21 KiB
[ABANDONED] A Beginner's Guide to Taking Over the World
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Author: u/eniteris *
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Score: 12
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Created: 2017-06-02T16:31:55
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u/eniteris [+3] (16 hours later)
Because /u/callmebrotherg seems interested in a more in-depth examination of the world (I have no idea what DTRPG is), here is a long-form dump of worldbuilding.
Inspirations: Worm (Wildbow), Megamind (Dreamworks)
Introduction
The question this world answers is "What if the supervillain wins?" The main difference between a superhero and a supervillain is that the hero defends the status quo, while the villain breaks it. But what happens when the villain wins? What happens when the villain's vision for the status quo becomes the status quo?
Becuase taking over a city, or country, or world, is difficult. It may be easy for a supervillain to blackmail or ransom a city or country, but to rule? That takes an entirely different set of skills. Being in charge, and staying in charge, of a functional city requires some amount of compromise. And this world is to examine these fully self-interested rulers, and how the manage to manage their domains.
Antumbra
The main character is Antumbra. Her father was powered, called Midas, whose ability was to turn anything he touches (within a maximum radius) into any element he chooses. Her mother was unpowered, and the three of them lived under a fairly typical mage-king (henceforth called Marquis, because that was the initial filler power that I thought of). Her mother was never comfortable with the abuses of power by those acting under the Marquis, and often urged Midas to move the family to a safer rulership, but Marquis was adamant in his belief in toeing the line and everything working fine. That is, until her mother was killed (raped?) by one of the commando squads that roam the streets.
The combined guilt and anger drove Midas to actively challenge the Marquis' rule, acting as a lone guerrilla vigilante/terrorist, often dragging the young Antumbra along. He was not a very good father.
Antumbra at this time was known as Painter, as her ability was seemingly a weaker version of her father's, being able to only transmute the surface of objects; however, when she is nine, she accidentally converts half the city, and her father realises that her power appears to have no maximum distance, and Painter voluntarily stops using her powers, as it can possibly be an apocalyptic level threat. Through her teenage years, she follows her father in his terrorist activities, is kidnapped multiple times by the Marquis (and meets his young son during those times), and is overall not entirely impressed with the entire vigilante hero route.
She applies to Princeton and goes to study art history (after all, she is a Painter). Towards the end of her studies, her father dies in an attempt to kill the Marquis, by transmuting a supercritical mass of plutonium in a Duke Leto/Baron Harkonnen situation.
Antumbra graduates and heads back home, and decides take over the city from the Marquis. She does so in a week, without using her powers. (How she does so, I have no idea. I'm thinking something like Die Hard). She spares the Marquis (she doesn't really remember her mother, it's not directly the Marquis' fault, and her father's war isn't her own), and establishes a benevolent rule over the city.
A year later, a letter from the Univeristy arrives, offering her a spot in the World Domination program. She accepts, and leaves her city behind. The Marquis returns back into the power vacuum, but keeps Antumbra's advisers. The city continues to be run in relative peace.
Story opens. World Domination is a graduate-level course, but since Princeton doesn't teach anything about rulership, she has to take some introductory courses with the undergraduates. The Marquis' son is just starting, and recognises her as Painter. She's changed her name to avoid her past, but it will continue to come up.
She eventually converts the entire surface of the moon into silver as a demonstration of power, and uses it to blackmail the current Soter into abdicating.
Interlude
There are no heroes or villains in this story. There is just Machiavellian scheming. There is no good, or evil, only the pursuit of self-interest. The only interest anyone has in anyone else is exactly proportional to how much they can help advance their own goals.
Powers
Powers are partially heritable, as seen from Midas/Painter, and probably Marquis/his son. Powers range wildly in function and scope (which is why Painter's unbounded power is apocalyptically dangerous). Powers, are, of course, classified, but in broader strokes and more colloquially than Worm's classification system.
- Brute: Powers that make the user more physically superhuman. Strength, flight, speed, regeneration, etc. all fall under this category. Individually powerful, but less flexible in application.
- Mage: Powers that appear magical, or possibly mental; outside the range of what humans can do. Pyrokinesis, heat vision, telepathy, mind control, photographic memory.
- Techies: Powers that grant the bearer hyperspecialised engineering ability. Biological, chemical, technological, etc. Basically grants the bearer the ability to work out the solution to the problem in their field extremely rapidly, and usually with the uncanny ability for their creations to function on the first try.
- Body horrors: Powers that grant the bearer abilities, but can no longer pass as regular humans. Lizardmen, sentient blobs of goo, guy made of bees, etc.
These powers vary wildly in intensity, ranging from a person who can generate flames from the tips of their fingers, to Ember (mage), who can move kinetic energy around and chill particles to (close to) absolute zero (and heat particles to fly, or fire energy blasts, etc. etc.). Those who are born with lesser powers often don't rise to the rank of ruler, and are often enlisted to more menial labour, such as power generation (they do violate thermodynamics). Those with middling powers are often recruited by rulers to serve under them, as a single powered soldier is usually more than a match for a large number of unpowered ones.
These classifications are colloquial, and often overlap as well. For instance, Fuckoff (Chosen name, Fork, much to the ire of the other Fork), has the ability ensoul any computer with a copy of his mind. This grants him the ability to manipulate technology to a seemingly techie level, but in application his ability is closer to a mage. (His main downfall with his power is he doesn't get along with himself, and his copies often sabotage the meat self).
I might as well get into the other members while I'm at it.
- Fork (mage)'s ability is to run parallel copies of his personality at the same time, allowing him to multitask and pay attention to multiple things at once, but the difficulty is in integrating the information, as communication between personalities is limited by (internal) speech/comprehension. He's got it fairly down pat, with a master personality delegating tasks to other personalities in his brain.
- Flicker (mage) is basically that; phases objects out of reality for a predetermined period of time. Great for infiltration and taking out enemies; and as a last resort self-defense technique. Objects stay in position relative to the surface of the Earth, and conserve momentum, which leads to problems in vehicles and space stations.
- Estver (mage) has mind control; he can be much more subtle than he pretends to be able to, but he can only control one person at a time. The person knows they're being controlled, but Estver can be very convincing at inception.
- Eos (mage). Actually a night owl, and stays up to watch the sunrise. She can modify the wavelength of light reflected off her body (to a certain factor), which gives her the ability to make energy blasts by bouncing light between her hands. Doesn't feel cut out for World Domination.
- Vertias (mage) senses motives. That is all, a useful skill, especially in a scheming environment.
- Case (body horror), conscious control over gene expression. Eventually hacks the neurotransmitter production in his brain, and injects himself with viruses containing a database of all known genes, and goes full body horror. Only drawback is that the expression of genes takes time to shape his body, so he can't instantly adapt to surrounding environments.
- Tetra, mad botanist (techie). Basically can engineer plants to do whatever she wants, but they're engineered, not under conscious control. Could just as easily make a strain of rice that contains all nutrients humans need to live as a biological green-goo Von Neumann machine. Thankfully, other techies have thought of this problem, and the biosphere is chock full of engineered organisms to prevent green goo scenarios. Of course, Tetra might be smart enough to get around them...
- Sengo, the swordsman (brute). Has the ability to perfectly bisect any object with a blade. Great at cutting cakes. (Jack Slash-inspired)
- Assembler (techie). A fairly general-purpose technology techie, although her main limitation is that her blueprints are not easily achievable. Best for reverse-engineering designs. (Probably works best as a MacGuffin generator, to find the missing element/etc. Or just combine with Midas to generate the elements you want. Or with Ember for infinite energy. Her limitation is only a limitation in an unpowered world)
As you can see, the classification system is mainly for colloquial use. You can further subdivide however you want, kinesis and thinker and whatnot, but I have no formal classification.
Additionally, it shows that World Domination preferentially recruits Thinkers, but also those with high-intensity powers. We'll discuss this later.
u/eniteris [+3] (16 hours later)
The University
The University is in North America, and is the only institute of higher learning in North and South America. It was established by Aetos Soter the Wise, whose (secret) power is to modify the utility functions of other people (basically brilliant inception, and uses the opening speech every year to influence all the students coming to the University). He steps down from the role of Soter to establish the University, in order to guide the next generation of rulers.
The University has some general courses in science and mathematics, but the main focus of the University is to train rulers. Heavy focus on economics, psychology and (a very skewed) political philosophy, with a very utilitarian point of view. Many required courses on "Controlling your Populace" and "Ruling through Fear or Ruling through Love?" Basically teaching the students that in order to be a ruler, you have to have people to rule over, and how to ensure that they remain under you.
Of course, the sciences have their own research divisions for the techies, which work on developing new technologies, or figuring out how the creations of the techies work. Innovations are patented and sold to rulerships around the world, to be further discussed.
The University also has training rooms, blacked out and perfectly private, for those who wish to hone their powers without others knowing what they are. Contrary to the openness of World Domination, keeping your power a secret is something many powers do, as that information can be used as a weapon against yourself (of course, why they choose names that reflect the nature of their powers is an(unanswered, no in-universe answer)other question. But at least Antumbra and Ember are slightly misleading).
Of course, the University knows all. They have agents and drones and spy networks all around the world, keeping tabs on all powers. They know the full extent of Antumbra's powers.
The World
There is absolutely no way I can figure out an alternate history timeline for this world; because once powers appear, the government can always coerce them through the ones they love. I will not try to integrate this onto our timeline, despite similar geographical places.
Villains want to rule over people, and thus they establish their rulerships over towns or cities, however, a single villain can only control so much territory, and villains often delegate rulership of overextended territories to friendly powers. Often, large cities are contested by multiple villains, with each villain ruling over different districts, but whenever there is fighting, the civilians always lose. Thus, civilians always migrate away from contested zones and remain in stable cities. Rulerships transfer usually when one power overpowers the current ruler, and the civilians don't usually care; most rulers are fairly equivalent.
But not all rulers are alike. How the city is run depends on the ruler, which often depends on their power.
Mage-kings and Brutes usually rule using brute strength, establishing an oligarchical government, or possibly a feudal system. Usually the ruler's word is absolute law, and, depending on how they chose to rule, may allow the citizens to live their lives with only a minor tax, or force them to build monuments in their honour, or demand their wives and daughters, or newborn sons to eat. They maintain their rule with trained thugs/police who roam the streets, enforcing the laws that the ruler lays down.
Techies rulers are usually more capricious; as their interests usually lie more towards technology rather than power. Their rule usually have less of a human element, preferring instead to rely on obedient genetically-modified soldiers or robots and drones, and their laws are usually less evadeable, establishing a more futuristic-dystopian feel to their cities. Additionally, random kidnappings for experiments are a commonplace, but many citizens tolerate it for the increased stability and access to technology.
Rulership style also depends on where the ruler lies on the fear/love spectrum. Some cities have guards at every exit, preventing anyone from leaving the city, whereas others allow freedom of movement, hoping instead to entice the citizens to stay through their quality of life. Citizens are a resource, the more the better. And you cannot be a ruler without any subjects.
Economics
Most cities are not self-sufficient. Most cities can generate enough power from middling powers, but botanist techies are rare enough that, for most cities, food is the greatest imported resource (followed by technology). Some rulers allow the free market to govern the import and export of goods, but this requires a good relationship with the neighbouring rulerships, or heavy guards on the import and export of goods. Other rulers establish a monopoly on imports, working out deals with neighbouring rulers and selling to their citizens at markup. After all, the ruler needs taxes in order to enjoy the position of rulership.
After all, rulerships naturally specialise. The botanist techie can produce food on the cheap, and trade with the computer techie who excels at creating technology. Whereas rulerships with a tighter control over their population can force their citizens to mine for raw resources.
New technologies are often developed by a single techie and sold to others for use. The University model is no different, except that the University has a greater global reach.
Yes there are wars, although fewer than you would expect. Cities can fight over resources or space, but the most precious resource are the citizens. There are some exceptions, with techies ruling over completely automated cities, but most rulers wish to have subjects. And as citizens flee from unstable zones, most rulers refrain from direct attacks on other rulerships. They may loot transports passing through their territory, but rarely do any conflicts escalate to all-out war. Most keep to their own affairs, in a series of unspoken agreements, spending their efforts to make their cities more enticing to other citizens, or finding better ways to prevent their citizens from leaving.
The Soterai
The Soter is the ruler of the World. The position itself does not come with much power, rather, it is because you have power that you come by the position. The Soter is responsible for resolving disputes between rulers, and establishing guidelines, moral event horizons, and prohibited technologies. The Soter is also responsible for forseeing and preventing apocalyptic events.
The power of the Soter comes from the seat of the Soter's power, an orbital station armed with a laser capable of wiping entire cities off the map. The Soter sees the entire world as their domain, and must work to keep their world alive.
But the Soter (usually) cannot work alone. The Soter is always surrounded by advisors, each with their own area of expertise, usually augmented by the powers they posess. Most advisors are mind-mages, capable of reading the minds of the populace, determining truths from lies, but it is up to the Soter to determine what is to be done, and to find the best action for the world.
The position of Soter is usually passed on through ritual assassination, with the successor killing the previous Soter. Usually the new Soter brings in their own advisers, those who have helped them come to power. The average reign of a Soter lasts nine years.
Only twice before had the previous Soter survived the position; the second was Aetos Soter the Wise, who abdicated to found the University, and the first was upon the succession of Virgil Soter the Mad, who threatened to destroy the entire world if he wasn't given the position. Virgil Soter the Mad lasted three weeks before the rulers of the world all secretly agreed that his constant threats of geocide were too much, and overthrew Virgil the Mad with minimal collateral damage, rendering most of Asia uninhabitable.
World Domination
There are four institutes in the world that grant degrees in World Domination: two in Europe, one in Africa, and the University (And one in Japan, now defunct). World Domination focuses on macroeconomics, as well as the psychology of rulers, as opposed to the psychology of citizens. They are taught the importance of existential risks and how to identify them, as well as previous attempts at immanetizing the eschaton and the countermeasures put into place.
The University is unique in that the other three institutions are based off a student-mentor relationship, with only one candidate for World Domination at a time. The University usually accepts four students per year into its program, and although there is a high post-graduate mortality rate between graduates, Soters that have come from the University are usually accompanied by one or two advisers with the same degree. Whether better advisers is worth the greater loss of potential is still up for debate.
Candidates for World Domination are chosen for their potential for rulership, in addition to their potential in assassinating the Soter. Of course, the assassination of the Soter is not an individual effort, and thus both can be taught, but the University prefers those with powers that would be beneficial as a Soter, which is why most of the candidates are mind-mages.
u/eniteris [+2] (16 hours later)
I like worldbuilding.
u/eniteris [+3] (14 minutes later)
Another abandoned work. I should really lower the scope of my projects.
Really just an introduction to a world; writing is a bit of a character-dump; next scene is meeting Eos on the roof at dawn, finding out that she's a night owl, bit of discussion on nominative determinism, her ability to modify the wavelengths of reflected light, and her doubts about wanting to rule.
Superhero setting, where all Powers are self-interested actors, and have little regard for others in pursuit of their own goals. The world is split into rulerships, where unpowered/low powered people are treated as chattel, but are usually treated well (as a happy populace is more easily controlled.)
Aetos the Wise definitely has some indoctrination powers. Sotership usually transfers by killing the current Soter or forcing them to abdicate. The Soter usually has their fortress in space/on the moon. Antumbra's power is something apocalyptic, and would leverage it as blackmail to become Soter.
u/callmebrotherg [+1] now posting as /u/callmesalticidae (12 hours later)
Another abandoned work. I should really lower the scope of my projects.
Haha, yeah, I know exactly how you feel.
/looks at his HSTW and shudders to think that he's only a fifth of the way complete.
The setting sounds interesting, though. You might want to flesh out the world a bit and put it up on DTRPG for $1.99 or just Pay-What-You-Want if you aren't going to do anything else with it. You'll probably make a little bit of cash, if my experience is anything to go by, not much but enough to buy a few more books each year.
(But then, I'm the sort of person who doesn't like letting settings go to waste, and maybe the trouble of putting it in book form and formatting and everything is pretty unattractive for you, which I can understand)
u/liberonscien [+1] (13 days later)
Tagging.