World of Cascadia

[Samuraidad]

I love that pic, JB! Now all we need is to photoshop a zepellin into the background there and we are good.

[MrJupiter]

Your welcome. Glad it worked for you.

[MrJupiter]

Oh, yeah...

... and that's a great picture for Cascadia. I love monorails.

[Jukeboxer]

Oh, yeah...

... and that's a great picture for Cascadia. I love monorails.

Ha! You and Samuraidad are on the same wavelength! He insisted on monorails & zepplins.

[Jukeboxer]

Continuing to flesh-out the Oscillasphere concept so that we can have a consistent application of it through the timeline. Here is what we've established:

1. The O-sphere has become a widely-accepted, scientifically-supported fact, studied and taught in the burgeoning field of metaphysics. Many scientists have linked the O-sphere to the 19th century physics theory of ether.

2. The O-sphere is the only known source of superpowers. It is an invisible dimension that overlays the material plane where the laws of physics subject to oscillations. These oscillations are the basis of meta-physics and account for variances in the physical world as we know it. When someone accesses o-spherical energies, they can create oscillations in the real world, causing the impossible to occur.

3. Only a gifted few have access to the O-sphere and this allows them to bend the rules of nature. The following are examples - just examples - of oscillations applied to our physical world:

a. Super-strength – They can proportionally change the mass of things that they physically touch in relation to themselves, but the laws of physics still apply for everyone else. Therefore a world-class brick is able to swing a train engine like a baseball bat, or pick-up a 20-story statue without being driven into the ground like a thumbtack. In essence, their power extends to things they physically affect.

b. Super-Speed – A speedster bends time/space in relation to himself. Basically it s a personal type of tunneling effect. That is why they aren’t necessarily concerned with atmospheric friction or being propelled off of a mountainside and into space. They are merely stretching small increments of time in order to “cram” more action into that timeframe.

c. Flying – Self-propelled supers are able to bend/reverse the rules of gravity/inertia in relationship to their personal movement - at least this is the case for flyers that aren't propelled by some other means such as wind, wings, etc...

4. Jumping theory and Telekinesis – Telekinetic powers have been demonstrated. Such powers enable people to bend/reverse laws of gravity/inertia for physical objects in their line of sight. This is the first “jumping” type of effect that has been achieved but it has proven to be very taxing and require great amounts of concentration (extra time) and energy (fatigue).

Aside from telekinesis, other “jumping” types of powers are still in the realm of metaphysical theory. These are powers that involve transporting one’s self or something else from point A to point B without regard to the medium, time/distance, etc… This includes jumping in time (time travel), jumping in space (such as duplication, teleportation, or FTL travel, or perhaps conjuring - when it comes to manifesting something from nothing). These types of powers may be used for plot device purposes, but not as a personal day-in/day-out powers. When brought into play, "jumping" type powers should be portrayed as experimental, risky, and unstable.

5. There is a reciprocal symbolic-metaphysical relationship in the connection to the O-sphere that has been termed the Oscillian Loop. This creates a need for a superhuman to embrace and embody their abilities in order to achieve peak potential and better control their powers. Super humans that do not embody their powers with a physical manifestation or theme will not achieve peak power. All supers out-of-costume suffer a -1x drop in stats and power levels. If a super wishes to ignore the -1x penalty, he is considered to be pushing per the core rules. Additionally, if an out-of-costume super pushes beyond his normal peak and rolls doubles, he loses control of his power. The consequences of this could be as simple as the GM taking over the character for a couple pages and causing all manner of collateral damage and endangering team-mates, bystanders, etc…

There will be more tweaking of the O-sphere, but this provides a foundation for building-up to present day Cascadia.

[Samuraidad]

I love the comment of the O-sphere being the source of the Victorian/Steampunk theory of the ether.

On to WWII and beyond!

[Jukeboxer]

Moving ahead with the timeline, let's take a look at how the crucial period of World War II might have unfolded in the Cascadian world:

In 1936, “The Bullet” Bob Steele hit his oscillation during the summer olympics. During 100 yard sprint semifinal in which he briefly crushed the world record, Bob suddenly surged to super human speed and was unable to stop before blasting a hole through the grandstands, the concourse, and then the locker rooms! He was immediately disqualified and fellow American team mate Jesse Owens would go on to win the gold in Berlin.

A huge white monster rampaged on Moscow in March of 1937, reaching the Kremlin before being turned away in a hail of artillery fire. The creature would become known as Winterbeast.

As previously mentioned, the disappearance of Cascadia’s own Brendan Donnegan made international news in 1938.

WW2 began with Germany invading Poland. The Soviets occupied the western half. A * powered-armor hero called Eisenadler (Iron Eagle) appeared in Poland and France, boosting morale. Most people believed it was just a publicity stunt, but by 1940 Iron Eagle proved to be a capable threat on the battlefield.

While returning from the Polish border in the summer of 1940, Josef Stalin’s convoy was attacked by Winterbeast. Stalin was killed in the attack and it was obviously not coincidental. Vyacheslav Molotov became the new General Secretary of the Soviet Union. A peasant girl, Nika Gutrovich, was taken into custody in connection with the attack. The next Winterbeast rampage revealed that little Nika was the beast! The onset of her powers was attributed to her father’s execution on Stalin’s order during the Red Army purge of 1936.

Later in 1940, the first superhero team, the Allied Super Legion, was formed. Members included Claymore (Scotland), Le Saboteur (France), HydroJen (Britain) and Klondike (Canada). Their first missions pitted them against Iron Eagle and early *-mech prototypes.

The arrival of a new * champion, Schnellseiger (a powerful paragon) tilted the balance in favor of the Axis in 1941. Also when the invasion of Russia began, Iron Eagle was nearly killed in a confrontation with Winterbeast and it was revealed that Dr. Sebastien Krummacher was the man behind the mask. From that point on, Krummacher concentrated on developing diesel-powered mechs.

At the end of 1941, as a consequence of Pearl Harbor, American supers join the Allied Super Legion, introducing The Bullet (speedster/battering ram) and Lawbringer (a hammer-wielding paragon) into the fray. The Bullet teamed up with the Europeans. Together HydroJen and The Bullet executed a "torpedo" attack where she propelled him through the water at high velocity and they could sink U-boats - an underwater version of the fastball special! Meanwhile The Lawbringer - with his flying power - was instrumental in the Pacific. He teamed up with Ku-kalan (a Polynesian volcanic elemental).

The impact of super humans on the war was incredible. Surrogate battles fought by these champions greatly reduced the human toll. The war in the Pacific ended in 1943 without the development and deployment of the atomic bomb. The * fought-on until the summer of 1944, when the Allied Super Legion met Krummacher’s war-mechs and Schnellsieger in a climactic battle that resulted in the capture of Hitler. Despite two suicide attempts, Hitler was later tried for his war crimes and executed.

[Samuraidad]

Nice stuff as usual man! The Justifiers rule! We defininitely need to stat them out and maybe play them a bit.

[MrJupiter]

Great ideas. Being a Canadian, I'd love to hear about your Klondike character. Great name!

[Jukeboxer]

Great ideas. Being a Canadian, I'd love to hear about your Klondike character. Great name!

Thanks Mr. Jupiter! Klondike is a product of Samuraidad's imagination, so I'll have to defer to him for the details. In fact, he proposed most of those characters. I've mainly played historian thus far.

[Jukeboxer]

In the aftermath of WW2, superheroes enjoyed a peak of popularity. In the final months of the war, the Allied Super Legion had been labeled “The Justifiers”, due to way they were changing public perception, acting justly, and positively impacting the battlefield. After the war, The Justifiers embarked on an international peace tour for about a year, but with no unifying threat, they disbanded by 1946. Each member of The Justifiers was a celebrated national hero in their respective homelands.

Also during this time, the United Nations was formed and in this new forum a small undercurrent of uneasiness regarding the emergence of super humans began to move. Not every country had a superhero to call their own and thus felt threatened by those nations that did have an iconic oscillian – a symbol – a protector. This distinction set the tone for a type of cold war that played out through the 50s.

Atomic power was a burgeoning field at this point and several nations were pursuing it as a long-term energy solution. However, behind the scenes, top-secret government programs were also exploring the military applications of such a powerful discovery.

The Russians developed a government-sanctioned team, The Soviet Stars, and revealed them to the world in a huge ceremonial parade in Red Square in 1951. This team, also known as The Red Stars, was led by Comrade Prime (a mastermind/super-soldier) and had several key members including Viktory (a flying blaster), Carbonknight (a translucent elemental brick), and The Immortal Koschei (a lich-like wizard). They were purported as champions of the growing Soviet Empire.

Less than a year later, the United States answered with a team of its own, announcing The Interceptors at a huge rally in Washington DC in the spring of 52. Lawbringer was the initial leader of this team, but as his powers started to fade, his role diminished until his retirement in 1955. Other notable heroes were Warhead (a kinetic energy deflector- specialized in turning energy back on opponents), Radiance (a female light controller and fastest flyer to that point. She was often misidentified as a shooting star or UFO), and Crucible (a heat controller – specialized in structural damage to metal).

[Jukeboxer]

For the most part, the super teams of the US and USSR led to a very familiar period of Cold War détente in the same fashion that nuclear weapons did in our history. The world had come to realize the unbelievable potential and unbelievable devastation that oscillians could bring. The socio-political environment began to swirl in fear of super-humans. Ironically, this fear was largely the motivation behind the development of the first atomic bombs, which were secretly developed in the late 50s and tested in the early 60s. The governments of the super-powers had developed a weapon that could potential counter most super humans if necessary. The public was only vaguely aware of the destructive power of these new weapons. To government and military insiders, it was obvious that the super-powers were concurrently developing a new generation of weapons, but very few actually knew what it was. Instead, the cold war emphasis remained on the O-spherical arms race; their super humans versus our super humans. Both sides welcomed the distraction.

[Jukeboxer]

Consequently, instead of atomic warfare, duck & cover propaganda, the World of Cascadia saw homeland defense films, instructing citizens on courses of action in the event of a “Red Star Raid”. A particular iconic film from 1962 was called “Attack of the Night Bomber”, featuring scenes of school kids helping the elderly to safety and assisting parents in fortifications around the house or at their small town middle school.

Now Jane and Jimmy, when you hear the warning siren, that means that Night Bomber (in Russian: Nochnoy Bombardirovochnyy) and the rest of his minions are attacking our homeland! So you know what to do.....".

[Samuraidad]

The late 50s and into the sixties supers enjoyed more popularity with the public then ever before. And yet, with the cold war build up and propaganda caused the American public's anxiety and mistrust of Eastern-block supers to slowly and gradually increase like a slow boil. It was during this time that the Congressional Council on Un-American Affairs was formed. Then came official line of the council was concerned with communist activities in America. But what became increasingly clear was that they would be investigating how Patriotic and dedicated supers were as well. On their infamous lists the names of many, many well known supers. And a secret Government law enforcement arm simply called "Section 9" emerged to "detain" possible threats for questioning. Also, what is little known, even to this day, is that Section 9 scientists had procured the world's first nuclear weapons. They called this the "omega solution" against what they perceived as the very real threat of supers gone rogue and destroying the world. And it was at this time that a registry for supers was promoted.

In 1963 JFK (a defender of the supers community) was murdered by a villain named Red Rage in Dallas. Red Rage, was a super with the ability accelterate small objects to bullet like speeds over long distances with deadly accuracy. Section 9 agents including Texan supers Yellow Rose (a female gadgeteer and markswoman with some mental powers) and powerful weather controller Thunderforge quickly subdued Red Rage. But before Red could be tried or even properly questioned, he was murdered in his cell. Conspiracy theories abounded. Some said that Red Rage was a communist supers operative (though the Soviet Stars disavowed any connection to him...as they do to this day). And there was no proof for this.

Either way, the death of JFK, most historians agree was a turning point. His vice president, William Harkness, became president. And though Harkness had seemed a logical choice appearing as a balanced politician, he became a nightmare totalitarian. Harkness urged congress to pass a supers registry bill that appeared before them to weed out the "communist insurgency" in the supers community. And time and again he would point to the assassination of JFK as proof for this. Even so, congress was not fully convinced as was not the American public and the long battle in congress began over the bill. A registration law passed. But few supers complied. And with most supers having secret ID's enforcing the law became difficult.

A fledgling hippy movement embraced super heroes as their cause for peace and freedom. Protests were everywhere. And supers themselves formed protest groups, which were mostly in favor of peaceful demonstration such SAVE (Supers Against Villainy Everywhere). The leader of SAVE was, the charismatic Blue Fox (a martial artist with metahuman levels of speed and agility and enhanced senses) along with civil rights leader, MLK Jr. marched on Washington. Section 9 operatives tried to stop the march and arrest the supers and a battle ensued but MLK asked for peace...and march continued without further incident.

Along the way, some well known supers were arrested for not complying with the registration, including Blue Fox herself, Backfire (a super with phenomenal deflection powers) and Kill Joy (an ironically former Jokester villain turned good guy). They all were subsequently imprisoned and became poster children for SAVE's peace cause. Marches and protests became more frequent with ever increasing numbers. Many worried that the country would erupt into civil war.

Then came a dark day in 1965, in Montgomery Alabama, during MLK's march on the State capital, a group calling itself the Black Tuesday (for the Tuesday that Blue Fox was arrested) held the entire State congress hostage. Black Tuesday was a rogue splinter group off of SAVE led by a mysterious super with known the Death Owl (a gadgeteer with natural flight powers he had changed his name from Night Owl when he helped form Black Tuesday). Secretly, section 9 agents snuck an atomic bomb into the building. A SAVE super with precognition powers named Sister Providence foresaw the explosion. Blue Fox, Kill Joy, Back Fire (all got out of prison of a brief reprieve) Yellow Rose, Thunderforge and a teleporter (a very rare power) named Wink flew to the rescue. The team was able to defeat Black Tuesday and save the congress, but not before the nuclear device went off. The nuclear bomb was a low yield bomb. Wink, with enormous effort attempted to teleport the bomb away. But the strain was too great, and part of the explosion still occurred. MLK, most of the congressmen and the citizens of Montgomery were saved from the explosion. But the congressional building and approximately one circular mile around it was annihilated. Wink and all of the other supers perished in the blast. Amazingly there was no nuclear fall out from the blast. Scientists speculate that somehow the portal that Wink opened had a siphoning effect upon the radiation from the bomb. Most people hailed it as a miracle.

An investigation soon followed and it was discovered that section 9 and President Harkness himself was to blame for the blast. Harkness (in his 2nd term) was quickly arrested and impeached and Section 9 was disbanded (officially at least). And his vice president, JK Craft finished out his term. Craft was an ineffectual president but not the scourge Harkness was. And the very next election, MLK was voted into office as the first black president of the US.

Congress repealed the mandatory registration and gave supers full civil rights. And most law enforcement agencies breathed a huge sigh of relief and welcomed the help. This began a new era of freedom for Supers into the 1970s. And MLK shortly after proudly prosided over the Supers memorial in DC that had statues of Blue Fox, Kill Joy, Back Fire, Yellow Rose, Thunderforge, and Wink. Similar memorials exist today throughout the country, and there is a popular museum dedicated to this event in Cascadia (Blue Fox's home town).

The rebuilding of Montgomery was swift with the help of various supers of course.

Some important timeline notations: The Korean war occurred much as it did in our world with little intervention from supers due to a ruling from UN excluding the use of supers in warfare. Also, the Vietnam War never occurred due to President MLK being strictly opposed to it. And MLK was never martyred and remained a prominent proponent of the rights of supers throughout his life.

Next the 70's, 80's and beyond!

[Jukeboxer]

Hey Samuraidad, thanks for taking on the 60s! Great stuff! I love the parallels involving JFK, civil rights, and MLK. And it is good to start establishing some organizations, like Section 9 and Black Tuesday. Great job of adding to the roster of historical superheroes too! Backfire... Thunderforge... (I was thinking of a similar character last week... spooky...) Hey, maybe Ocelot is related to Blue Fox?

Anyway, this is adding up to a rich historical backdrop for Cascadia, I'm sure it will pay off when we get into the campaign. If you have some free time tomorrow, we should have a talk about the 70s-80s.