Historical Earth Tales of the Risen and Fallen: 1899 - A Steampunk RPG

TALES OF THE RISEN AND FALLEN

Looking at the earth now, I fail to see how we could have missed them. When the structures first rose(1855), they were still and silent. Many people thought they were alien structures to be researched, some thought they were holy structures to be worshiped, and others thought that they should be destroyed in fear of the unknown.

Mankind has a brilliant history of hating things it cannot understand.

In a way, everyone got what they wanted. The Sylveste Institute was the first to research the structures and discovered that they were made out of metal springs and gadgets that ticked something close enough that humans would consider clockwork. The Sylveste Institute started to reverse engineer the structures, producing vehicles, rockets, and technology that people considered otherworldly. The religious movement of the Ghosts of Transition rose, proclaiming that the structures that continued to rise were gifts from God to allow mankind to truly discover their technological potential. In contrast, there were the others that decided to break down the structures, much to the Ghosts of Transition despair, and sell the parts. They became known as the Garbagemen.

[image=http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2007/06/gallery_steampunk/jasperMorello.jpg]

Soon enough, the Ghosts of Transition, now a worldwide religious and political movement, began to purchase the structures as monuments and churches, while the Garbagemen of the world rose to power in the governments and continued to destroy the structures. Inevitably, there were wars, between countries over who owned what structures and the Ghosts of Transition and the Garbagemen.(1865-1879)

All that ended when they began to move.(1880)

[image=http://deathbychopsticks.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/shadow_of_the_colossus2b.jpg]

Bobby Sylveste, son of George Sylveste(Creator of the Sylveste Institute), was the first to see a Titan. The Titan was larger than anything the world had ever seen. It rose from the earth, taking miles of land and animals with it. It was the first, but not the last of it's kind. 19 years have passed since the first Titan, who still wanders the earth. Some Titans have allowed themselves to be used as vessels of war between the factions through the use of special individuals called Eorehs, while others destroy everything in their path and have gone to war against the humans. The year is 1899.

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Welcome to [b]Tales of the Risen and Fallen: 1899[/b]. This is, at its core, a steampunk RPG, but, if you read the beginning, has a fantasy element to it as well. It is a RPG that, I hope, will become a very well-written and explored story of Generals, Factions, Warriors, Politics, and the Unknown.

As with standard RPGs, you can choose to play as one character living their life of adventure and misfortune as they try to cope with the, literally, changing world around them. You can either be part of the research corporation the Sylveste Institute, the religious sect the Ghosts of Transition, the political and war savvy Garbagemen, or none of the above and just be part of a number of fringe elements.

Or, and this is the other part of the gameplay, a more Strategy-Oriented style where you can be a leader of a Titan who has to monitor his/her army, resources, diplomatic relations, citizens, economy, and technological advances. Warning: If you do start out with your own organization/team, you will not have as much power as one of the three established factions. You will not have a large Titan, but there will be opportunities for you to increase your reputation and power.

It is your choice.

The world is, obviously, a different place. Gigantic mechanical creatures known as Titans roam the earth and a few of them allow humans to live on them. They are many miles long and tall with mechanical living creatures that can be called LeTitans on/in them. Think of them as gigantic warships/habitats. They are powered by steam and humans have reverse engineered that into flying machines, vehicles, drilling mechan

 

The Technology

HellKat
[image=http://rivendell.fortunecity.com/tekken/467/bike.jpg]

HellKats are motorcycles used in most forms of land combat. They are quick, agile, and easy to turn which makes them supremely effective against a stationary target or a transport. Think of them as taking the place of horses in this turn of the century.

GeoPhants
[image=http://lime.dk/posting/steam_mofo.jpg]

GeoPhants are recent engineering feats by the Sylveste Institute. They are used as resource gathering trains that are sent out by Titan Civilizations to recover resources in a safe manor. They are durable, but are not war machines. However, recently the Garbagemen have started to engineer them into war tanks and use them as such.

TerroHeads
[image=http://i1.tinypic.com/rvj02q.jpg]

TerroHeads rule the sky. While the primary use that the Sylveste Institute designed them for was to safely scout large Titans, the Ghosts of Transition used engineered them to, as they say, "Reign down hellfire on the Dissidents." Now, most of the TerroHeads that roam the sky are used as warships. They come in different sizes, but most of them retain the ability to sail on water.

Faction History

Ghosts of Transition - Led by the Honorable Eoreh Malcolm Kelvin Sheehan V, the GoT worships the structures and the Titans as gifts from God. They believe it is their mission to use the Titans to conquer their enemies so that they can, one day, build a Kingdom of God out of the Titans. Eorehs that are born in the GoT are seen as Holy Warriors that are sent to lead the armies of the GoT against their enemies and are treated as such, having entire churches named after them. The GoT believe that the Titans are to be herded to the "Kingdom"(North America) to await Proclamation Day, the day that the Titans will give birth to the most powerful Eoreh the world has ever seen who will lead them into the new century.

The Garbagemen - In the beginning, the Garbagemen was just a name given to people who broke down and sold the pieces of the structures for a living, but as they continued to be hated and cast out of civilization by the GoT a leader came forth to unite the different castaway villages. Her name was Lady Isabel Clarence, known outside of the Garbagemen as the Junk Queen. When the Titans started moving, Lady Clarence led her people to be the first to capture a Titan. She is a lady of war with one goal: To stop the Titans and return to normal civilization. The Titans, while a large source of profit, also changed the world and the Garbagemen are of the opinion that it was a change for the worse.

Sylveste Institute - Some say the reason the world changed was because of the Titans, others say it was because of the Sylveste Institute. Perhaps a coalition of the smartest minds on earth, the Sylveste Institute is an organization that seeks to live in the world with the Titans while also discovering what makes them tick. Literally. Bobby Sylveste, the leader since his father retired, sees the Titans with a sense of wonder and wants to learn all from them that he can. He wants to know where they came from and when they were created. The one thing that drives the Sylveste loyalists is the mystery of the Titans.

 

GM Approved

Name: Tyrone Blaze Callahan
Nickname: Generally either Blaze, his middle name, or Ty, a shortened form of first name. Occasionally Cal, from his last name, though not by or around his relatives for obvious reasons. He's not concerned with names, so whatever people wanna call him works.
Age: 23
Are you an Eoreh?: No, not that the character would know either way as of yet

Height: 5'8.5", though his incessant slouch effectively subtracts a couple inches
Weight: 125
Hair: very dark brown, almost black, short, quite curly, and generally messy
Eyes: light brown and always wandering, yet seemingly perpetually half-closed
Clothes: Ty, not a fan of the heat, usually wears a tattered light-colored shirt over cargo shorts and a pair of closed-toed work sandals.

Occupation: The Callahan family have been Garbagemen for years, and most of them thus have work in line with scavenging. Ty is something of a tinkerer, capable of working life back into seemingly irreparable items and upgrading machinery that appears to be already at peak capacity. His knack is somewhat limited by available materials, however, which is one reason he has considered joining the relatively wealthy Sylveste Institute.
Area of Expertise: See occupation. Ty is a natural at working with machinery on a practical scale. For example, he has repaired a completely totaled military-grade HellKat scavenged by a friend. Deemed unsalvageable by others, Ty has managed to bring it back up to par with civilian models in maneuverability, and it exceeds most in fuel efficiency, though it still has a tendency to break down when he pushes its speed too far.
Family: The Callahan family is full of Garbagemen both by trade and philosophy. Though Ty has no issues with the former, his growing fascination with the Titans is leading him strongly away from the latter and interesting him in the Sylveste Institute, to the increasing fury of his parents and cousins and the like. His sister Crystal (Crys for short) is much more understanding and accepting of his decision, however, partially because she has similarly no interest in destroying the Titans.
Faction: interested in joining the Sylveste Institute, though currently an effective Garbageman due to family
Weapons: Another personally tuned item, Ty has a Springfield rifle that he keeps with his HellKat. He isn't the greatest shot with it, but he's not bad in a sniping situation when he has time to aim without distraction. He feels much more comfortable with the HellKat itself: it is well-armored and has two hidden blades on the side that can swing out to slice apart nearby opponents while riding past them. For close combat purposes he has a hunting knife that's seen quite a bit of use over the years.
Bio: Born into a family of Garbagemen, Ty's income basically came from upgrading and repairing items that people give him, with his strange knack for doing so even with unfamiliar machinery. This generally meant Garbagemen scavenging items from the structures for him to repair at a fair price so that they could resell the items for a greater profit elsewhere. But once Ty realized the sheer magnitude of the coordination of all of these disparate contraptions in the creation of magnificent colossi, he took a great interest in the Titans much like the Sylveste Institute. He now heads out in his HellKat on his own to leave Garbageman territory and see if he can join Sylveste, leaving behind the disapproval of his family and former regular customers. In fact, some of the more fanatic Garbagemen, determined to stop the "Titan invasion", do more than merely disapprove of his "defection"....