(no subject)
Personal Information
Name: Mara
Age: 20
Personal LJ: cerebel
Email / AIM / MSN: mutestronaut
Character Information
Name: Derek Rayne
Age: 71
Appearance:
Derek is a wiry, slim and surprisingly spry old man, who seems to have survived with his strength and his general good health (excepting, of course, the dortrazine gas scarring in his lungs) through force of will more than anything else. He walks with a cane, though his posture strongly implies that this is superfluous, and there's nothing about him that particularly screams 'warrior' -- that is, not until you see his eyes, or endure one of his famous calm silences.
Personality:
Admiral Derek Rayne has seen it all. He's survived two wars, imprisonment, politics, and even being an elementary school teacher. There's the blood of thousands on his hands; he's been in love, out of it, pain-stricken enough to commit suicide, and fired-up enough that he could take on the whole universe by himself. As a result, he's got a kind of been-there, done-that attitude that means he faces the world calmly and quietly, with a warrior's cool that's nearly impossible to break. The Admiral is not a man who is easily flapped. Though he does have a tendency to tell stories about the days of yore.
In essence, Derek Rayne is done. He's sacrificed so much for his planet that he's just fucking finished. His life has been an incredible series of trials, emotional and physical pain, that now he just wants to let go and be happy. Problem is, he hasn't ever really figured out how being happy works. He's doing his best to go for the quiet life, far away from anyone who knows him or cares about him, but when you only have the entire solar system to disappear into, that's not totally effective.
Derek Rayne's experience makes him a calm, collected, decisive leader. He never loses his head in a crisis, and always has some suggestion of what to do, even if it's not a good one.
He tends to treat people equally, until they manage to impress him. Exceptions to this are usually confined to children (a holdover from his elementary school teacher days; he has a big soft spot for kids and feels very protective of them) and veterans, especially ones who have been seriously steamrolled by whatever war they fought in. Beyond that, he tends to be dismissive.
As with any warlord, in history, there's a more effete, intellectual side to him. He was a teacher and a scholar first. He plays the violin, has a fine ear for music, and is extremely knowledgeable about history, especially military history.
Character history:
Derek Rayne was born in Whitefall Haven, to a mother who was away more often than not on diplomatic trips to Earth and a father who was a childcare specialist, and often more concerned with other people's children than his own. Rayne himself grew up as any Martian child -- communally. So, in a sense, Rayne was both one of more than a hundred brothers and sisters, and an only child, as his mother and father never conceived again.
Rayne's mother believed firmly in a person paying their own way, in life (though she fully expected that Rayne would become a diplomat, like her, after graduation from college). So, once he reached legal age, she cut him off from the family finances, telling him that he needed to get a job to support himself through school. Rayne turned to what he knew best: schoolwork. He tutored and gave violin lessons enough to pay his way through school, specializing in military history and teaching. After graduation, his mother offered him an assistant job in her staff. He turned it down, and went to teach eight-year-olds at a grade school.
The rift that opened between mother and son, as a result of this decision, never fully closed.
As Rayne threw himself more fully into teaching, the world around him started to fracture. The relations between Earth and Mars were getting strained, painful, most especially over the issue of corporate-owned mines on Martian territory -- and then, with the advent of the Declarations, which closed Martian ports and shut down the mines. In a fury, Mars claimed independence, and declared war.
Rayne could never say what it was that made him volunteer to become a soldier. He had a girlfriend that he loved, and was planning to marry. He had a steady job. He had an education, putting him very low on any draft list. And yet, he had his girlfriend, Winn, sat down together one night, and, with minimal discussion, agreed that they would go their separate ways, without waiting for one another. It was part of the easy, unconscious understanding between the two of them, and a testament to how well they communicated -- but also, somehow, a testament to the fact that maybe they never belonged together in the first place.
Rayne used his contacts in Whitefall Haven (which had a disproportionately high number of military veteran inhabitants) to get a position as an officer. Four weeks of hypnosis training later, and he was dispatched to the front.
For the most part, Rayne did clerical work, logistics, and intelligence. Tracking movements, keeping things together and organized. He wasn't exactly a combat officer, even though he saw brief skirmishes in the front on Luna, and in one of the Stations. He didn't really get into combat until the tide of the war turned, and Earth forces started landing on Mars Prime, the capital. The fighting turned nasty, street-by-street, and given that Mars Prime had a population of three hundred million, this was a lot of streets. Martian soldiers were outnumbered by Earth soldiers who were outnumbered by Martian civilians. Detachments were sent into the middle of the fighting with no backup, no clear goals, and not enough weaponry.
This was the first time Rayne really showed how strong he could be.
He stepped up to the plate, organizing the soldiers under his command, giving them direction and orders. He saved hundreds of thousands of civilians by gathering them in collective, easy-to-defend locations, and by putting people in between the drones in the sky and their supplies of food. Civilian shields, yes, but he knew that Earth wouldn't willingly fire on non-fighting population, and it worked.
Nonetheless, the battle of Mars Prime turned into a stalemate, and Martian forces were withdrawn. The end of the war came with the Battle of Toridia, a rough clash of military on military in a crater above the oh-so-precious mines, where the Martian army had set up their headquarters. In this battle, Earth fought dirty. They bombed, they dropped soldiers, they sent everything they had at the Martians -- but it wasn't enough. And so Earth took one last desperate measure. They dropped a heavy cruiser straight through the Martian atmosphere and landed it down on the planet, knowing that it would never be able to take off again.
The Earth soldiers flooded in. And with much of the Martian forces crushed under the ship, and disoriented and demoralized, Earth took an easy victory.
They also happened to kill almost the entire Martian command staff.
The freshly promoted Colonel Derek Rayne ended up in charge of the base underground. He held out for as long as he could, but the Earth hero General Angilo routed him, gassed his base, and killed nearly everyone inside. This was widely regarded as the last battle of the war, and the crucial one, even though there was some mop-up in a naval battle at Callisto days later.
Rayne was taken off for 'debriefing', which, in his case, meant extensive use of techniques that didn't quite qualify as torture coupled with hypnotic drugs designed for interrogation. Rayne showed incredibly strong resistance to the drugs, to the point where it shouldn't have been biologically possible. After nearly killing him with a dose that was too strong, Earth forces backed off, and Rayne was sent to a prisoner of war camp in the United States of America, outside Chicago.
In the wake of their victory, Earth passed laws making it illegal for Martian officers to hold official citizenship, vote, or have freedom of movement. On top of that, every officer ranked captain or higher in the Navy or colonel and higher in the Army was ordered to surrender themselves, and were subsequently ordered to Earth. For them, unemployment was illegal, and the only employer was the Earth government; they were forced to wear the Martian uniform until and unless they signed a surrender agreement renouncing all ties to Mars.
Not surprisingly, many Martians were roughed up or killed under this program, as they were a visible symbol of the enemy living amongst the Earth population.
Rayne was a part of this program, and the Earth officer that had him in custody? Was General Angilo, the man who beat him at the Battle of Toridia. Rayne was tangled in post-traumatic stress disorder, full of self-loathing at what he perceived as his own failure to make Mars win the war, and, despite himself, drawn to his captor. Unlike Rayne, Angilo was the kind of person who always did the right thing, not who always did his duty. Angilo's moral compass was right, Rayne's pointed due Mars, and they cared about one another. In a way that they shouldn't have.
Rayne tried suicide, but Angilo wouldn't let him die, and, finally, in a kind of emotional self-defense, he turned to Angilo for comfort. The two of them fell into a relationship, twisted as it was, and, when the time for it came, escaping was one of the hardest things Rayne ever did.
Rayne managed to pass the Martian resistance's standards for trustworthiness -- hell, he'd failed to sign the loyalty pledge, after two years of being captive, and that put him in the minority -- and they elevated him to command level. Rayne wasn't happy with this, and wasn't happy with the way the Resistance snuck around, playing at spies more than doing any real damage. He walked right into the Senate chamber and declared it dissolved, calling down martial law on Mars, and taking over the government himself. The occupation's government was expelled or imprisoned, and Rayne, in a matter of weeks, took the planet back to war.
In fear that he was seizing too much power, close friends of Rayne made an assassination attempt, but he defeated it himself, and threw them in prison.
The first part of the war went very well. Mars managed to take Earth by surprise and seize most of their navy, at Callisto. Rayne slipped out of the blockade around Mars and made it to Luna, where he started trying to recruit Luna to help them. This was successful -- until Rayne heard that the Luna rebellion was planning an assassination. Namely, that of General Alex Angilo.
Rayne was torn. He couldn't figure out any way to save Angilo's life that wasn't direct. And so, he turned his command over to people he trusted and went to do it himself. It went very, very badly; Rayne was outthought by Angilo and captured.
But that wasn't the worst part of it.
He was taken from Angilo's custody and brought to a top-secret base, in Antarctica, where they were experimenting with reprogramming the human mind. Their intention was to brainwash Rayne as being loyal to Earth, and send him back out, so that he could stop the war. This didn't work. Rayne resisted the techniques, beyond what they would have considered humanly possible. They ended up breaking him entirely and reformatting him into a new personality, with none of his previous memory. This personality, Operative 417, was sent back onto the front lines with the hope that he would at least be good at predicting Mars's moves.
This was actually successful. Though Mars had the superior naval power, Earth was routing them at every turn, because of 417's suggestions. Angilo, though, recognized 417 immediately, and demanded an explanation. When none was forthcoming, and when he realized that 417 hadn't had all of his emotional associations wiped away with the memories, he took drastic action. He took 417 and defected to Mars.
With this, the war was essentially over. Mars won a few crushing victories, Martian surgeons removed the chip from Rayne's head, and that was that.
Rayne negotiated a peace treaty with Earth. Angilo returned home to face the consequences of his actions, which included a court-martial and a criminal trial for treason. Rayne took control of the Martian government. It was five years before a stable constitution was created, and once that was done, Rayne abdicated power and retired.
From here, there was literally nowhere for Rayne to go. He wanted peace. But the remote areas of Mars weren't enough -- people found him there. He tried heading out to Jupiter, but because of the military and naval activity out there, Jupiter was too active to hide near. He shifted to Saturn, to Pluto, and, finally, to Makemake, a dwarf planet outside the orbit of Pluto. Throughout it all, the Martian senate continually invited him back, year after year, to give an annual address, and he always did it. Less because he believed they wanted him to, and more because he suspected that the day he didn't, Martians would assume it was a no-confidence vote in the Senate, and try to overthrow their new system of government.
Rayne still wasn't happy. And he didn't know how to fix it.
At age 71, in the year 2406, he re-awakens in Nautilus.
Powers and Abilities:
Rayne has undergone hypnosis training, as a soldier; his combat reflexes are ingrained in him, and they're almost entirely out of his conscious control. But, since he's old, they don't really come up that much.
Apart from that, I would like him to retain skill at Bending that he's built through his previous time in Nautilus, though I would understand if the mods didn't want to let that happen.
World Summary:
I'll keep this short, since I covered most of it in character history, and you guys are probably really tired of this app by now.
The vast majority of this world's history is our own. I'll pick up after modern-day.
Late 2000s - First manned mission landed on Mars. America, as a superpower, falls to the dominance of China, India and Japan.
2100s - the first permanent settlement on Mars. Nuclear accident in Japan decimates the country. China falls into internal chaos due to genetic experimentation. Genetic experimentation is outlawed. The Middle East, now mostly pseudo-democratic, rises to prominence because, conversely, they were the only ones who prepared for a fossil-fuel-free society. Population laws begin in India, South Africa and Brazil.
2200s - Cities, mines, civilization on Mars. Mars is terraformed, given atmosphere and high gravity to support it. True AI is discovered and patented by a South African firm. The AI makes it into the internet and nearly destroys Africa's infrastructure. Artificial intelligence is outlawed. South America begins to rise to prominence on the international scene. Population laws are enacted on 12% of the world's population.
2300s - The Twelve Havens are formalized, on Mars. This is the beginnings of a self-governing system. America's population drops to 200 million. The European Union buckles under the economic demands of meeting South America's capacity. Population laws are enacted on 89% of the world's population. Resources become scarce.
2360 - Earth makes a desperate move to claim Mars' resources for their own. Mars declares independence from Earth and goes to war.
2365 - Mars surrenders.
2367 - Mars goes to war again.
2369 - Earth surrenders. The Seventh United Nations passes trade sanctions against Mars. America breaks from the United Nations and normalizes trade relations, giving Mars the food they need to survive.
2374 - Constitution of Mars is formalized and ratified. Admiral Derek Rayne retires from public life.
2375 - Write-in votes count Derek Rayne as gaining a plurality of the vote, in the first presidential election on Mars. There is a runoff election.
2399 - Peace treaty from the end of the second war is brought up for review. Under heavy controversy, it is not renewed. However, instead of beginning violence anew, this allows the planet's strained relationship to ease.
Samples
First person:
Well. Fuck.
This is the last place I ever thought I'd come back to.
Usually when people say that, they don't really mean it. A person's hard-pressed to figure out what they really thought was the last place they'd come back to.
But, fuck. Nautilus didn't cross my mind at all.
Third Person:
There's a moment of disorientation as he crosses the threshold of the gate. Steps into the Western District.
Because it is the Western District. He could sense it, even if the smell, the sky weren't the same. It's Nautilus. And, for a moment, Derek Rayne is surprised at that conclusion. Surprised that he knows, because he doesn't know how he knows. He doesn't remember ever being in this city before.
And then --
And then he does.
He checks his belt for the touchscreen. Finds it easily, like he knew he would. It's the link with the network, the way to communicate with the other people in this city. And apparently the city is still here. Despite … what was it. Despite Isis, yes, of course.
The touchscreen, as he finds, is already transmitting.
"Well, fuck," he says.
Oh --
Rip.
How long has he been gone? For him, must be … it was before the end of the war, and that was more than thirty years ago. 2367. No, almost forty years ago. Damn. He's old. And so are the memories. Of the battle, of Isis, of Jinx. They feel the same as his other memories, but they aren't, are they? Because he didn't remember them until now.
As he recalls, Rip was a fine woman. A little evil, a little too intent on war, weak and strong in her own ways, but fine, all the same. He loved her.
"Rip?" he calls.
Maybe --
Maybe she's still here.
But he only knew her for months. It's been decades since then. It only takes months to change someone's life, he knows that, he's experienced that, but the fact that it's been so long could mean that she's grown past him. And he's not so sure that he hasn't grown past her.
But, hey. There wasn't much to look forward to on Makemake. This, he'd like to find out.
Name: Mara
Age: 20
Personal LJ: cerebel
Email / AIM / MSN: mutestronaut
Character Information
Name: Derek Rayne
Age: 71
Appearance:
Derek is a wiry, slim and surprisingly spry old man, who seems to have survived with his strength and his general good health (excepting, of course, the dortrazine gas scarring in his lungs) through force of will more than anything else. He walks with a cane, though his posture strongly implies that this is superfluous, and there's nothing about him that particularly screams 'warrior' -- that is, not until you see his eyes, or endure one of his famous calm silences.
Personality:
Admiral Derek Rayne has seen it all. He's survived two wars, imprisonment, politics, and even being an elementary school teacher. There's the blood of thousands on his hands; he's been in love, out of it, pain-stricken enough to commit suicide, and fired-up enough that he could take on the whole universe by himself. As a result, he's got a kind of been-there, done-that attitude that means he faces the world calmly and quietly, with a warrior's cool that's nearly impossible to break. The Admiral is not a man who is easily flapped. Though he does have a tendency to tell stories about the days of yore.
In essence, Derek Rayne is done. He's sacrificed so much for his planet that he's just fucking finished. His life has been an incredible series of trials, emotional and physical pain, that now he just wants to let go and be happy. Problem is, he hasn't ever really figured out how being happy works. He's doing his best to go for the quiet life, far away from anyone who knows him or cares about him, but when you only have the entire solar system to disappear into, that's not totally effective.
Derek Rayne's experience makes him a calm, collected, decisive leader. He never loses his head in a crisis, and always has some suggestion of what to do, even if it's not a good one.
He tends to treat people equally, until they manage to impress him. Exceptions to this are usually confined to children (a holdover from his elementary school teacher days; he has a big soft spot for kids and feels very protective of them) and veterans, especially ones who have been seriously steamrolled by whatever war they fought in. Beyond that, he tends to be dismissive.
As with any warlord, in history, there's a more effete, intellectual side to him. He was a teacher and a scholar first. He plays the violin, has a fine ear for music, and is extremely knowledgeable about history, especially military history.
Character history:
Derek Rayne was born in Whitefall Haven, to a mother who was away more often than not on diplomatic trips to Earth and a father who was a childcare specialist, and often more concerned with other people's children than his own. Rayne himself grew up as any Martian child -- communally. So, in a sense, Rayne was both one of more than a hundred brothers and sisters, and an only child, as his mother and father never conceived again.
Rayne's mother believed firmly in a person paying their own way, in life (though she fully expected that Rayne would become a diplomat, like her, after graduation from college). So, once he reached legal age, she cut him off from the family finances, telling him that he needed to get a job to support himself through school. Rayne turned to what he knew best: schoolwork. He tutored and gave violin lessons enough to pay his way through school, specializing in military history and teaching. After graduation, his mother offered him an assistant job in her staff. He turned it down, and went to teach eight-year-olds at a grade school.
The rift that opened between mother and son, as a result of this decision, never fully closed.
As Rayne threw himself more fully into teaching, the world around him started to fracture. The relations between Earth and Mars were getting strained, painful, most especially over the issue of corporate-owned mines on Martian territory -- and then, with the advent of the Declarations, which closed Martian ports and shut down the mines. In a fury, Mars claimed independence, and declared war.
Rayne could never say what it was that made him volunteer to become a soldier. He had a girlfriend that he loved, and was planning to marry. He had a steady job. He had an education, putting him very low on any draft list. And yet, he had his girlfriend, Winn, sat down together one night, and, with minimal discussion, agreed that they would go their separate ways, without waiting for one another. It was part of the easy, unconscious understanding between the two of them, and a testament to how well they communicated -- but also, somehow, a testament to the fact that maybe they never belonged together in the first place.
Rayne used his contacts in Whitefall Haven (which had a disproportionately high number of military veteran inhabitants) to get a position as an officer. Four weeks of hypnosis training later, and he was dispatched to the front.
For the most part, Rayne did clerical work, logistics, and intelligence. Tracking movements, keeping things together and organized. He wasn't exactly a combat officer, even though he saw brief skirmishes in the front on Luna, and in one of the Stations. He didn't really get into combat until the tide of the war turned, and Earth forces started landing on Mars Prime, the capital. The fighting turned nasty, street-by-street, and given that Mars Prime had a population of three hundred million, this was a lot of streets. Martian soldiers were outnumbered by Earth soldiers who were outnumbered by Martian civilians. Detachments were sent into the middle of the fighting with no backup, no clear goals, and not enough weaponry.
This was the first time Rayne really showed how strong he could be.
He stepped up to the plate, organizing the soldiers under his command, giving them direction and orders. He saved hundreds of thousands of civilians by gathering them in collective, easy-to-defend locations, and by putting people in between the drones in the sky and their supplies of food. Civilian shields, yes, but he knew that Earth wouldn't willingly fire on non-fighting population, and it worked.
Nonetheless, the battle of Mars Prime turned into a stalemate, and Martian forces were withdrawn. The end of the war came with the Battle of Toridia, a rough clash of military on military in a crater above the oh-so-precious mines, where the Martian army had set up their headquarters. In this battle, Earth fought dirty. They bombed, they dropped soldiers, they sent everything they had at the Martians -- but it wasn't enough. And so Earth took one last desperate measure. They dropped a heavy cruiser straight through the Martian atmosphere and landed it down on the planet, knowing that it would never be able to take off again.
The Earth soldiers flooded in. And with much of the Martian forces crushed under the ship, and disoriented and demoralized, Earth took an easy victory.
They also happened to kill almost the entire Martian command staff.
The freshly promoted Colonel Derek Rayne ended up in charge of the base underground. He held out for as long as he could, but the Earth hero General Angilo routed him, gassed his base, and killed nearly everyone inside. This was widely regarded as the last battle of the war, and the crucial one, even though there was some mop-up in a naval battle at Callisto days later.
Rayne was taken off for 'debriefing', which, in his case, meant extensive use of techniques that didn't quite qualify as torture coupled with hypnotic drugs designed for interrogation. Rayne showed incredibly strong resistance to the drugs, to the point where it shouldn't have been biologically possible. After nearly killing him with a dose that was too strong, Earth forces backed off, and Rayne was sent to a prisoner of war camp in the United States of America, outside Chicago.
In the wake of their victory, Earth passed laws making it illegal for Martian officers to hold official citizenship, vote, or have freedom of movement. On top of that, every officer ranked captain or higher in the Navy or colonel and higher in the Army was ordered to surrender themselves, and were subsequently ordered to Earth. For them, unemployment was illegal, and the only employer was the Earth government; they were forced to wear the Martian uniform until and unless they signed a surrender agreement renouncing all ties to Mars.
Not surprisingly, many Martians were roughed up or killed under this program, as they were a visible symbol of the enemy living amongst the Earth population.
Rayne was a part of this program, and the Earth officer that had him in custody? Was General Angilo, the man who beat him at the Battle of Toridia. Rayne was tangled in post-traumatic stress disorder, full of self-loathing at what he perceived as his own failure to make Mars win the war, and, despite himself, drawn to his captor. Unlike Rayne, Angilo was the kind of person who always did the right thing, not who always did his duty. Angilo's moral compass was right, Rayne's pointed due Mars, and they cared about one another. In a way that they shouldn't have.
Rayne tried suicide, but Angilo wouldn't let him die, and, finally, in a kind of emotional self-defense, he turned to Angilo for comfort. The two of them fell into a relationship, twisted as it was, and, when the time for it came, escaping was one of the hardest things Rayne ever did.
Rayne managed to pass the Martian resistance's standards for trustworthiness -- hell, he'd failed to sign the loyalty pledge, after two years of being captive, and that put him in the minority -- and they elevated him to command level. Rayne wasn't happy with this, and wasn't happy with the way the Resistance snuck around, playing at spies more than doing any real damage. He walked right into the Senate chamber and declared it dissolved, calling down martial law on Mars, and taking over the government himself. The occupation's government was expelled or imprisoned, and Rayne, in a matter of weeks, took the planet back to war.
In fear that he was seizing too much power, close friends of Rayne made an assassination attempt, but he defeated it himself, and threw them in prison.
The first part of the war went very well. Mars managed to take Earth by surprise and seize most of their navy, at Callisto. Rayne slipped out of the blockade around Mars and made it to Luna, where he started trying to recruit Luna to help them. This was successful -- until Rayne heard that the Luna rebellion was planning an assassination. Namely, that of General Alex Angilo.
Rayne was torn. He couldn't figure out any way to save Angilo's life that wasn't direct. And so, he turned his command over to people he trusted and went to do it himself. It went very, very badly; Rayne was outthought by Angilo and captured.
But that wasn't the worst part of it.
He was taken from Angilo's custody and brought to a top-secret base, in Antarctica, where they were experimenting with reprogramming the human mind. Their intention was to brainwash Rayne as being loyal to Earth, and send him back out, so that he could stop the war. This didn't work. Rayne resisted the techniques, beyond what they would have considered humanly possible. They ended up breaking him entirely and reformatting him into a new personality, with none of his previous memory. This personality, Operative 417, was sent back onto the front lines with the hope that he would at least be good at predicting Mars's moves.
This was actually successful. Though Mars had the superior naval power, Earth was routing them at every turn, because of 417's suggestions. Angilo, though, recognized 417 immediately, and demanded an explanation. When none was forthcoming, and when he realized that 417 hadn't had all of his emotional associations wiped away with the memories, he took drastic action. He took 417 and defected to Mars.
With this, the war was essentially over. Mars won a few crushing victories, Martian surgeons removed the chip from Rayne's head, and that was that.
Rayne negotiated a peace treaty with Earth. Angilo returned home to face the consequences of his actions, which included a court-martial and a criminal trial for treason. Rayne took control of the Martian government. It was five years before a stable constitution was created, and once that was done, Rayne abdicated power and retired.
From here, there was literally nowhere for Rayne to go. He wanted peace. But the remote areas of Mars weren't enough -- people found him there. He tried heading out to Jupiter, but because of the military and naval activity out there, Jupiter was too active to hide near. He shifted to Saturn, to Pluto, and, finally, to Makemake, a dwarf planet outside the orbit of Pluto. Throughout it all, the Martian senate continually invited him back, year after year, to give an annual address, and he always did it. Less because he believed they wanted him to, and more because he suspected that the day he didn't, Martians would assume it was a no-confidence vote in the Senate, and try to overthrow their new system of government.
Rayne still wasn't happy. And he didn't know how to fix it.
At age 71, in the year 2406, he re-awakens in Nautilus.
Powers and Abilities:
Rayne has undergone hypnosis training, as a soldier; his combat reflexes are ingrained in him, and they're almost entirely out of his conscious control. But, since he's old, they don't really come up that much.
Apart from that, I would like him to retain skill at Bending that he's built through his previous time in Nautilus, though I would understand if the mods didn't want to let that happen.
World Summary:
I'll keep this short, since I covered most of it in character history, and you guys are probably really tired of this app by now.
The vast majority of this world's history is our own. I'll pick up after modern-day.
Late 2000s - First manned mission landed on Mars. America, as a superpower, falls to the dominance of China, India and Japan.
2100s - the first permanent settlement on Mars. Nuclear accident in Japan decimates the country. China falls into internal chaos due to genetic experimentation. Genetic experimentation is outlawed. The Middle East, now mostly pseudo-democratic, rises to prominence because, conversely, they were the only ones who prepared for a fossil-fuel-free society. Population laws begin in India, South Africa and Brazil.
2200s - Cities, mines, civilization on Mars. Mars is terraformed, given atmosphere and high gravity to support it. True AI is discovered and patented by a South African firm. The AI makes it into the internet and nearly destroys Africa's infrastructure. Artificial intelligence is outlawed. South America begins to rise to prominence on the international scene. Population laws are enacted on 12% of the world's population.
2300s - The Twelve Havens are formalized, on Mars. This is the beginnings of a self-governing system. America's population drops to 200 million. The European Union buckles under the economic demands of meeting South America's capacity. Population laws are enacted on 89% of the world's population. Resources become scarce.
2360 - Earth makes a desperate move to claim Mars' resources for their own. Mars declares independence from Earth and goes to war.
2365 - Mars surrenders.
2367 - Mars goes to war again.
2369 - Earth surrenders. The Seventh United Nations passes trade sanctions against Mars. America breaks from the United Nations and normalizes trade relations, giving Mars the food they need to survive.
2374 - Constitution of Mars is formalized and ratified. Admiral Derek Rayne retires from public life.
2375 - Write-in votes count Derek Rayne as gaining a plurality of the vote, in the first presidential election on Mars. There is a runoff election.
2399 - Peace treaty from the end of the second war is brought up for review. Under heavy controversy, it is not renewed. However, instead of beginning violence anew, this allows the planet's strained relationship to ease.
Samples
First person:
Well. Fuck.
This is the last place I ever thought I'd come back to.
Usually when people say that, they don't really mean it. A person's hard-pressed to figure out what they really thought was the last place they'd come back to.
But, fuck. Nautilus didn't cross my mind at all.
Third Person:
There's a moment of disorientation as he crosses the threshold of the gate. Steps into the Western District.
Because it is the Western District. He could sense it, even if the smell, the sky weren't the same. It's Nautilus. And, for a moment, Derek Rayne is surprised at that conclusion. Surprised that he knows, because he doesn't know how he knows. He doesn't remember ever being in this city before.
And then --
And then he does.
He checks his belt for the touchscreen. Finds it easily, like he knew he would. It's the link with the network, the way to communicate with the other people in this city. And apparently the city is still here. Despite … what was it. Despite Isis, yes, of course.
The touchscreen, as he finds, is already transmitting.
"Well, fuck," he says.
Oh --
Rip.
How long has he been gone? For him, must be … it was before the end of the war, and that was more than thirty years ago. 2367. No, almost forty years ago. Damn. He's old. And so are the memories. Of the battle, of Isis, of Jinx. They feel the same as his other memories, but they aren't, are they? Because he didn't remember them until now.
As he recalls, Rip was a fine woman. A little evil, a little too intent on war, weak and strong in her own ways, but fine, all the same. He loved her.
"Rip?" he calls.
Maybe --
Maybe she's still here.
But he only knew her for months. It's been decades since then. It only takes months to change someone's life, he knows that, he's experienced that, but the fact that it's been so long could mean that she's grown past him. And he's not so sure that he hasn't grown past her.
But, hey. There wasn't much to look forward to on Makemake. This, he'd like to find out.