The 1861 Comet Universe
This is an incomplete campaign premise for BRP using the super powers rules, inspired by Farmer’s Wold-Newton Universe. I never got this
off the ground, but some day I may yet revisit the “1861 Comet Universe.”
Premise
A world not unlike our own, in which
superhumans (called posthumans) began to appear in the first generation of
children after the comet of 1861. A later period of posthuman development
followed the Tunguska , Syberia event as well.
In this world, 1 in about 5,000 humans is a
posthuman, with powers enhanced by alien nanomachines that tamper with the
human genome, or a subsequent alien virus which physically restructures the
human DNA and turns its victims in to genetically compatible aliens with its
creator species. All superhumans in this universe are therefore products of
weird alien science, although some entrepreneurial normal humans have also
created gadgets and tools to aid them in working with and against posthumans.
By 2020 (the present year of the campaign) scientists understand the
nanomachines and the virus well enough that they can synthesize and manipulate
their own in human hosts, creating new posthumans tailored as they see fit.
In the midst of this, a privately funded
scientific space exploration team has reached the distant 1861 comet and
discovered that it is really an alien artifact, designed to seed the Earth with
its viral nanomachines, and that its creators are beings called the Yingalath.
Elsewhere, secret research on the posthuman virus have revealed that it came
from the Tunguska comet, and that it was
created by an entirely different alien species.
In the midst of all of this, a secret cabal
of successfully altered posthumans who are now genetically a different species
have recognized their imprinted heritage from the distant STL world ship of the
Kin’shigar star empire, and that they are the advance force which must prepare
humanity for its imminent invasion!
Origin
In 1861, many individuals witnessed a
prominent (although not spectacular) comet, known only as the comet of 1861. It
was a momentous event because it was determined by observer J.R. Hind that the
Earth actually passed through the tail of the comet on June 30th.
Initially it was a simple astronomical
curiosity, but within a few years the first generation of what would later be
called posthumans began to appear. The comet, apparently, had somehow altered
the genetic structure of infants prenatally. Pregnant women in this period had
an alarming percentage of stillborn children, mutated children, and in a small
but distinct percentage of births arrived genetically enhanced children.
The first posthumans were misunderstood,
regarded as enigmas and curiosities at first, until a broader awareness of the
sheer diversity of posthumans became apparent. Soon, fear and and effort to
control posthumans set in. By 1891, the first generation of posthumans had
grown up. There was an average of 1 posthuman for ever thousand normal humans in
any given population. Governments sought to control, suppress, or destroy them
while individuals sought to exploit these miraculous people. The psothumans
themselves were often given to widely diverse interpretations of their own
gifts, which rarely manifested before the age of 16, usually within 1-3 years
of reaching puberty, though a few posthumans manifested their powers much later
or earlier.
During this time, new messiahs appeared, and
religious cults grew up around the men and women who displayed miraculous
powers. Criminals who could withstand a barrage of artillery were subsequently
lured with the promise of wealth and luxury to work for the military of one
government or another, and some, manifesting at an early age, were recruited by
secret societies, who sought to brainwash and control them. A handful of strong
willed posthumans resisted outside efforts to control who and what they were,
and became notorious vigilantes, renegades, and criminals.
It would be decades before scientists began
to understand what had happened, as humanity’s understanding of genetics worked
to catch up to the mysterious nature of the posthumans, as well as the
mutations and failed births. It would be even longer before an actual space
voyage reached the distant comet in 2018 and discovered that the comet was an
artifact of extraterrestrial origin.
The Yingalath Comet of 1861, as it came to
be known after the discovery by space explorers, was the product of an alien
race from long ago, sent to earth to seed the planet with its budding sentient
population with the necessary genetic x-factors to stimulate a singularity in
evolution. Why these aliens saw fit to send such a unique artifact to earth as
yet remains undetermined by humanity, although some souls speculate that it may
have something to do with the second known extraterrestrial contact with Earth
at the Tunguska, Siberia impact.
The Tunguska
impact happened in a remote region of the Syberian Wilderness in 1908, and it
was unnoticed outside of some curious astronomers and researchers for decades
thereafter. Because of the proliferation of posthumans already created by the
1861 comet, no one suspected that the detonation of the Tunguska
comet in the atmosphere also released a new posthuman virus. It would be until
the 1960s that some researchers specializing in posthuman studies began to
identify two distinct mechanisms for the creation of posthumans, one a
gene-altering mechanism later identified as a nanomachine, believed to have
been seeded from the 1861 comet, and the second a biological virus that no one
suspected came from the Tunguska comet until evidence in 1989 proved beyond a
doubt that the virus had to have originated from the Tunguska region.
The Tunguska
posthuman virus did not affect the unborn, rewriting their DNA, adding
evolutionary leaps and bounds to the otherwise human children. Instead, it
attacked adult humans, slowly rewriting their DNA, changing those humans over
time in to something completely inhuman, on a genetic level, no longer related
to the terrestrial animals with which man held kinship. The virus turned men in
to aliens, literally. Worse yet the virus drove them mad. These posthumans were
driven by a strange insanity, a problem having to do with the way the virus
restructured the human brain, turning it in to a tri-lobed cerebrum which
mimicked the brain structure of the alien organism that it was attempting to
recreate. Worse yet, the virus, a sophisticated creation of alien geneticists
in its own right, sought to impregnate that mind with the knowledge and lore of
its creator species. This information created a strange sort of schizophrenia
in its hosts.
The first of the viral posthumans manifested
between 1909 and 1910, just before the Great War. The viral posthumans were
thought to be a new variant of posthuman, and were regarded as far more
effective supersoldiers, and a great many of them were recruited and deployed
in World War I. This brought many of the viral posthumans together, giving them
a chance to discover a unique trait they all shared: telepathy. Viral
posthumans could sense one another, and communicate by thought. They became
aware of their heritage as the inheritors of a strange alien legacy.
Gradually,
a handful of viral posthumans learned to cope with the schizophrenia of their
change, and the secret truth of their origin became apparent. They were the
advance soldiers of a potent cosmic race which was traveling on a world ship at
slower than light speeds toward Earth. They were to pave the way for colonization
when the world ship arrived.
The viral posthumans began to unite, but
adopted an approach of secrecy. Those few leaders amongst their kind realized
that they were still too few to deal directly with humanity of the genetic
posthumans. Moreover, they suspected that the posthumans created by the 1861
comet were caused by the meddling of another alien species which intended to
thwart the aims of the viral posthumans.
By World War II, the nature of war had
changed with the use of superhumans in conflict. No matter what sort of
posthuman it was, they were all valued for their unique powers in the war
front. By the end of World War II, after the dropping of the atomic bomb,
legislation was passed which required posthumans to register themselves in the United States
The period from the 60’s on up through to
2020 was a period in which posthumans became readily accepted as a part of
life. The face of crime, police, poltics, war, and almost every other facet of
life had been affected by the presence of posthumans. The culture of the
posthumans was unique, one in which it was almost natural to adopt an identity
and seek out unique ways in which to exploit one’s powers for personal gain, or
the greater good as many, inspired by the dedicated vigilantes and Samaritans
who felt that their powers were given specifically to help mankind. The notion
of the caped crusader became a prominent theme in this period, and posthumans
were everywhere.
In 2010 the entrepreneurial posthuman
Richard Lourdes used the resources of his company (Skyline Corp.) to fund the
first manned outer solar system expedition, called Daedalus 1. The vessel,
constructed in orbit and powered by a high efficiency fusion reactor, was set
officially to explore the outer solar system, but by 2018 it had pushed outward
in to the region of the Kuiper Belt, where the team of 11 researchers closed in
on the 1861 comet, and began their investigation. Here, they learned that it
was actually a vessel, and that it had been created by the Yingalath
specifically to seed Earth with the nanomachines that created the posthumans.
By 2020 there are many who believe that
humanity has been visited by aliens on multiple occasions. There is a creature
(the Hammer, Texas entity) which has been
encountered by some posthumans, including Nightfall, Tachyon and Silver Ray
(licensed enforcers in Texas
In the opening campaign, characters are
members of various posthuman types and groups, who may be newly awakened to
their powers or old veterans. Some characters may even have the transforming
viral mutation of the Tunguska comet, instead.
The future lies in wait…
Character Archetypes
Some ideas for character archetypes in this
universe include the following:
D% Result
01-20 Newly awakened posthuman (usually age 15-18)
21-30 Veteran posthuman (been around, normal age)
31-35 Elder posthuman (posthuman from as far back
as 1861)
36-37 Enigma (posthuman who appears to have come
from a prior era before 1861!)
38-50 Viral posthuman-unawakened (from the Tunguska comet)
51-55 Viral posthuman-awakened but rebellious
(aware of nature, working against it)
55-60 Viral posthuman-servitor (embraces his or her
nature and works with it)
61-70 Enhanced human through modern Science (using
viral or nanite mechanisms)
71-80 Gadget-based normal human (uses weird science
or gadgetry to compete)
81-95 Skilled normal human (works to achieve
perfection to compete)
96-98 True alien (visitor from the stars to Earth
from an FTL culture)
99-00 Other-dimensional being (mystery entity from
a different quantum dimension)
Setting Rules
The 1861 Comet campaign uses the following
rules for BRP: Mutations, psionics, and
powers. All characters can be one of those listed, depending upon what they
want to achieve. There is no magic in this setting.
Characters should choose skilled packages,
and do not by any stretch need to be “classic superheroes.” In this setting
there are plenty of otherwise normal people who happen to be posthumans. At an
average (current) ratio of 1 posthuman to 5,000 normal humans, a city with a
population of 1 million will have 200 native posthumans. That means a larger
metropolis like New York
Tech Level
The setting of 2020 is a futurist’s
interpretation of where we will be, assuming the singularity has already
happened. As a universe filled with superhumans, the 1861 comet universe has
achieved some stranger, indeed some very weird science as a result of the
unnatural cometary phenomena that has change humankind. This may not be a
“magical” universe, but it is still definitely a pulpy comic-book universe. As
such, strange gadgets, high concept big-bang science gadgets, cyberware,
nanites and genetic engineering are all normal here.
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