Thread 149988841

How would you go about explaining a superhero to a complete alien or a 14th century person who's never seen a comic?

>where a brain should be there's only fire as a source of his heat (possible a sun-like source)
>instead of lungs there's nothing but a vacuum. The lack of friction when projected causes freezing the same as space or a condenser.
>bones are hollow which allow him to defy gravity
>their brittleness is compensated by skin which is tough as steel.
what else can I add?

Ask them if they've ever heard of Heracles and go from there

>>149988841 (OP)
14th century people would know about tales of gods and heroes just fine. Frankly they'd probably understand this shit better than most of you retards now.

>>149988841 (OP)
This isn't complicated at all. They're basically gods of ancient legend. It concerns me how mindbroken some of you are.

>>149988889
Imagine some fallout shit happening and one day DC/Marvel characters end up as some future civilizations deities

>>149988841 (OP)
just explain it like mini bible characters. the bible is literally just a fanfic that got turned in to a cultural orthodoxy. all religious stories are fanfics

>>149988904
That reminds me of a CK2 mod where there's a tribal nation in Florida that worships Mickey Mouse.

>>149989178
Heh, I know that mod. Good shit.

>>149988900
It should concern you that it's only going to worse
At least grade school students were getting to museums where they could see sculpture and painting of things that started western civilization - but apparently all we're getting going forward will be history/museums that only "look forward" and only talk about how "great America is" and "how great America will be"

>>149988841 (OP)
Just call it a god.

>>149988841 (OP)
Literally just say they're stories of men who dress in fabulous colors and are great at fighting or hav miraculous powers. Medieval people knew what the fuck mythological heroes were you know? I mean thinking about it someone like Superman or Batman isn't so different from figures such as Hercules, Rotsam or even Arthurian Knights. Even if they could believe they were real historixal figures it wouldn't be hard to explain a lot of them.

Parsifal of Arthurian legend is basically your average Shonen character.

Eleghast, a likely elven knight uses magic to open locks and talks to animals.

The Benandanti were a strange sect of dream warriors who fought witches with magic wolf powers (i believe this is 16th century though)

Rotsam is a guy who went into a demon land, fought tons and tons of demons, and was said to be super strong and shiet.

Digenes Akritas IIRC is the story of a half-armenian blooded prince who guards the frontiers of the Byzantine empire, he beata animals with his bare hands and is said to have wrestled Thanatos himself.

And that's JUST Europe and the Middle East. Figures like Wukong have feats that mog the fuck out of Supers and batman.

Frankly, i'd say the hardest thing to explain about superheroes would be the female heroes who have no powers like Batgirl and Huntress. Like wtf are you gonna say, "she runs around in her underwear hunting men with a crossbow"

>>149988841 (OP)
What if Hercules wore more clothes.

>>149988841 (OP)
The Knights of the Round Table were originally old-school Celtic heroes that had a bevy of weird-ass superpowers. I'm pretty sure the concept of superpowered heroes is not something particularly hard for a medieval bloke to figure out.

>>149990551
>Galahad was a literal turbo-virgin
Fuckin lmao

>>149988841 (OP)
You're going to have to explain what bone density, a vacuum and friction to most of them first.

>>149988841 (OP)
They are an archangel or you get burned for witchcraft.

>>149988841 (OP)
Anon have you ever looked at ANY folk tales from pre-modernity? They're absolutely chock full of extremely powerful people with magical superpowers who have to fight supernatural enemies. Superheroes are no more than the contemporary manifestation of it. Capeshit has been the popular entertainer of choice for four millennia at least.

>>149988841 (OP)
You're going to have to explain what bone density, a vacuum and friction is to most of them first.

>>149988841 (OP)
he flies around and saves people

>>149988841 (OP)
What a dumb question.
>they’re as strong as 100 men
>they’re as swift as a horse from the heavens
>they can sore through the air as if a bird without wings

FFS where do you think we got the idea for superheroes? Myths and legends stretching back thousands of years

>>149988841 (OP)
They're like mythical heroes if they were written badly by uneducated peasants and drawn by unskilled artisans, in general.

>>149988841 (OP)
>a complete alien or a 14th century person
Those are potentially very different.

>>149990607
>tumblr

A 14th century person would have a harder time wrapping their head around the concept of an alien. Being from another planet would be the most bizarre thing about Superman to them.

>>149992481
>They're like mythical heroes if they were written badly by uneducated peasants and drawn by unskilled artisans, in general.
I'd actually say they really aren't that different. Even back then you had dumb discrepancies and retcons of shit by people putting their own spin on certain gods just to shit on those further away who you didn't like.

>>149990551
This isn't even talking about Parsifal?
Percy literally had a Shonen style origin story where's a complete moron who's also weirdly fierce and strong and dreams of being a knight like some cool dude he saw when he was young. Starts with him btfo of some big red brute after the other knights couldn't really best or catch him.

>>149995607
I'd agree but at the same time most of the alien heroes look really human, as in VERY human, some medieval thinkers such as Nicholas Of Cusa liked to believe that God made men on other worlds in space so you can just spin that. Furthermore iirc ancient Philosophers also spun ideas of men existing on other worlds in a sort of Spelljammer like fashion (considering they work on Celestial Spheres too) so you could just spin that.

>The Superman came from a world that was also populated by men that was destroyed

>>149990188
Meds, troon

>>149990464
Well, an Amazon?

>>149989046
m'lady

>>149988841 (OP)
>A civilization from somewhere far above the sky fell, as Pompeii did to Vesuvius.
>But not all people of this place survived, an infant found by a farmer and his wife, who they raised as their own child
>That child grew into a man who was capable of prodigious feats of strength and speed, and other numerous abilities
>Because this power could be used to great harm, they raised him to be a good man who used his powers to help those in need and struggle againt tyra..against evil.
>But because his strength could be used to fell ends and drag foul attention, they also admonished him to keep these strengths and his real name hidden.
All the big mythical stuff is pretty easy, the part I'm trouble with is Lois and the Daily Planet.

>>149996448
Survived should be Died, I am smooth of brain.

>>149995383
Not really, they could understand "a far off land among the heavens called Krypton." Saying Superman was from there would also inherently explain his powers. Keep in mind that while Christianity became dominant across Europe it never completely supplanted pre-Christian folklore and mythology, just gave it a different context. Thus, most Europeans of various cultures would've heard stories of physical locations where divine and semi-divine beings lived, even if the capital-H Heaven was reserved for the capital-G God Almighty.
And in fact Greeks and people familiar with the Greek language would understand the name Krypton because it's derived from kryptos meaning "concealed." So a heavenly land concealed from human eyes.

>>149988841 (OP)
Those were times when people were religious and could more readily believe in godlike men and myths, so Superman should be extra easy.

>>149988841 (OP)
Krypton, Smallville and him being a heroic type who keeps it on the downlow to avoid people coming after his loved ones are pretty easy.

The Daily Planet and Lois in particular is a bit more troublesome. What's the closest thing the tail end of the Medieval time had to reporters and newspapers?

>>149997250
High-class courtesans. In general, courtesans were trusted as intermediaries to gather and disseminate information between nobles because the nobles' own servants couldn't be trusted in that manner. As a result, high-status courtesans especially in Italy were treated with the same amount of respect as noble women, and were expected to be intelligent, charismatic, and independent. Eventually they would marry into high society.
The high-class independent courtesan rejecting the affections of the influential and powerfully wealthy merchant to accept marriage with a seemingly low-born farmer who's secretly a celestial being in disguise would be a gold-mine for courtly romance plays.

>>149988841 (OP)
I wouldn't.

>>149998697
You sug :D:D

>>149988841 (OP)
>Spider-Man
>dresses like a court jester
>able to lift a mountain
>a spider in the shape of a man
>can sense attacks beford they happen

>>149999898
MY NUTS! XD XD

>>149988841 (OP)
Pretty sure they could tell the difference between fiction and something they are supposed to take more serious. Capeshit doesn't deep throat you with a moralistic lifestyle you must follow or sex rituals.

>>149989178
>>149989188
When I ran a Fallout TTRPG set in post-War Florida, I had an entire faction based out of "Wimseyland."

>>149988841 (OP)
>>149988886
He's god-born from the outer heavens. Same thing.

>>149988841 (OP)
>instead of lungs there's nothing but a vacuum
I think an alien or a 14th century person would find this infinitely more confusing than lungs that are just impossibly strong because it's fiction and real limits don't apply.

>>150001521
Kek, good shit

>>149990464
Indeed. OP would talk to people of antiquity like a retarded alien, ignoring that there were superheroes in Classical myth to bloody start with. Hercules, Achilles, Thor, fuckin' SAMSON, etc.

>>149988841 (OP)
You are hyper-complicating things to a degree where I can only imagine you are a highly educated idiot.
Ancient cultures had superheroes from Gilgamesh and Enkidu to Hercules to fucking Samson. You could literally just find what cultural touchstone you share, then go from there.
Aliens are the only curve ball, and that's more on the nature of the goddamn alien you're talking to.

bump. Trying to think of something like this with Wolverine

>>149996317
Yeah Diana makes more sense, just say she's a good amazon

>>149990464
>Frankly, i'd say the hardest thing to explain about superheroes would be the female heroes who have no powers like Batgirl and Huntress. Like wtf are you gonna say, "she runs around in her underwear hunting men with a crossbow"
Both are easily explained as figures that work in the dark. It doesn't matter if the cloaked figure hiding in the shadows shooting a crossbow at you is a woman, it's still a cloaked figure hiding in the shadows shooting a crossbow at you. Batgirl is an ally of Batman who keeps tabs on her father the just High Constable, while Huntress is appalled by her father's life of crime and works against his affairs in secret.

>>150001452
It's pretty weird you got to admit, dawg.

>>149990188
Gen Alpha's are going to grow up thinking some Puerto Rican made up the greek pantheon

>>149988886
I know right, it's like asking how would you explain the concept of Green Arrow to people back then and blatantly ignoring robin hood

>>150001521
What system?

>>149990464
There was this old nigga in the 17th century who claimed to turn into a werewolf and traveled to hell to fight witches and satan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiess_of_Kaltenbrun

>>149990551
Gawain also had magic strength that grew in the morning and waxed at noon and then faded until by night he was a normal dude again, if memory serves.

Another good example might be Biblical figures like Samson, or that one guy who wrestled an angel and did pretty well for himself until God decided the angel was going over and had the angel shoot on him.

>>149996448
>All the big mythical stuff is pretty easy, the part I'm trouble with is Lois and the Daily Planet.

They had literacy. A newspaper isn't hard to explain.

>>150006286
Women weren't doing those sort of jobs. If I said "female town crier" I would be piked

i like that idea of Kryptonian biology. However the reality is there is virtually no real difference between them and a human. Their cells just are affected by the yellow sun

>>150007306
Well what else do you like?

>>149988841 (OP)
>How would you go about explaining a superhero to a complete alien or a 14th century person who's never seen a comic?

Never thought about it before. huh

batman is literally just modern day odysseus, theyd understand capeshit just fine

>>150009179
The Romans would hate Batman then

>>150008150
Nothing else. Its kind of a dull concept of a thread really. Just poorly explain a superhero's powers

>>150009960
Every thread is a dull thread when you're a dull person. Or depressed.

>>150005399
I originally ran it with Barbarians of Lemuria, but the game did sort of fall apart in the open act due to player conflict. That didn't stop me from developing 7 regions in Florida and factions to fill them.

>>150010647
Would you care to share them?

>>150011266
Sure! Sorry for the wait.

Panhandle: Brotherhood of Steel [Midwest Exiles / Reaver Cult]
• Fort Redoubt
• Vault 007 [DIA training facility]
Big Bend: Ratford Alliance [Chaingang, Kingpins, NMEs, Skinheads, Wardens]
• Ratford Prison
• Vault 052 [intended to study the psychological effects of prolonged isolation in cramped rooms]
Gold Coast: the Golden Circle
• Daytona
• Hightower
• USSALOC [United States Space Administration Lunch Operations Center]
• Vault 028 [Enclave USSA research facility / rocket silo]
Heartland: Contested by Big Bend, Gold Coast, and Feverglades
• Lake Okeechobee [home to mudwamps]
• Mount Dora Catacombs
• The Grove [wild sorranges]
• Vault 086 [incomplete and abandoned; occupied by the Nuclear Family, led by ‘Big’ Ben Sully]
• Wimseyland Amusement Park [Doug Wimsey III and the Fantaseers]
Feverglades: The Church of the Fountain of Truth
• Bloomburg
• Fountainhead
• Vault 010 [source of the Creach]
Radlands: Phantoms
• Miasma
• The Miami Mangler [ghoulified pre-War serial killer who now murders to replace his family]
• Vault 094 [chemical weapons research]
The Keys: Conch Republic
• Libertatia
• Port O’Call
• Vault 73 [seasteading technology]

>>150003389
I mean the Huntress is literally the Greek Goddess Artemis. Just say she's like that but without Olympian status

>>150013869
She sure as hell isn’t a virgin though

>>150012823
How the hell are they building vaults in Florida with the water table being as high as it is?

>>150009781
Why so, dude?

>>150016223
nta but the most common Roman foundation myths were that their founders were descendants of Troy. Early on the twins Romulus and Remus were said to be descended from Trojan royalty, and later on the myth was shfited so that the foundation of Rome was done by Trojans after the fall of Troy itself.

>>149988841 (OP)
You can't. They can understand the effect but the not cause, their scientific knowledge is so far behind there is no beginning to explain how their powers work. This is why retards who think magic/fantasy and technology/science are the same are fucking morons.

>>149988841 (OP)
>Jesus but stronger AMEN

>>149997250
>>150006286
>>149996448
Just tell them Lois was a nun. Nuns wrote manuscripts

>>150015438
Robots, dude.

>>149988841 (OP)
"a made up being who has magic/unnatural ablities for a human, who uses the abilities to help and save other people. Like a wizard for the peasent, and try to find something in alien culture that is the most similar."
Boom, answered your entire question OP