Paradeus

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Paradeus (帕拉蒂斯) is a violent non-state actor based in Germany, described as a terrorist group and a cult. It acts as the third antagonistic faction of Girls' Frontline introduced in Continuum Turbulence. Before its true name was revealed in Isomer, it was only known as The White Faction due to their primary color. Possessing advanced technology, it recruits Yellow Zone populations by promising them a cure for ELID. Paradeus' motto is the Rossartrist slogan “The shining beacon in a brave new world”, the same as Griffin & Kryuger.

The apparent leader of Paradeus is William von Oberstein, a 90wish member with access to advanced Relic Technology, who the Paradeus members call "Father" or "Master". Aside from forming fanatic communities and militias in Yellow Zones, Paradeus uses a technology known as "Technical Theory of Biological Human Automation" to create more-than-human soldiers and operates a powerful surveillance apparatus called the Bee Sting System. Their troops are led by the Nytos, who are clones blurring even further the line between human and machine who can be used in battle, as command units, or even as body doubles to infiltrate the upper society.

Paradeus units use a force field applying a percentage damage reduction to incoming attacks, which can be destroyed by Heavy Ordnance Corps.

History

The earliest known activity of Paradeus took place in 2060, in the European Yellow Zone, in Southern Germany, where an illegal orphanage was found to house multiple young Nyto clones. At some point, Paradeus established a lab in the depths of the abandoned Paldiski Submarine Base near Tallinn, Estonia, on the site of a Starfish construct. They had a long partnership with the Vory v Zakone.

Shortly after Paradeus' existence became known, the Balkan Section of the Stasi's Foreign Intelligence Service launched "Operation Cornerstone of Peace" to counter it, placing Major Kain Schwaben as operation commander. The Neo-Soviet Statesec quickly approached Schwaben to collaborate on the matter. Soviet intelligence enabled the Stasi to identify one of Paradeus' collaborators spotted in Belgrade, Captain Yegor, leading to a clique led by General Carter and an unknown group based near Sarajevo.

As allies of General Carter, Paradeus intervened as a fourth party during the Great Retreat in 2064, after the KCCO turned against Griffin and Kryuger. Their original goal was to capture Elisa after she melded with ^AR M4A1M4A1M4A1, but this plan failed. The Nytos led the Paradeus troops in an effort to wipe out the remaining G&K troops, but they failed when the commanding Nyto Black was incapacitated by ^AR M4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD IIM4 SOPMOD II and self-destructed. A separate force led by a Nyto White successfully captured the Commander before intending to sacrifice herself in an assault on the G&K forces coming to retrieve the Commander, claiming she would reach awakening. The Paradeus forces were pinned down when ^SMG RO635RO635RO635 used her megaphone to lure ELID-infected toward them, but the Nyto White refused to attack them, calling them “the Baptized” and opening herself to a headshot from ^RF M82A1M82A1M82A1.

Paradeus treated the Commander's radiation poisoning during nine weeks before interrogating them to determine the whereabouts of Squad 404, Angelia and Elisa. Squad 404 and G&K raided the base and rescued the Commander, but they encountered Paradeus again three months later while searching for an informant possessing information about Angelia in Belgrade.

During the Belgrade international cooperation talks, Paradeus attempted to kidnap Gilda Ulrich and exchange her to Statesec for confidential information and to recover a lost Pike node. During the Paldiski Incident, the Commander, K and Angelia discovered that Paradeus had been using the lost city of Tallinn as an ELID experiment site for Isomers and lost refugees, and they found more information about them at the Paldiski Submarine Base where they had established and recently abandoned a Nyto lab.

In Germany, Angelia tracked down William in Bremen and uncovered the network of Paradeus allies such as the Flora Institute providing them with modified Epiphyllum flowers and the Berle Orphanage involved in their child trafficking. Angelia also discovered that some Nytos like Morridow were infiltrated among normal humans when she attempted to abduct her. In Berlin, Angelia and the Commander worked to foil Paradeus' Operation Cocoon by intercepting the Iaso's Boxes they planned to spread Collapse Radiation all over the city, in order to locate ELID immunosomes. Angelia visited William's old home, but she was betrayed and captured by her own team member who wanted to become a Nyto. Paradeus also manipulated their rogue agent Machlian to lure the OGAS consciousness called Dandelion and the Commander into a trap, but they survived with the help of M4A1(?) and captured Morridow. They however lost her while attempting to exchange her for Angelia, and the Nyto revealed to William that M4A1 was still of interest to Paradeus.

As Paradeus shut down its operations in Berlin, they blackmailed the German government by organizing the massacre of a rogue Stasi team in one of the Ministry of Defense's plants, threatening to disclose the incident and destabilize the government if they revealed their ties with Paradeus. The Stasi struck back by weeding out “Polar Bear”, a Paradeus agent infiltrated in Statesec, and with the help of the Stasi's director Romy Riefenstahl, the Commander organized Operation Aeneas to locate and infiltrate Paradeus' headquarters in Avernus, in the Dead Sea Black Zone near Berlin. By that point, the Commander had become known as the only person to have not only opposed and survived, but successfully cornered Paradeus.

In a 2071 article on Paradeus, it was described as the most dangerous cult of the 21st century, rampaging through the contaminated zones of Central and Eastern Europe unopposed by both bandits and governments. But the general public was not aware of the circumstances of its disappearance in the mid-2060s, so sudden that scavengers who ventured in their former strongholds found a wealth of their resources left behind. The most widespread narrative, especially in Neo-Soviet military circles, told that Paradeus was formed by former NATO soldiers trying to take down the NSU, and that they were destroyed during an all-out offensive. Claimed evidence supporting this story include the involvement of both the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Griffin & Kryuger PMC led by former Internal Affairs member Berezovich Kryuger, and the suspicious movements of the Western Army Group, disturbances at the border and mass arrests in the Neo-Soviet military in 2064.

Theories considered fringe included claims that Paradeus were technologically advanced aliens colonizers that left Earth after finding it too contaminated, or that Paradeus was built by a scientist seeking revenge and was dealt a killing blow to its backbone by a single member of Griffin & Kryuger. The NSU never acknowledged the existence of Paradeus.

Members

• William von Oberstein (leader)
• Named Nytos
  • Nimogen
  • Mercurows
  • Narciss
  • Morridow (Enemy)
  • Gray (Enemy)
  • Grig
  • Bramedb
  • Nemhran
  • Koleda
  • Tareus
  • Sana
  • Anna
  • Machlian
• Other
  • Pandora (RPK-16)

Cultists

• Elia
• Elsa

The Paradeus community founded by Galatea Corporation in Bohnsdorf, who attracted refugees with promise of food and shelter, treated Paradeus as a monotheistic god and advocated for "post-technologic" primitivism, forbidding entertainment and electronic objects (including prosthetics and life-saving technologies), as they believed these objects were the source of ELID. The village contained observation posts with one-way glass for rich upper-class people to spy on the refugees as entertainment.

Units

Nytos

Nytos (sometimes called “Baptized”) are girls or women (there are no known male Nytos) whose consciousness has been physically embodied and functions like a Neural Cloud, which enable them to interface with digital networks like Tactical Dolls, but also exposes them to hacking. This biological neural cloud has been dubbed Virtual Cognition Image (VCI) or "virtual consciousness". The people turned into Nytos are acquired through human trafficking, kidnapping of survivors of a Iaso's Box, or through cloning. They are also said to be created from corpses.

The basic Nyto Black and Nyto White are mass-produced, but among the named Nytos only Tareus was known to have multiple active clones at once. Most Nytos have an appearance close to ^AR M4A1M4A1M4A1 and have their bodies modified with cybernetic enhancements, but they still bleed like normal humans. Others remain mostly unmodified save for their brain, making them closer to humans, depending on the manner Paradeus intend to use them. Cybernetic enhancements typically include replacement of the legs and arms and added head equipment for lower-ranked Nytos, while higher-ranked Nytos can receive less visible enhancements and attachable extra limbs for combat.

Because all known Nytos are considered imperfect, they are all technically Isomers, though they are rarely properly referred as such.

The hierarchy of Nytos is based on their closeness to William's ideal Nyto, and higher Nytos often despise lower ones. Higher-ranked Nytos tend to have white hair. Nyto Whites are considered to have a greater sense of self than Nyto Blacks and have complete authority over them, though they still share the same gestalt mind. Gray and Narciss had authority over Nyto Whites, while Morridow had authority over Gray and Narciss. Lower-ranked Nytos usually call higher-ranked ones “Big Sister”, though some with significant bonds use other titles like “Teacher” or no title at all. Higher-ranked Nytos don't emit the same characteristic signal as lower-ranked ones and refuse to be called Nytos, though there are no alternative name for them yet apart from descriptives like “augmented human”. The strict command hierarchy means Paradeus units not commanded by a Nyto will stop moving.

It is possible for a Nyto to weaken or break free of Paradeus' indoctrination, such as with Adeline, Alina and Tareus.

• Nyto Black
• Nyto White

Isomers

While Dandelion calls all Nytos "Isomers" as she sees them as imperfect copies, Persica uses this term for "failed" Nytos candidates who didn't live up to expectations and were abandoned by Paradeus. In chemistry, isomers are molecules with the same number and types of atoms, but organized differently.

Isomers aim to merge with a similar but perfected consciousness like their own to be liberated.

• Isomer (Enemy)
• Isomer White
• Isomer Black

In Tallinn, the Isomers recognized the existence of four previous Chosen Ones while awaiting a fifth one who would liberate them:

The first walked into the night with the inferior articles for Father. The black of night dyed the hems of her dress, and the flower blossoms withered within the cage of the fallen.

The second was incomplete, and fell before she went out. The colors of evening froze her time, and the flower blossoms ceased to grow amidst eternal suffering.

The third held her sisters' hands, and together they charged into the day. The sunlight shattered upon her black sleeves, and the flowers fell into the steely water without blooming.

The fourth lost her friend, and lost her way within the fog. Her time has not yet come, and she merely lives by imitating her kin.

Standard units

Paradeus' basic field troops like the Strelet are manufactured from the bodies of ELID Infected.

• Humanoid units
  • Strelet
  • Rodelero
  • Grenadier
  • Murat
  • Defender (Enemy)
  • Hannibal
  • Warden
  • Maccabee
  • Staff of Aesclepius
• Armored vehicles
  • Uhlan
• Mechs
  • Doppelsoldner
  • Thunder (Enemy)
  • Roarer
  • Garmr
  • Hymnal Organ
  • Quill of Patmos
  • Gebbennu
• Other units
  • Pyxis (turret platforms)
  • Dish of Aceso/Elusinian Mysteries (Collapse Fluid cannon)

References

General List of Characters (Minor Characters) · List of Locations · Timeline · Rossartrism · Eurosky Low-Emission Infectious Disease · Epiphyllum · GAVIRUL Technology Assault Artillery · Automaton · Collapse Technology · Magrasea · OGAS · Parapluie virus · Pike · Relic Technology · Shrike · Tactical Doll · Weight Bearing Events Beilan Island Incident · World War Three · Operation Couatl · Incident Zero · Butterfly Incident · Safe House 3 Raid · Plan Parapluie · Great Retreat · Paldiski Incident · Fireworks Incident · Battle of the Dead Sea · First Antarctic War Factions 90wish · Antarctic Union · Germany · Global Rescue Foundation · Griffin & Kryuger · KCCO · Neo-Soviet Union · Pan-European Union · Paradeus · Sangvis Ferri · Union of Rossartrist Nations Coalition · United Nations · United States Corporations 16LAB · 42LAB · Cyber Media · I.O.P. · Svarog Heavy Industries · Ultilife · Universal Anything Services · WAVE