Eastern Europe

It’s hard to say what part of the region is “Eastern Europe.” Does it include the non-Slavic Baltics, Finland, Hungary, or Romania? Or the Czech Republic, which was part of Germanic culture for centuries? The most commonly accepted definition is simply “the European part of the former Soviet Bloc”, excluding Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and East Germany. Belarus is for all intents and purposes firmly part of Russia’s sphere of influence, while Ukraine is seeking to define itself with mixed results.   The history of this region is as rich and complex as Western Europe’s. It was WWII and the subsequent Soviet occupation that shaped the current “superhero scene” in this part of the world, not ancient heroes and medieval kings. Here are the bloodlands—places where WWII was not a just war, but a terrible butchery. On Earth-Prime the war was more colorful and vivid than on Earth—but it was at least as vile and despicable.   Eastern Europe is host to tyrannies, extreme poverty, mobs, and violence, all of which combine every few years to transform parts of the region into apocalyptic nightmares. Eastern Europe has sometimes been described as “Third World aspiring to be First World.” On the one hand, visiting American or Western heroes can expect relatively modern infrastructure like healthcare and public transportation system as well as the rapid westernization of the area. On the other, blatant shortcomings like corruption, organized crime, bureaucracy, and Western culture supplanting the local culture, as well as acceptance of bigotry and fanaticism, make life hard for superheroes expecting European standards. Due to poverty and history there are fewer heroes here—but a lot of problems requiring heroes.