Caretaker's Plot Discussion Tunnel to Oblivion

[The Caretaker]

On 6/7/2023 at 3:44 PM, Jiro Ito said:

 

Will we see any more of the Nuclear 90?  A villain maybe?

Hehe. No comment.

[Night]

Are there any plans for continuing the incarnate storyline, or for new post-Mot itrials? Or is it more a closed case, with further slots in the incarnate tree closed and with Hybrid being the set pinnacle mechanically?

[Vanden]

On 5/22/2023 at 7:41 PM, The Caretaker said:

You know, for all the plot holes I've tried to fill, this is the one that just needs to exist, or your efforts would just be too effective.

You'd have whole gangs dismantled from the inside out by level 20... which was exactly how the original writing was done, levels equalling time, and gangs replacing other gangs as the low ones disappeared, you having done them in effectively.

 

Then Clockwork came back at level 41+ for Tina Macintyre, which was fine as an alternate dimension... but then CWK came back in full force at 35+ for the LGTF and that mantra was given the handwave of a lifetime after that.

 

I have a handful of ideas for making releases from the Zig a little less like a meme, but it's not ideal to involve Chris Jenkins in every story.

 

This doesn't really seem like a plot hole to me. All it takes for the CWK to not be in prison during the LGTF is for him to just get out on parole. There's 15 levels of time between his appearances for that to happen.

[Ankylosaur]

On 5/19/2023 at 8:43 PM, Crasical said:

Also, another Praetoria question: is Helix, from the Crusaders arc, a Kheldian?

I always presumed so. I’ve been exploring a few of the open threads with AE (Gold Brickers vs Aeon, First Warders reclaiming Astoria, a different Scirocco take, Awakened and The Council) and have a kheldian plotline called All That Glows. Involves the whole Arakhn and Requiem council schism too and how a Kheldian made it to Praetoria if you want to see one pass at it. 

[Greycat]

On 6/22/2023 at 3:59 AM, Ankylosaur said:

I always presumed so. I’ve been exploring a few of the open threads with AE (Gold Brickers vs Aeon, First Warders reclaiming Astoria, a different Scirocco take, Awakened and The Council) and have a kheldian plotline called All That Glows. Involves the whole Arakhn and Requiem council schism too and how a Kheldian made it to Praetoria if you want to see one pass at it. 

 

We have nothing showing Khelds on Praetorian earth. (Reinforced, to me, by the not-being-able-to-make-Khelds-goldside.)

[The Caretaker]

I am firmly of the belief that some intern chose the Kheldian powers/FX and nobody vetted it, or cared to address it.

 

While it seems likely - given the closely shared but divergent history of Primal and Praetoria- that the Nictus went into hiding ages before any timeline schism, the Nictus' absence in the Praetorian timeline can be written as another victim of variant circumstance.

 

It's possible they died out without fanfare, just like Nemesis did, because of an inconsequential fluctuation in geothermal circumstances that rendered their ability to create shadow crystals impossible on Praetorian Earth, and cautiously exchanging hosts for as long as they had to, eventually got picked off by sheer probability. And then the Hamidon rolled through like a tentacled steamroller and shredded whatever endured anyway.

 

TL;DR: No, there are not dimensionally native Kheldians/Nictus in Praetoria, in any timeline a player has witnessed.

[Ankylosaur]

On 6/29/2023 at 11:12 PM, The Caretaker said:

There are not dimensionally native Kheldians/Nictus in Praetoria, in any timeline a player has witnessed.

 

Yeah I came to the same conclusion, that none were native; part of why there is just one. Given the Nictus’ penchant for conquering, and the game’s for time travel, and interdimensional travel, my little story line justifes it…

 

Spoiler

Helix is cast as a Nictus, sent back to an earlier time in Praetorian history - though of course she was also around back in Roman times too - jumping from host to host over the millennia.
 

Ultimately, there is a schism among the Nictus. Requiem is looking to take the 5th column and Nictus to Praetoria leaving Arakhn and the Council and Primal Earth behind. Generally that group of Nictus are ready to get out of Primal as they have failed to conquer it in over 2,000 years. They welcome new leadership and a new direction.

But my story also does its best to justify the fact that both pre-fall Praetoria and post-fall are available in game - so Praetorian time travel is not that hard to accomplish. And post fall is not just a wasteland - again - viable reasons but that’s a different part of the story.

 

After the nukes:

• The radiation killed off any DE in the immediate area.
• Some surviving clockwork continued their core programming, repairing the city despite the absence of organic life. (And Metronome controls some of them.)
• Neo-Tokyo reclaimed the city, eliminating much of the radiation and protecting the city by using the one thing Cole did not use to keep out the DE: magic. 
• It's Neo Tokyo's magic wards that redirect most portals to the past Praetoria. If you can bypass them you get to the "real" present, that has them in control of the city.

 

If you want to explore it - check out All That Glows arcs in my sig.

 

Or if you want a sense of where the whole series ends up - you can play the finale in my sig - All That Gleams. The Nictus have teamed up with Metronome (he possesses bots, they possess people) and are primarily out at Anti-matter's power plant. That's the one area that is repaired but still fairly irradiated and they can live in that energy quite comfortably.

And obviously my story is not canon, but it’s just to illustrate that in this universe there’s loads of little hooks that you can use and justify to explore new paths, well within the confines of the lore. 

Edited July 2, 2023 by Ankylosaur

[Night]

In Helix's story she says she has an environmental suit, and she is covered head to toe in a suit with armored bits on arms, shoulders and boots, so when she mentioned that in story that seemed a plausible enough explanation for flashy powers.

[Ankylosaur]

19 hours ago, Night said:

In Helix's story she says she has an environmental suit, and she is covered head to toe in a suit with armored bits on arms, shoulders and boots, so when she mentioned that in story that seemed a plausible enough explanation for flashy powers.

 

Absolutely, but it also seems plausible enough that it's a cover. I mean - no one else needs an environmental suit...

• "Oh hey Resistance friends, I came up with this awesome and totally unique environmental suit with energy powers, but it's just for me. There is no way I can replicate these weapons for anyone else to wear and help our cause to overthrow Cole. Sorry about that."
  
  or
   
• "I'm covered head to toe in this environmental suit that obscures my appearance so I can use these awesome energy powers. There is no way that I am actually a Nictus possessing someone that you might recognize if I did not have this helmet and mask on at all times."
   

But Helix is not the only mob that uses the Kheldian light powers in game. The Drudges and the Polar Lights do too. So yeah, it could be because of an intern, or economy/budgets for new power art, but for me anyway, the more interesting angle is she could be a Nictus infiltrating Praetoria before the fall...

[Kataklysm]

Is there any plan to explore the restoration of the destroyed parts of praetoria or is the canon timeline going to remain under the assumption "praetoria is lost to hami". I personally always thought it would be a really neat twist to find out recluse pulled a double whammy and using the stolen praetorian tech somehow, arachnos created an anti-hamidon spore weapon of some kind. 

It almost felt like that was where paragon was going until the AMA for me, as I always saw the trapped devouring earth in Grandville as foreshadowing, to . . some sort of arachnos experimenting with hamidon spores situation. also, I always thought arachnos making use of some of that ghoul control collar tech would be -neat- to say the least. what with all the pillaged praetorian goods.

If anyone has the means to take over old praetoria it always felt like arachnos was the most likely candidate. Or vanguard on some heavy handed rouge behavior potentially