Praetorian story flowchart?

[KSinclaire]

Tl;dr - experiencing the entirety of the Praetorian story, starting *as* a Praetorian, was a Live project I just never got around to finishing due to the way it hops around all sorts of level ranges - and I'm looking to fix that! The hope is to create a spoiler-free 'map' of where all the contacts, trials, and TFs involved fall chronologically so that I can run through them 'in order' on various characters and see the whole story in a way that makes sense.

 

Following the Wiki's Issue releases, I was able to cobble a starter together - but I'm not sure where the other 30-40 arcs (Provost Marchand, Sgt. Schorr) actually fall. Any help/corrections would be appreciated!

 

 1: Praetorian Starters (1-20)
 2: Apex (50 Incarnate)
 3: Tin Mage (50 Incarnate)
 4: Behavioral Adjustment Facility (50 Trial)
 5: Lambda Sector (50 Trial)
 6: Admiral Sutter TF (20-40)
 7: Keyes Island (50 Trial)
 8: First Ward (20-30)
 9: Night Ward (20-30)
 10: Underground Trial (50 Trial)
 11: TPN Campus (50 Trial)
 12: Dark Astoria (50 Incarnate)
 13: Dilemma Diabolique (50 Trial)
 14: Belladonna Vetrano (50 Incarnate)
 15: Magisterium (Incarnate Trial)
 ??: Provost Marchand

[merrypessimist]

Isn't Dilemma Diabolique at the very end of the list, since it's basically the capstone to the Dark Astoria plot instead of the Praetoria plot?  That aside, the Marchand/Schorr arcs are at the end because they're "post-fall" stories.

 

EDIT: I also realized you forgot Infinite Army (Tina Macintyre level 40 arc) and Hero's Hero (Maria Jenkins level 45+ arc) AFTER First/Night ward but  BEFORE any of Tinpex, iTrials, and so on.  So a list more like this:

 

1: Praetorian Starters (1-20)
2: First Ward (20-30)

3: Night Ward (30-40)

4: Tina Macintyre (40-45)

5: Maria Jenkins (45+)

6: Apex (50 Incarnate)
 7: Tin Mage (50 Incarnate)
 8: Behavioral Adjustment Facility (50 Trial)
 9: Lambda Sector (50 Trial)
 10: Admiral Sutter TF (20-40)
 11: Keyes Island (50 Trial)
 12: Underground Trial (50 Trial)
 13: TPN Campus (50 Trial)
 14: Dark Astoria (50 Incarnate)
  15: Belladonna Vetrano (50 Incarnate)
 16: Magisterium (Incarnate Trial)
 17: Provost Marchand

18: Dilemma Diabolique (50 Trial)

 

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by merrypessimist
expansion

[Aberrant]

This is my general timeline of events based on a post by @oxmox, with a few changes based on release dates and when characters drop out of certain storylines, with [ ] brackets listing events that happen out of the game.

 

[Rikti Invasion of Primal Earth / Hamidon War of Praetorian Earth]

0. Original Tina Macintyre and Maria Jenkins arcs (available through Ouroboros) 

[A decade or more passes]

1. Goldside Praetorian arcs

2. New Tina Macintyre and Maria Jenkins arcs

[Terra Volta is invaded by the Praetorians and the Freedom Phalanx attempt and fail to defend it]

3. Apex Task Force

4. Tin Mage Task Force

5. Admiral Sutter Task Force 

6. Behavioural Adjustment Facility Incarnate Trial

7. Lambda Sector Incarnate Trial

8. Keyes Island Reactor Incarnate Trial

[As the war progresses Praetorians start to leave the city, some fleeing to First Ward with the help of the Carnival of Light]

9. First Ward arcs

10. The Underground Incarnate Trial

11. TPN Campus Incarnate Trial

12. Minds of Mayhem Incarnate Trial

13. New Dark Astoria arcs

14. Dilemma Diabolique Incarnate Trial

15. Who Will Die? arcs (not relevant to Praetoria but are the reason why Statesman stops showing up on the radio during Incarnate Trials, but comes after Dilemma Diabolique as Sister Psyche shows up as a hostage in the Trial)

16. Night Ward arcs

17. Belladonna Vetrano arcs

18. Magisterium Incarnate Trial

[Praetoria is in ruins after Tyrant loses control and Vanguard work to evacuate the remaining Praetorian citizens before Hamidon destroys everything]

19. Pandora's Box arcs (not relevant to Praetoria)

20. Praetoria's Hidden Treasure Villain Tip Mission (Level 30 Villain's lead-in to Mr. G)

21. Provost Marchand (Hero 30+) / Mr. G (Villain 30+) / Sgt. Schorr (Rogue 30-40) / The Major (Vigilante 30-40) arcs (Sgt Schorr's arc doesn't have any Praetorian content in it I think, but The Major's arc does)

22. Number Six arcs

 

The original Tina and Maria arcs are partly canon, available through Ouroboros as events that happened shortly after the original Rikti Invasion and presumably not long after Praetoria's Hamidon War. Things like Apex, Tin Mage and Sutter TFs I would say take place largely around the same time as each other, much like BAF and Lambda. First Ward is concurrent with the early Incarnate Trials but happens before Underground Trial as you work with Vanessa Devore before she dies in the Underground, Diabolique is released and Dark Astoria arcs start. Night Ward happens after Minds of Mayhem as Malaise is dead in it. Dark Astoria & Dilemma Diabolique happen before Magisterium, as Dominatrix is acting on Tyrant's orders during the Dark Astoria arcs but is captured during. She is rescued in Dilemma Diabolique Trial, then helps out in the Magisterium Trial against Tyrant. Belladonna Vetrano's arcs pick up directly after Night Ward and directly precede the Magisterium. Provost Marchand, Mr G, The Major and Number Six are all post Magisterium and never went live in original City of Heroes, only available on the Test Server before shutdown. All very complicated, but for the most part things happen in order of release date. 

 

For Praetorian characters to experience everything in timeline order they would need to following their Level 20 arcs leave Praetoria to Primal Earth and as quickly as possible reach level 40 then continue with Tina & Maria and become an Incarnate, using Ouroboros for First Ward & Night Ward when necessary. Alternatively for a more consistent levelling experience one could go to First Ward, Night Ward, then straight on to Provost Marchand/Mr G's post Praetoria arcs, having not participated in the greater war as at the time because they were not an Incarnate. Very awkward. 

Edited June 10, 2020 by Aberrant
Additional details. Edit 2: Links changed to HC wiki.

[Kallisti]

People had been banished to First Ward for a long time before the Primal attacks so I reckon they should come right after the 1-20 Goldside missions. They do set up situations that develop further later on with Diabolique in the DA arc and Pendragon in the Balladona Vetrano arcs.

[Aberrant]

True. Where it is in the list at the moment is just the latest it can possibly be.

[Kallisti]

9 and 16

 

Thinking about it more, it should probably go after Tina M and Maria J as they are the intro for Primal to Praetoria since primals are invited to help out in First Ward by Mistress Eva in Talos and the other one redside (can't remember his name)

Edited June 10, 2020 by Kallisti

[Aberrant]

I put Night Ward at 16 as I thought Malaise shows up in it dead, but I think I was wrong there. Reading through The Magician's arc again I think it's just a dream-projection of him in the hospital. So despite coming out an Issue and a half after, it might technically take place before Minds of Mayhem, so it could take place anytime after the Underground Trial.

[tremor3258]

Night Ward feels like a fairly fast continuation though there can be a delay. First Ward is still a mess with spirits and the Talons are everywhere even if Selene is down by the end of the arcs, and the first part of Night Ward is following up on the promise to free Katie only to find things are suddenly worse 

[Apparition]

The Praetorian timeline is weird.  I had to edit the Homecoming Wiki last night, because either Paragon Studios or SCoRE changed Dark Watcher's dialogue in the Anti-Matter mission arc to state that Statesman is dead.  That didn't happen until a year and a half after Issue 18.  The Anti-Matter mission arc also makes it clear that Praetoria hadn't invaded Primal Earth yet.

Edited June 20, 2020 by Apparition

[Patti]

Time travel is like a ball of timey-wimey stuff.

[Twisted Toon]

9 minutes ago, Patti said:

Time travel is like a ball of timey-wimey stuff.

you forgot the wibley-wobley in there.