Hi everyone. I think the time has come to post this up here, and see what, if anything, anyone thinks of this. It's not really "light reading", that title was a bit of sarcasm. This is a proposal for a world in which a role-playing game of the sort like Dungeons & Dragons, if anyone knows what that is, could be set, which I found on another website (I won't say exactly which one), which is what introduced me to the concepts of immortalism, transhumanity, and all these topics in the first place, the author included a post explaining that many of the ideas expressed in it were based on real developing technologies, and there were also some allusions to that intent contained within the text itself. It was posted to a public forum not unlike this one so don't worry, it's not as if it was copyrighted or stealing intellectual property- I'm giving credit to whoever actually wrote this, they haven't been back in awhile and I don't know where they are now (the author was the original Manowater989, I was so impressed with their work that I "borrowed" their username for mine on these boards.) After all that I've learned about the real science of these subjects, I realize that it has some ridiculous predictions and totally impossible parts, but a lot of it, I think, is a startling wake-up call about what general *kind* of direction the future might be heading in- specifically, I like a lot of the ideas of the "Revs" in it, though you may say I'm crazy, would like to see that meme starting to spread in the real world. Anyway, it inspired the hell out of me, so, without further ado, I'll let you guys have a look at it.
“We have but one purpose: Society will fall at any cost!”
Just for the hell of it, I'm finally going to do the overview for this setting in the format that Delvesdeep invented, even if it doesn't much matter to anyone but me at this point.
Basic Description - Revolution has been a constant throughout human history. It is inevitable that some day a group of people will revolt against the idea of society itself, in what amounts to the final revolution. This is the story of that day. Two centuries from now, the world is finally and totally ripped asunder by a war the savagery and destruction of which have never been seen before. The opponents in this struggle are the structured Socs, fighting desperately to enforce and preserve their way of life and the fanatical Revs, chaotic transhumanist rebels who have vowed to claw out their freedom at any cost. The prize at stake is the very viewpoint and philosophy we will take to the stars and of course, as always, the fate of mankind itself, and perhaps, ultimately, all things.
Selling Points - Very original: I've never seen anything quite like this setting anywhere outside my own head. The concept of the Revs, particularly, I think is actually unique, as in, literally never having been done before.
Great Theme(s): I really enjoy the themes of this setting, even besides just the overall theme, (which is more than just the clichéd technology vs. nature, although that’s certainly part of it, or even than just law vs. chaos, although it definitely is that, but it’s like hope vs. hopelessness, Ghost In The Shell vs. Dragonball Z, The Matrix vs. Lord Of The Rings, the question of whether the future has to be so dystopian and bleak, or could it be utopian and warm?) I think it’s great that, even in spite of all the grim war, destruction, and gloom, there is a sort of hopeful quality of glory about it, like the heraldic sagas of old, a classical flourish of romanticism and the quixotic lacking in even seemingly brighter days.
Interesting: Aside from just being cool and a good setting for stories, the world is downright interesting. The science is very "out there" and well-thought-out, based mostly on extrapolations of where real technological trends might be heading, and it's also, as 77IM put it, "an interesting idea about the future fate of humankind."
Unique Combinations: The setting contains a wide variety of images, ideas, philosophies and concepts thrown at you in fast-cut style and almost always arranged in ways you might not expect. Demigodlike psionic war seraphim lead armies of golden warrior-knights wielding electromag energy swords and representing rebel philosophies against conscripted slum-dwellers, psycops and nano-enhanced cyborgs in trench and psychological warfare. There's politics, adventure, iconic images and grim reality all thrown together.
Diverse Range: It's a big world with a lot going on, so there's lots of opportunities for different types of games. Get involved in the war or avoid it like the plague. Explore life-drained Gloomlands, endless dusty plains, buried metal cities, gleaming golden spires in the sky, or sail a wooden ship to spherical cities in space.
Interesting Races/Creatures- It rarely gets more interesting than the Revs. You could maybe call them chaotic bio-engineering elves from the future, but that would absolutely not do them justice. They're immortal, they personalize their lives and their bodies to their own specifications, can control their own emotions, and are free to do anything they wish, are bonded for life to artificial bio-constructs called synths that can do nearly any task from growing food to communicating with other systems (such as ENP) for them, many are powerful psions called Teleks or have other adaptations like glands that prevent them from freezing or enhanced strength, some are great hulking armored paladins of chaos, some are winged angels, some barely look human at all. Their bioneers can create Trueform creatures of nearly any type. The Socs are no slouches in the uniqueness department either, many are interesting types of cyborgs, wired into communal computer systems or slowly becoming infected with nanomechanical lattice cells as their whole race becomes more and more monolithic, even Garns may develop some unique survival mechanisms.
Organizations - The organizations are the backbone of the world, they represent the philosophies that fuel its' conflict and basically make it go 'round. They are obviously organized along the two main axes of law (represented by the Socs) and chaos (represented by the Revs), with a third, neutrality (represented by the Garns). Good and evil are regarded as more subjective, shades-of-grey, with the Socs somewhat leaning more towards evil and the Revs perhaps leaning more towards good in certain ways, even though they are fanatical zealots who killed billions in a single unbelievable counter-strike. Thrown into the mix are smaller sub-categories within each overfaction, (Gia-Revs, Memeticists) and some that even span 2 of the 3 or all of them, but these, for the most part, are just groupings of certain types of people and not actual organizations with any ties together (Seekers).
Magic - "Magic" in this setting, like in that famous quote, is all sufficiently advanced technology. Most of it falls into the categories of either psionics (called in-setting "telemanipulative abilities/ powers"), which are a result of extremely advanced genetic alterations and are almost exclusively the purview of the Revs, or the actions of molecular or even atomic-scale (much smaller than in much other science fiction, thanks to similarly advanced breakthroughs in single-electron-scale manipulation) constructs (controlled by a cybernetic link in one's brain), which are mastered by the Socs, Revs only being capable of building much larger and cruder cell-sized nanos, only useful primarily for tasks within the bodies of organisms, guiding environmental growth and while they can grow structures and objects from molecular models, the Revs' nanos are incapable of magic-like supermanipulation. There are also some "magic items"- physical matter can be imbued with psychic energy for indefinite amounts of time and can function in accordance with whatever power the Telek may have "poured into" the item (may have charges or not) and automatic use nanoclouds that even a Rev could activate manually and other similarly advanced technological items, such as PosEn regeneration crystals used by Rev healers. In fact, crystals in general. Lots of crystals used by Revs.
Locations - The most iconic locations are Core City and Geneva, respective capitals of Great Heavens (or Celestia); the Rev "empire" or nation, and the WSA; the Soc "empire" or nation. Core City is a holy, glowing, golden city of golden domes and spires in the sky, orbited by all other lifter colonies even as they orbit the Earth, it sits at the very top of the atmosphere, bordering on space, with a gigantic column of clouds being drawn up to its' base by the immense anti-gravitic power of its' lifter plate and the even more prodigious psychic energy emitted by Josh & Jen (the Revs' leaders-gods-emperor & empress) within. It glows with holy radiance and echoes with the chanting of celestial choirs, home to the piously holy and the truly free, protected solely by an angelic army led by seraphim who are based in the legendary Cloud Fortresses that are scattered all around it, so named not only for their location; hovering above the clouds, but also because their very shapes resemble that form, as if solid clouds of gleaming structures, with spires protruding both up towards the void and down towards the earth, it is here that the great Angelic Guard, whose stoicism and will in defending the city is far beyond that of even the most dedicated servants of the Revs, maintain their eternal vigil should any incurring Soc attack force ever make it through all the other defenses, this far into Rev-controlled space. A place of concentric circles arranged together, each even more holy and grand than the last, culminating finally at The Divine Palace, almighty tower of God, a shining spike of pure radiance that rises up directly from the very Core of the Core, a sanctified city utterly suffused by aching beauty and unrestrained pleasure, with pools and fountains of light, and tiny drifting points of radiance that the faithful call Blessings floating everywhere (actually byproducts of Josh and Jen’s colossal psychic emanations), where armies of golden armored warriors and knights riding created, winged mounts, and angels and crews of great soaring armadas of sleek, symmetrical wooden lifter ships with open decks and plasmic cannons descend to destroy the hated anathema who would otherwise kill and enslave, torture and break them, so that they can be free once and for all. If there is a real heaven anywhere in the physical universe, surely this must be the place.
Conversely, Geneva is just about hell. A vast, twisting fortress of cold grey metal jammed between what were once natural, living mountains, now all is machines and carefully observed, measured, and regimented control. It covers the land like a growing fungus, like metal poured between those mountains, it stretches into the sky in great pointing, jagged towers with little spines and lights, and in endless dark tunnels and passages so far below the ground that it seems to touch the bottom of the world. It is here that President Fisher and his Administration Council sit, considering how best to crush Josh and his great Revolution, to bring them all back under control, while at the same time the machinations and scheming of the councilors play out, each hoping to gain the upper hand. Meanwhile, the endless muster and drilling of soldiers, the sounds of alarms blaring in the distance continue, brain-dead cogs in the machine labor away in unlit factories, or tiny chambers processing data in the dim glow of centuries-old computers, or perhaps display an independent thought and dragged away, never to be seen again, but their screams can be heard echoing up through the vents, or more Assembly Defense Force units complete their training and deploy into the endless systems of metal and cement bunkers and guardtowers, of razorwire-encrusted trenches etched into the grey earth as the fortress-city’s towers get lower and lower, sprawling away across the miles into just a few stories above-ground and finally into these fortifications, and layers of hungry nanos and crackling electromagnetic shields, or, even more likely, they may they set out into the deadly, burning, war-torn wastes to die every day by the tens of thousands, to meet some assaulting force of Revs or attack their floating cities in huge fleets of jets and disassembling nanoclouds and remote drones and computerized bombs.
Other - One more time, I'm going to steal something the esteemed 77IM said: Well, there's actually a whole ton of other! Check it out!
P.S. I have been thinking quite a bit about this setting here and there, so this most likely will contain some new info or at least clarifications of things not seen in the main text. I guess it's a little weird to have the overview go into more detail on some aspects than the actual work, but, oh well. In fact, looking at this tells me that the whole thing really needs a rewrite and this should actually be an overview for a Second Edition of CoF incorporating all my new ideas but I'm too lazy so, as they say, meh. :nonono:
Here
Ok. This is my re-edited version of everything. Some of this stuff was originally mine, some of it was 77IM's. Credit was given where due. Most of this is redundant (i.e. the same as what is already posted here and other places) but a lot of things are subtly different and a few things are entirely new. Think of it as the CoF Special Edition DVD, with added bonus material
The Last Revolution: Revolution has been a constant throughout human history. It is inevitable that some day a group of people will revolt against the idea of society itself, in what amounts to the final revolution. This is the story of that day.
This was really designed with d20 modern and perhaps even the upcoming d20 Future in mind. For a short description, it is a Post-Apocalyptic, Bizzarro Wartime Scifi about a near-future Earth consumed by brutal war between chaotic and technologically advanced rebels and lawful, high-population traditionalists.
This is just the basic backstory, all fluff and no crunch, because I am bad at crunch. I provide the fluff, but I need others to convert into crunch for me. More rules and specifics to come later. I am looking for any feedback, input, or suggestions. Most of all, I am looking for collaborators to 1. help me get up-and-running a website, 2. help me get it published (or whatever), or 3. submit ideas and help be a classes-and-rules consultant so I don't have to do all the work myself. Let me know what you think!
Chronicles Of Fate
War Of The Fates
(Note: The following is a compilation of different materials taken from disparate sources. It’s aim is not to present a unified account as a coherent whole, but instead to chronicle the conditions leading up to, involving, and determining the history and current conditions of the Earth Civil War from many different points of view.)
“And he opened his mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, even them that dwell in the heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and there was given to him authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. And all that dwell on the earth shall worship him, every one whose name hath not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slain.”
-The Christian Bible, Revelation 13:6-13:8
“And there came at last, among the many myriad shrouds of despair and oppressive sins of the dark and hopeless Old World a new God, our true God who made the very world unto which He was born, and who would make it again, even in the futurepast, and He hated with wrath the evil subjugation of His world by Society, and it was known that He would not suffer it to last.”
-The Divinist Ordne, Origin Cycle, Verse 2
“Why am I siding with them now? Because I think they can win. Those who truly believe in him have absolute devotion- they do not fear death. And now I hear that he can conjure soldiers from nothing. Yes, this war will be over soon now. They say that no one can rule forever, but there is always an exception, and this time, he’s it. Nothing will ever defeat that man- that God, for I now believe that must be what he is. What else could explain the things that he can do?”
“Those filthy animals, they’re just some vicious rebels. They’re terrorists, cowards, mass-murderers, beasts! They themselves admit they aren’t human, so we’ll exterminate the vermin. They think they’re better than us, they live in floating castles above us and call themselves angels? They’re monsters! There is an order to mankind that they cannot destroy with fire or with war, and we have little to truly fear: for in the end, they cannot win.”
The Socs Vs. The Revs:
World To War
2002: The modern world. Cast in plastic and in sheetrock, in the skies can be seen airplanes and helicopters. Fast food restaurants, schools, and malls. Everything is made out of cubes: people spend their lives in concrete boxes. And of course, there is always Society. What must people do? What must they say? How must they act? They must conform, be like everyone else. What happens to those who refuse to conform? It is rarely a pretty picture. But to those who live in this world, it seldom strikes them as such a dreary and monotonous image- they have their own things to consider: a girl they like, or a promotion they want, or the chasing of the next temporary high. And they have more important worries: there are wars, evil forces, people are afraid. There is politics, business, religion. All of these things kept people busy in the modern world. But there was at least one person who was largely unconcerned with all these things: it was Society that worried this boy. He spent the year of 2002 at a school for people who didn’t conform. It was here that he finally awakened, finally saw. He was to become very important.
2003: The modern world continues. But this boy is getting more and more ideas. Society worries him more and more now, and, elsewhere, others start having the same kinds of thoughts. Eventually, there would be so many of them as to worry Society. The boy, his name being Josh, became their leader. And the modern world became The World That Was. What happened?
Socs- S-O-C. The first 3 letters of words like “Social” and “Society”. These sorts of things are very important to these people. Socs believe in the neat order of rules and laws, and the power of conformity to keep people getting along. Some Socs are good, others are bad. The good ones think rules and social norms can keep people from getting hurt and facilitate more peaceful human interaction. The bad ones want to use laws to control and imprison people, bending them to their will.
Revs- R-E-V. The first 3 letters of words like “Revolution” and “Revolt”. These sorts of things are very important to these people. Revs believe in freedom, individuality, chaos, and trusting people to make their own decisions. Some Revs are good, others are bad. The good ones think that people should always be left alone to do what they want, believing this to be essential to human happiness and fulfillment. The bad ones want to use freedom and randomness as a tool to be vicious and capricious, hurting and tormenting as they please.
Escalation To War: Unbeknownst to the Socs or not, there was a war brewing between the Socs and the Revs. As Josh lived on, he gathered many more Revs to his side, and it became a secret organization. As a scientist, he also received worldwide recognition for his many incredible inventions. He founded a huge corporation, using most of the proceeds to fund the growth of his private organization. Among his most prominent inventions were the Lifters, a nearly 75-year-old technology, created but never perfected by the Socs, which he used to create a fleet of antigravity airships called Lifter Ships, and accompanying Lifter Colonies, suspended high above the ground, for them to fly to, and humanoid artificial life forms designed to serve humans, predictably named Synths. Nearly all of this technology, that would become the hallmark of Rev design, incorporated natural shapes and wood as a material. His final, and, for a long time, lost, invention was the fountain of youth: an irreproducible strain of the telomerase enzyme that halted aging and granted eternal life and youth. Josh used the enzyme on himself and his wife, Jennifer, then, in 2021, at the ages of 38 and 39, they faked their own deaths, and then disappeared into the shadows. For the next 200 years, while the civilization of the world grew closer and closer to the brink of catastrophe, he continued to grow his secret organizations, which took control of a web of businesses, churches, other organizations, and even governments. Continued to watch, and wait, still biding his time. During this period, The Revs founded their first official outlet: the Freedomist political party in the United States, which eventually replaced the failing Democratic Party as one of the two major parties. Josh also founded within the Revs an even more devoted inner circle: the Divine Order, a religion that worships him as God. And all the while, other major events continued to transpire: great natural disasters, outbreaks of plague and political shiftings and machinations. New nations were born: South Africa grew into a new superpower, while Middle Eastern nations consolidated and a large new country emerged with former Ethiopia as its’ center. Wars never ceased either, and even as the day approached when all Socs would have to band together against their common enemy, they never stopped fighting one another. There was even a small (comparatively) nuclear war called the Atsief Conflict, but all of this paled in comparison with the true threat of the coming storm. By 2221, the Revs had even stockpiled a vast store of weapons, many of which were powerful new types invented by Josh that the Socs did not have.
In 2224, Josh revealed himself again. Many more came to join his cause and worship him. By this time, there were Lifter Ship docks, all made of wood, in all major cities, everyone recognized the distinctive, wooden “Rev part of town” built down onto the water, where just about anything someone wanted to do was tolerated and even encouraged. There were great depressurized tunnels, suspended by Lifters with their bottoms in the upper atmosphere and their tops in space, so the wooden Lifter Ships could enter and exit the atmosphere without fear of burning up, and the first Lifter Colonies in space: not flat and island-like as the ones in the air, but iron spheres with many holes for Lifter Ships to fly into and out of, spinning so as to keep their air. The following year marked the start of the Exodus. Revs began to migrate en masse to the Lifter Colonies, leaving the surface behind, and forming a new nation named Great Heavens. At the same time, they elected to be altered in many ways, including genetic engineering, which set the Revs well on their way to evolving into a new species, genetically independent from the human Socs dwelling on the surface. With their fantastic and superior technology, the Rev Celestians (people of Great Heavens, also called Celestia) joined the United States, China, and South Africa as world superpowers. The Socs still living on the ground became fearful and jealous of Great Heavens, and as their own imbalance intensified, came to blame the Revs for all their problems.
The Revs had started out hating the Socs, but, now that they could live free of their enforced conformity, they were content to live in peace with them. As the Socs became more and more envious of what the Revs had and stood for, the Revs petitioned for there to be peace. At the same time, however, they secretly braced for war, developing their most dreadful weapons ever: the CinderStar, and the Negadyne. Finally, the world of the Socs began to collapse. The WSA (World Societalist Assembly) was formed to unite all Soc nations against the “looming threat” of the Revs, and, at that point, it could have been any little thing that finally ignited all the barely-suppressed conflicts just waiting to flare all at once and end the world as they knew it: it just so happened to be learning that Great Heavens held the secret of immortality that turned out to be the final straw, in their minds, a justification to attack, demanding it be given to them. When Josh refused, it was underway: at 4:22 PM, Eastern Standard Time, on Saturday, November 24th, 2246, 18 nations launched 33 atomic warheads at the Sector Capitol Lifter Colony of Independent Act, destroying it- over 12 million people were killed.
The Socs could have done more damage. They could, perhaps, have taken Celestia somewhat by surprise, although they really were pretty sure what was coming. Still, the Socs, in their arrogance, thought they could frighten Great Heavens, which they greatly underestimated, into surrendering with a show of force. They were greatly mistaken. The newspapers on the surface had just enough time to get out their headlines “WAR!” before the Revs deployed their CinderStar and Negadyne Bombers, engulfing much of the world in the twin blooms of solar flame and negative force. The Socs had their own destructive spread to add to the conflagration, unleashing their full store of atomic bombs and many other varied weapons and detonations besides. To view the world from space that day, it was surely a beautiful and colorful fireworks display. There is no knowing how furious Josh must have been, sealed inside his Divine Palace on the Celestian capital of Core City, but one thing was for sure: The Earth Civil War had begun.
Dawn Of The New World: From space, the firestorm that marked the First Day Of Fire may have been both beautiful and colorful, but to those a little closer, it was hell on Earth. Whatever illusion of organization and structure mankind might have convinced itself it built in its’ life on this planet was reduced to ash and molten earth on that day. The fire that the CinderStars rained down was devastating enough: it covered the land in great sheets of liquid plasma, melting mountains and valleys alike into white-hot magma. But the radii of pure annihilation spewed forth by the Negadyne Bombs was worse: negative energy that breaks down all matter on a sub-atomic level, and drains all life from anything it touches, great craters where nothing shall ever grow again, and storms of darkness that level all in their path. The atomic bombs, numbering in the thousands, added their radioactive flame to spill out across the already dying lands, and millions of smaller bombs, missiles, and even potentially more devastating nanotech disassemblers contributed to The World That Was being reduced to the nightmarish New World.
And yet, it was not over. 24 hours passed, the world still burned, and the Second Day Of Fire began. Not content in their destruction of all things, both sides refused to relent, and continued to either pour down or propel up their weapons. Eventually, however, the Socs could withstand no more. The surface burned, but try as they might, they could not ignite the heavens. The seas of shadow and flame that spread over the lands overwhelmed them, and they decided to cut their losses and run. After the 9th Day, the Days Of Fire were over. There were 9 Days Of Fire in all, and in that short span, the world was ruined. And yet, still, not as much of the Earth’s surface was destroyed as most expected: even then, there were lands that were still not wastes. It was to these places that the surviving Socs then migrated. The Revs, believing their victory was at hand, descended in wrath with more bombs, and Lifter Ships armed to the hilt, and many soldiers, ready to enact their righteous vengeance. But the Socs greatly surprised them with just how much of their great forces remained. The Revs were the rebels remember, and although they destroyed much of the old order with their ingenious and horrifying weapons, the Socs were still the ones who had been controlling all of mankind for hundreds of thousands of years, and their numbers were still far greater, despite the billions that The 9 Days Of Fire had killed.
And so began The Civil War in earnest. The Lifter Ships and great hosts of the Revs, including many Synth soldiers, descended, but the Socs, fortifying their positions and aiming weapons skyward, were prepared. They clashed, and the horrific Battle Of Sonates began.
The War: The Battle Of Sonates, the opening battle of The War, included all of the bombs and weapons that were used in The 9 Days Of Fire, though in much lesser quantities, in addition to massive contingents of soldiers and vehicles. The Revs were able to do more damage while they were still airborne- once they landed, it became a drawn-out bloodbath that raged on to the sound of roaring explosions, weapons fire, and the tortured screams of the dying. Both sides raged with all their hatred, and tore one another to shreds. Josh was there, leading his armies, and so was his counterpart, Allan Fisher, elected president of the WSA before the war began, former U.S. President and uber-Soc, not leading his armies but issuing orders from a base, and just as angry. The battle eventually ended when nearly all were dead. None can say for sure which side the Battle Of Sonates was a victory for, both lost nearly all who fought in it, although unsurprisingly, neither Josh nor Allan Fisher were killed or even injured in the battle. Most agree it was probably the Revs who won, since they tend to never stop fighting unless they’re all dead. By the time Fisher called for a retreat of his decimated forces and Josh ascended back up to Core City to replenish his armies, many more Rev forces had descended to attack, many more Soc forces prepared to defend and counterattack, many other vicious battles broken out all over the world, and it was clear this nightmarish war would not be over any time soon.
The Front Lines: During The 9 Days Of Fire, both the Socs and Revs exhausted most of their supplies of Weapons Of Mass Destruction. The Revs used theirs first, and continued to use more as The 9 Days went on, many of which were intended to intercept hails of Soc weapons being aimed up at them and create a generalized barrier of firepower to protect their Colonies. Many Colonies were destroyed nonetheless, but nowhere near the level of devastation that surface settlements suffered. Furthermore, the Revs’ weapons had a much larger blast radius than those of the Socs, so they had to use less to produce more destructive effects. On the flipside, however, the Socs did fire all of their nuclear weapons, including hydrogen bombs, at the Revs. However you look at it, once the bombs started flying, most of the weapons both sides deployed were needed simply to survive. Though, the Revs did end up using more of their weapons, in all, (although still a far lower number) than the Socs in order to (debatably) emerge the “victors” of The 9 Days Of Fire.
The point of all this is that by the time that actual combat began, both sides had few remaining weapons of mass destruction and thus, as they began to war in the still-burning wastelands they had just created, had to rely mostly on their troops and units to ensure victory, they could not afford wasteful use of their few remaining bombs. As this hellish combat progressed and even intensified, however, both sides used the opportunity to try and quickly manufacture more bombs. After The Battle Of Sonates was over, a series of long and intense airborne firefights between Lifter Ships and Soc aircraft was accompanied by another relentless volley of Soc weapons fired up and Rev weapons dropped down. The descending Rev invasion forces continued to be greeted with ascending defense fleets. Eventually, after months of savage war, both sides, unable to make any further progress up or down, had unwillingly settled into an unwanted gridlock, and at last the Front Lines were established: the Lower Atmosphere. Above that was the Rev space, below it, the Socs’ zone, and it was at the border that the War raged at its most deadly.
The King & Queen: As Revs began to migrate to the Lifter Colonies, they finally got the chance to test their idea of utopia: a world where people can live together without needing a society to bind them or inform their lifestyles. Due at least in part to their genetic modifications, some theorize, it worked far better than any Socs anticipated. The very concept seemed antithical: how could any group of people remain viable as a group without a society to give it some structure and meaning? And yet, this question rung hollow as it was clearly working- confounding the Socs, but the Revs themselves were not in the least bit surprised. All of the hallmarks of society were absent: no order or hierarchy, no social classes or class system, no consensus of opinion, no norms or traditions and certainly no demands to conform, not even any rules except the necessary stricture on causing others harm. The vast numbers of Synth slaves that performed everything the humans didn’t want to do, fulfilling their every desire and ensuring they never had to work again further contributed to this hedonistic, epicurean vision of a non-society.
The Revs varied wildly, so great was their diversity that indeed no real connection could be drawn between them except a shared desire to do whatever the hell they wanted come hell nor high water. They could even communicate without rules: they talked when they had something to say, in any order, and even when other people were talking, and yet they could always understand all that was being said and it never seemed to bother them. They carried on conversations, and, indeed, did just about everything in this random, impulsive fashion. And yet, to say there was no hierarchy at all would be untrue: there were two people whom the Revs did consider their leaders, with the right to actually tell them what to do, should they ever choose to (a right they afforded no others). These two people were Joshua and Jennifer Zmijewski. Now, from the time that the Revs were merely an organization, (or disorganization, as many jokingly called it) Josh & Jen were already the Supreme Director and Co-Director, respectively, and when Great Heavens declared itself as an independent nation, they were unanimously appointed Divine Emperor and Divine
Empress. As the Revs’ situation grew more and more dire, more of them converted to Divinists (followers of The Divine Order). Not all Revs were ever Divinists, but as they were looking for something to hope for and believe in, it was not a difficult transition to take comfort in and start praying to and worshipping the “infallible” leaders they already looked to to bring them salvation. Of course, a complete list of all the titles of honor that Celestians afforded them could comprise its’ own book, but among the most common were The Holy Ones, The High Lords, His/Her Holiness, King Above Kings and Queen Of Angels, or simply The King & Queen. In fact, anywhere you went in the world, among the lands of the Socs or Revs, to refer to “The King”, anyone would know you were talking about Josh.
Both Joshua and Jennifer had many forms and mantles that they wore for their varied different roles. Divinists believed Josh was The supreme god, creator and ruler of all that is, and true savior of humanity. That was his purest form, God Supreme. God Of Victories, they also named him, and in war he led all the forces of the Revs, and at their utmost front he marched or flew, and wore a fearsome and glorious coat of armor, all spikes and baroque curves and rays of blessed radiance, in his left hand he wielded a gigantic smashing hammer, a great rectangular form glowing with brilliance, in his right was a colossal, ever-burning broadsword, heavier and than 10 of the Socs’ jet planes, and forged of the densest nano-engineered carbon. A thousand ordinary people could not have lifted these weapons, but with his telekinesis, Josh wielded them as if they were made of air. Jen, they named The Holy Queen, gentle healer of those in pain and a shining light of hope to all those in despair. On her other side, though, was the fearsome lord of warriors, descending in wrath and rage and vengeance, full of righteous scorn. This was the Queen Of Angels, her divine fury was feared by all Socs, especially when she swooped down for the attack at the forefront of her bands of Angels. She felt responsible to avenge all those who had been harmed by the Socs’ rapacious callousness, but her greatest rages were fueled by her fierce and endless love for Josh, and her maternal instinct to repay any real or perceived attack on her beloved with the most savage of reprisals. Her weapon was a great staff, which she wielded with mighty power. Both also had their peaceful mantles as leaders, King & Queen they were, utterly confident, serene, and working in complete connection, always reassuring the people and charting their course safely through all trials and crises. Lastly, they retained always their personal and very private forms, for all their power, always shockingly human and fragile, and in this mantle they were together and lovers in the purest way possible, and also in this guise alone could they know fear and even doubt the things they themselves had done while wearing their mantles of glory and power, but never did they show these, true selves to any save one another.
Teleks, Angels, and other Rev marvels: From the days when Josh was simply a man like any other and a scientist, he had always been fascinated by all fields of technology, and, he seems to have believed, perhaps no field offered a greater immediate opportunity to humankind than genetics. Although there were many genetic biologists in the world, Josh’s brazen willingness to push the envelope farther than good sense would allow and sheer creative genius established him as a sort of scientific celebrity that the world had never known before. Even the Watsons & Cricks, the Einsteins and Hawkings of that world had not received such immediate and widespread attention during the very period when their discoveries were actually being made. “Zmijewski cracks this or that genetic code” was a constant headline, in addition to all the other breakthroughs he was pioneering, like “patents efficient and sustainable antigravity technology”. Many thought they smelled some sort of conspiracy and doubted that one man was really inventing all these things, as his company’s stock continued to rise.
Finally, he had done it. He established the sequence of chemical modifications that ultimately allowed for the spontaneous generation of genetic material carrying any and all desired traits. The entire world quite literally went nuts- scientists and governments proclaimed the beginning of a new age, where humans would be as gods, able to create any type of life they imagined. It would be the end of hunger, disease, and all human suffering. Religious groups proclaimed it was the end of the world, and the Vatican issued an official statement branding Josh the antichrist and warning that Armageddon was now imminent. The technology was so incendiary that they couldn’t even trust the patent office of any country with it. Josh first applied it to the growth of synthetic life-like systems: carbon-based, organic circuitry composed of interlocking protein networks, but not truly alive. Thus the Synths were born. At first he started selling animal-like models as a curiosity, pets, and for experimentation, but it wasn’t long before he patented his first several series of humanoid models, marketing them as a slave race to serve humanity. Seeing them as containing the sought-after protein sequence, all the major countries and corporations of the world bought the first, exorbitantly-priced models, but alas, they could not unravel anything unique in their organic circuitry, in fact, they couldn’t even tell what was making them work at all: they clearly weren’t living, and seemed to be just protein soup animated by some mysterious force.
But it was then that Josh applied his sequence to his ultimate dream: eternal life. Years earlier, substances called telomerase and telomearse were discovered, enzymes that apparently controlled the lifespan of a cell. However, they proved ineffective at altering the lifespans of multicellular organisms: the idea was deemed too complicated and shelved. Josh took a second look at it, however. To this day, it is not known what modifications he made, but, in the end, he created Ambrosia, the Golden Fountain Of Eternal Youth. Though he told a few of his scientist colleagues that the stuff was simply telomerase, the sample that was eventually obtained showed almost no resemblance to the original enzyme. Nonetheless it clearly worked. Perhaps his little joke to himself, he returned to his home state of Florida (to say that the Spanish had been right, The Fountain Of Youth really was there, they were just a couple hundred years early) to test the genetically modified enzyme first on bacteria, then simple plants, then fruit flies, and finally mice and a cow. All showed a complete cessation of aging and in fact development of any kind. Rumor had gotten out that the crazy mad scientist was making another Frankenstein, and some even reported it had something to do with “life extension”. Therefore he could not afford the usual human trials, he had no time to waste. He had his wife flown in under utmost security conditions, used the enzyme on himself and her, arranged for his assets to be handled and company to be sold, then faked their own deaths and left. Two days later, their bodies were found, toxicology revealed they had been killed by multiple, fast-growing and very deadly cancers, the result of mutated, genetically modified enzymes injected into their bloodstreams. Those bodies were in fact mindless clones, grown previously in case of emergency. When the story of their deaths broke, they were on a Lifter Ship halfway around the world.
Many mourned the death of perhaps the most brilliant scientist the world had ever known, and many others celebrated the death of a madman whom they feared would destroy all life as they knew it. The Vatican retracted its’ earlier statements, and said that he wasn’t the antichrist after all. The Synths continued to be sold and more series designed, and many other scientists tried to pick up with his work where he left off, but, in the end, no one could ever crack his code, and it was thought that he took it with him to the grave: poetic justice, they said, that he was killed by his own ungodly meddling. That was exactly what he wanted him to think. Of course, the conspiracy theories always continued. To the minds of the skeptical, much seemed wrong. The dental records of the bodies found were off from Josh & Jen’s actual files. Just because they were genetically identical, they argued, meant nothing. It was well known that Josh could create any genetic material he wished, and besides, cloning was already commonplace. Genetic evidence was no longer accepted as absolute proof of identity in other cases, so why here? Perhaps it was simply more convenient for all the powerful people involved if Professor Zmijewski stayed “dead”. And what about his world-changing genetic technology? Surely someone else could put that to use? But, nonetheless, most people believed it, and, for a time, the world sort of calmed down again, at least as far as concern over Josh Zmijewski went.
Over the course of the next 2 centuries, even while committing to the growth of the Revs as an anarchist organization, he always kept up his experiments with creating different types of altered humans. He was fascinated with the concepts of eugenics, removing detrimental properties from the human genome, and adding fantastical new ones. He created genetic sequences that continued to amplify the power of brain waves generated ever more, until telekinesis became a very real and powerful genetic modification. He created humans with different unique organs, and many different variations of biology. He even created many organisms that were hybrids of other organisms, and, perhaps most amazing of all, organisms made entirely of spontaneously-generated DNA, which were wholly man-made, contained any traits he wanted, and contained no genetic material from any naturally-evolved organism: so-called “trueform organisms”. By the time that The Exodus began, he was more than ready to begin mass-scale alteration. By this point, he had even invented the process by which electrical activity (the mind or “soul” of a person or animal) could be extracted from the brain without damaging it, then transferred to another intelligent system. The Revs were “healed”, their minds filtered free of trauma and brainwashing, and transferred into new bodies that were genetically different in many ways, including a lack of the genetic material responsible for humans’ apparent desire for conformity and control. How Josh could possibly have isolated the DNA responsible for a particular emotion or mental tendency is still one of the greatest mysteries when studying the Revs’ genetic history, and yet he clearly did, somehow. He also imbued them with the telomerase that granted them eternal life. This was the origin of a totally new human species, Homo caveteus.
Furthermore, as an even greater gift to a select elite he gave the awesome gift of telekinesis, perhaps the greatest human technology ever to have existed thus far. Telekinesis is technically just the capacity to manipulate objects with focused mental energy, but it is usually often erroneously applied to the broader and more correct but seldom used category of Telemanipulation, which means the capacity to manipulate any processes or effects in the physical world with focused mental energy. Those termed “telekinetics”, more commonly referred to as “teleks”, are more likely actually telemanipulatives- able to do much more with their mental energy than simply move things. At the same time, his confidence growing ever greater, he applied the same ideas to the creation of other technological fantasies: the first true AIs, spontaneously-generating, intelligent systems as smart as humans but completely electronic, and his long-held dream of creating The Angels: an elite caste of powerful, winged, mostly female telekinetic warriors which he would put his beloved wife in command of. Another discovery of this period, that of “Positive” and “Negative” energy, was really more in the field of physics, but had implications for biotechnology. While negative energy was already being put to use developing the Negadyne Bombs and other matter-devouring weaponry, the discovery of energy imbued with much greater-than-normal concentrations of positively charged force, or “positive” energy, which had the power to assemble atoms into more orderly forms or mend broken atomic structure, coupled with their already-existing skills of tissue cloning, nano-implantation, and tissue regeneration gave them unprecedented ability to heal sickness and injury, even resurrect the dead. By this time, however, the Socs had already partially caught up with them: using nanomachines to compensate for the their fundamental gap in knowledge, they were also starting to be able to create their own AIs and radically genetically altered organisms, although still largely inferior, and the capacity to create Teleks, Angels, or even their own Synths (not derivative of Josh’s original designs) was still far beyond them.
The Socs: And what of The Socs? That strange, obsolete breed so fiercely devoted to their old ways and outdated structures? Their lives and endless, ultimately futile struggle for conformity was never easy, and it only got worse once Josh and his Revs came along. You really can’t help but feel sorry for them: victims of the very evolution that had allowed them to survive to the point where they could develop the technology that gave birth to their successors, who had now passed them by. Victims, quite literally, of their own devices, victims of the endless cycle of needless misery they had created, originally, out of necessity. They believe that without Society, humans are no better than animals, indeed, they believe that the Revs, who reject Society, are animals, and they truly hate them for it. They cannot see beyond it, and will hold fast to this belief as long as they still draw breath.
As the “the modern world”, The World That Was, began to approach it’s end, the Socs were not worried. They had a firm control on things, if anything, it seemed, things were getting better, not worse, for Society. But they were sadly mistaken: it was their very blindness to the truth that allowed the Revs to come into existence in the first place, and they were doomed to never notice the gradual revolution brewing behind the scenes until it was too late. The world was already taking it’s first steps towards destruction and transformation, and the Socs could only watch as their neatly planned order of all things began to decay. Things were set in motion that could not then be stopped- the world was about to change, and they could not avoid it.
This isn’t to say that the heartless and shadowy men and women who had taken advantage of the crumbling and fearful civilization of the “huddled masses”, using it to catapult themselves into positions of unquestioned authority, were not dreadfully prepared for the horrific eventualities that they were expecting. When global thermonuclear holocaust failed and the ensuing apocalyptic war seemed like a potential losing struggle, they began to prepare their “final solution”: Option Zero, the creation of a nano-disassembler cloud with unlimited growth protocols, to be loosed on the Colonies in order to devour them completely but, hopefully, not the entire Earth. (Their plan to stop the Zero Cloud once it’s destroyed the Revs was still under construction.) Truth be known, they hated and feared their uncounted hundreds of millions of supposedly “loyal” drones as much as the openly reviled Revs- it was the constant terror of war and the supposedly insidious temptation of rebellion, deceit and lies that they used to keep them firmly within the confines of their domination. They sacrificed them, as many as possible, in order to panic them into total submission, while at the same time battering them against Rev defenses, hoping to bring the entire world once more under the sway of Society, as it should be. The Revs’ own tactics, their swift and brutal attacks which leave no survivors, were perhaps a greater boon than curse to the leaders of Society: it made them the perfect monsters, terror that swoops down from above, leaving none alive, on which nearly anything could be blamed. Who’s to say, when, perhaps, a certain outpost or group learns too much of the truth or gets a little too autonomous, that the Revs didn’t destroy it utterly? The very philosophy of the Socs gives them perhaps greater control than any other regime in history, as anyone with a hint of independent thought is branded traitor, demon, and Rev. Perhaps even more frightening is the future that they have planned for them: using the creation of Lattice Cells, nano-constructs that fuse with ordinary matter or living tissue and essentially “wire” together all of their component units into a singular, techno-organic entity, they intend to transform humanity and all of its’ artifice into a collection of gigantic, monolithic “machine hives”, complete with group-minds, in which individuality is utterly impossible. Indeed, it would not be at all surprising to note that the tyranny of the WSA is the most dreadful that has ever been upon the Earth, as it is the terrible Age Of War which played host to so many of the most extreme examples of various phenomena ever to exist.
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The PCs would be people on different sides. Play as a Rev Telekinetic Berserker (a dedicated hero) or a Soc Soldier (a tough hero). Or perhaps play as a survivor from the shattered surface, trying to make your way in the world without getting swept up into the conflict raging all around you. Yes, I realize it's a bit like Gamma World, but it's not THAT similar. Plus, this focuses more on the War itself. It's not just like "ok, there was this big war that destroyed the world, it's over, and now, here is the world, destroyed." It's like "here's this big war that's destroying the world, who will win? What will be the fate of the world?"
Or, for a really tough and interesting, kind of command-the-armies campaign, you could play as Josh (or Jen) or Allan Fisher. But that would be really high-powered though. Let me know what you guys think. I would appreciate any thoughts, opinions, ideas, or even criticisms, and really appreciate anyone who wanted to help at all converting it into an actual setting, making any stats or rules for anything I mentioned.
Other Factions: Here are other factions that are sub-groups within the overall categories of either Soc (basically lawful alignment whether good or evil) and
Rev (basically chaotic alignment whether good or evil). Credit for these goes to 77IM!
Megs: The beginning of the word "megalomaniac." This is a person -- either a Soc or a Rev -- who, having most of their needs attended to by technology, decides to spend their time dominating others. "An idle mind is the devil's playground," the old saying goes. In these people, the social instinct has become twisted and warped. Not strictly needing society (since science provides their every want), their desire to fit in to a hierarchy causes them to power-grab in every way possible, often by bullying others, encouraging unnecessary (and unfair) competition, and manipulating those closest to themselves. Megs are a problem on both sides (Socs and Revs); they are more well integrated to Soc culture, so they tend to be more successful there while damaging the culture less, although Rev megs, with their superior technology and lack of any behavioral restrictions, can be very insidious. Revs in general revile megs as one of the most hated form of Soc, while Socs can put up with a meg for a while if the meg's rule is good and society is upheld ("When Mussolini was in charge, at least the trains ran on time"). Megs, for their part, often take a stance of extreme zeal and loyalty towards their side of the war, but in reality, would switch sides quickly if they really thought it would increase their temporal power. Many Revs think Allan Fisher is a meg, and every Soc has been taught that Josh and Jen (indeed, every Rev) is little more than a successful meg.
Seekers: Why are we here? What is the purpose of existence? What meaning does my life have? When people don't have to work hard for a living, the mind is free to wander to such questions. The Seekers are a loose categorization of individuals who believe that the quest for meaning is the most noble of pursuits (although there are many of them who believe that the search is more important than the goal itself). Seekers share only a few traits. Most reject the materialism of the modern world, believing that there is more to reality than physical existence, and that ultimately, science and technology can't give us all the answers. All Seekers, however, believe that cosmic truth can't be forced upon any individual; some of the most vocal opponents of early Soc aggression against the Revs came from Soc Seekers. For years, Rev Seekers (who favor personal and scientific explorations of the universe and of the mind) and Soc Seekers (who often follow more traditional religious or spiritual paths) were able to put aside their differences out of respect for their mutual plight, but these relations have become strained with the outbreak of the war. Most Soc Seekers seem not so much angry with the Revs as disappointed with them for not sharing the secret of immortality with everyone. No Seekers are ever megs, and vice versa.
Garns: "Garn" is a broad term applied to those who, since the early days of Soc-Rev tension, chose not to take a side. A third, neutral faction that tries to make what little of a life for themselves as they can in isolated corners of the charred surface wastelands, they build little, primitive villages, outside the influence of the Revs' endless Lifter Colonies and the Socs' great underground complexes and fortified trenches that stretch for miles. A Garn village that can somehow acquire an old Lifter Ship is able to survive by trading with both Socs and Revs, but in fact hate them both: they hate the conflict, blame the Socs and Revs for the destruction of the land, and really couldn’t care less whether society exists or doesn't, they just hope the battles don't get too close to them and keep praying the Socs and Revs would all go away and leave them to their simple, nomadic lives.
These perpetual fence-sitters formed small communities around earth and in certain lifter colonies; most of them began as Soc subgroups that had some conflict of interest with the majority of the WSA, but were too attached to their traditional social structures to become Revs. These outcast groups tried to compromise both ideologies, by favoring very tolerant, loosely regulated societies with very simple interaction protocols between individuals. These groups generally fared poorly as neither side wanted much to do with them, although as the world got closer to war the original outcasts were joined by those Socs who didn't buy into the alleged Rev threat and wanted a "live and let live" policy. Once the Nine Days of Fire ended, however, it turned out that these outcasts had been, relatively speaking, the least devastated by the attacks, as neither the Socs nor the Revs viewed the destruction of outcast enclaves as strategically significant. Now, the relative number of outcasts is just barely enough for the Socs and Revs to take note of them, constantly trying to persuade or intimidate the outcasts into joining their side. The future is bleak for the outcasts, because their small numbers and independence make them easy targets should the Socs or Revs decide they want what little land and resources the Garns have left. Although some neo-pacifists have joined the Garns since the outbreak of the civil war, outcast enclaves can also be havens to ambitious megs, escaped Soc criminals, and disenchanted Revs.
Pax Aria: Those Revs calling themselves the "Pax Aria" differ from most others in that they lack the visceral hatred towards Socs that drives their brethren to war. Perhaps members of the Pax Aria have friends or relatives who are Socs, or enjoyed certain aspects of Soc traditions (these Revs often engage in archaic Soc habits for the fun of it), or are simply genetically non-aggressive. In fact, many kind of like the Socs, in the same manner that some people consider goofy animals "cute." Needless to say, these Revs are mostly against the war, although they would never enforce this view upon anyone. A few of the bolder members of Pax Aria have even fled the colonies to ally with those Soc groups that are a little more tolerant (probably out of necessity more than genuine desire to conform).
Shards: With the technology to extract a living creature's electronic brain pattern, duplicate it, and shuffle it around, questions of identity take on a whole new aspect. If someone selects "File --> Copy" on your brain image, which one is the real you? The Shards experiment continuously on their own consciousness, duplicating themselves, changing the desires of these duplicates, exposing them to unusual (often virtual) environments, and then incorporating their experiences back into themselves. Many Shards are considered insane by Soc standards; most have some form of MPD, and occasionally one will spawn off a virulent personality fragment that reproduces itself continuously, spreading through computer systems or even the production of clones. Shards also study the tricky techniques of merging two personalities into one; Shard Divinists seek to join with Josh or Jen, while darker Shards hope to one day rival the King.
Gia-Revs: There are many fearsome, individualistic Revs who care nothing for others, but these pale in comparison with the Gia-Revs. The Gia-Revs feel no need to enforce their views and beliefs on others, but they do not have any problem destroying or manipulating others -- these are the sociopaths of the Rev world, those who sometimes do not even recognize that sentient beings other than themselves exist. Some were made into Revs without their consent, or are creatures created by Josh with an odd mix of psychological elements, while others are imperfect Rev conversions or just plain crazy. Many Gia-Revs resent Josh and actively seek to topple his reign. The Revs have no desire to exile anyone, even someone who actively plotted against Josh. Although, I suppose, if they started to eventually cause actual harm to other Revs’ happiness and well-being, they would be forced to, but it would certainly be a sad day for the Revs when they had to actually "punish" one of their own, something very antithical to their natures. They are often cast out of Lifter Colonies, sent to wander the earth, where they are often more dangerous, especially those that can infiltrate Soc groups and use them to further their own schemes.
The Purified: Society is a virus, a cancer that feeds of humanity. And while offering some temporary benefits, it is slowly killing mankind. It is a symbiotic parasite, one that has become deeply rooted into the soul of humanity, and a few generations of enlightenment and separation is not enough to starve it, Society is dormant within the Revs, but it is not dead. And die it must, even though the path to it’s true death is not an easy one, or so the Purified believe. The Purified are an extremely pious and dedicated order within the Revs who seek to isolate themselves (with only their synth) from all others, that they might free themselves completely of the trappings of anything at all resembling Society. Many are also worshippers of Josh as the God Supreme, and many others also believe in seeking the cosmic truth in addition to totally purifying themselves of Society. They believe that Society is a corruptive and insidious agent that can take hold of the heart of even the most chaotic and loyal Rev, it’s tools are the creeping desire for power and control, and the Purified seek to purify themselves. They meditate on the Chaos inherent in the human soul, examine everything that others take for granted-- every value, every convention, every thought, to see if it is a part of True Humanity or is tainted by the corruption of Society. Of course, all Revs do these things, but The Purified take it to a degree of fanaticism rare even among the Revs, perhaps one of the most zealous and devoted peoples in all of history! The Purified are a strange paradox: an ascetic order at the heart of a pleasure-worshipping anti-society. They still partake in and enjoy pleasure, but as a means to grow closer to True Humanity and live as the random and impulsive animals humans were meant to be. In addition to their meditations, Ascendants also make use of neuro-filtering technology to try and remove all corruption of Society from their souls. It is unknown whether any Purified have yet achieved the ascension of True Humanity. Purified who have not yet entirely committed themselves to the isolated lifestyle serve in Rev anti-society by being agents of greater chaos. Everywhere they go, they make parties more raucous, people more impulsive; they basically encourage Revs to be better Revs. They are also inquisitors of those who seem to be trying to make those around them more like themselves: those suspected of being traitors, or at least corrupted by, Society.
The Uncorrupted: These Socs believe in purity of body, mind, and spirit-- their greatest goal is to preserve the nat
Edited by manowater989, 04 July 2005 - 08:10 AM.
