[center][h1]1/1/2300[/h1][/center]
[center][h3]"Black January"[/h3][/center]

In the year 2020, Interorbital Systems in collaboration with various Chinese, Russian, and American corporations established Armstrong City in Copernicus crater on the Moon. In the following years, the lunar surface exploded with countless different private companies claiming land to get at the abundant helium-3 on the body. Which, with the advent of efficient fusion technology, fetched a high price. The moon became like the eastern coast of America during the colonial era, with new spacecraft from Earth arriving periodically to bring new colonists and supplies. A permanent interorbital vessel was built to do never-ending laps around Earth and the Moon to provide cheap, bulk transport between Earth and her new colonies.

It wasn't long, of course, before humans started popping up on Mars. Just four years later, SpaceX founded the first permanent settlement on Mars. And then, as Mars grew, humanity decided to look out just a bit further. Mining ships were sent out to asteroids, and were soon replaced with mining towns. If the Moon was the east coast, then Mars and the asteroids were the wild west. Entire towns with hundreds of residents popped up in nights to tap the resources of the belt. By 2050, the Moon had sprawling metropolises populated with the many millions of people that simply couldn't fit on Earth anymore. Corporations moved production into space, where there was technically no actual law. Since no countries could claim land in space, the corporations did it instead.

The world became a radically different place. Areas one considered undeveloped jumped directly to a post-industrial society in a second scramble for Africa, this time with the corporations being the players rather than European empires. Corporate armies acting on behalf of various governments suppressed rebellions, ended civil wars, and turned entire countries into their puppets. With the riches of space they turned these once impoverished nations into economic powerhouses. Space elevators began to pop up in equatorial Africa, the Sahara became a massive field of solar panels, and villages that once didn't even have a well turned into cities. The population exploded, and even more colonists were provided for the corporations and their ambitions.

In 2107, we invented biological immortality. It only added fuel to the fire. As it became easier and easier to get the necessary genetic modifications, the human population just grew larger and larger. Nobody bothered to stop it. No one child laws were introduced, no attempts to curb the population boom. When there wasn't room, people just left Earth for the colonies. In 2150 or so, people started to leave the Moon. The total human population by then was somewhere around 350 billion. We didn't stop.

Now, the year is 2300. We passed a trillion a while back, and now humanity numbers in the hundreds of trillions. The moons of Jupiter have been colonized long ago, countless billions live in aerostat habitats floating in the atmosphere of Venus, and the older asteroid colonies are now hollowed-out, spinning worlds with their own internal atmosphere and weather. Many wars have been fought, and many colonies have earned their freedom.

Corporations operate interplanetary navies, now-independent nations have taken up countless different ideologies. In many asteroids, society is a free-for-all competition to generate the most profit. Across the solar system corporations hold total sway. Humanity is entering a stage in its existence wherein inequality is artificially ensured by law. Capitalism as we once knew it no longer holds total sway, in many places being replaced with a strange system of universal basic incomes for the "unemployed middle class" to keep them participating in a monetary economy while the poor underclasses live in slums at best and slave shacks at worst. Where pure capitalism still exists, there are a few ultrarich individuals surrounded by billions of barely surviving near-slaves stepping on each other's heads in an attempt to get to the top.

But all that might be about to change. 

On the first of January of this year, something unprecedented happened. The bubble burst. With the resources to support ten quadrillion being mined in the asteroid belt, the entire human economy was based upon a false scarcity kept in place with the economic equivalent of the liberal application of duct tape. And that tape has given way. The stock market has crashed in an event that has become known simply by the date it occurred on: 1/1/2300 (usually shortened to 1/1/23). The new world has become old, replaced by an uncertain future where anything is possible.

Humanity's future is no longer the bright utopia proposed to the masses for centuries. And the masses will [i]not[/i] be happy.

[hr]

[hider=Setting TLDR]
Basically, it's the 1st of January, 2300. Humanity numbers in the hundreds of trillions, but has not yet left the solar system. An economy kept alive by not-so-universal basic incomes and artificial scarcity has collapsed in a massive stock market crash on this day simply known by the date (in a similar vein as 9/11). Anarcho-capitalism, turbo-liberalism, and social democracy are all highly prevalent ideologies and coexist easily out of the necessity of a system-wide economy. Think of the world as the Great Depression on steroids with spaceships.[/hider]

[Hider=Technology/Society]
The working title for this whole thing was "The Techbros Were Right", so that gives you an idea of the sort of technological development we got. AIs are advanced enough to replace most office workers. As a result, what we would think of as the middle class is sustained through basic incomes granted by government and corporations (if they are so merciful as to do so). They are a sort of "leisure class" that spend their days playing with fully immersive VR, shopping, and whatever the hell else you city-folk do for fun. These are the Starbucks liberals and combover-bearing conservatives/libertarians of the world. Some may hear "communism" or "fascism" and think "not bad", but the most they will do is write a witty editorial on their blog.

Below them are the various different underclasses. In plenty of situations, these are comprised of people familiar to us. Homeless people who sleep in their car and shower in hotel rooms to look good for job interviews, people that live in the slums and eke out a living selling what have you, or industrial workers operating mining drones or drilling themselves in order to keep their sci-fi trailer home. It is the underclass that works, while the middle class is unemployed (and glad to be). 

Finally, there is the upper class. These are truly wealthy individuals so powerful that they would make today's craziest conspiracy theorists pass them off as myths. These people have countries in the palm of their hand and antimatter weapons on standby. Trillionaires are things of the past, replaced with quadrillionaires as the richest individuals. A few were expected to become quintillionaires in the near future before 1/1/23. Obviously, there are a few exceptions to these societal rules, but for the vast majority of the solar system these are the three classes. Though non-trivial swaths of space simply have the "underclasses" and "upper class".

As for general technology, this is (relatively) hard sci-fi where technological advancement was disappointingly slow. Immortality exists, and most diseases have been eliminated through nanorobotics, but we aren't uploading our minds into interstellar starships and transcending the mortal plane or anything. Ships generally use "Burner Drives" (fusion-based nuclear engines that can get from Earth to Mars in a month in a good time and flat-out ignore launch windows) or Orion Drives (the ones where you blow up nukes behind yourself). Nobody has yet left the solar system though, and the furthest permanent human settlements that aren't remote research outposts are around Uranus. For the most part, fusion power is the most prevalent while antimatter power exists much like nuclear power does now (a fairly rarely-used power generation technology with a terrible reputation). Handheld energy weapons exist, largely due to Rule of Cool, and include things from lasers to particle cannons. Plasma is often used for radiation and projectile shielding on vehicles and spacecraft, whereas ablative or energy-dispersive armor is used against lasers and other DEWs.

Room-temperature superconducters exist and are widespread, and quantum entanglement can transmit data instantaneously from one side of the solar system to the other. Quantum computing is commonplace among the middle and upper classes, and most everyone that isn't a laborer enjoys instantaneous quantum internet from home. The largest Standard Sci-Fi Technology missing (aside from FTL) is antigravity technology or gravity control in general. Space elevators and shuttles move people and cargo to and from planets, and spacecraft as well as stations spin or accelerate to create gravity.[/hider]

[hider=Rulers]
-Y'all know by now not to use OOC knowledge IC, pull giant superweapons out of your ass, or curbstomp everyone before afternoon tea so I'll spare you from listing all of that separately.

-[b]It's Dark, but Keep It Classy:[/b] As you've probably gathered, this is not a happy RP. Plenty of horrible things are going on behind the scenes, and since this is an NRP, we'll get to see behind the scenes a lot. You can imply or state the morally reprehensible things your CEO or whoever does in their spare time all you want. But please tell, don't show if its particularly horrific. You ought to know when it stops being dark and edgy and starts being worthy of calling the cops.

-[b]Drama in the IC, not OOC[/b]

-[b]Submit eternally to me, the GM:[/b] Or, you know, just don't scream at me after I make a final decision in the OOC. That works too.
[/hider]

[hider=App]
[code]
[b]Faction Name:[/b] 
Name of the faction (including any applicable initialisms).

[b]Faction Government:[/b] 
Form of government, so democratic neoliberal republic, anarcho-capitalist confederacy, corporation, fascist dictatorship, what have you.

[b]Territory/Claims:[/b] 
Brief overview of important locations and general description of what. Be reasonable here, you DON'T own the entire asteroid belt (that's a whole lot of stuff in real life, buddy), nor do you have total hegemony over a planet. Depending on how many people there are this might be tweaked for better balance later (or imbalance, if someone wants to play Space North Korea or something). If you have territory on Earth, show it on the map I've provided at the bottom.

[b]Culture:[/b] 
It's been a long time, and a lot of people from a lot of different places have given birth to a lot of descendants. Do you hold an old culture from Earth dear? Have you naturally developed one over the years? Did you purge the old and invent a new culture in some kind of space nationalist revolt? Give us an idea of how your people think, act, and even greet each other if you like.

[b]History:[/b] 
A summary of the faction’s history, pretty straightforward. Start around the colonial era depending on when it was involved (a lunar nation's history would begin with the founding of the first colony in its territory, while an Earth nation's would start from when it became involved in space colonization). Remember that most of early colonization (up until the deeper parts of the asteroid belt) was done by corporations here.

[b]Technology:[/b] 
An overview of the faction’s technological capabilities. Keep in mind the general scale I outlined. If there are any questions, PM me.

[b]Military:[/b] 
Just your military capabilities. You can include equipment descriptions if you want to, but don't try to sneak by a Wave Motion Gun or something.
[/code]
[/hider]

[hider=Maps]
Earth (Alternative Title: Global warming is a bitch):
[img]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/geH6PAaBb49_vnnhumuFc124AlDFbqPmkE-eJVuIfCkBSrnVxZPzhZd3FEKlQy7onmK4CNnwarjS8vk24WJ5RSHGrurHq1STokRTo8lx0eeKa6S4v5819l_o9pMx_wHMLQz6hrOM[/img]
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[hider=Some Final Notes (Mostly on progression)]
A lot can change over the years, and if this RP becomes a long-runner (which would be a welcome change of pace from the usual "two week wonder" of most NRPs nowadays) then the economic crisis might well come to an end. Depending on how long this survives, we might even see exosolar flights. To ensure this RP survives as long as possible, it will NOT require novella posts. I expect multiple paragraphs, but if you're usually a casual player then you will probably manage to fit in here just fine. This isn't your usual modern NRP that demands ten thousand words per post. Just keep the plot going and give it some depth and you'll be all good.

If this thread stagnates and dies, then-interest willing-I will simply reboot it and start from wherever we left off plus a little bit of time (so new players can jump in using the established history to change things in the interim to fit their wishes). This was a common practice in the first few NRPs I participated in on this forum, and combined with the fact that we didn't demand a book for every post we managed to have some real long-runners. I want this RP to try to emulate that time, because when it comes to the NRP section I'm pretty much a baby boomer longing for the good old days.
[/hider]