Heartsteal
That guy who's not around much right now
Before I get to the meaty parts, I'll try to summarize, for those that don't enjoy an extensive read for their prospective roleplays. In the far-flung future, Earth has become an uninhabitable mess after quite a bit of violence, and so humanity left it behind. Now, much later, the enormous ships that we used to populate new worlds have been destroyed, at least three of them anyways, and a new age is beginning.
For those of you that are still here, I hope you enjoy the long version, there will be more to come:
Humanity has lead a bloody existence, always finding a new reason to kill one another, over imagined greatness or conceived superiority, even simply out of hatred for one another. As these wars grew in scale and lethality, we began to imagine new threats, something that might pull all of humanity together, but there was nothing. As things had been for millenia, man, was man's greatest enemy.
Early in the twenty-first century, robotics had, as was speculated for decades prior, seen an enormous surge in advancement and publicity, though it was not entirely what had been expected. Machines did not rise up against their creators, and in fact helped them with every asset of their daily lives. For several years after the initial commercialization of robotics, preeminent expert, Jonah Penner, fought constant accusations and lobbies against modern AIs, being the creator of their framework, and the genius behind the technological revolution.
This time, nearly two decades, from 2026 to 2043, was a time spent on the brink of war between man and machine. While there was no organized military combat, there was instead widespread rioting and looting, as well as numerous murders and assassinations. In the year 2044, in the aftermath of what would later be known as the Iron Crusade, Jonah Penner committed suicide, having lost faith in his life's work, though his meticulous notes and journals continued to advance his field for centuries after his death.
During the Iron Crusade, another significant event was transpiring, a second race to a foreign world, the goal, to land a man on Mars. The Red Race, its track paved in the blood of two covert wars simultaneously, ended in 2042, when the Seraphim Corporation's team, aboard the Gabriel spacecraft, were the first to land on the red planet's surface.
Much later, in the year 2230, a cryptogropher by the name of Talia Verrick, under Seraphim's employ, managed to crack Penner's encryption of his notes, something which had previously been written off as worthless scribbling. What these notes revealed led to Seraphim's extension into the field of Artificial Intelligence, finally outstripping their just as old competitors, Ultraflux, whom had stagnated shortly after their top mind's, Penner's, suicide. These notes percolated into the creation of the personalities which came to be known as: Raziel, Puriel, Adriel, Abaddon, Samael, Ambriel, Ophanim, and Camael. These personalities were installed in the newly founded Archangel Program, aiming to create sustainable housing in orbit around Earth while the first Lunar and Martian colonies were established.
While the Archangel program proved excellent for quite some time, stagnation in development, and incomplete Artificial Intelligence scripting, eventually lead to their cataclysmic downfall, dropping all eight satellites one by one, devastating the Earth's surface in 2825.
In the year 2839, a man by the name of Marcas Suiard, an Irish physicist by all counts, in the most unlikely of ways, discovered the universal field theory, uncovering the means by which mere men could alter the very laws of nature, and bend space to their whim. Unfortunately the process by which they could do this was extremely technical, and even more expensive. Sadly, Suiard never got to see his legacy in action, as he was assassinated a short three months after its completion.
The Suiard Principle became one of the most highly debated topics in modern science, and the possibility of its applications sparked a the third world war. Records of WW III are sparse at best, but it is certain that the fighting was devastating to human population, and reduced Earth's inhabitants, not only humans, by an average of eighty percent. Machines played a prominent role in this war, despite the laws against such measures. This war was not fought with the conventional means of those prior, and involved not only numerous assassinations, but also the kinetic bombardment of enemy territory, even civilian centers with age-old satellites in Earth's orbit.
While the extraterrestrial colonies were left unscathed by this war, surface-side civilizations were ground underfoot by the global war machine. In the aftermath of this slaughter, Earth's nations agreed to a tentative ceasefire, which was shortly thereafter broken as American missiles were prepared for launch. Only perhaps half of the western nation's plethora of inter-continental weapons actually cleared their silos, and perhaps half of those number reached their targets, which had returned fire in kind.
A brief eight months after the third world war, The Final War had begun, though it ended even more quickly than the ceasefire called before it began. Over half of the Earth's landmass had become uninhabitable, and a measly twenty-three percent of the human population remained after the consecutive wars.
As the name implied, The Final War, was the last war on Earth. After this devastating time however, humanity turned to the stars, perhaps for a fresh start, or perhaps to escape the violently reactive envireonment of their homeworld. The several decades following this last war are all but lost to record, as though they had never existed. The fruits of this time on the other hand, stand defiant, and are perhaps the most important accomplishments in human history.
The Seeds, as they'd become known, brought new hope to mankind, that they would be able to start anew, plant their roots, and flourish once more. The colonization vessels, massive, advanced, and capable of not only waging war single-handed, but also capable of conquering an entire world, eliminating any budding civilization, and summarily terraforming the world to the point that it might support human life.
The Berserker King lead the charge, a vessel staffed by what military remained of Earth's population, and armed to the teeth. Carrying with it the enormous S-gates, or Suiard gates for those that remembered the man responsible for their creation, this ship set off ahead of the others, leaving a bread-crumb trail to be followed in its wake, that the following vessels might catch up, and later assist in its duties.
Second came the Dungeoneer, a vessel tasked to maintain the S-gates, and patrol claimed worlds, as well as assisting its predecessor when able.
Third was the Prophet's Fate, prepared to maintain communication between Seeds, and maintain updates on their status, that they might be reclaimed should any fate befall them.
The Vagrant Star was the fourth of these vessels, its goal to seek out new worlds as The Berserker King retired to take up patrol and maintenance tasks similar to the Dungeoneer.
Lastly was the Cartographer, a ship with the sole purpose of documenting every event as it ocurred, and keeping maps of where the Seeds went, and when.
The age of Exodus extended for centuries as mankind established homes across the galaxy, on planets both familiar, and alien. Now, as the Exodus draws to a close, only two of the Seeds remain active, the Berserker King, and the Dungeoneer. First went the Cartographer, struck by an unexpected asteroid, which lead to engine failure, and eventual failure of life support, leaving it a drifting hulk of metal, more tomb than home. Shortly after, the Vagrant Star simply vanished, no trace of it to be found. Lastly, the Prophet's Fate, while seeking out the Vagrant Star alongside the other two surviving vessels, was caught unawares by a deceptively large gravity well. Lacking room to maneuver with the other two Seeds by its side, the ship crashed into the well's owner, a blue giant, though many of the crew managed to evacuate, and resumed their tasks aboard the two surviving vessels.
Now, in this new age, the Seeds are rallying points, not unlike nations adrift in space.
In the year 3602, the common era comes to a close, followed by the New Era, of which this is the first year.
For those of you that are still here, I hope you enjoy the long version, there will be more to come:
Humanity has lead a bloody existence, always finding a new reason to kill one another, over imagined greatness or conceived superiority, even simply out of hatred for one another. As these wars grew in scale and lethality, we began to imagine new threats, something that might pull all of humanity together, but there was nothing. As things had been for millenia, man, was man's greatest enemy.
Early in the twenty-first century, robotics had, as was speculated for decades prior, seen an enormous surge in advancement and publicity, though it was not entirely what had been expected. Machines did not rise up against their creators, and in fact helped them with every asset of their daily lives. For several years after the initial commercialization of robotics, preeminent expert, Jonah Penner, fought constant accusations and lobbies against modern AIs, being the creator of their framework, and the genius behind the technological revolution.
This time, nearly two decades, from 2026 to 2043, was a time spent on the brink of war between man and machine. While there was no organized military combat, there was instead widespread rioting and looting, as well as numerous murders and assassinations. In the year 2044, in the aftermath of what would later be known as the Iron Crusade, Jonah Penner committed suicide, having lost faith in his life's work, though his meticulous notes and journals continued to advance his field for centuries after his death.
During the Iron Crusade, another significant event was transpiring, a second race to a foreign world, the goal, to land a man on Mars. The Red Race, its track paved in the blood of two covert wars simultaneously, ended in 2042, when the Seraphim Corporation's team, aboard the Gabriel spacecraft, were the first to land on the red planet's surface.
Much later, in the year 2230, a cryptogropher by the name of Talia Verrick, under Seraphim's employ, managed to crack Penner's encryption of his notes, something which had previously been written off as worthless scribbling. What these notes revealed led to Seraphim's extension into the field of Artificial Intelligence, finally outstripping their just as old competitors, Ultraflux, whom had stagnated shortly after their top mind's, Penner's, suicide. These notes percolated into the creation of the personalities which came to be known as: Raziel, Puriel, Adriel, Abaddon, Samael, Ambriel, Ophanim, and Camael. These personalities were installed in the newly founded Archangel Program, aiming to create sustainable housing in orbit around Earth while the first Lunar and Martian colonies were established.
While the Archangel program proved excellent for quite some time, stagnation in development, and incomplete Artificial Intelligence scripting, eventually lead to their cataclysmic downfall, dropping all eight satellites one by one, devastating the Earth's surface in 2825.
In the year 2839, a man by the name of Marcas Suiard, an Irish physicist by all counts, in the most unlikely of ways, discovered the universal field theory, uncovering the means by which mere men could alter the very laws of nature, and bend space to their whim. Unfortunately the process by which they could do this was extremely technical, and even more expensive. Sadly, Suiard never got to see his legacy in action, as he was assassinated a short three months after its completion.
The Suiard Principle became one of the most highly debated topics in modern science, and the possibility of its applications sparked a the third world war. Records of WW III are sparse at best, but it is certain that the fighting was devastating to human population, and reduced Earth's inhabitants, not only humans, by an average of eighty percent. Machines played a prominent role in this war, despite the laws against such measures. This war was not fought with the conventional means of those prior, and involved not only numerous assassinations, but also the kinetic bombardment of enemy territory, even civilian centers with age-old satellites in Earth's orbit.
While the extraterrestrial colonies were left unscathed by this war, surface-side civilizations were ground underfoot by the global war machine. In the aftermath of this slaughter, Earth's nations agreed to a tentative ceasefire, which was shortly thereafter broken as American missiles were prepared for launch. Only perhaps half of the western nation's plethora of inter-continental weapons actually cleared their silos, and perhaps half of those number reached their targets, which had returned fire in kind.
A brief eight months after the third world war, The Final War had begun, though it ended even more quickly than the ceasefire called before it began. Over half of the Earth's landmass had become uninhabitable, and a measly twenty-three percent of the human population remained after the consecutive wars.
As the name implied, The Final War, was the last war on Earth. After this devastating time however, humanity turned to the stars, perhaps for a fresh start, or perhaps to escape the violently reactive envireonment of their homeworld. The several decades following this last war are all but lost to record, as though they had never existed. The fruits of this time on the other hand, stand defiant, and are perhaps the most important accomplishments in human history.
The Seeds, as they'd become known, brought new hope to mankind, that they would be able to start anew, plant their roots, and flourish once more. The colonization vessels, massive, advanced, and capable of not only waging war single-handed, but also capable of conquering an entire world, eliminating any budding civilization, and summarily terraforming the world to the point that it might support human life.
The Berserker King lead the charge, a vessel staffed by what military remained of Earth's population, and armed to the teeth. Carrying with it the enormous S-gates, or Suiard gates for those that remembered the man responsible for their creation, this ship set off ahead of the others, leaving a bread-crumb trail to be followed in its wake, that the following vessels might catch up, and later assist in its duties.
Second came the Dungeoneer, a vessel tasked to maintain the S-gates, and patrol claimed worlds, as well as assisting its predecessor when able.
Third was the Prophet's Fate, prepared to maintain communication between Seeds, and maintain updates on their status, that they might be reclaimed should any fate befall them.
The Vagrant Star was the fourth of these vessels, its goal to seek out new worlds as The Berserker King retired to take up patrol and maintenance tasks similar to the Dungeoneer.
Lastly was the Cartographer, a ship with the sole purpose of documenting every event as it ocurred, and keeping maps of where the Seeds went, and when.
The age of Exodus extended for centuries as mankind established homes across the galaxy, on planets both familiar, and alien. Now, as the Exodus draws to a close, only two of the Seeds remain active, the Berserker King, and the Dungeoneer. First went the Cartographer, struck by an unexpected asteroid, which lead to engine failure, and eventual failure of life support, leaving it a drifting hulk of metal, more tomb than home. Shortly after, the Vagrant Star simply vanished, no trace of it to be found. Lastly, the Prophet's Fate, while seeking out the Vagrant Star alongside the other two surviving vessels, was caught unawares by a deceptively large gravity well. Lacking room to maneuver with the other two Seeds by its side, the ship crashed into the well's owner, a blue giant, though many of the crew managed to evacuate, and resumed their tasks aboard the two surviving vessels.
Now, in this new age, the Seeds are rallying points, not unlike nations adrift in space.
In the year 3602, the common era comes to a close, followed by the New Era, of which this is the first year.
SWRD: The oldest of surviving military organizations, Stellar Warfare and Reclamation Divisions are elite military units representing the Seeds and their interests. While quite few in number, SWRD operatives are remarked to be the best trained soldiers in human history, and are armed with the most cutting edge weaponry. While few of the operatives of the fallen Seeds died with their vessels, they no longer perform their duties for said vessels, and have instead been absorbed into the number of Berserker King and Dungeoneer troops. Besides their training and armaments, SWRD operatives also undergo minor genetic modification including an extensive immunization program which makes them immune to nearly all disease and poison, as well as minor physical modification, giving them sharper senses and reflexes, as well as stronger flesh, muscles, and bones.
SWRD is often jokingly referred to as the sober man watching his drunken friends jump about on trampolines.
Agryoneta Aquatica: Officially titled as a scientific research organization, the AgAq borrowed their name from the little known diving bell spider, and are most famous for inventing new terraforming and gene therapy technologies, though these are not their only fields of research. Despite their reputation as upstanding scientific minds, AgAq has often had splinter groups involved in shady dealings.
Universal Collections Guild: The premier bounty-hunting, repossession, and assassination network, the UCG collects various contracts for freelance work, in virtually every field. While there is quite a bit of work involved in collecting these contracts, the UCG collects a portion of the reward. The main employees of the UCG have little to no restrictions on them, and tend to take their contracts in whatever way they see fit, as there are no rules other than those specified in the contract. So influential has this group become, that they now own their own S-Gate.
More are to come.
After nearly a millennium spent on the older colony worlds, human life has begun to evolve, taking on traits unique to their respective homeworlds, and besides this are even people who willingly alter their genetic material, or even replace organic limbs with synthetic ones for naught more than a statement of individuality.
Splicers: The nickname given to those who feel their original human form is inadequate, or simply feel uncomfortable in their own skin. Splicers undergo expensive surgeries to combine DNA from something else into their system, and while this seems like a dream come true to many, it generally shortens the lifespan by a couple decades, weakens the immune system, and requires a steady stream of expensive supplements to maintain the alteration. Without their medication, a splicer can look forward to devolving into little more than a bestial mass of flesh which rapidly falls to pieces both mentally and physically over the course of a couple weeks. This devolution, if medicated partway, often sees a full physical recovery, though mentally there is very little reparation of their sanity.
Modders: A nickname for another group of willing abhumans, Modders optionally sever portions of their own body in order to replace them with prosthetics. While even a human brain can be replaced, it is imperfect, and incapable of producing new ideas, so while it may provide a sort of immortality, the Modder often suffers a deep depression lasting years before they eventually come to the conclusion that killing themselves would be best to avoid the further monotony of cyclical life, and trauma of another temporary death. Prosthetics come in many shapes and forms in the modern age, and the highest priced ones are not only better than the original, but also indistinguishable from it to the common observer.
Frighans: Native to the planet since name Gelidus, Frighans are a human divergent with extremely thick skin and warm blood. So warm are they in fact that they often require a hardsuit outfitted with an advanced cooling system to interact with other human genomes in a "normal" climate. Gelidus is, even after the terraforming, a frigid planet. While at first glance, there might be little reason to settle on Gelidus, below the permafrost is an enormous quantity of radioactive metals such as Uranium and Plutonium. With such radioactive materials, it seems a miracle that the Frighans can survive at all, but for some reason which still has not been properly researched, they are virtually immune to its effects.
As a whole, Frighans have a distaste for superstitions such as luck, and value honesty very highly. With these traits in mind, Frighans make horrid gamblers on the odd occasion that they partake in such activities.
More are to come~
Any questions about the setting can be asked freely below, and I will do my best to get an answer to you as quickly as possible. While this thread is not complete, the idea behind it is, and I am in the gradual process of translating it all to here.
SWRD is often jokingly referred to as the sober man watching his drunken friends jump about on trampolines.
Agryoneta Aquatica: Officially titled as a scientific research organization, the AgAq borrowed their name from the little known diving bell spider, and are most famous for inventing new terraforming and gene therapy technologies, though these are not their only fields of research. Despite their reputation as upstanding scientific minds, AgAq has often had splinter groups involved in shady dealings.
Universal Collections Guild: The premier bounty-hunting, repossession, and assassination network, the UCG collects various contracts for freelance work, in virtually every field. While there is quite a bit of work involved in collecting these contracts, the UCG collects a portion of the reward. The main employees of the UCG have little to no restrictions on them, and tend to take their contracts in whatever way they see fit, as there are no rules other than those specified in the contract. So influential has this group become, that they now own their own S-Gate.
More are to come.
After nearly a millennium spent on the older colony worlds, human life has begun to evolve, taking on traits unique to their respective homeworlds, and besides this are even people who willingly alter their genetic material, or even replace organic limbs with synthetic ones for naught more than a statement of individuality.
Splicers: The nickname given to those who feel their original human form is inadequate, or simply feel uncomfortable in their own skin. Splicers undergo expensive surgeries to combine DNA from something else into their system, and while this seems like a dream come true to many, it generally shortens the lifespan by a couple decades, weakens the immune system, and requires a steady stream of expensive supplements to maintain the alteration. Without their medication, a splicer can look forward to devolving into little more than a bestial mass of flesh which rapidly falls to pieces both mentally and physically over the course of a couple weeks. This devolution, if medicated partway, often sees a full physical recovery, though mentally there is very little reparation of their sanity.
Modders: A nickname for another group of willing abhumans, Modders optionally sever portions of their own body in order to replace them with prosthetics. While even a human brain can be replaced, it is imperfect, and incapable of producing new ideas, so while it may provide a sort of immortality, the Modder often suffers a deep depression lasting years before they eventually come to the conclusion that killing themselves would be best to avoid the further monotony of cyclical life, and trauma of another temporary death. Prosthetics come in many shapes and forms in the modern age, and the highest priced ones are not only better than the original, but also indistinguishable from it to the common observer.
Frighans: Native to the planet since name Gelidus, Frighans are a human divergent with extremely thick skin and warm blood. So warm are they in fact that they often require a hardsuit outfitted with an advanced cooling system to interact with other human genomes in a "normal" climate. Gelidus is, even after the terraforming, a frigid planet. While at first glance, there might be little reason to settle on Gelidus, below the permafrost is an enormous quantity of radioactive metals such as Uranium and Plutonium. With such radioactive materials, it seems a miracle that the Frighans can survive at all, but for some reason which still has not been properly researched, they are virtually immune to its effects.
As a whole, Frighans have a distaste for superstitions such as luck, and value honesty very highly. With these traits in mind, Frighans make horrid gamblers on the odd occasion that they partake in such activities.
More are to come~
Any questions about the setting can be asked freely below, and I will do my best to get an answer to you as quickly as possible. While this thread is not complete, the idea behind it is, and I am in the gradual process of translating it all to here.
Last edited by a moderator:
