Mother Z and the Zodiac Rebellion
When I was a kid my godfather made me a colouring book he called ‘Madam Z and the Zodiac Girls’ that I obviously thought was the coolest thing in the world. He’d reimagined the Zodiac as a Charlie’s Angels sort of idea. The Zodiac signs were each fantastical secret agents and Madam Z was their handler. I’m trying to build a character concept portfolio with more marketable and censorship-friendly digital work (I’ll make another post about this), so I decided I would reimagine Madam Z and the Zodiac Girls for a few pages for this portfolio.
My concept is ‘Mother Z and the Zodiac Rebellion’. It took a month for me to do all the drawings, so I spent a lot of time thinking about the rationale and details for this concept. We all love world building, right? This post is a collection of the art for this and all of my excessive thoughts about the concepts and an overall narrative.
I imagine this as a TTRPG or video game RPG. I was playing Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader right before this and I really love science fiction games like Mass Effect and Outer Worlds and Cyberpunk. The tone I’m going for is more in line with SyFy series like Battlestar Galactica and Killjoys, where it’s mostly quite intense but also definitely campy without ever accepting its own silliness. It’s charming to me. It’s a flavour of science fiction that verges on just being space fantasy. I don’t really know exactly what kind of RPG system I would use for this, I’d have to do more research and plot things out further to decide.
The Milky Way Galaxy
It’s the year 2379. Earth is left a decaying mass of garbage and humans have travelled into the Milky Way to colonize the galaxy. Life is governed directly by corporations, who are at constant war across the galaxy over territories rich in desirable resources and political advantage. A very small percentage of sentient beings in the Galaxy occupy entire worlds of unimaginable luxury. But life for the overwhelming majority involves little but toil and survival in colonies that function as worker camps.
While the Galaxy is ruled by capitalists, religion remains a major part of social life. There are three main systems of religion that encompass the various faiths across the galaxy.
The Great Old Ones
I love HP Lovecraft. For the purposes of this project, the Great Old Ones are essentially a class of primordial deities in the Milky Way. They are frequently worshipped by fringe hedonists of the anarchist variety and they do factor in strongly in the faiths of rebels who have a less traditionally destructive view of the Great Old Ones, as many see these deities as Dionysian-like figures.
The Titans
In 2133, Lady Lydia, a highly acclaimed explorer, ventured into the Virgo constellation where she began an obsession with what she quickly came to believe was the voice of the star Heze. She claimed that Heze was in fact a Great Old One, who had been imprisoned in the star, and he was calling out to her to help him. Lady Lydia slowly went mad trying to unravel conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory in the Virgo constellation to explain the voice of Heze she insisted she could hear. At one point, Lady Lydia vanished with no contact for nine years. When she suddenly hailed a corporate ship, she was found to be entirely mad. Within minutes of her boarding the corporate ship an incredible force rippled through almost the entire expanse of the constellation, causing immense damage to ships and even shifting the orbit of some planets. Heze had suddenly disappeared and the entire system destructively displaced.
In the time when Lady Lydia was missing she had given birth to a child. Over the eight years following his birth she replaced his entire body with enchanted augments, until the boy was no longer made of flesh at all. When she launched this boy into Heze, his enchantments absorbed the whole of the sun into its shell. The enchanted mechanized boy was now possessed by Heze. However, Heze was not a Great Old one, as Lady Lydia had believed him to be. Heze was in fact one of an incredibly ancient species that is older than the universe as we know it. They were a species that came after the Great Old Ones, the resultant consequence of their chaotic actions, and the Great Old Ones hate them. This species, now called the Titans, were bested when they tried to overcome the dominance of the Great Old Ones and they were punished by being imprisoned as suns. Heze was a particularly old and intelligent Titan and thanks to circumstances aligning just perfectly, he was able to reach Lady Lydia and trick her into creating an enchanted vessel to free him into.
Heze has since become the center of his own Cult of Luminaries who worship him and further the cause of releasing more Titans from their prisons. The Luminous Cult of Heze is very expansive, and there are branches of Luminous Cults in the name of other Titans who have been freed to live in enchanted mechanized bodies of boys aged 5 to 12.
The process for creating the vessels has not changed over the years. The rituals begin at confirmation of the sex of the fetus, and once the boys meet certain criteria they receive different enchanted augments until they are eventually no longer made of flesh at all. Most boys don’t live through these rituals. And of those who do, very few survive and successfully absorb the essence of the Titans.
The Popular Religion of Conceptual Personifications
By 2379, the Galaxy has mostly returned to polytheistic religious beliefs. Each individual has the freedom to choose their colour-coded God, and to be treated accordingly. Capitalist “innovation” tends to follow a path of continuously degrading our imaginations at this point, so I think it’s suitable to have a colour coded pantheon of conceptual personifications as the core of popular religion. These Gods are the result of the Titans, and considered to be the origin of humanity.
The Green God - Personifies Capitalism
The Yellow God - Personifies Technology and Progress
The Orange God - Personifies Wellness and Happiness
The Red God - Personifies War and Sex
The Pink God - Personifies Love and Romance
The Purple God - Personifies Death and Memory
The Blue God - Personifies the Mind and Knowledge
The Grey, Brown, Black, and White Gods vary considerably as fringe localized Gods across the Galaxy
The Zodiac Rebellion
Various small rebellions have turned up over the years across the Galaxy, with only very small immediate victories as a result. Over the last year a mysterious alien from unknown origins beyond the Milky Way visited individuals from the Zodiac constellations to orchestrate a network of rebels across the Galaxy. Her reasoning was vague but she speaks in riddles about Fate that inspire the extra efforts of people who have been spent for generations. When you talk nice you don’t have to actually answer questions and make much sense. She comes to be known as ‘Mother Z’, and she is an enigmatic figure who makes herself the center of this network of rebels. Together, these Zodiac rebel leaders, under the guidance of Mother Z, sync up their efforts to fight back against the corporations and to claim their lives as their own.
I have three different concepts for Mother Z. I wanted to do something related to the classic grey alien but with a more dramatically shaped head. But I also like the idea of a totally invisible being. Mother Z is a figure representative of the various incarnations of Fates, which is very typically a triad. So all three would be in the game in some capacity but only one is Mother Z and the other two are minor background figures who are probably only mentioned and never play an active role. Ideally, the player would be able to choose their Mother Z out of the three.
Mother Z is the only being of her kind ever witnessed from anyone within the Milky Way. Within the Milky Way, there are three species and a variant.
Humans
Humans are pretty self explanatory, you know what a human is. Humans have high health, low regeneration, and low stamina.
Hydra
In 2102, there was a max exodus from the oceans, and a species only previously rumoured to exist emerged from the waters of Earth. Among these are the people famously from Innsmouth, written about by HP Lovecraft. The Deep Ones, an alien species transplanted into Earth’s waters by the Great Old Ones thousands of years ago, copulated with Humans around the world to create the hybrid species that came to be known in 2102 as Hydra.
Hydra escaped the toxic rivers, lakes, and oceans as they became uninhabitable and their children were becoming too sick to survive. Naturally, Hydra were met with a lot of violence but their own advanced technologies hastened negotiations with Humans. It was with the help of Hydra technology that rapid breakthroughs in warp travel and terraforming were made.
Hydra have lungs that have evolved for breathing underwater. They are able to breathe outside of water for 1-12 hours, it varies as it is a practiced skill. They typically wear water bowl helmets. Hydra have fish-like facial features including a flat nose and large bulbous far-set eyes. They have fins instead of hair. Their skin ranges between shades of blue and green. They have webbed fingers and toes, as well as a prehensile tail. They have soft voices and are on average of similar height to humans.
Hydra have low health, high regeneration, and medium stamina.
Abominations
The ownership of corporations of their territories extends to rule over the full autonomy of those who exist within those territories. Many corporations conduct biological experiments on seized people for the purpose of researching products, but mostly for the purpose of optimizing the flesh for their militaries and the pleasure of those who could afford such costly procedures. People who are used in these experiments are often criminals (though anyone is easily deemed a criminal if the corporations that rule them wish it) and/or individuals with desirable biological traits for the particular trials.
The experiments and their results range widely with mostly horrific outcomes. While the subjects of these experiments are often killed and disposed of, the monumental volume of experimentation victims over the last couple of decades has increased to such numbers that individuals and whole groups escaping is quite normal, and even sometimes many are simply released by guilt-stricken handlers. These people can be originally Human or Hydra, but in the end they are biologically engineered to be both in some capacity. Across the Galaxy, they commonly refer to themselves and are referred to as Abominations.
Abominations have low health, medium regeneration, and high stamina.
Gorgons
Gorgons are a very small species found on a single island on the Waterworld GJ 1214 b in the Ophiuchus constellation forty years ago. The Gorgons are an advanced civilization, though their preoccupation with life on their planet left them unmotivated to venture into the stars. Water being an extraordinarily valuable resource, this planet was immediately at the center of a major war. The life forms on the island were of such extraordinary rarity and beauty, that it wasn’t long before the discovery spread across the galaxy.
Currently, the Gorgons are mostly in resistance to occupation and colonization of their island. Some, of course, have made other choices post-contact. The Waterworld has become a very dangerous place.
Gorgons have faces resembling those of Humans. They do not have eyebrows. They have snake eyes. They are very tall, averaging around seven feet tall, and their bodies are narrow in comparison to Humans and Hydras. Gorgons have what appear to be snakes as hair. These snakes are more like complex prehensile tails that contribute to extraordinary sensory awareness.
Gorgons have medium health, medium regeneration, and medium stamina.
Player Character
The player is the Gorgon rebel leader for the very controversial thirteenth Zodiac constellation, Opiuchus. I love cosmetics in games, so imagining this as a game with a full character creator, there would be options for facial features, as well as makeup, tattoos, scars, eye colour, tech augments and jewellery. Makeup and jewellery would all be colour adjustable because details matter a lot. There would be options for Gorgon hairstyles as well, but the colours of the snake hair would be limited to ten options that are tied to damage types.
The player starts with a move called Snake Bites. Obviously. Depending on the colour of snakes you chose during creation there will be different types of damage for your Snake Bites (listed in appropriate order corresponding to the image).
Cursed Snake Bites - Afflicted character misses for 1-3 turns.
Electric Snake Bites - Afflicted character is electrocuted, causing damage.
Fire Snake Bites - Afflicted character spontaneously combusts at the beginning of his turn in 1-3 turns, causing damage.
Heat Snake Bites - Afflicted character’s blood boils, causing damage for 1-3 turns.
Hypnotic Snake Bites - Player gains control of the afflicted character for 1-3 turns.
Ice Snake Bites - Afflicted character is frozen for 1-3 turns, causing damage upon unfreezing.
Life Snake Bites - Afflicted character has vines sprout through their flesh in 1-3 turns, causing damage.
Luminous Snake Bites - Afflicted character has a vision of a Titan which causes them to flee.
Shadow Snake Bites - Afflicted character goes mad and turns on their allies for 1-3 turns.
Venomous Snake Bites - Self-explanatory, right? Causes damage over 1-3 turns.
The player also has Scale Armour to start and this will eventually evolve into Stone Armour. Upon completing the first Act, the tutorial Act, the player acquires Stone Look, which turns the afflicted character to stone for a certain number of turns and if the character is hit while in the form of stone they can crumble and die. I thought perhaps to have the Stone Look powered by a rage meter, or maybe have a rage meter that allows you to do a special overpowered Stone Look move that afflicts multiple enemies. And closer to the end of the game, the player will sprout wings, which gives them additional bonus movement in combat.
There are ten playable classes, with three subclasses each.
Paladin - This is a very powerful class who are given dialogue and choice options that align with their oath. I know this is very DnD but there has to be a consequence when a paladin fails to uphold their oath consistently, so Paladins who make choices that don’t align with their oath too may times become Shadow Paladins, where all their moves are replaced with a Shadow variant. This can’t happen before the halfway point in the game though.
Holy Luminary (great weapons + luminous magic moves) - You’ve taken an oath to perform the will of Heze.
People’s Champion (sword and shield + moves that motivate and empower allies) - You’ve taken an oath to protect the common people.
Servant of the Red God (double wielding daggers + thematically limited mood altering magic moves) - You’ve taken an oath to succumb to desire in the name of the Red God.
Witch - A Witch gets their power by making a deal to serve a divine being. Breeders and Revellers will have enchanted augments added to their characters when they add certain moves to their repertoire, since their magic comes directly from those enchanted augments. Witches have extra charm skills.
Breeder (luminous magic moves that correspond to an enchanted tech augment) - You’ve made a deal to produce sons to release the Titans in exchange for the use of luminous magic.
Reveller (cosmic magic moves that correspond to an enchanted tech augment) - You’ve made a deal to live based on impulse, spreading hedonism in worship of a Great Old One in exchange for the use of cosmic magic.
Prancer (magic wand + illusion magic) - You’ve signed a contract with a corporation to sell books of the word of the Orange God in exchange for the power to create illusions.
Officer - This is a class who have received extensive training in killing efficiently. This is a very high damage class, but they are very low on intelligence and mental skills, and they behave unpredictably, often shooting random characters, including allies, off-turn in battle.
Policing (small arms) - You received your training in a localized corporate police force.
Military (explosives) - You received your training in a planetary corporate military.
Navy (heavy artillery) - You received your training aboard galactic corporate space warships.
Technomancer - This class have the ability to mentally control technology. The subclasses are broken up into occupations that would have unique skills related to their expertise that make a different sort of gameplay experience. Technomancers are typically worshippers of the Church of the Yellow God. Choosing this class makes it mandatory to add augments to your character in the creator.
Doctor (knives + medical skills)
Pilot (laser guns + strategy skills)
Miner (explosives + destruction skills)
Berzerker - This is a class of illegally unionized ship engineer gang members. Notoriously brilliant and insomniatic drug users, they require heavy stimulant usage for stamina, but are high damage with higher likeliness of critical hits.
Electrical Engineer (hammers + electrical damage) - All weapons you wield will become electrified.
Life Support Engineer (tranquilizer guns + air damage) - All weapons you wield will push the afflicted character back 1-5 steps.
Warp Engineer (double wielding guns + teleportation power) - All weapons you wield will move the afflicted character to a random spot.
Fighter - Fighters are a well balanced melee class. I based the subclasses on more modern types of fighters. Fighters are never that exciting for me unless I can give them a complicated backstory to make them more engaging, the subclasses fulfill that purpose for me.
Guerrilla Fighter (versatile melee and ranged + medical and stealth skills) - You are stronger on the ground.
Brawler (clubs and knives + medical and stamina skills) - You are stronger the more enemies you have within close range.
Performer (bare knuckles + charm and speed skills) - You are stronger when facing higher class enemies and bosses.
Assassin - This class is exclusively cult members. Most assassins, of course, worship the Green God and accept Monetary Bargains, but you’re a Zodiac Rebel, so that’s not for you. Instead, you’re an assassin from a cult that gets vengence for those who don’t have the money to pay for it. This class kills in the name of an old world demon. They’re ruthless and efficient killers. All assassins have proficiency in sniper rifles, which follow the theme of their bargains and magic. They have a deficiency of charm.
Blood Bargains (bladed weapons + blood magic) - You make your bargains in the name of Mephistopheles.
Spirit Bargains (magic staffs, tokens, and spellbooks + spirit magic) - You make your bargains in the name of Murmur.
Memory Bargains (revolvers + psychic magic) - You make your bargains in the name of Valac.
Necromancer - The necromancer class is science-based, more of a weird science thing than a magic thing. It is frequently practiced by Abominations especially. Necromancers have very high intelligence and knowledge. You also have to either choose to have a deficit of religion or a surplus of religion skills.
Reanimator (bow and arrow + chemistry skills) - You focus on reanimating the dead to get information or to amass allies to fight with you.
Summoner (staff + physics skills) - You focus on summoning spirits to assist you in battle.
Manipulator (wand + biology skills) - You focus on using blood magic to control the living and to sustain your own decaying body.
Mage - This class learns a magic through good, old-fashioned study. Of books and things. All the subclasses are the same, essentially, except the theme of the magic. Spell books, high knowledge, high intelligence, very high curiosity. You can also choose to put a bonus towards medical, charm, or mental skills. But you’re terribly weak with slower stamina regeneration.
Luminous Magic (spell books + knowledge skills)
Shadow Magic (spell books + knowledge skills)
Elemental Magic (spell books + knowledge skills)
Small Merchant - This class is sort of a combined conception of lumpen and artisans. These are individuals who illegally worked independently to develop their own products in secret, and then were either caught or voluntarily surrendered themselves to a corporation. The penatly for this crime is death, but if the corporation reviews your product and approves of it, you’re allowed to live and to continue producing your product under the protection of the corporation with a Small Merchant license. This special designation allows you to travel arround the galaxy to sell your product in any corporation’s territory. However, the number of people allowed to be incorporated along with the license holder is heavily limited by discretionary law, which limits their ability to have families and/or expand their operation. Licenses can be inherited if approved by the corporation. This class is very helpful towards your reputation points across the galaxy.
Beauty Supplier (small weapons + chemical skills) - Your patrons are mostly wealthy underlings, the class of people who exist to adorn the entourages of capitalists.
Art Trader (double wielding daggers + knowledge skills) - Your patrons are the most powerful and the most scholarly.
Grocer (double wielding sickles + nutritional skills) - Your patrons are corporate governance bureaucrats, since food distribution is a major political issue.
So, for Character creation, you would have appearance, Snake Bites options, Class, Subclass, Religion (none being an option too), and Skills. As you go through the game you can convert your Religion by reading books that will make the option available to you through self-reflective dialogue options. Your Skill points will grow based on your choices. There will also be some sort of measurement of personality development based on your choices. And then a tree for acquiring new moves, evolving existing moves, and increasing your health, stamina, and regeneration as you level up.
Act One, The Introduction to the Story
This is not going to be a play-by-play of every Act for the whole thing. I only thought of how it starts and how it ends.
The player is a Gorgon from the Waterworld and the rebel leader for the Ophiuchus Zodiac Constellation. At the beginning of the game you’re hyping up your people before inflitrating/attacking (depends on whether you want to run in recklessly or go the stamina route) a large corporate team that’s occupied a newly unearthed ancient site on the island. At some point the player finds themselves deep in the structure on a circular balcony ledge looking down on a massive pool. Inside the pool is a Great Old One which is truly shocking to the player character to see. The player has wild visions and there’s a whole thing with the structure starting to crumble and the player has to try to escape while also having flashes that affect their ability to move and/or see. When you escape the structure there’s carnage and you become enraged and you continue to have visual issues while you try to fight to survive. At this point you develop your Stone Look ability, which works on a bunch of people for the dramatic effect and all. This leads to you being able to run after a man you recognize to be an important Manager and you mus use stealth to infilitrate his transport ship. You then have to kill him and take command of the ship.
At this point, you are in this small transport ship a distance away from the planet and the whole planet explodes. You’re the last Gorgon and you have to unravel what happened to your planet. As you progress through the game you obviously acquire a more substantial ship and you build a crew from the Zodiac Rebels you meet along the way, and then you also grow your resources and allies/reputation to build your final battle experience. And companions are all romanceable, with the exception of Virgo.
Companions
The companions are made up of the Zodiac Rebels that you meet as you visit their constellations and progress through the story.
Aries
Name: Andrea
Age: 42yrs
Class: Paladin - Holy Luminary
Species: Human
Religion: Titan - Tau Ceti
Starting Weapon and/or Moves: Luminous Greatsword and a healing move.
Colour Aesthetic: Jewel-toned red, purple, and yellow + gold.
Personality: Stoic, Meticulous, Preachy
Backstory: Andrea was born into the Luminous Cult of Heze, but their parents deeply displeased him by having Andrea in secrecy. Unapproved childbirths have strict punishments in the Luminous Cults and they were not only rejected by Heze, but hunted down. Their parents found protection in the arms of Tau Ceti, another Titan, and became the most gracious and loyal members of the Luminous Cult of Tau Ceti until they inevitably died for his cause. Since the age of eleven, Andrea has been a favoured devotee of Tau Ceti. Tau Ceti takes a heavy handed stance in opposition to the corporations who have outlawed the Luminous Cults since they’ve refused to give them ownership of their Luminous technologies. The Titans take no moral stance against the corporations, they merely see them as impeding their goals and beneath them. The Titans’ war against the corporations is born of conceit and self-defense. Andrea is an enthusiastic follower who believes Tau Ceti to be benevolent.
Development: Andrea can grow to be even more devout, they can convert back to Heze, or abandon the Luminous Path to be a Shadow Paladin for various different reasons. Their development focuses heavily on questioning their faith and learning more about what the Titans actually are and understanding that their goals are totally indifferent towards human life.
Taurus
Name: Ebele
Age: 31yrs
Class: Witch - Breeder
Species: Human
Religion: Luminous Cult - Heze
Starting Weapon and/or Moves: Hand, feet and face augments that correspond to a Luminous Beam move, a Healing Dance move, and Identity Illusion move. And also a hairwhip move that causes lacerations from the sharp ends of her long dreadlocks. She’ll unlock optional hair related moves as she levels up as well.
Colour Aesthetic: Light and dark green, neon yellow + gold.
Personality: Cheerful, Courteous, Presumptuous
Backstory: Ebele was raised in a mining colony and had a really rough childhood. A mining accident at the age of thirteen resulted in the loss of her left foot, a trauma Ebele struggled to cope with particularly because she couldn’t afford a proper prosthetic and had to rely on something her bunkermates put together with scraps they managed to sneakily steal. She had to keep her foot secret, on account of the theft of material and time required to construct such a thing. In addition, it caused her considerable pain. Six years later, her colony was infiltrated and occupied by the Luminous Cult of Heze for three weeks while the Cult stole resources and collected members. Heze himself lead the occupation and almost singlehandedly kept the siege by the corporation at bay while they seized the desired goods and people. Heze took a direct interest in Ebele and personally invited her to join his cult. She agreed, and became a Breeder. She’s not seen or spoken with Heze in any capacity since that day, but she has since birthed three children, only one of whom was a boy and his transformation into a vessel was unsuccessful, he died. The other two children were moved into children’s learning communities. Ebele uses her magic to help fascilitate the safety and secrecy of these communities and she is considered a great matriarchal protector of children. She also makes time to fulfill her agreement, and travels to consort with desirable partners. She is currently in her first term of pregnancy.
Development: Ebele’s pregnancy will progress throughout the story. She will go through periods of questioning the fates of her three children and what will come of her current pregnancy. Ultimately, Ebele’s personal development will focus on the choices she makes as a mother.
Gemini
Name: Josquin +Esther and Tommy
Age: 38yrs
Class: Officer - Policing
Species: Human
Religion: None
Starting Weapons and/or Moves: Multi-barrel plasma gun and a Wail move that intimidates enemies.
Colour Aesthetic: Mustard yellow, military green, lavender, brown + chrome.
Personality: Josquin - Idealist, Disciplined, Sad / Esther: Intense, Perceptive, Grim / Tommy: Outspoken, Decisive, Petty
Backstory: Josquin became a police officer because he idolized his father who was a cop who died while on duty. He specifically worked as a detective on one of the luxury worlds investigating murders but he remained an idealist and performed well. He was approached as a candidate for a new procedure his corporation was starting to do on select officers. This new procedure involved the digitization of a dying officer’s consciousness and the incorporation of it into the mind of a living officer. The purpose was to improve the performance of already optimally performing officers. Josquin agreed and that’s when Tommy was incorporated into his mind. Tommy became a police officer because after his proficiency exams the only educational sponsorship he could get was to a police academy, and that options seemed so much better than returning to the factory. He was deep into an undercover operation within an organization labelled as rebels when he was accidentally shot by someone within the operation cleaning a gun. He was selected to be digitized and incorporated with Josquin to continue his undercover operation. The arrangement was tortuous and regrettable for the both of them, but it was irreversible. The procedure was effective in its goals though. But after years of Tommy in his head, Josquin slipped up majorly, having gotten too comfortable with his extrahuman abilities, and the result was the fatal wounding of his partner, Esther. Tommy was deadset against incorporating a third consciousness when the offer had been made shortly after the initial procedure years ago, and up until now Josquin had agreed. But Josquin made the decision to do so because it’s his partner, and cop tropes. Esther is the estranged daughter of one of the corporation’s board members. Estranged because she chose to become a police officer instead of going into business. A farce she continued out of spite despite hating her job. Once Esther was incorporated, Josquin was made aware of knowledge she had regarding her father’s death. He was murdered by cops on the order of their corporation’s board of directors because he was hoarding illegally obtained corporate data. Josquin is then prompted to secretly work against the corporation from within the police force on a prestigious luxury world. Josquin, Esther, and Tommy are all of the combined mind to perform illegal acts if necessary to help desperate people escape the law and to uncover the secrets of the data Josquin’s father was killed for.
Development: The truth they uncover reveals various ways their lives have overlapped to lead to the combination of their consciousness. This can lead to peace or anger. And either response can lead to the character either martyring themselves or becoming a villain.
Extra note: I don’t think it would be a popular choice to have a cop as a rebel leader, but I think it’s smart to create a variation of characters to create conflict within the story and for the player.
Another extra note: This is not supposed to be representational of Dissociative Identity Disorder.
And one more extra note: The collar puts limitations on the incorporated minds. They all exist at the same time, in psychic dialogue with each other. Josquin speaks from his body. Esther and Tommy’s faces are projected as pictured from the collar over Josquin’s head and they speak from the speakers on the collar. The collar stops Esther and Tommy from controlling any facet of Josquin’s physical body. They discover though that there are settings that can set any selection of them as dormant, and give control of the body to any of them as well. Part of the level growth for him could involve being extra superpowered by having different consciousnesses in control of the body.
Last note because something occurred to me: As a romanceable character the above could get sketchy, but any romancing of any individual or combination of these three characters would be an extra challenge with triple the dialogue of other romances to acquire the consent of all three. For obvious reasons.
Cancer
Name: Nia
Age: 47yrs
Class: Technomancer - Doctor
Species: Hydra
Religion: The Great Old Ones - Mother Hydra and Father Dagon (they may not qualify as Great Old Ones within the Lovecraft Mythos, BUT the Hydra’s popular religion certainly portrays them as such.)
Starting Weapon and/or Moves: The biomechanical pincer arms on her back have a Strike move. And she has moves to regenerate hers or another characters health and stamina.
Colour Aesthetic: Blue and dark violet + chrome.
Personality: Brilliant, soft, guilt-ridden.
Backstory: Nia worked in large colony hospitals until she was forcefully recruited by her corporation to perform surgeries for their biological experiments. She killed and mutilated so many people that she quickly learned not to keep count, and she did so under duress. She thought she had no other option but to do as ordered or die. She then struck up a friendship with a patient she was working on, a criminal named Odo. Nia carefully devised a plan to help Odo escape and it wasn’t until many surgeries that she was able to execute the plan. She successfully got Odo out. She was welcomed by the rebels she’d arranged to retrieve Odo, his former comrades, and Odo encouraged her to escape with him. She agreed and she was introduced to a whole new world. Driven by guilt, Nia has created a network of nomadic medically trained rebels who travel the galaxy aiding other rebels in need. She remains close friends with Odo.
Development: Nia’s personal story is focused on introspection about her guilt and the effect it has on her medical treatment network. There will be some sort of conflict that arises because the network specifically provides medical services to other rebels and never to anyone else. Odo factors into Nia’s story heavily.
Leo
Name: Elliott and his holographic pet lion Albrecht
Age: 29yrs
Class: Berzerker - Electrical Engineer
Species: Human
Religion: The Grey God of Anarchy
Starting Weapon and/or Moves: Two electric hammers and three stamina boosters.
Colour Aesthetic: Orange, brown, and sky blue + bronze.
Personality: Clever, resourceful, cynical.
Backstory: Elliott is the union leader on his ship and perpetual second to the Chief Electrical Engineer. He grew up in ships, and was hanging out with union folks in electrical rooms from a very young age. When he was a teenager his union was caught and many arrested, including himself. He refused to turn on his fellow union members but was transferred instead of executed because of a lucky coincidence with a manager who had moral objections to killing kids on ships. After he was transferred to his current post he was more careful with his union organizing. He now heads one of the most powerful unions in the galaxy on a major corporate warship.
Development: Elliott’s development focuses on where his home is. In the end, depending on choices, his ending is tied up in where he chooses to be.
Virgo
Name: Heze and his pet bird Zeta LII
Age: Unknowable
Class: Titan
Species: Titan
Religion: Titan - Heze
Starting Weapon and/or Moves: His entire body is enchanted on the inside so he doesn’t need any weapons or accessories to channel the luminous magic that makes up his entire being.
Colour Aesthetic: Gold + neon yellow.
Personality: He has a specific and peculiar personality that can’t be described in three words. On the surface he behaves childishly in an eerie way, he makes obnoxious demands and throws tantrums and demands exhausting amounts of attention. He is very secretive and observant, he collects and files all information for potential manipulative use later. He is essentially an immoral trickster god. But he has indescribable power (limited by the confines of his vessel) and his egocentricism naturally appeals to desperate people conditioned by capitalist society.
Backstory: I’ve already described most of his story. He was from a species that came about accidentally from the frivolous actions of the Great Old Ones. This species repulsed the Great Old Ones and they were imprisoned in the sky as stars/suns. Heze was always exceptionally strong and clever. When Humans and Hydra began exploring the Virgo constellation, Heze called out to Lady Lydia and tricked her into performing a series of rituals on living flesh to create a vessel to carry him. He has since grown a large cult, commanding followers to replicate and improve the scientific and magical rituals that went into the creation of Heze’s vessel so the other Titans can be freed from their prisons too. This, of course, is not good for life, since removal of stars destroys entire systems and the life within them.
Development: Heze is not good. He primarily exists as the voice of sadism on the player’s shoulder, with a potential route for the character to intentionally or unintentionally betray humanity by joining in Heze’s cause.
Libra
Name: Raya
Age: 26yrs
Class: Fighter - Guerrilla Fighter
Species: Human
Religion: The Purple God
Starting Weapons and/or Moves: Battle axe and chakram, and she has a move that increases her movement.
Colour Aesthetic: Pink, deep cool reds, deep cool browns + silver.
Personality: Generous, Funny, Stubborn
Backstory: Raya was born on an agricultural planet in a tribe that has unique beliefs about the Purple God who they worship as the only true god. Raya’s people don’t worship death in a manner that calls them to kill in reverence. They actually consider it a sin to kill unless it’s for the purpose of preserving the rightful dignity of a natural death held by all sentient life. Because the Purple God is also a god of memory, Raya’s people consider a natural death of old age the path out of reincarnation and into heaven. They are opposed to space travel because they think it’s an unnatural influence on the aging of the body. Their beliefs are quite extreme, but it’s easy to make exceptions and to explain seemingly contradictory choices by rationalizing that it’s for the purpose of preserving the right to natural death. Raya shares all of these beliefs. Raya’s tribe are nomads on the agricultural planet who struggle to survive since the planet is heavily secured. As a result of the dangerous circumstances of their existence, they are all excellent fighters and effective thieves. Raya was always aware of the poverty and starvation of the colonies on her world, but after coming by a satellite radio by chance and communicating with people suffering on other worlds, she realized this was a huge problem. Raya convinced her tribe to orchestrate a way to steal enough food to assist starving colonists on their planet and also other planets by requiring the goods be picked up. Since they believe in reincarnation there are a lot of grey areas where sins are often rationalized as necessary for the cause. Your sins don’t carry over, you’ll die of old age and have a chance to make it to your natural death of old age and into heaven in the next life.
Development: The player would have a tough time convincing Raya to leave her planet and join them and there would have to be some sort of consequence. She would obviously deal with a lot of uncertainty if she’s doing space travel with you, so that will be a major point of internal conflict. Her people also naturally really hate corporations and the Luminous Cults, so she will have conflict with several of the other characters as well and either those issues can escalate or be mediated to improve over the course of the game.
Scorpio
Name: Phist
Age: 35
Class: Assassin - Blood Bargains
Species: Human
Religion: Mephistopheles
Starting Weapons and/or Moves: Blood hex sniper rifle and a cursed knife.
Colour Aesthetic: Black, red, burgundy, and eggplant + silver.
Personality: Witty, Playful, Secretive
Backstory: You don’t ever learn his backstory and it should be very obnoxious and frustrating for the player. Your dialogue with Phist is primarily heavily philosophical and if you befriend or romance him your interactions expand into discussions about your interests, so you learn about different media situated in this world. Over time, Phist explains his cult to the player and why he’s called Phist. Phists are people who make requests of Mephistopheles that are so monumental that they have to perform so many blood bargain assassinations in payment first. Blood bargain assassinations involve the promise of the soul of a future descendent of the bargainer, entirely up to the choice of Mephistopheles who he chooses from their lineage. The Phist then kills the target with the blood of the bargainer. Phist reveals his payment for the souls is to become an immortal demon himself. Phist was instructed to perform 837 blood bargain assassinations, and he’s reached 836.
Development: Does he perform the 837th blood bargain assassination or not? And if he doesn’t, what does all his philosophical ranting amount to in context of killing 836 people for nothing. Philosophical dilemmas abound with this character. If you romance Phist he shares that his real name is Nadim.
Extra Note: His blood sniper rifle is powered by just random blood, it’s not always bargain blood unless he’s actually performing a blood bargain assassination.
Sagittarius
Name: Odo
Age: 54yrs
Class: Necromancer - Reanimator
Species: Abomination
Religion: None, and he is extremely antagonist in regards to religion.
Starting Weapons and/or Moves: Bow and arrow and a big hatchet, main starting move is a Reanimator Arrow that will reanimate a corpse or nearby skeleton to protect and fight for you (this is limited to 1 at a time in the beginning.)
Colour Aesthetic: Purple, teal and neon green + steel.
Personality: Forthright, Calm, Ambitious
Backstory: Odo had a brief encounter with a small group of rebels in his home colony. The rebels were defending a young person from corporate security, and when presented with the dilemma of whether to step in and stop the inevitable killing of the youth and rebels, Odo had the courage to intervene. The youth and Odo both fled with the rebels who welcomed them graciously to leave their planet on their space ship. Over time Odo acquired his own ship and led his own rebel group, providing escape and transport to oppressed people. Odo was unfortunately caught during a mission gone wrong and he was forced into the biological experiments. He befriended one of his surgeons, Nia, who promised to assist him in escaping. While he waited for that to happen, he had an extra torso and legs added to his body, his feet were replaced with hands, his ears were given points, and he had a second heart transplanted into his chest. Eventually, Nia did break Odo out, and he was restored to captain his ship.
Development: Odo’s story would focus on learning more about the corporate experimentation and ending them.
Capricorn
Name: Alma
Age: 67yrs
Class: Mage - Luminous Magic
Species: Hydra
Religion: Titan - Heze
Starting Weapons and/or Moves: Staff and digital spellbook.
Colour Aesthetic: Grey, soft yellow, blue-violet + gold.
Personality: Eccentric, Tough, Sarcastic
Backstory: It’s very unusual for Hydra to join Luminous Cults. Alma, however, grew up taking care of her sick father who was a conspiracy nut with a strong belief that the Hydra didn’t actually need to leave the waters of Earth and did so at the behest of Cthulhu who wished for their demise. He also believed that Father Dagon and Mother Hydra were pretenders who were actually more like Adam and Eve figures who were left to their own devices and chose to manipulate their offspring into worshipping them. When Alma’s father died she was left with no purpose in her life. Due to the values and ideologies promoted by her father, Alma was easily swayed to the cause of the Luminous Cults, seeing the Titans as the rightful rulers of the universe.
Development: Can you sway her to change her beliefs? Can she sway you to change your beliefs? You’ll need to have 800 repetitive eerily hostile discussions about it to find out. Interacting with Alma should feel as much like wasting hours of your life debating a conspiracist on social media as possible. To motivate the player to suffer through this, Alma plays a very significant role in the conclusion of the game and what significant role she plays depends on the choices you make in relation to her.
Aquarius
Name: Gironima
Age: 42yrs
Class: Small Merchant - Beauty Supplier
Species: Hydra
Religion: The Great Old Ones - Mother Hydra only
Starting Weapon and/or Moves: Small pistol and a stiletto knife, a Poisoning move.
Colour Aesthetic: Coral, dark brown, blue and green + soft gold.
Personality: Charming, Methodical, Dishonest
Backstory: Gironima was the daughter of a corporate CEO’s palace servant on one of the luxury worlds. She was a disobedient child who was regularly disciplined by house security and she was an equally difficult teenager. When it was rumoured that the CEO ordered for Gironima to be taken away to a convent of the Green God the servants conspired and quickly snuck Gironima into the underground sewer systems to live amongst other social rejects with no other options. By the age of nineteen, Gironima had developed an immaculate product line of beauty products and she confidently resurfaced for the first time in four years and surrendered herself to the CEO. Her beauty products rewarded her with a Small Merchant license, thanks to the support of much of the CEO’s harem. Gironima has not only continued to thrive with her beauty supply business, but she’s developed connections with members of the entourages of capitalists across the Galaxy and has managed to establish a business carefully hidden with her beauty supply business involving the selling of poisons to vengeful members of these entourages.
Development: Gironima is put in a situation where she’s forced to question whether individual deaths ever help to change anything. There are many potential conclusions she can reach and they’re all more complicated than yes or no.
Extra Note: This character is inspired by Gironima Spana.
Pisces
Name: Kiyan
Age: 33yrs
Class: Oracle
Species: Hydra
Religion: The Great Old Ones - Oorn
Starting Weapons and/or Moves - Spear, a singing move that alters the afflicted character’s mood in a manner of the player’s choosing called Serenade, and a Frozen Orb move.
Colour Aesthetic: Light and dark aquamarine, seafoam green + soft gold.
Personality: Thoughtful, Curious, Melancholic
Backstory: Kiyan was born with a third eye and an aptitude for unique magic. It’s a rare occurence, but oracles have been recorded throughout Hydran history. Oracles are automatically adopted into a special Order of the Sighted where they spend their formative years learning how to use their powers. Oracles have visions of the future (often with the use of tools like cards or bones to assist in clarifying visions - potentially a series of in-game fortune telling games), voices that can alter the moods of others through song, oral storytelling, or the recitation of poetry, and water related magic (including cold/ice). Oracles are trained to be entirely free of judgment and personal ideology. They live in the service of anyone who calls upon them to provide their services, travelling around fulfilling requests for fortunes told, moods altered, and whatever assistance their water magics might provide. It’s a very lonely life but Kiyan performs his duties as he is too fearful and anxious about breaking from the path laid out for him since birth.
Development: It’s easy to talk Kiyan into joining you. Kiyan’s story involves a lot of new experiences for him and you learn more about Oracles and particularly about Oorn, who is an important factor in gaining information that helps you in your end game. It’s nearly impossible to not develop an intimate friendship or romance with this character, but choices you make and things you say to him have a much stronger impact and consequences for the character’s path. Kiyan has moves that only unlock if you achieve a certain reputation level with him. His survival and presence in your party is mandatory to win the final optional boss battle.
Extra Note: Hydras are the only species in the Milky Way known to be born Oracles.
Story Conclusion
The big finale takes place on a strange world with nothing on it but the Green God’s kingdom. The player surmises that the Green God acts as galactic governor and that the capitalists take direction from him. Evidence suggests that he ordered the end of her world and species, and the player can make a series of assumptions about what the Green God even is depending on the choices they’ve made and the side quests they’ve completed. Is he just the richest man ever? Is he a magical being? Is he augmented into divinity? Regardless of what he is, the player needs to kill him. The whole end sequence starts by managing to land on the planet, reaching the location of the Green God’s kingdom, then getting into the city, and then the player has to make their way through the city streets and into the palace to find the Green God inside. The amount and type of support in this final major battle depends on the connections the player made with different individuals and factions. Choices inform who lives and who dies.
After killing the Green God, it’s revealed that the destruction of the Waterworld wasn’t intentional but the result of a series of mistakes and bad decisions by several parties, some directly a result of the direction of the Green God, and some not, but in the end it’s debatable where the player wants to place the blame. The amount of detail and aspects of the chain of events that are revealed to the player depend on which side quests they’ve completed. And then the player can choose to take the place of the Green God for a variety of motivations (self-serving, to be a benevolent ruler, etc), to make the Green God’s kingdom a rebel haven, to go back to adventuring in the ship, to settle down on a planet, etc, etc. And then there are various outcomes based on the character’s choices throughout the game.
But wait! Then there’s more. It’s revealed that Mother Z had knowledge of these events transpiring before the destruction of the world. There’s a confrontation. Throughout the game there are hints in the main story quests and side quests about the origins of the Gorgons and the creature in the ancient site. But now Mother Z reveals that the creature on the Waterworld was Yig. Thousands of years ago, groups of Hydras did attempt warp space travel, but their calculations were clumsy and they ended up crash landing on the island of the Waterworld. When these Hydra killed the snakes on the island for food Yig became angry and turned them into Gorgons. The Gorgons lost all memory of their history, crash landing on a strange planet and being transformed into snake people by a Great Old One is traumatic. They carried on, and created a utopic society. Yig lived in the water of the Waterworld all that time, the site was a temple rigged to call Yig, but an unfortunate event occurred too long ago to be remembered that resulted in the burial of the temple and it was all but forgotten along with Yig’s presence in the waters of their planet. The occupying corporation couldn’t summon Yig, as the temple was bound to only work for Gorgons, so when the bleeding player enters the large room with the pool, that’s when Yig arrived and immediately knew what was going to happen, imparting precious power on the player (the unique Gorgon powers). The player can have a variety of reactions to this news and a bunch of complicated feelings about Yig.
Mother Z knew these events would transpire and inserted herself to adjust the events of the aftermath. Mother Z is a member of a trio of Oracles, each a member of a different species granted with the Oracle gift by Oorn. Oorn, however, has been captured by a much more intimidating and dangerous Great Old One (Ghatanothoa?) who has taken the trio of powerful Oracles into his service to play with Fate on his behalf. Yig’s demise was a satisfying settlement of an old score for Oorn-controlling fate-meddling Great Old One. The end of the Green God was a necessity that would set other events in motion, those events are left a mystery (subject for a sequel?). Mother Z tells the player that their existence is of no consequence any longer. The player can at this point end the game simply by walking away either with the intention of going on with their life or trying to sabotage this mysterious future that was set in motion, they can ask to join Mother Z’s cause, or they can attack Mother Z who is a hard as fuck fight that’s ALMOST impossible to win.
Full disclosure, it really didn’t occur to me that it would be remotely this long, but here we are.