timeline
For the purposes of clarity, a more detailed listing of major events have been included here. While it is by no means a complete listing of events, these are merely the large canon events that cannot be moved, budged, or otherwise adjusted. Instead, they serve more as a guaranteed anchor to base other events around and contain both pre-site events and those created through site events that are unique to Ideal World.
This is the list of events that happened prior to the site's current playable period in official events, which begins in 2015, where the roleplay picks up.
timeline
November 1918 Reports of Wonder Woman first appear. A mysterious box of power is dug up from the wilds of England but is left in storage since the power was unable to be harnessed or considered useful.
February 1940 German scientists working for the Nazi Science division - primarily known as Hydra, although it has ties pre-dating the Nazi party - manage to create a successful Super Soldier serum derived from the gaseous formula and chemical notes left behind in the wake of World War I. This would begin the first "superpowered arms race" of the Age of Heroes.
May 1945 Germany surrenders in World War II, and within the year, Japan surrenders as well. Shortly afterwards, with the disappearance or demise of all known super-powered individuals (at least, those willing to associate with the government at any rate), the world leaders begin to actively conceal the presence of further metahumans, especially as reports began filtering in of unethical experiments performed by the Axis Powers on these metahumans (mostly mutants but several of other species).
March 1948 The Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement, and Logistics Division, otherwise known as SHIELD, is officially founded. It serves to protect the world from threats, although it primarily functions to conceal the nature of super-powered individuals.
October 1962 The X-Men are officially founded and begin intervening to save the world from superhuman threats. It is through their actions that the Cuban Missile Crisis is averted, although the true details are not known to the general public.
January 1973 Trask Industries unveils the Sentinels Program and proposes production to the President in secret over SHIELD's protests. However, an incident where the X-Men save the President from a rogue Sentinel convinces the man of the folly of such a program and the idea is scrapped. Xavier's School for Gifted Children opens officially to secretly provide a haven for mutants. SHIELD begins to actively stifle any and all superhuman activity.
April 1986 The Weapon X Program, which was founded following the formation of the X-Men, is officially shut down following the Chernobyl disaster, which raises the number of super-powered individuals within the population. However, it continues to operate in secret behind closed doors beyond government interference.
September 2001 The Weapon X Program is revived by the government after the terrorist attacks on the United States. A new "superhuman arms race" has unofficially begun.
May 2012 New York is attacked by an alien race known as the Chitauri. Although the assault is stopped by a team of heroes known as the Avengers, it also marks the first major incident beyond the typical levels of individual containment. Superheroes thus enter the public spotlight more officially than the one-off basis they had previously operated on (with a few exceptions that were otherwise contained by SHIELD).
August 2012 Awakened by the energies surrounding the Chitauri assault, the being known as Apocalypse attacks the world. Although the X-Men stop him from reshaping the world into his own image, SHIELD is unable to successfully hide the presence of mutants or dismiss the new team.
October 2013 Having been alerted to the presence of the planet with the Chitauri assault, General Zod attacks the city of Metropolis and attempts to turn Earth into a new Krypton. Superman successfully defeats him, but the battle causes substantial damage to both Metropolis and neighboring Gotham.
April 2014 SHIELD is revealed to be harboring the former Nazi rogue science division and secret organization known as Hydra. The Avengers avert the planned catastrophe, but in the process, countless classified documents were uploaded to the Internet in the biggest disclosure the US had seen to date, including the Snowden leaks. SHIELD is officially dismantled, although it continues to operate in private.
June 2014 Batman and Superman battle in Gotham for a short while before the fight is apparently interrupted with the appearance of Doomsday. Although the two put aside their differences to fight the new menace, the resulting carnage between Gotham and Metropolis causes significant damage and loss of life.
September 2014 Midway City is attacked by the metahumans known only as the Enchantress and the Incubus. The assault is settled officially by US covert operations; in truth, the pair were taken down by a classified government program known as Task Force X, where imprisoned villains carry out secret missions on behalf of the government in exchange for clemency on their sentences.
December 2014 A strange invasion of Parademons, led by the conqueror Steppenwolf, who sought out his Mother Boxes. The Justice League formed to stop them, not trusting the Avengers after the collapse of SHIELD, with whom they'd previously been affiliated. However, in the aftermath of the energy burst of the Mother Boxes being torn apart, reports came through of "energy spillover" from other universes, indicating a possible destabilization between universes.
