- Posting Speed
- One post per week
- Online Availability
- 5-11 EST weekdays, anytime weekends.
- Writing Levels
- Give-No-Fucks
- Adept
- Advanced
- Douche
- Adaptable
- Preferred Character Gender
- Primarily Prefer Female
- Genres
- Superhero, urban fantasy, space opera, crime thriller, supernatural
I've heard it theorized that all the world loves an artist - an author, an illustrator, a painter - for one reason: they're a Godly - or rather, Godlike - people.
Maybe that's the pretension of the artiste speaking, or maybe it's the nature, the overwhelming desire of the consumer, desperate to transform paint-strokes and written-word into something wondrous. Ever since the digital age, and the advent of virtual reality, pretension and desire has fused into one central conceit: the creation of a new world, a new reality, perfect and whole.
A second world, presented through a polarizing medium - a game. Many noted the triviality of it, to apply such grand aspirations to something so frivolous. Some even viewed it as arrogance. Nonetheless, we pressed on because we decided it had value. Years and years later, cycle after cycle, Altera became real. A game set in a fantastical world, each and every single one of its players able to access, to feel, magic that had been lost to most of us. A world in which we were characters - protagonists - free to create our own story.
And all was well…
Selective realism: one of the core concepts of stories, of movies, books and games. We allow the endless skies and upside down mountains of fantastical worlds to distract us from the grey of our own bleakness, indulge in stories of chain-breaking heroism to forget the hardships that oppress us. No one truly wants a second world, not with all its calamity and monstrosity - we only wanted a dream, one we could retreat to whenever we wished.
CORE-HISTORY
After all, they create worlds.
Maybe that's the pretension of the artiste speaking, or maybe it's the nature, the overwhelming desire of the consumer, desperate to transform paint-strokes and written-word into something wondrous. Ever since the digital age, and the advent of virtual reality, pretension and desire has fused into one central conceit: the creation of a new world, a new reality, perfect and whole.
Altera was one of three.
A second world, presented through a polarizing medium - a game. Many noted the triviality of it, to apply such grand aspirations to something so frivolous. Some even viewed it as arrogance. Nonetheless, we pressed on because we decided it had value. Years and years later, cycle after cycle, Altera became real. A game set in a fantastical world, each and every single one of its players able to access, to feel, magic that had been lost to most of us. A world in which we were characters - protagonists - free to create our own story.
And all was well…
except…
we were escapists…
Selective realism: one of the core concepts of stories, of movies, books and games. We allow the endless skies and upside down mountains of fantastical worlds to distract us from the grey of our own bleakness, indulge in stories of chain-breaking heroism to forget the hardships that oppress us. No one truly wants a second world, not with all its calamity and monstrosity - we only wanted a dream, one we could retreat to whenever we wished.
But something has gone horribly wrong…
Altera is real.
CORE-HISTORY
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The First World is known as Earth.
That we ever came into being is nothing short of miraculous. Particle after particle gathering in an accretion disk, forming a world of volcanic matter and ocean unable to sustain even the simplest speck of life. Happenstance and the unfathomable occurred, bringing unto this primordial world of ours water, oxygen, bacterium, life, and us.
'Us' as it happened, may have been a terrible mistake. From nomadic hunter-gatherers to antiquated rulers of fiefdoms and conquerors, to industrialists with a penchant for the despotic, to exploitative drones of the cyberage. We have been typically unkind to the world, though we sometimes argue that the world is in turn unkind to us.
Few subjects encapsulate the concept of 'Us' as succinctly as the life and near-death of Magic. The first confirmed practitioners existed amongst the warring Xiongnu tribe of China, breathers of fire and controllers of stone who required the construction of a Great Wall to stop them. They would spring into existence in more and more continents. They were manipulators of the elements who brought about wonders, their brilliance leading to the Industrial Revolution in the year 921 AC.
The story of 'Us', however, is a story of wasteful exploitation - these Magi have been near-extinct for almost a century, worked to the bone and drained to husks by our thirst for acceleration and growth. Now, their penchant for the wondrous has been supplanted by the digital.
The current year is 1412 AC, the Cyber-Age.
((Essentially, this version of Earth is much the same as ours - save for the fact that the existence of magic managed push along many phases of civilization. Thus, this version of Earth has higher levels of technology, despite it still being the year 1412 AC)) -
As previously noted, the First World has deviated fairly significantly. The prime reason is the presence of 'magic', accelerating much of our technological and societal growth. In many ways, the world state of the First World in 1412 AC is similar to our Earth in 2017.
'Magi-Tek': Between the years of 220 BC (when the Xiongnu Magi reaved across China) and 1200~AC, magic has peaked and waned, although established itself enough to become firmly woven into early infrastructures. The peak years of magic found itself centralizing in Europe. Europeans, ever the beacons of arts and technology, ran wagons powered by steam-magic for both travel and the harvesting of crops, and sailed across airships for the purposes of exploration. In essence, they industrialized magic, although the results were rarely so unanimously beautiful: Mages were still a limited commodity, and to ensure the stable running of a magic-based infrastructure, nations required that each and every single one of them - though they needed food and sleep - were rotated and milked to the last drop.
Around the dawn of 1200~AC, it became apparent that Magi were not so easily harvested or exploited - numbers of Magi began falling dramatically, while attempts to convert magic into a resource that renewed itself failed in (explosive) ways. Technology, as a necessary alternative, diverged from magi-tek (the hybridization of the magical and the structural). Accelerated by the mind-warping, perception-enhancing abilities of the more powerful Magi remnants, societies were set upon the new path: the Cyber-Age, technologies buoyed by calculation and program rather than dying forms of magic.
Society Continues: As it happens, societal development meshes quite well with our timeline for a bit, and then overtakes it. Developed nations tend towards constitutions and democracy, while becoming increasingly more advanced in the fields of medicine and education, high-tech hospitals and well-funded university a commonplace - although it's apparent that those higher in status receive a larger share of the benefits. Globalization and mass-media also abounds!
The Americas: As in our timeline, the Americas are heavily shifted by an Age of Exploration and European voyages - expedited by magically-powered airships. The story is shockingly familiar: they oppressed the indigenous, and warred with each other over the new resources. In 820~AC, the rival nations of Spain, France and England engage in a four year-long war. It is the first time magic clashes against magic in such disposable fashion.
In a divergence from our timeline, the Spanish, French and the English quickly realize that prolonged war on such a scale was a waste of Magical resources. The Americas of today are heavily informed by the three nations that warred upon it. Although eventually - and without a revolution - the unique burgeoning cultures of its settlers blossom into a distinct entity, much as the Americas of our timeline did.
The distinct nations of Mexico, Canada, and America remain. Each of them are Constitutional Monarchies, who theoretically owe allegiance to three Monarchs; of Spain, France and England. As of 1412AC, the three European nations largely operate as democracies, with figurehead monarchs, meaning the Americas hold to the crown as a matter of ceremony only. .
The capital of America, for 'reasons', is not named 'Washington DC', instead being the city of New Lincolnshire. Players can… feel free to put forth fictional city names for the purposes of enhancing their Histories. The President of America is Edward Plantaget of Woodstock.
The Europeans: Aside from being the center of Magic for much of known history, Europe persisted through a history of fiefdoms and knighthoods, and wars of a religious nature. Still, the 'Industrial Revolution' helps them prosper, while their advanced infrastructures ensure that calamities such as the 'Black Plague' never occur. [To be expanded.]
Asia: 'Westernization' come quickly to China, Japan, Korea, and their like - compelling them to similar routes of politic, trade and technology. Of note is the Republic of China, about a third lesser in size compared to our timeline - the raids of the Xiongnu Magi carved out a chunk of their land, forming the (now well-developed) nation of Huna, [To be expanded].
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Altera is one of three 'cyber-realities', their creation a priority both as a matter of virtual science and as monument to natural human arrogance. They are simulations of unfathomable scale, constructed by an infinitesimal amount of mathematical calculations and the minute, ongoing decisions of artificial intelligence systems. The three cyber-realities are as follows:
Simulacrum, where time is accelerated and the environment selectively tampered with to forecast human influence on Earth; Providence, a test-world created as proof of concept and perfected as proof of capability; and Altera, a world fashioned by the artistes, and a game, a fantastical escape for the masses.
Altera is molded in the image of Earth, pervaded with fantasy elements; an inordinately high presence of magic, creatively drawn and designed monsters, ivory castles and ebony high-towers. Players interact with magical world and esoteric NPC, encouraged to commune with others, explore, or to take part in combat-ridden adventures. 'Bosses' exist to vanquish for treasured weapons and armor, to assist in the vanquishing of stronger opponents - an addictive cycle that feeds itself.
It is, however, not merely a game - it's a second reality (without, thankfully, the possibility of permanent death). Monsters exist within the contexts of carefully curated ecosystems, while castles and tower erode beneath the torrential weight of storms. NPCs have thoughts, feelings, and emotions, as do the various 'Bosses' - each bestowed with their own backstory and grand ambitions. On the other hand, Players are neurally affected, their minds tricked into 'believing' - for the duration of their play-session - that the fluidity, the weapon-proficient, combat-ready motions of their in-game character is really their own.
One week after Altera's launch, its players found themselves stranded within the cyber-reality.
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