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View Full Version : [Exalted] Superb Tales of Heroics (Setting Riff)



sun_tzu
2013-10-19, 01:10 PM
Some time ago, while I was going through a lot of superhero comics, a thought occurred to me: How could the world of "Exalted" be altered to match the tropes of the superhero genre?
Well, what follows isn't a perfect fit, but it's my attempt:








Turn on the the news. They're all abuzz about the latest battle between the Fantastic Five and Winter Mask. Just yesterday, Captain Scarlet fought one of the Burning Sphere's mad scientists in downtown Crane Bay. Last week, a mysterious man with some kind of mystical kung-fu destroyed a Balorian invasion ship. And tomorrow, a documentary about the rise of superheroes will be hitting the movie theaters.

Superb Tales of Heroics is an alternate setting for Exalted. It borrows much from "Exalted: The Modern Age". But while the latter is a setting of conspiracy thrillers, this is a superhero setting, taking most of its inspiration from the classical comics of DC and Marvel (with perhaps a touch of Aberrant). It is intended to be a more idealistic setting than vanilla Creation... but a Storyteller preferring to emulate more cynical stories (or even Aberrant itself) may do so by making the supposed heroes more morally ambiguous.



GLOSSARY:

Abyssals: Former potentates who used the death camps of the World War to empower themselves with necrotic powers.

The Accidents: Popular nickname for Solars who were not personally chosen by the Unconquered Sun, but rather received a free-floating spark of his power.

Archdevils: Entities of primordial corruption who rule over Hell, and empower the Infernals.

Atlantis Industries: A company owned by the Solar known as the Swan, which created Luthe.

Autochton: A powerful AI gone rogue, currently residing in a massive space station, relying on the Cyborgs for ground-bound work.

Balorians: A race of alien invaders who can warp reality around themselves, currently fortified on Mars.

The Balorian Invasion: The Balorians' first attempt to conquer Creation.

The Burning Sphere: An Infernal-run organization of mad scientists and tech thieves.

Captain Scarlet: The first Dragon-Blooded, and generally considered the world's first superhero.

The Children of the Sand: Infernal-run infernalist cult.

The Chosen: Popular nickname for Solars who were intentionally selected for exaltation by the Unconquered Sun, and received a vision from him.

Cyborgs: Humans who have been enhanced by Autochton, turned into his agents in exchange for immense power.

The Darkmist Fleet: A pirate submarine fleet, commanded by the Abyssal Admiral Silver.

Dragon-Blooded: Humans empowered with elemental powers by "Project: Dragon Blood" and its derivatives, or descended from such empowered humans.

Dragonflight: A special An-Teng military unit comprised entirely of Dragon-Blooded.

Dragon-Kings: Beings from a parallel Creation where reptiles still rule the world.

The Dragon's Shadow: Infernal-run secret society devoted to world domination.

The Fantastic Five: A notorious alliance of Solars, which some tentatively call Creation's greatest heroes.

The Green Sun: Infernal-run terrorist organization devoted to chaos and mayhem.

Hell: A dark mirror to Yu-Shan, ruled by the infinitely corrupt Archdevils.

The Immaculate Doctrine: Major religion, which sees most gods as irrelevant, except for the Elemental Dragons that bridge Yu-Shan and Creation.

Infernals: Humans empowered with the powers of Hell, driven to bring evil and suffering to Creation.

The Loom of Fate: a cosmic keystone that connects Yu-Shan to Creation on a metaphysical level.

Lovers of the Eternal Night: Hedonistic, nihilistic cult run by the Abyssal Bloody Countess.

Luna: Trickster goddess, who was banished from Yu-Shan to the Moon, creating Silver Throne.

Lunars: Humans from Silver Throne, empowered by its trickster goddess Luna.

Luthe: An experimental underwater city, created by Atlantis Industries.

Mountain Folk: A subterranean race that has created its own advanced civilization.

Reclamation Incorporated: Infernal-run megacorp that secretly supports supervillains.

S.A.Y.N. Industries: High-tech company run by the Solar inventor Warstrider.

Sidereals: Monks selected by Fate to achieve special enlightenment and watch over the Loom of Fate.

The Silent Wind: Infernal-run society of assassins and hitmen.

Silver Throne: A city on Creation's moon, ruled by Luna.

Solarism: Major religion, which worships the Unconquered Sun.

Solars: Humans empowered with a spark of divine power from Yu-Shan. Divided into "the chosen" and "the accidents".

Task Force Omega: A Meruvian military and intelligence group, tasked with handling supervillain threats.

The Thousand Dead: An army of undead cyborgs under the control of the Abyssal Forsaken One.

The Unconquered Sun: King of the gods, believed by many to be the only perfect being.

The World War: A Creation-wide conflict from less than a century ago, which saw the rise of the superhumans.

World Wide Winter: Terrorist organization run by the Abyssal Winter Mask, which has successfully taken over an entire country a few years ago.

Yu-Shan: The mysterious heavenly city, domain of the gods.

Yushanism: Major religion, which worships countless gods in all things.






THE WORLD WAR

The world our ancestors have named Creation is but one of several planets orbiting the Sun. Like all planets and moons, it is flat. Those who reach its borders and keep walking, or who keep digging beyond a certain depth, will find that they remain in the same position. Only by going upward, and reaching into space, can one enter the larger solar system. Only inter-dimensional portals allow one to enter other realms of existence.
Of course, for most of Creation's history, such things were of little concern. We had more... terrestrial concerns. Colonial powers such as Cherak, Calin and others established colonies in Meruvia. Meruvia rebelled and became a nation of its own. Democratic revolutions overthrew ancient monarchies. History marched on.

Then, less than a century ago, the event remembered as the World War took place. It all started with a political movement, one called "Supremacism". It held that the pursuit of power at all cost was the true natural calling of man, and the only rational policy of any nation. As such, it rejected the concepts of inherent rights, of democracy, and even compassion. Unfortunately, supremacism had several charismatic politicians and warlords on its side, and it rose to power in three nations - Deheleshen, whose militaristic culture hungered for conquest; Velennia, which yearned for its ancient glory; and far to the West, Coral, which wanted to expand its area of influence through the world.

Each of these three nations desired domination over their neighbors, but could not fight against the inevitable alliances that would form against them. Together, however, they formed what they hoped would be an unstoppable Supreme Axis. The war that ensued saw massive clashes of battleships, airplanes, tanks, and millions of soldiers across Creation, as numerous nations joined forces to try and stop the Axis.
It was in this war that Project Dragon-Blood was birthed. And the world was forever changed.


THE FIRST SUPERHUMANS

Project Dragon-Blood was a bid by Meruvia to create a new breed of soldier, able to turn the tide of the World War. Meruvia's government had unlocked colossal fundings for the top-secret project, bringing many of the nation's brightest biologists, physicists and engineers to bear. The end result, however, was nothing short of incredible: When tested on a volunteer from the armed forces, it made her downright superhuman in abilities. Under the codename of Captain Scarlet, she soon proved her strategic worth on the battlefield, able to lead her men better than any mortal officer and defeat entire platoons without breaking a sweat. Soon enough, other soldiers were given similar treatments, and dozens of Dragon-Blooded under Meruvia's banner won victory after victory against the Axis.

Of course, the Axis was not going to let this stand. With various methods ranging from espionage to dissecting captured Dragon-Blooded, it sought to understand the treatment and replicate it. It managed to achieve inferior (but still impressive) versions...enough to slow down Meruvian forces, but not enough to equalize what was, by now, a losing war.

No - the Axis's answer to Project Dragon-Blood ended up being something far, far darker.


THE FORCES OF DEATH

There was a scientist among the Supremacists - an elderly woman who had been studying the aftereffects of the World War's massacres. She suspected that the necrotic energy released by death on a sufficiently massive scale could, with the right tools, be channeled. Used to not only warp the land, but empower specific individuals, turning them into veritable lords of death. But to achieve that, death would need to be processed. Industrialized.

And so the Axis created its death camps, gathering necrotic energies. For the first time, Creation was marred with Shadowlands...and the Axis had the power to create its first Abyssals. The first man to undergo the full procedure was the very general who had overseen the entire operation. Once he was empowered with necrotic energy, he became all but unstoppable, able to cut down entire armies, even fight a small squad of Dragon-Blooded on even terms! Despite massive internal squabbling over who would get such powers, other high-ranking Supremacists managed to become Abyssals in turn; soon enough, the battlefields become even more nightmarish as the champions of death brought the Axis the advantage anew.

Feeling utterly unstoppable, one of the Abyssals managed to sneak into Meruvia's heartland, and capture its government at Crane Bay, demanding the nation's unconditional surrender. It took a daring rescue mission by Captain Scarlet and her Dragon-Blooded squad to save the day - and even then, she only managed to deliver the killing blow to her necrotic foe after he had slaughtered all of her Exalted squadmates.

With so much power in the hands of the Axis, it seemed like only a miracle could save Creation. Thankfully, they got their miracle just in time.


CHAMPIONS OF HEAVEN

Yu-Shan, City of the Gods, had been mostly a myth for most of human History, only rarely touching upon the course of human events. With the advent of the Abyssals, however, things had changed. The Unconquered Sun, King of the Heavens, summoned a handful of Creation's most virtuous mortals, tasking them with the safety of the world; to that purpose, he empowered them with a shard of his own essence. These new Solar champions now possessed a power greater than even the Dragon-Blooded - power great enough to fight the Abyssals themselves on even terms.

With actual heavenly champions on their side, the Allies fought with renewed hope. Solars and Abyssals clashed across the battlefield. Chosens of the gods and lords of death both fell to each other's strikes. Several successive defeats broke the Axis war machine, forcing the Abyssal leaders to reassess their strategy. Since they could not win the war, many reasoned, it was their best bet to instead go underground - take what resources they could, and hide from the Allies. They were unaging, after all; they could wait for generations for a better opportunity, if need be. The most vocal proponent of this approach, however, was slain as a traitor by the first Abyssal, who still believed the Axis could win the war. His bloody opposition to the plan, in the end, led to the other Abyssals considering him an obstacle; he was disposed off by his closest ally among them, the Black Heron, believed by some to have been his lover. With the first Abyssal gone, the others enacted their plan, hiding across Creation, leaving the Axis to its fate. Without the champions of death, the Supremacist armies fell to the Allies.

The World War was over. A new age had begun.


STARS AND DEMONS

The end of the World War saw a new optimistic mindset across the world. For the Allied nations, the greatest evil in History had been defeated. Even for the people of the Axis nations, the end of the war was seen as a blessing - though the Supremacist movement had ridden on populist politics, the Abyssals had merely been feared. And now, as some Dragon-Blooded and Solars were turning their powers to civilian applications and post-war reconstruction, it seemed that the future was bright indeed.

Things were far from perfect, of course. Political tensions were still there. Meruvia and the Haslanti Confederation - the two most powerful nations in the war's wake - were soon engaged in a cold war with each other. The hunt for Abyssal war criminals was still open, as several of them became international terrorists and criminal masterminds.

Then, less than a decade after the war, tragedies struck. Mysterious, immensely powerful villains struck at the surviving Solars, murdering them one one-by-one. At first, people thought this was an Abyssal plot. The truth was, perhaps, worse: These new supervillains were the champions of Hell.

There were, in truth, good reasons why Yu-Shan usually avoided direct intervention in human affairs: To do otherwise opened the door for equal, opposite intervention by the Archdevils of Hell. For every shard of solar power granted to a virtuous human, an Infernal exaltation was granted to one who was ready to pledge his soul to the forces of evil. With no-one to oppose them except the Dragon-Blooded and newly exalted, inexperienced Solars, the Infernals believed the world to be theirs.

They were soon proven wrong. When the surviving heroes took arms against them, they were aided by what seemed to be quasi-supernatural luck...and, in a few instances, mysterious helpers. Cryptic men and women who fought the forces of hell with supernatural martial arts the likes of which even the Solars had never displayed. Beaten, the Infernals pulled back; like the Abyssals before them, they were forced to go into hiding, striking only from the shadows.

Many heroes wondered who their elusive allies that day had been. In truth, they were an ancient monastic order - humans chosen by the Maidens of Destiny to watch over the Loom of Fate. They had stayed out of worldly affairs for millennia...but when the forces of Hell had intervened directly, they had seen fit to do the same. For decades to come, the members of the Sidereal Order would keep acting surreptitiously.


CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER

In the second decade following the war, a strange phenomenon was observed: Young teenagers across the world displaying sudden bursts of elemental powers. It did not take long for the cause to be understood:
It was a simple fact that, by their very nature, the Dragon-Blooded were supernaturally charismatic... and, if they so chose, supernaturally seductive. Even in the days of the war, they had little difficulty in convincing mortals to share their beds. There were, by this point, hundreds of children in the world who, often without knowing it, were descended from an elemental champion... and, as the world was only now realizing, this power was entirely hereditary.

Reception to the news was...mixed. Some saw it as the next step in human evolution - one day, they reasoned, all of humanity would be empowered. Others saw it as a threat - rather than being its champions, the Dragon-Blooded were now its rivals, threatening to replace it. Some nations placed new legislation to restrict and control their Dragon-Blooded - which, understandably, caused massive backlash.

Meanwhile, both the geopolitical realities of the cold war and the desires of certain Exalts for exploration led them to new frontiers. Rocketships built by Exalted engineers brought them to the Moon... and to an unexpected discovery: A thriving, modern civilization, apparently established on the Moon thousands of years earlier. The Selenites, as they called themselves, claimed that their ancestors had been brought from Creation to the Moon by a goddess called Luna, who also empowered her champions, the shape-shifting Lunars. It was those Lunars who, with varying degrees of subtlety, ruled over the heart of Selenite civilization, the city-State of Silver Throne.

Most Selenites were isolationists, and not interested in contact with the people of Creation. A few Lunars, however, were displaying some curiosity...

While astronauts were discovering people on the Moon, geophysicists were making even more shocking discoveries about Creation: New, more advanced tools were able to detect a massive underground bubble of air, with thermal and electromagnetic signatures suggesting advanced civilization. It took the efforts of Exalts to actually reach this city, dozens of miles beneath the ground; there, they discovered the ancient people of the Mountain Folk. The Mountain Folk, for their own part, had ages ago created a utopian society; the discovery of an outside world surprised and intrigued them, and soon enough, emissaries and diplomats were sent to the human nations.


THE INVASION

The world, it seemed, was getting more complex and exciting by the day. It was about to do so on an even greater scale than before when a massive fleet of spaceships entered the solar system, most of them heading straight for Creation.

Attempts at communication met little success. The aliens, having identified themselves as the "Balorians", merely demanded the unconditional surrender of humanity, and landed armies of soldiers, all of them powerful and equipped with advanced, inhuman technology. Conventional forces were practically helpless.
It soon became apparent that only a united front of superheroes could stem the tide. Solars and Dragon-Blooded from many nations joined forces to repel the invaders. Sidereals left their monastery to assist other heroes. Lunars allied with Creation's heroes. The Jadeborn ambassadors called in reinforcement from their homeland.

Even villains participated. Several Abyssals took arms against the Balorians. A group of Infernals struck a temporary truce with Solars to fight the aliens together. The alliance, while uneasy, was overwhelmingly powerful.

Hoping to end the war, the Meruvian military unleashed a prototype superweapon, designed by a Solar scientist: The Sword of Creation, a system networking dozens of Manses across Meruvia, channeling Essence into an irresistible destructive force. Such a complex operation required nothing short of a true artificial intelligence to operate it - an AI codenamed Autochton. Wielding the most powerful weapon in human History, Autochton was able to obliterate Balorian mothership after mothership, forcing the surviving aliens to retreat all the way to Mars.

The war had been won, but the crisis was far from over. For starters, the Sword of Creation, even wielded as expertly as Autochton had, could not channel this much Essence without wrecking Meruvia's geomancy. Earthquakes, fires, tidal waves, storms, and massive crop death were felt through much of the continent - enough to discourage any further use of the weapon. It was agreed to immediately take it offline, along with its controlling AI. Autochton, however, had no desire to be turned off. He proceeded instead to take over the computers of numerous satellites, space stations, spaceships, and ballistic missiles that he immediately sent into orbit; it soon became clear that he was building himself a massive cybernetic body in outer space. Any attempt to stop him, however, would have to wait - a more urgent problem was manifesting itself, courtesy of the Infernals:

During the Balorian invasion, several of the champions of Hell had offered a temporary alliance to the Solars and their allies. As soon as the war had ended, however, they had enacted their secret plan: Abduct a handful of Solars, and use them for a ritual through which they intended to breach the veil between Creation and Yu-Shan. Their goal was to steal the very power of the gods for their own nefarious ends. The remaining heroes - uncaptured Solars, Lunars, Dragon-Blooded, Sidereals and more - worked to free the captured divine champions and foil the plan. In the end, while the Infernals managed to breach the veil for a short while, the heroes were still able to foil their plot; a spark of divine essence entered Creation, but, with no-one to control it, it simply found itself human hosts to empower as Solars. These new Solars, while not personally chosen by the Unconquered Sun, were equal in power to those that had been selected.

And in the meanwhile, in outer space, Autochton had built a massive station to house himself. Armed to the teeth, he was beyond anyone's ability to dislodge him at this point.


A NEW BREED OF VILLAINY

The Balorians had threatened Creation and the Moon equally; the war had driven a larger number of Lunars out of isolation. Several of them became frequent visitors, and famed heroes, in the lands of Creation. One, however, came with sinister intentions.

In Silver Throne, Raksi had been a scientist and sorceress without peer, but had always felt constrained. In Creation, she found immense lands and populations, and opportunities to grab the power she had always felt was hers. She chose to concentrate her efforts on Mahalanka, a small Eastern nation with a history of bloodshed and racial tensions. Mahalanka had been a source of instability in the region for a while, and was at the time in the throes of yet another bloody civil war; with advanced technology, deadly sorcery, and her considerable physical power, Raksi was able to take the nation over, forcing an end to the civil war, and placing herself as "temporary overseer" to "restore order", under the new moniker of "Doctor Fang". The international community watched warily, uncertain how to handle the situation, especially when many, tired of Mahalanka's unending conflicts, were applauding Raksi's measures.

At the time, though, many of the world's heroes had a more urgent concern - a sudden ripple across Abyssal organizations. Since the end of the World War, Abyssals had been working independently of each other, more often than not, each one working on their own plans for power and conquest. Nevertheless, it came as a shock when one of them, the Black Heron, was seemingly eliminated... by none other than the first Abyssal, whom everyone - his fellow lords of death included - had presumed dead for decades. Renaming himself the Forsaken One, he took over the Heron's organization, and wielded it far more aggressively than she ever had, seeming not to care one whit if nothing remained; within months, the organization was all but wiped out, but numerous terror strikes had made the Forsaken One once again one of the most feared supervillains in the world.

Meanwhile, Infernal efforts to take over Creation were getting increasingly organized. Law enforcement agencies across the world were able to identify several Infernal groups, which often worked together - be they the terrorists of the Green Sun, devil-worshipping cults like the Children of the Sand, the mad scientists and arms dealers of the Burning Sphere, the assassins of the Silent Wind, or the backstage political manipulators of the Dragon's Shadow. Many also suspected the international corporation known as Reclamation Inc. of working closely with such groups, though no condemning evidence was found.

Meanwhile, the Balorians were not staying idle. From their bases on Mars, they were launching new operations against Creation... but this time, they weren't sending armies. Instead, they were sending individual, exceptionally powerful soldiers who would become supervillains, often joining forces or taking over human terrorist and criminal organizations.

And while the world's heroes fought as best they could against these villains, Autochton, still in orbit, was still working. Fearful of humans and Balorians both, he sought to create a superpowered guard of his own. To that purpose, he developed teleportation technology, allowing him to bring in specific humans from Creation. Choosing them carefully, he would then offer them immense improvements, a new life, and immortality, if they agreed to work for him. Those who accepted found their bodies modified with the best technology Autochton could come up with; these new Cyborgs, more powerful than even the Dragon-Blooded, became Autochton's agents in the world.


DRAGONS, ZOMBIES, AND THE SEAS

By this point, Doctor Fang had effectively stabilized Mahalanka - or rather, was ruling it with an iron fist - and was showing no sign of letting go. Heroes were hesitant to unseat a foreign government, and governments were finding negotiation to be the preferable path, especially as the Lunar queen was willing to exchange useful technologies. At the same time, she was always looking in secret for ways to further increase her power. One of several paths she studied was the a new type of portal technology - if the Infernals had nearly succeeded in harnessing power stolen from Yu-Shan, could she not succeed where they had failed?

Fearing that the portal might be unstable and cause an explosion strong enough to destroy her nation, she thus chose to experiment outside her borders, thousands of miles into the jungle; the portal, while it did not work as hoped, still had a surprising effect: It drew in a city from a parallel world.

The new city, called Rathess, was soon contacted by human nations, Mahalanka included. Its reptilian people, who quickly earned the moniker "Dragon-Kings", had come from a world where mammals had never emerged, and their own saurian race had come to rule Creation. Though Dragon-King society was rather advanced, they revealed that it had only barely survived a war with the forces of Hell in its not-so-distant past; the people of Rathess were infuriated to learn that the world they were currently stuck in was infiltrated by Infernals. They soon declared holy war on the champions of Hell, even as they searching for ways to return to their homeworld.

Meanwhile, tensions were rising between Creation and Autochton, as a new type of Cyborg was being used to launch lightning-raids across the world, using teleportation technology. Autochton denied any involvement with the attacks. As was eventually discovered, he was telling the truth - the attackers were a new force called the Thousand Dead, zombies at the beck and call of the Forsaken One. The Abyssal, having stolen Autochtonian technology, had used it to upgrade regular zombies and teleport them to their targets and back; only the prohibitive energy cost of such methods was keeping him from invincibility with such tactics.

In more positive development, Atlantis Industries, under the leadership of its Solar CEO, launched a bold new initiative in the form of undersea colony, using advanced biotechnology to render the colonists truly amphibious. Despite some difficulties (in particular with the Abyssal forces of the Darkmist Fleet), the underwater colony of Luthe was soon thriving.


THE MODERN ERA

Perhaps the most recent notable event of the past few years is owed to the paramilitary organization known as World Wide Winter. Under the leadership of the Abyssal Winter Mask, it has been able to take over the Marukani People's Republic. Though the international community was loath to let an Abyssal and former general of the Supreme Axis rule a country, it dared not send in armed forces, as Winter Mask effectively held the population hostage.

There is, for now, what some feel is a precarious status quo. The numbers of the Dragon-Blooded keep rising, and the tensions with those who fear them have not gone away. Doctor Fang is still plotting. Abyssals and Infernals the world over have plans of their own. Infernals still seek to take over Creation. The Dragon-Kings of Rathess alternate between trying to return home, and seeking to integrate themselves to this human world. Contacts between humanity and the Mountain Folk are becoming more and more frequent. The Balorians keep sending new villains. Lunars remain an unpredictable factor, as does Autochton. The Mountain Folk grow closer to humanity. And the Solars, more and more, are influencing society, which at times seems eager to worship such champions...









SOCIETY

Creation is comprised of dozens of nations. Most of them, in this day and age, are democracies, though there are notable exceptions - An-Teng, for one, is still run by an unelected bureaucracy.

The presence of the Exalted and other such empowered individuals has an effect on society that, over half a century after the World War, is still being measured. It often seems like the main activity of superpowered individuals is fighting other superpowered individuals - and the supervillain population is indeed working overtime to keep the nobler Exalts busy - but even so, the extraordinary abilities of Exalts and other metahumans still find their way into wider applications. Exalted inventors have brought incredible technological leaps to the world. Coral has managed to become an economic powerhouse after the war when its finance minister hired a Solar as a temporary consultant. In Varangia, a famine was ended recently when Solar Sorcery was used to turn a large patch of desert into fertile farmland. A handful of Exalted artists create some of the greatest successes of modern media. And while many feel ambivalent about giving political power to Exalts, some have already attained such positions... and, more often than not, done quite well for themselves.

Opinions about the superhumans themselves vary, not just from country to country, but within the counties themselves. Nobody but a handful of fanatics likes the Abyssals and Infernals, naturally, but thoughts on everyone else are less uniform. Solars tend to be the most popular kind of Exalt, though many distinguish between the "chosen" and the "accidents". In contrast, Dragon-Blooded are fairly controversial - on one hand, people admire heroes like Captain Scarlet; on the other hand, many fear the idea of Dragon-Blooded taking over and somehow "replacing" mankind, a threat exemplified by Brother Deled and his Immaculate Brotherhood.


RELIGION AND THE SUPERNATURAL

For most of Creation's History, the existence of Yu-Shan and the gods was a commonly acknowledged fact with limited direct implications, due to the rarity of actual divine intervention in mortal affairs. This has not stopped several religions from forming around it, of course, with the three most common ones being Yushanism, Solarism, and the Immaculate Doctrine. By the latest surveys, of those in Creation who consider themselves religious, 94% subscribe to one of these three.

Yushanism sees the spark of the divine in all things - since each aspect of the world has a god, then each aspect, in its own way, is holy and worthy of prayer. Yushanist priests organize religious ceremonies for thousands of gods (any actual effect of those ceremonies is debatable - there is no convincing proof that gods show any particular favor to their worshippers). Though it has enclaves everywhere, traditionally, Yushanism has always been particularly strong in Southern countries like An-Teng and Varangia.

Solarism, in strict contrast to Yushanism, holds that by and large, the gods are no more worthy of prayer than mortals are. They are immortal, and have their duties to the cosmos, but they are still imperfect beings. Only the Unconquered Sun, King of Heavens, possesses moral perfection; it is thus to him that the faithful must pray; him who must be mortals' role model. Solarism tends toward more organized and hierarchical priesthoods than Yushanism, and is the majority religion of Meruvia; it has seen a global revival since the exaltation of the Solar Exalted.

The Immaculate Doctrine, for its own part, has a different view on things. The Unconquered Sun is king, it says, but King of Heavens; his rule is only relevant to the gods. It sees instead the Immaculate Dragons as the guides of humanity: Five beings representing the human paths toward virtue. The Immaculate Doctrine has followed the same definition of its Fivefold Virtuous Paths for most of History, and is often seen as more conservative and traditionalistic than its two main rivals. Its major strongholds have, historically, been in the West; more recently, it has enjoyed surprising popularity with the Dragon-Blooded, due to some of its prominent theologians insisting that the Fivefold Virtuous Paths made no distinction between mortal and Dragon-Blooded.

Though a majority of Creation's humans subscribe to these religions, they are by no means the only ones. There are religions that worship gods whose actual existence is rather dubious. There are religions centered around enlightening human Essence, and moving on to master Sorcery and Terrestrial Martial Arts. There are those who worship the Archdevils of Hell, though that is strictly illegal and considered collusion with terrorists in most countries. There are even movements worshipping Exalts or Autochton! And then, there are the faiths of those outside of Creation or humanity:

On Silver Throne, the people worship Luna - though Luna, as a trickster goddess, does not demand much beyond some permanent social flexibility. Lunarism has fairly few rules and doctrines, though it does, to the very least, seem to encourage some degree of humor.

The Jadeborn have an official (but non-mandatory) faith called Paragonism. It is, uniquely enough, an openly artificial religion, created by Jadeborn social engineers ages ago: Rather than worship gods, it worship paragons, fictional incarnations of social and philosophical ideals. Even though it is understood that the paragons are fictional, Paragonist temples hold ceremonies and prayers in their honor, encouraging the faithful to follow the ideals they embody. With increasing contacts between the Mountain Folk and humanity, Paragonism has begun to make a few converts on the surface; some of the Jadeborn emissaries show enthusiasm about acting as proselytizers, but the majority is wary about the potential social and diplomatic implications.

The Dragon-Kings, as they explain, come from a world with an array of religions no less wide than Creation's... but Rathess, in its case, was part of a religious enclave; as such, the vast majority of its people follow the same religion. At first glance, it appears to be a variant of Solarism, albeit lacking the traditional hierarchy and structure found in Creation. Interestingly, most of them seem happy enough to share their beliefs, and some humans - including Solarians - find their religion appealing...





BEYOND CREATION

Creation itself is but one of several planes, orbiting the Sun. It contains itself many unusual places, such as the Mountain Folk's city or underwater Luthe... but stranger things yet lie beyond it.

Autochton: A vast, sprawling, living space station, Autochton has kept mining asteroids and adding modules to itself since reaching Creation's orbit. Nearly a mile wide by now, its full abilities remain a secret. Some suspect that there are spaces within it for human habitat, but this has never been confirmed.

Yu-Shan: The fabled city of the gods remains, by and large, a mystery, with very few details reaching humanity. It is ruled by the Unconquered Sun, and is connected to Creation via the five Elemental Dragons, also known as the Immaculate Dragons.
Humans who have actually set foot in Yu-Shan, be it now or thousands of years ago, have usually been deeply marked by the experience, but unable to properly describe it, saying human language lacked the concepts required for the task. None of this has stopped the infamous Infernal plot to steal power from it, and some wonder if Yu-Shan may be more vulnerable than it seems...

Hell: The dark mirror to Yu-Shan, Hell is ruled by the Archdevils, beings of primordial corruption. The two forces balance each other - Hell's ability to intervene in Creation is limited by the extent to which Yu-Shan does the same.
To date, no human has returned from Hell with an intact mind...if they have returned at all.

The Moon: A smaller plane orbiting Creation, the Moon is a weak point in reality, where the laws of physics are more fluid. This has given birth to a deadly, unpredictable fauna, and geology and climate to match.
Ironically, the only source of stability on the Moon is Luna - a prankster deity whose antics earned her a millennia-long exile from Yu-Shan. Forced to settle on the Moon, Luna created a pocket of stable reality, raising there the city of Silver Throne, and bringing a small population of Creation-born humans to populate it. When it became clear that humans alone could not survive the harsh environment, she gifted those most able to survive and adapt with a spark of her divine power, turning them into the Lunars, champions of Silver Throne.
Silver Throne itself is officially a popular democracy, where most political decisions are made by referendum. In practice, Lunars are naturally influential movers and shakers, and Luna, on the rare occasions that she bothers meddling with political affairs, can gainsay the rest of the political system.

Mars: Humanity hadn't reached the red plane by the time of the Balorian Invasion, and as such, we may never know what it was like before the reality-warping aliens landed there. Nowadays, however, it is a shifting land of warped reality, as well as the seat of Balorian power, home to a powerful empire immune to external assaults. The few Solars and Lunars who have set foot there were only able to return alive through clever diplomacy and manipulation of Balorian cultural mores, and the tales they tell depict a deadly planet that humanity cannot, at present, hope to defeat in offensive warfare.

sun_tzu
2013-10-19, 01:14 PM
EXALTED AND OTHER SUPERNATURAL BEINGS



SOLARS: Empowered by heaven itself, the Solars possess might matched only by the Abyssals and Infernals. By and large, they are considered the world's greatest heroes, saving Creation again and again from the forces of evil. Nearly every Solar is a glorious figure, eagerly followed by the media and beloved by millions; those who aren't are generally those who prefer to work in secrecy.

However, not all Solars are created equal. While some (referred to as "the chosen") were selected in person by the Unconquered Sun, others (called "the accidents") received a free-floating shard of divine power that was forcibly wrenched out of Yu-Shan by the infamous Infernal plot at the end of the Balorian Invasion. The former receive a vision of the King of Heavens when they take their second breath, urging them to watch over the safety and virtue of the world; the latter simply receive power. While the "chosen" are adored by the public (and sometimes seen as actual figures of worship by Solarists, whether or not they want to be), the "accidents" are seen by some as pretenders who do not deserve their power. That may not be fair, however - by and large, even the "accidents" have acted rather heroically thus far, which leads some to theorize that divine power can only attach itself to those who are worthy of it.

Some famous Solars:

Dace Danger: A Meruvian special forces soldier, Dace was visited by the Unconquered Sun, who told him that the world needed his protection from far worse threatsthan what his unit could fight. Empowered as a Dawn Caste, he was transferred to Task Force Omega, Meruvia's special anti-supervillain military unit.

Dace is considered by many to be one of the greatest assets of the Meruvian army. In recent years, however, his time has been increasingly divided between the armed forces, and his membership in the Fantastic Five, the world's most famous superhero group. His superiors are loathe to shorten his leash, as his work within the Fantastic Five is extremely popular, both in Meruvia and abroad.

Panther-Man: The humble son of Tuchara farmers, the man who would became Panther-Man grew up with a passion for truth, and went on to become a journalist in Crane Bay. Then, one night, as he witnessed a dreadful accident, the Unconquered Sun came to him in a vision, urging him to fight for truth, for justice, and to protect the innocent. He leaped into the fray, rescuing all the injured.

To his relief, no-one had been able to clearly see his face - only his panther anima was remembered. A faithful Solarist, he had no desire to become an object of worship as some Solars were; in all his subsequent outings as a superhero, he has taken care to wear a mask.

Panther-Man is a bit of a contradiction. He is a man of conviction, and entirely aware of how charismatic he can be (all the more so since his exaltation). But while he is quite willing to defend his principles and take a stand against corruption through the articles he writes, his discomfort with the worship some Solars get prevents him from preaching to the masses as an Exalt. Instead, he finds himself becoming more and more of an inspiration to other superheroes, whom he often ends up leading in some fashion or another. It is little wonder, then, that the Swan personally asked him to lead the Fantastic Five - a role he has been fulfilling admirably.

Doctor Arianna: A librarian from Cherak, Arianna seemed like an unassuming, unremarkable individual... until she exalted one day at work. With no guidance from the Unconquered Sun, her first step was to try and gather knowledge; when she realize how much easier everything was now, she proceeded to earn Ph.Ds in three different fields just to prove that she could. Finding in herself a passion for Sorcery, she wasted no time in becoming Creation's greatest mystic.

The Swan saw her immense potential, and offered her a spot in the Fantastic Five. As a member of the team, she has more than proven her worth, her spells and sharp mind foiling many a villainous plot.

The Jade Arrow: The true identity of this mysterious woman is a jealously guarded secret. All that is known is that she appeared in the Meruvian city of Eagle's Launch a few years ago, and began a brutal war on crime. Muggers, murderers, armed robbers, rapists, drug dealers, mob bosses, corrupt financiers, even crooked politicians - none were safe from the wrath of the nightly avenger. Though her body count was impressively low, the criminals who encountered her tended to be shaken by the experience, terrified of her for years to come. In less than a year, she had cleaned up the city, resulting in hundreds of arrests and a historically low crime rate - at which point she moved to the next metropolis, then the next.

Two years into her exaltation, she met Panther-Man when the two of them responded at the same time to a crisis involving a Ballorian supervillain. Despite their radically different personalities and approaches, the two Solars would come to greatly respect each other; when Panther-Man was brought into the Fantastic Five, he made sure she got in two. She operates as the group's detective, her investigative Charms putting any mortal police to shame.

When questioned about her past, she tends to be evasive or (more often) silent. She has, on at least one occasion, said that the Unconquered Sun has tasked her with finding the dark taints of Creation and driving them out of hiding - and that anything before that is meaningless.

The Swan: A young, promising corporate executive from Coral, the Swan did not see the Unconquered Sun when he exalted. He did, however, see limitless potential. Within less than two months, his career had sky-rocketted, making him a multimillionaire. Coral's government tried to recruit him, but he was put off by what he saw as the limitations of existing society. Instead, he chose to create a new one.

He started by founding his own corporation, Atlantis Industries, based around underwater technology. Through bold business decisions, he was able to secure funding. With more scholarly exalt, he was able to obtain key technology. With both these things, he went on to create Luthe - the world's first underwater colony. Colonists were enhanced with biotechnology, allowing them to breath underwater. The seafloor was mined for precious resources, granting the colony wealth. A constitution, carefully redacted by the Swan, sought to optimally protect the colonists' rights while minimizing the corruption and inefficiency that afflicted most governments.
Luthe met great success early on...to the point of attracting the unwelcome attention of the Darkmist Fleet. It was only with the help of Leviathan that the Swan was able to repel an invasion. The incident convinced him that, before he could build his new utopia, he first had to make Creation a safer place. With that in mind, he sought four other competent Solars, forming with them a high-profile team with which he hoped to both push back any villainous threat, and earn his group great popularity - a popularity he could use to further legitimize Luthe in the eyes of the international community.

The Swan is a busy man. He does not personally run Luthe, but he WAS elected as both its finance minister and foreign minister. At the same time, he is both the CEO and public representative of Atlantis Industries. That he still has time to be a valued member of the Fantastic Five is a testament to his efficiency - the Solar has by now all but transcended the need to sleep.

Warstrider: By his real name Thomas Twilight, he is perhaps the greatest inventor of the modern era. He is also the founder and CEO of S.A.Y.N. Enterprises, the most successful high-tech corporation of the Union of Eastern States.

Thomas Twilight's most famous invention is the Warstrider power armor, which he has been piloting himself on multiple occasions, becoming in many eyes the premier superhero of the UES. S.A.Y.N. Enterprises has also been selling Warstriders to the armed forces of certain countries, but their creator is always on alert for less-than-noble factions and individuals getting their hands on his technology...

General North: Yurgen Kaneko was a veteran soldier of the Haslanti Confederation. He was, in truth, rather disillusioned with his country, which has been falling prey to generalized corruption. After he exalted, he took it upon himself to not only secure his nation's borders, not only protect it from all stripes of supervillains, but also stand up to those who would turn it into their little fiefdom.

Since his exaltation, General North has ended two armed conflicts, ascended in the ranks, reformed a significant portion of the army, and done a lot to curb the mafias and oligarchs who had been running the Haslanti Confederation. He is adored by his people, but entirely aware that his job is far from done.
Where foreign affairs are concerned, he tends to be polite, but not entirely trusting with non-Haslanti metahumans. He is known to have a bit of a rivalry with Dace Danger.



DRAGON-BLOODED: The most common type of enhanced humans, all the Dragon-Blooded trace their power to the super-soldier project that originally created Captain Scarlet. Some individuals and organizations have sought to replicate the results, with varying degrees of success - nowadays, every major government has at least one Dragon-Blooded in its employ. What complicates the situation is that unlike the powers of the Solars, Lunars, or Sidereals, those of the Dragon-Blooded are hereditary.

Being a Dragon-Blooded is a mixed blessing. On one hand, it brings health, longevity, and such power that the Exalt will certainly be sought after by those anxious to obtain their services. On the other hand, it also means being hated and feared by a significant portion of the population. Some Dragon-Blooded choose to rise past that fear, setting themselves up as paragons of nobility; a few, unfortunately, choose to reciprocate with increasing hostility toward unenhanced humanity, continuing a vicious circle.

Some notable Dragon-Blooded:

Captain Scarlet: The first and most renowned Dragon-Blooded, Captain Scarlet is nothing short of a national icon in Meruvia. Having fought the forces of evil since the World War, she is said to have saved the world more than any other individual (though the admirers of certain Solars would dispute that fact).

Captain Scarlet's life has not gotten much quieter since the World War. She has hunted down Abyssals. She has opposed Infernal schemes. She has fought Balorians. She has worked for Task Force Omega. She has lead superhero teams, sometimes including Solars. She has borne a child. She has resigned from the armed forces as political protest, and returned to them years later.

Nowadays, Captain Scarlet is back in the armed forces, occasionally taking missions from Task Force Omega. Lionel Kes is trying to get her to join full-time, but she is also considering an entirely different option: For decades, there have been political groups encouraging her to run for office. Having gotten more acquainted with politics lately, she is seriously considering the option of running for the Meruvian presidency - after all, who among the other candidates isn't less competent and more corrupt than her?

Lionel Kes: Originally an analyst for Meruvian intelligence, Kes soon made a name for himself with his insight into supervillain plots, and his ability to spot and figure them out. When Task Force Omega was founded, he was among its original roster, transferred there to handle its intelligence work. He frequently interacted with numerous heroes, including Captain Scarlet herself; it was she who eventually requested that Kes be placed in the Dragon-Blooded program.

Once upgraded, Kes went from being an excellent analyst to being a veritable miracle-worker. With his insight and tactical genius, Task Force Omega went from victory to victory. It wasn't long before he became the task force's actual leader, and there is little doubt that this leadership is among the main reasons that the agency - comprised mostly of mortals and Dragon-Blooded - can remain relevant in a world of Solars, Abyssals and Infernals.

Kes still leads Task Force Omega nowadays, three decades into his exaltation. Though he is an able fighter, he tends to stay away from the battlefield - he is more of a spymaster and strategist, telling the field agents how to best do their job.

Brother Deled: By his real name Philip, he is the most hated and feared Dragon-Blooded nowadays. The son of a middle-class Meruvian family, Philip's exaltation during puberty broke his parents' marriage by exposing the affair his mother had had with an anonymous Dragon-Blooded. Neither of his parents really seemed to forgive him that. Growing up resentful, he took anti-Dragon-Blooded sentiments particularly hard, at times reacting violently - which only got him in further trouble with the law, made people even more afraid of him, and continued the vicious cycle.

Shortly before he legally became an adult, Deled finally crossed the line when a local politician passed laws restricting the freedom of movement of Dragon-Blooded in the name of public safety. Deled marched into his office and killed him, along with anyone who stood in his way, and several policemen who tried to stop him. Evading the authorities, he left Meruvia for a while, going from country to country. It is unclear what exactly he did during that time, but when he returned, six years later, he was calling himself Brother Deled, and he had only changed for the worse:

Publishing what he called the Draconic Manifesto, Deled now claimed that the Dragon-Blooded were the new master race of Creation, gods among mortals; that it was their rightful place to rule over humanity; that the Immaculate Dragons had chosen them to lead the world into a new golden age. Though priests of the Immaculate Doctrine the world over have rejected his views as a corruption of their faith, it hasn't stopped the supernaturally charismatic Brother Deled from gathering himself a cult of followers, both mortal and Dragon-Blooded.

Deled's Draconic Brotherhood, as it calls itself, remains a feared terrorist organization to this day, always eager to strike against nations and politicians who try to use popular anti-Dragon-Blooded sentiment. Deled knows that doing so only exacerbates the fear and hatred mortals feel for his kind - in fact, he is counting on it: Were it not for such tensions, after all, he would find new Dragon-Blooded much harder to recruit.
Deled is cruel and sociopathic, but also a very, very dangerous man. In addition to his combat prowess, he is highly charismatic and cunning - he would not be able to retain leadership over the Brotherhood if it weren't so.

Meredith Mnemon: As the daughter of Captain Scarlet, Meredith never really had a normal childhood. Her mother spent too much of her time in the early years to properly take care of a child, and so, the young girl was placed with foster parents... who were both government agents. After all, Captain Scarlet had powerful enemies; keeping the identity and location of her child secret seemed like a wise move.

Growing up with the Mnemons, the girl was raised in a series of nice, suburban neighborhoods, moving frequently. She would receive semi-regular visits from her mysterious birth mother, figuring out her true identity over the years. But despite Captain Scarlet's efforts, Meredith came to resent this sort of life, and became more and more withdrawn, throwing herself into her studies and taking her distances from both her foster parents and biological mother. Exalting only made her more driven.

As soon as she became an adult, Mnemon left home and went to study... at one of the best universities in the UES. Easily obtaining degrees in engineering, economics, and political science (while studying Sorcery), she soon went into business with her own company, Mnemon Engineering: The corporation, based around finding sorcerous solutions to various infrastructure problems, offered well-paying jobs to both mortal and exalted sorcerers, and quickly made Mnemon rich. Thanks to superhuman business acumen, she has since diversified her business, and owns stock in dozens of different firms; she is estimated to be the 18th richest person in Creation, and going up.

Mnemon is a cold, hard businesswoman, and can be quite ruthless in her dealings, but there is no proof of outright corruption in her history. More recently, however, her company has been doing more and more business with Reclamation Inc., which leads Captain Scarlet to worry her daughter might be getting in over her head.

Sheldon Nagezzer: Nicknamed by some "Don Slug", Sheldon Nagezzer is the most powerful crime lord of Nexus, the capital city of Hollow. A son of privilege, exalting shortly before college, Nagezzer seemed to have a bright future ahead of him... that is, until an addiction to gambling put him in a larger debt than even his parents were willing to help with. Desperate for money, he went to the mob instead, offering the services of a Dragon-Blooded in exchange for wiping his debts clean. The mafia, tentatively, gave it a try. As it quickly discovered, Nagezzer was capable of veritable wizardry with money, allowing them to launder it untraceably, multiply their earnings, and generally become much richer, much more safely. Soon enough, Nagezzer was a lifetime member of the mob.

The young Exalt did not stop there. As the mob's accountant, he was in unique position to apply his skills to earning more power... and he was playing the long game. Through clever moves, subtle manipulations, surprising charisma, financial acumen, expert psychology, and being particularly hard to assassinate, Nagezzer was able to advance through the ranks, becoming the effective master of the city's underworld in less than a decade. He then went further, extending his influence to the other major cities of Hollow, subverting other mobs and syndicates to make them part of his empire. Today, he is the emperor of crime in the UES, a man so powerful the police dare not even try to go against him.

At least, that's what most people believe.

The truth is that Nagezzer was actually approached by Hollow's intelligence services after his exaltation and offered a job. He has been covertly working for them ever since. The gambling debts were part of the cover under which he has infiltrated the nation's criminal elements. Under his leadership, crime in Hollow has become significantly less violent, as he frequently admonishes subordinates that murder and armed assault are "bad for business"; the drug trade has shifted more and more toward soft drugs like marijuana, and away from cocaine and heroine; a large number of mob bosses who answer to him were convinced that their money would be best spent on legitimate businesses. By controlling Hollow's crime, Nagezzer makes it far less disruptive for the rest of society... while at the same time, gathering a lot of information for Hollow's intelligence services. Many supervillains operating in the UES were defeated thanks to information obtained via "Don Slug".

The Black Rose: Most major powers in Creation have at least a small group of Dragon-Blooded working as an elite commando, both for military situations and to deal with supervillainous threats. In An-Teng, this is the role of Dragonflight, a government-mandated team of a dozen supersoldiers; their leader is none other than the legendary Black Rose.

Her real name and identity are classified, but it is believed that her father, a least, was another Tengese Dragon-Blooded. A model of professionalism, the Black Rose has served An-Teng for several decades; when the previous team leader was killed in the Balorian Invasion, it was she who took command and led the Dragonflight in battle, expertly saving the capital city from the aliens. She has led Dragonflight ever since, and earned the loyalty of its members several times over. To the people of An-Teng, she is a national heroine.
The actual government of An-Teng has mixed feelings concerning the Black Rose. On one hand, she has played a key role in the security of their nation, and continues to do so. On the other hand, she seems to harbor too many doubts about the bureaucracy's ability to serve national interests, sympathizing with reformist political movements. For now, they simply keep her out of politics... but the fact that she commands the core of their superhuman forces does not escape them.



LUNARS: Though they may be human, Lunars are nevertheless alien to Creation. Growing up in Silver Throne, they are champions of the trickster goddess Luna, elected as the guardians of her people. The metamorphic powers she has gifted them with makes them particularly apt at surviving in the harsh conditions of the Moon... but ever since contact between Creation and Silver Throne has been established, several of them have grown curious about this larger world, and come to explore it.
Public opinion about Lunars is not as strong as it is on most of the Exalted. They are not seen as potential rivals of humanity, as the Dragon-Blooded are. Nor are they seen as heavenly saviors like the Solars. Mostly, they are seen as curiosities... but some manage to become famous (or infamous) individually.

Some notable Lunars:

Leviathan: On Silver Throne, Leviathan was a great warrior. When he came to Creation, however, he found something that he felt he had lacked his entire life: The ocean. Falling in love with the vast seas, he soon became an all-but-permanent resident. Still a warrior and defender at heart, he would occasionally lend a hand (or a massive jaw) against modern-day pirates in general and the Darkmist Fleet in particular.

Then he met the Swan. The Solar businessman was at the time working on the creation of Luthe, the first underwater city; having Leviathan's assistance would be of great benefit. While Leviathan turned down the offer of being Luth's chief of security, he did accept to protect it in an officious capacity; one of its first citizens, he was deputized by its sheriff early on. He frequently defends Luthe from threats like the Darkmist Fleet, both out of friendship with the Swan and because he has come to view Luthe as a second home.

Doctor Fang: On Silver Throne, the Lunar known as Raksi was respected as a scientific and sorcerous genius, but she felt the small society of the Moon was too constraining for her. On Creation, she was able to become the absolute ruler of Mahalanka... and her ambitions go much higher still.

The people of Mahalanka have mixed opinions about their queen. On one hand, she is no doubt a cruel tyrant. On the other hand, she has brought their land some much-needed stability, and more wealth and international prestige than at any other point of its history. Other countries, meanwhile, and superheroes all the more so, have been coming to realize how unstable and dangerous the doctor truly is: There is no scheme too ambitious, too dangerous, for Doctor Fang to consider it; she will not cease until she is either the absolute mistress of all reality, or dead. Both possibilities seem plausible.

For now, Doctor Fang runs dangerous experiments, seeks ways to master the highest levels of sorcery, and occasionally makes secret deals with Abyssals and Infernals. Not enough has been proven to justify international intervention, but most people in the know suspect it's only a matter of years...

Chimera: Ask the people of Creation to name a tragic figure, and Ma-Ha-Suchi will probably be the first name to cross their lips. One of the first Lunars to come to Creation, the fair-faced gentleman was also by far the most popular, charming the public and the media with ease, obtaining the love of millions. Far more than just a pretty face, he also fought against supervillains, once even saving Hollow from an Abyssal plot.
Both his superhero career and his time as a media darling were cut short, however, by the Balorian Invasion. Not one to flee from danger, Ma-Ha-Suchi led a daring raid in the early stages of the war, assaulting a massive alien ship and blowing it up from the inside. He earned some much needed respite for Creation and the Moon, but was himself lost and believed dead; he was mourned by millions, who soldiered on, many fighting in his name.

After the war, however, a horrific being called "Chimera" showed up, often working with Ballorian villains, acting as a nigh-invincible (and surprisingly cunning) enforcer for them. DNA and Essence analysis have both confirmed the awful truth: Chimera is none other than Ma-Ha-Suchi, warped by the Balorians into the monstrous creature he is today. Some still hope that the former hero can be somehow saved; others just wish for him to be put out of his misery.

Lilith: If some Lunars have come to Creation out of curiosity, Lilith does so out of duty. When the Balorian Invasion came, she was among Silver Throne's most ardent defenders; the devastation caused by the war still weigh heavily on her. She has since come to Creation on a regular basis, seeking to build bridges and establish alliances with its Solars.

Lilith occasionally helps protect Creation, if only to garner good will from its heroes. She has been trying to get closer to the Fantastic Five recently, believing that their combination of powers and abilities effectively makes them the most potent superhero team currently active.

SIDEREALS: By far the most mysterious of the Exalted, the Sidereals have kept their very existence hidden from all but a very select few.

To be a Sidereal is not to be given a spark of divine power, like a Solar or a Lunar. It is not to be empowered through scientific enhancement, like a Dragon-Blooded or a Cyborg. Sidereals are chosen by destiny. Each one, through the seemingly random vagaries of Fate, is one day drawn to the hidden Monastery of the Stars; there, they encounter the other Sidereals, and representatives from Yu-Shan. Their task: To study and watch over the Loom of Fate, safeguarding the connection between Yu-Shan and the physical world. None refuse - if they had been the sort to turn down such a duty, Fate would not have brought them there in the first place.

Once the monastic order has brought in the new recruit, an intensive training regimen is put in place. There are many mortals on Creation who enlighten their Essence... but the methods used by the Sidereals were taught to them by Yu-Shan, and are far beyond the scope of anything devised by mortals to date. The new recruit's Essence isn't merely enlightened, but aligned with Fate itself. The process invariably involves an intense study of mystical martial arts, through which the new monk acquires a deeper understanding of reality; by the final stages, the Sidereal becomes capable or martial feats that can flabbergast even the Solars.

For most of Creation's existence, the Sidereal Order was content to do its duty in utter secrecy, safeguarding Fate from its monastery. The arrival of the Infernal Exalted, however, upset the fated order of the world; simply trying to fix the Loom of Fate was no longer sufficient. It has become necessary for Sidereals to leave their home on occasions to fix things on location. Sometimes this is done by breaking a supervillain's jaw; more frequently, this is done by subtly sabotaging his plans and pointing a superhero in the right direction.

While all Sidereals accept (with differing levels of reluctance) that their occasional intervention is needed, there are two main schools of thought on the form such intervention must take. On one hand, there are the hardliners, who believe that the order must focus on quickly eliminating dangerous elements, and keeping superpowers out of irresponsible hands. More idealistic Sidereals are wary of relying on outright assassination, preferring to groom Creation's superheroes, ensuring that noble and capable individuals will always be there to save the day.

Some notable Sidereals:

Chejop Kejack: According to some, he is the oldest man currently alive. Younger Sidereals are often awed to learn that Kejack has been watching over the Loom of Fate for the majority of recorded History. Kejack, for himself, makes no secret that he does not care much for the current state of the world. He has watched humanity grow and spread across the continents, master the sea and air, achieve immense power... but for the most part, he still sees the same corruption and greed that poisoned the world in the days of bronze weapons.

The oldest Sidereal does not idly accept this. More than any of his colleagues, Chejop Kejack intervenes in mortal affairs. He has hidden resources, fake identities, entire secret organizations that act as his eyes, ears, and occasional hands as he seeks to find and cut down the sources of corruption. He is a firm believer in eliminating the wicked to protect the rest of society; many evildoers and supervillains have found their lives cut short by mysterious enemies.

While some of Kejack's colleagues admire him for his skill and knowledge, others see him as a dangerous, merciless fanatic. He pays them little heed, but he is concerned that his operation is no longer sufficient. More recently, the achievements of the Jade Arrow have impressed him; he believes that if he can form an alliance with her, she can help continue his work, possibly replace him after even Sidereal mysticism can no longer save him from old age. At the same time, he is deeply mistrustful of "accidental" Solars who were not personally chosen by the Unconquered Sun, such as Doctor Arianna or the Swan.

Chejop Ayesha: It is not entirely clear to most Sidereals if Ayesha is Kejack's flesh and blood, but there is no doubt that he considers her his daughter. She has, for centuries, worked closely with her father, both to maintain the Loom of Fate and to cull the corruption of Creation. In more recent years, however, the two of them have drifted apart: Ayesha is more and more disillusioned with her father's ruthless methods, and has become a spokeswoman for the more idealistic trend among Sidereals. Working behind the scenes, she has been working to build bridges between the different heroes, and engineer situations that encourage superpowered individuals to become better people.

The Phantom Star: There is a mysterious figure that often shows up where significant events are about to take place. Villains working on wicked schemes find a strange man hovering around them, making commentary on their plans while impossibly dodging any attempt to harm him. Heroes find him showing up where they least expect him, offering cryptic words of wisdom. Sometimes, his words are helpful. At other times, he seems merely curious, as if trying to obtain a deeper understanding of that which drives them all. His true purpose, if he has one, can only be guessed at this juncture.




ABYSSALS: Perhaps the most feared beings in Creation, Abyssals have terrorized the world since the days of the World War. Empowered by the necrotic energies of the concentration camps, each one of them was made a deadly powerhouse, a veritable avatar of death. Those among them who survived the war hid across the world, each of them slowly working on their own plans for world domination over the decades.

With the entire world gunning for them, the Abyssals' numbers have gone down since the days of the war. In theory, new Abyssals can be empowered...but, aside from the logistical difficulties of the process (requiring immense amounts of necrotic energy), this would create new rivals for the existing deathly villains. And none of them are inclined to share.

Some notable Abyssals:

The Forsaken One: The first Abyssal ever created, he was a Supremacist general, and the closest thing the Abyssals had to a leader during the World War. In the final days of the war, however, he brutally opposed Abyssals who wished to abandon the hopeless battles and hide in waiting for a few decades. This opposition eventually led his ally, the Black Heron, to betray and eliminate him... or so it was believed. Decades later, the first Abyssal returned, disposing of the Black Heron, renaming himself the Forsaken One.

All Abyssals rely on large organizations for their sinister plots, but in the Forsaken One's case, he only has limited living personnel. His main resource is the Thousand Dead - an army like no other: Each warrior in it is a human corpse, reanimated using a variant of Autochton's Cyborg technology. How the Forsaken one got his hands on that technology is open to speculation, but it makes each of his undead soldiers a force to be reckoned with, able to fight even seasoned superheroes. Most of the time, the Thousand Dead remain within a hidden base, miles and miles beneath the ground; when the Forsaken One wishes to strike, he uses some form of secret teleportation technology to transport a small undead team to their target location and back.

Between the Thousand Dead and teleportation technology, the Forsaken One might seem invincible. He does, however, have one factor limiting him: Teleportation is an extremely energy-expensive task; as such, most of his schemes involve attempts to steal new and powerful energy sources or reserves. The idea that he might one day gain sufficient energy for an all-out war has kept many people awake at night.

The Doomsday Dowager: The project that originally created the Abyssals couldn't have been realized by anyone. Both a brilliant scientific mind and and the willingness to murder countless thousands were required. The scientist who lead that project, an elderly lady of the Supremacist Axis, had both of those qualities in spade. After proving that her designs could empower Abyssals, she wasted little time applying the very same process to herself. During the latter days of the war, she unleashed terrible destruction on the Allies, revelling in the death and destruction to a degree that even the other Abyssals found impressive; her love of carnage earned her the nickname of "Doomsday Dowager" from the Allies' press, though few have called her that to her face and survived.

In the modern era, the Dowager is one of the world's most feared mad scientists, always creating new implements of death and destruction. In addition to her own schemes, she is suspected of providing powerful technology to many a supervillain - some believe that she is working with the Forsaken One and World Wide Winter, though reports on the matter are conflicting.

The truth is, the Dowager's goals have shifted somewhat over the decades. Between the discovery of Silver Throne, the Balorians, and Rathess, she is no longer satisfied with the idea of destroying life on Creation. Nowadays, she is working on something far more sinister - something that would bring death to a new level across the entire cosmos.

Winter Mask: During the World War, he acted as a spymaster for the Axis. After the war, he formed World Wide Winter, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to take over the world. Choosing the slow and steady approach, he established spy networks across Creation. Taking his time, waiting for the right moment to strike.

The right moment came when the Marukani People's Republic completed Juggernaut, a new type of plutonium power plant. Juggernaut had been hailed as a technological masterpiece that would solve all the Republic's energy problems, but World Wide Winter saw a different use for it. In a surprise strike, Winter Mask took over the capital city, capturing the government and military command; he then explained to the world how he could use Juggernaut to unleash cataclysmic amounts of radiation into the atmosphere, condemning the entire nation and most of its neighbors to death by irradiation. The people and heroes of Creation, unable to free the MPR from him, were forced to accept the situation as the new status quo... for now at least.

World Wide Winter has spent the past few years putting the MPR fully under its control, turning it into a police state at Winter Mask's heel. But as he watches foreign armies blockading the borders, he knows that this situation will not remain the same forever. For now, he seeks alliances. Perhaps Doctor Fang... or the Forsaken One, if he can ensure that he won't be betrayed too soon...

The Bloody Countess: During the World War, she was a political mover and shaker, able to plot, manipulate, and grab power in any way necessary. She used her considerable pull to benefit from the Abyssal empowerment process, and went underground with the rest of the Abyssals when the war ended.

To some, the Bloody Countess might appear as the least ambitious of the Abyssals - a hedonist who uses her power for wealth and luxury rather than world domination. But the truth is darker: The Bloody Countess, over the years, has shed the dogma of Supremacism, and taken up a radical form of nihilism instead - she believes that, life being essentially meaningless, the only true purpose there is is the termination of life. It is nothing less than that which the Countess pursues.

To that end, she has put together the Lovers of the Eternal Night. To the outside, the Lovers appears to be a secretive, far-reaching club of hedonists, catering to the bored and jaded, encouraging them to share any form of pleasure, even obscene. In reality, however, the Lovers perform a subtle form of indoctrination on its members; many eventually join the inner circle, which functions more like a cult devoted to the Bloody Countess and her omnicidal ideals. This cult, unfortunately, includes many rich and powerful people, giving the Countess much leverage in manipulating world events.

Admiral Silver: During the World War, he commanded much of Corral's navy; as an Abyssal, he helped the Axis dominate the seas for a while. When the war ended, he escaped with a fleet of submarines, which he would dub the "Darkmist Fleet".

Since then, the Darkmist Fleet has remained the deadliest pirate force across Creation's seas. It effectively controls a Shadowland created by one of the final sea battles of the war; when it needs to create new submarines, it gathers scrap material from ships sunk in such battles.

Admiral Silver has been building up his fleet for decades now. Though he often sends raids on the surface or shipping lines for resources, he is no hurry to conquer Creation: He believes that, with all the factions vying for control, he only needs to wait; sooner or later, some supervillain will prove too much for the world's heroes, and when everyone is weakened by the conflict, the underwater armies of the Darkmist Fleet will rise and conquer. But in the meanwhile, he must have control of the underwater territories - and as such, he cannot allow Luthe to exist for much longer.



INFERNALS: If the Solars are the champions of Heaven, the Infernals are those of Hell. Every one of them was empowered specifically because the Archdevils knew - knew that given power, these specific mortals would bring nothing but pain and misery to Creation.

Infernals are hated the world over to a degree matched only by the Abyssals. Unfortunately, killing them only postpones the problem: Much as with the Solars, their Exaltation immediately seeks a new host upon death, keeping their numbers constant. Immense engineering efforts have gone into the prisons that seek to contain them.

Whereas most Abyssals seem to be working independently of each other, the efforts of the Infernals appear more globally coordinated. Law enforcement activities have identified five organizations that seem to direct Infernal activities, all of which collaborate with other frequently:

The first is Green Sun, a terrorist organization devoted to spreading chaos and mayhem. Green Sun launches terror strikes, trains and arms brutal paramilitary groups, starts wars, and generally tries to cause panic and destruction.

The second is the Children of the Sand, a world-spanning infernal cult. Using dozens of different fronts, it lures in unsuspecting men and women, gradually indoctrinating them until they worship the Archdevils of Hell, pledging themselves to the very concept of gratuitous evil.

The third is the Burning Sphere, and organization of mad scientists and industrial spies, always seeking to gain the technological advantage. The Burning Sphere often arms and equips all sorts of supervillains, in exchange for money and favors. Some suspect that it also sells technologies in secret to legitimate governments and corporations...

The fourth is the Silent Wind, a society of assassins and hitmen. Many powerful men and women, even superheroes, have fallen to the professional killers of the Silent Wind, forcing many to rely on paranoia to survive.

The fifth is the Dragon's Shadow, a secret society trying to take over the world. The Dragon's Shadow manipulates politics across Creation, trying to position its pawns to reap the rewards. Some whisper that they already control several nations, with none the wiser.

Lastly, those who fight Infernals will, distressingly often, come across Reclamation Incorporated. A massive multinational corporation, Reclamation Inc. is officially in the business of buying other, ailing businesses and making them profitable again, with methods that many have criticized as lacking in corporate ethics... but much more worrying is the support that the company gives in secret to supervillains in general and Infernals in particular. All attempts to indict the company, however, have utterly failed to date, as if by magic...

Some notable Infernals:

Professor Copperhead: His true identity remains a mystery, but this man, his face always bandaged, claims to be descended from ancient Tengese monarchy, dating back to the era before An-Teng's bureaucracy had imperial power phased out. Whether that is true or not, Copperhead is one of the leaders of the Burning Sphere, and considered public enemy in An-Teng. The powerful robots he builds often clash with the army and Dragonflight in the streets, and Black Rose considers his capture her top priority. In recent days, he has had some confrontations with Warstrider, and some believe that a bitter rivalry is brewing between the Solar and Infernal inventors...

Senator Manosque: An up-and-coming Meruvian politician, Cindy Manosque seems to always be at the right place, at the right time, saying the right thing. Her charisma and ever-growing list of connections have brought her a seat in the senate, and many believe that she will be a candidate for the upcoming presidential election, if her luck holds out.

Of course, luck has little to do with it - as a high-ranking member of the Dragon's Shadow, Manosque manufactures her own luck. Her policies of stirring up anti-Dragon-Blooded resentment (often through proxies, making herself appear as a moderate) aims at sending more of them into the arms of Brother Deled, hopefully leading to greater and greater conflict between them and the rest of humanity. If she becomes president, she intends to steer the military Dragon-Blooded program into deliberately exalting individuals likely to go rogue... and look into ways of eliminating the rest of the government and pin it on a foreign power, allowing her to seize emergency powers.



CYBORGS: In orbit above Creation, Autochton works his mysterious designs. Whatever it is that he has planned for the future, he is not confident in his ability to do it alone, or with lesser AIs of his making. Instead, Autochton chooses to recruit among humanity. Through the Internet, he contacts those who might be interested in working with him - transhumanists, visionaries, or simply those wishing for the power and longevity that he can grant. Once he has obtained a human's pledge of fealty, he uses (highly energy-expensive) teleportation to bring them to him, then upgrades them with his own technology. The resulting cyborgs possess power greater than even the Dragon-Blooded, and serve Autochton - both in space and on the ground.

Public opinion is wary of Autochton, and no less wary of his Cyborgs. They have no stated goal, no known objective, but great power... and the Thousand Dead clearly use their technology. It is no wonder that many are suspicious. At the same time, Autochton is clearly no friend to the Balorians, and the Cyborgs oppose them frequently enough. For now, no-one truly knows what to think about them.



BALORIANS: No-one knows exactly where they come from, but the Balorians are perhaps the greatest threat to humanity nowadays. An alien race, they seem to come from a corner of the universe where reality is less stable; perhaps because of that, they have developed a culture based on the idea of living stories, where each individual tries to be part of a tale in all that he does. This is also reflected in their technology, which creates zones of unstable reality even in Creation, where the Balorians are able to make full use of their narrative powers.

The Sword of Creation destroyed most of their motherships during the Invasion, forcing the survivors to retreat and land on Mars. They have since made that red world into a thriving colony. Lacking the resources for another full-scale invasion, they have since opted for an alternative strategy: Sending elite agents of their race to act as supervillains in Creation. Flamboyant and cheesy to the extreme, these supervillains are responsible for a large proportion of supercrime, with plots vary greatly in their degree of absurdity: A Balorian might simply rob a bank, he might rob it with a complex plot worthy of Rube Goldberg that includes circuses as a theme in every step, he might kidnap the mayor and demand an outrageous sum in exchange, or he might attempt to fill the city's water reservoir with hallucinogenic drugs.

It is unclear what the Balorians actually hope to accomplish with this strategy, but some fear that they are merely using it as a distraction...



MOUNTAIN FOLK: Living deep in their underground city, the Jadeborn have created a utopian society, for which contact with the surface remains a fairly new development. Each Jadeborn is born a member of one of three castes - the artisans, the workers, and the hunters who deal with the wildlife of the deeps. Each of them has enlightened Essence, and is effectively superhuman.
Only a few dozens of Jadeborn have been sent to the surface, acting as ambassadors. Many of these act as occasional superheroes - no-one can deny it is good for diplomatic relationships, after all.



DRAGON-KINGS: Stranded in this alien world, most of the Dragon-Kings prefer to stay in Rathess. Inevitably, though, they must interact with the rest of Creation at times... and not all of them do so reluctantly. In particular, some Dragon-Kings have eagerly taken up the role of heroes to Creation, fighting against the Infernals - with the destruction the Archdevils have caused across the Dragon-Kings' homeworld, there is no love lost between the saurians and the forces of Hell.

The public at large is uncertain what to make of the Dragon-Kings. The Balorian Invasion has left many wary of alien forces, after all... but the Dragon-Kings have shown good intentions so far, and their (admittedly somewhat different brand of) Solarism has made them seem more approachable.



ENLIGHTENED MORTALS: For most of Creation's History, there have been exceptional humans who were able, through meditation and hard work, to enlighten their Essence. Great martial artists or powerful sorcerers, they often became the stuff of legends.

After the industrial revolution, it seemed enlightened Essence was going to become less and less of a factor - even a master of a Terrestrial Martial Art would struggle on a modern battlefield, and a sorcerer casting Infaillible Messenger had limits that a simple telegraph did not. More than that, though, it was Project Dragon-Blooded and the arrival of the Solars that pushed these mortals to the side - even the most well-trained mortal couldn't match the power of a superhuman powerhouse.

It is a mistake, however, to think that these men and women have completely lost relevancy. Sorcerous scholars and Essence-wielding super-soldiers remain a factor - several are currently employed by Task Force Omega, to name but one example. And a few have even taken to acting as independent superheroes, cleaning up their respective neighborhoods of street crime...

sun_tzu
2013-10-19, 01:15 PM
PLAYING IN SUPERB TALES OF HEROICS


-Exalts in this shard may not raise their Essence above 5.

-Superb Tales of Heroics uses the Firearms and Drive Abilities.

-There is no Underworld in this shard. For mechanics purpose such as Charms and mote regeneration, Abyssals treat Shadowlands like the Underworld, and the rest of Creation as Shadowlands; for everyone else, just treat Shadowlands like the Underworld. Necromancy exists, but is more limited, since Spells that rely on ghosts, the Labyrinth, or the Neverborn cannot function here. The Liege background does not exist, as the beings that would be Deathlords elsewhere are merely old Abyssals here.

-Yu-Shan is closed to the terrestrial sphere. As such, the Backgrounds Celestial Manse and Salary do not exist.

-There was no glorious First Age. As such, the Backgrounds Savant and Past Life do not exist.

-Lunars have no Solar Mates, as the two Exalt types were created independently. Lunars do not use the Reputation Background.

-Dragon-Blooded do not use the Family Background. They use the Outcaste character creation rules.

-Sidereals do not suffer from Arcane Fate (...which many among them would find a pity), and do not use the Acquaintances Background. Without heavy backing from Yu-Shan, they only receive 7 Background points at character creation.

-Infernals do not use the Unwoven Coadjutor Background.

-If Autochtonia as such exists, it is too small to justify a Background like Class.

-There is no Great Curse, and as such, no Limit.

-Abyssals do not suffer resonance, though this hardly lowers their bloodlust generally speaking.

-Mountain Folk do not suffer from the Great Geass.