Idea for a sci-fi/fantasy RP

[mast3rlinkx]

I've got some ideas in my head for an RP based on D.J. MacHale's Pendragon saga. Basically, I'm thinking we're the next generation of Travelers, and a new threat, greater than that of Saint Dane, rose to try to completely destroy Halla, rather than merely conquer it like Saint Dane attempted to do. If you're not familiar with the terminology of the series or the events of it, don't worry. I'll explain the lore here, and the canon events aren't important to this one. If you are familiar with it and would like to make a descendant of a canon Traveler, like if you wanted to make Bobby's son or daughter (I'm seriously considering this position, though. Pendragon's offspring will most likely end up being the next Lead Traveler, whom I will be playing. If his child does come into this, then he'll make an appearance in this RP and instruct his child, just as Press did for Bobby.) Also, I'm giving you a lot of choices about this RP.

First option is where to put the RP on the site. I'm fine with putting it in either Advanced or Casual, though I'd much prefer to put it in Casual. That's my comfort zone, but I can write to Advanced standards and still have fun with it.

Second option is the way we tell the story about the new battle for Halla (Don't worry, I'll explain this later on). In the books, the battle was told from Bobby Pendragon's point of view, in first-person. It was told as though he were writing a journal to his friends back on his home territory of Second Earth. That's one option. The posts can be told like the characters are writing journals to their Acolytes, just like in the books. The second option is just the standard way RP's are done on this site, and be told in third person. I'm perfectly fine with either option.

Third choice is how we start. We could start together, or we could start on each character's home territory. I'd prefer the second choice, but it's really up to you guys.

And now for the lore.

Halla is a bit like our universe, but not very. The difference is that the universe as we know it is contained within Halla. In the books, Halla is described as all that is, was, or ever will be. From this, I can assume that Halla is past, present, and future all at the same time, though other evidence has suggested that Halla is more synonymous to the multiverse than anything else. As Bobby's uncle, Press, has stated to Bobby, "If you were to hop into a spaceship and fly in the direction of another territory, you'd never get there." It can be assumed that Halla is two things: It's past, present, and future at the same time, and it's a multiverse, with each territory having its own universe. There are two exceptions I can think of, those exceptions being Veelox and Earth. There are two territories that make up the planet called Veelox, which are Veelox and Ibara. Three territories are found on the planet Earth, those being First, Second, and Third Earth. But the other five territories are in their own universes.

The explanation of Halla brought up the need to explain territories. These aren't all that different from planets, except half of them are in their own instances of the universe. The other half represent different time periods of a planet, but those planets are also in their own instances of the universe In times when Halla is in danger, flumes are created. These are nothing more than passages connecting the territories. When inactive, they are described as stone tunnels reaching into infinity. When active, they are clear crystal. The force that propels a Traveler along a flume is characterized by a jumble of sweet-sounding notes of music. There are a total of ten canon territories:

Denduron is a territory where the dominant form of government is a monarchy. The planet has a total of 15 continents, though only 3 of them have been explored and charted. The largest one is known as Bedoo, with two smaller ones called Nodd and Galla, and is where the two major tribes reside, which are the Bedoowan and Milago. There are five other tribes, called the Novan, Lowsee, Gallauao, Reuenian, and Toom, making a total of seven tribes on Denduron. However, the Novan are the only minor tribe with extensive contact with the Milago and Bedoowan, as they have been enslaved by the Bedoowan. The Novan perform tasks such as cooking and cleaning for the Bedoowan. The Milago and Bedoowan have found peace with each other since the end of the First War for Halla, though the Milago were previously enslaved by the Bedoowan, forced to mine a valuable mineral called glaze. The Lowsee have had brief contact with the two major tribes when the Milago enslaved them near the end of the First War for Halla. Denduron's quigs are bears with spikes on their back. Whilst sleeping, these bears look like bony spikes protruding from the ground. Unlike Earth, Denduron orbits three suns, which implies that the planet of Denduron is relatively young due to the fact that two of the suns have't been engulfed by the third. The names of these three stars are Noab, Lao, and Rigg. Denduron has a total of nine oceans, though the only one whose name was mentioned is the Titanbian Ocean. The Titanbian Ocean is also the largest and completely surrounds Bedoo. The previous Traveler of Denduron was a Bedoowan knight by the name Alder, though he was killed and can now only be contacted by traveling to Solara. As for names (in case you wish to have your character "originate" from Denduron), there is little information on it. I can only think of one example of a female name, which is Kagan. There are several examples of male names, however, these being Figgis, Rallan, Mallos, and Alder. One thing is certain, however: every name alternates between consonants and vowels, treating double consonants and vowels as a single letter. The same applies to their language. There is one exception to this, which is "oa". It's treated as a single vowel and likely represents an elongated o.

This territory is almost completely covered in water. There is a single island, where the territory's only true city, known as Faar, is located. Faar is not unlike Atlantis in that it sank below the water at some point in time and was partially responsible for developing the modern Cloral. Most of Cloral's inhabitants live on huge city-sized ships called habitats, each of which serve a different purpose. The largest Habitat is known as Grallion, which is an agricultural habitat. Another large habitat, called Panger City, is also agricultural. Other habitats include Crasker, Jorsen, and Prongo. Another habitat from the books, Magorran, was a manufacturing habitat, though its entire population was wiped out by Saint Dane via poisoned food, using a poison he developed on Panger City. The culture of Cloral is unclear, but they seem to have an emphasis on duty, like the Japanese. Doing your job is extremely important on Cloral. I'm not sure about this, but the only job on Cloral not present on the Earths serves a similar purpose to a lighthouse, though I can't remember the name given to this occupation. They guide boats into a habitat's boat hangar, and help guide habitats towards each other and prevent crashes when they trade with each other. Like Earth, Cloral orbits a single star, though it remains unnamed. The names used on Cloral can be generally divided into two categories: Faarian, and Cloran. There are similarities between the two, for the only real difference lies in surnames. The vast majority of forenames on Cloral are monosyllabic and are compose of two letters for the most part. There are three exceptions to the two-letter rule, and one of them is also an exception to the monosyllable rule: Benn, Per, and Ginja. Cloran surnames tend to be composed of two syllables, with extremely rare (and unmentioned) exceptions. Faarian surnames tend to be composed of three syllables. The Traveler from Cloral of the previous generation is Vo Spader. He can be found on Cloral, unlike the previous Traveler of Denduron, for he was never killed.

If you don't know anything about this one, then you're an idiot. However, there are some things you must know about Earth that aren't present in reality. There are actually three instances of Earth: First Earth, Second Earth, and Third Earth. First Earth is the state of Earth between about 1800 and possibly about 1980, though the year when First Earth becomes Second Earth is not clear. As you probably guessed by now, Second Earth is the present, starting maybe around 1980 and lasting until maybe 2260, though, like with First Earth, the year when Second Earth become Third Earth is not made clear. Third Earth is the future, and it goes on to an unknown year. It is unknown whether a Fourth Earth exists (though feel free to make it up if you like! I'd say it could be when we get intragalactic travel. Then you could also get to Fifth Earth, which might include intergalactic travel. However, I'll not allow a Sixth Earth where we have interuniversal travel, because I'd rather you not have a spaceship replace flumes.). Anyway, the culture of Second Earth remained about the same as that of Second Earth, as far as I could tell. The technology includes shoes being doughnut-shaped things that, when put on your feet, form to your foot to make a shoe, hovercars, and books being stored digitally. There is only one book in print, which is located in the New York City library (it's Green Eggs and Ham by Doctor Seuss). Most of New York was removed from the surface, and now the majority of the city's urban areas are underground. The surface of New York looks like a park, with minimal development that contrasts the sprawling urban complex below the surface. To make a long story short, Third Earth is pretty much the utopia that many seek, with a crime rate of zero, no pollution, and world peace. It's safe to say that Third Earth is the peak of Earth's history. Names on all of the Earth's are the same as those commonly used in reality.

Veelox is a territory that makes Third Earth look primitive. It has highly advanced virtual reality called Lifelight, which is located in a huge pyramid-shaped complex in the territory's single city, Rubic City. Though, this territory was pretty much replaced by Rayne. Lifelight consumed the lives of the majority of Veelox's residents, giving them the perfect life with no flaws whatsoever. Despite historical attempts to kick the territory-wide addiction to Lifelight, the most nearly successful one being known as the Reality Bug, which introduced flaws to the perfect lives of the Lifelight users, the residents remained in Lifelight with the exception of the Vedders and Phaders. Phaders controlled the "jumps" of the users and made sure nothing goes wrong with them, and are told apart from Vedders by blue jumpsuits. Vedders take care of the jumpers while they are in simulation, such as feeding them. I believe they wear red jumpsuits. Phaders and Vedders make up only .1% of the total population of Veelox. The other 99.9% are jumpers, who wear green jumpsuits. Names are unclear, for only one forename is mentioned. It's the name of the current Traveler, Aja Killian. Her current status is a bit unusual, for she is both alive and dead. On Veelox, she's alive, but on the other instance of Veelox, Ibara, she's deceased. Ibara is the future of Veelox, after Lifelight collapsed due to the territory running out of a food substitute called gloid. I think it's safe to assume that Ibaran names are the same as Veeloxan names, and include such names as Siry Remudi. (I can't think of any others off the top of my head, and I don't own a copy of the eighth book.) The entire population of Ibara is on the island for which the territory is named, though it could be assumed that they attempted to colonize the rest of the planet once again. I'm not sure if that would cause it to become "Second Veelox" or not, though you may create it if you like.

Eelong is a jungle world, and is the only territory where humans are not the dominant species. Instead, a catlike race called the Klee are the dominant species. It's a hostile, dangerous world where the lives of both humans (called Gars on this territory) and Klees are constantly threatened. As such, the Klees reside in cities in the treetops to avoid the predators of Eelong. At one point, Gars were viewed by the Klee as dumb and just inferior to them in general. However, when Saint Dane threatened Eelong and the Gar sanctuary of Black Water was revealed to the Klee, the two have become equals. It is unknown what kind of names Gars used, but the Klee have names such as Kasha (female), Seegen (male), Boon (male), and Yorn (male). Rather than orbiting a star, Eelong has a "sunbelt". From the ground during the day, it's visible as a strip of yellow light across the sky. The sunbelt revolves on an axis, with Eelong in its center, which is what creates its day/night cycle. From space, the sunbelt is likely visible as a ring of plasma similar in shape to Saturn's rings.

Zadaa is a desert world on its surface, with underground rivers running all throughout the territory. There are many tribes on Zadaa, but most are uncivilized and cannibalistic. There were only two civilized tribes: the Batu and Rokador. The Batu culture has similarities to most African countries, with architectural similarities to the Mayans. They have fierce gladiatorial competitions, though people were rarely killed in these competitions. The Batu have names such as Loor, Osa, and Saangi. The Rokador have more advanced technology than the Batu, and control the plumbing system the Batu set up. They live underground, and rarely, if ever, venture to the surface. In contrast to the dark skin of the Batu, the Rokador are pale, almost to the point of albinism, due to spending much of their time underground and not under the sun. Rokador names have not been mentioned.

Quillan is a very negative territory, even now. Greed, unrestrained strength, and pride are rampant in its communities, which are called Utopias. The entire territory is run by a company called Blok, and the Utopias are policed by nigh-indestructible androids called Dados. Quillan has games that often result in the death of at least one participant, and it was the Quillan Games that claimed the life of Syri's father, Jen Remudi, who was the Ibaran Traveler before him. Even the territory's arcade games put the life of the player at stake. Quillan has no tolerance for failure, even at games that take place in a simulated enviornment. The previous Traveler of Quillan was Nevva Winter, who was killed in the First War for Halla. She had sided with Saint Dane.

Though Solara is not a true territory, some consider it to be the 11th territory. Solara is the very essence of Halla, and is where the Christian belief of Heaven and Hell arose from. Solara has two halves: a positive and a negative. Positive things, such as humility, peace, and satisfaction, feed the positive half. Negative things, such as greed, pride without humility, and strength without restraint, feed the negative half. Usually the halves are in balance, but Saint Dane set Solara off balance and nearly destroyed Halla in his quest for total domination. The previous Traveler of Solara, and one of the first two Travelers to ever exist alongside Press, was Saint Dane. I will not allow anyone to create a Traveler from Solara. The geography of Solara is variable based on the person viewing it. It appears as what is most appealing to those who go to Solara that aren't travelers, which would be all who have died. After all, Solara is the place where the spirits of the dead go as well as the birthplace of every Traveler who ever existed. Those individuals created on Solara are the ones that become Travelers. The existence of Solara presents a problem for Travelers: every time they use a flume, the power of Solara is weakened slightly. Should the flumes be overused (which is actually a lot of usage), Solara will crumble, and Halla will collapse.

Travelers are individuals created, not born, on Solara. They are sent to other territories to live their lives until they are ready to assume the responsibilities of Travelers. They are usually taught by their predecessor. All Travelers have two powers: they heal considerably faster than most, but not instantly; they are able to use the flumes without consequence other than their effect on Solara. However, Bobby, being the Lead Traveler, has a few other abilities. He has an abnormally high charisma, and can persuade other more easily. The Lead Traveler also has a limited ability to resurrect other Travelers, but can only do so if they die before they are meant to. Also unique to the Lead Traveler is the ability to heal from minor wounds in a matter of seconds, though major wounds take longer, and fatal wounds don't heal as with most people. When they become fully realized Travelers, all Travelers gained limitless power, though I believe this is only possible when Halla is on the brink of destruction. Saint Dane had this final power for the entire saga due to being the Traveler from Solara.

Acolytes are assistants to the Travelers. Each Traveler has one Acolyte. Acolytes are the only non-Travelers who know of a Traveler's status as a Traveler, and are charged with the safekeeping of a Traveler's journals. An Acolyte is the one person a Traveler can trust with their life. Travelers and Acolytes are linked via a ring, which acts as a one-way miniature flume. Through this, a Traveler can send small objects to his Acolyte, but an Acolyte is incapable of activating the ring.

I think that's all you need to know. If you know Pendragon lore, let me know if I missed anything.

So, now that all that's out of the way, I'll allow custom territories as long as they can fit the lore pretty well.

Any takers?

[Aisling]

It has been so long ago that I read the series. Is this the series that had dragons that sang in different pitches to find various ores and gems?

[mast3rlinkx]

This series had nothing to do with dragons. However, does this still interest you?

[Constantinou]

Wow! I picked this book series up eons ago at a scholastic book sale at my school. When I was a kid, I was as obsessed with it as my friends were with Harry Potter. Since the fan forums shut down, I haven't had anyone to talk to about them. This is so fantastic; you don't even know!
1. Will you please be my friend?
2. You don't even understand how interested I am in doing this!!
3. What did you think about the end of the series? I thought it was sweet, but I know a lot of fans who found it to be a pretty big let down.
4. Who is your favorite character?
5. Have you read his new series or the comics? I haven't...grown out of them a bit, though they will always have a special place in my heart. I'm about to go read the old series again. Like right now. After I finish my NaNo. Eek!

I am geeking out right now, in case you didn't notice.

EDIT: You forgot some vital information.
1. Ibara, not Rayne, is a territory. Rayne is part of Ibara, though, and Ibara is the future of Veelox (just as third earth is our future).
2. I feel it's important to talk about air globes and water sleds on Cloral.
3. The First Earth traveller was Gunny Van Dyke who became trapped on Eelong before dying and going to Solara, and the Third Earth traveller was Patrick Mac who has died and can only be found on Solara.
4. Kasha is the traveller from Eelong. She died in Zaada trying to save the Eelong flume from collapsing. She and Bobby were unsuccessful, though Gunny (who became trapped in Eelong when the flume collapsed) was later able to reuild it. She now resides in spirit on Solara.
5. The traveller from Zaada was Loor, a Batu warrior. She is killed during the series as well, but Bobby is able to revive her, revealing that the lead traveller has healing abilities.
6. Quillian quigs are mechanical spiders that are relatives of dados. This is a nod to the fact that Saint Dance was mixing territories.
7. It is very very very wrong and illegal to mix territories. That means that you cannot send people (aside from travellers) through the flumes, and you cannot bring items that do not exist in one territory to another.

[mast3rlinkx]

I thought I was forgetting some stuff. I'll get that edited into the OP. Yeah, the series is great!

1. Sure. I'll send a request.
2. I think I do. I've been dying for a Pendragon RP for a while, so I gave up looking and decided to run one myself.
3. I loved it! I think it was the perfect end to the series. It left none of my questions unanswered and left Halla at peace. What's not to love?
4. That's a really hard choice. I'll just list some of my favorite characters instead. That would be Press, Saint Dane, Bobby, Spader, Gunny, Andy (yes, I realize he was Saint Dane the whole time), and Courtney.
5. Are you referring to Morpheus Road?

EDIT: Also, I do believe I referred to the future of Veelox as Ibara. Rayne is the city located on the island of Ibara, not the island itself. Ibara did exist on the territory of Veelox, but it was an abandoned military stronghold.

[Constantinou]

Yes and no. They made a comic of Pendragon. And I was referring to Morpheus Road. I was about to pick it up back when the forums were still up, but got busy and ended up not. Not sure if it's any good. Sort of wish he would have stuck with the Pendragon universe in his next series. Which, yes I know there was the whole Before the War series, but I mean as a sequel not a prequel. Plus, he didn't even write the prequels. They were ghost written for him. For that reason, I never read those either. No, I retract that. I began to read the first one. Didn't care much for it.

I loved Andy even when I found out he was Saint Dane. SD was so fun to hate!

[mast3rlinkx]

Well, I finished the first book in Morpheus Road yesterday. Pendragon was actually the oddball series because MacHale writes supernatural stories most of the time. Pendragon was his break, and I actually enjoyed Morpheus Road more than Pendragon. Ghost stories seem to be MacHale's specialty. I can't wait to get my hands on the second book. Morpheus Road is looking like it'll be an excellent trilogy! That speaks a lot about it, because Pendragon was extremely good. I would tell you my favorite character, but that would be a spoiler because he's not revealed until the end of the book. But I will tell you my favorite character is the main antagonist of the trilogy.

[mast3rlinkx]

Bump!

[Constantinou]

Hah! I'll have to read it, then. It'll probably happen when I'm not working full time, taking 16 class hours, participating in NaNoWriMo, and partaking in 4 different RPs. My free time is consumed at the moment. In fact, I'm writing this while on break at work. BLAH! Reading hasn't happened in months.

Anywho, since no one else really seems to understand how epic all of this really is, would you like to make it a 1x1? I wouldn't mind at all if I had to undertake several characters. However, if that is the case, I would prefer high casual simply because it will become exhausting to write such thought out posts for multiple characters at once. What do you think?

[mast3rlinkx]

Well, I've actually got one more who's interested. He posted his interest on the last IntChk I made. I wouldn't mind having just three Traveler PC's and I make the other seven NPC's that are kind of transient or just having them be PC's that come in later on.