Earth-357

Earth 357, aka The Magnum Universe, is one of many alternate realities of the canon Marvel Universe (Earth 616)

Origin of the Universe

According to ancient documents accrued by the Phoenix organization, the universe began when a piece of the infamous Phoenix force was lopped off in an attempt to kill the being. This piece would fall into a vacant void and in a terrifying and awesome show it grew into its own being and with its birth, so too was a new universe born.

In time this universe would gain sentience and desires of its own. Soon it created for itself a body based on what it imagined life would be like and dubbed itself Eternity. Desiring to test the limits of it's power, Eternity soon crafted for itself five gems of infinite power: Soul, Power, Reality, Time and Mind. These would be known as the Infinity Gems. Eternity would also fashion for itself the means to control all five gems, what would be known as the Infinity Gauntlet.

By themselves, each single gem could give one the power of a god. But when worn together on the Infinity Gauntlet, they gave its user unlimited power.

Eternity would first use the gems to create worlds. Pleased with the results, Eternity would further test the abilities of the Gauntlet by crafting elemental shepherds for his worlds before moving on to the most ambitious project, creating life itself.  

Eternity toiled endlessly, carefully crafting various forms of life for each world with the aid of the elemental shepherds. At first Eternity was overjoyed at having created sentient life, admiring his work. Soon however Eternity became saddened when he saw this life he created was shorter than his own.

Heartbroken, Eternity tried using the Time stone to extend the lives of one world to match his own. While some accepted the gift, others were driven insane by the agelessness, forcing Eternity to end their lives. Determined to have a companion with as endless a life as he had, Eternity used the stones and Gauntlet to make one.

His first attempt was granting sentience and a form to the residual chaos from the Phoenix's rebirth. Unfortunately this new being, rather than being Eternity's new companion, was left longing for it's own purpose. So it would wander the universe, taking on many names and forms.

With his second attempt, he created a beautiful being with skin as flawless as ivory and gold. This being, later naming herself Paragon, stayed as his companion for a millennia. In that time she too would try her hand at creation with the Gauntlet and created the Sovereign homeworld. She took immense pride in her project, declaring them the most perfect beings in the universe. She would walk among them and admire their works. But like Eternity, she too would become saddened by their finite lifespans, and like Eternity would try to keep them from dying by making them immortal. Eternity attempted to talk her out of it, the memories of his own actions still deeply affecting him. Paragon however refused to listen to him and the two engaged in a titanic struggle over the Gauntlet. The battle ended with her using the Gauntlet to split herself in two.

After the first two attempts failed, Eternity would continue trying to make his immortal companion. But with each attempt only resulted in less powerful beings, while ageless as he, could still be killed.

Many of these demi gods would travel to other worlds and establish themselves as gods to be worshiped by the mortal lives Eternity created. Twelve in particular, who would become the Olympians would make a pilgrimage to a strange little blue sphere that would become known as Earth.

History of Earth

Arrival of the Olympians

Earth was in it’s infancy chaotic and savage, ruled by great beasts. In a clash of thunder the Olympians touched down, causing a 90% extinction event. One of the Olympians, Diana, would place the surviving 10% on a preserve that would become known as the Savage Land.

The other Olympians, spearheaded by Jupiter, would begin to experiment with new life, hoping to improve on their creator's designs of life. After some toiling creating sentient life in their image, they soon split the life into two other groups to improve upon the control population. Their first series of experiments would be with a cosmic substance known as Terrigen. By converting the Terrigen into a gaseous state, the Olympians would give this group of humans exposed to it superhuman abilities and an increased intelligence. These new Inhumans would soon found their own society on an island known as Attilan.

In the second experiment series, the Olympians would toil and tinker with human's genetic structure directly, hoping to achieve the same superhuman results as the Terrigen experiments, what would later be known as the X Gene. However after many years of toiling, the results seemed unsuccessful so the project was abandoned.

In the intervening years, Attilan would become an advanced mecca of art, culture and science. While most of the Olympians were proud of this race's progress, Jupiter, who was becoming corrupted by his power and lack of ethics and scruples, found it as a threat and so caused the city to sink into the ocean. When the other Olympians learned of his actions, they argued with Jupiter which descended into a war that shook the heavens and caused minor apocalyptic events throughout Earth. During the Sundering of Heavens, the Olympians would create many weapons to try and defeat Jupiter and overthrow him. One such weapon was a group of psychic vampires that would become known as the Inheritors. Jupiter in turn also made weapons to fight against the rebelling Olympians, many of these were his progeny. Ultimately the war would end in his favor and he would get the Olympians under his thumb again. In an act of defiance however, Juno would mate with a mortal man by the name of Amphitryon and sire a demi god who would be the downfall of the mad Jupiter, the hero Hercules.

Birth and Rise of Apocalypse

After the Sundering of Heavens event, a tribe of desert nomads around ancient Egypt would abandon a child born of their clan to the harsh desert sands. A wandering nomadic thief by the name of Baal would come across the child, an unusual boy of blue and grey skin. Sensing the strong will and potential within the child, he took him back into his own clan of marauders and would raise him, naming him En Sabah Nur, translated as "The First One."

After sometime being raised by Baal and his clan of sand raiders, stories of a fearsome magical raider spread throughout the lands, catching the attention of one Pharaoh Rama-Tut, who ordered his top general Ozymandias to find and bring back this mystical raider, hoping to use him to solidify his power-base. Ozymandias and his garrison tracked the tribe over many miles, losing half of his men to their hit and run tactics and the harsh desert climate. In the end Ozymandias was able to trap the tribe and made the demand that En Sabah come with him or else he'd slaughter his whole tribe and made a show of force by decapitating Baal. Enraged, En Sabah's mutant powers fully manifested and he showed Ozymandias what will was by killing the rest of his own tribe and slaughtering a portion of Ozymandias's troops before raising their corpses to serve him and enslaving Ozymandias and the survivors. Documents in the Phoenix Organization's master archives also make reference to him becoming the first mutant to channel the Phoenix Force

With his newfound army and abilities he marched upon Rama-Tut's kingdom and laid waste to all before him, becoming known to any survivors as a walking Apocalypse. After wiping Rama-Tut's era from the face of the Earth, Apocalypse set sights on the rest of humanity but was defeated by a coalition of deities who feared he would destroy the rest of the universe if left unchecked. He would be placed in a sleep like death state and sealed inside a magical sarcophagus hidden deep inside a pyramid laced with booby traps and guarded by a mystical being dubbed Moon Knight. Many would come around the pyramid and disappear. Soon Apocalypse faded into myth.

Rise of the Phoenix Organization & SHIELD

Around the same time in Britannia, a young Iceni woman by the name of Boudica stews in anger and plots of revenge against the Romans who razed her land, flogged her, murdered her husband and raped her daughters. Through her charm and will she convinced many Celts to join her cause and marshaled her forces to raze several Roman colonies. Fearing the Celtic insurrection and the power it was gaining, Nero would send General Nicolaus Furie and his elite force Testudo to put down the rebellion. However Furie was disillusioned with Nero's reign of the empire and with his loyal band outright deserted.

Boudica and her forces meanwhile made their way through Briton, razing towns and gathering more support from the various Celtic tribes, including members of the Grey family. The massive army would soon meet against Gaius Paulinus in the English Midlands. According to one of the ancient texts as the battle began, a pillar of fire descended from the sky and enveloped Boudica, infusing her with the god like power of the Phoenix Force. With her newfound power, Boudica and her army wiped out the Romans and continued to march throughout Briton soon turning their aim to Rome itself.

When news reached Furie about the mass of Celts heading for Rome itself, he gathered his forces to defend the city. The two forces would clash in a titanic battle, Furie himself dueling with the almost god like Boudica. Alas despite his valor, Rome would fall and the empire would never recover.

From this Celtic victory would arise the Phoenix Organization, whose members would dedicate themselves to ensuring balance by razing any civilization when it reached it's zenith. Furie and the surviving Testudo would conversely ensure that such an event would never happen again, forming what would later be known as SHIELD.

Inhabitants

Heroes

Paladin Roster

• Victoria Domashev
• Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto)
• Wanda Domashev (The Scarlet Witch)
• Pietro Domashev (Quicksilver)
• Lorna Domashev (Polaris)
• Natasha Romanov (Black Widow)
• Rowan Erikson (Spider-Man)
• Antoinette “Toni” Stark (Repulsor)
• Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (The Hulk)
• Hercules
• Lester Hoyt (Bullseye)
• Margaret “Peggy” Carter (Captain America)

SHIELD

• Nick Fury (Aasiyah Al-Zoubi)
• Mysterio (Quinn Beck)
• Agent Hill
• Agent Sitwell
• Otto Octavius
• Adrian Toomes
• Matthew Murdock

The Wild Pack

• Svetlana Sablinova (Silver Sable)
• Victor Creed (Sabertooth)
• Hank McCoy (Beast)
• Rahne Sinclair (Wolfsbane)

Independent Heroes

• Ghost Rider (GoGo Tomago)
• The Black Panther (Shuri)
• The Sorcerer Supreme (Dr. Judah Travers)
• Iron Fist (Danny Rand)
• Wolverine (James Howlett)
• Captain Marvel (Kalisa De-Andra)
• Stick

The Punishers

• Frank Castle
• Micro
• Bushwhacker (Carl Burbank)
• Elektra Natchios
• Clint Barton (Hawkeye)

Xavier Institute for The Gifted

• Charles Xavier
• Warren Worthington III (Angel)
• Emma Frost

Guardians of the Galaxy

• Miek
• Korg
• Skurge the Executioner
• Ayesha
• Jocasta
• Titus

Villains

The Brotherhood

• William Stryker
• Firefist
• Raven Darkholme (Mystique)

The Reavers

• Donald Pierce

The Black Order

• Thanos
• Cull Obsidian
• Proxima
• Corvis
• Ebony Maw

Superior Sovereign

• Magus
• Zylak

AIM

• Reed Richards
• Hank Pym
• Janet Van Dyne
• Bolivar Trask
• Sybil Zane

Ragnarok Cult

• Leif Erikson

The Inheritors

• Karn
• Bora
• Brix
• Verna
• Jennix

Independent Villains

• Arcade (Amadeus Cho)
• Justine Hammer
• Johnny Storm (Daredevil)
• Susan Storm (The Invisible Woman)
• Bruce Banner (the Abomination)
• Juggernaut (Cain Marko)
• Power Man (Luke Cage)
• Colossus (Piotr “Peter” Rasputain)
• The Rhino (Alexei Sytsevich)
• Tombstone (L. Lincoln Thompson)
• Domino (Neena Thurman)
• Natalia Essex
• Ravage
• Malice

Ravagers

• Nebula
• Yondu

The Phoenix Order

• Jean Grey
• The Phoenix Knight

Kingpin Syndicate

• James Wesley (The Kingpin)
• The Purple Man (Zebediah Kilgrave)

The Hand

• Kenji Oyama (Lord Dark Wind)
• Kenuichio Harada (the Silver Samurai)
• Yuriko Oyama (Lady Deathstrike)
• Ogun

The Ten Rings

• The Mandarin
• Raza

Other Inhabitants

Stark Industries

• Peter Parker
• Gwen Stacy

Others

• Mary Jane Watson
• Max Dillon

Deities

Olympians

• Jupiter
• Juno
• Vulcan
• Minerva
• Neptune
• Venus
• Mars
• Apollo
• Diana
• Vesta
• Mercury
• Cerea
• Orcus

Independent

• Eternity
• Deadpool
• Paragon
• the Beyonder
• Death
• God
• Nightmare