So, i’m writing the background for my next RPG game. We take turns GM’ing. I’m up next month. It’s going to use the GOLDEN HEROES superhero rules. The background is a world whose history has followed our own. It’s set in the UK in 1978. I’m going to start changing history from this point. They will end up in the modern day after various shenanigans.
Superpowered individuals are going to be rare, more Spiderman than Superman in power and co-opted to work with the goverment. Either openly in goverment sponsered teams or clandestinly.
The first confirmed official manifestation of superpowers will be Sergeant Yorks Alvin York - Wikipedia exploits during WW1. Only my version has bullets bouncing off of him and Maxim guns sent cart-wheeling through the air.
I do want however the existance of precursor heroes to be a possibility. Both for possible plot purposes, but also for neat background.
I can see it now.
At 8pm on the Discovery Channel tonight. An all new episode of ‘Heroes from History?’ Was XXXXX actually a superhuman?. we look at the evidence.
So what i’m looking for are actual historical figures between the first and 19th century whose (exaggerated or not) exploits could plausibly be seen as evidence of superpowers.
Rasputin. Demonstrated telepathy, hypnosis, and some form of invulnerability/instant regeneration akin to Wolverine. (At least according to the legends.)
Vassili Zaitsev had super sight and a latent “spider sense” that enabled him to be the best Russian sniper during WW2.
Charles Manson, Jim Jones, et al. during the 60s and 70s all had mental abilities to control or influence others. The fact that they all did it in generally the same era suggests a more powerful psychic who was working behind the scenes, possibly Henry Kissinger.
Frank Sinatra and The Rat Pack were a team of human harpies who battled it out with the Russians and their allies.
I did think about Alexander the great, Genghis Khan, but i don’t want to arbitarily assign superpowers to every great conqueror of history. More quirky figures like Rasputin are exactly what i was thinking of. Jean d’Arc not’s bad either.
Well, Count St. Germaine has already been tapped by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.
How about Apollonius of Tyana – reported wonder-worker with magical powers?
The Roman Emperor ** Maximinus Thrax** (c. 173-238 AD) – purportedly stood over eight feet tall and could pull an oxcart unaided. “Surely the largest man ever to hold imperial office”. It’s Super-Emperor!
Simon Magus , mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, reportedly flew. And he wasn’t even a saint or a Christian! There were plenty of flying saints, though:
Lots of rulers were thought to be so damned good and strong that they were coming back in the future. The story is told of King Arthur, Charlemagne, and Barbarossa, among others. Coming back to life (or from some far-off realm) after centuries has got to qualify as some sort of super-power.
Going on the list.
I like Vassili Zaitsev as well. he’s definitely going to have been a member of the WW2 incarnation of the *‘Defenders of the Revolution’ *. The USSR’s homegrown superteam.
The current line-up incidentally.
Supreme Soviet, Team leader and exemplar of the New Soviet Man.
Cosmos, He went to the stars, and brought their power back.
**Red Army ** the one man army.
Major Ursa Shapeshifting commisar and guardian of doctrine.
A friend of mine once suggested that Leonardo daVinci was a talented but not towering-genius-level twenty-first century engineer and time traveller who got stuck in the past. To keep from going insane, he spent his spare time doodling schematics for planes, helicopters, automobiles, etc., adapting them to Renaissance-era technology.
You should know, however, that this friend was a notorious plagiarizer, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he read that in a science fiction story.
