Backstory
Redirect to:
This article contains content which is no longer in the Paradise Codebase, this page has been kept for archiving purposes.
This is the old lore page. See the new page at: Lore
While primarily used to describe the game world from an In-Character point of view, this page is also used partially for game design decisions and is therefore relatively important. Due to this now being the de facto lore, only specific users are allowed to edit any fluff pages.
Present Day
The current year is 2561 AD (As of February 2017), a few years after the decommissioning of the NSV Luna. This space station is one of NanoTrasen's newest research space stations.
It has been roughly 50 years since the beginning of the Orange Rush. NanoTrasen, BioTech Solutions, Einstein Engines Incorporated, and many other leading research corporations continue their struggle to research as many uses and profit as much from Plasma as possible. And now, where Humanity thought they had been alone, other races are appearing - some friendly like the Tajaran, others dangerous. It is a brave new world.
Space travel is common place. Rich civilians, colonial militaries and huge corporations all incorporate large fleets of various ships. Large freighter ships transport cargo from planet, to station to colony. Warships defend planets and trade lanes from harm. Pirates are uncommon but present (many of these join the Syndicate) and often use cheap, abandoned or stolen ships and equipment to raid transports. Space combat is usually composed of energy weapons due to the fact that projectiles would never cease travelling while energy projectiles faze out after a certain distance.
Space Law varies from region to region, planet to planet and station to station, as do punishments.
Credits are the currency of the universe. They are represented in a figure with either Cr or cR at the end. For example: 11,500Cr. Credits are entirely electrical and each person receives a payment into their personal accounts at the end of a working month.
Many planets have been colonized during humanity's rapid growth. Hospitable worlds are largely inhabited, while less liveable worlds are used as waste dumping grounds and industrial planets.
There is no such thing as a "radar" in space. The device used is called the Gravidar, or Gravdar. It is a 3 Dimensional, "minimap" if you will, view of a sector. All ships and stations are equipped with one. They show the locations of other ships, debris, stations and other things.
Most ships and stations have shields to protect them from hostile fire and collisions. Some shields are stronger than others. To measure this we use kJ, MJ and GJ.
Kilojoules are an individual shield unit. For example 10kJ. Megajoules are to the thousandth shield unit. So a shield with 200 MJ has 200,000kJ. Gigajoules are to the millionth shield unit. So 1GJ is 1,000,000kJ, or 1,000 MJ.
Your Shift
All rounds begin at 12:00pm station-time. This is the beginning of the shift and it is generally accepted that everyone who spawns at the beginning of the round knows each other from previous shifts aboard the station.
All employees live on the station. While personal dorms are not set it is usually accepted that whoever binds their ID to the personal locker owns the dorm it is in.
Meal times are not usually set and the chef feeds people as they come.
The ship is divided into five 'wings'. The port wing; containing arrivals, security checkpoint, vacant office and disposals. The starboard wing; containing the escape dock, Medbay, Science, R&D the chapel, botany, the cafeteria and others. The aft wing; containing engineering and atmospherics. The fore wing; containing security, the armoury, clown/mime office and the courtroom. Finally the central wing; containing the bridge, custodial closet, crew dorms, mining dock, cargo bay and EVA.
The directional terminology used is developed from nautical and architectural terms. North, east, south and west are also applied colloquially.
Other Characters
In regards to other peoples' characters, your character has no pre-existing relationship with anyone without the other player's consent. If you do not have the other players consent then you do not know their character from a previous round. Due to things like the station blowing up and people dying, inconsistencies can occur.
Major Organisations
NanoTrasen
NanoTrasen is the largest corporations in the galaxy. They own a large fleet of ships, multiple stations and posses businesses and factories on many colonies. They are primarily based in deep space, due to the lack of enforced government law, which allows them to perform otherwise illicit research without fear of reprimand. Their quick and brutal actions in the Orange Rush have given NanoTrasen somewhat of a head start in plasma research than their competitors, making them the target of much jealousy and - more importantly - enemies like the Syndicate.
The Syndicate
The Syndicate is a semi-secret conglomeration of groups opposed to the NanoTrasen corporation. Most NanoTrasen employees have heard of the syndicate and security personnel are familiar with them. The syndicate is made up of rival corporations, criminals and pirates, opposing politicians and many others.
Space Wizard Federation
The Space Wizards Federation is known to few people. NanoTrasen officials and ship captains know of them. They are neutral to NanoTrasen from a political view point but will happily infiltrate their stations and ships if something is needed from them.
Little is known about the SWF but they are all eccentric Humans with a knack for 'magic'. In the future magic is a loose term. It could by due to genetic mutations or highly advanced science. Either way the SWF will periodically send out agents to find and reclaim mystical artifacts and magical objects. From enchanted crowbars to ancient alien technology the SWF won't let lesser men posses any of it. The SWF is extremely dangerous and those who know of the Federation know not to mess with a wizard.
The Order of Nar'Sie
The Order of Nar'Sie an obscure and hidden order. Little is known about them, but due to their activities, few have not heard of their existance. Only those with extensive theological learning have any inkling as to their religion or methods, but NT brief all staff to report runes drawn in blood.
Their magic is based around blood runes, sacrifices and their ghostly constructs. They work to further the goals of Nar'Sie, and work to bring Him into our world.
Human Governments
There are many governments ruling humanity, the larger ones including the Federation of Sirius, the Milky Way Federation, and New Terra. At the beginning of the Space Age, humanity was a united nation called the Union of Humanity - however, this dissolved fairly quickly into the many nations of today.
Competing Corporations
NanoTrasen's main competitors include BioTech Solutions, Einstein Engines Inc, and many others. These corporations are just as large, powerful, technologically advanced and greedy as NanoTrasen, and equally paranoid. Like NanoTrasen, they are primarily based in deep space due to the lack of stable law and order, giving them free reign to do as they wish and remain on good terms with most governments. They are highly jealous of NanoTrasen's success in plasma research and continuously strive to one-up NT.
Locations
Humans come from a wide array of planets and colonies. The entire Sol system has been colonised, as has much of the outer lying systems and galaxies beyond.
Earth
Planetary Capital - Highlands. The home of the Human race, it has become a large poisonous ball of pollution and industrialism. Long, brutal wars have scarred it's surface and overpopulation has caused irreversible effects in the planet's atmosphere.
Luna
Lunar Capital - Kings Landing. Earth's moon has been colonized long ago, becoming a scenic home for the wealthiest members of human society and an ideal vacation spot.
Mars
Planetary Capital - Lowell City. Primarily an industrial and mining colony, Mars has been supplying the fleets of Earth with resources for years. Home to the illustrious Martian Institute of Technology, it is the industrial capital of Sol.
New Magnitka
Planetary Capital - Labourtown. A mining colony with a handful of NanoTrasen research facilities. Violent civil war in 2548 was forced to end 4 years later by NanoTrasen in order to protect its facilities.
Tau Ceti
A young, yellow G-class star system containing several colonized planets. It is considered to be on the edge of human-occupied space and is home to the NSS Exodus.
Epsilon Eridani
A young, K2 class orange star. This system has one of the largest plasma deposits, and is home to the NSS Cyberiad.
Epsilon Indi
A star system consisting of a K-type main-sequence star, ε Indi A, and two brown dwarfs, ε Indi Ba and ε Indi Bb, in a wide orbit around it. Indus Beta is the only inhabited planet in the system, containing a neglected human colony that freed itself from a brutal cyborg regime in 2546.
Other Life
It is a well established fact that we are not alone in the universe. Multiple alien species have been discovered by the human race. Some are friendly and well understood, while some are rarely seen and never caught, presumed dangerous and usually avoided. Due to the significant scientific breakthroughs with alien research most NanoTrasen crews have at least one Xenobiologist.
See Species and Languages for more information.
Religion
Over the years religion has come and gone. Some faiths have faded out entirely on one colony but remain strong on another. Due to this many religions have been founded. Some worship gods, others, technology. Atheism is perfectly acceptable and common. However, not all faiths are permitted by NanoTrasen.
Some religions include:
- Acolysm; the unifying of many major Earth religions.
- Technologism; the belief that robots and cyborgs are holy.
- Order of the Great Lady; the belief that the human race was gifted with the knowledge and ambition appropriate by a large, dragon-like alien who we now call Lady Elzra.
- Singulothism; the belief that black holes are gateways to an ultimate paradise, this religion was adopted by many space stations however is commonly mocked.
Plasma
When Plasma was new, it was hailed as the new Oil, relatively easy to extract, required almost no refining, and burnt like a Roman candle out of hell. Everyone wanted it, only one corporation could supply it fast enough, and eventually outbid all competition. Enter NanoTrasen. With plasma monopoly established, prices shot up and profits soared, despite increasing reports of its excessive toxicity and difficulty to contain the substance. The arcologies of Earth /needed/ energy. Any energy, to stem the inevitable collapse of society just a little longer, Plasma was a godsend. And NanoTrasen its prophet.
Most accidents of containment breaches or uncontrollable plasma fires were swept under the rug, much like how a addict will forgive his dealer for his character flaws. Falling apart even as he craves his next fix.
Super Matter
Super Matter is extracted from the cores of super plasma giants, at great expenditure of effort and material, by robotic armored probes, shielded and designed to withstand the intense pressure that solidifies Plasma into a stable almost inert but highly volatile form.
The super matter has a similar density to Neutronium and expels a massive amount of energy and gaseous plasma when properly processed. - Being super-dense, Zero Point Lasers are used to shave off plasma molecules from the crystal lattice matrix. These lasers can not interact with less dense matter in a significant fashion, such as organic tissues and are thus perfectly harmless. The Super Matter however is not.
Extensive and costly experimentation have determined that while stable at the near vacuous existence of hard vacuum or one standard earth atmosphere, super-matter begins to come unravelled when reaching pressure levels similar to its origins, - thus attributing to its expenditure in harvesting it. Heat further weakens the crystal matrix structure.
Should the matter come unravelled, it will do so extremely rapidly and explosively, ripping not only through the hardest alloys like wet tissues, but the very fabric of time itself, thus giving rise to the curious phenomena where one can in fact survive a Super Matter detonation by simply outrunning the explosive wave as it tears steel bulkhead to shreds. Slowly. It is still recommended to evacuate the site of such a explosion without delay.
Death
With the advancement of science, new ways of cheating death became available. No longer potential victims of fate or luck had to hold on to life to be saved but now could be called back even after death. While many religions found some of those ways unethical, economical profits and mankind's natural fear of death helped them become regularly and openly practised especially in environments where there was shortage of properly trained personnel, such as space colonies, stations or high-class star ships.
Cloning
Most controversial of them all, an idea stemming from the almost ancient past became improved upon to the extent allowing total recreation of organism from just a couple of samples, including general knowledge and skills of the subject at the moment of sample-harvesting. Additionally, newer models of DNA-restructurizing equipment became connected to some of ship's components providing general outline of the events happening in the timespan between a person's DNA backup and their original death, allowing for, for example, technical personnel to quickly return to work.
At the same time though, cloning is being looked down upon by some as there is no way for practitioners of most religions or otherwise spiritual people to make sure whether it's really the person - including the soul - who gets another chance to live or just a copy, completely different human being with memories, raising, experiences and skills stolen from the individual who already passed permanently (or, depending on belief, is on his way to be reborn traditional way).
Cyborgification
Common name given to the process of transplanting subject's brain into machine body. If done properly, patient becomes half-machine and so, such procedure is being undertaken only in case of emergency and/or with both patient's and his commanding officer's permission. Reason for that lies in trauma caused by existence in the shell so different from regular human body. Because mechanical bodies are created with practicality and efficiency in mind, they lack substitutes of many organs or glands and so, have limited possibilities of feeling - both by senses and feeling of emotions. Additionally, to prevent situations where traumatized - or even brought to the brink of insanity - cyborg would start wreaking havoc, all standard models have coded blockades in the form of Laws (typically hard coded into artificial intelligence personalities). Aside from that, cyborgs created for specific tasks in the same facilities usually share their own communication channels and are permanently connected and commanded by main computer and it's AI, although they still possess some degree of autonomous behaviour in case of lack of any watcher (even if it's greatly limited as by default those machines often are to be just extension of an AI construct). It should be noted that to cut on costs of deploying specialized cyborg models, general frame is first constructed and then outfitted for it's job. This way, no new cyborg model series has to be created for every work necessary.
Becoming a cyborg is usually undertaken by desperate people, strongly driven by their devotion to their work and corporation, or simply those who take the perspective of losing a large part of their own humanity lightly.
Research
Artificial Gravity
In early 2500, after several catastrophic losses of life caused by malfunctioning prototype gravity plates1, NanoTrasen stood at a minor crisis. Their entire fleet of ships and stations had been laid out with the decks parallel to the thrust provided, thus preventing the use of inertial gravity. With grav-plating proving unviable, and crews proving unwilling to work in zero-gravity2, a new solution had to be found. NanoTrasen approached this with a characteristically... Lateral.. Solution3.
NanoTrasen's fledgling Cloning Laboratory located the corpse of infamous 20th century reality bender MC Escher, and ordered him to find a solution. Applying his particular brand of insane genius, he was able to utilise inertial gravity in spite of the obvious physical difficulties. Despite some early psychological issues4, which resulted in the thruster units being sealed away from the crew to hide the issue, this solution worked wonderfully. Mr Escher - or a clone of him - is now happily working in the Blue Space Research Division, where he is very happy5.
1: See Incident Report 75-AXB-12H-FINEPASTE
2: Logged crew remarks include: "Oh Christ, the lab monkey's been sick again..." "GAAAH! Why do they not teach the difference between mass and weight at crate handling school?" and "Dear Christ pouring sulphuric acid in zero-g hurts!" The only positive evaluation was received from the Security division, who reported that with proper bracing it was now possible to knock a suspect the length of a primary hallway with a good baton swipe.
3: Cross-reference: Singularity Drive (destroyed); Crew Morale Program (abandoned following Clown Riots); Employment Pre-Screening Checks (still outsourced to Lucky 8 Ball).
4: Audio log: "CAPTAIN! Oh god!" "Remain calm, crewman, there's nothing to worry about.." "Captain, you just walked out of a light switch, and are now standing on the wall." "This closet is full of stars! Who BUILT this thing!"
5: Employee Happiness Measurement Accounting techniques not available at your pay grade - nevertheless, all employees are happy.Psionics
Since ancient times people believed in forces and phenomena not tied to the material plan of existence and different orders, cults or research institutes were exploring notions and possibilities connected to such beliefs. Over years many occult paths leading supposedly to the ascension or command over mystical forces unknown to grey masses were developed but only one, grounded the most in scientific background surfaced and had drawn interest of corporation executives. Psionics, allowing access to the great power through rigorous training - usually backed up (and in even more extreme cases, substituted with) high-level grade implants connected to the brain and nervous system - offered greatness to those who were determined, possessing proper mindset giving them necessary potential, bold and rich enough to try to claim it. While as a serious area of research with importance big enough to grant industrial uses, psionic is young and so - very crude, recent developments in high energy systems and DNA restructurization (mostly discovered by NanoTrasen mega-corporation) are like a promise for it's bright future.
Space Sleeping Disorder
Space Sleeping Disorder (SSD) is a common condition affecting about 50-60% of humanity. It is caused by the combination of a lack of day/night cycle on board spacecraft, the presence of the inky black void in all directions, and long hours. In these conditions, in some individuals, adenosine production is stunted, and the human body "forgets" to become tired and want to sleep. When SSD occurs, the person afflicted, after working for long periods, suddenly has the overwhelming desire to sleep. This is caused by the body realizing that it needs sleep and producing vast amounts of adenosine. Once they fall asleep, the sleep is intensely deep, and they cannot be roused. The person wakes up normally about 8-12 hours later.
A variant of SSD is known as Rapid Onset Space Sleeping Disorder (or ROSSD). This occurs frequently in those working on extremely long shifts with a lack of stimulation. In ROSSD, the body, instead of creating an intense sensation of tiredness, instantly falls into deep REM sleep. This usually happens during periods of no stress or stimulation, but occurrences of this during more "exciting" times have been reported. Due to its resemblance to the popular conception of narcolepsy, ROSSD is occasionally mislabelled as "space narcolepsy". A somewhat uncommon term for people who have this occur is that they have been "rossed". Some sufferers have mistakenly been declared "braindead", however, ROSSD causes no damage to the brain or body on its own, barring any external trauma from the sudden loss of control or the body hitting the ground. Once asleep, there is no fundamental difference between ROSSD-caused sleep and SSD-caused sleep.