Magical Realm Cyoa/The Fortress

Name
Realm Wizard	Legion
Council Status	Neutral
Earth Status	Neutral
Alliances	None
Trading	None
Wars	None
Capital	The Fortress

The Fortress is a war-focused Realm created for the Magical Realm CYOA roleplay game.

Build

[125] Trapped! [150] Sadism! [175] Bound! [200] Exile!

[185] Area Increase 8

[184] Insertion [179] Gateways 3 [175] Portals [173] Division [170] Transient [164] Protection 2 [161] Assimilation

[141] Population Increase 10

[140] Attitude Adjustment [138] Culture & Customs [136] Population Demographics [133] Population Longevity [129] Extrahuman Population [125] Metahuman Population

[119] Technology Upgrade 6

[109] Magical Upgrade 5

[108] Public Education [106] University [104] Diplomatic [101] Industrial [97] Mystical [92] Technomagic [90] Infrastructure

[89] Occult Affinity [88] Intellectual Affinity [87] Religious Affinity [86] Warfare Affinity

[83] Landscape Adjustment [81] Rich [78] Exceptional Materials [73] Fauna & Flora 3

[70] Fate

[65] Automatons 2 [59] Influence 3 [56] Equipment

[54] Immortality [51] Spirit Walk [49] Shape Shift 1 [48] Tongues [46] Memory [44] Awareness [42] Peak Condition [39] Superhuman Body

[37] Machina Mind [34] Time Manipulation [31] Scrying [28] Nullification [23] Dominion

[20] Familiar

[10] Divine Spark [0] Guidance 2

Realm Wizard

The Legion

Going under a large variety of names, like Overmind, the Star-Eater, the Never-Ending Nightmare, although it usually refers itself as the materialization of the collective Legion Members thoughts, and simply calls itself "Legion". This entity acts as a Hive Queen, having absolute control over the collective Legion and their absorbed races. It physical appearance it's similar to a giant eye ball, that is suspended in the Air and connected to its surroundings by a large amount of iron wires and links. A further scanning will reveal that this being has almost no senses that connect it to the outside world, being totally unaware of its surroundings. Incapable of direct verbal communication or using any medium to get information . It's unknown if the wires that link it with the room are actually part of the Legion or are part of the artifact too.

Being the Hive Queen, means that it's connected to all the Legion members, structures and resources, including husk soldiers and even the AIs. Although by itself it can barely move, its strength it's not in its physical body that it's a mere shell adapted to a better control of its minions, but in its own minions.

Although it has been shown to be able to understand and exploit animal-like emotions, it's usual personality reveals a cold and calculating being. For some reason, it also has stated that it's incapable of lying, though this has never been proved, since the Legion tends to speak in a vague language, when it rarely does.

The Familiar

It's currently unknown if the Legion has a familiar or not, although its always growing magic knowledge could lead to the conclusion that it, indeed posses one. It appearance or characteristics are unknown.

History

The Fortress was the culmination of the evolution of an Multi-Species civilization. This old civilization was born as a result of multiple Type I civilization meeting across the Galaxy and forging trading relationships at first, and then political ones. After many centuries of progress, this civilization reached it's zenith: Intergalactic travel. United by the same flag, the new Intergalactic Empire started to look upon the stars for new intelligent forms of life, and for a creator they couldn't find in their own stars. Millennium passed. Nothing was found. The now virtual immortal population of this all-mighty empire who grow until their cities and worlds reached the infinity.

They decided that no creator could be found in the infinity, and so the golden age of the empire ended. And again, millennium passed, and their union begun to crumble. Without a common goal, they started to separate in smaller factions and kingdoms. And the war started. This was no common war. They had the power to travel across the stars and to make them bend to their will. The Universe itself was in danger. The old leaders of the empire needed for a definitive solution... But it won't come without a high cost. The sacrifice of every individual liberty. The remaining loyalist of the now ripped empire, united themselves into one single will and course: the will of the Legion, who was created to stop the destruction of the universe and preserve itself as specie.

They were few in numbers, but that didn't stop them. The Legion fought without fear and without resentment. They absorbed everything the found. Until there was nothing to oppose them. And so, the universe was united once more time. But even with that power, they weren't able to repair the damage done by the constant wars that desolated the cosmos during centuries. Now, the Legion's Hivemind changed its goals. It has to preserve itself. But how? The whole reality was about to tear apart. The infinite people that composed the Legion reunited themselves in one point. A portal could be opened, by sacrificing the vast majority of the Legion, a small group may made it. They members destined to escape, were divided into groups formed by one trillion Legion members. And they were send to the infinite quantum space, hoping to land in one stable universe. The chances were that even with their almost infinite number, none of the groups will survive. But one group did it. They made it. Only a small fragment of the former great empire's knowledge and technology was able to be saved. But that was more than enough.

This new universe was young and its population primitive, but its magic energies were strong. So they waited. And they devolved again in the cold darkness of the space, waiting to the new primitive to evolve, so they could warn them about the dangers of their technological process, and the destruction that the quest of searching the limits of the infinity. But then something went wrong. A small idea. The smallest of all fragments, took over the Hivemind. The primordial idea of assimilation, the initial purpose of the Legion. And so, a new Hive Queen was born. Claiming to be the Legion itself, it named itself Legion, as it was the only will that the Hivemind will follow. A new quest and route was settle: To assimilate everything, so the universe could be reborn, and the calamity that took its ancestors don't have to take place. So it doesn't have to experience the pain of losing itself a billion of times.

Society

The Fortress society is almost non-existent. Although the Legion members are still independent beings, their will it's the will of the Hivemind. They act and developed as the Hivemind dictates. They think accordingly to the Hivemind's criteria and they do whatever the Hivemind thinks that it's the best action course to preserve the Legion and carry out their mission.

Reprodution

Assimilation

The assimilation Process that any living or dead body that enter in the Fortress is a short process that usually don't take more than a few minutes to the weaker souls, but could take a few days to the stronger magical souls. The process it's automated and the new Legion soldier will undergo a process where most of his body will be mutated by both enchantment magic and the addition of new limbs and organs to replace the old ones. According to the Fortress needs, the new member will be assigned to either the Fortress crew (construction, maintenance or helping around to fire cannons) or to the shock troops.

If the being it's specially large or has a powerful magical soul, it can be either used as a living weapon or even a Legion member. This process is slower, and it's supervised by Legion Elders, who are in charge of the brainwashing but without losing the own ideas and consciousness of the subject (in the first process you simply become a mindless machine that follows simple orders, like shoot, repair, attack, walk...).

Then, if the Elder thinks that it can be suited as a Legion Member, it will go under a long process of transformation, to create the monstrous beings that are in charge of the Fortresses. Many special reinforced steel layers are added, and only a few original organs remains. The brain and other minor functions are inserted in a special new container that will server as a shell to the new Legion member.

During this process, the new Legion member is put in a coma state, and a nullification spell is cast in the rooms where the transformation is being done. Only after the brainwashing is finished and the poor soul is installed into his new body, mind and soul will be linked to the Elder in charge of his transformation, and later linked to the Legion Hivemind, where it will dissolute in a sea of thoughts and consciousness.

For the great beings that are not suited for being Legion Members, either because they're not strong enough to endure the process or because their strong attributes proprieties would do better as living weapon in the battlefield. For these beings, they go a similar brainwashing similar to the Legion soldiers, but instead of being mindless, a new and clean ideas are put in place of the old ones, to do better at the task that they are assigned.

Again, similar to the transformation process of the Soldiers, the new living weapons will undergo an automatic process of transformation, adding and removing limbs and organs to suit better as the Fortress' interests.

If the being it's specially large or has a powerful magical soul, it can be either used as a living weapon or even a Legion member. This process is slower, and it's supervised by Legion Elders, who are in charge of the brainwashing but without losing the own ideas and consciousness of the subject (in the first process you simply become a mindless machine that follows simple orders, like shoot, repair, attack, walk...).

Then, if the Elder thinks that it can be suited as a Legion Member, it will go under a long process of transformation, to create the monstrous beings that are in charge of the Fortresses. Many special reinforced steel layers are added, and only a few original organs remains. The brain and other minor functions are inserted in a special new container that will server as a shell to the new Legion member.

During this process, the new Legion member is put in a coma state, and a nullification spell is cast in the rooms where the transformation is being done. Only after the brainwashing is finished and the poor soul is installed into his new body, mind and soul will be linked to the Elder in charge of his transformation, and later linked to the Legion Hivemind, where it will dissolute in a sea of thoughts and consciousness.

For the great beings that are not suited for being Legion Members, either because they're not strong enough to endure the process or because their strong attributes proprieties would do better as living weapon in the battlefield. For these beings, they go a similar brainwashing similar to the Legion soldiers, but instead of being mindless, a new and clean ideas are put in place of the old ones, to do better at the task that they are assigned.

Again, similar to the transformation process of the Soldiers, the new living weapons will undergo an automatic process of transformation, adding and removing limbs and organs to suit better as the Fortress' interests.

Duplication

The most common way for a new Legion member is to be born is to be created as a duplicated of an existing Legion member during the process of duplication of a Fortress carried by a Finger. This method consists in a Fortress using the energy of a star to rip the reality and open a shortcut to the magical substrate. As long as the star energies are drained, the Fortress can keep the fissure opened. Once the star is complete drained up and it disappears from the existence, the fissure does so.

With this energy, the Fortress can both store it to use it later offensively, or duplicate itself. The duplication process can be carried out while the Fortress is extracting energy without slowing the process. This process is slow and takes over a month. Shall it be interrupted, and the new Fortress and all its inhabitants will become raw magic energy again, leading to a great explosion equal to the energy extracted.

The new duplicate members will be added to the Hivemind, and will have the same exact qualities and attributes that its original, but it can develop entirely different, since they're both separate beings. Also, the Hivemind can store an old memory from a lost Legion Member into a duplicate body, instead of duplicating its consciousness.

Technology

The Fortress Technology it's mostly based on spiritual and magic energies. There's a strong machinery industry, but it is usually subjugated to the magical forces of the Realm. The Fortress is a world of steel and flesh, where mixtures of both reign and populate the silent space stations. Every being its, including the Fortress, is in perpetual process of self-revision and self-improvement. The whole Fortress upgrades itself constantly as new threats appears, new foes are discovered and new upgrades are developed by the Hivemind. Because of this, the Fortress is in usually in a "sleep" mode, where only a little fraction of its war power is active, while the minds of the Legion still working on new and constant improvements , the automaton's mists are in charge of applying the new upgrades.

In the Fortress, There is no AIs, as the Legion's minds are capable of surpass common AIs by themselves alone, and with their Hivemind, they are capable of drive crazy any AI on their range of action. Every movement in Fortress is calculated by the Hivemind alone, that acts as a global coordinator. Orders are delivered through it and all the information that the Fortress as its whole is capable to capture is streamed through the whole Hivemind. The coordination tasks are usually delivered through the most resistant and capable spirits, the Elders, since their minds are greater that any other Legion Member.

Automatons

The automatons of the Fortress are a mist of nanobots that populates the realms. They self-replicate using magic energy that they drain from the Fingers, so every corner of the Fortress is infested with them. They have little autonomy, and usually spend days patrolling the Fortress looking for anomalies or breaks in the Fortress' Hulk. They're very versatile, capable of turning into every material and repair every kind damage that the Legion's members or the Fortress itself can suffer. They also are very resistant to EMP attacks and low magic forces.

They are under the direct control of the Fortress itself, but they also can be inserted into the Legion's Hulks, aiding in battle with quick self-repair, and reinforcing the Hulks.

Population

The first and the one with lesser numbers it's the Legion itself: Each member of the Legion has a great size, going from 30 or 40 meters to 4 kilometers at it's greatest members, and has a direct mind link to the Hivemind. The size it's directly depend of the magic power of the Legion member. The bigger, the more powerful it is. Each member has an unique form, but they all resemble to an organic space ship, and go into a characteristic dark blue color. They all have some kind of augments, both magical and technological. They have enchanted shields, great internship combat weapons, and the bigger ones can be used as a troop transport. They also are the only ones that have a semi-independent conciseness

Legion Members

The most important group between the Legion are the Elders Ones. These beings contain a great tactical and technomagical knowledge, and are the ones in charge of controlling the Fortress and commanding the fleets. They numbers are reduced, less than a million of them exists. Creating one of them would require exterminate a middle class magical race, counting one or two billions of them to make one of them. They're too far valuable to be seen in a common ground battle, even if the foe were too strong to be dealt with normal Legion members, the chances are to them retreat and don't show themselves. But this shouldn't be interpreted as an act of cowardice. The Legion doesn't now about cowardice. They are the main link between the Hivemind and the rest of the soldiers. They use the Fortress as an repeater to their psychokinetic powers, losing them would mean that most part of the Fortress minions and soldiers would go crazy and stop doing their labors without a Legion member close to them, and the units outside the Fortress would simple go wild, ravaging and fighting between them, or they simply will stop functioning and go into a hibernation state.

If the situation requires it, a Elder can leave the Fortress and guide the troops to the battlefield. Also, the Elders have a different biological structure that their Legion companions. The Legion Members are a combination of Flesh, magic and machinery, but the Elders are energy beings controlling a machine. If their shell is destroyed, the being will be released. This being, freed of its ties, is called Archangel. The Archangel still being loyal and linked to the Legion, but their personality becomes more obvious, being a more eccentric beings and doing things in their own way. Being their power augmented, they can only mantain this form for four hours. When that time passes, if they haven't repaired their old shell and returned to it, they will explode, causing a explosion that could destroy a Neptune-size planet. Alternatively, they can get out of their shell by their own will, if the situation requires so, with the same effects.

The second group are the Soldiers: These beings were once animals, rational or not, that have been brainwashed, and augmented by technomagic. They don't share a direct link with the Hivemind, since they usually outnumber the Legion members 1 to 1000. They can come in in large variety of forms: Giant biotanks that long before were monstrous abominations that terrorized lands, fighters that once were proud dragons that dominated the sky, or shock troops that were simply men that lived their ordinary lives. Even without the direct link, they still sending information to the Hivemind, and still manage to have some kind of conscience, but usually more like an animal. Each time one of them die, their knowledge will be passed to the next body that it's suitable to them, making them accumulate all the battle experience of countless lives.

The third and most numerous group it's the Workers and Harvesters: These were minor animals, little reptiles and mammals, or even insects. They too were brought to the implacable Fortress and transformed into mindless creatures that can only follow direct and specific orders. They don't share any link with the Hivemind, but still under the control of the Legion, putting them into simply tasks, as patrolling the depths of the Fortress, menial labors, and help with the "assimilation" processes of the ship. They can easily outnumber the Legion members 1 to 1000000 at any time, even surpass that number. Their most important task comes after the invasion, when they descend into the planet to Harvest them, recollecting all the resources that the soldiers could transport: water, biomass, minerals, metals and any other valuable asset that the Fortress can use, leaving an empty and lifeless planet when the job is done.

The Fortress

Each Fortress is an semi-independent unit that usually wanders through the space, using the Divination of the Legion to warp close to planets rich in organic life or various materials to Harvest them and improve itself. It contains a large amount of weapons, both for orbital attacks and space battling. It's controlled by the Legion itself using an Elder (the most powerful kind inside the legion) to command it. Each Fortress can contain billions of soldiers and other minor units, that are kept into a hibernation state until the moment moment the ship leaves the void to warp into a planet or are encountered with an enemy. Usually, if you had the chance to visit one ship during his time into the void, there are only a few workers moving around, doing maintenance and patrolling, acting as the "immune system" of the Fortress. At the same time, these worker can preform upgrading operations to the soldiers that are into the hibernation status.

It's way of acting it's usually quite simply: they warp close to the planet disturbing it's gravity stability what usually damages the planet severely, and the launch from the Fortress a massive orbital attack that blow-ups any orbital defenses and planetary defenses. After the first attack round, the whole monster horde that lives inside the ship it's awaken. The ship knowing that it's protection will make any attack against it will be mostly useless, it launches a full attack, using the legion as herdsmen, and some times as transport, to guide the whole invasion fleet.

Only a few minutes after the orbital attack and the ship warping, the planet will suffer the whole army of a Fortress raiding it's cities (the Fortress will only attack defenses, and won't blow up valuable assets). If the military defenses are easily overpowered, the army won't kill the inhabitants at the moment, instead of that, they will start the Harvesting process.

In the case the invasion army it's effectively defeated and the loses are to big to make further pursuit affordable, the fleet will retreat to the ship and it will warp into the void again. When the next time comes, the Legion will have learned and evolved from his past mistakes, and studied the enemy tactics. Before they have time to recover, another strike will come, this time the attacking Fortress won't be alone. Its brothers will follow.

Once the battle has ended, the Legion will call a special kind of minions from the Fortress that are in charge of harvesting the attacked planet, retrieving anything that can be useful. They aren't too stronger by each one, but they number in millions. They're composed of the lesser animals that the legion encounters and can be converted into soldiers. Once the Harvest has ended (usually between a week after the battle has ended) the fortress will warp again into the void and go through the process of assimilation of the its new resources. These new acquired resources are split into whatever the Fortress needs to self repair, and the rest is halved between helping the fortress grown and helping the Abyss to grown.

The materials obtained after the pillage are used to increase and rebuild the layers of the Fortresses. In case a Fortress has grow too big to being capable of a optimal assault and it's movement results too hard, it will search another planet with a suitable size, and translate some of its layers into it, effectively creating a new fortress, that will follow the same destiny of its creator.

Both survivors and fallen from both bands will be took back to the Fortress, and undergo a process of assimilation, using the survivors gather intelligent, and then go under a quick process of assimilation, during which they will be assimilated into the fortress, using both magic and technology to turn them into soldiers to be controlled by the legion, losing their memories (as they will be assimilated by the Legion itself) and emotions, engrossing the armies of the legion. For the fallen of both sides, they will undergo to a quick process of reconstruction and evolution, trying to fix the weak spots that made them fall in the battle. Sometimes, if the race conquered it's powerful enough, they may undergo a process to transform the entire race into new Legion members, a much slower process that implies both indoctrination, linking to the Hivemind and several upgrades to preserve the magic soul intact (or at least shards of it), in order to create new individuals.

The Essence

The legion has another power that derivatives from their high magic essence. Their souls are connected, creating a monstrous magic aura that can twist the very essence of magic and disturb the technology. A small legion member won't make a difference, maybe some lesser animals will follow it in a small amount, but there are some of them that are powerful enough to make great heroes bend the knee, and make an entire space warship useless. But this powerful beings aren't the most numerous of the Legion fleet, just a few thousands. Still, their strength it's their numbers. Millions of legion minds, creating an essence that can shut down the communications of an entire planet, and make most mages go powerless in their presence. Soldiers will run on fear before this aura, men will go crazy and the wild life will start dying at its presence. Only those with a high magic power, or the enough technology to resist this high power can stand a chance to survive a direct assault of a Fortress.

This essence it's even more powerful in the core of the Legion, their home: The Abyss. This place, the place were all the Fortress reside while they are not attacking it's situated in the cold inter galaxy void, where the Hivemind resides. These place it's populated by multiple Fortress, and the biggest of all, the one that always gets a piece of the cake, the Hivemind's Fortress. Getting close to this monstrous being it's like looking towards to the Sun. A mere second can harm you. Spending more time close to it will start twist to minds and hearts of both men and machine. Millions of voices singing the very same song.

Artifacts

Hands of the Demiurgos: The definitive weapon of the Legion’s Armies. Installed in the two main Fortress, these enormous artifacts are capable to absorb and store unlimited magic energy and use it to replicate other objects but themselves, that will create a lesser version “called finger”. This marvel of the magitech is used both as impenetrable defense and unstoppable attack. It can store an almost unlimited energy, and it’s replicating process only last a day.

The Finger: Once the Hands of the Demiurgos replicate a Fortress, instead of creating a new Hand of the Demiurgos, they create a lesser version of the weapon called The Finger. They still operate the same way that their original, but their time of replication is highly increased (a Finger equipped Fortress needs a month to fully replicate) and they can only store energy equivalent of four replication (the equivalent of a mid-magical realm or a normal star). They Fingers can't either replicate the Protection that the base realm grants or the Elder Ones.

Both of them can also release the energy stored inside of them and fire it to the enemy, used as the final Legion's attack.