SETTING INFORMATION
xi_rpg is set in a version of the Marvel Universe that we lovingly call Earth-21561926 whenever we can be bothered to remember. It is a world of heroes and villains, mutants and marvels; of unstable molecules, Pym particles, horrible pseudoscience, stupid retcons, and nobody staying dead as long as someone is interested in apping them. The game's main focus is on the Xavier Institute, once the X-Men's mansion base and now home to an increasingly large number of young mutant students from all over the world. It is, in essence, a high school AU, but with a little more for the students to contend with than just homework and prom. For instance: dragons, a giant squid (Mr. Curry assures you he is benevolent), pirates, telepaths, bears - and, should any hapless student venture too far from Salem Center, they may find themselves facing the might of Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants, itself home to a number of misguided youngsters ... Not to mention villains such as Albert Wesker and his laboratory full of zombie plague, and the voodoo Shadowman, Dr. Facilier, or the struggles of the mutant community to make itself recognised as anything but a threat by assorted sinister political figures like Senator Baelheit and Reverend Stryker ...
And if they survive all of that, they'll still have to deal with Gossip Girl.
Game Timeline ⊗ NPC Index ⊗ Fictional Countries, Groups and Alien Races
The Xavier Institute ⊗ The X-Men ⊗ The Brotherhood of Mutants
The universe of XI, like most versions of the Marvel universe, is basically a real-world-with-superheroes setting. It's the 21st century, and the day-to-day life of the average person is much the same as it is in the real 21st century, even though the world contains people with potentially world-changing abilities and technology well beyond that of our own. The key difference, for most people, is the fact that superheroes and their equally outlandish foes are a reality; plenty of people might still be skeptical about the existence of magic, but everyone has heard of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and the Avengers, you'd have to be living under a rock not to know that aliens have on more than one occasion tried to invade Earth, and the fact that a tiny but increasing percentage of the population is born with super-powers is a very real and current issue.
This tiny percentage are known as mutants, and their very existence is a divisive social and political issue for societies across the globe. Although mutants have existed in tiny numbers for centuries (occuring so infrequently, prior to the 20th century, that it would be incredibly unlikely for a mutant to ever run across another mutant even if they travelled across the globe in search of others like themselves), it was only during the latter half of the 20th century that their numbers increased enough to be noticeable. In the last 30 years, reporting of mutant-related activity has increased dramatically - and with the increased visibility of mutants has come increased fear of them. Groups advocating genetic purity have started to spring up in bigger and bigger numbers in the last 15 years; television is full of people insisting the mutant 'threat' should be 'contained' - or, worse, exterminated - and the average parent who finds out their child is a mutant is distraught. Many families do their best to support their mutant children. Some disown them. Others genuinely believe that murdering them is the best thing they could possibly do.
So, yeah, on the bright side a lot of them can do rad stuff like fly or walk through walls or juggle trucks without breaking a sweat, but it's not easy being a mutant. Mutants in more liberal areas might not have it as bad, but the stigma is unavoidable.
The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning was founded ten years ago by Professor Charles Xavier as a safe haven for a handful of young mutants, and went on to become the home of the X-Men, a group of super-powered mutant vigilantes that has gone through an awful lot of different members over the years. They clashed repeatedly with the Brotherhood of Mutants, a group of mutant terrorists led by Xavier's old friend Magneto, who disagreed with Xavier pretty significantly over whether or not mutants and humans could live in harmony. Magneto was finally defeated three years ago in a battle that destroyed the Xavier Institute in 2006, but the mansion was rebuilt over the next three years and, in September 2009, was reopened - not as a superhero base, but as a proper school with a faculty and everything.
Following the more recent announcement of a proposed mutant registration bill (by the newly re-elected president who promised not to introduce one, no less), the Brotherhood have reemerged, too, and the X-Men have officially reformed. A lot of students have left, some of the students still around are spies, everyone still hates mutants, and nobody's managed to work out who Gossip Girl is yet. It is not a fun time to be a mutant in the USA - but at least you don't have to do it alone!
⊗
So what is a mutant, exactly?
A mutant is a human who possesses the X-gene, a mutation that, for no readily explainable reason, causes people to manifest superhuman powers. These can be anything from psychic powers to shooting lasers from your eyes to physical abnormalities such as scales or horns or wings, and might be as minor as enhanced senses or as major as the ability to warp the fabric of reality. Many people call mutants the 'next stage' in evolution despite the fact that evolution doesn't work that way.
A mutant is born a mutant; while 'mutant' superpowers and traits can be bestowed upon ordinary humans through genetic engineering, individuals empowered in this way are technically considered 'mutates' rather than true mutants. Although mutants are born with the X-Gene, their powers typically do not manifest until somewhere around puberty. Sometimes this is triggered by an emotional situation, sometimes it's a defense mechanism - sometimes it comes out of nowhere.
The reported number of mutants in the world has increased dramatically in recent years; there are possibly as many as 50% more confirmed mutants in the United States in 2009 than there were in 1995. Although much of this can be put down to increased public awareness making people more likely to identify themselves as mutants, their numbers are definitely growing - although they still make up less than 2% of the population.
(It's important to note that there are very few families consisting entirely of mutants; it is possible that your character comes from a family containing several mutants, but the likelihood that your character's family has traditions relating to mutanthood that go way back is incredibly, incredibly slim. Moreover, if your character found out they had powers 100 or even 60 years ago, they would not have known they were a mutant, would have been unlikely to encounter any other similarly endowed individuals without doing a great deal of searching or having truly uncommon luck, and would not have faced the same kind of reaction to their abilities as they would if they manifested them today.)
But, wait, in Marvel canon ...
This ain't Marvel canon. This is based on Marvel canon, but we take "panfandom AU" to its logical extreme wherever possible, and so parts of XIverse are also based on DC, Kingdom Hearts, Temeraire, Resident Evil, Naruto, Harry Potter, Final Fantasy, Les Misérables, Discworld and Baten Kaitos, to name but a few. Yes, Marvel is the starting point, we take a lot of cues from Marvel, and it's Marvel's 'rules' that we loosely keep to when we bring new things in, but the setting evolves with every new fandom AU'd into it. It's a perpetual work in progress, and how closely it adheres to Marvel stuff in different areas depends on which characters have been adapted into it and how well certain aspects would suit the plots we plan. If you were looking for something more strictly Marvelicious, you might want to find a different game.
So what Marvel stuff DO you keep?
Many things! Here is a handy list:
⊗ Superpowers. If it's a viable source of superpowers in Marvel canon it's a viable source of superpowers here. This includes but is not limited to the X-gene, genetic experimentation, radioactive animals, radiation in general, being a god, being related to a god, being a robot, wearing a robot suit, various kinds of magic, and 'cosmic rays'.
⊗ Certain superheroes. Specifically, the X-Men (although their lineup is hugely AU in this game), the Fantastic Four (who have been around forever and have their own merchandise and stuff), Spider-Man (first sighted about two years ago) and the Avengers (only three years old and with a current roster of Iron Man, Ant-Man, the Wasp, Thor and Captain America) are the ones whose roles are set in stone (mostly), with people generally permitted to assume what they like about ones we haven't mentioned. You might want to be careful about that, though - you never know when someone might want to app the guy you threw in a reference to last week.
⊗ Locations. It is generally safe to assume that Latveria, Wakanda, Transia, the Savage Land, or any other made-up Marvel countries, cities or secret hidden valleys full of dinosaurs exist in this universe.
⊗ Catchphrases. If you've read this, put 'Excelsior!' at the end of your app.
⊗ Large organizations with stupid acronyms for names like S.H.I.E.L.D. (the international espionage and law-enforcement task-force directed by Nick Fury), A.I.M. and HYDRA (a couple of wacky terrorist organizations with ridiculous costumes).
⊗ Space aliens. All of them. We just added a bunch more, like Mickey Mouse. The only Marvel canon space thing we'll slap you for mentioning is the Phoenix Force - seriously don't even bring it up we will end you - but apart from that, assume away.
(If someone mentions something from Marvel and you want to know more about it, a good approach is to go and look it up on Wikipedia, read the basic outline, and then ignore the complicated history.)
Okay, so what about all the other not-Marvel-canon stuff? Isn't that hard to keep track of?
Yes, yes it is, and that's why we don't ask everyone to keep track of everything.
We do, however, ask you to familiarise yourself at least a little bit with the XI wiki. We have for your convenience an Introductory Guide that highlights the more pertinent pages for a new player. Alternatively, a good first stop is the Timeline, which is a handy guide to both notable things that have happened pre-game and to major events since the RPG opened. The wiki in general contains many other useful nuggets of setting-related information, for instance:
⊗ The More You Know, a handy list of miscellaneous facts about the AU
⊗ List of XI-verse United States Congress
⊗ a list of thinly-veiled analogues for existing works of fiction
That should pretty much cover most of it - poke around the wiki for long enough and you will find yourself a veritably bewildering wealth of pointless trivia about this RP, but assuming you do not have that much time to kill ... if you're uncertain about anything, ask a mod. We are full of answers. We know everything (mostly). We will do our best to help you out.