Advance towards the Heavens! - OOC

“Once you have descended to the lowest of possible lows, there is nowhere to go but up!”

~

Deep within the bowels of the land, there sat a Settlement, a Fellowship of Pioneers, mourning over its losses and contemplating its futures. Now, most civilizations deep within the ground are most usually considered dead and ancient, for the catacombs of the land are usually reserved for the great Precursors of the world.

However, in the rare case of these fellows, this is an exception: their imprisonment beneath the earth was a recent occurrence, brought about by the following of a Being of both Wonder and Horror. Indeed, they have only been stuck for a day, fed by their rations and the air fluttering through the cracks of the ground above them.

Now, the Being was a very clever fellow. Though he would leave the Settlement, the very group of people who had helped him achieve his lofty goals, trapped underground, he had grown fond of them, and did not wish for them to wither and die. Because really, it does not matter what his goals were, as burying people underground was a very dickish move no matter what.

So, the Being had lain out a path to liberation for the people, aided by leftover tools and messages left that act eerily accurately to how the people would react to them. He knew that they would be left leaderless, and the deciding of a leader amongst themselves would be chaotic, so he left them with an incredibly ambitious creation: a growing, almost living machine, that would be thinking fruit, each designed with different growths and sets of personality in mind so as to create a fine balance in their rulings of the Settlement.

Dear reader, this was the explanation of the predicament that has befallen the Settlement of Malendia, driven by the whispering spirit of a physical deity named Todd, and lead by the literal Fruits of his labor. And outside of this centered view, this is the beginning of a revolution for their world: of a world forsaking the paths and bounds of Swords and Fantasy and evolving into a land of Steam and Science. This is a tale of conquering goals that no one ever thought possible, to ascend higher than the average mind might conceive. This is a tale of Growth, Ascension, and Advancement!

~

Welcome to Advance towards the Heavens! If you're not impressed by the short story description given above, don't worry: I've barely scratched the surface. Now, as for exact RP genres, this is a mixture of a Civilization RP, in which we manage our Settlement, combined with character-driven narratives. However, in terms of the Civilization part of the RP, there's a bit of a twist: instead of maintaining separate factions, we will all be controlling a single faction cooperatively. That will get hectic, and that's part of the fun.

We will play out the Civ part by using the AI's, the Fruits, who have mental links with the members of Malendia. The AI's can't outright control them, but they can alter and manipulate their mental schedules as to what they are going to do (although this isn't perfect, as they can go against their agenda).

I have already written a summary concerning the setting and the events before the story started, but be warned, it's ridiculously rough, not very well written, doesn't include some plot changes that were made in the Planning Thread, highly sarcastic concerning various plot choices, and may or may not use Tvtropes to explain various concepts. Through some black magic, it still manages to be huge. I've spoilered it below; if you have already read it, I don't recommend looking it over again unless you want.

Spoiler:

So in even shorter summary on our setting: a Fantasy setting undergoing a cultural and industrial revolution, and we control a budding city-state amidst it all. If you want a bit more rushed explanation goodness, the Planning Thread, at the time of posting this, is still up.

Prime Civilian Races

-Elves: “Oh hey look, it's those pointy-eared douchebags!” Humans are not in this RP, so therefore Elves take the place as are primarily mundane race. They are incredibly varied with several subsections (High Elves, Dark Elves, Wood Elves, etc). They are the first most common race in the land.

-Dwarfs: Dwarfs in most other media are known for contrasting with the Elves, and in this RP it's no different: whereas Elves are primarily defined for their variance and individuality, Dwarfs are noted for being very similar. They are broad-shouldered, booze-chugging, enjoy a good scuffle, excel in physical work, are the closest to industrialization, have glorious beards, and have a deep affinity with the ground, building many of their settlements and kingdoms underground. Sure, there can be Dwarfs with or without all these traits, but get together a bunch of Dwarfs and it'll be difficult to tell them apart. In fact, while they are technically dual-sexed with differing genitalia, Dwarf women look almost exactly the same as Dwarf men, straight down to the tips of their beards. They are the second most common race.

-Orcs: Orcs! They shout 'WAAAAAAAAGH' and hit stuff! Orcs are a race whose individual cultures and achievements all seem to have a theme of offense and militarization. While there are still plenty of tribal Orcs, and many more civilized Orcs embrace tribal traditions, they are actually a primarily civilized race. And if there is one thing that Orcs have agreed on as a prime motif and base of their civilization, it's their aired skill in competition, built upon the blood of enemies. Now, despite them seeming to be all spears and shouting, many Orcs philosophize going about the battle through domination and having advantages, which is why one will notice that the Orcs have a very strong sense of engineering, further nudging the world towards industrial revolution. They are the third most common race.

-Gnomes: A diminutive race, standing on average 2ft 6in. Big things come in small packages, as the motto goes, as Gnomes are noted for having grand amounts of imagination, with many typically ending up as artists and writers. If myth holds true, than they are relatives to a fabled race of Fairies who would've brought Magic into the world. According to the myth, before a group of Fairies would emerge from their grove to show the workings of Magic to the other beings, a Being suddenly appeared before them, pimp-slapped the lead Fairy, took the Miraculous Crystal that fueled the Fairies' powers, placed it into a cannon that it suddenly brought out, and launched the Crystal into the sky, never to be seen again. As such, due to this connection, it has been reported that many Gnomes seem to have a tiny amount of latent, underlying and subconscious power. It is so far uncontrollable, but many Gnomes dream of making Magic a reality. They are surprisingly uncommon, but still well accepted in society.

-Beastmen: Exactly what the name implies: bipedal animal people. Many are still primarily tribal, but several still wish to enter society. Many are incredibly varied, with different kinds of animals in which they are evolved from. Unfortunately, while there are plenty of societies that are accepting of them, they are commonly all grouped together and referred to as 'Beastmen'. They are the third most prejudiced against race.

-Draugr: Draugrism is actually a 'curse' rather than a race, actually, though many people still consider it one. No one knows when it came about, and its effects on an individual but it always seems to have something to do with Life. For instance, one popular effect is prolonged natural life, in which a person would live far past natural life expectancy. Unforunately, their body would keep degrading, until eventually they would be hideous shriveled husks. Another might be 'eternal youth': basically, their external body wouldn't deteriorate, and they would retain the look of when the effect takes place until the day they die. For someone who has this in later teenage years this might be great. For someone having that in infancy, not so much. Some aren't entirely bad though: one effect might be rejuvenation of life, going through the body's natural cycle again, and essentially being fully reborn after death. Of course, people might still sense an aura of you having been dead before around you. The most natural ailment, of course, is a mixture of a longer life with a shorter youth, making many people eventually resemble zombies. They are the second most prejudiced against 'race'.

-Ents: Ents are rare spirits born randomly from pure, natural nature. They usually control and fuse with a body made of wood, which with effort they can form into whatever they wish (although considering how ostracized they are, they most usually stick to a human-ish bipedal form). Now, a body of wood is actually rather impractical once you consider splintering and fire, so many kingdoms simply assign their few Ents to the arts. When an Ent reaches a certain age, the physical body begins to degrade, and the spirit begins to waver in energy. However, there is a ritual that can be done to make an Ent a very powerful being at death, but this is something that only Ents know (and would add a third to this already large paragraph, so I'll detail it later). Ents have the most prejudice thrown at them while still being accepted into society.

Rules

1. Typical RP rules unless I allow various instances of rule bending.
2. One of the biggest inspirations for this RP is Dwarf Fortress, which is naturally very gory. As such, I'll be very easy going in terms of the typical stuff that gets banned in movies.
3. I'm sure that the AI's will not always get along, and bicker a lot. On the other hand, I still want this to be a cooperative Civ, so please try and keep it that way.
4. The AI's can only make suggestions and changes to a person's schedule, not outright control them. Know the limits.
5. I actually have a beginning, middle, and end planned out. Sorry, but I really want to stick with it.
6. When creating an individual character that isn't an AI, you don't have to make a sheet! Although while I do like characterization and character growth to be a naturally moving thing, I would however like if you could give us somewhat of a base to go on with your character in their intro post with some amount of description.
7. If someone has an individual character, please don't try and kill them off without the other writer's consent, especially if said writer has plans for the character.
8. If your individual character is a Mary Sue, or blatantly 2-dimensional with no character growth, then I might be lenient on the other writers concerning Rule 7 and the character...
9. Magic isn't in the setting. There might be a side plot concerning it, but I haven't worked out all the details yet.
10. Feel free to be imaginative! If you have an idea you think is good, then run it by me either on the thread or through PM's, and we'll see how we can get it into the story. After all, I want everyone to have at least some control over the plot.
11. Have fun! Or not. I don't want to be strict on your fun, as strictness is not fun, which is counterproductive to the very rule itself.

Reserved for stuff concerning the World.

Looking good! :D When will we get sheets?

I wanted this to be an incredibly accessible RP, and therefore have decided to not use sheets. You can definitely make a sheet if that would make you feel comfortable, though.

Hmmm......This looks like a good way to convince others I'm a Legit Rper. Consider me in. Plus it sounds like fun.

...

...

Okay, that isn't going to happen if you join just to make it look like you are a "legit" RPer, and only mention "fun" as an afterthought.

I won't lie. I don't like you. Here's hoping we can either fix that, or... Well... Heh heh.


And yes, I'm aware that seems slightly mean, perhaps verging on nasty. But I am actually looking forward to this RP, and I don't want it ruined by someone who won't take it seriously. I'm sure you understand.

TheNarrator wrote:

I wanted this to be an incredibly accessible RP, and therefore have decided to not use sheets. You can definitely make a sheet if that would make you feel comfortable, though.

Will we just jump in on the IC, like with Downwards, or will there be any pre-IC means of character creation? o:

@Midnight Stalker - Another good way to evaluate your talents would be to post up an RP of your own in the OOC section, get some C&C on it, then improve it from your feedback, get to know people that way. :3 Just a suggestion, lol, don't have to follow it if you don't wanna. >w<

Oh I forgot to mention that if one is going to start posting in the IC, then I would like a notification of so here in the OOC. As well, feel free to talk about your character in here as well: factoids that might not be known in the IC would be nice.

Well. I've been in like a few RP's on the Sporum. Most died off after a bit. But one moved onto It's own private forum. It's Ruthless Galaxy. You've probably heard of it if you're from the Sporum. Ask Groxlord999. He'll vouch for me.

You are doing absolutely nothing to improve your image, at least in my eyes. Please stop trying; it just makes you look worse.

Plus, I was never a fan of anyone with "Grox" in their name, for potentially obvious reasons.



Anyway, onto relevant discussion... I'm currently thinking about a possible Ent or Draugr character, maybe characters? I've got my AI in the works, and I just noticed that I prefer the disliked races to the commonly accepted ones. Hmm. Mysterious.

Yeah, the rarer races each have some big physical disadvantages, but I think that would allow for more interesting characters. I was intending the Beastmen to be the most popular, due to Anthro fun and whatnot. Although the Rare Races wouldn't be as prominent in Malendia, I still had a few planned myself, so it's not like we can't just bump the general population up from the pitiful 50 I gave in the summary.

I also wanted to do something unique with the Gnomes, so at the last minute I threw on a small amount of genetic, subconscious telekinesis, and gave them a cousin in the form of the Fairies. Fun fact on the Fairies: the mysterious Being's* time travel machine caused changes to happen backwards in time, which meant... absolutely nothing, really.

However, that means that the present and future didn't warp to fully exclude them: ruins and groves and bits of knowledge on them can be found throughout the world. As well, it's almost as though new things about them are being made and found as though they were still around, although those new creations and knowledge on them are dwindling. Unfortunately, their Magic was very well censored: anything about it is almost completely censored, other than the mention that it existed.

Basically, the fate of the Fairies can basically be generalized as Timey Wimey bullocks.

(*We all know that it was one of the previous Walking Singularities, right? Actually, I kind of what this one to be the ever crisp Lucinious Disopterotha.)

My character will now be on a quest to find out where the fairie race went off to. -w-

My character's are mostly going to sit around and complain about how the old days, when you could actually tell people "Go to Hell!" and not be laughed at, were so much better.

Or, you know. Maybe they'll just poke around some science or libraries or some such nonsense.

Well of course. Although I think the destruction of an entire plane of reality would surprisingly not be known by most people outside of Malendia, and upon hearing that think that they're a bunch of a loons. That is, of course, unless one manages to find some of Todd's machines.

Speaking of Todd, my mental image for him was the Eleventh Doctor. For copyright reasons, I don't want that. Therefore, if anyone wants to draw up something of him, feel free.

As well, one would be quick to notice that I'm purposefully not mentioning the backstory of the world, or even its geography. The world building is a surprisingly large subject I plan on tackling with the other writers later. Lore would start first, then followed by geography. If you have any ideas, feel free to tell me.

The actual IC will be up hopefully sometime still in 2012. I'm busy this weekend, so if it's not done this week, it will hopefully be done the next.

Also, another subject, not completely covered: the Uninhabitants, colloquially but more insultingly referred to as the Monsters. This one would be easy: we can fit many a different Monster in this. A few notable ones I have so far are Trolls, who are basically the Elves of the Uninhabitants, noted for there being countless different kind, and Giants, a solitary and still primarily tribal race, quite a few of whom ARE sentient (and a few lucky ones might get accepted into some city), but several still barbaric cousins keep them typically labeled as Monsters.

Sounds good! And these Uninhabitants, where do they live? Just in the wilderness, scattered about?

The Uninhabitants/monsters typically don't get pleasure of living behind the walls of cities. A little less rare, but still difficult to obtain, is the ability to live in unwalled Settlement towns. And of course this is only the slight few who are sentient, and even then it's still thin numbers. Almost all monsters live in the wilderness.

Although, that doesn't mean that there can't be clever tribes, hives and cities made and lived in by the monsters themselves. Giants are almost always found in tribes. And Trolls are ridiculously varied: some might be dumb beasts, and some might create impressive metropolises that would make many settlements blush.

Alright, I've thought up the OP of the IC. It will be a tad uneventful, but it will give insight and ideas as to how posts might go. Still debating on which gimmicky date to put it on: dates like won't come around for 88 more years, but 12/21/12 would fit the whole 'world destruction' theme.

Oh wow was that previous post filled with typos and missing words. And that, class, is why you shouldn't trust an iPod for writing posts of any sort.

Alright, I've decided on giving myself more time and waiting to gimmick for 12/21/12, thus giving me more time to write it up. However, this day of 12/12/12 is still a huge event. Therefore, starting today, I shall record a log as to my progress of the OP, and to countdown for the big day. These shall be recorded on the front page. (Even though it is a click away)

Quote :

12/12/12

Began OP Log. That's a start. Good enough for today, and a fine tribute for a type of day that won't return for a good 88 years, all the while giving the better presents to a day face-deep in a slow-cooked-to-perfection meal of Mayan Doomsday Bullshit topped with a truly authentic Lies and Misinterpretations sauce. Time to be lazy!

Creative construction of OP: 55%. The structure has been decided, as well as a beginning and end. Exact events are hazy. Knowledge of which individual characters to use is sufficient. Not certain if I should include one hilarious passage I thought up or not, as one prime component of it involved reference to modern culture.

Physical construction of OP: -1%. The negative is subjective as to if I'll be working on a foreign word processor or if I'll be able to use good old Word.

Alright, good to hear :D

Quote :

12/13/12

Did nothing relevant to AttH today. Tweaked bits of the end, but that's about it. I had many other things I had to attend to. Wow, this was boring.

Creative construction: 55%. No real change yet. Hopefully this shaming will immediately get me on that.

Physical construction: 0%. I'll be using Apache Word Processor, a program akin to MSWord, albeit with some slight differences. Wow, look how much care I'm putting into this!

Quote :

12/14/12

Just now solidified the characters used for the intro. Events solidified as well. It's coming along!

Creative construction: 85%. Some more stuff shall be added, to boost extra content. Still need to actually think of some interesting Gnomes. More to come.

Physical creation: -0.03%. I clipped my fingernail a bit too close and now it aches a tad. Should be no hinderance by the time the OP is ready to be made, though.

Quote :

12/15/12

Making a post for another RP, and holy crap did any attempt to create this thing turn nightmarish. I feel as though there could have been better ways to apply my time. Like working on my own RP.

Creative construction: 90%. Characters and events further solidified.

Physical construction: 0%. Will hopefully begin something tomorrow.

Quote :

12/16/12

So I got that post done. For the record it was for an RP between myself and a few people on Skype. I ended up breaking the text limit. Now if only we can achieve the same results for this...

Creative construction: 100%. Planning is now not an excuse.

Physical construction: 0%. Remember when I said that I'll start working on it tomorrow, which is now today? Hahahah, good times.

Quote :

12/17/12

Hooray, first day of construction on the OP! To celebrate, let's take a holiday and get nothing done!

Progress: 0%.

Okay okay I'll actually do stuff tomorrow.

Quote :

12/18/12

So I actually started the OP! I hope one day someone will look back on the intro and analyze 'why yes, this was truly a deep, multimeaning beginning the author has placed here' when in all actuality it's just me basically saying that I have no idea how to start this.

Progress: 2%. It actually got somewhere! I am such a terrible admin.