Judges of Tehom: Thematic Essays

Judges of Tehom is a setting where superhuman celebrity-aristocrats use their public personas for public or personal benefit, and they may be consumed by fame and conflict. These superhumans are called the Few, a generic term for people with superhuman abilities. They rule independent city states in a type of neo-feudalism they call kleocracy, or “rule of the glorious.” Distinct from the Few are the Many, or baseline humanity. The vast majority of the population, the Many simply go about their lives, though they occasionally experience awe, wonder, and terror from the actions of the Few.

What the World is Not: The Silver Age

Stan Lee's famous phrase, "With great power comes great responsibility" is a wonderful summary of the ideal most supherheroes in comic books. Some characters seek powers, some are born with it, and some have it thrust upon them by a twist of fate. However the real question, as Lee observed, is what does a character do with that power? Heroes are responsible and use their powers to defend good, to help society maintain itself. The genius of this mantra is that it demands that heroes must, by definition, subordinate themselves and their desires to the needs of society. Spiderman has a responsibility to help his fellow man, as do all other true superheroes in Marvel. The farther one goes into the realm of being an antihero first and then a villain, the more one is necessarily irresponsible. Such characters reject the idea they have a duty to society as they pursue hedonism, political agendas, selfish financial gain, or anything else. The point is that if you aren't using your powers responsibly for the good of others, you're doing it wrong. No matter how powerful a character is, he or she is still nevertheless a human being, and human beings have a responsibility to one another, at least on the level of promoting justice in one another's lives. If you have unique opportunities to promote justice (possibly because you can benchpress an SUV), you have a duty to use it to do so or (possibly) not use it at all.

Lee's maxim is foreign to Tehom. The Few are explicitly not human beings just like everybody else. For reasons beyond our understanding and/or dumb luck, they have been set above mere humanity. The Few of Tehom would recoil at the implied obligations and egalitarianism embedded in Lee's Maxim. Where the Few go, the Many follow. Yes, the Few have developed a culture of noblesse oblige that one could see as fitting the letter of Lee's Maxim

Tehom is a world defined by superhumans, but the metaphysics of the world works differently than, say, DC or Marvel. In those settings full of superhumans,

The Judges of Tehom is not an expression of the famous maxim of Marvel’s Stan Lee: “With great power comes great responsibility.” Instead the question becomes this:

Set above humanity with great power, what will you struggle to achieve, and what will you sacrifice?

There are three things in this question:

• Above humanity. Your character is one of the Few, a “superhero.” They are not, by definition, a normal person. They are different, exalted, and capable of things the Many can only dream of doing. Because of this, the world turns to you for leadership, even if the world does not want to, and even if you do not wish it. How will your character handle this?

• What will you struggle to achieve? What does your character fight for? Personal wealth? Fame? Revenge? Or perhaps your character is a patriot, or devoutly religious. You have immense power, which begs the question of what you will use that power in the name of.

• What will you sacrifice? Is your character willing to risk their life? Their reputation? Or perhaps they are willing to let innocents die in the name if their cause. What about family? Or perhaps your character is comfortable having a life that is more private and possibly safer than one could have while trying to reshape the world?

What the World is Not: Grimdark

"Grimdark" can mean several things. For the purposes of this essay, a setting is "grimdark" to the degree if it focuses on the following:

• The setting has a high, constant level of violence. This violence often threatens a large section of the population, and often takes the form of outright war. Either way, the constant violence creates a destabilizing pressure on the social order.
• A color palette that focuses on dark, muted colors. The world is drab, in addition to being violent.
• It is a fatalist and pessimistic world where there is nothing to believe in beyond one's own immediate self interest, and possibly the wellbeing of a loved one.

None of this is an accurate description of Tehom:

• Tehom is a world where humanity is defined its heroic struggle to survive after its abandonment by the Garden. Against all odds, it has not only survived, but has begun to thrive. This is not a pessimistic world, but an optimistic one where the population looks to its heroes and leaders, the Few.
• The generations of fast growth have created a general "newness" to the city states of Tehom which is reinforced by the Few's interest in creating beautiful agoras at the center of their cities as a form of cultural competition. For most of humanity, this is a world of bright lights, shining metal, and new concrete. The wilderness is likewise a place of terrible and awe-inspiring beauty: a world of alien seas lie beyond human controlled cities.
• Tehom is not a world of war as we understand it. There is violence, yes, but not war. True, there are occasional attacks by Hadlians, and occasional fluid conflicts with other cosmopoli, but the defining form of violence is archonic war: the contained, ritualized duel between champions of competing city-states. In stark contrast to the destabilizing consequences of constant warfare, archonic duels have been fully incorporated into the structure of society, culture, politics, and the economy. It is a known quantity, and it is even celebrated by adoring partisans who follow their favorite champions in online chatrooms, fueled by rumors fed to them by a paparazzi. (At no point should one expect Tehom to be "good", simply not "grimdark".)

Tehom & Classical Analogs

Think of the legends and myths from Ancient Greece. In these stories, great cities were rules by greater leaders, leaders who were capable of feats beyond that of normal men and women. These were heroes in the sense that they pinnacles of excellence, though their actual moral standing was highly variable. Now imagine what a world would be like if those ancient Greek cities had a technological level just beyond our own. Hector defending the industrial power Troy against Agamemnon’s battleships and aircraft. A live news feed documents Bellerophon killing Chimera. Fans of Hercules argue in chat rooms about which feat was the best. A documentary claims to expose who really killed the Calydonian boar. This is Tehom. As a setting, it is primarily "epic": a sweeping tale of heroism (by at least the Greek definition), against a backdrop of great historical events.

Examples from media

The tone of this setting can be found in several media references:

• Politics is extremely centered on the personal lives of the Archons that dominate most Cosmopoli. To think in these terms, there are several examples in TV and film we can turn to:
  • The modern adaptations of Shakespeare are a good place to start. Anthony Hopkins' "Titus," Ralph Fiennes' "Coriolanus," and Ian McKellan's "Richard III" are all about the fates modern (or relatively modern) nations resting on the relationships and whims of a small number of people. Give Coriolanus super-powers, and you have a situation one could easily find on Tehom.
  • There was a short-lived TV show on NBC in 2009 entitled "Kings," which starred Ian McShane as a modern day King Saul ruling a monarchy and dealing with David, Samuel, and divine intervention. It is a dark and complicated show, but deserving of more praise than it received. The world of Kings is a clean and modern world completely comfortable with absolute monarchies. Again, this fits the world of Tehom very well.
• Regarding comic book sources, the possible sources are varied.
  • Power level, we are talking about Civil War - era Marvel Universe.
  • In terms of the relationship between supers & the public, the very beginning of Kingdom Come captures the sense of fascination and celebrity the Archons enjoy.
  • Alan Moore's famous never done project Twilight of the Superheroes, where different heroes (the Batman-related, the Marvels, etc) controlled different polities. This is very much the political reality of much of Tehom.
• While mostly set on a single planet, the tone of the game borrows heavily from the "Cosmic Opera" style created by people such as Jim Starlin, Kieth Giffen, and especially Jack Kirby. Godlings controlling a wonderous world where the difference between technology and magic is razor thin, if extant at all.
• Regarding other roleplaying games, “Aberrant” by White Wolf in the 1990s is relevant in that it is about superhumans who are not defined as crimefighters, and who have immense amounts of celebrity. However, while Aberrant is grounded on the question of how different the Novas are from humanity (or how different they should be or will be), The Judges of Tehom begins with an a priori assumption: The Few are different from the Many. The core question is what are the consequences of this distinction.