#merareference

[tomahawkbunny]

Eras of Metahumanity

The existence of extranormal entities traces its lineage back centuries, but they were far and few between, or, particularly in the case of magical beings, well contained from public knowledge, relegated to the realm of rumor and mythos. This only really changed in the 40s, and since then, the “eras” of metahumanity have been established by historians to understand trends of behavior amongst the superhuman community.

The Golden Age: Running through the mid 40s to mid 60s, this era is considered to have begun with the debut of Lady Liberty at the tail end of WWII, her being the first person to match the modern conception of a “superhero”, and end with the debut of Paragon. Powers back then were less flashy, less dramatic and frankly less powerful. Many heroes were completely unpowered, mystery men taking advantage of the ability of a mask to make a myth. Criminals had yet to fully embrace this tactic however, and the ratio of superheroes to supervillains far favored the heroes. This would be the last time this was true.

The Silver Age: Running through the mid 60s to mids 80s. An era characterized by a sharp spike in power, as well as in strangeness. New technologies created monsters and drew the attention of aliens, magic leaked into the world in greater numbers, villains embraced the idea of masks of their own as the number of enhanced beings spiked. Paragon was among the first and the greatest of this new generation, and set a good role model for how power should be used. There was an element of disbelief to the strangeness that would occur in this era, while an undercurrent of restraint on both sides was always employed, under an unspoken understanding of mutually assured destruction. This era came to an end with three decisive blows in the same year, Paragon’s death, a series of brutal murders of sidekicks, and the release of the deadly virus known as the Metaphage.

The Bronze Age: Running through the mid 80s to the mid aughts, the metaphage brought the level of power being wielded down considerably, and kept many outside influences away. Governments that had seen no hope in handling extranormals before now engaged them with a vengeance, and when the upper limit of power was no longer annihilation, conflicts could get more severe and more personal. A dark and bloody time, of old norms being broken and old bonds breaking apart. It was only when Paragon was reborn shortly after Boffin cured the metaphage that these dark days ended.

The Modern Age: So it is called now, so it will be until a new one arises. Running from the mid aughts to the present. The scars of the bronze age remain, but power has begun approaching the ridiculous levels of the silver age again, if not the extranormal population. A new generation of young heroes and villains inspire hope for a balance, for understanding, for a world that could heal from the violence of times past, but the bottle has been opened, and can’t be recorked. An edge lies below the surface, and when it surfaces is often hard to predict. 

METADATA: Loosely based on the eras of superhero comics, and the elements of them that I often associate with my ideal of an era, though slightly more grounded in a consistency that is explained by more than changing audience tastes and the comics code authority. I like to set it up so that we are, based on pattern, on the cusp of another change. 

[tomahawkbunny]

MERAverse Project Intro

I’m starting a project, a writing/worldbuilding project, so I can feel like I’m making something. I am making things, but they’re often big, slow, or harder to pin down. Also, I have a lot of ideas, and I do forget most of them. So I’m aiming, 4x a week, to make a concise-ish post about some facet of the world, a character, place, organization, event, artifact, axiom, norm, etc. The idea is inspired by but not too tightly based on my idea for Canon Modules a structure of modular worldbuilding that works well for collaborative creation, concise information, and gradual expansion, but won’t have identical structure, as I want my main restriction to be: Do the damn thing. 

The setting is a superhero setting, mainly for tabletop role playing games. I have brewed up a superhero setting in my head for the better part of the last two decades, which has gone through some reboots of its own as I’ve gotten older, less fond of some of my youthful notions, and forgotten a lot of it. It’s going to be called the MERAverse, named after an organization in the setting, but more importantly one of the ttrpgs I made in this setting, a FitD hack called Agents of M.E.R.A. I made as senior thesis that might be released someday. It’ll all be under the same tag.

[tomahawkbunny]

The Darkworlds

Ten thousand realms of malignance rest in a reality below our own. We were one of them, once, or so the stories go. But we fought our way to the top, freed from the corrupting influence of being awash in magic, where it would’ve seeped into our bodies and turned us from mortals into beings of stories and myth, we were allowed to become human. The Seven Sentinels of the Summit (including Amulet, Dreamland, and other unknown parties), protect Earth’s position as the surface reality. Below, the realms close enough to exist in a form that can understand their plight and our freedom plot to take our place. General Havoc rallies the endless armies of the Bloodlands. The No-Man on the Unmoon creeps through dreams to drag us to the Undersky. Inferno of the Pyre waits still for the bonds of reality itself to melt. Nobody does nothing, and never has. King Sheep, Uoy, Clericus, Merlin the Mad, Aurchavaust, and hundreds of others make plots of their own. If you do not know of what they’ve tried to do to us, you are lucky. Look into it no further. 

METADATA: Your fey, your hells, your dimensions of nightmares of chaos and magic all are Darkworlds (sometimes called Deepworlds). Earth is the summit, but really is more like the part of an island that's above water. Everyone else lives beneath.

[tomahawkbunny]

The Evolved and the Mark of Omega

Are they the tomorrow people? Freaks of nature? One man's madness made manifest? Our inevitable doom? It is difficult to say. The Mark of Omega causes an exposed target to evolve, millions of generations of survival instincts and enhancements kicking in at once, reacting to nearby environments, dangers, and fears to make them into an Evolved. This is permanent. This may just kill them. This may make them among the strongest beings on Earth. In another world, the Evolved might be able to find their place in the places of their birth. Here, they live in the shadow of Omega, the imposing figure of their conquering creator. They can join Omega, they can fight Omega, or they can hide. There are no other options for an Evolved.  METADATA: One of the more common ways to develop powers in this world, or at least more understood ones, is that of Omega and his mark.  Even those that retain a human appearance carry the scar where her touch first burned them.

[tomahawkbunny]

MERAverse: Power Sources and Tags

The basic understanding of extranormal abilities, often referred to as superpowers (because that’s what they are) is broken down into 5 basic categories, based on the source of said abilities. 

Altered (ALT) - Abilities provided by a change in a beings base physiology. Your radioactive bites or hard water vapors fall into this category.

Biological (BIO) - Abilities provided by inherent physiology of a being. Aliens using their natural talents and other non-human entities usually fall into this category.

Magical (MGC) - Abilities sourced from mystical energies fall into this category. Spellcasters, artifacts, and the powers of beings from the Darkworlds are found here. 

Technological (TEC) - Abilities provided by technology. Power armor, cyborgs, freeze rays and nanobots fall into this category. 

Trained (TRN)  - Abilities that are not actually extranormal, but are impressive enough that they far outstrip any non-metahuman/enhanced being in the same field. Your world's greatest detectives or marksmans fall in here.

Almost anyone can be categorized by one or a combination of these descriptors, and going forward I’ll mark characters with these tags are relevant to give a sense of their deal at a glance. For example the Inspector, a non powered human with incredible detective skills and gadgets, would be marked as (TRN/TEC) with his physical and mental training being the most important aspect, and his gadgets being secondary. 

Some creatures will have multiple built in. For example, creatures from the infernal realms known as the Darkworlds may have innate traits that are also, inherently, magical. Most of those creatures will automatically be (MGC/BIO).Just because something is Biological doesn’t mean its not magic, just because you’ve been exposed to nanobots that ALT your being doesn’t mean your powers aren’t TEC based as well.  

Specific Abilities can also be tagged, to make clear what tag they are granted by. This usually won’t be necessary (The Inspector didn’t train his way into knockout gas pellets), but might be implemented occasionally for clarity. Not everything is just from the tags, someone with TEC tag only might be able to throw a punch, but only if it’s a significant component of what makes them a character will it be tagged.