Praetorian Canon

[Elijah Elliot]

The Praetorian threat has existed in City of Heroes canon since they were first introduced way back in 2004 as part of Issue 1. Originally a threat constrained to a small handful of high-level contacts, their presence was drastically increased as part of Issue 18 and Going Rogue with the introduction of Praetoria as a playable realm and a revamp and expansion of all existing Praetorian content. Since then, the stakes have continued to raise as Emperor Cole has begun mobilizing his forces for a full-scale invasion of Primal Earth.

Wrestling with Praetorian canon is no small feat. This post will give you some guidance on how Westbrook is integrating Praetorian canon into our own canon.

The Invasion
There are a number of different places in-game where Praetorian incursions into Primal Earth are mentioned. Tina Macintyre and Maria Jenkins are high level hero contacts who each have arcs and missions that involve such incursions. The Apex Task Force depicts significant attacks in Kings Row and Steel Canyon, while the Admiral Sutter Task Force depicts attacks on Talos and Skyway. Given that all of these events are constrained to high-level contacts and task forces, they were not considered part of Westbrook canon until May 11, 2011.

On May 11, 2011, the devs orchestrated a Praetorian Surge Event on Virtue (from 7 to 10 PM EST). During this time, there were massive Praetorian incursions through Paragon City and the Rogue Isles, including attacks on Steel Canyon, Talos Island, Peregrine Island, Dark Astoria, Warburg, Siren's Call, Cap au Diable, Mercy Island, and St. Martial. In addition to massive Goliath War Walkers and an army of IDF and Seer forces, many of the Praetors of Praetoria themselves assaulted Primal Earth.

We are considering the Praetorian Surge Event to be the point in time where our characters became aware of the Praetorian threat. The events on May 11 were in character. Further, we are also considering the events of the Apex and Sutter Task Forces to have taken place that night as well.

As for other Praetorian content, we are leaving unspecified when and if they happened. Our characters would not be directly involved in content such as Tina and Maria's arcs or the incarnate trials. It is probable that some of those events may have happened prior to May 11, but our characters would have been unaware of them.

Pre-Surge
What did your character know about Praetorians prior to the start of the invasion? Nothing. Knowledge of Praetoria Earth was limited to heroes with a high-level security clearance who worked with Portal Corps.

Post-Surge
What does your character know about Praetorians now that the invasion has begun? Not as much as they might like. In the weeks that follow the invasion's start, it quickly becomes known that there is another dimension known as "Praetorian Earth" that these invaders are coming from. That's about the only hard fact you'll have available.

Rumors, however, are another story. Your characters will hear all matter of speculation and stories. Mixed in among the it all will be tidbits of truth. Your character may hear that the dimension is a mirror of our own, where everybody is the opposite of themselves. Your character may even eventually hear that the dimension is ruled by an evil Freedom Phalanx, but specific names and details will probably be pretty obscured. However, all of this will be purely rumor, mixed among other rumors that range from plausible to absurd.

Studio 55 and Visiting Praetoria
Pocket D provides a portal that can take you to Studio 55 in Imperial City, Praetoria. In terms of game mechanics, any character can go to Praetoria at any time. And if you're level 20+, you've outleveled all the critters and are effectively safe, OOCly. From an in-character perspective, it's not quite that simple.

Pocket D does have a portal to Studio 55, but it's in a hidden corner of the club and isn't well publicized. Your character would not be likely to know of its existence automatically. However, it is something your character could learn about.

If your character does happen to go to Praetoria, they are not as safe as the game may imply. Any Primal Earth individual who goes to Praetorian Earth and lets it be known publicly that they are from Primal Earth is likely to find themselves under arrest very quickly and escape would be fairly difficult. Any trip to Praetoria would have to be kept on the down low for safety's sake.

Westbrook Academy's official policy is that students are expected to remain in the Paragon City Metropolitan Area unless they have permission to leave. In the aftermath of the Praetorian Invasion, the school would re-iterate this policy and stress that students are not permitted to travel to the Praetorian dimension for any reason. Travel to Praetoria is likely to result in some very serious repercussions if your character is caught.

Fighting Praetorians
The Praetorians are a very major threat. Only heroes with a very high security clearance are likely to be fighting them. Your character is unlikely to be sent on a mission against any Praetorian enemies.

The only time you can expect to fight Praetorians in-character is during an invasion event. During such events, Paragon City's hero population rises up together to fight the invading forces, and it is reasonable for your character to contribute in this context.

For any other content, you will need to treat it as OOC or somehow adapt it to be non-Praetorian in nature. For example, if you are running Tina or Maria's arcs, you might say that the enemies are all standard Paragon City villains and rework the story to better reflect the kinds of missions our characters might be sent to handle.

Praetorian Doppelgangers
City's canon implies strongly that most of characters would have Praetorian doppelgangers. However, our characters' doppelgangers are probably also high school students. It is unlikely that most characters will ever encounter their own doubles.