12 Names for 13 Tyrants (and other major Characters)

[turtleclub13]

Thank you. Thano you so much for putting this all in one place. this is soo wonderful. well done man. well done.

[-Loki-]

About the Court of Two, I'm wondering if they're the same two that made the Crossroads Seven? All of them refer to seeing a man and woman in black and red.

[DoctorWhat]

On 8/22/2016 at 8:59 PM, KuVenet said:

just playing devil's advocate here, but wouldn't (if we take perdita at her word in saying "dragons" plural) be the Victorias? I say this for two reasons, 1 their abilities all have the word "dragon" in them. 2 in their lore it says that they are rarely apart which would feed into the Yin/Yang theory? 

Yes the sword does have that one demon in it. But do we know for a fact that all the "tyrants" are inherently bad? Perdita let Sonnia live sand she is possessed? Maybe the Sisters are the Dragons and are keeping the evil demon in the sword in check?

Just my thoughts. 

She'zuul seems to be the one guiding the Viks for their coming battle with Titania.

 

I personally think that one of the Dragons perished at some point or is so weak that he's not relevant. I think Shenlong is needed in order to balance out/ascend as the other half of the pair.

 

Now that it's been established that anybody can become a Tyrant through soulstone use and such, I think we could see various masters attempt to ascend. Yan Lo could attempt to ascend to merge with/take down Lingxuzi . Lilith could try to ascend to prove stronger than Titania, only to fail/become what the Neverborn hate. Lynch/Huggy could try to ascend only to run out of brilliance and start back at square one.

 

[Gnomezilla]

Time to talk about my ruling passion again. I do mean constructs.

Observe Kaeris' totem, the Eternal Flame. A being of pure flame, trapped within a construct.

Cherufe and the Cage in miniature.

A ritual wove the wills of people of Malifaux into a simulacrum of a monstrous machine, wove them around the Governor-General that was. People of Earthside.

Is it any wonder that the Burning Man now orbits in the wrong sky?

And whose wills were woven into the Red Cage?

*

If Pandora was the Box which holds a Tyrant, and Lilith heeded the call upon all constructs, does that make Lilith part of the Cage?

Zoraida set the Seal on the first Breach.

*

Abominations. We like to think about them as those scrapyard heaps of flesh and machinery, inharmonious, twisted.

But now McMourning has hold of an ancient abomination and its secret to stave off decay, to not be undead. No mere flesh construct, this.

Some which still are living and not yet construct he has funneled back to Sonnia, the magically gifted witchling thralls, for whom "Fate (and Sonnia Criid) had other plans".

Abominations change Destiny Steps, now.

What do we do with the Guild's pet abomination, who is neither living nor undead, fully construct, made of flesh of what would once have been a powerful Arcanist, if Fate hadn't spoiled everything?

(Flowers for anyone who can tell me why Anna was able to recognize Ryle even if she couldn't see his face.)

[Ludvig]

1 hour ago, Gnomezilla said:

Flowers for anyone who can tell me why Anna was able to recognize Ryle even if she couldn't see his face.)

She could actually see his face because the old model doesn't have it covered and the new model just represents Ryle post-kidnapping?

That or he had some really distinct features in the form of tattoos or something. Didn't she see him in context with his brother? It would mean she would only need a passing resemblance to start obsessing.

[MetaphoricDragn]

Per https://www.wyrd-games.net/tos-gibbering-hordes we finally have an idea what Meridian has been up to.

[Cinnamon Bear]

And another tyrant somewhat revealed! 

I'm going to go ahead and say Meridion is the "water god" referenced on p.40 of Under Quarantine. It's also unrelated to anything else in the book, and rereading it now it appears the author was someone hired to specifically find this temple in the sewers/catacombs beneath Malifaux. So there might be more going on with the Gibbering Horde being found and released on London.

[Parker Barrows]

Well, my guess is Meridion was drawn to the Governor-General like all the Tyrants. Since s/he wasn't tied to a host, s/he was able to follow the Governor-General to Earth when he became the Burning Man.

[Cinnamon Bear]

Thats probably a good assumption. Then I wonder if the person the author is addressing in Under Quarantine might be McCabe, since he was procuring the ritual items needed for the Governor General.

[Bengt]

So Abyssinia is Wakanda and the Gibbering horde are Tyranids...

[Cinnamon Bear]

They're really nothing like Tyranids though? At all?

Nothing fluffwise, just looking monstrous/having pointy teeth. To me anyway the closest resemblance would be murlocs from WoW, and you can see what appears to be a naga/merperson in the background image. And the whole aquatic theme that all the units have, including the giant hermit crab looking reveal.

There's also "We were driven from the land and into the ocean, and we were taken from the ocean and forced to this world. Here we shall be like the tide and the storm, and we shall claim the Earth for Meridian", which both implies sentience and tells us directly that they serve a known Tyrant.

[Bengt]

23 minutes ago, Cinnamon Bear said:

They're really nothing like Tyranids though? At all?

If I was shown just the render I would very much think it was a Tyranid model. Going by the text they seem to share the "The Great Devourer" theme as well. So I would say they have quite a few similarities. 

[Rathnard]

23 hours ago, MetaphoricDragn said:

Per https://www.wyrd-games.net/tos-gibbering-hordes we finally have an idea what Meridian has been up to.

Good catch! I can't believe I missed that reference the first time I read though that page.

I've updated the first post accordingly, specifically the parts on Meridian and to a lesser extent, the Red Cage. Here's the former;

 

Quote

Meridion/Meridian: Spelling has apparently changed, but as of a recent Other Side Preview, we've now got our first solid piece of info on Meridian. Based on the Gibbering Hordes Preview page, we can gleam that in the original Tyrant War Meridian was defeated and her followers (who at the time were denizens of Malifaux) were cast into the ocean. It's not clear whether Meridian went with them, but in any case they continued to worship/follower her as they eventually changed into the creatures that make up the Gibbering Hordes. With the opening of Breaches over London (thanks Burning Man!) the Gibbering Hordes have now invaded Earth and Stormsiren, whom we can only assume is a significant member of the Horde, intends to conquer Earth in Meridian's name.

Meridian's own physical state, nature or motives are still unclear. As per above we don't even know whether she(? - pending further info I'm assuming it's a she for now) leads the Gibbering Hordes personally or if she's more of a mythical (and potentially absent) figure to them. However in the TTB "Under Quarantine" book there's a sidebar story about a temple beneath Malifaux dedicated to a gigantic fish-frog "Water God" of some kind. Given Meridian's link to the Gibbering Hordes, it's probably safe to say that she's the aforementioned Water God.

Thinking about it, it's actually really unusual for Meridian to have a Temple dedicated to herself at all. I'm not aware of any other full-on temples dedicated to the other Tyrants, certainly not to the scale described in Under Quarantine. Also most of the Tyrants seem to have been more interested in personal power than actually getting people to worship them. The only exceptions are December and maybe Dragon (although Dragon seems to act like more of a leader than a God to be worshipped). This, is arguably our only clue as to Meridian's personality - she sees herself as a God and is vain enough to ensure people worship her for it. 

The Tyrant's own name might also contain some clues as to her nature. A "Meridion" is a freshwater diatom, which is weirdly in line with her role as a Water God (I honestly didn't expect that). Also a "Meridian" is a line of longitude around the earth, which could tie into leylines of astrological power. The latter might link Meridian to the Red Cage, which at some point was a celestial object, before it crashed down and opened up some previously submerged caverns (Water...Water God, etc. etc.). More info on that below.

 

[MetaphoricDragn]

14 minutes ago, Rathnard said:

Good catch! I can't believe I missed that reference the first time I read though that page.

I've updated the first post accordingly, specifically the parts on Meridian and to a lesser extent, the Red Cage. Here's the former;

 

 

Thanks a ton for keeping this updated.  The Tyrants are probably my favorite part of the lore (which makes choosing Celt or Horde particularly hard)

[Parker Barrows]

1 hour ago, Rathnard said:

Good catch! I can't believe I missed that reference the first time I read though that page.

I've updated the first post accordingly, specifically the parts on Meridian and to a lesser extent, the Red Cage. Here's the former;

 

 

According to Rippling Fates, a variety of sea creatures have become more aggressive and invading the Gremlin lands. It would shock me if they are not tied to Meridian.

[santaclaws01]

19 hours ago, Parker Barrows said:

Well, my guess is Meridion was drawn to the Governor-General like all the Tyrants. Since s/he wasn't tied to a host, s/he was able to follow the Governor-General to Earth when he became the Burning Man.

It says on they're page that breaches have been opening up beneath the ocean a lot, so that's how the gibbering hordes got there. Meridian is still probably trapped or caged somewhere, it's servants are just now attempting to conquer Earth.

[Parker Barrows]

Yeah, but randomly opening Breaches at the bottom of the sea seems kinda random. Why not in Malifaux? Or the other side of the world? Why is it that forces tied to a Tyrant are there to benefit and not some random group? Seems a little too perfect to be random. So, I think there is an intelligent force behind that.

That being said, maybe Meridian is still entrapped and s/he is causing the Breaches?

[santaclaws01]

23 minutes ago, Parker Barrows said:

Yeah, but randomly opening Breaches at the bottom of the sea seems kinda random. Why not in Malifaux? Or the other side of the world? Why is it that forces tied to a Tyrant are there to benefit and not some random group? Seems a little too perfect to be random. So, I think there is an intelligent force behind that.

That being said, maybe Meridian is still entrapped and s/he is causing the Breaches?

Because the sea is very large and no other forces are amphibious? And breaches open up randomly all the time, hell the 10T have their own private breach that appears to be permanent.

[Parker Barrows]

The sea is very large argument doesn't necessarily work since we don't know that the Gibbering Horde covers the entirety of the ocean. So, regardless of the size of the ocean the chances are no greater that they would get their own Breach as some random, uninhabited part of the sea.

And yeah, the Ten Thunders have their own Breach, but Breaches besides the main one and the Ten Thunders' Breach - which, now that I think about it, may not be entirely random, they do have their own Tyrant after all - tend to be random and short lived.

I admit, it could be entirely random. But we're dealing with the followers of a Tyrant that got their own breach(es) at the same time that all Tyrants were affected by a man fusing with one of their own and tearing through the barrier to become some of.... well, not quite sure what he is. The idea that an intelligent force behind them seems likely to me.

[Rathnard]

As far as I can tell, the ascension of the Burning Man has caused breaches to open up all over Malifaux. Jack Daw's vignette in Ripples of Fate certainly indicates as much. The location of these breaches appears to be random, although I'll admit it's odd that enough Breaches have opened, in the right part/s of the Ocean for long enough, to allow a full-scale invasion of the London by the Gibbering Hordes.

So maybe the breaches related to the Gibbering Hordes were directed by some other force (Meridian?). But that's also predicated on alot of assumptions, specifically that the Gibbering hordes are not populous enough and the Breaches not common enough to randomly allow a full-scale invasion. But what if, for instance, it was just one breach that happened to open right in a population centre for long enough to suck in a sizable horde and ALOT of water? Or perhaps it was only a few gribblies to start with here and there, but their rate of reproduction and plentiful food supply allowed them to build their numbers up fast enough to overrun London? 

Basically, I think @Parker Barrows theory has merit, given what we know thus far. But we don't have anywhere near enough info about the Gibbering Hordes and the circumstances of their arrival on Earth to jump to any conclusions quite yet.

[Parker Barrows]

Yeah, just for clarification, I think my theory is right, but it's just a theory. There could be a ton of different explanations (including just random Breaches). We don't have a lot of information for The Other Side, so I'm just throwing out some ideas.

[MetaphoricDragn]

As an interesting bit of trivia from book 3, it does look like if the Governor General had gone full solo tyrant, he would have assumed the name Rulership.

[Pyrflamme]

With respect to the Breach conversation, it's fully possible for the breach(es) to have randomly opened as far as in-world events go and the Gibbering Horde happened to have taken advantage of it. Wyrd has written the story such that the Horde had an opportunity, but that doesn't mean the Horde were active participants. Sometimes we conflate the efforts of the writer with the efforts of the characters such that we believe that just because a writer is working towards an end, the character was working towards the end, when the character might well be just pulled along by the writer.

I imagine at some point we'll get firmer hints, but for now, everything's supposition.

[Lucidicide]

Spelling has not changed. Aaron has gotten crazy. Spelling updated on website.

[Clockwork_Fish]

I suspect that Perdita's manticore buddy could be Witness, or at least a 'lesser' tyrant like Huggy.  Perdita's visions after the event would certainly qualify as a Witness' statement.  Also, and I may be remembering this wrong, but I'm pretty sure that in the original 2nd ed avatar beta, the Avatar of Revelation gained the Tyrant characteristic.

As for Lingxuzi, I don't think he's a tyrant.  The oni seem to be creatures of Earth, or someplace linked to Earth.  In the 1st edition Ten Thunders book, there was a weird little story about the Ten Thunders using a magic library to summon a weird composite of various English literary characters ("Abraham VanStoker") so they could sacrifice him to make room in Malifaux for the stories of the Three Kingdoms.  If the Oni are what they were trying to bring over, it would imply a stronger connection to Earth than Malifaux.