Warriors

"To battle!"

- Warriors' battle-cry

vc The Warriors are a faction from the M.M.O. City of Heroes. A plague on the of Paragon City far more than their presence would imply at first glance. The Warriors style themselves as the contemporary version of ancient Greece's hoplite soldiers, whose training regiment they actively promote. Their main function is as black-marketeers specializing in ancient artifacts, but also no strangers to fire-arms. Despite access to traditional fire-arms, The Warriors carry around swords as their armaments of choice, a combination of pragmatism, to prevent foes from automatically being proficient with their weapons if disarmed, and theatrics to intimidate lesser criminals - a tactic that has worked out remarkably well for them as even super-powered rivals give them wide birth.

Origin
Little was initially known about the Warriors, they appeared to be one of many random street gangs plaguing Paragon City. arrests of criminals like Aeneas, Alexander and Patrochus soon revealed though that the gang was produces high-threat thugs, ones which had joined together. Further background research would expose The Warriors as founded by a man named Odysseus, who has evaded capture or even sighting for most of the gang's existence. David Odysseus Hill was a moderately wealthy heir, who sought to use his sizable but limited wealth to create a solid income. Hill had bought a small golden Greek goblet by paying off the right archeologists. Hill soon found the goblet was an enchanted artifact. The goblet would perpetually refill with water or wine at the holder's will. Seeing that there were indeed magical artifacts in the world and noting the process needed to acquire them, Hill decided black-marketing was the way to go for building his own fortune. Hill used his seed money in combinations with investments and connections from a Mysterious Benefactor to start a organized crew of smugglers specializing in ancient artifacts. Hill was a fan of classical Greek culture and in combination was his beffiting middle name, called his new gang "The Warriors" and started only going by "Odysseus".

Presence
The Warriors acquired many artifacts, relics and weapons of old. Warriors make replicas frequently, but not to pass off as forgeries but rather to keep for themselves. The Warriors actually forge their own swords, maces and classic spears. While this is a time consuming process, the level of prestige the gang receives for pulling swords on their targets instead of switch-blades quickly established their presence, leading more traditional criminals to stay far-away from Warrior territory. Warriors do engage in more traditional criminal activities such as kidnapping, bank-robberies and drug-deals, but largely exotic imports are the back-bone of their business. Warriors embody the mind-set of ancient Greek warriors, living a figurative as well as literal Spartan life-style that encourages battle for battle's sake.

Whenever warriors do happen upon a magical artifact Odysseus either claims it for himself on the rare occasion it is a piece of genuine world-changing power or, more commonly, sell it at exorbitant prices to other high-end super-villains with an interest in the occult, such as The Circle of Thorns, The Tsoo or The Banished Pantheon. When no-one else is buying, the Warriors pass hot artifacts down to their supplicants, The Hellions.

The Hellion connection
The Hellions are group of Devil worshiping malcontents with a taste for arson. Though a few of their leaders made devil's bargains and have psychokinetic powers, The Warriors soundly beat them when they tried to encroach on their territory through sheer fighting prowess. However the Warriors' Mysterious Benefactor arranged mediation between the two gangs, with the Hellions out-matched despite the Warriors' lack of super-powers, the normally unreasonable Hellions were willing to listen, while the Warriors were presented an opportunity through them. An accord was struck - The Warriors would pass along any magical knickknacks they could not sell to the Hellions to use in their dark rites, as well as ear-mark anything with hellish or psychokinetic properties to give the Hellions a chance to buy first before they were put on the market; In exchange the Hellions would help with the smuggling The Warriors' cargo. With no official connection the Hellions and Warriors could feed into each-other without the police raising law-enforcement efforts. Never the less the two groups have no love for each-other, their accord purely one of convince. A favored tactic of the Warriors, when one of their cashes is discovered, is to simply call the Hellions and tell them the location of their hidden treasure-trove. Many an Interpol agent has been foiled from busting open a solid Warriors operations due to a sudden attack by militant Satanists, even when foiled the attack give the Warrior "legitimate business men" the chance to distance themselves from the stolen goods due to Hellion interference.

Odysseus
Odysseus's goblet is shown to be magical in more ways than to simply refill with water or wine, it also grants Odysseus mystically renewed vigor, enhanced strength, endurance and allows him the ability to see far-off events in his drink. It is rumored that Odysseus's goblet is not merely a magic goblet that refills itself but is in-fact a small conduit for The Well of The Furies, source of divine-power across the multiverse. The Well of the Furies made signature hero Statesman, signature Villain Lord Recluse, and the alternate-reality Statesman, Tyrant, into the literal demigods they are. If this is true it also accounts for Odysseus's and The Warriors behavior as The Well induces a power-lust to the point of obsession and madness in those who keep drinking from it, Statesman and Lord Recluse refusing to indulge further after their first sips.

Odysseus has encountered twice. Once in the Top Cow comics for City of Heroes and once in combat in one of the games' last arcs to recover the fabled gloves of Hephaestus. In the comics Arachnos's Mu Mystics managed to orchestrate a ritual that turned removed all super-powers (including technological and scientific break-throughs) plunging Paragon City into a state of chaos with a large portion of law-enforcement (super-heroes) from stopping crime, even traditional non-powered crime. Statesman, disappeared and the his team, The Freedom Phalanx unite to try to find him even without their super-powers. After weeks of searching the Freedom Phalanx find that Odysseus i said to still have his magic goblet and knows where Statesman is. As revealed Odysseus does-in-fact still have a working goblet, though it no longer grants him super-powers, it does however still function on it's own to reveal things to him in it's pool. Odysseus tell the Freedom Phalanx where statesman is and what he is doing. Statesman being and Incarnate (demi-god), even without powers is a vestment for super-human properties, was using himself as a base for his own ritual to prevent Arachnos from striking while everyone's super-powers were down. Odysseus wanted super-powers back on again, if not for himself for his business as more traditional artifacts were no longer popping up. Odysseus also states that though he had no love for Statesman, the pain he was in daily to maintain the ritual was not something he would wish on even his worst enemy.

The gauntlets of Hephaestus were armlets that appeared to be the gloves of the actual ancient god crafts. The benevolent brotherhood of mystics known as The Might Night Squad had uncovered them and The Warriors help sponsor The Players in an operation to steal them out-from under them and bring them in for study. Naturally Odysseus aims to steal the gloves for himself and ambushes the Players with his newly acquired god-armaments. When defeated heroes send the gauntlets to Freedom Phalanx member Positron, who intends to not merely lock them away like the Midnight Squad but find the source of their miraculous properties and make his own safe version of a device with Incarnate power without the corrupting properties.