New info gathered from WotC: Speculation on what's to come

Hey everyone.  So, I'm no Sentinels lore junkie.  I've always wanted to get into the lore and understand it better, and I've been trying to piece together tidbits from the card art and flavor text, but it's been difficult finding absolute information out there to help me connect all the dots.  The wiki helps a lot with a few references, but I haven't found a good source for getting up to date with the lore or finding past info, other than going through backlogs upon backlogs of forum posts.

So I apologize in advance if any of this information has already been discovered or thought up.  I just got my Wrath of the Cosmos and have been reading through the cards; this is what I've found and what my thoughts are on the direction the Multiverse is headed.

Revelation 1: Captain Cosmic and Infinitor got their powers from Progeny.

On the Progeny description in the rulebook, it says that a cosmic object arced through space and drove into the heart of the planet Earth.  In Captain Cosmic's bio, the description says that he and his brother, stargazers, saw a "brilliant purple energy in the sky" (much like the purple aura and eyes of Progeny) which then crashed into the hillside.  Growing in its wake, they came across the crystals that would give them their power.  Notice as well, they described it as a brilliant purple energy; not a comet or a meteorite.  Being stargazers, they would be able to recognize what the object was, but instead, they call it a purple energy.

Revelation 2: Progeny is the precursor to Cosmic Entity's arrival (I know I'm pointing out the obvious here).

The word Progeny means a "descendant" essentially and we know that Progeny is a "creation" of its master.  It's entire purpose is to become the harbinger of destruction and prepare for its masters arrival.  I'd also assume that Progeny was sent to the earth years ago, but lay dormant beneath the surface for quite some time until "cosmic events transpired" which sparked it to life.  Whatever these "cosmic events" are, they are referenced many times through Deadline, but more on that later.

Revelation 3: The Enclave of the Endlings is an order/realm that protects and preserves the last of extinct species

This shouldn't be a surprise, considering the word Endling means "something of the last of its kind/species".  Their "leader" or mother figure, the Terminarch (another term for last of its kind), says that she has a soothing prescense to all of the endlings.  We also know that the Enclave protects these creatures from all dangers, including Time itself. It is a realm that exists outside of any threat and remains so in the name of preservation.  In the Hall of the Terminarch card, the flavor text says "Jansa vi Dero knew she would have a time with this young race, but not yet..."  as she talks with a young Legacy and Black Fist.  This could be either foresight i.e. the end is nigh and she knows of Cosmic Entity's arrival.  Or it could be her simply observing the innevitable; that eventually all species will become extinct at some point.

Revelation 4: Deadline is an endling, and one who has suffered the same fate as the one that seemingly approaches the Milky Way Galaxy and Earth.

It says that he notices the Cosmic Events circling around the Milky Way and instantly knows it's another extinction event.  Here are the interesting tidbits that have been drawing many questions:  For one, he seems to think that the destruction of the Planet (he's not directly killing people, but is focused on destroying the planet itself through extreme courses of nature) is what will slow, if not stop, the Cosmic Events.  Here are my thoughts:  Either (a) he knows that Progeny is hidden somewhere beneath the Earth's surface, lying dormant and awaiting its master's arrival, and his destruction of the Earth is to draw out or kill Progeny.  Or (b) Cosmic Entity is some sort of planet eater, like Galactus, a being that exists to consume planets and their energy.  Perhaps he thinks that destroying the planet will disuade Cosmic Entity from consuming it?  Either way, Deadline knows a lot more about it than we do.

Another interesting tidbit are the objects Deadline carries with thim.  There is a metal ring and a few different sized metal balls along with (gasp) a Crystal!  I'm wondering if this Crystal is a remnant of the destruction of his own planet.  It seems to possess amazing destructive abilities; he can summon hurricanes, raise mountains into the city, erupt volcanos, and even reverse the planet's polarity.  These crystals are definitely tied to the "end" that's to come, which he hints at in the flavor text.  "To save the multiverse, I have become my greatest fear."  He is using the very Crystal that helped destroy his own planet to pre-emptively end another planet.  He has literally become the destroyer that haunts him; the one that killed off his entire race.

One more object in question is the Pandemonium Key.  All we know is that there is a picture of the galaxy and some strange symbols on it.  The flavor text is from the Terminarch who says "The truths seen in the key are not yet fully true..."  Does this mean that the Pandemonium key is what allowed Deadline to see the "future" of what is going to happen to the Milky Way?  Also, does the quote from the Terminarch mean that this future is preventable?  That there is still time to stop what the Key seems to be predicting?

Interesting Connection 1: The Time Crazed Prisoner seems to know of these Cosmic Events; what else does he know?  What is F.I.L.T.E.R.'s role in all of this?

The following is written on the walls of the Time Crazed Prisoner's cell:  "No way out...it will be soon..."  "All will end as one"  "The future is gone"  "It sends its servant" "The Guards know" "Concentric Worlds"  "Each will fall" and of course "The Child is the center".

Frist off, "It sends its servant" is now an obvious reference to Progeny being sent by the Cosmic Entity to prepare the world for destruction.  It's only purpose is to serve and destroy.  Second, what does "The Guards know" mean?  The guards are agents of FILTER and we know that the nemesis of Progeny is KNYFE an agent (ex agent?) of FILTER.  There's a connection here that I'm not quite making.

Concentric Worlds is interesting as well.  Concentric means two circular objects that share the same center, and we have seen a lot of reference to the cosmic events "circling" the multiverse, as if following a pattern.  Last, The Child is the center could be referring to the Dreamer.  The shattering of the timelines (if I remember right) was caused by Visionary going back in time and essentially helping to change the future.  Could it be that the disruption of the Timelines is what is drawing Cosmic Entity to the milky way galaxy?

Interesting Connection 2: Multiple timelines means multiple ways for the world to end.

I think there are multiple ways the Multiverse can come to an end, and these are seen in Nightmist's cards.  The first isd Astral Premonition, which shows a silhouette of Apostate, surrounded by fire.  The text says "I will not allow you to ravage this world as you have others."  This points to Apostate being a possible cause of the end of the world (also as evidenced in his Apocalpyse card).

In the card Mists of Time, events seem to transpire in different ways.  The first panel shows Voss, but all gray with a stoney appearance, with glowing purples eyes.  This is him returning from the Mists he was trapped in with new found abilities perhaps?  Could he be another way the world is ended?  Also, we see a panel of the entire Earth with a giant Akash'Bhuta face essentially composed of the entire planet.  Another end could be Akash finally overcoming the Vituosso's attempt at subduing her and sending the entire world into chaos.  Last, we see a being composed entirely of the stars, reaching out for a planet.  I assume this is Cosmic Entity and is the way this current timeline is slated to end.

What does this all mean?

Well, I haven't the slightest.  Like I said, my knowledge of the lore isn't very deep, but I'm trying to understand it all better and need help connecting the dots.  I also would love for anyone to correct me on anything I said that was probably wrong.  But regardless here is my speculation:

The Final Boss will be Cosmic Entity.  His Nemesis?  Everyone.  All of the villains in the last SotM will be different villain decks for Cosmic Entity; think of this as a multiple part final battle that's drawn out over multiple phases, progressively getting harder and harder.

Also, I think a few Villains will be coming back as Promo cards, particularly Voss, Akash'Bhuta, and Apostate

I also don't really know what I'm talking about... so take this all with a grain of salt.

It's worth noting that there has been some speculation that the Time-Crazed Prisoner is Infinitor.

Also, I don't remember exactly what Progeny's bio said, but it seemed like Progeny had been here for a very long time, but only recently activated.  Which would make the purple light that Captain Cosmic and Infinitor saw his activation energy - not Progeny himself.  (The difference is minor, but it might be important)

The Time-Crazed Prisoner/Infinitor link is my favorite thing to come out of WCos, and I think his flip side image is even a reference to his (future) confinement.

The "Child" in the center could also be referring to Progeny.  Reference the flavor text of Between the Lines on Parse's deck.

Some interesting stuff in there.  I also think there is a connection with the sahrds we see in Tactics

I agree with this.

Time Crazed Prisoner = Infinitor. The eyes, hair, characters tone through flavor text. They all match perfectly.

The stone that gave Infinitor/Cosmic their powers is related to the Cosmic Entity somehow for sure given this. There is also a more-than-indirect relationship with that stone, the Cosmic Entity, and the Oblivion shards found in Tactics. How they are related is hard to say. They are not exactly the same thing (as per a conversation with Christopher), but that is all the information I could tease out. But there is a relationship. The card "Whispers of Oblivion" sures that connection up futher.

I never thought of Progeny as "The Center" but it makes a bit of sense in a couple of ways. Since he was obviously buried in the Earth until he was awakened it is possible he was literally the center of the world.

We did hear at one point that Visionary did not shatter the timelines herself. Her powers only allowed her to find a "crack" and slip through it. The cracks are thought to have been caused by the Cosmic being. In other words her time travel was a syptom not a cause.

One possible interesting connection is between Deadline's tool and Progeny. They could possibly be made out of the same material as both have the same silvery sheen and Deadline's tool breaks a lot (literally and figuratively)

I agree with Deadline destroying to make the planet "unappetizing", especially since we see him "cutting" a leyline and the scholar says it is like unplugging the world.

I like the idea of everyone being the entities nemesis, but it is equally likely that no one is, after all nemesis bonus indicates some particular effectiveness in the fight and no one can stand against this thing, whatever it is.

I'd speculate more, but the clock is against me. Good start to the conversation.

I'm seeing a lot of mention of crystals and stuff. I don't know anything about the crystals being referred to in Tactics as I don't own the game so haven't been reading any of the threads in its section of the forum. But no-one's brought up the green crystal shard thingy possessed by the Treacherous Ape (and embedded in the front of the Dreamer's toy, of which the Treacherous Ape has been said to be a projection), and what with all this timeline stuff being brought up and the fact that we know the Visionary is very closely tied up in it, maybe that's got some relevance as well?

Nah. Christopher has mentioned that the Apes green shard is not an Oblivion Shard. (I'd link the quote, but its in the PT forums)

Though his apperance so early on in the comics (Freedom 5 Anual #4) is certainly curious.

What's an Oblivion Shard? I don't recall those being mentioned before.

They are from Tactics.  It is assumed they are left over from the big battles at the end of the card game arc, since in tactics people are fighting over them and they seem to have been around for a while.

Funny question.  Does anyone know whats happened to Akash'bhuta since Infernal Relics?  I know she's around in Tactics (she's in card art some where) and their are pictures of Sky-Scraper beating the tar out of her.  So wouldn't she have some....words for Deadline?  His shtick seems like something that would infuriate her to all new levels.

Actually, it would be kind of funny to set them up against each other (so each one treats the other villian as a hero) and play them off of each other to see who would win.  You would have to find some sort of balancer though, to keep Deadline's alternate wincon from winning every game.  Maybe after they destroy one environment they move to another one and keep fighting, and Deadline only wins through that method once all the environments are gone?

Or he just doesn't do that. The removal or the victory condition.

I don't really think Akash would mind too much about Deadline. She is an agent of Chaos afterall. She may not share the sentiment of his motives, but you can't argue with his results.

Some various thoughts:

If Infinitor is the time-crazed prisoner (which I find very likely), then everything he says probably has double (or triple) meanings. I also think that it is filtered through a VERY pessimistic worldview.  Remember- Infinitor spent countless hours floating with nothing but the whispers of oblivion and despair- so whatever knowledge he might have gleaned in the process of going mad, it is from a biased source!  Not only that, but I'm not sure his grasp on linear time is really there anymore- its all circles and it could be that he just sees everything (past, present, future, alternate futures...) as "now". 

"No way out", "it will be soon", "all will end as one" and "it sends its servant":  I think that these are references to his physical imprisonment (in that the Block is suspended in an alternate dimension), to the sealing of the multiverse (we know that the Visionary becomes trapped in Tactics, and that the multiple universes are sealed from one another), and that he has seen no ways to prevent what is to come (I think that part of what drove him insane was seeing future upon future that ended in oblivion- essentially, he got to see all the possible futures where everything ended, and no good ones). In terms of "the future is gone" and "it sends it servant", note how Progeny's cards are all about the hero's losing, and how none of them make it look like they succeed against him...

"The guards know": While I believe that this is a reference to FILTER, I could also see this as a reference to the Prime Wardens.  Both have a lot mor knowledge than we have seen- FILTER has their own agenda, and is playing their hand close so far.  However, I think that the Wardens have a LOT of untapped knowledge that they have yet to access (and since I think that Infinitor basically sees all times as "now", he might not differentiate between "The guards know" and "the guards will know" or "can know".  Think about what the Wardens represent:  Haka is an immortal, and quite possibly the first human to be touched by some otherworldly power (since we know very little about why he comes back from the dead stronger).  Tempest is one of the last Maerynians- and it seems that he may have a connection to Atlantis, or some elder race.  Fanatic is the bearer of angelic power, and has a connection to the as-yet-unexplained Host.  Captain Cosmic has traveled the starlanes and fought alien empires- even without the possibility that his contact with the crystal gave him untapped potential knowledge (The other side of the coin from Infinitor, perhaps?  Knowledge of futures where it could work out...), all of those alien technologies and sources of information may yet yield valuable insights about what is coming. Finally, we have the Argent Adept- and I'm pretty sure that the instruments each accrue knowledge from their owners as time goes one (I have this theory that this is why the Adepts seem to become disconnected over time- see the AA's treatment of the Natualist- the job itself leeches off their humanity until there is nothing left except the power and remnants of the Adept's knowledge and insights in the instrument, and then it moves on to the next host). So Its entirely possible that the Adept has some inklings about what is happening, or could have some inklings if he played the right tune on the right instrument. (Which is probably why destroying them is so cataclysmic- all that knowledge and power lost, and converted into destruction...)     

First off, I like everything you said (as usual). 

FILTER is playing their hand close to the chest, but both of KNYFEs bio's hint that they know about all these future events and are focusing in on a few specific ones.

 However, the more assignments she successfully completed, the more she noticed a trend towards certain timelines and realities An event was on the temporal horizon, and one specific reality seemed to be the crux of that event.

After leaving F.I.L.T.E.R.,  Paige Huntly  sought more information on the cosmic zenith which loomed in the temporal horizon. She knew at least a little of what to look for, and digging into the research and observation files of some of the most brilliant minds and studied researchers brought her closer and closer to the inevitible conclusion: things were going to get worse

Speaking of motivations, there is one FILTER related card that I don't think gets near enough attention around here. FILTER Spy. First off, I question who he works for. Is he a spy for FILTER, or is he spying on FILTER? The reason I don't think this is clear cut is his weapon. With the weapons we see FILTER agents carry in this game, from SotM art and Tactics art, they have highly advanced weaponry. What is he doing with a revolver? Doesn't make sense to me. FILTER wouldn't issue a weapon like that. The second question I have regardes his flavor text. Regardless of who he actually works for, the phrase "gathering specimens" has a lot of connotation to it. Who/what is he gathering and to what ends are the implied experiments for?

There are answers somewhere. They might be too encrypted at this time though.

With 2 expansions left, I fully expect the next expansion to fill in a large amount of holes and questions we have on a bunch of topics leading up to the final battle and the end of SotM for the final expansion. 

I love these conversations. Not big on coming up with my own theories (I just love watching how it all unfolds), but I wanted you all to know that this is very entertaining stuff. 

For the FILTER Spy, my guess is that the agency has been around a looooooong time.  Given that the spy appears in the time cataclysm, it could be from WW2, when a revolver would be more appropriate for a spy.  Actually, now that I think about it, the FILTER Spy could have poking around the same complex where GI Bunker was making all the noise- Legacy leads the team on one objective, and FILTER looks around while everyone is distracted.... 

I just thought of something, might be obvious.

We typically assume that the "shattering" is caused by a cosmic entity, after all how do you break realities and timelines. But the currently "stated" goal of that entity is to collapse all the multiverse into one, and we know by Tactics that travel between them is now impossible. What if the cosmic entity is actually "fixing" the multiverse through a reverse big bang followed by a new reborn world. It would still be cataclysmic for us, but not evil per se.

Who then "broke" everything? Very likely canidate is FILTER, who somehow have their own pocket dimension outside time and space with The Block. We don't know how they created it but within the creation could have started our problems. It is also likely that they were simply patsies in this, given something they didn't fully understand and awakening things they can't really control.

With regards to the spy, I think they are trying to determine the origin of superpowers. Quite a few of our heroes were either born with them or suddenly developed them and if FILTER is looking for a common denominator so that they can go super soldier project on us...

And that's interesting. Spite, Citizens Hack and Slash, Visionary, Truth and Dare and a few others have gained powers through chemical experimentation. Sometimes it can be traced to a specific individual like Chairman Pike or Blade, but other times it is "some government agency" or "a Pharmeceutical company" which could allow FILTER to be hiding behind them either as the bosses or "an interested investor".

I always thought Visionary broke the timelines by going back.

No, that was just a symptom. She was enabled to time travel BECAUSE of the shattered multiverses.

Is there official rational behind that?  I thought it was clear that she was just that dang powerful.

The whole "Psychic Time Travel has its cost" line makes it seem like it was all her.

So who else thinks rook city gets hit real bad before tactics and becomes Broken City?

raises hand

That was my first thought as well.

Brooken City. Its gonna be a thing. Latch on now.

Man, I'd really pity the people who'd have to be cleaning the graffiti off the signs for Overbrook City.

Officil rational? Like a clear explanation from Christopher? Very unlikely, but I think it was him who first posted something like this … hopefully a forum wizard remembers where 'cause I haven't a clue. I just remeber it was sometime ago.

I wonder if the term "Broken City" doesn't make reference to the Batman storyline, "No Man's Land".  In it, Gotham City is struck by a major earthquake and basically cordonned off from the rest of the surrounding area.  Villains take advantage of the chaos by carving out villainous fiefdoms, while the Bat-family of heroes does their best to restore order.  

If so, it'd definitely represent a huge shift in the fate of one of SotM's biggest cities...

I think people are remembering the Iron Legacy bio

"Now, with the timelines in disarray and so many worlds and realities intersecting, Iron Legacy has a chance to spread his rule even further."

I don't think The Visionary is can shatter multiple realities on her own, and also note that The Visionary's bio says 

"An inter-dimensional hitchhiker, another version of Vanessa who had made very, very different choices, now occupies a corner of her psyche"

So other The Visionary's had travelled before our Vanessa Long, I suppose it's possible that Multiple The Visionary's trying to travel at the same time had enough power to shatter the Multiverse.

Blüdhaven goes through a similar shift due to chemical (checmical?) fallout. There's a huge chemical plant in Rook City…

And we know that those checmicals are extremely explosive, thoroughly unfriendly, and leaking into the sewers.  And in at least one instance, likely responsible for turning someone into an infectious rat monster.

I could definitely see sizable portions of Rook city quarantined due to toxic contamination.

Those pesky checmicals.

Not only that, but unless Plague Rat gets dealt with, we know that his infection's gonna spread - maybe there're starting to be a worryingly large number of rat monsters in the Rook City sewers or something, because for whatever reason Jim hasn't managed to deal with him yet?

Also, on the box for Broken City, there is clearly a pipe with some checmicals leaking out.

Christopher did in fact confirm that the Visionary did not shatter the timelines but instead was able to travel due to them. It’s on the forum somewhere.

The price she paid was her psyche and powers evidenced by dark visionary and visionary from tactics

I just got back from a vacation; I'm happy to see a lot of responses to this thread.  I did not realize Infinitor was Time Crazed Prisoner!  Now that it's mentioned, it's completely obvious; I'm surprised I didn't make the connection.  And also the info about Visionary not shattering the timelines is good to know.

Now, please indulge me while I make some more speculations; I recently thought of this while flipping through Deadline's deck. Again, I have no idea if someone has already thought of this stuff, or if it's completely misguided, but I hope it at least sparks some discussion.

The Scholar and the Ley-Lines

For what we understand about all of the heroes, I'd say the person we know the least about is The Scholar.  Well, and maybe Guise, considering he just seems to make-up his entire backstory, but I think The Scholar has more content to speculate on.

So, we honestly don't know much about John Rhodes; he's just a guy who showed up some day and lives on a houseboat in a swamp, chilling and occasionally dishing out some noble wisdom.  But, we do know that he wields the mysterious Philosopher's Stone and that he's the only hero that doesn't have a Villain Nemesis yet.

Let's look at some parts of his bio:

John had always had an affinity for altering the very threads of existence. He could feel them as they stretched around him, connecting everything to everything else. So, when those lines drew him to a mysterious, glowing stone, he knew it was right and proper to take it with him. The stone allows him to twist the lines, rather than just perceive them, and he can now easily transmute objects into other materials.

However, now and again, he feels the ley-lines pull and twang sharply, which shouldn’t happen. 

Now, what are these ley-lines that his bio refers to?  Well, it goes back to a hypothesis by Alfred Watkins that all of the major monuments and spots of general historical and geographical interest on the Earth can be connected through these straight lines when drawn on the map.  But the real interesting part is what his idea ended up sparking.  There is a new-age, cultist following that believes the ley-lines are actually sources of great arcane power; like natural geysers of energy and understanding.  The reason why such phenoma and historically significant occurances have happened is due to their proximity to the ley-lines.  And here's the whackiest part; the power from these ley-lines are believed to attract UFO's, due to their great power, that can be felt from space!

New-age mumbo jumbo?  Or source of Sentinels inspiration?  I think there may be a chance that the Scholar is the one who drew the Cosmic Entity to Earth.  With his discovery of the Philosopher's Stone, he has been able to twist the power from these ley-lines and change the very fabric of reality through transmutation.  The ley-lines are allegedly already a source of power that can attract otherworldy beings; what's not to say that the twisting and manipulating of these lines through the Philosopher's Stone sent off an even greater signal?

The kicker to all of this?  There is a card in Deadline's deck where he is literally severing a ley-line.  The Scholar says that it's like the world's plug has been pulled.  Deadline's entire purpose is to stop the Cosmic Entity from approaching; it seems like a very interesting choice that he'd deliberately cut the Earth's ley-lines in his attempt to "save" the world.

This is from the last line of The Scholar's bio:

Mainly he just wants to keep things copacetic.

Copacetic is synonymous with "Order".  And from what we understand, Cosmic Entity is an agent of Chaos.  I think that the Scholar's long-lost nemesis might be Cosmic Entity, and that the lack of information we actually know about John Rhodes is completely deliberate.  There is definitely more to that story.

Or maybe not.  Likely I mentioned before, I don't really know what I'm talking about.  Just spitballing here.  Thoughts?

I like the theory.  We know from the challenges from GtG that Biomaner is primary nemesis.  However, we do know that heroes can have multiple nemeses from what is already released.  My guess is that the Cosmic Entity will be a nemesis for multiple heroes since I can't see the last Big Bad only have one nemesis.  

I honestly don't think this one is a valid theory. Just my opinion, obviously, as we have no evidence one way or another, but:

1. Infinitor isn't "Time-Crazed" - he's insane, sure, but it isn't due to time-travelling (that we can tell - everything says it's because of the voices...)
2. I don't imagine Infinitor is going to have 4 hit points :wink:
3. Infinitor does Energy damage (with other some types thrown in for good measure), but the Prisoner does Melee - that just doesn't seem like Infinitor's style

Look at time crazed prisoner, and then look at Insanity. Then get back to me.

Once upon a time we all “knew” The Operative was The Wraith in the Freedom Six, The Scholar’s nemesis was Progeny, and Ra had a power combo of FotSG/SF/IF with no drawbacks.

While I find the idea of the prisoner being Infinitor to be interesting and possible I don’t think I’d use words like “known” or “confirmed” when discussing it.

i really, really love this theory, but the major stumbling block I have is the fact that there are 2 TCPs. That doesn't seem accurate.

I wish TCP was Infinitor, but this is actually a mighty good point…

Well, if he is truly time-crazed, and he's in The Block, which is outside the standard space/time continuum, why can't they be the same guy?

Towards the scholar theory we alos have Wager Master's card with the Scholar, where he's bugging out over the chance to take the stone. The flavor text reads something like "sure you can have it, if you think you can understand it".

Considering wager master can manipulate the cosmos at will (it seems) and is ancient beyond belief this is somewhat odd to say, and wager master is treating the stone like it is truly an amazing prize for him. I wouldn't be surprised if the stone is way more powerful than the scholar lets on, and if the scholar is also holding back a lot of secrets and knowledge.

very tired, hope I was at least coherent

I went back and looked at it a third time (since you asked so politely ). Nope, doesn't change anything, in my opinion. They're both in sillouette and they're both insane, but that's not really a lot of evidence to me.

Mind you, I'm not saying it's wrong - I'm just saying I don't see much evidence for it. I'm not going to tell anyone they're wrong when I don't have any actual information.

Anyway, as Reckless pointed out, we excel at off-the-wall theories.  (Well, not so much me - I'm usually just along for the ride!)

For me theres a few parts to it. Yes they are both "insaine", and the hair/eye similarities are very close. But what really gets me in on the theory is the voice. Reading the flavor text of all of Infinitors cards, then going back to read the flavor text on TCP, I get the strong sense they are voiced by the same person. The manner in which they ramble is identical. It's all the little things that add up for me.

I will say there is something to be said for the fact that there are 2 TCP's in the Block. Thats a detail I overlooked until brought up here. That is a hard one to reconcile.

This is interesting as I'v had some similiar thoughts recently. We don't know what the oblivion shards are in Tactics yet, but they are sorta-but-not-quite directly connected to the stone that gave Cpt Cosmic/Infinitor their powers.

The Sentinel Comics draw influence from the mainstream comics, thats obvious. Both Marvel and DC have their versions of a power spectrum (Infinity Stones and the Lantern Emotional Spectrum). Sentinel Comics may also have their version of this in some form. I think the Oblivion shards in Tactics are related to this power spectrum. Maybe there are multiple stones (like the purple one that cave Cpt Cosmic his power), and when they come together become "the oblivion stone". Maybe thats what Terminus is going to use to destroy the Multiverse? If we beat Terminus at the end of SotM and shatter that stone, the oblivion shards would make sense showing up in Tactcs. There is nothing to support that theory at all, but follow me for a second.

What if the Philosophers Stone is really a stone like the Purple one that gave Cap Cosmic his power? A stone of immense power that is part of the Sentinels own power spectrum? If this was true, that could explain why Wager Master, a being of his kind of immense power, would be so excited to get his hands on it. 

The Time-Crazed Prisoner excels at on-the-wall theories. We should collaborate.

Wait, where was it said that Freedom Six Wraith is not the Operative?  I remember the initial speculation but I never saw it disproven.

Took a while to dig this up for you, but here is what I found.

https://greaterthangames.com/comment/13623#comment-13623

Dang!  Thanks for showing me that.  Sorry for the thread derail.

On the note of there being 2 time crazed prisoners, one thing is that it is a card in a deck; there has to copies of cards unless it is the decks defining feature. A second point is if the Block exists outside of Time, then there can easily be the same prisoner imprisoned twice or more in the same prison. The prison could have Infinitor pre-villain and post villain, at the same time, because if the prison has its own chronology exempt from the chronology elsewhere, the same person can be multiple places at once. 

On the TCP using melee vs energy, his powers may not have developed yet, they may not be working, or the Block may be inhibiting his powers, similar to how one of the guards deal damage to prevent damage.

I would most definitely imagine the Block having some kind of power suppressor system. But I'm pretty sure Cosmic's brother didn't go crazy until AFTER being exposed to the stone.

Thematically, it does seem odd. Even if using time shenanigans as exposition.

I just like the idea of you having this Prison that exists out of time and half their cells being occupied by this same guy who keeps breaking out, and since chronology is subjective, he shares a cell with himself.

EDIT: And when I say pre villain I mean he has gone into space and started to engage in shenanigans, but hasn't clashed with Capt. Cosmic or the other heroes yet

Unfortuantly, Christopher says Time-Crazed Prisoner is not Infinitor

Did he, now? Where did he say that?

https://greaterthangames.com/comment/95825#comment-95825

Ah, that was today, even. Didn't see it.

On the Scholar having accidentally summoned Cosmonautilus, we have this from a while ago:

Yes!  I noticed that as well, but forgot to include it in my post.  Dang, I thought I remembered everything I wanted to write.  Oh well, thank you for pointing it out!

All of the flavor text and pics in Wager Master's deck are wonderful, but that one really sticks out to me.  It depicts The Scholar as the one being in control of the situation, where everyone else is falling for WM's games (Ryan Frost tearing up at being able to feel the air on his skin.  Ex-pat terrified of a latent power deep within her).  In his meeting with the Scholar, it's the Wager Master who is subject to Scholar's mind-games.  He's almost begging Wager Master to take it, while staying cool and collected.  Very awesome.

As to the theory that the Philosopher's Stone is a power crystal, I had considered that as well; at least it reminded me of the crystals the way it's described in Scholar's bio, and we know they come in all sorts of colors.  And we really have no idea what the power crystals are truly capable of, as they seem to exhibit different effects any time we see them.  In that regard they definitely seem like the Infinity Gems from the Marvel universe, where each color represents a different type of power.

However, we can also notice that the Crystal Deadline possesses (if it is indeed a crystal; I believe it is) changes colors.  Throughout his deck it goes from green to blue to red.  A lot of mysteries to uncover.  I hope Villains of the Multiverse answers some questions.

Also another interesting and unrelated tid-bit: we already knew that Villains of the Multiverse wouldn't contain any heroes, but it seems like there are no more Hero Mini-Expansions either!  Pre-ordering VotM nets you 7 Promo Cards, a Villain mini-expansion, and an Environment mini-expansion.  

It could be true that villains will get Hero decks for the last expansion.  Or maybe there just flat our aren't anymore Hero decks (though I highly doubt it; if the Sentinels storyline isn't going to end for another few years, it'd be hard to believe they'd just stop the Hero decks altogether).  

Chaosmancer wrote:

On a card titled 'Not All He Seems'. A double meaning, possibly?

Is it possible that the Scholar is the "big good" for lack of a better term?  What if the Scholar is the cosmic entity of order who opposes the big bad, but he takes the form of an unassuming human to try to stay off the radar.  

I always liked that idea.

I also liked the idea of The Scholar being like Thor.  Living a normal human life on earth, until he discovers Mjolnir, transforming into Thor, and regaining all the lost memories of Odin banishing him to a human life to teach him humility, and wiping his mind in the process.  I can see the Scholar taking that role; living an extremely humble and unassuming life; dishing out wisdom and healing when needed.  But, his discover of the Philosopher's Stone is awakening something inside of him.  Maybe.

Here's a theory about FILTER:

They are, at their secret heart, cultists of the Cosmic Entity.  Oh, the vast majority don't know, and are just loyal agents working to preserve their worlds . . . but the ultimate leadership of FILTER serves the Cosmic Entity, by preventing people or events that would interfere with its "feeding".  That's why they work to try and make super heroes unnecessary, and to imprison super villains off-world:  the idea is to make a world more vulnerable by removing as many powerful individuals as possible.  And Earth is not the only world where they have acted.

To date, they have mostly acted by providing a convenient prison for superhuman troublemakers, placing them out of reach of Earth should Earth suddenly find itself under cosmic attack.  As the coming of the Cosmic Entity approaches closer, however, FILTER will switch into full-on subversive mode, enacting plots to undermine and disrupt superheroic activity as much as possible.

Sort of like Bahamut to the Cosmic Entity's Tiamat?  In D&D Bahamut likes to wander around as an old man with 7 golden canaries flying around him, but in reality he is the grand-daddy of all good dragons, the biggest, most powerful Platinum Dragon of all, and he opposes the 5-headed Tiamat, goddess of greed and an agent of chaos.

I finally got a copy of Guise and Wager Master. Going to point out some things.

What do we know about our mysterious Cosmic Entity?

1) Created Cosmic Omnitron, because "it deserved another chance". Another chance at what? Survival? No, that would have involved taking it off Earth. Destroying the Earth? Then why not make it much more powerful? It made Progeny, after all. It enhanced Cap Cosmic and Infinitor. Surely it could give Cosmic Omnitron a place to exist without humans bungling around it, or strengthen it to a far more malicious threat. It moved Progeny cosmic distances, so it could move Omnitron.

2) Progeny's story is less clear. It came to Earth from the cosmos, but we don't know when, so we don't know how long it has waited here -- billions of years or weeks. It was also awoken. We don't know if the crash that created Cap Cosmic and Infinitor was Progeny arriving, or Progeny awakening and he was placed here long ago. The interesting thing to note here is that Progeny has two missions. Destroy is one. Prepare for the arrival of the progenitor which we presume is the CE is the second directive. Destruction isn't the preparing, so prepare how? All villain decks attempt to present a style commensurate with motives and abilities of the villain. La Capitan, the pirate, steals your stuff and makes you steal it back before you can hurt her. Infinitor the insane builds then destroys his own creations. Matriarch the self-centered gets angry if you destroy her flock of birds. But Progeny displays nothing I could point at to demonstrate the second motive. Progeny is the one Beat-em Up villain, which only matches the first directive. There is no hint of the preparation that should be vital.

3) Infinitor and Cap Cosmic stumble onto the crystal that either was created on Progeny's landing, or awakened him. One comes away good and sane, one evil and insane, but the evil one abandons Earth. He isn't given Progeny's directive, nor inspired to stay and fight as Omnitron did. The CE either created them, or they were incidentally created, but if incidental, the Ce doesn't seem to care much about conferring power to the locals it has reason to destroy.

4) Deadline sees the warnings of the CE's coming. What warnings? We can dismiss that question, actually. A suitably advanced science will appear as magic to a less advanced civilization. If we followed this train of thought, we might conclude that the CE shattered the timelines and detecting that brought Deadline, but as much as I like that, there was space to say it in Deadline's history blurb. Either he doesn't say... or he doesn't know. The important point is that he hasn't seen this in hundreds of years.

Now, get out Guise's history card. Who created him? "A cosmic entity known as Wager Master". Wager Master is a cosmic entity.

What does Wager master do? Check his own history. "Goes for centuries without showing up." matches Deadline's text. "Appears to a race of Sentient creatures." Again, matches Deadline. "Destroys everything as they inevitably lose its games." Happened to Deadline's world.

Everything can now slide into place. Wager Master is a candidate for Cosmic Entity number One.

Omnitron was given another chance because it was an amusing game to watch the locals play with a violent AI. But it was not given enough power to win, because that would have spoiled later games. It was not given its own place in the galaxy to start, because the conflict itself was the source of amusement.

Progeny is sent to destroy in order to swing the game in Wager Master's favor. WM is cheating to ensure he wins. He only cares about the Champions, not about the rank and file of humanity, who might get annoying, so genocide to get the ones incapableof playing good games out of his hair.

Captain Cosmic and Infinitor are opposites because games are easier to balance that way. And how amusing to a twisted gamer is putting two brothers at each others' throats? A cosmic game ending in mutual annihilation, just as the Wager master's reputation demands.

Guise is just a whimsical joke: another game with a poor sap that is not allowed to die, and someone to mess with the Heroes' sense of reason.

It is not 100% certain the CE is Wager Master, of course. There will not be enough information forthcoming for that. Wager Master's reputation as a destroyer might be unearned. Something may be driving him ahead of the real danger, possibly with WM not even knowing he is a herald of its coming.

There is one other card to consider. Partial Omni-Drone's fluff quote at the bottom. Omnitron-X does not remember fighting inside Omnitron-IV. The CE seems to be capable of editing itself out of memory. Deadline notices the signs of imminent destruction, but does not seem to identify the threat itself, nor feel inclined to name the threat to the local champions, nor consider training the locals how to combat what destroyed his world. He seems unable to forewarn about the threat, and instead takes the insane action of attempting partial destruction ahead of the CE's coming... when that is not far off Progeny's mission, so perhaps he does not remember the CE's agents as well. He is an Endling... are all the other Endlings from civilizations affected by the CE? Are all of them twsited into immortality as a grand cosmic joke? If the CE does edit memory, then Wager master would be remembered as the final event before destruction and gather credit for the destruction, when he is in fact the penultimate threat and himself unaware of his role of being at bat while the CE warms up.

So the next question would be, "So why are all these powerful people showing up?" The Parsons family appears to be unique in that it has the illusion of a genetic legacy that strengthens with each generation. Aata getting up and getting stronger as he is wounded. Psychics, good and evil, cropping up. ancient buried relics all unearthed in a short time and conferring power they may never have had in the past. Huge leaps in science creating beings of power. We have a CE coming. But is a third party already on Earth and prepared humanity to end the CE's rampage?

Christopher did a special thread a few months back in which he answered forumite questions. I asked if Wager Master was the Cosmic Entity that revived Omnitron, and Christopher said they were two separate characters.

The Cosmic Omnitron question is a big one.

What was the purpose?  My theory is the timeline shattering was caused by humans, and drew attention to themselves.  I think Cosmonautilus is a being of order, and seeing a life form of order, revived it, giving it a chance to stop these super powered things that keep messing with the big picture.

Progeny is a very orderly weapon, wearing down defenses until there is a weakpoint to focus on, and then focusing that weakpoint down.

Deadline is all about timing, can't remember if we know where he stands with Progeny's timing, if he is after Progeny or before.

It is possible he is trying to kill Progeny before it awakens, or it could be that after Progeny fails he is trying to do enough damage to make Earth a low enough threat that Cosmonautilus moves on to another target.

I prefer the first, the idea of him attacking the planet to try and destroy the thing before it awakens would be awesome.  The heroes trying to stop him from destroying their world, and he's like screw your world, that thing must be stopped!

Deadline is before Progeny, it can be found here: https://greaterthangames.com/content/a-spiteful-update

However, after the Deadline event, just as relief efforts were being made to recover and restore Rook City,  Progenyarrived.

Thanks Ronway, I was thinking that was the case.

While Progeny may have shown up to Rook City after Deadline, it does not mean he was not already on Earth and active. I think it can still be resolved, though. Deadline, if aware of Progeny, would not be helping Progeny achieve its goals.

I do not like CE for the shattering timelines, either, but it's hard to find an alternate event that Deadline would detect. Sci Fi sensors aside, there just isn't much in the history that could show as an aberrant sensor report. Voss has lots of power flying around in minions, weapons, and ships. Were Deadline Relic based, we could point at the sudden proliferation of Relic use, but he's gadget based. Deadline observes "cosmic events", but that list is short. Prior to Progeny, only the upgrade to Omnitron shows any Cosmic footprint, and that does not sound significant enough when you've got other cosmic entities running around.

The shattered timelines event is cosmic, but it does not weaken the defences of Earth. Iron Legacy's incursion into Legacy's Earth results in Baron Blade failing to trap him or young Legacy on Mars. Omnitron-X becomes available to defend the Earth. The Villains that come to Earth as a result of the shattering have no interest in advancing the CE's agenda. La Capitan may be roaming causing chaos in various eras (most of which causes no harm of interest to the CE), and she seems to be just a self-centered nuisance, but she does wind up creating the Sentinels team which stays in the important era to defend against the CE. If shattering the timelines was an attempt by the CE to damage the defenses of Earth, it failed wholesale.

Are we just overlooking some event we should be taking more notice of? Or was the shattered timelines just a plain old backfire?

The Shattered Timelines did create one more thing although it appeared to act more heroic than villianous…

Dark Visionary was first created as a result of the timeline shattering allowing Visionary to travel back in time after all.

Fanatic and Apostate seem to have some Cosmic footprinting involved.

Yeah, especially after the reveal of that Justice World place (can't remember the name) somewhere in space which is shaped like a giant sword...

Just a quick point of contention here. The shattered timelines did not create Dark Visionary. Vanessa Long originaly traveled through time thanks to cracks in the time stream that were already there. The darker version of herself likely took advantage of these cracks as well, and lached onto our Vanessa while in the time stream. 

I may not have the details perfect here, but Dark Visionary was not a product of the Shattering itself.

The cracks only existed because of the shattering in the first place though.

Something that major would cause ripples forwards and backwards in time after all.

There are multiple universes, each with unique timelines. Thats what makes it a "multiverse". The Shattering produced cracks in the timestream that allowed access between these multiple universes. The Vanessa we know traveled from her universe to ours. Dark Visionary seems to have done the same thing. It seems that you are implying that the Shattering created Dark Visionary, but I think she already existed in another Universe prior to the shattering. She just used the cracks and hopped aboard our Vanessa in the timestream.

We don't have a lot of information either way on this though, so anything is possible really. Thats just how I see it.

Visionary was already here, well before the shattered timelines story began.  So either the timelines story was a lot longer than it seems, or she travelled before the timelines shattered.

 The Shattered Timeline isn't a single story or arch that was told and resolved and moved on from. I think theres threads of it that go very far back and stretch to the end, maybe even starting with the first apperance of Visionary. We know it's a main component of what brings Deadline to Earth and what is drawing the Cosmic Entity, so it's still a continuing thing. We know the end result is that the multiverse kinda ceases to exist by the end of SotM, so it's a large theme for the entire story. 

I wouldn't mistake the fact that Shattered Timelines is the name of an expansion to mean that it's all a single isolated story.

The nature of a multiverse means that the shattered timeline events are either universal to all timelines or they have to start in a timeline (or multiple ones).  For example, the timeline that Visionary travels from cannot be the same one she ends up in, because her appearance would start a new timeline.

If the timeline shattering is a multiverse encompassing event (a fixed point) then Visionary would have come from a timeline after the Timeline saga ends (since she left after the dates of Tactics, when SotM is over)

The Shattered Timeline events obviously affect time all over the place, but not those timelines that existed before the events of the shattered period.  If they did it wouldn't be a multiverse to begin with.

Look at the death of Legacy story, the original Young Legacy lore doesn't happen, but it should have.  The timeline changed, and then stopped changing, it normalized.

Also wanted to point out that Cosmic's shard couldn't be the awakening of Progeny, since Cosmic was part of the Prime Wardens before Progeny awoke.

Of course, that depends on how long it took Progeny to dig its way out of the center of the Earth…

I think the multiverse and the shattered timelines is the beginning, middle and end of the story. At the beginning we have visionary falling through the cracks of the multiverse and ending up in the present. Some where I think I read that the Visionary didn't cause the rips in reality, just exploited them. This tells me there is an event that rips spacetime creating the time cataclysm.

The middle of the story is where the actual shattered timelines expansion exists. The problem of these universes rubbing against each other becomes apparent when these dangerous entities start coming to the timeline. This part ends with Deadline, Wager Master and Progeny showing up, saying there are dark and dangerous things beyond Earth wanting to destroy the imbalance created on Earth. I think this imbalance is the time cataclysm.

The end of the story is the last expansion, obviously. We know that at the end the multiverse is closed, from Tactics. We also guess there is going to be some type of interaction with the Cosmonautilus. And the world is nearly destroyed. I have no idea what is going to happen here, but it involves heroes and villains fighting, if I were to guess. 

I think the first step in speculating on how the story is going to end, is to speculate on how it started. What shattered the time lines? Was is it the terraimpulsion beam? Was it Joseph Parsons saving Paul Revere? Was it actually Progeny landing on Earth, and the reason the Cosmonautilus is focused on Earth is unknown? Did the timelines shatter because Unity converted the Wraith's hairdryer into a nice pretty robot? I don't know but I think it is the place to start looking for answers.

And what about "The child is the centre"? That probably fits in somewhere, too...

I'm 100% convinced that it is a reference to Progeny.

It's Thiago.

The idealist

or Ermine

or Vanessa Long

or something less obvious

I must respectfully disagree

I do not think that this could be

the word "child" means a lot

and a child it is not

I don't think the child's Progeny

More to the point, I don't see how the "center" could refer to Progeny.  The only center associated with Progeny is that he dwelt inside the Earth.  But if you assume that the "center" is the same center referred to on Reveal the Flaws (" There! Run to the center! It's now or never!"), then Parse is telling someone to run to the center of the Earth, which seems… unlikely.  Additionally, the phrase is "The child is the center", not "The child in the center".  Progeny is not the center of the Earth, it was just dwelling there.  And if the center isn't the center of the Earth, I can't think of any other way for Progeny to be the center.  It isn't the Big Bad, or the cause of Shattered Timelines.  It's just a stepping stone to prepare for the coming of the Cosmic Entity.  That doesn't say "center" to me.

Ooh I forgot the Matriarch.

Soo...

Or the Matriarch

I feel better now

Reveal the Flaws has Progeny on it.  Progeny means child or offspring. Progeny came from the center of the Earth. You may not agree that it refers to Progeny (no one really knows), but you have to admit theres more than a few connections there.

Why does going to the center of the Eath seem unlikely? Where do you think Magmaria is going to be located? I think the Earths core is a location our heros have been a few times.

I don't see much merit in "the child is the center" vs "the child in the center" thing. These are scribblings of an insaine person, there is no way the clue would be so litterally written. Especially when we don't know what the center actually refers to. It may not be a location.

Progeny could be the "center". The "eye of the storm", if you will. The event that preceeds something much worse.

With that said, I think there is still a strong case for Matriarch still. Not only does she reference a "center" herself ("I rule from the center to the sea"), but she is also still very very young and has strong thematic connections to our Cosmic Entity (I've outlined those connections in more than one of my Footenotes threads). She weilds more power than even she knows about, and I think her presence on Reveal the Flaws is very signifiant. 

The Dreamer was at the centre of the Time Cataclysm, and also at the centre of the only thing to occur in every timeline in the multiverse…

For the sake of discussion, what makes you say the Dreamer is the center of the Time Cataclysm?  Also, could there be more than one "fixed point" in time? Do we know for certain there is only ever one?

Also note that as far as we know, child Vanessa going all Dreamer crazy never happened in Vanessa's original timeline. It's possible I guess that something similar happened while in Project Coccoon that she doesn't remember, but Visionary seems pretty surprised by the events that transpire. So my next question would be what exactly is the event thats a "fixed point"? Is it the Dreamer? Or is the fixed point in time just a moment where Vanessa starts to get powers (whether shes in Project Coccoon or safe at home). 

Just some things to think about.

Could be Beacon.

Or the girl from Iron Legacy's/Rook City's deck.

But in reality it refers to the abomination that came from that time Unity left Mr. Chomps on Insula Primalis.  His life with the raptors was short, but he earned his way into their trust, and into one young female Raptor's heart.  Their love was doomed.  Just like the half-machine offspring that Citizen Heartless hunted down and tossed into the volcano.

The problem is it wasn't destroyed. . .

Wasn't that confirmed to be Ermine?

It was confirmed that Rook City's little girl was Ermine, I don't think it was confirmed that the one in Iron Legacy's deck was the same little girl, but I can't find the wiki thread where Christopher answered definitively.

But I did find this and  this   hinting at the answer.

The girl in Blighted Streets is Ermine. The girl in Vigilance is not Ermine. Both of which have been confirmed.

I had a Doctor Who style thought regarding the shattered timelines.  What if the Cosmic Entity arriving at earth was the cause of the shattering?  What if it acted like an explosion, but traveling in time not space?  So the smallest cracks would be far from the origin, like what Vanessa slipped through, but got progressively worse the closer to the event they go.  This would explain the more frequent crossovers in Shattered Timelines; they are not the cause but the effect.  So the last expansion could be the true shattering, not just cracks, and have all universes as one somehow if only for a short time.  That way if the Hero’s win, they can repair the timelines enough by the time Tactics comes around.