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HISTORY
People are highly attuned to the world in varying degrees. By early adolescence, many develop abilities that reflect the people they've developed into. However, this level of attunement is often quite low, as it depends on both a person's natural temperament as well as their lived experience. Thus, most well-adjusted people are only attuned to the world to the degree which they can only wield certain, fleeting abilities that suffice to help them perform daily tasks and little else.
However, some people are more attuned to the world and are thus born with traits that they can wield more powerfully. Rarer still are personalities that can tap into a certain aspect of life itself, thus allowing for traits that are not seen nearly as often. When a person of such a core personality also happens to also inherit a high emotional sensitivity, then they end up with supernatural abilities that can bend the nature of reality itself. This is incredibly rare, however, and as a result these individuals tend to be rumored against and feared. If a certain individual were to inherit this sort of sensitivity born out of a gentle temperament, yet decided to seek power and retribution instead, they could remain unnoticed for decades before becoming an existential threat to society as a whole.
Historically, there has been a hierarchy that forms which ranks those with higher powers above those with weaker ones, as is usually the result of such powerful individuals asserting their abilities over others. This led to tons of conflicts as societies ascended only to cannibalize themselves from the inside out. Historians characterize it as the human tendency to break the engine just to reinvent the wheel again.
After the last major fallout with a generational trait-wielder in this region, the vast majority of (less powerful) people collectively refused to let themselves again be shoveled down to the bottom of the barrel on the basis of power alone. Thus a coalition of more average people joined together and formed Jupiter, and built up a society meant to prevent hierarchy and uncivilized chaos from spiraling out again. The resulting society managed to build itself up from ruin and into a self sustaining city-state that thrives on collective ideology and the illusion of choice. This city state was named after Jupiter, the king of the Gods in Roman Mythology, representing the shared value of law, order, and victory- as well as the collective belief in the inherent dignity of man.
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In the present day, Jupiter is a city-state organized into multiple districts, which has been around for about 200 years now, and has survived several elected councils. In alignment with their commitment to anti-hierarchy, all abilities once manifested are registered with Jupiter and catalogued, and then suppressed via adaptive technology that keeps all powers at a standardized baseline. This device, reminiscent of a collar, is designed for the user's specific power classification, and is worn 24/7. In addition to suppressing one's power, they also function as a unique ID for the citizen, allowing them to participate in society.
Inner City
(inspired by Gotham)
Middle City
(inspired by Cyberpunk 2077)
Outer City
(inspired by City 17)
Architecture
The central district is occupied mostly by government buildings and critical infrastructure, followed by the university, then flanked by different sectors sorted by occupation. Within the surrounding areas are more subtle government facilities meant to prevent catastrophic breakdown if the central district were to become damaged for whatever reason.
- the architecture is a mix of historical buildings and modern architecture, with the government buildings themselves being consistently updated with the changing times in order to remain as friendly as possible.
- Modern day issues like socioeconomic status are a thing, of course. So plenty of buildings and neighborhoods are dilapidated. It's part of life. These neighborhoods tend to feature victorian-style houses and/or brutalism depending on the era they were last maintained in.
- plenty of elementary schools, 15 middle schools, 7 high schools, and 1 college.
Internal Hierarchy
I.O: Composed of the most dangerous trait wielders, IO is the smallest innermost investigations unit. It provides essential security for the top government officials and monitors sensitive cases out of the public eye.
Europa: the Research division. They are constantly developing more efficient technology to keep Jupiter internally stable and competitive to the outside world.
Ganymede: Jupiter's PR, known as the supers. Recruited when they manifest rare/dangerous powers, this team is the face of the investigation into every day crimes to administer justice. They are marketed/treated as celebrities. Idol culture is highly encouraged and curated by the media.
Calisto: basically your average police force. Neighborhood police officers, volunteer-based. These don't warrant much recognition on their own, but Europa frequently shouts them out to keep morale high.
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15 years before the beginning,
No one expected reality to break on a Monday morning. But break it did, as buildings suddenly began to turn inside out, the ground rupturing and giving way to a cavernous depth below. Everywhere throughout the city-state, people panicked as staircases turned into helices, windows warped and time seemed to become molten liquid. Then, just as quickly as it began, it disappeared. Many were injured, several went missing.
While Ganymede was tasked with calming the public, Europa discovered a massive new set of catacombs below the city. These catacombs appeared almost liminal, with abundant warping of reality underneath. No lifeforms were detected, but a few of the missing people were then discovered to have found their way back above ground several weeks later. No one could figure out what caused this, but it raised questions of the possibility that a generational level of trait-wielding had resurfaced. If this were to be the case, it would be of the utmost importance that Jupiter acquire this individual immediately.
Thus, Jupiter revived the long-dormant IO division and tasked them with figuring out what the catacombs are and who is behind them. However, the case proved to be impossible to make progress in, and soon went cold. Thus, IO was reallocated towards providing security for the most important people in the government, protecting classified events, as well as keeping the effects of the catacombs under control and out of the public eye.
The Catacombs
It's hard to fully describe where or what the catacombs are. Their entrances are always shifting, for one. You only really know you've encountered them once you're already inside them, and once you are inside them it is often very easy to lose your way. Overall, similarities tend to involve claustrophobic corridors, walls that should not be where they are, Buildings that seem to never end, and overall an uncanny sensation that you can't quite seem to shake off.
Since the creation of these catacombs, repeated minor reality warps have occurred numerous times, with the sight of a warped telephone pole or routine railroad fixing becoming commonplace. Once a distortion is identified, IO is dispatched to find the entrance and quarantine it as soon as humanly possible.
Laplace Syndrome
A 'disease' afflicting those who have had prolonged exposure to a catacomb entry point.
- characteristics: an anomaly-aided psychotic break marked by a deep
hatred for society and ability to start hearing the thoughts of others,
though it is unclear how much of this is ability acquisition vs delusion.
- prognosis: eventually, those afflicted begin to visibly deform into symbolic
'demons' of their cognition. think shadow selves taking over the body and
rebelling against society. The way they rebel seems to depend entirely on their self.
Most concerning of all is the fact that a small subset of people who become demons do not completely lose their higher-level cognition and instead experience a mutation of their powers, which renders their suppression collars useless. This makes them highly dangerous and often intent on organized crime.
The public is not aware of such a condition. Only the IO division are privy to this information and are thus tasked to carry out damage control + investigate at the same time.
The Reaper
The Reaper
15 years after the formation of the catacombs, a rising investor was found dead in an alleyway outside a fancy hotel where he had been conducting confidential business. The murder was initially thought to be foul play between his associates and the case was shuttered in the eyes of the public. However, other deaths soon began to occur. Other elite, or those adjacent to them, all meeting similar fates.
Most chilling of all is the fact that witnesses reported seeing an antlered being at the site of the crime. What looked to be a pale humanoid with wispy dark hair wearing an equally dark suit, though they could never perceive enough to determine much else. Just the antlers: one far longer than the other.
The news outlets call him The Reaper: Someone or something who exists only to target the elite, seemingly, and seems hell-bent on watching the world burn. This fact alone is highly threatening to officials of the city state, so IO agents have made apprehending the reaper their top priority: sending their best to track this killer down before he succeeds in toppling the government from the inside out.
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