Aberrant: Children of Quantum Fire - Rules and Setting - Factions & Timeline

[Quantum Fire]

Timeline

Corbin Trial - Corbin was exonerated, a shadow organization called Proteus was momentarily revealed, though details were not found, and Chiroben was fingered as the actual killer. Proteaus faded into the shadows in the years after, taking care to be even more subtle then before, and was soon enough, forgotten, except by some novas.

2012 - Einherjar takes over Congo with the aid of Morrigan, Bombshell, Evo and a number other sympathetic nova's over the next few years, is quite busy with with his focus on the Congo, it takes a decade before the Chief of Chief's control the country is complete.

2015 - Shen takes in the first two of his wards, hiding Maia and Mariana on the isle at no older then 6 years of age.

2017 – Project Proteus discovers that a larger number of fertile novas exist then known, and create their Mother Hunter Program, sending out nova’s and well equipped baselines, who believe in their ideology, or are jealous, to kill them and their offspring. [The Directive is not long behind them, but they are more concerned about nova monster children - Trogs, but both Trues and Terats are affected by their program as well.

- Knockout and Bombshell are attacked shortly after Jason becomes pregnant with Danielle' child. Jason survives, Danielle doesn't, the media world revolts in outrage, direct attack on the publicly pregnant nova becomes very difficult... she gives birth to their daughter later in the year.

2018 – The Ibiza Event happens now, rather then 2015, the end result is the Rainbow room, and the debut of the nova Idol, Harmonic, who uses her capabilities to sooth nova-baseline tensions... a child or teen nova, it's difficult to be certain of her age.

2020 – Artifical Spidersilk appears on the general market, Neofiber becomes available to nova’s, in the last few months of the year, though it remains rare then it’s eufiber cousin, it’s differences are taken note of.

2023 – Harmonic explodes on a world tour, unleashing three new albums in a 6 month period, her popularity amongst nova’s and baselines increases, though she remains an enigma to those who wish to know more about her. During her tour, she demonstrates a deep understanding of sound and music, and one of her albums is meaningless to those unable to hear high frequency sounds. Folks listening to her music say that it makes them feel.. in the zone, but top secret agencies, like the Directive and Proteaus start forbidding their agents from listening to it, as it seems to make their agents more likely to ignore them, or go rogue.

2025 - Cyberware becomes more available and viable to the general public, though some of it remains considerably restricted by government agencies. Some baseline mother hunters become much more dangerous due to Proteaus and the Directive’s cyberware divions.

2026 – The first few second generation novas, who actually claim to be 2nd generation, begin to appear on scene, of all three clades, they prove to be more powerful then the average nova. Some prove more dangerous then others, and various groups begin to try to exploit them to their advantage, or destroy them.

2027 - Now

[Quantum Fire]

Nova Census in 2027 [Reprinted from House Rules, sense it really belongs here]

1st Generation Novas - Around 12,000 with the number increasing by a few hundred a year, even with deaths, depending on various factors, the average is about 200, but this doesn't include the 2nd generation nova's. (about 0.5% are fertile.. But 600 fertile nova’s is a lot)

• Quantum 10 Nova's - Non
  
• Quantum 9 Nova's - One (And I'll give you one guess who)
  
• Quantum 8 Nova's (Counting you folks) - About 32 or so (Sophia, Pax and Anteaus are all here)
  
• Quantum 7 Nova's - Around 114 (Wizard and Reaper were both here)
  
• Quantum 6 Nova's - 257 (about a quarter of these are Terat's), but Shen and Serenity are at this level.
  
• Note: this means out of the total Nova Population, around 400, about 3.2% are above Q5, with fat crackling power of the gods, which is a significant number, in 2010, it was less then a dozen..
  
• Quantum 5 Nova's - About 8 - 9 hundred (not counting 2nd generation nova's)
  
• Note: Nova's with Quantum 5 or more, including the above numbers, come to about 10%
  
• Quantum 4 Nova's - About 1300 or so.
  
• Quantum 3 and less - all of the rest (under 10,000)
  
• Other Inspired - (Psiads and Paramorph's) Unknown, but at least a few hundred.
  
  2nd Generation Novas - 300 to 400 (somewhere in between 10% Trogs, 60% Trues, 30% terats (trogs would be higher, but they are often killed off, do to interactions of probability that should be laid at Sophia's door.)) only about 120 or so are over 13 years old though.. The numbers would be at least a thousand that if not for the ones killed off, though a few hundred of those would be of the Trog clade. Aproximately 98% are fertile as well, though most of them are still too young to have children, but as this shifts, the population of 3rd generation nova's is likely to explode (And should certain folks with species supremacy take action, they could change the fertility of 1st generation nova's, eliminating sterility in them, which will cause a major nova population explosion)
  • They account for about 1/2 of the quantum 8 nova's, and that includes you folks (all 8 of you)
    
  • Over 120 of the present 2nd generation are old enough to reach apotheosis in the next 2 years, if all of them survive, the number of high quantum nova's is going to double. (these are the ones over 12-13 years of age)
    

  3rd Generation and after - less then 20, non over 8 years of age.

  [*]As the second generation nova's join the adult population, this number is likely to start increasing soon..

  Collectively, the number of nova's of all generations are likely to increase to 15,000 by the early 2030's.

  Aberrations and Inheritance

  In the case of 2nd and 3rd generation nova’s, inherited aberrations are actually genetic traits imprinted on their genetic code at a quantum level, not actual aberrations, which means they aren’t affected by powers like aberration transfer or chimerical aberration. It also means there is about a 30 to 70 % chance of passing them on to their children in the future, increasing to 100% if the other partner has it (or if they are using the fertility x 2 ability to engender a genetic clone child).. Having more quantum then one’s partner makes it so that your more likely to pass on certain traits, raising the percentage to the high end.

  Inherited Aberrations (flaws) also work together in unusual ways, each of the various 2nd generation nova’s tend have several aberrations that interact together among thme… and each of the interactions is somewhat different.

  Body Modifications: These are pretty much bound to the genetic code, even for nova's, If both parents have the same modifications, so will the children, if only one has them, it's about a 50% chance.

[Quantum Fire]

Teragen Factions

While the Night of Long Knives has NOT happened yet, a number of effects has shifted matters for the Terats (which means in some ways, it's still happening, it's just going more slowly.. )

- While making a bid to control the children, Tarok was killed and Marcel severly injured (and still is).. the Companions are shifting more to leadership of Orzaiz because of this, making him far more powerful within Teras then ever before. Marcel's present incapacitation is worse then just physical, because, strongly disapproving of his actions, Scripture stripped him of the ability to be understood... permanently, it has more or less caste him out of the pantheon.

- In a battle over Chicago, the arrival of Gloria and Pax, to the battle severely turned the odds in favor of Utopia, and drove the leaders into retreat, the young nova appears to be powerful enough, with the help of Pax to take on both Shrapnel and Geyron together, and left Levathon in that battle with several broken bones.. She has sense personally faced down Geyron alone three times, and each time forced him to retreat, and slew Epoch in one of the battles.. with the death of the terat elite Epoch at Glory's hands, many within teragen see the effectiveness of Primacy and NV as much reduced, and new members often look elsewhere for leadership, though the remaining members become more hardline everyday.

- While the Harvesters remain the faction for the more taint riddled, their close alliance with the above factions has lost them a measure of power, and with Sin Eater moving more into the the circle of the Casablanca's, and Mal seeming more interested in Orzaiz and the terat children, their influence is in decline at this point. Furthermore, some of the leading lights in thier faction, Levathan and the Apothecary are in chrysalis, and seem unlikely to come out soon, they look somewhat to Sin Eater at this point, sense she's the closest thing they have to a leader left, which puts them in the circle of the Casablanca's, an uneasy alliance on both sides.

- With the guidance of the nova portent, White Rain who is now considered one of the leaders of the faction and part of the pantheon herself, being a 3rd stage Portent, the artistic and musical flow of Pandemonium has grown and gained influence, many newcomers find themselves draw to the incredible charisma and beauty of this movement. Several other powerful members have somewhat shifted the control over this faction out from under Narcosis, she remains greatly influential They have even partnered on occation with independent nova's to spread their art, a good measure of which embraces the concepts and ideas of the Nul Manifesto in other ways then violence, producing music and art that tends to be a measure of rebellion against societies attempts to control nova's. [The extremely popular 'Broken Laws' song was recently produced by them]

- Children of Teras: This newly rising faction is more or less made up of 2nd generation terats, and younger, recently erupted novas, but they also count Bounty and Scripture within their number, looking to them as sort of parent figures, with Mal beyond them as a sort of great father. The children are still somewhat unformed in their goals, but the overriding idea seems to be. 'A place of our own' The discussion on this mainly seems to be revolving around creating a nova nation, moving off planet or something along those lines, many of them can be found within Congo these days. At the moment, Surge (aka Norman) is their main leader, but a few older 2nd generations are also highly regarded.

- Casablanca's: Over the last 20 years it's become clear to some of the smarter members of teras, that Raoul's slow method of avoiding going into Chrysalis has proved more effective then expected, when leadership of one faction departs for long periods of time for Chrysalis, he remains avalible to guide and direct his people, and to continue slow recruiting of more novas to the faction. In fact, right now, his influence over teragen is much greater then anyone short of Divis Mal himself, an influence he uses very carefully and subtly.

Present Known Pantheon Membership: Divis Mal (of course), Scripture, Surge (aka Norman), Narcosis, Bounty, Orzaiz, Mathematician, Shrapnel, Geyron, White Rain, Sin Eater, Synapse, Caroline Fong (After Bahrain, she's managed to finally come out of Chrysalis.. is involved with Casablanca's)

Presently in Chrysalis (and likely to be so for another year or even two): The Confederate, Leviathan, The Apothecary, Clarion

Dead: Tarok, Epoch

NOTE: This means that the leadership of Teragen is presently very heavily weighted in favor of Pandemonium and Casablanca.. (and if the NoLK happens soon, they are likely to be the ones to walk out of it)

[Quantum Fire]

Utopia (Sense the question has been asked)

Director Justin Laragione is quite a bit older, though not as much as one might think, due to rejuvenation theropy, he presently has cut most of the ties between Utopia and Proteus, out of irritation as much as necessity, and often completely refuses to cooperate with any requests from the other organization. While he can't stop some of the nova's already working with both groups, he has strongly interfiered with Director Thetis attempts to recruit from within Utopia. With the appearance of Nyx as the guiding mind in Proteaus, Thetis has actually stopped doing that is using more independent nova's these days to carry out her plans.

Project Utopia has grown considerably over the last 20 years as well, they have a number of up and coming lights who are quite well respected by the world at large, of which Gloria is one of their leading lights, but a number of members remain well respected by the public at large, Ragnorocket, Geisha, Atlas, Smart Alex (now calling himself Peak), are among notables as well. Gloria's team also contains several notables who are also well liked by the public, Giantess, Sidhe (pronounced Shee), Starlight, Alpha & Windigo

The Sahara now has several large lakes in the center and much of the land beyond has become quite lovely for living in, there remain desert areas, but due to the work Utopia has put in, this is no longer the worlds largest desert, it has grown greatly. Meanwhile, the teraform Mars project is being suggested in public these days, and many nova's and baselines are very much in favor of the idea, creating another habitable planet in the system would be a crowning touch on Utopia's vision.

Utopia has finally come up with the 1st generation taint drugs (page 35 of New Flesh) and has made them available to many of their own, and available for purchase to non-utopia novas, they are presently attempting to take the next step and find another way to deal with taint.

Caestus Pax remains the voice of Utopia because of his power and a degree of his popularity, but his arrogance and megalomania have grown tiresome to many nova's and baselines, and more then one person has wondered if it it's time for him to retire and turn the leadership of Team Tomorrow over to younger nova's.

Teen Tomorrow remains a sort of training ground for T2M, having been extremely successful over the last 20 years or so.