General Setting
Current year: 1956
Location: United States
Location: United States
Around the 1930s, advancements in many formal sciences hit a wall of sorts. This was coupled with many governments encouraging further study into biological sciences. Quickly Einsteins of these fields appeared, people who studied and vastly improved our understanding of living things. Chimeras, cloning, Frankenstein-esque monsters; all became reality before too long. The rewards reaped were immense, with blindness curable via injection, and brand new more durable replacement arms being grown every day.
The characters in this RP are a product of these advancements in one way or another. A contest has begun with eighteen participants, seven of which are not who they seem. Each participant is being sponsored by the organization of their origin. The objective of each organization is to acquire financial and political power via a test trial. As the final part of this test trial your goal is simply to out survive the seven false participants. Traps are everywhere, hidden underfoot, or found all too easily. Poisonous gas beckons you into oblivion after a single misstep, and although killing your fellow participants isn't recommended, there's a chance any of them could be the enemy.
Average Life of a Subject
The subjects who have been placed into this contest have had a very dreary life so far. A past that is not under their control, with body and brain often manipulated for a goal they didn't understand. The researchers and scientists working on this individuals are often an inhumane sort, not even using anesthesia. Though some of the subjects are modified humans, some are purely vat grown creatures, that are only human in appearance. Those with more humane scientists may be stronger psychologically but often have less extreme modifications. For the stronger willed, it is more how they respond to the horrors than what they actually experienced, that determines the subjects psychology.
Subjects often try to escape, though their efforts are usually in vain, simply resulting in punishment and further deterrents. If a subject don't escape on their first attempt, then it will probably also be their last attempt. Standard practice is to have subjects require a chemical only available inside their home city. Other measures vary from city to city. This requirement was removed for all 'participants' inside the tournament, letting the subjects eat and drink whatever they find.
The Six Organizations
The six organizations participating in the contest have offered up three participants each. The areas of their studies led to reduced human rights for the various test subjects, so long as they had certain markers or chevrons placed into their DNA. It was argued that, when the testing is done right the test subjects would not experience pain in any human way. Since this was hard to verify, the legislation ended up allowing these human right violations without due process. The organizations are referred to as their home cites and are as follows: Vallade, Orthon, Mithlonde, Tiriande, Lariande, and Erialond.
Vallade: A beacon in a bleak city, with marshlands surrounding it for miles. Trains come and go daily, with a unique horn for each train being heard at least eight times a day. It is a medium sized city, with 34 square miles within city limits.Vallade's facility is overly large, with its foundation often reinforced as various parts of it sink into the landscape. The Vallade facility is the main draw of its town, though various niche markets do exist. Creatures with espionage in mind are a common interest among the scientists who research in this facility.
Orthon: Orthon, the city, was originally a hub station between Vallade and Lariande, with many miles of desert between the two. It sprung around a well, and was found to be a great place to test high endurance subjects as well as strange plant chimeras (A chimera is a mix between two species, often violating the normal rules of fertilization.). Though this isn't their sole export in terms of experiments, the stereotype remains. Orthon is about twenty square miles.
Mithlonde: A city that was built as a result of a large number of mines in the same general area. The mines were linked together for convenience and the exceptionally rich deposits that were threaded through the earth caused more and more infrastructure to be built there, until eventually it became a city. The subject of research in the hastily made buildings are focused around exceptional strength and working with harsh environments, such as those with low oxygen, mixed gasses, and jagged terrain, helping further their mining exploits. Of course other research areas exist, as anything not yet tested could turn out to be real pay-dirt. Though the city is technically bigger than Eiralond, quite substantially so, many areas become unused and abandoned as veins are mined out and the 'city' moves along. There are a few central locations that provide most necessitates, but to find most things you must weave through the extensive tunnels with a knowledge that can only be gained through experience, either your own or that of hired guides.
Tiriande: Tiriande is a city that rests in a fertile valley, a large river running down from the mountains through it. This allowed the area to produce massive amounts of crops as well as be a beautiful tourist attraction due to the variety of genetically modified plants. Every shade imaginable, and some that weren't, grew on various petals and leaves in the strangest shapes and sizes. Those who experiment in the Tiriande usually focus on flashy and surprisingly lethal enhancements. A flower that has bladed petals, a fruit that releases a flesh melting gas when bit into, and courtesans with poisoned kisses are all samples of the terrors that come out of this city.
Lariande: A city far removed, Lariande is known for its chimera experiments. The specialty chimeras of Lariande have always been attempts at human flight. When the various facilities are working together well, Larande is used as in a similar way to Mithlonde, being able to test subjects who need to operate in low oxygen conditions. Lariande was taken by the government in the 1890's from native tribes, which is still considered a dick move. Erialond and Lariande are considered sister cities, despite the distance between the two, and Lariande's tiny 8 square mile size.
Erialond: When an engineer asks the question "What are the limits of where human civilization can settle?" A reasonable answer is Erialond. A city built on the water, wasting plenty of taxpayer money in the process. Though it is very self sufficient, it still gets supplies from the various cities through either having boats deliver them or by docking at said cities. It is very large, spanning around 40 square miles, and it's local research facility was one of its main funding sources. Erialonde is referred to as Lariande's twin for their similarities when it comes to chimera research, with these two facilities producing more advancements in this knowledge base than all other facilities combined. Naturally Erialond is focused on mutations that can apply to the water, though this is a rule with plenty of exceptions.