Marstenna was once a normal world filled with magic and life, until it happened. It happened without warning and violently, this surge of magical energy that poured out in torrential force creating a violent maelstrom of chaos that swallowed up lands. Accompanied by a thick fog the land and inhabitants would get warped. Reality would cease to make sense and all sorts of calamity manifested itself. This was called “The Great Tempest”
All seemed lost, but then a group of mages noticing the calm in the skies above put forth a wild plan. Using a combination of magics they would rip as many habituated lands into the sky as a last-ditch effort. Many were lost but the people had survived. Fast forward a handful of generations later, the calamity known as “The Great Tempest” subsidized as suddenly as it appeared. The people now have their eyes turned to future and the ground below. Restoration and resettlement are the words on people’s minds today as people begin settling down into the surface.
This is where you come in, as part of The Red Dragon Bone Guild you will play part in aiding this process as part of the world’s premier adventuring organization, The Red Dragon Bone Guild. Whether your specialty is magic, fighting, or tinkering with the technology to provide the best gear to your fellow members, remember that you are all in this together. --
World Info
The world as you know is divided into two half the aerial archipelagos of sky islands lifted into the sky with powerful magics and the surface world. There are also a handful of races that managed to survive the apocalypse.
Within the realm of the sky you have a bunch of floating islands with most of them being part of some entity’s territory. Airship travel is the most common way to get where you want especially if you’re traveling out of a certain territory although land traveling is still done within more local ranges.
Anyway, here are some of the locales of note within the aerial world:
The Kingdom of Ziegler Once a large wealthy kingdom on the surface, it now is quite smaller although it still has a fair bit clout in this new world. Ziegler’s own magic users were able to raise quite a fair bit amount of the capital city with all its various important buildings and it used its great wealth to get a lot of territory raised from the surface added to its collective territory for housing and food purposes. The current ruler is Prince Quaylo Varntrier who has taken over for his father as he has gotten old and has shifted his interest in papercraft over ruling. Ziegler has its own mage academy that maintains one of the few remaining archives of old world knowledge. It also has its own inter-territorial transportation system involving magical rails. The capital city area also contains an intact temple of The Holy Blue Moon which is one of the persisting religions of the world.
Itonia This chain of islands is most famous for its high concentration of magic users. During the cataclysm it arose from being a camp of working mages and also a lot of refugees that were displaced seeking shelter. Over the years it then developed into a thriving settlement. The mage organization while having some sway, is a bit divorced from the day to day as they’re focused more on running the famous Magi College which was established by the original magicians that were involved in the process of raising the first set of islands. The College’s research prowess is second to none and they’ve been leaders in the development of magitech. Over the course of time many graduates from this college have made their way to the Guild or have worked alongside it on certain assignments.
Dredgelands These are basically a bunch of provincial territories that are unaffiliated with any greater power. The creation of Dredgelands came about by the dredgers and some refugees wanting their own space. Their land is the somewhat motely and patchwork as it was made of more smaller islands than other places. This is because this community was created piecemeal and during the downtime of the dredging crews and the process of bringing up large chunks of land being costly in time and resources. However, geo-magics and wealthy retired dredgers/adventurers have prevented the Dredgelands from being too starved for space. While on their own they’re a bunch of separate and autonomous communities this common history of wanting to be a new home and new start to the survivors all binds them quite closely. They’re also home to a bunch of artisans and thus are an attraction for people wanting and buying various artisanal goods. Due to the position of the Dredgelands relative to other territories, it acts as hub for both merchant and traveler activity going all over the sky lands.
New Porinton This is the country of the race known as the Oozelings, a race of gelatinous slimy beings. Due to their rather unique bodies and abilities they have made their own metropolis that is much more suited to their needs. While the Oozelings can be found all over they get a longing for their lost homeland. By far the most visually unique of all the lands, their strange buildings that seem to be made of the same material as them, attract all manners of tourists who come to admire the locale which in turn has created some resort towns and touristy districts. Porinton also boasts a top notch magitech prowess due to the Oozelings own abilities. It rivals that of the mages in Itonia although it takes a bit of work converting it from Oozeling sensibility into something more usable for the more humanoid races. This country is also famous for its pastries both savory and sweet, as well as the source of a new beverage sensation sweeping across the lands. -- Yaskal A beautiful city-state filled with lots of water and buildings created magically manipulated trees that still live. It was created by the race known as the Leppids, to whom trees and water held a special significance. The city has many a fountain, canal, pond, wetland, and even some exclusive aquatic areas only accessible via swimming. It too also contains a temple to the Leppid’s own religion. Yaskal exports quite a bit of food from its agricultural industry as well a recreational drug known as “loud”. -- Red Dragon Bone Guild This island itself is detached from any territory placing it in a neutral position. It consists of one island large enough to house a village. It houses the headquarters building and contains many facilities such as: sleeping quarters, workshops, eatery, training area, infirmary, and an airship dock. Another unique feature is its rapid adventurer delivery system adapted from Oozeling tech that catapults the user in an enchanted bubble to their destination. It’s name comes from the red colored dragon skeleton that was found embedded underneath the island and part of a mountain, which has long been destroyed to give more flat space, when it was raised into the air. The bones can now be seen decorating part of lobby in the HQ building and elsewhere around the island. -- Huemac This land was created by the great sorceress Asiola who was one of the original magicians in the project to raise land. She was skilled with various magics particularly that of using crystals as learned from the Temmincki and other areas. The landscape she had created is quite wild as one of her project was the creation of Asiola’s repose an artificial “sea” created by molding and filling a chunk of sandy wasteland and adding salt water. The local builds incorpate a bunch of crystal work and also host a fair amount of the Temminicki as their burrow lands were raised from the earth as part of the founding of this area.
Floating Bazaar A network of floating airships and platforms all interconnected to create a nomadic marketplace filled with all sorts of oddities. Travelers use it as a pitstop of sorts to pick up things or just to kill some time in between their destinations. Home to the Midnight star inn which has a peculiar quality of having many dark corners to sit mysteriously in. -- Surface World The surface of Marstenna has been completely reshaped by The Great Tempest and the subsequent raising of islands for inhabitable land. Although it has now long since dissipated the recolonization of land below is only just a recent endeavor starting about a couple of decades ago from the present. Life is currently stable but some of them are too small to be self-sustained and rely on the sky world for manpower mainly especially when it comes to taking care of dangerous monsters and whatnot. Currently the surface world consists of many small colonies that are turning into towns with a couple of small to mid-sized cities. There are also many outposts used by various organizations who are doing exploration of the changed surface as well as small mage’s living alone and doing their own independent research.
The surviving races of Martenna are a colorful lot. Here are the list of them.
Human They come in all sort of shapes and sizes. By far the most numerous of the races in the Sky lands. They’re your standard hominid race. -- Oozelings One of the most diverse and colorful race of Marstenna. They are sapient slimes and despite lacking damn near everything most animals have they carry on quite well. Oozelings are quite adept at magic and during the cataclysm put it to good use to help the other races out as well as help themselves adapt to the new needs of living on sky islands. However they aren’t wimpy piece of gelatin, some of them practice an ancient martial art native to their species known as Zerachin no ken. -- Leppids This race of omnivorous reptilian humanoids is quite mammalian despite their appearance. They have an affinity to water which makes sense given their natural skill in swimming and aquatic related magics. They’re also skilled in using magic to warp vegetation to great effect as demonstrated in Yaskal. Appearance-wise they tend to be like 2 feet taller than the average human. They sport a medium sized snout, and they have these soft fleshy tendrils that can be mistaken as ears. They walk plantigrade and they have paddle like tails which they use in swimming. -- Temmincki They’re a race of bipedal pangolin people that traditionally lived in underground communities. Surprisingly lithe despite their bulky appearances one of their contributions was that of crystal working which would then be used for the technology of the Etherium crystals whose application is widespread in many devices. They also do a unique music form of using their voices to create many sounds in lieu of instruments. They are found everywhere but Huemac has a special place in their hearts. -- Go’za More or less indistinguishable from humans their visually defining features are their sheep/ram like horns and floofy hair. They tend to be shorter than average but given their interbreeding with humans this isn’t as true. One Go’zan of note was the wizard Chup who was skilled in the art of inscribing symbols for use with magic it was him who also laid out the groundwork for the later development of magitech. -- Hounders A race of sapient talking dogs, they are quite cosmopolitan and found everywhere. Their small size, speed, cunning, and surprising agility gives them a leg up when it comes to getting into cramped areas which makes them great as thieves and scouts. There are rumors that somewhere hidden in the islands is a secret training village where the finest warriors are trained in the way of fighting and being sneaky.
Origin
Magic flows through the land and everyone is capable with some training. With the cataclysm though, it provided a very urgent pressure to develop and advance techniques. Magitech has made magic much more prolific and accessible to the common citizen. It is a very important development to the known world as it has created all sorts of gizmos that made life possible. Magitech as previously noted has it origins during The Great Tempest. It draws from a cross-disciplinary application of various magics: channeling, inscribing, crystal loci, alchemy. They all blended together into producing a magic well suited to crafting and putting into objects that was much more mana efficient compared to the older methods that were put at use during the time of the raising of the islands.
Etherium Crystal One of the big developments was that of Etherium Crystal from Astolia and the Temmincki. Developed in conjunction with some alchemical processes, this material does several important functions. Firstly, it acts as a battery of magical energy, it acts as a conductor, and it also can modify magical energy. This first part allowed for the crafting of many magical devices that can be used for the non-caster. For the caster it also allowed them to not need to expend themselves so much while also giving and easy material to channel their own magic for their own needs. The crystals draw energy from the resonance of the planets own innate magical energies and will recharge slowly over time, but if placed into a special device or if the user expends their own energy it will charge faster
Transportation All of transportation has sort of evolved to deal with the fact that everything is in the air and that the islands aren’t all properly aligned within areas. Airships are the norm for mass transportation, smaller aerial vehicles are used for common usage. Tram like vehicles are used to transport foot traffic within local territories as space is still somewhat a premium. Smaller scale ground transportation tends to be either small hover type vehicles or small aircraft for longer distance traveling.
A new and exotic form of transportation was invented by Oozelings and it consists of what amounts to a magically power rail guided catapult. For none-Oozeling usage it has been modified to create a forcefield around the user which will allow them to partially guide their path upon being launched and also to cushion their landing as Oozelings’ lack of anything breakable and their own innate magical abilities allows them to do the same without much work. The Guild uses this as a rapid delivery device of adventurers to their hotspot without needing to prep up an airship. However, for longer expeditions the method of sending them by airship still works, although the adventurers might be launched via the device first to secure the area and then shoot up a signal for a ship full of supplied to come land.
Other stuff Magically powered communication devices are widespread of popular although far from fail-safe. Heating/Cooling and lighting are common throughout so too is modern plumbing. There are certain modern technologies, but the setting is a bit anachronistic and idiosyncratic to have a 1;1 to everything. But you got like holograms and monitors but no TV, but rather a glorified version of radio and theatre exists. Cars aren’t a thing, but hovering vehicles and aircraft are.
Guns and melee exist alongside each other and each one without melee being invalidated but that’s because of rule of cool really. The crystal tech goes into both weapon types with melee weapons using it for more or less as an easier version of enchantment. Guns have two levels of crystal usage one that basically acts as replacement for magic training and acts a power source and more advanced tinkering for the actual caster for whom it may acts as a fancier and deadlier wand.
Magic as one might know it still exists though. Magitech while flexible and powerful in its own right can’t be beat by a skilled practitioner of the arts, and certain fields just can’t be done solely with it as the magitech only enhances it. Speaking of magic, the only types that don’t exist are: time warping, and bring back the dead. Summoning is said to be a dead magic area but only because during the calamity it stopped working properly either creating magical implosions or letting out severely corrupted critters. Likewise anything related to Ley Lines has also fallen behind due to said disaster as well.
Rules
Standard guild rules apply
Don’t backseat mod
When in doubt, ask
CS
[b]Name:[/b] [b]Race:[/b] [b]Sex:[/b] [b]Appearance:[/b] Picture or description, although I know for the other races it’ll be a bit trickier to find something. [b]Background:[/b] [b]Personality:[/b] [b]Role:[/b] This does not neceserilly mean like your “class” like in an RPG, but also encompasses what you do in the guild’s employ. Examples would be: Cook, scout, scholar, craftsmen, etc. [b]Abilities:[/b] List any skills, magic, or cool fighting moves here [b]Inventory:[/b] What stuff are they lugging around? [b]Theme song:[/b] [b]Misc[/b]: In case you need it
Guns are weird in this game cuz the raygun thing is more for aesthetic reasons than like something born from serious world building, because it doesn't matter to story's focus.
The canon explanation is that the raygun mechanic came about from it being easier to make one over powder weaponry, which while existed fell aside as guns were really only used in the sky world for shooting sky varmints and the occasional monsters that would sometimes pop during dredging expidtions and occasionally on the islands. Bullet shooting guns exist but gunpowder is obsolete since the magic rock can just propel them itself.
Anyway, if by 21st you mean guns that are like capable of semi and full firing surr. Anything else is pointless since real world principles don't apply. Go ahead and make that revolver pepperbox rifle, it'll work here.
Race: Oozeling Sex: Male (?) Background: Previously a talented magician who rose quickly within the ranks in Itonia, Obeleun has since renounced his affiliation with the mage country. Overtime, he had found the apathy the mage organization had towards anything but magic to not only be dull but extremely short-sighted. It was not that Obeleun had no passion in magic development but his peers were far more concerned with pushing the limits of magitech than actually producing practical appliances. Magitech was capable of so much more other than simple weaponization.
He encountered the Red Dragon Bone Guild when they had been commissioned by Itonia for transportation services. It was a decision made on the spot but it was not one he regretted. He saw joining the guild as an opportunity to expand his horizons and explore the world. Personality: Role: This does not neceserilly mean like your “class” like in an RPG, but also encompasses what you do in the guild’s employ. Examples would be: Cook, scout, scholar, craftsmen, etc. Abilities: List any skills, magic, or cool fighting moves here Inventory: What stuff are they lugging around? Theme song: Misc: In case you need it
WIP
There is just too much missing info for me to develop a decent character @_@, realized as I began writing it. Are Oozelings genderless? Is the Red Dragon Bone Guild the only adventuring company or are we simply one amongst many? How big is our guild? Are we a tightly knit group or a large organization with many independent teams? What are we supposed to fight/explore? Can we get more information regarding the infrastructure and political situation of the countries?
Also anyone wanna make a character thats linked to mine?
Expanding on that then, would there be some magic or abilities that allows them to take a humanoid form of some sort? I imagine if they're skilled spell casters some more skilled ones could have some sort of control over their body via water magic of some sort, or just being able to control it.
If not, that's cool - just trying to figure out the limits of the do's and don't~
@Rune_Alchemist Shapeshifting their bodies might be something of like an innate ability but perhaps needs training and or magic to sustain it for a lengthy amount of time or give some extra solidity. I'm imagining that for everyday purposes they might make like an arm with digits for fine motor tasks.
@Animus Oozelings do whatever the hell they want. The guild is not the only one but it is the biggest and shiniest one. The guild of the PC's is a sufficient size to warrant all those facilities, but the PC's are naturally, going to be working together in a team.
Adventures are mainly involving doing something on the surface although perhaps something on the islands above, but my intention in is that below is where the action is and islands are for more "quieter" scenes.
No, because I hate having to come with lore that doesn't immediately matter and making blocks of fluff. However, there will be degree of setting info given away in the IC.
Probably not. Rp already suffers from players flaking out and discord only seems to provide a bigger temptation to turn a rp group into a casual chat group.
Well this looks like a fun setting here. So before I go about crafting a character here I just have a few quick questions.
Is The Holy Blue Moon the predominant religion of this world? Are there any other notable ones in this world or are they essentially small folk religions compared to The Holy Blue Moon? I suppose I also should ask what some basic tenets of The Holy Blue Moon are.
And then just a quick question about currency; are we primarily gonna deal with one currency for sake of ease, (presumably Kingdom of Ziegler as has a fair amount of political clout or the Dredgelends since it is a merchant hub) or are there multiple currencies for each land?
I might have some other questions come to mind but they are probably stuff that'd come up later in game that can be brought up in setting later. So I'll just stick with the questions above as they seem like they are more important for the moment.
Holy blue moon is one of the bigger human adjacent religions although some other races might worship as well, that temple's importance is due to it being something tangibly old pre-cataclysm as a chunk of archived knowledge of past stuff was lost as not every record could be saved.
To be honest I didn't bother detailing possible religions because laziness really and didn't consider it relevant enough to the game's focus to like list all possible existing religions. Anyway, it's safe to assume each species has its own native religion such as the Leppids and their area in Yaskal, and if it's important to your character go make something up and I'll probably approve it.
Regarding coinage let's just there's a universal currency being circulated around for trading between the various places. Also because of magical technobabble you got the equivalent of like a debit/credit card that you can carry around shove into slots to buy stuff.
Gotta love that magical technobabble for things like that, (and was gonna guess that cause it is important for sake of ease of one currency instead of having boatloads of em.) Also totally a thing with the times even if it were like early fantasy-ish times cause the Knights Templar essentially invented the credit system.
And noted for the things regarding the religions of the world.
