After The Fall (atf_mods) wrote in atf_ooc, @ 2009-03-17 18:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | world history, world info |
World Info Repost for General Reference
This is a repost of the information originally included with the expedition plot back in October. As the information is still accurate and is now relevant for many of them again as they're out in the real world we're reposting it here and linking for ease of reference. This is also a place where you are welcome to ask any questions you might have on general world history and mythology, as we have no delusions that we've exhaustively covered everything that anyone might possibly want to know about the world.
The X-Men as they existed in this world were much more low-key than in some other worlds. They still had their codenames and uniforms, but operated mostly as a school, stepping in only when the government asked them to. Their roster was as follows: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Angel, Iceman, Beast, Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Shadowcat, Rogue, Colossus, Gambit, Havok, and Cannonball.
There is very little that still connects them to the world. What is known is that even after the majority of the mutants migrated to Genosha, they remained in New York. Each of them has their own little section in the big mutant exhibit in NYC, but a lot of the information on them is incorrect. For example, it is believed that Cyclops literally only had one eye. Photos do exist.
For the world in general- clothing styles have changed but not to the point where it’s particularly shocking. The same for slang and language in general. Yes, this is us being lazy, but inventing new fashion trends and slang is more trouble than it’s worth when the point of the world isn’t to be futuristic, it’s just to be mutant free. Do feel free to be repulsed by ‘modern’ music, but the old standards are all still around and being played as well, and a lot more extensively than classical is today given how well recorded and preserved everything has been since the advent of digital technology. Transport has become cheaper, faster and more reliable. High speed rail is available on all continents and supersonic is the norm for air travel.
Homosexuality is no longer a significant cultural or religious taboo in most of the world, though there are likely still small pockets of bigotry in some backwaters, and homosexual couples are accorded all the same rights and privileges as their heterosexual counterparts. Polygamy, while not common, is legal within reason. Eighteen is the age of majority the world over for all intents and purposes - drinking, voting, driving, sex, etc.
The United Nations is now the world's primary governing body. Though countries do maintain independent governments they must be run within an internationally established framework and the U.N. can step in when and where necessary...much like the status of individual states within the United States. All currency and identification are uniform worldwide, though citizenship is still specific to the country of birth and carries certain rights and privileges.
Business and Personal Finance
Well, in order to not ruin this world's economy, it was decided that if the community was going to integrate, they were going to have to go legitimate. But, as anyone knows, the mansion has always been expensive to outfit and keep running. And with an indeterminate number of mutants to supply for (as the teleporters seem to have fits and starts every so often and deliver even more) the community was going to have to not only be financially stable, but completely self-supporting.
Business started out small, with Petra's precious gemstone and what was salvaged from Genosha's ruins early on. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the treasure room has been plundered. The money made from the sales was given to Jean-Paul and Warren as starter money for a private business. Our business started out in the jewel trade, but has since branched out.
No, he and JP have not done all the work. Doug has been involved, as have the techs and any other characters, in the leadership or not, who would have been able to contribute to setting up big business and false backgrounds and ids for everyone.
Now that we have a legitimate business that is dealing in real money, everyone has had false identities created that will hold up to scrutiny and background checks. Those identities are tied to private bank accounts. Yes, you all now have your own bank account. Money is funneled from the business into the mansion, and divvied up in a sort of allowance. You have significant personal funding, but please keep in mind that the money is coming in in weekly sums like a salary. There are only three 'black cards'. One is under Warren's name, one is under Jean-Paul's, and the last belongs to the Leadership under the school's official registration. Those cards are the only ones with clearance to make 'large' purchases, such as a tanker, a private jet, or a home. Individuals have enough funding to make 'smaller' purchases, such as a car, scuba gear, or motorcycle. You have money, but it is limited. Hoard it, enter the stock market, buy yourself a bike. It's yours to do with as you please, but please keep purchases realistic.
Jean-Paul is the Head of our company; he is the official CEO and the 'face' of our organization. Warren is his 'nephew' who is 'learning the family business' and he has clearance and authority to all levels of the organization. Some of your characters are on the payroll as consultants or technicians, or other such positions where they can function as ways to route the money back into the community. Please note: only characters who actually have relevant expertise and input labor into the company are on the payroll.
We are officially a rising international power in business. Thanks to everyone's hard work, we're more or less self sufficient now.
As per the game premise: there is still poverty, death and disease, deforestation and extinction, famine, war, and global warming. Humanity has managed to slow their progression, but has yet to fully correct these and other important issues which plague their world.
Some say the answers to the world's problems were lost with the last mutant. Most, however, have come to regard mutants as the quintessential mythic archetype, replacing the Greeks and Romans in the annals of history. Great heroes who may or may not have existed, with nothing but stories and the odd artifact to prove their existence.
According to lore, their homeland was the forbidden isle of Genosha. As the last supposed settlement of the mutant race, Genosha has been sealed by a unanimous edict of the United Nations. Its waters are patrolled by an international fleet year round to keep its secrets safe. However, the world's museums have had enough archaeological success in other reaches to have some record of the existence and brief history of mutants available to the public. Between these museum pieces and private collections, there is enough left of the mutant race to keep people both fascinated and skeptical.
The expeditionary teams will be finding some of the museum exhibits on mutants, feel free to improv within reason. Current knowledge of mutants is based loosely on historical fact, but it’s been drastically distorted with time and distance from the events and people in question, especially since mutants existed for such a very short time. Before their fall the mutant population maxed out at just over 16 million worldwide, though anthropologists actually estimate 10-12 million. Genosha, at its height, held around 10 million.
Museums displays will tell the story of a virus that wiped out the mutant population in barely five years. They had only been a scientifically acknowledged and documented phenomenon for 25 years when the virus first reared its head. It couldn’t be cured or contained and its rate of spread seemed to increase exponentially, but it took almost a year for the severity of the situation to be fully realized, at which point Genosha was quarantined.
According to legend, Genosha’s crown princess was trapped off the island when the quarantine was declared and her twin left to join her in defiance of it. Both were casualties of the disease. They were buried in secret and their resting place has never been discovered, though some say that their bodies were disinterred and returned to Genosha once the disease had run its course. Legend has it that their younger sister was one of the first casualties of the disease when it reached Genosha’s shores, her father tending to her with his own hands until she died in his arms. Within five years of the virus’s first documented case 70% of the world’s mutant population was dead and every survivor, including Genosha’s king, was depowered. Most of those who remained left Genosha and attempted to reintegrate into the human world and forget they’d ever been anything but ‘normal’. Eventually, Magneto was the last survivor left in the ruins of his former glory. He died alone.