Lore AMA 2014

[Felderburg]

OFFICIAL ANSWERS RELEASED: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ocOo69mXIQ8HthabNe1F4X1EcZcSDwZFEE9sT8WSBc4/preview?sle=true#

So after the first Lore AMA was posted in September of 2012, there was a second installment released on City of Heroes' ninth anniversary in 2013. Positron said he would keep making AMAs every anniversary as long as the questions kept coming - and I bet there's still a lot of questions out there! Positron has been made aware of this thread by Captain Electric, and says: "Tell them I plan on doing it a bit differently this year. Doc will only be up for a short window." We assume that means that there will once again be an open Google Doc to post questions in, so bear in mind that this thread is only a place to gather thoughts - there will most likely be an official Google Doc to post them in later!

We don't know what will be different about this year's AMA, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared. So start gathering your thoughts and posting things you may want to know about in this thread! Part of being prepared means reading the previous Lore AMAs, and making sure we don't ask duplicate questions. Obviously you can ask follow ups or ask for an expanded answer, but the second Lore AMA actually had a few duplicates, and hopefully we can avoid that this year.

I went through and collected in the second post here questions that were not properly answered (either because the relevant dev wasn't available or the answer was lacking) as well as general opinion type questions that few devs have answered so far.

For more information on the Lore AMA, and the previously answered questions, the wiki page is here: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Lore_AMA It contains the text of both AMAs, as well as links to their original google docs. You'll have to click "show" for each one, but once you do, the questions are in bold, and you can always use "ctrl + f" to try and find things that may be relevant to you.

[Felderburg]

This post has my questions, questions that weren't really answered, and general opinion questions that only some of the devs have answered.

My new questions:

How accurate is the 2004 Story Bible that was released? (http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Story_Bible) Some of its lore is contradicted by in-game materials, while some of it is seemingly confirmed.

Speaking of that, one particular thing that was changed was the origin of the Mashu Bridge (http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Talk:Forward_Thinker_Badge). I like the Story Bible's version better - any reason it got changed?

There are some questions raised about the whole Battalion / true Rikti / Dimensionless / Wells thing (as sort of summarized here: http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,9602.msg138494.html#msg138494).

    The Dimensionless created the Wells, but it also seems like people / beings can contribute power to Wells, or even become Wells themselves. Additionally, it seems like beings of great power can have their power transferred in whole to a new being (Zeus -> Statesman, Merulina -> Leviathan) rather than just having it reabsorbed into a Well. Can you explain more about this?

    When was the Battalion / Coming Storm thought out? Lady Grey (who appeared in the CCG in 2006) was apparently initially planned to be part of the story line, and the Battalion were part of the Rikti storyline for quite some time, as I recall (although another answer implied you just took CCG heroes for Vanguard purposes).

    Would we have fought the True Rikti of our dimension, or the "fake" Rikti's dimension?

    What is the actual "order of power"? Battalion -> True Rikti -> Dimensionless?

    What things "controlled by Battalion [that] were now freed to do whatever they want" would there have been?

    It is implied that only races that have wells were targeted by the Battalion. What happens to those that don't have Wells?

    Did the Kheldians encounter the Battalion before the (presumably) giant battle for Earth?

    Why is Earth's Well so special? It is apparently the only one that grants people of its planet its power.

    Who or what are the Furies? Would we have ever seen them in-game? Are they the same in both dimensions, or is it just the one set in charge of every single alternate Earth well?

    What was the Furies' intended use of the Well? They apparently didn't like Tyrant's use of it, but then ended up making him champion?

    Are the Primal Furies the same as the Praetorian Furies?

    Based on previous answers, it seems that the Battalion are not multi-dimensional, and don't necessarily understand / know about other dimensions. How would they have known about the Dimensionless?

Can you tell us more about Merulina? She is not of Earth, but presumably has access to some sort of well-like power (which was used to create the Leviathan).

With the coming of Battalion and the True Rikti, each having access to interstellar travel, would we have eventually seen non-Earth planets? (The Battalion's method involved using Kheldians as fuel, but presumably the True Rikti's didn't, making it viable for anyone)

Who funded the first manufacture of Superadine back in the 70s? According to the 2004 Story Bible, Nemesis didn't know about dimensional travel until Portal Corp's presentation, so I assume it wasn't him (as he would have known about the dimensional discovery of the immoral scientists creating Superadine).

How did Kheldians travel through interstellar distances before they had hosts, as detailed in the "FTL" method here: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Kheldian#How_did_they_GET_here.3F ?

In the Mot storylines, it is revealed that Mot was first defeated by Oranbegans near Cimerora before being moved to North America. However, at that point the Oranbegans should theoretically have been spirits underground in North America for many thousands of years. How / why did they get to Cimerora?

The Paragon Wiki articles on the Incarnate Trials have lots of tactics, but are almost completely lacking in story because people would rush through them without reading anything. Do you regret making end game raids that ended up being rushed through for loot, with their story almost entirely ignored?

It seems like Positron doesn't like alts, and wanted to focus more on traditional "end game" things like raids (incarnate trials) etc. (http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/7676/Altism.html) However, allowing for alt-itis and the fact that there's so much 1-50 content that it almost requires multiple characters (not to mention the plethora of power sets to experience) was, I believe, widely regarded as one of the game's strengths (not to mention that Incarnate Trials were, for many, a rushed-through mess of combat, rather than something to experience for advancement of the story). What are your (any dev / person who worked on COH in any capacity) thoughts?

How much stuff do you have access to that might help complete the Wiki? Lots of articles missing pieces of information here: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Category:Incomplete

What sort of storylines would there have been for players who wanted to keep their characters RP'ed at non-cosmic levels of power? There was plenty of 1-50 content already, but would there have been more level 50 non-incarnate stuff? Or would non-incarnate stuff have been contained to 1-50 only?

What is covered by any NDAs you are still under? Obviously no specific answers, but something like "unreleased art for Battalion" or "other games projects" might be enough to satisfy some curiosity.

Why did Manticore and Sister Psyche get married? For me, the proposal sort of came out of the blue in the comic series.

Speaking of, how canonical are the comics? Aspects of both runs ended up in game, but there are some discrepancies.

What is Lady Grey's first name? Her CCG card says Victoria, a Canon Fodder thread (by Manticore) says Elizabeth.

Speaking of, Lady Grey's CCG card says she is in conflict with the Carnival of Shadows. Why? I assume it's because the CCG cards were made independently, and then taken by the devs for various things (mostly Vanguard, but a few appeared as random supers in morality missions).

Those questions segue into a general question about the process that non-MMO story products went through. How much did the comics and CCG creators interact with the game's writers and devs? What sort of process was there to creating storylines or characters for the non-game stuff?

There are numerous mentions to things happening in other parts of the world (other cities attacked in the first Rikti Invasion, Chicago being absorbed by Mot). Were there any plans to address things like that? Maybe visit the sewers of London / Rome to help take down hidden Rikti cells, or anything like that?

Let's say CoH had come back. In the initial AMA, you reserved the right to change everything said if it did - how / what would you have changed from what's been revealed so far?

If you (any dev / person who worked on COH in any capacity) were given an opportunity to work at one of the "spiritual successor" projects, would you?

Right now there are two super hero MMOs where you can create your own original hero (CO and DCUO) and potentially the three CoH successors. What are your (any dev / person who worked on COH in any capacity) thoughts on the future of super hero MMOs or RPGs?

Let's say the Dream Doctor / Rularuu merger worked, and DD was able to take a chunk out of the Battalion into a new dimension before merging with / fighting Rularuu forever. Would Rularuu have just gone into a random dimension, or would it have been one that had another version of himself? It seemed to me that the process of consuming another dimension took a lot of work, so I wonder if Rularuu would have been able to if he was being "forced" to jump.

Would the Shadow Shard zones have stayed in game? Would they have been Ouroborous echos?

So, the Battalion is the Coming Storm, and is eventually defeated. What does Ouroborous do after that? Help fight the Dimensionless?

What happened to dimensions where early Rularuu only merged with himself? Did people wonder where that version had gone after he skipped to another dimension? Did he eventually devour those realities?

Why are Woodsman / Shadowhunter killed by the Devouring Earth? It seems like both are pro-environment / anti humanity to a certain extent.

What happened in Reichsman's home dimension after he was captured by the Freedom Phalanx? Did his generals preserve the status quo; did freedom fighters, emboldened by his absence, make a move; did the Battalion come and snatch everyone?

What happened to Reichsman's lieutenants? The backstory says they were easy to defeat, since he feared anyone becoming his equal, but I don't recall it ever being mentioned if they got back to their dimension or were incarcerated with him.

What sort of tech was required to make the clones / doppelgangers of player characters? http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Doppelgangers

Is there only one Rularuu in the multiverse, or are there enough alternate dimensions that there actually exists two Paragon Cities with Shadow Shards and a trapped Rularuu?

General MMO question: Let's say the forums / community of a game are full of complaints about a new piece of content. You look at the metrics, and see that in reality, people are playing the new content in droves. Do you take that to mean people actively enjoy the content? Or could it be that people enjoy the game as a whole, and are only playing the new content because it's new and they liked the rest of the game, even if they don't enjoy the new content specifically? Or for content that people actively don't like, do you actually see a drop in people playing it, after it's no longer new or when the next new thing comes out?

It's heavily implied that Ernesto Hess (Council traitor who gives you a task force to defeat Burkholder & stop his plans to unleash a giant robot) is an Arachnos agent. Was there any more planned with this plot hook? Or is it just a general "Recluse stopping the ambitions of other groups from getting too far" sort of thing?

A plaque in the Rikti War Zone (http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Huwe_Enterprises) read: "This building, Huwe Enterprises, a non-profit organization and personal crusade of Preston Huwe, was the first building destroyed in the Rikti Invasion. Preston, away on philanthropic business in Africa at the time, was unharmed and moved his operation to Atlas Park." Anything more than that planned or thought about for Preston Huwe?

How does demon summoning work? I'm looking for info on anything from the actual process to insight into the nature of the demons' dimension(s?), how contracts with them work, how a Mastermind summoning demons may be different from the Circle of Thorns, etc.


Questions either insufficiently or not at all answered in previous AMAs:

Why was Back Street Brawler's name changed to Back Alley Brawler?

Who was the Toymaker (as he was hinted as someone from the heroes past but never expanded on)?

Could we get a full list of Primal/Praetorian counterparts? There are a lot of ones that players have theories on that haven't been confirmed.
Answer: Someone should start a separate thread where we can confirm/debunk counterparts, because we don't have access to "the list" anymore.

Can we please get the Dream Doctor's full story?
Answer: Surprised Dr. Aeon didn't put that in here. Bug him and Protean for it.

Hugo Figures and Agent Gally. Were they ever going to be successful in liberating the Bane Spider network? If not, what ultimately happens to them?

What happened to the Children of Enos?

What was going on in the burned-out parts of Paragon we could see just outside of the war walls?

Who did the big statue in the middle of Steel Canyon represent?

Why are all the plaques in Praetoria, First Ward, and Night Ward in Estonian?

It was referenced in different contacts' back story such as Paula Dempsey's story but any information about past alien invasions before the rikti war?

What did the Khalisti Wharf TF entail? (Randy Jarvis)

Was there going to be a payoff with the Penny/Clockwork King relationship? If so, what? (@kaosarcanna)

What plans did recluse have in regards to statesman's murderer?

Was there any significance to the giant rocky hill next to the tram station in Talos Island? (FnordX)

What other powers were coming out?

How about Matthew Burke? Any metaplot on him that got left behind during the relaunch of Mercy Island?

What were the remaining Incarnate Trials going to consist of?(@Zourg)

What is Protean's history? Where did he get his powers? (@Serpentine)

Grym. What is his deal? Are there more like him? Do they all get a city? (@Serpentine)

What's the history of the Knives of Artemis? Did they have a leader? How did they get involved with Malta? (@Serpentine)

I kept hearing there were Easter Eggs, especially in the Rikti War Zone, that the players never found. If so, what were they and were there any other Easter Eggs put in that the players never discovered or reported? (@Pogothulu)
Answer: I have no idea what easter eggs were found or not. The Producers were the keepers of the Easter Eggs, so bug Melissa Bianco or Nate Birkholz. (Matt)

Can you tell us more about how the Battalion managed to get control of Shiva? The Drowning in Blood trial implied that the "Dark Father" had "wed" the "Mother" of the Shivans already on Earth pre-Galaxy City. (@Coreth)

Followup on previous; was there a plan in mind for the neo-Shivans aside from just destroying Galaxy City? Was there a goal in mind for them as more than just a warning? (@Coreth)

What form were the Mind and Vitae slots going to take? Would they have granted incarnate shifts? (@Cymmetri)

Carnival of Light mask. Carnival of Shadows mask. What could have happened if they'd met? Power struggle/carnie civil war, live and let live, ? (Memphis Bill)


Opinion or "favorites" type questions for devs that weren't answered by very many so far:

What piece of Lore did you really want to add early on that just didn't fit?

Anything you ever REALLY wanted to do but couldn't? New ATs? Fix all the things? CoH 2?

If you could retcon any one thing in the storyline, what would it be? Alternately, what's the one retcon you've made that you later regretted?

What feature or features did you most want to include but couldn't do to lack of ability or time?

What was your favorite character type?

What sort of love interest would you have given Lord Nemesis? (MisterMagpie)

Brain-piloted robots, framing beginning heroes and "adopting" them, nanobot assassins... what was the worst thing the Malta has ever done? {@Quinch}

What are the additions or changes to the game you wish had never been done and why?

What was your favorite villain group, in terms of background, aesthetics, powers, etc.? What was your favorite group to design, if different from the previous question?(@Stratostorm)

What is your thought that Nemesis may have actually been the biggest hero of all in Paragon City? His constant plots typically ended up making Paragon City stronger in the long run. For example, the Rikti War he caused brought us so much new technology and prepared the city for fighting greater threats in the future, essentially preparing us for Praetoria and Battalion. (@LightofthePhoenix)

Hamidon looks delicious. Does he taste like berry blue Jell-O? (@Serpentine)

In the COH universe, which came first: the chicken or the egg? (Voodoo Girl)

What Powerset was heavily desired by the dev team but never possible to implement due to technical limitations of the game?

*hoorb* If Dillo was an incarnate, what abilities would he have had? (@Perfidus)

If CoH could have had some sort of crossover with another property(comic, movie, TV, whatever!), what would have been your first choice?

If you were to end the game on your own terms, how would you have done it? (@Bubbawheat)

If you all had the choice to add any one powerset to the game, what powerset would it be and what archetypes would have access? (Protonic Flux)

What was the most fun part of CoH's lore for you to write?

What are your thoughts on the RP community within the context of the lore? (@Mazzo Grave)

Was the Incarnate arms race (overpowered characters vs. overpowered content/trials) worth the time and effort? Do you regret introducing 50+ abilities? (@ScopeCreep)

Was Sally real?

[Captain Electric]

Bear in mind this thread is only a place to gather your thoughts. When Posi posts the Google document, you'll have to post your questions there.

Before posting, PLEASE LOOK TO SEE IF YOUR QUESTIONS HAVE ALREADY BEEN ASKED in the previous two AMAs. There is a link in the OP. No one is asking you to read the full documents before asking a question. The questions are in bold so it's easy to skim through. The documents are also searchable.

I sent Posi a message about this. ;D

[Captain Electric]

Positron said: "Tell them I plan on doing it a bit differently this year. Doc will only be up for a short window."

So it might be a REALLY good idea to use this thread to gather your thoughts.

[Xieveral]

Hugo Figures and Agent Gally. Were they ever going to be successful in liberating the Bane Spider network? If not, what ultimately happens to them?

Considering they were an homage to the manga Gunnm the outcome and would probably be similar to its story... which had a fairly stupid conclusion IMO >:(

Spoiler for Hidden:

Ending in the style of the original series:

In an effort to save Hugo and take out the BSN, Gally becomes an Arachnos agent. She is tasked with hunting down a rogue scientist with a fetish for flan and karma that has been developing his own bootleg version of the BSN. Stuff happens, Prof. flan reveals he is a former bane spider, Gally is outed as a spy.

Gally is assassinated then revived by Prof. flan for karmatic research purposes. More Prof. flan shenanigans ensue and the Bane Spider network has gone nuts and infiltrated a base on the moon. Prof. flan claims to be on her side and Gally reluctantly joins Prof. Flan in an effort to take it down. This is a precursor to the moon base patch.

She succeeds in taking out the BSN but in doing so the moon base poses a threat to Earth, and to save it she must sacrifice herself. The moon base turns into a giant space lotus because karma. Prof. flan is a senile living flowerpot that occasionally regains his senses and performs experiments to revive Gally who has fused with the base.

Meanwhile, Hugo never stopped searching for her and years later somehow made it to the moon along with a kid she used to babysit. They chase Prof. flowerpot down a chute and find a pod containing Gally. Thanks to the wonders of nanomachines powered by flan and karma, Gally was revived and lived happily ever after.

Ending in the style of Last Order:

Stuff happened, Gally ends up at the moon base in a future patch.

Thanks to a has-been cybercriminal and a vampire with mad wushu skills, she took down the Bane Spider network from the inside out. At some point between meeting those guys and taking out the network, she learned she had actually died on earth in an assassination attempt and was really an android built by a rogue scientist that had an unhealthy obsession with flan and karma. She became a catgirl and did some soul searching in a drawn out space karate tournament then left for mars.

Meanwhile, Hugo never stopped searching for her and somehow made it to the moon along with her dad and a kid she used to babysit. After a game of deadly space chess against Prof. flan, they retrieve her brain from a tank. Thanks to the wonders of 3D print technology Gally was revived from brains and leftover flan and lived happily ever after.

Robo-gally's story to be continued in a future patch. Some speculate that the story will focus on a Council base on Mars.

[LaughingAlex]

Were we going to encounter the Talons of vengeance or even knives of vengeance more?  What about the knives of artemis, what direction were you guys going with them after the destruction of their then-taken-over-by-the-knives of vengeance dojo?

Laughing Alex

[JKPhage]

What was up with those Angels of Vengeance and such we encountered standing around in Night Ward? Any connection to Prometheus's two friends? And who were they supposed to be anyways? His assistants or his minders? (@Dr. Reverend)

This was actually answered by Positron. I don't have a link to the previous doc (or the topic that he said it in, I can't remember which), but I very distinctly remember the explanation. The power hierarchy of evil was supposed to go something akin to Battalion > True Rikti > Dimensionals/Dimensionless (as I said, a little fuzzy and it's been a while). Essentially, Battalion was the coming storm that basically consume other races and add their font of power (Well of the Furies to us), to their own to become even more powerful. When we defeated them that would bring the attention of the next set of bad guys. I forget if it was the True Rikti or the Dimensionals/Dimensionless that was second/third, but that's kind of beside the point. The True Rikti were an interdimensional race that ended up becoming something God-like to the humans of the Rikti dimension and sort of "assimilated" the planet/galaxy. The humans began genetically altering themselves to be more like the Rikti, and called themselves that, but the True Rikti were supposed to make them look like five-year-olds playing with tinker toys, possibly a race of "ascended" beings who reached Incarnate levels and then transcended to become fonts of power in and of themselves. The Dimensionals/Dimensionless were something sort of beyond and ascended being. The "super saiyan three" of COH if you will. They wield immense power beyond anything we'd ever have seen and if I remember correctly they tend to kind of police the multiverse to make sure nobody approaches their levels of power and screws things up. Prometheus is in cahoots with and/or is one of them, and his little angel buddies are as well. All of the angelic beings seen around Night Ward/Dark Astoria and with Prometheus are members of the Dimensionals/Dimensionless who started hanging around because the human race has been screwing with the Well and started popping out Incarnates like bunnies in spring, which put them on high alert. That's the best I can remember, though Posi phrased this in a much more eloquent and concise way. I believe this info was in answer to someone asking who Battalion is or what the next enemy would be AFTER Battalion, so if someone has the doc available they can pull it up. He didn't elaborate much, but from what we know of the lore we can kind of fill in the holes a bit.

Anyway, sorry to ramble so long, just wanted to point out that we were given this information already so we don't waste another question on a repeat, unless someone wants to push their luck and ask for further elaboration on the True Rikti and/or Dimensionals/Dimensionless.

[Felderburg]

Edit: I didn't realize you were quoting me. I included that question because in AMA 2, it was answered as if it had been asking about the Talons of Vengeance, rather than the angels.

That's more or less correct. The true Rikti, however, aren't multi-dimensional - there are versions for each dimension (it is unknown which version we would end up fighting later on). There's a TON of detail in the released old version of the story bible about them, and the AMA answers indicate that it's still reasonably accurate.

The AMA does have two conflicting answers about the power of the True Rikti. In one, Positron says it's Tyrant -> Battalion -> Dimensionless -> True Rikti, in another it's True Rikti -> "Rogue" Dimensionless.

It's my opinion that the Dimensionless would be more powerful, given that based on the answers, the Battalion as well as the True Rikti are not inter-dimensional beings (they are interstellar, however, and according to the story bible that's actually much harder than crossing dimensions (not that that's easy either)). But I guess that's sort of open to interpretation, depending on how advanced the True Rikti would have been. However, the Dimensionless exist outside of time / space and created the Wells of power, so the True Rikti would have to be ridiculous, in my opinion, to beat that.

While more questions are certainly raised, I'm not sure how much more there is. Since the Battalion would have taken up Issues 25-28, and things for Issue 28 were only just approved before the shutdown, I can't imagine too much detail exists on the status of the Dimensionless or the True Rikti.

The entire text of the AMAs is available here: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Lore_AMA

The 2004 version of the Story Bible that was released is in a google doc linked here: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Story_Bible (It is a compressed zip folder because there's a LOT of LARGE pdfs; you can access my Drive folder with unzipped files for a more immediate reading: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BzbPxewaK5DgUjNkNnBKTHFnOGc&usp=sharing)

There is also the Canon Fodder threads, although they are themselves outdated at times, particularly when it comes to Praetorian stuff after Going Rogue. Available here: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Canon_Fodder


From the AMAs:

What's with the sudden appearance of Angels in Ouroboros and Dark Astoria? Anything to their presence or are they just a convenient McGuffin for Item vending?

MM: They were dimensionless, gifting those who were on the path of Ascension.

After the Battalion, what was the next "big idea" that was going to come down the road, if you had thought that far ahead?

MM: The Dimensionless are a race of beings superior to the Wells. Dealing with them once you became a well unto yourself was the next logical step.

STM: One of the ideas was that you kind of "cheat" to defeat Battalion, in essence doing something that should take you being level 50 ++++++++ and doing it at level 50, shattering the source of Battalion. However, this meant that a ton of things that were controlled by Battalion were now freed to do whatever they want, so the threats were unknown but out there, and now it was the responsibility of the players to go out there and handle them.

Can you give us a general overview of the future "in universe timeline" for CoH? We know the Praetorian War is wrapping up and then there is the conflict with Battalion. Just a brief bullet point idea would be great.

MM: There is a running gag on 24 where usually moments before Jack Bauer is about to take down the Ultimate Bad Guy, we get a scene with UBG on the phone with someone even higher up the food chain. In that regard, Emperor Cole would have been seen calling Battalion right before the Magisterium Trial. Battalion would have called the Dimensionless right before taking down their leader and then the Dimensionless would have called True Rikti, the alien race from our own universe.

Q) Curious, what were we gonna fight after the True Rikti?
A) Just like in the tv show 24, right before you take down the final Rikti, we'd have him make a cell phone call to his boss to show you that even the ultimate bad guy answers to someone. No idea who that would have been, but probably some rogue Dimensionless (beings that exist outside of time and space and created the Wells). (Matt)

Q) What Lore was behind the appearance of the Battalion? I'd ask about actual details of their appearance, but...I don't know if I'm allowed to! (@Treees/Taimatsu-maru)
A) In a nutshell. Battalion started off as a powerful race of beings who eventually conquered all their neighboring star systems and then discovered the power contained within "Wells" (of the Furies). They soon found out that multiple wells exist in the universe, and they had the capability of conquering races who had wells and adding that power to their own.

This went on for millennia. They conquered half the galaxy, and eventually started scouting for new Wells and came across "Earth". Earth was unique. It had a powerful Well, so powerful it would bestow powers to the citizens of the planet. No other Well had done this before. It made Earth a very tempting target, but also one of the most difficult they ever would attempt to conquer. They sent agents to undermine the Earth's defenses, many of which have been on the Earth for decades, planting themselves into positions of power. For a while they thought the Rikti were going to do their job for them, but that only proved how resilient of a species mankind actually was.

Who were the aliens that uplifted the humans of Rikti Earth? What were they like? Where did they go and why did they uplift the Rikti? Where were the aliens in Primal reality?

MM: True Rikti lost their home planet when their star went nova, scattering across the galaxy. One group landed on Earth, killed the gods that were being worshiped, set themselves up as gods, then realized they stopped being able to reproduce. They began altering humans into becoming Rikti-hybrids, and eventually all the original Rikti died off, leaving only hybrids on the planet... and true Rikti scattered throughout the universe.

Who wins the Rikti civil war? The Traditionalists or the Restructurists? (Or do they eventually get subsumed by another Rikti group that comes through after them?)

MM: The true, alien, Rikti show up and kill off both sides since they are not pure.

JAH: To expand, there's this concept of Rikti being an actual alien species that exists in both what we would call Rikti Earth and in the Prime Dimension as well. On "Rikti Earth", that species found Earth and infested its human population, enslaving them and changing them genetically. In Prime, they either never found Earth or were defeated by early powered individuals.

If you could retcon any one thing in the storyline, what would it be? Alternately, what's the one retcon you've made that you later regretted?

TS: Being more clear about the way the Well operated in the Ramiel arc. Some players became convinced we were saying that the Well was the ultimate source of all super powers. Nothing could be further from the truth. - All life generates, in small doses, a particular ripple in the fabric of the universe by their existence - you can call this psychic energy, or power, or what have you - but it is generated by their movement through space and time - kind of like static electricity as you run silk over a glass rod. Exceptional life generates an outsized amount of this energy. Over time this energy builds up like a thunderhead, and when the minds of life give it a certain potential "way out" it rushes outward down that channel. In early days of humanity, this "way out" was manifested in elemental spirits, gods, titans - to be followed later by great leaders of civilization, generals, tyrants. As each of these great figures passed on, the outsized energy they possessed became part of the Well. (to be continued)

[Angel Phoenix77]

my question  would be was there any plans for free to play players to play the new missions instead of paying for them?

[Kaos Arcanna]

I was a little bummed by the idea of the Rikti going extinct. For the most part, they weren't EVIL, just victims of a colossal con job.

[JKPhage]

Thanks for the links Felderburg! I was unaware that old story bible had been released! Will have to go check that out. There goes my week, haha. I knew we had a good chunk of information regarding the "Angels" so I just wanted to make sure we didn't end up tossing out a question that we essentially had an answer to already. If someone wanted to ask for more specific clarification about them, that'd be another story though.

I was a little bummed by the idea of the Rikti going extinct. For the most part, they weren't EVIL, just victims of a colossal con job.

I don't know that the Rikti would have gone extinct per se. Knowing how the devs operate we'd probably have all the Rikti on their home planet wiped out and we'd end up with ANOTHER wave of refugees (after Praetorian Earth) pouring into Paragon, though this time from Rikti Earth, or rather, whatever Rikti were currently on Primal Earth being stuck there due to the annihilation of their home. I could very easily see that spinning into a whole series of story arcs with some kind of "Purist" movement on earth that's ticked off that we're turning into the multiverses homeless shelter, especially when those refugees are from groups that were previously doing their damndest to kill us. Plenty potential there.

[saipaman]

I was a little bummed by the idea of the Rikti going extinct. For the most part, they weren't EVIL, just victims of a colossal con job.

And that might be the basis for a future task force / strike force.  One to save them and one to damn them.

[Arcana]

The AMA does have two conflicting answers about the power of the True Rikti. In one, Positron says it's Tyrant -> Battalion -> Dimensionless -> True Rikti, in another it's True Rikti -> "Rogue" Dimensionless.

Probably because such things tend to be in flux until they get pinned down by an issue design decision.

It's my opinion that the Dimensionless would be more powerful, given that based on the answers, the Battalion as well as the True Rikti are not inter-dimensional beings (they are interstellar, however, and according to the story bible that's actually much harder than crossing dimensions (not that that's easy either)). But I guess that's sort of open to interpretation, depending on how advanced the True Rikti would have been. However, the Dimensionless exist outside of time / space and created the Wells of power, so the True Rikti would have to be ridiculous, in my opinion, to beat that.

That would have been my guess also, although either way it opens the door to serious questions about how to meld the obvious power creep of the storyline and the almost impossible task of representing that level of power in-game.  In fact, if I remember to do so, that would probably be my question for LoreAMA2014: how did the devs plan to represent "galactic empire" levels of power followed by the "trans-incarnate power of the dimensionless."  We had pretty ridiculous levels of power in the incarnate system up to I24 already, and maximum incarnate power was still several slots away.  Power intended to be not just a little higher, but completely transcendent to that would have basically required handing out admin access to the servers to everyone that finished the Dimensionless Strike Force.  That seems very challenging from a game design perspective, short of just punting the problem entirely and handwaving it away.  Which I know practically every lore-commenter on the forums would have ripped on (I'd probably be one of them myself).

As an aside, rereading the AMAs its amusing to note that I got a surprising number of things kinda close in the Immortal Game event backstory, among the several glaring things I got totally wrong about the (at the time unreleased) backstory of the game.  Its amusing because at the time I thought how I wanted things to go seemed so totally out of sync with how the devs tended to script the backstory and cosmology of the game.

[Felderburg]

Thanks for the links Felderburg! I was unaware that old story bible had been released! Will have to go check that out. There goes my week, haha.

I know, right? I still haven't sat down and read through it all - just pieces I happened to be interested in at certain times.

I don't know that the Rikti would have gone extinct per se. Knowing how the devs operate we'd probably have all the Rikti on their home planet wiped out and we'd end up with ANOTHER wave of refugees (after Praetorian Earth) pouring into Paragon, though this time from Rikti Earth, or rather, whatever Rikti were currently on Primal Earth being stuck there due to the annihilation of their home. I could very easily see that spinning into a whole series of story arcs with some kind of "Purist" movement on earth that's ticked off that we're turning into the multiverses homeless shelter, especially when those refugees are from groups that were previously doing their damndest to kill us. Plenty potential there.

There's a answer in the AMA that sounded like that was actually planned for the Rikti, but then the refugee thing got implemented for Praetorians instead. I do like the "purist" storyline idea.

[Felderburg]

Just an FYI, a little while ago I started trying to sort the AMA questions by topic: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Lore_AMA/Sorted I don't know if that will help people, but it was something I wanted to do.

Also, doesn't anyone else have any questions? Or are they being saved for the "official doc" to go up?

[Golden Girl]

These are the 3 questions I'd be msot interested in getting answers to:

1 - Did Katie Douglas survive the destruction of Praetoria - and if she did, was she going to appear in any further content?

2 - Where exactly was Kallisti Wharf located?

3 - Which zone would the shuttle to the moon-base have been in?

[Little David]

There was something I remember I wanted to ask for AMA 2014, but I can't find the AMA 2013 thread to verify what it was ...

[Blondeshell]

There was something I remember I wanted to ask for AMA 2014, but I can't find the AMA 2013 thread to verify what it was ...

Magic, I say. Sheer magic!

[Little David]

Magic, I say. Sheer magic!

I meant the thread discussing AMA 2013 here.

[Peacemaker]

Within the first novel "The Web of Arachnos" written by Robert Weinberg and if memory serves me right, the Furies lived in Paragon City with Marcus Cole.  Were there every any plans to make them part of the game as NPCs?