POWERZ LORE DUMP
Central Premise
Power exists in everything, and it takes many forms. Some learn it, some are born with it. At times, both. Develop, train, countless paths taken. Countless reasons. And, yet, when presented with a gift—seemingly from the heavens above—what does so much of humanity do? Fight.
In less poetic terms, superhuman abilities and means of bending reality / violating the laws of the universe exist, and are typically dubbed Powers or Gifts, or simply not referred to at all by a specific name. These can be learned or innate. Some resemble magic, others, superpowers—some, neither!
Godai Classification
Godai classification (五大分類) is a system to classify Powers based on the five elements in Esoteric Japanese Buddhist thought: Earth (地), Water (水), Fire (火), Wind (風) and Void / Aether (空). It has long been criticized as being culturally exclusive and too broad. It is not a ranking of power and strength, but it is often confused for one. Despite this, Powers classified under Void (空) tend to be powerful and rare.
Earth (地): represents the hard, solid objects of Earth. Associated with collectiveness, stability, physicality, and gravity. Resistance to change. Includes healing and often anti-magic / anti-Power abilities. Stone, bones, muscles, and tissue.
Water (水): represents the fluid, flowing, and the formless things in the world. Associated with thought, defensiveness, adaptability, flexibility, suppleness, and magnetism. Water, plants, and blood.
Fire (火): represents the energetic, forceful, moving things in the world. Associated with security, motivation, desire, intention, and an outgoing spirit. Movement, forceful energy, and metabolism.
Wind (風): represents things that grow, expand, and enjoy freedom of movement. Associated with will, elusiveness, evasiveness. Smoke, wind, and the mind, especially with regards to the growth of knowledge and personality; respiration.
Void / Aether (空): represents those things beyond and within our everyday comprehension, particularly those things composed of pure energy before they manifest. Associated with the potential of power, creativity, spontaneity and inventiveness. Now also used to describe Powers that affect concepts or operate conceptually, as well as meta-Powers (Powers that directly affect other Powers). Spirit, thought, creative energy, extrasensory perception, and quintessence.
I've moved away from this system.
SCHEMAs
SCHEMAs are the usage of symbolic script / diagrams / arcane scribbles which produce a well-defined effect when fueled with someone's internal 'well of power' ex: Drop the pressure by 5 atm within 5 m³ of the SCHEMA. Of course, just like programming can be anything from printing 'Hello World!' to running an operating system, SCHEMAs can have more variation. Africa is now developed due to innovations in SCHEMA technology to produce clean energy which originated in East Africa.
Heaven's Kings
Heaven's Kings is a small, but wealthy, gang of people with Powers. They look down upon those without innate Powers and especially look down on people without either innate or learned Powers. They are primarily based in Asia / East Asia. They believe that the strong should rule the weak, regardless of nation or creed. They do mercenary work (that at least somewhat aligns with their beliefs) for the highest bidder.
Current Members:
イッス / Issu (Japanese) - A muscular anthro dog with gray fur. Cocky but stoic party boy who wears lots of golden jewelry. Power allows him to change something's value, both literally and metaphorically.
Arjun Rathore (Indian) - A towering, buff anthro tiger. Smooth. Dresses to show off as much of his bare body as he can (like a wrestler at times), as his Power allows him to absorb sunlight to grant him superhuman physical abilities, fire off plasma, and fly with superheated wind.
백호준 / 白虎俊 / Baek Ho-Joon (Korean) - A muscular anthro snow leopard with the ability to create and control fire. Cocky, and competitive.
배성진 / Bae Seong-Jin (Korean) - An older male anthro weasel who can animate objects, transforming them into monstrous twisted-metal puppets. He provides a seemingly endless supply of cannon fodder and researches Powers. Aloof and manipulative.
Bae Seong-Jin attacked New York City, and was stopped by SENME Counterterrorism, but not after unleashing massive destruction.
SENME Counterterrorism
SENME Counterterrorism dedicates itself to fighting transnational crime, terrorism, organized crime, the misuse of Powers and magic. They also take on Heresies.
Criticized by international media and the press as far too shady, its invaluable services and origins in governmental partnership keep it deeply embedded throughout the globe.
It is headed by a council of directors of each department. Each director is known mononymously by a letter, mostly Greek letters. Each one is a competent mage, and many were former agents.
Heresies
A Heresy is a result of a Power-user’s internal well of power leaking, uncoupled by the patterns imposed on it by a Power-user’s biology or training—primarily as a result of severe psychological trauma or distress.
As a result, Heresies are monstrous beings or places, where reality is warped and altered. Given the state of their origin, most blindly seek to abate whatever trauma or stress occurred. Some more intelligent and insidious ones actually seek to perpetuate this trauma, so as to grow. Either way, these behaviors are often harmful to their hosts or originators, and even other people.
Apostates
Apostates are Power-users whose Patterns—the biological, neurological, etc. structures that shape the power from one’s internal well into discrete Powers—have been radically altered.
As such, they have ‘committed apostasy’ from their own Powers. Typically, this is from a Heresy-originating event, or from binding to / assimilating a Heresy.
Surgical Apostasy is not unheard of, but the Patterns of living organisms are exceedingly complex and varied. Magic and Schemas are to Patterns, as mathematics and circuitry are to brains. As such, Heresy, as crude as it is, is the primary cause of Apostasy.
Typically, an Apostate’s resultant Power(s) resembles a distorted version of their original ones, or to the Heresy they incorporated/underwent.
Not all Apostates are willing. As a Heresy is born from a Power-user, the leak that causes it might well alter the user’s Pattern.
Apostates are dangerous, both to themselves, and to others. Some may go so far as to no longer consider them human. For those who consider humanity to be the full use of an ordered soul, it is true that the majority of Apostates are not fully human.
The Cardinal Virtues
SENME, at some point in the past, had a squad of their finest. 4 agents, each named after a cardinal virtue and given wide personal discretion.
Agent Justice was the headsman with the overpowered innate Power, executing while shirtless and blindfolded with the rules of his Court. He is now Director Lambda, heading the Legal Department and deeply unsatisfied about it.
White-tailed deer.
Agent Temperance was the sleepy girl who took names and shaped fate. She is now Director Rho of the Sympathetics Department, leading the charge of remote warriors and not letting anyone forget that she is still a one-woman platoon.
Agent Prudence was the grumpy numbers guy dragged along for the ride, who could tell you the circumference of the bullet holes his antimateriel rifle left with 17 digits of precision while solving graduate-level Field Theory problems with barely a thought. He was killed in action, revived in a mechanical body via classified methods, and is still grumpy as Director Phi of the Finance Department.
Agent Fortitude was everyone's big sister, an unstoppable force that could carry the world's weight on her shoulders and still smile. We don't know what broke the unbreakable woman, but she's still out there, prowling the snowy ground, feral.
Fields
A Field is a slice of reality that has been altered, like how it happens because of a Heresy. Heresies either make Fields or are Fields—but some crazy people are actually able to make Fields, too! There are a few names for this phenomenon, though.
Sympathetics
Sympathetics deals with magic or innate Powers that operate on imitation or correspondence—the part affecting the whole, and so on. However, it's often just considered the 'long-range' or 'remote operations' department. It's a small, but very useful department, no matter what it actually is for.