In Candescence {SKYWARD} [CLOSED?]

Keep in mind that this summarized version of Skyward’s lore and history has been revised and changed from the original version which I submitted to the roleplay prompt contest.



The Expanse is a place devoid of gravity. This vast expanse of directionless air is saturated with oceans of clouds, a volume scattered with drifting terrestrial islands and sprinkled with settlements. Beyond the spheres of warm air lit up by the artificial ‘stars’ and ‘suns’ of civilizations, the air is chill and dense. This apparently all-encompassing region which surrounds the Known Sky, academically referred to as aether incognito, is thought by the denizens of the ether to be eternal and impassible, an effective barrier to the rest of the universe (if there is anything out there). Trailblazers light new suns and strike paths into unknown territories, constantly expanding the Periphery of the known sky.



In the absence of gravity, the descendants of the inhabitants of Equestria were either forced to adapt to the weightlessness of perpetual freefall or, as the majority of people learned to do, compensate for the lack of it.

There are two main ways of generating artificial gravity.



Centrifugal Force is used by the majority of the population of the Sky. Unlike true gravity, which is created by mass and pulls towards a center, this pseudo-force, in rotating reference frames, gives a rotational ‘gravity’ that pushes away from the axis of rotation. Artificial gravity levels vary proportionately with the distance from the axis. Most settlements are built with a minimum radius of ~100 metres (~300 feet). The very largest structures could have radii of several hundred miles. For reference, think of those concepts for rotating space habitats, just made of metal and wood and held together by ropes and iron girders.




A rotational settlement several hundred feet wide. Note that the ‘gravity’ (the centrifugal force) of this town weakens proportionally as one nears the hub of the town.
As an example, if we assume that the town has a radius of ~325 feet and that the town had a spin rate of 3 revolutions per minute…
The outer rim (downtown) would experience roughly 1 standard gravity’s worth of acceleration.
The platforms mounted between the downtown areas and the hub would experience around half gravity.
Meanwhile, the tangential velocity of this town would be close to a hundred feet per minute, around 70 miles per hour. That would mean that, at the edge of the town wheel, one might experience winds at around the aforementioned speed.
Meanwhile, at the hub of the wheel where the spokes of the town meet, there would be hardly any rotational force – certainly not noticeable for pedestrian activities such as navigating the uptown areas. This hub is also where most docks are situated, as it is difficult to moor ships to the sides of rotating structures that are moving at possibly hundreds of miles per hour.

SpinCalc
Useful calculator for figuring out things about rotating habitats.

Arcane Acceleration is able to be manifested to some small degree by most creatures, more so by magically-adept beings like horned equids and much of the higher draconic races. A gravity-bound example of arcane acceleration is what happens when a unicorn levitates an object while under the influence of some form of gravity, with the entire object experiencing a force that effectively negates its downward pull. When used in freefall, arcane acceleration can act as an excellent substitute for centrifugal gravity, able to be used with ease on small surface areas or able to be bent and manipulated to create different directions of ‘down’. For convenience, treat compact artificial gravitational technologies like gravity panels in soft sci-fi, or ‘gravity-bending’, if you will.

One very highly sought after manner of maintaining a field of arcane acceleration is by using a lodestone. These magical relics differ vastly in shape and size and efficacy, forged many thousands of years ago with forgotten technologies and magics. These irreproducible crystalline artefacts are usually found in the centres of large islands and megastructures, projecting a field (or gravity well, as some refer to it) that draws objects within its area of effect towards the lodestone. Most islands that have a lodestone core are left with no surface area wasted by those who inhabit them, for gravity is a precious commodity in this world.



However, the majority of islands are left without gravity. Those that are carried by warm currents and exposed to sunlight are overgrown with microgravity vegetation that reaches hundreds to thousands of feet from the island, foliage described to be as thin and wispy as cotton candy or coated by pads of expansive shell-like (solar panel-like) leaves. Those rocks out in the cold, far from the light of any sun or star, find themselves coated in icy, crystalline growths and bioluminescent fungi.

A depiction and a cross-section diagram of  a small island.

Weightless islands are hardly ever large enough to create enough of a gravitic force to attract even the smallest grains of sand through the air without magical assistance, with the largest islands being only some miles in length. For example, the largest weightless isle island and also the largest concentration of mass in the vicinity of the central sun is two-by-four miles in dimension, to give a sense of scale.

Aside from those large, rocky islands scattered around the central sun, most other objects are carried about by the Trade Winds, for push, in the open air, does not come to shove. The inhabitants of, say, a drifting town, would not feel the Trade Winds pushing at them, for the air around non-stationary objects is, for the most part, relatively still.

On average-sized rotational towns and cities, however, the rotation of these structures causes air around the structure to be sucked in through the areas near the axis and pulled towards the inner surface with an antispinward curve. This effect is known as spin wind. Likewise, most objects located on the inner surface of rotational structures are subject to minor amounts of this rotational displacement, leading to the directions of ‘uphill’ and ‘downhill’ on evenly-shaped curved surfaces, uphill being the direction in which objects have to work against the rotation of the structure itself. These minor spin effects affect things like how books are stacked in libraries (large stacks have a noticeably diagonal orientation, away from the spin) to which direction people who haven’t gotten their land legs yet end up stumbling towards (downhill, as it is easier to fall down a ‘slope’).

Demonstration of the Coriolis effect on a rotational structure [.gif]

[History]

[1: Expository Exegesis]
Sundering, The
The Sundering is known by many other popular names, such as the Rive, the Calamity, the Collapse, the Fall (or Rise), the Crash, as well as technical terms like the Ecliptic Event.
Introduction
Few events have impacted history so much as the fatal events of the Sundering. It is attributed to the loss of tens of millions of lives, as well as the mass displacement of major portions of the Old World into the Sky. Various mythopoetic and religious retellings of the Ecliptic Event and the Dark Ages that followed have replaced facts with exaggerations and half-truths. This retelling of events, based on extensive historical research, testimonies from temporally-displaced individuals, and advanced arcano-temporal cliological simulations, is by no means complete nor completely accurate, as an estimated 9?%of records from that era remain lost. Therefore, the document’s details have been left intentionally vague for [END OF LINE]

[Start Transcript]
Volume 1, Chapter 3 of the manuscript Sunder, Thunder, Wönder
Recovered from sources in the Cauldron
Translated from Ancient (Standard) Equestrian Text
A brief summary of the Millennial Era written traditionally.

---

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria…
The world before the Sundering a thousand years ago was peaceful and harmonious, ruled over by the Two Goddesses of Day and Night.
Celestia brought forth the life-giving Light with Her Sun, while Selena guarded the Night with Her Moon’s tranquil gaze.
Together, in Harmony, they were unstoppable against the malicious powers that threatened Equestria.
Disorder and Chaos were abolished.
Conflicts were arrested.
Friendships were forged.
Then the Nightmare came into the world. A Rift occurred between the Goddesses.
The Goddesses were separated as Celestia wielded the power of Harmony, banishing Selena away into the Skies, binding Her essence to the Moon to keep the world safe from the Nightmare’s Corruption.
By using even a fraction of the Power of the Elements of Harmony, the Primal Goddess forever broke the Harmonic connection between Sun and Moon.
And so it was that [REDACTED]
A thousand years passed with Celestia, deprived of Her Counterpart, as the Primal Balance of the World.
At the End of the Thousand Year Exile, the Nightmare broke free of its bonds and descended upon Equestria.
The Elements of Harmony reappeared, embodied by the Six. A true Balance of Power was reestablished as the Nightmare fell, bringing Celestia and Selena back to in Their place.
The Six who epitomized the Elements of Harmony worked to create a true paradise.
The many threats the denizens of Equestria faced (and evils that came from lands beyond) were eradicated. All the while, the Six spread the Doctrines of Friendship and Harmony far and wide to all four corners of the world.

---

Quotations from Volume 2, Prologue of Sunder, Thunder, Wönder
A retelling of the events of the Sundering

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… For, behold, a Nightmare came wreathed in the fire of a thousand suns, bringing total darkness to [untranslatable] and precipitating [illegible] for all.
… In the end times of the Sundering, with neither Order nor Harmony to quell its [illegible]and its uncontrollable wrath …
The Moon and the Sun alike were no longer controlled by the Goddesses.
For Six Cycles, the Moon drew ever closer from Her perch in the Sky to the land below.
The mountains shuddered and cracked as the unrelenting tidal forces of the Moon ruptured the very crust of the world, disturbing the very foundations of the world and
Gravity itself started to fluctuate and fail as a cascading collapse tore its way through the land of Equestria.
The immense tides wreaked havoc on the Natural Order, untethering Cardinal fields and dissolving integral connections between worlds.
Lands were swallowed in flames, receding into the boiling seas. And yet the land itself fought back against the chaos of the Moon’s influence before ultimately falling into the Void beyond, torn into the Heavens.
It is said that the Sun and the Moon came ever closer together in the Sky. Many feared of a world-ending collision, a Sky irreparably swallowed by Darkness and Light.
Six Nights and Days it took for Equestria to come undone.
One more Day did it take to finally break.
On the Seventh Day, the Sun crawled past the Horizon for the last time. The Moon, forever falling inwards, consumed the Last Light of the Last Day, bringing forth the Final Fall.

---

It has been ten thousand years since the collapse of Equestrian civilization.

When the Princesses vanished, it is said that the Sun and Moon fell out of their control. For Six Days and Six Nights, the Celestial Objects flew wild across the skies with no rhyme or reason to guide their paths. On the Seventh Day, the Moon Eclipsed the Sun, casting a bloody glow across the skies. On that tragic Day, the Stars rained down from the Heavens, the Earth convulsed with tidal forces, and the Moon was said to have broken apart in the Light of the dying Sun.

As the climax of the Ecliptic Event passed and the Celestial lights dimmed, a great silence fell across the shattered lands of Equestria. The world was spent, diminished.

Then came the Uplifting. A Wave of gravitic forces greater than any had been seen before swept its way through the devastated land, uprooting cities, forests, and mountains with no discrimination. Those that were torn away into the skies were the sole survivors of the dead world.

As the gravitic storm died away, so did the mighty, ancient force of gravity itself. Rushing winds cleared the mists and dust from the Cataclysm to unveil not a landscape but a darkened skyscape, a world devoid of a Horizon, with no Up nor Down, North nor South. And so the Dark Ages began with a blinding cloak of Starless Night and directionless drifting. Where once there were Sun and Moon and Star, there were only neverending banks of clouds, churning storms, the feeble lights of survivors in the distance, and scattered patches of land drifting out in the freezing air. In the chaos and subsequent loss of ground-bound communication following the Eclipse, small communities either thrived or died out in the debris.

[The First Millennium]
The first steps taken to rebuild civilization from its ashes was to start over and strike a new spark into the dark. So came about the first artificial Star, a beacon of hope for those stranded in the dark and the cold. The first Star in the Sky was a dim ember glowing in the char and the dust and the ice, barely visible and totally insignificant. Yet others followed suit. Gradually, a change came about the Sky as Stars once again lit up the Night. As the devastated recovered and settlements steadily grew, larger and more capable Stars were built. Connections were established between towns. Friendships were forged. The Dark Age is said to have ended mere decades after the Sundering with the construction of Aurora, the first major Sun. From this unity, all else arose.

From the weightless isles and mountains, they extracted metals and crystals alike to build and feed their growing colonies. Rotating rings and cylinders were constructed to simulate full Old Equestrian gravity. Under the governance of the United Order, the Constellation of Worlds thrived and spread across the Sky, lighting up the darkness and trailblazing through foreign territories littered with the remains of those who had not developed their own Stars.

At the end of the millennium, thousands of miles away from the core post-Equestrian emergent civilization, the Crystal Empire awakened quietly from a thousand-year slumber.

[The Second Millennium]
The Constellation was the first group to travel past the original sites of civilization and into the Wilds, raising communities where no one had ever dared venture. And it was such that the Constellation of Worlds became the dominant civilization in the Sky for many centuries.
After many decades, the Constellation of Worlds soon reached a point where the distances involved between colonies were too great for stability and ease of communication. In the late 300’s. towns and cities that were separated by large distances began declaring independence as the Constellation of Worlds slowly began to lose cohesion and focus, its significance in local politics and importance in governmental positions steadily diminishing. The Constellation of Worlds eventually faded into history as it fragmented into various meta-empires, Great Houses, and pseudo-polities that maintained friendly relations through trade and cooperation.

[The Third Millennium]
With the mass-commercialization of adaptable, clean-burning dragonfire engines and the first high ERoEI (spell-)flux-catalysed gemstone fission drives, as well as the invention of multimodal spark-breeders, the dawn of the 4th Millennium saw the beginning of the Era of Expansion. It is a much-romanticised period that brought forth a resurgence in Frontier culture. It is also renowned for being one of the most socioeconomically productive periods in the history of the Sky, with advances in locomotive technology and communications facilitating much trade between the worlds. This age of prosperity started many new nations in the far reaches of the known volumes.

[The Fourth Millennium]
The Era of Expansion brought forth novel long-range colonization missions to birth many far-flung civilizations. Star clusters formed around resource-rich skies, flourishing on material wealth and commerce. The cultures at this period in time overflowed with diversity. With the need to connect the myriad polities and empires so far from each other came great advances in communication technologies and teleportation methodologies.

One trailblazer ship, the IX, never made it to its destination. For the first time in 2400 years, the Crystal Empire civilization was encountered by Mainstream civilization. The cultural and technological exchange that followed was like no other, cumulating in the Nexus effort of the 2460s and the eventual creation of the Gate system of the Greater Nexus.

With the advent of this system of unification, a period of Empires emerged. A vast web of entangled community came into being and persisted for many millennia.

[The Fifth Millennium]
The mid-5000s AS witnessed the creation (or the rediscovery, some say) of advanced transmogrification techniques, the art of morphic technology, out in the isolated Peripheral countries. Gentle experimentation with this new magical art graced the worlds with many artificial-natural treasures. After centuries of development, people began to modify themselves freely out in the Periphery, while the Inner Worlds were more conservative about the ethics of Morphics being used on sentient beings.

Many creatures and flora were modified in this way from this period of time and onward up until the Cauterization. Examples include terrestrial fauna and flora adapted for living in freefall, engineered trees for habitation purposes, and much of the airborne flora that enrich the Sky.

[The Sixth Millennium]
There are several wars that broke out over bioengineering and morphics between Peripheral worlds and the Coronese. None of these conflicts go anywhere as the positive factors of morphic technology eventually won over.

An unrelated and particularly devastating war swept through the Crystal Empire and their neighbours, causing much strife and the dissolution of two nations. The whole incident [REDACTED]

[The Seventh Millennium]
spreads beyond the void into (unrecognized) cumulating in stasis and ultima reverted

[The Eighth Millennium]
amalgamation disease discomfort pain agony strife discord chaos destruction decay rebirth vitalization flowering bloom burst concuss confusion fractal symmetry pattern spiral spin centrifuge revolution conflict war hostility hatred anger vengeance coldness deprivation loss

recovery

rediscovery

rebirth

[The Ninth Millennium]
Meanwhile, in the inner cluster of worlds, a new movement had emerged. A coalition formed from numerous polities, empires, and houses had come together in a joint effort to once again unite the greater nations. Their plan was not to unite under a single flag, but to collectively bask in the light of a single powerful Sun. The proposed Sun was to be built with the newest technologies and arcane principles, fueled by the wild reverberations of artificially-created spatiotemporal curvatures. With enormous amounts of imported matter and magically-generated exotic materials, the Central Sun of Corona took well over three centuries to construct and activate, during which time many discoveries in the arcane sciences were made to aid in its construction.

With the lighting of Corona and the activation of its charged currents to drive air circulation in the early 9000s, an ordered society began to emerge. The warmth of Corona extended its influence for many thousands of miles, giving birth to stratified layers of life-giving sunlight and conveying currents of air that circulated and aligned the drifting nations within its grasp. The looping currents, titled the Trade Winds, extended far from the light of Corona and helped unite the majority of the population of the Sky peacefully under an alliance of light.

The period of unity and light only lasted until the end of the Ninth Millennium, for a change of attitude had come about between the Coronese Concordance, the Unified Equilibria, and the Greater Nexus.

---

The rest is history.

The world fell once more into a second Dark Age as the Suns, the principle sources of light and warmth in the world, were used as weapons of mass destruction upon neighbouring nations. Just as a spark spreads and grows into a fire, the War of the Solar Winds raged through the skies of the Periphery, with conflict eventually spreading to the very core of civilization. Highly destructive gravitational weapons evolved from solar technology shredded and warped space into impossible shapes. These metric weapons could destroy cities with virtually no warning, explode minor suns, and distort the local spacetime to achieve disastrous results.

The war lasted several decades, with many hundreds of millions of lives vanishing to fire and light and empty spaces. The conflict ended in a solar flare event as the Central Sun of Corona was used to burn the skies and wreak havoc with the integral airflow of the local sphere. This solar storm incinerated the air for six full cycles before Corona, finally spent, shut itself down. It reactivated several cycles afterwards with its lights dimmed and its air current generators weakened. All settlements and nations within a thousand miles of Corona were seared away in the event, with the outer Circulatory worlds and the Peripheral nations as the sole survivors. The Nexus of portals that had once united the worlds and eased trade imploded upon itself, adding to the chaos. This apocalyptic event is best known as the Cauterization, the Solar Flare, &| the Scorching.

It has been four centuries since the Cauterization of Nations. The Great Depression that accompanied the cataclysm has long since passed, and the Tenth Millennium is dawning…

The communities of the Coronese Concordance, the inner worlds close to the central sun, were utterly decimated when they fell to the lethal onslaught of spellfire. The ruins of these inner worlds have since been revitalized and recolonized, lifted from the lifeless sterilized ashes and detritus into the tropical paradises they once were. Almost all traces of the past collective have been obliterated, leaving the settlers of the seared skies free to lay out their own future, or to rediscover the legacy of the ancient Coronese.

The hundreds of nations that were aligned with the Trade Winds suffered many losses. It is said that the light of Corona shone upon the furthest settlements without mercy. The closer nations were not spared in the least as they fell to abrasive metric distortions and harsh solar storms. Chaos played with the inner workings of Corona and changed the Trade Winds’ patterns forever, sending streams of drifting nations further out into the dark and cold.

The Peripheral worlds, as isolated and as far apart as they were, largely escaped the Cauterization’s burning judgement. Many isolationist nations remain virtually unchanged, with their warlike tendencies and closed borders discouraging contact with other worlds. The majority of worlds in this vast volume beyond the lights of suns have developed their own distinct cultures and ideologies, left to develop alone for centuries.


A 2D Map of Mainstream Civilization
At bottom right, labeled, is the Central Sun of Corona.
Corona is approximately █ in radius.
The brighter sphere immediately around the sun is the Coronal Region.
~1000 miles from Corona.
The wider volume past that are temperate skies known as the Temperate Territories.
~1000 to ~3000 miles from Corona.
Beyond the Coronal light lie the Trade Winds.
Shown here are the lights of the major suns, marking the territories of the many hundreds of nations that call the Winds home.
…
The darker lines that circle around Corona are the orbits of objects around Corona that are too massive to be carried by the Trade Winds, such as megastructures and asteroids/islands.
The Unknown  beyond the Trade Winds, not pictured here, is the Dark, the Winter, the Deep, the Periphery of Exploration. These skies are rarely mapped and hardly traversed, far from the lights of civilization. Clusters of stars and the occasional minor sun may be found here.


An illustration of the Mainstream volume around the sun of Corona and the ancient Crystal Empire volume, distances not to scale. Shown are the outlines of the air circulation patterns and the outer influence of both Corona and the Crystal Core respectively.


[Factions, Polities & Associations]


The Hub
The Hub used to be a quaint little trading town in the middle of the borders of several large empires and territories. Now it is a sprawling city-state stretched across several islands that specialize in trade and commerce, with roots and connections in every friendly empire out there. Notable for its crystalline structures branching from the Tree of Friendship, its well-preserved Old Equestrian ruins, and its extremely decentralized government.


The Diamond Dragons
This mining-and-export House is renowned across the Sky as the number one exporter in magical gems, free-growing crystals, dragonfire, and other kinds of fuel. The Dens, a large chain of loosely-stable mountains located in the Territories, is where their business is based. Their mines are rumored to go down to the bedrock of the floating mountains, not yet fully explored. The population consists mostly of diamond dogs and ponies, with one of the largest populations of dragons left in the Sky.


The Reapers
Originally a small clan of Skybound griffins, this noble House has grown beyond its early days of simple lightning harvesting and gem trading. With a formidable military force and rotational settlements based in the Shards and in the Hyperborean Outlands, the House of Reapers is largely isolated from other worlds. When they participate in the local politics, however, things always get rough over airspace restrictions due to their expansionist and sometimes aggressive nature.


Finder’s Keepers
A neutral society of scavengers and producer of organics located in the Trade Winds. The Keepers have good relations with basically every polity and nation-state around. They facilitate trade in many regions and play a big part in commerce-based locations such as the Hub and in the Dens.


The Crystal Empire
This Ancient Equestrian empire of ten thousand years ago was thought to have been lost to the Cauterization’s chaos. Near the edges of civilization, this very society has reappeared from a second hibernation, unchanged over the centuries of being stranded in the cold of the Winter. Communications have been set up with the ruler, Cadance Cadenza, in an effort to reestablish contact with the rest of the worlds.


Halcyon Disposition
Located in the Trade Winds, the great city-states of Halcyon carry with them small bounds of wealth and material resources. Isolationist and authoritarian (to a fault, some say), Halcyon keeps its borders strict and its immigration / emigration rates low. Not much information about this nation is known, but Halcyon’s military forces have proven themselves in past conflicts to be a formidable force.

The Coronal Commonwealth
One might consider this small group the scattered remnants of the ashes of the original Coronese Concordance. These nobles claim to have inherited the vast riches of the Coronal Regio and, in recent decades, have slowly climbed up the social ladder. They are agriculturalists and energy harvesters who utilise a slave force to get much done. They have many hopes for improving the future.

The Halos
The communities far from any major sun, those who embrace the dark and the cold.

Raiders
Pirates, bandits, freebooters, desperados… They roam the uncivilized airs. Many of them would be glad to paint the skies with your innards. Beware the lawless skies…


[Character Creation]

An Incomplete Species List, Sorted in Alphabetical Order:

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[Worldbuilding and Characters]
Stories are easier to weave with collaboration between partners.

I highly encourage you to create new places for character origins. Mention new places or cultures to me and we’ll figure out things and perhaps incorporate elements into the story / setting. This is a sandbox that I want people to meddle in.
Notice how I haven’t mentioned the name of a single nation-state in this write-up, although there have been numerous mentions of them. Feel free to make minor nations. There’s space for hundreds of significant countries and many thousands of micronations out in the Expanse.

Characters will most likely have to be rewritten for this setting. Talk to me, and I’ll be glad to help solidify concepts and the like. Don’t be shy! I’m available on Skype and on forum PMs most of the week.

Some suggestions / possibilities for character backstory:

- - - They were raised in low gravity, possibly none at all. They’ve grown up all spindly and long and lithe, living a life away from rotational acceleration and magical gravity. If their descendants were biomechanically modified for life in freefall, there might be no noticeable side effects to their life aside from being pretty tall, but if they have no augmentations against things like bone density / calcium loss and metabolic functioning and muscle strength and other related physical effects, their visits to gravity might have to be kept short, assisted with the use of exoskeletons to keep one’s fragile form from breaking.
At least they’re better at maneuvering in freefall, yeah?

- - - Being born and grown on habitations with more gravity than normal is not unheard of. These people will grow to be very compact and muscular, with an unimpressive physical stature but with magnificent strength and endurance. Lifting things in normal gravity, to them, is like weightlifting on Mars.
Don’t expect to be able to live in more than three gravities, unless you’re modified for insane accelerations.

- - - There are significant populations that dwell where the suns don’t shine. Many know them as the Halos, the ones beyond the Periphery. They grow up with lamplight and magical illumination, thriving in perpetual night, barring visits to other nations. Others may live with a complete absence of worldly light. Very few have entryways into the shadows themselves…

- - - Biological individuals who have been exposed to large amounts of Crystal radiation or those who have ancestors who were crystalline may be affected physically and show many physical transformations relating to this ancient variety of morphic magic. The most well-known examples might be the crystal ponies of old, or the famed crystal dragons of the current era. Different metabolic, structural, arcane, and certainly visual differences from the baseline form are noticeable in these individuals, including the projection of the so-called ‘conduits’ of crystalline matter from various places on the body, a luminous sheen to the plumage/skin/fur, differences in magical efficacy, and variances in the resonance of sympathetic tracing.

- - - Is your character even fully biological? They might be partly mechanical or crystalline. Cyborgs are in this ‘verse, just not as techno. If there is advanced tech in use, it’s likely not understood very well. Clockwork claws and crystal fission-powered exosuits are just fine, but they’re not that common.
On the extreme end of things, non-organic characters are completely acceptable, albeit with certain limitations. Bringing up the “I am an invincible android that can repair damage instantly and defeat all my foes by blasting them with microwaves and be overpowered in general in the stereotypical and trite manner of things” is, of course, not a valid thing. Crystal technology is a really big thing in this world, so thinking along those lines is helpful.

- - - There are multitudes of religions and ideologies. Most of them are based on pre-Sundering persons, such as Harmonism and Dualistic Celestialism, which are based off of the teachings and tenets of the Elements of Harmony and the Celestial Goddesses respectively. The practicers be Orthodox or Secular, these two religions seem to have caught on with much of Mainstream civilization. Others simply worship those who dwelled before the Cauterization and their great relics and artefacts of lost technologies.

- - - Monetary systems are present. There is barter, but most either use bits (which now look more like silver metal washers, the ones with holes in) or gems (which do not have a fixed price but relies on the buyer and its quality and type). There are more, but these are the ones you'll see being used most of the time in Mainstream civilizations.

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You will be starting off in the middle of nowhere at an outpost trading town far enough from most lights that sunlights are red smudges in the distance. This place will be within flying distance to many locations by airship, giving us lots of opportunities for exploring and rendezvousing.

You should pack lightly, since you’re going to be going places a lot. You can have your own jet bike or skimmer yacht, just make sure you’re able to pay for it and maintain it properly. Make sure to dress warmly – we’re going to be in the middle of a twilight zone, where the temperatures can drop in the night enough for frost and snow to form.

You’re in this tiny isolated town for a reason, one that you should probably decide on. Just remember that, if this town is your pitstop on your way to another destination, you might or might not get where you want, just a bit of fair warning.

Roleplaying is going to be, for the most part, at your convenience. Turn-based roleplaying will only be for periods of action, conflict, or battle that require all to take turns equally.

A reminder that this is not intended as an anthro roleplay. If you refer to  this chart, the anthropomorphism is at a 1, nearing level 2 at certain points.


GM: Portal [PortalHunter]
Co-GM: Lolk [Lorthalis of Crows]

Player limit: [5] for now.
Players will be decided by the GMs in an unspecified manner.

Character limit: Undecided as of now.

Come talk to me if you’re not sure about things, which you (and I) most certainly are.

Might edit some more later, but gonna put this here so the world knows my madness.

Name: Loose Tinder
Age: 32
Race: Kirin
Appearance Changes: Most of the time, at least while she’s landlubbering, Loose looks a little bit on the rotund end of the spectrum. While she is on the tall and gangly end of the scale due to her origins in the Halos and the amount of time she spends travelling, this chubbiness tends to make it seem a bit less extreme. Even when she’s running ‘empty’, she’s still got a bit of fat on her bones, though most of her remaining build is leanly muscle nonetheless.
Skills: An experienced cook, Loose has made her way through life turning meager foodstuffs into acceptable cuisine. She has spent the vast majority of her adult and adolescent life traveling around with various “archaeology” crews, scavenging for historical artifacts to sell to wealthy benefactors. While she’s not exactly an expert in dealing with old technology, she’s been exposed to enough stuff to know her way around most ruins, and has garnered no shortage of survival and navigational skills in her lifetime.
Abilities: An odd quirk of her biology, Loose Tinder has 1 more hole on her person than a normal pony, located between her jiggly bits and her plothole. It is the most amazing hole ever, with muscles within capable of restriction and precisely-controlled angling. It is also the worst hole you could ever put your dick in, because it’s used to shoot out flaming gases as a form of propulsion. There is honestly no telling what would happen if you stuck your dick in it, though it is predicted that it would result in *lots* of pain. Fiery pain.
Alongside this lovely piece of physiology, she has a lovely digestive system to fuel this insanity. A portion of everything she eats is converted into usable propellants: Carbon and hydrogen are used as feedstock for various hydrocarbon fuels, nitrogen is mixed with oxygen to produce more volatile nitrate compounds, and various other elements find themselves used as oxidizers. Of note: the proportion of food that is converted into propellent is directly proportional to the amount of food she’s eaten recently and inversely proportional to how much is already stored and available.
Gear: Loose possesses a good deal of equipment to complement her constant travelling. She is most likely to be spotted wearing a dark brown, wool-lined jacket with a thickly lined collar, helped along with a little bit of fireproofing magic to keep her from accidentally igniting the thing (any other containers and things listed are similarly protected, so I don’t have to keep saying this again and again and/or forget to mark one). Among the many items she keeps in her lovely backpack which would appear quite oversized if she were not as big as she is, she keeps plenty of little clips, a small amount of rope and twine, more clips, a handful of iron pitons, a couple of  hammers for said pitons, a flashlight (waterproof, of course), and a couple of water bottles. Belted onto the front of the pack, she keeps a rolled up sleeping bag capable of being pinned to the ground. Buried deep within the pack, she keeps a very special and very waterproof case, long and wide but not very thick, which looks quite nondescript at first, but opens up to reveal a rather sizable spice rack, with a set of rollers on one side of the case letting it open in a stair-step pattern for easy access. Each canister of spice is held on with a small velcro strip on its base, and it is carefully organized to fit her needs. Bayleaf, cumin, sage, thyme, and many other flavors grace her little shelves. Situated in a set of saddlebags which are themselves just another part of her backpack is her personal mobile kitchen. A pan and pot with matched lids, a hot plate with clasps fitted for both the pan and pot, no shortage of cutlery, and a decent collection of serving ‘dishes’, little bags of various materials to keep food in while one eats, the vast majority of them waterproofed.


History: A native to the Halo colony of 55th Legion (inheriting its name from what is believed to have been its ancient toponym, given the number of pre-Cauterization documents that indicate supplies delivered here were for 55th Legion), Loose has always been a bit of a freefaller and adventurer, alongside her natural predilection for cooking. She’s been with no shortage of expeditions to centuries-old ruins, and it’s left a marked experience upon her.

Here's a little clarification for how distances should be measured.

The diagram above shows how ponies are proportioned to humans, for a very rough comparison.

The average pony seems to stand over three feet tall when on all fours (~+1m), while they stand on their hind legs around as tall (maybe a little shorter or taller) as a human might be. All values here are approximate.

Do keep in mind that height is extremely variable in a world where gravity comes with a heavy monthly tax.

Well, since things are going kinda slow for this RP, I might as well sign-up.

Name: Dusk Hammer

Race: Unicorn

Age: 28

Appearance Changes: compared to a normal pony, he isn't that different, except he's bigger and stronger than the average unicorn. On all fours, he stands at about four and a half feet tall.

Skills: Dusk Hammer is a seasoned metalworker, though he tends to use his skills to improve his own weapons and armor. He has an excellent memory and is a great melee fighter. However, he has been considered to be cold, calculating and brutal when it comes to eliminating enemies. This means he's excellent at killing enemies and not very good at bringing somepony in alive, especially if a fight ensues. One issue is that his magic isn't as powerful as an average unicorn's, which would mean it's more difficult for him to create his own gravity for personal use.

Gear: Dusk carries a powered warhammer meant to fire a blast of pure force on impact. However, due to the power demand, he has to use some of his own magic power to use that ability. Otherwise, it's a normal warhammer. He also carries a dagger that he keeps for emergencies, and if he ever needs to conceal a weapon. He often wears his plated armor, as well as a warm coat for the night and when he's riding his jet bike. He keeps some rations on him if he needs to eat while on the move.

(This is assuming guns are allowed. If not, I shall make the appropriate edits. In fact, I'll put them in their own section for easy removal.)

Guns- A basic assault rifle and a shotgun. He doesn't carry anything too fancy, or it'd be difficult for him to find ammo.

History: Dusk was raised in the Coronal Commonwealth in a family that did not come from nobility. Though technically slaves, his parents were more of servants to House Lovelace, specifically for Lovelace herself. Lovelace treated all of her "slaves" more like servants, in that they actually had wages and were well cared for. Though Dusk became a very competent metal worker, he found he took greater pleasure being a fighter, helping to take out pirates and bandits. When he came of age, he was allowed to train with the fighters of House Lovelace. Once he served for eight years, he left and became a mercenary for hire.

((So you know, I'd like to add another character once she's accepted in Character Creation.))

Haruspex is ready for the adventure of a lifetime and the golden opportunity.

A long while past when Haru was young... His parents were traders working for the Halcyons, running resources back and forth for them. The first few years of his life was peaceful, watching the crew work and him playing with what wooden toys his father crafted for him. Learning quickly in the art of air shipping when he was on his way to becoming a teenager but then tragedy struck. Pirates attacked them in a water field, casting the young Zebra adrift into one of those floating bubbles. Almost drowning inside, when all hope was lost, a spirit descended on the Zebra boy. Freezing the bubble and guiding it with her hand, he was taught inside his mind the secrets of the spirit. 12 years past before the ice chunk crashed into a small town. The inhabitants woke the Zebra Stallion up who had doubled in size then a regular Zebra. Clothing him, and feeding him... The blessed his path where ever it would take him whilst the spirit guided him towards the goal of sweet sleep for all spirits trapped in this world and the destruction of evil.

I'm running with Lagnia for this thread.

Race: "Kirin"

Age: Same as the sheet

Appearance Changes: Ha, funny. Growing up in gravity is great.

Gear: Lagnia carries a Draco-14 Automatic Pistol-Carbine, which are famous for their 10 round magazines, ease of drawing from the holster, and low recoil. Lagnia also carries a wakizashi, a few talismans (Mainly things for minor magics), a bit of spending money, 10 kunai knives, four extra magazines for his pistol and a small supply of rations, just in case.

The Airship: Lagnia is the captain of a rather large (by non-Η Γη του πυρός και σιδήρου standards) airship, specifically a merchant vessel meant to introduce a few items to the new markets and see how well they sell. The ship is referred to as the Χρυσό Παιδί, and holds a total crew of five with zero ship-based armaments.

Crew: Total 4 members, not including Lagnia.

διορθωτής: Mechanic/Engineer, armed with a wrench (and other tools) and a Machina 12 Deck-Sweeper. Combat Experience: Minimal

αεροπόρος: Pilot and Crew chef, armed with a knife and a modified Machina .444 'Last Word'. Combat Experience: Experienced

λεπίδα: Crew Samurai and bodyguard of Lagnia. Wields a Tachi (Actual name for a katana), a Draco-28 Marksman Rifle and a Machina 9mm 'Black Rose'. Combat Experience: Veteran

κλειδί υπηρέτρια: Other mechanic/engineer, armed with assorted tools and a Draco-14 Automatic Pistol-Carbine. Combat Experience: Minimal

Altered Backstory: Lagnia is one of the few kirin merchants making expeditions from  Η Γη του πυρός και σιδήρου, a place seemingly far, far beyond the Halos but with similar suns as to the other, larger commonwealths. Η Γη του πυρός και σιδήρου is currently in its Silver Age, and beginning to make voyages out into the rest of the shattered world. Golden Claw, Lagnia's father and a very successful merchant, is at the forefront of this new market expansion into unknown territory. Lagnia was instated as the captain of the Χρυσό Παιδί and he set off with the four man crew to see the new territory.