As the babies grew to children, they developed at a remarkably advanced rate. By the age of five, all were masters of the written word, able to read encyclopedias at a glance and remember the contents perfectly. They had superb knowledge of the sciences, math, and virtually any other subject taught in schools. The teachers finally gave up on their young charges; most of them knew the subjects better than the teachers! They had incredible presence of mind and never seemed to be disturbed by anything; only pain could get their attention, and that only for a short time.
The population of each town was evenly divided between the male children and the female, with an extra female added in; this seemed to be the childrens' leader, the one who spoke for all of them. In appearance, the children were nearly identical and seemed to strive for that "sameness" by wearing matching outfits and styling their hair the same way. Their clothing was always impeccable, prep-school uniforms and they always kept their hair short. All had pale skin tones (but not grotesquely so; closer to a healthy pink) and light eyes. Most striking, however, was their hair--which was completely white.
The children paired up, one to one, a male with a female. These couples walked side by side whenever the group went anywhere, lining up behind their leader in some sort of social order. While the children seemed vastly advanced for five-year-olds, they were notably deficient in one category: none of them seemed to have any emotions. Right along with being imperturbable against intimidation tactics and unafraid of anything, they lacked a capacity to love or to be excited by anything. Their "coolness under fire" was thus actually little more than a null or dead state that they constantly existed in.
And they were evil.
While not strictly evil by the usual idea of that moral conception, they were most certainly malevolent. They considered themselves to be a higher species than humanity, one destined to inherit (take) the world from them. They realized right away that if the world was to have any place for them, human beings had to die; the childrens' nature made them instinctive conquerors, and it would be inevitable for them to clash with mankind. Even enslaved, humans would pose a threst to them, so humans--all humans--had to die. And they had the means to do it too.
Their heightened intellectual capabilities also included vast psionic powers, far greater than any individual human. In addition, they could combine their powers, making them many times more deadly. Their psionics ranged from the simple acts of speed reading and total recall to the amazing (and horrfying) ability to completely dominate a person's mind! Whenever they used their powers (always discretely so as not to attract unwanted governmental attention), their eyes glowed with an unearthly light. The more powerful the command, or the greater the target's defenses, the brighter the glow. Relatively benign commands elicited a blue or green glow; harmful or suicidal commands, a red glow burning up the spectrum into a sizzling white.
When their true nature became apparent, several attempts were made on their lives. These failed miserably when the children "sensed" the coming attack and forced the would-be assassins to take their own lives. This cowed most of the other inhabitants of their towns. The only exception was Midwich; a young doctor there (whose daughter, incidentally, was the leader of the town's children) took it upon himself to try and teach the children about human emotion and morality. When this failed, he decided that the only recourse was the childrens' destruction. But how to keep them from knowing the murder in his heart? That was the real problem.
As it happened, the doctor was a latent psychic whose powers were activated by his dilemma. He managed to develop a mental shield that protected his thoughts from the children until he was ready to strike. In the meantime, the governments of the world coordinated air strikes against the towns dominated by the children; Midwich was last on the list for that night. A government agent warned the doctor to get out of town before the air raid hit; he ignored her warning and learned that one of the children--a boy name David--had changed somehow. Unlike the other children, he was not evil, nor was he emotionless. It became a race against time to save David and destroy his evil brothers and sisters.
The doctor allowed David's mother to smuggle her son out of Midwich, and returned to the other children with a high-explosive device. They bombarded his mind, attempting to discover his plan. They finally penetrated his formmidable defenses, but it was too late. The bomb detonated and killed them all.
Or so it was thought.
2005: Aftermath
As he grew
older, David was able to grant some enlightenment on the subjectof what the
children really were. Some of the information also came into the hands of the
Seekers, who were absolutely repelled by what they found.
Midwich and its foreign equivalents were in truth a plot of the diabolic Nightlords! More specifically, the plan was developed and spread by the usually incompetent Lord Magog. It was, in fact, his incompetence (and the reduced power of the Nightlords before Dark Day) that caused the plan to fail so spectacularly. Instead of paying close attention to the plot and seeing it through, he abandoned the children to their own devices shortly after their creation.
These beings, known commonly as Midwich Children, are the result of combining dark sorcery with an unfertilized egg. The child is granted great power, but is stripped of its basic humanity, causing it to become cold and distant. Children are always born in pairs (not to the same mother, but somehow they always know who is whose partner) and develop fast, reaching full mental maturity at about five years of age (although their powers manifest sporadically all through their infancy).
Their appearance is the result of a sick joke on the part of Lord Magog--he designed them to look like Guardians, without the uniformly blue eyes (but their "leaders" are always blue-eyed). The light that emanates from their eyes when they use their powers is another extension of that joke; Magog thought it terribly funny that he had created creatures of darkness which used light as their trademark.
The secret of their creation is just that--a secret. None of the other Nightlords--including the ones that went in with Magog on the original plan--know how to create Midwich Children. Speculation ranges from the fairly reasonable assumption that they are created through the combination of a human spirit with a fragment of his essence (similar to the Create Avatar power) to the totally unfounded (and totally untrue) rumor that the Magog has a link with the Dark and is using its power to create children for it!
Despite the fact that they are intrinsically emotionless, some aspect or facet of their partly human nature allows them to "learn" emotions. The most prominent of these "reformed" Children is David, the last of the original Midwich Children. He developed emotions when he realized that humans were just as valid (if not more so) a life form as his kind. This realization stemmed from his snubbing by the others of his kind after the death of his opposite number. When his kin wanted nothing to do with him, he spent more and more time with humans, developing sympathy and even love for them. David's mother smuggled him out of Midwich, and he spent years with her in learning about the human condition.
David's mother died on Dark Day at the claws of a rogue Ashmedai, which David slew only a moment later. As Dark Day passed, David came out of his mourning, knowing--feeling--that his "creators" had entered the world of light once more. He took the battle to the Nightlords and their minions, battling them at every turn, and has never regretted doing so; in his mind, it is the only proper way to honor his mother's memory.
David also learned in his travels that with the inception of Dark Day, Magog--ever lazy and trying to get the most out of any scheme--decided that his plan was a good one, deserving of another try. A dozen colonies of the "Midwich Children" were created on that day, all located in Magog's Earthly realm, the Midwest. With all the chaos and anarchy, few seemed surprised that entire towns had simply passed out and remained uncoscious for the duration. No one investigated for too long after the event passed--the rest of the country was too busy going to hell in a handbasket.
A small number of Spook Squad members had access to the Midwich files (located under the code name of "The Cuckoo Incident"). After they discovered the new influx of Midwich Children, they made a cold-blooded calculation to kidnap several of the undeveloped infants. Figuring that such beings would be valuable tools (if trained properly) the Squad has had them raised them in relatively normal environments, instructing the adoptive parents (usually deep-cover agents) never to tell the child of his or her true heritage. Such Children are being trained for utter loyalty to the Squad and the offensive use of their powers.
David has also learned of these new children. With fear in his heart, he spent time in one of their colonies. He decided that he himself was the best possible argument for keeping the children alive and has settled in that colony with the goal of teaching the children about benevolence and love. He has also made contact with two other towns of Children and visits them often. So far his lesson has been well received, and the caste/pairing system has broken down. But as the children blossom into their full power, who knows what will happen...
(Note: If you wish to use David as an NPC in your campaign, here are his
pertinent attributes: IQ 20, ME 23, MA 16, PS 5, PP 12, PE 9, PB 21, Spd 4;
Scrupulous alignment; 4th level Miwich Child. He appears to be a child of about
eight or nine years of age, with blue eyes and blond hair. David's foster
parents are members of the Seeker faction and are both 5th level Sorcerers; they
know about the other colonies, but have taken no action against them yet. They
genuinely care about David and his "students," and David loves them as
well.)