Intro
- Location
- Germany
It was the year 1859 anno Domini, the 6th October in the Julian calendar and Tsar Nicholas I was clinging on to life and rein even as his breath was getting slower and his royal blood was getting more and more replaced by alchemical toxins that his German court alchemist mixed for him. Meanwhile his Holiness the Patriarch had to travel to the Winter palace nearly every week because the Tsar was convinced that the Ghost of his mother was close by and was going to kill him just like she had his father. His Imperial Majesties fear of death (and his mother) was only matched by his fear of undead -not that any arcane scientists would ever dare something like that- and he wanted to be burned as quickly as possible, even going so far as to have one of his guards follow him with a flamethrower just for this purpose. How the poor man was able to wield such a heavy and unwieldy "weapon" was truly a question for the court scientist.
It was also the 14 Vendémiaire LXVIII after the introduction of the new "religious-free" calendar that the French Republic was using – as well as the surrounding countries that were still under the control of the revolutionary councils and bureaus that were holding on to control in the name of Paris. Consul Bonaparte, great-nephew of the legendary General and Consul that had helped to rescue the republic was the silent modernizer of the Republic, his patronage extending to promising soldiers and mechanists – making him one of the great minds behind the new mechanical army of the republic: life sized dolls as other called them – small generators ticking inside of them and harnessing electricity from their very surroundings to make them walk, talk, fire and reload a musket in record time. New harbors were created by mechanical workers and giant machines dug the tunnels and fieldwork that connected Paris with each of its territories and "brotherly" neighbour-republics.
On the other side of the Channel, the British were once more indulging in their island-mentally, patting their own backs as their red coated armies and auxiliaries worked each day to expand and hold the largest Empire in human history. Something that was greatly helped along by the help of the royal mages and their telepathic disciplines, that allowed nearly instantiations communication through the Empire and by this alone gave it an edge that nearly no other faction could match – even before the colonisation of Africa and Asia brought in a whole lot of new disciplines thanks to the shamanistic traditions in the new colonies. The downside of this – at least in the opinion of the London High Society- was their youths' fascination for shamanistic cults and rituals that was steadily establishing itself as a new sort of parallel culture to the prim and proper Victorian attitude of their parents. How this was going to go in the long run is still to be seen – but todays visitors to the capital of the Empire will have no choice but to listen to the drums of "the movement", in which the youth of poor and rich alike communicate with and through spirits.
In between those large powers the remaining German Principalities were a power that was often neglected and only officially aligned in Unity through the Holy Roman Empire under Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria, the Benign, whose policies might be labelled weak by some, but had lead the Empire of his house into a state of peace in which the interests of the different ethnicity were balanced against one another. But while the childless Ferdinand seemed gentle and harmless to the world, Austria – which had borne the brunt of the revolutionary wars and had French troops march through Vienna three times- was on its steady way back to a Great Power thanks to the works of his Nephew Franz Joseph and the two most prominent members of the haunting Court of Vienna: The Ghosts of Metternich and Schwarzenberg. While the latter two were often at odds and had their own respective factions in the haunting Court that advised the Emperor, their gathered intellect and experience were as sharp and deadly as the touch of a haunting noble and the only reason Italy hasn't been completely lost to the Danube monarchy.
But the Austrians weren't completely unopposed in their role in the Centre of Europe or even in their own Holy Roman Empire – which was neither roman, nor holy nor an Empire. "Liberated" from the French by the Prussian Armies and their huge number of alchemists, the norther principalities of Germany had slowly but steadily fallen under the sway of their bigger neighbour: Prussia. Famous for its discipline, its frugality and the extent to which it copied the French reforms to improve its own standing, the Kingdom of Prussia is stronger than ever before and more than enough of a match for Austria's armies and the French revolutionaries that are always eagerly looking at moments of weakness on the German side of the Rhine. With the end of the restrictive guilds, the number of alchemists in Prussia and the other North German territories as risen steadily – high enough to form their own military units at and after the end of the Revolutionary wars in 1823. They might not have the sheer power of a Russian witch, the durability of a French Clockwork soldier or the utter deadliness of an Austrian Ghost…. but to engage an alchemist in closer quarter is to be drowned, burned, poisoned and shot – at once. Their concoctions are able to heal wounds, to set enemies ablaze and to improve their own bodies to survive bullets and stabs for some minutes at least. That nearly everyone with only a hint of arcane energy in their body could become an alchemist is part of their new role in the Prussian military ranks. If you run into a solider in the Prussian blue and with a face-mask that covers his mouth, noses and eyes – in short, his whole face- on the battlefield: never close on them, always keep your distance and hope they don't have an eagle-eye potion.
As for the Ottoman Empire…their military might be unable to match those of the greater European Powers, but it was still holding on to its territories: not with an Iron grip, but with a womanly touch…and the sweet taste of poison. While the Elite of the Austrian intelligence service was not only transparent but also able to tear the mind of a person apart with their own spectral hands…the hands of an Ottoman intelligence agent were far better manicured and far softer to touch when she gives you a massage. Bathing Houses and Coffee Café's lines Europe into all directions and the special agents of the Sultan are present in all of them…as well as the houses of the nobles, officers and parliamentarians – either in the evening hours or in the afternoon when their wives want to be entertained with juicy stories and details of the things they should not know about. This strategy has kept the Ottomans are harmless but exotic neighbours…and their soft hands make sure that no other voices gain any sway in such matters.
It was also the 14 Vendémiaire LXVIII after the introduction of the new "religious-free" calendar that the French Republic was using – as well as the surrounding countries that were still under the control of the revolutionary councils and bureaus that were holding on to control in the name of Paris. Consul Bonaparte, great-nephew of the legendary General and Consul that had helped to rescue the republic was the silent modernizer of the Republic, his patronage extending to promising soldiers and mechanists – making him one of the great minds behind the new mechanical army of the republic: life sized dolls as other called them – small generators ticking inside of them and harnessing electricity from their very surroundings to make them walk, talk, fire and reload a musket in record time. New harbors were created by mechanical workers and giant machines dug the tunnels and fieldwork that connected Paris with each of its territories and "brotherly" neighbour-republics.
On the other side of the Channel, the British were once more indulging in their island-mentally, patting their own backs as their red coated armies and auxiliaries worked each day to expand and hold the largest Empire in human history. Something that was greatly helped along by the help of the royal mages and their telepathic disciplines, that allowed nearly instantiations communication through the Empire and by this alone gave it an edge that nearly no other faction could match – even before the colonisation of Africa and Asia brought in a whole lot of new disciplines thanks to the shamanistic traditions in the new colonies. The downside of this – at least in the opinion of the London High Society- was their youths' fascination for shamanistic cults and rituals that was steadily establishing itself as a new sort of parallel culture to the prim and proper Victorian attitude of their parents. How this was going to go in the long run is still to be seen – but todays visitors to the capital of the Empire will have no choice but to listen to the drums of "the movement", in which the youth of poor and rich alike communicate with and through spirits.
In between those large powers the remaining German Principalities were a power that was often neglected and only officially aligned in Unity through the Holy Roman Empire under Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria, the Benign, whose policies might be labelled weak by some, but had lead the Empire of his house into a state of peace in which the interests of the different ethnicity were balanced against one another. But while the childless Ferdinand seemed gentle and harmless to the world, Austria – which had borne the brunt of the revolutionary wars and had French troops march through Vienna three times- was on its steady way back to a Great Power thanks to the works of his Nephew Franz Joseph and the two most prominent members of the haunting Court of Vienna: The Ghosts of Metternich and Schwarzenberg. While the latter two were often at odds and had their own respective factions in the haunting Court that advised the Emperor, their gathered intellect and experience were as sharp and deadly as the touch of a haunting noble and the only reason Italy hasn't been completely lost to the Danube monarchy.
But the Austrians weren't completely unopposed in their role in the Centre of Europe or even in their own Holy Roman Empire – which was neither roman, nor holy nor an Empire. "Liberated" from the French by the Prussian Armies and their huge number of alchemists, the norther principalities of Germany had slowly but steadily fallen under the sway of their bigger neighbour: Prussia. Famous for its discipline, its frugality and the extent to which it copied the French reforms to improve its own standing, the Kingdom of Prussia is stronger than ever before and more than enough of a match for Austria's armies and the French revolutionaries that are always eagerly looking at moments of weakness on the German side of the Rhine. With the end of the restrictive guilds, the number of alchemists in Prussia and the other North German territories as risen steadily – high enough to form their own military units at and after the end of the Revolutionary wars in 1823. They might not have the sheer power of a Russian witch, the durability of a French Clockwork soldier or the utter deadliness of an Austrian Ghost…. but to engage an alchemist in closer quarter is to be drowned, burned, poisoned and shot – at once. Their concoctions are able to heal wounds, to set enemies ablaze and to improve their own bodies to survive bullets and stabs for some minutes at least. That nearly everyone with only a hint of arcane energy in their body could become an alchemist is part of their new role in the Prussian military ranks. If you run into a solider in the Prussian blue and with a face-mask that covers his mouth, noses and eyes – in short, his whole face- on the battlefield: never close on them, always keep your distance and hope they don't have an eagle-eye potion.
As for the Ottoman Empire…their military might be unable to match those of the greater European Powers, but it was still holding on to its territories: not with an Iron grip, but with a womanly touch…and the sweet taste of poison. While the Elite of the Austrian intelligence service was not only transparent but also able to tear the mind of a person apart with their own spectral hands…the hands of an Ottoman intelligence agent were far better manicured and far softer to touch when she gives you a massage. Bathing Houses and Coffee Café's lines Europe into all directions and the special agents of the Sultan are present in all of them…as well as the houses of the nobles, officers and parliamentarians – either in the evening hours or in the afternoon when their wives want to be entertained with juicy stories and details of the things they should not know about. This strategy has kept the Ottomans are harmless but exotic neighbours…and their soft hands make sure that no other voices gain any sway in such matters.
=}+{=
The situation you were in was peculiar, not that the droning of the experimental "airship" that was transporting you and your troops to the secretive location somewhere in the East of Russia. Sitting in your suite – luxuriously padded from all sides to at least lessen the noise, with a dark mahogany table holding an assortment of cigars and a small cabinet of precious spirits- you could only await for more information aside from this being an urgent mission under the personal attention of the Tsar himself. After multiple days of travel you mostly had enough from the accommodations around you and it was by the Grace of God that someone came to pick you up: one of the witches that were seemingly in command of the airship – or at least her coven was having the ear of the captain- gave you a bemused look as your door opened, giving you a view of the hallway leading towards the observation deck in the front of the airship. Most of them were strikingly beautiful and those that hadn't been like this at birth were made like that as soon as their aptitude for their coven had been proven: this one was wearing the green officer uniform with a straight infantry sabre and a pelt lined coat and fur hat that was quite surely not standard issue, just like the feathers that were playfully hanging on its side. Of course all that beauty was hard to appreciate with the nagging knowledge that most of these woman could not only burn a man with a wave of their hand, but were old enough to be most people's grandmothers even if they looked thirty at most. But most of the Coven had fought in the Seven-Years-War from what you had gathered so far and thus their veterans could look back at quite the illustrious career.
From your liaison you soon heard that you were closing in on the Aerodrome of Vilyuysk and when you arrived at the observation desk, you could see the river Vilyuk, its wide stream moving underneath you and parting just at the height of the town of Vilyuysk. This formed a small peninsular of some kind – one that was a hive of activity: you could see thousands of green clad soldiers moving all over it, cutting down forests spreading outwards from it and the beginning of field work appearing all around, while wooden palisades were pulled up. The slowly constructed fortress was connected over a bridge with the settlement, that seemed quite small and quaint from above and had only a few stone buildings. Downright tiny compared to the rows upon rows of tents that spread in all directions of the Peninsula: at least a Brigade of Infantry and a Cavalry Division had set up camp below you.
Even more curious were the number of witches cycling above the camp: air-covens that excelled at scouting and messenger services for the army – there must be dozens of them down there and magic was indeed weak. The number of people who had at least a tiny spark that was enough to become an alchemist was close to one in a thousand and the potential to become a witch like the woman before you was….rare to say at least, with the basic studies taking decades and the strongest witches being able to harness a chosen element, be it water, lightning, wind, earth or fire with enough concentration to turn into a one woman artillery piece, create fieldworks in a matter of minutes or to burn a field of man after hours of preparation before a battle. Still: why would you not get one or two, but nearly two dozen of them attached to your corps? It all came down to the question: What purposes would the First Expeditionary Corps have? Created on the orders of the Tsar himself it was pulled together from regiments of the whole Imperial Army and lead by officer's like you that had just as little knowledge about what was going on as you. One of the rumours had been that the corps would be send to Alaska to defend the further region of Russia against the British – something hardly to look forward to with the weeks it took for a Russian Messenger to reach the Tsar, while the same message would only take hours to reach London. But the troops were getting pulled together at Vilyuysk and not in the far East harbours. So what else could be going on?
The answer to the question came in the person of what was usually called "An Elder" – ancient looking and wizened: undoubtedly even older as she was one a witch, with white hair and just as milky eyes, together with a frail body, small and shrivelled by age. On a normal woman you would have guessed her age at a hundred, but this one must surely be thrice as old – not that many witches survived that long. But Elder Vasillia was here with her coven on the personal orders of Father Tsar, to inspect a set of ruins she was going to show all of you – ruins which might change history in favour of the Russian Empire. The extend of it became only visible when you entered the interior of the hastily constructed fortress and were greeted by a floor made up by a seemingly seamless and polished stone that stretched in all directions. The walls and buildings of the fort were build in a way that didn't cover even the smallest inch of this stone, as its whole surface was covered in the script of the Vodyanoy with their frog-like visages staring back up to you with wide weathered eyes. With the disbelieving eyes of the other officers on her, the Elder merely cackled as she greeted:
"..to the Gateway of Vilyuysk. The place at which the Vodyanov first touched the ground and water of our world more than four thousand years ago!"
"Once upon a time there was no magic on Earth or at least none of us would have been able to use them. Then the Vodyanov arrived."
The golden light was flowing outwards from the point the elder had touched, other officers and even some of the witches fearfully moving aside as the magical lightly brushed past them, underneath their boots and seemed to fill pictograms, pictures: a large frog like creature being illuminated with its large eyes seemingly staring right up at you as you were left standing on its belly.
"They are not human, instead they seem to share more with the frogs we know and thanks to dear Charles I'm also quite sure that they are no prior step of humanity on the ladder of evolution…instead they were foreign to this world and arrived from their old lands."
She pointed at another pictogram and before your eyes the golden light filled them out and you could see dozens of froglike creatures moving over a bridge…a bridge made out of golden light that was connecting two orbs….and one had a freighting accurate representation of the continents you knew on it, while the other was completely…foreign.
"The point of their arrival was here: right on the very stones we stand on. This is one point of a bridge connecting their old World with ours. A bridge that me and my daughters were able to awaken from its slumber, the magic of the rivers and water around us keeping it stable since ages…and now connecting it once more with the home the Vodyanov left behind because of some natural disaster that had threatened them."
Maybe it was your imagination but for a moment her eyes seemed to be filled with the same golden light that had flooded the ground below you, even the soldiers on the walls were staring at it in awe or saying their prayers as the Elder looked at you with a grin on her lips and said softly:
"And by the Orders of Tsar Nicholas the First, you and all your troops are ordered to cross this Bridge to take possession of the land, magic and artefacts on the other side for Russia, for the Honor of the Tsar and for the Glory of God. His Imperial Majesty is eager to read your reports of success in gaining new territories that not even the English can threaten with their telepaths."
=}+{=
You the Players:
You the Players:
Welcome to "Rising in the East - Redux" something only made possible because @Mina ended up inspiring me to start this again trough a mix of relentless compliments and nostalgia. I hope the intro has put you into the mood for the kind of world you are going to look forward to: You are going to take the roles of a cadre of Imperial Russian Officers, who have been tasked with nothing less than crossing a bridge through and Space…to claim the world on the other side in the name of the Tsar. You are going to field troops, specialists and science from a low fantasy/steampunk/beginning Dieselpunk world on a campaign that will take you into a more magic-enriched world to secure resources, room and subjects for the Tsar. Or as my sole Beta Reader said so eloquently:
So, what do you need to do, to join this game, if you haven't started running yet? Well for one: create your character, the officer you are going to be playing. At this point one might say that you are allowed to play female or male officers, but please keep in mind that things like playing a witch, Alchemist or Engineer might require a few certain choices in the character creation to work out. After you have finished that, you are welcome to create your own personal forces, either from the list of available units, which you can tweak or by creating your own – if you have any particular ideas or want to talk about it, you are welcome to poke me.
=}+{=
Currently – Accepted Players
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Waiting List
2.
3.
4.
5.
Waiting List
Last edited:
