The World - Powerclash HQ

The world the Powerclash contest happens on is called Hu. It’s similar to our own world but with some key changes throughout its history. It is not a completely different world, but a version of Earth in a parallel universe.

The geography of Hu is made up of five populated continents, similar to ours. So we’ve got plenty of space to work with. Read more.

In terms of biology, evolution has followed a similar path on Hu, but there are some differences. Some species that went extinct on Earth still exist in this world, and there are variations in agricultural staples and domesticated animals. Read more.

Civilization has also developed along similar lines, with recognizable cultures, but with plenty of opportunity for our world builders’ creative reimagining. Read more.

The big change

In the 1400s, an epidemic known as “the choke” emerged on Hu, causing a hard ring to grow in the throat, slowly strangling its victims over ten to twenty years. The disease was highly contagious and spread to all corners of the world, causing civilizations to collapse. Read more.

Fast forward to the 1980s, when our Powerclash story begins. After a 500-year gap, it is time for us to imagine all the ways the people of Hu adapted to survive the choke, and how they grew into the epic steampunk empires of their modern era.

Example of one small corner of Hu: The northern islands of the Uropa continent and a cold and rainy land. When the choke broke out, the Albynian people used the islands as natural quarantine zones. They broke into smaller and smaller clans, and retreated to the tiny outer islands. They gradually returned to the bigger islands once they were confident who was free of the choke, and then defended their safe zones fiercely. A nautical people, they figured out how to trade wearing diving suits to avoid infection, and forged a niche as the continent’s hardy northern merchant folk. At home, their artisans thrived, and they developed fantastical clockwork mechanisms, including interchangeable clockwork batteries and a steampunk mech suit, which allowed them to walk safely in parts of the world where the choke was still a risk.

We need our world builders to develop the many different cultures and histories of Hu.

The gathering era of the Powerclash contest began in 1984, when a shooting star broke apart into five fragments, which spread apart and fell towards each of the five populated continents. Each fragment fell directly to a chosen human, and each gained a different superpower when they touched it. These five humans became the Powerclash contest’s team captains. Over the next two decades they independently recruited the rest of their teams, bestowing unique powers upon each of them, but with no knowledge of where these powers were coming from, or what they were for. Read more.

Once the teams had been fully recruited, an entity called the Ringmaster summoned all 125 humans with superpowers, and set out the rules of the Powerclash contest.
1. A player cannot quit the contest.
2. The only way a player can die is if they are killed by a rival.
3. If a player kills a rival, they take their powers.
4. A player cannot kill another player from their own team until there are no other teams left.

We need our writers to tell the stories of our 125 players.

So… what’s really going on here?

None of the players knew this at the start of the contest, but behind the scenes of the Powerclash lay the Core, an advanced intergalactic society of near immortal, shape-shifting aliens wielding god-like technology. The Ringmaster came from the Core, and had spent a long time searching for a new sentient race before it finally found Hu. The Powerclash was the Ringmaster’s way of putting on a show for the rest of the Core – an attention grabbing way to introduce humanity. It also served to select a worthy human to become their ambassador to the Core, after the contest. The powers that were given to the human players came via ‘sponsors’ from the Core, representatives of many different origin species, who have secretly bonded with their human hosts to create an interface between the human psyche and the alien powers. Read more.

Ringmaster has been recording everything that happened on Hu since it arrived in the 13th century, including every moment of the Powerclash. ‘Narrators’ in the Core still need to interpret the data and translate it into stories that will help their peers understand these new humans. As you write a story about the Powerclash, you exist within the universe as a narrator from the Core. Read more.

In summary, the world of Powerclash is a fascinating alternative universe with various key differences from our world. With the divergence caused by the emergence of the “choke” disease in the 1400s, the people of Hu had to learn to survive and rebuild their civilizations in ways that differ from our own history. Now, in the 21st century, a new event has occurred: the arrival of the Ringmaster, an intergalactic entity that has organized a contest among humans with unique superpowers, with the ultimate goal of electing a human ambassador to the Core. As a World Builder or Writer, there are plenty of opportunities to expand this intriguing universe and create unique stories, from exploring the various nations and cultures that developed in response to the choke, to the backstories of the 125 players, or delving into the action and drama of the Powerclash contest itself.