Kayden – Light & Dark V2: Signup Thread

The Premise:

A large planet. Approximately 2.5 million light years away from Earth. Located in the Andromeda Galaxy. Orbiting a young, blue star, and the owner of two moons; one of them half the entire astral body's size, the other a meteoroid only a few thousand miles across.

The planet's surface was rather earthlike in nature. Green plantlife, alien yet somehow simultaneously familiar trees, a blue sky...

The major, and most jarring difference, was the fact that the planet wasn't revolving in the slightest.

Okay, to be fair, that's a bit of an exaggeration. The planet was revolving, but it was at a speed relative to its orbit around its star. Much like the moon of Earth in a galaxy far, far away, the planet was tidal-locked, causing one side to be locked in perpetual darkness, and the other a never ending day.

This was Kayden. A planet split at the seam (quite literally) by a colossal, nigh-unbreakable wall stretching along its entire equator. The civilised reside on the light side, the beasts roam on the dark.

Or rather, so it seems. But as we all know, the victories are written by the victors. And the details can be readily forgotten with the careful spread of propaganda and delicately delivered white lies.

Love, war, diplomacy, serenity, and chaos reside in this world cut in half by itself, with the only choices in sides being a lesser of two evils. Cornered, the so-called 'civilised' have become almost as monstrous as their foes – the immensely strong beasts known only as the Altürgone.

May the fallen rest, and the standing fight. May friendships and trust prevail over sheer hatred and ruthlessness, and may light triumph over darkness.

But darkness may disguise itself as light.

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...

I really shouldn't act on my impulses like that.

...

Ah, well. Third time's the charm, right? Maybe this could last a decent amount of time. Or perhaps not. We'll see what happens. That aside, though, let me explain what this is in short.

Kayden: Light and Dark was my first attempt at GMing a roleplay. It was my baby. My deformed, sickly baby that died in only a handful of posts. I'll graciously ignore that surprisingly dark simile by continuing to explain how it was a mess of shallowly thought out ideas. And since these concepts have been sizzling in my delicious brain juices for a year or so now, I feel a little more ready to tackle this again. Just... don't expect me to pretend I've got a plan. I'm winging it, so player input and suggestion will be very much appreciated.

All that said, this will be a little more freeform, a little more sandbox-y, and hopefully a little less railroad-y too. I'll just be providing the basic setting and skeletal info on my ideas of these aliens' planet, culture, biology, etc. I'll try not to bore you to tears, but no promises. So, let's get started...

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Da Rules

• As standard, the forum and roleplaying rules all apply, respectively. No godmodding, autohitting, ghosting, metagaming, Mary Sue-ing, or any of that crap, or I'll step in with my big mean cross face. And you won't like my big mean cross face.
• Characters must conform to a few rules. They may have a maximum power level of Super Weight 3, though depending how this'll develop this may be subject to change. No graphic depictions of rape, abuse, or other such triggering events for the sake of including triggering events are allowed to be shown in detail, though they may be implied or included if they are justified and handled with respect and care. You may have multiple characters if you wish, but please respectfully display restraint with signing up character after character. Be sure to fully explore your current character before deciding to move on to another. I'm open-minded with this stuff, but the fact remains that this could cause imbalance in the long run.
• Your character(s) may either be of an original House, or from a branch family of the eight main Houses (listed below). Note that unless stated otherwise the listed Houses have established heirs in their main branches already, although feel free to ask me about a particular House and whether it's main branch is available if it's unclear or they haven't shown any screentime.
• As a final note, Kaydenites from Aentolin in particular conform to a four-letter name rule, for both House names and personal names. Hyphens don't count and can be used in moderation, but note that names like X'l't'l (xolotl) will just be confusing and end up looking ugly, as opposed to names like Zul'r (zuhl-ur) and Fe'ki (fee-kie) which are more easy to get a hold of the pronunciation. That said, this is minor, but just try to keep names uncomplicated if possible, is all I'm saying.

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The City of Aentolin

The main setting, and one of the most prestigious settlements in the whole of the Daytime Region. Aentolin is gobsmackingly vast in height, its gleaming skyscrapers rocketing miles above the cloud line and actively incorporating the nature around into their architecture. The city runs primarily on solar energy and hydroelectricity; and so it isn't unusual to see cascading waterfalls flowing down from building to building in a Rube Goldberg-esque fashion all to turn one single waterwheel down below. Reflective surfaces seemed to be the designer's main fetish, although considering the beating heat of the planet's sun it is an understandable and respectfully intelligent solution. Hover vehicles busily crowd the sky, older models using thrusters and newer, sleeker variants using localized gravity fields, and gyroscopically-propelled autonomous drones act as traffic control and law enforcement. Notable locations include the centrepiece; the Council headquarters, followed by the many House compound buildings scattered about the corners of the city, the Aentolian Combat Academy, and the Plaza – the main commercial hub and recreational point for many an Aentolian Kaydenite.

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The Primary Eight

Consisting of the Houses of Veda, Tume, Zyla, Ymar, Aeta, Tehk, Seng, and Anok, the Primary Eight are the most prominent families in the Council of Aentolin, with their respective representatives being the most powerful political figures in the city. Collectively, they dictate most decisions during pre-scheduled meetings, however if certain representatives cannot attend for one reason or another the remaining Houses are obliged to make decisions without them.

Out of the Eight, the oldest Houses are Tume, Anok, and Seng, who overall couldn't be more different than the other. The House of Tume has a reputation of pride and extravagance, the House of Anok is known for their ruthlessness and militaristic tendencies, and the House of Seng is known for their empathy and diplomacy (barring a background eldership of arrogant power mongering rivalling even that of the Tumes).

Veda, Zyla, and Ymar are also fairly well-established, with Veda being focused on public comforts and security (and fittingly perhaps the most stable of the Eight), Zyla being unpredictable wildcards with a notoriety of instability (making them prone to arguments with the rest of the Council) and Ymar being incredibly traditional, historical, and secretive in their endeavours, mainly acting as observers and rarely taking part in political affairs with the exception of severe situations.

Finally, the two youngest Houses, Tehk and Aeta, are perhaps the most divisive in reception and opinion amongst the rest of the Eight. Tehk is mostly ambivalent and seemingly possessing their own, unidentified agenda, despite being providers of most of Aentolin's recent technology, while Aeta tends to be (while admittedly well-meaning) too naïve and overly enthusiastic for proper decision (although they do graciously provide more the most obvious if impractical points than the others and tend to settle quite quickly and stubbornly on their choices).

All in all, the Eight are... decently balanced, and as long as each House do their respective parts the Council tends to run fairly effectively. However, what with their own respective flaws and hidden conspiracies, most of their antics raise questions of their stability and supposed lawful high ground within the public. As such, tensions have risen amongst the lesser Houses in Aentolin over their right to rule the city's infrastructure and military.

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The Kaydenites

Also sometimes known as the Rellanorth, the Kaydenites are the primary species of focus in the RP, and the species of which each character should be modeled after. While externally similar to humans, there are tremendous differences if one were to look closer, as listed here:

• Kaydenites are about five inches shorter to that of your standard human; going by the average height of an American male and female (which is about 5'10 and 5'5 respectively), the Kaydenite male and female would be more along the lines of 5'5 for the males and 5'0 exact for the females. Naturally, this is all subjective, and the heights can still dramatically vary, but generally there is a notable height difference to be seen.
• Kaydenites are also incredibly lightweight and lacking in muscle mass, perhaps due to Kayden's somewhat lower gravity and the species' natural inclination towards acrobatics. Their skeletal structure also incorporates hollow bones similar to that of Earth birds to further this advantage, albeit with the natural consequence of making them much physically weaker and more inclined to suffering injuries and trauma.
• Kaydenite skin is fairly thick and tough, yet also surprisingly porous. Their skin is usually a painfully stark pallid white, however other tones aren't unheard of, albeit being rare due to the difficulty melanin has in effectively tinting the colour of the skin. It is to be noted that instead of a pinkish tinge like on the skin of humans that are blushing, Kaydenites actually have a more blue or purplish hue whenever flushed. This is because their blood is haemocyanin-based instead of haemoglobin-based, similar to that of molluscs and cephalopods, and thus is tinted a rich azure blue due to the copper running through their veins instead of the more widespread iron-based blood. This trait is shared across many of Kayden's fauna, and is brought about by differences in oxygen count in the planet's atmosphere.
• Kaydenites are indeed omnivores – albeit leaning more to the carnivorous, predatory side – and as such, their teeth are sharpened to almost serrated degrees and their eyes possess a thin, third membrane to negate them the need to blink upon catching sight of and stalking possible prey. Most Kaydenites catch their own food – either in designated 'hunting spots' or simply in the middle of the city – although the latter is frowned upon and seen as uncivil and savage.
• Kaydenites also possess a total of six gill-like slits on either side of their neck, thin enough to be fairly unnoticeable at first glance (especially if shadowed by the hair or a high collar). However, a Kaydenite can open up those slits, revealing a complex mish-mash of layered tissues that grant them a wide range of inhuman grunts, growls, roars, and screeches – some of which are necessary in their communication. Due to them being directly connected to a Kaydenite's Hardlight pathways (see below), it is not uncommon for one to see a white glow emanating from beneath the slits, and they can even involuntarily produce hot steam if the Kaydenite is especially fatigued or burnt-out.
• Yet perhaps the most glaring difference of all is the Kaydenite's natural combat skill – the ability to generate high-heat plasma and channel it through and out of their body. Commonly referred to as 'Kenlœ' (lit. Hardlight) by those speaking the Aentolian tongue, this phenomenon is possible due to a collection of small, hollow sacs located in the Kaydenite's abdomen, which use supercharged pacemaker cells in order to drastically heat up the air trapped inside and convert it from a gaseous to a plasma state. They can then push this plasma around their body via a separate, vein-like system permeating their entire form, and either expel it through their porous skin or carefully balance their output so as to focus and form simplistic constructs, such as swords, chakrams, spears, and more. Constant training with a specific construct will grant a Kaydenite mastery over it in time, allowing them to form it quicker, more efficiently, and in a more solidified and accurate form to whatever it's replicating. Note that unyielding, superfluous generation of this biologically produced plasma in a short amount of time will take its toll on even the most skilled of Kaydenites, and they will suffer from a condition known as 'burn-out' – where their delicate organs will become inflamed and blocked, causing symptoms of fever and hacking cough in the sufferer, as well as disorientation and weakness. Burn-out symptoms and the majority of the swelling naturally fades over the course of a few hours or so,^note  although scarring and internal damage will still be in effect and gradually build up over time the more burn-out cases a Kaydenite suffers through in their life – so they must still be mindful lest they cause themselves lasting damage however there are specialized pills provided by the House of Tehk that relieve symptoms in a considerably shorter amount of time; advised for frequent use by Aentolian warriors so as for them to not be caught vulnerable in a life-threatening situation. As an alternative, Kaydenites can also vent out heat and excess Hardlight by opening their aforementioned glottal warblers to cool off in seconds, accelerating the decrease of swelling to massive degrees – although this strategy carries risks as the slightest lapse in concentration could irreversibly burn up the external vocal chords and cause the Kaydenite to permanently lose their ability to speak. The sheer amount of heat resistance required for the average Kaydenite's body to successfully and reliably push around plasma means they are completely invulnerable to fire, and thus can only be harmed by heat sources equal or hotter than that of their own plasma.
  • As a side note, Kaydenite eye colour is entirely dictated by the pigmentation of the plasma generated by their body, and it isn't uncommon for their eyes to actually catch light if the Kaydenite in question is putting in tremendous effort. Some Kaydenites receive implants to their Hardlight organs to alter the colour of the plasma generated as well as their irises, having a similar cultural significance to that of tattoos.

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The Equator Wall

A mind-numbingly vast, monolithic structure over 230 metres in height and stretching along the entirety of Kayden's equator line, positioned in the transitional and only mildly-occupied Twilight Region. All light seems to be absorbed into the wall, giving it an unnatural, pitch black sheen, and its incomprehensibly colossal nature plus its tendency to automatically reconstruct itself upon receiving damage causes reason to believe it may even be a living organism, especially so when one adds on the slight rhythmic vibrations able to be felt rippling across the wall at regular intervals. Either due to there being none willing to speak up about this matter, or any who have previously done so simply being shot down and silenced, this particular mystery of Kayden remains unsolved.

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The Wildlands

The common nickname to the entire Nighttime Region, the Wildlands are the brutal half of the planet located immediately after the Equator Wall, although the actual dangers aren't apparent until one leaves the Twilight Region and travels further into the abandoned wasteland. Consisting mostly of collapsing, abandoned architecture, charred trees, and rotting remains, the stench of blood is strong here, and the unearthly wails of the creatures roaming about are haunting. Only the most brutal and hardened of Kaydenite soldiers would dare venture out by their own volition, even if accompanied by a companion – and to try and go completely alone would be absolute insanity. Horrors and disrespectful deaths creep up from every corner, and the freezing, pitch blackness of it all does nothing to quell the atmosphere.

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The Altürgone

Directly translating to 'traitorous beasts' (for reasons unknown, potentially a decayed meaning), these creatures are labelled as irredeemable, mindless and sadistic abominations that infest the Nighttime Region in droves, preying on those foolish enough to wander out with their guard lowered. The Altürgone drastically vary from one another in appearance and size, but they are commonly constructed of bloated flesh, sinew, mucus, and chitin, armed with claws like short swords and mouths so packed with mismatching razors of teeth they can barely close their lips around them. Some scholars and intuitive types have published theories about what exactly these creatures could be, but all articles and literature released on the subject are quickly pulled by the Aentolian Council for unknown reasons. Whatever the case, the Altürgone do seem to relish the torture and agony of any Kaydenites that they victimize by acts alone, however the suspicious lack of details makes their true motives (if any) as well as true nature unclear to the soldiers assigned to extinguish them. It is even possible that freezing up in uncertainty over the matter is what might have caused so many deaths from trainees and even higher ranking officers sent on exhibitions and scouting missions to the Nighttime Region, with their more broad and thinking minds than their peers ending up arguably being the cause of their demise.

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*pant pant pant*

...okay... that took a while... give me a moment... oh god...

...okay... alright. I'm good. Slightly dying of exhaustion, but good. That's all I can be bothered to write out for now, but there's a lot more to be covered, don't you worry. For now, let's see what we can do about a signup template, hm...?

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• Given Name: (Remember the four-letter rule!)
• House Name: (Either original or one mentioned in the Primary Eight. Note if it's the latter I'm assuming them to be a branch family.)
• Age: (Kayden's years are ten times that of Earth's, and a Kaydenite's age reflects that with an average total lifespan of about 1,000 years. Keep that in mind.)
• Gender: (Aentolian Kaydenites have three terms in their language; Kayo: equivalent of male, Kaya: equivalent of female, and Kayu: an interchangeable, neutral term. In other words, male, female, or other. Specify in this manner only if you wish.)
• Rank: (Following standard U.S. Army rankings for simplicity's sake. Leave this out if your character isn't part of the Aentolian military.)
• Appearance: (Text description or image link. If you can actually find a decent one of the latter.)
• Personality: (Go wild!)
• Bio: (Their general background.)
• Signature Hardlight Technique(s): (Self-explanatory. Describe their favourite and most used constructs or manoeuvres, whether it be weaponry, protective barriers, or some sort of advanced propulsion. Again, go wild! In... moderation, of course.)
• Extra: (Anything else, be it leitmotifs or miscellaneous tidbits.)

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Character List:

• Justin Henderson by Nick The Swing
• Terg-li Anok by Taco

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Alright. Finally done. Let's see how this goes, aye?

Edited by Enirboreh on Aug 29th 2018 at 4:24:15 PM

bork

• Given Name: Justin Henderson
• Age: When he was last human, he was around 22 years old. With what became of him, he's several thousand years old at the very least.
• Gender: Male
• Rank: Corporal before all went south.
• Appearance: When Justin was human, he was basically a classic All American Boy and example of Good-Looking Privates, with dyed blond hair, with some brown hair at the tips, blue eyes, and a slightly tanned look. He had a somewhat muscular build indicating his military training. He most often wore military surplus, indicating, again, his background and current occupation. Justin notably has a large number of scars on his back.
  • However, that is all in the past. After an accident, Henderson wound up as a hideous Cyborg, though he's redesigned himself a large number of times. He is currently using a silver and red armored looking design, hands involving sharp blade like ends on each finger, around four wings coming off of his shoulders that are made of sword blades apparently, and half his face, some of his chest under his armor, and a bit of an arm is all that remains of the original human Justin.
• Personality: Henderson is best described as cold-hearted, lonely, nihilistic and full of grudges. The trauma of his "death" and what he came back as scarred him physically as well as mentally, resulting in a desperate, psychotic personality that just as frequently longs for a return to what he was in as much as he longs for revenge for perceived wrongs. Henderson outright despises those who live in outstanding wealth and excessive consumption, because in his point of view, he was neglected in being rescued in favor of someone of "higher class". As a result, he sees the great houses of Kayden as being more of the same. Despite taking a misanthropic and hateful tack, Henderson needs interaction and social experiences as much as any other individual, and so has basically taken to creating friends when he lacked for any living company. There is a lot of self-loathing inherent in Justin Henderson - he is acutely aware for all his protestations of being human he is far, far less than human.
• Bio: Justin Henderson WAS once a heroic individual from Earth, and he from what he remembers fought against various foul characters and such, until one of them almost killed him. He was due to be rescued, however, the heroes were late to the rescue due to other factors, which related to a wealthy boy named Colin. However, an individual known as Amanda Wallace showed up and took the barely living Henderson in. She rebuilt him using experimental machines and powerful "microbots". When Justin Henderson awoke, he was keenly aware something had gone horribly, horribly wrong. It was when he saw his face with a blocky, sparking mass of technology on the left side that his mind, shall we say, snapped. Making use of a bevy of abilities, Justin Henderson became a scourge. Adapting and empowering himself, seizing control of technology and making a variety of horrifying weapons, Justin Henderson was a seemingly undying monster. Ultimately however he was cast into space aboard a massive chunk of rock, which he would eventually build into the War Star, his method of transit - as well as prison and battle station. Justin more or less drifted through the cosmos, though eventually the War Star drifted to a planet called Kayden and crash landed. Few would have any inkling about the odd downed meteor made of metal and what it contained.
• Abilities: Henderson is an odd duck in the context of the RP - he is not from Kayden, thus he lacks the hard light powers inherent to Kaydenites. However if anything Henderson has a dangerous arsenal of his own - his technopathy, various energy weapons, and ability to generate more weapons, as well as manipulating and "roboticizing" others through a certain amount of exposure to his microbots.
• Extra: Henderson's machine mooks are fearsome and dangerous, but have never fought Kaydenites before, presenting a gap in their capacities.

Sign on for this After The End Fantasy RP.

First character and already something completely different. Should be fun.

Accepted.

bork

• Given Name: Terg-li. TA.
• House Name: Anok
• Age: 200
• Gender: They/them
• Rank: Major
• Appearance: (Text description or image link. If you can actually find a decent on
• Personality: TA is kind of a sour visionary. They think the Mobile Frame will do the world good, but they also don't believe in the Houses' ability to support them in doing so. They think that the way forward is going to be with the private citizenry and most likely with non-Aentolian people too. The noble houses should step down to private business and industry in order for the world to move forward.
• Bio: TA is a typical Anok for not giving a fuck about what was told them about the rules of the world. Their parents were low-ranking Anok clerks who worked taxes and tariffs in rural Kayden, both deaf from an industrial accident and placed in informal exile for it. Terg-li grew up in a quiet house with two disabled people despite being able to hear themself, and it was formative. They knew that shit was fucked and that they wouldn't get by on anything resembling normal routes. When they learned that they had a knack for generating Hardlight and for working on the family tractor, they saw a niche to exploit. They'd often walk tractors out of ditches with ad-hoc hardlight replacement parts, so they figured why not make hardlight integral to a technology to help people? They returned to the city their parents were quietly swept away from with designs for the first Mobile Frame, an ambulatory mechanical skeleton that the user built hardlight structures around to conserve both mass and material. They currently have a small startup with several blueprints and are attempting to secure real funding past their prototype walker. They have technically gained military rank for achievements in academia (from a college correspondence out in the country) and engineering, but they did so quietly and by shunning institutional acknowledgement.
• Assets: TA owns an apartment in Aentolia along with a garage that houses plenty of mechanical tools and parts. Their most prized possession however is the prototype Terg-li Mobile Frame. On its own it's a ten-foot skeleton of pistons and drive motors built into two crude legs with an open-top cockpit and a paintball gun mounted on the side (easily refittable with the same systems and hardpoints that trigger pilot-fired guns mounted on hovercars). It requires Hardlight to actually move, but can get up to a pretty considerable clip when it gets going, capable of climbing on walls and all sorts of unstable terrain.
• Signature Hardlight Technique(s):
  • TA is a master at constituting their Mobile Frame's body around its skeleton, granting it armor plating, the structure to actually stand, and clawed feet to hold it onto things. They can make other miscellaneous common hardware, but the Frame is their focus at present.
• Extra: Also has actual non-Hardlight skills, you know, like a normal person. They know Kaydenite sign language and also carry around a smartphone to actually write with when necessary, and they actually have a degree in mechanical engineering from an online college.

Edited by Taco on Aug 29th 2018 at 7:49:55 AM

Okay. I'm aware this is a WIP, but I already have a couple of issues:

First is the name, which goes directly against what I advised them to be like. Literally every space between has a hyphen. Not a hard rule, but still. I would still advise shortening it to T'k'li (tekeli) at least. Or just leave it. Whichever option.

The second is more glaring an issue. You're basically saying this guy got nigh-unlimited Hardlight generation from forcing his body to produce ridiculous amounts of plasma that ripped through his vocal chords?

No.

I'm sorry, just no. What about the Hardlight organs?! How are they doing? That's the same logic as giving yourself constant sore throats and 'fixing' it by popping the swelling with a needle and saying that there's no lasting effects like scar tissue and burn damage. His organs along with his glottal warblers are fried.

I get the idea, really I do – but there's an absolute badass who doesn't care if they lose their voice or not to fight good and there's just nonsensical power playing.

Edited by Enirboreh on Aug 29th 2018 at 11:38:14 AM

bork

Right, working on a rework now. I see there's an edit stamp on your post for this morning around 11, did you add that note about the scarring then?

Ah. Yes. Future edits will be notified with an update post here.

bork

Erk, double-post, but Terg-li is approved.

Edit: Discord channel is up!

Edited by Enirboreh on Aug 29th 2018 at 9:47:01 AM

bork

Working on a character, can I reserve a spot please?

Of course! Whenever you're ready!

bork