Heavy RP SG idea

Well the backwards thing gave me an idea and since they slightly resemble a feline humanoids then for the age could be reverse cat years. A cat year is around 3 human years, so a Pharian year is 3 human years. A 10yr old Pharian is around 30 human years old. The one thing I like about this idea is that with age comes wisdom and experience.

Oiy! I go to sleep and you guys come up with a dozen more questions! Well good! I'm glad others are getting excited about this too! It's looking like there's actually enough interest to make this happen, which makes me a very happy panda!

Ok, first question: Lifespan.
The average lifespan of a Pharian is roughly 150 years, although they are considered "adults" at 16 when they finish their elementary education. An important detail in their culture I forgot to post was that Pharian children begin schooling at age 5, straight through to 16. There's no "elementary, middle, or high school" it's just school. When they graduate, ALL youths of the Empire enlist in the armed forces for a mandatory 1-year tour, Pharian or member-race. Given that the Empire has been at war with the Karakens for the past millennium, nobody will ever serve a tour and not see action. Everyone is a veteran. Remaining in the armed forces is voluntary after their initial 1-year tour of duty. Pharians reach their "prime" around 30-40 years and stay there until about 90ish, then they start aging again. In Human years, they're physically in their 20s for about 50-60 years before they start losing the spring in their step.

Next question: Names.
I like both those ideas; roman format and backwards names. Both can work, as the Empire spans several hundreds of planets and cultures vary, even among the Pharian people. Some Pharians only take a single name, others have two, some have three. It's all pretty much however you want to do it, because there's so much variation in the Empire. Here are a handful names of Pharian characters that have appeared in my stories and throughout various incarnations in various games:

Rommer Kel'Daire
Arbatel Galadorn
Raak, son of R'han
Vohsa Ja'i Kimara

For Mod Noc's idea:
I think it's an interesting premise, and I certainly like that everybody is forming up ideas. Only trouble is that the Karakens have once already tried destroying the Empire by blowing up planets, strapping rockets to the planetary debris, and launching them at Empire worlds, heheh.

I think what we'll stick with is that the Karaken Hordes are getting fairly close to Earth's solar system. Pharians, having far better ships, get to Earth first, way ahead of them. The Empire sees it as our duty to inform, warn, and prepare the people of Earth for the coming onslaught. It may come in a year, ten years, 100 years, or the Karakens may pass by this system altogether (don't count on it, but they might). As ever, the Pharians will try to integrate the people of Earth into the Empire, but if they choose to remain independant, will try to recruit them as allies.

This is be only the basic cause of Imperial presence on Earth, of course, and more things for us to do can come up. I'm hoping I'll be able to find a well-established SG that might be interested in roleplaying delegates with us and engaging in some diplomatic discussions and whatnot. Could be fun.

I like it. The only issue at hand is the Cybog Shield shoulders. *I* like them, and you're free to use them, but when I design the official "uniform" armor, I'm going to try to stick to costume pieces that everyone will have, rather than pieces that are exclusive to booster packs. Alternatively, I might make a few variations for people with/without certain booster packs.

Consider me interested. A bunch of questions and one issue:

1) Is a Panther-style coloring acceptable? I've been looking for an excuse to create a character based on Muuurgh for a couple years now.

2) You may want to rethink your numbers on the Templar. 100 across all the worlds in the Empire seems like slim pickings. Maybe stick with the 50 per Temple ideal, but have it more like Warhammer Space Marine chapters, with a Temple for every sector and sometimes multiple Temples on a single world? I'd love to play an aspiring Templar, someone who wants nothing so much as to be chosen for the training, but I can't imagine the kind of person who shoots for that dream when it's 100 members out of a trillion candidates.

3) If we are all starting as Praetorians, is the Pharian empire in the Praetorian dimension? Are they dimensional travelers normally? Are the Karaken? What has motivated them to work with the Resistance? Seems to be beyond their normal "hands off" policy with new species.

4) What has them working specifically to recruit Paragon Earth from across dimensions, especially when their point of contact is through Tyrant's regime?

5) How strict is the Imperial Army dress code? Are little personal embellishments allowed?

Issue: I'm fairly color blind. I'll need help putting together the proper colors. If someone can tell me the coordinates on this chart, I can take it from there.

Heffroncm, glad to have you aboard! Very good questions and I'll be happy to answer them.

1: Yes, panther-like color scheme is perfectly acceptable. Any reasonable color/pattern is acceptable. Black, white, tawny, striped, spotted, marbled, anything. Only absolute rule is that Pharians born on the homeworld of Pharus generally have white fur, with or without markings.

2: I understand how you feel about the Templar, but the 100 don't span across the entire Empire. Templar are extremely rare. To compare them to Space Marines is inaccurate. They're more like Primarchs among Guardsmen. You don't aspire to become a Templar. You're chosen, by the Temples, from among the best across all branches, and only Pharians can become Templar, not member-races of the Empire. Reinmar has shown a lot of interest in playing a Templar and I've asked him to give me some more time to think on it. I know I've said I'm not going to forbid people from playing them, but having 7 Templar on Earth when they're such rare and significant figures is going to be a little odd. Then again, the only canon this is being held against is my own, so like I said, please give me a little more time to think it over on how to make it work.

3: Truth be told, until the NDA was lifted and I got to read the specifics about Praetorians, I didn't really think about that. The reason I suggested everyone roll Praetorians is so people can play whatever AT they want right from the get-go rather than having to level up to 20 and switch sides, if they prefer villain ATs. I know *I* am likely going to play a Brute or Corruptor, but we're a Heroic SG. As to dimensional travel, no. That's something entirely new to the Empire. Earth is intriguing to them because Humans have barely ventured beyond their own moon (which is laughable), yet they travel across multiple parallel worlds. I'm going to need to think on how this is going to work, given the new info on the Praetoria starter zone.

4: See question 3. Ideas are welcome. The setting and theme are my creations, but I don't want the SG to be "all mine," so to speak. Everyone's ideas and opinions are welcome.

5: Uniforms are standard issue, but there are variations of the armors depending on your character's branch and unit specialty. For example, a character with Electric Melee might use the Enforcer gloves, explaining them as a weapon system integrated into the armor in the form of electrical discharge gauntlets. A Dual Pistols or Assault Rifle character likely wouldn't use the Enforcer gloves. Again, nothing is set in stone just yet and everybody is welcome to put forth ideas. When I get it set up, uniforms and such things will be posted on our SG forum.

Also, thank you for providing that color chart! I've often used a similar A-4 kind of system for synchronizing costume colors with people, but it gets a little confusing sometimes due to communication issues. That color chart will be extremely helpful!

1) Awesome.

2) I understand where you're coming from better now. Maybe you can think up an elite squad of some sort that is galaxy-wide? Better yet, maybe I can do that, take some of the creative burden off your shoulders :P

3) I do have something of an answer: first task for any military or diplomatic personnel on Earth is to report through to Praetoria and be inserted into their society to disrupt Tyrant and bring back any tech and intel they can get their hands on. It's a join operation with <insert group here>, who are providing dimensional gateway access, contacts on Praetoria, and holo-technology to seamlessly insert any of the Member species into Praetoria without notice. We could set a rule that everyone wishing to be a member create a nondescript Human costume as their first slot, and provide for them to change to their "true" appearance at 20 when they leave Praetoria and gain access to their second costume slot. I can provide a SG to weave the storyline with, but membership is very light as I just started it up a couple days ago. Which leads to another question later on >.<

4) See 3

5) Sounds perfect. Base uniform as a template, personal touches allowed and almost expected, sounds perfect. Maybe make up a dress uniform for formal events?

New question: What are your expectations for activity and exclusivity? I'm very passionate about getting the Galvanic League rolling, as it's a really cool idea in my mind. Any character I have in your Pharian supergroup would be a somewhat casual alt. I'd do my best to attend any events and scheduled RPs, contribute as much as possible, and would certainly solo a good bit, but my main priority would be elsewhere.

Another new question: would anyone be interested in forming a Level Pact for this Supergroup? I'm super-keen on trying it out, as it's a pretty unique system in all the MMOs I've played.

As to the colors, there's a whole thread right here. Has charts for the Bright and Dark power palettes too.

The elite squad you're thinking of is a bit redundant. Given the anti-alien sentiment on Earth and this being a First Contact situation, the Empire is well aware that this is a very delicate matter. Therefore, only the best are going to be chosen to be stationed on Earth. The Empire wants to put it's best foot forward and build a good rapport with Humans, so only the best and brightest of military personnel are going to be chosen for this assignment, and only those who can be trusted not to cause a diplomatic incident. Basically, anyone in this SG *is* one of the elite.

As for bullet 3, I think that's a good idea. With the Empire trying to prove they're a force for good, they can be working in tandem with Paragon Earth in dealing with the situation in Praetorian Earth.

As for activity and exclusivity, I'd *like* everyone to play these characters frequently, but it's not really reasonable of me to expect everyone to give up all their characters and make this their new main. RL always comes first, followed by fun. I hope everyone will have fun and be active, but I'm not going to kick you if you spend a day or two without logging into your Pharian character.

Leveling-pacts are something *I* generally do with my brother, since when we do them, we play together exclusively. While they're a cool concept, every other person I've ever formed one with has dropped off the face of the Earth, leaving me to level *both* characters by myself at a snail's pace. Not very fun, so it makes me a little wary to do. :/

AAAHHH, I see where you're coming from. In that case, it'd be great if we could put a name to their first contact team. I'm envisioning a rookie on the team, streamlined in due to very high aptitude and theoretical abilities but with a minimum of field experience. Still a bit nervous, jumpy, green, and young enough to be annoyingly idealistic to the noncoms. While he doesn't fit the "best diplomatic choice" role, he does serve as a bonding tool, a "we're just like you" poster boy. And he probably gets some resentment from others that have worked longer and harder to 'earn' a place on a team of this profile. Let me know if I'm way off base here, as I'm basing this idea on human military concepts. Until we get a chance to go through more of your storyline than the brief sketch you outlined in the first post, we'll be suggesting ideas you'll have to shoot down

I'll definitely be active. I'll be on the character 2 or 3 times a week at minimum, most likely more than that. It'll be the second or third character on the account, and I have no intention of going beyond 3 characters until I've exhausted the possibilities with one of them.

I'm sure it looks somewhat sketchy to be talking about limited activity and a Level Pact in the same post. I'm honestly more worried about zapping past people who won't play as much as I do than I am about being left behind. I'm not asking you specifically to form a Pact with my Pharian, it's a general request to anyone who might be interested.

Don't worry about your ideas getting shot down. It's a well-established setting, but I'm the only one with any real knowledge about the details. You guys can't really be expected to know all the ins and outs so in actuality, *I* feel kinda bad for constantly saying I want your input and then shooting down a fair number of your ideas, heh. Naming the First Contact team is a good idea and brings me to an important point: the SG name. I don't have one and I want everyone to be a part of coming up with it. Technically, the team won't be strictly about First Contact, as that's already been made. Our SG base will likely either be the ambassador ship or, if we decide to do it this way, a small embassy the Empire has been allowed to build in Paragon. The military personnel on this team are there for two reasons: safeguarding the ambassadors and providing military aid in such areas that will help build rapport with Earth.

As for the leveling pacts, I see where you're coming from and I'm glad to hear you'll be pretty active. The initial impression you gave is that we might see you maybe once or twice a week. I'm on pretty much every day, this past weekend being an exception since I'm out of town. I'll be getting home tomorrow, though, so I should be back to my usual gaming schedule.

Oh, I'm not worried about getting ideas shot down. I was saying the same thing as you: you're the only one that knows what's what in your Empire, so you're going to HAVE to shoot us down and still encourage us to spout off-the-wall craziness.

I like the "starship base" idea. It works with the base teleporters, and can add some interesting tension.

As to general activity, I'll be on every day. Feel free to @friend me so you can nudge me when something significant is going on, or just whisper Galvanic Flash.

I've been in some "starship themed" bases and they can be very cool looking.

Maybe at some point in the future, if things take off, we could set up more than one base (2+ allied Pharian SG's) with one being the ship in space and the others as ground bases and/or an embassy. Just an idea.

If we can get the players, it'd be a great idea Reinmar. Split them with the Military on the starship and the Diplomats groundside. Instant conflict potential

Let’s start up a discussion about names. In particular, names for the super group and potentially any specialized units within the SG.

zprophet has already told us that the Pharian military has 5 branches:

The Imperial Army
The Imperial Navy
The Titians (the armored branch of the Pharian military)
The Vengeful (a fully separate branch or attached to the army, navy and Titians?)
The Imperial Psionics Corps

As the super group will certainly have members from all of these organizations, in addition to non-military personnel, as well as representatives from the Pharian Temple of Light and Dark, the name must be inclusive of the Pharian race rather than a specific part of the military. Unless it is decided that the Pharian presence on Earth is a joint-command military unit (made up of all the branches) with some sort of non-military oversight (the diplomats and/or temple representatives).

Some ideas might be:

The Pharian Empire (a bit bland but inclusive of all Pharian peoples)

Another option might be a name that has significance to the Pharian people from their own history, mythology or religion; The Sons of Daknafine (with all due respect to those Pharian daughters out there) for example. Focusing on the dual nature of Pharian religion and life view (the Yin and Yang) and the Eastern flavor that it might bring to the group.

As a WH40k fanboi myself, I would love to see something like an Adeptus Astartes group with separate chapters, each with a colorful name and slight variation; much like the Space Marine/ Chaos Marine Legions. However, therein lays the slippery slope of intellectual property and the chance of twisting up fellow CoX gamers and forum members because of its use.

Pharian Rapid Response Force (the whole joint-command military thing I referenced earlier)

What are some of your ideas? I would love to hear them and as zprophet is the subject matter expert, jump in, keep us on the right track, and give us your ideas too. Ultimately, you will be leading this outfit and you have the controlling decision.

The Supergroup name is more than just how we refer to ourselves internally or even how the Empire at large refers to us. Specifically, it is the name we've registered ourselves under in Paragon City's beauracracy. Given that our primary mission is diplomatic in nature, attempting to recruit the humans into the Empire or at least make allies with them against the Karakens, I think we should name ourselves something that Humanity would find welcoming and nonthreatening. My suggestions along those lines:

Pharian Peace Corps (mirroring the US peace corps, we have some similar goals)

Pharian Alliance (Empire is a dirty word in English, implying involuntary membership)

Unity Commonwealth (stresses the need to stand together with another more socially-acceptable synonym of Empire)

Pharian Peacekeepers (lists our name along with a word that generally is seen as positive)

That's all I got, going to get really redundant if I try to force anything else out of my brain right now.

All great suggestions heffroncm.

Personally, I don't care for Pharian Peace Corps...makes me think of young idealistic cat-people digging wells or planting crops in Sub-Saharan Africa (not that there's anything wrong with that...just not the thing that comes to mind when I think of the Pharians).

Pharian Alliance sounds good, but why would the Pharians, who are an Empire and have remained so after their first contact with numerous other alien species call themselves an Alliance just for human first contact. I agree 100% that Pharian Empire does sound aggressive and imply assimilation rather than cooperation...but I guess that is why I like it.

I like both the Commonwealth and Peacekeeper suggestions.

Regarding the name we register ourselves under within Paragon City's bureaucracy. I'm of the opinion that nothing is more bureaucratic than an Empire, with its numerous offices and departments. Would a diplomatic embassy even have the authority to register itself with a name that wasn't debated and decided long in advance of their arrival, light years away in the heart of the Pharian Empire? Long before any significant contact or study of humans had taken place. Perhaps one of the RP'ing opportunities we can capitalize upon is the intended "good nature" of the Pharians and the perceived "suspicions" of the humans due to cross-cultural communications or the lack thereof.

When you feel like it, brainstorm up some more ideas and I’ll try to do the same. Maybe we can get a long list of possible names going and get everyone involved in narrowing it down from there.

I kinda like the Pharian Enforcers.

en·force (n-fôrs, -frs)
tr.v. en·forced, en·forc·ing, en·forc·es
1. To compel observance of or obedience to: enforce a law.
2. To impose (a kind of behavior, for example): enforce military discipline.
3. To give force to; reinforce: "enforces its plea with a description of the pains of hell" (Albert C. Baugh).

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[Middle English enforcen, from Old French enforcier, to exert force, compel, and from enforcir, to strengthen : en-, causative pref.; see en-1 + force, strength; see force.]

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en·forcea·bili·ty n.
en·forcea·ble adj.
en·forcement n.
en·forcer n.

All very good suggestions. I'm liking them a lot. I agree that the Pharian Peace Corps sounds too much like Greenpeace. (There are no hippies on Pharus :P) Enforcers is good, but again, sounds a little too aggressive. Heffroncm is right, the SG name is what we'll be identifying ourselves as according to Paragon City's bureaucracy. We want something that will identify us, but also cast us in a good light. I'm liking the Peacekeeper idea, that's good.

The point I'm making is not to name the Supergroup something that makes sense from a Pharian viewpoint, but something that draws and entices from a Human viewpoint. It feems to me, with Parians as a species recently developing psychic potential and their VERY long history of successful first-contact and peaceful cooperation with wide variety of species, that the Pharian diplomatic crew simply must be masters of xenopsychology. They can look at a race, pick apart it's language, and decide the "best" way to go about bringing them into the empire in no time at all. It's manipulative, and deceitful, and it's intended to be. The Karaken's aren't going to wait around for us to make nice the slow way, so we'd best use every trick and tactic we've learned over the history of the Empire to convince humanity to ally with us, by any means neccessary. It's a psychological warfare kind of thing. They aren't our enemy, but they are not yet our ally until we make them so.

Think of it this way: put yourself in the shoes of Billy Northman, office worker in Paragon City near Atlas Park. He seems a group of massive, muscular aliens in uniform armor and weaponry marching with military precision towards City Hall. They are flying a banner, the only information that Billy has on them. The banner reads:

Pharian Enforcers - Billy is terrified. Is it another invasion? The Rikti were bad enough, now we have giant bipedal cats too? He makes a bee-line for his apartment and Xanax.

Pharian Peace Corps - Billy is still scared, but somewhat hopeful. A peaceful alliance with an advanced alien civilization could do Earth worlds of good. While the US Peace Corps goes around the third world nations of the Earth building schools and hospitals, maybe the Pharian Peace Corps goes around the third world nations of the Galaxy building fusion reactors and starports. Curiousity piqued, he heads home to get on the 'net and find out all he can about the Pharians.

It's all about perception. With as many member species as the Pharian Empire encompaces, I simply cannot fathom that they would be a hard, disciplinarian race lacking in diplomatic ability. In my mind, they must be masters of cross-cultural communication and adepts at quelling suspicions of that nature.

Another good suggestion Mad_Noc.

I had an idea earlier based on heffroncm's post, but it would all depend upon how firmly zprophet is attached to the word "Empire". What if we replaced Empire with something else? That would be a major change of canon in zprophet's creation but I wanted to throw it out for consideration.

Here's how I think it could be explained:

All civilizations go through expansion periods; some are aggressive, some are non-aggressive, but they all involve pushing their borders out and acquiring territory. If we advance the Pharian timeline a bit, it could be argued that the Pharians of zprophet's fiction were alive during the Empire stage of Pharian peaceful expansion. Years have passed (hundreds? thousands?) and now the Pharian civilization has reached a point where they have enough territory and resources to ensure a high quality of life for all its citizens. Now they occupy themselves with exploration, assisting other civilizations to advance through their aggressive/expansive periods with minimal impact on the galactic community, and waging never-ending war on the Karaken Horde on behalf of that galactic community. As they are no longer an expanding "empire", they have likewise changed the name of their form of government. They still have the monarch they've always had but he now serves as a first among equals and a mediating voice on the Council of Twelve rather than an imperial sovereign.

Suggestions for words other than Empire:

Pharian Alliance (heffroncm's suggestion)
Pharian Commonwealth (heffroncm's suggestion)
Pharian Federation
Pharian Sovereignty (iffy on this one...still sounds imperialistic)
Pharian Ascendancy (sounds like the Temple is in charge of the government)
Pharian State
Pharian Expanse
Pharian Dynasty
Pharian Imperium (just another way to say Empire)
Pharian Republic
Pharian Star Consortium
Pharian League
Pharian Confederation*

*By definition the difference between a confederation and a federation is that the membership of the member states in a confederation is voluntary, while the membership in a federation is not.

Very good points and excellent ideas, Heffron...except you're forgetting one very important detail. Pharians are Lawful Good, using the D&D alignment scale. Honorable, honest, and noble people, they're not going to purposefully lie to and manipulate the peoples of Earth, regardless of the end goal. Pharians don't believe that the ends justify the means. You can have the best intentions in the world, but if you sacrifice your soul in the process, what have you really accomplished? The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, as the saying goes. For better or worse, they will try to recruit humanity the honest, old fashioned way. This is one of the things that has lent the Empire a great deal of credibility and good PR amongst the denizens of their galaxy. They don't conquer, they don't brainwash, they don't manipulate. They expand, peacefully and diplomatically. They're good people. The only worlds they have EVER taken by force were Karaken-held worlds. That's something that will never change.

I'm really liking your Billy Northman scenario. Makes for a good perspective to build from. In that light, I'm thinking something along the lines of the Pharian Joint Peacekeeper Force, or something of the like.

Heading out on the 2-hour drive home now. Leave me lots of posts to come back to.