Macro Arc Structure — Legacy of Halden City
activePlaceholder planning document. Pre-play. Details will fill in as arcs develop. The philosophical progression is the anchor — specifics are subject to change.
The Through-Line
Each arc pushes the next logical philosophical question:
| Arc | Question |
|---|---|
| Arc 1 | Should these institutions exist? |
| Arc 2 | What fills the vacuum when they collapse? |
| Arc 3 | Does Earth deserve to survive without its guarantor? |
| Arc 4 | Who has the right to build what comes next — and does the act of deciding corrupt them? |
Arc 1 — Institutions Questioned
Central Antagonist: Signal Philosophical Question: Should these institutions exist?
Signal forces the question about inherited power — cosmic and human alike. His diagnosis is not wrong. His methods are the problem.
Anticipated End State: Signal successfully engineers the removal of the Paragon and Renegade Forces. Earth’s strongest cosmic protectors are gone. The Alliance is fractured and delegitimized. Instability sets in.
Arc 2 — Life Without the Old Institutions
Philosophical Question: What fills the vacuum when they collapse?
The answer is fear. A.E.G.I.S., no longer constrained by the Alliance’s moral authority or the Forces’ deterrence, turns on the supers it cannot control. Heroes are hunted by the people they protected.
Anticipated End State: Heroes are underground, captured, or compromised. The institutional betrayal arc. The fracture is complete.
Arc 3 — The Auditors (Short Arc)
Central Antagonist: The Auditors Philosophical Question: Does Earth deserve to survive without its guarantor?
The Auditors’ original assessment — Earth is unstable and warrants removal — becomes defensible again. The Paragon Force is gone. The deterrent is gone. The audit resumes.
This arc is short because it is not really about the Auditors. It is about whether the heroes believe humanity is worth defending when defending it costs everything and no one is watching.
Starfall’s arc is load-bearing here. She defected because Paragon convinced her life deserves protection. That conviction now has to be proven without Paragon to back it.
Anticipated End State: The Auditors fail or retreat. How and why they retreat seeds Arc 4’s antagonist — someone who watches humanity survive and draws the wrong conclusion about what that means.
Arc 4 — The New System
Philosophical Question: Who has the right to build what comes next?
A villain whose diagnosis of the problem is correct. Their execution is the tragedy. They looked at a broken system, had the power to replace it, and decided they should. The heroes cannot argue the villain is wrong about the past — only about who gets to determine the future, and whether any single will should have that authority.
Anticipated End State: TBD. Depends on what the campaign has earned by this point.
Notes
- This document is a planning placeholder. Nothing here is locked beyond the philosophical progression.
- Arc 3 to Arc 4 transition is load-bearing: whoever watches Arc 3 and draws the wrong conclusion becomes the Arc 4 antagonist.
- Darkstar remains a candidate for Arc 4 antagonist — thirteen years of stress-test data, a defected son on the team, a thesis that suffering accelerates evolution.
- The Auditors (Arc 3) connect directly to Starfall’s entire character arc.
Last updated: March 2026