Tortoise — Roleplayer Guild

@Knight Solaire
Aw, good bois.

Approved. Although, I should drop a note here that they seem almost too perfect. There's nothing wrong with a utopian society in theory, and I'm not requesting any changes to your sheet. But when it comes to posting IC, just keep in mind that governments are made of human beings who are naturally flawed. Anyway, feel free to drop it in the Char tab and start posing whenever :)

@The Goblin King
Also approved! I really, really like this sheet.

I also think you're the first robotic nation that didn't start as humans. We have the Gaians by @Sigma, who are humans that transferred their minds into robotic bodies, and the cyborg Enlightened (previously called Zetans) by @Irredeemable, but no "These are just robots who were never human" nations. Glad to have one on board!

If you haven't already, I also highly recommend that both of you join our Discord. Like 90% of the planning and conversation goes on there, so it is relevant to keeping up with the RP as a whole.

discord.gg/pW9KZzvc

Through the Rifts: Progeny

Do your people remember their homeland? The Plane from which they first came? It is called Gaia, a massive and beautiful world, full of life and magic, a world of swords and spells and mystery and longed-for beauty. Or, at least, it was. Before the Cataclysm ended that pretty old song. 

We are the survivors of that Cataclysm. We are Gaia's disparate children, sent haphazardly through the Rifts- magical gateways that led us from the world of Gaia to new homes. Each one went somewhere different, a different Plane of existence. Our people were spread across countless extraplanar realms, some living in worlds wreathed in flame and inhabited by demons, others finding themselves lost in great green forests. We were spread apart, disconnected from each other and our home.

Now, five hundred years later, the Rifts have reopened. And we are beginning to find one another.

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General Idea

This is a fantasy spin-off of my successful science-fiction NRP, Through the Gateways: Humanity.

Now, for me, the most interesting part about NRP has always been the interactions between different cultures. How does the warmonger react to the pacifists? What happens when a group of religious faithful meet a society of atheists?

As we have in Gateways, that's what I want to focus on in this RP. But instead of sci-fi, we're going fantasy this time around. We're going to each be playing as a roughly medieval nation, descended from the original settlers who were sent through the Rifts and into other Planes. The world we came from was the typical fantasy realm, where magic is real, and elves and dwarves probably hopped around. But when the Cataclysm happened, an apocalyptic event that caused the environment of Gaia to become uninhabitable, we were forced to open magical portals to other worlds and flee there instead. That's where your people have been living for 500 years.

Now think about what might have happened to them in this time. Did they land on a harsh plane, and used dark magic to survive? Are they ruled over by a ruthless tyrant? Have they made pacts with whatever creatures live there already? Or have they managed to stay true to some chivalrous, knight-like ideals? I want this to be heavily culture-focused, so your imagination is the limit. (As long as you don't break the medieval tech limits, don't be afraid to go somewhere that isn't typical fantasy.)

Now, for reasons unknown, the Rifts have reopened. All at once. For the first time in five centuries, our poor little countries will be sending their scouts into the Rifts and finding one another. And personally, I think it could be pretty fun to RP these early 'first contact' interactions. Seeing how our different people respond to one another. And as the RP goes on, I'm not opposed to anything; war, trade, diplomacy, or whatever else.

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How Do the Rifts Work?

Magically!

Alright, alright, more importantly, there are some rules that make this RP work. Like:

1.) All Rifts connect to all other Rifts
	The Rifts magically offer anyone who enters them a choice on where they want to go, so long as their desired location also has a Rift. This means that every Plane can get to every other Plane, so that none of us are prevented from interacting with one another because we're not close enough together on a map

2.) There's no way of traveling throughout the Planes other then the Rifts
	When you step into a Rift, it automatically (and magically) offers you a choice on where to go. As above, this means any other active Rift.

3.) Since the Cataclysm, the magic to create new Rifts has been lost.
	This is to prevent anyone from spreading out into new Planes, so that the focus stays on us interacting with each other rather than trying to expand throughout the extraplanar worlds :

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Magic and Technology:

This is a Medieval Fantasy RP. I'm imagining that the world of Gaia was in the Medieval Ages when we left for the rifts, probably around the equivalent of 12th century Europe. Hoooowever, what happened on the other side of those rifts is up to you. Maybe your people had an Enlightenment as soon as they got there. Or maybe the centuries of isolation have allowed them to forget much of what was once known, slipping them back into antiquity. As a result, I'm allowing tech levels to be from anywhere to the early Iron Age to the very start of the Renaissance. (Guns, however, are a banned tech.)

All that said, I'm just one man, and I can't reasonably research, debate and rule on every technology. So when you fill out your NS, you only need to give me a general idea of what they know. As long as you're not coming at me with machine guns and tanks, or with sticks and stones, it'll probably be chill.

With magic, I'm going to play it by ear.

You can go high or low, from fireballs to simple card tricks, when imagining the magic that your people use. It may be that your Plane lends itself to a particular kind of magic- perhaps you live in a place where there are new gods that empower your wizards in new ways? Or, perhaps, the whole of the Plane seems to make mysticism fizzle out and spells go awry. Maybe the only spell that works in your world is the one that summons pink frogs. Use your imagination and give us something interesting!

-~-~-

The Crossroad and Gaia Now:

The first Rifts, the ones that our people fled into to find their refuge in new Planes, existed in different places all over the world of Gaia. There were dozens, perhaps hundreds, which myriad peoples and races fled into. But, now that they've reopened, our nations will find that there's only one Rift left in Gaia. Any nation who steps into their Rift and sets course for Gaia will find themselves in the same place. Here many peoples will no doubt meet: we call it the Crossroad. A neutral ground. It is a stone courtyard in the midst of a grassy field, nothing else in sight but the hills and a distant forest. 

Which is another odd thing, isn't it? The Cataclysm should have destroyed all life left, and yet, nature still remains. It makes one wonder what else they would find, if they ventured out from the Crossroad.

-~-~-

On Joining and Leaving:

If someone wants to join after the game has already begun, I've decided I'll just say that the Rift leading to their plane has only now opened. Likewise, if someone leaves or goes MIA, we can say the their plane's Rift just shut down as mysteriously as it had reactivated. In this way, the NRP should be able to accept new players whenever, and survive losses without grinding to a halt. It has worked so far for Gateways; here's hoping it'll work here too.

-~-~-

Interested?

Worry not, you don't need to have been in Gateways to play with us here. The NS is below!

Nation Name

(This is probably a good place to insert a flag or other representative image)

Government Form:
(Monarchy? Caliphate? Anarcho-capitalist Republic? Whoever slays the most demons is in charge? Whoever summons the most demons is in charge? Or anything else you can think of.)

Demographics:
Both humans and non-humans welcomed. Be snooty elves and grumpy dwarves if you want. Or throw out that tattered copy of Lord of the Rings you've got lying around and make up something more original.

Population:
I'll admit, population size was hard to come up with in this. There's so many factors! I've decided to go fairly broad, on a rough scale of:
 
1 Million or Less: Small
2-5 Million: Normal
6-12 Million: Large
13 Million or More: Massive)

In cases where your population size is very important to your nation, I am willing to discuss making an exception. (Just not for your Sun Elves, Lady Lascivious.)

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Plane Description: (When your people escaped through the Rift, where did they end up? Is it a flaming inferno inhabited by demons? Is it an earth-like jungle, or a mountainous island chain? What's this place like, and does anything else live there? Let your imagination run wild here)

History: (What happened after you landed on your new plane of existence? This can be as brief or detailed as you like.)

Culture and Society: (How do they live? Anything from ritual cannibals, to matriarchal atheists, to a German-Chinese fusion culture. Religion also goes here! 

This is my favorite section ^-^)

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Governance and Politics: (Like the government form field, but more room for detail. Tell me if your monarchy is slowly being subsumed by the merchant classes. Or, if your people are organized in such a way that they don't even have a government or politics anymore, then this is also a good place to talk about that.)

Technology and Magic: 
(Before you start, please read the Technology and Magic section up above. Done? Aight, go ahead and let your imagination run wild)

Military Overview: (This is the space to talk about any offensive/defensive capabilities you have. Now, keep in mind that our people have all been essentially isolated for 500 years. If you have a huge army, I want to know who it is that you've been fighting all this time to justify having a military that tough. If the answer is "Nobody" then, mis amigo, you shouldn't have the huge army.)

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Additional Info: (Anything else you want to include that there isn't a spot for up there. Little factoids about your nation are both amusing and welcome.)

Also, here's the Discord link!: discord.gg/znnVCxCX

-~-~-

Rules

1.) No godmodding, or controlling other player's characters/nations
	A basic rule in any RP. You know it, you love it.

2.) Cannot fully conquer other player's nations without permission.
	You can go to war with another player. But you will need the a-okay from them before I allow you to completely exterminate/assimilate/remove another nation from the game.

3.) If conflicts cannot be decided, the GM will arbitrate.
	This goes for IC and OOC conflicts. I always prefer for people to work things out mutually. Ideally, everyone can agree about who wins/loses wars, or who has the upper hand in trade, or so on. But if you can't, I'll step in to try playing judge fairly. 

4.) When using concept art for your NS/posts, avoid anime pictures.
	I'll allow some! But I don't want the RP to feel too anime, so try to keep it light. (This one is less of a rule and more of a guideline.)

5.) No way to stop others from entering the Rift into your plane
	You can set up defenses around it, of course. But you can't actually prevent someone from entering their Rift and heading through to yours. You'll just have to stab them when they get there. (This is so that wars and other fun interactions don't just grind to a halt with a player saying "I'm closing my Rift!")

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