[center][h1][color=crimson][b]The Court of The Red King[/b][/color][/h1]

[img]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DGU1gEwT_KU/UssTOhmPGmI/AAAAAAAAG8w/8pc3PmsQruI/s1600/86dfa1ea761611e382260a0c58a2d6e3_7.jpg[/img]


[sub][color=crimson][b]Wizards • Heavy Metal • Final Fantasy • Conan the Barbarian • Flash Gordon[/b][/color][/sub][/center]

A post-apocalyptic science fantasy ripped out of the 70's pulp genre! Orcs with machine guns, Octopus-Men with political sway, and dudes with motorcycles racing dudes with terrorbirds. 

Our story takes place on a nameless planet, which is [i]Earth[/i], several million years after a nuclear holocaust killed most life on the planet. The still-irradiated stretches of the globe are known as The Badlands, while the planet's small patch of green is known as Terra. Radiation has turned the inhabitants of The Badlands into grotesque abominations, from the flora and fauna, to the humanoid inhabitants such as the orcs and illithid. In contrast, those mutated by radiation in Terra are less sharply twisted than their cousins in The Badlands, such as elves, halflings, and dwarves. These two lands are each ruled by a leader that encompasses the respective values of their homeland -- The Badlands are ruled by Ziltoid the Omniscient, an Illithid warlord hell-bent on world-domination through the use of his reclaimed supercomputer, whereas Terra is ruled by The Red King, a warrior who rules through strength and wisdom.

Our heroes will be a ragtag group of Terrans selected for unknown reasons by The Red King, the mysterious and illusive leader of The Fair Folk -- The title proper for Terra's denizens. Our characters will come from different backgrounds across Terra, having been selected to destroy the last remaining component of Ziltoid's supercomputer, and be known as "The Court of The Red King". If you couldn't tell already, this won't be the last prog-rock joke [i]or[/i] Tolkien nod. The story will hopefully play out to completion, when our characters either destroy the supercomputer or die trying. I'm hoping to have the tone vary from being comical at its lightest to somewhat message-laden and serious at its darkest. Character deaths may happen, as well as NPCs, though many mook deaths aren't as serious as one main character death, and so on.

With that said, there's nothing left to do but lay out a few things, and let you get back to making a character sheet [u][b][i]OBVIOUSLY.[/i][/b][/u]

[hider=World]
[center][color=crimson][h2]The Badlands & The Mutants[/h2][/color]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/xlBb35d.jpg[/img][/center]

[i]The Badlands[/i] is the term for the irradiated desert that covers most of the world. It is a land of salt and brimstone, populated by the limping, mutated remnants of wildlife and those who adapted  In the least irradiated portions of The Badlands, there are oases of hardy prehistoric ferns and black pines that have withstood the area's acrid irradiated atmosphere. Most of The Badlands, however, is made up of sprawling gray deserts and cityscapes.

The mutants who live in The Badlands are as harsh and unnatural as their home, borne from humans who struggled in the poisonous land with escalatingly grotesque birth defects. These mutants have not only lost their humanity in a genetic sense, but in a mental sense as well -- Concepts such as filial piety, consensual sex, and mourning one's dead are foreign to them. Cannibalism is a commonplace fear tactic and food source, and leaders remain in power for as long as they are quick-witted and strong enough to avoid assassination. Only one thing is true about The Badlands; It is a foul place, where all things good have been forgotten.

Reclaimed technology is generally found in larger cities, whereas smaller cities make do with the twisted machinations of the current time. The current technologic era in The Badlands is most similar to that of the mid to late 1900's -- Things like electricity, planes, gasoline, and assault rifles all exist, though almost all medical technology, supercomputers, and robotics are found in ancient ruins and deep underground. Due to the existence of things like history books and instruction manuals, the industrial revolution has started much earlier now than during the time of man, and has skipped the steam age as part of their development. 

Though rifles are in mass production, swords are still being forged every day in most of The Badlands due to their ease of access, though technology is culturally considered the superior to any alternative, and "soft-skin" or "pointy-eared" ideas such as charity and oneness with nature are shunned with scorn. At the seams of The Badlands and Terra, wagonmakers are day by day learning automobile care, and swordsmiths and fletchers have begun turning to riflesmithing -- A cold, grim fact the denizens of The Badlands take much pride in.

Orcs, mutated humans with hardened skin and fangs, make up the bulk of The Badlands population -- known simply as The Mutants, followed by the beastmen and the Illithid, a psychic race of cephalopod-like humanoids. Among the wildlife are the usual mutant variants of common wildlife, sandworms, and the cactusmen -- living plants, and among the few lifeforms who can tolerate the planet's nuclear caps, and keepers of many of the nuclear desert's narrower shortcuts, valleys, and oases.

Aside from the usual packs of mutated dogs and sandworms, The Badlands is also known for The Terrorbird, a large ostrich-like mount somewhere between a velociraptor and a very large, skinny chicken. It is a solitary creature known for its hardiness, and is the unofficial symbol of The Badlands.

[color=crimson][sub]When in doubt: Mordor, Pandora, Chernobyl, The Wasteland (Fallout), The Wasteland (Mad Max), The Wasteland (Modern Detroit), Atacama Desert[/sub][/color]

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[center][color=crimson][h2]Terra & The Fair Folk[/h2][/color]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/bCoctJc.jpg[/img][/center]

Terra is the name for the parts of Earth that remain unspoilt and free of radiation. Ruled by Tiberius Khan, more commonly known as The Red King, Terra is known for its bountiful wildlife, abundance of trees, and widespread use of magic. Though much of it is only a fraction of lush and green as it was millions of years ago, it is still considered the more comfortable region of the world by far. 

Most of Terra is expansive jungles that make up a chunk of the planet the size of Asia, and its mutated inhabitants are known as The Fair Folk. They allow orcs and other Mutants -- save for the illithid -- to come into Terra as refugees, though there remains a strong stigma against their kind. Though The Badlands technically has more wildlife, excluding mutated insects and terrorbirds, Terra is by [i]far[/i] the more life-supporting of the two. 

Humans make up the bulk of Terra's denizens, followed by the elves. The outer regions of Terra, closest to The Badlands, are ruled by the hardier dwarves, gnomes eager to tinker with the machinations of the more savage parts of the world, as well as scattered colonies throughout every reach of Terra of "pseudosentient" races such as The Lizardmen, Mushroomfolk, and Fairies. There is little nationalism in regards to homelands in Terra, as each region is home to citizens of just about every species and race.


About half of Terra has a completely negative view of technology, citing it as the reason for The Last War. This half has outright rejected technology and refuse it in their villages, making those with cyborg prosthetics -- an option for the wealthy, but nonetheless option, given current medical advances -- pariahs and scapegoats in the more remote sections of the jungle-kingdom. The half of Terra that does not outright shun technology is fearful of it, but will still sometimes use it for the absolute benefit of their lives, such as medicine, transportation for the elderly, and electricity.


Many Terrans live a nomadic lifestyle, and in lieu of owning property, it is culturally acceptable to simply seek good deeds in foreign places and live off of your earnings working as a drifter and the charity of strangers. The title of these journeymen is "The Errant", until they have reached the journey of their quest, which is largely up to the errant themselves. Most are men or elves, though some gnomes and outsiders are willing to seek such philosophical journeys in spite of the cultural stigma, while dwarves and halflings rarely if ever leave their home villages.

[color=crimson][sub]When in doubt: Guadosalam, The Amazon, Lothlórien, Pre-Colonization America [i]kinda[/i], The Hundred Acre Wood [i]kinda?[/i][/sub][/color]
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[hider=People of Note]

[center][h2][color=crimson]Ziltoid The Omniscient[/color][/h2]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/fdCSG6J.jpg[/img][/center]
Ziltoid The Omniscient is the first and only leader of The Badlands. Having united a formerly group of warring city-states into unification through submission to his army, Ziltoid styles himself Ziltoid The Omniscient at all times as a reminder of his psychic abilities, Ziltoid The Omniscient, The Black Witch of Astapor and Warlord of The Badlands during public speeches, and Ziltoid The Omniscient, The Black Witch of Astapor, Warlord of The Badlands, Herald of The Future and Devourer of Makron III's Brain at any intercommunication between himself and smaller badlands rulers or foreigners that ever cross his path.

As an Illithid, he is a powerful psychic who gains abilities, memories, and intelligence with each brain he has consumed, and can read and control weak minds. Ziltoid is an extremely powerful Illithid, who eats a steady diet that is now completely based on the grey matter of his dungeon's prisoners. His psychic abilities extend beyond his race's mind-reading and mind-control, and have leapt into full telekinesis, which has never been seen in any but extremely rare men and elves.

The unusual ending of his longest styling, Devourer of Makron III's Brain, is based on his rise to power; The closest thing the Illithid have had to a ruler was Makron III, who acted as a pope-like figure and leader of the Illithid faith. Ziltoid defeated his holy army, and ate the brain out of his head, still pulsing with electrons and all, in the city square.

This significantly boosted his popularity.
[color=crimson][sub]When in doubt: Sauron, Hitler, Trent Reznor[/sub][/color]

[hr]

[center][h2][color=crimson]The Red King[/color][/h2]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/CdFG6Lm.jpg[/img][/center]
The Red King, born simply as Tiberius Khan, is the leader of The Fair Folk and de facto ruler of Terra. He is a former Errant who has settled into his kingdom of The Red Keep, though he spends most of his time in deep meditation rather than at galas or festivals. Satisfied with a youth spent as a captain for Terra's only military organization, The Rangers, Tiberius has lived a life of green-skinned women, pointy-eared women, and frightening, scaly women. He has killed more men than he can remember the names of soldiers he's guided through nuclear deserts, and he's guided a lot of soldiers through a [i]lot[/i] of shit.

Now that he has "retired", aside from meditating, he mostly lives the life of a somewhat idle king, signing laws into existence, dealing with crime whenever it may occur, and tending to the needs of the smallfolk. He is loved by most of his subjects, if not at least respected for his stalwart fairness and honor-bound morals.

He wields The Dawntorch, a sword crafted eons ago that hums with energy and can cut through anything it is swung at. He famously wears a withered tentacle around his neck -- That of Ziltoid the Omniscient, a trophy from decades past. Though Ziltoid has long-since regrown his tentacle, there is still a feint white scar where The Red King once severed it, which is the subject of many Terran songs.

[color=crimson][sub]When in doubt: Elrond, Captain Kirk, Flash Gordon[/sub][/color]
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[hider=Flora and Fauna]

This list will be updated as characters discover species IC, through me introducing them or you guys making them up on the spot, which is outright encouraged.

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[hider=Character Sheet]

[pre]
I'm not a stickler for how this is formatted, as long as you cover all this information.
Name: ((Names are separated from modern conventions by millions of years. Go wild, but something that isn't a pain in the ass to type a lot or hard to memorize. Whether or not you have a surname is up to you.))

Race: ((You're a Terran or an immigrant from The Badlands, so choose anything but an Illithid. They're too evil. Sorry bub.))

Age: ((Go nuts. How old are elves and dwarves and shit at maturity? Unimportant! Make it up.))

Gender: ((Now seems an opportune time to plug my tumblr))

Appearance: ((Go into as much detail as you think is necessary to understand your character))

Personality: ((GO INTO AS MUCH DETAIL AS YOU CAN BEAR.))

History: ((Up to you if you want to explain everything here or have it come out bit by bit through flashbacks, but have a general summarization of your character's life.))

Strengths: ((You don't have to be an A-Team level specialist, but everyone's got a talent.))

Weaknesses: ((Pobody's Nerfect!))

Other: ((Anything else this bare-ass sheet missed.))[/pre][/hider]