Only a Human System
A Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction and Fantasy RP
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“The Eternal Empyreal Empire has collapsed, leaving chaos in its wake. The portals that once connected the farthest corners of the empire were its downfall at last. When we became too greedy and sought to conquer other realms of reality, we opened a threshold for the Corruption to come. Then the whole portal network collapsed, and we were left in the dark, disconnected, disinformed, abandoned and alone. A century has passed since the War of the Corruption started and fifty years since the Empire finally fell. Most of the population of the Empire has been exterminated either by our own incivility and barbarism or by the sword and gun of the Corruption. We must travel to the edge of the Empire to try to escape from both of them now; there seems to be no other choice but to fly away as far as we can and maybe, just maybe, we can unravel the mystery if the Corruption on the way...
Every story after the end starts this way, child.”
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It’s the 75th day, the last day, of seventh month of the 3775th year of the Imperial calendar, today is the day that commemorates exactly five decades since the collapse of the Empire… If there was anyone left to commemorate; everyone is too busy surviving.
Our group has made the impossible real, we reactivated one of the branches of the networks of Portals, an Alpha-Artery, the largest of the types of lines of Portals: a gargantuan threshold of several kilometres of radius. However, that has called the Corruption in towards our position. We were many, hundreds, a small army almost, if were generous enough to have hope. Something unseen since the last days of the Empire. Well, the Eternal Empyreal Empire did concentrate individual armies of tens of millions to fight great battles during the War of the Corruption. Whatever the case, we decided to split so at least a few of us could survive. You might think this is a terrible idea, and it is, but it’s the least terrible of all the ideas we could have had in that moment of utter panic. Small groups of people were launched across the entirety of the Empire, randomly arriving everywhere in the Outer Peripheral Provinces, we were lucky to have arrived at a zone that looks somewhat safe and is almost on the edge of the formerly conquered territory of the Empire. Here our journey continues. No matter how few, we will carry on.
I have an idea of what the Corruption might really be, and I must pass that onwards to anyone with the strength to do what we cannot yet.
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About the setting in general
About the Eternal Empyreal Empire
The Eternal Empyreal Empire, or just the Empire, was the vertebral column that united the civilizations of this plane of reality. It has existed since legendary times, with the historians tracing its unification to at least 7500 years back and, since it’s such an ancient institution, people were almost unable to comprehend its fall fifty years ago. It was a gargantuan monster which lands under its control had more area than the entire surface of the Earth, oceans included. Such was its importance and legacy that people thought a single, monolithic state was the normal and absolute state of a civilization, since the Empire conquered, annexed, absorbed and assimilated all the other states and forms of government of all the intelligent species it came across.
But how could such a thing support itself? The answer is twofold: First, with extremely strong common institutions, such as the rule of law, and second, with the ability to instantly communicate almost any two points of the empire through its network of portals. Both were vital and fed on each other, so when the portal network collapsed by the hand of the Corruption, the Empire came tumbling down soon after.
The institutions are no more, so maybe it’s better not to dwell too much on them. People have died for less treacherous thoughts. On the other hand, the Portal network still represents an opportunity since there have been groups who were able to use it once more after it collapsed. The Portal Network is made in the manner of what one could call a Metro. They extend like arteries, veins and capillary in a body, with Portals being located at a certain distance from each other, often between twenty and seventy-five kilometres apart for the Arteries-Alpha. The smaller networks are connected to these, coming out of the exits of the larger Portals. As with all the things in a large organization, these are structured and organized in hierarchy, with the principal portals being the largest ones and the following ones in importance being the seconds in size, and so on.
Portals on the Arteries-Alpha, the largest ones, are circular and measure around five kilometres of diameter. They go down from there in fifteen categories down to the Arteries-Omicron, Portals the size of a large house. There are also the Unclassified Portals, that are the size of a large door and were often used in palaces and important government offices to move directly from one place to the capital.
Inside the empire, many species with many races and many cultures each, lived, thrived and intermixed. It cannot be stated enough how a world-breaking change was the collapse of the empire for its citizens that suddenly found themselves without order in a world where they always had a structure to lean on.
About the Corruption and the War
An extreme form of the Corruption, visible in what are often called “Generals”.
The Corruption is the name given to an otherworldly being, or maybe series of beings, who invaded the Empire after a Portal was opened to their world. It was the first time the Empire wanted to reach even further beyond and started opening Portals to the Lands Beyond. Yes, the Empire might have found unfathomable riches, however, didn’t they already have more that they could waste in ten thousand lifetimes?
The name of this plague is derived from the fact that I can absorb almost any biological matter to create and repair new individuals.
The Corruption is thought to be some kind of pseudo-hivemind. While the beings that compose it still retain their individuality, they seem to be able to communicate instantaneously through telepathy across certain medium distances. Beyond said distances, they relay their messages through other, unknown means but that takes some time in contrast to their telepathic counterpart. These means are possible to interrupt, interfere or even sever, nonetheless, without knowing the precise mechanism, this proved to be a dead end for the Empire.
The Corruption’s forms or beings are as diverse as any ecosystem might prove itself to be, however, they are all composed from the same basic types of cells, even when these are extremely adaptable and present themselves in uncountable variations. This kind of matter is known as Omniflesh and all of it is magically responsive to the extreme, granting those of the Corruption that are adapted for it, extreme magical prowess.
Onmiflesh has no final stage on its cellular development, meaning that it can react to new circumstances by changing into new phenotypes and that a single cell, if given enough adequate circumstances, could reform an entire individual. And that a single individual could become an army unless having its corpse both magically sealed and destroyed. This last ability was, luckily, one of the first discoveries made during the war as well as the way of how to combat it.
That the Corruption manages to let its form retain their individuality, or some form of it, was discovered thanks to what might be the most terrifying ability that they possess, the fact that they can absorb memories from any kind of brain matter or equivalent that a species has by consuming their recently dead matter. While the memories inside the pseudo-hivemind are stored by unknown means and somehow distributed to many of its geographically closest members, the memories absorbed are taken by one individual first, analysed and then redistributed among the closest other forms.
This ability was what had likely been the cause of the war against them going so poorly, since the Corruption’s equivalent of the high commands often absorbed the memories of the fallen commanders of the Empire.
Another one of the abilities that the Corruption possesses that allowed them to fight the war in such an effective manner was that they can coordinate their senses. This takes two main forms, the first one is that the individuals can share their senses with those surrounding them up to certain range. The second is that they can temporarily act like one individual. The last ability has proven fundamental at conducting army-wide spells.
The War of the Corruption was a disastrous affair from beginning to end. It started with the contact with them through one of the first Portals to the Lands Beyond and ended definitively with the fall of the seventeenth capital. Through all the conflict grotesquely massive battles were fought, and even closing to the end of the Empire, sometimes tens of millions were still involved on each side. These confrontations almost always derived into terrifying and ever more disastrous battles of attrition as the war progressed. The Empire fought with all it conquered, all the knowledge, all the weapons, all the strategies and tactics… And failed.
About the Weapons and Equipment
Technology in the Eternal Empyreal Empire was a mixture of science and magic, with one supplying the strength when the other failed to conquer its obstacles and enemies. In the last days of the Empire, while magic was not in decline, technology soared further beyond. It was thought that these last few decades had been one of the best since the time of the Black Emperor and the cutting edge of technology was being constantly pushed further. All that technology was invested into fighting the Corruption, therefore the most advanced of weapons and prototypes were lost in the war.
As it was said in the interest check, “what can still be powered up, what can still be repaired after breaking a dozen times, what can still work even after a life ten times as harsh as intended; that’s what we can count on”. If by miracle a survivor can have a functioning piece of cutting-edge technology, it’s still probable that they won’t live long. Either due to the energy required likely attracting the Corruption or other survivors, many of which will be quite more than less inclined to share.
If you want to have an OOC perspective on the technological level of the Empire at the time of the War of the Corruption, think slightly futuristic/Cyberpunk tech. With magic, of course.
When creating your characters, remember that you’ll need both long-range and short-range weapons and that those likely will double as survival equipment in most cases, not in all though. Remember not to waste bullets and other precious equipment in things such as hunting.
About the Magic
A large majority of the beings inside of the Eternal Empyreal Empire could do magic in some capacity. Around two thirds of mankind were able to do magic. While other species are either more specialized on it or in other areas, it is likely that mankind, while by far the large majority of the inhabitants of the empire, are one of the less magically inclined of the races on it.
By general rule, while a great majority can do magic, very few amongst the species of the kingdom are able to practice the most extreme forms of magic. Examples of this are shapeshifting, precise sub-elemental manipulation and medium-range teleportation, among many, many others. On the other hand, some species have a natural talent and disposition towards magic.
To understand the mechanism through which magic operates, the example of the fire is often given. Imagine you are making a fire, what do you propose on doing with magic if you have no matches? A bonfire takes much more magic and control than a smaller fire and a tongue of fire to initiate the reaction is much more expensive to make than a simple, single spark. Now; what do you burn? A fire sustained from one’s own power is much more taxing than one made to burn form natural elements, such as wood or charcoal. Next is the question, where do you take the equivalent power from? A chemical reaction made of something that doesn’t burn easily, like water or stone, takes a much more powerful and precise mage than one made from simple wood or dry leaves. On the topic of were the power is taken from, finally comes where the compensation goes. This, in the example of the fire, often comes from the ambient magic and ambient chemical potential. In this example, the simplest mechanism is to lower the ambient temperature by a similar amount to conserve the heat. Another, more advanced way could be to create a chemical reaction to which the lost potential would be subtracted from. The final way would to be extract said energy directly from the mage itself.
About the Species
This table contains the most common species in the Empire. They have four categories in them with each of them representing both the resistance and ability on each area. They are just for reference; we won’t be using levels and such here. They are comparative in their power to the baseline human, which is the first one featured. As you can see, the lack of something doesn’t necessarily mean that there will be a compensation and vice versa. Life isn’t fair and some simply get more cards in their decks.
These aren’t the only races so if you got any other one you want to use, just tell me and I’ll extend the table. If you want to make a mix between two species, like a half-elf, just average the points in the table so you can have an idea of what you will be dealing with. And, as you can likely infer, the species are left very open to your interpretations.
EDIT: Since there was room left for misinterpretation, I will clarify with an example:
A large beetle vs an ant.
The ant, while having more relative strength, is both weaker and likely, due to a smaller size, has less amount of neurons for its ganglia so it might have a less complex behaviour individually. Also ants can't fly and many beetles can. Now, as well all know, ants have colonies and colonies often feed on large beetles. Does that mean one is superior to another? Not really, both have been coeaxisting and evolved to fit their ecological niches. This table presents individual vs individual in their averaged eases towards a task. A combat task. I left the beings with different and not compensated stats because its your job to create lore on how they are. In accordance to the example, I just said "A beetle is bigger, stronger, likely smarter and can fly", did I ever mention anything about a colony? No, that's up for you to fill.
| Species | Mental Prowess | Physical Prowess | Technological Prowess | Magical Prowess |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Human | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Elf | 4 | 6 | 4 | 6 |
| Dwarf | 4 | 7 | 5 | 5 |
| Giant | 3,5 | 8 | 2 | 4 |
| Golem | 6 | 6 | 8 | 3 |
| Robot | 7 | 7 | 10 | 0 |
| Kitsune | 6 | 4 | 5 | 10 |
| Fairy | 5 | 3 | 4 | 8 |
| Angeloid | 5 | 6 | 5 | 7 |
Character sheet
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