Project: Einherjar (OOC/Characters)

R-9 Pilot

Edgeknight
Original poster
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Invitation Status
Posting Speed
  1. One post per day
  2. 1-3 posts per week
  3. One post per week
Writing Levels
  1. Beginner
  2. Elementary
  3. Intermediate
  4. Adept
  5. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Female
  2. Futanari
  3. Primarily Prefer Female
Genres
Scifi, anime, mecha, magical girl, superhero, cyberpunk, yuri
Currently accepting new characters
Atmosphere/mood:
Mecha action, conspiracy, character drama. Think Evangelion.
Rating: I have no real content restrictions, and there will probably be a good bit of violence, but I'd prefer anything sexual kept to a minimum at best.
Quick Summary: Giant robots deploy from a fancy space colony to fight aliens in space and on Earth, and there may be a bit of a conspiracy behind the organization which made them. Most of the plot will be player-driven, because I'm fairly "hands off" or "make it up as you go" as a GM, so I have no problems with my players introducing things they want to follow.

It’s the near future, and humanity has discovered it’s not alone in the universe. It is at war with an alien race, the Guana. This alien menace is extremely resilient, gigantic, and possesses abilities which defy our conventional understanding of the laws of physics. First contact occurred some 15 years ago. An exploratory vessel sent to the outer planets reported an encounter with an unknown lifeform in deep space, and soon after, all contact was lost. A second ship hastily sent after the first returned, although heavily damaged, and no report was even given as to what it had found.


One organization, Yggdrasil, has developed the means to combat the Guana threat: colossal mecha, known as Einherjar. Armed with the most advanced weapons and based in the space colony Asgard, they defend the Earth from the Guana. Asgard is a colossal space station, big enough to practically be a small city unto itself. It receives supplies and can deploy einherjar to the surface by way of the space elevator “Bifrost,” and the city at the elevator’s base has become an impressive center for technological development, research, and even tourism. Bifrost City is not just a hub of science and industry, but a carefully-constructed fortress city designed to defend the orbital elevator’s base in case of attack.


Yggdrasil’s personnel primarily live and work in Asgard, but they can freely travel to and from Bifrost City, time and alert status permitting. Asgard itself contains residential and civilian areas, and acts not only as a military installation, but also a major port of call for the space tourism industry and a variety of civilian undertakings, as the Bifrost elevator provides one of the most efficient avenues into Earth orbit.


Strange alien lifeforms which often have a humanoid shape, the Guana are largely a mystery. No attempts to communicate with them to date have resulted in success, and it is possible they are indifferent to humanity. Their bodies are extremely resilient and can be constructed as they see fit to suit the task at hand, and each contains a “core” which must be destroyed to defeat the Guana. Conventional weapons have proven only partially effective, so Yggdrasil’s einherjar and their variety of equipment are often called in to deal with Gauna when they appear. Gauna seem to be naturally spacefaring, and they can appear either in space or on Earth by some unknown means. They are often attracted to Asgard or its connected city on the planet’s surface, which suits Yggdrasil just fine.

The einherjar are the mecha created by Yggdrasil and based in Asgard. All Einherjar are built from the same basic plan, although they often have additional unique features depending on where they were made and for what purpose. They are all the same overall height, use the same reactors, and have the same humanoid body plan. They are controlled through a combination of actual control systems within the cockpit and direct neural link with the pilot. Each einherjar is equipped for space combat operations with a variety of maneuvering thrusters and a life-support suite. They can survive re-entry intact, should the situation demand it, although they are usually deployed to Earth via space elevator. If one is critically damaged, or its pilot so desires, the pilot and life support system can be ejected in an armored capsule which will send out an automated distress beacon and await pick-up.

Einherjar can mount a number of optional systems and modifications, from additional armor to additional thrusters to better facilitate space combat.

Both Asgard and Bifrost City house unusual top-secret areas constructed by Yggdrasil, and to which only high-ranking members of the organization are allowed access. In the Asgard colony, there is an area, buried deep within its center under layers of heavy armor plating, known only as Code: Valhalla. Buried deep beneath Bifrost City, and accessible only by special authorization in the space elevator, is the Well of Udr. All that most pilots and other low-level Yggdrasil personnel know of either place is that, should the Guana gain access to either one, if would be disastrous for humanity.

Characters can be either Einherjar pilots, or other Yggdrasil staff, such as the Commander, Operations Director, various bridge officers, R&D scientists, or even mechanics in charge of maintenance. Note that while most positions have no limit to the number of characters, some (mostly Yggdrasil officers and other personnel) are limited to a single character. There is only one Commander or Operations Director, for example.

Yggdrasil officers will have an easier time of dealing with (or creating) conspiracies or otherwise creating plot events unrelated to Gauna attacks, in addition to their unusual role. Any essential staff position without a player will be filled by an NPC.

Pilots: Pilot Einherjar. They can be any age starting in their mid-teens, as is proper for the genre.
Operations Director: Directly oversees the pilots, in and out of combat. Their primary role is to command any missions agaisnt the Gauna. Their secondary role is to come up with completely crazy plans to fight unusual gauna.
Commander: Pretty much the person running the show up in Asgard.
Scientists, mechanics, etc.: Most of these roles should be self-explanatory.

Name: Your character's name
Age: Their age
Callsign: For pilots. If you want to be traditional, start with this blank and let your friends give you one.
Appearance: I'd prefer anime-style pictures if you use them. However, a brief description is fine.
Background: Your character's personal history. If you'd like some options, consider that most pilots, in particular, come from one of three places: they're either a civilian recruited for special talents, a genetically-engineered clone created by Yggdrasil, or a trained soldier (starting from a young age, in the case of teen pilots).
Personality: This is mostly for you as a player, so you don't have to include much here if you don't want to.

Einherjar sheet (for pilots)
Unit number: Your unit's numerical designation.
Unit name: if you've also given it a name, put it here.
Special features: Although they all follow the same general plan, most einherjar have a few unique features or quirks. For some examples: one might be constructed with an emphasis on heavy armor, sacrifice armor for speed, or be tuned primarily for space operations. (Up to three)
Equipment: The weapons you primarily use. Additional weapons may become available as things progress and R&D comes up with new technology. Every Einehrjar comes standard issue with an automatic rifle and a melee weapon.

Rules:1. All global forum rules apply.
2. No godmoding and so-on. You know the deal.
3. Don't be a jerk.
4. If I'm not around or a player otherwise has need of an NPC and wants them to behave in a certain way, they're allowed limited control over them. Just don't have them act drastically against their established characterization.
5. Not really even a rule, but I encourage players to discuss and plan things together OOC.

I may edit or add to these rules later.

Characters:
Einherjar Pilots: Verin, BrotherNier, DasLieb
Scientists: Dinorocket, Fritz, DaCageFighter (part-time pilot), ReaperOfFlames
 
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What age range are you looking for, character wise?

Referencing Eva makes me think young teenagers that may have been recently conscripted, but I don't know if that's what you're looking for.

Can anyone pilot an Einherjar?
 
Anyone can pilot one, although recently-conscripted teenagers are certainly acceptable for pilots. Anyone who's higher up in Yggdrasil would probably be an adult. That's pretty much it for my thoughts on age, though.
 
Alright.

What's the IC justification for recently conscripted teenagers, anyway? You'd normally think they'd want fully trained military pilots.

If you don't have any better ideas, could just have it so Yggdrasil picks up anyone with high piloting aptitude above a certain age minimum. Would probably be a controversial decision ingame, but that could be fun.
 
How large would you say Einherjar are? I'm trying to get a sense of scale, feet or meters size would be fine.
 
I'd probably say 30-40 meters or thereabouts. It's pretty big for mecha (well, compared to, say, gundams), but it should work. It's also the (nominal) size of evas in NGE.

For IC justification of younger pilots, it probably is just taking anyone with a particular aptitude. The whole neural interface probably isn't for everyone. For even more controversy, you could be in your mid teens AND fully trained military, thanks to Yggdrasil's accelerated pilot training programs and flexible ethics.
 
I'd probably say 30-40 meters or thereabouts. It's pretty big for mecha (well, compared to, say, gundams), but it should work. It's also the (nominal) size of evas in NGE.

For IC justification of younger pilots, it probably is just taking anyone with a particular aptitude. The whole neural interface probably isn't for everyone. For even more controversy, you could be in your mid teens AND fully trained military, thanks to Yggdrasil's accelerated pilot training programs and flexible ethics.
I'll have to think on my character some.

More questions, though. What's the state of the Earth right now? How badly off is it?
 
It's rebuilding pretty well. Bifrost City is probably a big step ahead of most places in terms of fancy shiny technology and looking nice, but most of the world is pretty well off unless it was just recently smashed to pieces.
 
What level of technology are we looking at here, both in general and on the Einherjar? What kind of weapons do they generally use?

And, just for confirmation, they're fully mechanical mecha right? Not like Evangelions or whatnot.

Sorry about the barrage of questions, but it helps me get a better handle on the setting and what I can do character wise.
 
The questions are no problem. They do help fill in details I may have forgotten.

Einherjar are completely mechanical. As far as technology used, they run on some likely never to be explained compact energy source, because I'm not going to take the time to come up with real science explanations for many things. There's already giant robots, shit's gonna get silly soon after anyway. Weapons include scaled-up versions of conventional weapons (so, cartridge-based guns), railgun-style slug-throwers, some lasers, and some general particle beam weapons. Thrusters and such on the mecha are pretty effective despite wat might be small size, of course. Pretty much, if you've seen it in mecha anime, assume it's acceptable.
 
Two questions from me. What should we do about the unit section for now, and would an Einherjar in the shape of the Mech in my profile picture be acceptable?

OTHER QUESTION How would the naming of clones work?
 
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That's cool. There's no need for indepth explanations as long as things are internally consistent.

Now to think up a character. I may well take you up on the
For even more controversy, you could be in your mid teens AND fully trained military, thanks to Yggdrasil's accelerated pilot training programs and flexible ethics.
offer.

Also, another question. How common are Einherjar pilots? Are we one of a very small group like in Eva, or what?
 
@Verin
Unit section? As in the number and name? Really, you can just pick any number/name you like. I also did forget to include an entry for what your mecha looks like, but of course providing a description would be nice. I'd say one like your profile pic would be fine, because I'm not going to set any real aesthetic limits unless someone goes too far from a humanoid body plan without a good reason. (A space-only unit equipped with large thrusters and no legs, for instance.)

Clones would probably have their own names independent of the person they were cloned from. They're their own person, after all.

@Nier
Pilots are an uncommon lot, so you'd be a small group like in Eva, although the total pool of candidates probably isn't so small. There are probably multiple Yggdrasil facilities with their own pilot teams, let's say. It may never come up, or maybe some form of "friendly" competition could be a plot seed down the line.
 
And then what about the naming of the clones? How does that work?
 
I edited it into my last post, but nothing special for clones/"manufactured" people. They might not even be aware of their origins, but either way, they'd have a name given to them that's fairly normal in construction. It could allude to their genetic donor, or most likely, it'd be completely different.
 
Working on my character now. Thinking I will go with a 15-16 year old girl with military training. I'll post the sheet up in a bit, once I've finished it and found an appropriate pic.
 
Name: Randall Alyrus
Age: 20
Callsign:
Appearance:
little_soldier_boy_by_hikariix-d6xj0m6.jpg

Background: Grown as a clone by Yggdrassil to serve as an Einherjar pilot, Randall was mixed from the genes of a Yggdrassil
spook and one of the early generation pilots. Both were killed when a transport ship was lost in transit to the outer planets, but they were remembered for their life's work by being the generic baselines for one of the first few clone generations. Having had the first few generations work out some of the..."bugs" in the system, he is as near to genetically perfect as possible for the human genome to be. He has the capacity to be stronger, faster, tougher, and smarter than most people. However, this was just potential. The only thing that can make up for the rest of it is effort and will.

Growing up with a veteran couple in Bifrost, Randall was always taught that the military was the pinnacle of human character.
Nothing ever mattered to him besides being accepted for the Yggdrassil Einherjar program. However, he had no idea that he was marked for the program from "birth". Only learning this fact after he became a pilot, he felt like he'd cheated. However, growing to accept this fact, he finally began to use his gifts.

Personality: Randall is a quiet man, but tenacious and inexhaustible. He always has a quiet energy to him, attentive and intense. He's very deliberate with his actions, not very spur of the moment and using logic. He's slow to anger, tending to ignore those that are bothering him. However, one thing that easily drives him over the edge is bashing the military. He firmly believes that they're doing the things that matter, and vehemently protects it.


Einherjar Sheet
Unit Number: 604
Unit Name: Fenrir's Warden
Special Features: Balanced Design, shoulder hardpoints for special weapons packages.
Equipment: Standard issue blade for melee engagements, 45mm cannon for longer range engagements.
 
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Gotta question of my own actually. Is it possible to make a character based around Search And Rescue, the guys that go out and recover downed pilots either during or shortly after a fight?