Aetherpunk! (Steampunk, Alt History, LGBTQ Friendly)

[Crash]

Welcome to The City 1887.  San Francisco as had many names: Bay City, Paris of the West, The Golden City and the Gateway of the West. Today most if its citizens simply call it The City. The City is a towering mass of gothic, Victorian and Chinese architecture held aloft by ingenuity, innovation and aether. The city has survived the Gold and Aether Rush of 1849, the Civil War, the British Invasion of 1863, the Aether Wars and continues to prosper, even thrive in the shattered states of America.  Much has changed for the port city of the West in the past thirty years.  The population has increased ten-fold to nearly a million people if you don’t count visitors and refugees that flood our meandering streets daily.  The docks remain full of fishing vessels, but the skies are now filled with airships of all shapes and sizes and steam powered trollies chug up and down the multitiered streets.  The south section of the city is a world all its own. Chinatown.  Filled with the masses of Chinese laborers that came looking for gold, coolies that worked the rails and the Manchurian dynasts that fled their homeland Chinatown is as exotic as the Orient with its own rules and politics.  After the great quake of 1869 Chinatown integrated fully into the city and The City has become a mix of east and west and a culture unto itself.

The City is a bustling trade nation-state that has profited through its designation as a free port on the west coast.  While California became a state in 1850, San Francisco was able to remain independent do too much of the wealth already pouring into it.  It sided with the rest of Californian and the Union during the Civil War, but its mercantile nature allowed for business as usual when it came to trade and currency of the North and South were accepted readily in the markets of San Francisco. While the West was far behind the Chinese and the British in harnessing Aether and the resulting steam technological boom that it produced, San Francisco has made great strides in catching up and boasts some of the best airship factories in the world.

While the Civil War had been brewing for some time the British Invasion of 1863 took the Americas by surprise and while the North and South had all eyes turned towards each other, the British launched an unexpected invasion that battered the Union forces on the brink of victory.  Union forces were pushed out of their traditional stronghold in the Northeast and forced West.  Some of the Union forces were forced to ally with the Confederacy in the South when they were cut off from the northern states.  Ironically the south would have fallen if not for these soldiers. When confronted with a foreign invader they chose to stand side by side with their southern brethren and stall the British for a time on the southern front.

None of this would have mattered if Germany hadn’t chosen to attack British holdings in Europe in 1868.  England was forced to pull troops back to Europe to defend their territories leaving the British advance stalled along the Colorado State lines.  The Midwest was contested territory. A land dotted with homesteads and military encampments.  The Union held the West, England the Northeast and The Confederacy the South and all parties had agents in San Francisco where cloak and dagger activities reached a fevered pitch as the war has moved into the shadows.

This stalemate ended with the Aether Wars when a catastrophe known as the Aether Resonance destroyed much of the world as we know it.  The City is among the few that remained intact after the wars and it has grown. In the wake of the 1869 Earthquake The City rebuilt.  With the use of aether The City grew to heights unimaginable while refugees flooded its streets.  The rich found homes in towers rising above the aetheric fog that covers much of the city while the poor live in the grey shadows below.

Underneath its prosperous exterior, trouble brews. The City is a powder keg of class inequality, corporate warfare and Machiavellian politics.  Strange things appear in the haze and superstitions become real where aether is present in abundance and nowhere is it more abundant than in The City.

What is this game?

This is a Steampunk game!  It will has Dystopian and fantasy elements, but nothing over the top like wizards throwing fireballs or dragons.  It uses an alternate history of the United States and will combine Victorian and Chinese styling for the look and feel that I am going for.  Pulp and Noir will work in this setting too as both fantastic Steampunk machines and dark and gritty horror works well.  This game is a sandbox. The players will drive most of the story.  If your own plot takes you away from San Francisco for a time (Airship Captain), that is okay we can handle that too.  This game will be very much what you the players make of it.  This is a free form game.  I have pushed the time line from the last game up about 20 years so it is effectively being rebooted and you will not have to have an prior knowledge of characters or players to join.

What is Aether?


Aether is the fifth element, the thing that binds all other elements together. It often defies normal scientific conventions in all of its forms.  It is difficult to extract, but incredibly useful in any of its states.  As a gas it is remarkably stable and lighter than air making it perfect for airships.  As a liquid it burns slow and hot and is used to light many large cities.  Aether had not been found in its solid state yet, but liquid Aether is often used to infuse other elements altering their chemical make-up.  Aether infused coal has led to huge advancements in steam technology.  There are other less understood properties to Aether.  When aether saturates an area it can change local plants and wildlife creating wonderful and monstrous versions of existing animals. Often times these creatures are given names out of myth and legend such as chimera or vampire or ghoul. 

Spiritualism and Magic

Magic in this game combines things such as Victorian Spiritualism, Chinese Mysticism and Voodoo in a game.  I definitely like the slightly spooky and interesting aspects like mediums, aura reading, dark magic, Confucianism, Daoism, Chinese hells…etc…etc…  Lovecraftian horror I think fits well too in moderation.

What can I play?

Airship Captain, Aether Engineer, Smuggle, Ganster, Government Agent, Explorer, Runaway Slave, Prostitute Assassin, Street Urchin, Mad Scientis….anyone who would have a reason to be in a city of intrigue and adventure - Submit Characters to Crash and Karma

1. Only real people for Face Claims (We will consider highly realistic art portraits as well).  There will be some taken by GM's.

2. Magic may be in this game but it should not be flashy.  Aura Reading, Communing with Spirits, Taoist Alchemy, Curses and other ritualistic magic is the way to go here.

3. Take a look at the Character Sheet thread to see what face claims have already been taken.

~Rules and Regulations~


The following are the rules and regulations set for Aetherpunk. Please read these thoroughly and understand that by applying it is implied that you understand what you have read and commit to it. While we attempt to keep these rules stagnant throughout the course of the game, if something begins to pose a problem we will make a rule about it and enforce it.

Disclaimer : We reserve the right to add rules as necessary.

• Do not fight! If an altercation between players occurs, please bring the matter to myself or your residential Co-GM who will periodically patrol the thread for me when I cannot. We will be perfectly happy to sort out the discrepancy between the players and arrive to the most fair and just solution allowed.
• Do not God Mod another player's character! Due to the nature of the characters it is easy to accidentally cross into this territory. Please do not control their actions. YOU control YOUR character.
• Never, EVER do something to a player's character they do not like. Consult with the player before making a decision that you think might be a bother to them, even if they list it as okay in their Ons and Offs. Communication is paramount between players! Please use it.
• If someone has caused issues with you in the past in a game and you see them joining.  Please let me (Crash) know and I will inform them that the game is not for them and that I cannot accept their character.  I will not tell anyone who gave me this information.  I have encountered this problem running games before and I want all of my players to feel safe.
• Communication is important. If you are going to be gone longer than a day or two, please try to notify the GMs. We are very understanding about outside life – Trust me. I, myself, am a Full-Time Worker, Husband and Dad and I go to school part time. I am busy and sometimes it gets hectic. Everyone has lives. That is okay. But let us know so we're not missing you.
• You are not expected to post once a day. Post when you can.
• Players are responsible for not creating Paradoxes. Players are allowed to create multiple scenes for their characters at different times of the day or week simultaneously.  It is the players responsibility of they choose to do this to not create paradoxes by playing multiple scenes that occur at the same time.

We will have a Discord channel as well if people want to use it.  Assuming the game is a go.  It is not mandatory and all game updates will be announced in OOC.  If you are interested in joining us there you can PM me and I will add you after your character has been accepted.

Game Threads
Interest Thread
Character Sheets
World Building
OOC Thread
The Above
Below
Steam
Hell
The Haze
Private Thread
Residences

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3K2bKMjivU

Created and edited by consortium11

~World Building~

Table of Contents

Brief Timeline
The City
     Above
          The Council of Seven Chambers
          The Gate House
          The Palace of the Empress
     Below
          Xìngyùn lóng
          Market Street
          Union Square Cablecar Hub
     Steam
          Entertainment Row
          Path of Petals
     Hell
          Dante Street Cablecar Hub
          Chinese Six Companies Union Hall
     The haze, The Haze and Haze
          ZanziBar
     Cablecar Network
Aether
     Aether and Technology
          Transportation
          Lighting
          Automatons
          Electronics
          Prosthetics
          Genetics
     Aether and Magic
     Aether Resonance
Government
     The Council of Seven
     Police and Military
          The Police
          The Navy
     Crime and Corruption
          Piracy
          Criminal Organizations
               Gentlemen's Marque Social
          Drugs
               Aethersprite
               Ash
               Tabs
               Haze
Outside The City
Character Sheet

[Crash]

I will be adding to the world building from time to time as Outside the City needs to be posted and other areas can be expanded by the GM’s and player submitted content. You will be credited for any content you submit that is accepted.

[Karma]

[Crash]

Can always count on Karma.  🤣

If anyone has any questions please ask!

[Kuroneko]

Tentatively interested. I need to reread the world building thread ;-)

[Crash]

Tentatively interested. I need to reread the world building thread ;-)

Hope you like it!

[Karma]

~Madelyn “Maddy” Sakamoto~

Player: Karma
Concept: Jane of All Trades, Mistress of None
Trouble: Owes and is owed so many favors that free will is merely a memory
Gender: Female
Age: 22
Sexuality: Bisexual
On’s: Blood, sweat, and tears
Off’s: Aether addiction, hirsuteness

Appearance:
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5’6”

Distinguishing Features: In moments of extreme stress, Maddy’s eyes pulse yellow and she gains berserker strength, a telltale sign of an Aether-abusing parent.

Additional Description:
<Can be written or additional images as below>

Personality:
Maddy is a suspicious, skeptical person with deep-seated, multi-tiered abandonment and mommy issues. She is maybe overconfident about her skill level, having learned from the best but without enough experience to back it up. With poor role models at best, her emotional expression can vary wildly between stunted and a riot hose.

Background:
Madelyn Sakamoto was born to unstable parents in the most unstable city in an unstable world. Her mother, Theophania, was police captain in the famous but now-defunct Whipshot Corps, and for the first several years of Maddy’s life, didn’t want anyone to know that she existed. Maddy’s father, Momotaro Sakamoto, was a prestigious escort, and entirely unaware of her until she was a teenager. Theophania tried to raise Maddy, and met her basic needs, but was ill-equipped to handle the role while also performing her duties, and often chose the latter over the former. Absent a reliable parent, Maddy was forced to find her own way, and learned a thing or two about the real world along the way.

When Madelyn was twelve, her mother failed to return home for weeks. Worried that she might have finally gotten herself killed, Maddy went to the police to submit a missing persons report, as fruitless as such a pursuit was in that wild city. Within ten minutes of giving her description, a silver-haired, terrifying woman with piercing yellow eyes appeared from the floors above. The girl was frozen with fear, but the woman, who introduced herself as Rin Sakamoto, knelt and addressed her with surprising sensitivity. Her mother was not dead or even hurt, she was told. She was simply gone, on some quest all her own. “You can come live with me for a while,” the demonic, but strangely compelling woman said. “Call me Aunt Rin.” Rin really was her aunt, Maddy soon discovered. Her father was a high profile prostitute and, it turned out, Rin’s brother. He was utterly uninterested in taking her in, given the nature of his work, and so Maddy’s life with the utterly insane Major Sakamoto began.

A smart and resourceful girl, Maddy was a quick learner, and over the next four years took in all she could from Hurricane Rin. As Maddy matured, Rin seemed to be unraveling. Whether due to her job, her aether addiction, or something else entirely, Maddy could never be sure. It was like the two of them were sat upon scales, and as Maddy grew more skilled and competent, Rin became more unstable. She did her best to be a parent, but like everyone else in Maddy’s life so far, was not well-equipped for the realities of it. For an agent of the law, Rin taught Maddy a wide array of quite illegal skills and techniques. Lockpicking, hand-to-hand, where best to stick a knife, intimidation; Rin knew it all. But the most important lesson Maddy learned from her was something she had always suspected: Never rely on anyone but yourself.

Rin’s Whipshot Corps finally disintegrated the year Maddy turned eighteen. The Corps had been under fire for years for corruption, brutality, treason, and aether knew what else. Rin lost control of it at last and in turn lost control of herself. The constant abuse of high-grade aether had ravaged her, body and mind. “I’m getting the fuck out of here before I drag you down with me, kid,” she had said.

And just like that, Maddy was alone again. But she was not without skill or without contacts. Tagging along with Rin in the field had provided Maddy with enough to start a network of her own. In a city like this, there were always jobs for a pretty girl with clever hands. Those jobs weren’t always nice, but a girl’s gotta eat, right?

Possessions of Note:

Maddy’s katana, 華恵の絶望 "Hanae no Zetsubou", inherited from Rin

[Dhi]

The city has grown, that's cool.

I notice the examples of magic have an outlier. Are golems too much? Have there been other examples among the cast?

[Karma]

DHI! <3

Golems are in!

[Crash]

The city has grown, that's cool.

I notice the examples of magic have an outlier. Are golems too much? Have there been other examples among the cast?

Golems are totally reasonable magic in the game and no there are no characters currently submitted that have them.

[Dhi]

Hi Karma! You guys have been busy, this looks great.

[keyotess]

Hey Crash and Karma, is there room/way for someone to have the innate ability/magic ability of Dowsing?  She would be called the Finder.

[Karma]

I will let Crash take that one, since he's the ultimate loremaster!

[Crash]

Hey Crash and Karma, is there room/way for someone to have the innate ability/magic ability of Dowsing?  She would be called the Finder.

I don’t see why not, though I am curious what The Finder is dowsing for in the city. 

[Crash]

Hi Karma! You guys have been busy, this looks great.

Thanks!  I have more to add too.  I think I need to detail the timeline a bit more and add a section on the Aether Resonance and how it has changed things.  World building is never done!

[keyotess]

I don’t see why not, though I am curious what The Finder is dowsing for in the city.

Anything that someone has lost.  She would avoid the upper levels for fear of being put into a gilt cage.  She would work through word of mouth.  She is based off the main character of a book called Finder written by Emma Bull.

[Karma]

That sounds really cool!

[Crash]

Anything that someone has lost.  She would avoid the upper levels for fear of being put into a gilt cage.  She would work through word of mouth.  She is based off the main character of a book called Finder written by Emma Bull.

Sounds good to me.

[keyotess]

Kewl, I will make up a character sheet soon.  This is a character concept I have been interested in playing for a while and this world sounds like a world that she would fit in. :)

[ElvenKitten]

*Peeks* Hiii!

[Karma]

Hello!

[Levi]

You had me at steampunk!

[Karma]

Welcome!

[Crash]

Hello all.  Glad to see the interest!  I will continue to add to lore and review any submitted characters today.

[keyotess]

Gonna get my Face claim in quickly:  Kate "Kato" Lambert.