Collated Nemesis / Phalanx Lore
Howdy! Here's a post that's a few years in the making, collecting all of Nemesis' lore in one place, with references to videos and the like. Unfortunately, there's a lot of rewrites of lore, but it's really interesting to track the evolution of the Phalanx. It's evolved over four distinct eras of Nemesis history, which I'll track here. For ease, I'll refer to the four eras as the OG Era, Nemesis Sub Terra Era, the Scare-maze Tetralogy, and the Reborn Era.
Beginning with the OG era, there are two distinct and important pieces of media which cover the lore of Nemesis. The first is this advert. It's the best record for the Nemesis Creature's lore, whether or not it's still accurate is questionable with how much from this era has been rewritten. You can see Alton Towers' love for human sacrificing cults appear from day one, as this video goes on to explain a cult surrounding Nemesis. The creature had the ability to mass hypnotize crowds into visiting it, and the cult leaders would use a chant to awaken the creature and let it feed. It... also implies that it would use the track to feed on the unsuspecting towns folk. The advert spends a good chunk of time devoted to setting up a talisman, that can protect people from the creature and its followers. The other important media related lore we got during this era was this comic. This comic is the first ever mention of the Phalanx, and they look absolutely nothing like their modern day counterparts. First of all, they're undeniably heroes. There isn't a single shred of moral ambiguity, they're 'lawful good' aligned. The Original Phalanx, established centuries ago, were created by aliens who had lost their home planet to Nemesis, and vowed to protect the rest of the galaxy from her. It's implied that King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were Phalanx Operatives, back in the day. In the comic, they're fighting the cult leaders, who are known as 'Nemesites' and call on the power of Nemesis to kill nonbelievers. They're very much just humans with glowy hands and wearing cloaks in the comic, however. Sights such as Stonehenge were established to protect our world from Nemesis, but some of the Nemesites had torn down the protection by Alton Towers, and that's how it was able to penetrate through. Hilariously, the main Phalanx soldier in the comics is a guy called Smile... And the Phalanx's secret base is known as The Sanctuary.
And then, for twenty odd years, Nemesis' lore was quiet. Nothing was added, nothing was really changed, until the Nemesis Sub Terra Era. Most of the content for the Nemesis Sub Terra Era came from Nemesis Sub Terra, the ride. The best link I can provide is this, which was the queueline video and provided a rough overview of the Phalanx. From this, we learnt that the Phalanx had been roughly completely reinvented, while keeping the same core. The Phalanx have no longer been protecting the world from specifically Nemesis since before King Arthur's time, nor do they seem to have a really old, secret base built in Alton Towers. They're now a militaristic research group, that provides 'tactical support to sensitive regions', and collaborate with global governments to be able to respond to any emergency within 48 hours. They've lost their unique, brightly coloured superhero meets knight aesthetic, and are more subdued and militaristic. But, for all intensive purposes, at this point they were still intended to be heroes. Or, at least not active villains. We're entering what was, in my opinion, the best characterisation of the Phalanx. They were well intending, largely egotistical, but insanely incompetent. For example, the main issue in Sub Terra is that the Phalanx created an observation station, where members of the public could learn about their research... only to lose control of that research and resulting in the implied deaths of civilians.
Next, we move onto what is arguably the worst archived section of Nemesis' history: The Scare-maze Tetralogy. The story begins with Dark Apocalypse, and then the narratives of Project 42 and Sub Species: End Games happen concurrently. Unfortunately, unlike above, most of the lore was stored only officially in the Alton Towers Scarefest webpage, which I've used the Wayback Machine to preserve.
The plot of Dark Apocalypse was: A deadly virus has spread across Forbidden Valley. The infected show signs of highly aggressive behavior and rapid physical decomposition. Phalanx control has quarantined the area however, a recent security breach has questioned their ability to contain the virus and keep society safe.
For Sub Species: End Games, we had: A post-apocalyptic, sewer dwelling community have been infested by a species from another world. In order to survive, they appease the creature’s hunger by sacrificing innocent people from the surface. However, over time, insanity has twisted the feeding ritual into a sick contest. Your demise is now their entertainment. This year find your way through the underground system with new routes to take but which will you choose? Let the death race begin! Located within The Towers." AND an audio walkthrough, which can unfortunately be the best way to experience Towers' past mazes.
For Project 42, we had: "Project 42 invites valiant volunteers to enter the underground Phalanx compound in a bid to outwit what awaits them inside. The Phalanx requires volunteers to enter the compound, find the vaccination and rescue the technician. Can you get out before contracting the infection?" AND this trailer
And finally, for Sub Species Operation Lockdown, we had: "This Scarefest, join The Phalanx on their latest mission. Take on a series of challenges to destroy the alien species and work together as a team to ensure the rest of humanity survive and you escape from Sub Species: Operation Lockdown." AND this video. Any information on Operation Lockdown is extremely difficult to come across, as it only existed for a very short period time as an escape room few people did.
The overall summary was that the Phalanx became established as trying to do the right thing, but consistently making critical errors that cost civilian lives. Tying it all into one narrative, it began when they lost control of the zombie like outbreak in Dark Apocalypse (the disease is called B10-NST). Continues into Sub Species: End Games, where after evacuating the townsfolk into the sewers to keep them safe from the zombies, the townsfolk now find themselves trapped with something even worse. And finishes with Project 42 where, after creating a cure, the Phalanx base becomes overran and they must recruit civilians to retrieve it. Throughout the story, there is only one scene where the Phalanx act with a truly malicious nature, and that's the end of Project 42, where they execute the volunteers by firing squad in an attempt to control the spread of the virus... It's also important to mention that Project 42 has a critical scene where it's revealed that the cure is missing.
I don't know much about this attraction, but it was brought to my attention that in a local university, Alton Towers created an escape room only for students called Sub Strain, where the cure to Project 42 is found alongside Dr Arten, who created it.
The first time the Phalanx are revealed to be truly antagonistic is during the Reborn era, where the 'Seek The Truth' began to whistleblow their recklessness. Now, it seems that the Phalanx have evolved from a noble, Arthurian Knights-eqsue organization that existed only to protect people from Nemesis, to a morally grey militaristic organization that's only interested in the profits that arise from selling the Nemesis Eggs. I asked a walkabout Nemesis actor about B10-NST & Project 42, and they reacted as if it was still part of the lore, and that the cure had been administered so it was business as usual. I've been light on the Nemesis Reborn Era lore, as I imagine a lot of people have been covering it.
Interestingly enough, it seems that, while I haven't really focused on them, the Nemesites evolved too. It's implied in Sub Species: End Games, that the creature trapped in the sewers with the townsfolk is a more humanoid nemesis creature-eqsue being, which would loop back around to the whole 'cult worshipping Nemesis and feeding it people to stay safe' idea. The junkers from Festival of Thrills seems to be implied to be the citizens who were once trapped in the underground sewers.
If you've gotten this far, o7! I salute you. I hope this helps you on your journey to understand the Nemesis lore better.
