Jinn Plot Overview

Background History

Approx. 100 million years ago an alien ship crashed into a small young planet. There were few survivors and those that did prepared the ship to lie dormant for aeons until the planet was suitably mature to sustain life.

Before the last one died, it uploaded its ‘mind’ to the core computer system to allow it to last the time to when the planet was ready. It oversaw a huge underground network of caverns and tunnels housing a power system taking power from the planet’s molten core. The AI created a network of conciousness within the planet essentially making Tiara its body.

Over the next 100 million years the alien mind schismed and became many distinct personalities. Those personalities went to war over the resources and remnants of the ship buried deep in the planet.

A human, below light speed, colony ship arrived at the Darius system after a 70 year journey of suspended animation. They choose to colonise Tiara, the most favourable planet for life. There were two other colonies started. One on Naas, Tiara’s biggest moon, and one in the Belt.

Tiara was terraformed over a period of 100 years along with Naas. There were problems terraforming the planet and planetoid due to excessive gravity on Tiara and lack of minerals on Naas. The belt became a dock and repair station for the decaying ships and old technology, due to the abundance of iron and other ores in the asteriods comprising the Belt.

The beginings of the Jinn religion started half way through the terraforming of Tiara when a geologer named Brun went into the crevaces of Tiara and achieved enlightenment inside the planet. He was ’given’ information enabling the terraforming to be completed and singlehandedly saved the colonies. The information he ‘recieved’ were a series of biological templates that would withstand and thrive on Tiara. Earthen biology would not survive Tiara long without supplements and to this day unmodified humans still depend on supplements from the Belt.

The new biology took hold on Tiara and humans along with them numbering 10 billion humans on Tiara. The Jinn religion took a stong hold during the colonisation and continues strongly today. There are however cities that have renounced the faith. These athiest cities are generally peaceful, overlooking the few outbreaks of violence as the Jinnists celebrate their faith once a year with a march through all cities on Tiara.

Naas and the Belt are small, specialist colonies. Naas with standard earthen gravity but only less than half the size. Nassians are considered poorly by Tiarans. Naas is a scientific outpost linked to Tiara via a large carbon polymer cable called the ‘Column’ providing a cheap way to transport goods and people. the two cultures seldom meet. However there is substantial travel and mingling between the Belt and Naas outposts. The Ores and Technologies are transported between the Belt and Naas. Supplement raw materials are processed on Naas and then transported to Tiara via the ‘Column’.

Naas is also largely athiest as is the Belt, and most rely largely on technology. They have a reputation for being arrogant, and weak. However the three colonies rely on each other to survive and grudingly get along.

Tiarans have adapted to the gravity a little under twice that of earth standard. Tirans are short and muscular with large lungs and hearts to cope with the thin supply of oxygen in the atmosphere.

Naas and Belt occupants are weak and tall in comparison.

Plot

Your characters have just come down through the ‘Column’, which is a huge and ancient machine that resembles an elevator between the Planet Tiara and the Moon Naas. They are about to investigate the alien artifact.

The alien artifact has been labelled an Out Of Context Problem. A foreign born problem that could potentially lead to the extinction of the colony. An asteroid collision, or perhaps an extraterrestrial bacterium causing global plague.

You have four Nassian specialists in your group:

Bjorn — The team leader and old man of the group. He is a specialist in many sciences while also being an excellent engineer. Throughout the game he has two attacks. One is a ring of fire effect that effects a ring of protection around those within it. He also uses a tracking projectile much like a warlock’s attack.

Biana — An archeaoligist and explosives expert. She was raised on Naas while her father was one of the mine overseers in the belt. Bjorn was a friend of Biana’s father and is more of a father figure to her despite being only 15 years older than her. Her father died and Bjorn took it upon himself to oversee her care. Biana as well as being smart uses varying explosives and fire as an attack.

Brink — The tactical and military expert special force leader to the Naasian military. He is a friend and protector of Bjorn and his scientific team. Brink spent time on Tiara as training, and made many liasons with the Rebel athiests. Brink is an effective melee unit with a light gun.

Other Guy — He is another science person who was an academic rival of Biana’s.

Once they arrive on Tiara they investigate some alien artifact found near the Athiest city of Pomosa. They discover the artifact is a terminal to an intelligence. They learn some vital information including critical information on the ecological changes Tiara is experiancing. Humans will be unable to inhabit the surface of Tiara within a generation, as the changes are rapidly accelerating.

The terminal is mysteriously destroyed along with ‘the other guy’ in a massive explosion and the Column is sabotaged.

Supplements from the belt are stopped causing mass panic and war breaks out between the Athiests and the Jinn over the remaining supply, as the Athiests are the middle men between the offworld colonies and the Jinn population.

Our characters find themselves fleeing to Pomosa, with information from the AI before the terminal was destroyed.They have been given the whereabouts of another terminal and must uncover that to help them

The AI

The AI has schismed over the last few million years and become many distinct intelligences. There are 4 main personalities:

Phage: is what is left of the original alien mind. It is the dominant mind of the 4 and has been in contact with the Jinn since the beginning of the religion. When Brun went into Tiara he discovered the terminal and from there he started the religion based on the power of the information and technology phage gave him. Because the AIs have become part of the planet they indirectly and directly influence the ecology and geological events. Phage has used mankind and the Jinn to its own means and through human terraforming it has subtly changed the new life towards its own alien life types. Over the 10 thousand years the altered biology has become increasingly alien, and now it is accelerating to the point where it cannot support human life.

Bedlam: is the ruined AI shell of the defeated first fragment. After the crash the mind schismed into Phage and Bedlam. After many millenia they fought and became fixed on their destruction. Phage being the dominant mind won but at a price and had to sacrifice a portion of the resources to isolate Bedlam. Bedlam still survives to this day but is a ruined and twisted AI, nothing more than a shell of its former self. Bedlam contains information of the original biological templates that the others don’t have, so bedlam is one of the keys to the survival of the colonists.

Solace: is the good AI allied with the Athiests and you team. Solace is a weak but tolerated AI that you communicate through the first terminal. It sympathises with the colonists and wishes to help them against its rival Phage. Solace is a fragment from Bedlam before it was imprisoned. Solace grew separated from the eye of Phage and as a result thinks differently, having no real influential mind to guide it. Solace has been watching the humans and fighting the changes that Phage is imposing on Tiara.

Acquiesce: is a newly sentient fragment from Phage yet still hiding its sentience in fear of what Phage may do. Acquiesce has no allegiance to any AI or cause. It is sitting and waiting for an opportunity to establish its independence from Phage. Acquiesce is a logical and skillful mind that manipulates things for its own benefit.

The mission

With your original supplies and men and help from the Athiest cities you set out to find the second terminal. From there you can talk to the AI and get more information. From there you learn lots of information about the nature of the problem you are dealing with

Through the missions you must find the Solace terminal , then seek Bedlam and solve his riddles and small tasks to get the information from him. Then you must manage to ally Solace with Acquiesce to bring Phage down and isolate him like he did Bedlam. From there Solace can take the ruined resources of Bedlam and begin to reverse the damage that Phage was causing. However Acquiesce is a worry in the end as he is unstable, young and power hungry, this leaves the option of a sequel open to us if we so wish.

On the way are some nice surprises such as finding the Megalith while fleeing underground. It is an ancient and outlawed intelligent mining drone. With a few modifications it proves to be amazingly effective in combat and makes short work of the Jinn.