Cruel Network: Lockdown

A DVV Fan Supplement

Aku, the shapeshifting master of darkness, has unleashed unspeakable evil. His final battle with
the samurai tore open a portal in time, flinging him back into the past and leaving the samurai
unstuck in time. However, it has also caused villains from across time, space, and even other
dimensions to be brought to his time, carving out the world into different territories, replacing all
the previous countries. Except for one, barely hanging on post “Aku-pocalypse”, divided by
competing corporations who are the true rulers of America. The current toothless American
government promotes the idea of a united America that has survived against all odds. The
American reality is far more grim, with entire states depopulated in the face of disaster and
politicians being bought out by corporations by the dozen. The corpo’s promise work, money
and safety, and all that they ask in return is obedience.

But even here, there are heroes. They are beaten, hidden, and even forced to cross lines they
wouldn’t consider otherwise, but heroes nevertheless. Be they amoral hackers, fallen
superheroes, or children past their bedtime, they will fight against the victorious villains and
restore peace and justice… or at least punishment.

What is Cruel Network: Lockdown?

CN:L is a fan supplement to a fan supplement to a fan game.

Wait. Let’s start over.

In the distant era of five-ish years ago, a 4chan board asked “What if all those Disney villains
won? So, naturally this birthed a tabletop fan game, Disney Villains Victorious, where players
play as heroes trying to defeat various victorious Disney villains (called “Kings”, regardless of
gender or actual title) in the various territories that these Kings have carved out. Or perhaps
avoid these extremely powerful rulers and just go on adventures within the various Kings
territories.

Naturally, a game like this would run into problems adapting something as wide and varied as
Disney properties into one setting, so a new setting was created - Disney Villains Victorious:
Gridlocked, which would feature all the modern day Disney Villains in a setting geared more for
Shadowrun style games of fighting corporations from the shadows as opposed to the more
classic D&D setup of the fantasy setting that the original DVV offered (there’s also DVV: Space,
but we don’t need to concern ourselves with that right now).

Of course, people who enjoyed this game asked “What if we applied this to other franchises?”
So people did so: saturday morning cartoons, Nickelodeon, and of course, Cartoon Network.

The Cartoon Network one - also known as “Cruel Network”- got my attention not just because I
grew up watching classic Cartoon Network and have semi-kept up with its more recent shows,
but also because several rulers were described as corporate overlords like in Gridlocked.
However, many were spread outside of America somewhat randomly and not in accordance
with the settings in the show (for instance, placing Ooo outside from America like how
Adventure Time heavily implied is somewhat understandable, but placing the Black Hat
Organization, a Mexican show with lots of Mexican culture hidden in its DNA in Britain was…
questionable). Now, this is all fine and good for the D&D dungeon crawling adventures the DVV
Classic was made for… but what about the more political and secretive playstyle of DVV:
Gridlocked? The corporations fit the latter playstyle more, but were in a setting made for the
former. Besides, some people might just want to focus on the competing companies, and they
can’t do that with more than just a few with the current placement of the territories. And
considering that several Adult Swim cartoons were also placed within the setting, it seems like
this would fit the more cynical side of cyberpunkish corporate warfare even more.

So, I created this - Cruel Network: Lockdown. I put most of the corporate faction (and altered
one or two that were pretty corpo-ish already) as well as a couple that fit in the “post apocalypse
cyberpunk” feeling that Shadowrun and Gridlocked give and made a map. I posted it in the DVV
Discord for feedback, and the most FAQ I got was “where’s Peridot?”. I actually intended (and
still intend) for the various factions outside of the U.S. to be pretty much the same with no
change (some minor changes in Europe at most because of some transplanted factions).

But you know what? The neighbors of the U.S. are far too close to be ignored; they would
certainly get involved with the factions, and even provide an interesting backdrop. So I
expanded the map to include all the factions in North America (and parts of South America) to
show they would be intimately involved within the politics of the corporate-ruled U.S.. I’ll also
talk briefly about various factions outside of the map that would have connections to the
megacorps and vice versa.

This will be pretty brief, since it intersects a lot with the original Cruel Network setting, so I won’t
be doing full King/Land/Rule segments here, though it may be expanded at some point. As
such, some sections will have much more detail than others. Because of this, I highly
recommend checking out the original first: Cartoon Network Villains Victorious - Google Drive

Also, keep in mind that much of this is meant to be “loose canon” - a creative GM is encouraged
to tweak elements to fit their campaign.
Map:
Werk Co (Father, Codename: Kids Next Door)

After Werk Co successfully lobbied the controversial bill BNRK-01 (also derogatively referred to
as the “Bill of No Rights for Kids”), all child labor laws in the Union have been repealed. While
the various territories have dealt with this differently (and has even led to children becoming
Kings), in Werk Co’s sphere of influence this means that all children must have an eight hour job
in addition to eight hours of school with no weekends or summer vacations.

Adults don’t have it much better in Father’s smog-filled, heavily industrialized domain. Things
like ice cream, candy, and toys have been banned as “dangerous” to children, as well as almost
anything that can counter the eternally blazing fire that powers the factories and Father himself -
even fire extinguishers have been labeled a choking hazard. Meals are plain oatmeal for
breakfast, asparagus for lunch, and liver for dinner and you will eat it and like it young man.

The various supervillains Father united (or at least, Mr. Boss united them and Mr. Boss is too
terrified of Father to disobey him) are now high-ranking employees of Werk Co who delight in
their roles to torment the children working under them. That said, a few villains, disturbed by
how far the child hatred has gone, have defected to supervillain-friendly Kings like Black Hat
and the Monarch. The sole child villain (villains?) working for Father is, of course, the Delightful
Children From Down The Lane, whose birthday is celebrated five times every year and is the
only time a child is allowed access to cake… but only to look.

Not all children have taken this extreme adult tyranny lying down, however. The remaining
splinter cells of the Kids Next Door have continued to resist Father, though few can agree on
what must be done. Some have created an “Underground Roller-Coaster” to allow kids to
escape into the U.S. territories outside of Father’s influence. Others have grown increasingly
fanatical, seeing capitalism itself as a method of adult oppression and wish to establish a trading
card based economy. Some have become selfish bullies, even becoming kiddie crime lords
dealing in imported video games and underage root beer speakeasies, defending their territory
with 2x4 technology and tamed Extreme-O-Saurus’s. A few have even given up on freedom
from adult tyranny, and spy on their peers for Werk Co in exchange for insincere promises of
letting kids watch cartoons again.

In spite of all these accomplishments, Father is still dissatisfied. He will not rest until all the
children in the United States, and eventually the world, will suffer underneath adults, and adults
suffer underneath him. And he will do anything to achieve more power - even if it means
handing the reins of Werk Co to Mr. Boss and moving into the White House…
Paradigm Corporation (Alex Rosewater, The Big O)

Paradigm City is not only a town of forgetfulness, but of ignorance as well. The city’s inhabitants
believe the world to be a desolate wasteland, with Paradigm City the last refuge of humanity. In
truth, the Paradigm Corporation has enjoyed free trade with much of the surviving world. The
Megadeus technology is in high demand in a world of giant monsters, armies of mecha, and
gem fusions. And with the American public outside being told that Manhattan is under
quarantine thanks to a Thaddeus Venture invention gone haywire, Alex Rosewater maintains a
comfortable monopoly on the Megadeus technology.

However, Rosewater also has something of a god complex, believing that the hands of god
made manifest in metal are made only for him to wield. As such, most of the technology he
actually sells are limited in scope, at least in comparison to what a Megadeus is truly capable of.
And what he absolutely NEVER sells is the vast storage of memory a Megadeus can store in its
mainframe, to say nothing of the extensive stores of memories kept locked away in secret.

Still, even the limited amounts of the mysterious technology are highly valued - what’s left of the
American military is increasingly interested in the Megadeus’ capabilities for use in the Gem
War. Other companies are envious to various degrees of the power that Paradigm has - Lord
Boxman in particular goes into a frothing rage whenever the subject is brought up, and
Rosewater’s decline to join Mandark’s think tank has led to the boy genius to engage in good
old fashioned (but ultimately unsuccessful) corporate espionage. However, Rosewater has a
surprisingly healthy partnership with Captain K’nuckles - the Paradigm Corporation still has a
healthy shipping industry, both in shipping technology to various places, and in launching
expeditions into dangerous territories for caches of memories. K’nuckles, for his part, is willing
to work for long-forgotten candy and maple syrup recipes.

Now, however, Alex Rosewater, the self-styled prince of the City of Amnesia, has decided to
launch less than legal expeditions into the land-locked Mushroom Disaster Area. He has
become increasingly convinced that the most valuable memories are found in the radioactive
time-displaced wastelands, especially in the very site of the Mushroom Bomb’s detonation - and
with it, the key to piloting the almighty Megadeus Big Tau, who sleeps beneath Paradigm City.
ScamCo (Eddy, Ed Edd n’ Eddy)

The increase of children in the workplace after the economy tanked with about seven
apocalypse’s happening all at once has led to increasingly youthful CEO’s in the American
marketplace. Perhaps the most surprising success story is that of ScamCo (formerly EdCo
Incorporated; the redundant name was confusing to investors), who’s founder and CEO Eddy
(“Hey,that’s Mr. Eddy to you, pal!”) rise to power was so surprising, even he isn’t entirely sure
how he ended up the Big Cheese of his own corporation so fast.

Nevertheless, ScamCo is unquestionably successful, and that success can be summed up in

one word: cheapness. That is, the products it makes are cheap to buy and cheaper to make.
(And employees mutter that “cheap” describes his paying habits as well.) Its actual services are
wide and varied, from dangerous theme parks to pest control, but Eddy has a particular soft
spot for ScamCo’s practical joke wing, and is hardly above using it to humiliate his rivals.

Eddy’s only real companion from the Peach Creek days is Ed, still as obliviously faithful as ever;
most of the other kids hate his guts after that last scam went unspeakably bad, and Double D
decided he had enough and ended their friendship during the subsequent search for Eddy’s
brother (who was last seen working at Werk Co where he could torment all the kids he’d ever
want). Eddy insists that this doesn’t bother him in the slightest, but his investigations on
Mandark Inc.’s employee directory tell another story.

ScamCo’s advertising isn’t exactly subtle, and those walking into ScamCo’s field of influence will
likely be blinded by all the advertisement. Still, Eddy surprisingly tends to leave small towns and
suburbs relatively alone, perhaps out of nostalgia of cooking up schemes with his friends in the
cul-de-sac. With all the adults working for ScamCo and dealing with their eccentric CEO’s
mercurial ways, the kids in these neighborhoods have gone wild, with former KND members
using 2x4 technology to create a kid-topia. Eddy doesn’t mind as long as they keep buying his
products to make them and has even participated in some of the more awesome looking ones.

This, perhaps, has kept kids as seeing Eddy as one of them. Compared to KINO (Kids In Name
Only) Kings such as Mandark and Mandy, Eddy is a far more attractive offer, especially for kids
who had to suffer under Father’s tyranny. What Eddy plans to do with this aside from charging
autographs remains to be seen.
Total Drama Entertainment (Chris McLean, Total Drama)

All in all, Chris McLean has taken the near-complete destruction of his home country very well.
Being famous already, his popularity further skyrocketed after becoming a survivor of the Gem
Invasion, leading to him vastly expanding the Total Drama brand. A new series of shows here, a
death trap there, and soon Chris was the CEO of the dominant megacorps of the American
entertainment industry.

Still, Chris remembered the contestants that helped him make it big - and to keep them out of
his overly styled hair, has used stolen technology to deage them into preschoolers that are kept
an eye on by his right-hand man Chef to ensure they never remember their adult lives.

TDE has a vast array of entertainment ready to serve, but really makes its name in reality tv
shows - contests, of course (that have become increasingly deadly as time goes on - TDE is
protected from lawsuits by having the contestants signing a waiver just to apply to compete), but
also lives of celebrities, home renovations, vapid talk shows - basically anything that appeals to
the lowest common denominator. The only thing is that they keep having to lower the bar in the
endless struggle to meet the increasingly poor taste of the American viewing audience.

The big moneymaker, however, is war footage. TDE is right at the border of the Gem Colony,
and a disturbing majority of the battles between the American military and Jasper’s forces occur
there. TDE records as much footage as possible and promises viewers the chance to see Gem
fusions battle military mecha’s up close and personal, to say nothing of the shows that have
been created on the front lines (Total Drama War Zone was cleared for two seasons before it
even aired). Why so much fighting occurs here in comparison to, say, ScamCo’s territory is
unclear, but oddly enough, the first attack occurred soon after TDE announced the cancellation
of Camp Pining Heart on a controversial cliffhanger.

Of course, Chris McLean has other projects he wants to work on: Total Drama Superjail, Total
Drama Weirdworld, Total Drama Nowhere, and of course, Total Drama Mushroom Disaster
Area (it’s a working title). While far from humble, Chris is one of the Kings most willing to
collaborate with others, and has no morals or scruples to hold himself back from getting the
most ratings.
Mandark Inc. (Susan “Mandark” Astronominov, Dexter’s Laboratory)

It began a day like any other. Mandark and his nemesis Dexter were once again locked in
mortal combat. But suddenly Dee Dee, Dexter’s sister and Mandark’s love, pushed Dexter out
of the way of a deadly laser and took the brunt of it herself.

While Dexter retreated into seclusion after this, Mandark traded in his cape for a business suit
and decided to grow up - to a certain degree, he still plans on world domination eventually and
lets out his trademark evil laugh when appropriate. He started selling his less impressive
inventions and putting a copyright on the new technologies he started putting out. Soon he
began hostile takeovers on companies with new technologies, improving them as he saw fit. Not
long after he was powerful enough and had enough influence on the technology market he
could sue other companies for having technologies that vaguely resembled his own into
oblivion. It didn’t take too much time before he had the money to purchase vast amounts of land
just to test his increasingly dangerous inventions without any casualties.

Still, Mandark’s newfound maturity (to a point) gave him more appreciation for other geniuses
than he had previously, which led to the creation of the Think Tank. Various companies, many
headed by young prodigies themselves, follow Mandark Inc.’s lead in exchange for sharing
ideas and technologies with each other willingly. Membership (including honorary membership,
some of which are even in the employ of Kings Mandark is aligned with) is extremely varied,
from other child geniuses like Jack Spicer and Bling Bling Boy to mad scientists such as Dr.
Animo and Dr. Fritz Huhnmorder, while many of Mandark’s own employees compete with each
other to have the chance to join. Those that do discover an extremely toxic atmosphere, with
backstabbings (both figurative and literal) commonplace and only Mandarks influence keeping
everything from completely spiraling out of control.

Lately, however, Mandark has started to focus less on what can be explained by science and
more by magic. Professor Pericles, CEO of Destroido Corp and newest member of the Think
Tank, has highlighted the increase of supernatural phenomena in the town of Crystal Cove,
indicating the arrival of an apocalypse the Earth won’t survive this time. To combat this,
Mandark has been covertly investigating the wastes of Nowhere, the wilds under Weirdworld,
the domains of the various sorcerer Kings outside of the America’s, and even the Mushroom
Disaster Area, anything to understand magic to prevent the coming threat. His paranoia and
arrogance has only increased in the face of this threat, however, and blinds him from the
alliances he needs to make to face this oncoming threat.
Mushroom Disaster Area (The Lich, Adventure Time)

In this post-Aku world, the United States can be seen as a survivor of the old world,
withstanding the apocalypse itself. But this survivor has scars, and none more obvious than the
radioactive wasteland the Mushroom Bomb created. Believed by the public to be a Gem
superweapon, the Mushroom Bomb made Hiroshima look like a mild case of heartburn,
engulfing several States before stopping. Now sealed behind the largest quarantine in history,
the badlands are literally cursed, turning what’s left of the dead into shambling, radioactive
zombies.

Of course, these aren’t the only things walking the wastes. Whywolves, driven by inquiry and
bloodlust, stalk the remaining survivors. King Worm gathers worms and mentally enslaved
victims. Earclopses bash whatever they can hear. Various technology and artifacts are
scattered across the wastelands of a post-apocalyptic future yet to come, scavenged by
motorcycle riding neo-savages and traded to representatives of the corpo’s snuck past the
quarantine. And at the center of it all lies the paradox that contains the greatest evil of all.

The temporal damage caused by the very anomaly that brought the Mushroom Bomb to the
present day has trapped the Lich and the remainder of the bomb’s blast. But the Lich is far from
impotent. His psychic influence reaches far beyond his prison, whispering his words into their
minds, preying on their doubts and fears. The closer one gets to him, the more influence he will
have over you, until you become nothing more than a puppet controlled by the Lich. Thanks to
this, his puppets and worshippers have embedded them in the highest areas of both the
government and the various corporations, quietly implementing his complex plans that all lead
to one goal: the death of every living thing everywhere.
Regular Zone (Anti-Pops, Regular Show)

Once, a boy was raised and given a normal childhood on Earth, only to be sent into space with
his friends by the man he thought was his father to achieve his destiny: to defeat his brother
before the universe was destroyed.

He failed.

However, the battle between Pops and “Anti-Pops” has left the latter severely wounded, forced
to crash on Earth to recover. He doesn’t have the world destroying capability he once had, but
can still wreck such destruction that he’s half the reason the Gems don’t do a full-scale invasion
of the U.S..

Anti-Pops made sure to take away as much as he could from his good counterpart, which is why
the Park has now been covered by a domed fortress, and Pops’ friends and grieving father have
since gone into hiding. The government quickly sealed off the surrounding area, then had to
move it back by a few hundred miles after He Who Will Erase Us erased the first barrier.

Anti-Pops assumed control over the territory inside the barricade with impossible ease. His
many underlings doing a hostile takeover of the local government, coupled with quislings like
the East Pines park manager Gene, let him rule the Regular Zone as if it were a separate
country from the U.S. altogether. Anti-Pops then began to attack other Kings for resources,
usually hiring mercenaries and other third parties to keep himself safe in his weakened state.

Despite this, however, Anti-Pops is actually a fairly laissez-faire ruler. Oh, he’ll certainly erase
you for minor inconveniences and leave bad Yelp reviews to restaurants he’s never been to, but
his major concern is to regain his potentially universe destroying power. As a result, it’s actually
fairly safe within the Regular Zone, to the point where businesses and people can cross the
border relatively easily, though Anti-Pops always cracks down hard whenever a rival King tries
to influence his turf. This has led corporations that had their headquarters within the RZ to
flourish, and companies like PlayCo, Party Starters, and StealthCo operate with impunity as
long as they don’t interfere with Anti-Pops, letting them lord over the populace alongside
criminals such as the Capicola Gang and the Wickets.

In spite of this chaos, life moves at a leisurely pace in the RZ. Whether it’s because of Anti-
Pops’ off-hand method of ruling, the local economy running smoothly in spite of the barricade, or
just general apathy, people living within the Regular Zone take all this and all the other
weirdness in stride. The coffee is bad, the traffic’s bad, and a giant toy robot just ran through
Main Street. Just another day in the RZ.
Superjail (The Warden, Superjail)

On a remote island inside a volcano inside another volcano lies the Superjail, ruled by a man
known only as “the Warden”. A pocket dimension where reality is somehow fluid, the Superjail is
America’s biggest and most secure prison, containing all sorts of serial killers, super villains and
dissidents that can’t be held anywhere else, and where the prisoners find that they will die and
be killed over and over again for the amusement of the Warden.

Bigger than ever thanks to the addition of the female prisoners of the former Ultra-Prison, the
surreal pocket reality has been booming thanks to megacorps getting rid of problems by pulling
strings to accuse enemies of crimes and sending them to be eternally tormented by the Warden.
In fact, the various megacorps have become increasingly reliant on the Superjail to house
powerful adversaries, making sure that Superjail’s funding has been on the rise, much to the
relief of the Warden’s assistant Jared. The only real restriction the Warden has to letting
prisoners in is no children, and that has more to do with the fact that the Warden hates children
so much that he literally can’t stand the sight of them.

That being said, the Warden’s mercurial nature leads him to be a relaxed ruler most of the time.
He’s even more or less co-opted the local government of Hawaii to allow his prisoners to
vacation as part of a bizarre work release program. Still, the inmates are fully under his thumb,
guarded by his sole human guard Alice and the shapeshifting robot Jailbot, whose job it is to
recapture whatever inmates might escape.

Lately, however, the Warden has started to become more interested in the world outside his
Superjail. Whether it’s crashing the set of Moltar: Coast to Coast for an impromptu interview,
negotiating a reality show with Chris McLean, or trying to get Black Hat’s hat, the Warden is
slowly becoming more and more involved with the web of intrigue that surrounds the various
Kings across the world. Enough so that he is getting increasingly interested in expanding
Superjail with expansions across continents, and has begun to dream of the entire human race
incarcerated…
Nowhere (Katz, Courage the Cowardly Dog)

America’s heartland has become completely engulfed by the wastes of Nowhere. The once
fertile plains have been replaced by a desert wasteland stalked by strange and terrifying
phenomena. Entire cities have been abandoned, and Nowhere is primarily populated by small
towns and isolated houses. Worse, Nowhere is actually spreading - once it was merely the
middle of Kansas, then all of Kansas, then most of the Midwest, and even now is growing
roughly at the rate your toenails grow. The environmental devastation and the loss of America’s
breadbasket is immense.

On top of this, creepy stuff happens in Nowhere. Attempts at repairing and making new radio
towers and cable networks end in disaster, as if the very land itself carries a curse. Strange
creatures stalk the night, searching for prey. Magical beings are drawn to Nowhere like moths to
a flame. And behind it all lurks the secret master of Nowhere, Katz.

No one knows the origin of the humanoid scarlet feline, Katz, but his presence is felt throughout
Nowhere. Nearly all of the land and the seemingly self-operated mom and pop shops located in
the various small towns and rest stops in Nowhere are actually owned by various mysterious
shell corporations controlled by Katz. Residents have resorted to dressing up like monsters to
scare off potential buyers off of their property.The calculating cat doesn’t actually care about the
rat race outside of general amusement and pride, however, and merely does this to keep the
other Kings from interfering with his wasteland playground.

While Katz guards his domain firmly from others, his actual rule is rather lax. Most supernatural
residents of Nowhere don’t even think of him as their ruler, though they fear him as the greatest
threat of Nowhere nevertheless. Katz operates more as a gardener than an administrator,
allowing supernatural entities in and letting them grow to their fullest potential with minimal help.
To Katz, all that matters are his games, from dodgeball to staring contests to trapping civilians
with bloodthirsty spiders, and Nowhere is the perfect playground for them.

Still, Katz does know the value alliances can bring, and Kings and minor powers across the
country have much to gain from Nowhere’s creepiness. Weirdworld happily takes creatures
such as weremoles and alien chickens to exploit, TDE sends hapless teenagers to survive on
Total Drama Nowhere, and the Mushroom Disaster Area is notably the only place the Nowhere
wastes don’t spread so much as a centimeter. Indeed, Katz’s main problem is the surviving
residents of Nowhere becoming increasingly more competent at surviving, and as such has led
to outsiders winning contests they’ve never entered, receiving the will of relatives they didn’t
know they had, and of course enticing mysteries for plucky teenagers and their dogs to solve, all
so that Katz will never run out of victims to torture.

With all that said, however, there’s still something that causes people to fall in love with
Nowhere. From fortune telling dogs to friendly vampires to a certain creepy and kooky family,
there’s plenty of mysterious and spooky people, lost treasure, and wondrous beauty to find in
Nowhere. If an adventuring party has the wits and courage to stand up to Katz and the various
dangers he brings about, Nowhere may even provide a home for those who love the creepy.
Just be sure not to disturb the resident mummies.
The Guild of Calamitous Intent (The Monarch, The Venture Bros.)

It’s a hard time for the classic supervillain. After the Aku-pocalypse turned civilization upside
down and the various megacorps gained control of America, villains see less and less reason to
play by any sort of rules. What was once the union that governed nearly all villains in America
for decades has been reduced to a shell of its former self, unable to stand up against rivals
powerful enough to flaunt the EMA Level ranking system and other Arching regulations, but a
willingness to back lesser villains to fulfill their own goals without restraint.

The mysterious leader of the Guild has disappeared, last seen touring Europe. Without him, the
Council of Thirteen has been effectively destroyed, most high level members left for more
appealing villainous groups like Mandark Inc., Boxmore, and most of all the Black Hat
Organization, and the carefully balanced equilibrium between hero and villain was done away
with practically overnight. Still, considering the utter destruction of OSI and sister organizations
such as Global Security and P.O.I.N.T., the Guild can count itself lucky that it actually survived
at all; and it wouldn’t have done so without the new leadership of their most wily and determined
member, the man called… the Monarch!

The Monarch had already made quite a name for himself at this point alongside his wife and
equal partner, Dr. Mrs. The Monarch, and top hench Henchman 21. Their flying cocoon base
now hangs proudly over the former Venture Compound, whose endless subterranean corridors
and bunkers are still being raided. The endless suicidal waves that make up the Fluttering
Horde are now backed up by Guild Stranger cyborgs - or “Strangerfly’s”, the Monarch is flip-
flopping between the names right now. And now that the Guild has absorbed both the Peril
Partnership and the Fraternity of Torment into itself, the Guild is the only real semi-legally
recognized villain labor union on the planet.

Despite this, however, the Guild is struggling at best considering the steep competitions they’re
up against. While the Monarch has never been the biggest fan of the Guild’s regulations, he’s
been forced to accept that the current villain culture of “take what you want and burn everyone
who says otherwise” is causing the already dismal state of world affairs to grow even worse. As
such, he’s been forced into the unenviable position of trying to protect the old ways where
villains had an actual honor code (such as it was) in dealing with heroes and with each other.
Needless to say, this doesn’t make him very popular with the naturally greedy people
supervillains generally are. With this new position forcing him into more of a desk job and the
disappearance of Rusty Venture means he can only scratch the arching itch against J.J.
Venture, the Monarch has been in a rather sour mood as of late. And now with recent startling
revelations about his father, paranoia of spies from the Black Hat Organization, and the looming
presence of the Investors, his mood has only gotten worse.

But as the mighty Monarch put it, “Surrender I shall not! Succumb I will not! Sometimes like
Yoda speak I do!” (The Monarch was high on bath salts at the time.) In spite of his
eccentricities, the Monarch remains an efficient and utterly ruthless opponent, particularly
against those who refuse to play by the rules. Heroes actually like the fact that he’s trying to
bring the old ways back, and even apply for villains that can properly arch against them without
cheating or vastly overpowering them. While villains that miss the days of death traps and
respecting mental health are increasingly rare, the ones that still exist can live with the
protection (and dental plan) of the Guild. SO IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THE
MIGHTY MONARCH WILL HAVE ILLIMITABLE DOMINION OVER ALL AND FINALLY EXACT
REVENGE ON DR. VENTURE!!!... just as soon as he finds Dr. Venture. Annnny day now.
Dethcorp (Charles Offdensen, Metalocalypse)

Dethklok’s failure to stop the Metalocalypse turned out not to be such a big deal when seven
different apocalypses/apocalypsi (no one could decide what the plural of “apocalypse”)
happened more or less at once, more or less cancelling each other out. Still, the economic
fallout of the Metalocalypse and the unfortunate passing of CEO Roy Cornickelson and his son
Damien left Crystal Mountain Records was in a tight position. Quick to fill the position and not
scare shareholders (and thanks to behind the scenes manipulations from the Church of the
Black Klok), the board named Nathan Explosion, lead singer of their most valuable asset
Dethklok, as the new CEO. However, Dethklok has zero interest in running a company,
preferring to hang out at Mordhaus in Europe, go on tour, work on new songs, and lead their
fanatical Klokateers in glorious but pointless wars against their neighbors. As such, the newly
renamed Dethcorp is actually controlled by Dethklok’s unassuming CFO, manager, and figure of
prophecy Charles Foster Offdensen.

Charles is shockingly competent at controlling the chaos that Dethklok surrounds itself with. Oh,
he’ll certainly run into situations where he can only shrug and say “For the record, I tried”, but
even these situations tend to be kept under wraps or otherwise ensured thanks to Dethklok fans
signing liability waivers and the extreme measures Dethcorp is allowed to enact against
copyright infringement. With the newly apotheosized Dethklok still learning their new godlike
abilities, the chaos they bring is contained and redirected at proper targets thanks to Charles’
efforts and the backing of the Church of the Black Klok with minimal casualties.

While the band continues its usual debauchery while trying to get a handle on their new
responsibilities, Charles works to spread Dethcorp’s influence as far as possible. Release of
new albums still causes massive upswings in the economy. Los Angeles, home to Dethcorp
main offices outside of Mordhaus, has become holy ground for death metal fanatics in spite of
the band’s hatred of the city. Dethcorp merchandise and subsidiaries range from Duncan Hills
Coffee to Dethkones. Dethcorp has even successfully lobbied the FCC to severely lower their
restrictions on violence to introduce children to the wacky adventures of Facebones.

Meanwhile, Dethcorp is searching for allies amongst the other megacorps while warding off
enemies. Mandark and his Think Tank allies help Dethcorp remain on the cutting edge of
technology. The Paradigm Corporation offers knowledge and forgotten lore to help decipher the
Prophecy. Total Drama Entertainment varies from best friend to worst enemy depending on
what brings the best ratings. Meanwhile, Father’s hatred of “rock and roll” nearly matches that of
his hatred of childhood, and Dethklok’s dethlights have been proven to fell even the strongest
Gem fusion.

Above all this, however, lies Dethklok’s true enemies. Salacia and the Tribunal are still out
there, and the Masked Metal Assassin still leads the Revengencers in their crusade. Worst of
all, Charles still fears that the Metalocalypse never truly ended, and the worst is still to come…
Endsville (Mandy, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy)

The opening of the Underworld Portal bringing the monstrous river Styx into the mortal realm
was perhaps the best thing to happen to the quiet town of Endsville. The creation of what was
essentially a new national landmark brought tourists in by the truckload, causing the economy of
Endsville to skyrocket. And pulling the strings behind the scenes is the humble mayor of
Endsville and head of the Endsville Tourism Board, Mandy.

Mandy, the youngest mayor in Endsville history and secret owner of various shell companies,
has put any plans of world domination on hold so she can keep order over her town and the
surrounding areas in a post Aku-pocalypse world. She values quiet efficiency more than
anything, and all the various horrors of the world quickly learn to play ball or leave. All across
the newly renamed Rio Styx, all the corporate Kings and the demons now trapped in the mortal
world follow Mandy’s one rule: stay out of her way.

Still, Mandy knows the value allies have as long as you don’t get too attached. Billy is
currently… incapacitated, but that can be undone. Her eternal Best Friend Forever has been
reduced to a depressed skull, but dutifully aids her nevertheless. Underfist is on speed dial for
when a situation goes out of control. Even mythical beings like Cerberus and Dracula himself
are at Mandy’s beck and call. And every monster that sets foot in Mandy’s domain must pay
tribute to the Quiet Tyrant.

Meanwhile, Mandy has made herself into a name that stands out from the other Kings. Most
notably, Black Hat is quite fond of her and sees her as a strong up and comer for evil (Mandy,
for her part, views Black Hat as “the uncle I never wanted”). Weird World has hosted an entire
episode on the Rio Styx. Nowhere is slowly creeping in, and the areas touching the Rio Styx
gets especially weird. And of course, the Mushroom Disaster Area being right next door leads to
constant attacks by Lich cultists.

But for now, Mandy’s primary concern is the dread pirate Oogie Boogie. With the Left Hand of
Horror in his possession and the stolen Scythe of the Grim Reaper wielded by his subordinate
the Mysterious Sān, Lord Boogie claims sole dominion over the Rio Styx. Currently, the state of
affairs between Boogie and Mandy is a slow game of cat and mouse, each testing the other’s
limits. When this will escalate is anyone’s guess.
Black Hat Organization (Black Hat, Villainous)

Some kings broadcast their power, posting their product widely and obnoxiously, with ads as far
as the eye can see. Others, however, have an exclusive clientele, hiding behind dummy corps
and secretive meetings to quietly spread their power across America and the globe.