An alternative story line, with expansions.

[Marketplace]

What is below is pure self-indulgence.

Summary of concepts

This section summarizes the concept introduced in the the below text.

• A revisit to the original story line is motivated below. Forgotten characters are brought up, including David Marlin, Roman Dragovich Zubov, Vanya, etc.
• A new story line is continued that does not clash with the past, and present. Contains elements such as The Source, Time Travel and a booster pack/expansion idea.
• The story line will also incorporate actual balancing of the professions into the game and story line, to assist in feedback to developers from players, in an incremental way.
• Conflict between the Clan and Omni-Tek continues but on another level. PvP will be objective based and not in steril enviroments such as a Battlestation or next to a Tower.
• New PvM content based on story line is motivated below based on continuation of existing story line, going into time travel and what the Xans ultimately wanted to control, The Source.
• New PvM content is motivated below that takes you into the future, in the same playfields that exist in Rubi-Ka, but modified, to minimize development time and cost.
• Alternative storyline leveling option. Not as fast as kite hill or grinding certain spot, but more fun and consistent.

The original Story Line & Continuation

About Vanya, Roman, and the evil plot.

• At the end of Prophet Without Honor, as we all very well know, Vanya reveals himself to our beloved yet evil Roman, that he is much more than Roman could ever have imagined, he is an Xan (or Xan God later on in the game).
• Roman should know that he has been played all along. He was played for his research into genetics, the human cell, aging, and after other technology matured such as Eric Miller and Simon Rosens nanobot, he could achieve immortality.
• However these were just milestones for Vanya. The ultimate goal of Vanya is not immortality, or nanobots, but to get back to where his faction was before the Cataclysm, that is, being able to manipulate The Source.
• So Vanya explains to Roman, that its time to go into hiding again to continue the master minding of Omni-Tek in the background, so others can continue research on Vanyas behalf.
• There is one huge difference here though. Vanya introduces Roman to another Omega, an Omega that he has known all along since the days of WPM Pharmaceuticals, an employee that has been working on other technologies next to the nanobots that Farmatek worked on. These technologies are based on sub-particle research, that goes beyond nanoscale, to target what Vanya calls "The Source".

About David Marlin, and his struggle against evil.

• Enter David Marlin. David has had dreams about Philip Ross being alive and well, but not on Rubi-Ka, somewhere on a space station, close to orbit. It might be the Morning Star space station. In this dream, David also sees giant black clouds in space, but he doesn't know what they mean. It gives him an eerie feeling of staring into darkness.
• David has several dreams, and he comes to the conclusion. Omni-Tek are opening portals in space.
• Of course it's Vanyas and Romans work. They are trying to manipulate the source, to be able to travel in time, to be able to bring back technology which will be used to manipulate the present day and change the future.
• David realizes this in his dreams and mobilizes clans too enter the same dark clouds generated by Omni-Tek in space next to the Morning Star space station. To explore what is beyond.
• (As side note, in PWH, David Marlin lands on Rubi-Ka and meets Jennifer at the river. It is of course in Davids interest to also assassinate Philip Ross, as David has had dreams about him "Between the Stars" on his ship)

About Vanya, and his motives.

• Through PWH we know that Vanya has manipulated Roman all along. However, all the work over the thousands of years, are just milestones. The immortality, the nanobots, its just objectives to control what is more precious to the Unredeemed faction than anything else, The Source. They tried before the cataclysm, and as we know it all went bad, the Unredeemed still want that control, whatever it takes, and the Redeemed want to prevent the Unredeemed from abusing The Source. WPM Pharmaceuticals, Farmatek, Omni-Tek, means to an end so to speak for Vanya through manipulation and seduction of Roman, to control the Source, that is creation itself.
• The destruction of "The Beast" or guardian of the Source, backfired to some extent, having the Kyr'ozch come visit.
• Of course Vanya, wont give up. He could wait another 100,000 years to achieve his objective, to once again coming close to controlling the Source.
• As stated above, Vanya didn't only manipulate and use Roman, but others. This is supported by Prophet Without Honor where Vanya says to Roman, "There are others, you know. We couldn't place all of our eggs in one basket so to speak."
• The others Vanya are referring to are people that have conducted research for Vanya into other technologies that could get him closer to the Source, in this case, sub-atomic particles, time dilation and other concepts.
• Vanya always knew that killing the Guardian alone, would be to easy. To get close to the Source again like prior to the cataclysm, he had to devised other backup plans, one of them being research into time dilation, space and time, and other theories.
• This research has now come to fruition in 29475 (or a few years later, present time), and Omni-Tek through Roman, and other unknown Omegas have been able to master one concept. Travel into the future.
• Vanya wants Roman to send teams into the future to for his own reasons which will help him in the present to possibly achieve his ultimate motive, make the Source controllable to his faction, thus controlling everything.

[Marketplace]

Storyline Continuation in Chapters

Anarchy Online Fan Fiction:

The Tragedy of Man

• Prologue - Roman's Shadow.pdf
• Chapter 1 - Penumbra of Venus.pdf
• Chapter 2 - The Winter.pdf
• Chapter 3 - Through the Venar.pdf
• Chapter 4 - Purgatory.pdf
• Chapter 5 - Tragedy of Man.pdf
• Epilogue - Darkest Past.pdf

Storyline Continuation Content

Several elements in the above storyline are converted into conceptual content just for fun. All is focused on reusing technologies and artifacts already in the game, except for the Objective based PvP.

Decided not to post this, as I can see where the story line is going in the future of this game.

[Alezanders]

All this seems interesting, altought i have a question.

David is out to fight evil. Great. But how is Phillip Ross's death supposed to forward that cause.

As far and much as we know about Ross, he isa very moderate man, with a fairly decent moral stance. He was always willing to negotiate, hold OT under a tight leash, and seemed more concerned with the general good, than overall corporate or self interest.

I'm sure he would not have mind if the corporate and general interest happened to coincide, but still he was a respectable individual. And most of the clanners actualy always held him in pretty high regard.

Also about Vanya.

What is your definition of a god? It is impossible for any Xan to be a god. They are not dieties. Despite of the slight fantasy elements of the Shadowlands story arc, in essence the Xan alway where simply an extremly advanced species. Immortal from the start due to their proximity to the source. Unlikely any Xan would have considerd a fellow Xan no matter how powerful a god. The closest thing we have ingame to a "god" is the Source itself. But there is no hint to the Source being fully sentient or if it is, it does not seem to directly interact with the universe, besides the effects that its depletion of power brings.

And my final issue would be the fact that all this would clearly place the two factions into determined roles of Good and Evil.

Currently both sides seem to be threading the fine line of a shade of gray. Both OT and the Clans commit themselves to reproachable acts, one in the name of upholding the status que and defending investments, the other in the name of self determination.

Both sides have their valid points. And it is hard to simply tag one or the other as the pure evil or pure good side. I would hate to see OT turned into Club Evil and the Clans into the Super Best Friends.

Please dont missunderstand me. I am not trying to shoot you down here. Its obvious you given this a lot of tought. I am looking forward to the rest of it. I am only giving my 2 cents.

[Marketplace]

All this seems interesting, altought i have a question.

David is out to fight evil. Great. But how is Phillip Ross's death supposed to forward that cause.

As far and much as we know about Ross, he isa very moderate man, with a fairly decent moral stance. He was always willing to negotiate, hold OT under a tight leash, and seemed more concerned with the general good, than overall corporate or self interest.

I'm sure he would not have mind if the corporate and general interest happened to coincide, but still he was a respectable individual. And most of the clanners actualy always held him in pretty high regard.

I love your description of Philip Ross, and I always liked him as a character. He reminds me of an earlier CEO in another game, Jacob McAllen CEO of MTI that built the Morning Star space station in The Longest Journey. However, Mr McAllen was much much much more nastier.

Just to be sure we are on the same page, Philip Ross technically did not die, he slipped into a coma from a nano-virus. I had a small role in mind for Philip Ross, a game lore role not an active management role of Omni-Tek, a behind the scene role so to speak.

The main reason would be that he is such a huge part of the game lore, that I think it would be a mistake to kill him off, especially for new players interested in the lore. So I gave him a small role on the Morning Star space station and the plot to come. His morals did change after the assassination attempt to some degree, and he will never ever return or have anything to do with Rubi-Ka in a direct form.

Now to answer your question. How can I justify having Philip Ross back and how will he continue the story line? I'm afraid I still haven't written it down out of lazyness. But for the sake of explaining, Philip Ross, will have a role after he comes out of the coma, and it will be pretty sinister and he will question life, morals, and everything. But the sinister things are not initiated by himself but by Roman.

Roman will use Philip Ross, and it will be for a grand purpose (which again out of lazyness I haven't written down or typed up). My justification comes from Prophet Without Honor and I quote Roman's thoughts on Philip Ross after he had announced the pardon to the clan:

"Smart Man." Roman had initially been wary of this Ross-character. He had appeared wilful and reluctant to accept outside control, but the central administration had persisted, and now Roman saw why. The man was quite perfect, and though Ross did not know it, he would play an important role on the day of reckoning.

So to summarize, Philip Ross will in my mind be part of the continuation of the story line, but not in an administrative CEO of Omni-Tek role, and not on Rubi-Ka. He shall be used by Roman.

Also about Vanya.

What is your definition of a god? It is impossible for any Xan to be a god. They are not dieties. Despite of the slight fantasy elements of the Shadowlands story arc, in essence the Xan alway where simply an extremly advanced species. Immortal from the start due to their proximity to the source. Unlikely any Xan would have considerd a fellow Xan no matter how powerful a god. The closest thing we have ingame to a "god" is the Source itself. But there is no hint to the Source being fully sentient or if it is, it does not seem to directly interact with the universe, besides the effects that its depletion of power brings.

Well, I'm sorry but what you are stating is a tiny bit incorrect. Let me quote you something from an ingame NPC:

The Xan believed in not one god, but many, a so called polytheistic religion. They included in their faith a supreme being who was above the numerous gods, the creator of everything.

They did believe in god, or rather many gods. As for the supreme being, this is what I want to discuss once I get of my lazy bum and write it down. But the topic of god or not has been discussed before especially in Vanyas case to some extent, but I will throw in my two pence:

It all depends on timeline and perspective of narrator. If you look at it from a Homo Sapiens view back in 2000, you would probably get the answer that they were angels. This stems from the fact that when Mr Tornquist wrote the novel he quotes the bible, Genesis 28:12, referring to the Xan that come to earth:

"And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it."

If you ask someone in Shadowlands, as you see above you get a different answer. It comes down to perspective. For a more in-depth discussion on this I suggest you search the forums, as I haven't looked into it further I'm afraid.

And my final issue would be the fact that all this would clearly place the two factions into determined roles of Good and Evil.

Currently both sides seem to be threading the fine line of a shade of gray. Both OT and the Clans commit themselves to reproachable acts, one in the name of upholding the status que and defending investments, the other in the name of self determination.

Both sides have their valid points. And it is hard to simply tag one or the other as the pure evil or pure good side. I would hate to see OT turned into Club Evil and the Clans into the Super Best Friends.

First of all, I don't see the world in black and white, but in shades of grey as someone once said. I don't believe Omni-Tek is the evil party per say. However, having a puppet master (Roman through Vanya) that was the master mind of wiping out a major portion of the Earths population, might be considered a tad evil.

This is all perception though, and let me draw a really poor parallel here. A majority of people when thinking of Warcraft, believe that the "Horde" are the bad guys cause they are ugly, and alliance are the good guys cause they have pretty humans. Of course it's completely the reverse, and the Orcs (the prominent race in the Horde) were actually peaceful shamans before being corrupted by the Burning Legion.

So to summarize, I don't believe that the Unredeemed/Omni-Tek are the "evil" side, and if I did portray that please slap. They might have a few points in sinister plots through thirty thousand years, but I'm sure Clan and the Dust Brigade will blow up enough stuff in the future to balance it out.

Please dont missunderstand me. I am not trying to shoot you down here. Its obvious you given this a lot of tought. I am looking forward to the rest of it. I am only giving my 2 cents.

I appreciate your comments a lot, and to be honest I didn't even think anyone would read what I wrote, so big thanks! My apologize for being lazy. I have been arguing about Icons "Are they sci-fi or fantasy" in another thread on the forums.