Superhero ShortWrite

Kamani Adir attends a festival/carnival one night. She is walking home, all her friends home for
the night, when she comes across a voodoo-witchcraft type stall and is drawn to a specific necklace for
sale: a pendant with a miniature, iridescent-looking glass attached to the bottom. It almost seems as if
something is swirling within the mirror itself. Kamani buys it, feeling an almost gut-feeling pull to it, and
is introduced to the consequences of that purchase.
Kathréptis’ Chosen. A cult-like society of people who each have the same pendant thanks to the
work of the Forger. Kamani is introduced to many people in Kathréptis’ Chosen and everything is
explained. There is something called the Midway: a universe between universes where creatures of every
dimension/realm/world dwell. The Forger is from the Midway and found a way into Earth’s realm where
she then created the pendants as a bridge between worlds. They can pull creatures from this Midway, but
there are rules and consequences: a Summoner CANNOT enter the Midway, only pull from it; a
Summoner has COMPLETE control over any creature they summon from the Midway, but if that
Summoner dies with the creature still in this realm, it has complete freedom; a Summoner CANNOT keep
any creature or entity pulled from the Midway. Any creature remaining in reality for a long period of time
after their summon can rip a hole in time and space, allowing all manner of mythological and folklorish
creatures passage into our realm.
This weakness was created by the Forger herself. She knew the horrible creatures that dwelled in
the realms beyond Earth and the havoc even the simplest of them could cause. So she gave a reason for
the Summoners of Kathréptis’ Chosen to put them back. Kathréptis’ Chosen have used (to present day)
these pendants purely for protective reasons. They do not flaunt them and they do not fight with them.
They are not superheroes. They are solely for the protection of the wearer and those around them. This is
the will of the Forger. They are a quiet society and that’s the way it has to be, or else hoards of people
fantasizing this life and becoming heroes would come flocking to them.
Kamani joins Kathréptis’ Chosen excitedly
But not long after she joins, disaster hits. A boy in the society by the name of Mahli Abrams – a
weak-minded boy – is manipulated by an entity he accidentally summoned. Chaos, the Greek primordial
entity of the lowest depth of Tarturus who is often seen as a woman (and in this story, has a physical
body), has entered the world and found a way to break the bond of control between creature and
Summoner. She has found a world to take over and make herself a new realm. So Chaos kills Mahli,
leaving her trapped in this world (now that her Summoner is dead) and creates a rip in time and space. All
manner of creatures start to pour out from the Midway and Chaos attempts to get rid of the only people
who stand a chance in sending her back: Kathréptis’ Chosen.
 She is mostly successful. There is a mass slaughter of the people of Kathréptis’ Chosen, leaving
only a few alive: Kamani Adir and a few of her friends. They use the pendants they have to try and
control the masses of creatures who have come through and throw a desperate attempt to stop Chaos from
destroying the world. By the surviving people of Earth, Kamani and her friends are dubbed as “The
Seraphs” by the overly religious, and the name sticks. Each group member also is dubbed a name for
themselves based on fighting tactics and which creatures they favor using.
My idea is that they don’t really have a set “costume” for this. Kamani and her friends are
basically thrown into this. So they acquire fighting gear and things like that, but they are very mismatched
and not really put together. I wanted to do this spin on it because when they weren’t supposed to be heroes
in Kathréptis’ Chosen. And with their entire society dead and the world coming to an end, they don’t have
time to make coordinated outfits.
And since they technically were never supposed to become superheroes, Kamani and her friends
struggle a lot with the dependence and persona the people have given them. They make them out to be
these wonderful heroes who are going to liberate and save them all, but Kamani and her friends don’t
even know how they are going to survive the next fight. A sort of personality split happens – they will
have to deal with and it’ll force them to truly find and understand who they are – where it is Kamani +
friends vs. the Seraphs.
I choose this idea because I have always been fascinated by fantasy and the mythology of
anything. I was a Percy Jackson kid; an avid Rick Riodan reader. I’m very familiar with Greek and
Roman mythology and sort of familiar with Norse and Egyptian mythology. The idea of crazy, weird
creatures and artifacts is very interesting to me and I’ve always been drawn to the idea. I decided to take
my love for what doesn’t exist and create a superhero that can make those unrealities reality. I decided to
make the villain within Greek mythology because of my long and invested history with the topic and I
decided to make it a group of superheroes, not just one. I’ve always been drawn to the idea of the
found-family trope so a group was much more appealing to me. So there you have it: Kathréptis’ Chosen
and the Seraphs vs. Chaos.

Pendant Necklace ↑
↑ My idea for what the heroes would look like. Their outfits at least. Very thrown together. An array of
different styles so personalities can show through. All pictures were found via Pinterest.
MY NOTES:
My superhero has the ability to open up almost portal-like things (but come up with a different thing than
portals) – tears in time and space – and pull out anything of myth and folklore. Anything from any
mythology and have complete and full control over it. They must go straight back, though, or else it will
throw off reality.
- Sybil → witch-esque type thing
- The Prophet → religious connotation
- The Bard → storyteller

Figuring Out the Ability:

- Anything from any mythology/folklore/or legends can be used and pulled from the folds between
universes. But if they are not returned to their place, reality and mythology will start to bleed
together and these creatures and people will start to bleed into reality.
- When they start to bleed into reality, it becomes very bad. These mythical creatures – the good
and the bad – start coming into our reality on their own accord.
- No one to control them
- They’re just running rampant through the world and cause complete chaos

The Midway
- A place halfway between our world and the other worlds where these creatures dwell
- You CANNOT enter the Midway
- You CANNOT bring anything outside of the Midway

The Portals:
Portal Idea Number 1
- The Looking Glass
- Origin Story???
- The superhero could be going to a carnival or fair type thing and this strange, witchcraft/voodoo
person could have a stall there.
- There is a really intricate necklace sitting there in a nice box. It’s got a really intricate looking
mirror on it and the glass almost looks iridescent. Kind of like this idea that something is swirling
within it.
- The superhero buys it
 - And because of either some witchcraft/voodoo something the woman put on it OR some sort of
myth it’s tied to, the mirror is the portal between dimensions.

The Cult:
Kathréptis’ Chosen
Kathréptis → “looking glass” in Greek
- There is a hoard of people who have these necklaces
- Once a year, they create a new pendant through their voodoo-witchcraft type thing and recruit one
person for the cult
- The pendants take a long time to make
- The pendants can only be made by the Forger
- The Forger is a mythical creature that came from the Midway on it’s own
- Built in the flaw of time with the pendants because they know how dangerous the creatures of the
other realms are
- The people in Kathreptis’ Chosen don’t really ever use their powers for anything savior-like
- They use it to make their lives easier
- Until one day…

Villain!
- Chaos → the greek primordial entity that is one of the lowest levels of Tartarus
- A boy by the name of Mahli Abrams fell prey to her
- Convinced Mahli to let Chaos in
- Quickly killed Mahli
- Now she’s there to stay
- On top of having literal Chaos in the world, there is now a rip in time and space
- Mythological creatures begin to pour in
- Uh oh…

On Your Own
- Chaos starts by trying to eliminate most of Kathréptis’ Chosen
- She does a decent job
- A cult that had built up thousands of followers now only has a few:
- Our main superhero and a few of their friends
 - Now it’s up to them to make everything right and save the world from these mythological
creatures

Group Names
- The Phoenixes → killed their people, they rise from the ashes
- The Seraphs → angels who guard God’s Throne