Heritage (Worlds in Peril) Prep Page

In the far ancient past, Earth was natural nexus of interdimensional gates that was colonized by the citizens of several civilizations that had advanced to the point of dealing with other realities. Over time, the stations on Earth shifted slowly toward being more and more permanent. Eventually, people began to settle there to raise families as small cities rose up. Over time, the people who were born and raised on Earth exposed to the extraordinary levels of transdimensional energies and they began to exhibit strange and often powerful abilities.

Wednesday 23rd - Slot 2 - 11am to 4pm (Japan Time) - Worlds in Peril 

It was determined that the natives of Earth were born with gates within themselves. These tiny gates leaked crossdimensional energies and sub-atomic particles that was shaped by the various genetic structures of the new natives allowing for the execution of supernatural abilities.

It became clear that the world of Earth had invaluable strategic importance. The powers that were exhibited by those people born on the Earth had incredible value across all facets of society. Attempts began by the dozens of major and minor civilizations to gain total control of the planet. Eventually, these intrigues and diplomatic dramas devolved into full out war. The planet was devastated and the war only came to an end when the natural gates all around the planet and surrounding orbit simply closed without any explanation what so ever.

Everyone who was on the Earth when the gates closed were trapped there and forced to make due with the war torn land-scape. Cross-species breeding slowly became more and more common and powers and abilities of newborn individuals became less common and less powerful with each generation. Some of the remaining nigh-immortal original supers determined that while the gates were all still present and people were still being born with gates within their genetic code, people were starting life with their gates opened to smaller and smaller degrees.

The life-span of these mixed bloods with closed gates grew smaller and smaller and they began to look more and more like the modern human being. In the end, all the ancient superbeings had all died leaving behind numerous stories which would become the myths held by cultures all over the world.

Terra Black at age 19

Then, some time in the late 20th Century, the gates started opening again. Nothing obvious, no huge natural gates, but small ones here and there. Perhaps stories about laundry machines eating socks held more credence for a while, but, even more importantly, the gates within the natives began to open. Among the earliest of these people to have their gate open was one Terra Thora Black who manifested as a gorgon in her late teens.

By happenstance, Terra also had access to an ancient diary disc that had belonged to her gorgon ancestors in the ancient past back before the days of the war. It was damaged and gave a disjointed account of the true history of the Earth, but she was able to figure out a lot which set her on her path.

Fifteen years down down the road, Terra Thora Black was Ms Black and moving from a career in the State Department to establish a foundation aimed at finding and helping people with active gates, now referred to as "Heritages." This Heritage Foundation gathered together an first class of students which included one Perseus Throne who, with the aid of his elder brother attempted to take control over the foundation facility and the collected students as part of his father's plan to consolidate power and use the heritages to take power in the world.

Agent Darren Quinn

Perseus and Phillip Throne were stopped by the efforts of FBI Agent Darren Quinn, Marine Private Kawaii and some of the collected students including Acacia Cristos. Their father, Jacob Throne remains at large. 

Nearly a year later, and Perseus Throne took over the California prison holding him and used it to try to force open one of the natural gates and starting an earthquake in LA. He managed to partially succeed but was throne into the unstable gate which closed behind him due again to the efforts of Agent Quinn. Perseus Throne appeared a third time along with a company of extradimensional aliens to reunite with his father and and begin to make their plans for world domination, though now Perseus's eyes were set on multiversal domination. 

At the incursion point in a town called Sanjuro in Texas he happened upon Ms Black who had been hearing concerns from some scientists and psychics about the area. He nearly killed her but ended up being stopped again by Agent Quinn. This time, his corpse was left behind making it absolutely certain that he was dead. However, in the same conflict, Quinn stepped through the Sanjuro gate as he his own to then inactive gate was snapping open and severed the gate behind him, promising to keep the aliens on the other side busy.

And that is the setting of the Worlds in Peril one-shot I will be running. Depending on the player decision, we will be setting this story in one of the following time periods:

• Pre-Heritage Foundation - Super-powers are still urban legends. This is rather like the first couple of seasons of Heroes.
• Heritage Foundation is Established - More like a more hopeful Darker than Black. Governments are aware of Heritages and most government funded groups aren't nearly as assimilation focused as Heritage Foundation. General public unaware.
• Post-Los Angeles - Perseus has already made his prison break and the world knows about Heritages. Terra Black goes public with Heritage Foundation making some basic positive spin. 
• Post-Sanjuro - Along with vigilantes and government funded superagents there are several Heritages in the civilian sector such as Jaehwa Kim, a kumiho (Korean kitsune) actress. The source of Heritage powers and the fact of the first extradimensional incursion has not yet reached the public.

Worlds in Peril is an Apocalypse World hack for superheroes and can be purchased from the linked page at the beginning of this sentence.

Worlds in Peril Character Generation Summary
Possible Heritage Power Profiles and Limitations
More Detailed Report of the Heritage A-Kon 2006 Mutants and Masterminds Events
Character Art from the original A-Kon 2006 Mutants and Masterminds Events 

Worlds in Peril Player Aids (Origin and Drive Playbooks, Move Reference Sheets)

Back to the Exhaustion Mini-Con page