1) There will be no mandated time in which you are required to post. However, please do not use this as an excuse to hibernate for one month and suddenly, post again. If you are unable to post, please inform the group or Wal-Master beforehand so I can make the necessary adaptations in order to keep the pace of the game flowing forward.

2) Refer to me as Wal-Master in all official communications.

3) Your characters must be characters, in the sense that they are fully fleshed out and engaging. The character must be able to fit within the context of the setting. Making overpowered characters who forcefully metagame, powergame, god-mod or murderhobo is just not okay or fun. This is a post-apocalyptic roleplay set in a giant Walmart. You will naturally know when your character will stick out like a sore thumb.

4) Any character who have such relations or references to IKEA, Costco or Amazon will be forcefully rejected.

5) I'm strictly a quality over quantity guy when it comes to roleplaying. I'm expecting a rough writing standard that is an impasse between casual and advanced. There is also a semi-strict posting requirement of 2-3 paragraphs per post. If you want to write 10 paragraphs, that's okay in my book. All that I ask is that each post you makes move the RP forward.

6) Do not post any content or material that would violate RPGO's rules. This includes harassment of ethnicity, religion, race or sexual orientation. Violence, gore and more violence is welcome in plenty but any sexually risque material, if any poster has the utmost need to include it, should be done in black or kept in PMs. Rule 6 will also extend to any OOC behavior.

7) Do not ask me for a dedicated Discord channel. All OOC communications will be conducted on RPGO forums. If you have any personal questions, PM me.

8) Always asks any questions that you may have so I can make them into not-questions anymore.

9) There is no set posting order but do not multi-post without giving someone else the chance to do so.

10) Embrace the insanity of the Wal.

11) Have fun.

“ Steel bends and paper tears, our honor is forever eternal!”

To say that the Office Supply Department is steeped in tradition is a grave understatement. Considered to be one of the most ancient and powerful Departments in the Wal, every minor Department fears of being conquered by their paper and ink tide. Walled cities of folded paper and mache forts await those who travel within their territory.

For centuries, the ruling Stationary Shogunate have held power over the Department with a stainless steel fist. The current ruling Shogunate are the delegates of six ruling clans: Faber-Castell, Monte-Blanc, Staedler, WHSmith, Maped and Kokuyo. Their descendants united the fractured regions of Office Supplies, School Supplies and Stationary into a singular Department during the Shopping Spree: an era just on the eve of the Fall, where the last holdouts of the Old World fled into the Wal and warred for resources. Whilst their methods were indeed brutal, these six Wal-Lords transformed a region that was once laughed at by the rest of the Wal into a strict, organised military dictatorship.

The main maxim of the Stationari is to impose order and civility, whether by maintaining strict martial law on their peasant population or through their militaristic imperial dogma of conquering and integrating departments into their fold. Shoppers from the Stationary Department are considered to be more fickle and tidy than most inhabitants of the Wal, upholding a strict, regimented schedule that aims to plan for any inconvenience.

The peasants, whilst looked down upon by the Shogunate, are the foundations of this feudalistic society. They are responsible for the harvesting of shelves during times of re-stocking. Their loyalty to the Shogunate is maintained by security

The main coveted power that has kept the Stationary Shogunate and their territories strong is the art of Origami. These papersmiths and crafters are so valued that they are considered first class citizens in Stationary settlements. It is said that a true Origami paper blade can cut a Stocker in half. Numerous departments have attempted to replicate the power of Origami, only making inferior versions at best.

The Stationari Samurai are feared by many and for good reason, considered to be the best trained warriors in the entire Wal and simultaneously, the worst equipped of them all. Trained from birth in the arts of Origami and Brushido, a trainee officially becomes a Stationari Samurai once they fold their first suit of paper armor. The decree to ban staplers and glue guns by the Stationary Shogunate during the Boxing Day Peace Summit has severely reduced their capabilities. Along with their refusal to use technology or weapons from any other departments, . Due to dissatisfaction with the Stationary Shogunate, numerous Stationari Samurai have committed mutiny and fled, becoming mercenaries for hire around the Wal.

Penjas, on the other hand, are known to be one of the best assassins around the Wal. A Stationari recruit has the option to undergo the. The dropout rate is extremely high, with only one out of a hundred making it through the selective process. Whilst a Stationari Samurai is a lumbering warrior clad in layers upon layers of folded sheet paper, a Penja is trained in penmanship, being able to kill eight men in a blink of an eye only using a 2B pencil.

However, their refusal to export origami has led to a lack of goods to supply for economic trade within the Stationary Shogunate. The only exports that the Stationary Shogunate Due to this, the Stationary Shogunate are heavily reliant on importation of vital supplies such as medicine, food and water from other Departments such as Gardening and Pets N Animals.

Their overextension has led to decreased regulation of law in their territories and consequently given rise to criminal elements. Glue trafficking is currently the most profitable of these ventures. While the substance is commonly used for construction, it can act as a potent narcotic in small doses.

---

" One Size Fits All"

One would be foolish and right to believe that Clothing is anything else other than a band of stuck-up nobles, their heads up in the rafters, concerned with otherworldly rights whilst the Wal around them is stuck in perpetual conflict. In truth, the Noble Clothing Brands have managed to maintain their power on an illusory facade of diplomatic ties with departments and domination of the most vital trade routes in the Wal, exerting soft power wherever they see fit. Diplomacy is their strength rather than military might. The lands of Clothing are indeed opulent and majestic compared to the more unsavory regions of the Wal. However, each day within Clothing is full of political conspiring and backstabbing by the nobles, with deals sewn in secret and plots weaved in the dark.

Operating on a monarchical system, the current ruling dynasty of the Noble Clothing Brands are Gucci, the usurpers of the once prominent Armani. Owing their ascendance to royal lineage to their criminal forbearers, the ‘ Gucci Gang’, this cut-throat dynasty has no illusions of honor, willing to do whatever it takes to hold onto the Runway Throne.

Operating on a caste-system, entire families are separated on the quality of material their clothing are designed from. Silk-born and velvet-born is used to designate the upper echelons of nobility, restricted to dynasties allied with the . Nylon and polyester-born are found within the bowels of the Sports Clothing Section, most commonly drafted into the ranks of soldiers. Cotton-borns are considered to be of lesser nobility due to the commonality of their material, most finding their path as merchants or journeymen.

A vast majority of the Clothing Kingdom’s military is composed of sell-swords and mercenaries from other Departments drafted into an informal militia. However, due to their domination of the Clothing shelves, one of their most famous tactics is to reuse the price tags as weapons, attaching them to foes or enemies to attract the attention of the Stockers.

Currently, the Noble Clothing Brands are allied behind the Stationary Shogunate with the Glamagash of Jewelery being a well regarded ally.

---

" Error 101"

If you were to walk into Electronics, the first thing you would notice is the light. Not the eternal flourescent sun of the Wal but a rainbow of psychadelic LEDs, flatscreens and holographic TVs permeating the walls and ceilings. Circuitry and wiring are interlaced through this Wal-Scape, blinking bulbs and flickering diodes dotting the concrete city. Around you is a mad scramble for innovation, new machines being invented and displayed almost every second. You can see a young 1 year old, barely reaching your knees, already cobbling together a makeshift 9-Volt tazer.

The main ideology of the Tronic Temple has its basis around the worship, discovery, preservation and enhancement of old and new technology. Out of all Departments in the Wal, the denizens of the Electronic department are the most paranoid and illusive out of all of them. The Electronics Department hoards its knowledge and tech more greedily than the other Departments, only sharing piece-meals or scraps of it during negotiations or trade agreements. However, most Tronic Tech is completely useless in the hands of anyone else other than a trained Tech Wizard. Anyone who is caught with unsanctioned Tronic tech or dealing in Tronic Tech outside their borders will be hunted down by the most skilled of their Keyboard Warriors.

The Tronic Temple is a quasi-religious technocratic organisation with multiple guilds dedicated towards the worship of electronic brands and CEOs. The Guardians of Gates, the Tesla-Born and the Knights of Zuckerberg are a few of the famous guilds dedicated towards specific areas of technology. In comparison to Pre-Fall engineers and scientists, the Tronic’s Temple scientific method is focused on mostly impractical inventions that have a high chance of hurting the user the more advanced it is.

Study of Wal-Tech is only reserved for the most skilled and eldest Wizards. Due to the hidden workings of these mysterious technologies and the dangerous effects of tampering with their security mechanisms, they are kept under heavy guard. Open source Wal-Tech blueprints are considered to be the holy grail of technology and a dream for any Tech Wizard to discover. Only 3 blueprints have been discovered so far since the inception of the Tronic Temple: the designs for an experimental microwave, a prototypical hoverboard and a Wal-Incorporated interpretation of the shakeweight.

Currently, the departments of Auto N Tires and Homeware have allied behind Tech Support, considerably boosting their political presence within the Wal. Time will test the strength of these newly forged relationships, however.

---

“ ALWAYS LOW PRICES!”

There is no singular one faction that attracts as much dread, hatred or loathing by all other Departments in the Wal other than the Cult of the Smiling One. Worship of Smiley, their central idol, is banned in most Departments. Secret cults, like infestations, do take root and flourish, taking advantage of the lost, the needy and the weak to remould in their image.

It is hard to recognise a follower at first. Unlike in the early days, where most preferred to wear the uniform of the former employees of Wal-Incorporated, they tend to take a more subtle approach. In battle or when enacting one of their crusades, they don yellow facepaint alongside with their uniform.

The central tenet of the Cult is to maintain the status quo of the Wal at all costs possible. Sabotage of peace treaties, incitement of conflicts between Departments, activating defunct Sec-bots, the Cult of the Smiling One believes that these are necessary acts to maintain the vision that the Great Sam had for the Wal. The tenacity and single-minded religious fervor of their followers is . Hearing the sound of a thousand Smilers cry “ ALWAYS LOW PRICES” haunts the memories of those who have survived their crusades.

Through coincidence or through sheer plain luck, the Cult of the Smiling One has suffered many schisms in their organisation, leading to new splinter groups. The Neo-Smilers and the Frowners are considered to be the two most popular denominations out of the dozens that have formed in these wars. The Neo-Smilers adhere to maintaining the status quo, albeit in a more pacifistic manner rather than the militant methods of their original founders. The Frowners are former Smilers who have become ‘heretical’ in the eyes of the original Cult, believing the Cult of the Smiling One to have strayed away from Sam’s original teachings.

---

For the Fort!

The Dorfs of the Toys Department have led a complicated and tragic history, yearning for the days to return back to their ancestral homelands. In the last few decades, their forts and colonies in the Toy Departments have been overrun and consumed by the rabid bands of NeverGrow, former children who have become psychotic from overconsumption of Age B’ Gone. In order to escape extinction, a majority of the Dorfen Forts chose to fled their isles, sailing across the lakes into the Wider Wal. There is no word of what happened to those who stayed behind, although, Dorfen folklore does tell of a bastion of Dorfs still fighting the infestation of NeverGrow.

Multiple Forts exist within the Bargain Bin such as Fort Monopoly, Fort Lego and Fort Nerf. They have chosen to stay neutral in the conflict between the Stationary Shogunate and the Tronic Temple, focusing on being a beacon for Dorfen refugees.

---

" To Have Fear is to be Prey."

The Pet-Tamers of Pets N Animals hold an invaluable monopoly, virtue of being the only Department in the Wal to command a fearsome menagerie of mutated household pets. This fearsome reputation is due to their stockpile of mutagenic pet food and supplementations that genetically modify benign species of animals such as hamsters and parakeets into death-dealing monstrosities. Breeders help to maintain their stocks of Pets whilst Rangers and Hunters venture out in the Wal to find new Pets and to eliminate monsters that threaten the sanctity of their settlements. Due to the help of their allies, the Gardening Gnomes, every land that the Pet-Tamers touch virtually becomes a jungle.

The Pet-Masters are again a neutral entity in this conflict, believing that both the Stationary Shogunate and the Tronic Temple are ignorant of the many beasts and horrors that foster within the depths of the Bargain Bin.

---

" Our hunger will unstock the shelves!"

Out of all the Departments in the Wal, the Grocery Tribes are barbarians that live nomadic lives within the heavily Stocker-infested Department of Grocery. Due to their monopoly of the all-too valuable Grocery shelves, they are almost hostile to every Department within the Wal that they encounter, not willing to humor diplomatic ties or trade deals. It’s lucky that the Grocery Tribes remain fractured and in war with one another almost as they are with the entire Wal. If united, the Grocery Tribes could have every Department at their mercy.

Only the Cereai of the Cereal section are the only faction which has diplomatic ties to other Departments not within the grocery aisles. These holy warriors adorn themselves in thick cardboard boxes, labelled with the iconography of their patron saint. No two Cereai is the same, each following a different ‘path’ depending on who they worship. Examples of famed paths are “ The Path of the Rooster” and “ The Path of the Tiger”.

Age B'Gone - A miraculous anti-ageing formula developed by Wal-Incorporated with disturbing side effects. Only stocked in the Toys Department.

Aisler/Shopper - General lingo for any inhabitant or person of the Wal.

Dorfs - Inhabitants of the Toys Department who managed to retain their sanity and mental acuity during their exposure to Age 'B Gone. Unfortunately, they are physically malformed compared to other shoppers, the most apparent trait being their physiological dwarfism.

Departments - Rather than referring to actual departments, it has become a shorthand term to describe a certain group or culture of people from a specific department.

Lifter - Nickname for hired career mercenaries who have notable experience in the Wal. Named so due to the connotations of danger associated with 'shoplifting'.

Nevergrow - Children who has overdosed on Age B'Gone or consumed expired versions of the anti-ageing compound. They developed physiological mutations as well as mental illnesses as a result of this, their adult minds being unable to handle the experience of being trapped in a child's body. Bands of NeverGrow are known to commonly venture out from the Toys Department and attack the settlements of other Departments.

Stockers - Robot workers responsible for general maintenance of the Wal, with their primary purpose being to ensure that shelves are restocked. Come in all shapes and sizes depending on the function they are needed for. Elimination of shoplifters is also their secondary priority.

Sec-Bots/Security - Towering automaton juggernauts of death and fury. If you see a Sec-Bot, don't run or escape because you're already dead.

Smilers - Term for any indoctrinated member of the Cult of the Smiling One.

Sport - War.

Sporting Goods - Weapon.

Wal-Tech - Highly experimental technology developed by Wal-Incorporated.

Disclaimer: So, this is an example of a character sheet format that you can use. You can modify or change aspects of the format to an extent as long as it mostly contains most of the information detailed down below.

---

NAME: (Self Explanatory)

GENDER: (Self Explanatory)

DEPARTMENT: (Remember that your department is the single biggest consideration for how it affects your character concept. The traits, personality, skills and equipment your character has will be exemplified by what department they come from.)

AGE: (Fairly self explanatory, though, be realistic. Anything less than 18 years old is pushing it mildly.)

APPEARANCE: (Again, fairly evident by what it means. Describe your character as much as you want to. Obviously, if you have no image to supplant the text description, then, you're gonna need to put a whole lot more effort into fleshing out the visual image of your character here.)

---

(Your character's life until the beginning of their first job. How did they become who they were? What were the most important events of their life? Make it as long as you want to be.)

---

PERSONAL GOAL: (What are you trying to achieve in the Wal?)

LIKES: (List a few trivial things that your Shopper likes)

DISLIKES: (List a few trivial things that your Shopper dislikes)

REPUTE: (We've been asking a lot about how your character looks at the world, so, let's reverse it around. How does the world view your character? What status does your character have in the world?)

HEEL:(Heels are basically an over-riding character flaw that exemplifies the type of person your character is. It's what other people know your character for being. Examples of Weak Spots can be: Hubris, Selfishness, Naivety, Easily Angered, Inferiority Complex, Napoleon Complexes, Vengeful, Sadistic, Paranoia. A Heel is different from just another normal character flaw because they are an essential part of your character that makes your character who they are. They can never escape from a Weak Spot.)

CODE: (Codes are a deep sentiment, passion or virtue that a character holds dearly to, in spite of the hostile and unrelenting nature of the Wal. It's a trait that someone would have if they lived in a sane world outside the Wal. Soft Spots can be: Valuing freedom, A Hero Complex, Social Justice, Friendship, Honesty, Being Protective of your Family, Protecting the Weak, A Pact that You Abide By, Veganism, Empathy.)

QUIRKS:(Unique traits that your character is known for doing such as collecting ears off their dead enemies, always ordering their drinks with a single cube of ice, whatever strange things that immedietely makes them distinct from everyone else.)

---

(What skills does your character have that allowed them to survive this long without dying? One thing that you may be noticing here is that I'm not including any flaws in here. That's right. You wanna know why? Because, I believe having many flaws is just an excuse for an roleplayer to switch between them willy nilly and disregard them. Therefore, there is only one, great singular flaw that will inhibit your character every step of the way. Any of the skills that you have has to be justified by the Department you came from and your character's backstory.)

(SKILL) ► (DESCRIPTION)



(Your character's equipment. In the beginning of the RP, you will not have access to any equipment at all. Only the clothings on your back. Whatever equipment you have, it must have been small enough to escape the notice of your captors or a trinket of some sort that didn't warrant any removal. You can add equipment onto your grocery list by writing actions during your posts to scavenge or to pick up items from enemies. You can only perform this once per post.)

(ITEM NAME) ► (DESCRIPTION)

(ITEM NAME) ► (DESCRIPTION)

(ITEM NAME) ► (DESCRIPTION)

---

NAME: Trike Decathl

GENDER: Male

DEPARTMENT: SPORTS

AGE: 21

APPEARANCE: In contrast to the muscular and physically fit builds that the Linebreakers of Sports are known for, Decathl looks as if a breeze could knock him over. Be warned, though, this stick-thin and emaciated physique belies an almost supernatural vigor capable of bowling over the most skilled of aislers. Embracing the heritage of his Owl ancestors, Decathl wears the bare minimum of clothing to display his tally sheet of scars that he has earned, courtesy of the Wal. Only a pair of Adidas shorts are used to protect his dignity alongside worn out rubber trainers for his feet.

Twin green eyes and a mop of scruffy hair lie underneath an oversized Little Leaguer’s helmet, scrappily enshrined with the visage of Smiley, the true son of Sam. The most recognisable trait that is part of Decathl’s person is his prosthetic leg, jury rigged by the finest Dorfen Engineers of Fort Lego. Crafted from the remnants of his family heirloom bicycle, it ominously creaks and squeaks with every one of his movements.

---

---

PERSONAL GOAL:

LIKES:

DISLIKES:

REPUTE:

HEEL:

CODE:

QUIRKS:

---

Intensive Workout Regimen ►

Aggressive Team Motivation ►

When All You Have Is A Ball ►



(ITEM NAME) ► (DESCRIPTION)

(ITEM NAME) ► (DESCRIPTION)

(ITEM NAME) ► (DESCRIPTION)

Name:

Objective:

Personal Statement:

Qualifications:

Achievements:

Work History:

Name: (Self Explanatory)

Gender: (Self Explanatory)

Age: (Self Explanatory)

Physical Description: (A photo to accompany the literary description of your character's physical features is advised but not necessary. Obviously, without a photo, you need to put in more effort.)

Applied Position: (Self-Explanatory. You cannot make up a position for yourself. You must sign up for one of the predesignated roles in the RP)



REASON FOR EMPLOYMENT: (Self-Explanatory. Why did your character want to apply for a job at Gas Way Express?Why here instead of any other location?)

BUDGETING: (What do you do with your paycheck? What are your first priorities when spending money?)

LIKES: (Self-Explanatory. Only a few at a time.)

DISLIKES: (Self-Explanatory.Only a few at a time.)

TRINKETS: (What items of importance do you bring with you to work? Keep in mind that you are an official employee of Gas Way Express. You can try and sneak in an 44 magnum by building some sort of crazy doomsday prepper employee......but it'll make Management mad if they find out you brought contraband that could scare customers away. Besides, you really think guns will help you in the Night Shift?)



(Your character's life up to being employed at Gas Way Express Co. Make it short, simple and keep in mind the context of this RP)



(Three skills at the maximum with one flaw only. I'll explain why this is if anyone wants to PM me in further detail but basically, guys, flaws don't matter as much as you think.)

(SKILL) ► (DESCRIPTION)

(FLAW) ► (DESCRIPTION)

Name: (Self Explanatory)

Gender: (Self Explanatory)

Age: (Self Explanatory)

Physical Description: (A photo to accompany the literary description of your character's physical features is advised but not necessary. Obviously, without a photo, you need to put in more effort.)

Applied Position: (Self-Explanatory. You cannot make up a position for yourself. You must sign up for one of the predesignated roles in the RP)



REASON FOR EMPLOYMENT: (Self-Explanatory. Why did your character want to apply for a job at Gas Way Express?Why here instead of any other location?)

BUDGETING: (What do you do with your paycheck? What are your first priorities when spending money?)

LIKES: (Self-Explanatory. Only a few at a time.)

DISLIKES: (Self-Explanatory.Only a few at a time.)

TRINKETS: (What items of importance do you bring with you to work? Keep in mind that you are an official employee of Gas Way Express. You can try and sneak in an 44 magnum by building some sort of crazy doomsday prepper employee......but it'll make Management mad if they find out you brought contraband that could scare customers away. Besides, you really think guns will help you in the Night Shift?)



(Your character's life up to being employed at Gas Way Express Co. Make it short, simple and keep in mind the context of this RP)



(Three skills at the maximum with one flaw only. I'll explain why this is if anyone wants to PM me in further detail but basically, guys, flaws don't matter as much as you think.)

(SKILL) ► (DESCRIPTION)

(FLAW) ► (DESCRIPTION)

Name: (Self Explanatory)

Gender: (Self Explanatory)

Age: (Self Explanatory)

Physical Description: (A photo to accompany the literary description of your character's physical features is advised but not necessary. Obviously, without a photo, you need to put in more effort.)

Applied Position: (Self-Explanatory. You cannot make up a position for yourself. You must sign up for one of the predesignated roles in the RP)



REASON FOR EMPLOYMENT: (Self-Explanatory. Why did your character want to apply for a job at Gas Way Express?Why here instead of any other location?)

BUDGETING: (What do you do with your paycheck? What are your first priorities when spending money?)

LIKES: (Self-Explanatory. Only a few at a time.)

DISLIKES: (Self-Explanatory.Only a few at a time.)

TRINKETS: (What items of importance do you bring with you to work? Keep in mind that you are an official employee of Gas Way Express. You can try and sneak in an 44 magnum by building some sort of crazy doomsday prepper employee......but it'll make Management mad if they find out you brought contraband that could scare customers away. Besides, you really think guns will help you in the Night Shift?)



(Your character's life up to being employed at Gas Way Express Co. Make it short, simple and keep in mind the context of this RP)



(Three skills at the maximum with one flaw only. I'll explain why this is if anyone wants to PM me in further detail but basically, guys, flaws don't matter as much as you think.)

(SKILL) ► (DESCRIPTION)

(FLAW) ► (DESCRIPTION)

//

//BASE STATS

STRENGTH:
DEXTERITY:
PERCEPTION:
AGILITY:
CONSTITUTION:
WILL:
INTELLIGENCE:
LUCK: 0

//FEATS

//EQUIPMENT

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Affiliation: (The faction you are affiliated with. A list of avaliable factions will be present within the OOC. Alternatively, you can make your own homebrew faction.)

Appearance:



PERSONAL GOAL: (What are you trying to achieve in New Malacca)

LIKES:

DISLIKES:

REPUTE: (We've been asking a lot about how your character looks at the world, so, let's reverse it around. How does the world view your character? What status does your character have in the world?)

HEEL:(Heels are basically an over-riding character flaw that exemplifies the type of person your character is. It's what other people know your character for being. Examples of Weak Spots can be: Hubris, Selfishness, Naivety, Easily Angered, Inferiority Complex, Napoleon Complexes, Vengeful, Sadistic, Paranoia. A Heel is different from just another normal character flaw because they are an essential part of your character that makes your character who they are. They can never escape from a Weak Spot.)

CODE: (Codes are a deep sentiment, passion or virtue that a character holds dearly to, well, as much as they can in New Malacca. It's a trait that someone would have if they lived in a sane world outside the Wal. Soft Spots can be: Valuing freedom, A Hero Complex, Social Justice, Friendship, Honesty, Being Protective of your Family, Protecting the Weak, A Pact that You Abide By, Veganism, Empathy.)

QUIRKS:(Unique traits that your character is known for doing such as collecting ears off their dead enemies, always ordering their drinks with a single cube of ice, whatever strange things that immedietely makes them distinct from everyone else.)



(Can be a short biography or a writing sample detailing their past. I do not expect a didatic summary of each and every event in your characters lives but only the most important ones.)



ATTRIBUTES: (A list of the most prominent skills that your character has picked up over the years. You have a maximum of 3.)

BODY MODS: (Cyberware or Bioware that your character has integrated into their body. No limit.)

EQUIPMENT: (Self-Explanatory)

1) West Bengal Port - The primary docking and processing bay for all arrivals from the East Indian Ocean and one of the densely populated areas in New Malacca outside of the Tradeplex. The section is dominated by a large number of Indians and Pakistanis who fled the region during the Kashmir Inferno along with the odd Bangladeshi. Most of New Malacca’s blue collar workers and laborers live here due to the low income rent.

2) Hibiscus Lane - Serving as both a place of cultural heritage and a tourist trap, Hibiscus Lane is a slice of Indo-Malaysia directly in the heart of New Malacca. Hover rickshaws stroll along the pavements whilst floating markets travel along the banks, selling both legal and illegal wares of all shapes and sizes.

3) Canton Canal - Considered a parallel to Hibiscus Lane, the Canton Canal is its opulent and clinically perfect counterpart. Luxury, gambling, sin and vice can be found within their famous mahjong casinos. An old trick to remember around these parts is to never gamble on a game of Go. Considered to be the territory of the Triads.

4) The Triangle-What was meant to be an public ecological terrarium project by the Corporate Council has now secretly become the headquarters of the new and improved Golden Triangle. The former drug trafficking highway was hit hard by Filipino PMCs and the rise of cyber warfare. However, instead of being destroyed, it underwent dormancy, feigning death and waiting for the right conditions to proliferate once again. Ruled by an eclectic collection of Thai, Burmese and Cambodian diasporas, the Triangle is New Malacca’s center of its thriving underground synthetic drug trade, using the integrated hydroponics infrastructure to grow, manufacture and distribute their products across most of South East Asia.

5) Shin Ryushu Dockings -Although the nations of Japan and Korea survived the Dark Collapse and the climate storms well, the lower lying islands didn’t fare better during Typhoon Otachi. If you want to know a place where you can hire the best razors or street samurais, Shin Ryushu Dockings has your back. Be careful of walking around the wrong street light, lest, you wake up in the hands of a posse of Yakuza.

6) East Sino Corporate Tradeplex - Everywhere, you see holo-ads blotting out the sky, blurting out brand names. Tzu. Verge. Saewung. Tenaga Ultra. Welcome to the big leagues. This is the megacorp capital of New Malacca. Sleek, brutalistic spires of plexi-alloy and reinforced syncrete dot the skyline here. Gleaming plazas, overcompensating company buildings and crowded stock exchanges are populated by corporate stooges and beleaguered office mice, scuttering around mindlessly.

7) The Undertow - Within here are the only entrance points to the Undertow, a deep complex of underwater corporate facilities located deep underneath the superstructure of the city via elevator. The New Malacca City Council says that it's strictly being used for municipal purposes but everyone really knows that those underwater tunnels hide more than they let on......

8) Braziltown-Ah, those westerners just want to get their hands on everything, don’t they? Braziltown is an architectural tumor on New Malacca’s landscape, a shambling grotesque stack of haphazardly built containers, a reminder of the massive refugee crisis that occurred during the aftermath of the Dark Collapse.

9) The Flot Slums -The Great Flood and Dark Collapse shattered the back of most high income countries in two. Out here is No Man’s Land. An eclectic collection of minorities from every part of the globe live out here in light of the increasing lack of residential space within New Malacca. Considered to be the main location of the Temple By the Sea.

The People’s Republic of China

There is often a massive confusion of what the PRC exactly is. Some view it as an authoritarian regime looking to extend its hegemonic influence on the rest of the world. Some say it is a mire of corruption and instability, a bomb waiting to go off.

The truth, as always, is far more complicated than usual. The PRC is a region that is defined by war: war with itself and war with others. As of 2099, the PRC still remains the autocracy wearing the trappings of communism. that it is, although with a higher degree of capitalistic influence within its economic framework, more than the higher ups of the PRC would be comfortable with. Increasing privatization of China’s industrial and manufacturing services along with politicians lining their coffers with corporate bribery led to these incr

In the mid 2020s, China unveiled progress on the One Citizen Network publicly: an attempt to fully integrate government economic and social services together under a revolutionary A.I wireframe network that would span from the Gobi Desert to Shanghai. By the 2030s, the project was undergoing regional testing when the Dark Crash hit, sinking hundreds of billions of government funds into incomprehensible bytes of glitchy data. It had effectively put a stop gap in China’s plans of economic expansion through the southern hemisphere, their Neo-Silk Road project being put on halt as the world fell into chaos.

Following a decade of internal party purges, civil disputes and rooting out of corruption, the Chinese Imperial Government rose out of the muck and mire and plunged themselves yet into another bloody conflict for control of the South China Sea in 2049 during the Nine Mile War. Unfortunately, for them, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the rest of South East Asia had prospered during the Dark Crash. When it was clear that control of the South China Sea would be unattainable, the government settled for a detente instead and thus, SEAZO was born.

In 2099, China is the biggest and wields the most geopolitical influence with its sizable military. As such, most military and war-tech corporations nest comfortably by primarily selling to chinese buyers. A heavy rural-urban divide still remains in China’s society today, with most of the population making up a sizable labor force. Everyone knows that social engineering and Orwellian policies are China’s bread and butter but as long as you know who to bribe and where, you can live comfortably as long as you don’t end up in one of their ‘reeducation’ camps.

The Pacific Orient
In 2099, Japan and Korea are the economic powerhouses of the Pacific and have become a near corporatocracy, dominated by family owned zaibatsus and chaebol in the aftermath of the Dark Crash. The Pacific Orient is the birthplace of cybernetics and the modern mega-corporation as we know it, with a census estimating that over 90% of its citizens from young to old are implanted with cybernetics.

Japan still maintains its constitutional monarchy, even near the advent of the 22nd century, but Korea’s politics have been a mixup ever since the Dark Crash. Pyongyang’s slow technological advancement had spared its population most of the ensuing chaos, although their forays into nuclear power resulted in an incident not seen since Chernobyl. Some historians theorised that sabotage by foreign powers occurred but no one seemed to care about pointing fingers enough. Reunification of the North and South happened but at a heavy humanitarian cost.

New ASEAN

It’d only taken 30 years for a new power bloc to rise up in South East Asia. The youngest contender and perhaps the most diverse, New ASEAN is a coalition of over 10 countries within South East Asia. The climate storms and the Dark Crash only strengthened the diplomatic ties of the coalition as they began to shift from becoming an intergovernmental organisation to a political and economic union similar to that of the EuroZone. This path towards a multigovernmental union accelerated further when Taiwan and Hong Kong, now fully autonomous from China’s influence after the Nine Mile Dispute, joined as members.

New ASEAN, in comparison to the South Orient and China, is wracked with corruption, infighting and diplomatic issues. Unlike the relatively mono-ethnic societies of the PRC and the South Orient, ASEAN society is extremely diverse with over hundreds of different and distinct subcultures, religions and ethnic groups within its borders. However, racial tensions are often a common occurrence within its territories.

Whilst New Malacca is essentially a de facto corporatocracy, the initial riots and the uncontrolled wave of crime that plagued New Malacca in its infancy made it clear to the NMCC that whilst public institutions were undesirable, a puppet was still needed. Thus, the New Malaccan Mayoral Democracy was born. The current mayor of New Malacca is Azman Yokgan, a member of the South Orient Party.

South Orient Party - Having been around since the inception of New Malacca in its early stages, the South Orient Party holds the most political power and are strictly allied to the interests of New ASEAN and the preservation of New Malacca’s sovereignty. Strictly speaking, the South Orient are the remnants of the original parties that founded New Malacca and have shifted heavily from their neoliberal policies in the inception of New Malacca’s government. The South Orient nowadays primarily operates on a platform of staunch protectionism alongside favoring pro-ASEAN relations and corporate regulation - or what counts as regulation in this day and age. Wary of the growing influence of the megacorps in New Malacca along with the fact that they are part of its foundations, the South Orient have attempted to reverse privatization of public assets, to limited success. Many have accused them of rigging the supposedly democratic elections in their favor, despite what their PR officials say.

United People’s Party - Still licking their wounds after the Dark Crash, the Chinese Imperial Government is still contesting their claims to the South China Sea through piecemeal treaties over scraps of land and oil reservoirs. Their latest dispute is New Malacca which they believe to have historical claim to. The United People’s Party advocates for close diplomatic ties with the Chinese government along with the possibility of making New Malacca a Special Administrative Region. However, the United People’s Party is distinctly fractured

Young Frontier Party - Contesting the South Orient Party for the most seats within the corporate council, the Young Frontier Party advocates for full deregulation of all illegal technologies and reexamination of all bioware and cyberware legislation to bring humanity to the next stage of their evolution. By far, their most dangerous goals are to explore the far reaches of the Deep and communicate with the rogue artificial intelligences still trapped beneath its depths which could have far reaching consequences not only for New Malacca but for the world itself.

Fisherman Party - Give a man a fish and he’ll be full for one day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll never be hungry again. The Fisherman Party is a anarchocommunist party that has gained ground thanks to the staggering socioeconomic inequality that plagues most residents of New Malacca. In spite of the secular laws in New Malacca, they have close ties with major religious groups ranging from Islam, Taoism, Christianity and Hinduism. The Fisherman Party have been suspected of corporate sabotage and organising the massive public demonstrations and protests that have risen in New Malacca in the last two decades, although they deny all accusations.

The NMCC or the Board of Seven, as they are known colloquially, are the eight governing mega corporations that are essentially the biggest fish in the pond, easily worth trillions in value and are Triple A rated. Representatives from each mega-corporation are chosen and occupy a chosen number of seats on a bi-annual basis. These eight corporations out of the dozens that occupy New Malacca’s trade zone have set the precedent for nearly 50 years.

Platine-Takahashi Cooperative - The conglomerate of an Italian fashion corporation and a Japanese zaibatsu, the media moguls of the Platine-Takahashi Cooperative owns the radio waves, TV programmes and VR sims. Platine Takahashi’s has its hands in the service industry, entertainment, social media, news, whatever it can use to drive the souls and minds of the masses. Whenever you tune in to listen to your favorite K-Pop, watch your Bollywood dramas or dive into a custom made VR film, the Platine-Takahashi Cooperative is responsible for it. Unlike most corporations, Platine-Takahashi has marketed themselves to the public as consumer friendly, using grandiose acts of philanthropy as their main method of calming the masses. In recent years,Platine-Takahashi has expanded towards fashion cybernetics, luxury automobiles, biotech and many other fields.

Hongyang Expansions - Soy cereal. Rust displacement sprays. Electromagnetic lifting weights. Almost every consumer good on the market is a product of one of Hongyang’s various subsidiaries. Although their products aren’t considered to be as high quality versus other megacorporations, the amount of startups, sub-corporations and assets that they have dwarfs every other megacorporation. It’s said that Hongyang Expansions isn’t a nation unto itself, it owns several nations. However, its size is its own weakness as corporate bureaucracy and scheming keeps itself from rising to the top.

Tenaga Ultra - Renewables. Nuclear. Fossil. Tenaga keeps the lights on in New Malacca and for a good portion of most countries within the ASEAN bloc, being one of the oldest corporations that has managed to survive to this day. Once a producer of palm oil, Tenaga Ultra has expanded into other energy industries as fossil fuels were shunned in favour of synthetic biofuels and renewables, particularly hydroelectricity and solar which powers New Malacca’s electric grid.

Saewung - Computers. Personal modems. Holo-displays. If it’s something high-tech and electronic, Saewung has your back. Although they lack the giant PMCs that other megacorporations wield like a blunt cudgel, their fearsome army of Deep Net security specialists, encryption software and combat droids are nothing to scoff at. Numerous famous hackers have met their end attempting to crack into their servers.

Paradigm Organics - Did you know that over 60% of New Malacca’s locally imported food is produced by Paradigm Organics? Of course, you didn’t know that. You’re too busy eating your algae udon to tell the difference. Paradigm Organics made headlines in the 2030s with its halophytic seaweed and algae crops that were perfectly made to survive their new saltwater inundated environments and they’re still making headlines today. Unlike most other corporations, Paradigm spends most of its budget on RnD projects, pushing the boundaries of genetics and biotechnology one crime against humanity at a time. The recent clone crisis has pushed Paradigm Organics into scrutiny by the media and other biotechnology competitors who are eager to push down their most biggest competitor in any way possible.

Verge - Considered to be a direct competitor towards Paradigm Organics, Verge offers an annual line of cutting edge next-generation cyberware, cybernetic implants and personal exo-skeletons that’s always the number one priority on every punk and paddler’s shopping list. In spite of their popularity, Verge has suffered its fair share of storms that have plummeted their stocks. Numerous lawsuits have been lobbied against Verge and their products based on allegations of integrating spyware into their cybernetics which Verge always denies. I mean, it’s not like there’s a reason that all of their employees are required to integrate mandatory neuralware as part of their application process. Right?

Tzu Peace Solutions - Tzu’s trademark of death has seen action across numerous wars and civil conflicts that have erupted in the 21st century. Operating on a nationalistic slogan of jingoism and appealing to the public’s sense of insecurity, Tzu Peace Solutions has more defense contracts in Asia than any other defense corporation on the market. Now, they’re currently occupied with making in-roads into the western market which is dominated by their competitors. Primarily specialising in defense, Tzu has branched out into law enforcement, security, automotive, aerospace and robotics.

New Malacca’s corporate tradeplex has been a lucrative location for many venture businesses and startups to start running on their two legs, before they’re bought by a corporation. These startups are the hottest and most promising players on the market.

Kaleidoscope - Before Kaleidoscope, AR was virtually non-existent in New Malacca. After Kaleidoscope entered the market, AR emerged from its hibernation in small, underwater followings of AR graffiti artists and spread across its districts. In the 2040s, Kaleidoscope’s AR network blossomed with multiple corporations buying patents for AR adverts and chips to integrate within their technologies. However, many AR users argue that Kaleidoscope’s monopoly over the local AR market in New Malacca has driven all other competitors and stifled innovation. Kaleidoscope is known for showcasing public AR projects as publicity stunts to boost sales.

Poly-Fab Solutions - In an age where manufacturing has shifted from manual to automation, Poly-Fab’s proprietary 3-D fabricators take the once laughable concept of applying mass scale 3-D printing and pushes it to the next level. Headed by former Verge think tank member, Han Lewis, Poly-Fab’s 3-D fabricators allow a higher degree of efficiency and faster speed than most models with the ability to manufacture highly complex industrial parts in just a matter of minutes. The key issue preventing Poly-Fab Solutions is their lack of open source blueprints which 3-D enthusiasts say is preventing them from making landmark sales.

Chimera - Chimera is just another one of the many ‘splicing’ startups to have emerged in the 2080s after the discovery of base pair stabilisation. Chimera’s gene splicing and enhancement programmes are touted to be able to cure hereditary diseases, remove cancer cells and mutations along with the usual fare of body modifications that everyone is interested in. Chimera is currently undergoing a PR battle with alleged footage showing splicing users seemingly dying on the sidewalk mere hours after undergoing gene therapy.

The Poppy - The unofficial lords of the Golden Triangle district, The Poppy have a stranglehold over the illicit drug trade within New Malacca, holding a monopoly on production and trafficking of synthesised opiates, amphetamines and concentrated narcotics. All inbound drug flow from Japan, South Africa, Russia and China goes directly straight to them. Members of their gang are outfitted with cybernetic implants that directly inject stimulants and combat drugs intravenously. With the lack of automobile roadways in New Malacca, trafficking is mainly done through airborne delivery drones rather than in person exchange.

404 - In the aftermath of the Dark Crash, numerous hacker groups sought to take advantage of the chaos, pilfering through old government files and backdoors within encrypted corporate files. The most notorious of these groups is 404, styling themselves after the term used to describe dead servers in the pre-Deep days. 404’s main objectives are to reveal the truth of the megacorps and peel back away layers of corruption for the public by stealing and publishing top secret files online along with deliberately destroying and hacking corporate servers. Most mega-corps would have laughed them off as a minor nuisance if it wasn’t for the fact they were responsible for Armalance’s declaration of bankruptcy in 2060. Now, every megacorporation is out for their blood.

The Heralds - Whilst most gangs in New Malacca embrace transhumanism, only one actively goes against the grain. The Heralds are an outspoken group of militant vigilantes that are against the spread of cyberware and bioware, believing them to be a violation of the natural order. They are the criminals that all other gangs in New Malacca despise as they regularly declare war on gangs that they deem impure. The group has suffered a recent splintering with the more moderate elements excising themselves from the more extremist sects who believe that public campaigns and seeding distrust in cyberware products is the key to victory rather than just blowing a hole in any layman with a cybernetic implant.

The Ambassadors - Mercenaries. Wetworks. Assasination. Bounty hunting. When you need something done discreetly,The Ambassador’s network of spies and assassins will have you covered. Composed of ex-corporate security officers and retired soldiers from Cambodia, Ambassadors, as they are called, are willing to do any job for any price, as long as the client does not betray them and that payment is always provided after the job. Their main base of operations is in a luxuriant hotel known as Le Chateau De Ambassador, where their assassins are able to rest, relax and recuperate after every job. It is considered sacred ground in the criminal world.

Black Yangtze - Tracing their origins from Tokyo yakuzas and Chinese triads that initially populated New Malacca in the 2020s, the Black Yangtze operate multiple criminal fronts in New Malacca in the form of night clubs, casinos, cock fighting, prostitution rings and bars. The Black Yangtze operate on a strict honor system in an attempt to differentiate themselves from the rest of the rabble. Government and corporate officials alike are within their pockets and they occupy a considerable amount of territory in both the Canton Canal and Hibiscus Lane.

The Consecration of Salt - When the climate floods plagued the world, religious extremists and doomsday cults rose up in its wake to take advantage of the population’s gullibility. The Consecration is an example of just one of these groups. Universally condemned by the majority of Christian groups in 2099, the Consecration of Salt have found a new home in New Malacca, believing the next great flood to arrive soon and wash away the unworthy of this world, which is everyone except those who are part of their flock. Although their relentless hogging of AR ads and daily preachings of predictions about the next flood are little more than a nuisance, their recruitment methods leave a lot to be desired.

Precipice - As technology advanced into the realm of transhumanism, superstition adapted to the present in the form of technopaganism or technoshamanism. Though their ideology varies from group to group, their core tenets involve believing technology is inhabited by spirits and that one must equilibrate themselves with technology in order to ascend to a higher plane of existence. Most tend to view technopagans as fringe groups and chem-crazed lunatics that got hopped up on one too many hallucinogens. However, in New Malacca, technopaganism has gained ground here in the form of a group known only as Precipice.

The followers of Precipice believe in shedding their physical bodies for ones made of ones and zeros: code in order to pass into the Deep and into a haven whereby all of their minds will be united in a single intelligence. Thus, most of Precipice’s followers are AR and VR addicts, slaving their minds away 24/7 to modems and AR goggles in an attempt to experience nirvana. However, their devotion to worship of the Deep has led to them developing a third eye or sixth sense for manipulating Deep code better than most hackers ever could. In spite of the seemingly unsettling nature of their ideology, Precipice followers are deeply pacifistic in nature and only harass the public in the form of AR grafitti murals that they spread across property.

The melding of machines with man. Cyberware was first commercially available in the 2030s as a means of addressing the physical ailments of countries with severely ageing populations such as Italy and Japan, with the effort being mainly spearheaded by Vinci Dynamics. Due to this, the largest cyberware conglomerates are based in the Euro-Zone and Asia Pacific.

Cyberware can be used to augment the users physical capabilities, bestow them with technological weaponry, allow them to interface with the Deep and accomplish feats beyond the scope of human physiology. Unfortunately, the proliferation of illegal, cheap cyberware on the black market and spread of improper implantation practice has led to the surge of neural instability and psychosis among users who are unable to pay for top-shelf cyberware. Phantom pains, dementia and neural degradation are just some of the more common syndromes that these users face.

The new trend on the markets today are full-body conversions, otherwise, known as borging up. This involves the near complete conversion of a user’s body into a cybernetic equivalent, becoming the machine instead of interfacing with the machine. Only a few select corporations offer this process, though, and god knows what else they put inside you that you’re not aware of yet.

In the 2010s, CRISPR was the first brick in the golden road towards the dream of flawless genetic engineering. As pollution poisoned the environment and the world plunged into climatic chaos in the 40s, the agriculture industry was soon forced to resort to buying gene patents on genetically modified crops that could survive and thrive in this new world. Eventually, the multiple gene editing systems and techniques were categorised in one singular word: bioware.

Unlike cyberware, bioware isn’t just only found within organ transplants and splicing modifications. Algae vat farms are dotted throughout the landscape, supplying cheap and easy food for the growing populous. Muscle bound guard dogs, armed with the ability to detect a man’s blood type, guard entrances to pristine casinos. Gangers use aerosol-delivered viruses to assassinate specific targets. The use of self-enhancing bioware does come with a drawback however. The instability of most gene mods coupled with the high chance of cellular rejection means that users must consume a cocktail of hormones, nucleotide stabilisers and modified microorganisms to maintain themselves lest they die a slow and agonising death.

The current crisis with bioware is the clone crisis. Whilst corporate legislations have outlawed it entirely outside of research labs, there have been many reports of rogue clones managing to break out and assimilate into nearby cities.

In the 2020s, the World Wide Web as we know it began the step forward towards integration into city-wide infrastructure and the development of public A.Is that would supervise control of these networks. In 2030 to 2031, a series of coordinated virus attacks completely disabled these networks, splintering them into malformed chunks and scattering it behind a maze of unstable servers and broken computer systems. The virtual intelligences that once patrolled the net became berserk and insane.

In the aftermath of the Collapse, countries began to reorganise and reinvest the remnants of the Highway, forming large segregated Data-Zones. Countries took their own methods of building their own servers, most going the traditional route, some via underwater submersible servers, others via airborne hover servers. Most of the Deep is still locked off from the public via a series of layered encryption firewalls by megacorporations and various countries.

Analogous to the ascension of the Deep was the rise of Augmented Reality or AR. Cities began adopting AR like a second skin to disguise the decaying and rotting buildings of old. Broken remnants of old AR can be found moldering inside abandoned alleyways. The combination of AR and the Deep led to the rise of a new subculture of hackers, tech warriors , code shamans, digital cartographers and more individuals attempting to forge their own way in this broken world.

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Name: Barnabum Yerickford the IV
Aliases: Barney, Old Man Barnes, Barmey Yerickford
Age: 89
Species:Gnome
Gender:Male
Occupation/Position:Mechanic
Alignment: Chaotic Good

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Height: 4'1.
Build:Stocky, stout and strong with a hefty gut of sky-forged steel with spindly and spry limbs.
Eyes: Barney has one milky cataract with a wicked grooved scar slicing through the lid and one brilliant blue eye that twitches maniacally with
Hair: Stress, experimentation with various banned illegal substances within the United Planet Science Academy and his family's genetic propensity towards albinism have resulted in the most spherical bald head in the galaxy. It's so bald that mindflayer mathematicians have written several proofs and conjectures for its perfection. This is accompanied by a less than remarkable frayed ring of singed white hair and a bushy beard of bone.
Skin Tone: Barney's rough and wrinkled skin is always sooty and stained, looking as if he hasn't showered for the last decade or so.
Tattoos/Scars/Piercings: A marked brand of the United Planets Science Academy Official Planar Extra-Galactic Periodic Table of Mundane and Magical Elements version 3.5.
Personal Style: Style? Style is a secondary priority to Barnabum compared to science. Barnabum favors wearing open and loose clothing that helps prevent him from fainting due to heat stroke such as his tacky overalls and oil-splattered work jeans. He can be always found with a pair of round, thick mismatched googles that magnify his eyes to a ridiculous extent.

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Genius * Kooky * Scientist * Enthusiastic * Curious * Obsessive

Relationship Status: Married to Science

Questionnaire: This is going to be a little different. Instead of a typical personality summary, you get to pretend your character is answering a questionnaire! Just answer the following in character.

What first impression do you make?

Ah, yes, impressions, impressions, the most important activity of the day, yes, impressions. People give me that strange look whenever I talk 'bout something important, like the 32 uses of pixie wing dust as a lubricant! Would you be intereted in knowing some by any chance? But, I digress. Like, I said, if they think I'm strange, I think they're even stranger, going about like everything's normal. I'm telling you, it's NOT!

What are you like in a high stress situation?

Ha ha, high stress! High STRESS?! Oh boy, stress runs in my blood. Every second of my life is a high stress situation. Can you feel your heart beating in your chest? The wind in your lungs? Your brain burning like a supernova? That's me!

What are your best and worst qualities?

My best quality is that I never give up on a task, no matter what. If I set mah mind to it, I'll get it done in a quick or slow jiffy! Science is a fickle mistress that requires courage and the will to see things through. I'm also open minded! It doesn't matter where ye come from. If you can offer me something, then, it don't matter whether you're a 100 foot tall cosmic dragon, a dark elf, an orc or a Demon from the Infernal Planes, you're adamantite in my books.

My worst qualities? Well, some folks say that I can get a wee bit para- Look out! KILL IT! KILL IT! Hold there, right still, stop trying to duck, it's only a little bit of dragonfla- Wait a second. It's a butterfly. Sorry fer pointing mah cannon at yeh. Heh heh.

Oh, fine, I do also admit that I might be a little hasty when it comes to my inventions. My brother never did forgave me for transmorgifying his head into a minotaur back in college........

What is something about yourself that you would never admit to anyone?

Secrets?! No one told me this was going to be about spilling my beans! Who'd sent you? The Guild of Internal Investigations? Some United Planets stooge? You're out for me, aren't you?

Oh, yah don't mean something illegal. Not about the buried - Zip it, Yerickford. Zip it.

Now, what was I saying? Ah, right. Something that I wouldn't want to admit to anyone in this crew is that, well......

I'm lonely, you see. Sometimes, I try to bury myself under so much inventing, tinkering and gadgeteering so that I don't think of these here thoughts. Keep myself busy instead of thinking philosophically. What happens when I can't invent anymore? Everyone knows me fer meh inventions but I've never actually made any friends.....

Bah, enough of those bad thoughts. You must have sneaked some mind altering substance into this here room to get me talking like that! Got any more questions fer me?

What are your dreams?

The only good dreams I get ar' tah colorful ones I see whenever I smoke my fungus cigars. Oh, you'll never believe the things you can imagine when you take a puff o' one of these.

Oh, sleeping? Please, sleeping is far dah week. A gnome can stay awake for at least ten days before experiencing any fatal heart attacks. I once stayed awake for an entire month during a university project, although, it took over ten clerics to convince my soul to return back to my body.

But, when I do need to sleep, I dream of numbers. Of inventions. Of mechanisms. Like a fragmented map or puzzle with some of the pieces taken out. Makes inventing all the more challenging. That's what I dream of, yes, mathematical dreams.

How do you want to be seen by others?

I don’t wanna be seen as anything by other people! Why'd I care about how other people think of my unique dietary habits or my collection of moonstones? I want mah inventions to be seen. To be used by other people and to help those who would use it. Ya think I just make gizmos and whatchamacallits for the heck of it?!

Well, somewhat but that’s besides the point. I’m not just some crazy old buffoon who was dropped on a stalagmite! I’m also a certified scientist with a degree at that! I didn't study 10 years at a United Planets Institution only to get excommunicated by the rest of the scientific community! Yeesh, what is it going to take to get some recognition out in these quadrants…..

How do you see yourself?

Me? I see myself as the only sane person round these parts! Why aren’t these people more excited about science and tinkering? It’s what my entire life’s been about! I discover, I explore, I prod things to see how they react, I push the envelope, I fight boredom with brains!

Do you tend to make snap judgements, or stop and think about things?

Eh, I sometimes can be a lil’ hasty when it comes ta safety during experimentation. I’ve had ta deal with da consequences, literally. Just look at this eye.

O’er the years, I’ve learned to take things more slowly but of course, the joy of discovery and scienterrific innovation gets to my head sometimes, clouds mah judgement until I can’t see what’s in front of me.

What haunts you?

Are we alone? Good. This topic requires a great deal of sensitivity.

I see it. They called me insane! Out of the corner of my eye, oh they told old Barney that he was a fool, but one day, I saw it. I did, yes, it broke my Tielvalan crucible, you see. They told me, oh no, Barney, your left eye must be seeing ghosts but it was a ghost! The ghost of the Dread Unicorn itself!

I hear its hooves at night. That damn neighing. It's out for me, I know it......

What is your philosophy on life?

Mah philosophy on life is science! Science is mah philosophy. There ain’t nothing that can’t be understood or deciphered that hasn’t. Always question your surroundings and knowledge will be ripe for yer taking! I’m a seeker of truth and all of you fools are still here, head in the sands like armadillos, sunk in the lies of the newspapers and radios.

The truth's out there. Believe me.

(Note: You do not have to fill out every single bullet point, as long as you have at least one filled out on each topic).
Habits:

• Smoking lichen cigars
• Muttering incessantly under his breathe.
• Blabbering out random scientific trivia.

Hobbies:

• Tinkering
• Inventing
• Sampling flora and fauna from alien environments.
• Experimentation

Fears:

• Losing his inventions
• Misuse of his inventions
• Being alone
• The Dread Unicorn

Likes:

• Inventing
• Scientific Discovery
• Reading academic papers
• Innovation
• Fawning over machinery
• Mushrooms
• Explosions
• Pickled onions

Dislikes:

• Malfunctions
• Uncooperative machinery
• Quiet
• Showers and soap
• Oranges

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General Skills:

• Journeyman Scientist - With over five decades of experience in a large range of academic fields from owlbear yodelling to arithmantic calculus, Barney has an encyclopaediac knowledge of most things in the known galaxy, although some of it may be out of date.
• Tinkerer - Having received a Masters in Dwarven Engineering from the United Planets Institute of Smiths, Barney is a master mechanic and engineer, able to build, repair and modify a wide variety of contraptions. Whether or not these contraptions are up to United Planets code is subject to review.
• Sky Ship Maintainence - Barney knows the ins and outs of the anatomy of sky-ships, from how to repair them, what solar sails are the best in the market to the type of specific hull oil needed to give them the best shine. If you need a Sky Ship repairman, he’s your guy.
• Alchemist - Everyone learns a little bit of alchemy in Artificer College and Barney is no different. Whilst medicinal mushrooms are his forte, he’s got more than enough experience to whip up a quick healing potion or two.
• Skilled at playing the Gnomish panpipes and triangle.
• Able to speak fluent Gnomish, Common and is passable in most dialects of Deep Speech.

Magical/Speciality Skills:

• Artificer - Barney’s most volatile and underdeveloped skill that he learned during an elective. The ability to enchant or infuse magic into objects. Due to Barney’s complete lack of magical ability or aptitude, his ability to artifice ranges from turning bags of holding into void rifts or boots of speed into shoes that curse you to walk forever.
• Possesses darkvision, a key trait among all subterranean races that allows them to see objects 60 feet away from them clearly in low light conditions as if it were day. The acuity of darkvision varies among most species and individuals. Barney's dark

Inventory:

• Lichen Cigars - A box of 24 oven-dried lichen cigars. Smoky yet delectable.
• Enchanted Googles of Augmented Perception - The prescription on these is so high that you could damage your eyes if you look into it for too long. However, Barnabum appears to not notice anything when wearing these goofy little things.
• Blunderbeholder - A mishmash of gears, sprockets, brass and steel molded together into a vague impression of a giant rifle with the eyeball of an Pygmy Beholder strapped to the front of the barrel. Don't ask him how he got the eye in the first place. This weird invention allows Barney to harness the magicks of the infamous creature by firing high powered beams of arcane energy.
• An assortment of various tools - Spanners. Screwdrivers. Clippers. Pipe wrenches. Ball-peen hammers. If you can find it in your local DIY shop's toolbox, it's bound to be in Barney's arsenal.
• Holy Adamantite Wrench - When you wanna whack someone, there is no better tool than this dented 10 inch indestructible wrench. Blessed by an Illithid Clerics of Kog-Sahoth during a tavern run, this wrench is a beacon of light that warms those who do good and damns those who are evil.
• Pipe - An old fashioned smoking pipe.
• A Big Old Sack of Mechanical Junk - A big load of random mechanical items and small little knick knacks that Barney brings around with him.

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Woowee, a story! Yeesh, no one’s ever bothered to ask me fer a story. It all began ten thousands year ago during the birth of the galaxy itself, when the rock accreted to form my plane-

In the interest of time and the fact that Barnabum’s own accounts are riddled with contradictions and factual inconsistencies, we’ll post an abridged version.

Barnabum Yerickford grew up the third son of a Gnomish family on Oerrol. Oerrol was a quiet, pastoral agri-planet that was only famous for its two things: its country sized onion fields and boasting the largest gnome population this side of the western galactic quadrant. At a young age, Barnabum distinguished himself from his other siblings in his precocity when he managed to burn down his family’s lesser green drake coop with a matchstick. His pyromania soon evolved into a fascination with science and engineering when he travelled with his uncle to his planet’s local sky-ship port. Fascinated by the sight of the amazing vessels, Barnabum looked up at the stars every night, into the depths of the void and vowed to himself that he would spend all of his life uncovering the mysteries of the universe.

At the ripe old teen age of 20 gnome years (16 in human years), Oerrol immediately applied. Out of all the choices he had, he chose the backwater United Planet Institute of Smiths over prestigious academic universities such as Gillyhearst or KragFortress because, quote unquote, in his own words, they had a “ good price on their fried pickled onion stew in the cantina”. For the next 50 years, Barnabum became a multi-disciplinary graduate that was renown among the scientific and magical community for his unorthodox and unusual ways of pushing the fields of artificery and smithing, often disappearing into the far reaches of space for months before returning to strike out the mortuary that had been made for him.

His days would be numbered, though. During one of his live experiments involving a prototype generator that could harness the blood of basilisks as a renewable energy source, a catastrophic malfunction occurred causing everyone who was witness in the event to be transformed into abyssal amoebas, with the exception of Barnabum himself. The ethics board of the United Planets Science Academy was all too happy to use the incident as an excuse to sack Barnabum from his professorship and slander his name in the scientific community.

Barnabum would not have any of it. Believing his experiment to have been sabotaged and the United Planets Science Academy to be bureaucratic fascists, he quickly abandoned his laboratory, leaving only a tacky note for the campus police to find and hijacking a sky-ship for him to ride off into the cosmos.

Finding himself without any financial resources to fund his experiments, he signed up for the Consortium in search of adventure, science, money and more science.

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Character Quote: That's absolutely scienteriffic!
Anything Else:

"ERROR 101"

Out of all Departments in the Wal, the Tronic Temple of Electronics are the most paranoid and illusive out of all of them. The Electronics Department hoards its knowledge and tech more greedily than the other Departments, only sharing piece-meals or scraps of it during negotiations or trade agreements. However, most Tronic Tech is completely useless in the hands of anyone else other than a trained Tech Wizard. Anyone who is caught with unsanctioned Tronic tech or dealing in Tronic Tech outside their borders will be hunted down by the most skilled of their Keyboard Warriors.

The Tronic Temple in of itself is a quasi-religious technocratic organisation with multiple guilds dedicated towards the worship of electronic brands and CEOs. The Guardians of Gates, the Tesla-Born and the Knights of Zuckerberg are a few of the famous guilds dedicated towards specific areas of technology. In comparison to Pre-Fall engineers and scientists, the Tronic’s Temple scientific method is focused on mostly impractical inventions that have a high chance of hurting the user the more advanced it is.

Study of Wal-Tech is only reserved for the most skilled and eldest Wizards. Due to the hidden workings of these mysterious technologies and the dangerous effects of tampering with their security mechanisms, they are kept under heavy guard. Open source Wal-Tech blueprints are considered to be the holy grail of technology and a dream for any Tech Wizard to discover. Only 3 blueprints have been discovered so far since the inception of the Tronic Temple: the designs for an experimental microwave, a prototypical hoverboard and a Wal-Incorporated interpretation of the shake weight.



"One Size Fits All"

One would be foolish and right to believe that Clothing is anything else other than a band of stuck-up nobles, their heads up in the rafters, concerned with otherworldly rights whilst the Wal around them is stuck in perpetual conflict. In truth, the Noble Clothing Brands have managed to maintain their power on an illusory facade of diplomatic ties with departments and domination of the most vital trade routes in the Wal, exerting soft power wherever they see fit. Diplomacy is their strength rather than military might. The lands of Clothing are indeed opulent and majestic compared to the more unsavory regions of the Wal. However, each day within Clothing is full of political conspiring and backstabbing by the nobles, with deals sewn in secret and plots weaved in the dark.

Operating on a caste-system, entire families are separated on the quality of material their clothing are designed from. Silk-born and velvet-born is used to designate the upper echelons of nobility, restricted to dynasties allied with the . Nylon and polyester-born are found within the bowels of the Sports Clothing Section, most commonly drafted into the ranks of soldiers. Cotton-borns are considered to be of lesser nobility due to the commonality of their material, most finding their path as merchants or journeymen.



“ Steel bends, paper tears, our honour is forever eternal!”

To say that the Office Supply Department is steeped in tradition is a grave understatement. Considered to be one of the most ancient and powerful Departments in the Wal, every minor Department fears of being conquered by their paper and ink tide. Walled cities of folded paper and mache forts await those who travel within their territory.

The main coveted power that has kept the Stationary Shogunate and their territories strong is the art of Origami. These papersmiths and crafters are so valued that they are considered first class citizens in Stationary settlements. It is said that a true Origami paper blade can cut a Stocker in half. Numerous departments have attempted to replicate the power of Origami, only making inferior versions at best.

However, their refusal to export origami has led to a lack of goods to supply for economic trade within the Stationary Shogunate. Due to this, the Stationary Shogunate are heavily reliant on importation of vital supplies such as medicine, food and water from other Departments such as Gardening and Pets N Animals.

Their reckless overexpansion has led to decreased regulation of law in recently conquered territories and consequently given rise to criminal elements. Glue trafficking is currently the most profitable of these ventures. While the substance is commonly used for construction, it can act as a potent narcotic in small doses.



"For Da Fort!"

Unlike most other Departments, the Dorfen Kingdoms are not decentralized to one region but rather spread out around the Wal in roving settlements known as Forts. Dorfs are so named because of their dwarfism - a result of a mysterious age regression chemical known only as Age B Gone. No one knows the exact nature of its workings but its usage among the denizens of the Toys Department has slowed down the effects of time on their bodies - leaving them adults stuck in the bodies of children.

However, the same chemical responsible for birthing Dorfen society was responsible for its downfall. Centuries of overconsumption of expired and unclean Age B Gone resulted in widespread psychotic breakdowns and physical mutations among a large proportion of the Dorfen population. By the time they realised the repercussions of Age B Gone, most of the population became helplessly addicted towards consuming more of the cursed chemical. Eventually, this resulted in the rise of the Nevergrow, a teeming mass of mutated monstrous immortal children with no conception of morality. As the Nevergrow grew too powerful, the sane Dorfs were forced to abandon their homeland and scatter amongst the Wal, refusing to ever consume Age B Gone ever again.

Forts typically base their society around the veneration of old toys, boardgames and pen and paper roleplaying games, interpreting rulebooks as sacrosanct and figurines as religious idols. No two forts are the same. The Dorfs of Fort Catan are skilled in merchantry, the Dorfs of Fort Lego are the most skilled architects in all of the Wal - second only to the Origami Artists of Stationary - and the Dorfs of Fort Dungeons and Dragons are the best mercenaries and adventurers you can ask for.



“ Our Hunger will unstock the shelves!”

Out of all the Departments in the Wal, the Grocery Tribes are barbarians that live nomadic lives within the heavily Stocker-infested Department of Grocery. Due to their monopoly of the all-too valuable Grocery shelves, they are almost hostile to every Department within the Wal that they encounter, not willing to humor diplomatic ties or trade deals. It’s lucky that the Grocery Tribes remain fractured and in war with one another almost as they are with the entire Wal. If united, the Grocery Tribes could have every Department at their mercy.

Only the Cereai of the Cereal section are the only faction which has diplomatic ties to other Departments not within the grocery aisles. A loose knit monastic group of holy warriors, they adorn themselves in thick cardboard boxes, labelled with the iconography of their patron saint. Each Cereai follows a different ‘path’ depending on who they worship.



“ To Have Fear is to be Prey”

The Pet-Tamers of Pets N Animals hold an invaluable monopoly, virtue of being the only Department in the Wal to command and domesticate mutated household abominations. This fearsome reputation is due to their massive stockpile of mutagenic pet food and supplementations that genetically modify benign species of animals such as hamsters and parakeets into death-dealing monstrosities. Breeders help to maintain and rear their stocks of Pets whilst Rangers and Hunters venture out in the Wal to find new Pets and to eliminate monsters that threaten the sanctity of their settlements.



“ Always Low Prices.”

There is no singular one faction that attracts as much dread, hatred or loathing by all other Departments in the Wal other than the Cult of the Smiling One. Worship of Smiley, their central idol, is banned in most Departments. Secret cults, like infestations, do take root and flourish, taking advantage of the lost, the needy and the weak to remould in their image.

It is hard to recognise a follower at first. Unlike in the early days, where most preferred to wear the uniform of the former employees of Wal-Incorporated, they tend to take a more subtle approach. In battle or when enacting one of their crusades, they don yellow facepaint alongside with their uniform.

The central tenet of the Cult is to maintain the status quo of the Wal at all costs possible. Sabotage of peace treaties, incitement of conflicts between Departments, activating defunct Sec-bots, the Cult of the Smiling One believes that these are necessary acts to maintain the vision that the Great Sam had for the Wal. The tenacity and single-minded religious fervor of their followers is . Hearing the sound of a thousand Smilers cry “ ALWAYS LOW PRICES” haunts the memories of those who have survived their crusades.

Through coincidence or through sheer plain luck, the Cult of the Smiling One has suffered many schisms in their organisation, leading to new splinter groups. The Neo-Smilers and the Frowners are considered to be the two most popular denominations out of the dozens that have formed in these wars. The Neo-Smilers adhere to maintaining the status quo, albeit in a more pacifistic manner rather than the militant methods of their original founders. The Frowners are former Smilers who have become ‘heretical’ in the eyes of the original Cult, believing the Cult of the Smiling One to have strayed away from Sam’s original teachings.

Age B'Gone - A miraculous anti-ageing formula developed by Wal-Incorporated with disturbing side effects. Only stocked in the Toys Department.

Aisler/Shopper - General lingo for any inhabitant or person of the Wal.

Amblouceti - Horrifically obese mutants on highly experimental mobility scooters that stalk the aisles of the Wal, waiting to consume their next victim.

Dorfs - Inhabitants of the Toys Department who managed to retain their sanity and mental acuity during their exposure to Age 'B Gone. Unfortunately, they are physically malformed compared to other shoppers, the most apparent trait being their physiological dwarfism.

Departments - Rather than referring to actual departments, it has become a shorthand term to describe a certain group or culture of people from a specific department.

Lifter - Nickname for hired career mercenaries who have notable experience in the Wal. Named so due to the connotations of danger associated with 'shoplifting'.

Management - A myth perpetuated by fools. There is no management. THEY'RE REAL. DON'T BELIEVE THE LIES.

Nevergrow - Children who has overdosed on Age B'Gone or consumed expired versions of the anti-ageing compound. They developed physiological mutations as well as mental illnesses as a result of this, their adult minds being unable to handle the experience of being trapped in a child's body. Bands of NeverGrow are known to commonly venture out from the Toys Department and attack the settlements of other Departments.

Parking Lots - A common term for the Land Beyond the Wal. It is also used as a euphemism for the afterlife.

Stockers - Robot workers responsible for general maintenance of the Wal, with their primary purpose being to ensure that shelves are restocked. Come in all shapes and sizes depending on the function they are needed for. Elimination of shoplifters is also their secondary priority.

Sec-Bots/Security - Towering automaton juggernauts of death and fury. If you see a Sec-Bot, don't run or escape because you're already dead.

Smilers - Term for any indoctrinated member of or individual religiously associated with the Cult of the Smiling One.

Sporting Goods - Weapon.

Wal-Tech - Highly experimental technology developed by Wal-Incorporated.

NAME: (Self Explanatory)

GENDER: (Self Explanatory)

DEPARTMENT: (Remember that your department is the single biggest consideration for how it affects your character concept. The traits, personality, skills and equipment your character has will be exemplified by what department they originate from)

AISLE: (The sub-faction or specific group that your character associates with in their respective Department.)

AGE: (Fairly self explanatory, though, be realistic. Anything less than 18 years old is pushing it mildly.)

APPEARANCE: (Again, fairly evident by what it means. Describe your character as much as you want to. Obviously, if you have no image to supplant the text description, then, you're gonna need to put a whole lot more effort into fleshing out the visual image of your character here.)

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(Your character's life until the beginning of their first job. How did they become who they were? What were the most important events of their life? Make it as long as you want to be.)

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PERSONAL GOAL: (What are you trying to achieve in the Wal?)

LIKES: (List a few trivial things that your Shopper likes)

DISLIKES: (List a few trivial things that your Shopper dislikes)

REPUTE: (We've been asking a lot about how your character looks at the world, so, let's reverse it around. How does the world view your character? What status does your character have in the world?)

HEEL:(Heels are basically an over-riding character flaw that exemplifies the type of person your character is. It's what other people know your character for being. Examples of Weak Spots can be: Hubris, Selfishness, Naivety, Easily Angered, Inferiority Complex, Napoleon Complexes, Vengeful, Sadistic, Paranoia. A Heel is different from just another normal character flaw because they are an essential part of your character that makes your character who they are. They can never escape from a Weak Spot.)

CODE: (Codes are a deep sentiment, passion or virtue that a character holds dearly to, in spite of the hostile and unrelenting nature of the Wal. It's a trait that someone would have if they lived in a sane world outside the Wal. Soft Spots can be: Valuing freedom, A Hero Complex, Social Justice, Friendship, Honesty, Being Protective of your Family, Protecting the Weak, A Pact that You Abide By, Veganism, Empathy.)

QUIRKS:(Unique traits that your character is known for doing such as collecting ears off their dead enemies, always ordering their drinks with a single cube of ice, whatever strange things that immedietely makes them distinct from everyone else.)

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(What skills does your character have that allowed them to survive this long without dying? One thing that you may be noticing here is that I'm not including any flaws in here. That's right. You wanna know why? Because, I believe having many flaws is just an excuse for an roleplayer to switch between them willy nilly and disregard them. Therefore, there is only one, great singular flaw that will inhibit your character every step of the way. Any of the skills that you have has to be justified by the Department you came from and your character's backstory.)

(SKILL) ► (DESCRIPTION)



(Your character's equipment. Keep it reasonable, though. You only brought what was necessary for what you thought was going to be a simple escort mission.)

(ITEM NAME) ► (DESCRIPTION)

(ITEM NAME) ► (DESCRIPTION)

(ITEM NAME) ► (DESCRIPTION)

Name: Xui Lin "Marcus" Yao

Age: 87

Gender: Male

Affiliation: Former officer of the New Malaccan Authority, the official state sanctioned police force of New Malacca. Currently retired as a Char Kway Teow street hawker in the Canton Canal, albeit with some connections to some unsavory groups.

Appearance: More metal than man, Marcus is a curmudgeonly and ancient octogenarian who looks the part unlike most of his other contemporaries who've used gene editing and telomeric enhancement sessions to stave off the inexorable tide of time. He is distinct in a city where the old are rare and the young are plenty.

From an up close glance, it's easy to see that Marcus is indeed old. Liver spots dot his wrinkled face with sagging cheeks pulling away at his sun-tanned skin. His bloodshot eyes are speckled with dots with jagged grey scleroses and a minor twitch in his left. Most of his lower right jaw and right face has been haphazardly replaced by cybernetic counterparts that look as if they were bolted on to his skin. The rest of his body hasn't been spared either with ceramic plates and circuitry having been welded into him randomly with no pattern. In spite of this, Marcus looks spry as ever and possesses a stout, strong build for a man of his age.

In the public, Marcus favors a simplistic poly-ester singlet, an apron and moth-eaten sandals that give him a grandfatherly look. In his more private affairs, Marcus wears a beanie along with a long-sleeved dark business trench coat and grey slacks.



PERSONAL GOAL: Marcus is primarily concerned with the economic wellbeing, safety and happiness of his family in New Malacca, no matter the cost to himself or others outside his family. He has no illusions about the illicit activities that he participates in and makes no excuses for himself. However, this is at odds with his code of honour and decency which has been tempered and tested over many decades.

LIKES:

- Curry Laksa
- Naps
- Cooking
- Professionalism
- Hanging out with his grandchildren
- Mahjong

DISLIKES:

- Durian
- Zaibatsus, mega-corporations, anything corporate really.
- Arrogance
- Collateral damage
- Unnecessary cruelty
- AR/VR addicts
- Threatening his loved ones

REPUTE: Marcus has two reputations to uphold: one as a kindly, old grandpa who makes an honest living on the Canton Canal and another as a no nonsense cleaner and investigator who will do any job for the right price.

In the public’s eye, Marcus is one of the foundations of the daily lunch rush at the Canton Canal with numerous workers and corpos scrambling to get a plate of Char Kuey Teow from his stall.

In the eye of the criminal underworld and his clients, Zhang San is an efficient and reliable problem fixer that may stick to old habits and traditions but always gets the job done.

HEEL: Marcus harbors extreme love for his grandchildren and will sacrifice anything to provide for them. Family is the most important thing in Marcus’s mind and he will not settle for anything lesser other than the outcome that benefits his family the most. Threatening his immediate family is a good way to convince him to work for you up until he decides to put a bullet in your head.

CODE: Marcus is morally flexible and possesses a sense of understated compassion and honor that’s downright endangered within New Malacca. He’ll help those he feels that are in need. He’ll spare people even though they were witnesses. It’s a miracle that Marcus has managed to survive this long in New Malacca. Perhaps, it’s his way of making amends or to fulfill some twisted sense of redemption. Over the years, his compassion has evolved from a rarity to a nuisance that bites him in the back. The next person that he spares might shoot him in the back after all.

QUIRKS:Marcus is oddly fond of whistling dainty tunes in public to amuse himself. During long stakeout operations or when on the job, Marcus can always be found sipping from a hot thermos full of ginseng tea to pass the time.



Part of the first wave of migrants that came to New Malacca, Xui Lin was part of a Taiwanese family that had come to New Malacca to escape the job insecurity and wage cuts that had befell Taiwan’s economy. Xui Lin worked in his father's syncrete paving business for most of his childhood and fled away from his nest to join the New Malaccan Authority, , a group of PMCs that had been given official jurisdiction to enforce the law in New Malacca. Xui Lin adopted the name of Marcus and began working as a officer, moving his way up to Lieutenant.

Over 30 years of faithful service came to an end one fateful Wednesday. During a patrol, a IED blew up in Marcus’s face when he opened up the back of a suspicious looking jet ski. Waking up in a hospital later, Marcus’s body was completely ravaged with most of his internal organs being perforated not to mention the fact that all but one of his limbs were completely mangled. His health insurance wasn't enough to cover the staggering cost of the implants. Appeals to his healthcare providers failed. Pensions couldn't cover the cost. He was expected to be another body in the pile that had built up New Malacca to its heights.

Therefore, Marcus eventually resorted to criminal means to settle his debts. His talents accrued from twenty years in the New Malaccan Authority served him well in the criminal underworld and thus the trademark of Zhang San was born, an alias for Marcus to use to shield him from any potential blow-back that he might suffer. For the last two decades, Marcus has been accumulating a trust fund for both of his grandchildren to receive when he finally passes away along with staving off the worse of his chronic illnesses caused by the degradation of his cybernetics.



ATTRIBUTES:

Getting Down and Dirty: Marcus is a skilled marksman and knows how to handle himself in a shootout as well as in close quarters brawl. Due to his advanced age, he usually relies on more dirty tricks to gain an upper hand on the more youthful.

A Hunch: Marcus is a skilled investigator, partly thanks to his training within the New Malaccan Authority and the fact that no one expects an old grandpa to be capable of such things like noting down the different shift times of a parking booth.

Do It By The Books: Being part of a law enforcement PMC doesn’t just teach you to shoot things first and ask questions later. Marcus possesses a wide encyclopedic breadth of knowledge about rules, procedures and the inner general workings of modern law enforcement within New Malacca along with a decades worth of knowledge on how to conduct criminal operations.

BODY MODS:

Haoyang 2040 Full-Body Enhancement Package - Haoyang 2040 Full-Body Enhancement Package - More for life support rather than functionality, this ancient suite of cybernetic augmentations, ranging from limb replacements, pacemakers, inbuilt artificial myofibers and respiratory assistors, is what has kept Marcus alive all these years. Marcus’s enhancements allow him to hit faster, move faster and take more physical punishment than a man of his age could without suffering severe damage. A disadvantage of these ageing augs is that Marcus is required to consume a heavy amount of immunosuppressant drugs in order to ensure that his elderly body does not reject his augmentations.

EQUIPMENT:
Gao-Zhong Dragoon HA-12: Sometimes, actions speak louder than words, or in this case, getting your head blown off will. Once the standard issue sidearm of the New Malaccan Authority, the Dragoon has been phased out in lieu of more cheaper models of firearms. The Dragoon is a semi-automatic heavy pistol chambered to fire a custom modified 12mm teflon-coated gyrojet round capable of penetrating through most modern subdermal body armor. Marcus's model comes with an integrated silence to reduce the deafening noise it makes to manageable levels.

Monofilament Garrotte: When you need to strangle a fool stealthily, except no substitute but this 10 inch long boron-carbon hybrid nanotube garotte.

Disposable Burnerphones: The old school method of ensuring that someone doesn't trace you. Marcus has a pack of these to ensure that whatever call he makes will be private. Permanently private.

HongYang Vacuum Thermos: Able to keep any substance at room temperature for more than 24 hours thanks to its patented hydraulic seal vacuum tech coupled with a biometric security system. Marcus mostly uses it to store his favorite ginseng soups.