Shard-Strike Universe
What Everyone Knows
In 2018, the world was wracked by a new kind of storm.
For seven days in September following the Autumn equinox, vividly colored bolts of lightning burst from the ground, arcing skyward. These outbursts happened seemingly at random, without warning or associated thunderstorms. The blasts left tiny fiery crystals of strangely altered matter laced into everything for miles around. Major fires erupted where the crystals ignited inside of trees, buildings, and even people, unchecked radiant energies incinerating them from within.
This terrifying phenomenon came to be known as “shard-strikes”.
With the lightning receding and the fires extinguished, what came next was even stranger. As governments, companies, and individuals began to gather and study the few crystals to survive the inferno of their creation, people who had been near the shard strikes developed extraordinary para-natural powers – abilities outside of our standard understanding of physics. Psychic abilities, flight, invisibility, enhanced senses, energy manipulation, invulnerability to conventional weapons… all appeared almost overnight, evoking the image of comic book superheroes and changing the global balance of power. Random individuals now had abilities that could shape the course of nations. Some became warlords, others the saviors of their community, many became celebrities… Most hid, only barely able to control or even understand their new powers and rightly terrified of what others might do to exploit them.
Approximately four thousand paranaturals had been created by the passing storm, often coming from places as remote as the blasts themselves. In the three years since, perhaps another thousand more have been transmuted into paranaturals by the rare isolated shard-strikes that still occur.
A Superhero Universe, for adults!
Hi everyone! My editor, Au Goose, created this concept of a world like ours, but with lucky recipients of Shard Strike phenomena gaining superpowers while the not-so-lucky ones get burned into ash…
There are heroes, there are villains, and there are those just wanting to live their lives, all now blessed (or cursed) with inescapable power. There is magic, persecution, revolution, and mystery as ordinary people find themselves with the power to champion great causes or who just want to satisfy their lust.
Here we offer a public collection of stories written in the Shard-Strike Universe for you to browse. Commissions are open for you to take part in this playground! We incorporate YOUR character into the world meaningfully with bonus art and including them as the Shard Strike saga continues to unfold!