Once upon a time, an ancient darkness (one both very old and sinisterly black) probed the universe with tendrils of evil. There was a great space war that broke the covenant of peace that once ruled the galaxy with fair difference to humans, tao, elves, and the other races that populated known space. The war was arduous and costly, and took sacrifices big and small. What began as a struggle of survival against a trans-dimensional evil became a civil war that lasted a millennium.
But one day Giantis Starblazer and a band of unlikely heroes rose above the in-fighting, reunited the races, and fought the ancient darkness to the edge of space. His daughter, through a great feat of space magic, locked away the evil with her own life force.
Starblazer emerged from the great battle victorious; no sentient being did not want to see him crowned the intergalactic president of a new peace pact. He was distraught at the loss of his daughter, and some say not even he could look into the face of evil without going insane. Rather than reform the old government, Giantis left the survivors of the Millennium War to rebuild their own ruins. And they couldn't.
It has been several decades since the end of the Millennium War. Peace is tentative at best. While few humans are alive today who remember the war, many longer-lived races still passionately hate or love because of it. While there's a desire to establish some form of governing body, there's no consensus on what form it should take. Some demand a totalitarian government, some demand socialism, many want to be left alone entirely.
What no one knows, though, is that Elisabeth Starblazer didn't die to destroy the ancient darkness. In fact, she didn't destroy it at all; it is coming back, and only she can stop it.

But she needs your help.

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"Space magic" ? "Ancient darkness" ? In case you're unsure, the answer is no, this is not a very serious story. But you did click on an RP which has a synopsis containing the words "Space princess" so you probably knew that.
The Recidivist Saint is a starliner, an inter-planetary transport for people and cargo. Serving aboard that ship is a motley crew of larger-than-life characters, tropes, stereotypes, and probably a ninja or a pirate. On board that ship, other than the conventional, nameless NPC passengers and their possessions, is the space princess herself, Elisabeth Starblazer, who needs to reunite the three gems of star power to prevent the ancient darkness from finishing the war it started a millennium ago.
Trying to prevent the Recidivist Saint from doing so is a rogue's gallery of enemies. Bandits, pirates, scavengers, opportunists, terrorists, commenists, and femanazis. And probably a crooked cop or Space Hitler or something.
The story starts as the Recidivist Saint comes under fire from the P.M.S. Missandrist, a large, weapon-covered spacecraft it has no hope of out-fighting. The crew must discover their special guest and decide to either help Ms. Starblazer or shoot her out the airlock.

There is no wrong character to play. In fact, you don't have to play a member of the RS's crew at all as long as you can explain how and why you're on it when the fighting starts. You can play a human, elf, dwarf, otyugh, sentient slime monster, kitsune, catperson, some kind of half-breed, or (almost) anything else; there is a lot of space. You can come from any kind of planet, profession, and backstory, whether it be serious or ridiculous.

Character Sheet It is not necessary to follow this format exactly; I know everyone likes to design their own. While I do require this information, how it is presented is not important.

Code: Select all

[b]Name[/b]
Species/Race
Gender
Age
Occupation (on the RS, otherwise "passenger")
Personality
History
Belongings

I don't require an arbitrarily long "like/dislike" list or a minimum length. The character sheet is intentionally short, but you may embellish as much as you wish. The technology level in this setting varies greatly between areas and between races; a literal millennium of war has spawned everything from deathcannons to cloning bays, but the RS is equipped with less than the Millennium Falcon.



While this is not a very serious story per se, I expect serious writing. The characters therein are not aware of how ridiculous the setting is, and while cynical characters might bemoan the silliness of "space magic" there will be no fourth wall breaking.



A bit more background:
A confederacy of races once formed what they thought was an unshatterable bond of peace and friendship that transcended all prejudice. Unfortunately, the begriefed people had no way to predict the coming of the pure evil that led to the Millennium War.
Remnants of that peace bond have (somehow) lasted the entire war, but they have been warped and misconstrued by conflict and changes in leadership. The two largest splinters came out of the same argument (the exact nature of which no one quite remembers), the Femanazis and the Commenists.

The Femanazis are led by the powerful (if a bit unsightly) Dictatrix Delvaux. She espouses equality, freedom from tyranny, is pro-choice, and has never had a boyfriend. Many lambaste as a hypocrite, who seeks to promote the station of her own isms while subjugating all who oppose her.

The Commenists are galactic fanboys, who can be easily identified by their bright, multi-colored uniforms and homophobia. They are directly opposed to the Femanazis, and seek to create a galaxy that can just chill-out for like five fucking minutes.

Both field navies of considerable size, though the Femanazis have a considerable advantage in both quality of manufacture and training. What the Commenists lack in a disciplined military, however, they make up for in their near-suicidal tactics. Many have learned to fear the sound of the dreaded airhorn that marks their approach.

The center planets had seen the worst of the fighting before the peace pact that proceeded the arrival of the darkness, during the darkness's reign, and in subsequent squabbles between the Commenists and the Femanazis. They're resource-tapped, war-torn ruins. A few astroids are inhabited by zillionaires who can afford artificial atmosphere generators but it's otherwise impossible to find signs of civilization without heading away from the galactic core. Fortunately, neither the Femanazis nor the Commenists have enough power to threaten many of the homeworlds that survived the darkness in the eastern half of the galaxy, meaning it's (relatively) one of the safest parts to inhabit. The further west you travel, the more prevalent crime becomes, especially near colonized planets that used the Millennium War to gain independence. Keep going west past the core and you are asking for trouble; if Femanazis and Commenists weren't bad enough, you'll eventually run into the Cult of Darkness.

The Cult of Darkness is the name for a loose assortment of the batshit insane who pray that when the darkness returns, it will bring eternal midnight to the galaxy, snuffing out every star and species that opposes it. A few of the better-known terrorist members of the Cult are thought to be hiding among the ruins of the core, where the two big factions have no interest in investigating and any bounty hunters realize it isn't worth the trip.

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I will keep a running list of approved species as new characters are submitted

Tao
The Tao is a synthetic species designed by an extinct race of peaceful engineers. Most species are distrusting of them; they were devastating in the Millennium War and have earned a reputation as merciless "murder-robos for hire" in the decades since. Their inorganic design, while it makes them very hard to put down permanently, is by no means bullet proof (well, technically, their metal plates are immune to very small arms fire). They can recycle the same power but do require recharge and lubricant to maintain optimum performance. It is difficult to fabricate replacement parts, so it is not unusual to see veterans of the MW with welded plates of sheet metal, hubcaps, or scrap to cover or replace parts lost in combat.
While the Tao are tirelessly and entirely capable of peacetime pursuits (like rebuilding the millions of homeworlds they've destroyed), they detest such trivial occupations.

Kobold
Kobolds are an improvisational scavenger race, known galaxy-wide as tricksters, gamblers, shysters, thieves, criminals, cowards, and worse. They are popular for manual labor and their unscrupulous morals by slave-takers and criminals. They are often slave-takers themselves, raiders, and bandits who attack only from ambush and with superior numbers.
Kobolds lay hatches of eggs. They rarely mate for their short lives, which hit adulthood at 8 and often ends near forty years. A kobold's cowardice almost always ensures it dies of old age, and a kobold's proclivity for trap-making ensures any other kind of death takes their killers with them.

Wrawlen
The Wrawlen are a human-like species from the planet Ravelon, a cold, barren, xenophobic, and isolationist world in the north-east of the galaxy. They grow more hair than the average human, as well as tails. They're a fierce, proud people who consider sojourners leaving home to be traitors.

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