The Campaign Builder's Guild

[note]So, here we are again with Carbon Skies. Only the intro vignette is the same as the last thread. I've been doing some revision, and I think I finally have the right feel. It's been a long time coming, but all the dead ends I've gone down and all the abortive ideas I've thrown out have led to a stronger and leaner setting. Actually expressing the thematics of the setting is still difficult, but I am making progress on that front. I can say with confidence that this is a permanent thread for Carbon Skies. I'll be adding stuff and re-organizing over the next couple days. As always comments, critiques and questions are very welcome! [/note]

                           

[ic=The Ensign]
The screams of the dying, plaintive calls for mothers and lovers, then static. Panicked commanders bellowing orders to squadrons that just weren't there anymore, then static. He drifted, his platform charred and limbless, one among thousands of new pieces of orbital wreckage. He focused on Fourth Petal again with his sole remaining camera. It was strangely beautiful. Spread into a thousand glowing pieces slowly floating away from each other. Stars shining just beyond. He panned over. Third Petal was still venting the remnants of its atmosphere from the huge rent in its side. In the distance, a chaos of innumerable explosions flared around Second Petal and First Petal. He knew it would be over soon.

   They'd gone out just over half an hour ago; all twelve of them. People couldn't believe it when the sirens went off. None of the natives could go orbital, not anymore. Zerchimonde was dead and buried. Or so he'd been taught. So they'd all been taught. They went out together, platforms gleaming in the sun. When it clawed its way into orbit below them they didn't believe what they were seeing. It was like a great beast out of some primordial dream, reaching out to drag them all back down with it. It was larger than all the Petals put together. The storms it created in its ascent darkened the entire western continent. Then the swarm was on them. A thousand enemies moving as one. Blossom Cluster wasn't the wealthiest member of the Union. It didn't have the defenses that the other Clusters had. That was a thought for the future. Iris Squadron didn't last a minute. They'd never had a chance.

   The channels were silent now. Except for one. He'd ignored it before, but listened now. It spoke in a stilted voice devoid of inflection, as if unfamiliar with human speech. 'The misery and suffering you have brought to the world is now brought back to you. Invaders. Defilers. Leeches. We pass judgement on you. Your reality was untenable. We substitute our own. This war is fought in the name of peace. Our gift to you is grace and chastity.' It started to repeat. Straining, he managed to reach the switch to turn it off.

   His platform's energy reserves were near empty. Everything on his heads-up display was flashing red. He felt tired, so tired. It was getting harder to breathe. He thought back to that morning just a few short hours ago. Or was it a thousand years ago? The streets of Fourth Petal hummed with an indescribable enthusiasm. It was that feeling you only got in a new city. So alien to the bleak oppressiveness of the overcrowded Central Clusters. There was room in Fourth Petal. So much room. You felt like you could actually breathe. It was the sounds too. The sweet trills of birdsong. The gurgling of the river. It was so fresh, he never got tired of it. He remembered the sky. The light the solar windows let in was crisp and clean and perfect. Not like the sickly yellow that saturated the first gen cities, where it was always just too hot to be comfortable. And there were clouds! Fluffy and white and serene. He knew behind the blue it was the same carbon you got in any city, but it felt different in the Petals. He smiled. His thoughts were getting sluggish. There was a muffled thunk against the hull, but he didn't care. He couldn't keep his eyes open, he knew he should, but he couldn't. He closed them wishing he could see those carbon skies again. [/ic]

Elements

Collapse and Disintegration (or, It's All Downhill From Here)

The last of the machine intelligences of Zerchimonde have destroyed themselves in the fury of their revenge. The once burgeoning cities of the Union drift silent and empty across the night sky, the most prosperous of their colonies reduced to slag and glass on the world below. The resources necessary for the continuance of modern society grow scarce, and the remnants of once great armies struggle to impose order on the final bastions of colonial civilization.

This turmoil effects not only humanity, but so too the other peoples of the world. The nations of the Glasty have descended into chaos. To the Tredish the Midani of Madhaddon have brought war, as they have long promised. As the matriarchs bicker, the streets of Treds empty. The people are afraid, and refugees fly before the depredations of the tribes.

It is little different across the sea. Freed from the threat of invasion the cloth of Taian society unravels. The thousand year reign of the Immortal Empress may soon come to an end. She sits her throne precariously, and could fall at any moment. Her intendants jockey for position to the detriment of the state, rogue generals seize control of Imperial armies, and the provinces burn.    

The Natives are Restless

The indigenes of the world, the Midani, have long been an irrelevancy. Their greatest kingdoms are millennia gone; ground to dust by the Glasty and their mechanical spawn in ages past. The recovery witnessed in modern times has been held in check by the military might of the Union. No more.

The balance of power has been turned on its head, and those who were weak are strong, and those who were strong are weak. A vacuum needs to be filled, and the Midani strive to do so. The horns of war are sounded, and the tribes march to reclaim their ancestral lands.  



Factions

The Successor States
 

Brasco



Centre of Power: Providential
Leaders and Influence Groups: Governor Leeward Green, the State Assembly, the Eight Families


The Sodona Compact



Centre of Power: Rain
Leaders and Influence Groups: President Michael Dante, the House of the Compact, the Advancer Cliques


The Provisional Authority



Centre of Power: Esos
Leaders and Influence Groups: General Rig Carson, the Provisional Council

Military Equipment

The Midani



The Successor States



[spoiler=P2 Terrordoc (I had this commissioned, wish I could have drawn it myself!)][/spoiler]

Clan Suwei



The Tredish Federation

[ic=Bacon]'It's not like that at all, man' Andy smoked while he talked, perched on top of a fallen log. We called him Andy anyways, his real name was one of those unpronounceable deep woods ones; he never complained about it. You could tell he wasn't real Midani. Not Karaxi or Ankali or Samsari or any of that. Sure, he had the face and the build, but you can always tell by the eyes. And those baby blues didn't come out of any northern forest. Grey, maybe. Never blue. So he had a bit of colonial to him, not that he'd admit it. He'd always told us he was from just south of Samson Rock, born a couple years before the battle - when the natives started to realize maybe we weren't going to go away so easy. Things were crazy back then, and he said he never really got the chance to absorb the culture. Joined up with Pine when he was fourteen, wasn't much else in the way of work for someone like him. Still isn't. His mom hated him for it, and well, I guess he didn't have any other family. Maybe it was true, but he was leaving something out, and it wasn't just his dubious parentage. I never pressed him on it.

'But come on, they signed the treaties. Didn't have a problem with them before.' Johnny was lying on his back in the sty a couple feet away, covered in mud from head to toe. He was breathing heavily. The pigs had been evading him with considerable success. They'd gathered in the corner opposite him, a mean old sow out front grunting for all she was worth. He was new; from some podunk town down near Sandy. Put into the squad fresh out of basic right before we trucked up here.

'Way they see it, didn't sign any treaties with the new suits in Providential. Now that the Union's gone, figure they might just get their land back.' Andy inhaled deeply from his pipe.

'Well they should just deal with it. No reason for them to be stirring up trouble. Things were working fine the way they were! Make me hike all the way up here just so I can end up lying on my ass covered in pig shit. Could have done that back home!  And you just know winter's going to come early!' Johnny went off on one of his incoherent rants. He did have a point, it was pretty cold for early autumn. The oaks had already turned and were starting to lose their leaves. There was a chill breeze that day. Even the pines looked cold, shivering in the wind.

'Just shut up, Johnny. Maybe Providential gets its head out of its ass and gives some terms they might actually look at, we can all go home.' said Andy. Johnny screwed up his face into one of the biggest frowns I had ever seen, like he was actually thinking for a second. He snorted in frustration.

'Back me up, Torque!' he said. I was standing next to Andy, looking over a map. ' Maybe you should stop thinking so much and get the pigs. Like you're supposed to.' I said. Andy grinned.
 
'Listen to her, Johnny. Stop thinking politics. Pigs is all you're good for' he said. Johnny groaned and started to stand up.

'At least give me some help here!' cried Johnny. I looked over at Maxter and Duke and fixed them with a stare. They were leaning against the half-track trying to look innocent. Duke was from one of the central clusters. As far as I could tell, it hadn't really phased him when they'd all gone quiet. Maybe he just didn't care.

'Sure thing, boss' said Maxter. He spoke in the slurred way the Glasty did. They couldn't quite get their mouths around our language. Different shape. Different teeth, too. He was pretty tall for his species, over five feet. Tredish, not Taian. His scales were off-orange instead of green. Maxter set his rifle down and started taking his combat armour off. That's when the siren went off back at Jordan Station; we could hear it from there.
 
'Jumped up idiots. State guard doesn't know a deer from a dredek. Second time this morning'  said Duke. Duke never thought much of the state guard. Or us colonials in general. Course, never let it get in the way of his work. Always professional. And then we heard the horns. Low groans echoing across the hills and down the valley. Really puts the fear in you, first time you hear that. 'Shit' said Duke. Johnny's mouth had fallen open.

'Shoot the pigs and get them in the Lug. Don't have time for this. Quartermaster will have to settle for dead on delivery.' I said as I hustled back to the cabin of the half-track. I picked up the receiver on the radio. 'Alex. We're on our way back. Sitrep.' I said.
 
'Not good, chief. Looks like half the Samsari coming down out of the hills. Karaxi too.' she said. Let me just say this; we didn't have a clue how bad it was going to be.[/ic]

Reserved!

Reservus! Feel free to post now if you so desire.

Nice, can't wait for more!

I couldn't help, but notice that the landmass looks like South American, or a mix of that and Africa. :)

Just a nitpick, but I got the impression that the ensign is himself up in the orbit. If that's so, he would not be able to see stars twinkle, since it is the planetary atmosphere that actually causes twinkling.

Whoa, your art/graphics have come a long, long way since that over-IRC preview I saw. This is starting to look really slick.

Quote from: GhostmanJust a nitpick, but I got the impression that the ensign is himself up in the orbit. If that's so, he would not be able to see stars twinkle, since it is the planetary atmosphere that actually causes twinkling.

Well, to be honest, I've never noticed stars to actually twinkle on earth either. Maybe my eyes just suck at detecting minute light differences. I always just assumed it was an expression people used to say 'there are stars', I suppose I could change it.

Edit: There, now it says shining instead =p

This is so freaking cool, TMG. Glad to see it up again.

Gimme more!