While Astoria is naturally the focus of the players’ interest, there is a world beyond Astoria (much as some Astorians might think otherwise). While the City of the Future has recently gained a great number of meta-humans, it does not possess the only concentration of meta-humanity on Earth. New Atlantis, NJ is the acknowledged center of superhumanity on the planet, with the greatest number of powered people per capita of any city on Earth. There are other centers of superhumanity, however – more than most people know, in fact. This section looks at the rest of the World of Heroes, with an emphasis on places of interest to both heroes and villains.
It begins with an overview of the world outside of Astoria, OR, looking at the six inhabited continents, as well as the United Nations and its role in the World of Heroes. Then it explores the secret places of the globe, with their lost lands and fantastic civilizations, before heading out into the depths of space. Finally, it describes other dimensions beyond the one most people know, from parallel Earths to the the space between realities, the Bleed.
Text in italics indicate hidden or secret knowledge – it is included here for the sake of completeness, but isn’t something the PCs would know. At least not at first…
EARTH
North America
The North American continent, New Atlantis in particular, is the principal focus of superhuman activity in the world. Virtually every major metropolis in the United States has at least some superheroes and super-powered criminals. Some band together into teams, although many heroes, as well as some teams, have become members of the Liberty Alliance since the group’s reorganization into a truly global organization.
Generally speaking, the larger the city, the more supers you’ll find there, so the largest super populations outside of New Atlantis and Astoria are places like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. San Francisco is home of the Gatekeeper, both a hereditary mystical guardian of Earth’s dimension and an outspoken member of the city’s gay community.
Canada has fewer supers (and less super-crime) in general than the US. Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, and Montreal are the major centers of meta-human activity in the Great White North.
Mexico has the fewest supers in North America, but loves the supers it has. Mexico’s tradition of beloved masked heroes is long-standing and even extends to some super-criminals. Romantic thieves and outlaws have some small amount of popular support south of the border.
South & Central America
The further you get from the superhuman center of North America, the fewer supers you’ll see. Unfortunately for South America, many of the native supers you do see are the worst sorts of criminals, and many of the heroes have been foreigners trying to do their best, despite often being unfamiliar with the local situation. Only recently have a new generation of local heroes risen to stand for their people against super-powered crime and terrorism.
In particular, South America became a hiding place for elements of the Third Reich after the fall of Nazi Germany. Some of those elements became the basis for the organization HUSH, which maintains hidden bases in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. In the 1950’s the latter country was actually taken over, if only briefly, by former Nazi supervillains.
An isolated plateau in Brazil serves as a gateway to a primeval Lost World. Although the plateau is a poorly kept secret among the world’s governments, the portal itself is somewhat more elusive. Brazilian authorities allow UNEXIS to keep an eye out for any indications something has found its way through into our world, but otherwise show surprising discretion in leaving the Lost World and its inhabitants alone.
Most of the native superhumans in this region of the world are either mutants or endowed with mystical powers, some from contact with ancient Aztec, Incan, or Mayan artifacts or lore. At least a few super-powered enforcers work for the drug cartels of Central America, either as hired mercenaries or even, occasionally, as loyal henchmen. Many of these gained their power by using designer enhancement drugs or the services of the Power-House.
Europe
When the first supers appeared in the 1930s and ‘40s, it seemed Europe had as many as America, but the trials of the Second World War diminished their number and they have never fully rebounded. England has the most supers in Europe, at least partially because of its close relations with the United States. Some are descendants of supers from the 1940s (both native Britons and the descendants of foreign supers who settled in the UK). In the late 1960s, the British government established the Ministry of Powers to oversee all superhuman matters in the United Kingdom. A number of metas have worked for the Ministry in the years since, both officially and unofficially. “Power” has become a common British term in place of the more American “super,” or the scientific “meta-human,” both of which see less use in the UK.
France has the next largest number of metas in Europe, and metas are darlings of the French media and high society. A number of metas (both heroes and villains) in France are visitors, usually in Paris or the French Riviera.
Germany’s relationship with meta-humans has been strained due to the associations with the Nazi Übersoldaten and Hitler’s so-called “Master Race.” Masked and costumed figures were banned for many years, but those restrictions have been lifted since German reunification. New German supers—heroes and villains—have only recently become visible on the world stage.
Most of the other nations of Europe have only a scattered handful of superheroes and super-powered criminals. Heroes tend to be homebodies, protecting their own nations, while European super-criminals tend to jump borders frequently to evade the authorities and find new opportunities for their schemes. Efforts to form a single united hero team for the European Union have stalled and many European heroes have now associated themselves—at least loosely—with the Liberty Alliance.
Africa
Africa has the fewest known superhumans of any inhabited continent, despite having one of the longest histories of superhuman activity in the world.
Egypt—a land of ancient magic and power—was home to some of the world’s first supers. In particular, The Sensen and his rival, the undead Atlantean sorcerer Dolarüska the Damned, began their struggle in ancient Egypt, which has continued through countless incarnations. It also included heroes like Pharos, champion of light. Modern Egypt still has places of power for mages like Arkanos, and fortune seekers like the Fatal Four. In particular, a certain lost Temple in the Egyptian desert shows evidence of Atlantean influences in pre-dynastic Egypt. Dolarüska was interred there for millennia, until his release in the early 20th Century.
South Africa once had a secret program of recruiting supers, white supers, during the years of apartheid, and of eliminating any native non-white supers, which no doubt contributed to Africa’s current lack of superhumans. The South African program collapsed along with apartheid, and its remaining members retired or struck out on their own. Groups like HUSH have found some recruiting opportunities here.
Kurunda
Deep in sub-Saharan Africa is the small nation of Kurunda. It consists of what, in another timeline, would have been the nations of Rwanda and Burundi, along with pieces of eastern Zaire and southern Uganda. Centered around Lake Kivu and the northern shores of Lake Tanganyika, it has retained the same government and resisted outside invasion for centuries. The reasons for this are twofold. First is the nation’s advanced technology, based on its control of certain exotic natural resources found only within their borders; the second is the nation’s hereditary defender, the meta-human Golden Cheetah.
Sometime in the distant past, something from the heavens crashed in what would later become Kurunda. It has become the only known source for daka, crystals with unique properties, making them useful in any number of super-science devices, including weapons, force shields, teleporters, and dimensional gates. Daka crystals serve as focusing agents for a variety of forces, and the mining and (limited) sale of the crystals has made Dakana the wealthiest nation in Africa by far, and indeed one of the wealthiest nations on Earth. Study and use of daka crystals has given Dakana technology well in advance of its neighbors, allowing the Dakani to defend the crystal mine against any invaders trying to seize it.
For generations, Dakana pursued a strict policy of isolationism. Surrounded by potentially hostile neighbors, the Dakani cultivated a reputation for ruthlessly defending their borders. By the 20th Century, their African neighbors had long-since learned to leave Dakana alone, and legends spoke of the mysterious “Land of the Golden Cheetah” and the magical “diamonds of Dakana.” Even European colonialists and American explorers learned Dakana was a dangerous place for unwanted visitors (much less potential invaders).
Still, the tiny country could not remain isolated forever. Although more advanced on a per capita basis than any nation on Earth, the Kings of Dakana recognized the rest of the world was catching up. In a world of rocketry, aircraft, and satellites, Dakana could not remain separate. So the decision was made to begin both trade and cultural exchanges with the outside world, a decision some conservatives opposed. Daka crystals—and technologies designed to use them—found their way into the hands of certain governments, with an emphasis on the importance of Dakana’s continued good-will. Additionally, the Golden Cheetah, with the permission of King M’Zale of Kurunda, became active as a sometime member of the Liberty Alliance.
The Golden Cheetah left the Alliance in the late 1970s at his leader’s request, to oversee the royal succession. He saw Dakana through a number of crises while remaining steadfast in his devotion to maintaining contact with the outside world. His daughter, M’Balla, the current Golden Cheetah, has been a steadfast ally of the Liberty Alliance, like her father, although she makes it clear her first duty is to Kurunda and its people.
Daka Crystals – The mysterious daka crystals are found only in one particular area of Dakana, the site of an ancient meteor crash. They have the hardness and appearance of diamond, but other unusual properties as well. The crystals can channel and direct many forms of energy. This makes them a vital component in different technological devices and a precious commodity.
Dakana has profited from the sale of daka crystals, and more than a few criminals have attempted to seize control of the only known supply. Daka crystals provide a useful source of super-science technology… and all the headaches and trouble that can stem from it. In the last decade research has suggested a possible link between daka crystals and the mysterious viridian stones of the Pacific Northwest, at least in their crystalline structures.
Asia
Russia doesn’t have as many metas as the West once believed. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union put considerable effort and resources into recruiting, training, and most particularly creating meta-human agents, apparently to make up for a lack of more “spontaneous” supers among the population.
Russian research projects usually led to the creation of supers like the Cosmia, who were not at all loyal to the State. Other experimental supers were likewise short-lived, insane, or otherwise flawed. Of those supers employed by the Soviet government and the KBG, many went rogue after the collapse of communism, becoming freelance mercenaries and criminals. The core of the Soviet-sponsored People’s Heroes team reorganized to create the Russian Guard, which now works in cooperation with the new Russian government, UNEXIS, and the Liberty Alliance.
East Asia, China in particular, has fewer supers than one might expect based solely on population. There are a number of theories about this, although none have been conclusively proven. Some believe China’s Cultural Revolution led to secret government programs to study and experiment upon metas, particularly mutants, but also Chinese and Tibetan mystics and perhaps even aliens (or at least remnants of alien technology found in China). These experiments proved largely unsuccessful, and resulted in the culling of the local super population, while other supers fled or went underground. The Chinese government denies any such accusations and claims it has never had any such programs, although SHADE and UNEXIS encountered some circumstantial evidence in the 1960s and ‘70s.
Another theory is the mystical influence of Shambhala has somehow prevented non-mystical supers from coming into being in East Asia, while those with mystic potential are both relatively rare and not inclined to reveal themselves publicly, particularly in the current political climate of China and Southeast Asia. The fact that mystics and esoteric martial artists make up the majority of Asian supers provides some support for this theory. The mystics of Shambhala make no claims either way.
Lastly, some wonder if the Chinese mastermind Dr. Fu Manchu has systematically eliminated any potential rivals over the past century, keeping the super population of Asia artificially low. This seems unlikely as a sole factor, but might be a contributing one. The Doctor was naturally circumspect about confirming such rumors, and has in any case almost certainly been dead for decades.
Whatever the reason, supers in East Asia, China and Southeast Asia in particular, tend to be few and far between, mostly isolated mystics and esoteric martial artists who keep to themselves and avoid entanglement in worldly affairs. The few Communist super-agents from China known in previous decades have largely vanished, been imprisoned, or killed in action.
Of all the nations in Asia, Japan has the largest number of native supers, although still fairly few by North American standards. Some Japanese supers are the descendants (literally or figuratively) of World War II era super-soldiers, while others are the mutant offspring of radiation from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Unlike the rest of Asia, Japan is also more given to technological supers, including gadgeteers like Solo Takashi, Doc Otaku. Perhaps the most infamous Japanese super is the Thunder Tessen, whose grim legacy lives on to this day.
Australia
Like much of Asia, Australia has a fairly low super-population, concentrated mostly in its largest cities. Mystics like Arkanos know there are powerful magical forces active in the Outback, particularly around sites like Uluru (the Aboriginal name of Ayer’s Rock), which is a focus for mystic power and a dimensional nexus, much like Lost Pueblo in the American Southwest.
The United Nations
The United Nations in the World of Heroes is confronted with problems like alien invasions, rogue nations with secret superhuman breeding programs, and megalomaniacs attempting to conquer the world with their fiendish devices. Although the UN General Assembly seeks to foster an international spirit of cooperation and unity, it remains hampered by bureaucracy, endless debate, and a general lack of support among the world’s most powerful and influential nations. Still, the UN remains the foremost forum for international debate and diplomacy, and it has served in the past to help unify and coordinate efforts to defend the Earth against outside threats.
Thus far, none of the Earth’s hidden lands have been granted full status as members of the UN. The closest is Atlantis, which has a delegation and observer status. The international community recognizes Atlantis’ sovereignty but, as yet, the undersea nation has chosen not to join the UN and become subject to its charter. The General Assembly remains the prime diplomatic channel for relations between Atlantis and the surface world, but those relations remain cool and sometimes tense.
The UN has of late supported the Liberty Alliances’s efforts to better protect the world at large, although individual member nations have made it clear they retain the right to deal with internal matters as they see fit and to refuse Alliance aid. The Alliance respects this and only goes where it is invited. Thus far, major international incidents have been avoided.
Proposals for the UN to front its own international team of superheroes have never been more than pipe dreams, given the lack of funding and the amount of political wrangling involved.
UNEXIS
The closest the United Nations has come to establishing an international body to deal with supers is UNEXIS: the United Nations Extranormal Inderdiction Service. UNEXIS has the unenviable task of coordinating international efforts to deal with super-criminals and threats to the safety of the world. It does so with virtually no legal authority, a perpetually restricted budget, and often very little cooperation from the various member-nations of the U.N. (to say nothing of rogue states outside the community of nations).
UNEXIS’ primary mandate is information gathering and coordinating efforts between various national governments and agencies, much like Interpol. Unlike SHADE, its field agents are primarily investigators, not law enforcement, since UNEXIS has no legal authority within any national borders. Every effort in the General Assembly to grant it such authority has been voted down or vetoed by members of the Security Council, simply because member nations aren’t willing to give up any of their sovereignty to an international organization.
The agency’s frustrated Director has found a way around this problem by becoming a close ally of the Liberty Alliance. UNEXIS has considerable information at its disposal, while the Alliance is not associated with any government body, and considers itself responsible for the safety of the entire world. Although there is not and cannot be any official relationship, UNEXIS does act in an “advisory” capacity to the Liberty Alliance, passing information on to them, most often off the record. This often allows the Alliance to take action where the agency and the UN cannot.
The current Director-General of UNISON is Colonel Jennifer Ellis, RAF, on assignment to the United Nations from Great Britain. Among Col. Ellis’ qualifications for her current post is a long stint with the Ministry of Powers in Britain, dealing with various supers, and experience with agencies like AEGIS. In fact, Jen Ellis worked several times with Harry Powers (now Director of SHADE) when the two of them were field agents.
Director Ellis knows full well she is skirting the edge of her authority in aiding the Freedom League. Thus far, she hasn’t overstepped her bounds, at least not sufficiently for the UN Secretary-General to call her to account for it. She finds the limitations placed on UNISON endlessly frustrating, and is glad to be able to assist the Freedom League, and get their help in return. She would like to see UNISON become a true international law-enforcement and peacekeeping agency for dealing with superhuman threats, but knows there are many barriers keeping that from happening right now.
Overthrow
Overthrow is an international terrorist organization dedicated to the violent overthrow of existing government structures. They want a more “reasonable” system where the most qualified and capable people—themselves or people chosen by them, of course—oversee society and manage its resources. The organization is largely made up of anti-government fanatics and social outcasts in search of a cause. Overthrow is funded by hidden bank accounts and monetary resources that no one has been able to successfully trace to any discrete sources. Overthrow agents have access to advanced technology and weapons that they use in their schemes.
The Hidden Lands
Modern people tend to think of Earth as thoroughly explored, no corner of the globe left unmapped or unexplored, but there remain some hidden places in the world. In these isolated corners are some of the greatest mysteries and wonders Earth has to offer, filled with danger and adventure.
The Aerie
High in the arctic mountains of northern Greenland stands a city where none should be. It is situated atop impassable cliffs, honeycombed into the living rock. This is the Aerie, hidden home of the Avians, a human-variant race with bird-like adaptations.
Although Avian history is unclear, it appears their race is a genetic offshoot of humanity, most likely the result of Gardener experimentation. Similarities between the Avians and winged humanoids from Areesh (a planet “seeded” by the Gardeners) support this conclusion. The Avians have dwelled apart from “earthbound” humans throughout their history. The oldest structures in the Aerie appear beyond current Avian technology, and may have been built by whoever settled them there.
Avians have an agrarian culture, have domesticated animals, and also hunt for food in the mountains. They have become the subjects of various legends and folk tales over the years (how many years is a matter of speculation). Many people are aware of Avian civilization, but few know the actual location of the Aerie. The United Nations has declared the Aerie a sovereign state, although the Avians decline UN membership or representation within the community of nations. They want only to be left alone.
In the past, misunderstandings, intrusions on the Aerie, or human carelessness (particularly involving airborne pollution) has led to conflict between Avians and humans, even the threat of all-out war. Fortunately, such issues have been quelled before they got out of control. The Avian warrior Talona is perhaps the most infamous of her race, having championed their cause and threatened the outside world on many occasions. While there is currently a fragile peace, Talona’s hot temper makes it likely the earthbound world has not heard the last of her or the winged warriors of the Aerie.
Atlantis
Thousands of years ago in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean, the island continent of Atlantis was the home of humans genetically enhanced by the extraterrestrial Gardeners. Using samples of technology left behind by the Gardeners and their own genius, the Atlanteans created an advanced civilization far beyond anything else on Earth. They were explorers with visions of uniting the world and made contact with other lands as legends of the fabled island-continent and its powers spread far and wide.
In time, the Atlanteans came into conflict with Lemuria and the ancient, time-lost Empire of the Serpent People, descendants of a previous saurian empire that ruled the Earth millions of years previously. Although the Serpent People had become largely degenerate, they were led by cunning and powerful sorcerers and worshipped nameless cosmic entities. The war between Atlantis and Lemuria lasted for generations. The Atlanteans were ultimately victorious, but in the end their arrogance became their undoing, as they sought to understand their foes’ alien sorcery. In so doing, they triggered a disaster that destroyed Atlantis and her ancient enemy, sinking both continents below the waves.
Most of the Atlantean populace died in the Great Cataclysm, but a few saved themselves by adapting to their new environment. Some Atlanteans became amphibious water breathers, whether by magic, genetic engineering, or a combination of the two. Most of the water-breathing Atlanteans lived in nomadic tribes; their civilization swiftly regressed to a primitive level. A few of these tribes were corrupted and interbred with Serpent People, taking on reptilian characteristics and worshipping evil, forbidden gods, and are known today as the Deep Ones.
Over time, some aquatic Atlanteans resettled the ruins of their ancestors’ great cities and became more sophisticated, their culture similar in many ways to that of the Roman Empire at its height. They have access to ancient Atlantean technological and magical artifacts, although their understanding has been somewhat limited until recently, and their ability to manufacture such devices remains limited.
Atlantis’ existence became widely known to some surface-dwellers in the 1940s when the superhero Siren operated with the Liberty League. She was a surface dweller who gained her powers from a combination of Atlantean science and sorcery. Following the war, she married Atlantis’ crown prince Thallor and became its queen. Their son Theseus had a career as the superhero Sea-King and was a member of the Freedom League. He is now King of Atlantis, and his daughter Nereid is a student at the Claremont Academy and a member of the Next-Gen. The voodoo goddess Siren, although not an Atlantean, has visited Atlantis on occasion and met her Golden Age predecessor, now Atlantis’ Queen Mother.
Atlantis’ relations with the surface world have not always been peaceful. Atlantean barbarians have been known to attack ships and coastal areas. There have also been occasional coups or secession crises leading to Atlantean invasions of the surface world. Even the most peaceful Atlanteans are disdainful of surface-dwellers and their constant pollution of Earth’s oceans. Atlantis currently has a delegation to the United Nations. While recognized as a sovereign nation by most of the surface world, contact is understandably at a minimum. There is also an ongoing debate as to how far Atlantis’ “dominion of the oceans” extends, and whether or not King Theseus can truly claim to be “Sovereign of the Seven Seas.” Although the king’s hot temper has cooled somewhat over the years, diplomacy between Atlantis and the surface world remains tense.
The Bastion
Located somewhere in Antarctica, buried beneath the polar ice, is a secret hideaway constructed by the Centurion as his home away from home and headquarters, as well as an isolated place to store trophies and potentially dangerous items recovered during his adventures. He dubbed it his Sanctum, and only a few trusted friends and allies visited it during the Centurion’s lifetime.
In the last years of his life, after the death of his wife Laurie, Centurion lived in the Sanctum full-time. Following his death, the Freedom League took possession of the Sanctum. They use it as a secondary base, should something happen to the Lighthouse, as well as keeping it as a sort of memorial to the Centurion.
The Sanctum is buried deep beneath the Antarctic ice, with a single tunnel leading to a massive metal hatch covering the front entrance. It weighs 200 tons and is Toughness 25. The Sanctum contains a great hall, a menagerie of alien animals rescued from the Curator, a memorial to Centurion’s lost homeworld (including the original dimensional pod that brought him to Earth), a trophy room with mementoes of past cases, and an arsenal of confiscated weapons and devices. The “cyber-city” of Tronik is contained in a computer module in the Sanctum. A monitor room is equipped with viewing screens capable of picking up world media broadcasts, and there is a teleportal accessible from the Lighthouse.
One particular part of the Sanctum is a featureless white chamber called the Zero Room. It can transport things to and from the Zero Zone and the Centurion used it to imprison threats to humanity so great they could not be entrusted to the conventional authorities. The Freedom League has only used the Zero Room once since taking over the Sanctum, to imprison the Alpha-Centurion, although they keep the option in reserve, unbeknownst to anyone else.
The only full-time inhabitants of the Sanctum, apart from the alien menagerie and the virtual citizens of Tronik, are the Centuritrons, robot doubles built by Centurion decades ago to handle various minor tasks and provide cover for his secret identity (allowing Mark Leeds and the Centurion to appear together on numerous occasions, for example). The robots now function as caretakers and defenders of the Sanctum. The Freedom League has access to the Centuritrons’ command codes, but keeps the robots at the Sanctum due to concerns about them going rogue (as has happened on previous occasions).
Tronik, the Cyber-City
During one of Centurion’s encounters with the Curator, the alien computer intelligence “saved” the human inhabitants of an Earth-like world by digitizing the memories and intellects of the entire population of the city of Tronik. Millions of people were reduced to optical data stored in an advanced, compact computer simulation of their previous environment. Centurion rescued the Troniks from unending stasis, but had no means to physically restore them. So he kept the storage module for their data, an alien computer the size of a briefcase, in his Sanctum, running continuously.
The Troniks are unaware of the true nature of their existence, and Centurion chose not to tell them, out of concern for the psychological harm it could inflict, to know they were no longer “real,” just virtual copies of real people. The virtual world in which they live is such a perfect simulation that the inhabitants of Tronik believe they escaped the cataclysm that destroyed their homeworld and founded a new city on an uninhabited planet they call Neo.
Tronik’s technology is similar to that of the Lor Republic. It is a city of soaring towers, connected by sky bridges and anti-gravity lifts. Energy weapons, force fields, and similar technology are commonplace. Although none of it is real, Tronik’s “technology” is based on how the real versions once operated.
A virtual reality interface in the Sanctum allowed Centurion and others to visit Tronik, and Centurion maintained a “secret identity” there. Visits to Tronik are risky simply because the “rules” of the virtual environment prevent any super-powers from functioning there, so visitors are effectively normal humans. Despite the fact that Tronik’s environment isn’t “real,” biofeedback from the virtual system can induce fatal shock and other damage, so threats there are more than real enough to outsiders.
Since Centurion’s death, the Freedom League has looked after Tronik, allowing the Sanctum’s automated systems and the Centuritrons to care for it. They have visited the city on occasion to check on the status of the inhabitants and to address problems or faults in Tronik’s virtual program, but have otherwise continued to keep the secret of Tronik’s true nature and allowed its inhabitants to go on leading normal lives, unaware their world is confined to a small box sitting on a counter.
Kaiju Island
Located in the Kuril Islands chain between Japan and Russia, Kaiju Island is a rocky, volcanic prominence jutting up from the ocean. Ancient lava tunnels beneath the island connect to underground regions controlled by the various factions of Sub-Terra. Parts of the tunnel network and the surface of the island are also home to various monstrous creatures (called kaiju by the Japanese, thus the island’s name).
The monsters’ origins are unknown. They might be descendants of Gardener experiments, or creatures summoned by the Serpent People. Another as-yet unknown alien race could have created them or brought them to Earth, or they may have been spawned by radiation, mutagenic chemicals, or ancient corrupt sorcery still lingering on the island. A combination of some or all these factors might make Kaiju Island what it is. Regardless, the rocky islet is home to giant mutated monsters, which fortunately tend to stay on or near the island, since most of them can’t swim or fly very far. Except, of course, for Gojira.
The origin of the creature known as Gojira remains a mystery. It first came from the ocean, where it primarily lives, in the mid-1950s. Nuclear tests on an island or at sea may have created it, or it could be the result of waste-dumping or some other mutation. Dr. Atom believes Gojira originated on Kaiju Island, although it’s possible it was further mutated in some way.
Whatever the case, Gojira has occasionally surfaced to trouble coastal cities and communities for decades. More recently, the creature fell under the influence of would-be Atlantean usurpers, and was used as a living weapon in an assault on the surface world. Gojira has been driven back into the sea several times, and occasionally moved back to Kaiju Island.
The world community keeps careful watch on Kaiju Island for any signs of trouble from its inhabitants. It was long ago decided no one nation would have control over the island, and it was best to leave it and its inhabitants alone. Observation of the island falls under the purview of UNISON.
Conventional military forces are of only limited use against the monsters. The international community will not sanction stronger measures to remove or destroy the monsters for fear of stirring up a hornets’ nest of unbelievable proportions. Previous such efforts have always ended in near-disaster, save for the intervention of heroes like the Freedom League and the Atom Family. So the international community does its best to maintain Kaiju Island as the world’s most dangerous “nature preserve.”
Lemuria
The island continent of Lemuria once existed in the Pacific Ocean thousands of years ago. It was the center of an empire ruled by the Serpent People. The Serpent Empire of Lemuria was the sole surviving element of a much older Saurian culture that ruled the earth 65 million years ago. When their world was threatened with destruction by an asteroid impact, a group of Saurian scientist-sorcerrors made a great, desperate work and managed to send a chunk of their heartland into the future, arriving in approximately 50,000 BCE. They quickly set about rebuilding their ancient world-spanning civilization in this new, drastically different world.
At first humanity was little more than a curiosity to the saurian Serpent People. They kept humans as pets and slaves, occasionally using them in their arcane experiments. Saurian scientists genetically-engineered various sub-species of humanity to serve them. But in time, the Lemurian Serpent People came into conflict with the advanced human empire of Atlantis. They fought a long series of wars, which culminated in their mutual annihilation. Lemuria sank beneath the ocean in a terrible Cataclysm, the end of the last great Serpent Empire.
The ruins of Lemuria lie at the bottom of the Pacific, largely undisturbed, although occasionally visited by scavengers (human and otherwise) looking for ancient artifacts and secrets left behind by the Serpent Empire. Some scattered tribes of Deep Ones can be found there, usually worshipping some sunken idol or ruin. There are ancient passages from Lemuria into Sub-Terra and some of the ruins still have pockets of breathable air (likely maintained by some ancient machinery or magic).
The Lemurian ruins are dangerous, holding ancient and corrupt magic, imprisoned creatures, and dormant war-machines or doomsday devices the Serpent People were unable to use in the final days of their war with Atlantis. The United Nations have declared the ruins off-limits and placed them under the jurisdiction of UNISON, which is charged with dealing with any poachers or scavengers, relying on the Freedom League for more serious problems.
The Lost World
The so-called “Lost World” was discovered more than a century ago by an explorer and adventuring paleontologist from England, who called it the “Maple White Land.” Originally believed to occupy a hidden plateau in South America, later explorers discovered the plateau is actually one of several dimensional gateways between Earth and a parallel world; one where dinosaurs never died out and continue to exist alongside other prehistoric beasts, primitive humans, and refugees from other places and times. Other known Lost World gates are found at the North Pole, in the South Pacific, and in the Himalayan Mountains.
Scientists speculate the dimensional interface between the Lost World and other Earths was once more permeable, but something (perhaps the fallout from the last Terminus Invasion) has strengthened the dimensional barriers and portals have become rare. It is possible there was once a gateway between the Lost World and Kaiju Island, which might explain some of its inhabitants. If so, the passage remains lost or hidden.
Other “lost worlds” on Earth have since proven to be passages to the same reality, including Dinosaur Island in the South Pacific, and the isolated valley in China were prehistoric creatures are still found. A Lost World passage may have existed (due to the influence of Magic Mesa) in the American Southwest, explaining the so-called “Gwana Valley” the Pale Rider once discovered there.
In addition to the diverse range of dinosaurs, the Lost World is home to mastodons, saber-toothed tigers, and a wide variety of prehistoric beasts that (like humans) should not share the same time period or climate. Tribes of primitive humans live in the jungles, surviving as best they can in the savage environment. The champion of the tribes is Zandar the Jungle Lord, a descendent of the English explorer who first discovered the passage to the Lost World. The human tribes have made one major step forward by domesticating animals for food and as mounts, and this helps keep them from being driven to extinction by dinosaurs and other threats. The Lost World is also home to scattered tribes of Serpent People. Whether they are originally from Earth or indigenous remains a mystery.
The most powerful civilizations here are remnants of the Incan and Roman civilizations of Earth (or an Earth-like parallel world). Viracochasuyu, the Incan Empire, rules a small mountain range in the name of their creator- god Viracocha, whose avatar wields the “might of the sun” in the form of a glowing crystal with solar energy powers. The Incans successfully defended their territory against all threats for centuries, created incredible terraced farms to feed thousands, and even domesticated pterodactyls as flying mounts. They regularly sacrifice victims to a live volcano to sustain their gods (and therefore the world).
The walled city of Nova Roma grew from the efforts of General Viridius Sophus and his lost legion, which found its way into the Lost World and remained to claim it in the name of Emperor Marcus Aurelius; their efforts were abandoned a century later when it became clear there was no hope of regaining contact with Rome, but Nova Roma resembles the Empire at its height, including its Praetor-Governor. Various ruins in the Lost World indicate Atlantean refugees once settled here as well, but died out centuries ago, leaving only their artifacts behind.
Magic Mesa
In the desert of the American Southwest stands a lone tower of rock, rising up above the painted sands, casting a long shadow in the rising and setting sun. Native legends speak of it as a place of power, where the spirits dwell and where braves went on vision quests seeking their wisdom and aid. Those who know of it call it Magic Mesa, and say it’s a place where strange things happen, a place best avoided by those who know what’s good for them.
Magic Mesa is a nexus, a gateway between worlds, where someone lost in the desert can find the dark tower of stone, then wander away from it to end up somewhere quite different from where they started. It’s a place where space and time as we know them have little meaning, and distant places and times sometimes touch. It’s a well of mystic power and insight.
In the days of the Old West, Magic Mesa was a sacred place to the local tribes, and became the sanctum of Broken Crow, a powerful Sioux shaman and the Master Mage of his era. Its magic helped resurrect John Reed, the Lone Ranger, and may have influenced many other fantastic tales in the Old West. After Broken Crow’s death at Wounded Knee, the location of Magic Mesa was lost to all but a few, although stories continued of people traveling in the desert and stumbling across it, for good or ill. Those who sought Magic Mesa to exploit its power discovered—to their regret—that it is guarded to this day.
Shambala Vale
Nestled in the Himalayan Mountains is a secret valley not marked on any map. The sole passage is hidden behind a towering waterfall, deep in a narrow canyon where a mighty river plunges down to the rocks below. Past the cascade of the Hidden Falls is Shambala Vale. It is known as Lotus Land, Pemako, Shangri-la, and many other names. Despite the harsh environment of the mountains, the legendary Vale remains temperate and spring-like year-round, its weather protected by ancient magic, which also shields it from prying eyes. In truth, Shambala Vale is a beyul, a “hidden land,” within a dimensional fold like that of Utopia Isle or the Lost World, which has kept it concealed from the outside world for untold generations.
Mystics from Atlantis settled the vale millennia ago to escape the war between that island nation and the Serpent Empire of Lemuria. They intermarried with the local people and founded a community, protecting it from the elements and potentially hostile outsiders. The eventual destruction of Atlantis affirmed their belief in isolation and pacifism, so they remained and studied the esoteric arts.
Shambala Vale is best known for its temple of learning, meditation, and contemplation, and for the crypts that lie beneath it. Only learned mystics and martial arts masters even know of the vale’s existence, and fewer still know how to find their way there.
Located on a mountainside overlooking the green and fertile valley below, the Shambala Temple has stood for centuries as a place of contemplation and learning. Many of Earth’s Master Mages have trained at the temple, and many mystical and martial arts traditions can trace their roots back to it, if one delves deeply enough into the past.
The masters of the Shambala Temple apply many tests to determine the worthiness of potential students. The first test is actually reaching the temple, no small feat for an outsider. Would-be students are often rejected and sent to live in the valley below to learn humility, or made to wait outside the temple for days or weeks to learn patience. Once accepted, students do menial work in between lessons in meditation, exercise, martial arts, philosophy, and (in some cases) the mystic arts.
The martial arts taught at the Shambala Temple are said to be the “sun source” of all unarmed fighting techniques throughout Asia, perhaps even the world, dating back to the ancient adepts of Atlantis and their esoteric disciplines. Thus students of the Temple can learn virtually any fighting style in the world, and true masters are among the greatest fighters the world has ever known.
The Crypts of Karu
In catacombs deep beneath the mountain of the Shambala Temple lie the Crypts of Karu. Within these vaults rest the mortal remains of many of Earth’s Master Mages, placed there by the monks of the Shambala Temple. The crypts are a sacred place, and no one except for the monks and the current Master Mage (or those with his or her expression permission) may enter. The statues within the antechamber of the crypts are enchanted as guardians over the final resting place of the honored dead.
Some Master Mages come to the Crypts of Karu to reflect and meditate, others to more directly commune with the spirits of their predecessors. These ancient spirits can give sage advice, but they only do so in times of the greatest need, since it is difficult for them to manifest on the earthly plane.
Sub-Terra
Most of the Serpent People perished in the sinking of Lemuria, but a few escaped into subterranean tunnels, deep beneath the surface of the Earth. There they set about creating a new slave race to serve their needs. They engineered a breed of human with great physical strength and the ability to operate in near-total darkness.
Unfortunately, these new slaves eventually rebelled against their serpent masters. They seized several underground cities for themselves, expelling the Serpent People from them. The Serpent People were forced to sue for peace with their former slaves, who became known as the Morlocks. Legends about the Morlocks may have inspired various human myths, as well as the work of H.G. Wells in his novel The Time Machine.
In time the Serpent People engineered a new servitor race, carefully weeding out individual initiative or any ability to rebel. These new slaves, while controllable, proved no match for the savagery of the Morlocks, whose continued attacks against the Serpent People drove them to abandon many of their subterranean cities, and their new slaves along with them. Without any real initiative of their own, the Sub-Terrans continued maintaining the ancient cities and machines, going about their duties without really knowing (or caring) why they did so.
The conflict between the Morlocks and the Serpent People exhausted both societies and drove them both deeper into barbarism. The Serpent People continued to degenerate, until they lost nearly all vestiges of civilization. Cults worshipping terrible, alien gods flourished in both cultures, contributing to their degeneration.
Today, the Morlocks and Serpent People are savages, rarely ever visiting the surface world. There remain some civilized Serpent People, mainly priests and sorcerers from ancient Lemuria preserved in a kind of stasis, or genetic “throwbacks” with greater intellect than their brethren. Morlocks occasionally see mutations with greater intelligence and psionic abilities. Such mutants typically become leaders of small tribes. Although the Morlocks tend to be mistrustful of magic, there are secretive cults ruled by priests of demons or alien gods.
One such cult was mystically transformed into humanoid creatures of molten rock known as Magmin. They live in the deepest depths of Sub-Terra, near natural pockets of magma and lava vents, since they prefer the super-heated environment. Surface drilling and blasting, along with natural eruptions, have occasionally driven Magmin to the surface, where they attack anyone not of their own kind before retreating down below once more.
Some years ago Jerris Trent, the Terra-King, discovered the Sub-Terrans. The servile creatures fixated on Trent as their new master and he established his own underground empire (also known, confusingly, as Sub-Terra). Using the ancient, abandoned science of the Serpent People and his legions of Sub-Terran slaves, the Terra-King has made several attempts to conquer parts of the surface world, thwarted by heroes like the Atom Family and Dr. Metropolis.
Few other surface people have visited Sub-Terra, but the Atom Family spent some time there. Dr. Atom reports there are hundreds of miles of caves and tunnels beneath the North American continent alone. Sub-Terrans, Morlocks, Serpent People, and various creatures descended from Lemurian experiments can be found down there. The Terra-King controls some of these monsters and uses them as living weapons. Dr. Atom has speculated some of the Sub-Terran tunnels and caverns may run through dimensional “faults” like the passages to the Lost World. Indeed, there is at least one known passageway to the Lost World from Sub-Terra, and other tunnels there could lead to other worlds, places, or even times.
Ultima Thule
The ancient Scandinavians had a legend of an “island at the edge of the world” called Ultima Thule. Like many legends in the World of Freedom, this one holds a grain of truth. High above the Arctic Circle, hidden deep beneath the polar icecap, is the fabulous city of Ultima Thule, the Hyperborea of legend.
Thousands of years ago, the experiments of the alien Preservers created an advanced offshoot of humanity. Some of these people founded a colony in the North Atlantic, later an outpost of Atlantis. During the final days of the war between Atlantis and the Serpent Empire of Lemuria, an experiment involving cosmic forces devastated the original island home of the Ultima. However, the survivors of the experiment were endowed with cosmic energy manipulating powers and fantastically extended lifespans. Despite their efforts to prevent it, Atlantis continued to pursue the study of cosmic forces and unleashed its own destruction.
The cosmically empowered survivors went far to the north, beyond any human habitation, where they founded the hidden city of Ultima Thule, the center of a domain some called Hyperborea. There they retired in contemplation and study, living apart from humanity while keeping watch for signs of the return of the Serpent People and their minions. Most Ultima devoted their immortal lives to the pursuit of particular areas of interest, from arts and athletics to science and scholarship.
Few humans knew anything other than legends of the fantastic Ultima Thule. The immortal Daedalus visited the city during his travels, and spent many years among the Ultima, but eventually resumed his wandering. No other outsider visited Ultima Thule until the 20th century, when contact between the Ultima and the outside world changed the course of history.
Members of the German Thule Society, an occult organization devoted to discovering the “root elements” of Aryan culture, discovered the location of Ultima Thule and visited the city. Among them was Wilhelm Kantor, an initiate of the Society, and reincarnation of the Egyptian sorcerer Tan-Aktor. Although the Ultima agreed they were likely the source of legends about a superhuman “Aryan” root race, they had no interest in Nazi ideology about a “master race.” The Ultima decided to wipe the humans’ memories of their city and let them go. However, one Ultiman, Kal-Zed, was intrigued by the possibility of guiding humanity, so he secretly contacted the Nazis.
Kal-Zed became der Übermensch, champion of the Nazi ideal. Neither the German High Command nor the rest of the world knew he was actually an Ultiman, and his race chose not to reveal their existence (after a long and bitter debate), but exiled Kal-Zed and washed their hands of the whole matter. Übermensch suffered defeats at the hands of Centurion and the Liberty League. He fled Germany before it finally surrendered to the Allies. Kal-Zed eventually abandoned the Nazi ideology but remained a steadfast foe of the Centurion as Superior.
Centurion and other heroes eventually made contact with the Ultima, although their existence remains secret from the rest of the world. The immortals of Ultima Thule continue to safeguard the world from their ancient enemies, the Serpent People and their ilk, and to walk in human guise among mortals, but otherwise remain in their splendid isolation.
Utopia Isle
When Atlantis sank, a small number of Atlanteans survived, having been away from the homeland when disaster struck. Some of these survivors scattered to different parts of the world, becoming known as heroes, wizards, and legendary figures in human mythology.
Most of the refugees made their way to a remote outpost in what is now the Caribbean. They settled on an island situated in the midst of a dimensional rift in the Bermuda Triangle, shielded from the outside world. It became known as Utopia—literally “a place which is nowhere”—and the Atlantean survivors created a small, self-contained civilization focused on peace, equality, and personal achievement. They abandoned any interest in the mystic arts, believing such things led to the downfall of Atlantis, and focused on the sciences instead. They achieved tremendous advances and enjoyed millennia of peace and prosperity, shunning contact with the outside world.
In 1941, the Utopians made contact with the first outsiders in millennia, and learned of the war in Europe and the Nazi regime. They decided to send an envoy to learn more about this conflict, and a young Utopian named Sarlyn was chosen. He become known as “the Envoy” in the outside world and served as a member of the Liberty League. Although Envoy’s reports showed much promise in humanity, when the United States deployed nuclear weapons to put an end to the war, the Utopians decided once more to isolate themselves.
A few outsiders like the Atom Family know of Utopia Isle’s existence, although its location remains a closely guarded secret. Although some Utopians favor renewing contact with the outside world, the majority fears the contamination of their peaceful culture and the threat of what humanity might do if they discovered Utopia’s existence. A growing minority lobbies for leaving Earth to colonize another world in the galaxy, leaving any fear of discovery behind. For now, the Utopians wait and watch for signs that humanity is developing toward the kind of peace they themselves have achieved.
MYSTERIES IN SPACE
Space is vast, and its fairly common knowledge that humans are not alone in the cosmos. On the contrary, there are thousands of worlds filled with a variety of alien life, some of it quite advanced, and some hostile to Earth. Strange visitors from other worlds have made their way to our own, but for the most part, Earth seems to be considered something of an interstellar backwater, a primitive curiosity among space-faring races. And yet, they keep coming here…
While there is an almost infinite variety of life in the cosmos, this section talks primarily about the alien worlds and civilizations associated with Earth’s heroes and villains, including the great civilizations of Earth’s area of the galaxy.
Farside City
In a crater on the far side of Earth’s moon is a hidden city, thousands of years old. Its inhabitants, the Farsiders (also known as Selunites or “Moon People”), are the descendants of humans taken from Earth by the alien Preservers, the same race that seeded humanity across the galaxy.
The Gardeners built Farside City in a deep crater, along with atmospheric generators, and settled a number of humans there. Apparently, they used the city as some sort of outpost or perhaps a “living laboratory” to study humanity. They may have also intended the city to ensure the survival of various species (including humans) if something happened to wipe out life on Earth. Certainly, some of the Farsiders’ myths suggest their home was intended as “the Last Refuge.” Whatever the case, the Gardeners disappeared long ago, leaving the Farsiders to develop on their own.
The inhabitants of the lunar city advanced faster than their Earthbound cousins, achieving a high level of scientific and technological sophistication. They also developed psionic abilities among a minority of their population, which soon became the ruling class. Generally, the Farsiders led an idyllic existence with little reason to change their way of life. A strong xenophobic streak, perhaps encouraged or engineered by the Gardeners, kept them from returning to Earth, even when they had the technology to do so. This limitation also kept them from exploring their lunar home much beyond the bounds of their city. Their society peaked centuries ago, and has remained largely static until the 1970s.
Things changed when humans from Earth began to leave their planet and explore space. The Farsiders learned much about the mother-world from intercepted radio and TV transmissions. They knew Earthlers were primitive and warlike, and they feared the possibility of a conflict, even more so once humanity developed large nuclear arsenals and space-based weapons.
Fear and ambition drove Selene, a member of the royal family, to lead a coup against her relations. She seized control of Farside City and used its technology to hide all evidence of the city from technological or biological sensors. The only other member of the Farside royal family to survive was a boy named Mentac, who escaped to Earth and was adopted by humans.
Selene took the title Lady Lunar and turned the city into a dictatorship under her rule. She used the power of the Moonstone, an alien artifact left by the Gardeners, to increase her powers and exert influence over the Farsiders. Rather than be destroyed by Earthlings, Lady Lunar planned to build a space fleet and eventually seize control of Earth as well.
Years later, Mentac returned to Farside City as one of the Atom Family. They overthrew Lady Lunar and freed the Farsiders from her influence. Mentac refused to take his aunt’s place, however, not wishing to exchange one dictator for another, no matter how benevolent. He encouraged his people to institute a democratic form of government, and they elected the Farside Council which now rules the city.
Most people on Earth still do not know of Farside City’s existence. The Farsiders’ advanced technology hides them from satellites and space probes, although several major Earth governments know about the city and its location. Many people in the superhuman community are aware of or have even visited Farside City, particularly the current generation of the Atom Family, children of Mentac and his wife Andrea Atom.
The Farsiders are of human stock, still almost genetically identical to Earth humans. They have the same traits as ordinary humans, although they tend to be taller, with thinner builds (Farside City has artificial gravity, but not quite as strong as Earth’s normal 1G), and are considerably less fertile. Some Farsiders still manifest psionic abilities, although such powers have become even less common since Lady Lunar wiped out the rest of the royal family (the Farsiders with the strongest psionic genes). Farside technology is quite advanced, including gravity control, genetic engineering, and super-computers.
Crater Apes
Crater apes are primates genetically engineered long ago by the mysterious alien Gardeners (or perhaps by the ancient ancestors of the Farsiders, it’s not entirely clear). Crater apes were originally used to perform heavy labor in parts of Farside City, under the psychic control and guidance of Farsider nobles. They were designed to absorb solar radiation, and thrive on it, giving them some energy-related powers.
While Lady Lunar ruled Farside City, she turned the crater apes from a labor force into her mentally controlled enforcers and guards, using them to help keep the human population of the city in line. The apes served quite well in that capacity, until the Atom Family overthrew Lady Lunar and liberated the Farsiders.
The people of Farside City attempted to return the crater apes to their role as domesticated servants, but encountered difficulties. Lady Lunar gave them a taste for violence and a domineering attitude toward everyone except for her, plus there were virtually no mentats left to control them. The Farsiders faced some trouble with the crater apes and eventually isolated the population in a preserve. Efforts to re-train them have been slow (particularly without the aid of experienced telepaths), but are progressing.
Lady Lunar may have taken some crater apes with her when she fled Farside City, or shortly thereafter. She has at least once unleashed the crater apes on both Farside and New Atlantis after driving them into a state of “lunacy” with her powers. The Atom Family was able to capture and contain the rogue apes and return them to their preserve on the Moon.
The Grue Unity
The Grue Unity is an expansionist, militaristic, interstellar empire in Earth’s region of the Milky Way. The expansion of the Grue has been checked somewhat by the presence of the rival Lor Republic. Still, the Grue are not about to let the Lor prevent them from achieving their destiny, which is to rule all inhabited worlds in the galaxy.
The Grue are a protean, shape-shifting species from the dark planet Gruen Prime. As they evolved, the Grue actually differentiated into different “castes” with specialized roles and intellectual capabilities to match. Grue are disdainful of “solid” creatures with fixed forms and consider themselves inherently superior to other forms of life. They are an arrogant and xenophobic species and believe it is their manifest destiny to rule the galaxy.
The Grue expanded their Unity using their shapeshifting powers to infiltrate and take control of other civilizations they encountered until they’d amassed the power sufficient to rule openly. On occasions they simply invade and seize control of more primitive worlds. The presence of Lor mentats has limited the Grue ability to infiltrate the Republic, although there are still some Grue moles active in Lor society. Grue have also infiltrated Earth society in the past, although the full extent of their activities remains unknown.
The Grue Unity is made up of a number of client races ruled by the Grue with an iron fist and the aid of legions of soldier drones. The Unity’s technology is advanced, but largely stolen or mimicked from other civilizations they have assimilated. They have faster-than-light starships, energy weapons, force fields, anti-gravity, genetic engineering, and so forth. They’re particularly proud of their weapons technology, which includes a variety of nerve stimulating pain weapons and capture devices in addition to standard-issue blasters and implosion grenades.
The Grue have been interested in Earth for some time, though the first known contact occurred in 1947 when a scout craft crashed in the Desert Southwest of North America. Since then, the Unity has sent additional scouts and other forces to Earth for various reasons. One thing the Unity knows is it has little chance to conquer Earth while its native superhumans (notably the Freedom League), the Star Knights, and the Lor Republic all watch over it. Many Grue schemes are intended to discredit or eliminate Earth’s superhuman protectors so the aliens can then invade in force.
The Lor Republic
The Lor Republic is a star-spanning civilization in the Milky Way, including hundreds of worlds. The most startling thing about the Republic is its dominant species is human! The Lor are descendants of humans taken from Earth tens of thousands of years ago by the Gardeners and relocated to a world they call Lor-Van. A number of human settlements were established on other worlds in the galaxy, some of the human stock genetically altered to adapt to the new environments.
The Lor are the most advanced of these races. They began exploring space when the Cataclysm claimed Atlantis and Lemuria, and discovered faster than light travel before Europeans discovered America. In the centuries since, the Lor have been steadily expanding into space, usually encountering less developed races—some of them human as well—and absorbing them into their vast Republic.
The Lor learned of Earth decades ago when they encountered the Terran Daedalus, who was exploring the galaxy in his ship, the Icarus. Lor contact with Earth has been limited, given the number of superhumans there. For the time being, the Republic has declared Earth off-limits as a “developing world.” Once humanity is advanced enough, they might be considered for membership in the Republic.
The Lor summarily reject the theory first put forth by Daedalus when he encountered them: that their race originated on Earth. Instead, many Lor believe Earth is a lost colony from what they call the First Age, when another legendary Lor Republic ruled the stars. The Lor are somewhat superior in their attitude toward what they deem “developing” species, although they are fascinated by the diverse powers demonstrated by Earth’s superhumans. What disturbs them is how often Terran superhuman powers vastly exceed the abilities of Lor mentats.
Lor are virtually identical in appearance and biology to humans, and interfertile with them, so many Lor can easily pass as Terrans. They have a somewhat different range of hair and eye pigmentation. White, gray, deep red, and even blue or green hair are all common. Amber, tan, and violet eyes are known, in addition to the normal human ranges of colors. Skin tone ranges from pale to deep brown (depending on the area of Lor-Van where a particular Lor’s ancestors hail from).
Mixing with other humanoid races within the Republic has diversified the human genotype in the Republic. No skin tones or cosmetic distinction are left unturned, as one can meet humans with antennae (the hive-minded Dotrae) to green or blue-skinned humans with gills, webbed hands, and feet (the amphibious Pisceans). The races of the Republic have no prejudices regarding pigmentation or ancestry—they only insist on “genetic fitness.” Psionic ability is prized and bred for, although the precise genetic basis of it (if any) is not yet fully understood.
The political organization of the Republic resembles the Roman Republic on Earth in many respects. A Senate represents the interests of all member worlds. A Supreme Praetor holds executive power, elected by the Senate for life. Citizens have a great deal of personal freedom, although loyalty to the Republic is expected and enforced. The Lor prize martial virtues along with intellectual ones, and they honor their great military leaders as heroes. The Republic no longer expands through conquest, however, and is, for the most part, at peace.
Lor technology is highly advanced. They have faster-than-light starships, energy beam weapons, anti-gravity, limited teleportation, energy transfer and transmission, force fields, and similar devices. Some of their technology came from reverse-engineering ancient Preserver devices, but most has been developed or acquired in the conquest of other worlds.
The primary rival of the Republic is the Grue Unity, and the two have warred over dominance of this galaxy for centuries; the past 40 years of fragile peace created a state of détente, but recent activities have awakened old grudges. The Republic has also faced challenges from various “barbarian” worlds and small encroaching empires. The most successful and aggressive of these is the Stellar Khanate, which was defeated only with the aid of the Earth hero Daedalus and the Order of the Star Knights.
The Zardani Stellar Khanate
Beyond the borders of the Lor Republic are various “barbaric” worlds. Some are primitive, developing societies, left alone by the Lor. Others have spaceflight capabilities of their own and band together into loose (and often temporary) alliances. These worlds are like wolves at the door of the Republic, fended off by the Lor space-fleet and the cunning of Lor diplomats (and mentats). Most such barbarian empires are of little concern.
This led the Lor to underestimate a war-leader called Khana, the queen of a small alliance of worlds with considerable ambition. More importantly, it led them to underestimate her son and successor, Kinan Khan. A military genius, the Star-Khan turned a ramshackle collection of worlds on the fringe of the Republic, led by his own race, the Zardani, into a military force without peer. It’s possible he would have conquered a large portion of the Lord Republic in his first great war against them, if not for the intervention of Daedalus and the Star Knights.
After a crushing defeat, it has taken years for the Stellar Khanate to recover, and the Lor Republic is not so likely to underestimate Kinan Khan again. Agents of the Republic keep a close watch on the Stellar Khanate for signs of further aggression. For the time being, the Star-Khan has chosen the velvet glove of diplomacy over the iron fist of conquest, but only to buy time as he rebuilds, hatches new plans, and plots his revenge against those who have tried to deny him his destiny.
Forty years ago one of those plots included a covert series of missions to Earth to run tests on the natives in an attempt to replicate the amazing array of superhuman powers they seemed blessed with. Using found Gardener bio-technology, they wished to unlock the secrets of meta-humanity in the hopes of transferring it into their own genome. But five years into the program one of their more successful test subjects escaped, and in the process of destroying the Zardani ship revealed the alien presence to Earth. As the ancient Gardener technology was apparently rendered inert, the Lor did little more than send a harsh diplomatic note, but it has sharpened their watch on the Kahnate.
The Stellar Khanate is a patchwork collection of worlds, many of them conquered and occupied by the Star-Khan’s forces, and ruled from Zardan. The Khanate’s technology is roughly equivalent to that of the Republic, but tends to be older and in a poorer state of repair. Oftentimes, Khanate worlds must make do with whatever is available to them, and feature a strange mix of technologies alongside primitive and even barbaric conditions. For example, gladiatorial games and blood sports are popular on many Khanate worlds, and pirates, smugglers, and other criminals often find a haven there, so long as they don’t cross the Star-Khan or his lieutenants.
The Star Knights
The Order of the Star Knights began millennia ago on a distant world now known as Citadel. The entity Mentor is a vast neural-mapped cybernetic computer network programmed with the knowledge and experiences of hundreds of thousands of beings; in essence, the sum total of an entire city’s worth of minds linked together to achieve a collective intelligence. Many suspect Mentor is a creation of the Gardeners, like many fantastic artifacts throughout the galaxy, but it remains silent on the matter of its origins. Mentor possesses vast intelligence and experience, along with direct control over incredibly advanced technological facilities and a nearly limitless power source. Fortunately, it also has a deep sense of fairness and justice.
When the Lor first achieved interstellar spaceflight centuries ago, the Grue often blasted them out of the stars rather than have any rivals for the space lanes. Mentor detected these conflicts, assessed the actions of both star-faring races, and saw there would be a need for agents to maintain order and protect innocents from harm out among the stars.
Mentor began recruiting intelligent and brave beings, using robotic messengers to ferry potential recruits to Citadel, where it began training the first Star Knights. Coming from a variety of worlds across the galaxy and representing a diverse range of species, Mentor first taught its recruits to respect the diversity among them and conquer any prejudices they previously held. Once their training was complete, Mentor equipped each with an advanced suit of nano-technology armor, with offensive and defensive capabilities and the ability to fly through interstellar space. The Star Knights were charged with preserving peace, order, and justice in the galaxy.
The Lor Republic quickly acknowledged the authority of the Star Knights after witnessing them in action, and most other civilized worlds in the galaxy do so as well. The Star Knights make it a point not to interfere in the internal affairs of other worlds. They rarely go where they are not wanted and concentrate on dealing with natural disasters, interstellar crime, and similar menaces. They also protect developing worlds from outside exploitation and conquest. The Grue Unity considers the Star Knights adversaries, although they respect the Knights’ abilities and only challenge them when they feel numbers are in their favor.
There are currently thousands of Star Knights throughout the Milky Way galaxy, but they’re still spread quite thin, and multiple Star Knights are only seen together in times of great crisis. Each Star Knight is quite independent and expected to handle matters largely on his or her or its own.
Each Knight wears an advanced suit of technological armor that draws power from the Star Stone, the glowing, multifaceted crystal floating in the heart of Mentor’s complex on Citadel. The Star Stone contains seemingly inexhaustible extradimensional energy and may be related to the Moonstone found in Farside City. The Grue have sought to kill Star Knights for centuries to claim their armor and study it, but whenever a Knight is killed, the armor automatically returns to Citadel (often bringing the corpse with it).
A Lor Star Knight, A’Lan Koor, was stationed on Earth for a time. A member of the Freedom League in the late 1960s and most of the 1970s, he was known to Earth simply as “Star Knight.” He eventually returned to space and has risen to membership of the Inner Circle that administers the Order of Star Knights. He is considered a candidate to have his memories incorporated into Mentor upon his biological death, although that is not expected for many cycles.
In its long history, only one Star Knight has ever turned against the Order. Rojan Lhar betrayed the Star Knights and attempted to seize control of the Star Stone. He failed but managed to escape, despite the efforts of Mentor and his fellow Star Knights. A’Lan Koor pursued Rojan—who became known as “Blackstar”—to Earth and the two became implacable foes. Years after his betrayal, Rojan was captured and Mentor stripped him of his armor, sentencing the rogue to life imprisonment on an isolated asteroid, although he has since escaped to plot his revenge.
Recently, Mentor has chosen an Earth woman, Maria Montoya, to become the new Star Knight for Earth’s sector of space. Montoya helped to fend off a Grue invasion of Earth and is a member of the Freedom League.
WORLDS BEYOND
In mystical parlance, Earth—indeed the entire material universe—is but one “sphere” of existence. There are “higher” and “lower” spheres as well, magical dimensions where entities out of human myth and imagination reside. It’s debatable whether or not these beings—gods, heroes and demons, dreams and nightmares—existed before sentience developed or arose out of sentient imagination and worship. In either case, they and their realms are quite real and capable of interacting with the material world.
Among the myriad dimensions of existence are the realms of the different mythological pantheons, such as Mount Olympus, home of the ancient Greek gods, and Guinee, the Island Beneath the Sea, home of the Voodoo loa. Numerous other godly realms exist, alongside various netherworlds and hells where demons and devils can be found.
Some dimensions serve as power sources to be tapped by mystics and mages from a thousand different worlds, each attributing the powers to some conceptual being that may or may not actually exist, and may not particularly care how its power is used.
Actual magical beings from other dimensions—be they gods, demons, spirits, or something else entirely—rarely interact with life on Earth. Many are barred by various agreements among the higher (or lower) spheres, but often the distance and problems of traversing the dimensional gulfs keep them away from New Atlantis and Earth. They can still reach the material world, but only if they expend a great deal of energy or are specifically summoned to the material universe. Heroic magicians like Eldrich, Earth’s Master Mage, safeguard people against invaders from other spheres.
The Cosmic Coil
Mystic adepts call it the Veiled Road, the Winding Way, and the Paths of the Magi. The Serpent People call it the Cosmic Coil, while to the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign it is the Maze of Madness, the path to the Unspeakable One, the all-devouring chaos at the center of existence. They all describe the mysterious pathways between dimensions, particularly to other worlds of magical power.
The Cosmic Coil winds its way between and around all the spheres of existence, a way of reaching other worlds for those who know how to walk its twisted paths. Such journeys may be short or long (sometimes varying from one journey to the next0, but they are always risky, even for adepts of the mystic arts.
Battle Brutes (The War-Born)
Their origin is lost in the mists of some distant world. Mystic adepts know magicians forged the constructs called Battle Brutes as warriors in a longforgotten war. The so-called “War-born” were the ideal soldiers: feeling no pain, fear, pity, or compassion. They existed solely to destroy the enemy and they did their job well… all too well.
When the war had devastated their world, the Battle Brutes turned on their creators. Their existence since has been one of never-ending conflict, destroying anything in their path. It is said they will only stop when everything has been destroyed and there is nothing left in all the cosmos.
Long ago, the Dark Lords of the Netherworlds united for the first and only time to pen the Battle Brutes behind mystic barriers and keep them from spreading to other worlds. Although the spells containing them have weakened on occasion, the War-born have always been returned to their interdimensional prison.
The Dark Lords of the Netherworlds
Many of the dimensions beyond Earth’s plane are “netherworlds.” Each dimension in the Cosmic Coil has a Master Mage, its most powerful and skilled adept of the mystic arts. In some dimensions (such as Earth’s), the Master Mage is a responsible guardian of order. In many others, the Master Mage is driven by a lust for power, or else corrupted by the power of the office, imposing his or her will on the very fabric of reality. In time, the dimension becomes a netherworld and its Master Mage becomes a Dark Lord.
The netherworlds are places where magic reigns supreme and physical laws are largely matters of convenience, existing almost entirely at the whim of its ruling Dark Lord. The orderly nature of reality gives way to chaos, shaped at the will of the netherworld’s ruler. Netherworlds tend to take on the character of their ruling Dark Lord, reflecting personal preferences and idiosyncrasies.
Dark Lords often war against each other as they seek to expand their domains. Netherworlds can engulf and swallow each other, or be sundered by internal strife, particularly if another powerful sorcerer rises to challenge the ruling Dark Lord. The Dark Lords have only ever cooperated once in their known history, and it would take a similar threat to force them to band together once more.
The most infamous of Dark Lords is Una, the Unrelenting, ruler of the largest and most extensive netherworld (simply known as “the Netherworld” by inhabitants of Earth). She is a long-time foe of Adrian Eldrich, Earth’s Master Mage, and would like nothing more than to humble him and to add Earth to her realm.
The Astral Plane
The astral plane is a dimension closely parallel to the material world and extending throughout the known dimensions of the Cosmic Coil. It is a realm of mind and spirit, made up of ectoplasm, a psychic substance analogous to matter, but more malleable and responsive to mystic and psychic forces.
The near astral plane touches upon many different dimensions, allowing astral beings to see and hear things occurring in the material world, and even to interact to a limited degree.
The deep astral plane is a conceptual realm of floating pockets of ectoplasm in a psychedelic void. It is filled with drifting “islands,” disembodied eyes or mouths, roads or paths (some of which form part of the Coil), and other icons or images. Some astral imagery is dictated by the psyche of the traveler, since ectoplasm responds to thoughts and emotional impressions.
Visitors most commonly reach the astral plane through psychic or magical means, particularly the Astral Form power, creating a temporary body for the psyche out of ectoplasm. Physical transference or visits to theastral plane are less common, and more dangerous, since it is possible to become lost in the misty astral depths, unable to return to the material world.
The Dream Dimension
Also known as the Dreamlands, the Vale of Sleep, and the Dimension of Nightmares, the dream dimension is formed by the collective unconscious of all sleeping (and, to a degree, waking) minds. It is a place of thought and imagination, where dreams are reality, and everything ever imagined exists somewhere.
Like the astral plane, which it touches upon, the dream dimension has “near” and “far” or “deep” regions. Each intelligent being has its own region of the dimension, a personal dreamscape created by that individual’s mind. The personal dreamscape blends into and eventually gives way to the vast and collective vista of the dream dimension, what psychologists call the collective unconscious and mystics know as the deep dreaming.
Also like the astral plane, outsiders usually visit the dream dimension in psychic or spiritual form, most often while sleeping, leaving the material body in the physical world while the psyche roams the vistas of dream. While events in the dream dimension (particularly in the personal dreamscape) are “just dreams,” they can have real effects. This is particularly true of encounters in the deep dreaming, where entities of great power and influence are sometimes found.
The inhabitants of the dream dimension are as diverse as the imagination, although they have varying degrees of reality and independence. Some are little more than phantasms, figments of the imagination, while others have an existence predating humanity. The Dreamlands are home to the dreaming selves of Serpent People, ancient scions of that race who exist now in eternal sleep in the material world, their minds free to roam the Vale of Dreams. There are also many cats in the dream dimension, since cats spend so much time asleep, moving between the dreaming and waking worlds.
Guinee, the Island Beneath the Sea
At the bottom of a vast interdimensional ocean lies Guinee, the island home of the loa, gods of Voodoo. Although it is described as an island, the territory covered by Guinee is vast, and difficult to map in three-dimensional terms. The rulers of the domain of the loa are the great serpent gods Damballah and Ayieda, the white snake and the rainbow serpent. They are the most ancient of their kind, and have spiritual ties to the Serpent People on Earth, although they no longer receive worship from them.
Although the loa interact with humanity more often than other ancient gods, they still observe restrictions on their interference in human affairs. Currently, the loa observe the struggle between Siren and Baron Samedi to determine the fate of future relations with humanity. Baron Samedi maintains that mortals are innately corrupt, and fit as nothing more than the hosts and playthings of the powerful loa. Siren champions the human spirit and potential, advocating partnership and cooperation. Although their struggle has been going on for years, the loa are timeless and patient, willing to let things play out.
Mount Olympus
In the soaring interdimensional heights stands Olympus, home of the ancient Greek pantheon. It was once firmly connected with Earth at a dimensional nexus point atop the physical Mount Olympus in Greece, but that portal has been closed and now opens only at the gods’ will from their home.
The Olympians were once quite active in mortal affairs. They created mortal champions, and granted immortality to the inventor Daedalus. They also interfered in wars, politics, and other matters. Eventually, the Olympians, like other ancient gods, entered into an agreement to leave humanity to make its own choices and progress in its own way, although the gods do still appear among mortals from time to time.
Zeus still reigns as king of the gods, his wife Hera at his side. The most common Olympians to interact with mortals are Hermes and Hades. Hermes, swift messenger of the gods, carries Zeus’ decrees to those mortals still willing to listen. A trickster and a thief, Hermes also sometimes slips away from his duties for some fun in the mortal world. He has challenged speedsters like Johnny Rocket to prove their mettle against him in the past.
Hades, dark lord of Tartarus, simmers with resentment at the restrictions placed upon him by his younger brother Zeus. He has sought to conquer or influence Earth in the past, and particularly wishes to claim the immortal soul of Daedalus, who has thwarted and defied him over the centuries. Hades is forbidden to directly interfere on Earth, but operates through various pawns and underlings.
Shattenwelt, the Shadow World
There is a dimension of darkness, dubbed Shattenwelt (“shadow-world”) by the Thule Society in Nazi Germany. It is a realm of endless, inky blackness; not just the absence of light, but darkness made manifest. The Shattenwelt is a source of power for wielders of its dark energies, in particular the Nazi super-soldier Nacht-Krieger. Some sorcerers call upon the Shadow World for power, but such power comes at a price.
The darkness of Shattenwelt has a predatory, life-draining nature. It is almost alive, and “hungers” for light to consume, including the “light” of living souls. So far as anyone knows, such victims are snuffed out by the eternal darkness, consumed by nothingness and oblivion. Mystic texts describe forbidden rituals for sacrificing souls to the Shadow World for power, or even exchanging one’s own soul for pure darkness, becoming a conduit for the power of shadow.
There is some evidence of a connection between certain undead creatures and the Shattenwelt, particularly life-drainers like vampires and “unliving shadows.” Thule necromancers used its power to animate zombies, and Thule adept Wilhelm Kantor used the power of the Shattenwelt to endow Nacht-Krieger with his shadow-powers.
The Infernal Dimensions
Tartarus, the dark realm ruled by the Greek gods Hades, is one of a vast number of infernal dimensions, ruled by various powerful magical beings. Some are quite similar to hellish afterlives described in human myth and legend, their rulers analogous to demons and devils. The common element in these infernal realms is the presence of tormented souls, which apparently grant power to the dimension’s ruler. For example, in Hades’ case, the souls or psychic forms of the dead reside in eternal torment for sins committed in life. They include Sisyphus, who eternally rolls a massive stone up a hill, only to have it tumble back down again, and Tantalus, immersed waistdeep in water, but forever unable to drink.
Some mystics liken the rulers of these dimensions to psychic parasites, feeding upon the souls they collect. Fortunately for humanity, infernal forces are constrained from intervening directly on Earth for the most part. It is difficult for them to climb “up” out of the dimensional abyss where they are found, for one thing. Plus infernal forces are limited by ancient pacts, oaths, and spells woven in prehistoric times. Thus most of these fiends can only tempt and bargain for the souls they crave. Still, they find more than a few willing victims. Earth’s Master Mage is charged with the task of protecting the world from infernal influences, and the Lords of the Fiends would love nothing more than to see this primary obstacle removed from their path, allowing them free rein amongst mortals.
The Terminus
It is a cosmic void between infinite realities, a place where reality as we know it begins to break down and spiral towards oblivion. It is entropy, annihilation, the Ultimate End. Dr. Atom dubbed it “the Terminus,” which is how a handful of people on Earth know it. While many New Atlanteans remember the Terminus Invasion, they generically think of the Terminus as some parallel dimension. They don’t think about it—or don’t want to think about it—as the embodiment of universal entropy.
The Terminus apparently exists “between” the various dimensional planes of existence. It has been likened to the flow of a river. If every universe and dimension is a stone lying at the bottom of a stream, then the Terminus is the water surrounding them, slowly wearing them smooth. Some arcane scholars liken the Terminus to the serpent swallowing its own tail, the “end” of the Cosmic Coil (if such a thing can be said to have an end or a beginning). The junior members of the Atom Family have also referred to the Terminus as “the cosmic garbage disposal,” since it apparently grinds up parts of other realities. Castoff bits and pieces of other universes drift through the void of the Terminus, all of them slowly and inexorably pulled toward the Void, where they are apparently annihilated.
Still, there is life within the Terminus. Amidst the rubble and debris of shattered universes are entire worlds, some of them still inhabited. These worlds survive as best they can, some overtaken by raiders, others fending off attacks and managing to thrive. The Terminus seems to bend some physical laws, allowing worlds in slow orbit of the Void to survive without the heat and light of stars, adapting to the dim eternal red skies of the glowing Void. Some aliens have existed in the Terminus for millennia and have long forgotten their original homes.
The Terminus is also home to many strange things, either exiled from their own universes or somehow created by the weird, malleable reality of the place. The Terminus is home to alien prisoners and exiles, dead and forgotten gods, remnants of wars that destroyed universes long before ours was born, and ruins left behind by titanic races long extinct.
The Terminus’ self-proclaimed ruler is Lord Omega, who commands a mighty army of drone soldiers converted to absolute obedience to his will. Omega wields tremendous power over the forces of entropy and can protect worlds from the Great Void, an act that often earns him their allegiance. He claims all creation will eventually fall to the Terminus, but has grown impatient after millions of years and desires to hasten the process. For more than a millennium, Omega has extended the influence of the Terminus and caused it to “consume” other realities. He has attempted to do so with Earth on previous occasions, only to be beaten back by Earth’s superheroes each time.
Omegadrones
In the depths of the Terminus, on worlds dominated by Omega, massive factories work day and night with one purpose: to strengthen the ranks of Omega’s army by creating Omegadrones. Many initially believe these factories manufacture artificial soldiers for the Lord of the Terminus, but in truth, they are where living creatures are “processed” to become Omegadrones.
When the work is done, an Omegadrone is a hulking humanoid figure clad in armor from head to toe. Stubby metallic wings protrude from the drone’s back, and Omegadrone armor is equipped to allow them to fly (albeit slowly and clumsily). More feared are their power-pikes, the tips crackling with energy, which Omegadrones use to cut or blast through their targets, or to inflict agony at their master’s command.
The process of creating an Omegadrone wipes the subject’s mind clean and alters the body with cybernetics and genetic resequencing. The individual is destroyed, becoming another in an endless series of obedient soldiers knowing only loyalty to the Lord of the Terminus, and a willingness to fight and die as he commands.
Omegadrones make up the bulk of Omega’s forces. During the Terminus Invasion, wave after wave of them attacked New Atlantis, and there is no one on Earth who wouldn’t recognize them now. A few scattered Omegadrones were left behind when the invasion failed. While heroes have rounded up most of them, some have fallen in with other criminals, either seeking a way to return home or a new master to obey. For a time, a rogue Omegadrone worked for the New Atlantis mob until Foreshadow defeated and captured it.
X-Isle, the Living City
The entity known as X-Isle the Living City was formed in the aftermath of the Terminus Invasion, the same as Freedom Leaguer Dr. Metropolis and the remnant Scrap. Some speculate the same “urban elemental” force animated or formed all three beings, although none of them have anything to say about the theory. X-Isle is certainly the largest, most powerful, and most alien of the three. Fortunately, it is also separated from Earth by the dimensional gulf of the Terminus.
X-Isle is apparently made up of matter from the Terminus “imprinted” in some unknown way with the “essence” of New Atlantis. This causes it to resemble downtown New Atlantis. Apparently all the inert matter was restructured, in some cases down to the molecular level. However, much of X-Isle’s outward appearance covers a featureless or even alien interior. Some buildings are mere façades, hollow shells on the inside, or filled with structures more reminiscent of organs than architecture. In particular, a complex series of tunnels extends throughout X-Isle’s “bedrock” like a web of arteries and veins, connected to a great central chamber serving as the city’s “heart” (or perhaps “brain” would be more accurate).
The Atom Family discovered X-Isle in their studies of the Terminus in the years following the invasion. At first, it appeared to be a near-perfect replica of downtown New Atlantis, complete with cars, buses, and people going about their daily lives. More importantly, many of the people living there were actual human beings, unaware they were in the Terminus at all.
Upon spending some time studying the situation, the Atoms discovered the city itself was “alive.” While some of the people living there were real, most were simply realistic replicants created by X-Isle, extensions of the city-island itself. Dr. Atom theorizes X-Isle feels its purpose is habitation, and it is incomplete without inhabitants of some kind. This is corroborated by Dr. Metropolis’ description of the Living City as “lonely.” However, it also appears X-Isle feeds on the psychic energies of its living inhabitants to sustain itself, like some sort of parasite.
The Atom Family showed the human inhabitants of X-Isle the truth about their existence and managed to overcome the Living City long enough to transport them back to Earth. It turned out they were all people who went missing during the Terminus Invasion, apparently abducted or pulled into the other dimension. Although they had been gone for years, they were finally able to return to their loved ones and their real lives.
Since then, X-Isle has made attempts—both on its own and in cooperation with others—to acquire new inhabitants. The city has gathered a motley collection of aliens from the Terminus under its “protection,” but it seems most drawn to human life. X-Isle’s occasional intrusions into Earth’s dimension have drawn the attention of Dr. Metropolis and the Atom Family. The Living City shows a particular antipathy toward Dr. Metropolis. While the New Atlantis hero is sympathetic toward X-Isle’s plight, he is also extremely protective of “his” city and its people, and intervenes in any of X-Isle’s attempts to abduct or interfere with them.
The Zero Zone
If the Terminus is a realm of entropy and decay, then the Zero Zone is one of stasis and eternal stillness, forever unchanging. It is a dimension between dimensions, a realm apparently used by some to traverse the dimensions, or simply to store things or exile prisoners.
The Zero Zone is an endless vista of silvery-white mist. Cosmic flotsam drifts through it, ranging in size from small rocks to entire planetoids. Gravity is strictly a local phenomenon in the Zero Zone; larger objects have their own gravitational fields, but otherwise things simply drift aimlessly.
Vision tends to be limited, like moving through a thick bank of fog or an endless cloud. The “mist” of the Zero Zone isn’t actual water vapor or any other sort of physical cloud. According to Dr. Atom, it’s actually a “cloud” of probability; the further away something is, the less fixed and certain it’s actual location, so a quantum “cloud” fuzzes out its shape. More distant objects cannot be seen at all.
This means the travelers’ experience actually creates the Zero Zone to a degree. Aspects of the Zone sometimes respond to thoughts, conscious or subconscious, bringing those things to life. Scientists posit a possible connection between the Zero Zone and the astral plane or dream dimension.
In the past, the Zero Zone has been used as a place of exile and imprisonment. Centurion banished Superior here years ago, and the Freedom League also banished Omega’s “Alpha-Centurion” duplicate to the Zero Zone. Alien races (some long dead) also used the Zero Zone as a prison, or simply a dumping ground. Since the Zone is influenced by thought, it can become a “heaven” or “hell” of the exile’s own making, depending on factors like strength of will and length of banishment. Visitors have found some “pocket” realities within the Zero Zone formed in this way.