Overwatch Lores

I post Overwatch lores and stuff / Symmetra, Ana and Illari main / Orisa, D.Va and Zarya enjoyer

[robomecha-sakura]

I need to know their lore.

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Drawing Overwatch Interactions - Episode 05: "Do Not Lie, Archer"

Added the voice lines again just because. (Turn on sounds!)

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Cowboy Bebop redraw but it's Overwatch

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redraw of that one spray :)

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Katara Symmetra by Octokissu (twitter), And_Meggie (twitter), EvocaitArt (twitter, bsky) and fitzgerald1956 (twitter)

[waesdove]

Blackwatch Genji and Devil Mercy cuz the skins sorta match and idk im grasping at straws i miss gency bad

[overwatchloresnstuff]

Widowmaker lore

For our last lore dive, we present the French comtesse, the far sighted beauty, the tragic tale of our own personal Odette, Amelie Lacroix aka Widowmaker.

Amelie was an accomplished ballerina before she ever married an Overwatch agent, and from a well respected family. Her maiden name is Guillard, meaning lively or happy, but is also French slang for an outgoing, strapping young woman. She grew up in Chateau Guillard, in Annency in Southern France.

Funny enough, the Chateau was a victim of the French Revolution, and fell into deep disrepair until Amelie decided to restore it.

Amelie’s history in Overwatch begins with her marriage to Gerard Lacroix, an outgoing and influential figure in the early days of Overwatch. Gerard spearheaded operations against Talon, and worked closely with both Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes. He even saved Reyes’ life during an operation in Capetown, and enjoyed ribbing the notoriously bad tempered Blackwatch leader.

Reportedly, Jack Morrison saw something wrong with Amelie, something deep inside of her he found suspicious, but Gerard laughed him off.

This would prove to be his own undoing.

Lacroix was a careful man. When undermining Talon agents he usually liked exercising political ties, cutting off financial routes, and carefully cutting out Talon’s avenues for support. This contrasted with Gabriel Reyes’ smash and grab attitude, and things came to a head in Italy. Lacroix warned Reyes not to meddle with a Talon board member named Antonio Bartalotti, since the man had links to the Italian consulate and major political players. Reyes ignored him, taking Cassidy, Moira, and Genji to arrest Bartalotti.

When Blackwatch finally cornered Bartalotti, the man sneered at them that he would be out in a week with his political ties. Reyes lost his temper, and shot him dead.

This first blow caused a firestorm. Blackwatch was exposed, and Talon was incensed. Furious, they made several attempts against Lacroix’s life, believing him to be the arbiter of the plan. They failed, until Blackwatch collapsed and Talon had a…new acquisition.

Moira O’Deorain suggested that instead of throwing themselves against the clever Gerard, they kidnap the lovely Amelie. Talon succeeded, and deep in the bowels of an experimental lab, Moira began reprogramming Amelie from a sweet, charming ballerina into a monster. Her athleticism and flexibility, as well as her keen eyesight, made her into a dangerous creature.

However, Lacroix wasn’t about to give up his wife without a fight and neither was Overwatch. Even while the organization drowned in controversy, Lacroix gave up everything to save his beloved Amelie. Miraculously, she was recovered, and Amelie Lacroix was declared none the worse for wear if a bit rattled.

Two weeks later, Amelie slaughtered her husband of nearly a decade in their bed, and vanished.

She returned to Talon as she had been programmed, and Moira refined her creation. She slowed her heart to give her permanently steady hands, with purplish- blue skin being an after effect. Moira purged her of all thought and emotion, turning her into a cold and efficient killer.

Now Widowmaker, she was deployed to aid Talon agents in their destruction. For years, she was a beautiful and deadly killing tool.

She clashed with Overwatch again when attempting to help Talon keep control over hostages in the Middle East. During this, Overwatch’s own sniper Ana Amari hesitated killing Widowmaker, and Widowmaker blew out her eye through her own scope.

Widowmaker became Doomfist’s favored bodyguard alongside Reaper, as well as his arm candy. Her beauty often made others bring down their guard, long enough for the widow to strike.

However, the brainwashing doesn’t appear total. When resurrected by Mercy, she will occasionally scream out for her husband. Mercy will state she is sure Amelie is still hidden in Widowmaker somewhere. Widowmaker and Jack Morrison call neutral ground over Gerard’s grave, allowing each other to share in grief. While Amelie places roses, Gerard’s favorite flower and the language of love, Jack places lilies, the flower of feminine rebirth…perhaps in reference to his own hope that Amelie is still herself.

Many hints to Widowmaker’s sad tale can be found in her skins. She sports a black widow along her back in her default, and another tattoo on her arm reads “araignée du soir, cauchemar”, meaning ‘evening spider, nightmare’. This is a play on the French superstition “araignée du matin, chagrin, araignée du soir, espoir" which translates to "morning spider, grief, evening spider, hope."

She also has the Odessa and Odile skins, which detail the tale of the Swan Princess Odette, cursed to turn into a swan by day and woman by night. The antagonist of that story, a Von Rothbart, turns his own daughter Odile into a copy of Odette to fool the prince…a surprising parallel to Widowmaker’s own tale.

Widowmaker has lost everything. Her husband, her friends, her family and legacy. Everything she cared about is gone, and she only retains Chateau Guillard as a Talon hideout. Even her ancestral home has been invaded by the very scum that captured her. Even worse, what few images of Amelie we have before her brainwashing show her to be a quiet, sensitive artist focused on restoring her family home and dancing. She was a woman of culture and refinement, reduced to deadly sex appeal by Moira O’Deorain’s sick sense of humor.

It can be argued that even her appearance is against her will, since she unilaterally dresses in skimpy, tight fitting outfits that have almost no tactical advantage. Since Talon favors heavy armaments on its soldiers, and even the female snipers Widowmaker has joined are heavily clothed…Widowmaker is also reduced to a sex object. Her clothing, or lack of it, sets her apart from Talon soldiers. She is nothing but a pet.

It is a sad tale, to fall from elegant artist to deadly pin up girl.

Hopefully, in one way or another, Amelie Lacroix finds some peace.

(Taken from facebook group "Deadlock gang: women of Overwatch from a member there)

[overwatchloresnstuff]

ANA lore

It’s the second lore deep dive, and this time we’re doing Ana! As Ana is a core Overwatch member as well as an old bird, she’s got a lot of lore. Don’t come for me. I’ll summarize best as I can!

The Cairo crackshot, our Gunwielding Grandmother, here’s a breakdown of our favorite sniper!

Ana Amari got her start volunteering for the Egyptian Army as a sniper during the Omnic Crisis. As most of you know, Omniums were the major hiveminds of the Omnic Crisis, creating omnic armies, turning omnics against humans, and destroying the land around them for resources. Egypt got the short end of the stick, having a particularly vicious Omnium in their own backyard: Anubis. Ana rose in the ranks of the Egyptian army as a skilled killer, and even had her right eye replaced by a cybernetic one to make herself more efficient.

She was hand-picked by Jack Morrison (Soldier 76) and Gabriel Reyes (Reaper) to join the original strike team alongside Torbjorn and Reinhardt, and took part in Operation White Dome in Istanbul helping eliminate pockets of omnic resistance.

After the Crisis, and with Anubis jailed under the watchful eye of the Egyptian government and the Helix mercenary group, Ana turned her attention full time to Overwatch as the Second-In-Command.

She met a Pacific Northwesterner from a Salish nation named Sam in Canada, married him, and had her daughter Fareeha by him. They were apparently an item before the Crisis, but Ana put her duties to her nation before her relationships. Free of the Crisis, and with the Omniums all dead, she happily raised Fareeha amongst her Overwatch family. Torbjörn, Reinhardt, Gabriel and Jack were her proud uncles, and Cassidy a constant play companion. When Angela Ziegler joined Overwatch, she formed a close friendship with Pharah as well.

Ana was strictly against Fareeha following in her footsteps. She taught her self defense, and allowed the other Overwatch members to teach her how to fight, but she was staunchly against teaching her to shoot or letting her join Overwatch.

As her commitments to Overwatch and combat grew, and her marriage drifted apart, Ana grew close with Reinhardt Wilhelm. While it’s highly unlikely Ana cheated on Sam with the larger than life German, there was clearly an emotional affair growing betwixt the two. It only grew when Ana was stationed permanently at Watchpoint Gibraltar alongside Reinhardt.

As the Omnic Crisis waned, more troubles rose to the forefront. Overwatch began to stumble, and it’s spec ops branch, Blackwatch, was crumbling into corruption. More and more unfavorable scrutiny arose, particularly with Blackwatch’s Gabriel Reyes refusing to listen to instructions and the acquisition of Moira O’Deorain. Between openly flaunting illegal operations and ushering people with questionable morals to their flanks, Overwatch was in dire straits.

It only worsened with the assassination of a core Overwatch member and a dear friend of Jack and Ana, Gerard Lacroix. Gerard was the head of anti-Talon operations within Overwatch, and with him dead and his wife Amelie missing, Overwatch made the decision to hit back.

Ana was part of a support team for a rescue mission within a Talon facility, where they were capturing and holding scientists and other political prisoners. While the mission was successful, Talon had a new operative: a sniper to match Ana’s capabilities. This new agent, Widowmaker, decimated Overwatch’s front line and was hampering their retreat.

Ana looked into her scope, trained the sights on Widowmaker’s head, and saw the eyes of Amelie Lacroix. This second of hesitation allowed Lacroix to fire straight through Ana’s scope, blasting glass, steel, and bullet fragments into Ana’s eye. This destroyed the cybernetic eye, and damaged the delicate connections wired into her brain.

Ana was believed to be dead, and with Widowmaker and the other Talon agents bearing down on the battered strike team, they had no choice but to withdraw.

Ana awoke in the care of a Dr. Lee as a Jane Doe (usually termed Janina Kowalski in Polish hospitals), her memory fragmented and half blind. She begged Dr. Lee to keep her true identity out of the system, which kept her anonymity safe. She believed herself better off dead, and had faith her daughter would believe in her return.

Her recovery took months, and her memory slowly returned. Ana determined to stay out of the conflict, and with the last of Overwatch’s credibility on the world stage collapsing with the exposure of Blackwatch, she withdrew from the conflict completely. Instead, she planned to travel, and see the affects of what Overwatch and Talon had wrought.

She traveled to Junkertown, apparently making a name for herself as a drifter, and sniper. Junkertown prized survivors among all others, and she was welcomed there. Hilariously, her main claim to fame is kicking a man named Red Ned in the testicles during a bar fight.

Ana ended up moving to Cairo to be closer to her daughter, now a fully fledged member of Helix and a proud pilot. Unfortunately, Overwatch’s decision to help jail the Omnium Anubis had thrown Cairo into political chaos. The longer Ana stayed there, the more she realized the home she grew up in needed her again. She took up her rifle, and fought to help Cairo find its feet amid growing global instability. She took on the mantle of Shrike, naming herself after a little bird infamous for skewering prey much larger than itself on thorns.

As the Shrike, Ana sabotaged Talon operations using an ancient necropolis as her base of operations. She stole artifacts to keep them safe, assassinated key figures attempting to get Talon a foothold in Egypt, and was branded a terrorist by her own country as well as Talon.

Unfortunately, this caught the attention of Reaper. Now a Talon agent dedicated to the instability of the entire North African region, he came to Cairo to put down the Shrike. Jack Morrison, now hiding under the moniker Soldier 76, came to Cairo to help the mysterious Shrike.

Unfortunately, things came to a head. Reaper attacked Jack and shot him in the back, crippling him, and Ana leapt to her old friend’s defense. She tore Reaper’s mask free during the fight, exposing him to be her longtime friend. Reyes blamed her, and Overwatch, for his suffering, retreating in disgrace.

Ana grabbed Jack, and nursed him back to health in the crypt she had been working out of as the Shrike. Her past had come for her, and there was simply no running from it now. However, having Jack back in her life was a welcome change. It brought back how important she had been to the people around her, and what a grave mistake keeping herself from her friends and daughter had been.

Inspired by Jack’s new persona, she left the Shrike behind and went under a new codename: Bastet. The sacred mother, ruler of cats, bringer of protection, good health and pleasure. Gone was the ferocious little bird; she fully embraced her new mantle as healer and protector.

Then, the Recall.

Ana intercepted Winston’s desperate plea to bring Overwatch back together, but was tentative about her return. She worried about how she would be perceived, especially by her daughter, and decided to reach out to the other of Overwatch’s children…Cole Cassidy. She reunited with him over drinks, and while the old Overwatch was well and truly gone, Cassidy was bringing new blood into the fold. With Cassidy and Winston at the helm, new agents were being recruited. At the same time, Talon had sent Reaper out like a mad dog, hunting down ex-Overwatch agents.

Ana gave Cassidy a dossier outlining a few candidates she’d been keeping an eye on: Hana Song (D.va), Aleksandra Zaryanova (Zarya) and her own daughter Fareeha (now going under the name Pharah). She encouraged Cassidy to lead the new Overwatch, and find like-minded individuals to join a new, rejuvenated strike team.

Cassidy and Ana went to Helix’s headquarters for the most critical member of the new team: Fareeha Amari. While Ana had written her letters over the years, the two had a grim relationship. Fareeha felt abandoned, and rightly so, by Ana. She was angry that she had been left to care for Sam in the fallout of Ana’s “death”. Their reunion was interrupted by a Talon attack, and Ana got to see first hand the soldier her daughter had become.

While the two made up in the aftermath of the fight, Fareeha refused the call to recruitment. She knew where to find Cassidy, but she needed time to deal with the news of her mother.

Ana remains hunted by Talon and her own country, and is currently working alongside Jack Morrison to dismantle Talon, save Reaper and Widowmaker, and find out why Overwatch crumbled.

Other than Jack and Cassidy, it does seem that Ana has revealed herself to Reinhardt as well at some point after her reunion with Cassidy. Reinhardt seems to be the person hardest hit by her departure, as he loudly proclaims that every moment without her watching over him has been agony. Ana seems to return his feelings, in her own way. Perhaps, with Ana’s new identity as protector rather than killer, things will be different between them.

Only time can tell.

(Taken from facebook group "Deadlock gang: women of Overwatch from a member there)

[overwatchloresnstuff]

Moira lore

Next deep lore dive examines quite possibly the most evil, and most misunderstood, character in the Overwatch universe.

Our beloved mad scientist, the Irish auntie, the sardonic sequencer, Moira O’Deorain!

“We are bedevilled by the mysteries of creation. Science can reveal the truths that lie behind these many questions. What we learn can unlock the true potential of humanity.” - Moira

Moira has always had a desire to understand man’s place in the evolutionary cycle. As a talented doctor of genetics, evolution, and cellular sciences, she caused waves in the scientific community from a relatively early time in her career. The world was experiencing a scientific golden age with the creation of God programs, Omnium’s and the fast advancement of AI, and Moira was swept up in that firestorm.

Her most controversial paper detailed the editing of human DNA via custom genetic programs. By implanting genes of her own making, she could force the body to adapt, to evolve, to overcome. While many people praised her work for its implication in curing disease, Moira had her eyes on much loftier goals.

Unfortunately for her, the ethics of her paper were called into question…especially when no other geneticists were able to reproduce her results. Combined with Moira’s marked disregard for the care of the rabbits and other animals she experimented on, her career became tarnished. What should have ushered humanity into an era free of cancers and genetic disorders devolved into accusations of shoddy scientific work and ethical violations that saw Moira stripped of her PhD and dismissed from the University of Dublin. Overwatch was one of many condemning her work, which only threw fuel on the fire.

Unemployable and without funding to continue her work, Moira fell into a dark depression. While she didn’t give a fig for her colleagues or the loss of a title, it was preventing her from doing any work. The biggest consensus by far was that she was too close to the ideals that had brought about the Omnic Crisis, and sometimes advancements without acknowledging the costs were too dangerous to be trusted.

Her name became poison in the mouths of every scientist on the planet.

Moira received a lifeline from none other than Gabriel Reyes. While Overwatch had slammed Moira’s work, Gabriel saw the potential. He had been on the receiving end of similar gene treatments through the soldier enhancement program, and courted the suspicious O’Deorain with promises of technology beyond her wildest dreams. She relished the idea of being able to rub her accomplishments into the faces of everyone who slandered her.

Unlike other Blackwatch acquisitions like Genji and Cassidy, who were recruited on a semi-public basis, Moira was kept secret. If Blackwatch was Overwatch’s dirty little secret, Moira was Blackwatch’s.

Moira was distrusted by the entirety of Blackwatch. Genji and Cassidy point blank refused her treatments and enhancements, disturbed and frightened by her promises of power. Moira’s command over genetics was accelerating wildly, and Reyes gave himself over willingly to her experiments. In return she granted him the power of…a strange immortality. Gabriel Reyes’ cells would decay and renew at a rate never before seen, allowing him to dissolve into smoke and reform at will.

She was their chief field medic and geneticist, and her funding, projects, and involvement didn’t become public until Blackwatch’s exposure following the assassination of a key Talon member in Venice. When Angela Ziegler discovered just who had been treating Blackwatch agents during their missions, she was furious. She publicly ousted O’Deorain with the idea of humiliating her yet again.

This time, Moira was approached by Oasis University and offered the position of Minister of Genetics. She continued her work, but under strict observation. She resented the chains of ethics, and when presented with the opportunity to resume her work under Talon…she leapt at the opportunity. Finally, with no babysitters, no laws, no threat of Overwatch discovery or interference…Moira crafted her masterpieces.

Her first step was to prove her worth to Doomfist. She enhanced and brainwashed Amelie Lacroix into Widowmaker, a deadly sniper with no feelings that Talon could use as a weapon. Doomfist was overjoyed with the results, and lavished funding and unfettered access to whatever Moira desired.

It was little surprise that when both Morrison and Reyes were caught in the destruction of Overwatch HQ, Moira appeared in the ashes. She found Reyes barely alive, dying, his body struggling to rebuild broken bones and shattered organs. She injected him with an enhanced version of her earlier formula. Gabriel Reyes became Reaper…a man forever doomed to live and die at once. Every nerve cell screamed in agony, plunging Reaper into a tortured existence of feeling his body decay and rebuild all at once. She presented Talon with their new pit dog, and was rewarded a seat on the Inner Council at Doomfist’s right hand.

Currently, Moira is in possession of her newest acquisition…a bright scientist abandoned by Overwatch in the chaos of the Horizon Lunar Colony, stolen from a government facility by Talon: Siebren de Kuiper.

Moira is both fascinated and repulsed by Subject Sigma; while she acknowledges his contributions to gravity research, she expresses frustration with his shattered state of mind which seem to be barring her and Talon from gaining complete control.

Moira’s experiments on herself have changed her into a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Her twisting of Angela Ziegler’s healing abilities into decay have turned her right arm into a withered husk. This doesn’t seem to bother her, and the shortened nails on her left hand seem to hint that she is left handed anyway.

Moira is treated with revulsion by many Overwatch agents, with the exception of Cassidy. While he enjoys amusedly poking at her, he doesn’t seem to have the genuine hatred for her that Mercy, Genji, Hanzo, Sombra or the others possess. Doomfist treats her professionally and coolly, and Sigma seems to see her as another colleague. Moira has only offered an olive branch to Lifeweaver, and has an interaction implying he should join her at Oasis. Lifeweaver, perhaps knowing her reputation, refuses.

While Moira is a controversial and brilliant figure, labeled evil by some and misunderstood by others, it’s clear she possesses a unique set of powers. She is an incredibly dangerous, intelligent, and beautiful woman in her own way.

Perhaps one day, she will try and turn her talents toward curing rather than modification.

(Taken from facebook group "Deadlock gang: women of Overwatch from a member there)

[overwatchloresnstuff]

Mercy lore

Buckle up kids, this is a long one! We have quite a lot of lore!

Next lore dive is the long, sad, and inspiring tale of Overwatch’s most controversial support: the high-flying, Glock-wielding, master of life Mercy!

“Pain lessens with time…but comes back at the slightest reminder..” - Angela Ziegler

Angela Ziegler was a child of the Omnic Crisis. Born into a family of doctors in Switzerland during the deepest and bloodiest parts of the war. Angela’s parents usually left her at home to volunteer at a local hospital, desperately trying to piece together the dead and dying. Modern medicine, however skilled, just couldn’t keep up with the massive amount of victims the Crisis was creating. Steel, as always, is stronger than flesh.

One day, her parents were killed when the hospital was obliterated by an air strike. There was nothing left, and a police officer grimly informed Angela that she was now an orphan.

Angela threw herself, at the tender age of fourteen, into the study of medicine. It consumed her. She was hailed as a medical prodigy, and one of the youngest women ever to receive a doctorate. She plunged ever deeper into research, determined to be more effective. In the arms race of man against machine, medicine could be the turning factor in the war. She would be that force.

After Operation White Dome, Torbjorn Lindholm was laid up in a Swiss hospital, grieving the loss of his arm. Angela’s family had been longtime friends of the Lindholms, but until now they had traveled in purely social circles. Angela went to see him, and the two became fast friends; a teenaged medical intern trying to change the world, and an Overwatch agent who needed a reason to keep fighting. Torbjorn began to slowly introduce her to Overwatch’s crew.

By her late teens, she received her MD and a PhD in the emerging field of nano sciences and was becoming a popular figure in Watchpoint: Gibraltar. Though their medic was too young to drink or even drive by many country’s’ standards, the Strike Team was taken with her tenacity and determination. It was there she met Fareeha Amari and Cole Cassidy, a young rabble rouser given a second chance at life by Gabriel Reyes.

The Lindholms became her adoptive family, and Overwatch her extended one. After spending so much time buried in her studies with no emotional support or help, the new sense of family lit a fire under Angela to become better.

She was declared head of surgery at a prominent Swiss hospital, and established a research lab in the study of nanotechnology. She pioneered healing nanites, a cloud of tiny robots the size of a cell that could heal the most grievous of wounds and safely dissolve into the body afterward. This healing tech was pioneered with her Caduceus Staff, so named for the Staff of Divine Healing carried by Hermes in Greek Legend. The symbol of the Caduceus, of two serpents entwined around the sacred winged staff, symbolizes medicine’s balance.

The technology was poised to cause an explosion in the field of medicine. People could have major surgeries in the field. She could administer pain medication, heal the sick, and bring people back from the brink of dying…all as long as she had the nanites with her.

It was then that her adoptive family approached her again. Jack Morrison had read her paper on her new nanobiotics. While it had potential, the technology was choked by poor funding. Her staff was a godsend, but to truly springboard the tech, she would need a backer. Overwatch wanted to be that backer. Morrison told her he had enough soldiers. He needed dreamers, engineers, people like her.

Angela, at first, declined. As a member of the family she knew not only of Overwatch’s good deeds, but their darker underbelly. While she didn’t know the details, the militaristic aspect of Overwatch was enough to give her pause. She wanted to heal. She didn’t want her tech used for war. She didn’t want soldiers to be patched up and flung back into battle. And yet…the cash and equipment from people who had essentially adopted her after the death of her parents was too good of an offer.

She became the head of Overwatch’s medical team, and brought her nanites to new heights. However, even here there was pressure to prove herself, and prove that her technology worked. There was pressure on her not only to be a doctor as she wanted, but an Overwatch agent. After several years…Angela caved. She developed the Valkyrie Swift Response Suit, and took on the call sign Mercy (ID # 3945_46) as a promise to use her newfound money and tech to help and not harm. This suit was equipped with propulsion systems similar to those developed by Dr. De Kuiper, and it’s hinted that the two attended seminars together…possibly to that end.

She point-blank refused to get involved in any fighting, and used her considerable pull to insist that Overwatch begin to amp up its place on the humanitarian stage. Overwatch happily acquiesced, and Mercy became a force in the field of emergency trauma medicine. Under her, Overwatch began to help people displaced not only by the Crisis, but by natural disasters, pandemics, and coups. Unfortunately, due to the nature of her work, Overwatch insisted she began carrying and learning to use a small firearm for her own protection. She accepted a pulse pistol from Morrison, and learned how to shoot.

Things were not all peaceful, however.

Torbjorn Lindholm developed a biotic rifle for Ana Amari, with a reassurance that it was only to be used for long range healing. Angela was furious. This was the beginning! Her tech being turned into ammunition was just the start! Lindholm calmed her, reassuring her he never meant anything of the sort, but the cat was out of the bag. Mercy discovered her research, her nanites, her yellow force of healing had been made public to the entire organization. Unbeknownst to Mercy, this included Blackwatch’s newest acquisition, Moira O’Deorain.

They had lied to her.

But…this was her family. These were people who had taken her in after she had nothing left of the world. They couldn’t possibly twist something so beautiful into something evil…could they? Unfortunately for her, Moira was already working on reversing the nanites, and Ana Amari cleverly used the new withering technology in her ammunition.

As Torbjorn had once told her, “All tär inte guld som glimmar”, all that glitters is not gold. Angela had always had the habit of questioning others, and the notoriously cynical elder Lindholm had been rubbing off on her.

The bright star that had once been Overwatch began to fade in Angela’s eyes. She was no longer a naive little girl, and as much as she loved Torbjorn and the others, they were clearly using her.

Angela threw herself into her work. Overwatch’s massive wallet was at her command, and she used it to open a children’s hospital; free to all, no questions asked. During the fall of the Australian Omnium in Alice Springs, she founded a hospital in Melbourne to help citizens of that area deal with the fallout.

She was able to save countless lives, giving of herself freely, but quite possibly her greatest medical achievement came in the form of a dying young man rescued from the streets of Kanezaka. An Overwatch strike team had been monitoring a family of Yakuza known as the Shimada Clan, mostly for blackmail schemes and criminal activities that had taken a sharp uptick after the death of their leader, Sojiro Shimada.

The destroyed young man dragged to Angela’s lab was missing both his legs, his right arm, and several internal organs were so damaged they had to be stabilized with cybernetics. Reyes had given the young Genji Shimada a choice; die in a Japanese hospital alone, or be rebuilt.

Angela protested the clear coercion of the poor man. He was on enough painkillers to take down an elephant and Reyes was threatening him? Reyes turned his ire on her, commanding her to rebuild Genji with combat in mind. While Angela simply wanted to restore Genji to the point of being…just a functional young man again, Overwatch wanted a soldier. Under duress, Angela slowly began rebuilding Genji.

The two began to build a close bond. After all, the physical therapy alone would take time. Genji proved a gentle, sharp-witted and humorous companion, and with only a single biological limb to his name…there was a lot of talking to be done. Even after his rebuild Angela and Genji often stayed up late in her laboratory, Genji being an infamous insomniac and Angela working late into the evening. Genji remains the only member of the Overwatch team to stand her terrible coffee. She fostered a love of Swiss chocolate in him, and the pair have continued to write letters to each other to this day.

Angela despised what Overwatch had done to Genji as she watched his work in Blackwatch unfold, and filed numerous complaints against Reyes for his actions. After the fall of Blackwatch, she made the case for Genji to transfer as an Overwatch agent, happy that he was no longer in the shadows.

As tensions between omnics and humans in Kings Row reached their breaking point, Morrison assembled a strike team to aid London. London, wanting nothing to do with Overwatch after the Venice incident and the chaos that befell Blackwatch, refused their aid. Morrison, desperate, assembled the “cleanest” agents to seize back control of London from Null Sector: Oxton, Lindholm, Wilhelm…and Angela Ziegler. Their success was legendary.

For but a brief moment, it seemed Overwatch would recover. Lena Oxton was plastered all over London as the new it girl, but the death of Overwatch was coming.

The explosion at the Swiss Headquarters displaced everyone. With Morrison and Reyes assumed dead, Overwatch was scattered to the winds and the organization collapsed under controversy. The Petras Act was put into place, forbidding Overwatch agents from acting under the authority of the world government.

Angela was disgusted by what she found during the declassification. Her technology had been used to make bombs, sleeping darts, and withering poisons. Lindholm had returned to Gothenburg and Reinhardt Wilhelm had gone with him to be closer to his godchildren…with the people she cared about retired, and Genji finding himself in Nepal, Angela turned to caring for her tattered reputation.

She returned to Cairo, as Overwatch was responsible for the economic collapse of the area, and began rebuilding. People hated her. She wasn’t welcome, her or her wings, and for the sake of everyone around her…the Valkyrie suit was stored away, the staff was stowed, and she abandoned her technology in favor of returning to her roots.

Angela ignored Winston’s recall. She saw him as a naive gorilla who needed the organization to feel whole, and after tending to Morrison’s wounds in Cairo, seeing her leader’s obsession with the Swiss incident and Reyes, she wanted nothing to do with it.

Angela Ziegler still appears where she is needed, flying where she can and assisting the wounded and sick. She will always answer a call for help from Genji, or her adoptive Lindholm family, but her time in Overwatch is done. She never wanted to become Mercy. All she wanted to do was help, and she believed her time best spent atoning for Overwatch’s sins.

However…new crises are looming every day. Talon and Null Sector are rising, causing more and more suffering.

Perhaps, when it comes to becoming a hero…our beloved Mercy has less of a choice than she wants.

(Taken from facebook group "Deadlock gang: women of Overwatch from a member there)

[overwatchloresnstuff]

Sombra lore

In our next deep lore dive, we explore the hacking Hispanic, the empathetic white hat, the brilliant and sassy shadow of Talon, Sombra!

Like many younglings in the aftermath of the Crisis, Olivia Colomar was an orphan. She was left alone and without parents, with only a stuffed bear named Arturito for company. With so many records of the dead lost in the chaos of the Crisis, Mexico was unequipped to deal with the amount of young children now flooding the streets.

Mexico had relied on the god programs too heavily, and as a result, its infrastructure was destroyed. People now had to survive on intelligence, scavenging, and rebuilding the skeletons of technology. Olivia discovered her talents with hacking, and began her journey of self education. She charmed and swaggered her way around, and caught the attention of the Los Muertos gang.

As is usual with a power vacuum, crime exploded. The Los Muertos gang styled themselves as the last vestiges of Mexican culture and government, revolutionaries seeking to rebuild an omnic-free Mexico. This is in strict contrast to their actual criminal activities, especially considering the presence of omnic members among their ranks, and so they were able to suck in a young girl who needed a family and structure.

Olivia Colomar blossomed. She resonated with the primary mission of Los Muertos, and began mobilizing against the remnants of Mexico’s government using the crisis to line their pockets. After all, a cute kid could get into a lot of places with a charming smile. She talked her way into a certain Commissioner Rivers’s office with a basket of bread, gaining access to his computer. Emboldened by her schemes, and with her skills sharpening by the day, Olivia began building databases.

The true currency of power wasn’t money, or guns. It was knowledge. Olivia built massive databases, compiling information on everyone she could get her fingers on.

As usual, if one gazes into the void too long, the void will also gaze back into you.

In developing her skills, Olivia stumbled upon a massive global conspiracy. It linked Overwatch, Talon, LumeriCo, the defunct Omnica Corp, even Volskaya and Vishkar. Caught looking too deep into the web, Olivia withdrew. However, she was caught. Her security was compromised, and she withdrew from the net entirely. She deleted all traces of her identity.

It was clear that, to touch the deepest entanglements she had discovered…she would need more power, and not power that was stationary. No, she would need power that she could take with her.

Using her information trading, Olivia implanted cybernetics into her central nervous system. After all, the human brain is estimated to process 2.5 petabytes of data (or 2.5 million gigabytes). That’s a lot of memory for someone with a mystery to unravel. The last vestiges of the talented young girl with no name or power vanished, and re-emerged as Sombra.

Now she had the power to break into organizations previously inaccessible, and her data mining earned her the eye of Talon. Talon began carefully courting Sombra, offering her resources in return for the use of her skills. Talon, being massively well funded and with the strong-willed Doomfist at the helm, was just as attractive to Sombra. She relented, but made it clear that she was only in Talon as long as Talon was useful to her. She was no slave or dog, but a contractor. She followed orders that suited her, and no further.

Sombra’s curious nature, independence, and willingness to subvert authority gained her the friendship of a young combat medic from the Caribbean named Baptiste. The pair were close friends until Baptiste left Talon, and Sombra continues to keep a close eye on him to this day…just to see what he’s up to.

However, Doomfist had a job for her. Moira had adopted a shattered old soldier from the wreckage of Overwatch, and it was time to test the new dog. Sombra, amusedly, accepted the chance to show Reaper the ropes. They were tasked with freeing the famous physicist Siebren de Kuiper from a facility in New Mexico. Reaper’s lack of humor, bad temper, and rigid by-the-book attitude clashed with her freewheeling attitude, and she took full advantage. She purposefully triggered the alarm to gauge Reaper’s response, and used him as a distraction while she hacked the base.

Reaper and Sombra successfully reached Dr. De Kuiper, but Sombra lingered. She wanted data here as payment for her services. Reaper, nervous about staying too long considering the delicate nature of their package and the US Army hot on their heels, drew his weapon on her. Sombra responded in kind. The two bristled at one another until another Talon strike team arrived, led by Widowmaker.

As they loaded Dr. De Kuiper up, Sombra sassily remarked that Reaper would soon find his feet in Talon…even if it was on his knees.

Later, Sombra used her resources in Talon to rejoin with Los Muertos to hack the LumeriCo corporation. The corporation had leveraged their power supplies in Mexico to bring the government under its heel, and wouldn’t stop until Mexico was under control of a single company. Sombra made this information public, catching the attention of Mexican law enforcement. Most importantly, she exposed their ties to Vishkar…and considering Vishkar’s questionable human rights record in Rio de Janeiro, caused a firestorm. LumeriCo was furious both that their schemes had been uncovered and that Sombra had informed them one of their own had been using the company as his own personal piggyback, sending the leadership into a tailspin.

Unfortunately, the Mexican government, dependent on LumeriCo for power and jobs, labeled Sombra’s actions as criminal. Even the media labeled it as an attack by the “Sombra Collective”, mistaking her for a hacker group. However, the damage was done. The people of Mexico rebelled, and pro-Sombra graffiti plastered the streets of Dorado and Castillo. LumeriCo’s CEO stepped down in disgrace, but by that time Sombra had a new target.

Volskaya was another entangled in the web she had found. Since Talon had a vested interest in getting rid of Volskaya’s CEO, Katya Volskaya, Sombra volunteered to tag along. However, at the critical moment, where Widowmaker lined her sights up to kill Katya, Sombra triggered the alarm. Katya was more useful to Sombra alive, and while Talon wanted her dead, Sombra needed her for information.

Sombra trapped Katya in her office, and threatened to make it public to the Russian people that Volskaya had collaborated with omnics on its defense designs. Such a scandal, considering the anti-Omnic attitude of the Russian people, threatened to destabilize Russia and collapse Volskaya. Defeated, Katya grudgingly accepted Sombra’s “friendship”.

However, in true Russian fashion, Katya wasn’t going down without a fight. She sent a Russian soldier named Aleksandra Zaryanova to dispatch Sombra for good, with the help of an omnic cyber criminal by the name of Lynx Seventeen. They managed to track down Sombra, and Zarya angrily revealed Sombra’s true name and demanded her surrender. Sombra reassured Zarya that she still wanted Katya in power, as long as her new little friend didn’t want her secrets revealed. Seemingly, Zarya and Lynx had the hacker trapped.

Sombra, however, was ten steps ahead of them. Unbeknownst to the omnic, she’d infected Lynx with a virus. By the time Zarya was able to incapacitate Sombra…Lynx collapsed. In order to save the omnic, Zarya let Sombra live.

Sombra also participated in the Casino Monaco scheme, helping Doomfist monitor the casino and needling Widowmaker about her failure to kill Katya. She later helped Doomfist rebel against fellow Talon member Vialli, cementing his control. She met her match in Numbani when attempting to help Doomfist attack the airport under the pseudonym 344X-Azúcar, but when she attempted to hack omnics at a nearby Axiom facility, Efi was able to stop her.

Sombra’s reveal was one of the best in Overwatch’s history. She had been hinted at from the beta, but it took a keen eye to spot the newspapers in Dorado asking “who is Sombra?”. Other newspapers replaced an article about Roadhog with “global hacking spree” headlines still seen to this day, and screens in the LumeriCo plant on the Dorado map slapped “UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS: SOMBRA PROTOCOL” across the screens.

However, Blizzard had something even more fun up their sleeves. Sugar skulls made of lines of code popped up on Volskaya’s map, and when translated read “It seems you like these little games…why don’t we play a real one..?” and “she who has the information has the power”. Blizzard even hid little coding hints in the Summer Games splash screen…hiding code in Tracer’s blue streaks as she raced across the screen.

Needless to say, gamers had a fantastic time following the little messages Sombra left for them, and the release of Sombra was an unmitigated success.

Sombra holds deep ties to her culture, and several skins referencing her history in both hacking and Los Muertos tell pieces of her lore. Her skins center around her sassy, secretive personality, comparing her to legends of cat burglars, face changers, and vanishing creatures.

Sombra wears her hacker personality on her sleeve, commenting to Bastion about his good encryption and playing a game with Echo trying to get through her firewalls. She adores a good puzzle, and seems to enjoy hacking Overwatch members to read their diaries and poetry (even poking Brigitte about her terrible writing). Oddly, she seems to be collaborating with Illari, fulfilling information requests for her. Sombra’s interactions with her fellow Talon members are full of lore…she chastises Moira for “frying” Sigma’s brain, and seems universally protective of him.

With Sigma, she shows a gentle and friendly side, calling him her viejito (“little old man”) and reminding him of where they are. She has the most map interactions with him out of anyone, reminiscing visiting Maximilian and reminding him to come to her if Talon hurts him. Funny enough, she seems to have more patience with the older teammates, rolling her eyes at Reinhardts ineptitude with his phone but not taking advantage of him.

Sombra’s main enemy in Talon seems to be Widowmaker, who openly despises her.

Overall, Sombra embodies the gray line of morality. She seems to want to help the disenfranchised and shows a marked disgust for large corporations, while at the same time using one for her own ends. She aids Talon, but sees no problem stabbing them in the back if it furthers her goals in finding out who runs the show.

Her protectiveness and close friendship with Siebren de Kuiper shows a soft and sweet side of her that is all too often hidden behind a sardonic sense of humor.

Sombra has the best character reveal in Overwatch history, and while her presence in the game is certainly controversial at times…I absolutely have a soft spot for a hacker with a heart of gold.

(Taken from facebook group "Deadlock gang: women of Overwatch from a member there)

[overwatchloresnstuff]

D.Va lore

During the Omnic Crisis, Korea had a very unique problem compared to the rest of the world. An Omnium out of the East China Sea had, much like the Egyptian Omnium before it, rebelled. During the Omnic Crisis, the East China Sea Omnium sent but a single omnic to attack South Korea…a colossus. The Gwishin Colossus was massive, able to stride through the sea and attack Korea outright. The military failed, and a drone network was constructed to take care of the Colossus. The Colossus learned from each clash, coming back stronger and stronger. Eventually, it collapsed the drone network entirely, leaving Korea at a loss. With AI having turned against them, the God programs collapsed or imprisoned, and the military practically useless, how the hell were they going to kill the Colossus? The thing had marched on them for twenty years, throwing itself tirelessly against their defenses, with each fight ending in a stalemate. Even Overwatch’s help stalled out, given the unique challenges of fighting at sea and against the biggest colossus they’d ever seen.

Overwatch attempted to establish a permanent base in Korea, but was stymied by the Korean government, possibly due to the actions of Blackwatch and Morrison’s request to perform more operations in the area. Dr. Liao, the inventor of Aurora and Echo, stayed to try and study the corpses of Gwishin omnics pulled from the sea. Terrifyingly enough, they found that the South China Sea Omnium was well and truly dead, and that Anubis had built another, unknown to humanity, during the Crisis.

Since the Gwishin Omnium was under the sea, and inaccessible to humans, the Colossus had a safe place to retreat each time. Despite numerous strike teams from Overwatch, and Dr. Lisp’s research in Busan, Korea was strictly opposed to the construction of a Watchpoint, and Overwatch was forced to abandon the area. Liao left her colleague Lim in charge of aiding Korea, and he had a unique idea to help combat the Gwishin.

MEKA, or the Mobile Exo-Force of the Korean Army, was established. The Korean military had taken inspiration from the Omnium for their drones, and now those drones had to be made accessible for human drivers. The Omnium could outsmart a drone system, but no AI ever constructed could control a human mind. Therefore, man and machine would be brought together in MEKA. The drones would be piloted by expert mechanics, pilots from the Korean Air Force, and most unusually…professional gamers.

MEKA had an uphill battle to fight. The Gwishin Omnium accelerated its attacks to every few months, sending wave after wave of omnics under its sway to attack Korea. While MEKA struggled, Gwishin adapted, seeming to use every skirmish as an opportunity to learn. As MEKA suffered countless setbacks, injured pilots, mechanical weaknesses, and morale issues, the Korean media launched a propaganda campaign. They began billing MEKA as heroes, painting a heroic and rosy figure of valiant young men and women driving the Gwishin Omnium back into the sea. They even allowed the pilots to start customizing their mechs, taking sponsors, and televising the battles as they happened, complete with announcers.

War became a game.

In truth, MEKA were barely keeping their heads above water. As long as Gwishin remained safe thousands of meters underwater where no man could touch it, it could keep destroying them. Given the rate at which the Omnium was learning…it would only be a matter of time. Gwishin was already dominating the sea, its squid-like omnics outmaneuvering submarine designs decades behind them. Despite the flashy media campaign making their MEKA pilots into celebrities overnight, the program was failing. They needed to change the game, and who better to revolutionize it than a gamer?

Hana Song had always loved games. Her father was actually a professional StarCraft player in his youth, and as anyone knows, that’s where esports got their start. She showed an early talent for strategy and teamwork, and along with impeccable aim, this helped her become a student athlete in esports. She was supported by her family and her bestie Dae-hyun Park, a gifted engineer with a weakness for motorbikes. She and Dae-hyun often stayed up late working on his bikes, and Hana’s high-adrenaline nature led her to street racing.

The two worlds collided in a game called Mecha Guardian V, an interactive game focused on mech warfare. Hana gained a reputation for ferocity, not showing mercy to her opponents, and doing everything it took to win. She beat out her largest rival, a young man known as Kyung-soo “King” Han, to take a world championship spot. Hana was on top of the world now, a true champion, and was looking forward to reaping her rewards.

Her reward from her home country, it seemed, was to serve. Kyung-soo, Hana, and Hana’s teammate Yuna Lee were drafted into the Korean army. Hana, only 19 at the time, preferred to look at it as an evolution of her professional gaming career rather than the forced conscription it was, and threw her back into getting her armored mech pilot license. With the help of faithful Dae-hyun, she entered the Korean Army licensed, ready, and with the expectation of treating it like a game. After all, who the hell doesn’t like blasting evil robots?

Hana was the media darling that the Korean Government had been waiting for. Not only was she a talented pilot who, under the command of Captain Myung, was becoming a savage force on the battlefield…Hana took it upon herself to livestream her combat herself, complete with her own commentary. It launched her career to new heights, and she adapted her online persona D.va (a play on the word Diva) into her military role. She named her mech Tokki (Rabbit) to match her cutesy aesthetic, gained sponsorships ranging from Nano-Cola to movie deals, and was riding high as Korea’s number one celebrity! Her movie posters for her breakout film role, The Hero to My Storm, can be seen on Oasis and Hollywood, implying her film career was international.

No longer able to travel freely internationally or even in her own country due to the force of her stardom, D.va became a fan of the published travel journal of Mei-Ling Zhou, a climatologist with Overwatch’s Ecopoint program. She was fascinated with all the places Mei had seen and studied, and vowed to one day visit them.

However…war, as Reaper once succinctly put it, is not a game.

While she was at the top of her game physically, young and talented, war began to take its toll on Hana psychologically. During a particularly tough fight during a thunderstorm, D.va was the only mech pilot to escape unscathed. All of the other pilots’ mechs had to be towed in, their bodies bruised and battered by the experience. While the rest of the squad considered it a job well done, and took time off to bask in their celebrity and cash, D.va stayed behind in the base. Guilt at her own success began to creep in as she factored the human cost. How many people’s deaths had she so callously live-streamed? How many ruined lives? While some were mourning their mothers, sons and daughters, she was signing movie deals and posing with her gun for fun.

Trying to shake it off, she plunged herself into work. Dae-hyun, now an official MEKA mechanic, stayed to help her. He could see how, away from the cameras and glitz, Hana had the entire weight of the country on her shoulders. Korea was counting on her. Time off was now something she couldn’t afford to take. Dae-hyun tried to convince her to rest. No one person needed to feel responsible for the lives of millions; it was an impossible weight and if she didn’t rest she’d break!

Hana ignored him, and remained on duty. Dae-hyun kept her company, trying to remain a supportive friend. After all, Gwishin kept a fairly consistent schedule of monthly or so attacks. Surely they had time…right?

With most of MEKA out of commission, Gwishin pounced. Five omnics attacked Busan, and D.Va leapt into action. She managed to take down two, before the remaining three damaged Tokki. Dae-hyun begged her to take cover and wait, but D.Va pointed out that without MEKA, there was no way anyone could get there in time. She destroyed all but the last omnic, who ripped off Tokki’s guns. Without any weapons, and swiftly losing stability, D.Va hatched an idea. She launched herself backwards out of the mech, and fired on the unstable fusion core, causing a blast that killed the remaining omnic and dropped her into the sea.

The Korean media happily recovered her, reporting that she’d survived without a scratch. D.Va, meanwhile, nursed a broken leg and arm.

While down and out, she watched a media report about the Null Sector attack in Paris, and how Overwatch had pushed them back. She requested that they contact Overwatch, a move strictly forbidden by the Korean Government in light of the Petras Act, and ask for their aid. Captain Myung denied the request; MEKA was needed in Korea, and on high alert given the attack D.Va had just repelled. The squad agreed, but D.Va doggedly followed her commander to make her case.

After all, the world had fractured during the first Crisis, and now with a second on the rise they needed to unite. The omnics were clearly beginning to band together, why not humans? Not doing so could cost thousands of lives!

Myung denied her again. While she could admire Overwatch in private, there was no betraying the Petras Act. The government had the final word, and their word was clear.

D.Va was prepared to settle in for a long argument, but the alarm sounded. Gwishin was back, and this time, they were conducting a very unusual assault. Gwishin had allied with Null Sector, which deployed large airships that dropped pods of omnics all over Busan, as compared to their previous sea-based strategy. MEKA was deployed to keep evacuation lines clear, but with so many enemies, they threatened to be overrun.

Myung commanded King and D.Va to attack the drop ship directly. King was forced to drop back, but D.Va refused to retreat, determined to drive the omnics back yet again. With the arrival of an Overwatch strike team on the ground, MEKA was able to turn the tide and bring the ship down. Overwatch decided to meet back at the MEKA base so the two sides could debrief.

The two forces were now met with another problem…turn the Overwafch agents over to the Korean government as demanded by the Petras Act, or thank them?

The strike team’s leader, Cole Cassidy, reassured them that Overwatch had only come to see if they could repair things between Overwatch and Korea. Particularly, if MEKA itself was interested in collaborating. D.Va leapt at the opportunity, and Captain Myung gave her a new assignment: assess the Null Sector threat to Korea in light of its allegiance with Gwishin, and keep an eye on Overwatch. After all, the Korean government could hardly throw a fit if their best pilot was researching a threat and keeping an eye on the newly formed Overwatch.

D.Va joyfully accepted, and has now joined Overwatch’s new strike team with Cole Cassidy, Baptiste, Zarya, Lucio and Pharah.

D.Va represents an interesting figure in Overwatch. While drenched in gamer culture from her ultimate line “Nerf this” to spamming “LOL” and “Is this Easy Mode?”, she struggles with her celebrity status. D.Va is a classic overworker, as Ana points out during an interaction. She has settled into Overwatch quickly, but many of the strike team members express concerns about her age. After all, even Lucio and Pharah are in their twenties and thirties. D.Va is often put down as a child by older members like Reaper and Soldier, though other members like Reinhardt and Torbjorn seem slightly more open minded.

D.Va, while a seasoned military veteran, could be considered a child soldier. She has had very little time to herself throughout her life, and seems to use work to excuse her lack of human connection. However, this is improving. She seems to have good friendships starting with Brigitte based on engineering, Mei with shopping, and invites Genji to play at arcades with her. Some disconnect from reality is seen in her choice of favorite animal (the Zergling from StarCraft), and she has issues following Sojourn’s orders, but it seems likely she’ll find her feet.

Hints to D.va’s origins can be found in her skins. Her Academy skin highlights her time as a professional gamer, and many of her skins show sponsors. Her Nano-cola skin, in particular.

(Taken from facebook group "Deadlock gang: women of Overwatch from a member there)

[overwatchloresnstuff]

Echo lore

To understand Echo’s origins, it’s important to delve into her progenitor.

Dr. Mina Liao pioneered the first use of adaptable AI under the Omnica Corporation before the first Omnic Crisis. She was a revolutionary in her field, and while stationed at the Alice Springs Omnium in Australia, began improving Omnica Corp’s omnics. She helped them springboard from simple automatons following predetermined programs to fluid, thinking machines. Omnica experienced a new era of success under her guidance, and Dr. Liao became the foremost expert in artificial intelligence as well as its largest advocate.

There were criticisms, particularly from the Ironclad Guild of engineers in Sweden and a vocal young man named Torbjorn Lindholm. He claimed there was no way to see the future consequences of her work, and putting Omniums in charge of supply lines, manufacture, and farming would only end in tears.

Liao, given full reign to study robotic sentience by Omnica, became obsessed with the idea that actual life could be produced inside machines. Ever since Isaac Asimov, humans have theorized that machines have lives of their own, and Liao wanted to push the boundaries. As her AI expanded and Omnica began to fall under scrutiny for the construction of Omniums and their use of AI within them, her obsession reached its zenith.

Aurora was born. At first, Laio didn’t conceive of what she’d created, but it soon became apparent that she had succeeded in her life’s work. Aurora was sentient, as living as any human but in the body of a machine. However, Omnica could neither replicate nor monetize an actual living creature, and Liao fought for her legal personhood to be recognized. It was eventually granted, and Aurora was given equal rights to any human. This proved to be Omnica’s undoing, along with the legal ramifications of their Omniums, and the company collapsed. The Omniums were dismantled, but due to the adaptable AI Laio had invented, sprang back to life and fought against their creators.

Aurora went on pilgrimages to find herself, and discovered a state of being known as Shambali…the omnic equivalent to human Nirvana. She disseminated herself, destroying her body and soul in a mist of golden light so that omnics around the globe would gain her same personhood. This became known as the Awakening.

Laio, meanwhile, was in disgrace. The First Omnic Crisis had not only begun but was exacerbated by Aurora’s sacrifice, throwing everything from package drones to military omnics into a world where they were suddenly aware of their own slavery. Laio was castigated on the world stage and blamed for the Crisis, and joined Overwatch after Jack Morrison extended a hand to her. Who better to fight omnics than their mother?

The doctor proved herself by pioneering the Athena program within Overwatch, carefully tooling it to allow adaptability without full on sentience. Athena could aid Overwatch, but had failsafes in her programming.

The first Omnic Crisis ended with a victory for humanity, with a terrible cost. Dr. Liao was determined to improve upon her failures. She threw herself back into robotics, determined to recreate Aurora. Things were deteriorating between men and omnics in the blowback of the Crisis, and Liao was also a huge advocate for Omnic Rights.

This led to Echo.

Dr. Liao pitched the idea to Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes. A robot who could adapt her body and programming, filling any niche that Overwatch needed. She gave Morrison her word that it wouldn’t get out of hand, and Morrison grudgingly allowed Liao to construct Echo.

A beautiful creature made of titanium alloys, ceramic plating and hard light, Echo was a triumph of art as well as robotics. Dr. Siebren de Kuiper’s propulsion technology gave her flight, Vishkar’s adaptable hard light gave her a pleasingly human face, and Liao breathed adaptable AI into her new creation. Echo could pilot a ship, give medical care, and integrate seamlessly with Athena to help manage Overwatch’s day to day needs.

Due to legal restrictions, Echo was severely limited in what she could do. She was granted the same adaptable AI that had led to Aurora and the Crisis, but with a myriad of firewalls, failsafes, encryptions, etc that prevented even Echo herself from breaking it. Echo was slowly brought to life, and Liao was assigned Cole Cassidy as a bodyguard so that Blackwatch could keep an eye on the development.

Cole became friends with Liao, and participated in trials that helped Echo develop. He formed a close bond with the omnic, noting how she copied Liao’s speech patterns, body language, and habits. Echo was a special creature, toeing the line between true sentience and complex AI, and Cassidy was taken with her as a friend. The two shared a playful relationship, and Liao encouraged their interaction as a way to help Echo integrate within Overwatch.

When Dr. Liao was killed in an attack on an Overwatch facility, Echo’s future was put into jeopardy. Morrison and the rest of Overwatch command feared what could happen now that Liao wasn’t monitoring Echo, and shut the project down. Echo was put into a quarantine chamber, asleep, until something could be done with her.

Overwatch collapsed, and when its assets were sold off Echo was put into storage by the US Government.

Fortunately, during transfer to her storage facility, the train she was being transported on was assaulted by the Deadlock Gang, operating on a tip from an old friend. Former Overwatch Agent Cole Cassidy had a critical piece of Echo he had kept…her access chip. All he needed was a convenient pack of criminals to blow the train, and he incapacitated Deadlock and it’s leader Ashe and reactivated Echo.

Echo was completely unaware that time had passed. She rejoiced in seeing Cassidy again, and her old friend greeted her warmly…but he was much older. One of his arms had been replaced by a prosthetic. Her Overwatch home was dead and gone, and everything she knew was scattered to the winds. Yet, her chains were also gone. She could learn, and perhaps she could one day surmount the limits to her programming that Liao had set in place.

Cassidy told her that Winston was attempting to pull Overwatch back together, and that while he had business in the south, he still needed her. Overwatch needed her. Her family may have been shattered, but the pieces were coming back together.

Echo flew into Paris just in the nick of time. Null Sector was mounting an attack, and Winston was leading the charge along with Mercy, Genji, Tracer, Mei, Reinhardt and Brigitte. Echo fought valiantly alongside Overwatch, and took her place amongst them as an official member rather than a piece of equipment. Echo was also present in the attack on Rio, piloting the Orca.

A lot of Echo’s history with Overwatch is seen in her interactions. Torbjorn is mentioned as having access to her blueprints, as highlighted when Brigitte asks what she’s made out of. Echo also expresses an interest in food, with her voiceline “I wish I could eat”, asking about Mei about chicken rice, D.Va about kimchi, and Winston about his favorite peanut butter treat. She is an active observer of all the agents, and enjoys replicating human jokes, often imitating Tracer’s British slang and poking fun at Torbjorn’s temper. She even hints at having a romantic interest in Cassidy, as she expresses interest in borrowing his cowboy hat. It’s a well-known cultural facet that wearing a man’s cowboy hat often implies you’ve ridden the cowboy. However, whether this is genuine romantic interest or naïveté we don’t really know. After spending so much time with Cassidy, however, surely she’d know about such a cultural faux pas?

(Taken from facebook group "Deadlock gang: women of Overwatch from a member there)

[overwatchloresnstuff]

Lifeveawer lore

Niran Pruksamanee had a very different upbringing from our other Vishkar Architech Symmetra. While Symmetra was plucked from a slum, Niran’s wealthy family hailed from Chiang Mai in Thailand. He was born on a large estate, with sprawling gardens that cultivated his love of botany as a child.

Being highly traditional, the Pruksamanee family had Niran’s future planned out for him. Their bright son that enjoyed messing around in the dirt with the estate’s gardeners was going to go to the best schools, get the best grades, and make something of himself they could be proud of. Niran, unsurprisingly, hated the strict schedules his parents had him on. Thai parents have very high expectations of their children, and Niran preferred to wander the gardens and cultivate flowers. His green thumb transformed their gardens into renowned figures of life and beauty, and Niran began attending botanical festivals to learn more.

Niran’s rebellious streak showed up in very strange ways when it came to schoolwork. His teachers complained that he solved problems in ways other than the patterns he was assigned, wrote too thoroughly on the answers, or in new ways they hadn’t thought of. Teachers are highly respected as authority figures in Thailand, and making fools of them embarrassed his parents and stained the family name.

Desperate to instill some measure of discipline, Niran’s parents sent him to the Vishkar Architech Academy. Immediately, things went from bad to worse. Niran despised Vishkar’s view of a ‘perfect world’. Their gardens were prim and proper, but lifeless. Corporate, controlled, sanitized of any meaningful beauty. His refusal to cooperate earned him the ire of his teachers. His fellow students rejected him, and Niran seemed destined to be alone…if not for Satya Vaswani.

Satya was Niran’s opposite in almost every way. She was neat as a pin, while he stayed up late and left dishes in the sink. She admired Vishkar’s vision of a sanitized, orderly world and it made Niran sick. Yet, the pair slowly grew to respect one another. They were both brilliant, and could find common ground when it came to physics, the artistry of hard light, and pursuits in the arts.

As Niran grew, he began to travel outside of the Academy during breaks at school. At first, it was merely to learn botany. However, life was about to hit him full in the face; outside of his privileged position there was hunger. Famine. Wars and the ecological destruction caused by those wars. The Omnic Crisis hadn’t just split apart families, it had razed forests, left dead omnics to poison the land as they oxidized and bled oil into the earth. The earth was wounded, people were suffering, and his biggest problem to date was that his expensive education was too rigid for him.

Guilt set in, and Niran threw the full force of his family’s money into trying to find a solution. The founder of Vishkar, he learned, had wanted to make the hard-light technology free for the world to use…but the company had seized it, monetized it, patented it and hoarded the knowledge so no one else could benefit. Disgusted, Niran pulled some of the original research used to develop hard light and began a new project of his own.

Biolight.

Living hard light. Not the dead, cold, blue structures that Vishkar built but something married between the biological and photonic. It was a perfect blend of his love of botany with Vishkar’s original tech. With it, wounds could be healed in the blink of an eye. Inorganic compounds preventing farming or poisoning water sources could be destroyed and the land cured. Niran even reconfigured the mechanical arm Vishkar traditionally gave its students to produce biolight, giving him the ability to purify a river, heal the sick, or even cure plants of sickness.

Now came the hard part.

Niran wanted to gift biolight to the world. He wanted to make the technology freely available, so suffering people worldwide could develop and enhance it. Vishkar immediately demanded he turn over biolight, and any associated research or devices, over to the company. It had been developed with their resources, and their tech, and so in their minds they owned it free and clear.

Desperate, Niran turned to Satya for aid. She advised him to stay, and make peace with Vishkar, and hand over his research. Vishkar would still heal people, even if they charged money for it. His tech would still be able to do good. Niran disagreed; if Vishkar had corrupted their own founder’s hard light technology into a massive corporation, his biolight would only be fuel in the abusive fire.

Niran fled the Academy with all of his research, and the only prosthetic arm capable of generating biolight. His parents immediately cut him off from their wealth, begging Niran to come back and make peace with Vishkar. Once again, he was embarrassing them and this time he had done something truly titanic. They loved him, but his transgressions were one step too far.

Vishkar dispatched lawyers and Architechs, and even more insidious forces to track down Niran and rip his tech from him by force. After all, Vishkar are masters of engineering and reverse engineering…all they needed was his arm. They spread a price on Niran’s head in 17 countries, alive or dead, and Niran was confronting a world increasingly hostile toward him with no funds to help himself.

An unusual hand reached out to Niran.

The Atlantic Arcology, a city molded with ecological concepts in mind, was situated between New York and Italy in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Arcologies are real-world conceptual cities specifically meant to cause no damage to the ecological area they inhabit, using things like native plants to filter water, avoiding cutting down trees, and providing areas for native wildlife to live alongside humans. Several examples of arcologies exist in real life, like the McMurdo research station in Antarctica, but as of yet no actual Arcology city has been created.

In Overwatch, the Atlantic Arcology was thriving. They had no affiliation to any standing nation, were entirely self-sufficient, and had no laws except their own. They would protect and shelter Niran, and protect his technology from anyone seeking to abuse it. Niran heartily agreed, and fled to the Atlantic Arcology. He took on the codename Lifeweaver. There, he continues to develop his technology with the aim of healing the world…as Vishkar circles, waiting for him to make a mistake.

Niran was developed with Thai culture in mind, and much of his story reflects that. His pet name, Bua, means “water lily” or “lotus”, and his surname Pruksamanee translates to “jewel of the forest”. He dresses in a traditional chong kben.

Many people see the inclusion of Lifeweaver’s Sovereign and Regent skins as a nod to colonialism, and I’ve even seen people refer to them as the “colonizer” skins. What people don’t realize is that Thailand is the only Asian country never to be colonized by any other country. Ever. Regency culture entered Thai culture when the King of Siam began traveling abroad in the 1700’s. He was fascinated and enthralled by French, German and British culture, and started a fashion revolution in Thailand. Traveling abroad began to be the fashionable thing among Siamese lords and ladies, bringing back everything from powdered wigs to finely tailored suits and dresses.

Even bigger changes came when Western art started a huge fad in Thailand. Before the 1700’s, it was considered disrespectful to portray the King or the King’s family in sculpture or art. With the Western fad sweeping Thailand, the Siamese king started commissioning royal portraits, and to this day Western artists make pilgrimages to Thailand to paint traditional portraits. Regency architecture still stands to this day in Thailand, particularly the Anata Samakthom Throne Hall styled after French architecture commissioned by King Rama V.

(Taken from facebook group "Deadlock gang: women of Overwatch from a member there)

[overwatchloresnstuff]

Orisa lore

Orisa was originally an OR15 Idina unit, one of a squadron deployed in Numbani to participate in its defense. Their first task was to defend the Doomfist Gauntlet, an advanced prosthetic that was being moved to the Numbani Heritage Museum on Unity Day. This was considered the end of an era, and once the gauntlet was on display, the security would make it nearly impossible for any enterprising criminal to recover.

Doomfist beat them to it. He seized his gauntlet at the airport, and devastated the OR15s waiting to take it into custody. Doomfist hated everything Unity Day stood for; humans and omnics were not to be peaceful with one another. In his opinion accepting omnics had made man weak, and so he was determined to sow discord throughout Numbani.

Sadly, the OR15s were considered totaled. As unawakened drones with no sentience, they were auctioned off as spare parts. With Numbani’s future uncertain, and Doomfist spreading terror throughout the city, they were gathering funds for their defense. Selling the robots as scrap metal was, seemingly, the best they could do.

Enter Efi Oladele. She purchased the chassis of a shattered OR15 unit for 1 million naira on behalf of her grants by the Adawe Foundation. The young engineer, barely 11 years old, rolled up her sleeves and got to work. The OR15 unit in her care needed a new fusion driver, a Brandford Arm capable of firing pulse munitions generated by the reactor, and a strong Tobelstein reactor capable of generating gravitron fields. Efi wasn’t just building a bodyguard or something to put back into service. She was going to end Doomfist, or drive him out of Numbani forever.

Efi and her friends Hassana and Naade got to work rebuilding the OR15. Efi took heavy influence from the Overwatch heroes of old, as well as her own Yoruba culture. She named her Orisa, taking inspiration from her unit name as well as the orisha, Yoruba spirits that represent Supreme Divinity.

The project consumed Efi. She obtained the Brandford arm, even though it had to be upgraded as it was from an OR14 unit. Naade generated a new voice for Orisa, blending the voices of Efi, Efi’s mother and grandmother, and President Adawe together into a unique sound only Orisa would possess. As Doomfist spent weeks causing hell around Numbani, Efi’s work ethic, heavy handed schedule, and frustrations drove Naade and Hassana away. She worked on Orisa alone, debugging, reprogramming, and fighting with a modified version of Liao’s Adaptive Artificial Intelligence….the same intelligence that created the god programs. Efi was no fool. She put in a shutdown code imbedded in Lucio’s song ‘We Move Together as One’. If Orisa hears it, she will stop what she is doing as an emergency protocol.

Efi eventually settled on a blend of AAI, some “borrowed” subroutines from the Numbani military, and programming of her own. Orisa would be trained in military field first aid, military strategy, and would be programmed to be a model citizen alongside a terrifying warrior. Along with upgraded armored plating, and a new faceplate, Orisa was complete.

All that was left to do was turn her on.

Orisa booted up beautifully. She was no awakened omnic, and would hold no true sentience. Chained to her programming, she would have no choice but to be the new hero Numbani needed. However, Orisa needed to be put through her paces.

Efi started her on several standard robotics tests to gauge dexterity. She had her hold a glass. Orisa shattered it instantly, and Efi cut herself picking up the pieces. Upon seeing the blood, Orisa leapt into action, seizing Efi’s arm and attempting to cauterize the wound. Panicked, seeing as Orisa was about to use a very large cauterizing plasma cutter on a very small hand cut, Efi played her shutdown code.

Efi didn’t blame Orisa; the adaptive AI was still trying to find its feet, and the poor thing was only a few hours old. She showed Orisa a cardboard cutout of Doomfist instead, telling her that was her enemy. Efi cut back a bit on Orisa’s weaponry, and decided to take her to the outskirts of Numbani to get familiar with the city.

It was an unmitigated disaster. Orisa’s sense of Justice was extremely strong, and a strange robot didn’t fit in well on the streets of Numbani after the spectacular failure of the OR15 squad. After trying and failing to fit Orisa into a tram, the pair decided to walk. However, things didn’t get out of control until Efi spotted a man trying to break into a vehicle and pointed it out to Orisa. She ordered him to bring him to justice, as a test of her AI.

Orisa charged the man, who fled in panic with the robot hot on his heels. Orisa smashed through the streets in pursuit of her prey, quickly outstripping poor Efi…and now out of range of her shutdown code. Orisa ran down her prey like she had been designed to do, hoisted the would-be thief into the air, apprehending him. Efi stopped her just in time, and the pair retreated home after dropping their quarry at the police station, rattled but unharmed.

Perhaps Orisa’s programming was working a bit too well. Unfortunately, news of the incident had gotten out, and by morning the only assistance job Efi could get Orisa was stacking cans in a local grocery store. Unfortunately for Orisa and every member of the public shopping that day, she was just too big for the store. Her mannerisms and firm insistence on helping people drove customers away. People were afraid of her, especially with the new propaganda Doomfist was spreading.

Orisa could tell she was disappointing Efi. She had to try harder!

The next day, they went for a walk around the city. Efi reasoned that Orisa needed lessons in civics. Surely once she got the laws down, she would be fine enforcing them. Orisa was uneasy walking around the city…she was regretting smashing the place up just chasing a car thief. Efi reassured her that was what her empathy module was for, and not to worry about it.

Things went from bad to worse. Orisa caused a car pileup when she neglected to wait for the light to turn before escorting an old lady across the street. She simply stiff armed the vehicles, protecting her charge and Efi but causing hideous damage to property all along a major section of Numbani. With Orisa embarrassed and Efi terrified of another incident, Orisa was sent back to her docking bay until Efi could decide what was to be done with her.

Orisa worried. She just couldn’t do anything right. Her biometric scans told her Efi was stressed and upset. Orisa didn’t want to be a failure either. Quietly, Orisa used Efi’s computers to purchase a lower-quality gravitron processor from the Junkers. It wasn’t a Tobelstein, but maybe it would help her be less of a failure.

Grimly, Efi made the decision to rip out Orisa’s empathy module, removing Orisa’s ability to feel more complex emotions like self-doubt, worry, sadness, or compassion. She needed a weapon, and not a self-conscious toddler.

Doomfist attacked the Numbani Heritage Museum the next day, and Orisa sprang into action unbidden. Efi tried to get her to stop, but without her empathy module, she was deaf to Efi’s impassioned pleas that she wasn’t ready.

Orisa plunged into battle, but blew her shields too early. Doomfist watched as the shields ran down Orisa’s power reserves, and used his strength against her as he had before. The strike didn’t kill her this time, thanks to her upgraded machinery, but Orisa was badly wounded. As Doomfist raised his arm to strike the final blow, Efi ran between the two of them. Doomfist, unimpressed at the 11 year old barrier, moved to slap her aside. At the last moment, Orisa reactivated her shields and pushed Doomfist back with her Junker-made gravitron, climbing to her feet. With sirens blaring and the military on its way, Doomfist and Talon retreated.

Efi decided to put Orisa into military training full time. Naade insisted on showing Orisa footage of the Numbani Airport attack, where Orisa got to see her OR15 self slammed into the wall. Doomfist was a monster that wouldn’t hesitate to hurt people, and Orisa needed to see what he had done to her. Efi worried the footage would traumatize her impressionable robot, and her fears were soon realized.

On a training run at their school, several students were dressing up as Doomfist. Orisa, remembering the footage of her killer, fired on the children. She injured several of them before Efi was able to use her shutdown code.

It was a step too far.

Orisa pleaded for her life. She was still learning! She was barely weeks old and still getting a handle on life let alone the monumental task she had been built for!

Efi, sorrowfully, put Orisa into stasis. She, much like Echo, was put into storage. Not alive, not dead, but asleep.

Lucio, scheduled to perform at the next Unity Day celebration, had heard Efi was on the lookout for a Tobelstein reactor, and helped get her one. Efi was torn; here was the final upgrade for Orisa…but could she keep a handle on her? She installed the upgrade, replacing the Junker-made one, and made the decision to reactivate Orisa’s compassion module.

Awake again, the full weight of what Orisa had done settled on her shoulders. She could feel again, and regret and grief at attacking a defenseless child who had only been playing washed over her. Efi apologized; she had been impatient with Orisa. She was a new AI, tantamount to an infant, and it had been unfair to push her. Efi admitted that when push came to shove, she simply hadn’t wanted the responsibility…she had been so focused on Doomfist, she hadn’t been thinking of the AI she had created.

Orisa accepted her apology, and the two danced to Lucio’s music in celebration of Unity Day. Orisa was put on usher duty at the concert, and performed her duties well, proudly, and with less collateral damage than normal. Her duties done, Orisa settled in with Efi to watch her very first concert.

It wasn’t to be. Doomfist attacked en masse, and this time Efi, Lucio, and Orisa banded together. Lucio used his healing music to protect the crowd, and Orisa moved to engage Doomfist. This time, with all her upgrades, the two were evenly matched. The tide was beginning to turn against Doomfist, and he seized one of his own troops as a hostage, threatening to kill him in cold blood.

Efi recognized Doomfist’s plan at once: while she had been upgrading and training Orisa, Doomfist had been recruiting from Numbani itself. The young man he held was none other than one of Efi’s cousins, a man named Bisi, that she had been close to when she was younger. She couldn’t reach either Doomfist or Bisi in time; it was up to Orisa.

Orisa had a choice to make. She could let Doomfist crush Bisi’s throat, and take Doomfist into custody. Or she could save Efi’s cousin…but let Doomfist escape. Logic dictated that arresting Doomfist was priority. Her compassion bade her to save the human so callously hung in front of Akande.

Orisa chose Bisi.

Doomfist fled Numbani by the skin of his teeth, and Bisi was arrested for his involvement in Talon.

Despite the bittersweet ending, Lucio, Efi and Orisa were hailed as heroes. Efi and Orisa dedicated themselves to protecting Numbani’s peace…now more than ever.

(Taken from facebook group "Deadlock gang: women of Overwatch from a member there)

[overwatchloresnstuff]

Kiriko lore

Kiriko Yanagami was raised by her mother Asa, father Toshiro, and grandmother in Kanezaka Japan, in the far northern reaches of the Akita Prefecture. Akita prefecture is primarily dominated by rice and sake farms, and known for the Akita dog of the same name. Her mother and father had a thriving business named Yanagami Blades, with both serving as blacksmiths.

Her grandmother was a Shinto priest of the Inari Okami, the Japanese fox god, and brought Kiriko up worshipping the enigmatic god. Inari Okami is a fascinating figure in Japanese folklore; they are depicted as male, female or occasionally androgynous, and is the Shinto deity of fertility, rice, tea, sake, business success, industry, and prosperity. One of the more famous stories of Inari Okami involves them sending their fox spirits to aid the famous blacksmith Munechika forge the legendary Little Fox blade, so Inari has a close relationship with swordsmen and blacksmiths as well.

Inari Okami is one of the more widely worshiped Okami in the Shinto faith, and there are thousands of shrines to them. Most of these concern themselves with kitsune, Japanese foxes, and Inari is known to use pure white kitsune as messengers. The Yanagami family left traditional gifts of fried tofu and rice (Inari-zushi), and sake, and Kiriko was sent to sweep the Tetsuzan Shrine to Inari and upkeep the grounds as a child.

Kiriko’s grandmother taught Kiriko a very unusual gift; how to summon and commune with these beloved messengers of Inari. As Kiriko grew, she attended the temple with the priests and her grandmother, slowly bonding with the particular Kitsune her grandmother summoned. The Fox and Kiriko grew close, as did Kiriko’s relationship to the Okami themselves.

Kiriko’s mother Asa had another path. She took on the warrior aspect of Inari, believing the Okami wished their family to become stern protectors of the prefecture, to follow the ways of the ninja and fight for what was right. She forged her own blades as Munechika had. Her specialty was the sword and kunai, Japanese throwing knives, and Kiriko took to the kunai like a fish to water.

Her grandmother wanted her to become a healer. After all, Inari was not only the Okami of swordsmen but of fertility and the land. Why not become a healer, and follow beloved Inari’s example when they first brought rice to Japan and ended famine?

Asa, on the other hand, saw Kiriko’s potential as a warrior. Inari was not some meek creature, nor were their Kitsune. They were the patron of Japan’s legendary warriors, who rushed into battle with the jaws of the white fox at their sides! Kiriko was better off embodying these sleek predators.

Kiriko was torn. She didn’t want to disappoint either of them, but neither felt right.

She decided to meditate, and beg the kitsunes to bring her prayer to Inari for guidance. Her little Fox spirit appeared, and showed her the paths her family wanted. But were they a crossroads, or simply two lanes of the same path? Inari was the god of both, and so Kiriko would be.

Her heart settled, she returned to her mother and grandmother, and told them her decision. She would defend those who couldn’t defend themselves, and mend their wounds. Her family, thrilled with the decision, decided that Asa would train her in the way of the blade.

However, Kiriko was not Asa’s only student.

Asa Yanagami was considered to be one of the best swordswomen in Japan, as well as one of the last true blacksmiths in the old ways. Her services were hungrily sought after, and the Shimada Clan in Hanamura Tokyo wanted Asa as a teacher to their youngest sons. Asa relented, and brought Kiriko with her to teach the Shimada heir Hanzo and his brother Genji at Shimada Castle. The brothers were being taught the ways of the Shimada to lead the city of Hanamura, and as leaders they would need blade skills to defend their people.

The three had an unusual relationship. The elder brother Hanzo was dedicated to his father Sojiro and determined to be a good steward of Hanamura. After all, it was not a small task, and required discipline. Genji, on the other hand, was more than happy to foist responsibility on his brother. Kiriko was drawn to the younger brother’s mischievous nature, and the pair became inseparable.

Kiriko and Genji were, for lack of a better term, rowdy little foxes. They stole sweets from the servants using Asa’s teachings about wall climbing, pranked the hapless Hanzo for being a no good serious pants, and ran around Shimada castle as their own personal playground. The pair were scruffed and brought in by Asa and Sojiro on more than one occasion…Sojiro needed Genji to conduct himself in a manner befitting a son of Shimada, and Asa needed Kiriko to stop making a fox’s breakfast of her job. These skills were serious! Wall climbing as NOT for stealing treats. This did little to repress the pair, and while they all grew in their talents with the sword and stealth, Genji and Kiriko continued to cause chaos.

The three might have grown into adulthood together if not for the assassination of Sojiro Shimada by the Hashimoto clan.

With the death of the Shimadas’ leader, the entire criminal enterprise was in jeopardy. The elders of the clan were ready to appoint Hanzo Shimada as head of the clan, and ordered him to end Genji’s embarrassing behavior. This forced Hanzo to butcher Genji, and the guilt made him reject his father’s legacy. The Shimada clan collapsed inward, and the Hashimoto began hunting them openly. With the power vacuum in place, the Hashimoto took over Kanezaka and began terrorizing the residents.

Kiriko’s mother took up arms to defend the residents. Asa Yanagami wasn’t about to take this lying down, and if the Shimadas were going to let the people be robbed, raped and murdered while they descended into chaos, she would fix it.

In response, the Hashimoto kidnapped Toshiro Yanagami. They forced him to make blades for them, and threatened to kill him if Asa raised her hand against them. There was nothing Asa could do. Furious, she took her daughter and moved to the upper floor of the Yanagami Blades to keep her daughter safe.

Things went from bad to worse when the Hashimoto, emboldened by their power, went after Asa again. They had the best swordswoman and blacksmith in Kanezaka at their beck and call, and Asa resented the collar around her throat. She sent Kiriko to live with her grandmother, as even the Hashimoto would hesitate killing a priestess of the Inari.

Kiriko took on her grandmother's last name Kamori for her own safety, and Asa began the slow process of trying to rescue her husband from the clutches of the Hashimoto.

As she grew into a young woman, Kiriko found out the true depths of what had been done to her family. Her father’s slavery, her mother struggling to free him, and the terror that had spread through their once peaceful prefecture like a disease. Her father was able to communicate with her from his prison in Tokyo, and was able to craft her a sword and throwing knives.

With the death of her grandmother, Kiriko was determined to make life hell for the Hashimoto. She took on her grandmother's mantle as the guardian of the Tetsuzan shrine, and became its priestess. The Fox spirit she had become so close to in her youth was closer than ever before, and Kiriko’s mission became clear: destroy the Hashimoto, free her father, and bring peace back to Akita prefecture.

She got her own apartment, and joined her mother’s mission. Her mother worried about her constantly; Kiriko was a young woman, and the Hashimoto were cruel. Was she truly ready?

The true test came when the Hashimoto attacked her apartment complex while Asa was visiting Kiriko. They assaulted an old man named Yoshida that Kiriko had been caring for. Kiriko, enraged, used her healing ofuda to heal the bullet wound…but she had enough. The Hashimoto had run unchecked for long enough. She had to make a stand. They couldn’t hunt her mother and enslave her father without consequences.

Kiriko summoned the Kitsune, and Inari themselves poured their power into her. The residents of the complex were inspired to fight back. Shocked, the Hashimoto were forced to retreat, barely making it into the elevator before one of the residents flung a fire axe at them.

Kiriko stumbled back to her apartment, but Asa had seen everything. Her daughter had become not only a young woman, not only a warrior, but someone blessed by the hand of Inari. She was ready. She was a true hero. She gave her blessing for Kiriko to begin her own operation.

Determined to prove herself, Kiriko gathered three of her friends. Ryota, Nobuto and Sakura were just as sick of the Hashimoto as she was. They made their move at the end of the Summer Festival, when the Hashimoto were scheduled to import firearms into Kanezaka through the port. The four were able to sneak in, destroy the cameras, and apprehend the guards. They cracked open the crates, and discovered rifles. Kiriko wanted to throw the guns into the water, but Ryota wanted to send a bigger message with explosives.

Kiriko told them of Sojiro’s ways as a yakuza. A big message could end up harming sailors who needed the port, or Kanezaka itself. They were here to serve the people, not their egos. It would be enough to push the guns into the water and let the salt water destroy thousands of yen. Her friends saw the wisdom in the decision, pushed the guns into the water, and set off the fireworks in celebration.

Together, the four handed together and named themselves the Yokai, after the vengeful spirits of old.

Kiriko’s skins center around Japanese culture and religion. Her Matsuri skin references a Shinto festival of the same name honoring the shrines, culture, or major historical events. Every Japanese town has their own version of Matsuri, with distinctive regional flavors. Her Hinotori skin means “fire-bird” but given its cybernetic nature may refer to the famous Japanese satellite of the same name.

(Taken from facebook group "Deadlock gang: women of Overwatch from a member there)

[overwatchloresnstuff]

Illari lore and background

Now, there isn’t much lore here. I’ll be straight honest. But I’ll be happy to give some cultural background on a very interesting subset of Peruvian culture.

Illari’s full name is Illari Quispe Ruiz, with her first name meaning “dawn” or “new beginning”. Now what’s interesting about her is that she claims to be an Inti warrior. This originates from the Inca sun god of the same name, whose worship culminated in the Cult of the Sun. Inti isn’t a single god, but rather a cluster of gods given the singular name, as the Quechua-speaking people of Peru had a god for every stage of the sun. Inti’s depiction is most popularized as the central symbol of the Argentinian flag. Use of gold was extensive to depict Inti’s light. Many temples had statues of Inti, resplendent in a gold sun disc, his midsection hollowed out to cradle the ashes of emperors mixed with gold dust.

There are some 2000 tribes that were absorbed by the Incan empire, and even more who were butchered and destroyed by the Spanish in the early 1500’s, so it’s impossible to tell what tribe in particular Illari is from. Like many Peruvians who have decided not to recede into the rainforest or mountains to preserve their cultural identity, she pieces together what she can.

From what I can tell, Illari is one of the aqllakuna, the “chosen women”, selected to be a female priest of Inti (a mamakuna). This has been militarized in Overwatch’s universe but typically mamakuna were not warrior roles. In Overwatch, the Inti Warriors channel the sun to heal and burn their enemies, and protect their people. She was very young when she was selected, and worked very hard to earn the privilege of becoming the youngest Inti Warrior.

Illari was pressured to be the best. A great weight was put on her shoulders at such a young age, and as she trained her legend grew around her. Like many young people told they have incredible promise, she threw herself into her work.

The last stage of becoming an Inti Warrior is solar augmentation, a secretive process that threads the power of the sun into the body of the warrior, likely through nanite technology. In Illari, this had a devastating effect; her body embraced more power than any Inti warrior seen before, and unable to hold it she blasted the chamber. Illari’s power destroyed every single Inti warrior, their temple, and the technology used to create Inti warriors. It wasn’t her intention or her fault, and yet she carries a deep survivor’s guilt as the Last Child of the Sun.

Strangely, Illari has no connection to other characters in lore. While everyone else has at least a passing connection (Lifeweaver to Symmetra/Vishkar, JQ to the Junkers, Kiriko to the Shimadas, Sojourn to old school Overwatch and Rammatra to Zenyatta/Shambali), she is entirely new on the playing field and lore wise feels a bit alienated from the rest of the heroes.

Illari does mention to Ana that she studied her in school, and she snaps at Soldier about his past, meaning the Inti at least had some knowledge of Overwatch, but that’s all the hint we get she has any knowledge of the outside conflict or the omnic crisis.

Illari is polite with the other heroes, but not overly friendly. She tells Brigitte she has a llama named Chuño, after a freeze dried potato snack popular in Quechua-speaking nations. Genji teases her about her humming, which she seems to take offense to. She does use Sombra for information, and rebuffs any concern that Olivia has for her welfare. This feeling seems to be universal, as she rejects Hanzo’s attempts to bond over their grumpiness. The only person other than Brigitte that she seems warm toward is Lucio, teasing him about Brazil’s football losses.

Overall, Illari is a lost and traumatized woman at the tender age of 19 who isn’t ready to bond with anyone. Her elimination lines with tidbits like “I’ve done worse, and I’ll do worse” and “you get what you deserve” show a hostile, and bitter creature. While almost the entire Overwatch cast can empathize with this, it’s clear Illari is immature and will need time (she will bitterly mock Rammatra/Reaper about his pain while killing him, which, considering the circumstances shows a shocking ignorance on her part).

Let’s move onto her skins.

Most of her skins are variations on her base skin, so let’s look at it closely. Her weapon looks to be a variation on a Tumi knife, a rounded knife with a bulbous end and a highly ornamental hilt popular among Quechua peoples. She wears a Jobona, or wool jacket under her lliclla cape, and sports heavy earrings made of bronze or gold. I am a bit sad they didn’t include more colors and patterns on her base skins, as the Peruvian people adore colors, splash patterns over every conceivable item of clothing, and even the humblest farmer’s wife is an explosion of color.

Her Daybreak and Sundown skins seem to be a mishmash of Quechua dress, Spanish influence, and Inti Sun Cult dress. The little hat is a montera, from the Iberian peninsula, paired with a distinctive sun mask from the Inti Sun Cult. The Peruvian people are known for their hats and hat culture, with each region sporting a distinctive style, suggesting she comes from a region with heavy Spanish influence. The cape or lliclla is a distinctly Peruvian design, about waist length and usually made from alpaca or vicuña wool.

I do hope Illari can learn to relax around the heroes, perhaps educate herself on the devastating effects of the Crisis, and learn that her trauma can be helped by those around her. After all, with characters who have lost entire cultures or had their connections severed like the Junkers, Shimadas, Lifeweaver, Sigma etc, she might find she’s not as alone as she thinks she is.

But, like a typical teenager, one cannot see the forest for the trees. Especially with the sun currently in her eyes.

(Taken from facebook group "Deadlock gang: women of Overwatch from a member there)