Superhuman Universe

#### How this universe was created:

Curi never liked superhero stories or comic books. So creating this super universe really took her by surprise. Basically what happened was she read a few writing prompts on tumblr that wound up incubating in the back of her mind until, surprise! She had three new characters. At first she kept them in the back of her mind and didn't do anything with them, but against her will they developed into full-fledged characters with backstories and personalities. Their backstories required some wordbuilding so there was the basic outline of that too.

Eventually, after being ignored for nearly a year, one of the trio (who were best friends) disappeared. But the other two stayed. Months later, Oracle of Kos needed a supervillain to interact with one of her new characters in No Holds Barred. Curi created one on the spot by combining a couple Pokemon villains into a new character and modifying him for the purpose, but accidentally managed to create a complete and surprisingly compelling villain that fit the small amount of prior worldbuilding perfectly. With a villain, suddenly there was a plot, story arcs, worldbuilding went out of control until it was a fully functional setting, and characters exploded into existence despite Curi's best efforts.

Eventually she just gave up and went along with it, and story segments started occurring to her visually in the form of full-color comic strip panels. But the original trio was down a member so she had to create a new one to fill the spot. Eventually Curi realized a side character in a newer character's backstory was the missing member of the original trio, just younger. However the character didn't seem interested in regaining her original position as a main character for some reason. Instead she stayed as a side character in another character's story arc, and the character made to replace her kept her position in the trio.

#### How this world works:

The world of the superhuman universe is mostly just like the real world. The difference stems from a genetic mutation that randomly occurred in Ancient Egypt when it was still the time of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms. Actually, it was a series of small genetic mutations that on their own had no noticeable effect other than each providing a slightly increased risk of some type of cancer. All together, they caused a significantly increased risk for multiple types of cancer, but not enough to *guarantee* that someone with these genes would develop cancer. The genetic mutation that produced the first super simply added on to these pre-existing mutations and the combination of all of them was what caused the afflicted to develop superpowers.

A person needs two copies of every single "super" gene in order to manifest superpowers, but because the trait is polygenic it's a bit more complicated than a simple recessive trait. Two super parents will only have super children. Parents who are carriers for all the necessary genes *could* have super children, but only if their children receive only the mutated genes. However, because the trait has been in the world population of humans for so long, it has spread very thoroughly. In fact, every major national population has a roughly equal percentage of supers born every year as every other major national population. Unfortunately, most of those supers do not survive to adulthood due to standard causes of infant mortality, rampant childhood cancer, and (in some nations) implicit medical prejudice regarding patients with super genes. Additionally, it is effectively impossible to take any kind of census for superpowered individuals as pretty much every society with heavy cultural influence from European (especially British) imperialists has a strong societal taboo against "unmasking" supers. The current estimate is that approximately 1% of infants born worldwide are super, and approximately 1/7th of those live to adulthood. This also means that supers and parents displaying many of the associated genetic mutations typically have more children and bigger families than normals.

In these countries, supers have historically been treated as second-class citizens. They are subject to discrimination, hate crimes, and even (historically) genocide at the hands of "normals" (non-supers) using fear of their powers as an excuse. As a result, these countries have largely instituted policies of secrecy supposedly for the protection of supers. The idea is that if nobody knows they're super, they can't discriminate against them. Over time, these policies developed into extremes. Most of these countries (including, of course, the United States of America) expect supers to create an entire secondary identity to be associated with their power. That way, if they ever have to use their power in public, nobody will be able to trace it back to the seemingly "normal" person behind the fake identity. That's about as helpful to supers as can be expected, but it's so ingrained in the culture that even close relatives may not know each other's powers.

What would in normal comics be referred to as an "identity" and a "secret identity" are in this world referred to as a "super persona" and a "normal persona". With supers being a real-world phenomenon here, superhero comics were never created like they were in the real world. This is a world with an *Avatar: the Last Airbender*, but no Superman or Marvel. Vigilantism is illegal in most, if not all, countries and is subject to harsh punishments. However, if a super is fighting another super and there is no evidence that either of them is acting as a vigilante, it's treated as any normal brawl. Normal police are often reluctant to break those up even if the supers in question aren't using their powers - because what if one of the supers seriously injures or kills the other? But oh, of course, it's because they're *scared* of supers.

Supers manifest their powers during puberty. Supers with uteruses typically manifest their powers within a year of their first period. Supers without uteruses, just like normals, typically go through puberty a little later and therefore typically manifest their powers a little later. This complex polygenic mutation interacts extensively with the neurochemistry and other body systems of the super. The end result is, the specific manifestation of their power is affected by their personality, physical state, and environment at the time of manifestation. Once a super's power manifests, that's the power they have for the rest of their life. It doesn't change or get stronger. Each super has only one power (although sometimes that power can be made up of seemingly disparate parts), and because of all the variables involved no two supers have ever been found to have the exact same power (there have been cases of nearly-identical powers but they always have at least some small detail of difference).

## Useable Characters (Super Personas):

* The Emissary
* Ala
* Dante
* Phyto
* Gyeong-Suk
* Miasma
* Helix
* Malady
* Fanana
* Auto
* Textile
* Time
* Cathedra
* Ferro
* Aceso
* Suture
* The Boss
* Dollmaker
* Ethos
* Racoon

## Useable Characters (Normal Personas):

* Valerie
* Rose
* Kiana
* Andre
* Brume
* Sasha
* Jackie
* Husni
* Alex
* Jessie
* Dave
* Rahim
* Cassius
* Beatrice
* Adam
* Gabriel
* Mani
* Raz