This RP is open and looking for new players!
Welcome!
Empty Horizons is a sci-fi NRP that takes place in Sol and three nearby star systems.
Long before now, Terran civilization was at its height. Under three powerful super states humans colonized much of the star system, begun terraforming worlds and sent colony ships to the nearby stars. This golden age would not last. For in the year 2304 the Solar War broke out, causing the collapse of Terran civilization, leaving the colonies in the solar system isolated and the extrasolar colonies forgotten. Only in relatively recent times have the colonies across the solar system begun to recover. Meanwhile, also in recent times three of the remaining extrasolar colonies have made contact with sol and the future remains uncertain as to what happens next.
One more important thing before you dive in and see if this is your jig:
This NRP will be character focused, you will be telling the story of your nation, organization (or even person) through the perspective of characters and not through “RTS action”- see more in the guidelines section.
Common History
Asteroid colony circa 2224
It was the year 2224. Terraforming efforts were slowly beginning to progress in turning lifeless worlds into gardens like earth. Colonization of space had become the norm and countless worlds beyond Sol, some only a few light years away have been discovered by tireless efforts to map the stars. Brimming with hope and ambition, the Solar system was rapidly settled and exploited for the benefit of Humanity. For the first time in history of mankind resources seemed to be unlimited, flowing from the asteroid belt like a wellspring that fed the industry of the Human race. Even more previous advancements in fusion technology, automation, 3D printing, genetic modification, terraforming and countless other technologies had paved the way to a boundless future.
Yet even in that age of prosperity and imagination the Earth remained divided between dissident factions that had only grown increasingly powerful and wealthy in those golden years. Alone they were capable of feats like interplanetary colonization on a day to day basis, and the development of increasingly advanced technologies made them look further than ever before. As the golden age of man progressed and settlements founded by all manner of nations clustered across the Solar system it would be that the conflicts between the foremost powers of the world, The North Atlantic Union, the Chinese Cooperative Zone, and the Greater State of India, deepened. Beyond even that the seeds of revolution had been planted in the colonies of dozens of nations by unfair taxation and an increasingly large culture gap that served to make some colonies indistinguishable from their so called home states.
Still the bubble had not burst by 2276, the hopeful fever that took over the human race led to the foremost powers of Terra, that blue dot in the vastness of space, dispatching interstellar expeditions with recently developed fast as light engines. Dozens of colony ships were set out in the name of various ideologies, but it was luck and not ideals that allowed a mere three of the colony ships to find their destinations. From the North Atlantic Union Alpha Centauri was taken in the name of democracy and the free market. From the Chinese Cooperative Zone Luhman 16 was brought into the fold of the state and the people. Finally the Greater State of India would find a habitable planet within the Epsilon Eridani system, however instead of directlys ending a colony ship being a patron for various organizations from earth regardless of their alignment who had interest in Eridani. Further than any other system that was colonized Epsilon Eridani was far, but with the earth-like possessed what perhaps is the greatest prize.
Yet at the dawn of the 24th, instead of the gleaming brightness and profound hope of the centuries before, the darkness that was eventually, inevitably, coming finally reared its ugly head in the form of the Solar War. The Solar War began when the various colonial holdings in the asteroid belt banded together and declared themselves the Independent Belt State. With the very source of human industry and prosperity at stake most powers declared war immediately. But, officials in the North Atlantic Union seeking a way to pull ahead of their rivals opted for a deal to defend the new state in exchange for sole foreign mining rights.
This decision would come to be known as the greatest mistake in all of human history.
The chaos from the deal was immediate; war consumed the Earth like fire and in one night the web of alliances on the planet had numerous seemingly unrelated factions launching attacks against each other and burning paths of destruction. In a surprisingly exception to the chaos that begun to unfold, the very young Venusian colonies refused to get involved; the colonists in the clouds of the still terraforming world signed a temporary peace with each other and declared neutrality as the super states ripped each other apart, they were safe for the moment as the war looked outward to the belt and not in toward the sun.
And yet in other places it would be that the chaos seen as an opportunity. The colonial settlements on Mars, took the road of the Belt State and fulfilled the dreams of many planetary nationalists. They declared the Martian United Government and turned the balance of power on its head. Even worse, this new Martian state was ambitious. As the madness on Earth consumed more and more resources the Martians launched an attempt to seize the belt for themselves with the support of the Russian Federation, seeking to gain a real victory in the war. The campaign was devastating for the settlements on the belt who were embroiled in civil war between loyalists, fighting for the various Earth born factions and the Beltists. The divided and new nation broke under the large Martian/Russian assault, and in one swift stroke it appeared that Mars would take hold of the destiny of Humanity.
But, that was not to be.
For despite its sudden rise Mars was not an independent state to most Earthen factions, and despite fighting two other super states the NAU and its allies launched a surprise assault on Mars in spite of the worsening conditions on Earth. Without mercy and being treated as rebels the larger Martian settlements were obliterated by bunker buster nukes, the underground cities were turned to ash and pits. By the time the Martian fleet returned to their homeland there was nothing. The Martians furious and drunk on revenge the fleet battle above the world that ensued was to be the death of the North Atlantic fleets. Nearly every ship involved was destroyed; the NAU had lost hope of winning the war. Meanwhile the Greater State of India and the Chinese Cooperative Zone engaged in interplanetary warfare across the solar system, devastating the colonies on the moon to the point where no one was left and leaving a trail of blood from Earth to Pluto.
The bombardment of the Russian Federation, circa 2305
The end was clear when the Russian Federation would launched waves of bioweapon attacks at the NAU in retaliation for the slaughter on Mars. This would in turn cause a subsequent surprise attack by the GIS who was already at war with the CCZ. In weeks the Earth was consumed by a multitude of super weapons, from fusion bombings to super bugs, unleashed were weapons that would continue to damage earth for centuries to come. The Solar War lasted only two years but annihilated both the vast majority of infrastructure in the solar system and the population of Humanity itself.
The Solar system had fallen into utter darkness.
Now alone in the expanse of space as an alliance with military capacity Venus managed to fight off the straggling ships sent by the now defunct GIS trying hopelessly to recover their colonies. Seeing the ruin of the Solar System the Venusian colonies banded together in a show of solidarity, the Venus Republic was born. Its first act was to bar itself from the rest of the Solar system. The destruction wrought by the war had led to many technologies being lost, the colonies were forgotten and instead of trying to achieve greatness every faction, Venus included, focused on staying alive. The Belt state reformed not long after, a shadow of its former self and yearning for revenge it silently rebuilt in anticipation for the day Mars would suffer for its actions. Mars proper blamed the Belt State for the war in entirety, and followed a course that was almost the equal and opposite of the Belt state.
As for Earth itself even the madness of the solar war was not enough for the various people of the world to put aside their differences. When the super states fell in their wake rose a multitude of squabbling warlords fighting for what arable land was left on the burned world. While recovery happened in time there was no singular effort, and the plagues, lack of resources from the strip mining and warring between despots and warlords would keep earth’s development more stunted than the unified worlds outside of Terra. Even today the population of earth numbers less than 2 billion; most of which do not have the life their ancestors once had and some lack literacy itself. Perpetually divided, Earth, the birthplace and home of humanity was lost to man.
In four hundred long years Venus would manage to become a world of water and green as Earth once was using the terraforming tech that was spared the fires of war plagued the outer worlds. Prosperous and happy the Venus republic had maintained an internal peace disconnected with the political struggles of the solar system in the aftermath of that terrible war. Still Venus was not isolationist, for by the time it became habitable as Earth once had been it had become the focal point of solar trade and solar immigration, it was nearly equal to the former Earth. However in recent times due to the increased role Venus has played in the solar system there has been great internal debate among the philosophers and people on how they should run their world and if they should use their new found authority in the realm of Human space.
The interstellar colonies have continued to exist, but over the centuries the alien conditions of the star systems the three colony ships arrived in would shape their cultures and force them to develop in ways different from what their ancestors intended, for better or for worse. Due to having to adapt to alien worlds and conditions, they have technologically developed beyond the solar system in the field of space travel and all three of these colonies managed to independently develop a warp gate device to bridge the stars. Each of these colonies, though they were blind to the others, made their first target when their respective gate projects finally finished the home of their ancestors, Earth.
In last five decades, at differing times the colonies arrived and established instantaneous travel gates between the fringes of the Sol system and the fringes of their own star systems making a the solar system into a nexus for all human space. While the gateways would come at a massive cost that would not be feasible again for decades they opened a new universe and a new age. This new universe has in turn opened up the first communication between the colonies, and between them and the Solar system. While the Solar war is four hundred years gone, the horrors of the Solar War and the Collapse of Terran Civilization continue to haunt humanity to this day.
And there is no new golden age in sight.
App System
Interplanetary colony ship landing on Ganymede, circa 2130-2180
Empty Horizon's app system is a lore based system. That means instead of filling out a rigid set of sections where you place a number, you will be writing information about what you intend to add to the setting. You can make a lore sheet for anything you want. It is preferred if your lore sheet talks of is something relevant to the setting and plot, however. You can make multiple lore sheets of varying quality depending on the subject. A player should only control one faction at most unless there is a good reason for having more than one faction, for instance. The lore sheets are customized, you make the sections you see necessary to explaining your Faction/Organization/Character/Fleet/Planet/Alien Species and so on
You do not need a lore sheet for everything. The only subjects that require lore sheets are the following:
-Factions capable of space travel
-Major organizations capable of space travel
-Any intelligent alien life [be warned- this is not a subject taken lightly.]
-Planets [Short paragraphs all that are asked for. For a example, look at "Hell" in the world list for extrasolar systems]
In order to play the RP, all you need at the very least is a character app.
Here is the basic app sheet with the mandatory sections. You may notice I placed /'s, don't worry about the formatting of them as i'll format them for you.
////Name:
///Subject: [planet? organization? faction? Character? Something else?]
//Location:
/Info*:
Other:
*This section can be replaced, it is only mandatory should have have no substitute section. You should also add multiple sections to format how you see fit.
Here are some templates/example set ups of various subjects. You can modify them however you like:
Guidelines
-Common RP rules apply. You should know them.
-Players who leave the RP will still have their faction/organization in the setting, however they will become NPCs.
-If you want a say in Empty Horizons, join the RP.
-Nothing is the "best", remember everything should serve a purpose, this isn't risk! Think of plot before power.
-When not using Fast-As-Light travel, the maximum speed a ship goes is about .05c [which is about 5% the speed of light]
-Concerning aliens, there are six valid worlds outside earth to put alien life on.
-Continuing on the subject of aliens, there can only be one intelligent species outside of humans. Said species should be planet bound.
-Warp Gates may not be created by players. They are plot-based devices that each of the extrasolar factions made only once by 2700 and it will be decades before any new gates of their kind are made.
-Venus represents our “special case”. While you can be an organization on Venus, and influence its government and public that way, total command of it as a faction is not allowed
-Empty Horizons follows the internal consistency principle. This means that whatever tech or feats can be replicated elsewhere in the setting. Keep this in mind for whatever you intend to be in the RP.
-The RP should be played through the perspective of characters and not played as a strategy game. Empty Horizons is story based, with the nations/factions acting as lore for what is effectively a collaboratively made setting.
-Technology in the RP has limits. For instance AI never got advanced enough to cause a singularity and no one has FTL.
-FAL as a device is finicky and has the risk of not working the longer it is used. For instance traveling with FAL from pluto to earth is feasible, but the longer the distance the more prone to "running out of fuel" FAL becomes.
The Three Extrasolar Star Systems
Alpha Centauri world Hell, circa 2662
Outside of the solar system there are three star systems that are still in the process of colonization, for while the interstellar colonies have managed to advance in space travel beyond the innovations of solar society their populations remain lower than sol’s in comparison.
Lore sheets when finished will be put in a encyclopedia. The encylopedia will be made after the first lore sheets are posted.
Here's the Chazty. Currently is a premium room- never miss out on a page of chat again!
And finally, this RP was cooperatively made between myself and Isotope. As a result, we both are GMs for this RP.
Welcome!
Empty Horizons is a sci-fi NRP that takes place in Sol and three nearby star systems.
Long before now, Terran civilization was at its height. Under three powerful super states humans colonized much of the star system, begun terraforming worlds and sent colony ships to the nearby stars. This golden age would not last. For in the year 2304 the Solar War broke out, causing the collapse of Terran civilization, leaving the colonies in the solar system isolated and the extrasolar colonies forgotten. Only in relatively recent times have the colonies across the solar system begun to recover. Meanwhile, also in recent times three of the remaining extrasolar colonies have made contact with sol and the future remains uncertain as to what happens next.
One more important thing before you dive in and see if this is your jig:
This NRP will be character focused, you will be telling the story of your nation, organization (or even person) through the perspective of characters and not through “RTS action”- see more in the guidelines section.
Common History
It was the year 2224. Terraforming efforts were slowly beginning to progress in turning lifeless worlds into gardens like earth. Colonization of space had become the norm and countless worlds beyond Sol, some only a few light years away have been discovered by tireless efforts to map the stars. Brimming with hope and ambition, the Solar system was rapidly settled and exploited for the benefit of Humanity. For the first time in history of mankind resources seemed to be unlimited, flowing from the asteroid belt like a wellspring that fed the industry of the Human race. Even more previous advancements in fusion technology, automation, 3D printing, genetic modification, terraforming and countless other technologies had paved the way to a boundless future.
Yet even in that age of prosperity and imagination the Earth remained divided between dissident factions that had only grown increasingly powerful and wealthy in those golden years. Alone they were capable of feats like interplanetary colonization on a day to day basis, and the development of increasingly advanced technologies made them look further than ever before. As the golden age of man progressed and settlements founded by all manner of nations clustered across the Solar system it would be that the conflicts between the foremost powers of the world, The North Atlantic Union, the Chinese Cooperative Zone, and the Greater State of India, deepened. Beyond even that the seeds of revolution had been planted in the colonies of dozens of nations by unfair taxation and an increasingly large culture gap that served to make some colonies indistinguishable from their so called home states.
Still the bubble had not burst by 2276, the hopeful fever that took over the human race led to the foremost powers of Terra, that blue dot in the vastness of space, dispatching interstellar expeditions with recently developed fast as light engines. Dozens of colony ships were set out in the name of various ideologies, but it was luck and not ideals that allowed a mere three of the colony ships to find their destinations. From the North Atlantic Union Alpha Centauri was taken in the name of democracy and the free market. From the Chinese Cooperative Zone Luhman 16 was brought into the fold of the state and the people. Finally the Greater State of India would find a habitable planet within the Epsilon Eridani system, however instead of directlys ending a colony ship being a patron for various organizations from earth regardless of their alignment who had interest in Eridani. Further than any other system that was colonized Epsilon Eridani was far, but with the earth-like possessed what perhaps is the greatest prize.
Yet at the dawn of the 24th, instead of the gleaming brightness and profound hope of the centuries before, the darkness that was eventually, inevitably, coming finally reared its ugly head in the form of the Solar War. The Solar War began when the various colonial holdings in the asteroid belt banded together and declared themselves the Independent Belt State. With the very source of human industry and prosperity at stake most powers declared war immediately. But, officials in the North Atlantic Union seeking a way to pull ahead of their rivals opted for a deal to defend the new state in exchange for sole foreign mining rights.
This decision would come to be known as the greatest mistake in all of human history.
The chaos from the deal was immediate; war consumed the Earth like fire and in one night the web of alliances on the planet had numerous seemingly unrelated factions launching attacks against each other and burning paths of destruction. In a surprisingly exception to the chaos that begun to unfold, the very young Venusian colonies refused to get involved; the colonists in the clouds of the still terraforming world signed a temporary peace with each other and declared neutrality as the super states ripped each other apart, they were safe for the moment as the war looked outward to the belt and not in toward the sun.
And yet in other places it would be that the chaos seen as an opportunity. The colonial settlements on Mars, took the road of the Belt State and fulfilled the dreams of many planetary nationalists. They declared the Martian United Government and turned the balance of power on its head. Even worse, this new Martian state was ambitious. As the madness on Earth consumed more and more resources the Martians launched an attempt to seize the belt for themselves with the support of the Russian Federation, seeking to gain a real victory in the war. The campaign was devastating for the settlements on the belt who were embroiled in civil war between loyalists, fighting for the various Earth born factions and the Beltists. The divided and new nation broke under the large Martian/Russian assault, and in one swift stroke it appeared that Mars would take hold of the destiny of Humanity.
But, that was not to be.
For despite its sudden rise Mars was not an independent state to most Earthen factions, and despite fighting two other super states the NAU and its allies launched a surprise assault on Mars in spite of the worsening conditions on Earth. Without mercy and being treated as rebels the larger Martian settlements were obliterated by bunker buster nukes, the underground cities were turned to ash and pits. By the time the Martian fleet returned to their homeland there was nothing. The Martians furious and drunk on revenge the fleet battle above the world that ensued was to be the death of the North Atlantic fleets. Nearly every ship involved was destroyed; the NAU had lost hope of winning the war. Meanwhile the Greater State of India and the Chinese Cooperative Zone engaged in interplanetary warfare across the solar system, devastating the colonies on the moon to the point where no one was left and leaving a trail of blood from Earth to Pluto.
The end was clear when the Russian Federation would launched waves of bioweapon attacks at the NAU in retaliation for the slaughter on Mars. This would in turn cause a subsequent surprise attack by the GIS who was already at war with the CCZ. In weeks the Earth was consumed by a multitude of super weapons, from fusion bombings to super bugs, unleashed were weapons that would continue to damage earth for centuries to come. The Solar War lasted only two years but annihilated both the vast majority of infrastructure in the solar system and the population of Humanity itself.
The Solar system had fallen into utter darkness.
Now alone in the expanse of space as an alliance with military capacity Venus managed to fight off the straggling ships sent by the now defunct GIS trying hopelessly to recover their colonies. Seeing the ruin of the Solar System the Venusian colonies banded together in a show of solidarity, the Venus Republic was born. Its first act was to bar itself from the rest of the Solar system. The destruction wrought by the war had led to many technologies being lost, the colonies were forgotten and instead of trying to achieve greatness every faction, Venus included, focused on staying alive. The Belt state reformed not long after, a shadow of its former self and yearning for revenge it silently rebuilt in anticipation for the day Mars would suffer for its actions. Mars proper blamed the Belt State for the war in entirety, and followed a course that was almost the equal and opposite of the Belt state.
As for Earth itself even the madness of the solar war was not enough for the various people of the world to put aside their differences. When the super states fell in their wake rose a multitude of squabbling warlords fighting for what arable land was left on the burned world. While recovery happened in time there was no singular effort, and the plagues, lack of resources from the strip mining and warring between despots and warlords would keep earth’s development more stunted than the unified worlds outside of Terra. Even today the population of earth numbers less than 2 billion; most of which do not have the life their ancestors once had and some lack literacy itself. Perpetually divided, Earth, the birthplace and home of humanity was lost to man.
In four hundred long years Venus would manage to become a world of water and green as Earth once was using the terraforming tech that was spared the fires of war plagued the outer worlds. Prosperous and happy the Venus republic had maintained an internal peace disconnected with the political struggles of the solar system in the aftermath of that terrible war. Still Venus was not isolationist, for by the time it became habitable as Earth once had been it had become the focal point of solar trade and solar immigration, it was nearly equal to the former Earth. However in recent times due to the increased role Venus has played in the solar system there has been great internal debate among the philosophers and people on how they should run their world and if they should use their new found authority in the realm of Human space.
The interstellar colonies have continued to exist, but over the centuries the alien conditions of the star systems the three colony ships arrived in would shape their cultures and force them to develop in ways different from what their ancestors intended, for better or for worse. Due to having to adapt to alien worlds and conditions, they have technologically developed beyond the solar system in the field of space travel and all three of these colonies managed to independently develop a warp gate device to bridge the stars. Each of these colonies, though they were blind to the others, made their first target when their respective gate projects finally finished the home of their ancestors, Earth.
In last five decades, at differing times the colonies arrived and established instantaneous travel gates between the fringes of the Sol system and the fringes of their own star systems making a the solar system into a nexus for all human space. While the gateways would come at a massive cost that would not be feasible again for decades they opened a new universe and a new age. This new universe has in turn opened up the first communication between the colonies, and between them and the Solar system. While the Solar war is four hundred years gone, the horrors of the Solar War and the Collapse of Terran Civilization continue to haunt humanity to this day.
And there is no new golden age in sight.
App System
Empty Horizon's app system is a lore based system. That means instead of filling out a rigid set of sections where you place a number, you will be writing information about what you intend to add to the setting. You can make a lore sheet for anything you want. It is preferred if your lore sheet talks of is something relevant to the setting and plot, however. You can make multiple lore sheets of varying quality depending on the subject. A player should only control one faction at most unless there is a good reason for having more than one faction, for instance. The lore sheets are customized, you make the sections you see necessary to explaining your Faction/Organization/Character/Fleet/Planet/Alien Species and so on
You do not need a lore sheet for everything. The only subjects that require lore sheets are the following:
-Factions capable of space travel
-Major organizations capable of space travel
-Any intelligent alien life [be warned- this is not a subject taken lightly.]
-Planets [Short paragraphs all that are asked for. For a example, look at "Hell" in the world list for extrasolar systems]
In order to play the RP, all you need at the very least is a character app.
Here is the basic app sheet with the mandatory sections. You may notice I placed /'s, don't worry about the formatting of them as i'll format them for you.
////Name:
///Subject: [planet? organization? faction? Character? Something else?]
//Location:
/Info*:
Other:
*This section can be replaced, it is only mandatory should have have no substitute section. You should also add multiple sections to format how you see fit.
Here are some templates/example set ups of various subjects. You can modify them however you like:
Guidelines
-Common RP rules apply. You should know them.
-Players who leave the RP will still have their faction/organization in the setting, however they will become NPCs.
-If you want a say in Empty Horizons, join the RP.
-Nothing is the "best", remember everything should serve a purpose, this isn't risk! Think of plot before power.
-When not using Fast-As-Light travel, the maximum speed a ship goes is about .05c [which is about 5% the speed of light]
-Concerning aliens, there are six valid worlds outside earth to put alien life on.
-Continuing on the subject of aliens, there can only be one intelligent species outside of humans. Said species should be planet bound.
-Warp Gates may not be created by players. They are plot-based devices that each of the extrasolar factions made only once by 2700 and it will be decades before any new gates of their kind are made.
-Venus represents our “special case”. While you can be an organization on Venus, and influence its government and public that way, total command of it as a faction is not allowed
-Empty Horizons follows the internal consistency principle. This means that whatever tech or feats can be replicated elsewhere in the setting. Keep this in mind for whatever you intend to be in the RP.
-The RP should be played through the perspective of characters and not played as a strategy game. Empty Horizons is story based, with the nations/factions acting as lore for what is effectively a collaboratively made setting.
-Technology in the RP has limits. For instance AI never got advanced enough to cause a singularity and no one has FTL.
-FAL as a device is finicky and has the risk of not working the longer it is used. For instance traveling with FAL from pluto to earth is feasible, but the longer the distance the more prone to "running out of fuel" FAL becomes.
The Three Extrasolar Star Systems
Outside of the solar system there are three star systems that are still in the process of colonization, for while the interstellar colonies have managed to advance in space travel beyond the innovations of solar society their populations remain lower than sol’s in comparison.
Lore sheets when finished will be put in a encyclopedia. The encylopedia will be made after the first lore sheets are posted.
Here's the Chazty. Currently is a premium room- never miss out on a page of chat again!
And finally, this RP was cooperatively made between myself and Isotope. As a result, we both are GMs for this RP.
