Mythos Superhumanity: An Ideas Thread

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I asked chatGPT to write a background story...

Once upon a time in a world not so different from our own, superheroes existed but with a dark twist. They were powered by the ancient and malevolent entity known as Cthulhu.

In exchange for immense power, the heroes made a pact with the Great Old One and became its agents on Earth. With their newfound abilities, they swiftly put an end to crime and terror, earning the adoration of the masses.

However, as time passed, the superheroes began to change. They became more and more erratic, with some even lashing out at innocent people. It was then that the truth was revealed - the price of their power was their sanity, and they were slowly being consumed by madness.

The general public soon turned on the heroes, realizing that they were not the saviors they once thought they were. In their desperation, they turned to a small group of mystics who claimed to know how to break the pact with Cthulhu.

The mystics, aided by a group of ordinary people with newfound courage, launched a daring assault on the superheroes. In a fierce battle that lasted for days, the heroes were eventually defeated, and the pact was broken.

With the heroes' powers gone, the world returned to a state of relative peace. However, whispers of a resurgence of the Cthulu mythos still circulated, as people feared that one day, the Great Old One would rise again and claim its agents once more.

The end.
 
Sadly not from an advanced AI, but from a normal human.

THE FIRST AND LAST
In the beginning was the endless nuclear chaos. As the cosmos boiled and swarmed, the maelstrom gave way to time and space - filling the universe with new things; time, space, life, decay.

The unleashed energy of the nuclear chaos become stars. Around them, countless worlds coalesced out of the darkness and creatures swarmed upon them. They lived, they died and they passed into memory. It was an age of endless opportunity.

On one world, a thing that could have been a man was different to the other people around it. It looked the same as everyone else but it had abilities far beyond the norm. Their scientists could not explain the difference; citing their inadequate science for what could not be understood. Soon, the one became many - beings of fantastic abilities with minds that could control energy and matter. They came to believe they were the next evolutionary step for their species and this detachment spread like a virus; this self-propagating idea would consume them.

For some, the immense abilities they possessed would not be enough and their need for more power would consume them.

190 light years from Earth, there is a Methuselah star. One of the earliest formed in the universe. Orbiting that star is a cold ember, a charnel house for an entire species for every living thing on that world was murdered with only a single survivor. That entity, whose hunger for power outstripped ethics and reason, whose desire for more life defied mortality and sentiment. That lone survivor would leave that world behind and find new worlds to conquer. Billions of lives were not enough for its hunger but soon it discovered a new source. Power beyond its imagining; just there for the taking. The boiling nuclear chaos at the centre of the universe was a source of unending power and it gained a name; Azathoth. The survivor was bathed in that strange light, was stripped to bare salts by the transcendental energies and remade on the shores of a primordial world with a new mission.

It arrived on Earth more than 10,000 years ago and was worshipped as a god. It took many shapes, adopted many names over the centuries; but to most it is known as Nyarlathotep.
 
Why Earth?

When we look out at billions of stars, we think we are so remote from everything. Our galaxy is unimpressive. Our world, tiny and fragile. But on other planes, Earth has greater importance. A coincidence of arrivals by the Elder Things, Flying Polyps and the Great Race of Yith sealed the fate of Earth. That fate was to survive - each of these races had fled other worlds, now long dead. Arriving on Earth as they did, meant that none could easily gain ascendancy. And where these congregated, other beings came. The Mi-go, the Star Spawn, Thunn'Ha,

Earth continues to attract the hideous might of godlike beings; Tsathoggua, Gloon, Shub-Niggurath, Ghatanothoa, and Hastur, the King in Yellow. Some of them are there for their own curiosity, some to be close to the first survivor, Nyarlathotep, and some still await the return of R'lyeh.

The Heroes

"You call us monsters, but when you dream, you dream of flying and changing and living without death. You envy us..." - Rachel, Nightbreed

From an early age you knew you were different. You stood apart from others, saw things differently. Possessed of a preternatural insight and precocious intellect that intimidated adults and ostracised you from your peers, but confirmed what you knew all along; you were destined for greater things.

It is theorised that every element was forged in the nuclear fires of dying stars - but your star-stuff is much more recent and it's progenitor much more primal. Within you are fragments of the Outer Gods, the primordial forces which shaped the cosmos in the earliest times. How you got them? For some it is an encounter with something miraculous, for others it is a birthright exercised when the "stars" are right. For whatever reason, you are marked by destiny.
 
Working on the tiers of abilities which are available to the heroes.

I like the GH method of Grades 1-3.
I like the terminology in Amber of Amber > Chaos > Human
I like that talents in Godlike/Wild Talents are called “Miracles” (I played around with Marvels as a description but let’s be honest no-one needs a cease and desist from Marvel).
So some thinking is needed.
 
Three is enough tiering for a supers game, though I usually roll with something like Street Level>Enhanced Human>Superhuman>Demi-Godlike with an 'X' tier reserved for the Galactuses and Darkseids and Spectres of the setting. But this is a special case, obviously. You'd need Mythos-related terms for the different tiers. Touched>Remade>Reborn or something.
 
Three is enough tiering for a supers game, though I usually roll with something like Street Level>Enhanced Human>Superhuman>Demi-Godlike with an 'X' tier reserved for the Galactuses and Darkseids and Spectres of the setting. But this is a special case, obviously. You'd need Mythos-related terms for the different tiers. Touched>Remade>Reborn or something.

At the moment it's

Enhancements - for strength, speed, toughness, agility, fast healing....stuff that could possibly be explained.
Miracles - for stuff that can't. Flight. The ability to travel through space. Reshaping the body. Teleport.
Legacy - for those things beyond this plane. Opening a Gate by thinking about it.

Just thoughts still.

In WATCHTOWER we have three levels of Superhuman

ACHILLES. 3 points
TALOS. 6 points
HERAKLES. 10 points

Each providing a number of power points used to buy powers.

And each power is available in three power levels

1 point for MINOR
2 points for PRIME
3 points for EPIC

A sample power is below:

Blast - the Exotic can, through perhaps unexplained means, project beams or bolts of energy or force from a part of their body. These blasts cause physical harm to targets they strike. They may also be able to develop stunts in their use of these powers.

  • Minor Blast - the Exotic fires a poorly controlled attack at an assailant with a 2/4/6 damage profile.
  • Prime Blast - the Exotic fires a well controlled attack at a target with a 4/8/12 damage profile. The Exotic may choose one Stunt at no cost.
  • Epic Blast - the Exotic is able to execute two energy-based attacks at assailants with a damage profile of 8/12/-. On a Critical hit, the Blaster defines what happens, up to and including complete eradication of the target. The Epic Blaster receives two Stunts at no cost.
Blast Stunts

  • Energy controls - the Exotic gains rudimentary control over the energy being projected. This includes increasing or reducing the intensity of their chosen energy in an area. A fire-blast Exotic may be able to put out a house fire, or cause a wide forest fire to rage into a firestorm. A radiation blaster may be able to reduce the Rads gained in their area, perhaps even shutting down a reactor. A light blaster can eliminate or increase shadow in an area.
  • Area Effect - the Exotic can use their power over a wider area. Everyone in the immediate area takes full damage but otherwise it acts as Explosives.
  • Lasting Effects - effects of the Blast have longer term effects. Fire based attacks will cause arson, radiation based attacks will increase the Rads of targets and anyone in the vicinity. Light based attacks may blind, sound based attacks will deafen.
  • Usable out of combat - the Blast energy may have practical uses. Heat based attacks may be used to weld or cook, light blasts may be used to create fireworks, sound based blasts to create music.
  • Suppressive Fire - the blaster can generate impressive-looking non-lethal blasts which will intimidate or suppress attackers and bystanders.

Now I'm not suggesting this should be replicated but it's kinda an interesting framework for powers.
 
In this "Mythos" all of the Great Old Ones are the last remnants of their races - the superbeings from their planets - some of them responsible for the deaths of their whole worlds and some of them just the last survivors. They've for the most part transcended normal morality (for example, human morality is for human beings, super morality is required for superbeings). They've learned to tap into the primordial energies of the universe (which the Mythos calls Azathoth and Yog Sothoth)

So, Earth, like all worlds, has superbeings. and ours are still emergent. But the Great Old Ones (Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, etc) are descending on Earth because of their greed for power and dominance. Our superhumans are like normal superheroes....except they can also learn to tap into the primordial forces (at a cost to their humanity - physically and mentally). Like Doctor Manhattan (and the Lloigor) superhumans lose touch with what it means to be human as they Transcend. And their bodies can twist and warp as they access the higher levels of power (explains the Hulk...)

I was thinking of two scales...essentially wound levels....physical and mental

VIGOUREGO
UnhurtHumane
HurtDetached
WoundedStrange
DyingAlien

And the option that a PC can take a EGO wound level rather than a VIGOUR wound level if they choose.
 
It hung in the air like spite, the flesh on its narrow frame writhed and rippled like an unseen predator skulked under the grey scabrous epidermis.

A single tentacle rose from its neck. Was it a neck? Was that it a head with that tri-lobed trapezoid eye? The tentacle swarmed through the electric air - and smaller tentacles separated and reached out hungrily for prey.

The ground between the thing and us was a garden of red wounds. A charnel pit of ruined bodies disassembled by those grasping tentacles. Hundreds died here and the air was metallic with their blood. Among those smashed skulls and gore were the empath twins, Hysteria and Happiness. I wondered how we would bury them.

It began to advance, the lidless eye balefully regarding us as it had regarded everyone we ever knew; as mere bags of blood and bone. We were not ready for it. The Captain was down, felled by his own petty insecurities. Lifeline was trying to resuscitate Thug and Kingfisher. There was only me and Moon Boy.

I reached into my pocket and grasped the Elder Sign. If we lost, no-one would know. There would be no-one left.

(art a deliberate re-imagining of Nyarlathotep I just had commissioned)
 

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I've decided to re-create something else I wrote in the other thread. About a seriously obscure comic book character. I'll change the names etc.

The subject is a black male, short cropped hair, maybe looks a little like Jonathan Majors. He's wearing a close fitting jumpsuit, dark coloured. He's athletically built, looks like he's agile and strong. On his chest is a scarlet V which forms part of the neckline of his jumpsuit. His left arm though, that's the main focus.

Starting with the shoulder, the jumpsuit is torn at the arm and shreds of it hang from the arm. The arm itself looks like it's grafted onto him. If he's standing there, the arm is easily twice the length of his right arm. The flesh on the arm is bumpy and yet muscular as the transformation was violent and healed too quickly. The elbow joint is overextended. His fingers too are elongated.

The arm was "injured" during a confrontation with the Cuckoos. These were a hive mind of psychically gifted children who could levitate. One of them trapped Vitesse (the heroes name) under a piece of rubble from the ceiling before he could reach the Cuckoo. Vitesse reached for the child to stop it from doing more but his arm wasn't long enough. He reached some more. The bone dislocated. He reached more. The skin and tendons strained and then snapped. His fingernails elongated as did his fingers, splitting the skin. Eventually he reached the Cuckoo who was so horrified by the transformation it fainted.

We helped get the rubble off Vitesse but now we are left with a superhero that... no-one wants to look at. His arm heals fast - remaking sinew, knitting flesh but it looks like there's no going back.


(An artist is working on it)
 
Part of the Magic section. No-prize for one of the thematic references.


Ancient Texts
Some ancient books may have secret occult knowledge that can be used to a magicians advantage. The contents of these books were not designed for human consumption and their penmanship was guided by the Old Ones. As a result, most of these books have a trap embodied in them. Upon reading the book, the trap is sprung - usually permitting the Old One access to the mind of the reader.

Each book will provide some benefit - this could be magical knowledge, legendary spells or expanded consciousness.

The People of the Monolith, by Justin Geoffrey

An obscure and slim Baudelairean volume penned just before the authors incarceration in a madhouse in 1926. The author, a well-travelled man, had documented the worship rites of an obscure sect in Eastern Europe. The deity it refers to is undoubtedly one of the Old Ones and talks about how the use of monoliths (or "stelae") can invite beings from other "worlds".

Contains:

Knowledge - the reader gains the location and name of a village in Hungary where the People of the Monolith were located. The village itself is deserted but outside are several broken stelae.

Open Bridge - the caster can open an Schwartzschild Bridge (actually a Morris-Thorne Wormhole) between two locations.

Place Stelae - the ritual for placing a minimum of three stelae to enable the forming of a dimensional chiasmata (the overlap of two dimensions).
 
And there are magical items...(small selection)


The Audience Pipe (the Pipe of Hastur)
This relic, carved from bone thousands of years ago, will render any notes played on it into a sorrowful yet fascinating melody. Listeners will stop what they are doing and follow the source of the sound. The music will attract all mammalian creatures, from rats to children and they will follow, until they collapse from exhaustion.

The Eye of Horus
A milky gemstone around twice the size of a human eye with no other markings. Possessing this eye does nothing but placing it into the eye socket of the recently deceased will animate the corpse. The reanimated corpse will be in shock, wounds unhealed, and will continue to decompose.

The Eye of Balor
This plain-looking rock is a weapon. It drains the life force from anyone in the vicinity, channelling it to the wielder - healing their wounds, replenishing their energy, and extending their life. Their victims start to sicken, their flesh taking on an unearthly hue.
 
So, here I am 60 pages into the content.

Carcosa, City of Soaring Towers

Carcosa itself is immense and ancient, it does not comply with Euclidean physics (meaning that sometimes when you approach a building, it gets smaller but the distance to it seems longer). Carcosa’s signature is dark towers set against a reddish-orange sky, with three black moons at their zenith.

There are almost no native inhabitants of Carcosa left, save for the poet-philosopher Hali (who may be a useful ally for anyone stuck in Carcosa). Hali was the favoured artist of the time and was bestowed with immortality by Hastur. He has not been driven mad by the experience because, in his own words, he was already there. Hali hates his master but at the same time craves approval. He will be jealous of anyone Hastur brings to Carcosa and will either try to help them return home or murder them, dumping their body in the lake beside his home on the outskirts of the city.

Hali appears as an old human wrapped in a black robe. Rather than arms, he has his feeding tentacles, each tipped with a tiny maw. He is mostly inoffensive unless in a rage and if killed will return to life within a few minutes.

The current inhabitants of Carcosa are drawn from all over the universe and beyond. Almost all of them will be in thrall to Hastur and his presence in their minds causes eventual disintegration of the self.

The only way to and from Carcosa is via Bridge or Dimensional Chiasmata as it exists outside of normal space-time. The latter will cause a manifestation of Carcosa on Earth where people and fauna will find themselves drawn to the place. The longer anyone spends in Carcosa, the more they will begin to like the place - after a day there, the individual will be rapt with tales of the gleaming towers and fine art and high conversation. To everyone else Carcosa is deserted and forbidding
 
Alien Bestiary

"Let this remind you, why you once feared the Dark"
Prince Nuada, Hellboy II: The Golden Army


Metaplasm Colony

There is no known culture or species for the shapeshifting organic nightmare identified as a metaplasm colony. This creature has no known original form, spending all of its time in the shapes of others and able to shape shift parts of its mass into anything it has previously encountered. Metaplasm Colonies are highly contagious, able to infect a new host with moments of flesh contact (though some Exotics are automatically immune).

The Metaplasm Colony can create tentacles, teeth, claws and other appendages rapidly from assimilated flesh and will grow legs in moments if it needs to escape. It can, with time, fit through almost any space as it digests bone and reforms body parts.

The Metaplasm Colony attempts to grow because with sufficient biomass, it gains significant intelligence. Smaller offshoots of the creature retain only rudimentary intelligence and animal cunning.

A Metaplasm infestation in a populated area on Earth would be cataclysmic as the infection would run rampant.
 
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Still working on this.
 
One of the challenges of putting together a system is definitely how to deal with Batman and Superman in the same scale.

For reference; I have no intention of forcing the system to cater for both with any set of balance. But here is my Nyarlat sample character,

Fight. 7
Shoot. 7
Move. 5
Think. 5
Detect. 7
Will. 12

PRIME Intellect
PRIME Resistance
PRIME Might
MINOR Flight
PRIME Growth
EPIC Immortality
EPIC Survival
EPIC Magic - Magic Reserve 10 including access to all Legendary Spells
EPIC Plasticity
PRIME Regeneration
PRIME Shapeshift
 
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