Here's the list of the channels which we use here at CoU. If you're new to IRC, head on over to our Connect section and read up there first, otherwise you won't have a clue how to get to these channels in the first place, and then you will be sad.
Also, if there's any RP going on, yet you yourself are not playing or do not have a character approved yet, you are more than welcome to spectate in the RP rooms. This can be a splendid way to acquaint yourself with how we play here.
#City-Of-Unity - OOC
#Midcity - IC
#Undercity - IC
#Toride - IC
#Brimir - IC
#Niflheim - IC
#Anywhere - IC
#Anywhere-Else - IC
This is our OOC room and main channel where we organize and announce RP, as well as generally hang around. If you're new here, this should be your first stop. Anyone's welcome to drop by, even if they haven't sent in a character form yet, or if they're just cruising by out of curiosity.
A sprawling, towering industrial slum under a black, cold sky. The only illumination to be abundantly found in the Midcity is the chemical green glow emitted by the aging, tangled networks of dim lights which stand watch over the filthy, debris-scattered streets. Due to the city walls impeding outward land growth, most of the buildings in the Midcity are towers well over 100 storeys tall, though many are now abandoned derelicts. Where building components constructed in recent decades have begun to crumble and wear away from neglect, the more ancient, timelessly strong skeletal foundations smithed by the Architects can be noticed, their gaunt, Gothic shapes a stark contrast from the more recent Einheit Deco designs added on in the past 30 years.
Networks of metal streetbridges criss-cross between the Midcity buildings, serving as sets of elevated roadways layered and bridged on top of one another. Steam-hissing pipes and spark-crackling cables pour from every physically possible surface, serving as throbbing veins of life-supporting E-Fluid tubes and communications wiring. Every few minutes you might hear the rumbling of a steam engine as it hauls its load of freight or passengers through the city.
Searchlight beams slowly sweep through the skyline, where thunderstorms occur regularly, causing bolts of lightning to dance among the jagged tips of the Midcity's skyscrapers. Such electrical storms usually herald approaching snowfall or rain, depending on the current temperature. It is always some measure of bitter cold here, and most of the Midcity's purebred dwellers prefer to stay indoors, hoping for shelter against the eternal night... And the eye of the Ministry.
Loudspeakers and telescreens can be found mounted high in many areas, frequently broadcasting news reels from Comrade Mara Kadesh, her calm, almost hypnotic voice echoing through the endless alleys and streets. Walls of buildings are decorated by a chaotic collage of outer class graffiti and Ministry propaganda posters. CCTV cameras are ubiquitous, also complimented by the occasional passing of an AirCam surveillance drone, which might stop in front of you for a brief visual scan before quietly hovering away. Every so often a Ministry airship or aerodyne hums between the clustered skyscrapers, sweeping its searchlight beams over the desolate streets before continuing its patrol. No matter where you go here, the Toride silently stands watch over everything, looming like an obsidian monolith 13 miles tall, speckled with scattered points of light.
Yet for all the signs of Ministry activity, criminal activity in the MidCity is disturbingly high. While the Ministry does viciously seek out and punish acts of political rebellion or threats to authority, offenses which fall outside that narrow category of concern to the Ministry go ignored and unpunished. Robbery, murder, and far more heinous crimes committed by one purebred against another are rampant, and rarely gain so much as a passing glance by a Ministry AirCam. After the heavily-armed, white-clad patrols of the city authorities have passed by, the law of the street reigns supreme; fertile ground for the corrupt elements of organized crime which creep up from the Undercity to rule in the Ministry's absense.
As massive as Einheit City is on the surface, the known area of its underground portion is perhaps three times as large. Reachable by any of the many elevators, stairwells and street tunnels scattered throughout the Midcity, the Undercity is a vast labyrinth of ancient pathaways drilled miles belows the planet surface.
Originally, this was Einheit City's warm and prosperous mining and steel-milling zone, where millions found employment in the great subterranean forges, sheltered from the bitter cold of the Midcity above. Years after the Ministry came to power, most of the city's reconstruction projects had been completed, causing little demand for the Undercity's mining industry. The ensuing unemployment boom, coupled with the Ministry's lack of support for Undercity purebreds, spiralled the region into rapid decay. As the Undercity became of little value to the Ministry, the crime syndicates which had been patiently waiting from the shadows quickly took advantage of the resulting power vacuum.
Presently, Undercity society has fallen to nearly feral levels, with the Underlords being the closest thing to any form of authority or order, but even then, the nearly constant violent feuds between the rivaling powers are a nightly threat. Most populated areas are barely more than subterranean ghettoes wracked by disease and famine, while in the more remote, hidden hollows, it is said that the Underlords hold their mighty estates; catacombs and caverns carved into grimly decadent mansions from where they rule over their Undercity territories. Society here has splintered into neo-feudal fiefdoms dominated by ruthless crime lords, or into outright anarchy where the Underlords don't bother to exert control. Violence between various purebred species groups is commonplace, setting the stage for a smaller-scale re-enactment of the Species Wars here beneath the city.
Most purebreds who could flee the decaying Undercity to the somewhat more orderly Midcity above have already done so. Yet many remain, either fearing the denser Ministry presence above, imprisoned here as serfs for the Underlords, or perhaps bound by even darker chains.
With the exception of a few still-functioning Heart Machine pipes, technological infrastructure takes the form of scattered pockets of advanced tech hoarded by the Undercity's endless range of mechano-gangs, cyberthugs, technocults, rogue scientists, and self-styled machinery mages. It is almost as if technological refuse from the surface city falls down the waste shafts here, only to be collected by the Undercity's denizens and be welded and bolted back together into an aberrant perversion of digital chaos and mechanical nihilism. Old, rusting robotic drones which were once tasked with Undercity maintainence in Frey's time still crawl, creep, shamble and buzz through the endless shafts and tunnels, now more closely resembling curious congregations of subterranean insect mechanoids than the automated caretakers they once were.
Some areas of the Undercity are maddeningly cramped, while others are impossibly vast and devoid of population, with no wall, floor, or ceiling visible in whatever little lighting there may happen to be. Aerodynes, skyships, airships are able to travel the Undercity's endless tunnels, which are easily large enough to accomodate such huge craft, though piracy in the tunnels is a common risk. Architect Era constructs are especially common here, giving the Underground the brooding, decayingly ornate impression of being an giant subterranean Gothic cathedral. This is contrasted by more recent and less ornate constructs brought in after Einheit City's discovery, along with their modern tangles of electrical cabling, E-Fluid piping, and fragile digital screens.
Glowing rivers and falls of magma are found in the deeper areas, often pouring from the mouths of Architect Era gargoyles into designated channels criss-crossed by ornate bridges of steel and stone. Grimly colossal statues of hybrid figures stand in many of these huge hollows, carved out of the very bones of the Earth into laborous, Atlas-like poses in which they eternally bear the weight of the Undercity's ceilings, and the surface city above, upon their giant shoulders.
For all its darkness and lawless danger, one can't help but to be awestruck by the seemingly godlike efforts of the Architects to make the Undercity's hellish environment into a work of art.
It is thought that the Ministry operates a few secret super-elevators which plunge deep into the Undercity (perhaps even deeper), for the few times that it needs to operate here, and there are no shortage of purebred informants willing to sell out an enemy to the White for a quick cred or food rations. But otherwise the Ministry seldom ventures to the Undercity, at least overtly. With the exception of the occasional very heavily armed raid when some rare nuisance to the Toride is detected, there is little to suggest any kind of involvement from the surface authorities.
Not all of the Undercity is charted, and few have had the opportunity to explore it, let alone return to tell of their findings. It is said that in the more remote hollows, where one will find pure silence and pure black, it is where The Voice echoes more than anywhere else.
Standing at a full 13 miles tall at the center of Einheit City like an obsidian citadel stretching into a similarly black atmosphere, the Toride's unwelcoming exterior is a stark contrast from what is contained on the thousands of enclosed floors inside. Yet this is a thriving city within a city impenetrably cut off from the outer class; each entrance is heavily guarded by Ministry troops and a series of armored doors, and anyone coming or going is required to show their UniClass ID and press their palm on a DNA testing console before proceeding.
Immaculate, circular hallways and warmly-lit interior plazas make up each of the Toride's civilian sectors. Unlike the dark, cold hives of heavy industry of the Midcity outside and the Undercity below, the Toride holds a lush, greenery-vined interior which winds seamlessly with the abundant high technology life support systems. Thanks to intricate hydroponics networks and special lighting, organic plant life flourishes here in quantities not seen since the Days of Light, perhaps even giving the illusion of a New Age of Light here in the Toride. Just as plantlife is common, so are the signs of industrial progress; factories, business districts, mini-cities providing everything one needs to live without ever needing to leave the Toride can all be found here, a testament to the Ministry's commitment to providing careers for all UniClassers. Angularly-chiseled monuments are a regular sight, celebrating the Unity idea, triumphs of hybrid ingenuity and labor, and Ministry sacrifice. Telescreens can be found nearly everywhere, regularly broadcasting public messages from Comrade Kadesh and the city's Ministry authorities.
It is generally quiet, though not silent here. In the hours or areas where there is less activity, the thrumming ambience of the Heart Machine pipes pumping its E-Fluid through the Toride's walls can be heard, or perhaps the gentle whirring of a hovering, beetle-like cleaning bot as it vacuums and polishes away what little grime ever happens to touch the white floors here. Mini-park lounges are placed at various points, holding comfortable seating lined next to wide, blast-proof windows which offer an impressive view of the city below. An ideal spot to stop for a few moments' rest or a cup of coffee on your way back home from work.
Security cameras are virtually everywhere in the Toride, both in obvious and not-so-obvious places. Of course, the UniClass population doesn't seem to mind. After all, only people who have something suspicious to hide from Einheit City's generous Ministry benefactors would be bothered by this.
Ministry troops are a common sight here. Although they are lighter armed than they are when stationed outside the Toride, their scrutiny on citizen affairs is as strong here as anywhere, if not even moreso. But if you happen to lose your way, one would be more than ready to assist you to your destination after a quick DNA check on their ID handheld.
Stacked above the civilian sectors of the Toride is Ministry Command, which is completely off limits to the public. Even higher above that is the Heart Machine's housing unit, yet only the High Ministry has ever been there...
Located in the depths of the Midcity slums under a derelict skyscraper, at the bottom of a short concrete stairway just below street level, behind a graffiti-covered steel door is the Brimir, one of Einheit City's first liquor establishments. Created in 1 ECE during the city's early days of discovery, on one of the walls is a framed old black and white photograph of Dr. Frey surrounded by a crowd of workers inside the Brimir, raising their mugs in toast. Though the cleaner, more well-lit establishment in the photo is a far cry from the Brimir of tonight.
Upon stepping inside, one can't help but to notice the establishment's rather unwelcoming aura, further complimented by the profoundly poor lighting, which seems to flicker and fluctuate every few minutes, bathing the area in a dim glow diffused through the constant haze of synth-tobacco smoke. A few E-Fluid heaters can be found here, usually with a few patrons seated nearby for what little warmth there is to be found.
Most of the building material in here is worn down around the edges from decades of use and abuse, with few repairs. The metal walls and ceilings are vined with tangles of cabling and piping to provide what little electricity there is, with small light-emitting diodes here and there. Occasionally one of the telescreens hanging from the ceiling goes fuzzy, which the bartender temporarily corrects by irately slapping the monitor a few times until the picture improves.
Other usual bar equipment is present, such as a couple beaten pool tables, some partially-functioning arcade machines, and dart boards. An old, poorly-tuned piano sits in one corner. Rows of metal stools line against the bar, a few of which might even be occupied. Behind the counter is a tender you can place your order with if he or she doesn't ignore you altogether. Several booths and tables are also found throughout the large room, and if you're lucky, a barmaid might actually come by to take your order.
Every few minutes the room vibrates and rattles as a steam train passes by in the Midcity slums outside.
Between Einheit City's wide range of clean Toride nightclubs and seedy Undercity brothels, few entertainment venues remotely compare to Club Niflheim. Nestled in a thicket of hundred storie-tall Midcity skyscrapers inside an ancient Architect Era hall converted into a sprawling club boasting multiple dance rooms, several staffed bars, dozens of private VIP rooms, and more than a few rumours of secret areas, the Niflheim is easily Einheit City's largest entertainment venue. Little is known about its distant owner, an individual only known as 'The Duke', though the enigmatic nature of the mind behind Club Niflheim hasn't stopped it from being the most envied spot for Einheit City DJ's to perform. And being somewhat of a temple for the city's nightlife, the sheer demand for patronage has forced the Niflheim's management to leave the club open 7 nights a week, much to their profit.
After being searched by the black-suited bouncers for weapons (unless you happen to be a VIP or otherwise have a damn good reason to not be disarmed), and passing through the threshold into the main room, one would find themselves greeted by a throbbing wave of mechanical, pounding electronic rhythm. Illumination shifts constantly with the strobing movements of an intricate system of swooping beams of light, strobing lasers, and projection screens, all given an ethereal haze by the fog which seems to permanently swirl all throughout the establishment. Architect-chiseled obsidian statues of ripplingly-muscled, heavy-browed figures cast in theatrically laborous poses hold up the great hall's ceiling, from which dozens of huge monitors hang, displaying chaotic scenes of footage sampled, cut, and spliced together to form an almost hypnotic show of digital surrealism. Holographic displays launch moving illusions onto the dancefloor, sending ghostly projections to mingle amongst crowds of wildly-dressed clubgoers. High above the main floor and platforms occupied by shadowy dancers, one would be able to see the current DJ in a sort of artificial nest of small glowing screens, diodes, and tangled wires from which he or she commands their audio assault from.
And this is only the first room.
Urban legends abound about the sheer size of Club Niflheim, often claiming that it's impossible to fully explore everything it has to offer, even after being a regular attendee for several years. Darkly-lit art galleries, macabre stage shows, maze-like halls of illusionary horror and temptation, all set to the constantly rumbling backdrop of industrial rhythm are a few of the attractions to be found here, providing full-sensory escape from the oppressive reality found outside the Niflheim's walls. Like a living entity of black stone and steel, the Niflheim constantly evolves and grows as new areas are added to its already legendarily huge facilities. Curiously, no one ever seems to actually witness any signs of construction here, yet new sights and sections seem to be added regularly. Where there was a solid stone wall one night, one may find a long, candle-lit hall the next.
Of course, few patrons hold any real stock the few hocus pocus rumours surrounding the Niflheim and its mysterious manager. After all, it's just part of the show.
With any game, there are sometimes scenes which simply don't fit into any of the normal RP settings, or the issue of overcrowded RP rooms comes up, which is why we have #Anywhere. Basically, #Anywhere can take place... Well, anywhere, depending on who is using it at the time. For example, if you and other players are RPing a scene that's in the MidCity, yet takes place inside a closed-off or otherwise not public environment such as character's apartment, this would be a good channel to use so that other people RPing in #Midcity don't mistakenly assume that your character is in public.
This channel may also be used for retro-RP sessions. If you and another player's RP session in #Midcity was unexpectedly cut short a week ago and you haven't had time to resume it until now, it would be a little too far out of the game's chronology to simply continue in #Midcity or one of the other normal RP rooms. Same goes if you were to play out a character's flashback or memories to several years ago. Hence, RP sessions which take place outside the present time may be played out here in #Anywhere.
Same thing as #Anywhere. This is just an extra room in case #Anywhere is already in use by another party.