The year is 2444, and the Human Federation has fallen. Having stood for 84 years as the unified embodiment of people's desire for peace and prosperity, tensions within the member states have caused a civil war of horrific savagery, splintering the Core Worlds of the Terran Sector into anarchy. Planets are blasted, countless people killed, cities burnt, and rage consumes all in an inferno.

This is not our story...at least not yet.

For in the faraway Eliza Sector, the end of the Human Federation is greeted with apathy, even celebration; the Core had been neglecting the frontier. They can survive on their own, they think, they don't need Sol telling them what to do. And for a time, they were right; life was better without the Core; their worlds did survive on their own. But as the decades passed, the various 'Independent Planets' began to bicker and feud with each other, devolving into war. Not helping were the various pirates, bandits, and deserters from the Terran Sector's 'Warring States' pillaging and plundering wherever they wanted.

Another complication was the discovery of the 'Multiverse Fragments' on the planets of New Amsterdam and Paradise/Crucible. These mysterious shards were part of other universes, universes that had since perished, and had fallen into ours'. When channeled by a human will, these shards override the local reality with foriegn laws of nature. A shard from a universe where Gravity doesn't exist can make things float, a shard from a world where time moves faster can control acceleration, and a shard from a universe of heat and light can create fires. All that was needed was the right shard, and anything can be made to happen. This phenomenon was called...Magic.

When stability was restored after a full 100 years with the help of Multiverse Shards, it was only as a prelude to more conflict, as various interplanetary factions, commanding the strength of multiple worlds, were now jockeying for power, looking to reach the ultimate goal - unity, leadership, and power.

You are an individual, trying to make their way amidst the climate of hope gone rotten. Old or young, man or woman, hero, villain, or somewhere in between, you have multiple options, many ways to make a living in this sector. But something is happening, something is happening that would shake things up soon...

Okay, OOC time. What is this RP? Is this an Open World RP, or a Party-based Game, aka a game where the PCs are in one group?

It is both, with two groups of PCs: The Party and the Movers.

'The Party', which would number about 4 - 5 Players, who would follow a central quest that would change the state of the sector multiple times. These players would engage in secret operations, open combat, diplomacy, and intrigue, but at the same time, have restrictions on the amount of power and resources that they have as a character. Basically, they cannot have vast mansions, private armies, and networks of spies; that's the price they pay for being able to decide the fate of the Eliza Sector.

'The Movers', which can be as many players as possible, would can hinder or aid the central quest, or just react to the changes made to the Sector in their wake. These engage in large-scale war, webs of politics, and can control fleets and armies, multiples of them. However, they have one big disadvantage vis-a-vis The Party; they have no Plot Armor.

Suggestions for a profession in the game:

- Soldier or official of one of the factions.
- Bounty Hunter.
- Trader.
- Mercenary.
- Smuggler.
- Space Sorceror (more below)
- Any combination of the above.

1.) The Interstellar League of Mayors and Merchants - Merchant-Adventurers who eschew Corporatism and the Corporate Structure, the Interstellar League is an association of mostly honest men who seek to make an honest profit and improve lives with the power of trade. Wherever they go, the League builds schools, factories, roads, and spaceports, believing that helping the people of various worlds would end up profiting them in the long term. Of course, this activity would not go unopposed, so every League ship is heavily armed, and their transports are capable of bearing armies as much as cargo. Powerful, but not interested in conquering the whole of the Sector; they're not a Government.

Despite slander from their enemies, the League are not MegaCorps; they are an association of Mayors and Merchants who band together for mutual benefit. They follow the original tenets of Adam Smith, which abhor business domination and monopolies as being against the 'Enlightened Self-Interest' he so promotes. Not merely that, but they also provide food, education, and healthcare to their people because said people all work for them directly or indirectly. Despite this, the League finds being called a Government or Corporation an insult, and their leaders are not permitted any title other than 'Mayor' or 'Trader' or variants thereof.

2.) The Strength of Man - The capital world of the Eliza Sector, Paradise, and the nearest planets were hurt the most by the withdrawal of Human Federation forces, support, and technology. As their authority faded, they faced shortages, mechanical breakdowns, and raids by opportunistic neighbors, forcing them to confront how harsh their chosen homeworlds were without the right technology. In time, they would have become space Amish, living a relatively primitive life on said worlds and embracing, even extolling, their lack of technology. Then the 'Multiverse Fragments' were discovered.

It was revolutionary; no more did they need to endure the hardships of an uncaring universe, they can shape said universe in their own image! All they needed were enough shards of other worlds, and they can create their own private paradises! But how to reproduce these pieces? After years of trial-and-error, they found this out; that Multiverse Fragments are connected to the quantum interactions that take place inside the human brain, and are 'fed' by basking in the emotions of millions, nay, billions, of humans. This was followed by the discovery that fragments can be made to grow and multiply by the presence of specific emotions, one was happiness, another was pain, and so they created a society that promoted both.

The Strength of Man, already conquering worlds when the shards were discovered, decided to enslave the populations of entire planets that resisted, as well as any people from the homeland who went against the ruling class. These slaves would be used for generating pain and suffering while pleasuring their masters, who would be able to produce more 'Multiverse Fragments' so that they can rule everything!

3.) The Society of Steel - An army of cyborgs who believe that humanity should merge with machines to be more than themselves, the Society of Steel are the most advanced force in the sector, but also the smallest. Holding a relatively small section of space, the SoS can punch above their weight in offensive action, but are not good at defense. They are also the faction who has the least interest in Multiverse Fragments; they don't hate them, per se, but they prefer 'pure' tech.

4.) The Gardeners of Gimloe - Expert terraformers, the Gardeners of Gimloe are a group of Techno-Hippies who use advanced 'green' technology in order to terraform worlds and fill them with life, which they guard jealously. Also a small force, the Gardners have less to worry about defense than the Society of Steel, as they can bolster their ranks with biological creations, which, though non-sapient, are still cunning and ferocious enough to be deadly. Ironically, the Society of Steel doesn't oppose this, as they regard biological improvement as the other side of the coin from their technological improvement. And like the Society of Steel, they prefer 'Pure' Tech, and can produce clones and new species without needing Multiverse Fragments.

This doesn't mean they won't use them when given the chance.

Custom factions are permitted, as long as they're only half as strong as the above four factions and below!

Tech Level is...variable, thanks to the effects of widespread upheaval. Automation is common in the more civilized portions of the Sector, as well as lasers, railguns, EMP emitters, and plasma throwers. The main method of FTL is the use of a 'wormhole system' that links most planets, but thanks to Multiverse Fragments, travel through wormholes is the mark of a relatively poor person; even the Society of Steel uses Spacewarpers, magitech craft that can turn a hundred light years' worth of distance to one day's trip.

Speaking of Magic, here are how Multiverse Fragments work:

Each Fragment is a rhombus-shaped piece of distorted space, which refracts light like a heat haze. Individual shards also have a color denoting the type of power they give access to, and would be most useful for. Small Fragments can be implanted inside human beings, but this is a risky process; the more powerful the effects you call upon, you literally fade from existence as your body slowly becomes incompatible with our universe.

Examples of powers that can be deirved from a single fragment:

- The ability to teleport to a place whose image you know well.
- The ability to control kinetic energy (Telekensis).
- The ability to create small black holes.
- The abiliity to heal bodily injuries.
- The ability to generate plasma from your hands and not be harmed.

New Amsterdam - The Capital Planet of the Interstellar League of Mayors and Merchants, it is the most urbanized world in the sector, where almost everyone has work provided by the Guild, and is paid fairly. Of course, 'urbanized' is a relative term; there is still plenty of unused land.

Paradise/Crucible - A tropical world brimming with factories, mines, and logging camps, Sphinx Prime is a deadly planet deliberately kept that way in order to train the ferocious warriors of the Strength of Man, with large portions of the jungles being designated as 'off-limits' to industrial development or settlement.

Terra Nova - A world with a wide variety of biomes, it is the crowning achievement of the Gardeners, containing lifeforms from Earth and many other worlds living together in a functional ecosystem. This is their most populous world, and their capital, and acts as a source for most of the life used in their terraforming actions.

Core World 00 - The first, and most important world in the Society, it has the largest, most advanced planet-wide neural network and can direct their fleets from here if need be, though the conciderable lag that would be inherent in such a case would prevent direct control.

Vegas Station - A gigantic space station where members of all four main factions and countless minor factions can meet together in a neutral manner in order to gamble, lay around with courtesans, and do drugs. Basically, a den of sin, scum, and villainy. Ran by one 'Mr. Hut', which, yes, is based on both Mr. House and Jabba the Hutt.

1.) No godmodding, powerplaying, metagaming, etc. etc.
2.) Note, there will be sexual themes in this RP, but anything above nudity is forbidden, because I don't want us to get banned.
3.) No OOC feuding! If you must argue, be respectful. IC, meanwhile, you can hate each other as much as you like as long as it doesn't seep over to OOC.
4.) You can control NPCs when I explicitly say that you can control them.
5.) Please notify me if you will be gone longer than a few days, I myself will let you guys know if I will be gone.
6.) I reserve the right to kill off Custom Factions made by inactive Players, or fold them into a larger faction. Same for characters.

Name:
Age:
Appearance:
Starting Faction:(If you're creating your own faction, please describe it here or in a separate post)
Skills:
Standard Equipment:
Multiverse Shard Implants (If applicable):
Bio:

None yet.