Two citys blending in one aren't a really common thing. Well, here in Brazil when cities get to close they became a metropole (for example the city where I live, São Bernardo, is part of São Paulo metropole because they are close to each other).

That's what happens here too. If they merged long enough ago though, they could have formed one city, I think. The other suggestions are all good too.

I'm going to go ahead and admit I'm not good at worldbuilding and I'm not really a huge fan of it either, so this is outside my expertise.

I just had another thought. It wouldn't have to be a natural waterfall. Some time in the past, Crystal Falls might have been leveled during some disaster (Possibly a terrible superhuman battle) that wiped out much of its central area. So, when they rebuilt, they decided to do something different and designed the central area in a different manner than most cities. Possibly an artificial lake and river system in the center.

That could also explain why there are no supers in the city. After rebuilding, they decided they didn't want any there, so the superheroes still agreed to move elsewhere, and any supervillains there stay low key because it works as an excellent refuge, sort of a supervillain Switzerland, as long as they don't use their powers and keep everything looking normal.

As for Red Rider, I have a few pages written for her and a nemesis stewing in my brain. The character concept for Rider has changed from some vaguely supernatural or paranormal angel type character to a suit that uses bio-nanotechnology originally for firefighting but tweaked for better heroics.

That would then make since that any heroes here wouldn't be on good terms with the government...

Right, exactly.

Here are the images for Red Rider, starting with the persona she uses to hide the true nature of the powers and identity. The second will be what the suit actually looks like, or a close approximation, since it's made from trillions of tiny robots, so it has more shimmer to it.

City Updates: Kessie suggested in chat that maybe there was an explosion that made a big crater that the water falls into, or they diverted a river into a sunken reservoir that has waterfalls heading into it.

I had a similar idea about the falls being man-made, but along a different line.

So originally the city was the small town of Crystal River, built along the river of the same name. 40-50 yrs BTB the very first large-scale superhero-supervillain showdown (because superheroes have been around for like 60ish yrs right?) took place right over the riverside district of town. Before then, some pretty impressive/destructive/wide-spread skirmishes had happened. But this was the most tragic/destructive/lives-lost up to that point and served as landmark in hero/villain history. Neither the villain(s) or the hero(s) were natives to Crystal Rivers and the villain(s) beat the hero(s) to the punch and managed to ruin most of the downtown/riverside area before the hero(s) got there and finally defeated him/them. As an apologetic gesture for not getting there sooner and as a memorial to all those who were lost, the hero, an elementalish person, turned the desolated area into a lush park with the once average river now reshaped into a beautiful waterfall. Thus turning Crystal River into quite the tourist site. And a couple of years later (or maybe that same year...doesn't really matter), they re-incorporated the then-rapidly-growing town into the city of Crystal Falls.

The best part about it is the story of the falls' origins gives us so many possible directions we could go if we wanted to. For instance, creating the falls could've been the hero's dying act, or it drained the hero of his/her power for good, or something like that. But more importantly it could turn the falls themselves into the eventual magnet for superheros. We could say that since so much power went into creating them and the park around them, that they have a unique effect on superpowers. Maybe they cancel out supervillains powers. Maybe they cancel out all powers. Maybe they enhance powers. Maybe they awaken latent powers. Maybe they give powers to the otherwise un-powered. Ok, probably not that last one, but you get the idea. Of course, if we want to go with that and still have CF be somewhat super-less ITB, we'll have to figure out a good reason for it. I'm thinking that maybe just no supers have been around the Falls since then, so nobody figures it out until a few years ATB. I think that would make an interesting story-arc. Also, it could explain why there's a waterfall on the VA coast (if we still want it to be on the coast).

What do yall think? It has that certain dramatic/fantasitcal flare to it that Varon's been pushing for, and it has lots of story potential and makes for a great continuity anchor (which I've been pushing for). I think it could really work.

The down side to this idea is that the falls wouldn't be that tall. I mean, they'd be tall and impressive. But not tall enough to say, divide the town top-to-bottom. The city would have more of a Niagara Falls type lay-out: sprawled out on either side of the river with the park/falls in the middle-ish. So the idea of upper-class at the top of the falls, and lower-class at the bottom would be gone. And I know Varon and Neil were pretty keen on that idea.

But what do yall think? Could we work with this idea, or would yall rather pursue a different one? Most everything about the idea is open for change so we can tweak it as much as we want in order to get it just right. But either way I think we need to get over this hump quickly before we start stalling out on it. I know, it's kinda ironic that I'm saying that since I've been the one raising the most fuss about it.

I like that idea a lot. It really pulls in the different ideas everyone's been having and really ties it into the world as believable and plausible.

I'm okay with losing the falls as a divider in social classes.

And yeah, we definitely need to get this over with pretty quickly before it bogs everyone down so we can get back to the important stuff like characters.

(I can't believe I said that.)

That sounds good. Maybe the falls in some way stimulate whatever it is in heroes that gives them power, so being around the water under some certain circumstances activates the power.

I like the waterfall idea.

That could work, if the hero who shaped it could alter reality, not just controlling elements, and he ended up burying himself and the villain deep beneath the falls so the villain couldn't ever get out. The heroes power could easily leech out of the area, affecting super-powers easily enough, and since the city and inhabitants would be unlikely to risk having their nice new part destroyed again, or as many people killed, they'd want to keep supers out and that could definitely keep the effect from being discovered.

I liked that idea!
Terror could want to go there searching for a cure of his dark powers.

Yeah, he probably could, especially if he reaches Crystal Falls a little while after the rest of the characters.

I really like that idea.

The Falls itself is probably a sufficient pull to bring superheroes together. Not that I don't like the idea of the superpowers leeching out -- I do -- but it's possible that that isn't discovered for a while. The Falls is really a monument; a monument that stands for everything a superhero stands for, and even "built" by a superhero. My character probably came to Crystal Falls originally as the culmination of a kind of soul-searching journey after discovering her powers.

Awesome.

Yeah, that's probably right. I suspect a lot of heroes would make secret identity pilgrimages there, basically, the way way some people travel a long ways to visit ancestral homes or graves.

Exactly.

And the powers thing could be a myth that brings the Terror looking for his redemption.

Yep. That is a definite and plausible explanation that makes sense.

Ooh! Another idea, this one for why there are no superheroes in CF. The battle was fought by a team of heroes, one of whom was the elemental that created the Falls/park and the other was a reality-warper who set some kind of ward/bubble/energy field around the city that neutralizes super-powers. But the powers of the Falls were unaffected by this, and actually erode at the power-cancelling spell (for lack of a better word) over the years so that a year or two BTB it dissipates altogether and superpowers can once again function in the city. However, it's just something that happens and since supers have gotten in the habit of avoiding CF outside of the odd secret identity pilgrimage here and there (which have trickled down to next-to-nothing by this point), nobody is really aware of it.

So you could actually have the Terror come to CF in hopes of having his dark powers cancelled out, only to discover that they're still there. The rest of the characters can just be young enough to have not really heard about the power-cancelling effects and just come into CF knowing nothing about it, or they don't develop their powers till after they're in CF or so on and so forth.

And then the powers of the Falls can be something that is discovered ATB that we can explore further as we go along.

Or...we can have it that the power-cancelling field is still weakly functioning and blocks most superpowers, but that when our characters come into contact with the Falls, it boosts their powers enough to break the field so that they work while other powers in the city are still negated. And then the field can dissipate completely a year or two ATB and start bringing in more supervillains and heroes until CF eventually becomes the Mecca of the super-world that we want it to eventually become.

Thoughts?

Even better! It definitely makes sense too, since it seems a lot of our characters who do have powers don't seem to be the type to be overly fond of their powers. It also gives them a buffer room to get comfortable with themselves in their new roles before the world comes at them.

A problem I thought of (See Kaleb? It's not just your ideas I do this to ) that I'm not sure how to handle. If the city was smaller when the Negation Zone was created and then the city grew, much of the city ITB would be outside of the zone and thus open to supers....

So, here are the ways I've thought of that we can handle this hole:

1. The Zone was created larger than the town so it never outgrows the Zone.
2. The Zone was created in such a way as to grow with the town. This could actually help with the whole weakening angle, because we can say that the power of the Falls combined with it being stretched over such a large area contributed to its deterioration.
3. The Zone covers the original area of the old town, but CF's reputation as a super-free city was established early enough that most supers avoided the town and now nobody really knows that it only covers the downtown area.
4. The Zone covers the original area and any supers in CF steer clear of that area. So probably most of the banks, government centers, and big businesses squabble over trying to make sure that they're inside the safe zone.
5. We just say that since the zone was created by a reality warper, it doesn't obey the typical rules of space-time that we might expect it to so it covers the city in spite of urban sprawl and nobody knows how/why and nobody's really ever questioned it. Because honestly, by the time we get to where we come in and most people will have forgotten all about it by now.

Any thoughts? Any approach that I might not have thought of? Any approach on this list that you prefer?
I personally am leaning to #5 myself since I just came up with it, but I want to know what yall think.

Those are good points. I think I like the fifth one the best, since it seems the simplest and least confusing, in a way.

What if the zone just wore off after a while? I had planned on having the Night Wisp be a local of Crystal Falls, but she likes a low profile, so it doesn't really attract attention. But if there's a dampening field that's still in play, I'm not sure how to work in her back story.

Yeah, that would definitely work. Night WIsp could be the first local hero since the area distortion field went into effect with her powers growing stronger as the field gets weaker.

The premise (prior to the whole boundary issue being realized) was that the Negation Zone was already substantially weakened ITB but that it was still kinda working with the Falls/park being a sort of negation zone of the negation zone. So you can just have Wisp wander downtown into the park at some point early in life and say that the Falls were what helped boost her abilities in spite of the Negation Zone.

Also, just to throw out there, I want to point out that supers can still be born within the Negation Zone, their powers are just suppressed. We can say that if there are few supers in the world then even fewer are born in CF.


Or we can just say that ITB the field has dissipated but nobody notices. Because again, it's not something that the general populous are really aware of at this point, they just know that there aren't any superheroes or supervillains in the city and that there haven't been for a long time. Also have to remember that generally those who discover superpowers try to keep them a secret so that they can live their lives without being poked and prodded. And many don't even know what's happening to them at first and they don't tell anyone for fear of people thinking they're crazy or criminal or something. So those people in CF who discover their powers as the field dissipates don't immediately think about it in terms of the negation field, and because they don't really tell too many people about it, there's still a general assumption that superheroes and supervillains are people that other cities have but not CF.

The main worldbuilding/narrative purpose of the negation field is to serve as an explanation of why a city with historical significance and a natural magnet for super-powered people is ITB devoid of superheroes. So we can have the bad boy fade out as early as we want, but probably not any sooner than 10 years BTB because odds are that much earlier than that and some superhero or another would've found out and set up shop in CF.

*goes back to translating Romans 5 for Greek class*

I wouldn't need any more than ten years for backstory purposes. We could even go down to seven years, although that would make Wisp pretty young.

He's summed it up pretty well, I think. Much better than me, in fact.

*goes back to scowling at really odd looking superhero costume*

For the much needed brighter hero, I'm thinking of a guy whose name is along the lines of Captain Star or something. Haven't quite decided on powers yet. Maybe gravitokinesis.

I attached what I think he'll look like. Not quite happy with his face, though.

Another thing we'll have to figure out is what happened in that battle. What kind of villain is powerful enough to wipe out a city's worth of superheroes, flatten an entire town, and kill a reality warper? That would have to be a very powerful villain indeed.

There were no superheroes in CF at that time, both the villain and the heroes were out-of-towners who just happened to duke it out over the town. And the entire town wasn't flattened, just the downtown. And the reality warper didn't die, the elemental did....I think. But I agree that we need to work out what exactly happened.

Ok, cool! I'll think we'll just sick with 10 years if nobody else objects.

There would have been at least a few heroes and villains in CF. Small time ones, of course, since it wasn't a big city at the time. The rest would have been been Global class heroes, so probably from all over. Good point, but for something not a major city yet, the central downtown area could still be a pretty sizable percentage of the town.

It'd probably be the reality warper. Or reality warper and elemental. Someone with elemental powers wouldn't have the ability to completely reshape a devastated city center into a park/waterfall area while dying. Even at full power, it would be immensely difficult. They can move stuff, but shaping them into something like that, especially with the ruins and stuff, would be impossible. The elemental and reality warper together, though, could definitely do it.

Why? I think it works just fine without there being any local heroes or villains in CF. Not every town has to have them, and remember the super-powers phenomenon was still pretty new at that point.

True.

Did you really just say the word "impossible" in reference to super-powers? By "park" I meant mostly woods with some grassy clearings, well within the abilities of the elemental in question. But naturally since there are both the elemental and reality warper, they'd work together. But the Falls in particular would be the work of the elemental, otherwise it doesn't explain why they got their special abilities when the rest of the reality warper's efforts went into suppressing superpowers in the area. And neither of them has to die. That was just one of the possibilities I threw out there.

True. It wouldn't need any. It would add to the anti-hero fervor if those that caused the destruction were all outsiders who no matter how much they tried to sympathize, it'd never mean as much to them as the people who lived there. Not that new. Probably at least 20 years old, at least. Enough time for the escalation of super-powers to reach that point.

Yeah, I did refer to something being impossible with super powers. Control of the elements couldn't do that. It could move them around, at least, any rock/dirt, air, or water in the area. Metal, though? That's a different super-power. Same with plants, hence the reality warper and elemental working together.

I'm not sure why the falls would have to be the elemental for the falls to have their special effect. Reality warpring is a weird power that does some crazy stuff. It'd be completely possible to have a negation field over the city and a booster in the falls.

Characters dying is good. Or maybe not dying, but trapping themselves with the villain in a nearly unbreakable stasis trap because the villain can't die and if they just trap him/her/it, the villain will just escape, so they have to be trapped too, possibly to continuously rebuild the prison while holding the villain at bay.

Wow. There's some great fuel being piled on this idea over here. I'm going to try to stay out of the worldbuilding discussion (and have succeeded so far) mostly because I don't want my attention to be absorbed thereby.

But! I will gladly contribute storieses. I've thought up an idea for a hero (or at least a hero's powers) and will get back with y'all when you get to the story starting stage.

Until then, I'm creepin' on this thread.

Yeah, definitely a lot of good stuff growing here. Can't blame you on avoiding the world building. I try and do that too, most times.

Awesome! The more the merrier! Different stories from different perspectives are good. It adds more nuance to the world. I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

Excellent.

(And if I seem to get the details confused, it comes from working on two superhero universes simultaneously.)

I'm sure I could come up with one.

Yes, I think you probably could, and lot better than I could. I'd only be able to do it by going the giant, cosmic, extraterrestrial threat route, and I'm not sure we're at a place to support an idea that large yet, no matter how much I wish we were.

What about a villain that could negate/steal the powers of others? If we went the negate route, that might explain why the falls have a dampening effect on superpowers.

Um...the falls don't dampen superpowers. They enhance them. The negation field around the town was something different and it's the power-boosting nature of the falls that help accelerate the negation field's deterioration.

I'm making you guys something. I'll hopefully finish it tonight or tomorrow.

Fantastic, thank you! I look forward to seeing it.

*poke poke* How's it coming?

Not well, I'm afraid. I got stuck, and then distracted. I'll keep poking it.

I've made good progress with Captain Starr. I think he's pretty awesome now.

I couldn't find any good pictures for Night Wisp, but here's a general idea. So if anyone sees something they think is similar let me know and I'll add it to the pin board.

Reminds me of Kellie Martin, although definitely younger.

She's supposed to be less skinny, but the disney look was the best I could get for a creator. Her clothes aren't as nice and her jacket is supposed to be more baggy because she's homeless and needs something for all weather. That's a good start though.

HeroMachine has some good customization options for stuff like that, and it can do normal stuff too, as well as costumes, in case you want to try making it again.

I tried HeroMachine, but it was coming out looking less good than how I managed it on Azalea's.

Yeah, that happens. I wish there way a way to just project the image of a character onto paper or something exactly the way we imagine it.

Okay, so a quick summary on the city itself.

It's in Virginia, and has no superheroes at the beginning, except ours, because a power negaton field that encompasses the city from when a group of superheroes fought a really powerful supervillain and the battle destroyed the downtown city center. Part of the aftermath was that an elemental and reality warper hero transformed the ruined section into a park with a waterfall between 12 and 20 feet tall. The falls themselves enhance super-powers, but the negation field works everywhere else.

Did I miss anything?

Hurrah for summaries! That looks good Varon, and covers everything as far as I can remember.
What needs doing next? Are we still working on key government officials?

Well, we need to get the city details locked down, and some of the districts figured out. I think maybe we come up with 4 or 5 districts, plot out their location, names, and such, and then hand them out to people and give them total autonomy on what's in those districts.

Yes, we are working on the key city people too. I had a quick profile for the mayor, but that's all we have right now.