09-12-2016, 04:08 AM
So, you've come to this subforum, probably wondering about the Outcasts and the National Council more specifically. The goal of this post is to try and explain the basics of Hispanian roleplay, and the concepts that drive this player faction, both in- and out-of roleplay. We'll briefly touch on the history and RP of the Corsairs as well, since it's important to understand them due to their very unique connection to the Outcasts.
The very first section of our faction page, and our ingame ID, give a brief rundown on our history, but we'll start off here with a detailed summary of it. During the Alliance's exodus from Sol, there were five sleeper ships constructed; the Hispania was one of them, containing the various peoples of the Mediterranean and Latin America, as well as a small number of Coalition saboteurs. (For more on the Alliance-Coalition conflict, play Starlancer or watch the intro cutscene to Freelancer, if by some miracle you haven't already seen it.) The stowaways sabotaged the engines of the Hispania, and it exited hyperspeed in Omicron Gamma.
Crete, the only habitable planet in Omicron Gamma, is very barely so, but without any guarantees of finding another habitable planet, around half the population of the Hispania made planetfall, and became the Corsairs. The rest of the colonists kept the Hispania barely running until coming into Omicron Alpha and settling on Malta. These would go on to become the Outcasts. To this day, both the Outcasts and the Corsairs blame the other faction for sabotaging the Hispania, and use it as a moral justification for their continuing war. Most unlawful groups in Sirius have picked one side or the other, and they can be roughly organized into geopolitical blocs based on these sides.
Malta is more hospitable than Crete, but not by much; notably, unlike Crete, the soil is more fertile, and mass-scale agriculture is actually feasible. An orange grass called cardamine grows on Malta, and trace amounts of the stuff are in pretty much everything on Malta; there's cardamine in the air, the water, the soil, the flesh of the fruit and of the animals. When humans are exposed to cardamine, it acts as a powerful stimulant, inducing euphoria and quickening reflexes. It also prolongs your lifespan (Outcasts commonly live to be over 120 years old) and increases general intelligence, but drastically lowers fertility. It is extremely addictive and withdrawal always results in a painful death. As a result, the Outcasts strongly cherish every single Maltese life. This is an extremely important part of Maltese culture, and you cannot understand the mindset of the Outcasts without understanding this first. In-roleplay, the Outcasts are some of the best pilots in Sirius, hence their success despite their limited numbers.
It is important to note that to the Outcasts, cardamine is not a drug. It is rather an essential component of life, like air and water. To talk of Outcasts "getting high" off of cardamine (unless it's extremely concentrated, anyway) is as silly as talking about a normal human getting high off of pure H2O. When an Outcast leaves Malta, they wear breathers or utilize other devices to maintain a constant supply of cardamine; the distance a Maltese can travel from home is strictly limited by how much cardamine they can bring. This is another reason they maintain such an extensive network of allies; doing their own dirty work is extremely costly, and there's always a time limit, so getting regular pirates to cooperate is in their interests.
The Outcasts are also very paranoid, and see anyone threatening "their space" as an urgent threat. This is why they've been hostile to the IMG and GMG since their first encounters. They see the rest of humanity as having abandoned them (hence the name, which they chose themselves), and seek to profit off of extracting revenge by selling cardamine to the other Houses, making millions of people dependent on them.
Maltese society is basically structured around aristocratic and plutocratic families who either won recognition as "nobility" somehow, own cardamine plantations, or both, and, while it isn't written in the game, player-created lore has generally held that there's rarely (if ever) been a unified central government on Malta; instead, power is constantly shifting from one family or cartel to another. The cardamine plantations are generally operated entirely by slaves, or "mandatory workers". How the Outcasts morally justify slavery isn't really specified in the game, so players and factions have taken a lot of interesting stances with this. In the National Council, it's mostly just shrugged off and accepted as a fact of life, but there's a lot of room for individual interpretation here.
[img float=right]http://discoverygc.com/forums/uploads/avatars/avatar_34335.png?dateline=1465750597[/img] This section's mostly about the ooRP philosophy behind the National Council as a player faction. For details regarding our roleplay, check out the first section of this post, which was a joint project between
The National Council, as a player faction, was founded in reaction to what was seen as an abandonment of traditional Outcast roleplay, exemplified by groups whose names are now ancient history; the Contari Lance, even the Blue Lotus Syndicate. The ooRP philosophy behind the NC- as a faction is simple, yet ambitious; any Outcast ID'd player should be able to slap on the NC- tag and continue playing their Outcast character just as they did before. Naturally, there are caveats (take orders in a fight from HC members or more experienced PvPers, don't shoot Bretonia when we're trying to get friendly with them, etc), but as far as possible, the NC wants to give its members as much freedom as possible to do whatever Outcasty things they like, while still being coherent enough to appreciably advance Outcast roleplay.
This is why the inRP "structure" of the NC is what it is; the National Council is no official government body, but rather a group of "concerned citizens" that any Maltese individual or group can pledge solidarity with (ie, join the faction). Any one person, any subfaction, any alliance or interest, can be added to or taken away from the faction without changing what the faction is. This flexibility isn't only an in-roleplay advantage, but an out-of-roleplay one as well. The Vesuvius Flotilla was formerly an independent player faction known as the Vesuvius Brigade, whose goals were much the same as ours (both in- and ooRP), but had too narrow a focus (strictly an organized military force and nothing more) to maintain a stable playerbase. Their style didn't violate Outcast canon lore (much the opposite, in fact), and so we merged the faction, with all its lore and members, into ours. Atlantis Manufacturing was also formerly a strictly civilian Maltese corporation operating on, I think, Freelancer IDs, but they had the same issue with members; we in the NC liked the idea and offered them the opportunity to work with us, and they took it.
Basically, the NC wants to offer something for everyone: an indie Outcast player who just wants to do their own thing can tag up and continue as before, now with a group to call on for backup or join on raids. Someone who wants to develop their character in detail, making friends and maybe even helping shape the future of the Outcasts, can join us and find what they're after, too. And, of course, new players who understand how roleplay works but are still getting used to Freelancer, Discovery, or just want to see a new region of space can find people who want to guide them, as well.
The short form of the National Council's roleplay is that, when the old Crimson Cross was running the show, many Maltese who didn't take kindly to that were exiled from Outcast space. With the waning of the Cross's power, some conservative groups on Malta formed regional or industrial councils to try and protect their interests. The exiles, seeing an opportunity to shake things up, returned, unified these smaller groups into the National Council, and have been expanding their interests while also trying to defend the traditional Maltese way of life.
In the NC, everyone is pretty much equal. We don't necessarily have ranks (but subfactions do) and even in our High Command, everyone shares and distributes responsibility as needed. Subfactions are mostly left to do their own thing, but every current subfaction leader is a member of NC HC. Subfactions are a way to help members diversify the faction's roleplay, and keep the Outcast experience fresh. If you're looking for more a more "focused" experience, want a challenge, or just like their transmission bars better, then apply for one of them instead of the NC proper!
The very first section of our faction page, and our ingame ID, give a brief rundown on our history, but we'll start off here with a detailed summary of it. During the Alliance's exodus from Sol, there were five sleeper ships constructed; the Hispania was one of them, containing the various peoples of the Mediterranean and Latin America, as well as a small number of Coalition saboteurs. (For more on the Alliance-Coalition conflict, play Starlancer or watch the intro cutscene to Freelancer, if by some miracle you haven't already seen it.) The stowaways sabotaged the engines of the Hispania, and it exited hyperspeed in Omicron Gamma.
Crete, the only habitable planet in Omicron Gamma, is very barely so, but without any guarantees of finding another habitable planet, around half the population of the Hispania made planetfall, and became the Corsairs. The rest of the colonists kept the Hispania barely running until coming into Omicron Alpha and settling on Malta. These would go on to become the Outcasts. To this day, both the Outcasts and the Corsairs blame the other faction for sabotaging the Hispania, and use it as a moral justification for their continuing war. Most unlawful groups in Sirius have picked one side or the other, and they can be roughly organized into geopolitical blocs based on these sides.Malta is more hospitable than Crete, but not by much; notably, unlike Crete, the soil is more fertile, and mass-scale agriculture is actually feasible. An orange grass called cardamine grows on Malta, and trace amounts of the stuff are in pretty much everything on Malta; there's cardamine in the air, the water, the soil, the flesh of the fruit and of the animals. When humans are exposed to cardamine, it acts as a powerful stimulant, inducing euphoria and quickening reflexes. It also prolongs your lifespan (Outcasts commonly live to be over 120 years old) and increases general intelligence, but drastically lowers fertility. It is extremely addictive and withdrawal always results in a painful death. As a result, the Outcasts strongly cherish every single Maltese life. This is an extremely important part of Maltese culture, and you cannot understand the mindset of the Outcasts without understanding this first. In-roleplay, the Outcasts are some of the best pilots in Sirius, hence their success despite their limited numbers.
It is important to note that to the Outcasts, cardamine is not a drug. It is rather an essential component of life, like air and water. To talk of Outcasts "getting high" off of cardamine (unless it's extremely concentrated, anyway) is as silly as talking about a normal human getting high off of pure H2O. When an Outcast leaves Malta, they wear breathers or utilize other devices to maintain a constant supply of cardamine; the distance a Maltese can travel from home is strictly limited by how much cardamine they can bring. This is another reason they maintain such an extensive network of allies; doing their own dirty work is extremely costly, and there's always a time limit, so getting regular pirates to cooperate is in their interests.
The Outcasts are also very paranoid, and see anyone threatening "their space" as an urgent threat. This is why they've been hostile to the IMG and GMG since their first encounters. They see the rest of humanity as having abandoned them (hence the name, which they chose themselves), and seek to profit off of extracting revenge by selling cardamine to the other Houses, making millions of people dependent on them.
Maltese society is basically structured around aristocratic and plutocratic families who either won recognition as "nobility" somehow, own cardamine plantations, or both, and, while it isn't written in the game, player-created lore has generally held that there's rarely (if ever) been a unified central government on Malta; instead, power is constantly shifting from one family or cartel to another. The cardamine plantations are generally operated entirely by slaves, or "mandatory workers". How the Outcasts morally justify slavery isn't really specified in the game, so players and factions have taken a lot of interesting stances with this. In the National Council, it's mostly just shrugged off and accepted as a fact of life, but there's a lot of room for individual interpretation here.
[img float=right]http://discoverygc.com/forums/uploads/avatars/avatar_34335.png?dateline=1465750597[/img] This section's mostly about the ooRP philosophy behind the National Council as a player faction. For details regarding our roleplay, check out the first section of this post, which was a joint project between
The National Council, as a player faction, was founded in reaction to what was seen as an abandonment of traditional Outcast roleplay, exemplified by groups whose names are now ancient history; the Contari Lance, even the Blue Lotus Syndicate. The ooRP philosophy behind the NC- as a faction is simple, yet ambitious; any Outcast ID'd player should be able to slap on the NC- tag and continue playing their Outcast character just as they did before. Naturally, there are caveats (take orders in a fight from HC members or more experienced PvPers, don't shoot Bretonia when we're trying to get friendly with them, etc), but as far as possible, the NC wants to give its members as much freedom as possible to do whatever Outcasty things they like, while still being coherent enough to appreciably advance Outcast roleplay.
This is why the inRP "structure" of the NC is what it is; the National Council is no official government body, but rather a group of "concerned citizens" that any Maltese individual or group can pledge solidarity with (ie, join the faction). Any one person, any subfaction, any alliance or interest, can be added to or taken away from the faction without changing what the faction is. This flexibility isn't only an in-roleplay advantage, but an out-of-roleplay one as well. The Vesuvius Flotilla was formerly an independent player faction known as the Vesuvius Brigade, whose goals were much the same as ours (both in- and ooRP), but had too narrow a focus (strictly an organized military force and nothing more) to maintain a stable playerbase. Their style didn't violate Outcast canon lore (much the opposite, in fact), and so we merged the faction, with all its lore and members, into ours. Atlantis Manufacturing was also formerly a strictly civilian Maltese corporation operating on, I think, Freelancer IDs, but they had the same issue with members; we in the NC liked the idea and offered them the opportunity to work with us, and they took it.
Basically, the NC wants to offer something for everyone: an indie Outcast player who just wants to do their own thing can tag up and continue as before, now with a group to call on for backup or join on raids. Someone who wants to develop their character in detail, making friends and maybe even helping shape the future of the Outcasts, can join us and find what they're after, too. And, of course, new players who understand how roleplay works but are still getting used to Freelancer, Discovery, or just want to see a new region of space can find people who want to guide them, as well.
The short form of the National Council's roleplay is that, when the old Crimson Cross was running the show, many Maltese who didn't take kindly to that were exiled from Outcast space. With the waning of the Cross's power, some conservative groups on Malta formed regional or industrial councils to try and protect their interests. The exiles, seeing an opportunity to shake things up, returned, unified these smaller groups into the National Council, and have been expanding their interests while also trying to defend the traditional Maltese way of life.
In the NC, everyone is pretty much equal. We don't necessarily have ranks (but subfactions do) and even in our High Command, everyone shares and distributes responsibility as needed. Subfactions are mostly left to do their own thing, but every current subfaction leader is a member of NC HC. Subfactions are a way to help members diversify the faction's roleplay, and keep the Outcast experience fresh. If you're looking for more a more "focused" experience, want a challenge, or just like their transmission bars better, then apply for one of them instead of the NC proper!