Mar 20, 2019
Past & Present is now live!
seen from Germany
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Past & Present is now live!
hi all! we're doing a soft opening for those who've joined us on discord. feel free to drop by anytime!
meanwhile, we've also updated reserve rules - everyone can now reserve up to three claims, including a canon or an occupation canon.
best regards, anna, ingrid & ish
ALDOUS POPE
freedom army leader. handyman. medium.
hi, hello everyone! here’s the site playlist, might help you get in the mood? either way, please enjoy. we’re incredibly excited to see what you all come up with.
with love, anna, ingrid & ish
Our discord is now live! Come join us!
With love, Anna, Ingrid and Ish
Hi guys! This is our FAQ to help you understand the Past & Present world a little better. If you have more questions that you’d like clarified, we’d love to hear them!
Are people aware of what happened during the Void? Very few people are aware of what happened during the Void, as the government has and continues to put a lot of effort into burying the truth. High-ranking members of the government may know parts of the truth, with only a handful knowing all of it. Please discuss with an admin how much your character would know. Who runs the government? Three elite families took control of the government after the Void - however, they prefer to be unknown and operate from the shadows. Their main interest is consolidating power and understanding abilities. To this end, they have given the most amount of power to the Advanced Ability Research division and to Security & Intelligence.
The Directors of the main branches of government all have their own interests and often compete with each other, but their ultimate goal is to preserve their own positions and to keep London walled-in.
What kind of work does Advanced Ability Research do? Advanced Ability Research (AAR) focus is mainly on rare ability research: how does time-travel work? what genes exactly are responsible for research? can those genes be modified? and so on. Very little of it is at all ethical. The division has a lot of power, and there’s very little they are not capable of doing in the name of their research. What are Sweepers? The Sweepers is how people in the outskirts most commonly refer to the Field Division (FD), operating under Advanced Ability Research (AAR). They regularly sweep through the outskirts, taking people, most often babies and young children with rare powers. What happens to the children that are kidnapped from the outskirts?They are taken away either to be raised by the government, some in foster homes, or to be used in the AARs research, meaning human experimentation. How does education work? Education works pretty much as it does in our own world. Kids have to learn algebra here too, sorry, or not sorry if your character likes that sort of thing. The schools in London are better than those in the outskirts, but still there are differences between schools for the elite, and schools for the rest. There are school in the outskirts as well, ensuring that people get an education there too, though they don’t have as many resources at their disposal. Ability training is another thing altogether, and you can read more about that in our ability guide. Industry is a big thing, you say, how’s Mother Nature doing? She’s all right, actually. The Industrial Zone, while not a place for visiting unless one happens to work there, is not the second coming of 19th century London. Environmental policy is considered important, in part to ensure the survival of British agriculture, but also for the overall health of the city’s inhabitants. How often do people see the wall? It depends on where you live. The industrial and agricultural zones are close enough to the wall for it to be visible for the people who work there. For those living closer to the city center the wall is not visible in the horizon. That said, it is not uncommon for people to take day-trips to the agricultural zone to get away from the buzz of the big city for a while. Some schools even organize trips, bringing students out the agrilands and the wall over weekends or during holidays. How does someone get to the outskirts? If you’re a government employee, this is fairly easy - you’ll have access to go beyond the wall, but not too frequently unless it’s related to work. If you’re from Greater London and want to go to the outskirts, you can attempt to do so on your own but it’s risky - you will most likely get caught before you figure out the way. The best way is to find someone in the Safehouse Network or someone from the Underground Movement that can help - the UM acts as guides, helping you through the intricate underground tunnel system to the outskirts. You will be vetted by them too, because they’re not about to risk their hide for some undercover government agent, so having a good recommendation helps. How does London interact with the international community? It doesn’t, not as far as the average person in the street is concerned, anyway, but London does maintain formal, diplomatic relations with the rest of the world, though only the people high up in the government are allowed to leave the country. There are some exceptions, such as people deployed through the military or traveling to represent England in sports championships. Money and the right contacts might make a trip possible too. It's not common and if you have been outside of the country, there is a risk that the memory department may pay you a visit. How the international community interacts with London and England in turn is influenced greatly by the fact that England enjoys overwhelming technical and military superiority. Other countries mostly leave England to its own devices, keeping up tenuous trade agreements. What’s happening in the international world? The world is the world, still divided into the states we know today. It's in turmoil with a great deal of ability-related trouble, as the rest of the world does not have access to the ability regulatory technology that helps keep the precarious peace within London’s wall. The global superpowers are now London, Russia and China - American warfare has led to it being tried at international courts in mid 2020s, and it’s been struggling to recover its reputation and power ever since. Does social media exist? Yes it does, though inside the walls everything is surveilled by the government, while in the outskirts you can’t count upon particularly good reception and there aren’t as many social platforms as in our day. There are Facebook, IG, Snapchat equivalents, but highly regulated internally. Why does the Elephant Graveyard look so weird? The Elephant Graveyard is a peculiar looking area, few who live there will know why it looks nothing alike anywhere else in the surrounding area, and they are not likely to find out considering the landscape was shaped as such by events wiped from collective memory during the Void. That said, it doesn’t necessarily take knowledge about the Void to start theorizing that powerful elemental manipulators might have been involved in creating the strange terrain, and in that they would be right. So, the mysterious Outlands, could you tell me a bit more? Cities outside of government control are scattered across what used to be Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Many are ruined and few live in them. All are under heavy surveillance by the British military. Military bases are scattered across the British Isles, as are research facilities run by the government, also under heavy military protection. The people living in the Outlands are the descendants of those who chose to stay behind back in 2019, and though they are largely cut off from the rest of the world due to the military controlling the borders, they were not influenced by the memory deletion of 2019, as were all the people whose descendants now live in the inner city and in the outskirts. That said, due to the nature of what happened during those years, most of those who stayed behind and who managed to stay alive would have been people without abilities. Today these cities and settlements exist mostly at the mercy of the British government, but they can defend themselves and must be self-sufficient. Certain settlements and groups are more aggressive than others in face of the military patrols, and clashes happen, often with catastrophic results for both sides. These settlements do have some quality technology to deal with ability based violence and warfare, and some have also proved to be problematic by breaking into research facilities, stealing valuable technology and information. Are sports still a thing? Yes! Inside London, sports are still very much a thing— football (soccer), rugby, cricket, etc. All of these are still popular. Same with in the Outskirts. Internationally, London has Olympic teams which do go and compete, but their memories are inspected and “adjusted” after they return. Is it right that my character can have more than one power? Yes and no. This goes only for elemental manipulation as this is a special category of powers. Elemental manipulators are most commonly born with the ability to manipulate all of the four basic elements, meaning water, fire, earth and air. However, all elemental manipulators will have a clear affinity for one (sometimes two) elements. Mastering two elements completely is rare, though some do, and in those instances two particular combinations may lead to magmakinesis (earth and fire manipulation) or atmokinesis (air and water manipulation). It is far more common, however, for elemental manipulators to master one element only, from which they can develop. Cryokinesis develops from hydrokinesis, while both botanokinesis, metallokinesis and tectokinesis develop from geokinesis as different forms of specialization. In this case, cryokinesis and hydrokinesis will count as two elements, even if they are tied together. A character may not master cryokinesis and also know pyrokinesis, for example. Can I request an ability? If there’s an ability you’d like that’s not on our list, provided it can fall under an ability family, please ask an admin, we can’t promise we’ll okay it, but please ask! We’ll only allow this after site opens.
we’re happy to announce that reserves are now open!
you can each reserve a face, an ability, or both. we’re allow models and actors. please note there will only be three slots available from each rare ability. we’re not taking reserves for the final time travel slot at the current time.
those who did the intro contest can reserve an additional face and ability. you can also reserve one canon or occupation canon each. we encourage you to check out both, as there are super interesting roles that’ll be meaningful to the site. note that all of these characters may not be in positions of power, but all have the power to create change! we’d love to see original characters do that too, and look forward to seeing you— our members— help us drive the site’s plot.
to reserve, simply send:
face for alias ability for alias OR/AND canon last name for alias / occupation canon for alias
we’re looking forward to seeing your characters, and once you’ve gotten your reserves, you’re welcome to post moodboards and inspiration to #pastpresentrp.
thank you for your support and patience as we rolled out site previews over the past week. if you have any questions, shoot us an ask, we’d love to hear from you ♥
with love, anna, ingrid and ish