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The various enemy groups within City of Heroes display many tropes in their own right.


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Major Enemy Groups

    Arachnos 

Arachnos

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cov2.jpg
The biggest villain group of the setting, and one found through all level ranges. Villain Players work with/for Arachnos, while Heroes must defeat it at every turn. Arachnos rules the Rogue Isles utterly, and constantly send forces to attack Paragon City. Their leader is Lord Recluse.
  • Animal Motifs: As the name suggests, Arachnos has a spider theme - the only members that don't are the Mu Mystics.
  • Awesome by Analysis: Captains and Widows project stat boosts to all local soldiers, in-game this is due to Lord Recluse observing the situation through a Psychic Link and giving step-by-step instruction on what movements to anticipate, making soldiers react according to a super genius, so fast that it’s all basically intuitive.
    • This is also a base function of the Arachnos Arbiters, but for societal issues instead of combat.
  • Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: The Arachnos Arbiters are never to be harmed, and the only ones immune to Klingon Promotion as they are removed from the pecking order to become avatars of Arachnos’ law and order; Lives are cheap, honor among supervillains is not!
  • Bad Ass Bureaucrat: The Arbiters are so well protected that they can confidently stroll up to homicidal manics and put their feet down for legal judgments, assured no one in the Rogue Isles will dare hurt them.
  • Bad Ass Normal: Most of the rank-and-file soldiers are regular humans just with really good military training and support, yet they can still take out entire teams of super-heroes, NPC or PC, if their opponents underestimate them.
  • Better Living Through Evil: According to NPC chatter, a few Arbiter and Operative quest givers, Arachnos covers medical expenses, pays well, comes with company housing, free schooling for the children of soldiers, a generous retirement plan, sick days and even three weeks of paid vacation a year! There is a reason Arachnos never needs to draft anyone or use propaganda. Just... don’t let them down.
  • Brainwashing for the Greater Good: One of the very, very few Card-Carrying Villain examples. With all the psychic, mind-control and possession powers out there, Arachnos keeps itself from being compromised by making psychic-conditioning requisite to receive a promotion into the upper ranks. Needless to say, they edit out any dissenting thoughts against Lord Recluse while they are at it.
  • Carry a Big Stick: Arachnos soldiers primarily make use of powered maces for hand-to-hand combat. Apart from being used to beat enemies, they can also fire blasts of energy or (in the case of Bane Spiders) poison opponents with their spikes or blades.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Arachnos Widows and Fortunatas.
  • City Guards: Some Arachnos mooks serve this role in the Rogue Isles, while the Arbiter Drones are invincible guardians of safe zones.
  • Do Wrong, Right: Half the time they are fighting other villains it is for this reason. In combinations with their Darwinian outlook they feel villains who can't be proper villains should either learn to be or die.
  • Crime Fighting With Cash: The Arbiters don’t solve anything with force that they can solve just by buying out other criminals to cooperate with Arachnos.
  • Equal-Opportunity Evil: Has both male and female minions, though the NPCs are gender segregated, with female 'Widow' assassins and 'Fortunata' psychics, while males are Wolf, Bane and Crab Spiders. The player epic archetype Soldiers of Arachnos has no such restriction, however.
  • Evil Virtues: They strongly encourage at least a couple of these in their troops.
  • Fantastic Recruitment Drive: They do this for no less than three different recruit types, The Mu, The Seers and The Destined Ones. Current Mu scry for other descendants of their line with magic in their blood to be indoctrinated into their cult. Seers scan for anyone with even a slight sixth sense - who when found are bought-off/taken from their parents (if any) to an Arachnos psychic education facility. Both of the above detect the Destined Ones (the players), who are scouted out ahead of time as being in possession of far more agency over their own fate than the average thug; Hence they are sought out and given the grand tour.
  • From No Body To Nightmare: They used to be a small practically unknown assassin guild in Italy, then Lord Recluse took over and turned them into a government, that despite the size of their country is consider a world power now.
  • Food Chain of Evil: They form this in the Rogue Isles. Gangsters, Psychic Robots, Nazis, Body-hopping ghost wizards and aliens are all suitably afraid of these guys. Every single new zone you enter will have Arachnos on the upper if not top tier of it's threat level to keep the other villains in line.
  • Heart Is an Awesome Power: Sure, the base description of the Arachnos Seer Network doesn't sound too impressive - it is a psychic network used by Fortunatas and Seers as a telepathic communication method. But the true power of this is witnessed in Grandville, where the network is revealed to have four uses as the Care-Bear Stare version of a Psychic Block Defense, a Psychic Link, a Hive Mind and an Intrinsic Vow; All of which have been in effect the entire game. Ever wonder why Fortunata's are so hard to use control moves on once they have a chance to make their heads glow like that? That is why, you are literally going up against a small country of psychic wills at once!
  • Hegemonic Empire: As long as the residents of Rogue Isles pay their dues, avoid civilian murder and remember who’s in charge, they’re perfectly content to maintain a laissez-faire government. That said they do not intend to be as hands off for Paragon.
  • Intrinsic Vow: The Arachnos Seer Network is used to edit any thoughts of treachery against Lord Recluse and enforce loyalty. This is not only public knowledge, it is voluntary. Soldiers and Fortunatas understand when they swear to serve Arachnos they are agreeing to be psychically bound to said oath.
  • More than Mind Control: Sure the Seer Network hypnotizes troops, but the truth is other than having any secret plots or resentment against Lord Recluse literally erased, said troops are more or less left with their free-will intact.
  • Nay-Theist: Arachnos have made religion illegal in the Rogue Isles; Specifically because Lord Recluse is an actual demi-god so pledging loyalty to any full god is essentially national treason.
  • Nazi Hunter: They are on record for mercilessly hunting down the 5th Column or wiping out entire Council cels for so much as finding Nazi paraphernalia, and even carpet bombing sections of their own country they find 5th Column bases in just to make sure the Nazi S.O.B.s are powderized; Social Darwinists - they REALLY don’t like white supremacists!
  • The Player Is the Most Important Resource: Their seers have foreseen the "Destined Ones" otherwise dime a dozen villains who specifically will achieve great things (referencing the advantage a P.C. naturally has over .N.P.C.s). They break you out of jail and give you the grand tour of evil specifically because they consider you this. Although that said they do intend to put you through...
  • Praetorian Guard: Bane Spider Executioners serve as this to Lord Recluse.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: There are a few psychopaths in their ranks, but by in large they fit the trope perfectly, they do amoral- well... EVIL things, entirely for their own benefit and not to cause pain.
  • Psychic Block Defense: The Seer Network - made up of the Widows/Fortunatas telepathically linking too each other - the first couple being put through intense brainwashing to the point they were 100% loyal, and that mindset subconsciously transferring to newer generations, and rewriting their neural pathways so they literally can’t mentally process betrayal. This of course makes possession, outside mind-reading and extended mind control all but impossible once one Widow/Fortunata and the troops they’re guiding are linked to the collective.
  • Police Psychic: What they’re seers, forunatas and widows are for when not acting as psychic super soldiers. They don’t really care about dissenting thoughts though, just active plans of government subversion.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: Figuratively and quite literally. Nearly all their ranks are people who are professional villains specially cause Lord Recluse is paying them and rewards an odd mix of personal ambition and the ability to follow orders.
  • Ret-Gone: How they deal with people who kill Arbiters or start ethnic cleansing campaigns - they fire up their time machine- often by causing miscarriages by attacking their pregnant mothers. Characters deleted for racist undertones/overtones are canonically attributed to Arachnos altering the timeline to ensure they don’t have to put up with that garbage.
  • Status Effects: Arachnos has one of the widest selections of control and debuff effects spread between its many enemy types.
  • Social Darwinists: It's their primary outlook, heavily enforced by Lord Recluse. Arachnos lives and dies, literally, by enforcing that the weak need to either accept the strong as their masters, or die defying them. One of their de-motivational-posters even proudly proclaims "Obey and live".
  • Spider Tank: Their Tarantula units consist of both spider mutants with cybernetic attachments emphasizing the spider shape, or man-sized-tanks shaped like spiders controlled by A.I.s.
  • Training from Hell: Arachnos doesn't want pre-destiny to make you soft. After all how will you get strong enough to be an asset if no one opens fire on you from time to time?
  • Villainous Rescue: It turns out THEY are the ones who answered The Resistance’s distress call to Primal Earth. Not that Arachnos are there out of the goodness of their hearts - they are all for anarchy equating to personal freedom and best case scenario get to become the new government when they overthrow the Praetorian government, and at worst will be allies of a newly formed Resistance government with access to all of the previous one’s tech and resources - win/freaking-win!

    Longbow 

Longbow

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/longbow1.jpg

A heroic organization created to strike back at Arachnos in the Rogue Isles, Longbow serves as a major thorn in the side of Villain players in all level ranges.

  • City Guards: Can occasionally be found patrolling Paragon City in this role. They also respond to villain incursions in Mayhem Missions.
  • Equal Opportunity Good: Has both male and female members, with no distinction or separation between them.
  • Gatling Good: 'Longbow Minigun' mooks.
  • Kill It with Fire: Longbow Flamethrowers. The description notes that the organization try not to deploy these weapons in front of TV-cameras.
  • Knight Templar: They can fall into this upon occasion, employing tactics and schemes similar to those of Arachnos when operating in the Isles.
  • Superpowered Mooks: Longbow Wardens have been genetically modified to gain superpowers, which tends to turn their skin an unusual color. There are several Warden variants, each with a distinct powerset.

    Circle of Thorns 

The Circle of Thorns

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/city_of__circle_mystics.png

The denizens of the ancient, mystical, and badly-designed city of Oranbega, constantly kidnapping the people of Paragon City for use in their various dark rites... or just to kill outright, if they should happen to be part of the unfortunate third of the world's population (!) that happens to be of the bloodline of their ancient enemies, the Mu. The most popular rite, of course, being a Type 3 Demonic Possession, where the ancient Oranbegan takes the body of the unfortunate victim and the body's former owner gets stuffed into the Library of Souls.

  • Alas, Poor Villain: They are desperately trying to lift the curse on themselves. Rest assured though, any virtue they once had was emotionally pawned-off ages ago in service of escaping said curse.
  • Black Cloak: The general aesthetic of the Circle of Thorns, especially prior to their cosmetic overhaul.
  • Black Magic: The Circle's stock-in-trade. When your leftover magic paraphenalia tends to include bloodstained altars, skulls, demons, and displaced souls, you're probably not on the side of sweetness and good.
  • Body Surf: The human members are doing this at least daily, there original bodies have vanished - Those terrified citizens you see surrounded by green energy being used for some sort of ritual? Yeah, those are where the Circle’s physical bodies come from. As soon as one dies/burns out, they just hop into a new terrified civi being rounded up by lower members.
  • Bond Villain Stupidity: The do love to monologue.
    • Also stealing the soul of the king of evil’s girlfriend was probably one of the biggest mistakes they ever made.
  • Bullying the Dragon: They spied Red Widow getting caught in a rockslide during a battle between Statesman and Lord Recluse and made the phenomenally bad decision to suck out her soul before Lord Recluse could get to her to get her medical attention. The Circle are now one of the only villains Lord Recluse wants murdered on sight.
  • Color-Coded Wizardry: You can tell who is sporting what powers by what color cloaks they wear, unless you are fighting a possessed scientist who can be any of the below. Orange is fire, Green is life, tan is earth, red is kenetics, dark blue is storm, light blue is frost, black is soul and purple is mesmerism.
  • Deal with the Devil - The Oranbegans were cursed when they made a deal with some demons to keep from being wiped out in an ancient war. Or, more specifically, when they failed to keep their part of the bargain. Which was to... well, basically feed... every last man, woman, and child of the enemy country to the demons. Unsurprisingly, they found they couldn't go through with it — the deal had been made out of desperation, not bloodlust — and so got cursed. Cue some twelve thousand years later, the Oranbegans having gone somewhat insane in the intervening years, and trying to rectify their 'mistake'. Unfortunately, their enemies were apparently a rather fecund bunch, and some two billion people can claim Mu ancestry. This doesn't seem to have deterred the Oranbegans.
    • Another example would be the original Circle of Thorns, which was something of an Aleister Crowley-like occult group, who discovered the ghosts of the ancient Oranbegans and cut a deal with them for power. Of course, they merely ended up becoming their first hosts.
  • Demonic Possession: Since they summon demons, this should come as no surprise it occasionally comes up. But as it turns out this is not the exception with the Circle of Thorns, but the rule!
  • Ethnic Magician: Their very culture is rooted in magic; Studying their culture and learning spells are one and the same.
  • Evil Sorcerer: An entire cult/society of them.
  • Ignored Epiphany: The mage Akarist points out that the demons they summoned to save their culture have changed them so much, their culture is effectively gone. The others are implied to realize he is right, they just don’t care at that point.
  • Magical Society: The original Circle was just another occult society in Europe, until their founders made contact with the spirits of Oranbega.
  • The Magocracy: How their society functions.
  • Poor Communication Kills: They made a bargain with a Hell goddess, where they would get an army of demons to wipe out their enemies, on conditions they showed no mercy and killed everyone even after they surrendered. They felt so bad having to kill people begging for mercy they gave their widows and children a pass and told them to flee their country. Little did they realize when said Hell goddess said to “They had to kill everyone” she meant “Kill EVERYONE”!
  • Power Degeneration: The magic of the Oranbegans seems to burn them out from the inside, which explains why they look so zombie-like under their hoods. Doubles as Possession Burnout.
  • Powers via Possession: The newer members are told to complete the rites to allow them to become magi they must plunge a magic thorn into their heart. None of the older members bother to mention , of course, doing so pops out their souls too.
  • Religion of Evil: While originally they were a religion of knowledge, they needed to invoke a Hell goddess for protection, who has firmly reworked them into demons worship and soul stealing.
  • Sadistic Choice: Whenever they find a descendant of the Mu bloodline they offer them the chance to either join the Circle of Thorns and begin intense brainwashing to drive out their humanity including killing those close to them, or the group use those they capture as ritual sacrifices. Either way they possess said descendants to use their magic bloodline to manifest their spells through.
  • Taking You with Me: The lieutenant-level Circle Mages are able to self-destruct when they reach low health.
  • The Darkside Will Make You Forget: Newer members are won over with the very real possibility of gaining magic powers, the rites required to gain said powers quickly involve emotional abuse, self-mutilation and murder; Sure enough the end result is full on magic, but by then they are brainwashed into naught but extensions of the Circle. The kicker is the final trial is plunging a thorn-blade into their hearts, which sucks out their soul so the actual magi’s spirits can possess the empty vessels. But even before that, the original hosts get reduced to little more than cult thralls before the full possession; Complete with troubled youth trying to ritually sacrifice their friends, parents and siblings.
  • Theseus' Ship Paradox: The mage, Akarist, claims they have fallen into this - they changed so much of their society to accommodate their demonic benefactors that the original culture of Oranbega is long gone.
  • Virtue Is Weakness: They consider honor and mercy a veneration of flaws: Though they do have a fairly justifiable reason for believing this; Namely that they were cursed by the demons they summoned for showing mercy on their enemies instead of wiping them out once they won the battle. A few thousand years of undeath as punishment ingrained a new merciless, conniving mindset in them.
  • Wake-Up Call Boss: While their entire group can be seen as this, their named arch-mages are some of the most powerful early bosses the game will toss at you; As said magi have genuine super-powers via spells. Compare them to the Clockwork or Hellions whose biggest challenge is they can use ranged attacks while having decent HP and the guys able throw holds, blasts and support around all at the same time become real threats. A good metric of how tough the Player is getting, is how easily they can solo a Circle Mage Boss. When you feel confident going into an encounter with a Circle Arch-Mage, you have arrived.

    Rikti 

The Rikti

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rikti4.jpg

The original main villains of the setting. The Rikti are an alien race who launched an unprovoked invasion of Earth which was only narrowly repelled, and during which many of the city's heroes were killed. It is into this vacuum that the player heroes must step. It was ultimately revealed that the Rikti themselves are actually massively genetically-altered humans from an alternate dimension Earth, and the Rikti War itself was not unprovoked, but instigated entirely by Nemesis by means of a tragic False Flag Operation.

  • Alien Invasion: Ultimately subverted.
  • Alternate Universe: Their real origin.
  • Arm Cannon: Rikti Gunmen have a large plasma cannon integrated into their power armor.
  • Attack Drone: The Rikti have these in spades. They're only armed with a Plasma Cannon, but they also tend to be hard to hit and can see through stealth.
  • BFS: Rikti Infantry use energy-bladed swords about as large as they are for hand-to-hand combat. Later upgraded to gun-blades when Issue 10 was released, allowing the Rikti to switch between ranged and melee combat without having to redraw weapons.
  • Bizarre Alien Biology: Looking at the Rikti, you'd be hard-pressed to believe they were once human. They have flat, wedge-shaped head crests, red featureless eyes, beak-like (seemingly, see below) mouthless faces, spindly, almost bony-looking bodies, large forearms and lower legs, large three-clawed hands, and feet vaguely resembling those of an elephant or sauropod. They also have what appears to be a vestigial tail and, prior to their redesign, also had large, bulbous shoulders that matched the general appearance of the pauldrons of their armor.
  • Colon Cancer: Rikti Communication: Imperfect, at least until the Mk. III Translator was invented during the Second Rikti War.
  • Enemy Civil War: The Rikti are increasingly divided between the Traditionalists, who seek to end the conflict with Earth and establish peaceful relations with humanity, and the Restructurists, who aim to totally alter their society in the name of fighting on by ensuring the Lineage of War remains dominant.
  • Full-Frontal Assault: Prior to the group's redesign in Issue 10, Rikti infantry went around completely naked. Needless to say it wasn't pretty, and was arguably a form of Nightmare Retardant, given that it was hard to take the fearsome alien invaders seriously when they were fighting butt ass naked. Thankfully, Issue 10 fixed that by giving them practical, lightly-armored jumpsuits (pictured above).
  • Killer Space Monkey: The Rikti Monkeys, little psionic pests.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: The Rikti are transformed humans from another dimension and are divided into two opposing factions, one of which wants to make peace with the humans. These two are major reveals in the original Rikti arcs but the Vanguard ones mention them offhandedly.
  • Logical Weakness: The Rikti had effectively wiped out magic on their homeworld when they killed off the gods of their Earth. Thus, they were caught completely off guard during the Rikti War when they found themselves confronted by a slew of magic-based heroes like the Midnight Squad, as well as the Circle of Thorns when they attempted to invade Oranbega. To that end, their armored soldiers have absolutely no resistances to Fire, Cold and Negative Energy damage, damage types commonly affiliated with magic.
  • Martial Pacifist: The Rikti are traditionally this, retaining a military largely for ceremonial purposes in times of peace. As Earth's heroes found out the hard way, that doesn't make it any less deadly.
  • No Mouth: The Rikti appear to be this way at a glance. Word of God says they have thin, lipless mouths that are only really visible when they eat or drink.
  • Piñata Enemy: Rikti Communications Officers. They're minion-level enemies with a weak plasma pistol attack that can open up portals to gate in more Rikti. Originally, the portals themselves offered a hefty amount of experience when destroyed, but it was eventually fixed so the Comm. Officers granted the increased experience reward instead.
  • Plasma Cannon: The favored ranged weapons of the Rikti, outside of psionic attacks.
  • Powered Armor: Higher-ranking Rikti wear suits of powered combat armor.
  • Psychic Link: A unique case. The Rikti are generally linked to eachother via a mental network, but don't have a strict Hive Mind and all exhibit individual personalities, to the point where factions are able to form in their ranks.
  • Psychic Powers: Rikti Mentalists and Mesmerists have these in abundance, and all Rikti possess a level of telepathy.
  • The Remnant
  • That One Boss: Elite Boss-rank Rikti Magi only appear in one place (when players assault a downed Rikti Mothership en masse), but their wide-area damage and control abilities make them the single largest threat to the raid.
  • Scary Dogmatic Aliens
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: The Rikti have male and female sexes, but telling them apart from one another is a difficult task for non-Rikti, especially given that most of them are clad in power armor.

    Vanguard 

The Vanguard

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vanguard_more_avs.jpg

Less of an enemy group, since they are only rarely fought by either heroes or villains; the Vanguard is an organisation which works with both Heroes and Villains in order to repel the Rikti.

  • Demonic Spider: A rare example in that it's on purpose. Vanguard mobs have strong resistance and defense debuffs, powerful attacks and several hated powers, but the players only fight them a few times.
  • That One Attack: The Curse of Weariness, a debuff inflicted by Vanguard bosses. Even after several nerfs, it severely weakens an affected character, lasts several minutes, and doesn't go away on death. There is an (expensive!) item that removes it. The original version neutered your character for half an hour.

    The Praetorians 

The Praetorians

The original high-level enemies of the setting, the Praetorians originate from an alternate reality which is close to a Mirror Universe - the greatest heroes of Paragon City are the cruel and tyrannical rulers of Praetorian Earth. They are greatly expanded on in the expansion Going Rogue, which allows new players to begin playing as a Praetorian.

    Paragon Police Department 

Paragon Police Department

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ppd1.jpg

The brave protectors of Paragon City, the thin blue line. Despite the numbers of superheroes within the city, the police still have an important role to play as investigators and first responders, directing heroes to where they can be of most use and tidying up after the heroes have taken down the most dangerous threats. The hero Blue Steel is closely associated with the Department.

To battle the strongest of villains on their own terms, some of the force also gain access to superpowers themselves, with Psychic Detectives and Powered Armour putting in appearances, while other cops choose to merge with alien Kheldians to gain powers.

  • Always Someone Better: How many of them feel about super heroes, though they still work with them.
  • Being Good Sucks: How they feel about having to follow regulations and civil rights concerns over going in full force to stop super criminals. A former one who fled to the Rogue Isles states this outright.
  • Corrupt Cop: Paragon used to be full of them. Back Alley Brawler has spent the past few decades cleaning them up. They’re mostly gone now, mostly*.
  • Game Play And Story Segregation: Storywise they are struggling to keep up with super-criminals and need to look into alternatives like alien parasites or a psychic training program, but ask any City of Villains player, and the SWAT members of the P.P.D. are way more trouble than The Symbiotes or Psychic Cops.
  • Goddamned Bats: Ask any City of Villains player about their most hated PPD mob and odds are good, it won't be any of the aforementioned psychics of powered armor or alien hybrid cops. It'll be either the SWAT Equalizer, or the SWAT Ghost, mobs that are limited one of each to a spawn and only appear for the middle half of the level progression. The former fires an autohitting glue grenades that slows any player to a crawl long, long after the mob is dead. The latter launches a blind grenade that, if it hits, neuters a character's ability to fight and survive, again, for a long long time after the mob is dead.
    • This was best evident in Issue 19, when Heroes were first exposed to Rogue PPD, including the Ghosts and Equalizers. The villains' schadenfreude at their complaints of difficulty was delectable.
  • Light Is Good: All Awakened officers seen are Peacebringers who control light.
  • Police Are Useless: Played with, the police of Paragon certainly know how to do their jobs, but there simply aren’t enough of them; It takes a whole police precinct just to hold a gangland like the Hollows from spilling over into the civilian communities.
  • Police Psychic: It takes a very long intensive training program but the Psy-Op officers can use psionic blasts and telekinesis. They only make up about 10% of the force though.
  • Reed Richards Is Useless: Like Arachnos they have some police psychics, however unlike Arachnos they only use them to fight super-criminals, not, say foil them before they strike.
  • The Symbiote: The P.P.D. have a program where cops can volunteer to let themselves become merged with Kheldians. Said cops are super powerful as a result and said Kheldians are quite happy to have hosts to extend their life spans, however…
  • Your Days Are Numbered: The members of the P.P.D. that volunteer for Kheldian fusion are substantially more powerful, but doing so eats up about a quarter of their life span. Let’s hope that comes with an early retirement plan.

    Soldiers of Rularuu 

Soldiers of Rularuu

The massive dimension-consuming monstrosity known as Rularuu the Ravager was sealed within the Shadow Shard by the Midnight Squad in the Sixties; the various abominations that form his army now roam that prison freely, seeking ways to aid their master's escape.

    Shivans 

Shivans

Back in the Eighties, an alien probe was discovered in Australia. Its message, when translated, warned of a terrifying planetary devourer that had already consumed the world of the warning, and was now headed for earth. An international team of heroes was formed to combat this entity, now named 'Shiva'... and they were entirely successful, destroying Shiva with a nuclear rocket at the cost of their own lives.

Shortly afterwards, however, the island of Bloody Bay within the Rogue Isles was devastated by a meteor shower; worse still, strange radiation was emitted by the meteors and horrific fusions of human corpses and blue protoplasm arose from the cemetaries. The devastated island was abandoned - until it was discovered that the meteor shards could provide superpowers. Now Arachnos and Longbow fight over the island... but the monstrous Shivans are still there. Are they trying to reconstitute and consume the world?

With the launch of Freedom, another Shivan attack entirely destroys Galaxy City; the Shivans are steadily becoming a much more obvious threat.

Gangs of Paragon City

    Hellions 

The Hellions

One of the earliest villain groups. The Hellions are a fire-themed gang of demon worshippers and the arch-rivals of the Skulls.
  • Deal with the Devil - A possible source of their flame powers.
  • Equal-Opportunity Evil - Once all male, their ranks recently expanded to include the Girlfriend From Hell, demon-summoning women who terrify most of the troops.
  • Hollywood Satanism: Done intentionally, The Hellions are poser malcontents who’ve been sold on Satan worship in movies, and just barely scrape the surface of the arcane through a shared mindset sold to them by popular culture.
  • Kill It with Fire - Their main motif. Their bosses are the fire-wielding Damned.
  • Man Behind the Man - They're being manipulated by the Warriors.
  • Moveset Clone: In a sense with the Skulls. The organizations are nearly identical aside from the bosses and the different groups' resistances.
  • What Happened to the Mouse? - The Hellions don't really seem to have a leader, so their storyline is never really resolved - players just move on to more threatening villains once they outlevel them, leaving the Hellions to terrorize the citizens of Atlas Park for ever more.

    Skulls 

The Skulls

Another starting gang, the Skulls have a death motif instead of the Hellions' fire. Their leaders are the negative-energy-controlling Bone Daddies.
  • All There in the Manual - According to bonus information, the leaders of the Skulls are the Petrovic Brothers, who never appear in game.
    • As of Issue 25 they do appear, and they're pretty tough.
  • Darkness Equals Death
  • Equal-Opportunity Evil - Issue 25 changes the Skulls' demographics to about 50% female.
  • Fantastic Drug - The Skulls sell and distribute the drug Superadine.
  • Memetic Mutation - Go. Hunt. Kill Skuls.
  • Moveset Clone: Powers-wise, the only difference between a normal Hellion and a normal Skull is that Hellions are resistant to flame but weak to cold, while skulls are resistant to negative energy but weak to energy.

    Lost 

The Lost

Paragon City has a homeless problem - they seem to be forming an army, occasionally venturing forth from the sewers to smash and destroy. And some of them don't even look human any more... because they're being transformed into Rikti as part of a desperate recruiting drive by the survivors of the war. The Lost gradually look more and more Rikti-like as the levels move up, before being replaced by the actual Rikti entirely at around security level 30.
  • Body Horror: The mutations of the higher-level lost are not pleasant to look at, sporting twisted, deformed or elongated limbs and increasingly inhuman features as they gradually mutate into Rikti.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Courtesy of Rikti indoctrination and the mutagen gradually transforming them.
  • Crazy Homeless Person: The still largely human Scroungers evoke this image in its entirety, being crazed, bedraggled hobos that will attack players without a second thought.
  • Improvised Armour: Scrounger, Mutate and Pariah Lost often supplement their rags with pieces of junk refashioned as makeshift armor, often in the form of street signs, trash cans, tires, barbed wire and even old TVs as helmets.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: In the chronologically earlier story-arcs, the link between the Lost and the Rikti is a genuine twist, but later-released arcs take it for granted that players will already know this.
  • Psychic Powers: Aberrant, Anathema and Pariah Lost all exhibit strong psychic powers.
  • Schizo Tech: Minion-level Lost tend to be armed with makeshift weapons like axes, baseball bats, knives and revolvers. Lieutenants and beyond? They carry with the highly-advanced plasma weaponry and swords used by Rikti.

    Clockwork 

The Clockwork

Surprisingly cute clockwork robots of death.
  • Brain in a Jar - The Clockwork King. Also eyeballs in a jar.
  • Clock Punk - Visually, at least.
  • Flight: Some of the Minions can fly thanks to propellers.
  • Mecha-Mooks - Subverted, since they're really animated by a powerful psychic.
  • Shock and Awe: Every single one of them can do this in some form, but the most common is blasts of it.

    Outcasts 

The Outcasts

An elemental-themed gang of angry mutants based in Steel Canyon and the Hollows.

    Trolls 

The Trolls

A gang whose abuse and overuse of the drug Superadine has led to their gaining green skin, great strength, and a large amount of stupid.
  • Hulk Speak - "Me have body by Superadine!"
  • One-Winged Angel - During regular 'Troll Rave' events, a number of trolls will further transform into massive, Hulk-esque Supa Trolls due to ingesting uncut Superadine.
  • Super Serum - Superadine is a highly addictive drug that grants massive strength, durability and accelerated healing. It's actually a modified version of WWII Super-Soldier serums.

    Vahzilok 

Vahzilok

Followers and creations of the Mad Scientist Dr. Vahzilok, who is obsessed with finding a way to "cure" death, no matter how many people he has to cut up to do it.
  • Action Bomb: "Enbalmed" minions can explode, doing a lot of damage.
  • Back-Alley Doctor: The ones that have fled to The Rogue Isles provide cheap exotic surgery to super-criminals out of repurposed dockyards. It’s profitable and a great way to trade out organs.
  • Brain Transplant: Their Eidolons are dead bodies with living brains grafted into them, the juxtaposition of which apparently results in said brains being able to project ectoplasm.
  • Body Horror: The "Eidolon" bosses are intelligent reanimatees, and it's mentioned at one point that they're still rotting. Without regular skin and organ replacement, they'll decay away.
  • Deadly Doctor: Vahzilok himself, and his still-living followers.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:Dr. Vahzilok specifically wraps the Eidolons in leather and obscures their faces so as to not upset the relatives of the deceased whose bodies they are inhabiting.
  • Mad Doctor: Doctor Vahzilok himself, quite a few members are as well, though many are unlicensed quacks.
  • Organ Theft: Their stock and trade whenever they’re not stealing whole bodies.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: They're produced by Mad Science and cybernetics, not magic, and they don't count as 'undead' for effects that target that.

    The Family 

The Family

Basically, The Mafia without the romance. Despite dressing (and arming themselves) like they've just stepped out of The Untouchables, they're drugrunners, kidnappers, murderers, extortionists and just flat-out thugs who have managed to stay competitive in a world of capes and nutcases via Super Science, moxie, and flat-out meanness.
  • The Consigliere: And named as such, too — although there seem to be rather a lot of them running around for them all to be the number two in the organization
  • The Mafia: In: - The drug that makes the Trolls big, green and crazy is one of these, and the Family are the ones that make it. They're also the ones that have perfected it, at least to an extent, and so their higher-ranking members have gravity-controlling powers and Super-Strength.

    The Tsoo 

The Tsoo

An Asian gang empowered by magical tattoos, the Tsoo infamously served as something of a wake-up call for new players. Their variety of Boss-level enemies is impressive.

They later reappear much stronger in the Dark Astoria Incarnate content, as proud warriors seeking to protect the world from the evils lurking within Astoria - but not willing to work with anyone else to do so.

  • Degraded Boss - Several of the Tsoo bosses have become mere minions by the time they reach Dark Astoria.
  • Generic Ethnic Crime Gang - Subverted rather oddly. It's definitely an ethnic gang, but how many North Americans have even heard of the Hmong people group, much less automatically associated them with organized crime?
  • Goddamn Bats - Even once someone is more used to them, the Tsoo have a variety massive arsenal of annoying tricks. Pretty much every member of the group can inflict Status Effects, including the minions, which can lead to situations where even those who are normally largely immune to them, like Tanks and Scrappers, have their defenses overwhelmed.
  • McNinja - Why are there so many Chinese/Laotian/Vietnamese dudes running around with distinctly Japanese weaponry?
  • Power Tattoo - Inverted- the power comes from the tattoo, rather than the other way around.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different - And are here to punch you in the face.
  • Shoot the Medic First: The best way of dealing with Tsoo Sorcerers, made annoying by their tendency to teleport away.
  • Status Effects - The Tsoo are somewhat unique, at least in the lower levels, because nearly all their members, from the lowest to the highest, have at least a minor way of messing with their opponents (i.e. you) beyond just punching them in the face, including such fun as dropping your accuracy, defense, damage, and speed through the floor, stunning you, putting you to sleep, holding you, and knocking you all over the map.
    • The most evident cause of this are the Yellow Ink Men, which are the same as lower level Enforcers, but now with the ability to psychically hold or sleep enemies. That alone wouldn't be so much of a problem, but the Yellow Ink Men replace all Tsoo minions come lvl 20, at which point even melee characters tend not to have mez protection.

    Freakshow 

The Freakshow

A gang of cyborg anarchists. They were formed after a Crey employee stole the formula for yet another experimental Super Serum; this one granted incredible healing, allowing him and his followers to experiment with dangeously advanced cybernetic augmentation. Now calling himself Dreck, he and his followers love to smash and destroy, while also being on the lookout for opportunities to further enhance their modifications.
  • Auto-Revive: The Freakshow's hat. At all but the lowest levels, every single Freakshow has a chance of standing up after being defeated. Because they give XP and Inf both times, the playerbase largely doesn't mind.
  • Blade Below the Shoulder: The cybernetic arms the Freakshow use generally end in either a big scrap metal claw, a curved sickle blade, or a giant hammer. The Freakshow generally either have one or both arms replaced with one of these weapons.
  • Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: The Freakshow live for sowing discord and chaos, and give little care for who gets hurt along the way.
  • Cyborg: To various extents. The most extreme example are Freakshow Tanks, whose organic components consist of little more than the gangster's head and spine.
  • Cyberpunk: Arguably the most literal example of the trope.
  • Deadly Disc: Cybered-up Freakshow toss sawblades that can deal hefty damage and knock targets down.
  • Demonic Spiders: The Super Stunners, added in a recent update, have endurance draining powers. What makes them particularly nasty is that the other boss-class Freakshow are the Tanks, who are visually very obvious; by contrast, Super Stunners don't look terribly different from the other, weaker varieties of stunner freakshow.
  • Healing Factor: All Freakshow (but the lowest level ones) have a strong but effectively one-use healing power, Dull Pain.
  • Jive Turkey: Quite a few of them speak like this. Special mention goes to Ohmtown from Diviner Maros' story arc.
  • Leet Lingo: Th3y t3lk 1n th15, or at least the most heavily cybered-up ones do. A good chunk of them also give themselves l337 names.
  • Logical Weakness: The ramshackle cybernetics of the Freakshow are vulnerable to electrical attacks and other forms of energy damage.
  • Piñata Enemy: For a long time, Freakshow enemies gave out more Inf and XP than others of the same level, to compensate for their ability to stand back up and Dull Pain. However, since they effectively had a chance to give out the reward twice, and were not the most dangerous of enemies, the playerbase at large embraced them as the best risk to reward ratio mobs around. They've since been reduced to normal rewards, but are still considered easier than average.
  • Shock and Awe: The aptly named Juicers and Stunners attack with bolts of electricity. The former focuses on dealing damage while the latter is self-explanatory.
  • Super Serum: The Excelsior drug, which grants superhuman physical attributes and extreme pain tolerance. Most cybered-up Freakshow have a surgically-implanted injector that regularly doses them up with the drug.

    Warriors 

The Warriors

A street gang with a Classical Mythology theme, who use medieval weaponry.
  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: They follow the Might Makes Right school, allowing competition amongst the ranks to determine leadership.
  • Bazaar of the Bizarre: Aside from the Circle of Thorns and their direct competitors, the Tsoo, this gang runs the magical items black market. It's also how they acquire so much mystical power-ups for their gang.
  • Elegant Weapon for a More Civilized Age: They eschew using firearms and other high-tech weapons in place of all manner of ancient weaponry: broadswords, battle-axes, maces, longbows, etc. These may or may not be coupled with magical enchantments.
  • Klingon Promotion: While less lethal than other examples, as figureheads are either usurped in trial by combat or just arrested and sent to jail, new leaders are always rising from the rank and file.
  • Martial Arts Headband: Beyond their bracers and urban warfare camo clothing, the Warriors are visually known by their red headbands.
  • The Worf Effect: By the time you actually fight them, they're usually being pushed around by the Freakshow.

    The Council 

The Council

A shadowy paramilitary group with vast resources, bizarre superscience, and an alliance with strange aliens. The Council took over from a group of Nazis known as the Fifth Column after an internal coup (though the Fifth Column has recently been making a comeback). Their leader is known as The Center.
  • Loop Hole Abuse: They are required to stay committed to the notion of a master-race - But no-one ever said that race had to be human. Once thy found alien parasites they started splicing them into themselves to make their own "master-race" without having to limit their recruiting to straight-Caucasians.
  • Master Race: The Politically-correct version, embracing white-supremacy in the modern era makes recruitment dificult, so they decided that since their super-solider serums change them on a genetic level anyway, their only "master race" they had to sling was the one they could share with everyone, as long as you agree to let them pump super-soldier juice into you and agree to the brainwashing of-course.
  • Our Werewolves Are Different - War Wolves are created by a failed Nictus transformation.
  • Our Vampires Are Different - Council Vampyri are created as part of a Super Soldier program.
  • Politically Correct Villain: They were Nazis but only signed up for the super-soldier program, few to none of them (or at least of those left after the 5th Column formed) give a rat's ass about Hitler's hang-ups; As such, they have reformed their philosophy to be far more inclusive that the original Nazis.
  • The Unfought - The Center is never battled in game.

    The Fifth Column 

The Fifth Column

Die-hard Axis infiltrators left in the US after World War II, the Fifth Column only expanded since then in their efforts to Take Over the World, until a vicious Enemy Civil War resulted in it mostly being absorbed into the Council.
  • Gratuitous Nazis: They are a Nazi cell that escaped from Italy at the end of World War II and made their home in the U.S.. Their numbers may seem rather absurd considering they lost that war; A while they do have a cloning operation, their numbers are actually so high due to all too many of their troops actually coming across the U.S. from the various Nazi-sympathizers, Neo-Nazi, white-supremists, that are unfortunately all too real.
  • Hate Sink: Even the residents of the Rogue Isles hate their guts. In fact, Lord Recluse has standing orders that they be shot on sight and the area any are seen in be carpet bombed. (For context, this is a guy who will negotiate with hostile alien invaders, but won't even slightly humor racist a-holes.)
  • Master Race: Unlike the Council, the 5th Column aren't looking for loopholes to Hitler's philosophy, they are whole-sale white-supremacists.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: They're Nazis, without euphemism. They broke away from The Council specifically because they weren't in it for just power, they were in it for killing off non-Caucasians.
  • Stupid Jetpack Hitler
  • Time Travel: The Fifth Column shows up unexpectedly in the Imperious Task Force in Ancient Grome.

    Sky Raiders 

Sky Raiders

Once an elite special forces unit, the Joint Command Special Threat Response Battalion suffered terrible casualties in the Rikti War. Blaming the heroes of Paragon for the losses his team had suffered, field commander Colonel Duray took them rogue, becoming a group of airborne mercenaries specializing in attacking heroes.
  • Mecha-Mooks: The Jump Bots.
  • Motive Decay: Colonel Duray believes that the increased dependence upon heroes will lead to rule by a superpowered elite. To avert this end, he has lately allied with the Praetorians - soldiers from a parallel world ruled by a superpowered elite.
  • Piñata Enemy: Their low damage output combined with lack of a dangerous gimmick outside of their mobility (which doesn't do much) and their deployable force field generators (which are easy enough to interrupt) makes them easy punching bags for the players.

    Carnival of Shadows 

The Carnival of Shadows

These circus-themed villains are psychic young woman who have fallen under the influence of the powerful psychic Vanessa DeVore, along with their mind-controlled slaves. Their only interest is in their destructive and decadent revels.
  • Psychic Powers
  • That One Attack: The Mask of Vitiation, used by Ring Mistresses and Dark Ring Mistresses. A highly accurate debuff that neuters a player in several critical ways. Fighting one of those bosses is often a Luck-Based Mission.
  • That One Boss: In addition to the above, Master Illusionists. While their damage output is moderate at best, they summon several (as much as six) pets, throw out heavy controls and accuracy debuffs, and worst of all, they spend half the time completely immune to counterattack with no way to stop it, all the while being perfectly capable of attacking themselves.

    Banished Pantheon 

Banished Pantheon

Worshippers of evil gods that were... banished, centuries ago. Their human worshippers are relatively few in number... unfortunately, they also have hordes of zombie minions, as well as animated masks and totems that serve as avatars of the gods. Shortly after the Rikti War, they managed to overwhelm a bustling commercial district of Paragon known as Astoria, forcing the already stretched-thin heroes to abandon it and wall it off, resulting in the Pantheon's servants sacrificing every man, woman and child within it in an attempt to awaken Mot. Now called Dark Astoria, the Banished Pantheon's servants remain there to this day, in the process becoming more powerful as they draw upon Mot's power and attempt to awaken him.

    Crey Industries 

Crey Industries

A corrupt supercorp responsible for most of the world's technology.

    Nemesis 

Nemesis

The Prussian Prince of Automatons, the cunning manipulator known as Lord Nemesis is one of the oldest villains in the setting, battling Statesman when he was just starting out. His Steampunk robots and soldiers remain a threat to stronger heroes to this day - but the greatest threat is, as always, the incredible cunning of Nemesis' twisted mind. He can create impressively lifelike Nemesis Automatons as well as warbots.
  • Bling of War: Appropriate to the steampunk aesthetic, Nemesis soldiers wear vibrantly-colored, ostentatious uniforms resembling those of soldiers from the turn of the 19th century.
  • Body Double: The Fake Nemeses, which share all of the abilities of their creator. Thankfully, they're significantly weaker.
  • Cool Helmet: Tying into the Bling of War trope listed above, Nemesis' soldiers wear a variety of awesome looking archaic helmets, including (keeping in line with Nemesis' Prussian heritage) pickelhaubes!
  • Gas Mask Mooks: Several of Nemesis' higher-ranked soldiers wear gas masks.
  • Goddamned Bats: Nemesis Snipers spawn in normal missions. They have insanely long perception ranges, and will attack you from several spawns away.
  • Man in the Machine: Nemesis Warhulks are operated by Nemesis soldiers who are too badly wounded to function without life support.
  • Matter Replicator: Nemesis' Macro Assemblers, which, when activated, can convert an entire building (or other nearby materials, including people) into a structure of Nemesis' choosing, usually a factory that can churn out more of his automatons.
  • Mecha-Mooks: The (oddly adorable) Jaeger robots. Just look at them! Also any of the Automatons encountered in certain missions.
  • Ornamental Weapon: Officers of the Nemesis Army are granted a ceremonial saber upon their promotion, which they can be seen wearing.
  • Paranoia Fuel: Occasionally, a seemingly harmless civilian will make comments indicating that they're actually a Nemesis Automaton; a few heroes - and potentially even player characters - have been driven into madness and villainy by the belief that Nemesis androids are everywhere.
  • Steampunk: Apparently more advanced than modern technology.
  • Theme Naming: Most of Nemesis' foot soldiers are named after various types of old-world military units. Examples include Dragoons, Hussars, Cuirassiers and Fusiliers.
  • Walking Tank: Warhulks to a T.

    Malta 

Malta

A super-secret black ops paramilitary force within the intelligence community, Malta fears the 'wildcard' nature of supers and seeks to bring them under its control. Originating in a conspiracy forged by high-ranking spies after the 'Might for Right' Act was ruled unconstitutional, the Malta Group itself is almost never seen. Its Operatives, on the other hand, are an all too common threat for powerful heroes - skilled Gunslingers, massive robotic Titans, and the terrifying Sappers, who wield a rifle capable of blocking superpowers.
  • Demonic Spiders: Sappers can take down a hero from full endurance to nothing in one attack chain. Tac Ops have extremely long duration area stuns. Gunslingers have very high damage outputs as well as strong single target controls...
  • Goddamned Bats: ...Titans have very high resistances to all damage types and controls. Engineers summon gun drones that have high HP and give no reward for being destroyed.
    • ... you'll notice the two above lists contain between them every Malta enemy type bar one.
  • Humongous Mecha: The Hercules Titans are only about 8 feet tall, but the Kronos Titan is 50 feet tall.
  • The Man Behind the Man: They play this role in several story arcs in the mid-high levels.
  • Super Registration Act: A law of this sort (written into game lore two years before Marvel's Civil War!) is a major part of there backstory.

    Knives of Artemis 

Knives of Artemis

An elite group of all-female assassins linked to the Malta Group. Their use of caltrops can be especially frustrating.

    Devouring Earth 

Devouring Earth

Created by a god-like super-being known as the Hamidon, the Devouring Earth are a series of creatures based upon plants and Earth-like formations that are completely focused upon the creation of a twisted ecological "eden". The Praetorian version of the Devouring Earth came close to wiping out human civilization.
  • Asteroids Monster: Rock- and crystal-based DE sometimes leave behind smaller minions when destroyed.
  • Gaia's Vengeance: A decidedly evil version.
  • Organ Drops: The Hamidon's unique cellular structure contains very useful power-enhancing elements.
  • The Virus: The Will of the Earth, a strain of telepathic bacteria created by the Hamidon, which is capable of infesting and eventually mutating humans.

Rivals of the Rogue Isles

    Snakes 

Snakes

Why did it have to be snakes? The starter villains of City of Villains are the giant, intelligent serpents known as the Snakes, monsters who lurk in their network of tunnels and kidnap people to feed to their young.
  • Snake People: They have the heads and lower halves of snakes, with scaly skin and hissing voices. The upper ranks sport cobra hoods as well.
  • Sssssnaketalk: They're sssnakesss and hissss when they ssspeak.
  • Starter Villain: They're among the first enemies that new villain players will be tasked with clearing out of Mercy Island.
  • Took a Level in Badass: The Snakes have a surprise reappearance at very high levels in the game, where players have a chance to defeat their Incarnate Queen, Stheno.

    Rogue Isles Police 

Rogue Isles Police

Often found guarding banks, expensive homes, and private clubs, the Rogue Island Police are network of security forces that patrol the isles. Police Chief Kyle “Cal” Calhoun is well known among the elite of the Rogue Isles. A blustery, corpulent man who is welcome at the finest parties and swankiest restaurants, Calhoun rubs shoulders with those closest to Lord Recluse and has been accused of running his organization as Recluse’s personal dragoon.
  • Corrupt Cop: They don't give the slightest damn about enforcing the law — at best, they only protect the interests of people wealthy enough to pay them. This suits Lord Recluse just fine, as the Rogue Isles operates under Social Darwinism.
  • Fun with Acronyms: R.I.P.
  • Mook Commander: "Rippers" are senior officers who can use Tactics from the Leadership pool, to boost the attack accuracy of nearby allies and protect them from confusion powers. The "Deadly Ripper" boss mob can use Maneuvers and Assault, boosting defence and attack strength respectively.
  • Palette Swap: Of the lower rungs of the Paragon Police Department, just sporting Arachnos emblems and blue shirts.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: They only appear as lowbie fodder in Mercy Island and as guards in bank heists, and otherwise have little acknowledgement — when anything resembling law-enforcement does take place, it's usually Arachnos' Doom Troops who are apprehending people, not these guys.

    Mooks 

The Mooks

The Rogue Isles branch of the Family have a few problems. Don Marcone was recently arrested, causing the organisation to split between those who view his arrogant son as the rightful successor, and the Mooks, who believe the true heir is his Consigliere, Guido Verandi. Since Lord Recluse believes that Might Makes Right, he is happy to let them fight amongst themselves to determine which is the stronger... especially since the Family was getting a little too powerful for his liking anyway.

    Coralax 

The Coralax

A undersea race of living coral, they were disturbed by increasing sea pollution and ultimately declared war on the surface races. Mostly seen in game are the Hybrids, humans mutated by the coral into fishy beings, with Captain Mako's sidekick Barracuda being one of these.
  • Green Aesop: Largely ignored - the villains don't really care, and just see them as a threat to be destroyed.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Their actual storyline is barely explored in the game, though it keeps reappearing in a confusing fashion.
    • The Artifact: Coralax were at one point intended to be an Archetype, but this never panned out. This is likely why their story is so haphazard, yet seems to be internally consistent.

    Gold Brickers 

Gold Brickers

A group of high-tech burglars armed with sonic rifles and jetpacks.
  • Bling of War: Gold Brickers have distinctive, flashy uniforms combining gray jodhpur breeches, black single-breasted leather jackets and World War 2 pilot headgear (including goggles and masks) among other things, all appropriately ornamented with (of course) gold. All in all, it gives them an anachronistic Diesel Punk look not unlike that of the titular hero of The Rocketeer.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Gold Brickers can be seen regularly harassing Arachnos soldiers in the streets of Cap Au Diable. The only thing stopping them from getting wiped out is Arachnos' curiousity about where they got their advanced technology from. Turns out most of their tech comes courtesy of Arachnos' own Dr. Aeon.
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Several character mention how odd it is that a man who can turn things to gold by touch feels the need to commit crimes. The truth is he can't, at least not truly. Word of God states that he can turn things that he touches into a substance that looks like gold but has none of the qualities, is obviously fake and thus completely worthless, hence why he turned to crime. Additionally, his skin, while diamond hard, isn't even gold: It's just painted that way for effect.
  • Gold-Colored Superiority: Boomers, the boss-tier Gold Brickers, have shiny golden skin and enhanced resilience to boot. Granted, if it's anything like it is with their boss, it's likely just painted skin.
  • Jet Pack: Essentially their main hat. The Gold Brickers use their rocket packs to make speedy getaways after their burglaries.
  • Make Some Noise: Their other hat. The Gold Brickers exclusively favor sonic weaponry, with Rocketmen and Bombardiers wielding rifles while Boomers are armed with large sonic cannons. The Bombardiers are also packing Sonic Grenades.
  • Meaningful Name: A "goldbrick" is something that looks valuable but isn't. Kind of like the fake gold that King Midas can create with a touch.
  • The Unfought: Their leader, King Midas, is mentioned a few times, but never appears in the game.
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: The Boomers don't wear the trademark leather jackets worn by the Rocketmen and Bombardiers.

    Luddites 

Luddites

A cult of fanatical anti-technology crusaders, often found picketing Dr. Aeon's offices in Cap au Diable. Their leader is a former member of Aeon Corp named Martin Henri, who experienced strange dreams informing him that he was destined to destroy Cap de Diable's Power Transfer System, one of Aeon's crowning infrastructure achivements.
  • Demonic Possession: After the power grid goes down, Martin Henri is possessed by Bat'Zul and attempts to stop the player from restoring the machinery.
  • The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right: The Luddites are nutjobs, but it's obvious that there's something sinister about Aeon's power grid, considering it spits out hostile electricity elementals and animates clockworks. They're entirely right about the Power Transfer System being demonic in nature, but unfortunately sabotaging the machinery serves only to unleash the demons rather than stop them.
  • Evil Luddite: They hate modern science and technology, believing that Aeon Corp's advances are unholy in nature, and their ultimate goal is to destroy the geothermal power plant that keeps Cap au Diable running. They're also the pawns of a Sealed Evil in a Can who will be unleashed once they destroy the power plant. Luddite troops fight with mundane and primitive weapons such as axes and hand-crossbows, never grabbing so much as a pistol to fight the player with.
  • Mook Commander: Luddite Friars support their fellows with the Empathy powers Heal Other and Fortitude.
  • Playing with Fire: Martin Henri has the Fire Blast, Fire Breath and Flash Stomp powers, since he's being possessed by Bat'Zul when you fight him.
  • Unwitting Pawn: It turns out the Luddite cultists are catspaws of the very demons they're ranting about, with Martin Henri's visions granted by the demon lord Bat'Zul, who Aeon has been harnessing as an energy source. When the Luddites finally get an opportunity to disable the PTS, it unleashes a horde of demons upon the island. Unfortunately, when the dust settles, they're still oblivious to what's really going on, and its implied that their next leader after Henri's demise is also being influenced by Bat'Zul.

    Scrapyarders 

Scrapyarders

A coalition of angry blue-collar workers in Sharkhead.
  • Badass Normal: Despite not having any superpowers, it's not at all uncommon for them to give an unprepared villain a severe beating.
  • Good Is Not Nice: Their requests are sensible and they fight the villains, but are themselves often thugs and cons.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: The Scrapyarders are named after a hero called Scrapyard, who was killed by Mako; his ghost can occasionally be found wandering around leading a horde of Scrapyarders.

    Wyvern 

Wyvern

A 'private security organisation' that actually serves as vigilantes within the Isles, battling against all the villainy they can find. They attack using bows and arrows, and some of them have jetpacks. As their weapon of choices hints, they're actually bankrolled by Justin Sinclair, aka Manticore.
  • Annoying Arrows: Painfully averted - their attacks are very powerful.
  • Airborne Mook: Wing Talon, Wing Fang, and Wing Sting Agents.
  • Private Military Contractors: A more heroic example than most, given that they are only contracted to fight Arachnos.
  • Captain Obvious Reveal: So, the bow-wielding crime-fighters who take their name from a flying, venomous, mythical monster and think that the organisation aligned with the setting's main hero group don't go far enough in fighting Arachnos is bankrolled by the (super-wealthy) bow-wielding crime-fighter who takes his name from a flying, venomous mythical monster and thinks that the main hero group doesn't go far enough in fighting Arachnos...huh. Didn't see that one coming.
  • Trick Arrow: Not to extremes, but stronger members do have a few.

    Legacy Chain 

Legacy Chain

A magic-focused hero group that seeks to battle mystical villains and see that magic is not misused. They appear surprisingly infrequently. They are a mixture of sword-wielding Muggle guards and magic-using blasters with a variety of elemental powers.

    Wailers 

Wailers

Sonic-powered demons that infest St. Martial, eager to collect the soul of the popular crooner Johnny Sonata, who made a deal with them for his fame and now seeks to break it. While he hides within the mystically warded Golden Giza casino, they ravage the island.

    Arachnoids 

Arachnoids

Monstrous and mutated spider-like beings that infest the caves and tunnels beneath the Rogue Isles capital of Grandville. They were actually created as part of an Arachnos experiment to replicate Lord Recluse's powerful abilities, but it didn't work.

Factions of Praetoria

    Praetorian Police 

Praetorian Police Department

The PPD keep order within Praetoria, and on the surface appear to be noble and honorable protectors of the utopian city, armed with advanced nonlethal 'force' weaponry. Some of them even fit this characterisation! Unfortunately, the rest of them run from zealous followers of Emperor Cole to corrupt bullies happy to abuse their power.

Most of them are openly resentful of Powers Division, the elite superpowered idols that Praetorian player characters are new members of.

At higher levels, they tend to be superseded by their elite division, T.E.S.T.

  • Badass Longcoat: The Interrogators, it's even mentioned in their descriptions that this is just part of their intimidation factor.
  • State Sec: Although the PPD is openly seen keeping order, it also has some more sinister divisions. It can also 'disappear' people.
  • Powered Armor: Used by T.E.S.T.
  • Tricked-Out Gloves and Power Fist: Their special power gauntlets let them hit things hard in melee or at a range, and a closer look reveals keypads and display screens implying they have more functions than just smashing.

    Seer Network 

Seer Network

Psychics drafted by Mother Mayhem, this giant Hive Mind of sorts continously scans the minds of preatorian citizens looking for criminal intent. Breaking seers out from the Network is one of the main goals of the resistance.
  • Enemy Scan: At higher levels they can do this to you. Similar to the Blaster Epic and Arachnos Soldier power Surveillance, it also debuffs your damage resistance and defense. (Since, obviously, NPCs are not interested in your stat blocks)
  • Psychic Powers
  • Detect Evil in a sort of combination with Spider-Sense
  • Mook Maker the Seers stationed around the streets of Praetoria will teleport in squads of PPD if attacked
    • Or if you just walk past them claiming to 'Detect hostile thoughts'. Given how Praetoria works, it seems even mind reading psychics need to be Properly Paranoid.

    The Syndicate 

The Syndicate

Due to the existence of the Seers, "normal" crime is very rare in Praetoria (the crime that exists is, essentially, either state-sponsored or highly organized) The Syndicate has its own cadre of psychics to hide themselves from the Seers' gaze, and they're a conglomerate of pretty much every remaining criminal gang there is. They have infiltrated (depending on your POV) either most of the corporate world in Praetoria, or its criminal gangs. Their style is very much The Matrix or Vampire: The Masquerade inspired: Trenchoats, katanas, dual-wielding guns...

    Ghouls 

Ghouls

The tunnels beneath Praetoria swarm with a horde of creatures known as the Ghouls - zombie-like monstrosities that defend 'their' territory fiercely and occasionally attack the city above once their numbers grow large enough. Since the ghouls serve to make the tunnels unsafe for the Resistance, there is little interest in wiping them out entirely, only in keeping them contained. And for their part, the Resistance seeks a way to utilise their underground neighbours as well...
  • Goddamn Bats: They can be deeply annoying for some archetypes, since they appear at a very early level but can still pack quite a punch, especially in large numbers. And they tend to appear in large numbers. To make matters worse, they frequently spawn as ambushes, often at the worse possible time, while some of them lurk 'above' dropping down. All of this can lead to an unwary player finding themselves battling a very large number of Ghouls at once - and at a low enough level that they won't have many attacks to fight them with - all the while their healing aura makes them difficult to put down at any speed.
  • Shoot the Medic First: Horribly averted - Ghouls release a healing aura upon death, which can make packs of them annoying to deal with.
  • Underground Monkey: At higher levels, they are replaced with 'Failed Experiments' - similar-looking, and just as territorial but far smarter; they are the products of Praetor Berry's mad science.

    Destroyers 

Destroyers

The destroyers are a gang of drug-addicted psychos who (true to their name) seems mostly interested in causing destruction for it's own sake. They combine military-grade weaponry with Fixadine-enhanced super-strong brawlers. It is later revealed that the Destroyers are actually remnants of Marauder's old followers, that he's set up to use as a training wheels for new Powers Division members. They're pretty much the Praetorian version of the Trolls and Freakshow.
  • Demonic Spiders: A basic, and thus common enemy, you will run into, without fail, every mob, is a Blast Master. Armed with explosives that have a high chance for knockback (when even melee toons aren't likely to have knock back protection) and able to create multiple patches of fire that deal damage overtime make them difficult for anyone to deal with. To make things worse, they have no special flags like the Malta Sapper and multiples can spawn in a mob.
  • Super Serum: Fixadine
  • That One Boss: Destroyer bosses, Big Dogs, are nearly immune to control effects, making them a right pain for any Dominator, Controller, or even any character that relies on stuns or knockdown for survival.

    Praetorian Clockwork 

Praetorian Clockwork

Unlike their Primal counterparts, Praetorian Clockwork were created by Neuron and Anti-Matter to do all sorts of work. They're omnipresent in Praetoria, doing all sorts of work. The Resistance likes to smash or reprogram them whenever they can. They even have a counterpart to the Clockwork King of Primal Earth: Metronome, a kind of psychic 'ghost' capable of possessing multiple clockwork, and seeking vengeance for his death and a new, powerful body.
  • Goddamn Bats: Their basic attacks, even at low levels, reduce regeneration. In large groups, it can be strong enough to prevent natural healing entirely, at a level when a character is unlikely to have an active heal yet. As if that wasn't enough, they deal nearly purely Energy damage, which is very rarely resisted at low levels, and due to their lack of melee attacks, are hard to herd for AoEs.
  • Robo Speak: When speaking with humans, in addition, the clockwork has their own "code" language. Which can occasionally be quite funny.
  • Shoot the Medic First: A valid tactic, as Clockwork L Ts can either heal (Mender/Repair Bot/Repair Companion) or resurrect (Builder/Fabricator Bot/Construction Companion) other Clockwork, including bosses.
  • Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Scrub bots with plasma weapons!
    • Possibly justified since Praetoria is a paranoid police state, and at any time these things can be used as impromptu riot control. Admittedly, their official description (done as an advertisement) actually list this as a positive feature when being sold to the private sector.
  • Underground Monkey: At higher levels, the normal clockwork are replaced with the advanced variants designed by the two rival mad scientists, Neuron and Anti-Matter. They gain an attack or two in the process, but are otherwise unchanged.
    • Also possibly justified since Neuron has a history of stealing ideas and inventions from Anti-Matter (it's even one of his missions) and the latter has supposedly stolen tech from Primal Earth himself.

    Warworks 

Warworks

Warworks are basically military-grade Clockwork, bigger, badder and packing more heat.
  • Blade Below the Shoulder: The choice weapon of the Mark-VI "Victoria" when they're not using their Eye Beams
  • The Faceless: War-walkers do not have any apparent face besides a reflective triangle on the center of their head.
    • Though if this were ever confirmed to be their eye, it would qualify them instead as Cyber Cyclops.
  • Humongous Mecha: The War-walkers, especially Goliath-class.
    • Actually, considering all but the Mark-VI "Victoria" are taller than most players can make their characters, the whole faction pretty much applies.
  • Kill Sat: Actually Averted. The War Walkers have devastatingly powerful (but easy to avoid even without dodge based defensive powers) Orbital Lance attack. But if you are able to see the animation, they're simply firing laser blasts up into the air that arc back down and hit you.
  • Mecha-Mooks

    Imperial Defence Force 

Imperial Defence Force

The official army of Praetoria, mainly fielding "lethal" versions of the PPD's force weapons, as well as rockets, drones, combat psychics and big hulking robots - Warworks are actually a part of this group.
  • Awesome Backpack: Heavy Troopers have a big, bulky backpack that unfurls into a set of four six-tube rocket pods. Heavy Commanders and Commander Duray slap a pair of plasma miniguns onto that.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: Heavy Troopers and Heavy Commanders have a rotation of no less than four attacks that each fires a volley of spiraling rockets, resulting in a near-constant onslaught.
  • Powered Armor
  • Tricked-Out Gloves and Power Fist: Like the Praetorian Police Department and T.E.S.T. most of the IDF make use of these to empower their punches, fire energy blasts at their opponents, and looking closely at them shows keypads and displays on the inside of the arm, suggesting they also can function as some form of PDA

    The Resistance 

The Resistance

In the tunnels underneath Praetoria hide the Resistance against Cole's regime. Sympathisers and secret members can be found on the surface, too, in the most unexpected places - noble journalists attempting to uncover the darker secrets of the government, PPD detectives who have grown to hate the corruption...

But not all of the resistance is so noble. Some of them are little more than terrorists, seeking to cause destruction for the sake of vengeance or in the belief that disrupting the utopian facade of Praetoria will awaken the citizenry to the truth behind Cole's regime.

  • BFG: The Heavy Barrels wield mobile artillery cannons
  • Guns Akimbo: Resistance Officers
  • Goddamn Bats: All Resistance deal out heavy defense debuffs from their massed machinegun fire, combining it with good DPS from their power punches. This results is very high damage output.
  • Enemy Civil War: Some of the Warden Resistance arcs sees the player battling against the more zealous terrorist elements of the resistance; loyalists also get the chance to see the divisions within the Resistance.
  • Powered Armor: It's somewhat thrown together, but it certainly seems to serve them well enough. It's also what allows the Heavy Barrels and Heavy Hands to have the strength to pull off their jobs.
  • Power Fist: Their gloves allow them to sheath their fists in energy, the Heavy Hands tend to take this this further.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Like any proper La RĂ©sistance, its members tend to only have the dissatisfaction with the state, the willingness to do SOMETHING about it, and uniforms in common with one another.

    Forlorn 

The Forlorn

Former ghouls restored to sanity by the Resistance, the Forlorn have headed to First Ward in an attempt to find their own path.
  • Expy: Former 'ghouls' with their minds, haunted by the memories of the atrocities they committed? Even their name is reminiscent of the Forsaken.

    D.U.S.T. 

D.U.S.T.

An elite brigade drawn from the upper ranks of the Praetorian Police, the Direct Urban Strike Team is using First Ward as a training ground, killing everyone they see.
  • Fun with Acronyms: An obvious case, but a Resistance member refers to them as the Dimwitted Urban Strike Team instead.
  • Redshirt Army / Mooks: They're initially presented as a serious threat to the player but are wiped out en masse by the real threats of First Ward.
  • Palette Swap: in terms of appearance, they're T.E.S.T. officers with a camo pattern, though they're much more unique in terms of their powers.

    Apparitions 

Apparitions

First Ward is swarming with these terrifying and insane ghosts, which can possess people with ease. Discovering the source of these spirits becomes an important goal for the player.
  • Body Snatcher: Their specialty is taking over living beings. One almost manages to pull it on the Player Character.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: Even by these standards, the Apparitions are weird: They're personality fragments of living Seers, severed and discarded by Mother Mayhem as part of their introduction into the Seer Network.

    Awakened 

The Awakened

Mother Mayhem's experiments aren't always successful, and don't always produce happy Seers. The Awakened are the failures - twisted horrors driven over the edge by their uncontrollable psychic powers.
  • Body Horror: Most notably with the Suppressors, who have enormous head tentacles.
  • From Bad to Worse: Those tentacles? Cancerous growths in their brain.
  • Hell Is That Noise: Awakened psychic attacks are accompanied by a discordant mess of oscillating sounds.

    Carnival of Light 

Carnival of Light

The Good Counterpart of Primal Earth's Carnival of Shadows, the Carnival of Light is a noble group of mystics seeking to save Praetoria. Unfortunately, there is dissension in the ranks, with a splinter group known as the Carnival of War believing that they should be prepared to take the war to Tyrant.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Possibly moreso than the Resistance, though it makes for more sense with where their main base of operations is.

    Carnival of War 

Carnival of War

The aggressive and extremist counterpart to the Carnival of Light. Although not necessarily hostile to players, they do have notably short fuses, and tend to view people as enemies quite easily.
  • The Corruptible: Their preoccupation with getting payback against their foes results in most of them becoming corrupted by the Furies' Hate Plague, forming yet another splinter faction called the Carnival of Vengeance.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: They're essentially a "crusader" split from the otherwise warden-like Carnival of Light.
  • Palette Swap: Of the Carnival of Light for the most part. Their wands and masks tend to have different modeling geometries, but they otherwise wear the same cosumes, use the same powers, and have the same arrangement of enemy types.
  • Training the Gift of Magic: They're the ones responsible for training members of the Resistance into the magic-augmented Runesoldiers. A quest in the First Ward on behalf of a loyalist spy has the player bust up one of their hidden training camps.

    Carnival of Vengeance 
Yet another splinter of the Carnival of Light, originating from the Carnival of War. They have succumbed to the siren call of the Furies and now are completely blinded by rage and hate.
  • Good Powers, Bad People: They still sling the same Luminous Bolts and other light-themed powers used by the Carnivals, but now they're doing it as frothing berserkers under the influence of a Hate Plague.
  • Hate Plague: The coming of the Talons of Vengeance rapidly corrupts everyone in First Ward who has hatred and vengeance in their hearts, and the militant Carnival of War is swiftly destroyed from within as its more jaded members go berserk.
  • Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: They used to be members of the War Carnival motivated by hatred against their foes, but after succumbing to a magical Hate Plague they've abandoned all pretense of nobility and are now just a pack of murderous psychopaths, lashing out at everyone and everything.
  • Palette Swap: Of the Carnival of Light, again. This time they're Red and Black and Evil All Over
  • Winged Humanoid: The Furies' Hate Plague eventually bestows dramatic mutations on those who join the Talons of Vengeance, and Vindictive Mistresses have already mutated feathery wings that enable them to fly.

    Midnight Masters 

The Midnight Masters

The Praetorian version of the Midnight Club fled the rise of Praetoria by transporting their mansion headquarters into the spirit realm, in a region known as the Night Ward. However, a traitor known as the Midnight Master murdered them all and reanimated them as his undead slaves. After the death of Master Midnight the undead mages regained their minds and will. They now lead the investigation into the mysterious growth of the Night Ward from the safety of the Midnight Mansion.
  • Cursed with Awesome: How they view becoming undead, after they regain their free will. Being trapped forever between the realms of life and death just gives them an eternity to pursue their arcane studies.
  • Evil Doppelgänger: To the Primal Earth Midnight Club; in addition, the Midnight Master is Praetorian Percy Winkley. Ultimately subverted — After Master Midnight's death, the revenants regain their free will and promptly return to being the heroic Midnight Club. Not much later, even Master Midnight regains his sanity after being brought back to life.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Once the Praetorian Midnighters are free from Master Midnight, they treat being sapient undead as this and go about business as usual.

    Talons of Vengeance 

Talons of Vengeance

Ancient, mystical horrors and servants of the Furies; according to legend, the Talons would appear when an oathbreaker goes unpunished, unleashing a tide of rage and blood that could wipe out whole countries. And now, they have appeared in Praetoria, apparently under the command of of a woman called Sorceress Serene.
  • Harping on About Harpies: Many of their members sprout wings and taloned feet, evoking the harpies of Greek myth.
  • Hate Plague: Those with anger and vengeance in their hearts can be corrupted into joining the Talons, and in a Crapsack World wracked by civil war they've got a massive recruiting pool to work with. This is bad news for Cerulean and the militant Carnival of War, who become warped into the Carnival of Vengeance.
  • Our Banshees Are Louder: Surprisingly for a faction mainly tied to Greek myth, banshees from Celtic mythology are present among the Talons' ranks, of the Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl type.

    Drudges 

Drudges

The guardians of the veil that shepherd souls onward - but the drudges aren't carrying out a mystical duty. Instead, they're selfish and cowardly, working for the Wax that sustains their existence and viewing both the living and the dead as a resource to be exploited to this end.
  • Old-Fashioned Copper: Their rank-and-file are inexplicably styled after British bobbies, and Night Ward's streets are dotted with blue police boxes that aren't present in First Ward. Of course, the whole lot of them are corrupt jerks only interested in getting their paycheck, and they take a dim view of the living intruding on their business.
  • Psychopomp: Their job is to collect the souls of the dead and ferry them off to their afterlives, in return for the magical wax that keeps them alive. Night Ward becoming trapped between the realms of life and death has caused their system to break down, and they're very eager to get things back on track.

    Animus Arcana 

Animus Arcana

The various spells and enchanted artefacts that protect the Midnight Mansion have become alive and intelligent with the death of Master Midnight.

    Black Knights 

The Black Knights

The ancient guardians of the Eternal Prison have come to Night Ward seeking Black Swan, but a schism within their order has made them vulnerable to exploitation by those seeking to breach the prison and unleash the ancient horrors within.
  • BFS: Black Knights LOVE this troupe as among the first NPC group to make use to Titan Weapons.
  • Irony: Pendragon has an affair with the Black Queen, the wife of his leader, he only narrowly avoids disgrace because Bedwyr takes the fall for him. Also doubles as a Mythology Gag
  • Lawful Stupid: They will follow their Queen no matter what... Even if she tells them to do exactly the opposite of their job and open up the Eternal Prison, they do not change allegiances until AFTER said Queen reveals she's really the Big Bad in disguise.

    Spirit Stalkers 

Spirit Stalkers

The minions of the monstrous shadowhunter, and the embodiment of savage nature. The spirit stalkers are beasts and huntsman who prey upon the spirits of the dead.


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