Black Dawn [OOC/Info/Interest]

[Scolopendra]

I've been briefed.

[Melkor Unchained]

OP is up. Blarik I isn't as long as I wanted it to be, as I had to take it to the drawing board right before posting since I realized the scene I had been writing before made no sense and the OP had been delayed enough already.

Nadia and Naiya are going to be in each others' company for the next few posts, where Naiya will be the viewpoint character. Nadia II probably won't be posted until they separate.

[Spirit of Hope]

Ok, opening post implies this but its never stated, Did the broadcast affect all communications? Or only TV video feeds? Because if its the first that would change how I was planning on RPing this.

[Melkor Unchained]

Ok, opening post implies this but its never stated, Did the broadcast affect all communications? Or only TV video feeds? Because if its the first that would change how I was planning on RPing this.

Good question.

The attack itself will have obviously interrupted all (or at least the wide majority of) media broadcasts currently in progress; the extent of the attendant technical (communications, tracking, remote surveillance, etc) damage is generally up to the player but should be understood to be widely disruptive for at least a few minutes--before, during, and after the broadcast. Feel free to have your characters assume that this component of the attack was calculated simply to show everyone what the attacker(s) are capable of.

Some notes about the attack:

• Whatever hit was gone as quickly as it showed up and left little trace
• The virus' actions will have been logged by monitoring programs/stations and the like, but what little code corruptions remain are of an unknown format and language
• There is no identifiable "calling card" or any other embedded messages/threats for investigators as yet
• Considering the properties of the attack, it's very possible that punches were pulled and it could have done a lot more damage

Posts should take place that night or the following morning, as an event will transpire in Naiya II that will be of additional concern to involved parties.

[Guinerre]

Hoping it's not too late to join! I typed this up last night but the forums ate it.

Guinerre is a nation poised halfway between democracy and dictatorship, following the Revolution which threw out the monarchy sixty years ago. It combines high technology and highly urban coastal cities with a trackless hinterland occupied by tribes barely out of the bronze age. The capital is Ardene, midway along the western coast.

Guinerre's technology is PMT at best - they possess SSTO spaceplanes and interplanetary nuclear rockets, but the cost of getting stuff into orbit prohibits war in space. The Directorate Space Command operates a station in Earth orbit and the Distributed Array Radio Telescope (DART) facility on the far side of the Moon. The handful of spacecraft are unarmed and unarmoured.

Magic exists and is practiced in Guinerre, but has been in turn regarded as witchcraft, shamefully un-modern, counter-revolutionary, or merely shady. The burning of the Library of Ardene during the Revolution cut the Directorate's mages off from fifteen thousand years of magical scholarship and history, while societal disapproval and the demand for strict licensing for practicing magicians have pushed it, for the most part, underground. Despite the best efforts of the Directorate Security Agency's mage corps, Guinerre is woefully unprepared for supernatural conflict.

Below are the major political players in Guinerre; more characters will no doubt be added as I flesh out the governors, generals, troops, and other assorted NPCs of the Directorate. I'll email you as to which ones may die.

Director-General Kail Agravin Soren is Guinerre's head of state, confirmed by the Assembly on a wave of nationalist and patriotic sentiment that is now beginning to ebb. War against a supernaturally evil demigod would seem to be a good way to recover popularity … provided it works. The great-grandson of revolutionary leader Kail Agralant Soren, grandson of (in)famous DSA Director Kail Achernar Soren, and son of professor of political science Kail Chiron Soren, Kail Agravin's family history is either one of heroic nation-building or tyrannical oppression, depending on who you ask.

Consul-General Sorcha Keraint is Kail's elected counterpart, and often at odds with the Director-General; she has decried his appointment and confirmation as the beginning of a new dynasty. Sorcha's ruling Union Party clashes with the opposition Guinerran National Front, hardline supporters of the Directorate government. She is likely to oppose conflict, either on its own grounds or to score political points in the Assembly.

Queen-in-exile Yvae I of the House of Artorius is the absolute monarch of the Grail Kingdom of Guinerre, which is currently limited to the city of Ankerre, several hundred kilometers down the coast from Ardene. Sixty years after the Revolution, Ankerre is a flourishing tax haven, a royalist Taiwan or Monaco in the belly of Guinerre. Yvae's father, Marius V, was killed several years ago by Guinerran commandos after the DSA discovered that he was sponsoring a terrorist network in the Directorate; that the Directorate then sold the Summer Palace back to the House of Artorius at an extortionate price did not soften the blow. As a result the young queen harbors an outstanding grudge against Guinerre, and would welcome the chance to avenge sixty years of anti-monarchist sentiment.

Lord Regent Giraut Hale holds the reins of power in Ankerre - at least for the next three years, when Yvae comes of age and formally takes the throne. Rather more pragmatic than his ward, Giraut does not welcome war with Guinerre, as the city-state is rather unlikely to do well should the armistice between royalist and directorate break.

Archmage Nereith the Quiet is the current occupant of Isrenhaut, the House of Forever - a magical fortress empowered by twenty-five thousand continuous years of ritual. Isrenhaut's wards prevent it from being taken by force, and as a result the House of Forever is a semi-sovereign microstate nestled in the foothills of Guinerre's coastal mountains. As Guinerre's most powerful mage, Nereith forms a major part of the nation's supernatural defenses - at least for that part of the nation within striking distance of Isrenhaut. She is considered worryingly royalist by the Directorate, but is largely unconcerned with politics.

Kalithras the Glittering has been the greatest supernatural threat to Guinerre for the past five thousand years, which is barely out of one's teens in dragon terms. Vain, arrogant, petty, and still holding grudges against civilizations which fell thousands of years ago, Kalithras would be a major destructive force should he be coaxed out of his lair, the volcano of Kalinyr on Guinerre's northern border. His last rampage, however, was in 1845, and he has not been seen outside Kalinyr since 1933. Plans were drawn up in the 1960s to nuke Kalinyr, but were shelved due to concerns that the dragon would survive it. Guinerre remains one of the few nations in the world where one can purchase dragon insurance.

[United World Order]

I'l be joining so i can get a feel for making long long posts and to make some relations if thats even possible

Im currently working on a character that il have up on this OOC Thread very very soon.

[United World Order]

Holy Overlord Uri Maserati


Holy Overlord Uri Maserati is the current leader of The United Imperial Order, He is a very strong willed male and is growing old and will soon pass from old age. He came to power after years of oppression from a Reptilian dictator who ruled the planet straight out of a revolution because there kind were minorities and strongly segregated from the population.

Uri enlisted as an Imperial Trooper when the genocide of his people began, Many battles were fought by both sides killing thousands maybe even millions. The war lasted 12 years and Uri had been recently promoted to Space Colonel. He was also a popular politician and took control after several assassinations were done on his rivals.

He was sworn into office and brought back what many though was dead, National Socialism was longed cursed in the early stages of the home planet several wars had occurred because of it. He brought it back and modified it and the people loved it even though most of it was propaganda.
Uri is now 200 years old and it is said he will soon perish from his old age, He has sworn that he would expand his empire across the galaxy before he dies and has increased military funding and has funded several military projects that involve Robotics, The Robotic SS were created because of Uri and his love for the Galactic SS that were the elite of the Old Galactic Union that ruled his home planet before the Reptilians destroyed them.

[Melkor Unchained]

Had to whip this up for my next post, figured I'd share it:



This map shows the timezones of Arda. As you can see, she's a big'un. The timezones are labelled 1-10 because it was how I started and I'm too lazy to redo it (again), but Timezone 4 is our equivalent of GMT since it contains the capital (the black dot). The teal dot in timezone 2 is Fort Lannistar. The orange dot in timezone 6 is Arnesk, and the blue one below it is Ali'Staan. The bright pink dot is Xingu's capital, Mahzhong. The attack will have been timed to interrupt the morning news in Xingu, which means it's around 2200 at Fort Lannistar when shots are fired.

All PC posts should occur between this post and my next; if you have something written but aren't sure you can get it up in time let me know, but I have a lot of work to do for this so it might still be a few days before that happens--don't feel rushed.

Also, Butmanlands, I need you to develop more the reasons why your government would give a wet fart (no offense) about the situation in Xingu and explain why their first reaction is to send specops. I know I okayed your involvement on those terms in a general sense, but they need to be fleshed out a little lot more. I also need you to consider that if you're outside sol, the broadcast of the shooting hasn't reached you yet, as there's been something of a general (especially FTL) comms blackout in Sol. I can only assume that your government wouldn't know about this until FTL comms in sol are once again made operational.

[Butmanlands]

Had to whip this up for my next post, figured I'd share it:

(Image)

This map shows the timezones of Arda. As you can see, she's a big'un. The timezones are labelled 1-10 because it was how I started and I'm too lazy to redo it (again), but Timezone 4 is our equivalent of GMT since it contains the capital (the black dot). The teal dot in timezone 2 is Fort Lannistar. The orange dot in timezone 6 is Arnesk, and the blue one below it is Ali'Staan. The bright pink dot is Xingu's capital, Mahzhong. The attack will have been timed to interrupt the morning news in Xingu, which means it's around 2200 at Fort Lannistar when shots are fired.

All PC posts should occur between this post and my next; if you have something written but aren't sure you can get it up in time let me know, but I have a lot of work to do for this so it might still be a few days before that happens--don't feel rushed.

Also, Butmanlands, I need you to develop more the reasons why your government would give a wet fart (no offense) about the situation in Xingu and explain why their first reaction is to send specops. I know I okayed your involvement on those terms in a general sense, but they need to be fleshed out a little lot more. I also need you to consider that if you're outside sol, the broadcast of the shooting hasn't reached you yet, as there's been something of a general (especially FTL) comms blackout in Sol. I can only assume that your government wouldn't know about this until FTL comms in sol are once again made operational.

Wouldn't it be picked up by a long range army space station? Just guessing. And they would care because they wouldn't know a lot about you or your enemies replacements. Thats why they would send in some of the best to investigate both the shooting and your goverment. (if you still don't like it Tg me ASAP and i will delete it)

[Melkor Unchained]

Wouldn't it be picked up by a long range army space station?

I'm not sure I follow. The broadcast of the shooting won't be particularly hard to pick up, it's the transmission of said information from Sol to your country that is the real limitation here. There shouldn't be m/any FTL comms leaving Sol at the moment.

And they would care because they wouldn't know a lot about you or your enemies replacements. Thats why they would send in some of the best to investigate both the shooting and your goverment. (if you still don't like it Tg me ASAP and i will delete it)

Fair enough, but consider again how far removed you are from Arda/Sol. If this is your government's line of reasoning that's fine, but it should be explained ICly. Nations (both IRL and ICly) don't necessarily require good reasons to send people to combat/war, but I need you to be explaining more of how your characters think and why they're doing what they're doing.

Let me put it this way: since I'm GMming this like the tyrant I am, people don't have to worry as much as they usually do about overplaying their hand. Sometimes people are vague with their posts because they don't trust the reader(s) to separate IC/OOC, but that's not something I plan on tolerating here.In general I want the players to explain their characters' actions and motivations more thoroughly than was done in your post. I'm going to try my best to enforce a high standard of posting, and your first was well below it. You don't have to write a book or anything (and I don't want readers to be put off/intimidated by my and Nathi's occasionally ginormous* scenes) but I'm going to need more/better material from you if I'm going to let your arc continue.

* - How awesome is it that 'ginormous' is recognized by the word filter?

[Melkor Unchained]

Posting this separately since it's more of an announcement and I don't want Butmanlands to think I'm talking to him specifically:

In general, the numbers of reserved/main characters has run a little on the high side. A lot of players are coming to me with a party of 3-6, of which 2-3 'can't die.' I can't work with that. I'm mulling whether to reduce the allotted number to one protected character per player, or to scrap the policy entirely and make everyone killable. One of these two things will probably happen, so if you've given me a list that has more than one protected character on it, be thinking about who you'll (potentially) be throwing to the wolves and who your One True Main would be should I choose to go that route.

Remember again that I don't/wont generally demand any specific character death, and even those marked as killable--assuming the distinction remains--won't necessarily die, depending on their actions. Most likely, the only time I will come to a player and say "I think this character needs to die" is if s/he has blundered into a trap, or has made a particularly critical maneuvering (political or otherwise ) error or the like.

So yeah, that's that. To be honest if you put a gun to my head right now and made me choose I'd make everyone killable, for the simple reason that I don't want players to (deliberately?) under-develop characters who are 'marked' for possible death. I'll mull it over while I'm writing my next couple scenes and get back to you guys.

EDIt: Oh, and signups are still open. I'll be closing them (for this arc at least) after another couple of posts, but there will be various windows throughout the chronicle during which new players can join.

[The Lords of War]

Melkor, I would has this out in IRC but I'm being tired and lazy.

First, may I ask that we have at least one 'non' kill character? With an additional rule that they can not be 'front line'? By that designation, I mean people who are not being sent into the situation ( but the situation may roll over them anyway) by their players.

Actually everyone in my posts right now is either front line or just a walk on part.

And the second item should be dealt with on IRC really...

[Melkor Unchained]

Melkor, I would has this out in IRC but I'm being tired and lazy.

First, may I ask that we have at least one 'non' kill character? With an additional rule that they can not be 'front line'? By that designation, I mean people who are not being sent into the situation ( but the situation may roll over them anyway) by their players.

I don't want to bog down players with too many character restrictions/rules/limitations, and I feel more and more like the story will require more intellectual and emotional investment from the players if they have to actually be careful to keep their favorite characters alive. I also worry (as I hinted above) that players will be only naturally inclined to develop their protected mains the most, and I don't want that. Hopefully all/most characters can be good, but I don't want all the best/sympathetic/most developed ones to be Mains Who Never Die. I want character death to mean something to the reader.

Full disclosure here: Arda has no protected characters save possibly Alkanphel (who we haven't met yet), and even then only because I pulled a cheese-O move a few years ago where I killed him and brought him back a la Gandalf (and via the same means). I worry that protected characters will have a negative impact on the story overall--I'm like 75% sure now I want to eliminate them altogether. If PCs don't want their characters to die, they should be smart with them.

EDIT: In general, a character's survival will depend on their combat and/or Daes Dae'Marr prowess, and I can't have a whole bunch of characters in the story that are insanely good at one or both. As usually happens with these sorts of parameters, there will be a character or two that is better at one or both of these things than most of the rest. Having an ensemble of protected characters basically means that they will have to make all (or mostly) the right moves to survive, and that would drastically impact the gravity of the story.

EDIT2: If I institute Universal Mortality, I realize that to be a good GM I should make characters that much harder to kill, or else (obviously) players feel like they never got a chance. The policy would mean or at least heavily suggest that I will eventually kill someone, or failing that at least create a reasonable enough risk that it was highly likely--if everyone makes it through unscathed that's fine, as long as the percentages are there.

[Almajoya]

Yay, signups are still open! (I think.) I'd love to join, if that's ok, Melkor. As someone said on the first page, I've always wanted to thread with you and Nathi (and I kind of did, way back in the day, in a sort of oblique way). I'd use my PMT/FT/Fantasy nation, Antemyst.

According to canon, Antemyst has holdings in a distant system called Cyrna; three planets are colonized by Antemyst, and the others were sold by Antemyst to other nations. Two of the three planets have little in the way of population, as they are barely habitable and are used mostly for resources, though the one that is has the bulk of Antemyst's population. But Cyrna is so distant that I don't see it coming into play for a long time, unless Antemyst needs more ships, and in any case I'm open to editing these details.

More details about characters and such coming to you by TG.

And as a side note, regarding the population business: Almajoya supposedly has nearly 5 billion people now. Since Almajoya is an island twice the size of Jamaica, I RP a population of about 1.5 billion, most of which now live on a separate planet (in Cyrna). I for one don't care that there are nations younger than mine that can RP a larger population than I do. I'm about realism; I can't fit 5 billion people on two Jamaicas and a recently colonized planet.

Not trying to start an argument or insult anyone, though; I just wanted to give my opinion (as I so often do).


Edit: Antemyst has two planets, not three. There might be a third, I'll have to dig through my notes, but if there is, it's insignificant enough that it doesn't matter. Also, here's an old but helpful factbook for Antemyst.

[Kajal]

This will sound silly, but I didn't remember to save the TG I sent you with the characters I was going to use in it, nor can I remember everyone's names.

This mostly means that the characters I have introduced are really the "main" ones as is, since I could actually remember them, so just rolling with them will most likely work, also since aside from Lirella, they're not terribly well developed in comparison.

That said, could you ping me with the TG I originally sent with the character list? I'm thinking I'd like to at least re-use the names at some point, since I don't think I'm really going to use all of them anymore. xD

[Scolopendra]

Good job there, Kajal.

[Melkor Unchained]

As per this post, things are beginning to normalize in Arda/Sol and FTL comm traffic should return to normal pretty soon (feel free to have it happen in your posts; more distant nations can react now with more perfect/any information etc.) I'm not sure yet how quickly news of the crash will spread, as it will likely depend on the actions of various characters.

[Antemyst]

Hey guys, sorry about the lack of post. I found myself unexpectedly without internet yesterday. But I did write most of my post on my phone; now I just have to retype it here. Fun stuff. But anyway, post coming in the next few hours.

[Midlonia]

Tiny detail bothering me and I know our fearless GM is aware of it... but I'm going to point it out.

This is most likely my own darn fault for not making it clearer in my own IC post.

Naiya D'Aquisto is not within the 47 seconds of footage broadcast to everyone. Only the Crown Prince Edward is and is, as like all Ardan Monarchs leading from the front.

Naiya was many, many miles away in a seperate military base which also came under attack during the rough time frame of the broadcast (and a lot either side of it). I don't RP any details beyond "She was also attacked" because most of my eye in the sky intel stuff is now on the fritz.

The footage, you guys have no doubt read, seen, which is first mentioned in my post is actually a second, seperate video which is drawn from The Southron hookah lounge, and this post in particular in which Nayia a little clumsily lays her hand on Edward's leg, then gets up to leave, they go off to do the horizontal rumba, and thus the rumours are born. I did this little bit with Nathi and Melkor's permission to check I wasn't overstepping any bounds of intel gathering etc.

It's obviously confused some a little, I should've written it clearer etc. My bad, totally sorry.

[Melkor Unchained]

Tiny detail bothering me and I know our fearless GM is aware of it... but I'm going to point it out.

This is most likely my own darn fault for not making it clearer in my own IC post.

Naiya D'Aquisto is not within the 47 seconds of footage broadcast to everyone. Only the Crown Prince Edward is and is, as like all Ardan Monarchs leading from the front.

Naiya was many, many miles away in a seperate military base which also came under attack during the rough time frame of the broadcast (and a lot either side of it). I don't RP any details beyond "She was also attacked" because most of my eye in the sky intel stuff is now on the fritz.

The footage, you guys have no doubt read, seen, which is first mentioned in my post is actually a second, seperate video which is drawn from The Southron hookah lounge, and this post in particular in which Nayia a little clumsily lays her hand on Edward's leg, then gets up to leave, they go off to do the horizontal rumba, and thus the rumours are born. I did this little bit with Nathi and Melkor's permission to check I wasn't overstepping any bounds of intel gathering etc.

It's obviously confused some a little, I should've written it clearer etc. My bad, totally sorry.

Oh snap!

Yeah this is my fault for not making clear. You're right about one thing and wrong about another: Naiya does not appear in the footage, but she is understood to be in the same room. Both Naiya and Edward were at Fort Lannistar at the time, attending an officer's dinner.

[Antemyst]

"I was able to identify the subjects in the video," Melisma said. "The target in the video is Crown Prince Edward, and according to reports, Naiya D'Aquisto was present as well, off-camera. They are the successors to Arda and the Dominion, respectively. The assassins all appear to be Xingu. There's been a rebellion growing among that group, which could explain the shooting, and possibly the virus. Will you check on that, Shawn?"

That's my edit, does it suit? I'm woozy off cold meds and everything feels like rainbows.

[Midlonia]

Tiny detail bothering me and I know our fearless GM is aware of it... but I'm going to point it out.

This is most likely my own darn fault for not making it clearer in my own IC post.

Naiya D'Aquisto is not within the 47 seconds of footage broadcast to everyone. Only the Crown Prince Edward is and is, as like all Ardan Monarchs leading from the front.

Naiya was many, many miles away in a seperate military base which also came under attack during the rough time frame of the broadcast (and a lot either side of it). I don't RP any details beyond "She was also attacked" because most of my eye in the sky intel stuff is now on the fritz.

The footage, you guys have no doubt read, seen, which is first mentioned in my post is actually a second, seperate video which is drawn from The Southron hookah lounge, and this post in particular in which Nayia a little clumsily lays her hand on Edward's leg, then gets up to leave, they go off to do the horizontal rumba, and thus the rumours are born. I did this little bit with Nathi and Melkor's permission to check I wasn't overstepping any bounds of intel gathering etc.

It's obviously confused some a little, I should've written it clearer etc. My bad, totally sorry.

Oh snap!

Yeah this is my fault for not making clear. You're right about one thing and wrong about another: Naiya does not appear in the footage, but she is understood to be in the same room. Both Naiya and Edward were at Fort Lannistar at the time, attending an officer's dinner.

Double snap!

My bad. Was unaware you dumped posh looking villas in frozen hell military bases

[Melkor Unchained]

Oh snap!

Yeah this is my fault for not making clear. You're right about one thing and wrong about another: Naiya does not appear in the footage, but she is understood to be in the same room. Both Naiya and Edward were at Fort Lannistar at the time, attending an officer's dinner.

Double snap!

My bad. Was unaware you dumped posh looking villas in frozen hell military bases

I may have referred to the structure as a "villa" somewhere ICly but it's not particularly upscale; the shooting will have taken place at the on-base residence of one of the unit's higher-ups. Nothing fancy, but nice enough to hold public or private events.

@Antemyst:
"The assassins all appear to be Xinguese."

[Antemyst]

/facepalm

I shall correct shortly.

BTW Melk, did you get my long-ass TG?

[Melkor Unchained]

Yeah, I did. It looks good in the hood to me.

Also, just a heads up to everyone: My paternal grandfather died on Sunday afternoon, and I'll be going out of state for the funeral tomorrow--I may not even get started on my next post until this weekend. I'll be thinking about what happens off-camera in the meantime, but I wouldn't expect much (maybe Naiya III--maybe) before this time next week.

Some things to remember for your next post:

• Even though he hasn't appeared in the text, Konrad has been busy off-camera. As per Midlonia's latest post, he has ordered all foreign military units back to their respective bases and had them confined to quarters. I believe right now I only have the one player with (legitimate) military assets on the ground in Arda, so I don't know as this order will affect anyone else overmuch.
• Don't move too fast. Consider how much time it will take to get everything humming again (shouldn't take more than a post or two, though) and that the situation may change by the time you get people/react to goings-on in Xingu. Use the time to develop and explain your characters or describe commentary from your nation.
• No military action seems to have accompanied the comms disturbances. Whatever was done to communications seems to have been done with the intent of controlling the flow of information.
• Don't react to the crash of Nadia's shuttle yet.

@Valinon: I like your post, but remember what we talked about re: non-involved players. If your backstory relies on them that's fine, but remember that those are going to just be flavor references unless the nations mentioned in your post joined the RP.

Everything looks good so far guys, keep it up!