| “ | It's all a Nemesis plot! | „ |
| ~ A loading screen bump from City of Heroes |
| “ | It's not all a Nemesis plot. | „ |
| ~ another entirely separate loading screen bump on City of Heroes |
Lord Nemesis is the head of the Nemesis faction in the MMO City of Heroes. He is known for some of the most gripping conspiracies in the game and has pledged a vendetta against Statesman the leader of the Freedom Phalanx, Paragon City's most decorated heroes. In addition to being the nemesis of one of the leading NPC protagonists he also has a long time rivalry with the main villain of the game Lord Recluse.
History[]
The Birth of a Nemesis[]
In 1945 after the allies had won World War II Nemesis first came into public knowledge, he used the sigh of relief after the war to strike and marched on Capital-Hill taking hostages and forcing the justices to declare him the new "Emperor of America". Not only had he caught the politicians and conventional law enforcement unaware he had also struck when many of the still budding super-heroes were overseas finishing up their part in the war. Nemesis had spent years building up his finances, planting spies, and buying up high-end military secrets and technology so when he struck he was no mere madman making a power play against the US but a major threat.
Statesman was one of the first heroes on the scene along with other members of the Freedom Phalanx including psychic super-heroine Sister Psyche'. Super heroes were certainly not out of what Nemesis had prepared for as he had set up several nerve gas bombs in major American cities, he announced he would trigger them if anyone tried to interfere with his plans. After Statesman's arrival the bombs were set off and Nemesis assured him that millions of Americans would be dead within a day's time without the antidote, one only he knew of and would reveal if he was recognized as emperor without delay. But thanks to Sister Psyche' the venom was taken out of the threat as she looked through his mind and found the antidotes' locations herself.
Nemesis was still not at a loss, in addition to his mechanized suit of armor he had an atomizer ray one that killed many heroes instantly but as soon as the antidote was distributed heroes from all over charged Capital-Hill and joined Statesman in his fight against the diabolical super-villain, With an epic battle concluded Nemesis was caught...or so it seemed. When the battle was over the the brave heroes found out that the Nemesis they had captured was a robotic double. The real Nemesis had escaped and for years was thought to have just disappeared into the darkness of history...
Chaos in Paragon[]
In 2004 a race of hostile creatures known as the Rikti invaded Paragon City. The event was dubbed the Rikti War and is one of the most infamous events in Paragon City's colorful history of giant robots and mutant monsters. The Rikti were set on the destruction of the human race and touched down in Paragon City to do it. Many good men, women and whatever else was flying around Paragon, lost their lives fighting the menace and the situation was treated as a global threat. When all was said and done the Rikti were eventually driven back thanks to heroes like Hero1, Lady Jane, Statesman, Scirocco, Vanessa DeVore and more. The Rikti's main ships were sealed from their home dimension, the troops that were left on earth could not return without abandoning their ships; they could only use their personal man-sized portals and the portals in question were now only one way and could only act as exits. Even today most of the remaining Rikti are holdup in their crashed mother-ship in an area now deemed "the Rikti War Zone". When the Rikti had lost the first wave of the invasion they reached out to others that might help them, establishing diplomats with Lord Recluse and research assistance with SERAPH a branch of the UN that reaches out to the super-science community. The Rikti have secretly even reached out to Crey Industries a major monopoly run similar to Lexcorp from the DC comics.
The Rikti had a virus used in times of war that mutated non-Rikti giving them psychic powers like them and reconditioning both their DNA and their minds. They released it upon their defeat turning many homeless into a slave army over time, thus the Lost were born. The Lost are usually seen in back alleys and under highways most often mistaken for bums until one gets close enough to see their disfigured faces and the high tech lasers hidden beneath their rags and by then it is of course too late.
There is a massive gang war in Paragon City in lower threat areas this takes the form of the Hellions and the Skulls. The Hellions and Skulls both are gang members with super powers, the Hellions push stolen magical artifacts to other villains like the Banished Pantheon, the Tsoo and Circle of Thorns: the Skulls push a drug called "Dyne", which creates super powers in ordinary people, however the drugs are addictive and in high doses they mutate the users, dull their minds and increase aggression tendencies; hence the drug has lead to the creation of the monstrous green-skinned gang of punks called the Trolls, Dyne also is useful to the mad doctors of the Vahzilok, and the Outcasts. Because of the competition for customers in the same territories the Hellions and Skulls are in a super powered gang war that does not seem to be letting up any time soon. The Skulls are eventually revealed to get their supply of Dyne from The Family, a higher end mafia style gang and the Hellions are revealed to get their artifacts from the black-marketeers of the Warriors street gang, another high-end gang, who style them selves as a modern day take on the Greek warriors of old.
What does this have to do with Nemesis? The Rikti had been tricked by robotic duplicates of the heroes of Paragon and traced back to earth. Nemesis had built the doubles of Statesman and his fellow Freedom Phalanx to destroy the cities of the Rikti home world and then teleported them back, making sure to leave behind a lingering energy signature for the Rikti to follow. In addition to starting the War, Nemesis reached out to the Rikti and is on good terms with the commander thus he manages to stay abreast of all Rikti activities and manipulates them as he sees fit including the Lost and Crey Industries, both of whom he has sponsored and donated to while planting spies within the organizations.
In addition Nemesis is the one who gave the Warrior's their seed money and helped the Family rise to power over the other crime families with cutting edge drug manufacturing and both organizations work for him unofficially even by underworld standards; this also grants him influence over the lesser gangs dependent on them like the Hellions, Skulls and all their clients. His status as a high-priority silent Partner at Crey Industries, which sells nearly every single piece of cutting edge technology, has ensured that Nemesis can manipulate industries both official and criminal with ease; with perhaps the exception of Arachnos. Because of Lord Recluse's status as the smartest person on the face of the planet to the point of near omniscience, Nemesis has never quite been able to pull one over on him and so he has a greater presence in Paragon City as opposed to the Rogue Isles. It is even said that the giant force walls that surrounds Paragon City was proposed to the City Council by some of Nemesis's spies not to keep future invasion forces out but to keep the heroes of Paragon operating in fixed territories.
What is it all for?[]
Nemesis plans to use the psychic network the Rikti share to upload his consciousness into the minds of every single Rikti thus living on forever as an entire race. Only the commander of the Rikti has full access during times of war to the network as a whole, so once the Rikti reestablish contact with their home world the network will be opened to report in at which time Nemesis plans to make his move. The chaos and the subterfuge is only partly to give Nemesis influences, the main focus of the chaos sewn by Nemesis is to keep the heroes of the world too busy to stop him. Unlike the last time Nemesis struck, this time the heroes of the world are far too distracted with seemingly separate problems, so much so few to none will be able to stop the Rikti directly to say nothing of him personally.
Nemesis Group[]
Nemesis has build an entire army of steam powered and/or clockwork robots. Though the Victorian style technology might look old and outdated the devices function better than most modern day robots even by Paragon's standards. In addition to their craftsmanship and heavy production numbers the creations are entirely hack-proof because of their engineering style. Mixed in with the numerous robotic soldiers are flesh and blood people, won over by Nemesis's silver tongue promising a better tomorrow. Due to the same clothing used for both man and robot and the robots' life-like features, many law enforcers will not know until it is too late whether they mowed down a soulless machine or a misguided youth until after they use lethal force. The robotic solders are better snipers than the humans but the humans are given devices that function as repair-kits and med-kits. There are also the less human looking but very deadly Jaegers, sweeper devices with mounted gun turrets and explosive payloads. There are the massive War Hulks, machines driven by pilot soldiers inside, with firepower greater than that of traditional tanks. Perhaps most numerous are the Nemesis Automatons, a subset of Nemesis used to impersonate entire office buildings of working staff and run Nemesis's various front companies. Last but not least are the Fake Nemeses, because Nemesis himself is sometimes needed to issue orders to more delicate situations he has built many duplicates of himself all of which are modeled after the armored steam-suit he wears - with the exception of not needing him in them. Each suit runs it's own as some sort of baffling, steam-punk AI units, all designed to act as he would in any given situation but remain aware that they are fakes with the plans of the original outweighing all else even their own lives. Because of the Nemesis Fakes, 99% of the occasions the player, hero or villain, will encounter "Nemesis", even supposedly the real Nemesis, it is in fact a double with the real one remaining miles away in most cases. The real Nemesis can only be found in two areas in game; The first: the Rikti War Zone, during the fight to uncover the truth about the Rikti with Dark Watcher; The second: Ouroboros...
Eternal Nemesis[]
Nemesis's quest for immortality is not just the flight of a god wannabe but also in light of very immediate circumstances. Nemesis in the current time-line is over one-hundred years old and still alive. Nemesis's suit has been replacing more and more of his body beneath the outer shell but there are limits to what even Lord Nemesis's technology can do. Even after stealing several nano-machines which were at first thought to just to be for the benefit of some new scheme, the original Nemesis has only delayed death. The players will eventually be able to foil Lord Nemesis's plans to upload his mind directly into the Rikti telepathic network so he is still facing death and has remained unseen ever since the Rikti invasion's second major play to reopen their portal. Many things about Lord Nemesis's current whereabouts are unknown, what is known however is he eventually does become immortal. His plots are still unfolding over one-billion years in the future as confirmed when heroes and villains visit the time-traveling nexus of Ouroboros.
"Minder Silos"
Ouroboros's main function was to give players a chance to replay missions they had outgrown, either to repeat certain quest rewards or just see what missions they may have missed. Ouroboros is a headquarters that exists outside the flow of time populated by people calling themselves Menders, who patrol time for irregularities and straighten them out. The founder/leader of Ouroboros was a time-traveler from the end of existence named Mender Silos. Silos refused to give much information on himself and was more concerned with just making sure heroes and villains were in the right place at the right time to undo/prevent major disasters caused by other time-travelers and a force he called The Rising Threat. In the Task-forces assigned by Mender Silos and his fellow Menders, notes can be found warning the heroes and villains not to trust Mender Silos. The notes were later confirmed to have been written by the long since missing hero Dream Doctor, who had retreated to a realm called the Dream Space that existed on the edge of time and space. Due to the notes and sketchy details of Mender Silos players began to analyze the situation and found that "Mender Silos" was an anagram of "Lord Nemesis", this lead to the revelation long before it was confirmed that Silos was Nemesis. One of the Menders eventually does confirm that Mender Silos is Lord Nemesis from the future but that after he achieved immortality and control over time he gained a sense of responsibility to go with it and assures heroes and villains that Mender Silos has had millenniums to grow, mature and reform into a responsible being. Due to the fact Nemesis would have had to be experimenting with time-travel to become Mender Silos in the first place it is thought that the disruptions caused to the time-line that Mender Silos is trying to fix are caused, or will be caused, by his past self as Nemesis when he first achieves temporal ascension.
The "Nemesis Plot" principle[]
Due to things like the massively expensive and seemingly useless Force-walls that surround Paragon, all the street gangs "coincidentally" all popping up in the same city and remaining in power in their respective fields, the Paragon politicians focusing less on progress and safety and more on maintaining the status-quo, the bevy of enterprise corruption and the shadowy details of many of the game's plot points, many players that go looking for what look like plot-holes at first will be shown the full scope of these events through the various plot lines in the game, many of which connect to each-other from level to level. As a result, of this players have come to refer to any and all plot holes or cliche's as "Nemesis Plots" without a second thought, whether or not said plot holes or cliche's can actually confirmed as such.
The following are a list of so called plot holes that are legitimately tied up as Nemesis plots:
- Why do gangs maintain such a presence no mater how many heroes spend their days arresting them?...simple it is a Nemesis plot of course.
- Why was a simple mafia family like the Family able to outshine all the other mafia families and radically go from normal crooks to super-powered?...Nemesis plot.
- How is it that the Nazis of the 5th Column were replaced by the more politically correct but just as dangerous Council?...Nemesis plot.
- What sort of insurance agencies could possibly do business in Paragon City where dooms-day devices and giant mutants are the norm and if there are none how does Paragon City not go broke from the damages?...Nemesis plot.
- Why is it citizens of Paragon City aren't scared to death to leave their homes and go to work, what sort of news have they been watching to not be worried?...Nemesis plot.
- Why are the Rikti allowed to keep their base of operations in the Rikti War Zone even after the heroes of Paragon shut down the force-field protecting them instead of being wiped off the map even though they are a war obsessed race that wants to wipe out humanity and can't be negotiated with?...Nemesis plot.
- How is it the police-force seems to be spread so thin or be so overwhelmed that they need to rely on super heroes and how is it that the entire police force hasn't just been disbanded?...Nemesis plot.
- Why are there these strange borders around Paragon City and if they are meant to protect the city against super-powered threats then why are there so many in the city itself and why are they still standing if it is so trivial for villains of the Rogue Isles to break into Paragon City...Nemesis plot.
- Why do the ruined sections of Paragon city remain in ruins unchanging with no attempts to fix broken streets, destroyed homes and massive craters...Nemesis plot.
- How is it that despite billions spent on a massive prison like the Zig are there super villains break-outs on a weekly basis, in mass only for said villains to be thrown back in without so much as second thought given?...Nemesis plot.
- Why is it the Rogue Isles, so ripe with super-villains that they are actually nicknamed the City of Villains, actually seems to have less crime and more state competence than Paragon City the so called City of Heroes?...Nemesis plot.
As a result of this rather massive amount of credit given to Nemesis' schemes the term "Nemesis plot" became the de-facto excuse for even technical issues such as AI behavior glitches or graphical hiccups or long loading times. Since Nemesis eventually becomes a god of time who alters parts of the time-line to prevent his past self from doing certain things it became a player theory/joke that Nemesis's tampering with the time line temporarily blinked certain players out of existence while the time-line was readjusting thus explaining server disconnects. If anything in the game seemed to not make sense when examined closely or just plain glitched, players hand-waved the issue, dubbing it a "Nemesis plot".
Skills & Abilities[]
Nemesis's is for whatever else, a true engineering genius. Unlike the delusional Clockwork King, Nemesis's automatons actually work. Miraculously, the Nemesis automatons have human-like behavior despite running on nothing but gears - indicating Nemesis has intimate knowledge of some form of non-electric clock-work powered A.I.. Nemesis's first automatons were hand crafted to be perfectly sculpted, level and damage resistant - and those are simply his non-humaoid Jaegers. His more humanoid "Grenadiers", "Carabinier" and "Lancers" are so human-like he mixes them in with actual human troops who were conned or brainwashed into joining from their prospective gangs or low-income families. Nemesis does this solely to give heroes pause before they use lethal force, never sure if opening fire on his troops will produce springs and cogs or blood and gore. Once Nemesis created one perfect model of each of his steam-powered automatons, he instructed them to continue to sculpt and assemble more of themselves by mimicking his exact moments, assembly-line style. Just as no one is sure how Nemesis could use steam-power and wind-up technology to forge A.I.s, it is even more baffling how he created a force-field generator, yet he did. Each Fake Nemesis has a a force-field generator - the real Nemesis's apparently superior in applications to the Fakes. Despite looking like antiques from the late Victorian era, Nemesis's armors are higher quality than even traditional armed-forces grade arms and armor. Nemesis has created under-ground drill tanks, portals, teleporters and an army's worth of guns, armor, grenades and flame-throwers. At first Nemesis's personal armor was to protect him from enemy fire and grant him anonymity, however he had to start adding onto it bit, by bit to replace his organs as they began to fail due to extreme old age. Currently at least half of Nemesis's internal organs have been replaced with high-quality fakes in his suit - meaning it currently functions far more as life-support than protection. The nano-machines Nemesis stole currently negate the need to keep replacing more and more of his body, but they are finite and can only keep Nemesis's immune-system going for as long as he stays cloistered away inside his armor as an outer-shell. Because of all his favors, loans, secrets and spies, Nemesis controls virtually all the gangs of Paragon with few exceptions, as such he can have nearly anyone where he needs them at whatever time he pleases, with his Nemesis troops only being called in when Nemesis is tending to a high-security issue. Nemesis's intellect is unfathomably high, yet no-where great as he believes it is.
Personality[]
Nemesis[]
Nemesis is a profound narcissist - believing himself superior to all others. It is because of his narcissism he considers Statesman his nemesis and has an extreme hatred of Lord Recluse. Statesman had always been a symbol of good who the masses idolized, and so Nemesis beating Statesman would have granted him the prestige he felt he deserved; Nemesis had similar issues with Lord Recluse at-first - but those issues were swiftly exasperated to whole new levels when Recluse made his play for power before he became Lord Recluse. Nemesis used to rule Paragon's underworld with an iron glove in the 20 and 30s, however when a younger Recluse returned to Paragon City to take back his city for the original leader of Arachnos, The Weaver. Recluse built the man-power he needed by poaching members of the Marcone Family and various other thugs, exotic and mundane, from under Nemesis's employ. Though the operation would fail due to a miscalculation on The Weaver's part, Recluse would have The Weaver killed for his bungle while appointing himself as the new head of Arachnos along with the newly establish title of "Lord Recluse". Statesman had held off the operation, Lord Recluse had ricocheted off the failure to establish his own empire, and Nemesis felt the sting from Statesman's reinvigorated dismantling of city corruption and Lord Recluse's theft of his human pawns. Because of his decline in the 30s onward and humiliating defeat at his siege of the Capital Dome, Nemesis retreated for a long time to lick his wounds in the dark corners of Paragon City, staying in them for as long as he was able, but never letting go of his grudge against the two. Nemesis even took on the name "Lord Nemesis" in an attempt to give himself the respect he saw Lord Recluse gain, though unlike Lord Recluse, no one other than his own automatons ever humored this title. Nemesis has had a phenomenal success establishing a pyramid scheme of crime in Paragon City, however his every attempt to get a foot-hold in the Rogue Isles has met with disaster. Every scheme in Paragon that grants him more and more power seems to fail miserably in the Isles due to Lord Recluse's counter measures. Eventually Nemesis resorted to an invasion force just to skip the pretense of being able to out-maneuver Lord Recluse's security procedures and iron-grip of his own people's loyalty. It may be hard to tell at this point if Nemesis still wants the Rogue Isles for domination and resource's sake or now solely to prove his superiority over the smartest man on the face of the earth who rules the Isles. In the Vanguard quest-arc Nemesis kills one of the player's main allies, Lt. Tendaji. At first it is believed the Lt. Tendaji was onto some essential cog in Nemesis's con over the Rikti - however it is revealed Tendaji actually knew nothing and was killed by Nemesis because he was Kenyan. Nemesis has no shame towards his open racism and just views it as one of many things the ignorant masses can not comprehend about his "insightful mind".
Mender Silos[]
As Mender Silos, he has given up his evil, though still remains morally ambiguous. Mender Silos is willing to both help Paragon and Lord Recluse. He arranges for Lord Recluse to conquer Paragon City, because Lord Recluse's leadership is essential for a brief period to fight off the first major wave of the Coming Storm which will touch down in Paragon, and after he helps heroes expel Lord Recluse to ensure the city goes back to normal once the arrival period has passed. The other Menders insist Silos is as far removed from Nemesis as a full-grown adult is removed from an belligerent infant. Two scrapped alternate character PoV missions for future updates show Mender Silos views his past-self as a simple-minded narcissist, blinded by his own ego and would have killed him if he was not essential to Mender Silos himself existing. In one mission as the hero Dream Doctor, the doctor confronts Ouroboros, with Mender Silos at it's head, in a second Nemesis learns of Ouroboros and builds a time-machine to try to conquer it. Mender Silos insists that he and Dream Doctor need not be enemies and the interference of Silos with Dream Doctor's life was essential to push back the Coming Storm, Dream Doctor remains unconvinced but leaves peacefully, warning if he ever returns it will be to sink Ouroboros into the sea. In his encounter with the Nemesis army, Silos and his Menders destroy the army, with Silos himself sabotaging the A.I. and temporal readings to make it look like Nemesis's time-machine destroyed the army by sending them to the location - ensuring he will never try to travel there again. There is no indication of how Silos views his former-self's racism, but it is likely one of many traits he out-grew.