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Darth Wiki / Rise (Roleplay)

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Giant Robots! Alien Races! Space Combat! And some poet guy!

Rise was created by Hawk of Saber Scorpion's Lair, a small and obscure Forum dedicated to Lego discussion. Its premise is somewhat difficult to describe, being a strange anagram of many, many various genres, to describe it in the most basic of terms, is that in the far far future, HMVs of various factions battle each other for control of the universe. Aliens are involved. Crazy hijinks ensue.

And then it got a sequel.

Its (relative) popularity skyrocketed, spawning Spinoffs and Fanfics. The Rise Universe was no longer merely the work of a single creator, but now a shared community of the players' creation. It went on to have more and more background, creating an interesting universe that expanding beyond the wildest dreams of its maker.

A short film based on the main cast is actually in pre-production.

And now it's on TV Tropes.

Rise contains examples of

  • Acme Products: Hayakawa Technologies sells everything from weapons and mechs to starships, legal services, food, private security, and plushies.
  • A Friend in Need: No one, not even Kanade, will let Axel rot in a Hydra League prison.
  • Alien Invasion: Inverted, Humans have been invading Mjolnir, driving the most advanced species close to extinction and enslaving or segregating the weaker ones. Then played straight, when the almost extinct species banded together along with the Extra-Dimensional MiGo and attacked Human worlds in massive waves of destruction.
  • Alternative Calendar: The main story takes place in 91AF, After Fall, when Earth was truly lost.
  • Ambiguously Evil: Not even the writer is sure if Jhareed is evil. On his home planet, he's even considered a hero.
  • A Mech by Any Other Name: In this case H.M.Vs, standing for Humanoid Mechanized Vehicles.
  • Anyone Can Die: By Rise 3, this trope was in full effect.
  • Babies Ever After: Axel/Natasha and Ally/Haken are all parents five years after the main trilogy ends. Roxy ends up in a Her Heart Will Go On situation with Gyver's child.
  • Apocalypse How: It's become something of a recurring theme, with examples of multiple types:
    • Anytime the Travesti show up, you can probably expect at least a Class 1 if you're lucky.
    • Earth is implied to have suffered at least a Class 2 after the Fall, if not an outright Class 3b or even a Class 6.
    • The inhabitants of Jawhen ended up causing a Class 3a during their war with the Empire. It didn't work quite as well as they hoped.
    • Brimstone suffers a Class X thanks to Ally.
    • It's implied that destruction on at least the scale of a Class X-3 cloud ensue if the Forefathers are allowed to go rampaging around the universe once again.
  • Arm Cannon: Some Jackals have these as cyborg implants hidden under the skin, as seen on Villa during Operation Wedding Crashers.
  • Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted to death. Severe injuries are the norm, and the girls aren't spared. The few times they get out clean from a battle is inside an HMV, and even there they can get injured.
  • Beam Spam: This forms about 80% of the entire military strategy of the Travesti.
    • To a lesser degree, Twitch's mech, the Skylancer, from Rise 5. It's armed purely with lasers. Lots and lots of lasers.
  • BFG: The Freeman's Way sports a portable rail gun.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The close of the core trilogy ends up being this.
  • Boarding Party: Happened a few times, most notably with the mercs of the Heavenly Spirits and most of Axel's Gang who boarded a humongous mech with other humongous mechas. It was really this big.
  • Butt-Monkey: Haken never ever gets any respect. Ever.
    • Fred also gets this treatment a lot. The guy never gets a break.
  • Clear My Name: What some of them are trying to do. (Notably Julius) Others who already lived as criminals just get along with it.
  • Crapsack World: Mjolnir is really not a very pleasant place to live in. The majority is ruled by an authoritarian Empire, with a paranoid racist old man for a King, whose advisers are literally just waiting for him to drop off. The Hydra League shoots anyone with a hint of Imperial ties. The Reclaimers are extremely ticked off at the human's occupation of their former homes, and have made deals with the Mi-Go, in exchange for their support. Really, chances are if you're not a mercenary or independent, you're guilty of something.
    • To smaller example, the Hell is pretty much that. Prisoners live on themselves and recreated societies within its hull. Some live by the blood while others act a little more civilized. There are also kids growing up in there.
  • Crazy Enough to Work: Most of their plans.
    • Special mention goes to Abraham spitting highly potent alcohol on a Jackal gun, which when fired, it severely burned the Jackal.
    • Ally lives on this.
  • Darker and Edgier: Rise 2 to Rise 1. Rise 3's second half too.
    • Tragedy of the Heavenly Spirit part 1 and 2 are also full of these, even more than the rest of the stories.
  • Dreaming of Things to Come: Jhareed used to do this. Since the Hands of Fate came around, there's so many possibilities of the future his ability has become more or less useless.
  • Dream Weaver: Jhareed has become this.
  • Drop Ship: Seen commonly in the larger battles where highly trained squads have to stop assaults from oncoming mechs, but they are rarely seen in the main trilogy. They are extremely popular with the Northern Federation. The HMV launchers can be seen as this, though they overlap with DropPod.
    • Drop Pod: A mixture of this and Drop Ships, the HMV Launchers are exactly what they sound like: space and airships used to launch HMVs directly into the battle or on specific areas. They either drop them by ropes, shoot them directly on the ground below, or use pods when they are launched from space.
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady: Haken
    • Lampshaded by Ally when she first meets him.
  • Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Ally successfully created... something ... that destroyed Brimstone and put a black hole to another dimension where it once been. She suggested the same to Homeworld if they would fail to stop the Overlord and prevent it from reaching space.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The Mi-Go alone make 90% of it.
    • The space whales can be considered such. They travel unharmed through black holes and eat anything that happens to be close to them.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Several prisoners in the Hell. For example, Heimdall is the guard of the Warriors' compound. One of the popular tropes of Madness From Hell.
  • Fantastic Racism: Mostly before the Reclaimers united them under a single banner. After the War, the natives were surprisingly given more territories and respect, Humans learned to live with them and to stop calling them "aliens", followed by several treaties signed after the Empire's collapse and new alliances were formed.
  • Follow the Leader: The first Fanfic was first posted toward the end of the second main game. It quickly sparked interests in others who did the same.
  • Genre Roulette: While for the most part it's most definitely a sci-fi action series and manages to keep a consistent tone in individual roleplays and stories, across the board there are plenty of dips into the comedy, horror, and even pirate adventure genres.
  • Goggles Do Nothing: Why does Aerion even have those things?
  • Guns Are Worthless: The use of swords and fists in battles can get normal, even if they have powerful guns in hands. And that's on foot. It gets worst on HM Vs. Almost every main HM Vs has unique and powerful melee weaponry.
  • Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Haruka Yoshimitsu
  • Hero of Another Story: Practically the entire main cast's been one at some time or another. Special mention to Abraham Keyes, who's been through an entire civil war and has seen his entire planet die.
  • Hollywood Autism
  • Humans Are Warriors: They successfully pushed back the most warring aliens in the galaxy and dominated 75% of the known galaxy for over 50 years, they also created the HM Vs and are the only known species beside the Travestis to have ongoing wars within their own kind. Also, a vast majority of mercenaries are Humans, that alone proves a good point.
  • Humongous Mecha: And how. Rise uses pretty much every single Mecha trope under the sun, from stock Gumdamesque machines, to walking tanks, to outright alien designs.
    • The Jotun and the Demented make the largest HMVs look like toys in contrast. And just for your information, one of the largest is 53 feet. That's almost a five story building.
  • Improbably Female Cast: Even though the cast became even in the second and third installment, by the end of the first RP there were only three guys (Axel, Haken and Clyde) for a lot of females (Haruka, Yvonne, Krystal, Kanade, Ivanna and Lara). Even when it got evened, the amount of female was fairly large for their kind of lives (mercenaries living on the run, labeled as war criminals).
  • Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: Mostly played straight. Shotguns, snipers and pistols are commonly kinetic, with very few laser-based pistols. Assault Rifles tend to go from one to another, the Northern Federation is bigger about it than the other worlds. HM Vs are evenly split, as well as being much more melee-oriented, tanks mostly use kinetic weaponry too. Only spaceships use lasers in a fairly large majority.
  • Lighter and Softer: Haken's Heroes. Until Ray appears in the second half.
  • Misfit Mobilization Moment: All of the Oasis rescue, from the night before to the jump.
  • Meta Mecha: Both the Jotun and the Demented are this to the Templar and the Madness, respectively.
  • Narrative Poem: Haken helped Aerion write one.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Tzeenosaurs are cybernetically augmented sentient dinosaurs, which were also from Earth. And it's just one example.
  • One Degree of Separation: Madness From Hell has several characters which are related in many ways to the main characters.
  • One-Man Army: The Spec Ops of the Empire are believed (and strongly implied) to be this. Also The Jotun, piloted by Karl Vladick of the Paladins, was built for this purpose, and lived up to it.
  • Professional Killer: A significant number of characters are either one of these when introduced or turn into them by the end of whatever story or roleplay they appear in. Justified in that the majority of them are mercenaries living and working in a Crapsack Galaxy.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: June during her service with The Empire.
  • Quirky Household: The Wastia household cranks this up.
  • Real Robot Genre: With some elements of Super Robot Genre. A lot of machines are produced and used in various armies, the mercs themselves use varied mechs of all size and weaponry. However, some examples stand out. Decel Erachin created Guildenstern juggling elements of both. Guild is a sentient mech with a larger role for the future of mankind, but Decel also created a whole army of similar mech within the industries of planet Factory.
  • Recycled IN SPACE!: Name it. Name anything and it's there.
  • Redemption Quest: Eleven Diplomacy is something of one for Aerion, and quite a few other characters find their journeys in the various roleplays and stories turning into one.
  • Rich Bitch: Kanade.
  • Rock Beats Laser: A variation. HM Vs are armed with just about anything you can think of, from racks of missiles to energy snipers to portable railguns. But when battles goes too bad, smashing, punching, slashing and stabbing with normal plain HMV is the norm. And others like Abraham will rip pieces of HMV and beat down more advanced HM Vs with them. And they win.
  • Rule of Cool: The universe is built around it.
  • Running Gag: More than one for sure.
    • Gyver's advances on every human woman on the team.
    • Haruka having to fight Khenan in every single RP.
    • Ally's Sliding Scale of Explosion Size (and it's upward trend).
    • Ghost's deaths going from badass/sacrifice to hilarious and meaningless.
  • Sarcasm Mode: Half the galaxy's population lives in this mode.
  • Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Mostly Subverted. There are few indications of distance between planets, time is mostly used instead. The creator prefered this way, otherwise it would limit creativity to numbers.
    • The fact that it only took slightly more then a century to colonize and conquer the entire Galaxy is a bit odd, though.
  • Screw You, Elves!: The Jawhen race has been completely enslaved, and their planet all but destroyed.
  • Space Cowboy: Axel is a somewhat more literal example then most, much to his father's chagrin.
    • Ghost Rider is also described as a cowboy, but to lesser extent.
  • Space Navy: The Kahadan Union, the Northern Federation and Karsol all boast impressive space forces. They all get more time during the Reclaimation War, where all of them show tremendous military power to push back the aliens.
  • Space Pirate: Aerion tries to be this.
  • Starfish Aliens: A majority of Mjolnir's alien species.
  • Star Killing: Briefly shown in Howard's epilogue, with a whole sun frozen in seconds. Oddly, none of this was used in the main trilogy.
  • Stripperiffic: A given, with it's anime roots, but special mention goes to Haruka.
  • The Alcatraz: The Hell. Being near the core of the galaxy, lost in the void and surrounded by space whales will do that.
  • The Alcoholic: The entire cast indulges in vast amounts of drinking
  • The Drifter: One of the more common character types, as would be expected given how many characters are mercenaries loyal mostly to whoever's currently paying them.
  • The Drunken Sailor: Aerion
  • The Teetotaler: After Rise 3, Aerion becomes this.
  • The Worf Effect: Tzeenosaurs are already falling into it.
  • Tsundere: Princess Kanade is firmly entrenched in the Tsuntsun side. She almost never leaves it.
  • Walking Tank: Clyde's mech.
  • War Is Hell: While the main Roleplay is more about skirmishes, stories like Fall Of The South make it very clear that Humanity is still fighting very dirty.
  • Wetware CPU: NSC Synthoids are androids with cloned human brains instead of AI.
  • We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: Averted with Factory, an entirely planet-sized production facility with just five inhabitants, four of whom are guards for the scientist who runs the place. Played straight by the less wealthy factions that can't afford such mass automated production.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The less humanoid are the aliens (both facialy and physically), the more the Empire tried to eradicates them.
  • "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Many.
    • Haken finally published a book, is married to Ally and has a kid. Guild adopted one of his clone and is now a family friend.
    • Axel married Natasha, and has a son. He mostly retired from mercenary work.
    • Clyde reformed the Paladins and still travels the galaxy.
    • Yvonne disappeared, Haruka followed her.
    • Earl became a protector of the galaxy, instead of a simple mercenary for hire, along with the Hellknights.
    • Aerion got his own spin off.
  • Wine Is Classy: Aerion often drinks wine instead of other beverages to appear more high-class than he actually is.
  • Would Hit a Girl: Just about every single male character. More than justified considering how many Action Girls there are in the universe, many of whom operate under Black-and-Gray Morality even at best.

Awesome:

Rise 1

  • Khenan hacking Largo's mech from behind with his axe and saving a downed Earl and Lara in the process.

Rise 2

  • The Team successfully and convincingly (for most of them) going undercover for most of the wedding, never thought of them.
  • Guild standing still for most of Operation Wedding Crashers like if he was a real robot, even though Jackal commandos had put bombs on his legs. And when Clyde, Krystal and Gyver started to fight them in the hangar, he went out of stillness, saved them and kicked asses.
    • Later on he fought against Jackal HM Vs with his severed leg, and claimed it was a better weapon than he thought.
  • After an RP and half of lying there, Yvonne finally took her BFG and mowed down Rogue Paladins.
  • Karl Vladick fighting against five of the men he considered his students and friends. And surviving despite his old age.
  • The Demented vs the Jotun. Resulted in Vladick's death, the Jotun wrecked almost to pieces and Earl's victory.
  • Axel's team engaging to the Empire's best soldiers, moments after going through the Hydra League's forces on Oasis.
  • Half of Axel's team attacking The Juggernaut commanded by Khenan at the same time. Even without Conservation of Ninjutsu they had a hard time bringing him down.
  • Karen Armstrong thrashing Kanade after she spoke too much to Axel.
  • Krystal dogfighting a teleporting HMV (The Samurai), and keeping up with it.
  • Abraham spitting alcohol on a Jackal cyborg and causing it to catch on fire when he shot. Talk about Indy Ploy.
  • Krystal fending off swarming Imperial HM Vs with a Hydra AA turret on Oasis and ready to die for the team. Then the others arrived to help her.

Rise 3

  • Fred taking the Madness' ripped off leg and smashing Fury's new mech with it.
  • Ally using a junk sensor module to blow up and a planet.
  • Aerion taking command of the Crossbones and fleeing the Overlord, and laughing like a madman because it's the best day of his life and he wouldn't care if he died or lived.
  • Haken litteraly shattering The Goddess of Poetry with a few well placed words. The apex of achievment for the local Badass Bookworm/Cultured Badass. Oh, and he was in a wheelchair.
  • Earl's changing of side midway through Rise 3. And bringing a whole army to back up Axel's Team.
  • Haken, in a wheelchair, taking command of Aerion's mech and falling to the ground as he's trying to learn how to fly it, and when Guild acts like a caring big brother toward him, Haken replies that he doesn't care if he dies or lives, as he's finally surrounded by friends, loves a woman dearly and is actually fighting with the others as the hero he always wanted to be. Guild agrees and fights along with him.
  • Guild's army swarming the Overlord and weakening it enough for Axel's Team to stop it.
  • Haken finding a girl who genuinely loves him. That's worth a CMOA.

Spin-offs

  • In Old Grudges, the Karsian Military successfully fighting against the Travestis, despite clear disadvantages. They did well until the renforcements arrived, and then shredded through the alien ranks. They weren't the last Human world defending the the border agains the Hydra League for nothing.
  • In Madness From Hell, Earl rallying almost every inmates in the Hell under the banner of the Warriors and escaping with an army.
  • The lighter Haken's Heroes gave us a fairly dark moment where Guild fought against Rosencratz, who was an exact copy of Guild painted black and controlled by Ray and he still won, even though Rosencratz was built without emotions and basic survival instinct like Guild was.
  • Rodrig (litteraly) tearing through a gigantic man-made abominations all by himself. Even he thought it was an abnormal day.

Rise as a whole

  • Everytime a Tzeenosaur appears (especially when it's Rodrig), expect something awesome and against all physical laws.

Characters

The Universe of Rise has a large and usual cast of characters. These are just some of them.

    open/close all folders 

    Axel's Gang 
Our Heroes. Most of the time.

  • Badass in a Nice Suit: For Operation Wedding Crashers. Most of them weren't pleased, though.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: By the Oasis rescue most of them became this.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: A wolfman, a princess, a dying alcoholic, a communist, a failed poet and more. Almost impressive for them to be taken seriously.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: It's hard to believe there is actual action and no infighting between them.
    • Hard to believe because infighting is a well documented past time for the cast. For as far as they've come lately, with all the narcissism, antagonism and ideological conflicts that one's come to expect out of such an eclectic group of characters, getting them to seriously agree on things outside the bigger picture happens once in a blue moon.
  • True Companions: The rescue of Axel showed how far they've come since the first mission.

Axel Percival Erachin

Everyday Space Cowboy and former heir to the wealthy Erachin Industries corporation. He left the life of comfort at a young age to escape his boredom, and has worked as a mercenary ever since.

Terrence

Axel's pet red panda, and best friend.

Haken Wastia

A failed poet who was forced into mercenary work.

  • And Zoidberg: Only Guild seems to genuinely likes him, though he doesn't really know why.
  • Butt-Monkey: If something bad is happening, chances are Haken's at the end of it.
  • Cultured Badass: Proved this when he broke the goddess of poetry with words.
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady: Commonly lampshaded. He doesn't care. Funnier when he genuinely passes for a girl.
  • Heroic Wannabe: He really does want to be a hero, or actually help others.
  • Joke Character: Started out as this. Became much more important afterward, but he was still himself.
  • Older Than They Look: Really, Haken is one of the oldest of Axel's crew (30 in Rise I), being a few years younger than Clyde, and a little older than Yvonne, even though he could easily pass for a guy in his late teens.
  • Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The sensitive to Guild.
  • Took a Level in Badass: While minor, Haken going from the girly screams to actually killing rogue Paladins with a sword says a lot.

Guildenstern

Haken's self-aware mech.

Kanade Orihara

A Kitsune League princess. She has a huge superiority complex.

Haruka Yoshimitsu

Axel's gang original CQC expert and all-around party girl.

Yvonne Dafoe

The hardened Commie of the group.

  • Warrior Poet: Became this prior to Rise 1, when she opted for a philosopher and author life.

Abraham Keyes

An alcoholic searching his missing wife, joined Axel's gang in Rise 2.

  • Heartbroken Badass: He is searching the galaxy for his wife.
  • Heroic Suicide: Shot his own mind-controlling artificial organs to prevent himself from harming Julius.

Gyver Edged

A large alien wolfman who joined Axel's gang in Rise 2.

Ghost Rider

The second cowboy of Axel's gang, but with his lot of mysteries.

Krystal Desmond

The air superiority merc of the group.

  • Does Not Like Men: She has a rather bad memory of them when she was younger, leading her to distrust most of them because they always appear selfish.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: She started as very cold and hating most men, and then warmed up around Clyde, ironically, who's a very stoic guy.
  • Death from Above: Deadly in the air.

Clyde McConnelly

A veteran mercenary, could be said to be the most professional of Axel's gang. The new leader of the Paladins.

Ivanna Sidorova

Russian scientist who joined Axel in Rise 1.

  • Russian Girl Suffers Most: She's always stuck in the worst possible situations, and ends up injured most of the time. And add the emotional side when Lara was killed during Operation Wedding Crashers.

Aerion Freeman

Former slave turned pirate, joined Axel in Rise 2.

  • Boisterous Bruiser: Has shades of this at time, especially in the Crossbones and when he feels really pirate-y.
  • Cool Ship: The Crossbones, of which he took control at the battle of Homeworld.
  • Meaningful Name: The Jawhen species was put into slavery, he's one of the few who fled.

Fredasdlk'agabb'dadtytdf'

Gremlin-like alien, joined Axel in Rise 2.

Julius Valken

Freelance reporter who joined Axel in Rise 2.

Alliana Mikalovich

Roxanne 'Roxy' Miller

First appearing in Haken's Heroes, she then joined the main team by Rise 3.

Terrance Jharves

A one-time character who was hired on Axel's squad in Rise 1, and stuck to the end with him. He appeared briefly in Rise 2 then disappeared from the stories. The only member of the Team who left by himself and didn't die.

Lara Rymond

Rex Ryoken

Tara Bei Fong

Max Enkaria

Horton:

    Ray's Mercenaries 
Archenemies of Axel's gang. Though not the most powerful group out there, they are the Gang's most personal enemies.

Ray Desmond Shishigami

Earl James

"Are you in for that last fight, or do I have the honor to spray their blood alone?"
The leader of the Hellknights. A very dangerous man with a definite taste for blood.

  • Anti-Villain: He planned his escape from the Hell mostly to save the people he considered his family. The reason he is still fighting is for them.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: His training for twenty years were almost exclusively this.
  • Black-and-Gray Morality: His time in the Hell left him with a strange vision of life.
  • Blade Enthusiast: To unsettling levels. Justified as he spent twenty years in the Hell training with knives almost exclusively. Ray even notes he's probably even better with them than him.
  • Blood Knight: While he rarely seeks a fight, he enjoys them.
  • Conditioned to Accept Horror: His training in the Hell... And probably even before.
  • Enemy Mine: Teamed with Axel's gang against Norik on Factory.
  • Escaped from Hell: He escaped from the Hell by fighting his way out, backed by an army.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: He calls out Largo for using a human shield. He also never spills the blood of someone unarmed, but this doesn't mean he won't kill said unarmed person.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Subverted. He does understand, but he knows he can't do it.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Joined Axel on his battle against the Forefathers, after his newfound respect for the team.
  • Hero of Another Story: One that took over twenty years and has an enormous death toll.
  • Noble Demon: Definitely a Blood Knight, though not entirely without a conscience, as Ray notes.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: His training with the Warriors/Hellknights involved lots of honor code and respect to be learned, but also selflessness when protecting the familly.
  • Psycho for Hire: Appears as such and acts as such to protect the Hellknights. However, he still has a mind and a heart, and uses them when needed. Put this aside in Rise 3.
  • Start of Darkness: Once an unstable young adult who acted violently on occasion. Twenty years spent in the Hell, and he's now a brutal killer who's also one of the most dangerous men of the Empire. He also has an army of similar people.
  • The Big Guy: Took this position when he used the Demented.
  • Worthy Opponent: Thought as such of Karl Vladick.

Khenan

"The Champ is here!"
Ray's second mercenary, slower and stronger than Earl, an Octodian with a lot of hate for Humans.

  • The Dragon: More so than Earl.
  • Cold Sniper: Briefly refered to at the end of Haken's Heroes.
  • Demoted to Extra: Sort of. His creator left the work, making him more of a secondary character than a point of view one.
  • Fantastic Racism: He hates Humans, and a few more species too.
  • Made of Iron: Himself, he survived against dangerous odds, but the Juggernaut was extremely durable against multiple mechs.
  • Mighty Glacier: His HMV ain't named The Juggernaut for nothing.
  • Not Quite Dead: His HMV is destroyed at the end of Rise 1, believed to be dead. He reappears one year later still with Ray during the events of Villa.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: He always appears as the mindless large guy who can be anyone up, yet he's very knowledgeable of HMV engineering, can repair his own machine without problem and knows extensive fighting techniques.

Rosencratz

A dark copy of Guildenstern, on all but his understanding of life.

    The Empire 
The Big Bad Orwellian Superpower. Driving out Mjolnir's original inhabitants, the Empire established itself as The Superpower of the galaxy. Human-centric and corrupt from within, the Empire is definitely not something to be screwed around with.

Mathias Longfellow

Kincaid

Alphonse Vinland

Javier

Satan

The director of the Hell. Rarely seen.

Lucifer

Satan's right hand man. Likes to kill prisoners for his own fun.

    The Reclaimers 
The original inhabitants of the Mjolnir Galaxy. Back, and extremely pissed off. They've somehow managed to cut a deal with the Mi-Go, in exchange for massive technological and tactical support.

Howard

"Patience is a virtue, as the humans say."

A mysterious Mi-Go, and representative of an outside power. Virtually nothing is known about it, or it's motivations for aiding the Reclaimers, but it clearly does not intend nice things for the Empire. For the sake of convenience, is referred to as a 'Him', though it's not known if Mi-Go even have genders.

Stranger

"Just so."

The Reclaimer's main contact with the Hydra League. Even less is known about him/her/it, much less his/her/it's name.

    The Hydra League 
Human revolutionaries who've grown disgruntled with the Empire's xenophobic tendencies. Formerly led by a somewhat reasonable Council, a recent military coup has established the Heads, Hydra's top generals, as it's new leaders.

Fury

The First Head of Hydra. He has Norik faithfuly following him.

Kurt Norik

Terra Connolley

The Third Head of Hydra.

  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: After Norik and Fury's deaths, she's the one who takes control of the Hydra League, and the Devils gladly follow her orders to the letter.
  • Enemy Mine: Fought on the side of Axel's Gang and Ray's Team on Brimstone, then helped them for the Battle of Homeworld.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Her main quality against Fury, she wants the better of her people, not the supremacy of the Hydra through power.
  • Spanner in the Works: Is seen as this by Fury, as she's always opposing his plans and doing all she can to stop his madman antics.
  • You Killed My Father: Her reason to hate Ray.

Largo

A criminal turned mercenary who met Earl James in 88AF, who then turned to the Hydra League.

    The Paladins 
Counterpoints of the Hydra League, the Paladins are more in line with your traditional Knight in Shining Armor archetype. Though they likewise wish for better treatment of all Mjolnir's species, they do not share Hydra's more extremist tendencies. They're lead by Karl Vladick, a charismatic old soldier and former employer of Axel Erachin.

Recently, most of the Paladins turned against Karl Vladick, believing that he'd forgotten his true purpose, and went to Hydra. The rest presumably fled with Axel's crew.

Karl Vladick

"I see that none of you wish to make the first move. A wise decision, but I had hoped that some of you would have had some guts."

Leader of the Paladins. Despite his age, he can still pull his weight around, and is more then capable of commanding the respect of anybody in the vicinity. A former Imperial Soldier, he left them when he discovered Mathias' true intentions for alien technology, and dedicated his new life to preventing their abuse of the tech. [[spoiler:He was killed by the mercenary Earl James during the Oasis Break-In, his remains propped up on the Imperial palace as a warning to their enemies.

Decel Erachin

Axel's father, and leading supplier of the Galaxy's HMVs. A wealthy man, he does not approve of Axel's wayward mannerisms.

  • Gadgeteer Genius: Inventor of the HMV, the most commonly used human weapon of war in this day and age.
  • He Who Must Not Be Seen
  • I Have No Son!: A lesser example. It's not known if he's actually disowned Axel, but he clearly not a fan of his line of work.
  • The Dreaded: Known as The Architect and the Deathmonger amongst the Mjolnian community, due to his role in their defeat.

Karen Armstrong

"Hey, Guy, is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"

Karl Vladick's second-in-command, and lover of Axel. Turns out to by a mole planted by the Hydra League. She manages to kill Ghost Rider before being put down by her former employer during the raid of Oasis.

  • Villainesses Want Heroes: Lampshaded. She admits she finds Axel 'cowboy charm' appealing, but little more then that.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Ghost Rider shooting her through her cockpit managed to destabalize her mentality enough, but when she realizes that she is indeed about to die, she's reduced to begging Karl to spare her. Karl doesn't.

Marcus Tengbrew

"I'm sure I shall prove to be a more then adept replacement, Lord Commander."

Presumably high ranking member of the Paladins. Current Leader of the Renegade Paladins since Karen Armstrong's death.

    The Hellknights 
Former inhabitants of The Hell, where they were known as the Warriors. Since their escape, the Gang has moved into freelance mercenary work. They are led by Earl James, one of Ray's mercenaries.

Storyteller

Former leader of the Hellknights and mentor to Earl James.

Heimdall

The Warriors' gate keeper.
  • Meaningful Name: He took the name from the Norse God, as both are doing a very similar duty.
  • My Greatest Failure: Not able to take part in Ossyria's defense during the Tyran invasion.
  • The Stoic: He rarely changes his face. But once he knows his beloved homeworld Ossyria was destroyed, he breaks.

Slice

Storyteller's right-hand man. He's much less serious than Heimdall, but that doesn't stop him from being a very competent soldier.
  • The Alcoholic: He's the proud owner of the only working brewing system of the Hell.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Never fights without drinking a beer and shouting random things.

Blue

An alien living with the Hellknights.

Vulture

  • Beware the Nice Ones: She's the main cook, she's the mother of two kids who grew up in the Hell. She's also the most feared of them.

Monk

One of the trainer of the Empire's black ops. He fled, disgusted. He was sent to the Hell for this.

Riley

Former sex-slave of a Human noble, she ended up in the Hell where she trained to be a fighter.

Crunchy

    Independents 

Autumn Keyes nee Lesedi

Rodrig von Tryassik

"This is Sticker. I carved it from the thighbone of an enemy. It was the first weapon I ever held. I was twelve.' *Sniff* 'Yes, I smile at the memories of beating the stuffing out of him."

A Tzeenosaur mercenary.

Steven "Superstar" Stampson

An independent mercenary who joined Axel's group on some occasions. Held a position in Ramza's crew for a long moment.

Todd Enkaria

    Aerion's Crew 
The "crew" that Aerion hired during Rise: Elven Diplomacy.

Clink Le Chrome

Space mobster that's obsessed with revenge.

June Whitaker

Ex-Imperial Officer who has a hate-on for everyone.

  • Alpha Bitch
  • Anti-Villain: June actually spent most of her military career fighting for Big Bad Empire who she saw as being the best way to maintain order in the galaxy and a galactic force for good.
  • Conditioned to Accept Horror
  • Even Evil Has Standards: June has no issue with torturing enemy combatants and adult civilians of opposing nations, but she draws the line at harming children. Mainly caused by her having been the loving mother of two children.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Over the course of the RP she does start to lighten up a tad, gradually starting to give a crap about someone else for the first time since she lost her family.
  • Heartbroken Badass: Most of June's Zero-to-Bitch-in-five-seconds attitude stems from losing her entire unit, her husband, and both her children and watching her country and the military she loved to serve destroyed in the span of a week.
  • Old Soldier
  • Older Than They Look: June is actually up near her 40's, but still looks right around 24 or so thanks to being in a robotic body.

Funny

Heartwarming

  • Haken finally getting his dance with Kanade before the last mission. You can only feel happy for the guy.
  • Abraham's bonding with the team. How a broken, dying man finally saw some light and found friends he could trust is very touching.
  • The team the night before their attack on a Hydra prison to save Axel. People who lived through hell for years enjoy a little moment together, probably for the last time.
  • Julius suggesting they film a message for their famillies before the mission on Oasis. The results are surprising. Though Gyver's message turns into humour quite fast.
  • Haken and Ally's date after Brimstone. For the first time in years Haken finally gets some time where nobody's trying to kill him, there's a girl who loves him dearly at his side, and he even gets to see Hamlet on stage.
  • Aerion's speech to Haken about his name (Freeman) and the meaning of freedom, to which Haken (and his writer) could only applaud.
  • Most of the epilogues, if they don't border on Tear Jerker. Special mention to Haken who finally has a family with Aly, and got his first book published, Rise.
  • Amazingly, Earl's got some, even if fairly rare. In the Hell he showed he indeed cared for people close to him, as he wasn't only a killing machine. He saved Lara on Congo even though he could have easily killed Largo, against which he had a serious grudge. And later, after the Battle of Homeworld, Earl smiled, for once in his life he felt free, along with his Hellknights.
  • Rodrig, on ambassador duty, going to meet Autumn at her home on a remote planet and sharing a beer together under a tree. The fact that a massive and bloodthirsty cyborg dinosaur cared enough for a small human woman who grew up in a brothel fought together a few times and that 6 years later he still cared about her is truly heartwarming.
  • Tusco Keyes, after decades lost in time, reappears somewhere, sometimes, and finally meets his grandkids, without having known his own son, decided to redeem himself by looking after them.
  • Aerion sharing his last drink with Abraham, as he told him they would, by pouring it on his tomb.
    • Also, Aerion finally having his dream, becoming captain of a pirate ship and going on adventures.
  • Gyver willing to laugh a little about Krystal and Clyde's weird relationship, and Clyde awkward social behavior, only to be shot down by an unexpected heartful answer from Krystal: “Sometimes, I just want him... here, beside me.” That's when you know Krystal stopped to try to be the dangerous killer and actually consider a better life for herself...
  • Julius meeting back his sister on Karsol some times after the Reclaimer War, years after he exiled himself.

Nightmare Fuel

  • The Mi-Go. The Goddamned Mi-Go and their alien armies. Their basic technology is scary. Their weapons use their foes' body fluid as fuel.
  • Kurt Norik, second head of Hydra, got his brain put into a machine, as well as his consciousness modified to serve the Mi-Go. He was also very aware he was in a fluid tank while his body was no more.
  • The Travestis use Fortresses that could rival with the Jotun in terms of size. Why? The common Travesti is larger than an HMV.
  • The Hell is full of these. Some inmates have kids and live in a constant battle state with the other clans, routinely fending off attacks and fighting for food. And these are in the most civilized blocks of the prison. One of the blocks has its weather generators completly crazy, turning the whole block into an everlasting winter.
    • Another block is filled with aliens fighting against Humans, said Humans were Hydra League soldiers, who were actually pro-aliens ...
    • The Creepers... Men and aliens with no affiliations, the only ones who are journeying freely through the blocks. Why ? The only access to the other blocks are the nuclear sewers, any living creatures going through them are making a pact with Death.
    • Blue, the local medic of the Warriors/Hellknights, and side-protagonist in Madness From Hell. His species' natural trait is an advanced detection sense of the nervous system. All of it. Blue is a melee soldier, he has four arms with large claws. Do the math.
  • Axel's Team finding out the Empire implanted mind-controlling artificial organs in half of them. Things did not end well for many of them.
  • Krystal and Abraham's death. Krystal unconscious was absorded by a shadow creature, and Clyde accidentaly killed her by trying to burn the creature, then later carried her charred remains. Abraham shot himself, and was later absorded by a similar creature.
  • June's anatomical incorrectness, specifically down in her nether regions - the whole thing is nothing but flat skin. Even worse, it's not the result of trauma; she "modified" her body because it was a vulnerability.
  • The Coolant Intake Port on humanoid Synthoids blurs the line between nightmare and fetish appeal.

Tear Jerker

  • Max Enkaria's death. He barely appeared at the beginning of Rise 1, and he died by being forgotten by everyone.
  • Haken Losing the use of his legs. Mostly heartbreaking when you know dancing was probably the only thing he was good at.
  • Laras's death, with Abraham blaming himself for this. Ivanna and Krystal threatening to kill him for that weren't helping.
  • Fred passing away in Rise 3. After spending two RPs as a walking punching bag and skirting so close to death in the middle of battle, he finally died peacefully in a hospital bed surrounded by family.
  • The Empire's mind controlling half of Axel's Gang was just a fountain of Tear Jerker moments.
    • Special mention must be made of Abraham's suicide.
    • Clyde accidentaly killing the only one for who he truly cared.
  • Gyver dying in front of Bonnie, who just told him she was pregnant.
  • The death of Axel's Red Panda, Terrance.
  • Anything related to Abraham and his wife. Anything.
    • A truly sad moment, when she dies and the Keyes twins are left to themselves, with their thought-to-be-dead grandfather is looking after them.
  • Aerion probably outliving all of his friends ...
  • Haruka dying before even reaching 40, and it is unknown if she ever found Yvonne after she disappeared after the Battle of Homeworld.
  • To the Hellknights, the death of Heimdall on Factory. Earl lost his shit. And afterward, the reactions of every Hellknights, which most of them can't accept. Especially Zazi and Slice who runs out yelling and crying, and losing an old battle-brother, respectively. He got better.

YMMV

  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Storyteller's attempt at turning Earl into the perfect warrior. Personal gain, or did he really see the potential in him?
  • Crazy Is Cool: The premise of the setting.
    • Tzeenosaurs!
    • Khenan jumps on moving HMV, pry the cockpit open and decapitates the pilot. Even by Rise's standards the guy isn't sane.
  • Even Better Sequel: The first main Roleplay was met with good comments and was very entertaining to both read and play. The sequel went even further and players were even more into it.
  • The Woobie: Almost everyone. The quantity of things they have to go through on a regular basis leave most of them broken.

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