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Cyphre · **Posted:** Sat Jul 03, 2010 6:02 pm

"How like little children you appear to me. How small is your comprehension and yet... there is a seed in you... The Old Gods died and gave birth to the New. These New Gods, even such as I, must also pass, in our turn. Our search was long and our war continues, but we found the planetary cradle of the Gods to Come. ... you are only forerunners."

"As New Genesis is to the Fourth World, Earth shall be to the Fifth that is to come."

-Metron

I have been thinking about some of the 'higher-minded' comic concepts that the late great Jack Kirby beat the industry over the head with, including...

The New Gods - The Fourth World - The Eternals - The Inhumans

And I wonder, could a league ...or legion... or characters inspired by and connected to these concepts work in DCUO...?

What would they be like? Would they be a new race of ‘Fifth World’ super-divinities...? A new or previously hidden ancient race of genetically-engineered post-humans?

I know there are those of you on this site who dig Jack Kirby's work and might be interested in this sort of team. I doubt that some of the younger members even know who he is, but I thought this might be something to mull over/think upon/discuss and brainstorm upon.

If done right, and if enough people were interested, I think it could be something very unique and awesome.

Heck, SOE has possibly unknowingly provided us with a glimpse of what one of these beings might look like...

Bio/FAQ

((Here is the summary of The Infinites' backstory, including the general backstory of The New Gods. This is heavily based upon DC's own deific mythos by various authors and with a dash of Kirby's Marvel work spliced in. Thanks to BrandFrontier in particular for his clever contributions.
Please feel free to add to, debate or question anything written here, as it is a work in progress.
I'll include reference links later. Wanna get this out NOW.))

In the beginning, there was The Presence, and nothing more.

For reasons unknown or very possibly lost to the ages, The Presence decided that there was to be something other than itself and, using The Voice (the disembodied Voice of the Presence), spoke the first sound ever spoken... in turn creating The Word (or The Logos. The first Archangel... a red-hooded heavenly avenger).
All of these were individual and sentient aspects of The Presence, and blessed by their creator with the gift of Free Will.

The Presence then bade it's own sentient power, The Source, to create matter and the differing aspects of the Multiverse.
The Source did this... and then, through use of what has come to be known as the "god wave", also created a sentient race of beings not unlike itself, though lesser.
These First Gods, a star-faring race of giant, armored humanoids who possessed untold cosmic power, were called The Celestials.

This was The First World, and it was good... but The Presence was not satisfied.

In their glorious might, The Celestials had arrogantly declared themselves as greater than The Source, greater than The Presence. They were to be the new lords of the Multiverse.

The Presence called upon The Source to destroy these First Gods and bring about The Second World, from which they would create The Earth and The Elder, or Primordial, Gods (The Protogenoi) who, along their offspring, became known as The Titans and were forebears to The Olympians.

However, The Celestials, created to be not unlike The Source, could not be destroyed and instead waged war upon The Presence and it's various aspects. They were eventually defeated and banished, and doomed to diminish ... cut off from the power that had created them.
They did not diminish, though. Instead, they tapped into the superdimensional building blocks of of reality itself, into Hyperspace. This "cosmic power" also served to "cloak" their activities from both The Presence and The Source.

During this time, The Presence initiated his long-term plan for the future and created Man. Mankind were but seedlings, and Earth was destined to become the cradle of a new race of super-divinities born of Mankind's potential.

Surmising the great plan of The Presence, The Celestials sent a host of nine to Earth where they assisted The Olympians in defeating their Titan forebears and initiated a plan of their own design. Experimenting with human DNA and it's potential, The Celestials created a hybrid race, and called them The Infinites. These half-human Celestial offspring would stay in hibernation until The Celestials were ready to strike, before humanity fulfilled it's potential, and then rule the world in the name of The Celestials, the undying First Gods.

The Celestials then repeated this process across the Multiverse on every humanoid race they could find. When the time came, they would awaken their offspring, and control all that existed.

Due to the creation of Man and despite the defeat and banishment of The Titans or the treatment of Mankind by The Olympians, The Presence did not desire to destroy what had come before, and created The Third World... instead allowing The Titans and Olympians to become diminished. Thus ended The Second World.

In The Third World, Mankind was given dominance. Their gods, who would come to be known as The Old Gods, originated in the Dreams Realm, born out of peoples' wishes and fears. They took their power from prayers sent to them and diminished to a degree when they were no longer revered and were forgotten.
Mankind flourished for many centuries in the Third World, but eventually a time came when The Presence saw that it's precious creation had grown and was ready to evolve further.
Sensing the end of The Third World approaching and not desiring a diminished state of existence, the most powerful gods of three pantheons of The Third World rose up against The Source, and in battle split it into separate beings. One being remained The Source, the other being evolved into the Anti-Life entity. In retribution, the Source destroyed the offending Old Gods and created the New Gods. However, it's weakened state caused the New Gods to be flawed.

It was The Celestials who had forged the weapon with which the Old Gods were able to harm The Source. The Presence recognized this, and knew then that The Celestials had not perished... that war would eventually come once again.

Thus dawned The Fourth World, which has been marked by the battle between good and evil as represented by the worlds of New Genesis and Apokolips. Darkseid, the evil lord of Apokolips, has sought the Anti-Life Equation which would allow him to control the thoughts of all living beings. Opposing him was Orion, his son raised by Highfather and his enemies on New Genesis. Mankind remains generally unaware and indifferent to these gods, instead taking this time to evolve further towards it's potential, towards The Fifth World.

In the meantime, The Celestials have gone quiet. Whether they still plant their seed amongst the stars or are now focused on the creation of their Great War Machine, no one knows.

The Infinites remain sleeping... until something wakes them up.

*** Factoids ***
- This league will be PC-based and heroic. PS3ers and villians can start their own versions using whatever assets we have to offer.
- The catastrophic release of energy released by the Luthor Wave destroyed the functionality of The Infinites' underground hibernation chambers, awakening them and activating their latent Celestial genes. They do not however get their powers from the exobytes.
- It can be assumed that most of The Infinites are from Earth and have chosen to champion Mankind. Some Infinites can be from other planets, awakened by psionic connection to the Earth-based Infinites perhaps.
- For some reason, none of the awakened Infinites received their Celestial-created encoding as they woke up and thus have free will.
- Naming convention - I was thinking that all these characters could/should have unusual, non-western-sounding names. We already possibly have "Yin" and my potential character, "Chaon". Lets continue on in that vein. Avoid "superhero names".
- Costumes should be inspired by Jack Kirby designs or John Romita Jr redesigns of The Eternals/The Celestials.
- Stay away from rifles or pistols as a 'power source' as they are the crude weapons of mortal men.
- Infinites have a general knowledge and understanding of the world, though they just woke up. They will need to become acclimated to man's world though... language, slang, pop culture, etc. They might see a car with people in it and easily surmise that it is a transport device. Infinites can go out and adapt very quickly, picking up language and mannerisms in a very short amount of time.
- The power cosmic, as we are bringing it into the DCU as a concept, is the energy that reality is constructed with and maintained by. It includes but is not limited to magic. In theory, you could even say that your Infinite can tap into the Speed Force. They would have access to all energies.
- You can have an alternate origin wherein, unlike being awoken like most Infinites, some have been walking the Earth for millenia and living as immortal humans. You do not recall or your origin or powers (think "Highlander" if Connor had never learned what he was or had run into other immortals). These particular Infinites are "sleepers", whose job is to protect their bretheren from threats as they hibernate, and whose memories and abilities would come flooding instantly back to them in case of such an emergency. So as DCUO begins, they would have been living amongst the humans... likely under an assumed identity to hide the fact that they are immortal.
- The Infinites didn't land on Earth. The Celestials did.
- The Infinites on Earth are the result of the Celestials' genetic manipulation, splicing human and Celestial DNA. They were created on Earth and have been here throughout the entirety of human existence.
- Multiple planets have been 'seeded' in this manner. Earth... Oa... Thanagar... Korugar... etc.
- Infinites' armor is forced of Hyperium... an incredibly dense and durable, yet light and flexible metal created by The Celestials.

*** Powers and abilities ***
Due to the cosmic energy that suffuses an Infinite's body and the nigh-unbreakable mental hold they have over their physiological processes, the Infinites of Earth are effectively immortal.
Infinites do not fatigue from physical exertion, are immune to disease and poison, and remain somewhat unaffected by environmental extremes of cold and heat.

Infinites cannot be injured by conventional weaponry, and even if they somehow are, an Infinite can rapidly regenerate any damage as long as they are able to retain their mental hold over their bodies; this mental bond can be broken however.

Infinites are able to absorb oxygen directly from water, and therefore cannot drown.

Cosmic energy can be channeled for a number of superhuman abilities. Infinites choose to focus on a particular power in order to increase their effectiveness with it, each according to their genetically programmed role and innate personality (war, love, deceit, cold, fire, light, mischief, darkness, might, thunder, etc). When that power is mastered, an Infinite will often refer to themself as a "Lord of" whatever power they have mastered.

Descriptions

New Gods
The New Gods are immensely powerful, god-like natives of the twin planets of New Genesis and Apokolips. New Genesis is an idyllic planet filled with unspoiled forests, mountains, and rivers and is ruled by the benevolent Highfather, while Apokolips is a nightmarish, ruined dystopia filled with machinery and fire pits and is ruled by the tyrant Darkseid. The two planets were once part of the same world, a planet called Urgrund, but it was split apart millennia ago after the death of the Old Gods (Thor, Odin, Loki, etc) during Ragnarok. The characters associated with the New Gods are often collectively referred to as "Jack Kirby's Fourth World".
Currently, Darkseid has apparently been destroyed and the New Gods killed and reborn. It is unclear if we are still in a sort of resurrected Fourth World, or at the beginning of The Fifth World.

Eternals
The Eternals are an evolutionary offshoot of humanity; they are beings possessing greater powers and longer lifespans than the mainstream human race.
The Eternals were created over a million years ago by the enigmatic Celestials*, who arrived on Earth to perform genetic experiments on the nascent human race. For purposes unknown, they hoped to test the adaptability of the human gene, accelerating the evolution of a handful of subjects and gave them the genetic potential to mentally manipulate limited quantities of cosmic energy. Thus was born the race of Eternals. In a similar way, the Celestials also performed experiments that led to the creation of the Deviants, and they also implanted latent genetic material in other specimens that would one day permit benevolent mutations in human beings (see Xmen).

Inhumans
Long ago, the Kree (technologically-advanced human-like aliens from which the hero Captain Mar-Vell emerged) discovered that sentient life on nearby Earth had genetic potential invested in it by the alien Celestials. Intrigued, the Kree began to experiment on a group of Earth's then-primitive homo sapiens by splicing Eternals DNA into Cro-Magnons. Their test subjects, the Inhumans, went on to form a society of their own, which thrived in seclusion from the rest of humanity and developed advanced technology. Experiments with the mutagenic Terrigen Mist gave them various powers, but also caused lasting genetic damage and deformities. This led to a long-term selective breeding program to try to mitigate the effects of these mutations. Their city Attilan has frequently been relocated and now rests in the oxygen-bearing Blue Area of the Moon.

* Celestials
The Celestials are a star-faring race of humanoid aliens who possess untold cosmic power. Standing two thousand feet tall, the Celestials are clad in full body armor. No Earth being has ever seen what they look like beneath their armor or knows their origin.
What is known is that they have visited the Earth at four different periods in the Earth's past, each time altering the course of history. The first Celestial Host came to Earth approximately one million years ago to perform genetic tests and experimentation on Earth's highest lifeform, the nascent human being. Testing the versatility of human genes, the First Host created two sub-species of humanity, the Eternals and the Deviants. Their sole legacy to the mainstream human race was the implantation of a dormant DNA complex which would one day permit benevolent mutations.

*** Bear in mind that all of these things except The New Gods are from Kirby's work at Marvel, and so need to be used as influences rather than direct connections. ***

The Solstice · **Joined:** Tue Jun 01, 2010 8:09 pm **Posts:** 504

I like this idea alot and I could acutally see this happen in a comic and in the picutre doesn't he sort of look like the new version of Metron. I think this idea really need's to be implement I myself would be intrested in it but all in all good idea.

Cleric · **Joined:** Tue Jun 15, 2010 3:42 pm **Posts:** 542

Cyphre wrote:

"How like little children you appear to me. How small is your comprehension and yet... there is a seed in you... The Old Gods died and gave birth to the New. These New Gods, even such as I, must also pass, in our turn. Our search was long and our war continues, but we found the planetary cradle of the Gods to Come. ... you are only forerunners."

"As New Genesis is to the Fourth World, Earth shall be to the Fifth that is to come."

-Metron

I have been thinking about some of the 'higher-minded' comic concepts that the late great Jack Kirby beat the industry over the head with, including...

The New Gods - The Fourth World - The Eternals - The Inhumans

And I wonder, could a league ...or legion... or characters inspired by and connected to these concepts work in DCUO...?

What would they be like? Would they be a new race of ‘Fifth World’ super-divinities...? A new or previously hidden ancient race of genetically-engineered post-humans?

I know there are those of you on this site who dig Jack Kirby's work and might be interested in this sort of team. I doubt that some of the younger members even know who he is, but I thought this might be something to mull over/think upon/discuss and brainstorm upon.

If done right, and if enough people were interested, I think it could be something very unique and awesome.

Heck, SOE has possibly unknowingly provided us with a glimpse of what one of these beings might look like...

I had tried to do something similar with the Immortalis Custodis group but I was trying New Gods, with X-men, exiles, and Wildcats.

suprmanX · **Joined:** Fri Jun 04, 2010 3:19 pm **Posts:** 330

I think that would be a pretty nice group. I like the idea and think that it is original and fresh to the normal leagues if this is a league or legion.

Cyphre · **Posted:** Sat Jul 03, 2010 7:40 pm

Cleric wrote:

Cyphre wrote:

"How like little children you appear to me. How small is your comprehension and yet... there is a seed in you... The Old Gods died and gave birth to the New. These New Gods, even such as I, must also pass, in our turn. Our search was long and our war continues, but we found the planetary cradle of the Gods to Come. ... you are only forerunners."

"As New Genesis is to the Fourth World, Earth shall be to the Fifth that is to come."

-Metron

I have been thinking about some of the 'higher-minded' comic concepts that the late great Jack Kirby beat the industry over the head with, including...

The New Gods - The Fourth World - The Eternals - The Inhumans

And I wonder, could a league ...or legion... or characters inspired by and connected to these concepts work in DCUO...?

What would they be like? Would they be a new race of ‘Fifth World’ super-divinities...? A new or previously hidden ancient race of genetically-engineered post-humans?

I know there are those of you on this site who dig Jack Kirby's work and might be interested in this sort of team. I doubt that some of the younger members even know who he is, but I thought this might be something to mull over/think upon/discuss and brainstorm upon.

If done right, and if enough people were interested, I think it could be something very unique and awesome.

Heck, SOE has possibly unknowingly provided us with a glimpse of what one of these beings might look like...

I had tried to do something similar with the Immortalis Custodis group but I was trying New Gods, with X-men, exiles, and Wildcats.

Not quite that similar... though your idea was a good and interesting one.

Gideon Cross · **Joined:** Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:25 am **Posts:** 1727

Thanks for putting this up Cyphre you actually inspired me to give it another try. I know there are alot of new members that joined during E3 so maybe just maybe it will work this time.

Superior · **Joined:** Wed Sep 02, 2009 11:09 pm **Posts:** 1589

Interesting... I'd like to see more on what you are planning before I will make observation comment.

Cyphre · **Posted:** Sat Jul 03, 2010 7:50 pm

@Cleric/Gideon
Sure, sure. Glad to help.

Good luck with your group.

@Everyone else
This is really just a basic premise, to see if anyone will get their hooks in it and really run wild.
I wouldn't be running this at all, but rather have an alt in it.

I'm just enabling. I'm an enabler.

Cleric · **Joined:** Tue Jun 15, 2010 3:42 pm **Posts:** 542

And you are good at it Cyphre. I love all your group concepts

Cyphre · **Posted:** Sat Jul 03, 2010 9:26 pm

Cleric wrote:

And you are good at it Cyphre. I love all your group concepts

Thanks... not sure how popular this one will be. $:-\$

I might just have to bring it up again nearer or after launch, when more people are around.