Gemstone Covenant
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
The Gemstone Covenant is a villain group formed by the Diamond Emperor. It employs people and tactics of both magical and nonmagical origins. It falls within the canon established on both the Diamond Emperor and Golden Champion pages.
Contents |
[edit] History
The Gemstone Covenant (both the original and the Rogue Isles branch) is, more formally, the military branch of the Gemstone Empire. The Rogue Isles branch was formed within days of the first appearance of the Diamond Emperor in Paragon City. Drawing from the ranks of all the more civilized villains, he is building up an army with the intent of eventually taking over the world.
[edit] Structure
Fresh recruits, regardless of established skill, are inducted into the Onyx division. Here, they will prove themselves through unswerving loyalty and dedication before being promoted into one of the two higher up branches. The Ruby Division is for the people that use scientific and technological tactics and is reserved for humans and their creations (i.e. robots, genetic experiments, etc.). The Sapphire Division is for people of arcane origins/methods, along with extraterrestrials and nonhuman extradimensional creatures regardless of their methods. Both are given equal privileges and neither have authority over the other. People that prove themselves even further are given the rank of Crystal General. Above them all sits the Diamond Emperor, the only person to hold the title of "Emperor". He is the leader and the final word on all decisions.
[edit] Modus Operandi
The Gemstone Covenant is a rarity in that while it pretty specifically wants to rule the world, it refuses to allow its image to be tarnished in the process. The image that the Diamond Emperor wants to convey is one of that of a valid political entity that people can stand behind. He knows that organizations like the Council and Nemesis will only rule the world by destroying it in the process because they simply aren't friendly. The average citizen wants nothing to do with them and so long as there are people with free will, there will always be groups freedom fighters that the citizens can stand behind. Only a doomed ruling party causes antipathy between itself and the common people. Because of this, the Gemstone Covenant operates mainly through black operations.
The Diamond Emperor is reluctant to declare wars due to his observation that a lot of what keeps the dozens of current factions in check is their constant dumping of resources into their perpetual stalemates with each other. He also hopes to someday take over the other factions and knows that hostile takeovers doesn't usually end with the victor being too much more powerful, as evidenced by how the Council merely just replaced the 5th Column's position instead of becoming a significantly more powerful entity in the merger.
At this stage in the grand plan, the Diamond Emperor seeks to consolidate resources and expand his ranks. He has placed a heavy emphasis on obtaining resources, both arcane and modern, especially those that deal with magical binds and celestial entities. He hasn't revealed why he is collecting all these specialized resources, but he assures all his members that it's "part of the big plan". He tells his followers that he has a massive army, but "dimensional limitations such as those placed on the Rikti are preventing us from calling them forth".
[edit] Code of Conduct
While the Diamond Emperor isn't exactly following the Geneva convention, he does have some rules set in place involving dealings with other villains and groups. His first rule is that only he speaks on behalf of the Gemstone Covenant. While members are free to pursue their own agendas involving their personal wars against other factions, they may only do so as a black op. Only the Diamond Emperor can do official dealings with other factions and only he can decide whether or not an outright act of war will be committed. Other disreputable actions such as mass slaughter of innocent civilians are also expected to carry a certain amount of plausible deniability.
But also, the Diamond Emperor expects all members of the covenant to give other members a certain amount of personal space. He expects everyone to act professional and while he can't force people to like each other, he won't allow people to argue with each other openly. Obviously, he can't regulate everyone's actions at all times, but if he has substantial proof of harassment within his ranks, disciplinary action will be taken.
Besides these general rules to maintain civility, you're free to do what you want. Ethics are of little concern to the Diamond Emperor, who cares about results just as much as he cares about maintaining a respectable image. If you have to kill a few innocent people, blow up a few city blocks, or cause the collapse of an alternate universe to achieve a victory, he won't fault you for it so long as it does not reflect on the Gemstone Covenant as a whole. The only stipulation he has is that he wants this current world to be usable when they take over, so obviously, any plans that might end with the total destruction of it are frowned upon.
Out of character: While I know that all potential members are technically villains by the game's classification, I do expect a certain amount of civility as a member of both of the City of _____ games. While you're free to roleplay being evil within the in-character code of conduct, there is a fine line between in-character banter and out-of-character harassment. Also, because I'm just sick of this one recurring theme, I won't hear of attacking people in Warburg when they're obviously just collecting missiles. I don't care if you're evil, that's just rude and I won't tolerate it. I'll probably screen every Stalker to make sure they understand this.
[edit] Base
The base is located in the Gemstone Dimension. It is a stonehewn fortress that adopts both technological and arcane elements. The grand fortress itself is a massive complex that has the Onyx Courtyards linking together six outer towers (Ruby, Emerald, Opal, Sapphire, Amethyst, and Amber) and the central Diamond Palace. Due to both security concerns and the unexplored implications of letting people that aren't native to explore the dimension, only the Sapphire Tower is in use by the Rogue Isles branch of the Gemstone Covenant. Access to the tower is a three stage linked process. When someone uses a portal in the Rogue Isles, it will first send them directly through the Road of Light in Paragon City (location classified), which will send them to the Onyx Gardens. The Road of Light location in the Onyx Gardens was housed in a special building that has its own portal that leads to the Sapphire Tower itself.
The tower was modified to both seal off all possible exits besides the aforementioned portal and to allow electrical devices to work. All the native Gemstonians were also shooed out, insuring that no contact with the natives of the dimension will happen. It has also been modified to act as both a tactical staging point and as a barracks. Plans have been set forth for many features to be incorporated. Telepads will be constructed that can reroute people to rough locations in the Rogue Isles. A strategic command room to give situational awareness of the world at large, a storage room provides a place for all the amassed relics and technological devices, a telepad that sends all the kidnapped scientists and arcane scholars into the cold stasis chambers in the basement (note: basement obviously not accessible by players), and a very basic living quarters with lounge are all in the planning stages.
[edit] Recruitment
To join the Gemstone Covenant, just contact @Ash Riot. This is a light role-playing group and I will expect the usual indicators of out of character chat such as double brackets, parenthesis, etc. Also, I do care about a potential member's willingness to roleplay, so please keep that in mind. I won't accept characters that have no biography, put absolutely no thought at all into their character, suffer from lowercase syndrome (e.g. "evil dad", "kattiana", etc.), have completely unoriginal names/concepts/costumes (e.g. ripping off Wolverine, having "Superm'an" as a name, etc. If I can describe an established hero exactly by merely changing your name, it's no good), irrationally spelled names (e.g. Th'U'nd.eR G0.D, Jack t3h R1pp3r, etc.), or blatant non-roleplaying names (e.g. Fire Kin Big B2200, DeBuff Kirra, etc.). Obviously, exceptions can apply and you're free to apply anyway even if these rules are bent a little so long as you have an explanation. Provided that some thought went into the character, there are no restrictions as to concept, archetype, or origin so long as the character itself is willing to follow the code of conduct. Beyond all that and the fairly standard request to play in supergroup mode until a minimum of 25, I don't really have any other rules. At the moment, since this is a very new group, it will take a bit of time before all the expected features are operational. My priority will be to do telepads > workstation/vault > storage. You're free to do whatever you want with base salvage. I'm looking forward to seeing if people are interested in joining.
