Universe Guidelines

Powers via random mutation do not exist. Of the many ways to get powers in the SoulMettle universe, random mutation is not among them.

There are no lost continents or hidden civilizations on Earth, nor anywhere in our solar system. Atlantis does not nor has ever existed, nor is there a secret civilization on Mars, and so forth.

Humanity was not guided or manipulated by an ancient conspiracy. For better or for worse, humanity has been driving this truck the whole time. While conspiracies do exist (just as they do in the real world), they are usually relatively small and short-lived. For example, the US government encouraging the publication of books that spread public doubt about the existence or usefulness of magic is a good example of a conspiracy in this universe.

Nothing historical has an ahistorical explanation behind it. For example, while it's possible that some vampires were bankers in the 1920's, vampires as a group were not responsible for the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Although some mages work in the television industry, a council of mages was not secretly responsible for the creation of MTV. Stephen Hawking was not secretly from another planet.

Except for magic, mysteranium, and other explicitly fantastic elements, everything we know about science and the universe is the same. Evolution works the exact same way. Space is really really huge and mostly full of places we wouldn't want to live. Getting hit on the head with a wrench could leave you with lasting brain damage or even kill you.

No historical or public figure can be positively claimed as something specific to this universe. For example, Val Kilmer cannot be positively confirmed as an MEP-C2, Nicola Tesla cannot be confirmed as a mage, Lin-Manuel Miranda can't be confirmed as a merman, etc.

Everything can and will hit back. Vampires can gather to twirl their mustaches and refer to humans as "those ignorant cattle" all they like, but if they actually try to actually do anything serious against the humans, the humans will fight back - and humans are both clever and plentiful. On the flip side, some humans might decide that vampires need eradicated, but vampires are also clever and will not go out without a fight.

The US government has no program, policy, or division for hunting down weirdies. Sometimes they send agents from appropriate offices to hunt down weirdies who happen to be dangerous, and sometimes a weirdie is unfairly targeted, but there's no policy or effort to hunt them down en masse.

The US government does not need to use primitive scientific study methods on people. It's definitely possible that somebody in the government is choosing not to warn the residents of a small town that their place of residence has been contaminated with an unknown chemical so they can find out what that chemical does to people, but nobody's hauling them away in the middle of the night to dissect them. They're more likely to just send somebody out to observe them and take notes.

The military is not edgelords. Yes, the military does some very bad things sometimes, but they are not evil or destructive for the heck of it.

There is no "secret history of humanity." Humans were not created as part of an alien plot. The existence of an ancient worldwide magocracy has not been covered up.

Nothing has "unfathomable" motivations and nothing does anything simply "because it's evil." Although some motivations might not line up with our own values at all and thus may not be immediately obvious to us, any motivation can be explained and understood by answering three questions: What does it want, what does it want it for, and why these means in particular? (Many times, motivations come down to self-preservation, self-propagation, emotional relief, and satisfaction.)

No authority is unquestionable and no one is incorruptible. No matter how lofty the manifesto, no matter how well-intentioned or noble one's intentions, the threat of corruption and moral myopia always looms. Those who aim to do and remain good must watch themselves carefully lest they become as bad the monsters they are trying to fight... or worse.

Nothing lasts forever. Everything changes. An organization that's helpful and good right now might be so rife with corruption in fifty years that there's nothing to do but dismantle it. People sometimes drift apart or find new purposes in life.

No matter how good you are, there are at least four others who can rival you. For example, if you're an extremely powerful MEP, there are at least four other MEPs who can take you down if they really put their minds to it.

No matter what you're doing, there are at least four others who are doing the same thing. For example, if you're working on a new magical technique, at least four others have come upon the concept independently and are trying the same thing.

The world is not the battlefield of a cosmic war between good/evil, order/chaos, light/dark, etc. It's just full of people and entities who have needs and desires that sometimes cause problems or come into conflict with each other.

Understanding real life history and science is always a plus. SoulMettle does not outright contradict or override established history; in fact, it incorporates it and works right alongside it. So if you want to know what humans were probably doing 10,000 years ago, go find out what we know from actual research. Likewise, science and physics work fairly well the same unless otherwise noted (such as with mysteranium and magic), so if you want some idea of what kind of technology is likely to exist, go and look at what we're actually developing and discovering.