"There is only one law, Nature's Prime: That the strong shall devour the weak."
-The Imperial Creed-
The Holy Rozarrian Empire is at its height. Its wealth, derived from the discovery and exploitation of Maandike, those stones of fire, surpasses any other. Lesser nations on which the gaze of His Majesty falls tremble in fear. And, of course, the Imperial Army is vast beyond imagining, the terror of the entire world.
The Livonian Federation of the north, that collection of democracies ruled by the madness of the mob, still reels from the last devastating war with the Empire. The great Kubra Shah, though his realm rivals the Empire itself, bends over for the Empire, knowing that his decaying throne is gnawed at by insurgents and terrorists. Only the stubborn Xiang still defy the Emperor's will, and then they breathe still only because he tolerates their survival.
It is in this state of affairs that Crown Prince Admar len Ruthweiler, firstborn son of His Majesty Emperor Norman len Ruthweiler, died. Though the official stance of the government is that he died of a malady of the heart, it is whispered, at court and elsewhere, that he was murdered. After all, what kind of 'malady of the heart' causes nine stab wounds to the chest?
Maandike is a curious element; Brittle and ugly, it would normally not have much use. But it has one curious property: It is warm to the touch. For the centuries of the Age of Chaos, it was seen as an oddity, and nothing more. But the scholars under the patronage of the Kingdom of Rozarria- for a kingdom it was, at that time- discovered that, when submerged in water, Maandike heats up like the fires of hell, boiling the water itself. It did not take long for these same scholars to begin devising practical uses for this newfound energy: foundries began appearing across the kingdom powered by Maandike, foundries producing cannons (the explosive functioning of which is also another use found of Maandike).
The world is now in the midst of an industrial revolution that shows no sign of slowing down. To feed the industrial hunger for Maandike, the Emperors conquered a vast swathe of territory, and its exploitation is one of the main causes of tension between nations. The region with the greatest wealth in maandike encompasses both sides of the Nerwain Mountains, those sheer cliffs of rock which split Xiang and the rest of the world.
The Holy Rozarrian Empire: Once a petty kingdom, thanks to liberal exploitation of Maandike Rozarria is now the greatest power in the world, poised to conquer every other nation. The Empire is extremely aristocratic, and its society is split into three tiers: The Royalty, the Nobility, and the Citizens. Within those tiers, Rozarrians can be higher or lower on the social ladder; for example, the king is higher than the princes, the dukes than the barons, and the rich merchants than the poor farmers, but the poorest of each caste is higher in status than the wealthiest below him.
There is also a fourth, informal caste: The Inferiors, those without citizenship, and unrecognized by the Empire as human beings. They form the bulk of the population of the Empire. Each time a new province is added to it, its people are declared Inferior, stripped of all rights. Eventually, through loyal service, a people can earn the right to Imperial citizenship.
The Xiang Republic: Cut off from the rest of the world since the dawn of time by the impassable Nerwains, the Xiang developed a unique culture and society. The Heavenly Empire of Xiang, as it was for a long time known, was remarkably stable, with only rare civil wars to disturb the peace. The only passable route into Xiang was the Shah's Pass, in the south of Xiang. Because of the great wealth involved, both the Emperors and the Kubra Shahs kept a short leash on that trade route, suppressing any knowledge or exploration of the other side. Thus the Xiang slumbered into stagnation.
Their delusions of superiority were forever shattered thirteen years ago, the day Rozarrian airships flew over the supposedly impassable Nerwains, while a vast army marched through the Shah's Pass. Within a year, the Xiang had lost two-thirds of their land, and all seemed lost. The magnitude of the defeat, brought on by the impossibly large gap in technology, was worsened by the criminal incompetence of the central government. And so, twelve years ago, a revolution overthrew the emperor, and declared the Republic of Xiang.
In the decade since, the Xiang have fought a brutal, desperate war for survival. Every day, their generals make sacrifices, ruthlessness being their only hope for salvation against the iron might of the Empire. Their desperate struggle is only worsened by the knowledge that the Rozarrians are commiting but a fraction of their armies to the Xiang campaign.
The Livonian Federation: Composed of eight sovereign nations, the Federation is an alliance of circumstance. Though all democracies, with liberal social policies, these nations were quite antagonistic to each other before the Rozarrians appeared on their doorstep. It took the conquest of half the Livonian nations for the last eight to agree to a union before the common foe. Though wealthy, the federation remains divided, with each member seeing to its on defense first; a weakness the Empire exploits regularly.
The Kubra Dynasty: An old power, the Kubra Shahs have on paper power enough to rival even the Empire itself. But their realm is unstable, the peripheries rocked by violent insurrection and rebellion. Thus, the Shahs have attempted to follow a policy of appeasement to the Empire, sacrificing even the enormously lucrative north-eastern province (containing the Shah's Pass) to the Empire to avoid the war they know will see the collapse of their empire.
THE RP
Okay, you might say, all that is nice and well, but what would we actually DO in this RP? I'm glad you asked!
Players in this RP would make members of the royal family, the sons, daughters, siblings, and cousins of His Majesty. Now, the Empire practices nepotism heavily, so your characters would have important duties aside from being a len Ruthweiler, such as being in the army, governing a troublesome province, dealing with government administration, and so on. And above all this, there will be a cuttthroat struggle for succession to the Imperial Throne- The Emperor's not getting any younger!
Wait, I know you ask. Shouldn't succession be fairly straightforward?
Well, it is, in theory. Rozarrian law maintains a policy of primogeniture, with the first born receiving the entire throne in inheritance. But in practice, in succession (as in all else) the Empire follows a tradition of social Darwinism: the strongest prince or princess takes the throne, and all their rivals soon find themselves on the executioner's block.
So, what is the approximate tech level of the setting? What is and isn't possible with Man-rocks?
Well, technology is based off of Maandike, as you pointed out. Anything that can be done with a steam engine is possible in this world, although not everything already exists. Most things I'll deal with on a case by case basis.
Mechanized factories are everywhere in the Empire and the Livonian Federation, with more popping up all the time as the industrialization accelerates. Also, there are trains in this; the Empire is particularily fond of them, as it needs a very efficient network to transfer its armies from its distant fronts.
About fifty years after Maandike started to be used for industrial purposes (50 years before this RP), cannons also appeared. The discovery of their functioning was by Conrad len Gothren, an intellectual under the patronage of the Rozarrian emperor.
He was working on solving a problem that had confounded scholars for a long time: see, when Maandike is dropped into water, the water heats up drastically, but the Maandike just vanishes.
Condrad's theory was that the Maandike split up into a dust of small parts, which were dissolved into the water the same way as salt would. He proved himself right when he managed to extract the Maandike dust from the solution. Having collected a sizable quantity of the dust, he decided to experiment with them, seeing if the dust still heated up in contact with water.
He barely survived the ensuing explosion. But the Imperial government saw the value of such a potent explosive, and ordered its weaponization. And so cannons were born.
Guns don't exist, or at least any that I would recommend using. After the introduction of cannons, some attempts were made to design smaller, handheld cannons that could be carried by infantrymen into battle. But Maandike dust's lack of stability made it more likely that you'd just kill yourself by firing the gun. Armies have continued to use swords, pikes, and other more conventional weapons of war instead.
Do I have to play a noble, or can I be like a butler just trying to help another char succeed?
Well, you could play a more minor character. The main problem is that I don't want everybody to be just random people; there needs to be enough players with important characters to keep the story moving. I'll deal with that on a case by case basis: Ask me again when (if) we get enough people to start.
Oh man, I've always wanted to play a game full of Tercios: 1500s soldiering is a hell of a drug. I'm not sure I've ever seen a steampunk game wherein the military technology is ~350 years behind the rest of it, but I can dig it.
Though, a fun character would be a younger prince who discovered the joys of mixing charcoal, sulphur and saltpeter...
As an aside, what are the cannon like? Are we talking muzzleloading pieces of shit or screw-breech armstrong goodness?
Oh man, I've always wanted to play a game full of Tercios: 1500s soldiering is a hell of a drug. I'm not sure I've ever seen a steampunk game wherein the military technology is ~350 years behind the rest of it, but I can dig it.
Though, a fun character would be a younger prince who discovered the joys of mixing charcoal, sulphur and saltpeter...
As an aside, what are the cannon like? Are we talking muzzleloading pieces of shit or screw-breech armstrong goodness?
Hm, good question. I'm thinking that muzzle-loading cannons are currently the norm, but early screw-breech mechanisms are being introduced (in the Empire, obviously).
Oh, and I forgot to mention airships before. Yeah, we've got those.
Now, most civilian ships of this kind are little more than blimps. But the Imperial Fleet has an impressive collection of warships which would make the Hindenburg blush, with the largest ones having enough firepower to level a city. They're limited in altitude, of course; to cross the wall-like Nerwains in the north, they had to fly small blimps up to a promising looking plateau, build a base there, and set up machinery to quite literally lift the larger airships high enough to cross the mountains. Needless to say, the Xiang were taken completely by surprise when THAT appeared to blot the sky.
OK: character concept. Shitty younger son, no-one likes him. Loves to fuck around with chemistry and science it up, but knows that if shit hits the fan and he's just a scientist he is going to get murdered for his place in the line of succession. So he joins the army, gets promoted to Major or something, still fucking around with chemistry. A few months before the game starts, he discovers he can make shitty black powder [he dreams of one day making a smokeless propellant, but that is not going to happen any time soon], and has been working on a breech-loading, chassepot-esque rifle for his Battalion-equivalent [they used to be pikemen or something]. Cue the death of the crown prince, and now he has to navigate politics long enough to get someone to make his guns and ammo for him, while not tipping off his brothers and sisters who would like nothing more than to murder him and take his revolutionary, if somewhat half-baked, weapons away from him and use them to conquer things and take the throne.
Thanks to the evident quality of metalwork and gunsmithing, it won't be that hard for a talented individual to whip a breech-loading rifle up, though obviously since they've nevuh been done befo', things are going to be a little jury-rigged.
Also, since we have cannons and airships and junk, do we have guns? Like matchlocks or Dishonored style matchlocks that are really easy to reload or what?
Also, since we have cannons and airships and junk, do we have guns? Like matchlocks or Dishonored style matchlocks that are really easy to reload or what?
"Guns don't exist, or at least any that I would recommend using. After the introduction of cannons, some attempts were made to design smaller, handheld cannons that could be carried by infantrymen into battle. But Maandike dust's lack of stability made it more likely that you'd just kill yourself by firing the gun. Armies have continued to use swords, pikes, and other more conventional weapons of war instead."
Hence my character idea being "the shitty younger son who discovered black powder."
Also, a side note, the Dishonored weapons are not matchlocks. From what I can tell they shoot centerfire metal cartridges which would be ignited via firing pin.
EDIT: Upon further research [read: playing a level of dishonored again], the pistol certainly looks like a wheellock, but that is clearly cosmetic:the gun operates like a semi-automatic modern pistol, complete with modern rounds.
"Guns don't exist, or at least any that I would recommend using. After the introduction of cannons, some attempts were made to design smaller, handheld cannons that could be carried by infantrymen into battle. But Maandike dust's lack of stability made it more likely that you'd just kill yourself by firing the gun. Armies have continued to use swords, pikes, and other more conventional weapons of war instead."
Hence my character idea being "the shitty younger son who discovered black powder."
Also, a side note, the Dishonored weapons are not matchlocks. From what I can tell they shoot centerfire metal cartridges which would be ignited via firing pin.
EDIT: Upon further research [read: playing a level of dishonored again], the pistol certainly looks like a wheellock, but that is clearly cosmetic:the gun operates like a semi-automatic modern pistol, complete with modern rounds.
A question for @Vahir, are women allowed as military officers in this setting? I'm thinking of doing a retired military matriarch as my main character so that's why I'm asking.
Go /k/ or go home, strelok. If you want help or advice, I'm here for you. If not, I'll keep my disgusting interests in booletz out of the game.
You misunderstand; I feast on knowledge. I love the opportunity to do research, I'm just noting that I didn't expect that line of it going into this.
A question for @Vahir, are women allowed as military officers in this setting? I'm thinking of doing a retired military matriarch as my main character so that's why I'm asking.
Well, it varies. The Livonian Federation and the Xiang Republic both are pretty have pretty much equal sexes in the army (the former for ideological reasons, the latter because of sheer desperation). The Kubra Shah's army, meanwhile, has a strict ban on women serving in it, in any aspect. But I suspect you're asking more for the Imperial side of things.
Well, there again, it varies. Citizen women aren't allowed anywhere near the army, while noble women are grudgingly allowed non-combat roles, such as logistics, medicine, and so on. But the royalty- members of the royal family, closely related or not- are allowed to do pretty much whatever they want, man or woman. Of course, royal women still wouldn't fight on the front lines, but that's more because of status than anything; they generally act as commanders and generals.
Well, it varies. The Livonian Federation and the Xiang Republic both are pretty have pretty much equal sexes in the army (the former for ideological reasons, the latter because of sheer desperation). The Kubra Shah's army, meanwhile, has a strict ban on women serving in it, in any aspect. But I suspect you're asking more for the Imperial side of things.
Well, there again, it varies. Citizen women aren't allowed anywhere near the army, while noble women are grudgingly allowed non-combat roles, such as logistics, medicine, and so on. But the royalty- members of the royal family, closely related or not- are allowed to do pretty much whatever they want, man or woman. Of course, royal women still wouldn't fight on the front lines, but that's more because of status than anything; they generally act as commanders and generals.
I see, so is it cool if my, I suppose Countess or Baroness is a recently retired medical captain or major? (I assume it is extremely rare for non-royalty women to ascend above field officer ranks.)
