Project UBERMENSCH: Brainstorming thread

[Bloodeye the Bai Ze]

Okay. so I mentioned today about a recent idea I had with a storyline and this is where I'm going to throw up any of the ideas I have for it. It's like my notepad of ideas, but with iput from others.

Now, I've always had a fascination with the Nietzschian idea of the Overman or Ubermensch. For anyone who isn't familiar with philosophy, this is basically the idea that humanity will eventually evolve being something better than human. This was the main topis in Nietzsche's book Thus Spoke Zarathustra, where the protagonist, Zarathustra, made the claim that "man is something which ought to be overcome:"

All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the overman: a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment…

And here's where my story comes into play.

OVERVIEW:

The idea is that the world is populated by overmen. I wanted to make them like superheroes from comics, mostly for the creative and aesthetic value. Each person develops different powers, some inherited from relatives, others simply come up. Normal humans, on the other had, have become nearly extinct. Once the overmen started to come into being, they soon took over. Ordinary humans were enslaved by the overmen, cast into the position of nothing more than labor while the overmen enjoyed the good life.

Soon, even humans were replaced. As overmen began to become the majority, they soon began to turn on each other. The equal level they once shared was dissolved and, in the current time frame in which the story takes place, now the overmen with lesser powers are given the crap jobs in society, while those with highly impressive powers rise to political and societal standing. Some become governors or even presidents, others become actors or top musicians.

Overmen do battle, but it has become a spectator sport. Legal recourse has all but dissolved because they have no morals due to their powers. They believe they exist above human ideals. Now, crime is played on television like sports, where one overman or a group try to commit an act, while another tries to defeat them. It's my play off the old DC comics, where the superheores got into all the elaborate traps and schemes set up by the criminals.

Normal humans still exist, but they live like rats off the society of overmen. Fighting back is all but impossible... save for one man.

[Sepheron]

Sounds really interesting as both a story or a RP.

[Bloodeye the Bai Ze]

CHARACTERS:

I'll be adding to this section as I go.

Cesare Safranski: Cesare is a normal human, though he is the ultimate example of humanity. Out of sheer luck, his biological type is that of higher standing than other humans. He is a byproduct of chaotic selection or perhaps the will of God himself. He doesn't know. All he knows is that he is the only human that can stand against the overmen. He likes old things, and even goes so far as to attack the overmen using a sword. He has a theatric approach to his actions, but prefers to use stealth and deception to get his work done.

He leaves the cryptic message "What a man can be, he must be..." after every act he commits.

Cesare isn't the typical hero. He couldn't even really be called an anti-hero. Cesare is both creative enough and strong enough to grasp onto the whole of human potential, both good and evil. He's the "artist-tyrant". To explain him most accurately would be to call him a Machiavellian character. He's also could be called an overman himself, though through the opposite means that Nietzsche had entailed for his own vision.

According to Rudiger Safranski, a famous German philosopher (for whom I borrowed the last name for this character), that the combination of ruthless warrior pride and artistic brilliance that defined the Italian Renaissance embodied the sense of the Ubermensch for Nietzsche, even though Nietzsche vehemently denied any idealistic, democratic or humanitarian interpretation of the Ubermensch. According to Safranski, Nietzsche intended the ultra-aristocratic figure of the Ubermensch to serve as a Machiavellian boogeyman of the modern Western middle class.

Cesare is that boogeyman. He's a ruthless opponent that studies his "prey" with an artist's eye. He reads them like books and finds their weaknesses. Of course, the overmen will view him like a simple terrorist, but the other human characters will view him with respected fear. They won't be sure who is worse: The Overmen or Cesare.

[Bloodeye the Bai Ze]

King: The overmen are led by one ruler, who is simply known as "King". What his real name is is unknown, mostly because he doesn't want it to be known. He is more of an analogy to Superman in the department of powers, but he's far from Superman in personality. He rarely goes into the public other than for a few "battles" against some of the more powerful "villains"

( the term was left over from us normal humans, but roughly the overmen's best are on two seperate teams and compete through these battles.)

Society is run by "King", who has set up what could be thought of as a perfect society, since there are no wars, no murders, and no crime. There is poverty, but it is mostly an underlying factor since the masses are distracted by these "battles". This also drives a sense of restraiend fear amongst the lesser powered overmen, since they believe that they would lose against their ruling brethren.

King is the most powerful, but leads a very closed and secretive life. No one is sure of his true intentions. Fewer still know the full extent of just how strong he is. Amongst the overmen, he is a rarity because while he has possibly the simplest powers to understand, he can beat down even those with the most outstanding abilities with brute strength and guile.

I'm still working on how this character would be. I'm thinking he'll be very boastful when making public appearances, but will be extremely drawn in in reality. Perhaps he even will question his own existence as an Overman and even the most powerful Overman. He might even be more of a heroic figure, though he'll still be considered the antagonist of the story.

This is one of the chief ideas I wanted to work with was contrast. I love contrasts. I want to flip the ideals of society around. The killer is the hero, the stalwart protector is the villian.

Edit: By the by, this wasn't a jab at King of Bastards. I just couldn't think of a name that sounded regal and and mysterious at the same time.

[Sepheron]

Is this going to be a story or something?

[Bloodeye the Bai Ze]

I'm thinking of turning this into a comic. But, I don't want to start drawing characters until I figure out a basic story first.

[Sepheron]

Ooo, sounds good. Good luck