Intro
Deep in the vastness of space rests a massive structure called a Dyson Sphere, A huge structure that fully encompasses a star. This Massive structure is called Atlas, And for the last 50,000 years there has been nothing but war raging inside as the denizens fought amongst themselves despite the near limitless resources that rested inside. Time and time again, The inhabitants of Atlas have blown themselves back to the stone age, But this time around there is a chance for change, a chance for progress, a chance that the Dyson sphere's original purpose will be fulfilled after all these years... and yet this chance comes at the dawn of a new grand war that will stretch hundreds if not millions of miles. A war that will be fought on land, sea, and air, a war that may even reach into the blackness of space and the ever choking void itself.

Like so many times before, A nation of people has risen up to conquer all it sees before it. The Terran Empire, a Xenophobic nation of humans has been whipped into a frenzy after an attempt to annex it's neighboring country failed. What started out as a small selection of speratic battles and engagements soon grew into a full fledged conflict that roused the empire, and rallied it behind a single goal, The total and complete eradication of all people and persons capable of channeling the arcane. The Terran Empire, so sure of their superiority, so sure of their power and might was stopped at great cost by a band of scholars who invoked a potent arcane weapon that ripped a terran city from the face of the map, leaving only a charred and irradiated wasteland behind to spawn monsters and demons from the suffering in it's wake. Before in this age, wars lasted maybe five or six years, the two sides left standing came to an agreement, and the rebuilding process began. now however, The terrans declaired Genocide to all but the terran empire, They were interested in one thing and one thing only at this point, the total and complete eradication of every living thing that opposed them and their ideals.

The United Confederation, a nation primarily of Humans and Elves, sat back and watched as the Terran empire unleashed war upon the land. Trying to stay neutral for as long as possible as it's people fought back and forth with eachother on a political level on where the confederation's views lay. On one hand the confederation was against the xenophobic nature of the Terran Empire, but was actually adopting a sort of anti arcane mindset that began to wash over this nation like an unfortunate wildfire. Hate crimes began to skyrocket against anyone who could even comprehend the arcane let alone use it. All the while various corporations within the country vied for contracts, sensing that the country could only stay neutral for so long and that war was already on their doorstep, the only saving grace was the vast ocean that separated the confederation from the terran empire and it's victims. many people just wanted to wait the war out, hoping that the Terran empire would loose steam or be defeated without raising a finger.

The Inkish Empire however was not so lucky as the united confederation. Comprised of mostly Elves and Gnomes and governed by a Monarchy, They were soon feeling the weight of the Terran Empire's unending onslaught due to their support of the Manachi republic who used to be a colony of the Inkish empire. But as Manachi fell and bombs began to fall on the queen's cities like rain the people of the Inkish empire rallied, if not halphazardly. Their minds still in the mindset of the last war, still in the trenches, even as the war evolved around them into something so much more. Stretching out to all of it's colonies and former colonies the Inkish empire Rallied an industrial machine so scattered it was impossible to target and make any meaningful impact and it wasn't long until armor was clashing with armor on the fields of battle.

The Terran Empire was relentless in it's warpath, crushing many smaller nations beneath it's treads in weeks, and wiping out centuries of history in but hours. Even larger nations were not safe from falling to the Terrans. Chin Gra, a massive nation by all rights seemed to fall overnight to the Terrans. Although this was a bit more complicated than the Chin gra simply being crushed by the terrans. Chin Gra was actually already at war with the Lei Imperium, But accidentally roused a sleeping bear when they tried to pass over the Forge Union's colosal artificial land bridge to sneak around and get at the Lei Imperium's undefended back side. With it's forces so divided Chin gra quickly fell to the Terran empire and the retaliating Forge republic who was none to happy when one of their cities fell to an artillery barauge from the Terran Empire.

If there's one thing Dwarves and Gnolls do well it's hold grudges. When the Terran Empire shelled the Forge Union's cities and attempted to march across the artificial land bridge into their nation to wage war, The Leader of the Forge union Oleg Redbeard mobalized the entire military and industrial complex. From the moment he got off the phone Planes, tanks, and shells were being produced by this nation in mass by nearly every man, woman, and child within the country. when one man fell, five more would take his place, when one tank was destroyed, four more would roll right over the wreckage. A force of 5 million soldiers "marched" across the 120 mile long bridge with the orders to crush the enemy beneath their armored boots and treads firmly in their mind straight from the premier himself. The Terran Empire had made a mistake that day in rousing the sleeping bear. This Event, known to the forge union's masses as the "Great Patriotic March" would be broadcasted to it's people for weeks to come.

Though with the Chen Gra wiped out, The Terran Empire moved through it's lands and eventually clashed with the Lei Imperium. The Lei had changed things in the end of the last war. What was a war in the trenches soon evolved rather quickly as the Lei's early walking tanks strode over the burned out, barbed wire covered, waist lands and took the fight to the enemy. While not as effective as the early tanks of the era, These walkers, early and as crude as they may have been, dealt significant blows to the enemy. Now as the Terran Empire crossed the seas to wage war against the mostly outwardly peaceful nation of the Lei Imperium, So to did the Lei Imperium send it's Shoguns to clash with the Terran Empire. Realing from the defeat on land the Lei turned to it's living gods, It's Emperor's for guidance. The Two Emperors did not converse or debate with each other over the matter. They both knew what had to be done. The people worshiped the emperors in the Lei Imperium, To them, they were gods and their words had literally been seen to move mountains. So when the call went out to divide their forces to defend the still neutral United Confederation from attack, the people did so without hesitation. The Emperor's realized that an alliance had to be made in order to combat the Terrans, And no alliance could form if you let a potential ally be wiped out. In an act of desperation the Lei Imperium sent envoys to the United confederation, The Forge Union, and the Inkish empire to ask for an alliance... until then, the island empire would devote forces to their defense, regardless if they were asked for.

As the Terran Empire landed an invasion force upon the shores of the United confederation, It's military took action when it's politicians would not. The Envoys from the Lei Imperium had been ignored, and the warnings of an impending attack had not been headed. Within minutes of the first bombs falling on the cities the United Confederation's military forces stormed private factories owned by various corporations and seized the untested prototypes they had been working on in order to defend the nations shores. This was a day that would live in infamy... the day when war was everywhere that was known...

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Technology and stuff:
Most of the stuff should be self explanatory and not need to be mentioned, but i'll go over a few bits.

Tech Level: Alternate WW2.
The tech level should be considered to be largely on par with what "we" had back during the 1940s era. So back in WW2(great patriotic war for our Russian users.) I say alternate because well, we have walkers, arcane bits and bobs, and the advent of certain limited energy weapons.

Lasers: Yes, there are laser weapons. Kinda limited in their use mainly because they require a bit of power and are kind of crude. If you know LAS weapons in 40k you should be good here. melts armor to pierce it rather than relying on kinetic/explosive force. Laser weapons should be considered kind of line of sight artillery for the large part.

Day and night cycle: yes the sphere has a day and night cycle. round 15 hours of daylight and 13 hours of darkness. how does that work inside a Dyson sphere? don't ask.... just assume that it does.

Magic and enchanting: Yes, there is magic, This is the Arcane... so one can cast fireballs and the like. generally a mage isn't capable of dishing out the same level of destruction as a tank is, but they still have their uses. and yeah, things can be enchanted. with what? general elements really, use your imagination.

Magic and schooling: magic isn't something that can be picked up off the street. people typically go to arcane universities to learn and study it. not everyone who goes to an arcane university can cast magic however.

Walkers: Walkers in this are not like gundam or other mainstream highly mobile things like one would find in armored core or mech warrior. they're generally on the same size level as the tank of their class, so a walking PZ4 or KV2 would stand slightly higher than their tracked counterpart, but wouldn't move as fast. Up side with walkers, they can scale vertical surfaces, well save for light walkers. Light walkers have 2 legs, Think slightly shorter version of an ATST from starwars or Sentinels from warhammer. Medium walkers have 4 legs, and heavy/super heavy walkers have 6.

Nations and Races:
It should be noted that the races listed under a nation are it's majority, that is not to say that the other races do not have a presence in the nation, but those that are not listed as the majority should be considered a minority.

United Confederation:
Government Type: Confederation.
Primary Races: Human and Elves.
Armor Mindset: Quantity and Mobility and Comfort over quality. Favors tanks in the Medium and light category. Parallels in real world would be the M4, M3, and the Grant. It uses walkers only when the situation absolutely calls for it.

Forge Union:
Government Type: Socialist
Primary Races: Dwarves and Gnolls
Armor Mindset: Quantity, Ease of production, and Armor. Favors tanks in the medium and heavy category and makes regular use of walkers. Parallels in the real world would be the T34, and the KV series. later on the IS(JS) series. Big Big tanks... SKV, T35.

Inkish Empire:
Government Type: Monarchy (god save the queen)
Primary Races: Elves and Gnomes
Armor Mindset: Hodgepodge of crap guns and decent guns, the ability to traverse trenches, thick armor over quantity. Doesn't favor any particular kind of tank, though heavy tanks are a bit of a status symbol. They do use walkers but they aren't very trusting of them. Joking mindset of them is "if it's any good we didn't build it" though they do tend to try and keep a stiff upper lip about things. very hard to break their moral. real world examples would be the Tog (series), and the Churchill and the Char B1.

Lei Empire:
Government Type: Monarchy (technically)
Primary Races: Cait and Olabad
Armor Mindset: Quality guns, mobility, and advanced engines over quantity. They make large use of light tanks for most of their force, however they do have a good number of medium tanks. heavy tanks are generally reserved for veterans or the shogun. While no real world examples exist, one could potentially look to the PZ4, Tiger/Panther series, mixed with the BT5 and IS(js)3.

Badlands:
Government Type: Speratic Waring tribes
Primary races: Orks and Goblins
Armor Mindset: shambled together and stolen. a mish mash of parts and weapons. they favor everything they can get their hands on. you're as liable to see a stolen 75mm cannon mounted on the back of a truck as you are properly on a tank.

Races:
Human: Look in the mirror. no seriously go look in the mirror, you are one. if you need me to explain it to you....

Elf: Slightly taller by a foot or so than most humans, Elves live longer and have pointed ears. Generally considered a "fair" race. Elves are generally rather long lived and can live around 700 years. Elves can see further and in greater detail than humans can, able to see things in detail at twice the distance.

Dwarves: half the height of humans but they make up for it by being stocky. These short stocky people are generally rather hardy and resilient, able to lift 3 times more than their human counterparts.

Gnomes: slightly smaller than dwarves and not as stocky in the least. weaker than humans in the strength category, they are however a bit smarter and more inventive at solving problems.

Gnoll: A canid beast race that has a nose for metal but an allergy to silver. Gnolls are slightly faster and stronger than humans and just as bright. Gnolls make great miners as they can actually smell buried ore in the ground and dont need to sift around for it.

Cait: A felanoid beast race that's quicker than humans but not as strong. Few things can actually outrun a Cait, though they do tend to be kind of lazy. while being able to see in the dark is helpful, their saving grace is their innovative nature. they will tinker with things till they fall asleep if you let them.

Olabad: a Selachii beast race that's far more resilient than humans. Olabad see magnetic fields just as other races see color making it very difficult to hide from them even with the use of magic. Olabad also have an additional organ in them called a Lazarus gland, that assists in healing, enabling them to heal from mortal wounds without medical treatment. Olabad however are unfortunately always hungry and don't deal well with high altitudes. Olabad can also breath in and out of water.

Ork: a large beast race standing around 8 to 9ft tall and seemingly made of pure muscle. Orks are almost always a shade of green and have the elder ones have large tusks. Orks heal in direct sunlight and are notoriously hard to kill. they are however quite dumb, incredibly cunning but dumb. can also rip a human in half with a bit of effort.

Goblin: About as tall as a dwarf but rather scrawny in comparison. Goblins are brilliant tinkerers and can often make quick work of any repair job that needs to be done. Goblins are green like orks but are not a beast race like them, even if society tends to label them as one. Goblin's tend to bread worse than rabbits and have a fairly short life span, only around 50 years. they do tend to die however through unnatural causes by 25 or so.

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Rules

No God Modding: this should be fairly standard but i find i need to put it here every so often. this means no power playing, no controlling other peoples characters, you can reference them but don't go and control them (less the two of you work it out in an IM than that's your deal) and no going the entire thing without injuring yourself even if you would likely be injured in the process.

No Flaming: ...

Be respectful of other players:

if you're not sure on something IM me.

all standard forum Rules apply.

Post " But why is the rum gone?" somewhere in your bio to let me know you have read and agreed to follow the rules. without this somewhere in your bio, your entire profile WILL BE IGNORED. bonus points if you post it in green not dark orange.

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Q and A
Q: why didn't you reference any Japanese tanks or vehicles for the Lei when you did for every other nation.
A: because Japanese tanks are historically crap.... yeah yeah i know so i gave them German and Russian references.... can't use Chinese because they didn't have any tanks back then.

Q: so i don't know much about this world... i dont think i can make a character
A: not much of a question more of a statement. but that's kind of by design. you're meant to come up with your own history, your own idea of how your character would have grown up. it's a pseudo WW2 era with nations roughly like our real world counterparts only with bits of fantasy thrown in. imagine a world where dragons do indeed exist, adventurers still roam the world (although now in their own armored vehicles) and monsters are indeed big and scary requring people to live in tightly defended cities. Think dieselpunk if you have to.

Q: how would you describe the tanks of this world?
A: Same way i would describe armor of the medieval world. The general soldier has a crappy set of armor that is crudely forged and put together in order to fulfill the bare minimum of it's job, while those who have been around, have more money, or have risen in rank have the same armor, but of better quality. Think of a world where there are actually gilded tanks just as there is gilded armor, or was gilded armor back in our medieval period. every tank is made unique by it's crew. how they maintain it, how they paint it, how they mod it, it's all unique. average trooper has crap, but that trooper survives a bit, gains in rank or coin, and suddenly that crap isn't crap anymore, it's shiny, it's spiffy, and it's looking good.

Q: can my character be royalty?
A: i'd allow you to be a noble's son/daughter sure. but queen of England style royalty? yeah no.

Q: you mentioned dragons.... so dragons are a thing?
A: Yes, ancient space people who built the dyson sphere also infested it with dragons, so yes dragons are a thing. they are large, horde things, and breath fire. they also fly so there's that.

Q: ok so you mentioned an arcane university, where people go to learn magic. can you describe that a bit?
A: I can try. Think of it in terms of our modern universities or colleges. Essentially every 2 years (give or take) you get a degree that represents your level of competence in a particular field. this is no different. One could get an "arcane degree" in ice spells, or fire spells, or healing or shield spells. could get degrees in divining and so on.

Q: So why play a normal person at all if there's magic?
A: good question. So people who go to the arcane universities are rather specialized and typically lack knowledge in other areas. For example, a person who went to a war college instead of an arcane university, would have knowledge on different terrain, countries, cultures, and more practical skills that would assist them in maintaining their vehicle and their crew via leadership. A mage who spent all their time at the university with their nose in a book would be able to shield the vehicle from taking a bit of damage and lessen the impact of falling from a staggering height, but when it comes to dealing with the harshness of the desert or navigating some strange country because you can't read the street signs? yeah mages kind of lack in that area.

Q: Ok you said that general adventurers have their own armored vehicles? what's the deal with that?
A: This is very much inspired by how things were done in the medieval era. pretty much everyone who was worth anything owned some form of armor and some form of weapon. it wasn't always of great quality and was more often than not just of the barest quality to get the job done. Same thing here in more ways than one. Many countries still use a caste system and it's very much akin to the old days where knights would train squires. the monsters outside the city walls can't be taken on by pedestrians. outside there be dragons, and so adventurers have taken to upgrading their armor after the years....this lead to them purchasing armored vehicles to defend themselves and take on the threats at hand. imagine training around armored vehicles from the age of 5 till you're around 17 to 18 or so and then you'd finally be allowed to drive the vehicle or aim and fire it's main weapon, before then you'd be manning one of the other positions or just be apart of the pit crew. then in about 2 years if you stick on and survive, you'd be able to afford your own vehicle and take on squires of your own as you're "knighted"...

Q: so it would be common sight to see say a panzer 4 rolling down the street...
A: ok not a panzer 4 but yes, it would be somewhat common to see armored vehicles rolling down the street. they'd of course be following certain laws so they didn't run anyone over, but yeah it would be common.

Q: OK so where would we start? you listed a number of countries....
A: yes, i did. but where you guys would start would be largely up to you. This can go any way really. could start in any of the countries, or perhaps even a neutral country that gets invaded.

Q: can you describe how people would "start out" getting into armored vehicles in the lei?
A: i can try. The Lei is like a collection of periodically Waring states. each state run by a shogun, each shogun employing samurai, and each samurai employing a number of "lesser soldiers" beneath them. Shogun would be in heavy/super heavy vehicles, samurai would likely be in medium vehicles unless their particular shogun favors a different tactic, and the "grunts" in light vehicles. it's all worked into their academic system as well. even in the lei people are around armored vehicles starting at around age 5 or so. learning about them till maybe 10 and then they're actually handling and manning light vehicles till they graduate their standard schooling. the shogun like to compete and war against each other every so often so boarder wars tend to break out and are kept purposefully rather small so they don't devote too many resources to skirmishes. things that get too big or too out of hand draw the attention of the emperors, and well everyone in the lei regards them as actual living gods, emperor worship is a thing there. your god says stop dicking around, you best believe they stop dicking around. so it's very common to see people only around 16 to 17 to have actual tangible battle experience. but now? since their emperors have declared war? all the shogun are united and working together without conflict between them. it's all heavily inspired by old Japanese culture. if you're looking for how this may play out in a school setting, as corny as this may seem go take a look at the anime "Girls Und Panzer". though it's not just little girls manning the vehicles and occasionally a shogun will go to war and drag the school into the war.

Q: so are we all crew members of the same tank?
A: no. you're all playing tank commanders, the persons in charge of "controlling" the tank. giving orders to the driver, the gunner, looking out the kipola to search for targets. the vehicle and the crew become an extension of your body. you're all in charge of your own vehicle.

Q: i'm from country A but i want to be race D even though race C and E are the countries primary races... is that ok?
A: yes. though if you're going to likely be a minority race in that instance. not going to punish you if you want to go that route.
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Character Profile:

Username:
Name of Tank Commander: this is your primary player character
Age:
Race: (see races)
Sex: Male, Female
Character Description: how does your character look?
Nation of origion: Cannot be Terran Empire. Your choices are as follows
United Confederation. Inkish Empire. Forge Union. Lei Imperium.
Did you attend an arcane university?: Yes/No (this means are you a mage?)
Branch of Service: Navy-Army-Marine
Vehicle Type: if you're confused, see vehicle types.
Personality:
Biography: 2 paragraph minimum. Go hog wild pretty much. have fun with it. make this character your own. if you're not sure IM me questions.

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Vehicle Types and branches of service:

Army: The General large scale ground forces for most nations.
APC: Armored personnel carriers. tanks dedicated to providing close infantry support for other tanks as well as providing Garrison support when you need to hunker down. APCs generally come with relatively light armor and Light weapons, but where they lack in suitability and stand alone firepower, they tend to make up in spades when it comes to support. APCs can deploy squads of infantry of varying types to better support the APC and any friendly tanks in the area. APCs can order their infantry squads to ride on other tanks providing close infantry support to the tanks, thus protecting them from infantry who would go in and give the tank a bad day via grenades down the hatch or rockets from a bush. Infantry can also help out damaged or stuck tanks as well, repairing the damage and getting them back on track.

Light Walker:
Quick, Agile, and decently armed and armored. Light walkers bring a small variety of weapons to bare on an enemy from an elevated platform allowing gunners to fire down on targets to get at weak points rather than fire straight on where the armor may be the thickest. Light walkers generally function as scouts and harassers rather than a true backbone force.

Medium Tanks
Good arms Good armor, and decent mobility. Medium tanks are the workhorse of the battlefield. They can be trusted to get stuck in where other lighter tanks generally that isn't a good idea. Medium tanks have the widest array of weapons available to them, generally able to dip their hands in any pot they wish save for the heaviest armament out there... like artillery.

Navy: The big guns and support for most nations

Heavy Walker
Heavy tanks with legs. If you thought medium walkers were annoying when they're shooting at you from the side of a cliff, Heavy walkers offer double the dose of soiled trousers when they're firing down on something.

Artillery: Fire support, both indirect and direct is what artillery is good at. their armor is paper thin at best, non existent at worst, but the guns they can mount are second to none. With proper spotting support a single artillery unit can take out an entire platoon of enemy tanks. These are the snipers, the long distance guns. Artillery may not always be practical in an area, but it's always amusing to watch.

Super Heavy tank
Multiple turrets, Multiple layers of armor, multitudes of dead tanks under your treads, yup that's super heavies for you. Tanks so large they don't really need to fire their gun (they like to anyway), they just need to drive over you. Super heavies are massive behemoths that are akin to land based battleships. that being said they aren't likely to break any land speed records. if they reach 30 to 40kph it's a good day for them....and they're likely going downhill.

Mobile AA
Lets face it, ever since some asshole on horseback decided to pick up a LMG and chase after a biplane firing away like some kind of nob, we've had mobile AA. And to be honest, shooting airborne targets down with a big ol tank cannon isn't exactly easy. It can be done don't get me wrong, but obligatory there shots only happen so often. You need something more dedicated for that. The notion that AA vehicles also are some of the best anti infantry vehicles out there is just kind of a side effect of mounting so many Mgs to a single vehicle and sending it on it's way. AA vehicles are like arty when it comes to armor, hell some of the AA vehicles get armor envy looking at arty, that should say something about their armor... they may not be able to do much about heavy armor from most conventional angles, but if there's two things that can be said about mobile AA is that it's mean and it's determined so don't count it out just because it tends to use a bunch of LMGs or HMGs to deal with it's problems. They may not have a lot of armor penetration value, but it only takes one lucky incendiary round to ruin someone's day, and they've got a lot of them. Think of it like playing the lotto, one of those fuckers has got to win right? Just gotta find the lucky fucker that gets through all that enemy armor, i'm sure it's there right? Got through the dragon's hide just fine.... oh yeah did we mention flack rounds? Flack rounds hurt.... a lot, they're flack, they kinda do that.

Marine: The Specialists for most nations.
Hunter Killer: Sometimes called tank hunters or tank destroyers, even mobile gun carriages, Hunter killers forgo the flexibility of turrets in order to mount heavier and more potent weapons. Designed to take fights head on rather than from the sides. from the front they can make even heavy tanks think twice bout shooting them. They don't just rely on massive cannons though.

Heavy Tanks: If you've ever wanted to say "I AM BIG" and generally been right about that notion, the heavy tank is for you. These things can mount nearly twice as many weapons as medium tanks and have nearly twice the armor. The down side? They're also not generally the fastest things right out of the motorpool. Designed to take a beating and keep on ticking, Heavy tanks are what you call in when you're expecting heavy resistance.

Medium Walker: Ever wanted a tank that could "walk up walls?" that's the medium walkers. Four legs and a whole lot of chaos waiting to be unleashed. Medium walkers are meant to get to where other tanks typically either cant or don't want to, and cause a bit of havoc.

Flame Tanks: Purging the enemy in clensing fire is the marine's method of choice when it comes to dealing with enemy infantry and bunker, armored or unarmored it doesnt matter to them. So then, what's a flame thrower going to do to infantry? try light them on fire and give them a bad end. What's a flame thrower going to do to an armored tank? try overheat the engine, light the fuel ablaze, cook the crew inside the tank, and set off ammo not in wet storage, Either way, flame tanks give the enemy a bad end. They come standard with the mobility and armor of most medium tanks, but they're kind of restricted when it comes to weapon selection, given they kinda rely on cleansing fire, hence the name sake.