RvneTek (Fantasy Tech)

The RvneTek Corporation is a corporate world government (or rather, known world government) ruling the continent Midgard, the presumed only landmass in the world (which, in question, does not seem to be RL Earth, but some norse fantasy setting). The RvneTek rules through a clever combination of steampunk style machinery with the ancient forces of magic, "crystalized" in the magic "Runes". The corporation's name is thus a combination of the word "Rvne" / "Rune" and "Tech" for "technology", and always given in CamelCase.

History

Little is known about the early history of the world of Midgard. Apparently, 1000 years before the events of today, a malevolent "force" of some kind attacked the planet, which was then a purely fantasy tech place. A long war followed, at the end of which the invaders were either defeated or put into a magic stasis. However, as a result of the magic battles, the planet's landmass broke apart and large parts were covered with water. The energy teared holes into the surface of the earth and changed the climate. One of the remaining land masses was the continent of Midgard. During the Ancient War, a small blacksmith in Myspelhym had produced Golems for the war. This blacksmith was O'Dean. He grew rich in doing wartime business, and by the time the war ended, he held a monopoly on machine manufacture. Together with workers of Myspelhym, O'Dean created a huge army of mechanoid soldiers and gathered human and non-human warriors as well. With this awesome firepower, he began collecting the shattered fragments of the gods, the Runes, while at the same time defeating the other powers of the war-ridden lands during the Guild Wars. After some time, his power was so great that the company ruled the entire continent of Midgard. Now, the headquarters moved from the dusty, dirty, smoky mines of Myspelhym and relocated to the newly-built Byfroest City, a citadel of silver towers reaching unto the sky. Subsequently, the workers of old Myspelhym were forgotten [1], and the company turned to the glorious rule of the world. Still, one thing remained undone: A certain rune had not been found. This was the Rune of Destiny, a Rune powerful enough to control the flow of history itself, and would essentially have ensured the corporate's rule forever. The company formed a team of powerful warriors, the special unit SAXON. This unit was dispatched everywhere were the Rune was thought to be and tough resistance was met. Finally, an ancient production facility was located underneath Ygdrasil, a huge tree and surrounding jungle. The team was dispatched and fought its way through the various monsters of the region. The facility turned out to date back to the Ancient War.

Guild Wars

(Main article: Guild Wars)

Cyberpunks

The Cyberpunks were a faction that fought for power during the Guild Wars period on Midgard. They were humans (and, presumably, other species, both non-human sentients and animals), who became contaminated by living machinery that had been used as a weapon during the Ancient War. Over time, they adapted and learned to use this technology to augment themselves. However, the steampunk technology of the RvneTek pushed them back and they are now restricted to certain machinery-infested areas known as the Cyberian Sprawl. This area, however, is under their total control and cannot be entered by RvneTek forces.

Elves

Elves on Midgard can be seperated into three distinct groups: Wood Elves, native to the woods and forests of Midgard, High Elves, who lived in large citadels, and Dark Elves, which live underground. Wood Elves lost pretty early in the war, when their woods were destroyed and chopped for the RvneTek's industry. High Elves lost as well, and are now a not-so-noble minority group in the Midgardian urban sprawls. The Dark Elves were uninvolved in the Guild Wars, since they claim a totally different habitat than the surfacial species. Since the end of the Guild War, many half-elves, offspring of mixed human-elvan descent, were born.

Dwarves

Trolls

Runes

Runes are the corporation's source of power. It is said that when the gods died sealing the ancient evil, their knowledge flowed into the magic symbols known as Runes. Any sentience perceiving and knowing Runes can draw upon the power of the god associated with the Rune. The corporation, of course, quickly seized control of most Runes to prevent anyone from gaining control over the divine powers. In older times, oil seems to have been an energy source on the planet, since an old oil rig can still be found rotting in the ocean close to the Cyberian Sprawl.

Services and Products

The Corporation does not seem to be focusing on any business anymore. Apparently, it merely collects "taxes" from subordinate business, like the large entertainment facility "Aqua Park".

SCOUT

The SCOUT, also sometimes simply called a "Scanner" is a portable system developed by the RvneTek during the Guild War. It can both give an estimate of the energy of any target and give additional information, like weapons used, elemental affinity and weaknessess. The SCOUT can also display more information by logging into the Corporation's datagrid and opening a file matching the target, if it has been encountered and in-depth analysis has been carried out before. The SCOUT can also perceive, and give notice of, an energy source / living being in almost any hiding. Some Auras, however, are so strong that they overload the SCOUT, causing it to explode. This can be circumvented, to a certain degree, by upgrades. An un-upgraded Scanner can analyse Life force Aura amplitudes of up to 16,000 HP, with upgrades, 22,000 HP are within the feasible range. Larger, vehicle mounted or stationary coils for sensor vehicles and radar stations may be capable of perceiving much larger energies over several hundred miles in distance.

Doomachine

The Doomachine (called "Kalifikus 48K Brutzler", litterally "Capliph-ikus 48,000 Sizzler" in the German pre-NS original history) is a huge, mechanoid spider which is deployed by RvneTek as a siege and assault weapon, and a shock troop to break heavy resistance. These units also make good guards. Essentially, they are steam-powered robots, but by the use of an elaborate combination of Runes, a basic "intelligence" has been grafted into the liveless steel, allowing them to react to simple stimuli with either "engage" or "don't engage". The magic nature of their sentience also gives them "Pure Perception", the ability to perceive reality "as is", some sort of telepathy, without the need for senses in the common sense of the word. This makes it impossible to hide from these machines. They are armed with machine guns as mandibles and a powerful Fire-Rune powered flamethrower. See also: Black Widow, Chaos, Doomachine

Rune Weapons

Military

ZAX

ZAX ("SAXON" in the German original) is the Corporation's special military force. The unit consists of Rune Bearers which have sworn an oath to the Corporation and are blemished with the "Tek Rune". ZAX, like all of the corporation's forces, has an elaborate ranking system: recruits normally start out in the basic rank, Grade 3, were the individual soldier is called "ELITE" (though most of them start as SOLDIER V or SOLDIER IV, or even Marines, but these ranks are not counted as ZAX), and progress to Grade 2, were they are distributed to either the Cavalry Unit, NUMID, or the intelligence and infiltration GHOST-UNIT (shortened G-UNIT), where they are called GHOSTS. Above this, there is Grade 1, but apparently only a handful of fighters have ever made it to this rank (Tao Ryu, Kane, Loki and Tao Li, though Loki's and Tao Li's membership are unconfirmed by official releases and in the latter case, membership was only hinted by her presence on the Cyberia oil rig), though there seems quite a number of aspiring want-to-be members from the lower ranks (See Nekomimi Trio), and it seems like at least one of them, Leyla Cormerrani, is promoted to Grade 1 following ZEX-69's rampage close to the end of the RP). Finally, there is Grade 0, but besides Zero, no one ever made it into this rank.

OOCly, the German name of the unit was orginally the English word "SAXON" (all capitalized), but it was changed when translated into English to resemble the German word "Sachse", which, in English, means "Saxon".

SOLDIER 0: SAXON Class 0

SOLDIER I: SAXON 1st Class / SAXON

SOLDIER II: SAXON 2nd Class / NUMID

SOLDIER II: SAXON 2nd Class / GHOST

SOLDIER III: SAXON 3rd Class / ELITE

ZEX-69

ZEX-69 (EX-89 in the German pre-NS history) was what seemed to be a bioandroid, created by the corporation, propably involving magic, from the flesh of Ancient corpses found perfectly preserved in Niblheim. The female ZEX shared all the powers of the Ancients, but apparently had no will of her own. The unit was used by ZAX as an heavy assault unit, the (translated) name means "Z" for ZAX and "EX" for extinct, which was already present in the original name. Plus, the name sounds similar to ZAX. The name (translated) is also a thinly veiled play on a sexual position, especially considering the physical attractivness of the character, but it is uncertain wether her creators were ICly aware of this, or if it is an OOC word play by the author (Meng Huo Yo).

Regular Military

The regular military is the main force of the corporation. It consists mostly of human recruits. The members are ermed with regular weapons. The army uses machine guns, artillery shells and some of RvneTek's unique technology, but nothing to fancy.

SOLDIER IV

• Armament: Crescent Moon
• Equipment: SCOUT
• Runes: Sun

SOLDIER V

• Armament:
• Equipment:

RvneTek Commander

• Armament: Railgun
• Equipment: C4 Charges
• Runes: Thunder L2

Commanding officers. They are armed with Railguns powered by a series of Thunder Runes. They also carry explosive charges, which they can use to demolish structures and large and immobile targets. A SAXON II Commander is called "Ghost" (see above).

RvneTek Marine

These are basic RvneTek military personnell. They are armed with machine guns.

Bases

Byfroest City

(Main article: Byfroest City)

A huge financial metropolis built by the RvneTek after the Guild War [2]. The corporation's headquarters moved from Myspelhym to the silver towers of Byfroest City soon after. The name is derived from the Bifrost, the rainbow bridge connecting the human world to Asgard, the realm of the gods, in Norse mythology.

Myspelhym

Myspelhym ("Muspellheim" in the German pre-NS original) was the original base of the RvneTek, were the company constructed the golems during the Ancient War, and seized control over the continent Midgard during the Guild Wars. The city lost its status as the corporate headquarters when Byfroest was built, and, while still a large industrial hub, became a smoky, dusty slum standing on top of a cliff pierced by mining tunnels that almost give it the appearance of cheese.

Characters

President O'Dean

President O'Dean (German: Präsident O'Dean) is the leader of the RvneTek Corporation. He is a cold-hearted man with not so much a lust for cruelty but simply lack of empathy and interest in anything else than money and efficency. He's quite tall and muscular and has blond hair, fair skin and blue eyes, looking like an aged ideal Aryan from Nazi propaganda. He lost his left eye during a vaguely described event when apparently giving it to some unmentioned entity in exchange for knowledge about the Runes. Though not a dedicated fighter, in combat, the President wields a huge spear, called Gungir. No first name is given, but notice the similarity between his last name and the norse god Odin.

Freya

Freya is the (deceased) wife of President O'Dean and mother of Balder. She's only mentioned once, but apparently, she belonged to a now-extinct human race, which lived "close to the spirit of the planet" and it is hinted that her race actually "invented" the runes.

Balder O'Dean

Balder O'Dean (German: Baldur O'Dean) is the son of the RvneTek's president. He's arrogant and a bit cruel at times, but is quite smart and has great ambitions. He's mentioned to be "quite a ladies' man", a player. Balder lost his right hand as a child, during an encounter with Fenris. The hand was replaced by a magic-driven iron hand with a powerful gun grafted in. This gives him quite some power in battle. Balder dresses solely in a white / vanilla suit and coat with kilt pattern. His position within the company is unknown, but he seems to play quite an important role and personally pursuits Zero, accompanied by the members of SAXON.

Lif Fortuno

Surt Baalrock

Surt Baalrock (German: Surtur Balrog) was the foreman of the RvneTek's workers in the mining city of Myspelhym ("Muspellheim" in the German original). When the corporation raised the working hours without comprehension, Surt led a rebellion against the company, which was quickly put down by SAXON, the corporation's elite guard, led by Ryu Tao. After that, despite the blame Surt took for the failure of the uprising and the subsequent destruction of the city of Myspelhym by causing the mine tunnels to collapse with possibly hundreds of victims trapped underneath several kilometers of solid rock, Surt continued resistance against the corporation, together with Fenris, Diane May and, over time, numerous others.

Zero

Loki

Ryu

Kane

Celene

Diane May

References

1. 1 Character in Myspelhym Coal Mines: "In ye olde days, the company thought about us. Now all those big men think about is doing business. Screw 'em in their silver towers."
2. 2 Balder O'Dean in Byfroest City (previous to boss battle): "This city has been built on the ruins of the Guild War. And by the frozen tears of those that stayed behind in Myspellhym. Ain't the bright 'n' shiney!? Ahahahaha!"