Azorius 24 Pantheon / Sandbox

Approved proposal drafts

Death Korps of Krieg (Warhammer 40,000)

"In life, war. In death, peace. In life, shame. In death, atonement."

The Death Korps of Krieg, Holy Army of Self-Sacrifice Seekers (Kriegsmen, Kriegers)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kreig.jpeg

Prospective location: Hall of Suicide and Sacrifice, House of Death and Postmortem.
Rank: Intermediate as a whole. The vast majority of troops are Demigods, members of elite units such as the Grenadiers and Death Riders may be Lesser Deities instead.
Symbol: The gas-masked and helmeted head of a Death Korps solder.
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Portfolio: Gas-mask-wearing Badass Army of artificially-conceived soldiers, indoctrinated from birth to desire nothing more than their death fighting in the Emperor’s name. High losses during training far exceeded by the immense losses they shrug off during their favoured warfare, sieges. All this to make amends for a centuries-old rebellion. Don’t have names — only numbers, wielders of entrenching tools, Nazi imagery, includes men and women, but you'd never tell them apart, so inhuman they creep out everyone that encounters them.
Domains: War, Sacrifice, Devotion, Clones, Gas Masks, Nuclear Weapons.
Herald: Colonel Jurten, their de facto founder.
(Reluctant) Superior: The God-Emperor of Mankind
Allies: All Imperial deities, especially the Adeptas Sororitas. The Helghan Empire, Leonidas, the Flagellant and Bishop Mozgus, HUNK.
Rivals: The 501st Legion.
Conflicting Opinion: Ciaphas Cain.
Enemies: All foes of the Imperium of Man, especially Abbadon, Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka and the Tyranids, the Hierarchs, pretty much all other non-human deities out of principle, anyone else the Emperor tells them to fight.
Respects: Rogue One.
Admired By: The Combine, Emperor Palpatine, The Overlords.
The world of Kreig was once a prosperous Imperial planet, but its greedy ruling classes weren't satisfied, and decided to secede from the Imperium — something that's usually a death sentence. But in Kreig's case, the planet was protected by powerful defence systems, rendering any effort to retake the planet at best a Pyrrhic Victory for the loyalists. With this protection, and most of the planet barring small holdouts under their control, the rulers of Kreig thought they'd gotten away with the impossible, but they couldn't have been more wrong, having underestimated the true extent of the remaining loyalists' fanaticism. Or more specifically, that of their commander, Colonel Jurten.
Jurten managed to gain access of a stock of nuclear weapons, and bathed the entire planet in radioactive hellfire to even the odds with the rebels. Using banned vitae-womb technology, the loyalists were able to rapidly produce an army of unflinchingly loyal soldiers, who quickly became accustomed to the brutal war of attrition raging across the irradiated hellscape of Kreig. Five hundred years after the first bombs fell, Imperial command off-world was notified of victory — and presented with the first regiments of Death Korps soldiers, many millions strong, desperate to throw themselves into the very worst battles of the 40th millennium in order to redeem themselves in the eyes of their Emperor.
Rumors began to spread amongst the galaxy that the Emperor was alive and well in another reality. Through unknown methods, and at the cost of a mere 80 million lives, the Death Korps found a way to enter the Pantheon. Their greatest generals immediately prostrated themselves before the Emperor, wishing only to fight in the bloodiest battles imaginable to complete their atonement to Him. The Emperor, however, was not at all pleased to find out about the Death Korps — it's well-known that he doesn't like being seen as a god, while having a death cult in his name is something better suited to the Ruinous Powers. Nevertheless, in the end, the Master of Mankind's intense pragmatism won out: it's not like an army of unquestioningly obedient soldiers isn't useful, and he reluctantly allowed them to take up residence in the House of Death and Postmortem.
Following their ascension, dictators, despots and tyrants of all stripes found the Death Korps truly impressive — being competent, utterly devoted to their superiors, and not only willing but eager to lay down their lives, they could be described as the perfect minions. The Combine in particular was fascinated to discover that humans would willingly create something like the Death Korps of their own volition, and even extended friendly overtures to discuss the Kreigers' indoctrination and augmentation techniques. The only reply was "We shall crush you, XENOS FILTH!", and they decided not to press the matter further.
While many within the Death Korps were delighted to meet Ciaphas Cain, the fabled HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!, they reserve a certain degree of suspicion for him, given the persistent rumours that he's actually a massive coward. They've not seen anything that merits gutting him on a bayonet... yet.
They have some degree of respect for the members of Rogue One, given their dedication to completing the mission on Scarif, leading to the entire squad dying an honourable death. Given that the Imperium is demonstrably worse than the Galactic Empire, the Rebel heroes unsurprisingly want nothing whatsoever to do with "those gas-masked creeps".
There is an awful lot of bad blood between them and the 501st. The Stormtroopers know that, in the end, they're expendable, but can't help but be disturbed by people who seem to revel in it, viewing the Kreigsmen as inhuman psychopaths. The Death Korps, in turn, consider the Stormtroopers to be incompetent cowards who'd lose to a rabble of Ork Grots — they don't even use melee weapons, after all. What sort of soldiers are they?

Maine's Crew (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners)

Maine's Crew^Members, Gods of Winning Back The Crowd (The Edgerunners crew; David: Mijo, Dimples, The Sandevistan from Santo, Sandevistan Savant, D, Debido; Rebecca: Becca, Becky, Bex, Gun Gremlin)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/edgerunners_crew.jpeg

Left to right: Dorio, Maine, Lucy, David, Pilar, Rebecca and Kiwi.

^Falco

^Sasha

Prospective Location: Hall of Positive Reaction, House of Popularity.
Rank: Intermediate as a whole. Maine is a Lesser God, all others are Demigods, barring David: he is a Demigod with the Sandevistan alone, Lesser God with his additional cyberware, and an Intermediate God when using the Cyberskeleton.
Symbol: A stylized green "Edgerunners" monogram.
Theme Song: This Fffire (collectively), I Really Want to Stay at Your House (David and Lucy), Who's Ready for Tomorrow (David), Zurawie (Maine), Let You Down (Sasha).
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral as a whole, with some leanings towards Chaotic Good. David and Maine are Chaotic Crazy when suffering from Cyberpsychosis.
Portfolio:
- As a group: True Companions, Edgerunners, Anti Heroes, Ragtag Bunch of Misfits, Cyberpunks who revived the eponymous franchise, Netrunners, over-the-top violence, Future Slang, Battle Couples, Tragedy, History Repeats, Cybernetics Eat Your Soul, Dwindling Party, Doomed by Canon, "Everybody Dies" Ending
- David and Lucy: Boy Meets Girl, Opposites Attract, Official Couple, tragic lovers, Poor Communication Kills, True Love's Kiss, Going to the Moon
- David: Shōnen protagonist deconstruction, Built Different, except not really, Sandevistan Speed, goes from naïve schoolkid to mercenary, hot-headed and reckless, Determinator, Idolized Maine, becomes the leader, chrome addiction, Heroic RRoD, gives his life for Lucy's, Defiant to the End, Night City Legend
- Lucy: Femme Fatale, Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Cool Smoking, Minored in Ass-Kicking with Monowire, very unpleasant backstory, Defrosting Ice Queen, Single Woman Seeks Good Man, Ms. Fanservice, Violently Protective Girlfriend, architect of her own misery, owes a lot to Neon Genesis Evangelion, Sole Survivor
- Maine: The Leader and The Big Guy, Large and in Charge, David's mentor and surrogate father. Projectile Launch System, Super-Strength, signature sunglasses, Walking Shirtless Scene, Benevolent Boss, at least until he descends into Cyberpsychosis, "Keep running"
- Dorio: Amazonian Beauty, Team Mom, wears No Shirt, Long Jacket, Vasquez Always Dies
- Rebecca: Action Girl, short stature and temper, especially popular, really, really, likes firearms, Power Fists, Stripperiffic Shameless Fanservice Girl, Tattooed Crook, Lady Swears-a-Lot, Blood Knight, more empathetic than she lets on, Undying Loyalty, Smashed by Adam
- Pilar: Weird arms, and just weird overall, All Men Are Perverts, has a mohawk, Plucky Comic Relief, Jerkass, Shoo Out the Clowns
- Kiwi: Spider Motifs, Deadpan Snarker, Gas Mask, Longcoat, No Mouth, The Mole, Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves and lives just long enough to regret it
- Falco: Sharp-Dressed Man in the Western style, Southern Gentleman, Badass Normal and Driver, Luxuriant Moustache, Non-Action Guy, Only Sane Man
- Sasha: Posthumous Character who's All There in the Manual, Wolverine Claws, It's Personal, Bubblegum Popping, probably responsible for Maine's Cyberpsychosis, Go Out with a Smile
Domains: Cybernetics, Mercenaries, Firearms, Friendship, Madness, Violence, Loyalty, Love
Allies: Rogue One, The Boys, Adam Jensen, Terry McGinnis/Batman, Gunvolt, Raiden, Emmet, Wyldstyle and Uni-Kitty, non-Evil residents in the Hall of Cybernetics and Enhancements
- David: Edward Elric, Shinji Ikari, Adrian Chase/Vigilante
- Lucy: Rei Ayanami, Motoko Kusanagi, Jill Stingray
- Rebecca: Harley Quinn (in her less evil incarnations), Seras Victoria, Mirai and Katyusha, Dorothy Haze
- Kiwi: Widowmaker
- Falco: Landon Ricketts, Dominic Toretto
Enemies: Gus Fring, Lord Djibril, the Glukkons, Philip Price, Lionel Starkweather, Lord Business, Grey Mann
- David: Hunter Zolomon
Opposed by: RoboCop
Fixers: Lofwyr, Greef Karga.
Commonality Connection with: Anakin Skywalker (David)
Fears:
- Khorne (David and Maine)
- Baby (Rebecca)
When you live in the cesspool of violence, crime, misery, vice, depravity, and more violence that is Night City, you don’t have a lot of options. Like most people, you can rot away in the streets and the slums, working a soul-destroying menial job and getting paid just enough to buy the artificial slop you subsist on. If you’ve got the right connections, you can join the Corpo-rat race, and endure a life of overwork, brown-nosing, quite literal backstabbing and shameless nepotism until your boss forces you to take the fall for their latest fuck-up. And if that’s not an option, you can always become a gangoon: you spend your days fighting for your life and for power, your leader might kill you for looking at them funny, and you’re dead meat as soon as you piss off someone who’s got a bigger gun or more chrome than you do. But, if you’ve got the brains, the brawn or the cunning to make it work, you can try to make it as an Edgerunner: a mercenary, working for the highest bidder. Sure, the life of a merc isn’t a long one, but there are perks: eddies, excitement, camaraderie, and most importantly, freedom. Or as close as you’re doing to get to it in NC. And in 2076, a particular group of Edgerunners, led by the military veteran Maine, cross paths with down-on-his-luck street kid David Martinez.
At this point, David is out of options. His mom Gloria, who had been working herself to the bone as a EMT (and illegal cyberware dealer) to pay for his corporate education, got caught up in a drive-by and died as a result of Night City's awful healthcare system. Not, perhaps, thinking straight, he decides to get himself implanted with Gloria's latest acquisition, a military-grade Sandevistan spinal implant for the purpose of beating up his school bully, discovering in the process that he has an abnormally high tolerance for cybernetics. Eventually, he gets entangled with Maine and the other Edgerunners, who'd used to work with Gloria themselves. Despite a rocky start, David eventually bonds with the team and falls in love with Lucy, learning how to become an Edgerunner for himself. But after Pilar gets flatlined by a half-naked homeless cyberpsycho, things start to go downhill.
Soon afterwards, a job to steal data from a high-ranking Arasaka executive goes horrendously wrong — Maine succumbs to Cyberpsychosis and is killed along with Dorio, after Lucy intentionally killed the exec after learning he was planning to experiment on David. Following this, David becomes the leader of the surviving Edgerunners and, like Maine before him, loads himself up with cyberware to protect the others, driving him to the brink of psychosis. Soon enough though, the crew meets the fate of all Edgerunners: their duplicitous Fixer Faraday strikes a deal with Arasaka to sell them out in exchange for a post in the Corpo hierarchy. With the help of Kiwi, Lucy is kidnapped and used to draw David into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge utilising their terrifying prototype weapon, the Cyberskeleton. This machine rapidly breaks what's left of David's sanity, though he stays together just long enough to save Lucy, before being put down by Night City's Boogeyman, Adam Smasher. Only Falco and Lucy survive, with the latter finally achieving her life's ambition to go to the Moon... At a truly terrible cost.
Were transported into the Pantheon due to the machinations of Lofwyr, who was intrigued by their similarities to the Runners of his own universe. After a somewhat awkward introduction which involved several firearms pointed at the head of the mysterious "Mr. Brackhaus" after they materialised in front of him, the crew have begrudging accepted the dragon as their de facto Fixer and guide to the Pantheon, after repeated assurances that he's not plotting to betray them.
- More recently, they've also been taking on bounty-hunting work for Greef Karga. Aku also attempted to hire them, and despite severe misgivings they reluctantly agreed to a meeting — where Rebecca promptly torpedoed any potential partnership by laughing at his flaming eyebrows. Thankfully, they (narrowly) managed to escape with their lives from that predicament.
The crew has a uncomfortable relationship with Alex Murphy a.k.a. RoboCop: to him, the Edgerunners are a band of dangerous outlaws, while from their perspective he evokes unwelcome memories of MAX-TAC, or worse, Adam Smasher. At the same time, Murphy puts them lower on his priority list than violent gangs and corrupt mega-corporations, while the Edgerunners begrudgingly admit that Night City could have done with a lot more cops like him, who might actually have the determination and firepower to try and clean up the Wretched Hive.
One day, Lucy happened upon a bar named VA-11 HALL-A, or Valhalla. Upon striking up a conversation with the bartender, Jill Stingray, she was pleasantly surprised to find that she hailed from a world very much like her own, and that they had other things in common. As such, she's often brought the rest of the crew along for drinks — except from Pilar, who, much to the exasperation of his teammates, was banned in five minutes flat for repeatedly hitting on every woman in sight, even after being informed that most of them were gay.
- Subsequently, Rebecca and Dorothy Haze got on like a house on fire, prone to having 'candid' conversations which make everyone else within earshot visibly uncomfortable. After finding out about Dorothy's abilities, Rebecca enthusiastically proclaimed that she'd be a great Edgerunner — though Dorothy politely declined.
After encountering several brick-based beings whose adventures were eerily reminiscent of their own experiences, the whole crew promptly sought out the nearest source of hard liquor.
On his days off, Falco can often be found in a dusty saloon with Landon Ricketts, trading bourbon, cigars, war stories and moustache-grooming tips.
It's no secret that Khorne finds cyberpsychosis to be rather amusing, and the Blood God has made it clear that he enjoyed Maine and David's rampages — and that any "repeat performance" would please him greatly. David and Maine are, naturally, horrified by this, and are attempting to avoid any contact with his Daemons, knowing that he intends to drive them to psychosis once more.