The Judges of Tehom

This is a Setting in progress by RPGnet user Nick the Nevermet.

A Brief Introduction to the Game Setting

The Judges of Tehom is a setting where superheroic celebrity-aristocrats rule city states on a a failed terraform colony. Abandoned by the interstellar civilization known as The Garden trying to settle it, and the failed terraforming has led to superhumans and monsters that occasionally attack humanity. Heroes, often called (among other things) "Archons" or "The Few" will either use their public personas for public and personal benefit, or become consumed by fame and conflict. These city states have more or less at contemporary technological levels (plus occasional superscience). This setting is one point on the timeline of Tehom, and the most developed. A second setting setting is much more Kirby & Starlin style space-supers, where the rest of the solar system has been settled by humanity and its superhuman leaders. A third possible setting is based in the dark days soon after the colony's abandonment by The Garden.

Welcome to Tehom

Full Article: The World of Tehom

Tehom is an planet hospitable to human life with an average temperature slightly colder than Earth that is dominated by large oceans (roughly 87% of the surface is covered by water). The majority of dry land can be found in a large equatorial archipelago called the Set Islands.

The human population of Tehom is heavily concentrated in large mega-cities called “cosmopoli.” Generally, each cosmopolis is an autonomous political entity that controls several less populated nearby islands that are used for agricultural production and other natural resources. The Course is the name of the most populated, and prosperous region of the Set. Human society on Tehom is highly industrialized and developed, and a vast information network links the cosmopoli together, ensuring a highly integrated culture. Even the Duidainian Anarchy (The Duidainian Commune) is easily identified as Tehomin in style and culture.

The Archons and Tehomin Kleocracy

Full Articles: Archons, Kleocracy

The cosmopoli of Tehom are dominated by Archons – superhumans with powers and abilities that are often fantastic in their scope. These powers may be something they were born with, developed later in life during a stressful event, the product of scientific experiments, or based on super-scientific items in the individual’s possession. Powers are exceedingly diverse, and many seem to defy the laws of science as understood by mortal humans. Technically, only Archons with an official position of some kind is an Archon, but the term is used to denote any superhuman. A more appropriate term (at least according to those who appreciate pedantry) is "The Few."

Tehomin society revolves around the lives and struggles of the Archons. Partisans support specific Archons. Daily streamcasts document the latest public and personal activities of Archons. Popular Archons inspire the public, and the people live in fear of notorious Archons. In a very real (if flawed) sense, social order is created and maintained by the many watching the few. The spectacle of the Archons binds society together.

History

Full Article: History of Tehom

We are the descendants of a planetary colony created by The Garden, an interstellar empire that came to Tehom to terraform it. The Garden failed in its efforts: The climate of the planet destabilized, undetected alien life awoke, and disease engulfed the human population. The Garden quarantined the entire star system, abandoning the colony to its fate. Death and ruin were commonplace. Then a miracle happened: meta-humanity emerged. There is no record of superhuman traits within the Garden, but soon after Tehom was abandoned a small segment of the population began to exhibit abilities and powers beyond what humanity was capable of. The greatest of them created the Stormward Council. A handful of colony centers survived thanks to luminaries such William Goodguide, Sunbringer, and Dimday Dragoon.

That was generations ago. Since then, the cosmpoli have been built and the Set has been tamed.

Current Challenges and Obstacles

The world of Tehom is full of many threats that require the attention of Archons.

The Other Archons

Cosmopoli rarely go to war in a conventional sense. The expenditure of resources is too great, and the memory of the Waste Rebellion is deep. Instead, disputes are handled by Archons, diplomatically at first, and then in personal combat. While the collateral damage of two sets of Archons fighting can be dramatic, it pales to what a modern military could do. Of course, not all conflicts between Archons are affairs of state. Some conflicts between Archons are at their core personal matters. When one has developed a celebrity-aristrocracy around the lifestyles of the superhumanly powerful, many things can become the cause of conflicts. Romantic entanglements and personal insults have lead to more than one popular Archon match vidcast. Finally, Some Archons only have the name because they have power. These villains (sometimes called Petalans or the Banned) either sell their services as mercenaries, or commit piracy and banditry on outlying areas.

The Duidainian Anarchy

Full Article: Key Tehomin Polities The single largest landmass on Tehom is the island of Duidain. It was large enough to sustain three independent and very powerful cosmopoli. Eventually, these three polities went to war, destroying their economies and the island in the process. In an act that shocked the rest of Tehom, the citizens of Duidain rose up and overthrew the Archons, creating the Duidainian Anarchy (literally “Rule of no Anarchs”) in what has become known as the Waste Rebellion. Other Archons would have moved in to reestablish order if it wasn’t for the Anarchists acquiring control of a cosmopoli’s nuclear arsenal very quickly and publicly. Now , the Anarchy (they refer to themselves as the Duidainian Commune) is officially cutoff from the rest of the world, with few cosmopoli willing to recognize it as a sovereign state. It has rebuilt itself without the help of the Set, and one only wonders what they plan next.

Hadalians and the Monster Tide

When humanity came to Tehom, it was a frozen world and humanity was unaware what slept beneath the ice. As the terraforming proceeded, a dormant ecosystem came to life, and generally the indigenous life was actively hostile to humanity and its ecosystem. Today, most surface life is terrestrial (or at least compatible with terrestrial life). This is especially true within the environs of the Set. As one moves toward the poles, or into open waters, or goes toward the abyssal plains under water however, life becomes alien very quickly. Many of these lifeforms are antithetical to terrestrial life. Many are dangerous and hostile. This other, pre-human ecosystem has become known as “Hadalian”.

A “monster tide” is when Hadalian organisms attack a human outpost, such as a mining rig. Sometimes, like the Urchin Tide, Hadalians attack a cosmopolis. The word “attack” is used because while some incidents appear random, others are very much planned. On occasion, a monster tide will take the form of a Leviathan, a gigantic creature, often a unique mutation, going on a rampage. Many Archons watch the sea, waiting for the next monster tide.

The Mad Legion

The Mad Legion are a boogeyman that keeps many an citizen and Archon awake at night. As some of humanity was uplifted into becoming Archons, society was increasingly plagues by monsters that would seemingly appear out of nowhere. Sometimes they would immediately begin to rampage through an area, other times they would lurk and slowly terrorize the population.

Key Tehomin Polities

• Eiren Bay is a relatively open democratic cosmopoli where there is a shared governance model between Baselines and Archons. While there are many legal protections in place for human rights, Archons are in practice the political and economic elite who dominate the function of government and Eirenian business ventures. However, as baselines can rise to levels of prominence, it is sometimes seen as one of the more open societies within the Set.

• Patience was originally known as Hazor when it was founded and ruled by Warmaster Molyvdos, an extremely powerful Archon and demogogue. He now rests in a cryogenic vault as a supercomputer slowly removes a radioactive nano-toxin from his genetic code. Maintaining this chamber has almost bankrupted Patience several times, but Molyvdos is venerated to the point of religious worship by the citizenry. No Archons are ever born to the people of Patience, and the have an active policy of hiring mercenaries and "converting" Archons to their cause. Patience is views the day of Molyvdos' renewal as an eschatological event that will usher in a new age.

• Pinnacle is one of the most stable and it has one of the longest continuous regimes of any Tehomin Cosmopolis. Pinnacle is ruled by an aristocracy of Lineages or Mutant families obsessed with understanding the genetics of their superpowers. Their genetic knowledge and biotechnology, both in regular human technology and cryptotechnology, is unsurpassed. The Startree Index is a listing of the genetic markers for the Linneages of Pinnacle, and anyone who has any of those markers (including baselines humans) are afforded special legal rights. Additionally, Pinnacle's law distinguishes between "Startree Archons" (Archons with the markers), "Sundered Archons" (Archons without the markers of their genetic aristocracy), "The Rooted" (Startree Archons who belong to the aristocracy), and "The Strewn" (Archons with the Markers that are foreigners).

• Srimec City is also the headquarters of Srimec Technologies, a transnational corporation specializing in advanced robotic technologies. Citizens of Srimec are referred to as shareholders, and their legal rights increase depending on the amount and type of Srimec stock they own. Srimec is run by the Imparted, individuals who have undergone an extensive cyborg transformation. These individuals volunteer for the process, and they are selected as the elite of their society. Srimec law makes relatively few distinctions between non-Imparted Archons and baselines, a fact that irritates some Archons.

Additional Commentary

Some setting notes are in order:

• The PCs are connected to a location, a group, or an institution. In classic legends, the king of one city is a great hunter, the princess of another is a sorceress, and a baron two kingdoms over is unbeatable in single combat.
• In-setting, the PCs are "Archons" and they have been chosen to wield immense power, and they will decide what to defend, what to exploit, and what to disavow.

Superhero Metaphysics

• The lives of Archons, beyond any specific powers, are different from the lives of mortal humans in that fate twists around in odd ways around them. Some individuals in setting are aware of this metaphysical oddity, and have spent a great deal of time and energy studying it.
• This metaphysical effect has many consequences beyond the biographies of Archons. Certain cities have improbable weather patterns, some sea lanes are calm whereas others become stormy as soon as a ship comes close. This metaphysical twist seems to primarily work on environmental parameters.
• Those who spend time studying this actively debate the cause of the effect. For some, it is a purely accidental force that aggregates psychic energy, focusing on commonly thought about topics (celebrities, weather, war, etc.). For others, it is a conscious mind actively moving humanity toward some state of affairs for its own reasons.
• Superscience is quite literally beyond the understanding of mortals - it does not make sense and it looks like it should break the known laws of physics... and yet it works. If someone crosses the threashold into understanding superscience, they're now an Archon and subject to all the Weird Fates that may entail.
• Regardless of an Archon's origin (i.e., mutant/altered/trained/etc), the offspring of Archons are substantially more likely to be mutants. While Eiren Bay uses the term "Mutant", many of the more aristocratic cosmopoli uses other terms like "Lineage" to denote the fact that Archons become hereditary rulers of many polities.

Celebrity-aristocrats of high tech city states

• The world of Tehom is one of sovereign city-states (called cosmopoli) built within the archipelago of a vast ocean, and the Archons are the center of not just the political system, but a public sphere dominated by social and mass media. Adoring fans follow the every move of the Archons, and this fixation is woven into the political structure of the cities as well. Because of this, the political system of the cosmopoli is often called "Kleocracy", or "Rule by the Glorious".
• This is a world where power (political, economic, military/violence) is extremely personal. At the same time, these personalities often sit on top vast bureaucracies (major corporations, governments, etc.), and these bureaucracies are charged with the task of managing the social order themed by Archon personality. This is not always an easy task, and there is an entire subgroup of Archons who have exchanged fame for technocratic mastery. Ironically, the technocrats are often some of Archons most sympathetic to mortal humanity, and do not live apart from them as much.

Personal and Public Good

• In a perfect world, heroes are exemplars of what a society holds as good and admirable, heroes are rewarded for this, and everything fits together in glorious harmony. Tehom, however, is not a perfect world, and that creates several lines of tension.
  • What does the perfect world look like, and what is you character going to do to make the world (s)he lives in look a little more like that perfect world?
  • Even before we get to championed warfare, being a superhumanly public persona can be an exhausting task. How much will your character selflessly give? What will they try to bracket as being "off limits" and private? Also, your character is a HERO, and arguably deserves some compensation for being so. How does (s)he go about ensuring they get their just reward, and how are they defining that?

Mode

This game will be primarily "epic": a sweeping tale of heroism, against a backdrop of great historical events

Tone

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.

Campaigns

• Defenders of Eiren is a campaign set in the democratic free city of Eiren Bay and follows the exploits of the city's heroes.