Arachnos (City of Heroes)

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Arachnos
Lord Recluse, leader of Arachnos, alongside Black Scorpion and a Bane Spider
Publication information
Publisher	NC Soft
First appearance	City of Heroes # 1 (2004)
Created by	Sean Michael Fish
In story information
Base(s)	Spider City, Grandville, Rogue Islands
Member(s)	Lord Recluse Ghost Widow Black Scorpion Captain Mako Scirocco Silver Mantis Kalinda Various Followers The Weaver Red Widow

In the backstory for the games City of Heroes and City of Villains, Arachnos is a criminal group formed in Italy on early 20th century. It is ruled by City of Heroes universe's most notorious villain: Lord Recluse.^[1]

Contents 1 History 2 Organization 2.1 Wolf Spiders 2.2 Arachnobots 2.3 Fortunatas 2.4 Widows 2.5 Mu Mystics 2.6 Arachnos Drones 2.7 Tarantulas 2.8 Crab Spiders 2.9 Bane Spiders 3 Rogue Arachnos 4 Badges related 5 References

[edit] History

In the universe of City of Heroes Arachnos was formed in the early part of the 20th century in Italy by a man known as The Weaver. Later, a villain called Lord Recluse took over the global network of Arachnos though betrayal; murder surely played a role. After taking over, Recluse subtly shifted Arachnos’s priorities and interests to better suit his own ideological goals.^[1]

Arachnos' leader, Lord Recluse, went underground to weave his web of deceit before eventually emerging as the "legitimate" leader of the Rogue Isles, the nation shown in City of Villains. Now Arachnos controls the Isles and Lord Recluse is, technically at least, considered a political figure —though he privately relishes the rare times he's able to get blood on his hands. Ruling a nation has allowed Lord Recluse to create armed forces, purchase military hardware, and even research alien technology, increasing this way Arachnos' power. Now, Arachnos fights to capture Paragon City, the city where City of Heroes takes place, which is the juicy fly wiggling at the fringe of Lord Recluse's web who will not rest until he has wrested Paragon from Statesman, City of Heroes most important hero.^[1]

[edit] Organization

Arachnos is ruled by Lord Recluse with an iron fist demanding blind loyalty and unswerving devotion from those who survive long enough to serve him. Under his guidance, Arachnos has become a multi-faceted and deadly group. They are skilled in information control, blackmail, espionage, and assassination, made up of both mortals and super-beings. They boast a potent military force and employ—overtly and covertly—numerous supers in a wide variety of roles.^[1]

[edit] Wolf Spiders

Arachnos' basic troopers, the official government enforcers of the Rogue Isles. For the most part, they ignore petty crimes unless they have been hired to protect or watch over a particular client's interests. Considered little more than legalized thugs, they are commonly seen in low level zones as guards or cannon fodder, and are only rarely encountered past level 29. Lord Recluse recruits legions of desperate souls to fill their ranks, then puts them through a rigorous training program that emphasizes loyalty, brutality, and discipline, in that order.^[1] They are generally equipped with pistols, sub-machineguns, Arachnos power maces, and shotguns.^[2] These soldiers take their namesake from a spider of the same name.

[edit] Arachnobots

Arachnobots, as their name implies, are spider-like robots that provide combat support to other Arachnos soldiers. Easily manufactured, these machines are generally considered expendable, and are armed primarily with SMGs and their own claws. Larger Arachnobots tend to pack stronger and more advanced weaponry.^[2]

[edit] Fortunatas

Also known as Black Widows,^[3] Fortunatas are the psychic foot soldiers of Arachnos. A female only group,^[4] the Fortunatas are full-blown mystics, gifted with psychic powers^[1] that not even super-types can resist.^[4] Their Lieutenants, the Seers, are capable of peering into the future, which allows them to improve the defenses of the troops they lead.^[5] The leaders of the Fortunatas are the Mistresses; they are those who have mastered the largest quantity of psychic abilities.^[3]

[edit] Widows

Widows are trained in the arts of stealth, infiltration, and disguise. They spend most of their time in civilian clothes and assumed identities, ferreting out secrets or blackmailing business leaders into cooperating with Arachnos's designs. On missions that involve combat, Night Widows, Widows' highest ranking warriors, have discretion to form a strike team composed of other Arachnos forces. They are led by Ghost Widow.^[6] Blood Widow assassins are deadly opponents in melee combat.^[2]

[edit] Mu Mystics

A bizarre and powerful group led by Scirocco,^[7] the mystics of Arachnos are Mu descendants who serve to combat magic powered threats, such as the Circle of Thorns and magic-based heroes^[8]. Mu Mystics have a distinctively odd appearance; their legs, feet and arms are inexplicably bound, thus they move about only by flight. Mu mystics wield powerful crimson lightning abilities to assail their foes.^[2] Mu Adepts, the Mu Lieutenants, are the Mu Strikers who are given the secrets which allow them to unlock all of their power^[9]. Highest-ranked Mu, the Guardians, are those who have read unholy books and performed dark sacrifices to master the mystic arts.^[10]

[edit] Arachnos Drones

Arachnos' drones are hovering support robots armed primarily with energy cannons. The most powerful of these Drones, the Arbiter Drones, serve as guard units. As opposed to the Paragon Police Department Drone's method of teleporting a troublesome target to a prison cell, Arbiter Drones simply deal with any troublemaker by disintegrating it.^[2]

[edit] Tarantulas

Arachnos Tarantulas are eight-legged, spider-like mechs that consist of a surgically altered pilot integrated with the armor itself. Tarantulas are armed with a wide variety of abilities based on their type. Aside from the standard type, there are Fire and Toxic types. Arachnos Fortunatas will occasionally volunteer to undergo the process to become a Tarantula, creating the psychic-wielding Tarantula Mistresses and Queens. Tarantulas are named after a spider of the same name.^[2]

[edit] Crab Spiders

Crab Spiders form what could be considered the Arachnos version of a SWAT team.^[1] and are employed to deal high level threats such as super-types. They're equipped with full body armor, larger weapons, and a set of mechanical spider arms.^[11] The said spider legs mount bladed claws and an SMG or energy cannon based on the type of Crab Spider that is wielding them. The Crab Spiders are led by Captain Mako.^[2]

[edit] Bane Spiders

Armed exclusively with Arachnos power maces, Bane Spiders are opponents for high level player characters.^[2] They are taken from the ranks of the Wolf Spiders and are given different types of training.^[12][13] The basic Bane Spider troops, the Commandos, receive special assault training to become vicious masters of combat.^[12] Their Lieutenants, the Scouts, are prepared for covert operatons to make them be elite spies for Lord Recluse.^[13] Lord Recluse's guardsmen are those who lead the Bane Spiders, the Executioners; to become one of them it is necessary to be an efficient and ruthless agent.^[14]

[edit] Rogue Arachnos

With issue 6 of City of Heroes a new zone available for both City of Heroes and City of Villains players, Warburg, was added.^[15] This zone features a group of renegade Arachnos known as the Rogue Arachnos. Their forces feature "rogue" versions of most Arachnos units. They share description and appereance, except for the Rogue Fortunatas, with their counterparts but not the name; all members of the rogue faction have the word "Rogue" in them.^[16][2]

[edit] Badges related

There are a few badges, the way City of Heroes and City of Villains rewards effort in the game,^[17] that are related to Arachnos. Some of them are the reward for killing Arachnos agents (achievement badges). The others are the reward for other things and allow the player to control one Arachnos agent or more in the player versus player arena (gladiator badges).

Name	Type	Availability	How to obtain	Text	Gladiator made available	Source
Crab Spider Longfang	Gladiator	Villains only	Completing the first patron story arc.	One fight is as good as another to the Longfangs.	Crab Spider Longfang	[18]
Arachnobot	Gladiator	Villains only	Earning the Agent of Discord mission badge.	Password accepted. This unit will obey.	Arachnobot	[19]
Fortunata Seer	Gladiator	Both heroes and villans	Defeating 100 Fortunatas.	The seers see victory on your side.	Fortunata Seer	[20]
Night Widow	Gladiator	Villains only	Earning the Wiseguy/Wisegal badge.	Night widows fight for those they deem worthy.	Night Widow	[21]
Wolf Spider Enforcer	Gladiator	Villains only	Earning the Soldier badge.	These soldiers will fight for you.	Wolf Spider Enforcer	[22]
Wolf Spider Tac Ops	Gladiator	Villains only	Earning the Insider badge.	Your leadership skills are recognized.	Wolf Spider Tac Ops	[23]
Mu Guardian	Gladiator	Both heroes and villans	Defeating 100 Mu Guardians.	These mystics are intrigued by you.	Mu Guardian	[24]
Tarantula	Gladiator	Both heroes and villans	Earning the Venomous badge.	Who can say what motivates these creations?	Tarantula	[25]
Spider Smasher	Achievement	Both heroes and villans	Defeating 200 Wolf Spiders.	You feel you've adequately proven yourself to Lord Recluse by knocking his goons around.	—	[26]
Venomous	Achievement	Both heroes and villans	Defeating 200 Toxic Tarantulas.	You've taken down so many Toxic Tarantulas people call you Venomous.	—	[27]

[edit] References