History Main / MutantDraftBoard

* During the widely-panned ComicBook/CivilWar event, badly-[[SameCharacterButDifferent derailed]] [[DesignatedHero heroes]] such as [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] and [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Reed Richards]] (who had single-handedly thwarted a previous attempt to implement the same system!) tried to enforce one of these for everybody with superpowers, regardless of status as a hero, villain, or civilian. Potential draftees were given the choices of joining or being held in the [[PhantomZone Negative Zone]] until they agreed. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero It did not end well at all]]. Oddly enough, the X-Men stayed out of the issue completely, on the basis that no other superheroes gave a damn when it was ''them'' being threatened with registration. Or genocide.

* ''Webcomic/SleeplessDomain'': Subverted. It at first seems like all {{Magical Girl}}s are part of the Board of Magical Girls, a government organization that monitors and tracks its members on a day-to-day (or night-to-night) basis, but registration is revealed to be voluntary and at least one Magical Girl ([[ConspiracyTheorist Rue]]) fights solo and unregistered without being in legal trouble over it (she does admit it puts her in something of a legal grey area). Registration is, however, [[https://www.sleeplessdomain.com/comic/interstitial-2 heavily promoted to the populace]].

''Webcomic/HandJumper'': If you have a Gift, you're either working for the Corps or in organized crime, no in-between. Not helping matters is that ''neither'' side seems to have any moral standards.

** Companions choose whoever they will to be Heralds, and they don't ask permission before doing so; the only firm criteria are strong moral fiber and latent psychic potential, though not all Heralds ever evince powers, and such things as a Healer's calling or duty to one's family may disqualify someone. This is largely BecauseDestinySaysSo; it's implied that someone who would ultimately refuse would not be Chosen in the first place, but also the [[BondCreatures bond]] feels so good immediately that all a Companion has to say is a hurt "Do you really want me gone?" and their previously reluctant Chosen will realize they can't imagine living without it.
** It's said that being Chosen amplifies powers. There are also some Valdemarans with Gifts who go unchosen. Healers and Bards are trained in the same place as the Heralds but there are also some odd one-offs elsewhere like the weather-witch in the ''Arrows'' books, whose eerily accurate weather predictions are invaluable in the region where she lives. However, it seems like there are very few such people. Other countries in the setting employ mages, but it seems like in Valdemar the expectation was that all mages of note would be Heralds. Eventually after the magic comes back a collegium for non-Chosen mages is set up alongside Healing and Bardic, though.
** In ''Exile's Honor'', a soldier from an enemy nation is forcibly kidnapped by his Companion ([[ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike from his own execution]], but in this case that's ''not'' an excuse, as his Companion later agrees), and it's mentioned that if he really refused to be a Herald, the bond ''could'' be severed--but it would cause severe mental trauma to both partners, so this trope is still in effect. Alberich ultimately stays, though he becomes a BunnyEarsLawyer even by Heraldic standards.
** During ''[[Literature/LastHeraldMageTrilogy Magic's Price]]'', this is subverted. Bard Stefen ''was'' kidnapped off the street and taken to Bardic Collegium by Bard Lynnell, who had said "you belong to Valdemar now." But this was actually a FantasticRecruitmentDrive[[note]]Bardic ability is [[MagicMusic a Gift]] in this universe[[/note]]; Lynnell had verified that Stefen was [[StreetUrchin living alone on the street]] before intervening, and she was simply less than tactful about fixing that.

* The NSA (in this case meaning "National Supers Agency") from ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' is another example of a benevolent version of this trope, since they take Supers and give them a common altruistic objective, equipment, training, and a support network, while largely respecting their autonomy. When superheroes were outlawed, they were reorganized to provide a means of allowing Supers to quietly reintegrate into normal society, particularly cleaning up after breaches of the {{Masquerade}} and relocating the Supers and their families in such event.

** Companions choose whoever they will to be Heralds, and they don't ask permission before doing so; the only firm criteria are strong moral fiber and latent psychic potential, though such things as a Healer's calling or duty to one's family may disqualify someone. This is largely BecauseDestinySaysSo; it's implied that someone who would ultimately refuse would not be Chosen in the first place.

* ''Anime/SCryEd'' has HOLY, an organization composed of people called Alter Users who control matter with willpower. Many Alter Users seek sanctuary in the Lost Ground outside HOLY's control.

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* The Terran Ghosts in ''VideoGame/StarCraft'', formed initially by the [[DeepSouth Confederacy]] to keep their psychics under control, forcefully takes all people born with psychic powers and turns them into spies and/or {{Super Soldier}}s.

* ''WebComic/HeroOhHero'': In Justopea illegal magic used to be punishable with death. But by the new law illegal magic users are drafted into service for TheEmpire. It's not stated explicitly, but there seems to be no legal magic outside empire service.

* In ''LightNovel/AFoxsTale'', Lord Drake demands that all talents be registered, evidently for the purpose of eventually building an army of them. Naturally, the main character's father disapproves, since he, his wife and his daughter all have talents.

* ''Literature/WildCards'': Jokers (those who manifest visible mutations--more realistically, those whose mutations are not attractive) are overwhelmingly more likely to be drafted, and comprise a significant portion of casualties in this timeline's Vietnam war.

** The Jedi Order zig-zags this trope. Jedi recruiters are sent out to find and take custody of infant Sensitives, who are then raised in the Order. The Jedi think of it as adoption. The opinions of those they're adopting from vary, [[ValuesDissonance though it's considered an honor in many parts of the Republic to surrender a child to the Order]], even knowing they will never see or hear from the child again. Not all Force users are expected to join it, and the parents do have the ability to refuse. This is part because of a belief that being Force Sensitive in and of itself is taken as a sign the child is supposed to be with the Order, and part as a way to protect Sentitives from exploitation, abuse, PowerIncontinence, or (in some eras) Sith. Once the child is of age leaving is allowed, though their indoctrination from childhood and non-attachment doctrines means that very few have. (You would lose everything you ever knew, so the psychological, social, and financial drawbacks are severe) Busts of the "Lost Twenty," Jedi Masters who have (legitimately) left over the thousand generations of the Order's existence are kept within the library. Of course, Dark Jedi and Sith aren't counted as having left "legitimately", and no information is given on Knights or Padawans.

* The Department of Paranormal Resources in the ''Temps'' SharedUniverse is another (relatively) benevolent version. Although its main purpose seems to be to [[SuperRegistrationAct draft]] paranorms as crimefighters, its more subtle role is to reassure AllOfTheOtherReindeer that the paranorms are on their side, or at least controlled. This reassurance helps protect the ones with [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway useless powers]] from mob mentality.

* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''

* In the science fiction novel ''The Shockwave Rider'', the US government takes genius young kids (mostly orphans) and removes them to schools where they are indoctrinated into considering the government as their parents. This is to create the new elite to run the nation.

* In Laura Anne Gilman's Retriever novels The Council is the association of 'current' users who become progressively more ... persuasive about making everyone join them

* The Psychology Service from Creator/JamesHSchmitz's Literature/FederationOfTheHub stories uses a semi-voluntary version of this, similar to the above. The Service ostensibly exists in order to tag and control all telepaths, but is actually another arm of the Overgovernment. In order to maintain its semi-monopoly on telepathy and psionics, telepathic machines are installed in all spaceports, and if the device gets a response from a telepath, the telepath is tagged and implanted with a compulsion that strongly suggests the individual in question seek out the Service to learn about themselves. A few, such as Telzey, are able to overcome the compulsion, and the Service will generally leave them alone (or actively work with them) if the telepath has demonstrated that they know the rules and will not muck things up.

* The Company in ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', which hunts down potentially dangerous evolved humans with [[TheyFightCrime two-man]] "[[BadassNormal one of us,]] [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual one of them]]" teams, among other things.

* ''Anime/SCryed'' has HOLY, an organization composed of people called Alter Users who control matter with willpower. Many Alter Users seek sanctuary in the Lost Ground outside HOLY's control.

** The Jedi Order zig-zags this trope. Jedi recruiters are sent out to find and take custody of infant Sensitives, who are then raised in the Order. The Jedi think of it as adoption, the opinions of those they're adopting from vary, [[ValuesDissonance though it's considered an honor in many parts of the Republic to surrender a child to the Order]], even knowing they will never see or hear from the child again. Not all Force users are expected to join it, and the parents do have the ability to refuse. Once the child is of age leaving is allowed, though their indoctrination from childhood and non-attachment doctrines means that very few have. (You would lose everything you ever knew, so the psychological, social, and financial drawbacks are severe) Busts of the "Lost Twenty," Jedi Masters who have (legitimately) left over the thousand generations of the Order's existence are kept within the library. Of course, Dark Jedi and Sith aren't counted as having left "legitimately", and no information is given on Knights or Padawans.

** The Jedi Order averts this trope. Not all Force users are expected to join it, and leaving is allowed, though their indoctrination from childhood means that only twenty masters have. Busts of Jedi Masters who have (legitimately) left over the thousand generations of the Order's existence are kept within the library. (Of course, Dark Jedi and Sith aren't counted as having left "legitimately", and no information is given on Knights or Padawans.)

* The Jedi Order in ''Franchise/StarWars'' averts this trope. Not all Force users are expected to join it, and leaving is allowed, though their indoctrination from childhood means that only twenty masters have. Busts of Jedi Masters who have (legitimately) left over the thousand generations of the Order's existence are kept within the library. (Of course, Dark Jedi and Sith aren't counted as having left "legitimately", and no information is given on Knights or Padawans.)

** A villainous pre-2000s example is the African island nation of Genosah, which has compensated for the barren worthlessness of its actual island by literally enslaving its mutant population to use their powers "ForTheGreaterGood". Mutants are branded on the forehead with identifying numbers, forced to wear [[ClingyCostume brightly colored sealed bio-support suits that they can't ever remove]] in order to be readily identified, held in isolated prison-camps when not performing slave labor, at the mercy of a MadScientist called the Genegineer who will forcibly rewrite their genetic code to make their powers take on more "useful" forms, {{Mind Rape}}d into docility, and subject to rampant abuse of every kind apart from sexual. And that's only because their suits don't let them have sex; the Genegineer instead takes genetic material from all of the mutant slaves to create future generations of slave DesignerBabies in his {{Uterine Replicator}}s. The Genoshans argue that this is essential to keep the mutants from rising up and killing them all. [[SelfFulfillingProphecy Guess what happens when the brutalized slaves are forcibly freed?]]

** On the other hand, the recruits, post-Ruusan Reformation are harvested at infancy (although the parents do have the option of refusing, just how ''much'' of an option is in question; see the Baby Lundi case where the mother tried unsuccessfully to get her child back), cut off from ''all'' family ties, put through TrainingFromHell where they rarely if ever speak to a {{Muggle|s}}, are constantly raised to believe that they are chosen by the Force and that "attachments" (anything from a close friendship to love) are a one-way ticket to getting DrunkOnTheDarkSide...and at the age of 13, they either get a lightsaber shoved in their hands or shunted off to a dead-end job in the Service Corps.

** On the other hand, the recruits, post-Ruusan Reformation are harvested at infancy (although the parents do have the option of refusing, just how ''much'' of an option is in question; see the Baby Lundi case where the mother tried unsuccessfully to get her child back), cut off from ''all'' family ties, put through TrainingFromHell where they rarely if ever speak to a {{Muggle|s}}, are constantly raised to believe that they are chosen by the Force and that "attachments" (anything from a close friendship to love) are a one-way ticket to getting DrunkOnTheDarkSide...and at the age of 13, they either get a lightsaber shoved in their hands or shunted off to a dead-end job in the Service Corps. [[FridgeBrilliance Little wonder they didn't so much as blink]] [[FridgeHorror when presented with an army of 10 year old slaves to command]]! And little wonder they had so little sympathy from the general population come Order 66.

* The Jedi Order in ''Franchise/StarWars'' averts this trope. Not all Force users are expected to join it, and leaving is allowed, though their indoctrination from childhood means that only twenty masters allowed. Busts of Jedi Masters who have (legitimately) left over the thousand generations of the Order's existence. (Of course, Dark Jedi and Sith aren't counted as having left "legitimately", and no information is given on Knights or Padawans.)
** On the other hand, the recruits, post-Ruusan, Order are harvested at infancy (although the parents do have the option of refusing, just how ''much'' of an option is in question; see the Baby Lundi case where the mother tried unsuccessfully to get her child back), cut off from ''all'' family ties, put through TrainingFromHell where they rarely if ever speak to a {{Muggle|s}}, are constantly raised to believe that they are chosen by the Force and that "attachments" (anything from a close friendship to love) are a one-way ticket to getting DrunkOnTheDarkSide...and at the age of 13, they either get a lightsaber shoved in their hands or shunted off to a dead-end job displayed prominently in the Service Corps. [[FridgeBrilliance Little wonder they didn't so much as blink]] [[FridgeHorror when presented with an army of 10 year old slaves to command]]! And little wonder they had so little sympathy from the general population come Order 66.

** On the other hand, the recruits, post-Ruusan, Order are harvested at infancy (although the parents do have the option of refusing, just how ''much'' of an option is in question; see the Baby Lundi case where the mother tried unsuccessfully to get her child back), cut off from ''all'' family ties, put through TrainingFromHell where they rarely if ever speak to a {{Muggle|s}}, are constantly raised to believe that they are chosen by the Force and that "attachments" (anything from a close friendship to love) are a one-way ticket to getting DrunkOnTheDarkSide...and at the age of 13, they either get a lightsaber shoved in their hands or shunted off to a dead-end job displayed prominently in the Service Corps. [[FridgeBrilliance Little wonder they didn't so much as blink]] [[FridgeHorror when presented with an army of 10 year old slaves to command]]! And little wonder they had so little sympathy from the general population come Order 66. Jedi Library.

* The Jedi Order in ''Franchise/StarWars'' averts this trope. Not all Force users are expected to join it, and leaving is allowed. Busts of Jedi Masters who have left the Order are displayed prominently in the Jedi Library.
** In the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'', during the time of the Sith Empire's war with the Old Republic, all Force-sensitives in the Empire are by law required to be given over to the Sith Academy to be trained to serve TheEmperor under the pain of death. The attempt of one droid-maker to keep her daughter out of the hands of the Sith is a major plot point in the novel ''Fatal Alliance''. Likewise, one of the Agent's party was smuggled out of the Empire to be raised among the Chiss because of her low-level Sensitivity, and because she's a dutiful Imperial loyalist [[spoiler: kills her own father for the "crime" of saving her life.]]
** Not only that empire, but also '''the''' Empire. In Palpatine's empire, the standard policy towards a raw Force-sensitive is more or less recruit them into the Inquisitorius, Emperor's Hands or another darksider organization, or, if this fails, gut them like a trout with a lightsaber so the Jedi remnants won't get them.

* The Jedi Order in ''Franchise/StarWars'' averts this trope. Not all Force users are expected to join it, and leaving is allowed, though their indoctrination from childhood means that only twenty masters have (legitimately) left over the thousand generations of the Order's existence. (Of course, Dark Jedi and Sith aren't counted as having left "legitimately", and no information is given on Knights or Padawans.)
** On the other hand, the recruits, post-Ruusan, are harvested at infancy (although the parents do have the option of refusing, just how ''much'' of an option is in question; see the Baby Lundi case where the mother tried unsuccessfully to get her child back), cut off from ''all'' family ties, put through TrainingFromHell where they rarely if ever speak to a {{Muggle|s}}, are constantly raised to believe that they are chosen by the Force and that "attachments" (anything from a close friendship to love) are a one-way ticket to getting DrunkOnTheDarkSide...and at the age of 13, they either get a lightsaber shoved in their hands or shunted off to a dead-end job in the Service Corps. [[FridgeBrilliance Little wonder they didn't so much as blink]] [[FridgeHorror when presented with an army of 10 year old slaves to command]]! And little wonder they had so little sympathy from the general population come Order 66.