Welcome to The Endless Knot, a character RP set on earth in the year 2133. In this RP you will play the role of a one of the few free human survivors in the aftermath of a brutal alien invasion. Five years after the attack, humanity has fled underground where a few small settlements have been established in the tunnels under earth's fallen cities. You will one of the survivors under the city of New York, struggling to survive until one day a new survivor arrives with a far-fetched plan to save humanity (this will happen shortly after the RP starts).
The RP is set in the same universe as the 'Voyages in Andromeda' RP, though there is no requirement for you to have read any of it or even have the faintest idea what it is about. If you happen to have a character in both you will probably pick up a few hints about the other RP but they exist as entirely separate entities.
Finally, this RP is open to latecomers. If you want to join a bit late, we'll just assume you are another random survivor found on the road, who hitches up with the group.
SETTING
The Vanishing of the Destiny and the Wormhole to Andromeda
In 2026, a multi-national mission to mars was launched from Earth on the spaceship, 'Destiny'. The voyage was expected to last 300 days, though on day 104, abruptly and without any prior warning, the ship disappeared. As far as the Governments of Earth were concerned, the Destiny and all her crew were lost. Eventually, it was decided it must have been some kind of mechanical failure, though no sign of the vessel was recovered.
Miraculously, however, a year later a few surviving crew members reappeared between Earth and Mars, piloting a badly damaged though highly advanced alien spaceship. It was through this mission that humanity learned that it was not alone in the Universe. In the nearby Andromeda galaxy a massive war was being fought between alien races including the monstrous, all-devouring 'Ragons'. They also discovered that there was a portal hidden in the solar system, orbiting the sun and hidden to human instruments. The portal was named 'the Wormhole', though in truth nobody knew exactly what it was. In the years following, numerous expeditions were sent to rediscover it with none reporting any success. Over time it came to be believed that, whatever the phenomenon had been, it no longer existed.
The Golden Age of Earth
Over the following century, Earth entered a golden age of scientific enlightenment. While workable faster than light drives eluded earth's scientists, humanity reached to the farthest corners of the solar system, establishing colonies on Mars, Europa, Titan and Enceladus.
The opening of new horizons, however, didn't result in any greater unity for the human species. If anything, the opening of new frontiers only served to fuel old rivalries and divisions between the Nation-states and other human factions. Earth's problems continued to be fought out, but across the solar system rather than on the one planet. Russian and NATO vessels skirmished in deep space. Chinese and Japanese soldiers clashed over land claims on Mars. Brazilian colonists on Titan fought for independence from the Motherland.
The Fall of Earth
On 4 August 2128, however, everything changed. Appearing from the almost-forgotten wormhole came a small fleet of three highly advanced alien vessels which, as it turned out, belonged to the Ragon Empire, one of the races mentioned by the survivors of the Destiny, just over a century earlier. The Ragon had won the war and were here to conquer.
The Nations of Earth scrambled to repel the invasion, for the first time in Earth's history, forming a united front. The Ragon fleet was defeated, with only one ship limping back through the wormhole. The Nations of Earth celebrated. For a week.
The three Ragon ships, it turned out, had only been a scout force. On 11 August 2128, a fleet of just over 100 larger and better armed vessels appeared in the solar system. The fleet of the Nations of Earth was utterly destroyed within the first hour. Within the day all communication with the colonies was lost by the 12th. What happened to the people on those worlds remains a mystery.
The invasion of earth lasted about a month, nobody knows exactly how long. Millions of people were killed, tens of thousands devoured by the invading Ragons. A huge number of surviving humans were taken off-world to an unknown fate, though many more have been corralled into huge farming settlements where the few escapees report humanity have been reduced to livestock, feeding the Ragon army as it continues its rampage across the milky-way. A small number of people evaded capture, fleeing into the remote wilderness or into the tunnels under human cities.
Five Years On
Following on from the initial invasion, the majority of Ragon forces have withdrawn, leaving only a small garrison force to keep the humans under control and a couple of small colonial settlements near the equator.
While most of the soldiers are gone, the Ragon settlers have caused additional problems for the survivors through the introduction of a number of monstrous creatures from their home planet, many of which, along with the Ragon, see humanity as prey. These creatures have spread far beyond the reaches of the Ragon garrisons and can be found anywhere on the planet apart from a few isolated offshore islands.
As for the human survivors themselves. Some cooperate, though not everyone. Some will backstab, betray, murder and steal.
LORE
What is a Ragon?
Homeworld: Unknown. Andromeda Galaxy.
Appearance: Ragons are huge, heavily muscled Reptilian humanoids. The average height of a male is around 4 metres, though females are, averaging 4.5 to 4.8 meters. Ragon skin varies from grey to green. Heads are large and flat with a relatively short muzzle.
The most interesting feature of a Ragon though, is the large prehensile tail which acts as a third arm and is capable of supporting the weight of the Ragon... provided the object they are holding onto can also take the creature's weight.
The Ragons' massive size is their main disadvantage against humans who can evade them in a broken landscape or the ruins of cities.
Biology: The Ragon have an exceedingly long lifespan, though they are slow breeders, partially due to the long gestation period of Ragon young and the fact that only 20% of births produce female offspring. Ragon Females are polyandrous and will each have multiple 'dearling' males serving them.
As a result of being cold blooded, a Ragon tends to focus on a single task. Practically, this means that the Ragon are often seen as silent and brooding (they are not garrulous diplomats) and too many stimuli hitting them at once can lead to sensory overload and poor decision making or reverting to animal instinct during battle. While Ragons are often considered gluttonous, depicted as one minded eating machines but this is not the case. Again, as a result of being cold blooded, a Ragon only needs to eat one large meal per earth week. Live prey is preferred (as it is the freshest), and while they can't 'chew' they have been known to tear large chunks out of living prey to swallow instead of the whole creature.
Ragons have a ‘heat sense’ (similar to that of a pit viper) which allows them to sense minute changes in temperature as infrared rays. This aids in temperature regulation and also in locating warm-blooded prey. Furthermore, their forked tongues are capable of 'stereo taste' where upon it can be flicked to 'taste' the air pick up 'sound'. Which helps in locating prey in the dark.
The thick Scales on a Ragon’s hide, even without body armour can and will absorb numerous hits from human weapons. Even when a shot does penetrate, the huge muscle mass and dense bones make a Ragon much less likely to take a critical injury. While a Ragon may seem ponderous and slow moving compared to humans, they are also phenomenally strong.
History and Society: Little is known about the Ragons apart from the scant intelligence brought back by the Destiny survivors. Their main enemies in the Andromeda Galaxy were the 'Kiellar' and 'Gollar' though, by all reports, these races were destroyed. Their preferred prey species was, a now extinct, species known as a 'Dhasath' which reportedly bore a strong resemblance to a human.
Technology: Ragon Technology is markedly superior to human technology. Their energy weapons can blast through the best body armour designed as if it were tissue paper. Their body armour is all-but impenetrable. Their gunships are fitted with energy shields which make them all-but invulnerable.
Technology in the Ruins of Earth
Ranged Weapons: While the Ragon use energy weapons to deadly effect, these are generally far too heavy for a human to lift. There are plenty of human weapons still scattered about: firearms, ostensibly little changed from those of the 21st century. The 22nd century weapons are generally faster firing and have better penetration than 21st century guns. They can hurt a Ragon trooper but are unlikely to kill one. To actually stand a reasonable chance of killing a Ragon, a survivor will need an anti-material rifle and a lot of luck. Most people find it easier to avoid them.
The most common weapons in circulation are the M26 (an assault rifle with a 30 round magazine that fires a 6.8mm cartridge) and the M7 (a pistol with a 14 round magazine that fires a 5.7mm cartridge).
Melee Weapons: There are plenty of melee weapons in circulation including a small number of Ragon energy blades. While you still need to get close enough to use them, these weapons are prized as they can cut through a ragon hide quite effectively.
Body Armour: Powered armour and other heavy forms of armour existed prior to the war. Generally survivors will avoid using armour as it tends to slow them down, limit visibility and doesn't do anything to stop Ragon energy weapons anyway.
Vehicles: There are plenty of vehicles to be found in the ruins of human cities though most are electric and useless without the infrastructure to keep them powered. There are a few petrol vehicles left around, most of which are old 'classic' vehicles or replicas of them. Some survivors have turned old vehicles into technicals, some of which mount Ragon energy weapons. While these provide mobility and firepower they are rather obvious and tend to draw unwanted attention.
THE RULES
And because it seems important to write these out, here are a few rules for making a better society:
- The People Running the Show I am the OP (surprise!). Harbertia is acting as my Co-OP.
- Decisions
My word and the word of anyone I appoint as a Co-OP (want to be a Co-OP?) is binding. If you don’t like a decision, you can, of course, ask for us to reconsider it. Once. If we made a decision you don’t like, complaining for pages and pages is not going to endear you to anyone. Not me, not the Co-OPs and not your fellow writers.
On that note, I intend to run this thread as an anarcho-communist cooperative. This is an unnecessarily complicated way of saying that my word DOES NOT overrule theirs. If there is an appeal and a dispute amongst the Co-OPs we will take a vote on the matter. - Post Quality
I don’t have a problem with short posts but please use proper spelling (I don’t care what regional variant), grammar etc.
Ideally also try to include a 'hook' when you write a post, which is to say something that gives other people something to respond to. If your post is something along the lines of 'Bilbo Baggins stayed in his room and read a book while the world was ending', don't be surprised if nobody responds to you. - Posting Commitment: Nothing is worse than making an RP only for it to die. Please try to make at least one post every 48 hours or so. If you find yourself unable to post, please let me know in the OOC thread or on Discord. If it looks like you've abandoned a character in the middle of a fight scene I might decide to kill them off if I'm feeling particularly malicious.
- Posting Speed On the flip side, blitz posting can also be infuriating. So, especially during the important scenes, I recommend giving your fellow players a reasonable time to make a reply. We all have real lives. That being said, if someone leaves everyone waiting for over 48 hours, feel free to carry on the scene without them.
- OOC thread Manners
Nothing annoys me more than bad manners on an OOC thread (apart from that 'Look at my horse, my horse is amazing' song). Swearing, passive-aggressive sniping or any other rude behaviour are not welcome on the OOC. I will warn you once. If you can’t control yourself I will ask you to remove yourself from the thread. - IC thread Manners
Remember, we are writing a story together, not playing to win. - Character Death
Player death is possible in this RP, though will be quite rare and easily avoidable. Please don’t write that you have killed another character unless you have OOC permission from the character's owner to do it. Beat them into a pulp or take them prisoner, but don’t kill them. Having said that, if someone does something really stupid, I reserve the right to announce your character has got themselves killed. Likewise, if someone goes inactive in the middle of a fight scene without explanation and cannot be raised, I may decide to kill their character off. - Keep it PG13
Shouldn’t need to be telling you this really but keep the erotica and gorn off the thread. Hopefully you all know how to write forum-safe stuff. I will be extremely disappointed if the mods have to pay us a visit. - Banning Players
I really don’t want to be doing that but reserve the right to do so if you cannot follow the (hopefully, rather simple) rules above.
APPLICATION FORMS
When filling in an application form, please delete everything in parentheses.
We are going to be a little bit strict on weapons as they have the potential to take the story away from a gritty survival story into a comedy about a bunch of frat-boys casually killing all the aliens. The following are examples of things that won't be accepted:
- Weapons that are powerful enough to put the Ragons at a disadvantage in combat.
- Ragon ranged weapons (although you might get one in the story).
- More than one weapon that is better than standard human equipment.
- Weapons using the same experimental tech as someone else's (what are the odds of you both having the only two surviving examples of the Professor McMad's Cat Flinging Trebuchet?). If there is too much experimental tech in general this might get a soft ban until we get a bit more normal equipment appearing.
Character App
- Code: Select all
[box]
[size=150][b]Character Description[/b][/size]
[list][b]Name:[/b]
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Appearance:[/b] [spoiler](Feel free to describe with text or put pictures in here. If you are using a picture, personally, I find it easier to picture a character who is shown in photo/realistic drawing though I'm not going to get funny about anything else. Unless it is your personal stick-man art. I might draw the line at that.)[/spoiler]
[/list]
[b]Equipment[/b]: (Don't get carried away, I don't want to know how many water canteens or tins of beans you have, only special things such as weapons. If you want to invent a gun, mention it here and give a BRIEF description. If I like it I'll add it to the 'ranged weapons' section above)
[hr][/hr][size=150][b]Strengths and Weaknesses[/b][/size]
[list]
[b]Skills[/b]: (What skills do you bring to the New York underground?)
[b]Weaknesses[/b]: (Is there anything your character is really rubbish at? Not essential you put anything in, but can be fun)
[/list]
[hr][/hr][size=150][b]Background:[/b][/size]
[list][b]What did you do before the War[/b]:
[b]What do you do now[/b]:(Are you a mushroom farmer, security guard, excavator, doctor or what?)
[b]Personality:[/b]
[b]Backstory[/b]:(How did you come to be here?)
[/list][/box]
