#settingdump

Timber Agent was a long running 80s Light Novel series that was adapted for tv in 1996. It was famously what Akira Toriyama worked on in between Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Great designs didn’t save the show though and it was canceled after one season, before the main characters ever became the titular Timber Agents.

The show became a cult classic during a short run on Toonami where Steve Blum made his second famous role as Valiant Star. Even though the Toriyama designs weren’t close to the Light Novels description it stayed in the public mind enough to get a reboot in 2016 called Timber Agent: Adventures in the Overgrowth done by Studio Shaft.

After the first season sold gangbusters in both Japan and in the West a second and third season were announced. On top of that the original author is planning for six more chapters and “possibly more”. With nostalgia we might finally see Timber Agent fully animated as it rightly should be.

Obviously this didn’t exist…instead this is my “Shonen Battle Manga Setting” for Mutants and Masterminds. Here’s the setting.

One thousand years ago magic returned with a crash as the Old Gods fought massive beasts in their last battle. Cities flooded, earthquakes ate entire nations, and all electronics were changed. Some were merely broken beyond repair while a few became ingrained with magical power. The robotic armies of man were given free will and the mech suits used by human soldiers were cursed, each with a different curse that affected their users. In the end man retreated from the cities and started a small life.

One thousand years later, the time we play in, society has built itself back up. (Kingdoms will be posted later)

Magic started affecting humans in odd ways. Some were born with magical abilities, usually one single power or several small weak ones. Humans born with these powers are called Gems and their “purity”, aka the level of power they wielded, was measured. From weakest to strongest they are called Stones, Sapphires, Rubies, and Diamonds. The name was adopted due to anyone given the gift having gem eyes, each level named after the eyes that develop.

The Robots ended up having a massive war that lasted a hundred years. Half wanted to help humanity while the others wished to rule them. A few even wanted to eradicate them. In the end the good Robots won but they could not bring themselves to kill their brothers and instead put them to sleep, hoping that when they wake they will understand empathy. Most of the heroic Robots went into a sleep mode also, most for their own reasons. The few that kept awake helped humanity in small ways, keeping their creators alive when they would be dead. Humanity has all but forgotten making Robots and view them as rare powerful gods and revere them as such, though they tend to not enjoy being worshipped.

Mech suits are called Machine Armor and each has its own temperament connected to their curse. Some require bloodshed to run while others need long rituals for daily use. Some have odd weaknesses such as not working in shadows or not being able to harm wood.

Elves - Otherwordly abominations whose beauty is so great a single glance makes you mad.

Talpi/Moles - Small wrinkly men with big claws and bigger whisker mustaches. They use their claws to dig massive underground cities. They eat rocks and metals and live in structured clans waiting for the day that Old Wodd, their creator, comes back. They gain sexual traits for childbirth and lose them whenthey give birth. Child Talpi are small worms and generally number in the hundreds and are kept in shallow pits and given rotten meat, it’s easier for them to chew, for a week before they are considered “children”. Usually only five or so survive to “childhood” and Talpi don’t really consider worm-talpi to be sentient until a week. Talpi also raise and herd giant insects for all parts of life. They use silk strands from spider-cows for their clothes, ride giant beetles up walls, and use giant worms for meat. Surface Talpi use their giant insects as both riding animals and weapons.

Giants - Multi-armed hairless men who stand ten feet tall or even taller. They hate humans because they were given the gift of magic while they were cursed to never be able to use it. They are inherently stronger than most other races and usually are just bandits. Some drink the blood of the sleeping Midgard Serpent to gain horrific powers. Some say they used to be Aesir, the warrior children of old gods, but the blood must have been diluted from a thousand years of breeding. Now they measure their families closeness to deity-hood by the number of arms they have.

Trolls - Big smelly and silly trolls live in swamps and sewers and eat rocks and metals. They aren’t very smart and tend to be kind to travelers. Evil wizards like to warp their minds and use them as monsters.

Draugr - Undead creatures consumed by obsessions, these obsessions usually influence their physical form in some manner. They enjoy causing pain and chaos no matter their obsessions.

Tariaksuq/Shadow-people - A race of people as varied as humanity. They can’t be seen if someone stares straight at them.

Ijiraq/Shape-shifters - Monsters who masquerade in human form. They can change their bodies to suit their needs and are strict carnivores. They enjoy the taste of children most.

Qalupalik/Boogeys - Beautiful women who are always covered in water. They have long nails that can cut stone and are also carnivores. They tend to be less monstrous than Shape-Shifters but a few will go down the darker path and steal children. They love the water and some even have a magical ability to control it.

Blotsno/Frosties - Frosties are a kind race of magical people. They were born when Asgard fell on Earth in the far reaches of Antarctica. Frosties tend to stay to themselves and most only worry about breakfast, lunch, dinner, and tea time. They form large homes in snow drifts and love twinkling lights because they remind them of the stars. They have a long history of artists and will write songs, paint pictures, and create plays all about the Aurora Borealis. The females tend to look like snowmen while the males are look like they are carved out of ice. They are born in tiny ice eggs that the women lay. Their special type of magic allows them to easily move small objects and even boil water and fry meat without heat.

Goblins - Goblins come in hundreds of variations but the most important part is they are carnivorous, treacherous, little imps who delight in torture and are only motivated by an empty belly and inventive ways to kill things.

Languages - Norse: Old Norse with additions of English and Mexico. Farther east it’s mixed with Korean and Chinese. Spoken by everyone but Moles, Frosties, Giants, and Trolls each have their own dialect. Everyone knows a version of it, it’s basically Common. If you take Comprehend Languages you also learn every dialect.

- Coyote: A mystic language held by all animals given to them by the trickster shape-shifter Coyote. Shadow-people, Shape-shifters, and Boogeys all have their own dialect of this. Comprehend Animals gives you all of this.

- Machines all have specific language-like codes. Comprehend Machines give you all of this.

- Rot-Speak: Draugr come in hundreds of variations and many can speak Norse, but the maddening language they share is given with Comprehend Spirits.

The Old Gods were good Gods though not always nice ones. Each race has been touched by one of them. Even dead the Gods are worshipped and the many small magical creatures they had made in their long life respect prayers to their deity.

Old Wodd was their leader and father to most of them. He made the Talpi as a gift to his son Bjorn who loved insects. Wood spirits follow his prayers. All creatures answer prayers for wisdom and leadership when send with his name.

Little Vadr was their trickster and a bit of a bastard. Even then he still fought against the Leviathan when the Last War came. He made the shape shifters, the boogeyman, and shadow-people. Spirits of books and secrets listen to his prayers. Coyote answers his prayers for him but chooses only the most tricky and thieving of them.

Bjorn the Bear was Old Wodds favorite son. He was the strongest and the Giants say they were his children, though nobody believes them. He enjoyed small things and fought to protect them. Old spirits of stone and steel listen to his prayers. Any prayer for strength is answered by spirits if sent with his name.

Holda the Black was the oldest daughter of Old Wodd and enjoyed darker things. She helped Little Vadr make his Shadow People and generally hid until the Last War.

Young Sybil was the youngest daughter of Old Wodd and was the most beautiful by far. She was lost to the Elves, never to come back.

Old Mag is the wife of Old Wodd and mother to all races. She made the Blostsno’s to take care of the world when she would die, though Bjorn gave the men great strength. Most believe she was the reason why humans gained magical abilities. Any prayer for protection is answered by spirits when said in her name and magic items charged with her prayer can tell when Elves are near.

During the Last War the Gods fought Leviathan, a massive continent sized serpents, and his many children. Though they slew his children the body of Leviathan fell on the world and was not dead. He sleeps, wrapped across the north, and it’s blood corrupts anything it touches. This has risen legions of Eldritch horrors and some giants even trek across the planet to drink its caustic blood. Those who survive find themselves filled with dark and horrific strength or mutated into powerful monstrosities.

Leviathan ate the World Tree when the Last War happened but a single mysterious man, known as Father Root, took two seeds and replanted them in the center of the world. These two seeds grew to be the Tree of Life, always in bloom, and the Tree of Death, always bare. These two Trees gained a sapience and created the Order to protect the world if ever the Leviathan woke again. In time every kingdom learned of the Order and took their warriors, called Timber Agents, and their actions as law. One thousand years later they are known as the group of the most powerful mortals in the realm and the treasure from their adventures passed onto the Order itself. In exchange for their service Timber Agents are given riches, are above the law in every but the most dystopian state, and contacts in secret groups that would never speak to a lesser mortal.

15 years ago things awoke, old things. They ate our star, they flooded the world, and slowly…insidiously…they changed the world. Now mankind survives like roaches yet even now people scheme against each other. This is Flooded London.

In order to survive the changes in the world Victorian London leaned heavily on black magic, like Aleister Crowley shit. He’s venerated as a saint and the remnants of his secret society dole out “prayers” as small magick tricks. In reality they barter for their power in rituals from “demons” who most pretend aren’t the same things that swallowed the sun and raised the sea On the other side of things we have “Mum’s Navy” who are crusaders made up of ex-navy officers and their warships. They storm around trying to kill anything non-human. Most people refer to them as Queen Vic’s Revenge in reference to the well-known legend of Black Beard’s own ship. They’re more or less pirates and raid islands on the normal. They tend to try to have non-violent conclusions and due to their three main ships being massive and well stocked it usually ends with the Island giving into their demands. They seem to send assassins to the Aleister Crowley crowd on the regular. Lastly humans are changing. Whether people like it or not the world is different. Some places have wonky physics and others warp reality to follow dream logic rather than real logic. Anyways sailors sometimes come back with different bodies. Scales, forked tongues, cats eyes.

So along with 18th century science people have started using the new creatures mechanically. It’s very “Biomechanical” Certain bloods and organs are able to be used as power sources or as weapons. Most people try not to eat any of it.

With more powerful ship think of old warships with tendrils of organic wiring going down the halls of the ship pulsing with luminescence Cause of all of that selling off monster bodies is a big industry in flooded london. All of the Church assets don’t use this shit cause it’s “heretical” so they focus on scavenging old world tech, arms, and ammo.

A lot of the nicer places of the world are hills and mountains. That’s where orchards of fruit and veggies are and you’ll have hicks who ended up owning a ton of land or the rich who just lived out in the countryside with their manors dressing up in old world clothes pretending the world didn’t end So yea you can live pretty well if you got money or land

The sun is gone but the moon still exists. The moon has multiple phases and sometimes the phases are based entirely on location.

So far the phases I’ve thought up are the Red Moon which has necromantic powers, the White Sun which has healing properties (but can go into “bio-horror” shit too), and the Blue Sun which gives people low level psychic powers but also can bring weird pyschic ghosts back.

Bio-Luminescent lights. Think massive organs being used as heat lamps You’ll usually have them tied to weather ballons floating over orchards

Alright so the flood didn’t effect everywhere the same. The sea level is no longer held to the rules of science and the sea as such has adopted an even more mysterious manner. Stranger still lakes with no connection to the sea also rose. Only the saltiest of sailors will be able to tell when land is close by following the eldritch rules of the sea.

London is one of the places that had a uneven sea level, more so to the point that a global sea level isn’t even possible anymore. Parts of London are dry and others deep under the sea. The land seems to have changed ever so slightly, parts must have risen for such an oddity to occur. As such London is a major “city” in the world, yet expensive to exist in for more than a day or so to pick up a job or drop off a passenger. It is entirely ruled by the Devil Worshiping Cults. (I’ll explain the areas later but here’s a peak)

The three major groups are The Beasts Court, a bunch of Aleister Crowley worshipers and the first to discover real contact with demons and thus the first to cash in on selling “magic tricks” to people. They tend to enjoy sailors, thinking they’re the closest to Crowley’s belief in doing away with morals.

The Golden Dawn was formed out of lower members of the pre-existing society and fans of the members artistic works. They tend to try and hold themselves to a higher standard than the others. If there is a “moral” group of demon summoning cultists it’d be them. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle exists as the last original member with any authority in the group. Instead of leading them he seems more content with drinking his days, when asked why he says “To remember friends.” Besides Doyle’s tenuous leadership the rest of the group seems to have factions divided by who is fans of the original members

The last is Queen Victoria’s Royal Court. The Royal Court is made up mostly of aristocratic families that have dry land from before the flood. The only possible way for them to enforce their ownership is to keep the crown in power, sadly for them Queen Victoria is quite dead. In order to keep their lands they’ve used eldritch means to bring some form of “life” to her lifeless body. The Royal Court also has the most powerful navy consisting of a quarter of the military vessels from before the flood. They are also the most intense about “ruling” anyone and issue “license” to keep the flow of merchant good towards themselves. Of course this has ended up making them a problem for most sailors, especially since the other two Demon Cults have just as much money and no licenses. They still are able to stay in power through force and the fact that they are the only group with the manpower to keep trade routes safe for travel.

The economy of the world revolves around staying alive and as such the currencies show that. The landlubber currency is Bullets along with metal of any manner. Gunpowder is also a high currency amongst the landlubbers. This is because of raiding of islands becoming a regular problem meant that the islands needed a constant amount of ammo to survive. Any island that found themselves without ammo could survive for awhile until some pirate ship docks and kills the lot of them or worse leaves them to starve after taking everything they have.

Any island that’s survived for fifteen years has it’s own way of manufacturing ammo, thought that manufacture will always be based on the availability of resources to make.

For Sailors it’s Moon Barnacles

Moon Barnacles are found in the sea usually in deposits of salt or in eldritch locations. The special thing about Moon Barnacles is they give you everything you need to stay at sea. They burn well and long even using one of them can keep your ship running for a precious hour that can get you too land. You can heat one up and use a knife to crack away the hard shell to eat the soft, jelly-like insides. Finally, and most importantly, some have eyes in them and if you pry one out and toss it in a bucket of sea water it’ll create fresh water.

Thus Moon Barnacles are THE currency for sailors. They spend like coins cause they’re better than coins. They’re life at sea.

Both currencies seem to never have a very good exchange rate and they can even end up being wildly different in what they represent depending on where you go.

The phenomenon called The Sea Lands are risen part of the ocean floor. Most of them aren’t explored yet but the oddest creatures and most dangerous eldritch disasters live there. It’s also a prime area for bio-hunting, a phrase made for the constant economy of beastly organs that are sold to the Highlander Farms or Cultists Courts for political power.

Highlander’s have their own set of tattoos for various things. Here are a few.

Alchemical Symbol of Iron - Surviving an encounter with fae

A Disembodied Smile - Fae cursed

Hold Fast - Reliable sailor

Four Pointed star w/Eye in the Middle - Good navigator

A Shepherd’s Cane with a Four Pointed star on the Pummel - experienced guides across the Highlands.

A Heart Covered in Woad - veteran farmer of the monster crops.

Glasgow Smile - Glasgow survivor. Very rare. Tattooed around the lips.

A Fist Grabbing the Symbol of Iron - Fae hunter. Usually a symbol of Iron is shaped like a knife with a large iron ring on the pummel.

A Hand w/2 Fingers Pointed Out and Tied Together w/Thorns - made a deal with the fae

The Same but w/Silk - Made a deal with the aristocratic Courts. Color determines the Court the deal was made with. Blue=Royal/Red=Beast/Gold=Golden Dawn. Incredibly rare is black which is a deal with a demon itself.

Tattoo of a Ram’s head - the person is from the mountains.

The Highlander’s are the main competition for the Demon Courts. They are divided into two groups, the mining towns that revolted when the flood started and the hill people who use their dry land to grow crops for the rest of society. Due to both being more or less indispensable for London and it’s citizens they’ve ended up being the focus of seduction and intrigue for the wiliest of the Courts scoundrels. To get an exclusive distribution for a Court will not only rise your ranks but possibly change the political landscape. Of course it wasn’t always this honey and wine relationship, when the flood first began the Courts would take what they wanted of the Highlander’s by force. Those days are remembered by the Highlander’s and most view anything besides selling at a massive profit to the Courts as traitorous behavior.

The farmers tend to try and grow mushrooms for the bulk of their crops and use the strange and sometimes murderous mutant crops of the new world to fill the rest of their orders. The thing is that the mutant crops grow incredibly well under he bio-luminescent organs of the beasts sailors hunt and can easily be grown in massive batches in even the most rocky terrain. While the mushrooms are safer and don’t require the constantly rotting organs to grow they don’t grow nearly as fast. This tradeoff sometimes gets the best of a farmer and they’ll die strangled by Whip Wheat or stung by a mimic fruit.

Crops of the Highlands

Whip Wheat - this grain comes in many colors each with a different subtle flavor. It acts like a prehensile tail and fully grown can cut through a man skin. Thankfully the cuts aren’t deep but a wrong slice can open an artery or a neck.

Mimic Fruit - a large fruit tree that makes pear-like fruits. The biggest danger isn’t the tree itself but the type of big it attracts. Called mimics they can turn into nearly anything, generally they will turn into a ripe fruit of a stem and burrow into the farmers skin eating them from the inside out. Strong odors will change them back into their true form. Farmers will take excess skin from organs and set it on fire to suss them out and hit them with sticks till they die, one good whack usually doing the trick for the stronger boys. Gas masks are of course a must for farming these.

Bleeding Fruit - a strain of Mimic Fruit Tree that bleeds liquids when cut. The large apple-like ones bleed blood, the smaller grape like ones bleed tears, and the large spined coconut like ones bleed caustic stomachs acid and have milk like substances inside. All have the similar problem with Mimics.

Eye Melons - a ground melon that grows eyes when ripe. The plant itself has a tendency to grow a mouth and if not taken care of properly will become sentient enough to take bites of farmers. The eyes can be plucked out and eaten and have a similar consistency to potatoes. The melon itself is inedible but can be used for several medicinal solvents.