Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Heroes of other worlds?

The hawk-headed god strolled carelessly between the lines of crystalline grave memorials spreading out to the horizon.

There was one grave he was seeking in particular.

“Zaura Koron,” he commanded, “Long have I sought one such as you. Arise!”

The tsarin crystal cracked and splintered as the young Tromite’s soul rose up in obedience to the god’s command.

“Take upon you your new body,” the god commanded. “You are now my Sekhmet, servant of Horus-Ra. Use your powers to battle the Undying One, lest his evil corrupt the Universe.”

The god vanished. Zaura Koron was left alone on Trom.

The ancient Egyptian god Horus-Ra is, of course, completely mad. As reported by Death herself, the Undying One has been long vanquished; gone for millennia. Yet still Horus-Ra pursues him, unwilling to give up his purpose, raising up beings of great power to battle against his long-dead foe in every century. Or when Horus-Ra remembers.

Sekhmet, Zaura Koron of Trom, is similar in appearance to the 2Oth-century Urania Blackwekk, “the Element Girl”, who in turn resembles a female, green-haird Metamorpho. Zaura is, however, some ten years younger in appearance than Urania in her prime. Zaura also has a golden “Eye Of Horus” embedded (cameoed) just below her collarbone.
She is able to transmute any chemical element, as well as transmute and re-shape her own physical body. She is functionally immortal, until Horus-Ra or one of the other surviving Egyptian gods wills otherwise.

Why she, in particular, was chosen by Horus-Ra is a mystery.

Having returned from the dead on a dead world, dazed and confused, with an futile, impossible mandate, she wanders the perimeter of the habitable region of Trom, gradually enlarging its boundaries, hoping that this small act will somehow satisfy Horus-Ra, who has turned his attention elsewhere…

The alien world of Fwang is an idyllic tropical paradise. The weather is uniformly warm and pleasant, there are no fierce animals or biting insects.

The inhabitants have never seen the need of building shelters or housing,, but work, play, and sleep peacefully out-of-doors. Wild fruit trees of an astounding variety and abundance provide a plentiful, delicious and diverse diet. The assorted Fwangling tribes have rich cultures celebrating all sorts of art, craft, manufacturing, storytelling, athletics, philosophy, theater, scientific investigation, merchandising, and trade. The several tribes, families, communities and nations have been at peace for millennia, favoring cooperation over competition, and appreciating the infinite diversity in infinite combination of their fellows.

There is only one problem.

There was once a second planet in orbit around Fwang’s Primary. This planet became unstable, and disintegrated. Once a year, as Fwang crosses the debris field of the doomed world, it confronts a particularly dense asteroid belt, and experiences a dense shower of meteors for several days, many of which reach the planet’s surface.

In order to combat this problem, Fwanglings have developed an unusual mutation. At puberty, the males gain the ability to transform into huge, metallic cylinders, which allow younger siblings, other children, and females to hide within them. Young men during the “Meteor Days” are dressed in bright, primary colors so that they may be easily spotted. At the same time, the female Fwanglings develop a specialized “early warning system” which allows them to sense the imminent local impact of incoming meteors, as well as the ability to fire brilliant “warning flares” into the sky. With these two cooperative mutations, Fwanglings have been able to survive the “Meteor Days” for centuries without personal injury.

Still, it takes some time for the remainder of the environment to recover from these meteor strikes. Plants are always damaged, and wild animals who do not live near the humanoid Fwangling population.

Two hundred years before the birth of Hal Jordan on Earth, the Fwangling Biff was contacted by the Guardians of the Universe, and made the Green Lantern of his sector. Once he had realized the power of the ring, he exerted tremendous will-power, gathering together the asteroid debris field, and fusing it back into a planet. He set this new world in a distant, stable orbit around Fwang itself, so that they might never again suffer from “Meteor Days”.

The results were devastating.

The Fwangling males felt purposeless, their amazing powers now worthless. Many fell into depression, assuming the inert form of metal cylinders for days. The Fwangling females were no better. They felt an emptiness, a sensory deprivation, as there were no more meteor strikes to stimulate their “early warning” sense. Frustrated and irritable, they began to fire off flares at random, sometimes at the inert metal cylinders. (Which did them no physical harm.)

Even more alarming, an essential part of the Fwangling romantic ritual had been lost. Young adults were not pairing off, and within a few years, the birth rate plunged.

Meeting with the Council of the Nations, Green Lantern Biff proposed a solution. Returning to the world he had created, he blasted it to smithereens once again. He then contacted the Guardians of the Universe.

Biff explained that he felt unworthy to use the power of the ring; that he felt incapable of foreseeing the consequences of so great a power, no matter how well-intentioned its use. He offered to return the ring and lantern to the Guardians.

One of the Guardians of the Universe spoke for all. A Green Lantern, who hesitated to use the power of the Green Lantern, was wise indeed.

They were pleased to allow him to remain within the Corps, a Green Lantern for life, even if he never took up the ring again.




FWANG in the 30th century was the homeworld of Fortress Lad.
{Secret Origins Vol 2 #46}

From Somahtur, The Colony is the only name recognized by the millions of sentient bacteria inhabiting the body of a young Somahturan man formerly named Siol Wydure. After an intense fever, which led to his brain-death, 'Siol' seemed to make a miraculous recovery, only for it to be discovered that he had indeed passed away, but that the many different species of micro-organism within his brain and nervous system had formed a bacterial hive-mind, and, in essence, become an entirely new person, indeed, an entirely new form of life, colonizing the body of their former host.

The Colony refuses to answer to the name Siol, and avoids interacting with its hosts former family (a sentiment they share, finding the notion of the disease that killed their son walking around in his body offensive and outrageous), and is, in some regards, child-like and innocent in personality, having leapt into a world with no others of it's kind, left to find a place in the univere alone. After a prolonged time of being poked and prodded in quarantined isolation, it's petition to the UP to be recognized as a sentient individual, and to no longer be locked up and treated like a specimen, was recognized, and it was treated with a special retroviral inhibitor, preventing it from infecting and 'converting' other living beings into fellow 'colonies' in the manner in which it had been created (it is pretty sure it has found a way around these limitations, but is well aware that the only way it could reproduce itself in this manner and make more colonies would be to infect and kill other sentients, a thought which it finds repulsive).

It has discovered that it can infect others temporarily, with the retroviral treatments causing it's bacteria to die out within a few generations (an hour, tops, not nearly long enough to cause any lasting harm, as it takes a day to fully colonize a human-sized target), and, so long as the infection remains, can attempt to override and 'colonize' the mind and will of it's target, influencing their moods, their behaviors, or even seizing control of their actions completely, in the case of a target with a compromised immune system, or lacking a strong sense of self!

Due to the retroviral 'governor' forbidding it from fully infecting others, and it's own odd status on Somahtur, The Colony spends as much time as possible off-world, where it uses it's unique status (as a one-person 'world,' of sorts) and unusual ability to temporarily infuence and communicate with others as both freelance diplomat, investigator and, when necessary, crime-fighter.

The Colony is not merely a single type of bacteria, but many different species, working more or less together, but sometimes having radically different ideas, and, while considered a single life-form, by the UP, is more accurately a 'League of Nations' that have, for the most part, chosen to work together to inhabit the body that serves as their own personal 'United Planets.' They have chosen to keep this aspect of their fractured many personalities to themselves, not wanting to call into question their precarious status among the other races of the UP, and they can use their unique abilities in ways that the authorities who granted them this 'free man' status might shudder to know, being able to 'lightly' infect others, merely to allow for more effective translation (or interrogation...), a feature they use regularly in mediation of disputes, by causing members of disputing factions or competing organizations to 'see each others points of view' more readily, bringing them into a subsconscious sort of rapport, many levels below a true hive mind, and pushing them towards a consensus, just as the many communities of micro-organisms within their own body have found consensus.

They can even temporarily release colonies of light and sound and chemical sensitive bacteria as a nigh-invisible mist or film, to 'record' information in an area, and then reclaim it later, to absorb information that the bacteria sensed while The Colony was nowhere in sight, allowing The Colony to secretely observe their clients and subjects, to gain a better understanding of a situation.

[The recent discussion of hive-minds inspired me!]

In the 31st century, the starship 40Hectare is so named because that is the measurement of its large interior floorspace. Despite its size, It is the headquarters of only a small group of heroes from various worlds throughout U.P. Space, some United Planets members, some not.

1. Antursus: Is a huge golden grizzly from the planet Arcus. Nine feet tall, with eight-inch claws, he is a powerhouse of physical strength, and has an equally prodigious appetite. Somewhat round-bellied and slow-witted, he is a gentle giant unless provoked; at such times he may forget his own strength.

2. The Pig Ninja: He is a dwarf porcinoid, an outcast from the Gamorrean Empire. Although he is only 1/3 the height of his friend Antursus, he is a fearsome opponent nevertheless. Favoring small, drug-tipped shurikan (throwing stars) as his weapon of choice, he is unnervingly quick and stealthy.

3. Greystorm: A serious-minded, silver-maned equinoid of the Houyhnhnm World, he is capable of generating small, local thunderstorms.

4. Tora, Warrior Tiger: From the planet Karnan in the Vegan system. (And you thought they were all extinct). Imagine a slender, black-and-gold striped Bouncing Boy, but with claws.

5. Wol Bubo: Super-intelligent owl-like alien from Ulla (aka Uwilla), one of the worlds in the Anatares system. Also has the ability to fly unaided in planetary atmospheres, or through space.

6. Captain Christopher: The owner of the 40Hectare, and master of the crew. He is a 50th-generation descendant of Vartoxx of Valeron, and wields a vast array of psionic “hyper-powers”.

7. Lagos: Hare-headed hyperactive super-speedster from the planet Leporo.

8. Quanga the Leaper: From a strange, far-off world called Ozz (not to be confused with Oz), she has the peculiar ability to split herself in two-- but the duplicate is only ¼ the size of the original.

Awesome take on the hive mind Set!

I love the use of bacteria and its hive mind. The Colony could definitely gives new meaning to germ war fare in the wrong hangs.

One-hundred and seventy-five light years from Earth, orbiting the orange giant known as Ra’s al-Tinnin, or Etanin is the giant water-world Mysticetion, It is ten times the size of Earth, and with an deep ocean nearly one thousand times the volume.
Although not technically within the “Goldilocks Zone” of its primary, the thick carbon dioxide and methane-rich atmosphere keeps the planet warm- even warmer than Earth. With the abundant miscroscopic life, the Mysticetic Sea is more like a warm bowl of soup than the Earth oceans.

There is also abundant macroscopic life, but the dominant life-form are the Scarlet Mysticeti, or, as they call themselves, the Uy’mon. Similar in appearance to scarlet Blue Whales, but with semi-tentacular arms and a dozen eyes, they are a telepathic species which have linked their minds into a vast, collective intelligence. Each fully-grown, adult Mysticet can measure up to 100 meters in length and weigh up to four kilotons. With a billion of these minds joined together, they are a massive psychic force. Unlike some other collective minds, they value the life of each individual within the collective equally, and will expend great resources to heal an injured member. They are also extremely sensitive the perceived intrusion their telepathy might cause on other, non-collective minds, and so are perceived by the remainder of the Galaxy as solitary, distant, and remote.

But there is another life-form which shares the Etanin system with the Mysticeti. They share, in fact, common ancestors. Sometime in the distant past, before the acquisition of collective consciousness, some of the ancestors of the Mysticeti left the oceans, took to the air,, and eventually colonized the vacuum of space.

Heading inward toward the sun, the creatures known as the Sutaryuu made their home within the first asteroid belt of Etanin. Contrary to the manner in which such asteroid belts are usually depicted, the belt appears only as pinpoints of light in the sky, with tens of thousands of miles separating one rock from another. But here, subsisting upon the pure light of the sun, the Sutaryuu make their home.

Unlike their Mysticeti cousins, the Sutaryuu are only mildly telepathic, capable of transmitting hazy ideas and pictures. This has built up, however, into a language of telepathic ideograms, which allow communication in the emptiness of space. Their evolution has led them rather to develop telekinetic abilities.

The Sutaryuu are also far larger than the Mysticeti, nearly a mile in length, and weighing half a megaton each. Still, from a distance, they appear to be shining crimson threads. Up close, they more resemble immense, bright red Luck Dragons. (ref. Michael Ende’s Neverending Story)

The ruler of the Sutaruu (for they have an ordered and complex society) is Lexla’Alun. His profession as King is to guard the spaceways near the 1st asteroid belt, as well as all of the Etanin system. He is able to communicate, and even command, lesser space-dwelling creatures, such as the immense Space Rocs, Spacewhales, and the somewhat smaller Starwhal (an gigantic version of which was called the “Moby Dick of Space”) as well as a wide variety of other creatures of the void, mostly unknown to humankind. He is also able to telekinetically gather the gas and dust which permeates space, from vast distances, to create space-storms and cyclones.

The pirates who have encountered Lexla’Alun have spread the word to avoid the star-ways near Etanin, and have christened him “the Spacedevil”.

You have some really richly realized ideas here, and I love how you pepper in science-y stuff like the Goldilocks zone.

I've had some similar ideas about alien or spacefaring life-forms, but none of them have been suitable for this thread. Maybe I'll find (or make!) a better venue for them...

Khundia has had an assortment of 'heroes' over the years, from the White Witch's solo fight as a Legionnaire, with the cyborg Kharlack to the equally ill-fated quartet of Firefist, Veilmist, Blood Claw and Flederweb.
Their latest team of champions includes;

Gladiatrix – Ahikar ‘the Gladiatrix’ Kallask is the only living female Khund to have battled her way through the Challenge Courts and retired on top of her game, rather than allow her title to be wrested from her in the traditional fashion. She is both admired and resented by fans of the Courts, considered by some to have ‘cheated’ her way to victory, and then ‘cheated again’ by retiring before her title could be ‘properly’ seized by a challenger, so that her statue in the Plaza of Champions is protected from defacement by force fields. As cybernetically enhanced as many of her peers, the Gladiatrix took advantage of her peers over-reliance on energy based power and weapons systems, and combined her own prodigious natural strength, mechanical engineering and an energy-dampening pulse weapon that caused all powered systems in her area to falter, so that her Challenge fights were a competition between her natural musculature and mastery of ancient bludgeoning weapons and blades (as well as chemical explosives, toxins and monofilament whips…), against the heavily encumbered cyborgs, struggling to even stand with their powered limbs little more than heavy weights at their sides, and their laser lances and plasma blades useless and non-functional. She had planned ahead, and the obvious countermeasures to her technique had already been developed and placed on the market *by her,* specially designed to not work against her energy-dampening technology! By the time new techniques were developed, she had already won, and retired, and went on to serve as an enforcer and mercenary, before joining the Khundian team.

Tecton – The three meter tall creature known only as Tecton is often regarded as a thoughtless savage beast, but was indeed a Khundian youth, before his body was burned away by molten magma, leaving behind a creature possessed only of elemental rage. Tecton exists as disembodied intelligence, little more than a pulse of electromagnetic energy, and can reside fully within a simple hunk of obsidian, barely larger than a man’s fist. He can heat the stone that he inhabits to melt stone around him into lava, and then forms that lava into a humanoid carapace that contains his burning molten fury, cracking as it strides forward, and generating bursts of molten magma from the oval lava-filled depression that is his only facial feature. He can melt ever-increasing quantities of stone around himself to both replenish his supply of lava for his ‘magma blasts,’ and to increase the size of (or repair damage to) his stony carapace, occasionally growing to heights of up to ten meters, and once even splitting and forming a half-dozen meter sized carapaces, hurling lava in all directions! An attempt to clone a new Khundian body for him only resulted in him burning it to ash, and he has abandoned any thought of reclaiming his ‘humanity,’ having embraced his new elemental existence. When not serving the needs of the team, he disembodies entirely and drifts down into the mantle of Khundia, swimming in an endless sea of magma within the planet’s core, with only special seismic signals being capable of recalling him when his services are once more required.

Kritaak the Beast-Tamer – While never competing in the Challenge Courts himself, Kritaak worked for the Courts, as did his father before him, all his life, both hunting down and acquiring rare alien beasts, and training them to fight in the Courts for the amusement of the crowd. Some beasts fought each other, others ravaged hapless rag-tag bands of slaves and still others were pitted against ranking Challengers, who would (almost always) brutally kill them to show off their own skills and bolster their own reputations. (The rare cases where a beast killed a Challenger was considered a great upset, a scandal, even, and a source of much secret amusement to the beast-tamers…) Kritaak finds his work more challenging because of his own desire to never repeat himself. Were he to show up to every situation with the same beast, people would have defenses prepared, and so he spends his off-time seeking out ever new and more exotic beasts to bring with him on missions. When he does repeat himself, it is with some of his favorite beasts, such as the winged thunder serpents of Axun-Te, able to deliver deadly jolts of static electricity with their tails, ‘grabbers’ from the water world of New Zlanit, man-sized crab-like creatures of great strength and durability that are capable of spitting a blinding neurotoxin from their scorpion like tails, or swarms of insects from Zuun that are attracted to globs of ‘honey’ that he fires at targets from a specialized gun, causing the swarm to surge forth from his backpack and attack the ‘painted’ target. When not working on acquiring or training new ‘beasts,’ Kritaak’s other interests include death-feuds with other beast-tamers (one of whom he assassinated by arranging for the man to come into possession of a rare and beautiful avian that turned out to not only be deadly venomous, but already trained to attack the next person to attempt to train it…) and attempting to find a wife, despite having already been married and divorced four times by Khundian women who violently resisted his attempts to ‘train’ them as if they were just more beasts for his collection.

Plasm – As a youth, Plasm was sickly and scrawny, very much the opposite of what a young Khund, the firstborn son of a Khund Warlord, should be. His father, tired of hearing his sickly infant son coughing in the night, snatched him up and took him to the food processing plants, where animals were rendered down to protein, and tossed the squawling babe into the vats. In his rage, and inebriation, the Warlord overbalanced and fell himself into the threshing blades, and in a grim turn of events, where his son’s flesh proved weak, his will proved to be a thing capable of defying even death. That which burbled forth from the vat took the form of the Warlord, having assimilated the genetic material, and even the memories, that had been broken down by the solvents within the vats, of the man who had been his father. Plasm proved incapable of maintaining the deception for long, but the Khundish High Command found this new creature intriguing, and under pretense of being unable to destroy it, since, technically, it *was* a Khundish Warlord (or, at least, the son of one, depending on how one looked at it), recruited the creature called Plasm to hold an unspecified rank outside of the usual military structure, using its ability to absorb and assimilate the genetic appearance, and stored memories, of those it digested to root out traitors and impersonate rebellious individuals. Despite being able to take the form of those it has absorbed, Plasm’s physical state is naturally amorphous, and seemingly lethal injuries will fade away as it simply alters its form to no longer require such things as hearts or lungs or blood or breath. A recent and more disturbing develop is that Plasm can remove small portions of itself and leave them in place, to reclaim them later, or simply replace the lost tissue at a later date. Just as Plasm can reconfigure his body, and is fond of entangling prey within many sticky tendrils exuding from its body, so too can these portions of itself sense movement in their vicinity, and shoot out tendrils to ensnare and grapple those nearby, functioning somewhat like organic land-mines.

Morag the Binder – The lovely ruddy-skinned Khundian operative known as Morag the Binder, famous for her smoldering dark eyes and a thick mane of dark purple hair, uses artificial glands to exude potent pheromones that most strongly affect Khundian males (but also, to a lesser effect, Khundian females, several types of Khundian wildlife (primarily mammals) and males of other humanoid species), allowing her to manipulate their actions. She furthers this pheromone assault with a swarm of nanotech robots that swirl about her person, and infect and take over machinery in her area (again, specialized towards seizing control of Khundian technology and cybernetics), giving her a significant advantage when dealing with the often cybernetically-enhanced Khundian dissidents she ends up facing. Unknown to her teammates, she has been genetically modified to be Khundian, and is a long-term Xanthuan sleeper agent, planted without knowledge of even the highest ranked UP security directorates.

Cyberfire – Aktun Shadrak is another of the most ‘controversial’ luminaries of the Challenge Courts, having enhanced himself with alien technology, rather than the usual Khundish cybernetics and weaponry. With a lean body, a sharp contrast to the bulky and powerful forms of most Khundish cyborgs (including Gladiatrix), Cyberfire’s pale grey-violet skin is covered with what appears to be cursive interlocking red and silver metallic tattoos, the only visible signs of the alien technology he discovered on a distant world. These tattoos can generate either a silvery force field that protects him from many attacks, or a devastating blasts of fiery plasma, and, while lacking the prodigious strength and durability of his peers, his speed and grace, combined with well-timed use of his force field, have proven to be a match for the brute strength, thick armor plating and explosive ordinance of his Challengers.

Deep beneath the crust of Xanthu lies a hidden realm called ‘Inner Space,’ in which the laws of physics grow strange and alien, as extra-dimensional forces impinge on the ‘real’ world. For security reasons, this area is cordoned off, as strange forces, and even stranger creatures, sometimes lurch forth from this forbidden zone. Every decade or so, some fools manage to sneak their way in, and while most are never seen again, some return, their lives forever altered by the surreal experiences and nonrational energies they have encountered.

Dr. Dira Skardir was not such a thrill-seeker, but an acclaimed and accredited academic, working with the full knowledge and blessing of the Xanthuan Science Directorate, measuring the edges of the zone, to ensure that it remained stable and confined to its historical boundaries. With her team of graduate students, Nasoon Marut, secretly also her romantic partner (as such relationships between teacher and student are still frowned upon, even in the cosmopolitan 31st century), his sister Nyoja Marut (one of her prize students) and fellow student, Jaime Jamir, they ran into a snag when a tectonic event caused the area of the ‘safe zone’ they were using as a base camp to collapse and fall directly into the caverns of ‘Inner Space.’ The way back collapsed behind them, they spent a nightmarish week in Inner Space before a combination of their own ingenuity, the resources of Xanthuan rescue services, and the newfound abilities they developed after exposure to ‘inverted quantum fields’ within the distorted area of spacetime earned them escape back to the relative safety of ‘normal’ Xanthu.

The Professor, a tall no-nonsense woman with prominent streaks of iron in her auburn hair, found that her mind and memory had grown strangely plastic and absorbent, drawing in information from her surroundings, and even individuals in her immediate presence, allowing her a preternatural intuitive insight into any situation she found herself exposed to. With a glance, she could decipher the workings of alien technology far outside of her own scientific fields of expertise, or ‘read’ a person’s most intimate motivations, to a degree far beyond even their own self-awareness. It was this gift, more than any other, that saw herself and her students through the many inexplicable and maddening experiences they endured before their escape, as she was able to adapt to understand even the contrary and nonsensical ‘rules’ of the various scenarios they endured. When the team was given ‘code-names’ (which most of them do not use, in any event) by the Xanthuan government, she was named Dr. Insight.

Her young lover, Nasoon, notable for his dark complexion, jet black hair and eyebrow-raising youth compared to his partner, developed an ability that began small, able to cause loose matter to form into brick like constructs that he could telekinetically assemble into walls and barricades, and while the size and weight of these bricks remained unimpressive individually, he developed the ability to form and manipulate hundreds of them at the same time, causing enormous walls to form in mere seconds, and even constructing entire buildings from loose dirt and gravel in a matter of moments. Less commonly known to the Xanthuan public is that he can telekinetically disassemble buildings and other constructions almost as easily, causing a small building to fly apart into its component materials, stacked in neat piles around where the structure once stood! Exactly how his powers work, and why they only seem to function in the case of assembling (or disassembling) structures, is unclear, and he had no great interest in architecture before the experiences in Inner Space empowered him. He has attempted to find offensive uses for his talents, striking others with tons of his artificially generated ‘building blocks,’ but finds it difficult to ‘aim’ them in this fashion, and it much easier to simply build a cell around an opponent, rather than ‘hit them’ with his animated building materials. Given the name Builder, by the Xanthuan authorities, he’s one of the few to embrace his ‘codename,’ even if the identities of the team are a matter of public record.

Nasoon’s sister, Nyoja Marut, thought by some to have been invited along on the expedition because she was the sister of the Professors boyfriend, and not for her own academic achievements, finds the whispering to be amusing. She knows exactly how good a student she was, and is quite certain that she would have ‘made the cut’ even without her brothers extracurricular advantages. The alien light of Inner Space ‘infected her’ somehow, and she emerged glowing with multi-spectral lines of radiance that coil and swirl across the dark skin she shares with her brother, and dance along the strands of her black hair like the living things she insists they are. By singing to these ‘lights,’ and making expansive gestures with her hands (sometimes going so far as to actually dance with them), she can create dazzling bursts of light, plunge an area into darkness, generate extremely life-like three-dimensional holograms that move as she directs them, even in her absence (lending some credence to her assertions that the light is somehow alive and intelligent…), or even wrap it around herself to camouflage herself from visual detection, or alter her visible appearance. She revels in her new abilities, which, in addition to giving her ‘super-powers,’ also appear to have provided her with an array of at least semi-intelligent alien ‘friends,’ who are tied to her and provide her with companionship. Indeed, she finds her ties to ‘flesh-people’ to be on the wane, as more and more of her time is spent communing through wavelengths of colored light with her radiant entourage, and she finds the concerns of material beings increasingly irrelevant, or even ‘quaint.’ Her codename, Fractal, chosen for the spinning forms her light-entities seem to assume when not otherwise active, has been all but forgotten.

The final member of the research team, Jaime Jamir, was a quieter sort than her colleagues, being more physical by nature, and enjoying as much the physical nature of the caving expedition as the scientific research, having been appointed the ‘safety expert’ and ‘guide’ of the team, having the most knowledge of the more strenuous parts of their assignment. More thickly built and physically inclined than the others in the expedition, she took some satisfaction in being more fit than the others, and where they would be panting after a descent, she would be ready for the next physical challenge. She was also, unfortunately, the only member of the team to not physically survive their trials, her body crushed in the initial collapse, and yet her spirit, bathed in the unreal and physics-defying forces of Inner Space, refusing to pass on, lingering on as an incorporeal presence that still managed to save her teammates with careful advice and the ability to scout safely into new areas. After their rescue, Jaime has grown bitter at her new state of existence, denied any of the physical activities she used to center her life around, and only able to experience sensations such as taste and touch by possessing the bodies of others. For a brief time, she had an ‘arrangement’ with Nyoja to ‘time-share’ and get to experience corporeal life in her teammates body from time to time, but after Nyoja grew tired of returning to consciousness to find herself exhausted or even injured by Jaime’s increasingly thrill-seeking behaviors, that arrangement has ended, and Jaime has grown even more resentful of her non-corporeal existence, despite assurances from Professor Skardir that she’s ‘working on a solution.’ She allows the Xanthuan people to call her ‘The Spirit,’ as she feels that it best suits her current status, no longer truly a person, but just a lingering phantom, unable to truly be part of the world she is fighting to save.

Together, as the Quantum Quartet (another name thrust upon them, that they find somewhat embarrassing), in matching maroon uniforms emblazoned with a double-Q emblem upon the breast, Professor Skardir and her former students serve as the premiere government-sanctioned superteam of Xanthu.

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Oh hey, we've got Alpha Flight and Avengers analogues! Why not a 'First Family' ripoff? Er, I mean homage...

Kritaak the Beast-Tamer is my favorite of the Khundish team. He seems like an upgraded version of Jungle King / Monster Master, and has the potential of being a deux-ex-machina type villain-- attacking Garth and Ayla with Lightning Monsters from Korbal, pitting Mon-El against a six-armed Daxamite gorillazoid, or whatever...

The Silver Age Legion used to take on space-beasts on a fairly regular basis.


A close 2nd is Gladiatrix, a kind of Khundian Luthor, smarter than the average Khund, and turning that to her advantage. I see a pink or yellow Monstress-type, with minimal visible cybernetic implants-- perhaps only a mechanical eye?

Thanks for the feedback!

Indeed, right from their first appearance, where Superboy is tasked to capture an alien 'invisible eagle' that escaped from a zoo and could be a flight hazard. While I wouldn't care to saddle Kritaak with something as silly looking as a 'mirror beast,' he'd definitely do some damage with a pair of tamed Lightning-Beasts!

Plus I didn't want to just fill up the team with a bunch of Challenge Court Cyborgs, and the idea of someone who had a very strong association with the Courts, but was himself not a participant (or a cyborg, or even super-powered!) kind of flowed from that.



I picture her as looking very much like the standard Khund Cyborg, thick limbed and barrel-torsoed and not at all 'feminine.' She's intended, without cybernetically enhanced muscles, to beat her way through the armor of her competitors, after all (after sabotaging their own cybernetic muscles!).

A slimmer version of her might use Braalian blood as a 'doping scheme' to temporarily give herself magnetic super-powers to short out her opponents equipment, and be an entirely different, non-cyborg/mechanical way of doing the same thing, but that would be a fairly different character.

I didn't have a ton to go on for Khundish culture and names (Kharlack, Gharlack, Harlack. Gosh, I'm sensing a theme...), so I may have overplayed both the Challenge Court associations and the rampant macho/misogyny of the folk (with Gladiatrix having to 'cheat' to even participate, and being resented by many of the more piggishly macho fans for doing so).

SALAMANDER: Klirt Salmendar was born into one of the wealthiest families on Tharr. The Salmendars were renowned for their philanthropy and while Klirt never wanted for anything growing up, he was also fully aware of his position of extreme privilege.

The very first time Klirt heard of the Legion of Superheroes, he knew that he wanted more than anything else to be one of them. He initially began developing his innate cold projection abilities towards this end, but when Polar Boy was rejected Klirt felt that he needed a new gimmick. He had always had a natural aptitude for gymnastics, so Klirt began pushing himself harder in physical disciplines. With the Salmendar fortune, he could afford the very best athletic and martial arts tuition that credits could buy. Still, he realised he was going to need more to impress the Legion.

That was when Klirt decided on genetic modification. He decided to pattern himself after an Earth animal, hoping that the novelty would improve his chances of being noticed by the Legion. When he discovered legends of Earth's salamanders being born of fire, it seemed a natural fit for a boy named Salmendar from a planet famous for its hellish heat. Klirt's parents at first were dead against this idea, but when they discovered Klirt was sourcing genemod experts on his own they decided to help him at least find someone reputable.

Eighteen months later, Klirt was forever marked different from any other Tharrian. His hairless body was obsidian black with bright yellow markings, and slick to the touch. His fingers and toes ended in pads capable of sticking to almost any surface. The most noticeable change was a long prehensile tail emerging from his lower back.

With the ability to climb vertical surfaces, highly enhanced agility, a prehensile tail and his natural Tharrian resistance to heat coupled with fighting skills specifically tailored for his new form, Klirt felt that the Salamander was a shoe-in for membership in the Legion of Superheroes. He left Tharr excited and optimistic.

Klirt had never been off-world before though, and he was ill-prepared for the much colder worlds of the United Planets. He found Earth's climate so uncomfortable compared to the heat of Tharr that he never even made it to his Legion tryout. Even if he gained entry to the Legion, Klirt couldn't imagine living on such a bitterly cold planet. Dejected, he returned home.

Klirt sunk into a deep depression for days when he returned home. He began to feel that he had ruined himself for a shattered dream. One fateful day not long after his return home, the cooling equipment in his home malfunctioned, some equipment overheated, and his home caught fire. Klirt used his powers to gain entry to his parents' almost inaccessible bedroom and rescued them both from the flames long before emergency rescue services ever arrived. This small victory made him realise that even if he couldn't join the Legion he could still be a hero. He embarked on a local career as the Salamander, and has become a much loved public figure on Tharr.

I really like Salamander!

I wonder if he had a transuit or new about them would he want to try out for the legion again?

His power set is something unique that we haven't seen before.

Thanks! I kind of have a thing for characters based on animals...when I used to run a roleplaying game way back when, I had a whole criminal conglomerate called the Menagerie, complete with an insect-themed subgroup called the Swarm...I had to force myself to stop making animal bad guys because they would pop up every couple of games, lol

Ha, I did the same thing for my first Villains & Vigilantes game, whipping up a team like Marvel's old 'Ani-Men,' with a big bear brusier, a sneaky cat scrapper, a wall-crawling bug who shot webs, a flying bird person with a sonic cry and a snake dude with constricting coils and venom.

Much like the Ani-Men they were patterned after, they got jobbed hard.

A shout out to the mythological Salamander is a neat concept. When I was *really* young, I used to read the Super-Friend comic book (where I first fell in love with the group that later became the Global Guardians), and they had a group of four people who ended up mystically empowered with powers of fire, earth, air and water named Salamander, Gnome, Slyph and Undine, IIRC. Unlike Icemaiden, Dr. Mist, etc. they were never seen again...

Marvel had a 'salamander' as well, in X-Men 2099, IIRC.

It's interesting how the Legion inspires some people to either try to break the rules to get in (like Storm Boy), or to artificially empower themselves to try and get in (like Night Girl and Radiation Roy, who spend his family inheritance giving himself his powers!).

The 30th century may not have been crawling with super-heroes when the Legion formed, but the cultural consciousnessseems to have been ready for that exact thing at the time, given how people responded to it, like it was a need for old-fashioned super-heroes that they never knew they had until they saw the Legion on the news.

Benn Pares is a professional thief, mercenary, spy, and informant.

Nevertheless, he abides by a strict moral code.

He will not take on assassination assignments without payment in advance, although he does kill for sport.
While extremely wealthy, he does purchase that which he can steal.
He will not lie, if telling the truth would be more deceptive.
He will tell the nothing but the truth, for a price, but never the whole truth.
If approached by competing clients (say, Lord A wishes Count B dead, and Count B wished Lord A dead) he will accept both contracts, payment in advance.

His exploits are legendary.

It happened that a lower king rebelled against his emperor, raising a substantial army against him. The emperor was not satisfied with merely winning the war: he wanted the king humiliated, to sue for peace without terms.

Benn Pares passed the guard outside the low king’s rooms, and left the following note in the queen’s hand, as she lay sleeping beside her husband:

Your Majesty,
Surely you realize what an error you have made.
The Emperor has you wholly in his power.
Please reconsider.
Sincerely, Benn Pares

The guard around the king’s room was doubled. Another night passed. The following day, the king received a small package, with this message:

Your Majesty,
Imagine my surprise when I found this bauble, which I believe belongs to you.
I am returning it herewith.
Sincerely, Benn Pares

It was his signet ring, stolen off his hand while he was asleep.

The guard was doubled again.

The following day, the king received another package, with another note:

Your Majesty,
You must really be more careful with your belongings.
I cannot imagine how this item came into the possession of your enemies.
I am returning it herewith.
Sincerely, Benn Pares

It was the kings pillow.

The guards were placed to see that the guards did not fall asleep.
Soldiers and sorcerers where seated around the royal bed as the king and queen slept.

The next day, the king received yet another package.

Your Majesty,
It is not my place to criticize, but Your Majesty seems too careless with his belongings.
Please find enclosed these personal items, no doubt accidentally forgotten on the battlefield.
Really, you would think Your Majesty would forget his head next.
Sincerely, Benn Pares

It was a carved ruby comb from the king’s hair, a lock of that hair.

The king surrendered before sundown.

It is said he has the power of teleportation, can walk through walls, read minds, turn invisible, and even stop time.
He does possess a number of devices to assist him in his professions, and may possess a number of extraordinary powers. However, the extent and variety of those powers may never be known.

Benn Pares: hero of 31st-century Qward.

Glazzonio -in the far corners of the Vegra star system, there was once a planet composed of Living sand. Once the planet was unified in mind, the planet was whole. But over the last few millenniums the planet began to change. The sand began to take shape, slowly evolving into taking humanoid form, by thousands of granules coming together. Still able to re merge with the ground and use it as a source of transportation. Having a very small and tribal society, they have yet to ever leave their world; for fear that they will ceases to exist.

During the Great Burning, that took place just ten short years ago when one of their Three Sun's went Nova and bathed the planet in its heat. Changing it from a world of Living sand to a planet of Living Glass. Miraculously the "souls"/minds of the beings were unharmed. They saw this as another form of evolution for them. Now made of harden glass, they each are capable of reflecting the light from the other two suns. The planet and the people have become living prisms.

not able to control the Light that passes through them, they all emit light on a continuous basis. Making the planet a giant shining strobe light in space and making it impossible for outsiders to ever visit their planet.

However on the tenth anniversary of the Great Burning, The planet held a big religious ceremony that lasted for seven days, with each day the people of Glazzonio, shrouded themselves from the rays of their remaining two suns. This allowed for various times of darkness to emit around the world. On the 5th night The Huntsmen came to Glazzonio. They came to capture as many of the Glazzonio's as possible. The Huntsmen are hired mercenaries who will stop at nothing to catch their pray. They were hired to capture them and enslave them into being the latest extravagant gift, a living prism.

Because of the observance of their religious celebration none of the Glazzonian's could shed their layers light trapping gowns. Giving The Huntsmen the advantage they needed as the blinding refractive light was the only thing protecting them. The pillaging and capturing of the Glazzonian's lasted for the next two days.

That is till a hero emerged on the 7th and finale day. Simply known as Prysm, she saw her people being hunted and some even slaughtered as they tried to capture her people. Unable to stand by, she tapped into a long forgotten ability of her people to tap into the ground that her people sprang from. Shifting herself through the glass as if it was just an extension of her body. She took out many of The Huntsmen using this ability to strike fast and hard. She knew that she just needed to last till the celebration was over. She tried to out last them and even stop them by crudely learning to shape the ground to her will; crushing many of their ships. Keeping them on planet.

Just as the Huntsmen were about to capture and close in on Prysm, Halurian Horn sounded the finale moments of the Great Burnings ceremony. Instantly shedding her robes Prysm blinding The Huntsmen. Gradually the light began to build around The Huntsmen, as more of the Glazzonioian's began to disrobe.

Given a hero's honor after she saved her people Prysm, took to training herself to learn new ways to use her abilities, for the next time that they are invaded. For she knows that now that people know about their existence, they will come and try and take them again.


Along with training herself how to fight and in the use of her new ability to alter the glass ground and her own body, she tries to twist herself in certain ways to reflect the light through her body in different ways to create beams of light that can burn and or short people with instead of blinding them.

Omni, I really like Prysm! I could see her fitting in really well in the Legion universe and I really like the interesting background you've come up with for her and her world. I could see the whole thing with the Huntsmen looking really good in a comic!

I like the idea that silicate sand people could be transformed into silicate glass people. Very cool. The culture shock must have been huge, as they adapted from an ever-shifting form that could drift on the wind to a hard-edged solid form.

For instance, as 'sand,' they could perhaps co-mingle their particulate bodies and sort of 'touch and taste' each others memories and personalities, but as solid entities, that level of intimacy might no longer exist between them, as their too-solid bodies can't intermingle and occupy the same space in that manner.

This is very true. Their world did change a great deal. But I kind of view them in the way of the Trommians, in the regarded that they are all about transitioning and change.

Also I imagine that there were even a few that were in mid "touch and taste" as you say creating whole new people in their glass form.

also now that they are light based they've developed an emotional spectrum based on the colors they reflect.

I also see that the glass world its self can also move at times because their were souls that were in mid transportation when the Great Burning happened.




Thanks Raz! yeah I think the Huntsmen could be really cool. I thought of even having Gimbor be one of them.

The name of the sole permanent living resident of Shanghalla is unknown. Some call him the Caretaker, or Controller X, or the Twilight Angel, but he answers to none of these names, and in the last six centuries, has not verbally communicated to any who visit the memorial asteroid.

Slightly over six hundred years ago, Earth was actively colonizing the diverse worlds and dwarf planets of its own solar system, as well as making fledgling attempts at surveying worlds far beyond. Shanghalla, an unnamed asteroid in the Ceres belt between Mars and Jupiter, was somewhat unique in that it spun in an orbit contrary to the other worlds and asteroids circling Earth’s sun, much like the dwarf planet Pluto, marking it as potentially a fragment from a distant solar system, and not ‘native’ to our own solar system. The colony ship Celestial, bound for Encedalus, fell victim to disaster, and crashed into this nameless asteroid, condemning 400 souls to never see the new home they sought to build. It was over a decade before Earth could muster the resources to send a team to the site of this tragedy, and, as returning the dead proved unfeasible, a monument was built there from the remains of the Celestial, to commemorate the 400 would-be colonists who lost their lives here. Even then, the researchers and workers sent to find the cause of the disaster, and see to the remains of the dead, spoke of an eerie presence on the asteroid, as if the spirits of the dead lingered here, and no matter their respect for their mission, they were glad to be quit of the place.

Over the next centuries, others came, some descendents to pay their respects, others natives of the now-successful colony on Encedalus, curious about those who had come before them, and died in the journey to build their new home. More memorials were created here, mostly by communities that already lived within the asteroid belt habitats, or ‘nearby’ worlds such as Mars, or the moons of Jupiter, but strange acts of sabotage were reported, accompanied by blackouts of surveillance monitors.

It was soon deduced that only some memorials were being left piles of smouldering rubble, while others lay un-defiled, and the common denominator seemed to revolve around the size and scope of the memorials. Vast and extravagant memorials were the most likely to be demolished, while humbler memorials seemed to go untouched, with the exception of memorials of any size built in one specific area. Decades passed in this fashion, and it was soon common practice to plant a holographic projector at the site of a proposed memorial, instead of paying for an entire memorial to be constructed. If the holographic portrayal remained intact a day later, it was deemed ‘acceptable’ to move on to actual construction, but if the holographic projector was a heap of molten slag, it was time to reconsider the scale (or location) of the project…

Centuries later, more advanced sensors have caught site of the mysterious ‘Twilight Angel,’ and revealed him to be a member of the Maltusian race known colloquially as ‘the Controllers.’ Unmasked, the Controller no longer operates as covertly as before, and can often be seen hovering over Shanghalla, or standing amidst its memorials, as if in reflection. He never replies to direct communications, although he has given signs of being aware of those around him, with his most common ‘reply’ to repeated attempts at communication being to teleport away. While never replying verbally, he has been known to nod disapproval at a proposed memorial, and if his nod is not accepted as a firm rejection of that proposal, will unleash considerable destructive force on the project, blasting it to rubble with his Maltusian energy manipulation powers.

Earthgov and the UP have gone round and round about what, if anything, to do about this situation, but, to date, have never quite achieved consensus to take any action, and so the Twilight Angel continues his eternal vigil free of governmental meddling. The High Seer of Naltor has been most supportive of the notion of ‘letting sleeping Controllers lie,’ and not interfering with whatever agenda the Maltusian keeps, suggesting that Maltusians do not interface with time the same way most humanoids do, and that perhaps the Controller seeks only to ensure that Shanghalla meets some predetermined destiny.

It is rumored, although there is no recorded evidence of such an event (of course many forms of high tech surveillance fail in the area of the asteroid anyway…), that Shanghalla contains some vast and cosmic weapon or energy source deep within it, something the Controllers either created, or seek to keep contained, and that, centuries ago, a space pirate brought a fleet to seize the asteroid, hoping to crack it open and take control of whatever world-shattering wonder lay ensconced within. The tale goes on to say that ’the Caretaker’ could not withstand the firepower of a dozen pirate ships, and that as missiles streaked towards Shanghalla, there was a flash of light, and hundreds of red-and-black suited foes, wearing the spaceworthy power armor of the legendary Darkstars, poured forth to protect the asteroid, and beat the attack force back. Legend has it that there where exactly four hundred of these ‘Darkstars,’ and that they emerged from the first memorial built on Shanghalla, the wreckage of the Celestial…

But that’s just a spaceman’s tale, whispered by superstitious belt colonists.

Awesome job Set!

I would have never thought to use Shanghalla the way you did. I love that its not an actual ghost but someone guarding it.

and i love that you included the whispered superstitions of belt colonist.

Thanks!

I sort of surprised myself with Shanghalla (for which I made up a history, and set it in Earth's solar system, neither of which are canon, as far as I know...), creating a 'hero' of a 'world' that didn't have any (living) inhabitants.

And who would imagine a Controller could be a sort of 'hero' or guardian angel of something?

Rana Rali was born an only child, a rare occurrence on Winath. Her parents chalked this up to Rana having a Titanian grandmother. Unusually for Winathian society they were completely unfazed by Rana's lack of a twin, completely loving and supportive of her as she grew up.

The same could not be said unfortunately for the culture of twins that Rana was born into. She was ostracised all throughout her childhood. At best she was considered slightly weird, at worst a psychological breakdown waiting to happen.

Rana inherited something else from her Titanian grandmother which helped her cope with her social isolation though; she found at an early age that she could create small psionic constructs in the form of translucent red bees. At first she could only create one, and its range was limited to within a few feet of herself. With time and practice however, she eventually learned to create an entire swarm of red bees. Having very few friends, Rana naturally found herself spending more time with her swarm. She has an odd relationship with her swarm, recognising that her bees are merely a construct of her own mind while simultaneously treating them as little imaginary friends.

By the time she reached her late teenage years Rana could send her bees several miles away from herself, either as a swarm or individually (though the more her concentration is divided amongst individuals, the more difficult it is for her to maintain focus and structural integrity). She can sense through the bees as a form of ESP, and she can use them as a kind of tracking device. By directing the swarm to physically surround a telepath she can cloud their powers, and because the swarm is visible it can also be an effective tool to blind or confuse an opponent generally by buzzing around them.

Rana can release the psionic energy bound in any of her bees either by allowing the bee to harmlessly dissipate into the ether, or by 'stinging' an opponent (a psi-blast attack which is only mildly painful individually, but increases in power with each bee used in the assault). In any case, whether the bee is dissipated passively or violently, the energy which created it returns to Rana to be recycled.

Designing a colorful costume for herself and calling herself the Red Bee, Rana had considered trying out for the Legion of Superheroes but realised she felt more of a responsibility to stay on Winath and provide a positive role model for other single births. She is constantly practicing and developing new applications for her power, and has the potential to be a truly great heroine as she gains more experience.

Wicked cool idea Raz. Red Bee shows some great talents. I like how you used something else besides a sword or psi blade and I like that she doesn't have full blown telepathy.

good work!