The Emergence Of Superhumans

[OddHat]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

I'd be cautious when discussing the use of raw physical power in politics.

 

You need a lot of people willing to use raw force to hold together a dictatorship, and a certain amount of popular support. A dictatorship of Supers is a perfectly valid idea to play with, but you either need a lot of Supers to pull it off, a few Cosmic level Supers, or a reason for large numbers of Normals to enthusiastically follow their Super overlords.

 

Personally, I've used the Divine Right argument in a campaign, and it worked well enough to suspend disbelief, but the world looked nothing like the modern West.

[Steve]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

I'd be cautious when discussing the use of raw physical power in politics.

 

You need a lot of people willing to use raw force to hold together a dictatorship, and a certain amount of popular support. A dictatorship of Supers is a perfectly valid idea to play with, but you either need a lot of Supers to pull it off, a few Cosmic level Supers, or a reason for large numbers of Normals to enthusiastically follow their Super overlords.

 

I agree that a certain caution is required. I'm not trying to restart the superhumans as dictators arguments I've seen pop up on the boards now and then.

 

One thing I didn't previously consider in my timeline is the ratio of humans and superhumans and how it might change over time. When the energy wave keys the superhuman genes to activate in 1000 AD, roughly one human in a million becomes empowered. I've seen estimates of human population at the time as 265 million on this webpage, so that gives a world population of about 250-300 superhumans. Assuming the genes are recessive by nature, there will be a lot of intermixing with normal humans at first as the world numbers come up. So maybe by the time of this alternate Earth's 21st century that number has increased at a faster rate than normal humanity's growth rate. If it drops to as low as one in fifty thousand, that gives a world population of superhumans of over 120 thousand for a total world population of six billion. Adoption into the superhuman elite would likely be an accepted part of the culture after a millenium.

 

 

Personally' date=' I've used the Divine Right argument in a campaign, and it worked well enough to suspend disbelief, but the world looked nothing like the modern West.[/quote']

 

I'm inclined to view the world in this alternate timeline as being something like Marvel's "House of M" storyline. Although that world had mutants at roughly fifty percent of the total population.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

Would someone like Marx get much traction in a superhuman-dominated world?

 

That depends. Are we talking Karl or Groucho?

[assault]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

Would someone like Marx get much traction in a superhuman-dominated world?

 

Yes and No.

 

First, it depends on your assumptions. Because we are free to set our starting conditions, we can manipulate the outcomes as we see fit. In other words, this whole discussion is a forest of strawmen.

 

With that said: the historical socialist movement emerged in the later days of the French Revolution. There had been previous utopian writers, but its on the ground manifestation emerged in the left wing of the revolution after the more conservative elements had consolidated power. After these early socialists were massacred, it survived as a set of underground conspiracies and sects.

 

Marx and Engels were intellectuals who took over the leadership of one of these conspiracies - the League of the Just - ridded it of its semi-Masonic conspiratorial trappings, and renamed it the Communist League.

 

The previous sentence answers the question, doesn't it?

 

Marx was the leader of the Justice League!

[Steve]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

Yes and No.

 

First, it depends on your assumptions. Because we are free to set our starting conditions, we can manipulate the outcomes as we see fit. In other words, this whole discussion is a forest of strawmen.

 

I wasn't trying to set up a straw man argument. I was attempting to look at the question from the POV of a world where superhumans had been around for centuries before thinkers like Karl Marx came about. Would communism have an appeal in a world where living gods fly through the skies? After eight hundred years, it seems to me that they would be an accepted part of the landscape. Would there be a form of worship of them as some kind of higher being? What would be the economic effects of men and women able to do the kinds of things that superhumans can do?

 

Would the existence of superhumans as a hereditary nobility impose a sort of social stasis on society? I'm inclined to think that this alternate Earth's human society would evolve from feudalism over time, and that a form of the Industrial Revolution would occur.

 

I continue to think about the abilities common to superhumans of this alternate Earth, one of them is an extended lifespan, but not more than twice what a human can live. I've also been thinking about old age effects on superhumans and how I might model its effects.

[assault]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

What would be the economic effects of men and women able to do the kinds of things that superhumans can do?

 

What can they do?

 

That's what I was getting at when I was talking about assumptions.

 

How much does the economy depend on them? How much are they parasites on everybody else's labour? Do they serve a socially useful purpose?

 

FWIW, I recommend reading Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light. First, it's relevant, and second, you should read it anyway, because it rocks.

 

I wasn't being intentionally nasty when I used the term "strawmen". I was just pointing out that the outcome of the situation would reflect the conditions you initially assume, rather than being anything objective.

[Clonus]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

Would the existence of superhumans as a hereditary nobility impose a sort of social stasis on society? I'm inclined to think that this alternate Earth's human society would evolve from feudalism over time, and that a form of the Industrial Revolution would occur.

 

Ah but evolve from feudalism into what? Absolute monarchy, bureaucratic meritocracy, oligarchic republic, theocracy? Democracy is not inevitable when there is a manifest and gigantic inequality in capability between the rulers and ruled.

[OddHat]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

Ah but evolve from feudalism into what? Absolute monarchy' date=' bureaucratic meritocracy, oligarchic republic, theocracy? Democracy is not inevitable when there is a manifest and gigantic inequality in capability between the rulers and ruled.[/quote']

 

Also important to ask what happens with new Supers. If any child born in a small village can one day become a Super, as compared to only the children of the Elite, it can make a huge difference. David Gemmell does a good job playing with this idea a bit in his Echoes of the Great Song. The Super Children of the "Lower" classes are going to want entry into the upper classes, and they'll likely retain considerable loyalty to their families and friends from their pre-Super days.

 

I don't do a rule-by-Supers society in my modern games, but my High Fantasy campaign had the magic blessed children of the poor as a moderately effective social balance against the abuses of the ruling classes. You can order as many peasants burned as you want to, but there's a chance one or more of them will actually have the power to retaliate, or have a relative with that power; the thinking tyrant will be more careful when facing that kind of risk.

[Metaphysician]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

This thread reminds me of the Ancient Aberrant campaign I am in, where the question of "What happens when supers emerge in a pre-modern setting" is answered in many. . . and conflicting. . . different ways. The results ranged from "a society founded on the principle that men and gods both can work together to build a better world for all" to "Apokalips in single city form", with various things in between.

[assault]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

Meh. If I was a godking, I'd just sit around in my paradise and let the mortals rule themselves. I might even encourage them to establish a democracy.

[Nagisawa Takumi]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

Actually, the reasons my Universe doesn't have super tech all over the place is from TVtropes, actually, the comics they reference as to why it's not in the Marvel Universe. I'll link the two paragraphs directly.

 

 

• Hand Waved somewhat during the Mark Waid run on Fantastic Four, when one issue revealed that Reed does indeed make money from some of his patents... by taking money from other corporations to delay releasing advanced products that would revolutionize whole industries overnight and likely destroy the world economy by putting millions out of work. For instance, he takes money from Sony not to release a portable super-computer he has developed, which would presumably pose a significant risk to Sony's current market share and operational procedures (and those of other computer manufacturers as well). He presumably does this with other advanced technologies, but it is not specified which ones; a later issue mentions him selling a cure for acne to Revlon.
  
• There is technology higher than the real world's available in the Marvel Universe- everything from ray guns to cybernetics to jet packs and more; it's just too expensive for the average person. This is the very reason for the existence of companies such as Tony "Iron Man" Stark's, which provides wealthy organizations like SHIELD with their equipment. Sometimes it even filters down to less rich people, for example if stolen. Of course, why the process for making it all cheaper hasn't been invented is a good question.
  

And it's rebuttal:

 

 

• Not if you know modern tech like, well, aerospace in general. Manned space flight is solely practiced by NASA; which is both A). a research agency more interested in building new tech instead of streamlining the old - so it all remains expensive fifty freaking years after it was developed. and . a regulatory agency, making it the only business in the US that is permitted to deny licensing to their competitors, meaning nobody else gets to try. A less soul-crushing example is supersonic flight - the Concorde wasn't advanced enough to be efficient and therefore wasn't profitable. The new SSBJs (Super Sonic Business Jets) are a more reasonable attempt at developing a market for the technology. Stark and Richards probably have prototype wondertech up the wazoo but no market to develop it into commercially viable products - The Government isn't going to let their contractors provide protesters with Powered Armor and Flying Cars.
  

Those are MY reasons as to why the tech level isn't all that much higher. Is it realistic? Maybe. Is it PLAUSIBLE? Entirely.

[OddHat]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

Stargate had an "Ancient Gene" that some had and some didn't. If you had the right genetic codes, the higher technology of the Gate Builders worked for you; of not, it was so much junk.

[novi]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

I agree that a certain caution is required. I'm not trying to restart the superhumans as dictators arguments I've seen pop up on the boards now and then.

 

One thing I didn't previously consider in my timeline is the ratio of humans and superhumans and how it might change over time. When the energy wave keys the superhuman genes to activate in 1000 AD, roughly one human in a million becomes empowered. I've seen estimates of human population at the time as 265 million on this webpage, so that gives a world population of about 250-300 superhumans. Assuming the genes are recessive by nature, there will be a lot of intermixing with normal humans at first as the world numbers come up. So maybe by the time of this alternate Earth's 21st century that number has increased at a faster rate than normal humanity's growth rate. If it drops to as low as one in fifty thousand, that gives a world population of superhumans of over 120 thousand for a total world population of six billion. Adoption into the superhuman elite would likely be an accepted part of the culture after a millenium.

 

True, some of our arguments are based on it skipping straight to the 1 in 10000 level. If you want it to start at the 1 in a million level, that will give different results. You'll initially see them taking leadership roles or being the power behind the throne (both grand vizier and number one flunky modes). I don't want to imply that it was a less civilized time, but there was a much stronger tradition of raising an army and creating your own little kingdom one thousand years ago, or at least it was much easier than today. So for the first couple of hundred years, you'll see superhuman strongmen leading armies and/or countries, as there aren't enough of them to reliably produce superpowered offspring. After that, you'll have enough superhumans around to breed amongst themselves.

 

It is logical that the proportion of superhumans would increase with time. Their children would have lower childhood mortality rates due to high wealth and power, and superhumans will likely be promiscuous due to the rock star and politician factors. It is also in genre to assume that strong carriers of the Mutant Factor will be healthier than average, progressively increasing the percentage of the population that are carriers. Oddly enough, you'd probably see the percentage of superhumans level off at the Industrial revolution (technically the Agricultural revolution, but they happened together), as childhood mortality rates plummeted. For instance, in parts of England in the 17th century, only 10% of people survived to age 20. So even a small survival advantage would increase the numbers. But as basic sanitation and medicine are introduced, mortality rates fall and most people start surviving to adulthood, the survival advantage enjoyed by superhumans and carriers would lessen and you'd stop seeing a steady growth in their percentage. It wouldn't completely stop, but it would slow to nearly imperceptible.

 

I assume that you're going with uniform distribution among all reasonable demographic groups? Ignoring bad reactions by the locals, and calling it 300 superhumans at about 1000 AD, you'd see about 69 in China, 90 in India, 51 in the rest of Asia, 42 in Europe, 36 in Africa, and a dozen elsewhere. historical population estimates

 

Admittedly, if you allow for bad reactions, like stoning the witches to death, you might see parts of the world that have lower percentages of superhumans. You might see that crop up in areas with strong misogyny, where early female superhumans get killed for upsetting the natural balance, and it takes longer for large number of superhumans to emerge. You'd also have issue with caste systems (cough, India), where superhumans emerging from the lower castes goes against the natural order, and they tend to be exterminated to preserve the world view of the higher castes.

[novi]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

Another thing to remember is that many different things will happen in different parts of the world. India will not have the same reaction to superhumans as China, neither will match the Muslim world, or Europe. Or even everywhere in those areas react the same, say, for instance, the Papal states or France or the Vikings. I don't have enough knowledge of history and culture to tell you about every part of the world, but you'll see almost everything tried somewhere on Earth.

[OddHat]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

It is logical that the proportion of superhumans would increase with time.

 

Depends on the other assumptions in the setting. In my own setting, the Superhuman population tends to rise and fall in waves. There seem to be several complex forces at work keeping the population in check, and there's considerable debate over how and why the Superhuman population tends to colapse within a generation or two after a boom. That most Supers are sterile in my setting certainly contributes, as does the fact that most children of Supers don't display any special powers themselves (though their powers may manifest later under conditions of extreme stress, and their own children may display such powers). There are a few bloodlines where powers reliably are passed down, but those families too tend towards low fertility.

 

DC was (iirc) the first company to introduce rising and falling magic levels to account for colapses in Superhuman populations (a trope the CU borrowed, and one I dislike and avoid).

 

Not that you can't design a system any way you'd like; just pointing out that there are many ways you can go.

[LoresLost]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

Doing a quick read of this thread, I would say a early dark age appearance of super-powers would lead to something looking a lot like the Girl Genius Universe With supers and mad scientist wrestling for control of humanity leaving a lot of corpses in their wake.

 

The Aristocracy would be those who claimed to be most fit to rule and those would have to be those with powers or the ability to stop those with powers. A normal living in that world would be asking and hoping for a Storm King or a Baron Wulfenbach to stop the insanity and make it safe...

 

This would be either a prolong dark age or, with a long lived ruler, long period of growth and peace... Or some combination of both where the one person would have a stable rule that ends with his death and cycles of violence until the next strong ruler who also is enlightened to allow growth comes along.

[novi]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

It would be expedient to keep as many superhumans as possible into the ruling class, but there will also be rebels.

 

The colonization of America would still occur, but is an American Revolution still possible in a world where superhumans have been the rulers for centuries? Could democracy flower in such a world?

 

The American Revolution could happen. If we posit that the Enlightenment still happened, and also that you get English colonies in America that are operated under the rules of mercantilism, and thus regarded solely as economic resources, and a bit of an out of the way backwater, and not a true part of England, you might see the following: There is resentment in the colonies as native born supers are brought back to England and incorporated into the nobility there, and also at the taxes and restrictive trade laws imposed on them to support England's military forces. Without the nobility around to run things, normals are left to run things for several generations. As the nobility acts crassly and makes things worse, the desire for independence grows. The supers that emerge in America during that period have been taught how badly their peers in England have been handling things, and a lot of them take it to heart and resist the temptation to join the establishment. Independence is declared, and America wins much the same way it did in the real world - by not losing before England gave up, as it has military commitments all across the globe. While supers were integral to the American victory, the Enlightenment ideal of 'all men born equal' has taken hold among the colonists, and resentment against the concept of nobility leads them to democracy. While supers are heavily represented in the government, they never completely dominate it, inspiring normals around the world as the nation improbably survives and thrives without nobility.

 

Of course, this assumes that the science of heredity and genetics is not much more advanced than in the real world at the time. Since supers can be born of any parents, it seems, and some noble children lack powers, 'All men born equal' takes on a slightly new meaning. While science might later prove it wrong, it would be popular among the masses. And with supers in the 400 point range, a sufficiently motivated mob is still a threat.

 

Of course, this assumes that somehow the Americas are colonized in the exact same way as the real world, which I find preposterous. To start with, you'd have Native American superhumans, blunting the Europeans' military edge. I also suspect that contact with the Americas would happen sooner, as crossing the Atlantic would be less daunting for Supers. I also feel that there'd be less colonization in this world, partly because it would be harder to displace the natives, but also because there would be different economic incentives in such a world. In the real world, a lot of economic output is required for the upkeep of armies and navies. In superworld, you need much less, as you don't have a large standing army and your navy is much cheaper without the need for large ships-of-the-line (let's face it - large, slow ships are easy pickings for supers, so warships will be small, fast, and lightly armed). In the real world, military forces can be sustained at 1% of the total population, and can peak higher during total war, nearing 20% for Russia in WW2. But in superworld, you're looking at .001% of the population, max, as the military force of the nation, and a smaller budget for warships and artillery as well.

 

Actually, this is an interesting point that I just noticed, but superworld has historically lower taxes than in the real world, since it doesn't need as much money for the military. I'm not even sure how that would affect things, but I'm sure it would.

[novi]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

Depends on the other assumptions in the setting. In my own setting, the Superhuman population tends to rise and fall in waves. There seem to be several complex forces at work keeping the population in check, and there's considerable debate over how and why the Superhuman population tends to colapse within a generation or two after a boom. That most Supers are sterile in my setting certainly contributes, as does the fact that most children of Supers don't display any special powers themselves (though their powers may manifest later under conditions of extreme stress, and their own children may display such powers). There are a few bloodlines where powers reliably are passed down, but those families too tend towards low fertility.

 

DC was (iirc) the first company to introduce rising and falling magic levels to account for colapses in Superhuman populations (a trope the CU borrowed, and one I dislike and avoid).

 

Not that you can't design a system any way you'd like; just pointing out that there are many ways you can go.

 

Fair enough, I should have said that you can make a reasonable case for increasing superhuman population. I was also replying to Steve in regards to the world he is brainstorming here, where he is looking for superhuman population growth.

 

That's the thing about alternate histories, in that the possibilities are endless, so to get anywhere meaningful, you need to have an idea of where you want to end up.

[novi]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

One more question for Steve:

 

In this setting, how do trained normals fit in? Is there a place for Batman or Nighthawk or any of the other 'normals' that lack powers but are still able to fight on the same level as the powered folk? Or do the rules of the universe prohibit such characters? You mentioned weaponmasters earlier, but its hard to imagine how they'd be recognized as superhuman compared to bricks and blasters.

[csyphrett]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

I agree with Lord of Light where high tech is used to keep people from developing their society.

 

I also suggest other alternate histories where powers make a difference to the world. Girl Genuis has been mentioned. Most Myths, Mage by Matt Wagner, some of Hellboy, Lord Baltimore where the world is changed by the release of vampires during WWI, and something like Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy where England rules most of the world with magic.

 

It seems you have a lot of background chatter, but what's needed is an event. Metaphysician's abberant campaign comes across as supers as greek myths. Phil Farmer tried to link most pulp heroes to a meteor crash in England to create Wold Newton.

 

The picking of a time period will lead to natural changes based on real history. The rest will be easy.

CES

[Steve]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

What can they do?

 

I'm essentially looking at mutant types of powers, so the range of abilities could be fairly represented by looking through CU write-ups of those with the Distinctive Features: Mutant.

 

I have been thinking about the different powersets and how common they would be. A first draft view of this would be:

 

• Bricks - Very Common
  
• Energy Projectors - Common
  
• Martial Artists/Weaponmasters - Uncommon
  
• Mentalists - Rare
  
• Metamorphs - Rare
  
• Speedsters - Rare
  

 

Martial artists and weaponmasters would have physical enhancements from mutant abilities, but they would not have the raw physical power of a brick or energy projector. Gadgeteers and powered armor types, I'm not sure how to place. I'm looking at creating an Earth where superpowers are inborn or inborn and enhanced through training (martial artists/weaponmasters).

 

 

That's what I was getting at when I was talking about assumptions.

 

How much does the economy depend on them? How much are they parasites on everybody else's labour? Do they serve a socially useful purpose?

 

That's a very good question. If they are nobility, then they survive by taxation. I'd say their main purpose is the maintaining of order and justice within a nation and defending it from other nations.

 

One assumption I am making in this world is that superhumans are, on balance, good for humanity. It is a simulation of superheroics. There will be evil superhumans bent on world domination, backed by their followers, or thugs who enjoy harming others or stealing, but there will also be good superhumans who genuinely want to help and use their powers for good. They may see themselves as the caretakers and shepherds of humanity, or some other motivation that is heroic.

[Steve]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

Ah but evolve from feudalism into what? Absolute monarchy' date=' bureaucratic meritocracy, oligarchic republic, theocracy? Democracy is not inevitable when there is a manifest and gigantic inequality in capability between the rulers and ruled.[/quote']

 

Like the real world, I can imagine that there would be a variety of social systems in existence. Many would be absolute monarchies, some would be theocracies, and there will be democracies, although the notion of an Athenian democracy that was mentioned, where only superhumans have the vote, are some possibilities.

[Steve]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

Also important to ask what happens with new Supers. If any child born in a small village can one day become a Super' date=' as compared to only the children of the Elite, it can make a huge difference. David Gemmell does a good job playing with this idea a bit in his Echoes of the Great Song. The Super Children of the "Lower" classes are going to want entry into the upper classes, and they'll likely retain considerable loyalty to their families and friends from their pre-Super days.[/quote']

 

I'm thinking that adoption into the Elites is an accepted tradition. Superhumans are not born with their powers, but they manifest at puberty. This makes children a vulnerability to those with dynastic ambitions, but maybe an assumption could be made that children are off-limits to attack by any but the vilest sorts. And maybe they would be constrained by the notion that such an attack would bring down an incredible assault by others superhumans, treating anyone who would target children as a mad dog to be put down.

[Steve]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

True' date=' some of our arguments are based on it skipping straight to the 1 in 10000 level. If you want it to start at the 1 in a million level, that will give different results. You'll initially see them taking leadership roles or being the power behind the throne (both grand vizier and number one flunky modes). I don't want to imply that it was a less civilized time, but there was a much stronger tradition of raising an army and creating your own little kingdom one thousand years ago, or at least it was much easier than today. So for the first couple of hundred years, you'll see superhuman strongmen leading armies and/or countries, as there aren't enough of them to reliably produce superpowered offspring. After that, you'll have enough superhumans around to breed amongst themselves.[/quote']

 

Yes, I could see the initial group of superhumans working within the existing systems, as champions or advisors. In places such as China or India, there might be more loyalty to the existing rulers than you'd find in the West. The West was more balkanzied than China, but I'm not sure about India's structure at the time.

 

 

It is logical that the proportion of superhumans would increase with time. Their children would have lower childhood mortality rates due to high wealth and power' date=' and superhumans will likely be promiscuous due to the rock star and politician factors. It is also in genre to assume that strong carriers of the Mutant Factor will be healthier than average, progressively increasing the percentage of the population that are carriers. Oddly enough, you'd probably see the percentage of superhumans level off at the Industrial revolution (technically the Agricultural revolution, but they happened together), as childhood mortality rates plummeted. For instance, in parts of England in the 17th century, only 10% of people survived to age 20. So even a small survival advantage would increase the numbers. But as basic sanitation and medicine are introduced, mortality rates fall and most people start surviving to adulthood, the survival advantage enjoyed by superhumans and carriers would lessen and you'd stop seeing a steady growth in their percentage. It wouldn't completely stop, but it would slow to nearly imperceptible.[/quote']

 

Yes, I could see a larger increase in the numbers of superhumans before medical technology and sanitation improvements allow regular people to live longer. That's a good point on how population ratios might change pretty quickly at first, then slow down.

 

 

I assume that you're going with uniform distribution among all reasonable demographic groups? Ignoring bad reactions by the locals' date=' and calling it 300 superhumans at about 1000 AD, you'd see about 69 in China, 90 in India, 51 in the rest of Asia, 42 in Europe, 36 in Africa, and a dozen elsewhere.[/quote']

 

Yes, that is how I would see it happening. China and India getting the largest share might change the development of civilization to a more Eastern feel as the centuries roll on, but they might have more stasis built into their cultures than the West.

 

Africa and the Americas would seem to be ripe for the plucking by the Asians and Europeans.

 

 

Admittedly' date=' if you allow for bad reactions, like stoning the witches to death, you might see parts of the world that have lower percentages of superhumans. You might see that crop up in areas with strong misogyny, where early female superhumans get killed for upsetting the natural balance, and it takes longer for large number of superhumans to emerge. You'd also have issue with caste systems (cough, India), where superhumans emerging from the lower castes goes against the natural order, and they tend to be exterminated to preserve the world view of the higher castes.[/quote']

 

Those are good points to be considered.

 

In the West, there are also the Crusades to consider. Adding superhuman crusaders to the mix on both sides could make for interesting developments. Or it could cause a stalemate among superhuman forces, negating their effect.

[Steve]

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

 

Doing a quick read of this thread, I would say a early dark age appearance of super-powers would lead to something looking a lot like the Girl Genius Universe With supers and mad scientist wrestling for control of humanity leaving a lot of corpses in their wake.

 

The Aristocracy would be those who claimed to be most fit to rule and those would have to be those with powers or the ability to stop those with powers. A normal living in that world would be asking and hoping for a Storm King or a Baron Wulfenbach to stop the insanity and make it safe...

 

This would be either a prolong dark age or, with a long lived ruler, long period of growth and peace... Or some combination of both where the one person would have a stable rule that ends with his death and cycles of violence until the next strong ruler who also is enlightened to allow growth comes along.

 

You make very good points. Periods of stability punctuated by periods of battles for dominance could cycle back and forth.