Fighting Furies timeline
Context
This timeline lays the basics for an original super-hero universe. It was prepared for a DC Heroes super-hero tabletop role-playing game campaign.
Chronology
87 B.C.
Hercules is encased in enchanted stone by Hera.
1888 A.D.
Jack the Ripper stalks the streets of London.
1892
A cloaked and masked vigilante calling himself the Sable Shadow captures a doctor in NYC named Jacob Parker. Parker confesses to being Jack the Ripper.
1892-1906
The Sable Shadow operates in NYC, assisting police in crime-fighting, including busting up an opium ring run by Shiwan Khan. Khan is killed in the fight, falling off the Washington bridge into the river.
1906
The Sable Shadow is presumed dead, for he no longer appears in New York.
1922
Prof. Jonas Oakes announces his discovery of Element X, a strange element which came from outer-space.
1935
The Sable-Shadow turns up alive and well and continues battling the underworld.
1938
Prof. Oakes completes his creation: an artificial man known as Mainframe, which is powered by Element X. Oakes is killed by Nazi saboteurs. Mainframe apprehends the villains, but Oakes’ lab and notes are destroyed during the fight, along with any chance of duplicating Oakes’ creation. The US Government impounds Mainframe.
1939
Triton, a man from Atlantis, attacks shipping lanes outside of New York. The Government sends Mainframe to deal with him. After an inconclusive battle, Triton disappears beneath the seas.
1940
After WWII begins, Triton joins the battle against the Nazis.
1941
The US Government announces its creation of a Super Soldier- The Freedom Fighter. He joins with Mainframe and Triton to form the first Super-Hero team, the Fighting Furies.
1942
Stateside, Sable Shadow, along with his new kid sidekick Phantom, fight against Nazi spies and saboteurs.
1943
The Furies encounter Dr. Rudolph Von Skull for the first time. Von Skull, a brilliant inventor, is in charge of Hitler’s secret weapons programs. The Furies and Von Skull clash several times over the course of the war, until Von Skull is thought killed in a lab explosion at the end of 1944.
1945
After the German surrender, Freedom Fighter stays there to clean up the last of the Nazi resistance. Triton returns to Atlantis, and Mainframe is sent to the Pacific.
1946
A scientist killed at the Alamagordo testing site for the atomic bomb suddenly reappears, now fifty feet tall and rampaging through New York. Mainframe and the Sable Shadow defeat him, but during the fight, Mainframe is hit with a EMP , and vanishes beneath the streets of New York.
1947
A badly-burned Von Skull arrives in Buenos Ares. He begins construction on an artificial body in which to download his mind.
1950
The Sable Shadow disappears. Dead or retired, no one knows.
1951
Freedom Fighter is sent to Korea to bolster troop morale. He does little actual fighting.
1955
Freedom Fighter, who is more of a national spokesperson than a super-hero these days, retires from public life.
1962
The Cuban Missile crisis is cut short when an alien armada attempts an invasion of Earth. A superman calling himself Captain Solar single-handedly defeats the aliens. He instantly becomes a world-hero, and is voted an honorary citizen of every country of the UN.
1963
More superheroes begin to emerge. There is another Sable Shadow in New York; The Blue Flame, fastest man alive; The Hyper-Knight, member of the intergalactic Fellowship of Hyper-Knights; and Isis, Egyptian goddess of magic and fertility. Together, along with Captain Solar, they form the second Fighting Furies. The public enthusiastically receives them.
1965
The Sable Shadow introduces his kid sidekick, Phantom.
1966-1975
The Furies do their thing, and Public acceptance is riding high. Other superheroes like The Collapsing Man and Woman, Lady Bug, and Obsidiman join the group, now headquartered in a secret satellite high above the Earth.
1976
Phantom is killed by Shiwan Khan. The Sable Shadow disappears after hunting Khan down and allegedly killing him, though Khan’s body is never found.
1978
Isis returns to Heliopolis, and the Hypernaut leaves for the stars. One by one, the members of the second Fighting Furies drop out of the public eye. Only Captain Solar remains in active service.
1980
John Harding, from New York City, is elected to the US Senate.
1981
A madman poisons the NYC water supply and many people die. He is captured by Captain Solar, but the court declares him unfit to stand trial. Another superhuman, Typhon, kills the madman. Though arrested and prosecuted for murder, public acceptance of Typhon’s activities remain high. Solar leaves the Earth.
1984
Shiwan Khan reappears and tries to nuke NYC. The Sable Shadow comes out of retirement to stop him, aided by a new kid sidekick, this one a young girl. Khan is fatally shot by the Shadow, though once more, no body is found.
1984-1986
The Shadow and Phantom continue to fight crime in New York.
1985
Harding introduces legislation that would require anybody with superpowers to register with the US Government. It is debated for a time, then voted down.
1986
Phantom stops appearing with the Sable Shadow. No one knows what became of her.
1994
Horus, Egyptian god of light and Isis’ son appears on Earth, defeating a plot by the deadly Set. Superheroes begin to proliferate once more.
1996
Senator Harding attempts to garner the nomination for the Presidential race, running on an anti-superhuman platform. He loses the bid, but is named Senate Majority leader.
A young super-hero, Spider-Man begins his activities in the Big Apple. He helps the Sable Shadow defeat a plot by the mad Doctor Loligo. This is the Shadow’s last know appearance.
1997
Spider-Man finds and revives Mainframe. Together with a new, female, Sable Shadow, they free Hercules from his imprisonment and they form the new Fighting Furies.
(NOTE: this was the first game in my campaign. All of them, except Herc are PC’s).
1997-1999
The Furies face a bewildering array of foes, including Echinda; Ratface; Immortus; The Syndicate; Dr. Von Skull; Black Hand Ninjas; The Felonius Furies; The Celestial Dragon; Shiwan Khan; and alien invasion forces.
Notes
This timeline isn’t complete. Aside from the last two entries, this is what I handed out to the players my first game. More heroes are being added all the time (especially in the Golden Age section). And other events, such as the Furies’ time travel adventures. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I had in writing it.