About the superhumans of the Wonderstruck Universe
Salvete! For this post, I want to go over the superhumans in the Wonderstruck Universe. A superhuman is any member of the Homo genus with abilities deemed beyond other humans. Superhumans are a considerable population, but not a majority. For roughly every 10 people on Earth, there'll often be at least 1 superhumans (note: Earth's population is much larger in the Wonderstruck Universe, as are different land masses). There are many causes for superhuman abilities, and something to note is most superhuman abilities are not overpowered. They can damage a human in a way other humans can't, but all a regular human needs in order to be on par with a superhuman is a weapon or technology, magic, or really good martial arts. A lot of the time, superhumans also have a certain Kryptonite factor.
In the Wonderstruck Universe, superpowers are a pretty universal concept. Because of how universal superpowers are, Earth has a lot of possible ways to get superpowers. Superpowers can appear through magic, mutation, aliens, etc. Because of this, there are too many superpower origins to give one origin to all of them. To do that, I'd just have to give you the entire history of Wonderstruck's Earth. What I can tell you in this post is the effect superhumans have on the World around them.
Of course there are superheroes, but superheroes are not the entirety of it. Superheroes have only really begun after the current age of globalization. Before then, there were other heroic traditions or heroic figures who used their superhuman abilities in different ways. Some superhumans aren't heroic but just normal dudes. However, this is not always the case.
In some of Earth's more fictional societies, superhumans are the majority population or otherwise lead society. A lot of landmasses are bigger or smaller, and this is to make more room for fictional regions and the like. This way I can put a bunch of superhuman nations. The places with the most superhumans are the places where superhumans are more able to survive. Really cold regions, really hot regions, big mountains, etc.
I do have some ideas for how superhuman cultures work. How superhuman cultures form and organize mostly depends on the human cultures around them. A big motif throughout superhuman cultures is that they often take inspiration from superhero tropes. A big part of superhuman cultures, as with human cultures, is superhuman language. Superhuman languages are sometimes related to other languages, but most superhumans either speak a human language or speak a superhuman language which is isolated from human language families. In superhumans' isolate languages, the words are often based on different made-up proper nouns (or as I call them "nonsense names") made up in superhero comics (e.g. Thanos, Viltrum, Scragg, Thanagar, etc.) These isolate languages would have their own vocabulary based on different styles of nonsense names in DC, Marvel, Image Comics, and the like.
When it comes to superhuman religion and mythology, it often takes from superhero tropes. Whereas most human mythologies won't feature aliens or dimensions or other sci-fi concepts, certain superhuman mythologies and religions feature all kinds of sci-fi jazz because certain superpowers are just naturally tied to the sciences, so in-universe it'd be natural for superhuman mythologies and religions to be more sci-fi because certain science-related powers would spark a similar curiosity to early sci-fi writers.
Superhuman aesthetics like architecture and clothing are also often based on superhero comics. They don't wear masks or capes on the daily or anything, but certain clothing will take inspiration from the tropes of superhero costumes that'll give it a certain superhuman touch. For an example of what I'm talking about, think about the Viltrumites from Invincible. Viltrumites aren't dressed as superheroes or even supervillains really. Their clothes just has certain superhero motifs like Thragg's cape, the Viltrum logo on the chest, the tight clothes, and so on. I want to strike that balance between superhero costume motifs and making superhuman clothing look like something you'd wear casually.
What will be very superheroic though is the architecture and visual designs in the setting. Their technology isn't too advanced compared to humans, it's mostly pretty on par with parts of the Human World. However, the visual designs at play will take different inspirations from sci-fi superheroes. Particularly depending on what those superhero artists were inspired by. A Native American superhuman society, for example, might have some architecture inspired by some of Jack Kirby's various indigenous-inspired designs.
Back to the effect superhumans have on the World at large. Something else that affects the World pretty intensely is how superhumans interact with humans. In series with genetic superhumans, the usual ideas are to make the superhumans unanimously hated (such as the X-Men), unanimously powerful (such as the Boys), or something similarly unanimous. Personally, I want to portray superhuman-human interaction in a more unique way by taking different inspirations from different real-life examples in different ways.
Superhumans mostly live side-by-side amongst humans, and aren't seen as too odd or strange. In day-to-day life, you'll see humans and superhumans live amongst one another perfectly fine. However, sometimes this isn't the case. Because superhumans are not of an ethnic identity or cultural identity, prejudice against them is more biological than ethnic. Most superhumans are doing just fine in society, but due to superhumans' powers, superhumans can face prejudice depending on the context. As an example: Superhumans doing superhero work? That's great! They're making the community a better place. Superhumans working in offices or farms? That's great! They're contributing to the community's society. Superhumans having governmental power? Oh no! That's too much power for a superhuman.
You might've noticed the theme in those examples of superhumans being limited to how much power they can have. In societies leaning more towards democracy, superhumans can do almost anything, but there is a still level of controversy to ideas of superhumans having any sort of power over humans. Arguments against giving superhumans societal power range in their evidences from biology to history to ethics. Most are rather baseless, however, due to superhumans rarely having any cognitive differences to other humans. In some other societies, there are even legal restrictions on what roles in society superhumans can serve. Some people will even claim that it is superhumans' biological role on Earth to only contribute to humanity, and that certain human roles in society are just not meant for superhumans. Because of that whole Kryptonite factor I mentioned in Paragraph 1, some humans will make note of how many superhumans have some kind of Kryptonite, an they'll use those Kryptonite factor as some kind of proof that superhumans are biologically inferior or meant to contribute to humanity and nothing else.
This prejudice also goes both ways. Some superhumans believe humans are inferior. Some superhumans believe that they are the next step in human evolution, and some others even believe that it was some kind of destiny for superhumans to rule the Earth and bring about a new age of humanity. Another common belief among superhuman supremacists is that superhumans are superior to humanity due to how their powers allow them to see the World. A human king can be killed easiler than a superhuman, a human king can't see how small the World is from above, etc. Other superhuman supremacists are more eugenicist in their beliefs.
However, while superhumans generally face prejudice due to biological difference because they're only defined by their biology, some superhumans face more ethnic or cultural prejudice. This is due to the existence of superhuman-led governments. These governments are a minority among governments worldwide, but are also prominent. Some superhumans face discrimination because of the government their culture or identity might be connected to. This is meant to be similar to how certain ethnic groups will face judgment from others for the actions of governments they had no part in, or even for the actions of their people's historical figures. Sometimes these superhuman governments will use this discrimination to radicalize their supporters or indoctrinate other superhumans who were completely unaffiliated with them. This is because their actions are often fueled by hatred, and those kinds of societies are often fueled by both love and hate.
For now, these ideas are all I got in my Mind Palace. So for now, valete!
