Syben — Roleplayer Guild

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     A Brief Look At "The Last Hope":
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└ The premise is simple, but the details and ideas I have for this are going to get a little elaborate—So stick around before you judge this to be another "same old story". This is intended to be both a story about colonization, and fixing the aftermath of a ruined and destroyed earth. A mutagen ravages the world, affecting animal and plant life in strange ways. Animals began to rapidly mutate, gaining strange and unpredictable abilities. So too did the plant life, as plants mutated, becoming strange, and deadly. It wasn't long before the mutagen's influence overwhelmed the world's capacity to defend against it, and unfortunately, time ran out for us. Our last ditch effort was to send people into a sort of half-cocked, jury-rigged cryosleep and let them sleep until things got better, or the A.I figured out a solution. Well let me tell you, people are going to be waking up a little early, and quite unhappy. Also, in our efforts to reverse the effects of the mutagen we managed to: Kill 90% of the world's population, inflict disease on the rest of them, create permanent winter, cripple our electronic capabilities via rogue a.i, contaminate literally all of the water, and create extreme weather anomalies. 
	We're great, aren't we? Not all is bad however, we did make breakthroughs in nanotechnology, which is the only reason anybody has survived thus far anyways. Did it really help us in the end? No, not really, but it has prolonged the eventual extinction of the human race. And now it becomes the problem of our characters to basically solve all of this as they plummet through the atmosphere ten years later. Things to do; Establish a colony and defend it against a planet that will literally try to kill you at every turn, defeat the rogue a.i and its army, exterminate or cure the animals, who knows what to do with the fucking killer plants, end perma-winter, fix the weather, purify the water, and for the love of god somebody reinvent alcohol because you are going to need a drink.

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	A New World
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└ "It happened so fast, and we were so unprepared for it." - Dr. Martin VaBuren
  
	» 2027: Wars raged in the Middle East and Africa as our struggle to keep up with the demand for resources continued to rise. The Chinese housing bubble collapsed, the American economy crashed, and the Russian-Germanic Bloc rose quickly as an aggressive force under the guise of liberating their "war ravaged neighbors". We left ourselves incapable of defending a large scale invasion on our home territory, one born of enemies that had been coexisting with us for hundreds of years. A mutagen, now named "Nova-X", exploded through the animal kingdom, and completely blindsided the world with its ferocity. Reports of animal attacks began to come in, scattered across the globe at first, before rising in numbers so substantial that the major world powers were forced to cease their war efforts to handle this rising epidemic.
	The situation quickly became clear: For some reason, the animal kingdom seemed to be rebelling against humanity. The first theories centered around the idea that this was a bio-terrorist attack weaponizing genetically engineered, or modified, rabies. Those theories were discarded when during the second year, reports began to claim strange patterns of behavior. Wolves in Germany began showing extremely high levels of coordination, to the point where the R.G.B. (Russian-Germanic Bloc) began losing convoys to them. Not every convoy either, but it seemed that they were targeting the lesser armed supply convoys, and later, the evacuation convoys attempting to flee the red zones. Dolphins began attacking aquatic vessels with astoundingly powerful sonic blasts, and in large groups these sonic cries can create whirlpools. Crows in Europe developed razor sharp wings, and could dive bomb a person at such a high velocity that they could pierce through vehicles.
	Things only got worse from there. If the rapidly mutating animals weren't bad enough, our attempts at a solution seemed to backfire at every turn. At first, the world powers tried to work together, forming the United Crisis Coalition. They captured live specimens, and learned that Nova-X was transmitted through the air. The U.C.C attempted to reverse engineer a cure, calling it Nova-Y. Controlled testing was a success. Once released into the air, however, Nova-X bonded with its counterpart and began to spread to the plants. Scientists hypothesized there must be other, unknown factors at work. In North and South Carolina, Venus Flytraps began to grow at an exponential rate, camouflage themselves in the dirt, and swallow people whole. Lions in Africa began sprouting mushrooms that released their spores when the lion walked, and when it roared the spores burst out in a massive cloud. Much of Northern Africa transformed into inhabitable toxic mushroom fields, where the spore saturation is so thick the area is blanketed in a sickly yellow fog.
	Attempt number two by the U.C.C was to immunize the unaffected animals, and stop the spread of the mutagen, as it appeared that the mutagen only affected a few certain groups of animals at a time. So gave rise to Avon-1, and the U.C.C once again had success in a controlled scenario. Inexplicably, Nova-XY bonded with Avon-1. People around the globe began showing horrible, and painful symptoms (in order): Blisters, Blindness, Brittle bones disease, Necrosis, Internal bleeding, and after a about a week, Death. In less than three months, 90% of the world's population had died excruciating deaths. We realized too late that Avon-1 was targeting blood types, and we were unable to synthesize a vaccine in time. The only people left were composed of universal donors (O-Negative), and universal recipients (AB-Positive). Obviously, with the human race on the verge of extinction, the U.C.C fractured apart. Still, there were those few left who were determined to make a difference.
	A group tilted as the New Chinese Republic tried twice to fix the world. Their first attempt was Avon-2, we discovered a few years later that all they had managed to do was sterilize what remained of the human race. Project Genesis was a more ambitious. Since every attempted at combating Nova-X had failed in a catastrophic way, the N.C.R would avoid the airways. A water based method was devised, however, this time they weren't looking to fix the mutated animals—They were aiming to eradicate them. Once again, the task seemed impossible. Nova-X was something extraordinary, it seemed almost akin to an antibody as it continually adapted and evolved to combat each and every threat posed to its existence. The N.C.R's Project Genesis poisoned our water supplies. Lacking proper filtration techniques, millions more died. The N.C.R proposed another plan, to control the mutating animals by manipulating their brainwaves. The R.G.B wasn't keen on the N.C.R continually making the situation worse, and tensions escalated.
	In Europe, the remnants of the U.N came together to form the Extinction Crisis Coalition and enact the Last Hope Initiative. A three part team was assembled: One, to finalize and implement a method of long term preservation for humanity: Two, develop a system that could run long term and work towards the most probable solution; And the third team was to assemble a craft to take as many survivors outside the planet's atmosphere as possible. The Last Hope Initiative was well underway, and progressing steadily, when relations between the R.G.B and N.C.R devolved into an armed conflict. It wasn't long until they too heard about the Last Hope Initiative, and suddenly the E.C.C found themselves in a three way war. Fortunately, the mutated animals and plants formed an impressive barrier to foreign armies, and the E.C.C was able to complete their initiative.
	Team one proposed a low-temperature hibernation induced by nanomachines. There was no way to prevent cellular death from this type of freezing, and eventual thawing, so the scientists began an in-depth study on the Immortal Jellyfish: A creature that could, in layman's terms, revert to being a child when it became too old. Utilizing stem cells, the nanomachines can take dying cells and revert them back into a healthier state. Unfortunately, while allowing humans to survive thawing, this method does not necessarily extend a person's life, and may in fact shorten in.
	Team two was unable to develop a system that could function independently for a long period of time without creating an artificial intelligence, lovingly named "A.I." (Coders are well known for their creativity). A.I. was to remain in an undisclosed location, and continually run algorithms to devise a likely scenario in which humankind could return with the highest possible chance of survival. A.I. would do this by examining what we knew about Nova-X, Nova-Y, Nova-XY, Avon-1, Avon-2, The compounds released during Project Genesis, and to hypothesize indeterminate variables based on the adaptability, and suvivability of Nova-X and its ability to counter each of humanity's attempts of combating it. Additionally, it would run long-term scenarios and devise the best course of action, and how best to implement those actions. It was a very complicated program, with a complicated set of rules. Once A.I. devised suitable answers, it would transmit them to the Orion Station (Team three's space worthy scrap pile) and the survivors could begin their descent back down towards the planet, to a location that would only be disclosed to crew members upon their awakening. The E.C.C didn't want the N.C.R or R.G.B to sabotage their plans.
	As the E.C.C was gearing up to point of processing which of 5,000 people would board the Orion, and perhaps file out who would go up next, the R.G.B decided to attempt a capture of the Orion launch vessels. They turned to bio-warfare, and to this date it's unknown what they released, but as it had proven so many times before, Nova-X was not going to sit idly by. Whatever chemical the R.G.B dropped onto the main facility of the Last Hope Initiative quickly changed from something they could control, to something that began to run rampant through the populace. It was nicknamed the Red Plague, as the skin of those who contracted began to mimic the shades of red akin to a sunburn. The skin-coloring seemed relatively harmless, however, the internal blood circulation failure was not.
	A solution was quickly devised, as those who had received the nanomachine injections were unaffected; It seemed the nanites continually fought against the deadly microbes. The E.C.C devised a separate type of nanite, one meant to promote health and fight off infections, and they found with proper augmentation, these nanites could allow our soldiers to achieve levels of strength and speed they otherwise normally could not obtain. Paired with cybernetics, these augmentation were issuing a new wave of soldiers. If only we had been pushed to these advances earlier, we may have stood a chance against Nova-X and the mutant army it created.
	Ten years after the initial discovery of Nova-X, the Orion vessels launched into orbit: Its crew filled with engineers, scientists, and those with important skill sets. Money was largely useless after the world fractured, so only those rich in raw resources were able to buy their way on board, those who were willing to hold back the progress of humanity's salvation in order to secure a seat for themselves and their family. Additionally, the ranks of the Orion ships were filled with the largely experimental neuromancers, who could manipulate matter like modern day magicians, and the recently developed "Augers", the soldiers enhanced with augmentation and cybernetics.
	The entirety of the E.C.C both simultaneously cried, and cheered, as the Orion vessels took to the atmosphere. 

	Days later the first hybrid attack wiped them off of the face of the earth.

Mutated Animal teaser:

Affected Species
Observed Phenomena
» Heloderma Suspectum (Gila Monster)» Exponential Mass Increase
└ Est. Max Growth: 40ft/12m, 100lbs/45kg
» Enhanced Intelligence
└ Dog-like Cognitive Development
» Enhanced Exterior Armor
└ Small arms fire is ineffective

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Thanks for popping by, as you can see the interest check is unfinished. A few reasons for that: One, I want to gather some interest to spur me on and make sure I actually have a base interested in this. Two, the best time to integrate ideas and thoughts is during the construction phase, so if you're very interested, feel free to throw in your two cents for world and plot construction. Here's a couple of ideas and world stuff I have, though I won't list everything:

(Feedback and Ideas are welcome and desired.)

Roleplaying Mechanics:
	[1](Feedback Encouraged, this is merely a thought an idea I may or may not implement at the moment) 
	- I had an idea of a sort of "events" system: Roughly, at some point I would PM you with a decision between one, two, or three things for your character, wherein you would reply with a choice (which could definitely be to ignore the event), and I will give you a consequence to this choice. It feels like an interesting way to keep things fresh and interesting, with the addition of keeping writers from getting too comfortable (As we so often get.)

Story Stuff:

Neuromancy: Basically where "powers" comes in. Short hand: Nanotech + Mutagen gives people the potential to interface with the world on an atomic level. For instance, take somebody who can spew flames from their hands. What it looks like: Fire spraying from hands. What it actually is based on my pseudo-science: Subconscious creation of a controlled, chemical-reaction producing flame. I could use a lot of fancy words to explain this to you, but I'm looking for "simple, quasi realism", nothing has to be perfect here and I want people to understand the basic principles, rather than receiving a crash course on exothermic reactions. We'll be balancing this with drawbacks and weaknesses. For example: Too much use of the fire-powers could cause said character to oh.. what's the equivalent.. combust into a ball of hellfire made of hatred, regret, and the fury of every cat that has ever gotten wet, etc.

Nanosoldier: Literally just think of a soldier with cool gear and implants. Run faster, shoot better, "Jump Good" - Monkey Man.

 Neuro implants (for the Neuromancers) and Nano implants are incompatible and will kill the host.

I will update this thread as more ideas come to me, or you come up with cool stuff. Also, i'm leaning more towards ballistic weapons instead of lasers.

P.s, only now do I realize my formatting is broken for mobile devices, "I can fix that" - Handyman from Holes

Affected Species	Observed Phenomena
» Heloderma Suspectum (Gila Monster)	» Exponential Mass Increase └ Est. Max Growth: 40ft/12m, 100lbs/45kg » Enhanced Intelligence └ Dog-like Cognitive Development » Enhanced Exterior Armor └ Small arms fire is ineffective

Kilasu Evara

	A flurry of snow whipped across Ki's body, causing her long overcoat to twist and whip around her. However, she did not feel the cold as others would — A rather simple trick of meditation, and force of will. She was well covered, if not overly so, and the combination of her headwrap and goggles did a decent enough job of shielding her face. Ki pressed on at a light jog, though in snow as deep as this it was more of an awkward, lunging gait. It had briefly occurred to her, once, that she could use a barrier to push away the snow, but she wasn't really one to squander her energy, especially on frivolities. The majesty that was Dall quickly rose up before her, as pristine as the snow itself, if with a little more shine. The tall spires and thick towers soared overhead, and Ki idly wondered what mystical force held them aloft so high and prevented them from simply crumbling to the ground. A few moments later, Ki came upon a pair of guards huddled beneath the portcullis.

	"Oi, who goes their mate? I can't see piss through this," one of them shouted, Ki thought it might have been the slightly shorted one.

	"You couldn't see piss through a window you blind bugger," the other laughed, though he joined his comrade in a show of arms as they stepped into Ki's path.

	Ki slowed to a halt and raised her hands slightly, "No harm goodmen, I'm a traveler on King's errand."

	"King's errand eh? Then I suh'pose you have the proper documentation then?" The shorter man queried with a hand outstretched.

	"I do," Ki confirmed as she rummaged in her bag, "are you this friendly to all your visitors?"

	"Jus' the ones who stumble through the snow like a drunken horse," he replied.

	"Ah.. well.. fair enough," Ki said, passing a rolled piece of parchment to the man. He unrolled it, and with eyes squinted nearly shut he put it up to his face. After an awkwardly long strong of time he snorted, and passed it back.

	"Seems good, jus' don't go causing trouble eh?"

	"Trouble?" Ki said in disbelief, "I would never."
	
	She gave a polite nod to the second guardsmen as she passed by into the city. She was in the lower quarters, though she didn't quite know the exactly terminology here—She'd only been to Dall a handful of times, usually in passing. Still, the streets here were slick with frost, and the denizens seemed to be cut from a rougher cloth. Ki was no prude, as she did not discriminate against a man by the way he dressed, but she definitely remembered enjoying some choice moments with the upper folk. If she hadn't of come strictly on business, she would likely have reunited with an old acquaintance.. or two. Speaking of business, she wished she could discover what sort of magic the messengers of Dall had used to even find her: She was literally in a cave, in the wilderness, hundreds of miles from Dall.
	She was in the midst of this thought, strolling through the lower quarters in the midst of a crowd when a whip cracked through the air above her. She glanced around and came eye-to-eye with the gap toothed scowl of a carriage driver. He didn't yell at her to move, but simply cracked his whip at her again as his horse-team cantered towards her. Ki stepped aside and caught a glimmer of a woman within, though she saw naught but a hardy looking cloak, and a stray lock of hair the color of wheat glowing in the sun. 'Now that looks like my kind of company,' Ki thought with an inward sigh.
	"To business then," She said ,to nobody in particular, as she made her way towards the massive fortress that served as the King's palace. Her route to the gates was rather boring and uneventful, aside from giving food to a few street urchins and what remained of her bread to a rather downtrodden homeless man. Another thing that was easy to ignore was the hunger slowly crawling its way into her belly. She'd find something to eat, eventually. Perhaps the steward would greet them with a feast, maybe the King himself even. Ki found her mind wandering again, particularly on if the King was as handsome as some of the foreign rumors foretold. She'd never met the man himself, but he, or perhaps his associates, were quite aware of her powers.
	She passed a bar on her way towards the palace, and her mind quietly drifted towards the thought of a hot meal, a strong drink, and a soft bed. The shrieking that was coming from within quickly deterred her of the thought, and she turned her mind back towards thoughts of the castle where her imagination brewed up grand ideas of food and sleep. Ki may have been a creature of the wilderness, but what kind of self-respecting woman would turn down a rose petal bath? And one could hardly stay at a palace without gambling with the servants for gossip. Such thoughts circulated in her mind as she walked steadily towards the castle, and before she knew it, she had arrived at the gates. She produced her documentation, and was quickly ushered inside to some sort of hall. A hall that could likely fit her entire sect of tribe members, and possibly their extended family.
	Unfortunately, there wasn't much happening within, and there was only one other person aside from herself, and Ki severely doubted the King had employed a servant wielding a broom on this mission. Ki chuckled quietly, imaging the serving maid would rush into battle shouting something along the lines of 'I'm going to clean up evil'. Figuring there was nothing to do than to wait, Ki shrugged off her coat, unwound her head wrap, and pulled her goggles up onto her forehead. She sat herself against a column, lotus style, and let herself sink into her thoughts. She was still aware of the world around her, of the colonnade running the length of the hall and the gentle swishing sounds of the servants broom. It was more that she was simply ignoring everything and pushing it away from the forefront of her perception, allowing to to react while focusing on her own thoughts, and her unsuccessful experiments.

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