Genesis Crisis: Resurgence Brainstorming

So here's the brainstorming thread for the GC follow-up rp. I'll start by dumping out all the ideas that have been circling in my head.

Character setup:

It's been two years since Aegis put down the revolution started by Legion and the High General's military dictatorship. Alina Grey is still High General, though she's instituted reforms to try to move some power away from the Grand Army into some civilian government bureaus and put checks and balances on everything. Jax is Chief of the Military Police, and the two are still together. Raidon is also in the capital heading up the Internal Affairs office Alina set up to make sure all government positions are kept in place. Kokonoe is still Head of Research and also leading the program for Strain Regulation where people found to have magic can opt out of joining the military by getting their magic silenced. She's also trying to juggle her nearly two year old baby Millie with her work.

Rise is still living the dream of being a singer and touring around, and she and James are now in a relationship for about a year.

As for Alex, he seems to have dropped off the radar...

I'll leave it to you guys who else shows up. James, Lisa, Keynes, Arya, Snow, and Lizzie are all potentially welcome. I expect (given their relationships) that James and Keynes will at least show up. And some new characters are welcome.

Story setup:

I wanted to start off with Alina and the new government dealing with the opposition and problems you'd expect trying to get the country back in order. Naturally, there's some resistance to the Strain Regulation Act addendums. One group thinks that people should be able to choose to have magic and not necessarily have it taken away, and that the bio bands are a relic of oppression. Then you have other lobbyists who think all magic should be silenced, as it caused most of the problems in the previous years.

Things start escalating when people with magic strains start undergoing violent transformations into monstrous forms.

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/c/c3/Pro-redcape.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20121103021116

The anti-strain lobbyists start pushing to get all magic silenced and start publicizing top secret documentation about Leviathan and the true nature of magic strains. Rallying public support, they try to force all magic users to resign office institute nation-wide silencing.

Spoilers are below if you want to remain surprised, although given that there's only three of us, I'd rather discuss all the details.

Spoiler:

That's what I've got so far.

I'll comment more deeply on the story ideas you pitched when I have a calm moment.

From my side, I will definitely bring back James. I might go back on the decision I made during the end of the story that he let go of his strain. If that's okay, I think it would be better if he still had it?

Also (though I don't know yet how much that would contribute) as a new character I was thinking James younger sister could show up. And with 'young' I don't want her to be 12, she would be mire like 18/19 years. I need to think about what to do with her.

Spoiler:

(I also don't mind if we discuss the spoilers openly)

I'll probably want Arya to make some cameo, but rather as a minor character. I still haven't decided on what she might've done with her life.

M'kay. :0

Hmm, I suppose you can go back and edit that out, although it would be kind of interesting to deal with the repercussions of "whoops, didn't think all the ramifications of this through." But yeah, go ahead if you want.

I didn't know James had a younger sister. :O That would be fine. The new character sounds promising as well.

That's fine. I prefer if the entire former cast doesn't come front and center. It would be nice to have a mix, and I think cameos would work for some of them.

Lol that's a good point. Maybe I will have James deal with that.

Cool. I'll give the rest a think when I'm on the plane today.

Especially if he realizes he's not as capable of defending Rise.

I think it would also be interesting to have the main cast not all agreeing on things. As someone who willingly got the procedure done, maybe he'd be more inclined to agree with the Anti-Strain group?

oh no whatever will he do XD

yeah, that would definitely bring on some needed discussions within the group and help further to define what they're acutally trying to accomplish.
And if they're low in fire power I can always have his sister spontaneously awaken her strain

maybe that is the better course of action

Well, you can take time to stew on it. :0

Btw, do you have the ooc page stored anywhere? I have all the IC pages, but I can't seem to find the front page of the ooc. It had all the world-building details and strain magic and character profiles. It would be nice to have handy.

no, sorry, I don't have that anywhere, but didn't you update the OOC here with all those details?

https://rpbastion.forumotion.com/t8-genesis-crisis-ooc

*facepalm*

I guess that would explain it...

I decided I will stay with the decision for James that I made at the end of the last RP. Firstly becuase I want to deal with the consequences and secondly because the action he took made total sense for his character. He will just have to find a new way to protect Rise m.m

That's all I could accomplish today XD

That's cool. I'm looking forward to seeing how he develops.

You know, we have to figure out who took the empty seats on the Praetorate. After all, Alina was removed from her place, Lecarde gave up his seat after the revolution, and Chastenay and Valkenheiyn were both killed.

me too

unrelated question: are there any new weapons or cool technological developments?

to your post above: will it have to be a completely new cast or do you want to involve any of the old characters? also do theyvall have to have a military background, or will the civilian government gain some power here?

Probably. :0 We will definitely be getting some from the Russia side. The new empire is a technocracy where scientists are the ruling class and technology rules over military strength.

They can be both old and new. Given everyone's diverging paths at the end of the last one, I expect most will probably be new, but I'm not opposed to some old faces if there's a workable reason for how they came to be there. Four Praetorate members will need to be military, one for each branch of Grand Army, but the new civilian boards will have representation on it as well now.

I feel like Jax should be on it, but I don't know how much you want to involve him in the actual story around the new Aegis group

and I feel like the rest will have to be new. I don't think Kokonoe would have time to be on it
If tou want to put Lecarde on it, I feel he would need to be in a civilian position.
Raidon doesn't feel like a good choice

and I don't see anyone else from the old cast in that position


As a new character I want someone on there with a lot of ambition, you know, a young guy eager to make a name for himself, maybe even easily influenced by power or the promise of glory... do you know what I mean?

About the story setup (finally got a chance to lookk at it)

I really like it, it makes a lot of sense.

I just feel like the story will mainly involve the Anti-Strain Lobby and the outcome might change their whole view on magic. So the other faction that wants free magic for all (paraphrasing here) will come quite short in their involvement or importance since the main 'conflict' will be between the military and the Anti-Strain Lobbyists. Or is there going to be a plan for them? I hipe you know what I mean

NoIn-LoKi wrote:

I feel like Jax should be on it, but I don't know how much you want to involve him in the actual story around the new Aegis group

and I feel like the rest will have to be new. I don't think Kokonoe would have time to be on it
If tou want to put Lecarde on it, I feel he would need to be in a civilian position.
Raidon doesn't feel like a good choice

and I don't see anyone else from the old cast in that position

As a new character I want someone on there with a lot of ambition, you know, a young guy eager to make a name for himself, maybe even easily influenced by power or the promise of glory... do you know what I mean?

As I was thinking about it, I decided the Praetorate should keep its original setup of four army commaders, but there will be a civilian counterpart called the Electorate which takes the governors of each district (roughly 8?). Then there will be a Grand Council which has the four Praetorate, four Electorate members, the head of Military Police (Jax), the head of the Internal Affairs (Raidon), and Alina herself. It's not really necessary to have every member of the Praetorate and Electorate named - only if they're going to play some significant role.

Kokonoe is head of research, but she has no political ambitions (or the time for it, as you say). Lecarde is running his orphanage setup, so I doubt he'd factor in.

That sounds intriguing. I'd also have the head of the anti-strain lobbylists as one of the electorates. I already have some ideas for her.

NoIn-LoKi wrote:

About the story setup (finally got a chance to lookk at it)

I really like it, it makes a lot of sense.

I just feel like the story will mainly involve the Anti-Strain Lobby and the outcome might change their whole view on magic. So the other faction that wants free magic for all (paraphrasing here) will come quite short in their involvement or importance since the main 'conflict' will be between the military and the Anti-Strain Lobbyists. Or is there going to be a plan for them? I hipe you know what I mean

Good. ^^

Yes. They're well-intentioned, but their actions will end up being very detrimental to the stability of the government. In the end, they'll have to work together with magic users to put an end to the threat.

As for the Free-Magic lobbylists, they're there mostly going to be the subject of anti-strain paranoia once people start panicking at the outbreaks. Some members might end up becoming important to the story, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

I've also been thinking about the Loyalists. I think I'll have their head be a young girl claiming to be former High General Adalia's daughter to rally support, but she'll be a puppet figurehead manipulated by defected army officers.

How are the Praetorate voices weighed against the Electorate voices when it comes to decision making? are they equal? if yes, I would cut the Electorate down to 4.

I like the idea of the Grand Council, especially the name XD

For the Old Loyalists, or rather the part with involvement from Russia, I think they could benefit from a defector. I have in mind a run-away magic user from the army that fled to Russia (though obviously not intentionally since no one knew it existed) and feeds them additional information. (though his knowledge might be too outdated?)

Okay, that clears up the role of the Free-magic faction quite well

When it comes to matters of the Grand Council, all voices are weighed equally.

Good.

Yes, we will need someone to link together the Old Loyalists and the Russia group (which really needs a name). If he left after Aegis stepped in and before the Old Loyalists reformed, s/he would make everything tie together. There were rumors that maybe something had survived past the sea (after the Flood, the water separated Europe from Asia and buried most of Asia under water), so s/he might have gone off in search of it.

I think it shoud be a he and yeah, leaving after the Aegis event would be better! Do you want him to have a slightly tragic reason to leave such as his comrades lesft him tondie and he fled after getting help or a more emotional reason such as that he couldn't deal with the things the army made him do anymore?

I'll keep my mind on thinking up a name fore the Russian group.
if you don't mind and if it fits the story I would like to create a character for a female russian agent that has been sent to Kaddath to inject strain users. In the end she may or may not have a change of heart about her actions.

If you want to make him, then whatever reason you want should work. :0

That's cool. I have a scientist guy in mind for the Russian side, though he would be more behind the scenes.

Cool : D I will

As soon as I'm back I shall present you with provisional character sheets for the Kaddathian traitor and the Russian agent m.m and then we can work out how and if they fit the story

Sounds good. ^^ I'll try to work up some of mine in the meantime.

Do you mind if I also make a provisional character sheet for what I have in mind for James' sister as an addition to Aegis? So we can see if we need her and if not we'll scrap her...