"Grey Kheldians"

[biostem]

So my understanding of the lore surrounding Kheldians is that Peacebringers join with a willing host, Nictuses (Nicti?) use science to alter themselves so they can posses/be forcibly bonded with an unwilling host, and Warshades are Nictus who are now redeemed, (or in the process of redeeming themselves).  With that, what if there was a Kheldian that was rescued or otherwise had a change of heart partway through the process of becoming a Nictus, and now contains a mixture of light and dark powers.  The implementation would be pretty easy, IMO - you can pick luminous or umbral as your primary, and get the opposite one as your secondary.  I think it'd add a new and interesting twist in this HEAT.  Your thoughts?  Thanks for reading!

[Rudra]

An interesting take, but I don't see it working as advertised. Not as far as lore goes. The Kheldians are a science-based race. Peacebringers are Kheldians that join with a willing host. The Nictus are Kheldians that have taken a darker path, feeding off the life energy of others. So their host need not be willing, because the host is basically just a shell and meal for the Nictus. Warsahdes have already walked the dark path of the Nictus. They are already transformed, but have chosen to cast off that darkness and seek redemption. All of this happened... millennia ago? Anyway, in CoX, the Peacebringers and Warshades are basically two different branches of the Kheldian race. And not even from the same place if I understand the lore right. So a Kheldian is either a Nictus or not a Nictus, there is no becoming a Nictus at this point.

 

However, there is still room for a hybrid Kheldian. It would just need to be written in differently than your current proposal. Such as Nictus experiments that attempted to infuse Peacebringer fragments into Nictus volunteers to bolster their powers, giving rise to a new type of Kheldian. Which could then rise against their Nictus masters, either because of their Peacebringer natures fighting against their Nictus natures, or because of a Kheldian arc that has the players free the new Kheldian race, or some other reason; and become your "Grey Kheldian" AT. Hells, it could even be an attempt by the Peacebringers and Warshades to bridge the gap between them, thus avoiding the need for an uprising against Nictus creators altogether.

[JasperStone]

I love my Peacebringer.

and I think this idea is fantastic.

 

What if the Grey had a path like a Widow does?

[biostem]

30 minutes ago, Rudra said:

However, there is still room for a hybrid Kheldian. It would just need to be written in differently than your current proposal. Such as Nictus experiments that attempted to infuse Peacebringer fragments into Nictus volunteers to bolster their powers, giving rise to a new type of Kheldian. Which could then rise against their Nictus masters, either because of their Peacebringer natures fighting against their Nictus natures, or because of a Kheldian arc that has the players free the new Kheldian race, or some other reason; and become your "Grey Kheldian" AT. Hells, it could even be an attempt by the Peacebringers and Warshades to bridge the gap between them, thus avoiding the need for an uprising against Nictus creators altogether.

There may be more to the lore in-game, but the wiki states:

 

"Nictus are Kheldians who, when faced with the short native lifespan of the Kheldian people, turned to science and changed themselves into beings of darkness. They feed off of life energy, and were at one point able to siphon the life force of the Kheldians from great distances."

 

 

My point is that you could have a Kheldian that began the process to transform themselves into a Nictus, and either had a change of heart partway through, or it was otherwise interrupted, thereby only partially changing them.  The player can then come up with whatever backstory they want to explain how they came to inhabit their current host...

Edited October 27, 2022 by biostem

[biostem]

14 minutes ago, JasperStone said:

What if the Grey had a path like a Widow does?

Well, I wanted to introduce something new, but keep it fairly simple to implement, hence just allowing the choice of the opposite secondary set...

[Rudra]

Yeah, the wiki is great source of information, but the data on it has already been changed at least once. It was the first place I went to look up a reference for the OP though. The rest of the lore you have to glean from the comments made by NPCs in the game. Like there was talk somewhere of the Nictus attacking the Peacebringers; feeding off them and using them as living batteries as part of a war. Like how Twilight Son says The Coming Storm does to his race, except that it is other Kheldians (the Nictus).

 

Either way, a new type of Kheldian could be interesting. No opposition from me on that. It's just the lore as provided by the wiki and the in-game comments that leads me to think the background of the... what the hell do we call these? ... makes me think they will need a different approach lore-wise to be added.

[TheZag]

They would be called Warren Peace.

 

[El D]

This was the first thing my brain came up with regarding 'fusion Kheldians.'

 

 

I do like the idea though. The Kheldian story arc kind of stagnated pretty hard for the longest time. At least the VEATs have the on-going shenanigans with Arachnos and the Isles to sort of work with. The only real new Kheldian stuff we've gotten is the Hard Mode ITF and the Sister Valeria arc - which while fun and engaging content, doesn't really advance things in modern times (at least, not in any way we've gotten to see yet).

 

Plus, the idea of fusion Kheldians just seems neat. Like they both tried to join with the same person at the same time, or ended up melding when the Nictus was going all energy-vampire on the Kheldian and now they're stuck together. There's a lot of avenues to play out the whole 'symbiotic' thing.

Edited October 27, 2022 by El D

[Doomrider]

I would love a Peaceshade or a Warbringer. I'll take one of each please.

[JasperStone]

1 hour ago, Doomrider said:

I would love a Peaceshade or a Warbringer. I'll take one of each please.

Warbringer sounds 

...

...

...

delicious

[Greycat]

On 10/26/2022 at 9:04 PM, Rudra said:

Yeah, the wiki is great source of information, but the data on it has already been changed at least once. It was the first place I went to look up a reference for the OP though. The rest of the lore you have to glean from the comments made by NPCs in the game. Like there was talk somewhere of the Nictus attacking the Peacebringers; feeding off them and using them as living batteries as part of a war. Like how Twilight Son says The Coming Storm does to his race, except that it is other Kheldians (the Nictus).

 

 

Lorewise -

- Twilight son's arc mentions the Batallion using Kheldians as living batteries to power starships (part of why I'm frankly glad the devs didn't do more with Kheld lore, since that's just one MORE ridiculous bit of nonsense that makes me not like the whole Batallion thing and dance with joy at it never getting done,)

- Winslowe's Cosmotron (Kheldian arc, Striga isle) is what talks about the Nictus siphoning off Kheldian life across the galaxy if it were completed.

- And yes, Nictus formerly ruled the Kheldians, and fed off of them to extend their life - believe it's the lore bible that goes into them making some offer to older Kheldians and cannibalizing them instead, one of the things that kicked off the Kheldian war.

 

And no, there's really no in between "I stopped partway" to becoming a Nictus. Elsewhere in the lore and in game they're described as shadows, not just "dark energy," which they had to do to survive Peacebringer assaults. They're changed to *radically* different beings.

 

There are also, frankly, rules about the melding with beings. One at a time, quite simply. The Peacebringers stopped a forced takeover of people by explaining what was going on and binding with them. When the Nictus arrived, they couldn't do anything except be slapped down by the combined Peacebringer.

 

I'd see this as being an issue with the whole "shards" idea, interesting as that is. If things went that route, I'd frankly want to see a different set of story arcs going 1-50 for them, since it'd be a *completely* different POV, it wouldn't make sense to learn of N-fragments partway through (since you... would already have some in you,) for instance. It wouldn't just be a "copy-paste, open up the other one's set of powers" without doing a disservice to the whole idea of a lore-based (Epic) archetype. (Yes, I *do* give a very big damn about that. It's why I compiled and kept updating the Kheldian backstory guide. Which I keep thinking I have to do a fresh version of for here. And also why the "we need Recluse's towers, but make them Nictus!" annoys the hell out of me in hard-mode ITFs. Part of why I kind of don't want the devs touching Kheld lore, and haven't since I saw Twilight Son's backstory on live.) 

 

Mind you, I say all this as someone who *very much* plays some "nictus have experimented on..." characters that *do* show some sign of hybridization, usually taking advantage of existing powers or ability, or using chemicals or tech of varying sorts - but they're not true fusions. Dominators especially shine in this, as do some sorts of Sentinels. (Energy/Dark Armor, for instance.) So my objections have absolutely nothing to do with mechanics... they're solidly lore based, and that's *extremely* important to me.

 

(Oh, as far as the comments on Kheld vs VEAT arcs? The Kheld arc hasn't "gone anywhere" because it's done. You start as a newly merged being, you end with helping stop a Nictus takeover and basically kicking them off the planet, with the PBs sending troops to follow them. The VEAT arcs... just suck, frankly, so I'm not surprised people don't realize that story's done, too, but it's personal versus big-backstory-you-participate-in.)

 

 

[TheZag]

History is great but there is also the future.  Because something was doesnt always mean it must be forever.  Im not saying throw the lore aside and do whatever but if CoH never added to the lore then kheldians wouldnt have ever existed either.  I like the gray idea but would prefer it to be a bit more involved then just black/white or white/black.  It would probably mean branching paths like arachnos and i see that you want to keep it more easily implemented but im thinking if the time is to be spent, then the extra to make it top notch would be worth it.