On the civil religion of Superman

Now, this is data I really want to get out to the reader, and it’s important that the seed get planted in minds of the Legion – Tok in particular – that time travelling back and recruiting Superboy is audacious and awesome and not hubristic and blasphemous. If Josh and/or Lisa are not comfortable with the infodump parts of this I can introduce an NPC (Captain Queen of the Naiad? Olles Senn?) to handle it, but I think it makes more sense narratively for it to come in house.

The key data points are 1) 1000 years ago, Superman saved the planet Wynath from a Sun Eater. OK, so the world’s sun still got eaten, but he managed to force it regurgitate the elements, reignited them and then transferred a second, smaller sun into the system to recover from the loss of energy output. Because Superman. 2) The dominant Wynathian culture had already been on a sort of millennial end of times kick at that point, and all of this was seen as a near religious sequence of events. Superman made sure to let everyone know, “hey, not a divine being, just a powerful alien wanting to help out” so there was no sudden adoption of Superman worship, but enough of that sneaked in around the edges that Wynathains would often “Thank Superman” when they get a good break, lucky outcome of other event. For most he was a sort of totemistic good angel. For most it’s akin to knocking on wood. 3) Based on comment Superman made at the time that indicated that he would return in a 1000 years or so. And as such there has been an uptick in millennial cult-ism amongst the fringe sects that there will be either a return of Superman or another end of the world. 4) The near destruction of their solar system kick started the Wynathain space effort, which is why they are the dominant race today – they breed fast and have a cultural reason to want to be under as many suns as possible. 5) When Terrans met Wynathaisn and discovered so much more about Superman, the phase changed to “Thank Clark”, and Wynathains developed a strong cultural interest in 20t/21st century Earth culture that created their alien savior.

In some ways this is me trying to play with the Superman as Space Jesus from some interpretations of the character, plus the “why do we all know 21st century stuff answered, while still not having Superboy’s time in the future be too weird.

Questions/Thoughts/Framing Suggestions/Statements that this is too ambition or stupid an idea?

CI: I don't think it's too ambitious or stupid. We can run with it, I think.

JK: Yeah, it should be fine. Covers the basics, in concept -- why Clark is awesome; why we know so much about the 20th/21st century, and incidentally, why if -someone- were to figure out time travel and bring Clark forward in time, it wouldn't be a terrible time crime, but actually validating known (suspected) history even if nobody knows exactly -how- Superman will appear in the current era. Yet.

CI: Not sure about the framing. Is Legion HQ still partially unfinished? Maybe the Legion could be installing a commemorative statue of Superman (because first superhero) but the name Clark is inscribed in the base, which prompts R.B. to reiterate his question? Or maybe the now celebrated Legion is asked to provide some members to make an appearance at what turns out to be a Clark Kent festival? I dunno.

LP: It's not too ambitious. I'm not sure how well PCs saying what the infodump says will work, but we can give it a shot, and if it stalls, maybe we are at a display or celebration or something for Clark where an NPC can pick up the thread. BR: I was assuming this was a continuation of the question Robot Boy raised to the captain of the Naiad, with his two Wynathian friends schooling him on this elementary social etiquette before he makes a faux pas. Their HQ is now nearly finished, but I don't expect a statue of Superman there until after they have Superboy join... thought that is ultimately up to you. I like the idea of stumbling across a neighborhood that is having a Clark Kent festival, because that makes it clear that this is a pocket thing, a sort of quiet social division in Wynathian society, rather than being dominant cultural trait.

JK: Heh. What about the Legion takes a break from some late repairs to celebrate Clarksday? Or an Old Earth holiday (which has taken on aspects of not-quite Superman worship for obvious reasons). Christmas or Easter?

CI: I like the holiday thing. "If you're a good little boy, Clark will fly down the chimney and give you lots of toys. If you're bad, it's heat vision for you!" I imagine it will make Adom's logic circuits fry.

BR: I'd like to avoid that, if only to make life easier for Myles when he starts playing Superboy. One of the attractions of the 30th century for Superboy is that he's not "it" - he's not the sole superpowered person he knows about, and can relax and be friends with all the other super-powered people. To be _Normal_. Now, I am the one who set up the the Wynathain cultural history for him in order to explain why the Legion would know/care about him when we weren't centering the game on humanity, but to thread the needle we need to find some way that the Superboy is our Savior Returned/e's the False Superman and must be destroyed thing becomes a single issue plot rather than a constant undercurrent. That means playing the thing down to an unspoken cultural superstition. I realize that I am using a duplicator ray on my cake to both eat and have it, but hey, please work with me.

Myles can override all of that if he _wants_ to deal with Superboy having to fend off religious overtones regularly, of course. I'm not the one playing him....

CI: Okay. I wasn't trying to make it a super-religious thing (like Santa isn't a super-religious thing). Maybe one of my cohorts reads or hears about some local Clark festival, remembers his question, and figures this might be a good opportunity to introduce him to an offbeat element of Wynathian culture, since he's still clearly out of his depth socially speaking.

BR: Christian, thinking on it, you're right - I was using Santas as a synecdoche for Christmas as a whole, which wasn't what you were aiming for. If people found out Santa Claus had come back they'd be "that's Cool! I feel better knowing he's out there", which was what I'm aiming for. So go ahead with that.