The Possibility Wars have ripped across the planet, transforming all that was known and loved into a nightmare. Knights and barbarians duel across the British Isles while unspeakable Gothic horrors have engulfed Southeast Asia. The Middle East has been rocked by the pulp-fiction armies of Dr. Mobius, and North America battles desperately against the prehistoric reality of the Living Land. The Wars have touched every corner of the globe, as men and women of our beleaguered reality fight to reclaim what is theirs. Now is the time for heroes. And we're not talking about your average, piddling, run-of-the-mill Storm Knights, either. We're not talking about your Johnny-come-lately, instant-name recognition, I-gotta-do-it-cause-no-one-else-can kind of heroes. We're talking about the true heroes, the ones everybody knows and loves from ages gone by. We're talking about the iconic legends that honest God-fearing people looked up to before their lives were twisted forever by the coming of the High Lords. We're talking about the heroes who appear now, in their world's time of greatest peril, to bring hope to the hopeless and rally the forces of good around them. We're talking about the King of Rock 'N Roll, baby. Alternate Elvis In case you don't play TORG (and everyone should at least once), you can incorporate Elvis and his compatriots very easily into these other fine "let's go alter reality" games: RIFTS: Through some cosmic mishap,Elvis and the others come running through a minor rift that ripped through Graceland. MAGE: "Elvis of the Cult of Ecstasy?" Naw. But he is a Mage that Awakened back in the '70's and is re-animating the legends of Earth to fight against the Technocracy (Elvis only plays acoustic nowadays). IMMORTAL: He's fighting against the Sanguinary with the power of rock 'n' roll, baby! Elvis would make a great light-hearted break in the doom-laden world of the Immortals. West End's TORG role-playing game spends a great deal of time dealing with belief. As the High Lords invade Earth and seek to transform our 20th century reality into their genre-oriented realms, the beliefs and ideals of billions of people hold the keys to victory. If enough people accept the reality of an invading High Lord, if they believe that reality is the one true reality, then it becomes so and the High Lord has gained a greater foothold into our world. It is up to the Storm Knights to convince a transformed area of other possibilities. By telling tales and infusing possibility energy into the populace of a given area, they can damage the invading reality to the point where it can be undone. All of it hinges on the beliefs of the people. But these beliefs have had. more subtle effects on the world of TORG than most are aware of. When the invading Cosms landed on Earth, they created a surge of possibility energy across the planet - a surge which has yet to die down. In Core Earth (those areas of the world which have not been transformed by the invaders' realities), this surge has made real what was once only fantasy and mythical conjecture. For example, priests and holy men of various religions have been able to perform cognizant miracles since the Wars began-healing the sick, seeing visions from God, etc. Before the Wars, these miracles were merely forms of myths, believed in by many, but never scientifically proven or accepted by the general populace. The influx of Possibility Energy created by the Wars have credence to the beliefs of the faithful and made them a reality. Enough people felt that miracles could occur, hence they began to occur. And it all happened within the realm of uninvaded Core Earth. Similar beliefs taking concrete form have quietly popped up, and they had formed the crux of several "official" West End products. Many people believe that the Incas were visited by UFOs. SURPRISE! Here come the Space Gods. Some think that the U.S. government is controlled by a shadowy, sinister organization that works above the law, Guess what! The Delphi Council has been pulling the strings since the Wars began. In contested areas, even wilder Core Earth beliefs have become manifest: the Greek Gods have returned to Olympus and whispered rumors suggest that King Arthur will reappear during England's darkest hour (which has got to be soon the way things are going). The folklore and mythology of Core Earth have come to magnificent life, not as destructive invaders, but as the defenders of the reality which allowed them to manifest. Which brings us back to the return of another King. Aside from the above examples of tabloid paranoia, American folklore has remained relatively untouched by "official" TORG supplements. This is a shame, because there is a great deal of workable material within our cultural subconscious, Figures like John Henry, Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed are a part of our cultural heritage, and while not as powerful as a belief in UFOs or government conspiracies, they still have enough Core possibilities around them to come to life 'in our hour of need. Most of these figures have enough grounding in so-called "reality" (i.e. they were based on actual people or events) to make their return feasible by Core Earth standards, and their powers and abilities may be greatly enhanced by continuing belief in their heroics. But none of them have a hold on our national consciousness the way Elvis Presley does. Elvis's status these days is akin to a modern folklore hero, our century's answer to John Henry. Millions of people now believe that the King never died at all, and Elvis mythology has reached a near- fever pitch in recent years. He's spotted at swap meets in South Carolina or Union stations in Oklahoma City all the time. He's rumored to be working for the government, to have been kidnapped by space aliens and to have been cloned by unspeakable forces from another dimension. Needless to say, the guy's been busy. And in the possibility-warped world of TORG, he'd be busier still. As reality storms rip across the planet and possibility energy increases astronomically, the Elvis we all know is out there has come to life. The King we want to believe in, the thin, strong, guitar- strumming Hound Dog of the Apocalypse we desperately wish were cruising the highways of America somewhere has returned. And he's returned with a deadly aim, the soul of a warrior, and the powerful voice we all remember. He's gonna help us take back America, baby. This needs a little clarification Elvis has returned, but he's not the "real" Elvis; that is, he's not the historical singer/celebrity who died in 1977. That Elvis is dead and gone, as all mortals must one day do. The Elvis that has returned is something else, something more. He is the focus of all those people who believe he never died, and as such, he embodies an idealized image of the King. Gone are the eating binges, the ballooning figure, the losing battle with prescription medication. Gone are the uncontrolled appetites that ravaged the last few years of his life. This Elvis is svelte. He's been working out. He's kept himself physically fit and he's exercised enough self-control to avoid those peanut butter and bacon sandwiches. He is THE ELVIS. The number of King sightings began increasing astronomically when the Possibility Wars began. Soon, "authentic" photographs were appearing in checkout lane tabloids, and thousands of truckstop waitresses started swearing that he had come in for the Blue Plate Special. These reports were dismissed as such reports often were. They were compounded by the often outrageous descriptions that accompanied them: that his duck-tail hair was steel-gray, that he wore a katana strapped to his back (in addition to the guitar), and that his custom three-wheeled Harley had a large number of lethal weaponry attached to it. But as time went on, more and more "legitimate" sources began reporting on his whereabouts, and rumors of live performances were cropping up like weeds. Soon, entire communities had seen and heard him with their own ears. The nay-sayers were slowly silenced as more and more people stepped forward to confirm his existence. Then, one evening, he made a surprise appearance on the Larry King show. There was no doubt that the King had returned. But there was something else. Stories of his swordplay and six-guns were not just the fancies of star-struck fans. He seemed able to cross the most dangerous areas of the country unmolested, leaving bodies of bandits, eidenos, and dinosaurs in his Harley's wake. He could draw with the speed of lightning. He wielded the katana like a Samurai master. He always seemed to appear just in the nick of time to save an enclave from assault or assist an army convoy in getting their cargo through. And he was utterly immune to the effects of the Living Land and other Cosms. Elvis was a Storm Knight! Since returning, the King has realized what needs to be done to save his country. Strengthened by the adoration of his loyal fans (who believed even before the Possibility Wars) and by the recent influx of new fans (musical and otherwise), he has traveled the highways and byways of America, spreading the words of hope and truth. He sings his songs to any who would listen, while carving his legend anew by battling against the High Lords. Recently, he has hit upon an astonishing tactic: by singing about other folklore heroes, he can build upon existing feelings towards those heroes, and infuse them with enough Possibility Energy to restore them to reality. He discovered how quite accidentally during a performance at the Alamo in San Antonio: the power of the place and the possibilities of the crowd were drawn together in his singing to bring Davy Crockett to life! By choosing a place and an audience carefully, the King can imbue a legend with enough energy to create him out of thin air. So far, he has resurrected three: Crockett, Johnny Appleseed and John Henry. Other resurrections have been attempted, but they've lacked the grounding in Core Earth reality and the faith in the hearts of the people needed to bring them to life. His attempt to resurrect Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox was a complete failure. When the King discovered that Paul began as a promotion for a lumber company, Elvis decided to focus on legends that had roots in reality. United under the "Memphis Colonel", the four have traveled the length and breadth of North America, spreading the word and helping their fellow Americans however they can. Other Storm Knights have tried to join them, but are politely rebuked; appearing in the company of others may weaken the delicate energies that have brought them forth. Stats and details of the Four Horsemen of the Deliverance (as they now style themselves) follow. They should be considered NPC's, as their mythic stats are just too powerful for most fairly balanced campaigns: Hail to the King, Baby TORG and Kicking Butt Elvis Presley: King of Rock n' Roll (Storm Knight/Mage) Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier (Storm Knight/Tracker) John Henry, Railroad Worker Johnny Appleseed, Freelance Farmer Back to Shadis #23 Table of Contents Back to Shadis List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines © Copyright 1996 by Alderac Entertainment Group This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com