Re: How did we get here and other background stuff.
The fallowing is an account of what is known of the past 42 years and written from IC perspective of the same random NPC
Well after everything went to hell most of the technocracy folks were cut off from there superior officers, and for the most part, they where happy for it. Most of the technocracy in space where willing to put the past behind them and work with the Traditions, I'm not saying it happened right away.... but over time they started to get along and in 2031 they came together officially to form the Central Colonial Government. (though I am not the only one that thinks that name needs to change, it don't look like the way back to earth will ever open up again, so you can hardly call us colonies anymore). True peace has lasted 11 years.
But don't forget there are boggy men out here too, the Maruders and Nephandi were exiled to deep space, and they are still out there in the outer planets and beyond. Then there are the 'aliens' the so called umbrood, natural inhabitants of space, most seam to be opening up to us slowly and willing to be peaceful but thats not true for all.
Back on earth they didn't exactly patch things up, the New World Order took the opportunity to seize power and took over most of central America from military bases in Texas. At the same time the US tried to heal itself in two separate ways on separate sides of the continent, while it seams a bunch of rats took over Florida with a small army and the power of the Founten of Life.... no I'm serious, it's not a joke, look this shit up. In the end for nations grew out of it: The new world order founded the Universal Unified Ubiquitous Utopia (also known as the U4 city state by everyone else); the people on the west coast formed the New Republic of California (NCR), and on the east coast they formed the United Libral Stats (ULS); the rats called there little nation the Magic Kingdom, but not many take them seriously until they try and take land from them then things don't turn out so well it seams.
We for the most part only trade with the NCR and the ULS. NEVER EVER trade with U4C those people are nuts, and never believe anyone that says they can take you to Earth.... you won't make it in one piece but your belongings will if you know what I mean. Just some words of advice from me to you.
Life has returned to similar to the way things were on earth back in the day, good and bad.... speaking of that are gangs, drug runners, and the like... I'll leave some notes of the drugs you should watch out for that if your from Earth might be new to you. But there is a name you probably heard of and that's the Neo Cappadocians. While I'm speaking about crime I wana talk about them, see back on earth they had mobsters and the like you might have hurd... well these guys have taken there place up here. I don't know all the details but apparently some vampires tried to use modern tech to bring back a long dead race of vampires .... it didn't turn out so well. The new race wiped out almost all the other vampires up here and have taken over crime for the most part. Word is they are hideous monsters, and that's why they never leave there suits and the skulls on there masks. You can tell them by there suits and once you have seen one you know what they all look like. There rank is determined by the colorings and markings. The idea was each family would have there own color but so far none have sprouted off from the main one, thankfully they aren't that big yet, and they all have black and red symbols on them showing the markings of there underboss inside a smaller marking for there Caporegime. The Associates aren't allways Neo Cappadocians at all, some are human, but they all wear the armor none the less... Gray armor with black highlights. The Soldato are almost all Neo Cappadocians and wear pure white armor with black highlights. I've never hurd of anything above a Soldato that didn't turn out to be a Neo Cappadocian. The Caporegime wear pure white armor with blood red highlights. The Underboss' look much like the Caporegime, but their symbol is larger lacking the lining of a Capo's mark and there armor is adorned with runes of some sort.
I guess I should get to money considering things, we don't use any material currency anymore now credits are treasured and stored electronically. Most people do carry currency though in credit chips, they come in a few verities: The 100k chip that most people carry one or more of; Silver ten million credit security chips; Gold one billion credit chips; and Platinum unlimited security chips. Security chips are mostly used for banking and one can, with passed security checks, access linked security chips. Though for the most part people used a bank and are issued banking security chips that access there account at the bank. In addition to Credits we use Dram, the crystallized essence of the universe. Mages love the stuff, and is required to power or build many things now a days so many people will ask for Dram in payment.
Travel, that's a big one. Well space ships get us where we need to go but landing on planets isn't so semple... seams not all planets exist in the same dimension and while you can just go down there and land there is no telling what will happen and the environments are hostile and with out life. To get to the 'true' face of a planet you have to travel through a gateway... unfortunately not many planets have them, you can though get shuttles with mater converters to take you down to other planets and moons from space stations in orbit. You also have to use a gate to get past the Crown Storm Nebula to the outer planets, and if you want to leave this system you need to use the interstellar gates.
Computers have gotten rather advance but not as much as I would have thought, it seams the destruction of Mount Quaf caused a lot of damage to computers, something to do with the internet involving correspondence and being linked to the mountain some how.... I don't know really it's all over my head. But there isn't much of the internet left on Earth, and the only people with anything like it is Atlantis, U4C, ULS, and NCR I'm told.... again I don't know apparently you have to have some crazy correspondence skills to access Earths Internets. We up here in space have developed what they call the inter-sphere, a internet of sorts that is connected to all the colonies. Most people just skim over the surface of the inter-sphere getting the data they need but a lot of people go deeper diving into it. It use to be only mages could do this but now anyone can and there are a few methods of such: Sensory Visitation, creates an avatar for you in the inter-sphere and some means of feedback ranging from just some goggles, to a suit to give tactile feedback. All in all, it's safe as you can get and a must if your playing a inter-sphere game. ; Astral Immersion, this is the next step and while the name might suggest some people CAN do this just by sitting in there room closing there eyes and concentrating real hard... but most of us just use a full immersion rig. This is what they mean when they say 'jacking in' and it gives you full immersion into the web and all your senses and makes the inter-sphere as real as real life. But there dangers and if your avatar gets fucked up bad enough the feedback can kill you. ; Holistic Immersion, the last and most exstream methods of entering the inter-sphere, physically. This method digitizes your body and downloads it directly into the inter-sphere. I shouldn't have to tell you the dangers of this, but apparently some people need to do this for full access to there powers and mages like it because it allows them to work there magic from within the systems.
The big thing, is all the supernaturals... we are slowly starting to learn our true history from them. But for the most part it's just Mages... people just like us that seam to have the power to shape reality. There lots of them and integrations with them has been amassing. The average life span is an estimated 350 years for humans (not that it's been long enough to tell yet) with rejuvenation therapy, cybernetics can make full paraplegics even better than you or I, heck if you have the credits and they can get you to a reanimation specialist you can even be brought back to life if you die (though I've never hurd of it working aver 24 hours or more of being dead). Things are getting rather interesting out here... though most of us born on Earth can't help but look back and wonder if we will ever be able to go to our true home.
I may fill in more here, in particular if requested.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:55, Thu 28 July 2011.