The Jade Empire - OOC Thread

[Louanne Learning]

We are thrilled to welcome the characters of @ellekaldwin to the story!

Please say a big hello to Jiàn and Tala!

Post in thread 'The Jade Empire - Character Index'

May 23, 2025

Characters created by @ellekaldwin

Name: Jiàn Lù

Male or female: Female

Age: 29

Chinese, British, American or French? Chinese

Physical appearance: Jiàn wears a composite of traditional Hanfu robes and a reinforced, steam-threaded battle harness of her own design. Brass coils and jointed leather straps run under her sleeves, connecting to her arm-mounted mist blade - a retractable, steam-powered sword that hisses like a kettle when activated. She wears brass-rimmed goggles with rotating lenses and she has a lotus tattoo that winds from her right...

• Louanne Learning

• 

The line-up has been changed to reflect the incoming of these characters:

1. @Louanne Learning

2. @ellekaldwin

3. @buttercream

4. @IgnitedxSoul

 

[nellafantasia]

Is it too late for me to join?

 

[Louanne Learning]

Is it too late for me to join?

Definitely not! We would love to have you. Welcome!

Please read the first few posts of this thread to provide some direction.

Then your first step would be to create one or two characters, using the template, and then send them to me by PM for approval.

If you have any questions, please feel to ask them here in this thread.

 

[Louanne Learning]

Please welcome to the story the character of @buttercream. A hearty welcome to Shaohua Yu (known by his courtesy name, Jizhong.)!

Post in thread 'The Jade Empire - Character Index'

May 26, 2025

Character created by @buttercream

Name: Shaohua Yu (Shaohua is known by his courtesy name, Jizhong.)

Male or female: Male

Age: 26

Chinese, British, American or French? Chinese

Physical appearance: Shaohua is on the shorter side of average, about 5'4''/165cm or so, and has an average build. His eyes are catlike in shape and almost black in color. He has high cheekbones and soft features. His hair is very dark brown and long, going down past his waist. In a petty attempt at rebellion, he rejects the mandated queue hairstyle and grows...

• Louanne Learning

• 
• 

 

[Louanne Learning]

We welcome a new character, and a new player to the game!

After @ellekaldwin (who has until Saturday to post) - next up will be @buttercream.

The places of @IgnitedxSoul and @nellafantasia may change depending on who creates their characters first.

The line-up currently looks this this:


1. @Louanne Learning

2. @ellekaldwin

3. @buttercream

4. @IgnitedxSoul

5. @nellafantasia

 

[Homer Potvin]

Hey hey! Just checking in to see if there's anything I can do to help. I'm going to me making semi-daily announcements highlighting all the things... anything you want me mention or direct to?

 

[Louanne Learning]

Hey hey!

Hello!

Just checking in to see if there's anything I can do to help

Thank you! I can't think of anything at the moment, but it's nice to have you here on this thread as things unfold.

I'm going to me making semi-daily announcements highlighting all the things... anything you want me mention or direct to?

Possibly direct people to the OOC and Official story threads?

I'm thrilled to see that the first entry into the official story already has 64 views!!

 

[Homer Potvin]

I'm thrilled to see that the first entry into the official story already has 64 views!!

Not to poop in your cheerios, but the 95% of those are bots and search engines.

 

[Louanne Learning]

Not to poop in your cheerios, but the 95% of those are bots and search engines.

Oh dear, then please do direct the membership to our threads! Thank you

 

[Louanne Learning]

Hello everyone, I am leaving for a brief 3-day vacation tomorrow. My sister is bringing her laptop so I should be able to login for a bit, but mostly I will be away.

 

[Louanne Learning]

New post to the official story made by @ellekaldwin - and oh mfg what an incredible post it is!

I am blown away!

Post in thread 'The Jade Empire - Official story'

May 26, 2025

Old Teahouse Road, Southwestern District, Shanghai – Spring, 1858
Under smog-smeared stars, near the bones of Pine River Teahouse

A low, rhythmic hum floated through the smoke-choked air like breath through copper pipes. It pulsed like the heartbeat of something not quite alive, carved and coaxed into motion from memory and wood. The sound threaded through the bramble-choked ruins, stirring motes of ash and the scent of scorched pine.

Jiàn Lù crouched beside a fallen garden wall, breath steady, blade loose at her side. The drone glided in a slow arc above, its wings of...

• ellekaldwin

• 

This is getting so exciting!!!!

 

[Louanne Learning]

@buttercream - you are up next! Your window to post extends to Tuesday, June 3

 

[Louanne Learning]

A hearty welcome to Shaohua Yu (known by his courtesy name, Jizhong.)!

A note - if you include this character in your entry, he is to be named as Jizhong (unless he reveals his real name to whomever he is addressing)

 

[buttercream]

Whoa! Tough act to follow! Great job, @ellekaldwin!

 

[Louanne Learning]

Hello everyone! I am back from my mini-vacation, and it was awesome!

I wanted to post a note about using magic. Magic works very well with steampunk, but for our story, the magic must be connected to the steampunk genre (a point I have added to the rules).

If you Google "steampunk and magic" it will give you all kinds of ideas.

If you have an idea you would like to talk over, feel free to send me a PM, or respond to this thread for the benefit and input of others.

 

[buttercream]

Post's up!

Shaohua makes a few references to a Daoist philosophy called wuxing. I'm slowly working on putting together some info about it and other philosophies for the Lore thread, and I encourage you all to look into it yourselves in the meantime. It's some interesting stuff.

 

[Louanne Learning]

Post's up!

It's wonderful! Thank you for making Shaohua come alive!

a Daoist philosophy called wuxing.

Fascinating stuff. From what I read, it seems this is a conceptual basis for understanding the connectedness of everything in the universe - and is based on five elements - wood, fire, earth, metal and water.

I notice that air is not one of the five traditional elements in the wuxing system, yet air plays a significant role in steampunk.

There's a lot of ways we can then take this - what role does air play in the system? Good or bad?

Or - I'm thinking - the complete fusion of good and bad in one?

I'm slowly working on putting together some info about it and other philosophies for the Lore thread,

Thank you!

 

[Louanne Learning]

@IgnitedxSoul @nellafantasia

One of you will be next to add to the official story, depending on who gets their characters into me first.

How is the character creation going?

 

[IgnitedxSoul]

@IgnitedxSoul @nellafantasia

One of you will be next to add to the official story, depending on who gets their characters into me first.

How is the character creation going?

When it comes to this style of storytelling I don't enjoy the process of creating a character first and then trying to figure out how they fit into the story, I much prefer to figure that out organically. I plan on reading through all of the material and planning my first post and then submitting the character once I know how I want them to fit into the existing narrative. (I won't actually make the post until the character is approved)

If that's acceptable.

 

[Louanne Learning]

If that's acceptable.

I understand where you are coming from, but I am sorry, I cannot bend the rules in this instance. Characters need to be approved before they enter the story. Also, we need to make them available to the other players.

All roleplays first begin with character creation. It's the way a roleplay works. Creating characters first provides the framework for player actions and interactions, and story development.

You do not need to completely flesh out your characters, but just include a couple of sentences for each of the criteria in the template.