We have advanced beyond the age of politics and economics. In the world today, there are no nations or governments. This is truly a new world, one based on reason, science, and self interest. Never before have individuals known such freedom.
However, the past is not so distant. Humanity could easily be seduced by laziness, mediocrity, altruism, and collectivism in general. So, like the myth of the metals, we have our own myths.
We have our own religion. It keeps the order. It preserves this nearly perfect world.
Bambi Engel is the character of the month. Bambi works for Global Bank, as an accountant, but is often busy with other projects given to her by Annette Rosenthal. She works hard and tries to prove herself as a capable member of Global Bank. Her biggest challenges are working for the her grumpy, perfectionist boss, Annette Rosenthal, and, trying to figure out Peter "Levitas" Barack. The person who plays this character does an excellent job writing long, well thought out posts and has been a member since the Red Infinity RPG. Good job!
Joined: May 2008 Posts: 924 Location: Helsinki Karma: 8
Time Line « Thread Started on May 24, 2009, 8:41am »
This is the time line for the Manalist religion. Remember, most people in the world don't know history and even high ranking, powerful people probably aren't aware of this complete history.
Most people are uneducated and miseducated, so, this information is not common knowledge.
Time Line
1400s CE –Italy- The first hint of Manalism occurs in a group of men who are interested in alchemy, the occult, magic, and nature. The group is formed in secret and calls itself The Guild of Masters. The Guild of Masters dedicates itself to understanding the world beyond science. It is composed entirely of eccentric young men from merchant and upper class families. The first Guild forms in Florence, then another forms in Venice.
1500s CE- Denmark- Denmark develops its own Guild of Masters. The Guild of Masters, like the one in Italy, consists of middle class, young men.
1600s CE England/France/Spain/Portugal- These countries develop their own groups based off the Guild of Masters, but are now called The Order of Masters. It is exclusive to white, land owning males. Italian and Dutch groups lose importance and change their name to the Order of Masters. The group maintains its secrecy and becomes more interested in sciences like astronomy, chemistry, and anatomy.
1700s CE- The North American colonies develop their own Order of Masters, which like the groups in Europe, are exclusive to white, property owning males. The group becomes increasingly less interested in magic and instead meets to conduct scientific experiments or to discuss politics.
Late 1700s- Nathaniel Hargraves of Vermont discovers a strange red crystal which seems to glow. He shows it to the local Order of Masters, who cannot identify it, but pay him for it. They keep the stone. This is the first recorded discovery of a Manala crystal.
The American Order of Masters decides to invent some myths about their group, for the fun of it, but also as a way to mock organized religion. They say that they worship a fictional god named Father Manala. They also invent some myths around Father Manala and write the first book of Manala. Their goal is to poke fun at religion.
The organization is no longer concerned with magic and the supernatural and mostly concerned with society, economics, and poking fun at religion.
1800s- The Order of Masters becomes very popular in England and the United States, and many young men secretly join the organization. The organization is pro slavery, anti religion, pro colonization, anti worker, and pro business in general.
The group sometimes beats up labor organizers and activists.
It maintains some of its myths, but these are mostly just a joke.
1900s- The Order of Masters continues to be anti feminist, anti taxes, pro private property, anti religion, and against various movements. It becomes slightly less popular as many people are drawn to the left or to religious organizations. It nearly disappears by 1960.
1920- The Order of Masters allows the first female member, a banker’s daughter named Iris Rosenthal.
1960s- The Order of Masters allows its first minority members and reverses a position against homosexuality.
Mid 2000s: the war on terrorism, global warming, and the end of oil reserves cause a major conflict in the world. There are major wars and terrorist attacks. There is a major religious conflict in the United States that starts a nuclear disaster that impacts the United States and neighboring countries.
2100- The world nearly enters a dark age when a crystal is discovered in a Vermont attic. It is the crystal long ago found by Nathaniel Hargrave. At this time, there are only a few members of the Order of Masters. They realize that this crystal is a potential fuel. One of the members of this group is Cato Crest- an older brother of Calithin and Capricious.
The Order of Masters re-emerges as liberators with a new solution. They rename themselves the Manalists, after the Manala crystal as they call them.
The Manalists find many supporters with their wonder crystal, which sparks a new Industrial revolution based on the crystal economy. The Manalists draw on the old myths of the Order/Guild of Masters to invent their own religion. The religion takes off, as people are desperate to believe anything.
It is during this time that the companies Genetech, Sota, Intelligent Design, and Crest Mining are formed. Other companies are soon developed. Many of these companies were founded by the last few members of the Order of Masters.
The Current Calendar
1 M- The year that the Manalists take control of Rome and begin to outlaw all religions. By studying texts left behind by the Order of Masters, the Manalists learn to use an energy they call Manala energy. They restrict the use of the energy to priests or established members of the Manalist religion.
It is also the year that the Economic Council is formed to unite the new companies that now own major portions of the world.
The government council is also formed at this time, representing the politicians of former governments. It is a weak organization that offers only an advisory role to the Economic Council.
The First Master- Jethro The Watcher- becomes the leader of the new religion.
3M- Jethro is challenged by another priest, who wants to become the Master. This is a man named Layde, who defeats Jethro in battle. Jethro steps down as the Master.
Layde becomes the new master and remains Master until many years later.
The Economic Council members support the Manalists in their holy war against all other religions.
1M-30M
For about 30 years, the world is engaged in war and terrorism as the Manalists spread their religion forcefully. The first religion to be eradicated is Islam, followed by Christianity.
15 M- Jumala Keitoleinen takes control of a Finnish company known as Sota.
15 M- Jumala Keitoleinen meets with Master Layde and establishes that he is Father Manala, for he long ago killed the other gods.
20 M- Sota begins its first major project, a machine called THE DREAMER which is an enormous mind controlling machine burried under Rome.
25 M- Genetech creates Red Leaf by accident while trying to develop a birch tree that is resistant to the crimson birch beetle. They identify the drug quality of red leaf and decide they can make a lot of money off of it. They sell the rights to use the drug to the Manalists, who adopt it as a ceremonial drug to promote its use.
25 M- The Dreamer is activated.
26 M The Anti Drug Commission is formed to end the use of drugs, other than red leaf. It mostly consists of people from Genetech who are interested in promoting their drug monopoly of red leaf.
26 M- Genetech starts experiments with some blood samples stolen from Artz Lehrer- test subject- Surma Keitoleinen. Based on the blood, they are able to create their advanced human soldiers. All of the soldiers have white hair and the ability to learn Manala energy more quickly than the average human.
28 M- The Manalists are finally ready for war with Israel after their long crusade against Islam and Christianity. The final genocide against the world’s Jewish populations begins. Until then, they were not the focus of persecution.
30 M- Genetech creates Scrag, a Ruwai based on the red leaf plant.
30 M- Master Layde dies, presumably of natural causes
30M- Scrag and others, including Charon, travel to fight the Russian forest demon Leshy, to decide who will be the next Master. Scrag wins the fight, but as a result of the fight, the Gray Zone is formed. Scrag becomes the Master.
31M The gray zone is first noticed and identified as something that is growing and destroying Russia.
35 M- Sota creates a second dreamer under Rome. The two dreamers can be activated at any time to alter the minds and the experience of reality for everyone on Earth. The second Dreamer is a backup in case the first is destroyed.
38 M- The 10 Years War Ends and Israel falls under the control of the Manalists, who convert religious sites to Manalist structures.
39 M- The Manalists try to invade Afghanistan, only to be defeated by Leilah Kaihaan in the first opium war.
40 M- Cato Crest, the founder of Crest Mining, dies under mysterious circumstances. His younger brother Calithin gains control of the company and Capricious Crest helps with company operations in Africa.
40-45 M China is the last country in the world to hold off against the Manalists. There is rebellion in China against the communist government, which is run by Li Violette. Li puts the rebellion down violently. This causes her to lose popularity in her country. However, other members of the Politburo are not pleased with Li and her hard lined Communist beliefs. They put her under house arrest and appoint a new party secretary. Li is angered by this and plays the victim. She is able to rally support against the government, which starts a rebellion, even though she had put down a rebellion just a year before. She joins the rebellion and says she is for a “better communism.” However, the rebellion is nearly crushed by the Chinese military. The Manalists offer to help Li against the Chinese military. She accepts their help and the rebellion is victorious. However, the Manalists turn on her and inform her that China is now their property. To avoid further problems with the Chinese, they appoint her to be Speaker of the Manalists. Her first speech is to announce that China was no longer a country and was now part of the Economic Council and the Manalists.
43 M- Ariel Tal Shachar becomes the new Moderator for the Economic Council.
45 M- Li Violette becomes the Speaker for the Economic Council and the Manalists. This is a new position invented to appease the people of China.
45 M- Li Violette founds a secret communist organization called Red Infinity, with the hope that it can someday rebel against the Manalists.
47 M- There is a small uprising in Eastern Europe in the former Yugoslavia, to rebel against the Manalists. The rebellion is quickly put down by the Manalists, but results in a few months of chaos and ethnic violence there.
50M- Genetech, the Manalists, and the Anti Drug Commission fight an Opium war against Leilah Kaihaan. They suffer losses and find that fighting in Afghanistan is too difficult. They call a truce.
50 M- the third Dreamer is completed and buried under Moscow. This is another auxilary dreamer for the failure of the first two. Each is powered by a certain type of Ruwai plant person.
50 M- The Year of the Blessed- this is a celebration year since essentially, all former countries and religions have been subdued by the Manalists.
55M The Current Year in the game:
A new Gray zone has appeared in Canada
The Economic Council approved a new monitoring system called the Eyes of God.
A new prison has opened in Rome called the Temple of Terror.
Joined: May 2008 Posts: 924 Location: Helsinki Karma: 8
Re: Time Line « Reply #1 on May 25, 2009, 9:13am »
In case anyone wants to create a character from the future, here is one version of how the future happens.
The Future Timeline as experienced by Heikki Toivonen (or other characters that could potentially be from the future)
56 M- A Finnish businessman named Valkoinen Joki develops a machine that can create artificial Manala crystals that essentially work the same, but are white instead of red. The machine is called Sampo, which can turn organic matter into Manala Crystals. He keeps this machine a secret since he knows that if it becomes known, Crest Mining would immediately go to war with him for control of it, as well as any other company in the world. Valkoinen Joki joins Red Infinity and helps Li Violette by supplying her with cheap, artificial Manala crystals. His small business is also called Sampo. Officially his company exists to search for alternate fuels.
57 M Momo Kurokawa’s company Intelligent Design attacks Genetech and Dublin. After a short but destructive battle in Dublin, the head of Genetech (he became head after his parents die) surrenders. Employees of Genetech are furious that the teen gave up the company so easily. The companies merge into Genetech-Intelligent Design…or GD for short. Aside from a name change and the fact that it is now controlled by Momo , little changes concerning the company. The scientists continue working and the genetics aspects of the company remains in Ireland and mostly overseen by Irish supervisors.
60 M- New Objective- the company that created the Teleportation booth, markets its first “Time Booth” for private use. The booth allows for time travel, but is much too expensive for public use. It is dangerous to use and only three are constructed.
68 M GD- or Genetech/Intelligent Design, goes to war with New Objective. The war takes place in Australia and results in GD’s victory. GD takes over the company and now is by far the largest economic entity in the world…a mega corporation controlling the production of machines, genetic creations, teleportation booths, and time machines. The new company is called Genetech Objective Designs, or simply, GOD.
70 M Sota and Crest Mining merge into one company so they can better compete with GOD. Since GOD requires Manala crystals to fuel their machines and teleportation booths, GOD does not go to war against Crest-Sota. Both sides prepare for war.
71 M- Despite their need for Manala crystals to fuel the war, GOD goes to war with Crest Sota, in the most intense fighting seen yet. Allmart joins the side of Crest Sota along with many smaller companies. Fighting takes place mainly in Europe.
75 M- After several years of war between the two companies, neither side seems able to win. Red Infinity finally steps into the picture and unveils the new fuel created by Valkoinen Joki’s Sampo. His cheap, artificial crystals cause alarm with Crest-Sota, which attempts to go to war with Sampo. GOD also tries to go to war with Sampo. Both companies stop fighting each other for control of Sampo, so that they can control the artificial crystal production.
The people of the world, with direction from Red Infinity and other rebel groups (but mainly Red Infinity) start a revolution against the Manalists and the corporations. They are tired of war and finally feel confident enough to fight against the Manalists and economic council.
76 M- GOD finally unleashes its final, most ambitious project, something it had been working on for over 30 years. It unleashes the Gods, that is immortal beings that it created who have god like powers.
The first three gods are Akka- a creation/love goddess Loviatar- the goddess of pain and Tursas the God of War
The gods were named after Finnish gods since the project was started by Dr. Hoito, a scientist from Finland.
The gods are also unaware that they were created by the company called GOD. They believe themselves to be immortal beings from another realm.
The gods are unleashed against the rebel movement and against Crest Sota.
Keitoleinen begins the battle against the three gods, though Akka later decides to stay out of the battle.
77 M A new batch of gods are created to try to subdue the rebels and win the war against Crest Sota.
The new gods that were created include Vedenemo a water goddess, Touni- another Finnish death god, Mielikki, Tapio, and several other gods.
78 M Some of the gods turn on GOD and have their own agenda. Believing they are truly gods, they refuse to do the will of the company, however, they war with themselves.
78 M The final gods are created by GOD in a last ditch effort. These goes are created to kill the gods that are now no longer under GOD’s control. These gods turn out to be Surma, Kalma, Keitoleinen, and Ukko.
Keitoleinen, Kalma, Surma, and Ukko (of that timeline) believe that they have been cloned by the company. They fight their clones, then fight the other gods. By defeating their “clone” selves, they become more powerful and kill off a few more of the gods.
Some of the remaining gods use a GOD timemachine to travel to the past, to escape being destroyed by Kalma, Surma, Ukko, and Keitoleinen. The four of them follow after the other gods, to complete their battle in the past.
No one sees the gods again. (They continue to fight in the past and eventually, Keitoleinen is victorious. Kalma, Surma and Ukko fear his power and turn on Keitoleinen. They are defeated. Keitoleinen is however stuck in the past. (So, you see, when Keitoleinen mentions that he killed the other gods, this is true, but he is not aware that the gods were created by GOD and that his battle in the past was actually just a continuation of a battle in the future…)
(Kalma, Keitoleinen, Ukko, and Surma did not realize that they were not fighting clones but that they were actually created by GOD like every other god, and that they simply lived to see their own creation…)
79 M- After the gods are gone, the world is still in chaos as Red Infinity and other rebels continue to fight the Manalists, and in general, there is still a huge war for control of Sampo.
Kaschei finally decides to make his move. With the gods gone, he decides to call himself a god! After declaring himself a god, he takes control of Sampo himself.
There is a final battle of various forces against Kaschei. Kaschei is killed, which instantly unleashes an enormous gray zone, which sweeps across the world. All life is destroyed. (You see, Kaschei had taken over the body of the forest demon Leshy years earlier and obtained this power, It was Leshy who created the original Gray Zone. The prophesies said that when Kaschei dies the world would end. And so, it came true in that the world was overcome by the unleashing of the final Gray Zone.)
Heikki Toivonen travels back in time by using Kaschei’s staff (since he was able to survive the gray zone via a magical strawberry. His goal is to prevent some of the terrible events from happening. It is possible that other people may have escaped to the past as well, using one of the three Time Booths created by GOD years ago.)
Joined: May 2008 Posts: 924 Location: Helsinki Karma: 8
Re: Time Line « Reply #2 on May 25, 2009, 9:38am »
With the above in mind, here is the history of the Gods...as they would perceive it.
History as Ukko, Surma, Kalma, and Keitoleinen remember it
Millions of Years Ago- The gods appear mysteriously. They believe that they have always existed and will always exist. (Genetech (GOD) created them to believe that they were truly gods)
The gods appear and feel an innate rivarly with each other. They create their own realms and try to live in peace, which proves impossible
Akka and Ukko become a couple.
Surma and Kalma convince Keitoleinen to stop fighting with the other gods for a while. Akka creates women to distract him.
-Time passes-
The gods decide to fight each other by proxy by creating some races on Earth, which is already populated by primitive humans
Loviatar- goddess of pain creates dark elves
Meilikki and Tapio- the forest gods create other elves
Otva - god of bears and Kuu the moon goddess create Ursarians
Hiisi- creates demons
Akka- creates Ruwai and fairies
Ukko- creates trolls and various "ugly" races to balance his wife Akka's beautiful races
Keitoleinen doesn't create anything...
There are intermittant fights between the gods.
A human woman named Louhi becomes a powerful mage. She has a machine that can produce gold and grain. It makes her land very rich. The machine is called the Sampo.
Various human warriors fight for the sampo and Louhi is defeated.
Years later, Louhi returns after training to enhance her own power. She creates the dragons and announces that she is a goddess now. Keitoleinen decides that he will join her side, since he thinks she's attractive. Louhi and Keitoleinen have a daughter together, which Akka kidnaps and hides since she feels both are unfit parents. This causes Louhi to fight the gods.
Many of the gods fight the self proclaimed goddess. Keitoleinen aids Louhi and together they kill many of the gods.
Some human warriors fight against them, but die. Ukko seals their souls in eggs so that they can one day return to the world and fight again. Ukko fights Louhi and defeats her. He seals her soul in an egg. Keitoleinen is angry that Ukko killed Louhi, so he kills Ukko.
Kalma and Surma, the last two gods after the fight against Louhi (other than Keitoleinen) decide to finally fight their brother. They fight him and are killed.
++++
Keitoleinen is the last god for a long time. This is lonely so he tries to entertain himself in various ways. Over the years, he is involved in several relationships and has many children. Some of the women he is involved in include Astilith, a dark elf priestess to Loviatar (they didn't realize she was dead) and Celeste Crest- who is the mother of Calithin, Cato, and Capricious.
He eventually decides to take control of the company called Sota.
He also decides that he is Father Manala, since he long ago defeated the other gods.
...Surma and Kalma return to the world using their unique powers over death...
Eventually Genetech will begin work on creating Gods, not realizing that they are the ones behind the gods of the past and the ultimate creators of the gods.
Joined: May 2008 Posts: 924 Location: Helsinki Karma: 8
Re: Time Line « Reply #3 on Jun 14, 2009, 5:29am »
Although the rpg was not created to lead to Red Infinity, if it did, Red Infinity would take place in the future and perhaps as an alternate future (perhaps one outcome of a few)
The outcome would start changing at 78 M
So, at 78 M the gods would be unleashed by the company GOD. They would fight, but they would not kill each other off this time, but instead, lose the fight against Ukko and go into hiding. Keitoleinen would side with Ukko
Since the gods did not die or go to the past, Kaschei would not be ready to try to become a God himself.
The outcome of the wars between companies would be the victory of Red Infinity and rebel allies.
Red Infinity, with help of the rebels, would overthrow the Manalist religion and take control of many of the institutions. They would form a new government based in Beijing and Moscow.
The Temple of Terror would be renamed the Ministry of Terror, but it would still be controlled by Kaschei. It would be moved to Moscow.
Li Violette would rename herself, Lady Violet, and would become the second in command of the new government system.
Lin Sat would become the leader of the world government based in Beijing.
M TV would become the Ministry of Information.
All companies would become owned by Red Infinity. All former business leaders would be killed, or live as rebels, though some deals would be made with certain compliant business leaders.
Keitoleinen would become the head of the League of the Godless- a Ministry dedicated to stomping out religion and the Gods.
The Economic Council would be replaced by a similar structure meant to plan the economy called the Ministry of Economics.
The rebel allies to Red Infinity would be marginalized until they are themselves the enemies of Red Infinity.
Niilo Ukkonen would take a new form and become an advisor to Lin Sat and Li Violette.
With Manala crystal supplies mostly used up, the world would revert to using some other fuels.
With the end of Manala crystal usage, the gray zone would start shrinking. The Ministry of the Environment would work to heal the gray zone. The Ministry of the Environment would consist of Royal Dane Organics after it becomes "state" owned.
Red Infinity would do away with the "M" calendar and start over with RI-1.