Bron on Edgewar

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GREETINGS AND SALUTATIONS! I'm Bronislav, a living gunship and a proud member of RAPTOR BLUE! Max asked me to brief you on the war we're fighting. She says that a war spirit should be good at this, and I'M A WAR SPIRIT! She says that I should make things super easy and clear to understand. She says that I should be more careful where I place my landing gear because crates of spare parts are fragile.

Raptor Blue

So, let's get started! Raptor Blue is actually an acronym. RaPT3R stands for "Rapid Paranormal Tactical Response, Rescue, & Research." We're the good guys! We travel the multiverse doing investigations and diplomacy and stuff. We fight the bad guys and break their stuff. We find people in trouble and help them out, like slaves and refugees. We're triumphant transdimensional troubleshooters!

Our home is Earth, where we're part of a private military company called R3M. That's an acronym, too! R3M stands for "Rogue Raptor Risk Management." R3M is part of an alliance called the Phoenix Group, which is a whole bunch of other hero-type people. Fortunately we have a boss named Nails who handles most of our diplomacy and stuff with the Phoenix Group, Talarin Corporation, and other people who wear suits and ties.

Some of our R3M colleagues do security consulting. Max says that's called a "front company" and it lets us legally have big guns and bigger gunships, like me! Consulting sounds pretty boring so I'm glad we don't have to do that. Instead, we go to space!

Max says that Raptor Blue has become an instrument of the gods. I was created by a god so I kinda know what that's like. There are some bad gods that are always up to no good by helping non-god bad people carry out their bad plans and hurt other people badly. So then the good gods have to find good non-god people to stop those bad plans and help the people. That's what we do! Sometimes that means doing investigations and diplomacy and stuff. But sometimes it means SEEK AND DESTROY USING OVERWHELMING FORCE WHICH IS TOTALLY AWESOME!

I love my job.

Adintech

Anyways, right now the bad gods and the non-god bad people are really into something called adintech. It's a messed up form of magitec that does weird and bad things with people's minds and souls. Like, they can use adintech to kill a hero and give their powers to a bad person. That's so not good. Adintech is also bad because using it messes up the Weave of magic. That causes something called Strain, which can change people and worlds in super bad ways.

The most powerful form of adintech we know about is a living construct we call the Black Pyramid. It seems to want to eat whole worlds. We don't know a lot about it yet but we're gonna learn and then we're gonna stop it.

The Edgewar

We're traveling the multiverse to stop the spread of adintech and to prepare to stop the Black Pyramid. We're finding out that a lot of groups are involved. Here's an introduction to a bunch of them. I made up the categories and some of the metaphors. Kromrak says I have a flair for colorful metaphors. I like Kromrak.

Assemblers

They eat: Anything, although they really like complex organic matter and refined metal alloys.
They hunt: Everything. Max says they inherited rampant xenophobia and paranoia from the Reavers, which are kinda their parents.
How they party: They turn everything into assembler stuff, and then they turn that into assembler forms, or AForms. Then the AForms really mess things up.
Their paint color: Silvery grey goo, because that's what they look like.
The remind me of: Pop-up windows on the internet. You try to close them and then more tabs open and then something is playing music and then you're accidentally downloading something and it just gets worse from there.
Friend or foe? Foe, because we gotta stop them from turning the whole Prime Material Plane into assembler stuff.

Demons

They eat: Fear and pain, apparently.
They hunt: People to terrify and hurt.
How they party: They create chaos, because the more chaos in the multiverse, the more demons are created out of the Abyss, maybe. They also really hate devils and crash their parties a lot.
Their paint color: Splotches of green and brown and black and yellow, like, all smeared and stuff.
The remind me of: That one guy at the party who drinks too much, talks too loud, and picks fights just to be an jackass.
Friend or foe? Foe, because they're gonna cause hurt anyone they can. Lyndi says people will do bad stuff without demons, but demons make it all more bad.

Devils

They eat: Nothing, because they don't need to.
They hunt: Souls, because their whole economy/political hierarchy is about getting and trading souls. That's soooo messed up.
How they party: They try to get good people to make bad choices, because fallen souls are more shiny, I guess. They also really hate demons and try to restrict their parties to the Abyss.
Their paint color: Red flames, because they come from the burning Nine Hells of Baator, although it's a little known fact that the Nine Hells actually have a variety of terrains and climates.
The remind me of: Dishonest merchants, because they try to trick you.
Friend or foe? Totally foe. They spread adintech because just using it can be a bad choice and then Bingo! They get more souls.

Illithids, aka Mind Flayers

They eat: Brains. Ewww!
They hunt: Humanoids, because you have brains.
How they party: They turn some humanoids into more illithids, because that's the only people they'll party with. In the past, they enslaved several races, but many of their slave races have rebelled because illithid parties suck. FREEDOM!
Their paint color: Sad/scary gray.
They remind me of: Balloons, because their heads are so big and round.
Friend or foe? Big time foe. They've got all kinds of secret plans to rebuild their empire, including spreading adintech. Max says that maybe they're crowd-sourcing their R&D, whatever that means.

League of the Rusted Crown

They eat: Money.
They hunt: People to enslave, and other people who want to buy slaves, weapons, and mercenaries.
How they party: Celebrating greed, selfishness, and exploitation. There's usually chains, and often magitec weapons or even magitecked monsters. Max says they infiltrate other groups, including governments, to foster corruption and open up gray markets.
Their paint color: Rust, of course.
The remind me of: All the bad mercenary companies that have been on the battlefield since someone first picked up a sword for money, not for defense, loyalty, or honor. Those kinda warriors just PISS ME OFF! Battle should a glorious test of training, technique, and resolve, not who has more GOLD! Jane says that the League is what happens when unregulated capitalism, an arms race, and a total disregard for sustainability have a baby. Babies are cool. The League is not cool.
Friend or foe? Foe, because greed and selfishness make people make bad choices, so sometimes we gotta protect people from themselves. Also, we gotta help slaves. FREEDOM!

Planters

They eat: Organic material for their physical forms, although fundamentally they're spirits and we all eat magic and belief.
They hunt: Worlds to assimilate, because they're afraid of everyone who's not them.
How they party: No parties ever! They like rigorous control and conformity.
Their paint color: Institutional beige.
The remind me of: The creepy guys in suits and glasses that Proud says secretly run things, only they're giant bugs.
Friend or foe? Foe, because they're afraid of us so they'll try to make us exactly like them with bugs that control our minds. How messed up is that?

Reavers

They eat: Same as Planters: organic material for their physical forms, although fundamentally they're spirits and we all eat magic and belief.
They hunt: Same as Planters: worlds to assimilate, because they're afraid of everyone who's not them.
How they party: They break all the things and then put the pieces in big mobile factories that make more ways to break things.
Their paint color: Shiny black, like some beetles.
The remind me of: The jumpy bumpy monsters in that movie called Aliens. Did you know that the dropship in that movie is like my great-grandmother? It's complicated.
Friend or foe? Foe, because they want to break all the things, including people.