Favourite NPCs?

[Scarlet Shocker]

Some NPCs have a well crafted, detailed back story. Others less so. But some are extremely interesting despite, or because of their back story. I've got a few who fascinate me and regular readers of my words might hazard a guess as to some of them. I was thinking about one in particular who seems to have had a pivotal role in the game lore but has largely been consigned to a relative backwater which seems odd, given the context of their story.

 

There are many NPCs and signature characters that deserve more exposure and better fleshed out bios but who are the favourites amongst us mere mortals who play the game? Who do you think deserves greater attention, and why do you think so?

 

I have some ideas but I'll point them out later...

[Intermipants]

It’s gotta be Dr. Aeon for me - noisy, untrustworthy, and hilarious, a bit like my trousers after a curry. 
 

Shoutout to Frostfire too for being a legend. 

[Skyhawke]

Arachnos Agent Jenkins. That mofo has had a story arc!

[Octogoat]

34 minutes ago, Skyhawke said:

Arachnos Agent Jenkins. That mofo has had a story arc!

One day he's gonna take over Arachnos

[isawa koi]

Westin Phipps.

[zenijos10]

Nemesis! (OG, mender version less so)

[StarlessKnight]

Blue Steel for me.  You never really interact with him until Dark Astoria, but he seems to have his hand in quite a bit of goings-on behind the scenes in the game's lore.

 

[MTeague]

Praetorian Vanessa DeVore.

[Scarlet Shocker]

8 minutes ago, MTeague said:

Praetorian Vanessa DeVore.

 

But why?

 

[Scarlet Shocker]

For me it's (in reverse order)

 

3

Spoiler

Frostfire: Classic Tortured Soul - he's not intrinsically evil; he's broken and trying to hold it together in a world that's dumped on him. His rehab mission (I think it's not even a full arc he just turns up in a final boss mish) is unworthy and needs to be junked and rewritten, properly, with real empathy not just some off the cuff "Oh let's make Frostfire a hero" tat that we have now.

 

2

Spoiler

Arbiter Daos: Clever readers will know I already admire him. He's got almost no documented story but he effectively runs Arachnos and the Arbiters. He bosses Recluse's four main henchmen who won't raise a hand against him. Where does that power come from? We don't know. We get a glimpse of him in later missions (I must confess I don't know them well) but I don't think we ever know the real person.

 

1

Spoiler

Aurora Borealis: She kept Sister Psycho in her head for ages, with no word of complaint and yet when Psycho got hubbydead she gets overlooked in favour of a wet behind the ears kid. She seems to have no backstory of import but clearly somebody dreamed her up to be an important signature character and that's well worth fleshing out. I can entirely see a case where she might decide if not to become a villain but to at least go completely rogue. She saved Psyche and the Freedom Phalanx and gets relegated to the job of Trainer right next to the bitch the took the job that was rightfully hers. I don't know if that was planned by the OG devs but it certainly seems ironic and I feel that as a character she's greatly interesting and terribly overlooked.

 

[Scarlet Shocker]

5 hours ago, StarlessKnight said:

Blue Steel for me.  You never really interact with him until Dark Astoria, but he seems to have his hand in quite a bit of goings-on behind the scenes in the game's lore.

 

 

Blue Steel's a funny one. I remember on live there was a big Atlantic divide about how he is perceived. On the US side he's considered to be a hero, but most EU players just thought of him as a thug wanker who created a (very good character) enemy in the Clockwork King by being unnecessarily brutal. Personally I side with the latter but I do think Clockwork's origin and the entire group is one of the strongest (in story terms) villain groups in game IMO. I find Clockwork to be a sympathetic villain group and thus more interesting and so the Clockwork King's origin is kind of valid.

 

But yah, personally I see Blue Steel as a complete wanker. I like the other BS much better

[MTeague]

36 minutes ago, MTeague said:

Praetorian Vanessa DeVore.

 

28 minutes ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

But why?

 

Praetorian DeVore is a telepath powerful enough to shield the minds of the Resistance, to the point where the Seers aren't even aware that shielding is going on.  DeVore must be creating essentially a "false mental image" that the Seers can scan and be content to see, not even knowing it's not the real deal. I find that idea interesting, along with the fact that she can do that for so many people. I would guess it's something similar to some Wheel of Time "tied-off weaves" , where Vanessa creates the false mental images, and can somehow leave it in place without having to consciously maintain it. 

 

I get that Praetorian DeVore is nominally dead, but as with all things comic book, if the character is not SEEN to die, right in front of you, then hedge that bet. 

 

Now in the Underground Trial a body is found, along with her mask. That does not require that the body they found, was hers. DeVore always wore the mask. How many people actually knew her face, vs just knew the hair and the get-up?  Her death could have been faked while she fled. Even if it was in point of fact DeVore's actual flesh, for such a powerful telepath, it's not out of the question that she was able to cast her consciousness elsewhere and transplant it elsewhere before she died, much as Praetor TIlman did.

 

I'd love to see more done with her, and the Syndicate, in follow-up storylines dealing with the aftermath of the Praetorian Refugees. I'd hoped maybe the Syndicate would become a power in the Khalisti Wharf area, but, perhaps not, given the patch that just went live. Doesn't mean it couldn't happen somewhere else. 

[Skyhawke]

23 minutes ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

But yah, personally I see Blue Steel as a complete wanker. I like the other BS much better

 

Gotcha covered.

 

 

[Scarlet Shocker]

31 minutes ago, Skyhawke said:

 

Gotcha covered.

 

 

 

You are very, very, very bad and I call BS on this one!

[Scarlet Shocker]

35 minutes ago, MTeague said:

 

 

Praetorian DeVore is a telepath powerful enough to shield the minds of the Resistance, to the point where the Seers aren't even aware that shielding is going on.  DeVore must be creating essentially a "false mental image" that the Seers can scan and be content to see, not even knowing it's not the real deal. I find that idea interesting, along with the fact that she can do that for so many people. I would guess it's something similar to some Wheel of Time "tied-off weaves" , where Vanessa creates the false mental images, and can somehow leave it in place without having to consciously maintain it. 

 

I get that Praetorian DeVore is nominally dead, but as with all things comic book, if the character is not SEEN to die, right in front of you, then hedge that bet. 

 

Now in the Underground Trial a body is found, along with her mask. That does not require that the body they found, was hers. DeVore always wore the mask. How many people actually knew her face, vs just knew the hair and the get-up?  Her death could have been faked while she fled. Even if it was in point of fact DeVore's actual flesh, for such a powerful telepath, it's not out of the question that she was able to cast her consciousness elsewhere and transplant it elsewhere before she died, much as Praetor TIlman did.

 

I'd love to see more done with her, and the Syndicate, in follow-up storylines dealing with the aftermath of the Praetorian Refugees. I'd hoped maybe the Syndicate would become a power in the Khalisti Wharf area, but, perhaps not, given the patch that just went live. Doesn't mean it couldn't happen somewhere else. 

 

Very good answer, thanks!

[High_Beam]

3 hours ago, Skyhawke said:

 

Gotcha covered.

 

 

[VeiledOwl]

My brain has for some reason decided to fixate on Maestro and Nosferatu (probably due to the research I did on the archvillains' characterizations for some of my villains' backstories).

 

I accidentally wrote a lot more than I intended, so wrapped it up in some spoilers. Some of it's subjective, of course.
 

Spoiler

Regarding Nosferatu, I find it funny that Burkholder's the one with a reputation/characterization for being such an eager traitor when Nosferatu's right there, lurking in the background. This is a man who has no loyalty and will defect at the drop of a hat - he's a stone cold sociopath with little memory of human emotions (and no interest in pretending otherwise) who likes to experiment on captured prisoners. He was the first 5th Column Archvillain to defect to the Center during the first Council-Column war, betraying decades of friendship (or as close as he can come) with Requiem and Vandal. Then, in Shadowstar/Sunstorm's Kheldian arc, he defects again, twice during the Nictus Insurrection. Vandal immediately defects back to the Council because you reveal that Arakhn and Requiem were planning to kill or turn him into a Nictus, but not Nosferatu, oh no. 

 

Nosferatu's response to receiving evidence of the Nictus' planned betrayal is to send you a polite letter essentially telling you 'Thanks for the concern, but I'm kinda into that. If you come beat me within an inch of my life and don't arrest me though, I'll tell how to utterly destroy Requiem and Arakhn's world domination scheme and go back to working for the Center!'. And the player does, and since it was such a good workout, Nosferatu tells you everything, completely ruining everything for his old buddy Requiem (and getting him thrown in the Zig) because he didn't like how Requiem acts like a smitten kitten when Arakhn's around.

 

And then there's the Council-Nemesis war, where Nosferatu gets kidnapped and appears to be having a grand old time talking shop with Nemesis's scientists about biological methods to extend lifespans. He's not defiantly refusing to collaborate due to his 'loyalty' to the Council, he's not concerned about his safety, no, he's fascinated with what Nemesis is putting down and actually gets upset when the player shows up to rescue him because he was enjoying that conversation. He gets over it pretty quick, though, and treats being in jail like he's on vacation.

 

Nosferatu's primary interest seems to be his experiments - anything else comes second. He's got a lot of characterization, though, and it's easy to tie him into any Council/Column biological mad science experiments. Not much need for more of the limelight for him - he's got his niche already.

 

 

Maestro, on the other hand...

 

His backstory makes him a tragic figure, but his 'ends justify the means' actions in pursuit of restoring his hearing make him as irredeemable as any other Council/Column AV. He, unlike Nosferatu, feels underutilized to me. 

 

Characterization wise, the man's obsessed with music (obviously) and regaining his hearing via human tissue regeneration experiments. He's also a highly theatrical man in both dress and speech (the man freaking quotes Shakespeare as he loses consciousness from a superhero beatdown) who takes himself very seriously despite sticking out like a sore thumb. He also appears to have a dark sense of humor: in the mission where he's one of the holdout 5th Column leader, he tells the player: "What was that? Speak up, I can't hear you."

 

Strangely, he also appears to be the group's villain with the most loyalty - even when he was retconned into being a former Column member (which I think is a mistake characterization-wise, what with the Column's hypermasculine ideology and the utter lack of respect they'd likely have for him/his passion), he doesn't defect to the Council until forced alongside Requiem and Vandal. And then, he stays with the Center during the Nictus insurrection (Burkholder too, curiously), and during the second Council-Column, he's 'blind with rage' stamping out traitors to the Center according to a patrol.

 

Maestro is the odd one out in the Council - the only one who's not a scientist (aside from the Center), but even though he has to delegate it, he's still responsible for a massive amount of human experimentation. He considers himself a tortured artist first, military general second. He does, however, appear to have experience with dark magic according to a throwaway line from Long Jack, which could give him a new niche in the Council.

 

Some ideas for how/where he could be utilized:

 

* Any arc involving medical technology advancements/healing via kidnapping the scientists or stealing the technology/research

* Expanding his dabbling into dark magic so that he becomes one of the Council's magical experts.

* Maestro the only AV who doesn't already have his own subgroup of subordinates (due to his powers being an irreplicable freak accident). Maybe having some of his experiments bear fruit and create a whole new branch could add something

* Anything art/theater/music related. He seems like he'd probably be keeping an eye on that sort of thing and probably has opinions on if they're done 'incorrectly'.

* His burning hatred towards Arachnos for ruining the experiment that was supposed to cure him, and his desire for vengeance could easily be used to make him a major player in a Council-Arachnos war

* His passion for the arts (and probably how they can be used to influence people) could probably be used to help create propaganda. Somehow. If the Council tried to be subtle with it.

 

 

...I really didn't intend to write this much. Gonna stick some spoilers around it...

 

[Ukase]

What's her name...Flambeaux! She's the most realistic character in the game. A bit self-absorbed, a bit wishy-washy. What more could you want? Now, if she would just get better enhancements and the fighting pool, she might last a little longer in battle.