So, I was reading through some of the plots you guys have posted, and I thought it would be fun to throw up a concept I've had in the back of my head for a while and see what you guys think! This is more just to play around with an idea and have fun with it, as opposed to me trying to make a plot for all of us to play. haha, I know I'm still a rookie, I don't want to get ahead of myself. =P

But anywho, I always thought the X-Men storyline about Reverend Stryker(sp??) was pretty interesting, but I always thought it would be fun to view the situation at the opposite extreme. As opposed to a religious force working against mutants, what if there were mutants who felt they had the religious right to inherit the world? I'm pretty sure this hasn't been done before, but please feel free to tell me if I'm wrong! =)

So anywho, I always figured there would be a central figure, a savior among mutants, who felt that mutants were blessed or some sorts, and had the divine right to rule. Now, his actual religious alignment would have to be ignored as to not offend anyone, plus I don't think it's as important. I feel the real important aspect is that he feels mutants have this divine right, not necessarily who he feels is giving them this right.

Anywho, the central figure head I believe would be male between 20-30, and would most likely be incredibly personable. Actually, I feel like his mutant abilities would actually play around in the background. His mutant abilities could be something like he can control the temperature or have fun with air molecules like Iceman. Something basic. His real "abilities" although there would be nothing mutant about them, would be he's just incredibly slick, cunning, and personable. He can make people trust him easily, and that's how he gets people to his side. Plus, with an offer of salvation, what mutant who's been low on their luck wouldn't bite?

I feel his real strength would come in his "lackeys". The ones I always like were based on the four creatures associated to the four elements and directions, from Chinese Mythology. I figured their codenames would be based on those, Black Tortoise, White Tiger, Blue Dragon, and Red Phoenix(no association with Jean Grey ^__~). Cool mutant abilities for the four "generals" of this mutant force I feel would beee...

Black Tortoise: He/She's a mutant who can eat absoluetely anything. He/She has a superhuman jaw, and his/her teeth can literally break through anything. Black Tortoise has a mutated digestive system that bulks up his/her whole body when he/she eats. The more he/she eats, the more he/she gains in the form of strength, endurance, agility, speed, and all that good stuff. The dude becomes a tank, lol.

White Tiger: I actually stole this power from another mutant I created called Novocain. =P The power is that anything this mutant touches becomes numb. So when he/she touches your arm, your arm goes numb from the contact with White Tiger's hand. I also thought it would be really cool if White Tiger fought in that same form as that girl from Avatar. The one who has like intense kung fu moves, but only hits pressure points, literally leaving her opponants on the ground, unable to move. Just from hitting a few pressure points. I thought that would fit well with the mutant ability.

Blue Dragon: My original mutant design for this character was similar to Kaz' mutant abilities, except as opposed to Blue Dragon having muscle memory where she/he's muscles remember how to pull off every move it's ever done from just doing it once, Blue Dragon only has to watch someone do something once to know how to do it as well. All Blue Dragon has to do is watch someone fight for a few minutes, and he/she will have an incredible advantage over their opponant. Blue Dragon has a pretty good chance of knowing what move you're going to do, before you do it.

Red Phoenix: I like this power the best. A sort of mind-alteration, Red Phoenix offers "redemption". He/she has the mutant abilities to reprogram someone's core beliefs. their dreams, their goals, their aspirations, their fears, everything. He/She can twist them to creat something entirely different. He/She can easily bend people so that they will genuinely want to believe in anything he/she wants them too. True to his/her name, Red Phoenix is all about rebirth.

Soo yeeah, does anyone have any ideas? I figured this would be a fun story to just play around with. =) Specifically some of the mutants could use cooler powers... Even if we came up with a whole package we liked, he could always have it as something playing in the background during the more major plots. I dunno, all depends on what you guys think and what you all want to add! =)

Hope you all like what I started so far! Feel free to take it anywhere from here.

Like the idea. I don't know about needing specific leaders though. I think we could already have mutants (maybe the baddie leader and his group) who take this role.

It'd make for a great plot though!

That sounds really interesting, I like it a lot. I think though, that the titles could maybe come with a few added, extra powers - like maybe someone behind the scenes. Hmm. let me try to explain that better. Erm, Apocalypse chose his four horsemen and then they 'received' the powers, maybe the four people who end up being the 'head lackeys' would 'receive' that specific power when they 'sign up' as it were.

I really do like that idea though, it sounds very good. It's got a very good thing behind it. It kind of reminded me of when, and no offense meant whatsoever, white people used to say they could enslave black people because they were 'superior' (load of bull crap, totally wrong) and many even had Bible verses that 'backed them up' (really, just taken way out of context and twisted just the right way - you can do that with/for just about anything), but maybe you could throw something in it like that. I mean, have mutants 'enslaving' humans, or perhaps have - oh, I just lost my train of thought - yeah, anyways, that sounds pretty cool. Very good plot idea, very good.

Ah, thanks a lot! I really like your ideas as well. I think the whole acquiring the abilities with the title idea is really good, it adds to the prestige of the position. How would they get the powers? Would the main baddie's powers be switched to unlocking further mutations within his subjects, or would it come from an item, like how Juggernaut gets his abilities from that nifty crystal? Hmmm... or maybe it would be done via technology? Magic?

There's a bunch of fun options attached to that idea.

Oooo, plus, if they were given those extra abilities, then that would only involve creating the main bad guy. The other four positions could belong to current mutants who "ascend" to those positions.

That was kind of what I had in mind, that way you wouldn't have to create so many new characters / use so many npc's.
What if the main bad guy's power was more to leech the powers of other mutants, but that he can't use them himself - he has to give them to someone else. So maybe the four positions could be from four powerful mutants who he couldn't get to join him, so he just killed via leeching and decided to give their powers to four separate mutants who would be more loyal to him that way.

Jeeeeezzzzz, Jaya you're full of good ideas! haha, I really like that one too!

So, what happens to the mutants after he leeches their powers? Do they remain the same, do they die, or are they left powerless?

You know, if he left them powerless, he could go all X-3 on them. All though it would definetly not fit with the whole "mutants reign supreme" thing so scratch that. lol

The whole leeching powers thing fits really well tho, especially seeing as how he could use the excuse that mutants who aren't willing to join his cause aren't worthy of being mutants in the first place. They're giving up their right to rule so to speak.

Oooooooo, I just reread what you posted and you blatently stated he kills them. haha, sorry I should have paid more attention. =P Sounds good to me.

Now of course, like all good big baddies, he should probably have a more focused goal as well right? Like, baddies who are bent on taking over the world start by knocking out the president, and baddies who want to get rich start with a bank.

What would his specific plot be? Besides having a massive amount of followers, which I think would come easily enough. The difficult part to come up with would be what his short term goals are... Hmmm

Ha, I'm flattered.
He could kill them when he leeches there power, but the thought that they'd be giving up their 'right to rule' is interesting too. What if when he leeched them, they didn't actually die, but they lost a lot of their self, like aside from their powers, like they would be kind of unable to really function properly anymore - perhaps without the ability to communicate or think clearly, like they could really only do what they were told. Hmm... now there's a thought.

Goals? Well, what would a 'religious leader' be wanting to accomplish for himself that he could use a large group of followers to do. Well, for one thing we could revert back to my earlier post: say he had a really bad experience with being treated poorly by normal humans in the past and he wants vengence by enslaving all of the humans in the entire world so that 'it could never happen again'. Then his short-term goals would be to establish his new 'religion' and build up followers - perhaps in a specific town, then start to take over, little by little, and gather people to the cause, until maybe a whole state is under his power, then a whole region, and eventually the whole country. Then, naturally, he would start moving to the other countries, taking over North America, Central America, South America, heading into Russia, you get the picture, until eventually he'd have the entire world just how he wants it. He wouldn't necessarily get that far, but that would be what he has in mind, I'm sure.

Hmmm, I like it. So do you think he would start with his own hometown, or would he pick somewhere where he could start fresh? I'm thinking some obscure little town in the middle of nowhere USA. It would be a fun plot to play like in the background of the major plots for a while, because it's probably going to be a subtle thing for a long while anyways.

Maybe the traumatic event that happened to him was... hmm... lol, lemme know if this sounds too cliched with the death of parents and such, feel free to tweak as well.

What if he grew up in "random town" usa, and he came from an incredibly religious background. He can have some sort of obvious mutation, but not anything grotesque, and his family took it as a sign that he was a gift from God. This gets to the kids head rather quickly, however, the father dies from one thing or another, preferably something internal not murder, and regardless of it being highly traumatic the boy manages to get through it rather well through his faith in God.

So his mother goes into an even more religious tirade, and unfortunetly makes the decision to start parading her son around as a gift from God. The boy let's it sink in, and due to some situation where some bystander's are getting annoyed with constantly hearing her preach, one of them grabs her shoulder and just trys to point her in the direction of her home and give her a bit of a shove. However, the boy takes it to be more than it is and grabs the man's hand, causing him feel the effects of the boy's mutant powers. The man is left heavily disoriented, and besides not having the energy to stand, he can't seem to form any coherant thoughts.

The mother takes it as a sign that she was right, however, the people watch it take it that he's a demon. They head to their house at night, a la the cliche way, and decide they're better off without the demon boy and his mother. They manage to pin the boy up against the wall in a way that he can't touch them, and albeit the mother's constant praying, even while the men have her, she dies. So the boy tweaks out, has a bit of an adrenaline rush and manages to break free from the men and leaves them all as babbling idiots.

From that day forward, scarred by how there was no heavenly intervention for his mother, he decided that the reason she didnt recieve help was because she wasn't worthy. Eventually he managed to learn more about mutants and how there were more people like him, and that's when he decided that mutants were the only ones in God's favor, and that they were the ones who were supposed to inherit the Earth. Seeing as he already had a bad taste in his mouth regarding humans, he made an oath to God to be the one to lead the mutants against the outdated Human beings.

What do you think?

Hmm... I like. How about his mother thinks he's special because he's born from a 'virgin birth', but in actuallity a mutant who could turn invisible, well, you know, and that's how she became pregnant, and let's say that she was older, so people weren't expecting someone her age to have kids, and that her husband was infertile. That makes things interesting, that way there is much more basis for her to think that her son is some kind of Godsend.
I say he starts his religious tirade in a small town in the northernmost reaches of New York perhaps, or maybe in a state nearby, that way it wouldn't be so out of place for mutants from the school or who are living in New York to go to this guy's base and hear him 'preach' and then it would work great in the background because it could start out real subtle, like this guy is speaking on mutant rights, and then they have rallies and such and you get all pepped up and spiritual about your being a mutant, and more people start going to them - especially teenage and the like, because it's fun and it boosts their self-esteem and what not. And then, like all good religious guys gone bad, he can start edging his followers in the other direction, start inserting things into his sermons that might make a few people a little uneasy, but he does it real crafty-like, little by little, until they're in farther than they realize and it's pretty much too late to turn back.

I think we've cooked up a pretty good idea Jaya! And you're right, if we have him somewhere near New York, we could easily have him just float about and do minor things so it could just be a background thing for a while. That way it could give him even more time to gather followers, prestige, and a reputation and such.

Ahhh, this could be such a cool plot. Is there anything we've missed as far as developing this sucker?

I can't think of anything off-hand, but if we come up with something later on I'm sure we can figure out a way to develop it and work it in, especially if it's going to be slightly 'dormant' for awhile, at least in the way that it's going to be an underlying plot.

Lookin' awesome guys...

Just one suggestion I have is that you don't do it starting in New York. That seems to be really overused in mutant plots, and there are other important cities in this nation. Maybe Seattle? That way he could use the Space Needle or something like that? Perhaps LA, or Orlando. Just a few thoughts...

You could always do something with a pop. 400 town in the middle of Nevada or something. In actuality that is probably where an uprising like this would start... in the middle of nowhere...

Also, there should be a way for mutants to block the leeching power. I mean, a mutant with the ability to leech every other mutant's power is unstoppable. So, while he should be mostly unstopable, there should be something that would protect the other mutants and rend his mutation harmless... (AKA... line of site... some sort of item that affects his power... etc etc) It should be rare if an item though.

Well... look forward to this plot!

Hmmm... I never thought about giving him a limitation... Thanks for bringing that up!

How about he can only leech from people if if he can see their eyes? So if they have their eyes closed, or they're turned a different way, he can't do it. Also, there should probably be a distance factor... lol, probably as long as he can actually tell what color their eyes are, that's probably close enough for him to go at it.

Although that's quite the limitation... hmmm... Or what about holywater? How ironic would that be. Maybe there's a certain type of gem or something that blocks his power? That way the goodies/baddies would find out about his weakness by someone wearing that particular type of gemstone?

And as far as location... hmmm... we should probably make up a town that he's from, and that's where he starts his uprising, then it moves east and north to NYC. I think at this point in his life it's safe to assume that he's had a healthy following of mutants, but he's not at the point where he can actually do anything yet.

Maybe we'll backtrack a bit, and start him off in Nowhere'sville USA? *shrugs* What do you all think?

As far as the limitation... the eyes idea sounds great. I don't like the gem idea because all I can think of is Superman... and that's no fun. It has to be something new, and the range/eyes limitation is new. Lovin' it!

I have found just the town... Rosston, Texas! You can't beat population 110... lol.

Here's a google earth image... Here.

alrighty, we'll go with the eyes idea!

And I love it, it's perfect. plus, who can resist a mutant messiah with some southern charm?

lol, and no, I don't think you can beat population (I originally typed popular... I should reread what I type more often! haha) 110! I think that's just the population of my street forget my whole town... =P