Post by Richter on Jan 1, 2016 3:17:24 GMT -6
Background: Mankind came to the Kalron Sector over a millenia ago, aboard a fleet of sleeper ships that carried millions of future colonists in cryogenic sleep on the way to their new homes. They landed and built a society for themselves on the fringes of the galaxy, settling the frontier for the rest of humanity to follow. The followups did not come, and as the centuries went by it became apparent that Earth had abandoned them. These early missions were not intended to establish wholly self sufficient colonies on their own, they were going to be resupplied frequently by central authority at home. With shipments never coming, supplies and resources grew scarce, and divisions amongst the colonists eventually boiled over into outright violence over resources. The Kalron Sector, while hosting planets rich in rare minerals and other elements useful to heavy industry, was no one's first pick of the litter for actual living. It helped that, according to rumor, the colonists chosen for the mission were malcontents and others who didn't fit in, and support for them was never actually intended. The trip was always one way. But if that was truth or not, is as lost to history these days as their origin.
Society devolved in the anarchy that followed. Unions devolved into guilds, hoarding trade secrets and knowledge. Democratic governments were overthrown by the armies that swore to protect them, or co-opted by demagogues of one stripe or another. Liberty disappeared in favor of security, as only tight fisted control could keep the populations in check across the planets of the region. To say the greatness of the last age died would be incorrect, it just disappeared. In many cities people still live in the houses built by their forefathers, powered by infrastructure that they upkeep, but couldn't tell you why it works. Automated facilities cycle water endlessly for drinking, and the guilds in charge of this vital trade maintain the clockwork bowels of the treatment plants with only the most vestigial knowledge of which sections perform which tasks. Those who possesses knowledge don't tend to share it, and while some can still craft the works of the older days, it is difficult and more time consuming; and often flawed in comparison. Education is once again a privilege and not a right, if not a commodity outright. One worth more than lives, guilds would and have murdered to protect their trades before. These days the entire event is referred to simply as The Fall. No one can really tell you when it began, or when it ended, but most agree that the worst has finally passed.
To keep society from outright collapsing, or at least protect their own interests, the constant bloodshed across the sector began to die down. No doubt aid by the loss of energy weapons that were the hardest counter to energy shields. With a return to melee, for many reasons, it became easier to control the people and conflicts. But it wasn't all bad, the last 300 years have been the safest in even longer. Trade and exploration is beginning to flourish again, as nations that were formally contained to one or a handful of planets and moons finally have time and inclination to look beyond their borders. Vast riches, lost technologies, and stranger things can be found across the sector. Treasure hunting has returned in force, so have conquistadors and explorers. An unfortunate side effect to all the chaos is that banditry and piracy have exploded, and the willingness for people to move around again has only made the trade all the more profitable.
It's an interesting time to be alive.
Premise: The idea behind Rising Stars is to bring about a departure from our tactical wargame-styled RP's. This one would be closer to the OYW game, or Time Traveler, in scope. The focus isn't on vast armies or squads, but on the players and what they do. Even if they amass that kind of power, its a story driven primarily by then and not by the might of their underlings. The setting is made to provide an ample field for quests and ambition to facilitate that, or so is my hope. It's a neo-feudal society set in a backdrop of decayed greatest and faded glory, but with potential for the bold to strive against the bleakness and try and regain what has come before. Or if not that, at least make the best of it and find what has been lost since The Fall.
With that said while I might craft plots the general theme is a sandbox where you lot decide what to do, and I'll work around it. That doesn't mean it isn't a living world, though. Actions will have reactions for better or worse, so thinking ahead might be wise. I like to think I'll be fair the entire time, but that doesn't mean I'll take it easy.
Places of Import: I might add to this later as needed.
Confederacy of Araelia: An oddity in the Kalron Sector, Araelia isn't a solid planet but a ringed gas giant. As such its colonies aren't on the surface, but those of its many moons. A wealth of resources and useful goods are produced here by one of the colonies or another, most of which are extremely different from the others. They never unified because of the deep rifts in culture and society that formed in the Fall's isolation. In the last century they finally came together to form a loose coalition against outside depredations, which are growing more likely as the years go by. Each moon has its own government, most taking the form of feuding princes and republics. A lot of trade goes on here, and many people move through the area to partake in that or the formalized combats that the various power players carry out against one another. It's equally lucrative for mercenaries...and other fighters of the darker persuasion. Notable moons are:
Dalkor: A barren planet located one solar system over from the Confederacy in the coreward direction. The state is highly militarized and, compared to them, repressive. Resources are tight on their world and the government strictly rations what is given out, not always fairly, according to some. They're one of the most notable reasons for why the Confederation came to exist. The two nation's pickets clash every so often. Enough to where its believed that a war is inevitable, if not necessarily immediate.
Nelbonar: An ocean world, sparsely populated but rich in native life. Despite the abundance in desirable resources, the locals seem to have little interest in actually going out of their way to trade it. Or indeed, leave their world at all. Merchant-adventurers from Araelia oftentimes come away from trips to the planet saying that the locals strike them as extremely strange, even if they can't determine why. Beyond their renclusive lifestyle, that is.
Terminus: Not so much a planet as it is an asteroid, Terminus was once a military listening post in ages long past. Before that it was a mining colony. It changed hands more times than anyone could count during the chaos of the sector's anarchical years. After that no one wanted it. Drifters, exiles, and other human detritus eventually wandered into the area. These days they make a decent living as a refueling station on a few of the most frequently taken routes in the sector, trading the materials they mine from the non-expended asteroids in the field. The life is dangerous and not very glamorous. A thriving black market has sprang up in the base, where it's said many things can be bought, legal or otherwise. The colony itself keeps a strict policy of no engagements in the space surrounding it, which most clients agree is just better for everyone's business.
New Prospect: Records from before The Fall indicate that New Prospect was once an Earth-like planet that housed the perfect conditions to host life - native and otherwise. It was one of the first colonized in the Kalron Sector. Something horrible clearly happened between then and now, because its been a frigid ice world for centuries on end. Harsh winters and deep freezes prevent more than a handful of cities from forming, so most of the population act as nomads and keep moving across the surface, following the warmer weather and avoiding the worst of the storms. No one would come here if it wasn't for the technological artifacts the nomads occasionally dig up from beneath the ice wastes, which coincidentally preserves most of it almost perfectly. Very recently scientists have become interested in the planet for similar reasons.
Red Rock: The name says it all. A world of bleak, bloody, red rockfaces as far as the eye can see. Winds whip dust over wide plains and through water eroded canyons, but there's the kicker. The world actually sports quite a bit of water below the surface, making life there workable even if not extremely pleasant. Most of the civilization here exists in the valleys, but sprawling homesteads exist on the plains where braver folk try to carve their own destinies.
Port Havoc: One of the strangest planets in the sector, it's located within the outer fringes of the 'Great Barrier', a nebula forming the rimward border of the region. Its atmosphere is heavily composed of nebula gases, which give it extremely dangerous and unpredictable weather as electrical currents and solar winds pass through the greater cloud and into the planet's gravity well. Intense lightning storms and tornadoes are very common, as are other, weirder phenomena. The gas is breathable but also mildly hallucinogenic, making it a popular destination spot for pilgrims; reinforced for its reputation as being the 'end of the road' in the Kalron Sector. Only one city exists here and it is ran by the Guilders. Like New Prospect, many artifacts come from here, and the planet's surface is full of ruins that can be uncovered or buried as windstorms blow sediments across the surface.
Technologies of Note: Can also be considered a perpetual work in progress.
Energy Shields: An important advance in the old age, and of even greater importance now. The shield is an important part of combat in the sector. It projects a bubble of energy just beyond arm's length around the wearer, which imparts an action/reaction affect on incoming attacks. The higher the velocity, the higher the kickback. In practice, this means high velocity rounds are stopped cold, but even the force of slower attacks are dulled before they can hit the wearer. Melee attacks typically aren't fast enough to be heavily affected, making it the rule of the day in many, but not all, scenarios. Certain enterprising individuals have begun to bring back archaic ranged weaponry to get around this at a distance, a highly frowned upon affair. Rumors speak of high velocity bullets that somehow negate shields completely, but if anyone knows how to make them for sure, they're keeping dead quiet about it. Much vaunted energy weapons can completely burn them out in seconds, overloading the generator and oftentimes delivering a nasty shock to the wearer. But with the technology to make those having mostly gone extinct, it's not common to worry about that. The quality of the shield affects the size of the generator; pre-Fall examples can fit on your belt, more modern ones can be as big as a backpack. The drawbacks are that they are not stealth, they shimmer faintly when ignited and produce both a hum and tangible vibration. When struck, they flair. The aforementioned flairs and shimmering vary in color pending on the frequency, and thus strength, of the shield; red being the weakest and violet the strongest. The batteries will typically last for an entire engagement, but running one constantly for protection is an impossibility in all but the most unusual (and eccentric) circumstances.
Directed Energy Weaponry (DEWs for short): In bygone eras, kings might have a finely crafted sword to show off their wealth and prestige. In the modern era, and in this sector, such displays typically take the form of a DEW. Hideously rare, much coveted, and horrifically dangerous, they're the pinnacle of infantry weapons. Not usually made but more often found, most are a legacy to the older age. Some use lasers, some plasma, weirder ones can fry a man from the inside out. Whatever the case the end result is always the same thing: bad news for anyone on the receiving end. Keeping them supplied is similarly tricky, in addition to power cells many need addition parts to work; focusing arrays for lasers, gas canisters to be ionized, etc.
Guns: Work about as normal, and all kinds exist in the sector. Chemically propelled variants are rarer than they used to be, however; with shields reducing their usefulness. Gas launched examples have grown in prominence because of their cheapness over long terms and lower stopping power, useful versus shields, and in enclosed environments such as ships and colonies on non-terraformed worlds. Most of the guns around these days aren't automatic in favor of more easy to produce counterparts, though the concept isn't dead.
Power Armor: Falling somewhere between shields and DEWs, power armor is still made, even if not particularly common. Your average peasant won't turn up to a muster wearing any, but the knights of noble families just might. Full body powered exoskeletons are rarer than ever, but most examples augment the arms or legs; pending on the craftsman and buyer. A man so enhanced can tear through metal with an axe, or do even more grisly things to an unarmored foe. The fringe benefit is that most examples allow the wearer to carry more, and fit more armor as a result. It's amongst the best protection money can buy - if you can find some to purchase.
Space Suits: Aren't particularly rare, nor even very bulky. One of the better preserved technologies, space suits are skin tight elastic garments that are typically worn under other forms of clothing and/or armor when dealing in potentially hostile environments. Not always vacuum or high altitude, but those are the norm. They're extremely difficult to put on and very uncomfortable, but the benefits can't be denied. The elastic is similarly easy to seal in the event of damage in a fight. Armor worn overtop of them is usually sealed in addition for the benefit of redundancy. Bulkier examples exist as well but aren't as common, nor popular; mostly used by miners and other workers who need the added plating to keep from getting hurt on the job. Some of the better examples are combined with power armor, usually equipped by the workers of the more prosperous mining guilds and merchant houses.
Society devolved in the anarchy that followed. Unions devolved into guilds, hoarding trade secrets and knowledge. Democratic governments were overthrown by the armies that swore to protect them, or co-opted by demagogues of one stripe or another. Liberty disappeared in favor of security, as only tight fisted control could keep the populations in check across the planets of the region. To say the greatness of the last age died would be incorrect, it just disappeared. In many cities people still live in the houses built by their forefathers, powered by infrastructure that they upkeep, but couldn't tell you why it works. Automated facilities cycle water endlessly for drinking, and the guilds in charge of this vital trade maintain the clockwork bowels of the treatment plants with only the most vestigial knowledge of which sections perform which tasks. Those who possesses knowledge don't tend to share it, and while some can still craft the works of the older days, it is difficult and more time consuming; and often flawed in comparison. Education is once again a privilege and not a right, if not a commodity outright. One worth more than lives, guilds would and have murdered to protect their trades before. These days the entire event is referred to simply as The Fall. No one can really tell you when it began, or when it ended, but most agree that the worst has finally passed.
To keep society from outright collapsing, or at least protect their own interests, the constant bloodshed across the sector began to die down. No doubt aid by the loss of energy weapons that were the hardest counter to energy shields. With a return to melee, for many reasons, it became easier to control the people and conflicts. But it wasn't all bad, the last 300 years have been the safest in even longer. Trade and exploration is beginning to flourish again, as nations that were formally contained to one or a handful of planets and moons finally have time and inclination to look beyond their borders. Vast riches, lost technologies, and stranger things can be found across the sector. Treasure hunting has returned in force, so have conquistadors and explorers. An unfortunate side effect to all the chaos is that banditry and piracy have exploded, and the willingness for people to move around again has only made the trade all the more profitable.
It's an interesting time to be alive.
Premise: The idea behind Rising Stars is to bring about a departure from our tactical wargame-styled RP's. This one would be closer to the OYW game, or Time Traveler, in scope. The focus isn't on vast armies or squads, but on the players and what they do. Even if they amass that kind of power, its a story driven primarily by then and not by the might of their underlings. The setting is made to provide an ample field for quests and ambition to facilitate that, or so is my hope. It's a neo-feudal society set in a backdrop of decayed greatest and faded glory, but with potential for the bold to strive against the bleakness and try and regain what has come before. Or if not that, at least make the best of it and find what has been lost since The Fall.
With that said while I might craft plots the general theme is a sandbox where you lot decide what to do, and I'll work around it. That doesn't mean it isn't a living world, though. Actions will have reactions for better or worse, so thinking ahead might be wise. I like to think I'll be fair the entire time, but that doesn't mean I'll take it easy.
Places of Import: I might add to this later as needed.
Confederacy of Araelia: An oddity in the Kalron Sector, Araelia isn't a solid planet but a ringed gas giant. As such its colonies aren't on the surface, but those of its many moons. A wealth of resources and useful goods are produced here by one of the colonies or another, most of which are extremely different from the others. They never unified because of the deep rifts in culture and society that formed in the Fall's isolation. In the last century they finally came together to form a loose coalition against outside depredations, which are growing more likely as the years go by. Each moon has its own government, most taking the form of feuding princes and republics. A lot of trade goes on here, and many people move through the area to partake in that or the formalized combats that the various power players carry out against one another. It's equally lucrative for mercenaries...and other fighters of the darker persuasion. Notable moons are:
- Irixis - A moon with a breathable atmosphere and liquid water. De facto capital of the Confederacy.
- Arus - Appealing at first glance with its oceans, upon landing the settlers realized they're not made of water. The atmosphere being toxic was another surprise that made things even more difficult. Even so many useful chemicals are refined from them. Strange creatures live in the oceans that the recent rebirth of science has begun to draw an interest in.
- Hardrad - An airless moon close to the planet. Specializes in mining and heavy industry within its many domed colonies.
- Maralin - High atmospheric pressure and dense clouds make this moon hard to navigate. It was only partially terraformed before the collapse of civilization. People still live here, but conditions outside of the sealed cities are dangerous.
- Nerith - Hosting ice but too thin of an atmosphere to provide life on the surface, Nerith is never the less a powerful member of the Confederation. Most of the population here live in enclosed colonies near the life-giving glaciers.
- Saryn - Perhaps the oddest, Saryn has an atmosphere, but it's mostly toxic. The only breathable, and habitable, parts of the planet are the peaks of the mountains that poke up through the dense toxic fogs that fill the valleys and lowlands of most of the moon's surface. Whether it was always like this or if it was the result of past industrial contamination no one is sure. They're an observing member of the Confederacy, and it is one of the most peaceful and stable of the Araelian moons. It also produces many fine aircraft pilots, that being the only good way to get from one city to another outside of cable car.
- Enyo - Barely habitable, Enyo has an oblong shape that gives it variable gravity depending on which part of its surface you're standing on. Areas of heavy gravity are preferred because they're closer to comfortable human standards. Like Volo, it was once a penal colony, though it has since become an official 'state' after a royal family exiled there from Irixis managed to subjugate the wily convicts living on the moon. People from Enyo are still viewed with suspicion due to their heritage, and it isn't entirely unwarranted. It is also an observing member of the Confederacy.
- Volo - A moon wracked by intense geological activity. Used by other members of the Confederacy as a penal colony. Braver labors occasionally make short forays onto the surface to reap the riches pushed to the surface by the many volcanic eruptions.
Dalkor: A barren planet located one solar system over from the Confederacy in the coreward direction. The state is highly militarized and, compared to them, repressive. Resources are tight on their world and the government strictly rations what is given out, not always fairly, according to some. They're one of the most notable reasons for why the Confederation came to exist. The two nation's pickets clash every so often. Enough to where its believed that a war is inevitable, if not necessarily immediate.
Nelbonar: An ocean world, sparsely populated but rich in native life. Despite the abundance in desirable resources, the locals seem to have little interest in actually going out of their way to trade it. Or indeed, leave their world at all. Merchant-adventurers from Araelia oftentimes come away from trips to the planet saying that the locals strike them as extremely strange, even if they can't determine why. Beyond their renclusive lifestyle, that is.
Terminus: Not so much a planet as it is an asteroid, Terminus was once a military listening post in ages long past. Before that it was a mining colony. It changed hands more times than anyone could count during the chaos of the sector's anarchical years. After that no one wanted it. Drifters, exiles, and other human detritus eventually wandered into the area. These days they make a decent living as a refueling station on a few of the most frequently taken routes in the sector, trading the materials they mine from the non-expended asteroids in the field. The life is dangerous and not very glamorous. A thriving black market has sprang up in the base, where it's said many things can be bought, legal or otherwise. The colony itself keeps a strict policy of no engagements in the space surrounding it, which most clients agree is just better for everyone's business.
New Prospect: Records from before The Fall indicate that New Prospect was once an Earth-like planet that housed the perfect conditions to host life - native and otherwise. It was one of the first colonized in the Kalron Sector. Something horrible clearly happened between then and now, because its been a frigid ice world for centuries on end. Harsh winters and deep freezes prevent more than a handful of cities from forming, so most of the population act as nomads and keep moving across the surface, following the warmer weather and avoiding the worst of the storms. No one would come here if it wasn't for the technological artifacts the nomads occasionally dig up from beneath the ice wastes, which coincidentally preserves most of it almost perfectly. Very recently scientists have become interested in the planet for similar reasons.
Red Rock: The name says it all. A world of bleak, bloody, red rockfaces as far as the eye can see. Winds whip dust over wide plains and through water eroded canyons, but there's the kicker. The world actually sports quite a bit of water below the surface, making life there workable even if not extremely pleasant. Most of the civilization here exists in the valleys, but sprawling homesteads exist on the plains where braver folk try to carve their own destinies.
Port Havoc: One of the strangest planets in the sector, it's located within the outer fringes of the 'Great Barrier', a nebula forming the rimward border of the region. Its atmosphere is heavily composed of nebula gases, which give it extremely dangerous and unpredictable weather as electrical currents and solar winds pass through the greater cloud and into the planet's gravity well. Intense lightning storms and tornadoes are very common, as are other, weirder phenomena. The gas is breathable but also mildly hallucinogenic, making it a popular destination spot for pilgrims; reinforced for its reputation as being the 'end of the road' in the Kalron Sector. Only one city exists here and it is ran by the Guilders. Like New Prospect, many artifacts come from here, and the planet's surface is full of ruins that can be uncovered or buried as windstorms blow sediments across the surface.
Technologies of Note: Can also be considered a perpetual work in progress.
Energy Shields: An important advance in the old age, and of even greater importance now. The shield is an important part of combat in the sector. It projects a bubble of energy just beyond arm's length around the wearer, which imparts an action/reaction affect on incoming attacks. The higher the velocity, the higher the kickback. In practice, this means high velocity rounds are stopped cold, but even the force of slower attacks are dulled before they can hit the wearer. Melee attacks typically aren't fast enough to be heavily affected, making it the rule of the day in many, but not all, scenarios. Certain enterprising individuals have begun to bring back archaic ranged weaponry to get around this at a distance, a highly frowned upon affair. Rumors speak of high velocity bullets that somehow negate shields completely, but if anyone knows how to make them for sure, they're keeping dead quiet about it. Much vaunted energy weapons can completely burn them out in seconds, overloading the generator and oftentimes delivering a nasty shock to the wearer. But with the technology to make those having mostly gone extinct, it's not common to worry about that. The quality of the shield affects the size of the generator; pre-Fall examples can fit on your belt, more modern ones can be as big as a backpack. The drawbacks are that they are not stealth, they shimmer faintly when ignited and produce both a hum and tangible vibration. When struck, they flair. The aforementioned flairs and shimmering vary in color pending on the frequency, and thus strength, of the shield; red being the weakest and violet the strongest. The batteries will typically last for an entire engagement, but running one constantly for protection is an impossibility in all but the most unusual (and eccentric) circumstances.
Directed Energy Weaponry (DEWs for short): In bygone eras, kings might have a finely crafted sword to show off their wealth and prestige. In the modern era, and in this sector, such displays typically take the form of a DEW. Hideously rare, much coveted, and horrifically dangerous, they're the pinnacle of infantry weapons. Not usually made but more often found, most are a legacy to the older age. Some use lasers, some plasma, weirder ones can fry a man from the inside out. Whatever the case the end result is always the same thing: bad news for anyone on the receiving end. Keeping them supplied is similarly tricky, in addition to power cells many need addition parts to work; focusing arrays for lasers, gas canisters to be ionized, etc.
Guns: Work about as normal, and all kinds exist in the sector. Chemically propelled variants are rarer than they used to be, however; with shields reducing their usefulness. Gas launched examples have grown in prominence because of their cheapness over long terms and lower stopping power, useful versus shields, and in enclosed environments such as ships and colonies on non-terraformed worlds. Most of the guns around these days aren't automatic in favor of more easy to produce counterparts, though the concept isn't dead.
Power Armor: Falling somewhere between shields and DEWs, power armor is still made, even if not particularly common. Your average peasant won't turn up to a muster wearing any, but the knights of noble families just might. Full body powered exoskeletons are rarer than ever, but most examples augment the arms or legs; pending on the craftsman and buyer. A man so enhanced can tear through metal with an axe, or do even more grisly things to an unarmored foe. The fringe benefit is that most examples allow the wearer to carry more, and fit more armor as a result. It's amongst the best protection money can buy - if you can find some to purchase.
Space Suits: Aren't particularly rare, nor even very bulky. One of the better preserved technologies, space suits are skin tight elastic garments that are typically worn under other forms of clothing and/or armor when dealing in potentially hostile environments. Not always vacuum or high altitude, but those are the norm. They're extremely difficult to put on and very uncomfortable, but the benefits can't be denied. The elastic is similarly easy to seal in the event of damage in a fight. Armor worn overtop of them is usually sealed in addition for the benefit of redundancy. Bulkier examples exist as well but aren't as common, nor popular; mostly used by miners and other workers who need the added plating to keep from getting hurt on the job. Some of the better examples are combined with power armor, usually equipped by the workers of the more prosperous mining guilds and merchant houses.