City of Heroes/Characters/Enemy Groups

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The various enemy groups within City of Heroes display many tropes in their own right.


Major Enemy Groups

Arachnos

The biggest villain group of the setting, and one found through all level ranges. Villain Players work with/for Arachnos, while Heroes must defeat it at every turn. Arachnos rules the Rogue Isles utterly, and constantly send forces to attack Paragon City. Their leader is Lord Recluse.

  • Animal Motifs: As the name suggests, Arachnos has a spider theme - the only members that don't are the Mu Mystics.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Arachnos Widows and Fortunatas.
  • City Guards: Some Arachnos mooks serve this role in the Rogue Isles, while the Arbiter Drones are invincible guardians of safe zones.
  • Equal Opportunity Evil: Has both male and female minions, though the NPCs are gender segregated, with female 'Widow' assassins and 'Fortunata' psychics, while males are Wolf, Bane and Crab Spiders. The player epic archetype Soldiers of Arachnos has no such restriction, however.
  • Five-Bad Band: The leaders of Arachnos form one of these.
  • Goddamned Bats: Mu Mystics. Against Arachnos as a whole, many characters have to prioritize Mu enemies or lose their endurance quickly. A few missions pit you against nothing but Mu Mystics.
  • Mecha-Mooks: At higher levels, they start bringing out the robotic spider tanks.
  • Standard Status Effects: Arachnos has one of the widest selections of control and debuff effects spread between its many enemy types.
  • That One Boss: Night Widows have high damage output and the very annoying ability to blind players (now reduced, thankfully), as well as very strong recharge debuffs. Mu Guardians heal their allies and heavily drain a player's endurance. Tarantula Mistresses and Queens combine blinding, strong recharge debuffs and very high damage output of the rarely resisted Psychic type.

Longbow

A heroic organisation created to strike back at Arachnos in the Rogue Isles, Longbow serves as a major thorn in the side of Villain players in all level ranges.

  • City Guards: Can occasionally be found patrolling Paragon City in this role. They also respond to villain incursions in Mayhem Missions.
  • Equal Opportunity Good: Has both male and female members, with no distinction or separation between them.
  • Gatling Good: 'Longbow Minigun' mooks.
  • Kill It with Fire: Longbow uses flamethrowers. The description of their flame-using mooks notes they try not to use those in front of TV-cameras.
  • Knight Templar: They can fall into this upon occasion, with a few members in particular being somewhat prone to it.
  • That One Attack: At high levels, Nullifiers, the only Lieutenant mob available to Longbow, gains an autohit, resistance debuffing, wide area Sonic Grenade. The debuffs stack from multiple Nullifiers.


The Circle of Thorns

The denizens of the ancient, mystical, and badly-designed city of Oranbega, constantly kidnapping the people of Paragon City for use in their various dark rites... or just to kill outright, if they should happen to be part of the unfortunate third of the world's population (!) that happens to be of the bloodline of their ancient enemies, the Mu. The most popular rite, of course, being a Type 3 Demonic Possession, where the ancient Oranbegan takes the body of the unfortunate victim and the body's former owner gets stuffed into the Library of Souls.

  • Black Magic - The Circle's stock-in-trade. When your leftover magic paraphenalia tends to include bloodstained altars, skulls, demons, and displaced souls, you're probably not on the side of sweetness and light.
  • Deal with the Devil - The Oranbegans were cursed when they made a deal with some demons to keep from being wiped out in an ancient war. Or, more specifically, when they failed to keep their part of the bargain. Which was to... well, basically feed... every last man, woman, and child of the enemy country to the demons. Unsurprisingly, they found they couldn't go through with it- the deal had been made in desperation- and so got cursed. Cue some twelve thousand years later, the Oranbegans having gone somewhat insane in the intervening years, and trying to rectify their 'mistake'. Unfortunately, their enemies were apparently a rather fecund bunch, and some two billion people can claim Mu ancestry. This doesn't seem to have deterred the Oranbegans.
    • Another example would be the original Circle of Thorns, which was something of a Aleister Crowley-like group of evil Gentlemen Sorcerors, who discovered the ghosts of the ancient Oranbegans and cut a deal with them for power. Of course, they merely ended up becoming their first hosts.
  • Goddamned Bats: Spectral Daemon Lords are a Lieutenant rank mob that is infamous for its high damage output and even higher accuracy debuffs that they deal out, especially by way of an autohit aura. The problem is that they start spawning at a level where reliable controls and accuracy buffs are unavailable to many players, and are one of the reasons the Circle one of the most avoided enemy groups. Their "upgraded" version, Nerva Spectral Daemon Lords come much later and are actually weaker, but are no less annoying due to being visually identical to normal Nerva Spectral Daemons.
    • Earth Thorn Casters also are known to cause the players' ire with their strong defense debuffs, especially the autohit Quicksand. Thankfully, they only appear in a narrow level band of five levels or so.
  • Power Degeneration - The Oranbegans are apparently somewhat rough on the bodies they steal, burning them out from the inside, which explains why they almost always look very old. It does not, however, explain why they appear to be universally male when many of their victims are quite clearly female...
    • As of issue 21, human Circle minions are about fifty-fifty in the gender ratio as part of a group-wide cosmetic overhaul, so maybe it just took a while to take.


The Rikti

The original main villains of the setting. The Rikti are an alien race actually, modified humans from an alternate reality who launched an unprovoked invasion of Earth which was only narrowly repelled, and during which many of the city's heroes were killed. It is into this vacuum that the player heroes must step.

  • Alien Invasion: Ultimately subverted.
  • Alternate Universe: Their real origin.
  • Colon Cancer: Rikti Communication: Imperfect.
  • Enemy Civil War: The Rikti are increasingly divided between the Traditionalists, who seek to end the conflict with Earth, and the Restructuralists, who aim to totally alter their society in the name of fighting on.
  • Killer Space Monkey: The Rikti Monkeys, little psionic pests.
  • Late Arrival Spoiler: The Rikti are transformed humans from another dimension and are divided into two opposing factions, one of which wants to make peace with the humans. These two are major reveals in the original Rikti arcs but the Vanguard ones mention them offhandedly.
  • The Remnant
  • That One Boss: Elite Boss-rank Rikti Magi only appear in one place (when players assault a downed Rikti Mothership en masse), but their wide-area damage and control abilities make them the single largest threat to the raid.
  • Scary Dogmatic Aliens

The Vanguard

Less of an enemy group, since they are only rarely fought by either heroes or villains; the Vanguard is an organisation which works with both Heroes and Villains in order to repel the Rikti.

  • Demonic Spider: A rare example in that it's on purpose. Vanguard mobs have strong resistance and defense debuffs, powerful attacks and several hated powers, but the players only fight them a few times.
  • That One Attack: The Curse of Weariness, a debuff inflicted by Vanguard bosses. Even after several nerfs, it severely weakens an affected character, lasts several minutes, and doesn't go away on death. There is an (expensive!) item that removes it. The original version neutered your character for half an hour.

The Praetorians

The original high-level enemies of the setting, the Praetorians originate from an alternate reality which is close to a Mirror Universe - the greatest heroes of Paragon City are the cruel and tyrannical rulers of Praetorian Earth. They are greatly expanded on in the expansion Going Rogue, which allows new players to begin playing as a Praetorian.

Paragon Police Department

The brave protectors of Paragon City, the thin blue line. Despite the numbers of superheroes within the city, the police still have an important role to play as investigators and first responders, directing heroes to where they can be of most use and tidying up after the heroes have taken down the most dangerous threats. The hero Blue Steel is closely associated with the Department.

To battle the strongest of villains on their own terms, some of the force also gain access to superpowers themselves, with Psychic Detectives and Powered Armour putting in appearances, while other cops choose to merge with alien Kheldians to gain powers.

  • Goddamned Bats: Ask any City of Villains player about their most hated PPD mob and odds are good, it won't be any of the aforementioned psychics of powered armor or alien hybrid cops. It'll be either the SWAT Equalizer, or the SWAT Ghost, mobs that are limited one of each to a spawn and only appear for the middle half of the level progression. The former fires an autohitting glue grenades that slows any player to a crawl long, long after the mob is dead. The latter launches a blind grenade that, if it hits, neuters a character's ability to fight and survive, again, for a long long time after the mob is dead.
    • This was best evident in Issue 19, when Heroes were first exposed to Rogue PPD, including the Ghosts and Equalizers. The villains' Schadenfreude at their complaints of difficulty was delectable.

Soldiers of Rularuu

The massive dimension-consuming monstrosity known as Rularuu the Ravager was sealed within the Shadow Shard by the Midnight Squad in the Sixties; the various abominations that form his army now roam that prison freely, seeking ways to aid their master's escape.

  • Demonic Spiders: The sheer variety among the soldiers is a threat in itself, but most characters will find that at least one of the types is a particular threat to them.
  • Faceless Eye: The Watchers are massive floating eyes with toothy, chompy eyelids.
  • Large and In Charge: Rularuu is the biggest villain in the entire game, at a massive 100 feet.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: If Rularuu escapes, he will destroy the world.

Shivans

Back in the Eighties, an alien probe was discovered in Australia. Its message, when translated, warned of a terrifying planetary devourer that had already consumed the world of the warning, and was now headed for earth. An international team of heroes was formed to combat this entity, now named 'Shiva'... and they were entirely successful, destroying Shiva with a nuclear rocket at the cost of their own lives.

Shortly afterwards, however, the island of Bloody Bay within the Rogue Isles was devastated by a meteor shower; worse still, strange radiation was emitted by the meteors and horrific fusions of human corpses and blue protoplasm arose from the cemetaries. The devastated island was abandoned - until it was discovered that the meteor shards could provide superpowers. Now Arachnos and Longbow fight over the island... but the monstrous Shivans are still there. Are they trying to reconstitute and consume the world? 

With the launch of Freedom, another Shivan attack entirely destroys Galaxy City; the Shivans are steadily becoming a much more obvious threat.


Villains of Paragon City

The Hellions

One of the earliest villain groups. The Hellions are a fire-themed gang of demon worshippers and the arch-rivals of the Skulls.

  • Deal with the Devil - A possible source of their flame powers.
  • Equal Opportunity Evil - Once all male, their ranks recently expanded to include the Girlfriend From Hell, demon-summoning women who terrify most of the troops.
  • Kill It with Fire - Their main motif. Their bosses are the fire-wielding Damned.
  • Man Behind the Man - They're being manipulated by the Warriors.
  • Ryu and Ken: In a sense with the Skulls. The organizations are nearly identical aside from the bosses and the different groups' resistances.
  • What Happened to the Mouse? - The Hellions don't really seem to have a leader, so their storyline is never really resolved - players just move on to more threatening villains once they outlevel them, leaving the Hellions to terrorize the citizens of Atlas Park for ever more.

The Skulls

Another starting gang, the Skulls have a death motif instead of the Hellions' fire. Their leaders are the negative-energy-controlling Bone Daddies.

  • All There in the Manual - According to bonus information, the leaders of the Skulls are the Petrovic Brothers, who never appear in game.
  • Darkness Equals Death
  • Fantastic Drug - The Skulls sell and distribute the drug Superadine.
  • Memetic Mutation - Go. Hunt. Kill Skuls.
  • Ryu and Ken: Powers-wise, the only difference between a normal Hellion and a normal Skull is that Hellions are resistant to flame but weak to cold, while skulls are resistant to negative energy but weak to energy.

The Lost

Paragon City has a homeless problem - they seem to be forming an army, occasionally venturing forth from the sewers to smash and destroy. And some of them don't even look human any more... because they're being transformed into Rikti as part of a desperate recruiting drive by the survivors of the war. The Lost gradually look more and more Rikti-like as the levels move up, before being replaced entirely at around security level 30.

The Clockwork

Surprisingly cute clockwork robots of death.

The Outcasts

An elemental-themed gang of angry mutants based in Steel Canyon and the Hollows.

  • Ascended Extra - Their leader, Frostfire, has become rather more important on his own with the events of 'Going Rogue'.
  • Canon Fodder - The Outcasts are angry (in part) because of discrimination against mutants. This is never mentioned again.
  • Disc One Final Boss - Frostfire is one of the earliest Elite Bosses in the game.
  • Elemental Powers - Their hat. There are four varieties of Outcasts for every rank and level band, one each for An Ice Person, Dishing Out Dirt, Kill It with Fire and Shock and Awe.
  • Face Heel Turn - As of Going Rogue/issue 19, Frostfire is having second thougths about villainy.
  • Heel Face Turn - The Outcast's leader, Frostfire, was originally an aspiring hero, and fell from grace when the system punished him for his destructive enthusiasm.

The Trolls

A gang whose abuse and overuse of the drug Superadine has led to their gaining green skin, great strength, and a large amount of stupid.

  • Hulk Speak - "Me have body by Superadine!"
  • One-Winged Angel - During regular 'Troll Rave' events, a number of trolls will further transform into massive, Hulk-esque Supa Trolls due to ingesting uncut Superadine.
  • Super Serum - Superadine is a highly addictive drug that grants massive strength, durability and accelerated healing. It's actually a modified version of WWII Super Soldier serums.

Vahzilok

Followers and creations of the Mad Scientist Dr. Vahzilok, who is obsessed with finding a way to "cure" death, no matter how many people he has to cut up to do it.

  • Action Bomb: "Enbalmed" minions can explode, doing a lot of damage.
  • Body Horror: The "Eidolon" bosses are intelligent reanimatees, and it's mentioned at one point that they're still rotting. Without regular skin and organ replacement, they'll decay away.
  • Deadly Doctor: Vahzilok himself, and his still-living followers.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: They're produced by Mad Science and cybernetics, not magic, and they don't count as 'undead' for effects that target that.

The Family

Basically, The Mafia without the romance. Despite dressing (and arming themselves) like they've just stepped out of The Untouchables, they're drugrunners, kidnappers, murderers, extortionists and just flat-out thugs who have managed to stay competitive in a world of capes and nutcases via Super Science, moxy, and flat-out mean.

  • Cool Gun - For some bizarre reason, the wiseguys of the Family use... Tommy Guns. In a game that is explicitly set in the present day.
  • Super Serum - The drug that makes the Trolls big, green and crazy is one of these, and the Family are the ones that make it. They're also the ones that have perfected it, at least to an extent, and so their higher-ranking members have gravity-controlling powers and Super Strength.
  • The Consigliere - And named as such, too- although there seem to be rather a lot of them running around for them all to be the number two in the organization.
  • The Don - Harry Frost.
  • The Mafia - In both looks and M.O.

The Tsoo

An Asian gang empowered by magical tattoos, the Tsoo infamously served as something of a wake-up call for new players. Their variety of Boss-level enemies is impressive.

They later reappear much stronger in the Dark Astoria Incarnate content, as proud warriors seeking to protect the world from the evils lurking within Astoria - but not willing to work with anyone else to do so.

  • Degraded Boss - Several of the Tsoo bosses have become mere minions by the time they reach Dark Astoria.
  • Generic Ethnic Crime Gang - Subverted rather oddly. It's definitely an ethnic gang, but how many North Americans have even heard of the Hmong people group, much less automatically associated them with organized crime?
  • Goddamn Bats - Even once someone is more used to them, the Tsoo have a variety massive arsenal of annoying tricks. Pretty much every member of the group can inflict Standard Status Effects, including the minions, which can lead to situations where even those who are normally largely immune to them, like Tanks and Scrappers, have their defenses overwhelmed.
  • McNinja - Why are there so many Chinese/Laotian/Vietnamese dudes running around with distinctly Japanese weaponry?
  • Power Tattoo - Inverted- the power comes from the tattoo, rather than the other way around.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different - And are here to punch you in the face.
  • Shoot the Medic First: The best way of dealing with Tsoo Sorcerors, made annoying by their tendency to teleport away.
  • Standard Status Effects - The Tsoo are somewhat unique, at least in the lower levels, because nearly all their members, from the lowest to the highest, have at least a minor way of messing with their opponents (i.e. you) beyond just punching them in the face, including such fun as dropping your accuracy, defense, damage, and speed through the floor, stunning you, putting you to sleep, holding you, and knocking you all over the map.
    • The most evident cause of this are the Yellow Ink Men, which are the same as lower level Enforcers, but now with the ability to psychically hold or sleep enemies. That alone wouldn't be so much of a problem, but the Yellow Ink Men replace all Tsoo minions come lvl 20, at which point even melee characters tend not to have mez protection.
  • Tattooed Crook - Fairly obvious.
  • Technicolor Ninjas - A large portion of their ninja-esque mooks are explicitly colour coded!
  • Took a Level in Badass - From an early/mid-level enemy group to Incarnate tier in a single leap.
  • Wolverine Claws - Presumably of the Ninja-weapon Nekode variety.

The Freakshow

A gang of cyborg anarchists. They were formed after a Crey employee stole the formula for yet another experimental Super Serum; this one granted incredible healing, allowing him and his followers to experiment with dangeously advanced cybernetic augmentation. Now calling himself Dreck, he and his followers love to smash and destroy, while also being on the lookout for opportunities to further enhance their modifications.

  • Auto Revive: The Freakshow's hat. At all but the lowest levels, every single Freakshow has a chance of standing up after being defeated. Because they give XP and Inf both times, the playerbase largely doesn't mind.
  • Cyberpunk
  • Demonic Spiders: The Super Stunners, added in a recent update, have endurance draining powers. What makes them particularly nasty is that the other boss-class Freakshow are the Tanks, who are visually very obvious; by contrast, Super Stunners don't look terribly different from the other, weaker varieties of stunner freakshow.
  • Healing Factor: All Freakshow (but the lowest level ones) have a strong but effectively one-use healing power, Dull Pain.
  • Leet Lingo: Th3y t3lk 1n th15.
  • Pinata Enemy: For a long time, Freakshow enemies gave out more Inf and XP than others of the same level, to compensate for their ability to stand back up and Dull Pain. However, since they effectively had a chance to give out the reward twice, and were not the most dangerous of enemies, the playerbase at large embraced them as the best risk to reward ratio mobs around. They've since been reduced to normal rewards, but are still considered easier than average.

The Warriors

A street gang with a Classical Mythology theme, who use medieval weaponry.

  • The Worf Effect: By the time you actually fight them, they're usually being pushed around by the Freakshow.

The Council

A shadowy paramilitary group with vast resources, bizarre superscience, and an alliance with strange aliens. The Council took over from a group of Nazis known as the Fifth Column after an internal coup (though the Fifth Column has recently been making a comeback). Their leader is known as The Center.

The Fifth Column

Die-hard Axis infiltrators left in the US after World War Two, the Fifth Column only expanded since then in their efforts to Take Over the World, until a vicious Enemy Civil War resulted in it mostly being absorbed into the Council.

Sky Raiders

Once an elite special forces unit, the Joint Command Special Threat Response Battalion suffered terrible casualties in the Rikti War. Blaming the heroes of Paragon for the losses his team had suffered, field commander Colonel Duray took them rogue, becoming a group of airborne mercenaries specialising in attacking heroes.

  • Mecha-Mooks: The Jump Bots.
  • Motive Decay: Colonel Duray believes that the increased dependence upon heroes will lead to rule by a superpowered elite. To avert this end, he has lately allied with the Praetorians - soldiers from a parallel world ruled by a superpowered elite.
  • Pinata Enemy: Their low damage output combined with lack of a dangerous gimmick outside of their mobility (which doesn't do much) and their deployable force field generators (which are easy enough to interrupt) makes them easy punching bags for the players.

The Carnival Of Shadows

These circus-themed villains are psychic young woman who have fallen under the influence of the powerful psychic Vanessa De Vore, along with their mind-controlled slaves. Their only interest is in their destructive and decadent revels.

  • Carnival of Fear
  • Mask Power
  • Psychic Powers
  • That One Attack: The Mask of Vitiation, used by Ring Mistresses and Dark Ring Mistresses. A highly accurate debuff that neuters a player in several critical ways. Fighting one of those bosses is often a Luck-Based Mission.
  • That One Boss: In addition to the above, Master Illusionists. While their damage output is moderate at best, they summon several (as much as six) pets, throw out heavy controls and accuracy debuffs, and worst of all, they spend half the time completely immune to counterattack with no way to stop it, all the while being perfectly capable of attacking themselves.

Banished Pantheon

Worshippers of evil gods that were... banished, centuries ago. Their human worshippers are relatively few in number... unfortunately, they also have hordes of zombie minions, as well as animated masks and totems that serve as avatars of the gods. Shortly after the Rikti War, they managed to take over a bustling commercial district of Paragon known as Astoria and sacrifice everyone within it. Its now called Dark Astoria.

Even as things in Dark Astoria got worse the Banished Pantheon remained, in the process becoming more powerful as they become channels of Mot's will.

Crey Industries

A corrupt supercorp responsible for most of the world's technology.


Nemesis

The Prussian Prince of Automatons, the cunning manipulator known as Lord Nemesis is one of the oldest villains in the setting, battling Statesman when he was just starting out. His Steampunk robots and soldiers remain a threat to stronger heroes to this day - but the greatest threat is, as always, the incredible cunning of Nemesis' twisted mind. He can create impressively lifelike Nemesis Automatons as well as warbots.

  • Cool Gun: The guns wielded by Nemesis troops are as anachronistic as his robots.
  • The Chessmaster
  • Goddamned Bats: Nemesis Snipers spawn in normal missions. They have insanely long perception ranges, and will attack you from several spawns away.
  • Paranoia Fuel: Occasionally, a seemingly harmless civilian will make comments indicating that they're actually a Nemesis Automaton; a few heroes - and potentially even player characters - have been driven into madness and villainy by the belief that Nemesis androids are everywhere.
  • Steampunk

Malta

A super-secret black ops paramilitary force within the intelligence community, Malta fears the 'wildcard' nature of supers and seeks to bring them under its control. Originating in a conspiracy forged by high-ranking spies after the 'Might for Right' Act was ruled unconstitutional, the Malta Group itself is almost never seen. Its Operatives, on the other hand, are an all too common threat for powerful heroes - skilled Gunslingers, massive robotic Titans, and the terrifying Sappers, who wield a rifle capable of blocking superpowers.

  • Demonic Spiders: Sappers can take down a hero from full endurance to nothing in one attack chain. Tac Ops have extremely long duration area stuns. Gunslingers have very high damage outputs as well as strong single target controls...
  • Goddamned Bats: ...Titans have very high resistances to all damage types and controls. Engineers summon gun drones that have high HP and give no reward for being destroyed.
    • ... you'll notice the two above lists contain between them every Malta enemy type bar one.
  • Humongous Mecha: The Hercules Titans are only about 8 feet tall, but the Kronos Titan is 50 feet tall.

Knives of Artemis

An elite group of all-female assassins linked to the Malta Group. Their use of caltrops can be especially frustrating.

Devouring Earth

Once merely a fanatical radical environmental group, now they've mutated into hideous monsters bent on destroying humanity. Their minions are animated trees, rocks, and giant fungi. The Praetorian version of Hamidon came perilously close to wiping out the human race.

  • Animal Wrongs Group
  • Asteroids Monster: Rock- and crystal-based DE sometimes leave behind smaller minions when destroyed.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The Hamidon, a mountain-sided amoeba who's the single toughest enemy in the game, definitely qualifies.
  • Organ Drops: The Hamidon's unique cellular structure contains very useful power-enhancing elements.
  • That One Attack: Guardians can summon a small Quartz crystal. It buffs the accuracy of all nearby Devouring Earth to astronomical levels. A defense-based character has seconds to destroy it before instant death. On a lesser note, Sentries summon Cairns, which make other Devouring Earth highly resistant to damage until destroyed. Including Quartzes.
    • For control-heavy characters, there is also the Fungi summoned by Fungoids, which makes nearby Devouring Earth nigh-immune to controls.
  • The Virus: The Will of the Earth, a strain of telepathic bacteria created by Hamidon.


Rivals of the Rogue Isles

Snakes

Why did it have to be snakes? The starter villains of City of Villains are the giant, intelligent serpents known as the Snakes, monsters who lurk in their network of tunnels and kidnap people to feed to their young. They are generally disliked by the fanbase for being somewhat overused in the early levels, in comparison to the variety with early Heroes-enemies.

Rogue Isles Police

The noble thin blue line protecting the citizenry... or not, within the Crapsack World that is the Rogue Isles. The Rogue Isles Police are straight up corrupt and brutal - no wonder that most corporations prefer private security - though whether it really counts as corruption when its entirely understood as their entire purpose is something of a puzzle.

Mooks

The Rogue Isles branch of the Family have a few problems. Don Marcone was recently arrested, causing the organisation to split between those who view his arrogant son as the rightful successor, and the Mooks, who believe the true heir is his Consigliere, Guido Verandi. Since Lord Recluse believes that Might Makes Right, he is happy to let them fight amongst themselves to determine which is the stronger... especially since the Family was getting a little too powerful for his liking anyway.

Coralax

A undersea race of living coral, they were disturbed by increasing sea pollution and ultimately declared war on the surface races. Mostly seen in game are the Hybrids, humans mutated by the coral into fishy beings, with Captain Mako's sidekick Barracuda being one of these.

  • Green Aesop: Largely ignored - the villains don't really care, and just see them as a threat to be destroyed.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Their actual storyline is barely explored in the game, though it keeps reappearing in a confusing fashion.

Goldbrickers

A group of high-tech burglars armed with sonic rifles and jetpacks.

  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Several character mention how odd it is that a man who can turn things to gold by touch feels the need to commit crimes.
  • The Unfought: Their leader, King Midas, is mentioned a few times, but never appears in the game.

Luddites

Fanatical anti-technology crusaders, often found picketing Dr. Aeon's offices in Cap au Diable.

Gremlins

The proof that the Luddites have a point - these creatures of electricity (also known as 'Cap au Diable Demons') will occasionally spawn from the Power Transfer System and wreak havoc. Villains who test their strength against them are advised to be careful - every time one hundred of these creatures is destroyed their essence will combine to form a Giant Monster known as Deathsurge.

The Scrapyarders

A coalition of angry blue-collar workers in Sharkhead.

  • Badass Normal: Despite not having any superpowers, it's not at all uncommon for them to give an unprepared villain a severe beating.
  • Good Is Not Nice: Their requests are sensible and they fight the villains, but are themselves often thugs and cons.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: The Scrapyarders are named after a hero called Scrapyard, who was killed by Mako; his ghost can occasionally be found wandering around leading a horde of Scrapyarders.

Wyvern

A 'private security organisation' that actually serves as vigilantes within the Isles, battling against all the villainy they can find. They attack using bows and arrows, and some of them have jetpacks. As their weapon of choices hints, they're actually bankrolled by Justin Sinclair, aka Manticore.

  • Annoying Arrows: Painfully averted - their attacks are very powerful.
  • Trick Arrow: Not to extremes, but stronger members do have a few.

Legacy Chain

A magic-focused hero group that seeks to battle mystical villains and see that magic is not misused. They appear surprisingly infrequently. They are a mixture of sword-wielding Muggle guards and magic-using blasters with a variety of elemental powers.

Wailers

Sonic-powered demons that infest St. Martial, eager to collect the soul of the popular crooner Johnny Sonata, who made a deal with them for his fame and now seeks to break it. While he hides within the mystically warded Golden Giza casino, they ravage the island.

Arachnoids

Monstrous and mutated spider-like beings that infest the caves and tunnels beneath the Rogue Isles capital Grandville. They were actually created as part of an Arachnos experiment to replicate Lord Recluse's powerful abilities, but it didn't work.


Factions of Praetoria

Praetorian Police Department

The PPD keep order within Praetoria, and on the surface appear to be noble and honorable protectors of the utopian city, armed with advanced nonlethal 'force' weaponry. Some of them even fit this characterisation! Unfortunately, the rest of them run from zealous followers of Emperor Cole to corrupt bullies happy to abuse their power.

Most of them are openly resentful of Powers Division, the elite superpowered idols that Praetorian player characters are new members of.

At higher levels, they tend to be superseded by their elite division, T.E.S.T.

  • Badass Longcoat: The Interrogators, it's even mentioned in their descriptions that this is just part of their intimidation factor.
  • State Sec: Although the PPD is openly seen keeping order, it also has some more sinister divisions. It can also 'disappear' people.
  • Powered Armor: Used by T.E.S.T.
  • Tricked-Out Gloves and Power Fist: Their special power gauntlets let them hit things hard in melee or at a range, and a closer look reveals keypads and display screens implying they have more functions than just smashing.

Seers

Psychics drafted into the "Seer Network" by Mother Mayhem, this giant Hive Mind of sorts continously scans the minds of preatorian citizens looking for criminal intent. Breaking seers out from the Network is one of the main goals of the resistance.

  • Enemy Scan: At higher levels they can do this to you. Similar to the Blaster Epic and Arachnos Soldier power Surveillance, it also debuffs your damage resistance and defense. (Since, obviously, NPCs are not interested in your stat blocks)
  • Psychic Powers
  • Detect Evil in a sort of combination with Spider Sense
  • Mook Maker the Seers stationed around the streets of Praetoria will teleport in squads of PPD if attacked
    • Or if you just walk past them claiming to 'Detect hostile thoughts'. Given hos Praetoria works, it seems even mind reading psychics need to be Properly Paranoid.

The Syndicate

Due to the existence of the Seers, "normal" crime is very rare in Praetoria (the crime that exists is, essentially, either state-sponsored or highly organized) The Syndicate has its own cadre of psychics to hide themselves from the Seers' gaze, and they're a conglomerate of pretty much every remaining criminal gang there is. They have infiltrated (depending on your POV) either most of the corporate world in Praetoria, or its criminal gangs. Their style is very much The Matrix or Vampire: The Masquerade inspired: Trenchoats, katanas, dual-wielding guns...


Ghouls

The tunnels beneath Praetoria swarm with a horde of creatures known as the Ghouls - zombie-like monstrosities that defend 'their' territory fiercely and occasionally attack the city above once their numbers grow large enough. Since the ghouls serve to make the tunnels unsafe for the Resistance, there is little interest in wiping them out entirely, only in keeping them contained. And for their part, the Resistance seeks a way to utilise their underground neighbours as well...

  • Goddamn Bats: They can be deeply annoying for some archetypes, since they appear at a very early level but can still pack quite a punch, especially in large numbers. And they tend to appear in large numbers. To make matters worse, they frequently spawn as ambushes, often at the worse possible time, while some of them lurk 'above' dropping down. All of this can lead to an unwary player finding themselves battling a very large number of Ghouls at once - and at a low enough level that they won't have many attacks to fight them with - all the while their healing aura makes them difficult to put down at any speed.
  • Shoot the Medic First: Horribly averted - Ghouls release a healing aura upon death, which can make packs of them annoying to deal with.
  • Underground Monkey: At higher levels, they are replaced with 'Failed Experiments' - similar-looking, and just as territorial but far smarter; they are the products of Praetor Berry's mad science.


Destroyers

The destroyers are a gang of drug-addicted psychos who (true to their name) seems mostly interested in causing destruction for it's own sake. They combine military-grade weaponry with Fixadine-enhanced super-strong brawlers. It is later revealed that the Destroyers are actually remnants of Marauder's old followers, that he's set up to use as a training wheels for new Powers Division members. They're pretty much the Praetorian version of the Trolls and Freakshow.

  • Demonic Spiders: A basic, and thus common enemy, you will run into, without fail, every mob, is a Blast Master. Armed with explosives that have a high chance for knockback (when even melee toons aren't likely to have knock back protection) and able to create multiple patches of fire that deal damage overtime make them difficult for anyone to deal with. To make things worse, they have no special flags like the Malta Sapper and multiples can spawn in a mob.
  • Super Serum: Fixadine
  • That One Boss: Destroyer bosses, Big Dogs, are nearly immune to control effects, making them a right pain for any Dominator, Controller, or even any character that relies on stuns or knockdown for survival.


Praetorian Clockwork

Unlike their Primal counterparts, Praetorian Clockwork were created by Neuron and Anti-Matter to do all sorts of work. They're omnipresent in Praetoria, doing all sorts of work. The Resistance likes to smash or reprogram them whenever they can.

They even have a counterpart to the Clockwork King of Primal Earth: Metronome, a kind of psychic 'ghost' capable of possessing multiple clockwork, and seeking vengeance for his death and a new, powerful body.

  • Goddamn Bats: Their basic attacks, even at low levels, reduce regeneration. In large groups, it can be strong enough to prevent natural healing entirely, at a level when a character is unlikely to have an active heal yet. As if that wasn't enough, they deal nearly purely Energy damage, which is very rarely resisted at low levels, and due to their lack of melee attacks, are hard to herd for AoEs.
  • Robo Speak: When speaking with humans, in addition, the clockwork has their own "code" language. Which can occasionally be quite funny.
  • Shoot the Medic First: A valid tactic, as Clockwork L Ts can either heal (Mender/Repair Bot/Repair Companion) or resurrect (Builder/Fabricator Bot/Construction Companion) other Clockwork, including bosses.
  • Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Scrub bots with plasma weapons!
    • Possibly justified since Praetoria is a paranoid police state, and at any time these things can be used as impromptu riot control. Admittedly, their official description (done as an advertisement) actually list this as a positive feature when being sold to the private sector.
  • Underground Monkey: At higher levels, the normal clockwork are replaced with the advanced variants designed by the two rival mad scientists, Neuron and Anti-Matter. They gain an attack or two in the process, but are otherwise unchanged.
    • Also possibly justified since Neuron has a history of stealing ideas and inventions from Anti-Matter (it's even one of his missions) and the latter has supposedly stolen tech from Primal Earth himself.


Warworks

Warworks are basically military-grade Clockwork, bigger, badder and packing more heat.

  • Blade Below the Shoulder: The choice weapon of the Mark-VI "Victoria" when they're not using their Eye Beams
  • Boobs of Steel: The Mark-VI "Victoria" bots are a literal and standard example. Shy of a Warwalker, they're the hardest hitting machine in the Warworks, among the toughest, they can stealth for Assassination strikes and are actually pretty stacked in the upper torso chassis.
  • The Faceless: War-walkers do not have any apparent face besides a reflective triangle on the center of their head.
    • Though if this were ever confirmed to be their eye, it would qualify them instead as Cyber Cyclops.
  • Humongous Mecha: The War-walkers, especially Goliath-class.
    • Actually, considering all but the Mark-VI "Victoria" are taller than most players can make their characters, the whole faction pretty much applies.
  • Kill Sat: Actually Averted. The War Walkers have devastatingly powerful (but easy to avoid even without dodge based defensive powers) Orbital Lance attack. But if you are able to see the animation, they're simply firing laser blasts up into the air that arc back down and hit you.
  • Mecha-Mooks

Imperial Defence Force

The official army of Praetoria, mainly fielding "lethal" versions of the PPD's force weapons, as well as rockets, drones, combat psychics and big hulking robots - Warworks are actually a part of this group.

  • Awesome Backpack: Heavy Troopers have a big, bulky backpack that unfurls into a set of four six-tube rocket pods. Heavy Commanders and Commander Duray slap a pair of plasma miniguns onto that.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: Heavy Troopers and Heavy Commanders have a rotation of no less than four attacks that each fires a volley of spiraling rockets, resulting in a near-constant onslaught.
  • Powered Armor
  • Tricked-Out Gloves and Power Fist: Like the Praetorian Police Department and T.E.S.T. most of the IDF make use of these to empower their punches, fire energy blasts at their opponents, and looking closely at them shows keypads and displays on the inside of the arm, suggesting they also can function as some form of PDA

The Resistance

In the tunnels underneath Praetoria hide the Resistance against Cole's regime. Sympathisers and secret members can be found on the surface, too, in the most unexpected places - noble journalists attempting to uncover the darker secrets of the government, PPD detectives who have grown to hate the corruption...

But not all of the resistance is so noble. Some of them are little more than terrorists, seeking to cause destruction for the sake of vengeance or in the belief that disrupting the utopian facade of Praetoria will awaken the citizenry to the truth behind Cole's regime.

  • BFG: The Heavy Barrels wield mobile artillery cannons
  • Guns Akimbo: Resistance Officers
  • Goddamn Bats: All Resistance deal out heavy defense debuffs from their massed machinegun fire, combining it with good DPS from their power punches. This results is very high damage output.
  • Enemy Civil War: Some of the Warden Resistance arcs sees the player battling against the more zealous terrorist elements of the resistance; loyalists also get the chance to see the divisions within the Resistance.
  • Powered Armor: It's somewhat thrown together, but it certainly seems to serve them well enough. It's also what allows the Heavy Barrels and Heavy Hands to have the strength to pull off their jobs.
  • Power Fist: Their gloves allow them to sheath their fists in energy, the Heavy Hands tend to take this this further.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Like any proper La Résistance, its members tend to only have the dissatisfaction with the state, the willingness to do SOMETHING about it, and uniforms in common with one another.

The Forlorn

Former ghouls restored to sanity by the Resistance, the Forlorn have headed to First Ward in an attempt to find their own path.

  • Expy: Former 'ghouls' with their minds, haunted by the memories of the atrocities they committed? Even their name is reminiscent of the Forsaken.

D.U.S.T.

An elite brigade drawn from the upper ranks of the Praetorian Police, the Direct Urban Strike Team is using First Ward as a training ground, killing everyone they see.

  • Fun with Acronyms: An obvious case, but a Resistance member refers to them as the Dimwitted Urban Strike Team instead.
  • Redshirt Army / Mooks: They're initially presented as a serious threat to the player but are wiped out en masse by the real threats of First Ward.
  • Palette Swap: in terms of appearance, they're T.E.S.T. officers with a camo pattern, though they're much more unique in terms of their powers.

Apparitions

First Ward is swarming with these terrifying and insane ghosts, which can possess people with ease. Discovering the source of these spirits becomes an important goal for the player.

  • Body Snatcher: Their specialty is taking over living beings. One almost manages to pull it on the Player Character.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: Even by these standards, the Apparitions are weird: They're personality fragments of living Seers, severed and discarded by Mother Mayhem as part of their introduction into the Seer Network.

The Awakened

Mother Mayhem's experiments aren't always successful, and don't always produce happy Seers. The Awakened are the failures - twisted horrors driven over the edge by their uncontrollable psychic powers.

  • Body Horror: Most notably with the Suppressors, who have enormous head tentacles.
    • It Got Worse: Those tentacles? Cancerous growths in their brain.
  • Hell Is That Noise: Awakened psychic attacks are accompanied by a discordant mess of oscillating sounds. Can be either extremely fitting their insanity, or Most Annoying Sound.

Carnival of Light

The Good Counterpart of Primal Earth's Carnival of Shadows, the Carnival of Light is a noble group of mystics seeking to save Praetoria. Unfortunately, there is dissension in the ranks, with a splinter group believing that they should be prepared to take the war to Tyrant.

Carnival of War

The aggressive and extremist counterpart to the Carnival of Light. Although not necessarily hostile to players, they do have notably short fuses, and tend to view people as enemies quite easily.

The Midnight Masters

The Praetorian version of the Midnight Squad was slaughtered a few years ago by a traitorous former member known as the Midnight Master, who reanimated them as his undead slaves.

After the death of Master Midnight the undead mages regained their minds and will. They lead the investigation into the growth of the Night Ward from the Midnight Mansion.

  • Evil Counterpart: To Primal Midnight Squad; in addition, the Midnight Master is Praetorian Percy Winkley.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare
  • Laughably Evil: The Midnight Master is a dorky self-proclaimed 'dark lord' with an eye for the ladies... who slaughtered the entire Midnight Squad of Praetorian Earth.

Talons of Vengeance

Ancient, mystical horrors and servants of the Furies; according to legend, the Talons would appear when an oathbreaker goes unpunished, unleashing a tide of rage and blood that could wipe out whole countries. And now, they have appeared in Praetoria, apparently under the command of the sorceress Serene.

  • The Chessmaster: Almost everything that happens in First Ward is part of Serene's plan to summon the Furies.
  • Evil Counterpart: Serene is the Praetorian War Witch.
  • The Virus: Those with anger and vengeance in their hearts can be corrupted into more members of the Talons. This is bad news for the Carnival of War.

Drudges

The guardians of the veil that shepherd souls onward - but the drudges aren't carrying out a mystical duty. Instead, they're selfish and cowardly, working for the Wax that sustains their existence and viewing both the living and the dead as a resource to be exploited to this end.

Animus Arcana

The various spells and enchanted artefacts that protect the Midnight Mansion have become alive and intelligent with the death of Master Midnight.

The Black Knights

The ancient guardians of the Eternal Prison have come to Night Ward seeking Black Swan, but a schism within their order has made them vulnerable to exploitation by those seeking to breach the prison and unleash the ancient horrors within.

Spirit Stalkers

The minions of the monstrous shadowhunter, and the embodiment of savage nature. The spirit stalkers are beasts and huntsman who prey upon the spirits of the dead.

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