Anti-Earth

Imagine a world much like our own in many respects, but where a great many things and events we know are the opposite: right is left, black is white, and, in particular, good is evil and evil good. Imagine a world where the super-villains are the ones in charge, the governments are little more than criminals gangs, and a powerful Syndicate, the Tyranny Syndicate, is the world’s one true “super-power.” You’re imagining the world Freedom Leaguer Johnny Rocket dubbed “Anti-Earth” after his first (accidental) visit there, one of the most serious threats known to the heroes of Earth-Prime and the omniverse.

Mirror, Mirror

Much of Anti-Earth is familiar: it’s a world inhabited by human beings with familiar languages, nations, and so forth. However, a considerable amount of the world’s culture, history, and even physics are “backward” from the perspective of someone from Earth-Prime: Anti-Earth orbits its sun in the opposite direction, and it rotates towards the east rather than the west (the sun rises westward there). Native American explorers “discovered” Europe and were later invaded and conquered by Europeans. George Washington betrayed the Colonial Army and General Benedict Arnold (the first President of the United States of America), and so forth.
Some events are surprisingly similar, such as the night in 1918 when a star fell over Empire City, a dimensional capsule containing an infant from another world, suffused with the interdimensional energies of the omniverse. Adopted by a small-time but cunning con artist named Leeds, he would become the most powerful man in the world.
By the time he grew to adulthood, young Mark Leeds had learned of his otherworldly origins and adopted the name and identity of the Praetor, determined to assume his rightful place as ruler of the world. It didn’t take him long to bring Empire City to heel and place its bosses and syndicates under his control. He captured and tortured a visitor from the future to learn the right time to launch a sneak attack against the Japanese naval base in Hawaii, claiming those islands for the USA, and he brought the nation to the aid of British fascists in the war in Europe.
Opposition to the Praetor’s power kept him from fully achieving his goals, although his domination of the western world was soon indisputable. Decades of Cold War persisted, with Russia and China prepared to unleash their nuclear arsenals in Mutually Assured Destruction rather than concede defeat. Still, Praetor remained, patient, unaging, seemingly immortal, until his downfall came from within, rather than without.
Praetor was quick to recruit other superhumans to his cause or eliminate them to ensure they could not pose a threat. His own Praetorian Guard was feared the world over, but in time they came to question just how far they could advance in the service of an immortal despot who would never name a successor and could simply outlive his enemies. So they plotted in secret and, one night, they acted.
Much of the world would have celebrated the Praetor’s fall, if it were not for what happened next. The former Praetorian Guard established a new, powerful syndicate, The Tyranny Syndicate, and declared the whole world as their prize. In the years since the fall of the Praetor,war has devastated many parts of Anti-Earth, particularly Asia, and left the Tyranny Syndicate, if not absolute rulers of the world, the nearest to it anyone has come. Some scattered resistance continued, but hope grew increasingly small, and the members of the Syndicate increasingly bored, until the day when another otherworldly visitor came to Empire City.
The accidental appearance of Earth-Prime’s Johnny Rocket made the Tyranny Syndicate aware of other worlds, like the one Praetor came from, but living and exploitable. It also sparked some hope among those opposed to the Syndicate, with the potential for allies somewhere across the dimensional gulfs. The interference of otherworldly heroes helped to shore up Mind-Master’s dedication, and it gave newfound vigor to LIGHT. The Syndicate has split its time between pacifying its old foes and looking towards new territory to conquer.
Matters have been further complicated by Lady Anarchy’s creation of a “Chaos Storm” in Viridian City in the Pacific Northwest, unleashing a new wave of superhumans. Some have been inducted into the lowest ranks of the Syndicate, but others are unpredictable free agents, perhaps even recruits of LIGHT or other rebel factions. This event led to another shake-up of the Syndicate’s ranks when Captain Thunderbolt’s estranged son saw an opportunity and seized it...

Type

Dimensional plane

Included Organizations

• The Tyranny Syndicate