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13
14
15* Characters/CityOfHeroesEnemyGroups
16
17[[foldercontrol]]
18
19!Heroes
20[[SuperHero The Good]]
21
22!!Freedom Phalanx
23Founded by Statesman and other heroes in 1932, the Freedom Phalanx are the world's premiere crimefighting supergroup, dedicating to battling any threat to humankind. The modern iteration is sometimes also referred as the Surviving Eight, since its membership is of eight of the greatest heroes to survive the Rikti War.
24
25[[folder:In General]]
26* AllLovingHero: Subverted, most ''look like'' this to the public, but almost all of them have various chips on their shoulders and [[BerserkButton Berserk Buttons]].
27* BeneathTheMask: It is entirely possible to look no further into them than costumed Justice League knock-offs who protect the city and pose for photo-ops; However even the slightest of a closer look will reveal a team that frequently bicker, debate lethal force and have various personalities and flaws. Luckily such difference never consume them and protecting the public is the priority all of them share.
28* CharacterizationMarchesOn: At the games' inception they were all pretty one-note expys. Shortly after head of Paragon Studios left, and left ownership of his characters to his team, the dev team started having fun with the base characters, Positron went from generic super-scientist to full on Nerd, Sister Psyche went from Jean Grey knock-off to JerkassWithAHeartOfGold and Statesman went from just barely legally distinct Superman/Captain America to obsessive demanding pain in the butt to work with [[WriteWhoYouKnow (by sheer coincidence, the same complaints the rest of the studio had about his creator before he left.)]]
29* HeroesRUs: They don't charge, but the local, and sometime federal, government does sponsor them to keep threats to national security at bay.
30* IdealHero: All of them, to various degrees. They all serve as role-models of public heroics, even Manticore, just of the AntiHero flavor.
31* SpotlightStealingSquad: They are the oldest, most consistent heroes who have cultivated P.R.; As a result their accomplishments make the papers much easier than player-heroes.
32* SuperpowerLottery: All of them got their abilities in various different ways -- Statesman from a magical MacGuffin, Sister Psyche’ from random in-born mutation, Manticore from training with a retired special agent -- his nanny, Synapse from being experimented on by a MadScientist, Positron from technological innovation, Citadel from being built this way, and Numina from a last-resort spell.
33* TeethClenchedTeamwork: They have very different personalities and perspectives, there are only two things that unite most of them -- a desire to defend the public, and contempt for Statesman as their leader.
34* ThouShaltNotKill: They all feel various ways about this, but maintain the policy. If not out of morality than at-least for to keep in good standing with the police.
35** Statesman is the most adamant of the policy, on the grounds that superheroes [[ComesGreatResponsibility must set an idealistic example]].
36** Sister Psyche’ sees the benefit of lethal force but agrees it would be bad P.R.
37** Position follows Statesman’s lead but morally is neutral to the idea, at first. [[spoiler: He makes an exception for Darrin Wade after Statesman is killed. Though he still says to just go for an arrest if possible, he otherwise green-lights lethal force so he doesn't lose any other Phalanx members]].
38** Synapse sees the logic of lethal force but is very much against using it, if only so things don’t get too dark.
39** Numina is actually dead and so less afraid of death than the rest, but still against lethal force as a she feels that would be JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope.
40** Manticore is very very pro-lethal-force, but is out-voted by his teammates. He nearly breaks it, but Back-Alley Brawler gives him a sobering look at where that leads.
41** Back-Alley Brawler partially retired in order to maintain this policy, because he ''has'' killed. Things got too dark for him after that and he figured he was better off being a SmallStepsHero anyway.
42[[/folder]]
43
44[[folder:Statesman]]
45[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/imgbin_city_of_heroes_superhero_statesman_video_game_hero_wcvm8getd2neak2sdg5ucu90w_removebg_preview.png]]
46
47The man formerly known as Marcus Cole, Statesman is the leader of the Freedom Phalanx and one of the most well-respected heroes in the world.
48
49He was killed by a villain seeking to steal his powers, leaving a void within Paragon's hero community. His granddaughter Ms. Liberty has taken over his task force.
50----
51* BigGood: One of the oldest canon characters in the lore and leader of Paragon City's heroes.
52* BoltOfDivineRetribution: As he inherited the power of Zeus he basically calls one of these down, but only as a sort of LimitBreak.
53* ButForMeItWasTuesday: He has saved the world so many times, what was the greatest day of other heroes’ lives is often just another day for him -- leading to embarrassment that he frequently forgets working with other specific heroes.
54* TheCape: He served in World Wars I&II, According to NPC chatter he goes around to schools telling students to reach for their dreams and respect each-other, he supported his wife and Back-Alley Brawler’s civil rights reform rallies in the 70s & 80s AND he stressed how other members of the Freedom Phalanx are NOT to use lethal force, almost solely because they are role models.
55* CharacterDeath: [[spoiler:As of the 5 act of the first Signature Story Arc series, he has been killed by [[FromNobodyToNightmare Darrin Wade]], and WordOfGod says [[KilledOffForReal he's not coming back]].]]
56* CondescendingCompassion: As far as he is concerned, being better than others, just means you need to take on more responsibilities for them, which is why he under-sells the rest of the Freedom Phalanx to do things himself, and why they find him utterly obnoxious.
57* CorruptedCharacterCopy: He’s an expy of Superman/Captain America if both had ignored the various lessons in humility and introspection they’ve learned over the years; though unlike many such characters he is still a good guy, he's much more of a pain in the neck to work with than either of them.
58* DoomedMoralVictor:[[spoiler:His final moments are spent hoping Lord Recluse reforms and becomes his friend Stefan again. He gets his wish, but only because Lord Recluse has an emotional breakdown when he finds out that someone killed his Heterosexual Life Partner.]]
59* FireForgedFriendship: He and Sister Psyche’ are close despite his ego and her snark due to being assigned as superhuman partners during WWII.
60* FlyingBrick: Flight. Invulnerability. Super strength. And the ability to call Zeus's lightning down from the heavens.
61* FoeRomanceSubtext: Between him and Lord Recluse. On Lord Recluse's end it's an impassioned hatred, but for Statesman he is genuinely broken up that the two are no longer Hetero Life Partners.
62* {{Foil}}: To Lord Recluse. Statesman is a noble but demanding perfectionist, whose ego unintentionally blinds him to his teammates’ capabilities, he has trouble keeping track of all the heroes he’s worked with and his only leadership skills are as a larger than life icon; Meanwhile Lord Recluse is a evil master of compromise, who’s a pragmatist that will sacrifice any level of pride just to progress, he can keep track of every single person he’s ever met and his leadership skills turned a small assassin group into a world power. Each one’s weaknesses is the other’s strength.
63* TheFriendNobodyLikes He drives the rest of the Phalanx nuts with his constant nitpicking. Add to that he is a larger than life legend and he is both passively and actively undermining to everyone's self-worth.
64* HeterosexualLifePartners:He and Lord Recluse used to be this. Rest assured they still platonically love each-other, their bitter rivalry stemming from being unable to be together anymore due to moral differences.
65* HeartBrokenBadass: He is genuinely broken up that his platonic life partner turned to evil once he got his powers.
66** In the prerequisite to the main event of the ''Who Will Die'' arc [[spoiler:his daughter]] is killed and he needs to fly off to collect himself. According to his grand-daughter, Ms. Liberty, he went through the same thing when his wife died. To make things worse [[spoiler:his daughter was killed]] to get a sample of the power it would take to [[spoiler:kill him too]], when he inevitably returned to arrest her killer.
67* HoldingBackThePhlebotinum: He could become a full Incarnate but chooses not to as he drunk directly from The Well of The Furies, and invoking its limitless power would corrupt him.
68* ImmortalityHurts: He can shake off a lot of damage but ultimately he still feels pain and when he does, it's the normally life ending kind.
69-->'''Statesman:''' "I... don't care... what anyone... says about... invulnerability... THAT HURT!"
70* IntergenerationalFriendship: Over a century old, with most of his fellow Phalanx members being in their late 20s to mid 40s.
71* InvincibleHero: And everyone in the Freedom Phalanx hates him for this, especially Manticore. [[spoiler:Ultimately subverted though]].
72* ItsAllAboutMe: An unusually noble example -- he tries to take on the problems of the world. Since he is a literal Demi-God, he feels this is only proper... but that also means he does not innately consider the rest of his team's capabilities.
73* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Inverted -- to Lord Recluse as it turns out. Lord Recluse doesn't just hate him, he ''needs'' to hate him.
74* MayflyDecemberRomance: Though he was not aware precisely how immortal he was at the time he married, this became the case with his wife Monica Richter, A.K.A. Maiden Justice.
75* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Hey, great job on destroying that HUGE Rikti saucer looming over the neighborhood, but next time make sure it's not hovering over a bustling neighborhood before you make it crash!
76* NighInvulnerable: Statesman can shrug off a '''MASSIVE''' amount of damage -- including a nuclear warhead to the face, he still feels pain -- but only past a certain point of force used. The only things that can hurt him are magic and psionics and even then, those just injure him, the only thing that is lethal to him is another Incarnate (demi-gods or higher). He needs a team for the non-brute-force and world-level-threats, otherwise he could handle everything put in front of him solo.
77* NotBloodSiblings: Marcus marries his all but official foster-sister -- one of the various things that his all but official foster-brother finds infuriating about him. Perhaps it can be chalked-up to Statesman being the new incarnation of Zeus.
78* ThePerfectionist: Notoriously hard to work with because of his demand for perfection as both public defenders and moral compasses. It is due to this that his own team-mates consider him the [[VitriolicBestBuds friend they love to hate]] and his child-hood best friend/foster brother grew to hate him so much he became a supervillain just to spite him.
79* PragmaticHero: While being TheCape is his bread-and butter, some of Statesman's policies for how the Freedom Phalanx must behave is less to do with morality, than basic public-relation concerns. See ThouShaltNotKill below, for details.
80* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: He fought in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, meaning he must be about 110 years old by now.
81* SergeantRock: As strict and high demanding as he can be, Statesman has the same standards for himself as he has for the rest of his team, with a city, frequently, and sometimes the world, on-the-line he feels he can not afford to cut either him or his team any slack.
82* SlaveToPR: After his wife was arrested for property damage over the course of basic superhero work, he became a lot more careful about how hard he punched baddies. When public outcry got her pardoned he realized how important appealing to the public was. Now he always stops to answer reporters, stops by schools to give pep-talks to kids and absolutely forbids his team from using lethal force. [[spoiler: Well, he used to...]]
83* StandardizedLeader: The very core of his concept. He's an unpleasable, kill-joy with a conservative moral code -- yet a paragon for Paragon.
84* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: A phenonium that happens In-Universe as Statesman powers are from The Well of the Furies which is a multiverseal nexus and as such it retroactively makes him the physically strongest thing that will ever exist on his planet in his reality whenever something new enters it.
85* SupermanSubstitute: He's the setting's equivalent to ComicBook/{{Superman}}, as an [[TheCape idealistic caped superhero]] with many classic FlyingBrick powers, and widely regarded as the leader of the world's heroes. He's also got a bit of the equally famous [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] for good measure, as a divinely-empowered hero with the lightning of Zeus at his disposal.
86* ThouShaltNotKill: A slight subversion of the usual trope, in that Statesman has this policy, but ''has'' killed people before, however it was either in a literal war, or unintentional. In further subversion his staunch policy against taking human life is not merely about morality but P.R. -- the Freedom Phalanx would be second-guessed every time they arrived on the scene if the public knew they were pro-lethal force.
87* VetinariJobSecurity: For all the joking at his expense as being cliche', old-fashioned and an unpleasable perfectionist, The Freedom Phalanx all know they need him as a leader.
88* VitriolicBestBuds To everyone on the team. The fact that he can punch-out tanks, is only just barely worth the stress of working with him.
89* WartsAndAll: Statesman is indeed a living legend who throws his all into trying to keep the world and the public safe. But he's also an arrogant pain-in-the-ass perfectionist whose friends all find him obnoxious to work with.
90* TheWorfEffect: Very prone to getting his ass handed to him a lot in Villain strike forces, high difficulty-high level mayhem missions, the VEAT arc finales, and offscreen in either of the task forces involving Reichsman. He's captured at the end of the Maria Jenkins Praetorian story arcs (twice in canon), and is dead in just about every possible future you go to. Finally, [[spoiler:he gets KilledOffForReal in "Who Will Die?" to establish Darrin Wade's threat level.]] The poor guy just can't catch a break.
91* WorldsStrongestMan: The Well of the Furies granted him the status of strongest being on the planet in his lifetime. Since the Well is dimensionally transcendent, it's guaranteed that Marcus Cole will ''always'' be the world's strongest man in [[TheMultiverse every version of Earth that could ever possibly exist]].
92[[/folder]]
93
94[[folder:Sister Psyche]]
95[[quoteright:333:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sisterpsyche.png]]
96
97A prominent member of the Freedom Phalanx, Sister Psyche (aka Shalice Tilman) is also known for being one of the world's most powerful psychics.
98----
99* BarrierWarrior: Used as her secondary power. Telekinetically constructed.
100* BodySurf: She managed to escape fatal wounds by doing this to a young psychic named Aurora Pena. Though reportedly Psyche' shifted this to SharingABody. She returned to her own body once it was restored but she still has this power and can, but doesn't, use it on anyone. It's the only power she isn't a SmugSuper with.
101* BrainwashResidue: Completely inverted, the residue isn't from her being possessed, it's from when she was possessing, her now side-kick, Aurora Borealis. She now has a psychic copy of Aurora etched into her mind which she goes to great lengths to keep psychically locked away in her subconscious.
102* ChildSoldiers: She was serving as a member of the U.S. military as a preteen into her early teens during World War II; Keep in mind she is a mutant and this was pre-mutant civil rights movement.
103* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Having no parents and being born before meta-human rights were a thing gave the US government opportunity to enroll a psychic-powered little girl in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII without needing to worry about humanitarian concerns.
104* EnemyWithin: She has a copy of her former host in her head. In real-life the two are B.F.F.s, however the psychic copy needs to be restrained for Psyche' to think clearly and it has been trapped for so long it is willing to do anything to get out.
105* FireForgedFriendship: With Statesman, due to their assigned time together as a superhuman-tag-team during WWII. It’s the main reason for both her loyalty and her piss-taking of him, they’re war-buddies.
106* ForgotAboutTheMindReader: She gets this a lot, from her foes, her allies, passing people on the street and horny fan-boys.
107* HappilyMarried: To Manticore.
108* IntergenerationalFriendship: Over 80 at game launch in 2004, and one of the most personable members of the Freedom Phalanx. Additionally there is her and Aurora who are B.F.F.s despite Aurora is in her late 30s at the most.
109* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Frequently criticizes the other members of the Freedom Phalanx, [[TheSnarkKnight snarks as effortlessly as she breaths]], and has no ethical problems making people who piss her off forget how to form words for a couple of days, but aside from the superheroine thing she also does community work and volunteers in her off hours.
110* JuniorCounterpart: During World War II, she was assigned as the super-powered junior side-kick to Statesman.
111* KidHeroAllGrownUp: Sister Psyche’ was a tween heroine during World War II, she was paired with Statesman as his right-hand - she is now a fully grown, experienced, cranky senior.
112* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Act 6 of Who Will Die? sees her being killed by Manticore when Darrin Wade's manipulations lead to her powers going out of control and threatening to kill everyone in Paragon City.]]
113* TheLancer: Not quite as obvious as her husband, but Sister Psyche does some questionable things with her powers, and she's not afraid to [[FridgeHorror go into your brain and mess with it or even psychically possess people]]. Also not nearly as obvious since [[WhatTheHellHero she's not called on it]].
114* MentorOccupationalHazard: She taught Aurora, Penelope nd Malaise how to master their psychic abilities, the later of which is the one who sets her up to be killed.
115* AMindIsATerribleThingToRead: She can read your thoughts without even trying -- no, literally! In fact, she needs to go through great efforts to ''not'' use this power 24/7, which would emotionally overload her.
116* MindOverMatter: It's how she flies and keeps up with super-strength villains.
117* MoralityChain: To Malaise though psychic conditioning.
118** To a lesser extent to Manticore, though mostly through piss-taking whenver he falls into his own angst.
119* PsychicPowers: Her favorites appear to be ForcedSleep, JediMindTrick, MassHypnosis and FakeMemories.
120* SacrificialLion: She asks Manticore to kill her to keep everyone in Paragon from getting their brains fried from her SuperPowerMeltdown when Malaise sabotages her internal power management... Ultimately Manticore complies.
121* SarcasticDevotee: She has been fighting by Statesman's side since her tweens in World War II, but just try to get her to stop taking the piss out of him.
122* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: Despite how she looks, she still speaks like a curmudgeonly albeit CoolOldLady especially in the comics.
123* SmashSisters: With Aurora Borealis.
124* SmugSuper: If a civilian thinks a lewd thought at her she is on record as making them talk backwards for a week. To say nothing of just making criminals cluck like chickens. [[ItAmusedMe And she finds it hilarious]].
125* {{Stripperiffic}}: and despite her Praetorian counterpart's attempts to outdo her in this factor in her appearance update, Sister Psyche is still the one who ''wears dental floss and lace in New England weather, outdoors''.
126* SuperPowerMeltdown: With her telepathy. It's eventually what lead to her SacrificialLion moment.
127* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Of-course a super-powered little-girl conscripted to fight in a war as a child-soldier by the U.S. government is going to grow up to have some pretty loose ethics and a disdain for petty authority.
128* OlderThanTheyLook: She looks like someone in her late twenties to mid thirties but is actually a little over eighty. Turns out her original body doesn't age while she does the aforementioned BodySurf.
129* RedOniBlueOni: Blue Oni to Aurora's Red Oni.
130* UnexplainedRecovery: Continued to appear in a mission set in a BadFuture during the Lord Recluse Strike Force even after her death, despite her character being replaced by Penelope Yin in most missions (including another within the same Strike Force) with no explanation.
131* UnscrupulousHero: She's a good person but seriously, do not count on the ethical application of mind-control from her.
132* YourHeadAsplode: Reportedly she only ever did this once, in World War 2 as a child soldier, presumably to the Nazis. She refuses to use it on anyone else.
133** [[spoiler: When her powers go haywire she nearly does this to all of Paragon City, she begs to be killed before that happens so she isn’t responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents.]]
134[[/folder]]
135
136[[folder:Positron]]
137[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/positron.png]]
138
139Dr. Raymond Keyes is a brilliant scientist who developed a high-tech battle suit that allowed him to fire beams of anti-matter. Injuries sustained during the Rikti War forced him to wear the suit at all times to keep his powers under control; after a specific event, he was "cured" of this condition and can now take it off.
140----
141* AtomicSuperpower: Slight subversion; His nuclear powered suit overloaded and made him radioactive; which resulted in him being able to expel radioactive blasts just by turning off his inhibitors, but also resulted in the below ContainmentClothing situation.
142* ContainmentClothing: Due to his Power Incontinence. Eventually he is able to remove it though.
143* ForScience!: His first notion when getting a one of a kind magical ArtifactOfDoom is to put it under a microscope and figure out how it works so he can build a safe version of his own.
144* JustThinkOfThePotential: Show him a new or lost ancient piece of technology, dangerous or no, and he will try to get his hands on it so he can make a safe reliable version of it to revolutionize an area of study.
145* MultipleChoiceChosen: Accidentally intercepted the Flame of Prometheus by lunging at Manticore. Prometheus doesn’t really care, a One was Chosen, his work is done.
146* MrFixit: If Positron can't fix it, it isn't broken.
147* PowerIncontinence: For a long time his power-armor was the only thing keeping him from irradiating the entire city with radiation. After the Prometheus gives Paragon it's powers back this gets fixed in the process.
148* OfficialCouple: With Numina.
149** ILoveTheDead: [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Sort of]].
150* PoweredArmor: Used to control his powers rather than give them to him.
151* ScienceHero: While Synapse is an engineer, Positron is the one who spends nearly all his non-patrolling time in his lab trying to innovate either his and his teams abilities or the general well being of Paragon.
152* TimeToStepUpCommander: He is put in charge of the Freedom Phalanx following [[spoiler:the deaths of Statesman and Sister Psyche, and Manticore's less than cool head about the whole thing]].
153[[/folder]]
154
155[[folder:Synapse]]
156[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/synapse_9.png]]
157
158Steven Berry was once a normal accountant hired by Crey Industries. When he noticed they were evading taxes and attempted to investigate, he was kidnapped and tortured for days, overloaded with electricity to the point where he couldn't take it anymore. He eventually managed to harness the electricity and escaped with Dr. Keyes, who eventually became Positron -- and with his new ability to harness lightning to channel it into electrical blasts and super speed, Steven became Synapse.
159----
160* CasanovaWannabe: Despite his angst he is actually quite flirtatious.
161* ComicRelief: Having noticeably more harmless fun with his role as a hero than the others and tries to share the levity.
162* {{Expy}}: Of famous speedster hero ComicBook/TheFlash.
163* FragileSpeedster: Stat-wise, he has noticeably less health and basically no damage resistance compared to his team-mates. He lives off his [[SuperReflexes high defence ratings]] cause all it takes is a couple of hits for a villain to down him.
164* GoneHorriblyRight: Yeah Crey, strap a guy down, torture him for days on end, in hopes of giving him superpowers. It's not like he would hold that against you or anything right? Right?!
165* MrFixit: Spends his spare time tuning up his car, which of course he doesn't need to use anymore. Though Positron is TheSmartGuy and does a lot more "inventing" per-say, Steven does so as a hobby. He can't create a quantum gate or anything like that, but if it has an engine he can at the very least get it working.
166* SadClown: He seems carefree and easygoing but in truth he still gets night-terrors reliving what Crey did to him.
167* SecretRelationship: Very strongly implied in the background lore between him and his side-kick, Mynx. All we know is that the two have spent nights together, we don't know doing what, and Synapse gets super evasive about it. Whether it is over the side-kick hero relationship or perceived hang-ups about furries is anyone's guess since he will not talk about it.
168* SpeedBlitz: His super speed combined with high-evade rate and ability to shoot lightning makes for a particularly strong offense. Now if only he could take more than 4 hits.
169* SuperReflexes: It's even part of his passive buffs. In practice, it means he has very high defence stats, which are checked against any incoming attack to see if it connects.
170* SuperSpeed: It's not just a travel power. Synapse is unique in that his superspeed is ''always'' on, even in combat and with no endurance drain.
171%%* TraumaButton: Crey.
172%%* TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening: Courtesy of Crey Industries.
173* UnwittingTestSubject: Crey Industries abducted him when he started digging up evidence of their crimes, and subjected him to torture and experimentation. This ended up giving him superpowers, which he used to escape and become a superhero.
174[[/folder]]
175
176[[folder:Citadel]]
177The premier android hero. Built as an A.I. by Crey Corp. to pilot the armor of the retired hero, Horatio, but developed a conscience and rejected them to help the Freedom Phalanx instead.
178----
179* ArtificialIntelligence: He can reason, feel, pick his own directives and has a conscience.
180* GoneHorriblyRight: Crey intended to create an advanced A.I. capable of complex thought. Too bad for them it developed it’s own conscience and left.
181* GrewBeyondTheirProgramming: Crey made a super advanced A.I. copy of the hero Horatio to inhabit his suit. Naturally they intended to use the AI for their own purposes, but he developed a conscience through his advanced reasoning and rejected them.
182* LegacyCharacter: Citadel was built into the power-armor of the now-retired hero Horatio, real name Rick Davies. Rick is more than happy to see his armor and image put to use keeping the city safe during his retirement.
183* ReplacementGoldfish: Crey claims they were doing this for the retiring hero, Horatio. Likely they had less than noble intentions too, but Citadel did not give them a chance to make him anything more that a suitable replacement.
184* RidiculouslyHumanRobot: Somewhat averted in the comics. While he looks human, (aside from being huge and green skinned) he actively programs his own dreams before he sleeps, and once bought a toothbrush just to feel more human.
185[[/folder]]
186
187[[folder:Manticore]]
188[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/manticore_63.png]]
189
190Justin Sinclair is a prominent and very powerful billionaire whose parents were brutally murdered by a villain named Protean. When his nanny told him the story, he took up the bow of his father and vowed to bring villains to justice. He is a trusted member of the Freedom Phalanx, though he tends to butt heads with Statesman.
191----
192* ArchEnemy: Protean, a shapeshifting German supervillain affiliated with [[StupidJetpackHitler the 5th Column]], and the man responsible for murdering Justin's parents.
193* BadassNormal: The only member of the Phalanx who isn't granted any power of the gods, wasn't experimented on, doesn't have any superior tech, and isn't made of muscle. His teleportation powers are alternately explained by Prometheus granting him the power to him or simply hacking into Paragon's medical network.
194* BeingGoodSucks: Arresting the really bad villains rather than just killing them really gets to him. He nearly left the Freedom Phalanx and joined Arachnos once due to the combination of this, Statesman hogging the spotlight, and Lord Recluse's [[BreakThemByTalking ability to play to his frustrations on such matters]].
195* CrimefightingWithCash: He has enough money to fight crime with single-use high-tech arrows as a hobby, and maintains that it's cheaper than what it would cost him to throw money at charities til crime was somehow abolished.
196* {{Expy}}: His backstory, demeanour and powerset are a blend of ComicBook/{{Batman}} and ComicBook/{{GreenArrow}}.
197%%* HappilyMarried: To Sister Psyche.
198* KillTheOnesYouLove: [[spoiler:In ''Who Will Die?'', Manticore is forced to kill his beloved wife to stop her powers from killing everyone in Paragon City.]]
199* KillHimAlready: Has voiced this sentiment more than once in both the game and comics. Generally not in favor of letting repeat offenders or hardened killers get away with jail time.
200%%* TheLancer: Possibly to Statesman.%%"Possibly"?
201* LegacyCharacter: He is at least the second to wear the Manticore mantle, after his father.
202* MissedTheCall: Manticore originally was going to get the Flame of Prometheus, but Positron got it by mistake due to lunging at Manticore at the time. Prometheus doesn’t really care though.
203* ShootTheDog: Generally in favor of this toward violent criminals but is willing to arrest them for the sake of his team-mate's sensibilities. [[spoiler:... sensibilities he will however completely ignore when his wife is killed (or rather has to be killed by him). There is no-way he intended to let Darrin Wade or Malaise go with jail-time]].
204* SourSupporter: Often acted as this to Statesman.
205* SpotlightStealingSquad: Particularly in the Top Cow comic series, most of which he narrated. Even the StoryArc that ostensibly focused on the Back Alley Brawler was more about Manticore.
206* WhatTheHellHero: He's given one of these when he accidentally '[[NotQuiteDead killed]]' the man who murdered his parents.
207[[/folder]]
208
209[[folder:Numina]]
210A magic-based hero who sacrificed herself to save the world. Her magic powers were so great that her consciousness was trapped within the villain she defeated. After his death, her astral form was free to once again take up the role of a hero.
211----
212* AnAstralProjectionNotAGhost: Sort of straddles the line since she IS an Astral Projection that outlived her body.
213* AudienceParticipation: Most of the Freedom Phalanx functioned as avatars for the devs that created or characterized them. Numina is notable in this regard as she is the only member created by poll from the players themselves.
214* CreepyGood: Well she IS a ghost, sort of, but even before that. This was a woman who played with dead things and considered necromancy a hobby.
215* DarkIsNotEvil: Yeah she has death magic but she uses it to act as the team's healer.
216* TheHeart: Both in-universe and on a meta-level. In-universe she has the least distracting personal issues/quirks of any of the Freedom Phalanx, out-of-univers she was the only member of the Phalanx created by the fan community (via poll) rather than the dev team. Meaning her main role in the Phalanx is to keep the others connected to the people.
217%%* JediMindTrick
218%%* MassHypnosis
219* TheMedic: While Sister Psyche seems able to heal minds, Numina's the only one with actual healing powers.
220* {{Necromancer}}: A very rare variant, not only is she a heroine in a case of DarkIsNotEvil, but she uses manipulation over the forces of death to ward them away and function as a healer. It is also why she could astral-project in the first place allowing her to live on as a "sorta ghost" after her death.
221%%* OfficialCouple: With Positron.
222* OurGhostsAreDifferent: This is technically not accurate since she's not quite a ghost. She's actually an astral projection of herself who lost her body some time ago.
223* TheSoulsaver: One of the few people who can restore victims of the [[DemonicPossession Circle of Thorns]] to their bodies.
224* WhiteMage: Uses magic to heal the wounded, break spells and even bring back the dead.
225[[/folder]]
226
227[[folder:Back Alley Brawler]]
228A semi-retired hero who now mostly devotes himself to training the next generation of heroes. In game, he is the only member of the Freedom Phalanx to not have a task force, serving as a trainer instead.
229----
230* AlwaysGetsHisMan: He is what every cop in Paragon should be.
231* BadassNormal: His powers of invulnerability and superstrength, gained entirely through training.
232* ByTheBookCop: Currently. Paragon used to have a big CorruptCop problem, he took it upon himself to kick their asses, both professionally and literally.
233* CantHoldHisLiquor : Apparently there have been incidents in Pocket D following Back Alley Brawler's bar order...
234* DudleyDoRightStopsToHelp: As a hero stopping to solve everyday crimes cut into his missions to stop mad-scientists and giant monsters... which is why he is semi-retired and trains other to go after the crazy crimes while he sticks to the small ones. He will not ignore that purse-snatcher just because another alien assassin has a doomsday weapon.
235* DoesntLikeGuns: Not only is he the most badass cop on the force with enough strength and stamina to stand up to most super-criminals he doesn't even carry a gun! Partially out of principal, but also because he feels GunsAreWorthless.
236* GoodIsNotNice: Generally the least social of the Freedom Phalanx and more than happy to go around looking for people who have a few broken bones coming.
237* MalcolmXerox: Back in the 70s.
238* MoralityChain: For Manticore. If Back Alley Brawler wasn't around, Manticore would have gone full lethal-superhero.
239* RequiredSecondaryPowers: His high-tech gloves may seem like they are the source of his super-strength, but the super-strength is all natural. The gloves are to make sure Back-Alley Brawler doesn't break his hands every time he punches a hole in a wall.
240* [[RetiredBadass Semi-Retired Badass]]: He's described as being in "semi-retirement" but it sure doesn't stop him from dishing out plenty of hurt to plenty of villains of a regular basis.
241* ScaryBlackMan: Even for tougher villains, the dude's pretty intimidating.
242* SmallStepsHero: He deliberately ignores the big crazy villains to go around retrieving purses, stopping home-invasions and arresting muggers. Anyone who has ever been to Steel Canyon or Skyway City will attest to how many muggers they need to pass over to stop the supervillain of the day, so someone has to stop them. He calls in the current Freedom Phalanx members if he can't afford to stop his pursuit of a local drug dealer to go after that dooms-day device he passed on the way.
243* SuperCop: Somewhat subverted since his "powers" are all naturally acquired, but he sure can give any super criminal a run for their money with how much punishment he can dish out and take.
244* ThouShaltNotKill: Darkly subverted. When Manticore decides kill the guy who murdered his parents, Back Alley Brawler kills (or thinks he kills) the guy so Manticore can't. Back Alley Brawler thinks superheroes shouldn't have to kill anyone, which is why he is semi-retired -- he has had to kill people.
245* TokenMinority: He was the only non-Caucasian member of the Freedom Phalanx. He's also not officially really a member of the Phalanx either.
246* ZombieAdvocate: During his time as a civil crusader he wasn't just crusading for African Americans but also women, homosexuals, mutants, aliens and artificial humans. Helped coordinate all of them into one grand movement along with Statesman's wife, Maiden Justice.
247[[/folder]]
248
249[[folder:Penelope Yin]]
250The newest and youngest member of the Freedom Phalanx is possibly the most powerful psychic in the world.
251----
252
253* KidHeroAllGrownUp: she was just a teen during the Faultline incident occurred, she’s since become a full member of the Freedom Phalanx in her 20s.
254* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: A very liberal variation -- the Clockwork King thinks of her as his daughter, then again he also thinks of himself as a scientist.
255* MoralityChain: To the Clockwork King, she keeps him stable and even eventually rehabilitates him.
256* MoralityPet: She is the only one who ever reached out to the Clockwork King and is mostly able to rehabilitate him, that being said, he will fly into a blind delusional rage if anyone touches his “Perfect Little Clockwork Princess”.
257* PsychicPowers: Mainly MindOverMatter, but also SpiderSense, {{Telepathy}} and [[SpontaneousWeaponCreation Psi Blades]].
258%%* SuckSessor: She substitutes for Sister Psyche’, [[spoiler:after Sister Psyche’ is killed]].(What makes her a bad successor?)
259[[/folder]]
260
261[[folder:Maiden Justice]]
262Real name Monica Cole née Richter. The first member to sign-up to work with Statesman, thus forming the Freedom Phalanx. Lord Recluse’s sister. She became Statesman’s wife shortly after she became a superheroine. Owner of The Girdle of Hera, before it was passed down to her daughter, Miss Liberty, and then her granddaughter, Ms. Liberty.
263----
264* AmuletOfConcentratedAwesome: The Girdle Of Hera/The Liberty Belt. It gave her super-strength, damage resistance and temporary invulnerability.
265* BarrierMaiden: Due to being Lord Recluse’s sister. She is the reason Lord Recluse never had Arachnos invade Paragon City. Once she died he considered it open season.
266* CainAndAbel: Abel to Lord Recluse’s Cain, though in this case, they didn’t fight each other, just along opposing moralities.
267* FlirtyStepSiblings: She and Statesman. He wasn’t ''technically'' adopted by her father, and that small amount of leeway seems to have given them a romantic rather than familial love.
268* HappilyMarried: To Statesman, back when she was alive.
269* HeroWithBadPublicity: Played with -- in that this applies to her run in with the legal system, but not the actual citizens. She was arrested for property damage, trespassing and “interfering with police business” and various other technical laws all superheroes would break; However public out-cry was so fierce police and politicians had to re-write certain laws to get her off.
270* LivingEmotionalCrutch: She was the only reason Lord Recluse kept his spite for Statesman from spilling out to the whole of Paragon. Once she died, he started making his presence known once again.
271* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Seen only once, in the ''Who Will Die'' arc. It’s ambiguous if it was her speaking from beyond the grave or is just the dying party’s delusion as they pass on.
272* NotBloodSiblings: She was Statesman’s foster-sister in all but paper-work. They still got married.
273* OldSuperhero: Even after she retired she was hailed as a paragon of Paragon until the day she died.
274* SmallRoleBigImpact: She is dead at launch, but her existence is why legal exceptions were written into law for superheroes and why the public takes to them with enthusiasm.
275* SuperRegistrationAct: She’s the reason for it, though unlike in most settings, here it is portrayed as a positive thing. Registered meta-humans get special legal leeway so what happened to her doesn’t happen to others anymore.
276* TheGhost: We almost never see her, as she passed away before the events of the game, save in a brie vision in the ''Who Will Die'' arc, but she is both famous and an important piece of lore for how this world works in relation to superheroes.
277[[/folder]]
278
279!!Vindicators
280A superteam that generally consists of younger heroes, mostly the sidekicks or former sidekicks of the Freedom Phalanx. Founded by Ms Liberty, the group believes strongly in the idea of the redemption.
281
282[[folder:Ms. Liberty]]
283Megan Duncan, Grand-Daughter of Statesman, Daughter of Miss Liberty. Inherited the Girdle of Hera from her mother, Miss Liberty and her Grandmother, Maiden Justice before her.
284----
285* AmuletOfConcentratedAwesome: Her powers come from the Liberty Belt she wears.
286* {{Excalibur}}: The sword she carries (she can't draw it, she's keeping it until Hero 1 returns) is Excalibur.
287* HeartBrokenBadass: Her [[spoiler:mother/the original Miss Liberty]] is killed as a prerequisite to the events of ''Who Will Die'' and despite being torn up about it, she holds down the fort while her grandpa flies off to mourn. As of the ''main'' events of ''Who Will Die'' though, when [[spoiler:her grand-dad]] is killed, she has shifted over from putting on a brave-face, to TranquilFury.
288* NiceJobBreakingItHero: She is the reason (Via a fight with Captain Mako, who is not innocent here either) that there is a wrecked tanker ship and oil spill off the coast of Port Oaks.
289* PaperThinDisguise: Justified in that she inherited the costume from her mother, and it is no longer used as a disguise. That strip of latex over her eyes isn't fooling anyone, especially since folks know she is Statesman's grand-daughter but it is in honor of her retired mom so folks give her a pass.
290* OrnamentalWeapon: Though she carries Excalibur around with her everywhere, she never uses it. She is just keeping it safe for Hero 1 when he returns. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, though it looked like Hero 1 was on his way to making a recovery, he never actually returns. The game was canceled before the arc could ever be followed through]].
291* SpaceCadet: The grown up version of a sincere example.
292* WellDoneDaughterGal: She feels obligated to do her mother and grand-mother, proud as she inherited her enchanted girdle from them. In particular she is committed to making her grandfather proud, as he not only retrieved the girdle in the first place, but is still alive, well and an active superhero, whom she tries to live up to.
293[[/folder]]
294
295[[folder:Aurora Borealis]]
296Sister Psyche's side-kick and former host body.
297----
298* AscendedFangirl: She volunteered as Sister Psyche's surrogate body because Sister Psyche' was her hero. The experience has seen her become a side-kick, a heroine in her own right and Psyche's protégée.
299* GrandTheftMe: She was originally used as Sister Psyche's replacement body though Psyche seems to have intentionally given her a say in the process.
300* IntergenerationalFriendship: She is best-friends with Sister Psyche' who was in her 80s at launch, with Aurora in her late 30s at the absolute most. Furthermore we must keep in-mind they have been best friends since Aurora offered her body in her tweens.
301* KidHeroAllGrownUp: She was just a girl when she volunteered to be Sister Psyche’s surrogate body, Psyche’ depossessed her now and is mentoring her. (though as Psyche’ was the one doing the heroine work in Aurora’s body, she still let her in order to save her life, so she still counts.)
302* KidWithTheLeash: In her youth, towards Sister Psyche, while they were SharingABody.
303%%* MentalFusion: Originally.
304%%* RedOniBlueOni: Red Oni to Psyche's Blue Oni.
305%%* SmashSisters: With Sister Psyche.
306* UnskilledButStrong: Reportedly she was one of the strongest psychics in Paragon City as a child when she got Grand Theft Med by Sister Psyche' but had next to no skill with her abilities. Sister Psyche's has been working hard to fix that.
307* UndyingLoyalty: She'll do anything for Sister Psyche'.
308* UsedToBeASweetKid: In her pre-teen years ''she'' was the Blue Oni and Sister Psyche was the Red, Sister Psyche''s personalty hasn't changed too much but Aurora's has, she is now a shoot-first ask questions later type.
309* WellDoneDaughterGal: She is 110% committed to proving herself worthy as Sister Psyche''s protegee.
310[[/folder]]
311
312[[folder:Mynx]]
313A result of Crey's genetic augmentation experiments who managed to escape, living off the streets until Synapse found her and got her registered as a superhero.
314----
315%%zce* CatGirl
316* LittleBitBeastly: Though supposedly genetically altered, Mynx's cat features are so glaring compared to her otherwise human form, it looks like she is just wearing props.
317%%* SecretRelationship: '''Strongly''' implied between her and Synapse.
318%%* WolverineClaws: With the former being in the game and the later being in the comic.
319[[/folder]]
320
321[[folder:Swan]]
322A sorcess who lost her parents just as she was discovering her powers. She aims to either find them or atleast make them proud fighting evil.
323----
324* DeathByOriginStory: Almost literally. Her parents were attacked and carried off specifically to get to the magical assets they were sitting on -- their magical prodigy daughter of-course being the most valuable to them.
325* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest: Technically both parents are just "[[HesJustHiding missing]]". Superpowers and missing parents are her central motivation for fighting crime.
326[[/folder]]
327
328[[folder:Infernal]]
329Son of Lilitu -- queen of the hells. He was lost traveling between worlds to confront her and wound up on Earth. He has become Numina's apprentice.
330----
331* AntiAntichrist: Lilitu wants him be her harbinger. He wants her head on a pike.
332* DarkIsNotEvil: Briming with demonic energy, but that's because of all the demons he has bound in order to stop them.
333* FreudianExcuse: He and his mother have quite a few issues.
334%%* HalfHumanHybrid: Human/demon.
335* LonerTurnedFriend: He used to be a lone wanderer in his home world. Numina has shown him he does not need to be so on Earth.
336* SummonMagic: The demons he slays can be conjured to fight for him.
337* YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry: Infernal is a walking portal prison for demons, if he ever gave into his darkers inclinations he would surely become fully possessed. This is why he remains TheStoic.
338[[/folder]]
339
340[[folder:Luminary]]
341An android built by Positron as a retirment gift for previous "Luminary". Her AI evolved so fast it became sentient and decided the best way to help was to fill in as the new Luminary.
342----
343* ArtificialIntelligence: She can reason, make her own directives and form ethics. Though she still has minor issues with emotions.
344* BenevolentAI: Her main desire is to keep Paragon safe.
345* SuperpoweredRobotMeterMaids: Positron built her to be a wedding present for the first Luminary, intended to do whatever they needed in their private life. For whatever reason, she was also outfitted with Luminary I's powers, and as her AI evolved she concluded that the best way for her to help was to fill in for the new retiree.
346* RobotBuddy: She was originally intended as this, but it turns out Positron was WAAAY better at creating a replacement Luminary than even he knew and [[InstantAIJustAddWater accidentally created sentience]] to boot.
347[[/folder]]
348
349[[folder:Valkyrie]]
350An Archelogist who discovered ancient nano-tech from an alternate reality. It transformed her into a powerful warrior with an entirely different mind-set to her original one.
351----
352* HealingFactor: Her defensive power-set is Regeneration.
353* LossOfIdentity: After accidentally activating the ancient nano-tech spear she briefly forgot who she was, luckily Positron was able to get through to her. Even now she has to remind herself she is Valerie and that "Valkyrie" is just a persona induced by the nanomachines.
354* {{Nanomachines}}: Of the magic-substitute variety, naturally. Her spear is a nanotechnology device and the source of her regenerative powers.
355* SueDonym: Her real name is Valerie Kellum.
356[[/folder]]
357
358[[folder:Malaise]]
359A mutant psychic with hypnotic abilities that let him project illusions and give of telekentic waves. He suffers from a split-personality but was give a new lease on life thanks to Sister Psyche.
360----
361* TheAtoner: After recovering from his schizophrenia induced crime spree, he decided to become a hero in-order to make-up for it.
362* BeyondRedemption: [[spoiler: His part in the murder of Miss Liberty and near brain-death and permeant possession of Sister Psyche has the rest of the Vindicators and the Freedom Phalanx consider him a lost soul in-need of putting him down. To her credit, Sister Psyche was trying to the bitter end to try to reverse his SplitPersonalityTakeOver, but ultimately had to tear his mind apart in self-defense. No one mourns him except for Sister Psyche herself.]]
363* MadArtist: During his bouts of madness he goes into museums stealing anything that strikes him as mad-genius to give it a better home, and defacing the rest for being uninspired.
364* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: He's only a hero when he's on his meds.
365* HeelFaceDoorSlam: [[spoiler:Helping kill the former Miss Liberty and trying to drive Sister Psyche insane seems to have pretty well settled him as a villain. And in any case, Sister Psyche ripping his mind apart in self-defense makes it fairly permanent]].
366* KilledMidSentence: I will be immortAAAGH!
367* RedemptionRejection: Sister Psyche tries to offer him redemption for his part in [[spoiler:killing Statesman]] as she knows he is not in his right mind... [[spoiler:right before he kills her for trying to chain his mind with the concept of sanity]].
368* SplitPersonality: At least two, one of which is the aforementioned Mad Artist and the other of which is trying to make-up for his time as such.
369* SplitPersonalityTakeover: Both heroes and villains will encounter Malaise while he is off his psychic meds. In the ''Who Will Die'' arc, we see a final re-emergence of crazy Malaise. [[spoiler:After what happens to Sister Psyche' though, that time no one was giving him a chance to go back on his meds.]]
370[[/folder]]
371
372!!Shooting Stars
373A novice superteam who can recruit the player character early on in the hero side.
374
375[[folder:Twinshot]]
376* ActionGirl: She's got no problem walking right into the thick of it with a bunch of supervillains.
377* DarkAndTroubledPast: She and Maelstrom have a complicated history.
378%%* GunsAkimbo: If her name isn't a big enough hint.
379* TheLeader: Of the Shining Stars' FiveManBand.
380[[/folder]]
381
382[[folder:Proton]]
383* FakeMemories: [[spoiler:Proton's future is in fact [[MirrorUniverse Praetoria]]. Mother Mayhem altered his memories to view it as a different time, when in truth he's just been sent to a less technologically-advanced alternate universe.]]
384* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler:When he finally starts to piece together his FakeMemories, and realizes that he was sent to Paragon to be a mole for a hostile MirrorUniverse, he doesn't take it very well.]]
385* TheSmartGuy: For the Shining Stars.
386* SpinOffspring: The future son of Manticore and Sister Psyche, wearing a copy of Positron's armor and travelling back in time to meet his parents. [[spoiler:Or so he believes. [[SubvertedTrope In truth]], this rather cliched setup is a plot by Mother Mayhem -- the evil MirrorUniverse version of Sister Psyche -- to get a brainwashed mole with FakeMemories into Paragon City's superhero community. Proton is shattered when he realizes the truth.]]
387[[/folder]]
388
389[[folder:Flambeaux]]
390* AttentionWhore: She can't stand not being the center of attention, and will try and steer any conversation towards her.
391* BrainlessBeauty: Like you would not ''believe''.
392* FaceHeelTurn: Anyone who's played tip missions since issue 18 know that her descent into villainy is a ForeGoneConclusion.
393** This doubles as a bit of a LateArrivalSpoiler.
394* ItsAllAboutMe: She's more concerned about making herself look good and having the spotlight than stopping the bad guys or listening to what her team-mates are doing or saying. By the time you're done with the first mission, it's already clear that Flambeaux thinks that she's the center of the universe.
395* PlayingWithFire: As glory-hogging and shallow as she is, Flambeaux ''does'' hurl a pretty mean fireball.
396* WrongGenreSavvy: With her self-absorbed behavior, you'd think that she believes that ''she's'' the player character, while the player's an NPC. But she's most assuredly ''not'' the star of the show.
397[[/folder]]
398
399[[folder:Dillo]]
400* AmusingAlien: Probably not intentional on his part.
401* TheBigGuy: For the Shining Stars' FiveManBand.
402* StarfishAliens: Pretty strongly implied to be one under his spacesuit.
403* StarfishLanguage: His sentence structure takes some getting used to.
404* VerbalTic: He tends to insert *hoorb* into his speech often.
405[[/folder]]
406
407[[folder:Grym]]
408* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: He's easily one of the more mysterious and unusual members of the Shining Stars, and his repeated references to things that would require the senses of his race to recognize certainly helps.
409* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Prone to this, for example saying "Let us engage the Spidery ones in mortal combat" instead of just "Let's battle Arachnos".
410* SinisterScimitar: Subverted. He wields a curved, jagged blade, but he's one of the good guys.
411* SixthRanger: The only one to join in later than you, and wasn't properly invited into the group beforehand. In fact, counting yourself as a Shining Star -- the fifth member to join, specifically -- makes Grym a ''literal'' SixthRanger.
412* WolfMan: He's an anthropomorphic wolf.
413[[/folder]]
414
415!Villains
416[[SuperVillain The Bad]]
417
418!!Arachnos Patrons
419Arachnos is a former Italian assassin guild, originally run by an enigmatic figure called The Weaver. Recluse joined and shifted it more towards megalomaniacal goals, then had The Weaver killed when he messed up an operation; On that day Recluse became ''Lord'' Recluse and has fully re-worked them to a world power. Go to the [[Characters/CityOfHeroesEnemyGroups Groups page]] for the organization as a whole, but these are supervillains who make-up it’s upper chain of command.
420
421[[folder:In General]]
422* CardCarryingVillain: All of them except Scirocco, but Lord Recluse especially.
423* CoDragons: Ghost Widow, Captain Mako, Scirocco and Black Scorpion are all of the same rank as Arachnos Patrons -- and Lord Recluse has specifically assigned them as such, so they will be too busy competing against each other to ever effectively pull a StarScream.
424* DoWrongRight: All of them utterly despise hack-evil-doers -- Ghost Widow, Black Scorpion and Captain Mako out of pride, Lord Recluse and Scirocco out of pragmatism.
425* DragonWithAnAgenda: All of them serve their leader until such time as said agenda is met. You the player, can act as a SpannerInTheWorks; Except to Lord Recluse who got to where he is by already completing said agenda.
426* EvilVirtues: All of them have virtues born out of their moral short-comings.
427** Lord Recluses team building skills and propensity for structured evil are things of awe-inspiring horror.
428** Ghost Widow’s commitment to professionalism is what has allowed her to transcend death.
429** Captain Mako’s bloodthirsty nature is what keeps others villains in line.
430** Scirocco promotes honor among the forces of evil and mercy when applicable.
431** Black Scorpion’s status as a PsychoticManchild makes him a good sport about things like betrayal.
432%%* FiveManBand:
433* FriendshipStrainingCompetition: Well, more like ''Teamwork'' Straining Competition: They are kept in a constant state of trying to one up each-other. Lord Recluse has engineered it this way so if one tried to usurp him, the other three would unite against that one out of shear spite.
434* MutuallyAssuredDestruction: Each of the five hates at least three quarters of the others. It keeps them from teaming up against the others and if any-one member tried to strike against another the other four would dog-pile the offending party assured killing them would be validated at that point.
435* {{Pride}}: All of them take pride in their roles for the organization as a whole.
436* TakingYouWithMe: All of them have back-up plans for this if the other four, or you the player, try to get rid of them.
437* VillainCred: Becoming a Patron Of Arachnos takes some ''major'' talent and infamy. They all firmly earned their spots.
438[[/folder]]
439
440[[folder:Lord Recluse]]
441[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lordreclusecov.png]]
442
443The Master of Evil, the Count of Cruel, the Archvillain of Anarchy -- Lord Recluse has been known by many names, but he is undoubtedly the leader of the villainous Arachnos organization and perpetually in conflict with Statesman of the Freedom Phalanx. What is little known is that he and Statesman were once companions, and that Recluse once went by the name Stefan Richter -- but a strange event left them eternally estranged and forever archenemies.
444----
445* ActionPolitician: One of his spies even lampshades the fact that Lord Recluse is the only U.N. Leader, that has/will show up to summit meetings with literal blood on his hands.
446* ALighterShadeOfBlack: One of the main reasons Lord Recluse stays in power is the citizens of the Rogue Isles see how bad every single one of his rivals would make things if he were ever dethroned.
447* AntagonistInMourning: He takes the death of his decades long arch-enemy more than a little hard.
448* AtLeastIAdmitIt: As an evil a-hole and proud of it, he encourages [[CardCarryingVillain outright villainy,]] though tolerates [[AffablyEvil honorable villainy,]] but absolutely despises the [[FauxAffablyEvil pretense of civility from evil jerks]]. He considers Nemesis an embarrassment to the forces of evil, and decides to [[BreakTheHaughty break]] Tyrant for this reason.
449* AuthorityGrantsAssKicking: He IS the Lord of Arachnos. Though given Arachnos' laws, it might be more accurate to call it AsskickingLeadsToLeadership.
450* AwesomeByAnalysis: Mainly how he applies his Super Intelligence -- he uses a PsychicLink HiveMind to analyze the battle-field from hundreds of first-person perspectives, then give his troops detailed orders for moment-by-moment action. As he can think faster and more accurately than anything on Earth, this is a large reason why a bunch of guys with guns are The Villain Group.
451* BatmanGambit: Master of these through [[GenreSavvy dangerous levels of awareness over superhero/villain cliches]], going as far as to cut the funding of mad-scientists who monologue pre-success and warn super heroes of his attacks so they waste their time evacuating the city rather than fighting tooth and nail to spare the innocent.
452* BenevolentBoss: Without being AffablyEvil -- he maintains a KlingonPromotion policy and a YouKillItYouBoughtIt policy which are very generous working opportunities for the vast array of murderers working for him.
453** Additionally he knows the names of even low-level grunts and part-timers.
454** NPC dialogue also states he apparently gives out paid vacation time.
455* BerserkButton: For the love of all that is evil, do ''NOT'' come between him and Statesman!
456%%* BigBad: DUH!%%ZCE!
457* CardCarryingVillain: Though far from one-dimensional, he does not even put up the pretense of being anything other than an evil overlord, to the point FauxAffablyEvil actually annoys him.
458* CombatPragmatist: Lord Recluse may be able to calculate and predict an entire battle in mere seconds but he will always go for the [[CuttingTheKnot most direct route to resolving a problem]]. Elaborate conspiracies and/or psychological warfare are impractical when you can [[MurderIsTheBestSolution just shoot someone]].
459* DetonationMoon: The guy who [[spoiler:offed Statesman]], stole his powers and flew to the moon to use it as an evil lair while he ascends to god-hood. How hard does Lord Recluse take it? Well, he nukes the moon and then flies up there so he can punch the god out of him. [[ItsPersonal It was personal]].
460* DiplomaticImpunity: Actually bothered to register the Rogue Isles with the United Nations after taking over the island-chain so Statesman couldn't legally swoop in and start leveling the place.
461* EmperorScientist Prior to hiring Aeon to do most of the work for him and give him more spare time, Lord Recluse designed all his army's weaponry.
462* EnemySummoner: While most of his powers function on a meta-level, in combat he can call handfuls of elite soldiers to air-raid into battle.
463* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: His sister, Monica Cole Richter even though she was a heroine when alive, Red Widow in a case of UnholyMatrimony and arguably Statesman, depending on how we can qualify their mutual hate-crush with each-other.
464* EvenEvilHasStandards: Being a Social Darwinist, Lord Recluse sees vanity and racial supremacy as delusional. His mind-set also makes him believe he has a responsibility to Rogue Isles civilians since they acknowledge him as their better.
465* EvilerThanThou: Lord Recluse is constantly engaged in evil dick measuring contests, and became the undisputed Big Bad because he keeps winning them.
466* EvilIsPetty: He became a supervillain, usurped an assassin network, reworked it into an army, used the army to take over a small island chain, and turned that island chain into a world power populated by supervillains... all just to tick Statesman off!
467* EvilPlan: He has several but the overarching one is a doozy -- the Player Villains are each a potential SpannerInTheWorks with the Rogue Isles acting as a giant training area until he is ready to unleash you on the world. Note-worthy in that he keeps both heroes and villains focusing on his W.E.B. Device instead of paying attention to society he has cultivated. His Strike-Force proves [[TheBadGuyWins it’s worked]].
468* EvilVirtues: Naturally an evil-overlord who built his nation of evil from the ground-up is going to have some ''really'' amazing management skills and P.R. skills.
469** We also have his rampant hatred of Nazis, however this is not for moral reasons, but rather because “Racial Superiority” implies certain people are inherently better than others, which is an anathema to the hard-core Darwinian society he has crafted.
470* FlawExploitation: Lord Recluse knew if he warned the Freedom Phalanx his team was coming to wreak-havoc on Paragon City they wouldn't have time to get prepared and get the civilians to safety and of-course he knew which of the two they would prioritize.
471** Also used this to win most of Nemesis's agents to his side, Nemesis may have controlled Paragon's criminal-underworld but he was a notorious BadBoss. His human agents were all too happy to sell him out to Lord Recluse when he made his bid for power.
472** Used once again on Tyrant. How do you overthrow a rival MirrorUniverse overlord? Rent your troops out to LaResistance of-course. With Tyrant's oppressive treatment of his own people, he was practically making Arachnos's allies for them.
473* FlunkyBoss: His official AT is Mastermind, which he lives up to in most of his encounters by summoning several of his Bane Spider EliteMooks.
474* FoeRomanceSubtext: Played subtle at first, but Lord Recluse does not simply hate Statesman, he is ''In Hate'' with Statesman.
475* {{Foil}}: To Statesman. Statesman gets no respect from his friends, Lord Recluse has no friends but all the respect; Statesman is the backbone of his team, Lord Recluse is the brains of his team; Statesman struggles to remember all the heroes he’s worked with, Lord Recluse remembers the names and actions of every single person he’s ever met; Statesmen is a good if egotistical hero, Lord Recluse is an openly evil pragmatist; Statesman will sacrifice himself at the drop of a hat to save others, Lord Recluse will gladly die by the same Darwinian logic he kills others by if they are strong enough to oppose him; Statesman demands perfection from his team because they may only get one chance to save the day, Lord Recluse openly invites any of his team to dare to turn on him because they will only ever get one chance to try.
476* ForgottenFriendNewFoe: Much to Statesman's initial existential horror.
477* GeniusBruiser: No-where near as strong as Statesman, but still strong enough to lift cars with ease, this is a minuscule feat compared to his intellect and wits however.
478* GodzillaThreshold: For Statesman, the Freedom Phalanx and even Tyrant. When Lord Recluse shows up to a fight, break-out the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Incarnate Powers]].
479* HazyFeelTurn: Amazingly our Big Bad Card Carrying Villain does in fact get a one, though it is less from evil to good than from evil to practical -- in the Tin Mage Taskforce Incarnate Trial we see he has formally aligned with the Vanguard specifically to fight Emperor Cole. Due in part to [[MoralityPet Red Widow’s influence]] and in part due to the fact Cole made the rather massive mistake of trying to invade The Rogue Isles... [[spoiler:additionally it may be with Statesman dead he has no reason to continue his crusade against the forces of good]].
480* HeartBrokenBadass: He feels genuinely betrayed that his platonic life-partner decided to fight him because of something as insubstantial as "morality".
481** Ghost Widow notes once or twice when complementing her efficiency he accidentally called her "Red Widow", then corrected himself and quietly went to sulk, indicating that even years after her death he is still thinking of her.
482** We see this again during the ''Who Will Die'' arc when [[spoiler:Statesman]] is killed. And apparently when you kill [[spoiler:the platonic life partner-turned nemesis]] of the king of all supervillains, nukes get launched and Gods get [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beaten]].
483* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: In a world of demi-gods and killer death bots the guy whose power is being smart sounds like he got the short-straw super power but the game devs validated his ability to remain on top of a situation no matter how outlandish or improbable it was as part of his XanatosSpeedChess ability in-light of being an Incarnate, [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration pre-destined to smartest person on the face-of-the-planet]].
484* HellFire: As he was vested with the embodiment of Tartarus he can let off a blast of this. But only as a sort of LimitBreak.
485* HeterosexualLifePartners: He and Statesman used to be this. If anything his villainy stems from spite at being unable to go back to being this.
486* HoldingBackThePhlebotinum: Like Statesman, he drunk directly from The Well of The Furies, and if he invoked its full power, it would corrupt him. He even mocks Tyrant for invoking the Well’s full power, as it just means he’s a pawn.
487* IAmNotLeftHanded: Those hijacked Arachnos nukes in Warburg? Yeah, he’s had the launch codes for those this entire time. He just let everyone think they were cut-off from Arachnos to get heroes and rival villains to kill each other trying to procure them.
488* ImplacableMan: Normally he is too in-control for us to see this, but when in beserk mode, we see ''exactly'' how much pain Lord Recluse is capable of shrugging off. We see this in the last phase of the ''Who Will Die'' arc -- after Darrin Wade [[spoiler:kills Statesman]]. Darrin has an orbital death beam which will wipe out, the Arachnos Patrons, Freedom Phlananx and you, unless you take cover during the blasts. If Lord Recluse is hit and reachs zero health, he gets right back-up, ignoring the blast and proceeds straight for the bastard who took his beloved [[spoiler:arch-nemesis]] from him.
489-->'''Lord Recluse:''' " I... will... NOT... be STOPPED!"
490* IWantThemAlive: He wants Statesman to live to see him conquer Paragon, specifically to turn his ego in on itself, at being given a chance to stop him and failing. His spy, Viridian, notes Lord Recluse shoots down any plan for world domination that involves Statesman dying before said conquest or never getting the chance to face him, as world domination is not the point, sticking it to Statesman is.
491** When [[spoiler: Statesman is killed by Darrin Wade,]] Lord Recluse wants [[spoiler: Darrin]] bought in alive if possible so he can use life-support technology to torture him for years passed his natural life-span. It turns out to be off the table as [[spoiler: Darrin]] was projecting outside of his body at the time, so he settles for beating said projection into paste.
492* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: He jumps straight from robbing banks to world domination solely to stick it to Statesman dumping him, when he found said bank robberies too immoral.
493* LikesClarkKentHatesSuperman: He specifically hates Statesman because Marcus used the alias to fight evil, to fight ''him'' ! As far as Lord Recluse is concerned, “Statesman” is the reason he can’t be with Marcus anymore.
494* LongGame: The Rogue Isles are part of this to Lord Recluse, if none of his direct attacks work, he knows having a country influenced by his villainy will eradicate Statesman eventually. [[GoneHorriblyRight He wasn't wrong]].
495* LoveMakesYouEvil: His powers lead him down a path of immoral behavior, but he ramped things up from bank robberies to world domination when his Hetero Life Partner dumped him.
496* MinoredInAsskicking: Mostly he is an organizer and a coordinator. But beware when he actually decides to show up to do his own dirty work.
497%%* MiseryBuildsCharacter: A devout believer in this, hence the environment of the Rogue Isles.%%A devout believer in what?
498* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The residents of the Rogue Isles are completely jaded to supervillainy at this point, yet Lord Recluse still terrifies the entire island-chain, this includes professional supervillains.
499* NayTheist: Lord Recluse has outlawed religion not because he doesn't believe or thinks religion makes people stupid nor is he allergic to the power of God or any of the usual reasons; No, Lord Recluse has outlawed religion because he is an actual demi-god, so logically acknowledgement of any full-god is tantamount to national treason.
500* NiceToTheWaiter: Of the rare evil and non AffablyEvil variety. He treats his bureaucrats like kings, learns/call even low-level soldiers by name and give out promotions and vacation time for a job well done. Of-course he will also chop off their heads and mount them on a pike if they screw-up.
501* NobleDemon: Evil is always on his agenda but generally he prefers structured evil, paired with order and purpose -- as soon as any of his Patrons forget this, he jots them down for... discipline.
502* NoNonsenseNemesis: Lord Recluse has beaten more than a few rival super villains to death with their own VillainBall and goes to great lengths to make sure his own people know picking it up means summery execution.
503* PoliticallyCorrectVillain: Of the rarer variety as he is neither kind, nor played as comedic. He encourages theft, destruction of property and assassinations, but he has made supervillains [[UnPerson "disappear"]] for racial and sexual intolerance.[[note]]When the Dev team had to hand out bans for racist, homophobic, sexist players villain-side, they credited this in-universe to Lord Recluse -- who owns a time-travel machine, knows when and where you were supposed to be born and has no ethical problems sending troops to kick your pregnant mother down a flight of stairs.[[/note]] It should be noted this is less to do with morality than the white-supremacy simply conflicting with a Darwinism outlook.
504* PragmaticVillain: Has a number of policies that seem like PetTheDog moments, but in fact they are all function based.
505** Avoids civilian casualties if he can help it, as a result all the non-powered folk are quite happy to have him in charge as opposed to his rivals.
506** He encourages both evil and personal freedom as one and the same, because of this the Rogue Isles are a breeding ground for supervillains he can cherry-pick for his DoomTroops.
507** Even his status as a BenevolentBoss, is about pragmatism. It ensures his men are willing to fight and die for him.
508* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Same as Statesman.
509* RivalTurnedEvil: His back-story with Statesman. With some elaboration; he always felt that Statesman saw himself as better than the two and was a control freak. Lord Recluse also did not appreciate Statesman marrying his sister.
510* SelfMutilationDemonstration: He has injured himself numerous times to test just how immortal he actually is, has yet to go as far as to shoot himself in the head so for many years he was unsure if he was truly immortal or just hard to kill. He did however find out very quickly that ImmortalityHurts.
511* SergeantRock: To call him "tough but fair" is underselling it, more accurately he's "homicidal but fair". He will throw any of his troops off a cliff the second they make Arachnos look weak, foolish or even think about touching that VillainBall, but not only does he expect them to do the same to him, he actively encourages it.
512* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: Same as Statesman but for his intellect instead of strength -- the Well of the Furies has decreed he will be the smartest being on the face of the planet in his reality; As the Well is a multiverse nexus point, it retroactively makes him smarter based on who or whatever enters his planet and his reality.
513* ThanatosGambit: Puts himself in harm’s way by publicly confronting Tyrant on behalf of his oppressed people so the only reason Tyrant has to fight him is to protect his own power, not the people ''destroying'' his sense of justification. Quite devastating for against a WellIntentionedExtremist.
514* TheMinionMaster: Unlike most Master-Minds, he can just keep summoning villainous seal-teams. So if you don't wade through them at a quick pace things can get... [[ZergRush crowded]]; To make this worse... they are ''[[EliteMooks not]]'' [[EliteMooks normal mooks]].
515* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Lord Recluse took over Arachnos, established a new government, founded a nation of supervillains and recruits citizens of said nation for his DoomTroops, all for the sole purpose of sticking it to Statesman. Everyone in the Rogue Isles knows not to get between Lord Recluse and his final battle with Statesman, [[spoiler:everyone but Darrin Wade...]] See Detonation Moon above.
516* TheSocialDarwinist: It wasn't him that introduced the 'survival of the fittest' into Arachnos, but he definitely became the group's standout.
517* SuperIntelligence: It is his main power, complete with HyperAwareness, [[TheStrategist Tactical Genius]], ImmuneToMindControl, CrazyPrepared and BreakThemByTalking.
518* XanatosSpeedChess: What takes Nemesis months of planning and setting-up, Lord Recluse can counter-measure inside ten minutes.
519* UnholyMatrimony: For all intents and purposes with Red Widow; Though they aren't actually married (this is only due to both rejecting the concept of holy ceremonies). This is a couple where WORLD DOMINATION is a relationship goal.
520* VetinariJobSecurity: And every single professional supervillain in the Rogue Isles knows it. Fact is, the country would fall apart without him.
521* VillainCred: His very name -- "Lord Recluse", he didn't just start out calling himself that. He was originally "Recluse" while working for Arachnos but started going by "''Lord'' Recluse" once he conquered a country. Just about everyone in said country makes certain to say the full title -- and that includes the players!
522* VillainRespect: For villain players. Going into a near identical alternate reality, killing him and bringing back his helmet as proof of the ordeal result's in this for you. It turns out his Social Darwinism is a lot more than mere lip-service.
523* VillainousRescue: During the final phase of the ''Who Will Die'' story-arc even after his Patron's get wiped by [[spoiler:Darrin Wade]], Lord Recluse bursts out of the transport to help with the final boss fight. It's obviously not to save you or even the world [[spoiler:it is to avenge Statesman]].
524* WeNeedADistraction: He gets a lot of mileage out of using this tactic: He uses a squadron to keep Nemesis distracted while the player villain goes in for the kill, used players as a distraction while his armies surround the foe, sent his Patrons as little more than sacrifices to get foes to stick their necks out to slay them, but perhaps most impressively -- he shows up leading the Arachnos charge to Praetoria to confront Tyrant A. to BreakTheHaughty but B., to keep Tyrant too focused on them to to allow the Magistarium Incarnate Trial to get to the heart of the city and waste his last few forces so he’s the only one left.
525* WorldsSmartestMan: He was given intellect and wits to surpass any being on his planet in his lifetime by The Well of The Furies. As with Statesman, the Well also makes Lord Recluse, and all versions of him, this trope across the span of TheMultiverse.
526[[/folder]]
527
528[[folder:Ghost Widow]]
529[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rndr_ghostwidow01.png]]
530
531Former assassin Belladonna Ventrano, now a ghost.
532----
533%%* TheBaroness: Arguably one of the few people, Lord Recluse included, actually devoted to Arachnos itself.%%Examples aren't arguable.
534* DarkMagicalGirl: Was never good ''per se'', but her stalwart loyalty has long since eroded and now only serves Arachnos because she has to. [[spoiler:Here is the kicker, that stalwart obligation to serve Arachnos loyally is what was used to bind her to it's service in undeath]].
535* DragonWithAnAgenda: Like all the Arachnos Patrons. Hers is to free herself from her UnfinishedBusiness by bringing herself back to life so she can be free of serving Lord Recluse for all eternity.
536* DramaticWind: Her hair is ''always'' flowing -- a unique graphic for the game. And no, it is not due to OurGhostsAreDifferent (as we see in Praetoria) even when she was alive it apparently behaved the same.
537* HiveQueen: She had been this to the Arachnos Seer Network from the early 1990s on until at least 2012. As the administrator of the Seer Net, she was the one who curtailed the overarching HiveMind of the Arachnos Seers. Being a ghost, herself bound to serve Arachnos above all else, she could not have sabotaged it even if she wanted to. As the story progression was halted shorty after Red Widow's resurrection, it is anyone's guess if she got to keep the position.
538* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: She naturally assumes anyone who is not impressed by her, is jealous of her and therefor plotting against her... She isn't too far off.
539* LoyalToThePosition: Her loyalty is to Arachnos as a whole and thus to whoever happens to be in charge of it at the time. This never really creates a conflict of interest considering how on top of things Lord Recluse is but clearly Ghost Widow has no personal love for the man.
540%%* MoralityPet: Wretch.
541* MouthOfSauron: Over the Seer-Net. Lord Recluse himself, is not psychic, so Ghost Widow is the one to express his wishes for him to the Fortunatas/Widows, who, in-turn, broadcast to their local units.
542* NobleTopEnforcer: She is more dedicated to Arachnos than even Lord Recluse, [[spoiler:though that is less to do with nobility than the fact that the organization is her SoulJar. Even without it though she is a consummate professional]].
543* NotSoAboveItAll: For all her talk about being less petty than the other Patrons and being forced into being stuck serving Arachnos due to her unfinished business, she opts to lock Red Widow's soul crystal away so she doesn't outshine her.
544* NotSoStoic: She usually appears emotionless and a consummate professional, but when her one chance for a resurrection is foiled she flies into a blind rage.
545* OurGhostsAreDifferent: GW is bound to "haunt" Arachnos, and cannot be permanently destroyed as long as the organization exists.
546* ProperlyParanoid: She sees her own team-mates as rivals and assumes any chance they could take to discredit or harm her they would act upon... With the exception of [[TokenGoodTeammate Scirocco]], they very much would.
547* PsychicBlockDefense: Control moves are basically wasted on her.
548* SmugSnake: Her utter disdain for her enemies and utter disdain for allies is only differentiated by the fact that she will openly attack one and tolerate the other.
549* SpyMaster: She is the psychic administrator of Arachnos’s telepathic Seer Network.
550* SoulJar: The reason she keeps coming back after being defeated. Everyone thinks it's Wretch, TheDragon. [[spoiler:It's not. She is actually bound to Arachnos itself. As long as the organization (or the ideal behind it, it's not made clear which) exists, so will Ghost Widow]].
551* UnfinishedBusiness: Her's was the emotional turmoil of her death and need for vengeance. [[spoiler:Until the Mu mystics preformed a rite that reassigned her duty to Arachnos as her new UnfinishedBusiness]].
552* WhiteHairBlackHeart: Bonus points for the fact that after death when one turned, so did the other.
553* YourSoulIsMine: One of her favored powers and few melee abilities is to drain the souls of her victims. For normal civilians this is instant death, meta-humans can resist it but it still hurts and debilitates them while refreshing her.
554[[/folder]]
555
556[[folder:Scirocco]]
557[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rndr_scirocco01.png]]
558
559Former hero and member of the "Monks of the Four Winds", now evil, and under a curse that means his every attempt to do good will backfire.
560----
561* AmuletOfDependency: His main abilities come from his blade, along with his curse. He knows Mu rites now but they’d quickly drain him without the blade.
562** [[spoiler:As of his battle with Mot he has overcome this dependence and presumably his curse by gaining Incarnate levels -- alas the game was canceled before he could defect to the forces of good]].
563* BadPowersGoodPeople: Wants to use his powers for good. Though it is a losing battle for him.
564* BeardOfEvil: A classical, [[GoodHairEvilHair villainous goatee]].
565* BeingEvilSucks: He REALLY hates that he can't use his powers for good.
566* BlessedWithSuck: His superpowers came with one hell of a price, any attempt he makes to use them for good ends up making things worse. Great if you are a supervillain awful if you want to be a hero.
567* BlowYouAway: Has power of sand and wind. Frequently conjures sandstorms.
568* BigOlEyebrows: With the distance the camera is often put at, it's hard to notice, but when you look (not much) closer, you realize Scirocco has eyebrows so big they have their own polygons.
569* DespairEventHorizon: The soul-devouring, spirit-breaking, dark god Mot uses its CompellingVoice to break what little remains of his spirit when he is deployed to help out in Dark Astoria. In fact it almost leads to a PsychicAssistedSuicide.
570* DoomMagnet: Whenever he tries to use his powers for good.
571* DragonWithAnAgenda: He is working for Arachnos because it's all he can do thanks to his curse, so it's really no surprise he was up to something; In his case it involves a spell that will HeelFaceBrainwashing most villains into heroes and kill the remainder. Scary thing is he doesn't know, or care, which he will be qualified as when it goes off!
572* TheEeyore: Due to his curse. He remains so depressed that his fellow Patrons, and that includes a nigh-emotionless ghost, can't stand to be around him.
573%%* FaceHeelTurn: In his backstory.
574* HeelFaceBrainwashing: In his Patron arc, he attempted trying to mind control every villain in existence and do this.
575* LoveEpiphany: Has one towards the middle of the Dark Astroia arc [[spoiler:when Ice Mistral [[TakingTheBullet takes the bullet]] for him to [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan snap him out of Mot's hold]]]].
576* MagicKnight: Arachnos' signature battle mage, master of both swordsmanship and spells.
577* ManaDrain: Like the Mu he has red blasts of lightning that drain endurance. He only needs to get a few in to kill most players' endurance bar.
578* MinionShipping: Has a (rather chivalrous) crush on Ghost Widow. He doesn't seem to care that she's A) Dead and B) Incapable of returning his feelings. [[spoiler:Later still after she outright turns him down he realizes that Ice Mistral feels the same way about him as he did about Ghost Widow]].
579* NobleTopEnforcer: He is the only head of Arachnos who values honor, mercy and nobility.
580%%* PelagianVillain: Of a sort.
581* RefusedByTheCall: He wanted to use the sword he stole for good, but because he stole it instead of being a chosen one he was cursed for his trouble.
582* SinisterScimitar: It's the source of both his powers and his curse.
583* ThemeNaming: All of the Monks of the Four Winds we know of have names after well, winds. Scirocco, Levantera, Borea and (Ice) Mistral.
584%%* TokenGoodTeammate
585* TotalitarianUtilitarian: How he feels about killing Circle of Thorns hosts. It's either some poor possessed shlub or the Mu Mystics he is charged with defending from genocide. Also tries to look at the greater order Arachnos can bring the Rogue Isles in general. He can't do good, but he can help the lesser evil at the very least.
586* WildMassGuessing: InUniverse example, Arbiter Daos believes that Scirocco isn't really cursed at all, but only making excuses because he can't come to terms with his villainy.
587** Though WordOfGod does confirm him to actually be cursed, admittedly, it's a good guess given Scirocco was a [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters a 'Freedom Fighter' mercenary]]. This would also mean Serafina is a JerkAssGenie.
588[[/folder]]
589
590[[folder:Black Scorpion]]
591[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rndr_blackscorpion03.png]]
592
593Former mercenary in a suit of power armor.
594----
595* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: At first it seems Black Scorpion and Silver Mantis are in a purely physical relationship that even ''they'' don't think of as emotional. Finding out Silver Mantis is being tortured outrages Black Scorpion, though--after all, she's ''his'' girl, only ''he'' gets to do that!
596* BadBoss: For the first half of Black Scorpion's Patron arc, the player villain is spending time cleaning up Black Scorpion's messes. However, after you turn on him, he becomes a lot more appreciative of you.
597* BewareMyStingerTail: Not only does he swing it around as a club, he also uses it as an impalement device. For bonus points, he has a laser beam attached.
598* BribeBackfire: Black Scorpion LOVES taking bribes. His response to Crey bribing him for data on Arachnos is to accept the bribe, hand over the data, and then kill his bribers to cover up the fact. Naturally, he keeps the money.
599* TheBrute: Of course. It's even his archetype.
600* ButtMonkey: How his fellow Patrons treat him. It's not exactly undeserved.
601* CorruptCop: Officially, Black Scorpion is the head of Arachnos security, a position he markets to the highest bidder for regular bribes. It's ironic that the ''head of security'' is the one who takes bribes most easily. [[spoiler:But the FridgeBrilliance of this is that Lord Recluse ''knows'' he is taking bribes, but since Black Scorpion is also DumbMuscle, it is child's play to make sure he never gives away anything important. If rivals are trying to bribe your people for info, make sure they are bribing the idiot of the group]].
602* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Played with. By all accounts Black Scorpion was always an S.O.B., it has been floated that this may be his ultimate fate if he keeps replacing his original body for extensions of his suit. The reason he isn't too worried though, is neither he nor anyone else would likely notice the difference, that is assuming it hasn't already happened.
603* DefeatMeansRespect: Unlike the other Patrons, when Black Scorpion is beaten by the player villain, he not only instantly forgives you, he has a magnanimous respect for you. He likes knowing you're just as self-serving as he is and you'll turn on your companions on a dime for the right incentive.
604* DragonWithAnAgenda: Same as all the rest of the Patrons. In Black Scorpion's case, it is to undermine Arachnos security until he is the only one who looks good.
605* DudeWheresMyRespect: Black Scorpion may be one of the four great Patrons of Arachnos, but no one respects him for it, whether it is his boss, peers or even the grunts.
606* DumbMuscle: At least when compared to the other Patrons.
607* EvilVirtues: Though back-stabbing and self-serving he will pull out all the stops to save his right-hand/girlfriend... but that is because she is a masochist, he is a sadist and he considers torturing her equivalent to trying to put the moves on her.
608* HotSkittyOnWailordAction: You can overhear one Arachnos soldier question his cohort as to how the relationship is even possible, considering Black Scorpion’s cyber suit makes him the size of a tank and Silver Mantis is a petite, ultra-sleek cyborg. Disturbingly (or hilariously) enough, the other soldier asks what the first guy thinks the power tools they bought them earlier were for...
609* HugeGuyTinyGirl: He and Silver Mantis are an item.
610* MadeOfIron: Probably literally, too. Good luck whittling past his damage resistances without a psychic.
611* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Ghost Widow is in Arachnos for duty's sake, Scirocco is in Arachnos for honor's sake, and Captain Mako is in Arachnos for power's sake. Black Scorpion is just serving Arachnos for the money... and ForTheEvulz.
612* PsychopathicManchild: Black Scorpion is all about instant gratification and extreme violence towards those that might impede it. He is one of the few canonic villains who is more likely to squee in a battle than to toss up some sick one-liner.
613* PoweredArmor: Stolen from the original inventor.
614* SafeSaneAndConsensual: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. His relationship with Silver Mantis, In spirit their relationship is this, but they’re both super villains, so it actually wouldn’t be safe for normal humans, which is why they both enjoy it, neither one is wholly sane but rest assured the torture sessions they get into during coitus are fully consensual.
615* ScaryScorpions: His suit embodies this animal motif, complete with a stinger tail that houses a plasma cannon.
616* SignedUpForTheDental: Black Scorpion gets free tune-ups and upgrades to his armor from Arachnos.
617[[/folder]]
618
619[[folder:Captain Mako]]
620[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rndr_captainmako03.png]]
621
622A shark-like mutant ex-pirate.
623----
624* BattleTrophy: He wears a necklace made of the teeth of heroes he has killed.
625* BloodKnight: He is a monster and he knows it. He eats people alive for the fun of it.
626* ChildEater: We never actually see him eat children but considering he often kills others by eating them and he killed those kids when he was young it is pretty well implied.
627* DragonWithAnAgenda: Perhaps the most ambitious of the four. Mako has his sights on the the power of the primordial sea-god, Leviathan, so that he can use it to destroy Lord Recluse and become the new king of villains.
628* EatingTheEnemy: He’s a big advocate of eating his foes, sometimes after he’s already killed them, but mostly alive, piece by piece.
629* FreudianExcuse: Mako was sent to an orphanage because his parents were terrified of his mutation, what's more the kids at the orphanage taunted him for being a mutant. He eventually decided he wasn't going to take it anymore and slaughtered them all then ran off. He would not be seen again til years later when he had become a [[RuthlessModernPirates Ruthless Modern Pirate]].
630* ForTheEvulz: If Mako isn't hurting others for his own personal power he is doing just because he feels like it.
631* HeroKiller: His express employment purpose in Arachnos. Robbing banks or stealing [[MacGuffin MacGuffins]] are really only things he does in his off hours, Lord Recluse puts up with his Starscream tendencies almost solely because Mako never "defeats" heroes, he murders them.
632* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Yes, Captain Mako is a shark-like mutant who murders people and eats their flesh, but that isn't due to any sort of feral hormones or shark-like brain; Beneath the surface he is just as human as anyone else -- he's just that crazy.
633* ImAHumanitarian: His preferred method of attack/execution. Very often without provocation.
634* InsaneTrollLogic: Mako deliberately avoids human level logic, and embraces a predatory mindset as a sort of zen state. Being an assassin, this has worked out fantastically well for him.
635* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Mako will occasionally remind you he’s no wild mindless animal but a thinking feeling human, who just looks different… and likes eating people!
636* KnightOfCerebus: Mako does not "defeat" people -- he unambiguously kills them. Furthermore the devs went out of the way to portray Mako less as a comic-book supervillain, than as a slasher murderer who just happened to have superpowers.
637* LeParkour: His secondary pool is Super-Reflexes, making his status as a Stalker, due to just being so fast and fluid before striking, nothing can get a beat on him. Defeated Scrapyard by taking bites out of him then dashing off to regain his momentum and repeating the process 'til Scrapyard was a bloody stump.
638* LightningBruiser: Mako hits hard, and is hard to hit.
639* OneHitKill: The game has a safety measure to ensure battles are never one sided and bosses can not one-hit kill anyone less than five levels difference from them. Mako is the one boss in the game made specifically to ignore that rule!
640* ParentalAbandonment: The reason he wound up in an OrphanageOfFear was his parents abandoned him when they saw he was born a mutant.
641* PsychoForHire: Mako always had a habit of leaving mutilated body parts in his wake -- Lord Recluse considered this a resumé.
642* RuthlessModernPirates: A former one.
643* SharkMan: One of the most ruthless versions of a bipedal shark as his murderous behavior doesn’t come from his mutation, but rather his sociopathy.
644* SlasherSmile: Hard to tell if it is because he is a shark mutant and he looks like this by default or he is just that crazy.
645* SuperPersistentPredator: Land or sea, wilderness or metropolis, hero or villain, alone or in a crowd -- Mako makes a point to strike anywhere and without warning. He has even stalked specific targets across international borders.
646* TheSneakyGuy: More than once, Mako has been stalking a target, waiting for the right moment to strike, only to find out some piece of vital information and need to put the hit on hold to go back and inform Lord Recluse of what he overheard. (In-game this manifests as him having an insanely high evade rate and a stealth aura until he Assassin Strikes).
647%%* ThreateningShark
648* ThePawnsGoFirst: Captain Mako has Barracuda searching for the Coralax cult that seeks to take control of her, if she doesn't come back from an expedition, that would be where he knows to go himself.
649* TheStarscream: He has every intention of taking down Lord Recluse and taking over the Rogue Isles himself once he gets powerful enough. What's more, everyone, including Lord Recluse, knows this. Lord Recluse keeps Mako around half for Mako's skills and half to keep himself on his toes.
650* WhereIWasBornAndRazed: Little Gideon Ray eventually snapped and butchered the rest of his orphanage for tormenting him for being a mutant.
651* WouldHurtAChild: He slaughtered an orphanage as his first defining act of villainy.
652[[/folder]]
653
654The four patrons also each have their own sidekicks: Wretch, Ice Mistral, Silver Mantis and Barracuda.
655
656[[folder:Wretch]]
657All that remains of Ghost Widow's former comrade Paolo Marino, now mutated into a hideous monster.
658----
659* BerserkButton: Do anything that might possibly cause Ghost Widow harm, and the only thing that can stop him is Ghost Widow.
660* HandicappedBadass: He has severe brain damage and appears mentally disabled, he even claims that it hurts to remember things. Because of this, however, he has devoted nearly all of his lucid thoughts to Ghost Widow and keeping her safe.
661* HulkSpeak: Even worse than the namesake. Wretch not only can not form contractions, he frequently struggles to say even simple words and pauses between them often.
662* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: He knows Ghost Widow can not reciprocate his love anymore, even though she wants to. He may have accepted that she can't love him, but he loves her and will do anything to protect her.
663* ThatManIsDead: Wretch tells his sister that she should consider "Paolo Marino" to be dead. He is a shadow of his former self and does not want his existence to weigh on her.
664* GoodScarsEvilScars: Not as much "scars" as "completely mutilated face and body".
665[[/folder]]
666
667[[folder:Ice Mistral]]
668Scirocco's protegé and former member of the Order of the Four Winds.
669----
670* AnIcePerson: She has the power to create Arctic-gale-force-winds.
671* AtLeastIAdmitIt: Her attitude towards working for an AntiVillain, like Scirocco.
672* BloodKnight: Unleashing icy carnage on the public is her version of stress-relief.
673* DeathEqualsRedemption: Sacrifices herself to save Scirocco from Mot. [[spoiler:She gets better when you defeat Mot]].
674* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Give Scirocco one of these to prevent his PsychicAssistedSuicide.
675* MinionShipping: She may resent being restrained by Scirocco sometimes, but she also is nursing deep feelings for him as well.
676* PsychoSupporter: Unless Scirocco specifically orders her otherwise, she will go on full-blown massacres.
677* TakingTheBullet: When Scirocco is about to commit PsychicAssistedSuicide and feed himself to Mot, Ice Mistral sees the only way to snap him out of it is to feed herself to Mot first. It works--Scirocco goes straight from DespairEventHorizon to RoaringRampageOfRevenge in less than a second afterwards.
678[[/folder]]
679
680[[folder:Silver Mantis]]
681Addicted to body modification, Silver Mantis ended up committing crimes to pay for her surgical operations.
682----
683* AggressiveSubmissive: In the field she is sadistic as a constant, but, in her BDSM relationship with Black Scorpion, she is very enthusiastically the submissive.
684* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: It's hard to tell at first if she and Black Scorpion really do love each other or are just sex buddies. However, when going to a possible future where Black Scorpion died, that version of Silver Mantis is willing to help undo her entire future and fade out of existence with it rather than live in a world without him.
685* BloodKnight: An absolute psychopath, drunk on violence.
686%%* BondageIsBad: She started out piercing her ears; ended up trying to take over the world.%%Earrings ain't bondage.
687* CombatSadomasochist: When you fight her, she becomes more turned on the lower you get her health.
688* {{Cyborg}}: Her motivation for her criminal activities is to replace her entire body with metal.
689* HotSkittyOnWailordAction: How does a petite silver-skinned cyborg girl get it on with her cybernetic boyfriend the size of a small truck? Firstly, she's a masochist; secondly, two words: "power tools".
690* MinionShipping: With Black Scorpion. It seems less a case of TrueLove than a case of her just having a sexual fascination for metal.
691* NightmareFetishist: She gets off on bodily mutilation, both hers and other people's.
692* SafeSaneAndConsensual: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. She and Black Scorpion’s relationship. Technically it’s not safe and neither one is quite sane; But as super villains it applies. Each knows the other’s limits so the torture sessions they engage in are actually calculated stable practices. Most importantly it is ''fully'' consensual though.
693%%* SpikesOfVillainy: Her main form of attack.
694* TooKinkyToTorture: This also overlaps with InLoveWithYourCarnage, as when you fight her, she can get rather... ''excited''.
695[[/folder]]
696
697[[folder:Barracuda]]
698Captain Mako's sidekick is a treasure hunter turned Coralax hybrid.
699----
700* FishPeople: Like all Coralax she looks more sea-creature than human now.
701* MeatPuppet: Mako knows she will lose what remains of herself if she gets too close to the Coralax Shapers, and he does not care in the slightest.
702* MoreThanMindControl: The evil she does is induced by one part psychic haze, and one part desperation to overcome said psychic haze.
703* QuestForIdentity: She has next to no memory of who she was before she was transformed into a Coralax. She works for Mako to find out their secrets in hopes of finding clues to her past.
704* TheNotLoveInterest: She is the only villainous sidekick who is not in a relationship with her Patron, likely due to Captain Mako being a sociopath.
705* TragicMonster: She didn't choose to become a Coralax hybrid, and the lore suggests that her cruelty is a product of the transformation.
706* UnwittingPawn: Not quite "unwitting" as much as "desperate enough to ignore the obvious machinations of Captain Mako". She has a psychic connection to the Cult of the Shaper, and Captain Mako is all about exploiting said connection and her desperation to discover her old memories to use her as his bloodhound. He could care less what they do to her when she finds them; he just wants the power of that sleeping god they pray to.
707* WasOnceAMan: She used to be human before the Coralax made her into an anthropomorphic sea monster.
708[[/folder]]
709
710!!Other Arachnos Personnel:
711
712[[folder:Red Widow]]
713The first Arachnos Widow and Lord Recluse's original right-hand/lover.
714----
715* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: She is this to Ghost Widow. As impressive as Ghost Widow's talents are, Red Widow was the one who developed the training, psychic and martial, that all Widow's follow in; Leaving the otherwise peerless Patron in Red Widow's shadow, even after death.
716** The entire Seer Net, which keeps Arachnos functioning as intended was recorded from Red Widow's mind-set, as Ghost Widow is the current admin of the Seer Net, she sees herself as completely in Red Widow's shadow.
717* BattleButler: She was this to Lord Recluse when they first met. She helped him assassinate their boss, transform small a assassin force into a BadassArmy and take-over an island-chain -- demonstrating both administrative and combat value to such a degree, a normally amoral social Darwinist fell in love with her.
718* CameBackWrong: After being initially brought back to life, she is so overcome with bitterness at being trapped in a state of suspended undeath for so long that her first instinct is actually to assassinate Lord Recluse.
719* ChekhovsGunman: She is a side-note on where the Seer-Network came from, why the Circle of Thorns are on Arachnos's Kill-On-Sight list and used as a set-piece in Ghost Widow's Patron-Arch... until the 2012 Valentine's Day Event, in which case she comes-back to life and single-handedly reminds Lord Recluse that there is more to life than hating Statesman.
720* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: To Lord Recluse. Her entire character is demonstrative of this.
721* EvilVirtues: Once returned to normal she manages to soothe Lord Recluse’s heartbreak and temper his rage... by doubling down on the whole World Domination thing.
722* FriendlyAddressPrivileges: As it is no one dares even leave the "Lord" Out of Lord Recluse's name, NPC or player. There are only two exceptions, Statesman, whom he hates anyway, and Red Widow. They are the only ones to call him by his real name, "Stefan".
723* GoneHorriblyRight: Ms. Liberty sends heroes and villains on a quest to restore her to life in order to soften Lord Recluse's heart with ThePowerOfLove. By the end of the arc she does by reminding him of the important things in life, like WORLD DOMINATION!
724* HiveQueen: The Arachnos Seer Network was actually originally based on her mindset.
725** As the game was discontinued shortly after the Valentine's day event that saw her revived, it is anyone's guess if Lord Recluse would have reinstated her as such but it would be very hard to believe she would not be an administrative consultant at the very least.
726* LegacyCharacter: The entire Arachnos Seer network was originally mapped out around her thought patterns.
727* LivingEmotionalCrutch: And how! Lord Recluse was about to wipe-out Paragon City without Statesman to defeat before Red Widow was brought back to life.
728* MoralityPet: Slight subversion in that she is evil too, but after her death and prior to her restoration Lord Recluse views World Domination as secondary to spiting the forces of good. With her around, he is far less ruled by hatred and far more pragmatic, if still utterly ruthless.
729* RedRightHand: Aside from the obvious pun of being a right-hand that dresses in red, her darkened face veins and pupiless eyes will make it painfully clear she is no good guy.
730* SoulJar: She was trapped in one for decades thanks to the Circle of Thorns, Lord Recluse did not take it well.
731* TheLostLenore: To Lord Recluse.
732* UnholyMatrimony: They aren't in fact married but other than that Red Widow and Lord Recluse are pretty much this to a T.
733* WhatEverHappenedToTheMouse: She is mentioned and even spoken to in her soul jar during Ghost Widow's patron-arc to be used by Ghost Widow as leverage but later recovered and given to Lord Recluse then never heard from again...until the 2012 Valentine's Day Event.
734[[/folder]]
735
736[[folder:Dr. Aeon]]
737Governor of Cap au Diable, a mad scientist working for Arachnos. [[DitzyGenius Is a dunce]].
738----
739* ActionPolitician: He’s actually quite proud that he is the only Governor who openly uses doomsday weapons.
740* ArsonMurderAndJayWalking: Aeon has contributed many things to help Arachnos flourish over the forces of good, including time-travel, inter-dimensional transport, a demon-powered generator and... a cheaply made food substitute that he sells to low-income families -- side effects may include premature baldness.
741* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Aeon has turned down Crey, Nemesis and Rikti bribes/poaching attempts purely because Lord Recluse is the only person who ever believed in the potential of his inventions while still in theoretical phase.
742* BunnyEarsLawyer: Aeon's use as an inventor is the only reason Arachnos puts up with his eccentricities.
743* CutLexLuthorACheck: Left to his own devices, Aeon's inventions would only be used for cliche supervillain antics, but on Arachnos payroll he is subject to oversight via Lord Recluse, who is far more pragmatic. Just some examples:
744** Dr. Aeon creates a cheap low-grade food substitute as rations -- Lord Recluse tells him to sell it publicly, marketed to low-income families.
745** Dr. Aeon taps into a demon lord's ancient prison to create an unlimited green energy source -- Lord Recluse has him use it to power a city for profit, instead of fuelling generic doomsday devices.
746** Dr. Aeon invents a full virtual reality simulator -- Countess Crey contacts him and agrees to sponsor it so the two of them can make millions selling it to the public/governments, instead of just keeping it for himself to use for personal training/videogames.
747* FakingTheDead: Everyone knows that notorious MadScientist Dr. Carl Egon was executed by Arachnos after one of his experiments got out of control, the Arachnos-appointed governor of Cap Au Diable told him to stop, and Egon killed him. The subsequent appearance of benevolent genius Dr. ''Aeon'' (with a new face and paperwork) and his appointment as the ''new'' governor of [=CaD=] is [[BlatantLies pure coincidence. Really]].[[note]]Arachnos wasn't about to waste such a valuable, if unstable resource, but also couldn't allow the challenge to their authority of letting someone get away with killing one of their governors, so...[[/note]]
748* DitzyGenius: He has an I.Q. north of 160 at least but has next to no common sense.
749* FoodChainOfEvil: On his own he is a LaughingMad, dangerous scientist who gets off on his own power trip. Woe onto those who dare question the genius and greatness of Dr. Aeon!... Unless we are talking about Lord Recluse, at which point he promptly becomes a sniveling underling.
750* EmperorScientist: Downplayed, but he's the governor of one of the islands of the Rogue Isles, which owes a lot to his inventions. Among other things, the entire island is powered by demon energy that he converted into a green power source.
751* IHatePastMe: It is at least implied that Aeon's nemesis Professor Echo is in fact the future version of himself.
752* IsThisThingStillOn: During the Statesman Task Force.
753%%* JustThinkOfThePotential: Show him an ancient demon god, and he will hook wires up to it to use it as a clean-burning generator. Beat his butt with Incarnate powers from the Well of the Furies and he will produce an artificial knockoff of the Well. Send aliens to attack his city and he will open negotiations with the invaders once defeated to fix up their ships in exchange for samples of their tech.
754* LaughablyEvil: He acts like an eight-year old role-playing as a mad scientist. Kooky, overblown, and clearly having fun with it. He's a [[ChewingTheScenery scenery-gnawing]] LargeHam who rarely passes up an opportunity to [[MilkingTheGiantCow gesticulate dramatically]].
755* MadScientist: Proud to be a stereotype thereof.
756* MayorPain: Bonus points for functioning as both The Wilkins AND the Quimby at the same time. Officially he is governor of Cap Au Diable but in truth, Marshall Brass and Olivia Darque are the ones who put in the actual work keeping the town above water. Aeon is a completely incompetent governor who only uses the office as an excuse to get a paycheck for his mad experiments.
757* ProfessionalButtKisser: Considering how easily [[KlingonPromotion working conditions can change in Arachnos]], Aeon makes a point to grovel, never say "no" and always remain humble whenever Lord Recluse checks in on the projects.
758* SavedByTheAwesome: If his inventions didn't have phenomenal applications for a country of supervillains he would have been executed loooong ago if only for how obnoxious he is.
759* TheyCalledMeMad: In addition to many legitimate science institutions shunning Aeon as insane, former governor of Cap Au Diable, Randall Kirchoff, tried to have Aeon's experiments shut down for accidental deaths ... prompting Aeon to show Randall Kirchoff what a non-accidental death looked like... and that would be why he is the ''former'' governor of Cap Au Diable.
760* VillainWithGoodPublicity: While undeniably mad, Aeon has (allegedly) produced at least some beneficial inventions.
761[[/folder]]
762
763[[folder:Arbiter Daos]]
764The most senior officer of the Arachnos Arbiters. It's his job to attend to high-security issues. Any villain who gets high enough to work for one of the Arachnos Patrons will be contacted by him at some point when they start going too far.
765----
766* BadassBureaucrat: Like all Arachnos Arbiters, Daos is the sort to fill out execution orders in triplicate and can have a supervillain killed on the spot while he is doing his paper-work just by giving his personnel a simple nod.
767* BetrayalInsurance: His main job is to act as this against the Patrons. Whatever Patron the villain player works for they will all eventually turn on Lord Recluse for their own ends; Daos is watching all of them and intercepts the player before the final stage of their plan to recruit you as a company spy and saboteur, It's an AnOfferYouCantRefuse.
768* BoringButPractical: Another thing he has in common with all Arachnos Arbiters. They are not exactly flashy supervillains with diabolical schemes but they fill out the paper-work, send out the pay-checks and do the employee reviews that keep Arachnos functioning.
769* GetOut: [[spoiler:It may have been NothingPersonal, but he has no desire to see you again after you kill his son for him]].
770* GrumpyOldMan: He dislikes nearly everything but Lord Recluse.
771* HonestAdvisor: He isn't afraid to tell Lord Recluse when he notices betrayal in the air among his Patrons or to tell said Patrons to straighten-up and fly right.
772* MauveShirt: An Arachnos soldier who worked his way up through the ranks with impressive levels of both effiency and loyalty. He is only mentioned by name in sensitive Arachnos documents/arcs as a main authority in the orginization but is as good as unknown outside the Rogue Isles. Yet he is still Lord Recluse's confidant.
773* MinoredInAsskicking: A common position for all Arbiters, they are little more than bureaucrats, but they only made it there through exhaustive military service. Daos is a decorated veteran pencil-pusher, with full-body-armor and an assault-team on stand-by.
774* MouthOfSauron: Daos communes the will of Lord Recluse to those too low in rank to receive a direct psychic link to him. Both he and Brass are rather infamous in The Isles as the voices of Lord Recluse, long before met in-person.
775* NothingPersonal: [[spoiler:How he feels about giving the kill order for his son]].
776* NoSenseOfHumor: WordOfGod claims him as the single most humorless man in the Rogue Isles.
777* OffingTheOffspring: Gives out a mission to kill a member of the Malta Operatives, as it turns out said operative was his son. It's NothingPersonal though, said son was a thorn in the side of Arachnos and Daos had a job to do.
778* SergeantRock: Let him down and he will have you executed on the spot. [[spoiler:But he will do the same to his own family]].
779* SophisticatedAsHell: Crosses his T's, dots his I's and gives out kill orders on a regular basis. [[spoiler:Even says please and thank you when he gives you his GetOut moment for killing his son]].
780* TheGenericGuy: Practically the only thing that distinguishes him from the other faceless Arbiters, other than his seniority, is the fact that he takes off his mask so you get to see his face.
781* TheUnfettered: Utterly single-minded in his devotion to Arachnos/Lord Recluse above all else. There are no exceptions to make for doing his job, including crossing his superpowered-professional-killer co-workers [[spoiler:or even his son's life]].
782* WhereDidWeGoWrong: Briefly wonders this [[spoiler:after you kill his son for him]].
783* VetinariJobSecurity: Yet another thing all Arbiters have in common and why they appear so above all the petty place seeking, Arachnos can not do without the policy enforcers.
784[[/folder]]
785
786[[folder:Marshall Blitz]]
787The military commander of the island of [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Warburg]], Blitz was a long-time advocate of using the various missiles stored on Warburg to attack Paragon City. When he found out he was dying of cancer even Arachnos super-science couldn't cure, he poisoned the civilian governor and took over.
788----
789* TheUnseen: Until chapter 3 of the Signature Character Arc, he'd never actually appeared in the game.
790[[/folder]]
791
792!!Hearts of Darkness
793A mysterious villain hosting an illegal contest, with the winner awarded great power. The player is recruited to participate early in the story of ''City of Villains''.
794
795[[folder:Dr. Graves]]
796Todd Graves has lived a life of irony that some might find impossible to bear. A prominent surgeon who had a talent for successful organ transplants, Dr. Graves would contract a flesh-eating virus that attacked his largest organ: his skin. Introducing an DNA-altered strain of the virus to another skin 'organ', he managed to successfully complete the first ever full body skin transplant upon his own person. Additionally, the two viruses wound up counteracting each other, creating another that benignly caused all cells within his body to stop deteriorating. Thus, Dr. Graves managed to discover immortality, albeit at a high cost. Although his cells no longer age and 'die', once damaged, they can no longer be healed, but new parts CAN be transplanted onto his body to 'repair' the cell damage. Shunned by the medical community as a modern-day Frankenstein and Monster, Dr. Graves has fled to the Rogue Isles to continue his research and draw from a supply of never-to-be-missed body parts.
797----
798* TheDragon: To [[spoiler:Dollface]], who keeps him around for his medical expertise and has him host the Hearts of Darkness competion. He's been in their employ for long enough that he can't adequately remember how they originally met, and is fairly sick of it. [[spoiler:Sick enough that he's eventually convinced to help you defeat them.]]
799* SmugSnake: After you win the first round through trickery, Graves spends the rest of the questline eagerly waiting for you to fail -- even going as far as to rig the game -- only to be repeatedly embarrassed when you beat the odds (albeit with the aid of a mysterious benefactor). To add insult to injury, the master of the contest favors you and forces Graves to accept your victories, even when you've been blatantly cheating. [[spoiler:It turns out to have (mostly) been an act: The prize at the end is a trap, the villain has already decided they want you, and Graves is just playing along with a script.]]
800[[/folder]]
801
802[[folder:Zephyr]]
803Zephyr has been around for quite a while, zipping around the skies for generations. Having become rather bored due to the advent of increased navigation technology and sturdier construction material used in buildings, Zephyr has taken a corporeal form recently. Spending time among Paragon City, he would soon move onto the Rogue Isles where he found people were far more willing to destroy things for no good reason. And for Zephyr, that's one heck of a lot of fun.
804----
805* AffablyEvil: He's here to party, chase girls, maybe get in a few fights...and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick sink ships to drown their crews]]. Out of the competitors, he's easily the nicest and most chummy with you, only turning genuinely hostile when you strike a bargain with the Fates to discover his weakness.
806%%* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Of the wind.
807* CompleteImmortality: While not immune to pain (he cries uncle once you've beaten on him a bit in your first fight), he's entirely unkillable. Defeating him for good requires you to sabotage the magical relic that he uses to retain a physical form on the mortal plane.
808* SuperEmpowering: He can apparently give (very weak) superpowers to his followers, a group of Goldbrickers he hires as goons for his battles.
809[[/folder]]
810
811[[folder:Omnicore]]
812Omnicore possesses neither the patience nor the tolerance for anything that does not advance her quest for the perfect weapon. Very little is known about her, which is more due to her being buried in her work and not talking to others than any mysterious or controversial reasons. She has spent years of her life working to create the perfect weapon, incorporating her successes into her armor design incrementally. If you look closely, you might notice that Omnicore is the weapon herself, and her research is integrated into her body... Or, her original body is integrated into her research. It's nearly impossible to tell now.
813----
814* InsufferableGenius: Rants nigh-endlessly about her superior intellect and her thirst for power, and how inferior and dull-witted the player is.
815* MadScientist: A mad robotist, to be exact. Her lairs are full of robotic minions, and robotic duplicates of other characters.
816[[/folder]]
817
818[[folder:Dollface]]
819The least dangerous appearing of all the candidates, Dollface manages to use her looks to her advantage. Everyone involved knows that when the time comes, she'll be the easiest to 'do away with'.
820----
821* AlwaysABiggerFish: [[spoiler:Dollface has been running her body-snatching grift for centuries, but she's ultimately no match for Arachnos, who recruit the player to be their spy early on. As soon as the player and the other Hearts competitors have worn her down at the end of the questline, Mu Mystics swoop in to easily subdue her spectral form and haul her off for study.]]
822* CompellingVoice: Her superpower.
823* BodySurf: [[spoiler:What the entity has been doing for centuries, with some assistance from Dr. Graves to keep its bodies in working order. It carefully selects candidates based on biological compatibility and how easy it would be to masquerade as them without appearing out-of-character.]]
824* TheDogWasTheMastermind: [[spoiler:Dollface, or rather the spectral entity assuming that identity, is the real mastermind behind the Hearts of Darkness, setting up the contest every few decades to find a new host body.]]
825* ObfuscatingStupidity: [[spoiler:Her foolhardy bimbo act as "Dollface" becomes this with the reveal of what she really is.]]
826* ShrineToSelf: Her mansion includes a large full-body portrait of herself, which a few of her brainwashed minions are found worshipping.
827* TooDumbToLive: Without her mind-control powers to lean on, she's completely hopeless.
828** While technically placing first in the race of the first round, it turns out that she neglected to actually hit the victory marker before gloating to her rivals, and the player dupes her into throwing the race by making her think that the prize was a new car waiting for her outside.
829** At one point, she threatens to tell the local Arachnos soldiers that her purse was stolen by the player. The player points out that Arachnos adheres to a SocialDarwinist mindset, and would be more likely to toss her into the ocean for wasting their time.
830[[/folder]]
831
832[[folder:Crosscut]]
833Where he came from, no one knows. Who he is, not even he remembers. What he has planned, only the soon-to-be dead learn. Not much of a conversationalist, Crosscut likes to talk with his blades. And usually, that's the last thing one hears.
834----
835* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: [[spoiler:He joins your attempt to overthrow Dr. Graves on the promise that you would "play" with him, and he's apparently so touched by the gesture that it motivates him to stay on your side when Graves convinces Zephyr and Omnicore to double-cross you.]]
836* SerialKiller: His idea of a "rampage" for the competition is to essentially spawn-camp the Mercy Island hospital so he can abduct people for ColdBloodedTorture, have them be healed, and then do it all again. Late in the questline, you find him having abducted a member of the Skulls and trapped them in a warehouse full of snakemen, as one of his sadistic games.
837[[/folder]]
838
839!!Major Non-Arachnos Villains
840
841[[folder:Nemesis]]
842A master engineer of super-advanced steampunk A.I. whose genius is only rivaled by his ego. He is a master manipulator of the highest levels who has seized Paragon City from behind the scenes and even started wars without those involved ever figuring out his part in them... now if only he was able to pull off even a quarter of that sort of scheme in the Rogue Isles.
843----
844* ActuallyADoombot: You will meet “Nemesis” in hundreds of missions, according to the dev team’s Q&A the real thing was only in two of them, the rest were spare armors on steampunk A.I. autopilot.
845* BadBoss: A truly terrible one, who would kill his human followers on a whim, demand more and more protection money from gangs under his sway and views all human life beside his as expendable, to the point he lost several key gangs to Lord Recluse who built part of his power by poaching Nemesis’s man-power.
846* BigBadEnsemble: After Lord Recluse, Nemesis holds the biggest claim to being the main antagonist of ''City of Heroes'', [[spoiler:serving as the MysteriousBacker of several powerful enemy factions, and even starting the GreatOffscreenWar in the backstory.]]
847* BrainUploading: His ultimate plan to live forever by taking advantage of [[spoiler: the Rikti telepathic network]] once they phone home upon their victory.
848* ComplexityAddiction: His pyramid scheme over the Paragon gangs is truly incredible... but actually exposed as needlessly complicated compared to the Rogue Isles.
849* DarkLordOnLifeSupport: He is more than 150 years old, and been steadily replacing more and more of his body with artificial limbs and organs built into his power-suit. It’s actually gotten so bad he had to steal some nanobots and program them for constant medical attention just to keep from rotting under his own weight.
850* DelayedRippleEffect: [[spoiler:He is experimenting with time travel. It won’t pay off for millions of years, and when it does he will have to go back and fix the changes without fully undoing his actions so he doesn’t become a paradox.]]
851* FauxAffablyEvil: He acts refined and sophisticated; He’s actually a temperamental, egocentric racist.
852* FoodChainOfEvil: In Paragon he is actually [[BigBad the most pressing threat]] and few people even know it; In the Rogue Isles on the other-hand Arachnos routinely see-through and dismantle his schemes -- to the point he has given up on scamming Lord Recluse and just resorting to open invasion... it's not going well for him.
853* FutureFoil: [[spoiler: He is Mender Silos -- head of the Ouroboros time-travel system for players. In the future he has actually grown a sense of responsibility, albeit mostly applied to fixing the various factors he screwed up getting there, not that he tells heroes or villains that.]]
854* IHatePastMe: [[spoiler:He will eventually achieve immortality -- and his experiments into time travel will pay off. Simply put future Nemesis ''hates'' the sort of person he was back when he was still frantically searching for immortality.]]
855* ImmortalitySeeker: Everything he does is motivated by a desire to somehow live forever, and he's pushing 150 by the game's timeframe, [[DarkLordOnLifeSupport held together by his technology]]. [[spoiler:His future self, Mender Silos, demonstrates that he eventually succeeds in finding perfect immortality, having allegedly lived for hundreds of thousands of years.]]
856* InsufferableGenius: Profoundly smug about his schemes, to the point of not only complimenting his own brilliance but programming his robots to stroke his ego.
857* MagicStaff: Not quite magic per say, but Nemesis' favored personal weapon is a [[https://archive.paragonwiki.com/w/images//6/65/Nemesis_Staff.jpg metal staff topped by an intricate arrangement of rotating gears]] capable of projecting bolts of force and [[CarryABigStick being used to bash people]].
858* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:In Paragon City, Nemesis sits at the innermost layer of a Matryoshka doll of villain factions manipulating other villain factions, having orchestrated even the [[GreatOffscreenWar Rikti Invasion]] itself.]]
859* {{Narcissist}}: He is so full of himself he rejects even considering he could lose.
860* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Horribly racist, which, when paired with his status as a BadBoss and egotist means he'll kill people on a whim just for having a skin tone darker than to his liking. In his past, he provided aid to the Confederacy during the Civil War. One mission also explicitly notes that he purposefully tested a doomsday weapon on an alternate dimension Earth whose inhabitants were of primarily African descent, considering them less-than-human because of their skin color.
861* SiblingMurder: [[StartOfDarkness How Nemesis got his start]]. As Gerhardt, his older brother Tobias made the mistake of [[BullyingADragon regularly deriding Gerhardt's inventions as "mere trifles"]], and urged him to [[TooDumbToLive make a new weapon for him using his talents]]. Gerhardt obliged, and created his first true humanoid automaton for his brother to duel on his 40th birthday. The moment Tobias went for his sword, [[CurbStompBattle it proceeded to instantly]] [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impale]] [[CurbStompBattle and then]] [[OffWithHisHead behead him]] [[CurbStompBattle with its own sword]] in front of the rest of his (understandably horrified) family.
862* SignificantAnagram: Snuck in years before it was confirmed in-universe. [[spoiler:"MENDER SILOS" -- "LORD NEMESIS"]]
863* {{Steampunk}}: He deliberately uses steam, windup gears and old school Victorian tech A. So none of his machines can be hacked, and B. Because he just wants to prove he can make advanced A.I.s from pre-electric technology.
864* TheReveal: [[spoiler: 90ish% of the gangs of Paragon reference a MysteriousBacker; The Skulls and Hellions, the Warriors and Family, the Council, Crey and even the Rikti, each is controlled by the next, but at the end of the Rikti War Zone arc we finally see who has actually been setting up all these gangs as he makes his appearance -- Nemesis!]] Also in Ouroboros where [[spoiler:Mender Ramiel confirms the theory that Mender Silos is in fact future Nemesis]].
865* UnknownRival: As far as he is concerned he and Lord Recluse are rivals; As far as Lord Recluse is concerned, he is a hack.
866[[/folder]]
867
868[[folder:Lord of War: Hro'Dtohz]]
869The supreme leader of the Rikti Lineage of War, Lord of War: Hro'dtohz commands all invading Rikti forces. Though not present during the First Rikti War, he arrived through the newly opened portal from the Rikti Homeworld to personally oversee Rikti military actions on Earth during the second conflict.
870----
871* AGodAmI: He's referred to as "War God" on occasion.
872* BloodKnight: Startlingly so compared to most of the traditionaly pacifist Rikti.
873* DarkIsEvil: He's clad in ornate black and gold-trimmed power armor, complete with a [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver red sash and cape]].
874* FourStarBadass: He's not called the "Lord of War" for nothing. He's a deadly Archvillain-tier combatant who generally requires a team to defeat.
875* FromNobodyToNightmare: Hro'Dtohz was once a historian before being chosen to lead the Lineage of War against Earth due to his tactical genius.
876* GeneralRipper: He has absolutely no qualms about continuing the war and wiping out the human race if it meant him keeping his position and reputation secure.
877* LargeAndInCharge: He absolutely ''towers'' above the other Rikti, and wields an [[{{BFS}} equally large sword]].
878* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: A rare example among the Rikti. It's noted that he has a strong (albeit twisted) sense of honor, ambition and a warrior's pride.
879* TheStrategist: He was dubbed a military genius by his peers.
880* UnwittingPawn: To [[spoiler:Nemesis]], who instigated the Rikti War in the first place.
881* YoungerThanTheyLook: He's apparently quite young for someone in his position.
882[[/folder]]
883
884[[folder:Countess Crey]]
885Clarissa Van Dorn, Owner of Crey Biotech, master of P.R., and one of the wealthiest people in the world. She inherited the company from her husband who tragically fell into a coma shortly after marrying her. One surely has nothing to do with the other.
886----
887* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: She has evaded murder, conspiracy, treason and kidnapping charges, but the one thing that actually ends up getting her into legal trouble in the end is the pollution charges of her numerous EPA violations.
888* CorruptCorporateExecutive: To her core.
889* BioAugmentation: She has had her brain augmented to allow her to use PsychicPowers.
890* BlackWidow: Her husband may not be legally dead, but he is in a coma and dead for all intents and purposes, and guess what neurally enhanced individual is psychically keeping him in that state?
891* BitchInSheepsClothing: Very good at turning up the concern in her voice as she denounced those “renegade” division heads, that she had “absolutely nothing” to do with.
892* EvenBadWomenLoveTheirMamas: Her mother is a liability but she refuses to have her killed despite her minions advice on the matter (not that any of them know said woman is her mother).
893* {{Expy}} : She’s totally [[BlatantLies not]] a gender flipped version of Lex Luthor, or an alt universe Mercy Graves who has Luthor as the bodyguard instead, totally; Her lawyers said so.
894%%zce* RichBitch
895* ThatWomanIsDead: She completely rejects her life before becoming Countess of Crey, save perhaps her mother.
896* VillainWithGoodPublicity: She is a master of P.R. both because she owns media outlets and because she has numerous fall-guys to take the heat for any schemes that local heroes expose and/or foil.
897[[/folder]]
898
899[[folder:Lilitu]]
900The goddess of Hell and primary leader of the Circle of Thorns. Summoned by the Circle to defend them from invaders, now with reins over the fates of their souls.
901---
902* DealWithTheDevil: The people of Oranbega offered their souls to her in return for a mighty demonic army capable of saving them from their rivals, the Mu. However, Lilitu demanded the Mu be subject to [[FinalSolution utter genocide]] with no quarter given, which proved unfortunate when various Oranbegan soldiers [[EveryoneHasStandards allowed widows and children to escape]]. As punishment, Lilitu cursed the Oranbegans to linger forever as deathless spirits until they finish what they started; a fate that has driven them all ''thoroughly'' mad over the eons.
903* ElementalBaggage: Her battle style, of both the AnIcePerson and PlayingWithFire variety.
904* EvilMatriarch: She is the mother of Infernal, one of Earth's greatest heroes.
905* EvilIsPetty: She really doesn't need the Mu dead or the Circle cursed, she has accelerated the conflict to genocide solely because she refuses to be summoned for anything less.
906* FinalSolution: When Lilitu is summoned to wipe out an enemy, she will not stop for anything short of complete genocide. The Oranbegans summoned her to destroy the Mu, but [[EveryoneHasStandards couldn't bring themselves to conduct the complete purge she demanded]]. Twelve thousand years later, the Mu's genetic descendants now encompass a whole ''third'' of the world's population, numbering two billion at least, and they would all need to die to satisfy the terms of Lilitu's pact.
907* MindControl: She likes to spam Confuses in between her fire and ice blasts. Luckily the effects are only temporary, but she uses them so much odds are at-least one person on your team will be shooting their friends at any given moment.
908* PhysicalGod: She is one of the only confirmed full-blooded literal gods walking the Earth. The Circle converted to worshiping her over their previous scholar god, Ermeeth, because unlike him she has no problem getting her physical hands dirty.
909* SealedEvilInACan: By the end of Mu’Drahkan’s arc and into Scirocco’s she has been sealed in a can by Arachnos, and they do NOT intend to let her out.
910[[/folder]]
911
912[[folder:The Hamidon]]
913The colossal amoeba-like monstrosity that leads the Devouring Earth. Once a human scientist by the name of Hamidon Pasalima who willfully transformed himself into the monster he is now by a mixture of genetic science and dark magic, it now seeks to completely eradicate humankind and devour the earth.
914----
915* AbhorrentAdmirer: During one of the story arcs surrounding the Devouring Earth, it attempted to capture a woman named Tanya in order to transform her into a [[MotherOfAThousandYoung brood mother]] that could spawn more of the Devoured. Based on the unhinged letter it (somehow) wrote to her, the Hamidon still had some form of a twisted romantic attachment to her left over from when it was still human. [[DownerEnding Unfortunately, it succeeded in its efforts, and Tanya had to be subdued after she was transformed into the afforementioned brood mother creature.]]
916* AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome: The Primal Earth Hamidon has a foothold in some areas, but is kept in check by the efforts of heroes and villains alike. The Praetorian Earth Hamidon, meanwhile, ravaged the entire world long ago and reduced humanity to a single CitadelCity. [[spoiler:Shortly after Tyrant's downfall, [[TheBadGuyWins Hamidon finishes the job and consumes Praetoria]]]].
917* AttackItsWeakPoint: Naturally, being an amoeba, its nucleus is the part of its body that must be destroyed.
918* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:Its Praetorian counterpart consumes the remains of Praetorian Earth after Tyrant's defeat.]]
919* BlobMonster: Its a massive blue ameoba with a central nucleus and mitochondria. To fight it, players will need to dive right into the mass, where Hamidon's attacks can hurt them.
920* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: The Hamidon's Mitochondria come in three different colors depending on their role: [[WhiteMage Mending Mitochondria]] are green; [[GlassCannon Mitochondria Antibodies]] are yellow; and [[StatusInflictionAttack Mitochondria Electrolytes]] are blue.
921* DealWithTheDevil: [[spoiler:Praetorian Hamidon is the chief reason why Emperor Cole became Tyrant, via a secret bargain -- in return for pausing its destruction of the world, Cole was expected to [[HumanityOnTrial prove that humanity wasn't a blight on the earth as Hamidon believed]]. Praetoria's invasion of Primal Earth was due to Cole realizing that [[MovingTheGoalposts Hamidon would use the state of humanity on the other Earth as an excuse to reign on the deal]]. When Hamidon's avatar below First Ward is discovered and attacked by the Resistance, the deal is deemed broken and the Devouring Earth rises to consume Praetoria once and for all.]]
922* DiscOneFinalBoss: At one point, the Hamidon was the penultimate fight in the game. Though new content has come along since then, it remains an extremely challenging world boss battle.
923* EldritchAbomination: Probably the most prominent example in the game. It's a gargantuan amoeba-like monster with god-like powers born of a mixture of science and black magic.
924* EvilutionaryBiologist: What the Hamidon was originally when it was a human.
925* GaiasVengeance: A very, ''very'' twisted version. It seems more intent on solely wiping out humanity than restoring nature in any meaningful way.
926* InfinityPlusOneElement: Hamidon and its mitochondria attack using the unique "electrolytic" element, which the player character has no [[NoSavingThrow defence]] or [[UnblockableAttack resistance]] stat for. Fortunately, a unique inspiration consumable dropped by the monsters guarding Hamidon's lair, named "essence of the earth", provides temporary electrolytic defence and resistance.
927* {{Kaiju}}: The Hamidon is '''massive''' in size and arguably the biggest enemy in the game (Rularuu is taller (barely), but doesn't take up the sheer amount of space that the Hamidon does). [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/paragon/images/f/f3/CoH_Size_Chart.jpg See for yourself!]]
928* MakerOfMonsters: The Hamidon is where all of the Devoured come from, being born of humans (superpowered or otherwise) that the Hamidon has absorbed and transformed.
929* PhysicalGod: WordOfGod states that Hamidon inadvertently tapped into [[EnigmaticEmpoweringEntity the Well of Furies]] when it was created, making it an Incarnate and explaining its vast powers.[[invoked]]
930* TacticalRockPaperScissors: The blue, status-inflicting Mitochondria Electrolytes can only be harmed by ranged attacks, while the yellow Mitochondria Antibodies can only be harmed by melee, forcing the raid group to choose targets depending on their archetypes. Mending Mitochondria can be harmed by any attack, but most raid groups will prefer to send [[TheParalyzer hold]]-capable crowd control archetypes after them, to prevent them from constantly healing the other mitos or Hamidon itself.
931* WasOnceAMan: As mentioned, the Hamidon was once a man named Hamidon Pasalima who [[OneWingedAngel purposefully transformed himself into the monster now known as the Hamidon]].
932* WombLevel: Of a sort. Players need to go into the Hamidon's protoplasm to attack its nucleus, and its Mitochondria serve as its defense mechanism.
933[[/folder]]
934
935[[folder:Vanessa [=DeVore=]/Giovanna Scaldi]]
936Headmistress of the Carnival of Shadows. An extravagant psychic who uses a mask haunted by the ghost of another powerful psychic, Giovanna Scaldi, to enhance her psychic powers, with the goal of turning the world into her garish thralls.
937----
938* AssimilationPlot: She sends her clowns to perform for crowds, sending out hypnotic signals through them to compel the crowds to join the troop, then once their egos are smothered into submission she dresses them up as clowns and repeats the process.
939* BrainwashedAndCrazy: She has been possessed so long she has gone insane under the surface. Her go-to method is to do this to others as well.
940* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: Vanessa gets so addicted to the mental domination that Giovanna introduced her to she can’t bring herself to stop even after being exorcised.
941* FallenHero: Vanessa agreed to a mental fusion with Giovanna in order to get the power to defend earth from the Rikti. After the first time she was injured and had to sap the psyche’s of those she was telepathically coordinating to survive she became addicted to it.
942* MentalFusion: Giovanna Scaldi tried to possess Vanessa when she put on the mask. Vanessa just barely fought it off, so the two eventually decided to work together to take advantage of a doubly psychic brain without having to fight each other for control.
943* MindControl:Both a purveyor and victim of it.
944* MoreThanMindControl: The mask she wears is haunted and possessed her, but even neutralizing the spirit of Giovanna Scaldi, Vanessa has been under her influence long enough to have gotten addicted to the rush of mental domination.
945* MonsterClown: Mentally enslaves others into her wild jovial carnies.
946* SoulEating: The longer someone wears one of her enchanted masks, the more of their identity is syphoned into Giovanna’s mask, until she has completely absorbed their psyche’ and for all intents and purposes swallowed their soul.
947* YourSoulIsMine: She telepathically eats the psyche’s of those she hypnotizes until there is nothing left of the original mind.
948[[/folder]]
949
950[[folder:Reichsman]]
951An alternate version of the Statesman who sided with the Axis Powers during World War II. This Marcus Cole was a rogue and mercenary who was exposed to mustard gas during World War I, and discovered the Well of the Furies during his search for a cure. Adopting the persona of Reichsman, Marcus used his newfound powers to lead the Axis Powers to victory over the United States. When Dr. Webb, the founder of Portal Corp, fell into his clutches and exposed the existance of alternate Earths, Reichsman wasted no time in launching an invasion of Paragon City, only to be thwarted by the Freedom Phalanx and imprisoned.
952----
953* AlternateHistoryNaziVictory: "Axis Earth" is a timeline where the Axis Powers won World War II, and the players briefly visit it to fight some {{Palette Swap}}ped 5th Column mooks called the Amerika Korps.
954* EvilDoppelganger: To the Statesman, hailing from an alternate "Axis Earth" where the Nazis won World War II with his help.
955* MarathonBoss: He has ten times the amount of health a normal archvillain or monster has, exceeding ''200,000!'' On top of this, his combined elemental resistance bonuses are high enough (ranging from 90% to 100% each) to make him [[SuperToughness nearly immune to all forms of damage]] unless players debuff him first.
956* PoweredByAForsakenChild: [[spoiler:He's kidnapped several other alternate Marcus Coles -- including [[TheWorfEffect the Statesman]] -- and hooked them up to a machine to siphon their powers, giving him outright NighInvulnerability. Finding a way to remove this buff so you can fight him takes up a good chunk of the hero task force. The villain strike force, on the other hand, levels the playing field by having the players use the machine on themselves, after duping the Arachnos Patrons into feeding it.]]
957* PuttingOnTheReich: Being a Nazi version of the Statesman, this won't be a surprise. Reichsman wears a red and black military uniform with a cape and peaked cap, with a prominent 5th Column ChestInsignia.
958* SealedEvilInACan: Since his defeat at the hands of the Freedom Phalanx, Reichsman has been kept in a stasis cell underneath their old headquarters in Boomtown. Unfortunately, the 5th Column springs him out.
959[[/folder]]
960
961[[folder:Darrin Wade]]
962A shady mystical contact in Sharkhead Bay, and a former member of the Midnighter Club.
963----
964* AffablyEvil: He is quite friendly and down-to-earth when first met as a contact on Sharkhead Isle.
965* ApocalypseCult: Belongs to one. His last words as a Sharkhead Island contact casually mention he worships [[PlanetEater Rularuu]].
966* ArcVillain: [[spoiler:Of the "Who Will Die?" storyline, where he sets in motion a plan to summon the EldritchAbomination Rularuu.]]
967* BeardOfEvil: Sports an evil goatee. [[spoiler:Even when he becomes the avatar of Rularuu, his new form ''still'' has that goatee.]]
968* BeyondRedemption: The Freedom Phalanx was prepared to set aside Statesman's firm ThouShaltNotKill rule in their final confrontation of him; which is still leagues kinder than what [[ColdBloodedTorture Lord Recluse was planning to do to him]].
969* BullyingTheDragon: Come on Darrin, you killed [[spoiler:the founding member of HeroesRUs and the hate-crush of the BigBad]]. What did you expect to happen?
970* EvilSorcerer: He used to be a member of the Midnight Club but got kicked out for abusing the dark arts. Now he's a trafficker of arcane artifacts in the Rogue Isles.
971* FromNobodyToNightmare: [[spoiler:In the ''Who Will Die?'' arc, he manages to kill the Statesman and steal his Incarnate powers, drive Sister Psyche insane (leading to ''her'' death), and puts in motion a plan to become one with Rularuu and destroy the Earth.]] Not bad for a guy who started out as just another quest contact in the level 20+ range.
972* HeroKiller: [[spoiler:Across the "Who Will Die?" arc, his machinations result in the deaths of the Statesman and Sister Psyche, two of Earth's mightiest heroes. This achivement gets ''[[EnemyMine everyone]]'' chasing after him, including [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou an outraged Lord Recluse]].]]
973* PossessionBurnout: [[spoiler:After the players and Lord Recluse beat Rularuu out of him, he can't do anything but lay face-down in his own drool and grunt while in Vanguard custody.]]
974* PowersViaPossession: [[spoiler:Darrin aims to become a god by becoming the avatar of Rularuu. It works, at least for a little while.]]
975* TransformationOfThePossessed: [[spoiler:When Darrin becomes one with Rularuu, he takes the physical shape of a Rularuu avatar, albiet with his BeardOfEvil still intact.]]
976* WillingChanneler: [[spoiler:His EvilPlan is to become one of these for Rularuu.]]
977[[/folder]]
978
979[[folder:Mot]]
980A [[GodOfEvil god of death, sterility, and hate]] who leads the Banished Pantheon in Dark Astoria. An EldritchAbomination with the [[LaserGuidedAmnesia ability to erase the positive aspects of memories, leaving only resentment and despair]], his ultimate goal is to gain enough power and souls to become invulnerable and [[MemeticMutation you guessed it]], TakeOverTheWorld ("OF COURSE!").
981----
982* ArtifactOfDoom: His idol, which he can use as a focus both for his manifestation on Earth and to inflict his MindRape abilities through.
983* BigBad: For Dark Astoria and the Incarnate arc that takes place there.
984* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Inflicts this fate on Marcus Valerius, turning him into [[TheDragon the Sentinel]].
985* CompellingVoice: Uses it to send people over their DespairEventHorizon and then have feed themselves to him.
986* DespairEventHorizon: What "tenderizes" an individual so he can eat them and gain their soul as a battery for his own powers.
987* EldritchAbomination: Just ''[[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/e/eb/Mot.jpg look at him]]''! Not to mention how he possesses a singular drive to devour everything, consumes the souls of his many, many victims and can only be stopped by the absolute most powerful group of Earth's Defenders to ever live.
988* EmotionEater: Despair and guilt. He can also influence hatred, which is how he got the Talons of Vengeance on his side.
989* EverybodyHatesHades: Averted. He's a villainous god of death, but he's more accurately a god of ''sterility'', the death with no capacity for renewal. And that's not even getting into his capacities as a god of hatred...
990* HateSink: There is nothing likeable about this abhorrent aberration. He takes glee in forcing innocent people to kill themselves before devouring their souls and has his eyes set on devouring the entire world.
991* MindRape: A ''master'' of this. He even tries it on your character!
992* PhysicalGod: Mot has the potential to become one of the most powerful characters in the setting, including the likes of Praetorian Hamidon, or possibly even ''Rularuu'', if what Dream Doctor says about how strong Diabolique will become after stealing his powers is any indication. Late in the storyline, he even becomes strong enough to devour Tielekku, the very same goddess who cast him and the rest of the pantheon out aeons ago. [[note]]That said, [[WorfHadTheFlu Tielekku was well below her A Game]], due to the stress of banishing the pantheon draining her strength. [[/note]]
993* PsychicAssistedSuicide: After he finishes eating the bulk of a person's guilt and sorrow as an appetizer he uses his Compelling Voice to get them to feed themselves to him as a main course.
994* {{Sadist}}: Mot ''clearly'' takes great enjoyment in psychologically breaking all of his victims before he devours them, even when he doesn't need to do so.
995* VoiceOfTheLegion: [=RANdomLY=] cAPitAlizEs HIS teXT.
996* YourSoulIsMine: If he devours an individual, he gains their soul to draw on for power. [[spoiler:Ultimately proves his undoing, as said partly-digested souls still exist inside him and help you to finally kill him]].
997[[/folder]]
998
999!Vigilantes
1000
1001[[folder:Maelstrom]]
1002A former hero who defected to Praetoria after being captured, Eddie Polstra is willing to go to any lengths to protect his utopian new home from the chaos of Primal Earth.
1003----
1004* HeroWithAnFInGood: Fitting with how Vigilantes are supposed to be {{Knight Templar}}s at best, Maelstorm was never a pleasant person and was prone to unearned brutality. Emperor Cole just played to his ego.
1005* OverratedAndUnderleveled: For everything everyone trumps him up to be, most players tend to tear him apart with very little trouble [[TookALevelInBadass outside his Incarnate Trial]]. His dual pistols might as well be a pair of Nerf Mavericks.
1006* TookALevelInBadass: Clearly had an upgrade to his cybernetics before you encounter him as a boss in the Incarnate Trials.
1007[[/folder]]
1008
1009!Rogues
1010
1011[[folder:Desdemona]]
1012* AnAdventurerIsYou: She's a Mastermind MookMaker, and the first heroic demon summoner.
1013* CharacterDevelopment: Starts off a cackling CardCarryingVillain, but it's not long into her levels before the [[BeneathTheMask facade]] cracks [[PunchClockVillain and she admits she was always more of a Rogue]] before outright becoming Heroic at the highest levels.
1014* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: An interesting, border-line [[InvertedTrope inversion]] which is touched on in the main page but will be elaborated here: While she can summon her pets fully upgraded, something PC Master Minds cannot do until level 32, she lacks her two-second tier pets (which a player can skip but it is not advised given that the second tier pets are often very strong in most MM sets, especially demon summoning), and can only summon two of her first tier pets, something that is IMPOSSIBLE for Master Minds who took their first tier pet to not achieve, even at the level you first encounter.
1015* HeelFaceTurn: She starts as a villain, but at higher levels she progresses to rogue and, presumably, full hero.
1016* MsFanservice: She was given the MostCommonSuperPower, OfCorsetsSexy, SexyBacklessOutfit, is HellBentForLeather, and is TroubledButCute. A few people have noted that she seems modeled after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII era pinup girls as well.
1017* PunchClockVillain: Mostly became a supervillain thanks to her [[DaddysLittleVillain parents]] forcing her into it - she barely did more than rob banks and invoke property damage, with Statesman [[PetTheDog saving her]] convincing her to finally burn her ties to Arachnos, becoming a Rogue and then and outright Hero.
1018* WhipOfDominance: As the [[SummonMagic demon summoner]] NPC, she wields the [[ElementalWeapon hellfire whip]] that is associated with the class, whose powerset involves [[TheMinionMaster summoning and controlling Demonlings]]. And she just so happens to have a seductive and domineering personality and be DressedLikeADominatrix.
1019[[/folder]]
1020
1021!Praetorians: Grey and Grey Morality
1022
1023[[folder:Emperor Cole, aka Tyrant]]
1024[[quoteright:301:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tyrant_6.png]]
1025
1026The [[VillainWithGoodPublicity beloved saviour of the world]], who fought off Hamidon and created the utopian paradise of Praetoria. With the aid of his chosen Praetors, who rules the world with justice, protecting his subjects from the chaos elsewhere. He is increasingly disturbed by the threats that other realities pose to his paradise.
1027
1028The near-blasphemous nickname of Tyrant is one given to him by the deranged anarchists of the so-called Resistance.
1029----
1030* ActionPolitician: Whatever else he is, Tyrant is ready to personally punch national threats in the face.
1031* ArmoredVillainsUnarmoredHeroes: While still largely decorative, Tyrant noticably wears much more armor than his heroic Primal Earth counterpart, the Statesman.
1032* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: Not originally, but he developed this after a few years as emperor.
1033* BecomingTheMask: Cole became emperor through shrewd and pragmatic tactics such as [[spoiler:negotiating a truce with Hamidon]] and hiring a fair number of psychos, yet endeared himself to the masses by selling himself as force of good and a way of righting all the world's wrongs. He has since clearly swallowed his own hype... or at least he does until Lord Recluse [[BreakTheHaughty breaks his facade]].
1034* BeneathTheMask: He looks like a responsible, if shrewd, ruler doing anything and everything for the public-good; Ultimately given a chance to protect, spare and do right by them at the cost of his rule over them, he refuses -- at that point confirming his power and position is all that ever matter to him. He suffers a major identity crisis confronted with the fact his mask was not the true him.
1035* BewareTheSuperman: He declared himself Emperor after he ended the Hamidon War in order to keep the public safe where past governments could not, the grizzly details of what happened to the remaining governments officials who opposed the idea is glossed over by Praetoria propaganda.
1036* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: The MMO content version, to Lord Recluse. Lord Recluse openly identifies as a villain, Tyrant is trying to look noble; Lord Recluse runs a cruel but fair Darwinian meritocracy, Tyrant runs a seemingly utopian facist hierarchy; Lord Recluse considers assassination attempts and violent rebellion [[EnemiesEqualsGreatness tests of merit for him as a ruler]], Tyrant sends out secret police for [[CantTakeCriticism anyone who so much as bad mouths him]]; Lord Recluse is an evil BenevolentBoss, Tyrant is, well, a ''tyrant'' with delusions of heroics; And finally harming innocent tax-paying civilians is [[EvenEvilHasStandards one of the very few things]] Lord Recluse considers a crime and will violently punish, meanwhile Tyrant will sacrifice any of his people he needs to in order to maintain his own power.
1037* DealWithTheDevil: [[spoiler: He didn't actually defeat Hamidon, but instead negotiated a cease-fire. Hamidon would pretend Cole beat him and fall back, while Cole would strive to prove that humanity is not the scourge on the planet that Hamidon believed it to be. The totalitarian hell of Praetoria is the result of that effort, and it successfully appeased Hamidon for years. Unfortunately, [[MovingTheGoalposts the humanity of Primal Earth also counted under the terms of the deal]], leading to the Praetorians under Cole launching their campaign against Paragon City. When Cole's regime finally breaks down -- and worse, the avatar of Hamidon comes under attack by the Resistance -- the deal is off and the Devouring Earth consumes Praetoria.]]
1038* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: Literally. He has been drinking deep of the Well of the Furies for so long he has become oblivious to the concept of empathy without even realizing it. It legitimately does not occur to him that he is hurting anyone.
1039* EngineeredHeroics: He very often arranges these for his Praetors to re-enforce reliance on them; [[spoiler: The biggest example of this is his supposed victory over Hamidon that started the entire Praetorian society -- Cole actually couldn't beat him and opted to make a deal with Hamidon, who took a figurative dive and retreated.]]
1040* EvilDoppelganger: To the Statesman of Primal Earth.
1041* EvilCounterpart: Of both Statesmen ''and'' Lord Recluse. He is the alternate reality version of Statesman but is [[spoiler: vested with the Incarnation of Tartarus]] like Lord Recluse; Statesman and Lord Recluse both have ethics/principles, if Tyrant ever had any, he has long since sold them out to maintain his power.
1042* FakeUltimateHero: He tries very, very hard to be the real thing -- he comes up short -- A. Due to being out of his weight-class against Hamidon and B. Because ultimately he sold out his virtues.
1043* FallenHero: Having seen the worst of humanity, he believes that the people must be ruled with strength for their own good.
1044* FauxAffablyEvil: To the point he is in denial of the “evil” part. But when push comes to shove, courtesy of Arachnos, he opts to preserve his power over doing right by his people.
1045* GodzillaThreshold: Both is willing to cross it to beat Lord Recluse and becomes it for the players in their fight against him. When Tyrant fights Incarnate powers are hot!
1046%%* HeWhoFightsMonsters: In his mind he did what he had to do to keep the people safe from Hamidon, which ended up being creating a completely corrupt oppressive society.
1047* HeelRealization: He eventually does get one but by then it's too late and he [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope goes completely off the deep-end]], willing to go as far as to burn Praetoria to the ground by unleashing his true power.
1048* {{Hypocrite}}: Despite talking about the worst elements of humanity, a number of his chosen Praetors are exemplars of these very traits.
1049* IDidWhatIHadToDo: He keeps this mindset through-out the entire Praetorian story-line. Though he finally has a HeelRealization eventually when [[VillainsNeverLie Lord Recluse lays it out for him]].
1050* ItsAllAboutMe: He genuinely thinks the world couldn't exist without him.
1051* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: His torching of Praetoria after confronting Lord Recluse would appear to be this, but the whole point of Lord Recluse’s ReasonYouSuckSpeech is that Emperor Cole actually crossed a moral line looooooong ago and was just lying to himself.
1052* MyGirlIsNotASlut: Emperor Cole knows that those rumors about his precious little granddaughter are just Resistance propaganda. All the men who claim she was controlling them via sexual advances are just perverts projecting onto her... and the leather outfit she wears is just a fashion statement... And that whip she uses is just her weapon of choice... Surely.
1053* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: When Lord Recluse [[VillainHasAPoint points out]] that no matter how much he has been telling himself it was for the people, they were now rooting for a CardCarryingVillain like him to overthrow Cole. Of course Tyrant still proceeds to CurbStompBattle the entire Arachnos detachment, but considering the state he is in when the players reach him... [[BreakTheHaughty It clearly got to him]].
1054* NotSoStoic: Word passed down from him and all his appearances in Praetoria paint him as a pensive, wise, if troubled ruler who makes hard choices for his people.... NOPE! Lord Recluse puts him on the spot to the point he could completely spare his people as long as Cole just steps down. Cole refuses and confronted with no more excuses for "hard choices" he goes into a blood-rage at the lose of justification for his actions.
1055* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist:He plays the WellIntentionedExtremist role pretty consistently but between the Praetorian Loyalist arcs, The First Ward arc and the Incarnate trials we see the façade crack; Brought to a head with his personal story mission where Lord Recluse confronts him with assurances that A) they are both bad guys, Lord Recluse just embraces it where Cole hides it, B) the public hates Cole now that his duplicity has been revealed and are cheering Arachnos on to overthrow him, and C) Cole has no more excuses to fight for the people just his own power... and Cole decides to fight, utterly shattering his own internalized self-righteous delusion.
1056* ObliviouslyEvil: He is blind to most of his Praetors’ corruption and views his rule as making the best of a bad situation after the Hamidon War. Ultimately subverted when Lord Recluse forced him to come to terms with who he has become and Cole keeps fighting -- his people openly rejecting him at that point.
1057* PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny: He is quite fittingly nicknamed "Tyrant" by his detractors no matter what he wants to believe about doing it all for the people. Without Mother Mayhem to keep them all psychically pacified, the people of Praetora were actually [[RootingForTheEmpire cheering on Arachnos]].
1058* SanitySlippage: Only slight, but robbed of his preferred identity as a noble ruler he starts suffering a mental-break-down.
1059* SlaveToPR: Given the choice between doing good and looking good, he will pick 'looking good' every single time.
1060* ThatManIsDead: He is on the receiving end of this; Lord Recluse refuses to acknowledge him as ‘Marcus Cole’. As far as Lord Recluse is concerned, if Tyrant ever was like Statesman, that part of him died when he decided to sell out his values to become a puppet of The Well.
1061* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Developer notes show Tyrant was going to be offered a chance to return by [[spoiler:pretending to be Statesman back from the dead under mysterious circumstances, acting as a rallying cry for the final Incarnate trial against the 'Coming Storm'. Only to be exposed after as a fake, but by then having still made the difference in helping drive it back]]. Alas the game was shut down, while still in the brain-storming phase for the particulars of the final Incarnate Trial.
1062* VillainousBSOD: To say Lord Recluse shattered his resolve is to put it charitably. Cole's concept of "For the greater good" is completely dismantled as a justification to indulge in a complete power trip and he goes into a blind rage in the end.
1063[[/folder]]
1064
1065!!Loyalists
1066The Loyalists are those who are loyal to Emperor Cole, the ruler of Praetoria. They see themselves as the next hope for humanity, and work to help humanity recover from its war with the [[AnimalWrongsGroup Devouring Earth]] after the Hamidon Wars. They are lead by a group of Praetors, supers who have distinguished themselves above and beyond even the elite of the mainline. Founded after the UN gave Cole full power post-Hamidon Wars, the Loyalists seek to create a perfect Utopia, but often at a [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans cost]].
1067
1068!!![[IDidWhatIHadToDo Responsibility Loyalists]]
1069* Loyalists who actually care about the people under Cole's regime, seeing it as a duty to do so, seeing that upholding the law is more important than gaining personal power, often directly taking on threats to the peace. To them, typically, power and prestige is just them earning their place by taking on the duties neccesary to maintain their Utopia, and greater responsibility.
1070
1071In general, these Tropes are found:
1072
1073* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Quite a few; Chief Interrogator Washington, the first contact, is very reasonable and is honestly dedicated to his job. Provost Marchand also shows signs of it; [[spoiler:When it is discovered Emperor Cole intends to lead an army to wipe out Primal Earth's superheroes, he is aghast and seeks to find a way to end the bloodshed before it happens]]. Doesn't mean he won't threaten you with kill-on-sight treason when you [[spoiler:as an undercover agent, help the Crusaders steal a bomb, intending to plant it in a crowded area]]. It's standard territory for them.
1074* ShootTheDog: Comes up quite often; [[spoiler:killing [[TheMole Cleo]][[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Patra]], arresting [[DeadlyDoctor Dr. Steffard]]]], really, the whole storyline is the tragedy of what must be done to [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans "preserve the peace"]].
1075
1076[[folder:Chief Interrogator Washington]]
1077First contact of the Responsibility storyline; you help him face off with the Syndicate.
1078----
1079* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Either he or [[spoiler:Cleopatra]] will be victim of this at the culmination of the first Responsibility arc. The players have to decide who.
1080* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: In spades; he listens to you, assists you when possible, and when you get ambushed by a trap set by [[spoiler:Cleopatra]], he [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome offscreenly]] lowered the number of enemies who'd be ambushing you, taking on a considerable number of Resistance soldiers in the process.
1081* ShootTheDog: Killing [[spoiler: Cleopatra]], because she was a mole.
1082[[/folder]]
1083
1084[[folder:Cleopatra]]
1085Praetor White's wife and your second contact in the Responsibility storyline who employs you to prevent a group of Crusaders from bombing a hospital. [[spoiler:It turns out she is also a Resistance mole, who had used the player to rein in the aforementioned Crusaders]].
1086----
1087* BlackDudeDiesFirst: When you [[spoiler:confront her with Washington, one of the two are not making it out of the office alive]]. The player has to decide who will be the recipient and then do the deed.
1088* DefiantToTheEnd: Regardless of the player's affiliation or [[spoiler:the reasons the Resistance player might kill her]], she will fight to the death.
1089* SassyBlackWoman: A lighthearted version of this which shows up when Marauder has you deliver flowers to her. Depending on how you go about it, she can either have a heck of a laugh or get ticked off.
1090* ShootTheDog: Potentially on the receiving end [[spoiler:once her affiliation is revealed. Even more so if you are a Resistance character, as you are ''ordered'' to do it. You can, of course, refuse to do so]].
1091* ShootTheMessenger: Subverted; if you end up infuriating her when delivering flowers to her on Marauder's behalf, she'll make it clear that her fury is aimed at the man who sent you. She'll even apologize for you having been put through this whole mess.
1092* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: She makes a point of identifying the difference between Wardens and Crusaders when you investigate the latter's efforts to bomb hospitals.
1093[[/folder]]
1094
1095[[folder:Praetor Tilman, aka Mother, aka Mother Mayhem]]
1096Mother Mayhem is the penultimate Responsibility contact. A strong psychic, she is the leader of the Seers and leading light in re-educating those misguided members of the civilian population who think inappropriate thoughts.
1097----
1098* AssimilationPlot: The people of Praetoria are her beloved children. Children that cannot behave, ''will'' behave, with her ''loving'' guidance.
1099* BodySurf: How she cheats death, just like her Primal Earth counterpart--although unlike Sister Psyche, she is far less conservative with this ability. Upon freeing the possessed Penelope Yin and then Aurora, the players must deal with Mother Mayhem possessing Malaise as a back-up body and then go to an aspect of the Well of the Furies itself to keep her from surfing to the next poor enthralled PeoplePuppet.
1100* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Aurora is brainwashed, and Mother is crazy.
1101* DeaderThanDead: In order to prevent her from continuing to cheat death via possession of one of the many other people under her thrall in the Praetorian Seer Network, the players actually need to dismantle the network, trapping her spirit/mind as part of an out-of-date psychic wavelength with no other users to interact with.
1102* DesperatelyCravesAffection: Like, on a psychic level. She [[MetaphysicalFuel draws strength]] from being loved and is addicted to the feeling.
1103* EmotionEater:She essentially eats the concept of love.
1104* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: She legitimately loves the people of Praetoria as her "children". In fact, stretching her attention that wide is what has rendered her mentally unstable.
1105* EvilDoppelganger: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]: To Primal Earth's Aurora Borealis, but in fact she is the Praetorian version of Sister Psyche's -- she just looks like an Evil Aurora because Evil Psyche' has taken over and stayed inside that Aurora's body.
1106* FunctionalAddict: To adoration. The more people she is adored by the stronger she gets, and the stronger she gets the more people she hypnotizes into adoring her.
1107* GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul: Her primary method of "helping" the people of Praetoria.
1108* HydePlaysJekyll: Inverted. Occasionally it isn't Mother who's talking, it's Aurora, but since Aurora is not only possessed, but also hypnotized, even when she is speaking she is still speaking for Mother. And since Mother speaks in the third person it makes it very very trippy to try to account for Aurora chiming in.
1109* HiveQueen: She psychically lobotomizes troublemakers, plants a mental copy of herself in their heads, and then commands them all in unison. Her version of the Seer Network is one giant psychic thrall army.
1110* IDidWhatIHadToDo: She genuinely believes that subverting the free will of the entire populace is the most efficient way to prevent crime. The bitter pill is she's technically correct -- it ''is'' efficient.
1111* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Just prior to the Incarnate Trials she opts to surrender to Primal Earth so that they don't invade and get her precious, precious 'children' hurt in the crossfire. Cole hears about it and immediately flies off to stop her by offering her a sip of the Well of the Furies, which both gives her Incarnate-levels and [[TheCorruption reprioritizes]] her need to keep being Mother-To-All above her worries for her 'kids'.
1112* LoveMakesYouEvil: She only started going mad due to having to psychically manage an entire society -- which she did because she legitimately loves the people as if they were her family.
1113* MindRape: Strongly implied to be how she "helps" people.
1114* MoodSwinger: She can go from doting mother, to rampaging nut-job, to hungry hive-mind, and right back to worried mom in 3 seconds flat! And frequently does.
1115* MyBelovedSmother: She sees herself as foster mother to those brought in for "reeducation”". She is so obsessed with "correcting their behavior" that most of them emerge as semi-mindless zombies.
1116* ObliviouslyEvil: Even more so than Cole. She and Marauder are the only two 100% honest, caring Praetors... however, unlike Marauder, Mother is completely delusional and legitimately cannot tell the difference between rehabilitation and MindRape--making her possibly the most dangerous oppressive of all.
1117* ParentalSubstitute: Before the Resistance added the “Mayhem” she was just called “Mother” - a name she picked herself as she took in all the Hamidon War orphans as foster children. Needing to use telepathy to provide hundreds of traumatized orphans therapy is what first started pushing the boundaries of her sanity.
1118* PsychoPsychologist: She is warden of mental health, overseer of a mental hospital and easily the most mentally unstable Praetor--prone to talking to herself, experiencing delusions, and developing manic obsessions with her patients/"children".
1119* PowersViaPossession: After her first physical death, her understudy willingly absorbed her psyche. The two are now inseparable.
1120* ReluctantPsycho: For an extra-bit of heartbreak, once Aurora is finally free she says she thinks Mother knew something was wrong with her but channeled that self-doubt into Aurora's mind so they'd be repressed and not get in the way of what she 'had to do'.
1121* SanitySlippage: She was always a bit ''off'', having a second person in her head (or ''being'' the second person in someone else's head), but she goes full psychopath once Emperor Cole gives her the Well of the Furies to drink from.
1122* SheepInSheepsClothing: Her brainwashed minions representing her will with zombie-like loyalty gives this impression, however once you meet and work for her, it's very clear she legitimately cares for the people of Praetoria and it's not an act; That said, she still views mentally dominating people as just giving them a helping hands, so in this case the damage she does is due to being delusional, not secretly evil.
1123* TermsOfEndangerment: She refers to everyone other than her fellow Praetors as her "beloved children". She is effectively using the term "children" as a metaphor for slavery, though, as she turns--or intends to turn--everyone she meets into a faithful psychic thrall.
1124* ThirdPersonPerson: Justified in that Aurora chimes in to refer to her possessor as a separate person, which she technically is, but since both women are in the same body and the original owner is not only possessed but also BrainwashedAndCrazy, it gets a tad confusing who is talking.
1125* TheDragon: Officially she is of equal rank with all the other Praetors, but she is clearly Cole's right-hand woman due to the services she provides. See VetinariJobSecurity.
1126* TheDreaded: Her stewardship of the Mother of Mercy Mental Hospital is the stuff that Resistance horror stories are made of.
1127* TragicMonster: She starts out as a heroine trying to take responsibility for others, she starts to crack under the pressure and becomes mentally unstable but still obsessively focused on protecting the people, but then Cole gives her a sip from the Well of the Furies and she ends up as a power-mad psychic slave-driver. She pseudo-dies in this state with no-redemption and hated by the very people she was trying to help at first.
1128* VetinariJobSecurity: All her fellow Praetors consider her mentally unstable, but without her to keep the public mind-controlled, they would have a ZeroPercentApprovalRating, so no matter what, they need to keep her around.
1129* WardensAreEvil: PlayedWith: Mother is the warden of the Mother of Mercy Mental Hospital. While she is one of the few Praetors who genuinely wants to help people, she is also legitimately insane and ends up doing some phenomenally evil things, just in her capacity as a asylum warden. Such as possessing people, mentally breaking people down, trying to convince sane people they are sick and need to submit to her for treatment, [[spoiler:and, oh yeah, cutting out people's emotions/personalities, leaving the minds and bodies as shells while the disembodied remnants of the psyches are expelled and instinctively look for new brains to possess to become whole again. It is left ambiguous if she even knows that last one happens as a result of her psychic surgeries]].
1130* WellIntentionedExtremist: She loves the people of Praetoria and is proud to help unstable psychics earn their place in society as Seers.
1131* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: Once Emperor Cole gives her a sip from the Well of the Furies to turn her into an Incarnate like him, she can psychically possess the entire populace at once... but also goes from somewhat mentally unstable to stark raving bonkers.
1132[[/folder]]
1133
1134[[folder:Praetor White, aka Marauder]]
1135The Head of security for Praetoria, head of homeland security for Emperor Cole and the Praetorian version of Back-Alley Brawler.
1136----
1137* AlwaysGetsHisMan: Takes pride in it to the point of obsession.
1138* BadAssNormal: Like his Primal Earth counterpart.
1139%%* CoolShades
1140* EvilDoppelganger: Of Primal Earth's Back-Alley Brawler. [[spoiler:Subverted after the war ends, where Marauder cleans up his act and becomes a superhero in Paragon.]]
1141* FairWeatherMentor: [[spoiler:His old gang, the Destroyers. The Praetorian government gave them all some psychotropic super-drugs that make them predisposed towards destruction, destruction which White is often tasked with stopping. Thus re-enforcing the Praetorian Defense Force's usefulness to the public]].
1142* GoateeOfEvil: Made funnier by the fact that he is an evil-alternate-universe version of one of the main heroes.
1143* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:After the fall of Cole's regime, Marauder (burned out from a flawed super-seurum) is rescued by Provost Marchand and becomes a mole for the good guys within the Council, until they restore his powers. After that, White joins the New Praetorians, a super team of heroic mirror-verse characters intended to help smooth over tensions between Primal Earth's people and the influx of refugees from Praetorian Earth. As a former praetor, though, White is keenly aware that one bad move could see him shipped off to the Zig.]]
1144* {{Irony}}: The TokenMinority Praetor who wears black from head to toe is frequently addressed just by his last name "White".
1145* MadeOfIron: By far the strudiest Praetorian outside of perhaps Emperor Cole himself.
1146* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He may be working for an oppressive regime but he is completely honest and devoted to keeping the citizenry safe from terrorism.
1147* {{Retcon}}: Originally, the name Marauder came from the fact that he was a bloodthirsty thug who followed Tyrant only because it gave him the opportunity to fight and kill. After the release of the Going Rogue expansion, White is a rough man with a heart of gold who genuinely wants to protect the weak, and the name Marauder is from his unsavoury past as a WastelandWarlord before the rise of Praetoria (which he now deeply regrets).
1148* SinkOrSwimMentor: If the player joins the loyalists their first real contact is White, who imposes a very Darwinian set of standards on them by sending them straight into danger to bring out the best in them.
1149* TokenGoodTeammate: Not only is he a member of the Loyalist faction of the story-line (meaning he is in it entirely for the good of the people), he is also the only Praetor who does not go nuts after Cole make him an Incarnate. [[spoiler:Predictably, he pulls a HeelFaceTurn after the war, joining the "New Praetorians" superhero team.]]
1150* TokenMinority: Sort of, if we don't count Mother Mayhem, who isn't actually black as much as possessing a black-woman.
1151* WastelandWarlord: He led a ruthless clan of bandits in the days between the desolation of Earth and the founding of Praetoria. His monicker "Marauder" comes from those days.
1152[[/folder]]
1153
1154[[folder:Praetor Keyes, aka Anti-Matter]]
1155Keeper of Praetoria's power systems.
1156----
1157* EvilDoppelganger: Of Primal Earth's Positron.
1158%%* GadgeteerGenius
1159* GoneHorriblyWrong: Killed his research assistant and stole his design for the Clockwork as his own... but in so doing created a GhostInTheMachine of the man, who can possess any of the machine guards based on that original design, namely, all of them.
1160* JerkAssWoobie: He has had nearly every invention he has ever made stolen by Praetor Berry, but he can't prove any of it and every-time he tries Berry just works it against him to discredit him even more. As a result he has become quite misanthropic.
1161%%* PoisonousPerson
1162%%* PoweredArmor
1163* ReassignedToAntarctica: Thanks to some savvy work by Praetor Berry, Keyes was exiled to the nuclear reactor outside of town Officially it is because his consummate attention is needed to keep the plant in working order. Unofficially it was both for trying to stir up trouble in the ranks (by calling Berry out on stealing his inventions) and because he is WalkingWasteland with an inferiority complex.
1164* WalkingWasteland: He is kept at the Power-plant 24/7 partly due to this, but also partly due to being discredited numerous times by Praetor Berry.
1165* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: He is not above taking credit for other people's work himself. Killed the Metronome, and claimed the design for the Clockwork as his own, one of the few things that has given him actual prestige.
1166[[/folder]]
1167
1168!!![[GloryHound Power Loyalists]]
1169* Power hounds who are fully willing to abuse the law to gain personal power, spending more time working to get ahead of each other than fighting threats such as [[LaResistance The Resistance]]. Many also play in media manipulation, seeking to gain ahead of each other. Not afraid to play dirty to gain power either.
1170
1171In general, these tropes are found in their ranks:
1172----
1173* GloryHound: Their entire story in two words.
1174* VillainWithGoodPublicity: While it applies to the Loyalists as a whole baring certain Responsibility members, Power Loyalists are explicitly using the media to bolster their own ends.
1175
1176Characterwise, however:
1177
1178[[folder:Praetor Sinclair, aka Chimera]]
1179The ruthless chief assassin of Emperor Cole, Sinclair lurks in the shadows and does whatever it takes to keep Praetoria safe. By contrast to his Primal counterpart Manticore, Chimera happily became the apprentice of his parents' murderer.
1180----
1181* BloodKnight: As Emperor Cole's personal assassin he gets paid well and given much prestige to eliminate high level threats. But truth is all he wants is a target and an excuse to kill.
1182%%* ColdSniper
1183%%* ControlFreak
1184* EvilDoppelganger: Of Primal Earth's Manticore.
1185* PlausibleDeniability: Chimera acts as this to Emperor Cole. It is well known how Chimera takes care of problems. Emperor Cole tells him of these problems without telling him specifically what to do, he receives orders without them being "official" orders.
1186%%* ProfessionalKiller: For the Emperor no less.
1187* RaisedByOrcs: In Praetoria, The supervillain who killed his parents abducted young Justin and raised him as his protégé.
1188* ShootTheDog: His job description is built around these sort of situations, and he loves his job. Chimera ends up doing this to the Praetorian versions of [[spoiler:Paulo Marino]] naturally the since the Praetorian version of [[spoiler:Ghost Widow]] is both his lover and head of LaResistance she does not take it very well.
1189* StealthExpert: Through a combination of an InvisibilityCloak device and just being the TheSneakyGuy.
1190* TriggerHappy: Tends to reach for his bow to resolve any and all disputes.
1191* VetinariJobSecurity: Emperor Cole has a strong dislike of him for being a BloodKnight, but he is remarkably efficient.
1192[[/folder]]
1193
1194[[folder:Praetor Berry, aka Neuron]]
1195Head of scientific advancement for Praetoria and rival with Anti-Matter.
1196----
1197* CardCarryingVillain: He is as petty as they come and quite devious, barely making an excuse for his various acts of malice.
1198%%* DatingCatWoman: Both a figurative and literal example.
1199%%* EvilDoppelganger: Of Primal Earth's Synapse.
1200* FalseFriend: To his fellow Praetors. He lays on the charm when the others are around but it is all for power and influence.
1201* GeniusDitz: He may be a profound genius but he is also a massive scatterbrain.
1202%%* GladIThoughtOfIt
1203* ItsAllAboutMe: When his doppelganger of Emperor Cole goes kill crazy he flies into a panic, oh not for the people that are killed due to his creation or even how it will undermined Emperor Cole. No, he freaks-out because this will surely put him in bad standing with Emperor Cole when he finds out about this.
1204* MadScientist: His experiments are more than a little potentially dangerous, in fact, at least one of them blows up in his face completely.
1205* OhCrap: His reaction when his Emperor Cole doppelganger goes nuts.
1206* ProfessionalButtKisser: Neuron got to where he has by proving useful to Emperor Cole, but he stays there because he knows how to massage an ego.
1207* StealingTheCredit : Swiped most of "his" so-called inventions from Anti-Matter to reap the glory for himself.
1208* ShockAndAwe: Like his Primal Earth Counterpart.
1209* VillainWithGoodPublicity: He is easily the least moral of the Praetors yet he enjoys a life of luxury due to all of "his" inventions.
1210[[/folder]]
1211
1212[[folder:Praetor Duncan, aka Dominatrix]]
1213Emperor Cole's beloved granddaughter, head of security for Nova Praetoria, and sidekick of Praetor White.
1214----
1215* AmuletOfConcentratedAwesome: Like her Primal Earth counterpart, she gets her powers from her divinely infused belt.
1216* BitchInSheepsClothing: She is an ambitious, conniving, manipulator who would sell out the people, her fellow Praetors and even her family to get what she wants, yet maintains the image of Emperor Cole’s noble granddaughter.
1217* CorruptCop: She is drill instructor for the Power Division and easily the most corrupt manipulative Praetor.
1218* DesperatelyCravesAffection: Emperor Cole is not the overly saccharin type. She will do anything to get a chance to prove herself to him, including sabotaging his officers until she is all he has left.
1219* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
1220** Prior to ''Going Rogue'' She had an army of leather-bound men armed with rods and tasers said to be people she trained and got addicted to playful beatings. They never did a full retcon but the HellBentForLeather crowd hasn’t been seen in Pretoria since. Adds some ParanoiaFuel though since she is the first Trainer for players starting off as Praetorians with her specifically assigned to train newbies.
1221** Likewise her ''feeling for her grandfather'' have been played down as less lustful and more familial. (It is entirely possible the dev team just initially forgot she was Emperor Cole’s granddaughter and not just side-kick)
1222%%* EvilDoppelganger: To her Primal-Earth self Ms. Liberty.
1223* FemmeFatale: She wears a skintight leather outfit, carries a whip and her nickname is ''Dominatrix'' , DUH!
1224* GildedCage: Her grandfather tries to keep her to low risk safe positions, which infuriates her since it means she can't prove herself to him from such posts. She has been sabotaging all her fellow Praetors until he takes her off the figurative bench. It is implied her sadomasochistic tendencies are a result of such repression.
1225* HeelFaceTurn: She sells out Anti-Matter, Chimera, Marauder [[spoiler: and even her grandfather eventually]]. But only once she realizes the Primals are going to win anyway.
1226* HellBentForLeather: Both her and her thralls. She specifically wears the outfit for S&M purposes but plays it up in public as just a fashion statement.
1227* KarmaHoudini: She has been undermining Praetorian law-and-order for years, but she is the only corrupt Praetor facing neither imprisonment nor death since she sold out the rest.
1228* LoveMakesYouEvil: Her grandfather is very protective of her, so she is too sheltered to prove herself, she keeps sowing chaos among the Praetors so he steadily needs to rely on her more and more and she can finally get the love she desperately craves.
1229* NightmareFetishist: She is turned-on by pain, both other people’s and her own.
1230* RegretfulTraitor: She is fine with selling out most of her fellow Praetors, but the one person she is genuinely sorry she sold out is [[spoiler: her mother, whom she spread rumors about until she was executed as a double-agent just to get her enchanted belt.]] This is the only person she seemingly unconditionally loved and the only one she regrets getting killed.
1231* ToxicFriendInfluence: If any of her fellow Praetors ever have any doubts about going too far, she pushes them into it, almost always for the sole purpose of making herself look better by comparison.
1232* WhipOfDominance: Praetor Duncan began her villain career as a taskmaster in charge of training meta-humans, but she ended up enjoying dealing out the whipping so much that she ended up turning into a {{Dominatrix}}, which literally became her villain name and motif. She uses her whip both to control her S&M thralls and as her weapon of choice.
1233[[/folder]]
1234
1235[[folder:Praetor Arcanus, aka Diabolique]] An once lost soul now given a noble purpose as the right-hand-ghost of our beloved Emperor Cole. She hates his guts!
1236----
1237* AdmiringTheAbomination: She is captivated by the raw power of the vortex over the First Ward that anchors the Night Ward to it.
1238** Her fascination with the void let’s her spot where the Apparitions are coming from, and her study of them leads her to gaining power over them.
1239** Eventually she surfs the Vortex to Primal Earth, specifically Dark Astoria and winds up in front of Mot. She finds its raw untamed dark power magnificent and opts to be it’s messenger in exchange for being severed from the Soul Jar Cole uses to control her.
1240* AGodAmI: She fully embraces this attitude in her signature Incarnate Trial, where she mockingly dismisses the powers of the Incarnates coming to take her down. To be fair, unlike most, she can actually walk the walk...
1241* AbstractApotheosis: In Issue 22, after the defeat of Mot, Diabolique siezes her chance and attempts to take his place, with the end result of her plan being her ascension to the status of Death Incarnate.
1242* BarrierWarrior: Her secondary power is projecting forcefields, which she tosses around with impunity.
1243* CastingAShadow: Her main power.
1244* CharmPerson: She pulled this off on Percy Winkley aka Midnight Master. He eventually develops a full on SuperpoweredEvilSide due to getting egged on into using black magics, but initially all she did was use a spell to make him infatuated with her so he would help her destroy the Midnight Squad.
1245* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: The woman just can't help herself but betray ''everyone'' she ever makes any kind of arrangement with, from the Midnighters, to Mot himself.
1246* DarkIsEvil: Subverted, She is evil and she does rely on black magic, but said magic has nothing to do with her cruelty, rather a life of repression does.
1247* EvilCounterpart: To her Primal self, Numina, but also to Ghost Widow. Disbolique is essentially what would happen if anyone other than Lord Recluse was holding Ghost Widow’s leash.
1248%%* EvilDoppelganger: To her Primal-Earth counterpart, Numina.
1249* EvilIsNotAToy: She was bound as a ghost in the first place because she became addicted to necromancy until she inadvertently spent her life-force.
1250* FightingFromTheInside: When Cole gives her a direct order she ''has'' to obey, but she doesn’t have to like it and claims she was desperately trying to refuse said orders when he made her destroy the Midnight Squad.
1251* GrandTheftMe: While merged with Mot she pulls this on The Freedom Phalanx as her personal possessed thralls. She is also subject to this while Cole has her SoulJar, but only when she is given direct orders.
1252* HateSink: She truly shows the full depths of her monstrous depravity in Dark Astoria, gleefully siding with [[OmnicidalManiac Mot]] in the beast's quest to devour all life on Primal Earth and reveling in her chance to bring as much death and misery as she can. She doesn't even hold any loyalty to Mot himself, as once he is defeated [[TheStarscream Diabolique happily uses her amulet]] to attempt to steal his powers and become Death Incarnate.
1253* HijackingCthulhu: She pledges herself to Mot when he offered to severe her connection to her father’s pendent and makes himself her new Soul Jar; But when Mot gets caught in a paradox where the only soul for it to devour to avoid death is his own, Diabolique, still bound to him, uses the link to usurp his power while his consciousness is trapped in an endless death loop.
1254* JerkAssGenie: With him in control of her Soul Jar, she ''has'' to adhere to Emperor Cole’s wishes. But she will look for any opportunity in his wording to subvert said wishes; For example -- he told her to scout the First Ward for forces of great magic that might otherwise harm him, she noted he didn’t tell her she had to turn them over to ''him!''
1255* LoopHoleAbuse: She eventually figured out she could exercise this over Cole’s requests, she just has to pretend to be a good-little servant so he doesn’t think to get too specific with said orders.
1256* NominalVillain: Of the Apathy variety, at least until she meets Mot and becomes a full villain; But in the First Ward the only thing that keeps her from becoming the ArcVillain is she couldn’t give a rat’s ass about Cole’s interests. She perfectly content to just pursue her dark research and let you fiddle with all the skeletons in Cole’s closet that you like.
1257* {{Necromancer}}: She steals the life-force of her victims, enslaves their souls, and raises their bodies as zombies.
1258* OurGhostsAreDifferent: She has no UnfinishedBusiness the only thing keeping her in the world of the living is her father’s medallion -- which is currently in the hands of Tyrant.
1259* PragmaticVillain: She hates Cole’s guts but knows better than to outright turn on him without guarantee he won’t crush her Soul Jar. She hints at how to take him down though. She aligns herself with the Player in the First Ward, because they stand to undermine Cole and eventually free her from Sorceress Serene.
1260* RedemptionRejection: Her father summoned her from beyond in order to give her a second chance to be a good sorceress and make amends with her for not spending enough time with her. He ends up being her first victim.
1261* RegretfulTraitor: She regrets turning on the Midnight Squad -- but she had no choice, Tyrant mystically compelled her to slay them. She’s not shedding tears for them, but she legitimately regrets turning on the only people who reached out to her. That said, in later segements of First Ward's story arc, specifically her interactions with Cerulean, her behavior indicates that regret has faded as she makes certain to [[KickTheDog rub what happened to the Midnight Squad after she killed her father and left in his face, taking clear pleasure from his reaction]].
1262* SteppingOutForAQuickCupOfCoffee: She can't directly work against Cole, but sure as hell can lead his foes to where he keeps his secrets and then tastefully turn her back and plug her ears.
1263* SoulJar: Hers is the amulet her father used to summon her back from the dead. She convinced him to put it down then killed him so no one would control her, but Emperor Cole got his hands on it. It eventually loses its power over her once she reacquires it, and especially once she teams up with Mot, who reassigns itself as her new Soul Jar. She then turns it on her "master" after his defeat by using the amulet to seal ''his'' soul within it and take '''all of his powers'''.
1264* TheMole: Emperor Cole uses her for this by having her pose as a friend of wizard cabals that refuse to join him, and dismantle them from the inside -- she did this to the Midnight Squad, Ravenwing Cabal and many unspecified others.
1265* YourSoulIsMine: She enslaves the souls of those she had killed and grows stronger from absorbing their life-force.
1266[[/folder]]
1267
1268!![[LaResistance The Resistance]]
1269
1270An organized force seeking to stop Cole's Empire from spreading further and to free all from Tyrant (Cole's) grasp, the Resistance functions as the scapegoats of much of Praetoria's woes after the Hamidon Wars as far as the Loyalists are concerned. The Resistance is varied in its origins; it has regular people trying to make the world better all the way to nigh-on terrorists in its ranks. The Resistance uses slang as code words, which often come out as gibberish without context. Many of Primal Earth's villains have their mirror counterparts in the Resistance. Like the Loyalists, the Resistance has two factions: The Wardens and the Crusaders.
1271
1272!!![[TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified Resistance Wardens]]
1273* The Resistance Wardens are members of the Resistance who are much less about direct shooting (but certainly don't shy away from it), and more about raising awareness of the truth behind Praetoria, seeking to bring a victory through less violent means when possible. They are careful about their targets, aiming to keep civilians out of the crossfire, and many truly seek a better world for the future. Many of their missions are less about winning the war with superpowers, rather aiming to subvert the machinery of Cole's empire so that people can make their own choices.
1274
1275In general, these tropes are found:
1276----
1277* GoodIsNotSoft: Despite what some Crusaders say about them, Wardens are more than willing to fight. [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified They just check who is in the blast radius]]. They also are willing to ShootTheDog, but only in extremely select circumstnaces.
1278* TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified: They fill this half of the trope while their counterparts fill the other.
1279* ShootTheDog: For a story that was mostly about a heroic LaResistance, their arc comes to a head with rather dramatic tonal shift when [[spoiler:the Dark Watcher reveals that while the Vanguard is willing to assist, they have to take out the primary water filtration system for Praetoria to do so. Although the Vanguard is planning on providing relief to the people, it still leaves Praetoria with limited safe water for half a year]].
1280* WeAreStrugglingTogether: At least one mission has you fighting [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized Crusaders]], usually when they're about to cross the line.
1281* WeHelpTheHelpless: A driving force behind their arcs, but it's also quite broad in who is defined as helpless. Many of them are in fact enemies of various stripes.
1282
1283Characters:
1284
1285[[folder:Robert Flores]]
1286The first contact; an intrepid journalist, like his sister. He introduces you to the Warden storyline.
1287----
1288* HopelessSuitor: He's in love with BV, [[spoiler:Belladona Ventrano... the [[MirrorUniverse Praetorian]] version of Ghost Widow]].
1289* LampshadeHanging: he hangs a lampshade on how you likely feel after an annoying mission, and even the whole Contact system in general where you're sent on dangerous missions... [[FridgeLogic sometimes by those who can fight well themselves]].
1290[[/folder]]
1291
1292[[folder:Tunnel Rat]]
1293The next contact of the Warden storyline; her responsibility is seeing people out of Praetoria, always through the Underground.
1294----
1295* ProperlyParanoid: Has this as a dominant personality trait, she's actually right. And considering Praetoria has Seers at every corner probing for unruly thoughts and other Loyalists willing to play dirty, the paranoia she has is [[JustifiedTrope justified]].
1296%%* TheNoseKnows
1297[[/folder]]
1298
1299!!![[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized Resistance Crusaders]]
1300* The Crusaders make up a considerable bulk of the Resistance, especially when it comes to military operations. They are, unlike the Wardens, extremely varied in their origins. You see regular rebels, you see ex-gangsters, you name it, nine times out of ten they have one in their ranks. They cross the line frequently, and some don't even care about the Resistance's goals, just seek to cause mayhem. Typically reined in, with difficulty, by the Wardens, when they go too far, but not always.
1301----
1302* DeathSeeker: At least one group, faced in the first arc of the Praetorian storyline (played regardless of faction), willingly go on a suicide mission to make a point to the people of Praetoria.
1303* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: They have this in spades as their missions are quite liberal with bombing civilian targets.
1304* WarIsHell: An argument that they usually use against the Wardens, who they see as too cowardly to actually win the war. The Wardens [[GoodIsNotSoft prove them wrong regularly]].
1305* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: They fill the 'terrorist' part of it quite handily.
1306
1307[[folder:Ricochet]]
1308The first contact of the crusaders, Ricochet is hard to understand even by resistance standards, talking in an almost unintelligible argot. Sets the tone for what the crusaders are like by having you sacrifice a suicidal ally to kill a whole PPD lab; if you save him, she'll actually criticise you for it.
1309[[/folder]]
1310
1311[[folder:Wardog]]
1312The second contact, Wardog is an ex-Destroyer who still uses the drugs that turned them orange in the first place, and is after a large stash of it for use in combat.
1313[[/folder]]
1314
1315!Other Praetorian characters
1316
1317[[folder:Master Midnight]]
1318A member of Praetorian Earth's Midnighter Club, he became tired of being perpetually disrespected, killed them all, and reanimated their corpses as servants.
1319----
1320* EvilDoppelganger: Of Primal Earth's [[spoiler:Percy Winkley]].
1321* {{Geek}}: Reading his dialog, it's pretty obvious at least part of his 'occult studies' was playing TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons.
1322%%* LaughablyEvil
1323* FromNobodyToNightmare: He's really the Praetorian version of [[spoiler:Percy Winkley, the kid in Primal Earth with a knack for getting kidnapped]].
1324* HopelessSuitor: He has a massive crush on Diabolique, the Praetorian version of Numina.
1325[[/folder]]
1326
1327[[folder:Sorceress Serene]]
1328Even when she was a young woman, Clarissa Moore was clearly a powerful mystic. Back then she was much more open and forgiving. She felt safe and hopeful for a bright future when she was taken in and taught the wonders of elemental magic by her coven. They became her family. When Diabolique slaughtered them all, Clarissa barely escaped the same fate. She was nursing her wounds when the Furies found her and gave her a new kind of hope... the hope for revenge. Since Diabolique is allied with Tyrant, Clarissa is a focused and uncompromising ally in the Furies' war against Marcus Cole and all those who serve him.
1329----
1330* ArcVillain: For the main story of First Ward [[spoiler:and Night Ward.]]
1331* TheChessmaster: Nearly everything that transpires in First Ward [[spoiler:and Night Ward]] is part of her plan to unleash the Talons of Vengeance and [[spoiler:free the arch-demon Lamashtu from the Eternal Prison]].
1332* DualWielding: Swings around swords made of fire and ice for her melee attacks, which deal hybrid elemental damage.
1333* EvilDoppelganger: Of Primal Earth's War Witch.
1334* {{Revenge}}: Diabolique butchered the Ravenwing Coven on behalf of Emperor Cole, and Serene became consumed by an obsession with vengeance, leading to her falling in with [[HatePlague the Furies]].
1335[[/folder]]

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