Earth-9: The Return of Champions

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The Return of Champions: Earth-9 Today

Eternal interference in Gehenna, the Kindred Apocalypse, worries the Wyrm's forces. If that relatively self-contained act of oblivion could be interfered with, what about the global Apocalypse/Reckoning that they had been preparing for Ages? And yet, they were on the brink of victory. Truly, what could stop them?

A young Eternal, his druid wife, and the information to shatter their vile conspiracy.

In one fell swoop, their moles in the secret societies were uncovered, the factions made peace, and Malfeas was on the run. A more ambivalent result of this crisis was the return of the mighty Destroyer of the First Age. See the Freelance Immortals mini-series for full details on these events.

Today, the world is going through massive growing pains. The Order of Reason comes "out" (after a fashion) as UNTIL, the United Nations Tribunal on International Law, and they have a superteam of their own, the Sentinels. The Eternals' StarGuard keeps a watch on alien activity, including the pending First Contact. The Traditions are calling themselves the Lodge in earnest now, in mockery of the slander attempt by the Malfeans, as many young mages have done over the last few decades. Magick, while still fairly undercover, is not subject to its previous restrictions, and magickal superheroes are accepted in a way generally referred to as the "spandex effect." Most Exalted and faerie remain in the shadows and have no public organizations of their own, though Concordia (the Changeling kingdom) is one of the sponsors of the Arcadian Academy, a very special school for "talented" youths. They also have members in superhero teams, most notably Jaguar and Orchid of the Champions. (Behemoth was the team's resident Concordian until his recent loss; see the War of the Third Key section for details.)

The Champions, of course, are at the center of this heroic storm. They are The Big Guns, Earth's most powerful (and public) meta-heroes, the team that the world turns to when all else seems lost. While the Champions are not as much the last line of defense that many take them to be (much to the Champions' relief), the world looks to these heroes to protect them from the mightiest super-criminals.

And super-criminals they have in abundance.

Easily the most powerful of the world's would-be conquerors is Doctor Destroyer. Unlike his spandex-clad rivals, Destroyer actually has a real chance of succeeding in his quest -- and a genuine philosophy behind his apparent megalomania. Over millennia, he has watched human history become a parade of folly, horror, and pointless need. He intended to end those things in the First Age, when they were relatively scarce, and he is convinced that the world needs him now more than ever. Gathering his own team of elite warriors, the Ultimates, his first stab at world conquest was blunted by the Champions, but he recently conquered Sierra Leone and Liberia. Despite severe international reaction, the people have welcomed "President Zersoiten" with wildly enthusiastic support, as he has brought genuine reforms to the nations and ended horrific atrocities that were being committed there. Destroyer even managed to mollify the United Nations by turning over former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who was indicted for war crimes. His huge army (including powerful mecha divisions) is now easily financed by the rich mineral deposits, though he has proven to be surprisingly environmentally conscious. The "conflict diamond" ban has been lifted, much to the Champions' chagrin.

If any force is as great a threat to the world as Zersoiten's recently-formed nation of Nova Valdoria, it is the terrorist organization known as Viper -- the new cover organization for the Malfeans. While the tainted energies that corrupted the flow of essence have been stopped and the Ebon Dragon forced to flee its Celestial counterpart (the amalgam of which created the so-called "Wyrm"), they are as dangerous as ever. While none of Viper's super-teams (and it has several) are the equal to either the Champions or the Ultimates, they also have their fangs into many of the world's most powerful corporations, moles in every developed nation's government, and military forces that rival the United States' and UNTIL's armies for power and technical advancement. Their sleeper agents include crime lords, influential priests in all the major religions, radical activists, political pundits of every stripe, successful journalists, and more. They use subtle influence and grandiose plots with equal aplomb, and still intend to shatter the barriers that hold Oblivion at bay. They might yet succeed.

Other deadly powers include the mighty Eurostar, the only super-team that might be the equal of the Champions or Ultimates member-for-member, the Nova supremacists in the Scions of Caine, the Malfean splinter faction called the Brotherhood Arcane, the sick ex-Technocrats called Genocide, and the mad super-android Mechanon. Of course, the world has many other threats, from the insane "supreme Progenitor" Malachite to the absurd "kitsch" swashbuckler Foxbat, but as long as champions (whether or not they're Champions) protect the world, Earth-9 as a whole has little to fear from these other dangers. Various smaller sections of the world are another story...

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