~Of Flames and Fantasy~
-Intro-
The year is 2450, and the world as we once knew it has all but disappeared in the wake of naught but fire and ash. None know where it all began, none remember who first pulled the trigger, and yet by this point in time none of that matters anymore. Earth has been reduced by myriad wars, disasters, diseases, weapons, and the ilk to the point that a startling discovery was eventually made...the atmosphere was nose diving into collapse. Only a few decades would be left before the atmosphere would decay to a point that made the planet unable to sustain human life.
Some tried to make underground cities, hoping they would be self-sustaining and able to hold the remaining population. Some desired to create a space station that would sustain life upon it for the centuries to come. Other myriad factions and break-away groups and ilk simply continued to war and bicker in their own matters as usual, unchanged from the last 4 centuries. However, the “Gaea Corporation” managed to concoct a plan of their own: Utilize the latest in quantum tunneling technology to create a path to a new place, a New World, in which humanity would be able to settle and through thus save itself from extinction.
It was an obtuse plan, and yet the company proved to have the means to do so. All they needed were backers and resources. This would draw the attention of the remaining major nations of the world, who took to this particular plan and pushed their remaining resources into the implementation of this plan and project. The “Jacob’s Ladder Project” was thus born, and with most of the remaining resources of the world behind them the Gaea Corporation pushed ahead to meet the ever-approaching deadline.
Test runs, smaller portals, testing from different locations to find an optimal ‘path’, and so forth eventually set up in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, having found a location from which ‘the most suitable world to settle’ would be found. Habitable climes, breathable atmosphere, and frankly speaking many signs of being able to sustain life. There was no time for an in-depth investigation before opening the greater gate proper, outside of cursory scouting expeditions that mostly determined the presence of native races in this ‘New World’ and some basic information, as the ‘deadline’ for the project was far too close for comfort.
By the time the “Great Pacific Gate” was opened, the remaining major powers and few minor ones to get involved had lined up near the gate. Fishing vessels, old battleships returned to be or kept seaworthy, dredged up old designs lashed together with scrap, veritable ‘floating cities’ composed of myriad ships in varying states of damage, and the ilk had been assembled to carry people, supplies, and the best of what remained back on Earth over. Agreements to keep a peace on Earth-side were made, though on the other side all was fair game away from the Gate.
Humanity had lost its original home...now was the time to forge a new one!
The premise of this Sandbox-style NRP is that humanity in the far future has basically reduced Earth to rubble, and in short work the planet will become uninhabitable. They are fleeing through a science-wrought gate into another world, which is itself a fantasy-type world with magic and various races and all of its own politics and ilk.
You will either play a local nation in this fantasy world, or you will play one of the human groups/factions coming through the gate to settle in this New World. You will not play one of each or both. Just one or the other, and I am looking for a balanced amount of nations in total.
Humanity will be coming through with the overwhelming technology and weapons advantage, but likewise will be outnumbered just as overwhelmingly by the locals. Locals have the total advantage in magic and numbers, but at the same time have no technology even remotely able to compete with the newcomers. In this sense, each side has some solid advantages and disadvantages against each other.
Of course conflict, whilst probably inevitable in some cases, is not the only way. Some might choose to settle in uninhabited areas to avoid such issues altogether (makes for a more boring RP though), some might try a peaceful and diplomatic approach, some might seek trade, and so forth. Likewise, the presence of any humans on the New World side of the Gate doesn’t mean those coming from Earth have ready and quick allies waiting on the other side.
In terms of technology and magic, each side has their own advantages and disadvantages. However, neither kind of nation should be declaring they wiped out each other utterly without resistance. That makes for a very unfun experience when the post-apocalyptic AK-47 toting Russians simply mow down everyone without a contest, and having the highly outnumbered human settlers simply wiped out by a magic curse or plague sent by a lonely witch in the woods is simply just as unfair. So in this respect I encourage people to be fair, but will also set a ground rule:
“Large-scale magic that affects entire armies and such is time-intensive and requires a great many magic users to perform, and nuclear weapons and their ilk will be highly scrutinized and discussed on a case-by-case basis due to being very rare and dangerous things even back on Earth.”
Now for the other unavoidable topic of discussion for such an RP: “What kind of magic/technology can we have?”
***For the immigrating humans, in terms of technology you’d have something like machines to help acclimatize you or synthesize compatible local resources into ones you are familiar with back home, machines to kick off production of basic necessities and such important goods like weapons and ammo and tools, and so forth within proper reason. However, this stuff is very advanced and very much limited to and even within those groups coming into the New World. It is the peak of tech advancement on Earth, and something made and geared for this particular purpose of settling in a New World. Mind these sorts of things cost the majority of the remaining resources back home, there isn’t just shelves upon shelves of these that can be made at the drop of a hat. This tech was divided up in a balanced fashion among those who are coming through the gate, and is meant to help kick off settling and the growth of new colonies in the New World.
Otherwise you only have what old tech and resources might have been salvaged, was created during, kept up during the course of, or otherwise survived 400 years of war back home. AK-47s, post-modern rifles to a reasonable extent, scrap-made or innovated items made during the last 400 years on Earth, and so forth. We aren’t talking space ships and everyone having sci-fi guns and force fields, but more like some bits of more sci-fi tech mostly geared to survival purposes whilst the rest is sparse or basically recycled, modified like a patchwork quilt over the years, or slapped together.
In terms of ships something like big ‘modern’ battleships or something like a modified WW2 battleship would be the largest sort of thing to come through in terms of military craft. Not every will have this, however, but even a well-armored scrap-repaired gunboat from WW2 would be a big enough threat on its own.
In short, imagine this like a “you are lucky to have a modern computer” type apocalyptic scenario for these modern Earth humans, but with a few far more advanced than normal machines provided by the Gatekeepers/Gaea Corporation to your settling modern human faction to help you get adjusted and be more efficient.
***There is, if anyone is interested, also the potential I leave here of making a ‘floating city’ out of ships to also send through. It wouldn’t be a large city or some kind of oceanic London or New York by far, but imagine a reasonably ‘large enough’ population for such a thing. Imagine something that was made to subsist in the post-apocalypse, basically, and go with that in a reasonable manner. Such a city would be a boon in kicking things off for you in the New World, bringing a wee bit of infrastructure alongside the small bit of actually advanced stuff, but you get far less flexibility in where to go and are basically limited to the ocean at first. I will place a limit of one “floating city” to exist for now, on that note, unless given a good enough argument otherwise.
***Likewise, things like Satellites and Internet and global-scale technologies will not be outright available. Given enough long term time and long term efforts to actively set such things up, but initially they will not be a thing at the beginning.
***For locals, your technology is going to be at a medieval or high fantasy kind of level. Castles, thatch roof houses, watchtowers, swords, shields, etc. Of course things like ‘enchanted objects’ magic tools/items and ilk naturally exist, as magic provides its own kind of advantages outright, and even buildings affected by magic such as magic castles and walking huts on legs could exist...but this also depends on what kind of race and nation you play. Not everyone will be overflowing with magic, not everyone will be as mundane as irl medieval times. Yet technologically you start ultimately and rather woefully behind the newcomers.
Even so, magic is rather varied and can be very potent or versatile depending on what system you wield. These newcomers have no idea about magic, and whilst their weapons can fell hundreds of warriors in proper use and their alien tactics...you can hit them with something they have no grasp of in turn. Likewise, being natives you know more about the world’s dangers and workings than they will without a doubt. Homefield advantage, as it were, is one of the things weighted for you nicely. Plus being a non-human race might have some advantages of its own, such as greater size or faster breeding, etc.
-Other-
***I will be controlling the Gaea Corporation (aka: “The Gatekeepers” faction) on the human side, who will be among the smallest but outright most advanced among the human groups. Their job remains rather neutral unless attacked, however, as they simply are there to defend the gate on both sides. They will eventually move their remaining staff and ilk to the New World side to close it up in time before Earth’s atmosphere hits the ‘critical point’ and is unable to sustain further life, which at this point will happen in a few months tops. In the meantime, this group freely allows the immigrants to send ships and people back and forth to get further scrap and supplies and the ilk from back home, but remember that Earth is basically a post-apocalyptic hellscape at this point and that most remaining resources went to making the Gate. Likewise attempts to take or sabotage the gate will result in being banned from its use, however, as was made very clear and agreed upon by those who threw in their lot to help build it in the first place.
***I might also create a nation of the New World, an NPC I control, if naught else to help create action or help flesh things out for the world or races on it as needed. (EDIT: Will be controlling multiple NPC nations within the game to facilitate events and the like playing out in the RP itself.)
***In regards to posting, once every two weeks is expected. IRL things aren’t great everywhere, and that is understandable, but I also do not want this RP to simply die out either. To this end also keep tabs on the RP’s Discord for announcements as well, though invites to said Discord will only be handed out to the players. If you are a player and do not have the link, just message me and I’ll get it sent to you as soon as I can. Also,
if you have issues going on and can’t post, say something and DM me here on the Guild or on Discord.
***A point of clarification I want to add due to some prior confusion: There isn’t a ban on native humans in the New World. They won’t be the majority race of the world of course, nor will they simply be the sort to automatically band together with the modern humans from Earth on a whim, but they can and in some places do exist. :D
Nation Name:
Flag: (describe or link an image)
Location: (show image of where you are on the map, once we get it made and marked up with people’s claims)
Current Ruler: (Who rules your nation? Is it a monarchy, a diarchy, a rare republic, a tribal council, or something else? Don’t expect modern nation types like full-blown democracies here for the start.)
Population: (You outnumber the human factions by a good bit, but something like a big top-tier empire spanning enough fertile land would be like 15-17 million strong at the very very most. And that’d be the top-tier nation in the New World.
So with that as the top-end population size, scale accordingly for your nation. Should not see a single tiny nomad tribe in frozen wastes with barely any land and a total 14 million population, for example, or a giant thriving empire with massive trade and long history have only 10,000 population or less. All I ask is be reasonable, basically.)
Military Size: (Size of your standing military, which will be at maximum 7% of your population. Note that this is just the ‘standing army’, not accounting for the obvious levied troops and conscripts during times of war.)
Military Composition: (A general idea of your army’s composition and tactics, and unique local weapons or such they might be armed with if you so choose. Something to paint a basic/simple enough picture of how your military works in terms of combat, and whether it is more or less organized.)
Race(s): (What races inhabit your lands? Is your nation just one local race, or are there different communities in your lands that compose part of your population? Give a very basic simple overview of each race, including basic things like the general appearance of the race and unique traits like having ‘magic aptitude’ or not and such important things. Of course if you have some bog-standard humans that live in the New World in your population, that does not need more than just a listing below that they live in your nation.)
History: (What is the history of your nation and its peoples? Any notable wars or l;eaders or struggles? Any unique origins for the dominant local race, such as being made by a patron deity or the like?
Give me just a brief enough summary that covers the important things and some flavor here. 4 Paragraphs at most here.)
~Humans~
Nation Name:
Flag: (describe or link an image)
Location: (show image of where you have initially settled on the map, once we get it made and marked up with people’s claims)
Faction Leader: (Who leads your colonists into the New World? A general? A dictator? A president? An elected representative? A small council of people? Etc.)
Population: (You are vastly outnumbered in the New World, but have the overwhelming advantage when it comes to technology. Population in total will be very small indeed, like 10-15k depending on how many people the vessels you sent through can carry across.)
Military Size: (Size of your standing military, which will be at maximum 7% of your population to start. Won’t be impressive in size to start.)
Fleet Composition: (How many ships did you bring over and of what kind? What kind of combat-ready ships do you have among these, and what kind of weapons do they have mounted on them?
Mind that bigger things like battleships will be limited to “2” for everyone for balancing...and that such ships can blow out of the water basically any local ships here. Not all ships will be armed to the teeth, some might be used for fishing or support craft. Etc. Just basically list the ships you have out with simple basic info to get the point across of what they are used for.
But if a weapon is not said here to be mounted on or contained in a combat ship, then there is no pulling it out later like “wait i had this lurking below decks haha surprise!”. Likewise, things like satellite GPS and global internet are a very very very long ways off from ever existing. Nukes are also banned for obvious reasons.)
History: (What led to this nation of yours becoming as it is today? Was it formed from refugees on the high seas, a major nation that was whittled away and clung on by some means through the chaos, or something else? No actual magic in your history naturally, since Earth has none of that.
Give me just a brief enough summary that covers the important things and some flavor here. 4 Paragraphs at most here.)
***This NRP is coming onto the site with some apps already made and approved, so if you are ok with that then I'd be happy to have you aboard! If you want to join, however, then PM me with your interest and to get the Discord Server invite. If you don't I will know you didn't read this part! ;) On the Discord, however, you can see the map and any current claims/NPCs, look around, and talk with the other players to decide things for yourself!
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