Welcome to Advent Horizon, the greatest Mercenary group to ever fly the void beyond Earth's skies. As a Catalyst, you have been chosen to pilot one of the most powerful machines mankind has ever created, the Aegisframe. You will recognize no nation as your master, no evil as your equal, every honor your victory, every sky your horizon. Swear your life on this creed, and you will ascend beyond the very stars.
Info:
Current World State:
The current year is 2250.
Earth is divided into three major factions, the Western Federation, Central Union, and Eastern Coalition. Many small nations still cling to their independence, struggling to hold onto enough political power to maintain their neutral stance, let alone their borders. Beyond Earth, the Lunar Contingency holds claim over the moon, and Mars is controlled by the Red Dominion.
Technology on Earth is advanced, but machines like Warframes are still in their early stages of development, typically amounting to incredibly large mechanized infantry. Different factions are experimenting with different types of Warframes, but the most reliable form they take tends to simply be a large humanoid figure with a rifle.
Earth's major source of power is the Orbital Elevators, massive towering structures allowing for direct travel from the surface of the planet into orbit, where massive battlestations protect them.
The Lunar Contingency has mostly blocked all contact with outside factions, only doing rare trade deals with private organizations. They have a very solid 'Stay away from us and we'll stay away from you' stance.
Mars, despite their independence, still heavily relies on trade with Earth. While Earth recognizes them as a sovereign nation for the time being, it is undeniable that Earth holds all the cards in their relationship.
Important Terms:
A Catalyst is a human who suffers from an incredibly rare disease. These individuals have exceptionally advanced cognitive abilities, but the strain it puts on their body often leaves them suffering from health issues after intensive operation. Often suffering from extreme migraines, bleeding from the nose, and on occasion, complete mental breakdowns, these people are often used as expendable muscle on the frontlines, being sent in to deal with situations that need swift conclusions, but the pilots themselves are not valued as they are seen as a liability in the long-term. 'Catalyst' is the Advent Horizon name for these individuals, as they know something about the sickness that the rest of humanity has yet to discover.
Simply put, a Warframe are mecha soldiers of incredible size and power. The term 'Warframe' is broad as it applies to any and all mechs used by humanity, however it is not broad in that it is a term specifically for the 'typical' mechs humanity uses, such as the standard issue or mass produced variants.
Aegisframes are Warframes that are advanced beyond comprehension. Their capabilities go massively beyond what a typical Warframe is capable of. The drawback however, is that no normal human is capable of piloting an Aegisframe, let alone to their full potential. Linking with an Aegisframe means becoming one with them, mind, body, and soul. The only people capable of such a feat, are Catalysts. And the only Aegisframes in known existence are in the hands of Advent Horizon.
Current Warframe Tech:
Warframes are currently simple, giant metal soldiers. Advanced types exist, be it specialized weaponry, roles (Like anti-air or space-combat), or those with better equipment like Command Warframes. Warframe weaponry is purely kinetic.
Current Aegisframe Tech:
Aegisframes are extremely specialized for what their pilot excels at. Aegisframes are equally capable of combat on the ground and in space. However, they are not currently capable of flight in atmosphere, unless an Aegisframe is specifically built for that capability, in which case, that is its specialization, and has drawbacks such as lighter armor and weaponry. Aegisframes are capable of using both kinetic and energy based weaponry.
Factions:
The player faction. Their origin is mostly a mystery, but their extremely advanced technology has lead to speculation that they are a breakaway faction of the Lunar Contingency. This mercenary group only takes sides when they accept a contract from a nation, and once that contract is fulfilled, they are no more an ally of that nation than the enemies that surround them. Advent Horizon exclusively employs Catalysts, and their weapon of choice is the Aegisframe, the most powerful form of Warframe known to humanity.
The Federation, the combined land of what was once the Americas and Greenland, as well as other smaller landmasses, the Western Federation preaches of freedom and progress. They often have a hand in any major events across the globe, be it openly, or more subtly.
The Western Federation holds claim over the first Orbital Elevator that was ever built, the Aegis Spire, built in Central North America. At the top of this elevator, sits Aegis Prime, the super fortress that acts as the Federations fleet headquarters, and the central node to all their space operations.
Known to most as simply 'The Union' was once the EU, along with many other nations that joined over time. Their ideologies are that of a governed nation, law, order, and equality. The Union prides themselves on doing things by the book.
The Union holds claim over the second Orbital Elevator that was ever built, though only preceding the third by a month. Centralized in Europe, the Bastion Tower and Bastion Citadel act as The Union's core of operations in space.
The Coalition consists of most Asian Countries, as well as surrounding nations from the past. Now combined into a single faction, The Coalition values diversity and individual identity. They take pride in their myriad cultures, often allowing different parts of the Coalition to maintain some semblance of autonomy.
The Coalition completed the world's third Orbital Elevator just one month after the Union completed the Bastion Tower, and named it the Zenith Pillar. At the top is the super fortress Celestia.
Very little is known about the Contingency. Humanity achieved widespread colonization of the moon and Mars in 2180, but sometime before the year 2200, the colonies on the moon went dark, only for Earth to receive a claim of sovereignty demanding that Earth and all other factions stay away from the moon. Since then, intelligence on the colonies has been limited, but signs of life are apparent, including fleets of ships patrolling space around the moon. However, recently an incident in which a Federation stealth ship attempted to collect intel on the surface resulted in the immediate detection of the ship, and its complete annihilation. The little data this event produced suggested that The Contingency has somehow rapidly outpaced the rest of humanity in technology.
It is believed that this is where Advent Horizon originates from, and that the Contingency is the source of their advanced technology, most specifically, the Aegisframes.
Shortly after the Lunar Contingency declared independence from Earth, the colonies of Mars got brave and decided to try the same thing. However, the colonies on Mars were still in early stages and were not nearly as developed as the ones on the Moon were. This resulted in the Dominion overstepping their capabilities, leading to them entering into skewed trade deals with Earth. While Earth acknowledges their independence, it's clear Earth has all the power in their relationship, and ultimately The Dominion works for Earth.
Most would agree that The Dominion is a poor, desperate civilization barely hanging onto the control they managed to gain from declaring independence, and are typically mistreated by Earth. It's suggested that the governments of Earth do not even really accept that they are independent, but rather they allow them to believe they are while paying them to harvest the red planet's resources.
As well as these factions, there are many other mercenary factions other than Advent Horizon, and many small nations still hold independence, albeit barely.
Your Home
The Zodiac is an advanced stealth strike carrier. While much of its interior is dedicated to hangars, it was designed with the crew in mind. It is meant to be a home, not just a place to spend time while on the clock. With this in mind, every aspect of its crew quarters were designed for comfort. In place of a Mess Hall, it has a dining room. Instead of bunks, bedrooms have full beds with each crewmember having their own room. The ship has viewing rooms, both in the hangars, and on the exterior. This ship does not give up anything for functionality, least of all ensuring it is a place to live.
Character Application:
Joining this RP requires applying with a character sheet, and said sheet must be accepted. Please do not add or remove anything from the character sheet, and fill it out completely.
Name:
Age:
Crew Status: (Joined, or Not Joined. The start of this RP will be recruiting characters who are 'Not Joined' yet, assuming there are any.)
Origin: (Specifically their planet and nation of origin. Earth, Mars, and Luna are all options. However, it should be kept in mind that if you are from Luna, then it is required that you be an original member of the crew, so your Crew Status must be Joined.)
Affliction Stage: (The 'Affliction', AKA the sickness Catalysts suffer from has three stages. Early, Mid, and Late stages. The longer a Catalyst lives with the Affliction without having it treated, the worse the side effects get, but the stronger the positives get.)
Aspirations: (Your character, should they not yet be a crewmember, will be an enlisted Warframe pilot. So aspirations are, why did your character sign up, what are they looking for in life?)
Aegisframe: (Humanoid mechas only, Gundam/Armored Core type references are the general appearance we are going for here. They can look as advanced as you want, but keep in mind the current state of Aegisframe Technology listed above in the info section.)
I wanted to ask, given the Gundam aesthetic, about the availability of funnels/remote weapons?
More than room, because none of the people who showed interest in the Interest Check even showed up lol, so currently there are no players at all. But yes, things like that would be fine. As someone who always does drone/carrier builds in any game I can it'd be against my nature to disallow them.
Great! What would be the total number of funnels a starter Aegisframe could wield? Are catalyst abilities required to control them (ala Newtypes from the universal century timeline)? If so, does it vary by affliction stage?
Great! What would be the total number of funnels a starter Aegisframe could wield? Are catalyst abilities required to control them (ala Newtypes from the universal century timeline)? If so, does it vary by affliction stage?
I'd say the way technology currently is, someone with a higher affliction stage could definitely control more, because in this case they'd be directly linked to the pilot and they'd essentially be running them all themselves at once. Which, because of that, standard Warframes don't have that sort of thing. They likely have a single drone for scouting that they can swap over to control at most, while an Aegisframe could have from two to four depending on the pilot's Affliction Stage.
A detail I forgot to include in the OOC info is how long each stage typically lasts. Most Catalysts don't last long without help, talking on average a month or two per stage once the effects kick in.
I'm working on a character, but I wanted to ask, what is life like in the Lunar Contingency? Is it like a modern society with stratification between rich and poor or has it gotten worse (feudal) or better (utopic)? Do the people suffer the effects of living in lower gravity or is artificial gravity a thing? If artificial gravity is a thing, do only certain people have access to it or is it fairly universal? Does Advent Horizon have a stated goal or mission? Are people stuck inside biospheres or has the moon been terraformed?
I'm working on a character, but I wanted to ask, what is life like in the Lunar Contingency? Is it like a modern society with stratification between rich and poor or has it gotten worse (feudal) or better (utopic)? Do the people suffer the effects of living in lower gravity or is artificial gravity a thing? If artificial gravity is a thing, do only certain people have access to it or is it fairly universal? Does Advent Horizon have a stated goal or mission? Are people stuck inside biospheres or has the moon been terraformed?
The Lunar Contingency is a sort of society run on science. Living standards are raised or lowered depending on how research and development projects, sort of like Alchemists in Full Metal Alchemist, people are given funding for the ideas they bring forward, or the things they want to study, and on a regular basis need to report their results so that their funding is reevaluated. That being said, it's an oddly united group, where everyone seems to have a common goal of pursuing ever greater technology, so even those who aren't much help to society are looked after and taken care of.
Artificial Gravity is a thing there, and the colonies are pretty utopic with everything being highly advanced, and everything is connected, like all buildings and whatnot have walkways between them. But I'd say, giant biospheres capable of housing small cities.
Advent Horizon on the other hand, has no publicly stated goal, and many think they are just out for money. However, they pick and choose their members very carefully, and only those who are capable of realizing that they specifically take on missions based on a morale code, are able to join.
OK, so a mix between biospheres and interconnected habitat modules. Does the Lunar Contingency also mistreat Catalysts? Since you used FMA as an example, is there room for ethically questionable research?
OK, so a mix between biospheres and interconnected habitat modules. Does the Lunar Contingency also mistreat Catalysts? Since you used FMA as an example, is there room for ethically questionable research?
Not quite. I don't want to spoil too much but basically, the Lunar Contingency is named such because they believe that 'something' is going to happen in the future, and they are preparing for it. This impending event comes in the form of visions shared between Catalysts, however, a Catalyst can only see these visions once they go through the ritual that allows them to halt the advance of the sickness, and control their abilities. So it's a sort of 'everyone is working together for a shared vision of protecting humanity from an impending threat that they don't even fully comprehend'. Nobody knows what that event is, maybe a natural disaster or maybe someone somewhere creates a super weapon. All they know is, Catalysts are the key to humanity's survival, and so Catalysts are much more common in the Contingency, and if anything, they are treated better than anyone else.
They are quite literally the 'contingency' in the event that this world ending event turns out to be reality.
Though ethically questionable research... probably more normal than it should be, but only with volunteers.
So, I'm still workshopping my character. I'm going to assume there are asteroid mining colonies that might just be built into the asteroid itself. Thinking of making my character originally from such an asteroid colony that ended up providing lower yield than the Earth-based corporation expected, so to cut their losses, the corporation just abandoned the colony and all the workers, leaving them stranded in space. The colonists cobbled together an escape vessel and what fuel they had left and launched themselves towards the moon, where they were picked up as refugees.
So, I'm still workshopping my character. I'm going to assume there are asteroid mining colonies that might just be built into the asteroid itself. Thinking of making my character originally from such an asteroid colony that ended up providing lower yield than the Earth-based corporation expected, so to cut their losses, the corporation just abandoned the colony and all the workers, leaving them stranded in space. The colonists cobbled together an escape vessel and what fuel they had left and launched themselves towards the moon, where they were picked up as refugees.
I'd say something like that would reasonably happen, especially if a Catalyst was onboard. Would this have been a recent event, or more further into the past and they already integrated into the colony?
I'd say something like that would reasonably happen, especially if a Catalyst was onboard. Would this have been a recent event, or more further into the past and they already integrated into the colony?
I was thinking a fairly recent event, maybe a few years ago, so definitely still the same generation as the original refugees.
Sorry for the delay, I am working on the details and visuals of the Aegisframe, but being a poor photoshopper, it's taking me longer than anticipated. I will put this character sheet down for now and update with the Aegisframe once I'm done with it.
I also wanted to ask, does the Lunar Contingency cooperate with Advent Horizon?
Name: Julius Sui Age: 23 Crew Status: Joined Origin: Luna
Appearance:
With pale pink eyes, light blue hair, and a svelte frame, Julius has an overall soft and ethereal appearance. Though often smiling, his eyes betray the suffering he has seen in his short life, while holding a firm resolve to right the world's wrongs.
Affliction Stage: Mid
Aspirations:
Having survived a refugee crisis and being picked by the Lunar Contingency to be a test pilot for warframes, Julius wants to use his potential as a pilot to overturn the injustices of the Solar System.
History:
Julius' parents applied to a Western Federation megacorporation for their family to be signed up as 'colonist-employees', where it would be their job to build and live in a small colony with a small city's worth of people on an asteroid in the Asteroid Belt and to mine its resources. However, once the colony had been built and mining began, it became clear that the prior sensor readings as to the mineral-richness of the asteroid had been faulty, resulting in low yield and poor profits for the company. The colony became a liability and was quickly abandoned by the corporation, leaving the colonists stranded in space without supplies. In order to survive, the colonists gathered all their fuel, converted their colony back into the spacecraft that it once was, and set out back towards the Solar System's center. At the time, Mars was on the opposite side of the sun in its orbit, so the Earth was closer, but the colonists refused to return to Earth after their betrayal and headed towards the moon instead. It was a long journey, the ship ran out of fuel and had to drift along its current trajectory. Food supplies dwindled, people starved, many got sick, and Julius became a catalyst. When they finally arrived at the moon, the workers' captain pleaded desperately for asylum. There was initial hostility and reluctance, but the captain let slip that they had sick on board, and after further questioning, finally brought the ship into the spacedock after learning there was a catalyst. What remained of the work crew were provided with temporary refugee lodging and opportunities to apply themselves and get back on their two feet. Julius, however, was treated for his affliction, halting its progress, and enlisted to be a test pilot for the latest line of warframes. However, during his training, Julius was drawn to a top secret hangar, where he formed a connection with the Aegisframe housed within. Realizing this, the Contingency transferred Julius to Advent Horizon.
Aegisframe: Medusa
Role: Defense, area control, melee focus, enemy disable/capture.
Appearance:
Medusa has a 'knightly' appearance, mostly white with dark blue highlights. The shields connected to the shoulders sport connected white circles, Julius' 'Moon Jelly' motif.
Armaments:
1X Nematocyst Grappling Wire (mounted in right arm):
A retractable, medium-ranged weapon, it is capable of puncture damage if the tips attacks straight on, but otherwise uses the clawed end, its considerable length, and disabling electrical interference charge to subdue opponents.
1X Stinger Arm Blaster (mounted on left forearm):
A simple beam weapon with variable intensity.
2X Polyp Shield Bits:
Remote controlled shields capable of protecting allies and harassing enemies from unexpected angles.
1X Bell Shield Projector:
Projects an anti-beam shield that also reduces the speed of incoming, physical projectiles.
And yes, Advent Horizon is a part of whatever grand plan the Contingency has for the future event that will threaten the species. They have been given free reign over how they go about their mission, not even really having been given a specific mission. The Captain instead, has been tasked with doing what she believes is necessary for the survival of the human race. Nobody really knows what makes her ability to lead so unique or why she was trusted with so much freedom, though there are a few rumors. But only the very first crewmembers know the rumors, and have slowly been telling newer crewmembers.
Ok, so my character could have been a test pilot for Aegisframes, and when he proved himself, transferred to Advent Horizon?
Aegisframes are very, very rare, so it's unlikely that he'd have been able to test one. Rather, he'd likely be testing normal Warframes, and at some point, would feel a connection with an Aegisframe (As if drawn to it, without ever having seen one or being near one). And when those in charge found out he had somehow formed a bond with an Aegisframe, he would have pretty much immediately been put into training on it.
Sort of a... The Wand Chooses the Wizard, only in this case, it's giant robots.
I'd say that's the only thing that should be changed on the sheet is that he'd be a test pilot for Warframes in general, but only be allowed even near an Aegisframe, or even allowed to know their existence, once he felt the call of one.
OK, I have updated Julius' bio to reflect that he was not an Aegisframe test pilot but was drawn to one and formed a connection. I have also finished designing his Aegisframe.
OK, I have updated Julius' bio to reflect that he was not an Aegisframe test pilot but was drawn to one and formed a connection. I have also finished designing his Aegisframe.
Looks good to me.
One detail I left out (Seems to be a theme with me...) is that Catalysts once treated, start to see visions of the coming end of the world. However, it's almost impossible to actually tell what is going on in these visions, which come in the form of nightmares. All they see is destruction and death, which is how the Contingency knows something is going to happen. At least that is their interpretation.
As of now of course, it's still just the two of us.
