Hello and welcome! I don’t like to write out long, drawn out descriptions, it is just an interest check, after all. So here it goes.
I play a lot of scifi, space fantasy games and have been writing up a space fantasy RP for the better part of two and a half years now. It has gone through a few different iterations, but finally it is ready for a real try!
The Circle: Odyssey is meant to be many things ranging from combat rping, to slice of life rping, to even investigative rping. Your character will have to analyze situations and come up with solutions to problems. I would think that’s in every RP, but sadly it isn’t, so I am telling you up-front.
The story takes place in non-specific space so that your character can hail from whatever mystical world you dream up (within the limits of the setting I have for you). This is to make it easier for you to customize a character and fit them into the world. The only stipulation is that they must be capable of space travel!
Lastly, before writing up the in-depth portions of this interest check, what is this story all about?? I’ll tell you…
A long time ago, humans found a world that couldn’t exist, according to the laws of physics. On it, they found something powerful that came to be called ‘The Circle’, and it nearly destroyed them. Now, hundreds of years later, humans live most of their lives in space, and have split into many factions, mainly the three factions of The People, The Elven, and The Orc, but even these main factions are barely clinging to endangerment. They fight petty wars, and lack of resources. A disease known as ‘Malignance’ plagues a significant portion of the races, and to top it all off, The Circle is showing signs of activity again. Someone has to put an end to the fighting. Will it be you?
I prefer 1x1 simply because I can devote all of my attention to you and really develop our story and characters together. And it is easier to manage for me because I do have a job, wife, and child. I can usually manage at least one post a day, but not always. Sometimes I need few days or even a short break from Role-playing. I expect nothing more from you that I do myself. Communication is key!
My final thing, and I know this might turn many people off, is that I would like to do the actual RP either through email or discord (preferably email). The reason for this is that I cannot access this site at work, which is when I usually have time to write. It is blocked on my work computer, and I cannot be on my phone all the time, so email is best. I only mention discord as a last-resort option. I hope you understand.
If you’re still with me and you’re still interested, check out these hiders that contain a more in-depth description of The Circle: Odyssey!
The Circle:Odyssey takes place in an AU where humanity united to fix the planet and ecosystem after a third world war. Once the planet was healthy again, we took to the stars to colonize Mars, and eventually other systems in the Milky Way. Technology flourished and pushed us even further out into the universe until soon there were entire, self-sustaining, mobile environments with full ecosystems in them. The populous called them “Flat-Earth’s” as a joke to the people from back in the 21st century that actually thought that the planet was flat. These are where most people have permanent residences, but there are some worlds containing permanent colonies.
Each Flatearth is its own society. There are many different cultures that have their own Flatearths, as well as Flatearths that have many cultures. Some are utopian, some are crim-ridden, but all of them are controlled by certain factions, namely the Elves, the People, and the Orcs.
The factions:
The People is a generalized name for the faction containing humans much like you and me, but also a mix of elves, orcs, etc as well as half-breeds of all factions (although half-breed are typically looked down upon). The People are known for a generally free melting pot of cultures, but they have the most crime and infighting. Naturally the People are the most militant and have become reliant on that militant structure so resolve most public issues. The People’s Flatearth ships dock the majority of space-explorers due to the freedom and convenience of an easily navigated capitalistic economy.
The Orcs are war-mongers and miners. They are known for piracy, invasions, and their claim to many resource-rich worlds. They rarely include others into their society unless it is in the form of slavery or debt. In Orcish society, there are two kinds of currency; precious materials like gold, silver and jewels; and respect earned through trials of combat. And most die in the process of obtaining the latter. The dwarven and the gnomish fall under the Orcish flag, enslaved to work the mines and crude machinery that makes up their ships and weaponry.
The Elves are exactly what one might expect. They have the longest lifespan of all the races, some reaching five centuries before their health deteriorates. They are known for their hierarchy, and their almost magical technology in medicine. In that order. The Elvish exist in a very structured hierarchy based on a class system that is weighted heavily for the more-fortunate. The purest blood line, belonging to the Hel’iyaan is said to trace directly back to Queen Elizabeth of ancient England, before the unity of the home world. And they know it. The lower classes underneath royalty and upper class, rarely emerge from the inner workings of the Flatearths. They live in shanty towns that are built directly into the mechanical corridors and bays of the inner superships that act as the base of the Flatearths. The Elves rarely participate in war, and for good reason. They possess an antimatter beam weapon that is unmatched. No one knows what technology is behind it, but it is said to tear through state-of-the-art shields and plating like tissue paper.
Any other faction ideas, I leave to you! Just run them by me and we’ll work them in somehow.
There are three kinds of interstellar travel; Near Light Speed (NLS), Warp, and Blinking.
NLS engines are the most common, and slowest form of interstellar travel. These are used in small starships and skiffs, but are only used as last resort travel methods due to their inefficiency.
Warp drives are less common, but not by much. Most freighters and Flatearths, use warp drives to bend space, rather than accelerate through it. Warp is significantly faster than NLS and a perfect solution to the fact that traveling at full light-speed is impossible. The only catch is that the drive has to create a quantum field around any given ship to keep it from bending itself, and should that fail, said ship could be fine, or be ripped apart and spread across thousands of lightyears.
Blinking is so rare that it is nearly unheard of. The only recorded instance was with an elven vessel. The report said that a hole was ripped in space and the ship was simply gone. Rumors say that Blink travel is instantaneous, but so little is known about it that it is hard to confirm its speed.
Ship types:
Starship: A one to two person vessel meant for interplanetary travel, or inter-ship combat scenarios. They are often equipped with starship to starship weaponry and a single tactical nuclear charge. They are not particularly meant for interstellar travel, but could be outfitted with a small warp drive capable of making system to system jumps.
Skiff: Usually manned by three to five individuals, a skiff has an array of uses from cargo, to personnel, to travel, or even piracy, Skiffs are the most common ship across commercial, military, and pirate use. The Orcs use them to haul payloads of nuclear warheads known to devastate freighters, and blow mortal holes in Flatearths.
Frieghters: Massive and often heavily outfitted with weaponry, freighters are the primary vessel for Military use. They haul military personnel and equipment, as well as science teams and exploration divisions. Frieghters are good for exploration, war, or anything else that a clever captain can think of. They can dock hundreds of starships and skiffs, and are dwarfed only by flatearths.
Flatearth: Gargantuan ships that rival the size of countries, flatearths are officially labeled as Interstellar Mobile Environment Containment Transports (IMECT’s). They cultivate entire systems of cities and bioshperes on a mobile platform that is powered by multiple nuclear powerplants on their undersides. Externally they simply appear like country-sized flying saucers with up to eight engines on all sides and a single tower on the operation side that houses the captain and crew when they are on duty. These ships are capable of enormous warp jumps, and most are rumored to have a Blink Drive, if those even exist. There are ten operational IMECT’s: three belong to the People, three to the Orcs, and four are operated by the aristocratic Elves, despite the fact that they have the smallest population.
Fantasy, I say?
Yes, it is a fantasy, so what about magic? Well let’s get into that, shall we? TIME FOR A LITTLE LORE.
Long ago, before humanity split, there was a world hanging freely in open, empty space. The explorers who found it called it E-P00259, a simple designation for what was believed to be a simple exo-planet. The history logs refer to the planet by the name is was given over a decade later: Pandora’s Box.
The planet traveled relatively slowly through empty space, and it was later discovered that it had an actual trajectory, yet it had an atmosphere that was breathable, as well as endlessly burning satellite bodies that were best described as ‘moon-sized suns’. Curiosity drove the explorers to land on the barren, crater-spotted landscape to find that it was comfortably warm, with scattered bodies of water and oasis-like patches of flora. Soon a monolith was discovered that had a heat signature akin to something mechanical. It was a doorway that led into a hollow interior with another ‘mini-sun’ at the center. The inner landscape was entirely covered by ruins of an ancient, yet superiorly advanced race. Dotted all over the inner surfaces in circular patterns like ven diagrams were shrines with different elements suspended in gravitational anomalies in the shapes of perfect circles. Some glowed, some pulsed and made sound. Some were simply water or soil or fire.
The phenomenon was traced to an undiscovered and barely understood energy that came to be known as The Circle. Those who were able to establish a connection to The Circle were gifted with almost magical powers varying in nature and use. And these powers aided humankind in many things, but after ten years of pilgrimages and tourism to E-P00259, the Connected (those with a connection to the circle) began to show signs of distress, and eventually ships started disappearing. IMECT’s began to disappear. Eventually, the debris of those craft was found collecting on the surface of E-P00259, Pandora’s Box. It was adhering armor, weapons, and resources to its surface, becoming a mobile, planet-sized, intelligent ball of death that wiped out eighty percent of the human race. Humanity split, some mutated by exposure to the Circle energy, some forever stained by malignance, and fled. Pandora’s Box was lost to deep, interstellar space, but it mark remained.
Some of those people who were connected remained, no longer dangerous, but imprisoned , killed, or sedated and studied all the same. Those who were not found were forced to live in hiding, weighted by the burden of The Circle and forever passing it down their lineages. Circle Magic is now highly illegal, and punishable in its use to any degree by death. Magic is most common in outlaws, pirates, and gangs, but it is hardly a shadow of its former wrath.
Until one day, it began to emerge again…
And that day is where our story begins.
So basically, magic is allowed, but nothing crazy or earth shattering (yet, maybe later *wink*). And it is limited, takes a lot of focus and energy to use. In a universe with the potential for cyber/steam/diesel punk and more, I don’t want the magic to be too overwhelming at the beginning, but there will be development in the story.
If there are any questions or concerns, feel free to inbox me. If you are interested, say so here and whoever is selected will receive my email in their inbox. I’ll be checking this post at some point, every day this week. I look forward to our Odyssey!
