Superhero warrior
Superhero warrior is a name that has been traditionally used to refer to individuals that are born with super powers on the Continent. Another frequent moniker is "a child of a demigod".
Overview
The Continent's population exhibits a poorly studied phenomenon that result in the occasional births of individuals with superpowers. Superpowers range from incredible strength and being able to wield various forms of energy, to the more exotic ones, such as having a phantom live a full blown life while its counterpart sleeps.
The percentage of the population with such abilities is incredibly low, leading to a colloquial “rule of 5”, which states that at any point in time there bound to be no more than 5 superhero warriors. While an actual average based on historical data actually estimates this number to be slightly over 16, the rule does its job at stressing how rare the phenomenon is.
The Continent has a rich history of superhero warriors, and collectively they have greatly influenced events, culture and politics, introducing an amount of political and economical uncertainty far greater than on many other worlds. Most modern countries of the Continent have been founded or expanded by a superhero warrior at some point in history.
Usage of the term
The term “superhero warrior” is arguably outdated. It was common to use any super ability for conquest, but that hasn't been always done in the past, nor is it commonly done today. Nevertheless, the term is widely used to refer to persons with super abilities as either “superheroes” or “superhero warriors”. In fact, in spite of the latter term being longer, it is used more often.
Although being born a superhero warrior is generally considered a blessing, since the very early days of the civilization there has always been a movement that considered it prudent to conceal one's abilities for a long period of time or throughout the whole life. Several shadow superhero warriors have been suspected behind a number of historical events, and some have come out as they reached older age.
The phenomenon has also introduced an unexpected social benefit of greatly reduced gender, racial and religious discrimination, as a superhero warrior can be born into a family of any race, class or worldview, and be of any gender or sexuality.
Abilities
TBD: The dilution of abilities. They definitely have a genetic link. A typical situation would be an appearance of an ability that would later slowly "dilute", which means that the next time it is encountered in the population, it tends to be weaker, until the point it just no longer appears.
A typical example is the famous speed barrier.
Classification
Generally, superhero warriors have unique abilities, and in many cases they are not trivial to compare or classify. However, there are classes of abilities and their recurring combinations, as well as a historic and cultural context on this.
Healers
Superhero warriors with the ability to affect health are generally not referred to as "superhero warriors" and are instead called "healers". While they are expected to be merciful and provide their abilities beyond their own family and nation, this hasn't always been the case and countries frequently used healers as an advantage in battle.
Their abilities have less variability in kind, but they do vary in amplitude. It is normal for a healer's ability to be pretty weak. Stronger healing abilities are rare.
Sun Kings and Moon Kings
Superhero warriors who's abilities emerge only during daylight or only during night are called Sun Kings and Moon Kings respectively. There have been fourteen Sun Kings and eleven Moon Kings throughout the Continent's history. They usually possess strange and very powerful abilities.
Legendaries
Main article: Legendary
A superhero warrior will be classified as a legendary if they possess extraordinary longevity and insight. Legendaries frequently do not know that they are legendaries until later in life.
Legendaries tend to play an important, although an unclear role in many historical events. People like the Utbringer had the peculiar ability to be central to the development of whole movements, while having their exact role in the events remain vague even to the people directly involved.
Caprices
Caprices tend to have abilities that could be described as unusual, but also very strong. Such abilities have been documented to not always work or be difficult to control. Many caprices perfect their skills over the course of their lives.
Superhero warriors in battle
The name "superhero warrior" hints at the main profession for many possessors of superpowers. Throughout the Continent's history, superhero warriors have been an integral part of armed conflicts. A powerful superhero warrior serving in the city's or country's army could protect the region by reputation alone. In some cases, the fate of conquests was decided by combat between the armies' superhero warriors, sparing the soldiers.
However, using superhero warriors in battle was never a sure bet, since only some had the powers to affect multiple individuals. And in some cases, when subjected to such pressure, superhero warrior's abilities could exhibit unwanted side effects or even go out of control affecting its own army as well. Such was the case with Aaroh, for example, at the Battle of Kustichoh, when his abilities of instilling confusion on an enemy that served well when defending a city, went out of control in an open field and created a vortex that hurt both armies. Aaroh was killed by his own troops in confusion and the battle was eventually lost.
Superhero warriors and religion
Superhero warriors always carried a string religious subtext. Generally, religions regard superhero warriors as either the chaos makers or the saviors of the natural order. Lolion, Foft and Rahkahnja regard superhero warriors as demigods, although the interpretation of their exact role in the world is unique for each religion.
Effect on discrimination
The fair distribution of superhero warriors among the population leads to a reduction in group discrimination, due to famous and revered individuals emerging from all kinds of backgrounds.
Data suggests that throughout history superhero warriors helped level attitudes in cases of tense relations. One example is the significant negative sentiment against the Teamatian natives in Homestead and Tarnaria was significantly offset by Kievan, a Teamatian native, who became a religious icon in the 16th CSR.
The even distribution among the sexes also leads to decreased gender-based discrimination, although various cultures have been able to establish strong patriarchal and matriarchal views in spite of this.
