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Onyx Skies

Links Rules Galactic Archives Character profiles	Many years ago, the sentient species of the Milky Way were nearly wiped out by a foe known as the Raxan. This species was terrible and cruel, its overriding hive mind directing it towards one purpose: conquest of all. The Raxan were a race of beings with no kindness or compassion, as well as being incapable of feeling any kind of emotion at all. The Raxan were beaten back, however, and under threat of annihilation the Raxan agreed to never again take up arms, and were monitored closely to make sure they would honor their word. For over five hundred years, the Milky Way Galaxy enjoyed relative peace and prosperity under the Federation of Planets. The galaxy was seemingly on its way towards Utopia, a new golden age of cooperation between races. However, that would not last. The Federation became bloated and corrupt. They mishandled many catastrophes, wronging several species that were considered to be minor in the galactic stage. Their mangled policies and crippling red tape led towards a violent uprising by a group known as the Rebellion. EIn addition, the Raxan seemed to be with them. The Rebellion "liberated" the surrounding planets and it appears that they had established an alliance with the Raxan. With the ultimate warrior race on their side, the Rebellion is a threat the Federation can no longer ignore. The galaxy is tearing apart at the seams. Will you fight for peace and stability or do you sympathize with the Rebellion's cause?	Staff members -Sapphire Flame - Tetroneaque

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FAQ
Topic Started: Oct 1 2008, 08:27 PM (29 Views)
Sapphire Flame	Oct 1 2008, 08:27 PM Post #1
Administrator Posts: 307 Group: Co-owner Member #1 Joined: August 20, 2006	A few standard questions about Onyx Skies: Q: So, what is Onyx Skies? A: Onyx Skies is a play-by-post role playing game in the tradition of classic "space opera" genre, such as the Star Wars film franchise or the long-running Star Trek series. Onyx Skies takes place several centuries in the future, where man has developed faster-than-light travel and is one of many extraterrestrial races engaged in trade and diplomacy with each other. A war has recently broken out between the Federation, formerly the greatest force for civilization in the galaxy, and the Rebellion, who are opposed to said Federation for various reasons. Each race has their own agendas for participating in the war, and the RP focuses both on the epic battles taking place and the plight of the common people of these tough times. Q: So, there are aliens? What are they like? A: The aliens of Onyx Skies are mostly humanoid for reasons of simplicity. Each race has their own culture but while they are shaped by their respective cultures, they are hardly monolithic and blanket assumptions are seen as racist and ignorant. Each race also has different biology that gives them abilities humans don't have. For example, Falken can fly and Oxtor are capable of changing shape. Q: How technologically advanced is the galaxy of Onyx Skies? A: Not incredibly. Onyx Skies' focus is not so much on technology as it is culture. Therefore, the technology is somewhat ill-defined. The people of Onyx Skies have first and foremost created faster-than-light travel through means that laymen probably would not understand. Cars are a thing of the past: travel is mostly by personal spaceships guided by computers. Speaking of computers, today's digital devices that people lug around have been integrated into one pocket-sized device capable of nearly anything. Space elevators and enormous skyscrapers are now commonplace. The weaponry, however, has trailed behind due to the fact that there hasn't been a war in so long. Most personal weaponry is plasma-based (NOT lasers). Melee weapons have experienced a resurgence due to the development of lightsaber-like plasma blades. Beyond that, it's up to the individual Rper what technological wonders they encounter. Q: What's with the one world governments? A light beam can circle the Earth 8 times in one second. The people of Onyx Skies have the technology to go faster than that. Therefore, it should be trivial to travel from one end of the planet to the other. The result was massive globalization, since it was trivial for countries to deploy entire armies anywhere on the world, and cultural exchange happens even faster. Q: A lot of the planets are unoriginal. It seems you've just fallen into the trap of making a forest planet, desert planet, etc. A: You can't expect each planet to be exactly the same, and I chose the lesser of two evils by making each planet be predominantly one environment. I say predominantly, however, because each planet is quite varied. Just because Falke is primarily covered in trees doesn't mean it doesn't have tundras or deserts. Likewise, the "desert planet" of Scorin has the occasional forest or river. Q: I've just found a scientific/historical/sociological error in Onyx Skies! You hack! A: Most of the scientific inaccuracies of Onyx Skies were because of artistic license. I know that aliens are unlikely to be humanoid, that faster than light travel is unlikely at best, and that some of my predictions may not be accurate. That said, if you find a scientific error in Onyx Skies, please contact me about it. Q: Can I be a custom race? A: I'm pretty sure that's been covered, but YES, you may. If you want to add your race to the "official" list of races, that'd also be great. Q: Can I make a raxan character? A: Sure, if you want to. Raxan characters don't have emotions, however, so keep that in mind. You can also be a Kai or a hybrid of the two if you want to have an actual personality. Q: Can I be a hybrid of two races? A: Sure. Besides the aforementioned Raxan/Kai hybrid, you can be a hybrid of other races. A few races cannot be bred with the others: The Lik, the Mekanor, and the Krix-nor. Any others will be approved on a case-by-case basis. Hybrids inherit some traits from each of the parents, though exactly which traits depends on the individual. This means that a hybrid could be a clear hybrid or look almost exactly like one of the parents. Q: <Insert question about minor detail about a part of Onyx Skies> A: I'm not the god of Onyx Skies, and you're open to interpreting what I've created how you want. So if I don't specifically state something about my universe, you can form your own interpretation. Q: You do realize that L. Ron Hubbard came up with a race called the Psychlos, right? A: I was unaware of Mr. Hubbard's work at the time I came up with the name of the race. By the time I knew about the race, it was too late to change it. Q: Why can you only access one galaxy? A: Traveling to another star is very different from traveling to another galaxy. Technology is not yet capable of traveling to another galaxy, and that's that. Q: Why do the planets only have one or two cities? A: Back when I was creating Onyx Skies I realized that if I made too many locations then people might get confused and the board would look empty because no one was Rping in certain locations. It also helps reduce confusion "Okay, so is Aagh'ifordue the small farming city on Falke, or is it the extinct volcano on Telkazor?" I figured one or two cities as well as a few "natural" settings that haven't yet been settled would be sufficient. Q: Can I do violent or sexual themes in Onyx Skies? A: Wars aren't pretty, so violence is to be expected. You may include descriptions of blood and some gore, however gore for the sake of gore is considered tasteless. As for sex, there's a reason I haven't gone into much detail on reproduction. Implied sex is okay however graphic depictions are not. Try to keep romance to a PG-13 level, okay? Q: No sex? Why? A: Mostly because of Zetaboards' Terms of Service. The fact is, if Zetaboards catches any sexual content on the board they can shut it down. Besides, some stuff I plain just don't wanna see. Q: Prude! A: If you really want to RP some Onyx Skies sex, do it via E-mail or Instant Messaging and keep it off the actual board. Q: I want to make a character from a race allied with the Federation/Rebellion. Can he be in the Rebellion/Federation? A: Alignment is based more on planetary governments than actual species. For example, Telkazor is aligned with the Federation. However, this does not mean that all Telkazor will support the Federation, especially in the case of a Telkazor living on a Rebellion-aligned world. Think of it as something akin to WWII: While Japan supported the Axis, this does not mean that Americans of Japanese ancestry wouldn't have supported the Allies. (All right, so the US didn't trust the Japanese-Americans and sent lots of them to camps. My point still stands that if it didn't happen, you'd have people of Japanese ancestry in the Allies. ) Please note that if you decide to go against most of your people and support a different faction, you may not be trusted as much. Also, all Raxan support the Rebellion. No exceptions. Q: That brings up another point. Are Raxan always evil? A: Raxan are not evil so much as amoral. Raxan have no free will and are entirely subservient to the collective, so opinions among them are pretty much uniform. The "free thinkers" among them are usually only concerned with coming up with slightly different ideas to achieve total Raxan dominance. The Raxan will stop at nothing to become the dominant species, and because of their shared mind, free thought is nearly impossible. So yes, all Raxan are "evil", because all Raxan have pretty much the same thoughts. This makes them the only race with whom generalizations are not only acceptable, but accurate. Q: So, what about the other races? Are they about the same? A: The other races of the galaxy are shaped by their respective cultures. Because the majority of a species' population is at their home world, and their home worlds are mostly one culture, they are going to be shaped by whatever that culture is. The Scorin glorify violence because their culture does. The Faeron are supporters of the state because they are virtually bathed in propaganda. The Krix-nor are peaceful because their culture supports non-violence. This doesn't mean that there are members of the society that run against what their culture glorifies, however. It just means that each race is going to think slightly differently. Even you and me are affected by our cultural upbringing, why should the other species be any different? This doesn't mean that you can't be original, however. If you want to make a pacifistic Scorin that writes poetry about flowers, then more power to you. Just don't be surprised if the other Scorin aren't too pleased about your choice of lifestyle. They're products of their culture. Q: Why are race names capitalized? A: It's a habit I got into a long time ago. Just don't pay much attention to it. Edited by Sapphire Flame, Oct 11 2008, 03:55 PM.



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