<Snipped quote by Lord Wraith>

Well, i finally figured out an idea for what to do. Would this be too intrusive?

Black Adam idea [+]

Pretty much, in ancient times when Adam was defeated by Shazam, he sealed Adam away in a deep underground tomb on the other side of the world to prevent anyone of his old followers from finding him... This other side oft he world turns out to be current day Montana, USA.

Deep in the mountains is where one of the many Meta/Mutant Forced Labor/Death Camps Super-Fun-Happy Holiday Spa's is located. The incarcerated are those who have mutations that make them better at manual labor than most machines, so they have been put to work under the current Tyranical Dictator Fine Upstanding President.

But they dug too deep... Several of them find the ancient tomb and upon unearthing it, Adam is released back into the world.

Adam, both pissed at being sealed AND pissed at being woken up decides that he doesnt care about this, until he witnesses the guards murdering a number of prisoners, at which point he gets his Ancient Egypt flashbacks to being a slave and decides he's not having any of that.

So, he quickly murders every guard in the camp as well as a bunch of the local politicians in a nearby town and annexes the land as his new kingdom where he will ensure safety and freedom to everyone, regardless of whether they like it or not.

Pretty much the story that follows would be Adam learning how to cope with this modern world, as well as the blooming Stokholm Syndrome that he and his subjects develop for one another as the peaceful townsfolk are suddenly forced to share their town and supplies with a bunch of Mutants and Meta's. Some benign, others not so much. All the while, the local Governor is trying to rectify the situation without getting... Her... Involved... (Because as far as im concerned in any DC Dystopian setting, Amanda Waller should be the single scariest human being)

Would a story like this fuck up anyone's ongoing plans?

I love being a recent grad in the year 2025 means basically nothing in this job market :)

Also, sorry for the radio silence. Had to move back in with my folks while struggling to find any work, lmao. And the post turned out to be rather long (oops). So yeah, my bad.

<Snipped quote by mattmanganon>

I feel like it should be like the vice presidency.

It should go to @Lord Wraith

The issue is we don't have a GM

<Snipped quote by Sep>



But I suppose that's fair. I apologize for the fact that I've gone well over a month without a post from both the driving antagonist and my own applied character. The only excuse I have is that I've had other obligations, but in my downtime, I also experienced a bit of uncertainty as to where I was going with the overarching Lord plot, with Batman a secondary concern right now.

That uncertainty ended and there now sits a post on my computer that I've got about two-thirds of the way written, after starting it earlier in the week. That one at least will be incoming soon, and the President will definitely be ramping up the anti-meta campaign in a way that I think people will be able to react to and hopefully play with.

<Snipped quote by Sep>



But I suppose that's fair. I apologize for the fact that I've gone well over a month without a post from both the driving antagonist and my own applied character. The only excuse I have is that I've had other obligations, but in my downtime, I also experienced a bit of uncertainty as to where I was going with the overarching Lord plot, with Batman a secondary concern right now.

That uncertainty ended and there now sits a post on my computer that I've got about two-thirds of the way written, after starting it earlier in the week. That one at least will be incoming soon, and the President will definitely be ramping up the anti-meta campaign in a way that I think people will be able to react to and hopefully play with.

@Lord Wraith Well, in case you decide to come back, I'll make sure to change as little as possible with my pitch. Try to make it a "Mild retcon" as opposed to "Just ignoring what happened."

All right, I've re-written this enough times now to say the hell with it and put it up.

@Master Bruce @mattmanganon

SHAZAM! [+]

B L A C K A D A M
B L A C K A D A M

^{"The Wizard Shazam betrayed everyone who ever trusted him just so he could gather more and more power, but he's the hero of the story.
And me? I'm the bad guy."}

C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y C H A R A C T E R S U M M A R Y _________________________________________________________ Teth-Adam _________________________________________________________ Approx. 3,500 | Single _________________________________________________________ Captain Marvel | Canaanite (Khandaqi) N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S N O T A B L E A B I L I T I E S & T O O L S _________________________________________________________ [+] - A B I L I T I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ STRENGTH OF HERCULES Teth possesses immense physical strength, in the 100 ton category. ◼ STAMINA OF ATLAS Teth's enchanted form is exceptionally resilient and durable, commensurate with his physical strength. ◼ SPEED OF MERCURY Teth is capable of bursts of movement faster than the human eye can follow, boasting exceptional reflexes and the ability to fly at speeds exceeding the speed of sound for short periods. ◼ POWER OF ZEUS Teth is a living lightning rod, with the magical energies of the world's leylines taking the form of electricity that arcs through the Earth and connects to the boy. He can wield this energy to fuel magic or cast bolts of destructive force. ◼ WISDOM OF SOLOMON Even in ancient times, common sense was a goddamn superpower. But, that aside, Teth is a homo magi capable of wielding magic. - T O O L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ NEGA-GAUNTLETS A pair of gauntlets formed of the same material as Mar-Vell's Nega-Bands. Powered by the energies coursing through Teth, the bands help to regulate his power and ground him. Made of a Kree programmable matter, the bands can take different shapes, becoming a pair of scimitars or even a pistol fueled by Teth's lightning. ◼ ROCK OF ETERNITY Either an magical anchor that tethers the worlds leylines, or the well-spring from which Earth's leylines flow, the Rock of Eternity was usurped by the Wizard Shazam sometime in the 13th Century BCE and served as the source for the power that created the Champion. It is the source of Teth's power. - N O T A B L E S K I L L S & T A L E N T S N O T A B L E S K I L L S & W E A K N E S S E S _________________________________________________________ [+] - S K I L L (S) ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ THE ART OF WAR Teth is an exceptional combatant, trained and experienced in hand-to-hand and armed combat through centuries of warfare. - W E A K N E S S E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ◼ OVERCHARGED When the Wizard Shazam was alive, Teth only possessed as much (or little) power as the Wizard allowed, acting as a kind of regulator. With the Wizard gone, Teth has access to a level of raw, unfiltered magical power that is unlike before -- forcing him to re-learn how his powers work. ◼ ONLY HUMAN Teth still requires food, oxygen, and sleep. While the magic enchantment on him may preserve his life, this means he's limited on how high he can fly or how long he can submerge under water before losing consciousness. ◼ LIMITED VOCABULARY Untrained in magic, what limited experience Teth has with it is from the Ancient World, when wizards relied on words of power and were not as spontaneous in their spellweaving as modern magic users. Like a Wizard in DnD, Teth has to prepare the spell and know the words (and be able to speak them) to cast magic. -

T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... T H E S T O R Y S O F A R... ________________________________________________________________________________________ First things first, instead of being a kid who turns into Magical Superman, this is just an empowered kid. Which is also every version I write of Captain Marvel/Shazam/Black Adam, so you all know what you're getting at this point. While in past OU games, I've merged Billy and Mar-Vell, this version keeps my habit of merging aspects of Billy and Black Adam, with this take leaning into Black Adam's revised origin as a slave. The main tweak to the origin here is that Teth is meant to be Shazam's illegitimate child (making him a half-brother to Satanus and Blaze). I've connected him with Mar-Vell to bridge the two Captain Marvels as well as provide for an NPC'd mentor while still having the Wizard die right when he's needed most (as per Billy's usual origin). Nothing in this concept is intended to bar a Billy Batson or Carol Danvers, including as a successor Captain Marvel. Shazam could have selected another Champion prior to Teth being released, and Mar-Vell is having adventures out in space where Teth can't follow, so plenty of narrative room on both sides for others to play with if they so choose. Teth's power level is scaled back considerably to provide balance for his power set otherwise rolling Superman, Flash, Black Vulcan, and Zatanna all in one. Key to my interpretation is the idea that, with the Wizard gone, the magic now flows directly to Teth instead of through Shazam, making it where Teth is having to re-learn how to manage and control his abilities, while also trying to comprehend the world he's in and find his place in it. Like Jason and the Argonauts, in this version, Shazam and Teth are historical-mythological figures whose actual existence is debated among scholars. Aligning Shazam and Black Adam to older literary figures (Gilgamesh, David, Samson, Beowulf, etc), in this version they are seen as both heroic and villainous at different parts of their story. Shazam a wise philosopher who reigned over an advanced civilization for the time period, but also a pragmatist and opportunist. Teth-Adam a brave warrior, but also arrogant, brash, disrespectful, and disruptive. Shazam is said to have betrayed the city to the Achaemenid Empire, with Teth falling in the Siege of Khandaq in a tale with many parallels to Troy and the story of Achilles. From there, Shazam disappears from the historical record while Khandaq lapses into a cycle of conquest. Alexander the Great followed, then the Ptolemaic Kingdom and the rise of the Roman Empire. The eventual rise and fall of the Ottomans in the modern era led to Khandaq's re-emergence, only now as an Islamic Republic with connections to both Egypt and Iran for its history with both. Behind the scenes, Shazam was working to try and protect the world from otherworldly threats, particularly Dormammu and the arch-fiends of Hell. Teth reappeared in the world three years ago, having been released by a Wizard mortally wounded in the fight against the Reach. Without the Wizard, Teth found the power uncontrollable and was more menace than hero for it. A Kree soldier fighting on Earth by the name of Mar-Vell was able to use Kree technology to help Teth regain control of his wild energies, with the two joining the fight to re-take the Earth. Now, while Captain Marvel continues to battle the Reach across the cosmos, Teth is left to try and find his place in a world he no longer recognizes. P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) ________________________________________________________________________________________ It took me a long time to think of how to approach the game's narrative. Shazam and Teth are both intended to be presented as more complex characters with regard to their motivations, having done great and terrible things each. I think that gives him a great perspective coming into the current world. The Reach was an enemy he could touch, whereas the political fallout is much more difficult to grasp, particularly in terms of right and wrong. The general vibe I'm aiming for is Billy's "superhero in a homeless shelter" kind of cynicism around saving the world not paying anything, with all the emotional baggage of Teth's storied history. In terms of hooks for others to grab onto, Teth's participation in the latter part of the Reach Invasion is meant to supply a possible connection to other heroes who battled the Reach. Otherwise, two stories I'll be running will use Oom (the alien serial killer) as a murder mystery exploring another alien threat on Earth, and re-imagining Mr. Atom as a rogue autonomous weapon system.

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^{All formatting originates via the work of Lord Wraith}