Celestial Unity: Age of Embers

Celestial Unity: Age of Embers A Prequel to the Celestial Unity Saga Genre: Historical Superhero Drama / Alternate History / Steampunk Noir Primary Setting: Thunder City, United States — 1910s Age of Embers is part of the Celestial Unity continuity and centers around the great-grandfather of Dexter Steele. Elias Abraham Steele. Operating about a century before his descendent.  Thunder City stands at the edge of a new century—and a quiet revolution. Factories choke the air with coal smoke, labor unrest spreads through crowded districts, and the world drifts toward industrialized war. Superhumans exist, but they are rare, feared, and largely unregulated—treated as curiosities, weapons, or inconvenient secrets by those in power. Elias Steele is a twenty-year-old college student who refuses to be helpless. Gifted with superhuman strength, resilience, and energy manipulation, Elias operates as the masked vigilante Umbra, protecting Thunder City from pirates, criminals, and the growing number of powered threats emerging in the shadows. Unlike the heroes of later eras, Umbra has no legal authority, no public support, and no safety net. Each act of heroism pushes him further outside the law—and deeper into moral uncertainty. As Elias balances his vigilante life with faith, friendships, and academic obligations, he uncovers a far greater danger: the Iron Dominion. The Iron Dominion is not a criminal gang, but an industrial empire—bankers, engineers, and financiers who believe the future belongs to those who can control superhuman power. Led by figures like Baron Reginald Thorne, the Dominion experiments with mechanized soldiers, weaponized superhumans, and early surveillance networks, seeking to turn chaos into profit and war into industry. Where Umbra fights to protect people, the Dominion fights to reshape society itself. What begins as street-level vigilantism escalates into political manipulation, international intrigue, and the first true superhuman arms race. Elias soon realizes that heroism in this era is not just about stopping criminals—it is about deciding who gets to define justice in a world that would rather monetize power than restrain it. Age of Embers chronicles the rise of the first costumed heroes in a world not yet ready for them, exploring: Vigilantism before laws, leagues, or oversight Superhumans as political and industrial assets Class, race, faith, and power in early 20th-century America The cost of remaining independent as the age of secrecy ends This is a complete-era story set before the formation of global superhuman institutions. Some volumes within Age of Embers, such as Frontier Summer, are self-contained arcs and can be read independently. The fire has already been lit. The question is who will control it. Age of Embers predates the creation of the I.S.O. by a few years as it is canonically founded in 1919 alongside the League of Nations. It is intended to be a relatively self-contained work that still loosely ties into Celestial Unity(Darkest Light). As an aside, this fiction is modestly political, it doesn't dominate the narrative but political issues of the era pop up from time to time. If you wish to avoid that, please consider reading CU: Darkest Light which is mostly apolitical.