Lore building: a whole (hard seinen) custom setting to replace Sailor Moon
I am rewriting a very old 250K words fanfic of mine into an Original:
- it is too fanservice-laden, inappropriate for the source franchises. Me force-growing the characters up to 18+ just didn’t work, their personalities fall apart at the seams.
- the story is stifled, suffocating in the bounds of the source franchises - while it would flow much more naturally as hard seinen.
I should have done this from the start instead of rewriting it 5 times.
Since I do not want the old version to exist anymore (already took it down everywhere) but loathe to just trash 500K words of hard work (the Russian and English versions combined) I decided to salvage it by giving it a new setting with its own lore and replacement character cast (some of which are noticeably expies from those anime series - because I have no resources to change the plot too much).
Sources of inspiration (soup to my stone): countless edutaintment shows on NHK World Japan; “Little Vera” and the incredible acting of Natalia Negoda; “Grappler Baki”; “Daughters of Mnemosyne”; “Devilman Lady”; “Tokyo Godfathers” by Satoshi Kon; “Mermaid Forest” by Rumiko Takahashi; “Worm” by Wildbow; online super Japanese name generator https://namegen.jp ; X-Com (1994); Master of Orion (1993); Stellaris; Team Fortress 2; Wakfu; Fairy Tail; Pizzigri whose suggestion sparked the very idea.
The chapter 2 is still lagging at 30%, but I wrote a brand new epilogue (Ch. 26) that stems from this new setting (such a tear jerker). Yay?
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The present day:
1996, a hard seinen-like setting focusing around Tokyo. The world is full of Masquerade with supernatural beings hiding in plain sight. Everything goes into the pot: the vampires, the yokai, magical beasts still living out of phase with reality, governments hiding truth from people, The Thing sleeping frozen in the ruins of a nazi antarctic base, eldritch abominations visiting at times, Kaijuzilla and Ktool-choo sleeping at the bottom of the Pacific, ancient mummies sleeping in Egypt with muggle reppellent wards still holding.
Note that existence of souls is a given in this cosmology, a proven fact for the characters. I warn about this here because some people find it offensive (like the old me who watched Babylon 5 on TV)
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The sumeras:
The sumera mantles were created by great minds, visionaries and technomages of the Tyrrians (see below) as an ascension path fortheir species. Later their uplift team applied these to those weird upright-walking “mammals” they found on Earth, adapting where possible. But the research team had vastly less resources than the genuises who initially created the mantles, resulting in the Human sumeras being essentially a hack job.
All the mantles (including Tyrrians’) are a single quantum object that seeks for suitable candidates, refracting through the prism of the legends it pulls from the planetary noosphere into the soul of a chosen sophont using it as the gate and the key into physical reality bound by space-time. This is similar to how Worm Shards seek triggers, except mantles seek self-sacrifice for the sake of something the legend embodies instead of a “really bad day” and the sumeras are a genuine effort to make an ascension path for the species.
The mechanism is morality- and values- neutral, to reflect the species as a whole as it evolves changing its values. Simple self-sacrifice for an idea is enough.
The uhr-mantle is universe-level indestructible but would be disconnected from space-time, thus lost forever, if all sumeras were eliminated.
The sumeras are essentially unkillable except for things that devour their soul along with that aspect of the mantle. So,
Things that *could* kill a sumera, most by devouring her: another sumera (Tyrrians didn’t think of ritual cannibalism as something out of ordinary so they included this in their power set by design), Ktool-choo, the tarrasque, the Ranga Blade spell, some very old and very powerful magical beasts, many eldritch abominations, vampires (after days of constant sucking), despair while being a disembodied soul (can happen after unsuccessful regeneration attempt, disconnects the mantle).
Things that could *not* kill a sumera: any mundane weapons, Kaijuzilla’s breath, a point-blank nuclear explosion, a supernova, Broly blowing up the whole galaxy.
In human society “legends” were mostly gods or heroes from the period and the area (Mycenian/ancient Greek, Egyptian, Assyrian) with modern day ones branching into all kinds of mythology (Thor, Quetzalcoatl, Captain America).
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Regeneration:
works by micro-porting intact organic molecules back to their places. Damaged molecules are discarded and re-made using matter creation, which is much more mana-intensive. You cannot have “sumera blood” or “sumera body part”: these quickly disintegrate leaving nothing but wet greasy spots as the sumera’s body visibly regrows itself in seconds.
A severed limb costs approximately 1/12th and complete annihilation approximately 120% of the full mana bar (of current-day sumeras, see below about slow power level escalation).
Regeneration is stalled if a large foreign object is present that cannot be pushed out via built-in telekinesis or vanished via quantum trickery. A foreign object cannot prevent functioning (bodily functions are in stasis in the sumera form, does not really need to breathe) nor consciousness (because sumera form is in fact a mind uploaded into soul-cloud using the body as a meat puppet). Given enough mana, the sumera could simply teleport away leaving all foreign objects behind. If the body is wrecked or regeneration fails repeatedly, this happens automatically: the body will begin regenerating from scratch at a “safe” location (the algorithm of choosing such is complex). Until the process finishes (which takes about 40 minutes if her mana bar was empty) the sumera finds herself floating in emptiness.
Capturing and torturing a sumera requires sealing her magic - not as rare as one would think: the magical denizens found lots of reasons and methods for sealing during millenia. So, “don’t get cocky, lass”.
Ionizing radiation: regeneration activates in the “matter creation” mode replacing wrecked molecules. You need titanic amounts of Zieverts for the sumera to even feel the effects (of her mana regen diminishing).
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The mortal form:
A form of powers sealing designed for social interaction, bearing offspring and body modifications (since the sumera form is eternal and self-correcting). Magic provides ample options for body modification. Dying in this form results in regenerating from scratch at a safe location using the backup of the body shape as it was at the moment of sealing - so any body modifications are forfeit - but otherwise regeneration is off except a silent background DNA repair.
Un-sealing into a sumera while wounded or maimed results in auto-correction algorithms trying to regenerate the missing/damaged parts but the result is often disfigurement or at least scars - which lasts until next sealing, applying healing/body shaping magic and un-sealing again. A sumera can intentionally give herself a cool scar for stylistic purposes by invoking this.
Un-sealing is instaneous, at will, no verbal or somatic components. Re-sealing requires several seconds of concentration and significant effort of will.
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The useful superpowers:
* immortality
* minor superstrength 10x.
* mana pool (regenerating from empty to full in 30 minutes)
* knowledge and skills installed into the mind: magical theory, basic combat and utility spells, basic facts of physics and the universe, basic orbital mechanics, basic knowledge of Atlantean technology.
* built-in resistance to the elements mitigating energy flow and thus greatly extending the range of briefly survivable temperatures (liquid nitrogen feels like freezing cold water, boiling water like very hot bath).
* space-worthiness (requires more power than most sumeras currently have) including indefinite survival in space, STL propulsion with infinite delta-v and short FTL hops for combat.
* built-in kinetic barrier against hypervelocity impactors. Designed with space debris in mind but works against firearms and plasma weapons as well. A sumera could tank a 7.62 mm rifle round receiving a small bruise, tank a plasma rifle shot receiving a small burn, or even survive orbital reentry.
* built-in magic resistance and near immunity to mind affecting spells (due to mind being a soul-cloud upload).
* planet-wide teleportation (costs 1/3 of the mana pool, thus no more than 2 in a row every 20 minutes without undue risk)
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The less useful superpowers due to Human sumeras being a hack job:
* any Human triggering turns into woman permanently: the creators accounted for the astronomically rare case of a drone or male triggering… by automatically uplifting them into a queen.
* cannibalism: can devour another sumera’s soul thus destroying her and acquiring her powers (mana pool and mana regen plus some secondary aspects of her mantle). Designed for power struggles in the government, for honoring those who wish to stop living, and for self-sacrifice where several sumeras give their lives for creating a single super-sumera.
* lack of clothing: transforming (un-sealing) into a sumera form automatically puts all worn items into subspace pocket leaving the sumera naked. Mitigated by optical illusion of a basic outfit auto-applied and could be further mitigated by the utility spell of summoning a glamour (a dense illusion) of an outfit the sumera chooses. Still requires getting used to, training and being quick on the cast. Nothing prevents the sumera from donning ordinary clothing or just re-summoning her outfit from the subspace pocket but then clothing damage applies (unlike the glamour which auto-regenerates or the illusion that simply clips through everything).
* giving birth to drones: applying the most useful aspect of hive building to these… weird, live-birthing two-legged creatures proved a great challenge for the uplift team. But they beat it. The power no sane Human sumera would use, ever: giving birth to one drone every 10 minutes (the rapid pregnancy boosted by the regeneration mechanism). The drones are clones of their parent that take a form of a 12-year old girl with all the knowledge of their parent but with the brains of Cirno. They grow to their full size in 30 minutes at the cost of the parent’s mana. They have 1/4th their parents power level, regenerate moderate wounds but are mortal. Damage to the brain kills them. A perfect army of expendable child soldiers.
* the built-in protection against insane people triggering does not work because it relies on Tyrrian physiology. This could lead to disastrous consequences as these twisted triggers are approximately 3x powerful (the old Tiamat, Nergal)
* mis-calibrated filter tested on Humans of the bronze age by Tyrrians who never abandoned polytheism often rejects the followers of Abrahamic religions, the chance of them triggering is significantly lower. The filter mistakes devotion to One God for acting under a master’s orders and thus self-sacrifice not being valid. This skews representation of humanity and creates potential for dangerous conflicts in near future. One could hope the sumeras of the modern age would be able to fix this design flaw.
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The slow escalation:
Being facetes of the same quantum object, the sumeras grow in power level with their numbers growing and with time. The first sumera of this age awakening two centuries ago had power level of ¼ of average modern-day sumera while it would cap by design at 5x of the modern-day average approximately when humans achieve space flight (The Tyrrians didn’t count on us using rockets to get there long before we discovered anti-grav). Roughly 3x of the modern average power level is required for unlimited flight and going to orbit, being space-worthy in general and unlocking the FTL dash combat power.
The initial power level strongly implies that a few Tyrrian sumeras - or of races uplifted by them - still exist somewhere.
This mechanism is important for the (unfinished) sequel where the main characters would receive a huge debuff due to being the first sumeras in that universe.
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The outfits:
Being dense illusions these self-clean and regenerate rapidly.
Limited only by the fantasy of their owners (glamour allowing for Impossibly Cool Clothing). But most liked Apollo’s version enough to accept it as sort of unofficial uniform: a mid-thigh short-sleeved tunic with a belt around the waist and high sandals. The default built-in scheme is a very archaic and unflattering bikini. The ones with completely different custom outfits: Menhit, Nergal, Sobek, Osiris, Tiamat, Sasuke.
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Replacement characters:
Note #1: I’m the least free in this because those characters have to fit the at least 80% of the existing plot and at least 80% of the dialogue whithout rewriting.
Note #2: I created a team containing full eleven 1:1 replacements at first but then I thought about the inelegant elephant in the room of Tux being put on the bus due to injury. In the end I re-shuffled the roles. The replacement of Saturn who haven’t participated in the first fight, takes the place of Jupiter there, she is powerful and versatile enough, while the Tux replacement triggers after the fight and the injury becoming a sumera who then takes the role of Jupiter in the second fight and the following rescue arc. I got one headache less, a new plot twist and never leaving anyone behind all in one…! Sorry, Agni. You were padding anyway, your backstory sucked and your outfit was too elaborate.
Tiamat: Takahashi Yuuki (高橋 雄気) (Такахаши Юки, с длинным "у", не с коротким: Ю:ки/Yuuki) - replacement for Ranma / Sailor Sol.
Body: he is below average height at 163 cm but immensely ripped (think Tenchi’s head on Baki’s body).. The female form has the same height, loses 2/3 of the volume but is still ripped. His hair is black, very short and spiky, identical in both forms.
Personality: Jerk with a heart of gold, born to a single father fisherman from Okinawa. A prodigy of martial arts, he took to karate from the early age. His father dying prematurely, he went through teenage gangs, underground tournaments and other harsh facets of the world of super martial arts. He was going through his life easy and carefree, an undaunted tumbleweed with rarely any money in his pockets, wandering around Japan, taking part-time jobs as a construction worker. Him learning ki techniques like hadouken or conscious ki reinforcement is a recent development, happens in 1995 in Aiko’s flashback in Chapter 1.
Gender flipping: technically the sumera is his native form now, him transforming between male and female forms while sealed as a mortal is the side effect of chaos magic, not yet fully explained. The transformation is instantaneous, at will.
Outfit: bluish-black villainous version of the classic Red Sonia scaled bikini. the triangles are a tad too small, the narrow stripe hanging in the front and the wider stripe hanging in the back leave her thighs fully exposed. There are thin triangular pauldrons with upward-curling tips, a tall collar of pseudo-feathers, black gloves and scaly bracers. The sandals on her feet are standard-issue, black.
Affinity: primordial chaos; partially: heavenly light, epic magic resistance, disintegration (acquired by the previous mantle’s holder devouring 3 sumeras: Rudra, Set, Hyperion).
Trigger: 1995, summer, purely artificial, experimental ripping of the mantle from the old Tiamat via artifact concocted by Menhit.
Power level: 6x the modern day average. Resulting in her teleporting limit being 10 in a row with regaining one “charge” in less than 2 minutes. She is also the only spaceworthy sumera.
Age: 21 (born in 1975)
Hermes: Takahshi Aiko (that name is fake, she was born Yoshisho Ayu (義正 杏優) (Ёшисё Аю)) - replacement for Akane / Sailor Iris.
Body: a wiry, 165 cm woman with defined muscle tone in her shoulders and arms, short raven black hair.
Personality: patient, hard working, great wanderlust, freedom is everything to her. Born to an old-fashioned rich family that almost suffocated her spirit, she ran away before her 16th birthday and lived as a tumbleweed since, nearly dying several times from this harsh life - a princess learning aikido and house chores in a gilded cage, then a free hobo, then a wandering season worker. Her fake identity was initially called Tanaka Aiko, two years older - she raised her age to 18 after the fake amnesia of her second symbolic rebirth. She cannot swim, she cooks greatly in the kitchen and awfully in the field. Her story is described in broad strokes in her flashback that takes most of the Chapter 1 where she meets Yuuki on the eve of 1995 while fighting in an underground tournament. At present (1996) she is rapidly gaining martial arts prowess after her husband but is still behind him while her aikido had mutated into a brutally efficient art of war.
Outfit: a standard tunic (ref: https://vplate.ru/images/article/orig/2 ... iki-29.jpg only with two sleeves and fully opaque), white. Winged sandals with functional wings giving her air maneuverability and inertia-defying dashes, a scarlet cape with sky-blue lining. The cape is a weapon: she masterfully switches it between a full illusion, ungrabbable as it clips through everything, and a dense glamour usable for wrapping around or catching something.
Affinity: travel on foot; swiftness.
Trigger: 1995, summer, day after the battle of Tokyo, induced resonance during her first honeymoon night with her sumera fiance. Her fearlessness in facing death two times while she was still learning survival counted as self-sacrifice for the ideals of being free to walk the world.
Age: 19, soon to be 20 (born November 1976, she turned 18 in 1994).
Osiris: Namatame Asuna (生天目 明日菜) - replacement for Sailor Moon
Body: a lean 157cm woman with very long chestnut hair usually done in a simple ponytail. No muscle tone at all.
Personality: a painter with a great talent for seeing into people’s souls. A devoted pacifist who could get dangerous if necessary. A kind soul always striving to help her friends. A devoted leader taking her role very seriously -- seeing Menhit as not suitable for leadership despite all her skill and power (Menhit partly agrees). She is from a middle class family.
Outfit: a white strapless ballroom/wedding dress, a tiara of chamomiles and white ribbon in her hair, white gloves reaching her elbows. The dress below mid-thigh is an optical illusion, you can notice it clipping through walls and behaving like a badly animated mage’s robe from “Oblivion” during vigorous actobatics.
Affinity: rebirth; plant growth. Note that her special insta-heal ability has a steep cost if applied to a muggle: there is always probability of reverting them into a baby instead of fully healing them. The more damage (or age-induced wear), the higher the chance. That’s why she cannot heal her mortal fiance, for example. It always works on sumeras, though. When fighting opponents who count as persons, she often freezes and lags in combat trying to find non-lethal applications of nominally lethal spells.
Trigger: autumn 1994, artificially induced by Menhit trying to shore up defenses against the old Tiamat. Not exactly what the manipulator hoped for but this process is iffy at the best of times.
Age: 22 (born 1974)
Sasuke: Morimichi Kimura (木村 守道) - he is a replacement for both Tuxedo Kamen (the first fight) and Sailor Jupiter (the second fight, the rescue arc)
did I mention: “SPOILERS” ?
Body: as a guy, a fit everydude, 176 cm, with a small but neatly trimmed beard. Short dark chestnut hair. As a sumera, a curvaceous “talented” woman (of the same height, biggest bust of the team), the hair becomes longer and she puts it up into a ponytail.
Personality: as a guy, a badass normal, an easy but responsible person who rose from a part-time construction worker to a junior foreman. His primary hobby is martial arts, the esoteric and theoretic part. He is hopelessly outmatched by Yuuki in a spar but the latter respects him greatly as he reverse-engineered and taught him many useful secrets. In the summer of 1995 he was researching ninjutsu (to be able to support his love as a ninja under pseudonym Saruyama Sasuke) and secrets of ki manipulation: hadouken, ki strengthening. As a sumera, she is struggling to cope with the sudden gender swap (he was prepared for the eventuality, but not enough it turns out) and the awkward fact he and Yuuki, two heterosexual he-lesbians, now find each other hot.
Outfit: as a guy, a RL ninja - i.e. could be dressed in anything to blend into background. As a sumera: a modest and practical kunoichi outfit with baggy trousers and legs below the knee wrapped tightly (ref: https://www.mysterytribune.com/wp-conte ... female.jpg ) , entirely black, with her lower and upper face hidden under a classical “ninja” mask. No visible weapons (summons glamour shurikens or kunai as needed).
Affinity: ninja; loyalty.
Trigger: Chapter 7, after the first fight, induced by the trauma of being unable to protect his love.
Age: 26 (born 1970)
Seshat: Morita Reiko (森田 れいこ) - replacement for Sailor Mercury.
Body: a lean 161 cm woman, short black hair, shapely legs, narrow waist and flawless skin, very pretty face but prefers hiding it all under baggy clothing and stern expression.
Personality: a devoted researcher possessing genius intellect, she was convinced to aim it at becoming the greathest swordsmith of the era who arms the today’s dragon slayers - namely scientists - where the sword being a metaphor for computer technology cutting into the unknown. With support of her loving family and to consternation of her “peers” she has finished school in 16, got her Bachelor degree in 3 years, them Master’s degree in microprocessor architecture and was working with (unspecified) “the professor” on developing a multi-core processor (it’s 1995, I must remind you). As a sumera she is a devoted support, using her talent for research into magic, combining magic and computers and helping others work like a cohesive whole. Remained a socially awkward virgin until the ripe age of 21 when Ishtar dragged her kicking and screaming into an orgy.
Language: Japanese, English.
Outfit: a standard tunic, leopard-patterned.
Affinity: preservation of knowledge. In combat she prefers using summoned water as the most versatile and safe to use around non-combatants element, freezing and boiling it with great skill for desired effect. Her artifact is a laptop she made combining Atlantean technomagic with fourteen Pentium MMX processors overclocked to 600 MHz. It has a wide range of scanning sensors and could render HUDs for up to 12 sumeras in a several hundred meters radius via simple illusion spell giving them targeting, nav points and crude wireframe of the landscape. The view is shaky, imperfect and gives the team incredible tactical advantage.
Trigger: summer 1995, dying for her cause during the battle of Tokyo when she tried saving the research data from the building that could be demolished any minute. She did not make it but for her self-sacrifice had regenerated as a sumera in her bed.
Age: 22 (born 1974)
Ishtar: Koimizu Mai (恋水 舞) - replacement for Sailor Venus.
Body: a shapely 164cm tall woman with long full blond hair - which was dyed before her triggering, becoming natural after. Her insane attractiveness is all in her eyes and her body language, though - i. e. it’s a skill she trained specifically.
Personality: scatter brained but horribly (for people around her) perky and energetic. Could become focused on something to the point of obsession. Having discovered her sex drive at the age it’s illegal to talk about she brought endless trouble on herself and her single mother. Reaching the coveted 18 as a skilled and experienced woman, she tried working as an escort girl but got kicked out for being too daring. After trying several unrelated jobs she ended as an on-again off-again porn star with the scenic name of Cancan. She still lives with her mother who grew grumpy and snappy from her tiring personality and her job. She is truly devoted to her job, convinced she is making the world a better place -- even as she had to learn an entirely new skill of acting: it turned out being good at sex and being a good porn actress were two very different things. A good teammate, she always strives to help her friends with her area of expertise. She is so full of good intentions they sometimes have to beat her away with a stick.
Outfit: firmly 18+. She changes it every time, sometimes from her line of work, sometimes fetish wear, exploiting the fact that glamour allows for Impossibly Cool Clothes.
Affinity: love (koi, the physical kind) and beauty. No combat applications, she is the weakest combatant. Aware of that, she is prone to daring stunts taking up the role of a dodge tank. She is reasonably good with the air dash spell (modeled after the trademark Tyrrian combat hops they perform using their wings)
Trigger: summer 1995 during the battle of Tokyo, refusing to interrupt love-making when the building was literally torn apart by an eldritch tornado around her and the guy. Both survived by miracle, climaxing under the stormy sky on top of a barely standing chunk of ruin.
Age: 20 (born 1976)
Apollo: Mary Seusse (Мэри Сюс) - replacement for Sailor Mars.
Body: a lean 168 cm British teen. Curly, dark blond hair that is literally golden in her true sumera form, pale freckled skin.
Personality: reversed, dignified, fatalistic. Fell into deep depression when the old Tiamat devoured her friend Hyperion in the spring of 1995. Was later found by Seshat scanning for sumeras and befriended by Osiris who pulled her out of depression and into the team. She became fatalistic after the disastrous battle of Zemlya Sannikova seeing more sumeras cease to be.
Language: English, speaks Japanese freely but with notable accent.
Outfit: a standard tunic, white with golden trim and belt, golden sandals.
Affinity: oracle; a sun bow of light firing overpowering laser arrows with mean penetration. Can invoke a barrage of weaker lasers for less dramatic targets. Her divinations are true but usually so confusing it takes the whole team brainstorming to decipher them. Has a family mansion in a suburb of Tokyo the younger sumeras frequent as a meeting place.
Trigger: 1994, natural, due to the planet-wide resonance wave launched by Menhit. Triggered in Paris together with Hyperion during a gang attack.
Age: 18 (born 1978, triggered in 16)
Nergal: Nishimura Naoko (西村 七央子) - replacement for Sailor Saturn.
Body: a fragile-looking tiny 152 cm woman of plain looks with her black hair in a bowl cut.
Personality: cheerful with undertone of traumatized, glad to live and be pretty again but haunted by the body horror of her past. Modest, often behaves like a grumpy old lady (who she in fact is) towards the “youngsters”.
Outfit: drab gray kimono and slightly darker hakama, typical samurai footwear, a white cloth tied across her forehead with character 詛 holding two lit candles burning with blue flame. Often carries a plain spear (yari, not naginata) she summons to channel her magic in a safe-ish manner (ref: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... parade.JPG minus swords)
Affinity: curses; disintegration; irradiation. Her mantle is twisted and her magic extremely toxic, to the point she could not re-seal without her magic slowly destroying her mortal body. Each un-sealing ended with accumulating errors that led to gradual disfigurement. Unable to restore her form because her magic turned any spells toxic, eventually her look would give Gollum a scare. She went to ground for long decades wallowing in depression until found by Seshat scanning for sumeras and helped by Osiris who finally healed her body and Seshat who calibrated her re-sealing mechanism fixing the problem at the cost of 1/6th of her power level.
Trigger: 1945, entirely natural but twisted, due to dying from radiation poisoning in Hiroshima while slowly going insane.
Power level: 2.5x the modern age average -- but only good at destruction, even the flight spell is a hazard for everyone around and her teleportation tends to leave irradiated holes in her surroundings. In destruction, though, only Tiamat could match her if she goes all out.
Age: 68 (born 1928, triggered in 17)
Sobek: Ishigura Mitsue (石黒 三津枝) - replacement of Sailor Uranus.
Body: a tall, athletic woman of 173 cm, her haphazard black bangs sticking unruly (like many characters of Go Nagai).
Personality: hotheaded and prone of rushing ahead untinkingly. Fiercely loyal to C’tl who she sees as family often working in pair with her.
Outfit: a form-fitting black catsuit with heavy boots and gloves with reinforced knuckles, a belt with the handle of Spectral Khopesh she uses against tougher opponents.
Affinity: fierce protector. Having the Nile crocodile as her eidolon, she is vicious towards her enemies and her power includes short but sharp ki claws. The team gave her a friendly nickname of “Miss Gore”. (I drew inspiration partly from Devilman Lady)
Trigger: 1989, natural, due to the planet-wide resonance wave launched by Menhit.
Age: 22 (born 1974, triggered in 15)
C’tl: (Ктль) (a name of a god of people who never survived to leave any historical record) Aubree Norma Parunga (Парунга, Обри Норма) - replacement of Sailor Neptune
Body: a plain-looking 166 cm tall albino Phillipino with light skin and straight snow-white hair that falls down to her shoulder blades. In her mortal form she makes her hair look jet black and her skin so much darker it stands out: tired of fighting the Japanese “Philippinos are sex workers” stereotype she simply played along by exaggerating the stereotype and solving any problems with liberal application of mind control magic.
Personality: calm, meditative, very hard to phase. An older sumera with 15 years of experience under her belt, she saw lots of pretty hairy stuff and grew good at her trade.
Language: Filipino, Japanese, passable with English.
Outfit: white sandals and a baggy white robe with wide long sleeves that seems to waver and makes your eyes hurt if you stare at it. It’s actually a complex illusion concealing her movements. In case of vigorous acrobatics it dispels leaving her in a plain white bikini.
Affinity: seer. In combat she uses illusion magic to give the entire team a weak discount sharingan. She can also scan in depth by looking through a frame of her thumbs and index fingers and can see into the future (as a part of her power set, unlike Menhit). Being an experienced sumera, she is skilled with all kinds of magic, including offensive.
Trigger: 1981, natural, due to the planet-wide resonance wave launched by Menhit.
Age: 35 (born 1961, triggered in 20)
Menhit: (no civilian name) - replacement for fanon Sailor Pluto.
Body: a wiry African woman 160cm tall, short afro hair. Eye contact with her makes anyone uncomfortable, feeling as less than an insect. Does not use a civilian identity, glamouring herself into whoever she needs to pass as (an utterly forgettable Japanese woman named Tanaka Riyu, for example)
Personality: a high functioning sociopath. Aware of the fact, channeling her contempt towards humanity into drive for survival of the species. Dealt a shitty hand early in life (sold into slavery by her own tribe for being a tomboy, abused by slavers for two years, joining the Haitian uprising only to be betrayed by her fellow slaves amidst the orgy of violence) she became misanthropic. After long decades alone she is slowly warming up surrounded by a team she could finally relate to, even if “the entire team team are babies”. It doesn’t make her all right but gives her a framework for checking her decisions against and channeling her sociopathy into constructive things. The team gave her nickname of “shogun” while she calls Osiris “little princess” - derisively, disguised by the latter’s optimism and naivette.
Language: English, German, Spanish. Passable with Chinese, Japanese, Russian and <a long forgotten Bantu dialect>
Outfit: dark lilac with dark red edges, classic Egyptian “warrior skirt”, wrapped tight around her butt and rising in front, a fold hanging in the middle, combined with a sleeveless tunic. Solid bronze boots, knee-high with striking edge, bronze bracers with similar striking edge over her wrists.
Affinity: slaughter. She is the lion and the entire world is tall grass. Her innate power makes her a natural predator who makes Jurassic Park raptors look like kindergarten amateurs. After long decades of researching into magic and introspection she re-focused on artifact creation and timeline manipulation - which she applies viciously for the sake of the species survival. Had instigated many conflicts to hasten progress, orchestrated ww1, buffed Hitler - and is proud of all that (hellooo, Doctor Mother?) In combat she wields a huge anime-style sword almost bigger than herself.
Trigger: 1781, entirely natural, due to being betrayed by her fellow slaves amidst the uprising and gang-raped to death. The first sumera since the fall of Atlantis.
Age: 222 (born 1764, triggered in 17, sold into slavery in 15)
Other sumeras, mentioned or participating in flashbacks
Mnemosyne: nee an elderly British lord (name unspecified).
Personality: a rare misanthrope unfamiliar with the concept of morals. The worst kind of rationalist imaginable, one of the founding members of “Annenerbe”. If not her (un)timely demise she and Menhit would have made “Wolfenstein: the new order” into reality, with nazis colonizing the Solar system as early as 1960s and everything.
Language: English, German.
Outfit: n/a, masqueraded as various men in mortal form for most of her life, only un-sealing to restore youth or cast powerful magic.
Affinity: keeping and uncovering secrets of the past. Almost everything we know about Atlantis and Tyrrians comes from her painstaking archaeological work. Was specializing in physics and technomagic research, is responsible for the meagre stockpiles of Tantrium available today, had built a working flying saucer using the 1920s tech base.
Trigger: 1845, utterly forced, the result of Menhit practicing reality manipulation.
Age: 145 at the moment of cessation of existence (born 1789, triggered in 56)
Perished: 1934 while inspecting the nazi base in Antarctic, devoured by the hybrid of a shoggoth and Carpenter’s Thing the nazi scientists were creating under her supervision (the thing is till there, in the empty base, lying in wait frozen). The end of her only company sent Menhit into paroxism of misantropy.
the old Tiamat: (no civilian name known)
Body: a Latino from Venezuela, made herself have live black snakes for hair, able to spit weak but nasty magic at high rates.
Language: Spanish only.
Outfit: almost identical to current Tiamat except the bikini was silk, not scale armor, and there was no feather collar.
Personality: an anarchist who went off the deep end drunk with power and went hunting for sumeras and reveling in chaotic evil.
Affinity: primordial chaos; instinctive overclock times three (4x boost) (see below about the overclock); assimilatiing any sumera who manages to annihilate her body, not unlike Butcher from Worm. She devoured three sumeras, one of them using this method.
Trigger: 1994, natural, due to the planet-wide resonance wave launched by Menhit. Circumstances unknown.
Power level: effective 24x the modern day average, a serious raid boss. Free levitation, city block destroying attacks. Damaged Tokyo killing tens of thousands.
Perished: summer 1995 during the battle of Tokyo, her mantle ripped out of her soul via artifact when the entire Tokyo team managed to immobilize her without killing.
Herakles: Kinaya
Body: a tall (178 cm) and seriously ripped African woman from Zaire. Medium afro hair. For her sumera form, she had suntanned herself to deep, almost black - for the bonus of skin becoming tougher while her immortality negates any negative effects of accelerated skin aging. In her civilian form she glamours herself as a pale-skinned (milk chocolate) city-dweller and hides her muscles under modest baggy clothing.
Personality: A devoted hero aiming to drag Africa kicking and screaming out of the backwards brutality and towards the stars. Detests warlords and often hunts them, including the neighboring Rwanda. Is wise enough to know it’s the people themselves who are the problem and that changing things to the better would take decades. Made friends with many magical beasts and other spirits of the rainforest. Used the immortality to gain a Master’s degree in sociology and is now (1995) studying to get a second degree, in civil engineering.
Outfit: a lion hide around her waist and a matching top. The hide is real, she skinned a magical man-eater lion. She often summons a spear, it could be bronze of flintstone. Barefoot.
Language: <unspecified> of the Bantu group, good with English, Swahili and French; passable with local dialects of the region.
Affinity: strength; heroic deeds for the people. She can become invincible for a few seconds as she grabs the opponent (think TF2 Uber only usable in melee) and then suplex/break anything, be it an intangible ghost or a freight train.
Trigger: 1981, natural, due to the planet-wide resonance wave launched by Menhit.
Age: 30 at the moment of cessation of existence (born 1965, triggered in 16)
Perished: January 1996, during the battle of Zemlya Sannikova as she tried suplexing the eldritch abomination. It almost worked but she got devoured as soon as her invincibility ended, feeding the thing instead and setting the fight back to square one. Her end was a huge blow to morale.
Thor: (name unspecified)
Body: a dark skinned Brazilian, wavy black hair, <?>
Personality: diligently heroic, does her best to cover the gap left by Rudra and Set perishing. Works hard to hunt narcocartels and the supernatural masquerading as them.
Languages: Portuguese, bad Spanish, barely passable English
Outfit: <specify later, if neeeded>
Affinity: lightning; protecting people.
Trigger: 1989, natural, due to the planet-wide resonance wave launched by Menhit.
Perished: January 1996, during the battle of Zemlya Sannikova as her bad English caused miscommunication in combat. The second true death after Heracles, this nearly broke the morale.
Queatzalcoatl: (name unspecified)
Body: a petite Latino with shaggy emerald hair. She looks like a teen despite being over 20, a deliberate choice.
Personality: a cautious, freedom-loving tumbleweed.
Languages: Spanish, bad English.
Outfit: <specify later, if needed>
Affinity: flight. The air dash spell in her hands becomes true flight with unlimited duration and very good aerobatics.
Trigger: 1989, natural, due to the planet-wide resonance wave launched by Menhit.
Power level: 80% of the modern day average. Very weak combatant, little practice with offensive spells. She could lift and carry someone else grabbing them with her legs, but not for long.
Age: 21 (born 1975, triggered in 14)
Captain America:
Body: a lean White American with blonde hair.
Personality: a true hero, never hesitates putting her existence on the line. But she is comically overfocused on protecting the values of freedom and democracy, which makes her so over the top others could barely tolerate her. Saw womens right violation in the tea ceremony and was barely held back from trying to reform it on the spot. Cooperates with her country’s government and has secret spats with Marvel: she considers them owing her instead and the image belonging to the people.
Languages: English only.
Outfit: rule 63 of the Marvel hero (ref: http://marvel.reactor.cc/post/1764223 ) with navy bloomers under the skirt.
Affinity: shield of faith. The shield is really nearly indestructible, it’s a ki construct, a manifestation of her faith in her values.
Trigger: 1994, natural, in Florida, due to the planet-wide resonance wave launched by Menhit.
Age: 19 (born 1977, triggered in 17)
Hyperion: (name unspecified)
Body: an African French, unspecified
Personality: a devoted Christian, a devoted monster hunter, a loyal friend of Apollo.
Outfit: irrelevant, dies in a “tell, not show” flashback.
Affinity: heavenly light, banishing dark forces in the name of Jesus. A devoted monster hunter, she was lured out of a protective barrier by the old Tiamat instigating youma attacks in Tokyo.
Trigger: 1994, natural, due to the planet-wide resonance wave launched by Menhit. Triggered in Paris together with Apollo during a gang attack.
Perished: spring 1995, devoured by the old Tiamat.
Set: (name unspecified)
Body: a Latino, unspecified.
Personality: a true hero, persistent and dauntless narcocartel hunter
Outfit: irrelevant, dies in a “tell, not show” flashback.
Affinity: epic magic resistance
Trigger: 1989, natural, due to the planet-wide resonance wave launched by Menhit.
Perished: 1994, absorbed by the old Tiamat after hunting her down in the central China to avenge Rudra and vaporizing her.
Rudra: (name unspecified)
Body: a Latino, unspecified.
Personality: an angry and righteous destroyer of vile things, be it rapists or narcocartels.
Outfit: irrelevant, dies in a “tell, not show” flashback.
Affinity: destruction (fire, lightning, disintegration). Her hits were always messy.
Trigger: 1981, natural, due to the planet-wide resonance wave launched by Menhit.
Perished: 1994, devoured by the old Tiamat when she tried stopping her but failed to account for the 12x power level disparity.
Total sumeras triggered at the start of the story: 19, of them still exist: 12, perished: 7 (1 killed by ripping the mantle out, 1 devoured by a scientific experiment, 2 devoured by an eldritch abomination, 3 devoured by an insane sumera)
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Nationality:
Japanese: Nergal, Sobek, Osiris (they thought there were only 2 because Nergal stayed hidden)
Africans: Menhit, Heracles (rip)
African French: Hyperion (rip)
Brazilian: Thor (rip)
Latino: Quetzalcoatl, Set (rip), Rudra (rip), the old Tiamat (rip)
Brits: Apollo, Mnemosyne (rip)
Americans: Captain America
total: 15; 3 white, 3 asians
+ new Japanese: Tiamat, Hermes, Ishtar, Seshat, Sasuke (+5) = 20; 3 white 8 asians
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Religion:
Christians: Hyperion, Rudra, Captain America
Agnostics: Apollo, Menhit, Seshat, Tor, Quetzalcoatl, the author
Chaotic Evil: the old Tiamat
Indifferent: Heracles, Tiamat, Set
Atheists: C’tl, Nergal, Mnemosyne. Remaining an atheist while having a direct proof you have a soul takes some serious conviction - they must be rationalizing it as either a natural phenomenon of as creation of really advanced aliens.
Shinto: Osiris, Hermes, Ishtar, Sobek, Sasuke
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Combat abilities / material artifact:
Menhit - skills of an ambush predator buffed with optical camouflage / BFS
Mnemosyne - no / no
Nergal - cursing (because of the sheer toxicity of her magic), negative status effects / spear
Sobek - ki claws / the Spectral Khopesh
C’tl - seeing the enemy’s weaknesses, cheap ersatz sharingan for the whole party / no
Tiamat - martial arts, sheer 6x power / no
Hermes - martial arts (aikijutsu), inertia-defying movement, double jump, air dash as a free power rather than spell (no mana cost) / no
Seshat - analysis and scanning, HUD for the whole party / laptop
Ishtar - no / no
Appolo - laser bow / no
Sasuke - ninjutsu buffed with illusion magic / no
Quetzalcoatl - unlimited flight, aerobatics / no
Heracles short-timed invincibility in meelee combined with ability to suplex anything, strength buff on self, summoned spear / the lion hide (trophy, cosmetic)
Captain America - shield of faith / no
Hyperion - AOE turn undead and banish evil / no
Thor - lightning, kinetic shockwave, summoned hammer / no
Rudra - fire, lightning, disintegration / no
Set - epic resistance to status effects / sword
the old Tiamat - raid boss / no
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Spells and spell-like abilities:
if mana pool is 100.0 then regen is 3.6/min., 0.06/sec. 1666 sec. (28 min) to fully recharge.
sumera isn’t some sailor-suited defender of love and justice, sumera is a powerful tactical strike unit. One sumera is enough to bring down a specops company (of a galactic civilization, with weapons and equipment to match), board an interstellar battleship or -- if inserted into “RWBY” -- to dominate Salem.
passive abilities include kinetic reducer that lets them tank a long burst from Browning M2 or a blaster cannon. Active abilities add on top of that.
Deflector: this shield requires concentration, mental effort to raise it, but can deflect a main battle tank shell or plasma round a starship secondary battery.
Barrage: magic missiles homing at sumera’s mental command (she has to keep a sensor or visual contact with the target), constantly accelerating while in flight (max range ~400km in space, ~25km in atmosphere). Damage is about on par with a 40mm grenade but these missiles do 500% damage to shields and can hit a hypersonic target if the sumera is able to track it. A mature galactic age sumera (power level 500% current average) could maintain this barrage indefinitely. Could be fired in all directions to converge on the target (cue: Macross Missile Massacre, Isaac’s greater missile storm). The new age sumeras often fire it upwards and backwards from their shoulder blades.
Inspired by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v8OU32whQc
The spells per se fall into following categories:
1. non-lethal and immobilizing: Ice Prison, Icy Embrace, Entangling Lianes, Tazer, Dazzle, Confusion.
2. support: Restoration, Heal, White Noise, Mirage, Notice-me-not, Invisibility, Interface, True Seeing.
3. specialized attack: Fireball, Chain Lightning, Vile Gust, Banishment, Deluge.
4. owerpowering strike: Chaos Twister, Disintegration, Corruption, Zilla Breath, Ha Do Ha, Baryon Erase, Cessation, Nukem.
(note #1: the spells that cost more than their mana pool are only usable via overclock. Cannot learn spells with cost above ~190% of their mana pool: overclock levels above times two is too risky for casual use)
(note #2: those in brackets are powers, quicker to use and never have verbal component. If there are 2 variants placed together, the spell variant is usually AOE or a party buff)
Everyone - (teleport{30}), (air dash {1}), (deflector shield {1 + 0.3 * deflected spell’s cost + 1/min.}), (magic missile repeater{0.1/shot}), (notice-me-not {1/min.}), (invisibility {1/min.})
Osiris - (heal {regen cost *0.12}), Heal{regen cost *0.22}, (restoration {mana*0.8}), Restoration {mana*1.1}, Entangling Vines, Fireball{1}. Restoration is basically mana donation, conservation of ninjutsu in effect. Heal is quite powerful as it costs 5 or 9 times less that that sumera regenerating on her own)
Seshat - White Noise {10}, (interface {0.5}), Interface {6}, Bind {8}, (sealing {12}), Ice Embrace{1}, Ice Prison{2}, Illusion {0..0.3}, Overpressure {2}, Aquakinesis {2}, Thermoaquakinesis (0.5)
Ishtar - (air dash {0.5})
Apollo - (sun bow {8/shot}), Laser Shower {3.0 + 1/sec}, Tracking
Nergal {mana pool 250%} - (teleport {95}), Vile Gust (8), Disintegration {20}, Corruption {30}, Zilla Breath {50 + 10/second}, Baryonic Erase {150}, Cessation {450}
Sobek - (ki claws {0}), (double dash {1}), Chain Lightning{3}, Force Spear{5}, Vertigo.
C’tl - (true seeing{3}), True Seeing{15}, (mirage {4}), Mirage {9}, Dazzle{5, AOE}, Dizziness{2, AOE}, Deluge{12 + 7/second}, Heal {regen cost *0.7}, Bind {4}, Sealing {25}
Tiamat {mana pool 600%} - Fireball {1}, Chain Lightning {2}, Chaos twister {20}, Disintegration {40}, Ha Do Ha {90 + 20/second}, Nukem {1100}
Hermes - (double jump {1}), (air dash {0.5}), (double dash)
Menhit - *any of the above with cost less than 25*, (luck/woe {1}), Luck/Woe {4}, Confusion, Fear, Insanity, Gale Gust, Quake, Grease, Mark Prey {15} (all her spells with cost below 20 are silent, with no verbal component), Banishment {130}, Heal {regen cost *0.6}. Pity she never gets to fight except in a brief flashback.
Sasuke - no, haven’t had time to discover.
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Tyrrians (тиррианы):
Evolved on a planet with 1.8 Earth gravities and more dense atmosphere (~4atm at sea level., nitrogen-oxygen(7%)), they are built like bulky grasshoppers the size of a dog with their wings being, 3-jointed like a bird’s with a few large “feathers” that look like wings of terran insects. The wings at rest are folded neatly.
Average Tyrrian queen weighs around 30 kilograms, average drone or male around 20, equal in length but thinner. They cannot really fly on their wings, able to make short hops instead - which heavily influenced their warfare and the powers they gave the Human sumeras.
The society is built of queens and their hives (10-100 drones strong on average) as drones and males are literally, physiologically sub-Tyrrians, posessing noticeably less intelligence and much less ambition, viewed as something between a favorite dog and a favorite child depending on that drone’s achievements and its queen’s world view.
The queens are quite similar to humans in that they form extended families, track and take pride in their ancestry and practice political marriages (which, in their case, is more like adopting because males are non-entities).
Their form of government is naturally oligarchic, emphasizing the rule of a few who are above the others, be it aristocracy of the old or technocracy of the space age. Not that dissimilar to the Roman republic, oscillating between oligarchy of wealthy families and dictature of visionary autocrats. They had their share of feudal wars, uprisings (always to install a better autocrat) and power struggles - even a couple world wars that left parts of their huge homeworld heavily irradiated.
Skilled engineers and mages, they only achieved space flight after researching Tantrium and gravity waves manipulation (a chemical rocket would require nearly infinite mass).
The Tyrrian civilization met something that wiped it out, including the Atlantis base. What exacly did that is unknown, urging Menhit to push humanity harder, to have a chance to be prepared against the odds amidst the ominous silence of the Fermi paradox.
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Tech (Atlantean/Tyrrian):
For the basic starting tech of galactic contenders I copy-paste the Old-Com tech base: flying saucers made of super alloys and powered by Tantrium, non-baryonic matter created via technomagic and serving for both energy production and gravity wave manipulation. Weapons are plasma based.
Reason: despite all my love towards Babylon 5, old Master of Orion and Stellaris, rocket-type propulsion feels too weak and archaic for going out there on a galaxy-spanning 4x. The oldCom tech feels much more fitting the “we are ready to reach the stars” stage. With more advanced civilizations, naturally, leaning towards “sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic” and really crazy stuff going on.
Tantrium takes 3 times more energy to produce at massive planetary and orbital facilities than it then generates. Cue massive fleets of mana/solar stations swarming around the star (this is more realistic than a Dyson sphere).
But Tyrrians have much more than simple Old-Com tech.
To breach interstellar distances there are motherships, massive vessels combining Alcubierre drive concept with more arcane manipulations on the fabric of universe. The interstellar tech does not scale down well so any expeditions are always massive affairs, with mothership carrying dozens of battleships and hundreds of smaller craft. At 100 ly/year it would take one 500 years to cross the galaxy (hard but doable, considering cryo stasis and sumeras for officers) Short hops, say, between Sol and Alpha Centauri could be made several times a year if one could afford the huge energy cost.
Entrenched, Tyrrians are able of weather manipulation, geological manipulation on large scales, industrial-scale divination and even of reality splintering, creating barriers around their base that turn it into actual enchanted island only tangible to those allowed passage. Atlantis was such an enchanted island during the time their uplift teams were active on Earth.
The pinnacle of their reality manipulation are the sumeras: perfect dictators, unkillable leaders and unstoppable strike force. When a couple thousand sumeras rise from the planet to meet the challenge, supported by their swarms manning battleship saucers, even Prethoryn Scourge or ME reapers would only have chance to exclaim “Ohshi--”.
P.S. Saucer makes a really good battleship, with maximum surface to emit gravitational waves for cruising while able to flipp sideways to reduce its profile in combat. “Spinal mount” in this case would have horizontal placemnbt from edge to edge, with the saucer rotating to aim, with the “island” in the center above and below the main disc housing the usual batteries of guns.
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Atlantis:
This uplift research base was really the Santorin island: the Tyrrians used an old (for them) trick of shackling the volcano to become a shield booster. Any cataclysms normally provoking an eruption would only make the defense stronger shifting the island further out of phase with reality. Like the Zemlya Sannikova later it was invisible and intangible for muggles.
The base was built around 2300 BCE, uplift experiments affecting the Mycenian civilization and the Middle Kindgdom.
All sumeras - Tyrrian and Human - on Earth perished around 1900 BCE at mysterious circumstances (researching the few surviving databases brought no clues so far). The base kept existing for awhile deteriorating rapidly in the hands of locals until the out-of-control volcano voiced its displeasure.
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Timeline:
~2300 BCE: Tyrrians begin their uplift experiment creating the first Human sumeras in their Atlantis base.
~1900 BCE: All sumeras and Tyrrians disappear due to unknown reason. The “enchanted island” effect goes down, the base quickly degrades in the hands of local Mycenians.
~1600 BCE: with the controls failed, the volcano blows up annihilating the base and wrecking the surrounding primitive civilizations, effectively masking the traces of extraterrestials.
1791: Menhit triggers amidst Haitian revolt, a proof that mantles had survived somehow and that there still exist other sumeras in the universe. She despises humans. She is not a racist, she hates everyone equally.
1845: Learning timeline manipulation Menhit forces Mnemosyne triggering. They work together for almost a century performing magitech research and development and advancing science in acts so inhumane it’d make even the thick-skinned 19th century shudder.
1934: Mnemosyne is devoured by a hundred-headed phtagnohydra while inspecting the nazi base in Antarctic. Proving that even regular magical beasts have a chance to destroy a sumera. In a fit of bitterness and misanthropy, Menhit buffs Hitler’s luck and charisma.
1945: Nergal triggers while dying in Hiroshima from radiation poisoning and going slowly insane. She goes to ground til 1995.
1969: seeing muggles prance on the Moon Menhit decides it is time to kickstart mass sumera triggers, she has to hurry before the Humans build their first couple of scouts and a colony ship. She begins erecting resonance wave emitters all around the globe and woe to the local magical denizens who get in her way.
1981: a global wave. C’tls, Heracles and Rudra trigger.
1989: a global wave. Sobek, Thor and Quetzalcoatl trigger.
1994: a global wave. The old Tiamat triggers in Venezuela, Apollo and Hyperion trigger in Paris, captain America triggers in Florida.
1994: losing it the old Tiamat begins a wave of chaos terror. Rudra tries stopping her but is killed and devoured. Quetzalcoatl and Set swear revenge.
1994: Seth hunts the old Tiamat. Catches her alone somewhere in the central China and tries sealing her, trying to temporarily incapacitate her via vaporization. This triggers the parasitic absorption mechanism and Set is no more.
1994, autumn: the old Tiamat keeps hunting for sumeras, finds Apollo and Hyperion. Those two run to Tokyo where they hide in the Seusse mansion warding it heavily.
1994, autumn: Menhit begins preparations for the eventual showdown, induces Osiris triggering and crafting the artifact for tearing the mantle out. She needs a muggle for that, searching for a suitable candidate she chooses Yuuki and manipulates the timeline making him meet Aiko and come to Tokyo at the right day.
1995, spring: the old Tiamat instigates bold youma attack all across Tokyo to draw Apollo and Hyperion out. Those two try hunting the out of control monsters, Tiamat finds them devouring Hyperion. Apollo is saved by the team of Menhit, Sobek and C’tl who drive the insane sumera off. Apollo falls into depression and secludes herself in her mansion.
1995, summer: Yuuki comes and the battle of Tokyo ensues resulting in him becoming Tiamat ( te initial team consists of: Menhit, C’tl, Sobek, Osiris + her fiance Kimura acting as a ninja under pseudonym “Saruyama Sasuke”. Seshat and Ishtar trigger during the battle from the resonance of the old Tiamat perishing. A day later Hermes triggers.
1995, summer; Seshat tries being a superhero drawing attention of Menhit. Osiris realizes she is not alone in her point of view anymore and argues with Menhit about ethics really making her reevaluate her choices. As in micromanaging heroes really believing in heroism would be tedious, considering there would be soon dozens of new sumeras. She decides to let them manage themselves, only manipulating or directing them when necessary.
1995, summer: Seshat gains access to Mnemosyne’s research. She applies computer technologies and researches a radar able to find sumeras in Tokyo. They detect Ishtar and Nergal. Osiris and Seshat help Nergal restore her human form, stop being a butt-ugly freak for the first time in decades. Ishtar drags Seshat and Nergal into an orgy.
1995, autumn: Osiris pulls Apollo out her funk via talk therapy and optimism. Apollo becomes a part of the team, her mansion becomes the meeting place for the “younger generation” (Apollo, Osiris, Sobek, Tiamat, Hermes, Ishtar).
1995, late autumn: Heracles becomes associate member of the Tokyo team, sparing time whenever she could from her university studies and patrolling around Rwanda.
1995, winter: Seshat finishes developing her laptop, her support abilities rise greatly.
1996, January: the battle of Zemlya Sannikova against a soul-eating eldrich abomination posing existential threat. Menhit alls upon *all* sumeras to join the fight. Heracles and Thor are devoured, first one overestimating her invulnerability the second one due to miscommunication as her English was atrocious and her Spanish bad. Tiamat and captain Amerika avoid sharing their fate by the skin of their teeth.
1996, spring: conflict with vampires in Poznań. Ishtar almost buys it after she “shields her comrades with her body” and is abducted as a result. They rescue her sucked almost dry, bitter and disappointed in vampires.
1996, summer: the story begins
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Overclocking: the plot device replacement for Usagi using the Silver Crystal.
It’s a dangerous technique similar to kaiohken. The sumera mantle uses the soul as gate and key into the physical reality bound by spacetime. Soul, compassion and self-sacrifice are the biggest power of the sumeras putting them above eldritch abominations. It seems tyrrians weren’t that different from humans, after all.
Each step of the overclock doubles mana pool, mana regen, spell power and power/reach/area of special abilities. (2x at 2, 4x at 3, 8x at 4)
Backlash: at exiting the mode the sumera has to make a Will saving throw against cessation of existence. The deeper in the negatives her shrinking mana pool ends, the higher the difficulty.
Inspired by:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trwcVIUrHVs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XehZJsVAww
The overclock was forbidden knowledge, not available from Tyrrian archives. Menhit and Seshat brain-stormed it together… And made it common knowledge.
The Tyrrians with clearance to know about it knew it as Sacrifice. It was supposed to be unlocked instinctively, like a limit break.
Inclined to use this technique: Apollo, Sobek, Osiris, Tiamat
Never use it because they don’t have a combat special ability or it is too dangerous: Ishtar, Seshat, Nergal.
In the battle of Zemlya Sannikova some sumeras use overclock times two and Tiamat times three.
Overclock is *not* used in the plot point after the first battle where Usagi used Silver Crystal to collapse the portal: Seshat deals with it instead, tricking the Ahs self-diagnostics subsystem into crashing.
In the second battle the sumeras go all out. Many use overclock times three, Tiamat times four and even Nergal times two, unleashing her full destructive power. In the end where Usagi using Silver Crystal causes the reality to fracture, Osiris designates C’tl the next leader and uses overclock times seven knowing full well she would not survive. With her 128x power she fully recharges and buffs the team allowing them to drag the knight’s charge down to zero. Reality shatters and Asuna survives thanks to being thrown into Ahs that erased the backlash along with her power.
The main danger of this technique: overclock can go as high as times twenty, essencially making the sumera a god able to rearrange the entire planet with her power at the cost of her soul being destroyed by the backlash in a minute or so. The mantle does not survive either, becoming a part of physical laws (adds a permanent planetary feature)
Also, the old Tiamat was using instinctive overclock times three left and right, which made her 6x4 = 24 times stronger than most sumeras.
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Time theory:
The past is fluid and could be changed but you cannot create a paradox because the present is an immovable pivot around which all your manipulations turn. You cannot change the present by manipulating the past, but you can change the future as you change the “vector” so to speak of things traveling from the fluid past into the uncertain future through the point of immutable present.
Any “seeing into the future” techniques or powers require the user to exist in that future and be able to send images into their past self’s brain, technically manipulating their past a few milliseconds before their present. For the future self there are two immutable points: their own present and their past selves’ present. Deviations accumulate rapidly twisting that future out of validity so the user loses connection and has to reconnect to different future selves at a high rate - or trick causality into keeping connection with a future that is no longer valid for a bit longer.
The dangerous setback of this technique: the user *cannot* see their imminent destruction. If there is no hope for survival, they become blind. If there is a chance of survival because of, say, the planet buster *not* arriving by random chance, they latch onto that future and see nothing wrong. Menhit could see a thousand years into the future and see herself alive and Humans thriving - but that is a dangerous illusion.
The dangers of timeline manipulation stem from the caveat above: You steer the future by seeing into it while manipulating the past - but you are blind to event chains that result in your certain demise. Say, if you machinations wake Ktool-choo with 99.9% probability then all you will see would be the 0.1% probable future where nothing goes wrong.
What Ahs is doing in this version is hogging up all the flexibility of the past into protecting the system from future threats, freezing the past beyond several Planck units into immobility and denying anyone access via sheer power - while manipulating galore in those few Planck units. As a result it is unable to alter physical reality much but plays havoc with people’s brains as the brains are pivotal areas where nudging a few electrons may lead to a huge change many years later. Advanced computers are affected likewise.
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Summary:
Hard seinen magical girls clash against alien entity aggressively pushing its own cosmology that rejectis their existence. A former fanfic rewritten with original characters.
Девушки-волшебницы из жёсткого сейнена сталкиваются с чуждой сущностью, агрессивно навязывающей собственную космологию, где им не место. Бывший фанфик, переписанный на авторских персонажей.