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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shadow" data-source="post: 4925102" data-attributes="member: 16760">Power SourcesSome notes on the various power sources:  (Please note that it is impossible in this universe to affect "all powers" with trait powers.  There must always be some sort of limitation, either by source or type of power.)Psionics:  It's the oldest known form of power, and also the most common.  It has a genetic basis;  the genes responsible have been dubbed the "metagene complex".  The metagene complex has at least seven different distinct variants, three "psionic" and four "mutant".  The three psionic variants roughly correspond to telepathy, ESP, and telekinesis.  Genetic research suggests that the the psionic variants are much older than the mutant ones (and the historical data, sketchy as they are, support this - I'll post later on the world's timeline), and that the telepathy variant is the oldest.  (Certainly it is still the most common, followed by esper and then teke.  More unusual psionic abilities like teleportation are significantly less common.)Despite their genetic similarities, psionic and mutant powers are distinct.  Effects that nullify psionics leave mutant powers untouched, and vice versa.  Psionic powers tend to be developable with practice rather than undergoing sudden "activation" the way mutant powers so often do.  However, unusual psionic powers are occasionally found that are hard to tell apart from mutant ones based on external evidence;  a genetic scan can settle the matter definitively, though.  (As can attempts at nullification...)Though psionics is by far the most common source of super-power, it also tends to be weaker - those with power usable as superheroes and villains only slightly outnumber mutants of similar ability.  No truly powerful psis enter the historical record before Nostradamus, the most powerful precognitive on record.Super-geniuses (of the sort who invent super-science) are almost invariably psionics with the esper complex.  None were known to exist before Nikola Tesla, popularly known as "Dr. Marvel".  Many people attribute the sudden upsurge in psionic and mutant powers in the early decades of the 20th century to the explosion of his lab in 1895.  (Sabotage by Thomas Edison is widely suspected in the "accident".)  This theory also helps account for the fact that supers are more common in North America than anywhere else, though the worldwide distribution of supers does not fit altogether comfortably.  (In particular, Europe and East Asia have more than one would expect given the smaller numbers in South America and Africa.)Mutants:  The four "mutant" versions of the metagene complex have different interactions with matter and energy, and are heavily susceptible to environmental factors.  Indeed, while mutant powers sometimes manifest spontaneously, often they await some sort of lethal or near-lethal accident to suddenly activate.  The result of such an activation depends not only on the metagene variant, but also on the nature of the accident.  It is known that the mutant variants of the metagene are partially regulated by testosterone;  males with usable mutant powers outnumber females.  Mutant supers also tend to be more aggressive, and are more likely to end up villains.  Visibly obvious mutations are quite rare, but not unknown.Mutants are vanishingly rare in the historical record before the 1920's.  Only three since 400 AD are widely accepted by historians of Europe, for example, with a fourth suspected.  (Rasputin, as it happens.  There may well have been others, of course, who were not recorded.  There are also a sprinkling of mutants in records of other cultures, notably the Chinese.)  It is believed that such mutants were sports, the psionic variants of the metagene being damaged in transmission.Magic:  It's usually a (highly) trained skill, involving the manipulation of tradition-soaked symbol-systems... but it's also possible to be granted magical powers - whether on purpose or by accident.  (Erebus, for example, gained his powers from an object charged with extradimensional magic.)  Whichever, it is certainly not inheritable in the usual sense.  Magic is a distinct power source for purposes of nullification.  Some mages employ spirits to do magic for them;  these are often called "sorcerers".Magical beings like vampires exist as well.  Generally these have either come from other dimensions, or are the product of powerful spells.  Nullifying magic sometimes can actually do them damage;  for most, though, it just suppresses their unusual abilities.Magic can be shown to have existed at least as far back as the first century BC;  a sophisticated Atlantean artifact has been dated to about that time.  (The Atlanteans claim that they were practicing magic as much as 10,000 years ago, though most scholars do not trust their historical reckoning.)  The earliest known non-Atlantean magical artifacts are Chinese, and datable to the third century AD.  Magical power and magical creatures seem to have vanished between 400 and 800 AD;  both returned in force in the 1920's, when existing "magical" systems suddenly began to work, and the first known extradimensional beings (satyrs) crossed over to our dimension.  The explosion of Tesla's lab is, again, widely implicated in this change - the speculation is that the explosion of one of his experiments somehow weakened the dimensional boundaries between Earth and other dimensions.All that appears to be necessary for a symbol-system to "work" magically is internal consistency and a certain degree of complexity.  It is in principle possible to create one's own magical system, but this is sufficiently difficult that few try.  Different magical systems have different areas of emphasis, being good at some things and poor at others.While there are hellish dimensions full of what might as well be called "demons", nothing is known for certain about the human afterlife in general, despite the claims of some mages.  (However, it IS possible to sell your soul to extradimensional entities for power, and they DO recover their property to the best of their ability.)  Likewise, while there are dimensions that are home to beings of vast power, none has been found corresponding closely to any Earthly religion.  If any religion is the result of extradimensional interference, the influence is more subtle than that.  [And we don't care to explore the issue further, so you'll have to be happy with that answer. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />]  There are, however, small knots of cultists to various unpleasant beings.  (Including some that bear an uncanny resemblance to those described by H. P. Lovecraft...)Super-Science:  It can be precisely defined in this setting as "any technology that cannot be explained by classical physics (including its extension into special relativity)".  Thus many real-world inventions, like transistors and lasers, can be shut down by powers that nullify "super-science".  However, super-science is assuredly not limited to such wimpy levels of disrespect for the classical laws of physics. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  This isn't to say that super-science is necessarily irreproducible or chaotic;  it has its own rules and logic of development.  (Though you often have to be an esper super-genius to understand them.)  Except when it doesn't!  Certainly the more gadgeteers tinker, the further away a Theory of Everything seems.The reason why (weirder) super-science hasn't revolutionized the world is that the industrial complex just doesn't have the tools to make the tools to make the tools to mass produce it.  Super-scientists just aren't common enough, and generally can't explain themselves in terms normal scientists and engineers can understand.  Worse, they even have trouble talking to *each other*, since each has generally come up with his theories in isolation, using unique terminology or no terminology at all.  Worse yet, the field(s) of super-science is (are) so vast, two different devices producing apparently similar effects may be working in totally different ways.Thus (weirder) super-science devices tend to be handcrafted and hideously expensive.  (Not to mention they often require very expensive components.)  Governments and large corporations may keep a pet gadgeteer to make devices for them, but nobody else can afford it.  A few gadgeteers have devoted themselves to inventing revolutionary devices that can be produced with bleeding-edge modern technology, and have become fabulously rich doing it;  but most find that sort of thing unutterably boring - and in any case, such devices do little to accelerate the pace of progress beyond what normals are already doing on their own.Super-science has not been able to fully come to grips with psionic and mutant powers.  While certain changes to the brain and body are necessary for such powers to develop, they do not seem to be sufficient:  Something more is involved, which has thus far eluded explanation.  (Animals have never demonstrated psionic or mutant powers, despite experimental efforts.)  As for magic... there is a traditional tension between mages and gadgeteers, as neither fits into the other's worldview.While super-science can produce artificial intelligences that can easily pass the Turing test (just look at Alpha), it is an open question whether such AI's are purely the result of programming or whether they embody something more.  Some telepaths have the ability to interact with machine intelligences;  and some mages even claim to be able to detect and manipulate machine souls!  Super-science inventors themselves violently disagree on what is going on with artificial intelligence research.  The exact status of an AI may even depend on who invented it.Interestingly, while both magic and super-science can do dimensional travel, they seem to have different specialties in this regard.  Super-scientists seem to find it much easier to reach dimensions that resemble Earth and have similar physical laws, while mages tend to reach dimensions that are flat-out bizarre.  Some overlap is possible.  Mutant and psionic abilities have never been demonstrated to contact other dimensions.Atlantean crystalline super-science appears to have been the result of centuries of telepathic collaboration, not so much the result of esper super-genius.Training:  Naturally, it's quite limited in terms of the powers it can grant, but within a narrow range, normals can keep up with supers pretty well - it just takes an enormous amount of work and dedication.  "Chi" based abilities that go beyond the human norm, though, are generally a form of psionics or magic.  (Which it is depends on the exact school of thought.)  Trait effects that can influence trained powers are exceedingly rare, but not unheard-of.</blockquote>

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