Glass Lotus [EN] | ходы игроков | // THE WORLD

    //    THE LORE

"In the harshest time flowers bloom more beautiful than ever."
— Acolyte

In 1970s the world was shocked by the Unknown for the first time. Mysterious monsters appeared in Antarctica, while humanity was too busy to fight them. And so the burden fell on the shoulders of several young people around the globe. They were given extraordinary powers but also an unmeasurable responsibility before billions of humans. Sadly their success was only temporal, as the Enemy wasn't going to give up. Acting as a planet-sized virus, it continued attempts to destroy the world.



But for decades the world was protected. Several generations of heroes fought against the never-ending waves of Unknown. They were united under the name of Lotus. Lotus are guided by mysterious Protectors through their vestiges in form of animal Companions. Those creatures serves as both guides and judges, trying to keep their Lotus in right conditions and on the right path, aka "following the Accord". Accord is what gives Lotus the powers in exchange for their services in defeating the Enemy. Since 1974 nine Generations of four people each were given an Accord. The last one was assembled after catastrophic events of December 2024, which left active Lotuses number at the all-time low of 3.

Even after that the general public doesn't know their heroes. They know only of their existence, while personalities and organization remained secret for all that time. It is the original policy, implemented by the first and second generations, which somehow persisted through all the changes...

    //    LOTUS

"The rules are simple: we fight and we win. If we don't, the world is doomed."
— Rei

Lotus was formed in 1974 after original four members closed the first Rift in Antarctica. Sponsored by Benjamin "CEO" Shaw, American billionaire and a member of the first generation, they rapidly grew as an organization, invisibly spreading their influence across the world, while constantly protecting it from outside danger.



One of the first rules implemented was the rule of secrecy, that was soon added to an Accord. It was an ideological move to remove all the politics and potential greed from the system. Focusing on the goal was very important for the first generations, but the world has changed rapidly, as new dangers were created and fame didn't keep waiting. Lotus became famous, but their identities still remain mystery.

The word Lotus is used for both organization and its members. Although because of eastern influence and awkwardness in pronunciation, the plural form of the word Lotus was quickly ditched by Second Generation.

Since founding, Lotus greatly expanded their field of operations. While initially they were just focused on defeating The Things, the rarity of their attacks in time allowed for additional usage of force. Lotus helped with resolving global events, like the Chernobyl disaster and tried to fight the crimes in the meantime. Their social stance grew which meant that they couldn't stop. Anonymously they tried to help with peaceful resolving of Afghanistan, USSR and Yugoslavia conflicts, but to no avail. And after September 11 attacks, Lotus started active anti-terrorist duty, which became only harder as time went on and the heavy-weaponry changed towards Walkers — mechas designed to fight against The Things...



"I spent years trying to make sense of it all. And I still stand here as powerless as before."
— Akane

Nobody knows how the new Lotus are chosen or how the new Companions come to be. Only after concluding the Accord, they are introduced to organization. The only real rule is that they must be a good person and they shall give their agreement. And at least Lotus can finish whenever they want. Even if most die, some decided to retire before reaching a sad end. They either continue working with organization or go on with life...

The members vary greatly in their appearances and origins. Some come from populated regions and some from third world countries. Some are rich beyond believe and some lived as monks before. Some are more or less famous and some are just random people from streets. And Powers vary as well, but with very small sample nobody tried to classified them. There was one Lotus who was able to weave a spider web and there was one who used to imbue his weapons with powers, generated from offerings. Sometimes Power doesn't make sense and sometimes requires a wielder to have a PhD in physics... if limits exist, they weren't reached.

    //    THE THINGS

They are actually quite easy to distinguish. If you don't bother counting, because there is too much — that's a Murder. And Apexes are usually alone. If you need to count them, you're fecked.
— Meteora

The Things are called like that because their first appearance happened in Antarctica. Reality imitated art as the book Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell featured the similar scenario. That's where journalists stole the name from and it somehow wasn't changed... But what are those Things?



While the general consensus deemed them Aliens, it was only partially true, as they were not visitors from Space, but from... somewhere else. They come through Rifts but nobody can understand what's on another side, as that space doesn't follow our world's rules. The only ones who can explain it are Protectors, but they never answer questions. Protectors came to Earth at the same time as Things and gave Lotus their powers and also gave directions and explained the bare minimum. Since than they stayed silent... Such is the status-quo.

The Things vary greatly, but general classification for Lotus is pretty simple as it ignores physiological differences between individuals, focusing on their main abilities. Thus Things are divided into Murders and Apexes. Murders are small and generic creatures. While not dangerous when they are alone, they can quickly spawn from Rift and outnumber their opponents. Apexes are way more dangerous. They possess great destructive capabilities or can wreak havoc in different ways, even pretending to be human. Typical Apexes include titanic Kaijus, for example. They are force of nature incarnate, unstoppable and overwhelming. Those beings alone changed the world with their first appearance in 1990s and they were basically immune to all weaponry, as the only way to destroy them was a destruction of their "core". The other type of Apexes are Shifters, who can change they shape, adapt to their surroundings and, the scariest part is that they can impersonate humans...

Lotus' R&D for decades tries to comprehend Things, decode their communication, replicate a Rift or just find some answers. But it never led to something. In the beginning of 2000s was started Project Zero, but it was closed in 2007, as it caused a mental breakdown of many scientists and even one Lotus reportedly committed suicide by killing his Companion. The research was classified and CEO never approved anything like that to be done again. That was also a moment when Rifts started to appear on a more regular basis. Lotus managed to keep up and continued defeating enemies... until December of 2024.



24th of December, 2024, the first Rift appears in Lyon, France. The second one appears 450 kms to the north in Paris an hour later, each brought three Kaijus and other Apexes... it was the most coordinated onslaught of the Things ever and Lotus were not prepared to face it. Fifteen Lotus died that day and civilian casualties stood at mind-boggling 2 millions. The unparalleled tragedy left the world basically defenseless, as there were only three active Lotus left. Gladly the Things calmed after that event, as they too lost most of their power and the world tried to heal those wounds...

Many people were too scared, many people felt like the world is ending and chaos took everything by a storm. Crime-rates skyrocketed and terrorists started to climb out, feeling unpunished with weakened grasp of Lotus... And somewhere behind the scenes, an unknown force started its own game... Aliens may be scary, but humans are still quite dangerous on their own.