The following timeline is intended to provide a common basis for starting play. Players are encouraged to add relevant information pre WWII.

1883

Krakatoa erupts, sending a plume of ash and dust high into the atmosphere, where high-speed winds carry it around virtually the entire globe, carrying with it trace amounts of a strange element that will one day be known as Krakatonium.

1908

A piece of extraterrestrial antimatter collides with Earth and explodes over Tunguska. This massive event interacts with the krakatonium distributed over the Earth's crust, forming a global energy field. This energy field is accessible to some exceptional individuals, though the feats they are capable of will be exceeded by later metahumans.

1945

The world's first atomic explosion, code named "Trinity," rips the sky in the North American desert. The massive energies charge the Tunguska field, causing it to ring like a bell... the frequencies find one resonator... a human mind, one James Colbert, a doctoral student in Princeton, New Jersey... the energy "grounds out" through him, giving him a permanent link to the Tunguska field. Over the course of the next twenty years, dozens of nuclear tests are done, in various places around the world. Each time, the energy that hits the Tunguska Field has a slightly different resonance, and finds a different person (or people) to ground through.

1946

James Colbert traces the entire metahuman creation process, all the way back to the Krakatoa explosion. He tells noone.

1949

In the chaos of the end of the Indonesian war of independence, James Colbert, now calling himself "Doctor Trinity," and a small group of mercenaries take over the still-smoking remains of Krakatoa, and begin mining it for Krakatonium. He begins secretly researching uses for this wonder-metal. While technically part of Indonesia, the Indonesian government does not have any power to enforce its will.

1952

Doctor Trinity has developed dozens of uses for the metal. He sells the metal to both sides of the cold war. They use it primarily to boost the abilities of metahumans. By the end of 1952 there have been 36 nuclear tests, plus the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. World population of metahumans: 38, as there have been no fatalities among them. Yet.

1953

The superpowers decide that Krakatoa is an essential strategic resource. Taking control of the supply of Krakatonium becomes a primary concern. Agents from the United States, Soviet Union, China, Great Britain, France, India, and other countries descend on the tiny archipelago. 1953 sees 18 more nuclear tests.

1963

The partial nuclear test ban treaty bans nuclear tests anywhere except deep underground. The overt reason is to prevent the spread of nuclear fallout, but secretly, world governments have finally traced the emergence of new metahumans to nuclear explosions, and they believe that doing them underground will limit the effect. They are wrong.

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