End of GoSS Thread

[Ky]

I hoped people would have been able to find some way to wrap this RP up without me, but that appears not to be the case. And since I hate leaving a story on a cliffhanger, I'll just reveal what the book of fate has to say about the plot inconsistencies and what was planned to come.

Why doesn't anyone talk much about the Old World? (The version of the game the oldfafs played?) What happened to it?

Destroyed, by the AoD.

AoD - that's could mean one of many things, like Avatar of Destruction, Armies of Darkness, Archdemon of Demons, etc. The antithesis to both order and chaos, the lack of both structure and unpredictability, the default state of evil - it's fitting that a being (or beings) so vile would preside over Undera (the abyssal planes of hell, to which the demons and madgods - evil ones, in the words of Chanku - are bound).

If a character from GoSS were to visit the Old World today, they would have to take a plane or, more likely, a boat - after a short sail to the east of Capitalistian, they'd find the landmasses of the Old World...and wouldn't be able to even set foot on them, as they would be shrouded in a corrosive black smoke on a far greater magnitude of danger than excessive radiation.

Worse yet, even if one could walk the blighted landscapes of the Old World, they would see no bodies or lifeforms - that's because they are only standing on the physical part of a split realm, and the once-living beings are now the tormented souls fueling much of Undera.

It is implied that the AoD destroyed these lands by feeding upon the dissent and conflict between the nations there, finishing them off at the climax of a war lost to history.

All that remains of the Old World - people, things, culture - is everything that left it before its destruction. (For instance, the factions vying for control of Skyvana/Revivalstan are mostly ethnic groups from the Old World, the Sea Land government-in-exile secretly made their way back to Sea Land from New Sealand at some point, etc.)

Why didn't Emperor Fawsum take advantage of the League's location during the War? He's the one who captured Americium in the first place - why else would he have offered the League the main island if not to spring a trap?

He had no desire of betraying the League when he made that offer.

His conquest of Americium, while a slap in the face to pre-League international conventions, was actually one of the last things he planned while still somewhat sane. When he extended the offer of the main island to the League of Nations, he was legitimately concerned about nations potentially becoming hostile to the Isle of Three, and thus, unable to attend League meetings - including his own, as he knew that his SB-induced dementia was getting worse.

See, he was a test subject for SB-122 (a precursor to SB-129 through -133), as he was kidnapped a little under a year before the League opened, only to make his escape a couple of months later - a couple of months too late to stop slowly losing his grip on reality. More on that later.

By the time he started the War, he was too far gone - the SB formula augmented his strength and perception, but his insanity played a great role in his defeat nonetheless (and prevented him from taking full advantage of the League's neutral location, though he did organize an invasion on the island anyway).

What was up with the Fallout spin-off? Was there any point to that?

Yep.

Long story short, the heroes (including this universe's Lone Wanderer, who was awakened from cryogenic sleep a couple hundred years later than he should have been) needed to find pre-War technology on an island (where the Acarian Isle once stood, now called "Utopia") out in the distant sea. Their objective was to find a naval craft capable of actually reaching it.

After scouring the Wastes, arming themselves, and becoming badasses, they would eventually have been led to an abandoned, dried-up docks district a few miles northwest of Chank City, home to a mostly-intact ship known as the Hawk Centurion (sound familiar?). The people of Chank City - even the warring factions - would then be convinced to work together to make it sea-ready and radiation-proof, and send the heroes on their way to collect this technology.

Upon arriving in Utopia, they would experience visions created by an ancient (the enigmatic precursor race that once ruled over the Isle of Three, created impossibly amazing technology, and disappeared for no known reason) - an ancient about to disappear completely from the fabric of reality, as did his brethren. He would manage to lead the heroes to a chamber where the consciousness of one individual could be sent back into the past to prevent nuclear war from ever happening.

The Lone Wanderer would be chosen - his memories would join those of himself in the main universe just before he entered the cryostasis chamber, where he would very quickly amend the controls so that he would be woken up in a matter of months rather than decades. He would then influence King Chandler's decision to create a League of Nations and insisted on the disarmament of nuclear weapons, after which he would leave for the Acarian Isle and play his role in history.

The reason for his mental un-wellness after Martin's death? Partly grief, and partly trying to consolidate two different sets of memories within his head.

And the Games? Why was Winters so weird and...omniscient?

Because, as much as he pretended to be, he wasn't actually a victim.

He was a leader of the Amerigoan sect of FASH, seeking to join the Capitalistian sect - known as the Freedom Activists Seeking Holiness, to the public - and wanted to make his initiation more interesting for himself.

He had arranged for the GameMaker to be broken out of his asylum a year and a half prior, and paid the GM to "kidnap" himself and three individuals - the only stipulation on these individuals being that they had to be the outcasts, the pariahs, of Capitalistian society. He went along with the GM's schemes and pretended to resist partly to get in contact with FASH and partly because, well, he was a closet masochist.

He was also a sadist - as soon as he discovered the destroyed FASH vault beneath Dieter-Meyers (where, ironically, Ducas Fawsum had been imprisoned for the SB experiment), and informed Watson of what had happened there, she ordered him to destroy the vault. He rigged not only the vault, but the entire complex, to blow, killing the GM, the three other prisoners, and the Urent within as he made his way to the new headquarters to investigate the SB serum further.

He would die only a few days after first being tasked with its delivery to Watson's men.

So how does this act end?

We left off with Dallas and Chandler making their way back to the mostly-liberated Isle to ward off the threat of nuclear war. Their plan, however, is not to launch the Tsar Bomba or to respond directly to the threat - it's to activate the time machine.

(Note that as this is happening, each great house is presenting the King of Demiosa with a gift - House Redoran goes last, and Syllex presents the King with a demonic-looking dagger...which he plunges into the King's throat, whispering "Hail FASH" as he himself is killed by the Demiosan King's guards. Coupled with the increasingly insane Lone Wanderer, pouring all of his interest into warfare, no nation is completely safe from the grip of FASH any longer.)

As they suspected, the Acar - rather, the Isle sect of FASH, pinning the blame for their actions on that ethnic group - had sent agents through time already, explaining their inexplicable grip on the world. Together, they round up a hero from each nation to form the Black Aces, a group dedicated to restoring history in the service of King Chandler.

Chandler and Dallas watch the machine as the Black Aces go back in time, six months before the creation of the League, to head off the miscreants who had already done so, in the hopes of using the ripple effect to their advantage.

They discover some secrets about two secret agents who had died on a mission with past Dallas, past Lucky, and past Tango, they find and neutralize the time-travelling FASH agents the world over right under the nose of every nation's leader, they convince the trolls of Trollandia to send rockets to the moon - their homeland - in secret so that their race is not entirely wiped out by the Orks, and they execute the mad Emperor of Sea Land before he ever has a chance to start a War, unite the world under misrule, and summon the AoD (the demonic invasion).

Except it wasn't the Emperor - it was an impersonator by the name of Jafar Garn, who pretended to be Ducas Fawsum while the real one was imprisoned and experimented on by FASH. Fawsum shows up just in time to inform them that the full insanity hasn't taken effect yet, and that he knows why the Black Aces have come for him - because Qufad Tau (fun fact: you can read the name backwards), the bounty hunter responsible for Acarian victories over the Isle and who traveled back in time with the FASH agents, was with him.

Qufad Tau admits to the Black Aces that he no longer wished to follow FASH's orders - he realized that they intended to bring about the end of the world the same way the Old World ended - and went back in time with them so that he could secretly undo their work. He was the one who rescued Emperor Fawsum from FASH custody (and who left the FASH outpost in Dieter-Meyers in ruins for Winters to find a year later), hoping that doing so prematurely would prevent Fawsum from becoming fully insane. The Black Aces informed him that he did not succeed.

The Emperor, cognizant that he would soon lose his grip on reality, urged the time travelers to hide or destroy the artifacts he would collect in the future to summon the AoD so that the demonic invasion would never take place, which would weaken the overall FASH position, and thus result in a better future. They did so and returned to the future, only to be regretfully informed by King Chandler that nothing has changed.

"Or has it?" Dallas replied. By channeling his chaotic powers granted to him by DoA, he sacrificed himself (as Martin did) by pushing himself into the time stream and erasing himself - and the AoD, thanks to his powers - from history completely.

At the same time (relatively speaking), at the God Council, DoA has a rare moment of clarity at the realization that he sent another mortal to die for the sake of fate, and destroyed himself to unravel the very fabric of history and fate itself - so that it could re-ravel, in a different way, without him.

(Long story short, my characters push the big reset button on the universe, allowing future users to bring GoSS back however they want.)

[craxyguy562]

This is epic.

[brainiac3397]

We'll be back

[Ky]

I suppose the question, then, is how GoSS will be revived - that is, if anyone is even interested in reviving this RP.

If so, what will the new world look like? What would the best way of encouraging people to play be? What can be done to prevent the story from getting too complicated, thus scaring away new players?

[James Comey]

We really need some kind of standardized set of geopolitical standards. I don't know, like real-world stats and some of those being implemented in the game.

I'd love to participate again.

[brainiac3397]

Insert new planet.

If we somehow get to a space-faring period in revival, they'll find this old planet and marvel at it's ancient ruins.

[Ky]

Let's just use NationStates, lol

[brainiac3397]

Yeh. I have NS experience.

[James Comey]

A NationStates thread?

Sounds nice.

[craxyguy562]

Let's play.