What's your favorite group of villains?

[Scenario]

Over the past 5+ years of AC, we have had the chance to clash against (and even work with in some instances) a fairly large rogues gallery. This doesn't just include human opponents, but different groups of creatures!

Over the course of play, you have no doubt run across a group that just irks you, whose intent or philosophies make them the baddest of the bad in your mind.

So, inquiring minds want to know - what group of villains (or do-gooders for that matter) have you come to hate the most in AC (roleplaying hate, not gameplay hate, there is a difference :))?

The Bael'zharon loyal Shadow groups? What about Oswald and his band of brigands? Perhaps the Agent of the Arcanum and their all-knowing attitude has annoyed you?

For me, I have held (and still continue to hold) a grudge against Nuhmudira. Her condescending attitude and her lack of morals when it comes to her plans has always been a sore spot in my mind, especially after she murdered so many Zharalim for her cause (of which one of my characters holds membership in... shhh... its a secret :p).

When I am not doggedly seeking ways to bring the information of Nuhmudira's deceit into the public eye, I am investigating the Order of the Raven Hand, another faction who has essentially opened war upon the Zharalim through the use of foul play. Plus, they kidnapped poor Twitch *shakes head*.

[Someguy1]

Gaerlan

He had none of the "cool factor" that other villians like BZ, Aerbax, or Ler Rhan. Unlike other villians he had no good reason to be the way he was; he was just regular guy (Empyrean guy but still...) who had a huge problem with his brother's accomplishments. He couldn't stand being out done by his brother and that drove him to excel and gain as much power (political and magical) to compensate. Even after his brother died his obsession had shaped his entire personality. All his years of trying to out do his brother made arrogant, power hungry, and he took the prejudices of those he was serving as his own.

Favorite quote:

“This is inconceivable!” Gaerlan screamed to the empty room.

The words echoed throughout the library, “This is inconceivable. . . is inconceivable. . . inconceivable. . .”

Like I said there was no "cool factor"; Gaerlan was not a villian you loved to hate. You just didn't like him or even respect his power. Perhaps it's because Gaerlan is not a demon, alien, or other interesting creature; he's just like the idiots you see every day in the real world except he has elemental powers and a huge floating citadel...

[Order of Chaos]

I'd have to say the Burun. There is nothing special about them, they're fancy mosswarts.

[Renegade Knight]

The Virindi, alien creatures so bent on thier own dominance that they would create beings such as Martine to destroy us. They see us as weak beings, pitiful. I despise the cloaked beings, unable to show thier true form, maybe thinking we are "unworthy".

Yet what enemy of mine have a come to like, you ask?

The undead. Despite being horrid, decaying flesh, alive, stained in the blood of Isparians...I have come to have a grown respect for them, they are wise, powerful, immortal, (and actually, I swear some of em' are vampires, look at some pictures, they got fangs!) Well, thier history is so vast, the wars, the politics, the magic of it all, great. Blood magic, like to get a hold of that. Nuhumdira, in my opinion, is the perfect example, she takes the power of others, through sacrafice, in order to make herself more powerful. (Gotta like the complete lack of morals)

I also enjoyed the Gaerlan story arc, pure lore at its best. The drama, the revenge, the magic, the threat, and being a noob at the time, was wonderful, being afraid of those golems, slaughtering my comrades throughout the streets, great stuff.

(Most of this is from a roleplaying view of course lol)

[Julian's Touch]

Asheron !

As he was alone on his island, and getting old, he started to think about death.
After learning about the blood ritual, he decided to adapt it at his own way.

First, he brought people from other worlds on his island (us!!); let them built houses and towns.
Once they settled, he linked them to the lifestone, preventing them from dieing. But as they revive, a small part of their life is stolen by those stone. All this 'life' is going to his castle, into a weird machine - i would really like to see! - which stock the 'life essence' and he drinks some of it everyday, to keep himself alive and young, instead of sacrificing of people for ever, like the original verion.

Why do you think he prevent us to come on his island ? why his castle is locked up ? why most of knorr is unaccessible ? he is hiding the facts!

But that was not enough !
He summoned monsters just to get us killed more often! More life essence running to his castle! Just to fufill his eternity...

The worst is most of people see him as a savior, or a king, whereas he is just exploiting our life, for ever and ever.
He shows his face only when his 'life pool' is in danger, or himself.

This is my vision.


About all active groups on Dereth, i don't like the Lugians.
They are physicaly strong, they are numbreous, and mostly, they have the knowledge of the Chorizite.
I am sure this anti-magic powder will bring many bad events over Dereth.
And they are not even aware of it, they already let the renegades stole some pieces, and use it to make hollow weapons, and who knows what else.
Those weapon cross our magic protection, their armor are imune to magic spells... be ready to see armors which dispel the magic of any weapons hitting them!
Their Capital city is bigger than any other, and lost in the mountain. We know they have tunnels under it, just to access it - which they closed recently ... - but where do they lead? isn't there an underground Linvak ?!



Futur will tell us if it was a good idea to team with them, or if they are just getting informations from us to take the power over Dereth...

[Silifi Of Death]

The Virindi... They scare the crap outta me. The first time I saw your new chaotic versions... I couldn't sleep for days... Seriously, these guys should be in a horror movie.

Then there's their philosophy. Order? Hierarchy? And they are *afraid* of individuality?

And then there's how they're always augmenting things, making drudges bigger and stronger... I dont like it when Seraphs hit me with their acid bolts five times in a row. Plus they MAKE things. Annoying things. Like Hollow Minions, aka Shiny Scarecrows, with their horrible screams.. guh.

Finally... what they did to poor Martine. He was my favorite character in AC... And they screwed his life like that. I suppose he couldn't have saved us if it weren't for the Virindi Augmentations... but still.

[sylphia]

Virindi are my arch nemesi--purely for roleplaying purposes. In a some fan fiction I wrote a couple years back, the Virindi were largely responsible for the abduction of my main character and her subsequent transport to Dereth. Her memory of her homeworld (which is not Ispar) was wiped so that she would not know she was from a different realm than other ppl in Dereth, and she was forced into a compact with the Virindi in exchange for her survival. As time passed, some of her companions from her homeworld began to appear in Dereth as well; together they pieced together their scattered memories and realized what the Virindi had done to them. We have been waging a private war with the Virindi ever since. Whenever one of these 3 characters encounters a Virindi of any level, they are sworn to kill or be killed by them.

Over the years, members of our clan have been abducted by the Virindi--carried off in the nethers of portalspace--and never seen or heard from again. Even as we grieve over the loss of our brethren, we search for a way to finally destroy the alien race and hopefully in the proces learn their closesly guarded secrets of portalspace travel, and thereby open the way home for our peoples--both ours AND the Isparians.

[MaddyFF]

Nuhmudira, I've come to despise her. I wonder what she'll do next with all those parts that have been handed to her.

[Septa Scarabae]

The Little Brown Mouse. :mad:

[Protes]

Falatacot Priestesses

Generally speaking, I hate the Falatacot Priestesses. While the Followers of the Light do seem to have some respect towards nature and the natural order of life, the Falatacot Priestesses practices and thirst for Blood magics has caused so much suffering and death long after they disappeared on Dereth and Dericostian soil from tens of thousands of years ago.

The Falatacot Priestesses tampered with the laws of nature on Bur and twisted the Fiazhats and Moars to be servants and guardians of their secrets. The Priestesses ultimately betrayed the Fiazhats, abandoning them to become eradicated on the world of Bur at the hands of the Burun.

With the arrival of the Ice Age on Dereth, the Falatcot Priestesses pursuit of more power and survival caused them to make a bargain with the Dericostian Ice Throne. They transformed Geraine IV into a lifeless prince and taught him some of their dark arcane magics, beliefs, and rituals. From Geraine IV being changed from a sickly boy, he too grew a thirst for the Blood of the World and began to eliminate the remnants of the Falatacots for their hidden secrets of magics.

For if the Falatacot Priestesses had not bestowed Geraine IV with their knowledge and power of Blood magics then the Latzimestal (Lords of the World) most likely wouldn’t have had the ability to wage a war against the Yalain and Haebrous. With the fall of the Dericost Empire, the Dericostians suffered from the Yalain governing their lands.
Had it not been for this then Ilservian Palacost probably wouldn’t have become the Hopeslayer and Bael’zharon would never have came to be.

The teachings, beliefs, and magics on the Blood of the World have had such a devastating effect on Auberean. From the Shadow Generals, Disciples of Blood, Gaerlan, and Harbinger to Nuhmudira, Oswald, Buruns, Sclavus, and Moarsmen; I believe no other group of villains on Auberean has matched the sheer numbers of suffering and death as the Falatacot Priestesses has caused with their Blood magics. Because of this I have grown to despise and hate the Falatacot Priestesses for their tamperings with the dark arts on Auberean.

[Phosphine]

You may want to ask how long a poster has played so you know what thier experiences are. ;)

The good guys that I hate the most are Elyssa and Asheron. I think they really need to get day jobs. I said that at a live event in public chat and the sys admins gagged me til the event was over. Everyone else thought it was very funny. :D

Nuhmuhdirah is as bad, but at least she does not pretend otherwise. :p

The bad guys that I like most were Martine. Good story line, fun wedding guest, tragic dramatic figure with a fine denouement. I like the idea of two groups of virindi doing strange and different things to the humans. Thats expected from Shadows, but flying alien / french philosphers are sooo much more interesting!

I would like to see Black Ferah stalk the land.

[Scenario]

The Little Brown Mouse. :mad:

Why all the hate on the little brown mouse? All he wanted was a cookie :)

[Televangelist]

You know what I hate?

ANTICLIMACTIC VILLAIN GROUPS.


1. Order of the Raven Hand -- Hey, these guys popped onto the scene! In order to do... well, nothing.

2. The Othoi and Burun. Both were the culminations of *great* story arcs that left me wondering.... wha??? when they were defeated.

The Olthoi, it was the queen never going across the landscape, just sitting there... and then we wound her and she runs away, everything's happy, the end!

The Burun... the arc was great, and the Kukuur themselves are great -- but they never went across the landscape or anything, it just seemed like... they popped in, we killed them, whoop-dee-doo.

3. Aerbax and Ler Rhan -- Okay, they're doing their own "Chaotic" thing, they make special shadows, special Virindi, they populate the Valley of Death, they set up their own special fortress on Caul.... But are events with them ever really *climaxing* into something? No, never.

4. Same with the Renegade Tumeroks and Lugians. When their two leaders were killed by Torgluuk at the end of this past arc (Speaking of which, Torgluuk is doing *what* with Asheron right now?), it was a pitiful ending to their long, slow-building uprising -- ending "not with a bang, but with a whimper".



I like all the villain groups, just so long as fights with them actually *climax* in some meaningful way.

[Eddie the Crazy]

Nuhmudira. The only reason my main didn't pull the damning lever is that, from a role-playing perspective, my character didn't know all the evil that she did when the quest was first introduced.

[sylphia]

Each time that Turbine has sent a single class of mob across the surface of Dereth as an "invasion" scenario, there has bene a huge outcry about it. Rememebr the Olthoi arc and the Gaerlan arc: in one, bugs were everywhere, in the other, elementals replaced every spawn. In both cases, the players shouted the devs down for "ruining" the game by removing all variety and forcing them to hunt mobs they didnt want to hunt. Placing all the nasties in optional dungeons (as with the Buruun invasion), while it detracts form the feel of an invasion, it certainly prevents the issues of the olthoi and Elemental invasions form recurring. You can choose to participate in the story arc "invasion" by going to the dungeons and combating them, or you can choose to move along your merry way without being swarmed by storyline content you have no interest in. Also, I look at it as the Buruun had simply established a foothold for their invasion. We stopped them before they could break out of their stronholds and launch a full-scale invasion.

As far as the queen...the Empyreans, a race of beings FAR more powerful than we, could not kill her. It would be ludicrous to think we could do so; what would have been the point of calling us to Dereth if she were weak enough to be killed by beings inferior to the current inhabitants? And remember, the queen is ANCIENT. Older than we can really comprehend. Survival of that length speaks of great power. Point blank, we got lucky: we surprised her and she underestimated us. And she tried to take over the entire island at once, rather than concentrating on a section at a time. Had she better planned her invasion, we would all be slaves to the olthoi once again. I daresay if the queen ever desides to try an invasion again, it will go much worse for us than it did this time.

And in cas eyo uhavent noticed, the trend in beating ALL of the bad guys is that they are simply puhed back, not killed. This is actually pretty much a standard in RPG fiction. It allows the devs to revisit the villain again at some future point, and to reintroduce him as a more powerful incarnation, without having to develop a full backstory for a whole new villain.

Bael'Zharon was re-imprisoned, not killed.

Gaerlan was caught in the Phylactery, not killed.

Martine pulled a Dr. Doom and disappeared under mysterious but not necessarily fatal circumstances.

The Olthoi Queen was wounded and forced to withdraw, but not killed.

The Buruun Kings--these are the only story arc bosses that we seem to have actually killed (we can pretty much assume a live BK isnt going to let you skin him :-P ). Which makes me wonder if they actually ARE the final bosses of the arc.

We still have Nuhmudira, Aerbex, LeRhan (sp) and the Harbinger floating around plotting in the background, with Asheron gone back into hiding once more, presumably to try and find a way to free his ppl now that the Olthoi invasion has been stemmed.

And now we have the French Toast (Viamontians) guys on the horizon probably preparing to invade mainland Dereth.

We have alot of mainstream bad guys to choose from, and because none of the actually DIED, there is always a chance we may see them rise again, and get to fight our favorite arch nemesi again. :)

[Septa Scarabae]

Why all the hate on the little brown mouse? All he wanted was a cookie :)

He is just waaay too greedy for me. :rolleyes:

[squidbot]

The Olthoi. They are so alien in their thinking, and completely amoral. They remind me of the Borg from Star Trek. They don't have any feelings or cares other than extending their race and protecting the hive. Because their thought process are so radically different, I find these types of villans the scariest of all. There's no appealing to their better nature, because they have none. There's no using their evil against them, because they aren't evil, they're just bugs.

[Vlad Morbius]

I think the ultimate would be to have a return of the Shadow and Virindi raids at the same time. The total replacement of spawns is a bit much, and does get very tiresome, but a series of key location raids is an exciting prospect.
Wouldn't it be just grand to have BZ return more powerful then ever, with a maniacle sidekick like Martine ;) The live events were by far the very best events to happen.
I think a good storyline could include things like the taking over of towns and certain key areas like mastermages and sub systems, and having quests of various levels as well as battles to regain control of the areas.

Now as far as creepiest areas i'd have to say the dark dang bottom of bug dungeons and the psychotic red virindi style dungeons :D

[Jin Saotome]

The Virindi.

We STILL don't really know what they look like under those robes or where they come from. We think they're aliens from the moons maybe? And they're just frigging evil!

[TheKnight]

Nuhmudira,

For the sheer fact that she does whatever it takes to propel her own goals/needs forward. That blasted attitude of her's of calling everyone "child" and speaking down to us, like we have no minds at all. Now it would not be so bad, if she just had a major attitude, but she slaughterd countless people in her blood magic ritus's and never looked back for doing so.

The most compelling thing I ever read lore wise to convince me she is the worst of the worst is when she said how she "lost count" of how many she's put under the blade for her blood magic. How she wrote that even in her own homeworld the acts she does on Dereth would never be allowed back there.

Powerhungry, selfish,scheming, & deceitful sum her up well.

Some comparisons to the other lore charecters:

Bahel' Zharon: BZ actually is less evil then Nuhmudira, because he turned into the "Hopeslayer" because of the death of his son, and wanted to punish those who let him strave to death. Underneath all the blinding rage/hate is still the father that just wants his son back. He is in an eternal war with Asheron because he holds the same power as him, and as the old saying goes "There can be only one".

Is he evil? Sure is, but he at least let's his true feelings known and does not hide in the shadows from them. I have more respect for BZ then Nuhmudira because of this, as you at least know where you stand with him.


Gaerlan: He is less evil then Nuhmudira because again like BZ he admitted his hate and did not hide it. And frankly I would have done the same thing, I would have also held Asheron responsible if my brother died in his care. We are talking about the grand wizard here of all Emperyans, not some rookie kid. Why he did not save Gaerlan's brother we'll never know, but instead he fled and screamed like a little girl. It's obvious that Asheron never adhered to the "Never leave a solider behind" mentallity. It would be different if he was a healer and he tried to heal him, but failed as doctors do this everyday. But the fact that he did not try to heal him at all, and just ran away speaks volumes about this part of lore.

So Gaerlan was just to seek his revenge against Asheron, but as we all know we came to Asheron's Rescue yet again and our thanks was that Nuhmudira imprisoned Gaerlan so they he will always die over and over again.

My question is, if the lifestones work this way for Asheron seeing as how when we die we sent our stam to the emperyans in portal space, can you imagine how much energy Nuhmudira get's from each time we kill Gaerlan? I mean the amount of power would be insane from an Emperyan.

The Virindi: The Virindi are evil looking, but I don't think they are really evil at all. They helped along with the shadows to stop BZ back in the those days, so anyone that would save the planet from blowing up can't be all that bad.
Despite what they did to Martine, they never killed him but in fact made him even more powerful then Nuhmudira, Gaerlan, and to an extent even Asheron.
Martine suffered a great deal, but he survived that and in the end came back and saved us all from Gaerlan.

The Shadows: I don't consider the shadows evil at all, they are more alien then anything honestly. And again they also helped save the planet from destruction back in the BZ days, so they can't all be bad.

The Undead: Same as above, they also helped save the planet. And I know they don't go around using blood magic as an everyday casting thing.

The Olthoi: Well they never helped save the world, but I don't consider then evil in anyway. They are just protecting their Queens much like bee's/ant's/bugs in general do, so you can't classify them as evil/good really.

Somehow I think eventually we will wind up on the same side, and then the ol queens power to negate magics of all kind will come in handy. Maybe an Emperyan Invasion, and Asheron will stand with us in the end against his own people and give up his life in the process. All signs seem to point in this direction, but eh who knows. ;)

Something tells me Nuhmudira will eventually go to far with her blood magics and the Falatacot members will make her pay in the end for all her crimes against humanity. That i'm pretty sure of.

Regards

[Paraduck]

Scenario. I mean, those lever puzzles are confusing! :p

But seriously, I've always been fond of Oswald. He's a sneaky little guy who has been around for a while, but just quiet... and then all of a sudden does a few rash things. Plus, he gave us quite a bit of needed PK love. ;) I was very happy to see some more about him in the ToD lore.

I like Aerbax as well. The whole Virindi portal space, energy source, and augmentation thing has always appealed to me. He's a rebel of sorts, and makes some interesting acquaintances.

[.Kid.]

Favorite Villian(s): Gaerlan/Martine story arc

The thing I liked most about it was Gaerlan's raids. It was fun to die to a dev and it should happen again. Trash talking devs in 4 teh win :)!!


Worst Villian(s): Buruns/Burun Kings (current)

We should have wayyyyy more live events with this burun story. It's getting lame and boring (and being stretched wayyy longer than it needs to be).

Sure, the portaling devices weren't that bad but nobody really needs them if they don't have a mansion.

You guys should've had a Burun King live event (lol).

I still don't understand the Little Brown Mouse part...what was that about?

[Shadow Mouse]

My worst fear? The death wail of the hollow minion! "ahh hahahahahahaha" *whimper* *whimper* CREEPY!

Seriously.... I'd have to say Bael'Zharon/the Shadows. Very strong figures with a very heavy lore based background. The BZ story arch was and forever will be my favorite of all.

[D X Mage]

Nuhmudira needs to die. In a RP sense peeps always knew who the bad guys were but she betrayed everyone and in a way even her self, she deserves no mercy. So what that she repents. She murdered many people that trusted her. She is no better than a Nazi "doctor" trying to "help" the cause. Pardoning Nuhmudira for her help? She needs a firing squad. Besides just how much help did she really provide that we couldn't have figured out on our own. I would believe that the populace would want that wench dead. And while she maybe powerful, the combinded might of many Isperian warriors would put the smack down on that female dog.

[Black-Wolf]

Isparian's, I have been watching them like I watch everything in this world.

Pawns to Asheron's bidding.

[Milon]

My personal arch-enemy is the Olthoi. :mad: I make it a point to slaughter every one I come across, even running to a northland port somewhere. :eek: I think we should dig a tunnel before "French Toast" arrives from their island to the Ancient Queen's lair and let her kill them all when they land :p
Why don't Virindi fight with Olthoi? Virindi want to enslave everybody and so does the Ancient Queen. :rolleyes: Grand Master Virindi boy should fight against Ancient Olthoi Queen lady in 1-on-1 MvM LOL :D I would watch from a diiiiiiiistance! :confused:

[Avardan]

The shadows, no question about it.

Back in early 2000 when I started playing, I rolled a staff character with the intent of smashing bugs. But along came the story arc shortly thereafter when I was in my early 30's with the Shadow Spires.

I repeatedly got owned by Shadows and their Lieutenants. I did not battle an Umbris or Pan during that period, as pwnage was guaranteed. I'll never forget the first Shadow I actually killed without hitting the LS myself - it was outside of Lin where I used to hunt Zefirs, and I was probably 35, just starting to wear level 3/4 prots.

--Av

[Thelma]

Oswald. He killed Gertarh. I liked Gertarh, he was the first monster I ever meet that would talk to me. I visited him often, I came to know him. Then, one day... I find his corpse. That's what got me more than anything else; I stumbled onto his dead body. The guy I had come to know and who not many others knew was suddenly killed.

I really wanted to kill Oswald for what he did. I remember going after him, trying to find out where he went off to. All I could find was his throwing daggers. When I find him... he'll feel the cold chill of Gertarhs dagger in his back.