Alternate Crosstime Organizations

[Mark Skarr]

I can't believe I never suggested:

Portal Corporation (from City of Heroes, even thought we're running a City of Heroes game). Link to the Paragon Wiki article which breaks it down.

Basically, Homeline's worst nightmare: do-gooder superheroes with unrestricted access to the multiverse. And, due to the incarnate-source of their powers, their powers seem to work fine in every universe they visit. Could be worse--oh, wait, it is as the villains from the Rogue Isles have access as well!

Unlocked from a side-effect of a drug that allowed some of its users to see/access other dimensions. The drug manufacturer was actually researching the dimensional affect of the drug, not trying to start a war.

[dcarson]

Originally Posted by YankeeGamer

If the timeline "Meteor" existed and Infinity detected a parachronic jump in Coventry's extreme outer system--implying a MASSIVE conveyor--how would they react? (8 billion metric tons, assuming a tube 20 KM long and 5 KM in diameter, with a hull 5 meters thick. The cylinders are made out of very thick steel rather than more expensive, lighter materials.

There will be at least one faction that figures it is a sensor glitch if it isn't repeated. It is so far off what they think can happen a glitch will seem more reasonable then it being real.

[David Johnston2]

The Paratime Imperium. This "Roman Empire that never fell" doesn't screw around with covert operations and secret trade apart from initial scouting. They just conquer, colonize and tax every world they discover

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Michele

One wonders what happened to the Protestant countries in the 1600s? And to their armies and fleets? The Orthodox countries? Why, by the 1700s even Catholic countries wouldn't accept a non-national Catholic agency interfering, even by way or religious issues, in their internal political affairs (the Jesuits, I mean).

Presumably they resisted, lost, and were killed in large numbers. But really you have to be willing to assume the utter failure of nationalism if you want a universal church. This has always been a problem - if you have multiple states, you either have multiple churches, or maybe one religion but with no organized churches. No government is happy about an actual religious authority from another state.

I think its particularly problematic if you actually want to use the Inquisition, since the repressive one was actually an arm of the Spanish government, not the Papacy. Though I suppose it could make sense if you use Spain as the universal conqueror. Assume that as some point early in the conquest of Europe they capture the Papal States, and that for the last couple centuries every Pope has been a Spanish prince. The Hapsburgs after all held a lot of bishoprics where they appointed collateral relatives, no reason one of them can't be the bishop of Rome.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

I can't believe I never suggested:

Portal Corporation (from City of Heroes, even thought we're running a City of Heroes game). Link to the Paragon Wiki article which breaks it down.
...

Holy crud. That game ended 7 years ago? My GF and I really liked it when it launched. One of her favorite PCs of all time was Granny Brick from City Of Heroes.
It seems they added a LOT of story since we left.

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Holy crud. That game ended 7 years ago? My GF and I really liked it when it launched. One of her favorite PCs of all time was Granny Brick from City Of Heroes.
It seems they added a LOT of story since we left.

That story was in the game, they didn't add it afterward, it was there at the beginning. You just had to find it. Paragon Wiki just did a great job of compiling it.

And, while, yes it did end, it is back. And we're happy. (No links, keeping SJGames out of it; if you want it, it's easy enough to find.)

[PTTG]

Specularii are a secretive group of mages that have opposed the plans of the Cabal for generations -- insomuch as it is possible to do so more than the Cabal does for itself.

The Specularii survive in obscurity, puttering away as the old crone from your grandfather's time who lives down the street, the wino who never leaves the bar, or the orphan that never gets adopted -- anyone who others simply take for granted. Topping that unassuming appearance with a hefty helping of magic, they watch worldlines for intrusion from other magical forces and take action against them.

In this way, they have come time and again into conflict with the Cabal -- or some lodges of it. Other lodges they can be distantly cordial to, so long as they stay out of their worldline. Homeline and Centrum they consider to be unpredictable and troublesome. They prefer to avoid them unless they threaten the world as a whole, or some specific Speculari's personal demesnes. Even then, they work as subtly as possible to convince them to leave, knowing that open opposition will only bring down more resistance.

As for capabilities, the Specularii are knit together by a web of scrying magic. They can communicate across dimensions with a kind of spell they cast on mirrors, pools of water, and crystal objects. They also use these devices to attune themselves to the worldline they guard, allowing them to detect magical arrivals. They also have special teleportation magic, allowing them to operate globally.

An individual agent has at very least Longevity, often outright Unaging, and the magical knowledge that such age brings. They also tend to learn illusion magic to allow them greater ability to blend in. Beyond that, they tend to follow the magical schools of their home worlds.

Their great limitation, and greatest power, is their knowledge of the hidden portals of their chosen world. The Cabal knows the major ones, the great routes, the chronobahns... Specularii know every little cosmic crevice, every weakening of the worlds, and every closet that opens to another plane on the third Saturday of the Januaries of odd-numbered years. When a threat arises that a single Speculari cannot handle on their own, they reach out to those of adjacent worlds, who in turn contact their next neighbors, and so on as needed. When a Speculari needs to travel long-distance, they ask a neighbor to ask a neighbor to ask a neighbor. This is not efficient, and if you aren't adjacent to the right worldline, it can take complicated and circuitous routes to get anywhere -- but it is even more subtle a way to travel than the more well-known secret paths.

They do not reveal the Secret because that would only threaten their closest allies with the exact sort of invasion the Specularii seek to prevent. Indeed, they generally don't stay on worlds which know the Secret unless they believe they must be unusually proactive and go to the source of some problem. Nor, of course, do they world on worldlines with no-mana.

They are found on some high-mana worlds (one of the reasons that the Cabal doesn't bother with them,) and some low-mana and trace ones, (where they are more active). New recruits generally come from low-mana worldlines, where they learn to do more with less, can come face-to-face with outtime threats, and yet still have enough access to mana to become extremely skilled mages before they take up the mirror and robes.

As for local problems, they somberly accept that their world must live or die by its own hand. Usually. In cases where the world is literally ending, they may be moved to aid those who might stop it. In contrast, they'd almost never evacuate people from a dying worldline due to the risk it would cause to the Secret.

[Varyon]

Hopefully something like this hasn't already come up in the thread (skipped ahead, as it's a long one), but due to some of the manga I've been reading lately -

Iseko
In her local year 2007, a young woman in Japan died in a freak car accident, awakening in a Fantasy timeline. She was informed (via a pop-up window) that she had died "before her time," and as a condolence had been resurrected in another world, and granted a unique ability to gain abilities by eating plants, animals, monsters, and even people (or just eating parts of them). 10 years later, when an unfortunate Jumper happened upon this worldline, he found a world ruled by a large group of beautiful but identical women, who promptly executed and consumed him.

Iseko, as she now calls herself, took over the world by gradually increasing her power and knowledge (as consumption also absorbs knowledge and skills) and gaining a duplication ability. While her duplicates aren't as powerful or knowledgable as the main body, and they share no special senses with her or each other, they are unfalteringly loyal. Those who gain notable new abilities - such as the ones who consumed the jumper - will customarily remove a pound of their own flesh (which regenerates rapidly) and send it to the main body for consumption. She now operates by sending out groups of duplicates of herself - with modified appearances - to other worlds, searching for more abilities and skills. She is aware - and cautious - of other outtimer organizations, and hopes to gather enough power her duplicates will be able to crush each in a single attack. Her methods are highly variable, ranging from seduction to outright warfare to get what she wants. The abilities of her dupes range accordingly (she can set their statistics when she makes them, but in GURPS terms is limited in the number of Character Points available), making her difficult to predict. Her typical methodology, when discovering a new worldline, is to send in a covert team to abduct and consume a few people before retreating. She then uses the knowledge obtained to determine her next course of action (usually more information gathering, using dupes who are more and more familiar with the world's customs). She is not currently known to any of the major players, although there may be rumors related to her. She hasn't overtly overtaken any worldlines beyond the one she was resurrected in, but controls major powers in several of them from behind the scenes.

Her chosen name, Iseko, is taken from isekai, literally "another world," a genre of anime/manga in which the protagonist (usually a modern Japanese male) ends up magically transported to another (typically Fantasy-themed) world, often as a sort of "rebirth" after dying, and usually has some sort of "cheat" ability. The ko part is a traditional ending for female names in Japan (typically using the kanji for "child").

[David Johnston2]

Ick, that's a genre that has gone a bit off the rails with regard to game balance. Or even writing stories with interesting plots. But the underlying concept of some kind of group that has taken to reincarnating the untimely dead in new universes with the memories of their original life...that has a bit of potential.

[Flyndaran]

It was the premise for one of the vignettes of the animate movie Heavy Metal.
And of course the Riverworld series which has its own Gurps book, I believe.