Halt Evil Doer! megaverse thread

[Charles Phipps]

(3) How do Merlin - Who I think should keep a striped towel around his neck, often mistake for a scarf Wink - and Adrian Eldrich relate to each other?

Adrian Eldrich is still Earth's Master Mage on Merged Earth. However, Merlin is certainly Adrian's greatest rival for the title and many speculate that he could take it if he wished. What few realize is that Merlin was probably responsible for Adrian gaining the position in the first place and was a previous holder of it on Merged Earth. In the merged Earth, Merlin almost certainly gave the younger Adrian the clues necessary to find the tomb, after tracking down the ancient mage's reincarnation.

In truth, Merlin and he HAVE fought on several occasions, with Adrian winning 4 battles out of 3 because of his superior determination to win and combat skill as much as greater grasp of the mystical arts. Merlin lacks Adrian's devotion to justice and is too concerned about his own life to really want to throw down to the degree that the self-sacrificing Eldrich is willing to. Unfortunately - for Eldrich - Merlin is also a man whose mind functions on levels few could conceive of and if the archmage was ever serious then Adrian would have probably lost the battle before they fought.

On Adrian's part, he considers Merlin to be pretty much emblematic of what Archmages should not be. Merlin is an interfering busybody who considers himself above the mortals of the universe and that it is his place to manipulate them like pawns when necessary. He's also quite certain that Merlin is no longer all there and truly irresponsible with the magic he does wield (quite accurate). Plenty of archmages have gone more than a little "coco for cuckoo puffs" as Merlin describes himself, from too much power and Merlin is a borderline case.

Merlin, on the other hand, considers this to be a case of "pot, kettle, black." Eldrich has certainly played the omnipotent meddler on numerous occasions himself. Merlin believes that Adrian is setting himself up for a fall by divorcing himself from humanity and living in his sanctum where it's still the 1920s. As Merlin would point out, Eldrich probably has no idea who the Beatles are, let alone Douglas Adams (Merlin's favourite author). Merlin believes that while he may treat people like pawns, he at least walks amongst humans like an equal. That's something Adrian doesn't and which will cost him in the coming centuries.

I leave it up to readers who they think is correct.

In general, Adrian is willing to leave Merlin alone because of the fact that he is an enemy of the Inferno and the Entropic Masters. Merlin will continue to defend the Earth Realm, in part because "all of my stuff is there” and Adrian doesn't have anyone who could pick up the man's slack. He neither trusts nor likes the old master though.

Merlin, on the other hand, believes Adrian works very well as a tool to help undermine the power of beings like Una, Malador and the various powerful sorcerers in the Multiverse. Merlin could honestly care less about Medea's war against the Y chromosome or the pettiness of someone like Hell Queen that Eldrich deals with and actually dismisses their danger. Merlin deals with what he believes to be cosmic threats and alien forces rather than "Human evils, which are, simply put, human. Whether they deal with magic or not."

So, you can tell this is not the start of a beautiful friendship.

[Libra]

Anyone tell me if they can understand all I just wrote?

Indeed. If you like I can clarify it a bit.

Hmmm. . .so Satan is feeling decidedly Luciferian nowadays, eh?

I'm trying to come up with a few questions concerning the fictional metropolises of Heroic Earth - Hopefully not too probing, just looking for a few tidbits more about them. Would that be all right Charles?

[Charles Phipps]

Clarification, GASP, even commentary would be appropriate.

And yes, I can talk about the fictional cities.

Just don't expect full fledged articles.

[Libra]

City Questions - For any Heroic Earth cities, in any order you care to answer them:

(1) What are the major influences/best references for the character of the city? (i.e Falconcrest is clearly Gotham, but which version[s] of Gotham are the closest in spirit?)

(2) What type of heroes would suit the city best?

(3) Describe a suitable plot hook ot two for an adventure sit in the city.

(4) Who are the major local NPC characters/institutions of the city?

(5) Describe the major landmarks of the city.

Are these questions suitable Charles? While I'm happy to take answers in the order you type them, I'm particularly interested in Freehold.

[Charles Phipps]

Sure

I'll happily answer.

Though by Clarifications, I meant comments.

[Charles Phipps]

Freehold

(1) What are the major influences/best references for the character of the city? (i.e Falconcrest is clearly Gotham, but which version[s] of Gotham are the closest in spirit?)

Freehold is the Heroic Earth version of Boston, Massachusetts. I happened to like the subversion that the Heroic Earth version of Spiderman tends to move under much smaller buildings than the ones found in New York. Other influences are H.P. Lovecraft's Arkham, which helps explain its weird and surreal character.

(2) What type of heroes would suit the city best?

Heroes in Freehold would probably be very well to be supernatural ones or ones motivated by investigation. It's somewhat lower key than Falconcrest City or New Amsterdam, and meant for more personal fights rather than hordes of mooks or devastating world shattering villains.

(3) Describe a suitable plot hook ot two for an adventure sit in the city.

F.I.T (a pun name but a fun one) is a source for all manner of science based super villains, just like Oscorp and Peter Parker's University was in the old Spiderman comics. They're always testing the wonderful and weird inventions that groups like SpartaCorp. and Alexander Tomons to buy up.

General Venom's headquarters is underneath the city and the player characters may well find themselves accidentally discovering the heart of the House of Serpents. Few would ever imagine that the world's second most powerful terrorist organization would bury itself under the American heart of liberty.

(4) Who are the major local NPC characters/institutions of the city?

The archnemesis of Splotch is undoubtedly Doctor Tarantula. A bizarre mad scientist who successfully used his Duplication Ray to create a perfect replica of Splotch's Ring. His name comes from the fact he travels around on shadowy tendrils like a spider. Doctor Tarantula is also aided by Abyss who is a literal clone of Splotch that possesses all of his powers but has utterly lost his humanity. Abyss, like Puzzles, is a poor clone and devours human flesh of criminals to sustain itself.

Wendy Chang is the local beautiful Chinese-American reporter that works with Joel Stein's mortal identity and is interested in tracking down Splotch's exploits. Unbeknown to him, she's aware of his identity and while she considers him a goof, is secretly falling for him. It's complicated by the fact she used to date his much more confident and talented brother.

(5) Describe the major landmarks of the city.

The Relentless is an old pirate ship that has been reconstructed in the ship's port. It's a favored tourist location that is next to the world's largest Pirate Museum. The place is frequently subject to weird happenings due to the ghost of Dread Jack O'Hara who still haunts the area and the fact that all of his treasure in the museum is fairly potent mystical talismens. Jack haunts the city unless its returned.

The Curious Shop is straight from Discworld in that it travels around the city, disappearing for months or years at a time, only to return hocking its magical wares. Splotch hates the place despite the fact that the Otherworld shop sells items that are beneficial as well as evil.

[Libra]

Sounds a little like Opal City, but with a bit of a Ditko flavour.

Charles, another fundamentally annoying question: What can you tell me about the 'International' period of the Patriots and in particular why did it all go wrong?

How do you think the Freedom League will handle the same pressures and do you consider their failure inevitable?

[dirkgentry2000]

Charles - between working my way through HED and reading your threads on ATT - - I'm left with the distinct impression that you had to restrain yourself considerably to keep HED at a mere 147 pages. It looks to me like it could have easily been 200 to 300 without running out of good material.

[Libra]

Dirk, Charles is - in my opinion - a Genius. I only wish I could provide more help than compliments and the occasional scatterbrained idea.

[Charles Phipps]

Charles - between working my way through HED and reading your threads on ATT - - I'm left with the distinct impression that you had to restrain yourself considerably to keep HED at a mere 147 pages. It looks to me like it could have easily been 200 to 300 without running out of good material.

Well I could write all day long about the setting without problem. I believe it's a responsibility of Superlink authors, however, to keep their material concise without rambling. Halt Evil Doer! is a setting that's got everything people really need at the start for it.

Everything else is optional.

How's the reading going anyway?

[Charles Phipps]

Charles, another fundamentally annoying question: What can you tell me about the 'International' period of the Patriots and in particular why did it all go wrong?

How do you think the Freedom League will handle the same pressures and do you consider their failure inevitable?

It's a deliberate homage to Justice League: International, actually. Also, the period when the Avengers were their own country. Basically, it was an idea forwarded by the United Nations to make the Patriots into something that guarded the whole of the planet after a particularly nasty alien invasion (none of the "named' alien groups. This was more of the Starro/Mind Controlling Spore kind of thing).

Really, the entire thing was actually motivated by less than altruistic reasons to begin with. Basically, a number of countries had grown more than a little concerned about the build up of super powered individuals in the United States. The whole thing was actually an attempt to seperate the Patriots from the United States power structure and also justify a build up of other teams without complaints by other nations.

What threw the whole thing for a loop was Divinos happily turning the thing on its head and wanting to establish a team that answered only to the United Nations and the world as a whole. It passed primarily because of the Foundation for World Harmony as precedent. Unfortunately, Athena and Black Wing were less than enthusiastic because protecting the entirety of the world was something that both predicted was beyond their power (despite the fact that they did handle international crises).

What killed the entire business was the fact that Divinos underestimated just how many people wanted to join the Patriots International to begin with. The number of super heroes in Heroic Earth is already tremendously low and plenty of them were actively discouraged by their home governments from participating. Language and cultural barriers were significant with Black Wing flat out refusing to participate (George Timon's loyalty was to Falconcrest City first).

Worse, the Foundation for World Harmony primarily suceeds because it has a million people working for it daily to handle all the bureaucratic red tape to allow it to be deployed when necessary (and even then---it rarely uses foreign soldiers). AMERICA was more than a little leery of Chinese supersoldiers on their soil, just the same as the reverse.

Still, it might have worked out despite the comedy of errors that was developing if not for General Venom and Death Mask. General Venom sent Stars and Bars, a Southern cowboy to cause as much commotion as humanly possible. Stars and Bars was, ironically, unaware that he'd been assigned to cause the group to fail (Defcon 1 users might substitute Lonestar) but was just THAT obnoxious. He also employed the Crimson Scorpion to play the sexual tensions and arrogance of several of the Alpha Male personalities against one another. Some rumors attest that General Venom also was behind their publicist, but it turns out that he was just an vapid jerk by coincidence.

Death Mask's method was a bit more obvious as he simply employed his agents in the Foundation to make things more difficult for them. Unfortunately, his final choice to dispatch a massive attack to kill them all resulted in the team uniting to defend Europe against a force of reprogrammed Tsavong battle cyborgs. This actually resulted in much of the team learning to respect one another and many going home to found their own home based teams).

It also resulted in most International teams getting Foundation Clearance to a limited degree.

Overall, I think the Freedom League will find that there's simply not enough supervillainy in the entire world that they can handle on their own. They'll probably run into most of the problems the Justice League Unlimited did in the Cadmus arc.

[Libra]

Thank you for your continuing replies to even my most irritating of queries Charles. You are a most excellent gentleman.

I'm hoping to have a few ideas of my own typed up soon, concerning the nations of The World of Freedom and Heroic Earth, hopefully giving a wee idea of how they mingle and possibly mix.

[Libra]

The Heroic World

Atlantis: (For the sake of clarity any use of the name Atlantis refers to the Kingdom of Thallor. They got there first!)

The latter statement pretty much sums up the relationship between Atlantis and Nautilus. The descendants of Poseidon were unhappy when a surface-worlder (and a Pirate at that) Usurped the honoured name of their home. They were downright livid, though, when the pirate's descendants started raiding the ruins and worse yet the tombs of their forefathers. Thallor - then his son Theseus in turn - and Aquarius have beaten each others brains out on various occasions over this desecration.

That being said there has been no general war between the two city states. Atlantis has a long tradition of avoiding War if it is not absolutely necessary and her isolationist political tendencies have tended to carry the argument. Nautilus, on the other hand, is not keen to provoke a larger power with the greatest Ocean-going fleet in the Seven Seas.

There's even been a little trade between the two nations and the occasional visitor, but diplomacy tends to be. . .touchy, given their monarchs feud, which shows every sign of becoming a treasure tradition.

Nestoria to the Christians, Dakana to the traditionalists - and the neighbours - whatever you call this nation, know that it begins to prosper once again. The recent Civil War has seen the country torn, but the emergence of a faction led by M'Balla, a traditionalist and a distaff member of the Royal Family (His grandmother was a Quatermain) has helped the nation's recovery.

His tribe's historic position as the guardians of the Daka diamonds may have allowed them to remain highly independant from the Kings of Nestoria and one of the last great strongholds of The White Lion cult - whose mantle his fathers have borne for many a century - but their loyalty has always been to the nation, even if they are famously modernising. The House of M'Balla's ties to UNISON hasn't hurt his attempts to restore some order to the nation, in the name of it's infant King. As far as they are concerned the youthful (Over a millennia old - though not under that name - but still younger than the White Lion!) Quatermains may retain the rule they assumed, but if the Red Jaguar thinks he may regain his Kingdom, he will find. . .pointed opposition waiting.

The Lost World - While Zandar the Jungle Lord retains amicable ties to the Grayhavens (They are his mother's family, after all) he prefers to wander the Hollow Earth. (Which his ancestor discovered via one of the dimensional portals leading to it that occasionally appear around the world.) There's some friendly debate over which discovery inspired Conan-Doyle the most. He was personal friends with Mr Malone, but Sir Arthur was also acquainted with Winston Grayhaven, so there's no consensus as yet.

(Charles, I'd appreciate any thoughts or comments you might have regarding the ideas above and the state of the various other nations and hidden lands of the World of Heroes.)

[Charles Phipps]

Very nice write-ups, Libra. I'll handle each in turn.

Atlantis vs. Nautilus: I'd take note that there's probably some small amount of racial tension between the two powers as well. The Nautilus' crew is a mixed race collection of, essentially, Utopian scientists and refugees from the Imperialist Victorian era. They were the first contact Atlantis had with the surface world in a very long time. Unfortunately, for Atlantis, they also were the best scientists the world has to offer and probably have caught up to their world since then (I actually had the amusing idea in my game that Captain Nemo invented the submarines that the Atlanteans from Thallor's land used, the original Atlanteans having to 'catch up' to the people they once disdained as barbarians).

Plus, both sea going powers do have a mutual enemy in the Deep Ones and Merrow. As much as both powers may loathe the other, the simple fact is the worshipers of Dagon and the Unspeakable One are enemies to all life.

Nestoria vs. Dakana: Interesting choice combining the two nations. I rather like the idea that the White Lion cultists are basically a group living semi-independently of the same nation but otherwise treated as a singular entity. The idea of the White Lion serving as regent and secret guardian of the King is a very hopeful element in a land that was otherwise recently racked by war.

I've always felt that Nestoria was a land that was surrounded by enemies with Anti-Christian forces, Imperialists, and internal dissenters always trying to overthrow it. It's the perfect place for heroes needed.

Lost World: Nice bit mentioned here. I also like the linking of The Grayhaven family with the Freedomverse version of Ka'zar, since it fits very well.

[Libra]

Thank you for the kind words Charles. I'll have some ideas for the Interstellar political situation soon enough and I plan to post some ideas for the Golden Age thereafter. I'd appreciate any information you could give me about The Liberators, as they're the only element I can't quite fathom. Please?

Lost World: Nice bit mentioned here. I also like the linking of The Grayhaven family with the Freedomverse version of Ka'zar, since it fits very well.

It did seem very reasonable. Depending on her age Zandar is probably Lady Grayhaven's uncle or first cousin. (I consider the former more likely.)

Nestoria vs. Dakana

I actually planned to outright replace Dakana with Nestoria (With 'White Lion' as a sobriquet of Alan Quatermain) but this version seemed a little dull. It occurred to me that Nestoria was unlikely to be culturally homgenous and the White Lion cult - given it's exclusive access to the Daka diamonds - would be in as good a position as any to resist the Christian forces led by the Leopard Tribe.

(Please note that I'm assuming that each of the Twelve Tribes of Nestoria have an animal totem and certain traditions dating back to their pre-Christian animism.)

Atlantis vs. Nautilus

I suspect that most of the racism would come from Nemo's people. Atlanteans aren't racist - They're just xenophobic. Anyone from outside their city and culture is an object of suspicion, given that until recently their only neigbours were Deep Ones or barbarians, Although suitable barbarians would be accepted into the City if they adopted the Proper Ways. It should be noted that part of the reason the Royal Family of Atlantis have retained such formidable physical abilities is due to their custom of sending their heirs out into the Seven Seas, ordered to return with a suitable consort or not at all.