On Metahumans - Cascadia » RP Repository

On Metahumans

Origin
The metagene functions like a fuse, inert until triggered by trauma, extreme stress, or anomalous events. Once ignited, it expresses unpredictably; sometimes as a gift, sometimes as a curse. Metahumans were first publicly recognized in 2012, after the Large Hadron Collider’s Higgs Boson experiment unleashed a wave of dark matter across the planet. Thousands of dormant individuals awakened with extraordinary abilities, exposing what folklore had long whispered: metahumans had always existed.

Figures once dismissed as myth: werewolves, vampires, witch-blooded families, “blessed” warriors were later identified as historical carriers of the metagene.

Phenomenals: Admiring nickname, once used by fans, activists, and sympathetic media.
Mutants: Derogatory; used by tabloids, bureaucrats, and protestors who see them as freaks or liabilities.
Variants: USB’s cold bureaucratic term, reducing them to regulatory categories.

What people call a metahuman usually reveals their politics. In Cascadia, “Phenomenal” earns a smile in Gresty or South End, but suspicion in Highridge or Havalynd.

Nature of Powers

Metahumans manifest across a wide spectrum

Elemental: Abilities tied to elements or weather.

Technopathy: Control or interface with machinery and signals.

Witchling: Occult or ritual-based manipulation. Some claim quantum roots; others say it predates science.

Shapechanger: Alter physical form - claws, wings, or full transformations.

Cognitive: Abnormal intelligence, telepathy, empathy, or clairvoyance.

Breakers: Enhanced physicals - strength, speed, durability - or elemental resistance.

Quantum: Reality warpers; probability, time, or space manipulation.

Anthromorphs: Animalistic physiology.

Paranormal: Old-world species (werewolves, vampires, fae, angels, demons) reclassified under the metagene.

Each case is unpredictable; powers may mutate or intensify with age, stress, or augmentation.

Policy and Regulation

Policy & Regulation
Cascadia treats metahumans as liability entities, not citizens.
They must register with USB, undergo classification, and submit to insurance-backed oversight under the Metahuman Regulation Directive.

Registered Phenomenals: Licensed and contracted assets, often under USB or corporate control.

Unregistered Mutants: Considered rogue - hunted, coerced, or disappeared into “rehabilitation” programs.

Cultural Fallout
Metahumans carved deep scars into Cascadia’s psyche.
Parents warn their children that “Phenomenals bring disaster.” Whole districts still lie in ruin because one mutant lost control.

Yet in places like Gresty and South End, they’re folk heroes - proof that humanity can evolve beyond the corporate leash.

Old myths breathe again: vampire syndicates smuggle through the Industrial District, werewolf packs rule Greyhaven’s woods. When SilverEye began tagging “anomalous biology,” the line between superstition and science finally broke.