The year is 3001 AU (After Unification). The Empire that once spanned the entirety of the Milky Way is in decline. Emperor Hadrian IV is an old man, on his deathbed and unable to impose his will on the Galaxy. Dukes and Barons have asserted their de facto independence and ignore orders from the imperial center. Barbarians invade and pillage worlds in the Outer Rim. Piracy is flourishing even in the Mid-Rim. The Imperial Guards seem unable to impose order. Even worse, the Order of the Thousand Suns has fractured and a cult of evil sorcerers is threatening to plunge the Galaxy into a state of civil war.
Will the Empire fall and our Galaxy descent into an era of barbarity and depravity or shall it be restored to its former glory and reign for another thousand years?
Welcome to the Tales of the Dark Ages (TotDA for short). TotDA is a character role-play in a science fantasy setting that aims to give to players wide freedom of choice and narrative while crafting interesting stories and characters.
The Empire is galaxy-spanning institution that was build by humans over thousands of years of colonization and conquest. The Ecumenopolis - a city covering the entirety of the planet's surface - is its capital. No one knows the name of the planet anymore; only the city matters. At the center of the Empire is the Emperor, an absolute ruler who governs his realm with the aid of the Imperial Court. The Court is comprised of nobles, men whose families were rewarded with titles of nobility by the early Emperors of the Empire. The Emperor enforces his will with the strength of the Imperial Guards, the imperial military which remains the most powerful war machine in the Galaxy, and the wisdom of the Order of the Thousand Suns, a cult of sorcerers devoted to the worship of the Emperor and pursuing of magical powers.
Due to its enormous size, the Empire is highly decentralized. Outside of the Core Worlds, the planets of the Empire are ruled by hereditary Dukes and Barons. Those noble lords maintain their own militaries and rule as de facto independent monarchs. When the imperial center was prospering and the Emperors had the strength to impose their will, the nobles were kept in check. Now, however, with a weak old man on the throne and a bureaucracy that has grown wasteful, corrupt and inefficient, the central government is unable to impose any checks on the nobility. Not only Dukes and Barons openly disobey commands from the center, but the Imperial Peace is shattered by wars between rival nobles who attempt to grab nearby systems and grow in power.
Economic destitution, wars between nobles and the inability of the Imperial Guards to enforce peace have driven many daring young men and women to become pirates. Now those space pirates have become the scourge of space travel, raiding traveling vessels and even looting entire worlds. The phenomenon has spread to such an extend that regional militaries - and even the Imperial Guards - struggle to battle against pirates.
Even worse, a cult of evil sorcerers has emerged. The Order of the Night was borne out of sorcerers conducting illegal experiments in the dark arts. Overtaken by demonic spirits, those sorcerers have come to reject the established structure of the Empire and instead wish to become Gods among men, pursuing personal power regardless of the costs to human life.
The internal troubles of the Empire have invited outside aggression. From their home planets in the Outer Rim, Orcs (called Barbarians by the Imperials) are invading and pillaging imperial worlds in the Outer Rim. Some of them have launched raids even in Mid-Rim worlds, inflicting terrible defeats upon the Empire. If they are not stopped, the Empire may soon for the first time in its history lose control of the entirety of the Outer Rim.
Starships are able to use FTL engines to travel across the Galaxy. Starships are usually classified as racers, fighters, cruisers, frigates and capital-class warships. Artificial gravity generators make space travels safer and easier than in the past. Ships are often loaded with turrets, firing laser bolts and armor piercing projectiles. Frigates have tens of turrets while Capital-Class warships have hundreds. Imperial Fighters are 29 feet (8.7m) in length and equipped with two forward-firing turrets firing 30mm, armor piercing projectiles.
Modifications (Mods, for short) have flourished. Through cybernetic implants, humans can acquire several advantages, including; greater hearing, greater physical prowess, replacing lost limbs, greater stamina, etch. While Mods provide advantages, their high cost and the health risks involved - both during their installation process and in maintaining them - means that only three kinds of people have them: the upper class, elite troopers of the Imperial Guards and those who trade in the black market.
Humans:
Is'in:
Elves:
Orcs:
Robots:
Undead:
Nobles:
Imperial Guards:
Militants:
Sorcerers:
Pirates:
Barbarians:
Professionals:
One of the reasons many character RPs die, is because players reach a point where they do not know what to write or where to move next. The aim of Quests is to rectify this by providing players from time to time with quests they must deal with. Quests can be as simple as 'you are ordered by your Commander to lead an attack against the pirates of Sector X' to as complex as finding lost artifacts or putting down a revolt. In order to avoid railloading players to a predetermined narrative, players will have the freedom to choose how they want to deal with quests or can even ignore them altogether (this, at times, will have negative consequences however). Players will also determine if they succeed or fail; indeed, sometimes players may wish to purposefully fail a quest for narrative reasons or because succeeding would go against to how they envision their character.