United Earth Background

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All of the notes enclosed by [ ] are written for the benefit of the reader and are in non game-terms.

The Secret History:
A Review of the Origin and Role of Superbeings in History

One of the first questions that needs to be answered in a world with superbeings is where do the superpowers come from? It turns out there are four classes that most superhumans fall into.

(1) Metahumans:
Those supers with the inborn abilities are known as metahumans. The fact of being a metahumans is generally due to a dominant gene that is common to all metahumans. Most metahumans gain their abilities after puberty, but many require some kind of life threatening episode in order for their abilities to surface. It is not uncommon for the powers gained to fulfill some kind of deep subconscious desire. At this time it is NOT possible to do a genetic scan to reveal if someone is a metahumans, but many scientists are currently trying to solve this question. [Some metahumans have abilities that are generally not recognized as such, like super intelligence.]

(2) Magic-Based:
Magic is simply a "science" that conventional science does not have a clue about, and most of the practitioners can barely understand. Given the time, effort, materials, and training, many people could learn to cast some spells. The problem is that magic is not evident to most people in the world, and is generally counter to human intuition (like Einstein's special theory of relativity). This has led magic to be a closely guarded secret that most people do not even believe in.

(3) Highly Trained Normal:
A highly trained normal is someone that has no superhuman abilities, but is generally an olympic class athlete that used skill to try to raise themselves to the level of the superhumans. They are generally just below the level of many of the super beings, but they sometimes use technology to raise themselves to be on par.

(4) Other:
This is the catch-all category that would include things like aliens, extra-dimension creatures or anything not mentioned above.

Superbeings and Aliens in our History:

The first form of superpowered beings were metahumans that were lucky enough to have two recessive genes that made them a metahumans. Early man believed these metahumans to be witches or magicians. Soon man was starting to form villages, and the power that was used caused others to try to learn to use the magic. Since the powers were genetic, this was of course impossible, but this still led others down the path toward true magical powers. It is believed but some that many of the early biblical characters, were metahumans and although most of their miracles were fictionalized, they did have roots in fact. Evidence suggests that most of the metahumans were very low powered by today's standards, and had little effect on the flow of history.

The first aliens that are beliverd to have visited the Earth were members of the Binary Brotherhood (BB), and they did so just before the rise of the Greek Empire. It is the belief of this author that they not only were the real basis for the Greek Gods (and perhaps other Gods as well), but they also decided to make alterations to the human geneome. For many years they interacted with humans and collected samples for genetic research. Many of the great "heroes" and tales of this era where undoubtedly inspired by either metahumans or members of the Brotherhood themselves. Again history continued to flow with metahumans escaping notice by most historians. It is very possible that the Binary Brotherhood continued to watch the Earth from this point on and that they have detailed historical records of out history from this point on.

The next time that a major metahuman appeared was in England in the late 13th century. Merlin and Morgan LaFay were two rival metahumans. It appears that Merlin had various elemental powers and the ability to boost the abilities of others [various aids], where as Morgan had various weather controlling powers. These two great metahuman again had little effect on history since they spent most of the time battling each other.
Some additional examples from the American frontier that were believed to be real are Paul Bunyan, John Henry and Davey Crockett. These metahumans had good hearts and used their abilities to push civilization forward, but like the metahumans before them, they did not dramatically change the world.

In 1908, a mysterious blast leveled a large forest in the Tunguska River valley in the former Soviet Union. Evidence suggests that this was actually the work of the Binary Brotherhood and historic records seem to show that metahumans became more common throughout the world. Some experts say that this is just a confirmation bias to the fact we have more records from the time.

Either way the world was influenced little by metahumans until World War II. It is well documented that during that era there were three super teams in the world. The U.S. had the Liberty Patriots (L.P.), Germans had the Iron Armada (I.A.), and the Japanese had the Red Suns (R.S.). The team that was not known until the documents were recently released was the United States secret defenders, the Golden Guardians (G.G.). With two notable exceptions these metahumans most often battled again each other, there by minimizing their effects on the war. The I.A. was noted for sinking many English ships and destroying many sites in England before the U.S. entered the war and the L.P. came to fight the I.A. The Red Suns were responsible for killing the radar operators in Hawaii so that Pearl Harbor could be bombed.

After WWII, the number of super powered beings declined for a short time. The Chinese were known to have super team in the 1960's and then during the 1970's the organizations VIPER, DEMON and Genocide became known. However, as had been shown in the past, these groups had little affect on history.

In 1981 United Stated government formed the super powered group the Protectors. In 1982, Knufu [one of the leaders of the BB] landed on the White House lawn and claimed the Earth for the Binary Brotherhood. He and his troops fought the Protectors, and he managed to capture two heroes of the four member of the Protectors, Shrunken and Thunderwind. Neither hero has been heard from since that day. The BB returned in 1984 in attempt to gather more information and more subjects. They captured Captain Invulnerable and the families of the previous victims.

After this point, hero and villain groups have become more common place and the federal government has put out a call and the players in this game have answered that call.

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Other Heroes in the World (Sample not complete)

The Defenders- based in New York
The Defenders are a sister group of the Minutemen. The Minutemen and the Defenders have a friendly rivalry going and generally do not work well together. The Defenders are currently based out of New York City, but it is not uncommon for members to be in Washington DC.

• Defender - Defender is a white female with long blonde hair and blue eyes. She wears a costume with a mix of red and light blue with a dark blue cape. She is a fourth generation superhero. Her father, grandfather were both named Defender as well and her great-grand mother was a member of the Liberty Patriots and known as the Blue Defender. She is mutant with increased physical attributes, but here main powers are force projection, flight and shielding.
• Chrome - Chrome is a male of unknown descent with chrome colored skin, yellow eyes and grey hair. He wears green costume (tank top, short and shoes). He is a brick with no known special abilities.
• Ultraviolet - [Male Energy Projector]
• Id - [Female Mentalist]
• Silver Sabre - [Female Martial Artist]

The Minutemen- based in Los Angeles
The Minutemen are a sister group of the Defenders. The Defenders and the Minutemen have a friendly rivalry going and generally do not work well together.

• Opal - Opal is the current leader of the Minutemen. He is a male African-American with crewcut black hair, tan skin, and wide light brown eyes. He is of tall height and has a graceful build. He wears a light/dark green two-tone costume with a red star on his chest. He is a brick with the ability to generate a opal colored wall of force. He also appears to have the ability to recover rapidly from serious wounds.
• Minuteman - Minuteman is a white male with shoulder length, wavy dark brown hair, tanned skin, and blue eyes. He wears uniform not unlike Mel Gibson in the Patriot. He is an expert in hand-to-hand combat and carries laser carbine that looks like a Civil War musket.
• Morning Star - Morning Star is a female Puerto Rican with mid-back-length black hair, tan skin, and intelligent medium brown eyes. She wears a red and blue costume with a yellow nine-pointed star on her chest. She has light based powers that include flight, shielding and energy projection.
• Weather Ring - Weather Ring is an Asian male, that has straight black hair and dark brown eyes. He wears a blue and gold costume with a dark blue cape and yellow lighting bolt on his chest. He has minor weather control powers including the abilities to generate a lighting bolt, create fog, fly on the wind and become a cloud.

Known Solo Heroes (Alphabetical by City Name)

• Dark Knight (Based in Atlanta, GA) - [Darkness based Energy Projector]
• Brute (Based in Baltimore, MD) - [Brick]
• Cloud (Based in Boston, MA) - [Energy Projector (Powered Armor) with gas based attacks]
• American Eagle III (Based in Cleveland, OH) - [Martial Artist with pet Eagle]
• The Ranger (Based in Dallas, TX) - [Martial Artist]
• Frosty Wind (Based in Denver, CO) - [Energy Projector with cold and wind based powers]
• Dr. Wraithe (Based in Detroit, MI) - [Energy Projector/Egoist (Mystic)]
• Titan (Based in Kansas City, MO) - [Brick]
• Gate (Based in Las Vegas, NV) - [Teleporting Energy Projector with dimensional manipulation based powers]
• Lightburst (Based in Pheonix, AZ) - [Light based Energy Projector]
• White Warlock (Based in Philadelphia, PA) - [Energy Projector (Mystic)]
• Brainstorm (Based in Portland, OR) - [Egoist]
• Quasar (Based in Salt Lake City, UT) - [Electrical based Energy Projector]
• Moonsilver (Based in San Antonio, TX) - [Force projection Energy Projector/Brick]
• Scarlet Sabre (Based in Seattle, WA) - [Martial Artist]

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Known Villains and Evil Organizations

DEMON (Deus Est Mort, Omnes Nox. [God is dead, all is darkness.])
DEMON is an organization with a long history. The origins of DEMON arose in mid 1920's as a Satanic cult, and moved into some bizarre crimes in New York in the 1930's. In 1956 DEMON revelated its true colors, adopting garb and methods similar to other villainous organizations. For the next twenty years the organization walked a fine line with the rank and file members using weapons similar to other organizations and the upper members using magic, but by the year 1986 this all changed. All of the technology was removed and even the lowest of agents started to use magical equipment. It is believed that this was possible because of the discovery of a item of great power known as the Basilisk Orb.

The modern DEMON organization has four ranks: Brothers (and Sisters), Initiate of the Mysteries, Morbanes and the Inner Circle each of which more powerful than the one before. Brothers are the rank and file, Initiates being the leaders of the Brothers, Morbanes are spell casters of great power and nothing is truly known about the Inner Circle.

VIPER (Venomous Imperial Party of the Eternal Reptile)
VIPER first appeared in the mid-1960's sending its agents to plunder any that would oppose them. They have stated on more than one instance that there singular goal is to take over the world. Although it functions more like a criminal cartel or terrorist organization than a military, in truth VIPER is a private army assembled for the purpose of bringing the rest of the world under the sway of VIPER's leaders. One of the greatest strengths of the organization is its versatility, they have shown over time that they seem to have an endless supply of agents each with specialized equipment that can help with the given situation.

In today's environment, VIPER has evolved into a structure resembling a network of terrorist cells or even a franchised business. It divides the world into "territories" each containing a headquarters referred to as a "Nest". A Nest can vary in size from a large region to as small as part of a city. It is rare, but not unheard of for Nests to team up together to target a larger threat. Each Nest is controlled by a Nest Leader (that may or may not be super powered) that reports to the High Serpent for region. It is believed that the High Serpents report to the Supreme Serpent that is not confirmed and many "experts" believe that there really no Supreme Serpent.

Over the history of the organization, VIPER has had many supervillains that worked for them and then defect. Over the last 5-8 years this has really turned itself around. Law enforcement has recently confirmed that VIPER has at least seven known villain groups (referred to as VIPER Forces) within its ranks. It is believed that each of these VIPER Forces is "hired" by individual Nests to perform certain jobs and then they move to the next job.

Genocide
Genocide started as a simple 1960 National Institute of Health project to understand the origins of super powers. This grew into an organization that believes that humanity is doomed to failure and extinction unless the threat from "Supers" is eliminated. This organization grew followers from this one project and now is a the largest bio-medical research organization in the world, with the one goal of curing supers to make them normal again.

Binary Brotherhood
A race of extra-terrestrials that has publicly visited the Earth twice. Each time capturing and defeating some of Earth's greatest heroes (Shuriken, Thunderwind and Captain Invulnerable) in very public settings.

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In order for heroes to be able to protect their identities and still serve the general good. President Carter, created the Government Office of Super Heroes or GOSH as a division of FEMA.

To be a superhero that is supported by GOSH, the hero must agree to one or two options. The hero can choose to be an “Acting Associate” or and “Acting Hero”.

To be an "Acting Associate"

1. Register his or her superhero identity with GOSH. This must include allowing GOSH some sample that is considered legally identifying (fingerprints, brain wave, scan, etc.) The selection of the identifying test is up to the hero.
2. Register normal equipment and powers with GOSH.
3. Attend a one-day seminar on "superhero procedure," which covers the basics of police procedure and disaster relief protocols, either before registration or within six months afterward.

To be an "Acting Hero"

1. The hero must complete all the requirements to be an "Acting Associate" and
2. Register his or her full identity with GOSH.
3. Undergo a complete security background check, including examinations of his/her educational, military, and juvenile criminal records, as well as adult criminal record. It's worth noting here that an imperfect record does not mean rejection.

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Benefits and obligations of being a GOSH Associate and/or Hero

1. Fully empowered to make arrests for crimes which he/she personally witnesses. Since the hero’s identity can be established there cannot be requirements to revel the superheroes identify.
2. Permitted to carry normal equipment and powers that were registered.
3. Legally considered to be a "peace officer" for the purpose of carrying a normal equipment and powers that were registered into a courthouse, government building, or other public place.
4. Granted $250,000 worth of "superhero liability" insurance by GOSH.
5. Annual Salary of $75,000 from GOSH.
6. Filing complete reports on all incidents in which the registrant acts as a superhero.
7. Testifying at the trials of all criminals captured by the hero unless emergency situations dictate otherwise.
8. Responding to any crises and other emergencies to which they are called when it's logistically feasible to do so.
9. Responding to any crimes committed with the use of superpowers when within a reasonable distance. (What constitutes a "reasonable distance" is determined by the capabilities of the hero's movement powers.)
10. Committing no crimes. (Any accusations are usually heard before GOSH itself before a criminal trial is held; whether the Board's findings are admissible in court is still subject to some debate.)
11. Furthering his or her education as a superhero, through either refresher of the procedural seminar or other coursework. At least four GOSH course-hours of work must be completed each year.
12. Must have reliable method that the government can reach you.

Additional benefits and obligations of being a GOSH Hero

1. Allowed to access criminal, driving, and other low-security government records on request.
2. Given special protection of his or her civilian identity as a “Top Secret” leveled secret.
3. Allowed to file for a search warrant.
4. Granted an additional $500,000 worth of "superhero liability" insurance. ($750,000 total)
5. Addition to annual Salary of $75,000 ($150,000 total)

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Violations
Where there's a law, there must be penalties for violating that law, or the law cannot be enforced. At the same time, there are certain things that even non-registered people with superpowers may do, just as a matter of being good citizens. These things include:

• Rescuing others from immediate danger.
• Acting in self-defense.
• Assisting in disaster relief.

However, superpowered people who are not registered with GOSH may not, any more than a non-superpowered person (in dealing with non-superpowered crime), do the following:

• Conduct a criminal investigation, representing himself or herself as a sanctioned superhero or other type of law enforcement official. It's the latter part of this which is illegal (Impersonating an Officer); any citizen may make inquiries into a criminal matter.
• Actively attack or otherwise attempt to apprehend a criminal (Assault). (Note that a license as a Private Investigator or Bounty Hunter may also serve as an exception to this.)
• Carry a weapon of any sort into a courthouse, government building, or other public place (this is a special privilege for "peace officers"). Note that a "weapon" is an external device, as opposed to an intrinsic superpower.
• Casually and publicly discharge a weapon or superpower capable of causing serious injury to a person (Reckless Endangerment).

(This is based on the great work of Bob Greenwade)