Iceciro/Arbiters
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
((This entire section is, of course, horridly OOC))
What is an Arbiter?
Firstly - an Arbiter is not a god. They are not the singular living breathing will of Recluse in every action they make. They are not shielded from all assaults to their character or person by Recluse's big furry head.
Arbiters are the Arachnos version of Internal Affairs. A majority of an Arbiter's work time is spent nose-deep in Bureaucratic slime, trying to keep the various factions in Arachnos from jumping at each other's throats and unraveling the organization from the inside.
An Arbiter's "untouchable status" only pertains to other Arachnos soldiers and is mainly there to prevent the same sort of thing that the patrons try to do to each other all the time - victory through violence. Does this mean the Arbiters are free from any molestation? No. Arachnos is an incredibly dog-eat-dog organization. If someone cannot be taken down by brute force their enemies will turn to political leverage and subterfuge, trying to undermine the enemy. This is what commonly happens to Arbiters, keeping a good portion of their free time spent trying to keep and improve their station. An Arbiter's status as the incredibly high rank only shifts his problems from those of physical combat to those of political maneuvering.
The power that an Arbiter wields over the Arachnos troops he occasionally pulls is not his own. It is not to be spent dealing with petty squabbles of self-interest. It is only for the good of Arachnos that they command troops and perform actions. They are the people who have the job of making sure that the other sides are doing theirs - while it is the Wolf Spider's job to handle the enemies of Arachnos with blunt force trauma it is the Arbiter's job to focus that trauma into the pinpoint weakspot of the enemy, instead of letting them go crazy or attack say, Ghost Widow. Occasionally Arbiters are entrusted with units or groups, but this is not a common thing. Arbiter Sands, for example, is found with express permission from Recluse to command his Faultline incursion, and only for an item of incredible value not to himself, but to Lord Recluse.
Even then, while Arbiter Sands profile states he is "untouchable within Arachnos" he has a Night Widow operating totally counter to him the entire Arc length. The battle, however, is not physical, but one of clever mental back-and-forth behind the scenes. The problem a lot of people seem to have with RPing with Arbiters seems to be that they feel because they are untouchable (To Arachnos characters - if your character isn't tied to Arachnos the untouchability thing really doesn't matter) they cannot do any harm to the character. This is not true - you simply need to think in less brutish fighting ways and more about skeletons in the closet, discrediting the Arbiter, or making it look like (or perhaps simply exposing the fact) that the Arbiter is not acting in the best interests of Arachnos.
Fact: Arbiters do not get to throw random troops at anyone who annoys them or looks at them funny. Every action an Arbiter takes, he is accountable for. He must explain the benefit it serves Arachnos, not himself. Someone who merely offends an Arbiter does not qualify as a threat to Arachnos.
As a super-powered arbiter, Iceciro has even less claim to this - Recluse in fact EXPECTS that Iceciro will handle his own personal issues. Running to Recluse because of a fight or an insult will likely get him laughed at, and perhaps demoted and beaten around. Recluse is not his mommy, he's his boss - but Iceciro was brought on as an Arbiter because he can be trusted to handle himself. Not getting along with Iceciro does not make you a threat to Arachnos. It makes you a personal problem to be dealt with on his own time, and not at the expense of his job. While it may be in your best interests to not directly harm or oppose an Arbiter if you're an Arachnos character, it's not going to end your character. Many members of Arbiter Sand's crew questioned his authority and leadership.
Sure, openly opposing an Arbiter is like openly opposing Lord Recluse. There's already a lot of groups who do that all the time, and they're groups on the soil of Recluse's Isles. Council? All over the isles, and they're pretty clear on thier stance. Longbow has an entire base in Nerva. Coralax come everywhere and assault his shipping. Legacy Chain? Yep, they don't like his Mu. CoT? Have an entire ISLAND and still fine. These groups oppose Arachnos on a daily basis and seem to be surviving rather well. No reason a super-powered villain couldn't do the same. So, opposing an Arbiter or even giving one an excuse to sic Arachnos troops on you does not, in fact, equal character death or even the risk of it.
Are there people who play as Arbiters and abuse it? Yes, there are, but that can extend to any history or powerset. I've seen some Psi characters that godmoded, and more than a few plant doms, and characters affiliated with Oroborus/seeds of a God/whatever. Playing a background or powerset does not make you a godmoder - powergaming is something bad RPers do and will do regardless of their choices.
Arbiters are not invulnerable, nor free to do as they wish. It's quite the opposite, as the hands of Recluse they are held to a closer magnifying glass than the general troops. They are the pinnacle of his organization, the public face in many cases, and therefore they are not free to act like thugs, to run around unchecked.
Iceciro sometimes fights the Patrons, yes - yes he's gone toe-to-toe with them in 1v1 before. They're wary of him, but that has nothing to do with his Arbiter status, but more to do with him being simply, on the power curve they are. (Hint: your level 50 characters are too. At level 50 you are at the top of your game.) Arbiter or not, they're so paranoid how can they trust anyone - they don't even trust the other Patrons. (They're probably pretty wary of your character too.)
And don't judge my characters without ever rping with them. I am not Arbiter Death or Arbiter Godmode. I do not cause character death to anyones character - hopefully they've put in the same amount of work in their characters I have in mine. (The ones mentioned in his backstory are *gasp* only NPCs.) City of Heroes/Villians is a brutal, dark place in all fact, where super-powered characters face the edge of death every day from giant monsters, demons summoned from hell, alien invasions, massive world domination plots, nuclear explosions - and they still survive. Your character will survive Iceciro. Maybe you can even gleam something from it, perhaps how your character will act in a non-social situation, perhaps develop a bit more than pick-up-lines used in the Pocket D. Yes, Iceciro is powerful - but so in fact, are your characters.
No, Iceciro is not a nice person. Yes, he's a comic-book villain type and you really don't get alot of those. He's not a wronged emo kid or a person fighting for nature, he fights for himself. And that is rare on Virtue. He doesn't exist to play nice in social situations, he's a Bad Guy (tm). But how can heroes be heroic if they stand around in a bar and drink and talk with people who never are evil? The Joker created the Batman - the Fantastic Four wouldn't be nearly so Fantastic if they weren't trying to stop Dr. Doom. Spiderman would just be a costumed policeman without a rogue's gallery to have fights against. Having a decent enemy for your heroes - and an evil one at that, someone you're justified in not liking, trying to stop - is in fact a good thing - a great tool to develop your characters. A way to explore strengths and weaknesses. We have enough social situations in the D. We have enough under the butt of Atlas. What we don't have enough of in Virtue is the actual character-to-character conflicts in the comic book sense: Epic Good versus Epic Evil in a clash of titanic proportions. Ice is one of those types of comic book villains - evil to the core and loving it, power hungry and uncaring about those he tramples. If you're willing to play with him, perhaps your own character could be edified as a result of the conflict?
I find myself often wondering if this is a game about comic book style heroes and villains clashing with each other or if it's just an interdimensional nightclub for people with flashy effects, emotional baggage, and an addiction to drama. It's your choice as to how you play your characters, of course, but as for me? I'll be playing my comic-book style villain and enjoying it. You're welcome to come along.
-Iceciro
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