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Lifespan (accessible vers.)

Have you read the Premise of his sandbox already? The basic Setting Info? If not, please click here! You should read them first!

Since the Great Reveal, Humans have developed expanded lifespans. This is believed to be due to acute exposure to magic in high concentrations during the events. Following a short period of illness, most found themselves with additional resistances to certain disease types and ailments; healing and recovery of physical injuries and ailments, by comparison, take less time. The improved resilience alone immediately opened up new medical possibilities in terms of treatement and surviveability for those already suffering from conditions, disorders and other afflictions caused by changes in the body.

In general, Humans now live approximately twice as long on average.

Extended lifespan puts Humans on par with many other creatures in society, and has profoundly affected quality of life in areas like education, career possibilities, and family; as well as other areas of societal structure and foundation.

Here is a list of some races and their general lifespan averages, for comparison. This data is still in the early stages of assessment, and considered to be skewed greatly due to lack of official documentation and much of the evidence being currently unverifiable. The ranges listed here all considered to be approximate.

In Years

Humans: 170-180

Demons (across many types): 250-500

Elves: 500-700

Vampire: N/A; there are few records for how long certain vampires have lived, or their causes of death

Orcs: 250

Dragons: 500+

Naga: 800

Fae: N/A; not much is known about the lifespan of Fae. There also seems to be a large difference between the handful of Fae who decided to stay behind after The Great Reveal, and those visiting from beyond the Veil.

"Chimera-Types" (Harpies, -taurs, Satyrs, Kelpies, Sirens, Kitsune, etc.): 700

Most other creatures hover at lifespans between 200-400 years **NOTE: There are direct correlations between magical potency and rate of reproduction, as well as lifespan and rate of reproduction. Races that tend to live longer have very low rates of reproduction outside of medical assistance, which is heavily regulated.

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Setting Info (accessible ver.)

[IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN KNOWING MORE ABOUT WHAT LIFE IN THIS UNIVERSE IS LIKE, THIS IS THE RIGHT PLACE! WHAT YOU'LL FIND BELOW ARE DESCRIPTIONS OF THINGS PEOPLE ARE USED TO SEEING AND INTERACTING WITH IN THIS SETTING.]

Every Day Life

a summary

Obviously, culture is different across locations and people, but this is going to be a broad stroke sort of description centered mostly on the Big City that is the main focus of the sandbox. For a more in-depth look at "other places" and general culture, feel free to click the links at the end of each section below.

OVERVIEW

Day to day life for most is a mix of technology and magic present in almost every major city and accessible when interacting with public-facing tools and inventions even if not owned privately. Interactive holograms, clothing and material charmed for durability (or simply made of more durable materials) abound, though some come with a cost that isn't always accessible. Potions are regulated in a similar manner to medicine depending on the effect. Generally, financial class can be determined by where a person lives and the degree to which technology is present in their private life. Magical ability also plays into personal comfort, as sometimes capability with magic can make up for more expensive comforts in one-off circumstances.

Most of the persisting world infrastructure is modeled on pre-existing Human standards, though some things are augmented to take into account changes resulting from the The Great Reveal (what people call the event involving the merging of planes and large influx of magic and magical creatures to Earth in 2014). The event was not altogther a peaceful one, and there was systemic damage to cities and civilized areas that had to be rebuilt. Many major cities are unrecognizable from previous skylines. There are new islands, fault lines, mountain ranges, and some ecosystems have been forever altered for both better and worse due to the influx of magic and its effect on the earth. There are many locations that have still not been explored to the fullest, even if the most threatening dangers have been subdued; doing so is quite a lucrative (albeit risky) career path.

In general, buildings and locations are human-sized; more often than not, non-humans Glamour themselves when out and about for the convenience of others (certain body heights and shapes are outlawed in public, for example). This goes doubly or triply for slaves while out in public. There are some locations, districts, neighborhoods and grounds that are large and/or cater to the natural sizes of some creatures, such as demons and weres (those with 'blood curses'), but they and their perimeters are clearly marked and cost is certainly a factor in occupying these coveted spaces. It's very expensive to commission a building for these purposes, so many of these places are leisure resorts or businesses that cater to peoples of specific race or culture, to boast comfort and accomodation. (However, there are regulated limits for these as well, depending on certain factors like occupancy numbers, potential for collateral damage, etc.). While there are exceptions for calamitous events and self-defense, the cases in which someone could get away with this (especially in a public space) is extremely rare.

Due to the influx of population of other races and peoples to Earth during The Great Reveal, cities often have "Upper Levels" or "Islands" added to them to accommodate more people. These are floating districts that are akin to suburbs; they house some of modern architecture of the age in the form of homes, apartments, parks and office building. The style of these buildings are more modular and glossy. Actually owning real estate is a matter of wealth or extraordinary luck, and owning a home rather than staying in a massive apartment building is a slightly lesser flex.

Slaves and services rendered by them (under the eye of watchful masters) are pervasive, especially in the upper and lower most echelons of society. They are a class defined (using that term loosely) by four circumstances: 1) those captured during The Great Reveal, proven to have had intent to cause harm to the planet and its citizens during that time, 2) off-spring of those creatures, 3) those who "agree" to enter and be registered as slave status voluntarily, (unfortunately, this often includes children whose parents or guardians abandon or sell them), and 4) unprotected illegals; for these reasons, it's fairly rare to see Humans sold or traded on the market. They represent amassed wealth at least and are symbols of status at most. The acquisition and distribution of them are regulated, though not much else is (regarding personal treatment). Many fill service jobs and service families and estates, and usually regarded as an invisible part of the backdrop of life. They are a very controversial topic, of course, and they deserve their own post. It should be noted however, that worldwide, slavery systems are sometimes coded differently socially, and occasionally this causes culture clashes.

There's no shortage of vices to be found, of course, and the integration of magic and tech has been the catalyst for some interesting engineering with just about anything that can be imbibed. Clubs are lucrative, especially for elitist Masters who want to mingle with like-minded people and drown themselves in decadence while they flaunt their status. It's possible to find ones for any sort of theme or vibe. Some leisurely retreats are in fact segregated depending on the services that they offer, as there are some intoxicants that are either too potent or deadly for Humans to consume.

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FAQ: Who is The Colonel?

If you've been on the main blog page and not just mobile, I'm sure you've seen the banner up top as well as the blog description, which leads to the obvious question:

Who is The Colonel, exactly?

Well, he's the architect, to a great degree, behind the polycule I RP, and the only character that I write that isn't actually my own.

TLDR: I RP as Jade Curtiss from Tales of the Abyss (a once-popular JRPG from the Tales Of series). There's a lot of odd magic things in his setting that ultimately mess with the fabric of reality, so I don't think that it's a stretch to say it's possible for him to be dropoped somewhere on another plane if someone fucks with magic in just the right way.

With that said, his personal plot is deeply involved with his desire to go "back home" and survive in the universe he's landed himself in long enough to do so. He's done a good job of the latter, but so far, nothing he's researched has worked... well, not yet at least.

While Jade does have a playful side, it's usually to keep others at bay. Underneath the facade of social versatility lies a man whose trust is hard-won. Although he has painstakingly learned the value of others inhabiting the world alongside him, that doesn't mean he has to lie to himself about how competent they typically are. He is the sort of person whom many consider to be their friend, but does not consider many others to be his friend in turn.

Thus, the Garden.

As much as he would like to be an isolationist, that's no way to live. it's not conducive to good mental health, and if he grows to be unable to trust his own mind while he's working towards his goals, all would be lost (so far as he's concerned, anyway).

This blog is called "Smooth Geometry" because the members of the polycule jokingly refer to their group as "The Circle", a play on the phrase "circle of friends". But Jade prefers to think of them as either a petri dish (a "successful" experiment of his own design), or a garden.

The fact is that he vetted and put each of them through the ringer to ...mold them, in a sense. To direct their growth.

Jade would rather not make new friends unintentionally, and having this group satisfy his social (or other) needs severely limits the amount of bullshit or unexpected drama he has to handle. My personal headcanon is that he most certainly is a person with anti-social personality disorder; he's made his mistakes regarding socializing in the past, and gotten to the point where he's figured things out. His coping mechanisms are set, and they aren't the most destructive they could be. Having a specific group of people that he's emotionally involved in both reduces the outside drama he has to invest in (becaues he can't completely avoid it, lol), and gives him a controlled environment within which to indulge in his emotions so far as his personal interest.

Jade was able to make friends even in his source canon, after all. He has a clear grasp for interactions with others and what they entail/what others expect. Trial and error pay off, sometimes!

Anyways, he's gone through quite a bit, and suffered quite a bit more once arriving in this universe during The Great Reveal. He's a soldier and a survivor though, and has plenty of tools in his arsenal, and thus was able to build himself into a cushier life than most. Jade has in fact made a comfortable space for himself here, but that doesn't mean he's given up on potentially getting back home.

The Circle, his polycule, is full of people he loves (or would like to grow to love) in one way or another, but his priorities are still set neatly in order. They are quite carefully picked and cultivated flowers, so far as he's concerned, and he's managed to arrange (or is in the process of arranging) his garden into a peaceful place for himself, bloom by bloom. Jade would never argue that he's a good man, ever, but he can be a consistent partner if nothing else; that's better than most others by a wide margin, he thinks. Does he deserve it? Likely not. But he worked/is working hard to get these people and relationships in juuuuust the right places, and he's going to enjoy the convenience of that as he pleases.

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Premise (accessible ver.)

[PLEASE NOTE THAT THE BELOW CONTAINS A RATHER LONG WINDED EXPLANATION OF THE SANDBOX AND HISTORY OF WRITING WITHIN IT. THE TRUNCATED VERSION CAN BE FOUND ON THE PINNED POST ON THIS BLOG'S MAIN PAGE.]

Background

The story of this setting is simple, but I wanted to include it anyways, since the goal of this blog is to preserve the knowledge and journey.

Originally, around the 2010s, I found a fantasy RP forum containing a very loose version of this sandbox setting on a Proboards site--back when those were popular. I made many friends and wrote on that site for quite a few years, and during that time I pushed for a bit more development on details concerning cultures and locations. There was a lot of wish fulfillment NSFW content on that website, given that people enjoyed shipping their characters with others', but over time there was quite a bit of lore painted by the background details of various location and event details. While I understood that there was a desire to leave things vague enough that anyone could play nearly any sort of fantasy character in this setting (outside of attempting to "godmod" or railroad others), I felt that we could have tiny pockets of groups, neighborhoods, people and cultures with defined information if we were careful.

The website's name at the time was Era of Manipulation, and was later changed to "Libertine Age". Not many people liked or enjoyed that name, and eventually it was changed back. Have a look at one of the website logos (made by me long long ago):

Without turning this into an epic, the conclusion is that Proboards unexpectedly changed its ToS to explicitly prohibit written NSFW content, which led to us seeking out a new RP home to try and retain membership and activity, as well as our character and background information, which was very important to those of us who grew attached. That's pretty typical. We did end up finding a new home for our stuff, and even managed to move many of our characters and old threads--but by then the spark was gone for many people, and the move didn't take root. A few of us remained in contact, but the idea of a new routine on a new website and having to socialize in a large place was overwhelming and difficult to adjust to.

There were still many of us who wanted to continue writing the lives and dramas of our characters, and the result of this desire was a large Google Docs archive. We would simply format our docs in a similar way to old school forums and go back and forth. As time went on, and our lives changed and we grew, and our group became even smaller, we would plan and plot out events via DMs, and flesh out very important events to chronicle them in full prose; there are quite a few DM'd conversations archived as well.

So, there's a lot that's lost due to moving place to place online, quite a lot archived thanks to Google Docs, and still a tiny group of people who are passionate about characters they have in this setting, even though there isn't as much time to write the way we did when we were young and horny college students. We're just horny adults now, haha. So I wanted to preserve my piece of things in a corner where I can look back on it and remember the major turning points.

Sandbox details

[THIS INFO IS DIRECTLY COPIED FROM PREVIOUS ARCHIVES, WITH FEW EDITS FOR READABILITY.]

GENERAL SUMMARY

This is a sandbox set in a divergent future where unseen realms (known as "Realms beyond the Veil") by some catastrophic accident collide with our own. Though the contact was not for long, the result of this event was the outpouring of various magical energies, creatures, and perhaps more mysterious forces out of those planes to be stranded in our own. This has prompted hidden, assimilated beings native to our plane to come forward to combat otherworldly threats and try to wrangle the chaos into peace. Humanity was forced to acknowledge the existence of magic and other ethereal powers as fact, in a context outside of rumor and imaginative mythologies. In an attempt to subjugate foreign powers wreaking havoc on Human societies, slavery was re-established as a system of penance for destructive or dangerous non-Humans from other worlds. With magic saturating the earth, technology rocketed forward in an attempt to maintain mankind's authority on their planet and its new citizens and functions.

Our setting exists in this world a little more than a century after the above event. Humans and non-Humans have adjusted to one another. While the slave market is still primarily comprised of otherworldly creatures, there are just as many non-Humans in a position of power. Greed permeates all races/sentient species, and despite stating that their "goal" was to ensure that the Human race remain "pure", money and valuables can buy nearly everything. Technology has developed more quickly with the introduction of magic, and society is an echo of what it used to be - both similar and different. Things have settled down from the danger and chaos of The Event, and the caste system while loosely defined, is now firmly in place.

As this is a sandbox there is no overall story premise, simply characters interacting in a City on the Eastern coast of the United States, though many other locations are featured!

OUR EARTH, JUST A LITTLE DIFFERENT

The year was 2014. The world-at-large for planet Earth was considered to be quite small: Humans held dominion over the land and those who showcased abilities or talents were shunned, called freaks, ostracized and forced into hidden communities. Lore concerning magic and super-human abilities were relegated to the status of exaggerated legends, children's fancies or lies told by the mad.

This was, allegedly, not always the case. There were Others, of course, creatures and beings and at times, small populations operating in their own circles, passing information about other realms and otherworldly feats from generation to generation from times forgotten when the Earth and its inhabitants were once different. For these people, touched by magic, their abilities were both curse-and-blessing: their abilities were great, but could not often be used or displayed. Glamours were all too common, assimilation necessary to ensure survival. No group revealed in totality to Humans persisted for long, with few exceptions.

It was in fact rumored that the Earth had been protected by the magic of a God; some grandiloquent spell cast eons before, preventing anything other than Humans to flourish. This was a wide and far-reaching belief, as it was well known that Non-Humans didn't reproduce or thrive in similar numbers. Be it through ill-fated luck or deliberate intent, open settlements of the supernatural were overrun or became isolated. And so those peoples remained silent; practitioners and stewards alike over nature and the magic were reduced to sneaking from the shadows to complete their works. Remaining hidden became engraved into various cultures as they hid in plain sight. It seemed that even the very powers that watched over them kept their deepest secrets hidden from a world that would not accept them without much bloodshed and strife, as it remained this way for millennia.

The Earth was primitive without its Otherworldly connections, and Humans suffered in spite of their large numbers. The planet could not replenish resources quickly enough, could not rid itself of disease and illness effectively. Soothing energy only pooled in specific places; the reach of magic was limited and restricted in effectiveness.

That was the status quo - being unaware of their full potential, and of the planes around them, Humans existed blissfully ignorant.

THE GREAT REVEAL

As for how the disaster occurred: A lone Human psychic, her name never recorded, allegedly foresaw the possibility of the Event. She came from a mixed bloodline, with very particular affinities. It was not a matter of power or purity of pedigree - her magic was linked to probability; magic attuned to states of reality was rare occurrence, and stealing it for personal gain was likely motivation (though no one has been able to prove it). It is thought that she was used as a conduit by other scholars of magic, made into an anchor to trigger the uncertain into certainty. Whatever their goal, the task proved too much for them to handle.

They could not control her magic.

If there was a Shield preventing contact with other Realms, it must have shattered or been banished; others still believe a mass of portals might have been manifested instead. The common consensus, however, is that for a brief moment, all of the planes became *merged*. Regardless of what is attributed to be occurrence, the Earth and its inhabitants came into contact with planes layered both above and below, flooded with myriad magical energies, as well as countless creatures both similar and grossly different from those in hiding.

A suddenly over-saturated Earth erupted in chaos. Though many historians emphasize the havoc wreaked by violent, mindless, or ignorant creatures that disrupted every day life, there were other changes, too. Magic changed its topography, changed the flora and fauna, changed any living being it came across, brought new life from other places we have never known with strange properties and effects. Many Humans fell ill, adjusting to new energy swimming through their veins; a handful were transformed almost overnight into living beings thought only figments of imagination.

Initially, there were attempts made to try to replicate the phenomenon to return the visitors and reverse the process. These proved unsuccessful, and these plans were soon abandoned. there were more pressing matters that required attention; with new animals and creatures came problems and dangers that needed to be handled. Many died in attacks or invasions. Some new inhabitants hid on islands and landmasses not yet mapped. Others could disguise themselves undetectably. Areas of the world became unstable and unsafe in a matter of days. It's these times that granted the reveal the alternate nickname of "The Calamity".

IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH

Emerging from their hiding places were those of magical origin born on earth, before the tearing of the Veil. There was little time to debate the validity of these offers for help, and Humans took the hands (or paws, or claws, or talons) of those granting assistance. The leagues of "monsters" now a part of the world were cataloged as best as possible. They worked with Humans to maintain control, to heal injured, sick and ailing. They also helped to capture anything new and unfamiliar for study, parlay (when possible) and when necessary, neutralization. Several diplomats rose to sort things out, to exchange customs and impart information, but few agreement came without a price. Lives of many kinds were lost across conflicts.

The advent of new magics complicated things, despite fast advancements in tech; paper and metallic currency meant virtually nothing when some odd creature could replicate it easily.

But slowly and carefully, many were taught how to function with and allowed to integrate into various communities.

Social conventions struggled to adapt to accommodate new needs and features. Regardless of what was thought of Man, Creature or Beast, order needed to be established for the good or survival. Civilization, or some version of it, managed to cling to the changing planet.

The Great Reveal was not only unexpected, some would argue, but necessary. Others call it Justice or Retribution. A few, Destiny. There are those who argue that the planet would have died without the Event to revive it, that Humans were wasting it away.

And many people were not prepared to share a world with anyone else.

Humans were still considered inheritors of planet Earth by virtue, but it was a different world. They fell into old habits. Humans were better, by their own status, and always had been - how else could they adapt well to this sort of calamity? Those once deemed insane, eccentric, were now in demand - their information helped keep the new inhabitants at bay, kept them from sullying Human culture.

Humans were pure.

By force of law those who had been changed, and what creatures that could be subdued were denied their basic rights. Those who could not be were ignored until the proper tech to take them into custody was designed. They were second-class beings who were - at first - assigned legal guardians to take care of them. From that arrangement swiftly grew a caste system that turned the changed into a commodity. They became slaves, their guardians masters who held most if not all rights over their charges.

Despite the planet being theirs, however, Humans were quickly outnumbered. With the aid of magic, some creatures were indistinguishable, and others simply appeared Human on the surface. And that was not the only resistance: many of them had accumulated massive fortunes over time, and in their own home worlds. They put together a strong lobby that allowed them to influence legislation and public opinion, avoided becoming slaves and managed to become Masters themselves. Those Humans who held power and station were quick to turn on their brethren in exchange for more.

For a few decades chaos had reigned, but slowly things settled down.

Now the year is 2122 2037, and the caste system is firmly in place almost all over the world. Technology has advanced in leaps and bounds over the last century, but some conventions could still be recognizable to someone from before the change. Everyone who is someone is a Master, lording over a class of slaves - and the changed never had a chance to become 'someone'. Stuck in the middle are the Citizens, those who are neither; these are the people who still fill the majority of jobs, go through their lives working 9 to 5, many of them uneasy in a world where some flaunt owning others who so covet even their meager positions.

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Accessible versions of posts

Because of the way that the Tumblr App works, pages do not open on mobile. SO! I will be adding normal blog version of the pages as posts as well.

I want everyone to be able to read and enjoy these regardless of if they're on the go, but I don't want to compromise on pretty-fying the information, either. So I'll just have to do both.

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Getting Started! (Premise + Setting Info)

THE SHORT VERSION:

Basically, I write about these characters in a futuro-fantasy sandbox. The general premise is that mythological/magical creatures are real, but were living in hiding from humanity for a long time. A cataclysmic event merged "the planes" for a short amount of time, stranding quite a few different entities and creatures here, and society had to open up and integrate magic and non-Humans to some great degree.

Humans, Demons and Elves (and to some extent, Drakekin/Dragons) are groups/cultures with the highest levels of societal privilege--but the latter two were only able attain those positions through allowing the reinstatement of slavery as a "humane" alternative to punish once-hostile forces that were dumped here.

That's pretty much the background, but the setting isn't actually full-on dystopian. It's just more a advanced version of modern times with progressed magic and tech perched in the series of delicate balances that is late-stage capitalism, with a few extra layers.

With that being said, I just write slice-of-life romantic, domestic and social drama in this setting. There's no huge epic tale about societal change or anything. People just exist and they do things and it's a nice excuse for me to write fantasy characters being cute annoying and being kinky lol

If you're interested in more info about this world and its info, see below the cut!

Premise: How We Got Here

page version (pretty!)

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Setting Info: Cultural Deets

page version (pretty!)

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I wanted to christen this blog with a first post containing a screenshot of one of my old O/Os (ONs and OFFs) from one of the forums that I used to write on.

Sometimes this feels like a lost age of the internet, even though the site in question is still alive and well. Forums are generally seen by younger folk to be a completely different world. No instant messaging, you had to hardcode your own text to add personality, and the website were/are their own separate islands that have to be explored without algorithms to match you to them.

There are some days where I miss the attachment that formed just because of the effort, the blood, sweat and tears that a person had to put into interacting with others made it inevitable. The entire reason I know enough coding to stumble my way through customizing pages and adding my own spin to Tumblr themes is because of the effort I went through on these old school sites. Technology has definitely made things easier, and it's nice that since I'm an adult-adult things have been streamlined. However, it's still hard to shake wishing I had enough time to spend on and be into these sorts of things the way I used to.