Birdsie
The God-Emperor of Mankind
- Introduction
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Hello! I'm Birdsie and I've been reading up on a web serial called "Worm," by John McCrae, a.k.a. wildbow.
Highly inspired by this work, I've decided to start a Superhero Roleplay with a similar premise. If you're looking for action, adventure, comedy, tragedy, everything in between and beyond, as well as epic fucking fights with world-ending entities, you've come to the right place! - History
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No one knows when, but for as long as historical records reach, there was always that one person that could teleport, or that one guy who had the ability to press six tons of weight.
During the Cold War, the frequency of the appearances of these "super-men" increased. In the late 1970s, the number of the newly classified "parahumans" exploded. In 1983, the Parahuman Response Team (PRT) was created to deal with the danger imposed by the rapidly rising count of superpowered humans. In 1985, the Protectorate was established; parahuman heroes who followed the PRT's leadership to help deal with the threat presented by those like them who did not use their powers for the good of the general public: villains.
But villains were just another side of the same coin as the heroes.
The Endbringers came, and with them, came the ashes of their wrath.
- The Endbringers
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The First Endbringer Attack took place on 1992-12-13, in Marun Field, Iran. A date that people would remember. That day, Behemoth, the first Endbringer made his appearance. He destroyed and sowed terror for almost two days until the PRT appeared, assessed the threat, and finally defeated him. Behemoth fled and went into dormancy, preparing for his next attack.
Only after, were the Endbringers properly classified as a whole "category" of beings, different from ordinary parahumans. They appeared interchangeably in various places around the world; mostly highly populated cities, and destroyed until they were injured and forced to retreat and regenerate.
Each Endbringer is different, and none was destroyed to this day. Whenever an Endbringer Alert is raised, the villains and heroes of a city that is being attacked unite together in a truce, during which no hero will try to arrest villains, and during which no villain will try to profit from their power. The appearance of an Endbringer is such a threat that all humans, regardless of background, stand together and fight against a common enemy.
This raised many questions. Who or what are the Endbringers? Where did they come from? Why do they want to destroy us?
Endbringers typically attack up to ten times every year, but the frequency of the attacks has increased since Behemoth's first appearance. The Endbringers typically act on their own, except for Tohu and Bohu who appear in tandem. The reasons for this are unknown.
The Endbringers appeared in 1992, 1996, 2002, 2007, and 2012. The time it takes for a new Endbringer to appear is speculated to be between 4 to 6 years, so it is widely believed that 2018 will be the year that a new Endbringer makes their first appearance with all the horror that may follow.
The Endbringers
Behemoth
Behemoth — also known as "Hadhayosh" and "Prathama" — first appeared on December 13, 1992, in Marun Field, Iran. It has the ability to manipulate multiple forms of energy (electrical, thermal, kinetic, and etc.)
Behemoth is over forty-five feet tall. He has gray, leathery skin topped with cooled magma and obsidian-like crags, some of which can even reach 10 feet in length. His body is described as a muscle-bound caricature midway between a human and a bear. Behemoth's hands are merely mangled growths of obsidian-looking material and his arms are as thick as oak trees. In a gap between two of the horns, he has a single red, glowing eye. His mouth is a jagged gap, lined by obsidian teeth with a deep glowing coming from the throat. The outer layer of his skin is almost as hard as diamond and it gets over five times as hard the deeper you go.Leviathan
Leviathan — also known as "Jormungand" or "Jörmungandr" — first appeared on June 9, 1996, in Oslo, Norway. It has macro-hydrokinesis, speed, and a water "afterimage" that follows behind it and moves as fast as Leviathan is.
Leviathan is thirty feet tall with a seemingly disproportionate body and scaly green skin. He has a top-heavy appearance due to his hunched shoulders and the large cords of muscles standing out on his neck, upper torso, and shoulders. The top-heavy appearance is only strengthened by his much thinner forearms and calves, topped off with massive claws and digitigrade feet. At the rear end of his body is a prehensile whip-like tail around 40-50 feet long. Although not as durable as Behemoth, he is much faster.Simiurgh
The Simurgh — also known as "Ziz" — appeared on December 30, 2002, in Lausanne, Switzerland. It has psionic abilities, precognition, and the ability to draw on mental powers around it and copy them. The Simurgh is known to adjust the events in places it attacks, being much more "cunning" than the other Endbringers.
The Simurgh appears as a fifteen-foot tall woman, waif-thin and unclothed. Her hair is almost as long as she is tall and is, like the rest of her form, platinum-white. She has a variety of asymmetrically and apparently randomly placed feather wings, which appear excessively large compared to her body and three of which cover her body, ostensibly to preserve modesty.Khonsu
Khonsu appeared in May 21, 2007. It did not appear in any "one" place but rather attacked various cities around the world at the same time by going from one to another interchangeably. He has time manipulating abilities, including the creation of time bubbles that he uses to kill his foes by speeding up time within them and causing them to die of old age, or heal himself. He also has teleportation abilities that he uses during each of his appearances; after first attacking Yokohama, Japan, he teleported to Cape Verde all the way in Africa, and then Rome, Italy, where he was finally forced to retreat.
He stands at forty feet tall. He is broad and feral in appearance. He is as jet-black, with something white or silver giving definition around the edges of his various features. His face is a permanent snarl, frozen in place, his teeth silvery white behind the ebony lips. Tendrils like the whiskers of a catfish mark the corners of his mouth. He doesn’t wear clothes, but he has features somewhere between leaves and fins, with elaborate designs at the edges, curling away from elbows, his wrist, his fingers and around his legs. It makes his fingers and toes resemble claws, and leaves dangerous looking blades elsewhere. His midriff is composed of a large, dark gray sphere that looks kind of like a pearl. His body is noted to not be quite as durable as that of the other Endbringers.Tohu and Bohu
A pair of Endbringers who often work together, Tohu and Bohu appeared on October 10, 2012, in Bucharest, Romania. Bohu manipulates the battlefield - setting up traps for parahumans and manipulates the area in a set pattern, including the creation of defences, walls, deadfalls, pitfalls, traps, and even minions. Tohu chooses three parahumans in the area of several kilometers and then copies their powers to defend its "sister" Bohu.
Tohu takes the appearance of a three-faced young woman. She has two torsos and four arms (ending in long, clawed hands) but only one pair of legs. Her whole body except for the faces is made out of what appears to be colored hair, growing from her three heads and woven into ribbons and cords. Her faces and hands adopt the costume of the three capes she copies, twisted to fit her appearance. Her "hair" also changes to match the color scheme of the head it grows from, resulting in flesh streaked and intermingled with the colors of the costumes. She is the smallest Endbringer by height and size, with the possible exception of Bohu when not engorged.
Bohu is gaunt and stretched thin to the point where her head is five times longer than it is wide. Her body widens as it reaches the ground, reaching into it, extending roots and melding into the landscape. Her narrow eyes glow brightly, even through thick cloud cover. Her hair is heavy as stone, in tendrils as thick around as a human arm. Her face is expressionless, but on one occasion she was seen to shut her eyes and bow her head. Her tower-body is comprised of material drawn from the landscape. Bohu has no legs and is largely immobile in her tower form. On one occasion, Bohu moved with a grinding advance that left bulldozed terrain in her wake, like a gigantic block of stone. Overlapping rings marked the area she traveled through, as she continued to switch through her cycles, altering the terrain, raising walls, creating traps and deadfalls, and generating architecture. - Parahumans and Powers
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Parahumans are people who went through a Trigger Event and gained a power from their Shard. A common slang for parahuman is "cape," even though not all parahumans wear capes.
Parahuman Response Team
The Parahuman Response Team is a police and/or emergency response team trained to deal with parahumans and the fallout of their actions. The PRT emblem is shaped like a shield and bears the letters ‘P.R.T.' It is often depicted with wings. The PRT is overseen as a whole by the Chief Director and Deputy Chief Director while Directors and Deputy Directors oversee individual PRT departments spanning cities or rural areas.
PRT officers wear chain mesh and kevlar vests, and helmets that cover their faces. They carry firearms - both pistols and assault rifles. These are usually loaded with nonlethal rounds unless targeting individuals who are considered expendable or capable of surviving. In addition, specific individuals can carry a variety of specialized equipment. The PRT officers can carry grenade launchers that carry specialized load outs, including containment foam and tinker-made rounds.
Containment Foam is the PRT's most common non-lethal response to threats. PRT officers are usually equipped with tinker-made containment foam applicators, mounted on the backs of the officer and dispensed on the target with spray applicators. It sprays as a liquid, then expands into a foam. The foam is flexible and porous, allowing people to breathe while fully entrenched in it, and is extremely sticky. It's impact resistant, so heavy hitters can be contained. It's resistant to high temperatures and insulates against electricity. It is also resistant to low temperatures. Even flecks of foam expand into masses the size of golf balls and softballs. Attempting to wipe it off exposes more to the air, making it expand still further. Foam degrades over time eventually. This can be expedited with a specialized solvent.
The PRT typically uses large vans for transportation, these are usually marked with purple stripes diagonally across the side, the initialization of the organization stenciled on the side, their emergency lights are green and white. This distinguishes them from lights used by emergency services.
The PRT has a department referred to as the Protectorate, made up of parahumans whose identities are kept secret. The typical "superheroes" you see in movies or read about in comics.
Trigger Events
Trigger Events also known as "Crisis Points" or simply Triggers, are traumatic events that grant an individual their powers.
The trigger event is usually a very traumatic experience. An individual needs to be pushed to the edge, their fight or flight responses pushed to their limits, before the powers start to emerge. The circumstances leading up to the trigger event influence the power granted. Psychological stress often leads to mentally driven powers. The more physical violence that is involved, the higher the bias towards physically driven powers.
If one individual in a family has powers, it is far more likely that others will as well. Powers can be "inherited" from siblings or adopted parents, but it's very rare for them to pass "upward" from child to parent. People who have parents with powers don’t need nearly as intense an event to make their powers manifest. Second-generation capes gain powers influenced by both the powers of those related to them and their trigger event.
It's possible for a parahuman to experience a second trigger event, that removes limits to their abilities, or enhances or evolves some secondary aspect of their power. To experience a second trigger, a parahuman has to experience a situation highly similar to their original trigger. Second triggers generally do more harm than good due to the level of trauma involved. It is also possible to have a Third, Fourth or Fifth Trigger, but this often results in grotesque mental or even physical impairment.
There is a rare type of Trigger Event that is called a Birth Trigger. The circumstances in which it occurs are unknown, but it basically means that a person is born as a parahuman, rather than gaining their powers later in life. These capes, on average, have stronger powers, a lower risk of mental impairment from using their powers, more stable relationship with their shard, but also have a higher case of becoming a Case 53.
Case 53s also known as "aberrations" are parahumans that were physically mutated by their Trigger Events. Roughly 6% of parahumans are Case 53s, and 62% of those are Birth Triggers.
Many capes suffer from a limitation known as the Manton Effect; where their shard tries to protect them from the effects of their own powers but fails to register other people as "other" people, therefore causing their powers to weaken or outright not work when used on humans. The Manton Effect is usually removed during a Second Trigger.
The Entities
(GM Note: This isn't common knowledge.) The true reason behind superpowers are undetectable, multi-dimensional alien entities in the orbit of the Earth. They send down shards of their own beings into the Earth and these shards seek out distressed individuals and adjust to their situation, granting them the power to overcome their situation. Certain shards can affect the personality of the host. During a Second Trigger, the shards can seek feedback and adjust the host's power, granting it more precision, strength, or overall potency to make up for the newly encountered threat. Shards can sometimes interact with a host and mutate them.
Power Classifications
The PRT categorizes powers into select classes and number ratings, used to quickly identify parahuman threats and adopt fitting strategies.
Mover: Has a power enhancing mobility.
Shaker: Has a power with an area of effect.
Brute: Has enhanced strength or durability.
Breaker: Can shift into another state.
Master: Can control others or create minions.
Tinker: Can create or alter devices with futuristic technology.
Blaster: Is a ranged, offensive threat.
Thinker: Focuses on information gathering.
Striker: Has a power that is melee-ranged or touch-base.
Changer: Can alter their form or appearance.
Trump: Can manipulate powers in some capacity.
Stranger: Focuses on stealth or infiltration.
It is possible for someone to have powers so weird and exotic that they don't fit into any classification. In that case, an "Other" classification is adequate.
The classifications are followed by a number from 1 to 10 that is meant to display the danger and strength of the power in question.
1-3 are threats that can be dealt with by a squad of trained, non-parahuman PRT operatives, but the circumstances or environment may dip the likelihood of success in another direction.
4-7 are threat levels that typically require another parahuman (possibly with a team of PRT officers as backup) to deal with.
8-10 are threats that require a powerful parahuman or team of parahumans to deal with.
10+ threats (also called S-Class) are ones that display amazing and exceedingly rare power levels. Generally, only a multiple-trigger parahuman will achieve this level, but Endbringers are also within this realm.
Example Classifications:
Mover 3: The ability to fly at speeds of at least forty kilometers per hour.
Shaker 2: Can cover an area of twenty meters squared in thick mist.
Brute 6: The ability to regenerate from wounds significantly more quickly than normal. A stab wound is entirely gone in ten minutes.
Breaker 5: Can turn into a humanoid form made out of solid iron.
Master 9: The ability to hypnotize up to several people at once through eye contact and maintain control over long distances.
Tinker 6: Specializes in technology related to radiation. Can turn a microwave into a gun that can cause third and fourth-degree burns.
Blaster 4: Shoots lasers about as strong as a bullet from a rifle.
Thinker 4: Can see up to five seconds into the future.
Striker 3: Upon making skin contact, can kill any organic material.
Changer 1: Produces scythe blades on forearms.
Trump 2: Can decrease the strength of other parahumans' powers up to roughly 95%.
Stranger 5: Visual detection can become impossible at will.
Behemoth, for an instance, is classified as Brute 10+, Blaster/Shaker 10+.
Baumann Parahuman Containment Center
The Baumann Parahuman Containment Center, better known as the Birdcage, is a prison for parahumans that have committed crimes severe enough that they must be removed from society. It is not designed to allow prisoners to leave after they have been imprisoned within it, as prisoners need to be teleported in, there are no ways in or out of the prison.
The Birdcage is inside a hollowed out mountain whose walls are lined with tinker-made ceramics, each layer of the mountain contains dormant containment foam, which will automatically start expanding upon a wall breach. Inside the mountain is a vacuum, and three thousand anti-gravity drones, which will detonate upon an abnormality. Some of them contain containment foam and some are much more lethal. The prison itself is suspended inside the mountain by the same pipes that supply it with its supplies (such as books, blankets, cigarettes, food, water and air, and other objects), it is also split up into wings, the walls between which are negligible, allowing all the prisoners to intermingle. In case of emergency, the Birdcage has three-hundred prison drones equipped with scanners, automated weaponry, containment foam sprayers, and other weaponry.
In 2001, Behemoth attacked the Birdcage and made it through the outer defenses and got in. Upon entry, he killed twelve inmates, after which the inner auto-defense system activated and sprayed him in containment foam. After that, he managed to kill fifty-eight more inmates, destroy ninety-three automated prison drones and caused the collapse of an entire prison block. After that, he was forced to flee by a coordinated inmate attack.
- Brockton Bay
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A city in Massachusetts, USA. Brockton Bay is located in the northeast of the United States, south of Boston. The Atlantic Ocean borders it on the east, while mountains or hills border it on the other sides, especially to the west. In recent years it became a hotspot of parahuman activity, to the point of getting the PRT classification: "HOSV," which stands for High Occurrence of Super-Villains (or Hive of Scum and Villainy.) Brockton Bay has a civilian population of around three hundred and sixty thousand and is in the Top 10 US cities in terms of cape population.
Being a coastal city along with its surrounding geography, Brockton Bay has a fairly mild climate. The summers are comfortably warm and the winters are one of the mildest in the Northeastern States. This may be one reason people in costume congregate here.
Main Areas
PRT Headquarters
PHQ is a base of operations that the squadron of local superheroes call home, placed on a repurposed oil rig. It is outfitted with a forcefield bubble and a missile defense system. It is visible from pretty much any point on the Docks. The forcefield makes everything seen through it look oversaturated, like a TV with bad picture settings. The structure is a marvel of architectural design with its arches and spires, lit by tinted spotlights and set on a beautiful platform with hard edges and sweeping lines. A forcefield roadway is used when traveling to and from the base
Suburbs
In the center and west of Brockton Bay are the suburbs. They are relatively safe and well-kept, with some convenience and grocery stores, and mostly housing districts. There is a notably low amount of gang activity in the area, but burglars and even muggers are still a common issue. The suburbs generally have one-family houses, from one to three stories high, with parks, public places, and memorials to the southern sectors, bordering with downtown.
Downtown
Downtown is one of the nicer areas of Brockton Bay, in the southern and southeastern regions of the city. The streets and sidewalks are wide, and there are skyscrapers in every other lot. The south-east part of downtown is housing. It is relatively friendly and accommodating, although there are some gang tags and broken windows here and there. It is a clashing mix of old and new buildings. Lord Street was the main road that ran through the city and downtown, tracing the line of the bay.
Boardwalk
The Boardwalk running north-to-south along the beach. The Boardwalk is "where the tourists come". It is one of the nicest parts of town. There are shops that sold dresses for over a thousand dollars, cafes with ludicrously expensive coffees and stretches of wooden walkways and beaches where tourists can get a great view of the ocean. Although it is near some rough neighborhoods, it has private security that takes a draconian approach to enforcement, leading to an absence of crime, but making it a hostile environment for anybody who doesn't look sufficiently high-class to be a legitimate visitor or shopper there.
Docks
To the east and north of the Boardwalk are the docks. Just moving from one block to the next, you can see the quality of buildings decline steeply. Grass and weeds grew between slats on the sidewalk, the road has potholes you could hide a cat in, and the buildings are all faded, consisting of peeling paint, cracked mortar and rusty metal. The desaturated colors of the buildings are contrasted by splashes of vividly colored graffiti. The similarly-colored buildings tend to blend together, and the piles of trash shifted locations, which made it difficult to find your way. Many buildings here don't have power. There are cramped tenements located in the Docks, with ten or twelve families sharing a single bathroom and shower.
There are enough warehouses and apartments in the area for even the most destitute to find shelter. The only people on the streets at night are unconscious drunks, strumpets, and gang members. During the day, there are homeless people visible, but also many people who looked surprisingly normal. Because of the homelessness and vagrants, it is considered advisable to avoid the area.
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