Ryzom

Hello everyone. As long as I’m looking for a roleplay background for my character, I read and read again everything about SoR I found. Even some past and recent interview of the headmaster behind SoR

Now I’m sure that Ryzom was build with the idea of melting “heroic fantasy’s magic” with the “sciences and technology”, I have started thinking more about their “clinging” in game

Also, let’s not forget that the roleplay in ryzom will be much more political than religion, with all species, guilds and other behavior.
Anyway as long as I love sci-fi (main reason I choose ryzom is because of the sci-fi part in a traditionnal “heroic fantasy” rpg)... here is a small almost-RP thought.


Kami and Karavan.

Everyone know that there is 4 kind of Homins who inhabit Atys. As long as we rewind history, it seems that the 4 main species ruling Atys come from some primitive tribes, Gibbaï, Frahar, Cutes and Momos.

But we have two factions, two non-Homing (?) being who are on Atys. Don’t say they inhabit, I never spotted any cities, just mere outpost or ambassadors. I’m talking about Kami and Karavan.


Karavan are the holder of the technology. They use physical mats as tools for their everydays’ life, tools, defense and building. To achieve requirement, they supply those mats with power. Mechanical powered tools can’t hold a good amount of strengh or need an external device to supply them, so I suppose Karavan crafters use a trick.
The main energy vector of Atys is the Sap. Sap is naturally found as a kind of liquid (ever seen the sap river of prime roots?) liquid that can be stored in cristallin form. We can easily imagine that Karavan uses a kind of Sap battery in their equipment. Also, the tremendous power available from sap can be the fuel of their flying ships.
But don’t forget that Karavan “believe” in their physical technologies. So people involved with Karavan should have special knowledge (or training) wielding those concrete tools.

Kami are the psychical linked beings of Atys. They can synchronize with every living creatures. The homins and every living stuff around are able to generate the Sap, and I think this is why Kami can locate them... We say that Kami uses magic.
Magic is a kind of pure energy who’ll change the entropy of concrete or other pure energy sources/target. I’m sure everybody knows the 2nd law of thermodynamic : summary is “natural state of mats is getting more and more disordered”.
So Offensive magic is a way to increase mats disorder, that’s why the first spell you learn is offensive : making an acid cloud is about ionizing gas, very easy and not much power is needed. Elemental magic is quite the easier as long as there is no much “creation of mats”. Others spell who require mutation or harder : building (living cells building for heal...) consumes lots of sap. I can’t imagine how much Sap/energy Kami uses when they recall a dead homin ! There is a solution anyway to reduce energy consuming when casting spell : the focus. Focus mats may be kind of convector who limits energy losses (joule effect ?) and so improve seriously effectiveness of energy manipulation.
As long as homins didn’t possess the Kami knowledge, to reach a high level of efficiency they need those focus. But people who want to get involved with Kami will have a special training and acquire natural ability to focus their energy and convert sap efficiently without mars.


We can easily see the difference between those two, one believing in physics, other in psychics.


Since the history includes Kami and Karavan as major actors during Kitins War and Exodus, they are definitely involved in homin beings.

As holder of great power and knowledge, the 4 homin species devote some faith in them. Hope is to reach their knowledge, some want it for wisdom, others for power and ruling the world.

Refugee homins from Exodus can choose their way :
- Be a fellow homin, who believe in his race history. Developing skills and abilities accordingly with their origin and their land.
- Follow the Kami. Being a master of sap handling, using it as the common tool of everyday’s life.
- Follow the Karavan Guradians, wielding the finest technologies availble to make everyday’s life easier.



From this point of view, I’ve seen some strange and interesting things :

- At early stage, you can use magic. As long as magic is the main tool of Kami, the more you use it, the more you’ll be overseen by Kami. Uses of magic to protect Atys should give you fame with Kami, and destruction will lower your karma.

- Only magician can heal at early stage, so there is a great amount of people who follows Kami path. What about Karavan believer ? Karavan can “respawn” dead homins, so they should have small devices able to heal (kindof medkit lol) also!

- Refugees use mainly mats to do everything. They don’t have the knowledge to empower it, or maybe in the “ranged weapon” skill, with intelligent use of explosives.
Maybe at higher level we’ll be able to use sap crystal as source of power. It should be much more powerful than explosives as long as sap is almost pure energy (you remember the e=mc2 formula ?), maybe plasma bolt instead of bullets.

- We can imagine that Kami’s follower will less and less use mats as long as their knowledge and wisdom about magic increases. Armor of powerful magicians will only be some clothes with lots of focus on it.
Advanced sap crystal will improve their ability to generate sap, and protections will be given by permanent auras (who drain sap constantly?).

- Karavan’s follower (or karavan fellow ?) will have enpowered mats, who increases strengh or dexterity with micro-engines inside armor and enhanced vision system in the helmet (hey, that’s why we can’t see Karavan members face ?)

- Only Kami’s follower will have the ability of understand mobs, be able to pet them or mount others mobs than mektoub.

- Only Karavan’s follower will be able to drive vehicle or ships.

- Should “normal homin” be lower than a “follower homin” ? as long as followers cant reach the whole knowledge of their master, and normal homin can spy and steal knowledge from them, I dont think so.


it's a bit confused, there is no really point in this ..
well, I need remarks, suggestions and more ideas to keep it, err, growing?

pr0ger wrote: Kami and Karavan.

Everyone know that there is 4 kind of Homins who inhabit Atys. As long as we rewind history, it seems that the 4 main species ruling Atys come from some primitive tribes, Gibbaï, Frahar, Cutes and Momos.

But we have two factions, two non-Homing (?) being who are on Atys. Don’t say they inhabit, I never spotted any cities, just mere outpost or ambassadors. I’m talking about Kami and Karavan.


Karavan are the holder of the technology. They use physical mats as tools for their everydays’ life, tools, defense and building. To achieve requirement, they supply those mats with power. Mechanical powered tools can’t hold a good amount of strengh or need an external device to supply them, so I suppose Karavan crafters use a trick.
The main energy vector of Atys is the Sap. Sap is naturally found as a kind of liquid (ever seen the sap river of prime roots?) liquid that can be stored in cristallin form. We can easily imagine that Karavan uses a kind of Sap battery in their equipment. Also, the tremendous power available from sap can be the fuel of their flying ships.
But don’t forget that Karavan “believe” in their physical technologies. So people involved with Karavan should have special knowledge (or training) wielding those concrete tools.

In one of the dev chats during beta, it was asked that we have a general idea about the Kami, but that we have no idea about anything pertaining to the Karavan beyond "they don't agree with Kami's and use high technology stuff" and there was a bit of an answer given

entire dev chat in question

Q:
<tetrasodium> the Kami's are interested in saving the planet and nurturing society and such when looked at distantly and boiled down to a few words... what do the karavan represent/want and what are some of their goals?. I don't believe I've seen anything at all about the Karavan aside from them existing and wearing antisap suits.
A:
yes the Karavane. The Karavane doesn't look like it's native to Atys right... Well their goal has been like this:

Before you guys enter your new life on Atys, your ancestors had built incredible civilizations. Like you could think of the Egyptians or Romans. The Karavane was already there, same suits, but in greater numbers. And the Matis were their favorites. The Karavane is serving Jena, their Goddess. Their sacred words talk about the arrival of Jena and they are here as her servants to drive the civilizations on the right path. To prepare Atys for her arrival. But, one day, after the the Matis and the Fyros got several wars behind them, and the Tryker enslaved by the Matis (the Karavane did nothing for th poor lads then), and the Zorai got enough of these barbarians altogether (and decided to go their own way into the jungles), the Kitins came out. (because of the Fyros who had gone down into the Prime roots despite the prohibition of the Karavane)

the Kitins ravaged the Fyros (that made a lot of entertainment for the Matis), and then moved on to ravage the Matis. The Karavane tried hard to protect the Matis (more than what they tried for the Fyros), but the Kitins were too numerous, and finally the Kitins got to the Zorais too. And when mass extinction was about to occur, two incredible things happened. The Kami showed up, and, as strange legends that your grand parents told you, a man in white appeared and saved famillies of each civilization and got them to safe places where they would survive for some time. Survivors of these horrors: clans in the woods, in the desert, in the islands, or even in the prime roots, survived for three generations. You are their latest generation. Your clan sent you to meet your kind again, because there are rummours about a new beginning, to have revenge over the Kitin. And questions are still unanswered regarding the Karavane, and about the Kami, and this time you decide which way to go.

alliances among the civilizations? or like your ancestors divide into wars. You'll have to make choices regarding the Karavane and the Kami (you cannot go both ways as you progress), and you will also have to find the scattered pieces of the ancient and powerful knowledge from your ancestors. The Karavane is very interested in getting that knowledge too. Revelations will change your vision of the present, and let you pin point the big inflection points, so you can decide where you want to be when (oups if) Jena comes

<kaeru> (ok the cat is here again)
<kaeru> (I'll take a minute to kick it out)

Karavan don't use sap and whatever powers their technology seems to currently be a SEPfield until more is said, but I would guess it to not be sap since everything so far seems to say it doesn't agree with them . Also Karavan are not native to Atys, they are here because they had something to do with or know about the creation of Atys and are waiting for it to finish doing what it was created to do which is supposed to have something to do with their god Jenna. Not digging up more devchats and such, I'm sure that if my memory is wrong or mistaken on any of that, that someone will come kill me/correct me/flame me/whatever

Okay, so Kami were "discovered" during the kitins war only ? never before ? think i miss something but i hardly remember some stories.

Okay about Karavan, good to know the not-so-far past of them. I can already imagine tons of quest and campaigns to found more about them heh.

They are not using sap and more, they have anti-sap armor ? hehe total opposition with Kami

I also read that Matis were doing genetic manipulations, could be a clue.

There is something not right about Jena's being karavan's god and Kami not to care about Jena. If Kami care about Atys and Karavan knew that they were kitin deep inside prime roots, it means that they are older than Atys ...
Well, no need to think further... yet

Tell me moooooore!!!
*excited*

I think the Kami ARE Atys, the planet is sentient (Much like the Gaia theory, all life on the planet is one being).
The Karavan are outsiders, overseeing the development of the homins, their boss is Jenna and they are trying to save humanity after some catastrophy by populating Atys.

My theory is that the homins are genetically engineered beings, created by Jenna and the Karavan.
The homins needed to be part of Atys in order to survive there though (The karavan can't breathe there), so their DNA is part human and part Atys (The primates to be more exact, wich explains the similarities), this is why the Kami cares about the homins:
Homins are part Atys, some more (Zoraï) and some less (Matis), the Kami has chosen to bond with Zoraï more than others since they have more 'Atys blood' than the other tribes (They are suspicious, just look at what Matis did to their local primate tribes. That's Karavan for you.).

So, are the tensions between the Karavan and the Kami because the Karavan are invaders who's abused the living planet Atys by playing with its DNA? But at the same time the result was new life that both factions want to see survive?
Now, the Kami does seem to have some respect for Jenna, maybe Jenna isn't one of the Karavan. It could be that she was a scientist who created the homins as symbiotic beings, maybe Atys needed the humans to survive too?
Maybe (As in many movies) the scientists created the homins with great care to preserving Atys, but when they were done, the military (Karavan) took over, showing no respect at all towards the planet.
The Kami refers to Jenna as their benefactor and creator of homins while the Karavan say they serve Jenna, knowing that the homins considers her to be a god (Knowing that this is an easy way of controlling the homin.).

Another theory i have is that maybe Atys itself is an engineered planet/being and Jenna the inventor of both Atys and the homins, the military/Karavan found out about it and took control of the project (Maybe Jenna was removed from the project and that's why she's not around anymore.).
Having seen artwork of a huge Jenna and a tiny Atys makes me think that Atys is floating in a test-tube environment in a lab, a microcosm.

The Kitins are probably alien too, since everyone (Including the Kami) wants them dead. If the test-tube theory is right, they might simply be bacteria, fleas, lice or similar. What if Atys is really Jennas scalp and the giant roots and stalks are her hair? Getting too deep now so i'll stop hehe.

What a great thread.

The Kami have always struck me as rather like Atys' immune system grown sentient. They seem to be trying to maintain a sort of ecological balance on the planet to keep it healthy and allow it to grow/mature/evolve.

I'm not so sure about the Karavan. They seem more like humanity is at the moment, exploiting Atys as a resource. Whether that is done "sustainably" is not clear yet. The Karavan seem to be taking the resources off-world. This could be why the Kami are opposed to them, because by removing resources they are disturbing the natural equilibrium of the planet.

I agree with Pruger in that there would appear to be something on Atys which the Karavan cannot tolerate, and I wonder if this is the sap? Do we know why the Karavan wear those environmental protection suits? Certainly the Karavan transport in Yrkanis looks like it is being attacked and corroded by the plant life. Perhaps the sap ultimately destroys the metal which would provide the technological basis for a scientifically advanced civilisation?

For some reason I had always assumed that the Karavan were human. We are told that their numbers are declining, and perhaps they are dying out. Following this reasoning (loosely), the homins could be humans genetically hybridised (by the Karavan) with the local species to resist the sap, as ahremark has suggested. This would provide them with a means of continuing some approximation of humanity and also allow them to harvest more resources without endangering themselves. Those suits might be easily damaged and Atys is not exactly "Mostly harmless".

It would seem logical to use the four primitive Atysan primates as templates (assuming the four homin raises aren't just evolved from common ancestors of the primates) in the genetic hybridisation process, with each race of primates specialised to live and resource-gather in a different environment.

If the genetic manipulation idea is correct, it is not clear why the homins of Atys are unaware of their ancestry....

Anyway, lunch is over, it's back to work for me.

If you look at the specific regional "lesser tribes" you will notice similarities in appearance to each race, for the most part.

Fraher in Fyros look strikingly similiar to Fyros (especially the facial hair and haircuts). Cutes in Lakelands look somewhat like Trykers (small and bouncy). The only problem following that is that the Matis and Zorai have the same lesser tribe in their land - the Gibaai. And the Gibbai really dont look like the Matis, so I'd have to assume the Gibaai are the ancestors of the Zorai. Not sure where the Matis come from.

Also no one has taken into account the goo. Although I realize it's not a big part of the game currently, if you read the history it provides some interesting insight.

We know the Karavan wear full body space suit things, for whatever reason.
We know that the Zorai are the closest to the Kami and the goo only affects them at the moment.
We know that the Kami encourage the Zorai to fight the goo.
We know that the Karavan specifically discourage the Zorai from fighting the goo (its in the histories, they tried to punish the Zorai but the Kami stepped in).

This brings up several interesting questions. Why would the Karavan not want the Zorai fighting the goo?

My theory is that the goo is a genetically engineered mass to terraform the planet to make it hospitable to the Karavan. Far fetched, I know, but seems to hold some water. If not fought, the goo is supposed to spread and take over areas (currently not implemented). And the Kami, being represenatives of the planet, are trying to stop it. That, or the Karavan is using it to try to wipe out their opposititon and their support. That would be why it's only going after the Zorai, who are the closest with the Kami.

mordred3 wrote:The only problem following that is that the Matis and Zorai have the same lesser tribe in their land - the Gibaai. And the Gibbai really dont look like the Matis, so I'd have to assume the Gibaai are the ancestors of the Zorai. Not sure where the Matis come from.

If you read the lore available on the main site, you will find that the Matis had their own primates, but exterminated them. So the Gibbaï are the Zoraï's primates, Matis don't have any primates of their own at all anymore.

I like your idea about terraforming, it makes sense

ahremark wrote:If you read the lore available on the main site, you will find that the Matis had their own primates, but exterminated them. So Matis don't have the Gibbaï (They are the Zoraï's primates), Matis don't have any primates at all...anymore.

Well I meant that we have Gibbai in our lands. So I figured they were our common ancestors shared with Zorai. But I didnt read that part of the lore. Thanks for filling that in.

Hmm.. interesting. But as far as im concerned, karavan are the silent calm "look at my shiny armor WOHOO ,puny being..." type.
Kamis are those freaky long fingered things,and those tiny blue eyed things,and that big ape like thing.
we could delve into the history of atys and the kitin wars the appearance of the goo,kamis weakness when it comes to goo, why are yubos so cute etc....
But why can we not leave it as it is? we know very little other than they respawn us. Do we need to know more for the time being ? give the devs some time to cook up a nice mysterious plot and xplanation for these freaks of nature.
well as a wise man once said " ignorance is bliss".
wish there was a *poke kami welcomer till he nukes u* emote