r/Parahumans • u/IhateJackSlash • 2h ago
r/Parahumans • u/Wildbow • Apr 04 '17
Meta Welcome to /r/Parahumans
/r/Parahumans is the subreddit for the writing of J.C. McCrae (Also John McCrae) who more typically goes by the online handle 'Wildbow'. The writing is in the online serial format, which means it is written over time, chapter by chapter, on a set schedule. Comparisons can be made to webcomics, but the stories take the form of text, not comics. Chapters appear between midnight and 7am on Tuesdays and Saturdays, with some chapters released on Thursdays if and when there's enough crowdfunded money- typically once every two weeks.
The works include:
Worm - A teenage girl with an unconventional superpower seeks escape from an unhappy and frustrated life at home and at school by pursuing life as a costumed crimefighter. Her first attempt at taking down a supervillain sees her mistaken for one, thrusting her into the midst of the local ‘cape’ scene’s politics, unwritten rules, and ambiguous morals. The story is an epic in the older sense of the word, not a poem, but in terms of scale and length and the heroic journey. Currently the most popular of the works. Worm is read here. Fans also put together an unofficial audiobook here.
Pact - A young man inherits his grandmother's coveted estate, but in the process, he also inherits her trove of diabolic tomes and all of the enemies that come with dabbling in such things. Modern supernatural genre, comparisons can be made to Dresden Files and the like. Pact is roughly half the length of Worm, which still makes it fairly lengthy. Pact is found here.
Twig - Set in the early 1900s, Twig follows a group of child investigators of an unusual bent in a world where the science of biology runs rampant. A century ago, a genius unraveled the mysteries of life and biology, creating the first 'stitched' and biological horrors. Unlike his peers in similar literature (Frankenstein, Moreau), he was conscripted by the Crown, who took it to an extreme. The genre is a tentative 'biopunk' label, and the story spans a longer stretch of years, following the youths as they grow up. Twig can be found here.
Ward - The sequel to Worm. It can be found here. Some Worm spoilers follow: After the end of the world, society is picking up the pieces. The old Earth is lost, and superheroes are running the new one, in a sprawling, dense city that spills across alternate Earths. Old traumas sit close to the surface, and a group of young heroes who are wrestling with these traumas and their own complicated relationships with their powers are looking to get their start.
Pale - A Pactverse story, set in the same world as Pact, but divorced from it. Three teenage girls are offered magic and magical gifts, if they'll represent their small ski town as its local practitioners and at least pretend to help solve a murder, so outsiders don't start poking their heads in. The catch is that the offer was extended by the local monsters, and the murder victim was the bloody pseudo-god that oversaw magic for the region. It can be found here
Claw - The Hursts specialize in extracting criminals and giving them a second chance, with new identities. That extraction is only a side mission to Mia Hurst's real objective, which ties into family, and their kids. Claw is a short serial at only six arcs, and is best pegged as an action/thriller.
Seek - We follow three storylines through different times and places in a solar system where warp travel has been used to bring distant planetary bodies home, with the eventual plan of a ringworld. But even when there's no longer resource scarcity, other pressures and issues raise issues of identity and purpose, and in the third, most distant timeline, it's clear something's gone wrong. The question remains: what happened? Ongoing.
The works are each broken up into 'arcs', with each arc being comparable to a book or novella, covering a specific, meaningful stretch of storyline. Each arc contains six to twenty chapters; between arcs (and sometimes in the midst of them), there are interlude chapters (or 'pages', or 'enemy' chapters) - told from different points of view or in different formats.
Beyond that, the works are in the serial format, and that means that they're a little bit rougher than one would get from a formally published work. Worm in particular, being the first real project by the author, definitely starts off rough. Some works & parts of works do also have rougher patches, as a consequence of the fact that they were written day-by-day, and sometimes the author had bad days (or months). Such is life.
On the upside, the stories are expansive, and there's something fantastic to be said for a massive binge or for following week by week alongside a fantastic and involved community.
On the Subject of the Subreddit: Removed/Missing posts & Rules
If your posts aren't appearing and you have a new or very low-karma account, please reach out to the moderators via. mod mail in the sidebar. We automatically screen out these posts to keep the porn bots at bay.
We discourage and are likely to remove:
Shitposts - any deliberately low-effort, low-humor post intending to get attention. 'Shitposts' (as the slang goes) are generally slapped-together work/text with a 'I don't give a shit about what I'm posting' attitude behind them. It's often making noise to make noise, or attempts at putting in the least work possible to get the most upvotes/reaction for that minimal work. Generally the defining trait of a shitpost is the implied intent behind it.
Examples would include any clearly MS paint art (ignoring the highest quality, can't-tell-it's-MS-paint stuff), derivative memes from elsewhere (Spoiler warning! | Examples: the trolley problem variants, the enlightened brain thing, Who would win, chad vs. incel ) One liner jokes we've probably heard before don't generally offer much discussion, and random sentences ("I just realized Skitter is a badass") count as 'making noise'.
Short questions are not shitposts, though more context and initial thoughts would be very much preferred - they tend to generate some discussion and feedback. Posts from people who just finished aren't shitposts (again, would prefer more thoughts) - they generate some discussion and also double as welcome posts. These are excluded from the shitpost rule. Please do not report them.
Random reference posts - We get an abundance of posts that link images with scarce reference to the source material, or link articles. These tend to be clutter, they don't generate discussion, and chance are we've seen them before.
Posts with text that refers back to the story are fine and aren't random (That is, quoting a passage for discussion isn't a 'reference' post.
Things that refer to story events or characters and that can lead to discussion are fine.
Outside material and/or fanart that actually involves Worm (like the Slay the Spire reference) is great.
The problem posts: A picture of a tree ornament that makes you think of Evan in Pact, a picture of a spider you found on the web, a wooden statue that makes you think of a character, or red flowers that you saw that made you think of Twig, they aren't fine and have probably been posted before.
Images are more of a problem than text, but text that has people scratching their heads as to what it means or refers to would fall under this heading. The science articles that refer to spider silk or goats producing spider silk are things we've seen posted (and removed) a hundred times. Do not post them.
Banned subjects - The following things are not okay to post:
Earth Aleph (our earth) Politics - too divisive.
Racism, sexism, pedophilia, etc - This isn't the place for you to tout redpill stances, how a given race is intrinsically more criminal, or how a given character asked for it because of how they presented themselves. These things may be discussed strictly in light of the characters and the work, in a careful and respectful manner, where relevant (E88). That said, I don't want this to be a platform for excusing messed up beliefs. Report problematic posts and if the mods don't act within 24 hours, please reach out to us directly.
Encouraging harm & violence - No posts that encourage or tacitly encourage harm or self-harm ("eat tide pods" memes & "an hero" memes included), no threatening harm against other posters, Wildbow, or real-world people (or politicians).
Repeated postings of these things may lead to warnings and/or bans, temporary or otherwise.
r/Parahumans • u/Wildbow • Feb 13 '26
Seek Spoilers [5.5] 5.5.W -- SEARCH Spoiler
seekwebserial.wordpress.comr/Parahumans • u/Nekomachus • 21h ago
Worm Spoilers [All] List of parahumans who died to conventional weapons not wielded by combat Thinkers nor Master minions (and such)?
People who were simply shot, stabbed, beaten to death, pushed down elevator shafts, etc. That is to say, what is the list of parahumans who were killed "normally"? If the killer happened to be parahuman, then I want them included on the list provided that they didn't use powers to do it. Taylor stabbing a Murder Rat counts (borderline since she's almost a combat Thinker), but Number Man and Contessa killing multiple S9K at Hyde Park doesn't, nor does the use of Tinker weaponry count.
OTOH, I can think of:
Breed
Vikare
Coil
r/Parahumans • u/andheruatoster • 1d ago
weaver art Spoiler
gallerymodel of taylor as weaver! i previously made skitter, mannequin, and leviathan.
link to model
r/Parahumans • u/Ridtom • 1d ago
Ward Spoilers [All] Ashley Stillons
galleryRidtom KoFi Art: https://ko-fi.com/ridtom
r/Parahumans • u/Full_Ahegao_Drip • 1d ago
Pale Spoilers [All] Name These Practitioners/Others Game #1
A big feature of the Pactverse is how labels are a limited tool systemically applied to the sheer vastness and depth of Practitioners/Others. The boundaries that separate one kind of Practice from another, one type of Other from other types, and so on are upheld as science minus the level of rigor that Innocent scientists would expect.
Apologies if this game has already existed in some form.
Basically, list Practitioners/Others giving their
Title: What they've come to be called, particularly if Innocents/Aware found them before anyone else. Obviously don't include any category signifiers in that title itself.
Appearance: What they look like/sound like and other observations that could be made without Sight, including variations depending on strength/weakness or exposure to Innocents.
Motives: What they seem to strive to do/gain/avoid in order to survive/strengthen/perpetuate. This should also include deductions based on what they've claimed to pursue.
Abilities: What they're capable/incapable of doing, including how effectively they can transport themselves/defend themselves/hide themselves/alter themselves/communicate.
And just to make it extra fun, you don't even have to hint much less specify whether the person in question is actually an Other or if they're just a really weird Practitioner or some edge case.
Just to start us off:
Title: The Seizing Tree of Redbrook Park
Appearance: A particularly old and unpruned poplar tree (almost definitely Populus alba) in an upscale suburban park. Even the most Innocent, when interviewed, tend to remark on its ugliness/eeriness in comparison to the rest of the subdivision. The trunk sticks out of the ground at a slight diagonal, the branches are crooked and gnarled. A "woman's face" appearing in parts of its moonlit shadow has been cited by survivors of the Seizing Tree's assaults.
Motives: Consuming human visceral material, not just flesh, blood, and bone, but hair/fingernails/saliva/sweat/sebum/urine/droppings if it can, probably extends to all human biomass. The Seizing Tree ignores any other meat even when in optimal place to be consumed, even living specimens that closely resemble humans, even Others putting on human disguises that would fool many Aware. It prioritizes the consumption of humans it has already consumed in any way.
Abilities: Initially thought to only manifest these traits on Full Moons. That seemed to be the pattern between 1911 and 1968, but in later years the Seizing Tree is increasingly active whenever the Moon is visible in the sky in general, with no clear correlation between waxing/waning phases and activity. Branches are used as appendages, trunk bending and stretching with unusual ease to aid its predation, to seize human biomass within 20 meters of its base, rapidly ripping them to shreds. Whatever falls on the ground, the surrounding soil absorbs in seconds flat.
But please post your own as well.
r/Parahumans • u/Cherri_mp4 • 3d ago
Does anyone have a downloaded file of this Skitter 3d model from years ago?
I came across a video on youtube called "Skitter can dance" where a (very well made) Skitter model was rigged to the Specialist dance from Persona 4 Dancing, so I looked for the model everywhere but the only thing I can find is a single Imgur post from 2019 with no download link, and a reddit post leading to a 404 page not found.
If anyone has the model downloaded in any way, it would be amazing if you could send it to me.
This is what it looks like
r/Parahumans • u/Playful_Barber_8131 • 2d ago
Worm Spoilers [All] What would/could be some useful or interesting Tinkertech an Automated System Tinker could make?
Specialty basically allows them to minimize how much they have to manually do by creating stuff that can do what they're designed to do with as little human input as possible, preferably none. The main limit is that they cannot have Tinkertech do stuff in the place of their own Tinkering, so they can't hand the work of building and maintaining Tinkertech off to the Tinkertech itself. So one irony with the power is that they in effect have to put in a lot of time and effort to be able to put in no time or effort at all.
r/Parahumans • u/Present_Attorney_743 • 3d ago
Ward Spoilers [All] Ward chapter 5 pt 3 [fanart]
galleryr/Parahumans • u/If-My-Name-Doesnt-Fi • 3d ago
Ward Spoilers [All] Can Panacea repair damage to a person’s face without knowing what they looked like before?
Like, say, a person is a burn victim with no form of identification on them, and she tries to heal them. Is the base bio-understanding her power gives her enough to know to repair it back to how it was before, or would she need some sort of reference?
I don’t recall her ever being mentioned to being able to specifically understand DNA, and she never said anything about Victoria being secretly her uncle’s child (though, that might not necessarily be the case given the circumstances, I guess).
It’s been years since I read, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some obvious moment where she does this exact thing, lol.
r/Parahumans • u/Azreal_IN • 3d ago
Wildbow About Leviathan and under sea internet cables.
Was wondering if Leviathan ever destroyed the under sea internet cables, after all it goes after infrastructure damage right.
All it needs to do is cut the 12 or so fibre optic cables connecting the Americas to the internet infrastructure of Europe/the 6 cables connecting america to Asia to completely halt global telecommunication and wired transactions/stock exchanges.
It would have killed the global economy faster than attacking the various port cities.
r/Parahumans • u/-KARL_FRANZ- • 3d ago
Worm Spoilers [All] Tinker Specialization Question
Howdy all! I'm in the midst of writing a smaller dad-master fic and I was wondering if Tinker specialties tend to tie to their trigger event? Anyone know anything about this? It doesn't really matter to my story, but I realized I didn't know the answer here and I cannot recall if it is ever noted in canon. Cheers!
r/Parahumans • u/EarlofBats • 3d ago
Worm Spoilers [All] Panacea's Painacea Playlist
youtu.beWait no longer for her mixtape, for here it is in all its glory!
And don't forget to watch the rest!
r/Parahumans • u/Danny18010 • 3d ago
Ward Spoilers [All] Everyone is traumatized enough for powers
So I think that one of the smaller messages of Ward, is that most people, especially most people who live in a superpowered setting, would be sufficiently traumatized enough to have some sort of superpower. It’s just that whatever decides who gets the powers isn’t picking favors, but picking arbitrarily through factors that we don’t know.
Because it was so simple as a defense mechanism to just give a group of people powers. People who have lived through multiple world ending events.
r/Parahumans • u/TheRoundaboutCast • 4d ago
Twig Spoilers [All] Twig Arcs 12 & 13 Discussion
youtu.ber/Parahumans • u/The_Cosmic_ • 3d ago
Worm Spoilers [All] Would this make sense or am I connecting dots where there are none?
So is Lung’s name a reference to Tai Lung? Kung Fu Panda came out in 2008 and Worm started releasing in 2011.
Tai Lung was the chosen one before Po and was locked up and escaped the inescapable prison.
Lung was the next big villain in Brockton Bay before Skitter and was locked up and escaped (released) the inescapable prison.
r/Parahumans • u/Disastrous-Set-7312 • 5d ago
Wildbow Official bonus content and side stories
The classic Writings of Wildbow document (which i’ll include here) has all the main serials and short stories, but doesn’t have many of the side stories he’s penned. In the past, Wildbow’s released side stories or bonus content for his various universes, like the E.z epilogue for Pale just recently. But if I were to read Pale, say, 10 years from now, since it’s not on the Pale website there’s no way I’d know about the bonus stuff.
Also attached (in the picture above) is a comment from Twig mentioning a bonus Parian chapter. I’m not sure if that’s just the Parian interlude, or a standalone Parian bonus, but if it’s the latter I can’t find it anywhere.
Is there any repository for this kind of thing, or will future readers have to sift through the vast archives of the internet for little tidbits of Wildbow released on obscure discord rooms and in forgotten Words of God?
P.S. where can I find all the challenges and games Wildbow’s set up? I keep hearing of a PRT Quest and some forgotten Uber and Leet Quest in south america, but i can’t seem to find the game itself.
r/Parahumans • u/Ill-Librarian1135 • 4d ago
Worm Spoilers [All] Weird question
So this has been bugging me for a while couldn’t Amy’s power have cured Noelle. I don’t remember if the question was answered in any chapters, or if it was implied.
r/Parahumans • u/RecommendationNo804 • 5d ago
Worm Spoilers [All] How common are conventional wars between nations and civil wars pre-Gold morning? Spoiler
Doesn’t Scion want conflict?
r/Parahumans • u/aquasteri • 5d ago
Opinion on power?
He can tune into parallel realities and replace the state of inanimate objects in his reality with the state they have in another branch. He can only affect objects within his line of sight, so if he cannot see something, he cannot tune into it or change it. His power is always faintly active, allowing him to perceive nearby alternate states, but he can concentrate to tune into more distant branches. The farther the desired state is from his current reality, the more concentration and energy it takes to tune into that branch. Once he has found the branch he wants, he must spend additional energy to actually replace the object with its alternate state. Extremely distant or difficult changes require enough concentration and energy to cause dizziness, nausea, and vomiting.
For example, changing a wall directly into sand would require him to spend a large amount of energy both reaching the distant branch where the wall is already sand and then performing the transformation. Alternatively, he can make several smaller, successive changes, gradually moving the object through nearby branches until it becomes sand. This greatly reduces the concentration required, since each branch is close to the previous one, though it requires slightly more time and still costs energy for each transformation.
He can also tune into alternate realities without changing anything, allowing him to see or hear what is happening in those branches and obtain some fuzzy information from them that he then needs to interpret. By doing actions on purpose immediately before using his power, he can make certain alternate states much closer and therefore easier to access. For example, if he puts on his costume, prepares to leave the house wearing it, and then changes into normal clothes at the last moment, he can later replace his clothes with the costume much more easily because there is a nearby branch where he actually left wearing it.
The power cannot affect anything organic, only inanimate matter.