D
Dawn Bringer Invictus
Guest
Original poster
General Story/Universe Overview:
In the far future, mankind has established itself as a powerful force; it's now another superpower among the superpowers that rule the stars. But this isn't a story about humanity; this is a story about a nomadic race; the Funebrarans. Born from a morbid, mysterious past that even they know little about, these misunderstood, seemingly-monstrous, vaguely humanoid arthropod-beings have roamed the stars, looking for a suitable home but constantly denied by fearful, discriminatory superpowers. They seem to be damned to roam the stars in their massive migratory fleets, most of their kind living on four immensely large hive ships.
Feared; for their appearence, their strength, their resilient biology, and their devastating military prowress. Envied; for their surprisingly functionable efficient socieities and highly advanced technology, they're people you either hate or love. And the Trans Space Coalition, the largest united force in the universe, are a bit on on the latter in a way. They know the Funebrarans are willing to fight for their causes for money, supplies, and most importantly the promise of an actual world they can call home. And fight they shall; they've agreed to be sent into a hotbed of conflict. A cluster of planets known as the Helios sytems, once the shining beacon of multiculturalism, cooperation, and mutual support has erupted into a hellish mess of disciminatory violence, racial prejudice, territorial dispute, religious conflict and war's many ugly faces. The Funebrarans may not be as numerous as you might think being bug-people and all, but their highly efficient quality-over-quantity way of approaching a conflict makes them a top choice by the elite joint ops command group undertaking operations in the region. Even when terribly outnumbered and seemingly backed into the corner, Funebraran War Swarms have devastated whole planetary militaries that swore to crush a seemingly small target with little in the way of mercy. The promise of their dreams becoming reality, of glory, and acceptance into the galactic community is tempting indeed.
Yet Arkoss Schvensson knows that for the most part, the promises of glory were already broken before they were even made; their fate is not to be heralded as heroes and the bringers of peace. They're damned to slaugher and be slaughtered away from the eye of the media, and that ultimately others will take credit for the greatest of victories, to be remembered just as footnotes in the passage of time; those horrid night-men the civilized world shouldn't see. He and the war-swarm under his command know they're chasing illusions once more, but their role is not to question why; only to fight, kill, and die.
The conflict though, has sinister workings underneath it. An ancient force linked in disturbing ways to the broken history of Funebrarum moves under the storms of madness; its twitchings and hissings inciting waves of violence and hatred. The very generals of the Alliance Funebrarum fights for have their fingers in deep in some prize investments. And the many dissenting groups aren't taking lightly to Funebraran military presence. The past has returned to damn the present, and the present can do nothing but damn itself further, but backed into a corner once more, Arkoss and those he fights alongside shall show the universe once more the wrath of his kind.
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So basically...
You play as one of the people (or maybe a few) of the people involved in this conflict. The obvious choice of course, is one of the Funebrarans, but at the same time, you can actually make up your own alien species (which might just get incorporated into the rest of the story as major elements) or even play as robotic entities or "Othyrworld" ones. The two major sides here are basically the Trans Space Coalition and the Funebraran 13th war swarm, although as time passes more sides will become apparent and just like alien species, you can make up your own.
While this RP will be split into multiple combat missions with their own objectives, there will be a greater overall objective progressively revealed as time passes. The higher-ups commanding the war, the questionable friends they have conducting business ventures in it, the connections that the locals have, and the mysterious past of the Helios worlds will all hint at and reveal something far larger and important than power-hungry tyrants and rogue dissident groups. For most of us, the objective will be to survive against increasingly fearsome local dissenting groups while not being swept away by the secretive black operations going on at the same time. For others, perhaps you have your own agenda or you're even trying to make sure no one is able to interrupt what's truly going on here.
You do not necessarily have to play as a soldier/mercenary/wandering nomad/commander/sergeant/otherworldly creature/sentient combat automaton/etc. It is also completely possible to play as non-combat personnel or even "irregular" or faction-less characters, such as journalists, civilians, technicians and so on.
Mind you, while I do have a lot planned out, your actions will inevitably change large portions of it, although it might be so smooth you might not even notice it.
Remember, you do not need to play as a good guy; you can still be a villain, including a villain who's technically on the same side as the supposed good guys. Later on in the story, expect vital choices to be have to be made on what side you shall stay on.
I'll be taking on a role of both playing as a lead character and moving the story on alongside fleshing it out. Mind you, you can attempt to do the same. I'd encourage it, actually. Can lead to some interesting results.
You play as one of the people (or maybe a few) of the people involved in this conflict. The obvious choice of course, is one of the Funebrarans, but at the same time, you can actually make up your own alien species (which might just get incorporated into the rest of the story as major elements) or even play as robotic entities or "Othyrworld" ones. The two major sides here are basically the Trans Space Coalition and the Funebraran 13th war swarm, although as time passes more sides will become apparent and just like alien species, you can make up your own.
While this RP will be split into multiple combat missions with their own objectives, there will be a greater overall objective progressively revealed as time passes. The higher-ups commanding the war, the questionable friends they have conducting business ventures in it, the connections that the locals have, and the mysterious past of the Helios worlds will all hint at and reveal something far larger and important than power-hungry tyrants and rogue dissident groups. For most of us, the objective will be to survive against increasingly fearsome local dissenting groups while not being swept away by the secretive black operations going on at the same time. For others, perhaps you have your own agenda or you're even trying to make sure no one is able to interrupt what's truly going on here.
You do not necessarily have to play as a soldier/mercenary/wandering nomad/commander/sergeant/otherworldly creature/sentient combat automaton/etc. It is also completely possible to play as non-combat personnel or even "irregular" or faction-less characters, such as journalists, civilians, technicians and so on.
Mind you, while I do have a lot planned out, your actions will inevitably change large portions of it, although it might be so smooth you might not even notice it.
Remember, you do not need to play as a good guy; you can still be a villain, including a villain who's technically on the same side as the supposed good guys. Later on in the story, expect vital choices to be have to be made on what side you shall stay on.
I'll be taking on a role of both playing as a lead character and moving the story on alongside fleshing it out. Mind you, you can attempt to do the same. I'd encourage it, actually. Can lead to some interesting results.
One last thing: This is NOT a pure ACTIONZ AND KICKING BUTTOX thread. Yes, there will be very intense combat sections and lots of gruesome, horrible deaths, but there will also be a lot of dialogue, character interaction, and exposition. The star-system this will take place in, the diversity of the cultures, and the controversy of the wars fought provide ample material to discuss issues such as nationalism, "race", effects of super powers on lesser nations, cultural identity, and other such topics. Hell, there will probably be a lot of comedy and even romance involved to a certain degree.
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Things to Keep in Mind
- This will be an RP broken up into multiple chapters. There may also be heavy use of time-warp (not as in literal time travel, but just jumping from say an event to a few days later). Every chapter will open and end with some music of the metallic sort.
- You can post in between chapters, of course. Probably best to give it an interlude-ish title though.
- If you can't already tell, this is going to be an RP aimed at audiences used to more morbid subject matter; warfare, death, violence, issues of "race" or ethnicity, sexuality, war crimes, politics and so on. Expected rating goes from PG13 to M. Remember though, violence/horror/decadence/smuttiness is not the point of this RP; all of that is means to an end, rather than an end in itself.
- ALL of the characters you create (except maybe in a few VERY rare circumstances) should be able to be killed conventionally. Funebraran or not, it should be perfectly possible to beat/shoot/strangle/burn/crush/freeze/etc. your characters to death. I don't mind you all having powerful, bad-ass character, but they must be able to be killed in a conventional way as well. Except maybe in very rare circumstances, no playing as "indestructible", "godlike", "uber-hyper-omega regenerative", "immune to all conventional weaponry" type characters fellas!
The imminence of mortality and ease with which your character may perish ultimately serves as a sort of contrast which makes their far less vulnerable traits stick out more.
Most of the super-powerful character we will encounter will be NPC's who will often be enemies, mind you.
- In the case that you are gone for a bit too long, I may have to take control of your character in your absence. PM me though if some of the actions taken are not to your liking and perhaps we can work something out that makes both of us happy. In other scenarios, if your character hasn't really established him/her/itself as being of importance, we might just leave it behind or even have it killed off in certain circumstances.
- The choices you make will force the story to change over its course. Sometimes doing as much as simply suggesting "oh there's more than one hive ship" or simply thinking of a single race can alter the entire flow of the whole thing.
- This may be a very heavily squad-based RP; an idea I was originally unsure of but now have a bit more confidence in is having there being a core team of characters or multiple core teams that basically be composed of a hearty chunk of main and more important secondary characters.
- *NEW*
- Some posts, especially the larger ones that will most likely be from me, will feature special "spoiler" sections that really are more of just short summaries of the post, for those of you who like your postage a bit more on the concise side of things.
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More background info:
1) Arkoss and his friends won't be fighting alone mind you; other units from the Trans Space Coalition (human and alien) are fighting alongside them, seeing as they're doing a lot of joint operations. <arkoss friends="" won="" t="" alone="" mind="" you;="" other="" units="" (human="" alien)="" fighting="" alongside="" them,="" seeing="" as="" they="" re="" doing="" joint="" operations.="" there="" also="" a="" lot="" slots="" open="" various="" funebraran="" personnel="" will="" be="" *under*="" arkoss="" and="" his="" three="" comrades,="" who="" are="" pretty="" much="" at="" top="" the="" chain="" of="" command="" for="" this="" squad.="">Mind you, just because they're fighting with you doesn't always mean they are good people or even truly allies. Expect a lot of treacherous soldiers and scheming higher-ups.
2) <remember how="" i="" mentioned="" about="" the="" funebrarans="" desperately="" searching="" for="" planet="" to="" call="" home="" and="" a="" morbid,="" mysterious="" past?=""> It is believed among some, and to many this is little more than a myth, that a long time ago, the Funebrarans were forced to leave their home planet or planets, for reasons uknown. Some way war of the civil sort, others say they destroyed the environment, the threat of invaders...the theories are damn near endless.
Others believe that they were born on the hive ships; those things are older than they are, yet they seem to have been created by hands that would have crafted such a thing as they would.
Many though, believe that it is not the right of their people to go around just randomly grabbing planets and settling down; they should go to THEIR home rather than taking someone else's. They must discover the truth of their existence and the truth of the past that seems to always elude them. Only then may we truly realize our potential and our place among the rest of the civilized races.
At the same time, there is opposition to this. Nomadic travel across the stars for millennia has really taken its toll. Many simply believe hunting for a homeland that might just be a dead world for all they care and know is a fruitless endeavour. The other races of the cosmos be damned; we need a home and our service to the more established Alien (note: to them, "Alien" can also mean human) Superpowers means we deserve one! I don't care if it belonged to some @#$%wit piss-poor "pitiful" ethnic group; we saved the damn planet, now it's our damn home.
For those who choose to enter as Funebrarans or even from another race but just like to keep an eye on things, whose side will you be on? Or will you be on no side at all? >
3) WOAH WHAT for certain characters:
Energy Manipulation: certain beings can manipulate the energies of the parallel realm commonly used for things like "hyper-space". You could say it's sci-fi's answer to magic, and it ultimately functions similarilty, just don't expect things like I CAN TURN YOU INTO A FROGS and stuff like that. More like I CAN SUMMON A STORM OF CHAOTIC ENERGY BY RIPPING A HOLE BETWEEN THE PHYSICAL AND OUTERWORLD REALM. >
4) <as nomads="" travelling="" stars,="" funebrarans="" entered="" many="" reduced="" fight,="" after="" fighting,="" left="" worlds="" ruin.="" seem="" strange="" sort="" sympathy="" for="" those="" orphaned="" by="" war.="" this="" isn="" t="" something="" really="" spoken="" lot="" publicly,="" but="" have="" tendency="" adopt="" orphans="" ruin="" various="" species.="" re="" trained="" fight="" in="" military,="" sometimes="" choose="" a="" path="" vengeance;="" learning="" elite="" combat="" skills="" of="" the="" war="" swarms,="" returning="" ruined="" homelands="" to="" wreck="" havoc="" on="" their="" oppressors,="" and="" sometimes,="" they="" just="" become="" civilians.=""></as></remember></arkoss> As nomads travelling the stars, the Funebrarans have both ruined worlds and entered worlds that were already ravaged before their arrival. They seem to have a strange sort of sympathy for those orphaned by war. This isn't something really spoken of a lot publicly, but they have a tendency to "adopt" orphans of war of various species. Sometimes they're trained to fight in their military, sometimes they choose a path of vengeance; learning the elite combat skills of the War Swarms, and returning to ruined homelands to wreck havoc on their oppressors, and sometimes, they just become civilians.
<arkoss friends="" won="" t="" alone="" mind="" you;="" other="" units="" (human="" alien)="" fighting="" alongside="" them,="" seeing="" as="" they="" re="" doing="" joint="" operations.="" there="" also="" a="" lot="" slots="" open="" various="" funebraran="" personnel="" will="" be="" *under*="" arkoss="" and="" his="" three="" comrades,="" who="" are="" pretty="" much="" at="" top="" the="" chain="" of="" command="" for="" this="" squad.=""><remember how="" i="" mentioned="" about="" the="" funebrarans="" desperately="" searching="" for="" planet="" to="" call="" home="" and="" a="" morbid,="" mysterious="" past?=""><as nomads="" travelling="" stars,="" funebrarans="" entered="" many="" reduced="" fight,="" after="" fighting,="" left="" worlds="" ruin.="" seem="" strange="" sort="" sympathy="" for="" those="" orphaned="" by="" war.="" this="" isn="" t="" something="" really="" spoken="" lot="" publicly,="" but="" have="" tendency="" adopt="" orphans="" ruin="" various="" species.="" re="" trained="" fight="" in="" military,="" sometimes="" choose="" a="" path="" vengeance;="" learning="" elite="" combat="" skills="" of="" the="" war="" swarms,="" returning="" ruined="" homelands="" to="" wreck="" havoc="" on="" their="" oppressors,="" and="" sometimes,="" they="" just="" become="" civilians.="">
For a lot that do join the military, they undergo immense bio-enhancement, and in some cases, parasitic infection.
That may sound bad, but these parasites are used by hundreds of elite infantry in the Swarms. They greatly enhance already formidable abilities and deadlier, more enhanced abilities. The effect is strange on humans and most other species though. They become stronger and sometimes gain energy manipulation abilities, but the mutation visually maniefsts itself usually as a sort of bio-armour that generates over themselves. It's not actually a physical part of them, yet seems to be controlled by their brains, which along with other organs change noticeably after bio-enhancement and parasitic insertion. Other insectoids often are visually changed, becoming more Funebraran like, but not by a terrible amount.
By the way, their military has what in fantasy, we'd call "casters" or "mages" in fantasy. I haven't thought of a more futuristic/savage sounding name yet, but they're basically living energy-artillery platforms, able to protect friendlies with energy based enhancements or unleash said energy in a variety of devastating ways on their enemies.
5) Arkoss' sister, Maria, MAY become a playable character later on. Or right at the start if you really want. You can try fleshing her out right now if you'd like, of course. I'll elaborate a bit more on her base characteristics and then let you guys really fill out the rest.
At the same time, don't be afraid to post up ideas of aliens and characters you'd like to play as. You don't have to be a good guy or Funebraran, remember that.
6) Character sheets, while cool and all, are NOT MANDATORY AT ALL. They can be handy as references though.
</as></remember></arkoss>
7) Remember point number three? The Othyrworld/Outworld/Otherworld is basically the realm of our gods, demons, angels, devils and other religious/spiritual/mythological figures. The thing is, they're nothing like what we imagined them (celestial shiny antropomorphic figures) and more like overgrown bacteria and primitive ancient life forms.
Not surprisingly most religions, mythologies, and spiritualities collapse upon learning this (THROUGH THE POWER OF SCIENCE), although they in a way carry on through strange neo-transcendentalist occult-like groups that are half "religious" but in a way that seems almost scientific in how they attempt to find a balance between physical and immaterial.
The Entities of this realm can be used as weapons or to possess animated/inanimated things and this world and its inhabitants are basically the source of an energy channeler's power.
8) Simply because they are Funebraran, doesn't automatically mean they're heroic goody-two-shoes morally infaillible types. A lot of funebrarans really can be harsh and morbid bastards and they have done their share of questionable acts in the past.
<arkoss friends="" won="" t="" alone="" mind="" you;="" other="" units="" (human="" alien)="" fighting="" alongside="" them,="" seeing="" as="" they="" re="" doing="" joint="" operations.="" there="" also="" a="" lot="" slots="" open="" various="" funebraran="" personnel="" will="" be="" *under*="" arkoss="" and="" his="" three="" comrades,="" who="" are="" pretty="" much="" at="" top="" the="" chain="" of="" command="" for="" this="" squad.=""><remember how="" i="" mentioned="" about="" the="" funebrarans="" desperately="" searching="" for="" planet="" to="" call="" home="" and="" a="" morbid,="" mysterious="" past?=""><as nomads="" travelling="" stars,="" funebrarans="" entered="" many="" reduced="" fight,="" after="" fighting,="" left="" worlds="" ruin.="" seem="" strange="" sort="" sympathy="" for="" those="" orphaned="" by="" war.="" this="" isn="" t="" something="" really="" spoken="" lot="" publicly,="" but="" have="" tendency="" adopt="" orphans="" ruin="" various="" species.="" re="" trained="" fight="" in="" military,="" sometimes="" choose="" a="" path="" vengeance;="" learning="" elite="" combat="" skills="" of="" the="" war="" swarms,="" returning="" ruined="" homelands="" to="" wreck="" havoc="" on="" their="" oppressors,="" and="" sometimes,="" they="" just="" become="" civilians.=""> 9) Assorted Funebraran Factoids Posted Here: http://space-kitten.org/iwaku/showthread.php?t=2376&p=76257&viewfull=1#post76257.If you have any questions about Funebrarans, just ask and I'll post up the answers there.
10) Don't be afraid to bug me on MSN or AIM.
</as></remember></arkoss> 11) Remember in Ultraviolet, how the main character would store multiple weapons inside that energy sphere in that device of hers? Such technology is available in SOM, basically allowing anyone to carry more ammo, weapons, equipment, and some other items provided they've been modified to be or simply naturally are deconstructable. Basically allows you to generate an item when you need and store it away when you don't. Mind you, there is a limit to how much they can carry.
*NEW*
12) Information about various Trans Space Coalition Races can be found here:
http://space-kitten.org/iwaku/showthread.php?t=2376&p=78284&viewfull=1#post78284
<arkoss friends="" won="" t="" alone="" mind="" you;="" other="" units="" (human="" alien)="" fighting="" alongside="" them,="" seeing="" as="" they="" re="" doing="" joint="" operations.="" there="" also="" a="" lot="" slots="" open="" various="" funebraran="" personnel="" will="" be="" *under*="" arkoss="" and="" his="" three="" comrades,="" who="" are="" pretty="" much="" at="" top="" the="" chain="" of="" command="" for="" this="" squad.=""><remember how="" i="" mentioned="" about="" the="" funebrarans="" desperately="" searching="" for="" planet="" to="" call="" home="" and="" a="" morbid,="" mysterious="" past?=""><as nomads="" travelling="" stars,="" funebrarans="" entered="" many="" reduced="" fight,="" after="" fighting,="" left="" worlds="" ruin.="" seem="" strange="" sort="" sympathy="" for="" those="" orphaned="" by="" war.="" this="" isn="" t="" something="" really="" spoken="" lot="" publicly,="" but="" have="" tendency="" adopt="" orphans="" ruin="" various="" species.="" re="" trained="" fight="" in="" military,="" sometimes="" choose="" a="" path="" vengeance;="" learning="" elite="" combat="" skills="" of="" the="" war="" swarms,="" returning="" ruined="" homelands="" to="" wreck="" havoc="" on="" their="" oppressors,="" and="" sometimes,="" they="" just="" become="" civilians.="">
At the same time, please ask questions if you have any; if there's anything that to you seems odd, off, missing, or that you'd like to know etc., fire away.
Also, here's the IC:
http://space-kitten.org/iwaku/showthread.php?t=2423&p=76209#post76209
</as></remember></arkoss>
