Post War Glories

Premise

Commence primary ignition

The world of Limbo is very much like our own, its many states and nations strove for dominance as states do, and eventually they fought a global war over it. Unlike Earth however, Limbo fought this war with technology equivalent to the 1990s on Earth. Nuclear weapons were used, but proved far to unreliable to serve as a war winner. This led both sides to seek other avenues of research.

Magic had a long history on Limbo, but next to modern science its power was relatively weak. Small healings, lighting fires and inaccurate divinations where all the mage's of antiquity could manage. However what the scholars of old could not manage the scientists of the Intercontinental Alliance did with modern understanding of physics. Codenamed the Juno Project, The IA's scientists were able to perfect a ritual which would empower a person with vast magical abilities. The ritual worked only on a few set people: specifically girls between the ages of Fifteen and Twenty, with an escalating chance of lethal failure for every year over twenty of a candidates life.

Called Glories by researchers, these young women possessed the power to fly at speeds three times faster than sound, and destroy cities with a single charged blast. By the time of the Juno Project's culmination, the Intercontinental Alliance was losing ground steadily, its members almost cut off by the naval power of its enemy, the Pan- Glevis Union. At a stroke the Juno-Project turned the war on its head, as the Glories shattered everything set against them, sinking fleets, burning divisions and conducting strategic attacks on enemy cities deep in the Pan- Glevis heartland.

Within a single year, the war was over, with the Intercontinental Alliance standing battered but victorious. The question remains however: how will they deal with the post war world... and the divisions that exist between them.

Setting and Geography

The World of Limbo has Eight continents, Glevis, Lotic, Wesvard, Roko, Javard, Estvan, Colo and Mitsfar. Colo is an uninhabitable icy wasteland at the planets North Pole, the rest however are habitable if slightly smaller than continents on Earth.

Industrial civilisation on Limbo has traditionally been concentrated on Glevis and Lotic, with both experiencing an industrial revolution at about the same time. More recently however, areas of Roko, Wesvard, and Javard have began to developed, leaving only the vast cold continent of Estvan without significant industrial powers, and wracked by the legacy of Glevis and Lotic Colonisation.

Limbo's dating system is based on the Lomian Calendar, which starts at the death of Lom, the most important figure of Lomism, the most important faith on Lotic. It is currently 1998 AL (After Lom).

Magic

Magic has always been a feature of life on Limbo, but not a particularly major one. By tapping ley lines, practitioners could creation various effects such as starting fires, healing illnesses and closes wounds. Powerful users could create bigger effects, but this took years of training and dedicated study, not to mention access to one of the more powerful ley lines or a nexus of them.

With the rise of technology magic fell out of favour in many quarters, it survived best in the medical profession, with most doctors knowing at least a few healing rituals to augment modern medicine. However in other areas magic with its requirements for years of study was superseded by machines, becoming interesting only to a few enthusiasts and theoretical physicists. The creation of the glories has changed that though, and new studies of magic are expected to yield far greater results than the hedge wizardry of yesteryear.

Nuclear Weapons

I have become death, destroyer of worlds

Nuclear Weapons were touted as the end of major war at their creation, but this proved not to be the case. Unfortunately atomic weapons (as opposed to nuclear reactors) have proven too unstable to be a war winner on their own, with a failure rate of up to eighty percent on high yield warheads. This, combined with the demands of conventional forces led to only a few relatively low yield devices being used in the Global War, mostly tactically, though several cities where attacked, civil defence procedures proved fairly effective in most cases. It was only the invention of Glories that truly changed the face of war.

History

Limbo's technology and society matured much like that on earth, however rather than a single industrial revolution confined to one area, industrial processes spread quickly between Lotic and Glevis, with the various countries their spurring one another to one new scientific breakthrough after another.

The Twentieth Century AL was racked by small conflicts over colonies, boarder disputes and the like, however it was only with the formation of the massive alliances of the Pan- Glevisian Union and Intercontinental Alliance that war became truly global. The Pan- Glevisian Union begun as a trade block on Glevis, with various member states using it to settle their differences over trade and form a stronger economic block, but also reduce the security dilemma between them. This did not really bring a zone of peace however as the Union turned its eyes outwards, looking now upon the non-members on Glevis and other industrial powers as potential threats.

Resource wars were another problem, as industrial consumption across two continents increased prices and exhausted oil and mineral fields one after the other. The Union's vast military and economic might allowed it to capture many of the remaining resource fields After a while, a second group, the Intercontinental Alliance formed to oppose the Union. Alliance states were generally somewhat poorer, and the Alliance was somewhat looser, but for the first time the Union found itself facing a near equal challenger.

War was sparked by a small conflict which grew, as everyone had known it would. In January 1990 the Pro-Union government of Iconsia, a substantial power in the seas near Roko was overthrown in a Pro-Alliance Coup with the backing of Alliance intelligence agencies. Union marine and airborne forces were dispatched to restore order, and the Iconsian provisional government asked for Alliance assistance, and soon naval and air forces confronted one another directly. The war escalated quickly and fighting raged across every continent.

The Union's plan was simple. They would hold the Alliance long enough that their superior industrial power would create an army that would bring them victory. As such they fought a fairly conservative campaign, launching only limited attacks and allowing the Alliance to force most of the battles. Despite initial Alliance gains, the war bogged down and the Union's greater industrial capacity began to tell. Invasion fleets bought Union armies to Lotic, invading the Alliance's heartland directly, Alliance capitals were subject to air raids, chemical and in some cases nuclear attack.

In desperation the Alliance sought a technological solution that would allow them to turn the tide of the war. They found a magical one instead

Glories

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Motto and logo of the Juno Project

The first Glories were created by the Juno-Project, an effort based in the Empire of West Lotic, and headed by the brilliant physicist Doctor Alice Koo. Koo's had always been fascinated by magic, and had created several devices capable of causing magical effects and tapping ley lines. Koo theorised that even more powerful off world magical sources existed, and proved this with the Ritual of Empowerment, based on ancient lore, which linked a living person to one of these powerful off world sources.

The first Glory was Doctor Koo's daughter Mary, she proved able to fly at three times the speed of sound, launch energy bolts as strong as a fuel air bomb (or a nuclear bomb with a few minutes of concentration) and resist at least her own lesser energy strikes, walking unscathed from a test zone where she'd been subject to a bomb yielding ten tons of TNT. After initial tests showed the power Mary now possessed, the Alliance rushed to create others. This proved somewhat problematic as women over twenty had an escalating chance of failure, sometimes catastrophic failure which could destroy both them and the ritual site. Despite these failures, a dozen Glories were quickly created by Alliance members.

At first the Union's intelligence did not take the threat of the Glories seriously. They had heard vague rumours about a secret project, but the idea of magically empowered warriors (especially young women) seemed the stuff of science fiction, not reality. This changed however when Mary Koo conducted her first sortie. She singlehandedly reversed the Union's success in invading West Lotic, destroying much of their fleet and airbases in a twenty four hour rampage which left hundreds of thousands of Union troops dead or captured.

With the power of the Glories revealed the Union scrambled to assassinate them. They attacked several ritual sites, and after finding that Mary Koo had come home to visit her father and younger sister used a stealth aircraft to drop an atomic bomb on the city. Mary survived the blast, but her father and sister, as well as her childhood sweetheart did not. Mary was never the same after the attack. Despite the Union's efforts, more Glories were produced, and the war was turned on its head. Glevis was invaded, with Glories wiping out initial defences and naval units to allow conventional armies to come assure, by 1995, the war had moved to the Union Heartland.

To this day, West Lotic officials deny that Mary Koo's destruction of the Union Capitals of Koram and Bresan was part of a rogue mission. With the annihilation of their capital cities, and faced with the seemingly invincible Glories, the Union capitulated. Alliance occupation forces were quickly bought in, and the unease post war period begun.

Rules and Concepts

A nation is created with 60 Glory Points and 100 Nation Points. These are used to buy Glories, economy and so on. More Nation points and Glory points can be gained over time, so any which are not used at game start can be banked for later.

Glories

Each Glory has 4 statistics running from 1 to 10. A starting Glory may have no more than 15 points spent on her, and has a maximum of 5 in any stat.

Glory Statistics

Stability

A very important aspect of a Glory, how stable and subject to battle stress she is, and how in touch she remains with reality.

Normal Powers

All Glories have a standard set of powers, including launching magical blasts, flying at speeds higher than the speed of sound and strong magical defenses capable of deflecting vast energies. This statistic represents how strong the glory is in this area.

Special Powers

Other strange abilities the Glory may have, such as weaving illusions or mind control. Each point is an additional special power.

Endurance

The Glories power reserves, how long she can stay in operation for before becoming exhausted.

Conventional Forces

Conventional Forces are less important than Glories, so they are not purchased individually, but rather as a block with nation points.

Weak Conventional Forces

10 points

Your conventional forces are fairly weak. You have perhaps 100 combat aircraft, an army of perhaps 100,000 and a total armed forces of about 250,000. Your forces are of average skill.

Medium Conventional forces

30 points

Your conventional forces are about average. You have up to 250 combat aircraft, an army of up to 250,000 and a total armed forces of up to 500,000. You may instead have a smaller but highly skilled force.

Strong Conventional force

40 points

You have one of the strongest conventional forces of the day, with over 1000 combat aircraft, an army of 500,000 or more, and a total force of over a million. You may instead have a smaller but more highly skilled force.

Military Superpower

60 points

You have one of the worlds strongest military forces, with several million men under arms, thousands of combat aircraft, and a high level of training and skill. Few can stand against your armies without glory support.

Research & Technology

Low research

10 Points

You have few scientists and are not particularly able to research. You make perhaps one significant breakthrough per year, and are significantly behind technologically in at least one area.

Medium research

30 points

Your Research is about average. You produce perhaps 2 new advances per year, and have about average technology.

Strong research

40 points

Your technology and science are the envy of other powers. You make perhaps 4 new advances per year, and have at least one area of technology where you are significantly above your peers.

World Leader in Science

60 points

Your state overflows with genius. You make 6 new advances per year, and your military and economy benefits from the latest technology in several different areas.

Economy

Weak Economy

10 Points

Your economy is weak, unemployment is high and few of your industries are competitive.

Medium Economy

30 points

Your economy is about average, you have some areas of comparative advantage, and most people are employed.

Strong Economy

40 points

You are a leading industrial economy, with a host of advanced industries who competes in most global markets.

Keystone economy

60 points

You are a central pillar of the world economic system, with vast wealth and a high standard of living. People line up to trade with you, and goods made in your country are desired world wide.

Nations

Lotusgrad

Zipang Zipang Uber Alles

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