Endless Sands Sign-Up

[Arcanum]

First off the original concept of this RP was created by Translucent History, who was inspired by the flash animation Aladdin 3150. This RP flourished on a another site but died when the site did. I hope it sees an even greater success here. Also, just to put it out there so everyone knows, Translucent History will be assisting me with the management of this RP, since it was his idea originally.

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Introduction
No one knows how it happened. Even after all these years. Our oldest stories tell of how our world was a beautiful place. Lakes, seas, rivers and oceans abounded. Beautiful, majestic forests, spreading across vast tracts of land. And massive soaring mountain ranges. Amidst all of this we had our glorious cities and towns, testament to our ingenuity and symbiosis with the world. We didn't warp the world to our liking, no, worked with it. We cut down trees only if we didn't have any other way of doing something. Our mining operations only pulled enough out of the ground to keep our people out of poverty and in shelter. We were a self-sufficient race that didn't want to waste. All over the world it was like this. No one on our world wanted for anything. It was a peaceful place, a time that is remembered by the oldest of us, as a Golden Era.

We lived in peace for centuries, maybe even millennia. No one really knows. But only the stories, in the oldest of books, tell us how it all ended. But even those books aren't sure who did it, or who started it. All anyone can remember is that one day, a new concept entered the minds of everyone on our peaceful happy planet. Sure there was violence, a few fights occasionally, and yes we had guns, but they were decorative at best, useless pieces of junk at worst. But someone out there got the great idea to refine the idea of a gun. The first working handgun is said to have appeared about 1000 years ago, or so they think. It took a couple of decades for the idea to catch on. But after awhile it wasn't an odd sight to see people walking down the streets with a pistol on their waist. I'm running on now though, what was the concept? War. One of our neighbors got the great idea to create an 'army' and they armed that army with guns, lots and lots of guns.

As this neighbor of ours began to send out this army out the other nations developed their own ways of fighting back. One nation started delving into genetics, creating super soldiers and mutants to defend their borders. Another nation gobbled up all the laser technology they could find and began making all kinds of interesting innovations. Another nation dipped their fingers into the scary depths of the human psyche, what sprouted up there were powerful psychics and human computers. To say the least, our world made leaps and bounds in the realm of technology in a short 50 years after the first nation decided to create their army. The concept of War became all-prevailing. Nations that used to be peaceful allies turned quickly into war-mongering states bent on merciless destruction of each other.

This is where history gets a little hazy for everyone. All of the nations were by now using some form of army to combat the others. No day would go by without another challenge delivered and another battle starting. It became readily apparent that the war wouldn't ever end if the technological improvements kept leaping forward. But none of the nations wanted to stop with the prospect that if they did, one of their neighbors would come up with something that would ultimately wipe them out. Perhaps it was the first nation to start it all, or perhaps all the nations came up with it at once. The histories that have been found are pretty vague. But at some point, someone split the atom for the first time. And the potential for not just energy, but for battle became obvious. For a time, after the first test out in one of the oceans, there was peace again, for no nation wanted to come up against another with that kind of destructive capability. But before long, everyone had that ability. There was peace again, but now, we no longer lived in blissful symbiosis with the world. Now we sought to control and yoke the world to our will. The forests were cut down, the mountains cored and mined out, and our waters were fished to emptiness. But no one cared; this was the world we had come to know. And we wanted nothing less.

And then someone got the great idea to break the peace. They started delivering ultimatums. "Surrender you're wealth. Or face our power." They would say. No one believed anyone could be that stupid. No one obeyed, but everyone quickly learned that they were serious. The nation declared they would let no one be more powerful than them. Missiles were launched by that nation, and the other nations quickly followed suit. Nuclear fire blossomed everywhere on the planet’s surface. Nearly from pole to pole mushroom clouds rose to the heavens. Those who had time ran for shelter. Mountain mines and bomb shelters sufficed. For days people stayed in their shelters. Only when the last missile was fired and the last of the fallout was settled did they chance coming out. Those that survived saw a world torn asunder. Vast tracts of what used to be city were nothing but rubble. Atomic winds blew across the surface of the planet. Survivors barely had time to find supplies and find other survivors before a 50 year nuclear winter set in. Humanity barely survived the war, and now they would have to survive the winter cold. We believe the year by then was 3900. The oldest of us, they remember that long period where they were unable to venture out onto the surface.

It is now the year 4000, fifty years after we could safely come out onto the surface of the world. In just 50 years the world has become something so much different then we expected. A world of trackless sand, a nuclear summer. Shifting dunes and small city-states bent on nothing but survival. Only through the careful management of small cadres of wise and noble rulers are we able to eke out livings in this land of Endless Sands.

Organizations, Races, and People of Endless Sands
Variety is the spice of life and you'll find plenty of it here.

Normals
The most prevalent of all the factions and races in the world. Normals have nothing making them any weaker or stronger than any of the other peoples out in the world. They make their living doing what they can in the world. Normals make up the majority of the traders, merchants and trades-people of the world. They have the potential to be nearly anything. And do nearly anything. If they can dream it, they can become it.

Nobles
These are the small cabals of wise men and learned men and women who run the small towns and cities. They are some of the last remains of the administrative people from years ago. The knowledge passed down through their families during the long winter cold. They alone possess the knowledge on how to run the salvaged energy generators and how to make use of the old administrative protocols. They act as kings, mayors and reeves, to keep the small towns and cities alive, and to keep their small groups of survivors alive.

Mutants
The despised and the dismissed. Sometime in their family past they were irradiated by radiation, or their genome was manipulated through genetic research. Regardless of the cause they now possess strange biological powers. Some can see in the dark like a cat, others can change their form, and still others have even stranger powers. No one really knows the kinds of powers a mutant can have. They have never been documented. And no one is willing to spend very much time with them in the first place.

Beast People
A recognized sub-species of the already hugely diverse Mutant peoples. The beast men either have the ability to hide their beastly side under a genetic cloak of looking like a Normal, or are stuck in their beastly form no matter what. Beast People are just that, otherwise normal people that take the form of some type of beast. They range from feline to in one legendary case, a great draconic form, thought to be their ruler at the time.

Sand and Wind Riders
A group of fun-loving misfits. Often young people who do not want to be just normal law-abiding citizens in a city. They band together and create for themselves their own sand-skimmers. They enjoy nothing more than racing out into the high deserts, catching one of the wind corridors then riding that wind across the desert. They bring with them a sense of love and joy of freedom. Not only are they viewed as misfits, but also as one of the best ways to get messages across the desert. Where it would take a single courier weeks and in some cases months to travel the dunes, a single Sand Rider, with a good tail wind, can reach the opposite end of a wind corridor in less than a few hours.

Breathers
Breathers are just like any other Normal. Except for one small detail; they can't breathe normal oxygen anymore. Perhaps it's a genetic defect, or something to do with the radiation that still pollutes the air in small quantities. But for whatever reason, a Breather needs to filter his air, or in some cases, needs to breath a totally different gas altogether. There have been cases where a perfectly normal Normal, would slowly find out they are a Breather, and would end up breathing argon gas or sulfur.

Tech-Nicks
You can't mistake a Tech-Nick for anything but a Tech-Nick. These people have signed their bodies over to become half machine. They are believed to be created by the original bio-technological creatures created ages ago by one of the warring nations. Now they are just as prevalent as the Normals. Tech-Nicks can have anything from computers grafted into their skulls, to energy blasters in their arms. Some are even known to be able to control the muscle output of their bodies through nano-technology.

Water Hunters
The one true benevolent group of everyone out there. Where the Nobles look out for themselves and marginally for their cities, the Mutants for their own small cabals and the other factions for their own kin, the Water Hunters help everyone and anyone. No one will ever harm a Water Hunter, for only they know the seemingly mystic ways to find the hidden streams and cisterns that hold the most precious of elements, Water. Without it, no one would live.

The Atomic Brotherhood
If there were to be an evil factor in our world, it would have to be the Brotherhood. Despite what our most ancient stories say, about the bombs and missiles that destroyed our once beautiful world, can do to our world, the Atomic Brotherhood does not care. They wish to gather these tools of death and destruction together. They worship these bombs and warheads as if they were icons of some dark god pantheon. A saying is, "Avoid the Brotherhood, for they bring nothing but strife." The Brotherhood is led by a woman named Makala Soecent, although very little is known about her outside of the brotherhood.

The Web of Shadows
The Web of Shadows is a group of highly skilled and specialized assassins, with a network of information spread out across the farthest reaches of the Sands. The members of the Web of Shadows are divided into four groups, each serving a specific role. The Sensors are in charge of maintaining the information network of the Web and are the most basic members. The Spiders are more well known, and are the ones who accept the contracts. The Hunters are the true assassins, with each Hunter posessing something that makes them unique among the other assassins. The final members are the Patriarchs/Matriarchs, who keep the entire group running smoothly.

Technology
The many, many toys you will be able to use.

Believe it or not, despite the very destruction of the structure of our world. With the massive cities and huge acropoli crumbled and tumbled to nothing, the technology created during the War still exists. Caches and old bunkers are found weekly sometimes almost daily by Wind Riders or other factions. Many of them hold weapons. Guns and energy weapons. But occasionally, some new kind of machine will be found that improves our overall lot in life. I cannot tell you specifically. But perhaps, this will help.

Edged weapons
The most basic of weapons that can be found anywhere. Knifes and other bladed weapons that cut, slash and hack. An interesting variation on these is the Energy Edge technology. Combining the energy manipulation technology, with an edged weapon, allows the edged weapon to cut and slash and never dull; although Energy Edge’s are very rare.

Slug-Throwers
The most common of projectile weapons found in the world, created from the small, decorative fire-arms that were just personal toys. Now you'd be hard put to find any slug-thrower that isn't powerful enough to kill in a single shot. They can come in the form of one handed pistols and hand guns, and long two handed rifles. All need solid ammunition to fire and can be lethal up to and including 4 miles in some extreme cases.

Energy Casters
The next and so far, final step up of projectile weapons. So far they come in 3 categories. The first to be found were Concussion weapons, utilizing a compression matrix that sucked in air, and then fired a concussion wave that would be like getting hit by a boxer’s strongest punch. The second is solid energy, which projects a ball of super-heated plasma. Old records note that during the war, these solid energy blasters were often mounted on crawlers and could get as big as houses. Finally, there are lightning blasters, which fire beams of high charge electricity, hotter than the surface of the sun.

Psionics
By tweaking the brain power of the recipient, psionics technology allowed a person to use their mind to the highest point attainable by human beings. This allowed them to lift things with telekinesis, see the future to a short extent, light things aflame with pyrokinesis and in one case a Psionic was able to teleport himself from one point to another within his line of sight.

Nano-Technology
Using minute robots, so tiny in fact that you'd need somewhere in the range of a billion of them just to see with the naked eye. Back during the war, clouds of them would be released. They would swoop in, worm their way into their targets and like a quick acting plague, eat their way out of the victim, while the victim still lived. Nowadays nano-bots are used by only the most skilled Nobles (or the luckiest of Tech-Nicks), used mostly for the most life-threatening of surgeries and medical procedures.

Crawlers
Quite possibly one of the most important pieces of technology to be unearthed. Crawlers are basically tracked vehicles, just one of a few ways to cross the sands safely. They can range from small 1 person machines, to massive Sand-Hog mining tracks that delve into the deep deserts, like massive cities on tracks.

Hover engines
Designed originally as personal devices to set a commander above the field of action so he could direct his army better. They can range from small units that can lift a man 2 or 3 feet off the ground, which is about as strong as you can get these days. Though the old stories talk of how massive battle bases could be kept aloft by units as big as a city block.

Energy Manipulation
By carefully directing the flow of different types of energy, in the form of sunlight or electricity, many affects can be achieved. Usually used nowadays to power the cities and towns. Though in the past, it was well known for an army to use an Energy coil to unleash storms of lightning or flame out of thin air.

Economy
It's what keeps the gears turning.

Barter System
Pretty self-explanatory, you trade something for something of roughly equivalent value.

Water Credits
While bartering will work for most of the time, sometimes the trading of Water Credits is necessary. As water is the most precious commodity available, and there is so little as it is, even with the Water hunters always searching, the water is rationed. Through the use of Water Credits a person can get a rationed amount of water that will last them for a few days. This also has the added benefit of no one ever becoming "Water Rich" as you need to use that water eventually. Just hoarding it won't help you survive. When your water runs out you can use a Water Credit to gain more. Those Credits are closely watched by the Nobles of each city, in fact they dole them out to everyone. Only the truly poor, those that cannot work for a Water Credit, like the thieves, are without the Water Credits. They must steal water to get it if they need too. Surviving coins and paper money are pretty much useless. Water Credits take the form of small piece of fabric, stamped with the name of the Noble of the city. This would allow the noble or his water supervisor to see that the credit is legal and is to be used for one ration of water. Also, this renders Water Credits only valid in the city they were received, unless there has been an agreement between two cities.