What's the status of the Praetorians as of the end of I23? (Big spoilers, obviously.)

[MechaCrash]

The last Major Plot Thing that happened before the game's untimely end, as I recall, was the Magisterium trial. I recently did the Provost Marchand stuff that was in I24, and it reminds me that I want to make sure I know what happened to everyone. Keep in mind, when I say "what happened," I don't mean "what officially happened as far as our characters know," I mean "what do we, as players, know happened." I did all of the Incarnate Trial stuff back on live, but that was ten years ago, and the wiki doesn't consolidate any of this information.

 

So, going down the list on the wiki in alphabetical order, then...

 

• Anti-Matter: Officially unknown, but he sacrificed himself to get Metronome to the space station.
• Battle Maiden: I think she was captured during one of the Incarnate Trials? But I am unsure.
• Black Swan: I have no idea. Killed during Magisterium when Cole nuked it, maybe?
• Bobcat: Captured, awaiting trial. This is brought up in the Provost Marchand storyline, in which they say she is dangerous, but not actively a threat. They don't say it's because she's lazy and dumb, but c'mon man.
• Chimera: I think he was killed during the Magisterium trial.
• Diabolique: Getting rid of her is the entire point of the Dilemma Diabolique trial.
• Dominatrix: Captured, awaiting trial. As per the Provost Marchand stuff once again, her help during the Dark Astoria stuff will buy her some leniency, but she's a scheming backstabber so they're worried about what angle she's working.
• Infernal: No idea.
• Malaise: He was pretty important during Minds of Mayhem. I don't know his fate in the wake of that, but I wouldn't be surprised if most of who he was is basically gone after Mother Mayhem used him as a fallback point.
• Marauder: As of the end of I23, basically depowered because Neuron is a sloppy moron. There's more to it, but that's a huge part of the Provost Marchand stuff, and since this is specifically about the game as it was at shutdown, I'll leave it at that.
• Mother Mayhem: Killed during Minds of Mayhem.
• Neuron: Officially unknown, but he tried sacrificing Bobcat while he escaped the Devouring Earth. She took this poorly and killed him. I think I read this on the forums or some other "official but not in-game" type source.
• Nightstar: I'm pretty sure she's dead in the wake of the Behavioral Adjustment Facility trial.
• Shadow Hunter: Officially unknown, but he's encountered in some of Number Six's missions, which did not exist on live at the time. I think what it shakes out to is "he got Devoured and now you have to put him down."
• Siege: I'm pretty sure he's also dead in the wake of the Behavioral Adjustment Facility trial.
• Tyrant: Captured, awaiting trial. I know that there were plans that basically shook out to "we need a figurehead, Statesman would be perfect but he's dead, fill in for your Primal counterpart and we'll take that into consideration while dealing with your many horrible war crimes," but I am unsure as to the status of those. Mostly because the only reason I know this at all is because that's what was going on with Statesman's appearance in Master X Master, NCSoft's MOBA.

 

I think that's all of them? As you can see, I remember most of them, but the wiki does not put everything into one tidy "here's the deal" pile.

Edited March 26 by MechaCrash
Fixinng the bullet list.

[nihilii]

I would love for that Tyrant moba tidbit to be fleshed out as a real story arc here.

[RCU7115]

I thought the Debs during live said Shafowhunter was killed by Tyrant several years before Hami took over Preatoria.

[Major_Decoy]

9 minutes ago, RCU7115 said:

I thought the Debs during live said Shafowhunter was killed by Tyrant several years before Hami took over Preatoria.

Given the nightward missions, that seems unlikely.

[huang3721]

 

 

According to Marchand, Hamidon killed Shadow Hunter. Tyrant revived him in the Emperor's Sword incarnate story arc. 

[Placta]

Battle Maiden was captured at the end of Ajax TF and broken out of prison and recruited by Malta.

 

Chimera survived the Magisterium but was killed in the start of the issue 24 stories.

 

Aurora Pena is free of Praetor Tilman and was working with the Resistance (and later joins Marchand's "Praetorians aren't all bad!" hero team).

[Lunar Ronin]

All I'll say is that you want to do Mr. G's story arc in St. Martial in addition to Provost Marchand's to find out what happened.

[eiynp]

Battle Maiden is captured in the Apex TF, but freed by malta because they want her nanotech weapons. You see this at the end of one of the DA story arcs, if you're curious.

 

Diabolique gets like, disintegrated or something by dream doctor at the end of her trial.

 

If you do Dream Doc's mission to do the DD trial, he mentions that Dominatrix was freed from Mot and that Primal Miss Lib wants to rehabilitate her, but there's no more follow up on it.

 

It's mentioned during... I think Number Six's arc? That Shadowhunter was believed killed by the Praet devouring earth, and you meet him in night ward so that tracks, but you also meet a hamidon-converted version of him so either he got rezzed or it's a continuity error

Edited March 21 by eiynp

[eiynp]

also, they talked about the stuff with tyrant in the lore AMA a million years ago; essentially the idea was that he'd be imprisoned on primal earth, and then during the battalion invasion get the opportunity for redemption by sacrificing himself in the final battle.

[MechaCrash]

That covers most of it. I think the only one that's still a question mark at this point is Infernal, who I don't think shows up in any of the Incarnate stuff.

 

Thanks for the answers!

[lemming]

11 hours ago, MechaCrash said:

That covers most of it. I think the only one that's still a question mark at this point is Infernal, who I don't think shows up in any of the Incarnate stuff.

 

Thanks for the answers!

Infernal's Axe is found in the Number Six arc as part of the item hunt for Dimensional Investigator

[Scarlet Shocker]

I think we have to cast a wider net - for example there are simply too many Marcus Coles in game in various states of "being."

 

In fact I'm having so much trouble keeping them straight in my own head I feel that a Cole Porter would be useful to keep 'em straight

 

[Snarky]

they still suffer from political drama and overcomplicated mission mechanics that do not always work

[lemming]

They are all going thru Enriche withdrawal.

[Worm_Kalpa]

I recall that Metronome (Praetorian version of the Clockwork King) uploaded himself to Siege's robot body and put on a new coat of paint.  I forget if it that confirms if Siege (and likely Nightstar) are dead or just captured.

 

A lot of the Praetorian contacts are encountered in Belladonna Vetrano's arc and Provost Marchand's and Mr. G's level 30-50 arcs.  You get some alternative dialogue if you did their goldside arcs since they recognize you.  Its a nice touch to have some acknowledgement in story arcs that you worked with other contacts.

 

Of note, the Praetorian Yins' plot is advanced in Mr. G's arc.  Same with Vanessa Devore and the Awakened enemy group.  What's interesting is that I think Praetorian Wu Yin is trying to re-establish the Syndicate but as a non-evil criminal group (weird but okay)? Meanwhile, Praetorian Penelope is trying to soothe the Awakened by keeping a lid on their anger and hatred, wanting to use them as a force for good in Primal Earth.  She calls you out as Rusty when you fight her

[Luminara]

I'm in charge of Praetoria now.  It's mine.  They built a statue of me and everything.

 

It's really just me at this point... we had a Donner party when the food ran out... couldn't trust the vegetables... or the game...

 

Hey, would any of you like to visit?  I have condiments!

[StarkWhite]

12 hours ago, Worm_Kalpa said:

Of note, the Praetorian Yins' plot is advanced in Mr. G's arc.  Same with Vanessa Devore and the Awakened enemy group.  What's interesting is that I think Praetorian Wu Yin is trying to re-establish the Syndicate but as a non-evil criminal group (weird but okay)? Meanwhile, Praetorian Penelope is trying to soothe the Awakened by keeping a lid on their anger and hatred, wanting to use them as a force for good in Primal Earth.  She calls you out as Rusty when you fight her

IIRC Penelope Mayhem becomes a particularly big hammer in the player-villain's potential toolbox.

[Jimpy]

On 3/20/2024 at 9:11 PM, Lunar Ronin said:

All I'll say is that you want to do Mr. G's story arc in St. Martial in addition to Provost Marchand's to find out what happened.

And since almost all my toons have the Villain of the Month badge, I have that drilled into my brain.

[Marshal_General]

Marauder gets his powers back during the New Praetorian story arc. He may or may not be bad now.

[lemming]

2 hours ago, Marshal_General said:

Marauder gets his powers back during the New Praetorian story arc. He may or may not be bad now.

I think he's untrusted by many of the powers to be, but he's basically against villainy.   The final briefing by Marchand explains as such

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Provost_Marchand_(Primal_Earth)

 

Some of the new Striga content touches on some of the fall out of all this.

[StarseedWarrior]

It may be helpful but you can read any of the comics for free there may be info in here I just do not have the time right now to read these.

 

https://www.cityofheroesrebirth.com/public/comic-archive.phtml

[Snokle]

3 hours ago, StarseedWarrior said:

It may be helpful but you can read any of the comics for free there may be info in here I just do not have the time right now to read these.

 

https://www.cityofheroesrebirth.com/public/comic-archive.phtml

 

Maybe from the first two, but Top Cow and other comics are extremely old from IIRC when it was just CoH, no CoV or Goldside around and some of the stuff was non-canonized. Especially anything that had old Praetoria in it would of been re-written.

 

The two newer ones, I cannot say for certain; but I would be skeptical.

[StarseedWarrior]

6 hours ago, Snokle said:

 

Maybe from the first two, but Top Cow and other comics are extremely old from IIRC when it was just CoH, no CoV or Goldside around and some of the stuff was non-canonized. Especially anything that had old Praetoria in it would of been re-written.

 

The two newer ones, I cannot say for certain; but I would be skeptical.

Shrug these are all of the issues as far as I know as I clearly stated I do not have time to read them, skeptical of what? Lol those are not made from the server devs.

[Lazarillo]

A note on your Neuron and Bobcat assessments, the Neuron one is correct and confirmed in the Mr. G arc.  The arc also reveals that she's been effectively depowered after Vanguard drugged her, but as far as I remember, she's still at large, rather than "awaiting trial" after the arc wraps up.

 

Praetorian Infernal is just as easily presumed dead because, much like various other characters, Dev!Doc Aeon hated him and had him written out.  Though since it never happened on camera, I guess HC could bring him back if they really wanted.

[Snokle]

23 hours ago, StarseedWarrior said:

Shrug these are all of the issues as far as I know as I clearly stated I do not have time to read them, skeptical of what? Lol those are not made from the server devs.

 

The Dark Horse, Top Cow comics were all done when the game was live, and was given the original seal of approval from the Cryptic team.

 

A lot of stuff changes/rewrote as other devs or writers came, as we see many times in the game. The other two above are tied into the Manticore wedding that did happen and written by the devs.

 

Also the other one was maybe setup as who will die? I am not sure about this but they are all done by the dev team or outsourced.

 

I know the server devs on Homecoming, Thunderapy, or Rebirth made them. But I think the comics are better as a look a what the ideas of the game before in early days than what the current lore is especially for Praetorian, as that was rewritten when going Rouge came out from what I recall.