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4 yrs ago
Current I teach my first online lecture today... this shouldn't be too hard right?
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8 yrs ago
Tout ce qui est fait n'est plus à faire
9 yrs ago
"Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul."
9 yrs ago
"El amor es como el fuego. Suelen ver el humo los que están fuera antes que las llamas los que están dentro."

Bio

H E 𝕏 A F L E 𝕏 A G O N

Hex | Too old for this shit | Writer of pretentious walls of text

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@Doug


@Inkarnate
Everyone knows fantasy Yellow Turban Rebellion is best Yellow Turban Rebellion.



P R E M I S E


Chasing the great winds of change our story begins. For four hundred years the Kiu Dynasty has ruled the Imperial Kingdom. Yet even the greatest mountain will fall with time and so to did the Kiu. The great dynasty falling to inbreeding, failed harvests, corruption, and devastating plagues. All giving their many advisers clear signs that they had lost the Celestial Mandate of divine will. The last of the Kiu Emperors would be found dead in his resting chamber, poison having leeched away his strength. As debates of succession continued between the many Imperial Vassals, centralized rule would not hold and soon the Imperial Kingdom shattered turning inward as it devoured itself.

As the conflict persisted four great kingdoms would pull themselves aloft from the sea of blood. In the rugged steppes and plateaus of the East rose the Zhen controlled by General Zhen Ba, a living folk-hero that had pacified the nomadic clans of the East underneath his rule some thirty years previously. To the West lay the former heartland of the Imperial Kingdom and home to Jade City with it's imperial palace at its center. This economically prosperous and bountiful land came under the rule of the Sum and the head of their clan Sum Min. The last in a long line of Sum adviser to the Kiu, ruling in the stead of the Kiu's only surviving child, a only boy that had survived the bloodshed that had consumed has family on account of being tutored far away from the capital at the Sum's summer estate. In the North and its thick forest and soaring cliffs that meet the lashing ocean was sworn to the Fan and their ruler Fan Yi. Fan Yi another General and a former ally of the Kiu, he claims that the last Emperor had past the title onto his house and so the Imperial throne was his by right. In the cold swamps, towering mountains, and grand harbors of the North was home of the Tseng and their leader, the grand matron of the Tseng, Tseng Xia the last to be conquered by the Kiu, their people have a distinct cultural and spiritual identity and aim to break away entirely from the Kingdom.

The spiritual discourse created by the constant clashing of these four titans has shaken not only the living world but the celestial one. With no Emperor to serve as the bridge between this world and the next, the two have begun to bleed into one another. Demons, undead and other monstrosity kept at bay through the combined cooperation of the Emperor and the gods would find their way into this world. They would find their homes in caves, the wilderness, and the darken corners of cities tempting, snatching, and devouring all those that stood in their path. This combining of the two worlds also saw a rise of the Tongji, the spiritual mediums who have extensive knowledge of such creatures and whose magics used primarily through scrolls and other such means have begun to grow once more giving them great power beyond the imagination of man. Magics that would be shared and spread creating a new type of Cultural Renaissance despite the continued bloodshed.

Admit this time of resurgent magics and innumerable bloodshed we focus upon the province of Guijiang. Situated on the border between the Fan and the Zhen, the land has been completely ravaged by the war. Here among ancient wood and crumbling ruins of a dynasty lost long ago lay a rabble collection of souls. The woods originally home to deserters from the Imperial Army, nothing more than common bandits would soon find themselves in conflict with both the Fan and the Zhen. This would cast them into a lighter view of the local peasantry who were constantly at the mercy of the two ravenous armies, with many soon fleeing into the woods for protection.

Our story begins with this rabble collection of bandits, deserters, and common peasants heading towards uncertainty as open conflict with both the Zhen and Fan seems inevitable. Yet if they are able to secure the safety of Guijiang then hopes of something greater may lay on the horizon.

The task itself may seem impossible but there have been reports of sightings of a Dragon to the south. The first seen in over one thousand years. A strong omen to hopeful eyes of change to come. For the forest grows from the burnt ashes of its predecessor.


I N T R O D U C T I O N


Welcome one and all to 朝代循環. Named after the concept of the dynastic cycle, core to the heart of Chinese philosophy, history, and politics. 朝代循環 is what happens when you mix Water Margin, several Wuxia films, with some Fire Emblem, and a little bit of the a Song of Ice and Fire for taste. Heavily inspired by both Chinese Mythology and classical literature, the aim is to do for Chinese Mythology what something like the Witcher did for Slavic Mythology. Take the ideas, tropes and themes and ground them into a believable and livable world.

It tells the story of a ragtag peasant rebellion more or less in a backwater province of a Three Kingdoms inspired China, currently in the middle of a magical resurgence on account of the constant warfare altering the relation between the spiritual world and the living world. At the best these people are deserters from the army with limited military experience, but most are bandits and common peasants that have never held a spear in formation let alone fought a large scale battle. And somehow these common peasants are supposed to fight not one but four warring states and somehow unify them or whatever. Their success is wholly debate on player action and decision. Yet to that end the idea of this is for the war and monsters and such to be the catalyst that drives the plot forward but not the main point of the story. The main point of the story is rather the interaction between the characters and stories that you folks all come up with. A dozen tiny stories inside the scope of one giant story if you get my drift. All being kept more centralized by isolating the story upon a singular group of people from a small province.

I present to you an open canvas for you to paint your ideas open, to expand upon this worlds history, and the people and the creatures that dwell inside of it. You want to be a common peasant that rises to become a war hero? Cool. You want to be a Tongji able to bend the forces of nature and spirits to your will? Sounds great. You want to be a snarky bandit with a heart of gold? That works as well. The nature of the story presents a large level of freedom for you to pick and choose from. So if a spanning epic of intrigue, warfare sounds like your cup of tea, or if you really like world building and morally ambiguous conflicts... Why don't you stop in and say hi?
@HeySeuss@vietmyke@Mercenary Lord@Draken@AlexStarsion@Mike73

That took a little longer than expected but hey better late than never right? Kind of a boring post really, lots of dialogue, important for like exposition shit but you know. So do whatever, finish up whatever conversations you need to, and get on that truck cause it time to go save the world! look at books? Rob a military installation? Who the fuck knows what you assholes are gonna do. xD

Also fun behind the scenes look for this post, the crazy apocalypse cult was always going to be a thing. Cause much like you have Vangar and Rassvet fighting, you have the robot and these guys fighting because they both want to use our lovely living Mcguffin princess for well things. I always did promise you eldritch abominations. My hand was just forced earlier than I anticipated, because I realized I could work them in with this juicy plot hook that @Mercenary Lord gave me. Which was originally planned as a whole nother subplot that I didn't really like in the end because it became too politky for my liking. Kinda took away from the whole friends and a shitty car try to the save the world from monsters and robots and robot monsters thing. Which I only just realized after finishing the first version of this post. Which is why it took way longer than anticipated since I had to rewrite it. Which is why you guys just got a stupid long lore dump. I'll try to refrain from those in the future. Cause they are bad writing and rather clunky.
“So the only reason I’m not bound and gagged right now is because it wouldn't work?” Colette replied to Galahad as she removed the cap from her head. Before the protest could begin she took her hair and brought it up into a simple if sloppy knot so that it fit more easily underneath the cap. The roll of her eyes suggesting a little less subtly that you could've just given it to me ass.”That’s real comforting, truly.”

“Least we’re honest with ya.” Setzer remarked as she shifted over in his squat to give Galahad an easier view past his frame. He nodded his head as he traced a finger along the route that would bring them to the Archives. He was right though, from what Setzer remembered, which wasn’t much at the best of times, there was somewhat of a military presence at the Archives. It used to be directly adjacent to Zyphfra Air Force Station, but it was more or less abandoned in favor of better equipped and larger airfields, last seeing actual service when dirigibles still existed. A small garrison was still stationed there though severely limited in its scope and size.

Scratching at his temple he nodded as Daryll voiced his concerns. “We are going to report in. We are just debating on how quickly, we report in. Going to the Archives only adds like another day or two to the trip.” Setzer replied. “And as a wise man once told me, if you don’t get caught, you don’t have to worry about gettin’ caught.”

“And I’m assuming that wise man was you?” Colette fired back.

Before Setzer could answer the challenge Gideon had returned. Out of all of them, Gideon was probably the one that Setzer respected the most in this situation. In the simplest of causalities it was probably due to common interests and an understanding. Beneath that though it was something a little bit more. Setzer for all intents and purposes was good at combat. You give him an opposition, or an objective to take and he will be able to make up a plan and get the job done. Gideon was good at the more delicate things. Back on the farm they’d call him an ‘egg man’ cause he had to touch needed to handle the eggs without breaking em.

“Burn phone could work. I mean if we are looking for urban centers we gotta head towards the Archives anyway. Driving round the boondocks out here ain’t gonna do us much in that regard.”

Trent begin to deposit his newly acquired drinks around the group as Lee offered his own take on the situation, reflecting upon the dismal mood that most of them felt but really didn’t want to talk about. Setzer begrudgingly nodded his head in agreement over Lee’s offering of treatment. Figuring that he best just bite the bullet and take the help now, than be of less use latter. Colette give Trent, a small thank you as she took the small styrofoam cup from his hands. She tried not to think about all the people that were going to die because of her fuck up as she carefully hit the black liquid with a splash of creamer, watching as black turned to light brown.

As Gideon fired off his next series of questions Colette’s face began to scrunch up as she thought hard about her previous mission. With all the robots and the almost dying it was relatively easy to forget about it. Yet now with the relative calm of peace it was getting harder to shove the thoughts out of her head.

“Well I mean everybody knew about the peace talks. But in regards to explicit details not that many. Communication and transfer of the Imperial Family is kept very hush-hush, lots of potential enemies you know. My retinue of the Imperial Dragoons would’ve of been the only one’s to know everything save for my Father of course.”

To those among them that were more familiar with Vangar military structure this would make sense. The Imperial Dragoons were for all intents and purposes, the Imperial Honor Guard. It was one of the most prestigious positions within the Vangar military complex and one of the hardest to join. Men and women picked not only for their combat skill which was ample, a trained Dragoon could even fight a WARDEN to a standstill, but their fanatical levels of devotion to the Imperial family. Each member of the main line of House Skymning have a retinue assigned to them at birth and those soldiers would stay with that member until they died.

“And most of them got robot-murdered.” Setzer added in.

“They did their duty.” Colette reaffirmed with something of sigh. “But no, from my own knowledge those machines and that ship? There is nothing like that in the entirety of the Empire. I don’t know much about your Archives but if they give us any clue on whatever the hell that thing is, as Trent suggests well it seems like a good idea.”

As Zimmy spoke up Colette sighed with a roll of her eyes as she stood up coffee in hand and walked away. Not far mind you, sitting plopping upon the curb not far from them but just far enough to be out of earshot.

“Just tell me when you guys are done talking bout your super secret stuff.”

Setzer scratched the side of his head, making a face that wouldn't be hard to imagine steam rushing out of his ears as he listened to Zimmy. From what he understood, other folks talking or even associating with WARDEN wasn’t something done on a regular bases. Hell, he wasn’t even sure that by even associating with an outside force, that Zimmy wasn’t breaking some old archaic rules or something. Not the Setzer was one to really care about rules mind you.

“The Rassvet Collections Institution? You sure you wouldn't hired on by a tax collection agency Zimmy?” Setzer asked with a shake of his head. “Cause they don’t sound like any government group that I know of.”

“Cause they aren’t.” A familiar voice sounded next to Setzer who jumped back flailing his arms as he did, sword manifesting. There was the slight shimmer of air as Colette reappeared next to him hands in the air. The sword vanished as Setzer looked up at her accusingly, his head turned to where the other Colette still sat sipping the cup of coffee and playing with her hair.

“Wait? How are there two of-?”

“You watched me catch friggin condensed plasma out of the air and throw it at a giant robot ship. Are you really that surprised?” The other Colette responded as she snapped her fingers and the illusionary sitting Colette vanished from sight. “Kinda the only benefit of being a constantly generating source of Mist, people don’t notice when you're using it.”

“But...”

“Listen, I understand if you guys want some level of confidentiality around here, but it seems we are all in this shit together and if you expect me to tell you jackshit about Vangar while keeping me in the dark? Well I might as well just go back to the fucking robots.” Colette asserted with a surprising level of authority, the typically subdued tones of her Vanagar inflections upon the Rassvet dialect becoming pronounced. “So as I was saying. The Rassvet Collections Institution was the code name of the extension of the Vangar spy network in well Rassvet. Problem is it was 'disbanded', fuck before even I was born. They kinda went from a spy network to an extremist paramilitary cult." Colette explained with a level of surprisings ease given the fact that she was currently spilling classified Vangar military secrets, sore military secrets at that. Secrets mind you that she only learned because she had a habit of breaking into her father's study when she was younger. She continued.

"They renamed themselves as the Institution for Higher Existence. Something about visions of the end of the world and their ordained role in bringing the apocalypse. Those gas bombings in the Orestia subway? The one your investigation linked back to some man living in his mother's basement? That was them. Our special forces went in and killed every last one of them. There was that big old 'wild fire' like thirty years back? That was caused by an incendiary device meant to destroy any evidence of their existence. And since nobody survived the extermination, and with all our Information networks being disbanded and then centralized under one command to stop anything like that from happening again.... "

“So wait.” Setzer cut her off as he beginning counting with his fingers. “We have Rassvet, Vangar, Robot dudes, and now what creepy conspiracy maybe cult guys?”

“Who the fuck knows? Who the fuck knows anything anymore? Yesterday I was hopefully going to help end a useless war. Today? Today I’m eating eggs off parking lot asphalt and constantly looking over my shoulder for robots.” Colette replied the agitation that had been kept admittedly well continued up to this point seeping through bit by bit.

“Well the saying goes when shit happens you deal with it. So let's deal with it! All in favor of going to the Archives say Yes!” Setzer already making his way to the truck. “Wait doesn’t matter cause I stole the keys to the truck and that is where I’m going. Let’s move!”

Colette shrugged.

“Protein shake has a point. If you wanna interrogate me some more let’s just do it in the truck.” Colette responded with a wink as she walked over, the sound of the truck's engine revving to life as rattling metal began to fill the air. She disappeared into the back of the truck, as the horn blared obnoxiously.




Working on the promised post right now! Should be up sooner rather than later.
@Lexicon
Shame to see you go but thank you for telling us! And hey, if free time does come up and the party is still going on you are welcome to jump back in!
@neogreggory
Lore stuff was fine. To the other question Nothing too important in the lower levels, mostly empty beds, storage and the odd torture rack.

I'm kind of busy right now but I'm working on replies to other questions and stuff. And yeah slow and steady is always better than fast and die out quickly.
@Dark Wind
Depends on the day. It actually switches throughout my notes lol Ummm let's go with Avless.
@Dark Wind
Pantera? God my childhood listening to metal in shitty cars in rushing back to me.

@neogreggory
Eventually, maybe, probably. I'm going to do them all eventually for all you folks that PM'd me. Takes time because I gotta find that perfect balance between insightful commentary, and me being an ass.

Hexaflexagon is too busy drawing shapes and describing smoke.


I feel personally attacked

But yay math friends!

Honestly though as a teacher of Calculus, I feel a spiritual connection towards Edward James Olmos in Stand and Deliver.



@Dogematix@Dark Wind in short both of you are accepted yay! If you want to read my stupid sarcastic commentary, that doesn't really do much in way of anything truly beneficial besides accurately display my thinking process be my guest!

Comments in blue.




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