[center][h1]After Humans[/h1][/center] [img]http://orig14.deviantart.net/e907/f/2014/281/5/c/metropolis_by_narandel-d8215fu.png[/img] [Hider=Intro Snippet] Madness... That's what many would wish it was... The sky was filled with lights last night, beams from some unknown source cutting into the city's mass, Colorful ribbons of light that would slice clean through any form of defense the Corporations could muster, Fires so grand their light glowed furiously for miles around... and they were everywhere. It wasn't the single explosive detonation that supposedly saw the end of Old Ark City, but some may argue that it was even worse. I remember sitting on the balcony of my own little estate in the high class district, east side, cackling madly because I thought it was just a fancy light show at first, perhaps complaining a little because my view was obscured by the dozens of even richer bitches who had bigger buildings than me... that was before the first explosions. Then I was watching in irresistible fascination and horror as 'something' did what billions of people have spent centuries trying to do... Tear the Corporate towers from their foundations and bring them tumbling down. I cannot truly put into words both the horror and beauty of watching such a titanic construction slowly tumbling towards the earth, of watching countless hundreds of airborne vehicles plummet as if thrown to the ground, even seeing one of the distant great flying cities visibly falling... It had been such a remarkably clear night, I remember thinking it was suspiciously clear. I will never forget the strange alien sounds of such massive beams, or presumably living light zipping around... nor the less alien sounds of catastrophic destruction, the explosions, the sounds of fire's so massive you could hear them from rings away, the ear-shattering boom of the towers falling. Then my vision was erased as the Colossal tens of thousands of tons of Tower fell upon the western sector of the City, thankfully the opposite direction of myself... The last things I saw were the tower's actual impact, imagining it must have nearly wiped out the western districts. Then I saw the impossibly large wave of dust and debris being blown my way, the force of which tore into the tallest buildings along it's way, bringing them down as well and making me more glad than ever that I had one of the 'smallest' estates. Then one of those colorful ribbon's swept over-head ahead of the wave of debris, seemingly overlooking my comparatively paltry estate, yet I felt something astounding as it passed overhead... It left this strange sense of 'fulfillment' behind before cleaving right through the taller structures around me... It was silly, but I wondered if it was 'fighting for the little guys', if it recognized I had tried to and acted to prevent me being wiped away like the rest. Then my vision flickered horribly with the holographic displays, as did the rest of me, my right arm began fidgeting uncontrollably... then I blacked out shortly after. [/hider] From the Interest Check [hider=History] Progress was trucking right along... or, at least what had been defined as progress by those who held all the power. It was far from perfect, it was far from safe, and it's purpose was undeniably profit over people... But damn if it wasn't still a history of amazing achievements, even if it had devolved into a contest of who could be the better criminal businessman without getting caught. It started way back when endless dirty schemes led to the Corporations becoming too powerful to challenge, and claiming the world's governments for themselves... ohhh, pockets of resistance will always exist, there's simply too much 'world' for them to hope to control willingly, though this isn't exactly relevant. Under the monopolistic demand for 'the next profitable thing' and without government over-sight to regulate it's development technology boomed, both wondrous things that made life a little more amazing, and horrible mistakes, some of which we were lucky if the only result was a handful of dead people. Of course we never delved into the depths of Artificial intelligence, one of few things that strictly regulated... afterall, the Corps didn't want anything to have the possibility of challenging them, and even they heard all the horror stories. More importantly though, this period brought with it incredible advancements, sometimes horrible or oppressive, but truly incredible. I-phones became tablets, then merged into Hand-held PCs, then gained projection screens, then touch screen holograms, eventually becoming 'personal assistant projection suites' and the like, mere chips under the skin that would respond to mental impulse to project the screen and let people interact with them, though mental 'control' of these system was only possible with the simplest programs, other's still required physical contact with the hologram... though physical computers still had vastly superior processing power, and the 'best new thing' was always so expensive that either only the rich and elite had it, or those who stole the technology and supplied it to the 'criminal element' Medical science exploded, allowing life-spans to be extended, of course only in ways that required frequent payments to keep it working and clearly favored, again, the rich and elite, still, from new but familiar chemical and physical 'solutions' for all manner of illnesses, to clone farms pumping out organs by the truck-load, to regrowing/attaching lost limbs, and of course engineering 'superior limbs' to replace the originals... you know, mechanical augmentations ranging from simple replacements to full body modifications and even walking arsenals... well that got out of hand fast, but thems the breaks! Naturally, there's a full array of 'criminalistic counterparts' for every corporate owned business. ... you know what, this is taking too long, and i'm sure you get the idea. roads became massive spider-web networks of automated vehicles, cities became monoliths surrounded by seas of smaller buildings wrapped in countless roads, 'airborne' cities even became a thing! Borderline indefinite lifespans became 'possible', weaponry became more 'awesome' yet always designed with limits in mind that kept them at a level where it would be insufficient to over-come the corporate overlords, unintelligent robots became common... There was always something new being advanced, some new 'upgrade' that was needed, some new report about criminals somehow getting their hands on the newest thing without corporate will... Oh hey, speaking of that- [/hider] [hider=Catastrophe unleashed] As is typical with those who have too much power and an endless lust for more, the corporate leaders always tried to drag themselves one step higher, one step closer to so called god-hood, and one step deeper into control of those beneath them... Enter the Solaris project. Nobody has any clue what was actually done to make it possible, much like many of the brand newest things the Corporations threw trillions of dollars at to bring into existence, at least until some criminals dig up the truth about it. They did know that one day it was announced that the United Corporate Empire [UCE] had taken successfully devised a method to control the 'sun'!... and they would all now have to pay for solar hours... Naturally, there was an up-roar about once again going much much too far beyond the scope of reasonable advancement or power, and once again there was an explosion of 'arrests based on suspicions of terrorism', followed by countless being released back to the public but much 'quieter'. It wasn't even known if it was true, and legions of conspiracy theories arose about it ranging from a reverse dyson sphere being constructed to imitate the sun, to a false sun and sky being projected into the atmosphere, to even creating their own miniature sun. The only real 'certainty' was that whatever they were doing was causing a great golden beam of light aimed up into the sky, so who knew!... Until short-lived legend of the 'Sunjacker' heist. They hadn't been claiming control for even a whole month before the supposed facility storing the Solaris Project was raided... No, not by an army of angry civilians armed to the teeth, but just a little crew of apparently very amazing thieves who'd pre-emptively boasting 'stealing the sun', and somehow pulled off the grandest heist against the greatest security measures that could be mustered, without so much as a nick... Once more, nobody knows 'how', but it was followed by a message broadcast across the world-net 'We control the sun now.' They didn't actually do anything with it though, and seemingly dropped off the radar as if they'd never existed... oddly though, the Solaris facility's beam of light turned blue, and still glows to this day. Barely a week later the corporations announced that they had simply made another way to control the sun... And that's when the world exploded! Well... not literally, since we're still here, but something happened. maybe something went wrong with their next attempt, or someone decided they'd had enough and unleashed some kind of catastrophe, or perhaps it was just a natural disaster of tremendous proportions caused by all the tampering that leveled... well, everything. Whatever was the source, something swept across the surface of the planet unleashing destruction and chaos with unerring completeness. Great beams of light and explosions in one city, Ribbons of color cleaving the cloud-splitters from their foundations, a grand old eruption in another... It seemed less a singular catastrophe and more a string of hundreds of different ones, either from something unrestrained or perhaps simply a chain reaction of one over-bearing system after another going critical. What followed though is the 'most' important detail for us, because it's what we face as the survivors. [/hider] [hider=Our Present] The great cities of the world lay in ruin... relatively speaking... It seemed as though the destruction depending on the size of something, the towering cloud-splitters were scattered in pieces over the cities around them, or the aerial cities crashed down, yet aside from the monstrous tonnage crashing down on them and whatever side-effects followed, most smaller structures stayed intact. Large under-ground structures were not spared either, caved in or erupted into... Nor was the absolutely titanic world-net, though none know if the central facility is intact or not, it stopped functioning either way. Flying things crashed, the aerial cities plummeted, and even the satellites in orbit came crashing down... though no-one knows what happened to the stations up there. Perhaps biggest of all, the corporations have stopped broad-casting, silence reigns as if they've simply ceased to exist... though that is of course another mystery. While the 'massive' systems of the world were crushed in some manner or another, the smaller one's remained intact. Many vehicles were still perfectly intact, even flying ones, though those in the air during the event invariably crashed. Even smaller factory's tended to remain intact!... provided something didn't fall on it or happen to blow up nearby. While not able to reach too far, communication remained possible through the various smaller devices that got by intact... and these told a greater story between the people able to communicate with eachother. In the wake of the destruction came change... broad, wild, and chaotic in nature, there seemed to be no defined system guiding it, as if something had been unleashed and just left to do whatever came naturally. Whatever this event had been 'changed' people as it came to a close. Countless humans became... some other creature, sometimes some form of fantastical beast from legend, other times a seamless synthetic life-form. Some may become griffons, or simply a humanoid with great magical intensity. Some might become strange little magical equines where other's could have been turned into a great and terrible dragon. Some even became things that history had no words for... Unfortunately, there were a great deal of failures that accompanied these changes. Great swaths of people for some unknown reason simply keeled over and 'rose again' as mindless husks wandering the world and following hungry instincts. Other's had mutated in some horrific manner that either broke them and drove them to madness, or directly ruined their brain and left only some twisted monster in it's wake... Other unfortunate 'could have been' successes had risky implants that were incompatible with their new body... afterall, a cybernetic brain case doesn't meld so well to the wrong kind of head. Most of those at least died quickly, while other's lucked out with their incompatible parts simply being inconvenient rather than fatal. There was however a smattering of communication from people who'd been over-looked, who were still 'normal' humans... not precisely 'rare' per se, but now no longer the majority 'top predator' as the species had once been. The Reign of Mankind seemed to be at it's end, and in it's place was a whole new world waiting to be tamed. [/hider] New Ark Metropolis [hider=New Ark] [hider=Simple city layout map] Gray: Factory District Brown: Slums Hot Pink: Party District ;3 Green: Middle Class Residential and Business Red: Security District Gold: Big Market District Light Blue: High Class District Black: Corporate Towers [img]http://oi63.tinypic.com/30j0fm1.jpg[/img] [/hider] Why is it called 'New' ark one might wonder?... well, it's not exactly 'hidden' information, just downplayed. The original Ark city was eradicated in some unfortunate massive terrorist attack nearly a century ago... At least, that's what the corporations say, but most other people will tell you it's because the Corporations fucked up some experiment of theirs and blew the city to bits. New ark is actually built upon a massive Miles wide crater left over from that event, covering the entire thing and packed to the brim above and below with supports and reinforcements, the city looks more like a 'mountain' of construction with every ring built on a slightly higher tier than the previous one. The crater below the surface of the city is filled with endless artificial construction designed to hold the entire city upright, mixed with networks of subways both abandoned and not, as well as the 'ultra slums' as the Corporate types will call it, where those who can't even manage the Slumming District will reside, digging for scraps from old Ark City, subsisting on molds and fungus or whatever grows underground, and generally living just the 'worst' kind of lives!... more corporate opinion, but who knows what the truth is, it's probably criminal territory, but most people don't dare go down there to find out, as beneath it also reside vast networks of corporate transport tunnels, heavily guarded by automated security as likely to mistake a mere 'rat' for an intruder as a person. Anyway! Back to the surface! The Outer Ring, Grey, The Factory District. [hider=The Factory Ring] [hider=image] [img]http://orig13.deviantart.net/d8b9/f/2012/089/2/0/factory_city_by_gulavisual-d4ugnbn.jpg[/img] [/hider] The Factory District, almost entirely a single monumentally massive building of it's own that surrounds the entirety of the massive city, both forming an oppressive wall around the slums outer edges, only out done by the 'actual' wall around the factory district that was even higher, As well as forming a peerless 'sea' of factory structure, exhaust tubes, pipes, stone and metal, above and below the surface of the city, split only by the massive primary roads leading in and out of New Ark. The Factory District is, predictably, responsible for nearly the entirety of the City's actual mass production, vastly over-shadowing the production power of even the most impressive 'on site' factories of both the syndicates and the corporations themselves... It also produces an endless ocean of fog that sickens the air of the Slums. [/hider] The Second Ring, Brown, The Slums District [hider=The Slums] [hider=image] [img]http://orig14.deviantart.net/e907/f/2014/281/5/c/metropolis_by_narandel-d8215fu.png[/img] [/hider] What can be said about the slums... they're shit... I suppose I should elaborate... They're shit compared to everywhere else... It's a living, a very basic one, car, living space, job, weekly mugging, endless hours slaving away for the profit of the Corporate overlords... It's a shitty place to live, but it's better than trying to safely leave through the factory district to even just live in the wild. ... that said, if you know where to look, the shitty low class exteriors might be hiding something more interesting... Many smaller gangs make their hide-outs in the slums where security is the most lax and the Syndicates don't keep too much of an iron grip. Similar for lone or smaller hacker groups. Maybe if you're really lucky you'll stumble across an abandoned one with lots of loot you can snag. Of course the Syndicates 'have' areas there under their control, there's no ring they don't have 'something', the slums are just normally used for things that call for an excess of space and low corporate security, such as concealed factories and warehouses. [/hider] The third Ring, Pink, The Party district [hider=The Party District] [hider=image] [img]https://derpicdn.net/img/2015/3/8/845630/large.jpeg[/img] [/hider] the Party district, the talk of the town, the backyard Las Vegas, the den of debauchery and hedonism that 'everyone' in the city is eager to spend a little time in now and then. Just about the only place where one's status means absolutely 'shit', nobody gets a free ride without 'special' connections, and those are 'not' corporate connections. The Party District is home to the Syndicates actual Headquarters, usually separated by North, South, East, and West, they're all working together. Everything from Micro factories to armories, Drug dens to gaming houses, Brothers to Fantasy hollows, Renta Hookers to Pony Sex bots... If someone can imagine it, no matter how freaky, it can be found 'somewhere' in the Party district... and is also a front for the Syndicate's countless operations, though it's usually at least organized so that the most 'strange' something is, the more private of an area one would have to be in to stumble upon it. That said, you will 'not' be mugged in the Party district. The syndicate is very serious about local security and it's well known that even the littlest unsanctioned criminal tends to 'disappear' mysteriously when they don't play nice. [/hider] The fourth Ring, Green, The Middle Class District [hider=The Middle Class District] [hider=image] [img]http://orig03.deviantart.net/ea26/f/2014/158/e/6/district_40_by_narandel-d7ld08i.png[/img] [/hider] The fourth ring is just like it sounds, it's where the middle-class citizens live, the one's who've got more money available than the slum-bugs and usually some kind of position above 'expendable plebe'. It's also where the middle-class private businesses are centered, scattered around the ring are countless tens of thousands of smaller businesses just barely staying useful enough to the Corporations not to crush or buy out. It's also right on the border of the Security district, so predictably Syndicate presence is much less voluminous, though it 'is' there, it is generally deep underground and very well hidden. [/hider] The fifth Ring, Red, The Security district [hider=The Security District] [hider=image] [img]http://orig12.deviantart.net/0efa/f/2014/043/5/2/neo_mordor_by_e_mendoza-d765afj.jpg[/img] [/hider] Also sometimes referred to as the militarized ring, this is where the vast array of the Corporation's military might resides, waiting to unleash swarms of enforcers, security drones, or any number of other tools to try and catch the various threats against corporate interests. It's also where the Corporations usually store 'important stuff' with the highest of security requirements. The only time Syndicate interests ever move in this district other than to pass through to the market district if when there's an inside deal going down... or a long-planned raid on some well guarded facility. This district was clearly designed with the idea of numerous intimidating and heavily armed towers over-watching the entirety of the city, and with the rapid release of whole armies in mind. [/hider] [Sorry, I decided to just go ahead and post it and update these last 2 after dinner XD but there's images in there.] The sixth Ring, Gold, The Market district [hider=The Market District] [hider=image] [img]http://img15.deviantart.net/7d95/i/2014/124/4/c/hacker_city_by_e_mendoza-d7h77fq.jpg[/img] [/hider] Once more, the name says it all, this is where the vast majority of the city's marketing transactions take place. Everything from high quality drug deals to military vehicle purchases, clothing stores to designer augments, quality holo-PCs to real estate... It is the only ring in which the Syndicate 'behaves itself', because of the sheer volume of security that surrounds the market district and the intensity with which the corporations protect their interests... this also makes it a very safe place to be unless you're a known enemy of the Corporations. [/hider] The seventh and Eighth Rings, Cyan and Black, The High class District and Corporate Center [hider=The Corporate District] [hider=image] [img]http://img07.deviantart.net/9b33/i/2014/296/1/d/cyberpunk_cityscape_by_klauspillon-d83vjqq.jpg[/img] [/hider] The most exclusive portion of the city, predictably the center. If you're in this area, you're one of the maybe Ten Thousand non corporate people who can claim to actually be 'rich' in this city, or you're working for one of them. The corporate's themselves reside in the very center, in the quartet of massive towers reaching clean up to the clouds, surrounded by open easily covered space around their bases... There's little to say about them outside their oppressively tremendous size and seeming impenetrability, though infiltration still happen rarely. surrounding this center is the ring filled with the private residences or businesses of actual 'Rich' Individuals, every building belongs to a single person there, and anyone else there either works for one of them or is buying from one of them... or, you know, is a friend of one. The size of the building's varies greatly dependent on the owner's wealth and preference for ostentatiousness. Nearly every one will have impressive private security and [/hider] [/hider] Technology Examples [hider=space saver] [hider=Holo PC Implants] They come in a variety of quality. Lower quality Holo PCs are usually external, only project a screen, and have an installation plug, or wireless port, to connect keyboards and other peripheries in order to operate them... they also have a habit of getting kindof hot when operating complex programs and have little electro magnetic protection...... there's also a high chance of being stolen suddenly. Middle-ground Holos are implanted and provide a projected screen as normal, but now there's a plug in 'you' for the peripheries, though they are more efficiently refined and shielded because now it's inside of a valuable human resource that needs it's brain to not melt from overheating. They also feature basic neural interaction and 'internal' sound projection. A real high quality Holo PC has been refined to a point of being a mere ship implanted into your brain with tiny wireless receptors installed in your finger tips, allowing you to operate a fully holographic interface with no physical peripheries Necessary. previous new features have been refined so that some features can be handled purely with neural impulses, also known as thoughts, though most complex programs don't function so well with this method yet and still require physical input, though it's not uncommon to see powerful people casually playing simple games with just their minds... it's usually sign of someone with high influence either in the corporation, among the elite, or in the syndicates. These are also thoroughly shielded and only likely to over-heat if severely over-loaded, something where it's more likely the human around it is already dead. Corporate tier Holo PCs naturally have the absolute newest tech, though they are functionally similar to mere high quality, just refined, a few more functions can be handled neurologically, they run even smoother, have improved shielding... Basically and MK.2 model. Syndicate Neural Hacker Suite Holo PCs are a different matter though, while still functionally similar to high quality, they are designed to maximize the neural interaction and allow their users to remotely interact with all kinds of electronic devices, provided a connection can be established and maintained, even better with physical input included... It's also kinda cool watching them touching air to hack things. [/hider] [hider=Magnetic Applications] The first thing many would think about when hearing about Magnetic applications, is weaponry. EMPs, Electromagnetic discharge weaponry, Magnetic rail weaponry, hyper magnetic singularity grenades... so on and so forth, we can all kind of imagine where this goes. However, there are other applications that have been used, such as Electromagnetic elevators that either raise a platform, or in some places just push a person's individual magnetic field up or down. Magnetic rails in roads allow compatible vehicles to be propelled along at extreme speeds, not unlike trains that use similar methods, at minimal actual cost to fuel or batteries. Magnetized Construction Blueprints, a specialized magnetic projection field that allows an arrangement of materials to simply be dragged into position to form a structure of some form or another... minimally effective when 'only' magnetized, but it makes it easy as pie to put it all together manually while it's floating there. [/hider] [hider=Augmentation] Oh I could go on for hours about the possibilities here... I won't though. Augmentation has broadened from mere prosthetics, though those have become very simple to do, from things such as improved organ replacements, to weaponized augments, to various experimental currently one of a kind custom systems.... You need only apply your imagination. [/hider] [/hider] Character Sheet! [hider=Character Sheet] Name: Apparent Age: Actual Age: Some of us are older than we look ;3 Former Species: Well... usually this is human, possibly augmented to some degree, but exceptions 'are' possible. Height: Weight: Appearance: You might not look this way anymore, but who knows, it might be relevant anyway! New Species: These should be obvious ;3 Height: Weight: Appearance: Personality: Location: Make something up xD just include at least a Cardinal direction and which district. Status: If relevant XD Secrets: Everybody's got em, I think it'd be an interesting addition if everyone had something that other players didn't get to know about them pre-emptively, and discover them as we progress. Assets: Usually referring to things your characters knows of in this world that could be useful, like stashes, locations of useful buildings like micro-factories, and so on. Possessions: This reffers to things your character is actually able to take 'with' them, since claiming to own things that you're not currently near won't work so well for a while ;3 Equipment: And this refers to things that your character can get unique use out of, special implants, weapons, armor, so on and so forth. Story: [/hider]