Faction Name: Arzenal
Government: Prison Colony / Penal Legion
Capital: New Taipei City
Territories: Island of Taiwan
Population: Seven million plus
Goals:
- The Eradication of the BETA from Earth, starting with the Asia area
- The subjugation of the DRAGON threat
- Survival
- Freedom from their imprisonment or having to watch over prisoners
History:
Established on the island of Taiwan, Arzenal is an island-sized super-prison. Following the greatly reduced population on Earth and the subsequent proliferation of the BETA menace in Asia, the vast majority of the island has been converted into a strange fusion of military base and prison for the Earth Sphere's convicts. People who are successfully tried for anything stronger than a petty crime is sent to Arzenal to serve their sentence.
There is no age restriction to incarceration into Arzenal. Many undesirable elements from around the world are in the prison under dubious legal proceedings, but few if any of these convictions have ever been overturned. The vast majority of individuals incarcerated hae however earned their "citizenship" of the island "nation". The Overseers are the established guard contingent and ultimately the nominal law enforcement of the island; though their primary duties are to organize the penal forces and prevent escape attempts rather than truly enforce order upon the island.
The prisoners have actually taken over largely ruling themselves, and have done a surprisingly good job at keeping relative peace among themselves since Arzenal's inception. There is a strong "the strong rule the weak" mentality in this society, but strength can be a fluid concept when money or favors are exchanged or cashed in. Those who actually sortie to fight outside Arzenal's borders are given great respect, and it is considered grave disrespect to speak ill of the dead unless they have personally harmed you before they died. The Overseers have more than once had to cut down bodies of those who spoke such ills from nearby trees if only for sanitary reasons.
Look and feel:
It is the home of the Para-Mail pilots; largely the more dangerous convicts, people with a death wish, or the odd non-convict volunteer. The prison has a weird culture: anything can be bought except for one's freedom. Anything from hair ribbons to mecha-grade armaments can be purchased and used with near impunity. For the most part Arzenal functions like a very odd micro-nation. The overarching goal is the elimination of the BETA and subjugation of the DRAGONs that have recently appeared through unknown means from unknown places. A standing reward has been offered to all the prisoners upon their incarceration here: once the BETA and DRAGONs have been eliminated as a threat, everyone currently incarcerated will receive a full pardon.
The prison obviously has guards and escape attempts are punished with publicly broadcast beatings up to and often including death. However, there are rules in Arzenal like there are everywhere else. The island also serves as a staging point for any forces that wish to strike out at the Asian BETA Hives, so there is also a steady stream of outside personnel flowing into and out of Arzenal.
There is a standard uniform style among the prisoners though keeping in the spirit of the prison's unique culture this is customizable to a degree. The uniform must be worn in military operations areas or in areas where non-prisoners are during their stay on the island. In areas that do not meet these standards non-uniform clothing is permitted.
Uniform Examples: (Note that male uniforms follow the same basic design with pants and/or shorts where applicable)
Basic Prisoner Uniform (Female)
Basic Flight Suit (Female)
Trustee Flight Suit (Female)
Notable Individuals:
Name: Risa Halligan, Arzenal's Steel Mistress
Occupation: Head Overseer of Arzenal
Personality:
Risa is the Head Overseer of Arzenal. It is her will that dictates the state of the prison island. It is her permission that lets said prisoners fight and die for Humanity. She dictates who gets how much fuel per sortie; she who raises talent to glory and she who crushes it to death in the street at the end of metal batons. A hard and calculating woman Risa revels in her ability to control the fates of millions of people with the scrawl of a pen, and relishes even more the fact that she rarely has to use it since no one on the island is fool enough to challenge her. Arzenal's Steel Mistress lives up to her name: it takes something of great and passionate heat to bend her once she's decided something.
Quirks:
- Has a caffeine addiction, and can be often found consuming various configurations of coffee with the airs of a sommelier
- Is rumored to be bisexual (leaning female) but has not been seen in public with anyone
- Is a cat person, and has been known to fairly allow supplicants to voice their case if presenting a high-quality article of cat-related nature
Name: Visorface
Occupation: Head Merchant of Arzenal's Market
Personality:
The seeming heart of Arzenal's bustling Market Visorface is always ready to make a deal, provided the other party has sufficient payment at hand. Visorface is in contract with the Overseers to organize and distribute the supplies that come in from the outside world so they can get to where they need to go. It is Visorface's silent gesturing that orchestrates the flow of goods and materials that keep Arzenal at combat readiness and the prisoners sedated with their various vices both innocent and a lot of things that are straight-up illegal in the outside world. If Visorface can't get it for you, it likely doesn't exist... Unless you pay him enough to make it exist.
Quirks:
- Seemingly mute.
- Prefers the smell of jasmine flowers, and can be tracked by their scent as he surrounds himself with them constantly
- Has the uncanny ability to pull desired objects seemingly out of thin air or from behind convenient curtains. This has led many to believe he is capable of magic, though he has shown no visible fear or disgust towards the population of Normas on Arzenal.
Mass Production Machines:
Para-Mail Info
The AW-CBR115 Glaive is the base platform of the Para-Mail. Known derogatorily as the "No-Makeup", this machine is an ultra-light flight capable model armed with a ballistic rifle equipped with an underslung grenade launcher and special strong-effect freeze bullet firing assemblies in the forearms. This machine is used by new recruits and those who cannot afford to purchase upgrades and modifications from the market in Arzenal.
The four recognized variants are the Arquebus (a long-range combat loadout), a version of the Glaive equipped with a melee weapon in addition to standard armaments, the Hauser (a heavy weapons loadout), and the Razor (a modification of the Para-Mail that sacrifices most of it's meager armor protection and heavy weapons for sheer speed and agility). Each of these variants has 'wiggle room' in the exact nature of the loadout, so between the variance in the exact weapons used and personal modifications most Para-Mails quickly become semi-unique machines that can be recognized individually at a glance.
Other Information:
Norma are a regular sight on Arzenal, though pretty rare elsewhere.
The Norma are a sub-species of humans that while nearly genetically identical to baseline have a specific genetic quirk that was only discovered upon the discovery of magic: they are living anti-magic. Any contact with a Norma instantly and harmlessly (to the Norma) destroys the directing forces of spells, magitech, and effectively depowers anything using such forces as a power source. The specific cause of the quirk is currently unknown as is how much of the population has it. There does not at this time appear to be a link between parent's genetics and any likelihood of the child being a Norma.
What is known is that Arzenal has somehow acquired the highest known concentration of Normas in the Earth Sphere; comprising approximately 23% of the prison's population, mainly among the prisoners. Norma cannot receive any sort of magical healing or assistance so the ones that suffer injuries must rely on mundane medical techniques; resulting in a surprising number of prosthetics and full cybernetics amongst their ranks.