Mutants & Masteminds

Tentative Mutants & Masterminds background, details subject to change.

15 years ago, aliens attacked and tried to wipe out all life on earth, especially humans. The initial attack was stopped, but the defenders were almost as shocking as the genocidal assault: armies from cities once thought legendary, human-looking alien allies, and more costumed superheroes than anyone had seen since WWII.

The war lasted three years. Most of the initial attacks during the first year were prevented, but a few were disastrously successful - it only took moments for New York City to become a flooded crater. The resulting chaos was brief, and soon human society settled into a tense calm and a semblence of normal life. While this involved an instinctive acceptance of superhuman defenders coming out of the woodwork, it also involved a consolidation and unification of humanity's conventional military forces.

During year two, the attackers switching to disruptive tactics, namely robots and monsters. In densely populated regions such as China and India, that attackers released giant monsters (kaiju), to run rampant. Throughtout the rest of the world squads of robots roamed independently, harassing and ambushing population centers. Many of the robots were designed as humanoids to mock and demoralize soldiers and terrify civilians.

Year three saw the arrival of reinforcements for the attackers. While earth's defenders prepared for the last battle, they also revealed humanity's secret weapon, super soldiers. Every human-enhancement project of the Cold War era was dredged up, even mad-science like reviving/enhancing dead soldiers. Although most of the civilian population survived, both sides sufferred enourmous losses in the final battle, and the attackers were finally forced to withdraw not only from earth orbit but also from the solar system.

The next few years were a period of uneasy recovery. Allies from hidden cities and outer space abruptly withdrew contact. Costumed superheroes had returned, but so had super-criminals. The fear of worldwide martial law quickly faded, too many soldiers just wanted to go home. Infrastructures, economies, cities, and even some whole nations had to be rebuilt, and while humanity had survived, almost 20% of the population had been lost.

15 years later a new generation now has to face a world full of hidden scars and unanswered mysteries thier parents never had the chance to deal with.