[OOC] Broken Skies

[TheMerlin]

Nvm, I edited it into my post. @deia876lat, let's see how things are on Ellis's end.

[TheMerlin]

Just a bit of an update, added a new section to the lore for the Army of Belisio, specifically in regards to ranking structures. Still need to work on rank insignias for regular soldiers though. Thinking about making a retcon or two in the process.

[deia876lat]

@Omni5876: Just a quick question, does Arn also have a particular hate for himself? Considering what happened to his mother?

Would that also be triggered when he goes overboard (with what Tyrhallan asks of him?)

[Omni5876]

@deia876lat He only hates that he did not act sooner because he was a coward and had too much "feelings" i.e wanted friends family etc. He sees himself as a weapon who only exists. Of course those he sees as evil and last time I checked the Empire is not very good in terms of humanitarian deeds. Does that help?

He actually sees his casting as a way to connect with his mother who is now part of gia.

[TheMerlin]

So after a bit of thought about the regular army rankings, I've decided that instead of this:

Soldier > Sergeant > Captain > Commander > General

It will now be this:

Private > Corporal > Sergeant > Lieutenant > Captain > Major > Colonel > General

I'll have to apologize to @Omni5876 for me making a fuss about ranks earlier in a pm. The original idea was to have it resemble how a medieval army would've been organized, that is to say very loosely without much of a formal system at all beyond soldiers > officers > lords > generals > king, but given the technology level of the roleplay and depth of organization we've already come up with for the knights and mages, I figure it'd be best to have a more modern approach instead for the regular army.

[deia876lat]

It is good to know the official ranks now.
We'll be able to go back to this when we get into situations in the future, instead of scratching our heads going; Oh yeah, what was it again?

[Omni5876]

lol that being said I have another head scratcher. Ok so are the airships helicarrier style ships? are they more like modern aircraft? or are they flying 1500 galleons? Also, the fire power. Are we talking about regular ballistic weapons. Burst weapons or like laser type deals? lol, I guess the lore will just grow.

[Omni5876]

Quick question am I reading @deia876lat line correctly

"I plan to take control of the helm...if we can turn it, we can jam the rudder and set it ablaze...That is where you come in Arn, though I'd advise you not to stick around afterwards. I plan to use it to ram one of the other frigates with."

I assumed he meant me to use my magic to tick the rudder in place. That being the case all three of us would land on the same ship, possibly the middle one and use the plan to then ram another frigate.

[deia876lat]

You're correct with one small correction. He does not really care who jams the rudder, just that it gets jammed up.
This is what Tyrhallan thinks:
He'll try to break into the wheelhouse of the central frigate.
Once in control he'll try to change the course, aiming for one of the other frigates.
In order to stop them from stopping them, they'll need to jam the rudder and set fire to it.

It is an old tactic called fireships, turning whole fleets to the torch. Though back in the day it was dependent on wind and an element of suprise.

Apart from it possibly taking out both ships, it will also cause new problems for the Vaimese force, after all.
Can't fight a war when your in disarray because of collisions and burning vessels.
It will also for the mages to focus on dealing with the fire first.
Less time they have for us, less time they have to think and counter our attacks.
The more time we have to deal with them, picking them off one by one.

[deia876lat]

@Omni5876 Exactly, I like to know too, I have this picture in my head that they're more like a cross of Battleships and Submarines

[TheMerlin]

"I plan to take control of the helm...if we can turn it, we can jam the rudder and set it ablaze...That is where you come in Arn, though I'd advise you not to stick around afterwards. I plan to use it to ram one of the other frigates with."

@Omni5876

Woops, I thought Tyr was talking to Leo at the time I was writing my post. Must've misread it, I'll just make a quick edit to my post.

As for the airships, I apologize for not describing them too well. At all really. It seems like I've been apologizing for a lot of things lately, but I have to admit that I do tend to skimp on the details a lot so I can post quicker and it sometimes just ends up causing more problems like right now. I'll try to be more descriptive with my writing in the future, at least when it counts.

Appearance wise, I think the best visual reference would be what I've already included in the intro and interest check which is this:

Hider

So basically what @deia876lat said except with jet propulsion instead of propellers. In terms of weaponry, lasers are a thing, but they're more for point defence and close range 'knife fights' between airships and soldiers because of how quickly they lose effectiveness over long distances. For the most part, kinetic weaponry such as missiles, cannon shells and bullets still hold sway with railguns being the most powerful form of direct fire weaponry and nukes, yes nukes, being the weapons of mass destruction we all know and loathe.

Shielding and cloaking technology are also a thing though, so even nukes aren't quite so devastating as they used to be. All of these however pale in comparison to what mages and some ki users are capable of with enough talent and training. For example, the Sorcerer King who managed to pull all four moons down from the sky. In all honesty, our characters are very underpowered for what they'll be going up against throughout the roleplay, but hopefully they'll improve a lot along the way. If they survive that is.

[deia876lat]

So just to be clear on this...do they have an engine?
Or is their power of flight the capability from either large magnets that interact with the world's core?
Or is it magical?

Clearly we didn't want to make too powerful characters and take out the fun of the game. War is a dangerous business after all.
So we'll have to have them grow in their powers.

[TheMerlin]

Yes, they have engines. I also had the idea of airships being built around floating islands at their core that provide levitation while the engines give thrust, but idk if I should implement that idea or not. On the one hand, it seems like the logical thing to do when there are floating islands everywhere, but on the other it's kind of... Mundane? Like it's not some high tech anti-gravity thing, it's just slapping some big engines onto a piece of floating rock and dressing it up as a flying ship. Feels like I can do better than that, idk. What do you guys think?

[deia876lat]

Well it depends really on whether you want it to have some bigger part in the story.
I mean we can glance over it, but you could also incorporate it. Infact it could be one of the reasons the Empire has been on the warpath again.

You can go the magical way, connecting it to both Ith and the Aether.

You can go Crystals> but crystals being rocks meaning land would mean you get to incorporate your floating island idea.

You can turn it into something darker all together claiming perservions in the 'fuel' for the engine. (Its people/souls)

You can even make it huge magical beasts that they have to keep hidden, thus building the ships around them.

You can also just go they're magnets and interact with the weird magnetism & gravitation of the islands themselves, keeping it Star Trek like...as in it functions just don't expect to understand flowregulators and warp core mechanics.

There could also just be someone who pilots it, like a mage there in the Empire or on board strapped to a chair with headgear on that just mindcontrols it.

[TheMerlin]

I think I like the crystal core idea. Say that it's some kind of unobtainium type thing mined from the deep sky that not only provides levitation, but also fuel for the engines or allows for fusion energy to be stable enough to work, one of the two.

Well anyways, at least we're starting to narrow things down a bit.

[TheMerlin]

I'll try to post tomorrow. Ran out of time for tonight.

[Omni5876]

first off.... @deia876lat cat fight! lol

second, am I to assume that mages dont really run out of mana as they are basically drawing from Gia? but I would assume that using mortal bodies to control the Aether would cause exhaustion and perhaps even injuries as you are channeling forces?

[TheMerlin]

first off.... @deia876lat cat fight! lol

@Omni5876

Also, correct on both counts. A mage doesn't run out of mana so much as they run out of stamina and focus. It's like trying to keep your eyes open for as long as possible without blinking while holding your breath. That's more or less how a mage experiences using magic.

[deia876lat]

Well the way I thought up Eilis is basically that she is a conductor, like metal for example, normally when she was unbound (the tattoo's) she wouldn't have problems calling forth and releasing magic. As much as metal can conduct heat. However too much heat and you know what happens.

The problem is that she is bound. They set a magical binding on her, which was put into her skin, very much like a tattoo, so that it would react instantly when she used magic.
Since it blocks the release, her magic can't really get out of her body. It strains and damages her body.
She can't use her full powers/range and if she does use any form of magic she will feel terrible pain, naturally gradually to the amount she uses.

Currently Eilis experiences the pain of lashings, it comes and goes with the strength of magic she put into her efforts and since she does not want to die...you get my point.
But I don't think mages would be too quickly exhausted, especially not trained ones.

Also right back at ya @TheMerlin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tzE98pQH08

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCnGD6xv5ik

[TheMerlin]

Well the way I thought up Eilis is basically that she is a conductor, like metal for example, normally when she was unbound (the tattoo's) she wouldn't have problems calling forth and releasing magic. As much as metal can conduct heat. However too much heat and you know what happens.

@deia876lat

Okay, forget everything I said. That's a much better analogy than what I had, we'll go with that. To bounce off that idea we could also say that every time a mage uses magic, they get a little bit of feedback in the form of, say, waste heat or something. Too much and it burns them out from the inside like what would happen at birth if they couldn't achieve balance between their own soul and their connection with Gaia.

Or instead of just heat, we could also say that a little bit of what they cast goes back to them. Eg. slight recoil from telekinesis, a cold feeling from cryokinesis, a mild buzz from electrokinesis, that sort of thing and it gets worse and worse the closer they get to their limit. This feedback can be lessened through training, but never entirely mitigated so it's not a matter of stamina and focus, or running out of mana but more rather gradually losing the ability to do it safely like an overworked muscle.

So it's like you can have as much coffee, sugar and stimulants as you want, be all wide awake with energy to burn, but if that muscle hasn't had time to recover, it will tear and it will hurt. Except for mages, it could go from 0 to 100 real quick because of the forces they're working with. They'll experience pain at first, an early warning sign of reaching their limits, then once they get past the point of no return, fwoosh. You end up setting yourself on fire instead of the other guy. Or get frozen into a popsicle. Or get blown away by your own telekinetic push, etc.

How's all that sound? Oh and I'll have to put off posting til tomorrow again, I kinda got a bit carried away with all this.