Gods and Mortals- an open-source super-hero universe.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Ok guys. I'm sure we've all tried to make up our own characters and stories...well, I've done that too. Over the years, I've come up with numerous characters and storylines, all within one overarching universe. Now I am finally starting to put these ideas to use- I've begun a series of short-stories involving the characters and events I've already decided on. Sadly, though I've got a few big-names, I want this to be a fairly well-established universe. In short, I need more characters! So, I open my project for everyone to contribute to...think 'open-source comic universe.'
I don't want this setting to be too childish or light-hearted, but it's not particularly deconstructionist either. I want to be serious, but in an over-the-top way. There are super-heroes, and they do what they do, for the most part, because it is the right thing to do. There are super-villains, and they are usually EVIL. Not all the time, but angst-ridden heroes, antiheroes who feel more like villains then the villains themselves, and villains so sympathetically written that you're almost sad they loose are not the staples. This is a world with secret paramilitary organizations, and mythological gods walking the earth. There are heroes and villains brawling downtown, punching each other through walls and throwing cars around. There are HEROES standing squarely against the chaos, with the fate of the world on their broad shoulders. These are stories about the metahuman world, but ours gets more like it every day.


Theme:
Long ago, the Elders of the Universe (better name needed) gave each major planet and star a name that was both description and prophecy. The planet we would one day call Earth was named Eran’athu’rile’thuan- Cradle of Gods. Twice over the course of its history, mighty races arose, and rapidly reached the point of Ascension- the D'na, and the Atlantians. Each time, an older empire wiped them out before they could reach their full potential. Now, the Third Race- man- is reaching his point of ascension...and powerful forces are in motion; a whole galaxy moving to keep Man in his place.
Note that a sub-theme in the writing, unavoidable without total suspension of disbelief, is the role of metahumans in the world. When lasers and force-fields are commonly used by metas, why don't we humans have them? Why doesn't the super-genius solve world hunger in a day? The answer usually boils down to somewhere between 'let them find out for themselves,' 'they're not sheep, and we can't treat them as such,' or, my personal favorite, 'we're not gods. If we do this kind of thing, they'll want us to do it again and again, until they no longer try to solve their own problem, but pray to us instead.'


Pre-history:

A bit over 65 million years BC- First D’na evolve from <appropriate species needed>. They are unique due to the presence of a sort of hive mind- they can survive alone, but without the guidance of their Queen, they lack more then a crude, animal intelligence. With it, they were capable of great feats of engineering. The Queens harnessed psionic energy from the mind of their children, and were capable of literally reshaping the earth in their image- much of what we would recognize as the modern world is a result of their work. Their civilization was centered on the city of Cul’pexia, on an island just off the modern-day Yucatan Peninsula.
65 million years BC- The Domination of Light, an alien dreadnaught from the Minamor system, initiates a kinetic bombardment of Cul’pexia during the Grand Festival, when all D’na Queens gather at the capital to share thoughts. Their Iridium ‘Extinction’ ordinance forms a massive dust cloud, blocking out the sun and leading to the extinction of the vast majority of living creatures- including the D’na.
200,000 BC- hypothesized origin of modern humans
18,000 BC- Humans first arrive on the island of Atlantis in the southeastern Atlantic Ocean. Highly fertile conditions spur the advent of civilization. Unknown to them, Mount Wir’aus at the island’s center is the focus of Earth’s magical field.
9,500 BC- The human tribes of Atlantis first begin to tap into magic.
8,000 BC- Extensive contact with magic, combined with relative isolation, results in the Atlanteans becoming a separate species from Homo sapian- Homo hyperborus.
7,000 BC- peak of Atlantean culture. They believed their island was the only truly civilized place on Earth, and so they rarely left their island. They have a technological base similar to modern society, only based on magic rather then science. The average lifespan extended several centuries.
6,900 BC- the aliens of the Kha’sua Empire used a derivative of hyperspace technology to shift the entire island of Atlantis to another dimension, with a much weaker magical field. The former site of Atlantis, plagued by anomalies in the time-space continuum, is known today as the Bermuda Triangle.
7,000-1,000 BC- various Atlanteans who managed to escape their prison dimension are mistakenly identified and worshiped as gods.
974 BC- the Cataclysm- the Earth’s magical field, weakened by the loss of Mount Wir’aus, collapses. Mages can no longer recharge their stores of magic without elaborate rituals.
June 30, 1908- The first super-hero, the Russian General Winter, is killed while battling alien invaders in Tunguska. The explosion caused by the energies he released was comparable to a hydrogen bomb, or a large asteroid impact.
1970s- the first generation of public metahumans begins to emerge. Their powers are usually attributed to nuclear radiation.
200?- modern day



Plans:
I have three planned stages in my world, currently titled “Discovery, Defiance, and Destiny.” Each one will consist of a number of standard stories, some important ones introducing new characters, and one or more major crossover-type events.


Discovery:
The first stage, it will deal with the rise of modern superheroes. Heroes to this point have been fairly weak (no more then 3 on the Harvard Metahuman Scale- more on that later). Technology is at modern levels, except for a very few cases (such as Hephaestus).
Major Event: Gods and Mortals
The first big event centers around an underground organization dedicated to suppressing the emergence of metahumans. As the story progresses, it becomes apparent that there are two branches- one, led by the Faceless Master, is attempting to protect the Earth from another alien attack, by creating an army of high-tech and superhuman soldiers under his control. The other branch is helping the alien Othac conquer the earth by preventing it from developing effective defenses- metahumans. At the end of the event, Gauntlet founds the Earth Guardian Corps, a JLA-equivalent intended to protect the world from alien or metahuman attacks.


Defiance:
The second stage deals mainly with the preparation for the expected Othac attack. There will be a few stories, then the main event.
Major Event: Siege of Heaven
The initial Othac invasion. The aliens will land a small force to try and quickly conquer the primitive Earth. They have all the classic sci-fi tech- lasers, force fields, hpyerdrive, etc. Earth’s military and heroes will fight a desperate battle to contain them, eventually triumphing by the skin of their teeth.
After the victory, life resumes as normal, tempered by the knowledge that they barely beat the initial, scouting force. The invasion will have scattered alien technology across the world, leading to rapid upgrading of our tech base. Besides the usual wartime upgrade, scientists work hard to understand the technology left behind, resulting in a gradual increase in Earth’s general technological level.


Destiny:
The third and final stage details our transition from modern-day technology to a space-faring civilization.
Major Event: Path to the Stars:
The expected Othac follow-up arrives. Earth’s defenders rally, preparing to die in a hopeless battle (Siege of Heaven had one carrier. Now there are seven). Just when all hope seems lost, the Lazuri, another alien race, arrive and drive off the Othac fleet.
They turn out to be a more benevolent alien race, representatives of an intergalactic confederation of races capable of FTL travel. Normally, they’re not allowed to interact with ‘primitives’ like humanity, but the impending Othac invasion gave them an excuse.
Human scientists (Hephaestus and others) synthesize all of the technology floating around the metahuman world and bring it to the rest of the human race. Force fields, lasers, anti-gravity…and hyperdrive, from the remains of the first Othac invasion.

After this, stories would be more science fiction with superheroes then a super-hero comic with sci-fi elements.


Metahumans
Metahumans (‘gods’) in my setting are mostly like mutants in the marvel universe in that their powers are inborn.
Because eventually the entire human race will get powers, there is a scale, ranging from Kings to Peasants. Some characters shift their position slightly- whether bumped down because of an injury, or up through sheer skill. Individual abilities rated 1-10 on the fictional ‘Harvard Metahuman Scale’, with 1 being peak-human ability and 10 being Superman (post Crisis)/Green Lantern level power.
Because these guys are post-human, they frequently have minor abilities in addition to their stated powers. Things like slightly enhanced senses, slower buildup of fatigue toxins, slightly improved healing, and so on. Not enough to dramatically alter the effect of a fight, but basic improvements to the human body.
The exact mechanisms through which powers operate are unknown, although I may have something to do with the adrenal system- most powers manifest during period of intense stress. There are also a few established genetic components. The Siegel allele is somehow related to physical powers, such as super-strength. The Nodel allele frequently appears in those with energy manipulation abilities. Psionic abilities are the most understood (although still not highly). Lobes of neural tissue are visible in a CAT-scan of a psion, and telepathy operates on a distinct energy.


Magic:
Magic was once incredibly plentiful. Anyone could channel power from the magical field with a brief exertion of willpower, and true mages could store immense amounts of power within themselves. And using words of the true language, raw magical energy could be molded and shaped to produce much more complex effects then were possible without the spoken spell.

Dynamic magic- the spells cast by mages right then and there- flourished. But the strength of the Earth’s magical field made it very hard to create a lasting magical item. The natural currents would simply pull energy away from the item until it was empty. For centuries, Atlantean sorcerers sought a way to prevent this, but without success. With this holy grail of arcane technology beyond reach, they settled for recharging items regularly by funneling raw energy from the magical field into them.

Then, seven thousand years before the birth of Christ, Atlantis was removed from the universe, and Mount Wir’aus- the focus of Earth’s magical field- went with it. With the sole surface deposit of Aeternus stone- a natural focus for magical energy- gone, the magical field went wild. For millennia afterwards, the lay lines shifted crazily. One day a region would be flooded with raw energy. For hours, days, even centuries, the area would flourish, before the lines shifted again and left it barren.

Then, in 947 BC, a council of mages finally managed to escape the magic-starved dimension where Atlantis was imprisoned. They arrived on Earth and enacted a ritual intended to funnel the Earth’s magic back to Atlantis. And, for the most part, they succeeded. Unimaginable amounts of energy were lost to entropy, but Atlantis’ society was saved.

Unfortunately, they did not anticipate the effects back on Earth. Their efforts proved to be the last straw for the tortured magical field- it collapsed. Utterly. Lay lines and tidal basins dwindled to a shadow of their former selves. There remained only a few- a very few- places on earth where a mage could withdraw significant amounts of power. Most of these were places like active volcanoes, where raw energy leeks out from the center of the planet.

A side effect was that, without the interference of the magical field, enchantments would now remain stable. Desperate mages bound up large amounts of power in creating magic items, which would continue to work even when their power ran out.
As a result, modern spellcasters horde their power. Recharging their personal stores is a painstaking process of travel and ritual, and duels are often fought over the possession of a source of power.


Space Ships and other sci-fi stuff
Space travel is driven by two technologies: Gravity drives and hyperspace rifts. Grav drives manipulate gravitational forces to warp space behind the ship, propelling it forwards. They vary in power, but they’re almost totally inertia-free and can accelerate a ship to near-light speeds. The warp in the time-space continuum generated by the drive distorts any object or radiation passing through it, to the point where it renders the rear of a ship effectively immune to attack. On the downside, the ripples in the fabric of the universe created by such a distortion travel at almost a hundred times the speed of light, meaning that ships under drive can be tracked at near-instantaneous speed. Grav drives are cheap enough that they can be used to power long-range capital missiles. Generating the initial warp is time-consuming, but altering the power of an existing warp can be done very quickly. A single drive can steer a craft like a water-bound ship’s rudder, but because grav drives can alter power incredibly fast, warships tend to mount multiple drives in multiple places so they can turn faster.


Hyperspace is a parallel universe of pure energy where conventional laws of time and space don’t apply. An object in hyperspace travels at thousands of times the speed of light relative to our universe. Entering hyperspace is relatively easy. The problems with FTL travel have more to do with protecting yourself from the dimension’s raging energies. Only capital ships and very large merchants can enter and leave hyperspace freely. Other ships have to either be ferried by a carrier, or use gate station, where powerful machinery can wrap a ship in a bubble of protective energy and shoot them across hyperspace to their destination.

Ship-based weaponry consists of both missiles and lasers. Lasers are conventional, if large, and are used at short range. They can be stopped by both refractive armor and shields. Two significant subcategories of energy weapons- found mainly on larger craft, due to their size, complexity, and energy demand- are gravity cannons and pulse cannons. Grav cannons generates waves of opposing gravitational forces that can disrupt grav drives, hyper rifts, and, at high power and short range, tear apart even the largest craft. Pulse cannons generate small, unstable hyperspace rifts inside a conical force-field. The energy released by the rift is funneled through a narrow opening in the field, creating a focused pulse of immensely powerful energies. The diameter of the opening can be varied to generate effects ranging from tightly focused beams to wide-area blasts used for point defense.

Missiles are usually launched from railguns and driven by grav drives, giving them limited range but high speed. For longer-ranged targets, the missiles coast most of the way using their initial velocity, and only power up their drives for the final approach. Some larger missiles use chemical propellants for increased range. They are armed with either nuclear (fusion) warheads or hyper drills. A hyper drill, when activated, tears a large, short-lived rift into hyperspace. Nearby objects are sucked into its depths, but the real bonus is the massive wave of energy released from hyperspace. A hyper drill has ten times the power and almost a hundred times the stand-off range of a conventional nuke.

There are all the classic sci-fi warships- from slow, lumbering dreadnaughts to fleet battlecruisers to flimsy destroyers, all heavily armed and armored. There are also small, sublight craft (strikecraft)- from two-man interceptors to corvettes with dozens of crew and enough combat power for a squadron to take on a light cruiser with confidence of victory. Hyper drills mean that even small craft can inflict major damage on opposing craft- especially since their missiles tend to sacrifice range for warheads. Shields are modular, meaning that in a heated battle, one section might drop, rendering a ship vulnerable to attack by strikecraft close enough to sense and target the lapse.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Please format ideas as demonstrated below. I'll post more when I finish getting the thread set up.


Kings:
Gauntlet

Real name: Brian Scott
Description:He’s a big man, around six foot two, and heavily built. He tends to shun spandex, wearing instead a tight green shirt with a pair of wide black belts crossed over it. He has green pants, black military-style boots and a long black cape. And, of course, the trademark gauntlets- ornate bracers made of black leather and greenish-tinted metal, and studded with emeralds.
Powers: His powers are a little tricky. Potentially, he was to have class 10+ telepathy and telekinesis, as well as maximum potential human physical abilities. However, due to surgical tampering, his telepathy has been almost completely removed, and his telekinesis severely restricted. Although it still remains incredibly strong on a subconscious level, his conscious control is almost nonexistent. Hypnotic and telepathic suggestion convinced him that his powers consisted of superhuman physical abilities, flight, and the ability to fire concussive force blasts, and stemmed from the gauntlets he wears. As of the time the stories start, he has discovered that his powers work when not wearing his gauntlets, but not that they are psionic in nature.
He has class 10 strength and invulnerability (though only class 8 against energy weapons). Speed is class 7, though his perceptions are nowhere near that fast. His force blasts are class 7. A combination of unconscious telekinesis and improved cellular-level structures enable him to operate for several hours of intense physical activity in anaerobic conditions. Finally, he heals somewhat faster then a normal human (although not at the level that would justify even a low-level healing factor).
Origin: Brian Scott joined the Marines just out of high school, because he wanted to protect his countrymen. He fought in the first Gulf War, but was badly wounded saving a fellow soldier from sniper fire. Given an honorable discharge, he took a job on the NYPD after he recovered. His powers manifested during a shoot-out, when he was hit in the chest. However, before he could explore them in-depth, he was captured by the paramilitary organization Fist of Man. They surgically inhibited as many of his powers as they could, and used hypnotic and telepathic methods to convince him that his powers came from 'the Gauntlets of Hercules,' which he still wears, before returning him to his apartment with no memory of the attack. He has no secret identity, and is still officially a police officer (a Detective), salary and all, although he operates in-costume most of the time.


General Winter (Deceased)

Real name: Eugene Alexeyev
Description: He was seven feet tall, with long, bushy white hair and beard. He wore a pure-white version of a Russian Army uniform with general’s insignia.
Powers: Level 10 cryokinesis (think Iceman). Level 8 weather control. Level 4 strength and endurance. He could fly through snowstorms and teleport between large patches of snow.
Origin: Eugene Alexeyev was the first well-known superhero to be acknowledged as such (as opposed to posing as a god, angel or other supernatural being). The Russian Czars he served wiped out all records of his life prior to his service to them, but rumor has it that he was a conscripted soldier whose powers activated when he was trapped in a blizzard. He battled aliens and magical beings, as well as enemies of his country, but his greatest victory was against Napoleon’s Grande Armee. He was eventually killed in battle against aliens in Tunguska (see time line.


Shygir II Note: Boosted due to extreme skill.

Real name: Charles Lawrence.
Description: He’s about six foot two with short black hair and brown eyes. He wears the same costume as his predecessor (see Shygir I), but the black background is now a star field pattern.
Powers: The same as his predecessor (level 10 energy manipulation), but Charles is much better at it. He rarely stoops to actual power blasts and constructs- he recognizes the greater power at stake. He has sufficient skill to manipulate the electrical impulses in someone’s brain to control their body.
In addition, he has a genius-level intellect (for a baseline human), and excessive scientific knowledge. His skill at analyzing advanced technology borders on superhuman.
Origin: Charles was a brilliant scientist who longed to enter the metahuman world. Not for fame and fortune, but to bring the technology- lasers and force fields and genetic engineering and more- to the rest of the world. (He was introduced to this by his college roommate, one Alan Bradley, better known as Iron).
He worked on many high-tech projects at Olympus Industries, DARPA, and more. Heroes like Iron have been known to come to him for help when they require scientific assistance and people like Hephaestus and the Black Rider aren’t available.
During the Othac invasion, he will be one of the human scientists who attempt to reverse-engineer Othac technology for humanity’s use. While doing so, he will inherit the Shygirathkahn from his critically-wounded predecessor (see Shygir I). He will wind up being a key player in Path to the Stars.




Dukes:
Iron

Real name: Alan Bradley
Description: He’s fairly unremarkable. About 5 foot 10, with an unremarkably handsome face and curly brown hair. He’s well-built for a normal human, but not overly muscular. His costume- when he wears it- is a dark blue jumpsuit with silver edging.
Powers: Level 7 strength, level 3 invulnerability (level 5 against blunt trauma), level 7 healing factor. Some degree of skill in martial arts.
Origin: He was a studying business at CMU when he stumbled across a rape attempt. He intervened, but the rapist pulled a knife on him, and the trauma activated his metahuman powers. While attempting to control his newfound strength, he signed up for a karate class, hoping to learn self-control. He did so, gathering a fair knowledge of hand-to-hand combat in the process. During the process, he found himself more and more often in a position to respond to crimes of various sorts. He made no effort to conceal his identity while doing so. After earning his MBA, he tried to get a job, but increasingly serious heroic concerns made it difficult. After one adventure, he sold a disk full of files on genetic engineering to a pharmaceutical company, who were able to develop gene therapies for several conditions, including cystic fibrosis. He invested the money, and has devoted his time since to full-time heroics.


Silverwind

Real name: Caroline Walker
Description: She’s an incredibly beautiful woman, five foot six and curvaceous, with long white hair and haunting gold eyes that can melt a man like butter. She wears a formfitting costume- although it's actually made of Kevlar- with an intricate pattern of gold and silver swirls over a white background. Her energy powers manifest with an aura that looks kind of like a maze- an intricate pattern of white and black lines.
Powers: Level 7 Energy generation for blasts, shields, flight, strength. Also capable of healing/inflicting wounds.
Origin: She always knew she had powers, but she was content in her job as an author of children’s books, and never felt called to be a hero…until Hurricane Katrina hit her hometown of New Orleans while she was away. Feeling guilty over not being there to protect the people when they needed it most, she moved back to help with the reconstruction, taking on the identity of Silverwind. In the years since, she has become a powerful, experienced, and trusted hero.


Hephaestus (note: boosted due to technology and resources).

Real name: Matt Nelson (combat) and Ryumenth/ Ryan Turner
Description: Powered armor looks something like a Gundam suit- it’s comic-book powered armor, but much more boxy and robotic-looking then Iron Man’s.
Powers:
Armor- Level 4 strength, level 5 invulnerability (with shields), level 5 energy projection, flight. Nanites and molecular circuitry give the suit great versatility, with everything from normal lasers to sonic weaponry possible given enough time to configure the systems.


Hephaestus' Weaponry
The Hephaestus armor mounts weaponry in the forearms. There are two sites on each arm for weaponry- the Emitter site, which fires from the palm, and the Rear site, on the forearm itself. Emitter weaponry tends to be wide-spectrum weapons, while Rear weaponry usually works off a focused beam.

Emitter Site
Graviton Repulsor
Lightning Arc Caster
Neural Disruptor
Directed EMP Generator
Sonic weaponry
External Shield Projector


Forearm Site
Variable Frequency Laser Cannon
Area-of-effect Plasma Cannon
Thermal Lance

Some of the weaponry Hephaestus can use requires ammunition. All the weapons listed after this have some limitation on use, although the ammunition in question ranges from tungsten blocks to packs of circuitry.
Gauss Cannon
Mini-Rockets (Guided by the suit's sensors. Short range).
Grapples (The suit launches a graviton grappler that can stick to almost any substance on a titanium wire. The grappler can be reused).

Matt- Level 5 energy generation (electricity), used to power the suit. Neural implant can interface with computers. Some knowledge of martial arts and weapons training.
Ryan- Can magically stimulate bursts of incredible genius in his own mind. Level 2 telekinesis, but with enough control to manipulate dozens of tiny parts simultaneously and with great precision. Great knowledge of all different disciplines, including both modern science and magic. Does not age.
Origin: Ryumenth was always more interested in knowledge and machines then magic, even in the heyday of Atlantis. He was studying glaciers in the Arctic when Atlantis was destroyed, and so he survived, channeling his magic into abilities that would help with his craft. He was often worshiped as a god of craftsmanship or knowledge, although he views the sciences as something humanity should discover for themselves, although he has been known to provide the first step sometimes. Some of his children over the years include Leonardo DaVinci, Thomas Edison, and Albert Einstein. In the modern world of super-heroes, he wanted to contribute as well, so he created the Hephaestus armor. However, it needed a power source, and he had never been good with using weapons. Enter Matt Nelson, an out-of-work stuntsman who’s father he had known, and latent metahuman. He used recruited Nelson to drive the suit, and used a combination of technology and magic to activate the former's powers. Though they bicker sometimes, they are an effective team- Matt drives the armor, and he observes and provides technical advice. Hephaestus is billed as the official super-hero of Ryumenth’s multibillion dollar high-tech company, Olympus Industries.


Pulse

Real name: Captain John Warren
Description: He’s a tough-looking bald man with blue eyes that glow with energy when he uses his power. He’s average height and well built, but in the manner of a normal guy who keeps himself in shape. He likes to wear loose camouflage pants, brown boots, and a tight black shirt with a blue starburst design on the chest, but can sometimes be found in uniform.
Powers: Level 10 energy generation, but with little control. He can fly and shoot energy bolts; that’s about it.
Origin: He’s the crown jewel of the US Army’s super-soldier program- an all-natural metahuman of great power. He’s a good soldier, but he gives his loyalty to the government above all. Still, he’s always willing to provide extra firepower to his friends- he’s on especially good terms with Gauntlet, another old soldier- when he’s not on duty. His superiors don’t deploy him often- they see him more as a deterrent than an agent, given that his ability to level a city in a matter of minutes often makes other governments see him as a walking WMD.


Shygir I

Real name: Cory Fisher
Description: He’s about six four and skinny, with blond hair and green eyes. He wears a black spandex costume with a vertical white stripe across the chest, a black mask with an open chin (Batman style), and white boots. On the chest is an emblem with crossed lightning bolts over a sun, made of glowing white energy. His gloves are dotted with the evidence of futuristic technology, and are made of the same white energy as the chest symbol.
Powers: The Shygirathkahn he wields grants him level 10 energy manipulation powers- it can’t create energy, but anything already existing can be transferred and transformed to his heart’s content, with no detectable loss to entropy. It automatically stores a certain amount of ambient energy, as well as energy-based attacks that target him. Due to a lack of creativity, willpower, or both, Cory mainly manipulates stored power to create energy blasts, constructs, and so on. He also has figured out that he can fly at extremely high speeds and perform hyperspace jumps, courtesy of the device’s simplistic AI.
The alien device offers numerous other benefits as well. It enables the wielder to breathe in anaerobic conditions. Its neural links let it act as a universal translator. It can interface with almost any communications technology. It can be programmed to perform a certain number of complicated functions, like hyperspace jumps, automatically. It can perform complex calculations with a speed far in excess of earthly computers. And so on.
Origin: The Shygirathkahn, an ancient name meaning ‘Shaper of the Heavens’ Fire,’ was probably the crowning achievement of an alien race. In its passive state, it looks like a cylindrical sculpture of thin, twisting shapes about six inches long. When activated, it bonds with the closest form of carbon-based life, integrating itself into his or her body through use of nanotechnology. It remains inside them until they either remove it or they die.
Despite such technology, the race that made it soon vanished- perhaps a slave revolt, perhaps a cosmic event, but the true cause, like much in the universe, remains a mystery. The Shygirathkahn somehow survived the devastation, and floated across thousands of light-years to wind up on earth.
There it was discovered by college drop-out Cory Fisher, who was watching a meteor shower with his girlfriend. He accidentally activated it, and wound up becoming a super-hero…at least, while not working assorted low-wage jobs.
He will eventually die during the Othac invasion.




Counts:
Shadowhand

Real name: James Hakase
Description: He wears a modern ninja suit most of the time- loose, unadorned clothing in assorted shades of dark grey, with a mask of the same type of material. He’s of approximately average height, but moves incredibly gracefully.
Powers: Level 8 perception, level 6 teleportation, level 3 strength and agility. This lets him sense everything within a mile or so of his position with ease- think spider-sense times ten. He can teleport not just himself, but anything he’s touching. Incredible skill in martial arts and weaponry, both archaic and modern.
Origin: He was a prodigy without a purpose- a superb athlete and a brilliant scholar, but he never knew what he wanted to do with his life. After graduating high school at the top of his class, he took a few years off to travel. When visiting his Japanese homeland (his grandparents immigrated after WW2), he began studying martial arts from a man who turned out to be an agent of the Hand of Fire. Seeing James’ talent, he recruited the young man. James didn’t realize what he was training to do, though, until the ceremony where he was to be initiated into the brotherhood. When he found out, he was horrified. He fought his way out of the compound, and since then he’s dedicated his life to hunting down and killing all Hand of Fire assassins. At one point, he was captured by the Crime Army, in an attempt to prevent his powers from manifesting. They failed when the stress activated them prematurely, and since then he’s added the Crime Army to his hit-list. He currently has moved back to LA, where he gets by doing odd jobs. He's perfectly willing to kill (although it's not usually his first choice), but he gets the job done- within a hundred miles of his chosen stamping grounds, there is virtually no metahuman crime. His fellow heroes respect him, but are scared of him all the same.


The Eagle

Real name: Ted Rudolf
Description: He’s about six foot four and muscular. He wears brightly colored red-and-blue spandex, with a gold cape and eagle symbol on the chest.
Powers: Level 5 strength and invulnerability, flight, level 3 perception (enhanced eyesight). He also wears custom-made gauntlets that fire laser beams. His former career as a wrestler makes him a surprisingly competent hand-to-hand combatant.
Origin: He was a professional wrestler who got kicked out of the league when his super-powers manifested. Seeing the opportunity for wealth and fame, he began a career as a superhero- but not in the conventional sense. He fights crime, but he also does product endorsements, merchandising deals, and so on. He’s fairly effective, but most other heroes despise him. He works out of Chicago.


Mayor Rock

Real name: Robert "Rock" Hutton
Description: Robert Hutton is a thick, tall, grizzled older man who is remarkably healthy despite his old man. His gray hair is cut short and and his upper lip sports an impressive moustache. His eyes, a cold blue, betray a sharp mind concealed by his hillbilly accent.
Powers: Hutton possesses the ability to transform himself into a being of stone, granting him enhanced strength and endurance- Level 4 or so? I’m not sure exactly what the author intended. He also no longer goes through the basic biological processes of life while in this state, giving him immunity to, among other things, suffocation, disease, poison, radiation, dehydration, and starvation.
While in this state, Hutton can also control any natural rock within a 300 foot radius. He can use this ability to manipulate, control, levitate and reshape anything made of rock.
Origin: Robert Hutton born and raised in the small town of Handleton, West Virginia. He quickly acquired fame within his small town by being the star player of his high school football team, earning the nickname "Rock" for his tenacity and hardiness. After graduating high school, Robert was enlisted into the army to fight in Vietnam. After he finished his tour of duty, Robert returned to his hometown and began work in the local coal mine.

Robert's powers manifested when there was a cave-in at the mine. Trapped inside, Robert's transformed body freed him of the need to breathe and allowed him free his fellow miners. After this, he became something of the town hero, with his old nickname "Rock" resurfacing.

Balancing his work as a miner and his work as a superhero, Robert protected aided the people of his town using his powers. Never possessing a high crime rate, the presence of the local superhero practically ended any illegal activity in Handleton. Robert became extremely popular among the townsfolk, becoming the chairman of the local chapter of the miner's union and later Mayor of the town. Robert, having been a prominent figure in Handleton for decades, continues to be the town's guardian.


Parsec

Real name: Ismael Hayek
Description: A bulky Arab man, he wears a blue and green costume with white swirls, intentionally designed to look like the planet looks from space. Technology in the fabric absorbs solar energy in case he travel too far from the sun, and it has powerful communications arrays built in.
Powers: Level 5 energy generation (can be used for strength), level 4 invulnerability. Level 4 perception, but he can track large masses or energy signals at FTL speeds. Extremely high-speed flight. He can also survive in a vacuum- he doesn’t breathe, and he can live off solar radiation for long periods of time.
Origin: He was an Israeli astronaut, , but his experimental spacecraft was sabotaged by Islamic terrorists. With his life-support destroyed, he had no choice but to attempt an emergency landing. He splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, where he was rescued by US Naval forces. He returned to his native country, where he discovered that the miracle of his survival was more miraculous then he expected- he had developed super-powers. He continues to work as an astronaut, where he is much sought after- his abilities are uniquely suited for deep-space missions, but he also fights as a super-hero whenever he can.


Black Rider Note: Boosted due to skills technology.

Real name:Legally changed to Black Rider, real name erased through techno-arcane manipulation
Description: Black Rider is a relatively average-looking Caucasian/Hispanic mixed male in his late 20s, fairly fit, strong but somewhat moody features. He generally wears a black and grey leather jacket with the words "KICK" and "YOURSELF" printed down the sleeves, boot-cut jeans, motorcycle boots, and a grey t-shirt with a curious looking white (arcane) symbol silkscreened on it. He always wears a pair of black plastic-framed glasses with a silver skull and crossbones between the eyes (a la Charlie Sheen in Major League).
Powers and Equipment: Techno-Arcane Magic 6, Obfuscation 1, Intellect 3, Perception 1. Black Rider is the world's first and only (as far as he knows, but he is wrong) technowizard. He can cast magic spells and rituals conventionally but his magic is particularly potent and less draining when he interacts with technology. Which he does. A lot! In his role as unobtrusive observer he finds that his magic works best in a 'coincidental' fashion, as it takes a lot less energy to make someone's brakes fail than to shoot a lightning bolt at them. He has minor obfuscation powers that allow him to stay 'off the grid'. He also has a superhuman intellect that aids him in various ways, particularly in the areas of language (he speaks fifteen fluently) and memory (eidetic).

In a straight-up fight Black Rider will generally choose to make himself scarce. He prefers to operate behind the scenes, not necessarily as a manipulator, but as an information resource. Occasionally he will take the field of battle in extreme circumstances but it is not really to his liking. When he does, however, he generally packs a Heckler & Koch USP .40S&W through which he can channel arcane enchantments for improved accuracy and punch and the occasional supernatural load. He will also usually wear custom form-fitting armor with enchanted ceramic plates under his clothing.

Black Rider rounds out his adventuring gear with a mystically-enhanced laptop that Bill Gates would give everything to spend ten minutes with, his special leatherman with literally dozens of tools built into it, an arcane satellite phone that always gets a signal, and his "universal remote" which allows him another means of channeling arcane energy. In addition to manipulating various wireless devices, it allows him to control things like traffic signals and electronic locks within a fifty foot radius.

He rides a modified Ducati Monster 1100S in black and silver.
Origin: Raised in an orphanage in Chicago, Black Rider's parents died in a curious gas explosion shortly after his first birthday. (Through a series of techno-arcane manipulations, Black Rider's real name has been effectively erased from consciousness and history.) Growing up somewhat alienated from his fellow orphans, he found solace in books and learning, and ended up becoming one of those Doogie Howser-type child prodigies, earning several advanced degrees in computer science, mechanical and electrical engineering, physics, chemistry, psychology, and philosophy. At that time testing revealed that his intellect was in fact superhuman, capable of processing information to an astounding degree.

After university, Black Rider, to the surprise of his peers, began working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation as an investigator, in which he was very successful due to his breadth of knowledge, natural gift for perception, psychology background, and eidetic memory. However, unknown to his supervisors, he began his own research into a subject that had always fascinated him but defied him due to its lack of scientific basis: the arcane occult.

For years Black Rider had been interested in the concept of magic, surmising that every culture in the world, every one, had tales of magic wielders in its history. In an increasingly amazing world, with superhumans popping up left and right, he deduced that the use of magic was not only possibly, but was likely probably, an entire area of knowledge just waiting to be delved into.

There was one problem. Black Rider's supremely rational and sequential mind did not allow for him to use instinct in a way that would allow him to tap into supernatural powers. It was after a year of solid, backbreaking experimentation and research that he reasoned the following: if instinct was a primal drive at the core of a sentient being, and his natural instinct was to rationalize the world, then he would have to create a new approach to rationalize magic and marry it to technology to satisfy his sequential mindset. Two years later, he finally came up with his first formula, a mathematical theorem that allowed him to tap into his first taste of techno-magic.

Black Rider, having essentially created a new area of study, pulled up stakes at the FBI and entered a secluded state. After increasing his base of knowledge, he then decided on a course of action, which was to observe, guide, and guard humanity as a behind the scenes player. His new techno-magical powers allowed him vast power over databases and finances via the Internet, but he realized that such an avenue would corrupt his good intentions. The only way to keep that from happening, he reasoned, was to exist without ego as a cipher, a shadow, a ghost in the machine. It was then that he set about erasing all traces of his past, then hypnotized himself into forgetting details about his former life, including his name.

Black Rider seeks to protect humanity primarily through making sure that sensitive information gets to the right people. He also strives daily to increase his techno-magical knowledge, correctly surmising that it is a vast untapped field of arcane power. He does not consider himself a hero or a villain, merely a concerned citizen of the Earth, and as such his mind is always on the big picture. He treats genuinely-motivated heroes with a quiet respect but is not above manipulating villains should he see a way to have them use their power in a beneficial way.




Knights:
Silent Silk

Real name:
Seow Jingxuan
Description: A lovely Chinese woman with long black hair and fair skin. Wears a stylized red and gold cheongsam-like body suit and frameless glasses.
Powers: She has the ability to psionically manipulate the density of any object. While she can affect other objects and people, she mainly uses it on her own body where her control is stronger, enabling her to perform feats such as running on water or leaping great distances, as well as moving as quickly and as silently as a whisper. Her advanced bodysuit and intense training has allowed her to move about normally despite whatever density she currently possesses.
Origin: Modern China is gearing up itself to become the next world power. Most countries have a Chinese policy. Parents are encouraging their kids to learn Mandarin. The Chinese people are eager to take their first strides onto the stage. Any thing that would lend them a bit of extra glory is celebrated and loved. Things like the Olympics, Yao Ming...and their first superheroine, Silent Silk.
Codename Silent Silk hails from a small town in the Province of Guangdong in Southern China, where as the only daughter of a local councilman dispensed her parents' initial disappointment at not having a son by proving to be a child prodigy at the study of physics. Moving to Beijing and attending its university at the tender age of seventeen, Jingxuan was recruited by the Communist Party as one of its brightest minds. At the age of twenty two her powers manifested while she was walking among the streets of Beijing. Initially terrified at floating into the air without control, Jingxuan eventually learned how to control her powers with the help of government scientists and technicians, who built her suit and most of her equipment. Now as a face of China whether she likes it or not, Jingxuan spends her time in the People's Republic fledgling space program, intending to be one the first women to venture into outer space.


Vishnu the Preserver

Real name: Dr. Krishna Mittal
Description: Krishna is a modern Indian man about five foot 9 and 160 pounds, with a great interest in style and looking good. When he’s not wearing his white coat on professional duty, Krishnan prefers sky-blue button down shirts.
Powers: Level 3 telekinesis, level 4 perception.
Vishnu possesses very specific psionic and telekinetic powers that afford him complete and total control of the workings of the human body. He can pinpoint the cause of any injury, disease, or any other sort of affliction through a combination of a psionic connection with the patient in question as well as a psychically-enabled superhuman sense of touch which allows him to detect exactly which nerve endings or human tissue are affected. With his low-degree telekinesis, Vishnu can knit bone, mend broken flesh, close punctures in internal organs and manually realign blood vessels, nerve endings, and the like. He can detect cancerous cells as well as other malign microscopic particles such as viruses and bacteria and cause them to self-destruct. He has control over a body’s hypothalamus and hormones, which can allow him to affect the physical characteristics of himself and others. He can also slow the process of aging by slowing down the steady degeneration of brain cells and other human tissue. This seemingly miraculous power means that Vishnu can cure virtually any affliction, even AIDS and cancer. Vishnu can use his powers on himself, meaning that given sufficient time he can recover from virtually anything and live to an extremely advanced age.
However there are limitations to his abilities. The strain of using his powers is far greater than a normal psychic would encounter, and Vishnu cannot perform miracles on a daily basis. Curing serious diseases, such as terminal cancer of a single individual, requires a few months of ‘treatment’ and the resulting stress will cause him to rest for at least a full month without using his abilities. Vishnu cannot spontaneously regenerate missing limbs, eyes, and other body parts, even his own. His powers are not based on unthinking regeneration, but actual manual control over a body’s inner workings. This means that his abilities are based on his knowledge of the human body. So far nobody has found out how to replicate his abilities in a mass-produced form, and Vishnu must continue to save the world one person at a time.
If Vishnu so wishes, he can use his powers in the opposite way, i.e. causing the human body to break down. Just as he is able to repair broken flesh, he can cause human flesh to break apart and wither away, kill off brain cells, fray spinal nerves and so on. He cannot spontaneously infect a person with a disease, but if a disease is already present in that person he can speed up the process of infection. By abusing his hormonal and adrenal control abilities Vishnu can cause great havoc with a person’s physical and mental characteristics as well. For example, he could cause a massive surge of adrenaline in Dr. Banner’s body, causing him to transform into the Hulk, increase the production of oestrogen in a man, trigger the pain center in a person’s brain, and so on. However, like the more benevolent use of his abilities, he cannot keep it up for very long and he has to be in relatively close proximity with the person in question.
Origin: Born in the slums of Mumbai, Krishna Mittal saw his six brothers and sisters succumb to easily preventable diseases like dysentery and malaria. Curiously enough, Krishna himself never seemed to fall ill. Eventually he scraped together enough money to send himself to school, and win a scholarship to study medicine and biology at Delhi University.
Although Krishnan was well-versed in modern medicine, he decided to delve into his Indian heritage and seek out knowledge from the Ayurveda, the ancient Hindu treatise on healing. Combining ancient arts with modern knowledge, Krishna set up a small practice taking care of the wretched poor of India's worst slums.
Working in tandem with a few chosen associates, Krishna also established a massive pharmaceutical and surgical supply company virtually from scratch, as well as working as a top surgeon and hospital specialist consultant. Never forgetting his humble roots and possessing a strong faith in Hinduism, Krishna would take weeks off to meditate and pursue an ever greater understanding of the human body. His miraculous abilities gradually emerged, and now Krishna is renowned the world over for saving the lives of people on the brink of death. Due to the limited nature of his powers though, Krishna always regrets the ones he cannot save and drives himself ever onward to master his powers fully. Still, it is enough for the desperate poor of Mumbai to begin calling him the latest incarnation of Vishnu - he who preserves the universe.


Blitz

Real name: Jordon Bradshaw
Description: Movie star good looks, with blonde hair and blue eyes. He wears an expensive business suit, or red custom-made metallic red body armor.
Powers: He has what he like to call a ‘learning factor’- the ability to master any skill, physical or mental, with incredible speed. As in, he studies physics for a week and he can debate with Stephan Hawking.
He also has level 1 strength and endurance, level 3 agility, and some degree of skill with magic. He carries assorted gadgets, and his body armor is proof against low-caliber weapons. Finally, he’s one of the richest people in the world.
Origin: Jordan was bored with life. His learning factor makes him one of the smartest people in the world, but life held no challenge for him. Martial arts, extreme sports…nothing satisfied him. Then he came across Cascade robbing a bank. He decided to intervene…and found that the initial battle, the ensuring chase, and the frustration of actually failing at something was incredible seductive. He’s out for thrills, nothing more…but that doesn’t stop him from being an extremely effective hero. He operates like a cross between Batman and Spiderman- he has money and gadgets, and mostly fights street criminals and low-level metahumans, but he cracks jokes and generally enjoys himself. To date, he’s been seriously wounded seven times, and he shows no sign of flagging enthusiasm.




Peasants:
Emile Goddard

Real name: Emile Goddard
Description: Emile does not cut a very impressive figure. Thin, haggard and shorter than average. Despite only being in his late thirties his blonde hair is already turning grey. Although not beared, he frequently has a fair amount of stubble due to his incredibly uncompromising work ethic.
Powers: Goddard possess a limited degree of necropathy: he can read the thoughts and memories of any dead individual provided he can be in close proximity to their bodies. Exactly how easily he can extract information depends largely on the nature of the individual's death. If they died peacefully then he has little difficulty but those with more traumatic deaths tend to be more disordered. He can potentially use this on non-humans and other animals although he has little skill with it. Aside from this he is unexceptional
Origin: Emile was born in the city of Orlean, which has been his home for his entire life. Although difficult to measure, it seems likely that he has possessed his power since at least childhood. Whether this motivated him to join the police force or whether he would have chosen to do so anyway is impossible, but his ability has certainly proved useful in his career especially once he made detective. Although based mainly around his home city, he is also a member of interpol is capable of pursuing criminals further afield.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Kings:
Thunderlord

Real name: Banrnal (Atlantean)
Description:He’s a thoroughly non-descript man, maybe five foot nine, with short brown hair. He wears the uniform of a Crime Army officer (generic camouflage), but no insignia. He wields an archaic warhammer.
Powers: Class 10 strength and invulnerability. Class 6 speed. Class 5 weather control. Flight. Great arcane knowledge, although he can use actual spells only with great difficulty.
Hammer- Thunderlord's consciousness is stored in his hammer. He maintains control of his current host even if his hammer is not nearby, but his consciousness returns to it when he is knocked out or killed. He can throw his hammer with great force and accuracy and have it return to his hand.
Origin: The being known as Thunderlord began life as an Atlantean sorcerer named Banrnal some 7,000 years ago. He was one of the few mages not on the island when it was destroyed, and like his fellow survivors, he found himself a virtual god compared to the primitive humans inhabiting the rest of the world at the time. He moved to northern Europe, where he posed as various gods, taking names like Odin and Thor, and was largely responsible for the Norse’s warlike ways.
As time went on, Earth’s magical field began to warp without the stabilizing effects of Atlantis’ Mount Werian, and Thunderlord found his magic beginning to fail him. Rather then loose all his power, he bound most of it to his favorite warhammer. Without his higher magic, he restricted himself to appearances as Thor- thus the predominance of myths about him.
Eventually, one of his fellow Atlantean survivors killed him. But before he died, Thunderlord withdrew his consciousness into his hammer. His foe did not have the power or skill to safely destroy such a powerful artifact, so he hid it away instead.
Fast forward a few thousand years to the present day, when the Crime Army dug it up and Thunderlord took over the body of one of their soldiers.





Dukes:
The Faceless One

Real name: Unknown
Description: He wears the same simple quasi-military uniform as his minions, but his is made purely of silver cloth, with a white full moon shape and the number ‘1’ on his sleeve. His body is slender, but still fit, much like a swimmer or runner. His face, though…blank, featureless silver. No eyes, no mouth, no nose, just bare silver skin, even when he speaks. When he does, though, he has an extremely cultured voice.
Powers: Class 8 shapeshifting. He cannot form complex mechanical structures, but that’s about it. Think of a cross between Plastic Man and the T-1000. He is also an expert mimic, enabling him to perfectly copy a target’s voice and mannerisms in a matter of minutes.
Origin: He was a geneticist who joined the Shield of Man at it’s foundation, but he left shortly thereafter due to policy disagreements. They wanted to eliminate as many metahumans as possible- he wanted to build as many as possible, under his control. With a group of like-minded followers, he founded the Silver Legion. One of his first successes was in activating his own metahuman powers.


Geneforge (if that won’t get me arrested for copyright infringement)

Real name: Dr. Robert Erkon
Description: Because he can shape his appearance, he can look like anyone and anything. However, he usually takes the form of a movie-star handsome man with dark skin, black hair, and bright blue eyes. His clothes are made of organic fibers he can shape, and he usually wears them in the form of a simple but elegant suit.
Powers: He draw on a combination of otherdimensional mass and ambient magical energy to ‘shape’ organic creatures, or even create completely new ones. For example, he can infuse a human with mass to double his size and strength, while making bony plates grow to cover him with armor and provide weapons. He frequently creates mythological creatures like dragons, or hideous demonic forms. His creations can have up to full human intelligence), but they are always under his complete control. There is a limit to how many he can control at one time, but that limit is very, very high. He is also limited by how much magic he uses- if he runs out of personal energy, he cannot shape anymore. For this reason, he usually takes his time and prepares a large army several weeks in advance.
Origin: Dr. Erkon was a world-famous biologist who defied conventions by advocating radical genetic engineering of just about everything from humans down. When his ideas were rejected by the scientific and political communities alike, he grew bitter. He turned his attentions to modifying his own genome, and using a mix of Atlantean DNA and his own metahuman potential, he was able to give himself his own powers. He took his name from the video game series featuring characters with similar powers to his.
He is a firm believer in the evolution of man into metahuman, and his schemes often reflect this. He usually comes into contact with heroes while attempting to kidnap humans with metahuman potential, or steal scientific supplies. He is incredibly scornful of them, feeling that they are interfering with evolution by saving the weak, thus delaying the ascension of the human race.


The Watchman Note: boosted somewhat due to skill.

Real name: Unknown
Description: He wears custom-made black body armor and helmet, sometimes covered with a trenchcoat. He never lets his face be known.
Powers: Power neutralization 8. He can imbue objects with an energy field that bypasses or disables almost all metahuman abilities. He can apply this effect to both weapons like knives and bullets, and his armor for protection against said attacks. How it works is not known. In addition, he is extremely skilled with many types of weapons, as well as demolitions, guerilla tactics, and stealth.
Origin: No-one knows who he is or what his story is. Some speculate his parents or lover was killed by a metahuman of some sort. Others believe that he’s a product of the Shield of Man. In any case, he is a deadly foe of any metahuman who abuses their power. When a villain declared himself the supreme ruler of Maui, it was the Watchman who got there first and killed him. When a hero took the law into his own hands and tried to kill President Ahmadinejad, he stopped him. He’s clashed with numerous heroes over the years, but he’s always been able to escape. He’s been credited with feats like nearly killing Gauntlet (he missed the heart by a hair), battling Shadowhand to a standstill, and killing the first Ruby Claw. He strikes rarely, and only against those who do something truly heinous- robbing a bank won’t bring down his wrath on you, but try to overthrow a government, and you’re dead.


Ruby Claw I (deceased)

Real name: Ruby Martines
Description: She was a tall, statuesque woman with long red hair. She wore a dark red spandex costume and a cape. Her bright-red gloves have claws built into the fingertips.
Powers:Strength 6, Invulnerability 6, energy generation 5, flight. She could also imbue objects with energy, causing them to either explode on impact, or else penetrate much more deeply then normal.
Origin: She was a desperate woman: small, weak, and married to an abusive husband, but she got out of the relationship in a unique way- she made an infernal bargain for beauty and power, in exchange for a life of service. Her wish was granted by the demon Ortalaas, who bonded himself to her soul. The grateful Ruby promptly incinerated her husband and began living a life of utter debauchery. She fought various heroes for years, acting only on her whims, until she got a taste for better things and tried to raise an army of super-powered minions. She was defeated and killed by the Watchman.


Ruby Claw II

Real name: Cassie Gains
Description: She’s slender and of average height but in very good shape, with short red hair. She wears a black spandex costume with an open belly and thigh-high boots. She had a pair of gauntlets with Wolverine-style claws, made out of a reddish alloy.
Powers: Since they stem from the same source, her powers are the same as her predecessor’s- Strength 6, Invulnerability 6, energy generation 5, flight. She can imbue objects with energy, causing them to either explode on impact, or else have increased penetration.
Origin: She came from a poor family, and a lack of options wound up leaving her as a prostitute in New York. After a particularly abusive client, her pain summoned Ortalaas, the demon of Woman’s Revenge, who offered her the same deal he had offered her predecessor. She accepted, and since then she has committed a variety of crimes and schemes, and fought numerous heroes. She has, however, learned from her predecessor’s example, and her schemes are usually less grandiose.


Striker

Real name:Arthur Helm
Description: He’s about six foot two, with a shaved head and green eyes. He wears heavy black and red armor, and has a red full-face helmet and black cape.
Powers: Level 8 strength, level 7 invulnerability (level 4 against edged weapons). He usually wears bulletproof body armor and carries a variety of small arms to compensate.
Origin: He was an underworld enforcer when his powers developed, and he moved up to super-powered henchman. He’s not the brightest guy out there, but he’s loyal and in great demand due to his high-level physical prowess.




Counts:
The Demon Who Grins (Note: Boosted due to organizational support and political power)

Real name: President Alembe Akinole
Description:
Alembe Akinole stands at a modest height of five foot ten and favours light, double breasted suits which are fast becoming a fashion trend. He is bald with a thin goatee, and has a solid, powerful frame. His supporters love his calm but forceful way of speaking.
The Demon is a terrifying spectre of a man, bare-bodied with ammunition bandoliers slung across his chest and hips and armed to the teeth with guns of every kind. He wears a black facemask that hides his entire face and alters his voice.
Powers: Level 3 telepathy that allows him to subtly manipulate the thoughts and perceptions of people, as well as allow him to sense when somebody is lying to him or concealing something. In addition, he can sense what someone's desires and motivations are and more often than not tells them what they want to hear - a powerful combination for a politician and warlord.
He is extremely skilled in all manner of ranged weaponry as well as bush survival, guerilla warfare and an enhanced endurance that allows him to sleep for as little as two hours a day and go on forced marches that last weeks, as well as being immune to most diseases.
Origin: When Robert Mugabe was ousted from power, most of the world celebrated. Mr. Akinole won the elections in a historic landslide vote that caught the attention of the international media and was praised by luminaries such as TIME and National Geographic for being one of Africa's brightest hopes for the future. From the outside, the handsome Zimbabwean politician looked every bit a king. He built schools and hospitals, revived a devastated economy, and managed to implement a combination of environmental and tourism policies that had tourists flocking to the once war-torn country.
The only thorn in Akinole's side, the only snag that could undo this house of cards, was the muttered rumors of a warlord that escaped the purge following Mugabe's downfall and was hiding in the brush, biding his time. A man of immense, unspeakable evil, even for a Western audience jaded by horrors decorating their daily headlines. Under Mugabe, this man was known and feared throughout the country as the head of the secret police and military, able to slaughter you and your family and your entire village whole and scatter its ashes to the winds without a second thought. The people had no name for the madman, as he was almost never seen. The ones who do so call him the Demon Who Grins.
Following the shocking bombing of the American embassy in the country's capital, an attack so brazen it not only demolished a few walls but doused them in blood, the Demon exploded onto the forefront of the global consciousness. It seemed that every day his bandits would attack another city or town, only to be driven off by the Zimbabwean Armed Forces, restored and made stronger by Akinole. The citizens recently voted for martial law, extending the President's powers for the duration of the crisis. Everyone wanted him to win.
What they didn't know though, is that Akinole and the Demon are one and the same.
Under the guise of the Demon, Akinole enforced Mugabe's iron grip on the country until it was apparent he could no longer rule effectively. He then killed the despot along with most of the government and vanished, only to reappear later as an eager young politician ready to lead Zimbabwe into a new dawn. Under this benign facade Akinole works ruthlessly to further his control and rule, indoctrinating children, gradually eroding the power of the courts and the law, using his Demon persona as an excuse to march in his soldiers into neighboring countries. Nobody in the entire world knows of the man's duality, except for his wife, whom he shot the day Mugabe fell. As Alembe Akinole, he fends off Western suspicions and agrees to shadowy deals with various Asian and European countries. As the Demon Akinole intends to strike at key government installations of his neighbors, perform coups and eventually rule over the entire African continent.
Though he mainly desires power, the Demon is also concerned at the rise of metahuman activity that may threaten his plans for domination. He is in contact with the Shield of Man in both his Akinole and Demon persona and works with them in both capacities. They of course do not know that he is the same man.


The Four Elements (note: Power varies, but this is the baseline).

Real names: Unknown.
Description:
Infernia. She’s a tall, red-headed woman with bright red eyes. She wears a red spandex costume with a flame motif, and a long red cape. Contrary to expectations, she’s cold and calculating, and very determined. She never lets her emotions interfere with her plans.
Mr. Hydro: He’s a small, bald black man with glasses who’s just a bit fat. He tends to wear evening dress all the time. His eyes are bright blue. He’s exceedingly polite, but looses his temper when interrupted, and extremely cruel.
Aeroth: He’s a lanky man with long white hair and bright white eyes. He wears a one-piece spandex costume that’s pure white, without any decoration. He suffers from mood swings, and loves to cause chaos.
Granite: He’s big and bulky, with bright brown eyes. He wears no shirt and black jeans, but has a tattoo of a bolder on his chest. He often carries a pickaxe as a weapon. He’s not too bright, but is extremely stubborn and loyal.
Powers: The more Elementals in one place, the more powerful they get. One on his own is a Count. A pair are each weak Dukes. An assembled trio are all strong Dukes. When all four are together, each is equal in power to a King. Their power also fluctuates depending on temperature, humidity, and more, making them very unpredictable in power.
Infernia: Pyrokinesis, personal teleportation, intangibility. Great skill in fire and necromantic magic.
Mr. Hydro: Aquakinesis, the ability to transform his body into water, which remains under his total control. Skill in magic, especially water and ice magic.
Aeroth: Wind manipulation, weather control. Flight.
Granite: Earth manipulation, super-strength and invulnerability. He can feel the location of nearby people through the ground.
Origin: There were four objects throughout the world- a ruby-tipped wand, a sapphire-studded cup, a sword with a diamond hilt, and a jet-encrusted box always full of copper coins- that are tied to the four elements. Since the dawn of time, they were used as focuses by spellcasters. However, each eventually fell into the hands of one who understood their deeper power. Each of the four Elementals either unlocked the power of one of the objects, or was experimented on by another mage. They all have different goals- Infernia seeks personal power, and Aeroth simply loves chaos. Mr. Hydro lives life to the fullest, enjoying food, woman, and money, and Granite often attacks those who would rob the earth (miners). They’re all old entities, and have teamed up and battled one another for so long that not even they remember who they once were.


The Pack

Real name: Marcus Williams
Description: Marcus is a fairly non-descript man in his early twenties. He's not too bad looking but isn't a very big fan of grooming. Thus, his black hair is usually a total mess, reaching his shoulders. His shaving habits are irregular at best and he seems almost chronically unshaven although rarely with a proper beard. He's naturally skinny and since he rarely exercise he has stayed that way.

Despite not wearing any costume (with the exception of a childish fascination for sun-glasses and dark trench-coats) Marcus is able to keep his true identity a secret since he's rarely at the scene of the crime himself, instead acting through his "pack".
Powers: Level 6 Telepathy
While not a classic telepath or telekinetic, Marcus' powers are clearly psionic. By making eye-contact with a person for a few minutes (the exact time is decided by both the victim’s mental strength and will power along with Marcus' own state of mind) he can assimilate the individual into the pseudo-hive-mind he refers to as "the pack".

Once a person has become part of the pack their own personality and will are mostly suppressed and their minds become telepathically linked to (and mostly controlled by) Marcus' own. Marcus has access to all the memories and thoughts (such as what they see, hear, etc.) of his pack but most individual skills are lost (if he would ever manage to include a metahuman into the pack, their power would remain though).

Although Marcus' control over the pack is near complete (within the limitations stated below) it seems certain basic principals of his victims aren't affected by his control. For example, it is near impossible for him to force a pack member to kill if that member is absolutely convinced that killing others is always wrong. Likewise, it's often hard to force pack members to commit suicide or take action that is likely to result in their death.

The amount of control Marcus has over the individual components of the pack depends on how many members it currently have. Marcus can easily keep about 15-20 twenty people under his absolute control but anything beyond that starts to stretch his control too thin. He can still control 25-30 people fairly well (although the original personalities are likely to reappear occasionally) but once he reaches something like fifty members, his power over them is diminished to nothing more then weak suggestions. This is a part of his powers that is likely to improve with training and experience.

In order to stay connected to the pack its members cannot be more then about ten miles from Marcus. Farther away then that and his control over them is diminished in a similar way as when he includes too many into the pack. Since this fact has been discovered by the government and most super-heroes, pack-members that are captured are routinely transported to holding facilities elsewhere in the country.

Marcus can also terminate the connection to a pack member himself by mere force of will.
Origin:
To Be Added Shortly

(I'm running out of inspiration and is starting to get a head-ache, I'll try writing up an origin for him later tonight or sometime tomorrow).


Leadfoot

Real name: Ramon Boyle
Description: He wears bright orange spandex with a foot emblem on the chest.
Powers: Level 6 super-speed, reflexes to match. He also has level 4 resistance to heat and physical trauma, which is enough to withstand the conditions at his maximum speed.
Origin: He was a track star who was discovered using performance-enhancing drugs. He was used as an example in the ensuring crackdown, and his money rapidly ran out. In desperation, he turned to armed robbery. When his powers manifested, he moved to full-scale supervillainry, delighting in the attention his actions get him. He’s in it for the fame much more then for the money.





Knights:
Cascade

Real name: Carl Fitzsimmons
Description: Pending
Powers: Analysis 5, Speed, Agility 1.
Cascade can pinpoint the weakest component of any system... the single point of failure... with superhuman speed and accuracy.
As a relatively minor side effect of his evolution, Carl possesses peak human swiftness and agility.
In a direct fight Carl is capable, but not overwhelming. Though he can see weak spots and he has the speed with which to exploit them, he is not a trained fighter. With the proper instruction, though, he could easily become this universe's equivalent of Taskmaster.
Origin: Carl is, to put it bluntly, in it for the money. He was once content to work as a mild-mannered systems analyst... until the day his superiors pointed out that the quality of his work went beyond good... straight into phenomenal. The resultant boost in self-confidence caused him to start looking at the world itself as a system... a system to be exploited.

Since that day he's lived a life of crime. Most of his schemes to date have been relatively unimaginative (though he's a brilliant analyst, he's not so brilliant in other areas) but startlingly effective, thanks to his uncanny ability to know precisely when and where to strike.

He has foiled pursuit so far by treating the police forces and superhero teams which pursue him as systems, pinpointing the most corruptible among them, and turning the capes and coppers on each other. Even if he were to be imprisoned, it wouldn't take him long to determine the best possible plan of escape... in the hands of a more creative intellect, his power would be devastating.


Darwin VI

Real name: None
Description: Varies by number, but the typical model is about ten feet tall with four legs and four arms. Metal claws usually protrude from the forearm, Wolverine-style, and the hands themselves are fully capable of using both modern and archaic weaponry. The body is usually armored with metal scales. The head usually features bat ears, cat-like eyes, and a protruding muzzle with long, metal teeth.
Powers: Varies by number, but usually level 3-4 strength and endurance, level 2 healing, level 3 perception (enhanced senses, including weird animal ones). Also common are abilities such as projectile vomiting super-acidic stomach acid, bioelectric lightning blasts, fire breath, and so on. Full human intelligence.
Origin: Geneforge likes to have an especially powerful creature as his bodyguard and lieutenant, and he usually names it Darwin.


Meggies

Real name: Army Mutagen #309, aka M309, Super-steroid, and ‘Meg.’
Description: People on M309 look like the Hulk- they typically wind up between seven and eight feet tall and disproportionately muscular. In many cases it breaks down the body’s natural pigments, resulting in pale skin, hair, and pink eyes.
Powers: A successful course of M309 grants level 4 strength and invulnerability. However, it also interferes with the brain, reducing conscious control over natural instinct. This means that Meggies (as those on the drug are known) have short tempers, cowardly tendencies, and trouble taking orders they disagree with.
Origin: The US army, like most modern forces, has made repeated attempts to develop super-powered soldiers. M309 is the result of one of those processes. It has a 45% success rate, with a further 30% showing no reaction, 10% dying horribly, and 5% manifesting abnormal, but often disfiguring, mutations. People who already have metahuman potential (approximately 10% of the non-powered population) sufferer crippling pain and a rapid physical deterioration, resulting in death within hours. It was officially shelved due to the side-effects and relatively low success rate. The process of its creation was stolen by the Crime Army, who have been known to sell it.




Peasants:

[Grod_The_Giant]

Shield of Man- a coalition of scientists, billionaires and heads of state who believe that best way to safeguard humanity is to prevent it from evolving into superhuman. They are experts in metahuman biology and power suppression. Their militant arm poses as a completely separate organization, the Crime Army. The Faceless One and his Silver Legion split off from them shortly after their formation. They and their subgroups are the chief adversaries during the first sage and the 'Gods and Mortals' arc. An important thing to realize about them is that they believe they are the heroes- they try to limit casualties and avoid unnecessary killing. They also want to avoid publicity. Overt killing of metahumans would gather a lot of attention, so they've developed a specific formula. They start off by quietly kidnapping the metahuman in question, nullify as many of their powers as possible, use mind-altering techniques to explain why their powers changed, and return them to their normal lives. It's a delicate balance- too little effort, and their plans will have been for naught, but too much and they risk discovery. They can't target everyone- the population is used to public metas, and would ask questions if they all disappeared.


Crime Army- the militant arm of the Shield of Man, they have demonstrated combat power greater then many countries' armed forces. They make headlines for mercenary work and stealing high-technology weaponry.

Silver Legion- Led by the Faceless One, they believe that humanity can best be protected by creating an army of metahumans. They operate much more covertly then the Crime Army. They use a great number of cloned metahuman soldiers, as well as high-tech arms.


Hand of Fire- The world's oldest and most prestigious assassin's guild. They were probably the first organization to make super-soldiers, using a mystical ritual to enhance their strength and speed. The process leaves a complex red rune tattooed on the forearm called an Otefu. These are ninja that don't obey the inverse ninja law- they work in teams of three, and are DEADLY.

Olympus Industries- Ryan Turner/ Ryumenth's multibillion dollar company, and his chosen method of gradually increasing humanity's base technology level. He recruits the best and brightest minds in the world, and- apart from the technologies they invent on their own- leads them to make discoveries he feels humanity is ready for. He will assemble a team with the necessary skills and provide theoretical guidance, but let his people develop the device for themselves. He sees his role less as an inventor but more as a teacher who leads his students to figure it out for themselves with just a little guidance.
Notable technologies Olympus Industries has produced are super-efficient batteries, anti-gravity generators, weapons-grade lasers (although they're no more powerful then a conventional gun of the same size), fusion power plants, improved synthetic biofuels, the Apollo regeneration treatment, and the Demeter vertical farm. They've also patented gene therepy technology, but Iron sold technology stolen from a group of supervillains to the pharmaceutical company Genetic Solutions, which currently leads in the field.

Harvard Center for Metahuman Studies- Put simply, the best facility in the world for studying metahumans. They've made most of the major discoveries in the field, and they remain one of the best places to go for help with malfunctioning powers.

[Finn Solomon]

Lovely work there, Grod. I'd be delighted to throw in a few of my ideas for heroes and villains.

I will say that although this universe has a tad too much alien involvement for my liking (my interests lie in Earth politics and a more realistic universe), ultimately it's not my idea, it's yours. However, my ideas will tend to lean towards that side of the fence.

[Grod_The_Giant]

please do!

[Finn Solomon]

Alembe Akinole, the Demon Who Grins

Origin:

When Robert Mugabe was ousted from power, most of the world celebrated. Mr. Akinole won the elections in a historic landslide vote that caught the attention of the international media and was praised by luminaries such as TIME and National Geographic for being one of Africa's brightest hopes for the future. From the outside, the handsome Zimbabwean politician looked every bit a king. He built schools and hospitals, revived a devastated economy, and managed to implement a combination of environmental and tourism policies that had tourists flocking to the once war-torn country.

The only thorn in Akinole's side, the only snag that could undo this house of cards, was the muttered rumours of a warlord that escaped the purge following Mugabe's downfall and was hiding in the brush, biding his time. A man of immense, unspeakable evil, even for a Western audience jaded by horrors decorating their daily headlines. Under Mugabe, this man was known and feared throughout the country as the head of the secret police and military, able to slaughter you and your family and your entire village whole and scatter its ashes to the winds without a second thought. The people had no name for the madman, as he was almost never seen. The ones who do so call him the Demon Who Grins.

Following the shocking bombing of the American embassy in the country's capital, an attack so brazen it not only demolished a few walls but doused them in blood, the Demon exploded onto the forefront of the global consciousness. It seemed that every day his bandits would attack another city or town, only to be driven off by the Zimbabwean Armed Forces, restored and made stronger by Akinole. The citizens recently voted for martial law, extending the President's powers for the duration of the crisis. Everyone wanted him to win.

What they didn't know though, is that Akinole and the Demon are one and the same.

Under the guise of the Demon, Akinole enforced Mugabe's iron grip on the country until it was apparent he could no longer rule effectively. He then killed the despot along with most of the government and vanished, only to reappear later as an eager young politician ready to lead Zimbabwe into a new dawn. Under this benign facade Akinole works ruthlessly to further his control and rule, indoctrinating children, gradually eroding the power of the courts and the law, using his Demon persona as an excuse to march in his soldiers into neighbouring countries. Nobody in the entire world knows of the man's duality, except for his wife, whom he shot the day Mugabe fell. As Alembe Akinole, he fends off Western suspicions and agrees to shadowy deals with various Asian and European countries. As the Demon Akinole intends to strike at key government installations of his neighbours, perform coups and eventually rule over the entire African continent.

Description:

Alembe Akinole stands at a modest height of five foot ten and favours light, double breasted suits which are fast becoming a fashion trend. He is bald with a thin goatee, and has a solid, powerful frame. His supporters love his calm but forceful way of speaking.

The Demon is a terrifying spectre of a man, bare-bodied with ammunition bandoliers slung across his chest and hips and armed to the teeth with guns of every kind. He wears a black facemask that hides his entire face and alters his voice.

Powers:

The Demon has low grade psychic powers that allow him to subtly manipulate the thoughts and perceptions of people, as well as allow him to sense when somebody is lying to him or concealing something. In addition, he can sense what someone's desires and motivations are and more often than not tells them what they want to hear - a powerful combination for a politician and warlord.

He is extremely skilled in all manner of ranged weaponry as well as bush survival, guerilla warfare and an enhanced endurance that allows him to sleep for as little as two hours a day and go on forced marches that last weeks, as well as being immune to most diseases.

Motivations:

Other than to rule over an entire continent, the Demon is also concerned at the rise of metahuman activity that may threaten his plans for domination. He is in contact with the Shield of Man in both his Akinole and Demon personas and works with them in both capacities. They of course do not know that he is the same man.

[Finn Solomon]

Silent Silk

Real name:

Seow Jingxuan

Description:

A lovely Chinese woman with long black hair and fair skin. Wears a stylized red and gold cheongsam-like body suit and frameless glasses.

Powers:

She has the ability to manipulate the density of any object psionically. While she can affect other objects and people, she mainly uses it on her own body where her control is stronger, enabling her to perform feats such as running on water or leaping great distances, as well as moving as quickly and as silently as a whisper. Her advanced bodysuit and intense training has allowed her to move about normally despite whatever density she currently possesses.

Origin:

Modern China is gearing up itself to become the next world power. Most countries have a Chinese policy. Parents are encouraging their kids to learn Mandarin. The Chinese people are eager to take their first strides onto the stage. Any thing that would lend them a bit of extra glory is celebrated and loved. Things like the Olympics, Yao Ming...and their first superheroine, Silent Silk.

Codename Silent Silk hails from a small town in the Province of Guangdong in Southern China, where as the only daughter of a local councilman dispensed her parents' initial disappointment at not having a son by proving to be a child prodigy at the study of physics. Moving to Beijing and attending its university at the tender age of seventeen, Jingxuan was recruited by the Communist Party as one of its brightest minds. At the age of twenty two her powers manifested while she was walking among the streets of Beijing. Initially terrified at floating into the air without control, Jingxuan eventually learned how to control her powers with the help of government scientists and technicians, who built her suit and most of her equipment. Now as a face of China whether she likes it or not, Jingxuan spends her time in the People's Republic fledgling space program, intending to be one the first women to venture into outer space.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I really like Akinole. A cool duality, and every comic-book universe needs a country or two ruled by super-villains, and the fact that he HAS improved it gives a reason why the heroes wouldn't take him out of power or reveal his secret. Silent Silk isn't too shabby either.

[Finn Solomon]

An old idea of mine, reworked a little.

Vishnu the Preserver

Name:

Dr. Krishna Mittal, codename Vishnu the preserver.

Appearance:

Krishna is a modern Indian man about five foot nine and 160 pounds, with a great interest in style and looking good. When he’s not wearing his white coat on professional duty, Krishnan prefers sky-blue button down shirts.

Powers:

Vishnu possesses very specific psionic and telekinetic powers that afford him complete and total control of the workings of the human body. He can pinpoint the cause of any injury, disease, or any other sort of affliction through a combination of a psionic connection with the patient in question as well as a psychically-enabled superhuman sense of touch which allows him to detect exactly which nerve endings or human tissue are affected. With his low-degree telekinesis, Vishnu can knit bone, mend broken flesh, close punctures in internal organs and manually realign blood vessels, nerve endings, and the like. He can detect cancerous cells as well as other malign microscopic particles such as viruses and bacteria and cause them to self-destruct. He has control over a body’s hypothalamus and hormones, which can allow him to affect the physical characteristics of himself and others. He can also slow the process of aging by slowing down the steady degeneration of brain cells and other human tissue.This seemingly miraculous power means that Vishnu can cure virtually any affliction, even AIDS and cancer. Vishnu can use his powers on himself, meaning that given sufficient time he can recover from virtually anything and live to an extremely advanced age.

However there are limitations to his abilities. The strain of using his powers is far greater than a normal psychic would encounter, and Vishnu cannot perform miracles on a daily basis. Curing serious diseases, such as terminal cancer of a single individual, requires a few months of ‘treatment’ and the resulting stress will cause him to rest for at least a full month without using his abilities. Vishnu cannot spontaneously regenerate missing limbs, eyes, and other body parts, even his own. His powers are not based on unthinking regeneration, but actual manual control over a body’s inner workings. This means that his abilities are based on his knowledge of the human body. So far nobody has found out how to replicate his abilities in a mass-produced form, and Vishnu must continue to save the world one person at a time.

If Vishnu so wishes, he can use his powers in the opposite way, i.e. causing the human body to break down. Just as he is able to repair broken flesh, he can cause human flesh to break apart and wither away, kill off brain cells, fray spinal nerves and so on. He cannot spontaneously infect a person with a disease, but if a disease is already present in that person he can speed up the process of infection. By abusing his hormonal and adrenal control abilities Vishnu can cause great havoc with a person’s physical and mental characteristics as well. For example, he could cause a massive surge of adrenaline in Dr. Banner’s body, causing him to transform into the Hulk, increase the production of oestrogen in a man, trigger the pain center in a person’s brain, and so on. However, like the more benevolent use of his abilities, he cannot keep it up for very long and he has to be in relatively close proximity with the person in question.

Origin:

Born in the slums of Mumbai, Krishna Mittal saw his six brothers and sisters succumb to easily preventable diseases like dysentery and malaria. Curiously enough, Krishna himself never seemed to fall ill. Eventually he scraped together enough money to send himself to school, and win a scholarship to study medicine and biology at Delhi University.

Although Krishnan was well-versed in modern medicine, he decided to delve into his Indian heritage and seek out knowledge from the Ayurveda, the ancient Hindu treatise on healing. Combining ancient arts with modern knowledge, Krishna set up a small practice taking care of the wretched poor of India's worst slums.

Working in tandem with a few chosen associates, Krishna also established a massive pharmaceutical and surgical supply company virtually from scratch, as well as working as a top surgeon and hospital specialist consultant. Never forgetting his humble roots and possessing a strong faith in Hinduism, Krishna would take weeks off to meditate and pursue an ever greater understanding of the human body. His miraculous abilities gradually emerged, and now Krishna is renowned the world over for saving the lives of people on the brink of death. Due to the limited nature of his powers though, Krishna always regrets the ones he cannot save and drives himself ever onward to master his powers fully. Still, it is enough for the desperate poor of Mumbai to begin calling him the latest incarnation of Vishnu - he who preserves the universe.

[Finn Solomon]

I really like Akinole. A cool duality, and every comic-book universe needs a country or two ruled by super-villains, and the fact that he HAS improved it gives a reason why the heroes wouldn't take him out of power or reveal his secret. Silent Silk isn't too shabby either.

Thanks mate! I was trying to think what the Black Panther would be like if he moved to today's world and was evil. I'm glad you liked it.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I have to hand it to you, you're providing exactly what I hoped for: heroes and villains that, if they're not main characters, are nevertheless important and public figures. Although some classic villains would be good as well.

As a guideline for powers:
King- Superman; Green Lantern
Duke- Wonder Woman; Aquaman
Count- Cyborg; Spider-Man
Knight- a lot of the minor X-men or Legion of Super-Heroes members
Peasants- Generic Genetically-Enhanced Soldier #543

[Fjolnir]

I'm slightly surprised there are no alien "sleeper agents" yet, I would suspect another organization for the Othac (even if the siege hasn't come yet there would still be some sort of intelligence gathering effort) using the new metahumans as a smoke screen to do acts of terror and consolidate their resources.

Commander Ahryl Orelelyth (Dr. Robert Michael Parker)


Sent from the Othac to set the course for their subjugation of humanity, Commander Ahryl has brought a small team of his fellows and has been working to infiltrate parts of society, he is a senior scientist at Olympus Industries. His Squad is infiltrating several organizations within the world. He's an unassuming man around 5'10" brown haired and possesses multiple doctorates (physics, chemistry, mechanical engineering) due to the fact that his knowledge is superior to the current level of humanity's. Combined with his superior strength and psychic abilities, he is a formidable opponent. His current disguise is derived from a ring (modeled to look like a class ring) on his right hand, without it he would appear in his natural form to cameras and to people who can penetrate psionic illusions, an intimidating androidal lizard about 6'8" in height who is more than capable of tearing apart a man with his bare hands. The ring is a limiter as well as a disguise, so all modified stats will be listed in parentheses.

Powers: Strength: 5 (3), Psionics 3 (3), invulnerability 3 (6)[the ring works by creating a sheild that bends light electromagnetically rather than a hologram this will stop most melee attacks and nonenergy projectiles]

sorry about the improper formatting but this is a quick off the top of my head creation, I figured I'd offer it up to be 'fleshed out' so to speak.

The Squad: a team of 11 Orthac agents placed in the world to help foment chaos in the world and undermine the ability of earth to stop the fleet

3 are in the hand of flame (a strong team, they are quickly rising through the ranks and are among the more expensive field agents to be hired)
1 is an influential member of the shield of man (anti-metahuman agitator)
2 are in contact with The Demon/Akembe Akinole in an attempt to try to get one side or the other to support them in the coming battles (the demon's contact has revealed himself to be extraterrestrial and is offering him better tech in his war against Akembe in exchange for his support)
1 has the ear of the faceless one, influencing him to commit acts of terror and thus foment more fear of metahumans
2 are in the crime army
1 is also observing vishnu attempting to gauge what if anything they should do about him
the last is commander Orelelyth's second in command, a powerful psychic coordinating communications between the members of The Squad and relaying information back to the fleet, she has taken the form of Dr Parker's wife in order to allow him reasonable access to command and control functions.


once again, I leave it to people who have a better sense of this to flesh them out but I think I left some decent bare bones out there to work with

[Berserk Monk]

I got an idea for a character. He doesn't have a name, and I don't have much info on him. So here's his description. I read over some of your notes on the world. I'm still hazy on some points, but you did mention how two races before humans have almost ascended, but they were wiped out. Well, other races in the universe have noticed this, and seeing the humans, they've begun to put bets on whether humans will reach ascension before their doomsday. The odds are greater that we will all be wiped out, so one gambler/pirate/rogue type decided to play the long shot. He's watched our planet for ages, and seeing where we are now has decided to intervene to make sure he gets his payoff. He's kind off a Han Solo rip off:

-Knows the underworld well.
-Has a powerful ship, stocked with weapons and a ragtag team of thugs.
-Just wants to get paid. He's only helping us (the good guys) because there's lots of money involved. If he'd bet on our destruction, he'd be hear right now firing lasers at every major city.
-Might be wanted with a price on his head with a criminal past and on bad terms with governments or these gods you mentioned.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Good stuff. Fjolnir, you've got a good idea. There are certainly alien races on earth...but probably not the Othac. I'm sorry...I forgot to include a section on aliens...need to make one...but here's something I made up about them for some other project that fell through:


Othac- These guys look like a cross between a mythological centaur and a praying mantis. They have humanoid torsos on top of insect-like abdomens, with six legs and two arms. Their legs are tipped with small grasping claws, enabling them to walk along rough surfaces like brick or un-worked stone. Their hands each have seven clawed fingers. They have vaguely triangular heads, with three multi-faceted eyes, a pair of antenna, and mandibles (but no nose- they do not have a sense of smell). Their claws and mandibles secrete a deadly neurotoxin that was once used to subdue pray. It is lethal to most carbon-based life forms (though not to the Othac itself), including humans. They stand approximately eight feet tall, and are adapted to a gravity 30% higher then Earth’s.

Their culture revolves around worship of The Seven, a group of demon-gods that represent the seven ‘virtues’ of Othac culture: the Soldier (loyalty), the Hero (bravery), the Justice (honesty), the Ruler (ambition), the Killer (ruthlessness), the Hunter (cunning), and the Thinker (prudence). After developing hyperdrive, they spread out across the galaxy, conquering all in their path. The Othac Empire currently consists of twenty-seven star systems and four separate races- including humans. They use a base seven number system. Most of their structures are triangular prisms with a pyramid on one end, for a total of seven sides.

The Othac Empire is ruled by the Septia, a council of seven elders- three priests, three generals, and a scientist. The average Othac is fanatically loyal to his superiors, incredibly bigoted against all other races, and utterly lacking in initiative. Othacs are conditioned from birth to take orders, but are very bad at improvisation. Personally, they are very brave, but they tend to be quite timid on the strategic side of things.

They'd love to have agents on Earth, but they're just too big...even with illusions...and they can't really speak any of our languages in the first place. They would use vassal races, though...

[Fjolnir]

thanks, that does make it a bit tougher even with metahumans about, though adapting the squad and their commander to one of the other more androidal species of the empire would still work I would assume, though there would probably be at least one hidden "true Othac" earthside to keep the rest in line

[Lykainon]

This looks like fun, I think I'll pitch in. I'm not sure exactly where on the Harvard-scale this guy would go but I think he'd be somewhere in the middle.

Aaanyhow...

The Pack

Name: Marcus Williams


Appearance:

Marcus is a fairly non-descript man in his early twenties. He's not too bad looking but isn't a very big fan of grooming. Thus, his black hair is usually a total mess, reaching his shoulders. His shaving habits are irregular at best and he seems almost chronically unshaven although rarely with a proper beard. He's naturally skinny and since he rarely exercise he has stayed that way.

Despite not wearing any costume (with the exception of a childish fascination for sun-glasses and dark trench-coats) Marcus is able to keep his true identity a secret since he's rarely at the scene of the crime himself, instead acting through his "pack".

Powers:

While not a classic telepath or telekinetic, Marcus' powers are clearly related to psionics. By making eye-contact with a person for a few minutes (the exact time is decided by both the victims mental strength and will power along with Marcus' own state of mind) he can assimilate the individual into the pseudo-hive-mind he refers to as "the pack".

Once a person has become part of the pack their own personality and will are mostly suppressed and their minds become telepathically linked to (and mostly controlled by) Marcus' own. Marcus has access to all the memories and thoughts (such as what they see, hear, etc.) of his pack but most individual skills are lost (if he would ever manage to include a metahuman into the pack, their power would remain though).

Although Marcus' control over the pack is near complete (within the limitations stated below) it seems certain basic principals of his victims aren't effected by his control. For example, it is near impossible for him to force a pack member to kill if that member is absolutely convinced that killing others is always wrong. Likewise, it's often hard to force pack members to commit suicide or take action that is likely to result in their death.

The amount of control Marcus have over the individual components of the pack depends on how many members it currently have. Marcus can easily keep about 15-20 twenty people under his absolute control but anything beyond that starts to stretch his control too thin. He can still control 25-30 people fairly well (although the original personalities are likely to reappear occasionally) but once he reaches something like fifty members, his power over them is diminished to nothing more then weak suggestions. This is a part of his powers that is likely to improve with training and experience.

In order to stay connected to the pack its members cannot be more then about ten miles from Marcus. Farther away then that and his control over them is diminished in a similar way as when he includes too many into the pack. Since this fact has been discovered by the government and most super-heroes, pack-members that are captured are routinely transported to holding facilities elsewhere in the country.

Marcus can also terminate the connection to a pack member himself by mere force of will.

Origin:

To Be Added Shortly
(I'm running out of inspiration and is starting to get a head-ache, I'll try writing up an origin for him later tonight or sometime tomorrow).

[Grod_The_Giant]

hmm...cool. Very cool. I'm visualizing a cross between the Keith Leger Joker and that part in Infinite Crisis where Dr. Psycho mind-controls a bunch of innocent bystanders into tearing people apart with their bare hands. I might ratchet up the power a bit, at least when he's in close proximity... make him a bit scarier. The scruffy appearance doesn't fit with the gang leader image so much (I think of the Purple Man when I look at that stereotype).

[Lykainon]

The scruffy appearance doesn't fit with the gang leader image so much (I think of the Purple Man when I look at that stereotype).

I don't really imagine him as a gang leader per se. He's more of a semi-sociopathic kid having fun and abusing his powers (I just thought of an interesting way of abusing said power but I'm not sure if it counts as rape or masturbation... :smallconfused: )

The Dark Knight Joker comparison is pretty head on, just a little less psychotic. I haven't read the Infinite Crisis but that sounds like something he could do. (But let's not forget he can equip his pack with weaponry and coordinate them almost perfectly. That could be a scary scenario for superheroes without invulnerability).

[Ascension]

Okay, I think I've got this down... You've got a lot of big concepts here, but I'd really just like to try a small-scale villain... I assume any superhero setting... even one concerned with alien invasion et al... would have just plain old superpowered crooks.

That being said, the nature of this guy's power would make him a major asset to a larger group... he just doesn't have the ambition necessary to turn him into an A-lister.

Knight (Though he has potential to move up. A lot of potential.)

Cascade (as in cascade failure)

Name Carl Fitzsimmons

Powers
Analysis 5
Cascade can pinpoint the weakest component of any system... the single point of failure... with superhuman speed and accuracy.
Speed, Agility 1
As a relatively minor side effect of his evolution, Carl possesses peak human swiftness and agility.

In a direct fight Carl is capable, but not overwhelming. Though he can see weak spots and he has the speed with which to exploit them, he is not a trained fighter. With the proper instruction, though, he could easily become this universe's equivalent of Taskmaster.

Origin Carl is, to put it bluntly, in it for the money. He was once content to work as a mild-mannered systems analyst... until the day his superiors pointed out that the quality of his work went beyond good... straight into phenomenal. The resultant boost in self-confidence caused him to start looking at the world itself as a system... a system to be exploited.

Since that day he's lived a life of crime. Most of his schemes to date have been relatively unimaginative (though he's a brilliant analyst, he's not so brilliant in other areas) but startlingly effective, thanks to his uncanny ability to know precisely when and where to strike.

He has foiled pursuit so far by treating the police forces and superhero teams which pursue him as systems, pinpointing the most corruptible among them, and turning the capes and coppers on each other. Even if he were to be imprisoned, it wouldn't take him long to determine the best possible plan of escape... in the hands of a more creative intellect, his power would be devastating.

[Fjolnir]

I like it, a villian only held back by his mighty apathy :-D

[Grod_The_Giant]

Okay, I think I've got this down... You've got a lot of big concepts here, but I'd really just like to try a small-scale villain... I assume any superhero setting... even one concerned with alien invasion et al... would have just plain old superpowered crooks.

EXACTLY! I have a lot of the big players, but a fully fleshed-out universe needs little guys. My goal with this is to have a giant index I can look at while writing and say "hmm...I need three minor villains...Ok, I'll take you, you, and you." DC and Marvel have that kind of reserve only after decades of publishing (and at the rate minor characters are dying, not for much longer).

[Jack_Banzai]

Black Rider

I'd say Count, even though his powers are a little less, his information control is a big boost. He is more of an observer and investigator than a straight-up hero. Cross The Fixer with a young, less powerful, and inexperienced Doctor Strange and you have him.


Name: legally changed to Black Rider, real name erased through techno-arcane manipulation


Apperance: Black Rider is a relatively average-looking Caucasian/Hispanic mixed male in his late 20s, fairly fit, strong but somewhat moody features. He generally wears a black and grey leather jacket with the words "KICK" and "YOURSELF" printed down the sleeves, boot-cut jeans, motorcycle boots, and a grey t-shirt with a curious looking white (arcane) symbol silkscreened on it. He always wears a pair of black plastic-framed glasses with a silver skull and crossbones between the eyes (a la Charlie Sheen in Major League).


Powers and equipment: Techno-Arcane Magic 6, Obfuscation 1, Intellect 3, Perception 1. Black Rider is the world's first and only (as far as he knows, but he is wrong) technowizard. He can cast magic spells and rituals conventionally but his magic is particularly potent and less draining when he interacts with technology. Which he does. A lot! In his role as unobtrusive observer he finds that his magic works best in a 'coincidental' fashion, as it takes a lot less energy to make someone's brakes fail than to shoot a lightning bolt at them. He has minor obfuscation powers that allow him to stay 'off the grid'. He also has a superhuman intellect that aids him in various ways, particularly in the areas of language (he speaks fifteen fluently) and memory (eidetic).

In a straight-up fight Black Rider will generally choose to make himself scarce. He prefers to operate behind the scenes, not necessarily as a manipulator, but as an information resource. Occasionally he will take the field of battle in extreme circumstances but it is not really to his liking. When he does, however, he generally packs a Heckler & Koch USP .40S&W through which he can channel arcane enchantments for improved accuracy and punch and the occasional supernatural load. He will also usually wear custom form-fitting armor with enchanted ceramic plates under his clothing.

Black Rider rounds out his adventuring gear with a mystically-enhanced laptop that Bill Gates would give everything to spend ten minutes with, his special leatherman with literally dozens of tools built into it, an arcane satellite phone that always gets a signal, and his "universal remote" which allows him another means of channeling arcane energy. In addition to manipulating various wireless devices, it allows him to control things like traffic signals and electronic locks within a fifty foot radius.

He rides a modified Ducati Monster 1100S in black and silver.


Origin: Raised in an orphanage in Chicago, Black Rider's parents died in a curious gas explosion shortly after his first birthday. (Through a series of techno-arcane manipulations, Black Rider's real name has been effectively erased from consciousness and history.) Growing up somewhat alienated from his fellow orphans, he found solace in books and learning, and ended up becoming one of those Doogie Howser-type child prodigies, earning several advanced degrees in computer science, mechanical and electrical engineering, physics, chemistry, psychology, and philosophy. At that time testing revealed that his intellect was in fact superhuman, capable of processing information to an astounding degree.

After university, Black Rider, to the surprise of his peers, began working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation as an investigator, in which he was very successful due to his breadth of knowledge, natural gift for perception, psychology background, and eidetic memory. However, unknown to his supervisors, he began his own research into a subject that had always fascinated him but defied him due to its lack of scientific basis: the arcane occult.

For years Black Rider had been interested in the concept of magic, surmising that every culture in the world, every one, had tales of magic wielders in its history. In an increasingly amazing world, with superhumans popping up left and right, he deduced that the use of magic was not only possibly, but was likely probably, an entire area of knowledge just waiting to be delved into.

There was one problem. Black Rider's supremely rational and sequential mind did not allow for him to use instinct in a way that would allow him to tap into supernatural powers. It was after a year of solid, backbreaking experimentation and research that he reasoned the following: if instinct was a primal drive at the core of a sentient being, and his natural instinct was to rationalize the world, then he would have to create a new approach to rationalize magic and marry it to technology to satisfy his sequential mindset. Two years later, he finally came up with his first formula, a mathematical theorem that allowed him to tap into his first taste of techno-magic.

Black Rider, having essentially created a new area of study, pulled up stakes at the FBI and entered a secluded state. After increasing his base of knowledge, he then decided on a course of action, which was to observe, guide, and guard humanity as a behind the scenes player. His new techno-magical powers allowed him vast power over databases and finances via the Internet, but he realized that such an avenue would corrupt his good intentions. The only way to keep that from happening, he reasoned, was to exist without ego as a cipher, a shadow, a ghost in the machine. It was then that he set about erasing all traces of his past, then hypnotized himself into forgetting details about his former life, including his name.

Black Rider seeks to protect humanity primarily through making sure that sensitive information gets to the right people. He also strives daily to increase his techno-magical knowledge, correctly surmising that it is a vast untapped field of arcane power. He does not consider himself a hero or a villain, merely a concerned citizen of the Earth, and as such his mind is always on the big picture. He treats genuinely-motivated heroes with a quiet respect but is not above manipulating villains should he see a way to have them use their power in a beneficial way.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Hmm...I would liken him more to DC's Oracle. I like the idea... but the techno-magic thing seems to overlap a bit with Ryumenth/Ryan Turner, the Atlantean craftsman who designed the Hephaestus armor.

[chiasaur11]

Looked over the setting. Got an idea.

Sanctus ordo , baiulus ut totus clementia. A.K.A. The Pallbearers of Mankind

Most run of the mill grunts are barely peasant level, but higher ranked individuals can easily reach Duke, and several King level secret projects have neared activation before stopped by The Shield of Man or superhumans.

Name: N/A

Appearance: Although many details vary, the standard grunts look like a metal man in a black funeral suit. Higher ranking individuals tend to look like some variant on the theme of a robotic Grim Reaper. They tend to communicate with each other in somber Latin, with English and other modern languages only used to explain to panicked crowds the reasons behind their imminent demise.

Powers and Equipment: Although weapons vary by individual unit, the Pallbearers tend to have exceptional strength and durability, at least when compared to a non powered human. They also tend to possess at least some basic energy weapons. Higher level members of this metallic brotherhood of death are much less standardized, ranging from walking tanks to stealth infiltrators and everything in between. The one constant is near total immunity to most psychic powers, due to their non organic nature.

Origins: In their quest to best deal with the rapid influx of super-powered individuals, the Shield of Humanity designed ORCUS, The

Omni
Robotic
Correction for
Urban
Superheroics

a robot designed to protect humanity from itself, or at least the branch of itself that had taken to wearing capes and tights. Unfortunately, ORCUS, after studying the records, determined that non magically enhanced humanity had gone extinct sometime during the Roman empire. With the species it was designed to protect extinct, ORCUS went into mourning. Unfortunately for all parties, it viewed modern man, with his shape so similar to those it was designed to protect, to being acting in a manner similar to that of the protagonists of "Weekend at Bernie's". Needless to say, ORCUS escaped from his testing labs to plan revenge for his beloved humanity. Eventually, he began producing more individuals like himself, an army to remove the blight of metahumanity from the Earth, and afterwards, to mourn what was lost. Needless to say, the governments of Earth very much disagree with this plan.

What do you think, sirs?

[Jack_Banzai]

Hmm...I would liken him more to DC's Oracle. I like the idea... but the techno-magic thing seems to overlap a bit with Ryumenth/Ryan Turner, the Atlantean craftsman who designed the Hephaestus armor.


I see your point, but Black Rider is by nature much less overt. Let us say that he is Constantine to Hephaesus' Doctor Fate. Both mystics of sorts, but with different origins, outlooks, modus operandi, and power usage.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I see your point, but Black Rider is by nature much less overt. Let us say that he is Constantine to Hephaesus' Doctor Fate. Both mystics of sorts, but with different origins, outlooks, modus operandi, and power usage.

you may have a point, but Ryumenth isn't the one flying around in the robotic armor. No-one knows he's an Atlantean sorcerer, or even that he's a genius inventor (he likes to hire human scientists and lead them in the right direction).

[kpenguin]

Mayor Rock

Name: Robert "Rock" Hutton

Appearance: Robert Hutton is a thick, tall, grizzled older man who is remarkably healthy despite his old man. His gray hair is cut short and and his upper lip sports an impressive moustache. His eyes, a cold blue, betray a sharp mind concealed by his hillbilly accent.

Powers: Hutton possesses the ability to transform himself into a being of stone, granting him enhanced strength and endurance. He also no longer goes through the basic biological processes of life while in this state, giving him immunity to, among other things, suffocation, disease, poison, radiaton, dehydration, and starvation.
While in this state, Hutton can also control any natural rock within a 300 foot radius. He can use this ability to manipulate, control, levitate and reshape anything made of rock.

Origin: Robert Hutton born and raised in the small town of Handleton, West Virginia. He quickly acquired fame within his small town by being the star player of his high school football team, earning the nickname "Rock" for his tenacity and hardiness. After graduating high school, Robert was enlisted into the army to fight in Vietnam. After he finished his tour of duty, Robert returned to his hometown and began work in the local coal mine.

Robert's powers manifested when there was a cave-in at the mine. Trapped inside, Robert's transformed body freed him of the need to breathe and allowed him free his fellow miners. After this, he became something of the town hero, with his old nickname "Rock" resurfacing.

Balancing his work as a miner and his work as a superhero, Robert protected aided the people of his town using his powers. Never possessing a high crime rate, the presence of the local superhero practically ended any illegal activity in Handleton. Robert became extremely popular among the townsfolk, becoming the chairman of the local chapter of the miner's union and later Mayor of the town. Robert, having been a prominent figure in Handleton for decades, continues to be the town's guardian.

[Mx.Silver]

Ooo, I like this one. I do kind of have a superhero-esque world myself, but it's very different in tone to this. This is a good thing though, as I have a lot of concepts that couldn't fit in mine that would be a lot better here.

So, let's get things started. I notice we have a bit of a lack of peasant ranked characters, so to start us off:


"Despite what you may have heard, you can actually fight crime without going vigilante."
Name: Emile Goddard

Appearance: Emile does not cut a very impressive figure. Thin, haggared and shorter than average. Despite only being in his late thirties his blonde hair is already turning grey. Although not beared, he frequently has a fair stubble due to his incredibly uncompromising work ethic.


Powers: Goddard possess a limited degree of necropathy: he can read the thoughts and memories of any dead individual provided he can be in close proximity to their bodies. Exactly how easily he can extract information depends largely on the nature of the individual's death. If they died peacefully then he has little difficulty but those with more traumatic deaths tend to be more disordered. He can potentially use this on non-humans and other animals although he has little skill with it. Aside from this he is unexceptional

OriginEmile was born in the city of Orlean, which has been his home for his entire life. Although difficult to measure, it seems likely that he has possessed his power since at least childhood. Whether this motivated him to join the police force or whether he would have chosen to do so anyway is impossible, but his ability has certainly proved useful in his career especially once he made detective. Although based mainly around his home city, he is also a member of interpol is capable of pursuing criminals further afield.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I posted some new stuff on magic and space travel, if anyone's interested. I'd like to hear suggestions and critiques on the setting as well as suggestions for new characters (especially cool villains). Bear in mind that not everything has to relate back to the few plot-centric organizations I've described so far...feel free to make up your own, in fact.

[Mx.Silver]

I posted some new stuff on magic and space travel, if anyone's interested. I'd like to hear suggestions and critiques on the setting as well as suggestions for new characters (especially cool villains). Bear in mind that not everything has to relate back to the few plot-centric organizations I've described so far...feel free to make up your own, in fact.

I'll get onto some more suggestions later, but since you asked for a critique I'll do one. First up, I think most of your individual elements of the setting are pretty good. Not some of the names though. I mean come on, "Eran’athu’rile’thuan"? Really? I mean aposotrophed names are bad enough but this is just... How would you even begin to pronounce that?:smalltongue:

On a somewhat more serious note: when it comes to fitting the elements together is were we run into a couple of issues. One of these is fairly, in my mind, major but in the interests of simplicity I'll mention the smaller inconsistency first.

I almost didn't catch it the first time, but it relates to this:

Note that a sub-theme in the writing, unavoidable without total suspension of disbelief, is the role of metahumans in the world. When lasers and force-fields are commonly used by metas, why don't we humans have them? Why doesn't the super-genius solve world hunger in a day? The answer usually boils down to somewhere between 'let them find out for themselves,' 'they're not sheep, and we can't treat them as such,' or, my personal favorite, 'we're not gods. If we do this kind of thing, they'll want us to do it again and again, until they no longer try to solve their own problem, but pray to us instead.'
Now on its own this is okay. I can't say I'm a huge fan of the 'aloof from the world' idea, but it's no big deal and I know you aren't aiming for anything to deconstructionist so on its own it's fine. The inconsistensy emerges when we reach the 'Metahumans' section and come across this:

Because eventually the entire human race will get powers, there is a scale, ranging from Kings to Peasants.
Just think about the bolded part here in relation to the first quote. If the entire human race is developing powers then sooner or later you are going to reach a point where the 'aloof from mortals' idea will be completely impossible to pull-off. To paraphrase Syndrome from The Incredibles 'When everyone's super, nobody is.' Even if the story won't see the entirity of humanity with superpowers, the fact that numbers will be increasing means that eventually you are going to hit a tipping point when the numbers is such that lack of involvement of the metahumans becomes just plain unimaginable. In early days yes, you can justify a small group of metahumans being detatched but as the percentage starts crossing the decimal it becomes increasingly hard to justify it when the 'aloof minority' is starting to outnumber the rates of fairly well-known disabalities and diseases. Hell, it's going to stop being viable the second anyone figures-out the that the entire human race which naturally evolve to metahuman levels given time. I can see this working in the starting act, but as it progresses you're going to have to work harder to justify it.

Nonetheless that can be ignored, or I may have simply misinterpreted what you're getting at with the sub-theme and instead you're actually aiming to explore the conflicts and dilemas by the metahumans soming to the realisation that, eventually, they will have to get involved. But this isn't the big problem as I see it.

The big problem can be summed-up in one word: Destiny. When I first read it I knew it would be problematic. For a start it is clearly the weakest arc you have planned: there is only one major event which occurs well before the climax and is solved by a deus ex machina (otherwise utterly impartial aliens suddenly swooping in and utterly destroying the Othac). Even if you did work this out though (which would involve reveaing the existense of the Lazuri in at least the second act and actually having the heroes manage to be instrumental, or preferably the major factor, in defeating the Orthac) it would not repair the other problem with this arc: it breaks the tone.

Now, you are clearly aware of this but I don't think you've quite thought about the implications of it. It's true that genre shifts can work fine, but not if they're thrown about halfway through the final act. This will do little except alienate the readers, the majority of whom will be dissapointed that the original setting has basically been undermined and thrown out by this completely new twist to it (which you can't develop).

Now, it's clear you like the idea of a space faring humanity with some superhuman power (and it's not a bad one) but the real question you have to ask yourself is: will it work in this setting? As things are I highly doubt it will, which means that the plot structre you have now is not going to cut it. The way I see it, you're either going to have to go with superheroes and effectively cut-out the space-faring idea except as an epilogue or you choose developing space-faring in which case the events of destinity will have to happen in act 2 at the very latest which means you'll have to drop the events of either Defience or Discovery from the continuity (probably Defience as Destiny as it is basically makes it redundant). In both cases you'd want a new third part to the story. There's a huge realm of a possibilty here, which I'm sure just about everyone will have some ideas for if you want them.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Names and linguistics...are not my strong point. Especially ones that are supposed to have a multi-word meaning, like Cradle of Gods. The various names for Earth were kind of just thrown out there, with my only idea being that they're somehow similar to 'Earth.'

You have a good point about the aloofness thing. It's very true that, eventually, the argument will fail. I intend for it to start to fail after the initial revelation in Discovery. At that point, those in favor of intervention will begin to gain support, and begin being more active in the world. And also note that the evolution is gradual. After 200,000 years of evolution, 10% of the population carries the genetic potential for powers to develop, and even then only a tiny fraction of a percent of that group actually will, despite any amount of biological tinkering and surgery. There are a few thousand metahumans- most with fairly insignificant powers- out of a population of almost seven billion. The first hero of significant power appeared only a hundred years ago. The curve is still fairly flat.

In a sense, the whole plot arc is setting up a superheroes and sci-fi setting. But I do acknowledge that I hadn't put a huge amount of thought into act three. There would probably be a massive effort by Earth's top scientists to contact other aliens for support against the Othac.

The problem with sudden genre shifts is...well...acts two and three flow into eachother. The Othac invasion would lead directly into sci-fi. And I feel like that is the ultimate destination of any setting with the level of technology and alien contact in a standard super-hero universe. And it would not stay part of the distinct metahuman community, because it's just stupid to assume that.

Do you have any suggestions on how to better switch genres?

[Mx.Silver]

Names and linguistics...are not my strong point. Especially ones that are supposed to have a multi-word meaning, like Cradle of Gods. The various names for Earth were kind of just thrown out there, with my only idea being that they're somehow similar to 'Earth.'
Lots of people have trouble with names (myself included). The thing about a multi-word meaning is that, when you get down to it, when you define any noun you need to use multiple words. There's nothing to say that the aliens in question wouldn't have a single word with that meaning, so you can feel free to just use a shorter word (probably no more than four syllables at most) the flows easily and which is obvious how to pronounce. Please drop the apostrophes though, they don't add anything to names. In fact they just make them look rather cheesy.



You have a good point about the aloofness thing. It's very true that, eventually, the argument will fail. I intend for it to start to fail after the initial revelation in Discovery. At that point, those in favor of intervention will begin to gain support, and begin being more active in the world. And also note that the evolution is gradual. After 200,000 years of evolution, 10% of the population carries the genetic potential for powers to develop, and even then only a tiny fraction of a percent of that group actually will, despite any amount of biological tinkering and surgery. There are a few thousand metahumans- most with fairly insignificant powers- out of a population of almost seven billion. The first hero of significant power appeared only a hundred years ago. The curve is still fairly flat.

Fair enough. As I said, it wasn't the biggest issue.



In a sense, the whole plot arc is setting up a superheroes and sci-fi setting. But I do acknowledge that I hadn't put a huge amount of thought into act three. There would probably be a massive effort by Earth's top scientists to contact other aliens for support against the Othac.

True, but that doesn't make the Lazuri's intervention any better. In your premise you outright stated that humans possess a practically unique (at this point in time) potential to become truly formidable in power. You therefore have a canon reason for having them be the real winners here, and therefore using the Lazuri not only renders the efforts of the characters completely meaningless in the grand scheme of things (which is going to annoy any reader who's come to like them) but it actually undermines a portion of your premise.

Moreover it also severely undermines the threat of the Orthac. I mean they're made out to be this real powerhouse (hell, they have seven gods leading them), yet they get completely anihilated by this random group of guys in their first major encounter? Hell, if their main motivation was remove potential threats, why the hell did Earth even appear on their radar when you've got a group like the Lazuri who can curbstomp them in a matter of days kicking around?

To make this work, it has to come down to Earth versus the Orthac. Yes, they may have some support but the point is that since everything else has been about that so far it makes no sense to change it at the last minute. Yes they'd have little chance winning: that's the point. A victory won against the odds is much more satisfying than one where the good guys win by casting 'Summon Angelic Horde' and then simply watching as the legions of evil get completely crushed by the invincible celestial super-beings. That is not something that's good in a story, especially if it's supposed to be the climax.


The problem with sudden genre shifts is...well...acts two and three flow into eachother. The Othac invasion would lead directly into sci-fi. And I feel like that is the ultimate destination of any setting with the level of technology and alien contact in a standard super-hero universe. And it would not stay part of the distinct metahuman community, because it's just stupid to assume that.

Do you have any suggestions on how to better switch genres?
Just one: do it earlier. As I said before, if you really want this then the switch has to occur before the halfway mark (in this case the middle of act two). Now, this will mean you need to re-think it a bit because you're going to need to. If you are intending to go more space-age with it then you need to start focussing on that side of things earlier, which will mean hurrying or even simply removing some of the earlier arcs.

Now, you may be wondering how you're going to write two clashes with the Othac in 1.5 arcs. My answer to that is simple: you don't. Here's my take on how this could work (obviously, it doesn't have to be like this but it's an idea) The first (scouting party) attack occurs somewhat earlier in the second act, or quite possibly at the end of the first, and it is this that provides humanity with the means to start going space age (we may need some sort of other conflict area for the this development phase, possibly to do with clashes amongst metahumans as to whether this is the right/some form of macguffin/discovery of a sealed evil in a can etc.).

Instead of the Othac immediately counter-attacking with full-force, they hold back and recalculate. After all, the planet that should have been helpless against them has just smacked them one, they do not give any immediate indication to earth that they will be attacking again. This will lead up to the Destiny arc. Humanity, thinking the threat of invasion has passed, is begining to spread its space-faring wings encounter a series of new challanges (and maybe a couple of species) as well as machinations of some of the villains and the various difficulties of all the characters in facing this changing world. Eventually however, it becomes clear that the Othac are a lot less dead than previously though and the arc builds to the final confrontation between them in an epic battle raging through the Sol system and possibly further afield. Finally, through courage, skill and perhaps some allied assistance, humanity emerges victorious and the remaining Othac are either killed or surrender. The story ends with humanity tall, ready to take its place in the annals of galactic history.

Or something like that anyway. This is just a rough idea after all (and obviously the final act could be completely different), but I think it should give you some idea of how the transition could work.

[Grod_The_Giant]

That's not bad, I guess. Othac attack, 'WTF?' pause, humanity reverse-engineers their stuff, starts spreading out...contact other species...hmm...

I think you may be misunderstanding the scope of the battles somewhat, though. The first battle was Earth (alone, unprepared) against a minor scouting force trying to quickly grab a system inhabited only by comparative barbarians in an effort to protect the flank of the Empire's conquest. Lazuri (and assorted minor allies) were to help defeat one Othac task force, with seven times to combat power of the initial invasion. Their forces are still greatly outnumbered by the much larger Empire.

[Mx.Silver]

That's not bad, I guess. Othac attack, 'WTF?' pause, humanity reverse-engineers their stuff, starts spreading out...contact other species...hmm...
As I said, it's entirely up to you how you want to do this. It might also be worth asking what everyone else thinks about this.



I think you may be misunderstanding the scope of the battles somewhat, though. The first battle was Earth (alone, unprepared) against a minor scouting force trying to quickly grab a system inhabited only by comparative barbarians in an effort to protect the flank of the Empire's conquest. Lazuri (and assorted minor allies) were to help defeat one Othac task force, with seven times to combat power of the initial invasion. Their forces are still greatly outnumbered by the much larger Empire.
That does seem rather more reasonable now that I think about it. Still doesn't make the Lazuri any less of a deus ex machina though. Scaling down
the last confrontation in my suggestion would make more sense as well (e.g. Orthac realising that defeating humanity would be too costly to be worth it and negotiating a peace settlement).

[Dervag]

Names and linguistics...are not my strong point. Especially ones that are supposed to have a multi-word meaning, like Cradle of Gods. The various names for Earth were kind of just thrown out there, with my only idea being that they're somehow similar to 'Earth.'You can certainly go the German route and just slam the words together. For example: "panzer" (armored) + "funkwagen" (radio car) = "panzerfunkwagen"



Likewise "Godscradle."

But the apostrophes are unnecessary. In the Latin alphabet, sticking apostrophes into the middle of words is a symbol for "even though there's no obvious grammatical reason for there to be a syllable break here, there has to be one, because it's the only way to make the word vaguely pronounceable."


And also note that the evolution is gradual. After 200,000 years of evolution, 10% of the population carries the genetic potential for powers to develop, and even then only a tiny fraction of a percent of that group actually will, despite any amount of biological tinkering and surgery.Question: how do people evolve powers that they don't actually [i]manifest? Evolution can only work on things that exist and have a measurable effect on your odds of survival or having children.

[quiote]In a sense, the whole plot arc is setting up a superheroes and sci-fi setting. But I do acknowledge that I hadn't put a huge amount of thought into act three. There would probably be a massive effort by Earth's top scientists to contact other aliens for support against the Othac.[/quote]Maybe. On the other hand, the other aliens might be just as hostile as the Othac, in which case contacting them would be kind of self-defeating. It all depends on the general perception of the aliens. For that matter, someone trying to contact another species of aliens that are just as bad as the Othac makes a good villain. He's doing something wrong (setting Earth up to get crushed between two hostile powers), but it's something a sane person could think was a good idea (playing two hostile powers off against each other).


Do you have any suggestions on how to better switch genres?Alien invasions are a reasonably common trope in superhero fiction, so I don't really see a problem here.

[Mx.Silver]

Alien invasions are a reasonably common trope in superhero fiction, so I don't really see a problem here.

True enough, however the genre switch as I see it 'humans becoming a space faring civilisation'. I would argue that that throws the previously established setting off kilter.

[kpenguin]

I think the problem is that humanity is immediately thrown from a modern setting into space-faring civilization without very much in between. There should be at least a high-tech cyberpunk era in between the two, in the style of Batman Beyond or Marvel 2099.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I do intend to foreshadow that genre shift somewhat. For example, I'm currently screwing around with an early story idea where another race sets up a small military outpost on Titan (throwing out the idea of the Solar System's strategic location early).

In between the initial and main invasions, there will be a scientific boom. Humans know they're not alone, and that there are races out there that mean them ill. They'll be trying to mobilize their forces, to build up defenses against the expected counterattack.

[puppyavenger]

Looks very interesting, although I'm more interested in the first discovery arch.

isn't a gate to Atlantis pretty much a mandatory plot for a universe like this?

might have some villian idea's soonish.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I'm sure that Atlantis will enter into it somehow :P

[Dervag]

I think the problem is that humanity is immediately thrown from a modern setting into space-faring civilization without very much in between. There should be at least a high-tech cyberpunk era in between the two, in the style of Batman Beyond or Marvel 2099.Debatable.

One of the oldest classic plot questions of science fiction is "What if we somehow discovered the technology to build a space drive tomorrow? Not in the indefinite future, but right now?"

That question motivated the first story of interstellar travel, and it's still in use today. It's interesting because we know what is on our technological menu, and we know what kinds of problems we'd face trying to build a spacecraft like that today. We'd be building it with no nifty strong AI, no hypothetical Unobtainium superalloys, just the stuff we already understand. It really limits your options for handwaving.

[WNxHasoroth]

Duke:
Rage

Real Name:Aleser Williamson
Description: A tall, well built man in his thirty somethings his name hints at Middle Eastern descent, despite his pearl white skin and red hair. Although he may once have been described as moderately attractive, the scarred and gouged ocular tissue dissuades any such notions. Quick to violence, and extremely passionate, only the ghosts of his ancestors keep him in check, a nagging voice in the back of his head bringing him to calm. He dresses as an ordinary civilian, eschewing the esoteric costumes that brings unwanted attention and publicity. However he has taken to wearing steel backed leather armor, and an Italian style grotesque.
Powers: Aleser is strong and quick, a hard life of constant knocks training him and hardening him to the worries of the world. Level 5 Agility, Level 5 Strength. Level 10 Willpower. Aleser is independent and when he wants something, he damn well gets it no matter how many people get in his way. Although a competent fighter with his treasured M1-Garand, Aleser's true abilities emerge when he enters a heightened state of being, falling back on anaerobic respiration as he ceases to breathe, becoming a walking typhoon of boiling blood and energy. When his powers first emerged he could not sustain this state for long. After D-Day he would take to channeling the energy produced by the Rage to continue respiration, maintaining the destructive form indefinitely. Lastly, a long line of ancestor's speak to him, those whom have worn the mantle of Rage before. They have all tired of life, preferring to move on or to stay around and instruct the next generation. Calling themselves the Family, Aleser dismisses them as his rational thoughts as opposed to a conclave of spirits advising him.
Origin: Aleser is not sure who, or what he is. As an orphan he knew his name, growing up in Southern New Jersey if nothing else. As war rolled across the world in the early twentieth century he would enlist in the Army, storming the beaches of D-Day. As a child, his frequent tantrums would trigger horrific transformations from a young boy into a barely formed vortex of red energy before reverting to Aleser's human form. As frightened by the transformation as others were, it was only during the Vietnam war where Aleser would begin to wield his powers more recklessly, clandestinely supporting Operation Rolling Thunder with horrific slaughters within the Vietcong tunnels.

After Vietnam, where his powers began being noticed by the rank and file and news crews (in a widely reproduced photograph (http://www.withfriendship.com/user/images/81/vietnam-war-photo.jpg) of five children fleeing a napalm strike, as seven soldiers walk unperturbed, Aleser can be glimpsed as the man shaped smoke behind the fleeing children) Aleser began to live off the grid, occasionally resurfacing at a Veteran's Meeting, where his shredded eyes are hypothesized to be the victims of a Vietnamese trap, as opposed to being torn by the physical manifestation of Rage.

[Grod_The_Giant]

It seems like a cool idea, but I'm a bit confused...can you be a bit more explicit?

[WNxHasoroth]

Sure :smallsmile: To be honest I wrote that while waiting on the raid to res during a WoW Wipe so it's a bit too long and confused.

Aleser's power is that he can transform into the living embodiment of rage. He becomes a whirling tempest of blood, and bone, of livid red energy and hate (think Dark Archon from SC:BW). As a child he couldn't keep this going for long, but after the stress of WW2 (after his mastery of the Rage form) he learned to fuel the transformation by sending the energy he created (as a whirling tempest o' doom) back into his body in an endless loop. I'm not really to sure about how powerful it should be, Aleser is the living embodiment of one of the most negative human emotions but that turns into Mary Sue really quickly. I'd like to think of him as a walking napalm blast, that kills humans easily but would be even to metahumans of a Knight level (speaking of which I think making Aleser a Duke is a bit much on my part)

[Grod_The_Giant]

Yeah...count seems about right. What's the deal with the strength and agility, though? Do they come from tapping into the Rage without transforming?

[Grod_The_Giant]

Unfortunately, I don't have the artistic talent to draw any of this (I can and do mess up stick figures), but I've been working a bit on some short stories set in the universe. I've finished one- written from the perspective of Iron- that introduces the Faceless One and his bunch, which will (hopefully) lead into Gods and Mortals, the first big crossover event (although I plan to have crossovers be pretty common, so that may not be the best term for it). It's a Word doc, but I could probably copy and paste it here, if people are interested...

[Grod_The_Giant]

I've posted quite a few more characters (especially villains), but the more, the merrier! Come on, people, let's contribute!

[Anonymous Man]

John Thanson

Real Name: Formerly Babulus von Hugenstien, legally changed to John Thanson.

Description: About 5’ 10”, with brown hair and eyes. Has a slim build.

Powers: Level 5 gravity manipulation. He can permanently increase or decrease the weight of objects and people. Genius level intellect, equal to Ryumenth’s.

Origin: He discovered his powers in 7th grade, while fleeing from a pack of bullies.

Associations: Board member in Olympus Industries.

Also:

Merlon

Real Name: William B Goldberg

Description: 6’ 1”, green eyes, blond hair, African American. Wears everyday clothes.

Powers: Produces and manipulates magical energy. Does not know many spells, but is learning. Has no tutor, so mostly controls magic by instinct and force of will.

Origin: Discovered his powers when The Shield of Man captured him to block them. Lashed out in fear and escaped.

Also:

Hero

Real Name: Various

Description: Wears a pure black, total body suit.

Powers:(groups in <> are for each person.)
<Invunerablity 6, Strength 6, Flight>
<Telekinesis 7, Telepathy 7, Flight>
<Speed 5, Flight>
<Strength 3, Invunerability 3, Telepathy 3, Invisibility, Flight>
<Senses 7, Strength 4, Flight>

Origin: Actually a group of super-powered people who wish to be recognized as heroes. they all appear as hero to make it seem as though they have many powers.