ElectronX
05-05-2006, 02:00
For anyone who has not been privy to discussions on IRC or (and this would likely be all of you) have not read the posting in NS by Auman, I am here to make an announcement.
It all started when a role-player by the name of The Island States was sacked by assorted Martian powers and with what he could manage, fled to Sculptor, a dwarf galaxy some 287,000 light years away from our own. Nothing really came of this aside from TIS being called a wanker for escaping and the Concordat (assorted Martian powers) occupying his territory. It was only recently that anything more came of Sculptor.
Auman and myself, through many plots, plans, and discussions, realized something: NS is, in general, a boring, self-gratifying circle jerk of nations bent on showing off. It has some good qualities, namely depth and character interaction, but nothing else happens; it's a place almost devoid of conflict or interesting stories for those not involved. It wasn't long after this revelation that we began to take a hard look at the current state and fate of II.
II is a place of conflict, of antagonists and protagonists duking it out with vast armies armed with high-tech weapons. Sounds kickass no? Well no, no it is not kickass. II is, overall, a wasteland that slowly dies, being quickly replaced by another wasteland sustaining itself on the shit left by the former. It is a place with no character interaction, no depth, no writing. It is like a book set in an astounding sci-fi universe without any characters to relate to, without any intrigue, without substance. It has everything NS lacks but lacks everything NS has. This is not acceptable, so it was decided by others and myself that the gap had to be bridged, and this is how the idea Sculptor was born.
Sculptor is a galaxy plagued by evil, an evil that knows your fears, your pain your shame. It knows everything that makes you break out into that cold sweat at night when your only savior is that blanket you've hidden your head under. Leading to xenophobia of galactic proportions.
Every empire in Sculptor is driven to kill. Everything that is different from themselves is hunted down and exterminated in an attempt to rid themselves of this evil that has claimed so many, without leaving so much as a trace of its vile presence. You've killbots, pirates, orks, psychopathic computers, IoM-esque empires, tyranids; it's a galaxy where the only thing that is certain is your death, desired by one and all. These empires are huge, with populations and fleets dwarfing the mightiest nations in the Milky Way, and they are all fighting and killing each other.
This is the setting of Sculptor. Everything and everyone wants to kill you and each other, and you're stuck right in the middle of this torrent of hatred. So what is the point of this? What is this other than some peoples excuse to get away with huge empires wielding huge militaries? Why it is to tell survival driven stories that are interesting to read, with characters people can relate to in a sci-fi setting. This is no one's excuse to wank, or stroke their ego; this is a chance for people to truly do what they have not been doing for so long, to write.
The militaries of the antagonists or tweaked yes, but only with the power of the plot, which means (for anyone, which is generally everyone) that they have much or no power based on the needs of the story. They will not always be imposing figures of might, they will be important plot elements to enhance the story between their interactions with the explorers.
Now you may be saying, "Well this is all well and good, but how does it concern me, and how do I get involved?" If you want to get involved, it is as simple as asking; you can be an antagonist or an explorer. It's a galaxy so there will of course be plenty of room. There are just a few 'guidelines' that need to be followed for any of this to work out.
If you choose to go the route of antagonist, you must be xenophobic and evil. You must constantly fight amongst the other antagonists, you cannot remain stagnant with an amassed fleet waiting to kill any explorer you come across; to do so only seals the fate of your empire. You also need to stay within the bell shaped curve to keep the atmosphere intact, that meaning not to much silliness, insanity is alright but total silliness is not.
Explorers, well you guys have limits. For one no battlefleets meant only to conquer the galaxy; it's wankey, ruins the atmosphere, and will only end up bad for you when one of the antagonists comes in and mops up what remains of your plans for stellar domination. Which brings another point to light, be sneaky. Going Rawr! in a galaxy of constantly warring super powers is just a bad idea; realistically it makes you paste. So be sneaky, survive, investigate, do cool shit, don't worry about trying to conquer shit because you wont be in a position to do so for a long time, hopefully. Other than preserving the storyline, you can do pretty much anything you want.
Us behind this welcome anyone to join, anyone. We also hope that the lack of alliances (and since it is a galaxy and whatever $_method you used to get here can be anywhere in that galaxy, you don’t have to interact with anyone in the galaxy you don't want to interact with), and lack of a central location will cause you the participant, to create interesting characters that do interesting things.
Again! Everyone is welcome, everyone is invited to find a way to this galaxy and start writing kickass stories, this is not a circle jerk for a select few.
Comments Welcome, and here is who we have thus far:
Antagonists:
The Vampiric Dominion of Navick
Gradasi Pirates
Niiatar Hegeomy
The Shangri-la Project Killbots
Ork Clans(various people)
Directorate of Eden
Remnants of Man
Magog - Theao
The Invae of the Tir
The remenants of Man
Explorers:
Auman
Allanea
The Solarin League
Roania
Bryn Shander
The Island States
The Augmented
Kirisubo
Liberated New Ireland
Whyatica - Minbari White Star
Fodmodmadtol
Posts Related to the Project:
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=10902970#post10902970 -- NS Thread by Auman between himself and the Niiatar Hegemony.
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=481811
-- II Thread by TSLP between himself and MM.
It all started when a role-player by the name of The Island States was sacked by assorted Martian powers and with what he could manage, fled to Sculptor, a dwarf galaxy some 287,000 light years away from our own. Nothing really came of this aside from TIS being called a wanker for escaping and the Concordat (assorted Martian powers) occupying his territory. It was only recently that anything more came of Sculptor.
Auman and myself, through many plots, plans, and discussions, realized something: NS is, in general, a boring, self-gratifying circle jerk of nations bent on showing off. It has some good qualities, namely depth and character interaction, but nothing else happens; it's a place almost devoid of conflict or interesting stories for those not involved. It wasn't long after this revelation that we began to take a hard look at the current state and fate of II.
II is a place of conflict, of antagonists and protagonists duking it out with vast armies armed with high-tech weapons. Sounds kickass no? Well no, no it is not kickass. II is, overall, a wasteland that slowly dies, being quickly replaced by another wasteland sustaining itself on the shit left by the former. It is a place with no character interaction, no depth, no writing. It is like a book set in an astounding sci-fi universe without any characters to relate to, without any intrigue, without substance. It has everything NS lacks but lacks everything NS has. This is not acceptable, so it was decided by others and myself that the gap had to be bridged, and this is how the idea Sculptor was born.
Sculptor is a galaxy plagued by evil, an evil that knows your fears, your pain your shame. It knows everything that makes you break out into that cold sweat at night when your only savior is that blanket you've hidden your head under. Leading to xenophobia of galactic proportions.
Every empire in Sculptor is driven to kill. Everything that is different from themselves is hunted down and exterminated in an attempt to rid themselves of this evil that has claimed so many, without leaving so much as a trace of its vile presence. You've killbots, pirates, orks, psychopathic computers, IoM-esque empires, tyranids; it's a galaxy where the only thing that is certain is your death, desired by one and all. These empires are huge, with populations and fleets dwarfing the mightiest nations in the Milky Way, and they are all fighting and killing each other.
This is the setting of Sculptor. Everything and everyone wants to kill you and each other, and you're stuck right in the middle of this torrent of hatred. So what is the point of this? What is this other than some peoples excuse to get away with huge empires wielding huge militaries? Why it is to tell survival driven stories that are interesting to read, with characters people can relate to in a sci-fi setting. This is no one's excuse to wank, or stroke their ego; this is a chance for people to truly do what they have not been doing for so long, to write.
The militaries of the antagonists or tweaked yes, but only with the power of the plot, which means (for anyone, which is generally everyone) that they have much or no power based on the needs of the story. They will not always be imposing figures of might, they will be important plot elements to enhance the story between their interactions with the explorers.
Now you may be saying, "Well this is all well and good, but how does it concern me, and how do I get involved?" If you want to get involved, it is as simple as asking; you can be an antagonist or an explorer. It's a galaxy so there will of course be plenty of room. There are just a few 'guidelines' that need to be followed for any of this to work out.
If you choose to go the route of antagonist, you must be xenophobic and evil. You must constantly fight amongst the other antagonists, you cannot remain stagnant with an amassed fleet waiting to kill any explorer you come across; to do so only seals the fate of your empire. You also need to stay within the bell shaped curve to keep the atmosphere intact, that meaning not to much silliness, insanity is alright but total silliness is not.
Explorers, well you guys have limits. For one no battlefleets meant only to conquer the galaxy; it's wankey, ruins the atmosphere, and will only end up bad for you when one of the antagonists comes in and mops up what remains of your plans for stellar domination. Which brings another point to light, be sneaky. Going Rawr! in a galaxy of constantly warring super powers is just a bad idea; realistically it makes you paste. So be sneaky, survive, investigate, do cool shit, don't worry about trying to conquer shit because you wont be in a position to do so for a long time, hopefully. Other than preserving the storyline, you can do pretty much anything you want.
Us behind this welcome anyone to join, anyone. We also hope that the lack of alliances (and since it is a galaxy and whatever $_method you used to get here can be anywhere in that galaxy, you don’t have to interact with anyone in the galaxy you don't want to interact with), and lack of a central location will cause you the participant, to create interesting characters that do interesting things.
Again! Everyone is welcome, everyone is invited to find a way to this galaxy and start writing kickass stories, this is not a circle jerk for a select few.
Comments Welcome, and here is who we have thus far:
Antagonists:
The Vampiric Dominion of Navick
Gradasi Pirates
Niiatar Hegeomy
The Shangri-la Project Killbots
Ork Clans(various people)
Directorate of Eden
Remnants of Man
Magog - Theao
The Invae of the Tir
The remenants of Man
Explorers:
Auman
Allanea
The Solarin League
Roania
Bryn Shander
The Island States
The Augmented
Kirisubo
Liberated New Ireland
Whyatica - Minbari White Star
Fodmodmadtol
Posts Related to the Project:
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=10902970#post10902970 -- NS Thread by Auman between himself and the Niiatar Hegemony.
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=481811
-- II Thread by TSLP between himself and MM.