Blacksite [Heroes & Legends Archive Thread]

[Forest State]

Welcome to the archive thread for the Heroes & Legends RP universe. This is NOT one of the spam threads that would be disallowed under the rules, but rather a thread meant to contain all of the lore and backstory related things for the RP that would clutter up the actual OOC thread or would be hard to access easily from there. Character applications should not be posted here. This is for lore and other additional information that is relevant to the RP, not things that are already on the OOC thread. Additionally, all discussion about the postings here should go in the OOC thread.

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Table of Contents

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TBA

[Forest State]

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Futures Program Current Staff

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Headmaster | Amanda Marin / Vesta: The leader of the Futures Program already has significant experience and is well qualified, being a member of the famous Marin family and being the former leader of the Capital Team. At the peak of her career as a hero, Marin went toe to toe with some of the top villains in the world, with lunar based powers and a specialty in artificially enhanced speed and agility. However, she was wounded in rural Quebec while investigating an Order of the Arcane cell. After being stabbed all the way through her body, Amanda found herself with a strange demonic infection and was forced out of action permanently, resigning from the Capital Team two years later after a period of inaction. The Syndicate was not willing to throw out her expertise, however, and she was transferred to Santa Marina to join the Futures Program as its director.

Head Combat Instructor | Ionie Shaw / Soulja: Born into the worst part of Kingston, Ionie Shaw knows a bit about fighting, with or without powers. She may be a hero right now, but she was in a gang growing up and has done some things that she would like to leave in the past. Her powers turned out to be her escape from a life of madness on the streets, and Ionie can manipulate metal or magnetism at a high level. Her ability is strong enough to tear a building apart, or send concrete flying at someone by manipulating the metal bars inside. Without powers, however, she’s an expert martial artist and a capable gunfighter. As someone that doesn’t come from much, she has an aggressive work ethic and gets annoyed with students who don’t want to dedicate themselves to the Program or put in work in training. She does want the best for everyone, though.

Head Engineer | Troy Cavaco / Grease: One of the top scientific minds in Brazil, Cavaco has a more subtle power that comes in the form of an innate understanding of machines. Generally, the ability applies to things with moving parts. Long story short, Cavaco has always been able to take these things apart and put them back together easily, figuring out how to improve them along the way. His expertise isn’t in one specific area, other than mechanical items. He’s created valuable anti metahuman weapons and sold them to defense companies, helped in the process of designing new nuclear power plants in his home country, and created advanced armor for various countries to use in the anti metahuman units of their police forces. With Cavaco stationed in Santa Marina and working with the Syndicate these days, the Cadets of the Futures Program now fall under his list of clients.

Field Commander / Special Instructor | Zara Nakano / Omen: Zara isn't someone that you would expect to be a hero at all, coming from a Yakuza background and originally making a name for completely killing off the crime family that ambushed and killed her own, but she somehow managed to make it all the way to the Council of Ten after taking one of the hardest and most dangerous routes to getting powers. Zara isn't really a traditional hero at all and operates as an assassin that enforces her own ideals of justice, while very rarely bowing to authorities. It's been said that she was put on the Council of Ten not for her accomplishments, but because her ability to regenerate rather than dying scares the existing members, along with her bad attitude. That attitude, though, doesn't change that Zara is highly competent in the field and therefore is one of the better choices to take students out on missions.

Administrator | Axl: Santa Marina is home to some of the more cutting edge technology in possession of the Syndicate, because of the city hosting the Syndicate headquarters. One of those pieces of technology is Axl, an experimental artificial intelligence designed by about a dozen of the smartest metahuman scientists in the world. Axl is limited to ensure that problems don’t occur, but still, the technology is groundbreaking and Axl is being used as an administrative system at Syndicate HQ. Axl is responsible for running some of the defense systems at the headquarters, updating schedules for both the heroes stationed at the HQ and for the Futures Program, and monitoring the cameras throughout the building. Additionally, the AI has been trained in human speech patterns and is capable of discussing these things with the inhabitants of the building.

Tactics Instructor | Griffin O’Kelly / Bedlam: The strange thing about Bedlam is that nobody actually knows what his power is. At least, nobody outside of Team Diamond knows. Bedlam isn’t one of Diamond’s hard hitters but is present in every battle, typically using a pair of mechanical fists in combat. Outside of the battlefield, however, Bedlam is known as quite a smart thinker and tactician, who understands people well and understands squad level tactics better. As part of a team that is already stationed in Santa Marina, Bedlam was announced as one of the instructors for the program because of this expertise in tactics, strategy, and effective use of personnel.

Head Doctor | Vivian Shaw / Lioness: The youngest lead member of the staff and the daughter of Ionie Shaw, Vivian spent the early part of her life in Kingston and experienced some of the same things as her mother. She has a healing touch and was in the metaphorical trenches of Jamaican gang warfare, using her abilities to save as many of the people that she grew up around as possible. Of course, this wasn’t popular with everyone, and Viv was shot at herself despite taking a mostly neutral stance. Eventually, she traveled to the United States to live with her mother in Santa Marina, politicking her way into getting a position where she would be one of the main doctors in the infirmary, using her ability to heal those returning from missions. However, she still doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life, and is somewhat apathetic towards most things.

Field Team Leader / Counselor | Sapphira Lefevre / Heartbreaker: Known for her compassionate attitude and her desire to help everyone, Sapphira Lefevre can detect someone's emotional state and does her best to use that ability to "fix" people. Of course, this isn't always successful, something that she herself struggles with accepting. But she'll try her hardest, and it's made her a moderately popular hero in her native France, before she made the move to join Team Diamond on a dual contract with Team Liberte, the Syndicate's France based team. Some people claim that Sapphira is only here because of her friendship with Cassandra Marin, but she's out to prove them wrong.

[Forest State]

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The Riot, as of Colombia

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Alpha / Lilian Harel: The leader and the founder of the Riot, Lilian Harel didn’t have powers for her entire life. She was always a highly opinionated girl growing up, and sometimes she was an outsider because of it. She stood up for metahumans whenever she could, even though she wasn’t one of them. Not that they were too poorly treated in London, but no matter the location, there were still a few people in a vocal minority that dislike metahumans. However, Lilian drifted into a depression when she reached college, and she was at a crossroads in deciding what to do with her life. It was at that point that the Watchers appeared to her, granting her a power and commanding her to be a “leader for the broken”. She set out to put together a group of metahumans who would team up with her and do something about their mutual distaste for society. She wanted to burn it down, really, partly a result of her own upbringing and a life that revolved around chasing what society wanted rather than what she wanted. The Riot was born, and with the power to influence others by looking into their eyes, Lilian became their brave leader. How she’ll fare over time despite her own personal problems remains to be seen.

Sol / Petr Holmsson: It’s known that most members of the Riot have very public and hard to hide powers, and that’s shown off the most in Sol, whose entire body glows. His head, especially, is very bright and can light up a room in the dark. This is because of his power. Sol is basically a miniature sun and can channel this solar energy into concentrated beams or into larger shapes. This energy can burn through most material and vaporize a human, and Sol is capable of both precise strikes and wider ones that vaporize anything in the area around him, friendly or enemy. Organizationally, Sol is the right hand man of Alpha and often manages the technical side of carrying out her orders from the top. It makes sense, considering Sol was a Norwegian businessman in the oil industry before developing powers later compared to others.

Mori: The demon known as Mori is the hardest hitter and the hardest to kill in the Riot. Just winning her loyalty was a major accomplishment for the young Riot group, which at the time had only recently started. The Riot used internet rumors to track down the sightings of a demon, eventually finding Mori in northern Scotland, where she had cleared out a camp of demon hunters. The Riot found Mori feasting on the remains of her enemies, but Alpha was able to influence her and tame her to an extent. Over time, she would become more human, acting more like a normal human girl, wearing human clothes and eating human food. However, in battle, she reverts back to a feral state and inflates to ten feet tall. As a demon, Mori cannot be hurt by physical attacks. Magic attacks are needed to deal with her, making her the most dangerous member of the Riot’s lineup. She’s even a danger to her own team, with Alpha sometimes losing control of her and clashing with her verbally and physically, despite their very close relationship.

Liu Ying: From Shenzhen originally, Liu was forcefully abducted at the age of 11 and taken to Laos. As it turns out, she was headed to a Nova School, an institution creating metahuman mercenaries from the technology left behind by the Supernova Program of the USSR. Upon her arrival, Liu and a number of others were implanted with Nova parasites, which would painfully bond with her body. Only about forty percent of people who take the parasites survive the process long enough to receive powers. Liu was set to die from the parasitic fever, and by all accounts, she should have died from it, but after she was cast out onto the street to save resources, she was picked up by another mercenary company that gave her something in exchange for her loyalty: a suit of armor that counteracts the effects of the poison, keeping her alive as long as she isn’t removed from it for long. After her contract was up, she met the Riot almost exactly on her 22nd birthday and was convinced by Alpha to join up with them. However, she has no idea how long her suit will last, and isn’t sure 100% about how it works… Still, her armor is mostly bulletproof and she has vastly increased strength, durability, and movement because of her parasites.

Azdaja / Edin Salkic: The Bosnian War was a conflict that had the attention of the entire world, and Edin Salkic was on the front lines on the Bosnian side. Salkic was a part of the normal Bosnian military at first, and was a relatively regular person at the time, but soon volunteered for a special program that developed before the war. Salkic was changed into a powerful metahuman, a beast of a man capable of taking gunfire and explosions without dying, and dealing heavy damage in close quarters. Of course, the effects were stronger psychologically than they were physically when it came to acting in the field, but Salkic was still sent to the frontlines of the Bosnian War and caused havoc for the Serbian lines, igniting large retreats at times. However, he never gained personal fame, as there was nothing setting him apart from the others in the program. His life was aimless after the war, but a visit from the Riot and Alpha soon gave him a new purpose, many years after the war ended.

Darrell Revie / Magma: The first member to join the Riot was Alpha’s countryman, who was already involved in some of the same scenes as her. If Alpha is the false activist on the team, the one who joins a movement for selfish reasons and doesn’t really stand for it, Darrell is the truest one. Darrell was involved with the anarchist scene since before his powers showed up, but when they did, he begun associating with other dissident metahumans, too. And his power, it turned out to be quite useful under the right circumstances. Darrell can superheat rock and metal and turn it into magma, and then control the liquid. Alpha, who was already a college friend of his, noticed this and made him the first member of the Riot. And ever since then, he hasn’t looked back.

[Forest State]

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The Horsemen, as of Colombia

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Stephen Tumicelli / War: A veteran of Operation Desert Storm, war has been around Stephen Tumicelli’s life for awhile. He fought bravely on the Persian Gulf and did just about everything that a soldier could be asked to do. However, when the war was over and Tumicelli attempted to move to a safer career path that would allow him to have a family, he didn’t have the same fates. He had a hard time getting and keeping employment, and ended up on the streets, partly because of the effects that the war had on him. He was left going from city to city and looking for work in each place, not finding much help from the government either when it came to dealing with his problems. The process made Tumicelli cynical about society as a whole, after society’s failure to repay him and others for their work in a far away war. He happened to be settled in Oklahoma when the 2008 financial crash happened, and that was one of the leading events in forming the Horsemen. In 2009, the Watchers showed up and gave Tumicelli a chance to exert revenge. Which of course, he took. War has the heaviest offensive capabilities in the Horsemen, with powerful energy based attacks that have both high range and high accuracy.

Qamar Al-Amin / Famine:The only non American member of the Horsemen is Qamar Al-Amin, who was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Despite being in a big city, there weren’t many things that Al-Amin found as potential options to make a career out of. Soldiering was the easiest way to make a decent life at this point, and so Al-Amin joined the Saudi military and made it through training successfully. However, living in Saudi Arabia as an atheist is hard. Being in the military as a closeted atheist is even harder. It took its toll on Al-Amin, turning him mentally against the country that he had sworn to protect. Eventually, his cynicism spread and affected his perception of society as a whole, bringing him to a revelation: that so many of the systems of the world, from the financial ones to the religious ones, were only meant to hold people down. Al-Amin found himself in a rich country, and even in the military, the wealth didn’t reach him. Furthermore, religion was used to keep control of the country and prevent people like him from speaking out. In 2009, the Watchers gave him a chance to change that fate. They offered him powers to drain all of the living things in a wide area, especially the plant life and natural foods. He would take these powers and adopt the title of Famine, becoming the second member of the Horsemen.

Christian Murray / Pestilence: Pestilence is the first half of the pair of Horsemen members that knew each other before their transformation from ordinary people into one of the most feared teams of villains around. Pestilence and Death worked at the same bank before the financial crash, and were friends at the time, but they both lost everything as the banks were left reeling by the market. After all, it wasn’t just the consumers that were affected, but some of the people within the banks. Feeling betrayed by the system, Murray swore to do something about it. It was only about a year later when the Watchers showed up, granting him the power to both corrode objects and create deadly infectious diseases. These diseases can be controlled by Murray himself, allowing him to target specific areas and attack silently, without the need to fight at all. In appearance, he’s the most ghastly of the Horsemen, as a near zombie with exposed ribs and organs as well as green, torn skin.

Victor Adams / Death: The unofficial leader of the Horsemen is the largest of them, standing at just over seven feet tall. Adams was a banker, just like Murray was, but they both lost their jobs during the 2008 financial crash. Unlike Murray, however, Adams should have been on a path to move up the company and secure a better position for himself in the future, maybe allowing him to start a family. Those plans were dashed by the year 2008, of course, and Adams received the title of Death at the same time that Murray became Pestilence. They would meet Stephen Tumicelli and Qamar Al-Amin not much longer afterwards, after being directed to Oklahoma by the Watchers. Death was the best administrator, of course, and that was how he became the de facto leader. After all, it was him that was doing the logistical part of this operation. His ability is similar to Famine’s, allowing him to drain the life from others. However, unlike Famine, Death’s power works by taking souls. When in possession of someone’s soul, he can take control of that person. His ability is also more targeted towards humans, and he has the additional ability of shifting into a non material form.

[Forest State]

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Syndicate Technology

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Challenger Armored Combat Unit: The Challenger is the first prototype in a line of planned Syndicate armored units, created in collaboration with Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, which are designed to stand up to attacks from even the most dangerous metahumans and assist in apprehending or killing these individuals. The Challenger is a bipedal mech that could be considered closer to a suit of power armor, as it is only about 8.4 feet tall and encloses most of the pilot’s body. The controls of the mech are bonded with the body and mind of the pilot, through a device fixed to the spinal cord and a helmet that encloses the face. Attempting to activate the mech without having this implant will result in death by electrocution, as a result of the technology used to make the piloting system work.

Once inside the mech and fitted with the helmet, the pilot can use their mind to command the different systems of the vehicle. The movement abilities are enhanced by a set of jets located on the back of the vehicle, allowing for quick movement just above the surface of the ground, or for limited flight in the form of high jumps and jet assisted landings. This adds mobility in urban combat situations and allows the mech to move behind an enemy formation to attack. The area around the jump jets, located on the mech’s back, can be fitted with long or short range missiles depending on the situation. A typical launcher module will carry 30 missiles, although this amount can be changed to carry less missiles of a higher yield.

The right hand of the mech is embedded with an autocannon, which is useful against both material targets and metahumans with strong defensive abilities. A machine gun is embedded in the left hand, which is useful against smaller targets. Both wrists are embedded with advanced energy projectors, allowing for the creation of two blades that are mounted to each wrist and can cut through many materials, aiding with breaking down enemy defenses. The chest of the mech is equipped with countermeasures against rockets and other tracking based attacks, which are modeled after those of tanks and jet fighters.

The mech is still a prototype, however, and has several weaknesses. The fuel lines on the back that run to the jump jets are vulnerable to exploding if fired on. The jump jets themselves can be damaged somewhat easily in battle and render the mech with far less movement ability if destroyed. Resupplying in the field isn’t possible yet, and the mech only carries so much ammunition before it’s left having to fist fight with enemies, and it also needs to carry fuel. The rocket rack is prone to exploding if hit with certain types of attacks, which could be catastrophic and trigger other ammunition explosions that entirely destroy the mech. Additionally, the joints are the most vulnerable parts and some metahumans could easily cripple those areas.

While the mech does have a lot of weaknesses, and is hard to find pilots for, it is only a prototype in a long development cycle that will continue for years. The project is heavily invested in by the Syndicate, and could be considered the personal pet project of world class engineer and Council of Ten member Beatriz “Machina” Ortega. The project has also been worked on by top Syndicate defense engineer Troy Covaco, who promised sponsors and investors the release of a non-prototype model by 2025.

Iron Bird Transport: The Iron Bird is a transport plane designed by Lockheed Martin, with assistance from metahuman experts including Troy Cavaco. The transport was first designed for the Syndicate but is now produced in the United States for the U.S. Air Force, and is exported to countries around the world such as the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and the Philippines. The craft is meant to both transport members of the Syndicate and provide support against some of the tougher targets that the Syndicate faces in the field. In addition to having reinforced front plating and countermeasures against missile based targets, the Iron Bird is equipped with two 30mm autocannons that can deal damage against even the toughest metahuman targets. The Iron Bird is powered by two large engines that alternate between a vertical and horizontal position, allowing for vertical takeoffs and landings.

[Forest State]

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Corporations

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Life Incorporated: Life Incorporated, founded in Shenzhen but with branches in Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Britain, and the United States, is a conglomerate that specializes in technology, medicinal supplies, and scientific research through its shell companies. It also has a multimedia division that is growing by the year and buying up stations and newspapers in multiple countries around the world. The company is not publicly traded and details on its ownership are unclear. It appears to have a Shenzhen based board of directors, but the exact funding of the company and the nature of this board of directors is unknown.

The company reports high earnings publicly, however, and investigations into it haven't come up with any evidence of forging the numbers. The company has only existed in some form since 2015, but has already made progress in the fields that it was established in. According to the company itself, their quick rise is because they have assembled some of the "top and brightest talents in the world" in their respective fields, using their original seed money to lure professionals who would normally be hard to acquire. Still, their rise to becoming a relevant company is nothing less than shocking, especially in the competitive fields of multimedia, security, and technology. They've already pushed the boundaries in fields like these, creating smaller processors and some cutting edge weapons that are being considered as options for use by countries such as the United States and Russia.

Where the money goes is unclear. But what is clear is the fact that Life Incorporated is here to stay, for better or worse and in Santa Marina or beyond.

[Forest State]

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Demonology

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Two demons of different gender as well as different sizes and rank.

Demons, like the vast majority of all other supernatural style beings in this universe, come from the Realm of Myths. However, they work in a very different way than they do in most settings. While still remaining intelligent, demons are further from being similar to humans than other supernatural beings and can be considered the least human of all intelligent supernatural beings. Demons are known to have their own hierarchical societies in the Realm of Myths. At least, that’s what experienced mages believe. Travel between the Realm of Myths and the human realm is impossible for the majority of people, making it hard to conduct evidence and prove any of the theories that are proposed. However, demons are also known to be apex predators that are hostile to other races and will attack them on site, including other humanoid ones.

The average demon is between six and seven feet tall, with many of them possessing the physiques of fighters, the result of what is believed to be a hard lifestyle. Demonic skin tones generally range from pale blue to pale purple, and they can also be set apart by their blue blood and by the horns that can be found on top of their head. These horns are typically between six to nine inches long, but just like the rest of the demon, they can grow in battle. Demons that reach the realm of humans seem to have two states, a regular one and a feral one, with the latter being comparable to a berserker state where adrenaline will cause the demon’s body to grow, sometimes up to ten feet tall. The effects of the adrenaline will also result in a boost to their physical attributes, which are already impressive.

Most demons are able to bend steel, and because of their status as beings of the Realm of Myths, it takes a magic based attack to deal damage to them. If one doesn’t have magic attacks in their arsenal, they can only hope to contain the demon rather than actually hurt them. Additionally, they possess faster reaction times and generally have faster movement speeds too, making them the peak species on Earth in terms of raw capabilities combined with intelligence. Some demons possess wings and some do not. Wings can be a symbol of power, because as a general rule, only the more powerful demons are ones that have wings.

The last trait to be aware of is the fact that demons, as beings from the Realm of Myths, can cut past the body and deal blows straight to the spirit. These are considerably harder to heal, and this has been termed as the “demonic infection”. Rather than a real infection, this is a term for an injury to the spirit, which will sap someone’s capabilities and eventually their life force unless healed properly. Of course, you need magic healing to fix a magical injury, and whether or not a healer can do the job or not also depends on their skill as a mage. A more powerful demon can leave a larger injury to the spirit, resulting in a quicker death and worse infection symptoms. Generally, deep cuts and bites and other damaging melee attacks by demons are the means of this infection happening, although certain demonic weapons can also cause it. These weapons can largely not be wielded by humans, for the one using them would become corrupted with the infection. Do not ever underestimate it, for many strong humans have fallen to it after sustaining physical injuries that were healed relatively quickly.

Because of their open aggression towards humans and their carnivorous nature, demons are some of the most feared beings on the planet and are also the most avoided. Humans generally keep as far away from them as they can, fleeing towns when a demon is on the loose. When that does happen, it’s a major situation for the Syndicate, who is tasked with finding a way of containing the monster and possibly sending it back to the Realm of Myths. All Syndicate regions are watched over by experienced mages for this precise reason, and those mages are worth their weight in gold when a demon does appear somewhere.

Some demons have been successfully made… More human, but this generally only happens through metahumans with some type of influence based powers, and mages with similar skill sets. The Order of the Arcane has claimed to have alternative methods, but these are unproven and the secrecy of the organization has made them just about completely impossible to verify. Even with a few demons being “tamed” successfully, some details about the species are largely unknown because these demons keep to themselves and exist only in the furthest shadows of society, as part of a group that collectively is reviled by anyone and everyone.

[Forest State]

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Nations

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The Kingdom of Jukanda: Jukanda is an African country located in the Gulf of Aden, with Yemen to the north and Somalia to the south. The country is an island, that was established as an independent country in 1952 following the withdrawal of its Belgian colonial masters. In pre colonial times, the nation was inhabited by both Africans and Arabs, and would be split between local religions and languages and the Arab ones from the north. In the modern day, that divide still exists but the nation inherited Christianity from Belgium, as well as the common language of Dutch. The country has been undeveloped for all of its history as an independent state, and is known for its eccentric rogue government.

The ruler of Jukanda is known as the God King, and according to the official state religion of Dedzism, the ruler of the nation is a living god that was sent to guide the Jukandan people. The current God King is Omari Dedzi, who succeeded the founder of the country in 2007 and has ruled with an iron fist. Jukanda does not have values such as freedom of speech, freedom of press, or freedom of assembly. The state security service, known as the Department of Internal Affairs, is pervasive and has taken numerous actions to crush rebellion in the country over the years, giving the country a very poor human rights record in the process. Jukanda is ranked as the second most authoritarian country in the world by most sources, just behind North Korea.

Citizens of Jukanda must worry about rooms being bugged, having their phone calls wiretapped, and internet communications watched by the DIA. Additionally, poverty is a problem for the country, which only has a GDP per capita of $450. Friends of the government live with more wealth, and Jukanda receives assistance from both the United States and China. While the country outwardly appears to be in China’s sphere of influence, it has worked with the United States in secret projects and provided a secure offshore location for United States intelligence activities. At the seat of government is the King’s Royal Party, which is made up of less than 500 people but holds all political power in the nation.

Because of being cut off from much of the outside world, Jukanda has become a home for certain wanted metahumans who are evading capture in developed countries. God King Omari Dedzi has invited numerous metahumans to live in the country as guests of the government, surrounding himself with them for various reasons that include giving himself an extra layer of protection against rebels and external threats. This is why a number of metahuman mercenary outfits are based in the country, and part of the reason why Jukanda has been sanctioned by a number of countries. It’s not the only time that the country has acted as a shelter. After World War Two, the country became a home to a number of Nazi officers and scientists. In the early 2000s, it also sheltered war criminals from the Bosnian War in exchange for their expertise.

The island is somewhat dense despite the nation’s relatively small population, and the capital city, which is located in the south of the country, has been Oxelar since 1952. The second and third largest cities are both ports in the southwest and north respectively, Stelair and Brockholm. As the largest city, the Oxelar metropolitan area is home to three million of the country’s twelve million people overall. It’s also the home to the Royal Palace, and the capital district where military parades, speeches, and other special events occur. The southwest is the least inhabited area and is home to many rural areas, including a few held by the North Korean backed Jukanda Liberation Army rebel movement. The JLA, however, is known to be a front movement to facilitate the smuggling of resources out of the country and into North Korea.

Non governmental organizations have voted Jukanda as one of the worst nations to live in, and one of the most oppressive in the world in terms of human rights.