Story
Auriga. Our dying star. Our fading cradle. Our moribund haven. Ages ago our planet Auriga was subjected to a civil war among the Endless, an ancient and mysterious civilization who are also said to be the earliest form of intelligent life. Much can be told about the Endless- their advanced technologies, their marvelous societies, and especially the uncountable shards that their nation eventually broke into. The history of the Endless is glorious but tragic- though they were able to master the secrets of space and time, the stars, and life, they were unable to comprehend their own internal strife. All that remains of them now are strange and disjointed traces in the form of seeds or observatories or rock formations or experiments or cities.
The civil war on Auriga devastated the planet, and the few survivors hid underground or wherever they could for so long that no one could recall when the cataclysm really occurred. When the various tribes emerged from hiding a millenia ago and began to re-colonize the planet once more, all seemed to have recovered. Factions were founded, wars were fought, and civilization slowly found its way back to Auriga. However- it has been observed by many that the planet has been hosting longer and harsher seasons as the years pass- a fact that has led to a single, startling discovery- we live on a dying planet.
There is a very loose and nervous peace among the major races and kingdoms of Auriga now (save for the carrion-like Necrophages, who seem ever interested in eternal conflict, and the scheming Cultists, who seek only to further their own agenda) to try and engineer a plan to save their home. It was decided that while practical solutions would be debated upon a team of representatives would look to study the Endless- this all-star team of explorers, warriors, scholars, and politicians was dubbed the Tribunal, and contained a representative from each of the major factions whom have created the loose peace: the Vaulters, Wild Walkers, Broken Lords, Roving Mages, Roving Clans, and Drakken.
You are one of the six members of the Tribunal, representing your loyalties and your faction's ideals. Will you set aside your own nation's beliefs for the good of Auriga? Will the Tribunal be able to set aside their differences to work together? Can Auriga- your home, be saved?
Dust
"Dust" is the lifeblood of Auriga- a creation of the highly advanced race, the Endless, who existed and traversed the stars tens of thousands of years before our story begins. They had developed technology that was so advanced that they were able to upload their minds and consciousness into computers, thus gaining immortality.
The Endless had thus created an infrastructure of nanobots and nano-computers to collectively maintain society. Some used these infinitesimally small machines to maintain their biological bodies while others used these nano-elements- known as "Dust"- as virtual bodies once they uploaded themselves. While individual "grains" of Dust had very limited computing power, the ability to talk and network were present, and as a result, "clouds" of Dust were able and available to form extremely complex systems. However, the presence of Dust sparked a debate among the Endless, which ultimately led to the civil war and the Empire's subsequent demise- one facet of society wished to used Dust to maintain their physical bodies and for DNA replication, while the others sought to simply upload themselves into Dust eternally. The arguments between these two sides (The "Concretes" and "Virtuals", respectively) led to the destruction of the Endless, and ultimately, the collective virtual consciousness present in Dust.
The Endless had come to be so reliant on Dust that their society had become nearly symbiotic between lifeforms and Dust- something that remains true of Dust today. While they've-for the most part- lost the ability to understand and create Dust, most of the species of Auriga have been exposed to the vast quantities of it for so long that many-if not all- have developed a symbiotic relationship with it. Though the Endless consciousness is mostly gone, in large enough quantities it can still be used to manipulate both energy and the physical world, though doing such requires talent and training (See: Ardent Mages). This is the observable "magic" that the denizens of Auriga have grown to know and accept.
However, because it is so valuable and easy to find (In a galaxy inundated in the ruins of the Endless) Dust has also become the internationally accepted currency, like gold during the Age of Exploration. It is the one thing that all nations, regardless of other predispositions, always want more of.
Factions
Note: So for this RP I am looking for one representative for each faction (except the Necrophages and Cultists)- and since your character would have to have been chosen to represent and speak for the entirety of the nation they probably would have had to agree, above all else, that you embody your nation's beliefs and values. As such, I ask that all characters believe- at least at the beginning, while the Tribunal is in its infancy- that they and their nation have what it takes to save Auriga. That's what I want the RP to be about- a group of vastly differing beliefs struggling to work together for the good of their own planet and reacting to the changing political landscape around them. So onto the factions:
OOC
So what I'm looking for is around six others, one for each hero from a playable faction. Your character is part of the Tribunal put together to investigate other non-conventional means of saving Auriga- first and foremost, that means studying the Endless as well as searching for any artifacts in ruins they left behind. I'll pit the planet itself against our party, and with the Necrophages ever encroaching on the Ardent Mages in the north, and the Cult of the Eternal End conjuring more power every year, the Tribunal will certainly have its hand full.
CS
*Post sheets here in the OOC, please. Upon acceptance, you may move them to the character tab.
Rules & Expectations