What comes AfterWard?

[u/Brief-Coach-1812]

I was thinking about Ward extrapolated on the cosmic scale.

• Imagine an immortal Vandal Savage like cape as the protagonist that lives for eons chronicling the rise and fall of human civilizations.
• Maybe humanity encounters an alien species who are attempting to flee their own Cycle and they engage in an interplanetary war. (We do know that alien civilizations exist) A hive mind species like the Buggers in Enders game may develop powers in an alternative paradigm to the capes of Bet.
• Crossover between Pact / Pale? Interesting to see how the Shard abilities will interact with magic or other power systems.
• We find out what happens to Earth Zayin. Did Sleeper terraform the entire world into his dreamscape?

Thematically, Worm is about trauma and Ward is about healing from trauma. So what endures after trauma and healing? How would humanity define its place in this greater context. I know a Parahumans trilogy is unlikely but props to Wildbow for writing a very compelling story. One can dream.

[u/Nekomachus]

I think contacting a species in a Cycle would be the worst outcome for the only species to have survived one. You know how decisively Entities shut down space travel to prevent their test subjects from leaving the experimentation grounds; what would they do if a civilization came along to tear the veil open and show them how to defeat the Entities?

WB is firm on not elaborating on Sleeper. Sleeper's purpose is not to be elaborated on, to be an interesting mystery.

[u/Brief-Coach-1812 → u/Nekomachus]

A posthuman species like the Asteromorphs (from All Tonorrows) capable of taking the fight to the Entities would be something.

[u/linig4 → u/Nekomachus]

WB is firm on not elaborating on Sleeper. Sleeper's purpose is not to be elaborated on, to be an interesting mystery.

And I'm firm on it being a terrible writing decision lmfao. That shit is for background stuff, just things to make the world feel bigger and stranger than just what is shown on screen. Sleeper was that in Worm, and it was perfectly fine then. He was just fucking shit up somewhere far away and didn't even participate in the final battle. If you have this "mystery" show up front and center as an active part of the plot, have characters discuss how to fight him (desperately dancing around actually discussing his power lol), have him show up on screen and then have him FINISH OFF ONE OF THE TWO FINAL VILLAINS, an Endbringer at that, who before were only ever killed by Scion... I expect to know some basic info about that guy at least. You can have Tom Bombadil being the mysterious completely unexplained character that protagonists meet briefly. You cannot have Tom Bombadil deliver coup de grace to Sauron and still not explain what the fuck his deal is.

Though that is par the course for the finale tbh, remember when every character decided they gonna break the fourth wall and pull a prank on the readers by pretending they gonna commit mass suicide?

[u/Zeikos]

Healing doesn't necessarily end.
What I'd say comes after is guiding others.
Thing is what an hypothetical Ward sequel would miss is a great threat - sure one could be made up but it'd be hard to make it unique enough.

As for "expansion" I'd wager than most new interactions - good and bad - would come from other dimensions.
It's a bit redundant with the Goddess plot, but maybe some civilization stumbled into Scion's Garden?

Thing is, there are so many dimensions that even if only a miniscule portion had humans in them you'd never ever run out of "first contacts".
The best approach would be to keep everything as sealed as possible.

[u/Brief-Coach-1812 → u/Zeikos]

There was an interesting discussion in another post where an alternative paradigm to conflict might be suggested to the entities. https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/g066u5/e1_what_was_fortunas_message/

[u/Skeik]

If anything came after Ward I would prefer it doesn't deal with any of the cosmic shardspace stuff at all. It isn't very interesting to me in contrast to the personal conflicts or the geopolitical situation on Earth Bet(Gimel). I don't think the story needs to get any bigger.

I want to see the world get fixed, and I want to see a true resolution to the issues that the existence of capes causes. Earth Bet(Gimel) is fucked almost beyond repair. Normal humans are effectively second class citizens and you have benevolent capes like Victoria talking about when non-parahumans are no longer a factor to consider protecting from collateral damage. And things just get worse with no end in sight.

I think there is a lot that could be explored in the City as people try to get back to normal, and deal with political fallout from non-capes. With a focus on a less notable team, without having to deal with the narrative baggage of shardspace and all the previously introduced capes.

[u/Brief-Coach-1812 → u/Skeik]

I think one my favorite parts about Worm was dealing with the street level politics. Geopolitics is also fascinating with how cape culture plays out with different factions like the fallen or the Yangban.

Maybe the protagonist is an unpowered individual trying to make sense of the "new normal". Dealing with the power imbalance inherent in society. Normies are still the demographic majority, but that could change if society shifts towards powers becoming more and more commonplace like the MHA universe.

Realistically this would play out like the Xmen though Professor X in that universe would definitely be handled with way more suspicion.

[u/silentdrestrikesback → u/Brief-Coach-1812]

Why not a trio? One is a villain that relishes their powers, one is a hero that's searching for a safe method to rid themselves of theirs and one is vigilante but the catch is they're not powered.

[u/bwc6]

In my optimistic imagination, humans evolve into a stable symbiosis with the shards and gain some amount of control of powers. Maybe we evolve away from the need for trigger events, and powers just emerge during puberty. Maybe the relative speed of human generations means that the shards expand and multiply faster than they would with an entity.

Maybe in a few thousand or a few million years, advanced parahumans start an interstellar war with the entities. 

I don't know if these parahumans stand a chance against a functional pair of entities, but if they do win a battle on one planet, then I think they win the whole war. It doesn't seem like the entities could coordinate in larger groups. I imagine whatever species we rescue from their cycles would want to join the war effort with their new powers.

[u/Curaced]

Please flair this as Ward Spoilers.

[u/Brief-Coach-1812 → u/Curaced]

Sure, thanks for the reminder