How Long Have Superhumans Existed In Your Superhero Universe?

[Cassandra]

How long have superhumans existed in your superhero universe?  

 

When did they start wearing costumes?

 

How many superhumans are there in the world?

 

What is there relationship with normal humans?

 

How has the presence of superhumans altered the history of your campaign world?

[Cassandra]

For my own the answers are  .  .  .

 

Superhumans have existed throughout recorded history.

 

Superheroes started wearing costumes during the American Revolution to protect their families from British retaliation.

 

There are currently 5 million superhumans on Earth, 3 million of which live in the United States.

 

The history of the world follows along similar lines, but many events have alternate outcomes because of the presence of super humans.

[Shiva13]

How long have superhumans existed in your superhero universe?  

 

When did they start wearing costumes?

 

How many superhumans are there in the world?

 

What is there relationship with normal humans?

 

How has the presence of superhumans altered the history of your campaign world?

 

Superhumans in my books/campaign world have existed since before history was recorded. They have been called different things throughout the ages. Titans, gods, and in modern ages, supers. But they are essentially the human relatable expression of natural phenomenon.

 

The population of superbeings in the world goes through rises and falls, depending on a specific natural factor. There are times of high population and low population, depending on the shifting of that natural phenomenon. These shifts are why there are very few superbeings at certain points in history compared to others, why there are those times when those populations are high.

 

Superheroes really started wearing the costumes we are familiar with today in public starting in the 1960's. It was an out-growth of the social upheavals of that time. But before then, there was a long tradition of mystery men and adventurers.

 

How they have effected the world depends entirely on the individual nation you choose to look at. In the US, both the public face of the government and the public have largely embraced them as a fact of life. But there are also hate groups and extremists that go after them, like any other minority.

[Tasha]

How long have superhumans existed in your superhero universe?  

 

When did they start wearing costumes?

 

How many superhumans are there in the world?

 

What is there relationship with normal humans?

 

How has the presence of superhumans altered the history of your campaign world?

1) Through out history. They were the Heroes, Heroines, Gods, Goddesses, Wizards, Sorcerers etc.

 

2) They always ended up wearing clothing that differentiated them from regular people. "real" superhero costumes started in the 30's after the "Masked Men" started appearing.

 

3) Thousands

 

4) Depends on the Human. For some they are the subjects of much fear and distrust. For others they are just people with weird abilities. Actual Hero and Heroines are loved by the people like modern celebrities are. Villains are both idolized and feared.

 

5) They were almost killed off during the Inquisition years. Different civilizations have had Supers who tried to be tyrants and always ended up with the people rising up and killing them off. at the beginning of the Dark Ages, the source of superpowers was mystically plugged up. People still had minor abilities, but nothing like they do in the modern world. A number of mystics including those working for the Third Reich unstoppered those power founts. It has taken a couple of generations for those who have the right genetics to be able to fully make use of the stronger power flow. History in general has gone largely the same. in the last thousand years supers weren't strong enough to make any real changes to the timeline. They are now and the timeline has diverged from our own quite a bit.

[JmOz]

For my own the answers are  .  .  .

 

Superhumans have existed throughout recorded history.

 

Superheroes started wearing costumes during the American Revolution to protect their families from British retaliation.

 

There are currently 5 million superhumans on Earth, 3 million of which live in the United States.

 

The history of the world follows along similar lines, but many events have alternate outcomes because of the presence of super humans.

This is freaky close to my universe, only difference is that there are a lot more super humans on my world (about 70 million).  But a good chunk of them are either very weak or unawakened...most might not even though they are super human.

 

Most outcomes have been the same, or near enough, but minor tweeks (September 11th happened because of terrorists with cyber kinetic powers taking over the planes for instance)

[Shiva13]

The secret factor that produces supers of all kinds in my setting, is the fact that supers are the human relatable expression of the planet's system of antibodies. Supers are antibodies. But they are also not the only antibodies in play.

 

The biological system of the world produces antibodies when there is a  percieved infection or other threat that requires them.

 

Humanity doesn't understand any of this. They believe that supers come from a variety of different sources. From mutation, to all of the other standardly thought of supers origins. The bigger picture has largely been out of reach of modern scientific comprehension and the human scale of reference.

 

That being said. The other secret is this: The Earth itself is a sentient lifeform. Whose consciousness and awareness operates on a scale far beyond human comprehension.

 

In the past it has let its will be known through avatars it has chosen. Who act to translate those desires to down to a humanoid level of thought and scale. But it does so very rarely. Because it is very difficult process.

[Cassandra]

While there are millions of people in my Superhero Universe with powers, the number of Superheroes/Villains is less then a thousand for a number of reasons.  

 

One is that most people have a single non-combat usable power, like Eidetic Memory, Absolute Time Sense, Lightning Calculator, etc.  

 

Another reason is that in my world's history only the United States welcomed superhumans as a defense against the British during the Revolution.  The Second Amendment not only gives citizens the right to bear arms, but also to use superhuman powers.  The tradition of wearing a costumes comes from the Revolutionary War as well, and has become a tradition.

 

In legal terms most superheroes operate as bounty hunters, as U.S. Courts have never cared how a suspect ends up before them. It's up to the authorities to make the legal case against them.  Good samaritans laws give superhumans a great deal of leeway in rescuing people from accidents as well.

[assault]

* How long have superhumans existed in your superhero universe?  

 

Superbeings preceded humanity.

 

* When did they start wearing costumes?

 

In the modern sense, probably in the early 30s. Mask wearing adventurers have been around for much longer.

 

* How many superhumans are there in the world?

 

Most are members of hidden societies (Atlantis etc). This includes inhabited enclaves off Earth, but more or less within the solar system. These are the "aliens" best known to humanity. Their precise numbers aren't known.

 

There are about 6000 superhumans active in the outside world. Most of these are the standard kind of radiation accidents, mutants and all the rest of it.

 

* What is there relationship with normal humans?

 

The hidden societies are largely unknown to normal humans, although there are beginning to be exceptions. Some of the "aliens" have had hostile contact with humanity.

 

"Normal" superhumans are rare and varied enough that they don't have consistent relationships with all normal humans. Some are viewed favourably across much of the world, but even they have enemies. Others are held in contempt or fear almost universally.

 

* How has the presence of superhumans altered the history of your campaign world?

 

Not a lot. I waver between public superhuman activity being emerging only recently, and thus not having had much time to change things, and ignoring the question entirely.

 

The "Martian" invasion of the early 20th century either happened in a parallel universe, or in a closed timeloop.

[Badger]

Not something I really go into detail.  But, generally I prefer an always have been supers thing.  (the ancient mythological heroes were merely supers).

 

To flesh out how I might do it in detail

 

As far as how many it varies.  It also depends on where the line crosses into superdom.  Could be millions around with some kind of "power", but of the truly big timers maybe a few thousand at most  (and possibly just hundreds).   The former I would prefer to scatter fairly evenly among the world population.  (so, China/India would have the most).  For the big timers, it would be as needed.  (America probably #1, Japan #2 as I do tend to like scattering among where the "stories" seem to come from in comic/manga media.)  Also, the more developed a country is, the more likely it will be favorable for someone with powers to be able to develop into the big time powerhouse.

 

And of course, the power armor guys, the aliens, the creatures of another dimension alters the totals slightly.

 

 

Costumes?  Also varies.  It might not be a worldwide thing.  Maybe just some crazy shtick Westernized supers feel they have to do.

[Badger]

I should clarify when I say have some kind of "power".  I kind of mean more the capability to develop into having some power.  It may just end up being some latent potential that never comes out.  (In fact, practically all of those in the backwater 3rd world countries may never have the opportunity to bring it out).  But, the potential while varied I seem to like either 1/500 or have 1/1000 have that latent gene.

 

So, some 3rd worlder with a pop. of 20 million, may have 20,000 potential "superhumans".  But, many will never develop at all.  And many of the others will only develop some small power that makes little noticeable difference in the scheme.  They would only have 2-3 at most who develop to a power house level.  (of course, they likely end up becoming the dictator of that backwater or at least in league with the resident dictator)