Line #14 Roleplay/Gayaverse


1	A series of play-by-post 'Quests' on [[http://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/ Sufficient Velocity]], the Gayaverse is a NeverWasThisUniverse style FictionalEarth setting with the premise of a fairly historically grounded world whose history, geography, and geopolitics are similar to our own, but where the gender and sexual dynamics of different parts of the world are vastly divergent, both from each other and from reality, leading to frequent YourNormalIsOurTaboo CultureClash.
2
3	The Gayaverse started with [[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/aircraft-design-company-matsuras-planes-are-always-fastest.48927/ Aircraft Design Company Quest]]. The original pitch was to test a CharacterCustomization system for the roleplaying game Flying Circus, using a loose historical setting with the [[FantasyCounterpartCulture names changed]] so players couldn't rely on history going the same way. Essentially, it was supposed to just be a playtest based on Anime/TheWindRises, and [[TemptingFate the author insisted there would be no worldbuilding and the story would be short.]]
4
5	But the players voted to be Alt!Japanese and nonbinary in the year 1910, and the worldbuilding to figure out what that might mean started almost immediately.
6
7	ADCQ follows the story of genius aircraft designer Matsura Asuka: they're meek, mild-mannered, and almost perfectly [[AmbiguousGender androgynous]], and they also hold four engineering degrees, making them one of the most educated people in their rapidly modernizing country, [[UsefulNotes/MeijiRestoration Akitsukuni]]. Hired by start up Ohara Airworks with the hope they can save the company's failing project, Asuka ends up creating a dizzying array of [[ThoseMagnificentFlyingMachines increasingly bizarre aircraft]], pushing the limits of early flight. When [[UsefulNotes/RussoJapaneseWar war]] breaks out with neighboring [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Grand Caspia]], Asuka's aircraft, and their LoveInterest Captain Arita Yachi, are sent into battle. [[WarIsHell This goes poorly.]]
8
9	The Gayaverse has a number of [[SharedUniverse spinoffs]], some AlternateHistory in-setting and others just stories in the same world. Most notably is [[https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/castles-of-steel-lesbians-good-imperialism-bad.51361/ Castles of Steel]], which follows Princess Arisukawa Haruna, the first woman to join Akisukuni's navy. This story is a sort of {{Deconstruction}} of FeministFantasy, as Haruna breaks the glass ceiling... directly into an [[ArmiesAreEvil increasingly horrifying imperialist military]], shaking her faith in her country, its ideals, and its future.
10
11	There are a variety of other side stories written by other authors: The only rule of Gayaverse stories is that they must have queer protagonists, though most of the stories also have a pretty deep anti-war, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist perspective.
12
13	----
14	!! This roleplay provides examples of:
15	* AceCustom: Ohara sells the army six 'Super Dragonflies', with structural improvements and the use of tense silk as armour against flak. They are used by AcePilot characters like Yachi, Nashio, and [[spoiler: Coralie.]]
16	* AmbiguousGender: Akitsukuni's nonbinary gender role idealizes a puzzling androgyny. Asuka takes it very seriously.
17	* AnArmAndALeg: Many characters that serve in the war lose limbs: Yachi's four person poker group post-war are missing an arm and a leg between them.
18	* ArtisticLicensePhysics: ZigZagged - while the flight and aircraft design rules in the game system upon which the Gayaverse is built are intended to allow for relatively close recreations of UsefulNotes/{{World War I}}, UsefulNotes/{{World War II}}, and later aircraft, the ingenuity of the player base for the Aircraft Design Company Quest, combined with the beta test state of those rules at the time, has lead to the ADCQ protagonist designing a number of aircraft that likely wouldn't actually be able to do the things they're stated to be able to do in-universe.
19	* BigScrewedUpFamily: Haruna's giant extended family across the cadet branches is a mess of political intrigue, backstabbing, and intermarriage.
20	* CastFullOfGay
21	* EveryoneIsBi: Not actually true, but Akitsukuni culture operates as if it was: bisexuality is seen as normal, while being gay or straight is considered close-minded.
22	* ExoticExtendedMarriage: In Akitsukuni, having both a husband and a wife is totally normal, though many characters still struggle with jealousy.
23	* FinalBattle: The war ends with a massive amphibious assault as a flanking maneuver.
24	* GenderFlip: Many, many historical figures with counterparts in real life. Often named after those figure's wives.
25	* GodEmperor: The Empress of Akitsukuni is supposedly this. Haruna's inner monologue reveals the royal family knows its nonsense, but [[ShoutOut when somebody asks you if you're a god, you say yes]]!
26	* KingOnHisDeathbed: The situation that Cathay has been stuck in for years. Everyone knows once the Emperor is dead, there will be nothing left holding the country together.
27	* LadyOfWar: In theory, the women of the Imperial Cadet Branches are this. In practice, Haruna is the first real example in a long time.
28	* LastOfHisKind: Yachi being the only one of the pre-war pilots not dead, disabled, or sectioned by the end of the war is a massive element in his [[spoiler: psychological breakdown and removal from the front.]]
29	* LiteralDisarming: The Caspian crown prince experiencing this leads to the Caspian-Akitsukuni War.
30	* LongHairIsFeminine: Being an extremely trans-inclusive culture, how you wear your hair is the overwhelmingly most important gender marker in Akitsukuni, though less so now that it used to be.
31	* ReassignedToAntarctica: Haruna is constantly being shuffled to out of the way postings by the whims of the Admirality. Standout examples are a destroyer tender, a land-based anti-aircraft battery, and a remote northern island. Inevitably leads to...
32	* ReassignmentBackfire
33	* ShellShockedVeteran: Various characters suffer PTSD (referred to as 'war neurosis') due to fighting in the war. Haruna spends a BreatherEpisode in a ward trying to treat them, though she herself was misdiagnosed.
34	* SillyReasonForWar
35	* TheBigRace: With airplanes!
36	* TankGoodness: The rolling Caspian [=AT-TAs=] are production versions of the real life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Tank Tsar Tank]].
37	* ThemeNaming: All of Ohara's prewar and wartime airplanes have names that start with D. Because of the TranslationConvention, the characters in-universe are blissfully unaware of it.
38	* ThoseMagnificentFlyingMachines: A direct consequence of the [[ZigZaggingTrope zigg-zagging]] of ArtisticLicensePhysics. One of the obligatory tropes of the modern ACDQ thread is that all of the aircraft designs have to at least somewhat fit into this category, with the most common being the use of pusher engines, canards, tandem wing arrangements, or a mix of the 3.

Context Roleplay / Gayaverse