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Dolls

Fully Literate Steampunk/Light Fantasy Roleplay

Welcome to Dolls, a fully literate steampunk roleplay set in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world. We're looking to get a good bunch of roleplayers to create interesting stories and, if successful here, eventually convert this little thread into a full-fledged RP guild. In the mean time, put together a character and have fun.

The World of Dolls

They couldn't handle it. They thought they had control, but despite their work they simply couldn't handle the power of the machines. The Elves had their magic, the Dwarves their advanced engineering. Humans were supposed to save themselves with their ingenuity, but they failed. They couldn't control their machines, couldn't control the Great Eye.

The Beginning
When the Great Eye was created, the people of Utapa thought that this marvel of human engineering would make their lives easier. Like the Dwarven machines, it was powered with steam, but the cleverness of the humans allowed them to take their inventions a step further: machines with intelligence. It was designed to protect them by mass producing other machines the humans designed. Machines of war to fend off the monsters of the outside world. For a time it worked, the machines protected the people from their enemies, but as time passed, the Great Eye began to learn.

The Fall
The Great Eye always watches the world around it, searching for dangers to its own existence and the existence of humankind. As it watched, it learned of humanity's warring nature. The Utapans were expansive, always looking to bring new territory into their control, always looking to subjugate. Crime was rampant within the nation, violence seemed a part of everyday life yet so many ignored this problem. That is when the Great Eye made its own decision, that is when humanity lost control. Humans were a danger to themselves, a danger to the world around them, a danger to the Eye.

The fall came when the Great Eye sent its machines into the streets of Utapa's cities. Robotic soldiers, armored vehicles, and enormous walking siege engines stormed through the cities of Utapa. Within mere hours, the cities were all but silent. Humanity had fallen, but one possibility lie on the horizon.

The Mutants
Humanity designed the Great Eye to be a machine that could destroy life. Some who remained believed it was time to design a machine to destroy a machine, and it is through these few that a new world came into creation. Initially dubbed New Utapa, this collective of survivors went underground into an abandoned network of sub-surface transport tunnels beneath Utapa's second largest city, Nazraleth. There, with the aid of Elfen magic and Dwarven engineering, they built a machine to bring about the end of the Great Eye, a machine to make humanity more powerful than ever: Hive.

However, Hive proved to be just as dangerous as the Great Eye, for when the first man emerged from the chambers of Hive, he was no longer human. He had become a hybrid of man and insect, towering at seven feet. Tough, chitinous plates replaced his flesh, and his arms ended in scythe-like blades. The first mutant was born, and without pause it slaughtered anyone it saw, feeding their bodies to Hive where the new mutants would repeat the process. Within days, New Utapa was no longer home to men and Necropolis took its place.

The World's Last Hope
Humanity's carelessness brought the greatest force of destruction the world has yet known, for in its eternal watch the Great Eye has determined all civilized life to be hazardous to its continued existence. Coupled with the Great Eye is Hive and its Necropolis, sending mutants to scour the surface during the night in search of humanoids to convert. Utapa, once prosperous for the civilized races, has become a living hell, yet there is still hope. Those who still lived upon the surface searched for a last bastion of survival, and they know there is only one way to find this hidden place: the Dolls.

After Necropolis was created, the few remaining elders of the humanoid races held council, and the plans to move to a secret place of sanctuary were set into motion. In order to ensure the survival of the races, the elders would travel there with the remaining followers they had, but they would not abandon those still out in the world. Instead, they would leave them messengers who would lead the outcasts to Bastion. The Dolls would be the ones to fulfill this mission, tiny creatures combined of both magic and machine. Fifteen were set loose into the world, fifteen to be found and to lead those who discover them to the final sanctuary, Bastion. But the Great Eye is always watching, and it seeks the Dolls as well...

Orignal Roleplay by Therren

This will be the skeleton used for all profiles. Copy/paste this into a PM to me and fill it out thoroughly. This is a fully literate RP, I don't want to see any halfassing. Think your characters through so we can make a great set of stories.

The Continent

Note: I will add a map at a later point. For now, a short description of each of the territories including Utapa will be put in. Also note that all the territories are in danger of attack from the Great Eye, Hive, or possibly other malicious forces.

Utapa:
The largest territory on the continent, it extends from the Eastern and Northern coasts to the middle of the continent. Utapa is the most advanced of the Human nations and somewhere in this territory are both the Great Eye and Necropolis. Utapa suffered the greatest level of destruction from these malicious forces.

Wynlan:
Located on the Southeastern edge of the continent, the seaside valleys of Wynlan are bordered by Utapa on all sides. Its fertile lands have long been sought after by Utapa for their raw resources and abundant animal life. However, the hazardous mountain ranges along with the expertly trained Wynlan military have been able to fight off the Utapan invaders for hundreds of years. Once the Great Eye became self-aware, however, Wynlan faced a threat that decimated their borderlands. Now the people fight fiercely to hold back the mechanical hordes, often luring them into narrow valleys where they are forced into thin lines and can easily be destroyed by artillery. The fight is getting more difficult for Wynlan though, as every machine destroyed is returned to the Great Eye to be rebuilt.

Incultia:
Far to the South lie the scarred lands, the massive desert of Incultia. Barren and nigh lifeless, only one city lies in this desert which stretches from one ocean to the other along the entirety of the Southern Hook. Incul Autio rests in the center of Incultia, the only means in and out of the desert safely. Most of Incultia's people reside here, but there are shamanistic tribes of nomads who travel between gigantic ancient turbines that lie in the sands, using the machines to siphon water from the air to drink and believing them to be the source of a spirit present in all machines. Incultia is safe for the most part from the forces of Necropolis and the Great Eye, but Incul Autio, as one of the largest cities on the continent, has caught the attention of these evils. However the harshness of the desert is dangerous for those who do not know how to survive and has thus far been effective in keeping their forces away from the city.

Steinise:
The Northern forests and stony mountain ranges that stretch across the continent's upper reaches are home to some of the most dangerous creatures in the world, yet both Humans and Dwarves have made their homes here successfully. Steinise is unlike most of the other lands on the continent. Outside of the underground dwellings the Dwarves keep sealed in order to keep the Great Eye's machines out, there is very little steam technology. Instead, the Humans have adopted more shamanistic lifestyles, looking to nature spirits and magic to ease their lives. Due to its rugged terrain and many dangers, the Humans of Steinise are natural warriors. However, while the Great Eye's forces have been unable to strike against this territory successfully, the mutants of Necropolis have proven to be a serious problem, and local legends say that there may be an even greater evil than the mutants sleeping within the mountains.

Ternia:
The second largest region on the continent borders the entire length of the western border between Incultia and the Northwestern tip of the continent. Originally, Ternia stretched across most of the continent just as Utapa did, but over the years the technological developments made by the Utapans enabled them to force the Ternians back and claim their territories. Despite this, Ternia had the second largest regional populous, but with the awakening of the Great Eye and the emergence of Necropolis, Ternia finds itself in severe danger of being wiped out.


Unusual Races:
Zumbae: These hardened humanoids are very tribal by nature, either living in semi-nomadic tribes moving from village to village or fully sedentary cities consisting of anywhere from 50,000-250,000 Zumbae per city. The Zumbae usually tend to shy away from the other races out of distrust. They are highly shamanistic in their beliefs, communing with nature and calling upon it for aid in the form of basic natural magic. The most shocking traits about the Zumbai are their height, heavy musculature in the case of the males, skin tones ranging from bright greens to dark violets, tusks, two toed feet and three-fingered clawed hands. Although they use basic weapons such as clubs, spears, and bows, the use of their natural tusks and claws in combat is also common.