Welcome to The Dreaming [closed to ZeeBat, planning]

[ZeeBat]

-Aye that sounds good. ^^

-Actually I think I want Forneus to be a sort of third party new money company? or something hmmm.

-I do think a family focused on Espionage would be a great idea, sort of a subtle power thing.

-But yeah teleportation should be pretty risky and with consequences if it goes wrong. Maybe it also has a build up of a cast time?

-That is true, but they might also safeguard whatever fragments the Endless might have left behind?

[Chaotic Cam]

Okay how would that work? Cause I'm already confused with all the threads that need to connect, lmao.
I want to make the teleportation family a thing down the line, but if you're not interested that can be something down the road.
However I do want to control the Head of the House. So, let's say Natalia Fenrir is the Head of House Fenrir and leader of the 9th City? So that can be the beginning of our Asharia Lore. I wanna play her eventually as she'll be a true cut-throat leader, and it will be interesting to see for Circe as gender-roles are rather different in Oridian.

So alright, let's see.
Forneus Cooperation is controlled by ? but they have ties to both Durne Pharmaceuticals because of the drugs they use for experiments.
Harushu Naima was the Head Scientist working on Project Bluethorne alongside scientists from Durne Pharmaceuticals. Naima was a small independently owned lab run solely by Harushu and his ten employees. The only reason why Durne Pharma was working with such a seemingly insignificant scientist is because Harushu came up with Project Bluethorne. However the only place he could find funding and people to believe in his research was when a Durne family member visited his City in Asharia. This Durne family member had heard rumors of what Harushu was planning, and while others thought he was crazy, this Durne believed in him.

Harushu lives in the First City of Asharia, which is the one closest to Oridian's border. This is where I imagine our setting will take place as well, so we should probably start with the Lore for this City first.

In the end though, we know Durne Pharmaceuticals stole the work and cut all ties with a vengeful Harushu.
With the loss of his funding he could no longer maintain his lab, and he had to let go the 10 scientist that were working with him (three which have mysteriously died by the time we catch up with present day).
Just a singular man, Harushu gets drunk and does idiotic stuff. He boards a boat to Oridian and The City of Fortune, as he's got it in his head that he's somehow going to walk all the way to the City of Enlightenment and give Orion Durne a smack down. Again, very drunk, but it gets him to The City of Fortune where, lo and behold, Circe Dune happens to be visiting at the time.
This is when he has the 'brilliant' idea to kidnap her, as he sees her using her trade-mark Durne powers out in the open. He owns two slaves and they were the muscle that captured her.
Now back in Asharia and sober, he has no idea what to do.
After some thinking he comes up with a half-assed plan that basically involves calling one of his cousins, who's wife happens to be sisters with someone we'll call Jolene Fenrir. He figures he has a political tool and he can use Circe to give him power and get-in with the Fenrir Family.
However, let's say he's making all these calls and giving out all this information too freely. He's not in espionage, and he's not the brightest cookie when it comes to keeping secrets. He never gets one-on-one in touch with any actually member of House Fenrir, but he does end up getting his door smashed in by the Forneus Corporation?

So somehow those calls connected the name Fenrir with the Forneus Corporation, and someone sent Forneus there, but at the time being it's still unclear who's actually in charge.

Does that work maybe?

If so, what is the point of Forneus? Just experimentation? I'm guessing they're also mercenary-for-hire though.
Do they have a bigger goal and a master plan with a master leader behind it? Or like you say, just new-money and all business?
If it's just new-money and all business, I'm thinking the Head Big Bad might be Natalia Fenrir for down the line? That's at least how everything is connected in relation to Circe.

Or like, let's say Forneus is just the middle-man for the Big Bad? However, Forneus can have it's own history that you make up of course, and it's own ties to certain things like Durne Pharma for example and experiments. The person in charge of Forneus could be a bad guy in their own right. Like the boss before the boss.

Does all of that makes sense? My brain is starting to die a little, lmao.

- And yes to the built up cast time. For example, looking at the map of Oridian:
Let's say the farthest someone can teleport at one time is like the distance from Sacramento California to Phoenix, Arizona? I'm really no good with measurements I had to look at a map, so whatever amount of distance that is. That's the farthest in one go though, and also not recommended as yes, there would be burnout that could last up to a few days. So basically in order to use their powers to get to The City of Order, it would have been a very long, arduous, and not at all easy task. They'd also have to have a scout that went out on foot first in order to capture and show them a magical Hologram visualization of the Teleportation Points, so they can know where to go.
So it would have taken several years for this plan to happen and to get people from Asharia stationed in different sections of Oridian. I imagine it's a long-plan that still has many years ahead of it.

- I like that, the idea of safeguarding fragments of Stuff from The Endless. Not even the oldest Oridian knows the true story of The Endless, as that was lost to all living knowledge, but they are aware they are artifacts of what is assumed to be gods and the first sorcerer's. So yes, because of this reason, this is why they'll end up having the portal.

[ZeeBat]

-We're gonna need a relationship web between all the factions at some point. This is a lot of tangles. ^^;

-I want Forneus to have a PMC division, a science division, and a division about selling slaves. So they would be a third party to a lot of things I think. I also want this region to have less of the Family thing and more focus on the Corps. So a lot less hierchal and way more free market extreme capitalism if that makes sense?

-So Forneus is kind of like evil Stark Industries, for a comparison.

-What else do we need? I'm kind of stalling out on big world stuff.

[Chaotic Cam]

- Well I've already got a Durne Genealogy started and basically a Lore Book, as well as the beginnings of other family trees for the Oridian Twelve - so why not add one more thing to the pile? Lmao.

- PMC? So contracting? And what kind of contracting, is that just the mercenary work or? And OK that works and sounds good, makes a lot of sense when they also have ties in the Slave Trade.

And no my brain can't compute that right now, sorry. But I kinda hear what you're saying? As in, the 9 Families of Asharia are powerful, but they don't control everything and have to do more with government maybe, since there's only 9 of them? Some of the families could have ties to the Big Corps, but it wasn't just about having the right last name. So many of the people in power could not have powers? Although in the end nepotism does win out over the years.
Explain the free market to me like I was ten with smaller words. ^^
Also I should start putting the spreadsheet out for the Asharia Lore.

- OK, I hear you. So is there an evil 'Tony Stark' to go with all of that? Basically a genius billionaire who decided to do all of this? I'm guessing he'd be considered the head Bad Guy for Forneus.

Well explain the market to me and how all that stuff works. The only thing I want rooted in the foundation of Asharia is that there are 9 Powered Families and they hold high status almost like royalty. What their duties are, no idea though. That part of the political spectrum would more be something for you to work out I think, how the government works and all that is.

[ZeeBat]

-I'm still really impressed by all the stuff you have lined up on the info sheets.

-PMC is Private Military Company, so not just mercs but also heavy operations. Like if you need a small very well-equipped army, that is a deniable asset. I'm basically modeling them after ShinRa from Final Fantasy 7, but I don't think you know what that is.

-kinda like the families are there, but they're not openly ruling. Officially they don't rule, everything is kind of merit and money based. In reality, all the powerful boards, CEO's, and councils are families under a fig leaf.

-free market is basically the economy without any of the safeties and laws that normally protect people. No minimum wage, mandated benefits, no protection against monopolies, undercutting, price fixing, etc.

[Chaotic Cam]

- Thank you! Have you checked them all out, genealogy included (there's bios for some of the characters) or are you waiting for me to explain stuff through the writing? ^^

- Yeah I have no clue what that is, sorry. ^^; So this could include military intelligence as well as physical soldiers? How small is a small army? And so they'll give all this muscle and small armies to people for a price, then? To just anyone who has the money? Or who are their customers? Do they have a brick and mortar company that's seen by the public eye? Or are they very hush hush?

- Sorry, families under a fig leaf? I don't get that expression. So basically kind of like the British Royal Family? I don't know everything about their system, but I do know family members reside in a part of the country or something? That's how you get like Duke of Wessex or whatever. And they have their own duties and everything to the country. But the real person in charge of the country is the Prime Minister, right? So basically replace the Minister with MegaCorps?

- And gotcha. Okay I kinda get where you're coming from. You can explain it more in narrative later as we write.


What else? Also I'm uninspired rn. /: