A longwinded recounting of my cast's histories

ElBee · February 16, 2023, 12:04:09 AM

With the onset of Rebirth Issue 5 on us I wanted to take this moment to reflect on my time as a player and break down my major characters in one thread. I have been largely inactive in the game for months now on a personal level, beyond my duties as staff at time of writing. I want to reminisce on where I've been and how far I have journeyed. At least from a character perspective. Join me as I write many words about silly things and ramble excitedly about the history of my cast of characters.

WARNING: Many Walls of Text and babbling of the past 4 years ahead.

- Introduction -
Over these years of rebirth, I have made many, many characters. I have remade characters several times trying to find power sets that fit their character. I won't go through my entire roster or I might end up making something longer than the Encyclopedia Britannica. I've had a few major focus characters. These characters are the ones I put my time, energy, and soul into to play.

- Champion of Yggdrasil -
One of my first characters that I made major progress with on Rebirth wasn't actually one of my insect themed characters. It's a character I still use occasionally now and again. Decidruid. An Archery/Nature corruptor. I wanted someone who could heal and had a good coverage of damage. Archery provided the most baseline damage for both single target and AoE. Nature was chosen as a non traditional healing support set.

Decidruid, or Marian Harper, as a character is one I don't take too seriously. Even so, characterization is something I put a lot of thought into and usually starts with some sort of core prompt or concept. Decidruid's prompt was: What if you were blessed by and made the champion of a deity that pretty much nobody worships? She is a Magic origin hero who gained her powers as the champion of Yggdrasil. The world tree isn't exactly something that is worshiped by many. This lead to her becoming kind of detached from the insanity she usually ends up partaking in once she learned that the deity she followed was far more casual than expected.

Right before my induction into Rebirth's staff I had placed highly in a server held costume contest as a draenei from WoW. The reasoning? Marian interrupted Yggdrasil during one of his raids and was 'Transmogged' as punishment. Ironically winning a title from that contest meant I had to keep the costume on longer.

The biggest achievement being a part of the server's first Really Hard Way badge. People might still have macros from when I volunteered to be the heal support for Likes a Challenge as well, pioneering the silo strategy.

The build itself is something I'm still proud of: Perma-Overgrowth in 50 content. Though irritatingly, I've lost my original MXD file. You'll have to settle for a screenshot of their Ios.
- The Build (Hasten not shown)-

Decidruid doesn't see as much usage today because, while perma-overgrowth is fantastic, it is also frequently jarring. It is a lonnnggg animation and keeping it on perma makes it pop up every 2 minutes or such. My other complaint had been addressed long ago: Rain of Arrows was terribly inconvenient to use. She also doesn't see much use due to my build desires changing over time, favoring having 8 billion damage procs where I can afford it. Archery lacks the secondary effects to slot for that. Decidruid has reached her peak and continues assisting the World Tree in matters major and minor. Mostly minor. A lot of minor matters.

- Enter the Nintern -
My next most major character focus that I can recall came to being after watching far too many Godfrey Ho movies, realizing that Stalker's had been changed during sunset, and having a tiny amount of influence from the Guilty Gear series.

To give you an idea of how serious I took this character, here is his Bio:

QuoteA question that has rung through the ages is "What is a Ninja?" Up until the 1960's they have just been a fairy tale. Today Ninjitsu is a big business with Private Ninjitsu Consultancies (PNCs). Mr. Wilhelm is a certified jounin and a licensed practitioner of ninjitsu. With the fall of his PNC during the attack on galaxy city he has had to go independant. Taking on his old nickname when he was an apprentice for Syninjastics Inc, He puts his practice to use as The Nintern. Its a tough job being a ninja but only a ninja can truely defeat a ninja.

Ninja. Ninja Ninja. Ninja ninja ninja. Ninja.

Now knowing that, what would his power set be? If you guessed Ninja Blade/Ninjitsu ... You would be correct. This actually becomes kind of a problem as I could never settle on a build for him. I still haven't! I just could never find a good balance of damage, defense, resistances, and recovery that I liked. It's entirely personal though as the set was incredibly effective. Blowing through every respec available for him gave me knowledge of one thing however. The power of damage procs and the creation of
The True Gambler's Cut

This t1 that barely did anything now had the ability to instantly annihilate a minion*
*If said minion was 1 level under
And I quote "Because I've made this 70 damage attack have a damage variance of 52-409.59"

Nintern still sees action very infrequently. Mostly on the slopes when they become available. I will still remember the absolute game changer working on his builds became. They were a learning experience for certain.

- The great experimenters mystery -
In the beginning of my time on modern CoH, I was trying to avoid type casting. By this I mean I didn't want to make too many insect themed characters. I know that if I did, I would want to make sure they were as well defined as I could possibly make them. Before Rebirths inception, I was on HC for a spell. There I went through over a dozen combinations and archetypes. Corruptors. Stalkers. Scrappers. Brutes. Weapons. Non weapons. I was trying to find the character who would bear the concept I had planned. What if you've mutated through experimentation and had no clue who your experimenters were? This lead to the creation of a Thermal/Sonic defender by the name of Icilia.

Real name Marian Harper, a promising law student on her way to become a paralegal until an incident forcibly activated a mutagen that lied dormant within her genetics. She gained the power to emit sonic blasts and manipulate a strange bio plasma that could take on elemental properties. She only had vague memories of being experimented on to go on with no clear picture of how she ended up like this. She took to this surprisingly well. "I have cilia now. The fine hairs along these wings. .. Icilia!"

Her build:
- Last updated: 05/30/2020 -

Spoiler: Show

She would spend the better part of 2020 running down any lead into her origin mystery. During which she would run into her Praetorian counter part.

- Kicking into high gear -
During my playtime of Icilia, I continued to make side characters I would play to check out power combinations. Most of these would end up being one off characters. Eventually leading to exploring another concept through the Praetorian counter-part of Icilia.
"What if instead of an evil counter-part, the praetorian version simply had a different mutation experience?"
Marian Harper of Praetoria was a successful lawyer until she found herself mutated after a two week coma following one incredibly stressful night. With copper colored chitin and a body physically stronger to boot, literally. She was conscripted into powers division immediately after being released from the hospital. There she learned to fight, taking the mantle of Copper Cricket. Willpower/Martial Arts tanker. The opposite of Icilia physically.

- Last Updated: 04/16/2021 -

Spoiler: Show

She took the Warden storyline. Finding herself with the physical strength to do what she couldn't do in the courts. Cole's forceful conscription always struck a nerve with her and now having it thrust upon her was the final nail. Praetoria could not stand together under the forceful grip of Tyrant. Cricket isn't seen much in Paragon nowadays. Not only due to the creation of Zinnias later, but because she is Praetorian at heart. The end of Number 6's arc lends her an excuse to stay within Praetoria to help rebuild.
-Continued in next post-

ElBee · February 16, 2023, 12:04:16 AM

- Icilia's end game -
Icilia was the focal point of a series of roleplay arcs conducted through AE that was used to comb through every single villain group that could theoretically have been her experimenters. Council. Crey. Arachnos. Even the Circle of Thorn were investigated in case of it being magical in nature. Eventually she decided to get some expert help. Dr Jonathan St. John Smythe. Though the results were delayed due to a Malta storming of city hall and a resulting kidnapping of Jonathan. What was discovered was a mixing of the mutagen Chitiobarazid with some sort of genetic trailing of devouring earth and melitt.

The revelation also came with a warning. In her current state, her genetics were becoming unstable. Rather than turn into primordial ooze Icilia undertook some procedures to fix the issue. The procedures put a limit on her sonic abilities and let her unleash her full plasma potential. Draconian hero registration bylaws required any and all changes in power to be filed under a new identity and issued a new ID. Icilia drops the I and carries on as Cilia.

... This is a lot of setup so I could reroll them into a Thermal/Water Defender.

- Build last updated: 10/27/2021 -

Spoiler: Show

Sonic as a defender secondary has a great amount of sustained damage but lacked the AoE and burst potential I was craving at the time. That and I could expand upon her plasma this way into actual blasts. I also just wanted a water character that didn't have the water be water, blood, or ... "lemonade".

Eventually Cilia's arc comes to an end offscreen several months later. I was wanting to move on from the character. After much searching it was revealed by the ghost of her land lord at the time that there were no experimenters. Human mutation is a dramatic experience and the mind will do a lot as a reaction to trauma. For example: Mutating one night after falling asleep on a couch watching cheesy horror movies featuring mad scientists doing experiments might cause the brain to create illusions during the painful process. Not all mutation processes are clean too. You may need a lot of treatment, especially if you're sent into a coma over how traumatic the experience is.

Cilia was relieved to some degree to hear that no one forced this onto her. She vows to continue to strive to end illegal experimentation and carries on to apply her plasma wherever it is needed. She is still my go to support character to this day.

- The first of the melitt -
While all this was going on, I was brought onto the staff of Rebirth as a moderator and GM. This meant I had to create some sort of character that would act as my GM avatar. So wanting to keep it straight, I just made a bee. GM El Bee, the Referbee if I'm assisting PVP night. Now I could have just kept it at that. ... Only my brain didn't. It wanted to limit the immersion breaking aspect of a GM character and wanted its presence explained. Luckily it had already come up with a silly concept. It's the psychic force ghost of a hive mind link severed. A bit out there, but Grym exists in canon and has a pretty out there origin as well. "Okay brain. Is that all?"
"No," it responded "because why is it manifesting in the city?"

What followed was a brain storm of the creation of a species of insectoids that started with "What if we did the super mario movie plot but with bugs because the dinosaurs already destroyed themselves." They are called melitts. (Melittology is the study of bees). I've done a roleplay post describing them which I will link to to save on space.

The short of it is that melitts live under the hive (the zone) and have been in a losing war against Hamidon ever since he decided to start plopping his amoebutt in that zone. Thus did they send out one of the last members of one of it's military branches: Kacob of Quartz. Known to paragon as Quartz Hornet and mistaken as another mutant hero. He is a natural Titan Weapon/Willpower scrapper. Which I used as an excuse to see how Titan Weapon handles (Quite well but it has a strange rhythm to it).

Kacob had a ton of adjusting to do in his search for support against Hamidon, the Devourer. For one, Paragon wasn't constantly under siege to the point of desperation. For another, there was quite a bit of culture shock. I would excuse long periods of not playing as him indulging in media.

His task in Paragon City was to get support for melitts. Through his journey to 50 he accomplished this through assisting Vanguard. Eventually laying low the devouring earth monster that destroyed almost a third of his home: The Crystal Titan. With his mission accomplished he returned to the remnants of his home to assist as I put him away in my character list because I was getting absolutely sick of titan weapon's rhythm. Never even finished his build.

- The mightiest of melitts -
After putting Quartz to bed and ending Cilia's arc, I was in a bit of a limbo for what I wanted to do at that point. I had continued experimenting with minor characters but I didn't put too much focus into them. My next major focus came into being when I was expanding upon the concept of melitts. Once more I had a concept I wanted to explore with a character: The Heroes Journey. I created Zinnias of Amber, then called the Brass Bulwark (Sword/Shield Scrapper). Zinnias was a sugar cane farmer who had volunteered to follow in Quartz Hornet's steps and enter Paragon City to foster support for melitts. While she had a much easier time adapting to the culture of humanity, she was an absolute nervous wreck as a hero at first. She hid behind her shield while striking a lot. It wasn't until she was security level 25 that she started to finally overcome her anxiety in combat. She used her goal that was much larger than the Malta Kronos and a firey determination that burned brighter than an entire council squads minigun barrage to overpower her fears: the total destruction of Hamidon, the Devourer.

She began retraining under the tutelage of many heroes of paragon. This was after I realized I wanted her to tank once I started slotting Against all odds with Taunt and ripping from other tanks. Picking up the left over equipment of a minor character I had by the name of Tubold; A kobold fighter crossover from pathfinder I had on a shelf somewhere. He had rerolled into using a gun because I thought it was funny and needed a radiation emission character for the Cathedral of Pain.

Her changing her weapon set from a sword and shield to a mace and gauntlet forced her to reregister as simply Zinnias to meet the draconian hero registration bylaws. To cut down on the already absurd length of this, I'm simply going to link to the tanker Invulnerability/War Mace build post in the tanker forums where I go into detail of her mechanically. She is whom I still consider my main. Enough that I had a commission done of her that sits as my profile picture at time of writing.

- Conclusion -
Now we reach the modern day. My characters are still dear to me. They are dear enough that I wrote 2600+ words about them and I'm still not sure I did them justice! As it stands right now however, the only storyline that has yet to continue is Zinnias against Hamidon. With issue 5 around the corner, updating some of these builds is a priority for me. New conflict will be had and the road goes ever on. I hope to see you in the city. Thank you for reading.

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A longwinded recounting of my cast's histories

ElBee

ElBee