The world of magic
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The theories of professor Kiran Devi, aka Causality, are generally correct: Magic functions by allowing sentient minds to modify quantum effects by working through The psychic plane. The magician's mind, in effect, "borrows" from reality the cause of the effect he wishes to obtain; the cause flickers out of reality too quickly to be detected, but the effect remains.
Beyond the basic mechanics of magic, however, there lies a world not known to the general public:
There are, however, magic-wielders far more potent than any mortal sorcerer: The Abstracts, more commonly referred to as "gods".
Whenever sentient life appears in any given sector of the universe, the abstract concepts it thinks of quickly take a shape of their own within the psychic plane. These concepts develop their own mind, becoming the very incarnation of certain ideas. Being as they are literally made of magic, the gods possess immense magical prowess.
The range of these effect is inferior to a light-year, however, so every inhabited solar system tends to have its own gods, separate from those of any other system. In fact, Earth's gods were unaware of the existence of alien lifeforms until Tagton's arrival.
There are eight gods in mankind's world:
- Adeltom, god of heroism. Adeltom is the incarnation of courage, dedication, and selfless nobility. He tends to be protective of Twilian.
- Twilian, god of love. Twilian is the incarnation of all forms of affection, bet it romance, camaraderie, friendship, or maternal love. Twilian loves all beings, without exception.
- Kelpitan, god of civilization. Kelpitan is the incarnation of growth, development, and the creation of complex systems and societies. He generally considers Adeltom and Twilian to be allies.
- Xelevinus, god of order. Xelevinus is the incarnation of control, self-control, and unbending rules. Were it up to him, society would be completely static.
- Wirwil, god of chaos. Xelevinus's arch-nemesis, Wirwil is the incarnation of unending change. Were it up to him, anarchy would rule supreme.
- Paronak, god of fear. Paronak is the incarnation of terror, as well as the mastery over terror - both the ability to cause it and control it. He is generally seen as a foe by Adeltom.
- Astor, god of hate. Quite possibly the most evil being in the world, Astor hates everyone and everything with superhuman intensity - and more than anything else, he hates Twilian.
- Kotos, god of madness. Kotos has every form of insanity known to man, and can any of them on and off like a switch. In particular, he delights in megalomania, and has made it his goal to rule the world as a pantheon of one.
When magic was locked in Limbo, so were the gods themselves - for all their power, they could not act on the prime plane. Unlike everyone else in Limbo, though, they still retained the power to observe Earth. They did so for nearly a thousand years, until mutations began appearing. Fearing that the rising conflict between mutants and normal humans would bring ruin to the world, Adeltom decided to make an immense sacrifice in order to save the world: He would rebuild himself in a form different enough from magic to be ejected out of Limbo. Adeltom thus became The Avatar, a mere shadow of his godly self - but able to act on Earth again. The Avatar's divine nature is what allows him to accomplish the seemingly impossible.
The return of magic at the end of WWII was seen as a disaster by the Avatar: Sooner or later, it means that the gods themselves will return in their full glory. With the god of heroism rendered powerless in comparison, evil gods such as Astor and Kotos will now have the advantage - and that may very well spell the doom of mankind. In order to prepare for the coming apocalypse, the Avatar has been organizing a secret cadre designed to find a solution; this Arcane Alliance numbers dozens of members, including the Global Champions.
Plot seed: Pantheon Crisis
Another supernatural element known to few outside the Arcane Alliance is the existence of demons.
When a sentient being dies, its soul's final destination depends on the amount of love and hate in their mind. If there is more love, the soul ascends to the Upper Plane; its nature remains unclear, as nothing from the Upper Plane can enter any other plane (which hasn't stopped demons from claiming for millennia that the Upper Plane is oblivion. The complete lack of evidence for this belief has never slowed them down). If there is more hate, the soul descends into the plane known as Hell.
There is nothing inherently unpleasant about Hell - what makes it such a terrible place is the company of billions of hateful souls. Hell has its own social hierarchy - most souls are simply known as "the damned", those promoted as overseers and taskmasters are "demons", officers among demons are "Hell barons", and the leaders of the Hell barons are the "demon princes".
For thousands of years, the demon princes answered to Asmodeus, the King of Hell. A charismatic and competent demon, Asmodeus created and shaped Hell's society over many centuries, refining it into a tool for the indoctrination of new damned and corruption of the world. Actually manifesting on the prime plane require far too much energy for it to be a common tactic of Hell; however, subtle telepathic contact with humans is both possible and common. Demons cannot actually control human minds (barring exceptional circumstances), but they can usually read surface thoughts (making them very well-informed) and make suggestions.
About a millennium ago, Asmodeus came in contact with Nollius, who was at the time a cruel, ambitious, scheming archmage and statesman of Avalon. Asmodeus offered the elf a terrible deal: To buy his soul in exchange for power. In practice, it would mean that Nollius would allow his mind to be rewritten by Asmodeus, and given a connection to Hell's energies that would greatly boost his magical power. Nollius accepted; Asmodeus removed what little good was left in his soul, and made him the single most powerful wizard in Earth's History.
Asmodeus's plan was to have Nollius - now the single most evil mortal on Earth - establish an oppressive empire that would span the planet. The plan failed when Avalon's population, rather than allow Nollius to go forth and conquer, proceeded to cast magic into Limbo. Even so, Asmodeus was able to put a positive spin on those events, presenting himself to his fellow demons as the mastermind who had cut humans off magic.
In recent decades, a Hell baron who had so far seemed unremarkable hatched an ambitious plan of his own: Sensing immense potential in professor Michael Hart, he contacted him in a moment of weakness following the death of his wife, and offered to erase the grief in exchange for Hart's soul. The scientist accepted, and the demon turned him into the power-hungry Professor Cryo. The same demon then helped him find and contact other villains, culmination in the conquest of Pittsburgh and the creation of the Cryosphere. For his accomplishment, the demon - who took the moniker "Wormwood" - was made a demon prince, and assigned the Cryosphere as his area of influence.
Whereas most demons attempt to make a show of their abilities and skill in the hope of earning promotions, Wormwood specialized in getting everyone to underestimate him. This led Asmodeus to treat him as an adviser of sorts - not because the King of Hell trusted him, but because he believed he could easily see through the young demon prince. Asmodeus would pay dearly for this mistake.
When the Cryosphere acquired inter-universal portal technology, Wormwood was quick to find an opportunity: Among the villains brought from other worlds, there was a cult of demon-worshipers; the cultists had perfected a ritual through which a demon could form a Hell-powered avatar on Earth. Wormwood co-opted the cultists, began making plans for striking at mankind...and made sure that Asmodeus's spies would discover those plans. The King of Hell stepped in, co-opted the cultists himself, and organized a massive ritual through which he channeled Hell's energies in the prime plane, become the Man of Might. His goal was to destroy the world's superheroes, and thus end hope and fill the Earth with despair as he symbolically destroyed heroism. When the Man of Might was defeated, however, Asmodeus found himself humiliated and disgraced - Wormwood had been taking steps, making sure to put the worst spin possible on the expedition. The King of Hell, to his shock and disbelief, found the demon princes agreeing to stop recognizing his authority.
Currently, Hell is an oligarchy, with the various demon princes vying for power and influence - a situation which suits Wormwood just fine. As the demon prince assigned to the Cryosphere, he has little doubt that he can rise to prominence - although he may be underestimating Professor Cryo, who has been concerned for a while about Hell's power, and would love to take this annoyingly uncontrollable factor out of the equation.
Another factor is Asmodeus himself, who, despite his downfall, is still planning a comeback. In order to re-establish himself as Hell King, he realizes that he will need something truly spectacular - something that will show everyone once again that he is the greatest demon of all times.
Plot seed: Days of Darkness
Plot seed: The War of Hell
