Mitheral
"Growf!"
This is an RP based partly on the Riverworld books by Phillip Jose Farmer. However, there will be a number of changes. Some are minor; some major. Please do not take the source material as “law.”
Setting
Set millennia in the future, the Riverworld is a Super-Earth-like planet, terraformed to consist solely of a single long river valley which snakes across its entire surface. The river's source is a small North Polar sea, from which it follows a course tightly zig-zagging across one hemisphere before flowing into another, along an equally labyrinthine path, to the same sea. The river has an average depth of 1.5 mi, and its width ranges from 6.8 mi to 24.8 mi. It is shallow near the shore but plunges to enormous depths towards the channel. The banks are generally smooth and gentle, expanding into wide plains on either side, then assuming jagged hills before an impenetrable mountain range. The valley averages 9 mi in width, but includes narrows and occasional widenings into lakes with islands. From source to mouth the river is 40,000,000 mi long. (Assumed 6.365 Earth masses, normal density, and a 10,000 mile radius for the planet. Area of the river assumes an average width of the entire river from mountain range to mountain range of 50 miles.)
There are no seasons, and daily variations are metronomic. The only animal life consists of fish and soil worms. The vegetation is lush and of great variety, including trees, flowering vines, several kinds of fast-growing bamboo, and a resilient mat of grass which covers the plains. The Riverworld has no visible moon, but a great number of stellar objects in the sky, including gas sheets and stars close enough to show a visible disk.
The story of Riverworld began when 110,986,647,922 humans (adjusted to a much smaller number), varying from the first Homo Sapiens around 50,000 BCE until the early 21st century, began to be resurrected along the river. Of these, about 25% were from the 20th century, due to the high population thereof.
Resurrectees
Most of the resurrected awaken in a body equivalent to that of their 25-year-old selves, in perfect health and free of any previous genetic or acquired defects. All heart disease, tooth decay, and blindness are gone, and all amputated limbs are restored. Tattoos, piercings and scars will be gone. These bodies do not age, and can regenerate nearly any non-fatal injury, including dismemberments and blindings. The new bodies are completely free of infection and seem resistant to it.
Initially hairless, the bodies grow cephalic (head) hair at a normal rate. Men do not have or grow facial hair. It is impossible to conceive children on Riverworld.
Anyone who died at an age younger than 25 assumes a body equivalent to that lesser age, which then ages at a normal rate before stopping at 25. No one who was less than five years old at death is resurrected on the Riverworld.
Despite all the languages of mankind that are represented in Riverworld, everyone will understand everyone. Why you can guess. You will hear a strange language but still understand it, even if not one you knew before.
Grails
The resurrected awaken with nearly-indestructible containers tied to their wrists, commonly called "grails", which produce food, drink, pieces of cloth, and luxury items, such as alcohol, tobacco, marijuana (and lighters for same), hair care utensils, makeup, and a hallucinogenic chewing gum, known as "dreamgum".
To operate, grails must be placed onto large, mushroom-shaped "grailstones", found at intervals along the riverbanks, which produce an electrical discharge three times per day (corresponding to the times of breakfast, lunch and dinner). As agriculture is absent, and indeed impossible on the Riverworld, the grails are vital to an individual's survival, and cannot be opened except by their individual owners. Nevertheless, "grail slavery" is not uncommon, in which a person is held captive and the contents of his or her grail, retrieved by the owner, are taken by force by the captor. The slaver will usually provide the slave with enough food to keep him alive, as once a person dies their grail becomes useless.
Natural resources and travel
Though the grails provide for all needs and the climate is hospitable, further attempts to affect the environment are frustrated by the near-complete lack of metals and ores on the planet. The only building materials available are bamboo, wood, and human or fish bones and hides. Pockets of flint (eventually depleted) provide material for tools. With technology limited to the level, the surrounding mountains prove impassable.
Travel along the river will be hindered by division of the Riverworld into thousands of empires, monarchies, republics, and other social systems which evolve, each only a few miles long. Because the distribution of populations along the river seems random, the character of these nations can vary wildly within a very short span; one may enter dangerously unknown and potentially hostile territory in less than a day's journey.
********************
Character Rules
You may run more than one character.
You MAY run historical figures. (Do your research please, but enjoy a little dramatic license. Check to make sure no one is running the one you plan to run.)
No religious figures. (Jesus, Buddha, etc).
No psychopaths. No mentally limited characters. (These get resurrected on another planet.)
And no politically inflammatory figures. (Hitler, etc)
Blank CS
Setting
Set millennia in the future, the Riverworld is a Super-Earth-like planet, terraformed to consist solely of a single long river valley which snakes across its entire surface. The river's source is a small North Polar sea, from which it follows a course tightly zig-zagging across one hemisphere before flowing into another, along an equally labyrinthine path, to the same sea. The river has an average depth of 1.5 mi, and its width ranges from 6.8 mi to 24.8 mi. It is shallow near the shore but plunges to enormous depths towards the channel. The banks are generally smooth and gentle, expanding into wide plains on either side, then assuming jagged hills before an impenetrable mountain range. The valley averages 9 mi in width, but includes narrows and occasional widenings into lakes with islands. From source to mouth the river is 40,000,000 mi long. (Assumed 6.365 Earth masses, normal density, and a 10,000 mile radius for the planet. Area of the river assumes an average width of the entire river from mountain range to mountain range of 50 miles.)
There are no seasons, and daily variations are metronomic. The only animal life consists of fish and soil worms. The vegetation is lush and of great variety, including trees, flowering vines, several kinds of fast-growing bamboo, and a resilient mat of grass which covers the plains. The Riverworld has no visible moon, but a great number of stellar objects in the sky, including gas sheets and stars close enough to show a visible disk.
The story of Riverworld began when 110,986,647,922 humans (adjusted to a much smaller number), varying from the first Homo Sapiens around 50,000 BCE until the early 21st century, began to be resurrected along the river. Of these, about 25% were from the 20th century, due to the high population thereof.
Resurrectees
Most of the resurrected awaken in a body equivalent to that of their 25-year-old selves, in perfect health and free of any previous genetic or acquired defects. All heart disease, tooth decay, and blindness are gone, and all amputated limbs are restored. Tattoos, piercings and scars will be gone. These bodies do not age, and can regenerate nearly any non-fatal injury, including dismemberments and blindings. The new bodies are completely free of infection and seem resistant to it.
Initially hairless, the bodies grow cephalic (head) hair at a normal rate. Men do not have or grow facial hair. It is impossible to conceive children on Riverworld.
Anyone who died at an age younger than 25 assumes a body equivalent to that lesser age, which then ages at a normal rate before stopping at 25. No one who was less than five years old at death is resurrected on the Riverworld.
Should an individual die, they are resurrected elsewhere along the banks of the river. Some people even use this process to travel, though there is a limit to the number of resurrections available to each person. Also, you will have no idea how long it will be before you are resurrected. It could be many years.
Despite all the languages of mankind that are represented in Riverworld, everyone will understand everyone. Why you can guess. You will hear a strange language but still understand it, even if not one you knew before.
Grails
The resurrected awaken with nearly-indestructible containers tied to their wrists, commonly called "grails", which produce food, drink, pieces of cloth, and luxury items, such as alcohol, tobacco, marijuana (and lighters for same), hair care utensils, makeup, and a hallucinogenic chewing gum, known as "dreamgum".
To operate, grails must be placed onto large, mushroom-shaped "grailstones", found at intervals along the riverbanks, which produce an electrical discharge three times per day (corresponding to the times of breakfast, lunch and dinner). As agriculture is absent, and indeed impossible on the Riverworld, the grails are vital to an individual's survival, and cannot be opened except by their individual owners. Nevertheless, "grail slavery" is not uncommon, in which a person is held captive and the contents of his or her grail, retrieved by the owner, are taken by force by the captor. The slaver will usually provide the slave with enough food to keep him alive, as once a person dies their grail becomes useless.
Natural resources and travel
Though the grails provide for all needs and the climate is hospitable, further attempts to affect the environment are frustrated by the near-complete lack of metals and ores on the planet. The only building materials available are bamboo, wood, and human or fish bones and hides. Pockets of flint (eventually depleted) provide material for tools. With technology limited to the level, the surrounding mountains prove impassable.
Travel along the river will be hindered by division of the Riverworld into thousands of empires, monarchies, republics, and other social systems which evolve, each only a few miles long. Because the distribution of populations along the river seems random, the character of these nations can vary wildly within a very short span; one may enter dangerously unknown and potentially hostile territory in less than a day's journey.
********************
Character Rules
You may run more than one character.
You MAY run historical figures. (Do your research please, but enjoy a little dramatic license. Check to make sure no one is running the one you plan to run.)
No religious figures. (Jesus, Buddha, etc).
No psychopaths. No mentally limited characters. (These get resurrected on another planet.)
And no politically inflammatory figures. (Hitler, etc)
Blank CS
Last edited:
