Kayden - Light and Dark Discussion Thread

Sounds good, Emily - those are some creative ideas.

To cap off the last two:

• The House of Quig are quite possibly the most stable out of all the Houses, not as openly emotional as the Seng family, but not as aggressive/militaristic as the Telo/Anok families. As a result, and much like the Seng family, they are well trusted within the Council, perhaps even more so due to their unbiased nature, and probably have the most balanced viewpoint out of all the Houses of the general public and their needs.

• The House of Zyla, to put it quite simply, are loose cannons. They are not afraid to break and bend rules or think outside the box, using mostly bizarre or deceptively unconventional Hardlight constructs. They prefer to fight using dirty methods, relying on sneak attacks and environmental distractions. Despite their unpredictability, they have managed to land a fairly stable spot on the Council, never quite overstepping the line that would get them thrown off entirely. Their sneaky and unpredictable habits have seemed to descend to their offshoot family, Zyra.

See? I can worldbuild too, Ma. Are you proud of me, eh? ARE YOU PROUD OF-

Ahem, anyway.

edited 25th Aug '17 5:31:47 AM by Enirboreh

So, if we're talking about families here, I'll talk about some of lesser families:

• House of Tehk: Family made of scientists who basically worship science (that's why they have invented some... questionable things). Due to their refusal to be involved with military affairs, they remained as "just another lesser House". Some of the older generation don't like Ymar for their involvement with military, but younger generation thinks otherwise.
  • House of Tejk: Offshoot of the above House, they are considered as pariahs and heretics (or at least, something close to it). Unlike Tehk, Tejk always wanted to create "Ultimate Lifeforms" using drugs and serums of any kind, including cross-species genetics (which, of course, failed), "Transcendent" serum (which led to the creation of the disease called "Green Degeneration") and many others. Currently, they are all resided in Dark Side of the Planet, thanks to the Green Degeneration Outbreak.

• House of Lorn: House made of artists and entertainers. They used to hold monopoly over all forms of entertainment. House of Lorn produces all forms of arts, including (digital) comics, films, pictures etc. Their most famous creation is Cosmos Anstat, Star Trek-esque comics. Nowadays, various independent artists and other Houses are competing with House of Lorn, essentially destroying the monopoly.

edited 24th Aug '17 8:06:33 PM by kaalban

Just a question for the sake of worldbuilding/character creation: Is hardlight capable of being explosive?

Hardlight can become explosive either through advanced techniques or rare mutations, so yes.

Another concept inbound.

Green Degeneration:

House of Tejk's accidental (or maybe not) product, it is essentially a nano-virus that was designed to make Kaydenites the ultimate lifeforms. Whether this was an "evolution serum" gone wrong or intentional design is not known, but the effects of this nano-virus turned out to be a degeneration of both body and mind.

During the first week of infection, infected will show symptoms akin to a simple cold (except coughing). After that, the disease will start mangling infected's brain (on a cell level), deteriorating infected's mind. Unnaturally high aggression/passiveness, craving for Hardlight, insomnia and various other mental illnesses and behavioral abnormalities (effects depend on type of strains). At the final stage, patient's brain will have devolved into that of a pre-historic Kaydenite equivalent of Neanderthals (not same, but quite similar). This whole process takes about a year.

After that (or even during all that), cells in Kaydenite's start to die (necrosis), eventually leading to death. It is spread through physical contact.

The first and hopefully last outbreak of Green Degeneration was quite catastrophic (metaphorically speaking, "chaos was disease, only spread by acts of insanity"), but it was eventually dealt with. House of Tejk was exiled to the Dark and it all seemed to be over... except that some strains of Green Degeneration are in the Dark Side of the Planet. Some are already infected.

The reason why it's called Green Degeneration is because patient zero had green Hardlight and people initially thought this was also one of the symptoms. Even after the revelation that it had nothing to do with the disease, Kaydenites refer to it as Green Degeneration.

edited 25th Aug '17 4:16:34 AM by kaalban

Very interesting concept, also may add a bit more tension to the Dark Side.

You can really see why being exiled there is such a serious matter now.

I'll link it in the first post, and I'll also link the House characteristics. I'll be making two new sections: one for the main Houses, the other for original Houses.

edited 25th Aug '17 5:25:17 AM by Enirboreh

History stuff! Feel free to correct me if I made any egregious errors.

• Anok and Tume were the first houses to come into being, near the end of Kayden's prehistoric period. Which one came first is disputed; Tume insists that it was them, and while Anok holds themselves above such petty posturing, they want you to know they came first.

• Telo came into power during the analogous early medieval era, with its members being similar to Earth's knights or samurai as glorified mercenaries who soon became nobility in their own right.

• Seng and Quig came to power during the analogous late medieval era, through a combination of military might and practical alliances.

• Throughout all of this, Lxuf was marrying into pretty much all of the aforementioned and some not-yet-mentioned houses.

• During a series of wars of succession among the houses, Zyla became a power in its own right through cunning and sheer dumb luck.

• With Kayden's industrial revolution, Ymar started to make a name for themselves as inventors and engineers, eventually worming their way into the position of power they occupy today.

edited 26th Aug '17 12:55:05 PM by emilyorthoclase

That... actually makes a lot of sense. Like, a lot. Well done. I’ll link it.

RP thread is up!

Concept: The Council

• Representative Anok

The oldest member of the Council and perpetually on the verge of dying, he remains alive out of sheer force of will. And spite - he's made a lot of enemies over the course of his life, including all of the other Council members (except Quig, because everyone likes Quig, and Seng, because he's too new to know better).

• Representative Lxuf

Career politician who manipulates everyone around her with the skill of a confidence artist.

• Representative Quig

As the only member of the Council who gets along with all of their colleagues, she serves as the unofficial moral center.

• Representative Seng

An adolescent diplomacy prodigy who is quickly discovering just how messy politics in the real world can be. Will it destroy him or make him stronger?

• Representative Telo

Famous for her hard-on-crime stance, to the point where she sentenced both of her own sons to be exiled to the Dark Side after they took part in a botched robbery that ended with three people dead.

• Representative Tume

A Lxuf by birth and the previous Representative Tume's Trophy Husband and widower, he's capable of great cunning even if his Obfuscating Stupidity isn't entirely an act.

• Representative Ymar

A former engineer who now applies that same ruthless precision to her political career. She's primarily motivated by a desire to keep the House of Ymar in control of Kayden's military-industrial complex.

• Representative Zyla

The Council's Wild Card, she's the most mysterious member - and she may have been connected to the death of the previous Representative Tume...

I was originally planning to have Ekan be the Council representative, but I do quite like this idea. Accepted and linked.

If you like, I don't mind either way.

edited 26th Aug '17 2:54:31 PM by Enirboreh

I could add Ekan and give Anok's traits to Lxuf (she's the one I just kinda threw together).

So, I think I have (potential) themes for Light and Dark Side of Kayden.

Light Side

Dark Side

Sorry for not posting sooner - writer's block and the assumption that someone else would post before me.

@Emily: Don't worry about that. I need to remind Cwest to make a post, thinking about it...

So, anyway, I didn't mention Xal'r in my last post simply because I didn't know where he was currently or where Kaalban wanted him.

It’s been so long since I posted, and I’ve felt so unmotivated because of other stuff going on. I’m going to have to drop out. I’m sorry, and I hope to come back someday.

That's alright, Emily. Thank you for playing, we did have a fun time.