"Cusins: Call you poverty a crime?
Undershaft: The worst of crimes. All the other crimes are virtues beside it: all the other dishonors are chivalry itself by comparison. Poverty blights whole cities; spreads horrible pestilences; strikes dead the very souls of all who come within sight, sound or smell of it. What you call crime is nothing: a murder here and a theft there, a blow now and a curse then: what do they matter? they are only the accidents and illnesses of life: there are not fifty genuine professional criminals in London. But there are millions of poor people, abject people, dirty people, ill fed, ill clothed people. They poison us morally and physically: they kill the happiness of society: they force us to do away with our own liberties and to organize unnatural cruelties for fear they should rise against us and drag us down into their abyss. Only fools fear crime: we all fear poverty."
- George Bernard Shaw, "Major Barbara"

New Jerusalem is a mishmash of Edwardian and Interwar British culture through the Pooterish eyes of a ruling class obsessed with ensuring that the middle and upper class breed prodigiously (with a meritocracy of geniuses among those sorts), the respectable working class maintain a static birth rate, and negative eugenics be applied to the poor with considerable zeal at both the scaffold and the battlefield.

Through the power of somatics, the cellular manipulation made possible by merging a Soma flower from the tree of life the city is built upon with a living host, Sir Dalton and his immortal regime do what they claim is simply drawing out into the flesh the intrinsic nature of one's genetics; turning their servants into Recapitulate beastmen and themselves and the "good sorts" into Human+ type models of transhuman perfection with supernatural powers at their fingertips to make their mishmash technology (engineered genius + the scraps of the world above) and "gene-caste" segregated way of life function.

True to the technical meaning of somatics, the powers and transformations granted by the Soma flower are themselves not hereditary, supporting the theories of the regime that they are only expressing something within the host. It is cellular, not genetic, manipulation.

With biomechanical technology, their security apparatus throughout the boroughs in the roots, body, and branches of the Tree in the subterranean world beneath London is based on the cellular equivalent of genetic scanning, like the culture from the film Gattaca. Eugenic certificates, which everyone must carry, are just a formality at this point in their still thriving, perverse society. The security cameras, the automated turrets, the automatic gates and elevators, they all scan the Caste of the target; which has been made distinct through somatic engineering.

The Alphas and Betas, who form the upper and middle class, are altered from birth to express their hereditary genius. The Gammas are baseline humans, kept segregated and at a static population, with unlicensed offspring taken into the arms of the state. Deltas and Epsilons are somatically engineered servant castes, unable to breed on their own due to clever manipulation of the reproductive systems.

However, a class of criminals called Levellers have formed a small black market for illegal somatics, using them to pose as members of higher Castes and fool the biological scans of the security mechanisms. The Betas and even Alphas are also being wormed into by a incredibly illegal clandestine society, the Theosophists, whose mystical take on eugenics lead them to oppose British imperialism on the grounds that India is the home of the ancient super-race.

Edwardian and Victorian slang are ripe for mining for terms and ideas for this setting -
http://edwardianpromenade.com/resources/a-glossary-of-slang/#P
http://www.tlucretius.net/Sophie/Castle/victorian_slang.html

For instance, perhaps common goods available in New Jerusalem are White Satin Gin, Yellow Jack Cigarettes, and Blue Devils (pills that keep those who should know their place happy and without preoccupation, like the soma from Brave New World).

Types of splicers *ahem* somatists...I could use some input. Levellers are where my mind has been at so far, with the main varieties being the standard Levellers (who use somatics to fool the biological security systems, alter their appearances, for the purposes of stealth, and other tactics suitable to imposters, thieves, and con-artists), Diggers (a favorite of Recapitulates, these types rebel against society by dropping out of it. You don't need your paternal lord and master to feed and care for you when you can create warmth and shelter with a snap of your fingertips using pyrotechnics or telekinesis), and Ranters (such as somatically engineered to be idiot Gammas being uplifted into genius level intellects, as well as the more mystical and psionic side of somatic powers).

For the security mechanisms and automatons, I'm thinking a mix of electromechanical and biological parts, and I'm open for suggestions on how far to go into the "biomechanical creatures" area (such as cyborg crows as the security cameras) or how to make creepy cyborg automatons, like metal creatures with human sense organs.

>>24346494
this is very interesting, please carry on

It may be a dead end, but given I see this as a dark comedy of manners (for comedy of manners think the Importance of Being Earnest) and more generally to be dealing with posh English social conventions (think Downton Abbey or Jeeves and Wooster in Rapture, or an Agatha Christie murder mystery with plasmids) I thought that the classic comedy of manners archetypes might be inspiration for enemy types, specialized somatic soldiers and automaton defenses used by Sir Dalton and his ruling elite who peddle the Eugenic Religion that they intend to overthrow the London-Above with (it is the 1980's on the surface). Archetypes like the Senex Iratus (Heavy Father), the Servus Callidus (Cunning Slave), the Parasite, and the Miles Gloriosus (Swaggering Soldier).

Or I might just need to bang my head against the wall and think about the setting more, and then choose appropriate names from the slang. But I'd like your help with that as well.

Another thought: The three highest of the high alphas in New Jerusalem could be Sir Dalton, the scientist and leader; Lord Mainwaring, the explorer who brought back the thousands of Indian labourers and the sapling of the Tree of Life (could barely fit in the hold of a ship, had be slid down the Himalayas and then pulled by elephants); and Reverend Cholmondley, the archbishop of the Eugenic Religion.

I'm also thinking maybe the state is called The Kingdom, with its taxonomical associations and the fact that they intend to overthrow the Britain above and replace it with a natural aristocracy of the eugenic elite, where the Eugenic Religion itself is king.

>>24346225
I like it because I literally live like 3 miles from this lighthouse.

Location thoughts: a seaside town on the roots, which is where the train from the lighthouse terminates, a Gamma (baseline human) slum buried in the roots called The Brambles, a high-caste residential (but not quite the estates of the ruling Alphas) and theater district called Top Hole

Notes: In both the slang dictionary and in Francis Galton (the real inventor of eugenics)'s magnum opus "Hereditary Genius", references are made to the wranglers of Cambridge, the top ranking students in the mathematics. Wranglers and/or Boffins as the scientist occupation/archetype/name used to describe that specific social niche to make storytelling in the world easier (the way a character model of a specific NPC type in a videogame might have a specific type name).

With the religious dimension being an important aspect to the Kingdom's eugenic regime, I'd like to have a sympathizing Beta churchman or two be members of the Leveller underground; no better place to trade information, weapons, and illegal Somatics than during tea with the vicar.

If Somatics are derived from the Soma flower, which acts as a symbiote (perhaps worn in one's lapel, imagine most the clothes in New Jerusalem designed with holes in the lapels for the flower's tentacles attaching itself to the host), where do they get their power from? Besides lifeforce, I was thinking maybe they recharged from the Tree itself. Also, given this is underground, could the Tree of Life have some qualities of bioluminescence, to give the city an eerie fairy lights vibe?

when OP is done, someone send this to the bioshock developers, this would make a great game.

>>24346975
I second that motion, to some degree.

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>>24346975
We always come up with great Bioshock ideas.
The Telsa towers Bioshock, the Walt Disney moon base Bioshock and now this. All of them would be great games or campaigns.

I wonder if Levine even bothers to look around for some new ideas across the web. I mean, he did pick that retarded Pony story to read, so maybe he does. I hope he does at least.

Leaning on Brave New World (the genetic caste system), 1984 (victory gin and the surveillance state, the extreme surveillance and control of the Outer Party/middleclass type Gammas as the most likely to try to overthrow the regime), and the Island of Dr.Moreau (beastmen like the Recapitulates) seems like the obvious choice.

The Levellers are more trying to violate the rules of this society than outright overthrow it, trying to pass among their betters and live the good life or to be able to leave the estate one is a tenant farmer on and live in the woods lighting cookfires with a snap of your beastly fingers, etc. The Theosophs are a less sympathetic, no less bad than the Kingdom regime, conspiracy working to topple the regime in secret.

In Hereditary Genius, Galton talks about how he believed that the upper limit of one's physical and mental abilities, to the exact number of pounds of force you could register on a machine built for such, were predetermined by heredity and conceded to training only the extent to which a blacksmith must gain his muscles; while stating that natural talent will peak and improvement cease in accordance to one's limitations, while a natural genius at a given activity will quickly build the muscles/exercise the acquired faculties of said activity. He cited a Cockney clerk's victory against Highlanders at their games.

He also lists historical judges, along with the Peerage, as examples of genetic worth and traces their lineage.

http://www.mugu.com/galton/books/hereditary-genius/text/pdf/galton-1869-genius-v3.pdf

>>24347061

We can get each team respectively to write out a formal write-up of each setting; collect them into a pdf called the Bioshock Multiverse Multipass and put it on 1d4chan.

Or something.

>>24347096
Thats a very good idea. I might get around to doing it later at some point.

You know, one think I always hated about the Bioshock series was that no one outside of the city had any idea what was going on.

That might be an interesting addition to this. I mean, its directly beneath London, the heart of the UK, so I imagine that their would be some kind of government keeping some kind of eye on the entire project. Maybe some kind of shadow war between the two?

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Record your most intimate thoughts for your descendants! Don't rob them of their intellectual inheritance, provide the gift of your paternal wisdom, captured forever in the eye of a certified Dinkum Viagraph!

>>24347617
Jesus christ how terrifying. The name is kind of off though, since its to similar to the stuff in Colombia

>>24347616

The conspirators could have set up their estates to fund a seemingly inconspicuous Trust that delivers raw materials and special items at a pre-determined point in the mouth of the Thames at rare intervals throughout the years.

Some evidence or artifact of New Jerusalem could have been unearthed during the Blitz, leading to a basement MI-6 office, one small file cabinet in the corner, dedicated to the mysteries and rumors of the London Underground.

And objects and information could sometimes filter down to New Jerusalem from the Underground over the decades.

>>24346805
Ledge Light, right? I used to be able to see it from my house. Sage for off-topic.

>>24347676
That could actually be an interesting lead into the city for a PC.
Where Jack is a Man from Rapture, and just an ordinary guy who is later revealed to be part of a plot to take over the city. And Booker is a drunken, failed private eye, on the road to try and get redemption, who is tied in again through the mess that is the Leteuce twins and tears.

With tho plot, you could start off with a government agent, possibly a low level operative, thrown out of his depth when the tiny, unimportant section he is working for is attacked, and he accidentally arrives in the city.

But how to tie him to it like the others?

Maybe an experiment into infiltrating the world above, a possible double agent for MI6 or maybe someone smuggled out as a kid and taken in by the Government above.

I dunno

>>24347662
>>24347662

Yes, what need does a genteel Edwardian society and the playgrounds of the hedonistic Olympian bright young things in their perfect bodies require of multiple competing brands, hokey capitalism, and other Americana...

Instead of "company" Viagraph, how about a board certified...Crow (lookout)? Jackdaw? Juggins (idiot)?

Lookout?

Lookout might be good, in that when combined with the creature in question it goes from bland to distasteful.

>>24347823
While obviously I wouldn't want to define everything by way of a single protagonist given how most tabletop gaming works, with a group of protagonists, some thought in this area indeed seems required.

Given the better sorts of New Jerusalem can live for a very long time, including the original founding fathers still being kicking, that lends to all sorts of possibilities.

Or, due to the importance of inheritance, maybe the example Protagonist, The Man who finds the Lighthouse, is just one in a line. His grandfather was the MI-6 agent assigned to investigating the bomb crater during the Blitz, and a relative of his was one of Dalton's colleagues and is still alive as an Alpha somewhere in New Jerusalem?

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The Recapitulate farmhands are in revolt!

Call Tommy Atkins (all baseline human orphans are Tommy Atkins) and activate the Tickers - this is an emergency.

>>24346910
>If Somatics are derived from the Soma flower, which acts as a symbiote (perhaps worn in one's lapel, imagine most the clothes in New Jerusalem designed with holes in the lapels for the flower's tentacles attaching itself to the host), where do they get their power from? Besides lifeforce, I was thinking maybe they recharged from the Tree itself.

Perhaps they bottle up tree sap, and drink it to recharge Somatic power like EVE and Salts.

>>24349098

Canadashock

Maybe, for non-high-grade-users, the way Soma works is it attaches to you, does its business, and then falls off after it has imprinted the somatic - given it doesn't make visual sense for the somatically engineered servant castes to have flower lapels.

For the exercise of active somatic powers (rather than passive changes like somatically engineering someone into a given caste when they are in infancy), maybe concentration can be enhanced by ingesting the petals of "used" soma flowers - either in a clove-type cigarette or, for maximum British, in tea form.

But its not, in character at least, quite like EVE. In the normal course of things, a Beta with a supernatural ability somatic like lightning or a Digger with fire wouldn't be out for recharges; but if you are say fighting hordes of dudes and running all over the place, you are straining the muscles of your somatics basically, and ingesting the dead petals helps you keep pushing beyond your normal limit.

>>24348070
Actually, an idea and play on words: Vitagrafts. Instead of radios or records or tapes, these are Board Standard and Properly Grown Vitagraphs, clippings of the Somba, treated with a specialty tincture, will allow your untold offspring to hear your wisdom and inner thoughts!

>>24348156
Yeah, this is the problem with thinking of both possibilities - but, if this was a game, I would suggest this. There is a Man - a poor man who manned a lighthouse, smart but not cunning. He drowned when that lighthouse was flooded, wasn't he? But that man had a son. A clever son, but not too bright, who worked and worked and found himself in a little cubical in MI division. A Clever, but not to bright boy who thought he discovered a plot to overthrow the crown. he followed the lead as clever but non-too-bright boys are want, and died during the blitz. That Clever but not to bright man had a Son...

>>24346753
>>24346910
I love the idea of 'The Kingdom', and I actually suggest we do this more...maybe each family has their own species name? And I do like the weird fairy-light in Roman temples and Indian Mystics and - I'm sorry, they wouldn't be Nordic, they would be either Ango, Saxon or Norman runes. Please, we aren't those germans or those terrible vikings.

>>24347096
Please do this? I mean, I would pre-order both of these games if we actually let Levine have them, but I'd just love it sorted and ordered on 1d4chan so I can gawk at it all day.

>>24348599
>>24351175
And the Tickers are fungi-derived diesel Automatons with the Vitagraft/somatic minds of the most slavish soldiers and brutes, now long since purged from the city.

>>24353728
And the reason they're not used for labor is that vitagraphs only record part of a individuals mind.

>>24353784
This can lead to unfortunate incidences where the Ticker will misinterpret commands when snippets of memories encoded on the vitagraphs are inadvertently activated. Lacking higher reasoning and mental functions, the Tickers cannot distinguish between the fragmented memories and reality. The memories can also express themselves more benignly leading to what the lower classes call the "Gewgaws;" Tickers that wander around aimlessly and confused, frequently trying to perform meaningless tasks and activities.

The City of London-Below would like to inform you that the vitagraph process used in the creation of the Tickers has worked without flaw since the foundation of the city and that any untoward behavior by the Tickers is the result of sabotage by rabble-rousers, criminals, and anarchists. Should you suspect anyone of tampering with a Ticker, report them immediately to the UnderMet lest you be implicated as an accessory. The City of London-Below would also like to remind you that the proper name for the police is the Underground Metropolitan Constabulary and anyone caught referring to constables as "Cellar-Boys" will be subjected to a fine.

>>24351175
1. Vitagrafts, I like it.
2. Certainly lends to the idea New Jerusalem is supposed to embody, that our limitations are precisely predetermined by our inheritance.
3. Noted on the runes section, silly. Can even have hardcore Anglo-Saxon enthusiasts among the city, all Kibbo Kift-like in colorful robes and refusing to wear pants.

As to the name thing, maybe all person names are structured as Species names, with the genus part of that being one's family name and the specific epithet being one's given name?

>>24355948
I'm glad you like. The idea of hunting for vases of flowers for audio recordings just feels awesome to me.

And I'm glad you like the inheritance idea for the 'Dewitt and Jack' of the world - maybe have it reflected in the PCs, too, somehow?

And yeah, so Edward Dalton might change his name to Homo sapiens priusevolvantur. Common Name: E. Dalton.

>>24357479

Ah, I didn't get that. I was looking for names for the camera-head guys.

>>24358668
Ah, that's ok. Could do both? - a flower encoded with memories and audio, and a Daguerreotypes headed creation for video?

You know, we seem to have a good grasp on the idea of this 'Shock, we don't to have that many personalities in it.

>>24363537

What do you mean?

How is this for a somatist type?

The Beta professionals called Gaslighters use the somatic Will o' the Wisp to power and control the gaslines that function as both power-grid for New Jerusalem. Will o' Wisp grants ethereal mastery over mists and vapors, as useful for drawing out and controlling the natural gas as it is for controlling the fog and hurling balls of explosive or poisonous luminescent vapor.

i got this thread archived on chanarchive.

>>24363777
Well, we have some very cool ideas about the setting and ideas around it, but none actual characters - no details about Sir Edward Dalton, no details about Lord Mainwaring and no details about the Reverend Cholmondley.

I mean, I'm just vaguely envisioning Lord Mainwaring as a great-white-hunter figure.

>>24364281
This is awesome. I actually had the idea of Ranters, maybe Recapitulates, called Mesmers. Controlling others with Somatics that make others fight for them, or place them into deep trances and create undead-like Somnabulists.

Actually, I wonder if Mesmer's Animal Magnetism wouldn't be a thing in London Below or not.

>>24365254

A little bit out of period to become a whole big deal, but anachronistic things that were cultural deals in Britain (mesmerism and galvanism certainly were) are just fine and dandy for a specific thing, like a specific somatic as you are suggesting.

I'd also say that Recapitulates and Deltas can get somatics. Like, a Gamma baseline person in the Leveller underground upgrades a happy Delta garbagemen, or gives a fire-wielding somantic to a Recapitulate farmhand (making him a Digger, as like a cultural classification. Like Diggers are criminal somatists with powers that allow them to survive outside of society, Ranters are criminal somatists with mind expanding and psionic somatics, etc.)

Honing the terminology and the procedures of somatics is something that is necessary for us to do. I want to keep it a little different than ingesting Eve to power your Plasmid which all comes from ADAM - I like the Tree of Life being the source without being a substance you harvest, I like the idea of Soma flower as a symbiote that can either attach to you permanently or attach, do the change, and then die and fall off, but I feel like some term for the passive changes like the creation (or "drawing out") of the (not) genetic castes, to separate the somatic engineering that makes weird biomachines and turns people into Alphas, Betas, Deltas, or Recapitulates from the somatics that are powers, like plasmids or vigors, would be a good idea.

As for the characters let's start spitballing.

Sir Dalton is The Guy, he's the boss. He's the Lord Protector (irony of ironies for a regime called the Kingdom). He's also a scientist. I like the idea of the head honcho being the scientist who mastered the soma, and that allows a big deal to be made out of his mastery of the Tree of Life, both figuratively in terms of his Eugenics program and literally in terms of inventing Somatic engineering.

>>24365719

Mainwaring...when I was thinking of an explorer returning from Shangri-La with a soma-tree sapling, I was actually thinking of a BBC radio program - the Now Show - which had a satirical song about a British explorer who was in the news again last year, maybe his death maybe he's next big expedition I don't know, which talked about how he had left body parts all across the globe but had a line I liked - which was that whether you liked him or not (presumably whatever you thought of aristocratic adventurers that is) it was people like him that were why Britain once ruled a quarter of the world. So I'm inclined that he could be the most sympathetic of the bunch.

The Bishop I have not thought much on except as a negative figure, the chief of propaganda for the Eugenic Religion, given that my idea was an Anglican revivalist vicars or two would be a lynchpin of the Leveller underground; so setting up the civil church as a very twisted thing, Darth Anglicanism (cake or death, as Eddie Izzard would say), and having the anglican dissidents as a counterpoint.

>>24365254

For character it might be good to get a better idea of the ideology and the man we are coldly defiling without so much as an intellectual reach-around, so how about some examination of Sir Francis Galton and his book "Hereditary Genius"?

"I HAVE no patience with the hypothesis occasionally expressed, and often implied, especially in tales written to teach children to be good, that babies are born pretty much alike, arid that the sole agencies in creating differences between boy and boy, and man and man, are steady application and moral effort. It is in the most unqualified manner that I object to
pretensions of natural equality. The experiences of the nursery, the school,the University, and of professional careers, are a chain of proofs to the contrary. I acknowledge freely the great power of education and social influences in developing the active powers of the mind, just as I acknowledge the effect of use in developing the muscles of a blacksmith's arm, and no further. Let the blacksmith labour as he will, he will find there are certain feats beyond his power that are well within the strength of a man of herculean make, even although the latter may have led a sedentary life. Some years ago, the Highlanders held a grand gathering in Holland Park, where they challenged all England to compete with them in their games of strength. The challenge was accepted, and the well-trained men of the hills were beaten in the foot-race by a youth who was stated to be a pure Cockney, the clerk of a London banker."

Lord Mainwaring. Mhm. Maybe he was 'invited' down to London-Bellow and never allowed to leave?

Would Immortality Soma actually make sense with Heritage being so important?

>>24366605

I definitely see the tippity top Alphas being immortal, such as the three main founder guys, for sure.

After all, the longer the best sort live, the more offspring they can have.

And of course given the Galton approach to eugenics, the Betas - the clerks and engineers and so forth - who would of course have the means and opportunity to demonstrate genius when one has an exceptional talent, would be brought into the fold and help keep the Alpha gene pool fresh.

Mainwaring could actually be a secret member of the Theosophists, too much exposure to all that secret wisdom in Nepal.

>>24366818
>Mainwaring could actually be a secret member of the Theosophists, too much exposure to all that secret wisdom in Nepal.

I was actually thinking this, but I kind of don't want this to be the case - it makes the Theosophists come off as the heroes if the sympathetic founder who's kept from leaving is among their number.

"Everybody who has trained himself to physical exercises discovers the extent of his muscular powers to a nicety. When he begins to walk, to row, to use the dumb bells, or to run, he finds to his great delight that his thews
strengthen, and his endurance of fatigue increases day after day. So long as he is a novice, he perhaps flatters
himself there is hardly an assignable limit to the education of his muscles; but the daily gain is soon discovered
to diminish, and at last it vanishes altogether. His maximum performance becomes a rigidly determinate quantity. He learns to an inch, how high or how far he can jump, when he has attained the highest state of training. He learns to half a pound, the force he can exert on the dynamometer, by compressing it. He can strike a blow against the machine used to measure impact, and drive its index to a certain graduation, but no further. So it is in running, in rowing, in walking, and in every other form of physical exertion. There is a definite limit to the muscular powers of every man, which he cannot by any education or exertion overpass."

The wikipedia article on Merry England, a cultural idea of pastoral England, gives me an idea. Maybe the Kingdom reinterprets history in some ways - such as referring to the Roman ruins as Norman ruins, and basically ascribing to one of the cultures that make up Britons every historical period and artifact that has ever made its way onto British soil (such as the real life practice historically of English scholars referring to the Romanesque and Gothic as "Norman" architecture and the Rococo as Jacobethan and so forth, so that there is a a line of wholly British periods without interruption to the Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian, and Eugenic periods).

>>24367188

Yeah, and the Theosophists are a bunch of proto-Nazis, can't be making them sympathetic, but I want to keep Mainwaring as the sympathetic founder.

>>24367313
Yeah, that'd also hurt it. And, i do think we need a few more then just three players.

>>24370398
Then why not think of notable characters of the various castes/criminal undergrounds? Like, say, a famous Leveller is Joe Q Public, and he's the target of the Kingdom's propaganda. Or maybe prominent Theosophists, maybe the most famous Recap is a serial killer etc...

Also, the second you mention 'fairy-like', that got me thinking. There should be a criminal group, maybe a branch of the Levelers, that kidnaps people from the Anglosphere to 'introduce' to New Jerusalem, just to mess with the caste balance thing. This is where a PC could theoretically come from; they got kidnapped by the gang, and got their first Soma augment.

Since this is a Bioshock alt world, there should be a girl in there as well - maybe she is one of the kidnapped? Very Alice in Wonderland kinda deal, but you're the White Rabbit or the Mad Hatter, not Alice.

>>24375398

The changeling aspect is gold.

Also, I imagine the Man and the Girl are different depending on the game that is being played with the setting, and that a small number of well fleshed suggestions would be in order for presentation of the idea as a whole as a working campaign-setting primer.

>>24365254

I was thinking on this: Because the security systems and pretty much all intelligent machines are, going on what we have so far, biomechanical in nature having biological brains, it would make sense for animal magnetism to work on both security systems and individuals.

But this means the tree of upgradeable abilities in that category would be more appropriate to the Leveller characters, the imposters who make their way through upper-caste society. But mind controlling people and possibly raising the dead seems tailor-made for Ranters.

On another subject, as we've been thinking on the various types of somatists and somatic powers available, I've been trying to keep their roles in the society in mind and in particular have been trying to think of dual-roles, where most somatics, those that weren't say designed by criminal bio-engineers with a secret lab full of soma-flowers being manipulated into their usable state in a Vicar's basement anyway, had practical purposes.

Part of this is so New Jerusalem comes off as a credible threat to the world above. For instance Columbia's use of shock jockey and (the main plot macguffin not related specifically to vigors but which explains their advanced tech) is an aspect of the way their society functions - powering automatic horses and other vehicles and infrastructure.

Given the Edwardian to Interwar vibe of New Jerusalem, making the technology in some way regressive - albeit with supernatural surrogates that have additional utilities - was a temptation. But messing around with the idea of the gas-lines doubling as the communications system seemed nonsenical when the wireless telegraph would have been well available when they started the exercise.

>>24375398
Joe Q Public is a bit too american and suggest that it's a popular action. Joe Bloggs works better. "Remember, people of London Below! Joe Bloggs could be anyone. Be sure to keep your heritage pages on you at all time!"

And I do want a Recap preacher who does the whole 'Sayers of the Law' route from the Island of Moreau.

And, actually, maybe a Gamma or even a Delta or Epsilon who tries to do some biological experiments or vivisection but is portrayed as a serial killer. Of course, the scientist might actually be a killer, too.

You know, when they went down into London Below, it was about 1888, wasn't it? The Ripper could have vanished down there...or been an escaped, mad, Delta or Epsilons.

Someone make sure this gets archived, dammit, we don't want to lose this like we did the second Progress thread.

>>24381024
And the third. I think I need to find the other threads on Foolz so people can find them.

>>24381024
>>24381325
see >>24365186

>>24381839
Yeah, well sup/tg/ is probably the better choice.

>>24385115

Now that that saved the thread, not something I'm in the particular habit of doing but I have some stuff to post.

Apparently having previously failed to do even the most cursory reading on Francis Galton, the Ayn Rand of this affair, I have missed that A. he wrote a book describing his eugenic utopia B. he visited Africa (which might have led me to stick with the thought of having the city there, but New Jerusalem below London works too well) and C. some of his background (wild man in college, a life struggling with nervous breakdowns).

Apparently one thing I was aware of, his work with statistics and enthusiasm for the concept of the regression to the mean, led him to - after initially devouring his relative Darwin's work - question how incremental evolution as Darwin proposed could be possible if nature tended to regress towards the average:
"Galton also identified regression to the mean: Parents of above-average height usually have children who are shorter than themselves, he explained, while shorter parents have taller kids. In other words, the tendency in a large population is to move to the mean characteristic. Galton accepted evolution, but this finding made it difficult to understand how it could proceed by small steps, as Darwin proposed. Galton concluded that evolution occurs more by jumps, though others, such as Alfred Russel Wallace, argued that environmental pressures would force new population characteristics." - quoting a non-citation using website, super-classy of me http://www.strangescience.net/galton.htm

"The Eugenic College of Kantsaywhere is a science fiction novel set in a country dedicated to the improvement of the human species by manipulating the sex lives of its inhabitants. Here, prospective parents are required to undergo physical and psychometric tests before being pronounced fit to reproduce – and those found unfit are banished from the state. People denied the privilege of parenthood become the responsibility of a government agency that ships them to labour colonies where “sharp severity” is promised if they are sufficiently unwise to break a pledge of celibacy.

It is a plot that feels familiar, thanks to its echoes in twentieth-century science fiction: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) in which babies are spawned in bottles and conditioned to suit the purposes of a consumerist state; John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids (1955), the story of a boy who knows his sixth toe is evidence that he is one of the genetic mutations so feared and despised by his community; Andrew Niccol’s film Gattaca (1997)in which those judged genetically imperfect connive to pass DNA tests by submitting the samples of their chromosomal betters, purchased on a black market in bodily fluids."

"Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The Coming Race (1871) introduced the Vril-ya, a race of superhuman beings living in cities built within a vast subterranean cave system, where they listen to organ recitals and leave the household chores to anthropomorphic robots, powered – like everything else in their realm – by a strange biological energy called Vril. These alternative worlds form the context of Kantsaywhere: in Galton’s lifetime, fiction had become a laboratory for speculative social experiments, a place for thinking the unthinkable." (Underground society with mysterious energy source, this sounds familiar)

- these excerpts are from the introduction to the partial fragment of Galton's novel, "Kantsaywhere"
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/special-coll/ksw.shtml

>>24385353
Huh. So, are we keeping what we have so far, or giving Galton the book and instead have Florance Grayson

>>24385561

Our current guy is a Galton expy, Dalton, and there is no reason to change that.

>>24385620
I knew that.

>>24385749

Sorry, wasn't trying to talk down. I don't understand the previous question.

>>24385959
Nah, it was more a 'oh, wait, fuck, Dalton isn't Galton, damnit.' realization.

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So a system of examination in which both individual merit (though perhaps speciously tested) and the advantages and drawbacks of one's ancestors are weighed to determine one's social worth for purposes of marriage licensing (reproductive rights); with the "wards of the state" being expected to be celibate but treated humanely, in theory, if they do so.

This leads to the question - is it a binary system (you are either allowed to reproduce or not) or are there varying degrees of how many children you are licensed to have? I suppose families of high ranking have access to somatics to "reveal the genius" of their brood...actually to what degree do we want the somatic engineering to be the propaganda-disguised hypocrisy of the whole eugenics program, or should the sheer ridiculousness of eugenics itself be its own criticism without the technology outright undermining it?

Alright, added to sup/tg/...too many god damn wrodswordswords on the archive page, but wanted to add it before I frogot

>>24387490

I suppose once the spurious testing system has established one's place, it would become a self-fulfilling system even without somatically engineering people into castes at birth, by way of only those who Passed the first examination getting access to a certain tier of somatics and only those who made the Honours list on the second examination getting access to the top shelf stuff.

Galton's book postulates a city-state run by a university, with the Trustees as the preeminent families and the population more like the students at the university than like the surrounding town around a college. That might be one way to go.

Reading on, the result of the Pass Examination seems to be either not passing and thus being classed a ward of the state not allowed to get married/reproduce, passing with a second-class certificate allowing presumably a limited amount of reproduction or under certain circumstances, and a first-class certification presumably giving unlimited reproductive rights. And marriage between two members of the Honours List is considered a eugenic/college marriage and comes with special privileges, including the offspring being considered foster children of the university in a good way, in contrast to the lowest rung of society that have a similarly paternal relationship with the regime but in a negative way suggesting a lack of civil liberty and reproductive rights.

It's kind of gross, but I guess that is the point. Still, one of these days there's going to be a project where the required research is about puppies and kittens.

>>24387836

The trick I imagine, thinking about it, is that soma doesn't alter genetics and they know enough to know that; without enough to know that what they are classifying is also not genetics.

So the use of somatics to engineer those with limited capacities, those lacking in genius, into tools - while in some light you might say it violates the idea of predetermined strengths and capabilities, the reshaping of lifeforms is the crux of the horror element of this setting, beyond just the social evils of eugenics.

Those deemed unfit aren't made into functional, happy transhumans with olympian forms AND superpowers, they're made into horrible one-shot tools, similar to the fate of the Big Daddies in Rapture.

Like a Lookout (camera-head guys), or a Doormouse (I'm imagining a biomechanical maid that...does something)

I'm really digging this so far and thus bumping it without adding much, but i guess i have some questions to stir thinking...

How big is New Jerusalem? I saw it mentioned that there could be towns at the roots of the tree and others in the boughs, but that seems fucking enormous, especially when you consider both rapture and columbia are singular cities.

How long has New Jerusalem existed? A hundred years? having a timeframe can help put into context thigns about the civilization like history, rebellions, progression of technology, etc.

How does the Eugenics-as-a-religion deal work with other religions? In Rapture, religion was frowned upon but not banned, in Columbia religion was turned up to 11, so how would New Jerusalem put a new take on religion that provokes thought in its own way and compliments the setting?

What sorts of unique creature and Somatics have come out science here? And considering "Eugenics" is the core philosophy of New jerusalem like "Objectivism" is the core of Rapture, has there been actual, tangible effect of Eugenics in the time that NJ has existed, or is it just the implementation of a caste system and genetic mods/alteration via Somatics?

>>24392614

Towns like..neighborhoods in Rapture and Columbia. Villages. You know, the boroughs of a city.

1919-1984

The Eugenic Religion has taken over both the monarchy and the church of England in the eyes of New Jerusalem, so technically Anglicanism has been assimilated.

Like the Vril in "The Coming Race" (I need to brush back up on Bulwer-Lytton's stuff, I remember there are several episodes talking about him in the excellent audio series Looking Back on Scifi History"), Somatics has powered New Jerusalem. The Tree of Life is the key to harnessing biological energy and mastering flesh, but it can't alter genetics (a play on words from somatic meaning material and lending towards physical causes to psychological disorders rather than purely emotional causes). So rather than undermine the Eugenic program, the fact that they are able to do it is seen as proof of how great science can be when Eugenically produced geniuses run the show.

Of course, like any tool, it can be used for unintended purposes; hence criminal somatics and the risk of the monsters they've been making out of the unfit turning against them.

>>24393123
The boroughs of a city, the boughs of a tree. Kinda poetic and dreamlike.

Anyhow! What kinda monsters do we have? So far we have mentions of Lookouts, people who get turned into biological cameras;
Doormouses, biomech maids that serves and defends households, maybe have them be able to pirouette around like marionettes?
There may be 'uplifted' animals, which are animals who have been augmented with Soma, which could be turned into various tools and/or vehicles. Like, say, crows with memory enhancements to act as flying Lookouts and personal assistants. Dogs bred and augmented to track down fugitives, maybe even able to differentiate castes. Gorillas augmented to be ridden by the police, capable of bringing down hard beatings and climb between the boughs of the Tree. Maybe even large birds that is ridden around as aerial support for the Cellar Boys.

>>24393338

Well they are frigging geniuses (ironically more thanks to soma than just soma being thanks to their genius), so no need to explain how they acquired and fed a bunch of gorillas, biomechanical animals can lean on mechanical bodies with a few animal (or human) parts.

And I like how Columbia has, without being a post-fall society of junkie transhuman mutants, has powered types that are fearsome foes, like the Firemen and Zealots. Some of the Kingdom, not to mention Theosophist and Leveller, somatists should be like that as well.

>>24393533
Well, the Theosophists are Indiaboos correct? Then why not half-elephant Recaps being used as a shock force, with faux-Indian accessories that are actually conduits/etc? Like, you get rushed by these fake Ganeshas, holding what seems to be Indian-style maces; only to have them turn out to be Tesla-like stun batons. Or maybe goons with faux-Indian masks?

>>24393338
This is mostly for the dual meaning of 'monitor', but varanid-derived patrollers, maintaining the climbing, running, swimming abilities?

>>24393596
A little too ornate for the vast majority of the city. How about something along the line of private security to the estates and mansions of the Alphas?

>>24394128
Well, of course they won't be using them for everyday purposes; Maybe they would be without their Indian garb when they are first seen, just as guards to some Alpha estates. Then it turns out that these guys also work as the enforcers of the Theosophists... so yeah, during the big reveal they will be adorned like early 20th century England's India stereotype.

>>24393773
Makes sense; we can have all the animal puns in NJ. Fish that can be turned into shoes (Soles)? Feathered coin tax collectors (Magpies)? Misleading clues about the nature of Soma on an oddly colored fish (Red Herring)?

okay, maybe I'm stretching, but we can have some dual meanings in here.

>>24394212
Magpies are Somatically-enhanced birds used by criminals to steal small objects out of houses. Why risk getting caught breaking in when you can send a half-dozen magpies to clean out the jewelry box?

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>>24393596

If we're talking Indian weaponry this shit has to be included

>>24394671
>>24394212
The Sepoys, unlike the Tickers, are a wholely private security force, each one commissioned independently by Alpha citizen to serve as guards. Many of them find their way into public service though, seconded to the UnderMet's elite branch, as a form of civic rivalry between the upper crust of the Alphas. The Sepoys come in three basic variations, though individual customization is not uncommon, called the Ganapatya, the Vanara, and the Rakshasa. The Ganapatya are of heavy build made to look like the elephants of India and designed to rush opponents while withstanding the effects of somatic powers and weaponry. The Vanara are ape-like and capable of swift, silent movement while their prehensile tails and hand-like feet allow them to easily scale walls, run on ceilings, and leap from building to building. They specialize in snatching prey unseen and delivering them to proper authorities. The tiger-faced Rakshasa specialize in the use of a variety of somatics to bring down enemies. Designed to endure the stresses of running multiple somatics at once, the Rakshasa can be tailored to individual situations as needed.

I kinda want to do 80's diesel punk shock, where narcotics are the plasmids. However, instead of letting you throw fireballs, the drugs have more personal horrific problems.
Steroids cause you to hulk out, cocaine makes you move at a blur, peyote shows you visions of the future, PCP lets you ignore damage...
marijuana is no more dangerous than malt liquor though.

>>24394997
>Vanaras
fuck year! If there's a game set in this, I'll play an albino Vanara Sepoy who got Ranted/'hijacked' into free will.

On another view, the caste system in New Jerusalem kinda reflects the Indian caste system.

Also, found a way to get the kidnappings of Anglosphere kids matter to the setting: remember the plot to overthrow the monarchy? Well, the bigwigs at New Jerusalem thinks it would be great to kidnap kids from outside, then brainwash their minds and augment them with Soma to become the perfect assassins. The Player (singleplayer computer game-ly speaking) is an agent of the Crown, investigating a strange sort of murder: a missing child had resurfaced, and he had shot a prominent lord supportive of the Crown; the authorities had pursued the child murderer (which had killed some of their number), and the child murderer died after he slipped off a rooftop. The only clue is pointing towards the lighthouse; It was then a child close to the Player went missing, presumed kidnapped. Acting on a hunch, the Player went to the lighthouse- only to meet some of the kidnappers, and get kidnapped himself. After the trip on the train, the Player and the kidnapping gang got attacked by feral Deltas and Epsilons, and the player ends up getting saved by a Gamma Leveler.

>>24396678

Make a thread, collect the wisdom in an easily readable document, and put it on 1d4chan, where eventually someone will get around to making a category/reference page called Bioshock Multiverse that will have links to all the Bioshock parallel articles.

>>24396678
>80's
>fall of the USSR
Makes me kinda want to make a Russian Bioshock where the hardcore communists are the ones who hide. But, I have no ideology to twist (other than communism), and no idea for a place to put the forevercommunists. Oh well. I'll just keep throwing ideas at the ones that do sound good.

An illogically huge cavern capable of holding the entire tree might not be the best way to go.

Maybe a massive, but not more than known ones, huge cavern that feeds up into vertical mine-shafts and tunnels and caverns at irregular angles, with the city built into the body of the tree?

Unless there is some reason for there to be a gigantic pit, like the mouth of hell, beneath Westminster.

>>24399729
>Unless there is some reason for there to be a gigantic pit, like the mouth of hell, beneath Westminster.

...
no, it's too easy.

>>24346225
Have you read Brave New World?

>>24399729
I'm was actually thinking of doing using that steam-punk level of massive diggers...or just mysterious, much deeper Roman/Anglo tunnels.

>>24400903

Well yeah, but its tunnels and shafts, not just one massive chamber. Heck, the tree itself could have dug tunnels by growing, but it wouldn't be all in one massive chamber, it would be like massive roots through the earth, with various chambers and grottos from where one can look from inside/on the tree and say fall to their deaths or see a scenic sight, but not just one incredihuge supercavern.

>>24375398
>>24375398

Since you anons are fleshing out the setting and other important stuff, i guess i'll work on MC and the girl

>Mc and a group of people get kidnapped to mess with the balance.
You now have to work with the group of people from all walks of life, banding together to survive. Some want to get out, some want to explore, some want revenge. but all of you know you have to band together to survive the unknown.

>Girl and MC are part of the group being kidnapped.
MC does not know who she is, but knows that they have to work together to get out of their situation. She'll be your spotter/partner something akin to Elizabeth.

>Girl is MC's sister/wife
Typical kidnapping case, MC wants to get the girl and leave. MC would then go on a roaring rampage to find his loved one. Won't see much of her but will hear and know about her though NPCs asking and various logs found around.

>Girl is MC's mistress.
MC works as the bodyguard/butler to a high ranking aristocrat as did his father and grandfather. Somehow due to a mix up on the kidnapper's end, he somehow finds himself in this awkward predicament. Upon his family's honor, he shall bring his mistress back unharmed. Sarcastic Devotee type of hero.

>Girl is a local trying to escape/ warn the world of some kind of evil plan.
MC starts hearing a voice giving him advice, choice system where you can tell the group about it or not. Some might thank you, some might call you crazy.

>Girl is a local who is actually a spy
Guides you around, helps you. ultimately stabs you in the back or does she

I was gonna say a Doormouse is a sleepy soma-mechanitized maid that wakes up and either kills you (if you are intruder) or politely greets (if you are a resident or invited guest), but you know - we're gonna have balls of fire and other psionic somatics anyway, so why not full-bore with the psionic/magic stuff? Living door-person-thing that creates mystical portals between locations.

Cuz you know, I want you to feel like these guys really could take over the world with the technology at their disposal.

>>24349650
>ingesting the dead petals helps you keep pushing beyond your normal limit.
This does, of course, let us play around with the main protagonist and the reasons for the existence of the Orwelian government.

The protagonist is an experiment - a fusion of the human genetic code with that of the Soma plant, a being with a human intellect and a theoretically limitless somatic ability, grown in a vat with nutrients for both human and plant growth. However, a minor revolt set London Below alight and become something much bigger - an out-and-out assault on governmental buildings. This, in turn, lead to a small group of insurgents entering the laboratory where said force-grown clone (probably? I don't know. Cloning makes the most sense) is being reared, and the experiment was cut short - at least this time. It's probably for the best, as all other examples of this type are... unstable, at best. Anyway, the government then decided to ensure that large-scale unrest could never occur again in London Below, and instituted the current legislative regime.

This child, no older than one or two years old, and with the body and mind that one would expect from that age, was unceremoniously dumped just outside the lighthouse, which is where
>>24351175
>There is a Man - a poor man who manned a lighthouse, smart but not cunning.
comes in.
This man dies during the blitz, etc., leaving /his/ son - with a genetically imbued somatic legacy - as his sole successor - and the recipient of a great deal of his information into this plot to overthrow the Crown - only... some of the information doesn't make sense. The Crown isn't referred to as a person, but more as an... entity, or an abstract idea. And this is intimately tied up with the lighthouse. Deciding to follow up on his late father's work, this man visits the lighthouse, and finds an entrance...

>>24401223

Odd thought to be be purged for fetishy waifu-ness:
Edwardian lighthouse at the mouth of the Thames is not connected to the site by an undersea train but by a Doormouse, and that initial Doormouse, having been dormant for so long, burns out and the door-mechanism drops her - she's been liberated from the machine and as she recalls her past shakily throughout exploring the city, she'll be able to provide well-timed but hazy context and clues.

>>24346805
No way, me too!

Sage for off-topic

>>24401350
Given the amount of somatics running around, I propose we give the Monitors, or another kind of ticker, a venomous bite/scratch/miasma that temporarily prevents the use of somatic abilities.

>>24401409

I mean, imagine all the most important doors holding the most important people, secrets, and treasures opening up all at once sometime in 1984, with bioengineered assassins, spies, and thieves stepping out?

Just as how I expect Columbia would have actually drowned the mountains of man in flame, I suspect Sir Dalton and the Trustees might try to achieve a eugenic world state by triggering a nuclear war. That or just replacing and doppelganging important people and other infiltration of the world stuff like that.

Some of the soma/vigor/plasmid ideas.

>Wistful slumber.

A soma created by amplifying Cherry Plum, White Chestnut and Impatiens to create a potent sleep aroma/smoke. Usually used as an aid for insomnia or as an painkiller/Analgesic in small doses. High doses could lead to comas. Highly addictive if used frequently

Used to quietly subdue targets or place an entire area into a dreamless sleep. Target will have problem aiming their weapons and move in slow and sluggish steps.

>Rafflesia touch

A soma created using and amplifying Venus flytraps and other carnivorous plants digestive power along with Raffesia and other carrion flower's odor to create a deadly gas capable to eating though anything it touches. Created to assist miners in excavating vast amount of earth, however it had a high mortality rate due to the lack of warning if any lingering trace of the gas was still around. scientist then added the odor afterward to serve as a warning.

>>24365791
>So I'm inclined that he could be the most sympathetic of the bunch.
>>24367313
Maybe he was duped? Conned into believing that the Tree of Life would revolutionise the world, and it instead turned London Below, a place dedicated to bringing out the best in everyone, into a place where only the best were allowed to live in comfort? By Sir Dalton, possibly?

>>24377652
>But this means the tree of upgradeable abilities in that category would be more appropriate to the Leveller characters, the imposters who make their way through upper-caste society. But mind controlling people and possibly raising the dead seems tailor-made for Ranters.
Well, maybe the Levellers are more able to tinker with things like clockwork and steam engines? It would lead to both being able to futz with intelligent machines to some extent, but the Levellers are more about avoiding being seen in the first place.

>>24365719
>I like the idea of the head honcho being the scientist who mastered the soma
This fits perfectly into the idea I had.
>>24401397

>>24401223
>>24401409
I was actually thinking that 'the Girl' was actually something deeply tied to the tree. Aranyani, maybe using >>24401397 for her creation.

I would also like the 'Heritage' thing to be something that happens...so maybe the girl isn't the first girl, but the first one's great-great-great granddaughter. And I would like the 'Games' protagonist to be a line of a family rather then a person - the Lighthouse Keeper, his son, and his son's son.

>>24401625
I actually like the idea of the explorer being a doubting Thomas rather then a believer. He has no belief that the Soma actually does much of anything when he finds it, and when he's told by Dalton that he does something, he doubts it's anything to do this 'this pretty daffodil some ruddy turban wearing Yogi offered me.' Actually, make him casually racist to everyone might be nice. Doesn't belief in Eugenics, magic flowers, or the lot of it, and thinks that it's stupid that the the poor need to bred into wealth or servitude. 'Blasted stupid to thing to think that breeding makes the poor poor. Just need to have some backbone and effort! They're all proper english stock, just need some way to focus themselves, you understand."

>>24401606
Maybe it's not a soma as such, that refers to the plants, but a Somatic Infusion? Or would that be more analogous to the gene tonics from the first game? This does bring up a problem, though - what are the somatic abilities themselves called?

Anyway, one idea for one.

A {whatever} produced via crossbreeding of multiple carnivorous plants - bladderworts and pitcher plants being the most important ones - in addition to squirting cucumbers to create a high-pressure enzyme cannon. Most commonly used by workers in sewage plants to more easily convert the raw effluvium into high-quality fertilizer, it has recently seen use among criminals as a convenient and easy to carry alternative to pistols and knives.

"This is a reminder from London Below to have your Somatic Imprint Permits on you at all times. Remember, it is a crime to use Somatic Imprints without the appropriate permits."

>>24401606
>>24401606

Some more ideas.

>Pepper-up!

A soma made with Peppermint, Morning Glory and Rabbitbrush. This soma accelerate's the user's metal processing and reaction time. Test subjects have been shown to catch throwing knives with ease and read words off a bullet's engraving midflight. Given to soldiers and local police force as a stimpack, only to be used in an emergency.

Time seems to slow down once you use this soma, think of it as bullet time granting you a window of opportunity to unload a rain of bullets into every target around you. You could even shoot other bullets mid flight with enough practices.

>Crimson blight

A soma created using only the Lycoris radiata as a base. This soma makes the user deadly to the touch. A poisonous soma used to kill vermin and other... undesirables. Deadly and effective.

Once used, all melee attacks dealt causes poison. Human targets seem to avoid you while you are under the effects of Crimson blight.

>>24401823

The flowers of the tree of life are soma, their technological refinement and usage is the science of somatics - involving the somatic engineering of biomachines and the creation of somatics for use by somatists.

Of course all of this very intelligent and simple technical speak can't stop the march of slang.

Because of the medicinal extract of soma being labled a lincture, the way one might label something a tincture or simply "medicine", the use of refined soma in its crude form that way (rather than for engineering lifeforms or granting abilities) is also referred to lincture even in other forms. So Linctus Brew is tea made from soma petals, in reference to the popular but not always available medicinal extract. Same with linctus ciggarettes.

Some possibilities for the colloquialism for specific use-on-command power somatics (vigors/plasmids): Knacks, Flash, Grafts,

>>24402196
Would Somatum be a better term? I mean, I'm kinda getting the impression that soma is the name of the plant species as a whole, making it a little confusing to deem each power on its own a soma. Somatum would be created as a play on stomatum (the singular form of stomata, which are leaf pores) and would also neatly be relevant - each one is plugging a gap in human abilities, as well as being used at will.

Been collecting some information on some esoteric beliefs. Hollow earth conspiracies and old Hyperborean legends would mix together nicely with movies like "The Thing".

---

Agartha is a legendary city that is said to reside in the earth's core. It is related to the belief in a hollow earth and is a popular subject in esotericism.

Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre was a "theocratic occultist" who used "synarchy" to describe a form of government where political power effectively rests with secret societies or, more precisely, esoteric societies, which are composed of oracles. Furthermore he is supposed to have associated "synarchy" with the rule of "ascended masters" who lived in the subterranean caverns of Agartha and supposedly communicated with him telepathically

According to him, the secret world of "Agartha" and all of its wisdom and wealth "will be accessible for all mankind, when Christianity lives up to the commandments which were once drafted by Moses and Jesus," meaning "When the Anarchy which exists in our world is replaced by the Synarchy.".

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>>24402433
>>24402433

I was thinking about calling it Somatia due to it sounding slightly nicer compared to Somatum.

But i do have a hard-on for word play. Somatum it is.

>>24402488
In addition, I really love the idea of "expanded synesthesia" for superpowers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

People experiencing changes in temperature and the tremors deep underground as mathematical formulae leading to the weird science aspect.

Hedonists gone crazy from sensory overload drawing absurd pictures on the wall that when looked upon make a synesthese feel like he's being stabbed in the gut.

>Fire-Vein

A somatum created through the manipulation of Capsicum species and Edelweiss, Fire-Vein lets the user raise their homeotherm several tens of degrees above the boiling point of water with no ill effects whatsoever! This ability can be used to pick things out of the fire without worry, stand next to steam locomotives without fear of death due to steam-blast and even study volcanoes - without safety equipment!

>{Something punny with the word root in it}

Adapted from several species of parasitic plants and fungi, {this creation} lets the user avoid starvation as long as another living being is around - simply by tapping into that creature's body.
Causes a drain in the target's health and a replenishing of the user's health.

>>24402512
>>24402512

Last ideas for the night.

>Ironwood

A somatum that grants the user the ability to grow a layer of skin made of genetically enhanced wood. Said wood is extremely durable and strong, capable of withstanding many tons of force and is able to shrug off bullets with ease. Mainly used by the military and police force as anti riot gear.

You become a fricking TREEMAN capable of strolling through a rain of bullets and sharpnel without a care in the world. However should someone bring out the flamethrower, you best start learning how to stop drop and roll.

>Scandenting vines

A somatum made of various types of climbing plants, by hardening and accelerating the growth process, the user can call forth a wall of vines at his/her whim. Mainly used by maintenance crew as a mean to travel to hard to reach places.

You can call forth a ladder of vines at anytime, making high walls and long gaps a problem of the past. You can call a wall of vines to act as a barrier or wall, to hide from gunfire and deter enemies. lastly you can knockup any unlucky soul standing at the location of growth.

>>24346225
... You know that the Long Island Sound Is in America right? and That the Thames you are referring to runs by NEW London In Connecticut?

>>24402512
I'm thinking there should be two varieties of Somatum, a lower class version that has finite uses and an upper-class one that can be used indefinitely.

>>24403539
Oh fuck, I feel retarded.

>>24403539

But just look at that Edwardian architecture. Besides, seemingly on its own islet rather than on the coast fits for the mouth of the Thames, which is why it looked correct to begin with.

>>24403539
All Bioshocks are set in an alternate universe. In this universe, Long Island Sound is in fact near Britain.

>>24402595
Sounds like another esoteric sect to be fleshed out.

>>24404842

And of course, if we take the doormouse idea, that means the lighthouse wouldn't have to be anywhere near London. Or there could be multiple, for multiple different campaign possibilities and to pepper a small trail of outsiders and sightings.

>>24404946
I think the Doormouse idea makes somatum a little too powerful. What if we give the gateway power to another soma construct, however they have to be directly attached to the Tree by way of root grafts. In order to use one you have to have a soma flower that is specifically keyed to the individual doorway you want to use. We could call them Grand Porters or something like that.

>>24346753
Perhaps if it was the late 1970s instead of the 1980s there could be a good contrast with the welfare state the lloyd george help create falling apart above with New Jerusalem below.

>>24405342
Keeping it in the 80s allow you to compare it to the Thatcher government.

>>24405125
This is a neat idea - maybe allow for a little 'Tear' action, too.

>>24407961
"Tear" action?

>>24408047
Bioshock: Infinite.

>>24408075
Haven't played it yet.

What are we looking at for weaponry? We've got somatum down pat, but what kinds of mundane weaponry are we looking at?

>>24408642
Well, there's the faux-Indian weaponry used by the Theos; there could be certain plants or even animals Somated into living weapons (catguns, anyone?); There's also the usual steampunk-lite peashooters and outdated designs.
I think it would be cool if there's a Soma that allows you to grow a razor-sharp, iron-hard leaf. Then you use it for Firenze assassinations. Damn! The Varanas could use these like Rajput gauntlet swords!

>>24408642

Considering the popularity of eugenics was a reaction to the Boer War, and one of the real reasons the Boers did so well and it took so long to beat them was their better rifles (the latest Mausers), maybe the Eugenicists went underground with the contemporary Mauser of the time or just with Gewehr 98's that they were able to acquire, and they have since evolved their own rifle the same way the Gewehr 98 was evolved into the Arisaka, M19 Springfield, and so forth by various countries.

So a WWII style carbine that never actually existed, but sharing the same direct ancestor as the actual WWII carbines.

Also the most British revolver possible, perhaps with available modifications.

And I'm thinking the soldiers wear pith helmets like in Zulu rather than the flat metal Tommy helmets, given the way those are used by Columbia's troops in Bioshock Infinite.

>>24408719
Repeater muskets with tiny little Somated creatures that clean and reload the musket for you!

But yeah, this. This right here is just what kind of awesome this game shoudl have.

>>24408719
I mean mundane weaponry. Having a cat that's been modified to cough up hairballs made of razor floss coated in acid is good and fine, but doesn't exactly scream, "common use." Particularly since the lower classes would more than likely face restrictions on the type of somatum and somatically enhanced equipment they have access to. Can't let those with poor breeding have too much power, they aren't capable of the proper use of said power.

>>24408768
I think there should be levels to the police. The UnderMet is the general police force with heavy elements of paramilitary, this is backed by Special Branch, a more militarized group that protects the Alphas directly.

For police armaments I suggest descendents of Webley revolvers, Lee-Enfields, Maxim machine guns, QF 1 Pounders, Martini-Henrys, Enfield revolvers, with a large selection of descendants of large game rifles used in taking down rogue somatic-mechanicals, and the hunting of custom soma beasts in the safari warrens by the rich.

>>24408982
...Would the police be heavily armed? It is London, after all, if Below.

>>24408840
Well, the sale and distribution of creatures like this is actually hard to limit - some times you have a cat, but if the right Soma is applied, you have a tabby that spits razor death at you.

But you are right, most 'normal folk' weapons are likely Weblies or very mutated one-shot of common Somaized Weapons.

...Idle question, is there anyway we could suggest the Heritage factor into 'mundane' weapons?

>>24409140
Depends on who you're dealing with honestly. Your average patrolman will have just a revolver; the big stuff is only broken out when needed. You're forgetting that they're in a society with heavy top-down control and a populace that could have the ability to shoot fire. They need to put down unrest quickly and brutally to keep it from spreading.

The bizarre somatic weaponry would be somewhat unstable and unreliable due to their illegal and ad-hoc nature. Heritage factor wouldn't matter to mundane weapons unless they have a somatic component.

>>24409140
Thinking about the somatic creatures that have been mentioned, I've come up with a few new ones and their descriptions.

>Lookers: Large raven-like birds. Their head and upper beak is covered by a large eye. Lay eggs that are full of coiled proteins that can be developed like film. Used for covert surveillance.

>Monitors: Tubes of flesh encased in thick metal poles topped with four large eyes capable of independent movement. Used as public security cameras, nerve bundles lead back to police stations allowing for real time surveillance. Those located in highly sensitive areas contain a hidden gun and are capable of attacking intruders.

>Bulls: Made from English Bulldogs, these are the attack hounds of the UnderMet. Short, thick, with powerful muscles, and huge jaws, they can crack the bones of even the most soma-hardened criminals. Somatic linking mean that they will only recognize commands from their handler.

>Sniffers: Based on beagles, these are the tracking hounds of the UnderMet. Grossly enlarged, and extraneous, nostrils allow the Sniffers to track individuals across London-Below. Capable of determine caste and somatum use.

>>24410766
>Tickers: The most common symbol of the UnderMet's authority, these are hulking brutes ~7 feet tall covered in thick iron plates. Capable of following mostly simple commands, they are frequently seen in high population areas like markets, or patrolling crime-ridden areas. They possess the ability to emit clouds of a lachrymatory agent that stains the skin a bright yellow and inhibits somatic usage. They also can throw vine-like boas that constrict around targets upon impact and release muscle relaxants to subdue them.

>Sepoys: Already described here: >>24394997

>>24346373
>Cellular manipulation based powers
>That make sense in setting
Already more deserving of the title Bioshock than Infinite ever was.

>>24410766
>Lookers: Large raven-like birds. Their head and upper beak is covered by a large eye. Lay eggs that are full of coiled proteins that can be developed like film. Used for covert surveillance.
Isn't this city underground? Surely birds are the worst form of spies.

>>24415044
It's underground in massive caverns that have their own ecosystems, all the animals are imported, and is lit by mood lighting and street lamps. I would assume there are plenty of birds. If there isn't, then they aren't used like drones; they fly to specific locations then hide and take pictures.

>>24415044
Well, there are large enough spaces that spotting them is not feasible.

>>24415044

> walking by a treewall, whispering conspiratorially
> there is a bird's nest inside

>hiding in a cellar, having a secret meeting, look down and realize we're standing on uncovered treefloor
> there's a birds nest inside

Actually, these are caves, they might be bird-bats.

To recap the somatics we were tossing around way earlier -

Puck - subject's surface cells mutate to fit a different eugenic profile, typically higher caste than they are, fooling security systems and a manual inspection alike (changes appearance, enough phony cells to fool any blood test, etc.). Subjects can impersonate a target's appearance, his voice, and his cells (to control his security systems) if provided the necessary reference material (a cell sample, a voice sample).

Will o' Wisp - subject extrudes particles that allow him or her to attract, withstand, and control other vapors, such as the explosive vapors produced by the Tree, producing effects such as hurling balls of explosive gas or riding the city's gas-lines for illicit high-speed transit.

Galvanism - subject produces animal electricity, allowing them to take control over other living things.

Marionette - subject produces threads capable of attaching to and controlling multiple objects over long distances, and also facilitating climbing and hanging from surfaces.

>>24415945
Bat-Bird-Bugs, maybe.

>>24416410
Nah, the bats would be:

>Earwigs: Tiny bat-like creatures covered in ears. Can pick up and record a dozen of conversations at once. Instinctively remain hidden until a set period of time has passed then return to their handlers. An early-developed somatic creature, the ease of creating them has lead to widespread knowledge of their construction among the criminals and proscribed societies of London-Below.