In the early 1970’s a massive multi-collegiate organization of archaeological university programs coordinated a world wide research project into ancient cultures common mythologies surrounding the existence of an underworld. Digs were conducted in Mayan, Aztec, Sumerian, Egyptian, Hungarian, Chinese and many other ancient ruins around the world. In some locations divers needed to scuba deep into underwater tunnels, at other sites spelunkers crawled through confined cave systems of unnatural origins. Deeper and deeper the researchers went and the deeper they explored the more unnerving the results were. At one remote site of Aztec ruins a university student discovered a large pulsating sickly orange gem carved in glyphs and symbols that were mind bendingly complex. Refusing to remove the immense gem from it’s location for further study on the surface the student fell under strict disciplinary actions by the lead archaeologist. Forced to return to the depths of its discovery the student unwillingly began preparing the straps and satchels that would be required to move the large stone up and out of the cave system. At one point the student accidentally touched the gem and within a fraction of a second a powerful earthquake began, the epicenter centered on the resting place of the orange jewel. Tunnels collapsed and on the surface there were landslides and massive damage to the archaeological site’s research facilities. Unknown to the researchers there, earthquakes had occurred at roughly a dozen other sites spanning the globe.
Nearly a week later. The archaeologists had closed down their camps and begun their journey’s back to their home universities. The project had been indefinitely postponed. Too many people had lost their lives and it began to become known that the earthquakes had occurred synchronously. A fear rippled through the archaeological community that they had caused something horrible to happen. Indeed, they had. For, they had awakened an ancient dreaded species of subterranean demon hordes who had once thrived below the earth’s surface and which had demanded sacrifices for ages of from the surface races of humans. These hordes had intricate and vast networks of carved tunnels and caves throughout the crust and mantle of the planet providing them with the abilities to reach anyplace they wished unfettered by the oceans and seas above and away from the watching eyes of the sun god and his avatars. Now the entire mass of demons had re-awoken after thousands of years only the guardian gems and sentinel demons being awake. A massive invasion from below began and the hordes swarmed the surface in the evenings out of the sun god’s vision. Their attacks following sunset and receding in sunrise across the curve of the planet. It took the combined might of the entire world’s armies and superheroes to battle the creatures. Thousands upon thousands of men and women lost their lives in the Xibalban war. It was the Peacemakers who finally sent a suicidal mission down into the Earth’s warren of demon tunnels to find and eliminate the demon lord. Very little is known of the horrors they encountered and the deeds they accomplished inside their home planet, but they were successful. The demon lord was defeated with tragic losses and the Xibalbans wasted away en-masse once their king and leader was eliminated.
In the years since the overthrow and defeat of the Xibalban demons the Peacemakers have maintained steady process of mapping the mantle-tubes throughout the crust and mantle, dubbing them mantel-tubes. Some attempts have been made to even convert some of the more direct and useful mantel-tubes for alternate transportation systems that the Peacemakers could use for covert purposes rather than arriving by air or sub-orbital flights in their Peacejets. The Peacemaker mantel-tube system has most recently been a pet project of the Peacemaker’s chief technologist, Dr. Eureka.