BCTheEntity

Hybrid: Of Transhumans and Modern Magic

(Intro transcript copied over and modified slightly from here. I figured I'd see whether anybody from the Advanced forums would be interested in it before I made the thread outright, since it's kind of expanded beyond the scope of a Casual playerbase. Other than myself, @JohnSolaris is a Co-GM.)

Setting Overview

The year is 2041. Humans on an alternate Earth have advanced well beyond modern standards, and in the process practically perfected bioengineering: ways of altering a person’s very DNA have been developed, improving them as people, but also providing the option to infuse them with modified animal DNA to further enhance their abilities. Naturally, because humans are fractious enough as it is, this has resulted in a large-scale war between humans and their chimera cousins, something only up-scaled by the existence of magic, a rare and dangerous phenomenon, as well as the discovery of the fossils of dragons, and the subsequent creation of Draconids, a subset of chimeras with great power, but also great pride. This war has been violent and continuous for but a couple of years, and much life has been lost in the process. And the recent plague of zombified insects threatening to engulf the planet certainly doesn’t help.

Races

Humans

Baseline humans, similar to the real world, which all chimeras are modified from. They tend to work with a lot of technology, up to and including exoskeletons akin to power armour and reasonably advanced AI, to keep up with the extremely superhuman chimeras. The bionetics they possess are comparatively weak, as unaltered human biology cannot effectively handle more heavily integrated biomods.

Chimeras

Humans modified with DNA from up to three other animals, becoming highly superhuman in the process, complete with various physiological changes over a few days spent comatose in a specialised medical pod, ranging from fur growth to changes in various aspects of body structure, up to and including increases in height and mass when DNA from particularly large creatures is involved. They prefer their natural weapons as a consequence of changes to mindset and their own physical abilities, but are also likely to utilise bionetic mods to further augment themselves. Chimera physiology is much more varied and difficult for cybernetics to properly integrate with compared to human physiology, and many chimeras believe that biomods and their native abilities can replicate most artificial benefits anyway.

Draconids

Technically a form of chimera, but considered distinct by their own insistence upon it, these are humans modified with dragon DNA, an extinct race almost unique for certain magical properties. Specifically, they all possess wings capable of magically-assisted flight, and magic-based breath weapons corresponding to the type of dragon they acquired DNA from. They are very physically powerful, typically growing to two meters or more in height if they weren't so tall already during an alteration process that can last a week or more for various reasons, as well as gaining a great deal of muscle mass and highly durable scales, but due to magical inclinations and extreme pride have a lot more mages than other races on top of this. They are only rarely seen with either cybernetics or bionetics, as both seem to interact poorly with their biology and passive magic unless specifically designed to account for both.

Dragons, Draconid Similarities, and Breath Weapons

Dragons were large, winged, reptilian creatures, with adults ranging anywhere from the height of a small house to that of a skyscraper in length alone, which are extinct in the modern age. This is surprising to some, since based on analysis of their DNA, they were near-unique due to possessing native magical abilities not directly based on individual magical strength as in humans and other modern sapient races. Based on those semi-passive traits which have been passed on to their “heirs”, the Draconids, they were likely capable of flight in spite of the square-cube law, and could breath great quantities of magical energy as a sort of breath weapon, as dictated by scale colour. The colours and associated breath weapons, and so the types of modern Draconid, are as follows:
Red - Fire breath, wide cone. Scales range from dark red to bright crimson.
Blue - Ice breath, wide cone. Scales range from dark blue to icy turquoise.
Green - Acid breath, narrow cone. Scales range from very dark green to brightly acidic green.
Yellow - Lightning breath, narrow cone with slight redirection capacity. Scales range from dark gold to bright yellow.
Orange - Petrifying breath, narrow cone. Scales range from very dark orange to light orange.
Purple - Hallucinogenic breath, wide cone. Scales range from dark purple to light purple.
White - Laser breath, directed beam. Scales range from cream to blindingly white.
Black - Necrotic breath, wide cone; very rarely variegates to disintegrative breath, directed beam. Scales range from coal to pitch black.
Interbreeding between scale colours merely seems to produce children of one scale colour or the other.

Husks

An extinct insectoid race resurrected as zombies which are now spreading across the environment, killing people and using their corpses as hosts to create new Husks. When not hunting, they generally live in wide-spanning hives led by the most powerful mage of the hive, or Monarch, which in turn maintain a certain degree of intra-hive competition in the form of duels for leadership, and inter-hive competition through attempts to absorb another hive’s Husks non-lethally. They possess an extremely variable exoskeleton and similarly-varied innate abilities due to the nature of the infection process, with their insides uniformly converted into necrotic goo which is essentially injected into a corpse to begin the process of Husk conversion, but they evidently lack access to cybernetics and bionetics alike (which does not necessarily suggest that they might be incompatible if either were modified to suit Husk physiology).

Timeline

Timeline of Hybrid

Early history - Nameless magical prodigy rises to prominence, turns himself effectively undead in order to live forever, and subjugates the majority of lesser mages in the world at the time. Deciding magic is too powerful to allow its users to dominate society, the self-proclaimed Lord of Silence forges the group that would later organise and reorganise into the Ordo Obscurum, with the goal of hiding magic from those who fear its use.

Recorded history to ~1940s onward - Majority of history progresses as normal, with Ordo Obscurum doing what it can to cloak the existence of magic from the world; minor failures in its task often lead to supernatural stories, or at worst events such as the Salem Witch Hunts. In the mid-20th century, genetic experiments within Germany’s National Socialist Party progress far farther than in the real world, kickstarting a revolution in the field of biology and genetics that allows it to maintain pace with more artificial advances, to the point that, for instance, anti-aging technology becomes available around the year 2000 A.D., causing a period of unrest in the developed world as it is initially restricted to the very wealthy before a viable system of distribution is achieved.

1960-2025 - Rapidly-increasing human population results in the mage population rapidly expanding, with the Ordo Obscurum finding it more and more difficult to keep tabs on every mage. In the early to mid 2020’s, multiple magical incidents occur, and with the advances of the internet, rumours about “a secret magic cult” rapidly become more and more popular.

2025-26 - The source of the prior incidents is revealed as a splinter group of the Ordo Obscurum, deliberately naming themselves the Illuminati after the secret society, who promptly attempt to cull the non-magical population of many cities around the world “to make the human race stronger”. Multiple battles involving mages ensue, and the Lord of Silence ultimately sacrifices himself in something akin to a nuclear blast to destroy the Illuminati entirely. With magic well and truly revealed to the world, and amidst much political upset, the Ordo Obscurum officially disbands, though some remnants remain in the shadows of society as minor groups doing a variety of tasks, ranging from continued monitoring of known mages to attempts at renewing the Illuminati and continuing its legacy.

2027-2031 - Genetic modification advances to extremely high standards, and a process is developed that allows human genes to be modified in just about every cell of the body at once. In civilised societies, disability and mental illness drop to their lowest levels in known history, whilst traits like intelligence and physical ability skyrocket. Similarly, cybernetics and artificial intelligence improve enough that they begin to factor heavily into everyday life, though even before now exponentially more powerful A.I. has infringed upon nominally-human jobs, warping capitalism to the point that a new system is required and in many places implemented. In particular, a large augmentation company is discovered by one of its rivals to be placing backdoors into cybernetic human augmentations, ruining the former company and allowing the latter to come into prominence.

2032 - Experiments are performed involving the fusion of animal DNA into human cells, modified to try and amplify the most useful traits in an effort to stay ahead of AI advancements. Despite early difficulties, they are eventually figured out, and the first chimeras are created, the technology eventually becoming reasonably widespread in more liberal countries.

2032-36 - Political manipulation and comparisons of chimeras to magic, which by now has been cemented as a potentially-useful-yet-profoundly-dangerous resource, eventually incites many nations with the power to do so to limit chimera rights and utilise artificial means to force chimeras into less palatable jobs in spite of protests against this treatment. Less civilised nations respond by suddenly appropriating gene-modifying technology in order to mass-produce chimeras for these purposes; as a result, person trafficking reaches an all-time high, uncomfortably so for the more civilised nations. The Nordic countries pointedly maintain equal rights for both humans and chimeras, whilst Japan and many associated East Asian countries uphold chimeras as beloved icons of a sort, though most of these eventually normalise as citizens equivalent to humans.

2033 - Gene mod techniques further advance, and the first bionetic enhancements begin to be produced. Replacements for body parts and organs had been achieved some time ago, but more esoteric alterations such as bioelectricity generators and actual double joints are now viable. This is particularly notable for chimeras, who generally have far more robust constitutions than humans, and so can handle much greater bionetic integration than humans.

2034 - Through fluke and magical detection methods, the first dragon fossil is discovered. In spite of carbon dating suggesting it is many millions of years old, well beyond anything resembling the human genome, fully intact DNA is discovered, sequenced, and promptly integrated into human subjects. The results are the first dragon-based chimeras, who would eventually become known as the Draconids.

2034-36 - Additional dragon fossils are discovered and their DNA sequenced over time, with differing DNA structures resulting in different scale colours and breath weapons. It is also discovered that Draconids are far harder to control than most other chimeras, due to a combination of very great strength and durability, passive magical effects including breath weapons and almost-free flight, and an unexpected element of unwillingness to bow to many methods of suppression. Additionally, attempts to sequence dragon DNA into pre-existing chimeras, or to sequence animal DNA into pre-existing Draconids, have a strong tendency to end with the individual's genes breaking apart and their subsequent death. Therefore, pure Draconid mutation soon becomes more of a commodity than other forms of chimerism, largely limited to already-rich individuals whose own proud mindsets compound on top of the influence of dragon DNA. Theories abound as to how intelligent dragons were whilst still alive, as well as what caused them to go extinct so long ago.

2036 - By this time, bionetics focus almost entirely on chimeras, including both direct biomods and extremely potent drugs that would kill most humans with even minor doses, with human bionetics generally ignored in favour of cybernetic methods of self-enhancement, e.g. robotic limbs and powered exoskeletons. Oddly, theorised as being due to their passive magical affinity, Draconids have issues integrating with either unless any given Draconid has specific designs for integration into themselves.

2037-39 - Chimera population begins to approach that of human population, and riots begin to become commonplace in chimeric labour camps. Ultimately, under the guidance and coordination of a cadre of Draconid generals, a massive worldwide civil war is instigated in 2039, called the Uprising by chimeras, the Insurrection by humans, and even World War III by certain doomsayers, but either way devolving into a practical race war between humans and chimeras in spite of efforts to negotiate on both sides. Population drops heavily in many locations, and in many countries, chimeras are eventually successful in acquiring control of government assets and/or driving out human natives, amplifying migration to those areas where chimeras were unsuccessful in these efforts and promptly exterminated. Additionally, some chimeras find homes in areas that humans would consider difficult to live in, most notably the central areas of Australia and a large swathe of the Amazon rainforest. Worldwide economic drops occur, but eventually stabilise at tolerable levels.

2039-40 - Even before the initial civil wars between humans and chimeras end, many Draconid leaders begin imposing tyrannical restrictions upon incumbent chimera populations, pointedly raising Draconid civilians above their would-be equals in terms of rights and, frequently, social status. Most chimeras make note of this, and being that they have not only been in fighting mode for a while, but are well-acquainted with oppression and are aware that the Draconids are largely outnumbered, promptly rebel against their former leaders and drive them out of most locations, though the majority of remaining Draconids eventually congregate in a fairly large area of land covering a large swathe of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Western Russia, defending their land bitterly against both humans and chimeras, who in turn continue to war against one another over border territories.

2040 - Draconids run a focused bombing campaign against chimeric territory within the Amazon rainforest, destroying great quantities of both life and land, the latter of which is promptly occupied by Draconids, with terraforming beginning almost immediately. Shortly into this process, deep caves are discovered containing oversized mummified carapaces of what would seem to be ancient insectoid creatures; a cadre of Draconid mages is given instruction to resurrect these entities as minions for the Draconids in a large scale necromantic ritual. The creatures return to a form of life, slaughter those present in short order, and begin spreading outward into the rainforest in all directions, slaying any life they come across and converting their corpses into new members, up to and including sentients.

2041 - The Husks now control more than 50% of South America simply for sheer weight of numbers, and are spreading in all directions - chimeras in the far South of the continent struggle to repel the undead creatures, the humans in North and Central America are doing what they can to fight them off and try to reclaim lost territory, and great numbers of Husks cross the oceans to begin infestation of Africa and Eastern Asia, even going so far as to make attempts to invade Draconid-held territory. War between humans, chimeras, and Draconids has slowed somewhat, though not stopped entirely, in light of the rising threat that the Husks represent, with bombing runs against their hives proving unsuccessful so far. Even though the few people who have encountered them on peaceful terms describe them as intelligent enough to at least utilise recognisable symbology to communicate, if not language proper, most seem to be single-minded in their goal of expanding their race, which requires dead bodies to transform into more Husks, which in turn requires other living beings to die.

Current Territories

Overview

The nature of the Uprising/Insurrection was such that the areas most heavily occupied by chimeras at the time were also the areas whose human rights were sorely lacking to begin with. As a result, it is primarily countries and continents that were more economically developed at the time that not only held fewer enslaved chimeras, but had more firepower to put them down with, including the entirety of North America and the majority of Western Europe. By contrast, many nations which encouraged vast use of chimeric slave labour have been largely purged of human inhabitants, including many countries in South America and Africa, as well as a great number of territories (though notably not all of them) across the Asian continent and the various smaller countries of Australasia.

By contrast, the areas held by the Draconids and Husks are comparatively small thus far. After being ousted from most other areas, the Draconids deliberately concentrated their numbers in the Middle East and surrounding areas, and consequently succeeded in overpowering both the local humans and chimeras, who are now treated as second-class citizens at best in these places. The Husks, meanwhile, currently hold control over “only” the Northern half of South America, but are very densely packed, and are quickly expanding the territory they hold (without trying, some might argue) by sheer weight of the numbers acquired from the Amazon rainforest and their own method of reproduction by what amounts to conversion of former opponents.

Naturally, most of these areas lacking in Husks have at least some members of other races present in some form, be it a human researching for a documentary on chimera culture (a semi-misnomer, since chimeras are still roughly human as far as culture goes aside from the use of bionetics over cybernetics), a Draconid entrepreneur seeking to get rich in lands with fewer other Draconids to interfere, or a chimera who avoided expulsion from human-occupied territory for whatever reason, be it lack of involvement in the matter or hiding out as part of a terrorist cell. However, some countries- the exceptions- are habitats for more even populations of humans and chimeras alike, be they as peaceful as the Nordlands, or as violent as China and India.

Details

Human - North America (North of Nicaragua), Western Europe (West of Western Poland)
Chimera - South America (South of Amazon rainforest), Africa (Western borders threatened by Husks), Asia (excluding most of East Asia), Australasia (excluding Australia)
Draconid - Eastern Europe (East of central Czech Republic, excluding Italy), Middle East (entirety), Western Russia (West of Siberia)
Husk - North America (South of Honduras, spreading North) South America (North-West of Brazil and Northwards, spreading South), West Africa and East Asia (attempting to spread inland)
Cohabitation - Nordic countries (humans, chimeras, and Draconids have consistently shared equal rights throughout recent history), Japan (chimeras were initially considered icons rather than slaves, and now share relatively equal rights, including many chimera celebrities, though Husks threaten their Eastern borders), Korea (successful rebellion against North Korean government by humans and chimeras, followed by Korea merging back into a single nation under former South Korean government, wherein humans and chimeras share equal rights), most East Asian countries (mostly similar reasons to Japan, Eastern borders of this region threatened by Husks), Australia (uneasy truce: humans continue to inhabit major cities and regional areas along country’s coastline, adapted chimeras primarily occupy larger but more hazardous remote Australia as well as Alice Springs and the surrounding land, with agreement to not attack cross-country travellers regardless of race), China and Indian subcontinent (due to exceptionally large populations and schizophrenic technology access based on social class, sub-wars between humans, chimeras, and some Draconids persist in both areas, spilling into one another at the borders)

Notable Organisations

To wit, these are not all of the significant organisations on the planet, merely the ones that the GMs have developed; feel free to come up with your own as you so desire, if they're needed to fit into your character's backstory.

Branson Mechanics Ltd.

The current largest cybernetics corporation in the world, after discovering and preventing an attempt to control great numbers of cybernetically-augmented humans by another hardware and software company some years ago. Founded and headed by the human David Branson, who keeps up a good public image as a philanthropist and tries to innovate with new cybernetic options as often as he can. A rare few people accuse him of being involved in dubiously-legal activities, and are generally branded as conspiracy theorists at best for their efforts.

Geneshaper Industries

Originally founded as The Elegant Chimera’s High Society Club, a reasonably successful endeavour in its own right with many locations currently active in chimera and even Draconid territory, the company branched out into bionetics in order to curb and replace illegal biomod installation occurring in their buildings. After the Uprising bankrupted or even destroyed the locations of many competitors in chimera territory, it swiftly became one of the largest bionetics companies in the game under CEO Scarlet Jones, a vulpine chimera who prefers to communicate with her customers via orders passed to her subordinates, and deliberately remains rather serious when she does expose herself to the public eye. It is often suggested that part of the reason for Geneshaper Industries' creation was to monopolise the illegal activities in Scarlet's clubs as well as expanding into the legal side of things, which then further leads to suggestions of links with darker elements of society, as described below.

The White Furies

A chimera gang, seemingly an evolution from or replacement for the Russian mafiya and various other organised crime groups, which is involved very heavily in people trafficking across the world and illegal, potentially dangerous biomods within large swathes of chimera-held territory, amongst other such activities. The leader’s identity isn’t well known, but rumours abound that the group has some unidentified connection to Geneshaper Industries, something which the company’s CEO denies wholeheartedly whenever it is suggested. Those seeking to insult them often refer to them as the White Furries, a simple leap of logic to make for most, though many who do so publicly are often noted as vanishing without trace at a later date.

The Splendent Brood

To Draconids, the Splendent Brood reads as basically a military organisation, albeit one with heavy religious overtones and a consequent theocratic bent. To humans and chimeras, they are recognised more as a combination of a personality cult and a terrorist group alike to those of the early 2000’s. In any case, their leader Lucia Platinous claims to be the avatar of the true mother of dragonkind, the deific Platinum Dragon, and constantly advertises the Brood within Draconid society to try and acquire yet more loyal servants for the cause. Members of the Brood are known to have undergone “rebirth” rituals in “dragon egg” chambers, which coat their scales in what visually resembles various metals, beginning with iron neophytes, followed by the ranks of bronze clerics, silver priests, and gold high priests, up to the platinum avatar Lucia herself, all accompanied by mandatory last name changes (to Ferrous, Cuprous, Argentous, Aurous, and Platinous respectively) and strongly recommended first name changes. Though weak at the initial rank, the scales of each rank are known to possess increasingly powerful defensive and energy-absorbing capabilities, irrespective of the properties of their specific metals.

Moderates

Most Husk hives are unimportant by human standards not due to their size, but because they tend to be very similar to one another, with only 1 in 20000 or so having any drive beyond expanding the species. A particular hive in Panama near the Costa Rica border, officially dubbed Hive 21 and unofficially known as the Moderates, is therefore notable for a 50% or higher population of “sentient” Husks, and a consequently much smarter approach to the goal of constant race expansion - namely, greater willingness to actually interact and engage in diplomacy with non-Husks, but also the idea that most such creatures will eventually be contained in what may as well be farms to produce new Husks from, thus avoiding stagnation in Husk growth; a few other hives that initially formed near civilised areas are also beginning to show similar traits of this sort, though none so prolifically as 21. Sometimes ironically called the Considerates by naysayers, since their end goal is technically more considerate to both the Husks and the other sapient races than those of their brethren hives.

Technology

Biotech is a lot more powerful than in the real world, developing roughly in tandem with standard IRL technology, and it is possible to modify a being’s DNA on a massive scale to, for instance, alter a person’s gender, replace a lost limb with a bionetic alternative, create human-animal hybrids with notably superhuman abilities, or generate biological technology to augment what is already possible. The latter developments are known as biomods, a distinct subset of the scientific field of bionetics (though the terms are often considered interchangeable), and to some extent act as improvements to already-existing biological developments, for instance powerful acid cannons, fangs or stingers to inject potent toxins, or skin-altering camouflage bordering on invisibility.

Artificial technology is about what might be expected from a few decades of advancement from modern standards - that is, massive interconnection, perfected cybernetic augmentations up to and including synthetic human tissue indistinguishable from biological tissue to the human eye, high-quality AI (albeit with certain restrictions that keeps them from being truly sentient or as qualitatively intelligent as humans for the time being, though there may be extremely rare exceptions), and overall greater sophistication, in particular many advances in offensive and defensive technology derived from wartime conditions, though the latter two are mostly concentrated in human territories.

Magic

Magic exists in this setting, and though it is prevalent in the world, it is very rarely used. Partially, this is because not everyone has the capacity to use magic in the first place; this is further exacerbated by the reputation it has as a force primarily geared towards destructive rather than constructive purposes, and not without good reason. Notably, most mages are not all that powerful, having about the destructive capacity on their own of between a pistol and a few pounds of high explosive - very dangerous on a personal level even with modern technology, but not exactly W.M.Ds, and even those few with more power than this tend to max out well before the greatest known evokers of history, capable of obliterating an entire city at a time. One city. This is perhaps for the best: beyond a certain threshold, magic tends more and more toward twisting to purposes that actively detriment the user, with a modern example of such being the Draconid ritual that resurrected the Husks as undead creatures. Overall, the rate of magical use is around 1 in 1,000,000 amongst humans, chimeras, and Husks, but 1 in 1,000 amongst Draconids for reasons of innate magical power as well as the general hubris to assume they won’t screw up whilst using it.

Due to the limitations of magic, there are various things it cannot do: energy conservation cannot be violated by use of magic, though whatever magic is composed of seems to provide the energy for any spell used or ritual performed regardless; it cannot have an absolutely unstoppable effect, such as dealing infinite damage or immunity to a particular form of damage; it cannot operate in terms of abstract concepts or information, for instance by manipulating an abstract concept to "steal" it or damaging a person by attacking their shadow; and magical effects cannot be created at a target location, but must travel from a source such as a mage to the target in question. There are also certain effects magic is limited in terms of: stronger mages and magically-enchanted objects are more resistant to magic in general; any given spell must be capable of manipulating all of the elements involved in its immediate effects, making it near-impossible for mages to directly alter a person's bodily structure or many alloys and compounds of the time period (such as those involved in creating cybernetics) due to the complexity that such spells would require; time manipulation seems to be essentially impossible, whilst space manipulation such as the creation of wormholes, teleportation, and intangibility is possible for some stronger mages but nonetheless extremely difficult.

Sign-Up Form

Character Form

Name: Your character’s name. Nicknames, titles, and the like can also be included here.
Race: Human, chimera, Draconid, or Husk.
Age: Anti-aging and age reversing techniques mean that characters can be a lot older than they appear. For reasonable purposes, however, assume age reversal proper wasn’t an option at all until around the turn of the millenium (and then only in comparatively rich countries for a while after that), and apply ages accordingly.
Gender: No longer are human beings (and chimeras and Draconids) confined to just male and female as physical genders. Your character could also be both, or neither, or something in between, or figure out the logistics of doing something weird to your body that has off the wall results. Or you could play as a Husk and not have to think too hard about all that.
Appearance: What your character looks like, ideally as text rather than an image, though both is also acceptable. This should be self-explanatory - aside from cyber- or bionetic alternations, humans look human, chimeras look somewhat like bipedal animals (variable depending on which animals are merged into your DNA), and Draconids look like bipedal lizards with horns and wings. Husks are highly variable in external appearance, but for the most part appear to consist of an arthropodal exoskeleton filled with necrotic goo, and generally possess something resembling an ovipositor for corpse conversion purposes.
Personality: How your character acts, including hobbies, likes and dislikes, allegiances on both a personal and professional level, sexual and/or romantic orientations if relevant, and so on. As a general rule, chimeras tend to have their personalities tinted by the animals they have merged with, with Draconids in particular inheriting a prideful streak almost universally. Husks often share this personality tinting depending on the converted creature, and may even retain memories from that creature if they develop more personality than the drive to kill the living and convert the dead, but they are generally somewhat sociopathic, in particular lacking empathy toward other forms of life, as they generally need to kill others to turn them into more Husks; in the case of player characters, having them be as single-minded about this goal as most other Husks may not be advisable.
Biography: Your character’s history up to the present day, including how recent events have affected your character and where they are at the moment. Try not to be overly edgy, make sure your character’s biography justifies their personality, and if possible, attempt to coordinate your starting area so that at least one other player character is nearby.
Skills and Innate Abilities: What your character is technically skilled in, e.g. chess, cooking, singing, or any given style of combat, as well as any innate abilities they may possess that surpass human norms. Magic falls into this category, as do the various facets of a chimera’s superhuman physique, the passive magical abilities innate to Draconids, and essentially all abilities of any given Husk; unless they are exceptionally strong, agile, intelligent, or etcetera, humans lack “innate abilities” in this sense, though they are nonetheless as capable of mastering a skill (be that sooner or later) as any other sapient being.
Cybernetics: Artificial modifications to your character, such as replacement limbs or integrated body armour, to produce superhuman abilities such as enhanced strength or greater range of motion. These are mostly used by humans - chimeras have difficulty utilising cybernetics not built for their physiques, Draconid bodies actively reject most modifications without a bespoke design for the particular individual, and Husks lack access to these body modification processes.
Bionetics: Biological alterations to your character, ranging from DNA-level alterations to replacement limbs, as well as biomods to produce superhuman abilities such as venom injection or a form of active camouflage. These are mostly used by chimeras - humans cannot survive integration with most biomods powerful enough to be useful against other races, Draconid bodies actively reject most modifications without a bespoke design for the particular individual, and Husks lack access to these body modification processes.
Inventory: Other items on your character, be they sentimental trinkets or highly-advanced equipment that your character didn’t want integrated directly as a cybernetic. As examples, an inventory item could be a handheld infrared scanner, a locket belonging to a loved one, or a combat-enhancing pill of some sort.
Other: Is there anything else you want to discuss about your character that hasn’t been mentioned above? Mention it here.

Feel free to begin making a character in this thread; I'll invite potential players into the Skype chat via PM once at least a WIP sheet is provided.

A Tolkien based RP: Out of the Past

@Jbcool To be honest, I quite like him, mostly because I enjoy writing him. He's certainly a gigantic dick, if one who thinks his actions are all justifiable in some way or another, and I'm glad I've managed to make him evocative enough to make people actually dislike him. Maybe I should get into writing books, if I can only get my brain off its arse long enough to get myself moving.

A Tolkien based RP: Out of the Past

The Marid's attempt at a scathing assessment of Saptheth's attitude was noted, but ultimately dismissed with narrowed eyes and a light exhalation through his nose, rather short of a snort but with similar intent. Besting an attacking and likely superior army in combat was one thing, and on its own at least somewhat admirable; deliberately hounding them back to their homeland, to slay their civilians, destroy their cities, and ultimately shatter their race, spreading the remnants through the world like so much sand, was quite another. At least the Elf, Gweluon as he dubbed himself, had not had the audacity to suggest the Balchothi's offensive against the West, and indeed Saptheth's own annoyance with his race's destruction, was in any way hypocritical in nature: clearly, based on his description of the Anvil and the one who sought it, he understood the threat posed to any and every race by the enemy, who he named the Dark Lord. Were he of lower class, the Golden Serpent might not have been informed of the existence of this being, though his people oft referred to a devilish entity called Iblis in their mythology; those of the upper two classes, who did understand that he was real and very powerful, simply called him Magician in their tongue, though Saptheth was sure more appropriate words existed in the Westron languages. When he commanded, be it through messenger or a rare magically-imbued instruction, they obeyed, and whether the lessers of the Balchothi knew their true master mattered not.

Even so, it seemed he was to be led back to his homeland- or at least to the continent containing what was left of it- a mere two years after he had left it to be ransacked. Hardly an appealing thought all things considered, one that even seemed to echo (though likely for different reasons) in the Westron knight's discomforted actions, but considering that the alternative was certain execution, he couldn't exactly protest it. Still, every other individual within the room left quietly, up to and including the Elf vanishing into the shadows once more; Saptheth, rather than simply leaving quietly, proclaimed 'Let it be known that I would be most pleased to join this quest, and shall meet whoever is present at the right time and place,' making it clear in his tone that "most pleased" meant "least displeased", but that he was nonetheless invested into helping save the world if it meant a somewhat lower chance of death, before the cadre of guards surrounding him led him out of the hall once again. Of course they could not leave him be, though if they were coward enough to train all arms on him before he had insulted their so-called king, then they'd certainly be obliged to continue doing so after the fact.

Needless to say, they weren't particularly talkative as they led him through the castle, and then into the pouring rain toward the stables, though the Serpent made a token attempt or two to rile them into giving him an excuse to defend himself. Wiser than their leader, then, whose cool facade had broken all but immediately. In any case, whilst some of the others in that hall had found themselves at the stables too, Saptheth found himself more interested in the horses than any human or dwarf present at the time. Though certainly sturdy mounts, none seemed to immediately suit Saptheth's tastes - this one too bulky, this one too light, that one far too short along the body for a good gait... alas, he was quite certain armouring them in the manner of a kataphrakt was beyond these fools, for the chances that they had not left the armour of his prior mount to fade and crumble with the faithful creature's body were about as high as those of his being selected for a second chance at survival (but since they'd preserved his armour and clothing anyway, it wasn't as though it was an impossibility... bronze of enough quality to use in battle was a reasonably valuable material, surely). Even so, he was used to a certain animal, and if he found one which matched its proportions, he'd be blessedly lucky.

It was not so. It seemed he was to be forced to pick the next closest match, then. He looked around for a while longer, before he laid eyes on a handsome black-coated stallion of proportions quite similar to those of many Balchothi horses. Not an exact match, alas, but close enough to suit the Easterling's needs, if only it had been trained correctly; and in fairness, though he approached it in full and likely unfamiliar armour, even withdrawing his axe and clashing it against his chestpiece to cause a ruckus - the guards and horses both were upset by the movement, the stables filling up with whinnies whilst the guards only just relented on an attempt to slay him for having the weapon - the stallion barely reacted, simply flicking its ears at the discordant noise. An appropriate attitude toward the song of battle, perhaps. He hoped it would be so polite when he was on its back; if not, he would simply have to break it in as he travelled. Or, if all else failed, to simply break it until it did what he wanted.

Whilst he was at least familiar with the procedures involved in maintaining a horse in travel, in-depth care before and after was often left to those who were familiar with the horses, both here and in Rhûn. Saptheth therefore waited until the stableboy in the area was finished with whatever work he was involved in, before waving him over and, gesturing to the stallion, stating 'Prepare this horse for travel tomorrow,' in Westron. He had no idea whether the boy recognised the language, but it seemed he at least understood the intent given the context, as he duly began to prepare the horse in whatever manner was required of him; that said and done, Saptheth espied the Ifrit and one of the humans from before wandering off in some direction or another, and decided that perhaps they would make good guides for the town, guards trailing after him be damned. He hadn't yet had the luxury of exploring this town himself, and though he lacked the funds to so much as stay a night in whatever local taverns this place of wood and grass held, he might at least get to know the place, and maybe even figure out whether his would-be companions were at all worth interacting with beyond commanding them in the inevitable battles they'd face. He was, after all, a leader of soldiers; it was only natural that he, or at the very least another of the group who was actually capable, might take charge of them in at least those situations.

@Jbcool@DrunkasaurusRex@Vor@POOHEAD189@Sigurd

Into The Dark: Mercenaries (Heroes of Fame and Fortune)

'Sounds good to me,' Nuva stated quietly, hefting his maul and taking a step around the rest of the group, toward the bend in the corridor opposite the wooden door. Not to make any statements about himself, but he wasn't fond of child murderers. Even most dark elves weren't that mean... or rather, they were intelligent enough to understand that killing a child would be counterproductive. 'Be ready to move in after me,' he added as he stepped into a prepared stance, indicating for the captain and Cassilda to take positions around the doorway. 'Morek, if you don't mind me proposing as much, I'd suggest you stick behind me and accompany me in on the charge. We can both get our parts done more quickly that way.'

He waited for the people in the group to move wheresoever they chose, then ran full force toward the doorway, throwing both his spike arm and maul forward and up with the full force of his khala behind them at the last moment, in an effort to tear through the door like it was made of paper rather than wood. If or when he got through, he would move his weapons to block the initial attacks that would inevitably be made toward him, only to swing both round to strike, and ideally slay, both the guards at the door itself, evidently avoiding Morek's own attacks if possible, and in the same action doing what he could to not hinder Morek's own charge, if indeed the dwarf had made to follow after him in that fashion. It'd be counterproductive to accidentally kill the person designated to attack the main target of this particular part of the raid, after all.

@POOHEAD189@Austronaut

A Tolkien based RP: Out of the Past

@Jbcool Faaack I still need to post. Distractions of varying sorts have delayed me, and I'm very sorry about that. Expect a post within the day. And, well, I was under the impression Saptheth would be escorted everywhere by armed guards anyway, because they sure as hell weren't that courteous to him before he insulted the king. As for dice vs plain RP, you said yourself that dice rolls might skew things in a way that isn't strictly accurate to a character's skill in battle, and I'd rather avoid them if possible.

Capes of Denver: A Worm RP

Alessa Heather: Streets of Denver (Storm Drain)

The most dangerous weapon in the drain was easily destroyed. The second most dangerous weapon, not so much. And that wasn't even including powers... Messiah heard more combat occurring at the other end of the drainpipe, including at least a couple of gun discharges, and Tulpa's projection continued its rampage against the thugs before grabbing the hostages and running, but even that didn't quite grab her attention so much as the abrupt, strangling sense of fear she felt as Eyeblight transformed to his monstrous, scarecrow-esque state, enough to make her reflexively take a step back in spite of herself before regaining control, reminding herself that it was all in her head, and, taking a page from Margrave's book, averting her gaze slightly, just enough to keep Eyeblight in view without receiving the full effects of his unsettling aura.

Though she was only paralysed briefly, it was more than enough time for Eyeblight to draw his combat knife and begin moving toward Messiah and the rest of her group in probably the most physically awkward manner possible, even doing acrobatics over and around Tulpa's projection, and seeming to aim for Margrave specifically as he drew nearer. The caltrops were worthless against the straw man, of course, but then so were a lot of their other powers, so long as they wouldn't kill him... at best, another burst of light to the eyes might blind him long enough that they could disable him a bit more effectively. So long as that damn knife could be gotten off of him and his speed advantage was disabled, his lowered weight might actually work against him, since his physical strength was no higher than a normal human. He couldn't "lift more", as it were. Though that didn't negate his regular strength...

She was shaken out of her thought processes by Tulpa's question, about whether or not she could reabsorb heat once she'd expulsed it. 'If I touch it again, yeah,' she responded, moving into a fairly standard Krav Maga stance... there was a minor benefit of Eyeblight being made of straw, she admitted: raw physical force couldn't particularly kill him. At least not the sort she might put out. Even so, she figured she ought to go a bit hard on making sure he wasn't a threat; thus, as he passed Margrave's caltrops outright, the light shining from her eyes refocused into full-blown stadium light beams, aimed straight at Eyeblight's face even though she herself kept looking just to one side of him. If nothing else, that ought to render him unable to see the group particularly well, though she might start running low on visible juice if she kept that up for too long...

And then Margrave pulled out a machine gun, and blasted away at Eyeblight with it from near point-blank range. Over the noise of the weapon firing, and the sound of Margrave going on yet another overblown rant, all Messiah could really think was Who the hell brings a weapon like that to a cape fight? At best it's useless, at worst it's LETHAL! It seemed she had been wrong after all about who had the most dangerous weapon... and yet the second most lethal remained a threat, especially if the bullets did as little as she thought they might. With the various distractions in place, Messiah aimed another beam of intense heat toward Eyeblight's knife, this time firing additional beams as needed until she was sure the weapon was destroyed.

---

Raymond Haywood: Icehouse Building

Raymond nodded and thanked the Broker as he walked over to the table, mission proposals in hand. He'd certainly be involved in the mission that involved payment, because why wouldn't he be? Sofia (last name Stein, he noted) immediately went for the envelope containing said mission, and Raymond moved to look over her shoulder as she opened it up and looked at whatever was inside. In the meantime, the androgynous person asked Headhunter- in a rather flirty fashion, evidently- if he'd like to accompany them on the other mission, the so-called "errand" to gather an actual fifth member, a man going by the cape name of "Arsenal"...

'That will be a maybe,' he stated bluntly, 'depending on what time the primary mission takes place.' And looking at the mission itself (rather a dangerous one at that... for anybody in the mission's vicinity, at least), it seemed like it'd be at 2PM... tomorrow. Well, fancy that. He continued reading over everything just to make sure the details were set up in his mind until Love Craft had returned to the room, then stated 'Make that a yes,' to the androgyne, noting the abrupt muscle growth they apparently needed to pick up and carry the body. Coincidentally, their need for five minutes to move the corpse was just enough for Headhunter himself to rush upstairs and dress down a bit - much as he was mildly uncomfortable showing his face in public, what with his reputation as an assassin, and especially to a number of capes who might not necessarily be trustworthy with keeping his appearance a secret, a full-blown army getup was sure to attract far too much suspicion for his liking. No, anonymity trumped disguise any day of the week, when the two couldn't be feasibly combined. That, and there were a few blood splatters on his outfit. Those could do with cleaning off after the fact.

So, with all said and done, and the Broker nowhere in sight, Raymond finally left the hideout, heading up the flights of stairs until he reached his designated room, and using his key to unlock the door into the place. Once he was inside with the door locked behind him, he removed his military gear, replacing it with far more inconspicuous civilian gear, and placed said military gear into the provided washing basket. He was absolutely going to buy a separate basket for that equipment... it needed specialised methods to clean, amongst other things hand washing rather than just throwing it into the washing machine, otherwise the kevlar and/or fabric might shrink (and incidentally, he was grateful that this particular set of body armour hadn't been in any severe fights yet; acquiring new pieces was hellishly difficult, and extraordinarily expensive even for his available funds). Oh, and it'd need to be hidden away somewhere that wouldn't be discovered in the event of a raid on his house, though if things had gotten to that stage, he'd want to have been gone for a very long time before then. Perhaps burn the room down behind him, to minimise DNA presence there. Shame about the rest of the building, if it came to that, but it hardly mattered anyway. Regardless, once he was redressed, he exited the flat again and locked the door behind him, then stowed the key away in a hidden inside pocket of his pants, before heading back downstairs and out the front of the building.

Hybrid: Of Transhumans and Modern Magic

@13org ...you are not wrong about Wootz steel existing in real life. Shame on me for not factchecking. I will say, however, that Wootz steel actually contains various metal carbides, not carbon nanotubes in particular, and that the process has not only been replicated many times as of 2016 and even before the 21st century, but would likely have been improved upon through use of magic and/or modern technology as of 2041. Hell, maybe swords made of or containing carbon nanotubes do exist as of then. That said, everything else I brought up does apply, and I highly encourage you to change the style in which you write your characters to avoid future disappointment.

@Banana Solaris has a few hangups with your sheet that he'll go over in detail with you later on. Generally speaking, though, the mechanics of helicopter tentacles make it simpler to just give Octo a jetpack, and there's no good reason at the moment why the scientists would let him go after having experimented on him to achieve those results, especially if the time he was released was during or shortly after the Uprising/Insurrection, when soldiers were most needed on both sides.

Hybrid: Of Transhumans and Modern Magic

@13org So there are a great many issues with your character sheet, most of which seem to suggest that you haven't really read the first post particularly well.

Problems

1. Draconids have human names, not fancy dragon-like names. And they certainly wouldn't be named for their knowledge as a newborn child.
2. Regarding the above, he could be seventy two years old. He most certainly could not have been born a Draconid if he is that old. Basic chimera production wasn't even figured out until the 2030s, and dragon fossils weren't discovered until several years after that. Also, don't just declare how long "Draconid years" are compared to human years. That's not for you to decide.
3. So I'm cool with him being a mage. Being way stronger than is typical? No. The vast majority of mages, which are already very rare, ae still at or slightly above street tier in terms of power output, and any mage with the power to bring down, say, an entire block of buildings is already in the top 1% of all mages easily; the sort of energy output you've described him as having, with enough power to disintegrate everything within 50m and negatively affect an entire, reasonably large country, puts him at literally the top spot, without equal save for maybe the Lord of Silence and what few other city busting mages existed in the past, which is absolutely unacceptable as far as character creation goes. Especially it being "too much for a living being to handle". That's not how it works.
3.1. By the way, magic wasn't known to the masses until fifteen-odd years ago. Aside from anything else, he'd have to be part of the Ordo Obscurum to do any magical research, at least until that disintegrated.
3.2. Again with the soul thing! I explained this before with Banana's first character, and I'd rather not repeat myself.
4. Nanotubes weren't even discovered until some time in the 20th century. How the hell did an ancient civilisation figure out how to make molecules that require very high-tech methods to produce nowadays, and if they knew how to do it, how did they lose it? A civilisation like that ought to have had an absurd technological advantage over their peers; it'd be like the Assyrians, who had iron weaponry where most other civilisations at the time were still stuck with bronze, except way more exaggerated. Like, if the Assyrians brought a gun to a knife fight, this ancient civilisation would be equipped with the equivalent of rapid-fire nuclear missile launchers. And since when would ANY Middle-Eastern civilisation create a katana?
5. If the sword abruptly gains a will of its own, having had none before, there's no reason why it'd automatically be hostile to the person who actually imbued said will upon it. If anything, I'd propose that the sword would be slaved to the owner's will, since at that stage, it'd be like a newborn baby more than anything else. But none of that really matters anyway, because an inanimate object with no brain is not going to abruptly gain a mind of its own, and certainly not in that fashion, mostly because...
5.1. Physical matter has no inherent magical properties unless specifically enchanted. I don't necessarily fault you for not knowing that, but it isn't naturally magical, hence all the clarifications about what restrictions magic has in the intro post.
6. The whole idea that he has so much magic that he could explode at any moment. It does not work like that. Not unless somebody actively cursed him to store magic to a critical level in a way he couldn't access before forcibly detonating it all, but...
7. And a variety of other errors that at this point I can't say I need to go over in detail, primarily the HUGE number of errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and terminology, e.g. repeated mislabelling of Draconids as "draconic". I know it's the Casual forum, but at least aim for smart casual, not street casual.

The point I'm making is, despite the effort you obviously put in, it's the same situation as Banana's initial character, in that you might as well come up with a new character outright for the amount of stuff you'd need to change to make this one work. And a lot of that is caused by you missing points that were very clearly described in the first post. So, no, Jör isn't accepted.

Warhammer 40K: Beyond the Law - A Mercenary Adventure [MATURE] (Open for business, apply within.)

@Jbcool Okay, I've made my post as Harvin now. Apologies for the double post, but I figure it'd be prudent of me to remind @Quinntessential, @Hank, and @DrunkasaurusRex to post as their characters ASAP before they get killed.

Warhammer 40K: Beyond the Law - A Mercenary Adventure [MATURE] (Open for business, apply within.)

Much as Harvin wanted to contribute to the Kroot's fight against the insane captain, he was pretty sure he'd be rent apart if he tried to get up close with the chainswords, and having established that every gun on him except the explosive bolt carbine was too weak to reasonably damage the man's power armour, he simply did his best to remain relatively quiet and avoid notice after having flung himself out of the psychopath's path, rolling to minimise any potential harm. Fortunately, the xeno creature's weapon seemed to be far more than strong enough to seriously wound the man, and it didn't take long before he resorted to actually throwing the power sword, the blade embedding hilt-deep into the floor some distance away as the Kroot dodged it, and then to insults, before finally being put out of his misery. The last significant threat to the mercenaries dealt with- manageable, rather, Harvin knowing what he did- the Kroot took that time to check its injuries and resling its rifle, whilst Harvin took a moment to calm himself. As calm as he could get, anyway.

When he opened his eyes, the xeno was looking at him. What, did it want to eat him now or something? Was that why it was looking at him?! Probably not, but he knew they did that sometimes. Still, it was another mercenary, so he figured he should at least give it fair warning of the impending doom that was soon to be upon them. And this other guy... oh, hey, it was the guy from before, with the turned-off power sword in hand, coming up toward the Kroot.

'Alright, so here's me,' the man began in a somewhat annoyed tone, 'just walking round the facility, trying to find more pirates, and then somebody flings an Emperor-damned power sword about two feet in front of me. I grab it, turn it off, walk over here, and who do I see but fucking robo-arm and an alien with a pulse rifle. What the hell is going on?'

'Okay, look,' Harvin started, rising to his feet and trotting over to the two, 'that guy you-' he pointed to the alien- 'just shot did something, right? And, er, he's gone and guffed up the power reactors or something. They're gonna blow up, and we need to leave, uh, probably now, really.' "Guff", again, was another bit of Slomian slang along the lines of smeg, albeit with greater meaning, implying something being ruined; he wondered briefly after the fact whether the xeno, or even the jackass, would actually recognise the comparison with more contemporary Low Gothic words, but shortly stopped caring so as to make sure it didn't abruptly turn on him. That'd suck butts.

'Wait, it's gonna blow up?! Then we need to get out of-' the other human began, only to gasp long and loud and fall to his knees at the sight of the dead man's clothing. 'Holy shit, that's fucking power armour! That's so good- and I can't loot it because the place is going to explode! That's not ff- HHRRRRRMMMM... yeah, good job on that, asshat,' he concluded, directing his frustration at Harvin as he knelt down and fiddled with whatever kept the sword's sheath attached to the captain's body, some sort of looped belt.

'Oi, what did I do?!' Harvin retorted angrily. 'He already set them off before I got there, what am I going to do-'

'Turn them off, maybe?'

'HOW?!' By now, the belt had come free, and the looter reattached it around his own waist before sliding the sword into the sheath. 'Whatever, I'm getting out of here, you can stay and die if you want,' the mercenary concluded, rising into a run back toward where the drop pods had landed (or so Harvin presumed) with a passing farewell of 'So long, idiots!' Much as Harvin wanted to chase after him, he figured it wouldn't be particularly fruitful. It wasn't like he needed a power sword anyway, since he couldn't really work it into his arm safely, though anyone who did would probably have just a few seconds to either start chasing after the guy or shoot him down from a distance before he vanished into the corridors of the facility with his prize.