• Back to Writing

    • Random Works

    Loose Papers:

    Worldbuilding Potpourri:

    The Last Bastion, The Grave of Ambition, The Rimward Haven, these are all names given to the ruling and main city of the Dwarf world of Pluto, Proserpina.

    Proserpina Comune, technically the United Communes of Proserpina-Pluto, is democratic socialist state with anarchic tendencies. The nation is divided into 37 comunes split between the 28 districts of Proserpina itself and 9 spread across the rest of Pluto, Charon, and the moons. Each commune is managed by a Quintcore which is constantly feed data from its citizens and diagnostics on the whats and needs of the commune, with the elected Advocate serving mainly as a safeguard, community counsel, and representative to the larger Union. Each commune really has only two other governmental offices, that being a Militia-Captain of the Outer-Rim Fleet and Sheriff. Most jobs are relayed through a ‘community board request’ system with “pay” distributed as feed rations for the system’s Mol-Weavers.

    Proserpina itself is a semi-underground megacity covering almost a quarter of the planet, A massive set of graviton dynamos such as those used in spaceflight keep the gravity at around .6g while high intensity sun lights provide heat and illumination. Her people are mostly Voidkin whose families have lived in the city since before The Collapse, but many outcasts, mercenaries, and would-be adventurers also find home within her walls. While architecture of the city is brutalist, or even tomb-like, the living and social areas are often covered in bright murals and wall rugs, while impromptu concerts and debates (and fights) break out in its gathering spaces. The Proserpinans themselves are generally an accepting and egalitarian lot but commonly have a nihilist or even morbid sense of humor.

    In the Dock Districts workers in Void Shells labor away to bring in resources from the belt and goods of Sunward traders, while betwixt them consuming almost the hold labor of its commune lays the Grand Exchange and its famous Voidedge Bar. In recent times strange artifacts and even stranger stories have begun to filter into the Exchange and her Bar from return expeditionary to distant Eris; though for every one that returns three are never heard from again.

    J.O.A.P. (Joint Office of Abnormal Phenomenon)

    The unloved child of half a dozen US agencies including the FBI, CIA, DoD, and IRS, the Joint Office of Abnormal Phenomenon (or JOAP) is seen often as a joke, but the reason why is vastly different depending which side of the curtain you're on. For those on the outside it is seen as little more than a waste of money and a dead end job filled with nuts that may have watched one too many episodes of the X-Files. For those on the inside it is massively unfunded and disorganized that has to deal with horrors ripped right from one's nightmares. Even dealing supposedly more benign beings like the Hidden-Folk can add years of stress to an agent.

    The Office can be split into the joint administration and the three major commands, that being Investigation, Operations, and Research & Development. Investigation, as the name implies, deals with the initial investigation of potential phenomena and beings. Its task forces included everything from old fashion gumshoe detectives to hackers and accountants, though often in fewer numbers than they like. Members of Investigation often jokingly compare themselves to noir protagonists, both the grimness of their work and the dismal state of their organization. One notable agent of Investigation is Agent Olivia “The Immortal '' Brooks who is often seen as the de-facto leader of the Office despite not holding an administrative position.

    Operation carried out retrieval, containment, or destruction of abnormal phenomenon or beings. Operations will commonly use drugs and drug use as code words for phenomenon, with harder drugs being used for more dangerous phenomena, and the term dealer or user being used for intelligent abnormalities. The analogy of a ‘can of worms’ is used when clarity is needed, with “no can'' meaning they're not talking about a phenomenon to “full can” meaning the situation is urgent.

    While Operation has some truly exceptional units like the elite “Red Eleven” or the shadowy “Ops 13”, the truth is between poor funding and high attrition most units are little better trained and equipped than your average backwater state marshal. This deficiency is best illustrated by the disastrous raid of the Phi’s Star Cult which ended in the death of 3 agents and the mental mutilation of 6 others.

    The last section is R&D, often seen as the best off but overtasked element of JOAP. Its facilities often resemble a collage laboratory merged with a workshop that has been taken over by sci-fi nerds and amateur occultists. In theory R&D’s job is to research Abnormal Phenomenon and develop methods and tools for dealinging with them; in practice R&D acts as a benignly corrupt, black market tech company which sell it discoveries and creation to its parent agencies for favors and 3rd parties for much needed funds. R&D’s greatest creation is a form of symbolic material thaumaturgy using a substance known as Star Silk as a catalyst/reactant (in debate). These creations often act as JOAP’s only real edge in the affairs of the supernatural. The current head of R&D is the somewhat eccentric and possibly abhuman Dr. Selena Roads.

    The organizational culture can be described as collegial, eccentric, and jokily grim. Dark and even gallows humor is common, though many also have eccentric passion for the paranormal as that offen what led them to JOAP in the first place. R&D tends to lean more on the eccentric side with more than one being jokingly called a ‘mad scientist’ by members of the other sections. They are also not above keeping items they find for their own use, such as the Old Fridge currently employed in the break room of JOAP’s headquarters (Cleveland, Ohio)

    While JOAP can often come into conflict with other national and private paranormal organizations, its biggest headache is a well funded group that is as much a living superorganism as an organization, called The Faceless Megalith, or just Megalith. (WIP)

    Extra: The Lightkeeper Institute

    "It was not God that fell the Tower of Babel, we know for we are the keepers of its fallen light.” The Lightkeeper Institute is the fifth incarnation of an organization that claims to date back to the Megapolitc Republic of Babel. Whether or not Babel was a republic as we would understand it today, or even if it existed at all, is a matter of some debate due to the loss of records over eons, but there are reasons to believe their tales. One reason is because the Lightkeepers are one of the prolific keepers of knowledge and wisdom in the world, another other is the artifact that forms the groups namesake, The Light of Babel. The Light is a golden fire within a meter wide fire bowl made of orichalcum containing a strange oil and a shard of stone secured at its bottom holding a red hair wick. [translation, empathy].

    Races:

    > Figulin


    The second in commonality only after the diminutive Cablin and by far the most successful, Clayling are an enduring and adaptive race that have found their way to even the most hostile and remote areas of the world. The term “Clayling" comes not only from their adaptability but a common belief that they were created by ‘The Mother of Clay’. Sub-groups:

    > Cablin


    By far the most common race in the world, the Cablin are small humanoids that vaguely resemble hairless cats. Lifespan: 25-37 years

    > Infrain


    The descendants of almost golem-like creatures from deep below, dwarfs are 5 feet tall, broad, and compact humanoids with a natural connection to earth and metal. Starting as egg stones buried in the earth, their lifespan is normally from 300-500 years, with Dorfs specifically known to live for thousands. Sub-groups:

    > Silvain


    Elves are human-like, arboreal faekin whose lives are intertwined with a family of Fae trees known as Elfwoods. Elves are born from the fruit of Elfwoods, and elves carry an immature seed of a new Elfwood tree, the tree growing after the elf’s death Most elfwoods are cosexual, with Elves themselves start out as biologically agender and will typically only develop traits of sexual dimorphism under specific stimuli. Their lifespan can range from 300 - 4000 years depending on the variant of Elfwood. Sub-Groups:

    > Apercin


    Large and Boar-like, Orcs are a social, intelligent, but naturally aggressive race.Their need to cover themselves in mud and muck to cool off and aggressive nature as lead to them being unfairly seen as savages to many other races. Fast maturing, their Lifespan is only 30-50 years Sub-groups:

    World Overview:
    A Cyberpunk world where 26 mega-corps effectively rule the world and robotic drones have replaced 60% of the world's jobs. The major opposition to the 26 is the Pinkos, a loose alliance of socialist punks and rebels. The Pinkos A loose alliance of socialist punks and rebels. There are 7 major Factions.

    The 26 (Corps)
    The 26 Megacorps that rule the world. They can loosely be split into 5 eco-blocks. Terms:

    Between the Pewter Mountains and the Firesong Sea lies the Enlightened Empire of Brozen.
    To outsiders its looks like a great sweeping dominion unrivaled in industry, technology, and science, in reality it is chaotic mess of a hundred feuding Spark Kings each with their own court of bickering vassals and free sparks. The Emperor is a meer elected figurehead of the Imperial Diet whose only real power is in collecting enough tithes to protect the empire’s foreign interests and keep the nation from total collapse. Dominating the land are powerful individuals known as Sparks whose twisted science bring forth great prosperity and suffering.

    Culture:

    The Culture of Brozen is fevered and lively, their always something to do, something to see. Music and art fill streets and theaters run into the dead of night. Monster attacks, rampaging constructs, and massive explosions are just treated as facts of life by many locals. Its great cities are monolithic and labyrinthian with miles of hidden market, crypts, sewers, and even whole lost civilisations buried below. The level of material wealth these cites provide to the average tradesmen rivals that of most barons in other lands.

    Religion:

    Outside the odd enclave, the peoples of Brozen worship no gods, worshiping science, ‘reason’, and art above all else. Where spirituality is concerned the average people and nobility have little regard or even distan for matter of divine faith, instead engaging in fads of mysticism and occultism. Even Tieflings are treated as little more than a oddity and are sometimes even prized for their intelligence and charisma. The closest thing to an imperial religion the Brozen has is the reverence for the 9 Muses of Knowledge.

    The 9 Muses of Knowledge: Politics:

    The Pewter Freeholds:

    The Dwarven freeholds of Pewter Mountains are by far the most fortified, and autonomous members of the Imperial Diet. The Freeholds act as the bulwark of the Empire and its main centers of Tin mining and land trade. The most important hold is that of the Grey Gate, a massive fortress that act as the only major pass through the mountains.

    The Slag Coast Duchies:

    The richest of the Empire’s domains, it is named for the lumps of slag that deposit on its shore containing metal both mundane and miraculous. Here colossal port cities trade goods from all over the world and in particular the great High Elven Empire of Faerûn-Gweyr. While the Duchies of the Slag Coast are some of the most stable regions in the Empire they are also some of the most cut-throat and ruthless when comes to politics and money.

    The Kiln Hills Fiefdoms:

    In the northwest foothills the Pewter Mountains is the vast expanse of tall rocky outcroppings and winding natural cave networks. Once the heart of a great bronze age kingdom, The Kiln Hills have fallen into disarray, now little more than bickering fiefdoms full of lowest and most unpredictable the spark nobility. Ruined castles, abandoned mines and smelters, and forgotten crypts and all that left of it glory days

    The Wastes:

    The Wastes are not a specific region of the Empire but instead a vast collection of no-man’s lands, hostile wilderness, and rogue fiefs buffered between major houses.

    The Hearthland Kingdoms:

    Sitting between the Silver and Black Rivers, dominated by earthen mound villages and endless fields.

    Imperial City and Throne Lands:

    In the center of the Hearthland lies a great red mesa on top of which sits the Great Imperial City of Hearth. Around it is the Throne Lands, the only territory directly control by the Emperor. Hearth is the center of culture and technology where even potters can live the knights of other lands. Printing press turns out library of books and factory create row after row fine clothing and cheap glassware. Schools are open to everyone and most know how to read and do basic math. Here is also station the Imperial Guard, to sole real military power head by the Emperor, and used mostly to police sparks.

    Races: Equipment: Extra:

    Back to IBB