Updating the Devouring Earth (Lore, Missions)

[Greycat]

Disclaimer: This is only tangential to my post in general discussion on if or how Hamidon should be changed/buffed/whatever. I'm actually going to be ignoring the Hami raid here and focusing on lore and missions. That post is discussion, this is ... to figure out some updates. I will say that post is what got me started down the path of thinking about this. That said, off we go.

 

So, the Devouring Earth haven't really been updated much, primal-side. They hang around in seeming random zones, you can ignore their missions, then suddenly *boom,* Hami's the end game non-Incarnate raid.

 

The flip side of that is Hamidon *is* the big bad for Praetorians. Unlike Primal, in Praetoria we get to see him (sort of - more like see his effects) in nearly full glory. He has avatars. He has seeds. He is destroying cities, he's on top of and beneath the earth, for all we know he's trying to figure out how to get to space and spread to other planets and become the Praetorian Coming Storm for their universe.

 

Primalside, though, it's ... rather... bland. We have creatures hanging out in Talos and Croatoa for... some... reason? And founders, though that makes sense because there's a direct link to Eden and the Hive. (There's also the Abyss, with them trying to bring Hami through outside of paragon... which, and I'll bring this up later, should have characters that started as Praetorians absolutely ecstatic that they wore the brown pants today.) You have to run specific arcs to get a touch of the horror in Tanya, Pyriss - even Psi Knight asking you to kill him before he's completely converted to a Devoured. Otherwise, those are just... funny shaped sacks of XP. Oh, and of course we have some in Crey's Folly, which makes sense since it's an ecological disaster that would be *infuriating* to the Hamidon... but, again, they're just sort of there, mostly as swarms, it seems. Plus a few stragglers in PI, and around the island in IP that Terra Volta's on, which should be much more alarming than it is.

 

It's past time that the Primal DE storyline got updated.

 

These arcs are some of the oldest in the game. I don't think they've been looked at since being put in. Even redside - which has "newer" arcs - they're from around redside launch (with Pyriss - and I will say I liked that she was brought in in the incarnate content, too. It was a nice cameo.) A lot has changed since then. It'd be nice for the game to reflect that - and possibly add content in areas there isn't any now.

 

A note on mobs. I don't think the mobs need updating. Yeah, really. They've got a nice mix of abilities, resistances and debuffs that they're still a worthwhile fight. I honestly think that - other than perhaps a cameo or special mob here or there for story reasons - the DE as a group of critters can be left as is. Yes, incarnates can still pretty much roflstomp them - but they *exist* in a wide enough range that, by the time you get there, frankly, you've earned it. (Again, not talking about the raid - that goes into the whole long running "incarnates vs high end content" thing I'm not touching. I'm talking "if you can now nuke the rank-and-file mobs in missions that have been annoying you for 20-odd levels? Go for it, it's probably cathartic.")

 

 

The DE currently start at 25, with one very easy to miss contact in Talos. (A contact in IP can give the same mission. But you're *much* more likely to get the Wheel of Destruction, for instance, or the Freakylimpics, or the Sky Raider secret. Serieously, it seems like ten contacts in each zone could hand you any of these others, so this one's easy to miss. ) This is the Will of the Earth arc. (An Unnatural Order.) It's ... an all right arc, but it's also kind of coming out of nowhere. I'd almost want a 20-25 arc - or a few - that introduce some "ecoterrorists" who turn out, at the end, to be following the DE's/Hamidon's directives. For Praetorians? You get a special one... with fellow Praetorians who, on having escaped Hami on Praetoria, learn he's here too, give up, and see him as inevitable... and start working to bring him to power.

 

25, then, brings us to the Will of the Earth arc with a little less suddenness. I'd also like to see a new one in IP, honestly, just dealing with the fact they're *at the walls of the zone that houses the city's nuclear reactor.* Probably dealing, initially, with more of either the terrorists and/or Praetorian "inevitablists" working to breach the walls. There are tunnels enough, you work to discover the plot, stop them from planting something that starts a DE attack that, unstopped, would break through.

 

30 - 40 is where things should get interesting and let you continue the plot. IT's also where there's a technical question - does the game keep track of those who started as Praetorian? You can't do it via badges or arcs, obviously - you can ouro those, as I'm recalling. If it can keep track? In my mind, there should be people reaching out to ex-Praetorians about how these "damn Primals can't even keep their own Hamidon under control." If it's possible, again... this should be *really* giving some nice possibilities to ex-Praetorians... to either help or hinder Hami. Yes, including redsiders. If you want to help, you can get missions to get like-minded people to some point to eventually be converted to Devoured.  Primals can get this, too... and yes, perhaps even end up with a Devoured temp summon. (I was thinking "end up as..." but so far the process isn't reversable, in lore.)

 

Crey's Folly should also be coming into play here. Yes, the zone gets content. Hami fighting against the pollution - could it even be a *sympathetic* arc for Hamidon? - and maybe seeing if, in its efforts to clean up, it can *use* the toxic sludge to bring forth even more powerful creatures. "Let mankind die at its own hand," basically. Crey, of course, would also be a major antagonist - and I can see these arcs being very grey and ambiguous. Heroically, you wouldn't really *want* to help either side - you'd want to stop Hamidon and put Crey in jail - but what if you didn't have the choice? Given ten levels and several arcs to develop this - and maybe a RIkti side interest in seeing if they can use these creatures, just as they did the Hydra - should fill up plenty of the Folly.

 

Founders should also have its share of issues, 35-40. While it may not get many story arcs for this, it could get something else.  Buds. yes, the little guys that show up after you defeat Hamidon. They end up randomly showing up - thus the Praetorians "they can't control their own" freakout. They shouldn't be allowed to build up too badly (there are population fluxes, after all,) and no, they don't develop into a full Hami, but something GM powerful a team could take down? Sure. Rally the other DE around, too.

 

40-50? PI time. Both Portal and Praetorians do *not* want Hami finding out about Praetoria - and don't want anything coming through from that side, either. You can help - or hinder - this effort. (If you want to do this redside, it'd be missions and instances, of course.) And just for fun (and this'd be work,) well... you know those odd, giant bones on Monkey Island? What could Hamidon get inspired to do or make by those....

 

So by the time you finally get to the *raid,* you should have a healthy dose of lore and/or respect for Hami, versus just showing up for whatever reason to fight a jello blob. Granted, this has been a bunch of rough ideas, sketches and outlines - and barely touches on redside (which is kind of problematic on its own,) but there's a *lot* of potential with where the game sits now, lorewise, to update the DE and make them much mroe interesting and built up into much more of a threat, and I think it'd be worthwhile to do. It'd be a project over multiple "issues," with other things going on, I'm sure, but I think it'd be worth the effort.

 

[Razor Cure]

I'd love to see a visual update for DE at least. All the incarnate DE (and Provost Marchy/MrG arcs) look really cool with the green gooey stuff on them.

[Take One]

I agree that it would be awesome to see more human followers of the DE on lower levels, and I also feel like the story arcs could use some editing, since there are many contradictions between and even within them. Is the Will of the Earth a virus, a bacterium, a fungus spore, or something else? I think it's been called all three of these, sometimes in the same story by the same contact.

[Katrice Metaluna]

You know, I can't recall exactly how I learned of primal Hamidon's origins. It might have been the story arc or maybe it was on the old website or maybe the original Paragon Wiki? It seems to barely get touched on in-game at either rate. Seems like quite an oversight to fail to inform every hero in the city who this enemy is and how they got here.

 

As far as in-game lore goes, I really don't think Preatorian Hamidon would feel any affinity or kinship with Primal Hamidon. Prae Hami would more than likely feel contempt to see their counterpart is so comparatively weak. And if you saw Praetorian DE spill over, they'd probably be fighting against Primal DE in what would look like a very confusing civil war to everyone else until they figured out what was going on.

[Ankylosaur]

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I agree that it would be awesome to see more human followers of the DE on lower levels, 

 

@Take One mentioned this discussion to me. I have a mob called The Gaians and backstory for them in my arc "The Genesis and Geneticists of the Coming Hammigedon" in my sig if you want to explore one person's take on this idea.

 

How they became this way is revealed in the story, but the minions have less mutations and bosses more. It all takes place in Eden and The Hive so its fairly high level - not low level like mentioned above.

 

In storytelling - one of the things about the DE that's tough is they have no voice - which makes it hard for anyone to care about them other than things to be wiped out. In my story I let the Hamidon speak through the Gaiains which makes him much more interesting as a big baddie IMHO.

 

On a related and strange DE voice side-note, I "heard" DE talking near the Dark Astoria entrance Bladegrasses and Herders speaking - not sure I've seen that before  

 

 

Also - I think if we are thinking big, there are opportunities for an Eden zone redo ala Faultline. Nothing much happens in Eden, The intriguing Utopia Complex is there (I use that and The Gaians again in another arc) and it is the home to DE and pathways through woods that everyone just avoids.

Edited January 22, 2021 by Ankylosaur