Māchina ex Deō

Note: This might seem familiar to some of you-- I'm extending on the history of a previous RP for this one, so, just keep reading please.

The Foundation of Valkyria:
Aria was once a land of death and violence-- a realm divided amongst quarreling feudal lords wielding clockwork armies and steam powered juggernauts. Then, in 1827, the top minds of the world, having grown tired of the devastation their creations were inflicting, rebelled and formed a settlement of their own, Valkyria. At the center of Valkyria was the Valkyrian Institute for Higher Learning-- the University. The city was quickly brought under siege, but the weapons of the feudal lords were practically antiques compared to the masterpieces brought onto the field by the University staff-- the feudal lords were routed, and Valkyria disappeared behind it's metal walls.

Refugees flocked to Valkyria from all across the land-- In a world of turmoil and violence, Valkyria offered almost perfect stability. Valkyria grew higher and higher, a spire reaching ever skywards, surrounded in the safety of it's walls. In Valkyria, Aria had found it's beginning-- and it's end.

The Creation of Essence:
Almost two centuries ago, Dr. Alfred Lochter, a University professor, discovered a miraculous compound, a chemical that could be dissolved in water and would crystallize as the water was boiled away. Here's the catch: This crystal contained more energy than was used to create it. Dr. Lochter described it as "a substance which seems to store the very essence of the universe," and he quickly distributed these so-called essence crystals to the other scientists, who rapidly put the crystals to use as power cells for their devices. Seeing as all previous limits on the size and complexity of steam powered devices had just been breached by this seemingly infinite power source, even more fanciful contraptions began springing up, and the city itself was allowed to grow taller than before by using massive essence crystals as spacial anchors for support. The crystals proliferated within the city, but the manufacturing process was kept secret to the University staff.

Of course, the public is never content with progress, and began experimenting with the crystals on their own. It is unknown who was the first to discover the crystal's other unique trait-- they seemed to respond to the will of those in contact with them, allowing these individuals to draw upon and shape their power-- from a layman's perspective, magic. There's a catch though; the amount of power flowing through the body feels to the brain as if it had just become physically stronger, causing it to release huge amounts of endorphins. It's like Ecstasy-- it feels really, really good, and gets you hooked for life. Magic has become the drug of choice, particularly among the more affluent youth. There's no way to test for it's use, but a skilled practitioner can be more effective than a small army. Almost overnight, magically-boosted criminals were tearing through all the law enforcement the city had to offer.

The University immediately cracked down on crystal distribution, recalling all the crystals they could and limiting their further distribution to in-University projects. Of course, a small group of those outside the University had studied the crystals enough to derive a means of production on their own, and began their distribution-- turning a huge profit. University professors began focusing on military technology, creating new weapons and systems to combat the magical threat. Anti-magic fields, new armor alloys, even a rudimentary forcefield was developed, though it's energy consumption was so high that it's crystal would shatter within seconds of it being turned on. The discovery that the crystals shattered explosively when they are overexerted, however, played into another huge development-- crude guns were developed, using small crystals as fuel. Those who were once guards became Enforcers, a paramilitary group able to take almost any action they deemed necessary, with the legal system so blind to their actions that even the few actions outside their legal realm of authority were rarely denied to them. Even with all that power, they were barely able to combat the criminals that plagued the city.

The Ambition of the Council:
While Valkyria struggled to keep control with these new mages running rampant, the outside world descended into anarchy. The first Valkyrian innovation to escape the city in over a century, essence crystals unleashed a whole new kind of hell on the once-mighty warlords who dominated the outside world. What little stability and civilization had developed swept away by magic-using thugs. Many members of the University Council, Valkyria's ruling body, saw this chaos as an opportunity-- the world needed a ruler to lead it, and who better to lead than Valkyria?

Their plan was simple-- build an army, conquer the world. The trouble was that, although Valkyria sat atop some of the most abundant mineral wealth in the world, that was down below the lower levels and it simply wasn't safe to send mining teams there to acquire the metal to create the army-- Valkyria had been building from recycled metals for almost a century. After several months deliberation, they pulled out an old project that had been cancelled, a design of the same Dr. Lochter who discovered the essence crystals, the Māchina ex Deō-- the Machine from the God. The Māchina ex Deō was designed to breach three-dimensional space and open a doorway to the outside realm. He claimed to have been inspired-- the design given to him in a dream by God himself.

Naturally, Lochter was presumed to have gone mad, the project was cancelled, the prototype sealed into the Catacombs, and his funding lost.

But in Valkyria's time of need, his designs were re-examined and deemed, remarkably, to be theoretically sound. While the University Council was uncertain what would lie Outside, they assumed it would be a world at least roughly similar to their own-- and thus providing mineral wealth that they could harvest. They sent a team into the Catacombs to find and complete Lochter's prototype-- it was too bulky to relocate it with any sort of speed.

The Fall of Valkyria:
Meanwhile, a new criminal had made his presence known in Valkyria. Giving no name, he referred to himself only as The Catalyst, and gathered quite a following among his fellow criminals. He made a mockery of law enforcement, and racked up hundreds of civilian casualties even in the his first months of operation. His motives were unknown, as well as anything about how he executed his crimes-- he seemed simply to know what would happen hours before it actually did, and any evidence vanished before it could be analyzed. The Council created an initiative to hunt down and eliminate this killer, but he eluded their grasp at every turn. Finally, as the Māchina ex Deō neared completion, The Catalyst attacked and seized control of it. The initiative that had been tracking him confronted him, but was unable to defend against the shear power of the magic he wielded. After making a few modifications, The Catalyst activated the gateway and let in an army of otherworldly creatures-- demons, they were quickly named. Enforcer squads managed to contain their spread, but more kept pouring in from the gateway. It was then that The Catalyst removed his mask, revealing himself to be the same Dr. Lochter who had created the machine, and took his place as the leader of the demonic incursion, quickly pushing back the Enforcers.

At this point, the city was in uproar. The Council called out the few militia squads it had trained in preparation for the invasion, but without the equipment they needed, they did little to turn the tide of the battle. The Council called for a full-scale evacuation of Valkyria, and even with every air vehicle working to pull citizens out, the barricades barely managed to hold long enough.

From the safety of their airship, the Council issued the order that the remaining forces evacuate, as only one team would be needed to fortify in the Command Center and activate the city's lockdown protocol. Once completed, they were disable the anchors in the city's upper levels, sending them crashing down towards the catacombs and the Māchina ex Deō, and channel their energy into heat until they overloaded and detonated. The 304th Foot Patrol responded to the order-- as an elite group specializing in the neutralization of spellcasters, they were among the most skilled forces left at the Council's disposal.

The remaining troops fled and the city went into lockdown. The explosions never came, and no further communication was received from the 304th.

After the Fall:
As the Council tried to stay in control of the situation, it only spiraled further out of control. They had no idea where to fly to, no back-up home to turn to. As they turned to infighting regarding the location of their future home, the former citizens of Valkyria descended further and further into anarchy. Rebellions were staged on some of the larger ships in the evacuation fleet-- most of the vessels were shot down as soon as their commanding Professor stopped reporting. On a few, however, the Professors themselves saw these events as an opportunity to found their own nation and attain the fame they desired, managing to lead their band of rebels out of firing range before they were even identified as rebels.

After three years of aimless flying, landing only to raid the countryside for supplies, the October Schism occurred. Headmaster Ulysses had a falling out with the University Council, and the two went their separate ways-- each taking roughly half of the fleet. The Headmaster set out in search of a new land, the Council stayed behind in Aria in hopes of rebuilding.

In the time since, no word has come from the Headmaster-- it is assumed that his fleet was destroyed in one of the massive storms that often strike over the oceans surrounding Aria. Regardless, the Headmaster would have died of old age in the intervening years, meaning that any remaining ties of loyalty between the Council fleet and the Headmaster's fleet were severed-- there is little interest in determining their fate.

The debate over the site for a new home rages on, only made more difficult by the rapidly changing political landscape on the ground below-- an area can be perfectly safe for settlement one month, and an absolute war zone the next.

Life on the ground has been rough since Valkyria fell. Several demons escaped before the lockdown, and continue to rampage across the countryside. What's worse, new demons appear to be springing up at an increasing speed, and, because magic is the only weapon proven to be remotely effective against them, magic use has become almost ubiquitous. Even more disturbing are tales of an organization of magic-users wielding the equipment of Valkyrian Enforcers. Civilization survives in small settlements, some trying to form a larger government, other just trying to live another day, and a few even worshipping the demons in exchange for safety. These groups form an ever-changing landscape of people, as settlements can be both founded and destroyed within weeks, sometimes even days.

While the Council members cannot agree on a location to rebuild, they are universally in favor of taking measures to stabilize the political landscape of the surface. As such, they are establishing small teams to hunt both demons and prominent magic-users, and generally help preserve what settlements they can find. They are recruiting members for this initiative from both from the evacuation fleet and from some of the more stable surface settlements.

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We will be playing as one of those teams.

Details on magic, demons, the world, etc will be in the OOC. If there are any specific questions, please ask-- I'll make sure to address them in the OOC. Yes, this is what I had originally planned as a possible follow up to Action-Reaction, but since that RP died I'm just doing it independently. If you've read everything up to here, PLEASE leave a comment-- even if you're not interested/don't have time, every bit of advice helps make me a better writer and, you know, that's kinda a goal. ^_^

So, yeah. Anyone interested?

I'll put myself forward as one of the interested.

After so much bugging from you, I read it, and I love the look of it. ^_^

Totally interested.

I haven't read it all but I can definitely say that I am at least 71% interested, for whatever it is worth. Once I read everything completely I'll have a better idea of what I am likely to do.

I'll take part in it.

What else can I say? I finally had the time to actually read this thought over in its entirety only to be amazed and bewildered beyond my wildest dreams. While I found but a few grammatical errors, it certainly was not enough to distract the raging torrent of ideas exploding in my brain. All I can say is let's not dick around and let this spectacular idea linger too long. Let's press onward. How many people do we really need?

Heh, we have plenty now. I'm mostly just getting my thoughts together for a big writing session to give this world some depth-- you know, fleshing out all the factions, a rudimentary map if I have time, etc. That stuff should go up in an OOC Saturday night, if everything goes according to plan.

Sorry about the delay! The weekend's been full of unexpected stuff thus far, so I'm behind schedule. Hopefully you won't be disappointed if you expect the OOC sometime tonight. Hopefully.

...Finally got my act together on that. Sorry! What with one thing and another, July 4th really screwed over my plans. DAMN YOU INDEPENDANCE!
>.>
Yeah.
The OOC

I said I would play your next RP, and boy, will I. I love the ideas... can't wait to do some writing for it. I'll read the OOC and start thinking up a character, though I think I've already got some seeds of an idea