Dark Astoria (Pre-Issue 22)
This article contains information that no longer applies to the current version of Homecoming: City of Heroes/Villains. It is provided for historical purposes.
- Trainers:
- none
- Trial / TF Contacts:
- none
- Events:
- Adamastor
- Exploration Badges:
- Dark Mystic, Seeker of the Unknown, Cairn Warder, Whisperer on Witchburn Hill, Phantom Radio, Too Dark Park, Astoria's Last Stand, The Sleeper Below
- Plaque Badges:
- Authority IV, Historian III, Researcher IV, V
- Enemies:
- Banished Pantheon, Circle of Thorns, Tsoo
- Connecting Zones:
- Talos Island
- Transits:
- none
Overview
Dark Astoria was originally known as Astoria.
Once an idyllic commercial center, much like Talos Island and Steel Canyon, this area thrived as people bustled about their daily lives. Even the presence of the pastoral Moth Cemetery did not detract from the beauty of this area. The Rikti Invasion came and went, and the people in this peaceful neighborhood were relatively untouched by the devastation.
However, while the Heroes of Paragon were busy rebuilding the city, the trickster god of the Banished Pantheon stumbled upon something... beneath the sod and graves of Moth Cemetery lay an ancient god, far older than those of the Pantheon, and far more powerful. Wishing to use this power to release him and his fellow gods, he ordered all of his followers to invade the area and seize control of it.
The city authorities and Heroes, already reduced in number and staggering from the Rikti onslaught, had no choice but to relinquish the area to the Pantheon and wall it off. Within the walls, the army of Husks and Shaman ravaged the zone, tore the ground apart and sacrificed every man, woman and child in their efforts to wake the god Mot. But all their efforts were in vain. To this day, Lughebu's soldiers search for a way to wake the sleeper, while the spirits of those who once lived there wander about, unable to sleep.
Prior to Issue 16, a hero needed to be at least Security Level 21 to enter.
Zone Events
Adamastor sometimes spawns in the Moth Cemetery neighborhood.
Neighborhoods
- Barca Plaza (Orange - Level 24-29) (Music)
- Dido's View (Orange - Level 24-29) (Music)
- Moth Cemetery (Red - Level 26-29) (Unused Music Loop)
- Raimi Arcade (Yellow - Level 21-25) (Music)
- Romero Heights (Yellow - Level 21-26) (Music)
- St. Elegius (Green) (Unused Music)
- Toffet Terrace (Orange - Level 24-27) (Music)
Famous filmmakers George Romero and Sam Raimi are presumed to be the inspirations for some of these neighborhoods.
Exploration Badges
Some once claimed the reason the spirits walk the streets of Dark Astoria is the fact that there is a powerful Ley Line nexus in the middle of Moth Cemetery. They have since learned the truth.
This tomb was used to represent the thousands of heroes who gave their lives in the Rikti War. It now stands a mute vigil at the site of even greater atrocities.
Mortals erect petty monuments and cairns in the foolish pursuit of stemming the forces of Death. Mot has since sundered such vanities.
It was rumored that in the dim past of the nation's founding, this hill was the site of witch burnings. Even before Astoria fell to darkness, this hill in Moth Cemetery was well known for feelings of unease it elicited in anyone brave enough to scale its heights. Since the fall of Astoria, priests of the Banished Pantheon have flocked to this locale, using it as a site for dark rituals. It was from this vantage point that, for the first time in millennia, the voices of the faithful supplicants was heard by the dreaming God in His violent slumber.
Since the fall of Astoria, shortwave enthusiasts in Paragon City and beyond have occasionally happened upon strange transmissions of ghostly whispers, wailing pleas, bestial shouts of rage, and haunting voices chanting in dead languages. Those who have heard these grim transmissions nearly always suffer for it; their lives claimed by some unexpected calamity or their minds by a sudden and inexplicable mental illness. M.A.G.I. eventually traced the transmission to this radio tower.
In a far corner of the district lies McCraughly Park, a shadowy strip of green that had a dark reputation even before Astoria and its citizens were consumed by evil. Clusters of suicides, strange disappearances, and even a well-publicized multiple murder cast a dark shadow across the park. In the years leading up to the rise of Dark Astoria, the park was largely shunned, but now that the Banished Pantheon have dominion over the district, the park has become a focal point for their evil rituals.
As the darkness closed in and the dead rose from their graves, this warehouse became a scene of unimaginable horror as a group of survivors fled here in the hope of rescue that never came. They fought valiantly, keeping the minions of the Banished Pantheon at bay for hours. The forces arrayed at them were too numerous and too powerful to be denied forever and the survivors succumbed along with the rest of Astoria's doomed inhabitants.
Behold the God Mot, roused from His slumber! Behold the power of his faithful adherents, their prayers strong enough to stir Him from His dreaming! Behold the crucible of undoing, the maw through which all life shall soon pass so that all shall be unmade; an end to life, an end to hope, an end to all that respires in this corrupt and fallen world!
Historical Plaques
- One Authority Badge monument
- One Historian Badge monument
- Two Researcher Badge monuments
Day Jobs
- Common
Your time spent studying death itself has earned you the Mortician Day Job. Logging out in a graveyard will earn you protection against Experience Debt, when you log back in, for a short time.
- Hero-Specific
You have spent a great deal of time working in the hospitals of Paragon City during your free time earning the Caregiver Day Job. Logging out in a Hospital will earn you a Regeneration Bonus, when you log back in, for a short time.
Your expertise in surgery and understanding pain has earned you the Pain Specialist Day Job. Logging out in a Hospital will earn you a Regeneration Bonus, when you log back in, for a short time.
- Villain-Specific
You have spent a great deal of time working in the hospitals of Paragon City during your free time earning the Caregiver Day Job. Logging out in a Hospital will earn you a Regeneration Bonus, when you log back in, for a short time.
Your expertise in surgery and understanding pain has earned you the Pain Specialist Day Job. Logging out in a Hospital will earn you a Regeneration Bonus, when you log back in, for a short time.
Transfer Points
- There is a gate along the west wall of the zone that leads to Talos Island
- The Dark Astoria Beacon location is (3580, 0, 631.5) , northeast of the Barca Plaza marker.
