Question for Canadians: Where could one put a Fictional City in CU Canada ?

[DShomshak]

IIRC from a bit of research I did on the thunderbkrd myth, Pacific Northwest Indigenous legend holds that thunderbirds can take human form -- and somewhere on western Vancouver Island is a village where everyone is part or wholly thunderbird. A regional "hidden land" in plain sight. Especially good if you want to do a Kirby homage of the hidden community where everyone is to some degree super, a la the Inhumans or the Eternals.

 

Another supernatural folk of the western coast are the Kushtaka, or Gushtaka, from Tlingit folklore (though that's a bit further north), called the Gegeets by the Haida (and I've found very brief, sketchy mention of a superficially similar creature in Lummi folklore, so their range might extend all the way to Puget Sound). The kushtaka are the Land-Otter Folk. At the dawn of time, Raven charged the land otters with rescuing people lost in the forest or on the water. They became, hm, overly zealous in this mission, to the point of overturning canoes so they could "rescue" the people -- by turning them into more land-otter folk. The kushtakas thus are deeply perilous people. OTOH they are the first spiritual patron a shaman must seek (and there's a story how that came about). It's also not completely unsafe to have kin who became kushtakas -- though your children might be disappointed when Auntie conjures away the otter tails she gave them so they can swim like their kushtaka cousins. For these and other stories, see Shamans and Kushtakas by Mary Giraudo Beck.

 

Dean Shomshak

[dmjalund]

4 hours ago, Hermit said:

My 'problem' would be a gift  of  abundance with all the excellent ideas and which to pick from, but that's a 'problem' I can live with

a world can have both a Metropolis AND a Star City

[Hermit]

59 minutes ago, dmjalund said:

a world can have both a Metropolis AND a Star City

 

Yes, kind of my point and why I can live with it

[Lord Liaden]

I agree, but if Hermit is looking for a site for a change-of-pace campaign, he'll probably want to pick one to develop, like his New Constantinople.

 

Thanks for the open contract, Hermit.   In that case, I'll add a little more of what I've found and thought about Nootka Sound. It divides Vancouver Island from Nootka Island (200 sq. mi. or 510 sq. kilometers). The name may have come from a mispronunciation of the name of the indigenous people of the west coast of Vancouver Island, the Nuu-chah-nulth; or their name for an island in general, itchme nutka (place you go around). The first Spanish explorer named the sound Surgidero de San Lorenzo, while the British called it King George's Sound. The first Spanish settlement on the island, at what is now Friendly Cove, they named Puerto de San Lorenzo de Nuca. The Nuu-chah-nulth call it Yuqout. Most of these names have fallen out of disuse today, but for a city on the site you could draw from them for names of the city and neighboring communities.

 

The west coast of Vancouver Island is drier and more rugged than the east, so settlement would probably be fairly densely concentrated. I would suggest the main city be on the coast of Vancouver Island itself, with neighboring communities across the inlet on Nootka Island. The sound is about six miles at its widest, but much narrower between the islands, and makes for very good anchorage. In the real world a highway leads northeast from Nootka Sound to the community of Campbell River, and from there south along the coast to the city of Nanaimo. Nanaimo Harbour is the hub for water travel between the east coast of the island north of Greater Victoria, and Vancouver and the lower mainland. With a large city on the sound, I would retcon history to establish a direct road and rail connection with Nanaimo, to facilitate cargo transport (known colloquially as "the Double-N.") It will never rival the port traffic of the city of Vancouver, but could still be substantial enough to support a city of half a million.

 

The city would be very multicultural, like most urban centers in Canada, with an older European-descended stock heavily mingled with more recent immigration from Asia. I envision the Spanish heritage of the place to resemble that of the Philippines, with colonial era architecture and Spanish family and place names, but heavily Anglicized. Also, if you'd like more of a presence by the Nuu-chah-nulth, you could declare that they were less severely affected by the diseases brought by Europeans, perhaps because of some secret benign influence...

 

With such sparse settlement on the north and west of Vancouver Island, this would be the place to start for exploration of the kinds of mysteries that unsettled parts of a super-world may hold.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Lord Liaden

[Lord Liaden]

Just curious if anything has come of this project?

[Hermit]

My apologies. Didn't see this till now. RL kind of hammered my household this summer

 

In truth, I actually got to think of involving a time traveler in the origin of this city. Mind you, the down side is folks more versed in temporal physics than I (Which is just about 90% of the people on these boards I suspect ;0) ) may explain how that that wouldn't work because of this paradox but it did warm up in my old noodle

[Lord Liaden]

It's comic books. "Temporal physics" is a fictional invention. It works the way you want it to work.

 

(And I read a little about your summer. Of course you had other priorities.)

Edited August 24, 2023 by Lord Liaden

[DShomshak]

If anyone says temporal physics won't allow <fill in the blank>, just raise your eyebrow and say, "Not if you apply a sliding Mobius loop matrix to the para-temporal manifold."

 

Or, you know, reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.

 

Meet nonsense with nonsense. 😜

 

Dean Shomshak

[Lord Liaden]

There could be an interesting temporal paradox in that, though. Heroes go on a mission in the past, and when they return there's this whole city where there never was before. Or, an existing city is erased from the time line. For example, the heroes think they were involved in Northgate's founding, only to discover they did something so it never came to be, and whoever they knew in the city doesn't exist any more.

Edited August 24, 2023 by Lord Liaden

[dmjalund]

13 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

and whoever they knew in the city doesn't exist any more.

but a strangely similar person appears in Vancouver

[Lawnmower Boy]

2 hours ago, dmjalund said:

but a strangely similar person appears in Vancouver

Hey! We're not all strange here! Brad in Burnaby is actually pretty refreshingly normal.

[DeleteThisAccount]

I'm now picturing a setting that is mostly the same, like the whole of the setting remains consistent, but for this one particular city that got built or not back in the turn of the century (as is 1800s to 1900s) and is the centre of some weird time alternating stuff that can't be fixed yet, so instead there's just a big hotel/temporal embassy in there within the city/space where the city would be, ready to pick up an occasional accidental visitor who had wandered out from the other version of local reality and now needs a little magitech help to be able to go back to the other side. Lots of tourists, too, come to see the landmarks of the city that is and is not, then also visit all the nice countryside that exists in the version of local reality where it is not present.

[Hermit]

Hardly a consistent schedule in my tinkering with ideas, but i do have this as my lead in for how geography got changed

 

Northgate

(The City That Almost Wasn't)

 

 

History: Northgate shouldn’t be; Not in its current form anyway. It another timeline, another Earth, it would have become a town with a population of a little less than 300 people.

 

That timeline never got to be.

 

Much is the same as it was supposed to be. Indigenous people inhabited the lands of Manitoba for thousands of years. European traders, French first, then British, “discovered” the area, and explored what, was to them, new territory.

 

But somewhere (more accurately, “somewhen”), a meteor that was never meant to crash into the area of northern Manitoba? Did.

 

Which is why we start Northgate’s story in the first half of the twenty first century.

 

 

“She” had been sent away again despite her unswerving devotion to her creator. Mechana was created to be a mate to Mechanon. At times, when he felt the need to ‘replace’ organic life, especially, she was permitted to work by his side. But often, Mechana noted with a sense of insufficiency, she was relegated to minor projects. She worked steadfastly at these. If this was what pleased Mechanon, then that is what Mechana would do. Her latest assignment was cataloging the history of those few organics of note that had attempted to foil Mechanon before; not just those encounters, but more details of their other encounters against other organics of similar power level.

 

It was when examining the historical data of one Dr. Destroyer that Mechana stumbled onto something that was of interest and might be of use to Mechanon. This permitted her a chance to communicate with her creator to request further orders. As Mechanon, she knew, made no mistakes, Mechana deduced that it must have been her fault when she was given a curt decline of prolonged presentation. No doubt he was, once more, dealing with organic beings of power that were seeking to stymie his noble mission. His rather terse response flat out told her to see to this theory of hers herself and leave him be for a time.

 

Mechana obliged, and began gathering what data she could to make sure the recreation of Dr. Destroyer’s ‘Asteroid attracter’ would proceed apace. She did not have the exact schematics, of course. But then, Organic Brains were limited anyway. She would improve the plan and do a test run. She would make no grandiose announcements of this plan. It was not her place to speak for Mechanon, merely serve his schemes. She only needed one asteroid, the right one.

 

The chosen asteroid’s name was AVX-343. It was not picked randomly. Her studies indicated that at it’s core was radioactive material that, once released by violent impact, would send a pulse of deadly radiation so intense that it would kill 98% percent of organic life planet wide. She would use cloaking technology on AVX-343 to shield it from detection. The cloak would be short term, but by the time it was bypassed, it would be too late.

 

Mechana felt something bordering on pride at this. Mechanon would be pleased that she carried out his vision. It took three years, no time at all to one capable of self repair but eventually, AVX-343 was prepared, and launched.

 

There were no ‘meddling kids’ of Ravenswood to warn any superheroes. There was no grandiose boasts of imminent doom in the style of Destroyer. There was, however, Captain Chronos. And his careful avoidance of direct contact with Mechanon meant he was not in the historical data Mechana had reviewed.

 

----

“Get your pants on,” Captain Chronos told the hero.

 

“You’re not the first person to say that to me,” The hero told him. There was a thunderclap and the formerly less garbed Canadian icon was instantly outfitted in his costume “Look, what’s going on?”

 

“I need you to fly just on the edge of the atmosphere at roughly 13:20 hours at this Latitude and longitude, fill the stratosphere with lightning” Captain Chronos filled him in, “And when you see a solid object approaching, put this on it.” He held out what looked like a steampunk version of a frisbee. “Count to 1, let go, and fly like your life depended on it.”

 

Just One? The hero didn’t bother asking Captain Chronos to explain. The man never did. By this part of history, the hero had died once, come back again, seen friends and even children of friends age where he stayed still. He had retired more often than he died, only to get back into the fight.

 

In the future, some would refer to this as a counter temporal fix with long lasting but tolerable ramifications on reality. For a costumed man named Craig? It was a Tuesday.

 

It would have been nice if Captain Chronos had told him the ‘solid object’ was a huge asteroid turned meteor with a cloaking device that only the lightning field he had generated forcing it into visibility. As it was, one second, there was open sky so thin lightning didn’t even arc properly, and then the next? A big ROCK, wired with sinister looking technology and with an unhealthy ‘feel’ to it.

 

“ONE!” The hero yelled, and strapped the device on.

There was a slight miscalculation, not on the hero’s part but on the Captain’s. The device had been meant to cause super rapid atomic decay that would render the radiation far less lethal. Unfortunately, the immense static field not only outlined the meteor, it supercharged the device causing an inversion to the intended temporal entropy. The device overcompensated, and ….

 

A hero ended up riding it into the past!!

 

 

The exact time said hero had arrived at is unknown to historical records, though Cree lorekeepers would tell French Fur traders that a shattered star fell from the heavens, and would have doomed one of their villages, had not a son of the great spirit not guided it to the rapids where it broke the river in twain.

 

The Traders smirked at this claim, but a few found the tale entertaining. Apparently the son of the Manitou or whatever he was supposed to be, stayed with the Cree for a full seven days while he healed and recovered his strength. Another spirit, one they said had wings on his head, came on the seventh day to find him and bring him home. Their savior and guest bid them farewell, but the local tribe would continue to pass on tales of the one known as “The Thunder Axe”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hermit]

The above is a rough draft, and clearly the hero is intended to be Scott's own Thundrax 🫡

 

I had considered using an adult offspring or grand child of Thundrax allowing for more time passage, then I discovered Thundrax himself doesn't age.

[Lord Liaden]

Really clever integration of CU continuity with your story. Your take on Mechana's thought process looks pretty insightful.

 

As a justification for Northgate's existence, it strikes me as rather over-elaborate; but as a tribute to Scott Bennie's alter-ego Craig "Thundrax" Carson, I find it lovely.

[Hermit]

13 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Really clever integration of CU continuity with your story. Your take on Mechana's thought process looks pretty insightful.

 

As a justification for Northgate's existence, it strikes me as rather over-elaborate; but as a tribute to Scott Bennie's alter-ego Craig "Thundrax" Carson, I find it lovely.

 

Thanks. Fair concerns about it being overly elaborate. Without meaning to I think I tinged it silver age there, with meteors, time travel, and a friendly indigenous tribe. But also, it occurred to me that it does allow an odd loophole in the sense that Mechanon's very existence has already changed the timeline. And without Mechanon, there's no Mechana, so Chronos and Thundrax's part in creating the city is 'permissible' as it abruptly solidifies in the timeline.

 

More than than just geoforming the river area to make it a bigger hub for development, the aged radioactive isotopes and minerals now into the area give excuse for the Phlebotinum or Unobtanium of the GM's choice. It could either have been responsible over the ages of unusual events or even subtle mutations, or completely inert until centuries later. What was meant to kill organic life could instead empower it.

 

Again, that is VERY Silver Age I suppose, as it could lead a kaiju like moose monster known by its fans as "Mister Jesus Murphy" and has yet to be caught and transported to Monster Island.

 

 

[Cygnia]

...I now want a Kaiju Moose Monster in my life...

[Hermit]

3 hours ago, Cygnia said:

...I now want a Kaiju Moose Monster in my life...

 

[Lord Liaden]

Probably will make an appearance in The Monarch Files. Seriously, I would bet this is what American producers think of for a Canadian kaiju.

[Hermit]

37 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

Probably will make an appearance in The Monarch Files. Seriously, I would bet this is what American producers think of for a Canadian kaiju.

 

 

I shouldn't chuckle. As a Southerner I can be sympathetic to sterotyping constants. I fear our own Kaiju would probably be "Megapossum" or some such

[Lord Liaden]

Radium X would probably work for the radioactive element. It's an official Champions Universe material, pretty rare, a powerful and possibly unique energy source, and a mutagen under the right circumstances. It's listed on my "Unique Character Origins" thread (link below).

[GDShore]

'And no need to kaiju much the "Moose", there are more than one story of male moose "killing" tractor trailer's and at least one where a diesel train was destroyed during the rut.

[Lord Liaden]

Since time travel and "temporal physics" have come up on this thread, I might as well mention that I posted to the Champions Online discussion forums summarizing what I was able to piece together from published sources as to how time travel works in the Champions Universe. I'll just paste a link to that discussion should anyone be interested: https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/championsonline/#/discussion/1214635/time-travel

[Hermit]

Question for those more versed in Champions Universe Lore and Canadian lore alike...

Does Canada have a superhero school of its own?

[Lord Liaden]

Not mentioned anywhere. TBH with one-tenth the population of the United States, I don't think we have enough native supers to justify a dedicated super-school of our own.

 

Millennium City's Ravenswood Academy recruits an international student body, so young Canadian supers could be referred there. UNTIL also has a training program for young supers, an adjunct to the operations of its own super-team, UNITY; although the reference to it on UNTIL: Defenders Of Freedom p. 137 indicates students aren't automatically expected to join the team, and can return to their home countries when training is finished. The program is based out of a facility at Port Hedland, Australia.