Topic: [CoA] Chronicles of Auralon *Bring it*

[SimplyNecro]

Before anyone says anything, I was at College about to majorly fail an important subject and had only one more chance to save myself. I had devote alot of time to it and have succesully dodged a bullet so to speak.

I know we have tried resurrecting Spore RP’s before. I know they have failed. So I want to try one more time. And I want to try something completely different. *Sigh* The hard Sci-Fi people are going to freaking put my neck on a guillotine.

The Chronicles of Auralon

“In the beginning, there once existed a great race Sky-Giants. With their intellect, technology, and sheer might they carved a great empire across the four corners of the world. From the jungles of the east, to the plains of the south to mountains in the north, no region was left untouched by them. Gods they where…

And then they vanished…

How did this happen? The scholars and intellectuals debate endlessly about that. Some say they destroyed themselves in war, but then someone else points out that their cities, while in ruins, lack the trappings of damages caused by war; indeed, they look more like the Giants just up and left. Some say that some great and horrible plague killed them all, but then someone points out that while Sky-Giant remains have been exhumed, there is just not enough evidence to suggest that disease was what done them in. And then of course the Order of the Pure has a conniption and blames it all on “The Evils of Magic and Witchcraft” and eventually go on a tangent on how an evil group of Giants sinfulness of practicing sorcery and magic doomed their entire race.

Personally, I don’t listen to all that mumbo-jumbo, because right now partner, we are sitting in the middle of some type of Sky-Giant treasury or something… and where gonna be freaking rich!”

-Vok-Tara: Relic Hunter

So basically what is this new revamp I’m suggesting? Well, we have tried countless times to resurrect the spore rp’s in the same old sci-fi universe. The Novus Cluster tried to make it so they could avoid the ridiculous back story the main universe. The Alpha Cluster tried to heavily lower the tech level and place more emphasis on politics and exploration of the unknown. Kosmosis was a general revamp that failed, and others I’m probably forgetting. So I got this idea while playing RAGE and occasionally looking at Warhammer fantasy miniatures and from UFO King’s Yerxe thread and got the thought to see if we could start a new “Spore” RP in a type of Medieval/Fantasy/Post Apocalyptic world.

Of course there are a few things that need to be discussed now, while the rest can probably be settled later…

The World and The Sky Giants:

If you haven’t figured it out yet, Auralon is one planet basically inspired by your average Fantasy Setting, (countless creatures, both sapient and non sapient exist alongside each other). This isn’t Sagan 4, the echosystem is balanced enough and we’ll leave it at that. If we could make a monster manual, we could easily fill it up with countless crazy beasts.

Now, the kicker to all this is that Auralon is actually Earth and the Sky Giants where Humans (Common-Folk call them Sky Giants, the educated call them Humans. And the reason Humans gained the nickname “Sky-Giants” was because apparently where much taller than we originally thought. A full grown Photos would only reach up to a just above a Humans kneecap. This is subject to change if no one really wants this.)

As said before the Humans of Earth supposedly disappeared long ago, leaving behind nothing but their ruined cities and remnants of their ancient technology (Said cities look like the early episodes of Life after People). Why this happened is a complete mystery, and everyone has an opinion. Said cities are full of countless artifacts (What counts as an “artifact” is subjective) that people will pay big money for.

Races

Diving into CoA with a race would be an easy thing, you could make a new one if you wished or you could bring in an old one and give them a Fantasy paint job (Heck I would subtly encourage this for the sake of nostalgia).

Like the mystery of the Sky-Giants, the appearance of all these races on Earth is also an unknown. For the answer, go visit your local priest, I’m sure he or she will be happy to teach you your creation myth . (You can allude to the fact that your race may have come on an ancient colony ship or something, BUT you are not allowed to have 100% accurate knowledge of your origins or access to any of your advanced technology. It all got destroyed or something)

Making your history is hardly a problem, by the time any of our races started developing a civilization, the Sky-Giants are already long gone, and whatever event caused Earth to change so radically has long passed. (The event I mentioned is some form of subtle cataclysm or radical change that caused Earth to become like this)

Now, seeing as this is Earth, I suppose that means most types of super alien races (biologically I mean) are kind of at a disadvantage or out of the question… so I would see why some people would be turned off by that…

Also, NO. TERRITORY. MAPS. Not now. Just name the general region your civilization inhabits and leave it at that. For my two cents though, we should all start somewhere in Europe, Asia, or Africa, and then later we can open up the Americas and other places.

Technology

Technology is at medieval levels, perhaps borderline renaissance with minor elements of steam-punk. Little to no magi-tech.

Human technology (electrical generators, motors, ect) are considered artifacts that no one has capacity to replicate. However, there are people who specialize in getting said artifacts working again.

Fantasy Gun Control is in effect. Cannons, and maybe tactical flintlocks and primitive rifles are ok, magic powered rockets are way too out there… And no nukes. Basically, when the giants disappeared they apparently took most of their working weapons with them...

Technological sterility could be attributed to elements of magic and perhaps minor overdependence on salvage.

Magic

Oh boy, here’s the big one…

Being I like fantasy, and I like magic in my fantasy, I want magic. I don’t want low fantasy where there’s some small council of players gets to decide how much magic’s aloud. So for my two cents, I think we should use a combination of Dragon Age/Warhammer/DnD rules for magic. In other words, the general theme of magic should be that power demands sacrifice and that it easily corrupts people (We can go into more detail later). So any type of race or Order with a knights templar “Kill/leash all mages” attitude is at least partially justified.

In other words, magic is available to everyone, but it’s not a casual thing.

Also humans did use magic. So you can actually look at this as a “Life After People” Superpower world rather than modern Earth.


So yeah, go ahead and strike me or something, I’m ready for you. This was just a thought I had and I happen to like it…

If enough interest is shown, I think we can start off with an RP about a group of Relic Hunters going to Washington DC or New York and searching for artifacts.

Also, if you are interested, please, please, post a suggestion, start a discussion, ask a question, make a complaint, or something. Don't just post "I'm interested" and leave. That doesn't do anything for my confidence or attention span

[Crazen]

trying to revive this world failed about five times.


but this...actually appeals to me, to my surprise. the graid are already half fantasy, what with sleeping elder gods and shamanistic abilities. hell, this fits with their history even; they reached the space age twice before, but their civ collapsed, leaving some people stranded on foreign worlds.
they would be in Romania, of course.

questions:
-what do you mean biologically super race? did you mean to say technological? or where you referring to skyscraper sized mooks or something?
-I hope that hypothetical monster manual has room for all the various beasties we (and by that I mean I) have come up with
-this would be roleplaying as individual characters most of the time, correct?


this is would need its own board though. it would choke here. its a good idea for an independent, new rp-verse. there are boards on the web like that, and this one has a pretty solid setup.

[SimplyNecro]

-what do you mean biologically super race? did you mean to say technological? or where you referring to skyscraper sized mooks or something?

I did mean biologically alien. I was talking about gas giant dwellers, silicons based crazies, sapient atmosphere dwelling jelly fish ect (how are they going to explore dungeons?). But then I realized how many crazy creatures DnD comes up with and realized that I may have been underestimating people.

-I hope that hypothetical monster manual has room for all the various beasties we (and by that I mean I) have come up with

Oh yes, who knows what kind of monsters could be lurking in the jungles, the ancient sewer systems, that abandoned village, or that trash can.

-this would be roleplaying as individual characters most of the time, correct?

Probably, seeing as this is a (mostly...I think) fantasy world, even a battle between entire nations will probably center around the epic duel of two heroes. Thats right! No I nuke you from orbit bitches! Grab your sword and get down there because it's personal!

Plus the sheer amount of possible dungeon crawls, plots, ect would not be something to sneer at.

In short, yes, this is pretty friendly to character based RP.

this is would need its own board though. it would choke here. its a good idea for an independent, new rp-verse. there are boards on the web like that, and this one has a pretty solid setup.

A new board needs people, a way to advertise ect, eh we'll see.

[GroxGlitch]

I like it except for one thing; how are our races going to sensibly be here and take the much-lowered tech along with it?
For example, how am I supposed to have Photos running around with spears when their most basic stuff is high-tech power armor and plasma weaponry? I understand it's not all warfare, but that's just the best example that comes to mind right now.

[SimplyNecro]

You don't have to explain it. I said you could if you felt like being creative. For example I was thinking about making a medieval expy of the Core Combine. They where collective horde of mutants and dregs that worshipped a star god called "Skrall". They also worshipped this massive monument/statue that was supposedly created by the gods. It's a terraforming spore pod. I might still do that, but I'm also very attached to this new idea of a race of Vampire Vords.

As said, something very screwed up happened to Earth. Almost like an massive cataclysm, an anomaly in space and time that mutated animal and plant life, picked creatures from across the universe and placed them on one world, this cataclysm also led the disappearance of the Sky-Giants (Humans). And thats just one explanation, we can easily leave it open ended.

If you can't think of a good reason for the Photos to be there than just throw them in anyway. As far as there concerned they have always been on Auralon.

Also it's not like where suppose to start off at cave man levels. Like I said, tech levels are limited at flintlocks, primitive rifles and minor steampunk.

[Crazen]

yea this is like a whole new reality man. so they don't have those things. back to the age of fire and metal.

and technology doesn't make them who they are, after all.

so I thought it over and this would change me not at all. Graid where already living it up like it was 800 A.D. anyway. spaceships where just tacked on.

[GroxGlitch]

Or perhaps a few select people who still have and understand these technologies (think Tech-Priests but even more divergent)
This assuming it's a post-apocalyptic style of event. If it's a sort of "alternate canon" thing, then that's something different altogether.
Mind you I use terms like "post-apoc" and "canon" relatively.

[SimplyNecro]

it's sort of both at the same time. Kinda like the relation between 40k and Warhammer fantasy. Connected by a single thread.

still, I'm discouraging anyone having perfect knowledge of advanced technology, as Crazen said, this the age of fire and steel, of sword and arrow...
You can have "tech priests" they could worship "Sky-Giant" technology.

The "Apocalypse" as people call it happened way before our creatures established themselves.

yea this is like a whole new reality man. so they don't have those things. back to the age of fire and metal.

and technology doesn't make them who they are, after all.

so I thought it over and this would change me not at all. Graid where already living it up like it was 800 A.D. anyway. spaceships where just tacked on.

If I shot a Graid with a rifle or an arrow, would that even hurt him? They always struck me as "Resistant to piercing damage".

[GroxGlitch]

Ok, yeah. What I was sorta picturing was many common-place technologies in the current time/place/ect  (plasma rifles, grenades, any form of electronics or even electricity itself) being exceedingly rare and that you'd have a few people who had an understanding that, while still semi-primitive, is very much so ahead of most. Still like the Tech-Priest thing where you have people who understand these technologies and are responsible for at least trying to maintain them. (Mind you, they'll fail more often than not, but at least they're trying )

[SimplyNecro]

I just don't want you revealing that you suddenly have an entire armory of these weapons to arm say an entire army

I think we should kind of allow it just for the sake of pulling of this joke...

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOrgLj9lOwk" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOrgLj9lOwk</a>


Photos Knight: Brother Lavios, bring me the holy plasma rifle!

Brother Lavios: As you wish sir Val'ones.

Val'ones: And thy creator said... hasta la bista baby! *PEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEW*

[GroxGlitch]

Oh heck no, I'd imagine that pieces of technology such as that would be one, perhaps two notable at any one time, and any that exist would be in some state of disrepair.
For example, with Photos Plasma weaponry, the barrels and firing chamber must be cleaned regularly because an ashy-particulate builds up on the walls and causes a loss of energy and even stability of the projectile. In this case, there'd probably be at least a weak buildup of particulate making it weaker. Mind you this is just an example. Any technology I can think of has limitations. Powered Armor needs replacement parts such as servos, weaponry needs regular maintenance as well as periodic cell rechargement.
And of course, without replacement parts, maintenance tools, and a way to recharge this stuff, none of that would be viable past a few weeks if used frequently.
Or in short, any piece of advanced technology will likely end up being a holy relic of some form, or something along those lines.

[SimplyNecro]

So basically your saying that most of these "advanced technologies" are basically the equivalent of museum pieces the priest are trying preserve so they can maintain at least a clue to their true origins?

[GroxGlitch]

Not all of them. It would depend on the item. Some would just be museum pieces, yes. More functional ones may be status symbols or used as a valuable bartering tool. If a weapon that was in good condition was unearthed, I'd imagine it'd be used. I wasn't saying that that was necessarily how they'd be, that's just the idea I'm getting. You'd still have logistical limits on these advanced objects meaning you can't have someone running around shooting things up with a fully functional plasma rifle every time you turn around. Your holy hand grenade thing was a fairly good idea of how things would be with this stuff, per what I could imagine.

[SimplyNecro]

Change some to most and where ok. Your kind of being a bit vague on numbers. Lets just assume the Photos have a monarchy right now, including the king, how many Photos noblemen would possess these advanced weapons?

Also functioning plasma swords and power armor should be a no-no. I'm fine with holy hand grenades, but those two are pushing it.

Plus remember, you still have human "artifacts" you can salvage and such, and theres also magic to consider.

Remember, this is a fantasy world with some post apocalyptic elements.

[GroxGlitch]

Oh of course, I was just using the armor and such as an example of logistical limits.
And I don't understand what you mean. If the Photos on this planet were a monarchy, it'd have no effect on who had one and who didn't. It wouldn't come down to a round number, it's come down to how many were able to find working ones, or have the connections to someone who might have an idea as to how to get them working. I'd say maybe 1 in every 500 people might have access to an advanced piece of weaponry or something.