The Crinoverse 2 (End of Part 2)

[Kreuzritter]

so, any particular figures of note in the khanate aside from Temujin himself?

[Crinos]

so, any particular figures of note in the khanate aside from Temujin himself?

Well, not that I can think of off the top of my head; I will have some major personalities of the Black Hand when I post about it later (will probably do that next.)

One person I can think of is Amakusa. Amakusa was originally a Christian minister in Japan who was assassinated by the Templars and resurrected as a dark mage by Iron Khan. He serves primarily as the fanatical priest lord of Temujin, routing out all dissent against The Iron Khan's worship with a fanatical fervor that would make even the most hard hearted inquisitor quake.

The Gem he wield was actually stolen by the South American Branch of The Black Hand, from the village of Green Hell, a mystically protected haven set up by the Aztec Gods to protect their last few worshipers. Tam Tam, the champion of Quetzalcoatl, and his sister have tried and failed to reclaim the stone many times.

[Charles Phipps]

I imagine the henchmen from Big Trouble in Little China now live in Khanate.



If not Lo Pan himself.

[Crinos]

I imagine the henchmen from Big Trouble in Little China now live in Khanate.



If not Lo Pan himself.

Lo Pan was the regional director of the west coast branch of the Black hand, given minions and resources by the Iron Khan with the promise he would eventually become mortal again serving him.

Technically he got his wish, but while his storm minions were killed, their techniques live on among the Black Hand (though some are less often used than others; most people can't see the practicality of self inflation.)

[Phrozen]

No Beast and Master Betty?

[Yeoman]

Crinos, you mind if I detail a bit of Cinos-verse Chicago? Most of it would probably be detailing how the Dresden-verse fits in and some of the major players there, but touching on a few other players in and around the city (Lisa, Jake and Elwood, Rally Vincent, Bean)

[Crinos]

Go for it.

[Arthur Eld]

Hey Crinos, I just wanted to throw out a request for you to do a detailed write-up on SHADOW. Specifically, I'd like to see how they interact with PHANTOM and other such organizations.

Also, I was wondering if you're familiar with the Watchguard setting?

[Crinos]

Watchguard is not familiar to me, where can I find info?

[Arthur Eld]

Some people from the Tank talk about it here., and there's a 2E or 3E sourcebook PDF available on drivethrurpg.

There's a free preview here.

Its a pretty well done setting. Lots of characters, decent history, and a few pre-made adventures.

[Crinos]

Well, thanks for making me waste more of my money.

[Arthur Eld]

Hey, if I did it, you have to do it too.

[Yeoman]

Okay, detailing Crinosverse Chicago over the next three to five posts. Depending on if the Dresden-verse takes more than two posts, and if the rest take one post or two.

So, Dresden-verse (Part 1). Fair warning, pretty massive spoilers ahoy if you're early in the series. While, by and large, I'm leaving the cast at their status quo prior to "Turn Coat," I may reference things from books after that. I chose this point as, excepting Murphy, I felt most of them were at their most iconic prior to that point. While I love and respect the series for it's character growth, I felt that point had the series when it would best fit in.


The White Council: The White Council are a collection of mages, largely formed in Europe during the late Roman Empire, thoguh they have members from across the world. For whatever reason, their style of magic causes member Wizards to disrupt any advanced technology in their area over the long term.

Some have theorized they are a Tradition of mages who, in this way, unconciously escape paradox. Others that it's just their training methods. The Council itself is largely too hidebound and mired in the past to care to experiment and find out. As far as they're concerned, they are the real wizards and everyone is using some bastardization of real magic. That said, a full wizard of the White Council is enourmously powerful, though their numbers are small as only those capable of attaining full wizard status are given membership.

In the modern world, most other magic users see them as arrogent and backwards, trying to force their laws on wizards who neither care about them, or seem to use the same style of magic. They did, however, gain some measure of respect several years ago following a confrontation involving one of their wardens (the security arm of the council), Donald Morgan.

Morgan was well known, even outside the council, for his dogmatic and near fanatical, approach to Council law. The Council hasd long used the Wardens to invite young potential wizards, as well as warn those they felt might be abusive of their power. Donald Morgan was the one that contacted Megan Conner. Conner's authority issues and Morgan's fanatacism eventually lead to Morgan being kicked through a wall. At which point Morgan retaliated. The fight was, more or less, a draw, but that one of the Council had fought evenly with one of Freedom's more destructive magic based heroes gained them some measure of new respect for their power, if not their attitude.

Harry Dresden's increasingly Memetic Badass reputation in the magic community certainly hasn't hurt either.

[b[Harry Dresden[/b]: Private detective, publicly practicing wizard, and the Council's head of Security (against his better wishes and judgement) for North America. Even in a world of meta-men, super-heroes and aliens Harry Dresden gets thought a con-man and charlatan. Hey, if he was a powerful wizard, why is he living in a dump working as an investigator rather than putting on a pair of tights? His snarky attitude doesn't help.

That said, Dresden's doing a bit better than his canon self, since Chicago's Special investigations can hire him more publically in a world that actually aknowledges the possibility of the super-natural.

As a young man Harry was tried by the council for the murder of his first mentor, who, in Harry's defense, was trying to mind control both him and his then girlfriend, Elaine Mallory. Harry managed to escape the death penalty when now Seniour Council Member Ebanezer McCoy took him in. While, legally, he is in the clear these days, he has a bad reputation within the Council. Riding an Undead T-Rex through Chicago one Halloween didn't help this.

Bob The Skull: Bob is a spirit of knowledge that acts as Harry's research assistant. He lives in a skull. Known for oogling anything remotely female, he is, however, extremely good at his job.

Molly Carpenter: Harry's protege and daughter of his longtime friend and ally Micheal Carpenter. Like her mentor, Molly herself was brought before the Council on charges have having broke their Laws of Magic. In Molly's case she had mind controlled several of their friends in an attempt to get them off drugs. While not especially powerful, Molly very skilled at illusions and mental magic.

Sgt. Karrin Murphy: Harry's long time friend and former head of Chicago's Special Investigations. Karrin was eventually demoted due to not being present for one too many crisis while helping Harry. She's very short, and very good at both martial arts and ranged combat. While Special Investigations always had better pull in the Crinos-verse, it was under Murphy that the organization truely began to shine and become a force to be reckoned with for meta-human criminals and super-natural threats.

That Covers the major cast members. Next up is the major minor cast members.

[Crinos]

By special request from Arthur (and quite frankly, its been a long time coming anyways...)

SHADOW

The worlds most dangerous criminal organization, and definitely one of the earliest ones, in truth, SHADOW has been around for as long as Tan Akor, the ancient Egyptian High priest, has been reincarnating himself. The names have been different, and the organizations have always fallen apart or been absorbed by other malicious organizations (At least a third of the Black Hand cabals were started by Ankor), SHADOW is only the more recent. Of course, since Wilhelm Kantor has access to advanced cloning science his predecessors lacked, he has a great deal more staying power than most, so SHADOW isn't going anywhere any time soon.

Actually, SHADOW has been coming much longer than anyone expected; Kantor was putting SHADOW together as early as the Nazi occupation of France. Kantor never expected the third Reich to last (in fact, he was surprised it lasted as long as it did, owing that to help from Superior and Dr. Destroyer), but Kantor knew that it would be an excellent place to meet up with individuals who shared his rather warped code of ethics (if such a word can even be applied to Kantor.) Among the contacts he made were evil geneticist Dr. Prometheus, who gave Kantor the secret of cloning in exchange for cell samples of various German super soldiers. In the closing days of the war, Kantor basically took anything that was salvagable from the Nazi's and ran (but not without making a quick visit to Hitler's secret bunker to give the Furher one final parting gift; right between the eyes), and used it to form SHADOW.

Today, SHADOW is probably one of the most dangerous organizations around; it possesses the mystical might of the pact, the technological prowess of the Foundry, the sheer fanaticism of the House of Serpents, and the depths of cruelty of PHANTOM. In addition, SHADOW has two satellite organizations; the terrorist organization Overthrow, and the Thule Society.

Resources of SHADOW

Cloning: Naturally, when people think of SHADOW, they think of hordes of cloned soldiers, fanatically loyal to Overshadow and willing to die on his command. What few people realize is that SHADOW can also be more subtle with their cloning; kidnapping agents of enemy organizations, killing them, and then creating perfect genetic copies programmed to be loyal to SHADOW. It is this way SHADOW has been able to infiltrate both AEGIS and UNISON, by kidnapping seemingly loyal agents and replacing them with doubles.

But it doesn't end there; Overshadow has tinkered with splicing his own DNA with that of various superhumans, aliens, and others in order to create super powered agents. Results have been varied, but every failure just brings SHADOW one step closer to victory.

Technology: Overshadow is currently on the outs with Talos, which means that SHADOW needs to get creative with how they get their tech; In addition to the cloned army, SHADOW has a think tank of top scientists, many of them just brain in jars, working around the clock to create various deadly weapons and technology to help SHADOW conquer the world. One good example of this is the Shivan Crystals, a favorite of Overshadow. Since all SHADOW clones are the same, they always manifest the same powers when they become focusers; that of a hideous, skull like armor, but its very effective in combat.

Magic: in past lives, Tan Ankor was a mighty mystic of great power, and while his power has dwindled, Kantor is still a formidable mage. Kantor has a private supply of mystic artifacts, which he frequently employs in his scheme, and he knows numerous rituals that allow him to call dark forces to do his bidding. In addition, the deals Kantor made with the Aesir to assist him in World War II are still in effect, much to the Aesir's regret, meaning that Kantor can occasionally call upon them to send their avatars to fight for him, or empower one of his minions. Then of course, there is the Thule Society, SHADOW's mystic arm, and its head the Crimson Mask.

Aliens: Kantor is always looking for new creatures to exploit, and has extended offers to alien species before to join him. These alliances are of course shams; Kantor merely wants their technology and their DNA for clone fodder, but that doesn't mean they don't stop trying to ally with him. One of the most notable aliens to make an alliance with SHADOW are known as the Silent. A distant relative to the Grigori, they were left on Earth after High Lemuria was exiled to monitor humanity, and over the years degenerated into cruel, sadistic, pitiless beings who promoted human suffering for their own amusement. The SIlent have a natural ability for post hypnotic suggestion, and a natural defense mechanism that makes most beings forget they exist once they aren't being watched. They basically ruled humanity from the shadows, spreading chaos and misery until 1969, when the time traveling hero The Doctor managed to send out a signal that turned all of mankind against their evil taskmasters. The few remaining Silent fell in with SHADOW, who managed to resist the Doctors suggestion AND the Silent's memory manipulation, and gave them a home in SHADOW as his spies and assassins. Kantor believes that the Silent are actually the Derro that Richard Shaver spoke of in his writings.

Relationships with other groups

AEGIS: Naturally, AEGIS has been fighting SHADOW since the very beginning, and vice versa. While SHADOW does have numerous spies in AEGIS, AEGIS also has spies in SHADOW, so the two groups are at a stalemate for the moment.

PHANTOM: SHADOW's counter organization, PHANTOM and SHADOW formed at pretty much the same time, and are steady competitors. While PHANTOM is more respected internationally, SHADOW has more raw power (but not by much), and thus these two teams are usually evenly matched. Death Mask and Overshadow hate one another, and usually fight when they get together.

The Labyrinth: As noted, Taurus is a member of SHADOW's inner circle, but the question is if Overshadow is in the Labyrinth. The short answer is no. The long answer is oh GOD no are you crazy? Overshadow doesn't have the patience and subtlety for cloak and dagger and conspiracies that Taurus does, and in truth Kantor considers Taurus' subtle movements a waste of time.

The Black Hand: As noted above, a lot of Black Hand Cabals began as cults started by Kantor in previous lives. In fact, he was the dark lord of the Black Hand on three separate occasions. He respects Iron Khan though, and has no desire or interest of removing him from the Black Hand.... yet.

Dr. Destroyer: If there's anyone with more disrespect for Kantor than Destroyer, I haven't met him. Destroyer does not believe in magic (since he defines magic as "that which he cannot understand", and Destroyer is far too arrogant to even consider something is beyond his knowledge), so all he saw in Kantor was a pathetic stage magician who won a place at Hitlers side with party tricks. Even today Destroyer considers Kantor beneath his notice.

The House of Serpents: Jack Washington was one of the first superheroes to fight SHADOW during the silver age, and when Kantor heard Washington had gone rogue, he made an attempt to offer him an alliance. This endeavor cost Overshadow one of his bodies and an entire platoon of clones. General Venom still keeps the helmet from that body as a trophy.

Its late, so I may cover more tomorrow.

[Crinos]

Okay, detailing Crinosverse Chicago over the next three to five posts. Depending on if the Dresden-verse takes more than two posts, and if the rest take one post or two.

So, Dresden-verse (Part 1). Fair warning, pretty massive spoilers ahoy if you're early in the series. While, by and large, I'm leaving the cast at their status quo prior to "Proven Guilty," I may reference things from books after that. I chose this point as, excepting Murphy, I felt most of them were at their most iconic prior to that point. While I love and respect the series for it's character growth, I felt that point had the series when it would best fit in.


The White Council: The White Council are a collection of mages, largely formed in Europe during the late Roman Empire, thoguh they have members from across the world. For whatever reason, their style of magic causes member Wizards to disrupt any advanced technology in their area over the long term.

Some have theorized they are a Tradition of mages who, in this way, unconciously escape paradox. Others that it's just their training methods. The Council itself is largely too hidebound and mired in the past to care to experiment and find out. As far as they're concerned, they are the real wizards and everyone is using some bastardization of real magic. That said, a full wizard of the White Council is enourmously powerful, though their numbers are small as only those capable of attaining full wizard status are given membership.

In the modern world, most other magic users see them as arrogent and backwards, trying to force their laws on wizards who neither care about them, or seem to use the same style of magic. They did, however, gain some measure of respect several years ago following a confrontation involving one of their wardens (the security arm of the council), Donald Morgan.

Morgan was well known, even outside the council, for his dogmatic and near fanatical, approach to Council law. The Council hasd long used the Wardens to invite young potential wizards, as well as warn those they felt might be abusive of their power. Donald Morgan was the one that contacted Megan Conner. Conner's authority issues and Morgan's fanatacism eventually lead to Morgan being kicked through a wall. At which point Morgan retaliated. The fight was, more or less, a draw, but that one of the Council had fought evenly with one of Freedom's more destructive magic based heroes gained them some measure of new respect for their power, if not their attitude.

Harry Dresden's increasingly Memetic Badass reputation in the magic community certainly hasn't hurt either.

[b[Harry Dresden[/b]: Private detective, publicly practicing wizard, and the Council's head of Security (against his better wishes and judgement) for North America. Even in a world of meta-men, super-heroes and aliens Harry Dresden gets thought a con-man and charlatan. Hey, if he was a powerful wizard, why is he living in a dump working as an investigator rather than putting on a pair of tights? His snarky attitude doesn't help.

That said, Dresden's doing a bit better than his canon self, since Chicago's Special investigations can hire him more publically in a world that actually aknowledges the possibility of the super-natural.

As a young man Harry was tried by the council for the murder of his first mentor, who, in Harry's defense, was trying to mind control both him and his then girlfriend, Elaine Mallory. Harry managed to escape the death penalty when now Seniour Council Member Ebanezer McCoy took him in. While, legally, he is in the clear these days, he has a bad reputation within the Council. Riding an Undead T-Rex through Chicago one Halloween didn't help this.

Bob The Skull: Bob is a spirit of knowledge that acts as Harry's research assistant. He lives in a skull. Known for oogling anything remotely female, he is, however, extremely good at his job.

Molly Carpenter: Harry's protege and daughter of his longtime friend and ally Micheal Carpenter. Like her mentor, Molly herself was brought before the Council on charges have having broke their Laws of Magic. In Molly's case she had mind controlled several of their friends in an attempt to get them off drugs. While not especially powerful, Molly very skilled at illusions and mental magic.

Sgt. Karrin Murphy: Harry's long time friend and former head of Chicago's Special Investigations. Karrin was eventually demoted due to not being present for one too many crisis while helping Harry. She's very short, and very good at both martial arts and ranged combat. While Special Investigations always had better pull in the Crinos-verse, it was under Murphy that the organization truely began to shine and become a force to be reckoned with for meta-human criminals and super-natural threats.

That Covers the major cast members. Next up is the major minor cast members.

Nice, if I may add;

The White Council, while on friendly terms with both the Covenant and the White Lotus, is not a part of either. This is mainly due to the White Council's insufferable close mindedness. Hearing the name of White council usually makes members of the two groups roll their eyes and go "oh great, THOSE GUYS." The Free Council in particular has a problem with the White Council since their magic makes Technomagic go all wonky (Plus there's the fact the White Council goes out of their way to destroy and confiscate technomagic).

Of course, on the flip side, the Council also opposes the Pact and The Black Hand, and even helped fight off Malador the mystic at least once.

Also: Harry Dresden is one of Adrian Eldrich's considerations for Master Mage.