The Setting

The Champions Universe is much like our own, except for the existence of super-humans. Whether they are aliens on Earth, radiation mutants, mages or super geniuses, giants walk amongst us. While there has been tales of supernatural powers throughout all of recorded history the number of them active at once rises and falls with the ages. The last great wave of super-humans ended shortly after the American Civil War, where steampunk masterminds fought voodoo priests and paladins. As the number of super-humans waned, the world normalized and people began to doubt the fantastic tales about bygone ages.

Then, in 1938, everything changed. A Nazi ritual aimed at increasing the magical powers of the Third Reich went array, spilling magical energies into the world. Within days, the Germans could unveil the first two great Übermench, Der Totenkopt and Sturmvorgel. But the Americans weren’t far behind, as a young man from Kansas was hit by lightning and became the hero Captain Patriot. By the end of the year dozens of others had come forth. The Second World War became the first international conflict with superheroes on both sides, though direct superhuman confrontation was limited to American and Russian soil, as a joint Axis ritual made any Allied super-human to set foot on Axis soil dangerously ill.

As the war began, Atlantis officially pledged its support to Nazi Germany until the Allied super-group (known simply as The Unit, it is the largest ever gathering of heroes so far) helped Princess-in-exile Mara take her rightful place as queen of Atlantis. In 1963, the United Nations set up an agency to hunt super-villains in international territory and any member nation that requested it. The United Nations Tribunal on International Law (UNTIL) has since spread to the point where it’s rare to find a major city without at least an office present. There were American super-soldiers in Vietnam, but equally many “supers” in the hippie movement. Earth survived five different alien invasions, as well as making peaceful contact with the Mandaarian alien species.

For the city of Detroit history passed relatively peacefully until 1992.  On the 23rd of July, the German scientist and master villain Dr. Destroyer staged what at the time was thought to be his last stand in the city. After failing to force the world into submission with a meteoric super weapon, Dr. Destroyer unleashed his backup weapon. Targeting his own location with an orbital laser cannon, Dr. Destroyer killed the thirty assembled heroes, and, seemingly, himself, rather than surrender to them. The laser destroyed most of the city.

President Bush toured the devastation and then gave a now famous speech, challenging American corporations to rebuild Detroit by the end of the millennium; a millennium project. They answered his call. Duchess Industries, Harmon Industries, Advanced Concepts Industries, Binary Corporation, Microsoft; everyone was involved in the rebuilding. In 1999 the Millennium Project was declared a success, and the city renamed Millennium City. Despite of this, the City is barely complete even today. A new, proud, high-tech city has grown out of the ruins of the old.