Making *conceptual* sense of Kheldian characters.

[biostem]

1 hour ago, Greycat said:

The willing vs unwilling is really just Nictus vs Warshade. Peacebringers were never altered to live off the energy of other Kheldians (or other beings.)

But the wiki says "Peacebringers are formed from the fusion of an alien energy being called a Kheldian and a willing host."

[Zombra]

Thank you once again @Greycat for your expertise and thoughtful responses.

 

Warning, long post of me trying to sound out my thoughts and see if they look right on the page. I'm going to try to put some information together and speculate about answers to my questions about merging and selection.

 

• Kheldians have been around on Earth for thousands of years (at least).
• New Kheldians show up from time to time, whether immigrants or native born (we don't know), but their population is still really low, less than a thousand on the entire planet.
• There are Nictus here too, but the two sides are not in open conflict except during the Moonfire TF. At one point Moonfire admits she's not even 100% sure there are any Nictus on Earth, but this doesn't really make sense since she knows about Arakhn.
• Most Earthbound Kheldians are fused to human hosts, but some are unfused.
• Unbound Kheldian lifespans are very short.
• There is a thing called the "Peacebringer Army" that keeps an eye on the Council. This does not seem to be the entire Peacebringer population so presumably there are "civilians". Since there are less than a thousand PBs total on Earth the PB Army can't have enough soldiers to really be an army, but it could be hundreds.
• Moonfire says that Peacebringers are resolved to destroy all Nictus. She seems to be speaking for all PBs everywhere. This could be hyperbole but it feels true.
• "Nictus Energy" can be sensed by Peacebringers.
• Kheldians came to Earth "because of the [Kheldian] war". Whether it was to fight here or escape the war is unclear.
• Sometimes an unbound Kheldian will pick a totally random person and ask to bond with them, when they are like seconds away from dying and have no other option. This is how Moonfire came to be. Seems like a real dick move but hey, aliens can be weird.
• Pretty much all of this is supposed to be kept secret from humanity, for no stated reason.

 

Maybe not all of the above is relevant, but this is the picture I see being painted: Kheldians are a tiny, hidden minority on Earth, who are worried about Nictus being around but aren't sure and can't definitely locate them. To me the vibe is that the Nictus were here first; their deal seems to be that they wanted to seed Earth with cysts, make more Nictus, bind with humans, make more Nictus, etc. to build up numbers for the war. The PBs followed and have been fucking up those plans. We are probably talking a few dozen at most on each side in the earliest days; think less like an army and more like teams of spies. Nowadays there are hundreds of PBs and maybe the Nictus ranks have also increased. Some PBs know about Arakhn and the Council and are keeping an eye on what's up on Striga, but because Striga is crawling with thousands of Council soldiers they can't just attack head on.

 

What does all this mean for the decision making process around merging with humans? With all this in mind, what is the baseline origin for a Peacebringer player character?

 

I feel like many Earthbound Peacebringers live with worrying about the Nictus every day, but don't see an obvious plan of action. They may or may not know about Striga but aren't exactly sure what is happening there - maybe nothing - and there's no clear target. Maybe some aren't aware of Arakhn or her history. Maybe there's a "cold war" feel where it's like "The Communists are out there ... somewhere". So they want to be ready to defend themselves but only some are truly informed and organized (the PB Army). In any case I feel like most PBs don't want to be in a vulnerable Light Form body when the Nictus could be behind every bush, so whenever a newborn matures enough to merge, or whenever an adult arrives from outer space, they will want to get a strong human body as soon as they can, just to be ready for the fight whenever it happens. Like cold war nuclear preppers who got their fallout shelters all set for the bombs to drop.  I'll call these the "Typical" Peacebringers.

 

But there are also what I'll call the "Atypical" Peacebringers, like the "old man" Light Form 10 year old who never bothered to get a host and randomly asked a French art student to merge just before it died. This guy couldn't have been very serious about being ready every day for a Nictus attack. Atypicals presumably hate the Nictus too but probably don't think there even are any on Earth. They are less hyped to support the war effort.

 

I think the Typicals are most of the PBs you see out there, and that this would be the default philosophy of a "serious canon" player character PB crimefighter. They could either be older Kheldians who have seen the war in other galaxies and recently arrived on Earth, or fresh youngsters born here. Either way they will look for a strong human who is sympathetic and unafraid of the prospect of war, probably gravitating towards danger-facing professions such as police, soldiers, emergency responders, and even superheroes. Conversely, Atypicals will account for sillier and less thought out concepts - Kheldians who are out of touch with the events around Striga and don't care about eradicating Nictus energy, whose backstories don't touch on the lore at all and just want to squid around.

 

Edited June 29 by Zombra

[Zombra]

Thinking about Warshades, they probably have a pretty tough time, since PBs can sense "Nictus energy" and a Warshade is simply a Nictus who isn't an asshole - they are physically the same, right?  Presumably they will set off the PBs' "Nictus Sense" which will lead to a lot of suspicion and misunderstandings.

[Doc Spectre]

I feel like having to get another character to level 50 first in order to unlock Khelds and SoA was a wise choice.
At least that way new players have a chance of having some context before making one.

[Greycat]

1 hour ago, Zombra said:

Thank you once again @Greycat for your expertise and thoughtful responses.

 

Warning, long post of me trying to sound out my thoughts and see if they look right on the page. I'm going to try to put some information together and speculate about answers to my questions about merging and selection.

 

• Kheldians have been around on Earth for thousands of years (at least).
• New Kheldians show up from time to time, whether immigrants or native born (we don't know), but their population is still really low, less than a thousand on the entire planet.
• There are Nictus here too, but the two sides are not in open conflict except during the Moonfire TF. At one point Moonfire admits she's not even 100% sure there are any Nictus on Earth, but this doesn't really make sense since she knows about Arakhn.
• Most Earthbound Kheldians are fused to human hosts, but some are unfused.
• Unbound Kheldian lifespans are very short.
• There is a thing called the "Peacebringer Army" that keeps an eye on the Council. This does not seem to be the entire Peacebringer population so presumably there are "civilians". Since there are less than a thousand PBs total on Earth the PB Army can't have enough soldiers to really be an army, but it could be hundreds.
• Moonfire says that Peacebringers are resolved to destroy all Nictus. She seems to be speaking for all PBs everywhere. This could be hyperbole but it feels true.
• "Nictus Energy" can be sensed by Peacebringers.
• Kheldians came to Earth "because of the [Kheldian] war". Whether it was to fight here or escape the war is unclear.
• Sometimes an unbound Kheldian will pick a totally random person and ask to bond with them, when they are like seconds away from dying and have no other option. This is how Moonfire came to be. Seems like a real dick move but hey, aliens can be weird.
• Pretty much all of this is supposed to be kept secret from humanity, for no stated reason.

 

<etc, snipping for size>

 

 

So, the *Nictus* have been on Earth since at least Ancient Egypt - Shadowstar has been here that long, and the Path of the Dark is also Nictus-related.  We don't know when Shadowstar switched sides. (Later, the ITF added time travel shenanigans to it, but that's not the start of the Nictus presence.) I mention in my background guide that my *hunch* is that they're trying for quiet control until our tech reaches a level they can use it, which it would have done in the last century or so.

 

The Peacebringers are basically chasing them across the galaxy. Their arrival on Earth has been much more recent (and I'd say much more public, given Sunstorm standing around by City Hall and the PPD.) Which makes sense, given how the Nictus tend to operate - they're the ones being hunted, after all, and the entire war is very much in the shadows. And yes, the PBs very much want to eradicate all Nictus.

 

Which answers a later comment/question - they came here because they found Nictus here. They came here to fight the war, not escape it.

 

Also, Nictus (and Void Hunters) can also feel Kheldian energy - one of the first PB arcs has you encountering a Void Hunter who says flat out (as I recall) that they can "feel you." So it's two way.

 

As far as being hidden - well, the PBs certainly aren't. Honestly, you could probably do a (*very loose*) parallel to the Jedi and the Rule of Two era Sith. One's very public, out there trying to do good, be visible, etc. while the other can only really work and survive by keeping in the shadows (until whatever plan is ready and they can emerge and take over - see "war wolf earth.")

[tidge]

There is one part of the Peacebringer Lore^TM that always sits weird with me: It's the HUGE numbers of PPD Peacebringers that can appear in missions (Mayhem, Morality, Newspaper, Incarnate, etc.). Those missions make it seem like they are everywhere.

 

 

[Greycat]

3 hours ago, tidge said:

There is one part of the Peacebringer Lore^TM that always sits weird with me: It's the HUGE numbers of PPD Peacebringers that can appear in missions (Mayhem, Morality, Newspaper, Incarnate, etc.). Those missions make it seem like they are everywhere.

 

And the Knives of Artemis are only supposed to have 100 members or so. There are times to just politely ignore things done for game mechanics... 🙂

[Zombra]

5 hours ago, tidge said:

There is one part of the Peacebringer Lore^TM that always sits weird with me: It's the HUGE numbers of PPD Peacebringers that can appear in missions (Mayhem, Morality, Newspaper, Incarnate, etc.). Those missions make it seem like they are everywhere.

 

It's the same 10 cops over and over.  You thought we were the only ones who use the medical teleporters to zerg missions?