Humanity arived on kruorkahli just over 160 years ago, the great colony ships came to find new mineral resources to continue fighting one of their many wars of expansion in which they used newfound viral technologies to change their genetic material and create two major new warrior sub species, as well as increasing the longevity of a standard human maintaining peak fitness well into their seventies, before finally expiring at around 120 on average (this applies to all sub species aswell).
Homo sapiens pilotes are no greater in stature but they have faster reactions and can manage their minds a lot faster, think hyper and very very fastwith a blade and very quick to aim a high prescision weapon and take the cleverest shot quickest. they were used ad pilots and also as scouts on the battlefeild, in civillian society they became accountants and bankers, they have a very limeted sence of humour and are not very creative artisticly but still make very radical scientists.
homo sapiens Deamonis where not planned as pilots and scouts like their earlier cousins, they are bigger stronger and grow horns and spines on their bodies to terrify oponents, they are quick to anger, but also quick to understand who to be angry with, they can heal from wounds amazingly quickly (like a couple of days, not a couple of minutes that always pisses me off when i see it), and they have an odd kind of mentalaty that lets them forgive a lot and although they will feel bursts of blood rage they do not hold true grudges. all deamonis served as marines in the human navy, they have a ranking system that defines them as either officer or soldier.
kruorkahli was already widely inhabated by the Khali, a race of aliens that humanity has seen time and time again, their old empire spanned miles across the stars, but all of the khali that are now seen are tribal throwbacks to their ancient ancestors.
After turning the colony ships into the city of Ark the humans expanded into the tribal lands either exterminating or enslaving the khali, forcing them into jungles and deserts while farmlands and mines were captured and put into use building a new earth with the aim of helping humanity by sending back resources. but somewhere along the line humanity lost contact (only the admirals records show how the colony fleet lost contact and they are locked up in ark) with earth and so the admiral (the pureblood human in charge) planned instead to build up kruorkahli into a more standard colony, but with such a huge proportion of soldiers and sub species aboard it was bound to fail.
It was 30 years after the initial landing when the first mutiny occured. the marine general of the original fleet declared that the admiral was not fullfilling his duty to the empire so he seperated the deamonis and established his own capital in the ancient ruins of a Khali city, this sparked instant war, with the deamonis having the advantage wherever a close up fight occured, but lacking in the heavy artillery, air craft or tanks were required, as nearly all of these were used by pilotes or pureblood humans.
it looked like the deamonis would be wiped out until the pilotes rebelled due to the mistrust that the usually higher ranking pure bloods (glass ceiling etc) now treated everyone that wasnt pure human with. the sudden loss of the air fleet promted the pure blood high command to go crazy with paranoia. without warning they shot down every ship that was still in orbit, trapping everyone on kruorkahli. The pilotes retreated and a three way stalemate began. with all diplomatic relations completly severed (the emersairiesliterally retuning cut into peices) the three species fell into very seperate cultures.
unleashed from the chains that held them in pureblood service the deamonis devolved into a largly warrior like clan status, the officers that had been in charge before either had to become cheiftens or be eaten alive. their technology returned at a near modern age level, with their sheer size it was possible for them to use conventional weaponry scaled up to get a very high perfomance that can still best even the heavy weaponry used by purebloods or pilotes. their military often now uses large fast moving combustion engine driven motorcylesque light vehicles fitted with huge cannon that run length ways down the side, they are not at all afraid of the many acidents that occur as they have a natural knack for mechanics for when it all goes wrong, and even a broken femur or spine will heal within a week.
the pilotes quickly shed the milituristic heirarchy that was in place under pureblood rule, they drew up a highly beurochratic democratic constitution, it suited their backstabbing tendencies and vanity perfectly. their technology became fixated with light and crystals, they had moved high up into the mountains where the air was clearer and there were many crystals very near the surface in the rocks. they now have amazing crystal based laser weaponry as well as sonic based impulse cannons can can direct sound waves to blast bullets put of the sky. they fit both of these to either arm of large graceful mechs and walk into battle in what has become known as a "phalanx" formation, using the sonic cannon as sheilds co-ordinated to protect the group as a whole from all but the largest of ordinance, and their unique laster based weaponry to pick of choice targets, laughing as they spontaniously combust under a concentrated laser blast.
pureblood humanity has gone from paranoia to something else enteirly, racism and zenophobia are everywhere since the first wars, facism has very much taken hold. civillians and military alike are now forced into work and producing as many children as possible. genes are screened and the "impure" have the word tattoed on their forhead at the tender age of six days. for the descendant of an original colonist there is only a life of enforced labour along with POWs and kahli in a mine or a factory if they are declared impure, life is short and cheap, sex is completly banned any pregnant female is instantly killed when discovered, uprisings are common and very swiftly erradicated. For the racilly pure there are either entrance exams into the life of a military officer or there is life as a private soldier or hopefully a skilled worker, if they are still unemployed at 16 then they are declared impure. the pureblood military is huge and still expanding, but it is not well equiped. The rank and file soldier can hope for either a bolt action rifle or a hap hazard machine gun, these troops are thrown into battle alongside flame thrower armed elites to make sure that they are more scared of the state then they are of any enemy. massive tanks and countless lightly armoured apcs make up great convoys that the army travel in, and trench warefare is used to besiege the enemy before a war of attrition finally overwealms the enemy. all the soldiers wear "death masks" which is a steel human skull face plate, all the uniforms a black and soldiers call themselves the army of the damned. eletes and high ranking officers often wear tall black hoods making them look like a mixture between the ss and kkk.
a large set of labs was established to conduct further research into human and kahli genetics almost as soon as the city of ark was formed. situated in a marsh maybe a hundred miles away from the city walls it became home to many horror stories. something deffinatly different was created there, many new sub species where created there, using a new retro virus. very few of them were mentally stable, they were often sentient, and many were cleverer than humans, but their rage was uncontrollable. the labs had been kept sectret from the general populace due to the mistrust of genetic tampering. but now the lab has lost contact, the creatures inside are escaping, and infecting fresh victims. they are known as night crawlers and often form small hunting packs, they have never united before and so are only a fringe threat to the other races at the moment.
The kahli themselves are also a faction that will play a major part in the game, they are a lizard like race that has a total of ten multi purpose limbs and a long barbed tail, the six rear are normally used as legs, then the other four function as both legs and arms they normally stand in a centaur like pose with their body hinging at the third set of legs from the back. In their centaur like pose they are about five feet tall and their skinny bodies are roughly 15 feet long. they use javelins (tiped with explosives if available) and obsidian edges aztec styled close quarter weapons, or stolen guns. their society is fixated upon revenge and reclaiming their old lands, they hate and fear all the types of humans but commonly form loose alliances with nightcrawler hunter packs.
there are a lot of games that could be made with this new world, but the one i had in mind is a total war esque set up with a lot of rpg elements, you play as a low ranking officer in either the pureblood army, the pilotes the deamons or the first of the night crawler pack leaders to begin forcing other packs into subservience under his own with any real success. conversations are had and alliances or treaties formed in real time like many rpgs, with caracters running around a hub city encampment or super sized vehicle giving orders and talking to supiriors etc.
maps on terminals wrist based computors on paper or scratched into the sand can be used to manage the empire, give oders to armies that arnt with you or and to asess the enemies strength etc.
battles will take place in one of two ways, if the technology is available to you then you can order your troops from a computor in real time co-ordinating the battle, or you can get stuck in and fight in either first or third person, im not sure how i want the controls and gameplay to be yet.
you will pick from a starting character, which will be either a male or female of any of the human races or the kahli, and then given an outlining cutscene in which you will hear the your races highly biased version of the planets history since the arrival of humanity. you will be given an objective and be rewarded with a higher rank and more power over other characters in your faction, a larger amount of responsibilities regarding resource spending (minions do the management for you, there will be in house corruption based gameplay), more troops and a new objective based around a story that will see the different playable characters stories woven together later on. Im not giving away any more story wise (no it isnt all decided yet), possibally including romance, and definatly including space for alliances and having a major say in how your race and faction interacts with the other factions.
i know its trying to be a lot of games at once and i think it would seem a lot better if i could actually draw any of the characters.
I came up with this a while back listening to judas preist and iron maiden, the stories and the races are all based on various songs and i have spent quite a long time thinking through nearly all of it. like it?
