The revelation of the discovery of superhuman mutation in 2003 won its discoverer, Dr. Moira McTaggart, a Nobel Prize in medicine, but it also touched off a firestorm of controversy and a major social hysteria. For almost a decade beforehand, there had been reports of beings utilizing superhuman powers in destructive incidents, always conveniently explained (or covered up) by government officials. The first wave of violence in the mutant hysteria was triggered by disorganized anti-mutant groups, with several suspect mutants killed and dozens more injured in violent incidents.
The rise of anti-mutant hysteria coincided with the political rise of Edward Kelly, in 2003, a senator in Pennsylvania struggling with the aftermath of a major infidelity scandal in the lead-up to the 2004 Presidential election. Kelly seems to have been the first politician to exploit mutant hysteria, winning his Senate seat back in a landslide and positioning himself as the major champion of anti-mutant politics. However, as 2004 and 2005 came and went, it seemed that mutant fear abated somewhat, with violent incidents decreasing.
Then came the Pittsburgh Bombing in June 2006, in which a mutant terrorist, dubbed “Nitro” by the media, exploded himself in the midst of a football game in the city of Pittsburgh, killing nearly 600 and wounding 2,000 more. Senator Kelly, who had been present, though not wounded in the attack, used the incident to begin an ambitious run for the Presidency. Being able to voice the mass fear of mutants more effectively than any other politician- and very sincerely believing that mutants were a very real danger almost as much to themselves as to America generally, he would crush his opposition in the Republican primary, and ultimately go on to narrowly defeat the Democratic candidate on a platform of “making America safe”.
The new Kelly administration moved with real alacrity, moving forward plans that had been in fruition for years and making them public. In 2009, the Mutant Registration Bill was passed through a Democratic-dominated Congress, making it a crime for mutants to hide their mutation and establishing a database of mutants which employers in what were dubbed as ‘sensitive’ jobs, as well as law enforcement and government agencies could access. It was also in 2009 that plans were first forwarded to establish a mandatory system of schools where mutants would be forced to learn how to control and suppress their abilities safely, where they could be monitored with ease.
The first of these schools was established on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado, chosen for its relative isolation from other population centers and for its relative proximity to several important US military installations, including a prison dubbed “The Vault”, constructed with the intention of becoming a prison for superhuman inmates. Placed in charge of developing the school was Sebastian Shaw, a man who was not only a financier and backer of Kelly in his electoral campaigns, but by all reckonings, a personal friend of the Senator’s as well. In 2011, the Kelly Institute for the Gifted began operations, with the government assisting in the relocation of mutants from other schools.
By all accounts, the school has thus far been a major success, with mutants learning how to control and use their powers, as well as being offered a school curriculum that rivalled that of any other private school in the country. The gathering of mutants into the Institute gave the government an opportunity to monitor hundreds of mutants in a secure environment and proved a useful pilot for the intended construction of dozens more such schools to cover the entirety of the United States.
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Subjucation is an AU X-Men school-based RPG set at the Kelly Academy for Mutant Education, based on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado. While for the time being, most mutants have come here with the permission of their parents, once one enters the school, students lose most of their freedom. Leaving the school is subject to tight control, the use of their mutant powers to even stricter ones. The headmaster of the school, Sebastian Shaw, has virtually absolute power over the lives of his charges- with the threat of the Vault lingering over students' heads, few dare challenge his rule.
For all that, the Kelly Academy still constitutes a sanctuary of sorts. In the school at least, mutants are kept safe from those who would harm them. There are frequent protests against the school by local residents, but for now, there seems to be an iron stability. It's also impossible to deny that the standard of education, in academics and in the use of their powers is of an excellent standard. But is sanctuary and education worth the loss of freedom?
And what happens if mutants decide to strike back?