Mankind did not step lightly into the twenty-second century. Even behind them the immense scale of its achievements to light the long passage of history with its turning corners, many rooms, and uncountable side passages those; fearfully pragmatic men with blooded knives at the belt of their waste coats did not step forth into the forever darkness of history ahead expecting the dream world utopia ahead. While the technocrats and the intelligentsia of the world continued to lawd the end of history in every new decade even as now and then a simmering spark of resentment came to light somewhere in the world the men who could not be fooled looked ahead and saw a future that is always a mystery and things were just plastered over. It is never the end of history, there never would be. And we of today have not forgotten. The follies and the achievements are still spoken of and in the cavernous bones of the old world these lessons and histories were put back to paper in the end of the old times.

We still remember how in the year of our lord 2151 a colony beyond our Earth, Mars had a skirmish. That the resentments ignored arose and the insurrection was responded to. Which itself prompted an answer to that by another old-nation-now-dead. Their fight in the stars was cataclysmic and rallied their allies to each other's sides over the following years. And from the moon that orbits the Earth, whose lights of its old colonies still glow cold in the night sky, refusing to confirm the life or death of its inhabitants. But to us mighty survivors on Earth, great in number as we were: our suffering in the world became immense as the debris of the War in Heaven crashed down upon us. So we became shielded, but that only deflected. The bays and waters to this day are still filled with the wrecks of the great fortresses that once loomed high in the sky. But it was not this rain that our people were forced to suffer through: for there were other weapons and war returned to the surface, a great cataclysmic affair reborn for all to see and reached countries that had not seen a foreign army in centuries.

And as the old nations fought, their armies ground to a standstill. The fighting around the Earth withdrew, because in ironic mercy all sides agreed to not threaten the world with their wreckage. Who knows where a wayward missile might land: it might land on your head.

This war would be an end of an era, but not the end of the world. In its last acts everything was forced to shut down. Who knows who did it. It may have been Divine Providence. In the chaos it is written no one found the Plague that was planted into society until it was too late and the entire country, from the southern most tip of the southern continent to the furthest most reaches of Canada fell ill with some vile pestilence that for once crippled everything. We here in the Empire State do not know what the response was, but we are confident as we are breathing that the war ended soon after.

In the aftermath none knew who was in control any longer. An era of despondency reigned, and the old world so removed from the one that was blooming from the graves of our sick-dead had little to do with it. And so men did as men do: they organized, rebuilt, and in a generation the first new flags were unfurled. Old military men assembled their units, crowned themselves commanders; as did the Sheriffs and the security men. But so too did the elite, who picking up what still worked organized into guilds and associations and their property became the communities, and the communities became their property. Or tired of it all, common men simply took up arms and drove either out and made their stake. These innumerable mothers and fathers became the parents for the new world who nurtured that blossom and raised it from the ruin and the filth of primitive filth.

And so in 2276 was born our first great society since the fall of the old ones! Foisted up by Adam Covanney, posthumous first emperor of the Empire State the lands around The Point Castle was brought to his heel, and from whence a kingdom was launched. On his death, his sons took control and they expanded the empire further, founding new houses and new crises. When the old Hudson metropolis of New York was brought to submission and incoporated, his ruined splendor was made a capital in 2295 and the growing imperial court was moved there to preside in the shadows of its monoliths and within the Empire State Building made a palace. And when the second Emperor, the first proclaimed Carl Covanney passed and the realm passed to his young son, the council of regents took control as the threadbare relationships of the Empire began to wear thin and threaten to crash it all while it was still in the cradle. Enacting swift reforms, and some might say usurping the regents sealed the laws for succession by election, and to finish usurped the young Covanney from the throne to give life to the last great society.

And now, in our present year 2390, just over a century of beleaguered existence we are again tried. While the Empire has grown steadily to be mighty, the elected Emperor is young, a child of mischief elected by mischief. And the regents that govern hold no good word between one another. The Empire State is threatened from within. From without: who knows but Providence.

Long live the Empire!



The year is 2390, centuries after inter-planetary war reached a scale so fierce it plunged Earth back into the dark ages. Those colonies that sparked the war, now long adrift on their own in Space; no one knowing if they are alive or dead. But now, they make up only legend. Forthright among all are the ruins of the vast cities and life of the old world and the consummation of renewed civilization. Set in the American North-East and Eastern Canada, Empire State seeks to cooperatively tell the story of not just these post-apocalyptic communities on the rebuild, but the inter-related politics within the Empire State, an self-proclaimed empire from out of New York State.

The Empire State, composed of a multitude of families or larger institutions or autonomous communities annexed into it operates in a way similar to that of the Holy Roman Empire. To placate powerful political figures within the Empire, the option to elect new emperors is given when the old emperor dies. Electorship is a complicated thing, handled by a mixture of census counts and economic strength. It is a title most often determined in wars between electors, or even in moments of civil war and has become a position often times bestowed upon favorable dynasties or organizations within the Empire State.

But it's not entirely limited to that either. Since there are lands outside of its borders. Independent states with their own ambitions who might look on with concern or seeing opportunity.

But what of the world?

Functionally, think of this world as being technically equivalent to the 1600's. Fire arms never died, but because it became fiscally unfeasible to keep up pretenses with automatic weapons and expenses in post-apocalyptia the nature of fire-arms has retreated back into a comparable state. Having to hand load rounds and using more primitive powder it's become far safer from a user perspective to fire single-shot. Early style rifles or muskets are a thing, as has metal armor and swords. No one has dared Trans-Atlantic travel again, and it's not possible or desirable at the given moment.



Really, just respect one another here. That means by reasonable with each other and have respect towards them and the premise of the RP. If anyone tries anything crazy, I expect to come down on them. Likewise if anyone does anything that disrupts another I'll take action on that. Let's be nice.

I also don't run these things as a stat game. I want to see writing, not accounting. So I'll do no dice game stuff here. But that doesn't mean you're free to pull shit out of your ass.




On New York City: New York City is an incredibly important location for the Empire State. As such, most major electors get a stake in the city in one of its boroughs or the outlying counties outside the old city. As such, while most boroughs or counties in the old greater NYC area are held by electors, not all them can be held by electors and there may even be one or two minor political arrangements in the city owning their slice of its, while still being imperial subjects as residents of the imperial city.



Electors are an important institution in the Empire State and represent the leading families or groups in it. For their patronage and peerage they are given the political power to elect a new emperor should the old one die. This title is often bestowed upon groups in association with the primary political title of that organization, the president of major guild, mayor of an important free city, or major self-styled duke or monarch within the Empire.

Total number of electors will be determined in the formal thread. But in general it'll be a first come first serve situation if I like you and you're in the purple borders.



Name: <If in the Empire State, this would be a dynastic or organizational/merchant guild name>
Location:
History:

Additionally, you may play as a single individual if you don't want to commit to a full nation or an organization without statehood, treat the application roughly the same, though say at the top what it is you're doing and we'll work out any issues. I believe in basic applications so it should be about universal.






These are the duchies and realms inside the Empire State that have the power to elect an Emperor. Recognition as an Elector State is a position of prestige as it recognizes the relative importance or power of that state in the Empire. The situation can change however as the story goes alone, but status as an elector determines what parties can act to elect a new one should the current Emperor be deposed. Electorship is granted in coordination to land titles and a state can have multiple electorship titles. For all intents and purposes I'll be counting those; but I imagine as the story changes I'll change the status of Electorships in the Empire as the story moves along.

How you the player organize how the Electorships are handled in the RP is up to you. The chief of your state may hold them all, or they serve as a confederation of political forces within your state after being granted.

Electorship can be revoked. This isn't player punishment, but is something to recognize for plot purposes moving ahead. Whoever becomes recognized as the Emperor has the power to reshuffle Electorships.

Electorships are only for those states and titles who are within the jurisdiction of the Empire. Land held by states in the Empire State, but owns territory outside the Empire does not count towards Electorship status. Players outside the Empire are not valid for Electorship status unless they're annexed into the Empire.



- House of Albanie
4 Electorships (Albany, Greene, Saratoga, Long Island)

Only took you making the actual thread for me to finish my app oops.

Long live the Empire!

Yo, could we post apps for approval in OOC and not the characters tab?

@The Wyrm

You're looking good, but I'm waiting on details on how they came to be part of the Empire. I suppose you and Hugs might be working on that?

@Chairman Stein

You Gucchi fam

@LordZell

I'm going to have to ask for far more detail in that application. Did you miss out how the RP is marked as being "advanced"?

@Dinh AaronMkYes...



Name: Free City of Boston

Location: Boston; Massachusetts

History:

The legions of Old America seized control of Boston two centuries ago, bringing the city under strict martial governance as a measure to deal with the scourge that had swept across the Old Empire. This period is characterized by Institute scholars as having been brutal though perhaps necessary to the survival of Boston. What had been at first an assignment became a permanent military state that maintained its power through force and executed those believed to carry the plague. It transformed eventually into a quasi-knightly order, splitting the city and the surrounding land into quadrants ruled by its officers on behalf of the Governor-General, or Lord Protector as it was later styled. Today, these quadrants are known as First Base, Second Base, Third Base and Home Base by the Red Clads, but otherwise by their civilian names. House Ressocks, the current ruling family of Boston, once served as Enseeos – a type of underling – for the knightly lords of First Base.

The Cambridge Institute came under the service of the military government almost immediately, as did the Harvard Academy, for the purposes of finding a cure to the Great Sickness, though no real progress was ever made. Military rule over the city began to decline upon the discovery of an Old World specter still haunting the city. Institute scholars put the date of the discovery at over one-hundred years ago, when excavations and demolitions by the military order – presumably for the purpose of reinforcement or land-clearing – were halted by an invisible force thought long-dead. Though not much is known about this phenomenon today, records made by the military order in the earliest days of their rule speak of an intelligence said to have been in control of much of the city before being destroyed – presumably – for unknown reasons. The reemergence of this phantom proved problematic, and marked the decline of the order's grasp on the city.

The Ghost of Boston is long gone now, but before its disappearance it wrecked havoc. For reasons unknown, by means unknown, it swept through the city, bringing things to life and forever ruining others. The mayhem it created for the ruling class then allowed for the rise of the House of Ressocks and House Moore, and for the academics of the city to free themselves from what had become indentured servitude.

Spurred by the Professors of the Cambridge Institute and the Harvard Academy, Preston Ressocks, then head of the minor House of Ressocks, mounted a people's rebellion. Ressocks found unlikely support in Commodore Ryan Moore, the Naval commandant in charge of the cities port defence. The Commodore led his sailors to mutiny in support of Ressocks, culminating in the dissolution of the military order and the establishment of a Republic. For a short time, the specter lingered and aided the recovery of the city, but vanished violently shortly after, leaving an unfollowable trail of destruction. This post-military period of Boston proved difficult at first, but the city would ultimately blossom into a relatively prosperous society encouraging scientific pursuits and trade through its innumerable guilds, becoming a hub in the northeast.

To be added:
House Ressocks info @Pepperm1nts
House Moore info [@TheWyrm]

@flowersrgr8

New York would've been under imperial control before even the House of Albanie came to power. From the app it sounds like it's confused.