Irryn dreams (OOC)

[Somber]

Well, after many months hiding away in shame I thought I'd crawl back and attempt some RP.  And seeing as how most of the ones I see are fairly far along and all ready complicated enough without my participation, it seemed like my best bet would be to start a new one of my own.

So, let me introduce you to some one who can tell you a bit about the world: Professor Ganes.

And on to a stage that appeared from no where shuffled an aged weasel.  His face markings were all ready fading with age.  His clothes were a tattered collection of old academic robes that needed another patching.  He coughed and wiped his rheumy eyes, and then pointed out as he asked off to the side, "Are you sure they can see me?"

I hope so.  Go ahead and tell them about Irryn, Professor.

"Harrumphed.  It's a complicated subject.  Where to begin?  Where'd I leave my notes?"  The ferret searched his robes and pulled out a torn and water soiled book.  The pages crackled as he opened them.  "The city of Irryn is located on the Anthesian plain sixty four miles from the coast.  It enjoys a mild climate, and serves as a major agricultural hub.  It's finest export is is Irrynwheel cheese, considered to be a fine dinner delicacy-"

Professor... are you sure that book is... er... accurate?

"Accurate!  Well of course it isn't.  It was written before the Etherial war.  Sure, before then Irryn wasn't much besides a cheese making city... but when the etherials invaded and brought magic... well things sure changed quick.  All the old capitals were burned away as the etherials slaughtered countless millions.  There are nations that once were mighty and had been reduced to references in old books like this one."  The ferret tucked the book back into his robes and sat down on the stage.  "See folks... before the war we were... well... a quieter world.  We didn't have much in the way of machinery and technology.  Not like today.  I remember stories where once the most complicated machine was a watermill or a windmill.  And sure, we had our struggles and wars and plagues... but nothing like we have today."

"See, before the war, magic wasn't real.  It was something referenced in folk tales and used in fantasy stories.  What we didn't know was that magic was real.  Our world had been flush with it and it was used all over the place.  But eventually it seemed that so many people were using it that, like a well, the magic just dried up.  So folks stopped using it and went over to more reliable methods of getting things done.  What we forgot was that the magic didn't go away.  The well filled back up.  In fact, it filled up so much that it was almost fit to burst.  That's what brought the etherials."

"When the etherials showed up they were all peaceful like.  They just wanted something we weren't even using.  But when the rulers found out about magic, well, they wanted the power for themselves.  And then the etherials turned nasty.  And at first it was a slaughter.  See, you shoot an etherial with an arrow, it's not real to them.  Like kids pointing fingers and saying bang bang.  So all our soldiers with muskets and cannons couldn't do a thing to them.  And the few magic users we did have (oh yeah, there were still a couple scurrying around... like welldiggers who were desperate to tap that source but who'd forgotten their shovels or how to dig) were no match for beings that breathed pure magic."

"Till one day a young cheesemaking apprentice found a way to make magic into something else.  Ether.  She was a descendant of one of those old magic users and found a way to crystallize magic into a material form.  Ether."  The professor reached into another pocket and withdrew a small handful of luminous blue and purple crystals.  "With ether, you didn't need half the centuries of study that magic required.  Heck... you didn't need study at all.  Put Ether in a machine and it would produce power.  No need for waterwheels or windmills.  Put it in a magnetic field and it would produce electricity.  And best of all... put a little in a bullet or alloy it in some iron and you'd have a weapon that was deadly to the etherials."  The ferret chuckled darkly and put the crystals away.  "Best of all though... etherials couldn't eat ether.  So their powers and magic just dried up whenever ether was about."

"Needless to say... we beat back the etherials.  Not defeated.  They're not gone yet.  Don't you believe folks that tell you otherwise.  But we beat them back.  Course, back then the sensible thing would have been to make peace... but people are nothing if not fools.  No sooner did we beat the etherials then folks started fighting each other.  And they used ether to make bigger and stronger and more destructive weapons than before.  Worse, people learned that ether had some dangerous side effects.  Twisting, it's called now.  Some folks turned into beast folk, like me.  Others grew leaves.  Others wings.  More than a couple went stark raving bonkers.  Course the leaders of nations didn't care about that.  More bombs.  More bullets.  More war machines."

"Now, you remember that young cheese apprentice?  Her name was Thasama.  And while I hear she was a lousy cheesemaker, she was an exceptionally smart woman.  Unfortunately, most folks were interested in what she could produce, not in what she had to say.  So when wars were tearing her homeland apart, she basically marched right into the old Parliament and over threw the whole lot of them.  And she had the power to do it, and they were smart enough to see it.  Irryn, that little cheese city, became the center for the world's most advanced ether research.  Folks said that Thasama was feeling some of the Twisting from using so much of the stuff and it made her bonkers.  But I think it has more to do with General Ungare.  See, he was in charge of Thasama's army... and he was also her lover.  I believe that he influenced her to take her genius and try to with the ether war."

"So the fields were all torn away so that they could get at the iron and stone under the city to build all their machines.  They raised ether refineries bigger than any before, and built huge factories to churn out war machines.  Eventually Irryn became the new capitol and they built bigger and higher and tunneled deeper than any city imaginable.  The factories were more than a mile tall, holding rooms for all the workers, and atop that pillar a massive plate was built for all the wealthy and influential people to live on.  And people came from all the war torn lands to work in the factories and mines, not having a clue that once they worked there they'd be indebted into virtual slavery."

"Of course eventually Thasama died.  Her daughter, Thera, became Empress of Irryn.  Ungare is still in charge of the army, even if he's pushing a century old.  And Irryn is the axle of the world... a smelly rotten and corrupt axle that seems hell bent on sucking every last drop of magic out of the universe they can."

Can you tell us a little about the world and it's people?

"Well... first are the humans.  Oh yeah there's plenty of them still around.  Probably half the people in the world are as human as you could want.  Then you have the Folk.  Folk is the polite term for people who are half human and half something else.  Like me... I'm politely called 'Beast Folk' or even 'Ferret Folk'.  I'd like to think I'm the same as any human up here," he tapped the side of his head.  "But I'd be lying a bit.  Most folk have instincts and urges that humans just don't feel any more.  And there's all sorts of folk... Plant Folk, Fire Folk, Stone Folk, Steel Folk.  Most of us are still... well... normal.  Eat.  Sleep.  Have sex.  Work.  Whatnot.  Then you get the Twisted.  Twisted folk are people with really severe deformities.  Wings.  Claws.  Odd growths.  Second heads.  Folk that seem to have two or three different animals in them.  Folk that need to drink blood or eat raw flesh or worse things..."  he shuttered.  "The strangest of all are the Fae folk.  You've heard stories of elves... dwarfs... trolls... all that?  Well some humans end up twisting to look just like them... or even being born that way.  Fae folk tend to have it rough if they're not pretty.  They end up in the mines and the factories."

So in your opinion, professor, how would you sum up the world of Irryn?

"A rough and gritty place where people are looking for a bit of happiness or comfort or stability... needing a few brave souls to snap it out of this nightmare.  Now, give me my coin, my booze, and let me get back to forgetting about it."  The ferret grumbled as he shuffled off of the stage.

So.  That's the world.  I'm going to wait and hopefully hear some calls for interest and maybe adding more material before submitting a character template.  I'm hoping to do this right.

[Cogidubnus]

This sounds like it would be a rather fun RP - if you end up going ahead with it, count me in.

(On another note, although the other RP's may be complicated enough, I certainly don't think they're too complicated for a certain hyperkinetic rabbity thing to show back up. )

[Somber]

From off the stage comes a muffled shouting and yelling, and finally a woman screamed as she was pushed on to the stage.  "I'm not ready!  I'm not qualified!  I get stage fright!  I..."  The young human woman slowly turned and adjusted the spectacles on her freckled nose.  "Um... hello.  I... er... have..."  She wailed and covered her face, "I told her that I wasn't up for doing this!"

You'll do fine, Cherrie.  Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce Cherrie Mayner, Irrynian mage second class.

The woman slowly lowered her hands and took a nervous swallow.  "All right.  Um.  I was asked to explain how magic works in Irryn.  And ether too, right?" she looked off to the side of the stage for confirmation and then straightened her glasses.

"Well, magic is... as best as we can theorize, an energy similar to electro magnetics with particle characteristics that-"  A hand appeared out of no where and smacked the back of her head.  "Ow!  What was that for?"

Layman's terms Cherrie.  Layman's terms.

"All right.  Well, magic in Layman's term is it's an invisible force that we can't percieve or interact with on our own, but with tools can manipulate.  While the source of magic is unknown, its existance is no longer in question.  Raw natural magic is all around us every moment of our lives, but rarely manifests on its own... rarely, not never."

"A person who uses actual magic is generally called a wizard, mage, or artistian.  The difference is now one comes to be able to manipulate magical forces.  A wizard is some one who spends years studying magical lore and history.  They study the more esoteric and occult origins of magic.  Mages, like myself, are more interested in the use of magic itself through training force of will.   I might not be able to recite lore from sixteen different arcane sources, but my magic tends to be more potent than theirs because it's all my magic.  Artistians aren't actual magic users per ce.  Rather they make devices and tools that use Ether to make their effects."

She clapped her hands together.  "Now, magic requires one thing above all...  and that's focus and belief.  Most people will never have enough of both.  It's not enough to know magic exists.  You know cars exist, right?  But do you believe you can will one into existance?  Probably not."  She blushed a little and rubbed the back of her head, "Actually, I don't believe I can either... so I can't.  Embaressing, huh?"

Why don't you show them some magic?

She bit her lip and fidgeted.  "Oh, do I have to?  I mean I'm not very good and... oh..."  She looked up at that floating hand.  "All right."   She closed her eyes and began to breathe slow and deep.  "Being a mage, I don't really use the tools a wizard or artificer have to have to make their magic work.  Actually, I write all my own spells... and they really only work for me.  Wisards can share spells.  Artistians can swap toys... but mages are on our own."  She closed her hand and began to recite a little poem to herself, saying it over and over again.  Then she opened her hand and there sat a tiny glowing flower make of pink light.

Suddenly her clothes disappeared, leaving her in her underwear.  "Yeep!"  She gasped and the flower exploded in a poof of light!  "Give me back my clothes!"  She wailed.

Sorry.  Just showing them what happens when a mage loses her focus.

"You could have showed them another way!"  She cried and then relaxed a little as her clothes reappeared.  "that's better."

If you say so.  You have a very lovely bod-

"Moving right along!" she said very quickly.  "There are other factors that can affect magic.  One are places called 'dust bowls' or 'shallows'... places where the natural magical energy is diminished.  Irryn has many of these, particularly around the ether refineries.  Otherplaces are called 'swamps' or 'deeps'.  These are places where, for whatever reason, magic is abundant.  If I were to have cast that spell in a shallow, nothing would have happened.  If I cast it in a deep, then the flower would have remained real, even with my focus broken."

"Now, the second subject of magic is ether.  Most laypeople like to call ether condensed magic, but in reality ether is far more complex than that.  In the most general terms, ether can be used to create energy.  In special engines, it makes mechanical power.  In other engines, it makes electricity.  In other engines it makes heat.  For mages like myself, ether can also be used to support or enhanse magic.  But something to remember is that ether is a fuel.  After a while it's power disappates and the ether disappears."

"So far only Thasama was ever able to create ether through will alone.  Ether is produced by an incredibly complex magical and chemical process in Irrynian and other refineries.  The process is very unstable until complete, and thus refineries are some of the most heavily protected building in Irryn.  Ether comes in a variety of forms.  The most common is clear, which is used to power low energy systems.  A watch might have a tiny silver of clear ether inside.  Next is red.  This produces heat energy.  Orange produces mechanical energy.  Yellow produces electricity.  Green produces magnetic energy.  Blue, one of the most expensive and restricted, is used for biological applications.  Purple ether, however, is the rarest form and is used for applications that affect memory and thought.  Silver ether and gold ether exist as well, but their use and possession is exclusive to the state."  She bit her lip and looked to the side of the stage again.  "Am I going to get in trouble for telling them this?"

No hun.  Why don't you tell them about becoming a magic user?

"Oh, it's incredibly difficult.  I knew since I was little that I wanted to do magic.  It's funny, but school did everything they could to teach us to not be interested in magic.  There were so many kids who wanted to do magic to get something easy, or who weren't sure, and for them magic was impossible.  Because their want was in the ends using magic as a means.  Magic isn't a means... at least while you're learning.  You study magic because you love it... and later on as an adult you put that love to practical ends."

So some one wanting to take over the world probably shouldn't use magic?

She snorted dismissively, "Probably not.  Oh sure there are folks that pull it off, but their magic is usually pretty pathetic.  And you don't dabble in magic.  Ever.  The authorities don't like it.  Other magic users hate it.  So some one who tries to play with magic without care... well... they'll be taken care of."

So you can't have fun with it?

"I didn't say that.  You just can't be reckless with it.  There are some people that are just dangerous... they have the focus and the belief, but not the discipline.  I might use magic to do a prank... but only after I've thought it through."  She pushed her drooping glasses back in place.  "Now, once I was out of school I attended the Irrynian university.  That's one way lots of magic users learn, but I could have either become an apprentice or else gone to teach myself more alone.  Some wealthy students even hire private magic users to teach them the fine points.  All to take the test."

Sounds ominous.

"Well... more difficult than anything.  The state testers give us a number of challenges to make sure we use our powers responsibly.  If you succeed then you become a third class magic user.  After three years you can take an even harder test and become a second class magic user.  Then a magic user first class.  If you want to get higher than that, you have to become a soldier for the state.  They call themselves sorcerers, and have three classes as well.  At the top of the top are the arcanists.  They run everything magical in Irryn, from law enforcement to testing to teaching.  Right now there are only five out of hundreds and hundreds of magic users.

What do they do to magic users that flaunt the rules?

She shuttered, hugging herself.  "Mostly they just warn them the first time.  And fine them the second.  But if they persist, then sorcerers second class carry these violet rods.  They press it to your head and alter your brain.  If you're lucky, they'll just remove your ability to focus.  Worse, they can remove your belief, so that you think your whole life is a lie.  But worse than that, they can remove your entire memory.  And if that doesn't stop you, there's always execution."

Well, thank you Cherie.  That was very insightful.  I hope it helps people interested in magic.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I believe you mean "Artisan", not artistian. Don't let me tell you what to do, though... ;-]

[Stygian]

Holy shit I am a sucker for dystopic stories like this count me in right on this shit needs to be played fuck FUCK!

Glad to have you back, Somber! This just adds to that.

[Boog]

Holy frick, it's back! Hey Somber!

Query; should the character profiles be in similar introduction format, or should we just have name and serial number and whathaveyou?