Judges of Tehom: Thematic Essays

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 apart from humanity by great power, what will you struggle to achieve, and what will you sacrifice?

There are three things in this question:

• Apart from 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. 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?

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.