We have a bit more of an idea of what happens after the gap in storyline from where we are now to the beginning of Tactics. Has anyone started to put any theories together about what has happened in the interim?
Let me start to summarize what we know.
- There were very dramatic events at the end of the SotM storyline.
- During the gap, the Freedom Five went independent.
- Ra disappeared again, and at the beginning of the Tactics storyline, he reappears, with some changed characteristics.
- Omnitron-IV happened, somehow.
- The Operative moved in on Megalopolis.
- Other updates for The Visionary, Proletariat, and Unity.
One big question, of course, is what those dramatic events were.
Can we do much theorizing about the Gap without knowing how the SotM story ends in the first place?
The illegalization of tacos in 48 states and Canada.
Dat Gap!
...I'll show myself out
So the Apocalypse.
Has not having enough information ever stopped us from theorizing?
I'd say alien invasion, ala Avengers, but Voss has been doing that. So that leaves me with two theories. The "galactus" theory (something bigger and more powerful than we could have imagined just showed up because of the heroes) or also, a major mystic mojo event, either Apostate succeeds in bringing Hell to Earth or something massively magical comes from the Matriarch angle, like an ancient monster. Gloomweaver and Akash'bhuta seem to cover giant magical monsters though.
I think I like the Apostate theory, that feels massive enough to be a cataclysmic event beyond what the heroes have dealt with before (Alien Invaders, Giant earth shattering monsters, dying gods, no tacos on taco tuesdays, ect.)
Random thought, what does Apostate need to open the portal to Hell? Profane Summons he seems to be dripping blood into a glowing bowl, possibly a bowl at Atlantis. What if, crazy speculation, he needs Vanessa's blood? She's powerful enough to change reality as shown by the Dreamer and Visionary's back story, and we have that comment that her dreams "are tainted by another reality". The child is the center, and it pulls at the heartstrings when little girls are sacrificed for pure evil.
Anubis locked Ra and the Ennead in a small room together and wouldn’t let them out until they learned to play nice together.
Apostate is not trying to bring "Hell" to Earth. At least not in the classical Heaven/Hell sense. Remember he is not really an "angel" and that as far as we know, Apostate "created" Fanatic (we dont have much reason yet to not take Apostate at his word at this point really in my mind). I made a big Footenotes series about how Apostate could potentially be the servant of the galactus-esque figure we see in Nightmists deck (you know, the stary figuring holding the Earth in its hands). He certainly dabbles in dark energies and rituals though, which is why when you brought up Vanessa, that could be a very cool thing. If he is indeed messing with dark energies, Visionary just recently tapped into a whole lot of that stuff (Dark Visionary). There are some very interesting flavor text quotes in her deck, most notably "mental divergence" where she claims to be all possible futures or something like that. I'm convinced she plays a major role in the end game, and since I am pretty married to my own Apostate theory at the moment, thats a great way to try and tie them all in.
Infernal emissery, dark corruptor, "Condemnation", Apocalypse, Fiendish Pugilist, Imp Pilferer, profane summons, etc. Are totally cards I would expect in a deck of an honest individual and not someone who is trying to screw with someone else's head.
Lmao. Fair point as always Ronway!
And he lies about the source of his demons according to Christopher
Sorry, I agree it probably isn't the traditional "Hell" but "Dark alternate realm wear monsters and other dangerous bad stuff comes from" seemed unneccessary. I was mainly going with the altering reality into a very dangerous twisted version of itself. Either way Apostate is a emissary, just is he an emissary for something moving through real space, or something travel through dimensions
Yeah, this is a guy who literally named himself Apostate because an apostate is the opposite of a fanatic, and then called his sword Condemnation because condemnation is the opposite of absolution. Anything he says to Helena must be interpreted in light of the fact that he's trolling her.
An apostate is someone who has "given up" their faith, right?
Bezaliel is the name he calls himself. There's a whole thread where we get into that name.
As for Condemnation, that is simply a result of judgement, just like Absolution. Judgement being largely based upon the judges perspective.
I'd love to get the full story of Apostate and Fanatic, but I hope it isn't a clean cut good/evil story. The best villains have good reasons.
I'd love to see an apostate Tactics fight where he sets up relics that boost him, and the more he gets into play the more stuff starts being summoned from other realms, and the heroes have to destroy the relics and deal with Apostate.
Yes, and therefore the opposite of a fanatic.
Haha! I knew there was something that pointed out Apostate as a liar. It's in Fanatic's bio, last paragraph of the Redeemer Fanatic section.
Fanatic has armed herself against the lies and corruption of Apostate.
Christopher also confirmed his demons aren’t really demons so Apostate is a liar about that too
I had a dream last night with Gloomweaver and Spite in their alt forms and it got me thinking.
This is all off the top of my head, I hope it makes some sense.
Dark Watch appears to be after Vengeance, since Setback seems more experienced and less reckless.
What if the Dark Watch takes place during the government crack down, and that's why they are the Dark Watch, they are vigilantes.
Vengeance happens, maybe even Wrath, and bad stuff goes down, Fixer hurt, Nightmist loses and regains her powers, and something shakes up Setback and changes his happy go lucky manner.
From the Freedom Tower environment it seems the Vengeance attack hits Megalopolis and the Freedom tower. If a bunch of collateral damage occured at this time, say an initial defeat at the tower or something, the public image of the fight could be against the heroes. Especially with the attack being against the heroes, and the Mini emesis villains seem like the type of characters that would use such an opening to jump out and wreack havoc.
Then we have Dawn on an MDP. I'm imagining a scenario where the Heroes are out of the country fighting Dawn or somone else when an attack occurs, and all of a sudden public sentiment goes to:
"They aren't here when we need them, and they are drawing villains to us!" Then you get the crack down from the government side.
Blade is smart enough (as is Dawn) to coordinate attacks so that the Heroes would have two maor assaults going on, the Vengeance 5 hitting the Freedom Tower and Megalopolis while Dawn and the Citizens of the Sun roll up in an MDP and attack somewhere else. I imagine the results would be pretty devastating.
I imagine the 5 heroes from Vengeance come onto the scene in that circumstance, and maybe are the ones that stop the Vengeance 5, or at least protect the people from the swarm of villains (mini-nemesis) that are terrorizing the populace. I'm imagining the events of Vengeance in the comic are pretty major, and a lot of bad stuff happens to a lot of people.
The government cracks down, the Dark Watch is formed, the Freedom V bide their time setting up their big move. During this time Pauline starts taking a bigger role, leading to Beacon, Expat and Setback become a team, an item and then a heartbreaking end (possibly). Then we move to Tactics.
Omnitron V is rebuilding itself from Revocorp and other labs storage. Which probably means Omnitron IV was similar to Omni-Blade in that it was only a part of Omnitron, and likely also happened during the Dark Watch era, or the build up to it (how fun would it be if Omnitron IV hit while Omniblade was still out wreaking havoc).
The missing pieces are the Wrath of the Cosmos and future card expansion events, which I don't know if those will be before or after Tactics. Has anyone seen anything saying whether Tactics happens after all of the SotM stuff that hasn't come out yet happens?