synodiporia_ooc | The Lightning Age: (The Next Jaunt).

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The Lightning Age: (The Next Jaunt).

THE LIGHTNING AGE
September 12th-October 19th

It is the Hijra year 1314, the 12th day of Rabi Al-Akhir, and in the Flying Market of Nova Venezia, there is trouble. That is not new. Nova Venezia is a balloon city, tethered above the neutral city-state of Venice, a Vatican protectorate. At first, the balloons were meant only to keep the buildings below from sinking, but the people who maintained them began to build settlements on their platforms, and eventually it became a small but thriving sky-port.

Northern Italy lies at the border of three of the Great Imperial Powers. To the north and east, the Prusso-Zaporizhian Empire, a warrior-state of aerialists whose superiority in the skies is unquestionable. To the south and east, the Golden Khanate, a pan-asian pluralist kingdom who have done things with gunpowder no other nation has dreamed of. To the west, both north and south, the Ummah Caliphate, careful mercantile masters of steam science whose rule circles the Mediterranean.

To all three of the Powers, no resource is more valuable, or weapon more dangerous, than the innovations of the human mind. And the Prussians and Caliphate have both dispatched forces to the Flying Market now seeking weapons of mass destruction.

Captain Phoenix, a pyromaniacal pirate, used to be a servant of the Caliph, may he live forever, before the Captain’s impetuous ways and destructive urges became simply too much. The greatest pyrotechnician in the world, the Captain is a human time-bomb in every sense but the literal, and is hiding in a city held up by vast envelopes of hydrogen gas.

Herr Doktor Kilroy Schweizerkaze Von Blitzkopf was once the greatest aeronautical engineer in the Prussian arsenal, designer of airships which could survive thunderstorms unscathed, until the good Doktor raided designs, arsenal, and fleet, and vanished utterly for causes unknown. Blitzkopf, along with the Masked Senseis of Uchinaa, is a master of electricity, deviser of devices which can run on this strange force and not mere hydraulic power or combustion. The nation who owns the Doktor can harness the lightning. But again, not the most comfortable personage to share a balloon with, really.

Into this morass of espionage, manhunt, and international trade; sky pirates, smugglers, and innovators from around the world, a new element has come into the mix. Foreigners not only to the nation, but to the world itself. Paranoids and conspiracy theorists have whispered of their existence for a year, and some in Venezia remember them, and know a few signs and tricks that may be used to identify and get the better of these strange invaders… because knowledge is power, power is money, money is opportunity - and opportunity is about to strike like lightning.

The question is what it will leave behind.

COLONIAL DISCLAIMER | WORLD INFO | MAPS | TECHNOLOGY | SKILLS | CALENDAR | CASTING CALL | INFILTRATOR INFORMATION | VETERAN INFORMATION | INTRIGUE & ESPIONAGE | PLAYER RESOURCES | QUESTIONS | PLOTTING

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Ask 'em here!

If one of the people who took True Bond from Questing Country Infiltrates, would they end up feeling drawn to their Bondmates for no immediately perceptible reason?

No. Skills are suppressed for Infiltrators! But Investigators would still feel the bond on their end.

Re: QUESTIONS

thornsofmalkav - 2015-09-06 01:44 (UTC) - Expand

for people wanting to play a Fliegercossack, is there a reason other than "tracking down Herr Doktor" that they might be in the area and/or would "tracking down Herr Doktor" be stepping on the toes of the plot-important Fliegercossack?

just so there's no issues there. :)

They could be working for the bounty hunter, could be military personnel stationed nearby, could be on shore leave- they're pretty ubiquitous along the border of the Empire, and Venice qualifies! From espionage to pirate-hunting to security personnel, they can be set to any task one would set armed personnel to!

Re: QUESTIONS

volving - 2015-09-06 02:41 (UTC) - Expand

Re: QUESTIONS

powersthatare - 2015-09-06 02:41 (UTC) - Expand

SO many dumb and mostly irrelevant questions about the Empire since I'm planning to drop Ambrose (Ambrus?) into the royal family, feel free to tell me to go and make stuff up:

Is it a pure autocracy? Emperor or Empress and name their/family name? Where's the capital? Have their been any noteworthy military conflicts in the past thirty years, and if so what was the outcome?

OH: can post-Moebius folks infiltrating now have somehow had their infiltrator overlays present for the last jaunt, i.e. could Prince von Snickerdoodle have been around even though Brose wasn't?

...I may have more later >.>

Edited 2015-09-06 14:43 (UTC)

Pure autocracy. The Empire is the union of many Prussian marches, counties, and duchies and many Cossack hordes under a single banner. The Imperial Family is a moveable feast settled on the most powerful family of this confederacy of lords at the time of an emperor's death - in theory, the emperor names his heir and the position is hereditary, but in practice, it's only hereditary as long as the influence of the bloodline remains. The Mechanothrone is hotly contested.

The current Emperor is Friedrich Wilhelm Franz Otto of Habsburg-Oldenburg, an aging gentleman with no surviving heirs of his body.

Within the last thirty years, there's been a stalemated war with the Khanate (started by the Khan), and Prussia's invasion and capture of Great Britain from the Caliphate, as well as some minor skirmishes with Joseon.

As for the capital, it too is mobile - the Mechanothrone literally has legs, and the apparatus of state is all meant to fit on trains. In an empire this large (and this conscious of the power of aerial bombardment), it's good to keep on the move.

And yes, an infiltrator persona could have been present before even if the player was not.

Re: QUESTIONS

wholeheaded - 2015-09-06 20:14 (UTC) - Expand

Re: QUESTIONS

powersthatare - 2015-09-06 20:15 (UTC) - Expand

Re: QUESTIONS

powersthatare - 2015-09-06 20:15 (UTC) - Expand

Re: QUESTIONS

wholeheaded - 2015-09-06 20:26 (UTC) - Expand

Can certain characters racial/ethnic features be altered to fit a certain nation? Or is it possible they might have been adopted fully into said nation's society? I'm considering Infiltrating Dick to be from Joseon but canonically he's very caucasian.

Yes, although pretty much every empire here has significant ethnic minorities from other regions.

Is Pharmaco-alchemical dabbling available as a skillset for Infiltrators?

Yes!

What is the Gregorian year?

People mightn't know it IC, but it is a reference.

1896!

(no subject)

shiroganeheir - 2015-09-13 01:51 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

powersthatare - 2015-09-13 02:05 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

shiroganeheir - 2015-09-13 02:07 (UTC) - Expand

Can infiltrating change people's ages? I assumed it could during Questing Country, but now I'm not sure.

Yes! it's just that this time, there will be no skill to let you keep that aged up or down form afterwards.

How far can I go with Phillip's mechanical eyes, and if I took them as a skill would they be able to keep the abilities included in them?

(Thoughts re: the eyes were them being able to project his memories, but wondering if they can/should include sound and also wondering if I should change it to recording to be less OP, and also having a polarity option for seeing in the dark/through smoke.)

Memory projection would be a bit beyond the science of the day, although they could have both a record and a project function! A polarity option is fine. Sound would be a little unlikely but not impossible.

And yes, they could be a skill, if you really wanted Phillip to have permanent ocular prostheses.

Serious question: How does this setting's alchemy hold up compared to Naoki's holdover from Melasurei? Would he be able to put what he knows to use (within reason, he's not busting out the lead-to-gold thing in front of the locals or anything), or is it completely different?

Semi-serious question: Is Istanbul Constantinople, or is it now Istanbul, not Constantinople? (Or is that nobody's business but the Turks'?)

Now Istanbul, not Constantinople. Although, like the real Istanbul, it has many many names...

and the style is similar, but not the substance. He could fake it around laymen, but not experts, or he could be a creditable apprentice with his knowledge of vocab & technique, but ignorance of recipe.

As I have a Turkish character from the Istanbul/Constantinople time period, I can direct you to this page for more information on its many, many names.

For those skills that require Eidetic Memory - Would the Perfect Recall skill from the Solstice Masquerade be considered equivalent to that?

Yes!!

So if I wanted to keep an Ornithoptor, would that be a case of taking Lightning Age Tech and getting to bring a few other things as "freebies"? Or is an Ornithoptor its own thing? Also, for the Tech skill(s) what exactly is the knowledge level of it? I'm assuming essentially the equivalent of knowing how to drive a car and being able to do a few basic fixes like jumping a battery, but needing to go to a mechanic (someone with Innovation) for major repairs?

(no subject)

powersthatare - 2015-09-14 10:28 (UTC) - Expand

List of major royal titles/possibly names if they are already made for each of the nations? (I know I asked way more detailed questions on plurk but I think it'd be easier for RP purposes if they were simple answers.)

(no subject)

protect_and_serve - 2015-09-15 00:29 (UTC) - Expand

So, are underground gladiator/pit fighting rings something the setting would support?

Edited 2015-09-25 21:25 (UTC)

Re: QUESTIONS

powersthatare - 2015-09-25 21:27 (UTC) - Expand

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