MergeD Timelines!
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merged_oocHere's a little timeline I put together for the times leading up to the modern era. This just has the timelines for Marvel and DC (though I threw in a little bit about the Foot clan, too, from TMNT, as well as Hellboy's origin). If there's other stuff you need to have added, please let me know.
Origins of the Universe:
It may be that there was a universe before this universe – one that eventually was destroyed. The new universe was born, guided through its birth by the Endless beings that predated it, and the servants of the Presence. Though this birth of a new universe was Eternity itself created. There was only one survivor of the last universe: a being reborn within a cosmic egg. When the egg hatched, it released the being known as Galactus: the planet eater. This explosion brought light into darkness, sundering the blackness, creating both a white entity and Nekron. The location where the white light came into being eventually developed a planet, surrounding the white light in a cocoon, though not for several billion years. Some time after the creation of the universe, the Presence's primary servant, Lucifer, rebelled and was cast to Hell.
Among the earliest races in the universe were the Celestial, who chose to explore and experiment on the other races of the universe. The first of the worlds where they experimented on was the very first planet in the universe, a world known as Godworld. Their experiments on Godworld created the race of beings that would become known as the Old Gods. Other individuals, the last of their own races, dedicated themselves to certain goals, achieving immortality and becoming the Elders of the Universe. Seeing the dangers of both the Celestial's meddlings and the Elders' games, another early race, the Maltusians, moved to the center of the universe, Oa, where they renamed themselves the Oans. One of these Maltusians, however, attempted to see the beginning of the universe through his experiments, creating the Antimatter universe. The Oans banished him, and, concerned for the safety of other races, gathered chaotic magic into a single source called the Starheart. They then began to create a robotic army to defend the universe with: the Manhunters. Two groups of the Oans, however, disapproved and fled, forming the Zamarons and the Controllers.
The Old Gods conspired against the Source, leading eventually to the creation of the Godwave. The Godwave destroyed Godworld; from the remains of the world, two new worlds formed: New Genesis and Apokalips. On these two worlds, the New Gods came into being.
Several million years ago, the Manhunters rebelled, slaughtering all of the inhabitants of Sector 666. The few survivors went to war with the Oans, developing the Empire of Tears. The Empire, however, was destroyed, and the surviving five members of the sector were imprisoned away for eternity, where they became known as the Inversions.
Another race came to decide to observe the multiverse. Individuals of the race known as the Watchers observe and catalog everything they see throughout all the multiverse. The Watchers observe all within their sphere of influence. The Watchers, however, soon found a rogue faction which believed in maintaining a timeline's cohesion. This offshoot became known as the Monitors, which kept a watch for temporal discrepancies and corrected them with ruthless efficiency.
The Elder Gods:
Before Earth developed life, the energies of the first form of life attracted powerful beings, such as the Demons Three, evil beings which had free reign over the face of the virgin planet.
Once sentient life came into being on Earth, there also developed the Elder Gods. When the sentient biosphere of Earth, the Demiurge, had spread itself across the planet, it created a number of Elder Gods, most of whom had devolved into demonic figures, save only Gaia, the Earth Mother, and Oshtur, the bird-goddess, who sought to protect life on the planet, binding the Demons Three away. The other Elder Gods attempted to consume each other for power, leaving eventually only Set and Chthon.
One Million Years Ago:
The Guardians of the Universe wished to keep Earth safe, as they knew it was the hiding place of the source of White Light – the entity that creates life itself. Still, they recognized that to create an obvious barrier around Earth would only attract attention, so they feigned indifference. Still, when they came to recognize the threat of the Burning Martian race, they intervened, altering the race and creating three separate species of Martians: the yellow, the green, and the white.
The first beings outside of the Guardians to notice the seemingly-insignificant blue world were the enigmatic, seemingly omnipotent Celestials. Despite the Oans guarding the world due to the
source of White Light buried deep under the planet, the Celestials came to the world, brushing aside any forces the Guardians used to half-heartedly protect the world. Paleolithic humans were gathered by the Celestials, who created two new races from the early proto-humans: the godlike Eternals, and the grotesque Deviants. The early humans, the control of their experiment, were advanced in their evolution and were also given genetic potential to someday develop super abilities.
The Celestials also tampered with the nearby Martian race, moving several of them to Dione, a moon of Saturn. The Martians were altered into wholly new races, which continued to war against each other.
100,000 Years Ago:
In time, there arose the Skrulls, a shapeshifting race formed by the Celestials, who created a massive merchant empire. Eventually, they encountered the planet of Hala, where two sentient races vied for dominance: the militaristic Kree, and the plant-based Cotati. Representatives of the two races were brought to a small out-of-the-way planet’s lifeless moon, and they were each asked to develop something to impress the Skrulls, to determine which of the two races would gain the honor of developing the trade relationship with the shapeshifters. The Kree built a city, and the Cotati built a garden.
When the Skrulls selected the Cotati as the winners, the Kree were furious. They slaughtered the Cotati and Skrulls present for the contest, stole the Skrull vessels, and brought them back to Hala to help them advance their own technology. Since this time, the Skrulls and the Kree have been at war.
With this war, the Controllers decided the Guardians' Green Lantern Corps had failed to keep the peace. They developed a new force for peacekeeping on the planet Xandar. The Nova Force was powered by the Xandarian Worldmind, a force of cosmic power. But the Controllers did not expect the Xandarian forces to refuse the direct control of the Nova Force's creators. Deciding that they could better police the galaxy without the micromanaging oversight of the Controllers, they rebelled, driving the Controllers off and remaining an independent police force. The Nova Force and the Green Lantern Corps have had times of both alliance and rivalry over the last several thousand years.
48,000 Years Ago:
A powerful meteor fragment grants power to three cro-magnon men: one becomes Vandal Savage, and another becomes the Immortal Man. The third is frozen in ice to be revived as a Titan in modern day.
25,000 Years Ago:
A rift developed within the Eternals. A civil war, led by Uranos on one side and Kronus on the other, ended with Kronus’s faction successful. Uranos and his followers were exiled to Uranus, where they found a base established millennia before by the Kree. Their investigation into this base awakened the attention of the Kree, who returned to the system. While some of the Eternals remained on Uranus to build a life there, others of the banished number attempted to return to Earth with the new Kree technology they had found. But the Kree returned to the system, and shot them down onto the moon of Titan, taking several Eternals captive and vivisecting them. The Eternals on Titan were stranded there, and did not return to Earth for many millennia. Over time, they and the warring Saturnian races came in contact with each other, and the Titan-Eternals have been occasional allies and enemies to the various Saturnian races.
With the war between the Kree and the Skrulls raging, the Kree returned to the planet Earth after their encounter with the Eternals, gathering humans and experimenting upon them to create a slave race. This experiment was abandoned, but not before they developed a new offshoot of humanity known as the Inhumans.
20,000 Years Ago:
Great civilizations grew in the lands of Atlantis and Valusia. The monstrous Deviants had built a great civilization in Lemuria, and had enslaved much of humanity. But the Celestials returned to Earth, and they were displeased with what the Deviants had done. They destroyed the civilization of Lemuria, sinking most of it beneath the waves, along with Atlantis, causing tremendous upheaval across the world. The survivors of this sinking of Atlantis utilized powerful magic, led by their then-leader Arion, to transform themselves into a water-breathing sub-species of humanity: the Atlanteans.
Following the Great Cataclysm, there arose a new era of warriors and wizards. A sword-wielding barbarian rose to become the greatest monarch of his time, while a red-haired warrior was known as the fiercest combatant in the world.
It was also during this era that an evil sorcerer named Varnae used the Darkhold, a book written in the elder god Cthon’s blood, to become immortal… feeding on blood, and spreading his infection to others. Thus, vampires came into being. Experiments in the Darkhold also caused the curse of lycanthropy, which spread throughout the world.
Over time, other-dimensional beings descended to Earth, seeking worship from the new civilizations of Earth – or perhaps they were created by the act of worship. These gods were worshiped for thousands of years.
The civilization of Atlantis, deep below the waves, moved towards a spiritual crisis. Several Atlanteans were exploring the nature of magic, while others grew to blame magic for many of the troubles the nations had been experiencing. A civil war eventually broke out, with the mages battling those who feared magic. The non-mages were defeated, and fled far to the south, to the Antarctic. There, they focused on building up their technological defenses should they ever encounter their enemies again. The cold waters eventually led to their blue, or occasionally green, coloration. The northern Atlanteans, however, retained their pinkish color, and they developed very little technology, focusing instead on their magical studies. Over the years, the magic-wielding Northern Atlanteans and the technology-wielding Southern Atlanteans have both broken into a number of colonies, but both sub-species remain visibly different.
8000 BC
Gifted by gods, a young boy named Shazaam creates a mystical rock from which he can guard several powerful demons he has captured. He will occasionally choose new heroes to be his champion on Earth over the next 10,000 years.
7000 BC
God's wrath, Eclipso, nearly destroys the world with a great flood. The entity is locked away within a gem, and it is replaced with the Spectre.
3000 BC
A bird-headed race visits ancient Egypt in its Archaic period, influencing its mythology, before leaving to establish the arctic city of Feithera. After 50 years, the time-traveling Kang appears, driving the bird-headed race away. Kang takes control of the nation for many years, going by Rama-Tut. During his reign, a mutant who will eventually become Apocalypse is born.
1270 BC
Teth-Adam is selected by Shazam to become his hero. Meanwhile, the pharaoh Khufu, his wife Chay-Ara, his adviser Nabu, and his hero Teth-Adam find a crashed Thanagarian scout vessel. Khufu and Chay-Ara are eventually murdered.
1200 BC
The Amazons are created by the Greek Gods.
1000 BC
The Egyptians capture the tribe of Swarili to be their slaves, leading to a chain of events that causes the near-collapse of the Egyptian empire and the creation of N'Kantu the Living Mummy. Elsewhere, the Inhuman's winged members create a separate society. The cultural differences cause the creation of a new species of Inhumans known as the Bird People.
500 BC
The demigod Hercules develops a relationship with the Amazon Hippolyta. Hercules's Eternal friend, Heracles, grows jealous, disguising himself as the demigod, and rapes the Amazon. While Hercules still remembers his relationship with the queen of the Amazons fondly, Hippolyta found that she could not get past his similar appearance to that of her rapist.
600 AD
The sorcerer Merlin begins to serve as the advisor for Arthur Pendragon, king of England. Knowing that Camelot would face threats from figures such as Mordred and Morgainne Le Fay, he took on a youth named Percy and had him trained in all forms of combat. He then was given a mystic blade known as the Ebony Sword. This youth, while a minor knight in Arthur’s service, would disguise himself as the Black Knight; in this identity, he protected Camelot from many threats. He was eventually murdered by Mordred, despite the assistance of his ally Jason Blood and the bound demon Etrigan. Other heroes of the era include the Silent Knight and the Shining Knight; the Shining Knight eventually was placed into suspended animation.
1000 AD
Again, the Celestials returned to Earth, demanding that the gods cease interfering in the affairs of Man. The gods, overwhelmed by the sheer power of the Celestials, finally agreed – but they knew that in a thousand years, the Celestials would return again to judge humanity. The Gods began making plans to fight the Celestials when the beings returned once again. In the meantime, the gods made deals with the Eternals, many of whom took the place of the gods, borrowing their identities and allowing the gods to affect mortals indirectly.
1200 AD
A crusading knight named Adam of Destine rescued a Djinn named Elalyth. The two fell in love and the now immortal Adam produced many long-lived children with his wife, founding the Clan Destine. Elsewhere, Ra's al-Ghul discovered the Lazerus Pits, and the first Brother Blood rose to power in Zandia.
1460 AD
Varnae grew tired of ruling all vampires, and wished to cease existing. Thus, he sought out a mortal named Vlad Tepes, and manipulated events, forcing him to become Dracula, Lord of the Vampires. Dracula has existed in the centuries since, occasionally killed, but always returning to seek his revenge.
1500's
In 1530, Lord Andrew Bennett became a vampire, but struggled against the evil in his soul.
In 1588, the Order of the Hand was formed, which would grow to become one of the most deadly of ninja organizations. A splinter organization, which called itself the Foot, rose out of the Hand only a few years later.
1797
Victor Frankenstein created a creature that will eventually be known as Adam. The creature battled his creator, and was eventually frozen in ice. Victor's notes are found by others of his clan over the years, allowing a multitude of such creatures to be created. The first duplicate, created by Victor's nephew in the 19th century, ended up in America, where he regularly battled the Circus of Maggots before vanishing in combat in the late 1800s. The original, however, was thawed and wandered Europe in the late 1800s, battling Dracula and other supernatural entities, before it was again frozen in ice.
1860s-1870s
Many cowpokes, gunfighters, lawmen, and outlaws travel the trails of the American Old West, including Bat Lash, Nighthawk, El Diablo, Johnny Thunder, Madame .44, the Trigger Twins, “Trail Boss” Matt Savage, his son Brian Savage (aka Ke-Woh-No-Tay, the Scalphunter), the 20th-century-born Vigilante, Nighthawk, Black Rider, Gunhawk, Kid Cassidy, Kid Colt, Outlaw Kid, Phantom Rider, Rawhide Kid, Red Wolf, Ringo Kid, Two-Gun Kid, and the bounty hunter Jonah Hex.
The World Wars
With World War I came the first costumed heroes, such as Union Jack,Phantom Eagle, the Crimson Cavalier, Sir Steel, and Silver Squire; the Germans had their own hero, Hans von Hammer, aka the Enemy Ace. But with the end of the war came the end of their careers.
As the world headed towards World War II, more costumed heroes appeared – for the first time, super-powered. There was Captain America, the Southern Atlantean Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner, the android Human Torch, the Flash, Green Lantern, Wildcat, Hawkman, Mr. Terrific, and many more.
Not all heroes wore flamboyant costumes, however: Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos were at the forefront of many battles, as were Sergeant Rock and his Easy Company, proving that men needed no super powers to soundly defeat a number of Nazi menaces. They were supported in the air by the Blackhawks, an international organization of unpowered pilots that took on the Axis, inspired by Phantom Eagle in World War I.
Several super-powered heroes, however, worked together to battle the Nazis and the rest of the Axis, forming the super team known as the Invaders, with other teams forming such as the Liberty Legion, the Kid Commandos, the V-Battalion, and more. However, the most powerful of the teams, the Justice Society of America, had been affected by the Spear of Destiny. The Spear affected the heroes involved in the event that led to the mystic artifact's power awakening in the Nazi's hands, preventing the JSA from going to the European front; the Holy Grail, in Japan, had a similar effect to the Pacific front. If they spent too long in either area, the Spear of Destiny would drive them to support the Axis. Thankfully, other teams such as the Invaders and the Freedom Fighters were able to attack the front lines of the Axis. Other teams, such as the Liberty Legion, the All-Star Squadron, the Young All-Stars, and the Kid Commandos also served various roles during the war. The Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense attempted to find a way to defeat the mystical efforts of the Nazis, and managed to recover a young demon-child the Nazis planned to use to eventually control the world.
Tragedy struck at the end of the war, however, when Captain America and his long-time partner Bucky vanished; they were assumed dead.
Seeing the difference one super-powered man could make, other countries tried to create their own super soldiers. The Russians created their answer to Captain America in the form of the Red Guardian and created super-spies in the form of the Black Widows.
Post War to Modern Age
With the war over, America relaxed. A new Captain America and Bucky were sent to replace the missing duo, and few knew that they were not the original. The Invaders became the All-Winners Squad, close allies to the Justice Society, but they faced new threats, such as the Injustice Society or the Human Torch's evil “brother,” Adam II. Slowly, however, different members vanished for various reasons. The replacement Captain America was killed protecting a young would-be senator Kennedy, to be replaced for a short while; the Human Torch vanished completely, as well.
The harshest blow that the heroes of the era ever had to face by far came in 1951, as the paranoia of the Cold War gripped the nation. Ironically enough, it was not dealt by any of their many foes, but rather by power-hungry representatives of the government that they had
faithfully served for years. After capturing a known agent of a hostile foreign power, the JSA was brought before the Combined Congressional Un-American Activities Committee and interrogated about their connection to the agent. Stunned that their loyalties were being called into question, the JSA was further shocked when the committee asked them to reveal their true identities. The JSA declined and vanished from the public eye for decades. The All-Winner Squad received a similar invitation to Congress. They never replied, and simply vanished, taking a page from their JSA compatriots.
This was not the end of the costumed hero, but it was definitely a dark age for heroes. A new Captain America and Bucky formed following the vanishing of the JSA, in the mid-50s, but the process was unstable, warping their minds. They became paranoid, seeing Communist spies everywhere; they were eventually frozen by the US Government until a cure could be found. Namor vanished shortly after this, and his cousin Namora led the search to find him... to no avail.
A secret team was put together by FBI agent Jimmy Woo in the late 50s, made up of the few public heroes available in this time, made up of the 3-D Man, Marvel Boy, M-11 the Human Robot, Venus, and Ken Hale, the Gorilla Man. This team served together for a few months before the government grew wary of their operation and shut them down.
Several heroic groups operated over the next few decades. The most noteworthy would be the First Line, a team formed by a Skrull named Effigy. Effigy was a spy who had become stranded on Earth, but came to respect Earth and had begun to think of it as his home. None of the First Line knew of his secret until he sacrificed himself when the Skrulls attempted an invasion of Earth. In this final battle, most heroes and villains of the era were destroyed, but Earth was saved, and almost no one knew what nearly happened to their world.
There were a few heroes who served in the years that followed, before the modern era began. These included the mystic Dr. Strange, the Challengers of the Unknown, the Sea Devils, and Cave Carson. But most of them were not super powered. Still, the Challengers served as inspiration for what would become one of the most beloved superhero teams of all time – a team that would launch the modern heroic age with a bang, as their shuttle, crashing after exposure to cosmic rays, nearly slammed into downtown Metropolis. Between their own talented pilot overcoming the incredible agony of his transformation long enough to direct the shuttle, and the intervention of Metropolis's own Superman, in his first public appearance, not a single life was lost.
With the Kryptonian hero saving a shuttle of transforming heroes, the modern heroic age began...
Origins of the Universe:
It may be that there was a universe before this universe – one that eventually was destroyed. The new universe was born, guided through its birth by the Endless beings that predated it, and the servants of the Presence. Though this birth of a new universe was Eternity itself created. There was only one survivor of the last universe: a being reborn within a cosmic egg. When the egg hatched, it released the being known as Galactus: the planet eater. This explosion brought light into darkness, sundering the blackness, creating both a white entity and Nekron. The location where the white light came into being eventually developed a planet, surrounding the white light in a cocoon, though not for several billion years. Some time after the creation of the universe, the Presence's primary servant, Lucifer, rebelled and was cast to Hell.
Among the earliest races in the universe were the Celestial, who chose to explore and experiment on the other races of the universe. The first of the worlds where they experimented on was the very first planet in the universe, a world known as Godworld. Their experiments on Godworld created the race of beings that would become known as the Old Gods. Other individuals, the last of their own races, dedicated themselves to certain goals, achieving immortality and becoming the Elders of the Universe. Seeing the dangers of both the Celestial's meddlings and the Elders' games, another early race, the Maltusians, moved to the center of the universe, Oa, where they renamed themselves the Oans. One of these Maltusians, however, attempted to see the beginning of the universe through his experiments, creating the Antimatter universe. The Oans banished him, and, concerned for the safety of other races, gathered chaotic magic into a single source called the Starheart. They then began to create a robotic army to defend the universe with: the Manhunters. Two groups of the Oans, however, disapproved and fled, forming the Zamarons and the Controllers.
The Old Gods conspired against the Source, leading eventually to the creation of the Godwave. The Godwave destroyed Godworld; from the remains of the world, two new worlds formed: New Genesis and Apokalips. On these two worlds, the New Gods came into being.
Several million years ago, the Manhunters rebelled, slaughtering all of the inhabitants of Sector 666. The few survivors went to war with the Oans, developing the Empire of Tears. The Empire, however, was destroyed, and the surviving five members of the sector were imprisoned away for eternity, where they became known as the Inversions.
Another race came to decide to observe the multiverse. Individuals of the race known as the Watchers observe and catalog everything they see throughout all the multiverse. The Watchers observe all within their sphere of influence. The Watchers, however, soon found a rogue faction which believed in maintaining a timeline's cohesion. This offshoot became known as the Monitors, which kept a watch for temporal discrepancies and corrected them with ruthless efficiency.
The Elder Gods:
Before Earth developed life, the energies of the first form of life attracted powerful beings, such as the Demons Three, evil beings which had free reign over the face of the virgin planet.
Once sentient life came into being on Earth, there also developed the Elder Gods. When the sentient biosphere of Earth, the Demiurge, had spread itself across the planet, it created a number of Elder Gods, most of whom had devolved into demonic figures, save only Gaia, the Earth Mother, and Oshtur, the bird-goddess, who sought to protect life on the planet, binding the Demons Three away. The other Elder Gods attempted to consume each other for power, leaving eventually only Set and Chthon.
One Million Years Ago:
The Guardians of the Universe wished to keep Earth safe, as they knew it was the hiding place of the source of White Light – the entity that creates life itself. Still, they recognized that to create an obvious barrier around Earth would only attract attention, so they feigned indifference. Still, when they came to recognize the threat of the Burning Martian race, they intervened, altering the race and creating three separate species of Martians: the yellow, the green, and the white.
The first beings outside of the Guardians to notice the seemingly-insignificant blue world were the enigmatic, seemingly omnipotent Celestials. Despite the Oans guarding the world due to the
source of White Light buried deep under the planet, the Celestials came to the world, brushing aside any forces the Guardians used to half-heartedly protect the world. Paleolithic humans were gathered by the Celestials, who created two new races from the early proto-humans: the godlike Eternals, and the grotesque Deviants. The early humans, the control of their experiment, were advanced in their evolution and were also given genetic potential to someday develop super abilities.
The Celestials also tampered with the nearby Martian race, moving several of them to Dione, a moon of Saturn. The Martians were altered into wholly new races, which continued to war against each other.
100,000 Years Ago:
In time, there arose the Skrulls, a shapeshifting race formed by the Celestials, who created a massive merchant empire. Eventually, they encountered the planet of Hala, where two sentient races vied for dominance: the militaristic Kree, and the plant-based Cotati. Representatives of the two races were brought to a small out-of-the-way planet’s lifeless moon, and they were each asked to develop something to impress the Skrulls, to determine which of the two races would gain the honor of developing the trade relationship with the shapeshifters. The Kree built a city, and the Cotati built a garden.
When the Skrulls selected the Cotati as the winners, the Kree were furious. They slaughtered the Cotati and Skrulls present for the contest, stole the Skrull vessels, and brought them back to Hala to help them advance their own technology. Since this time, the Skrulls and the Kree have been at war.
With this war, the Controllers decided the Guardians' Green Lantern Corps had failed to keep the peace. They developed a new force for peacekeeping on the planet Xandar. The Nova Force was powered by the Xandarian Worldmind, a force of cosmic power. But the Controllers did not expect the Xandarian forces to refuse the direct control of the Nova Force's creators. Deciding that they could better police the galaxy without the micromanaging oversight of the Controllers, they rebelled, driving the Controllers off and remaining an independent police force. The Nova Force and the Green Lantern Corps have had times of both alliance and rivalry over the last several thousand years.
48,000 Years Ago:
A powerful meteor fragment grants power to three cro-magnon men: one becomes Vandal Savage, and another becomes the Immortal Man. The third is frozen in ice to be revived as a Titan in modern day.
25,000 Years Ago:
A rift developed within the Eternals. A civil war, led by Uranos on one side and Kronus on the other, ended with Kronus’s faction successful. Uranos and his followers were exiled to Uranus, where they found a base established millennia before by the Kree. Their investigation into this base awakened the attention of the Kree, who returned to the system. While some of the Eternals remained on Uranus to build a life there, others of the banished number attempted to return to Earth with the new Kree technology they had found. But the Kree returned to the system, and shot them down onto the moon of Titan, taking several Eternals captive and vivisecting them. The Eternals on Titan were stranded there, and did not return to Earth for many millennia. Over time, they and the warring Saturnian races came in contact with each other, and the Titan-Eternals have been occasional allies and enemies to the various Saturnian races.
With the war between the Kree and the Skrulls raging, the Kree returned to the planet Earth after their encounter with the Eternals, gathering humans and experimenting upon them to create a slave race. This experiment was abandoned, but not before they developed a new offshoot of humanity known as the Inhumans.
20,000 Years Ago:
Great civilizations grew in the lands of Atlantis and Valusia. The monstrous Deviants had built a great civilization in Lemuria, and had enslaved much of humanity. But the Celestials returned to Earth, and they were displeased with what the Deviants had done. They destroyed the civilization of Lemuria, sinking most of it beneath the waves, along with Atlantis, causing tremendous upheaval across the world. The survivors of this sinking of Atlantis utilized powerful magic, led by their then-leader Arion, to transform themselves into a water-breathing sub-species of humanity: the Atlanteans.
Following the Great Cataclysm, there arose a new era of warriors and wizards. A sword-wielding barbarian rose to become the greatest monarch of his time, while a red-haired warrior was known as the fiercest combatant in the world.
It was also during this era that an evil sorcerer named Varnae used the Darkhold, a book written in the elder god Cthon’s blood, to become immortal… feeding on blood, and spreading his infection to others. Thus, vampires came into being. Experiments in the Darkhold also caused the curse of lycanthropy, which spread throughout the world.
Over time, other-dimensional beings descended to Earth, seeking worship from the new civilizations of Earth – or perhaps they were created by the act of worship. These gods were worshiped for thousands of years.
The civilization of Atlantis, deep below the waves, moved towards a spiritual crisis. Several Atlanteans were exploring the nature of magic, while others grew to blame magic for many of the troubles the nations had been experiencing. A civil war eventually broke out, with the mages battling those who feared magic. The non-mages were defeated, and fled far to the south, to the Antarctic. There, they focused on building up their technological defenses should they ever encounter their enemies again. The cold waters eventually led to their blue, or occasionally green, coloration. The northern Atlanteans, however, retained their pinkish color, and they developed very little technology, focusing instead on their magical studies. Over the years, the magic-wielding Northern Atlanteans and the technology-wielding Southern Atlanteans have both broken into a number of colonies, but both sub-species remain visibly different.
8000 BC
Gifted by gods, a young boy named Shazaam creates a mystical rock from which he can guard several powerful demons he has captured. He will occasionally choose new heroes to be his champion on Earth over the next 10,000 years.
7000 BC
God's wrath, Eclipso, nearly destroys the world with a great flood. The entity is locked away within a gem, and it is replaced with the Spectre.
3000 BC
A bird-headed race visits ancient Egypt in its Archaic period, influencing its mythology, before leaving to establish the arctic city of Feithera. After 50 years, the time-traveling Kang appears, driving the bird-headed race away. Kang takes control of the nation for many years, going by Rama-Tut. During his reign, a mutant who will eventually become Apocalypse is born.
1270 BC
Teth-Adam is selected by Shazam to become his hero. Meanwhile, the pharaoh Khufu, his wife Chay-Ara, his adviser Nabu, and his hero Teth-Adam find a crashed Thanagarian scout vessel. Khufu and Chay-Ara are eventually murdered.
1200 BC
The Amazons are created by the Greek Gods.
1000 BC
The Egyptians capture the tribe of Swarili to be their slaves, leading to a chain of events that causes the near-collapse of the Egyptian empire and the creation of N'Kantu the Living Mummy. Elsewhere, the Inhuman's winged members create a separate society. The cultural differences cause the creation of a new species of Inhumans known as the Bird People.
500 BC
The demigod Hercules develops a relationship with the Amazon Hippolyta. Hercules's Eternal friend, Heracles, grows jealous, disguising himself as the demigod, and rapes the Amazon. While Hercules still remembers his relationship with the queen of the Amazons fondly, Hippolyta found that she could not get past his similar appearance to that of her rapist.
600 AD
The sorcerer Merlin begins to serve as the advisor for Arthur Pendragon, king of England. Knowing that Camelot would face threats from figures such as Mordred and Morgainne Le Fay, he took on a youth named Percy and had him trained in all forms of combat. He then was given a mystic blade known as the Ebony Sword. This youth, while a minor knight in Arthur’s service, would disguise himself as the Black Knight; in this identity, he protected Camelot from many threats. He was eventually murdered by Mordred, despite the assistance of his ally Jason Blood and the bound demon Etrigan. Other heroes of the era include the Silent Knight and the Shining Knight; the Shining Knight eventually was placed into suspended animation.
1000 AD
Again, the Celestials returned to Earth, demanding that the gods cease interfering in the affairs of Man. The gods, overwhelmed by the sheer power of the Celestials, finally agreed – but they knew that in a thousand years, the Celestials would return again to judge humanity. The Gods began making plans to fight the Celestials when the beings returned once again. In the meantime, the gods made deals with the Eternals, many of whom took the place of the gods, borrowing their identities and allowing the gods to affect mortals indirectly.
1200 AD
A crusading knight named Adam of Destine rescued a Djinn named Elalyth. The two fell in love and the now immortal Adam produced many long-lived children with his wife, founding the Clan Destine. Elsewhere, Ra's al-Ghul discovered the Lazerus Pits, and the first Brother Blood rose to power in Zandia.
1460 AD
Varnae grew tired of ruling all vampires, and wished to cease existing. Thus, he sought out a mortal named Vlad Tepes, and manipulated events, forcing him to become Dracula, Lord of the Vampires. Dracula has existed in the centuries since, occasionally killed, but always returning to seek his revenge.
1500's
In 1530, Lord Andrew Bennett became a vampire, but struggled against the evil in his soul.
In 1588, the Order of the Hand was formed, which would grow to become one of the most deadly of ninja organizations. A splinter organization, which called itself the Foot, rose out of the Hand only a few years later.
1797
Victor Frankenstein created a creature that will eventually be known as Adam. The creature battled his creator, and was eventually frozen in ice. Victor's notes are found by others of his clan over the years, allowing a multitude of such creatures to be created. The first duplicate, created by Victor's nephew in the 19th century, ended up in America, where he regularly battled the Circus of Maggots before vanishing in combat in the late 1800s. The original, however, was thawed and wandered Europe in the late 1800s, battling Dracula and other supernatural entities, before it was again frozen in ice.
1860s-1870s
Many cowpokes, gunfighters, lawmen, and outlaws travel the trails of the American Old West, including Bat Lash, Nighthawk, El Diablo, Johnny Thunder, Madame .44, the Trigger Twins, “Trail Boss” Matt Savage, his son Brian Savage (aka Ke-Woh-No-Tay, the Scalphunter), the 20th-century-born Vigilante, Nighthawk, Black Rider, Gunhawk, Kid Cassidy, Kid Colt, Outlaw Kid, Phantom Rider, Rawhide Kid, Red Wolf, Ringo Kid, Two-Gun Kid, and the bounty hunter Jonah Hex.
The World Wars
With World War I came the first costumed heroes, such as Union Jack,Phantom Eagle, the Crimson Cavalier, Sir Steel, and Silver Squire; the Germans had their own hero, Hans von Hammer, aka the Enemy Ace. But with the end of the war came the end of their careers.
As the world headed towards World War II, more costumed heroes appeared – for the first time, super-powered. There was Captain America, the Southern Atlantean Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner, the android Human Torch, the Flash, Green Lantern, Wildcat, Hawkman, Mr. Terrific, and many more.
Not all heroes wore flamboyant costumes, however: Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos were at the forefront of many battles, as were Sergeant Rock and his Easy Company, proving that men needed no super powers to soundly defeat a number of Nazi menaces. They were supported in the air by the Blackhawks, an international organization of unpowered pilots that took on the Axis, inspired by Phantom Eagle in World War I.
Several super-powered heroes, however, worked together to battle the Nazis and the rest of the Axis, forming the super team known as the Invaders, with other teams forming such as the Liberty Legion, the Kid Commandos, the V-Battalion, and more. However, the most powerful of the teams, the Justice Society of America, had been affected by the Spear of Destiny. The Spear affected the heroes involved in the event that led to the mystic artifact's power awakening in the Nazi's hands, preventing the JSA from going to the European front; the Holy Grail, in Japan, had a similar effect to the Pacific front. If they spent too long in either area, the Spear of Destiny would drive them to support the Axis. Thankfully, other teams such as the Invaders and the Freedom Fighters were able to attack the front lines of the Axis. Other teams, such as the Liberty Legion, the All-Star Squadron, the Young All-Stars, and the Kid Commandos also served various roles during the war. The Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense attempted to find a way to defeat the mystical efforts of the Nazis, and managed to recover a young demon-child the Nazis planned to use to eventually control the world.
Tragedy struck at the end of the war, however, when Captain America and his long-time partner Bucky vanished; they were assumed dead.
Seeing the difference one super-powered man could make, other countries tried to create their own super soldiers. The Russians created their answer to Captain America in the form of the Red Guardian and created super-spies in the form of the Black Widows.
Post War to Modern Age
With the war over, America relaxed. A new Captain America and Bucky were sent to replace the missing duo, and few knew that they were not the original. The Invaders became the All-Winners Squad, close allies to the Justice Society, but they faced new threats, such as the Injustice Society or the Human Torch's evil “brother,” Adam II. Slowly, however, different members vanished for various reasons. The replacement Captain America was killed protecting a young would-be senator Kennedy, to be replaced for a short while; the Human Torch vanished completely, as well.
The harshest blow that the heroes of the era ever had to face by far came in 1951, as the paranoia of the Cold War gripped the nation. Ironically enough, it was not dealt by any of their many foes, but rather by power-hungry representatives of the government that they had
faithfully served for years. After capturing a known agent of a hostile foreign power, the JSA was brought before the Combined Congressional Un-American Activities Committee and interrogated about their connection to the agent. Stunned that their loyalties were being called into question, the JSA was further shocked when the committee asked them to reveal their true identities. The JSA declined and vanished from the public eye for decades. The All-Winner Squad received a similar invitation to Congress. They never replied, and simply vanished, taking a page from their JSA compatriots.
This was not the end of the costumed hero, but it was definitely a dark age for heroes. A new Captain America and Bucky formed following the vanishing of the JSA, in the mid-50s, but the process was unstable, warping their minds. They became paranoid, seeing Communist spies everywhere; they were eventually frozen by the US Government until a cure could be found. Namor vanished shortly after this, and his cousin Namora led the search to find him... to no avail.
A secret team was put together by FBI agent Jimmy Woo in the late 50s, made up of the few public heroes available in this time, made up of the 3-D Man, Marvel Boy, M-11 the Human Robot, Venus, and Ken Hale, the Gorilla Man. This team served together for a few months before the government grew wary of their operation and shut them down.
Several heroic groups operated over the next few decades. The most noteworthy would be the First Line, a team formed by a Skrull named Effigy. Effigy was a spy who had become stranded on Earth, but came to respect Earth and had begun to think of it as his home. None of the First Line knew of his secret until he sacrificed himself when the Skrulls attempted an invasion of Earth. In this final battle, most heroes and villains of the era were destroyed, but Earth was saved, and almost no one knew what nearly happened to their world.
There were a few heroes who served in the years that followed, before the modern era began. These included the mystic Dr. Strange, the Challengers of the Unknown, the Sea Devils, and Cave Carson. But most of them were not super powered. Still, the Challengers served as inspiration for what would become one of the most beloved superhero teams of all time – a team that would launch the modern heroic age with a bang, as their shuttle, crashing after exposure to cosmic rays, nearly slammed into downtown Metropolis. Between their own talented pilot overcoming the incredible agony of his transformation long enough to direct the shuttle, and the intervention of Metropolis's own Superman, in his first public appearance, not a single life was lost.
With the Kryptonian hero saving a shuttle of transforming heroes, the modern heroic age began...
