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The disciples of Omnis are a group of people who worship the superhero Omnis and prepare for Omnis’s third reincarnation.
Background:
Much of the Labeled Universe’s history is different than our world’s. One way that it differs is that the main system of government globally was a form of feudalism for a much longer time.
Large swatches of land would be run by the most powerful superheroes and everyday upkeep would be divvied up by them to less powerful superheroes.
They were supposed to protect their area of land and the people in it in exchange for a percentage of resources. How much protection and how much of a percentage of resources depended on the superhero running it.
Alliances between these pieces of land were usually enforced by the trading of younger superpowered children (often of those in the ruling class, but not always).
These traded children were usually trained and given a position as the head of a piece of land. Sometimes they would even end up being trained as the heir of the monarch if they were particularly powerful and the current monarch wanted to gain favor from the monarch who traded them.
This system worked fairly well most of the time, though it always favored the powered. There was some social mobility even for non-powered people, but they’d always be below powered people on the social hierarchy unless they managed to produce a powered heir.
About 3000 years ago, the system was running pretty bad in what is South America in our world. The social hierarchy was becoming stricter for those without powers and leaders were demanding more and more from those they had power over.
Who was Omnis?
Omnis was a mythical figure based on an actual person that lived around 3000 years before Labeled.
They reportedly had many powers including some physical and some energy powers.
Omnis was given the name ‘Omnis’ posthumously. Their true superhero name either was lost to history or was never actually settled on at all considering their short existence (a little less than a year by most accounts).
Omnis was different than most of the powered monarchs as they did not demand resources in exchange for their aid. They were more similar to the type of heroism Logan does and was an inspiration for many later heroes who are not connected to the government.
If they should be considered a hero or a villain is actually rather debated. They had a tendency to kill those they fought, though if this was out of callousness or necessity depends on the source.
Likely they were intentionally vilified in some retellings as the leaders at the time tried to discredit their memory after they died.
Omnis created a bit of a stir in those lower in the social hierarchy. Tensions were already a bit high and Omnis was showing by example a different way to live.
The current leaders were not pleased with this and many banded together to bring Omnis down.
This plan however involved many casualties of the not as power fortunate and Omnis ended up sacrificing their own life to save a bunch of people.
The leaders were pleased, but not for long, as public distrust for those in power ran rampant and the governments in that area mostly ended up dissolving over the next few decades.
The Making of Disciples:
Out of the ashes and chaos following Omnis’s death and the revolutions it sparked, a self-proclaimed prophet came forward by the name of Brychan Light.
Light claimed to be related somehow to Omnis, but this claim is highly debated.
He began to push the message of Omnis being a god and was actually the person who coined the name ‘Omnis.’
He claimed that Omnis was actually the second reincarnation, but not the last of the superhero. Omnis was originally born millennia before with only physical powers, but transcended and reincarnated, gaining energy powers and keeping the physical one.
Light said that Omnis would return some day and on their third reincarnation would gain mental powers as well. Then, Omnis would return once more with time manipulation powers, a type of power whose existence is doubted in current society. They would then reward all their followers across time.
Light’s teachings sparked a religion. It’s following has mostly dwindled, but it still exists in pockets during the Labeled Universe and has had an effect on its history.
The Disciples of Omnis Today:
The goal of the Disciples of Omnis today is to wait and prepare for Omnis’s coming.
Preparation comes in the form of selectively breeding community members in order to have a higher population with mental powers. As such it often is one of the few communities in the universe that is rampantly homophobic.
Mental powers are then trained, though the training is often anywhere from ill-advised to actively harmful and abusive depending on the parents and the community.
Many community members will end up with some sort of mental power related sickness.
Patton grew up in one of these communities. His community is 70% mental powers and 10% other powers. Patton’s parents and both sets of grandparents had mental powers. Seven of his eight great-grandparents did as well.
His parents were incredibly disappointed that he did not have a mental power and often let their resentment show. It also ruined their marriage as they blamed each other for their ‘failure.’
Yet, Patton not presenting with a mental power was likely a blessing in disguise as he escaped any training. His family’s form of training was one of the more intense and harmful ones. In fact, Patton’s maternal grandmother developed a form of superpowered dementia in her early 40s and deteriorated rapidly until it took her life. His other grandparents all died before he was born because of various complications including strokes. His mother has horrible debilitating migraines.
As it was, Patton was free from that training, though he was still pressured into academic pursuits as academic ability often predicts mental powers.
For most of Patton’s childhood, his parents held out hope that he’d develop a power during puberty and pushed very hard for him to do well in school, but that did not happen. They still forced him into academic pursuits in hopes he could eventually reintroduce mental powers into the bloodline.
Because he did not have a mental power, he could go outside of the community for a higher education but was expected to contribute money to the community since he couldn’t contribute the correct thing and was expected to return once he became a doctor. He did not and ended up distancing himself, and then completely breaking away from his family and community.