Announcing Beyond 21XX: A Mega Man Fan Initiative

“Approximately 90% of all Reploids, and 60% of all humans, were wiped out.”

In 2004, as I played Mega Man Zero 3 on the Game Boy Advance, those words haunted me. I knew the series was darker than any Mega Man that had come before, but… those numbers…

Though I’ve only recently begun to write and really share my characters with the world, they go back. Way back. Some, all the way back into the late ’90s. I was doing things with them, mostly in RPGs, but also in fan fiction and art (if you draw a picture of your own character who lives in someone else’s world, is it still technically “fan art”?).

I didn’t like it. Sure, it was their world to do with what they wish, but as a fan who had invested a bit of himself in their world in such a way? I didn’t like it.

Yes, I could have said my character survived, I guess. Someone had to make up the remaining 10 percent, after all. The problem was, I didn’t have just one character — I had several. So did my friends. We had been eking out our own little corner of the world of 21XX, largely adhering to the canon of the games we loved as much as we could (perhaps largely at my own behest, I will admit). Suddenly, here came Capcom and Inti Creates, effectively sealing their fates. If they didn’t die sooner, then statistically speaking, they would die later.

Sure, we could theoretically have had all our characters survive. But that idea left a bad taste in my mouth, personally. What would make them so special, to not die in a war that would claim countless other lives (effectively making them Mary Sues, of a sort)? Or we could find some way to take them out on our own terms — to cut their lives, to cut their existences short.

But is it really on your own terms, if it’s basically one of two choices given to you? Maybe, but in a limited way. Guillotine, or firing squad? Not much of a choice there, is it? Either way, you die; the only choice you’ve made is how.

Eventually, I thought to myself: What if there was a third option? One that allowed me to let my characters live to their fullest potential, without the cloud of the Elf Wars looming large over them? One that went beyond the two paths Capcom had laid out for us.

That option would be to go Beyond 21XX.

And it was an option I realized I didn’t have to keep to myself, to partake in on my own.

Beyond 21XX is not a fanfic. It’s not an RPG, a game, a cartoon, a comic, or any single one of those things. At the same time, it can also be all of those things.

Beyond 21XX is an all-new setting in the Mega Man Universe, meant to serve as a backdrop for new adventures beyond the boundaries of the games, for those who wish to partake in it. There is a rough outline, but it’s up to you, the fans of Mega Man, to fill in the details. It’s a place for old and new fan characters alike, for new stories told in a new world that’s still tied to the games and history we grew up with, that inspired us to create Mega Man fan material in the first place.

It’s a world of possibilities, set against a war spanning thousands of years across various planets. As revealed in Legends of the Halcyon Era – Revelations: The Legacy of Avion, it’s where the forces of Avion fight to free worlds from the grasp of the Repliforce, and to bring peace back to this corner of the universe. Many characters can battle it out — or not — in a variety of different conflicts.

It is, if nothing else, as flexible as the world of Mega Man has shown itself to be.

Perhaps in one time and place, a group of Reploids and humans fight in a realistic war scenario reminiscent of Gundam or Robotech. In another, perhaps they gain special powers that allow them to combat Repliforce’s monster-of-the-week in a fashion reminiscent of Kamen Rider or Super Sentai/Power Rangers. Maybe a group lands on a planet where things are settled through one-on-one combat tournaments? Or maybe something akin to Transformers, Star Wars, Star Trek, Star Fox, or some other fiction that doesn’t have “Star” in the title better suits your fancy? It’s your choice.

Space is a big place, several thousand years is a long time, and I can’t fill it alone. Are you in?

This is for those who want to respect Capcom’s canon, but don’t want their creations to be bound by it, their fates to be determined by it.

Capcom doesn’t get to decide whether Mega Man lives or dies; we do. Mega Man is an idea, and ideas never die as long as people keep thinking about them. I have no plans to stop thinking about Mega Man any time soon.

Star Trek, one of the biggest multimedia franchises in the world today, was cancelled during its initial TV run. It found new life in syndication, effectively the TV broadcast equivalent of the Legacy Collections we’re seeing now. New people discovered it and talked about it, and that gave way to a motion picture series, followed by numerous subsequent television series. In a way, sort of the reverse of the influx of different series we got before things went quiet, but just the same.

We keep talking. We keep remembering. We keep Mega Man alive. And we do it our way.

#WeAreMegaMan #WeAreRockman

I’m still figuring things out on how to do this, but if others are interested in joining me on this journey to create a new corner of the Mega Man universe, maybe we can figure it out together.

On that note, one very important thing I want to emphasize is that I retain full rights to my own concepts and creations, but on that same note, so do you for yours. You’re free to use whatever Beyond 21XX material of mine you like for fan fiction, fan art, role playing games, videos, music, fan games, whatever — as long as you’re not trying to do some sort of commercial product with it or otherwise monetize it. (If you’re interested in something like that, talk to me, maybe we can come to some sort of agreement.)

More to come!

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Thanks for reading! And in case you haven’t heard, re-upping our hosting for the next few years took a big bite out of our bank account, so if you like what we’re doing here, would like to see us expand our breadth of content, and can kick in a few bucks to our Patreon or buy us an E Tank on Ko-fi, we’d greatly appreciate it!

Black Draco and New General character designs by LBD “Nytetrayn” and Victor Campan. Character art by Victor Campan. Beyond 21XX logo by EFEXTEX. Arrangement by LBD “Nytetrayn”. Beyond 21XX theme “Galactic Voyage” and video by Jewel Maiden.