Stern Algorithm

Complexity Threshold: A Superhero RP

OK, so to answer some questions.

@VitaVitaAR, I think the Jack O'Lantern is fine if you explain it as something the witch made herself, and imbued with a magical 'program'. This program then eventually develops sentience because magic.

As for Cthulhu-type beings, the Preceptors occupy that position in this universe. On their home planet, the preceptors are simply one single psychic entity without a body, without separation, without individuality, and prefer it that way. however, to communicate with other species, they, or rather, 'it', has to send out 'globs' of consciousness. Those globs separate and coalesce into individual entities. It is these individuals who are the actual preceptors that the rest of the galaxy are familiar with. These globs use their psychic energy to create a 'dummy body' in a shape familiar to whatever species they happen to be interacting with in order to be non-threatening. These bodies are meaningless to the preceptors. Three have been assigned to Earth, Mayura the Violet, Annatar the Red, and Saybrook the Green. They have the vague shapes of a peacock, rabbit, and snake. Their bodies are pure white and extremely fluid, when they move, it is like flowing cream. Their eyes are like crystal beads of their respective colors, and in their forehead is embedded a transparent shape of that color, a Sphere, an Octahedron, and a Torus, respectively. Right now, they are simply observing Humanity's growth, but their goal is to help Humanity evolve, but they will attempt to do it in a way that doesn't draw attention to themselves. They are under very strict guidelines and are looking for loopholes to exploit. They don't always agree with each other, are extremely arrogant, and have 'Final Forms'. Their philosophies involve the dichotomy of Love (attractive force) and Terror (repulsive force). Love is the force that brings all things together, seeking to become one, while terror is that which divides, creating individuality. They scoff at other species' desire to remain imprisoned in their own terror and maintain individuality, they even hate the fact that they themselves are forced to be individuals while on their mission to Earth. For the time being, they are not using their powers except for communication and travel.

I don't know much about the starfish summons, so I'd need more information to be able to determine how compatible they'd be with the Preceptors. If I allow the starfish summons, then I would probably make them affiliated with Saybrook as 'he' has been on Earth the longest and is very much insane because preceptors are so used to Absolute Love, Unity and Oneness that being an individual is such a dreadfully silent and lonely isolation that it can send them over the edge. Mayura and Annatar cope better.

@Dead Cruiser, as for a 'digivolving Kamen Rider', I think the power is totally fine. The main limitation with aliens is a political one. The Jarav have to let the Preceptors on Earth because of the treaty, but for any other alien species, the Jarav will filter. Aliens are not allowed to give information or share technology, they have to let humans learn and grow naturally. The alien is allowed entry if they are 'here to help', which usually just means that they're allowed to be superheroes. So the Jarav won't let aliens who have no business being on Earth on Earth. So your character's alien parent is either a superhero (or was a superhero), or someone who doesn't care about the Jarav blockade and is living (or has lived) on Earth illegally. Also, most aliens don't care about Earth and the preceptors are incapable of mating. So explain your alien parent to me and we'll see.

So an edit I need to make to the opening post which I'll state here so you don't have to go back and reread the whole thing, The Age of Superheroes began at First Contact, which happened in the year 2020 CE, the current time in the RP is 30 years later, 2050 CE. Technically, metahumans have always existed, but always in secrecy, though they existed openly in the age of mythology.

Complexity Threshold: A Superhero RP

The OOC is up. The first six Character tab posts have been reserved for the "Big Six", the "American Dream Corps." members. I will answer more in-depth questions concerning @Dead Cruiser's magic alien character and @VitaVitaAR's villain who deals with eldritch abominations, which in this case, are the Preceptors, in later posts.

Even though everyone is accepted, I still need to approve characters, FYI

Complexity Threshold: A Superhero RP

Reserved for Dream Corps. Member: Name TBD

Complexity Threshold: A Superhero RP

Alignment: Hero
Real Name: Fabricio Ferreira
Age:
Superhero Name:
Normal Appearance:
Superhero Appearance:

[+]

Meta type: Parahuman
Description of Powers:
Background:
Personality:
Origin Story:
Secret identity known to public?: Yes
City of residence: Angel City

Complexity Threshold: A Superhero RP

Alignment: Hero
Real Name: Avi Malkuth
Age: 110
Superhero Name: Emet
Normal Appearance: Only has one appearance
Superhero Appearance:

Emet

Meta type: Nonhuman - Magical Golem
Description of Powers: Emet is a magical golem made out of clay. They have the ability to absorb earth-like substances including stone, sand, gravel, concrete, mud, etc., to increase their size. Emet's shape is very fluid, giving them shapeshifing abilities, though they can harden at will.
Background: Avi was created during the Holocaust by a Jewish mystic to save the people being persecuted by the Nazis. Avi and their creator went around trying to save as many as they could until Avi's creator was gunned down by Nazi soldiers. Avi continued their quest, but could not stop the mounting death toll of the genocide until the Nazi regime finally crumbled at the end of the war. With their mission ended, Avi faded from memory, though some survivors spoke of 'the large man' or the 'golem' from folklore, it was dismissed as stress-induced hallucinations. Avi in fact, traveled to America along with many of the refugees and kept a low-profile, living out in the American wilderness. Avi is now a member of the Dream Corps. and goes by the superhero name, "Emet".
Personality: Emet loves humans, Emet was created to love and protect humans, and according to Emet's religious beliefs, God has elevated humans above the rest of creation. Yet it is this love that has caused Emet much internal conflict, as it became unbearable for Emet to see humans harm other humans, leading to Emet's decades-long seclusion. Emet struggles trying to keep his faith in mankind's inherent goodness, and tries very hard to keep from becoming disillusioned. Emet is deeply thoughtful and spiritual, pondering ethics and divine law. Emet has found a mentor and colleague in Pacifist, another non-human with a strong sense of morality and a desire to protect and forgive humans despite their flaws as a species.
Origin Story: Avi was rediscovered when a group of cryptozoologist set out to find Bigfoot in the American Pacific Northwest. The team tracked down Avi only to find that they had mistaken Avi for Bigfoot. Since their discovery was being broadcast live, Avi's anonymity could no longer be maintained so Avi came out of seclusion. At first Avi was something of a celebrity, even becoming a fashion model, since Avi could warp his body to take on whatever human shape the designer needed at the time. However, Avi's original calling, that of saving lives, prompted Avi to become a superhero, and it wasn't long after that they were invited to join the Dream Corps.
Secret identity known to public?: Yes
City of residence: Angel City

Complexity Threshold: A Superhero RP

Alignment: Hero
Real Name: Goes by their Superhero Name
Age: ~500
Superhero Name: Pacifist
Normal Appearance: Only has one appearance
Superhero Appearance:

Pacifist

Meta type: Nonhuman - Jarav (Alien Robot)
Description of Powers: As an artificially intelligent humanoid robot, Pacifist has increased strength, durability and reflexes. Their body has advanced built-in tractor beam and forcefield technology, which they use to attack and defend in non-lethal ways. Practically, Pacifists abilities resemble telekinesis involving puling (tractor beams) and pushing (forcefields). Pacifist's other body, the Dream Corps. headquarters, has much more powerful tractor beams and forcefields. It is usually docked at the Dream Corps. Tower, but it can detach and hover around as a form of transportation as Pacifist cannot fly. As a digital mind, Pacifist can inhabit any body the Jarav create, and so as an ambassador to the humans, Pacifist inhabits a humanoid robot body to appear nonthreatening. Pacifist is also a technopath, able to interface and overpower primitive human technology. However, domination of another technopath or AI is not at all guaranteed.
Background: Life as a digital alien is beyond human comprehension.
Personality: Pacifist is pleasant and highly intelligent. Pacifist behaves like a teacher and parent, and believes that ethics and morality are the natural fruits of logic and reason. Pacifist, and the Jarav in general, have and experience emotions and do not embody the typical, cold logic stereotype humans have of AI. pacifist has a tendency to take a step back and let humans solve their own problems, as the only way a child can learn is through experience, but will step in simply to save lives and deal with threats beyond what humans can reasonably handle.
Origin Story: Pacifist was the scout that crash-landed on Earth, setting in motion the events that led to First Contact. At the time, their body was the scout ship, but the crash caused a malfunction in their ability to communicate with the mothership, and prevented Pacifist from sending their digital mind back to safety. The American Dream Corps. base, however, is a Jarav ship that hovers over Angel City, with a docking tower that is its usual location. This ship, this base, is in fact Pacifist's other body that they control simultaneously with their humanoid body. The idea behind the Dream Corps. was pitched by Pacifist to Justice and Kingfisher.
Secret identity known to public?: Yes
City of residence: Angel City

Complexity Threshold: A Superhero RP

Alignment: Hero
Real Name: Fisher, Amy
Age: 29
Superhero Name: Kingfisher, formerly Blue Angel
Normal Appearance: Amy has short blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. She is 5'3" with light skin. Physically she appears small and svelte, but her demeanor makes her seem taller and more imposing.
Superhero Appearance:

Kingfisher

Except her color scheme is more teal and orange. The Kingfisher suit makes her look much bigger.

Meta type: Human - Neotool user
Description of Powers: Her powers are based entirely on the capabilities of her Kingfisher powersuit. The mechanical suit has a variety of gadgets at her disposal. It is capable of powered flight, grants increased strength and durability, can be used to scan for various things and interface with electronics. The Kingfisher has flight thrusters on the backs of her shoulders and hips that can transform into high power beam cannons. When using the beam cannons, she cannot fly. Amy keeps a massive interchangeable arsenal and chooses her equipment depending on the situation, though she usually carries a beam rifle as her default weapon. Sometimes, she will deploy a N.E.S.T. (Needs-based Equipment Storage Turret) to her combat zone, giving her access to more equipment than she normally brings.
Background: Amy grew up at poverty level with her two parents who tried desperately to eke out a living on the streets of Angel City. Her parents sacrificed much to ensure she could have decent schooling, while she spent every hour that she wasn't studying or schooling to work small jobs to help relieve the financial burden on her parents. Amy struggled and climbed her way up, getting better grades, and graduated high school. She ended her education with a high school diploma to enter the workforce in order to take care of her parents who were getting on in years and becoming less and less capable of working multiple jobs. She found a job at the machine shop of a small manufacturing company, and very quickly demonstrated a knack for technology. The company's owner saw her potential and urged her to attend higher education, even helping to pay for some of the costs. Amy went to attend college, but still worked part time. Double majoring in Mechanical engineering and Computer science, and minoring in finance, Amy graduated with full honors. However, her patron died of heart complications soon after, but instead of letting the company go down, she used her experience with frugal living, financial education, and innovative mechanical design to turn the small manufacturing company into the industrial powerhouse, Crown Heavy Industries, now based in Los Vascos. Amy Fisher is now a high-profile billionaire with close ties to military research.
Personality: Amy Fisher is a sharp and no-nonsense individual with the professional intensity of a CEO with tremendous financial power. She can be very judgmental; only demonstrated results mean anything to her. She is refined and elegant, and can appear arrogant to other members of the upper-crust, but has a soft spot for those struggling at the bottom, and donates often at high-profile charity fundraisers to fight homelessness, hunger, and poverty.
Origin Story: The success of Crown Heavy Industries was springboarded by their devotion to the government as a military defense contractor. In a joint project with ThunderTech, CHI helped develop the first line of powersuits to help normal military and police forces cope with the existence of metahumans. When ThunderTech rolled out their superhero, Thunderbolt, the CHI executive board felt that they should do the same for the sake of PR. So the Blue Angel suit was developed that Amy personally tested and piloted. She operated as a superhero for a good amount of time, but questions about secrecy and accountability came up, so Amy decided to come out and reveal herself to the public, changing her superhero name to Kingfisher and the color scheme from blue and yellow to teal and orange. In conversation with Justice and Pacifist, Amy decided to use her company's wealth to found the American Dream Corps., a privately-owned, superhero organization.
Secret identity known to public?: Yes
City of residence: Angel City

Complexity Threshold: A Superhero RP

Alignment: Hero
Real Name: Horton, Charlize
Age: 33
Superhero Name: Lady Justice, or more simply, Justice
Normal Appearance: Standing at a heroic 6'7", Charlize is tall and wide, with a physique to match her power. She is Black and her black hair is arranged in cornrows that run down to the small of her back. She has dark brown eyes, but she is blind and wears shades. She navigates the streets with a folding white cane.
Superhero Appearance:

Justice

Meta type: Neohuman
Description of Powers: Justice's powers are gravity based, giving her increased density which makes her extremely durable and hit like a ton of bricks. She can also control her own gravity, letting her levitate, fly and accelerate to high speeds. She can also manipulate the weight of objects she touches, letting her catch and carry objects that would otherwise crumble or snap under their own weight. She can create gravitational pulls that would affect every object around her, and though she is unaware of this, she is capable using gravity to bend space, allowing her to teleport herself. She can sense the gravitational fields that are emitted by all matter, allowing her to sense and 'see' despite her blindness. She however, cannot see color or finer textures.
Background: Charlize came from a lower-middle class African-American suburban family in the Midwest US. She was always large for her age and was thought of as a gentle giant, sometimes fighting bullies. Thanks to her size and strength, she participated in American Football during her school years, and even into college, where she majored in Sociology. After acquiring her powers, Justice became one of the most famous 'Superheroes' and quite possibly the single most popular superhero of all time, due to her unwavering commitment to helping people, exemplary performance, and spotless personality. Now she is the leader of the American Dream Corps., the premier crimefighting team of metahumans.
Personality: Charlize is an upstanding citizen with a simple and straightforward sense of morality. Altruistic and self-sacrificing, Charlize also champions for the rights of the underprivileged, and hopes that her actions can help society change for the better. However, in addition to being caring and compassionate, Charlize has a strong personality and is a born leader. Though she readily tolerates and accepts differing opinions, she won't back down if she thinks someone's actions will harm another.
Origin Story: After graduation from college, Charlize worked for various overseas charity and humanitarian organizations. At one point, the organization she was with was invited to Geneva, Switzerland to attend a celebration of humanitarianism in the city that is the base of the original Red Cross organization. However, someone thought it would be a good idea to invite the organizations to tour the CERN laboratory, and show them the Large Hadron Collider. However, an unplanned experiment was taking place, and the organizations were evacuated, but the experiment started going out of control and according to calculations, the much-feared micro-black holes were being created. The only way to stop the experiment and prevent the black holes from growing was if someone went into the underground tunnel surrounding the LHC and shut off a specific valve that was malfunctioning. Without hesitation, Charlize went in, and by the time she reached the valve and shut it off, she had been bombarded with dark matter radiation, and who knows what else from such proximity to the micro black holes that were circulating the collider. After the reaction ended, rescue teams went in and found her groping along the ground trying to find the exit. Theories say that the exposure damaged her eyesight, rendering her blind. A cursory medical check up showed other than blindness, that she was fine, and she was allowed to return to the States. The bureau of Metahuman Affairs caught wind of this event and kept a close eye on her. When her gravity-based powers began to manifest, they approached her and convinced her to use her powers for good.
Secret identity known to public?: No
City of residence: Angel City

Complexity Threshold: A Superhero RP

Hello and welcome to Complexity Threshold: A Superhero RP. This opening post will contain all the starting lore, and may be added to as the RP progresses. After the lore will also be a CS template.

Lore

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Will: That which the collective consciousness of mankind predominantly believes, has a strange tendency to become true for mankind.

Imagine a world...

Imagine a world identical to our own, mundane and believable. While people used to believe in heroes and magic, such belief has been suppressed by scientific thought, relegated to nothing more than myth, tall tales, and urban legends. Imagine then, that some catastrophic event occurred that caused such things to resurface, to claim that they had always existed, that they had merely gone into hiding for a period of time that coincided, strangely enough, with mankind's decreasing belief in them. But more than the cultural, mythological and magical realms were revealed, strange pseudosciences, secret government experiments, and unusual covert task forces also came to light. Events that had been occurring without notice, people doing bizarre things to manipulate the course of history under cover of secrecy, individual humans demonstrating capabilities that far surpassed the norm, unbelievable, incredible powers. What then, was the catastrophic event that allowed these seemingly incredible things to emerge?

First Contact

As it turns out...

As it turns out, having one of the fundamental existential questions, "are we alone in the universe?", answered, was the next step in the evolution of the universal human consciousness. After this shocking revelation, we as a species came to accept bizarre unexplainable phenomenon that, due to our centuries-long collective denial, had been actually shunted into existential darkness, forced to reside in a 'physical subconscious', forgotten in the shadows of history.

In 2020 CE, an alien craft crash-landed innocuously somewhere in Western Canada. The governments of two countries, Canada and the United States of America, converged to recover the craft in secrecy. The alien race that had been monitoring Earth for millenia, preferring not to let their one of their own be studied and dissected by the curious and destructive humans, but with no way to recover the fallen craft without being detected, the aliens chose that moment to reveal themselves on a global scale. Massive ships descended on every major city, while a worldwide message was sent out demanding that they be allowed to retrieve their ship, which was actually the alien itself, which the ignorant humans would have torn apart and reverse engineered in search of a supposed 'biological lifeform' inside, thereby killing the alien in the process had the humans been allowed to carry out their schemes.

The Galactic Canon

Mankind was fortunate...

Mankind was fortunate that the aliens with which First Contact was made, are the Jarav, the assigned caretakers of the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Jarav are a machine race; digital minds, digital souls, transferable between fabricated bodies. Among the assigned caretaker races, the Jarav are considered the most compassionate. The Jarav were assigned as caretakers by the Galactic Canon, the galactic coalition of 'Canonized' species. The Galactic Canon has ordained that all sentient species are not to be interfered with until the species in question establishes first contact with a sentient species from the Canon, after which they will be observed and, if deemed worthy, be offered the privilege of Canonization.

The year is now 2050 CE, Earth is now being even more closely monitored by the Jarav, who will decide when Earth is ready for Canonization. One major inhibitory prerequisite to Canonization is Planetary Unification, something that still seems far out of humanity's reach.

The Preceptors

Considered rogues by the Canon...

Considered rogues by the Canon, the race known to Earth as 'The Preceptors' exists in its native state as a single, paranormal entity. It is theorized that at some point in the past, the Preceptors achieved Planetary Unification in an absolute sense: physical unification, mental unification, and spiritual unification, relinquishing separateness and individuality in an act they refer to as "Universal Love". A being that skirts the psychic and the physical, the preceptors believe that it is the duty of enlightened species to bring the less fortunate up to speed, to actively initiate first contact and accelerate the process of planetary unification; in essence, fast tracking underdeveloped species toward canonization. It was their hope that this would allow all species to defend themselves against some of the more ruthless and imperialist members of the Canon, but the Preceptors interference, more often than not, led to them being worshiped as gods by the species they enlightened. The Canon perceived this as a massing threat as more and more of the young incoming canonized species followed the Preceptor cult, resulting in a purge, known as the Galactic War of Innocence, as the Canon fought for the 'innocence' of the uncanonized species. The Treaty of Innocence was signed, the Preceptors were forbidden from initiating First Contact, and could not interact with a species unless another species had already done so. Despite the fact that First Contact between Humanity and the Jarav was established because of an accident, the terms of the treaty still hold, so the Preceptors are now allowed to interact with humans.

Metahumans

Humans who have developed some power beyond the norm...

Humans who have developed some power beyond the norm are collectively known as metahumans. Though metahumans have supposedly always existed, the best evidence of this being their existence in world mythologies, their presence dropped to almost nothing during the 'modern era'. First contact initiated the Golden Age of Metahumans, who are now appearing in far greater numbers than even existed in mythology. They are divided into several subcategories based on where their powers supposedly come from.

Neohumans: Metahumans whose powers are derived from some external, scientific source, usually the result of experimentation, or exposure to some force, event, or accident at a later stage in their life.

Parahumans: Metahumans whose powers are derived from magical sources; this can be through the possession of magical artifacts, years of magical study, or other sources of magical influence.

Overhumans: Metahumans whose powers are supposedly inherent. Theories suggest a genetic factor, but experimental results are inconclusive. Powers may manifest at birth or some later point in life, commonly at puberty.

Humans: Sometimes, acquiring a powerful scientific or magical tool can grant a normal human metahuman-levels of power. Scientific tools are called Neotools, while magical tools are called Paratools. Tools of alien origin are categorized based on that alien species' particular metatype.

Non-humans: Of course, not all beings with powers are humans. These may include aliens, constructs, or animals.

Important Locations:

Cities

Los Vascos - A coastal city on the southwestern corner of America, Los Vascos is a popular tourist city known for great weather. However, as a major naval base, Los Vascos has a strong military presence as well as a strong defense contractor presence. Los Vascos is also famous for being at the forefront of bioengineering research. Los Vascos covers a large area and has many comfortable middle-to-upper class suburbs, it's downtown area being unusually clean and with a lower crime rate as far as large cities go.

Angel City - A few hours drive north of Los Vascos is Angel City, one of the most populous metropolises of the US. Angel City is a cultural melting pot, and a crowded, highly urbanized city with an extremely high population density in addition to covering a large area. Angel City is known for being a huge media center at the pinnacle of the movie and television industry. Angel City has some very classy neighborhoods but also many that are low-class. Angel City has a very high crime rate and suffers from gang wars. The headquarters of the American Dream Corps. is located in Angel City.

Valle Dorado - A few hours drive north of Angel City is Valle Dorado, a bustling metropolis with a long history, famous as a technology and industry pioneer. It is extremely multicultural and is famous for its progressive values. With a dense population, it covers a smaller area than the other two cities. It gets its fair share of crime.

CS Template

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Alignment: Villain, Hero, or Neutral?
Real Name: Last Name, First Name
Age:
Superhero Name:
Normal Appearance:
Superhero Appearance:
Meta type: (Neo, Para, Over, etc.)
Description of Powers:
Background:
Personality:
Origin Story:
Secret identity known to public?:
City of residence:

Use the following:
[b]Alignment: [/b][color=Red]Villain[/color], [color=Blue]Hero[/color], or [color=Green]Neutral[/color]?
[b]Real Name: [/b]
[b]Age: [/b]
[b]Superhero Name: [/b]
[b]Normal Appearance: [/b]
[b]Superhero Appearance: [/b]
[b]Meta type: [/b]
[b]Description of Powers: [/b]
[b]Background: [/b]
[b]Personality: [/b]
[b]Origin Story: [/b]
[b]Secret identity known to public?: [/b]
[b]City of residence: [/b]

Complexity Threshold: A Superhero RP

It may take me a just a bit longer to finish the OOC, but I need to sleep now.