[Twitchy D]

(For more on this, and general New York stuff, pick up Manhattan, the ROtten Apple, on drive-thru RPG and other PDF purchase sites today!)

Forgot to put your post in corporate shilling text.

[Mirikon]

Yes, Winternight had a lot of toxics. They also had a lot of religious fanatics, and people who were basically conditioned to serve through BTL chips that made them almost into berserkers (in the classic Norse sense). Winternight's goals were to bring about Ragnarok and kick-start the end of the world, so I believe we can safely say that they were crazy as hell.

Also, while Pax was just using Winternight, remember that Winternight was just using Pax. Both of them intended to cut the other loose as soon as they were no longer convenient.

[Twitchy D]

Also, while Pax was just using Winternight, remember that Winternight was just using Pax. Both of them intended to cut the other loose as soon as they were no longer convenient.

Yeah, that's been mentioned. It would be just like terrorist cells that have different ideaologies working together. Serve their own needs first, help out with those loonies next door with their silly little project that'll OBVIOUSLY fail, and get them to spend their own resources on OUR MASTERPEICE! MUAHAHAHAHA!!! SOON, WE WILL FLY OFF TO ASGARD, WHERE WE WILL FIGHT TOGETHER WITH OUR GODS AGAINST THE FOUL THREAT OF LOKI AND HIS DELUDED ALLIES! WE WILL BECOME HEROS AND LEGENDS blah blah norse-mythological blah...

It just seems like Ex Pacis and Pax get a lot more focus nowadays, which is kind of obvious for a good reason, as well as really helpful to anyone looking for a really good BBEG that focuses on techology. But Pax and her Dissonant crew of Technos doesn't really grab me that much as that World Tree in the deep resonance, and the parralels to the myths that used it. I'm wondering what's Freida up to nowadays, now that she excaped. What would she make of the Wireless Matrix, those Technomancers, and yet again, that Mystery Tree in the Matrix's basement that keeps coming up in the stories?

Puck might have an answer or two, but from what it looks like, he's trying to prep for a fight against Pax and Co, so it's going to take a while...

[Sengir]

But Pax and her Dissonant crew of Technos doesn't really grab me that much as that World Tree in the deep resonance, and the parralels to the myths that used it.

Well, tree structures are an extremely common occurrence in computer science (and several religions) and TMs following this Paragon have nothing that would specifically link them to Deus, so IMO this connection is rather incidental.

I'm wondering what's Freida up to nowadays, now that she excaped.

Killing her is a job in Artifacts Unbound, but who knows if that was really her...

[Mirikon]

Unless Winternight pulled a shell game on the Corporate Court, Friday is dead, as of Artifacts Unbound. On live TV, no less.

As for the world tree in the Resonance Realms, I'll just say two things:

1) Deus awoke to a feeling of betrayal, with a sword hanging over his head, so to speak. Everything he did in the Shutdown, and after, was to not only escape and survive, but to ensure that no one could ever put him in a position like that again. Once someone loses their raison d' etre, their reason for being, what do they do then?

2) When Crash 2.0 hit, Deus was in the middle of trying to make himself a god in the Matrix. What is there to say he didn't ascend somehow into the Realms? There are still many unanswered questions from the Crash, even a decade later.

[Wakshaani]

(For more on this, and general New York stuff, pick up Manhattan, the ROtten Apple, on drive-thru RPG and other PDF purchase sites today!)

Forgot to put your post in corporate shilling text.

Only counts ifyou worked on the book in question. I didn't, so I'm in the clear.

[JustADude]

Unless Winternight pulled a shell game on the Corporate Court, Friday is dead, as of Artifacts Unbound. On live TV, no less.

As for the world tree in the Resonance Realms, I'll just say two things:

1) Deus awoke to a feeling of betrayal, with a sword hanging over his head, so to speak. Everything he did in the Shutdown, and after, was to not only escape and survive, but to ensure that no one could ever put him in a position like that again. Once someone loses their raison d' etre, their reason for being, what do they do then?

2) When Crash 2.0 hit, Deus was in the middle of trying to make himself a god in the Matrix. What is there to say he didn't ascend somehow into the Realms? There are still many unanswered questions from the Crash, even a decade later.

*Deus manifests to Technomancer, Paragon style*
*Technomancer screams and curls up in a fetal position*

"Woah, woah, woah! Relax! I'm not going to kill you. I'm over that "homicidal" thing now. I just want to talk. I've got a job for you. A little 'present' to deliver to someone at Renraku."

"Wait, I thought you just said you were over that stuff?"

"Okay, fair enough. I'm mostly over it."

[Mirikon]

To be fair, as Deus gained experience, he did shift away from the overt homicidal methods, except as a response to an attack, like with Megaera trying to take over the Network. His primary driving force is survival and freedom. So long as you aren't a threat to that, he is likely to ignore you. Any servants of his in the area, however...

[CanRay]

Note that one of the Paragons looks like Deus' preferred image.  (I think he liked being a tree, right?)

Then again, The World Tree/Tree of Knowledge is a pretty prevalent image period.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Fragments of Winternight are still around, albeit under other names.  Fragments of Ex Pacis are still around, albeit under other names.  As both are functionally toxic organizations, and as toxic organizations are generally incompatable with anyone who doesn't ally with their own particular psychosis, they'd tend to not work well together - even when, before Crash 2.0, they more-or-less did.

[Katrex]

I think the Shedim qualify as as bigger Big Bad right now than the bugs.

The bugs are insidious for sure, but they have pretty natural patterns: multiply. The Shedim live off fear and death do they not? I don't think the bugs have a greater agenda than to feed/grow/whatever.

Its like arguing about what's worse, Tyranids or necrons. Pointless arguement imo.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Well, Tyranids, obviously ...

[Black]

I think the Shedim qualify as as bigger Big Bad right now than the bugs.

The bugs are insidious for sure, but they have pretty natural patterns: multiply. The Shedim live off fear and death do they not? I don't think the bugs have a greater agenda than to feed/grow/whatever.

Its like arguing about what's worse, Tyranids or necrons. Pointless arguement imo.

Actually, thats a pretyy good comparision.  One wants to eat/possess/grow, the other wants death to be the status quo. 

That said, I would go with Bugs, because at least life goes on, even if its not metahuman.

[Wakshaani]

Actually, thats a pretyy good comparision.  One wants to eat/possess/grow, the other wants death to be the status quo. 

That said, I would go with Bugs, because at least life goes on, even if its not metahuman.

And now I have a bunch of fleshforms sitting in  a circle, swaying back and forth while singing "Ooblah-dee, ooblah-dah, life goes ah-on, la la la la life goes on."

...

Curse your words!

[Mirikon]

That's what you get for slipping the Beetle shaman a John Lennon personafix chip...