title: RPK

text: The RPK-74 feeds from a 45-round steel or polymer box magazine, interchangeable with magazines from the AK-74, and is designed to be charged from stripper clips. Drum magazines similar to those used on the previous RPK models were tested during its development phase, but were discontinued in favor of the 45-round box magazine. However, recently the production of a 97-round drum has started. This drum was designed to be used with the AK-107 but can also be used in any 5.45×39mm weapon with compatible magazines, such as the RPK-74 and RPK-74M. They were also testing with experimental conventional drums, a prototype 100-round belt fed drum magazine was also created. It attaches into the regular magazine well, but the cartridges are stored on a 100-round belt inside a box. A feed system removes them from the belt and puts them in a position where they can be loaded through the regular magazine well. This system is actuated by a lever from the magazine that clips around the charging handle. It is unknown if this ever went into service.


title: RPK

text: Standard equipment includes: eight magazines, six stripper clips (15 rounds per clip), a speedloader guide, cleaning rod, cleaning kit, sling, oil bottle and two magazine pouches. Some variants do not come with the cleaning kit option.


title: RPK

text: The RPKS-74 is the paratrooper variant of the RPK-74, equipped with a wooden folding stock from the RPKS.


title: RPK

text: The RPK-74M ("Modernizirovannij" "Modernized") is an updated variant of the RPK-74 developed during the mid-'70s. In line with the AK-74M assault rifle variant, the RPK-74M lower handguard, gas tube cover, pistol grip, and new synthetic stock are made from a black, glass-filled polyamide. The stock is shaped like the RPK-74 fixed stock, but also side-folds like the RPKS-74. The stock additionally has an easier to use release mechanism, replacing the bullet press release from the RPKS and RPKS-74. Each RPK-74M is fitted standard with a side-rail bracket for mounting optics. It also includes most of the 74M economic changes, such as the dimpled on barrel hardware, omission of lightening cuts from the front sight block and piston and stamped gas tube release lever. Updated magazines were produced by Molot with horizontal ribs going up the sides of the magazines. An export variant chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO was also introduced, designated as the RPK-201. Also for export is the RPKM (A.K.A. RPK-203) chambered in 7.62×39mm; it uses the same polymer furniture as the RPK-74M variant.


title: RPK

text: The RPK family of light machine guns are also available in a night fighting configuration. These weapons are designated as the RPKN, RPKSN, RPK-74N, and RPKS-74N. They have a side rail mounting on the left side of the receiver that accepts a NSP-3, NSPU, or NSPUM night vision sight. Models designated RPKN-1, RPKSN-1, RPK-74N and RPKS-74N can mount the multi-model night vision scope NSPU-3 (1PN51) while RPKN2, RPKSN2, RPK-74N2 and RPKS-74N2 can mount the multi-model night vision scope NSPUM (1PN58).


title: RPK

text: The RPK-16 squad automatic weapon (the number 16 indicates the year 2016, when the development first started) is Kalashnikov's response to the "Tokar-2" program, where it competed against Degtyaryov's submission. In 2018, the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation have signed a contract concerning the procurement of the RPK-16, and is expected to take over the role of the RPK-74 in the Russian Armed Forces.


title: RPK

text: The RPK-16 is chambered in 5.45×39mm which features the traditional Kalashnikov gas-operated long-stroke piston system, and shares several novel technical and ergonomic features derived from the AK-12 program. Such as a Picatinny rail on the top of the receiver for mounting various optical sights and on the bottom of the handguard to mount the Picatinny rail mounted detachable bipod instead of the fixed bipod of the RPK-74, an ergonomic pistol grip and a folding buttstock, and two main barrel lengths; a long barrel (when it is applied or configured for the light machine gun role) and a short barrel (when it is applied or configured for the assault rifle role). Its design enables it to have an interchangeable barrels that can easily be removed, and the ability to quickly attach a detachable suppressor. It has a combat weight of , a full-length of , a cyclic rate of fire of 700 rounds per minute, an accuracy range of . It primarily uses a 95-round drum magazine and is backwards compatible with box magazines from the AK-74, AK-12 and RPK-74.


title: RPK

text: After receiving feedback on the performance of the weapon, the Kalashnikov Concern has begun development on the RPL-20 (20 indicating 2020) belt-fed light machine gun also chambered in 5.45×39mm and with a very similar rate of fire. Kalashnikov Concern has so far created at least one functional prototype. If adopted, the gun will become the first light machine gun to be used by Russian forces since the RPD that isn't magazine-fed or of the standard Kalashnikov pattern.


title: RPK

text: A series of semi-automatic rifles and shotguns based on the heavy RPK receiver are manufactured by the Molot factory in Vyatskiye Polyany, Russia. These rifles are known as the Vepr ("Vepr" > "Wild Boar"). They are offered in several chamberings, including: .223 Remington, 7.62×39mm, 5.45×39mm, 6.5mm Grendel, 7.62×54mmR, .308 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield and Vepr shotguns in 12 gauge, 20 gauge, and .410 bore.


title: RPK

text: The hallmark of Vepr rifles is their heavy RPK receiver and barrel. The barrel, gas block, and bore are chrome lined throughout.


title: RPK

text: They are intended for the civilian market, and are marketed as high quality hunting rifles. Due to this designation, they lack features seen on most AK type rifles. Vepr rifles do not include a bayonet lug, integrated cleaning rods or tool kits, can not accept standard AK magazines, and have wooden thumb-hole stocks. Some buy these rifles to "convert" into a traditional style AK rifle, installing new pistol-grip stocks and adding tactical accessories.


title: RPK

text: Early generations of the Vepr rifle were manufactured with slant-back receivers, making them incompatible with most AK furniture sets without a converter. The receivers were changed to straight-back in the second generation. Subsequent versions of the rifle reverted to slant-back.


title: RPK

text: Due to this rapid change between designs, it is not uncommon to find some second generation Vepr rifles with rough, incomplete stocks that have not been sanded or painted.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: Tyrann Devine Mathieu (; born May 13, 1992) is an American football safety for the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at LSU. In college he developed a reputation for causing turnovers, setting a Southeastern Conference (SEC) record with 11 career forced fumbles and earning the nickname "the Honey Badger" after the mammal of the same name. In his sophomore season, he was recognized as a consensus All-American, won the Chuck Bednarik Award as the best defensive player in college football, and was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy. Mathieu was dismissed from the LSU football program after that season due to a violation of team rules.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: After spending a year out of football in 2012, he was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft, reuniting him in the defensive backfield with former college teammate Patrick Peterson. As a rookie he was named to the PFWA All-Rookie Team and has since earned three invitations to the Pro Bowl and has been named to the first-team All-Pro team three times. Mathieu has also played for the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs, where he was a member of the team that won Super Bowl LIV.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, Mathieu attended St. Augustine High School, where he played for the St. Augustine Purple Knights high school football team. He recorded 32 tackles, five interceptions, one sack and one fumble recovery as a senior.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: While living in New Orleans' Central City, Mathieu was raised by his grandparents. His biological mother was absent the majority of the time and his biological father, Darrin Hayes, has been incarcerated for murder most of Mathieu's life. After his grandfather died in 1997, Mathieu was adopted by his uncle, Tyrone Mathieu, and aunt, Sheila Mathieu.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: Mathieu also ran track and field for St. Augustine's track team and was a member of the relay team. He was one of the state's top performers in the long jump. He had personal-best leaps of 1.93 meters in the high jump and 7.29 meters in the long jump.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: Considered a four-star recruit by Rivals.com, Mathieu was listed as the No. 13 cornerback in the nation in 2010.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: Mathieu accepted an athletic scholarship to attend Louisiana State University, where he played for coach Les Miles' LSU Tigers football team from 2010 to 2011.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: As a true freshman in 2010, Mathieu played in all 13 games with one start. He finished the season with 59 tackles, three sacks, and two interceptions. He was the Most Outstanding Defensive Player of the 2011 Cotton Bowl Classic against Texas A&M after he recorded seven tackles, one tackle for loss, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, one interception, one sack, and one pass breakup.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: At the end of the 2011 regular season, Mathieu had 77 total tackles (60 solo and 17 assists), 1.5 sacks, five forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries (two returned for a touchdown), and two interceptions. On special teams, Mathieu had 26 punt returns for 420 yards, with 2 returned for a touchdown. On October 19, 2011, Mathieu was suspended for one game following a violation of LSU's drug policy. Mathieu was named the most valuable player of the 2011 SEC Championship Game. Mathieu earned the nickname "The Honey Badger" for his tenacious ability to play extremely tough football against much larger opponents, his knack for making big plays, as well as his dyed patch of blond hair on the top of his head in his college days which resembled the blond patch of hair on the back of a honey badger. This led to him being a Heisman Trophy finalist. On December 8, 2011, Mathieu was awarded the Chuck Bednarik Award, given to the year's best defensive player in college football. This marked the second straight year an LSU defensive player won the nation's top defensive honor following Patrick Peterson in 2010.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: On August 10, 2012, LSU head coach Les Miles announced that Mathieu would be dismissed from the football team due to a violation of team rules. News outlets reported that the dismissal was a result of repeated drug test failures, although Miles did not confirm those reports. Mathieu had formerly expressed an interest in returning to the program for the 2013 season. On August 17, 2012, Mathieu withdrew from LSU and entered a drug rehabilitation program in Houston, Texas. Mathieu's withdrawal was expected to last for the entire 2012–2013 academic year. However, on September 4, 2012, Mathieu ended his withdrawal and enrolled for fall semester classes. On October 25, 2012, Mathieu and three other LSU former players were arrested on possession of marijuana.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: On November 29, 2012, it was announced that Mathieu would enter the NFL Draft. Mathieu participated at the 2013 NFL Scouting Combine on February 26, 2013. He ran a 4.50 40-yard dash, had 4 reps of 225 pounds, a 34-inch vertical, and a 117-inch broad jump. He also later participated at his pro day on March 27, 2013.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: Prior to the 2012 season, Mathieu was ranked as the third best cornerback prospect in the upcoming 2013 NFL Draft by NFL analyst Chad Reuter. On November 29, 2012, Mathieu stated his intentions to enter the 2013 NFL Draft. Mathieu attended the NFL Combine and completed all of the combine and positional drills. On March 28, 2013, Mathieu attended LSU's pro day, but chose to stand on his combine numbers and only performed positional drills. He was projected to be a second or third round pick by the majority of NFL draft experts and scouts. At the conclusion of the pre-draft process, Mathieu was ranked as the tenth best cornerback prospect in the draft by DraftScout.com.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: The Arizona Cardinals selected Mathieu in the third round (69th overall) of the 2013 NFL Draft. Mathieu was the sixth safety drafted in 2013. On April 26, 2013, it was reported that Cardinals' head coach Bruce Arians stated that Mathieu would be playing free safety although it was widely expected he would play slot cornerback coming out of college.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: On May 23, 2013, the Arizona Cardinals signed Mathieu to a four-year, $3.05 million contract that included $817,187 guaranteed and a signing bonus of $265,000.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: Mathieu stated that he would remove himself from any association with his nickname, saying that he wants to be known as "Tyrann Mathieu" as opposed to "Honey Badger". (Over 6 years later in a week 17 postgame interview during the 2019 season, Mathieu indicated that he was satisfied that he'd established himself and was okay with the “Honey Badger” nickname.) Throughout training camp, Mathieu competed to be the first-team nickelback and starting free safety. He competed for a starting role at free safety against Yeremiah Bell and Rashad Johnson. Head coach Bruce Arians named Mathieu the backup free safety to begin the regular season, behind Rashad Johnson. Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles also named him the first-team nickelback.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: He made his professional regular season debut in the Arizona Cardinals' season-opener at the St. Louis Rams and made seven solo tackles and made his first career forced fumble in their 27–24 loss. Mathieu made his first career regular season tackle and forced a fumble on St Louis Rams' tight end Jared Cook. He forced a fumble before Cook crossed into the endzone for a touchdown and it was recovered by Cardinals' linebacker Karlos Dansby for a touchback in the first quarter. The following week, he earned his first career start as a nickelback and made six solo tackles and a pass deflection during a 25–21 victory against the Detroit Lions in Week 2. On September 22, 2013, Mathieu recorded ten combined tackles (nine solo), deflected a pass, and made his first career interception during a 31–7 loss at the New Orleans Saints. Mathieu intercepted a pass by quarterback Drew Brees, that was initially intended for wide receiver Lance Moore, in the third quarter. In Week 4, Mathieu earned his first career start at free safety after Rashad Johnson sustained an injury to his finger while covering a punt the previous week. Mathieu finished the Cardinals' 13–10 win at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 4 with six solo tackles. On October 6, 2013, he recorded five solo tackles and made his first career sack during the Cardinals' 22–6 win against the Carolina Panthers. Mathieu sacked quarterback Cam Newton for a ten-yard loss in the second quarter. On December 8, 2013, Mathieu made one solo tackle and a pass deflection before exiting the Cardinals' 30–10 victory against the St. Louis Rams with a leg injury. It was later determined Mathieu tore his left ACL and LCL while returning a punt during the third quarter. On December 10, 2013, the Arizona Cardinals placed Mathieu on injured reserve officially ending his rookie season. He completed his rookie season in 2013 with 68 combined tackles (65 solo), nine pass deflections, two interceptions, a sack, and a forced fumble in 13 games and 11 starts. Mathieu was named a first-team All-Pro at the slot cornerback position by Pro Football Focus after the season.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: Mathieu was not able to participate in training camp due to his recovery. He was inactive for the Arizona Cardinals' season-opener, but joined the team in Week 2. Upon his return, head coach Bruce Arians named Mathieu the backup free safety behind Rashad Johnson. On September 21, 2014, Mathieu collected a season-high six combined tackles during a 23–14 win against the San Francisco 49ers. On November 2, 2014, Mathieu recorded five combined tackles, a pass deflection, and made his second career interception during a 28–17 win at the Dallas Cowboys in Week 9. In Week 10, Mathieu became the starting free safety and replaced Tony Jefferson in the starting lineup. On November 30, 2014, Mathieu made three combined tackles in the Cardinals' 29–18 loss against the Atlanta Falcons, but exited in the third quarter after sustaining a thumb injury. He underwent surgery on his thumb and was expected to miss two games (Weeks 13–14). Mathieu finished the season with 39 combined tackles (35 solo), four pass deflections, an interception, and a fumble recovery in 13 games and six starts.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles accepted the head coaching position with the New York Jets and was replaced by James Bettcher. Throughout training camp, Mathieu competed against Rashad Johnson to be the starting free safety. Head coach Bruce Arians officially named him the starting free safety to start the regular season, alongside strong safety Deone Bucannon.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: On September 27, 2015, Mathieu had a career-high two interceptions including his first career touchdown against the San Francisco 49ers. The last time an Arizona Cardinal had two interceptions in a game was Patrick Peterson in Week 10, 2014. He had two more interceptions in 2015 before his season-ending injury, one in November 15 against the Seattle Seahawks and on November 29 against the 49ers. On December 20, against the Philadelphia Eagles, Mathieu tore his right ACL after an interception, causing him to miss the final two games of the regular season in addition to the post-season. Mathieu was named to his first Pro bowl after the season and was named by the Associated Press as a first-team All-Pro safety. He was ranked 28th by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2016.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: On August 2, 2016, the Arizona Cardinals signed Mathieu to a five-year, $62.5 million extension that included $21.25 million guaranteed and a signing bonus of $15.5 million. On October 17, he picked off Geno Smith, his ninth career interception against the New York Jets. In Week 8 against the Carolina Panthers, Mathieu left the game with a shoulder injury. He was ruled out from three to six weeks. He played in two of the next six games, struggling in both of the games. He was placed on injured reserve on December 23, 2016.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: On September 17, 2017, Mathieu picked off Jacoby Brissett in overtime in a 16–13 victory over the Indianapolis Colts. The pick set the Cardinals up to win the game on a Phil Dawson field goal. Overall, Mathieu finished the 2017 season with 78 total tackles, two interceptions, one forced fumble and one sack.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: On March 17, 2018, Mathieu signed a one-year contract with the Houston Texans worth $7 million. In his first game with the Texans, against the New England Patriots, Mathieu had one interception, recovered a fumble, and had five tackles. He finished the season with 89 combined tackles, three sacks, eight passes defensed and two interceptions.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: On March 14, 2019, Mathieu signed a three-year, $42 million contract with the Kansas City Chiefs. Overall, Mathieu finished the 2019 season with 75 total tackles, four interceptions, 12 passes defended, and two sacks. On February 2, 2020, Mathieu won Super Bowl LIV when the Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers 31–20.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: In a Week 4 26–10 victory over the New England Patriots, Mathieu returned an interception 25 yards for a touchdown, his first defensive touchdown as a member of the Chiefs and the second in his career.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: In Week 13 against the Denver Broncos on "Sunday Night Football", Mathieu intercepted two passes thrown by Drew Lock. His second interception of the game occurred late in the fourth quarter and secured a 22–16 win for the Chiefs. Overall, Mathieu finished the 2020 season with 62 total tackles, nine passes defended, one fumble recovery, and a career-high six interceptions.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: In the Divisional Round of the playoffs against the Cleveland Browns, Mathieu intercepted a pass thrown by Baker Mayfield during the 22–17 win.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: In Super Bowl LV against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Mathieu recorded three tackles during the 9–31 loss. During the game, Mathieu got in a verbal altercation with Buccaneers' quarterback Tom Brady and tweeted that Brady "called me something I won't repeat" after the game. Mathieu later removed the tweet. Brady was mic’d up during said altercation, but the NFL refused to release the audio.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: On September 1, 2021, Mathieu tested positive for COVID-19 and was placed on the COVID-19 reserve list. He was activated off the COVID-19 reserve list on September 11. However, the Chiefs put him on the inactive list for the Chiefs week 1 game against the Cleveland Browns.


title: Tyrann Mathieu

text: On May 4, 2022, Mathieu signed a three-year, $33 million contract with his hometown team, the New Orleans Saints.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: The Witcher is a series of fantasy action role-playing games developed by CD Projekt Red and published by CD Projekt. It is based on the book series of the same name by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, acting as non-canonical sequels to the story of the books.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: The main series began in 2007 with the release of "The Witcher", and concluded with 2015's "". As of 2022, the series has three main standalone games, two expansion packs and seven spin-off games. The series is critically acclaimed and commercially successful, selling over 50 million copies worldwide by May 2020.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: In March 2022, a fourth installment of the franchise was announced to be in early development and is planned as the start of a new trilogy for the series. In October 2022, A remake of "The Witcher" was announced. Fool's Theory will mainly develop the game with full creative supervision from "The Witcher" series staff and CD Projekt Red. Another game will also be developed by The Molasses Flood and created with support from CDPR.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: In the series, the player controls Geralt of Rivia, one of the few remaining witchers on the Continent. He is a traveling monster slayer for hire, mutated and trained from an early age to slay deadly beasts.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: In 1996 and 1997, a "Witcher" video game was being developed by Metropolis Software in Poland, but it was canceled. The game's director was Adrian Chmielarz, former People Can Fly co-owner and creative director, who coined the translation "The Witcher" during its development. According to Chmielarz, the game would have been a 3D action-adventure game with role-playing elements such as moral choices and experience points.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: In 2003, Polish video-game developer CD Projekt Red negotiated with Sapkowski for rights to "The Witcher", given the languishing work at Metropolis, and released "The Witcher", a role-playing game based on the saga in October 2007 for personal computers. It was well-publicized and, although it was the developer's first game, it received critical praise in Europe and North America. "The Witcher" was published in Poland by CD Projekt and worldwide by Atari. A console version, "The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf" with the same story and a different engine and combat system, was scheduled for release in fall 2009 but was canceled that spring. The game's story takes place around five years after the events of the main book saga.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: "The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings" is the sequel to "The Witcher", developed by CD Projekt Red. On 16 September 2009, before "Assassins of Kings" was introduced, a video of the game was leaked; two days later, CD Projekt Red confirmed that it was in development. "Assassins of Kings" was published in Poland by CD Projekt, by Namco Bandai Games in Europe and by Atari in North America. The game was also distributed digitally through Steam and DRM-free on Good Old Games. It takes place around half a year after the events of the first game.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" was released on 19 May 2015 and quickly came to be considered one of the greatest video games of all time, shipping over ten million copies by March 2016. Subsequently two expansion packs were released, "" in 2015 and "" in 2016.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: A remake of "The Witcher" (2007) which was formerly first teased under the codename, "Canis Majoris". The original game will be rebuilt from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5 by Fool's Theory with full creative supervision from "The Witcher" series staff and CD Projekt Red.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: Polaris is a codename for the next installment in The Witcher series. It will use Unreal Engine 5 instead of REDengine, which the two previous games used. The game is to be the beginning of a new saga. CDPR aim to release two more Witcher games after Polaris, creating a new AAA RPG trilogy.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: Sirius is a codename for a game developed by The Molasses Flood and created with support from CDPR. It is said to will differ from past productions, offering multiplayer gameplay on top of a single-player experience including a campaign with quests and a story.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: "The Witcher: Crimson Trail" (Polish: "Wiedźmin: Krwawy Szlak"), also known as "The Witcher Mobile", is a mobile-phone action game created by Breakpoint on license from CD Projekt in November 2007. It features a young Geralt as a promising student who has completed his training to become a monster-slayer – a witcher.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: "The Witcher Adventure Game" is a digital adaptation of the board game of the same name released in 2014.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: CD Projekt Red announced "The Witcher Battle Arena", a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game for mobile devices, on 1 July 2014. It shut down at the end of 2015.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: In October 2018, CD Projekt Red released "", a turn-based roleplaying game with similar gameplay to the free-to-play card game "". In "Thronebreaker"'s thirty-hour-long campaign, the player takes the control of Queen Meve, the ruler of Lyria and Rivia, during the events that precede the first "Witcher" game. The game world consists of five regions never explored in "The Witcher" franchise before: Rivia, Lyria, Angren, Mahakam and Lower Aedirn. The title received generally favorable reviews.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: "Roach Race" is a free-to-play platform, sidescroller game co-developed with Crunching Koalas. The game was released for IOS and Android on September 6, 2022. It has an embedded version as a arcade minigame in "Cyberpunk 2077" which was released with Patch 1.6 the same day.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: "The Witcher" received mostly positive reception from critics. Praise was given towards its narrative, branching dialogues, adult themes, setting, RPG elements, leveling and alchemy system, and Geralt's character, though the combat, animations, movement and loading times were criticized.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: "The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings" was deemed an improvement over its predecessor in terms of combat mechanics, customization, graphics, environments, immersion, and storytelling. The major source of critcisim was the difficulty of the combat, especially during the game's first few hours, and gratuitous nudity.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" received universal acclaim from critics and audiences alike, and has been named one of the greatest games of all time. Praise has been given for its gameplay, narrative, world design, combat, original soundtrack and visuals, although it received minor criticism due to technical issues.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: The series had sold over 33 million copies by March 2018, increasing to over 50 million copies by May 2020.


title: The Witcher (video game series)

text: In October 2018, Sapkowski sent notice to CD Projekt demanding he be remunerated for sales of "The Witcher" video games, asking for more than 60 million Polish złoty (more than ) representing between about 5% and 15% of the game's revenues over the years. Sapkowski had originally provided the license to CD Projekt based on a lump sum payment, but now believes he is due more since the series has become much more successful than expected. CD Projekt stated that while they had met all obligations on the initial acquisition of the license, they will work amicably with Sapkowski's legal representatives to come to a fair outcome for all parties. By February 2019, CD Projekt worked out a settlement agreement that would provide Sapkowski additional royalties for their video game series, though not as great as those Sapkowski had asked for, as to maintain a working relationship with the author for future "Witcher" projects. The settlement was finalized by December 2019.


title: Vertebral column

text: The vertebral column, also known as the backbone or spine, is part of the axial skeleton. The vertebral column is the defining characteristic of a vertebrate in which the notochord (a flexible rod of uniform composition) found in all chordates has been replaced by a segmented series of bone: vertebrae separated by intervertebral discs. Individual vertebrae are named according to their region and position, and can be used as anatomical landmarks in order to guide procedures such as lumbar punctures. The vertebral column houses the spinal canal, a cavity that encloses and protects the spinal cord.


title: Vertebral column

text: There are about 50,000 species of animals that have a vertebral column. The human vertebral column is one of the most-studied examples. Many different diseases in humans can affect the spine, with spina bifida and scoliosis being recognisable examples.


title: Vertebral column

text: The general structure of human vertebrae is fairly typical of that found in mammals, reptiles, and birds. The shape of the vertebral body does, however, vary somewhat between different groups.


title: Vertebral column

text: The number of vertebrae in a region can vary but overall the number remains the same. In a human vertebral column, there are normally 33 vertebrae. The upper 24 pre-sacral vertebrae are articulating and separated from each other by intervertebral discs, and the lower nine are fused in adults, five in the sacrum and four in the coccyx, or "tailbone". The articulating vertebrae are named according to their region of the spine. There are 7 cervical vertebrae, 12 thoracic vertebrae and 5 lumbar vertebrae. The number of those in the cervical region, however, is only rarely changed, while that in the coccygeal region varies most. One study of 908 human adults found 43 individuals with 23 pre-sacral vertebrae (4.7%), 826 individuals with 24 pre-sacral vertebrae (91%), and 39 with 25 pre-sacral vertebrae (4.3%).


title: Vertebral column

text: There are ligaments extending the length of the column at the front and the back, and in between the vertebrae joining the spinous processes, the transverse processes and the vertebral laminae.


title: Vertebral column

text: The vertebrae in the human vertebral column is divided into different regions, which correspond to the curves of the vertebral column. The articulating vertebrae are named according to their region of the spine. Vertebrae in these regions are essentially alike, with minor variation. These regions are called the cervical spine, thoracic spine, lumbar spine, sacrum, and coccyx. There are seven cervical vertebrae, twelve thoracic vertebrae, and five lumbar vertebrae.


title: Vertebral column

text: The number of vertebrae in a region can vary but overall the number remains the same. The number of those in the cervical region, however, is only rarely changed. The vertebrae of the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spines are independent bones and generally quite similar. The vertebrae of the sacrum and coccyx are usually fused and unable to move independently. Two special vertebrae are the atlas and axis, on which the head rests.


title: Vertebral column

text: A typical vertebra consists of two parts: the vertebral body and the vertebral arch. The vertebral arch is posterior, meaning it faces the back of a person. Together, these enclose the vertebral foramen, which contains the spinal cord. Because the spinal cord ends in the lumbar spine, and the sacrum and coccyx are fused, they do not contain a central foramen. The vertebral arch is formed by a pair of pedicles and a pair of laminae, and supports seven processes, four articular, two transverse, and one spinous, the latter also being known as the neural spine. Two transverse processes and one spinous process are posterior to (behind) the vertebral body. The spinous process comes out the back, one transverse process comes out the left, and one on the right. The spinous processes of the cervical and lumbar regions can be felt through the skin.


title: Vertebral column

text: Above and below each vertebra are joints called facet joints. These restrict the range of movement possible, and are joined by a thin portion of the neural arch called the "pars interarticularis". In between each pair of vertebrae are two small holes called intervertebral foramina. The spinal nerves leave the spinal cord through these holes.


title: Vertebral column

text: Individual vertebrae are named according to their region and position. From top to bottom, the vertebrae are:


title: Vertebral column

text: The combined region of the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae is known as the thoracolumbar division, or region.


title: Vertebral column

text: The vertebral column is curved in several places, a result of human bipedal evolution. The curves allow the human spine to better stabilize the body in the upright position.


title: Vertebral column

text: The upper cervical spine has a curve, convex forward, that begins at the axis (second cervical vertebra) at the apex of the odontoid process or dens and ends at the middle of the second thoracic vertebra; it is the least marked of all the curves. This inward curve is known as a lordotic curve.


title: Vertebral column

text: The thoracic curve, concave forward, begins at the middle of the second and ends at the middle of the twelfth thoracic vertebra. Its most prominent point behind corresponds to the spinous process of the seventh thoracic vertebra. This curve is known as a kyphotic curve.


title: Vertebral column

text: The lumbar curve is more marked in the female than in the male; it begins at the middle of the last thoracic vertebra, and ends at the sacrovertebral angle. It is convex anteriorly, the convexity of the lower three vertebrae being much greater than that of the upper two. This curve is described as a lordotic curve.


title: Vertebral column

text: The sacral curve begins at the sacrovertebral articulation, and ends at the point of the coccyx; its concavity is directed downward and forward as a kyphotic curve.


title: Vertebral column

text: The thoracic and sacral kyphotic curves are termed primary curves, because they are present in the fetus. The cervical and lumbar curves are "compensatory", or "secondary", and are developed after birth. The cervical curve forms when the infant is able to hold up its head (at three or four months) and sit upright (at nine months). The lumbar curve forms later from twelve to eighteen months, when the child begins to walk.


title: Vertebral column

text: When viewed from in front, the width of the bodies of the vertebrae is seen to increase from the second cervical to the first thoracic; there is then a slight diminution in the next three vertebrae. Below this, there is again a gradual and progressive increase in width as low as the sacrovertebral angle. From this point there is a rapid diminution, to the apex of the coccyx.


title: Vertebral column

text: From behind, the vertebral column presents in the median line the spinous processes. In the cervical region (with the exception of the second and seventh vertebrae), these are short, horizontal, and bifid. In the upper part of the thoracic region they are directed obliquely downward; in the middle they are almost vertical, and in the lower part they are nearly horizontal. In the lumbar region they are nearly horizontal. The spinous processes are separated by considerable intervals in the lumbar region, by narrower intervals in the neck, and are closely approximated in the middle of the thoracic region. Occasionally one of these processes deviates a little from the median line — which can sometimes be indicative of a fracture or a displacement of the spine. On either side of the spinous processes is the vertebral groove formed by the laminae in the cervical and lumbar regions, where it is shallow, and by the laminae and transverse processes in the thoracic region, where it is deep and broad; these grooves lodge the deep muscles of the back. Lateral to the spinous processes are the articular processes, and still more laterally the transverse processes. In the thoracic region, the transverse processes stand backward, on a plane considerably behind that of the same processes in the cervical and lumbar regions. In the cervical region, the transverse processes are placed in front of the articular processes, lateral to the pedicles and between the intervertebral foramina. In the thoracic region they are posterior to the pedicles, intervertebral foramina, and articular processes. In the lumbar region they are in front of the articular processes, but behind the intervertebral foramina.


title: Vertebral column

text: The sides of the vertebral column are separated from the posterior surface by the articular processes in the cervical and thoracic regions and by the transverse processes in the lumbar region. In the thoracic region, the sides of the bodies of the vertebrae are marked in the back by the facets for articulation with the heads of the ribs. More posteriorly are the intervertebral foramina, formed by the juxtaposition of the vertebral notches, oval in shape, smallest in the cervical and upper part of the thoracic regions and gradually increasing in size to the last lumbar. They transmit the special spinal nerves and are situated between the transverse processes in the cervical region and in front of them, in the thoracic and lumbar regions.


title: Vertebral column

text: There are different ligaments involved in the holding together of the vertebrae in the column, and in the column's movement. The anterior and posterior longitudinal ligaments extend the length of the vertebral column along the front and back of the vertebral bodies. The interspinous ligaments connect the adjoining spinous processes of the vertebrae. The supraspinous ligament extends the length of the spine running along the back of the spinous processes, from the sacrum to the seventh cervical vertebra. From there it is continuous with the nuchal ligament.


title: Vertebral column

text: The striking segmented pattern of the spine is established during embryogenesis when somites are rhythmically added to the posterior of the embryo. Somite formation begins around the third week when the embryo begins gastrulation and continues until all somites are formed. Their number varies between species: there are 42 to 44 somites in the human embryo and around 52 in the chick embryo. The somites are spheres, formed from the paraxial mesoderm that lies at the sides of the neural tube and they contain the precursors of spinal bone, the vertebrae ribs and some of the skull, as well as muscle, ligaments and skin. Somitogenesis and the subsequent distribution of somites is controlled by a clock and wavefront model acting in cells of the paraxial mesoderm. Soon after their formation, sclerotomes, which give rise to some of the bone of the skull, the vertebrae and ribs, migrate, leaving the remainder of the somite now termed a dermamyotome behind. This then splits to give the myotomes which will form the muscles and dermatomes which will form the skin of the back. Sclerotomes become subdivided into an anterior and a posterior compartment. This subdivision plays a key role in the definitive patterning of vertebrae that form when the posterior part of one somite fuses to the anterior part of the consecutive somite during a process termed resegmentation. Disruption of the somitogenesis process in humans results in diseases such as congenital scoliosis. So far, the human homologues of three genes associated to the mouse segmentation clock, (MESP2, DLL3 and LFNG), have been shown to be mutated in cases of congenital scoliosis, suggesting that the mechanisms involved in vertebral segmentation are conserved across vertebrates. In humans the first four somites are incorporated in the base of the occipital bone of the skull and the next 33 somites will form the vertebrae, ribs, muscles, ligaments and skin. The remaining posterior somites degenerate. During the fourth week of embryogenesis, the sclerotomes shift their position to surround the spinal cord and the notochord. This column of tissue has a segmented appearance, with alternating areas of dense and less dense areas.


title: Vertebral column

text: As the sclerotome develops, it condenses further eventually developing into the vertebral body. Development of the appropriate shapes of the vertebral bodies is regulated by "HOX genes".


title: Vertebral column

text: The notochord disappears in the sclerotome (vertebral body) segments but persists in the region of the intervertebral discs as the nucleus pulposus. The nucleus pulposus and the fibers of the anulus fibrosus make up the intervertebral disc.


title: Vertebral column

text: The primary curves (thoracic and sacral curvatures) form during fetal development. The secondary curves develop after birth. The cervical curvature forms as a result of lifting the head and the lumbar curvature forms as a result of walking.


title: Vertebral column

text: The vertebral column surrounds the spinal cord which travels within the spinal canal, formed from a central hole within each vertebra. The spinal cord is part of the central nervous system that supplies nerves and receives information from the peripheral nervous system within the body. The spinal cord consists of grey and white matter and a central cavity, the central canal. Adjacent to each vertebra emerge spinal nerves. The spinal nerves provide sympathetic nervous supply to the body, with nerves emerging forming the sympathetic trunk and the splanchnic nerves.


title: Vertebral column

text: The spinal canal follows the different curves of the column; it is large and triangular in those parts of the column that enjoy the greatest freedom of movement, such as the cervical and lumbar regions, and is small and rounded in the thoracic region, where motion is more limited. The spinal cord terminates in the conus medullaris and cauda equina.


title: Vertebral column

text: Spina bifida is a congenital disorder in which there is a defective closure of the vertebral arch. Sometimes the spinal meninges and also the spinal cord can protrude through this, and this is called "spina bifida cystica". Where the condition does not involve this protrusion it is known as "spina bifida occulta". Sometimes all of the vertebral arches may remain incomplete.


title: Vertebral column

text: Another, though rare, congenital disease is Klippel–Feil syndrome, which is the fusion of any two of the cervical vertebrae.


title: Vertebral column

text: Spondylolisthesis is the forward displacement of a vertebra and retrolisthesis is a posterior displacement of one vertebral body with respect to the adjacent vertebra to a degree less than a dislocation.


title: Vertebral column

text: Spondylolysis, also known as a pars defect, is a defect or fracture at the pars interarticularis of the vertebral arch.


title: Vertebral column

text: Spinal disc herniation, more commonly called a "slipped disc", is the result of a tear in the outer ring (anulus fibrosus) of the intervertebral disc, which lets some of the soft gel-like material, the nucleus pulposus, bulge out in a hernia.


title: Vertebral column

text: Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the spinal canal which can occur in any region of the spine though less commonly in the thoracic region. The stenosis can constrict the spinal canal giving rise to a neurological deficit.


title: Vertebral column

text: Spinal cord injury is damage to the spinal cord that causes changes in its function, either temporary or permanent. Spinal cord injuries can be divided into categories: complete transection, hemisection, central spinal cord lesions, posterior spinal cord lesions, and anterior spinal cord lesions.


title: Vertebral column

text: Scalloping vertebrae is the increase in the concavity of the posterior vertebral body. It can be seen on lateral X-ray and sagittal views of CT and MRI scans. Its concavity is due to the increased pressure exerting on the vertebrae due to a mass. Internal spinal mass such as spinal astrocytoma, ependymoma, schwannoma, neurofibroma, and achondroplasia causes vertebrae scalloping.


title: Vertebral column

text: Excessive or abnormal spinal curvature is classed as a spinal disease or dorsopathy and includes the following abnormal curvatures:


title: Vertebral column

text: Individual vertebrae of the human vertebral column can be felt and used as surface anatomy, with reference points are taken from the middle of the vertebral body. This provides anatomical landmarks that can be used to guide procedures such as a lumbar puncture and also as vertical reference points to describe the locations of other parts of human anatomy, such as the positions of organs.


title: Vertebral column

text: The general structure of vertebrae in other animals is largely the same as in humans. Individual vertebrae are composed of a centrum (body), arches protruding from the top and bottom of the centrum, and various processes projecting from the centrum and/or arches. An arch extending from the top of the centrum is called a neural arch, while the haemal arch or chevron is found underneath the centrum in the caudal (tail) vertebrae of fish, most reptiles, some birds, some dinosaurs and some mammals with long tails. The vertebral processes can either give the structure rigidity, help them articulate with ribs, or serve as muscle attachment points. Common types are transverse process, diapophyses, parapophyses, and zygapophyses (both the cranial zygapophyses and the caudal zygapophyses). The centrum of the vertebra can be classified based on the fusion of its elements. In temnospondyls, bones such as the spinous process, the pleurocentrum and the intercentrum are separate ossifications. Fused elements, however, classify a vertebra as having holospondyly.


title: Vertebral column

text: A vertebra can also be described in terms of the shape of the ends of the centrum. Centra with flat ends are "acoelous", like those in mammals. These flat ends of the centra are especially good at supporting and distributing compressive forces. "Amphicoelous" vertebra have centra with both ends concave. This shape is common in fish, where most motion is limited. Amphicoelous centra often are integrated with a full notochord. "Procoelous" vertebrae are anteriorly concave and posteriorly convex. They are found in frogs and modern reptiles. "Opisthocoelous" vertebrae are the opposite, possessing anterior convexity and posterior concavity. They are found in salamanders, and in some non-avian dinosaurs. "Heterocoelous" vertebrae have saddle-shaped articular surfaces. This type of configuration is seen in turtles that retract their necks, and birds, because it permits extensive lateral and vertical flexion motion without stretching the nerve cord too extensively or wringing it about its long axis.


title: Vertebral column

text: In horses, the Arabian (breed) can have one less vertebrae and pair of ribs. This anomaly disappears in foals that are the product of an Arabian and another breed of horse.


title: Vertebral column

text: Vertebrae are defined by the regions of the vertebral column that they occur in, as in humans. Cervical vertebrae are those in the neck area. With the exception of the two sloth genera ("Choloepus" and "Bradypus") and the manatee genus, ("Trichechus"), all mammals have seven cervical vertebrae. In other vertebrates, the number of cervical vertebrae can range from a single vertebra in amphibians to as many as 25 in swans or 76 in the extinct plesiosaur "Elasmosaurus". The dorsal vertebrae range from the bottom of the neck to the top of the pelvis. Dorsal vertebrae attached to the ribs are called thoracic vertebrae, while those without ribs are called lumbar vertebrae. The sacral vertebrae are those in the pelvic region, and range from one in amphibians, to two in most birds and modern reptiles, or up to three to five in mammals. When multiple sacral vertebrae are fused into a single structure, it is called the sacrum. The synsacrum is a similar fused structure found in birds that is composed of the sacral, lumbar, and some of the thoracic and caudal vertebra, as well as the pelvic girdle. Caudal vertebrae compose the tail, and the final few can be fused into the pygostyle in birds, or into the coccygeal or tail bone in chimpanzees (and humans).


title: Vertebral column

text: The vertebrae of lobe-finned fishes consist of three discrete bony elements. The vertebral arch surrounds the spinal cord, and is of broadly similar form to that found in most other vertebrates. Just beneath the arch lies a small plate-like pleurocentrum, which protects the upper surface of the notochord, and below that, a larger arch-shaped intercentrum to protect the lower border. Both of these structures are embedded within a single cylindrical mass of cartilage. A similar arrangement was found in the primitive Labyrinthodonts, but in the evolutionary line that led to reptiles (and hence, also to mammals and birds), the intercentrum became partially or wholly replaced by an enlarged pleurocentrum, which in turn became the bony vertebral body.


title: Vertebral column

text: In most ray-finned fishes, including all teleosts, these two structures are fused with, and embedded within, a solid piece of bone superficially resembling the vertebral body of mammals. In living amphibians, there is simply a cylindrical piece of bone below the vertebral arch, with no trace of the separate elements present in the early tetrapods.


title: Vertebral column

text: In cartilaginous fish, such as sharks, the vertebrae consist of two cartilaginous tubes. The upper tube is formed from the vertebral arches, but also includes additional cartilaginous structures filling in the gaps between the vertebrae, and so enclosing the spinal cord in an essentially continuous sheath. The lower tube surrounds the notochord, and has a complex structure, often including multiple layers of calcification.


title: Vertebral column

text: Lampreys have vertebral arches, but nothing resembling the vertebral bodies found in all higher vertebrates. Even the arches are discontinuous, consisting of separate pieces of arch-shaped cartilage around the spinal cord in most parts of the body, changing to long strips of cartilage above and below in the tail region. Hagfishes lack a true vertebral column, and are therefore not properly considered vertebrates, but a few tiny neural arches are present in the tail.


title: Vertebral column

text: The general structure of human vertebrae is fairly typical of that found in mammals, reptiles, and birds. The shape of the vertebral body does, however, vary somewhat between different groups. In mammals, such as humans, it typically has flat upper and lower surfaces, while in reptiles the anterior surface commonly has a concave socket into which the expanded convex face of the next vertebral body fits. Even these patterns are only generalisations, however, and there may be variation in form of the vertebrae along the length of the spine even within a single species. Some unusual variations include the saddle-shaped sockets between the cervical vertebrae of birds and the presence of a narrow hollow canal running down the centre of the vertebral bodies of geckos and tuataras, containing a remnant of the notochord.


title: Vertebral column

text: Reptiles often retain the primitive intercentra, which are present as small crescent-shaped bony elements lying between the bodies of adjacent vertebrae; similar structures are often found in the caudal vertebrae of mammals. In the tail, these are attached to chevron-shaped bones called "haemal arches", which attach below the base of the spine, and help to support the musculature. These latter bones are probably homologous with the ventral ribs of fish. The number of vertebrae in the spines of reptiles is highly variable, and may be several hundred in some species of snake.


title: Vertebral column

text: In birds, there is a variable number of cervical vertebrae, which often form the only truly flexible part of the spine. The thoracic vertebrae are partially fused, providing a solid brace for the wings during flight. The sacral vertebrae are fused with the lumbar vertebrae, and some thoracic and caudal vertebrae, to form a single structure, the "synsacrum", which is thus of greater relative length than the sacrum of mammals. In living birds, the remaining caudal vertebrae are fused into a further bone, the pygostyle, for attachment of the tail feathers.


title: Vertebral column

text: Aside from the tail, the number of vertebrae in mammals is generally fairly constant. There are almost always seven cervical vertebrae (sloths and manatees are among the few exceptions), followed by around twenty or so further vertebrae, divided between the thoracic and lumbar forms, depending on the number of ribs. There are generally three to five vertebrae with the sacrum, and anything up to fifty caudal vertebrae.


title: Vertebral column

text: The vertebral column in dinosaurs consists of the cervical (neck), dorsal (back), sacral (hips), and caudal (tail) vertebrae. Saurischian dinosaur vertebrae sometimes possess features known as "pleurocoels", which are hollow depressions on the lateral portions of the vertebrae, perforated to create an entrance into the air chambers within the vertebrae, which served to decrease the weight of these bones without sacrificing strength. These pleurocoels were filled with air sacs, which would have further decreased weight. In sauropod dinosaurs, the largest known land vertebrates, pleurocoels and air sacs may have reduced the animal's weight by over a ton in some instances, a handy evolutionary adaption in animals that grew to over 30 metres in length. In many hadrosaur and theropod dinosaurs, the caudal vertebrae were reinforced by ossified tendons. The presence of three or more sacral vertebrae, in association with the hip bones, is one of the defining characteristics of dinosaurs. The occipital condyle is a structure on the posterior part of a dinosaur's skull that articulates with the first cervical vertebra.


title: V for Vendetta

text: V for Vendetta is a British graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd (with additional art by Tony Weare). Initially published between 1982 and 1985 in black and white as an ongoing serial in the British anthology "Warrior", its serialization was completed in 1988–89 in a ten-issue colour limited series published by DC Comics in the United States. Subsequent collected editions were typically published under DC's specialized imprint, Vertigo, until that label was shut down in 2018. Since then it has been transferred to DC Black Label. The story depicts a dystopian and post-apocalyptic near-future history version of the United Kingdom in the 1990s, preceded by a nuclear war in the 1980s that devastated most of the rest of the world. The Nordic supremacist, neo-fascist, outwardly Christofascistic, and homophobic fictional "Norsefire" political party has exterminated its opponents in concentration camps, and now rules the country as a police state.


title: V for Vendetta

text: The comics follow the story's title character and protagonist, V, an anarchist revolutionary dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask, as he begins an elaborate and theatrical revolutionist campaign to kill his former captors, bring down the fascist state, and convince the people to abandon fascism in favour of anarchy, while inspiring a young woman, Evey Hammond, to be his protégée.


title: V for Vendetta

text: DC Comics sold more than 500,000 copies of the graphic novel in the United States by 2006. Warner Bros. released a film adaptation of the same name, written and co-produced by the Wachowskis, in 2005. Following the first and second season premieres of "Gotham" prequel television series "Pennyworth" in 2019 and 2020, showrunners Danny Cannon and Bruno Heller confirmed the series would also serve as a prequel to "V for Vendetta", with the series' British Civil War eventually giving way to the Norsefire government and rise of V, and the third season featuring predecessors to V wearing Guy Fawkes masks.


title: V for Vendetta

text: The first episodes of "V for Vendetta" appeared in black-and-white between 1982 and 1985, in "Warrior", a British anthology comic published by Quality Communications. The strip was one of the least popular in that title; editor/publisher Dez Skinn remarked, "If I'd have given each character their own title, the failures would have certainly outweighed the successes, with the uncompromising 'V for Vendetta' probably being an early casualty. But with five or six strips an issue, regular [readers] only needed two or three favorites to justify their buying the title."


title: V for Vendetta

text: When the publishers cancelled "Warrior" in 1985 (with two completed issues unpublished due to the cancellation), several companies attempted to convince Moore and Lloyd to let them publish and complete the story. In 1988, DC Comics published a ten-issue series that reprinted the "Warrior" stories in colour, then continued the series to completion. The first new material appeared in issue No. 7, which included the unpublished episodes that would have appeared in "Warrior" No. 27 and No. 28. Tony Weare drew one chapter ("Vincent") and contributed additional art to two others ("Valerie" and "The Vacation"); Steve Whitaker and Siobhan Dodds worked as colourists on the entire series.


title: V for Vendetta

text: The entire series has appeared collected in paperback () and hardback () form, including Moore's "Behind the Painted Smile" essay and two "interludes" outside the central continuity. Later collections include reissued paperbacks, published in the US by DC's Vertigo imprint () and in the UK by Titan Books (). A new hardback edition was published in 2005 featuring improved printing and coloring. In August 2009 DC published a slipcased Absolute Edition (); this includes newly coloured "silent art" pages (full-page panels containing no dialogue) from the series' original run, which have not previously appeared in any previous collected edition.


title: V for Vendetta

text: In writing "V for Vendetta", Moore drew upon a comic strip idea submission that the DC Thomson scriptwriting competition rejected in 1975: "The Doll", which involved a transgender terrorist in white face makeup, who fought a totalitarian state during the 1980s.


title: V for Vendetta

text: Years later, Skinn reportedly invited Moore to create a dark mystery strip with artist David Lloyd. "V for Vendetta" was intended to recreate something similar to their popular Marvel UK Night Raven strip in a 1930s noir. They chose against doing historical research and instead set the story in the near future rather than the recent past.


title: V for Vendetta

text: Then "V for Vendetta" emerged, putting the emphasis on "V" rather than "Vendetta". David Lloyd developed the idea of dressing V as Guy Fawkes after previous designs followed the conventional superhero look. During the preparation of the story, Moore made a list of what he wanted to bring into the plot, which he reproduced in "Behind the Painted Smile":Orwell. Huxley. Thomas Disch. "Judge Dredd". Harlan Ellison's ""Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman", "Catman" and "The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World" by the same author. Vincent Price's "Dr. Phibes" and "Theatre of Blood". David Bowie. "The Shadow". "Night Raven". "Batman". "Fahrenheit 451". The writings of the New Worlds school of science fiction. Max Ernst's painting "Europe After the Rain". Thomas Pynchon. The atmosphere of British Second World War films. "The Prisoner". Robin Hood. Dick Turpin... The influence of such a wide number of references has been thoroughly demonstrated in academic studies, above which dystopian elements stand out, especially the similarity with George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" in several stages of the plot.


title: V for Vendetta

text: The political climate of Britain in the early 1980s also influenced the work, with Moore positing that Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government would "obviously lose the 1983 elections", and that an incoming Michael Foot-led Labour government, committed to complete nuclear disarmament, would allow the United Kingdom to escape relatively unscathed after a limited nuclear war. However, Moore felt that fascists would quickly subvert a post-holocaust Britain. V, an anarchist, initially murders members of the fascist government, but as the story develops, Moore deliberately made V's actions "very, very morally ambiguous" with the aim that "I didn't want to tell people what to think, I just wanted to tell people to think."


title: V for Vendetta

text: Moore's scenario remains untested. Addressing historical developments when DC reissued the work, he noted:Naïveté can also be detected in my supposition that it would take something as melodramatic as a near-miss nuclear conflict to nudge Britain towards fascism... The simple fact that much of the historical background of the story proceeds from a predicted Conservative defeat in the 1983 General Election should tell you how reliable we were in our roles as Cassandras.


title: V for Vendetta

text: On Guy Fawkes Night in London in 1997, a financially desperate 16-year-old, Evey Hammond, sexually solicits men who are actually members of the state secret police, called "The Finger". Preparing to rape and kill her, the Fingermen are dispatched by V, a cloaked anarchist wearing a mask, who later remotely detonates explosives at the Palace of Westminster before bringing Evey to his contraband-filled underground lair, the "Shadow Gallery." Evey tells V her life story, which reveals her own past and England's recent history. During a dispute over Poland in the late 1980s, the Soviet Union and the United States, under the presidency of Ted Kennedy, entered a global nuclear war which left continental Europe and Africa uninhabitable. Although Britain itself was not bombed due to the Labour government's decision to remove American nuclear missiles, it faced environmental devastation and famine due to the nuclear winter. After a period of lawlessness in which Evey's mother died, the remaining corporations and fascist groups took over England and formed a new totalitarian government, Norsefire. Evey's father, a former socialist, was arrested by the regime.


title: V for Vendetta

text: Meanwhile, Eric Finch, a veteran detective in charge of the regular police force ("The Nose"), begins investigating V's terrorist activities. Finch often communicates with the other top government officials, collectively known as "The Head." These individuals include Derek Almond, who supervises the Finger, and Adam Susan, the reclusive Leader of Norsefire, who obsessively oversees the government's "Fate" computer system. Finch's case thickens when V kidnaps Lewis Prothero, a propaganda-broadcasting radio personality, and drives him into a mental breakdown by forcing him to relive his actions as the commander of a "resettlement" camp near Larkhill with his treasured doll collection as inmates. Evey agrees to help V with his next assassination by disguising herself as a child prostitute to infiltrate the home of Bishop Anthony Lilliman, a paedophile priest, whom V forces to commit suicide by eating a poisoned communion wafer. He prepares to murder Dr. Delia Surridge, a medical researcher who once had a romance with Finch. Finch suddenly discovers the connection among V's three targets: they all used to work at Larkhill. That night, V kills both Almond and Surridge. Surridge leaves a diary revealing that V—a former inmate and victim of Surridge's cruel medical experiments—destroyed and fled the camp and is now eliminating the camp's former officers for what they did. Finch reports these findings to Susan, and suspects that this vendetta may actually be a cover for V, who, he worries, may be plotting an even bigger terrorist attack.


title: V for Vendetta

text: Four months later, V breaks into Jordan Tower, the home of Norsefire's propaganda department, "the Mouth"—led by Roger Dascombe—to broadcast a speech that calls on the people to resist the government. V escapes using an elaborate diversion that results in Dascombe's death. Finch is soon introduced to Peter Creedy, the Finger's new head, who provokes Finch to strike him and thus get sent on a forced vacation. Evey had taken shelter at the house of a man named Gordon, and had a romantic relationship with him. He eventually took advantage of her. Evey and Gordon unknowingly cross paths with Rose Almond, the widow of the recently killed Derek. After Derek's death, Rose had reluctantly begun a relationship with Dascombe. With both of her lovers murdered, she is forced to perform demoralizing burlesque work, increasing her hatred of the unsupportive government.


title: V for Vendetta

text: When a Scottish gangster named Ally Harper murders Gordon, a vengeful Evey interrupts a meeting between Harper and Creedy, the latter of whom is buying the support of Harper's thugs in preparation for a coup d'état. Evey attempts to shoot Harper but is suddenly abducted and then imprisoned. Amidst interrogation and torture, Evey finds an old letter hidden in her cell by an inmate named Valerie Page, a film actress who was imprisoned and executed for being a lesbian and documented her experiences in the letter.


title: V for Vendetta

text: Evey's interrogator finally gives her a choice of collaboration or death; inspired by Valerie's letter, Evey refuses to collaborate and, expecting to be executed, is instead told that she is free. Stunned, Evey learns that her supposed imprisonment is a hoax constructed by V so that she could experience an ordeal similar to the one that shaped him at Larkhill. He reveals that Valerie was a real Larkhill prisoner who died in the cell next to his and that the letter is not a fake. Evey forgives V, who has hacked into the government's "Fate" computer system and started emotionally manipulating Adam Susan with mind games. Consequently, Susan, who has formed a bizarre romantic attachment to the computer, begins to descend into madness.


title: V for Vendetta

text: The following 5 November (1998), V blows up the Post Office Tower and Jordan Tower, killing "the Ear" leader Brian Etheridge, in addition to effectively shutting down three government agencies: the Eye, the Ear, and the Mouth. Creedy's men and Harper's associated street gangs violently suppress the subsequent wave of revolutionary fervor from the public. V notes to Evey that he has not yet achieved what he calls the "Land of Do-as-You-Please," meaning a functional anarchistic society, and considers the current chaotic situation an interim period of "Land of Take-What-You-Want." Finch has been mysteriously absent, and his young assistant, Dominic Stone, one day realises that V has been influencing the "Fate" computer all along, which explained V's consistent foresight. All the while, Finch has been traveling to the abandoned site of Larkhill, where he takes LSD to conjure up memories of his own devastating past and to put his mind in the role of a prisoner of Larkhill, like V, to help give him an intuitive understanding of V's experiences. Returning to London, Finch suddenly deduces that V's lair is inside the abandoned Victoria Station, which he enters.


title: V for Vendetta

text: V takes Finch by surprise, resulting in a scuffle that sees Finch shoot V, and V wounds Finch with a knife. V claims that he cannot be killed since he is only an idea and that "ideas are bulletproof"; regardless, V is indeed mortally wounded and returns to the Shadow Gallery deeper within, dying in Evey's arms. Evey considers unmasking V but decides not to, realizing that V is not an identity but a symbol. She then assumes V's identity, donning one of his spare costumes. Finch sees the large amount of blood that V has left in his wake and deduces that he has mortally wounded V. Occurring concurrently to this, Creedy has been pressuring Susan to appear in public, hoping to leave him exposed. Sure enough, as Susan stops to shake hands with Rose during a parade, she shoots him in the head in vengeance for the death of her husband and the life she has had to lead since then. Following Rose's arrest, Creedy assumes emergency leadership of the country, and Finch emerges from the subway proclaiming V's death.


title: V for Vendetta

text: Due to his LSD-induced epiphany, Finch leaves his position within "the Nose." The power struggle between the remaining leaders results in all of their deaths: Harper betrays and kills Creedy at the behest of Helen Heyer (wife of "the Eye" leader Conrad Heyer, who had outbid Creedy for Harper's loyalty), and Harper and Conrad Heyer kill each other during a fight precipitated by Heyer's discovery that his wife Helen had had an affair with Harper.


title: V for Vendetta

text: With the fate of the top government officials unknown to the public, Stone acts as leader of the police forces deployed to ensure that the riots are contained should V remain alive and make his promised public announcement. Evey appears to a crowd, dressed as V, announcing the destruction of 10 Downing Street the following day and telling the crowd they must ""...choose what comes next. Lives of your own, or a return to chains"", whereupon a general insurrection begins. Evey destroys 10 Downing Street by blowing up an Underground train containing V's body, in the style of an explosive Viking funeral. She abducts Stone, apparently to train him as her successor to make sure people like Susan will never hold power ever again. The book ends with Finch quietly observing the chaos raging in the city and walking down an abandoned motorway whose lights have all gone out.


title: V for Vendetta

text: The highest-level officials in the Norsefire government form a council known as "The Head." The five individual departments are named after sensory organs or appendages that reference their functions.


title: V for Vendetta

text: Moore stated in an interview that V is designed as an enigma, as Moore "didn't want to tell people what to think" but wanted them to consider some extreme events that have recurred throughout history.


title: V for Vendetta

text: In December 2005 Warner Bros. released a feature-film adaptation of "V for Vendetta", directed by James McTeigue from a screenplay by the Wachowskis. Natalie Portman stars as Evey Hammond and Hugo Weaving (replacing James Purefoy) as V.


title: V for Vendetta

text: Alan Moore distanced himself from the film, as he has with other screen adaptations of his works. He ended co-operation with his publisher, DC Comics, after its corporate parent, Warner Bros., failed to retract statements about Moore's supposed endorsement of the movie.


title: V for Vendetta

text: He later adds that if the Wachowskis had wanted to protest about what was going on in the United States, then they should have used a political narrative that directly addressed the issues of the US, similar to what Moore had done before with Britain. The film arguably changes the original message by having removed any reference to actual anarchism in the revolutionary actions of V. An interview with producer Joel Silver reveals that he identifies the V of the comics as a clear-cut "superhero... a masked avenger who pretty much saves the world", a simplification that goes against Moore's own statements about V's role in the story.


title: V for Vendetta

text: Co-author and illustrator David Lloyd, by contrast, embraced the adaptation. In an interview with "Newsarama" he states:


title: V for Vendetta

text: Steve Moore (no relation to Alan Moore) wrote a novelisation of the film's screenplay, published in 2006.


title: V for Vendetta

text: On 4 October 2017, it was announced that Channel 4 was developing a television series based on the "V for Vendetta" comic book, which ultimately entered development hell. On 29 July 2019, the day following the series premiere of "Pennyworth", previously presented ostensibly as solely a direct prequel to Fox series "Gotham" (2014–2019), series co-showrunner Danny Cannon confirmed that "Pennyworth" would also serve as a loose prequel to "V for Vendetta", with the British Civil War depicted in the series' first season eventually leading to the formation of the Norsefire government of "V for Vendetta", a sentiment echoed by co-showrunner Bruno Heller on 11 December 2020, on the day of the second season premiere, and again on 5 February 2021, in the lead-up to the mid-season premiere. Characters wearing V's Guy Fawkes mask were later introduced in the series' 2022 third season, set five years after the first two seasons.


title: V for Vendetta

text: The February 1999 issue of "The Comics Journal" ran a poll on "The Top 100 (English-Language) Comics of the Century": "V for Vendetta" reached 83rd place.


title: V for Vendetta

text: On 5 November 2019, the BBC News listed "V for Vendetta" on its list of the 100 most influential novels.


title: V for Vendetta

text: Since the film adaptation, hundreds of thousands of Guy Fawkes masks from the books and film have been sold every year since the film's release in 2005. Time Warner owns the rights to the image and is paid a fee with the sale of each official mask.


title: V for Vendetta

text: Anonymous, an Internet-based group, has adopted the Guy Fawkes mask as their symbol (in reference to an Internet meme). Members, and supporters, wore such masks, for example, during Project Chanology's protests against the Church of Scientology in 2008. Although V for Vendetta did not pioneer the mask, only popularizing it, the link to the movie remained so strong, it prompted Alan Moore to comment on their use in an interview with "Entertainment Weekly":


title: V for Vendetta

text: According to "Time" in 2011, the protesters' adoption of the mask led to it becoming the top-selling mask on Amazon, selling hundreds of thousands a year.


title: V for Vendetta

text: The film allegedly inspired some of the Egyptian youth before and during the 2011 Egyptian revolution.


title: V for Vendetta

text: On 23 May 2009, protesters dressed up as V and set off a fake barrel of gunpowder outside Parliament while protesting over the issue of British MPs' expenses.


title: V for Vendetta

text: During the Occupy Wall Street and other Occupy protests, the mask appeared internationally as a symbol of popular revolution. Artist David Lloyd stated: "The Guy Fawkes mask has now become a common brand and a convenient placard to use in protest against tyranny – and I'm happy with people using it, it seems quite unique, an icon of popular culture being used this way."


title: V for Vendetta

text: On 17 November 2012, police officials in Dubai warned against wearing Guy Fawkes masks painted with the colours of the UAE flag during any celebration associated with the UAE National Day (2 December), declaring such use an illegal act after masks went on sale in online shops for 50 DHS.


title: Rachel Hunter

text: Rachel Hunter (born 8 September 1969) is a New Zealand model, actress and the host of Imagination Television's "Rachel Hunter's Tour of Beauty". She has appeared on several magazine covers, including "Vogue", "Elle", "Rolling Stone", "Sports Illustrated", "Playboy", "Cosmopolitan" and " Harper's Bazaar". She has been on the cover of the "Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue" twice; in 1994 (alongside Kathy Ireland and Elle Macpherson) and in 2006 (alongside six other models).


title: Rachel Hunter

text: Hunter was born in Glenfield, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, and educated at Glenfield College. Her parents divorced when she was still a child. As a child she wanted to be a ballet dancer, but was diagnosed with a rare blood disease which curtailed her dancing ambitions.


title: Rachel Hunter

text: Hunter began her career at age 16, modelling in France, Australia and New Zealand, appearing in Australian Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Australian Cosmopolitan and for various campaigns throughout New Zealand and Australia. She became the face of Tip Top Ice-Cream in New Zealand and was the "Trumpet Girl". She was quickly signed up to Ford Models and immediately embarked on a successful career, landing a Cover Girl cosmetics contract and becoming the spokesperson for the company for quite a few years. Hunter rose to global prominence after posing as a "Sports Illustrated" swimsuit model in 1989. She subsequently appeared on magazine covers, including "Cosmopolitan" and on the 1994 "Dream Team" cover of Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue with other Supermodels Elle MacPherson and Kathy Ireland, and again graced its cover, this time solo, 12 years later in 2006. Hunter also appeared on the cover of "Vogue Italia", Australian "Vogue", American and international editions of "Elle" and Dutch "Harper's Bazaar".


title: Rachel Hunter

text: Hunter is signed to Ford Models in New York, Select Model Management in London, and Chadwick Models in Sydney.


title: Rachel Hunter

text: Hunter first appeared on television in 1985 in an advertisement for a New Zealand Ice-Cream brand promoting their "Trumpet" ice-cream.


title: Rachel Hunter

text: Hunter guest starred in a 1997 episode of "The Drew Carey Show" as herself. She has appeared in several independent films, including 1999's "A Walk in the Park" and 2000's "Two Shades of Blue", an erotic thriller with Marlee Matlin. She stars as a lesbian cook doling out relationship advice in the award-winning indie film "La Cucina". She had a brief appearance as a sexy mother in Dennis Dugan's "The Benchwarmers" (2006) and also played a sultry, bikini-clad mother in the music video for Fountains of Wayne's 2003 song "Stacy's Mom."


title: Rachel Hunter

text: Hunter was one of six celebrities in the inaugural cast of the American dance competition series "Dancing with the Stars" in 2005. She appeared on a 2005 celebrity episode of "Lingo", where she and her partner Trista Rehn split $US30,000 for charity. Hunter is an ambassador to The Born Free Foundation, and established the Rachel Hunter Lowland Gorilla Fund. Hunter also appeared as herself in the 2004 Christmas Special of "The Vicar of Dibley". She also starred in "Confessions of a Go-Go Girl" (2008), "The Perfect Assistant" (2008), the science fiction TV movies "Piranhaconda" (2011) and "Swamp Volcano", aka "Miami Magma" (2012).


title: Rachel Hunter

text: She appeared as a judge on "New Zealand's Got Talent" from 2012 to 2013. In 2015, Hunter fronted her own television series titled ""Rachel Hunter's Tour of Beauty"" for TV One where she travelled the world to discover what beauty meant in various countries.


title: Rachel Hunter

text: In the late 1980s Hunter lived with rock musician Kip Winger. Winger stated after their relationship ended that he was left heartbroken when Hunter left him for Rod Stewart.


title: Rachel Hunter

text: At the age of 21, Hunter met rock star Rod Stewart, 24 years her senior, in a Los Angeles nightclub. They married three months later at the Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church in Beverly Hills, California, on 15 December 1990. Together they have two children: Renée (b. 1992) and Liam (b. 1994). They separated in January 1999 after eight years of marriage, and their divorce was finalised on 2 November 2006.


title: Rachel Hunter

text: She had a year-long relationship with Canadian NHL ice hockey player Sean Avery in 2004, and in 2006 began a three-year relationship with Jarret Stoll, 13 years her junior, also a Canadian NHL player who played for, and won the Stanley Cup with, the Los Angeles Kings. Her son Liam was a junior player being mentored by him while playing for the LA Kings Juniors when they first met. Stoll proposed to Hunter in 2008 whilst he accompanied her on a trip home to her native New Zealand later that year and they were due to marry on 14 August 2009, but the wedding was called off by Stoll seven weeks prior to their wedding day.


title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

text: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint is a tactical shooter video game developed by Ubisoft Paris and published by Ubisoft. The game was released worldwide on 4 October 2019 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and on 18 December 2019 for Stadia. The game is the eleventh installment in the "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon" franchise and is a narrative sequel to the 2017 video game "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands".


title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

text: The game is set in an open world environment called Auroa, a fictional island chain in the Pacific Ocean. The player takes on the role of Lieutenant Colonel Anthony "Nomad" Perryman a U.S. Special Operation Forces service member sent to the island to investigate a series of disturbances involving Skell Technology, a military contractor based on Auroa. Upon release, "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint" received mixed reviews from critics, with criticism for its mechanics and mission design. The game underperformed commercially despite selling 6 million on all platforms, as of 1 January 2020, worldwide. Live service support for the game ended on 5 April 2022 shortly after Ubisoft added non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to the game.


title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

text: Like its predecessor "Wildlands", "Breakpoint" is a tactical shooter game set in an open world environment. It is played from a third-person perspective and uses an optional first-person view for aiming weapons. Players take on the role of Lieutenant Colonel Anthony "Nomad" Perryman, a member of the Delta Company, First Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, also known as "Ghosts", a fictional elite special operations unit of the United States Army under the Joint Special Operations Command. The game world, Auroa, is an open world environment that features a variety of landscapes, and these can be used for tactical advantages. For instance, players can slide down rocky terrain and use mud to camouflage themselves. According to Ubisoft, Auroa is larger than the game world featured in "Wildlands". Players have a variety of ways to traverse the open world, controlling various air, land and sea vehicles.


title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

text: The game was planned to launch with four character classes. Ubisoft announced plans to make more classes available through post-launch updates. Each class has its own abilities; for example, the panther is a class oriented towards stealth and is able to throw smoke bombs. The player is able to switch between classes in-game. Players have to gather intelligence in order to progress through the game and can use a variety of methods to approach missions. As in previous titles in the franchise, they can utilize a variety of weapons in combat, with the player's repertoire expanded to include combat drones and rocket launchers to kill enemies. Alternatively, the player can use stealth to silently neutralize opponents. In "Breakpoint", players can equip a variety of new weapons and gear such as a blowtorch to cut through fences, sulphur gas grenades to kill enemies, and electromagnetic pulse grenades to disable drones and vehicles. Players can carry corpses away and hide them so that enemies will not become alerted. Fallen enemies will leave loot for players to collect. Fallen teammates can be carried away so as to revive them safely. Many of the new features added to "Breakpoint" were developed based on player feedback in "Wildlands".


title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

text: The game places a larger emphasis on survival than "Wildlands". Enemies are more numerous and the game features a wider range of enemy archetypes. These enemies have access to many of the same weapons, skills and equipment that are available to the player. Enemies will respond more realistically to player actions and patrols wander the game world searching for the player. Ubisoft introduced these changes to give the player the sense that they were "no longer the most dangerous thing in the game world". Players need to collect different resources in the game's world and use them to craft resources such as bandages, or grenades. Regular loadout checks are necessary to progress the players Gear Level, and the player will need to manage their character's fatigue, injuries, and ration usage. Failing to do so may slow the player down, limit their ability to regenerate health, or cause them to make more noise while moving. The game uses a regenerative health system whereby the player character naturally recovers health, but serious injuries will impede the player character's performance, as they will start limping and can no longer aim their weapon accurately. Players can set up a bivouac shelter in order to heal themselves. The shelter is the site where players can manage their weapons and inventory, customize their character and change the character's classes. The game can be played with up to three other players cooperatively, or in single-player. The game was initially announced to have no AI squadmates, but the addition of AI squadmates was later amended as post-release content based due to negative feedback from players. Unlike previous "Ghost Recon" titles, "Breakpoint" requires a constant internet connection to play, in-part due to the game's single-character progression system.


title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

text: The game's story features dialogue choices. These will not affect the main narrative, but instead enable players to gain intelligence that may aid in their missions. The game features a mode called "Exploration" that was used in "Assassin's Creed Odyssey". Unlike most open-world games where the player is given an objective marker to guide their progress, "Breakpoint"s Exploration mode gives the player a rough approximation of the area where an objective may be located. Their approximation can be refined by exploring the world or through investigating intelligence. A competitive multiplayer mode was released at launch, and end-of-game content such as raids was introduced after release.


title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

text: The game is set in the year 2025, six years after the events of "Wildlands" and one year after the events of "Future Soldier". The story takes place on Auroa, a fictional island in the South Pacific owned by a billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist named Jace Skell. Skell is the founder of Skell Technology, a blue chip company producing drones for commercial applications, but the company has also found success as a military contractor developing cutting-edge equipment for the United States government. Skell purchased Auroa with a vision of turning it into a hub for the design, research, development, and production of artificial intelligence and drone technology, which he dubs "World 2.0". The island is made up of a series of individual biomes including marine estuaries and wetlands, fjords, arboreal forests, snow-capped mountains, and active volcanoes.


title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

text: The main antagonist is former Ghost Lieutenant Colonel Cole D. Walker (Jon Bernthal), who has gone rogue after leaving the army. After witnessing his fireteam be slaughtered on a mission in Bolivia, Walker has come to believe that the United States government does not value the lives of its soldiers. A private military contractor named Sentinel has occupied the island under Walker's command while Walker himself is leading a team of soldiers calling themselves the "Wolves".


title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

text: Returning characters from "Ghost Recon Wildlands" include the members of Nomad's fireteam Dominic "Holt" Moretta, Corey "Weaver" Ward and Rubio "Midas" Delgado.


title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

text: Prior to the events of the game, Skell Technology comes under increasing public scrutiny when they are faced with mounting evidence that its products are being used by corrupt regimes. The situation escalates further when the USS "Seay", an American cargo ship, sinks off the coast of the Auroa archipelago, and the island chain cuts all communication to the outside world. In response, CIA Deputy Director Peter Miles initiates Operation Greenstone, deploying a Ghost Recon platoon to re-establish contact with Auroa and determine the circumstances of the sinking. The insertion ends in disaster when the helicopters carrying the platoon to the island are taken down by a swarm of drones.


title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

text: Nomad survives the crash, but Midas is missing in action, Holt is crippled, and Weaver is executed by Cole Walker, a former Ghost-turned-leader of an elite paramilitary group called the "Wolves". Nomad gets in contact with Mads Schulz, an ex-United States Marine and "de facto" leader of the homesteaders who lived on Auroa before Skell Tech's arrival. Mads reveals that the homesteaders were forced into hiding by a private military company employed by Skell Tech called Sentinel, who had been hired for security following a terrorist bombing on the island, but has now overthrown Skell Tech and declared martial law over the archipelago. Nomad meets Josiah Hill, another Ghost survivor with whom he and Walker have history: the three were part of a mission in the Middle East, which ended in disaster when Walker executed their commanding officer for murdering a civilian. After the mission Walker resigned from the Army and disappeared. Nomad encounters Skell's chief mathematician Maurice Fox and his daughter, Harmony, and discovers that all of Auroa is surrounded by a massive network of drones that prevents anyone from entering or leaving.


title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

text: After determining that Skell Tech CEO Jace Skell, who disappeared shortly after Sentinel's coup, is the only one who can lift the drone perimeter, Nomad seeks him out. Upon reaching Skell, Nomad discovers that Hill has been secretly working with Walker and the two offer Nomad a place by their side. Nomad refuses and evacuates Skell to Erewhon. Skell reveals that he was responsible for the sinking of the "Seay" due to it carrying dangerous technology off the island, but shows Nomad video footage in which Walker and Trey Stone, the founder and owner of Sentinel, discuss a project codenamed "Wonderland". Skell says that he will be able to hack one of the pylons that controls the drone perimeter, but needs the assistance of several Skell Tech colleagues who are scattered around the archipelago.


title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

text: During the search for one of the employees, Nomad reaches out to the Outcasts, a group of former Skell Tech employees who quit Skell Tech and formed a resistance group in opposition to Skell's increasing interests in transhumanism, led by Haruhi Ito and her brother Diagoroh. While assisting one of Skell's colleagues, Nomad discovers Haruhi and Diagoroh were responsible for the Skell Tech bombing; they had intended only to damage the building as a protest against Skell's transhumanist projects, but they were not aware the building was occupied and had underestimated the explosive power of their bomb. Nomad berates them for their recklessness, but continues working with them after recovering Skell's colleague.


title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

text: Maurice reveals the identity of a mole in Skell Tech who had been assisting him and attempts to meet her, but he is killed by the Wolves and the mole is kidnapped. Nomad rescues her, killing Hill in the process, and continues to investigate the Wolves' activities. Nomad discovers that Walker's "Wonderland" project is an operation to use a submarine outfitted with drone-equipped torpedoes to assassinate key national figures, in hopes of triggering a third world war as a way of "cleaning" the world and ridding it of corruption. After finding and killing Walker, Nomad assists Skell in hacking the drone pylon, using the drones to destroy Walker's submarine before it departs.


title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

text: In the wake of Walker's death, Stone consolidates his power over Auroa, Skell Tech, and Sentinel. Nomad returns to Erewhon and is congratulated for thwarting the Wonderland Scheme, but acknowledges that his work on Auroa is not finished. Skell observes the drone swarm above Auroa acting strangely, commenting that the hacked pylon appears to have developed emergent behavior.


title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

text: Released in November 2019, "Breakpoint"s first raid event, "Project Titan" takes place on the previously inaccessible Golem Island, where Nomad is tasked with destroying Skell Tech's "Titan" drones and preventing Sentinel from manufacturing more.


title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

text: Beginning with the release of the first mission on 29 January, and the second mission on 1 February 2020, the expansion features two missions involving the Terminator. In the first mission, Nomad is tasked by Maria Schulz to locate a woman in Sentinel detention that managed to take down several armed drones on her own. Nomad tracks down the woman who identifies herself as Rasa Aldwin, a time traveler sent from the future to search for Nomad. However, as she explains her situation, a T-800 Terminator manages to track their location and they are forced to escape. Making their way to Rasa's workshop, she explains that forty years from now in her timeline, an artificial intelligence known as Skynet would be responsible for developing the machines for infiltration-based assassination missions, and would use the machines to wage war on humanity. At the hideout, Nomad is provided with a rifle specifically designed to destroy the machines and sends Rasa to Erewhon. Rasa tasks Nomad to investigate the unexplained presence of multiple Terminators on Auroa and what their true purpose is for being on the island. After detecting strange electro-magnetic patterns coming from one of the Skell-Tech facilities, Nomad discovers that the machines have converted the facility into a factory to begin mass-producing Terminators in the present. Reaching the control room, Nomad comes across the T-800 that was originally encountered in the first mission and is now in control of the facility. After battling and destroying the T-800, Nomad seals the airlock leading into the production facility as it self-destructs; trapping the remaining Terminators inside. With all remaining Terminators on Auroa destroyed, and the threat posed by Skynet now abated, Rasa chooses to stay in the present at Erewhon.


title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

text: "Deep State" features a tie-in with "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell", with actor Michael Ironside reprising the role of Sam Fisher. Fisher is deployed to Auroa alongside his friend Victor Coste, under the guise of working for the latter's private security company, Paladin 9. While Coste is ostensibly working alongside Sentinel to provide logistical support, the duo are actually investigating the kidnappings of military specialists that are traced back to an individual on the island known as "The Strategist." Fisher and Nomad decide to team up when it is discovered that Midas is alive and is being held by the Strategist for a top-secret program known as Project CLAW; an artificial intelligence hive mind that enables human-controlled drone swarms that can be used for military applications. After making contact with and enlisting the help of system analyst Hollie Mackenzie, entomologist Willem Van Dyke, patent legal advisor Stephanie Burgess, and former US Army general Reggie Paxton, Nomad and Fisher discover that The Strategist is Leon Fairrow, a billionaire industrialist and head of weapons manufacturing conglomerate Lomax-Fairrow. Fairrow and his partner, US Senator Michael Lomax are part of a conspiracy that involves high-ranking members of various US government agencies and private development firms to create the drones. Fearing that Fairrow was not reliable and concerned about the kidnappings, the CIA and the Department of Defense had asked Fourth Echelon to investigate. After infiltrating Project CLAW's research facility and facing off against an array of drones, Fisher and Nomad manage to capture Fairrow and rescue Midas, who is evacuated to Erewhon to recover with Holt. Meanwhile, using a short window provided by Mackenzie in the drone swarm that is protecting the island, Fisher and Coste manage to evacuate onboard the C-147B "Paladin" with Fairrow in-tow and force him to testify before Congress; in the hopes that his testimony will convince them to officially launch a US military invasion of Auroa to remove Sentinel from the archipelago.