The Universe of Meta-Storm is quite different from most, in that – until the early 1970s – superpowers just didn’t exist, but unlike many of these ‘new universes’, heroics have been part of the Meta-Storm universe for as long as there’s been sentient life. In fact, the Meta-Storm universe could be said to be friendly to drama – whether for good or for ill – and courage counts for an awful lot.

Thus, while there have been no ‘superpowers’, there’ve been plenty of heroes, large as life as well as larger than, stretching as far back as anyone knows.

(The term Superpowers, by the way, refers to any ability that violates the conservation of mass and energy. An alien race that evolves on a heavy-g world could be immensely strong on earth, but will be equally massive, and that mass will require a lot of energy to sustain it. Telekinesis might exist, but would require energy sufficient not only to lift a given weight, but also to account for the distance between the telekinetic and the weight. High-Tech can sometimes appear to violate this, but it can’t, actually.)

Human history is replete with the heroic and the legendary: Gilgamesh, Herakles, Jason, Theseus, Lugh, Taliesin, Charlemagne, Belisarius, William Wallace, Rob Roy, Robert Bruce – these are but a very few, just from the European region. There are easily ten times this number in there, and similar numbers throughout the rest of the globe. Not all of them really lived, even on Meta-Earth, but every one of them could have, and their legends could be true – that’s the impact of the Meta Universe.

In relatively recent history – from the 1700s on – it’s become easier to document the existence of people like that, and document we have. Few in number, compared to the rest of the population, their deeds set them apart and brought them recognition – whether due to fame, fear, respect, loathing, or some other emotion, the heroic were always well-known – and ensured them a place in history.

There are a number of names any man on the street would recognise, like Tory, Lady Liberty, The Gray Fox, the pirate Faux Coeur, Iron Knight, Air Ace, Eternal Samurai, Dervish – these names stand beside the names of more ‘normal’ heroes, doing great and glorious deeds, though sometimes dark and deadly as well.

This was the way life was in Meta-Earth – in fact, in the entire Meta-Universe. Whatever the technology, wherever the life, some were heroic, operating at a level the rest could only sometimes touch. During the early parts of the 20^th century, on Earth, these people were called ‘Mysteries’.

Then, roughly thirty years ago, that all changed. A new breed of heroic people appeared, able to do things that science had no answer for. Blasting beams of energy from their eyes or hands, flying under their own power, walking through walls, lifting huge weights without destroying the ground they stood on – they were unbelievable, they were gods. And some of them acted like it.

It was pretty quickly established that not all of the older heroic types had gone away, and they were able to fight these new men with a viable chance of success, where the rank and file generally weren’t. Joined by those new men who weren’t corrupted by the power, they battled those who were in spectacular fights, beyond anything anyone had seen before.

No one could ever predict, with any certainty, where a heroic person would appear, or when, and it was no different with these new ones. The powers they had were never passed on to children, and most people figured they’d eventually age and die, especially since no new ones appeared for over ten years.

But then, as if triggered somehow, more did appear, about 15 years after. And it recently happened again, about five years ago. It hasn’t escaped anyone’s notice that, if there’s a cycle to it, it’s diminishing.

There seems little difference in raw power between those of the first wave and those of the next two. There are powerful heroes in each and there are weaker heroes in each. If anything, the differences are more likely ones of subtlety.