Vitae Iaculis: Fantasy/Sci-Fi Interest, Worldbuilding and Signup

Since its inception, the Internet has becoming the ultimate tool for information, entertainment, communication, and anonymity. It's changed the entire world, and every single day it grows more and more powerful. But where is its limit? Does one truly exist? In the world of this RP, there isn't one.

In this RP, Earth is a world of magic AND science, where the greatest sorcerers and the greatest scientists often work together to develop inventions that we could only dream of. One such invention, is the Magi-Net. Through combining the forces of magic and science, the internet has become a virtual plane, where the entire human essence, your body, mind and soul is made into code and sent into the system, giving you free reign to use the internet in a more hands-on way, and to see technology and magic more clearly. All of your senses, virtualized. You have the software at your fingertips, and you can make yourself look and sound like whatever you want. That's what the internet is all about. Who are you behind closed doors?

—-

So, welcome back to another Saturn RP Signup thread. I'm got too much freetime this summer, so I'd like to actually use it, get off my ass, and get a real interesting fun RP going. I've already done a lot of worldbuilding for this baby, so please give me the time to explain all the important stuff before getting into the sign-up.

The World
This ultimate fusion of magic and science has obviously changed the world quite a bit. As a whole, there is a lot less poverty, but still a lot of war and terrorism. Now, criminals and enemies just have another avenue to explore their methods. It's alot easier to steal an important peice of data when you are the virus that is going in and taking it yourself. But at the same time, it's also easier to protect when you are the anti-spyware. The UN is also bigger than it is now, and Antarctica is a country with a population rivalling Europe.

The Virtual World
The year is 2152, and the virtual plane has been around for about 100 of those years. Imagine that the internet has become more like a magical plane all of its own, than just a virtual interface. Your "desktop" is your own personal haven, your room in the world. The sites in the internet the different dimensions. That may be making it a bit too simplified, but it is easiest to think of it like that for now. Along with the human sub/consious, all senses are virtualized. You don't need food, sleep, or water, and you can be on as long as you want. While data transfer is very fast, the human mind alone is about 2.5 petabytes (100 million gigabytes) worth of data, and that doesn't even count your soul. Transporting that much data takes a lot of power and even some technical know-how, so while moving from different sites and dimensions within the internet is easy, moving across and through them is difficult, and amounts much to the way travel is in the real world.

The Combat
Combat in the real world hasn't changed too much, but since we will be spending a majority of time in the virtual plane, it's important to know how different things are. You have a lot of power at your fingertips in the virtual world, but so does everyone else. To start, there are the basic abilities that anyone with minimal technical knowledge can do. They can change their physical appearance to pretty much whatever they want, but with the way systems are designed, this is limited to humanoid appearance (including things like elves, etc.) The only way something like this could be combatted is through hacking. You also have the ability to show/play holographic images and videos right in front of you, if you have them in your system, and you have access to all the software and programs from your personal computer system. In this world, software can be used in the same kind of ways spells are, and they look like them when virtualized. For example, you might say something like "Fireball.exe!". Elemental software is the most common, but the possibilities are near-limitness.

Hacking is a subset of magic all of it's own. With extensive knowledge, you can alter the systems around you, and the people around you. You can do things like summon virus creatures, make people slower, seep away data and memory to make yourself stronger. Most, if not all, of these kinds of tricks are illegal, so it is like this RP's Black Magic. You can also have knowledge of things like anti-spyware and system speed-up software, making that like the RP's White Magic.

And then there is of course, good old fashion Fisticuffs. Suddenly MASHING your data against someone else's tends to hurt.

When you've taken too much damage, you lose data, and your system goes wacky. You'll respawn, but'll take a bit. Like your computer rebooting. But if you were to lose all of your data, or if very private and important files were deleted, you could be gone forever. But, system the human is composed of so much complicated data, this is unfeasible. But still possible.

The Big Players
Besides the nations of the world, there are a few important groups in the public eye. Shortly after going into the internet became a public thing, a dangerous cult popped up, calling themselves Diaspora. They believe that the next step in human evolution is being completely composed of code, and they often resort to cyberterrorism. There is also the international hacking group, BLACK BOX, devoted to increased knowledge of hacking methods to basically do whatever the hell they want. Their might be a few other important groups waiting for us...

The Plot
The basic plot is this. A few years back, through a strange glitch, a man and a woman actually CONCIEVED a child, online. Their data combined to make a completely new person, who is basically a virus, a system glitch, but a sentient one that is like a human. This child was instantly brought into the public eye, being a person born completely from code. She was taken from her parents, and is currently in posession of the government. America has chosen one of their Odd Job employers (played by me) to form a team to successfully transport this girl to a private UN server, keeping her safe from anyone that would want her or her data. Especially groups like Diaspora and BLACK BOX. My character will be going into a public IRC chat (like meeting in a bar), looking for muscle and technical knowhow.

The Sign-up
* Name: Could technically be whatever you want. People usually go by some kind of username, instead of a real name online.

• Age: Once again, limitless possibilities, as far as physical appearance is concerned.
• Gender: Male or Female or anywhere in between.
• Apperance: Mallable to infinity, but people tend to have a favorite.
• Weapons/Armor: Virtual tools for fighting off the virtual enemy!
• Data: What important peices of software, data, or prized virtual items do you have in your possession?
• Personality: Much easier to fake online.
• Skills: What kind of technical knowledge do you have that allows you to do neat things? Make sure if have it fit your bio, and actually make sense. Include kinds of spells here.
• Bio: What is your character's life like up to this point?
• Other: Some details that don't fit anywhere else.

edited 6th Jul '13 9:53:50 AM by Saturn

Posting interest here, as you well know.

Interest. I meant to post here at first, but accidentally posted to another.

Probably going to rock the white magic.

Definitely interested. I'm getting a quasi-Megaman Battle Network vibe off this.

If nobody minds, I'll probably be our "black magic" guy, with an extra twist!

Interest.

I wanna be the geeky computer nerd. Although that's kinda redundant.

Interested, I guess.

Interested

Yay! Lots of interest. You guys can go ahead and post sign ups

• Name:
• Age: 26
• Gender: Female
• Appearance:
• Weapons/Armor:
• Data: What important pieces of software, data, or prized virtual items do you have in your possession?
• Personality:
• Skills:
• Bio:
• Other:

E-nterest.

Interested

I'd like to be our resident rogue/thief/urban-ninja

edited 8th Jul '13 1:22:50 AM by sanojutsu

• Name: Thanatos
• Age: 25
• Gender: Male
• Apperance: Thanatos's appearance is similar to how his namesake is portrayed in several mythological sources. That is, he appears as a winged young man dressed in black, with a sword on his belt. He has blond hair. Thanatos's appearance differs in that he wears a mask on his face that obscures his true features - the mask depicts the face of a man in the style of many classical statues.
• Weapons/Armor:
  • Pistols: This pair of pistols appears innocent enough, with black lower halves and stainless steel upper sections. They certainly aren't powerhouses by any definition of the word. However, Thanatos can rapidly fire them with relative ease.
  • Sword: The sword is more of a back up weapon in case an opponent gets too close - again, it doesn't do very much damage. Its blade is well polished, and the hilt is of black leather.
  • Sorceror's Robe: Not so much armour as clothing that enhances the wearer's ability to access data and alter it; some say that it also helps with anti-virus software and its ilk, though if it can it is of little value to Thanatos. The clothing consists of a small capelet of sorts over a silver trimmed black robe. The trim seems to pulse softly with an inner light, especially when data is being accessed.
• Data:
  • Notebook program: Used for noting down important information or taking photographs to embed in documents. It resembles a highly advanced tablet computer.
  • Exploit kit: This bit of software looks harmless enough when used - a spray of technicolour particles that can be "thrown" at whatever needs to be affected - but it lowers the target's resistance to attempts to hack it. It needs to be used carefully to avoid accidentally infecting allies - it is not, after all, like the kit can automatically discern Thanatos's friends from foes.
• Personality: Thanatos is polite to an almost annoying degree, almost never getting frustrated or angry - even when something goes badly wrong. He is fascinated by learning new facts, especially in physics and other sciences. A keen sense of curiousity means that he finds it very difficult to leave something well enough alone. After all, what if there's some hidden gem tucked inside? His demeanour can be likened to that of a patient mentor.
• Skills:
  • Nightfall.EXE: Thanatos's most basic skill. It manifests as a dark beam of "energy". If it hits, it scrambles the target's data and disorients them.
  • Data frag.EXE: This spell is visible as a large ball of darkness. It fragments the data of whatever it hits, slowing them down, and it has a chance of stunning them as their data reconfigures itself to get around the fragmenting.
  • Vampire.EXE: Though it requires Thanatos to get within touching distance, this skill does exactly what the name suggests - it drains the target of memory and data and restores Thanatos's own supplies of both.
  • Black Hole.EXE: Another spell that does exactly what it says on the tin - a small black hole forms at the point Thanatos points at, sucking opponents in and damaging them before spitting them back out again. Targets have a chance of continuing to leak data/memory for a period after this attack.
  • Hacking: If Thanatos gets within touching distance, he can hack systems to either gain access or corrupt data (though he usually just uses it to get into a system). The complexity of the system influences how long it takes to hack (and how easy it is). For example, "dumb" programs will take less time to hack than someone in the employ of a security company - and even then success is nowhere near guaranteed.
• Bio: The man behind the mask is one Joseph Moresby: a young Physics teacher in a small town - the same town, in fact, that he grew up in as a child, the only son of two loving parents. Moreso than other people, he was fascinated by physics - and the dark arts of hacking, which he began practicing as a teenager. At first, it was just something that he dabbled in to pass the time, and see if he could. As his skills grew, however, he began testing himself against ever more complex security networks, always just barely evading attempts by white hats to snatch him.

As he has grown older, however, Joseph realised that he can't possibly hope to get lucky forever. As a result, he has hacked less and less, always waiting for that last "big job" before getting out for good. It looks as though this may be exactly what he's looking for.

• Other: Though I think he's got plenty of skills now (in fact I'm kind of worried I went overboard), with Saturn's express permission I may have him gain some new skills in the mid-late game, if that is at all possible.

Hope that's okay!

Hm, might do a Kosher Nostra gangster.

Accepted Flanker! You captured the exact spirit of the RP.

I hope other's are still interested in joining.

Thomas (my guy) could be a skilled hacker in BLACK BOX.

• Name: Thomas Jaspers (AKA Checkers)
• Age: In realty he is 14, but he has made himself 19 in the plane.
• Gender: Male
• Appearance: Your usual Caucasian with slightly tanned skin and spiky brown hair. He has empty eye sockets instead of eyes (will explain later), and a birthmark that is three spots in a curved line underneath his right eye... Socket. His outfit usually includes a dark blue bandanna around his neck, and pale blue jacket with darker sleeves rolled up to his elbows, having black and teal striped on the cuffs and a checkered pattern on the hood and on a circular bit of cloth patched onto the top of the right side of the chest. Other than that he wears a checkered wristband, pale brown jeans, a white tee with a black and white bullseye, and navy sneakers. He is around five foot six.
• Weapons/Armor: Thomas wears a visor over his eyes than enables him to see, with a button on the left side that switches the visor's display between normal sight and digital sight, the latter used when he is hacking.
• Data: 'Checkers' keeps a record of various GI Fs with him to deploy as distractions or weapons.
• Personality: Usually very hateful and pessimistic, he is easily angered and doesn't trust others or cooperates easily. Very rarely he can be caught in a better mood and can be a bit cheerful and joking then. Thomas is also amoral and can become violent quickly when angered.
• Skills: He is a skilled hacker in BLACK BOX and shows it.
• Bio: (Apologies if I screw it up. I'm not very good a this type of thing) Thomas first discovered the plane when he was young, and was mentored in hacking by his older brother, Dean. The two explored the digital world together, with Dean watching Thomas's back and helping him hone his skills until they were recruited into BLACK BOX, where the brothers put their knowledge of hacking to good use. One day, someone had assaulted Dean and infected his virtual self with a virus, turnin into a fatal injury in reality, killing him in both the plane and real world. After this, Thomas became closed off to most others, spending most of his one messing around with and improving the skills he had.
• Other: Imagine his visor as Future Tom's from Eddsworld (look it up if you must I'm crap at links), said character also being one of my inspirations for Thomas.

Interest

Might give myself a look in.