What is essentially a giant manufacturing arcology resembling an industrial plant, The Crucible serves as the capital city of the Forgeborne, and represents the total culmination of their industrial capabilities. Enormous walls surround the city, bristling with armaments and dotted with watchtowers. If one can look past the oil-stained streets, the soot-choked air, and the rather dirty living conditions, The Crucible is one of the safest, and warmest, cities in Frostfall. The real threat comes from constant breakdowns and the continual need to replace components, if these problems go unchecked the city could grind to a halt, leaving its citizens without power, water, and most importantly, heat.
hat is essentially a giant manufacturing arcology resembling an industrial plant, The Crucible serves as the capital city of the Forgeborne, and represents the total culmination of their industrial capabilities. Enormous walls surround the city, bristling with armaments and dotted with watchtowers. If one can look past the oil-stained streets, the soot-choked air, and the rather dirty living conditions, The Crucible is one of the safest, and warmest, cities in Frostfall. The real threat comes from the constant breakdowns and the need to replace components, for if these problems go unchecked, the city could grind to a halt, leaving its citizen's without power, water, and most importantly, heat.
hat is essentially a giant manufacturing arcology resembling an industrial plant, The Crucible serves as the capital city of the Forgeborne, and represents the total culmination of their industrial capabilities. Enormous walls surround the city, bristling with armaments and dotted with watchtowers. If one can look past the oil-stained streets, the soot-choked air, and the rather dirty living conditions, The Crucible is one of the safest, and warmest, cities in Frostfall. The real threat comes from the constant breakdowns and the need to replace components, for if these problems go unchecked, the city could grind to a halt, leaving its citizen's without power, water, and most importantly, heat.
hat is essentially a giant manufacturing arcology resembling an industrial plant, The Crucible serves as the capital city of the Forgeborne, and represents the total culmination of their industrial capabilities. Enormous walls surround the city, bristling with armaments and dotted with watchtowers. If one can look past the oil-stained streets, the soot-choked air, and the rather dirty living conditions, The Crucible is one of the safest, and warmest, cities in Frostfall. The real threat comes from the constant breakdowns and the need to replace components, for if these problems go unchecked, the city could grind to a halt, leaving its citizen's without power, water, and most importantly, heat.
hat is essentially a giant manufacturing arcology resembling an industrial plant, The Crucible serves as the capital city of the Forgeborne, and represents the total culmination of their industrial capabilities. Enormous walls surround the city, bristling with armaments and dotted with watchtowers. If one can look past the oil-stained streets, the soot-choked air, and the rather dirty living conditions, The Crucible is one of the safest, and warmest, cities in Frostfall. The real threat comes from the constant breakdowns and the need to replace components, for if these problems go unchecked, the city could grind to a halt, leaving its citizen's without power, water, and most importantly, heat.
hat is essentially a giant manufacturing arcology resembling an industrial plant, The Crucible serves as the capital city of the Forgeborne, and represents the total culmination of their industrial capabilities. Enormous walls surround the city, bristling with armaments and dotted with watchtowers. If one can look past the oil-stained streets, the soot-choked air, and the rather dirty living conditions, The Crucible is one of the safest, and warmest, cities in Frostfall. The real threat comes from the constant breakdowns and the need to replace components, for if these problems go unchecked, the city could grind to a halt, leaving its citizen's without power, water, and most importantly, heat.
hat is essentially a giant manufacturing arcology resembling an industrial plant, The Crucible serves as the capital city of the Forgeborne, and represents the total culmination of their industrial capabilities. Enormous walls surround the city, bristling with armaments and dotted with watchtowers. If one can look past the oil-stained streets, the soot-choked air, and the rather dirty living conditions, The Crucible is one of the safest, and warmest, cities in Frostfall. The real threat comes from the constant breakdowns and the need to replace components, for if these problems go unchecked, the city could grind to a halt, leaving its citizen's without power, water, and most importantly, heat.
If these key points don't catch your eye, then this roleplay likely isn't for you. ◦ | Post-Apocalyptic |
The world isn't just over, it's completely changed. The climate is different, the continents are fractured, and nobody knows which way is up anymore. Our little slice of the world, "Epoch", is what remains of the North American continent.
◦ | Supernatural |
Pretty much everything has been distorted into an unrecognizable state - Nothing exists as it once was. Reality warping events, nightmarish monsters, and a demographic of people who have been cursed with unnatural abilities - a people who can no longer die.
◦ | Survival |
Epoch is a wasteland, and as such, it does not bode an easy life. Between losing livestock to the unholy beasts who wander the land, to dealing with the poisoning of natural water supplies, resources are hard to come by. Those who are discontent with life in a settlement find themselves at the mercy of the freezing temperatures and a myriad of phenomena that are difficult, if not impossible, to explain.
◦ | Horror |
If carving an existence out of this nightmarescape wasn't difficult enough, let me expand upon the futility of life. Strange things happen in Epoch. Maddening, eldritch anomalies which seem to completely violate the established fundamental laws of the universe.
◦ | Non-linear |
There are no guides to lead you through this world, only paths to choose from. You decide which path to follow, which story to weave, and what threads to pull. The world will react, it will scream and it will purr, for your choices will resonate across the land, for better or for worse. There is only one thing you need to know, the world must be fixed, whether this mean resolving the issues that plague Epoch, or erasing the final remnants of humankind, is your choice.
The Lore
Tales of our trials and tribulations.
| by Lupita Palicio | Despite the incessant hearsay from self-proclaimed prophets and scholars of ancient doomsday cultures, humanity didn't end the world, not directly. Our downfall came from our unwillingness to disturb the lives we had built, from our self-imposed ignorance, and our inability to make hard choices rather than attempt to please every major advocate who managed to build a substantial media following. Ethics, morality, compassion: These are not universal truths, yet we pursued them as if they substantiated our lives. These issues pressed themselves to the forefront of our consciousness, until these controversial topics where imprinted into our daily lives on coffee mugs and protest signs, until we could focus on nothing else. Important issues were pushed back, relegated by committees with too much power and too little oversight. One such committee, ISOC (International Science Oversight Committee), began making great strides with these back-burner issues society seemed so complacent to ignore. The first of these proclaimed "Scientific Miracles" came in the form of Project Zeus, which in turn gave birth to the "Zeus Array". Comprised of weather towers, a fleet of drones, and several satellites, the Zeus Array worked to subtly nudge climates into desired directions. Rains began to fall on the Arabian Peninsula, coastal hurricanes were dispersed, and carbon emissions were being captured and ejected into space. ISOC used the resolutions of these back-burner issues to propagate changes for the more prominent problems the public focuses on. Nations began rolling out humanitarian changes like never before, new trade deals elevated the economy, and generally, life seemed to be improving. Little over a year later, early in the morning, a massive solar flare erupted from the Sun, resulting in an explosive coronal mass ejection, which is basically a massive release of plasma accompanied by a magnetic field. This magnetic field swept over the planet with a force several times greater than any man-made EMP we could deploy. Satellites became balls of fire streaking through the sky, power transformers exploded, planes began to plummet towards the earth, vehicles began to pileup on the roadways as automatic navigation failed, and so much more. By the time dawn came, modern technology had been completely wiped out. More importantly, there are two events which lead to the complete decline of human civilization. First, Nuclear reactors began to overheat, and though there were no movie worthy explosions, many of these facilities did burn to the ground, releasing an absurd amount of radioactive material into the atmosphere. Secondly, without the Zeus Array to maintain the delicate balance of influence ISOC had been maintaining over the normal weather patterns, the global climate immediately began to destabilize. The sheer amount of natural phenomena that began to occur caused untold devastation to the world. Hurricanes, surpassing category 5, began to rip coasts apart. Snowstorms began freezing over northern countries. Heat waves and wildfires began ravaging warmer climates. Some of us were fortunate enough to live through this, only to be subjected to an entirely new crisis. BRAD-1, the Biological Research and Development facility located somewhere near the eastern coast of the United States, split apart as the earth around became a sea of churning earth. We didn't know it at first, but the black plumes rising into the atmosphere from the burning facility carried a manufactured organism known as S-1. Also known as the "Strain", this organism was first developed with the intention of eliminating genetic defects from newborns by correcting damaged sequences of DNA. However, as S-1 entered the atmosphere, it was subject to the radiation from the failing nuclear plants, resulting in chaotic cellular evolution. S-1 began to mutate into different strains, the exact number of which is unknown, some of these strains would remain dormant, only to be discovered later. The initial split of S-1 created S-2 "Lazarus", the strain responsible for humanity's departure underground. In short, Lazarus creates nightmarish creatures known as "Corpsers", though to call these creatures "zombies" would be wildly inaccurate. Corpsers are not the living dead, they are mimics of the living. Lazarus not only already resides within humans, but also affects the cadavers of those who have long since past, even those that are nothing but bones. Lazarus has good intentions, but a flawed execution. This particular strain attempts to correct the problem of being dead by restoring base human functions and uses itself as self-replicating organic material. However, this process falls short and instead creates an armored, bulletproof nightmare with instincts composed survival, love, hate, and fear. Instincts which seem to cause corpsers to attack standard humans with extreme prejudice. By the time night fell after the Black Dawn, society had succumb to complete pandemonium. Everyone knows about the cryo-vaults, a system of bunkers that had been created to preserve humanity, each containing anywhere from several hundred, to thousands of cryo-pods. Over the next several days we fought tooth and nail for our place in the vaults as the hordes of blackened creatures began to scour the land. Creatures that ran faster, creatures that did not tire, and creatures we could not stop. Conventional weaponry was just not effective, and there had never been a widespread deployment of the more experimental weaponry that was slightly less ineffective. The lucky ones stepped into their pods, had their dials set for 300 years, and went to sleep. The calculations were made with great haste, but we hoped the corpsers would have starved to extinction, the strain would have died, and that the global climate would have balanced itself out. Nothing happened the way we thought it would.
| by Lupita Palicio | When we fled to the cryo-vaults there was no order, no system that determined who was allowed in and who was not. Of course, we had developed such a plan, charging outrageous prices for reservations, but in this scenario, only the fortunate found their way into a cryo-pod. After the Black Dawn, it did not matter if you were rich, intelligent, a criminal, or anything else. There was no longer such trivial things as "status", only human rodents scurrying away from the growing tide of monsters scratching at our backs. Three centuries later, the first capsules began to thaw and the doors of the surviving cryo-vaults began to open. There were not as many survivors as we had first predicted, as it had been difficult to thoroughly analyze the unstable nature of the Cataclysm. Some vaults took years to reach basic functionality as technicians worked to restore the necessary systems, some were ready within a few days, and others became tombs. It's also quite probable that many vaults collapsed as the earth broke apart, others flooded or invaded by the beasts that so hungered for our blood. It is also quite probable that the survivors on Epoch may be the last in the world, though we aren't certain for sure, we no longer dare to brave the waters. It wasn't until we had first strode out into the light, feeling the Sun singe our pallid flesh, that we understood the results of our ambitions. The world as we knew it was gone, there no longer was an Earth. What we found instead was a torrid landscape changed beyond all recognition, and though we were greeted by some seemingly familiar sights, it turns out that we knew nothing at all. Everything that had been of the old world had been rewritten and created anew. In that first year, we lost many people to the unknown. The survivor's "Rule of 3" states that a person can survive: 3 minutes without air, or in icy water; 3 hours without shelter in a harsh environment, unless in icy water; 3 days without water, if sheltered from a harsh environment; and 3 weeks without food, if you have water and shelter. These principles are how we managed to survive at all and these rules have become an important rule in our culture. We established ourselves slowly, and not without great difficulty, by following these rules. Step 1: Shelter. On average, it took several months to devise a way of constructing proper shelters, upgrading from patchwork tents to thatch huts, and eventually to the wide variety of structures you can find today. The greatest difficulty in performing this task was harvesting jungle wood, which quite frankly, were literally as tough as nails (thus the name, Ironwood). Naturally, we focused out settlements across the safer and more fertile areas, through the Vale, the Grasslands, and the Verdant Plains. We had been sent back all the way through time to the very basics of industry: farming, fishing, woodcutting, and so on. We are fortunate that we can survive at all, with all of the horrors that roam the lands. It is quite fortunate, in fact, that many beasts prefer to avoid our settlements, and those that are more aggressive, have learned to fear our villages and the traps that surround them - even the corpsers stay away from our walls. After five years, we've managed to create a foothold for ourselves, and it's become an uncommon occurrence to find that a major settlement has been attacked. Machine gun emplacements, barbed walls, spiked trenches, sonic fences, and napalm sprayers are great deterrents. Step 2: Water. It took us very little time to understand that we no longer had the capacity to enjoy the water provided through the natural cycles of Earth. For us, the planet's water had become poison. Thus came the discovery of strain S-3, "Deadwater". This variation bonds to H20 molecules and, when ingested, the victim's blood congeals and turns black, like a think ink, resulting in death. Currently, we've yet to understand why the creatures of Epoch can drink deadwater, yet humans cannot, we hypothesize it may have something to do with the strain. This hypothesis led us towards our first rudimentary attempts to filter the water, which was a mild success. The first batches of filtered water weren't entirely pure, but S-3 had been diluted enough that as long as we stuck to minimal levels of hydration, we'd survive. However, drinking diluted deadwater was still unpleasant. Ingestion of diluted deadwater could result in symptoms such as nausea, cramps, seizures, and delirium. Currently, we've managed to filter deadwater into a pure state, though the process is slow. Step 3: Food. It had been quite a process to understand what one could eat in Epoch. No longer were there apple trees, fields of wheat, or herds of deer to hunt. What we had instead, was a total lack of knowledge. Finding edible food became a fearful process. Think of the person who had first discovered acid grapes, who would voluntarily offer to consume something that could burn holes through the jaw and stomach? It was a long process to figure out what was safe, and what we could alter into states of safe consumption. Hunting the more passive, less dangerous creatures was also a toss of the coin. For instance, before the Muppy had become a domesticated pet, we had tried to use it as a source of renewable meat. Unfortunately, Muppies are rather toxic. Society became desperate, and violent, but eventually we figured it out. When we began scavenging resources from ruins, and procuring ores and wood, we began to learn about the creatures: Which were territorial, which would flee, those that hunted us, and so forth. An arduous process, but one that had to been done one way or another. Epoch is host to many strange and wondrous things, things that are also dangerous and violent, and those that are simply unexplainable. Somehow, we've managed to figure out the rules and keep pace with the ever changing and evolving laws of this world. Somethings we simply can't figure out, but progress never stops. Perhaps someday, we may reclaim the reigns of our planet, and I hope that when that day comes, we've learned from our mistakes. I have found there to be one universal truth, to which we must always adhere to: "Expect the unexpected".
| by Lupita Palicio | After five years, we've managed to reconstruct a semblance of our former lives, and though things are different, there's a certain kind of familiarity that can be appreciated by knowing one's place. Our major settlements are secure behind their barbed metal walls, our farms are productive, and we are still fortunate to have brave souls who dare brave the infested ruins of the old world. So now would be a good time to document the current state of affairs in what is now our fifth year of survival. As a people, I think we've come to understand the importance of working together. Yes, there are still bandits and raiders who roam the roadways, preying on the weak and unaware, but as a whole we've only survived because of our cooperation. EnAvant, who owns the only hydroelectric dam in the entire region, sells power and in exchange receives the necessary goods their people need to survive: such as food and animal byproducts from Drudgery; ore and glass from the Hub; and so forth. It's only because of our interconnected network of trade do we manage to survive and eek out a half decent existence in Epoch at all. Society, in large, has come to see advanced technology as a distasteful thing responsible for calling the nightmares up from hell and into our world - they're not far off. However, most of us understand the necessity of technology, especially those concerning the defense of our lands and those that increase our industrial potential: the kinds of things that help us survive. We've become focused on our own merits, and the things we can make with our own hands. No more is the day of mechanical servants, in fact, most places have just about outlawed anything coming close to sentient A.I. We've come to understand that there must always be a human element, which is a step in the right direction. We are largely dependent on the providers; the manual laborers and their security teams who brave the forests and the mines to gather resources; the scavengers who gather the relics of the old world and strip the ruins of all useful material; the creature farmers and food growers. It is because of these people than we can pursue whatever our hearts desire, as long as we can sustain ourselves from our ideals. The Tether has played a large role in this, providing us the ability to connect ourselves with one another over vast distances, much like the internet of old. We have made leaps and bounds in our crafts. Our smiths create amazing inventions, from telescoping swords to spring-loaded spears. Gunslingers who can consistently hit a creature's weak spots are few and far between, the common method of monster hunting is with swords. Some weapons are of the smaller, thinner variety, boasting accuracy and precision. Some armaments are enormous things made lightweight materials intended not to hit a creature's weak points, but to shatter their defenses. Guns have evolved too, from shotguns that fire fist-sized slugs, to javelin rifles, to pistols that spew streams of nitro-fire. Our advancements, from a personal standpoint, are utterly amazing. Transportation varies, from scrap cars held together by a wish and a prayer, to long trains of battle wagons bristling with weapons. With our advancements in cybernetic prosthesis, we've also developed a sort of exoskeleton, allowing us to deploy heavily armored front-line fighters and lighter, faster recon elements. In Epoch, there are many ways to get around, provided you can afford them. Our primary focus has been to increase of our military might, because despite all of our advancements in technology we still fall far behind in power when compared to the monsters that plague us. We've also been unable to develop anything to combat the wild storms that scour Epoch's surface, nor have we achieved anything that can detect or disperse the formation of anomalies - for which science is at a complete loss. Life is hard, and dangerous, but it is a life.
•Respect the GM• Please understand that, while I value your opinions and your constructive criticisms, this is ultimately my world and I will manage it the way I feel is best. You may always seek the principles behind a particular decision, provided they are not intended to be hidden plot devices, but you must understand that I have the final say. I'm not so prideful that I cannot admit when I've done something in error, but nor is it appropriate to throw a tantrum or act belligerent. Additionally, I may approve things that, after further thought, I may reconsider to be inappropriate in a particular setting or imbalanced. This rule extends to any Co-GM I bring on-board. Any concerns you have may always be brought to my attention for discussion, as long as we remain polite and respectful of one another.
1. Be cool like Fonz.
•Creation and Participation• In nearly all of the worlds I run, I like to refrain from linear objectives and constraining settings. I enjoy having players who create content, expand the world, and embed their characters into the setting. I enjoy players who take liberties, and if I ever have a problem with something I will bring it to your attention. However, more often than not, I am pleasantry surprised when a character's actions change the course of a particular event, or plot. I once had a writer inadvertently start a war between a faction they had created, and my own. I don't simply want players who skim across the boundaries of what I have written, I don't want players to simply reaction to the world, I want players to experience the world's I create. The only catch here is that major events or changes should be discussed with me first, to ensure you don't conflict with my hidden plots or the machinations of other players.
•Expectations of Content• I do not filter my writing except when adhering to the rules of the guild. Anyone who finds themselves emotionally or mentally vulnerable to particularly dark scenes, especially those that can be considered violent and traumatic, should not participate in this roleplay. If you do not fully understand what I am referring to here, please PM me. Additionally, for the darker, more abusive scenes, and for those of a more sexual nature, you must absolutely refrain from going into detail. There are two common methods for these kinds of things: Implication, and Fade-to-Black. Particularly, one of the reasons for this, other than being a public forum of a primarily non-adult setting full of minors, is also because of Google AdSense, which selects ads based on website content.
Google AdSense is a program run by Google that allows publishers in the Google Network of content sites to serve automatic text, image, video, or interactive media advertisements, that are targeted to site content and audience.
DO NOTS: •Do not be unduly descriptive with sexual details. •Do not be unreasonably excessive with your gore. •Do not be overly, or continually discriminatory with slurs and slander. •Do not post explicit mature content. This is not a smut.
Keep things tactful and tasteful. It's best to err on the side of caution and only describe things as required by the needs of your character, scene, or world. It's also quite recommended to use implication and the good 'ol "Fade-to-Black" technique.
•Posting Order and Frequency• We will post in cycles. I will start off a "Cycle" by posting first, afterwards writers will be eligible to make a single post per character in no particular order. If your post leaves your character at a time within the world that is behind the majority, and you feel you cannot simply jump ahead to catch up without finishing whatever situation your character is involved in, I will not mind a second post. Situations like these should be brought to my attention, but if the decision is made in good judgement, then I would be hard-pressed to argue with it.
Posting frequency will be at minimum: One post per two weeks, although the sooner the better, writers who continually wait until the very last day to post are usually the writers who leave us after two weeks. You may make one post per character, though you do not have to, Secondary characters can be put on the back-burner until you deem them relevant, or your can make a post for them every cycle, it's up to you. Additionally, players make substitute the requirement to make a post with a collaboration done with another player, or, they may post a collaboration in addition to their character oriented posts.
Minimum IC Expectation: One IC post every two weeks. Maximum IC Expectation: One IC post for each character, one "wrap up" post if needed, and one collaborative post.
Regarding Time-Skips: I will give as much notice as I can and I will likely set a date so that everyone is aware and has a chance to wrap up whatever they are doing. If you need to write half of a novel to finish up, then we'll deal with it. In the most common situation, I will ensure the majority is ready, and willing to time skip. Unless it involves changing the day from night to morning, I will do that a lot, obviously. (You're also allowed to jump to morning before I do, just make sure your character is relatively around the same time as the other characters, or that your character is not too far ahead/behind.)
Regarding Collaborative Posts: These posts should be done in a way where they can either be done quickly, or be inserted whenever finished. If you've fallen behind on your collab post there are two solutions: Write separate ICs and ensure you can post your collab during the next round of posts, or ask for a pass on posting this round. In the case of the later, this is not to become a habitual thing. It's best to write collaborative posts in a way that they can be done overtime and inserted whenever they are completed. Generic settings such as bar scenes, beach scenes, things not particularly plot-dependant and the like. If this collab is important to the story and is needed for your characters to progress, you'll have to figure out how to manage it. Lastly, if you've done a "fluff" piece with someone else, but also want to make a non-collaborative IC post for your character, I won't mind if you make IC posts for your character and put up the collab.
•Standard Rules• These are the common sense, well known rules. •Do not God-Mod: To modify, manipulate, or override a situation to your character's advantage simply to avoid a certain outcome without any reliable pretense or realism, especially in regards to actions taken by character you do not control, or entities you otherwise may not influence.
A character shoots a gun at your character's head, from an extremely close distance and in response you describe; A) How the bullet jammed in the barrel, saving your character; B) Your character was actually Spiderman all along and he does a double helix 720 blackflip dodge; C) Your character is a badass who doesn't flinch as the bullet whizzes past their head because the other character missed, because reasons.
•No Mary Sues (or Gary Stus): A Mary Sue is an idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character. Often this character is recognized as an author insert or wish-fulfillment. "Mary Sue" is judged as a poorly developed character, too perfect and lacking in realism to be interesting. Also, as a tip, "Plain Peter" and "Basic Bob", who have nothing special about them and exist as the "Average Joe" character tend to get boring quickly.
"Mary Sue stories—the adventures of the youngest and smartest ever person to graduate from the academy and ever to get a commission at such a tender age. Usually characterized by unprecedented skill in everything from art to zoology, including karate and arm-wrestling. This character can also be found burrowing her way into the good graces/heart/mind of one of the Big Three [Kirk, Spock, and McCoy], if not all three at once. She saves the day by her wit and ability, and, if we are lucky, has the good grace to die at the end, being grieved by the entire ship."
•Fade-To-Black: A tasteful and tactful measure if you really want to characters to get their "Woohoo" on, or for the evil villain to gruesomely torture the hero, and other things that are generally not appropriate for the general public. Avoid actively describing these scenes, and instead imply that the situation will happen, fade to black, and move on to a later point. You can even have a character confirm these actions, albeit not in detail.
Character A: "Bro, did you get your Woohoo on?!" Character B: "Bro, I sexed Character C so good, it was wild."
•Do not control, manipulate, maim, or kill characters or "private" NPCs without permission. Obviously, you are not allowed to control other writer's characters, so, moving on: A "private" NPC is an entity a writer has created in a world for minor, or major plot purposes, convenience, backstory, and etc. A bit of a gray area, so it's best to ask yourself, "Do I really need to this to this NPC?". However, not every NPC you create will be claimable (eg: Bandits A, B, and C.) and this right is reserved for the NPCs that serve an actual purpose as opposed to those created on the spot for tension, story, or drama. On the flip-side, not all NPCs that are unlisted are open for you to control. If you create an NPC and it is unlisted then I, or other writers, may interact with them such as stabbing them through their filthy peasant heart. This rule also means you cannot dictate how other writer's characters should act in regards to other entities. Additionally (I know), this also means that if you create a "Discardable NPC", other writer's may incorporate them into their stories, and thus obtaining ownership of an important NPC. Try to maintain a particular unclaimed NPCs personality to the best of your ability, Grandma Gertrude with her love for puppies and gardening probably doesn't enslave children, just saying.
I will create many NPCs, some of greater importance than others. The only things that I create that will be off limits are my characters and those I list as private NPCs, not to be confused with the general dossier of important world figures. When controlling world NPCs, or other writer's NPCs with permission, try to maintain the established personality and character already set in place. Nobody's perfect, and we're not mind readers, so just do your best. If you choose to take a violent act, or even kill, one of my NPCs.. be fully prepared for the repercussions. To reiterate: If it is relevant to your character's actions , mood, personality, and so forth, you may kill ANY of my non-private NPCs—Just be prepared to suffer the potential consequences. You may not feed my important NPCs to rabid dogs because you felt it would be fun.. unless your character is a Bolton. To reiterate that, ONLY your character has the power to kill ANY of my more important World Pawns, in other situations, please ask first. For example: Don't sacrifice my world pawns to a group of bandits you materialized from nowhere, that serves no other purpose than your whims. If you've such a thing in mind, discuss it with me first, I'm usually open to brutally ending the lives of my pawns.. Ahem.. I mean, interesting plot devices.
•Guild Rules and Consent• This roleplay and all of its participants will adhere to the Fundamental Rules of the Guild. By applying to participate in this roleplay, players agreed that they are assumed to be of a proper age and mental state to participate in a roleplay with mature themes and content.
The "Ahza" model synthetic golem is modeled after young adult female, purposefully ambiguous in precise age to facilitate better receptance by the organic conscious mind. The outer aesthetic layer is a synthetic dermal skin, light in tone and fair in complexion. The facial dermal area contains a slight grouping of freckles, notably on the cheeks and forehead. This iteration of Ahza favors a punk hairstyle: a long, sweeping faux-hawk with the right side of her head shaved and bangs that curtain the edges of her face. She also primarily favors a casual punk-rock look.
Her figure is the data-driven median between human females of an average or toned build. The model structure appears lightly toned, slender and lithe, with trimmed curves and moderate visual proportions in the hips and bust. Beneath the outer layer is the shell: a framework of layered alloy resembling human musculature. The shell layer is dark gunmetal in color, with sleek blue-silver accents. Beneath that is the underlayer: resembling a skin-tight nano-suit, the underlayer is deep black in color and safely contained within are the various structural components, hardware, and synthetic organs.
Ahza has no memory of life before her adoptive Khondlathu mother, Razdiyahkrah Ahn'Myazkihkarr, better known as Razdiyah, placed her consciousness inside a highly advanced, highly experimental golem. Ahza is not even the first version of herself. For the past six decades Razdiyah has been perfecting a highly advanced, highly experimental synthetic golem for Ahza - one that could fuse cybernetics and bio-organic matter and, somehow, house an organic consciousness. Experimentation often results in failure and those failures meant wiping Ahza's personality matrix from the golem. The failures have been frustratingly numerous.
The project, a colloquial misnomer dubbed "Project Aiza" by the scientific community, was thought to be all but impossible. There were simply too many factors that had to be accounted for, chief among them was that the technology just simply wasn't there. For the first few years, the project caused a fervor within related fields of the scientific community, especially among divisions operating beneath the Black City Conglomerate, who held zealous interest in the project. A Khondlathu scientist, of all races, taking on an impossible project to save the the life of her daughter, and making progressive breakthroughs in her research. Unfathomable, and yet the story circulated and it captured the attention of sentimental romantics and intrepid explorers of science.
Razdiyah had become a forerunner of some renown in medicine, cybernetics, and neurology. She is the progenitor of synthetic organs, a variation on vat-grown organs with broader tolerances and less stringent cellular demands. Her synthetic golem had become a popular template among bi-pedal humanoid species, especially as a template model for service-AI. The technology required for Project Aiza didn't exist, which mean Razdiyah had to create it, and every creation, every major breakthrough or scientific stride she made, she outrageously gave away for free. She published her work online, not even charging so much as a subscription to her webpage. The grants and funding she received freely were immense, much more than she needed, even with outrageously high operating costs. She received thousands of offers to come work for various agencies, governments, and schools. For a time, she was a celebrity.
And then one day she disappeared. No farewell message, no signs of a tragic accident or foul play, she was just simply gone. Now, decades later, she is nothing more than the memory of a legend. Most think she is either dead, some think she simply got tired of the publicity, others contemplate burnout and early retirement. The more radical idealists think she finally accomplished her goal and transcended into... something else. The exact nature of her research has fallen into obscurity, catalogued in the annuals of years past, her breakthroughs all but forgotten in the face of advancement that never ceases. Razdiyah, the mother of machines, was no more.
The reality is that Razdiyah went into hiding. Moments before a swarm of Carnazir forces descended on her facility an unmarked para-military group extracted Razdiyah, Ahza, and the greater majority of her experimental work. They took her to a secure facility where she met The Benefactor, a man of much mystery and significant political importance. Razdiyah was wary, but she knew she had little choice other than to accept The Benefactor's offer of protection and funding. All they wanted in return was the minor inconvenience of full operational control of her research and directional oversight. In short, The Benefactor wanted to explore the practical applications of Razdiyah's work, especially in regards to potential military application. In exchange for his discretion and support, Razdiyah agreed to sign away her current and future work. It was then that she realized who had saved her and then subsequently imprisoned her. Now, she worked exclusively for the Intranszjednota and Ahza was now a classified military asset.
Ahza is spunky, fiery, and strong-willed. She's fiercely loyal and protective of those she cares about and has a bold sense about justice. She hates needless suffering and will fight for anyone too weak or helpless to fight for themselves. She's not afraid to stand up for what she believes in, even if that means going against authority or taking risks. However, Ahza's impulsive nature gets her into trouble. She's prone to acting first and thinking later, which can lead to reckless behavior and unintended consequences. Her stubbornness can also make it difficult for her to accept help or advice from others, as she prefers to rely on her own instincts and judgments.
Ahza is also highly independent and values her freedom above all else. She's thoughtful, philosophic, and unabashedly curious about life. She loves experiencing new things. She may resist authority and rules that she feels limit her ability to make her own choices and pursue her own interests. This can make her difficult to work with at times, but it also means that she is not easily swayed by outside influences or pressure.
Overall, Ahza's personality is a mix of strengths and weaknesses, with her strong will and passion driving her to pursue her goals and defend her beliefs, while her impulsiveness and stubbornness can sometimes lead her astray.
One of the many difficulties of Ahza's creation lies in her powerful psionic connection to the Abyssic Plane. She can draw upon the abyssic energies with ease, but struggles to control the power. The energy rages within her, slick and difficult to hold like a twisting, writhing beast. It is like a massive tidal wave of power, fetid and rotten, which she must hold back and funnel through a straw, or else she will lose control and likely lose herself. Otherwise, she is quite a powerful sorceress and a living calamity to on any battlefield.
Ahza's etheric abilities specialize in biomass. She can generate a malodorous flesh, pallid and sickly white, with a viscous, slimy texture like an open wound. The biomass can be used in various ways: primarily, she can use it to enhance herself, turning herself into a genetic nightmare of flesh and metal and teeth. She can manifest and spread a reeking, oozing mire and grow constructs of flesh. The biomass is incredibly dense and resilient, able to withstand a punishing amount of firepower, and is highly resistant to etheric abilities. She can also use the biomass to create malefic, twisted mimicries of nature: spore pods, grasping tendrils, etc.
Ahza qillatu by-product is absorbed by the biomass, solidifying its presence in the mortal plane and strengthen its link to the abyss. The more qillatu the biomass absorbs, the more organic matter and etheric energy it consumes, the stronger it gets. The stronger the biomass gets, the more difficult it is for Ahza to exert her will over it. She struggles even to control herself when allowing it to possess her and turn her into a bloodthirsty monster. It ties to erode away her personality, hungers to consume her mind. It is a dangerous power and Ahza hesitates to use it, relying on her cybernetic capabilities whenever she can.
• Mnemonic Bio-Shell [x] — Ahza's outer shell is a flexible, living armor designed to withstand significant amounts of punishment and extreme elements. The armor is comprised of a hyperdense tungsten-carbyne superalloy, with added aluminum bonds for flexibility, and a similarly dense chromium-silica-nickel superalloy. These two alloys are fused together, creating an ultra-dense, highly flexible superalloy dubbed "Titan Superalloy". Then, the titan superalloy is bonded with a metal-based organism created from gene-splicing Unztadtlige and Khondlathu genetics. The superalloy-organism uses extreme heat induction to induce cell division, reproducing through replication and providing a controllable form of regeneration. The armor gets its name from the organism's ability to remember its registered molecular placement, thus being able to preserve its shape when regrowing.
• Reactive Titan Weave [x] — Ahza's underlayer is a viscoelastic, non-Newtonian armor. The armor is made from layers of ultra-high molecular weight titan superalloy fibers. Within the fibers are micro-channels of a non-Newtonian fluid made from the molecular suspension of molten ultra high density polycarbonate and powdered titan superalloy. The threads disperse thermal and kinetic energy, while the polycarbonate-superalloy solution returns equal kinetic force. When kinetic force is applied the polycarbonate solution displaces, allowing the powdered superalloy to entangle and harden, effectively negating kinetic shock until the tensile threshold is broken.
• Thermo-Fusion Core — The thermal fusion core creates heat and energy by smashing atomic nuclei together. The resulting nuclei has less mass than the two is it comprised of, releasing its extra mass as energy. The by-product produces extremely fast neutrons, which generate heat, and helium. This reaction produces the massive amounts of heat and energy Ahza requires to operate. The core provides good operational uptime but still requires "charging" with hydrogen atoms. Ahza can enter into a low-power mode to harvest these atoms when available, such as from an atmosphere, or by electrolysis - using electric currents to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
• Thermic Plasma Booster — Ahza can extend two angled ventilation ports near the upper-center of her back. She can increase the power generation of her core and ventilate the excess heat from these ventilation ports to create thrust. She is capable of reaching peak speeds of 1,500 mph (Mach 2).
• "Salas" — The machine mind that acts as the intermediary between Ahza and the complex operational requirements needed by her synthetic body. Salas is one part nanny, one part instructor, and two parts filthy spy for her mother, Razdiyahkrah.
• Razdiyahkrah Ahn'Myazkihkarr — Ahza's adoptive Khondlathu mother. Razdiyah was once a renown scientist specializing in bioengineering and cybernetics. Her fame has faded over the last several decades after she went into hiding, working in service for a mysterious entity known as "The Benefactor".
• The Benefactor — A mysterious individual who cautiously operates from the shadows. Nothing is known about The Benefactor, other than they are somehow involved with the Intransigence and the Envenomed Squad. It is presumed they are some sort of political powerhouse.
Just a passerby - who intends not to be rude - but whom suggests that perhaps a little organization work on your interest check may see your labor bearing fruit. I, myself, did not get very far.
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