The sky has shimmered with crystalline sparkles from dawn to dusk for longer than most of the living can remember. The celestial change brought more change with it, people began to develop fantastical Talents. Alchemists able to bottle lightning, create potions to enhance the body and sense or transmute the common into gold. Emitters able to strike any within eyesight with lances of fire, or release a torrential river from their hands. Bastions incapable of sustaining damage, or repairing it so quickly it was if it never happened. Movers who can walk step through shadows, walk across a strand of horse hair or float into the clouds. Shifters who could grow to monstrous sizes or manifest animalistic features. Shadows who could steal the senses or memories. Masters who could conjure and control hordes. Strikers breaking keep walls with a light touch to stopping someone in time.
Lit by blueish flames Azurelight Keep stands on steep volcanic cliffs overlooking the bay of shards. For the twelve years of the viceroy reign the bay has been treacherous with broken and shattered remains of Spires from the invasion. Twelve years since the island was almost wiped out by the invaders from the sky, held back only by the blood and sacrifice of the Talented.
Oh yeah. Oh man. I dig this.
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Color me intrigued. I'll be watching this for more activity.
I'm interested to see what a "Llum" will be in this setting. A fruit? Bovine creature? Profanity?
llum...the talented...you go.
The Invaders descend from the sky in vessels of sparkling crystal. Spires fly screaming through the wind shooting off Pawns and Knights, eventually landing to disgorge their Bishop captain with its retinue of Rooks, Crystal Castles reside in the sky, growing new Spires to launch, so distance they can only be seen by the most powerful telescopic lenses.
The Invaders are shockingly inhuman bearing no resemblance in form or fancy to the men and women if the Isle. They seem to be partially flesh but have coatings of the same mineral that the Spires are grown from. In hierarchy the Pawns are near mindless, as if children or grubs. Next come the Knights and Rooks, formidable, varied and undeniably intelligent. Next come the Bishops, supreme leaders of any Spire and invasion force. Rumors speak of unseen King and Queen who rule the sky Castles, and some say they have even seen massive shapes walking on surface of the distant bastions.
Pawns are the most simple of the Invaders, not terrible intelligent but coordinated and resilient. When passive the Pawn is a bullet shaped stub of crystal, only when it provoked will it unfold. Symmetric on three axis, the pawn has three legs with inward facing claws that join into a long gourdlike torso. A large shield like spike rises from the "knee" of their limb. Three rigid stalks branch from the torso about the "hip" joint, ending with lidless bulbs believed to be eyes. Next come the arms, segmented lengths with six or seven joints, covered in mineral growths and ending in a three sided pincer. Finally a cap of crystal adorns the peak of the torso, usually cone shaped, but often worn down. Pawns are often thrown in great number from Spires before landing to cause difficulties where ever they land, often their entry itself enough to cause damage to any building in the way.
Knights are terrible foes, feared by even the most Talented. Similar in anatomy to a Pawn but of longer and more articulate limbs the Knights are very swift, able to out speed an adult man. The true terror of the Knight lies in their intelligence and their Talent. As cunning as humans and armed with several Talents, usually of the Emitter, Striker and Shadow scope. Striking as insurgents the Knights have been known to work as individuals to small and large groups to accomplish whatever task. After their goals are met they seem to revert to some instinct to hunt any Talented they can find.
Rooks are the largest of the invaders, towering on thick legs they are taller than any rider. They seem to serve as bodyguards to Bishops. Rounder and thicker in body than their kin, the Rook is usually partially amorphous. It's segmented arms are covered in shield-like fins and it's knee spikes are much broad and flater. Talented as Bastions and Shifters they make formidable defensive lines, doubly so when paired with their willingness to absorb any blow without regard to life or limb.
A llum setting. quite intriguing indeed. I am really looking forward to seeing how this develops!
War of the Worlds in the dark ages with superheroes. That's the impression I get.
Is the Viscount honourable, ignoble, vainglorious? Does he command for our sake or for his own? Are the Talents' sacrifices wilful or coerced? Who are the Kings and Queens and what are their intentions? Are these invaders natural or engineered? Did they bring the "gift" of Talent with them when they arrived or did the gift of Talent summon them or were both generated by an altogether different force or are they unrelated? What do normals think of the Talented? Is there prestige, fear, shame? How have Talents transformed civilisation? What has become of the world entire? Does it remain?
Quote from: Ghostman
War of the Worlds in the dark ages with superheroes. That's the impression I get.
That's pretty close, probably more napoleonic era, but spot on.
QuoteIs the Viscount honourable, ignoble, vainglorious? Does he command for our sake or for his own? Are the Talents' sacrifices wilful or coerced? Who are the Kings and Queens and what are their intentions? Are these invaders natural or engineered? Did they bring the "gift" of Talent with them when they arrived or did the gift of Talent summon them or were both generated by an altogether different force or are they unrelated? What do normals think of the Talented? Is there prestige, fear, shame? How have Talents transformed civilisation? What has become of the world entire? Does it remain?
The Viscount is actually a viceroy, I've decided. Governor for the Emperor from the mainland. He commands because because his mandate is to govern the island and protect it from foreign powers, which is what he sees the invaders as. The Talents sacrifice is willing, mostly, because to lose is extinction.
The Kings and Queens are the rulers and pilots of the Crystal Castles. The Kings are pilots, the queens are war leaders and brood mothers. They're only discernable intent is colonization. The true nature of the invaders is a mystery, there are signs of both natural and engineered traits. The Talents arrived with the daystars.
The world continues, trade between the Isle and the mainland continues. Reports have confirmed the invaders are not a regional threat, but are found in many places. In some areas they have even claimed footholds, raising enormous crystalline citadels.
Peers
The peers of the Isle are fall into several different ranks. The most common peers are Knights, usually Talented granted titles for service, minor nobles from the mainland or rich merchants who have bought a minor title. These titles are unlanded land, but come with some privileges usually in regards to the right to vote for women, privateering, import/exports and common law in return for service to the Viceroy and the realm. Next are Barons, the first landed title without any hereditary claim upon their land. Next are the Counts/Countess, hereditary landed titles, not usually given much more than Barons but the lands cannot leave bloodline. This has made some rather poor but still influential Counts and Countess. On the mainland the Viceroy would be equal in rank to a Duke, but on the Isle he out ranks any visiting nobility save the Emperor and Crown Prince.
There are few landed Talents, only the Count and Countess Saumont and a handful of Barons. Baron Craon was the son of watch and clockmaker who was granted his title for his efforts in the Invasion. Craon is a Master who has the ability to conjure and command creatures crafted of ice . While individually weak, their ability to be armed with weapons and man artillery as well as their great numbers were instrumental in repelling the invaders. Baroness Le Tellier is a Shadow with some unknown power who openly runs the Faceless, the viceroys secret police and enforcers. Baron Roche-Aymon is a powerful emitter able to make webs and threads of fire that burn even under water.
It seems that Talents were developed mostly by low-born people. Is there some pattern behind who becomes Talented or is it all totally random?
Quote from: Ghostman
It seems that Talents were developed mostly by low-born people. Is there some pattern behind who becomes Talented or is it all totally random?
It's random as far as anyone can tell. Alchemists have searched since Talents began to appear but there has been nothing so far. The only known link is that it is tied to the appearance of the daystars. The sheer amount of low born compared to the peers is as good an explanation as any for the reason there are so few peers of Talent.
The Isle of Charron
Wrapped around the Bay of Shards in the east is Charronport, the largest settlement on the Isle. Azurelight Keep is to the north of Charronport, hidden amongst the volcanic terrain that make up the north and east. Rich agricultural lands span the central, southern and western areas that merge into tropical forests in the south-east and north-west. Natural resources are the main trade export leaving Charron such as timber, rice, and more recently due to steam-pumps being able to drain mines, iron, copper and tin ore. There are some specialized exports from glass blowers and lens makers as well, but these are very low volume.
Charronport serves as a major trading and supply hubs for ships going to and from the Empire, other island colonies and expeditions to the southern continent. Charronport is considered by many to be one of the most metropolitan cities outside the mainland Empire. The peers keep to their estates, the trading district and richer urban neighbourhoods that cover the city north of the cobbled Victors Lane. In the south is the neighbourhood of Silktown, known for its silk processors and harvestors as well as the leagues of silk cloth that wind about the buildings and street lamps. It is said that a Talent who can control and strengthen woven silk threads is the lord of Silktown.