Information: Setting

[singularitymods]

a rude awakening

Characters begin in Zone 00, the center zone of the orbital. It will be, for many, the most hostile few minutes of their existence. The lucky ones might land on lunar bedrock; others might find themselves tumbling through gnarled, sharp alien steel before coming to a stop, with just time enough to wince and begin to account for any snapped bones before a three-tone chime echoes overhead. "Welcome to Sacrosanct. Please watch your step."

unreal city

It only takes the station seconds to heal or repair all damage in the nearest medbay. After everything is fixed, the next stop is the chemical shower, then the clean room. Anything might appear in the Junkyard, but nothing harmful is allowed onto the rest of the station. That is, unless the AI wants there to be. New entries emerge next at the edge of Garden Zone 01, just in time to find a floating platform waiting to receive them The current station AI is Delta (alaspooryork), benevolent caretaker of Sacrosanct's computerized life support systems in the wake of a violent removal of the previous corrupted AI; he appears as a hologram beside it, politely offering to run the tutorial program. If accepted, a guided tour of the city will be given. If not, newcomers are released to explore on their own. Next stop: Residential Zone 01, the City of Kurzweil. Kurzweil alone could hold about 12 million people, and according to station records, there are 15 other cities just like it, in addition to 16 garden zones. At present, the city of Kurzweil stands still and silent; shops and restaurants are unlit and frozen, lifts hang motionless in mid-air, and the false sky is a dark shell above the station floor save for a mysteriously lit patch in the distance. Gradually, characters come to realize that there are only a handful of people anywhere on the station, and all of them came from Zone 00. There is no one else. In a world meant for a quarter of a billion people, it's just your character, the overlord AI, and whoever else managed to survive that first step. And there is no one here who can get your character home. Lucky for them, there's room to spread out. Singularity's playing space is divided into two main areas, Sacrosanct and Asphodel. Travel between them is accomplished by automatic shuttles.

sacrosanct

The United Terraforming Corporation World-Class Orbital 916, Sacrosanct, is composed of a moon-sized string room (Zone 00), one major life support ring, and two station support rings, which maintain the station's gravity and other essential functions, including its long-range mining lasers for use in terraforming. The entire life support ring runs 30,000 km, or roughly 3/4 the circumference of the Earth. The station support rings each run 27,000 km and are inaccessible except by approved shuttle or spacewalk. The life support ring is broken into 32 alternating 'garden' and 'residential' zones. Each zone is fully connected with quantum teleporters (see more on them under Game Glossary, below). At full power capacity, all tasks within the cities would be fully operational, but with current resource shortages, many of the zones are offline and priority within functioning zones is given to critical, life-sustaining processes.

residential life

Sacrosanct's 16 cities are each full-size metropolises. Anything you would expect to find in a major modern city is here, from Korean BBQ stands to movie theaters, art museums to bars. However, you'll have to operate those establishments yourselves, or request power from the station AI, as functions deemed non-essential to survival are offline by default. Newcomers are directed to any of Kurzweil's hundreds of residential districts, where they're free to choose any unoccupied lodging to call home. Basic food and supplies are easy to come by, but again, access and privileges for a less austere existence requires individual initiative; taking on missions is a good start.

garden zones

The garden zones are a mixture of wild and agricultural/ranch land, and are the source of the station's food and other natural products, including much of its oxygen. They are each proportionally much larger than the residential zones and offer a variety of topography. While once available for general outdoor recreation, the majority of the zones have been shut down to conserve power; the few that are running are only accessible to those with authorization from the station AI, which is often granted at the expense of a favor.

junkyard

Also known as the center zone, or Zone 00, where all characters start out. This was formerly Sacrosanct's major shipping berth; however, when a spacetime membrane fissure opened up inside it, it began interacting with the station's teleportation technology, dumping both organic and inorganic matter into the hangar at a rate of 0.02 metric tons a minute. Hypatia was forced to move all shipping to the smaller berth on the far side of the station. (At present, no ships come or go at all, besides the short-range shuttles meant for station-to-planet travel.) The junkyard is a hazardous zone where literally anything can and does appear, from visitors like player characters to alien animals, space dust, asteroids, ships, or anything else, from any time period. Because of the ever-present overhead hazard and risk of radiation, living here is impossible, but characters may return to it through normal service passageways and recover material from there, provided they wear protective suits (available in the clean rooms) and submit themselves to radiation screening afterward. All low level items--raw materials, negligible items from their home worlds--do not have to be pre-approved. Important devices, high-powered weaponry, things not native to that character's world, and other significant items require mod approval on the character requests page before they can appear.

the network

One major feature of Sacrosanct is the access-anywhere, fully integrative, augmented reality virtual network. The only required device is the bracelet fitted on all subjects from arrival, which responds to light movements to display a touchable holographic menu with a further array of options. (Synthetics and characters with advanced equipment may have these features integrated into their HUD instead.) From this menu, characters have access to a network with roughly the same interactive functionality players could expect from a laptop. This list is far from exhaustive, but names the major ones applicable to game usage: Instant messaging: Personal and group text chat, voice chat, video chat, and hologram chat. Appearance, logging and security settings are fully customizable. All messages passed through the network are logged by the station, but the current AI does not have the resources to monitor all of them. Web browsing: Just as it sounds, although the pages are limited to the station's static information pages, providing maps, available resources, and a few listings of defunct businesses. Video streaming: As a courtesy to residents, the station has a nearly exhaustive listing of movies, web series and shorts for instant streaming. Music streaming: Much the same functionality as above. All forms of media streaming are also fully capable of integration with chat features for extra ease. Ever Breath of Fantasy MMXIV, a popular fantasy-themed MMORPG which incorporates chat functions, and can be played using a vidscreen or with full holography (in secure holodecks). Team Portal 19, a multiplayer retrofuturistic first/third-person shooter with much the same functionality options as EBF. Secure online asset management: A banking and barter system that, in addition to managing assets and work credits, also features a secure auctions and trades subsite. Maps and on the spot realtime navigation. Other stuff: A standard set of non-online features including writing/dictation software, music composition, video recording/playback/editing software, still imaging, animation software, spreadsheets, and basically anything else you could expect an out-of-the-box Macbook to do. However, no Solitaire. Piracy, fraud and attempts to create open-source or otherwise non-station-approved programs are, sadly, difficult unto impossible, given the station's array of security features. It would require an incredibly advanced set of skills, as well as the ability to out-think the station's AI. OOCly, successful attempts must be mod-approved using the character requests page.

asphodel

"The station reminds its visitors that the official designation of this planetoid body is UTC Project 916c. Its informal designation of 'Asphodel' is not recognized by any human registrar." A Mars-sized (20,000 km circumference), slightly irregular planet, UTC Project 916c, nicknamed Asphodel by the original human survey team, is a pre-Eden world currently composed largely of active volcanoes and persistent, planet-covering storms. O2 breathers will find the atmosphere not to their liking. Luckily, there is a highly-developed network of tunnels and some strategically-placed teleporters running under the planet's surface, linking together the major carbon plants responsible for both planetside atmospheric conversion processes and housing the terraforming team's automatons. As a matter of fact, the tunnel system seems a little too sophisticated and advanced to simply be the result of initial survey teams. Officially, the planet is empty of all human life. Unofficially, visitors may find that the underground network lives up to its name in more ways than one. While the tunnels are fed with O2 from the planet's carbon plants, they are no longer intended for continued human habitation, so some areas may have fallen into disrepair. For this reason, visitors who require oxygen should keep a suit with a spare tank on them at all times.

the resistance

(see also: NPCs) Some station residents have called the people who live on Asphodel's surface the Underground, but if you ask them you'll find they prefer the Resistance. Made up of Sacrosanct's original crew, the Resistance is filled with people and cyborgs alike, with many a mix between the two. They have a vested interest in the station, and they're not happy with the current station residents (who they call Otherworlders) for meddling so much with Hypatia's functions. Without Hypatia's original programmer, Lev, to guide them, most look to Salome for leadership, despite how ruthless her methods can be.

network usage on asphodel

Characters will find that their wearables still function on Asphodel, but only when within 20 miles of a hotspot (scattered unreliably through the tunnels, and a little more reliably at all the carbon plants). Speed and functionality is mostly the same, but characters may find the lag too great for intensive network activities like gaming. Also, hologram functionality is greatly reduced, and only available around the carbon plants. On the flip side, characters may find ways to access illegal websites hosted by members of the Underworld, containing anything from pornography to restricted information about Sacrosanct's origins. But info like that comes at a high price indeed.

outer space

Asphodel and Sacrosanct orbit an unspecified star in an unspecified quadrant of space near a galactic core which may or may not be in the Milky Way. All information about its physical location is classified from visitors. Suffice to say, it's an odd place for terraforming. The nearest habitable station is a heliostationary communication buoy floating at the very far reaches of the solar system. Using one of Sacrosanct's shuttles (teleportation access there is extremely restricted), characters could, with a great amount of luck, free-float there in about nine years. However, lingering station protocols from a previous AI remotely detonate any escaping shuttle in 48 hours; override attempts on this have never succeeded.

game glossary

Augmented reality: Sacrosanct is equipped with countless cameras and holographic projectors, allowing the station to helpfully (or not so helpfully) overlay physical objects with illusory projections. These change the perceived appearance of an area for purposes of information (giving arrows for real-time navigation) or immersion (virtual reality gameplay). Bracelet: see Wearable. Holography: holographic technology is used in three primary ways on Sacrosanct. First, it appears over the character's forearm as a kind of holographic operating system, on which they can enter commands, pull up menus and windows, and perform other quick functions on a sight and tactile basis. The second kind is in the use of augmented reality. The third corresponds with the network's chat functions to project real-time three-dimensional chat, as a step beyond simple holographic video chat. A combination of extremely frequent cameras, holographic projectors and string resonance allows users to register these holograms with touch, although they are not solid and can easily be moved through. Solid holography, which is completely touchable and resistant, is available in certain secure holodecks. Membranes: String theory and M-theory posit that not only is all matter the result of subatomic resonance, but the connection between these subatomic particles into a larger latticework suggests that the entire universe, as we know it, acts like a sheet or membrane, warping and reacting to itself. Not only that, but the theories also hold room for the existence of other membranes, all very close to each other. In Singularity, a fissure in Sacrosanct's current universe, possibly the result of quantum teleportation, has resulted in many (possibly countless) universes, or membranes, interacting with this one. Due to membrane fluctuations, the exact matter the fissure "grabs" is never consistent. It could be a spaceship, or part of one. It could be a living creature... or part of one. The fissure itself exists in the center zone, but cannot be directly observed by any known equipment. Characters just see the "effects" of it, so to speak. Network: although the network represents a wide range of functions, for the purposes of Singularity, only some will see regular use on the game's network. These will mostly come through as the instant messaging functions, which are text, audio, video, and hologram. Video appears as a holographic vidscreen and can either "follow" the recipient(s) or remain stationary until moved. The presence of countless holographic and voice projectors throughout the garden and residential zones, including inside buildings, ensure the easy manipulation and interaction with holograms and holographic video. Orbital: Sacrosanct's gravity is identical to Earth's within 5%. It achieves this not just by rotating around its planet Asphodel but by actually spinning faster than it, creating enough centripetal force to keep objects grounded to the outer wall of the life support ring. The perfectly circular, on-axis shape of the life support ring ensure occupants feel completely planet-like gravity, with no dramatic difference at higher elevations. Respawn: when a character dies, Sacrosanct's quantum entanglement technology and extensive genetic database are able to revive them (see Teleportation). It does this by recreating them from their last uploaded teleportation, in which all genetic data down to the exact chemical state of their brain is recorded on a subatomic level. There are two major drawbacks. 1) Any memories after the character's last teleportation will be lost, so the longer a character has gone without teleporting, the greater the chance of mangled CR. 2) As an experimental technology, there is a slight chance that each successive respawn will result in one or more recombination errors–namely, mutations. Whole reconstruction of a being from scratch is incredibly resource-intensive; die too many times and you might get cancer. Or boobs, assuming you didn't start with any. String resonance: strings are the assumed smallest known form of matter, even smaller than currently known quantum particles. These subatomic strings determine their state of matter by vibration. On the smaller end, this enables low-level manipulation of subatomic particles, as in the creation of touchable holograms and some of the technology needed in teleportation. On the larger end, it is suspected to be behind such phenomena as trans-membrane fissures, as the one responsible for bringing characters to Sacrosanct. See Membranes. Teleportation: the major form of long-distance travel on Sacrosanct, teleportation is accomplished by quantum entanglement centers located very accessibly throughout residential and (more scarcely) garden zones. Users specify their destination with their bracelet (or HUD, if they don't have arms) prior to stepping into the teleporter, which then verifies their citizenship certification before translating their particles with a matched set gathered at their destination. Because the process essentially constitutes instantaneously rebuilding the user from printed particles, each use of the teleporter acts as a save state (see Respawn). Also because of this process, there is a slight (less than 0.00001%) chance that the entanglement translation process will result in one or more recombination errors, or mutations. So, very rarely (and more often when Hypatia decides to play with the system), teleportation or respawn will result in a minor to significant alteration. See the Gameplay page. Terraforming: the process of converting a barren planet to a life-supporting one, by jumpstarting the immensely complex natural processes which gave rise to life on our planet. Terraforming accomplishes in decades what the planet Earth took entire millennia to complete. The reason why the United Terraforming Corporation even needs to terraform when perpetually life-sustaining orbitals like Sacrosanct exist is unknown. Hypatia was tight-lipped about her parent corporation's background, and even the state of human civilization in this universe. United Terraforming Corporation: the commercial governing body which created Sacrosanct and its AI, Hypatia. Not much is known about their operations or, indeed, the state of humanity elsewhere in the galaxy. It is unknown if they're even human in the traditional sense. Members of the resistance have more information, and station inhabitants are only likely to learn from direct contact with them. Vidscreen: a two-dimensional window containing text, audio wavelengths, video, or some combination of the three. These are basically like the windows that appear on our contemporary computer screens, except they can be manipulated in three-dimensional space, like physical pages, and expanded/moved as needed. Screens can be opened and closed with a simple hand gesture. (Yeah, it's basically Reboot.) Wearable: also sometimes referred to as a "bracelet." This is a thin, flexible electronic band fitted to all visitors' wrists. (Synthetics, non-humans and other life-forms may have their networking integrated in another way, depending on their nature.) The wearable is used by touching a set of glowing numbers which act as a taskbar, calling up a detailed but very user-friendly touchable holographic operating system. More advanced users will find they can activate the holographic menus with the simplest of wrist-flicks and twitches, making networking incredibly intuitive.

Welcome to Sacrosanct. Please watch your step:

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