Behind the Keyboard: The Lady Echidna Arc

Hello heroes, this is Dan Peyton, your friendly author (and sometimes artist) for Heroes Rising. I have enjoyed writing for this game since 2019. It has been a challenge and pushed me beyond limits I once believed existed. I hope you enjoy the storylines.

I wanted to write this to talk about the strange way the Lady Echidna storyline played out. Each year, I have tried to concoct a unique story arc that linked to the stories of the past while introducing new characters, places, and events. Personally, my goal is to avoid rehashing the same villains and same stories, which are common with a lot of superhero writing. Over a year ago, Nick Shapiro sold the game to our current developer, Justin Towe. When Nick was in charge, he and I would sit and really hash out what the story was doing and where it would go. He gave me some ideas and asked me to do certain things. (For example, it was his request that EB stay a permanent player in the story, and I really liked the idea as well.) With Justin, I had a little more freedom, and that left me a little blank at first. Where did I want the story to go? Justin's ideas for the game were abundant, and he worked on reworking it to make it better, with the eventual goal of publishing it as an app game. All that had nothing to do with storyline creation. So, I had my work cut out for me. I had to be the sole creator of the story.

Or, so I thought. . .

Where did Lady Echidna come from? This all started with a music video. Really. I was watching the music video for Get this Part Started with Shirley Bassey. Somehow, the ambiance of the video itself seeded this idea of a villain and her evil henchmen partying while the world burned. That idea grew into a unique character of Lady Echidna. For me, it was an opportunity to have a female villain as the lead.However, I needed to make this villain truly a challenge. Something that the heroes would struggle with. I dipped into an old trick started in the books for Sherlock Holmes. I made the villain an equal to the most powerful hero. This gave me the opportunity to explore Nova’s history and character. Nova gave himself over to her and now the heroes faced a serious problem. Their most powerful leader was working with the most powerful villain.

Things went along smoothly. I couldn’t have her being super powerful right from the start. I had to build her power so that the story could flow. She needed to gather the power she once had. This tied into the beginning of something for the game, summonable raids. I wrote the shadow monster of Krampus to set into motion the first major summon, and then the next was Fenrir. This was the first major tie-in with the gameplay.

After that, Justin came to me and ask about introducing another new feature: The Battle Arena. Specifically, he wanted it to be fantasy-related so that it would have a different aesthetic than the other aspects of the game. The fantasy author in me was doing a happy dance. I got to bring in a fantasy world. I even dipped a little into one of my own fantasy realms from a recent book release. This brought in Torrik Treeleaf and the Battle Realm. It also gave me an additional part of Lady Echidna’s goal. She wants to enter the realm of magic to harvest power through dark means. (Sadly, the Battle Realm is still under construction, but it is on its way.) As far as the story goes, it was enough to move forward.

Note: Torrik was originally written to be a foil for EB. Both are charming, women chasing fantasy creatures. But, with the way the story went, I changed that.

I had this all written out, knew where the story would lead and how it would work. There was a big crossover where the fantasy world and ours would meet. Dragons and heroes would fight ogres, trolls, and Lady Echidna’s minions of darkness. It was planned perfectly. . . until something terrible happened.

One of our heroes in the real world crossed over. We lost Mike Gibbon just as he was working with Justin in creating a special raid for his well-known character of Midgardsormr. Before his passing, Justin had asked me to write it into the story so the annual Midgard Raid would have narrative to give it reason to exist. But halfway through the creation process, Mike left us. Behind the scenes, we all sat back and wondered how we could honor his memory. I thought about just moving on with my original story, but I couldn’t do that. Besides, I had already introduced Midgard as a player in Lady Echidna’s schemes during the Fenrir story.

So, I tossed everything out the window for my conclusion to this and tried to steer the story in a completely new direction. I made Midgard a crucial part of Lady Echidna’s machinations, even letting her dominate and control him. But, I had a plan. The story would play out in a darker tone. She slaughters an entire league, she spreads darkness and poisons the minds of all the humans, the sun goes out, the stars go out, hope is almost extinguished. I even introduced a last-ditch-effort maneuver by BADGE, crashing the station into Earth to destroy her. But Midgard returns in a glorious Deus ex machina and proves his strength is more than a match for her. Even Nova, her equal, cannot best her, but Midgard can.

This wasn’t just to give him a glorious send-off. It was a nod to the many times Mike’s character swept in and finished the World Raids for us.

My ultimate goal in this story was to let Midgard have his place in the heavens. He would hold back this ultimate evil by sacrificing himself for eternity. However, as planned before his passing, we would still get our annual World Raid with Midgard.

I never worried that the players would be upset that I wrote them losing a battle that they technically won. The point wasn’t to give them the glory; the point was to give our late friend his last, heroic triumph.

Writing this story was the hardest I have done for the game. It took me on twists and turns I did not expect. Everything changed over and over, but I tried to keep it in line. I really hope the players enjoyed it. I look forward to writing more. And don't worry, I will make sure to tone down the fantasy part so that we can focus on the more science-fiction element that make superhero stories unique.

Thank you

Daniel Peyton (aka Gargoyle “Gar”)

p.s. The fact that this tied in with the mythology of Ragnarok was completely coincidence. I was researching more about Midgardsormr and Fenrir when I started reading more and more about the legend of Ragnarok, and it all seemed to fit into place nicely.