cubey@aol.pl 8:43 pm
    The setting is a colony on another planet that cut off contact with Earth some hundred years ago.
   What makes this planet special is that a lot of strange beings known as Elementals live on it.
    Or perhaps saying exists is more fitting than lives.

 cubey@aol.pl 8:44 pm
    The larger an Elemental, the more powerful and aggresive it is.
    Very small ones are not a threat to humans at all.
 that

 cubey@aol.pl 8:45 pm
    While larger ones can be a nuisance, or even a danger. Especially since they come with Angel-like powers that let them change their surroundings and their very bodies.


 cubey@aol.pl 8:45 pm
    And the tiniest of tiny Elementals?
    They are actually beneficial.

 cubey@aol.pl 8:45 pm
    As they live in human bodies, as symbiotes.

 drascin 8:45 pm
    nanomachines!
    /Kojima

 cubey@aol.pl 8:45 pm
    Metal Gear?!
    Elementals that live in your body bestow powers on it.
    But not directly.
    Humans need special items, Artifacts, that let them tap into these powers.
    Each Artifact lets you do different things, but all of them manifest as a suit of armor of sorts.
    Also, the more powerful an Artifact, the more Elementals you need in your body to sustain in.
    And how many Elementals a human body can hold is a genetic trait.

 cubey@aol.pl 8:48 pm
    So when it was discovered soon after the colony was set up, people with high Elemental thresholds started to marry and have children together, to increase that threshold and strengthen their potential for supernatural powers via stronger and better Artifacts.
    Artifacts are made by humans by the way, from substance recovered from "Killed" Elementals.
    Anyway, this means the planet soon enough had a ruling caste of nobles.
    Who could use very powerful Artifacts.
    While the normal civilians could use only very weak ones.
    For a long time, we had a return of a pseudo-medieval society, with the nobles on top having all leadership positions.

 cubey@aol.pl 8:50 pm
    And ruling several independent countries.
    But that changed about 20-30 years ago, when Elementals suddenly started appearing en masse, more dangerous than ever before.
    When the Elementals raged, a political leader appeared that rallied the countries, united them and repelled the threat.
    But he was not a noble, only a normal civilian.
 cubey@aol.pl 9:01 pm
    And when the danger ended, he used this opportunity to unite the warring countries into one republic, where nobles and civilians have (in theory) equal rights.

 cubey@aol.pl 9:01 pm
    And he became its first president.
And from that day on, relative peace rules the planet, although there is still internal friction.
I expect my player characters to be a group of teenaged friends.
Who are Civilians, not Nobles.
 cubey@aol.pl 9:03 pm
    Fighting relatively less dangerous Elementals and taking the stuff they drop for some spare cash.
    Stuff like that.
 cubey@aol.pl 9:03 pm
    However, obvious spoilers incoming, something will very soon happen that will significantly upgrade their Artifact potential.
    It will be planet-side. I don't expect players to get in space.

 Flibspeak 9:04 pm
    So, what sort of elementals are we thinking here?
    Like, the japanese style? Greek style?

 cubey@aol.pl 9:04 pm
    And really, the Artifacts taht Civilians use are weak enough that it's less portrayed as adventuring and more like kids having fun before they get bored with it.
    Neither. They are not Elementals in a classical sense.


 cubey@aol.pl 9:05 pm
    Just beings that are more... spirits of the place than actual living beings.
Hence the term, Elementals.

 cubey@aol.pl 9:05 pm
    If you are familiar with Mushi-shi, I could call them Angel Mushi.
    Angel from Evangelion.

 cubey@aol.pl 9:09 pm
    As for the setting itself, it is that vaguely futuristic but mostly modern-looking aesthetic that is so common in anime like...
    Let's say Eureka Seven or Aquarion.
    That's a good fit.

 cubey@aol.pl 9:09 pm
    But the higher you go into the Noble social strata from the Civilian one, the more fantasy-ish or just pimped out impractical the aesthetic gets.
    And even for Civilians, a lot of technology is replaced with Artifact use.
    Not most of it, but significantly enough to make a difference.
    I'm saying stuff like heavy machinery or weaponry replaced by suits of armor that gives you enhanched lifting or combat abilities.
    Respectively.

 drascin 9:12 pm
    how smart are elementals, generally speaking?

 cubey@aol.pl 9:12 pm
    Except for that one event where they suddenly got actively aggressive against humans, they are pretty dumb.
    They mostly just exist, although some react to being approached with violence.

 drascin 9:12 pm
    for a point of comparison, are we talking smarter or dumber than, say, cows?

 cubey@aol.pl 9:13 pm
    Dumber
 tormterra 9:14 pm
    I kinda imagined them as not really intelligent the way animals are, but more like strange forces of nature that just look kinda like animals

 cubey@aol.pl 9:14 pm
    Yeah, Terra's got it right.

 cubey@aol.pl 9:14 pm
    They are also mostly useless except as source of whatever substance Artifacts are made from.
    Except for the ones that are dangerous.
    But that's not useless. That's a threat.
    And of course, rare and strong Elementals drop better stuff for production of better Artifacts.
    I swear it's not a MMO.
    I swear it's not SNS either.