The drums of war are beating
At the end of it all
The last light is fleeting
As the shadows fall
But still we stand up
We stand up, we stand up
Like a warrior
In the darkest days, like a soldier
Till there's no one left to save...IntroductionImagine if approximately one percent of the world had some kind of abnormal power, Sometimes it could be a dangerous or useful power, other times it could be a minor power that won’t change too much about daily life. That one percent doesn’t sound like a large number on its own, but in a world with more than seven billion people, one percent can have a great impact. Give one percent of the population great power, and you suddenly have a group of people spread out across the globe who are powerful enough to topple countries if they team up and set their mind to it. Some of them are even strong enough to topple a country on their own, while hardly breaking a sweat. How would these people be treated? And what impact would they have on the world?
These people are known as metahumans, and ever since their initial appearance in the 1950s, the world has been locked in a battle between good and evil. Light and darkness. Control and freedom. Superheroes arose to stop those who would prefer to use their powers for the wrong purposes, but have evolved into something more: the protectors of mankind. They’ve fought all manor of enemies, both human and otherworldly, and the top superheroes are practically worshipped by their fans as celebrities. It’s a dangerous job. It’s also one with plenty of benefits. Riches, fame, the adoring fans, and recognition in history. It’s no wonder that many metahumans decide that the hero life is for them, but for every hero, there’s a number of other metahumans and regular people who would rather disrupt life as we know it. Crime rates have been rising around the world, metahuman related crime is one of the leading causes of unnatural death, and so-called supervillains have destabilized entire regions at a time.
The Guardians, the world’s largest collection of superhero teams, acts as Earth’s shield. In the fight between good and evil, the Guardians are always at the forefront, acting as one of the first organizations to respond to world crisis events. Their ranks have dozens of teams spread across the world, and hundreds of heroes of varying levels of skill and fame. But nothing is black and white when it comes to a fight for the world itself. Like any organization as large as this one, the Guardians have their own interests. Individual heroes do, too, and the faces that they show in public aren’t always their true selves. It doesn’t take a paragon of virtue to make a hero. Just someone willing to put their lives on the line, for any reason. Even if that reason is something selfish. Like any field, the world of superheroes has disputes, too, and clashes between multiple different teams. Not every organization is a fan of the others. Even within the Guardians, group politics exist.
Perhaps those are the reasons why the Guardians have been viewed as being on the back foot. They’re still the largest team, but it seems like they’re overmatched more and more in recent years. More and more, villains achieve victories. Each time it happens, the Guardians and heroes as a whole look worse to the public. For that reason, the Guardians announced in 2013 that they would create the Young Guardians Program, dedicated to training the next generation. Those within the program receive the best training that the Guardians have available, in addition to housing in Angel’s Village, the international grounds located in Nassau, New York, that serve as the worldwide headquarters of the Guardians and the home of many of their most important buildings. That doesn’t mean that things are going to be easy, however, or that everyone in the program will sit and learn in a classroom.
The Young Guardians Program is hands on, and the Young Guardians are a full team in their own right. Heroes within the program are expected to prove their worth if they want to graduate, and that means helping the senior teams in the field. It’s a highly dangerous job, but that’s only one way to look at it. The other way to look at it? The adventure of the lifetime, one that will take the members of the program around the world, from New York City to London to Moscow to Tokyo and more. In 2023, the Guardians announced that the program would be expanding. As one of the new members, will you be able to help in saving the world? Or are you doomed by fate?
A Word From The OPWelcome to Heroes of Tomorrow Redux, which as the Redux part of the title might suggest, is a reboot of two different threads. You don’t have to have been in the original HoT or in Fates and Futures to join this thread, however. It’s a new story and a reboot of the universe, while retaining many of the same themes, characters, and organizations. While the intro might indicate that you’re playing as someone from the Young Guardians Program, that’s not necessary this time. There’s multiple storylines to get involved with, and you can build arcs in other areas of that story rather than just following the Young Guardians. However, the “main” plot per say is the one following the Guardians, so it’s strongly advised for all players to be involved to some extent with that.
As the introduction stated, the goal of the program is to bring up the next generation of heroes for the Guardians, the largest hero organization in the world. This isn’t, however, an academy. It’s a full fledged team, just not one that has senior status yet. The team is based in Nassau County, New York, on international ground that serves as the headquarters of the Guardians. Members of the program live there, and range from ages of 18 to 23. Exceptions can be made with ages depending on special circumstances, for example if someone is non-human or has very different circumstances, such as if someone was younger but had exceptional ability. Members of the program remain with it until they graduate, which is typically after multiple years and is determined by the supervisors. While on the team, members will be trained by being dispatched around the world to deal with relevant events, mostly situations that fit their current skill level.
The world of this RP is also a bit different than a traditional superhero story in that it focuses on some elements that aren’t always covered, such as moral greyness and what normal, everyday people would think of superheroes and how this would affect them. Heroes might save the world, for example, but that doesn’t mean that they’re all flawless paragons of virtue. Additionally, not all ordinary people are pleased with the law being enforced by highly dangerous individuals who act above the normal law and, many times, disrupt regular life while doing it. It’s impossible to fight in a city without some kind of collateral damage, after all. The RP’s world also has a fleshed out mythology explaining superpowers, magic, and the various organizations that can be interacted with. If it all seems interesting enough that you want to join, check out the information below. Reading through every single aspect of the lore isn’t a requirement, but it’s a good idea to get familiar with the key parts.
As of arc three, it's also possible to play a villain in the counterpart to the Young Guardians Program, the Prodigy Initiative! If you want more information on that, check out the lore for the Initiative down below and feel free to ask for more details.
Welcome To The New AgeSome say that the dawn of superpowers should mark a new era in humanity. It’s debatable whether or not that is true, but it does seem like the birth of powers was the most influential event of the 20th century. The actual event that caused powers to appear is unknown and scientists to this day are baffled by it. Some progress had been made in understanding powers, but not to the extent that the source of them can be pinpointed. What is known, however, is that powers arrived during the early atomic age and that the late 1940s were when the first reports were made of people demonstrating strange abilities.
Records indicate that multiple governments during World War Two investigated this, but the phenomenon was not understood enough to be utilized as part of the war effort for any side. When the Cold War began, there were more and more reports of powers, and governments investigated the matter intensely. These people with powers were dubbed metahumans, to differentiate them from the rest of the population. Of course, the discovery wasn’t without controversy. Superheroes weren’t much of a thing until the 1960s. The first decade with powers was largely spent with these people being experimented on by governments, before public outcry forced the practice underground. Metahuman rights quickly became part of the overall civil rights movement, and in 1961, the United Nations backed the creation of the International Metahuman Council. The goal of the IMC, to put it simply, is to act as the governing body for matters relating to metahumans and their rights.
Despite progress, however, powers as a whole are something not understood very well by science, even in the modern age. They come in multiple types, some of them more mysterious and arcane than the others. Additionally, powers have greatly shaped the world around them ever since their first appearances. In the boxes below, you’ll find further information on how powers work, what types of powers there are, and how the world has changed because of them following their initial appearance.
Heroes & VillainsThe rise of superpowers has also brought about the rise of a number of factions, some of them good and some of them bad. The International Metahuman Council oversees matters relating to metahumans, and is the sanctioning body for superhero teams as well as the main advocate for metahuman rights around the world. Villains, however, ignore the authority of this organization and use their powers for less than desirable purposes. Other organizations, such as third parties and governments, are run by regular humans but use metahumans to some extent in their operations. The use of metahumans by militaries, and intelligence services, is not unheard of.
Rules & ApplicationsRules
- OP and by extension Co-OP decisions are final. You can make your case for things to change, but arguing decisions once they've already been made final isn't going to get you anywhere. Executive decisions like this will be avoided for the most part, though. The thread staff will try to make decisions in the best interest of the player base.
- Please read this post if you would like to run your own subplot. It explains the proper process and the reasoning behind using this process.
- Powers banned for balance or gameplay reasons are time travel of any form, super speed which exceeds 60 mph top speed, abilities which allow for remote hacking, and abilities that manipulate the velocity of objects (for example, a power that would let you throw knives at thousands of miles per hour). As a general rule, abilities that have very few ways to counter them or allow you to control other characters will be under increased scrutiny, but are not banned entirely.
- This may be a superhero RP, but that doesn't mean that plot armor applies as it might in comics or movies. If your character does something that would get them killed, they probably will be killed. That's not to say that your character will be killed off. This happens rarely and basically every time it does, the player was warned about what they were doing and went through with it anyway. Common sense also usually prevents it. For example, one way to stay alive is to not pick fights with a villain far stronger than your character.
- This is a semi-open world RP in that it does have a main plot but arcs outside of that can be ran. However, please consult the thread staff before attempting this, to work out timing and other things. Also, please consult the thread staff before applying for factions or adding NPCs to existing factions. For the most part, the main story is closed for outside contributions except for those from a select few players. Yes, that means that we don't need NPCs for the main team to encounter.
- While Discord is not an official requirement, it is highly advised to use Discord. This is where the majority of the OOC planning happens and you will miss out on this if you don't use the site. You don't have to be on it all the time, you just have to be present so you can be alerted when something relevant to your characters is happening. You'll receive the link when you join.
- If you are inactive and the plot needs to move forward, your character may be turned into an NPC and moved by other players. If you want to avoid this happening, you should let people know before you go away and tell them when you'll be able to post.
Interested in joining, after reading the above? Look below for the applications. Use the character application for characters that will see major use, the NPC application for characters that will only appear in the background or will be considered minor characters, or for other specific roles as directed by the thread staff, and the faction application for factions. Please gain thread staff approval, however, before applying for a faction. This will save you time by preventing you from writing an application that doesn't fit the thread.
