The Amazing! HED! universe

[ultra8]

I'm totally enjoying this ultimi/paragonzation of HED! I could definately see Splotch being like the Ultimate ver. of the black/Venom costume- a personalized DNA suit designed to fix what ailes you. Except with shadow powers.
Liking the Kane and Deathmask being seperate people idea.

[Charles Phipps]

The House of Serpents

The Serpent Party was a popular, if disdained, movement in the United States prior to the events of 2010. Dissatisfied with the immense corruption, incompetence, and intrusiveness of the government, the Serpent Party loudly advocated the shrinking of its size. Still, the movement wasn't violent and there was no sign it was going to become so until the arrival of Divinos. Proof of aliens, followed by the arrival of Metamen immediately created vast social unrest. The Serpent Party gained immense ground in Congress but also radicalized with certain movements branching off from it.

The House of Serpents is a revival of the American militia movement, previously discredited by Timothy McVeigh, and taken to its logical conclusion. They believe that the United States has been hopelessly compromised by alien forces and that nothing less than the elimination of "evil" Metamen as well as the destruction of the alien forces intruding on the world is a rational response. They advocate vigilante actions against rogue Metamen, the destruction of Mithranite churches, and a "United States First" approach to politics.

The movement would be problematic enough with its vast, if likely temporary, political power if not for the fact that it's also become a criminal organization. Aware that it needs money, the organization has taken its predecessors libertarian ideals and used them to justify entering the narcotics and weapons trade to fund itself. Thus, the House of Serpents is now an exceptionally well-armed gang that no qualms about shooting anyone who gets in its way of waging its "war for America's soul."

Its leader, a mysterious Ex-Special Forces and Gulf War veteran named Supreme has supposedly been involved in numerous attacks and is rapidly shooting up the FBI's Most Wanted list. Oddly, the organization still hasn't abandoned the war for publicity with the mainstream Serpent Party currently being led by the sexy brunette identical twins Candy and Cindy Vesper. The fact that both women are stunningly beautiful helps distract from the fact both are highly intelligent and also completely blinded by their ultra-nationalist ideology.

[Charles Phipps]

Belial

Samuel Solomon is an example of what a person can achieve if one really puts one's mind to it and is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. Publicly, he's a dashing eligible bachelor who owns a number of New York's most prominent media outlets and made his fortune by wise investment. Privately, he's somehow managed to terrify every single major syndicate into compliance with his wishes from the Russians to the Koreans.

Honestly, Samuel has managed to do the nearly impossible job of utterly divorcing himself from the lower levels of the New York Underworld. All the bosses which pay him homage do so through a large number of intermediaries who are only dimly aware of who exactly they really work for. Quite a number of his "inner circle" recieve orders only through telephone, the figure identifying himself as Belial. Samuel Solomon, himself, is treated as nothing more than a pawn who launders money for the syndicate under his command.

Samuel likes it that way.

That doesn't mean, of course, he can't have anyone short of the President assassinated on a whim. The FBI has no idea who, exactly, Belial is but he's managed to kill or buy off just about anyone investigating his doings. Samuel has managed to apply pressure to some of the world's most powerful men and it's only become worse as he's gleefully adopted the use of Metamen criminals in his doings. He's gone from being extraordinarily rich to being one of the richest men in America and has done so without anyone being able to tie anything to him.

Hell, he could run for President someday.

The really disturbing part is that no one can really pinpoint when or where Samuel Solomon came into existence. Yes, he has a birth certificate on file but the Birthers would actually have a case if they thought it was a complete fabrication. He just seemed to pop into existence one day, possessed of an inhuman charisma and ability to make deals that put Donald Trump's most exaggerated claims to shame.

So far, just about the only people genuinely aware that Samuel is Belial are a select group of fanatically devoted accountants and Splotch of all people. This means, irritatingly enough, that it's New York's self-styled superheroes most likely to target or be targeted directly by New York's Boss of Bosses.

Despite being an utter sociopath, Belial does have a pretense of honor. He makes it a point not to target the families of those who have done him wrong and has encouraged his men not to defile the women who fall in his hands. That's just about the limits of his morality, anything and everything else he's capable of in the name of business.

[Charles Phipps]

Mister Hoppy

"He looks like anybody you see on the street. But when he grins, birds fall dead off telephone lines...the grass yellows up and dies where he spits. He's always outside. He came out of time...He has the name of a thousand demons. Jesus knocked him into a herd of pigs once. His name is Legion. He's afraid of us...He knows magic. He can call the wolves and live in the crows...He's the king of nowhere."
-On Randall Flagg, The Stand.

There is an evil in the heart of America.

No one can really precisely say who or what this evil is. Most eyewitnesses report they believe the man to be male, though a few reports have stated that he could have been female. Everyone else says that the person is of average height, average weight, light-skinned or dark-skinned, possibly Chinese or maybe Caucasian. In the end, it doesn't really matter, they remember the jean jacket with the Bugs Bunny logo on the back. That never changes. That and the man's smile, which could melt a girl (or boy)'s heart or freeze them dead. That never changes either.

"Mister Hoppy" as he's come to be known in American urban folktales is a friendly sort, the kind of person who loves kids and doing magic tricks. He never hurts kids. All the stories agree on that. He's not that kind of Devil.

In fact, Mister Hoppy hurts anyone who harms kids. It doesn't matter if it's spanking them or beating them senseless, Mister Hoppy will make them pay. Were this all he did, many people might think of him as a benevolent figure. Sort of like the stories of the fey in the Old World, dark but a follower of a code. Mister Hoppy doesn't follow a code, he just enjoys himself...

..and what he enjoys is inflicting misery.

Urban legends say that Mister Hoppy was originally a schizophrenic mental patient down in Alberdeen, Texas. A person who believed he could commune with the Devil so much that, eventually, the Devil just decided to take up residence. Other tales say that Mister Hoppy was always here, walking the Earth like a demonic Kane in Kung Fu. It doesn't really matter, Mister Hoppy is real now and he enjoys playing with you.

Yes, you, specifically. He'll get around to you. He's just got a line ahead of you, but it's shrinkingh all the time.

The kookiest FBI agents, the kind that have spent too many years chasing ghosts, speculate he might be a Metaman. One of the people who have developed the power to work sorcery because they believe they can. If so, Mister Hoppy is a pretty powerful sorcerer.

Possibly, the strongest.

He can make your dreams come true. Mister Hoppy can make a boy omnipotent, a girl beautiful, or an alcoholic sober. He can also make a town empty or a sane man crazy.

You just have to believe.

Mister Hoppy knows your secrets and for him to do his magic tricks you have to do him favors. You might have to slash a neighbor's tires, kill a dog, or beat a homeless man. He never really asks you to do the truly damning stuff. That, my friend, you'll do on your own. You'll do it because Mister Hoppy has shown you your wife is cheating on you, your best friend is a liar, your mother a whore, your father an abuser.

You might do it because someone else hit your spouse with a car running away from where he did one of Mister Hoppy's pranks. You might do it simply because you realize the Devil is real and you just made a deal with him.

Mister Hoppy has been driven off, though. Sometimes, it's something ridiculous like saying his name backwards like Rumplestiltskin. Other times, it's those rare individuals who absolutely refuse to play his game even when their lives are burning down around them. Others still manage to drive him off simply by helping others reject him. Mister Hoppy himself can't be killed, but he can be forced on. He can leave. Maybe, in the face of the Devil, that's the best one can hope for.

[Libra]

More excellent work, Charles - I'll do my best to comment tomorrow.

[Voltron64]

Experts have released a profile for Death Mask. He probably has a degree in chemistry. He is tech savvy. He was probably raised in a very religious household. He is very organized and believes himself smarter then almost everybody. He believes he is above normal humans and even the burgeoning metahumans describing himself as a devil and comparing himself to the Mithrans. He is aware that what he is doing is evil but seems to reveal in it.

Sheldon Cooper as a serial killer?

[Phrozen]

I like the Walkin' Man/Leland Gaunt take on Mr. Hoppy. Hoppy and Death Mask meeting would be fun. The Devil and someone who thinks he is the devil.

I now also want to see Belial and Kane square off. Perhaps starting with Kane deciding that Sparta Corp should branch out to media.

[Phrozen]

Experts have released a profile for Death Mask. He probably has a degree in chemistry. He is tech savvy. He was probably raised in a very religious household. He is very organized and believes himself smarter then almost everybody. He believes he is above normal humans and even the burgeoning metahumans describing himself as a devil and comparing himself to the Mithrans. He is aware that what he is doing is evil but seems to reveal in it.

Sheldon Cooper as a serial killer?

Not really. Death Mask of course is inspired by the Zodiac Killer, one of realities few costumed criminals. The social media aspect is of course for the GM to say "You didn't capture the real Death Mask" or to have a Death Mask army.

Organized is the type of killer he is. There are Disorganized killers who tend to make an absolute mess and kill whenever the urge strikes them, Organized killers who plot and plan their every attack, and Spree Killers who are organized up to the time of the attack and then pretty do whatever once they have begun.

Most serial killers think they are smarter then everybody else. Most are pretty intelligent if very anti-social. Its much different from Asperger Syndrome. Most serial killers are very very good at faking emotions and relationships.

[Charles Phipps]

I like the Walkin' Man/Leland Gaunt take on Mr. Hoppy. Hoppy and Death Mask meeting would be fun. The Devil and someone who thinks he is the devil.

I now also want to see Belial and Kane square off. Perhaps starting with Kane deciding that Sparta Corp should branch out to media.

1. Mister Hoppy probably stopped by, put his hands on the man's shoulder, whispered, "Good job" and bought him a drink before the guy could react.

It makes you wonder if he's just the world's analogue or if the HED! version is just a lot more serious version here. Ditto Belial.

2. That would be a very epic confrontation, both people believing they can buy and sell the other like canduy only for it to keep escalating to the point of supermonsters dueling in the streets.

[Neo-Paladin]

Ok, finally got around to it...hope you like

The God-Code/Athena
The reason behind the sudden transformation of ordinary, if somewhat shady people into demons and undead quickly shook up scientific circles, especially the think tanks of the Foundation. Correlating the data collected on several afflicted with the work of Miles Westlake (who was asked to work with the team of assembled specialists on the problem and, after some persuasion, finally agreed), the newly-dubbed MPS (Metahuman Psychotransformative Syndrome) was finally stated as being another result of the merging of normal reality with another that allowed thought to take physical form....only that, in this case, the legends of evil and darkness had apparently overwritten the personalities and bodies of ordinary people.

That realization created more urgent questions than it answered, unfortunately...prompting even more testing and endless hours debating on the one most important question...could this happen to anyone? And if so, was it reversible?
Till today, no cure for the condition has been found...but the constant research had led to another, equally important and possibly world-shaking observation....the God-Code.
Among the researchers working with Westlake was a young, bright woman named Amanda Tsantides, both valued and scoffed at for her ability to something think way too far out of the box. It was her idea to gather the brainwave data collected from the afflicted and cross-reference it with the strange state of quantum flux that surrounded new metamen as their powers coalesced from the psychic resonance of the new realm reality was merging with. Among the "demons" she found....patterns. Patterns so simple and ridiculously easy to interpret...brainwaves with "unholy" frequencies, charts that would somehow always show inverted pentagrams when held in a certain way...the human mass subconscious was anything but subtle, it seemed. And as she reviewed countless batches of data, an idea dawned upon her....what if the whole process could be made to work the other way around? What if someone could create new patterns? After all, the entire process seemed to feed upon itself, speeding up the transformation the stronger the patterns became.

All but Westlake scoffed at the idea when she proposed it, but Amanda wasn't going to let that discourage her. Instead, she worked on it in secret, creating a set of patterns that could, with the right stimulation of the brain and body, possible lead to the emergence of something more...benign. As a template, she took the myths and legends of the Greeks from whom she was descended, especially the goddess Athena, for she embodied strength and intelligence in equal measures.

So, one night, when everyone else was gone, she went on to undergo the first test. Using magnetic fields and a quantum flux generator she'd "borrowed" from Westlake (he hasn't quite forgiven her for that yet), she proceeded to set her brainwaves into the patterns she'd determined should work while attuning herself to the new merged dimensions.
Then, she died.
Unfortunately, for all her enthusiasm, Amanda had forgotten about one simple fact: the patterns completely overwrites the old personality. So, as her body convulsed and became more muscular and her mind raced with memories that were not her own, Amanda Tsantides drowned in her own mind.
When they found and resuscitated her in the morning, there was only the goddess Athena. Superhumanly strong, intelligent and radiantly beautiful...and utterly confused.
Having no idea where she was or what she was doing here, she left the facility, utterly thrashing the one guard who tried to stop her.

She is currently trying to make sense of the world she's been reborn in, especially since some people keep telling her she is not a goddes but merelya...changed human. Apparently, humanity has found new gods in the meantime, gods from another world. The first meeting betwen her and the Divinos family has been somewhat cool. While she likes Joshua, the head of the family strikes her as somewhat...off. She can't put her finger on it yet. Michael, of course, wishes to know where this ancient "goddess" suddenly comes from.

Meanwhile, the Foundation desperately tries to decipher Amanda's scribblings, hoping to find a way to unlock the pattern she implaneted into her own brain. No one has been successful yet...which may be a blessing.

[Charles Phipps]

Exceptional write-up, Neo-Paladin.

You managed to take the "Zarda" character type from Squadron Supreme and nicely change it around to something likable and interesting.

It also opens up a bunch of other ideas too for future gods and goddesses in the world.

Good job.

[Neo-Paladin]

Uhm...who is "Zarda"?
Thanks for the comment, Charles...glad you like it.

[Libra]

Phrozen, please accept my apologies - you too have done Yeoman work for this thread and I forgot to compliment you; please accept my compliments for your fine work and my apologies for being foolish enough to not comment on it the first time around.

Here are a few quick concepts for characters on Amazing! Earth;

Aquarius, Ariel and Neptune - A brother-and-sister team from a family who've made their living from the sea (one way or another) since before the British came to India, they'd been of the opinion that life in the Ocean was the wave of the Future even before they developed powers which would allow them to thrive there without expensive technology.

Taking one look at the chaos being wrought by the massive changes to the world caused by the debut of metahumans (and all too often by the metahumans themselves) they have decided to establish a New World under the Water, founding a corporation dedicated to doing just that.

If all goes well a new Atlantis ought to be established sometime in the next couple of decades - if one or the other personal scheme pans out according to plan Aquarius or Neptune will set themselves up as Judge of Mankind not long after that.

The Verdict will differ rather less than the sentence imposed will.

The Iron Khan - even before the Super-change Temujin was one of the most feared names in the more knowledgeable quarters of the Chinese Underworld, the name of a mongol who'd carved out a niche in the Warlord era with bloodshed remarkable even for that period of history and only reluctantly submerged himself in the Criminal Element when the Communists came to power.

A man whose ruthlessness was vulnerable only to a certain degree of superstition, he went on to become a significant player in the Chinese Criminal hierarchies and a figure to be respected even outside that closed system, but found himself denied power in any other arena.

Already old, he felt the first tremors of the enfeeblement of age - and then the World Changed.

Now he is old, but shall never know feebleness; now China begins to buck beneath eventhe Communist yoke; now his piety is repaid in blood, in power, in Glory! now, when even rejuvenation is within his grasp, now is come the day when he may seek to forge dominions as widespread as those of the Great Khan, his Ancestor, and the World will no longer laugh ... it will Tremble.

The Emerald Dragon

The daughter of Temugins old age, trained even before the Change to be the ultimate weapon at her father's command, now gifted beyond even the most highly skilled of mortals; even now wondering if she truly wishes to follow her fathers path, even now wondering if she wishes to avoid the destiny he has mapped out for her because she does not wish to become like him - or because she merely does not wish to follow in his footsteps.

Only time and decisions only she can make will tell.

Red Jaguar

There wasn't much in the way of a demand for Warrior-Princes at the dawn of the 21st Century, even in Africa; then the time came when a single man could tear armies apart and the option of doing whatever he said began to look might attractive.

While a violent idealist himself, the fellow currently touring the World behind the mask of the Red Jaguar (he pretends to be a South American in costume, to avoid attracting knowledgeable enemies) amongst other, more civilian guises has no wish to become such a tyrant, but he is determined to bring peace to the Horn of Africa, by becoming the toughest local strongman if he has to.

In all honesty he would prefer to persuade his subjects that he's the best option going for a better reason than merely being the best of a bad lot. To that end he has dedicated himself to training as a warrior, a superhuman and a leader, which has brought him into some unusual company . . .

Misty Weiss

Misty Weiss is used to being the best stage magician going (having a dad and granddad in the business helps, especially when you're verifiably related to the Great Houdini) and is looking forward to being the best REAL magician going. Misty, you see, is an optimist and can look forward to the long term.

What she isn't having so much fun with is being obliged to set straight every debunker who 'proves' that the work of a metaman is some kind of elaborate hoax - on the other hand she actually gets to help the people that variety of wilfully-blind clown would ignore, so every cloud has a silver lining.

Talisman

Talisman is a detective with a grudge against the man called Belial and she's keen to work it out on him, warrant-first if she can manage it and on a shoot-first basis if she can't. Already earning a reputation as variously a jinx, a good-luck charm, a blessing and a curse, life may not be dull but it CAN be excessively interesting.

The Last Ranger

The Last Ranger should probably be busy being dead, but he's got too many better things to do to worry about that.

A determinedly-enigmatic lawman variously describing himself as being with the Marshals, the local Sheriffs department of just wherever this locale happens to be, more often than not the Texas Rangers and on one rather hilarious occasion The Men in Black, no-one has ever worked out just which might be the truth, since he has entirely acceptable and quite possibly entirely real credentials for every single claim.

Whatever the case, the Last Ranger wander, makes brilliant deductions, helps the innocent, guns down the Evil with potent accuracy and raises the ambient weirdness level of any area he happens to be in by sheer eccentricity - not to mention a habit of not dying under circumstances even crazier than the general run of metamen would seem.

Rumours that he's the living spirit of the Old West turned avenging angel ("He drives a car and looks like Samuel L. Jackson in a cowboy hat! "Okay, the spirit of the New Old West") are probably LESS crazy than the man's behaviour deserves.

The Liberators

Project: Patriot has many faces - General Washington's favourite is the one he keeps under wraps; comprised of personnel of the US Armed Forces who didn't go AWOL after the Metaman debut and their Human back-up, the Liberators are the Commandos J-W-Jr. put together to deal discretely with the superhumans who decided to set themselves up as Judges of Mankind or flat-out Warlords wherever they may be, as quietly as possible.

As a field-test of the idea that a super-team is possible, the Liberators have been a wonder, but haven't got much in the way of publicity; now it's members are being redeployed, with the more photogenic (like Colonel Steven Shepherd) being ear-marked for membership of whatever that comic book fanboy Washington happens to call the Project: Patriot field team.

The more pragmatic (like Miss Ashley Morgan) are being assigned to Project: Urgent Justice, which promises to owe much more to Commando than to Kirby.

The Globalist

In the wake of surging tensions in ... well, just about everywhere you can think of, there's plenty of room for a man who can persuade the World to his way of thinking via a sincere devotion to World Order and World Peace or an ability to manipulate those who possess one.

The Globalist isn't either, but he wouldn't mind being either ... or both.

A man who dreams big dreams even by the new, more epic standards of the post-Debut era, the so-called Globalist has set himself up as the most charismatic tyrant any nation could ever want; he hasn't established himself yet, but it's only a matter of time - the biggest problem? He's pretty convinced that he's Vlad III Tepes reincarnate and quite keen to point out why they used to call him The Impaler in the old days to anyone who crosses him and loses.

Dracula

A rather charming fellow, of Eastern European origin but currently operating in England because he finds the prevailing culture there a bit more pleasant, the being calling himself Dracula plays his assumed role to the hilt, with a fair bit of Fourth-wall breaking (he plays by the Classic Vampire Rules mostly because he is by no means obliged to do so as a result of his powers - not yet, at least).

He's also a rather brutal crime-lord and budding world-beater as part of his day-job, but really he's more interested in his nocturnal hobbies. That's his story - well, his most recent one, at least.

Doc Aeon

Doctor John Smith (MD/PhD) was a smart cookie and quite the bruiser even before the Metaman debut - now he's a super-genius and devoting every minute to making himself a Science Hero in the grandest possible tradition. He can't travel in time yet, but he's working on it and space-flight seems to be proving a doddle so far, even if meeting the neighbours is proving trickier than he hoped.

Misty Weiss, young Lady Grayhaven (archaeologist and vampire-slayer extra-ordinary) and Red Jaguar, all like-minded individuals (at least so far) often operate as his companions and he feels that he's looking for two more.

He IS a traditionalist, after all, even if it's a fictional tradition which has only become real in the last year or so!

[Charles Phipps]

Helios

The arrival of Divinos and Company's ship sent ripples throughout the planet of Zone-based energy. One of these spikes was ridiculously high, incinerating an entire Eastern European community along with its populace. Its lone survive no longer remembers his name, though he was survivor of the Bosnian-Serb war and may have lost his family in it. Likewise, he may have been a participant in some of its worst excesses. It doesn't matter, he has transcended the morality of mere humans, now existing in a state across several different universes simultaneously. He is Helios, the God of the Sun, and the bringer of light to the world.

It's just this light will require the death of more than 90% of the human race.

Helios appears as nothing less than a humanoid form composed of glowing orange-esque energy, as if he was a being composed of solar plasma. This is not correct since he is actually composed of energies normally nonexistent in this reality. He speaks in a voice that many people consider to be almost electronic, never wavering in his tone and always flat and emotionless. Ironically, this doesn't always represent his moods since its quite clear he can be upset and have emotional outbursts similar to the most passionate of humans.

Helios is sparse on the details of what exactly his end goal is, but he's implied that he has percieved the destruction of humanity in the future and that Divinos is to be a part of it. Rather than attempt to destroy Divinos himself, a feat that was almost accomplished when Michael's family attempted to stop him in Europe, Helios believes he must forcibly evolve humanity to the next level. With his quantum-manipulation powers, he's capable of rearranging human beings so that they can become Metaman. It's just that Helios doesn't possess the godlike intelligence necessary for such a task and instead must react subconsciously. One in sixty individuals survives his transformation and it is clear that he considers anyone who is not a Metaman unworthy of life.

In addition to his ability to create Metaman, Helios is capable of firing energy blasts, teleportation, and shape-shifting between large and small sizes. He is capable of altering the molecular structure of objects and his godlike abilities have allowed him to construct structures that normal humans are incapable of building. Helios exists in a state removed from normal perception of time, simultaneously in he past as well as the future. This causes him to have momentary glimpses of what is to come, though he seems obsessed with changing Alan Moore's Doctor Manhattan.

Despite his seemingly godlike state, Helios is not invincible. While his energies easily crippled the Divinos Family, seemingly draining them of their powers, the Tomorrow Institute possessed the power necessary to drive him off. Helios seemed surprised by this fact, as much as Metaman wanting to do him harm as seemingly their ability to do him harm. Since that time, he's returned with a small army of followers he's empowered. Many of the Metaman he's drafted are either refugees from persecution or his creations. Most view him with a sort of messianic awe, as if he were the pinnacle of humanity's evolution and a state that they would all eventually ascend to.

Quantum physicists like Stephen Hawking and Miles Westlake, of course, state this is ridiculous. Helios is an anomaly and not nearly as immortal as he might like to think.

[Phrozen]

Kenneth Kane: "Ah. God complexes. The world would be much simpler if everybody had them. Its so easy to pit them against each other."

So Ganglord Gorilla: King Gorilla or Gorilla Monsoon?