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Footenotes: Chaos vs Order and the Crisis of the Multiverse

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Footenotes: Chaos vs Order and the Crisis of the Multiverse

Hey guys. Welcome to another installment of my Footenotes series where tin foil hats are still considered en vogue.

It's been a while since I've done a Footenote, but recently I stumbled upon a discussion I started in the PT forums way back when WotC was doing its preorder event and I wanted to revisit it here with a little more depth. With VotM set to be the penultimate chapter of the SotM expansion series, we are streaking toward the end and there are some major questions left to be answered. The largest one being - who, or what, is our big bad Cosmic Entity? Lets start to unpack some of the newest information found in WotC and see if we can't get to the bottom of this.

Let's begin!

-------------------------------

I don't think near enough has been said about the bio for Wager Master. Reading it closely there are some major points of interest:

Before time was time, before space was space, there was the wager. The wager that nothing would happen.

That wager was lost. And from that loss came the Wager Master.

As reality formed and matter came into being, all of the losing wagers - all of the impossible possibilities - also formed into being. Into a specific being: the Wager Master.

"The Wager". The Wager, coming before time and space, predates all existance as we know it. Someone bet that nothing would come of this emptiness, that it would be this way forever, that nothing would happen. 

Someone won that bet.

Things did happen! Call it the "Big Bang" or "Divine Creation" or whatever, but the results are whats important. Reality, space, time, matter, they all formed from out of the vast nothingness and The Wager was lost. The Wager boils down to two things. Order vs Chaos. And Chaos won.

All of the losing wagers - all of the impossible possibilities - formed into a being known as The Wager Master. That came right from the bio. But thats not important really. What is important is the opposite end of that spectrum.

I think all of the winning wagers - all of the possible possibilities - also formed into its own being. The Multiverse. Where any and all possible possibilities can and do occur in their own little pocket of time and space.

This is the creation story for Sentinels Comics. The very backbone of how all of the things we know came to be. Following the bread crumbs of this idea down the rabbit hole, we find outselves at the bio for Progeny:

From far beyond our galaxy came a spark of creation.

Oh really? A spark of creation? Didn't we just talk about something exactly like this?

It arced through space and drove into the heart of our planet. As cosmic events transpired that spark was called to awaken. Progeny was born. It knew its two directives. Its first command: Destroy. Its second command was less simple but even more important: it must prepare for the arrival of its proginator.

I think it's clear at this point that the Time-Crazed Prisoner (aka Infinitor) alluded to Progeny in his mad wall scribbling. "It sends its servant" is refering to the proginator sending his progeny, and the "child is the center" is Progeny slumbering in the center of the Earth. 

We know that the Cosmic Entity is coming. He is the big bad of the whole series and is the one who sent Progeny. And if Progeny came from a "spark of creation", possibly the same spark of creation that created the entire Multiverse itself, then the dots I'm seeing here all point to one conclusion: The Cosmic Entity is the being who won that initial wager. Chaos vs Order my friends. And Chaos won.

Chaos is a two sided coin, and it's best represented by Earths very own spirit of chaos. Akash'Bhuta. On one hand you have creation, and the other you have destruction. It's a never ending cycle. We saw a small scale example of this cycle very early on. After Omnitron was first destroyed it was given new life by a distant cosmic force, created anew so it may continue on its destructive path. Deadline and the Endlings have felt the destructive end of this cycle on a larger scale. They are all that remains of a continuous cycle of extinction events which are caused by our Cosmic Entity. Deadline's entire purpose for coming to cripple Earth is to stop this cycle from happening again.

The Endlings, being the result of these extinction events at the hands of Chaos, present an interesting piece of the puzzle. Jansa VI Dero collects the very last survivors of these species, preserving them outside of time and space in the Enclave. But why does she do this? What purpose does it ultimately serve? Look at it this way: Preservation is the antithesis of both destruction and creation. What is her purpose? Order.

Jansa VI Dero - The Terminarch - represents Order.

The word Terminarch means the last of their species. The last step before extinction or the end. There is another word similar very similar to Terminarch that means an end point in time or space. The final step when the last of its kind meets extinction. That word? Terminus.

Where have I seen the word Terminus before? OH! That's right! Hey Omnitron-X, can you read the flavor text of Defensive Blast for me?

"End times? I have seen many end times.These are merely your end times"

- Omnitron-X, Terminus #3

End times? Extinction events? Could Terminus be our Cosmic Entity? Here is where it gets good folks!

If Jansa VI Dero, The Terminarch, represents Order, than Terminus represents Chaos. Know what I think? I think Jansa was the one who lost The Wager at the begining of time. Terminus? Yeah. He won.

 

Additional Connecting Thoughts: Apostate, The Host, and Terminus

In my Footenotes series on Apostate, I thought Apostate might have been the "servant" sent by Terminus. That theory seems to be soundly incorect in light of Progeny. However, there was a lot of other interesting points and themes that came out of that discussion. One theme that seems to tie in to both of these discussions though is religious symbolism, noteably Christian themes and symbols.

We previously discussed what "The Host" could be and what its meaning in a religious context could tell us about the story of SotM. The Host, if you recall, is the group affiliated with Apostate in his official bio, though there has been no in-game mention of it as of yet. From a religious standpoint, the Host is the higherarchy of Angels in Heaven.

Given how The Wager produces a story that sort of resembles a creationist perspective of how all things came to be, and the role Terminus played in winning the wager that created the Multiverse, I am inclined to connect Terminus and the Host, where Terminus is serves as a god-like figure to a higherarchy of celestial beings that were amongst the first created by the wager.

An apostate is a person who denounces a religious belief or principle. For those of you who played the Dragon Age games, apostates are rogue mages who fled the chantry (the church) which sought to control them. In this same vein, I believe Apostate fled The Host, or maybe was cast out, analogus to the fallen angel Satan if we are going to stick with the religious themes and inspirations I think are being drawn on here.

What might have been the cause of Apostates fallout with The Host? Could it have been because he was tampering with infernal arts and powers? Could it have been the creation of Fanatic? I mean, have you seen the picture of Fanatic in Tactics? There is something major that goes down with her during the final story arch. Her entire body is full of glowing runes. It is almost the end of SotM and we know very little about Apostate and Fanatic, and I believe the reason behind that is because those answers are tied too closely to the Host and Terminus.

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IJansa is forming her own "Noah's Ark" of sorts; the Enclave of the Endlings is that ark. A safe haven for each species to exist, away from the pending destruction that this ultimate villian has in store. Because she herself is the last of HER species. Terminarch is literally a synonym for "endling."

Deadline then simultaneously ravaged planets to slow the pace of galactic destruction.


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It's not particularly relevant to your main point, but I'm pretty sure that "the child is the center" does not refer to Peogeny in the center of the Earth. We've had at least one other mention of 'the center' on Reveal the Flaws: "There! Run to the center! It's now or never!" And I doubt that the two are unrelated. It's still theoretically possible that the 'child' is Progeny, but running to the center of the Earth is usually considered... difficult.


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First off, wonderful work as always.

 

I think we can safely add in the Oblivion Shards to the theory. They seem to be a near direct reference to Marvel's Infinity Stones which also deal with the birth and death of reality (If I remeber correctly).

 

With them being called "shards" that means they were once part of something greater, a gauntlet or just a big stone, maybe even the first planet. Perhaps, crazy theory, they were what the wager centered on. Will it shatter or not? and the shattering led to creation.

 

One reason I'm convinced they are involved (other than my gut) is Cap. Cosmic's incap side. He is kneeling, glowng with his energy signature, in a giant rocky hand(wearing a green wrist device) as planets glow red in an emminent destruction. I think that is the hand of "Terminus" who either was showing Cap. the futility of fighting against the inevitable or was trying to absorb the power he got from the shard.

 

Actually the first one fits a bit better, look at the fronts of Cap and PW Cap. On his normal card he almost looks happy-go-lucky, and his power plays him as almost careless with the energy he's unleashing, just more and more and more. PW Cap looks somber, serious, and his power plays him much more conservatily, bring out less but keep it flowing back and forth instead of just letting it be destroyed.

 

Of course, his somber attitude coould also have come about because of confronting his brother... Think Cap would seek out the one who caused his brother's madness? A being of "infinite" madness who whispered of oblivion? If "Terminus" had a direct line to Infinitor that would explain how Infinitor learned what he did and why Cap would be the first to find and confront "Terminus", leading to his incap side.

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jsz2 wrote:

It's not particularly relevant to your main point, but I'm pretty sure that "the child is the center" does not refer to Peogeny in the center of the Earth. We've had at least one other mention of 'the center' on Reveal the Flaws: "There! Run to the center! It's now or never!" And I doubt that the two are unrelated. It's still theoretically possible that the 'child' is Progeny, but running to the center of the Earth is usually considered... difficult.

That's a fair point.

There is still some evidence to suggest that Matriarch is what Infinitor references with "the child is the center". Flavor text of her mask. "I rule from the center to the sea". Shes saying she rules from the center of the earth to the ends of the ocean. The entire world is hers. And guess who else is on Reveal the Flaws? Matriarch.

In my Footenotes series on Matriarch specifically, I found that there could very well be symbolic connections between Matriarch and a creator figure of the multiverse or the Cosmic Entity. This installment of Footenotes tries to cement the idea that the Cosmic Entity, Terminus, won the wager that produced the entire Multiverse. There is probably some connection with Matriarch and Progeny given the art of Reveal the Flaws. Maybe she is the final catalyst that awakens Progeny and that Cpt. Cosmic must try and save her in order to stop the summoning? Idk. Theres lots of different ways I can see it go down. But the connection is worth looking at.

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Why would we say chaos won the wager?  Here's a different way to look at it.

 

Even the Multiverse is ordered, each possibility explored, safe from others until that order is ruptured.

 

Chaos is what caused the shattering of timelines, it is what attracted all this attention, and if Earth is the cause of the chaos of the timelines then the Wrath of the Cosmos is Order pushing in to destroy that chaos.

If it is Filter, or the Matriarch, or Dreamer that shatter the timelines, then you would have progeny awakened to put an end to the chaos.  Deadline trying to end the threat without wiping the species, or even destroy the Earth before Progeny can awaken.

KNYFE is Progeny's nemesis even though Alchemy is a key part of Progeny.  If the Timeline's were messed up by Filter, then KNYFE is our representative of the reason for it's coming, and the organization that is here to defend us from the consequences.  That makes a lot of sense.

Then she asks too many questions and finds out too much, and realizes Filter is no good. (Rogue Agent KNYFE)  Rogue Agent KNYFE is huge to me, she was going to be one of the last promo's, but worked better than moving other ones forward.  She connects these events and the endgame.

If Progeny is related to the Ley Lines, which from the center of the earth, the way he works, comments, etc. it seems he is, then Severing the Ley Lines might be Deadline attempting to stop the awakening of Progeny.

The heroes thwart him, he fails, Progeny rises, The Terminarch, seeing the doom coming holds the contest to see which representative of Earth will survive the coming cleansing of Chaos from our corner of the cosmos.

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phantaskippy wrote:

Why would we say chaos won the wager?

The bet was that in nothingness, nothing would happen, that It would stay a constant nothing. That side lost. When something stays constant, that does not sound like "Chaos" to me. That's the calling card of Order. Stuff happened, time and space were created, what was once nothing is now in a constant flux of change as creation happens. Thats Chaos. Thats the side that won.

Chaos is both creation and destruction, and it goes in cycles. Right now, Earth, and possibly the entire Multiverse, is comming upon the destruction point of that cycle.

phantaskippy wrote:

Chaos is what caused the shattering of timelines, it is what attracted all this attention, and if Earth is the cause of the chaos of the timelines then the Wrath of the Cosmos is Order pushing in to destroy that chaos.

Well, kinda. Deadline is pushing in to halt the extinction cycle from happening again. If you want to call that Order I do not disagree. He is an endling, one of Jansa's endlings, and I already made the connection that I think the Terminarch represents Order with her preservation of the past just like Terminus is the representation of Chaos with his destruction of the present.

phantaskippy wrote:

he heroes thwart him, he fails, Progeny rises, The Terminarch, seeing the doom coming holds the contest to see which representative of Earth will survive the coming cleansing of Chaos from our corner of the cosmos.

The one things thats still somewhat of a mystery is the exact reason and motivation behind why Terminus starts his extinction cycles, and there is nothing that really says that its because it wants to impose Order. In my view, the destruction of the Multiverse would be a way to create something new, and creation/destruction are aspects of Chaos.

Other than those minor differences of view here, I really like what you said about FILTER and KNYFE's relationship to Progeny as a primary nemesis pairing. I think FILTER has known about this coming for a long time now which could be another reason why the Block exists outside of Time and Space. It would be spared a collapsing of the Multiverse if it were to happen (just like the endlings would survive under Jansa in the Enclave)

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At least one cosmic being is a being of order and we see that by taking a look at Cosmitron's bio: «A mysterious cosmic entity had observed as a simple factory transformed itself into a being of great intellect and order, and this entity was disappointed to see it brought to so swift an end.»

As much as chaos doesn't always make sense I doubt that chaos would have reanimated a champion for order. Even worse we know that a great schism happened before tactics and ripped the hero world appart dividing them. Maybe the Prime Wardens are the ones destined to fall from grace. If the final cosmic being is one of Order it will seek out new champions once progeny falls.

The one I'm pretty sure is destined to slip to Terminus's side is the argent adept. He is the Virtuoso of the Void. It's an intriguing title in itself but I'll come back to that later. Now what exactly does a Virtuoso of the Void do? The bio says: «A master musician who holds back the tide of chaos and destruction through their connection to the primal forces of the natural world. There is only ever one Virtuoso of the Void at a time, and each of these druidic songsmiths faced down the avatar of annihilation known as Akash’bhuta as she rose time and time again to break all order in the world.» Now that sure sounds as a champion of Order if I ever read one. Even worse he is the Virtuoso of the Void(1. Containing no matter; empty.)What if the emptiness contained in the title is supposed to be what remains after he has completed his job?

Now of course why would the Adept be a champion of good for so long? Because he is self taught and didn't get a master:  «He was the newest Virtuoso of the Void and should have already been training in the ways of the Void». Perhaps the progenitor will be able to turn or force him to bring the Void he represents.

Moving on to the second member to have joined the wardens: Cap Cosmic. I haven't dug into his deck yet I just got him but his original incap http://sotm.wdfiles.com/local--files/heroes:captain-cosmic/capcosback.jpg reflects this image http://31.media.tumblr.com/3c799fe607846cabd329c73dfb4dd0fd/tumblr_mi635... 

Thing to note his powers are probably derived from what activated the progeny entity. Meaning his source of power might be the progenitor and maybe the progenitor can coerce him into serving him. Actually considering the image where it reflects Silver Surfer's rise as an Herald of Galactus, maybe the incap is the moment Cap Cosmic becomes the Herald of the progenitor. I don't find it as compeling as AA's fall from grace but there's a doubt in my mind that the seeds are already there. Perhaps his brother was to be an Herald too, but the overflow of information kicked him in madness after all humans are such fragile things to a cosmic being. Madness of course makes him fall to chaos making him an entity that FILTER might try and catch to keep the good order on things.

Third we have Fanatic's ties with the obscure host, those are sure to come up in the last expansion have been heavily discussed elsewhere but while not as compelling as the other two it could be a reason she would follow them.

Haka what if Haka's immortality comes from being the chosen human to be the Endling? Then that would make him linked with the Terminarch. Now the name Terminarch sounds too close to Terminus to be a coincidence, And we pretty much guess that Terminus is an extremely powerful cosmic entity. Haka is the one prime warden I have the hardest time to see fall from grace. So maybe everyman has his price or maybe he stands defiant but crushed by his cosmic teammates.

I pretty much draw a blank as far as what makes Tempest at risk of falling.

For those who are still following me after this wall of text I have to mention that it struck me as weird that Darkwatch would get to Tactics before the PW, but if they stood on the progenitor's side it would explain a lot. Thanks for your time and I hope you had fun reading my speculations.

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Medic-Tank wrote:

At least one cosmic being is a being of order and we see that by taking a look at Cosmitron's bio: «A mysterious cosmic entity had observed as a simple factory transformed itself into a being of great intellect and order, and this entity was disappointed to see it brought to so swift an end.» As much as chaos doesn't always make sense I doubt that chaos would have reanimated a champion for order. 

Idk, I kinda disagree. I talked about Cosmitron, and I think it is a perfect representation of the Chaotic cycle of creation/destruction. It created itself, caused destruction, was destroyed, and Terminus brought new life to it, creating it again so it could continue its destructive path. 

Chaos/Order as I present them are more about motivations and purpose. Maybe Omnitron was indeed acting in a way to impose a sort of order to things, I can see that, but the motivation for resurecting it was not about helping Omnitron further its own goals toward that order. In fact, the same bio says that the cosmic being was 100% disinterested in the outcome of his experiment. He didn't care at all. He created Cosmitron for the hell of it just to watch the sparks fly. That leans more toward the Choas end of the spectrum to me.

 

Other than that, I really enjoyed your thoughts on the Prime Wardens in all of this. Especially the Argent Adept. Who is Argents nemesis? It's Akash. Akash is the spirit of chaos in the world, she is both creation and destruction, and Its Argent Adept who is charged with confronting Akash and her Chaos. You could look at AA as an agent of Order if we are sticking with the main theme of the thread. Heck, I think all of the Prime Wardens kinda have that in common, they are trying to bring order through their heroics.

Fanatic, however, given what we know of her demenor and actions, starts off almost 100% as a "Chaotic Good" sort of character. This fits nicely with her connection to Apostate and The Host, if indeed Terminus is the head of the Host like I suspect. Her nature is chaotic at first. But part of her character development though her time in the Prime Wardens tempers that side of her, and she slowly becomes more neutral and centered, a place inbetween of her extreme tendencies on the Chaos/Order spectrum, setting the stage for her to become a very important player in the fight to come.

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I'm not sure I buy the argument that creation is an act of Chaos.  I've read too many mythologies that describe creation as an ordered universe emerging from primorial chaos to accept that creation can happen without order.  Admittedly, starting from nothing and starting from chaos are two very different things, but I still think that order and chaos are both required for creation.

 

If that's the case, and Wager Master's bio accurately describes the conditions for the beginning of the world (which I'm not sure I buy either - the Wager Master feels like one of those odd beings that thrives on slipping through corners and loopholes, and the way it views the creation of the multiverse may not be the same way everyone else would view it), then the two opposing forces/entities that made that first wager would likely not be Order and Chaos.  I'm not sure what they would be instead, though.  


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The actual worst case scenario for the Heroes is not to have 1 big bad rampaging, but even more to be caught between an Order cosmic entity AND a Chaos cosmic entity with neither actually really caring about the fate of those "Ants" that crawl around the Shadows and Vorlons in babylon 5 reflected that dynamic. Shadows representing Chaos and Vorlons Order they wer pretty much blasting planet busters at each other. The hints still lead to one big bad but it might not be that simple...

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Medic-Tank wrote:

The actual worst case scenario for the Heroes is not to have 1 big bad rampaging, but even more to be caught between an Order cosmic entity AND a Chaos cosmic entity with neither actually really caring about the fate of those "Ants" that crawl around the Shadows and Vorlons in babylon 5 reflected that dynamic. Shadows representing Chaos and Vorlons Order they wer pretty much blasting planet busters at each other. The hints still lead to one big bad but it might not be that simple...

Since the destruction of the Multiverse and its inevitable conclusion of being condenced into one timeline feel a lot like DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths storys, has any thought gone into parralels between our Terminus and Monitor/Anti-Monitor? These forums like to think of Terminus as analogous to Galactus or Thanos, but what you brought up sounds like maybe theres more of a pull of inspiration from the two Monitors? My take on Chaos/Order could translate loosely into that pretty easily.

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Sounds like I have some reading ahead of me I'm just not good enough with DC knowledge to take it in that direction but it would make sense as sentinels has clearly combined many influences at a good many times. The only thing I know about crisis on infinites earths is the amount of retcon it brought probably to Guise's amusement.

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If the wager was a "nothing will happen" vs. "something will happen" then how did Wager master come out of the possibilities of the losing wagers?

Is that stated somewhere, that the losing wager was "nothing happens?"

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phantaskippy wrote:

Is that stated somewhere, that the losing wager was "nothing happens?"

This is right from the bio:

The wager that nothing would happen. That wager was lost.

I dont know if there is any other way to read those two sentences.

As far as "how did Wager Master form"? Idk. The bio says that all of the "impossible possibilities" formed into Wager Master. 

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If you are more versed in marvel, a comparison could be the fight between the Magus and Thanos.

Great stuff as always Foote. I may write more later when i am not on a cellphone, but Im really enjoying the discussion

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These threads make me so happy.

You all deserve a pie.

Instead, I'll give you this: the Time-Crazed Prisoner is not Infinitor. 

It's a minor thing, but it's a thing, nonetheless. 


"Your goodness must have some edge to it — else it is none."
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Christopher wrote:

These threads make me so happy.You all deserve a pie.Instead, I'll give you this: the Time-Crazed Prisoner is not Infinitor. It's a minor thing, but it's a thing, nonetheless. 

Kinda glad It wasn't too important to my overall train of thought then. Thanks for the tidbit.

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Aww, that's disappointing. They look so SIMILAR!


McBehrer is the sole winner of this game... And McBehrer, I would step carefully should you find your way down dark alleys. More than one vote said simply, "McBehrer must die."

McBehrer confirmed to be Biomancer!
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That last part makes me think the TCP is in an Iron Legacy situation

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Rabit was right!


Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
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Pydro wrote:

Rabit was right!

You have no idea how much I treasure those rare moments... wink


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To once again weigh in on Chaos vs. Order.

The final Wasteland is definitely not the result of order.  So there is some agent of chaos out there, but the Final Wasteland seems almost petty, abandoned.  I think the Final Wasteland is more Akash'bhutah than the return of the creator of the Multiverse.

If the Prime Wardens fall before the big bad, either against of for him it would make sense that Akash would be able to rule a timeline that had lost the force that opposed her.

Haka preserves the Library as a record of Mankind the way the Terminarch preserves the Endlings as a record of their civilization's existence.

On the opposite side there is the possibility that the returning god destroys and moves on, leaving a broken world to move in whatever direction.  In this case Haka would win the Cosmic competition to determine Mankind's representative, but opts Deadline style to not be at the refuge.

 

The thing that doesn't make sense with the second one is Chrono Ranger.  Akash must be stopped "By any Means" and "The Ultimate Target" is Plague Rat.  If the Final Wasteland, the world he is trying to prevent is the work of a god of chaos, then con is really missing the boat.

The first option it makes sense, Akash and the result of Plague Rat's mutations overtake the world when the Prime Wardens aren't around to resist it.

 

What would be really awesome is Akash'bhutah becoming a hero, most likely in a different form than her normal self.  A smaller, more human looking Akash fighting to save the world she claims for herself would be awesome.  Even if she did have to fight alongside the annoying little humans.

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That last point I brought up in the thread i wrote today

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So, do we have a theory on what caused the shattered timelines? Cause breaking time seems pretty chaotic to me.

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ATBurkard wrote:

So, do we have a theory on what caused the shattered timelines? Cause breaking time seems pretty chaotic to me.

Unfortunately at the moment we only know that the focal point is Vanessa, whether she caused it or not is still in the air.

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ATBurkard wrote:

So, do we have a theory on what caused the shattered timelines? Cause breaking time seems pretty chaotic to me.

There is nothing solid to go on. But it could be a few things.

1) Terminus could be the direct cause of the Time Cataclysm. It should be noted that Deadlines bio makes it seem like Terminus is drawn to Earth because of the Cataclysm in the first place, so this may not be the most likely reason.

2) It could be Wager Master who caused it as part of one of his games to mess with our heros.

Now, unfortunately, the capricious Wager Master has appeared on earth. Too many things have gone wrong. Too many coincidences and too many confluences point to the truth: we are all pawns in the cruel game of an entity as old as the Multiverse.

Confluences: the joining of two rivers. an act or proccess of merging.

Look at the artwork for the back of the Time Cataclysm environment deck. Coincidence? Sounds like the Cataclysm.

3) FILTER could have caused it in order to exert a measure of control on all the timelines towards a particular end, one that KNYFE was close to finding. They built the Block outside of time and space afterall, maybe they have the means to create something like the Cataclysm as well.

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The Cataclysm could have been the result of the methods Filter used to create the Block, doesn't have to be intentional.

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What about Blade pulling the moon into the Earth. It's the start of the story, so it would make sense for the end to be tied to it

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Huh.  I just found something interesting.

The flavor text of Enlightenment reads

Enlightenment wrote:
Life and death. Space and time. Fate and chance. These are the forces of the universe.

- Nightmist, Virtuoso of the Void #12

 

Order and Chaos aren't in there.  Now, Nightmist can hardly be taken as a concrete source, but I do find it interesting that she says this in a Virtuoso of the Void comic, since AA is explicitly aligned with Order.

 

And we've already seen a fundemental entity of chance (Wager Master).  Could Terminus be aligned with Fate, rather than Order or Chaos?  That would explain what attracted the Wager Master.

 

Admittedly, a entity of Fate seems unlikely to have reanimated Cosmitron casually the way our mysterious entity did.  

 

Thoughts?


"Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?"

- Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

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Expatriette is a force of Life and Death.

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Greywind wrote:

Expatriette is a force of Life and Death.

Mark it down. Greywind called it

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phantaskippy wrote:

What would be really awesome is Akash'bhutah becoming a hero, most likely in a different form than her normal self.  A smaller, more human looking Akash fighting to save the world she claims for herself would be awesome.  Even if she did have to fight alongside the annoying little humans.

I'd love Akash'Bhuta becoming a hero, but I'd prefer it if they didn't "humanize" her and instead kept her at her classic villain size.  She could control like the Huge version of Sky-Scraper, where she deals lot's of damage to multiple targets, but also has the potential to deal damage to her allies (which would fit with her chaotic theme, on top of fighting with the heroes most likely being a means to an end).

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Maybe she wouldn't be able to deal damage at all unless she got out one of her minion-like Limb cards. She'd be more like Unity, I suppose, dealing her effects through targets in her deck while her character card represents her sitting at a distance or something. Unless she made an avatar, I suppose - like a broken-off chunk into which she puts her consciousness while her actual body just turns into a mountain, all safe somewhere and ready to re-awaken when her avatar gets killed and her consciousness returns to it.


I am the Wordweaver...

Basically, I like writing stuff ;)

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The Tactics card Artillery Mode shows Akash'Bhuta still being fought by heroes.

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Well, yeah, but there's no reason she couldn't TEMPORARILY join with the heroes in the face of a COSMOS-ENDING THREAT.


McBehrer is the sole winner of this game... And McBehrer, I would step carefully should you find your way down dark alleys. More than one vote said simply, "McBehrer must die."

McBehrer confirmed to be Biomancer!
-- Trajector

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I personally don't think Akash is a good candidate for a hero... I get the feeling that she's more animal than humanoid, a wild, bestial entity... Do we ever get a quote from her on any card?


MrLeRobot...

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A few questions I keep asking myself about the "cosmic menace" and why it would try to attack earth.

I don't think it has anything to do, directly, with technological advances or big population - there are more advanced civilizations in the multiverse, like the Thorathians, who don't seem to have a problem with it - yet.

I think it is very possible that the "cosmic menace" is linked to Akash'Bhuta. She seems to be the spirit of earth itself, or at least a very old entity who claims Earth as her domain. She is "chatotic" nature, so the development of a civilization on her world coud be dangerous/limiting to her. Deadline's actions seem to try to "free" heer from the limitations of civilized, superpowered individuals...

Could it be that the "cosmos" intervenes when the "spirit" of a world is in danger of being suffocated by its inhabitants ? Maybe Akash is the child of something more powerful, and earth her nursery. Maybe the humans (and other civilizations before) get too numerous and powerful to ler her "hatch", and the mother is coming back to protect her ?

Or maybe Akash is about to get adult and fly away - like if the earth was an egg about to hatch - and maybe the hatching is made faster by the number of powered individuals on earth ?

Another theory of mine would be that what attracts the "cosmo"s is a specific kind of superpower - or rather of superpowered individuals. Specifically : Legacy and the "cumulative" power of its family. There was a discussion, some times ago, about how many generation it would take for Legacy's descendants to reach a god-like level of power. What if the "cosmos" doesn't want this to happen, and sends its progenies in the universe to search for occurences of this power, with the goal to get rid of them before they reach "critical mass" ? Maybe the death of Pauline in the "Iron Legacy time line" would have prevented the intervention of the Cosmos itself ? Maybe the "cosmos" is in fact the last descendant of an alien "legacy-line", who reached the ultimate evolution, and now wants to prevent any other to be able to oppose him/her/it ?

Or, maybe, the "cosmos" lives by draining the power of superpowered individuals - and makes sure to leave artifacts and or "gifts" on planets, encouraging heroes an dvillain to grow, so that he can reap them later, as a good gardener ? It could explain all the relics and artifacts, Legacy's power and many other things...

My favorite idea would be the Legacy one, but I think the "protect Akash" one seems more coherent with Deadline's plans.

But, well - maybe there is more than one "final menace" planned, each with its own agenda - and Deadline only tries to prevent the one he knows about...


Any view of things that is not strange is false - Neil Gaiman

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Akash'Bhuta as the child that is the center? That's an interesting one...


McBehrer is the sole winner of this game... And McBehrer, I would step carefully should you find your way down dark alleys. More than one vote said simply, "McBehrer must die."

McBehrer confirmed to be Biomancer!
-- Trajector

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Foote wrote:
Jansa VI Dero - The Terminarch - represents Order.

The word Terminarch means the last of their species. The last step before extinction or the end. There is another word similar very similar to Terminarch that means an end point in time or space. The final step when the last of its kind meets extinction. That word? Terminus.

Where have I seen the word Terminus before? OH! That's right! Hey Omnitron-X, can you read the flavor text of Defensive Blast for me?

"End times? I have seen many end times.These are merely your end times"

- Omnitron-X, Terminus #3

End times? Extinction events? Could Terminus be our Cosmic Entity?

I was digging around old Footenotes and such looking for stuff on the Time-Crazed Prisoner, in case there was anything I wanted to ask The Letters Page for OblivAeon Part 2. (I don't think there is, it seems to have been pretty well covered in the F.I.L.T.E.R. episode. But I will volunteer that the most suggestive thing on the card art - once we got to see it without the keyword "INMATE" obscuring the bottom-left, that is - is the line that branches into two, which each branch, which each branch again (representing the splitting of the multiverse into multiple realities), and then end with the word "OBLIVA--."

Anyway, Foote, I wanted to point out that the keyword text on the third form of OblivAeon is: "TERMINUS OF ALL REALITIES."

This definitely suggests that the "Terminus" book is one of the comics covering the OblivAeon event. I wonder what it means that Omnitron-X has seen "many" end times, though - time to go ask a question after all, it seems!