While the plot will remain secret from the players until it becomes revealed via IC mean, the title is intended to give a hint as to what it is. The plot will be entirely contained within the crew of a spaceship, with little, if any, influence from outside the ship. All things occurring outside of the ship's crew will be sandboxy in nature, due to the fact that where we actually go is determined by you guys, the players. I've decided we'll be a bit of both things that tied in the IntChk: we'll pirate, hunt bounties, and hunt treasure. I will have control of the captain, and the way physics work and how the title will come into play will remain shadowed and revealed IC, except for the basic knowledge that every character will be aware of, even if they lack a deep understanding of it. This is as follows:
Anyone familiar with Ender's Game will realize where this is from, because I am ripping those books' physics straight out of them (credit for philotic physics goes to Orson Scott Card, folks). Around 4000 years ago, the theory that the Higgs-Bison is the smallest particle of matter was debunked, for it was proven that Higgs-Bison particles are, themselves, made of smaller particles called philotes. These philotes are the source of all organization in the known universe, for they hold patterns that allow them to behave according to set laws of physics. Sentience also originates from philotes, for certain philotes, designated as an
aiua philote, holds intelligence, free will, creativity, etc. to create sentience. Philotic connections also allow hive minds to exist, and are also the source of the most common method of faster-than-light communication: the ansible. Ansibles work by splitting a meson and then scattering the two halves fast enough that the philotes that compose the meson do not assert themselves into a new pattern to fit the new state. These two halves are then planted in a computer, and as the meson spins in specific ways, a message or image is produced, allowing for real-time communication across lightyears of space. All ansibles have hundreds of thousands of these split mesons planted in them. However, sending data through a connection requires massive amounts of power, which is designated as "ansible time" or "ansible bandwidth", similar to how data is transferred through the internet during Earth's 21st century. The philotic network of ansibles completely replaced the internet in every respect.
The physics won't really be "broken", per say, but they will be tested and pushed beyond belief. The philotic web is essential to this RP, which is why I'm using it. In fact, let's just say this is an alternate universe running parallel to the Ender Quintet, where Lusitania was able to normally manufacture the Recolada virus (if you know what I'm talking about; if not, don't worry, it's not that important to the RP). You could also probably see another reason I used it: it's just so damn interesting, lol.
While captain is taken, there will be a "captain's messenger" position. Whoever plays that character may as well be playing the captain, since the captain will not be seen until later on. Until he appears, I'll mostly handle NPC's.
Humans: Humanity is widely considered to be one of the few creative races in existence. They aren't the most intelligent race, but their creativity and tendency to see past blind logic makes them far more resourceful and curious than the other races. This also makes them the best reverse engineers, able to pick apart alien tech and easily figure out how it works and how to build it for themselves. Humans are also one of the only races to have dreams, a characteristic that often baffles the other two prominent races. Strangely, Christianity is still the dominant human religion, even after thousands of years as a mostly scientific race. However, holy wars are completely nonexistant, and Christians have not discriminated for over 2000 years thanks to the guidance of the Children of the Mind of Christ. Individual cultures still exist despite humanity's being united by Peter the Hegemon 3000 years ago, but these very rarely cause wars anymore. So ethnicity will still have an effect on the name.
Formics: They are an ant-like race and a hive mind, harnessing philotic connections to network workers and drones to create the most close-knit society in existence. At the center of these small networks are the Hive Queens, the only Formics possessing intelligence. Due to bad experiences with the Formics, humans often derisively call them Buggers, but the Formics themselves have moved past this and learned to like humanity's irrationality. Formics see the world through cold, harsh logic, seeing things only as they are and not caring about the why, only that what happens does happen. Formics possess a total lack of curiosity. It should be noted that, if one were to play a Formic, it would have to be a Hive Queen, so all Formic characters must be female. I wouldn't recommend playing this race, however, as they are kind of dull as characters in an RP sense. Though, I suppose an unlinked Drone could also be an option, since Drones possess individual awareness until linked to a Hive Queen. Buggers never have names, for they see no need for them.
Pequeninos: With a name that means "Little Ones" in Portuguese, it becomes obvious what their stature is. However, what few do know is that the Pequeninos are not just what is seen in their ships and interacting with most races. Humans and Formics know that a Pequenino has three stages of life thanks to a destructive virus known as the Descolada. However, the Descolada has long since died out, replaced by a virus created by humanity as a replacement. This virus is known as the Recolada, a virus that, unlike the Descolada, is not sentient and unable to attempt to control incompatible races. The first stage of Pequenino life is that of a grub, which eats the sap of trees for survival. These grubs are also what gives birth to more Pequeninos. In the course of a few weeks, Pequeninos rapidly grow into the Second Life, which is what most people see. The second life of the Pequeninos is what gives them their other name, the Piggies. They look like pigs that walk on two legs, and are about three feet tall on average, giving them the name of "Little One" that they call themselves and that most people call them. Males are known as Brothers, and the female ruling class is known as the Wives. There are four languages that the Piggies possess: the Brothers' Language (the most commonly used one), the Wives' Language (used only during interactions with the Wives), the Tree Language (which will be discussed in a bit), and Stark, which is the standard language of the galaxy. Then the Third Life comes into play. When a Brother does a great deed, he is ritualistically dissected alive, at which point a tree grows from their body. Their consciousness is then transferred into the tree, at which point the Third Life begins. At this point, a Brother becomes a Fathertree, and is able to sire more Brothers and Little Mothers (the name for the fertile female grub who dies giving birth to more Piggies). When a new planet is reached and to be colonized, a Wife is dissected much as a great Brother is, and then she becomes the Mothertree, the massive tree whose sap the First Life Piggies feed on. With this, the cycle comes full circle.
Piggies are often mistaken for being inquisitive, but, in fact, they are the wisest of the races. The oldest Fathertrees, found only on Lusitania, reach hundreds of thousands of years in age, and carry with them the knowledge of ages gone by. Many who seek wisdom embark on a pilgrimage to Lusitania to learn Tree Language and seek knowledge from one of the Fathertrees there. Piggies are also a peaceful race, wanting to avoid returning to their warlike roots in exchange for seeking enlightenment. In this respect, Piggies are among the most spiritual of all races, and have adopted their own version of Christianity as a religion. A Brother would be a very interesting character to play, but it must be a Brother. The Brothers are far more outgoing, as the Wives tend to detach themselves from the world except for communicating with the Brothers and Mothertree.
Piggies are usually named for something they are good at or take an interest in. For instance, a Piggie who had an exceptionally high interest in humanity was named Human, and a farmer was named Planter. Just think of something they're interested in or good at, and then relate the name to that.
Ansible Entities: Thus far, this is only theorized to exist. These are creatures whose aiua freely wanders the depths of space, but their awareness and intellect is determined by the ansible network since they were "caught in the web", so to speak. All data ever input into an ansible is within their knowledge, and with so many races using the ansibles, this is easily the most intelligent of all races. Ansible Entity PC's are forbidden due to their extreme rarity.
Most of these are human organizations, but it should be noted that most, if not all, of them would not willingly participate in piracy. So characters will need a very good reason to belong to an organization.
Speakers for the Dead: These are the utterly neutral priest-like individuals who travel from world to world when called to "Speak for the Dead". Speaking for the Dead is a lengthy process where they live among the recently deceased's peers and find out what their perception of the person was in an attempt to find out how the dead truly viewed themselves. The Catholic Church heavily disapproves of the Speakers, but most look up to them in much the same way people look up to their priests.
The Catholic Church: The only branch of Christianity that remains, the Catholic Church has proven its staying power by lasting thousands of years longer than all other denominations. Unlike in modern times, the Catholic Church is completely altruistic now, and many who do not follow its doctrines still respect the establishment. However, after so many years of existence, the Church is finally seeing decline. The Pope still resides on Earth in Rome, just as he always has. The biggest downfall of the Church is that Congress has required Catholic colonies to possess a special license due to the increasing rarity of Catholic followers. However, some would argue that it's the existence of a Catholic License that is causing the downfall.
Children of the Mind of Christ: While some call it a denomination of Christianity, they themselves do not consider themselves as such. The Children of the Mind of Christ pay no attention to spirituality. Instead, they focus on the mind and knowledge, serving to gather and keep all knowledge humanity produces. They possess the most extensive archives in all the Hundred Worlds, and almost everyone greatly respects the Children. The Children wholeheartedly support the Speakers for the Dead and admire what they do, especially considering the original Speaker, Ender Wiggin, was a very close friend with the founder of the Children of the Mind of Christ.
Starways Congress: Congress will be the greatest enemy of our crew, for they are the ruling body of the Hundred Worlds. While most people follow them, the vast majority of its citizens despise the despotic rule of Congress. This means we'll likely gain several contracts to directly attack Congress.
The Hive: This is where human organizations end. The Hive is the collection of individual Hive networks comprising Formic civilization. They are lenient about piracy, because they see little value in treasure and realize they can always just harvest more resources. Formics have no need of currency, and Workers are very easily replaced, so the cost on them to replace stolen resources is minimal, if not nonexistent.
The Great Forest: The vast majority of Pequeninos in existence are part of what is called the Great Forest, which is the collection of all Forests on all planets. They are very welcoming of strangers, and a few Brothers would more than happily ship off with a crew for a bit of adventure.
Name: (try and have it fit the race)
Age:
Gender: (keep racial gender requirements in mind)
Species: (Custom species are allowed, but the first three that are presented are the most prominent. Just give a description of them if you're doing a custom race.)
Appearance:
Role:
Personality: (Optional)
History: (Optional)
Weaponry: (in the beginning, handheld weapons will all be magnetic in nature. Starways Congress is experimenting with laser rifles, though, so this opens up the opportunity to steal a few prototype models)
Other:
Name: Sam
Age: Unknown
Gender: Male
Species: Unknown (whoever plays the messenger, I'll PM you)
Appearance: Unknown
Role: Captain
Personality: Largely unknown
History: Unknown
Weaponry: Unknown
Other: This is mainly so you know what's needed. You know the captain's name and gender, which is all that's necessary for now.
