- Location
- Great Khanate of Scotland
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The year is 2030
America lies in ruins
Now is the time of the superpowered warlord
It began with "the Empowerment". A global event, the causes and origins unexplained to this day, that imbued millions around the globe with superhuman abilities. For a time, America saw a proliferation of supercriminals and vigilantes. It looked like a golden age of superheroism, like that depicted in comic books and movies, would be realized. But the media, so caught up in tales of superheroism, failed to notice the deeper problems - the poverty, the riots, the political dysfunction.America lies in ruins
Now is the time of the superpowered warlord
Then came King Steel.
His plan to take over the country (and then...the WORLD) was doomed to fail, even if he did succeed in killing half the Senate and the Vice President on national tv. He was just one man. But King Steel showed other supervillains that it was possible, that the US was weaker than they imagined. The smarter ones realized that to succeed, you needed a militia, a government, support from the general population. What followed was the Year of the Supervillains, as warlords such as Nemesis and Captain Power rose to control swathes of the US. Other places saw mass uprisings led by the first of the "super-revolutionaries". The United States was reeling.
Minuteman was the killing blow.
The strongest super the United States had ever seen, even to this day his power has been surpassed by a single-digit number of supers worldwide. He led his militia on Washington, ready to cleanse this country of the rot and usher in a restoration of the true America envisioned by the Founding Fathers. The best supers of a generation laid down their lives to kill him, in a six-day battle that ruined most of the capital. The surviving government moved to Cheyenne Mountain, government authority collapsed, and a hundred superpowered warlords filled the vacuum. That was ten years ago.
Ten years after the Battle of DC, the country is shattered. There is still a United States - there were many supers loyal to the government - but many "loyalist" walords owe fealty to Cheyenne Mountain in name only - and much of the country is still in the hands of revolutionary movements, fascist insurgencies, supervillains, and warlords of every description. Chaos reigns.
Factions of the Cape Wars
The United States of America
("the Loyalists", officially the Emergency Council to Restore the Republic)
Based out of Cheyenne Mountain, the rump United States is governed by an executive council, imbued with special emergency powers after the Battle of DC. Helmed by President Arthur Mencken, the true power behind the throne is Captain Cosmos, the strongest super in the US. However, there are many loyalist warlords, some good, some bad - frequently, more and more of them are bad, as many have realized they can use the legitimacy of the US government to shore up their flagging warlord states. America is down, but not out - and while Captain Cosmos lives, there is always the hope for the future of the American way.
Captain Power
One of the two remaining warlords left over from the Year of the Supervillains, Captain Power rules Wisconsin and Michigan with a steady hand. He promotes the image of himself as protector and defender of the common man, "the supervillain you can have a beer with!" He rules through a deft mix of propaganda and actually efficient administration - his touch is not too light, not too heavy. So long as he keeps the people of his "Superior Republic" fed, housed, and safe, resistance is muted. Captain Power is one of the top three supers in the country.
Nemesis
She grew from a traumatized abuse victim to be the cold-blooded ruler of most of America's most populous state. Nemesis rules through a personal ideology that claims to respond to the failures of democracy and capitalism, but despite her superpower being lacking compared to heavy-hitters such as Red Hammer or Captain Cosmos, she is incredibly intelligent and relies on competent and trustworthy subordinates.
The Popular Front
Many "super-revolutionaries" got their start by accident, during the riots and intercommunal bloodshed that broke out as the US unravelled. They fought the police, defended their communities against fascist supervillains, and eventually formed the Popular Front - not a government, but a team of left-wing supers that defends a loose coalition of anarchists, communists, and even socdems.
Red Hammer
The micromanaging head of a local DSA chapter in Boston before he got his superpowers, Red Hammer led the Boston Revolution that grew to liberate most of New England. Since then, significant democratic and revolutionary backsliding has occurred, to the dissatisfaction of other leftist factions. Red Hammer promotes an incoherent mix of Stalinism, Marxist-Leninist-Maoism, and even Juche as he manages his authoritarian regime. Hated by many but seen by some as the vanguard of the revolution, Red Hammer straddles the line between supervillain and super-revolutionary.
Player Characters
You are a superpowered individual. You may be a hero, a villain, a revolutionary, a warlord - you may have no allegiance, or you may defy definition. Submit your application with the following:
Name:
Pronouns:
Age:
Starting Location:
Powers:
Faction:
Bio:
Age
The Empowerment affected a random selection of humans between the ages of 20 and 40. That was in 2014, and it is now 2030 - the youngest possible persons to get their powers is now 37, and the oldest is 56. It is unclear if the Empowerment can ever reoccur, or if powers can be transferred, replicated, or inherited (some people have been around long enough to have kids - some of them have had a lot of kids).
Starting Location
If you choose to be a warlord, you may claim any territory on the map provided it is a contiguous part of the continental United States, not controlled by another faction (reference the map above), and limited to one whole US state.
Powers
Don't concern yourself with powerscaling or quantifying your power. Be warned that there are limits - no "magic" powers (Dr. Strange), no mind control, no "meta" powers (such as the ability to alter, enhance, or remove others' powers). Generally, you are mid-tier supers, not on the level of a Captain Power or a Minuteman, but perhaps strong enough to hold your own with them, provided you are clever and lucky.
Supers with super-intelligence, or "superints" exist, and are more than capable of bringing fantastic inventions into being - anti-gravity devices, directed energy weapons, jetpacks, suits of power armor, force fields, and many other strange and fantastical devices. However, in America's current wartorn state, with global supply chains shot to hell, obtaining the supplies to manufacture these devices en masse is quite impossible. A single supervillain can make single a death ray in his garage - to equip his army with them, he'll need to cut a deal with a supplier.
Faction
You may create your own faction or join an NPC faction (see above). If you choose to create your own faction, factors such as stability, efficiency, your military strength, and your industrial base will be judged by me. This will determine what is within your ability to achieve - a small, unstable warlord state with a ramshackle militia will have trouble projecting power, let alone taking on the United States government.
The deadline to submit is Friday, December 1st.
And join the Discord!
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