World History

History of the 011121 Setting Overview
By and large the world history of 011121-Earth parallels that of real world Earth. The Greek, Chinese, Egyptian civilizations all rose and fell. Christianity gave the Romans headaches. Throughout history there have been superpowered individuals, also called metas or meta-humans, and the presence of these individuals has, of course, altered some specific events but the general course of history is the same, at least until World War 2. Maybe Custer could punch down oaks with his bare fists, but he still died at Little Big Horn. Players can generally assume any real world history they know is valid for 011121-Earth, with the exceptions noted below.

Antiquity
Approximately 200 million years ago, in the Triassic Period of the Mesozoic Era an alien species maintained a small research outpost on Earth, perhaps studying, among other things, the native dinosaur life. Little is known about these aliens other than that they made extensive use of nanite technology and these same nanites at some point turned against their masters and destroyed them. The entity ANanCy is the only known remnant of their presence on Earth. ANanCy has claimed responsibility for the destruction of the dinosaurs after suffering damage from a meteor impact at the end of the Cretaceous. Approximately three thousand years BCE a group of the most powerful mages formed a ruling body known now as the Antediluvian Council. The council lasted over a thousand years before being overthrown by a former member, the Rosicrucian.

Fractured Russia
July 16, 1918, in a daring midnight raid,Imperial Eagle manages to save several members of Tsar Nicholas' family from execution at the hands of the Bolsheviks. This act galvanizes a waning anti-bolshevik movement and leads to decades of geurilla warfare by pro-Tsarist forces against the Soviet government. Pro-Tsarist metas include Imperial Eagle and Tsarina, herself a descendant of Nicholas. Pro-Soviet forces include the various "Heroes of the People" of the Soviet Union including Red Crescent and, before he managed to break his brainwashing, the alien Permafrost.

World War 2
World War 2 was a departure from historical norms of warfare in multiple respects. It was the first truly industrialized war. It was also the first war to feature organized companies of superhumans used to wage war. Hitler's novel use of Ubermensch Wehrmacht units and the fearsome Nacht-Heer SS units, both composed exclusively of meta-humans took the nations of Europe completely off guard. The nascent allies recovered and copied Germany's lead. Soon Britian, Italy, The US, and Russia were all fielding special units, platoons, and even companies composed of metas. Japan was the last to organize its meta-humans, due to long standing prejudice against metas within their culture. That changed after the disaster at midway, where US metas with water abilities were key in taking down the Hiryu carrier, as well as stopping a submarine strike on the US forces that might have crippled them. The shocking loss at midway, and the difficulty Japan had replacing both ships and pilots, finally gave Admiral Ozawa, himself a secret meta, the leverage needed to convince Hirohito to order the formation of Oni no Kaze (Wind Demon) units. Across all theaters of the war, from the deserts of northern africa to the oil fields of the Urals to the steaming jungles of the south pacific, metas fought on both sides and under every flag.

For the first time companies of metas faced each other. The damage inflicted was terrible. Then, too, there was the subtler war that played out between Nacht-Heer and resistance meta-humans in German occupied lands.

The Warship and the Night of the Curetting
At 2:15am GMT on December 24th 1943 a 7 kilometer long alien vessel moved into earth orbit. It transmitted one message, with translations into the major languages of combatants on various sides of the conflict. The message simply demanded that all parties cease the use of meta-humans as weapons of war. All sides pulled their metahuman forces back while considering the ultimatum. All attempts to contact the warship went unanswered.

On February 10th 1944 Hitler ordered all German Ubermensch and Nacht-Heer units to launch surprise assaults. Initially the attacks were very successful, overrunning allied conventional forces at every turn. The US and Brittain were on the cusp of ordering their meta forces back into action when the alien ship, dubbed simply 'the Warship', changed orbit to bring it over Europe on the morning of the 12th. The Warship fired on every concentration of German meta units, decimating every target it fired upon. Fewer than 1 meta in 20 in the German forces survived the bombardment. Witnesses described great green beams which punched holes many dozens of meters into the earth where they struck. The Warship then fired upon Berlin, not at any particular targets but in what can only be described as a punitive action. More than 30 shots struck berlin and the city was badly damaged with casualties in the tens of thousands. No meta-human units would fight again in WW2 or any war since. Germans refer to Feb 12th as the Night of the Curetting, the impact of which upon the national psyche cannot be overstated.

The Carthage Accord
In the aftermath of WW2 the Carthage Accord stipulated that no nation would acknowledge any metahuman as a soldier of that nation, nor employ any metahuman as a weapon of espionage or law enforcement which came to be known as the Prohibition. The Warship continues to orbit.