Asia - Rifts

RIFTS IN SPACE 

Ancient alliances and grudges combine with modern wars and artifacts of colonization to divide South Asia into political entities which bear little resemblance to the ethnic and religious beliefs of the people. On one end of the spectrum, Nepal and Bhutan share religion, culture, and some dialects, yet remain separate political entities. On the other, India alone is home to over 100 languages and ethnicities despite being a single, unified nation.
Such rifts spawn a special class of politically-minded superhero who works for unity between nations or between separate groups living under the same flag. It also creates villains willing to do harm in the name of a single ethnic group. Many such villains began their careers thinking themselves heroes—and some of them continue to even after no one else does.

RIFTS IN TIME

For reasons not yet fully understood by any organization or entity, many of the oldest buildings, temples, and grottos near the Himalayas have deep connections to earlier times in history. These connections sometimes solidify to form gates to, or shadows of, ancient spaces. Those who know how to use them can travel to earlier epochs, sometimes to before mankind ruled the Earth, and even to other worlds.
The mystic traditions of South Asia are often related to these links with the past, so the master practitioners of a magical line can return to less technological times to further their studies. Alien origins are also often tied to these temporal rifts, via journeys into cultures and cities built by pre-human hands.

THE TEMPORAL TUNNELS

Certain temples and ruins throughout South Asia include subterranean passages that connect to a network of catacombs that reach across space and even time. Twelve steps in the tunnel beneath the Taj Majal leads to a door in a temple in Bhutan. One hundred steps down a passage in that same temple leads to Nepal in 800 BCE.
The Monks of the Fourth Age serve as guides, researchers, and guardians of the catacombs and are trained in their layout and the rules of frictionless travel through space and time. Most aren’t truly superhuman, merely scholars who have spent their lives studying and adding to maps of this four-dimensional labyrinth. However, decades of such study and experience leave their mark and most are significantly more powerful than an average human being.
Monks of the Fourth Age come from nations the world over, but most originate from South Asia, especially India, Nepal, and Bhutan. To carry the title of Brother Monk requires years of training after already being strong enough to pass rigorous entry trials. A typical Monk of the Fourth Age is a low-level superhuman in his own right.

RIFTS IN CULTURE

Religious life is important throughout South Asia, with the people divided largely into two faiths: Hindu and Islam. Buddhism runs a distant but influential third. National borders and ethnic identities often fall along these lines. Atop this cultural divide lies a second rift of modern and Westernized culture versus older, Eastern traditions. Many of the younger people across South Asian nations rail against the old ways in favor of secular, Western ideas of opportunity and equality.
Religiously-inspired superheroes are more common here than anywhere else. Most of these supers present themselves as champions of the ideals of one particular sect, however the oldest religions have inspired a few who act as avatars of ancient gods. Most of these heroes and villains know they are superpowered humans taking on a representational persona, but a few claim to be the gods themselves, back on Earth to fulfill a divine mission.