Compass Comic Heroes (Campaign Setting)



"In the last decade or so, the tendency at Marvel has been intensely conservative; comics like the X-MEN have gone from freewheeling, overdriven pop to cautious, dodgy retro. What was dynamic becomes static - dead characters always return, nothing that happens really matters ultimately. The stage is never cleared for new creations to develop and grow. The comic has turned inwards and gone septic like a toenail. The only people reading are fanboys who don't count. The X-MEN, for all it was Marvel's bestseller, had become a watchword for undiluted geekery before the movie gave us another electroshock jolt. And in the last decade, sales fell from millions to hundreds of thousands." - Grant Morrison, from "Morrison Manifesto," reprinted in New X-Men Vol. 1 (Marvel Comics, 2001) ==Synopsis ==

Super-Soldiers were created by the USA and Britain and plans were stolen and or given to most other traditional world powers rather quickly. This lead to post-WW2 history not too unlike our own. Then a rain of what appeared to be meteorites exploded across the sky. In the wake of this event supernatural entities began appearing and taking an interest in human affairs and normal humans began to develop strange mutations. This shifted the balance of power into the world's delicately balanced and heavily balkanized current state. Based on the classic comic universe created by DC and Marvel Comics, this setting looks at the classic idea of a world as we know it- but where 1 in 1000 people or so have powers. Unlike The Winter Sun Setting, this setting assumes that our civilization actually survives the emergence of super powered beings, although since the emergence of powers in the WW2 the borders has radically reshaped the modern world we have grown up knowing.

The stage is set and everything is balanced, as soon as anyone moves- everything starts to move with it.

Catalyst
Catalyst is two things, She is an ordinary woman transformed into one of the most powerful characters in the compass universe- arguably on the scale of a creator deity, and she is the cause of almost all of the superpowers to appear in the world since the day of Falling Fire. On the day of Falling Fire, the falling fire was in fact a series of devices from the future- specifically our future (as in the real world). These things were devices that would act in certain ways that our ancestors (now facing extinction because of the actions of the generations that lived in the 20th century) hoped would reverse their own imminent demise.

In order to control these devices properly, there needed to be a pilot, but since no living being could travel through time (time travel doesn't work that way), they sent back an artificial learning program that would assimilate and educate the nearest suitable human on how to save the world. That woman was Anya Brown- of Auckland New Zealand. Anya is a college student studying world history, and worrying about how to tell her parents that she's screwing a maori boy, and then the next minute he's dead, and she's being transformed by the alien looking meteor that is hovering above her. Anya is Jesus Christ, Meets Wonder Woman, Meets the Bionic Woman on Steroids. By the time the story starts, she has been in the game for decades, is not aging, and is one of the most confident and experienced heroes out there.

Morrow
The Day of Falling fire was a desperate attempt by future generations to alter the past and change their future status quo, but some people in the future are doing fine, and those barons and magnates don't want things to change and so they managed to have a counter balance sent back in the form of Morrow. Like Catalyst, Morrow is a normal human from our time who was transformed by future technology in a near godlike being.

In this case Desmond York of Britain is the chosen one. An aristocrat with little money and only his expansive pride to keep his life together, Desmond was chosen by the creators of Morrow because he is their ancestor. Think of Morrow as a calm and proud evil superman. Smart, but not nearly as smart as he thinks he is, Morrow's key mental advantage is his patience and poise. Far less easily provoked than most super villains, Morrow is careful and powerful and rarely rises to bait. Morrow has taken control of the City of York and some of the surrounding area and rules it as an independent nation with him as the supreme ruler and theological head of state- much like the Pope.

The Dragon King
The Dragon King is Doctor Doom meets Ra's Al-Ghul. He is an Arabic Magician who has been alive for centuries and is carefully plotting to remake the world so that things are better. He regularly overthrows nations and does things that Governments see as horrible, but he always raises the standard of living in the places he controls and doesn't allow the backlash to injure the people in the countries that he is overthrowing. He has the skin of a dragon and his face is humanoid reptilian. His skin is green and he dresses in golds and blacks. He has used alchemy and ritual over the years to make himself ageless and give himself the strength and toughness that his reptilian form provides. He is skilled with alchemy and herbal magic and ritual spells, but cannot cast incantations. All his magic takes time- days to prepare.

The Cassandra Theory
The Australian Authorities has recovered a piece of the nano-tech that fell during the Night of Falling Fire and managed to integrate it into a supercomputer. More accurately, the nano-machines took over the supercomputer when the computer tried to study them. The new machine then began to analyze the current year and political situation and attempt to see how close this timeline was to creating the Timeline from which it came. It has come to the conclusion that despite the introduction of the super-beings- humanity is still 69% likely to bring about the apocalyptic future that the computer comes from and 16% likely to wipe itself out entirely before then.

The Australian government dubs the computer Cassandra and delivers its information to the United Nations. They are met with a wide range of reactions. The US thinks that it can beat the odds. Canada makes the right noises but is stymied by its politics. Russia, China and India, insist that they cannot change what they are doing, because they need to modernize. The Arab world is suspicious of what they call "heathen technology". The Native Americans are not surprised. African Nations are mostly supportive in words, but expect the US and China to change, not them. Japan agrees and is doing its part. Dragon Island also agrees and says it will do its part.

The Salamander Device
The Superman-level Villain called Morrow has been around for a while, but this is his introduction. Morrow has managed to use his connection to the future to, with the help of scientists who work for him, create a bomb that he calls the Salamander. It works by using him (or any other nano-machine powered hero, such as Bright Start, Wolf Wintersun or Catalyst to set off a powerful chain reaction that will burn off organic life with a certain genetic profile for several thousand kilo-meters. This allows Morrow to kill off people who would give birth to potential problems that would change the status quo of the future. He builds twenty-six such devices and plans to set them off around the world at the same time.

Catalyst will try to confront Morrow directly and stop things at the source. At least some of the bombs should go off. The Consequences should be carefully considered in the stories as well. GMs should not be afraid to kill off whole genetic lines- because they all have a genetic profile close enough to a futuristic rebel or hero. This should be mean and nasty, and not all the 'good guys' will be allowed to succeed. GMs are also allowed to include new heroes that are killed by the bomb themselves, causing their friends to discover that how important their children would have been.

Morrow should be forced to retreat, and hold up in his kingdom. As a result he will be barred from the UN (this is ongoing for him) and most of the attacked nations declare war upon him. Lead directly into the next arc.

===The Tomorrow War ===

Morrow is a Superman-level power and has a tremendously strong army of minor god powered supernaturals at his side. This war is a background and a catalyst. GMs should keep it in mind as they write their stories, focusing on how these events will effect their characters and local governments, but should also feel free to write their own stories. The Tomorrow war will stalemate for years and many governments will draft enhanced-beings into the military in an attempt to bolster their forces. Whether the enhanced personnel comply with the draft is up to GMs.

The Dragon King, whose small island nation was targeting with no less than three bombs (thus capable of blanketing his island). Has not declared war on Morrow. He disarmed two of the three bombs- the third one killed 45% of the population within its radius, and is hard at work rebuilding the damaged structure of his nation. He has noted his enemy though and will have his revenge.

Geography
The world of Compas Comic Heroes is geographically very different than ours.

Here is a quick list of Nation Groups that exist in this world.


 * The Atlantic Commonwealth


 * Canada (Blue on map)


 * Great Britain & Scotland
 * Ireland
 * Sweden
 * Norway
 * Finland
 * France
 * Spain
 * Belgium
 * Morocco
 * Iceland
 * Greenland (independent of Denmark)
 * The European Union
 * Germany
 * Italy
 * Greece
 * Turkey
 * Denmark
 * Austria
 * Lithuania
 * Romania
 * Bosnia
 * The United World Alliance
 * The United States of America (Red on map)
 * The South American Protectorates
 * The Republic of Australia
 * New Zealand
 * Israel
 * The Indigenous-American Alliance
 * Mexico (Gold on map)
 * The Free Alliance of South America (Yellow of Map)
 * Brazil
 * Panama (Sky blue on map)
 * The Central American Contigency
 * The Lakota Nation
 * The Blackfoot Nation
 * Haida Gwai Nation
 * The Arabic High Council
 * The Palestinian Territories
 * Lebanon
 * The Egyptian Empire
 * Babylon
 * Saudi Arabia
 * Yemen
 * Kuwait
 * Iran
 * The Indian Confederacy
 * Hindu India
 * Pakistan
 * Independent Kashmir
 * Bangledesh
 * The Afghanistan Tribal Alliance
 * The Mongolian Nomadic Nation
 * The Northern Free Republic of China
 * The Eurasian Socialist Alliance
 * The United Socialist Soviet Republic
 * The Southern Communist Republic of China
 * The Southern Asian Communist Council
 * The People's Republic of Cuba
 * The Free Outback
 * The Red Fang Pack (Maroon on map)
 * The Green Collective (Forest Green on map)