Q

Quinn, Dr. Benjamin – b. 22 Dec. 1934, Rockport, Maine. A brilliant scientist of the mid-20th Century, polymath genius, and, from the late 1960s through the mid-1980s, renowned adventurer. Accompanied by his son Danny, his Algonquian ward Achak Dyami (Spirit Eagle), and bodyguard/pilot/tutor Brad Canyon, Dr. Quinn traveled the globe in a seemingly endless stream of adventures, ranging from the trivial to the world-threatening. Often opposing the machinations of the evil genius known as The Doctor (also known in the early 20th Century as Dr. Fu Manchu), the Quinns were also occasional allies of Savage International, a rival organization of scientific adventurers founded by Clark “Doc” Savage, with whom they shared a number of exploits. Dr. Quinn was killed in 2008 during an attack by The Doctor on the Quinn’s Rockport, Maine lab facility.

Quinn Foundation – The scientific and philanthropic organization set up in 1985 by Dr. Benjamin Quinn. Headquartered in Boston, with a Midwest HQ in Chicago and a West Coast HQ in Astoria, the Quinn Foundation pursues several goals: pure scientific research; environmental protection projects, particularly relating to the oceans; and basic education around the world. Teaching and promoting critical thinking is one of the guiding principles of the Foundation. It is currently administrated by Daniel Quinn and his Native American husband Achak Dyami.

Quinn, Danny – b. 19 Feb. 1958, Taos, NM. The son of Dr. Benjamin Quinn, and current head of the Quinn Foundation. A competent engineer and material scientist, Daniel, as he is known these days, is not the polymath genius his father was. Nonetheless he does a good job in administrating the family foundation, whipping up the odd one-off device and foiling the occasional plot for world domination. He married his long-time friend and companion Achak Dyami in 2012, and they live in Boston, MA.

Q-lon – A miracle fabric developed by Dr. Benjamin Quinn in the early 1980’s, and indispensable to the fashion needs of superheroes (and others). Manufactured using a proprietary blend of uruite fibers, ultroniom, and a proprietary substance derived from the shape-shifting tissues of the alien Dramorg species, the fabric can adapt to most meta-human powers without damage. Originally useful only for elemental or energy-based powers, the fabric has evolved over the decades to add utility for an increasing number of power types. The current generation, Q-lon 7, can handle everything from simple flames or stretching to invisibility, shape changing and dimensional phase-shifting.

Quisp – The being calling itself Quisp comes from “a higher dimensional plane,” at least according to the creature itself, on the one occasion it has so far deigned to mention its home. The few scientists familiar with the imp tend to agree that its native realm must indeed be one far different from our own, given the being’s apparent unfamiliarity with the fundamental laws of physics (and its even more unnerving ability to regard all of them as mere suggestions as opposed to actual laws). It took its “Earth name” from a breakfast cereal mascot that caught its eye on its first known visit to the planet, in 1967. It was during that same visit that Quisp first met Ultra, who was to become the imp’s favorite (although not only) foil in its on-going campaign to amuse itself.

Ultra first encountered Quisp in New Atlantis in October of 1967, when the imp appeared and offered its “assistance” to the hero in fighting crime and generally helping out around the city. Unfortunately, due to Quisp’s lack of understanding of this dimensions physical laws, and the fragile nature of reality in the face of its power, serious trouble ensued. When Quisp decided to put out a fire by having Union Bay flood the city, and then gave everyone in New Atlantis superpowers to ”help fight crime,” Ultra was forced to insist that the imp stop helping him. This rejection apparently hurt Quisp’s feelings, and it vanished in a snit. In subsequent visits over the years the entity has apparently never forgotten this slight, and has taken apparent delight in embroiling the hero, and on occasion other members of the superhero community, in numerous child-like pranks.

Quisp’s modus operandi has seldom varied over the decades. It likes to play various sorts of “games” that tend to show up, embarrass or humiliate various heroes, especially Ultra. His pranks range from the obvious, such as bringing several buildings in the city to life and having them engage in a dance-off, to the subtle — he once made everyone forget the Liberty Alliance existed, and instead saw Quisp as the city’s premiere “Champion of Liberty.” After Ultra’s death in the Z’ardani Invasion, Quisp stopped coming to Earth for a number of years, although if this was due to grief or simple boredom, with his prime plaything gone, no one knows.

Quisp’s power to both alter and ignore reality makes it almost impossible to defeat by any means available to Earth’s native heroes. Fortunately, the creature always leaves some kind of “out” in its various schemes. If the heroes can figure it out and win the game, Quisp disappears. In such cases it is always gone for at least a year and a day, before returning with some new scheme. Fortunately, everything Quisp does seems to vanish whenever it does, so it never leaves any lasting physical harm… the question of the psychological damage, especially to innocent civilians caught up in the imp’s antics, is less clear . Although the “pranks” may be childish and ultimately harmless, the heroes of the Liberty Alliance and the various governments of Earth all consider Quisp a potentially serious threat, beyond its status as a major annoyance.

Quisp has the personality of a spoiled child, although the physical forms it takes can vary wildly – while it initially almost always appears in its favored cereal mascot form, it will often change over the course of a “visit” to other forms, such as characters from books, movies or comics. It seems to desire amusement and attention above all else, and is prone to fits of pique when either of those desires are balked. Easily amused, it is also easily bored or annoyed when the mortals caught up in its schemes don’t catch on fast enough or fail to respond in expected ways. Rarely malicious, Quisp nonetheless has the casual cruelty of a child playing with toys, and seems to be truly unaware that there are consequences to its actions. It never uses its tremendous power to simply kill or incapacitate its “playmates” (perhaps because that would just be too easy), but does seem to enjoy seeing them struggle.

Earth experts, including members of the Liberty Alliance and both Doctors Sampson, have speculated about Quisp’s true nature. Is it really some sort of child from an extradimensional reality? If so, would human child psychology even apply to it? Or is it really a mature example of its species, but just very alien in its mindset? Are its limits self-imposed or is it following some kind of extra-dimensional laws we don’t (maybe can’t) comprehend? Few reputable experts buy into the tabloid-fueled speculation that Quisp is actually an infant Seeker, but the truth is, no one on Earth really knows for sure.

R

Ransom, Detective Eleanor – In her early 40s, somewhat dowdy, of mixed race (Black and Hispanic), and with a face punctuated by her trademark colorful glasses, at first glance Eleanor Ransom could pass for a typical Astoria working mom. Such an impression would deceiving, however. Ransom is one of the sharpest minds in the APD, with a keen intellect and powerful analytic skills. As one of the first women detectives on the force, she’s more than proven herself in a job she’s sacrificed pretty much everything else in her life to attain. From the day of the Astoria Incident she felt a sort of kinship with the city’s new costumed heroes, and of all the plainclothes division, she was the most willing to cooperate with them in solving cases. With her near-encyclopedic knowledge of crime-solving techniques, and an uncanny ability to “read” people, the Vanguard have found her to be a most valuable ally. Detective Ransom quickly became the de facto liaison between the heroes and the APD, a position recently made official by the new Chief.

Raptor I (Dylan Grey) – Dark-clad crimefighter in the 1960s, inspired by the 1940s and 50s Liberty League associate known as Dark Angel. Later married once of his regular “enemies,” the high-end art thief Night Owl. Succeeded by their daughter, Elizabeth. Forced to give up the cape and cowl by injuries suffered in the final fight with his arch-foe the Mime, after his wife’s murder. He served three terms as mayor of New Atlantis, cleaning the city up after the years of graft and corruption of the Wentworth administration. Currently a respected teacher at the Brookhaven Academy in New Atlantis.

Raptor II (Elizabeth Grey) – Costumed crimefighter and member of the Liberty Alliance, currently their field leader. Trained by her father Dylan Gray, the first Raptor, and her godmother Artemis, the original Dark Angel of the ’40s and 50s. Considering retirement and a run for the mayorship of New Atlantis, as her father before her.

Recurve (Byron West) – When the second Sure-Shot retired in 1980, West was furious over what he saw as the older man’s abandonment of their crusade in the face of rising corruption in New Atlantis. He rejected his former mentor’s offer to take over the Sure-Shot identity, instead adopting the name Recurve, and began an increasingly violent campaign against organized crime and government corruption in the city.

In 1985 West formed a team of like-minded vigilantes called SCORPION (Special Criminal Organizations Reprisal & Interdiction Operations Network). The group waged a brutal war against Mayor Wentworth’s corrupt political machine as well as other organized crime operations. They were branded outlaws by the mayor’s office and much of the media, but some of the people saw them as the heroes the city needed in dark times.

In 1988 West began training his former partner’s 15-year-old son, Jacob Feldman, whose his parents had refused to allow the boy to follow in his father’s footsteps. When Leo Feldman found out, two years later, it was the final rupture in the already tense relationship between the two men. Although furious at what he saw as a deep betrayal of trust, Leo nonetheless took over the job of finishing his son’s training as the next Sure-Shot. 

Red Racer I (Harry Carter) – Member of the original Liberty League. As a teenager in 1940 Harry was exposed to an unknown combination of chemicals when lighting struck a lab where he worked as a janitor after school, drenching and electrifying him. The accident gave him super-human speed, which he used to great effect for many years. Grandfather of Red Racer II, he died during the Z’ardani Invasion.

Red Racer II (Kieth Carter) –  Member of the Liberty Alliance with super-speed, grandson of the original Red Racer. Outed as gay a few years ago and at one time rumored to be dating Phenomenal Four member Trevor “Geode” Sampson. Recently married and raising an alternate reality daughter stranded in this timeline as an infant.

Reichsadler (Imperial Eagle) (Helmut Vogel) – b. 11 March 1920. On his first mission for the Luftwaffe in 1940, young pilot Helmut Volgel scored his first kill, shooting down a British fighter over France — only to see the enemy pilot begin flying under his own power! Apparently fantastically strong, as well, the Brit (who would go on to become the RAF war hero Iron Hawk) pulled the wings off Volgel’s own plane, forcing him to bail out. When his parachute failed to open, the young German found himself suddenly hovering in midair as well! Unseen by the Englishman, who was intent on destroying the rest of the German flight, Vogel quickly discovered that he while was not as strong as the other man, he did possess the ability to generate force fields and devastating sonic shockwaves while he was in flight. On returning to his homeland Vogel was transferred to the Übersoldaten Division and given his codename. He survived many battles with both Allied military forces and Allied heroes during the War, until he was killed in aerial combat with Iron Hawk at the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944.

von Richtor, Gearhart – Gearhart von Richtor was born in Germany in the year 1894. A dashing, athletic, aristocratic, and intellectual young man, with a promising future, in 1923 he had the misfortune to meet the then-current “host” possessed by the mind of the powerful psychic vampire Grigori Rasputin. In need of a new host, and finding Gerhart perfect in almost every way, Rasputin seized him mind and body, abandoning his old host body – which he promptly destroyed.

While von Richtor’s mind was strong, he was ultimately no match for the older, more experienced Rasputin. But in taking over the young scientist’s mind, life and identity completely, even more than with his many previous possessions, much of the native personality remained, fusing with Rasputin’s own powerful personality. This merged psyche soon found his way into certain esoteric circles at around the same time that the National Socialist Party was gaining prominence in Germany. Eventually von Richtor (as Rasputin trained himself to think of himself) was initiated into the Thule Society, a secretive lodge of mystics who embraced the ideal of an Aryan past and sought to wield ancient Teutonic magics in aid of the Fatherland.

Von Richtor’s experiences in the Thule Society brought him new understanding about his own unique psychic ability, and opened his mind to a wider world of mysticism and true magic. Beside his scientific acumen, he became a formidable magician, exceeding the teachings of his mentors with shocking rapidity. His meteoric rise to prominence within the Society, coupled with his perfect Aryan looks and cold ambition, earned von Richtor the favor of the Führer himself. He became a key occult advisor to Hitler and was named as one of the three heads of the Cerberus Project, the top secret Nazi program to create übersoldaten by using magic, or science, or a fusion of both. Von Richtor used the opportunity to ensure many of these Nazi super-agents were loyal to him personally, foreseeing the day when he would need to remove Hitler and claim ultimate power for himself.

During the Second World War, von Richtor was a shadowy mastermind behind numerous Nazi schemes. His rituals and stolen chemical formulae granted Shattenjäger and many others their powers, and he maintained something of a rivalry with Der Übermensch, Hitler’s favored champion, as they both plotted to eventually eliminate the Führer in furtherance of their own ambitions. Von Richtor knew Übermensch was in truth a rogue Salomoni, but was never able to use that information to his advantage. He assuaged this frustration, however, by acquiring many technological secrets of Salomon Island from his somewhat dimwitted rival.

When the Third Reich collapsed in defeat, von Richtor fled Germany, along with a cache of gold, many resources from Cerberus, and various occult artifacts from the Thule Society. He briefly seized power in Argentina in 1950-51, but was defeated when American superheroes Ultra and Gaia fought alongside the Argentinian army to unseat him and restore Juan and Eva Peron to power. Blown up in his Flying Fortress, von Richtor’s body was positively identified in the aftermath. While most governments, including the UN, believed he was well and truly dead, the few people who actually knew his true identity as Rasputin, and of his ability to jump to new hosts, doubted that he was gone for good…

Rising Sun –– International terrorist organization founded in 1970 by the second Kaminari. Originally aimed at creating conditions to allow a resurgence of Japanese power and ultimately total hegemony in SE Asia, its scope broadened over the years. After the death of its founder in 2002, and the refusal of her daughter to take over the organization, the Rising Sun gradually evolved into a worldwide assassins-for-hire outfit. Although still occasionally undertaking destabilization efforts in SE Asian nations in the name of Japanese hegemony, such efforts are desultory and not currently the group’s main focus.

S

Salomon Island – The island home to an extremely advanced (both technologically and mentally) post-human civilization. Founded originally by scientists and philosophers from Atlantis, in the final century before that land’s destruction, it is a beyul, or “hidden land,” tucked away from the Outer World within a dimensional rift, similar to those that hide Shambhala, Terra Cava or the Lost World, among others. The precise location of the island’s interface with the larger world is known to very few outsiders, although it is generally believed to be somewhere in the South Atlantic Ocean… or maybe the Mediterranean Sea… perhaps in the Indian Ocean…?

Seeing the use and exploration of magic as a relic of the Saurian interlopers and the primary cause of the decline of Atlantean civilization, the followers of Saloman devoted themselves to her principles and the development of technology, medicine and psionics instead. Viewed with suspicion in their homeland, they sought out some place remote and isolated, where they could practice their philosophy without hindrance, opposition, or undermining. Finding the large and lush island, within two decades of settling on it the Salomoni had developed a technological way to expand the dimensional rift that had first drawn them to the area, and move their entire island into its own pocket dimension.

For almost twenty thousand years of the Outer World they remained isolated from the rest of humanity, with only a handful of notable exceptions over the years. But like many other beyul, time runs differently there, by a ratio of approximately 10-to-1. In the two thousand years the Salomoni experienced, they developed their technology far beyond that of the rest of humanity, and perfected both their minds and bodies to the pinnacle of perfection. For over a millennia, in Island Time, they have maintained a stable population of just under 100,000 people, all of them effectively immortal and, by baseline human standards, extremely powerful. 

The two Salomoni best known to the world at large are Neanon Var and Kala Zan, both of whom appeared in the early days of World War II — Neanon as the the Nazi super soldier Der Übermensch, and Kala as the Allied heroine Gaia. He was a renegade from his island home’s matriarchal rule, she was sent to keep him in check, providing a balance to his predations in the Outer World. In the years since the fall of the Third Reich, Neanon has gone by many names, in many lands, almost always a criminal and outcast. Kala, on the other hand, has kept the name of Gaia since her first appearance, in San Francisco in 1941, and has been a long-time member of both the Liberty League and the Liberty Alliance.

Sampson Family (aka Phenomenal Four) – A family of adventurers, scientists, and explorers. Called the First Family of Science and/or the First Family of Superheroes, they gained their greatest notoriety in 2004 when an experiment of Dr. Mark Sampson went wrong. Dr. Sampson, his wife and research partner Dr. Liz Sampson, their son Trevor (16) and daughter Analis (14) were exposed to elemental energies focused through a kundalini crystal. Also affected was Dr. Zandros Jovanovíc, an associate of the Sampsons’ Momentum Foundation and brilliant cyberneticist. Each of the five gained meta-human abilities, and soon became a team of science adventurers and part-time superheroes. Initially known as the Far Out Five, thanks to an enthusiastic outburst from Mark in front of the press, they were later known as the Phenom Five. After Dr. Jovanovi´c (aka Doctor Magnetík) left the team in August of 2005 they officially changed their name to the Phenomenal Four, but in recent years have generally been referred to in the press as simply the Sampson Family.

Sampson, Analis (aka Nova) – (b. 3 February 1990) Artist and adventurer, daughter of Dr. Mark Sampson and Dr. Elizabeth Sampson. She is the youngest member of the Phenomenal Four, wielding the power of Fire. As Nova she is a powerful pyrokinetic, able to generate and control flames, and has the power of flight. While she can generate a field of superheated plasma over her whole body (and thus appear to be made out of flame), she generally limits the aura to her hair/head and (in a fight) to her hands.

Sampson, Dr. Elizabeth (aka Zephyr) – (b. 16 September 1968). Wife and partner of Dr. Mark Sampson, mother of Analis and Trevor Sampson. Elizabeth Reid, the grand niece of Roland Reid, Earth’s long-time Magus Prime. She met Mark Sampson when they were both in graduate school at UCLA, and the two quickly recognized a powerful attraction, which soon turned into an even more powerful bond. Despite her familial connection to the greatest practitioner of the mystic arts in the world, Liz is a hard-headed rationalist and pragmatic thinker. She has dual doctorates in molecular biology and medicine, and is definitely the Scully to her husband’s Mulder.

As Zephyr of the Phenomenal Four, the powers she gained in the accident that transformed her family connect her to the element of Air. She controls the winds and, to some extent, weather (primarily mists and fogs); she can become intangible (but not fully invisible, only somewhat translucent); and she can fly at significant speeds.

Sampson, Dr. Mark (aka Doc Aqueous) – (b. 2 June 1967) Brilliant scientist, inventor and adventurer, science advisor to the Liberty Alliance in the last decade of the 20th Century, later head of the superheroic family of adventurers known as the Phenomenal Four. Born on a Northern California commune, to New Age hippie parents Rainbow Greenleaf and Icarus (Carrie Dorfstetler and Roger Sampson), the polymath genius absorbed his parents’ laidback attitude toward life, if not the logic-free mystic hoo-haw of their belief system. Still, his upbringing taught him the importance of an open mind; much of his genius comes from his ability to think at right angles to the rest of the world. The media love the fact that he talks like a cross between a Sixties flower child and an absent-minded professor.

He was responsible for the experimental accident that imbued both himself and his family (as well as Doctor Magnetík) with their powers. His are related to the element of Water, hence his code name of Doc Aqueous. He is a powerful hydrokinetic, able to not only control water in its various forms but to transform himself into pure water; in his watery form he has complete control of his size, shape and density.

Sampson, Trevor (aka Geode) – (b. 17 July 1988). Adventurer and oldest of the two Sampson children, with the geokinetic powers that tie him to the element of Earth. Not only can he control rock and soil around him, he can armor himself in a shell of rock at need. As Geode of the Phenomenal Four he is also immensely strong, channeling the strength of the planet itself, whether in his human or rocky form, and even his parents are unsure of the possible limits (if any) to his strength. He came out as gay shortly after gaining his powers, and has been a poster boy for the LGTBQ+ community, in New Atlantis especially.

Savage, Doc (Clark Savage, Jr.) – (b. 1 January 1900). The only child of brilliant geneticist Dr. Clark Savage Sr. and his wife Martya neé Oberon, Clark Junior was born with bronze skin, golden eyes, and bronze-red hair. Trained almost from birth by a team of experts, assembled by his father to hone his mind and body to near-superhuman levels, he possesses great strength and endurance, a photographic memory, is a master of numerous martial arts, and holds a vast knowledge of the sciences. By his 26th birthday he was already the physician, scientist, adventurer, detective, inventor, explorer, researcher, and musician the world came to know as “Doc” Savage, the Man of Bronze. Although Doc Savage retired from both active adventuring and the administration of the Savage International foundation in 2000, at the age of 100, he is still hale and hearty, appearing to be no more than a very fit 80-year-old as he approaches the age of 120.

Savage, Eleanor – Oldest of Clark “Doc” Savage’s grandchildren and current director of the Savage International foundation.

Savage International – A foundation started by 1930s explorer and adventurer Clark “Doc” Savage. SI began around the nucleus of Doc Savage’s old organization, the Brain Trust, and has always had a strong interest in environmental protection issues and preserving world peace, especially in the Third World. The foundation has worked with the government of Kurunda many times in the past, and has long served as an NGO (non-governmental organization) go-between for Kurunda and the U.S. government when needed. SI was also one of several international NGOs responsible for overseeing the 2005 elections in the new Balkan nation of Illyria which brought Dr. Magentík legitimacy.

Although Doc Savage retired in 2000, at the age of 100, his grandchildren currently run the foundation, keeping his philosophy alive in its works. SI provides money for humanitarian aid, exploration, research projects, and similar activities. Based in New York City and headed up by Eleanor Savage, the oldest of Clark’s grandchildren, Savage International also has offices in downtown New Atlantis, run by Oberon Savage,  and in Astoria, OR, where Christopher Savage oversees operations. Now approaching the age of 120, Doc Savage is still hale and hearty, appearing to be no more than a very fit 80-year-old.

Science Trust – A gathering of the foremost American inventors, scientists and engineers of the day, founded 7 October 1942 by Dr. Tom Swift, Sr. in New York City. The trust included Nikolai Tesla, his rival Thomas Edison, Clark “Doc” Savage, and Albert Einstein, among others. Known for eccentric habits and the willingness of some members to field-test the special weapons they developed, they became an important part of the home front defense during WWII. When the Trust was officially disbanded at the War’s end, Dr. Shaun Renner, a long-time junior associate, used his experience and contacts with the organization and the government to found ASTRA Labs in 1946.

SCOPE (Special Committee for Oversight of Paranormal Entities / Endeavors) – A joint US House and Senate committee formed in 1955, in the wake of the McCarthy hysteria, to investigate and regulate the activities of the increasing number of meta-humans appearing, seemingly daily, across the country. It became a standing committee in 1965, dropping the “Entities” portion of its name in favor of “Endeavors,” and was given oversight of the newly created SHADE agency.

SCORPION (Special Criminal Organization Reprisal & Inderdiction Operations Network) – A quasi-outlaw group of rouge heroes, formed in 1985 by the vigilante bowman Recurve. Consisting of Recurve, Bruiser, Modem, Kismet, Black Cat, and Outrage, the group waged a brutal war against New Atlantis Mayor A.R. Wentworth’s corrupt political machine as well as other organized crime operations. Branded outlaws by the mayor’s office and much of the media, many others saw them as the heroes the city needed in those dark times. The public’s view of them grew more favorable as they successfully uncovered evidence of major crimes, resulting in the arrest and conviction of dozens of the administration’s operatives, including the Deputy Mayor. The team disbanded in 1990, after Wentworth’s defeat at the polls and his own arrest by federal authorities.

 Sea Sprite (aka Lenore Halpirn aka Lania Har’Avex) – (b. 4 June 1958). The second child and only daughter of Queen Malina of Atlantis and her air-breather consort Lance Halpirn. Attended the Tesla Institute of Science and Technology 1976-80, graduating with a degree in Structural Engineering and Materials Science. Was a founding member of the Teen Squad in 1977, as Sea Sprite, although she was only a part-timer after that first year. She has seldom returned to Atlantis, which was a grief to her mother, but was there at the time of the Queen’s death in 1994. Currently an instructor at the Brookhaven School in New Atlantis.

Seekers – Cosmic space “gods” who are first known to have visited Earth 66 million years ago, during the Cretaceous Era. What their own name for themselves might be no living race in the galaxy knows, but the races they have touched, as they influenced and encouraged the spread and evolution of life across the universe, have named them the Seekers. They have operated on a time scale almost inconceivable to mortal minds, with evidence for their earliest interventions being at least a billion years ago.

Despite their apparent devotion to promoting and spreading life, the Seekers could not be said to be exactly benevolent… but neither would it be fair to call them malevolent. They are/were simply alien. While they often seemed to treat the various subject races with whom they interacted as little better than lab rats, they also uplifted innumerable races into true sentience and set many more on the path to the stars. They have also influenced the courses of evolution and cultural advancement for many others species.

On Earth, they studied the planet’s first intelligent race, the Saurians, for several thousand years. Whatever they sought, however, they apparently didn’t find in that off-shoot of the dinosaurs. It is unclear if they caused the asteroid impact that wiped out the Saurians, along with the rest of the dinosaurs, or simply allowed it to proceed unhindered. Either way, they apparently had no problem with the species suffering extinction.

A faction of Saurian techno-sorcerers sought to avoid that fate, however. They managed to hurl a small island-continent, and its population, into the distant future, at a tremendous cost. It is unclear to modern scholars if the Seekers were aware of this ploy, or simply deigned not to interfere.

Whichever was the case, the Seekers next returned to Earth about 22,000 years ago, a few centuries after the chronally-displaced Saurians re-entered the time stream (see Lemuria). After a cursory examination of the surviving Saurians, they confined them to their relocated homeland behind an impenetrable energy barrier and seemed to forget about them.

They then focused their attention on the new dominant sapient species on Earth, humankind. They examined, dissected and catalogued a variety of primitive humans, and collected whole tribes, along with extensive plant and animal varieties. Those collections were used to eventually “seed” other suitable planets throughout several nearby regions of the galaxy.

When the Seekers again left Earth and the Solar System, they left behind several known structures: a genetic repository on the far side of Earth’s moon; a base of unknown purpose on Titan, a moon of Saturn; and an observation platform in a stable geosynchronous orbit. The latter was controlled by a true artificial intelligence caretaker, but was eventually destroyed (although the AI itself survived).

The alien intervention gave humanity a vital leg-up against the time-displaced Saurian race. Humans uplifted by the Seekers eventually founded the island nation of Atlantis, which in time came to rival the Serpent Empire of Lemuria in both technology and magical power. After the Seekers departed the planet, humans eventually breeched their Great Barrier, freeing the long imprisoned Saurians. The two cultures proceeded to fight a long series of wars, ending in the destruction of both civilizations and the sinking of Atlantis and Lemuria in the Great Cataclysm. That event ended the great First Age of Humanity as well as the decedent Last Age of the Saurians.

Although there is evidence of the Seekers and their interventions throughout the known galaxy, they have not been seen by any known race in over 10,000 years, and the ultimate fate of the aliens remains unknown. A popular theory is that the Seekers finally found that which they had sought and have transcended this plane of existence, leaving behind any interest in it or their past works. Others believe they will return to this region of the Milky Way again in the future, to judge the seeds they had previously planted — and the human race, from which they took those seeds.

Serpent People – Modern Serpent People are all descended from the few thousand Saurians who survived the destruction of their civilization and extinction of their species 66 million years ago by hurling themselves into the future. Penned on their island-continent home of Lemuria for many years by the alien Seekers, they degenerated physically, psychologically and socially. By the time they were accidentally freed by the Atlanteans, they had fallen far from their ancestors’ heights in technology… but had plumbed new depths in their quest for dark magics.

After the Great Cataclysm and the twin destructions of Atlantis and Lemuria, the handful of survivors who fled into Terra Cava, the so-called Hollow Earth, tried to rebuild. But even as they became ever more dependent on their mutated human slaves, they became less able to control them. Eventually rebellious human-mutates (today known as the Morlocks) went to war with their former masters. The centuries-long series of conflicts sent both races on a downward spiral into decadence and decay. Some Saurians managed to keep vestiges of their ancient civilization alive, if only in a distorted mockery, but most degenerated into utter savagery, some even losing most of their intelligence over time. 

There were always several sub-breeds of the Saurians, of varying colors. Greenish-yellow was the dominate skin hue amongst the original time-displaced Saurians, with dark green feathers around the head and along the forearms. These accounted for more than half their numbers. Yellows, browns, and reds , with varying combinations of feather colors, made up the bulk of the remaining population, with a very small minority of blue-skins / white feathers being the least numerous sub-group. In the intervening millennia, the Saurian population has settled into basically two major color populations. 

Those who have remained (more or less) on the surface tend toward a brown-tinted green skin, with reddish-brown feathers, although other, older, pigmentations may appear on occasion; Saurians who retreated fully underground and into Terra Cava have become white skinned, with bluish feathers, almost albino-like, although they are not truly albinos. Their eyes tend toward either a silver or silver-blue color or solid black, while their surface brethren mainly retain the yellow-gold eyes of their common ancestors. 

Another, more serious duality dominates modern Saurian culture, such as it is: the difference between the completely degenerate savage tribes, and those who have managed to hold onto some shreds of their race’s former civilization. The savage Serpent People of the contemporary era have regressed to the point where they are little more than animals; sinuous, strong, and vicious, with raptor-like heads and long tails. If they wear clothes at all, these tend to be mere rags or leather weapon or tool harnesses. Although they have lost all but the most rudimentary elements of their ancestral language, they do retain enough understanding to communicate with, and obey the commands of, civilized Serpent People. Few of them are smart enough to carry out anything but the simplest of orders, however, and will attack non-Saurians on sight, using their clawed hands and venomous bite.

Civilized Serpent People look somewhat like their savage relatives, if somewhat less sinuous and snake-like, with shorter, thicker tails – but they greatly surpass them in intellect. While they have lost most of their technological knowledge and skill, they have retained their ancestor’s affinity for dark magics… and the memory of their fallen past. They easily dominate their devolved brethren, who live in fear and awe of them – both because they can create weapons, and because they wield magic.

While the savage Saurians wear only the crudest clothes, if any, the civilized Serpent Folk tend to bedeck themselves in elaborate, sometimes almost Baroque, garments, especially robes, tunics and cloaks. The most highly skilled amongst them are able to assume the illusion of human form, allowing them to move about undetected in human civilization. Many civilized Serpent People are sorcerers of some skill, and adepts of various dark, alien sects. The various cults are as often at war with one another as they are with humans, perhaps fortunately for the world at large. One of the few things that can unite various factions, if only briefly, is an undying ancestral hatred of Atlantis and any people or things related to that land, or directly descended from it.

The Seer (Everett Stone) – Precognitive crime-fighter who tries to either prevent or encourage the potential futures he is cursed to foresee.

The Sesen (Identity Unknown) – Reputed to be the reincarnation of the ancient Egyptian mage Ahmose, he was a 20th Century superhero with ka (psychic) powers. First appearing in 1961, the Sesen (aka The Lotus) was instrumental in stopping HUSH’s first major attack on the Western world a few years later. A long-time member of the Liberty Alliance, he claimed that he would always reincarnate as long as his ancient nemesis, the spirit of the evil Atlantean sorcerer and former Magus Prime, Dolórüska the Damned, remained within the world. He died in 1979 fighting the arcane group called the Sword of Vengeance, and it remains unknown if he has yet reincarnated.

SHADE (Super-Human Affairs, Domestic Enforcement) – US governmental organization established in 1965 and given police powers to supervise and regulate the increasing number of meta-humans operating on U.S. soil (as well as extraterrestrials, although that fact remained a state secret until the Z’ardani revelations of 1985). The former war hero Brigade, Col. Pat Townsend, was its first Director, and he used his contacts in both the military and other police agencies to recruit experienced law enforcement personnel, many of whom were involved in the defeat of HUSH’s Operation: Overthrow in ’63. This gave SHADE accurate intelligence and well-trained agents from the very beginning.

Townsend also used his friendships in the superhero community to engage with the new generation of heroes then arising. He proposed a semi-covert partnership between the new organization and the heroes, and promised that SHADE would fight for superhero rights and to prevent another meta-human witch-hunt like HUAC. Many heroes agreed to cooperate with the new agency.

Originally under the oversight of SCOPE, in 1973 it was quietly rolled into the Justice Department as a part of the US Marshals Service. With the formation of the Cabinet-level Department of Metahuman & Extraterrestrial Concerns (DOMEC) in 1987, SHADE oversight was moved again, with the Director now answering to the Secretary of Metahuman Affairs. It still retained its co-equal law-enforcement status with the US Marshals Service, however. The current Director of SHADE is Devon Regent, Pat Townsend’s handpicked successor..

SHADOW (Super-Human Alien Defense Over-Watch) – Established in 2003, following the Invasion, SHADOW is an international treaty organization, operating under the auspices of the United Nations (although not actually a part of the UN’s organizational structure). It is tasked with overseeing the combined military and meta-human defense of Earth against extraterrestrial and extra-dimensional threats. Its mandate extends from Earth orbit outward, with minimal authority planetside, at least theoretically. Extra-dimensional incursions tend to make the lines of authority blur a bit.

Shambhala – Nestled in the Himalayan Mountains is a secret valley not marked on any map. The passage into this hidden land is not easy to find, although many who succeed describe a deep, narrow canyon and a towering waterfall. Past the cascade of the Falls of Heaven is Shambhala. It has been known by many names throughout the ages: Lotus Land, Pemako, Shangri-la, and Khembalung, to name only a few. Legend has it that ancient magic shields it from prying eyes, and keeps it temperate and pleasant year-round, despite the harsh environment of the mountains wherein it lies. The truth is, Shambhala is a beyul, a “hidden land,” within a dimensional rift like those that hide Salomon Island, Terra Cava or the Lost World, which has kept it concealed from the outside world for thousands of years.

Mystics from Atlantis settled the valley 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, and for 1,300 years, as they experienced time, they remained hidden, studying and refining their esoteric and martial arts. Eventually they realized they must have some contact with the Outer World, and opened their realm to limited contact with “the worthy” of the wider world, where 13 millennia had passed.

Shambhala is best known for its various schools of learning, meditation, and contemplation, and for the ancient crypts that lie beneath it. For most of human history only learned mystics and martial arts masters even knew of the hidden land’s existence, and fewer still knew how to find their way there. Even today, while its existence is more widely (but not universally) known, it is still a difficult place to actually find. 

As in most beyul, time runs differently in the halls of Shambhala — but unlike those other realms, the distortion seems to vary dramatically. Sometimes a year in Shambhala will see two years pass in the Outer World; other times ten years will pass for each year within. If there is some pattern or purpose to these variations, it is unknown to any in the Outer World, although some theorize that it is the Powers-That-Be that control the flow of time in Shambhala.

Located on a mountainside overlooking the green and fertile valley below, the Shambhala Temple has stood for millennia as a place of contemplation and learning. Many of Earth’s Magus’ Prime 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. It is also the seat of the mysterious Powers-That-Be, who control the flow of Earth’s magical force.

The masters of the Shambhala Temple apply many tests to determine the worthiness of potential students seeking entry there. 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 usually are set to 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 Shambhala 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 planet has ever known.

Shattenjäger [Shadow Hunter] (Sigmund Dietrich Volkmar) – Sigmund Volkmar was a vicious bully on the streets of Munich long before he joined the Nazi elite SS in 1938. This made him just the type of recruit Heinrich Himmler sought for the the Party’s planned Übersoldaten. In 1940, Himmler gifted the man to Dr. von Richtor, head of the the Cerberus Project’s Synthesis Division. Von Richtor subjected Volkmar to various arcane rituals, devised from study of the fragment of the Shadow Cloak stolen from Artemis, and a chemical serum derived from the stolen work of chemist Hans Fishcer and Fischer’s student Ellie Campbell. The man emerged from tortuous physical changes with the ability to command shadows and to fire debilitating bolts of an unknown black energy. Volkmar became the Shattenjäger, one the most powerful of the Cerberus Project’s super-soldiers.

The Shattenjäger quickly became a formidable tool of the Third Reich, striking with surgical precision, assassinating important targets, sabotaging vital installations, and spying all over Nazi-occupied territories as well as far behind enemy lines. As much as possible, however, he avoided direct conflict with the Freedom Front and the Liberty League, preferring to use his powers to escape rather than fight.

Fleeing the crumbling Third Reich and headed to a pre-established stronghold in South America, von Richtor and Shattenjäger held one last ritual in Germany to boost their powers, using the ritual suicide of numerous SS officers to do so. Despite precautions, their escape nearly failed when the Freedom Front caught up with them in Munich. Shattenjäger killed most of the members of the group, giving Dr. von Richtor time to escape. Once his master was safely away, Shattenjäger attempted to flee himself.

White Lantern and Inferno pursued Shattenjäger across the Alps, catching up with him over the Mediterranean Sea, near Malta. The androgynous Lantern caged the Nazi, despite his amplified powers, in a prison of solid light formed from their very essence, sacrificing their own life in the process. Not sure if the shadow monster was dead within the sphere, and not wishing his friends’ sacrifice to be in vain, Inferno pushed his own powers to the limit to hurl the sphere of light into space, on a trajectory he calculated should plunge it into the heart of the Sun.

In fact, the Shattenjäger was not dead… but with no external shadows possible, suspended in pure light, there was nowhere for his power to turn but inward. He went slowly mad as the shadows that gave him his powers infected his mind, consumed his physical form, and then sucked what remained into the Shadow Dimension itself. Had the light orb’s trajectory been true, and taken them into the heart of the Sun, that would have been the end… but it was not to be. Instead, the orb made a sharp parabolic swing around the Sun before heading back out into the solar system. In 1973 its eccentric orbit returned the sphere to Earth, where it plunged into the North Atlantic off the coast of Iceland.

 Recovered by agents of the Arsenal, the light sphere remained impenetrable until it was touched by a young test subject / prisoner. She seemed to absorb the light into herself, and then proceeded to talk the criminal scientists into letting her and their other captives go free. Shortly after that, Shattenjäger emerged from the Shadow Dimension, slaughtered the Arsenal scientists, and fled. He was eventually confronted bt the Sesen and Arkanos, who defeated and imprisoned him again, this time beneath the Sanctum Primus where the Magus Prime could watch over him.

The Shattenjäger proved difficult to contain, however. No longer having a physical form and being able to access the Shadow Dimension at will, the insane killer eventually escaped Arkanos‘ mystic prison, although it took him almost a decade. Despite many conflicts with heroes over the years, and occasional recaptures, he remains at large today and is considered one of the most dangerous meta-humans on the planet.

Shilah Atsa (Brother Eagle) – Navajo shaman who served as Magus Prime from 1871 to 1891, and made the Lost Pueblo his Sanctum, eschewing, for the most part, use of the traditional Sanctum Primus. He died in January 1891, killed by the Secret Service while attempting to confront President Benjamin Harrison over the massacre at Wounded Knee that had occurred the previous December.

Silver Sax (Gerald “Geronimo” Jones) – (b. 30 May 1885, d. 14 November 1978). One of the first “mystery men” to arise, making his debut in New York City in the summer of 1925. A popular jazz musician, he could use any wind instrument (although he preferred his alto saxophone) to create an amazing array of sonic effects. After stopping an attempted gang rape of a young woman in Greenwich Village, he donned a mask and became an irregular vigilante, mostly in Harlem, Hells Kitchen and the Village. Always a solo act, he remained active as a crime fighter until 1947, when he hung up his mask. He never retired from music, however, and played in clubs and music halls all along the Eastern Seaboard until his death in 1978. 

Silver Scream (Lauren Hammond) – Lauren Hammond grew up in New Atlantis in the early 20th century with ambitions of becoming an actress. She moved to Hollywood during the Golden Age of cinema and succeeded in landing a minor, but important, role in a production of Dracula as one of the vampire lord’s “wives.” That role established Lauren Hammond as an actress, and she went on to a number of other parts. Most of her pictures were horror films, and Hammond was well known as a Hollywood “scream queen.” 

Unfortunately, she quickly became typecast. Her attempts to venture outside the realm of horror films were dismal failures. She blamed directors, producers, and co-stars, but the truth was, that while Hammond considered herself a star, she was just too difficult to work with given her actual talent. Eventually, even horror film producers couldn’t be bothered to put up with her demands. In the post-World War II era horror films became less popular, and after less than a decade, Lauren Hammond’s Hollywood career was over. 

Calls from directors and studios had stopped coming, but the ones from creditors had not. Hammond was forced to sell her Beverly Hills home and moved to Astoria, where she found occasional theatre work. She gained some early traction as a stage actress, but once she moved back to New Atlantis and the “legitimate theater,” her old prima donna habits resurfaced and eventually squelched her come-back. Faced with the end of her career and utter obscurity, Lauren Hammond gave what she considered her final performance when she overdosed on a combination of medication and booze. Her landlady found her body, and the curtain fell on a sad life. 

She would have been relegated to historical retrospectives on the horror film industry and “Whatever happened to…?” documentaries, but for one thing – Lauren Hammond’s spirit would not rest. The despair that claimed her life so gnawed at her soul that it kept her from whatever afterlife might have awaited her. Instead, Lauren Hammond returned as a vengeful ghost in the 1950s to haunt the theatres and studios she associated with her downfall, striking back against the producers, directors, and actors who had spurned her. Her silvery-white appearance and terrible wail earned her the nickname “the Silver Scream” from the newspapers.

Mostly occurring in New Atlantis, but with occasional appearances in Hollywood and Astoria, the series of strange hauntings drew the attention of the speedster and Liberty Alliance member Red Racer, who was able to deduce the ghost’s true identity. When he staged a film festival to honor Lauren Hammond’s accomplishments, her anger cooled and her ghost vanished, hopefully never to trouble the world again. 

Decades later, however, film critic Howard Moore published an essay criticizing Hammond’s performance in several films, along with an exposé of her troubled latter years. His work aroused the anger of the actress’ ghost, who frightened Moore to death and then embarked on a new campaign of re-awakened vengeance. The second Red Racer intervened to stop the Silver Scream after she attacked him and his grandfather, the original Red Racer. He was able to banish the Silver Scream once again, but there have been several “sequels” where her spirit has returned from beyond the grave to haunt members of the theatrical community as well as the heroes who protect them from her vengeance. 

Ironically, the Silver Scream’s periodic reappearances have lent new life to Lauren Hammond’s posthumous career and revived interest in her body of work, although legitimate critics and theaters are reluctant to showcase her films, out of concern about her ghost. Her new fans are largely found on the Internet, and share a macabre interest in the Silver Scream as much as in Lauren Hammond. “Always willing to do anything for a fan,” the Silver Scream has on occasion taken to protecting and “helping” them— violently—either directing her wrath at anyone harassing them or fulfilling a fan’s spoken (or unspoken) wishes. 

The Silver Scream particularly hates anyone involved in the theatrical arts, from stage to screen, including performers, directors, producers, critics, and studios. The mere mention of her name in association with a production can draw her attention, so it has become a superstitious custom to never speak it out loud, or to write about her. Of course, this creates a kind of double jeopardy, as the Silver Scream has been known to feel slighted when she is not rightfully mentioned – such as the time a documentary was made about her former studio, and all scenes and mentions of Lauren Hammond were carefully omitted. 

Silverstar (Randall “Randy” Reynolds aka Superstar) – (b. 4 June 1998). In the summer of 2013 Nimrod recruited teenager Randall Reynolds to receive a newly developed nano-organic variable augment (NOVA) system, which the 15-year-old’s latent meta-human ability made him uniquely qualified to wield. Nimrod hoped the youth would become his agent amongst the stars, as a counter to Ebony Night, whom he had recently learned was acting on behalf of Nemesis in the wider galaxy. But young Randy had other ideas.

Naming himself Superstar, he took off for New Atlantis to try out for the Liberty Alliance. Impressed at first by his armor and powers, the Alliance was prepared to take him on until they learns that he was only 15 years old. “Almost 16,” he protested to Sabra, on whom he’d crushed, hard. She gently but firmly rejected his advances, and he was left majorly bummed.

Superstar tried to make a go of it as a solo hero in Boston, New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, LA and Astoria, but never seemed able to get his shit together long enough to really succeed. After the inevitable major screw-up he would move on to the next city and a promising new start… only to start the cycle all over again. His last try was an attempt to join the Vanguard is 2016, after his 18th birthday, only to be rejected once more.

It was shortly after that, having witnessed Ebony Night in action, that Randy Reynolds finally accepted that his destiny really did lay amongst the stars. He returned to Nimrod and accepted the ancient immortal’s mandate to counter the interstellar ambitions of Nemesis and Ebony Night. He left Earth in late 2016 to begin his mission, but before leaving he adopted a new codename, to reflect his new, more mature outlook: Silverstar.

The Simian – It began as an experiment looking into the nature of intelligence, attempting to enhance the mental capabilities of primates. ASTRA Labs used a variety of methods on different test subjects. The initial results were not overly promising. Combined with protests about the use of apes and monkeys as experimental subjects, it was only a matter of time before the project was closed down. Its director, Dr. Donald Leslie, didn’t want to see that happen. He knew he was close to a breakthrough, he just didn’t know how close. So he took it upon himself to disregard guidelines on safety and procedure. He used unproven methods on the most promising of the experiment’s subjects, and succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.

Dr. Leslie’s subsequent death and the disappearance of his experimental subject spelled the end of the Primate Enhancement Project. Although ASTRA Labs and the New Atlantis authorities searched for the missing ape, they were unable to find him. Little did they know just how good he had become at hiding.

Leslie’s experiment had awakened a tremendous intellect in the African gorilla, an intellect born in pain and torment caused by humans. The ape killed his tormenter and fled, finding shelter in the underground tunnels and abandoned subway stations beneath New Atlantis. “The Simian,” as he called himself, in rebellious ownership of the non-name the humans had used for him, crept out at night. In his initial weeks of sentience, the super-ape absorbed knowledge at a prodigious rate. Within months, he had the equivalent of multiple Ph.D.s just from reading stolen books and the Internet.

Eventually, he discovered other inhabitants of the criminal underground. He offered his services to the Arsenal, and worked with them behind the scenes. It gave him access to equipment and research materials he needed, while giving Dr. Hänks access to some blood samples for analysis. The two parted ways when The Simian no longer needed the Arsenal, although their relationship remains cordial. The Simian is still one of the Arsenal’s loyal customers and sub-contractors, although he is not foolish enough to underestimate what he believes to be Pieter Hänks’ ambitions.

Ultimately, Simian chose to go it on his own. He wanted nothing from humanity, save obedience and recompense for his suffering, and that of many other creatures. Using his scientific genius, Simian constructed many devices to take his revenge on humanity. Each time, heroes in New Atlantis and elsewhere thwarted his ambitions. In particular, Red Racer has proven a thorn in Simian’s side. Simian has been captured and imprisoned before, but he swears no human cage can hold him, and so far that has proven true. Inevitably, he escapes to hatch a new plot to overthrow humanity as the dominant species on Earth.

For some time, The Simian has been the technical mind behind the revived Syndicate. Dr. Tempest might take a more prominent role as de facto leader, but that doesn’t bother Simian in the least, as he knows full well he can eliminate Stavros Diamandis—and anyone else standing in his way—when they are no longer useful to achieving his goals. For the time being, the Syndicate are his allies, although the arrogant Simian views them primarily as pawns.

The Simian is a mad scientific genius driven by ambition and revenge. He considers himself a moral being; after all, he did not ask for great intellect to be thrust upon him. Since it has been, he feels it is his duty to make sure humanity pays for its crimes against nature and the animal kingdom. In Simian’s view, humans are dangerous and malicious children, not deserving of their place at the pinnacle of nature’s hierarchy. Therefore, he seeks ways to conquer the Earth and subjugate humanity for the greater good. Simian foresees a world under his rule where the natural order is protected and humans are kept away from dangerous tools and ideas.

The Simian does not view apes as inherently superior to humans, but does view himself as inherently superior. It is intellect, not species, that serves as his yardstick. He respects his few intellectual peers, but finds most of them have no interest in preserving the natural world, so they are more often dangerous rivals, worthy of respect, but impossible to trust. The exception to that is Dr. Mark Sampson, whom he respects and actually likes… although he will oppose him if he gets in the way of Simian’s plans.

The Simian is a technological and scientific genius in the body of a full-grown African gorilla. He’s physically stronger and tougher than a human, although not overly prone to fisticuffs. Simian’s true power—as he is always quick to point out—is his formidable mind.

The ape scientist’s most common device is his throne-like hover chair, which contains a computer interface and access, powerful force blasters built into the arms, a protective force field, and an anti-gravity system allowing it to hover in place or outpace all but the fastest aircraft, with its force field protecting Simian from the effects of high-speed flight. He is known to frequently modify the chair with other devices as needed.

Dr. Simian (Earth Ape) – Earth Ape hails Dr. Simian as its greatest scientific genius and philanthropist. His many inventions (mass produced by his company, ASTRO Labs) improve the quality of life of all apekind, but most consider his organizing and training of the Primate Patrol his crowning achievement. While he largely shuns the spotlight and prefers fighting crime from the sidelines, there are few on Earth-Ape who don’t know Simian and revere him for his goodness and generosity.

Sobek – An ancient Egyptian wizard, former disciple of Dolórüska the Damned during that insane litch’s period of freedom circa 2650 BCE. He survived his mentor’s fall, and eventually rose to some prominence in Pharaoh’s court. Sobek murdered the Magus Prime Imhotep, and sought to steal the powers of the Magus’ brother/son, Amhose. He also greatly desired to possess Amhose’s wife, the Princess Nephthys. In a great concatenation of death, crossed rituals and a powerful curse, the souls of Sobek, Amhose, and Nephthys were bound together on the Wheel of Time, endlessly reincarnating and inexorably drawn together in each life. The most recent known cycle concluded in 1979 CE, with the deaths all three current incarnations in the same super heroic battle in New Atlantis.

Sprint (Melody Carter) –  The daughter of the original Red Racer, Harry Carter, and aunt to the current Red Racer, Kieth Carter. Primarily a solo hero for most of her career, she did occasionally team up with others, and was a Reserve member of the Liberty Alliance. During the Z’ardani Invasion she greatly overloaded her powers, burning them out, apparently for good. Forced to retire from the hero game, she accepted a position at the Brookhaven School, helping to teach young meta-humans (including her nephew) how to be an effective, and safe, superhero.

Star-Master (Kinen T’Hano) – Self-granted title of Kinen T’Hano, the barbaric, but brilliant, Z’ardani despot who ruled the Stellar Protectorate for decades. After the Entropy War, and the acquisition of large pieces of the Confederated Union of Worlds he has elevated himself to Emperor Kinen I, and renamed his interstellar domain the Stellar Imperium.

Stellar Imperium – Name given to his new government by the Star-Master, the Z’ardani despot Kinan T’hano, after the sudden expansion of  his Stellar Protectorate during the recent Entropy War. With the Confederated Union of Worlds reeling from the destruction of their capital world by the entity Entropy, the Protectorate launched an all-out attack that eventually conquered over 150 of the Union’s planets. In consolidating his new gains he declared himself “Emperor Kinan I, First of His Name, Absolute Ruler of the Stellar Imperium.” Despite his grandiose proclamations and the inevitable growing pains of his new empire, few doubt that his brutal reign will continue for many years, unless some lucky (for the rest of the galaxy) accident occurs.

Stellar Protectorate – Former name of the largest and most dangerous of the “barbarian states” that lay beyond the fringes of the Confederated Union of Worlds. While the planets of most such states were primitive, developing societies, left alone by the Union, a few had spaceflight capabilities of their own and would occasionally band together into loose (and usually temporary) alliances. For many years these worlds were of little concern to either the Union or the Consensus. Fleets and diplomacy (and Union mentats) sufficed to keep the wolves at bay.

This centuries-long pattern led the Union, some 80 years ago, to underestimate a human-off-shoot race known as the Z’ardani. A war-leader called T’hana rose on that grim world, and quickly became the iron-fisted queen of a small alliance of worlds. A woman of considerable ambition, she forged her ragged alliance of barbarian worlds into a stable, if smallish, empire and called it a “protectorate” of the disenfranchised worlds “abandoned by interstellar civilization.”

But it was her son and successor, Kinan T’hano, who took what his mother created and made it a true galactic threat. A military genius, the Star-Master (as he styled himself) turned his mother’s ramshackle collection of worlds into a military force without peer among the other barbarian outliers. In the Earth year 1972 he began a campaign of conquest that quickly absorbed several of the nearby rival barbarian states. Once he had consolidated those gains, in 1979 he turned his newly-enlarged fleet on the Union, and it is possible he would have conquered a large portion of the CUW in his first, overwhelming attack if not for the intervention of Vitruvian and the Paladins of Light.

Suffering a crushing defeat, it took years for the Stellar Protectorate to recover, as the Star-Master was forced to quell internal rebellions while trying to rebuild his shattered forces with a minimal industrial base. The Union, shaken out its complacency, was determined not to underestimate Kinan T’hano again. But while agents of the Union still kept a close watch on the Protectorate for signs of further aggression, the recent decades saw the Star-Master choose the velvet glove of diplomacy over the iron fist of conquest. Union vigilance slackened, their focus drawn by more pressing concerns, especially on the Dramorg front. But experienced observers were convinced this gambit was merely a ruse meant to buy the Star-Master time as he rebuilt, hatched new plans, and plotted his revenge against those who tried to deny him his destiny.

In 1982 an early such plot included a covert mission to Earth to run tests on the natives in an attempt to replicate the amazing array of superhuman powers with which they seemed blessed. Using scavenged Seeker bio-technology, they sought to unlock the secrets of meta-humanity in the hopes of transferring it into their own genome. But three years into the program one of their more successful test subjects escaped, and in the process of destroying the Z’ardani ship revealed the alien presence to everyone on Earth. This threatened to draw in the Union, but as the ancient Seeker technology was apparently rendered inert, and the Terran governments were not anxious to emphasize any further alien presence on their world, the Union did little more than send a harsh diplomatic note to the Protectorate. The event did, however, sharpen their watch on the Star-Master for a time, and eventually led to the placing of a Union observer-ambassador on Earth.

The Stellar Protectorate was a patchwork collection of worlds, many of them conquered and occupied by the Star-Master’s forces, and ruled from Ardan. The Protectorate’s technology was roughly equivalent to that of the Union, but tended to be older and in a poorer state of repair. Oftentimes, Protectorate worlds were forced to make do with whatever was available to them through salvage and scavenging, featuring a strange mix of technologies alongside primitive and even barbaric conditions. For example, gladiatorial games and blood sports have long been popular on many Protectorate worlds, and pirates, smugglers, and other criminals often found a haven there, so long as they didn’t cross the Star-master or his lieutenants.

All that changed in the Earth year 2016, when the ancient cosmic horror called Entropy awakened. Out of all the planets in the galaxy, the Destroyer of Worlds found its way to Halicon, capital world of the Union, and there lived up to its name. Ten billion people died and the Union’s interstellar government was left in chaos. The Star-Master saw his chance, and attacked, as did the Dramorg Consensus, beginning the short but devastating Entropy War. Between them they dismembered the Union on two fronts, and in less than two months managed between them to absorb over a third of the worlds in the Union.

Today an uneasy three-way balance has been struck between the Union, the Consensus and the Protectorate – the latter now calling itself the Stellar Imperium – as each seeks to consolidate their gains (or recover from their losses). The on-going and unpredictable threat of Entropy may also be playing a role in the usually aggressive Star-Master’s willingness to accept the new status quo, at least for now.

Stormfront (Kevin Kasperbauer) – (b. 1 March 1960). The premiere superhero of the Pacific Northwest for many years, based out of Portland, Oregon. An up-and-coming graphic artist, he was kidnapped in early 1985 by the alien Z’ardani. The latest in a long line of victims taken over the past several years as the aliens sought to unlock the secrets of meta-humanity (hoping to graft it into their own genome), he proved to be one of their few successes – to their regret. Their tortuous treatments awakened latent meta-human abilities that included enhanced strength, toughness, endurance, and the ability to fly; they also gave him the power to control the weather and to generate and control massive lightning strikes. He broke free from his restraints and crippled the cloaked alien starship wherein he and others had been held, bring it down in the Columbia River near Astoria.

The battle was staggeringly public and its aftermath clearly visible to a major population center – the governments of the world could no longer hide that fact that not only do aliens exist, some have a presence on Earth. The so-called Z’ardani Revelations unlocked a flood of information about alien influence throughout human history… although a world long accustomed to inter-dimensional incursions, giant monsters, and major meta-human conflicts didn’t react nearly as hysterically as many in authority had feared. Some social unrest occurred in certain circles, and many religionists were shaken, but most governments and many major churches (especially the Catholic Church) had long prepared for such a revelation, and were not caught flat-footed.

Stormfront has been a Reserve member of the Liberty Alliance for years and, since the Astoria Incident, has acted as a mentor to the new Vanguard team of heroes in that city. He was also the first major hero to publicly come out as gay, in 1993.

Succubus (Jennifer Allman) – Confused young woman duped by a demonic cult into becoming the host for a malign infernal power. Primarily a foe of Jetstream, fixated by a strong desire to seduce him, she has come into conflict with many other heroes over the years, especially Arkanos. The Magus Prime twice attempted to exorcise the succubus spirit from Allman, but both times the effect proved merely temporary.

Supido Kyo (aka Speed Demon) (Takekuma Takei) – (b. 11 February 1925, d. 6 January 1946). Joined the Astoria-based superhero team Victory Flight in 1943, despite the internment by the US Government of himself and his family to Minidoka, Idaho. His super-speed allowed him to maintain a secret identity during the War, as he was technically breaking the law by leaving the internment camp. He never hid his race from the public as Supido Kyo, however, and refused to answer to the English version of his name, despite the habit of the press to refer to him as Speed Demon. Killed in San Francisco in 1945 by the Japanese assassin Thunder Tessen, alongside fellow American hero the Inferno.

Sure-Shot & Arrowhead (Reginald Crecy & Leo Feldman) – A crusading newspaperman and his young ward, who used their archery expertise and an arsenal of trick arrows to fight crime in the 1940s and early ’50s.

Sure-Shot & Arrowhead (Leo Feldman & Byron West) – When the original Sure-Shot retired in 1955, in the wake of the HUAC fiasco, his partner Arrowhead, now a grown man, took over the Sure-Shot identity. A founding member of the Liberty Alliance, Leo didn’t take on his own apprentice/sidekick until 1972, when he began training hot-headed street tough Byron West. West made his first appearance as the new Arrowhead in ’73. When Leo decided to retire in 1980, his angry partner turned down the chance to take up the Sure-Shot mantle, instead adopting the name Recurve.

Sure-Shot (Jacob Feldman) – Jacob Feldman practiced archery from the time he was old enough to hold a bow, and seemed to have the same amazing facility with it as his father Leo, the second Sure-Shot. When he turned 15 he wanted his father to begin training him, so he could take over the family’s heroic identity himself, eventually. His mother was adamantly opposed however, and in frustration the boy turned to his “uncle,” Byron West, his father’s former sidekick Arrowhead and the current vigilante Recurve. For two years West undertook to train Jacob, until the Feldman’s discovered the arrangement. That was the final rupture between West and Feldman, but recognizing his son was only a year from his majority, and that he remained determined to take on the mantle of Sure-Shot, Leo took over Jacob’s training. Jacob made his first public appearance as the new Sure-Shot in 1991, stopping a robbery at the New Atlantis Sea Dome sports arena. He became a member of the Liberty Alliance in 1995, and remains on the team today.

Switch (Cameron Snow) – (b. 14 February 1961) An alien/human hybrid, born of an unhappy marriage between the Dramorg hero Variance and a human woman named Emily Stanton. Horrified at what she’d given birth to, his mother never even looked at the baby, which was quickly sent to an orphanage under the name Cameron Snow. For years the boy didn’t quite fit in, there always being something just a little “off” about him that seemed to repell both prospective parents and his fellow orphans.

By early adolescence he had learned to mimic those around him better, a task made easier by the almost annual move to yet another orphanage and a fresh start. By his 15th birthday he had been at the Mount Saint Vincent Children’s Home in Denver for five years, longer than any other facility. Disaster struck the night of his first sexual experience when, in the throes of passion, his face morphed into that of the girl he was with. In the hysteria that followed he fled, catching the next bus out of Denver, as shaken as his companion had been by his strange ability. He eventually learned to master his shapeshifting  powers, and became a founding member of the Teen Squad as the young hero Switch.

Sword of Vengeance – A centuries-spanning group of mystic acolytes, wannabes, and hangers-on, gathered together by the endlessly reincarnating Egyptian wizard Sobek to act as his shield and tools in his/her new life. Each time the ancient sorcerer’s current incarnation has its breakthrough, and remembers all his past lives (and hatreds), the first thing he (or she) does is gather a cadre of would-be magic-wielders and form them into that generation’s version of his Sword. He seeks out the disenfranchised, the marginal, the angry, but also those with only marginal innate arcane talent – enough to be useful to Sobek, but not enough to ever present a threat to his own supremacy. While he views such men and women as occasionally useful tools, he mainly sees them as cannon fodder in his never-ending war against his hated enemies Amhose and Nepthys. One of the most spectacularly successful uses of the Sword of Vengeance was in 1979, when the then-current group almost accidentally succeeded in seizing the minds of most of the Liberty Alliance. In the ensuing battle both the Sesen and his new protégé Mentat were killed while freeing the other heroes, while Sobek himself was killed by Arkanos.

T

 Teen Squad  – Formed in 1977 when Ultra Lad, Miracle Lass, Switch, and Sea Sprite teamed up to stop the assassination of President Carter by the legendary Thunder Tessen. Giving the commencement speech at the Tesla Institute of Science and Technology, the assassination is meant to be bloody and very public, and the Thunder Tessen is enraged when it is instead her defeat that is very public. The press is enamored of the young heroes, but when they decide to keep the “Teen Squad”  together, their parents and/or mentors are not best pleased. Over time the adults would relent, and the Squad teamed up with the Liberty Alliance more than once. The team roster would fluctuate over the years, but the name stuck, even after most of the “sidekicks” aged out of the teen category. There were break-ups and reconciliations, good times and tragedy, until Ultra Lad formally disbanded the team in late April of 1985.

Terra Cava (The Hollow Earth) — While most of the Serpent People perished in the destruction of Lemuria, a few escaped that fate by being absent when the disaster struck. The majority of those survivors had been deep within the various subterranean realms their people had previously established around the globe. Over time they set about trying to rebuild the ancient glory of their race, but being so few in number they became even more dependent on the slave races their ancestors had mutated from ancient human captives. The survivors further engineered various breeds of semi-human workers to serve their needs, many with great physical strength and the ability to operate in near-total darkness.

Over the millennia the fortunes of the Serpent People rose and fell, but the overall trajectory of the race was downward into degeneracy. Seldom able to unite into a cohesive civilization, the Serpent People devolved into dozens of geographically separated city-states deep beneath the Earth, each jealous of their power and absolutely certain of their superior right to rule all the serpent folk of the world.

At different times and places this or that sub-species of slaves would rebel against their Saurian masters. Sometimes they won, seizing an underground realm for themselves and killing or expelling their former Saurian masters; other times they lost, and became the base stock for the next generation of genetic manipulation as the Saurians sought to create a docile work force.

For a time the numerous subterranean factions stabilized, with various regions controlled by one or another sect of the Serpent People or by any number of the human-mutate races. One of the most powerful of the latter were the oldest of the former slave races, who became known as the Morlocks, rumor of whom are believed to have inspired various human myths in the surface world, as well as  H.G. Wells in his novel The Time Machine.

Eventually, however, the Saurians and Morlocks began to come into renewed conflict as the former slaves bred faster and sought to expand their territories. This second great conflict between the Morlocks and the Serpent People exhausted both societies, driving both deeper into barbarism and degeneracy. In time nearly all vestiges of civilization were lost, as cults worshipping terrible, alien gods flourished in both cultures, further splintering the societies and contributing to their mutual decline.

Today, both the Morlocks and Serpent People are savages, rarely ever visiting the surface world. There remain some relatively civilized pockets of Serpent People, mainly priests and sorcerers who have held onto vestiges of ancient Lemurian culture and knowledge; in less civilized groups an occasional genetic “throwback,” with greater intellect than their fellows, may arise to seize control of a tribe for a time. Morlocks occasionally see mutations with greater intelligence and occasional psionic abilities, who typically become leaders of small bands. Although the Morlocks tend to be mistrustful of both magic and technology, secretive cults ruled by priests or mystics do arise on occasion.

One such cult, 2,000 years ago, was mystically transformed into humanoid creatures of molten rock known as Lava Men. They live in the deepest depths of Terra Cava, near natural pockets of magma and lava vents, preferring as they do a super-heated environment. Surface drilling and blasting, as well as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, have occasionally driven the creatures to the surface and into conflict with humans. Fortunately these encounters seldom last long, as the relatively frigid conditions of the surface world are inimical to the Lava Men, leading them to quickly retreat below ground once more.

During the relatively stable period in the Hollow Earth, prior to the renewal of the hostilities that would eventually cripple both societies, one of the lager groups of the Serpent People engineered a new servitor race. Carefully weeding out individual initiative and any ability to rebel, they created a race of new slaves that were both docile and controllable as well as durable and strong. But in combat the new servitors proved no match for the savagery of the Morlocks, and when the Serpent People were forced to  abandon many of their subterranean cities, they abandoned their new slaves along with them.

In time the survivors of the last servitor race congregated together in one of the last of the great Saurian cities to be abandoned, Tyr’Aná. Without any real initiative of their own, the creatures continued to maintaining the ancient city’s buildings and machines, going about their duties generation after generation without really knowing (or caring) why they did so. They generally managed to repel the occasional Morlock incursion, and outlasted those they couldn’t repel.

Many years ago the Terra Cavans of Tyr’Ana discovered a human of the surface world when he was injured and left for dead in the collapse of a mining operation in South Africa. Nursing him back to health, the servile creatures fixated on the human as their new master. In time he established his own underground empire using the ancient, abandoned science/magics of the Serpent People and his legions of Terra Cavan subjects. Since then The Master, as his people call him (and as he has come to think of himself), has made occasional attempts to conquer parts of the surface world, only to be thwarted by heroes like the Phenom Four and Urbana, and even by less heroic types, such as Dr. Magnetík.

Over the millennia a variety of surface dwellers, from Roman Legionaries to Chinese peasants, have found their way into the realms of the Hollow Earth. Some only stayed for a short time, while others established a more permanent presence, one way or another, and both contributing to the on-going mosaic that is the Terra Cava.

Restrictions imposed by some surface governments have meant that fewer surface dwellers have visited the subterranean world in recent decades, the Sampson family being a notable exception. It was Dr. Mark Sampson (aka Doc Aqueous of the Phenom Four) who finally proved correct the long-debated theory that the vast caverns, thousands of miles of caves and tunnels, and various subterranean seas that make up the Terra Cava do not actually exist beneath the surface of the Earth. While the dozens of known entrances to the underworld are located in actual caves and caverns of Earth, they are merely the dimensional gateways linking Earth to the bizarre “subterranean” world of so-called Hollow Earth, similar to those linking the Lost World, Shambhala, and the Kaiju and Salomon Islands, and a score of other “mystical” or other-worldly realms. Indeed, it is suspected that the Terra Cava has links directly to some of those other extra-dimensional realities as well, although the only one that is known of with any certainty is the link to Kaiju Island from Tyr’Ana.

Thalor Van – b. circa 18,150 BCE. One of the greatest techno-sorcerers of any age, the Atlantean was also the first to bear the mantle of the Magus Prime of Earth. Prior to that, however, in his youth he was reckless and arrogant, and it was his actions that brought down the Great Barrier erected by the Seekers, thus unleashing the scourge of the Serpent People on the world once more. He spent his very long life attempting to make up for that terrible mistake, and in so doing laid many of the foundations for the use of magic that remain to this day. 

U

Der Übermensch (Neanon Var) –– Renegade Salomoni who presented himself to Adolf Hitler in 1939 as the pinnacle of Aryan perfection. With his tremendous Salomoni strength, toughness and stamina (if not an especially great intellect), he became the first of the Nazi leader’s ¨Übersoldaten, or super soldiers. Although powerful, he was at heart a bully, and against similarly super-powered combatants he proved to be more adept at escaping than fighting. Despite his frequent failures, he was politically cunning, and managed to retain the Führer’s personal favor, even as others in the Reich’s leadership turned more and more to the Übersoldaten developed by the Cerberus Project.

Decisively defeated by Ultra in early 1945, Neanon fled Germany before the War’s closing battles, ending up in Argentina in the employ of his long-time rival and sometime enemy Gerhart von Richtor. From there he escaped to Brazil after von Richtor’s defeat, where he adopted the nom d’crime Cabeça de Mortes (Death’s Head) and became involved in the Brazilian underworld as an enforcer. Over the years, forever barred from returning to his homeland, Neanon adopted many names and persona’s in his attempts to “be someone.” By the late ’70s he had settled on the codename Superior, although he seldom lived up to it – he was regularly beaten by not only Ultra and Gaia (the latter a fellow Salomoni sent to keep his predations in the Outer World in check), but a dozen other lesser heroes or hero teams, including the Teen Squad.

After one of his few successful crime sprees, which led to the deaths of scores of people, including two heroes, Ultra finally banished him to the Ghost Dimension in 1984. He escaped the limbo prison in 1998, through the surreptitious intervention of the Overlord, as part of that mastermind’s own nefarious plans – although Neanon still believes it was his own brains and good luck that freed him. For years he laid low in Third World countries, hiring out as muscle for various dictators, warlords, and despots, but after Ultra’s death in 2002 he began making forays into more advanced countries, testing the waters. He has not as of yet returned to the US, however. Like his fellow Islanders, he is effectively immortal, at least as far as normal aging goes, and looks little different that he did in 1939 (cosmetic changes aside).

Ultra (Carl Cohen) – The origins of Ultra remain a hotly contested mystery to most of the world, even years after his death. Probably the most popular theory is that he was the last survivor of an alien world, sent to Earth by his loving parents, where our world’s specific conditions gave him his tremendous powers. Director Richard Donner’s popular film of the late ’70s, “Ultra: the Movie,” popularized and helped spread that idea. Other prominent theories involve alternate realty Earths, invaded by alien marauders, with a child again sent to safety, this time across the timelines, to our Earth; or maybe a genetic experiment of some human agency, as yet unrevealed and perhaps destroyed, perhaps by Ultra himself during his escape.

The hero himself never offered any explanation of his origins, nor endorsed one theory over another, during his lifetime. Only a handful of people, mostly other heroes who were close to him, ever learned the truth of Ultra’s birth and early life — that he was the clone of a primitive human hunter born almost 22,000 years ago. A victim of the Seekers‘ research into the human race, the Hunter became a disembodied intellect trapped in the aliens crystalline “computers.” After the cosmic space gods left Earth, he used their technology to grow himself a new body, engineered to eliminate all flaws and achieve the pinnacle of human potential, intending to transfer his consciousness into it and return to Earth to live out his life, guiding his people to the stars.

Unfortunately, tragedy intervened and, believing himself likely doomed, he made the decision to send the birthing pod containing the growing fetus into the far future, where it might have a chance at survival. Although the Hunter himself would survive to eventually become the immortal defender of humanity known as Nimrod, it would be more than 20,000 years before he would see his “son” again.

The time-displaced birthing pod re-entered the time stream, and Earth’s atmosphere, in 1908, over a remote area of Siberia. It would eventually be found by a Russian astro-physicist, Jacob Cohen, in 1915. When it finally disgorged the fully formed baby, on 14 December 1916, Cohen and his wife Martya adopted the child as their own, naming him Carl. Fleeing the unwanted attentions of the Mad Monk Rasputin and the Imperial secret police, the Cohens fled first to Germany and eventually to America, arriving with eight-year-old Carl on 4 July 1924.

The Cohens raised Carl with a strong sense of right and wrong and a deep knowledge of history, both general and Jewish. As his powers gradually manifested themselves over the years, the Cohens taught him to use his gifts with compassion and responsibility. Young Carl Cohen eventually learned the truth about his origins, and the continued existence of his “father” Nimrod, when he discovered the Bastion. Already having become the hero Ultra, using his powers to fight crime and injustice, he adopted his progenitor’s hidden fortress as his own secret base. In his secret identity, Cohen worked as an author and occasional professor of economics and political science at Bensalem University, in New Atlantis.

Although some masked “mystery men” appeared before his own dramatic introduction to the world in 1938, Ultra is counted as Earth’s first true superhero and is still considered its greatest champion to this very day. He was a founding member of both the Liberty League and its successor the Liberty Alliance, and it wasn’t until his time with the Alliance that it became clear that Ultra’s powers included a greatly extended lifespan. Although over forty years old at the time of the founding of the Alliance, he still looked to be a man in his late twenties.

Carl Cohen married Louise Lancaster, intrepid girl reporter for the New Atlantis Daily Star in 1959. She had known for some time about his secret identity and true origins. They had one child, Jacob Lancaster Cohen, born in 1960; a series of miscarriages during the early ’60s ended any hope of other offspring. Jacob developed powers of his own in adolescence, eventually taking on a costumed heroic identity, Ultra Lad — a move that was initially very much against his parents’ wishes.

Throughout much of his career, one of Ultra’s greatest foes was the cosmic consumer of realities Kronos, who sought to absorb Earth’s reality into his own limbo-like dimension. Ultra swore that such a fate would never befall his home world, and to the end of his life he ensured that the Devourer of Time would fail, time and again. When Ultra died in 2002, defending Earth from an alien invasion, every nation on the planet mourned his loss. New Atlantis commissioned and dedicated the towering Eternal Guardian statue in his honor, and the legacy of Ultra continues to inspire new generations of heroes.

Although there has been at least one imposter posing as Ultra returned to life, until recently no new hero has adopted Ultra’s distinctive name or costume, and wisely so; both are considered sacred in the superhero community. However, that changed in September of 2020, when a new, female Ultra appeared in Astoria, OR.

Ultra II (Karen Cohen) – b. 14 December 1998. Only child of Joseph Cohen and Wendy Weismann (aka Ultra Lad and Miracle Lass), and granddaughter of Carl Cohen (aka Ultra) and Louise Lancaster. After the death of her grandfather, and the crippling of her father, in the the Z’ardani Invasion of 2002 when Karen was almost four, her parents made the decision to keep the truth of their family’s powers and history from their daughter. Karen grew up knowing only that her parents taught at a school for meta-human children and youth, but believing they themselves were ordinary baseline humans… as was she.

What neither Karen or her mother knew, however, was that Joseph had begun using his evolving psionic powers to surpress her own emerging abilities once she first began to exhibit them around the age of 12. He had cut off contact with his “grandfather,” the immortal Hunter Nimrod, in the year after his father’s death and his own injuries, and his relationship with his mother grew increasingly strained over the years. Louise tried to maintain a relationship with her granddaughter, but to do so felt bound to abide by her son and daughter-in-law’s decision to keep the family’s history a secret. This was made slightly more palatable to her by the belief that her granddaughter had not inherited any meta-human powers.

This status quo changed in the fall of 2015 when Karen left New Atlantis for New York and her freshman year at Columbia. Majoring in journalism, as had her grandmother, with a minor in history like her grandfather, things started well. But with distance from her father his psychic bindings placed around her powers began to fail. At first thinking she was going mad, Karen did her best keep what was happening to herself under wraps. It was fortunate for her that it was during a visit by her grandmother that the damn burst, and her full powers emerged. Louise knew what was happening, and took it upon herself to explain as much as was necessary to calm the young woman.

Her confrontation with her parents about their deception that Thanksgiving was dwarfed when her father’s unilateral actions eventually came out. Karen didn’t speak to her parents for three years, Louise expressed her disappointment in her son as only a mother can, and the Cohen’s marriage tottered on the brink. Eventually time, therapy, and Joseph’s sincere recognition of, and apology for, his wrong-doing led to a rapprochement between all members of the family in time for Karen’s graduation. In the year between graduation and graduate school Joseph and Wendy undertook to train their daughter in what she needed to know about her abilities, while encouraging her not to actually take up the cape – something she was ambivalent about in any case.

The one remaining sore spot in the family concerned the Hunter. Joseph painted a strong enough portrait of a Machiavellian manipulator, responsible for much of the family’s pain over the years, that Karen remains wary of him. Making no promises, but still staying undercover with her powers, Karen moved to Astoria in the late summer of 2020 to attend graduate school at the University of Astoria. Her grandmother quietly gifted her a costume, based off her grandfather and father’s uniforms “just in case.” Which came just a few weeks later, when the gigantic radioactive lizard Gojira attacked the city. In her first appearance as the new Ultra (having vehemently rejected both her parents’ suggestions of Ultress and Ultra Lass) she single-handedly defeated the monster, carrying him far out into the Pacific to dump him where he was unlikely to cause any immediate trouble.

Ultra Lad (Jacob Cohen) – b. 18 September 1960. Only son of Carl Cohen (aka Ultra) and Louise Lancaster. Developing powers very similar to his fathers, at 16  Joseph chose to “take up the cape” and fight crime, under the name Ultra Lad. While this was very much against his parents’ wishes, they eventually reconciled themselves to the reality, and father and son did occasionally team up. There was much speculation in the press as to the relationship of the two heroes, although neither could ever be induced to comment on the question.

Founding member and first leader of the Teen Squad, Jacob would eventually marry his teammate Miracle Lass, aka Wendy Weismann and Gaia’s sidekick – but not until 1995, long after both had retired from the hero business. Prior to that, however, in attempting to move out from under his father’s shadow, Jacob tried various non-Ultra-related names, all of them short-lived and ultimately unsatisfying. In 1992 he hung up his cape for good, or so he believed.

Jacob and Wendy produced a daughter, Karen Elizabeth Cohen, born 14 December 1998 (coincidentally, on her grandfather’s birthday) in Denver, CO. In 2002, during the Z’ardani Invasion, Jacob donned a costume one last time, taking the name Ultrason, and joined the battle in New Atlantis. He was severely injured protecting his father, giving Ultra the breather he needed to save the planet. Paralyzed from the waist down, in the aftermath of the Invasion Jacob founded the Brookhaven School, a prep school for training young meta-humans in the control and uses of their powers, and how to be superheroes (if they wish) or to otherwise use their powers to the benefit of society. He remains headmaster to this day. 

Ultrason (see Ultra Lad)

Urbana – “Spirit of Cities” who appeared shortly after the Z’ardani Invasion, possessing and animating the “dead” body of the gynoid hero Eutrepe, who was killed during the battle. Able to control and shape urban environments, she was instrumental in helping to rebuild New Atlantis. A member of the Liberty Alliance, where she came from is a mystery, as is what her goals may be. If she has answers herself, she’s not providing them, even to her long-time teammates.

Urbana is the hero with perhaps the strongest ties to New Atlantis, and she takes the protection of her home very seriously. While never responding to questions regarding her origins, or even giving a name, the city-entity seemed intent on helping New Atlantis from the very beginning. She worked with rescue workers in the immediate aftermath of the fight, and later with the scientists investigating the effects of the Z’ardani Invasion on the city.

The scientists in turn studied her, and eventually dubbed her “Urbana,” a name she quickly accepted as her own. Her ability to “connect” with the environment of any city, but most strongly with New Atlantis, allowed her to sense things throughout the area, so she directed emergency personnel to injured people and away from dangerous instabilities. She could also control and shape the material structure of the city at will, helping shore up damaged buildings, repairing broken water mains, and restoring streets to allow emergency vehicles access where they were most needed.

When the relief work was complete, Urbana helped make Mayor Ramos’ dream of a better New Atlantis a reality. With the aid of both Urbana and Vitruvian, the damage to the city was repaired in record time, and as a direct result of their combined powers and efforts, New Atlantis currently features architecture unparalleled anywhere in the world, with an advanced infrastructure that is the envy of cities around the globe.

Urbana accepted a place in the Liberty Alliance largely because it was the best way to actively help protect her home city. Some in the Alliance believe she was also looking for friends who might understand her, a hunch that has proven at least somewhat true. Since then, Urbana has won the trust and respect of her teammates, some of whom try hard to reach the gentle, artistic soul they believe must still exist within her cold, precise mind. She has recently begun to attempt a more “normal” human manner of speaking and interacting with others… so far with minimal success.

Some have described Urbana as a “city spirit.” Her synthetic body began to change almost as soon as she possessed it, appearing today to be an amalgamate form of concrete, metal, and glass. By all rights, she shouldn’t even be able to move, much less think or talk… but she does. She ignores most human concerns, having no need to breathe, eat, or rest, and her body is incredibly strong and resilient. When she is damaged, Urbana can rapidly “repair” herself, using her powers to draw on the substance of the city around her as needed.

Urbana can “meld” into any city structure, her body passing harmlessly into it and disappearing. While melded with the city, she can sense ongoing trouble that harms the city (tracking for radiation, sensing the use of superhuman powers, or even listening for a particular sound) and reform at the site of the problem. She also has a powerful “empathy” with all cities, New Atlantis in particular, and can sense things happening throughout any city she is in, sometimes in the form of visions, occasionally as vague premonitions of important events.

She can bend the physical structure of a city to her will, animating and reshaping parts of it. At Urbana’s command, lampposts reach down to grab fleeing criminals; streets buckle and ripple like waves; broken window- glass fails to touch innocent bystanders; and sidewalks grow hands to restrain opponents. No matter what distortions she creates, Urbana always makes sure everything goes back to normal, at least in terms of the physical status of the city. If not for her presence, the New Atlantis Public Works Department has estimated that it would need four times its current personnel, working around the clock, to keep up with the damage the city regularly sustains in meta-human conflicts.

Underhill-Hart Security – In contrast to household name AzTech, only those with strong business or political backgrounds are likely to have heard of Underhill-Hart. The world’s largest private security company, its armed force is larger than the armies of many nations, and are regularly hired out to provide security to private and corporate clients around the planet.

Underhill-Hart also has diversified interests in real estate, shipping, construction and contracting, building and property management, and arms manufacturing. The company has recently shown a strong interest in acquiring promising research start-ups and tech companies. One example is Kinettix, the Astoria company that developed the Kinetic Deflector project, which led to the creation of the android hero Force Majure. Underhill-Hart poured considerable resources into the legal case to claim the synthetic being was Kinettix property based on the work of Dr. Nathan Nestor. In the end, the courts ruled against them and Force Majure was accorded legal status as an individual and U.S. citizen.

Unsurprisingly, Underhill-Hart has been involved in other legal cases and investigations related to both its security services and arms manufacturing, but no criminal charges have ever been brought. Retired Underhill-Hart executives often find their way to various state and national political offices in the United States and Canada.

Underhill-Hart Security’s main corporate headquarters is Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with a secondary HQ in New Atlantis, NJ. Numerous subsidiary offices are located in many major cities around the world, each one overseeing some aspect of the company’s wide-ranging assets. The company’s net income is around three billion dollars annually, with total assets of nearly five times that amount. The current CEO of Underhill-Hart is Evan St. James, a corporate dynamo who rose through the ranks as a junior executive before earning the corner office and the trust of the board of directors. A capable, “hands-on” manager, St. James is considered a likely candidate to run for political office after he decides to leave his current position.

UMBRA (United Nations Multilateral Bureau for Registration of Aliens) – An organization founded in 2003, in the wake of the Z’ardani invasion of Earth, to register and keep track of all extraterrestrial and extra-dimensional visitors/immigrants on the planet. Created several months prior to SHADOW, unlike that organization UMBRA is an official unit of the UN, fully subject to its oversight.

United Nations – The putative unifying world governmental organization is constantly 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 to that goal is Atlantis, which has a delegation in New York and observer status in the organization. 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 is currently 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 Alliance’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 the Alliance’s aid (or “interference”) at any time. 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 a pipe dream, given the lack of funding and the amount of political infighting involved.

UNEXIS (United Nations Extranormal Inderdiction Service) – The closest the United Nations has come to establishing an international body to deal with meta-humans and extranormal situations is UNEXIS. The organization has the unenviable task of coordinating international efforts to deal with super-criminals and any other esoteric threats to the safety of the planet. 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., not to mention the outright opposition 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 in the US or other national agencies in other countries, its field agents are primarily investigators, with no actual law enforcement powers, since UNEXIS has no legal authority within any sovereign nation. Every effort in the General Assembly to grant it such authority has been voted down or vetoed by one of the permanent members of the Security Council, simply because member nations aren’t willing to give up any of their sovereignty to an international organization. The one area where they do have some actual authority is in international waters, which allows them to enforce the Lemuria Interdiction Zone and, with the permission of Japan and Russia, Kaiju Island.

The agency’s frustrated Director, Reginald Edgerton, 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 Liberty Alliance is not associated with any governmental entity and considers itself responsible for the safety of the entire planet. 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, sometimes off the record. This often allows the Alliance to take action where the agency and the UN cannot.

Unspeakable One – Cosmic entity of madness and chaos worshipped by the Serpent People cult the Order of the Bronze Claw.

Uruite (UHR-oo-eyte) – Also called Oregon Silver, the incredibly versatile metallic ore can be alloyed with many other metals to create uniquely strong substances, many of which may also have other, more esoteric effects. The basis for adamantine, ultronium, herculite, and several other “super” metals, the only known source for the ore is around Mt. Defiance in the US state of Oregon, although a few governments and individuals have become aware in recent decades that a few very much smaller deposits exist in the African nation of Kurunda. Unknown to most of the world is the fact that the ore derives from the body of the Seekers‘ ancient orbital platform, which crashed to Earth nearly 20,000 years ago, causing the formation of Mt. Defiance. The Kurundan deposits derive from a much smaller section of the platform, jettisoned prior to the main crash.

V

Vanguard – Superhero team based in Astoria, Oregon, founded in 2016 in the wake of the infamous Astoria Incident. In the three years since its founding the team has soared to global prominence, having saved the planet at least three times – from the potentially genocidal schemes of Nemesis, from the multiverse-ending plot of Chronos, and from magical rule of Varina, Lady of the Dark World. Sponsored by Álvaro de la Vega and AzTech International, the team is headquartered in the top five floors of the cutting-edge AzTech Pyramid in downtown Astoria. The current roster consists of: Scion, public leader and co-fieled leader; Artemis, co-field leader; brilliant scientist Quanta; the Blue Flame, a being of living plasma; Native American shaman Totem; and the ice elemental Chilz. Reserve members include Dr. Froth, Phantom Ace, Prometheus, and Paragon.

Varina (aka The Dark Lady) – Immensely powerful sorceress who, over a period of more than 600 years, absorbed 998 other worlds into her own dark domain. Longtime foe of Arkanos, the Magus Prime of Earth for 80 years, who managed to defeat her effort to absorb Earth into her Dark World. Seeking to become a true god, Varina spent a century devising a ritual that would allow her to ascend. The ritual required that she have 1,000 realms under her control, and that her physical form be destroyed by the Magus Prime of 1,000th world — which she was determined, out of revenge, would be Earth. 

Victorson, Adam (aka The Creature, aka The Prodigal) – The first creation of brilliant, but disturbed, scientist Victor Frankenstein, given life in the year 1812. After his creator’s death, and believing his younger “brother” Seth dead as well, the Creature wandered the earth for many years, seeking a purpose, but forced by his inhuman looks and great stature to hide his true nature. Eventually he became determined to wield power over a world he felt would always reject him, and that he would do so from behind the scenes. With the help of his one true friend in the world, Billy Blue (later William Bleu), he reconstituted the elements of the late criminal mastermind Prof. James Moriarity’s network to serve his own purposes. In 1919, having used the chaos of the Great War to infiltrate many European institutions, governmental, commercial, and criminal, he fully activated the Crucible. This secret organization gave him influence over the political, economic and criminal centers of both Europe and North America, and he adopted the pseudonym The Prodigal at this time, to better disguise who controlled the enterprise.

Victory Flight – A home-front WWII-era superhero team based in Astoria, Oregon. Formed 21 June 1943 when several local “mystery men” (and one “mystery woman”) united to drive off the Japanese submarine I-25 after its midnight attack on the city’s Fort Stevens. The 17 shells the sub managed to land before being driven off by the heroes generated far greater panic than actual damage — a nearby baseball field took the brunt of the attack. Originally consisting of Lady Victory, the Silver Shield, the Crusader, and Star Boy, they were later joined by the Japanese speedster Supido Kyo, the Persian warrior Lashkari, and the Greek web-weaver Arachnae. The team spent most of the war fighting German fifth-columnists and Japanese fire bombs up and down the West Coast.

Although the group remained active after the War, several members moved on, most notably Arachnae, who attempted (but failed) to join the post-War Liberty League. Supido Kyo was murdered in 1946 , along with Freedom Front hero Inferno, by the Japanese assassin Kaminari during the founding ceremonies for the United Nations in San Francisco. The team disbanded in 1954 during the height of the HUAC witch hunts, after the railroaded conviction and imprisonment of Lashkari, and the public revelation of Arachnae’s identity as Georgia Katopodis when she attempted to testify against the Liberty League. Only Lady Victory (Vickie Sandoval) is still alive as of 2020, living a quiet but active life in Seaside, Oregon.

Vitruvian (Leonardo da Vinci) –  Immortal inventor and original Renaissance Man, who has moved silently through much of late modern history opposing the machinations of Nemesis. In 1963 he decided to take a more active role, and adopted the currently fashionable idea of a superheroic identity. As Vitruvian he was a founding member of the Liberty Alliance, a role he has kept on-and-off ever since. In combat he wears a battlesuit of his own design, allowing him to fly by manipulating Earth’s gravity field. He is also the chief scientist and engineer of the Alliance, responsible for much of their technology and architecture. He spent several years in the late ’70s and early ’80s traveling the galaxy aboard a starship of his own design, the Stargazer, and used his genius in defense of the Confederated Union of Worlds against an invasion by the forces of the ruthless interstellar despot known as the Star-Master. Currently involved in helping the alien refugees fleeing the overrun regions of the CUW who have made it to the Sol System.

Volksmacht Technology Solutions (VTS) – A powerful multinational corporation based in Astoria, Oregon which does business and is more commonly known as Volksmacht or VTS. It is one of the anchors of the Portland-Astoria “Silicon Forest” axis of tech companies. It was founded in the late 1990s by Dr. Ernst Holloran, a former UNEXIS R&D section chief who left that agency a step ahead of charges for numerous ethics violations. Since its founding, the company has grown swiftly, and currently has facilities in over three dozen countries, with cutting-edge interests ranging from computerized microelectronics and exotic metallurgy to pharmacology and biochemical engineering. For years Volksmacht has been one of AzTech’s largest rivals, but in 2018 was outed by a team of investigative journalists as the shadowy backer for a failed buy-out attempt targeting ASTRA Labs. Volksmacht has also recently been reported as Astoria’s biggest polluter, and the public relations fallout from both stories has been intense — these days, protesting Volksmacht is practically a required course at ACU and Benson College. The company would very much like to avoid further scrutiny and bad publicity.

Voyuer (Kyle Reston) –  Mutant able to broadcasting anything he sees and hears to nearby television receivers. Star of the reality show P.O.V. (Point of View) and award-winning documentary filmmaker.

W

Die Walkürie (Helga Loosen) – b. 18 January 1919. Daughter of a high-ranking member of the Thule Society, young Helga Loosen was a big girl with, to put it kindly, “strong” features. In 1940, against her father’s wishes, she volunteered for a Cerberus Project experiment which attempted to pour the powers of the Norse Gods into mortal bodies. Of the 18 men and 2 women who volunteered, almost all were either killed or terribly maimed. Helga was one of the lucky pair who not only survived, but gained powers. Transformed into a stunning Aryan beauty, she also gained great strength and the ability to fly by summoning an ethereal winged horse. Captured by the Soviets near the end of the War, she disappeared into the Russian gulags, and her ultimate fate has never been revealed.

White Knight (Daniel Foreman) – White supremacist and hate-monger granted fire-generating powers by a mysterious stranger.

White Lantern (Vadim and Vadoma Straka) –  WWII hero and member of the European Freedom Front team. As teenagers in 1938 Germany, Roma twins Vadim and Vadoma saw their parents murdered by Nazis on the infamous Kristallnacht, in a detention camp outside Berlin. Somehow the terror and grief the brother and sister felt caused them to merge into a singular, androgynous being who radiated a pure, white light. Blasting their parents’ murders with that light, burning and blinding them, the merged siblings flew off into the night sky.

Although they eventually joined the super team called Freedom Front, they spent much of the war traveling the Continent, countering Nazi propaganda and attempting to undo the brainwashing of children carried out by the Hitler Youth.

They perished in March of 1945 when they sacrificed themselves to imprison the monstrous Nazi super soldier Shattenjäger in a sphere of solid light, which was then hurled toward the Sun. Unfortunately, it failed to fall into the star, and eventually returned to earth, where it was recovered by an arm of the criminal organization called the Arsenal. Unable to pierce the solid light sphere, the scientists eventually sent in a kidnapped street urchin test subject to interact with it. She somehow absorbed the light into herself, gaining powers that lead to her becoming the superheroine Truth a short time later.

White Tiger Society – The most powerful Chinese Triad on the West Coast, the White Tiger Society controls all criminal activity in Astoria, Oregon’s Chinatown district, with influence that extends throughout the rest of the city and beyond, its tendrils reaching into many other cities of the American West. The Society had its founding in Astoria in late 19th Century, and has been the dominant criminal organization there for most of the 20th century. Until recently, the group has maintained its influence through the strong leadership, ruthlessness, and guile of their head, Madame Chin Zhia, otherwise known as The Kirin; but with her failing health, as she nears the age of 90, the White Tiger Society has found itself without a strong hand at the helm. With no ordained successor, the organization is struggling to retain its grip as various potential candidates maneuver put themself in a position to seize control upon the old woman’s death. Many in the Society hope that the Kirin will either name an heir or else die quickly, before their vast empire falls into ruin.

The White Tiger Society is organized along traditional lines with an inner council led by the head and consisting of the vice-president, an English secretary, a street secretary, and a legal secretary. This council is referred to as The Five, and while they are not necessarily directly related to each other, they are considered to belong to the Chin clan. Directly below them are the other high officials of the Society, always totaling 32 in number. Only those who have been accepted into the 32 either by birth, marriage, or “adoption”, may ever be elevated to serve as one of The Five. The competition among the 32 to be made one of The Five is stiff and often deadly, and only the strong leadership of the Kirin has prevented an outbreak of violent internal conflict… a situation now in flux as she grows feeble. Only The Five know the full extent of the Society’s membership and activities, with those lower down the ranks given access to only the information they need to know for their positions.

The high ranking officials are served by mid-level lieutenants, with each lieutenant acting as a department head with sole responsibilities in regards to a single illegal activity; one acts as a liaison for Triad–associated street gangs, while another liaises with independent criminals who operate in Chinatown, and another supervises all protection rackets, etc. The lieutenants all share a healthy rivalry amongst one another, with most hoping their actions will not only bring them to The Five’s attention, but have their efforts rewarded with an entry into the 32 and the possibility eventually of sitting on the inner council. Though this boon is rarely granted, it is possible.

The footsoldiers of the Society are organized into separate gangs consisting of a dozen or more men. All the gangs are named after different types of Chinese mythical creatures (the Coiled Dragons, the Fiery Phoenix, the Jade Ki-Lin, etc). Each gang is designated their own area of operations, though more than one gang may have the same responsibility, so the loss of one gang doesn’t cause the collapse of an entire operation. Gangs rarely interact, except in cases where a large group is necessary to deal with a problem, such as dealing with foreign gangs encroaching on Society territory or, more recently, superhero interfernece.

While the White Tiger Society is heavily involved in criminal activity, it also owns and runs a number of legitimate businesses. These businesses are not included in the group’s structure; they operate just like any other business, except their owners are also members of the Society. Both the Society’s business and criminal activities are carefully executed in a professional manner, leaving nothing to chance.

Well over half of the Society’s annual revenue comes from its legitimate business. In addition, Madame Zhia is one of Chinatown’s most respected (and feared) entrepreneurs, a public leader who has had a strong presence on the boards of various charities and financial institutions. This allowed her direct access to some of the most powerful figures in Astoria and gave her political clout all her own.

The White Tiger Society is involved in a number of different criminal activities, and is always willing to consider new enterprises in which it can become involved. Currently, the Society is most heavily involved in assassinations, car theft, credit fraud, gambling, identity theft, prostitution, protection rackets, smuggling, and black market live animal and animal parts trading. They have also participated in human smuggling, usually to bring unfortunates, who have paid them huge sums, into the country, and to bring in workers for their brothels.

While the Society is still focused mainly in Chinatown, it has expanded its sphere of influence far beyond those limited confines. Many of its legitimate business concerns can be found in the Downtown and Riverfront districts, employing not only those of Chinese descent, but many others besides. The drug operations performed by the Society can be found all over the city, which brings them into direct confrontation with other criminal syndicates working those territories.

With the failing health of the Kirin, the White Tiger Society has found itself at a bit of a cross-roads. Madame Zhia provided the triad with strong leadership and a firm hand, but she has failed to make any official indication in regards to whom she wants to succeed her. Currently, her grandson Feng-li appears to be acting as spokesman for his grandmother and de facto leader, but he has so far shown no indication of himself possessing the powers of the Kirin. This has led the Society to become fractured and conflicted, with backstabbing, intrigue, and lies disrupting its stranglehold on power in Chinatown.

X

X-Isle, the Living City –  A massive living being outwardly resembling New Atlantis, with a desire for inhabitants, which it ensnares. X-Isle floats in the Ghost Dimension, occasionally kidnapping new “citizens” from Earth.

Y

Young Justice – A group of teenage supers based in Washington, D.C., fighting for social justice and equality. Idealistic and impatient with the older heroes and their “sold out to the man” mindset.

Z

Z’ardani – A “barbarian” alien race of human root-stock, planted many millennia ago by the enigmatic Seekers on the planet Ardan. Apparently seeded with humans taken from Central and East Asia, there is some evidence that a second “seeding” took place some 600 years ago, involving several thousand Mongol horse warriors. This event was unlikely to have been promulgated by the Seekers themselves, whose activities in the known parts of the galaxy appear to have ended at least 10 millennia ago; but the true authors of such a second seeding are unlikely to be discovered anytime soon, given the overwhelmingly hostile attitude the Z’ardani have towards outsiders, which makes research on the question virtually impossible.

Ardan is an approximately Earth-like world, but cooler, drier and with 12% greater gravity than humanity’s home world. The Z’ardani themselves are somewhat shorter than Earth humans on average, and stockier, with slightly greater bone density and muscle mass; hair color is almost exclusively black, although a dark auburn occasionally appears and is considered auspicious; eye color is predominately brown and black, with occasional hazel, green and (very rarely) blue eyes making an appearance; skin tones tend to a light bronze, except in the elites of the ruling caste, which tends toward a darker red-bronze.

Culturally the Z’ardani are a hierarchical, caste-based society, with strong matriarchal overtones, although it is not a matriarchy by any means. The warrior caste is at the top of the food chain, and is where the nobility arises. Weapon makers, which in recent generations has come to include engineers and technicians, are highly valued. Scholars and scientists are less valued, despite the great need for them in the Imperium’s attempts to maintain, never mind modernize, its interstellar fleets. One of the weaknesses its enemies hope to exploit is its reliance on captured or stolen technology, and the minimal understanding of their own technical systems this fosters.

Z’ardani Invasion ––  Earth faced her darkest hour on 14 October 2002, when an expeditionary force of the Z’ardani Stellar Protectorate invaded the planet. Thanks to the anti-supers policies promulgated by New Atlantis mayor Augustus Wentworth and CAMO, the alien army quickly established a beachhead in the city, as well as a several other key locations across the planet.

Across the globe, the world’s heroes united against the Z’ardani, but the climatic battle of the invasion took place in New Atlantis, devastating the downtown area. A number of heroes perished in the struggle, including the original Red Racer and the second Sure-Shot, many members of a reunited SCORPION, and Ultra himself, who sacrificed his life to keep the aliens from opening a Stargate they had been constructing for years in the Asteroid Belt, which would have allowed an overwhelming armada to reach Earth.

In the aftermath of the failed invasion the planet mourned the loss of not only its greatest champion but of scores of other heroes (and villains), on top of the almost 1,000,000 other casualties worldwide. Large areas of New Atlantis, ground zero for the alien attack, were damaged or destroyed, the downtown area all but leveled, and tens of thousands were dead. But it could have been so much worse, and both the general public and the world’s governments realized just how close the planet had come to falling — and that it was the meta-humans’ bravery and sacrifices that had tipped the scales. Meta-human approval ratings climbed to a high not seen since the 1940s.

A mysterious entity rose up shortly after the alien’s defeat, possessing the “dead” body of the gynoid hero Euterpe. Known as Urbana, this “urban spirit” used her amazing powers to help rebuild New Atlantis at an astounding rate, making it better and stronger than ever before. She hardly worked alone, however, as heroes like Vitruvian and Arkanos pitched in as well. Some initially believed Urbana was the soul of Ultra, reincarnated, but this has since been proven nothing more than wishful thinking.

Zandar, Lord of the Jungle (Alexander Challenger) – Descendent of an explorer of the Lost World and its renowned champion.