PWNSHG:History of Metahumanity
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The world history for PWNHG is a mirror of our world history, up until the Early 1970's.
Contents |
The 1970's
The Emergence of Metahumans
The early 1970's saw the emergence of the first "mutants". These were people entering their adolescent years and gaining strange abilities in the bargain. There was a broad base of abilities present, but none of them as powerful as those of today. Anything from the ability to change skin pigment, to the natural power of flight were manifested. There seemed to be no geographically specific locations which were more likely to give rise to mutations, and no apparent ecological reason why. Many theories arose from the world's scientists, and that particular debate as to what caused the rise of mutation of this scale in humans still rages to this day
There is no evidence of "fatal" mutations from these early years, and this is thought to be due to nothing more then "misdiagnosis" of other incidents such as heart attacks, mysterious sickness and the more obscure cases such as spontaneous combustion and the like.
International Response
During these early years the nations of the world took many different approaches to the matter. The "Paranormal Issue" became a hotly debated subject in many countires. In the European nations a "hands-off" approach was adopted, which left mutants alone for the most part, treating them like any other citizen. China, Eastern Block and Soviet nations didn't release much information (naturally) but it was learned that the government "indoctrinated" a number of mutants into national service. Japan took a more public, but still national approach by asking it's mutants to serve their country, most did willingly.
U.S. Response
The USA was slowed down in red tape and wishy/washy thinking mostly brought on by the fact that the nation was in a war in Vietnam and didn't want to deal with anymore internal headaches. This changed when mutants started to become dangerous, both in powers and their power levels. Mutant rights and registration became a hot topic, with Colorado, California, and New York adopting their own legislation.
Colorado vs. Thomas Sloan
The debate heated up in the case of Colorado vs. Thomas Sloan, 1978. Sloan was a mutant, who had refused to register with the Colorado State Board of Mutant Registration. The media went crazy for the case, and it became a national story in less then three weeks. Sloan petitioned the Supreme Court to hear the case, who ruled that mutant registration was not unconstitutional, and was to be treated in a similar fashion as registering of weapons. This encouraged more states to adopt their own legislation, and by 1979 every state in the union with the exception of Hawaii had a mutant registration law on the books.
Hate Crimes and Metahumanity
In October of 1979 the FBI cracked a series of murders in Southern states that turned out to have been committed by racial purists. About 9 mutants were killed, and burned on crosses in Georgia and Alabama. This got human rights activists in an uproar because it was discovered that the mutants who died had all registered and their files had been compromised. The FBI case caused the Supreme Court to rethink it's stand on mutant registration. The new decision was that mutant registration would be voluntary, but States would be allowed to enforce harsher penalties on criminals who have mutant powers but do not register. The Federal government was asked to oversee the registration process, to help safe guard the records of those who did register, and the Secret Service was the agency put on the case as an extension of their computer systems protection duties. At this point, paranoia amoung mutants becomes relatively common.
The 1980's
The 80's saw the first of the "real" super heroes and villians.
Research and Development
The government had been working on the problem for the majority of the 70's. Super-soldier serums, high-tech weapons research, powered armor and a host of other solutions. None was terribly effective, and none met the governments idea of a "cost-effective" solution. By 1982, the funding for these programs was yanked, and the great minds went back to find a new solution.
Hawkins Takes the Stage
1983-84 was the transition of thought for the government. It was decided that the US government would sponsor a super-team of it's own. Colonel Hawkins, a retired SF veteran was asked to plan and implement a team.
