History NightmareFuel / CityOfHeroes

** When exploring some of the abandoned Seer facilities, the player would find Seers whose psychic abilities had mutated them in horrific ways--[[BodyHorror "tumors" that took up most of their heads, sprouting creepy tentacles for good measure!]]
** The Awakened, all of them were former Seers that either held too much psychic power to the point they hurt themselves and were thusly discarded by Mother or they were psychics that mother could not control and were thusly discarded. They are understandably angry with being completely abandoned and will attempt to either subjugate or kill any Praetorian they come across. They particularly like to subjugate Seers but considering what Mother did to them and the Seers can you blame them?

** Tarantula Mistresses, just Tarantula Mistresses. Text blurbs in-game confirm that Tarantula Mistresses are psychic humans, usually specifically chosen Fortunata, that are ''integrated'' into a spider chasis in a attempt to turn them into even more dangerous psychic soldiers for Arachnos than a usual Fortunata. Analysis of their in-game models makes it very clear that the process for turning someone into a Mistress is horrifying. The only visible human parts of the Tarantula Mistresses is their face at the front of the chassis and maybe their arms and legs that are jammed into a couple of the spider limbs and the abodomen. It's implied that the Fortunata is mutilated via cutting off body parts like limbs to forcibly integrate them into the chassis. Not many Fortunatas survive the integration but the ones that do are exceedingly dangerous, able to even kill the most dangerous heroes and villians all on their own.

** The Fortunata Seer Network and Bane networks are heavily implied to brainwash all of their members into being subservient to Arachnos and will actively scan peoples minds in the Isles for dissent towards Recluse. If you are born as a psychic in the Isles your fate is either to be pulled into Arachnos to be forced into the Fortunatas or to become a villain or hero that may end up being forced in anyways. A alignment mission implies that you can escape the Seer network but that you will be hunted by Arachnos for the rest of your life for it.

** Some branches of Arachnos are horrifying in their own. From the Fortunata and Bane branches that are psychic soldiers that are part of a psychic network very similar to the *Praetorian Seer network*. To the violent thugs in the Wolf Spiders that are basically corrupt cops with too much fire power at their disposal, to the eeriness of the magical and eldritch Mu. Arachnos has no shortage of monsters within its various branches.
** Tarantula Mistresses, just Tarantula Mistresses. Text blurbs in-game confirm that Tarantula Mistresses are psychic humans, usually specifically chosen Fortunata, that are ''integrated'' into a spider chasis in a attempt to turn them into even more dangerous psychic soldiers for Arachnos than a usual Fortunata. Analysis of their in-game models makes it very clear that the process for turning someone into a Mistress is horrifying. The only visible human parts of the Tarantula Mistresses is their face at the front of the chassis and maybe their arms and legs that are jammed into a couple of the spider limbs and the abodomen. It's implied that the Fortunata is mutilated via cutting off body parts like limbs to forcibly integrate them into the chassis. Not many Fortunatas survive the integration but the ones that do are exceedingly dangerous, able to even kill the most dangerous heroes and villians all on their own.

* Arachnos is this when you get down to it. A splinter group of Italian fascists in World War 2 Arachnos has become a global threat to both heroes and villains alike after Lord Recluse took the organization over from its founder, The Weaver. Lord Recluse took over the Rogue Isles after assassinating President Marchand and turned it into the nicknamed in-universe ''City of Villians'' with Arachnos and some chosen elite villians as his followers into conquering the world. Arachnos as a organization consists usually of every awful person you can think of. The sociopathic soldiers that enjoy killing, corrupt bureacrats, and power hungry madmen that will soon kill you even if your a fellow member of the organization just to get promoted. The worst part is Recluse, being one of the worst villians out there, actively encourages Arachnos to be as awful as they are too eachother and to civilians and metahumans.

* The [[spoiler: Dying Praetoria mission for villains and rogues. You are sent into Praetoria by Arachnos after Cole's disastrous defeat to retrieve something and the first thing you see is large skyscraper tall tentacles destroying what used to be Imperial City, Arachnos fighting for their lives against Hamidons hordes of Devouring Earth and Infected Praetorians in the streets and the giant Avatar of Hamidon moving to destroy everything.]]

** The Awakened, all of them were former Seers that either held too much psychic power to the point they hurt themselves and were thusly discarded by Mother or they were psychics that mother could not control and were thusly discarded. They are understandably angry with being completely abandoned and will attempt to either subjugate or kill any Praetorian they come across. They particularly like to subjugate seers but considering what Mother did to them and the Seers can you blame them?

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** One of the alternate universes you could explore when doing missions for Portal Corp is a dead world populated by nothing but ghosts, similar to certain Croatoa missions. And all the ghosts are REALLY angry at you for some reason, calling you a traitor and thinking you were killed ages ago. Eventually you find the diary belong to ThisUniverse!You... who has killed every single person in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE. It seems that this version of you is also dead judging by NPC chatter and the fact that you find this diary in a pile of bones, but... what if s/he isn't? And even if s/he is, there's still the fact that you now know are capable of being the destroyer of YOUR world. Just one bad day away...

* The "Dark Astoria" zone. Permanently twilit and fog-enshrouded, with the sounds of muted bells and wind in the background, and populated by ghostly pedestrians who are visible only from a distance and vanish if you get too close to them -- except for the items they're carrying. (It also doesn't help that Astoria's neighborhoods and landmarks are named for horror movie directors.) Compared to the environment, the walking dead, evil shamans and malevolent spirits inhabiting Dark Astoria are something of a welcome ''relief''. It's even worse in the Issue 23 expansion, where the EldritchAbomination that killed everyone in Astoria and created the zone as it was wakes up. Cue some lovingly-detailed Lovecraft tributes and a rare example of a ''disturbing'' HighHeelFaceTurn.