Earth-196169
1st March 2,018 CE
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The Laws of Earth-196169
The fundamental laws of science are practically the same in the reality of Earth-196169, but reality expands far beyond the laws of science to construct all of the laws of nature. Magic comes from a primordial time when scientific principles were merging into an orderly and understandable fashion. The power of magic comes from a combination of the practitioner's discipline and one of these fundamental sources of power. Some beings have wills so strong that their minds alone can affect reality through psychic abilities. The advancement of science and technology rivals these fundamental forces, and their unifying origin can be found in the infinity stones.
Those that employ magic define their school by where the source of their art comes from. Masters of the mystic arts, or sorcerers, draw their power from cosmic entities through ritual, a practiced series of gestures, and vocations. Sorcerers with extreme power have manifested powers that have been passed down to other sorcerers. Witches draw their power from Chthon and otherworldly entities beyond human comprehension. Their powers usually manifest chaos and pull at the laws of reality. Then some draw their power from the forces of the heavens and the hells. Their powers are strangely similar in scope but their goals are antithetical. Magic is the art of reaching beyond one's physical senses and connecting to beings with power and consciousness much greater than they can comprehend.
The ancient sorcerers who perfected mystic arts using their will alone demonstrated the power of the conscious mind, and there are those whose minds and willpower are strong enough to affect the physical world. These psychics can infiltrate the minds of others, move and manipulate matter with but a thought, or manifest their psyches into weapons among other powers. Psychics have come about throughout history, prehistory, and ages undreamt of, but they have become common among mutants. Unlike masters of the mystic arts, sorcerers, witches, the infernal, and the divine, psychics manifest power merely from their thoughts.
All in all, there has yet to be anything that magic or psychic abilities can accomplish that science and technology cannot. Whether it's through the marriage of the paranormal and technology like Cerebro, advanced biology that surpasses the power of the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak like Hulk, the interdimensional properties of Pym Particles that can travel beyond the boundaries of space and time, or the engineering of the Iron Man suits whose firepower and versatility rivals the power of any Sorcerer Supreme, science and technology are the great equalizing force between the limitless cosmos and of mortal beings. Need teaches Terrans, Skrulls, Kree, Shi'ar, and the other intelligent species in the universe that wit and necessity are the mother of invention.
Cosmology
The reality designated as Earth-196169 was born from the destruction of the First Firmament of Earth-616 along with the destruction of dozens of other realities, the Living Tribunal formed them into a cosmic egg. The primary universe was devastated by the Celestial War and shattered into the first multiverse among realities on its side of the Nexus of All Realities. A being called the Dweller-in-Darkness sought to feat on the fear of the last inhabitants of the universe before but the Phoenix Force gave all the inhabitants of the universe before peace to starve the hungry Old One. The last inhabitant was a male Taa-an named Galan of Taa, who was approached by Eternity and Infinity. They requested that Galan volunteer to be reborn in a new universe as a cosmic counterweight to all that is endless. The First Firmament ended, leaving only 6 singularities around the cosmic egg.
Once the Living Tribunal finalized this cosmic egg, he shattered it and caused the Big Bang, the genesis of the 26 dimensions of Earth-196169 across its several parallel universes. The 6 singularities are forged into solid ingots in the fires of the early universe, and the Celestials emerge. They collect the infinity stones. Species in the early universe rise and fall, though 1 survivor is preserved with immortality to serve as a member of The Elders of the Universe. A single species discovered how to preserve their race and became The Watchers, whose survival is allowed so long as they catalog the events of the universe without interfering in its progress. Other cosmic beings are born including Ego, Death, Eternity, Infinity, the Collector, and the Grandmaster.
The Milky Way galaxy forms next and, with it, the star that Terrans would come to know as LHS 2520 but the native Kryptonians would call it Rao. Other galaxies had already formed with early stars swirling around the supermassive black holes at their centers, and more galaxies would come after The Milky Way. As the star Sol is born, 8 cosmic beings take hold of the power stone to stand against the power of the Celestials but the stone destroys them. Around the same time, strange beings known only as the Old Gods decide the source of all life in the universe, known simply as The Source, is too dangerous. They split off its negative aspect to create the Anti-Life and this leads to their ultimate demise. Shortly after the death of the Old Gods, the fledgling Terra is bombarded by rocks and ice creating its only moon, Luna, leaving a gaseous atmosphere that will soon cool.
Gaea lies upon the cooling Earth to bring it to life, her older siblings Chaos and Tartarus burrow deeply below the crust creating the underworld and the planet's fiery core. Eros continues to fly free as the 4 siblings birth the other Primordial gods. Many Primordial gods quickly devolve into demons, most notably Chthon and his gods of chaos, and Set and his gods of darkness. The Old Ones come to Earth next to bask in the magic of creation. Gaea summons Atum to cleanse her new physical body of these demonic energies, and he does by swooping down from the sky, plucking them up from the ground, and devouring them. These corrupting entities turn Atum into the Demogorge, but his neverending hunger pushes Chthon, Set, and the Old Ones from the Earth realm. These demonic gods move off into other realms where they continue manipulating things from afar; Set through his children, the serpents, Chthon through the tempting and chaotic power of the Darkhold, and the Old Ones through the corrupting influence of the Necronomicon. After he completes his task, Atum flies into the heart of the sun to be reborn among the Ennead that would return to Egypt millennia in the future.
Few mortals know this history of the Primordial universe and the Earth. Science tells them of its physical and chemical changes over time. The many theologians, mystics, sages, and shamans across parallel universes have their own creation myths. Many creation myths correspond to part or all aspects of the natural and supernatural origins of Earth-196169. Most are more useful as morality tales than as reflections of history. Most mortal beings are wise to stick to the observations of science and cling to their myths if science proves beyond their understanding.
Principal Geography & Features
The geography of Terra, also known as planet Earth, is very similar to the planet we're familiar with in reality Earth-1218. It is an oblong spheroid with a circumference of 24,901 miles, or 40,075 kilometers at a distance of approximately 93 million miles or 149 million kilometers from Sol, with a single tidal-locked moon, Luna, at a distance of 238,855 miles, or 384,400 kilometers. There are 7 continents, 5 oceans, 2 magnetic poles, 254 nation-states, and respective territories, 365 and 1/4 days in a year, while each day is 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds. Terrans experience a 24-hour day because the combination of the rotation of the planet and its revolution around Sol adds the remaining 56 seconds into the day when observed as the rising and setting of their star. A superficial look at Terra in the reality of Earth-196169 appears almost entirely identical to our own.
Part of the difference resides in the extra 13 nations and territories that exist in this dimension and not in Earth-1218, Akahim, Bana-Mighdall, Gorilla City, Khandaq, Madripoor, The Savage Lands, Sokovia, Transia, and Wakanda don't appear on many maps in other realities. The island nations of The Rogue Isles and Themyscira mark 2 of many original islands that are also alien to other realities, like Dinosaur Island, Monster Island, and Skull Island in the 3 largest oceans - the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean. The Pacific and the Atlantic oceans also hide 2 more major nations beneath their waves - Lemuria and Atlantis. Mount Wundagore extends out of the Balkan Mountains where they meet with the Pirin range, near the intersection of Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Serbia's borders that don't appear elsewhere. With all of these peculiarities out of the way the only other things to note are that 2 literal gates of heaven open in the Himalayas, and the pyramid of ice that forms what once was Kal-El's Fortress of Solitude sits at the North-most point of Greenland.
Extending to the stellar geography, the Blue Area of the Moon rests inside the Luther Crater near the Northern pole of Luna. It's an artificially generated, Earth-like biome that now houses the ruins of Atillan and the intact Citadel of Uatu the Watcher. Mars hosts the ruins of Martian civilization, while Saturn's moon of Titan hosts the ruins of Titanos or Titan City after Thanos murdered all his kin there. Uranus hosts the ruins of the Uranian Eternals domed cities and the native Uranian's hives, Magneto and his various incarnations of the Brotherhood of Mutants had colonized several large Trojan asteroids in the Lagrange points L4 and L5. The rest of the Sol system largely seems consistent with how it is in reality Earth-1218.
Rao is probably the closest obscure body in interstellar space. It appears as part of the Corvus constellation, at least until the Terran year of 1,948 CE when the planet Krypton explodes in many realities. That light is seen on Terra in 1,975 CE just before Kal-El makes his presence known as Superman. Polaris holds the homeworld of the Thanagarians or the Hawkmen of Thanagar. Polaris sits about 323 light years away from the Sol System and the existence of Thanagar is the only other anomaly inside the observable universe that we can perceive with the assistance of optical telescopes. Outside of that, who knows what other similarities or differences one might encounter in the greater universe? Perhaps the Asgardians are sitting in their paradise somewhere in a distant region of outer space drinking mead with the warriors who earned a place in Valhalla.
Initial Active Setting
Author's note: Without really considering this beforehand, I went whole ham on the full universe of Earth-196169 and the alternate universes that surround it, as well as the branching timelines that come with it. I am the first to admit that I bit off a lot and have been forcing myself not to expand further. But the initial setting is very expansive, which will be nice later. I won't have to build it out as things go along.
The initial size of the setting includes the entirety of the Earth realm universe in Earth-196169, plus The 7 Hells, The Dark Dimension, The Mirror Dimension, The Negative Zone, The Quantum Realm, the 5th Dimension where an observer exits space-time and can travel between universes and travel in time, and the Macroverse or the 6th Dimension where an observer can travel between realities. The neighboring realities of Earth-196169 will consist of realities that contribute to the fabric that makes up its reality and the branching timelines that splinter off from its reality. Those additional realities will be fleshed out later. The initial setting will include events from the creation of these universes until March 1st, 2,018 CE.
The initial start will occur in the 5 boroughs of New York City. Then they will expand as necessary depending on the scope of the stories.
- The natural campaign, focusing on being friendly neighborhood street-level heroes will probably move out to more of New York state. The player party may take some detours to other cities outside of New York like Gotham City, NJ, Washington, D.C., Paragon City, RI, and the Rogue Isles.
- The technology campaign, focusing on espionage and global conflicts, will take players across the globe on their missions of espionage, counterintelligence, and military engagements.
- The mutant campaign, which will focus on human and civil rights, will take players across the globe and perhaps across space and time to expand liberty and justice for all.
- The science campaign, a sci-fi adventure bordering on space opera, will take characters across interstellar and intergalactic space. To alien worlds where no Terran has gone before.
- The magic campaign, a modern fantasy to a sci-fi fantasy story, will take characters to other worlds and deal with beings beyond mortal comprehension.
Player characters will encounter clues, information, enemies, and NPCs that might have information that plays into the other campaigns. These can be shared via Superlink, Tony Stark's superhero social network, or through guest appearances in other campaigns. If a player can't make a session, for example, they can have their character make a guest appearance in the other game in true Marvel fashion.