METAPLOT EXPERIMENT: Share your headcanon!

[Coyotedancer]

Another fun, personally-held one that I was just reminded of...

 

Not everyone who has the (OOC build-defined) iPowers is actually an (IC character-fluff-defined) Incarnate. My main, for instance, isn't some goddess-like being infused with power from the Well of the Furies. She's just a very talented magician who had the academic discipline and dedication to her craft to put together a couple of seriously bad-ass spells. Her Clarion is defined IC as a warding ritual. 

[GraspingVileTerror]

That's another topic worth discussing . . . when the reasonable, sensible player-narrative runs up against the wall of unreasonable canon.

Incarnates being a prime example.  A.M.A.s suggest the Legacy Devs didn't intend to write the Incarnate system to be "it was all Magic Origin after all," but that's the explicit message the lore delivers.

That, coupled with what's going on as the Hot Topic in General right now with Monos' thread on Challenge/Progression, is my primary reason for wanting there to be Anti-Incarnate content added as an alternative end-game.  Naturally, for narrative cohesion it would have to be mutually exclusive with the regular Incarnate path, but to fulfil the implicit promise of City's core design, we should have the unlimited option to flip-flop between Incarnate and Anti-Incarnate mode.  Such as a Null the Gull option (though I would prefer something a little more diegetic, ideally, but I'm not against giving people a convenient way to toggle it either).

 

 . . . well, adding that to The List . . . (and because I can see Coyotedancer right now, also adding the Typo Name List to The List . . . )

 

"What List?"

You'll see . . . soon.  Or maybe Soon!™.  Assuming I can stay on task for more than ten minutes . . . 

[_Kai_]

Oh it's late and I'm bored, why not....

 

General Things:

1.  In the grand scheme of things, the Primal dimension is an over accelerated Anchor Dimension, which has made it prone to fracturing into a number of reflections that share an uncommonly large number of analogues of the same events and people, which explains nearly all the of the dimensions we access through Portal Corps(and previous numerous Live servers, and the various HC ones), but allows for other Anchor Dimensions that PCs come from.
2. The Mandela Effect is a real thing in CoH because those reflections are collapsing down into Primal constantly causing a number of mismatched memories from people (aka headcannons, character transfers, and revamped arcs)

Plausible but Largely Invented Things for Character Backstory spun from one-off lines or unused assets:

1. The Blackwell signs everywhere refer to Blackwell Limited, a company with a long history as cutting edge R&D for hero support, from new materials for use in clothing to doing bespoke adaptive work for heroes with unique physiology that want to use various equipment.
2. The population referred to in Number Six's arc in Praetorian Germany was Neu Berlin, built on the ashes of Berlin after it was nuked in WW2, but not for decades later until the radiation scrubbing technology was invented. Blah blah blah got a whoooooole background for what it was like that matter to no one who hasn't met Kaiserin, heh.
3. Neo Tokyo had a complete parallel power structure, the public model Praetorian city-state and the private Syndicate where both sides pretended not have any ties with each other but trusted the other side was doing what it thought proper and best for the people and tried to not get in each other's way.

[Darmian]

Headcanon of a sort.  The destruction of Galaxy City caused a warp/fracture in spacetime, whether due to the effects of the meteors combined with Shivan energy and mass superhuman power use, who knows?  So a new hero/villain comes through the Galaxy City tutorial, fights alongside Sister Psyche and others, saves or kills Blue Spectrum and walks out the other side...to find that Sister Psyche is already dead and others, possibly some they met battling a giant Shivan, decided to kill Blue Spectrum rather than save him, or vice versa.  Either way time is out of joint!  And that poor Blue Spectrum guy is in an eternal loop of hell!

[GraspingVileTerror]

Oo . . . good point, @Darmian.  Sounds like someone could write a short horror pulp about The Eternal Hell of Blue Spectrum.

[Darmian]

1 minute ago, GraspingVileTerror said:

Oo . . . good point, @Darmian.  Sounds like someone could write a short horror pulp about The Eternal Hell of Blue Spectrum.

I used some of that in my long AE Story, Dark Deeds/Darker Deeds/Darkest Before Dawn.

[jkwak]

all the server shards are part of the same multiverse and can be traveled to thru portals like the ones at Portal Corps or a displacement to another universe can happen at random and unexpected to a character without the character even realising it, of course the game does not allow for such chananigans except if you actually use the character transfer feature but it can totally happen from an in universe perspective and does happen all the time

 

now that i think about it that plot should actually be part of missions, just drop the name of a shard the player is not on at the moment in a mission briefing or something

Edited July 29, 2021 by jkwak

[jkwak]

ok more weird head canon,
Praetoria is destroyed because Hami, yet you can go there thru Tunnel, Pocket D and Base teleporters and it is still completely fine. Someone might yell "Time Travel", But what if this is actually an Alternate Praetoria one in which Hami and Cole both died during there battle. Someone might have taken Coles place (Nemesis at it again?) and lead Praetoria down on an almost identical path except for its destruction, of course any character coming from the false Praetoria, after the destruction of real Praetoria, would sooner or later hear that Hamidon destroyed Praetoria and believe it is his Praetoria that was destroyed.

Edited August 17, 2021 by jkwak

[Siouxsie]

My own head-canon on the relatively peaceful version of Praetoria we can go to is it is VR.  At least half my characters are Praetorians and if time travel was an option they would be doing everything they could to save the people before it went downhill.  Praetorian tech is better, so why couldn't we do a full world simulation better than Aeon's toy?

 

[I finally played Last Bastion the other week and my rather docile MM was raging through the whole thing.  No DE left alive.  Everyone saved.  Even that guy.  No way all the Praetorians out there wouldn't do something if they could.]

[Darmian]

1 hour ago, Siouxsie said:

No way all the Praetorians out there wouldn't do something if they could.]

YES!!!

[Takel]

A while back I threw together a bit of headcanon to deal with some "we're watching real-life cops act increasingly worse, but we pretty much work with them nonstop in City of Heroes" discomfort.

 

Short version: Superheroes aren't the only reason the police in Paragon City are a lot better than most police forces in large American cities, but they may as well be.

Longer version:

Quote

The Citizen Crime Fighting Act has been a staple of Paragon City's culture for long enough that any "Sheepdog Mentality" crap never really takes root -- superheroes blur the line between "civilian" and "cop" too much to leave any real space for it to grow. Those who join the force from out of town and subscribe to the mentality rarely keep it for more than a few weeks...assuming they don't get fired for things like threatening to run in Synapse for "interfering with a crime scene" because he didn't show up in costume.

 

Other methods of abuse aren't unheard of, but tend to be directed at supervillains. For example, civil forfeiture is rarely if ever turned against minorities, as the PPD has come to find it both safer and far more profitable to seize stuff from villain bases after the heroes clean said bases out. "12 Dozen Nazi War Mechs" even trended on Twitter for a few days when the associated case was cited in a Reason magazine review of forfeiture cases under its real name of "Commonwealth of Rhode Island v. Twenty-Four Crates, Each Containing Six 5th Column 'Mk II Wolfpack' Assault Robots".

 

[GraspingVileTerror]

Interesting take on it, @Takel.  Thank you for sharing it!

Although, I'm not sure my reading of the canon can fully support coming to the same conclusion, but it at least inspires some interesting ideas for future content.
Sadly, knowing how certain people would react, I can't quite feel comfortable delving in to a public discussion on the subject matter any further.  "Too real" for some folks.
Still . . . I hope the current lore Devs look in to this and give some consideration to what might otherwise be an inscrutable source of this particular departure from reality.
 
And to attempt to pre-empt a response I could see being made:  It matters because a cogent and internally consistent lore is something I personally value quite highly.  It's something which I feel City of Heroes has skirted with, never quite falling in to the levels of absurdity which Champions Online's lore exists within.  
It's the sort of reason why I think Shadowrun v4 is the best edition of Shadowrun, as a positive example.  There were writers who took the time to analyze how a setting like theirs could make sense within the constraints of sociological or anthropological contexts, and the setting was all the richer for it.
I want to encourage the current Devs here to do the same, or if they feel out of their depths, to invite others in to the space to assist them.

[Darmian]

On 7/10/2021 at 12:24 AM, GraspingVileTerror said:

That's another topic worth discussing . . . when the reasonable, sensible player-narrative runs up against the wall of unreasonable canon.

Incarnates being a prime example.  A.M.A.s suggest the Legacy Devs didn't intend to write the Incarnate system to be "it was all Magic Origin after all," but that's the explicit message the lore delivers.

There's a way out of this and it's Stefan Richter/Lord Recluse.  One of his drives is NOT being subservient to the Well, hence his quest for other equally tangible power levels and sources.  The Well itself equally describes him as a failure.  But that's only according to ITS rules. Head canon says Recluse is either on the right track or has succeeded. If he has then, like many a thing, once it's been done then it can be replicated, in whatever way.  

 

That ties in to my notions elsewhere that Recluse is aware of himself (for lack of a better phrase) not being "end game content", especially after the Praetorian War. That would I think drive him further to re-establish his dominance and gain the extra power needed.  He knows, for instance, that Emperor Cole is sitting in a prison "depowered", but that alternate of his old frenemy remains a threat. The Well in its "wisdom" called him a failure. It was wrong. 

 

I'm not suggesting an "Incarnate Version of Patron Powers" via Recluse, no. Just that the path to getting them be diversified. If that WAS by going through him, or a la VEATs stealing the information, then fine. Heroes doing it?  There's always a way.

 

The irony of all this is that unlike those who follow his research/path, Recluse IS tied to the Well.

Edited August 23, 2021 by Darmian

[Takel]

7 hours ago, GraspingVileTerror said:

Sadly, knowing how certain people would react, I can't quite feel comfortable delving in to a public discussion on the subject matter any further.  "Too real" for some folks.

 

 

That's fair. Mostly I posted that because my brain got stuck on the "what would civil forfeiture be like in a world where supervillains existed" part and immediately started spitting out the sort of jokes Twitter would make about the phrase "12 Dozen Nazi War Mechs".

[chase]

On 7/10/2021 at 3:02 AM, _Kai_ said:

(snip)

2. The Mandela Effect is a real thing in CoH because those reflections are collapsing down into Primal constantly causing a number of mismatched memories from people (aka headcannons, character transfers, and revamped arcs)

I've always liked this concept, but I've never seen is summed up so nicely as "The Mandela Effect is a real thing.", so I do hope you don't mind me stealing it. 

[_Kai_]

On 8/24/2021 at 7:32 AM, chase said:

I've always liked this concept, but I've never seen is summed up so nicely as "The Mandela Effect is a real thing.", so I do hope you don't mind me stealing it. 

 

Feel free! 😄

[Daniel_R]

I've enjoyed this thread immensely, and agree with many suggestions. Very much taken with the idea that Nemesis is the most social-media savvy of the villain groups. Although, if Zuckerberg is a Nemesis automation, its not much of a disguise...

 

Here's my own, based upon my own reading of the CoH lore:

 

• "Pandora", aka the source of all superpowers in the CoH universe, was originally an Ascended who foresaw the threat of Battalion
• She sacrificed herself to infuse the "Pandora's Box" artifact with the entirety of her power - it created a self-sustaining "web" of energy that connects to all powered individuals (and some artifacts/pieces of technology) and tweaks the rules of reality to magnify the "possible" - it isn't the "source" of superpowers, but merely what makes it possible for a highly trained human to dodge bullets, or a chance mutation to enable telepathy, or exposure to radiation to induce super-strength 
• "Primal" Earth is special as it's the most "probable" of all the parallel worlds where Pandora made this choice - it's the epicenter of superpowered humanity in the multiverse
• Consequently, it's where the Well of The Furies has decided to make its stand against Battalion
• There exist "mundane" worlds that the "power web" does not extend to, that have been visited by Portal Corporation - no superpowers are possible there; trying to dodge bullets or expose yourself to radiation there is not a great idea
• In the Statesman/Ms Liberty TF, Lord Recluses' power-draining machine works by draining the energy from this web and channeling it into him; he's been looking for an alternate power source to the Well of the Furies, and he thinks this is it
• 'Invention Origin' enhancements work in an entirely different way to normal enhancements - the 'normal ones' directly enhance the source of the powers (radiation, spells, training, etc); IO's work by blending natural and supernatural elements to enhance their connection to the Power Web, making even more powerful abilities possible 
• Statesman, Lord Recluse and Hero 1 and others who got their powers directly from The Well and not the Power Web, don't use enhancements 
• The Well of the Furies is a person - they have a physical form and are hiding out in Paragon somewhere
• The power from the Well of the Furies is not magic;
• The Power Web is not magic either

 

Hope you have fun with these. I have more, but these all been burning a hole in my head - they occurred to me when I was planning out how I would write a Stateman TF short story or late-game AE arc, and I deep-dived into the original dev's comments on the lore.

Edited October 6, 2021 by Daniel_R

[BBBadger]

There are more Echoes that haven't been discovered yet. 

 

My headcanon is that Echoes are basically snap shots of places just before important events. Basically, it's the universe saving its game before the boss fight JUST in case in needs to revert back to how the Universe was before the disaster. The Universe isn't saving the 'game' in order to make sure they avert disaster or 'win'. It just wants to make sure the 'planned' timeline continues as it should. 

 

I also have it in my head that Echoes are pretty much time loops. Some Echoes are just for a day, some are for years (1999 has a hellova Echo!). You can go into an Echo and do whatever you want. The people will react to you like they would in real life. You can kill, kiss, fight, make world peace - but at the end of the Echo, it starts all over again and no one in the Echo remembers what you did. 

 

Praetoria zones now? Those are Echoes before the Great War. Dark Astoria? Echo before Mot rose. Galaxy City? A day before the Meteors hit. Atlas City and Faultline... well, who knows.  Something! 

 

So go into an Echo. Fall in love. Fight to the Death. 'Succeed' in a mission. It doesn't matter... You can't change the movie after it's been saved. 

[Take One]

5 hours ago, BBBadger said:

Praetoria zones now? Those are Echoes before the Great War.

 

This is the best explanation I've heard so far, I wish it was official and that they were removed from the TUNNEL system so you had to actually go to ouroboros and time-travel to get there.

[BBBadger]

Praetorian Lore:

 

• Why were Praetorians accepting of mass psionic surveillance? When Praetoria finally arose from the smoldering hellscape from the Hamidon War, literally everyone was suffering from some sort of mental trauma. While mental health was pushed on anyone and everyone in order to give them the help they needed, not all were able to get past their trauma. Shortly after the loss of First Ward, a survivor who worked with Praetor Keyes simply snapped. He tried to bring down the sonic fences around the entire city. In his mind, it was better to end it all now than to just have the city wait for yet another failure. Cole along with the rest of the heroes were able to stop him. 
  
  This incident pushed public opinion the need for psionic surveillance. Everyone didn't want someone turning off the sonic fence or doing something more drastic due to an undiagnosed issue brought on by the constant fear of Hamidon. 
  
  Now, the Resistance spins this tale a little differently. They claim this whole thing was just a big production. No one snapped. No one tried to bring down the Sonic Fences. This was just another lie created by Cole, or at the very least, Mother Mayhem, in order to gain more control over Praetoria.
    
• Last Bastion (from the Praetorian Final Arc) isn't well publicized. Most refugees have been led to believe that the entire Praetorian Earth is consumed. Right now, Vanguard is working with those of Last Bastion to make the city secure. Eventually, it's existence will be revealed to most of the populace and the offer to allow people to return will be presented. However, right now? It's a closely guarded secret. Of course, there are rumors about it that pop up from time to time but most refugees just think it's that - a rumor.
   
• Praetor Barry lives! Yup, I refuse to accept he's died off camera. I've created some AEs where the players are investigating cloning operations in Primal Earth. The only clue so far is a dying clone soldier muttering about 'The New One'. Marauder and the New Praetorians are secretly trying to figure out if 'New One' is actually "Neuron'. If so, who knows what the crazed genius is up to and why he's running an illegal cloning operation! 

Rogue Isles (Etoile Isles) Lore

 

• There is a group called the Etoile Liberation Front (ELF). They work to bring down Arachnos anyway they can - even at one point working with the Praetorian invaders because Cole was better than Recluse and his Destined Ones. The group has lost support since their Praetorian gambit but they are starting to make a comeback due to increased crack downs by Arachnos.
   
• Most people on Etoile are about 10 years behind on media. While the rich and powerful have access to these things, it isn't uncommon for poorer Etoile citizens to be talking about media that came out 10 or so years ago in the States. This is because of the heavy embargos and internet restrictions from Arachnos. Most of the media is from hard copies such as black market DVDs, Blue Rays, MP4s on flashdrives, and CDs/records/cassettes. While some media translates well, others doesn't. Most of Etoile don't understand why people love 'The Office'. "Michael Scott would be killed within a week by at least Dwight!"
   
• There is a partially finished underground subway in Port Oakes called the Oakes Transportation Hub. It started JUST before Recluse came to power so only a few tunnels and stations were started. The plan was to create four stations in Port Oakes and then have a tunnel run under the mountain straight to Cap Au Diable. Sadly, since the service was never completed, people have to resort to crowded ferries to travel between the two cities. 
   
• Heroes who work on Etoile work closely with something called the Homeless Network. Basically, it's a network of homeless people who share stories and rumors to those looking to help out the poor and desperate. This homeless network has been stamped out by Arachnos a few times but it usually comes back after a few months. Westin Phipps has made it his goal to completely dismantle this. He believes by doing so would gain him great favor with Arachnos. (This is my explanation for when I play an Etoile Hero. Instead of grabbing stuff from the Newspaper, I pretend I talk to a nearby homeless person and then just reskin the mission. I'm not kidnapping a person - I'm saving them!)
   
• A lot of poor neighborhoods don't have the ability to stream movies. The infrastructure just isn't taken care enough in those area to make it worth it. So Netflix isn't something that's popular in Mercy, some areas of Port Oakes, and certainly not Sharkhead.
   
• The people of Etoile have been convinced that charity (giving or taking it) is a sign of weakness. That is why most people don't try to set up things like soup kitchens or donation shelters. Arachnos has led a propaganda movement to push stories of people poisoning food at food kitchens and other bad things. They've pushed the idea that no one ever does charity to do charity - and that if they claim they are just trying to help, they're just trying to trick you. That's made the population of Etoile hesitant to just accept 'free' items such as food, drink, and even money. Everything has a price!

 

 

 

 

Edited October 7, 2021 by BBBadger

[Palador]

Okay, let's toss out a couple of mine:

* Mender Silos has gone back in time to stop/alter the creation of Lord Nemesis (aka: Himself). What he found is that the person everyone believed to be the original Nemesis is in fact just building off of blueprints given to him by someone else, and the guy's DNA doesn't match that of Silos. Unsure of where/when/who the real Nemesis is, Silos is having to make small changes to snowball events into the end he wants, rather than stopping Nemesis directly. And that will lead to his other goals.

 

* The group that created the 5th Column spun off another group as well. They had a strong interest in magic, and were in league with the Thule Society to investigate it. The Thule Society eventually realized that they didn't believe in a "master" race, but that it was the ability to use/control the forces of magic that marked one as superior. This caused a bitter split that lasts to this day, and left the Council scrounging for pseudo-magical allies such as the Path of the Dark. The Mages of Thule (as they now call themselves) eventually found a pocket dimension in the Atlantic that they decreed the fabled Island of Thule and set up as their base of operations. Due to their concern with magical ability and bloodlines that carry it, they have ties with both the Mu and the Legacy Chain. They actually back the Chain (secretly), and use them as a public front.

 

* City Hall offers various services and programs to heroes that many don't know about. This includes a small amount of pay for anyone doing enough freelance hero work, therapy sessions, classes on dealing with a crime scene/people before the police arrive, and a wide range of classes that can be summed up as "How to do Basic Stuff That You Never Learned Because Your Dark Backstory Left You With No Life Skills" classes. Most of those classes are taught by heroes that volunteer their time.

 

* Overbrook has an unusually high population of heroes in the apartments there. That's because the company that owns the apartments felt that offering targeted discounts to heroes would make the building safer than the more hazardous area would suggest.

 

* There are hero social groups that have formed around having some kinds of powers. Speedsters getting together for morning jogs, flyers playing Quidditch, gun clubs, and so on.

Edited November 8, 2021 by Palador

[GraspingVileTerror]

That last point reminds me of the Fast Club from the Magellan comic, @Palador.

[A Cat]

7 hours ago, Palador said:

* City Hall offers various services and programs to heroes that many don't know about. This includes a small amount of pay for anyone doing enough freelance hero work, therapy sessions, classes on dealing with a crime scene/people before the police arrive, and a wide range of classes that can be summed up as "How to do Basic Stuff That You Never Learned Because Your Dark Backstory Left You With No Life Skills" classes. Most of those classes are taught by heroes that volunteer their time

I like this idea a lot. 

[Coyotedancer]

9 hours ago, A Cat said:

I like this idea a lot. 

 

Agreed, That one's a great bit of "How do social services look in a world with powered people"?

[Kismet Cowboy]

By no means a lore expert, so maybe something contradicts this, but I liked the idea that Shivans are in fact the burnt up and corrupted residue of Kheldians after Battalion get their hands on them and use them as fuel. Whatever is left after they're passed through Battalion's engines is scraped up, condensed into jelly, and yeeted at target planets in order to act as advance scouts and soften up defences before the main group arrives. They're drawn to and form around corpses because of that symbiotic instinct to bond with other lifeforms lingering as the only thing left of their charred, irradiated souls.