized that as if it happened in '92, here in our real world. The gravity of it really sneaks up on you depending on how you usually create and write. I really like dark stuff but something about this genre disarms you a little bit at first. It's almost too much, but what can you do? Downplay it? No one really needs another Sarkovia situation.
So I took some careful steps to organically and over several stories, make the city of Detroit feel like a character in the stories. As a result of this, M. City is supposed to and I think does feel more like a character than it would otherwise.
I think I can not only do the same kind of thing with Defender's stories, but I think his stories could continue that better than anyone else at this point. Cecil comes in as Nightguard right after, and you have that same vibe in making Westside more than just a backdrop you harvest sets from. I think Defender, coming into the same time period with the same motives for being there, can work with that same energy but city-wide, not just Westside. And given who/what he becomes, it should work.
There has historically been a large gap between '99, the end of Cecil Cross' stories as the vigilante executioner, Nightguard, and 2014 when Ricky Feng's stories begin.
That gap naturally formed due to the age of my OCs (who largely make up the stories of this time period, vs everything before mostly being fanfics) and was left in place because I came to realize much of the game cannon takes place around 2010. But I also, as mentioned, really, really wanted that chunk of time to represent the development and history of the Champions. I can't explain it. I just had this intuition combined with examining it as a writer; I knew these new kids on the block, so to speak, were not pre-DoTD. It just didn't line up even from what very, very little I knew back then.
So I left this large gap in the timeline aside from a brief pit-stop in the early 2000s to explore the origin of Red Lotus, asfter Way of The Warrior when Ricky brings his tragic journey to an end. Aside from that, nothing took place between '99 and '14. I am glad to now get to not only fill that in with Champions stories and potentially specials, but also tie up a loose end that was driving me CRAAAZYYYY. XD lmao
Within Northwatch I's origin story, we open with Rakshasa meeting Shadow Destroyer in '09, to inform him that Kiga has been released (in not so many words). It was important to me that what is happening within the world's lore is established. I wanted people to know, Kiga was not always free to run amuck. he was released, causing a devastating paradigm shift and giant leap backward for the forces of good in the North. This lead to me developing Phantasma, where Rakshasa is hunted down via international sanction. That paid off wonderfully with the Jade Mirror and Destroyer World specials. But Shadow Destroyer was always just there...lol. Just chilling in the beginning of a Northwatch origin; Consequence free.
Now that Defender and the Champs are firmly on the table, I get to go after him, too.
Nighthawk is so easy. I am a huge Batman fan. I really, really like Batman, and whilst I've heard so many claim to understand the IP, I've found few who can wholly grasp the concept due to so, so, so many variations and writers. He is clouded behind layers of mythos, fandom, hatedom, and iconic, flavored representations that stick to our memories. But I like to think I get what makes him tick on numerous levels. Batman works so well because of the trauma. Joe Chill took something from Bruce no scars or disfigurement can. Bruce becoming Batman has little to do with "facing his fears and projecting them on Gotham's scum." That's just a neat way to package it without digging into the origin of trauma and disassociation. Batman became the monster who could never be stopped. Never be gunned down. And always be there to save the mother and father. Always put Joe Chill behind bars.
I'm finding it hard to get there with Mark based on facial scarring alone. I want to have someone else there Mark is spurred into fighting to defend, and who dies during the blast that leaves mark scarred pretty badly. Not enough to grace panels as the handsome, wealthy badass playboy. Not enough to have him this hideous, grotesque cautionary tale, but enough to give him daily, compound trauma and anger.
My Mark is shattered by the death of a young woman he loved. I mean deeply, sincerely loved. His motivation is almost entirely selfless, despite most thinking he's a show-off, power-tripping vigilante at first because he is so efficient and unyielding against criminals.
I have him going to school for engineering and advanced programming and all the stuff Nighthawk at his core needs. He is part of a project at the University with the woman he loves. I am working on it, but, she is the real genius in the dynamic. She inspires him to do and think bigger with her "no problem is unsolvable" approach. Still working on it (need Viper research first, to make sure it lines up with something they would risk a lot for), but she is doing important, admirable work with the University, trying to help change the world. Mark is part of this, and it further emphasizes his outlook on life a this point. He's flying high.
One day, Mark arrives to find her speaking with a mysterious man in a green, snake-skin print silk tie and black suit. She seems stressed, and the man exits as Mark enters. When he questions her, she says it's nothing. Just a potential investor. Then she mentions she'd been thinking about a formal name for the project. Playfully belligerent, she says "Maybe Mongoose!" loud enough for the man in the snake skin tie to hear as he exits. Mark later uses this for his anti-Viper team name.
Late one night whilst having Chinese food in the lab together (something Mark had planned as sort of date), a VIPER team descends upon the University Lab. They immediately begin speaking with her as if she had already known about them/their interest in the project. She is defiant, and when pressured to cooperate, she refuses. Mark's attempts to interrupt for info get nowhere, and before he can make sense of the situation or figure what, if anything, he can do, a suppressed shot rings off and the love of his young life is cut down on the lab floor.
As men go for drives and equipment (whatever, this is all placeholder elements until the nature of her project is fleshed out), Mark's brain is reeling and anger is building up. As a Viper agent who had been speaking to him gets close, Mark snaps and grapples him so that his rifle is stuck between their bodies, walking all his weight and anger into him, forcing him backwards. As the agent tries to draw his sidearm, Mark grabs his hand. They struggle until others draw on Mark and start ordering him harshly to drop. Mark panics and yanks a grenade off the agent's vest. He pulls the pin as a shot rips through his thigh muscle.
As he falls, he can see Viper agents coming to get the grenade, so he rolls over and rolls it under a table. The grenade goes off and everyone's day is ruined.
Mark is severely scarred and a bit burned. One Viper agent (pursuing the grenade in desperation) dies, the rest manage to retreat.
Mark is saved by responders, and drops out of school to begin his regiment of Nighthawk training. Everything from cannon. Martial arts, tactical warfare, pathology, forensics, criminology, everything he needs to be Nighthawk. This takes him more than 3 years, but he perfects his format as he learns, starting in his neighborhood.
Defender I am still working on.
EDIT: I want to do the Franklin Stone Frames Nighthawk plot as a Champions story. I know the ending will be brutally, painfully obvious to the core fan, but I want to really, really flesh it out to scale and have everyone actually believe down to the Champs [based STRICTLY on evidence] that Nighthawk had finally snapped. Gone too far. Because at this point I already want the divide to have occurred between Defender and Iron Clad, and Nighthawk. He already began forming Operation Mongoose, and I have conceptualized them on my own for now to fit what I need (sorry).
For me, they had to be a different kind of hero. Cut from a different cloth than the upper crust like Defender and the others. There heroes would need some grit and specialties in order to operate the way he needed, and with a focus on Viper. They'd have to be willing to do things Nighthawk's way without reservations. He would need to be able to train them in areas they may personally lack, in order they become a more cohesive unit with better field chemistry.
As a result, when they first brush shoulders in the story just before Stone frames Mark, the Champs are somewhat untrusting of this roughian, isolationist crew of mostly unfamiliar or perhaps even questionable faces. But they don't understand yet due to their secrecy that Nighthawk is reigning them all in under the goal of making life for Viper a living hell until they can't hurt anyone anymore.
When the Stone things plays out, I have it so the Champs want badly for him to be innocent, but the evidence and recent events/life changes for him leave a serious haze of doubt just lingering.
I want it so that near the climax, Nighthawk has gone rogue due to mounting pressure on him from all directions. His Mongoose members work with the other Champs to crack the mystery, bust Stone and corner him. Meanwhile, Defender has been personally hunting Nighthawk down, using all he knows about the masked, enigmatic hero, as well as his own skill set to try and find the man behind the mask and solve the issue the old fashion way. Come into Primus and we'll sort 'er out.
He finally catches him (again) on a rooftop, same as in the game, but Defender actually wants to legit bring him in to the super authority for proper, safe processing until the facts are sorted. Nighthawk refuses. They actually scuffle . Both men very reluctant, but equally unwilling to concede a defeat. So it's held back, but both men are trying to win every exchange. It is short, not very heated, but it goes alongside the others uniting their efforts and skills as Mongoose and Champion to defeat Franklin's forces, then corner and expose him. Once exposed, they inform Defender over comms (which Nighthawk had hacked all along) and the two break their skirmish to arrive together as backup for the others against Franklin's doomsday jet.
I'm on the cusp of a big decision. I am still fleshing out Nighthawk's whole journey up to joining the Champs. I don't know where I want him to be located to start, or when/why he moves to M. City. I am thinking it will be rumors and stirs of an emergence of a vast, active, powerful Viper foothold in the newly built, symbolic metropolis. Also, by this point he has already smashed the Viper stronghold in his native city and taken the proper steps to get the all the heavy hitting agencies all over their operation there, which ensures it will be harder for them to slither back in unchecked.
The decision is to take an IP from my own Mythic universe, remove him, and add him to Champs as one of Mark's very early mentors in martial arts, and vigilantism. William Porter would work so well to teach Nighthawk, it's almost not even an option.
Will would be a mutant by Champions standards. Born blind, but developed super senses from very early on. His senses act like a set of advanced instruments that detect information from the surroundings, smell, hearing, touch, cross-reference them for more accuracy, and then feed them into a sense of internal vision within his mind. His senses literally map and build his environment, and his brain can store and recall on it all from memory. So areas/route he has memorizes he can recall and navigate, accounting for any changes that may occur. He got into karate after years of bullying for his blindness and his shy, awkward, insecure nature not helping much socially. Karate gave him confidence, and enough aptitude in self defense to redirect his bullies attempts to physically abuse him, without hurting them. This changed his life.
As a grown man, husband and father, he had a very normal life, teaching karate and learning other style like taekwondo and kung fu along the way, he went to a near-vacant, old fashion school with a particular Master. He didn't know it for a long time, but this was a Light Temple sanctuary, and he was slowly inheriting the responsibility, should he accept it.
One night, whilst stopping at a corner store in the city with his family, a robbery goes horribly wrong and the drug-fueled, low-level gang banger shoots the cashier before shooting him, and accidentally shoots his daughter, then shoots the mother and takes the surveillance tape.
Only Will survives, and it changes him greatly. He pursues vengeance and kills the man, but comes to regret it. He vows to dismantle the gangs that plague the city and indirectly derail young lives down this road of destruction both internal and external. His master trains him to really use martial arts... The old way... For warfare.
He smashes the gangs and retires to teaching once his master passes away and tells him everything. HE accepts his role as Light Temple monk and trains both Owen James Thorne, and Bobby Benedict, two very important Light Temple heroes. It's basically them against all of the Shadow Temple in the 1st era. lol.
In CO, he would just be the Master and retired hero with a cautionary tale of revenge quests. But he would be the ideal person to teach nighthawk that old school, brutal martial prowess one would need to survive meaty encounters with it, no-powers. You can't face 15 armed thugs with karate forms. It doesn't work. You need to know and mix up and hybridize multiple things at the right times for the right reasons and be extremely explosive and tactical in order to do those things without the aid of physical enhancers like speed and strength and dexterity to really overpower a situation on the whole. No powers you can't just square up and stare-down, judo flipping guys 1 by 1, if 4 have guns.
Will Porter as blindside relied on stealth, ambush, and just pure tactical movements, every action like a series of moves in a chess match. NO impulse, all calculation to ensure you don't get taken out.
Removing Will would mean a lot to Mythic, but I'm sort of all-in on Champions now for my super hero content.
For Eve and Dawn of the Destroyer, the plan was for DD to keep the mirror in his OG Detroit bunker. I planned it as a sort of way to go back there as it really leaned into the trip down memory lane aspect really well. It was also a sot of bold play by DD himself. But I've since renagged on that as it doesn't fit the DD I've studied and tweaked. He'd be ready for the eventually that someone, somehow had recall on some level of the real timeline, and begin to realize what he has done. He probably couldn't have "known" Raven would restore Billy's memory and powers unless he knows a fair bit about Billy. Then it would fit into what's already in place. Destroyer knows someone will eventually come. Whether naturally in his timeline, or strapped in somehow from the original timeline. So he sets the Whitehouse up as the only logical target. Baits it as a trap to flip the script and go after everyone in a hero or villain costume. Turns his military might as well as the public against everyone, as Ravenspeaker had hero and villain working together on the assault. His real base is back in Detroit, where Ravenspeaker, after the Whitehouse debacle, states regretfully that he should have known.
I've changed it though, so that we get to go back into his bunker, but he has the mirror on his Titan base. I was like why tf would he keep the mirror where anyone can get to it? I tried to hinge logic to it, like he'd feel safer with it on Earth, under his control, vs in space, orbiting Jupiter, where gods or who knows what came come along and tamper with it. But I couldn't get it to stick. lol. I know for a fact his base will have all the trapping and counter measures you'd expect from him. So if something even approaches besides light or a spec of space dust alerts and defenses come into play, and he can be on site. Plus I have it so the mirror is hard to just find and look at. You can't walk up to it. It's within a "sub-dimension" just a lil fold of illusion magic around itself, with a door you need to be some form of mystic or illusionist to see. Northwatch, for example, wouldn't be able to see it. Not sure if Ricky could using Chi, but I am certain you could if you knew what you were looking for, as to say you can't sells Dr. Yin Wu a little short.
But Ravenspeaker is able to see it, although he doesn't live to see Titan. Ravenspeaker sacrifices himself to enable a full retreat from their hide-out Ravespeaker and some others threw together as a base of operations in DC.
He sacrifices himself, holding faith in the group to see things through, which they surprisingly do. He made powerful connections with many of them like Talisman, who is the one who finds the door using the shaman training Billy able to give her. She also manipulates the mirror on Titan to fix and save everything.
That was really the thing for them all in the end. Destroyer tried to just ruin Earth and make it his personal playground, but he ended up bringing everyone [except Palash ] together to stop him, because given that much play room, he is just a tyrannical nightmare.
In my Destroyer World series, I have it so Destroyer has taken great lengths to make sure the Justice Squad members are kept apart and thought he killed Vanguard, which was personal. Vanguard he allowed to remain prominent super force so that he could punish and defeat his mirror-induced version over and over again before eventually, inevitably killing him. He has done the same thing to the Champions but had plenty of time to prepare and keep them firmly down.
Defender's family he broke and undermined from the World Wars onward. Defender is a poor man from a poor family who live in the gutters of NY. James III is sick and James IV turns to crime for the money they need to survive and treat his illness as well as manage it in daily life.
Ironclad isn't even around, killed by Destroyer 1v1. Sapphire and Witchcraft were both targeted at a young age and slowly groomed into Destroyer's service, but severely brainwashed and hidden away under Palash's personal employ in Detroit.
Ravenspeaker manages to kidnap them, and spend a tiny bit of time with Witchcraft to teach her that Destroyer's programming was a lie, and she is a sorceress of tremendous power, not a weakling novice who needs to await her time and become stronger (even though he put her through tests she couldn't pass to break her). Shortly after, Ravenspeaker gives his life trying to help the entire group escape, and they both choose to go with them instead of retreat back to Destroyer.
I have them work out their bitter sibling rivalry to manipulate the mirror together. Tyrannon also forms a dormant, invasive psychic connection to them both when they do this, through the magnitude of the Mirror's output in terms of "magic energy". They are plagued by cryptic visions of Tyrannon's home world and true from leading up to the arrival.
Ricky Feng. Ricky, Ricky. What can I or can't I say about Ricky Feng? This crazy Champions character I made to try the Dragon Spirit AT, after having watched a few YouTube videos on the real life kids of Shaolin. Their bravery strength and devotion is often called into question on the grounds of letting kids be kids, but either way I thought it had to be celebrated and given a nod or two. To sit here and say I carefully crafted a character from that would be an exercise in bullshit. I took an already existing model I made for Mythic, a character named Zypher (Bobby Benedict), and remodeled it. Bobby Benedict, the victim of severe bullying and chosen champion of the Lesser God Zeus, became Ricky Feng. Instead of mystically being bestowed super human ch'i by Zeus' touch, Ricky would be given a special power that would allow him to forego most of the hardcore, baseline training Bobby had to undergo to begin learning martial arts. Bobby's thing [at first and for a bit] was being the novice fighter who had a super power: his Ch'i. His gave him animal forms that each gave him a given super power. SO when you can channel the monkey form and be invulnerable to bullets and strikes, you don't depend entirely on martial skill.
Ricky I wanted to be different. Bobby had a mother who loved him and a great home life despite them having a humble, middle-class life. Ricky has no one. He is an orphan and also gets picked on a lot around his neighborhood, high school and the dojo where he works. Ricky lives in a boy's home when we first meet him, but is teetering on the edge of being removed and sent into foster care as an older boy. I created this unremarkable, young Westside underdog to inherit an ancient, sacred power to become an avatar of the Abbot, and a Guardian of the Chinese Gods against the Death Dragon.
This power would give him superhuman ch'i in addition to innate, instinctual knowledge of almost any martial art going back to the Shaolin Temple. When he first receives this power at 15, he immediately has to fight Red Banner pursuers, with Red Lotus, Silver and Gold, and Hi Pan on deck. This results in Abbot building a bridge between their ch'i in order to will Ricky into action, and prevent him from being killed and the power from being stolen by Hi Pan only years before the next Tournament of The Dragon, which would greatly increase the Death Dragon's likelihood of releasing himself upon the world.
Ricky gets a firm crash course in old school, Taoist martial arts technique and philosophy. One of the things I didn't do with any other character really because it was hard, especially in my group RP days, was to really lean into a utilize that Taoist philosophy directly within the story and action.
In Many old school Kung Fu styles, you have the concepts of the Five Animals, but also the Five Elements. The elements branch out from an ancient understanding of the world and the forces as well as their cycles that make it work. This was both scientific and spiritual to them, and applied to the entire cosmos. The symbol of this entire concept is the Ying and Yang symbol. IN martial arts, the 5 elements represent vital points in the body, as well as the energies and strategies and techniques deployed using those energies.
For example, Water represents the kidneys, but also fluidity and adaptability, as well as [mostly] circular, fluid techniques that flow force and energy through one motion into the next. Water is also known for the ability to absorb or redirect the force or motion of the opponent (judo is a lot of water energy). Water energy is circular, downward and outward.
Fire represents the heart, but also speed and explosiveness, as well as leaping, lunging, pressing flurries of strikes from multiple angles. Fire techniques are fast and explosive, so often contain or require less power as they tend to come in measured flurries. Fire energy is a devouring energy that always seeks to expand outward.
I have developed a character and a journey for him that weaves this into the way he is taught about the world, martial arts, how to use his ch'i, and I have worked in a way to highlight a different element with each Shaolin Kid story until he masters them all and learns the Five Element Fist special attack. He had mustered and performed this attack against the Death Dragon to defeat him, but that was only with the guidance, and furthermore, help from Abbot and the other Dragon Warriors.
Shaolin Kid's stories are so unique, well done and fresh it has me rethinking every other Champions OC of mine. Like... there may be a bit more room for jam between the bread... you know?
I have further refined the system of incorporating Taoism directly into Shaolin Kid's narrative.
1: Origins - Water
Fear & Calmness
Adaptability & Fluidity
In this story a young, rookie Shaolin Kid is faced with the might of Hi Pan's militia in the pouring rain. Ricky's fear contrast against Abbot's calmness are major factors throughout the narrative. During this story, Abbot must teach Ricky the value of fluidity and adaptability through the use of water energy.
2: Day of The Banner - Wood
Anger & Kindness
Growth & Flexibility
In this direct follow-up, we see more of (if Origins isn't edited to include more) Ricky's private civilian life and this gives us a window into both his kind nature and the anger he is often forced to grapple with from being bullied, living in a boy's home, to being threatened with removal from said home. It also introduces Mya, who becomes endangered alongside Ricky as another Red Banner plot unfolds on the streets of M. City, this time much worse. Through this we see a contrast between two primary forces in Ricky's life. Love and conflict. By the end, his need to protect Mya causes his anger for the Banner Scourge to boil over and he is able to, for the first time, unleash Shaolin fury upon the masses without Abbot's assistance.
3: Wrath of The Dragon - Fire
Passion & Transformation
Speed & Aggression
This story has a lot of passion and transformation for Ricky. He leaves Mya and his Westsiders family to go to China, the home of his ancestors, and the Abbot. He in the underdog once again. The unwitting, unequipped novice no one respects or takes seriously. He has to earn or learn everything over again the moment his feet touch Chinese soil. He's just an 18 year old Westside kid, lol. But he makes it to the tournament, wins, and faces the Death Dragon. This changes him forever. He ends up dying during that battle when, after defeating the Dragon, he let his guard down to take a breather and using the last fibers of it's manifestation, the DD kills Ricky with a tail thrust, stabbing him in the heart from behind.
4: Seven Deadly Venoms - Earth
Sorrow & Trust
Stability & Balance
This is probably the least snug fit, but it does line up well enough and this is literally supposed to be a sequence Ricky Experiences during Wrath, while he is dead for roughly 24 hours. The very end of Venoms is actually the end of Wrath's events. In this follow-up after Wrath, Ricky finds himself washing up on the shores of Abbot's Monastery. The Sorrow & Trust is sort of deep. Ricky has died, and now must trust in the process before him. He is stalked by a mysterious warrior, who ends up being one of the Seven Deadly Venoms, spirits of China's greatest warriors, tasked with defending the Abbot's Monastery and the gateway to the Kingdom. They will not allow Ricky to get passed the walls, no matter what he tries. They thoroughly out-wit and out-fight him at every juncture, eventually driving him off completely as he encounters Adewale Manuel, AKA Azure Dragon, and the man who gave him the power of the Dragon Warrior. Adewale has also been driven off by the Venoms. Sooner than die at their hand, he took to living in the jungle outside the walls, evading detection by the Venoms. Adewale has deduced that something is awry, and the Monastery is somehow in peril. Together they convince the Venoms of this, and the 9 warriors confront and destroy a Death Dragon minion who had imprisoned Abbot in his own Monastery. Once freed, he makes Ricky wait as Adewale enters the Kingdom (I want that to be like a skimpy scene where you see Adewale and Abbot doing something, but I'm saving that for the Westsider's finale). Then he speaks with Ricky, venerates him for his bravery, sincerely apologizes to him for reasons he does not state, but frankly should be obvious. Then Abbot sends Ricky back to his body, where Yin Wu is confounded by his resurrection, but says he's seen far stranger things. At that point we see Ricky return home, finding Mya and we end back on the notes of Fire (passion) from Wrath.
5: Way of The Warrior - Metal
Greif & Anxiety
Clarity & Precision
I read in a few Taoist articles that Metal is long associated with grief, and this was perfect. In this, the last story of Shaolin Kid before Ricky becomes White Talon, grief is everything. Red Lotus targets Ricky in the hopes of obtaining his power and challenging Hi Pan with it. He's just fed up with waiting around and serving the Banner. He never did understand it and was just being used for manpower. But in his desperate attempt to quickly, quietly dispatch Ricky and take his power, Lotus accidentally assassinates Mya as she lays in their shared bed, having recently moved in together. This is the moment Ricky never comes back from, and what will lead to him becoming a young man with blood on both hands. He seeks Lotus out but not the way anyone would expect. He's a man now. Wrath was his coming of age story. He goes to Hi Pan and in a bold play, reveals Lotus' treachery to the Banner, knowing how they will feel about it. Hi Pan sets up Lotus, having him fight Ricky. This is a win-win for Hi Pan. If Ricky kills Lotus the deal is he quits crime fighting. If Lotus happens to kill the boy, Hi Pan can swoop in, clean up the mess and take possession of the Abbot's power. But Ricky wins, slaying Lotus. The Banner just abandon Lotus to rot. He has never existed to them now. Ricky is forced to look after his nemesis, and the man who killed the love of his life. He carries him to some nearby docks and places him in a small wooden boat with both swords across his chest. This was symbolic of his wife and daughter, the grief for whom he carried and which defined the monster he had become. Ricky never recovers from this, and one of his very next acts as a super hero in his own stories, is to kill Hi Pan for kidnapping and threatening members of the Westsiders. It's not until his finale that he uses his ch'i to shield everyone & everything in M. City from an active DD manifestation, rather than fight. Given the protection, M. City saves itself just fine.
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I love it. This almost perfectly facilitates a number of things I need. It could be the artifact that can dislodge an area from our space-time, effectively veiling it from our plain of perception. This is what Tilingkoot wanted to use on Steelhead after the Hunter Patriots ceased control of it (which they try twice). It could also be the McGuffin that created the "KigaVerse" as it was meant to be a branch of the timeline where Kiga was given a secret advantage he uses to orchestrate a grand plan against everything. Were it not for Derringer's staggering network of influence, allies and power, it never would have been discovered in time, forcing Mark to attack, costing Northwatch his life. But they do seal him away in the Frost Tomb again. In my original AU, Jason helped save the trapped heroes before being struck down by Kiga, but I since learned that they were already released.
But with Kiga being sealed away for a bit and Tilingkoot having been vanquished by Chinook and the Bigfoot tribes, Northwatch II has no primary villain. I was looking at Telios for the job, but Vultok provides something that fits the mantle a bit better and continues the same story arc. Not that it really matters much as she comes in just before Tyrannon, lol. But I have a few years to work stories with her between Destroyer World and Tyrannon.
I've broken the Au into eras, with everything from ancient Arcadia and Egypt in Paragon's Origin, to Vanguard and the Justice Squadron's origins, up to Day of The Destoryer, are the 1st era.
It picks up again after that with my RPCs stories like Shaolin Kid and Northwatch. That's the 2nd era and it ends with Dawn of the Destroyer, when they fix reality and kill Destroyer in '92. I have plans in the works to lend consequence tot hat as well. Gigaton basically becomes worse than Destroyer for blunt aggression and heavy handed evil. But That needs careful consulting so as not to betray continuity. I know little of Gigaton as of right now.
I really like the idea of his AI basically going into tunnel vision mode, keeping the machine running. Manufacturing new tech, new robot Destroyer doubles that basically haunt the world in his wake to this day.
I like the idea that some minions like Rakshasa fear the Ai more due to it's unrelenting drive and complete lack of humanity, whilst Gigaton, in the absence of Destroyer himself, defies the AI.
The third era is going to be wrapping up various story arcs and character arcs before the big invasion. Then comes the grey, murky area of the AU. After Tyrannon... I think the portion of aftermath and the decline of magic will be the last portion of the 3rd era.
The 4th era is that dark, dystopian stretch where... I want desperately to fix things... Like anyone should be by now, I'm deeply invested in this world and what makes it what it is. What makes it special and meaningful. Even though I've said before I like consequence. I thrive on it. You need it. However, this is one time I feel an overwhelming compulsion to fix things. I want to go back and stop Tyrannon from reaching Earth. But I decided a while back to not go that route, and the Destroyer World fix I had in the works facilitated the scratching of that itch perfectly. But like I mentioned before, that's when I want Istvatha to come along, under the genius guise of a benevolent goddess who has heard our cosmic cries of suffering and felt our yearning for the former days of our civilization's glory and heroism.
So would Istvatha prefer Earth in it's former state or current? Would she prefer it to have magic and all the potential that goes with, or would she rather a powerless, dystopian backwater to rule?
I'm trying to get a sense of how she comes at this, what her goals are and how much fun I can have with this. Like what if she also wants to restore Old Earth in some capacity?
The Empress's sympathies are definitely with science and technology as the basis for societies under her governance, but she doesn't ignore the potential of magic. Amidst her all-embracing bureaucracy, the Ministry of Mystic Affairs has millions of scholars devoted to studying mysticism in all its forms and facets, and recommending ways for V'han to use her magical resources for the benefit of the Empire and her subjects as a whole. If your Kigaverse offers some unusual or distinctive magic, she'd certainly want to try to exploit it.
Right now I am using the "I'm a Goddess
I'm scared it's going to be too grey of an area in terms of the conflict. I WANT her to be partially .... Not "good" but just. Fair. I love that she comes with benefits (that sounded odd) and isn't just some Tyrannon 2.0, but I need the hook. I need that twist where it becomes clear that she has to go.
I'm interested in what happens in PNP lore? Is Champs Earth still under her control?
And when does the magic begin to come back timeline-wise?
It's not unprecedented for Istvatha to pose as a goddess. During her initial campaign to conquer her home world of V'ha, she recruited soldiers from an extra-dimensional species called the Golugk who worshiped her after she demonstrated her powers to them. But that tends to happen with more primitive civilizations. Besides, on Champions Earth the Empress had announced who she was and her intentions in the preface to her first invasion of 1998 (she always offers newly discovered worlds the chance to surrender peacefully). So she is is already well known by this point. If it's important to you to stick with the goddess motif, I'd recommend setting your Kigaverse time line before that date of first incursion.
IMO a simpler and more effective "hook" would be to present object lessons as to what happens to those who reject V'han's, ahem, benevolence. There are applicable and illustrative precedents. The Empress prefers to keep local officials on in new capacities if she’s satisfied as to their loyalty to her, and their general competence. "If problems persist (as they often do in cases of longstanding racial or religious differences), it’s not unknown for her to resolve the issue by killing everyone involved — in short, by committing genocide on a massive scale — and then opening the territory for settlement by more rational, mature people. For example, if the Empress ever conquers Champions Universe Earth, it’s likely that significant portions of the Middle East, Africa, and the Indian subcontinent will be “scoured” (as the Imperial Legions puts it) and then made available for other Humans to settle." (Book Of The Empress p. 149)
When superhumans are involved the lessons are even more immediately apparent. By Imperial law, all superhumans in the Empire automatically become members of what's called "the Imperial Battalion." If a superhuman’s powers manifest in childhood, they're taken from their home and raised to become a superhuman soldier; otherwise they're inducted whenever it’s discovered they have powers. The Empress makes allowance for superhumans whose powers aren’t effective in combat or who have religious/moral objections to fighting. They serve in some noncombat capacity, but they still serve.
Battalioneers receive generous pay, perks, benefits, and status with the Empire. The Empress prefers that they join willingly. But any superhuman who refuses to serve is subject to imprisonment and even execution, depending on the nature of their refusal. If a super tries to actively evade induction, those penalties are extended to their family, and any friends or colleagues who assisted them or even knew about their powers and didn't report them. In extreme cases when a superhuman is so valuable that V'han doesn't want to kill them, but so intractable that no other alternative will work, she'll subject them to very effective mind control techniques to turn them into her loyal minions.
For your last question, per the original official time line, super powers return to the Milky Way Galaxy in the year 3000, when a Human scientist named Matharas Kolvel experiments with piercing dimensional barriers. His efforts will somehow restore magic to an even higher level than in the 21st Century. Almost overnight, the whole range of classic super powers become possible again. (This sets up the basis for a "Galactic Champions" campaign reminiscent of DC Comics' Legion of Superheroes, or the original future-era Guardians of the Galaxy from Marvel Comics.)
This may be a thing I have to work in now. XD lmao This is getting SO big. -.-
So now I'm curious as to the dates of each invasion, what super groups or key figures were involved (any who lost their lives are especially important to me), and how each was thwarted in summary.
I like that in the last one the Champs were able to capture her. That is just great and I can't wait to sink my teeth into that plot. That is right up my ally.
I'm curious as to when the champs formed, as well as when Defender started his career in heroics? Like I've always been curious about the Champs origins. When they all started, who was around at the time Detroit was destroyed. The MMO, although I appreciate all it does and how hard it did try, does a very poor job of addressing these things. One the one hand it creates this pretense like you're supposed to know EXACTLY who everyone is, what they are like, supposed to understand the precedents they set and ideals they stand for, where they are from, what they are about, what they do, who they fight, etc. And that makes you feel immersed in something bigger than the game you're playing, akin to DC or Marvel. But then you never really get a full depiction of any of it. There are no backstory quests you can play as these characters in, nothing of the sort, which you are heavily left wanting. It's almost like there was a deal to protect book sales or something.
But yeah, I'm greatly curious as to the basics in this regard.
-Wife(ves)/Any significant love interests, any who died
-Kids
-Significant figures surrounding his personal life
-Significant Nemesis's
I get the sense much of this isn't really included in most cases, but rather chooses to focus on campaign relevant stuff like heroics, tragedy, and the growth and achievements of the mantle before the person barring those exceptional cases.
But any help would be great. I am working on a wife for Vanguard, someone who is there from his origin on. Someone Destroyer targets and uses against him in the Justice Squardon story. I get to do the atmospheric fall & saving super catch scene properly, you know, where they don't barrel into the girl as super speeds, shattering her rib cage. XD
But am almost there.
I have further developed Abbot's Kingdom. There's backdoor mechanics that I want to keep mysterious, but it's a Kether-like dimension of existence, so I want it to actually exist within the Kether, but again, I'm leaving it all open. The only way in is through the Abbot's Monastery.
The Monastery is located at the heart of a large island suspended in time and space, adrift in an endless sea of crystal waters where the sun never sets. Because it is not a physical dimension, no one never ages or gets hungry or full or thirsty here, although can eat or drink and will enjoy it just the same. Ricky samples fruit from along the coastline when the DD sends him there via deathblow to be defeated by one of his minions, who made it into the Monastery somehow and imprisoned The Abbot.
I have been going HARD on the cannon development here. I sort of wanted a Dragon Warrior, the one before Azure Dragon, or second before him, that was somehow corrupted beyond mere manipulation. Some kind of incident or encounter with a powerful mage or mystic that corrupted his core, turning him against the Abbot and toward team DD. This caused the Abbot to begin a war of philosophy and faith for the soul of this DW. I haven't figured out how yet, but I wanted him to find or be taught a way to cheat the Seven Venoms mystic perception (they know who the Abbot has invited/permitted, and who he has not; they know who/what does not belong, and they destroy it. Because the only 2 ways of arriving period, are by being granted access by the Abbot, or sent by Team DD. The Chinese Gods deal strictly through the Abbot with regards to affairs of this dimension, so they are the only 2 conventional, time-honored ways, and the Venoms are the defense system). Then he could ambush the Abbot and overpower him, leading to the Abbot summoning Ricky prematurely to help the venoms free him.
I am working on the lore of the dimension and Abbot themselves, and how the Chinese Gods came to create this place using the Kether. It's essentially the Kingdom of The Dragon Warriors. It is populated by Dragon Warriors and those they have asked the Abbot to join them. So some Dragon Warriors have brought their entire network of family and friends within reason. It is a paradisiacal afterlife where the DWs are called upon all once to aid the living vessel in the critical moment of their fight with the Dragon Warrior when they face him every 60 years in Earth time. But to the Warriors in the Kingdom, that event happened once, for all of them. And when they all did it that one time, it affected the fight of every single Dragon Warrior who ever fought the Death Dragon.
I thought that was a cool developer concept to hide in there.
I'm working on it all, but I like it and will be keeping it for sure.
Donnie Yen with good wardrobe and makeup would have the solid martial arts basis for a few scenes I need my Dr. Wu to be in. One of those scenes is when Dr. Wu and Ricky are alone, and he tests Ricky with surprise martial arts attacks using ancient, obscure techniques and styles only a Dragon Warrior with the knowledge and skill of the Abbot would be able to effectively respond to, counter, or even mimic. One of them that he uses is an ancient, rare form of tiger claw which Ricky is able to mimic and fight in, but Dr. Wu is just a bit more adapt and practiced with it, and out of tight, complex hand exchange, Dr. Wu uses his forearm positioning which he had laid out like a trap, to power Ricky's shorter guard downward, allowing the nails of his right hand to extend unanswered and scratch Ricky's face.
Dr. Wu had applied a specialized chi poison to the tips of his nails. This poison is designed to react to and attack the chi in a desired victim, in the cases of amplified, alpha level chi subjects such as Dragon Warriors, who are like a walking quasi-dormant superconductor for chi, the poison goes to work with haste, producing a non-lethal fever-like array of symptoms. IN anyone without a strong, active reserve of chi, it will have no effect at all and be passed through the system harmlessly.
This is a test The Watchers have for Dragon Warriors, and Yin Wu uses it on Ricky to be sure.
Another is the fight with the Death Dragon itself.
I figured there's no way the DD can come into our dimension to fight. There would be too many souls on hand to absorb for power, just from the tournament grounds. And I mean he'd be here. From what I've learned of him, his presence would immediately start to cause chaos and destruction to rip through China like jetstreams of DD mojo.
Instead I have Ricky ritualistically anointed to enter a pocket dimension that serves as the arena for this contest every 60 years. Lacking any information on what that might look like aside from that one Hi Pan mission where you fight him on a special map, right now that dimension is a black void the DD can manipulate. He creates a version of Westside in his own image to rattle Ricky before and at the start of the fight. He creates both a normal Ravenswood, and one where he's killed all the students, etc, etc. He messes with Ricky a lot, and one of the larger ways he does this, is by becoming both his father, and Dr. Yin Wu.
He's never seen his own father, so that's just a dirty, evil play to pull on an 18 year old kid, but Dr. Wu really, really intimidates him by design; just innately. So to take Wu's form is the ultimate mind-play to gain an advantage, and it works for a while.
Donnie could be good for Lee Feng or Yin Wu.
I picture Dr. Wu as Hiroyuki Sanada. It just happens. But Chow Yun-fat fan as well. Not that any of that really matters, lol. But it's fun to imagine it all in motion.
They stumble upon a concentration camp predominantly filled with polish prisoners and ambush the German sentries, officers and staff. I want them to have more than one powered individual and at least one super solider, I think maybe the Original Northwatch, Mark Derrigner, or both. Anyway, once the commotion has settled, the Sgt. is able to better try to figure out what the hell this place is, at first assuming they were POWs, American, Canadian, or English. As Polish prisoners begin to emerge in huddled masses, shades of the more sinister truth begin to percolate in many of their minds. Elderly, women, children, nary a fit fighting body in sight.
AS they begin to speak Polish, Jeff can understand both Polish and German, and the commanding German officer begins to spout out a diabolical speech intended to make the prisoners fear and refuse cooperation with the Allies. In it he tries to reassure them that they are playing a vital role in the Vanguard of German supremacy. Jeff can piece together that entire families are here being held prisoner, some waiting to see missing relatives as they speak, from this speech. Another German speaking member is also piecing together the same information as crying Polish prisoners are pulling on him from through the fence. He snaps and shoots the German Officer, setting off a feverish moment of chaos as the prisoners back up, all expect for one who is saying to Jeff over and over, "Justice. Justice."
This whole event has a profound effect on Jeff in a few obvious ways and is the driving force behind his persona and work ethic as a hero. I can't think of a better motivating origin moment for that type of character of that age, tbh. Like few other things can live up to the man he becomes as Vanguard, imo.
@bulgarex I recall you saying you didn't really want Jeff to have PTSD because he's too strong of a hero in later situations for it to make sense. (I disagree with that entire sentiment. It holds the potential to carry the message of "If you have PTSD, you couldn't be a hero". I think we all agree that is wrong. I know what you meant - I think - fully. That Vanguard could not do what he does as Vanguard, with the pois, steadfast courage, and clear head, if he suffered from legitimate Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It would hinder him when aliens are invading entire cities, etc, ec, etc. We all should get that, but I just disagree. I don't think it has to be the classic, guns make me clam up, or, loud noises and bangs rattle me and can send me into psychosis. It does not have to be that stereotypical of how we see it in films and on TV, where Marines spent 45 minute episodes in the streets of an American city, trapped in a pychosis-fueled delusion that they are still at war. This is what they called shell shock, and comes from front line, active engagement combat. It has many degrees, but that is the one that, yes, MANY men have come home with since WWI. They just didn't participate in data-based studies. The US military did a poor job of understanding this up to and after Vietnam. [Just because you asked, DOES NOT mean they gave you the entire picture of their mental health. Many of them died in silence about how bad it really was] Make no mistake. As a man who's family is STEEPED in service going back 4 generations, War. Is. Hell. You do not go to war and come back the same person, even if you present the same in your day-to-day.) But I needed there to be times when he's not stoically professional. When you see that he is more than an ideal, but a man. There have to be moments where you see beyond the iconic exterior. The two moments I chose were then in WWII, and when they lose Crusader. He carries that loss personally as his own failure, and it crushes him.
So you have this one incident where he and Mark and NorthWatch [OG] free a concentration camp. And although Jeff is among those who keep their composure and head for command through it all, actually helping to focus everyone up, you can see without a doubt this has reached deep inside of him and squeezed something.
Then later, you have a singular moment when, when he's finally alone, he has a man cry for his young friend who fought to his death to protect hundreds of civilians. And Digitak II comforts him.
I don't think that makes him less Superman'ish, but more.
Wait -wait -wait. It's also hugely important to explain that, in the KigaVerse, Crusader's knowledge of the occult leads him to be aware of the legends of Takofanes, and highly, borderline obsessively suspicious of his impending return. For bits of the first story [as part of his story arc] and the beginning of Rise of Takofanes (2nd KV JS appearance), Crusader tries to get the Squad invested in looking into Takofanes with him, but few of them see the level of clear evidence to divert time or resources from the plethora of global missions they already juggle.
So when it happens, Takofanes emerges, and Crusader is the first to respond, he's given no chance by the end but fights with the heart of a God and does enough to save hundreds. But when the Squad arrive, Takofanes is already annoyed with Crusader and wants him dead, so he binds the big box threats, like Vanguard momentarily to finish Crusader off.
Vanguard has to watch with the others as Crusader is heroically cut down after already being beaten and magic'd half to death, knowing that he didn't listen.
I have gone the step further and finally developed my Bell of the Chosen. I'm sticking to Vanguard's original origin here because i believe these moments to be iconic and not to be "fixed". Played with? Maaaaybe.
He guards the expedition to Tibet, and during a sever blizzard, the group gets broken up along a long, harsh trail. Organizing the head of the pack, Jeff heads back to muster as many of the rear as he can. One by one he brings them back, but when going back for the last man, he becomes lost and reaches the Nyingpa Temple by morning, exhausted and near frozen to death, still insisting he must find the last man.
When the monks finally get him mobile and talking, all he wants to do is get back to find the man, dead or alive. They allow him to go over and over, but he accompanied by a monk each time. Jeff and this monk become friends during his time there, and he comes to see the hero in Jeff as he risks frostbite time and again, just trying to recover a body for his family.
Over time Jeff gives up, and actually starts to fall in love with the Temple and it's teachings. He decides to stay and worship as well as train a bit.
Now this temple has guarded the Bell of the Chosen for thousands of years, as I'm sure you know. This temple has long used this Bell as part of their tradition and training their monks. When a young monk reaches a certain point in his studies and training when his masters believe he or she is ready to begin the real journey they are given the task of hiking the series of steps up the mountain to the Hall of the Chosen. Once there, they are instructed to simply pray and rest for the night within the Chamber, do nothing else, touch nothing else. In the morning, pray and meditate until high noon, and then ring the bell...
The catch is, when the monk steps before the Bell to ring it, the bell judges them. All of their guilt, shame, fear, all of their darkest thoughts and desires or fears of them, come forth, and they are broken down in a moment of true humility, each and every time. It is a valued test meant to humble the student before he begins his journey toward enlightenment and monkhood. No one can ring the Bell, because it humbles them telepathically to the point they understand they are not worthy to even behold it.
After about six months of staying in the temple and providing the monks with a refreshing, entertaining new student, Jeff is given the task of hiking to the Hall of the Chosen to meditate and be humbled. That night, As Jeff is trying to just pray before he rests, he can swear he hears the faint, disembodied gong of a bell. He shakes it off, thinking the monks are messing with him from further down the mountain. He hears it again and again until it disrupts his prayer so loudly he thinks the bell itself made the gong...
He gets up, and as he gets closer to the bell, he can feel in compelling him toward it. He picks up an ancient, musty mallet that hasn't been touched in perhaps thousands of years, maybe more. With one hesitant swing, he cracks that brass and the monks down in the temple basically break character for the first time in thousands of years, lol. They literally run up the mountain to see what they hell happened.
It's during his monk training that he begins to realize that he has a battery of enhanced physical properties, as well as some new abilities like flight. That's when he realizes he cannot stay. That he has a gift the whole world can benefit from if he can become something more than just a man. If he can dedicate the rest of his life to being a Vanguard of Justice and peace.
I have him and Kraa understanding before this scene that magic is dying. Although they can't be totally sure yet, Silverback is sure he will lose his humanity and intelligence, and although Kraa refuses to let it show, he suspects as much as well. By now [2030], Silverback has a young female protégé who idolizes him like a father and for his unparalleled genius and beautiful mind. She has a borderline attraction to him personality, as she is in her 30s, not "young-young". Anyway, during the scene showing all the changes, Doc Silverback, knowing he will lose himself, works his hands to the bone trying to retrofit aspects of his existing breakthroughs and current new research to adapt to the coming change and still function. He accomplishes a lot for heroes and forces of justice around the world, inventing some new, viable tech across the board that leaves a lasting legacy on what's left of the world after 2035, but one day his protégé comes into work and finds a confused, scared silverback gorilla huddled in the corner of the lab.
It's a super, super heavy moment the way I have it envisioned. Just heart wrenching. This whole Tyrannon twist is a big one. It's so absolute and extreme, not at all what you'd expect, and so tragic. But that makes it SO good. Any hero universe from Capitol to DC would be so lucky to have such an era of story telling rife with tragedy yet lined with this almost fitting beauty. Humanity has to get by for a while on it's humanity. I look at it like a test the universe gives humanity. Can you make it without the tech and magic and powers and heroes to save you? When there are no villains to cause upheaval and chaos, who among us will rise to fill that void? Who among us will continue the legacy of those like Defender and Nighthawk and Vanguard?
There's something so satisfying about it although it's so bizarre because when you unpack it, the tragedy and loss is staggering.
IN my train of logic, when the Milky Way "dries up", no magic functions here anymore. This means if an alien ship with advanced, extra-mundane levels of tech, was to enter the Milky Way, they would be left with a small and closing buffer zone where their tech can still draw power from nearby magic. However, if they do not correlate their widespread system failures in time and keep advancing into our "dried up" galaxy, their tech will fail indefinitely, stranding them and likely killing them, one way or another. Any organic biological properties their race has evolved naturally would still remain, but their "supers or mutants or Augments, would become ordinary aliens of that given race.
So, in that same Trian of thought, anything the Progenitors did here in the Milky Way, was powered largely in part to magic... This means Empyreans are Augments. Not naturally evolved under the tyranny of Einstein's laws. KigaVerse Empyreans begin to lose powers, age, and die.
To the Arcadian society, this a profound moment of loss and lamentation that transcends time as we know it - I man just imagine. But they come to embrace it and turn it into a thing of beauty. Most of them welcome their passing after a life of immortality and isolation. Their one wish is for humanity to learn from it's mistakes, and their one regret is not helping them more.
Before Arcadia becomes a ghostly metropolis, Hazor and his people come forth, working with world leaders to broker the relative peace already in motion after the movement to stop Tyrannon.
But over time, Hazor passes away and with his passing, Arcadia is considered to have ended. In keeping with his wishes, those who outlive him travel the world teaching the world about Arcadian philosophies in the hopes they can still leave an Arcadian legacy behind for the world. They call themselves "Echoes".
The very last scene in the KigaVerse is of an empty but still stunning Arcadia. We pass through all the major locations from old stories, and end in the Palace, where we see Prince Nathaniel Hazoren, now a grown man and the last Empyrean. He is trying to tap into his dormant Ketherin [Infinity Engine} powers, which there is a teaser that he is able to do.
I needed to end on some kind of hopeful note beyond the morbid, exhausting tragedy of the Decline. I mean.. it's bad, lol. In a beautiful way, but bad.
I really need the ladder, as this is not a campaign, but a novella story. If this isn't a full and robust intel report on everything within Hazor's domain of rulership, down to flora and fauna, and how they are used, I will need to invent my own KV elements, anyway.
This is where i have been torn on the investment, combined with personal issues I have had in the past with online spending (RTSMMOs -.-''''). I have conditioned myself to say "you don't need this".
But I really need to morph and reshape the nature of Paragon's origin. Hazor sending for him and all that doesn't line up. The Hazor I've composited and fleshed out would not pose ANY amount of threat to any child, regardless of the abilities it is presenting, for his father to hide him away... unless he knows how evil Arvad is. Unless he knows Arvad is a telepath.
Playing it out, Paragon is born, and within a short while, it is going to be discovered that no telepath can detect his mind, although he is clearly a perfectly healthy baby showing signs of sight, hearing, and vocal abilities. This ability of Paragon's was one of the first, because I knew if he was going to grow up among humans, not knowing who or what he is, Arcadia's psychics couldn't be able to detect him or he'd be brought in, and his dad would know this and never have sent him. Here's where it gets murky and is open for what exactly happens.
I need to set up some kind of Arvad plot here. A BIG one that will pay off in the end. And I keep looking to Ogrun.
I need to take a day and sleep on this.
This aspect is confusing to me. I've rationalized it several ways. One is that other galaxies do not have the swell of concentrated magic that the Milky Way does, and therefore, their technology did not evolve and develop under the influence of magic to propel everything forward. This would mean alien tech from galaxies with a low to non-existent presence of magic would still function.
The other is sort of Hero Games approach to it. I'm not exactly fond of the murkiness and flimsiness of cohesion here. It proposes that magic didn't even influence any aspect of our presently known/used technology throughout the ages, until very recently, when things in the Champs Earth/Milky Way begin to appear that are beyond our real world tech. This mean no real world tech happened to have involved magic, in a galaxy heavily influenced by magic. It also means for some reason, aliens can have wild tech that still works, but none of our will unless we invent new stuff. So in a way, it implies that the sciences we were working with to develop our cool tech, was rooted in magic. This creates a veritable shitstorm of conceptual and continuity issues when you really unpack it for use.
In my verse, everything in out branch of the Tree of existence is powered by magic. There's no non-magic galaxy, and if there is, they aren't making FTL drives...
So yeah, all alien tech depends on the same aspects of natural laws ours did. When Destroyer used the Jade Mirror in 2026, the moment of the event itself sent out a massive beacon of magic energy. Something akin to 80-100 years of Earth history was re-written in an instant. The kind of power required to achieve this sent out a sort of signal, not unlike most of the most powerful, primordial forces in our universe, they leave behind or send out a trace residue, evidence of a powerful celestial event that occurred. In a similar way of thinking about it, the Mirror sent out a massive WoW signal across every other branch, or at least, far enough for Tyrannon to feel it...
The heroes barely thwart Destroyer, and a handful of them use the information Ravenspeaker passed on to use the Mirror to reverse everything Destroyer changed and they add in one little footnote; Destroyer dies in '92 from his own orbital blast. But when the heroes use the Mirror again to fix things, that's when Tyrannon uses the moment of the event. When the burst of magic culminates and activates, Tyrannon opens a door to our galaxy and world...
You'll never have the last laugh with Destroyer. Not if I'm writing it. XD
I'm working out the fine inner trappings, but Crusader suspects Takofanes is coming. I'm taking my sweet **** time developing how and why that is. I don't want it to be something hokey. I have it so that part of this is due to visions Drifter has had and speaks to Crusader about to warm him to be careful. Drifter is among the only ones who supports Crusader when he suggests they find ways of preparing for and detecting a Takofanes emergence.
In First Flight, their KV origin story, Drifter has this vision, warns Crusader, and he begins to investigate. When he is looking for it and snooping in the right places, he sees or hears signs or warnings of his return - but again, I'm avoiding the hokiness if it kills me.
When Crusader encounters Takofanes, he has no way of alerting the Squadron, who are on a mission elsewhere. The Watchdogs get wind of the incident and leave the JS an alert with details which they find when they return, as the alert sets off an alert on Digitak II's arm module.
BY the time they respond, it's too late. Crusader has fought with the Dogs but they all got messed up. Takofanes even gets around to trying lightning magic on Anvil and almost hills him (a foreshadowing of what Destroyer does to him when the weakness is finally revealed in this scene).
After Takofanes kills Crusader, I have Vanguard and Brawler beat. the. fucking. breaks. off of Takofanes. I mean Vanguard is swinging for the fences until Takofanes grows weary of assessing them since neither have any real magic, and he starts to take care of business.
It's looking like everyone might die until Vanguard goes beast mode and proves Takofanes wrong by throwing up a Magic Resistance Buff XD and just powers through certain spells to do crit damage on on Tako's corpse-like physique.
He eventually vanishes in a climactic moment where I have it so Takofanes exchanges an unspoken moment with Vanguard that confuses and infuriates him, before he vanishes. This scene is intended to depict Takofanes being impressed by him in some mild capacity, and deciding that he will be his champion to accomplish his mysterious ends. It's a foreshadowing of the next Takofanes story when he revives a ton of fallen heroes and villains from KV stories. including Vanguard and Crusader. This is a difficult thing for the heroes who have to face the evil corpses of their beloved friends or the hideous ghosts of old enemies come back to haunt them.
After Crusader's death in this manner, Digitak II is inspired to invent the extreme-range coms and get them into the proper distribution lines for ALL heroes to have them. It comes around when these are used in '92 to greatly increase the amount of response to the Detroit Incident, as well as improve the speed with which they were able to respond.
It also comes around for the JS when Vanguard uses the coms to give his iconic [KV] speech.
I have developed Ricky's story arc up to the end of his run as Shaolin Kid, and with that is now paired the story of Red Lotus, as the end up being intertwined by not only a Red Banner BS lie (that the DD has domain over all the dead, implying that if Lotus, then known as Hiroyuki or Kuroi Kaze, served the banner, he could get his wife and daughter back), but also by a sort of warrior code.
Hiro was feared Yakuza enforcer for years in his youth. He trained in military tactics and weapons in addition to martial arts making him a chi master. He was a valued asset of the Yakuza operating out of Takashima. So valued that the corrupt, clandestine overlord over Japan, Masaki Nakajima, recruited him into a special augmentation program he had developed. Whilst most were soldiers, Hiroyuki was a Yakuza thug. But somehow, Hiro outclassed every last candidate and became the forerunner of the entire project. His augmentation took like he had been born with it, and the scientists suspected his familiarity and bond with chi had a lot to do with it.
He spends years as part of a special team of supers, mutants, and even a supernatural spirit entity by the name of Hitobashira, who was buried alive as part of a ritual of the same name, and -insert secret developer notes- struck a deal with the Death Dragon to be his immortal Champion. Hito's motives, operations, and history are ENTIELY unknown to anyone in the Champs world; just he and the DD. He would seem to work in mysterious ways for a Champion of the DD, but it very well be that it is just a period of hiatus in the present day. No one knows how Masaki came to have his [feigned] loyalty, or why he would agree to service, but Hito is the most loyal, obedient and stoic of the entire team. His affiliation to the Banner comes as a complete revelation at the end.
Also in the team, and leading it for some reason, is an American mutant who goes by the handle, Double-Barrel, as he prefers a custom-made high tech energy shotgun with twin barrels. He leads the team in addition to the private mercenary army Masaki uses for protection and ground level enforcement.
Masaki used this team to run his own little Japanese CIA operation without the support of knowledge of the army or government. Why? Masaki was a yakuza member just like Hiro, from Takashima. The Yakuza helped him break into legitimate business and build a secure foundation around him. Then Masaki used this black ops super team to consolidate their shared power position across the country to the point they even have the Tokyo police in their pocket, and the military nor government know Masaki is the phantom with a 60% share of power over Japan.
Hioryuki ends up marrying and having a daughter. This changes everything for him and he wants OUT. Masaki isn't done yet. He needs more from him. Hiro is strung along for 4-5 years of his daughter's young life, doing missions and growing a conscious. Finally when she is 5, he let's Hiro go.
Two years later, Hiro is chilling, enjoying a peaceful family life. Masaki has finally brought his vision of total power to fruition, and is now growing paranoid. He wants all loose ends taken out to prevent his future downfall or exposure leading to complications. The agent he worries about most, is Hiro. He knows how close he is to his wife and how honest they are with each other. He's always felt a resentment, almost hatred from Hiro's wife, so he is sure Hiro has told her things.
He has Double-Barrel deploy on Hiro's house to take him out and orphan the girl.
Hiro and his family are creatures of habit, however prepared they may be. But on this day, everything went wrong. Nothing was as it should have been, and Double-Barrel is a f***ing moron.
The daughter is not at school, she is at home with a stomach flu. Hiro is not there, he is headed into town to get some medication for the girl.
Double-Barrel decides to just kill everyone, and hide the bodies in the lotus pond of their backyard. A fateful mistake for a lot of souls in Japan.
When Lotus comes home, he begins to suspect something is wrong and goes into panic-fueled beast mode. Annihilates everyone in the house. Double-Barrel decided to leave because he overthinks it and gets nervous that those among them can't handle him if he comes back to the ambush instead of being caught in one. He was right, however cowardly.
Lotus snaps and kills everyone. I mean everyone. the biggest, most secure yakuza stronghold in Japan goes down in 9 minutes. The Tokyo Police HQ gets raided and everyone dies. All of the team members, except Hitobashira, are killed. The Nakajima Corp building is smashed and everyone dies.
That's when Hito regenerates a fresh[?] heart and goes to Hiro, telling him in not so many words, "Serve my master the Death Dragon, and he may give you your family back."
Years later he is the annoyed servant of Hi Pan. After he killed Masaki, he let go of everything. The twisted ball of hatred within him from his psychotic break never goes away, but that beast mode killer instinct is not there anymore, until something happens.
Up until now, Ricky's story is about he and the DD, with Hi Pan being the embodiment of the DD until Wrath of The Dragon. But in the next story, something tragic happens that is really the culmination of Ricky's coming of age.
In Way of The Warrior, Lotus has had enough and wants the power of the Dragon Warrior so he can kill Hi Pan and gain a communion with the DD. He tries to ambush Ricky, but kills his girlfriend Mya, instead as she is lying in his bed, also with short, silky black hair. When Lotus sees what he did, it sends him into another psychotics break as Mya is about the same age as his daughter would have been, and he does not favor killing females, at all.
Ricky catches a glimpse of a remorseful, distraught Lotus fleeing the scene out the fire escape.
After grieving the loss of his soulmate, he elects to go to Hi Pan. Recall Ricky has defeated the DD in the last story, so the Banner are very weary of testing him flat out. Hi Pan knows he has to get the drop on him next time they meet. Ricky has hit up some Banner thugs in a rather uncharacteristic fashion for the intel he needs, and they sold Lotus out. Hi Pan is infuriated, and agrees to double-cross Lotus with Ricky.
Lotus argues with Hi Pan when Hi summons him into a line of questioning, and Hi pokes Lotus with the lie that because Ricky bested him over and over, and Lotus let him get tot he Tournament, the DD would never give his family back.
Lotus goes into the fight with Ricky at origin Story levels of focus and willpower.
Hi Pan along with a bunch of senior devotees watch the fight in judgement of Lotus. They have.... The best fight I've ever written. But it eventually becomes clear that Ricky was going easy to prove a point by not slowing down, but gradually turning it up. He destroys Lotus with his own blade.
Immediately he is hit by it. He, at just 19, has killed a man. A warrior who was his equal if not better. He is traumatized. And as it's sinking in, the banner bodies just fade away, slowly, nonchalantly leaving Lotus there to literally rot. Ricky is appalled by them and gives Hi Pan a look that makes hi Pan a little paranoid.
Weeping and having no idea what he is doing, he hoists Lotus over his shoulder and takes him to the harbor where he gives him a warriors' burial, setting him afloat in the water his his swords in hand. At this point he considers Shaolin Kid dead, and stops fighitng crime to start fighting suicidal depression.
Later, in his first story as White Talon, Hi Pan tries to get the drop on him by kidnapping members of the Westsiders, who are like his family, and he kills Hi Pan, lol. He fights a serious darkness for awhile that's purposefully hard because you want him to be the fun-loving, pure-hearted kid you know. But it's a story of a boy who has to fight for the problems of adults.
But instead of disrupting the Banner, nothing really changes except a decree is sent down the chain of command that Ricky is wanted dead by the Cult, no questions asked. Attack on sight. Now this isn't something all devotees honor tot he letter. A large group likely would to avoid seeming afraid or be reported as defying said decree. But several devotees who bump into him, will often ignore the decree to fight another day. In his early years, Ricky does a lot to disrupt Pan's lower ranks, building bonds of friendship or respect with many Banner fighters.
When Hi Pan is killed, a replacement is sent directly from China. I have conceptualized him as a hardcore, unrelenting zealot of the DD. A stoic, sadistic, ice cold mastermind and cruel brute. He makes Hi Pan seem weak and cartoonish, and lacks any of the personal flavors and shades of self-interests and selfish motives. He is a devote servant in mind, body and spirit, and runs a much more grass roots, old world outfit than Hi Pan did. He quickly and ruthlessly elevates the Banner's status to the forerunner among the gangs and criminal groups in M. City using the members he brings in from China behind him. His own hand-picked loyalists and enforcers who shake things up in M. City's gang scene and back everyone else into a corner.
He wears a black Dragon mask carved from an animal skull, and is a martial master in addition to being twice as powerful as Hi Pan when it comes to the arcane.
I am planning a major last hoorah story for this when Ricky ends up dying. That exact scene has to be planned out and conceptualized perfectly because I know what I want to happen more or less, it just need a delicate plot to set up first. Basically Ricky sacrifices himself fighting a Death Dragon manifestation the Banner managed to summon and unleash upon Westside. Ricky, backed by the abbot, has to use his Chi to protect the life essence of the entire city whilst members of the Champions and other cameo appearances help the Westsiders vanquish the DD's manifestation.
But before the DD dies, he begins to set his focus and wrath upon Ricky, who once again, foiled his designs. He makes a desperate, hailmary play by attacking Ricky's vulnerable life force. his ch'i is spread out like a web across the city, coating everyone like a shield to stop the DD from eating their life force. But this is leaving Ricky's life force almost naked, and weakening him toward unconsciousness by the second. The DD devours Ricky's soul as he is being cut down, and they both die together (well, the DD doesn't die, but his summoned avatar is vanquished).
And I want to do a story where heroes from around M. City avenge him by taking out Hi Pan's successor, whom I mentioned has caused a lot of upheaval to call for it anyway. So for some of those heroes like the Champs, it's less of a "let's avenge Ricky" than it is for Kodiak or the Westsiders.
When Adewale (Azure Dragon) gave Ricky the power, Ricky says "I don't understand." and Adewale says back, "nor did I Mr. Feng. Nor did I."
This is supposed to tell you everything you need to know about what lies in store for this innocent, unprepared young man. A short life of fighting evil that inevitably leads to a cosmic death match with the Death Dragon.
But in this version, The DD devours Ricky's soul, so he dies instantly. I could have it so the DD destroys the lineage of the Dragon Warriors then and there. Or, if we recall, the Dragon Warrior essence is ch'i energy. It's how it was created, how it's passed on, and where it draws all of it's power from. Ricky's Ch'i was spread out across every soul in M. City at the time, even plants and animals.
There is almost unlimited play room here, and I like that. The Abbot is the true master control unit for the DW power, I know as a matter of [KV] cannon, the Abbot could in theory manipulate the energy up until the 5 Year Decline, when he is isolated from Earth.
Imagine, as a thought experiment, a circular, squishy membrane (physics). When you push against it, it has some give, but not much, just a tough membrane.
We submerge it in a liquid labelled Magic. This soaks into the membrane making it very pliable. We can now push long, complex shapes into the membrane and stretch the shape.
We drain the Magic solution off and add an new solution labeled Tyrannon. This attracts and absorbs all of the Magic solution.
We drain Tyrannon off and let the membrane sit for 5 days.
When we return, the membrane has dried up and hardened. To push on it now is like pushing on the inside of a giant tennis ball.
In short: Tyrannon turned the galaxy into a tennis ball.
So we all get it, magic makes physics pliable and able to be manipulated drastically compared to real world sciences.
So for centuries as mankind advanced through the ages, our technology levels never pushed against physics until very recently. It makes sense now that I have conceptualized how the mechanics actually work. It bends physics.
So my version stays the same, Alien worlds are bound by the same physics, and their advanced technology is bending physics.
I immediately thought the nature of his being was so compelling, a good story could easily exist there and make it all that much better. I liked the idea of duality being one of his main concepts, and the struggle between the two forces within him.
His mother we decided was a powerful sorceress out of the Vibora Bay area, but a member of an elite, venerated magic order that is clandestine and secretive, but of the best intentions. Hocus's innate relationship with the arcane forces comes directly from his mother's blood, which always has arcane energies surging through it. It is literally a part of her biology acting to boost and aid her normal bodily functions, as well as protect against disease, telepathic attacks, and magic attacks.
His father, however, is responsible for his lycanthropic form. Unlike his father, Hocus cannot become human, he is perpetually stuck as a werewolf. His father is basically the opposite of his mother. An evil mastermind and ruthless, power-hungry super villain. He is a menacing figure who is extremely powerful for any werewolf, being able to fight like a chi master, as well as use magic, and having a genius intellect. IN addition to all of this, he rules a vast and powerful Lycan organization based out of Vibora Bay.
It's this character, this Lycan super villain that I swung back around to recently. I was looking to make a new character for the Westsiders, someone to fill a specific role in the dynamics. I created Timber, a lycanthropic teenage boy who attends Ravenswood's Westside campus. I decided his Hocus's father would make the perfect father for his as well. This will let me make us of a KigaVerse version of this villain we created together, because I really like this guy. He's not your average villain. IN Hocus's stories he comes to Hocus as the benevolent, well-meaning father who just now discovered he had a son. He manipulates the socks off Hocus, slowly leading him into his violent, primal world of Lycanthropy. Eventually Hocus realizes he is being groomed to join an super villain group, and that his father is just cut & dry evil genius material. That's when he is able to use information he gathered spending time around dad to locate his mother, and learn about his other side.
Ultimately Hocus is torn between two opposite sides vying for his loyalty, and has to choose who to become and why. It was a really, really good story for a really special, cool character.
I am eager to have this villainous father also discover Timber, who is much younger and more innocent and vulnerable, although he has his Westsiders family, which is an advantage Hocus never had.
For what I need, using one isn't really an option.
In the Westsiders story lines, a young super group is established as competition for the Westsiders. Whilst the Westsiders are a ragtag group of misfit screw-ups just trying to figure out as they go, these teens are prodigies. Superstars of Millennium City and the surrounding County, equated by many in the press and public opinion as the Young Justice Squadron. They are an image of perfection in every thing they do. And they vex the Westsider's every step taken in their shadow. The Westsiders just don't like them, lmao. They are "too clean" as Tiber puts it. But they are also too. damn. good. at what they do. It's as thought they have some kind of secret...
In the Westsiders series, there are two stories centering around a massive plot by the Kings of Edon to make Westside ground zero for the assimilation of our dimension into the Q'liphoth.
The first story is Some Like It 'Photh, where the Westsiders become suspicious that something is wrong and end up on the scent of Kevin Poe, who quickly makes them and leads them straight into a trap. He's more confused than anything, but pissed they are putting heat on his every move.
Turns out Poe is also figuring on something not being right, and has no interest in joining the Q'liphoth. In the end of Some Like It Photh, the Westsiders discover that the Young Justice Squadron (not real name), are actually imbedded agents of the Kings of Edom, but it takes a second story to take them down and finally bring some respect the Westsider's way.
So, given that they are all villains, I need to create the team, lol.
I have to perfectly smooth out the details of everything surrounding his dad, Avrad, Hazor, and his birth/abandonment. I feel like I know Arvad will be why it's done, he might even be the one who does it as part of a huge retooling where Arvad routinely visits him and grooms him to be his Archon (more or less, of course). But I don't know, I have to perfect it so it is a snug mesh with canon again more or less, and is compelling at every level.
But he does befriend the Watch Dogs in 1984, joins them for a bit, and decides he has to travel the world to try to help more, like Vanguard did. He later admits he was trying to globe trot and save everyone like a great human man from America, but couldn't figure out how to do that.
When he first encounters Arcadia, he is brought there by his real father, but a wedge is driven between Paragon and Archon immediately because as his father is trying to explain himself and appease the situation, Archon has no regard or respect for his authority when a stranger has been smuggled into the kingdom. He's just saying, "stranger, you must accompany me so we can clear a few things up." If you recall Paragon has a lot of trauma from growing up with humanity and being a warlord most of our pre-dark age history. He does not trust kings, generals, armies, or especially, walks to chat with them. He's very standoffish. Archon is having none of that. I am still working out if there is a conflict between them and some sentries, but Arvad ends up being the true villain of that story.
When he gets to meet Hazor he thinks the 'king has taken his father' so he goes to the palace to free him, finding out his father has gone to Hazor to explain everything at last. Hazor knew the story, but didn't know the identity, as his mother and father had concealed it, then left the planet with the others.
Hazor wants him to join his people at long last, but he says he has no people, and a bad history with Kings.
Now, in Lemurian King, the next Paragon story, Arvad attacks Arcadia after assembling enough philosopher stones to get the Mandragalore operational. He marches on Arcadia with the Army of Lemuria and the Mandragolore, he and his most loyal Arcadians, about 3, 1 a sleeper agent he had inside Acradia until he rallies in Lemuria for the siege.
They use the Mandragalore to destroy the gates and defenses around it, before marching in the front door. The Lemurian army and Arcadians go to war in the streets. The Mandragalore destroys parts of the city, before Archon can get to it he is intercepted by Arvad, and takes the opportunity to defeat and arrest him. They face off.
Here I had to make a difficult call. Instead of just having the Mandragalore kill Archon, I have it so he is defeated by Arvad. Maybe not killed, but defeated and wounded, for sure. This may taste bad for purists, but I had to 1, prove Arvad is a legitimate, intimidating threat and formidable adversary, even if you "foil his plans" and defeat his minions. There's no "gotcha, Buster" kind of moment. But I also need to make the narrative seriously call into doubt whether Hazor can take Arvad. That is SO key for the flow of the story and moment. Because it's a Hazor step up. I mean it really let's him have his Alexander of Macedonia moment where it's like "okay. You've done enough. It's over."
The funeral scene has been changed to Archon's, but you seen Hazor paying his respect to the the Arvad he can remember being a good brother. Even if that's the kid from centuries ago.
I dislike this approach for so, so many reasons. The flimsy internal logic of how it all went down/works. How inaccessible it really becomes to the world around it, and the big, actual bone to pick with this are the direct holes in the concept itself. You almost need to shoehorn elements into the story to make it work. Not even get what you need out of it, but to make it work without the viewer pausing to go, "so they just quit?" I mean you're talking about a fabled, advanced civilization, often suggested to have tech more advanced than ours if you can stretch yourself far enough across space-time to force that into making sense on any level without adding yet more by saying Aliens must have given it to them. But you're talking about a pillar of humanity that had an ACTIVE, pivotal role in the world it occupied. Atlantis was the world leader in trade, commerce, sciences, religion, etc. By Plato's account it was the hub of the pre-ancient world.
So, if they are advanced enough to be hit by a flood, or have their entire local geography be slowly swallowed by the ocean, and just figure something of that magnitude out, why do you simply give up being Atlantis? Sure, trade becomes harder, being a Hub of any kind becomes harder. But why do you not rebuild? Found land cities? Keep up relations with what is left of the world? Why do you disappear and leave everyone else for dead?
There are a lot of holes in it that almost require you to go to work inserting elements for structural support. Oh, "they took it all as a sign from their gods, yadda yadda, went into self-imposed exile." "They just couldn't figure out how to operate from the ocean floor after they managed to make their city viable there. You know? There's a bit that needs to be rationalized and explained into place, which I know CU has done, just not exactly how they have.
I finally got some answers to questions surrounding Defender. The fandom wiki I found gave a good little outline on him that will help anyone get a firm little grasp on who he is and where he came from. It came with some answers to burning questions I had.
1: When did James start his career? After the Battle For Detroit (exactly what I had wanted to begin with).
2: What is his relationship to M. City? Moved there after his solo efforts in NY as a rookie Defender were challenged by a particularly harsh defeat at the hands of a Viper team.
3: When did the Champs form? Defender formed them after moving to M. City.
I have everything I need to finally move forward on a KigaVerse Defender series. He will have an Origin, and I will probably do a NightHawk Origin story and a few Champions stories before they come into other stories like Dirge of Takofanes, my Destroyer stories, and others like White Talon's finale when they rally to answer Cecil Cross' city-wide alert and help vanquish a Death Dragon manifestation.
I just feel compelled to inject a bit of KigaVerse sauce into the filler. Such as giving him a tiny bit more tangible motive the audience can get behind a lot more naturally. "My dad and his dad's dads were all great men, so I have to become the greatest, bravest man alive." Might not do it anymore, sadly. Same problem I encountered with Foxbat's origin, feeling I needed to lean into it hard to weave a believable path from "No more comics, buddy" to "I shall become Foxbat". I knew I had to like, not change how it happens, but flesh it out to a journey any reader or fan can enjoy as a character study.
But with Defender it was like, he may really need a bit more, because this is Defender. With Foxbat it kinda works given just a bit of character components. Defender needs to be an instant classic.
I'll have more soon.
But one thing my creations always suffer from is an imbalance of male central roles. It just happens because I often don't do enough to structure things when they are first formulating. When I get ideas or a muse within them, I let to happen, only poking and prodding after the fact in order to really pull apart and break down what this idea is and where it's true value resides. In the case of the KigaVerse, it began with me just creating characters for CO. So many were male. As a male I understand and can do males best, so I gravitate toward them. Over time, I had a lot of central male IPs pile up and had to shoehorn females alongside them every step of the way. Even now, it's a lot of male characters, not enough females.
Going into Champs, I don't want to make the same mistakes by focusing on James and Mark, then jumping into Champions stories. Witchcraft and Talisman are two characters I want to learn about and work with. I love siblings at odds. Whilst I can't say I've ever had a bad sibling hatred, conflict of beef, but I know a range of feelings surrounding this all-too-well.
I'm taking my time and really thinking about what I can do here and how I should do it. There may be a way to make Defender's story(ies) about more than himself as a way to better illustrate the character. For example, in the Watchdogs stories, I knew very early on where this was going; Day of The Destroyer. I started really thinking about that event when I learned more, I visualized that as if it happened in '92, here in our real world. The gravity of it really sneaks up on you depending on how you usually create and write. I really like dark stuff but something about this genre disarms you a little bit at first. It's almost too much, but what can you do? Downplay it? No one really needs another Sarkovia situation.
So I took some careful steps to organically and over several stories, make the city of Detroit feel like a character in the stories. As a result of this, M. City is supposed to and I think does feel more like a character than it would otherwise.
I think I can not only do the same kind of thing with Defender's stories, but I think his stories could continue that better than anyone else at this point. Cecil comes in as Nightguard right after, and you have that same vibe in making Westside more than just a backdrop you harvest sets from. I think Defender, coming into the same time period with the same motives for being there, can work with that same energy but city-wide, not just Westside. And given who/what he becomes, it should work.
That gap naturally formed due to the age of my OCs (who largely make up the stories of this time period, vs everything before mostly being fanfics) and was left in place because I came to realize much of the game cannon takes place around 2010. But I also, as mentioned, really, really wanted that chunk of time to represent the development and history of the Champions. I can't explain it. I just had this intuition combined with examining it as a writer; I knew these new kids on the block, so to speak, were not pre-DoTD. It just didn't line up even from what very, very little I knew back then.
So I left this large gap in the timeline aside from a brief pit-stop in the early 2000s to explore the origin of Red Lotus, asfter Way of The Warrior when Ricky brings his tragic journey to an end. Aside from that, nothing took place between '99 and '14. I am glad to now get to not only fill that in with Champions stories and potentially specials, but also tie up a loose end that was driving me CRAAAZYYYY. XD lmao
Within Northwatch I's origin story, we open with Rakshasa meeting Shadow Destroyer in '09, to inform him that Kiga has been released (in not so many words). It was important to me that what is happening within the world's lore is established. I wanted people to know, Kiga was not always free to run amuck. he was released, causing a devastating paradigm shift and giant leap backward for the forces of good in the North. This lead to me developing Phantasma, where Rakshasa is hunted down via international sanction. That paid off wonderfully with the Jade Mirror and Destroyer World specials. But Shadow Destroyer was always just there...lol. Just chilling in the beginning of a Northwatch origin; Consequence free.
Now that Defender and the Champs are firmly on the table, I get to go after him, too.
Crisis In Multifaria is also happening!!
I'm finding it hard to get there with Mark based on facial scarring alone. I want to have someone else there Mark is spurred into fighting to defend, and who dies during the blast that leaves mark scarred pretty badly. Not enough to grace panels as the handsome, wealthy badass playboy. Not enough to have him this hideous, grotesque cautionary tale, but enough to give him daily, compound trauma and anger.
My Mark is shattered by the death of a young woman he loved. I mean deeply, sincerely loved. His motivation is almost entirely selfless, despite most thinking he's a show-off, power-tripping vigilante at first because he is so efficient and unyielding against criminals.
I have him going to school for engineering and advanced programming and all the stuff Nighthawk at his core needs. He is part of a project at the University with the woman he loves. I am working on it, but, she is the real genius in the dynamic. She inspires him to do and think bigger with her "no problem is unsolvable" approach. Still working on it (need Viper research first, to make sure it lines up with something they would risk a lot for), but she is doing important, admirable work with the University, trying to help change the world. Mark is part of this, and it further emphasizes his outlook on life a this point. He's flying high.
One day, Mark arrives to find her speaking with a mysterious man in a green, snake-skin print silk tie and black suit. She seems stressed, and the man exits as Mark enters. When he questions her, she says it's nothing. Just a potential investor. Then she mentions she'd been thinking about a formal name for the project. Playfully belligerent, she says "Maybe Mongoose!" loud enough for the man in the snake skin tie to hear as he exits. Mark later uses this for his anti-Viper team name.
Late one night whilst having Chinese food in the lab together (something Mark had planned as sort of date), a VIPER team descends upon the University Lab. They immediately begin speaking with her as if she had already known about them/their interest in the project. She is defiant, and when pressured to cooperate, she refuses. Mark's attempts to interrupt for info get nowhere, and before he can make sense of the situation or figure what, if anything, he can do, a suppressed shot rings off and the love of his young life is cut down on the lab floor.
As men go for drives and equipment (whatever, this is all placeholder elements until the nature of her project is fleshed out), Mark's brain is reeling and anger is building up. As a Viper agent who had been speaking to him gets close, Mark snaps and grapples him so that his rifle is stuck between their bodies, walking all his weight and anger into him, forcing him backwards. As the agent tries to draw his sidearm, Mark grabs his hand. They struggle until others draw on Mark and start ordering him harshly to drop. Mark panics and yanks a grenade off the agent's vest. He pulls the pin as a shot rips through his thigh muscle.
As he falls, he can see Viper agents coming to get the grenade, so he rolls over and rolls it under a table. The grenade goes off and everyone's day is ruined.
Mark is severely scarred and a bit burned. One Viper agent (pursuing the grenade in desperation) dies, the rest manage to retreat.
Mark is saved by responders, and drops out of school to begin his regiment of Nighthawk training. Everything from cannon. Martial arts, tactical warfare, pathology, forensics, criminology, everything he needs to be Nighthawk. This takes him more than 3 years, but he perfects his format as he learns, starting in his neighborhood.
Defender I am still working on.
EDIT: I want to do the Franklin Stone Frames Nighthawk plot as a Champions story. I know the ending will be brutally, painfully obvious to the core fan, but I want to really, really flesh it out to scale and have everyone actually believe down to the Champs [based STRICTLY on evidence] that Nighthawk had finally snapped. Gone too far. Because at this point I already want the divide to have occurred between Defender and Iron Clad, and Nighthawk. He already began forming Operation Mongoose, and I have conceptualized them on my own for now to fit what I need (sorry).
For me, they had to be a different kind of hero. Cut from a different cloth than the upper crust like Defender and the others. There heroes would need some grit and specialties in order to operate the way he needed, and with a focus on Viper. They'd have to be willing to do things Nighthawk's way without reservations. He would need to be able to train them in areas they may personally lack, in order they become a more cohesive unit with better field chemistry.
As a result, when they first brush shoulders in the story just before Stone frames Mark, the Champs are somewhat untrusting of this roughian, isolationist crew of mostly unfamiliar or perhaps even questionable faces. But they don't understand yet due to their secrecy that Nighthawk is reigning them all in under the goal of making life for Viper a living hell until they can't hurt anyone anymore.
When the Stone things plays out, I have it so the Champs want badly for him to be innocent, but the evidence and recent events/life changes for him leave a serious haze of doubt just lingering.
I want it so that near the climax, Nighthawk has gone rogue due to mounting pressure on him from all directions. His Mongoose members work with the other Champs to crack the mystery, bust Stone and corner him. Meanwhile, Defender has been personally hunting Nighthawk down, using all he knows about the masked, enigmatic hero, as well as his own skill set to try and find the man behind the mask and solve the issue the old fashion way. Come into Primus and we'll sort 'er out.
He finally catches him (again) on a rooftop, same as in the game, but Defender actually wants to legit bring him in to the super authority for proper, safe processing until the facts are sorted. Nighthawk refuses. They actually scuffle
The decision is to take an IP from my own Mythic universe, remove him, and add him to Champs as one of Mark's very early mentors in martial arts, and vigilantism. William Porter would work so well to teach Nighthawk, it's almost not even an option.
Will would be a mutant by Champions standards. Born blind, but developed super senses from very early on. His senses act like a set of advanced instruments that detect information from the surroundings, smell, hearing, touch, cross-reference them for more accuracy, and then feed them into a sense of internal vision within his mind. His senses literally map and build his environment, and his brain can store and recall on it all from memory. So areas/route he has memorizes he can recall and navigate, accounting for any changes that may occur. He got into karate after years of bullying for his blindness and his shy, awkward, insecure nature not helping much socially. Karate gave him confidence, and enough aptitude in self defense to redirect his bullies attempts to physically abuse him, without hurting them. This changed his life.
As a grown man, husband and father, he had a very normal life, teaching karate and learning other style like taekwondo and kung fu along the way, he went to a near-vacant, old fashion school with a particular Master. He didn't know it for a long time, but this was a Light Temple sanctuary, and he was slowly inheriting the responsibility, should he accept it.
One night, whilst stopping at a corner store in the city with his family, a robbery goes horribly wrong and the drug-fueled, low-level gang banger shoots the cashier before shooting him, and accidentally shoots his daughter, then shoots the mother and takes the surveillance tape.
Only Will survives, and it changes him greatly. He pursues vengeance and kills the man, but comes to regret it. He vows to dismantle the gangs that plague the city and indirectly derail young lives down this road of destruction both internal and external. His master trains him to really use martial arts... The old way... For warfare.
He smashes the gangs and retires to teaching once his master passes away and tells him everything. HE accepts his role as Light Temple monk and trains both Owen James Thorne, and Bobby Benedict, two very important Light Temple heroes. It's basically them against all of the Shadow Temple in the 1st era. lol.
In CO, he would just be the Master and retired hero with a cautionary tale of revenge quests. But he would be the ideal person to teach nighthawk that old school, brutal martial prowess one would need to survive meaty encounters with it, no-powers. You can't face 15 armed thugs with karate forms. It doesn't work. You need to know and mix up and hybridize multiple things at the right times for the right reasons and be extremely explosive and tactical in order to do those things without the aid of physical enhancers like speed and strength and dexterity to really overpower a situation on the whole. No powers you can't just square up and stare-down, judo flipping guys 1 by 1, if 4 have guns.
Will Porter as blindside relied on stealth, ambush, and just pure tactical movements, every action like a series of moves in a chess match. NO impulse, all calculation to ensure you don't get taken out.
Removing Will would mean a lot to Mythic, but I'm sort of all-in on Champions now for my super hero content.
I've changed it though, so that we get to go back into his bunker, but he has the mirror on his Titan base. I was like why tf would he keep the mirror where anyone can get to it? I tried to hinge logic to it, like he'd feel safer with it on Earth, under his control, vs in space, orbiting Jupiter, where gods or who knows what came come along and tamper with it. But I couldn't get it to stick. lol. I know for a fact his base will have all the trapping and counter measures you'd expect from him. So if something even approaches besides light or a spec of space dust alerts and defenses come into play, and he can be on site. Plus I have it so the mirror is hard to just find and look at. You can't walk up to it. It's within a "sub-dimension" just a lil fold of illusion magic around itself, with a door you need to be some form of mystic or illusionist to see. Northwatch, for example, wouldn't be able to see it. Not sure if Ricky could using Chi, but I am certain you could if you knew what you were looking for, as to say you can't sells Dr. Yin Wu a little short.
But Ravenspeaker is able to see it, although he doesn't live to see Titan. Ravenspeaker sacrifices himself to enable a full retreat from their hide-out Ravespeaker and some others threw together as a base of operations in DC.
He sacrifices himself, holding faith in the group to see things through, which they surprisingly do. He made powerful connections with many of them like Talisman, who is the one who finds the door using the shaman training Billy able to give her. She also manipulates the mirror on Titan to fix and save everything.
That was really the thing for them all in the end. Destroyer tried to just ruin Earth and make it his personal playground, but he ended up bringing everyone [except Palash
Defender's family he broke and undermined from the World Wars onward. Defender is a poor man from a poor family who live in the gutters of NY. James III is sick and James IV turns to crime for the money they need to survive and treat his illness as well as manage it in daily life.
Ironclad isn't even around, killed by Destroyer 1v1. Sapphire and Witchcraft were both targeted at a young age and slowly groomed into Destroyer's service, but severely brainwashed and hidden away under Palash's personal employ in Detroit.
Ravenspeaker manages to kidnap them, and spend a tiny bit of time with Witchcraft to teach her that Destroyer's programming was a lie, and she is a sorceress of tremendous power, not a weakling novice who needs to await her time and become stronger (even though he put her through tests she couldn't pass to break her). Shortly after, Ravenspeaker gives his life trying to help the entire group escape, and they both choose to go with them instead of retreat back to Destroyer.
I have them work out their bitter sibling rivalry to manipulate the mirror together. Tyrannon also forms a dormant, invasive psychic connection to them both when they do this, through the magnitude of the Mirror's output in terms of "magic energy". They are plagued by cryptic visions of Tyrannon's home world and true from leading up to the arrival.
Ricky I wanted to be different. Bobby had a mother who loved him and a great home life despite them having a humble, middle-class life. Ricky has no one. He is an orphan and also gets picked on a lot around his neighborhood, high school and the dojo where he works. Ricky lives in a boy's home when we first meet him, but is teetering on the edge of being removed and sent into foster care as an older boy. I created this unremarkable, young Westside underdog to inherit an ancient, sacred power to become an avatar of the Abbot, and a Guardian of the Chinese Gods against the Death Dragon.
This power would give him superhuman ch'i in addition to innate, instinctual knowledge of almost any martial art going back to the Shaolin Temple. When he first receives this power at 15, he immediately has to fight Red Banner pursuers, with Red Lotus, Silver and Gold, and Hi Pan on deck. This results in Abbot building a bridge between their ch'i in order to will Ricky into action, and prevent him from being killed and the power from being stolen by Hi Pan only years before the next Tournament of The Dragon, which would greatly increase the Death Dragon's likelihood of releasing himself upon the world.
Ricky gets a firm crash course in old school, Taoist martial arts technique and philosophy. One of the things I didn't do with any other character really because it was hard, especially in my group RP days, was to really lean into a utilize that Taoist philosophy directly within the story and action.
In Many old school Kung Fu styles, you have the concepts of the Five Animals, but also the Five Elements. The elements branch out from an ancient understanding of the world and the forces as well as their cycles that make it work. This was both scientific and spiritual to them, and applied to the entire cosmos. The symbol of this entire concept is the Ying and Yang symbol. IN martial arts, the 5 elements represent vital points in the body, as well as the energies and strategies and techniques deployed using those energies.
For example, Water represents the kidneys, but also fluidity and adaptability, as well as [mostly] circular, fluid techniques that flow force and energy through one motion into the next. Water is also known for the ability to absorb or redirect the force or motion of the opponent (judo is a lot of water energy). Water energy is circular, downward and outward.
Fire represents the heart, but also speed and explosiveness, as well as leaping, lunging, pressing flurries of strikes from multiple angles. Fire techniques are fast and explosive, so often contain or require less power as they tend to come in measured flurries. Fire energy is a devouring energy that always seeks to expand outward.
I have developed a character and a journey for him that weaves this into the way he is taught about the world, martial arts, how to use his ch'i, and I have worked in a way to highlight a different element with each Shaolin Kid story until he masters them all and learns the Five Element Fist special attack. He had mustered and performed this attack against the Death Dragon to defeat him, but that was only with the guidance, and furthermore, help from Abbot and the other Dragon Warriors.
Shaolin Kid's stories are so unique, well done and fresh it has me rethinking every other Champions OC of mine. Like... there may be a bit more room for jam between the bread... you know?
1: Origins - Water
In this story a young, rookie Shaolin Kid is faced with the might of Hi Pan's militia in the pouring rain. Ricky's fear contrast against Abbot's calmness are major factors throughout the narrative. During this story, Abbot must teach Ricky the value of fluidity and adaptability through the use of water energy.
2: Day of The Banner - Wood
In this direct follow-up, we see more of (if Origins isn't edited to include more) Ricky's private civilian life and this gives us a window into both his kind nature and the anger he is often forced to grapple with from being bullied, living in a boy's home, to being threatened with removal from said home. It also introduces Mya, who becomes endangered alongside Ricky as another Red Banner plot unfolds on the streets of M. City, this time much worse. Through this we see a contrast between two primary forces in Ricky's life. Love and conflict. By the end, his need to protect Mya causes his anger for the Banner Scourge to boil over and he is able to, for the first time, unleash Shaolin fury upon the masses without Abbot's assistance.
3: Wrath of The Dragon - Fire
This story has a lot of passion and transformation for Ricky. He leaves Mya and his Westsiders family to go to China, the home of his ancestors, and the Abbot. He in the underdog once again. The unwitting, unequipped novice no one respects or takes seriously. He has to earn or learn everything over again the moment his feet touch Chinese soil. He's just an 18 year old Westside kid, lol. But he makes it to the tournament, wins, and faces the Death Dragon. This changes him forever. He ends up dying during that battle when, after defeating the Dragon, he let his guard down to take a breather and using the last fibers of it's manifestation, the DD kills Ricky with a tail thrust, stabbing him in the heart from behind.
4: Seven Deadly Venoms - Earth
This is probably the least snug fit, but it does line up well enough and this is literally supposed to be a sequence Ricky Experiences during Wrath, while he is dead for roughly 24 hours. The very end of Venoms is actually the end of Wrath's events. In this follow-up after Wrath, Ricky finds himself washing up on the shores of Abbot's Monastery. The Sorrow & Trust is sort of deep. Ricky has died, and now must trust in the process before him. He is stalked by a mysterious warrior, who ends up being one of the Seven Deadly Venoms, spirits of China's greatest warriors, tasked with defending the Abbot's Monastery and the gateway to the Kingdom. They will not allow Ricky to get passed the walls, no matter what he tries. They thoroughly out-wit and out-fight him at every juncture, eventually driving him off completely as he encounters Adewale Manuel, AKA Azure Dragon, and the man who gave him the power of the Dragon Warrior. Adewale has also been driven off by the Venoms. Sooner than die at their hand, he took to living in the jungle outside the walls, evading detection by the Venoms. Adewale has deduced that something is awry, and the Monastery is somehow in peril. Together they convince the Venoms of this, and the 9 warriors confront and destroy a Death Dragon minion who had imprisoned Abbot in his own Monastery. Once freed, he makes Ricky wait as Adewale enters the Kingdom (I want that to be like a skimpy scene where you see Adewale and Abbot doing something, but I'm saving that for the Westsider's finale). Then he speaks with Ricky, venerates him for his bravery, sincerely apologizes to him for reasons he does not state, but frankly should be obvious. Then Abbot sends Ricky back to his body, where Yin Wu is confounded by his resurrection, but says he's seen far stranger things. At that point we see Ricky return home, finding Mya and we end back on the notes of Fire (passion) from Wrath.
5: Way of The Warrior - Metal
I read in a few Taoist articles that Metal is long associated with grief, and this was perfect. In this, the last story of Shaolin Kid before Ricky becomes White Talon, grief is everything. Red Lotus targets Ricky in the hopes of obtaining his power and challenging Hi Pan with it. He's just fed up with waiting around and serving the Banner. He never did understand it and was just being used for manpower. But in his desperate attempt to quickly, quietly dispatch Ricky and take his power, Lotus accidentally assassinates Mya as she lays in their shared bed, having recently moved in together. This is the moment Ricky never comes back from, and what will lead to him becoming a young man with blood on both hands. He seeks Lotus out but not the way anyone would expect. He's a man now. Wrath was his coming of age story. He goes to Hi Pan and in a bold play, reveals Lotus' treachery to the Banner, knowing how they will feel about it. Hi Pan sets up Lotus, having him fight Ricky. This is a win-win for Hi Pan. If Ricky kills Lotus the deal is he quits crime fighting. If Lotus happens to kill the boy, Hi Pan can swoop in, clean up the mess and take possession of the Abbot's power. But Ricky wins, slaying Lotus. The Banner just abandon Lotus to rot. He has never existed to them now. Ricky is forced to look after his nemesis, and the man who killed the love of his life. He carries him to some nearby docks and places him in a small wooden boat with both swords across his chest. This was symbolic of his wife and daughter, the grief for whom he carried and which defined the monster he had become. Ricky never recovers from this, and one of his very next acts as a super hero in his own stories, is to kill Hi Pan for kidnapping and threatening members of the Westsiders. It's not until his finale that he uses his ch'i to shield everyone & everything in M. City from an active DD manifestation, rather than fight. Given the protection, M. City saves itself just fine.