Earth Shin

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Earth Shin</default></title>

<image source="image"><default>File:Placeholder location.png</default></image> <header>Basic Information</header> <image source="map"></image> <label>Type</label> <label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label> <label>Inhabitants</label> <header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label> </infobox> Earth Shin, also called Supreme Earth is an alternate reality in close parallel with Earth Aleph and Earth Bet. As "Supreme Earth", it was the setting for an early draft of Worm.<ref name="14.8 c1"/>

History

Background

Supreme Earth was an alternate reality that featured villains operating like terrorist cells, destabilizing society to make people dependent on superhumans to get energy, food and safety. Basically put, a world with superhumans that had no superheroes. Takeover on a global level, with non-superhumans as second class citizens.<ref name="14.8 c1"/>

Somewhere between 2008 and 2011 portal in White Rock, British Columbia, becomes a public knowledge, spurring smuggling activity around it. Eventually it becomes a vectors for diseases, gets quarantined, and produces Goddess' Cluster. Bianca with her clustermates get exiled into Earth Shin by Cauldron, and shortly she takes over the local parahumans and the planet.

Professor Haywire discovered Supreme Earth, naming it "Earth Shin" or "Earth S". The PRT is aware of its existence, and the potential threat represented by Goddess' mind control is one of the reasons they are now extremely cautious of contact with other Earths. Its existence is heavily classified within the PRT and government.<ref>Lausanne RP</ref>

Timeskip

There was some sort of breach event in Paris on December 19th 2012.<ref name="25.6">Paris, December 19th, 2012 // Simurgh
Notes: Victory by Scion.
Target/Consequence: see file The Woman in Blue. See file United Capes. - Excerpt from Scarab 25.6</ref>

Gold Morning

Khepri came upon this Earth and took its occupants, seizing them for her war. Only Goddess and her inner circle were able resist, and then only temporarily.<ref name-"30.4">I found another Earth with a mixture of capes, all incredibly beautiful people, all in what was obviously a global position of power. Every flag that flew in their world was the same flag, and the gauntlet emblem on that flag matched the icon on a particular woman’s costume. A blue costume, with white fur at the collar, and a heavy cape that would have done Alexandria proud.

I attempted to seize control of them as well, and the woman in blue resisted me. She spoke, and I lost my hold on everyone in her range.

It was only twenty capes. Negligible. But I wasn’t going to settle. If I was going to compromise on any level, it was going to take more than this.
[...]
The others… they weren’t weak. Nothing gamebreaking, at a glance, but they weren’t weak. - Excerpt from Speck 30.4</ref>

Post-Gold Morning

Its leader was rumored to have returned to her earth to rule it,<ref name="P.8">refugees of Earth Shin say a parahuman took over their Earth a decade ago. one woman. she went back home to continue ruling them. - Excerpt from Glow-worm P.8</ref> it has presumably stayed connected to the wider multiverse.<ref>Glare 3.5</ref> However, Goddess was in fact a resident of Earth Gimel, seeking a power that was stolen from her, and which she needed for the reconquest of Earth Shin.<ref name="stolen">“A power was taken from me,” Bianca said. “Without it, I can’t return to my throne. I’m being hunted and fucking hounded, and I get no peace.” - Gleaming 9.2</ref>

Shin was a critical supplier of Gimel, providing crude materials<ref>I had a sense of which materials had come from where, with a lot of the prefab building segments having come from Cheit, a lot of crude materials from Shin, and outright raw materials from Earth N - Excerpt from Black 13.7</ref>, clothing<ref name="flags">Putting us at the foot of the station. The station had American and other Gimel flags flying from poles along the left side. To the right were standards, flags that draped down, each with its own iconography, colors, and shape at the end, whether it was two triangular tails or something rounded off.

I’d actually seen some of the images on clothing, and I hadn’t mentally connected to them being anything like flags. I’d figured it was from a game. - Excerpt from Breaking 14.4</ref>, and food.<ref>“Right now we’re supplying enough food to feed two million of your people and we’ll continue doing so through the winter. Amy Dallon pledged assistance and cooperation to increase that amount to five million, possibly to ten. That’s food. Shelter. Clothing. Chemicals. Industry. - Excerpt from Breaking 14.5</ref>

Post-Goddess' Takeover

Local governments accepted reintroduction of parahumans with severe conditions.

Cultural notes and Divergences

Shin has a landmass in the Atlantic Ocean, called the Alleghenian Ridge, that is not present in other recorded Earths. It made possible early migration from Europe to Americas. They also suffered two extinction level events at some point in their history, despite that Shin is still more technologically advanced than Bet.<ref>“How advanced are they?” Kenzie asked, her voice still nasal.

“They lunged ahead of our Earth a long time ago, but they also had two near-extinction events that slowed them down. That’s not counting Gold Morning. - Excerpt from Breaking 14.4</ref>

Scientists on Earth Shin were extremely interested in investigating powers. Goddess herself claims to have benefited from Shin science.<ref name="science"> I can tell you that people in my world were very interested in deciphering powers. They helped make me what I am, unwittingly, but they were happy in the end. - Gleaming 9.2</ref> She also claims that Cauldron would deposit Case 53s and other curiosities on Shin for her labs to puzzle out.<ref name="labs">"The, ah, monsters who made you, painted Tress, that icon on your cheek-” [...] “-they would deposit the monsters and the unsolvable riddles in my world. We solved most. My understanding of powers helps, our labs help more.” - Gleaming 9.2</ref>

The architecture tended to be grandiose, regal and heavily decorated.<ref name="WDA">They lead the way through, onto a rooftop. The wind blows, the sky is dark and roiling, and something about the city feels -off- somehow.

"I know that it's strange to say the PRT is minor, when it's the largest group of capes in the world, but..." the man trails off. He indicates the world before you.

The architecture is odd. There's a goal or a design behind it all. A regality, like the ornamentation of a grandfather clock. You're pretty damn sure that this isn't architecture you've seen in any photos about Earth. - Lausanne RP</ref><ref>Skyscrapers, but modified, augmented, and decorated. The Wardens’ old headquarters had included a giant statue as part of it, but it was the norm here. A skyscraper with a castle built into one face of it. A tower was crowned with statuary of what might have been a hawk. Red was a dominant color. - Excerpt from Breaking 14.4</ref><ref>Towers extending up from one of a building’s four faces. Another squat building had no third and fourth floor, a stone figure curled up within, holding the fifth floor up. - Excerpt from Breaking 14.5</ref> Local national flags follow the same trend.<ref name="flags"/> Clothing styles, while practical, are similarly quite distinct in style and decorative elements.

Shin has heavily formalized negotiation culture, with honorary mirroring and subtle nuances of positioning. When performed properly it has poetic qualities.<ref>Breaking 14.5</ref>

Notable Inhabitants

• Goddess - transplanted dictator of the earth.
• Tori Heflin
• Ramrod (possibly known under a different alias) had a personality similar to Taylor, willing to make 'bad' decisions if there were 'good' justifications. For Ramrod this entailed keeping her family safe. She ascended the ranks of Goddess organization and struggled while finding out Goddess secrets.<ref name="14.8 c1"/> based on the name she may have been the unnamed cape with a pole, who had a power not unlike Gavel’s. Though that cape was male.<ref name-"30.5 e1">One of the capes who had served under the Blue Woman in that cape-ruled alternate Earth. He had a power not unlike Gavel’s.
  [...]
  The Gavel-alike dropped out of a portal directly above the golden man, driving a narrow pole into Scion’s neck. Scion was slammed into the water, quite possibly to the bottom of the bay.
  
  [...]
  
  The portal was wiped out. Without any barrier in the way, the beam radiated forward to wipe Ash Beast, the cape with the pole, Trickster, and Othala from existence. - Excerpt from Speck 30.5</ref>
• "Pod surgeon" - Lieutenant responsible<ref>I’d be beautiful beyond compare. She has a lieutenant who creates pods. Sensory deprivation and plastic surgery in one. - Beacon 8.7</ref> for the local capes' photogenicity.<ref>I found another Earth with a mixture of capes, all incredibly beautiful people, all in what was obviously a global position of power. - Speck 30.4</ref>
• Parahuman, responsible for mass-production of docile artificial human-like servants.<ref>“Shin has a manufactured slave class, doesn’t it?”[...]“She has a servant who can make armies. Nothing behind the eyes, nothing between the ears. They follow simple orders and they can use weapons. Yes?”- Excerpt from Interlude 10.y II</ref><ref>There is a servant class that is cloned, smart enough to obey orders, too stunted to have an identity or personality beyond the surface level. We don’t know what to do with them. We would give you some, Chris Elman would feel their absence, and you could barter with him for what else you needed.” - Excerpt from Breaking 14.5</ref>
• Amelia Claire Lavere
• Chris Elman
• Various parahuman ex-prisoners

Trivia

• In early drafts of Worm, the question of how Goddess controlled the superhumans so effectively and totally was a central mystery as the protagonist (Ramrod) ascended through the ranks. Wildbow has stated that he still considers the story canon.<ref name="14.8 c1">Not a lot to say. It was fairly early into my stint of writing for the genre, and I was mainly exploring things. Supreme Earth was an alternate reality that featured villains operating like terrorist cells, destablizing society in ways that were both major and minor (from offing world leaders to destroying city power grids), and putting the world in a situation where they were dependent on superhumans to get energy, food and safety. Basically put, a world with superhumans that had no superheroes. Takeover on a global level, with non-superhumans as second class citizens.
  
  Ramrod was kind of similar to Skitter in that she was an (arguably) good person in a cynical – she was new to her powers, entering the Supreme’s organization from the ground level, but her priorities were mainly ensuring that her family was taken care of. As she ascended in the ranks, keeping that perspective would have been the main challenge. In terms of the greater plot, there was the question of why the villains were so organized and why Goddess, the leader of the superhumans, was able to keep every superhuman in line.
  
  As far as I’m concerned, Supreme Earth is canon in the Wormverse. It probably won’t ever show its face, but it’s an alternate reality that falls in close parallel with Worm’s. Beyond the use of the name Ramrod, Supreme Earth’s characters weren’t really reused (though I think Regent might have poked his head in for one draft). - Comment by Wildbow on Prey 14.8</ref>
  • A seemingly unrelated, male character named Ramrod is mentioned twice in Worm.

References

<references/>