Excession

INHERITANCE - transhuman sci-fantasy space opera, bespoke system

Do I need to be a Bandi? Can I be an Other?

@Havoccultist

Bandi only to start with, and Others aren't really intended to be playable, but I might allow characters from some of the other factions and transhuman clades.

Pirates of the Darkening Skies

You have extrapolated accurately, although 'just being too fucking dangerous to ignore' is the only real criterion Kurze fulfilled.
Burk was the last person to join the council and the only one likely to die of old age. The Unfortunate Son is under a life extension spell but might die in his own arena.

INHERITANCE - transhuman sci-fantasy space opera, bespoke system

unhide to be instantly lotuspilled

Hider

INHERITANCE - transhuman sci-fantasy space opera, bespoke system

A memeplex was theorized by Richard Dawkins before he went off the deep end; a collection of memes which form a cohesive whole and have a web of inter-relationships and dependencies.
Any organized religion can be considered a memeplex, as can some cultural conventions and, I would have argued before the philosophy faculty had me removed, so too are many internet media fandoms and roleplaying games.

Think of this conception of The Others as a kind of contagious religious mania which induces compulsive behaviours, fixations, and shifts in values culminating in the carrier messily exploding from their own flesh as a huge lotus of volanic glass in which eyes are suspended reflecting a world entirely at odds with the physical surrounds while the less-progressed cases gather and wail prayer-like strings of gibberish.
Is this an accurate understanding of The Others? Maybe. It is definitely an accurate understanding of something in the setting.

INHERITANCE - transhuman sci-fantasy space opera, bespoke system

<Snipped quote by Excession>

This is downright erotic. I really hope this gets rolling.

@Polybius

Thank you! I think all of my finest prose comes out when I write for this setting and my demon wuxia epic.
And if this doesn't get rolling, I was going to see if 'a mixed pack of demons and damned souls are set the task of delivering a scroll containing the nine billion names of God to Pandemonium in between comedies of manners and tournament arcs' is more digestible to a general audience.

INHERITANCE - transhuman sci-fantasy space opera, bespoke system

Good stuff. I'd ideally like a quorum of four players, so let's see if anyone else bites - and feel free to invite anyone who might be interested.

I found something in my notes to best express what we're doing here.

Bandi Sensorium

To conceptualize the sensorium of a Bandi is near impossible for any other lifeform; organic, cybernetic, mechanical - but let us try.

Consider the Vala, The Flame of Justice, a Soulcage favoured for brute simplicity.

Imagine nothing. Neither sight nor scent nor touch. Imagine your spellware booting up. An outsider may perceive lines of code on an external screen, but for the Bandi the first wave of internal diagnostics is sensation.

'cage integrity is nothing, until it is breached. Only a total awareness of every centimetre of form, and of attuned weapons. A sword is a folded finger. A full magazine is a lungful of air. Shield intensity is warmth and weight spread over the shell. Mana reserves are joy bubbling beneath a calm veneer. Comms are a soft chorus, lights in the dark. An absolute understanding of position relative to allies and targets, like shifting patches of heat and cold across your skin.

Immediate visual perception is a bloom of impossible colour until filtering subroutines pare it back to total clarity beyond the resolution of an organic eye. Facing is irrelevant; vision is distributed across every surface of the Soulcage. Audio is briefly deafening until similar filters block out the noise and selectively emphasize priority data; the sound of footsteps, the snap of a reload. Overlays highlight items of interest and trigger emotional resonances. The armoury is love. The repair sarcophagus is maternal warmth. Long obsolete biological imperatives are repurposed to the nature of the mechanism.

The enemy inspires hunger. Their reactor core triggers disgust.

In the arc of a blade lies euphoria. The gender of the Bandi is violence.

And for the Vala, other senses. An immaculate grasp of temperature for dozens of metres. Ally and enemy and muzzleflash are not crude heatmaps of lesser devices but an intuitive understanding; that is the low thrum of a heatsink, this is the warm path of arterial blood, and there the scant after-image of a bullet bullying air aside. An extension of the self, that one might reach out with pure intent and halt ignition in the rifle's chamber.

Any other being trying to ride the senses of Bandi would be overwhelmed by input. Human vision is a patchwork of intersaccadal flashes, a kludge of last-second edits to maximize signal value in service of mammalian processing to keep meat within its limits. Too many inputs and the whole organism is paralyzed by indecision or thrown into desperate action. There is meat within the Soulcage, but the protection of that sealed armour extends beyond physical.
In the execution of its purpose, a Bandi is perfect; the kaleidoscope of sight, sound, telemetry, weapon status, velocity, position winnowed to razor edge second by second. Thought and action become one, sheared of all uncertainty, unless...

The natural state of a Bandi is war. Take one from the battlefield, deprive it of both sleep and prey. What thoughts may emerge? What sights slip behind the eyeless faceplate? What does a sword dream?

Perhaps we may discuss other Soulcages of more esoteric perception another time - the deathsight of Jadugara, the prescience of Raksaka, the hum of Fate's threads surrounding Nabi. Or would you rather speculate on the Jukari senses, or conjecture widlly of The New Flesh?

INHERITANCE - transhuman sci-fantasy space opera, bespoke system

Been a while.... I'd like to dip my metaphorical saber into this magitek pie.

Question... I'm assuming there's more lore coming, but are the Bandi and the Others known to have existed or sit in mythological memory of the current empires populace? Like how many centuries later are we talking? And who the fuck is Will and why is he so fiery? I'm intrigued.

@Polybius

There will indeed be much more lore.

The Bandi are varying degrees of mythical to the survivors - the Dusters of the earliest colony tell tales of the eyeless warriors who defended them in the decades following the Fall, treasure hunters from the Ringworld claim to have seen Bandi slumbering in stasis crypts, the Jukari Empire insists they were merely an icon of military propaganda.

The Others are contentious. Some think they're myth, a few highly placed and secretive researchers have found evidence of The Others at hidden battlefields, and no one agrees what they were - aliens from beyond the Palatial System, a rampant Magi creation, an infectious Basilisk memeplex from a black hole, extradimensional travelers, at least one crackpot believes they were Magi from some strange and distant future come to prevent their own existence.

No one is entirely sure how long it's been since the Fall, due to relatavistic travel and informational decay. It is generally agreed to have been at least 500 years with some claiming a mere two hundred, and the Ringworlders insistent it's been an entire millenium.

Will remains fiery until questioned too closely and this to be desired, mostly, if you would rebuild heaven through violence.

Pirates of the Darkening Skies

Some info on prizes (ships to go after for loot)

Easy
Independant traders, especially in Shaydensea, over the northlands and Curselands - in the Stormcircle is more likely to be profitable, but riskier due to Cartel patrols.

Troll trade ships can be hard to take individually, but you're less likely to suffer reprisal from Trollhaven.

Challenging
Spire Cartel Trade Ships are well armed but can be profitable, may draw the ire of the cartel.

Engineer's Guild Ships can be hugely profitable but are often heavily armed with unique and unpredictable weapons.

Other pirates because the sky ain't got no law and if you can't defend yourself you will not prosper.

Suicidal
Imperial Traders will impress Mandalthraxus but pits you against Imperus' merchant navy and there could be members of Their elite forces onboard.

Great House Traders very likely will have Scions onboard and can result in a very personal vendetta with the owning House.

Inquisition ships are a coinflip at high cost - they could have something obscenely valuable onboard, even just intel that can be sold to nation states, but Inqusitors and their retinues are absolutely no joke in a fight.

Edit: many typos I got two hours sleep and just finishing muscling through a workday

Pirates of the Darkening Skies

I have a map of questionable accuracy somewhere but I should add a geographical synopsis.

Awakend Wood is the geographical center of the main continent, surrounded by the Stormcircle. Stormcircle is bordered to the noth by the Hell's Teeth mountain range, to the west by the Hungry Mire and the border of Kaer, to the south by the coast of the Slumbering Sea, and to the east by the Bulwark - a great wall to keep out the Curse.
Beyond Kaer and the Mire is the peninsula where the Iron Citadel lies.
Beyond Hell's Teeth is the City-Engine, and further north of that is the astutely named North Sea, beyond which is Trollhaven.
Past the Bulwark are the Curselands, which contain Shaydensea in their northern region, Throne on the east coast, Castle Grudgeonghast south of Shaydensea before you hit the Imperial Highway.
The House of Sighs is tucked away in the foothills of the Teeth, a bit northwest of Shaydensea.

In the Shaydensea are the floating islands populated by pirates, outcasts, and weirdoes - Kontina, Moonbend (home of the great library where Vampire Clan Ithim dwell), Perdition, The Black Rose...

Pirates of the Darkening Skies

@Excession Tbh if we are going Necroship, I will likely lock in Necro Tree as my character :P The ship works best with a necromancer on board I read (is that correct?) and I like the idea of a necro dryad.

Edit: Mind giving me a lore dumb on Necromancers and their standing? I read the bit that was available in the document with the different magic and all. Maybe you have some more? Also about the World Beyond the Veil (I don't recall how you call it)?

@Benzaiten

Pretty much all I have on paper right now is the Necromancer blurb and the breakdown of powers in that doc, their role in Kaer and the Stormcircle societies, and this bit about the World Without Sun:

World Without Sun

The World Without Sun exists just beneath the surface of reality, more tightly connected to the physical world than the Ether but more sporadically. The best way to describe it is to begin with Haunts. Haunts are locations steeped in both death and emotional resonance, and form in three ways – a particularly strong-willed ghost awakens in a location of personal significance, a large number of individuals share an emotionally significant location and die in rapid succession, or an individual dies in an emotionally charged manner (massacres also work, like mass executions, accidents, battlefields). The place of death can serve as a suitable location of personal significance, but so too can childhood homes or similar places – hence the stories of ghosts belonging to dead generals appearing at home even as the generals themselves die miles away.

Haunts are closely overlaid on the physical location to which they are attached. They persist in a timeless state where it rains eternally, though there is no sensation but the cold, and beyond the close borders of the Haunt is only darkness. Ghosts 'live' in their Haunts, carefully gleaning Passions from the people who may still be there or pass through, and from acts of mourning at their grave. Haunts gradually twist into strange reflections of their physical source, changed to resemble the personality and emotions of the dominant ghost, and the Passion they harvest most. The Passions are Fear, Desire, Anger, and Sorrow. Fear and Anger are perhaps the easiest to evoke, but a ghost is shaped by the Passions it feeds on, and over-reliance on one Passion leads to near-feral, simple ghosts.

Gradually, Haunts sink into Chambers – loosely connected to the world via Haunts, Chambers are bizarre, enclosed realms that vary in size from a single room to an entire battlefield. They are metaphor incarnate, filled with symbolism and manifestations of their owner's personality. Little Passion trickles into this realm, and the ghosts bicker and battle bitterly over the thin spoils. Ghosts here are often centuries old, barely human any more in either thought or appearance. Some even become simple, violent monsters that rove from Chamber to Chamber trying to consume other ghosts. And of course, there are the Keepers – vast and terrible creatures that enforce the strange taboos of this world, preventing the degenerate ghosts from returning to the surface world.

Some Necromancers use the World Without Sun as a place to hide, or to rapidly travel to other places on the surface by moving between Haunts. The raw material that the old ghosts represent to more skilled Necromancers also cannot be ignored.

Necromancers tend to be free spirited artistic types, so you can find them more or less anywhere doing what they like to do best. The two most common places to find them are the necroanarchies of the Stormcircle where they maintain the foundations of those settlements, or in the Necrocommunist Union of Kaer where they form the ranks of The Central Party.
When they need money, they can sell various services like:
- Bonework grafts
- Bonework machines
- Murder investigations
- Legal advocacy, allowing ghosts to appear at relevant trials
- Psychopomp services, helping ghosts pass on
- Exorcism of violent ghosts
- Archaeology (not very profitable without a patron)
- Necromantic maintenance; of ships, of bone golems, of grafts, spell wards, etc.