[OOC] When the Sky Broke... [OPEN WORLD SUPERHUMAN ROLEPLAY] [IC NOW OPEN, APPLICATIONS STILL OPEN]

[Naril]

Oooookay. *cracks her knuckles*

This isn't in a particular order, really.

- Can you be more specific about where the Rifts appeared or, at least, how they were named? The Britain rift is affecting a comparatively small landmass, as compared to Russia (a nation that spans so many time zones that it can be 1:00 in the afternoon in one part and midnight in another) or Africa (a continent that has 20% of the total landmass on Earth). Were people disproportionately affected in Kinshasa or St. Petersburg? Were there times the Rift opened over the savannah or taiga and nothing happened? For that matter, I have the same question about Brazil - the nation is vast, and only irregularly densely populated. Did the hypothetical descendents of Percy Fawcett find their way out of the jungle? Are there super-powered tribespeople or Siberian hermits who were never discovered and never heard Daniel Viela's call to arms?

- What is the timeline of the Rift War? Did this happen in weeks? Years? Getting the leaders of technologically advanced nations (not to mention the leadership of the UN and EU) in the same room or on the same conference call is something that could barely be accomplished in a month, even in the face of an existential threat. Moving troops and materiel is likewise a vast and terrible engine that begins slowly.

- As a corrolary, organizing a meaningful fight against individuals who can move trillions of tons of water and topple a nation in less than a fortnight is something that really requires either a period of comparative calm (for example, a period - brief or protracted - where there is a reduced amount of activity outside of Britain's borders) or the immediate and direct threat of nuclear retaliation, and possibly demonstrating that retaliation. The description of these people is "unstoppable." They destroyed a national government in less time than it takes for your ISP to come and install a modem; a nation with a functional and very advanced army, navy, and air force, and access to hydrogen bombs. You've set up a situation where the individuals in question are to one degree or another irrational (flooding a nation is not the action of someone in their right mind, unless mass destruction of one sort or another had already happened) and are basically gods. Sharp words aren't going to cut it.

- As a second corrolary my character's background is going to more or less directly address this, but if you have a timeline in mind I'd like to hear it. :3

- Do you have a plan for how quickly The Order advanced technology in order to fight these new meta-humans, and where that advancement came from? Again, given the powers established within the story, the situation is one where basically there are N people who can functionally render combined arms utterly ineffective. Even with all the armies of the world, if all of these superhumans are in one place, and there's more than one with "move the oceans" level strength, there will virtually by necessity need to be more advanced weapons than planes and ships and tanks. This is something else my character's background goes into, but I'm really writing her as a weird edge case.

- With all of that said, how is the Superhuman Exile in Britain anything but a post-apocalyptic Hellscape? The nation has been flooded, and with salt water, which means virtually all buried infrastructure has been destroyed. The nation saw an intense, year-long armed conflict with superpowers and the entire world's worth of weapons and materiel, which probably means almost all above-ground structures and infrastructure have been damaged or destroyed. Did The Order agree to do nation-building after the conflict? Why would they?

- How does The Order plan to both detect, and execute, someone leaving the British Isles? Are there nuclear weapons on standby at all times? Do they have some handy weapon capable of killing a demigod?

- Furthermore, in the absence of the active existential threat of superpowered individuals, how does The Order survive as an organized body? The European Union can't even agree on what kind of money to use, and the Kremlin and the White House are addicted to spying on one another and fomenting conflict. We can't even keep NASA's priority on a single project for a decade within the United States.

- If the above is true, how would characters within the Exile Zone feel anything other than intense dislike, likely blossoming into hatred, for The Order, and humanity in general? They are treated like caged, dangerous animals, exiled to a blasted hellscape with no running water, electricity, or even sewers, and unless someone has the superpower of "Generate Cake," are likely scraping a life of disease and famine from land blighted by a year's worth of conflict. They are surrounded on all sides by people who will kill them if they attempt to leave. Their kind were captured, tortured, and experimented upon by the people who now hold guns to their heads. Is that still happening? I can hardly see how it couldn't be.

- Rifter society in the Exile won't be an organic and complete society full of people to fill various niches. How many doctors are there? What about people who know how to splice a fiber optic cable? Would the rest of the world even allow an Internet connection into the Exile? How many Rifters know how to restore Rennaissance architecture or recreate 17th century stained glass? Were there any nuclear engineers or city planners? Were there Rifter versions of Joseph Bazalgette and Isambard Kingdom Brunel? What about nurses or garbagemen or bankers or diplomats? Farmers? Pharmacists? Art historians, psychologists, leatherworkers, conservationists, conservators, or musicians? What about mapmakers or pilots or anything else? How does this affect the society of Rifters in the Exile?

I probably will have a few more, but we'll start here.

[Puffhead]

@Naril Whoo! Mad respect for being so thorough! I'm currently at work, but the moment I have a chance I'll answer all these! Until then, I hope you can wait!

[Naril]

@Puffhead - I can wait, sure. :3

[A Lowly Wretch]

They are treated like caged, dangerous animals, exiled to a blasted hellscape with no running water, electricity, or even sewers, and unless someone has the superpower of "Generate Cake," are likely scraping a life of disease and famine from land blighted by a year's worth of conflict.

@Naril

Funny you should mention that. While my character cannot generate cakes his power will allow him to turn fetid water into pristine drinkable water and other things including but not limited to: Alcohol, Soda, Gasoline, Oil, Morphine, Bleach, industrial grade acid and much more.

As such I'm writing him up to be a sort of "Trade Prince", running his own organization out of the tradezone to give people what they need for sweet sweet money and other goods which he sells back to those who need it.

[Puffhead]

@Naril

okay finally got off work and now I have time to reply! So I'll start off by saying: I definitely do not have an answer to all of these so I'm not going to pretend like I'm some genius who has this all figured out. This universe is a work in progress and I definitely thank you for helping flesh it out! Now with that being said, I certainly do have SOME answers so here we go!

1. I wasn't specific about it in the original post because I didn't want to flood the page with an absurd amount of information however I actually have put thought into this! The Rifts are actually not absurdly large. In fact, they only stretch somewhere around 20 or 30 miles across the sky, meaning they're really only large enough to cover some portions of a few cities at most. They seem to centralize around one particular city, and effect others which happen to be close by. So as to your questions about how they were named, truthfully they were named by ignorant Americans who only knew things as simple as "Oh this one opened somewhere over Russia, so it a Russian Rift." And because America was so important in creating a system for researching these Rifts, the name stuck for that part of the world. Every country has their own names for them. As for Brazil, I actually have gone and decided exactly what cities the Rifts opened over, so yes it did open above a civilized area, but I chose not to put that information in. I'd rather (for the sake of the roleplay) let people have a bit of freedom as to where their character comes from in these countries as opposed to trapping them in one city.

2. The Rift war, to be exact, lasted 1 year 6 months and 17 days. And yes, the world created a massive feat by finally forming one government in such a short and impossible amount of time, but when faced with extinction people tend to perform miracles. I'll admit it seems far fetched but... well. Maybe that's a plot point. (STOP SPOILING THINGS YOU FOOL SHHHHHHH)(just kidding I love you)

3. Very good and valid points here. I agree, the exact creation of a ceasefire in such a way is a massive and very incredible task however I'll lay out these points:

-Although not explicitly stated (I'll change this in the front page) a Rifter who can do something as incredible as soak an entire nation is, even among Rifters, impossibly powerful. Maybe one, possibly two on that level truly exist.

-The person who flooded Britain may or may not have done it unintentionally. I don't ever plan on including them but who knows? Could happen.

-When the ceasefire occurred, it was certainly due to nuclear deterrent. A threat was made, and weapons were armed at the destruction of Britain however the only other Rifter who was as powerful as the one who flooded Britain (Daniel Viela) chose to initiate a peace talk rather then letting it come to this. He never wanted to flood Britain, and found that the amount of death had become unacceptable.

That being said, that's important information I never mentioned (and some of it I just came up with) so thank you for pointing it out! I'll be sure to add it. Also I'm so excited to see what you have in mind for your character.

4. I kinda touched on this already but I'll elaborate. The Order did have some Rifters on their side, and those Rifters indeed helped fight against the others. Also, as I said before, the ability to move oceans and such is a MASSIVE display of power (and yet again, I'll change that on the main page!). However yes the Order did find ways of suddenly fighting back, even without their new Rifter companions. That part is directly tied to plot though so again... Shhhhhh....

5. @A Lowly Wretch actually somewhat answered your question here! Britain was without a doubt a desolate and absolutely destroyed wasteland, entirely unlivable. However that wasn't as much of an issue as one might assume. Rifters are incredibly gifted people, who can defy the laws of physics and nature. Rebuilding wasn't a matter of IF they could do it, but WHEN. When you have people who can cause plants to grow, move the earth, call upon rain, and lift impossible objects it's amazing what one could do. They're okay with living in Britain because they've molded it into their own home.

6. What the Order has is something that I'm actually very excited about and plan on certainly making a character out of, I just haven't finished his CS yet but this is something that I've for certain planned on implementing. They have a Titan, one of the last Titans mind you, who've they've proven they can control through unknown means. The Rifters call him the Chimera, and he's the only reason the Rifters didn't win the war purely through the use of the Titans. The Chimera is a brutal killing machine that hunts Rifters and tears them to shreds if he's ever given the chance, even other Titans. In fact everytime he's hunted one of his brethren down, he immeditaley commits a brutal act of cannibalism and in turn gains traits from the Hybrids which he eats (hence the name Chimera). The Order uses him to guard the coast, and he's the first line of defense. Every Rifter who's tried leaving is immediately hunted down by him, no matter where they go somehow he always seems to get there first. Sure, some have managed to escape, but only one or two that have been forced to remain in hiding for the rest of their lives, in fear of the Chimera catching onto their scent. Most of the Rifters are happy with the life they're creating... The rest don't want to be turned into food for a ferocious killing machine.

7. The Order maintains itself through a necessity. Yes, the Rifters are contained, but the Rifts themselves continue their annual cycle of opening up above a small town in Russia, a small city in Brazil, a tiny village in Africa, and over what used to be the city of Birmingham in Britain. It's certainly been destabilizing over the years but the world struggles to maintain it for the simple reason that they still do not understand the Rifts. If the Rifts were to ever grant powers again, as they did when they first opened, they would have to understand it or face extinction.

8. There is certainly a group that does feel this way. Yes, the Rifters are making a life for themselves that the majority are finding to be suitable and even pleasant, but some simply resent the fact that they're treated like loose cannons ready to blow at a moments notice. Most of these people are the ones who go into the Wastelands, and what they do there is mostly unknown. Secretly however, they do have plans, and they're working on something... What though? Hmmmmm..... (Notice I'm leaving a lot of open plot threads here, and every time I do this I don't necessarily have a plan for it! Pull on strings, see what unravels... I'm encouraging you guys here! This is opportunity for you guys to progress the story a way you want!)

9. And that question I can't answer! That's entirely up to those who want to make characters! I will say that the amount of Rifters skills are diverse, and so are their super human abilities. Between their various previous lives, and their newfound abilities, they've created an entirely unique way of life. Every settlement is different, every village and section relies on different Rifters and different skills of their inhabitants. The economy hasn't fully shaped itself, but they're certainly working on it. To the Rifters, this is a chance to live with what they've become, and for a lot of them that's enough! But for every silver lining, there's a shadow lurking behind it... Not everyone is happy. That's where the people who make the characters and roleplay come in!

OOOOOoooookay I hoped that helped clear some things up! It definitely helped me think some things through and hyped me up for this roleplay so thank you for being so amazing! I'll gladly answer any more questions you have, but now I'm just excited to see what all you guys come up with. Until then I should probably go to sleep... I have work again in the morning. *sigh*. Well anyways. Sweet dreams everyone!

[A Lowly Wretch]

@Puffhead - A lot of great answers if I do say. With the mention of Rifters rebuilding using their powers I notice something particular about this whole equation.

Groups from certain rifts are more likely to benefit from the rebuilding of Britain than others.

If they form groups and gangs born from such divisions then odds are the power structure is likely going to fall into castes leaving two of the groups in a lower bracket than the other two.

Specifically from what I estimate those who benefit the most from this are as follows in an order of most to least:

British, Russian, African, Brazilian.

I base this estimate largely on the nature of their powers in regards to benefiting their reconstruction of society. As the British have the most power over the basic facets of the land and nature their powers are likely to dominate the supply of food and possibly give them a good foot in the door as far as reconstruction is concerned. Basically all other three rifts will dominate the field of reconstruction as the powers of earth control, gravity manipulation and telekinesis are all likely superior to a large gorilla in clearing debris from a construction site.

As far as the whole division based on rift powers I find it all a little strange. To me it would seem more likely for people like so to divide themselves into factions based on ideologies or the figure of power that they choose to follow.

It ain't my place to say what does and doesn't make sense in this universe though. I'll try and have my character profit off it all regardless of why things are the way they are.

In any case, do sleep well. I know tomorrow will be a busy day for me as well. I'll try to have my character sheet in by then. Until then a fair night's rest to thee.

[Enigmatik]

Right, so my idea has become a bit more formed. My character is going to be a British born, Russian researcher, who was one of the first people to head to the Russian rift. He gained gravity control (both making it dramatically weaker and dramatically stronger) thanks to this. He can also dream in 'flashforwards,' where he sees snippets of moments that may be to come, or see events that he had no knowledge of in the past.

[Puffhead]

Right, so my idea has become a bit more formed. My character is going to be a British born, Russian researcher, who was one of the first people to head to the Russian rift. He gained gravity control (both making it dramatically weaker and dramatically stronger) thanks to this. He can also dream in 'flashforwards,' where he sees snippets of moments that may be to come, or see events that he had no knowledge of in the past.

@Irredeemable

Oh that sounds interesting! I quite like that. I think if you go ahead and write up a CS, those powers should be fine!

[Naril]

Heya! Thanks for replying! I, er, have more questions now, though.

- The coastline of Britain is almost 20,000 miles long. That rather makes me wonder how one being can be anything other than a retaliatory action, rather than a line of defense. Is the Chimera responsible for monitoring the coast? What power allows it to do that, or did The Order build some kind of sensing network? What if someone teleports away, or has gills and swims away?

- Regardless of the spectacular ability of the Rifters to alter their environment, there are very basic things that I'm not seeing. Being able to transmute sundered mud into asphalt and buildings is wonderful, of course. However, building a city is extraordinarily hard. Doctor Manhattan thought himself a gorgeous palace of glass on the surface of Mars, but when he brought his girlfriend there she immediately started to choke on the thin Martian atmosphere. While the palace was undoubtably a marvel, for all his vast intelligence, Manhattan had not considered that someone who was not not him would need air to breathe. While that's also for narrative weight (demonstrating that Manhattan was fundamnetally losing connection to humanity) it parallels nicely here - Manhattan's palace also had no chairs, no beds, no toilets. Is having a Fluid-Transmutation Rifter really preferable to a wastewater treatment plant? How long is that person (or people) going to want to be on the rota for making sure people don't get cholera? Having the ability to do extraordinary things is very cool, but harnessing that with plans, knowledge of how much weight a wall can take, how to build a pump, or what the minimum head pressure is to provide enough water for a shower is the absolutely necessary other half of the equation.

Being able to turn mud into steel and granite is wonderful, but without the engineering design to build a skyscraper, the architecture craft to make it beautiful, knowledge of electrical code to keep the lights on (not to mention the intricate understanding of how to build light bulbs), interior design to make sure people want to live there, and the thousand other disciplines that go into that one building but the galaxy of infrastructure to keep it livable, all you have is a bunch of people failing to stack one block of stone on top of another one. And even if there's a Rifter who's managed to keep the sum of all human knowledge in their head and does know how to do all of these things, what happens when they die? Furthermore, since the enclaves are separated, how is that knowledge transferred? Does each enclave have one of these people?

I guess the real question is this: Is the presupposition of this setting one where there are enough Rifters who know how to completely rebuild nations in each of the Rifter Enclaves? Are the Enclaves each supposed to be third-world countries and refugee camps? If you tell me "they're basically cities and it's fine get over it," I can probably manage that.

Right now, though, I admit I'm having a very hard time seeing past a lot of ugliness. "Making the best of things" when you don't have running water, and you did less than a decade ago, and you are being denied the expertise to build out running water (because of The Order's blockade and shoot-to-kill/release the murderous cannibal hunter-killer attitude at the border), is going to make for a situation that starts ugly and becomes uglier. I feel like you're positing a world where there weren't a lot of Rifters in the first place, who were given powers functionally at random and who are now cut off from the outside world. The land they have been "given" is a war-torn wasteland. Virtually all Rifters are going to have PTSD from a year-long war in which many of them seem to have been necessarily involved, and they are now separated into different enclaves, which are in turn under the threat of roving gangs and some of which border a nation-state where you are murdered and dismembered for straying over the border. And all of that is on top of the constant threat of The Order making a unilateral decision that the Rifters aren't worth the trouble and just turning the Chimera loose, nuking the place, or doing whatever their apparently-superior force is capable of. As written this is not a compromise or detente, it is the systematic oppression and isolation of one group by another, under the threat of unilateral, immediate, horrific and lethal action without trial or appeal. People aren't generally well-designed to sit under that kind of Sword of Damocles and be "happy." This is less Harry Potter-style "one world isolated from another" and more "dystopian extension of fundamental social inequality," and if that's the intention I feel like you might have to own that a bit more.

Again, if the fundamental baseline here is that the Rifters have made a basically-modern, basically-functional society because of staggering luck in having the right people (several copies of them really) who weren't killed in the war or left psychologically broken, fine. I personally find that extremely unlikely, but I'll go with it if that's the basic idea here. The reason I'm jumping up and down on this is that timeline as presented is such that these aren't people who were born into the Rifter's enclaves and haven't known anything else. The characters are going to be people who remember having Facebook and iPhones and convenience stores and therapists and gyms and trains and air travel and a nice view over the lake and the chip shop down the lane they liked and the cute barista who they never got up the courage to ask on a date. If these things have all been stripped away, that has a cost. If they have to live in a functional but basically feudal society (which it kind of sounds like - no electricity, no way to make clean water that isn't traders or having a lucky Rifter around, etc.) that also has a toll. If they are being denied the ability to live that modern life because of The Order's blockade (by implicit or explicit withholding of important knowledge or access to information - by refusing to allow an Internet connection and preventing the import of books and technical manuals, for example), that's the kind of thing that creates nothing-to-lose rebellions, and I'd really like to know what the assumption is here.

- What happened to the Rifters who worked with The Order in the war? Were they thrown into the gulag with everyone else, or are they given special dispensation to live among normal people? Are they monitored 24/7 with the threat of The Chimera if they step out of line? Do they have any particular legal protections in case, say, a lynch mob forms and they have to use their powers to prevent themselves from being murdered? Are they specifically restricted from doing so and live under the tacit threat of The Order's citizens taking out their anger for a war that cost millions(?) of lives on their Neighborhood Mutant?

I'll absolutely have more, but I've got to get to work myself.

[Puffhead]

@Naril

You know, you are a very smart person who is analyzing this much more than I thought anyone would. Not complaining about that, just surprised! Anyways... let me see what I can do here. BUT! For the sake of keeping everything un-cluttered, can I ask we keep these massive chunks of text in hiders for now? I just feel like anyone just looking at this forum would be scared off by that much stuff. So um... my response is in the hider below!

Hider

okay! Let me see just what all I can answer while on my break. (Still at work mind you)

So yes! You've raised some entirely reasonable points about the world, although I think I've failed on my job of worldbuilding here. I, quite honestly, didn't paint a clear picture. A lot of your argument seems to be focused on the Rifters living a modern life which is certainly not the case. They don't have electricity (or at least most of them don't), they don't have running water unless you count the Britain rifters, who use those who can manipulate water, and they're houses are not modern day top of the line abodes. They're making due with what they have certainly, and their living quarters aren't terrible! But they're not amazing either. The important thing to remember is that this is set 8 years after the War. They've had 8 years to build, discover, and learn. Now every province is not made equal and they do certainly have disputes over this as the Britain Rift is by far the most well off (as@A Lowly Wretch pointed out! But they have had time to discover how to handle these things. But that doesn't answer your main question: how are they happy about it all? Well honestly they're not really that happy, they're merely content. Life isn't terrible, and to them it seems that with the progress they've made there is a possibility of truly making a life for themselves that doesn't require another war. I think your discussion about them having issues with no running water or modern conviences is entirely valid and will certainly be without a doubt a struggle. However those are things I wish to explore in the roleplay! I 100% admit I don't know exactly how that plays out, but I feel like the best part of roleplaying is exploring the characters minds. If I tell you 'yes your character is happy' or 'no your character hates it' then that just sucks the life out of everything. I hope that makes sense!

As for the chimera, it will be explored but the short response is simply that a lot is unknown about him. To a lot of the Rifters he seems to be a supernatural entity that can't be run from. You can swim, fly, dig, teleport... somehow he always finds you. I realize that does sound OP but don't worry I'm not going to use him as an EX-machina for everything. He is a tangible being and he has a real weakness.

As for the Rifters within the Order, they were given a choice. They could remain under the protection of the Order in a sort of 'witness protection' program that would certainly monitor them 24/7, or they could go with the other Rifters. Naturally many opted to stay with the Order for the sake of not having to live with a bunch of people who started a war.

I hope that answered more of your questions? Honestly I'm loving them though. Makes it very effective to figure out the world as a whole. I think a lot of your points are valid, but also somewhat misinformed thanks to my lack of explanation on the front page. Again, I truly didn't expect anyone to think this in depth about it. *sheepish laighter*

[Naril]

Okay so...

Again, thanks for answering.

But here's the thing: you're saying these characters have gone from a society in which they had a lot (TV, cars, roads, showers whenever they wanted, inalienable rights) to a society in which they have virtually none of those things. They might be "making it for themselves," but now the world is one where they're at the level of feudal, lord-and-nation-state society.

The concept of fundamental rights almost cannot exist when there are power disparities like the ones here. For example, everyone needs water. There are no (or almost no) clean, naturally-occurring sources of fresh water, because the water table has been flooded with salt water, is inaccessible due collapsed wells, or whatever. Some person has the water, because they can turn sewage into potable water. Everyone needs the water. If the person with the water decides that the price of the water is...something unpleasant and autonomy-abrogating, you have to do that or you die because you don't have water. You can't get water from the outside world, because they'll kill you for asking. Considering that this world already presupposes violent gangs and a psychotically violent (or at least profoundly xenophobic and violent) entire nation, and that clean water is a valuable trade good, this is a recipe for Mad Max more than anything else. Please don't make me extrapolate out exactly how terrible being certain things are going to be here.

The reason I talk about living a modern life is because that's where these people came from, and they are aware, at every second, that they are being kept from it by threat of horrific death. Los Angeles didn't cease to exist, Gothenburg is a few hundred miles away. There's shitty daytime TV and Pepsi and podcasts and they can't have any of it. They aren't an enclave of equivalency being kept from another equivalent nation to keep both sides safe, they are being oppressed and isolated, affected by a treaty that stripped them of their right to travel, their right to communication, and their right to live without the constant threat of destruction from a force so hostile that their default position is state-sponsored murder.

That has to be part of the default narrative understanding. Writing to be content under that weight is fine, but carries the risk of introducing a profound initial narrative place of passivity. This isn't the gentle slide of one societal state to another, from villages to city-states to monarchs to democracies (or whatever), where change happens gradually and people are born into a societal assumption. This is the abrupt and complete alteration of social norms (especially for anyone living in reasonably-modern-Western-cultures). Contentment with that situation, rather than "ground-down resignation" is something that, to me, suggests "widespread mental alteration," possibly by something added to the drinking water. :P

I'm still working on a character, but she's going to be fairly adversarial to the status quo - at least partly because I, personally, would hate this situation with nearly every fiber of my being and would do if not anything, at least quite a lot to tear it down.

Finally, thanks, but I don't...like, I'm reasonably bright, but I just ask questions. :3

[Puffhead]

@Naril

Hider

I don't have a rebuttal to this one, actually! You're right! That's exactly how things would be in certain sections of the land, and those who have clean drinking water would either be unaware, or apethetic to those who don't have that water. Either that, or they would be like your character and determined to change things. And this is where I get to say the exciting part: that's what I want! This is a hypothetical world, and it seems bound to have problems. The roleplay is going to be based in those problems! So yes. You're 100% right on this one. There are people who see things like that, and there's a large amount of people who would rather try and make things work then fight a war. It's not necessarily post-apocalyptic, but it's certainly not a perfect place. And honestly that's how I want it: so we can have characters who want to change things, ones who believe in the Rifters ability to make a home... all of it.

So in short, you're right! And I don't think it changes much in the roleplay other then my need to actually make it clear in the front page that this place is less then perfect. So more elaboration on my part, truly.

[A Lowly Wretch]

@Naril@Puffhead

As I see it the whole setting strikes me as a sort of Fallout: New Vegas with superpowers kind of setup. Everything's cobbled together from ruin and I suspect as far as the main town is concerned the main rule is largely divided by individuals with man-power and a degree of importance to the reconstruction of the main city.

As it's an open ended rp I suspect the roles of power in ruling the main habitable territories are left up for grabs however if Puffhead has any input on the matter it'd be interesting to hear.

For the meanwhile I'll see to getting my character finished and submitted before continuing to brainstorm up the hierarchy and structure of society.

Edit: @Naril - Funny you should mention that detail regarding the control and distribution of water...

[Enigmatik]

MC will almost certainly be important contruction wise. No need for cranes when he can precisely manipulate the gravity in order to lift any object.

[Puffhead]

@Naril@Puffhead

As I see it the whole setting strikes me as a sort of Fallout: New Vegas with superpowers kind of setup. Everything's cobbled together from ruin and I suspect as far as the main town is concerned the main rule is largely divided by individuals with man-power and a degree of importance to the reconstruction of the main city.

As it's an open ended rp I suspect the roles of power in ruling the main habitable territories are left up for grabs however if Puffhead has any input on the matter it'd be interesting to hear.

For the meanwhile I'll see to getting my character finished and submitted before continuing to brainstorm up the hierarchy and structure of society.

Edit: @Naril - Funny you should mention that detail regarding the control and distribution of water...

@A Lowly Wretch

Oh for sure. I fully hope people come to fill those roles although, of course, I would have to make sure they'll be responsible with them. As far as Naril is concerned I would honestly feel comfortable if they wanted one of those spots, as they've more then proven they understand how this stuff works. I'm super excited to see both theirs, and your characters!

MC will almost certainly be important contruction wise. No need for cranes when he can precisely manipulate the gravity in order to lift any object.

@Irredeemable

See that's the kind of stuff I'm excited about. Characters who use their abilities in unconventional ways other then fighting. I'm super excited to see all of your CS's!

Also:

Finally, thanks, but I don't...like, I'm reasonably bright, but I just ask questions. :3

@Naril

To me, a bright person is someone who asks questions!

[Puffhead]

Okay all! I've updated both the map (to make it more logical with both what areas would have remained flooded, and how the borders work) and I've added descriptions for each of the territories which should add some clarity as well as put to rest some of the questions Naril brought up. Let me know if everything looks okay for you guys, and I eagerly await your CS's!

[A Lowly Wretch]

At last! I put forth my Character Sheet, only mildly over my estimated time of completion.

Walter Wilhelm

Character Name: Walter Wilhelm.

Basic Traits


Quote: "What do you think this is? Science?"


Height: 5'0".


Age: 18.

Appearance:

Kind of a standard looking young fellow. He's got medium length brown hair, the back of it reaching down to the base of his neck and the front hanging just a little bit past the eyes, swept aside over the ears so as to not be a nuisance to him. His eyes are a dark brown and he's got a slightly pointed face. While he's not conventionally handsome some might say he's okay to look at. He's not recieved greater praise for his looks than that, at least not from anyone sober.

Otherwise he's kind of a thin white kid. He's kind of lanky and fairly pale too. He usually chooses to wear a plain green shirt and blue jeans, mainly for comfort. On the job he has his finely tailored suits all slick, black and professional. He can almost always be seen with a drink of some sort in his hands.

Ethnicity: American.

Background

History:

His was a fancy life. Born to the casino mogul Donovan Wilhelm he lived a life of travel and riches. From an early age Don took Walter and his wife everywhere he went. Walter himself got to sit in the lap of luxury, to and fro high-end hotels all over the world. He had not a care in the world as everything was handed his way.

It all changed when they were over in Moscow since Don was visiting to attend the opening of his new casino there. The rift opened and from there everything changed.


Rift History:

For the longest while Walter had seen no obvious signs of change. The light was fairly pretty but nothing unfortunate was happening so he had no reason to change his lifestyle. His parents however underwent their discoveries much sooner than he did. In truth he was somewhat disappointed with them having powers instead of him. It was both boring and predictable that they would get all the cool stuff first and he'd see it only after they did.

It happened when he was drinking a bottle of sugar cane soda. As he drank he recalled a flavour he had found interesting some time back. As the thought crossed his mind the flavour of the soda he was drinking suddenly shifted, becoming the flavour he was just dwelling upon. Marvelous! He swiftly discovered he could change the soda into any number of fluids with little more than simply a thought. Upon experimentation he soon learned he could change vast quantities of liquids into other liquids. Upon turning a river into wine his mind glowed with the potential for his new gift.


War History:

War is never a pretty thing. It bothered Walter to no end that these spoil-sports were popping the lid off the big secret, ruining what potential abuses he could of run with if he and his parents weren't forced to go into hiding.

For several long years they hid. Given their resources they had a fairly strong capacity for keeping themselves off the radar. It was not to remain however as they were eventually found through The Order's use of rifters. Given the choice of working for them or being used as lab experiments his family picked the former choice. All but Walter used their powers to aid The Order in their fight against the rifter army. Walter managed to con his way out of participating, convincing them that the only thing he could do is change water into wine. A neat trick but useless for battle.

Before too long the end to the war came and the deal was struck. At that point the Wilhelm family were offered another choice: Go to Britain and remain in isolation or stay and live in The Order under constant monitor. His parents chose to remain in The Order so they could keep a hold of all their money and possessions. Walter however was fed up with being kept prisoner by The Order. He saw staying as no better than remaining a prisoner, deprived of his freedom and forced to live a life forever as a normal person in this oppressive new world. This was an opportunity to pioneer a new future for himself, a future with him at the top.

Not to mention he was bored to tears by the very thought of having to sit and wait, counting the very breaths of his father until they stopped and he could finally collect his fortune. No, waiting simply wouldn't do. The entrepreneurial spirit burned brightly within him and chose to be sent off to Britain, much against the protests of his mother and father. Despite their insistance however he was old enough to make the decision for himself and The Order cared little for what became of one family of rifters in the grand scheme of things.

In the end Walter wound up seperated from his parents, alone in a big washed out mess of a landscape. Through his cleverness and his smarts however he made himself indispensable to the rifters, making useful friends along the way. Come current day and now he's at the top of his own trade & distribution company, a veritable Trade Prince as he's now referred to as.

Alliance: Walter is his own alliance now. Other people ally themselves to him, not the other way around. If he must he can ally his company with other factions but there hasn't been a need... Yet.

Abilities


Rift: Russian Rift.


Abilities:

He can change any fluid that he is in direct line of sight of into any liquid which he had personally seen up close with little else but a thought.
He cannot change liquids he cannot see such as a person's blood so long as it's trapped beneath the skin or the tap water inside a faucet for a couple examples.
He cannot change any other state of matter except liquids. If he were to try and transmute ice into another substance for example it would fail since ice is a solid.
In order to change a liquid into a specific liquid he has to have seen the liquid of choice with his naked eye, not through a picture or a video.
Lastly if he is looking upon a murky or opaque fluid which prevents him from seeing the fluid beneath the surface it doesn't count as obscured. He can change the fluid in it's entirety as if he were looking right through clear water.

Side effects: Nope.

Personality:

He's an opportunist. First thing he thinks whenever he walks into a room is what he can make of what's given. While his level of pragmatism makes him somewhat callous to other peoples feelings it's made him rather resourceful.

He's put a sort of barrier between himself and everyone else. He sees the whole world, humans and rifters alike, as not any more or less than him, just different. He was never in the same circles as most ordinary peers so he's taken that feeling of alienation and made it his signature view on things.

As such he doesn't take other people's problems all too seriously. The whole world could be exploding around him and he wouldn't give half a care as long as none of it effected him in any way. He won't ignore something that might become his problem in the future though.

He calls himself an entrepreneur, his detractors would call him a sociopath. Having spent his life living in luxury only to throw it all down for a chance at something greater he's got a fair amount of determination to make the most of this broken down hovel of a country. If there's one thing Walter cares more for than luxury it's freedom, at least his own that is.

He's never really run into an instance where someone's broken through that emotional shell of his to become anything more than just another acquaintance. We'll see who he is then when we get there.

Mission:

His ultimate aim is the acquisition of power. He looks to control all of Britain by maintaining a strong grip over resources for human needs such as water and food. On top of all that he has aspirations of possibly striking a deal with The Order to establish a safe trading route with them so that all who serve his company can revel in the power and comforts of their technology.


Weaknesses:

- He's physically weak.
- He has no hand-to-hand skills.
- He's unaccustomed to hard effort.
- He is emotionally distant.
- He is rather greedy.
- He finds firearms unwieldy and difficult to use.

Strengths and Talents:

- He's had a fairly robust education.
- He has some experience in selling people on his ideas.
- He's got both training and a naturally good aim with water guns.
- He controls a powerful corporation he founded during the rebuilding of London which he's used to dominate the market in most goods.
- He has a diverse wealth of knowledge regarding liquids, knowledge he's constantly aiming to expand.
- He's great at keeping his cool in tense situations.


Fears:

His greatest fear is the loss of his own freedom. He's gathered up all sorts of power be it economical or sheer manpower so he can protect his own rights. For him a true nightmare would be to end up a slave to some cruel rifter or worse, captured and used as some lab rat by The Order. As a result he's rather distrustful of telepaths since he runs the risk of having his mind warped by their powers, causing him to lose his freedom to some shadowy puppeteer as a result.

I humbly await his evaluation.

[Enigmatik]

James Mikhailovich- Engineer and Astrophysicist, has arrived.

Character Sheet

James Mikhailovich

Basic Traits

Quote: "Look, if I shout 'watch out below,' I'm not responsible for you getting crushed? Ok? Jesus, you want Health and Safety breathing down our necks again?"

Height: 5'11

Age: 26

Appearance: Reasonably tall, and a slim man without any real visible muscle to him. He has pale skin and blonde hair that is still lush and rich despite the fact he lives in the destroyed Britain. He tends to be seen wearing a simple pair of jeans, a long black t-shirt,
a pair of boots that come up above his ankle, and a military overcoat from his time in the rift wars. Looking at him, you would never suspect that he once was a scientist.

His eyes are a clear blue colour, and his vision is naturally flawless, with a smattering of bristles on his chin to tie the whole thing together. Really, the only distinguishing thing about him is his habit of wearing a long red scarf, wound three or four times around his neck, yet still with at least two feet dangling down. Nobody knows why he wears it.

Ethnicity: Anglo-Russian. Speaks both languages.

Background

History: Born in England to a mother that was Russian, James grew up bouncing between both countries. He learned to speak the two languages fluently when he was a child, something that came very useful when he joined a Russian observatory. Pre-Rifts, he was an astrophysicist, and was one of the first people on the scene when the Russian rift cracked open for the first time. From there, he followed the Rifts and attempted to study them, without much luck.

Rift History: James was one of the first researchers on the scene. It's theorised that the earlier you were around the rifts, the more powerful your powers would end up being. Soon after his experience with the Russian rifts, he began to have hyper-detailed dreams of events he had never encountered in his life, often with people who looked very different to how they did now. Normal lucid dreaming techniques didn't allow him to break out of these dreams, and they haven't quietened down.

War History: James was a military sapper for his fellow rifters during the war. With his ability and extremely fine control of gravity, he was capable of moving obstacles, erecting barricades and fortifications, and demolishing enemy vehicles and fortifications with ease. He doesn't really like to talk about his experiences in the war any more hover. They bring back too many bad memories.

Alliance: Unusually, James is welcome both in the Russian and English zones. His dual nationality, experience in the war, and rift abilities mean that even though some may grumble, most people are fine with him.

Abilities

Rift: Russian

Abilities: Precise and extreme gravity control, to the point where he can lift up steel girders and bend them to a 90 degree angle. He also has extremley detailed dreams that reveal facts either from the past, that he had no way of knowing, or from the future. These are accurate and non-malleable (so he cannot change them.)

Side effects: His dreams often leave him without a refreshing sleep- and he's been plagued with symptoms of chronic insomnia. A lot of his dreams aren't particularly pleasant either.

Personality:

Mission: James is going to end up on top. He doesn't have abilities that are as immediately useful, but his knowledge of engineering from the war, and ability to do the work of cranes on his own, means that he's pretty sure he can make something out of what he's been left with.

Weaknesses: Plagued by fatigue and with some symptoms of PTSD, James is no longer a fighter at heart. He tries to forget the year he spent on the frontlines, and deputises combat duties to other people. Not to say he's not good in a scrap, he just hates to be in one.

Strengths and Talents: James is still an excellent physicist and his year as a sapper has given him quite the experience in engineering. He's also pretty good at negotiating.

Fears: Being crushed. He's done it to others, multiple times. He doesn't want it to happen to him.

[Puffhead]

At last! I put forth my Character Sheet, only mildly over my estimated time of completion.

Walter Wilhelm

Character Name: Walter Wilhelm.

Basic Traits


Quote: "What do you think this is? Science?"


Height: 5'0".


Age: 18.

Appearance:

Kind of a standard looking young fellow. He's got medium length brown hair, the back of it reaching down to the base of his neck and the front hanging just a little bit past the eyes, swept aside over the ears so as to not be a nuisance to him. His eyes are a dark brown and he's got a slightly pointed face. While he's not conventionally handsome some might say he's okay to look at. He's not recieved greater praise for his looks than that, at least not from anyone sober.

Otherwise he's kind of a thin white kid. He's kind of lanky and fairly pale too. He usually chooses to wear a plain green shirt and blue jeans, mainly for comfort. On the job he has his finely tailored suits all slick, black and professional. He can almost always be seen with a drink of some sort in his hands.

Ethnicity: American.

Background

History:

His was a fancy life. Born to the casino mogul Donovan Wilhelm he lived a life of travel and riches. From an early age Don took Walter and his wife everywhere he went. Walter himself got to sit in the lap of luxury, to and fro high-end hotels all over the world. He had not a care in the world as everything was handed his way.

It all changed when they were over in Moscow since Don was visiting to attend the opening of his new casino there. The rift opened and from there everything changed.


Rift History:

For the longest while Walter had seen no obvious signs of change. The light was fairly pretty but nothing unfortunate was happening so he had no reason to change his lifestyle. His parents however underwent their discoveries much sooner than he did. In truth he was somewhat disappointed with them having powers instead of him. It was both boring and predictable that they would get all the cool stuff first and he'd see it only after they did.

It happened when he was drinking a bottle of sugar cane soda. As he drank he recalled a flavour he had found interesting some time back. As the thought crossed his mind the flavour of the soda he was drinking suddenly shifted, becoming the flavour he was just dwelling upon. Marvelous! He swiftly discovered he could change the soda into any number of fluids with little more than simply a thought. Upon experimentation he soon learned he could change vast quantities of liquids into other liquids. Upon turning a river into wine his mind glowed with the potential for his new gift.


War History:

War is never a pretty thing. It bothered Walter to no end that these spoil-sports were popping the lid off the big secret, ruining what potential abuses he could of run with if he and his parents weren't forced to go into hiding.

For several long years they hid. Given their resources they had a fairly strong capacity for keeping themselves off the radar. It was not to remain however as they were eventually found through The Order's use of rifters. Given the choice of working for them or being used as lab experiments his family picked the former choice. All but Walter used their powers to aid The Order in their fight against the rifter army. Walter managed to con his way out of participating, convincing them that the only thing he could do is change water into wine. A neat trick but useless for battle.

Before too long the end to the war came and the deal was struck. At that point the Wilhelm family were offered another choice: Go to Britain and remain in isolation or stay and live in The Order under constant monitor. His parents chose to remain in The Order so they could keep a hold of all their money and possessions. Walter however was fed up with being kept prisoner by The Order. He saw staying as no better than remaining a prisoner, deprived of his freedom and forced to live a life forever as a normal person in this oppressive new world. This was an opportunity to pioneer a new future for himself, a future with him at the top.

Not to mention he was bored to tears by the very thought of having to sit and wait, counting the very breaths of his father until they stopped and he could finally collect his fortune. No, waiting simply wouldn't do. The entrepreneurial spirit burned brightly within him and chose to be sent off to Britain, much against the protests of his mother and father. Despite their insistance however he was old enough to make the decision for himself and The Order cared little for what became of one family of rifters in the grand scheme of things.

In the end Walter wound up seperated from his parents, alone in a big washed out mess of a landscape. Through his cleverness and his smarts however he made himself indispensable to the rifters, making useful friends along the way. Come current day and now he's at the top of his own trade & distribution company, a veritable Trade Prince as he's now referred to as.

Alliance: Walter is his own alliance now. Other people ally themselves to him, not the other way around. If he must he can ally his company with other factions but there hasn't been a need... Yet.

Abilities


Rift: Russian Rift.


Abilities:

He can change any fluid that he is in direct line of sight of into any liquid which he had personally seen up close with little else but a thought.
He cannot change liquids he cannot see such as a person's blood so long as it's trapped beneath the skin or the tap water inside a faucet for a couple examples.
He cannot change any other state of matter except liquids. If he were to try and transmute ice into another substance for example it would fail since ice is a solid.
In order to change a liquid into a specific liquid he has to have seen the liquid of choice with his naked eye, not through a picture or a video.
Lastly if he is looking upon a murky or opaque fluid which prevents him from seeing the fluid beneath the surface it doesn't count as obscured. He can change the fluid in it's entirety as if he were looking right through clear water.

Side effects: Nope.

Personality:

He's an opportunist. First thing he thinks whenever he walks into a room is what he can make of what's given. While his level of pragmatism makes him somewhat callous to other peoples feelings it's made him rather resourceful.

He's put a sort of barrier between himself and everyone else. He sees the whole world, humans and rifters alike, as not any more or less than him, just different. He was never in the same circles as most ordinary peers so he's taken that feeling of alienation and made it his signature view on things.

As such he doesn't take other people's problems all too seriously. The whole world could be exploding around him and he wouldn't give half a care as long as none of it effected him in any way. He won't ignore something that might become his problem in the future though.

He calls himself an entrepreneur, his detractors would call him a sociopath. Having spent his life living in luxury only to throw it all down for a chance at something greater he's got a fair amount of determination to make the most of this broken down hovel of a country. If there's one thing Walter cares more for than luxury it's freedom, at least his own that is.

He's never really run into an instance where someone's broken through that emotional shell of his to become anything more than just another acquaintance. We'll see who he is then when we get there.

Mission:

His ultimate aim is the acquisition of power. He looks to control all of Britain by maintaining a strong grip over resources for human needs such as water and food. On top of all that he has aspirations of possibly striking a deal with The Order to establish a safe trading route with them so that all who serve his company can revel in the power and comforts of their technology.


Weaknesses:

- He's physically weak.
- He has no hand-to-hand skills.
- He's unaccustomed to hard effort.
- He is emotionally distant.
- He is rather greedy.
- He finds firearms unwieldy and difficult to use.

Strengths and Talents:

- He's had a fairly robust education.
- He has some experience in selling people on his ideas.
- He's got both training and a naturally good aim with water guns.
- He controls a powerful corporation he founded during the rebuilding of London which he's used to dominate the market in most goods.
- He has a diverse wealth of knowledge regarding liquids, knowledge he's constantly aiming to expand.
- He's great at keeping his cool in tense situations.


Fears:

His greatest fear is the loss of his own freedom. He's gathered up all sorts of power be it economical or sheer manpower so he can protect his own rights. For him a true nightmare would be to end up a slave to some cruel rifter or worse, captured and used as some lab rat by The Order. As a result he's rather distrustful of telepaths since he runs the risk of having his mind warped by their powers, causing him to lose his freedom to some shadowy puppeteer as a result.

I humbly await his evaluation.

@A Lowly Wretch

Okay, I'm loving this character Wretch! Excellent use of abilities and personality to create someone who's dangerous while having absolutely no need to rely only on their ability to fight. All in all, excellent! Walter is accepted!

James Mikhailovich- Engineer and Astrophysicist, has arrived.

Character Sheet

James Mikhailovich

Basic Traits

Quote: "Look, if I shout 'watch out below,' I'm not responsible for you getting crushed? Ok? Jesus, you want Health and Safety breathing down our necks again?"

Height: 5'11

Age: 26

Appearance: Reasonably tall, and a slim man without any real visible muscle to him. He has pale skin and blonde hair that is still lush and rich despite the fact he lives in the destroyed Britain. He tends to be seen wearing a simple pair of jeans, a long black t-shirt,
a pair of boots that come up above his ankle, and a military overcoat from his time in the rift wars. Looking at him, you would never suspect that he once was a scientist.

His eyes are a clear blue colour, and his vision is naturally flawless, with a smattering of bristles on his chin to tie the whole thing together. Really, the only distinguishing thing about him is his habit of wearing a long red scarf, wound three or four times around his neck, yet still with at least two feet dangling down. Nobody knows why he wears it.

Ethnicity: Anglo-Russian. Speaks both languages.

Background

History: Born in England to a mother that was Russian, James grew up bouncing between both countries. He learned to speak the two languages fluently when he was a child, something that came very useful when he joined a Russian observatory. Pre-Rifts, he was an astrophysicist, and was one of the first people on the scene when the Russian rift cracked open for the first time. From there, he followed the Rifts and attempted to study them, without much luck.

Rift History: James was one of the first researchers on the scene. It's theorised that the earlier you were around the rifts, the more powerful your powers would end up being. Soon after his experience with the Russian rifts, he began to have hyper-detailed dreams of events he had never encountered in his life, often with people who looked very different to how they did now. Normal lucid dreaming techniques didn't allow him to break out of these dreams, and they haven't quietened down.

War History: James was a military sapper for his fellow rifters during the war. With his ability and extremely fine control of gravity, he was capable of moving obstacles, erecting barricades and fortifications, and demolishing enemy vehicles and fortifications with ease. He doesn't really like to talk about his experiences in the war any more hover. They bring back too many bad memories.

Alliance: Unusually, James is welcome both in the Russian and English zones. His dual nationality, experience in the war, and rift abilities mean that even though some may grumble, most people are fine with him.

Abilities

Rift: Russian

Abilities: Precise and extreme gravity control, to the point where he can lift up steel girders and bend them to a 90 degree angle.
He also has extremley detailed dreams that reveal facts either from the past, that he had no way of knowing, or from the future. These are accurate and non-malleable (so he cannot change them.)

Side effects: His dreams often leave him without a refreshing sleep- and he's been plagued with symptoms of chronic insomnia.
A lot of his dreams aren't particularly pleasant either.

Personality:

Mission: James is going to end up on top. He doesn't have abilities that are as immediately useful, but his knowledge of engineering from the war, and ability to do the work of cranes on his own, means that he's pretty sure he can make something out of what he's been left with.

Weaknesses: Plagued by fatigue and with some symptoms of PTSD, James is no longer a fighter at heart. He tries to forget the eight years he spent on the frontlines, and deputises combat duties to other people. Not to say he's not good in a scrap, he just hates to be in one.

Strengths and Talents: James is still an excellent physicist and his eight years as a sapper has given him quite the experience in engineering. He's also pretty good at negotiating.

Fears: Being crushed. He's done it to others, multiple times. He doesn't want it to happen to him.

@Irredeemable

James is looking great! The only complaint I have is that it says he fought for 8 years, but remember: the war didn't last for 8 years. It actually only lasted a little over one year, the roleplay is just based 8 years since the war. Other then that it looks great! Change that little detail and its accepted.

[Enigmatik]

@Puffhead
Done