Endgame Summary and Info

Some of this information was already somewhat addressed in a much earlier post talking about Endgame as a potential future project. This gives some additional specifics - some information here may be different, as I've already made changes to world building since the previous post as I try to consider how best to adapt this idea to VN format.

Setting: Solarpunk and Cyberpunk

Worldbuilding: Altair, a tidal locked planet around a small, unassuming star. It's assumed that Altair's tidal locking was caused by some artificial mechanic as it's neither the size nor distance from its star, nor age for it to have naturally tidal locked. No one is sure what sort of mechanism could have been used to tidal lock a planet. It's something a mystery.

One side of Altair always faces its star, locked in eternal day, while the other side faces away and is forever dark.

There is a breathable atmosphere on the world, as well as a fairly violent climate with strong winds and frequent storms. There is liquid water that flows through twilight region between day and night. 

The day side of the planet is mostly sun-baked desert, while most of the night side is a frigid wasteland. There are both plants and animals that have adapted to the strange world as well. 

Altair was originally home to an advanced species that dwelt in bio-domes, which protected them from the harsh climate. This civilization died off or abandoned the planet (or both) at some time in the distant past. When Earth colonies found it, it was empty and the domes were falling into disrepair. They slowly began to repair and settle the world. Most of the current citizens have never been outside the domes.

Due to several incidents that happened around the time Altair was first colonized, there are multiple factions that live on or near the planet. There is a triad of nations that make up the day side of the world. These nations are wealthy, bright and powerful. 

They are starkly at odds with the night side of the world, and always have been. Though there is a sort of tenuous peace at the moment, there have long been skirmishes and off and on warfare between them. 

Within the night side, there are also multiple factions vying for power, generally causing instability and issues in the small nation there. The night side is rife with violence and all but the very wealthy struggle to get by on a day to day basis.

There is also an isolated "city state" contained in a space station that orbits the planet. The people on the station consider themselves "true humans" and don't personally intermingle with the inhabitants of the planet as well as a colony on the planet's moon, on which there are rumblings of wanting independence.

Organizations/Factions: 

Endgame, a group of powerful Espers that keep the peace on Altair and the surrounding territories. Though they are headquartered on the day side of the planet, Endgame is neutral and works to protect civilians - as well as several critical systems that keep the bio-domes up and running. Systems both governments as well as as several other groups would love to gain control of.

Crimson is a group from the night side of Altair, and is largely considered to be a terrorist group. They view themselves as a group trying to force social change that would benefit the poorest parts of society and often go head to head with Endgame with their own Espers. 

The Host A shadow organization about which little is known. It's leader, known as Titania, seems to have some plan regarding Espers, but no one really knows much about her plans. 

The Court is a cult that seems to worship Espers and view them as some sort of evolved or higher being.

There are also additional factions such as the governments of all political entities, the factions who want the moon colony to revolt and declare independence, etc. Several of these may also come into play during the story.

Espers:

Espers don't naturally exist in humans. However, when humanity first settled Altair, they were infected with nano-machines that saturate the controlled environments in the domes. These machines altered the genome of the first colonists, awakening telekinetic abilities in everyone - though for most people it's very weak, an barely noticeable in their day to day activities.

Stronger Espers are taken in by Endgame and trained to use their abilities. Endgame uses chess based vernacular to class its Espers.

Pawns are those with basic abilities. Most of them never reach more than average power levels. But pawns are capable of becoming very, very powerful through adjustments to their nano-systems. Some can, with training, even acquire the coveted "queen" classification.

Rooks are those with biokinesis that allows them to enhance their physical abilities (such as speed, strength, senses.)

Knights possess defensive and teleportation type skills. Most possess some form of low level telekinesis as well. 

Bishops are powerful telepaths and clairvoyants with precognition abilities.

Queens are the strongest, and among the rarest, ability users and, in addition to their own powers, can mimic the abilities of other pieces. They can also completely conceal their psi-waves, matching the brain patterns of normal humans (which makes them rather tricky to find and identify.)

Kings are the rarest Esper type. They possess "technokinesis" that allows them to interface directly with machines. Namely, Kings can interface directly with, and even control KING, the planetary A.I. 

Which is why it's necessary to keep them protected from groups that might use their power to take over KING's systems. Control KING - and the entire planet is as your mercy.

There are also Faerie pieces that are basically zombie-like mutants whose nano-machines have been corrupted with a rather nasty virus that is spread around by the very mysterious "Titania."

Potential Love Interests:

Endgame is a *massive* setting and there are a lot of potential love interests. We'll likely try to do six love interests, much like we did with Endgame. These are the six we're thinking about, but there are several other options and depending on how the plots of each route flow, we may swap out one or two of these for LIs that will allow for more variety in story line.

For instance, it could be possible to romance KING himself, "Oberon", another character, Edan who lives outside the domes if we want to take the story outside the main cities. And probably several others I'm forgetting. These are all the ones who were originally vying for position of "Love Interest" in the original story when I was working on the original plot. Though I had ruled several of them out at the time, as a VN it would be possible to explore them all in their own routes. So...no need to choose anymore. LoL

Caleb Zheng - The white queen's rook. He is a "rook" class Esper assigned to the white queen's unit. Since the previous queen passed away, he's been under the direct command of the white king, Magnus Ulrich. He is serious, perpetually cranky, and very no-nonsense. Tends to keep to himself when not working, and doesn't have much patience for most people. He was promoted to the queen's unit when his mentor was killed in an incident most now refer to as "The immortal Game." He was previously close friends with Jack Viscer.

Ari Vaughn - The white queen's knight. A "knight" class Esper assigned to the white queen's unit. Quiet and contemplative, Ari takes his job very seriously. He follows orders almost entirely without question and is completely loyal to the organization which he serves. He was brought in at an especially early age due to the nature of his ability, and took a longer than usual amount of time to master it. He is considered one of the strongest knight class Espers in the history of the organization.

Magnus Ulrich - The white king. The defacto leader of Endgame, the burden of millions of lives are on his shoulders. Though he keeps an outwardly easy going, joking (and borderline idiotic) appearance, his thoughts are much darker than he lets on. Being tasked with keeping the peace a one a world that always feels at the brink of war, has put him in the position to make many difficult decisions. Sometimes at the cost of his subordinates' lives. 

Caissa Fianchetto - The crimson king and leader of Crimson. A revolutionary who wants to change the world, but doesn't quite have the power to do so...yet. He hates how unfairly the lower classes are treated in Delphine and is determine to do something about it - no matter the cost. He wears an easy smile - most of the time, but can be ruthless when it comes to accomplishing his goals. He hates nearly everyone in power on Altair - including the leaders of Endgame.

Jack Viscer - The crimson rook. Jack used to be a member of Endgame. But when Magnus' decision in the incident known as "The Immortal Game" resulted in the deaths of several people he cared about, including his sister and his mentor, he found he no longer agreed with how Endgame chose to do things. He defected and escaped to Delphine where he was eventually found by Caissa and recruited into Crimson. Sarcastic and teasing most of the time, he has a serious side that comes out when he's with people he trusts.

Veli Rahl - The crimson queen. A queen class Esper who grew up in the slums of one of Delphine's worst cities. He wasn't even aware of his abilities until a near-death situation caused him to unleash a psi-burst that destroyed a sizeable chunk of the bio-dome. This caused multiple factions to seek him out, and he was eventually sold to Caissa by someone who had finally managed to catch him. Like Caissa, he wants to see things change for the better in the worst parts of Delphine. 

Routes/Stories:

Unlike Changeling, where Nora's plot arc remained the same in each route, we're thinking of taking the plot of each route in Endgame an entirely different direction. This means that Ema's story arc will vary based on the route. Ema's backstory, personality and abilities will remain the same but the focus of her character arc will differ even if certain side plots stay the same.

Right now the route stories are very, very much up in the air as we decide just how we want to handle the structure of the game.

For instance, Endgame has such a broad function that having three LIs within that group wouldn't be too repetitive. Crimson, however, has such a narrow focus as an organization we may find it impossible to have three LIs with enough difference in the plots to warrant having all three of them.

If we can't find enough diversity in plot direction with those three, we may choose to only have one or two LIs in Crimson, and put the sixth LI outside of either organization.

But Endgame is still very, very in planning stages so anything could happen at this point. This is just a broad overview of what exists world building wise, and what the possibilities are story wise.

For instance, we could have a story that focuses on the potential moon colony revolution.

We could have a story that focuses on the Faerie virus (which is mutating Espers).

We could have a story focusing on Crimson's plans, but from the Endgame side of the story.

We would obviously have to have a story focuses on Crimson's plans from their side of the story if we have any LI in that group.

We could have a story focusing solely on KING and his role in everything.

We could have one focusing in on the space station people and THEIR dastardly plans for the planet.

Or...something I haven't even thought of yet.

I guess it would be good to know what sort of stories interest people -

Stories about political upheaval, high stakes stories involving the fate of the world, stories that are more condensed and focusing less on expansive world-altering events, etc.

Anyway, I feel like I've rambled on quite a bit. So I'll be ending this post here but feel free to discuss or ask questions about anything posted here. OwO