The Judges of Tehom

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

A Brief Introduction to the Game Setting

Judges of Tehom is a setting where superhuman celebrity-aristocrats either use their public personas for public and personal benefit or they are consumed by fame and conflict. They rule independent city states that have more or less contemporary technological levels (plus occasional superscience).

Welcome to Tehom

Full Article: The World of Tehom

Tehom is a 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. An interstellar civilization known as The Garden tried to colonize it, but abandoned the attempt (and the colony) after the terraforming process partially failed.

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 the Few – superhumans with powers and abilities 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. When one of the Few has a leadership position, he or she is known as an Archon, though many use the terms "Archon" and "the Few" interchangeable.

Kleocracy

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. This social order grounded in fascination in the Few is called kleocracy, the rule of the glorious. In ancient Greece, kleos was glory or recognized heroism. Acts of kleos inspired awe among the spectators, as if they were watching the divine enter the world. The Archons embody this. To watch Pillar lift a building to save a hundred people, or witness the Swamp Prophet drown his enemies in a wave of doom algae, fills one with awe. This is kleos.

First and foremost, kleocracy is a form of neo-feudalism, and it involves the following characteristics:

  • Synopticonism: A synopticon is an arrangement of society that creates order from the Many watching the Few. The social structure of Tehomin society is grounded in a ubiquitous system of mass and social media, a highly interconnected society where everyone talks about the celebrity aristocrats who are the Archons and other members of the Few.
  • Personal rather than official authority: In a formalized or bureaucratic organization, a large amount of authority is held by the office of the leader. Various positions have standardized, official responsibilities and available methods. Neo-feudalism attaches less resources and obligations to official positions, focusing more instead of the personal characteristics and resources of the individuals in power.
  • Patrimonialism: The Few have authority and use it to care for the Many. This is noblesse oblige, when it occurs as claimed. When it does not, the potential for exploitation and authoritarianism is great.
  • Adhocracy: Central authorities in neofeudalism do not have perfect and direct control of lower authorities, and the situation is not perfectly stable. Instead, there is a decentralized model with temporary task forces and projects designed to respond quickly to various technological, political, or economic situations. These various projects and joint ventures have a tenuous relationship to one another, and conflicts may erupt between them. Supporters of neofeudalism believe this increase in conflict can be managed in the name of high degrees of flexibility. A central authority attempts to balance and manage this diverse set of projects.
  • Archon & Technocrat: Archons are grand personalities with various forms of personal resources and capabilities. There is no guarantee, however, they will have the necessary training for any given assignment. Beneath the elite network of personal relationships, one finds a vast array of high trained if mundane specialists. These technocrats are to work to put the vision of the Archons in practice. A creative tension constantly exists between the Archons and the technocrats. Young Archons who do not listen to the voice of Technocrats find themselves in impossible situations, and experienced technocrats who forget their betters find themselves in dangerous ones.
  • Cosmopolism: Tehomin society is an urban one: resources are extracted from the environment (agriculture, raw materials) and sent to maintain dense population centers. Generally peaking, each Tehomin polity is based on a primary urban center, called a cosmopolis. Very few people willingly live in the country, away from people, away from the Few. Dark things can happen away from the City - things that can only be understood by some of the Few.
  • Monumentality: For an Archon, one's glory is reflected in one's cosmopolis. The leaders of cosmopoli take great pride in various public works to demonstrate their prosperity. Cities almost always have a core downtown that is developed, safe, and aesthetically pleasing (at least according to the ruling Archon's tastes). When this norm of governance is functional, it means that the Archons "give back" to the Many by ensuring a maintained infrastructure, cultural opportunities, and economic development. When it is not functional, Archons risk bankrupting the cosmopolis in the name of vanity projects.
  • The Three Spheres: Kleocracy conceives of society in terms of three overlapping spheres of life.
    • The Common Sphere is the mundane realm of day to day life and the Many. The Common Sphere is the domestic, the personal, and what keeps society running. The Few, simply because they are the center of the synopticon, do not have unfettered access to the Common Sphere.
    • The Official Sphere is the realm of both business and government, though Tehomin society doesn't distinguish between the two as thoroughly as people in our society do. An Archon runs an organization that helps maintain the peace, or mines a rare metal ore, or studies science. Some of these projects are more directly tied to taxation as a form of finance, some toward sale of products, many to both. Because of the fluidity of the adhocratic element of kleocracy, Archons often have dual roles. The idea of a conflict of interest is not fully present in Tehomin society; it is perfectly reasonable for someone who organize economicpolicy for a cosmopolis and also run one of its primary industries. However, Tehomin society has a very clear idea of running things poorly: there is no glory in running one's business or a cosmopolis' economy into the ground either for bland personal gain or out of incompetence.
    • The Civil Sphere A healthy cosmopolis requires community, and community requires festivals, entertainment, culture, and the arts. Many Archons use their power to create community organizations. Some are religious in nature, some secular. It is the civil sphere where the synopticon is at its most dramatic and powerful.
  • Archonic War: Total and nuclear war is terribly wasteful, and kleocracy tries to avoid such unpleasantries at all costs. When diplomacy fails (and it often does), wars are waged by Archons, not armies. More minor conflicts, called Static Struggles, are highly ritualized and are rarely lethal. Fluid Struggles, on the other hand, are high stakes and often with very few laws except the most basic codes of honor. When Pillar and The Render destroyed 3 square kilometers of Pinnacle's agora, it was a fluid struggle between Pinnacle and Thaimbase.

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

  • The Buttonwood Triarchy is a former colony of Pinnacle governed by three rulers: Triarch of Blood is a hereditary title from a lineage family, the Triarch of Dolphins is always a practitioner of the mystical and cosmic arts selected through a magical ritual, and the Triarch of The Visible is a cryptotechnician of some kind elected by the other cryptotech Few of the Triarch.
  • Caliban Arcology is a new cosmopolis commissioned by a set of Archons known as the Council of the Reef, lead by Marcus Steelcrow. The Caliban Arcology is the most ambitious mining effort on Tehom, a city-sized mining rig just off the coast of the Winged Islands. Constantly under attack from Deep Monsters, the Caliban Arcology is designed as a gigantic fortress to be defended against any assault. To date, it is a venture that has more or less broken even, with the massive wealth it generates from rare earths and metals being spent almost completely on its maintenance and defense. Time will tell if it can be maintained.
  • The Duidainian Anarchy is a republic of baseline humans actively hostile to the Few, Archons, and Kleocracy. During a brutal war between three cosmopoli sharing the same land mass, living conditions became so untenable that a civil war started and spread to all three, with the humanity eventually overthrowing the Archons of all three city-states. It now wages a propaganda war outside its borders against the tyranny of all Archons, and lives in a state of perpetual fear of an Archon invasion to reinstall a kleocratic regime. In addition to their media savvy in their propaganda war, their military has devised various Archon detection systems, and they are rumored to be working on a power-suppression system of some kind.
  • 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. Eiren Bay has risen to prominence as the seat of The Kairos Covenant, a diplomatic agreement between several Cosmopoli that works to minimize the amount of violent and destabilizing conflicts on Tehom. In Earth terms, it is somewhere between United Nations, with its interest in diplomatic solutions to conflicts, and NATO, to help defend the peace of member cosmopoli from other non-covenanting cosmopoli.
  • 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 they 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. The biography of Molyvos is a complicated one, portraying a brilliant yet heartless ruler who brought both peace and carnage to his area of the Set.
  • 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). The energy manipulating members of the House of Arc are currently dominant, with three of the last five Doges (appointed head of state) coming from its ranks. However, the House of Rend, their major ally full of bestial-appearing mutants, has been increasingly unhappy with their role in the Senate.
  • The Retenu Chain is a chain of islands toward the periphery of the Set. While its waters hold an extremely rich and fertile amount of aquatic life, the islands themselves are relatively desolate. The consequece of this is that Retenu is one of the least urbanized polities in the Set. The Retenuans life revolves around Sorts, networks of families and business partners. Archons on Retenu are called Judges, and are selected by Sorts through a variety of methods. In times of war, the Sorts may select a supreme Judge to be the Admiral of the Chain, though this is rare. The Retenuans practice a variant of the Seven Winds faith tradition, where the oceanic world mind of Tehom is held to be an essentially malevolent force that must be held at bay or placated. The more traditionalist Retenuans know many rituals for supposedly calming the sea and banishing storms. If these Retuans are mystics, the spells sometimes even work.
  • Saltmerche Citadel On the edge of the Set Islands, there is a region called the Elder Green, a saltmarsh with a great deal of hybridized Terran and indigenous Tehomin life. It is a strange place, and it is one of the consistently "magical" areas humans know of on Tehom. The economy of the Citadel is dependent on the unique life within the Elder Green. A baseline human regent rules the citadel, aided by the Reeves, a group of (relatively low-power) magic-oriented archons. The true power, however, lies in the hands of a Mirk the Swamp Prophet, a powerful sorcerer-priest who lives in a monastery within the Elder Green, and Karka the Keeper, an inhuman-looking combatant that resides in the wilds between the Citadel and the monastery.
  • 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. The Current High Executive has been in her position for well over a normal human lifespan, and some are worrying that her wisdom is becoming outdated.
  • Thaimbase, was known until recently as Deltaport until a hulking Archon named Risha Thaim lead a coup, exiling and executing many of the native Archons. With the support of his Metamen, Lord General Risha has centralized his power and his neighbors live in fear of his next move.

Key Archons and Members of the Few

  • Cynosure Star is the media darling of media darlings. Impossibly good looking and charismatic, Cynosure Star's fame has become self-perpetuating, outpacing the relatively modest plasma field manipulation powerset Star wields. Cynosure Star has become a popular "talking head" on Archon-matters, and rarely if ever bothers with things like battles or ruling anything.
  • D'vora, The High Executive is the Cyborg-in-Chief of Srimec. Its current form is a seemless silverly body draped in a toga. However, Dvora is also in constant contact with a fleet of gyrodrones, the Set Stock Exchange, and several other communication installations.
  • Gemdah the Assessor is the sole proprietor of Clarified Harvest Ventures, a company that specializes is assessing economic risk and calculating the costs and profits associated with exploiting various resources. On Tehom, such a position is less like an actuary and more like a freelance East India Company: for the right price, Gemdah's corporation will acquire trading and resource rights by any means necessary.
  • Karka the Keeper appears to be an extremely strong human covered in partially dry mud. He lives alone in the Elder Green, emerging for few reasons other than to defend Saltmerche Citadel. Karka rarely talks, and uses no weapons beyond his body.
  • Hero of a Thousand Faces is a master of impersonating others, including Archons, and primarily uses this ability for reenactments. His streamcast production of "The Rise and Fall of Molyvdos" was a gigantic hit, despite protests in Patience.
    • Originally conceived by SquidHeadJack
  • Ioun is a Banished Archon whose powers come from swarm of incredible strong crystals that constantly orbit him. He can use them to strike enemies at a distance, absorb incoming attacks, and other various uses.
  • The Maul of Comets is a famous mercenary. Rarely seen in social or relaxed setting, he is known for a calm, controlled professionalism until a battle begins, at which point his ferocity is unmatched. His reputation for collateral damage is equally legendary: Caliban Arcology cancelled his contract after he created a larger breach than the Tentacle Pentacle did.
  • Mirk the Swamp Prophet is a master of nature-based magicks and the defender of the Saltmerche Citadel. A recluse to leaves the day-to-day activity of the citadel to others, Mirk is very careful in selecting the leaders of the Citadel and testing them to examine the strength of their character.
  • Warmaster Molyvdos is a powerful Archon trapped in suspended animation as a massive computer complex attempts to cure his body of a nanotech smart-virus. The citizens of Patience expect that he will lead them into a golden age (no doubt at the expense of other cosmopoli) after he awakes. When active, Molyvdos had an array of density-control powers in addition to being a brillliant strategist and a fearsone combatant.
  • Pillar is an Archon within the Lion Guard, Pinnacle's primary defense force. A master grappler with gravity-based powers of strength and endurance, Pillar is also trained in the logistics of emergency response efforts. Whether it is a tsunami or an Archon battle, Pillar will often be found as an early responder.
  • Reck Reck is considered the most successful genetic enhancement experiment by Doctor Telos. Unfortunately, Reck is also considered an abomination. With hooked claws and a metabolism that ensures heightened strength and reflexes, Reck terrorized the slums of Eiren Bay for months before being caught.
  • Lord General Risha Thaime is a gigantic Archon who violently took control of Deltaport several years ago, renaming it Thaimbase. Violent, cruel, and surprisingly cunning, he has centralized his control over the cosmopolis.
  • Marcus Steelcrow is the Entrepreneurial Archon in charge of the Caliban Arcology, a massive, high stake / high reward mining operation and attached city. A normal child to a Lineage family, he returned to the Few after developing the Steelcrow Armor system. After a brief but illustrious career in the military, he went into the private sector and convinced investors to fund the creation of the Arcology. His colleagues have become the Council of the Reef, the lords of the Arcology.
  • Thunder Bolide is one of the Few, who was known for flawless integrity until he killed an opposing Archon and her entire entourage in a static duel (a highly ritualized combat between champions of different cosmopoli regarding intractable but non-critical disputes). Thunder has the ability to tap into the world's energy fields, resulting in flight, forcefields, and other effects. His name comes from his patented energy blasts which can either emanate from him or rain down on his enemies from the sky. He is a well known Nammanist (Tidling), and has on occasion discussed his beliefs regarding Tehom's world mind..
  • Void Tyrant
  • Uncle Vulture is a reclusive mystic that lives within the ruins of the Fallen Horn (originally known as High Spire), one of the cosmopoli that destroyed itself in the war that created the Dundainian Anarchy. Draped in vulture imagery and symbolism, Uncle Vulture can sense destruction and death, and his pursuits are less about the politics of Tehom and more its mystical landscape. His intentions are often inscrutable.

Glossary

  • Archon. An Archon is one of the superhuman Few who has a position of authority within a cosmopolis. The type of power or authority is not defined by the term Archon: one could be a military position, a governmental role, a magnate of a particular industry, or anything else. Many use the terms Archon and the Few interchangeably, though this is not technically correct.
  • Auxiliary. A mercenary or freelance member of the Few who is hired by a cosmopolis, a corporation, or an Archon. To be an Archon implies a general responsibility, while being an auxiliary suggests a narrow set of responsibilities and rewards.
  • The Banned. The banned are outlaw or renegade members of the Few that have no responsibilities for running a cosmopolis (Lord Genderal Risha may be widely considered evil, but he isn't banned). Some pillage for personal gain, some are motivated by vendettas, and some appear to just want to watch the world burn.
  • Cosmopolis. A Tehomin city-state. An independent political entity, a cosmopolis is a sprawling sustained by international trade, the powers of Archons, and the hinterland territories under its control. Cosmopoli, save for some key exceptions, are ruled by Archons.
  • The Course. The Course is a channel in the middle of the Set Islands that collectively form the most developed, prosperous, and populated area of the planet. From space, the Course looks like nothing by cities and sea.
  • Cryptotechnology. Super-science, the technology created and understood by the super-intelligent Few. Cryptotechnology is not merely more advanced than baseline Tehomin science; it is qualitatively different. Cryptotech always appears to the Many to be violating one or more natural laws of the universe (be it thermodynamics, gravity, or something else). While the Many can use many Cryptotech items, they can only be created and maintained by the Few with the correct skills or powers.
  • The Few. In-setting term for superheroes, individuals who have some degree of power that goes beyond normal humanity. The Few may be magical in nature, users of cryptotechnology super-science like powered armors, altered on a biological level by science (intentionally or accidentally), or they could be a heredity mutant and therefore part of a Lineage. Some members of the view do not even truly have super powers as such, but are rather exceptionally trained individuals. Different city-states think about the Few differently and organize their societies and legal codes accordingly.
  • Lineage. A lineage is a hereditary bloodline within the Few. In short, they are mutants who exhibit superhuman powers. Some cosmopoli, like Pinnacle, are actively run by lineages, while in others they are distrusted as being detached from the Many. Some forms of cryptotechnology exist that can identify lineages, and sometimes even suppress lineage-based powers.
  • The Many. Baseline humanity. The Many are the vast majority of the population, and they are "normal" humans. Due to the history of Tehom as a lost colony, the range of physical variation associated with different races is present, though society is not as explicitly organized around race and ethnicity as many societies on Earth. The main question is which cosmopolis is home.
  • The Set. The Set is gigantic archipelago near the equator of Tehom. The vast majority of habitable land is found among the Set Islands, and as a consequence, it is home to the vast majority of Tehom’s human population. The Set’s ecology is almost completely Terran in its character, though some precursor life remains around the edges. The deep oceans far from the shallow waters of the Set are a sourcve of mystery and dread for much of the population, and its dark abysses are havens for pre-terraform Tehomin life.

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 among "The Few" 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.