High fantasy with anachronistic modern touches; the world Aetolia tried to be but couldn't. Think Romeo + Juliet, 2018's Robin Hood, or Final Fantasy XV.
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Classic high-fantasy mish-mash of dominant European influences, with little Tolkeinisms and whatnot for flavor.
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Castles and palaces such as you'd find in Germany or France.
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People of all colors mingle. This isn't to say there's no racism in Blackbirds, but it never informed an avoidance of race-mixing, or kept people of a certain color from certain places. Much like the real world, skin color can often be used to determine a person's origin: brown-skinned people from hotter climes, white-skinned people from colder places, yellow-skinned, olive-skinned, etc. etc.
- This isn't just a lazy 1:1 transfer of real world humans to Blackbirds humans. This goes for the other species, as well. Mary Sue the Wolfgirl has bluish, silvery fur, so you know she's from up north.
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Officially, language is formal and archaic:
Standing atop the dead, Ashlar ejects the clip from his weapon, the gun smoking in his tightly-gripped fist. "Behold, the new way of things," he announces to the assembly. "You call this money?" The trader asks, biting at the coin's edge. "You insult me with this trifle - but I tell you plainly, I would derive a full MONEY's worth of pleasure from placing this dog-eared pig iron into the weaver's palm. I'll take it!"In practice the players can decide how they want to talk. It's up to us to build a world in which they want to do it the "correct" way - and if not, that's just fine.
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Music is unique to the game, but is depicted in a way that a player in today's society can understand - music might be performed in a tavern full of smelly peasants and the odd knight, but it's played on a modern-looking guitar, and might even include a drummer. That said, there are just as many people classically trained on harpsichords or shamisens.
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Language is used in another context: to speak directly to the player, and subliminally enforce the fantasy aspects of the world. If we were to simply go "you live in a castle and wear t-shirts" this setting would be a failure. It has to be immersive.
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There are police, and peasants might even call them the same things you'd call police, but they're prefects, and respond to a magistrate, not a sheriff or captain or what have you.
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The citizens are revolting? The prefects roll out a tank - but it's not a tank, it's an iron coalhound.
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Guns are guns - but they come in various "classes" that determine their caliber, and these are named after blades: longsword, dagger, rapier, etc.
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Formalwear: Modern suits, fine dresses with contemporary cuts, but all with a baroque and ornate twist. The elite tend to wear an absolute shitload of jewelry, draped over everything, such that they jingle when they walk.
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Armor: Full-on high fantasy. Field plate, sabatons, greaves, the works. Politicians wear ringmail beneath their suits to fend away assassin's blades. Even peasants might own a nice leather jerkin.
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Other anachronisms: Aetolia-style: Kimonos, certain bits of lingerie (thongs, teddies, etc.). Hard no on trenchcoats, fedoras, or any other neckbeard crap.
There is one major city in which most of the gameplay occurs, so for the purposes of this heading we'll be describing that locale.
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The city's layout follows a quasi-medieval structure: built over rivers and on a coast, surrounded by a wall, and characterized by things such as a town square, a square around the biggest chapel, and a clear visual hierarchy of lofty palaces and nobles's quarters, and then the lower-slung buildings of trade industry and the odd citizen's home.
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The poor (and there will be poor, class disparity is a huge theme here) live in the shantytown outside the walls. This will also serve as the most likely area where players build their homes.
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Neon. Neon is something of particular importance. Neon lighting is used very heavily to signify opulence; in churches, along the baseboards of palace halls, or even in the signage of an especially rich merchant. More about Neon below.
Neon is a thing, and though never specified, is implied to have great power. In typical use it functions just like the real-world gas (stick in a tube, give a little electrical impulse, watch the pretty glow), but carries the mystical qualities of Aetolia's ylem. It's so much more.
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Neon was discovered and studied originally by the Blackbirds. In a rare show of generosity, they made public several research journals detailing what they learned, determining that this technology would greatly improve life for all people.
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Our feeble and incomplete understanding of Neon is that its skeins exist in many alternate realities at once. Prevailing neonate theory is that a skein's dimension of origin can determine its purity and power.
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Things can be "infused" with Neon - in game terms, this is an enchantment system, with capabilities determined by the sort of Neon used.
The hidden assassinocracy.
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The Blackbirds represent a special "endgame" goal for especially powerful players - where in Aetolia you'd become a special race, or in Haven you'd achieve Tier 5, the Blackbirds take that place.
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Lorewise, you are never actually part of the Blackbirds themselves. Rather, you're considered to be in the know, and are privy to their communiques.
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Hospitaliers in full regalia and armor standing sentinel over a chapel soaked in neon lights.
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Radio towers dotting the landscape, looking over towers, fortresses, and hamlets, spreading state propaganda.
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"Neon Mode": Name pending - some kind of otherworldly space. Mid-level players can move through it and it's the basis by which all stealth takes place. High-level players can even see into it from our plane.
Brilliante is both the capital city and the state (empire, if you will) by the same name. The current state of political affairs in the world is that, to put it bluntly, Brilliante controls most of it. A number of outerlying territories and other cities/city-states make up the entirety of the state.
Brilliante can be corrupt and does benefit from a top-heavy and highly aristocratic capitalist social structure, but it is not precise to define it as an "evil" or "bad" state.
The rough history of Brilliante goes like this:
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There was a great world war. Its most infamous byproduct was the accidental discovery of Neon. Its second most infamous byproduct was the formation of the Blackbirds.
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The world takes some time to heal from its post-apocalyptic state. Because the machine people survived, they were able to help speed things along, aiding somewhat in the recovery of lost knowledge and technology. Things got back to a workable state faster than they normally might, by a number of centuries.
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In the aftermath of the war, people tended to form up into Tribes. When a number of these Tribes got big, they began to butt heads against one another, trying to slice up the pie that was the world.
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By this point, it should be stated that the Blackbirds effected a tremendous cultural impact on the world. They were known for being completely inscrutable, unpredictable, and for removing people who they decided no longer needed to live. Owing to the bizarre and unexpected nature by which they appeared and disappeared, they began to take on godlike qualities in the eyes of the populace, and soon, their slightest actions could result in entire cultural shifts.
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One day, during a siege of the Loud Winter Tribe against the strongholds of Neaniver Tribe, a Blackbird appeared carrying a Loud Winter banner. She did not engage in any warlike action, nor did she speak a word - she was just there on a hill, carrying a banner, and then she was gone. The effect in morale was indescribable, and days afterward, Loud Winter swallowed up Neaniver, then proceeded to waylay any other opposing Tribe they could find.
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In dominating the largest continent, Loud Winter established the city of Brilliante, the seat of their power. They claimed to be chosen by the Blackbirds, that the godly assassinocracy personally had led them to rule.
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Loud Winter lasted six years, before Cruzar Tribe overtook them in a bloody coup. The mysterious, banner-carrying woman in black never appeared, never seemed to care.
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The state has changed hands time and time again, allowed to succeed or fail on the merits of its ruling tribe. This continues to this day, with the Garish Tribe currently in power.
Housed in the city, the state's official ruler is a monarch - sometimes a king, but currently a queen in the game's setting. The queen expresses her rule through a regent whose job is to govern Brilliante's territories in her stead. She also answers to a Parliament composed of Brilliante's major political parties, where the majority of player-on-player conflict takes place.
The structure can be roughly expressed as follows:
| Rank | Function |
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| Queen | Appointed to throne by succession; is by necessity a member of the ruling Tribe. Must work with the parties to legislate the state and can be checked by them, but enjoys certain powers such as declaring martial law. |
| Regent | Basically, the Queen when the Queen isn't around. Distinguishes themselves from the Queen in that they are the de-facto ruler of conquered or otherwise owned cities and other territories. This is the highest rank a player can achieve. |
| Parliament | A large governing body made up of the leaders of each Caucus. As they are the lawmakers and can even overrule the Queen/Regent's authority in many cases, as a whole, they are considered the most powerful of the state. |
Caucuses are the political parties of Brilliante, and may change depending on player culture and current events. There are typically only three in power at any given time. Examples of Caucuses are as follows.
| Caucus | Function |
|---|---|
| The Kohl Party | A Caucus primarily composed of elites and upper crust. They tend to lobby for laws and regulations that benefit the rich. |
| The Gilded Sun Party | A Caucus whose focus is on wartime policy and the flexing of state muscle. They tend to be scaremongers and lobby for the benefit of the soldiery. |
| Finally We Can See | A Caucus made up of Merchant and Peasant classes and other underdogs. Naturally, their interest is in social and fiscal equality - they want to undermine the class structure. |
It should go without saying that the Blackbirds are above all of this.
The most important rule to establish is that the spirit greatly supersedes the letter of the law. The game's rules are to be interpreted and do not represent rigid, immutable policies. If a member of staff is deciding you're simply being a dick, they are well within their rights to call you out in violation.
- You must be 18 years or older to log in to Blackbirds. If there is sufficient evidence that a player does not meet this restriction, their account will be deleted immediately.
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Language rules err on the side of unrestrictive. You can say "fuck" in RP or threaten to skewer your enemy's mother's arse with a pike if that's your style. However, you are asked to keep it to a dull roar on public channels.
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There is no rule saying your character can't be bigoted - however, there are immersive and lore-friendly RP avenues you may pursue if you absolutely must do that. Leave the slurs and hate speech of the real world out of it.
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Blackbirds is a game written in English, designed for English-understanding players. Everyone is welcome to RP here, but it must be done so in English.
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Roleplaying in Blackbirds is mandatory. Unless specified otherwise, all channels, venues, and other communication systems are considered to be IC (in-character). You must remain IC at all times.
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At this time, the only explicitly OOC (out-of-charaacter) channel is Newbie, where its Q&A nature, geared toward new players, requires that you are able to talk about game mechanics and conventions. The only explicit one-on-one method of communicating OOC is via the TELL command.
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Metagaming, in these rules, is defined as your character acting on information gleaned from things learned in the real world, not what they themselves experienced. We can't stop you from metagaming through mediums outside the game, but it should go without saying that it is not permitted.
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You are to respect the IC/OOC boundaries between characters and players - this is a very big rule here. You are not your character, and the characters you encounter are not their players. Flirting with or hitting on a player because your characters are dating; threatening a player with death because his character attacked yours; asking players by OOC means why their character did this or said that; these are all examples of violating this rule. Most importantly of all, roleplaying with a character does not, by any means, entitle you to communicate with their player.
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Sharing logs of RP may only be done if everyone in the log consents to it being shared.
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As all overtly violent or sexual roleplay in Blackbirds should be done with consent, it is not permitted to carry out more intense scenes in public - you can't possibly obtain the consent of everyone passing through.
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ERP (erotic roleplay) in particular should occur in private. If what your characters are doing counts as sex, it falls under this rule. If you aren't sure whether or not it's sex, you should still probably find yourself a secluded place to be doing it.
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RP in which rape is depicted is not permitted. That being said, this falls heavily under the previous rule: what two consenting players do behind closed doors is their business. Using a scene like this, however, to create a commotion or establish consequences (ex. Drago the Bandit and Ishkar the Monk agree to a sexual assault scene; later, Ishkar drafts his friends to seek revenge for Drago raping him), is in severe violation of this rule - as you are dragging in players who didn't consent to it.
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As an addendum to the above: underaged (as defined in the United States) characters are not at all permitted, whether they are canonically under the age of 18, or are claiming to be such, by any means. There is a zero-tolerance policy on this, and the offending character will be instantly deleted. Claims that the character is actually a thousand year old wizard will be met with rolled eyes.