Miracles of Arx Nubibus: Achilles' Legion

Hello! We are back with a bonus episode for February because I missed the January one. So I guess this is a make-up post.

Anyway, when I was thinking on what to write about this time, I thought maybe I could go through the various teams. So I guess I'll start with the first one to appear in the story!

Achilles' Legion is not actually the first super team I thought of. It's the second. The first, titled Team J in my notes, is still not officially named. I'll talk about them later.

The team most readers are probably most familiar with would then be Achilles' Legion. First discussed way back in chapter...lemme check my notes...

Initially teased in Chapter 3, but not officially named until Chapter 5. And not declared to the general public of Arxland until Chapter 16 or so. Yeah, it's been around a long time. Achilles, from the moment he was born as a character, was the sort who would end up leading his own team. He's a natural born leader! In his mind, anyway.

I always knew Achilles would end up falling off the deep end a bit, and his Legion would follow suit. For that reason, it's not the main good guy team. Never was, really, in my mind. With people like Light Master in there, it's a group of wannabe good guys who are living in a parallel universe.

In the early story, the Legion was made up of Achilles, Lightning, Light Master and sort of Jumper. Joey never properly joined, and was more of a wildcard that would show up when poop hit the fan by the providence of fate (aka the author was dragging him there kicking and screaming).

Alas, with Joey and Lightning destined for Team J, I needed more people to fill out the Legion. That's how we got Prime, and then there was the big Legion recruitment drive later on in the story (about Chapter 70-78, and then further on). Man it took a long time for everyone to assemble.

Prime was a common sense type, which made him perfect as second-in-command for the Legion. Then we had the five extras (Barrier Maiden, Hot Rod, the Alchemist, Knight Errant and Rose) joining up so it would actually be a decent sized team and not a trio or something. Most of those 'extras' fall into the category of Achilles/Light Master enabler. Especially Hot Rod.

Hot Rod will get his own post in the future, and man does he deserve it. I could rant about him for a while.

I also wanted to keep everyone on the team as distinct characters. There is no Lightning-alike, though one could argue that Jo is a Bruce-alike and Rose is a Jumper-alike. I think they still manage to stand on their own as characters, though, even if they fill similar niches.

The Legion ended up being made up of two broad types of people - those who genuinely wanted to do good and want to try backpedaling when things start spiraling out of control (Knight, Prime, Rose, Jo, Barrier Maiden) and those who double down on their hero delusions when the going gets tough (Achilles, Light Master, Hot Rod). Broadly. Specifically, they all have their own experiences, underlying motivations (with BM being perhaps the least pure of those motives in Team Backpedal) and ways they react to things.

Rose leaves, Jo stays. HR gets violent. Achilles constantly finds ways to mentally gymnastics themselves into being in the right.

And at the point we are in the story (As I write this, I've just finished Chapter 194) the Legion is falling apart. It was inevitable, when common sense and moral compasses start to collide the way they are. We're witnessing the end of the group, though I figure they'll stick around in some form for most of the rest of the story.

I can see the end of the story on the horizon, though that doesn't mean it's going to necessarily be soon. The Legion remnants will be navigating all kinds of nonsense going forward, so hopefully they don't get burned too badly.

What would you like to see written next in Mimi's Diary? I can go through the Legion members, or I can spotlight another super team. Leave a comment here (I think it should work) or on Discord!

I'll be back with another diary entry in March. See you then.