History

From Dream Chasers
Jump to navigation Jump to search

"A legend is just a lie that has attained the dignity of age."

--Unknown

The universe of Dream Chasers has a timeline measured in millennia and records measured in decades. The events surrounding the Day of Collapse and the Metal Demon Wars have shattered most forms of historical record-keeping, and even these comparatively recent events cannot be fully reconstructed. Of the Zeboim civilization, even less is known. Of whatever came before them, nothing at all.

Stories, Myth, and History

What Filgaia does have in spades is stories (in the case of Lunar, songs). Oral storytelling is a highly popular pastime on both worlds: legends of golden ages and shining heroes provide comfort to people struggling to carve safe haven in the bones of a broken world. Over time, firsthand accounts become hearsay, hearsay becomes rumour, and rumours become stories. With enough time and repetition, they become legends.

In the centuries since the Day of Collapse, some stories have been shared so widely that they are known and accepted (in the absence of evidence) by most of the common people. The various "timeline" files are a collection of those stories, and should be considered common knowledge for anyone born on their respective planets. After enough time on Filgaia or Lunar, PCs will become sufficiently familiar with that world's stories that their characters can be assumed to know them as well.

But it's important to remember what they are: stories. Most are exaggerated. Some are just plain wrong. And others are lies, crafted deliberately and for a reason known only to the teller.

A large part of the fun of Dream Chasers will involve peeling back the layers of time, piecing together artifacts and excavated records to uncover what actually happened in Filgaia's past. As PCs begin uncovering these secrets, these timelines will be updated into something approaching an actual history... which in many cases will be quite different from the original canon.

This is intended to be both fun and a useful exercise. PCs are encouraged to ICly share information and tell stories in their spare time. The more you put in, the more you'll get out of it.

A Note On Spoilers

Certain characters (primarily but not exclusively antagonists) will have access to information most players don't have, because they are connected characters that actually know what was going on. Or in some cases because they themselves were there.

The potential that these characters or their players could let slip some sort of major secret is quite high; as such, we will generally be very careful about who gets to play them. But if your character is in the know, keep these details to yourself, both ICly and OOCly.

If you spoil the plot of the Sixth Sense, you ruin a movie. If you spoil the plot of Dream Chasers, you could ruin five years of work. So please don't. Pretty please.

See also...