Lore: The Empowered

THE BLESSING OF THE GODDESS
The Omnymphotents possess the ability to imbue mortals with superhuman powers. They could, if they so desired, make every other man and woman on Earth nearly as powerful as they are. However, for their own reasons, the Omnys aren’t really interested in uplifting humanity. They will, however, bless some of the Playthings and even one-night stand lovers with minor powers, either as a reward for a good time, or to see how that woman may use her powers to enjoy herself.
 
All of their lovers are blessed with excellent health and an enhanced ability to recover from illness and injury. Some are given a boost to their natural beauty. During sex, many Playthings are given at least a temporary enhancement to their body’s stamina and durability, and if necessary their mental fortitude, if only so sex with their Omny doesn’t destroy them.
 
The Empowered, however, are those who have been gifted truly superhuman abilities, and are allowed to keep them even after their sexual sessions with their Omny.
 
 
FEMALE BIAS
The Omnys are self-admittedly sexist in their selection. Virtually every Omny will only ever Empower women, never granting men powers of their own, except under temporary conditions, such as a roleplay scenario. Even the extremely few men deemed to be worthy of full-time Empowerment are granted distinctly weaker powers than women.
 
This is for two reasons. One, there is a general belief among Omnys that women are more trustworthy to keep their abilities secret, and use them just for fun, self-defense, or to make their daily lives a bit easier. Men, on the other hand, are much more likely to try and use their powers “for a purpose”, such as industrial ambitions or acts of heroism. Which is to say that a man is more likely to blow his cover, or be more motivated to do so just by virtue of having powers. The Masquerade can only cover so much, and the Omnys would get annoyed having to constantly compensate for men flagrantly using their powers out in the open. How true this actually is is up for debate, but it’s the excuse most Omnys give.
 
The second reason is purely because most Omnys enjoy a femdom/malesub sexual dynamic. The idea that nearly all their male Playthings are at a disadvantage even with other female Playthings is either hot or funny to most of the Omnys. In line with this theme, the Omnys tend to Empower women with high sex drives.
 
It is worth noting that even with that in mind, most Omnys only Empower a very small portion of their female Playthings, choosing those women they know for certain will abide by the rule to stay hidden, or whom has managed to come to a special arrangement. The majority of Empowered have been created by only a few Omnys.
 
 
ABILITIES OF THE EMPOWERED
An Empowered can have nearly any ability the Omnymphotent wishes to give. Most, however, have only a single power, or several minor powers, or one main ability with a couple supplemental ones. More or less, an Empowered is most comparable to lower-level comic book superheroes.
 
An Empowered might have telekinesis or super strength or flight or invisibility or fire-breath or enhanced senses or elasticity, etc. A stronger Empowered might be able to become invisible and intangible like a ghost, or have the power to become a werewolf and gain a suite of minor physical enhancements as a result.
 
It is worth noting that Empowered on Earth are also weaker, generally, then those found on Thrae or on Omny Worlds. When traveling to other worlds, an Earthling may find their abilities boosted in other worlds, while non-Earthlings will find theirs weakened on Earth.
 
 
GRAND BLESSING
The exception among the Empowered are the Grandymphotents, women who have been uniquely blessed with reality warping abilities comparable to the Omnys themselves. A woman must have performed a truly impressive feat of sexual prowess, arranged a particularly pleasing deal, or have just that certain je ne sais quio that charms an Omny to want to give them a special gift.
 
However, although an Omny could theoretically elevate such a woman to full Omny status, they are hesitant to just give any old mortal the same level of power. Every Ascension is already a wild card that has panned out well enough so far, but the Omnys don’t need to up the risks.
 
As such, Grandymphotents are vastly limited in their abilities. Yes, they can warp reality, but only under certain temporary conditions, usually tied to their sex drives or sexual activities, to ensure their powers are mostly used for erotic fun. The scale of their powers is vastly reduced, enabling them to only affect a small amount of area at a time, within a limited range. They also cannot make persistent changes to reality; beings and structures they create will fade as their powers do, when their abilities inevitably wind down. Very minor exceptions may be small things to improve their quality of life, such as improving their or their partner’s health, giving themselves some extra cash, etc., but nothing so drastic that it will make other people take notice.
 
 
THE MASQUERADE
The Masquerade largely exists to cover the antics of the Empowered. Naturally, if an Omny wants to hide her actions, she can just do so actively as she goes about her sexcapades. The Omnys could do the same for the Empowered, but it’s easier to just let a self-sustaining, adaptive global illusion spell do the trick on its own.
 
The Masquerade will automatically tilt probability and slightly edit mortal memory so as to prevent the confirmation of supernatural forces by the masses. For example, if an Empowered decides to fly through the air, if they are a reasonable distance from any potential observers, than the Masquerade will nudge the people in the area to simply not look in the woman’s direction. If by chance someone happens to look up and see the woman, they will misremember her as a bird. Camera footage will simply show a blur or not render her at all or the equipment will suddenly fail to work at the time.
 
If the Empowered does something particularly outstanding in such a way that a group of people cannot possibly miss what happened, but there is a possible rational excuse for what they saw, then the people will be convinced of the excuse. For example, if a woman spits a massive gout of fire in the air in middle of a crowd, the Masquerade will make people think she must have used some kind of prop or hidden tool or perform a normal fire-breather magic trick.
 
In the most extreme cases where the Masquerade cannot reasonably compensate for such details, an Omnymphotent will be alerted to the problem, and she will personally bend reality to undo the event. This rarely needs to happen, but if it does, the Empowered risks losing their supernatural gift if there wasn’t an absolutely necessary reason for such exposure. As afore mentioned, the Omnys tend to already pick women who will not blow their cover, even if they may cheekily test the limits a bit, so circumstances must indeed be extremely unusual for this to happen.
 
An Empowered is allowed to share her abilities with their lovers, and a small handful of trusted friends and family. Even if those people attempt to share their knowledge, they will find it impossible to prove to anyone else, no matter how elaborate a scheme they try to pull off to reveal it. If it comes down to it, and a person who tries hard enough to betray an Empowered’s trust will find their memories of such knowledge erased, and if necessary, events of the recent past edited to compensate for necessary changes to enforce it.
 
 
EMPOWERED IN SOCIETY
The Empowered are pretty scattered around the world; it’s generally unlikely that more than three will be within a hundred miles of one another. As many as ten-thousand Empowered exist, but being so scattered, there is little way to facilitate any sort of active “secret society” of their own. Instead, they are simply part of the wider Plaything sub-culture, communicating through the hidden online community of the PlayNet and meeting up during Omny sex parties. Within these shared spaces, the Empowered are usually treated with deference by the men and women aware of their blessed status.
 
Despite their powers, Empowered are still just mortals, and must still deal with living mortal lives. Unlike the Omnys, they still have obligations of jobs, bills, schooling to complete, romantic commitments, personal ambitions, and/or kids to raise. Their powers may or may not make things easier in their lives.
 
Likewise, despite their higher than average sex drives, they are not the rampant sex fiends the Omnys are. Sex with an Empowered is just normal sex with a little extra to add to the fun, and even the horniest of them have reasonable limits to their erotic fun. Even the Grandymphotents tend to use their abilities sparingly due to the built in limitations of their abilities, and that’s perfectly fine by them.
 
Many end up with dedicated partners, if they didn’t already have them when Empowered. Moments of kinky superhuman mischief aside, most Empowered enjoy perfectly normal relationships with other mortals.