"A stranger? Here? In Hōnshu-kuo? You've chosen a terrible time to come here."
"These are dangerous days...the Crimslings roam the Wilds -- That is their kingdom, and They rule it as if They are kings..."
"And what goes out to the Wilds nary come back -- and those that do...They are terrible things."
"Go, now."
"If the Beasts will not take you, the Kanbu will."
The world has become a small place -- so intimate, and all the more terrifying. What remains of mankind huddles together, scattered in the Arks: Entrenched hovels, platformed acropoli -- massive stakes of steel and concrete which pierce into the veins of the Earth. Each Ark is a colossal continuum of underground metropolis upon sprawling slum upon industrial park hath seen it blossom into a spoiled metallic onion. They are the collections of days long past, each one cradling the people of the world.
This is Honshu. It is known by many names -- to it's colonial overlords, past and progeny, it is Hâncheau, The Pearl of the East, and Dominion to Ardagne: Le Régime Éclairé. To those who have lived and toiled their blood away until they fainted white, it is Hōnshu-kuo. On their maps, The Dominion is a single entity: Honshu, in truth, was -- and still is -- a country of systemic irregularities: Administrative, legal, judicial, and ecclesiastic divisions and prerogatives frequently overlapped, while the Ardic nobility struggled to maintain their rights in the matters of local government and justice. All the while, the Samurai clans of Honshu met their fate, either as gravestones or as eager collaborators to the Régime Noveau.
But even this is but a tenuous connection: With The Fray receded, the powers which stay standing squabble over the remnants. Mayors and chieftains, like bickering children, argue over the responsibilities -- who shall re-tether the elektralines, who shall give the most men to scout the wilds, who shall fire their furnaces and forges the longest, who shall contribute the more food-stock: And who shall receive the lions share. Alliances formed in the fires of battle have grown brittle and cold, and the relations that kept the Dominion through peril for centuries is now poised to crumble at the seams. The Arks are all beset by bickering from within and beasts from without.
Now, it is a kingdom with no monarch -- a colony with no overlord. It is a confused and broken land, its image and identity long shattered and dusted to the winds of time which ground it all to grain in the sands of time.
The task before the good Hunters, banded in blood in their Kanbu, remains as steadfast as it was at its inception, even amidst this tumult.
The Crimson Tide must be stopped. The beasts within it felled, their bodies burned and scattered to the winds. Scientific samples collected. Fields and forests razed to contain its flow. And from this broken mirror, its pieces scattered before this ancient Earth, do what you must to gather the pieces, scraping them into some semblance of a whole, before the will to do so fades.
So what's this about needing a GM? I'm going to be honest. I'm a really busy guy -- I got college, rugby, and work to deal with. This idea itself was based off of another earlier RP idea with a similar premise that didn't get far because of the same thing. I think it'd really work best if there was someone else to really help take the reins, ideally several other people who are as really into it as everyone else in the group is!
What is this RP about? In this Late Fantasy world, there was once ago a grave threat from a mysterious force that humans could only sense as a thick, crimson mist. The Tide transformed men and creatures into terrible, twisted beasts, and wrought terrible carnage upon the world. Only with the great efforts of The Hunters did the tide of the miasma stem, but the two have fought one another to a vicious and brutal standstill. As one of the hunters, you must fight the monsters when they appear, and find more information about where they come from and most effective ways to rid of them.
What are hunters and kanbu? What do they do? From ragtag, raggedy militiamen to professional scientists and accomplished fighters, hunters are a motley bunch. In the most open-ended sense of the word, kanbu are any organized band assembled (ostensibly) to take on the threat of the Crimson Tide. Kanbu vary greatly in organization, discipline, equipment, and size.
Kanbu are -- for better or worse -- closely intertwined with the politicking that goes on within the Arks. Often employed by large merchants and influential aristocrats to protect their property and allies, Kanbu take after their samurai clan ancestors, operating somewhere between law enforcement and gangs-for-hire. Vicious rivalries exist between Kanbu and their various allies, often escalating into threats, arson, and open violence.
Where will the RP take place? What's the setting? The RP will take place in the Dominion of Hâncheau (Honshu or Hōnshu-kuo), mostly containing the Ark of Sainte-Azélie (Honshu: Ayahara).
The setting is Middle-High Fantasy -- somewhere between the lines of steampunk and urban fantasy, with generous dashes of noir. Think something sort of similar to Yharnam, or Ghibli films even. Check out some more in the lore tabs if you want more specific examples.
Is the focus of the RP more on combat or the characters? I'd like to think that we would have a seamless mix between the two. Ideally, I would enjoy something close to a 60/40 mix from Characters:Combat, as the tonal themes I was drawing inspiration from here were mostly noir horror and various dark fantasy anime such as Claymore and Attack on Titan. If you really want, you can think of it as RWBY, but like, not written by two inexperienced nerds who ship their self-inserts with their 17 year old OCs!
- The Dominion was established over a long period of time, pieced together from bit-by-bit assemblies of the various shoguns, merchant houses, and warlord states across Honshu. Originally it was under the direct supervision of the Société de Négoce Oriental d'Ardagne (abv. "SNOA") before being transferred to the control of a government-regulated board of Oversees Departments of Ardagne. - Most of the incorporation into the Dominion were done through a series of coercion tactics, intimidation, espionage, nepotism, bribery, and when all else failed direct military action. Ardagne often played local rivalries against one another to maintain systems of power and to give local pre-existing authorities a direct stake in the well-being of the colonial regime. - This means that unlike most Ardelais colonies, Honshu maintained a degree of quasi-independence, and still maintained its local traditional monarchy -- although under direct supervision of the Colonial Authority. - A majority of Honshu's modern infrastructure is strictly colonial in nature: Its industries were owned by Ardelais capitalists, Honshu children were taught in Ardelais schools, where they were taught the Ardelais tongue and the indigenous Honshu language was modified and revised to use a Western-styled, alphabet-based script. Though most of these institutions are barely kept afloat in even the best of Arks, their influence is felt throughout all of Honshu even to this day.
Tasked with fighting the most vicious denizens of The Wilds, the Hunter's work is never complete. Although the Dominion is home to all manner of artisan's shops which constitute the hunter's arsenal, materials to produce the most modern of weapons are scarce, and the knowledge soon turning into ritual than rationality. Firearm ammunition is a labourious essential to produce, and remains uncommon outside of large marketplaces.
The respirator is undoubtedly the most invaluable tool in the Hunter's toolkit -- If a Hunter were to be ambushed, and they could either take their weapon or their respirator before their escape, all but the dead would choose the respirator. Respirators are large devices, composed of a mouthpiece connected to a filtered hose which connects to a larger air tank which is straddled either across the hunter's back or their abdomen via a harness. Additional filters and hoses are essential on longer expeditions. Most Hunters choose to decorate their respirators, adorning them with painted designs or good luck charms.
Goggles and fully-enveloped hoods are common additional pieces of protective wear, preventing stray winds from blowing Crimson Tide into their eyes and ears.
Your average hunter is outfitted with a variety of tools from which they perform their duties: Every Hunter has a firearm and some mêlée of their choosing. A single, well-placed rifle round to the eye-socket or heart can put down even the most fell of beast, and will at least wound them enough to be injured with proper coordination or trapping. Most beasts can easily shake off shots to non-vital parts and sport thick layers of fat, muscle, and bone to boot -- coupled with the scarcity of ammunition, and the need for a mêlée weapon becomes clear.
Rifles and shot-guns make up the majority of a primary ranged weapon for a hunter. The most common weapon in the Dominion was the Lévesque Modèle 91, a five-shot bolt-action rifle with handy characteristics and a flat-headed 8mm bullet. Revolvers were equally prized, as some hunters preferred the rapid shots of the hand-gun in their off-hand while utilizing a mêlée weapon in their dominant hand.
Mêlée weapons take a good number of forms: Swords of the Hunter are typically either of a native uchigatana make, or are swords of Ardic design -- typically these are either a heavy-bladed, single-edged cavalry sabre, or a thinner, harder-tipped estoc meant for thrusting. Perhaps more novice or less-affluent hunters prefer simple, blunt clubs, ranging from impromptu maces to work hammers.
Other tools vary considerably from Hunter to Hunter. Some prefer caltrops or bolas to incapacitate the blood-beasts, while others use incendiary Molotov Cocktails to stave away the beasts, whom possess an instinctual fear of fire.
Science and technology in this setting is roughly equatable to that found in the 1900s of our world. Elektralines and telegrammes adorn the Arks, though selective and spotty in service, powered by the might of magic and machine.
- It's magic. I ain't gotta explain shit.
- Honshu, known to the Colonists as Hâncheau and the locals as Hōnshu-kuo, is a mountainous island-nation, isolated from the rest of the world. - It was a colony in the days before the Fray and the Great War, and that colonial influence lingers still across it even as wider humanity seems to have crumbled. - Ships from elsewhere in the world are very rare, and those that do seldom have anything to offer in terms of substantial knowledge of either the greater world's on-goings nor what happened that caused the rise of the Crimson Tide. They typically contain merchants or refugees, disdained to see that little here is different from the outside world, but carry with them a common trend that Arks seem to be nonexistent elsewhere.
- Nobody is quite sure what the origin of the Crimson Tide is. - Several theories exist that explain its conception, such as: -- The curse of an ancient Honshu god, who has come to reap the bounty stolen from him long ago -- Divine punishment from God upon man's hubris in the Great War -- A mining accident which opened up a pocket of the noxious gas, rumoured to be from the depths of the Earth -- A freak industrial waste accident, which over time fused and compounded to create the Mist -- A new "superweapon" made to win the Great War which backfired.
- The Crimson always seems to spread out in like a thick blanket, meaning that it is densest along the ground and dissipates higher. Staying in The Crimson leaves a thick, paste-like orange residue that is difficult to remove. - When exposed to The Crimson, plants change their pigmentation, seeping a thick, redish-orange pus, hardening like sap over time. - Animals seem to rot in the presence of The Crimson, their bodies turning from viscera to thick pustules that seep into hard, chitinous exoskeletons which constantly weep the the miasma of The Crimson. - Symptoms of Crimson Blight can vary immensely depending on depth of exposure. Common minor symptoms are nausea, vomiting, chest pain, and coughing. Severe symptoms include asphyxiation, hallucinations, confusion, loss of motor skills, and localized necrosis. Terminal symptoms include widespread necrosis reddish-purple in complexion, psychosis, loss of speech, and eventually stroke-like symptoms. Terminal Crimson Blight cases near-always result in death, and even survivors are typically comatose and bedridden for weeks after. - Within the Tide is life, in the form of disfigured monsters. Some are quadrupedal, others are bipedal. Some are bestial in shape, while others almost humanoid. These monsters have been called Crimslings, or Blood-beasts. Oddly, some of the beasts seem to speak a pidgin language of their own, constituted of mangled words combined with bestial howls. - Transformation into a Blood-beast happens in several stages, and it is a painful process. Most victims go mad far before their true transformation, and by their full development into a Crimsling they have long been rendered unrecognizable.
- Large megacities made of colossal pycrete beams, cobbled together on top of one another. - Each Ark is virtually its own self-regulating city-state. Theoretically they owe service to the Dominion, like a feudal structure: In practice, this seldom occurs. - Although stemmed in the old laws of the Ardic colonial system, law and order is very loose.
First the Western Capital of Honshu's Khiba Dynasty, then the colonial capital of the Dominion, Sainte-Azélie remains as perhaps the largest Ark on Honshu, and undoubtedly its most important. Situated deep within the Ark along the foot of Mount Ame, The Empress has grown erratic and increasingly unpredictable in her old age, and spends near every waking moment isolated in The Ivory Palace. She remains as an important spiritual figurehead to the Honshu locals, although the Throne's true political power has long been withered to the stem. The main city centre has long been restructured and paved over, replaced with colonial-styled double-wide avenues and colonial Art Nouveau-styled architecture. Other noteworthy landmarks include the Kagito Forum, a sprawling open-air marketplace, the Junchiro Opera House, and the Verdant Fortress.
Sainte-Azélie is untypical from most Arks -- it is a sprawling, massive arcology which spans into sprawling spires that plunge upwards to the deepest of cavernous crevices from which whole avenues are carved. Near all housing in Sainte-Azélie is in one of its innumerate danchi: Massive tenament complexes with sparse decorations and few luxuries. Homes in danchi are often merged together, situating sometimes three or four families or tenants into one unit, which is often divided using curtains and wooden prop dividers. All denizens of the unit share the same kitchen and living space, and typically do not contain more than 4 total bedrooms. Bathing and laundry are communal, shared by all tenants on the same floor. Privacy in a danchi is a luxury ill-afforded to most as a general rule.
With the Crimson having claimed so much land to The Wilds, agriculture must be relegated to only the most compatible, utilitarian endeavour. The average Ark-located farm is multi-stacked, aquaponic venture, encompassing a fish farmery on top of a bed of waterbogged plants, similar in appearance a bog. Asparagus, carrots, rice, mushrooms, and kelp form the bulk of most plant-based staples, while crickets, crayfish, and snakefish are the most common meat sources.
Geniune meat as we know it is a luxury: Most land is simply unsuitable for the growth of large livestock such as cows or pigs, and foraging about in the Wilds is an escapade only left to the most cautious or daring of scavengers. The meat of the blood-beasts is tough and stringy, often foul of taste and even stronger of odor, though a select few butchers can make it at least palatable with enough seasoning and curing. Most protein comes in the form of Kiel -- a mass-produced pressed cake made from combining kelp paste mashed with some easily-farmable protein stock: Typically crickets or crayfish. Kiel has a mild flavor and is rich in protein, and is usually used as meat is in cooking, although its blocky, crumbly texture doesn't make the best for all recipes.
Crime and seedy behaviour is a simple fact of life in any Ark, and Sainte-Azélie stands as no exception. Gambling halls, bars, brothels, and various other "social clubs" adorn street corners and receive widespread patronage deep into the hours of the night. Protected by gangs and Kanbu in exchange for money, goods, or services, fights for territory are an unfortunately common sight in Sainte-Azélie. Conventional wisdom is to make one's self appear innocuous (or as armed) as possible as to deter potential muggings.
- General term for space largely made savage by the corrupting influence of the Crimson Tide. - The Wilds formed from continuous exposure to the Crimson Tide. It seems to even distort the world around it, enveloping a red haze when inside it and discolouring all within its influence into a shade or orange or red. - Areas are converted into Wilds very slowly, the Tide is slow to move across to higher areas. - It is currently unknown if the Wilds can be de-contaminated, even if the source of the Tide is completely removed from the area. The process is speculated to take years, even decades. - It can, however, be stemmed with some clever engineering.
Looks like there's some solid interest so far! I have midterms today, so i'll give it another day to garner some more interest -- expect an OOC thread to go up Saturday.
