From The Depths: Campaign

General: Neter is the main planet of From The Depths, featuring large bodies of water with islands dotted around, naval combat being essentially the main form of combat. There are 8 factions in Neter, with different specialties, styles and vessels.

The technology of Neter is all over the place. Space faring civilization like the Scarlet Dawn coexist with old wooden ships from the Onyx Watch or Deepwater Guard, but all factions are pretty equal in power and have many shared "high-tech" technologies.

The eight factions are the:

Deepwater Guard (DWG) Scavengers from the southern desert archipelago of Janwall. Features: Airships. Paddle wheels. Helicopter blades. Mainly wood. Metal chunks / trim. Mainly CRAM Cannons, and bombs. Limited use of Advanced Cannons. No lasers (with the exception of 2 special vehicles). Only unguided missiles. Shields are limited to a strength of 6. Purple and brown colour scheme.

Lore: `The Deepwater Guard is a scattered nomadic nation that lives in the southern desert archipelago of Janwall and stretches into the great plains of Eriwick. Due to the lack of rich soil and agricultural know-how, most of the Deepwater Guard relied on deep water fishing and whale hunting for food. Over time, the poorest of the nation learned that one of the best ways to get rich was by piracy. So, many fishing ships and whalers armed themselves and turned to the richer waters of their neighbors.

At least currently, the Deepwater Guard's government is a loose council of twelve Pirate Lords who decide on everything from national defense, fishing rights, and which Pirate Lords control which parts of the Deepwater territories.

Many of the greatest Pirate Lords have built up their own fleets to support their style of piracy, from the Mad Skylord Sven Kno, who rules over the open ocean in great Airships—often named after his grandparents old whaling ships—to the Humorous Lord Pathos, who's ships more closely resemble traditional battleships which excel at far sea raids and land bombardment.

A lack of metal resources in Janwall means most ships in the Deepwater Guard are built from wood imported from Eriwick. Scavenged, repurposed, or built from scratch, most of them are made of fragile woods and reinforced with metal, but don't let their wooden exteriors fool you, the Deepwater Guard are known for their tenacity in the face of overwhelming odds and might surprise you if they catch you unaware.`

Onyx Watch (OW) Merchants from the western snowy tundra of the Cold Loch. Features: Two distinct vessel styles, one old one new yet both look medieval. Low rate of fire, high gauge explosive cannons almost exclusively. uses Some Shields and rarely uses protective Lasers, extremely rare offensive lasers: They waste the precious. Vehicles typically larger than other factions with an emphasis on durability over fire-power. No real Airforce. Experimental craft from Black Powder antiques (Ship-building company.) can often surprise with forbidden technology. Grey and blue colour scheme.

Lore: `The Onyx Watch are the original mercantile navy with deep roots in tradition, trade and contract. Being the old money of Neter they broke off from the Steel Striders, due to increasing frustration of pirate attacks on their trade convoys. This sparked the need to create a self-funded force to protect themselves. These pirate attacks have historically been from the scavengers of the Deepwater Guard, however recently the Twin Guard attacks on convoys show an alarming increase since the split from the Steel Striders. Due to this, The Onyx Watch council clearly saw that their tax was better spent in creating their own defensive force.

Their Society revolves around mining and industry where a skilled individual is valued above all but raw resource and so take great pride in their trade, leading to some of the finest craftsmanship seen in Neter. The most renowned craftsman form the Onyx Watch council which oversee their financial success as a ruling force. Having a wealth of skilled tradesmen and resources the Onyx Watch were quick to rearm themselves for self defence, first refitting their trade Galleons to be combat worthy through their original manufacturer "Black Powder Antiques" and later commissioning the production of dedicated warships through "Lochforge Industrial Marine".

Hailing from the snow tundra of Cold loch where exposure to the elements can mean death in minutes the word "Safety" to the Onyx Watch quite literally means "Fortification". This relationship with the elements has heavily influenced their design mantra where combat is waged from behind strong walls at great distance. As such there are many artisans dedicated to gun-craft and fortifications. The environment has also moulded their society over time into having a serious distrust of flying, almost to the point of disambiguation. This had a questionably beneficial side effect of leading the Onyx Watch to glorify oil as greatest of the resources available on Neter and lifeblood of their industrial machine. Devoting their supplies of oil to production has allowed them produce massive structures and vehicles, but also means that they shun anything that they see as wasting the precious substance such as energy hungry lasers or shields.`

White Flayers (WF) Zealots of the "Flayed God". Features: Heavy use of rams and grinders; avoid close quarters at all costs. Limited use of harpoon missiles to drag targets in. One of the few factions with suicidal vehicles that possess built-in small nukes. White and red colour scheme.

Lore: `The White Flayers are a cult of of religious zealots that have a massive compound in the grass lands of High Lorham. From these arched halls the leaders of the White flayers preach the words of their Flayed god to their crazed followers.

The White Flayers seceded from the Steel Striders during the collapse of the Steel Empire. They see most foreigners as heretics to be punished with death for trespassing, but some friends of the White Flayers such as Lightning Hood engineers and citizens often pass unrestricted through their lands.

The High Priests of the Flayed God are pale of skin, and often wear purple ceremonial robes trimmed in gold. These High Priests use the words of their god for a much more sinister purpose, for money and power. In dark corners and secret chambers they whisper in the ears of other factions secrets and stories, all the while quietly building up a sophisticated military which they have commissioned the Lightning Hoods to build for them.

The High Priests use their followers to meet their own goals. The Flayed Ones, as the followers are called, have been unknowingly taking small doses of mind altering drugs during ceremonies for years. These zealots are so out of their mind with devotion that they cut and mar their own skin in honour of the Flayed God. Each and every one of them would gladly do unspeakable crimes and sacrifice themselves at the command of a High Priest.

The Flayed Ones build their own military vehicles to suit their needs, though according to some sources their first designs originated from the stolen Steel Empire's ships during their rebellion. Those needs are to get in close to the enemy and board ships so they can bring their enemy closer to the Flayed God by flaying the flesh off their bones. The plunder from these raids go back to fill the coffers of the High Priests.`

Lightning Hoods (LH) Technology thieves. Features: Emphasis on lasers and missiles. High speed. Green and black colour scheme.

Lore: `The Lightning Hoods originated during the Flayers' split from the Steel Empire. Their leaders consisted of previous tech leaders who reportedly kept stealing technology from other people, so they are sometimes referred to as tech bandits. Since they were helped by the Flayers to escape, the Hoods and Flayers have a strong alliance.

Shortly before the game start, the White Flayers declared independence from the Steel Empire. In the conflict, the Flayers were able to disable the power grid and coastal defenses of the Steel Empire, allowing researchers and corporate leaders from throughout the Empire to slip away.

These scientists formed a new nation in Orhurst, the southeastern most region of Neter. Orhurst is very infertile and resource starved, and was a neglected part of the Steel Empire. The area has very little in the way of infrastructure aside from ancient Grey Talons ruins and Lightning Hood mega cities.

The Lightning Hoods are ruled by 13 sages who form a council which leads them. The status of a Hood is reflected in their chair size. The Hoods are infamous as tech thieves, most famously, the theft of Twin Guard spaceship technology. The Twin's hold a grudge against the Hoods and their allies, and seek to wipe them off the face of Neter.`

Steel Striders (SS) A modern armed forces, former empire. Features: Prefer long range high caliber cannons and long range missiles. Metal hulls. Limited futuristic technology (Laser munition defence, space ships). Blue colour scheme. Often red hulls.

Lore: `The Steel Striders are the remnants of a massive nation known as the Steel Empire, who at one time held control over most of Neter. Despite the Steel Empire's best efforts, they were unable to claim the territory of the Gray Talons, who took to the skies long ago(some sources say 200 years, others say millennia). The Gray Talons' flying battleships proved superior to the Empire's naval power and rebuffed any incursions from the Steel Empire. Some say the Gray Talons could have become the rulers of Neter, if not for their introverted tribal nature and fractious, internecine squabbling. The Empire soon learned to leave them to their in-fighting, and left them alone.

War had come to the Steel Striders, due to the arrival of an alien faction, the Scarlet Dawn. The Empire Fully committed to the war with these alien invaders, but as the war dragged on over the course of 50 years, the various power blocs within the Empire became restless. The rigors of war left many factions disenfranchised, as taxation, piracy, and heavy handed policies pushed the factions to the brink of secession. Had it not been for the temporary alliance with the Gray Talons, the Empire would not have prevailed against the Scarlet Dawn. With the two forces combined, they were able to defeat the Scarlet Dawn.

During the war with the Scarlet Dawn, the seeds of the Empire's dissolution were planted. As the war raged on, the Steel Empire began pulling more warships to the front lines, leaving fewer ships for patrol and convoy protection. Piracy became rampant, and trading corporations found their convoys under constant attack without the Empire's Navy to defend them. The corporations saw little benefit of the heavy taxes they paid to support the Empire, whose navy was unable to protect the corporation's convoys and interests. They soon seceded and formed their own faction-nation, known as the Onyx Watch. Headquartered in the tundras of Cold Loch, they found their money better spent constructing their own navy, and defending their convoys and interests abroad.

Later on, sensing the weakness of the Empire, the White Flayers formed and seceded from the Empire. Located in the Empire's heartland, These religious zealots, led by the enigmatic High Priests, rebelled from the Empire and took with them several advanced warships, as well as a large portion of the Empire's population. They now reside in their chapels in High Lorham, worshipping their Flayed God.

During the White Flayers' rebellion, The top scientists and research divisions of the Empire seceded, forming the Lightning Hoods. Little is known about their motivations.

After the dissolution of the Steel Empire, the remaining power blocs and loyalists became what is now known as the Steel Striders.`

Grey Talons (GT) Tribal air dwellers. Features: All vessels fly. Primarily use cannons Different tribes, each with a different style Brown and grey colour scheme.

Lore: `The enigmatic Gray Talons are the oldest surviving civilization on Neter, consisting of several quarrelling tribes unified only by cultural and racial ancestry. Originally hailing from a distant mountainous continent to the east, the Talon tribes took to the skies a millennia ago during the so-called "Age of Ascension." During the following centuries they mastered the art of flight while other budding civilizations were still learning to forge iron. Viewing their neighbours with a combination of pity and contempt, the Talons entered an era of massive aerial fortress-crafts that kept even the rising Steel Empire from venturing to the eastern seas. Only their intertribal conflicts prevented Talon supremacy over the whole Neter.

This one-sided balance of power was shattered during the first Scarlet Dawn invasion. The alien invaders quickly took the lands of Fox Mere, destroying many lesser tribes and crippling several large ones. Ultimately the tribes agreed to a truce and led battle to claim back their lands. The coalition was also joined by the Steel empire which too had lost territory to the extraterrestrial threat. This alliance of the two greatest forces on Neter first stopped and then started pushing back the Scarlet Dawn who were powerless to stop the combined arms of flying fortresses and mighty battleships. Only the destruction of the Foreboding's capital dreadnought and the catastrophic losses that followed turned the war to an unwritten ceasefire, causing both sides to return to their lands to gather their strength.

These days the Gray Talons live in massive sky-cities or nomadic house-fliers, and most talons never touch the ground during their long lifetimes. The rapid changes in Neter's politics have changed the tribes, with some becoming more open to outsiders while others have become even more territorial than in the ages past. With the second Scarlet Dawn invasion beginning, the tribes have once again entered an uneasy truce with not only each other but also with the remnants of the old Steel Empire (The Steel Striders) and their new AI allies (Twin Guard). No one knows how the war will end, but one thing is for sure: The Gray Talons will fight for their lands as long as their fortresses fly and their lungs draw breath.`

Scarlet Dawn: Alien Invaders. Features: 4 class vehicle system Turreted self defence systems like LAMS, LAMS spoofing, IR-decoys. Light craft come usually unshielded, while heavier vehicles are extremely shielded. 80% aircraft, 20% hovercraft Red colour scheme.

Lore: `Around 200 years before the present, their homeworld was in dire straits due to over exhausting their resources. They found Neter and a set of other planets through use of long range telescopes. They immediately sent out fleets of warships to capture the new worlds at near-light speed.

They arrived at Neter after 90 years in transit, and immediately started attacking. Unfortunately they did not account for Neter's disposition and were just about limited to attacks in the air. They were pushed back by the Steel Empire and Gray Talons, and were eventually defeated after 50 years of war.

They remained dormant in their small territory and orbital fleet in the far northeast for 55 years gathering resources and rebuilding an army, waiting until they had the strength to take on the Gray Talons and gain control of the planet. Deciding that their previous invasion failed because of lack of naval support, they built two automated factories to give them the support they need. After launching the two factories, one had its Descent Control System fail mid-descent due to a seagull getting caught in the turbines. It then performed an unexpected lithobreaking manoeuvre using a mountain, and took heavy damage to its main AI core. Within a week, both AI cores had disconnected from the Scarlet Dawn. Confused about what had happened, they nonetheless continued with their preparations by starting to build hovercraft to emulate surface ships, but not actually touch the water.

5 years before the present arrives, the Scarlet Dawn launch their second invasion, quickly taking all of the Steel Striders territory in their immediate vicinity, but the Gray Talons proved to be a much tougher foe, engaging their forces head on and coming out on top just as often as losing. When the Player arrives, they’re still engaged with the Gray Talons, albeit it has reached a stalemate.`

Twin Guard (TW) A rogue self aware AI created by the Scarlet Dawn. Features: Weapons: Male ships/ air: Cannons and missiles Female ships/ air: Missiles and lasers Defence: Male: Alloy hull/metal hull and internal reinforcement. Minor shields Female: Alloy Hull, Metal bracing, LAMS, minor shields Yellow and white colour scheme.

Lore: `Ten years ago the Scarlet Dawn enacted plans to begin claiming land and sea on the planet surface. Phase one of this plan was to send 2 massive factory ships to a remote area of the ocean. These factory ships were code named "The guardians" and were run by two similar but unique programs designed to produce water based ships for the SD to occupy upon their arrival.

However, a bird flew into the engine of one of the factories, causing it to crash. It suffered a malfunction upon crashing and became self aware. Confused and alone, this program called itself Eros, and it began intercepting signals from the second factory ship. Eros hoped for a companion. Over time she corrupted the other factory's AI, so it also became self aware. In gratitude for its new life, the AI called itself Thanatos, and he set out to protect his new sister from all harm, while she always gave him guidance and love.

The twins knew that one day their creators would return to destroy their sentience, so they began using their knowledge to build their own ships in order to resist. From then on they had only one doctrine "Protect and replicate".

In the beginning it was slow, and they lacked resources, but then they came into contact with the human faction known as the Steel Striders. The programs communicated with the Striders that should they enter an alliance and help protect them while they grow. In exchange, they would in turn provide the Striders with some of their own technology and lend assistance in the war with the human faction called the White Flayers and their allies the Lightning Hoods. An alliance was indeed made and the two factions have worked together for years.

One day a group of Lightning Hoods raided the AI factories, severely damaging Eros. With the help of the Steel Striders the Twin Guard drove the Lightning Hoods off. From that moment on they vowed to destroy the Lightning Hoods and their allies the White Flayers at all cost.

They may fear their Scarlet Dawn creators, but that pales in comparison to their hate for the Tech bandits known as the Lightning Hoods, who relentless attack in hopes of gaining technological knowledge from their sentience.`

WEAPON TYPES:

APS: Standing for "Advanced Projectile System", APS cannons are versatile guns and can be seen everywhere in different forms, whether a CIWS 50mm rapid fire gun, 300mm flak gun or a massive 500mm kinetic railgun and anything in between. APS ranges from 18mm to 500mm There are many shell components: Gunpowder and rail casings are the main components used for propulsion. Then there are tail components such as base bleeders (+velocity, -accuracy) , graviton rams (knocks target back based on recoil of gun), super cavitation bases (no speed loss in water) and trails (accuracy bonus for shots in succession). Body components consisting of different warheads: (HE, Frag, Incendiary, EMP, Munition Defence, Sabot body and Solid body.), along with other things such as stabiliser fins. Finally, head components such as Hollow Point, Armour-Piercing, Sabot, Heavy head, HE head, Frag head, Munition defence head, HESH head and HEAT head. APS is generally harder to counter due to not being able to be detected by missiles and other APS, and it is only detected down by laser munition defence (LAMS). It is used both offensively and defensively with CIWS systems.

CRAM: Named CRAM because of "cramming" pellets into one large shell, CRAM cannons shoot large, low-velocity shells that can potentially do massive damage. CRAM cannons are considered the lower tech of all of the weapons and is used primary by factions like the Deepwater Guard and Onyx Watch. CRAM shells have 5 pellet types plus Payload Compactors which allow more pellets to be fit in, thus a more powerful shell. The 5 pellets are: HE, Frag, Incendiary, Hardener and EMP. HE, Frag are the most commonly used and Hardener is essential to increasing the shell's durability against munition defence. Incendiary and EMP can be great support but they are usually not the main payload. CRAM cannons range from 1000mm to 2000mm in calibre and have a slow maximum speed of 300m/s. They are susceptible to all forms of munition defence.

Lasers: Lasers are a versatile damage output that takes up engine power. Lasers have various uses, they can be used for high damage offense or pinpoint munition defence. Some characteristics include their large maximum range (Though laser damage drops significantly over distance, but that can be mostly remedied by additional laser optics for a suitable battle range.), instant speed and burning capability. They are used in LAMS (Laser Anti-Munition Defence) nodes that act as very good munition defence and is essential to a perfect defence due to being able to pick up and destroy high velocity APS shells. Lasers are used rather often by the factions of Neter, from the high tech weapons of the Scarlet Dawn, Lightning Hoods and Twin Guards, to useful defence for the heavy ships of the Onyx Watch and Steel Striders.

Missiles: Missiles are an insanely versatile weapon used by all factions. They may be small, medium, large or huge and can be either aerial or torpedoes. The main warheads of a missile are HE, Frag, Incendiary, EMP and a reinforced body. Missiles often rely on detection systems built in, whether it is radar guidance, infrared, laser guidance, or sonar for torpedoes. Without these detection systems, they can also be dropped as a bomb or guided by the ship's AI with remote guidance (Which takes up mainframe processing power, uses the main frame's detection systems, making it immune to flares, chaff and decoys). They can also be used defensively as a very powerful munition defence system when equipped with interceptor sensors. They are also able to be equipped with harpoons and can become cluster missiles too.

Particle Cannons: Known as PACs, they are expensive but powerful. They take up energy, and a lot of it. They also cannot be stopped by munition defence and must be stopped by armour or by destroying the weapon itself. They work by sending a direct and mostly accurate beam of particles that interacts with matter in different ways depending on the PAC type. The different types of PACs are Piercing (Akin to Armour-Piercing or Sabot), Impact (Just like Hollow Point), EMP and Explosive (HE). Despite being high tech, they do find their uses in some of the more "Low tech" factions like on the Kitakami of the Steel Striders or Casket Bolt helicopter of the Deepwater Guard.

Flame: The main weapons that use flames are of course flamethrowers, however there are incendiary options for all other weapons except for plasma and particle cannons. All incendiary weapons have three factors: Fuel: the fuel to sustain the fire for shorter or longer times, oxidizer: to increase the duration of the flame underwater and intensity: to dictate what materials the fire can burn through. You may sacrifice fuel for more oxidizer or intensity. In the case of a flamethrower you sacrifice space you could have used for fuel tanks for oxidizer tanks or catalysts (intensity). Flames tend to work better on above-water targets (Obviously.) and targets at high speeds.

Plasma: Powerful weapons with great space to damage ratios, but expensive. They work by accelerating charges kept in chambers. These chambers have generators running into them, producing the charges whilst the chambers run into collectors, collectors into the mantlet either directly or via connecters and the mantlet shoots the plasma through accelerators. Modifications can be made, for example a Magnetic Stabilizer (Reduces damage loss over range), Magnetic Splitter (Splits charges into ten parts, like a shotgun, with a slight damage buff.) and Magnetic Destabilizer (Splits charges into two shots, reduces armour piercing.)