Skies of Earth [ISOT/Airship Admiral Quest]

The world had advanced so much in the five millennia of recorded history going from using stone to bronze, then to iron, and finally steel. The population of the world was on a steady rise and then an exponential rise during the industrial revolution. There were roughly one point five billion human beings on Earth by 1900 and that number would continue to rise. Economically, Europe was at the peak of its economic might and most of the world was under its control and influence. Yet, the mighty empires of Europe were headed towards a confrontation, one that would change the history of the world as they knew it. But this is not the story of how those mighty empires fought each other, this is a tale about the Skies of Earth.

Our story begins on the 1st of July of 1914, it is a day like any other and the people of Europe continue on with their lives. People get happy or sad, they celebrate and mourn. It is just a day until the skies of the world turn into a dark blue color, dark clouds begin to mass on the skies and lightning begins to strike the earth from the skies. This is not an isolated event as from New York to Beijing, the entire world is witness to this most strange meteorological phenomenon. One that will surely be written down in the annals of history due to its intensity and size.

The Greatest Storm as it is called by scientists in London cannot be explained and it won't be explained even as it subsides barely two days after it began. The people of Earth find themselves happy and certainly amazed by nature, many of them returned once more to their daily concerns until reports of strange sightings begin to appear. The strangest of which comes on the night of the 4th of June, telescopes in Europe, Asia, and America all see the same thing. The moon is changed, lights can be seen on the lunar surface, lights that had not been there but that's not even the beginning of it. Telescopes observe structures on the surface that extends for probably thousands of kilometers. There is no clear answer for the sudden change and the thousands of questions about the how or why. But humanity doesn't have the time to even answer the mysteries of the moon as sightings of strange airships are reported to the authorities all throughout the world, not only that, strange city-like structures are seen in places where there were none before and strange non-human beings are also sighted.

Without any way of knowing it and without a way to stop it, humanity has been thrown into a new era. An era of chaos, war, and mystery. You? You are an admiral not associated with any of Earth's nations, you do not command naval vessels either. You command airships and come from another world, thrown into this one by mysterious forces that you can't even comprehend. What do you know is that you must lead your crew to survive in this new world. But first, you must get to know your fleet.



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Hello, this quest is mostly an admiral quest with fleet management set on 1914 on Earth. Of course, this is not going to be a run of the mill 1914 Earth since this is a quest that's meant to be a rather strange mix of ideas and concepts that I have had over the years from aliens, demons, elves, and other weird stuff that will be seen as the quest advances. The major focus will be on the particular character leading the fleet and on the events that occur on this strange alternate earth. There will be (I think) three-character creation phases, the first is to set the tech level of the fleet and the background, the second is to build the fleet and the third is to build the admiral character.

Inspirations for this are Record of Garm's War, Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series, Salvation's War, Silence's SDs in Spacebattles, Lots of anime, anime airships, and lots of other crazy stuff that I can't remember.

Now as for the first phase! In this phase, you will pick a background for the admiral and his fleet, a technology level, and a setting to determine what kind of world the admiral came from. The background will impact the composition of the fleet in terms of vessel size, type and serve as different starts. Admiral is basically a standard start, the pirate is more a raider start, a mercenary is well combat-focused, and civilian more resource-focused. Technology will impact the capabilities of your vessels and the technologies that you have access to, generally, the more advanced the tech level the smaller your fleet will be due to point constraints. Finally, Setting is mostly for fluff and will help me build up some of the basics of the world that your fleet comes from.

Please vote in plan format, that's all!
Example Plan:
[X] Plan Pirate Pikachu
-[X] Pirate
-[X] Digital Age
-[X] Fantasy

Background: Pick 1

[X] Admiral: You were perhaps a proud admiral of your nation's air forces, either by merit or noble birth, you ascended through the ranks to your post. Perhaps, you are no longer in the world of your birth, however, you are still an admiral and still have the duty of keeping your men alive. Allows all vessels to be purchased at game start, your flagship has an expanded upgrade limit of 6.

[X] Pirate: Some may call you a scoundrel but you managed to avoid many navies, defeat forces larger than yours or avoid defeat, nonetheless, you still feasted on the plunder of your raids and laughed at your enemies. Your men follow you because they know you are competent and perhaps also ruthless. Bonuses to raids and bonus to morale, however, you can only purchase units of L size and below.

[X] Mercenary: Doing mercenary work in the skies wasn't always the easiest job, but it paid and with time you managed to form your own mercenary fleet. Can only purchase vessels of M size and below. All purchased units start with the veteran trait(which doesn't count to the upgrade limit) and extra rewards when dealing with earth nations.

[X] Civilian: Manage the trade company's fleet they said, it will be fun they said. Can only purchase S-size units and below, however, manufactories and cargo ships cost half at game start. Manufactories are not affected by the size limit purchase at game start.

Tech Level: This will determine the tech level of the vessels that your fleet has. Time periods are referential and other traits that you take may impact the performance and capabilities of your vessels. Overall, the more advanced the technology level the fewer points you will have available to use for building your air fleet. Similarly, technology will also impact the cultural facets of your crew. Pick 1

[X] Steam Age: (1776-1880) High-Pressure steam engines power up your vessels, most likely aided by other rare materials that make flight of such heavy vessels possible in the first place. Vessels of this era are often well armored but lack in firepower, more often than not, requiring long periods for combat to be fully over. A mixture of smoothbore and rifled breech loaded guns are used this timeframe, although, breech-loaders are yet to be perfected for naval guns. Communication between vessels is also limited to light and flag signals, as the wireless telegraph and the radio are yet to be invented. [x2 Build Points]

[X] Machine Age: (1880-1945) Development of combustion engines and refinements in technology led to the creation of the first battleships. Heavily armored, faster than their predecessors, and with far more firepower. This era also sees the arrival of lighter than air flight, planes begin to see mass use in civilian and military sectors. Radar and radio begin to be used to increase the capabilities of airship vessels, allowing for greater coordination for fleets. This era also sees the largest vessels in terms of size and weight. [x1 Build Points]

[X] Atom Age: (1946-1980) Vessel sizes shrink as jet-powered planes begin to dominate the skies. Developments in missile technology also create new problems for large airship vessels, naval defense systems are developed to counter the threat of the missile. Missile and plane carriers become the dominant airship vessel during this era. Nuclear missiles are also developed and begin to deploy to special launching units. [x0.5 Build Points]

[X] Digital Age: (1980-20XX) Advances in computation, stealth materials, deployment of early laser weaponry, and missile technology lead to a whole different way to do warfare. What previously took hours or days, now takes minutes. The concentration and coordination of firepower are at their peak and every second counts during a combat situation. Drones begin to replace pilots in some situations and airship vessels can unload enormous amounts of firepower very precisely and with ease. [x0.25 Build Points]

[X] Forgotten Age: (10XXXX-XXXXXX) The world has experienced too many cycles, civilization has risen and fallen as many times as a number of stars that have disappeared from the firmament. The past of the world is obscured and the technology that is currently used is just a mix and match of pieces of knowledge from that past that are no longer fully understood. Not even the wisest sage or a one-in-a-billion genius could ever hope to reconstruct the technological base of old, what the people know is that the machines built by previous civilizations still work and have within them an incredibly destructive power. Nobody can hope to unleash the full power of the ships you command and perhaps that's for the better. [x0.1 Build Points]

Setting: For fluff reasons. Pick 1

[X] Crapsack World: The place you came from is not a nice place, but it is certainly not hell at least not for now. Perhaps, you are even glad to be able to leave it behind. Be it, because of an apocalypse that happened, the world is under control of a very efficient and tyrannical empire because the environment is simply too damn bad for anything to prosper in that world or a combination of many things that make the world not such a good place to live in.

[X] Realistic: Your world followed overall the same historical leanings as ours, it is not horrible but it isn't a very happy place either. Only a few of humanity's constant problems have been solved if any at all and people can be extremely diverse in their beliefs and feelings.

[X] Fantasy: The world that you know is a bit different from ours, different rules apply and maybe there are gods that can be felt or seen intervening in the world many times.

Vote will finish after three days on 6/11 at 12:000 GMT-5