RIS is set in a broadly earthlike world in which all mammals have human-like intelligence (similar to the original hicu-rpg setting) though, unlike that setting, there are no actual humans. The technology level is similar to the 1920s-1930s, but the history and geography only vaguely correspond to those of our world, sharing a similar optimistic Zeitgeist following a major international war, compare to the Interwar period of human history (specifically in the USA prior to the Great Depression). It is not my intention to extensively document the setting on the wiki before using it, but a brief outline is given on this page as a framework for further development and to allow players to have a sense of the setting without getting too far into the details.

Geography and Planetography

The game takes place on an earth-like planet, which is about 80% covered by water, has polar ice caps, has a single large barren moon, etc. The primary continents are arranged in a roughly ring-like shape around the Central Ocean spanning both sides of the equator. There is another continent on the opposite side of the planet, across the Outer Ocean, which was late to be discovered on account of its extreme remoteness from the origins of placental mammal civilization. It is called the New World for obvious reasons.

Simha City is located on the Obsidian Peninsula, which is about 250km long and 100 km wide at its widest. The city is near the far end of the Peninsula, in an excellent natural harbor, in somewhat hilly country. Its sovereign territory extends well beyond the city limits, with the outskirts of the territory being suburban in character, with even a few rural areas where artisanal farming is done, though most food is imported. The former royal hunting preserves, huge game parks totaling almost 1000 km square, are now mostly national parks, though some have been developed as upscale suburbs, for agriculture, or been retained by the nobility for their original purposes as part of the compromises attending the end of feudalism in Simha City.

Most of the feudal estates have long since been sold and developed, but a few were preserved.

Species and Cultures

A similar variety of animal species exist as on earth, with many creatures in common. All mammals have human-like intelligence; non-mammals have similar intelligence to their real-world counterparts. Marsupial mammals were extinct on the Old World since before history was recorded, but continued to exist in the New World, where no placental mammals were found. Since contact between the continents was established, though, there has been significant exchange of species.

There are many cultures and civilizations. Most civilizations are multi-species, currently and throughout history. Mono-species civilizations are not unknown but tend to be small and compete poorly with multi-species civilizations when their interests came into conflict.

Rodents tend to have a relatively lowly position in civilization. However, their civil rights have improved in recent times, and in many places they enjoy equality before the law - at least theoretically.

All of the species are considered to be somewhat anthropomorphic (bipedal and with at least somewhat dexterous hands.) They are similar in size to each other, similar to the range of sizes seen among humans, so that architectural accommodations for different species are modest (e.g. bilevel water fountains, but not entirely separate infrastructure and habitation.)

Similar species are able to produce children together, e.g. a mongoose and ferret or a rat and a mouse, but more dissimilar species produce no or infertile offspring.

Technology, Transit and Economy

The technology level is roughly similar to the late 1920s. Aviation and electronic technology is somewhat more advanced, with computers based on vacuum tubes starting to appear, but they are hobbled by primitive memory technologies.

Transit is by train (mostly diesel and electric), automobile, steamship, or aircraft. Both lighter-than-air and heavier-than-air craft exist; the former are culturally favored for luxury long-haul transport, though flying boats are making inroads. The jet engine and the liquid-fuel rocket are known in principle but not used yet in practice.

The global economy is currently doing well, riding an economic boom after the recovery from the Great War. It is diversified and industrialized. Resources continue to flow from the New World to the Old, though under less violent circumstances than before.

Prior to contact with Old World civilization, the marsupial civilizations of the New World had attained literate agricultural civilization, but were pre-industrial and unable to resist the economic and military dominance of Old World colonizers.

History

Recent history is notable for the Great War, which ended 15 years ago. This was a general war among the great powers surrounding the Central Ocean. The Southern Alliance fought the National Combine for eleven years, ending with an expensive victory for the Alliance. The nominal cause of the war was conflicting interests in the colonization of the New World. (Broadly speaking, the Combine nations had extensive directly-administered colonies focusing on extractive industries and had mercantilist systems of colonial exploitation; the Alliance nations had mostly small areas of direct colonial rule and generally focused on trade and acting through native structures of power.) The Alliance secured the support of the colonized New World nations by promising independence, a promise which was honored, if perhaps not entirely according to the spirit of the agreement. The socialist nations of the Transmontane Pact, who only entered the war after several years and saw little fighting on their own territory, have been strengthened geopolitically.

Since the end of the war, more marsupials have come to live in the Old World, and a fair number of placental mammals born in the New World have decided to return to their metropoles rather than face the transition to majority rule in the New World.

The New World was discovered about 200 years prior to the Great War, and colonization began in force within about fifty years.

Cuisine

Mammals eating mammals is seen as savage and barbaric by most people in Simha City. Non-sophont creatures such as birds, fish, invertebrates, and sometimes insects and reptiles, are regularly eaten, however, and different species tend to prefer different diets (herbivorous, omnivorous or meat-focused.) Things such as burgers and steaks do exist, but should be assumed to be made with poultry, generally speaking, if they are seen.

Alcohol was prohibited shortly before the outbreak of the Great War, and remained prohibited throughout it. The ban was never especially successful, but after the war, it was particularly poorly enforced and prohibition was eventually repealed a few years ago.

"Dairy" products are from plant-based sources, rather than being obtained from people.

Domestic Technology

Mechanical or absorption refrigerators exist for the home, though they are expensive and most people use iceboxes.

Medicine

In medical technology, antiseptic technique, gas anesthesia, and analgesia all exist. Sulfa and penicillin-like antibiotics exist but are new, with the penicillins only having come into wide use during the war.

Simha City and the Obsidian Peninsula

Simha City is a metropolitan city state in a temperate, coastal region on the Central Ocean, the Obsidian Peninsula. A major shipping hub, it was heavily targeted during the war, but quickly rebuilt thereafter; much of the city is of new construction. It has a liberal democratic government, which was part of the Southern Alliance during the Great War. However, it is not part of the embargo that some capitalist nations are maintaining against the Transmontane Pact, and so it is a major hub of external trade for them as well.

Historically, Simha city was the capital of a thalassocracy ruled by the Red Lion Clan, its erstwhile royal family. They remain powerful in business and politics, though the head of state is now an elected President.

Although Simha City is undoubtedly very prosperous, that wealth has not been at all equally distributed, and there is sometimes labor unrest in the city.

Motor traffic in Simha City conventionally keeps to the left of two-way roads, with the driver's position, if not centered, on the right-hand side of the vehicle.

Rail transportation in Simha City and nearby areas has its own page.

Politics of Simha City

The city is a democracy with a two-round runoff voting system. Elections are generally free and reasonably fair. The current major parties are the Liberal Democratic Party, a center-right classical liberal party which governs in coalition with the right-wing Civic Nationalist party. The largest opposition party is the Simhalan Workers' Party, a social democratic party, with minor opposition parties including the Communist Party of Simha City and the Royalist Party. The Worker's Party was in government before the war, and a Civic Unity Front (with the cabinet ministers coming from the LDP and SWP) governed the city during the war.

Simha City has a unicameral parliament lead by a prime minister, and an elected President. Formerly, there was an upper house of parliament, where nobles, clergy, and guild-masters were seated without elections, but it was abolished a century ago, along with feudalism. The current government is actually the second republic: the First Republic, formed immediately after a revolution deposed the last of the Lion rajas and ended feudal privileges, collapsed into infighting and bloody repression after about ten years. The Second Republic, formed after a brief interval of rule by a military junta, has enjoyed much greater stability.

Language

The common language spoken by the player characters and most people in Simha city is called the Koine. Some people may speak other languages at home or in their ethnic communities, for example, there are at least two languages indigenous to the Simha City region and related to the language of the Vaghan Empire. The Koine is also the language spoken, as its name implies, in the Coiné Union, and in some other countries that were part of the Southern Alliance. It is widely used as a second language in international trade and diplomacy.

The RIS

Your private investigator firm, the Rodent Investigative Service, is a chartered private detective agency, which has limited police powers under Simhalan law when hired to investigate crimes. Of note, the criminal justice system of Simha operates under a model in which private prosecution before a magistrate predominates and the activities of public prosecutors are largely limited to matters of state security, high profile crimes, and the investigation of organized crime.

The RIS is often hired by insurance companies, mutual aid societies, and prosecution associations on behalf of their members who have been the victims of crimes. However, its services are also hired for security, civil, and family law cases, encompassing activities from industrial counter-espionage to divorce proceedings.

The RIS has both core employees and a variety of part-time contractors who are brought in for cases on an as-needed basis.

The chief of the RIS is Mick Belka, a rat. A bookish aficionado of true crime literature (and the All-Peninsular Chess Champion), he claims to have spent most of the war working as a quality control inspector in a radio factory. He undeniably has a significant knowledge of practical investigative work, although it is unclear how he came by it as he appears to rarely leave the main office on business.

The RIS has a motor pool, an in-house forensic laboratory, a couple of satellite offices on the peninsula, and access to the Investigator's Subscription Library for research needs. It is headquartered in the (Old) Camberline Building in the Fruitmarket District.