Post by dorkknight23 on Sept 30, 2015 16:28:36 GMT -5
All this conflict, all this power, locked within a single gene. The X-gene, once an anomaly and now widespread, granted its inheritor superhuman powers upon puberty. In ancient times, those few mutants who existed were hunted as demons or witches or gods or lived in hiding, for even in those days mankind hated and feared that it didn't understand. A fact that remains unchanged to the present.
Professor Charles Xavier, though, had a dream that mutants and humans could one day live in peace. It was this simple dream that fueled a revolutionary campaign of mutant's rights in the world. Xavier's dream was not unopposed by either humans or mutants who did not or could not believe in it: even if the likes of Magneto, Graydon Creed or Bolivar Trask, Sebastian Shaw, or Apocalypse, could agree on nothing else, it was that they did not believe it was in the nature of either humans or mutants (or both) to coexist with each other. Many fought, and many died, in conflict over this peaceful dream, many of them young. Charles Xavier himself died, but his dream lived on in the next generation, who struggled to uphold Xavier's dream. Even as the mutant boom dwindled, two factions of Xavier's disciples in particular struggled to make sense of just what the dream of peace meant.
Scott Summers was Xavier's first student, if not by order of education than by reputation, the first leader of the X-Men. The one who fought most diligently, who lost everything for the cause, yet soldiered on, and did what needed to be done. Scott Summers could not see a peace between humans and mutants that was not mitigated by the X-Men, policed by it. A man who had spent his entire life controlling himself was trapped by a ruby quartz wall around his life.
The man called Logan, the Wolverine, was older than Xavier by decades at the least, his aging slowed to a crawl by his regenerative healing factor. A trained killer with razor sharp adamantium claws, Logan struggled to be a man of peace, to be better than his nature screamed at him to be. He refused his savagery to carry on Xavier's legacy, to build and maintain the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. He surrounded himself with the best and brightest, those who wished to carry the burden of helping the next generation.
These two had a falling out. Rumormongers and mutant-haters like to point the finger, conveniently, at Jean Grey, the Phoenix, the most powerful mutant who likely ever would be; at a corpse the two once loved who could not defend herself. Their bad blood went deeper than that, at core differences in who they were and how they chose to behave, which extended to how they wanted to implement Xavier's dream. This led to only further conflict and bloodshare as Xavier's disciples and enemies aligned and realigned, changed sides only to change sides again.
It is still not easy to be a mutant. In most of the world, mutants are tolerated, although more totalitarian governments have strict anti-mutant legislation. Mutants are regularly harrassed, assaulted, or even murdered for no reason other than having been born different than their neighbor. Some radical religious groups also view mutants as anathema to divine will or some kind of profane compact with dark powers (although that's hardly a popular view). Whatever peace mutants and humans have is tenuous, at the very best.
Cyclops is now leader of what he still calls the X-Men, but what the media has taken to calling the X-Terminators, a violent and militant pro-mutant organization that encourages peace between both sides by any means necessary. Acting like small guerilla terror cells, X-Terminators are enemy to both the oppressive human government and to mutants who abuse their powers alike. As far as Cyclops and his followers are concerned, they are still acting in the interests of Xavier's dreams, almost enforcing it. Cyclops is still wanted by SHIELD in connection to numerous acts of terror.
He is not alone. Magneto refuses to die, perhaps because his hatred refuses to, and has enough power and cunning to cheat death again and again. He leads the Brotherhood of Mutants still with a clenched gauntleted fist, and they still seek to build a world where mutants rule supreme over humanity. The latest Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club still seeks to propogate its own wealth and power. Apocalypse has been long dormant, but his agents and his cults still are a presence on the world stage. There are always worse, more sinister threats, lurking in the wings.
But that all must feel a world away in Westchester County. Westchester is a haven for mutant's rights, where the Jean Grey School is located, built over the remains of the old Xavier Institute (even then, many of the townsfolk are more tolerant than accepting). Many mutants, at least those who accept the offer, seek refuge at the Jean Grey School. They hope to learn to control their powers in a safe environment, of course, but they are also teenagers still. They want to make friends and have fun and do whatever ordinary things teenagers who can't fire lasers out of their eyes can do, but perhaps most troubling, they'll want to help, to make the world a better place, to fight injustices, which will put them on the front lines of a war they didn't start and might not be able to finish...
Character Generation
25+challenges (no set limit, but start asking how many challenges you really need after 10-15, I certainly will), must be a mutant, must be a teenager. Everything else is more or less fair game. That stone count may seem low to start, but it encourages low power and a chance for you all to grow into your skills.
This game is set about 20ish years in the future from the present presented by the comics. Many of the older generation mutants have either retired or otherwise avoid active duty (although there's exceptions like Cyclops running around). The younger generation (mutants around Cannonball's age and younger, but this isn't a hard and fast rule) are in their prime, watching you all nip at their heels. Thus, if you want to have a kid of two famous mutants, that's totally encouraged. Whether your parents are still together, or the result of some disastrous fling, or whatever, that's what I'll be looking for when discussing your CADs.
That being said, and I love doing the whole 'generations' angle, the X-Men is a superhero comic first and foremost, and one that has put its characters through the wringer more than once. I'm not opposed to working that into your backstory: your character's displaced from a dystopian future run by Sentinels, overly combat trained, and confused why he isn't getting a chance to go to the laser-firing range? Write them up (be careful that concept sounds expensive). Your character is some sort of non-human mutant (alien, or maybe something weird like an uplifted chimpanzee or something, or something I haven't thought of yet?) Sounds good to me, some of my favorite additons to the X-Men are non-human mutants like Warlock. Make me want to make a spot for you, if you can find a way of justifying it within the comics themselves, all the better as far as I'm concerned. Want to make a completely original no-frills teen mutant? That's also more than fine. The one hard set condition is your character has to start at the Jean Grey School, how they got there is up to us to agree on.
Questions/comments/etc.? Post here or PM me!
