TheMinorFall

The Circle: Odyssey (space-fantasy/adventure/SOL)

@Otakuforreal

Long term sci-fi partner craved

Subbing to read this later

AN idea of a future once seen but not lived......thoughts for a Mass Effect RP

Interesting. I’m not too terribly familiar with mass effect, but I can get a summary from a friend if need be. I’m usually able to mold myself into a thread anyway. Also nice avatar ;)

The Circle: Odyssey (space-fantasy/adventure/SOL)

Hello and welcome! I don’t like to write out long, drawn out descriptions, it is just an interest check, after all. So here it goes.



I play a lot of scifi, space fantasy games and have been writing up a space fantasy RP for the better part of two and a half years now. It has gone through a few different iterations, but finally it is ready for a real try!

The Circle: Odyssey is meant to be many things ranging from combat rping, to slice of life rping, to even investigative rping. Your character will have to analyze situations and come up with solutions to problems. I would think that’s in every RP, but sadly it isn’t, so I am telling you up-front.

The story takes place in non-specific space so that your character can hail from whatever mystical world you dream up (within the limits of the setting I have for you). This is to make it easier for you to customize a character and fit them into the world. The only stipulation is that they must be capable of space travel!

Lastly, before writing up the in-depth portions of this interest check, what is this story all about?? I’ll tell you…

A long time ago, humans found a world that couldn’t exist, according to the laws of physics. On it, they found something powerful that came to be called ‘The Circle’, and it nearly destroyed them. Now, hundreds of years later, humans live most of their lives in space, and have split into many factions, mainly the three factions of The People, The Elven, and The Orc, but even these main factions are barely clinging to endangerment. They fight petty wars, and lack of resources. A disease known as ‘Malignance’ plagues a significant portion of the races, and to top it all off, The Circle is showing signs of activity again. Someone has to put an end to the fighting. Will it be you?

I prefer 1x1 simply because I can devote all of my attention to you and really develop our story and characters together. And it is easier to manage for me because I do have a job, wife, and child. I can usually manage at least one post a day, but not always. Sometimes I need few days or even a short break from Role-playing. I expect nothing more from you that I do myself. Communication is key!

My final thing, and I know this might turn many people off, is that I would like to do the actual RP either through email or discord (preferably email). The reason for this is that I cannot access this site at work, which is when I usually have time to write. It is blocked on my work computer, and I cannot be on my phone all the time, so email is best. I only mention discord as a last-resort option. I hope you understand.

If you’re still with me and you’re still interested, check out these hiders that contain a more in-depth description of The Circle: Odyssey!

Setting

The Circle:Odyssey takes place in an AU where humanity united to fix the planet and ecosystem after a third world war. Once the planet was healthy again, we took to the stars to colonize Mars, and eventually other systems in the Milky Way. Technology flourished and pushed us even further out into the universe until soon there were entire, self-sustaining, mobile environments with full ecosystems in them. The populous called them “Flat-Earth’s” as a joke to the people from back in the 21st century that actually thought that the planet was flat. These are where most people have permanent residences, but there are some worlds containing permanent colonies.

Each Flatearth is its own society. There are many different cultures that have their own Flatearths, as well as Flatearths that have many cultures. Some are utopian, some are crim-ridden, but all of them are controlled by certain factions, namely the Elves, the People, and the Orcs.

The factions:

The People is a generalized name for the faction containing humans much like you and me, but also a mix of elves, orcs, etc as well as half-breeds of all factions (although half-breed are typically looked down upon). The People are known for a generally free melting pot of cultures, but they have the most crime and infighting. Naturally the People are the most militant and have become reliant on that militant structure so resolve most public issues. The People’s Flatearth ships dock the majority of space-explorers due to the freedom and convenience of an easily navigated capitalistic economy.

The Orcs are war-mongers and miners. They are known for piracy, invasions, and their claim to many resource-rich worlds. They rarely include others into their society unless it is in the form of slavery or debt. In Orcish society, there are two kinds of currency; precious materials like gold, silver and jewels; and respect earned through trials of combat. And most die in the process of obtaining the latter. The dwarven and the gnomish fall under the Orcish flag, enslaved to work the mines and crude machinery that makes up their ships and weaponry.

The Elves are exactly what one might expect. They have the longest lifespan of all the races, some reaching five centuries before their health deteriorates. They are known for their hierarchy, and their almost magical technology in medicine. In that order. The Elvish exist in a very structured hierarchy based on a class system that is weighted heavily for the more-fortunate. The purest blood line, belonging to the Hel’iyaan is said to trace directly back to Queen Elizabeth of ancient England, before the unity of the home world. And they know it. The lower classes underneath royalty and upper class, rarely emerge from the inner workings of the Flatearths. They live in shanty towns that are built directly into the mechanical corridors and bays of the inner superships that act as the base of the Flatearths. The Elves rarely participate in war, and for good reason. They possess an antimatter beam weapon that is unmatched. No one knows what technology is behind it, but it is said to tear through state-of-the-art shields and plating like tissue paper.

Any other faction ideas, I leave to you! Just run them by me and we’ll work them in somehow.

Space travel

There are three kinds of interstellar travel; Near Light Speed (NLS), Warp, and Blinking.

NLS engines are the most common, and slowest form of interstellar travel. These are used in small starships and skiffs, but are only used as last resort travel methods due to their inefficiency.

Warp drives are less common, but not by much. Most freighters and Flatearths, use warp drives to bend space, rather than accelerate through it. Warp is significantly faster than NLS and a perfect solution to the fact that traveling at full light-speed is impossible. The only catch is that the drive has to create a quantum field around any given ship to keep it from bending itself, and should that fail, said ship could be fine, or be ripped apart and spread across thousands of lightyears.

Blinking is so rare that it is nearly unheard of. The only recorded instance was with an elven vessel. The report said that a hole was ripped in space and the ship was simply gone. Rumors say that Blink travel is instantaneous, but so little is known about it that it is hard to confirm its speed.

Ship types:

Starship: A one to two person vessel meant for interplanetary travel, or inter-ship combat scenarios. They are often equipped with starship to starship weaponry and a single tactical nuclear charge. They are not particularly meant for interstellar travel, but could be outfitted with a small warp drive capable of making system to system jumps.

Skiff: Usually manned by three to five individuals, a skiff has an array of uses from cargo, to personnel, to travel, or even piracy, Skiffs are the most common ship across commercial, military, and pirate use. The Orcs use them to haul payloads of nuclear warheads known to devastate freighters, and blow mortal holes in Flatearths.

Frieghters: Massive and often heavily outfitted with weaponry, freighters are the primary vessel for Military use. They haul military personnel and equipment, as well as science teams and exploration divisions. Frieghters are good for exploration, war, or anything else that a clever captain can think of. They can dock hundreds of starships and skiffs, and are dwarfed only by flatearths.

Flatearth: Gargantuan ships that rival the size of countries, flatearths are officially labeled as Interstellar Mobile Environment Containment Transports (IMECT’s). They cultivate entire systems of cities and bioshperes on a mobile platform that is powered by multiple nuclear powerplants on their undersides. Externally they simply appear like country-sized flying saucers with up to eight engines on all sides and a single tower on the operation side that houses the captain and crew when they are on duty. These ships are capable of enormous warp jumps, and most are rumored to have a Blink Drive, if those even exist. There are ten operational IMECT’s: three belong to the People, three to the Orcs, and four are operated by the aristocratic Elves, despite the fact that they have the smallest population.

Fantasy, I say?

Fantasy, I say?

Yes, it is a fantasy, so what about magic? Well let’s get into that, shall we? TIME FOR A LITTLE LORE.



Long ago, before humanity split, there was a world hanging freely in open, empty space. The explorers who found it called it E-P00259, a simple designation for what was believed to be a simple exo-planet. The history logs refer to the planet by the name is was given over a decade later: Pandora’s Box.

The planet traveled relatively slowly through empty space, and it was later discovered that it had an actual trajectory, yet it had an atmosphere that was breathable, as well as endlessly burning satellite bodies that were best described as ‘moon-sized suns’. Curiosity drove the explorers to land on the barren, crater-spotted landscape to find that it was comfortably warm, with scattered bodies of water and oasis-like patches of flora. Soon a monolith was discovered that had a heat signature akin to something mechanical. It was a doorway that led into a hollow interior with another ‘mini-sun’ at the center. The inner landscape was entirely covered by ruins of an ancient, yet superiorly advanced race. Dotted all over the inner surfaces in circular patterns like ven diagrams were shrines with different elements suspended in gravitational anomalies in the shapes of perfect circles. Some glowed, some pulsed and made sound. Some were simply water or soil or fire.

The phenomenon was traced to an undiscovered and barely understood energy that came to be known as The Circle. Those who were able to establish a connection to The Circle were gifted with almost magical powers varying in nature and use. And these powers aided humankind in many things, but after ten years of pilgrimages and tourism to E-P00259, the Connected (those with a connection to the circle) began to show signs of distress, and eventually ships started disappearing. IMECT’s began to disappear. Eventually, the debris of those craft was found collecting on the surface of E-P00259, Pandora’s Box. It was adhering armor, weapons, and resources to its surface, becoming a mobile, planet-sized, intelligent ball of death that wiped out eighty percent of the human race. Humanity split, some mutated by exposure to the Circle energy, some forever stained by malignance, and fled. Pandora’s Box was lost to deep, interstellar space, but it mark remained.

Some of those people who were connected remained, no longer dangerous, but imprisoned , killed, or sedated and studied all the same. Those who were not found were forced to live in hiding, weighted by the burden of The Circle and forever passing it down their lineages. Circle Magic is now highly illegal, and punishable in its use to any degree by death. Magic is most common in outlaws, pirates, and gangs, but it is hardly a shadow of its former wrath.



Until one day, it began to emerge again…

And that day is where our story begins.



So basically, magic is allowed, but nothing crazy or earth shattering (yet, maybe later *wink*). And it is limited, takes a lot of focus and energy to use. In a universe with the potential for cyber/steam/diesel punk and more, I don’t want the magic to be too overwhelming at the beginning, but there will be development in the story.

If there are any questions or concerns, feel free to inbox me. If you are interested, say so here and whoever is selected will receive my email in their inbox. I’ll be checking this post at some point, every day this week. I look forward to our Odyssey!

VA: Flesh & Blood

@Dusksong bringingbit back to regular posting. It's easier to follow that way. C:

VA: Flesh & Blood

@Dusksong

Orion felt a warmth go through him that he couldn't explain. When she took his hand, for a moment, he felt safe. He forgot about the Royals and what they did to him for a second just to enjoy the touch of a beautiful girl.

"You should see your own eyes." He commented back upon her compliment.

Her hand was cool, not like the warm touch of a human hand. No, she was far from human. Perfection was out of human reach, and she seemed to embody it. His ghoulish eyes calmed to a faint glow as the bright red and pitch black became a warm red and dark, charcoal grey. And yet she smelled so wonderful. Part of him couldn't help but wonder what she tasted like. That part of him longed to devour her, bones and all. His other hand twitched ever so slightly. It wanted to grab her while she was close so that he could get just one bite. Just before he lost his composure, the entrance door to the cell block slammed open.

****

Although he had a certain level of weariness toward setting the Fallen One loose, Desmond was excited. He was anxious to learn more about the new potential enemy, for knowledge was power. And he liked having power over things. With the Chancellor informed, he returned to the cell block. He figured she would probably make her own way there. Such a figure would likely want to put eyes on this unknown beast that was about to roam her school grounds, although it was possible she had other things to do.

Des kicked the door open in a flourish of an entrance, nearly dancing down the steps to the main floor. He briskly moved over toward the cell where the two young ones had been apparently bonding and snapped his fingers at the nearest guardian.

"Come now, open his cell already, I'm sure he doesn't have all day to wait on you." He said passively, as if annoyed that they didn't already know what only Des, Dolorante, and the Queen knew. "Cordellenia, your highness, would you mind taking our new friend to administration to be registered and given living quarters? Tell them that Desmond Lloyd has approved this and to call me if there is any issue." He whipped out a small card with his information on it and held it out for her to take.

VA: Flesh & Blood

Desmond breathed a heavy sigh. He couldn't even enjoy the sweet breeze as it caressed his face. "You have named this creature a 'Fallen one', but he is much like the rest of us. That being said, he was tortured. That much is clear. What else is clear is that he was running from something, or someone."

He lit a cigarette and stepped over a misplaced stone he could hear was blocking the breeze, "We need to find out what is coming, if they're like him, and for that matter, what he is capable of. Thankfully, I believe we can get him to fight on our side, or at least provide intel as to what we're dealing with in exchange for room and board."

He drew deep on his cigarette, letting the cloves and nicotine fill him before he released the smoke. "I just hope the others see things like I do. For now keep an eye on him. If he seems benign, release him. Give him a room, feed him if you can, but don't let him gain too much strength. I must have words with the Queen." He released her arm, and made off for a secluded area as he pulled out a flip phone with brail buttons.

Watching the other Moroi disappear behind a tall oak, the Chancellor paused to think over what he'd just said to her before making for the academy. The boy, harmless or not, was now being held inside the academy and therefore under Dolorante's guardianship. Figuring that Desmond probably had a reason to be concerned about the boy, the Chancellor decided to give the boy the benefit of the doubt -- unless something happened to her students.

---

"Oh," Nia said, dropping her eyes. As a royal, she'd been sheltered from most of the violence in the world, and Nia couldn't imagine being so hungry as to need to kill a person. Thinking back to the nursery rhyme, she realized that Orion hadn't just killed the man; he'd eaten him, flesh and blood. That was what the little rhymes alluded to -- full consumption of flesh and blood. "A ghoul," Nia echoed, nodding. "Although I haven't met one before, I know that hunger does terrible things to the brain. It's alright. If the Chancellor let you put the donor to rest, I trust her judgement."

Orion calmed and looked at the spot on the floor that was still dark from the mop. "At Anteiku, we ate the remains of people who committed suicide. People who weren't alive to look you in the eye with that fear..."

He wasn't necessarily talking about the donor, but the others he had eaten whilst with...

He was taken out of his thoughts by a smell he hadn't noticed before, but he was closer now. He could smell the sweet aroma that was Nia. His eyes darted and locked on her, but not her eyes. He was looking at her skin. It looked delectable. So soft and-

He slammed against the far wall, cracking the concrete. He dropped to the table-like bed with fear in his eyes. "Donor was too weak, I can't be around other people right now. I'm still-" his stomach growled loud enough she had to hear it. His body had already processed the frail meat of the man from before. He could have been satisfied for a week from what he had eaten, but the tissue was not that of a healthy person.

His eyes pulsated and glowed faintly as he couldn't pull them away from her, but the look was of pain, "I don't want to hurt you." He choked out.

Nia flinched when Orion slammed intot the wall, alarmed at how fast the boy had moved. Despite her enchanced speed, it seemed like the boy was extremely fast. Night Stalkers eat Moroi, she thought with a burning sense of dread. Still, she didn't feel like she had to fear the boy. While her heart pounded with fear seeing Orion's black-red eyes, Nia could see her own fear mirrored there, different but still similar enough to know that Orion was afraid too -- of himself.

In childhood, the possibility that she was a monster had never occurred to Nia -- she'd been raised in a society where she was the definition of normal, of better than normal. When she finally learned about humans and how they were more populous than Moroi could ever hope to be, she asked herself for the first time: Was she a monster? The answer to that question had been -- after some thought -- an unsure "no." She hadn't wanted to be born as a being that lived off blood, and Moroi society had found ways of dealing with ethics through donors. Unless it was better for all Moroi to die, there was no reason why she was a monster at all.

The same applied here, to Orion. He seemed to have convinced himself that he was a monster, meaning that he wasn't raised thinking that "normal" was being whatever he was like Nia was. From what he'd told her of his past, she figured that he'd tried his best to eat decently. However monstrous as it may seem to those who didn't have to drink blood and eat flesh, Nia could empathize.

"You won't, Orion. You just ate," she told him gently, coaxing the fear out of him. "You can control this, just like you have before. Or you would have died long ago."

Slowly, hesitantly, Orion came back forward. His movement was in complete opposition to his previous motion. He was like a frightened child as he approached the bars. Without taking his eyes off of hers, he reached through this cage with one hand in offering.

****

"Yes, Your Majesty. Yes I know you said to call you 'Lissa'. Yes. Thank you, your-- Lissa." Desmond ended the call, and dialed the chancellor's office. Whether she answered or he got voicemail, he would say the same thing.

"Let's let him out."

The chancellor was a little taken aback at how quickly a decision had been made, but she didn't falter in her reply. "I'll send the guards down right away. Did you want us to wait for you, or?"

****

Nia watched as Orion approached the bars, unafraid. Her only hesitation came when she took in the boy's outstretched hand, but even that was brief. Reaching forwards, Nia took his hand with both of hers. "Nice to meet you, Orion," Nia said with a gentle smile. "You have beautiful eyes -- very distinct, very unique."

Artanis

@shylarahIt was unreal. The stories did no justic the Legendary Obsidian Dragon. Even with his magically enhanced sense for vibration, Eric couldn't "see" a heartbeat, nor breath. If not for the pounding of armor and footsteps around the assassin, Eric wouldn't have been able to "see" him at all. He decided not to give the man a reprieve. That is, if he was even a man anymore. He took magical control of his boulder again and shirked it to the side. He slammed it into where he could tell his opponent was. But then he was gone. Frantically, he turned his ears in all directions. There had to be breath or footfalls. No one was beyond the sound of movement. Then an armored arm was locked around the earth-elemental's neck. He could barely breathe, but that was not his concern. He was chilled to the bone by a cold, sinister, lifeless voice from behind.

****
Cain melted into shadow just before the boulder could hit him. He passed through the darkness until he was behind the assailant and had him in his grip. The boulder smashed into the ground where Cain had been, but went no further.

"You have killed with no cause, nor worthy outcome. Innocent lives, not deserving of an early end." Cain analyzed, "I have deemed you deserving of an early end. You are worthy of death." He said, forming the wrist weapon into a one-handed longsword as he spoke. The obsidian steel shimmered with the luster of glass in the light of the torches around them. He slowly inserted the blade into the blind man's Abdominal Aorta below his diaphragm, but just above where it would split into the iliac arteries. He wanted maximum blood loss for a relatively slow, yet irrevocable death. He would bleed out in less than a minute.

He withdrew the blade and released the man who was shrieking in pain, only increasing the pressure on his blood vessels as his heart began to race due to massive hemorrhage. It had been a long time since Cain had made a man bleed so much. Nearly all of his blood gushed out by the time he had taken three steps. He crumpled pathetically to the ground with merely an airy whimper.

Cain directed his attention to the older guardsman, whipping his weapon through the air. Blood splattered to the ground from his now clean blade as the killer stepped over the body and up to the guardsman. He carefully handed the weapon back to its deliverer and said one more word.

"Amuné."

Job, Nevada (Supernatural Western/Mystery)

@Themerlinhawk haven't read everything due to time constraint, but I will come back and read the rest. Very intrigued.

Pariah Online: Prologue [ closed ]

Guys I'm back from leave! What'd I miss?