"They are elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty."
— Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before."
— Margaret Atwood
Shen Dynasty — Celestine Ascendancy
Hello.
I'm looking to found a Shen familial dynasty within the Celestine Ascendancy. I have a fairly concrete concept in my head, including a name, but there's still a lot of room for lore-building to flesh it out in accordance with any other characters who may wish to join.
The main premise is that this dynasty once controlled a proud, nepotistic corporate empire, a keiretsu, until the family fell prey to its own greed, infighting, power hunger and of course, the Angel's Revolution. The only members of this Dynasty who survived are those who were willing to compromise their dignity and ally with the Guardians by betraying their own family. They may have had various reasons for doing so, ranging from having envied and coveted their siblings' wealth and positions within the Dynasty/keiretsu, to having genuinely believed in the Guardians' social justice cause, to having believed the success of their keiretsu was no longer sustainable under a system of economic inequality. All that matters is at the end of the day, they betrayed, killed and stole from members of their own family.
I don't want to share too many details about what I have in mind on the public forums, but if anyone else is interested in playing a Shen and likes the basic premise, send me a message.
In the beginning I would like for this Dynasty to be exclusively comprised of Shen who are related by blood. Over time, I anticipate that as player characters get married and have babies or just choose to adopt people, we may branch out to include non-Shen and non-blood relations.
If you're planning to play a Shen somewhere other than the Celestine Ascendancy, please don't hesitate to express an interest, either. There are many plausible explanations for why your character may have ended up elsewhere, for example perhaps they fled the 'country' (so to speak) when the Dynasty/keiretsu collapsed, or maybe they're a black sheep or something else. All of this is completely fine to my mind.
This Dynasty is intended to be flexible and accommodate a wide variety of character concepts. You don't have to share common ideals or have the same goals. There is one firm requirement however and that's that you be interested in story-driven, emote-based RP. Doesn't have to be paragraphs for hours on end, doesn't have to be a daily thing, and if you're more interested in PvP/bashing/exploring that's fine too; only requirement is that at least some of the time you're down to RP and that you make liberal use of the emote command to do so. You should also strive to familiarise yourself with the lore and do your best to support rather than subvert the theme. (E.g., no snowflake meat-eaters please.)
A healthy degree of IC/OOC separation is recommended because as you may infer from aspects the Dynasty's history, betrayal and skullduggery are mainstays of the Dynasty's story — meaning that no matter how much I love RPing with you, and approve of you OOCly, our characters may not like each other. Hating your brother/sister/mother in this family is a-okay and would make perfect sense. This is meant to be a dysfunctional family. Think Game of Thrones-style shenanigans. If conflict and tension filled stories are your jam, this is the fam for you! If you're just looking for a supportive group that will help you get started then it may not be.
I'm looking to found a Shen familial dynasty within the Celestine Ascendancy. I have a fairly concrete concept in my head, including a name, but there's still a lot of room for lore-building to flesh it out in accordance with any other characters who may wish to join.
The main premise is that this dynasty once controlled a proud, nepotistic corporate empire, a keiretsu, until the family fell prey to its own greed, infighting, power hunger and of course, the Angel's Revolution. The only members of this Dynasty who survived are those who were willing to compromise their dignity and ally with the Guardians by betraying their own family. They may have had various reasons for doing so, ranging from having envied and coveted their siblings' wealth and positions within the Dynasty/keiretsu, to having genuinely believed in the Guardians' social justice cause, to having believed the success of their keiretsu was no longer sustainable under a system of economic inequality. All that matters is at the end of the day, they betrayed, killed and stole from members of their own family.
I don't want to share too many details about what I have in mind on the public forums, but if anyone else is interested in playing a Shen and likes the basic premise, send me a message.
In the beginning I would like for this Dynasty to be exclusively comprised of Shen who are related by blood. Over time, I anticipate that as player characters get married and have babies or just choose to adopt people, we may branch out to include non-Shen and non-blood relations.
If you're planning to play a Shen somewhere other than the Celestine Ascendancy, please don't hesitate to express an interest, either. There are many plausible explanations for why your character may have ended up elsewhere, for example perhaps they fled the 'country' (so to speak) when the Dynasty/keiretsu collapsed, or maybe they're a black sheep or something else. All of this is completely fine to my mind.
This Dynasty is intended to be flexible and accommodate a wide variety of character concepts. You don't have to share common ideals or have the same goals. There is one firm requirement however and that's that you be interested in story-driven, emote-based RP. Doesn't have to be paragraphs for hours on end, doesn't have to be a daily thing, and if you're more interested in PvP/bashing/exploring that's fine too; only requirement is that at least some of the time you're down to RP and that you make liberal use of the emote command to do so. You should also strive to familiarise yourself with the lore and do your best to support rather than subvert the theme. (E.g., no snowflake meat-eaters please.)
A healthy degree of IC/OOC separation is recommended because as you may infer from aspects the Dynasty's history, betrayal and skullduggery are mainstays of the Dynasty's story — meaning that no matter how much I love RPing with you, and approve of you OOCly, our characters may not like each other. Hating your brother/sister/mother in this family is a-okay and would make perfect sense. This is meant to be a dysfunctional family. Think Game of Thrones-style shenanigans. If conflict and tension filled stories are your jam, this is the fam for you! If you're just looking for a supportive group that will help you get started then it may not be.
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Comments
But alas, I have plans already. I see opportunity down the line with alliances! (maybe)
Was there any particular reason you chose Shen over the other races?
"In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order."
I don't usually do self-insert stuff, and this character is going to be very different from me on many levels, but the idea of a culture where meat-eating isn't the norm is a magical concept to me. I'm so used to being the black sheep IRL (green sheep?) and this is one aspect where I'd love to enjoy a bit of escapism.
When I saw that Cuisine was going to be a craft option, I was immediately taken by the idea of being able to apply my vast love and knowledge of plant-based cooking to introduce people on a small corner of the internet to a whole world of food that many people don't think about and don't know a lot about. People think of vegan food as a boring pile of leaves. I want to be able to craft the image in their minds of diverse, beautiful, colourful selections crispy seitan strips glazed with pomegranate molasses, creamy coconut laksa with greens and tofu, pumpkin croquettes, falafel and so on. I know we won't have physical player shops, at least not at the start, but the idea of running a pop-up restaurant on luxury cruise spaceships, all-you-can-eat buffets, feasts, Shen/Decheeran food festivals (with aetherscape performances!) etc. all really appeal to me.
There are other reasons. I also really love the aesthetic of the Shen — I was looking for something a bit more human-looking if I was going to go the non-human route, and furries creep me out. So that limited my options to Jin and Shen. I like that they're extremely monogamous, because I'm generally averse to sexual/romance RP and don't do it unless I'm extremely comfortable and sold on my RP partner. This doesn't happen often for me and when it does, I prefer to keep that RP stable and I'm not looking to invite or shop around for more options. I usually find attempts at romance RP annoying. Having someone reliable I can point to and say 'sorry, taken' makes things easier.
I liked the income inequality themes within the Celestine Ascendancy lore (if it wasn't obvious from the Dynasty's premise, I'm very into themes of social/political intrigue, with noir being one of my all time favourite genres), so that was another draw for me, as Shen are one of the main races in CA and the only one of those four that I find appealing.
But if I'm being honest with myself, cultural vegetarianism was the main draw for me. It's a philosophy that makes a lot of sense to me and therefore one that I feel I could roleplay instinctively and well. Tentacles and everything else aside, if I hadn't been sold on that one aspect, I would have most likely opted for a human in Scatterhome instead.
— Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before."
— Margaret Atwood
Update
Interest in the Dynasty has been picking up! We're now four in total.I've set up a Discord channel for us to brainstorm ideas and concepts in. If you're interested and want to know more, or are already sold on the concept, send me a message.
— Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before."
— Margaret Atwood