Setting Background (Blatant 40K rip off): Thousands of years ago, humanity left the old ruin of Earth behind them, and spread forth into the stars. How exactly they did so is a matter of some debate, in the modern age. The Holy Mother Church assures its faithful that the gods of humanity blessed their chosen people with the strength and will needed to spread across the galaxy. The mysterious Order of Sorcerers claim that of course, only their magics were powerful enough to save the inhabitants of Earth and protect them from the dangers of the void. The Research Institute, the last bastion of science and reason in the backwards territories of humanity, claim that it was technological progress that led to the rise of the Terrans. The mighty trade guild argues that it was an intrepid class of rogue traders who led humanity outward in the pursuit of profit.In secret bases and hidden temples, xenophiles and demon worshippers whisper that humanity was uplifted by a benevolent ancient race of aliens, or by dark gods far older than those upstarts worshiped by the Holy Church, words that of course would be considered heresy by the faithful. However humanity first came to the stars may never be known, but what happened next is beyond dispute. Humankind spread from the Sol system, ships devoted to research, colonisation, exploration, trade, proselytism and war traveled from star system to star system, building a great federation and ushering in the Golden Age of Humanity. It couldn't last forever, however. In the same way that no one knows how the Federation rose, no one truly knows how it fell, but fall it did. Government and trade collapsed in a matter of decades, millennia worth of technology and knowledge was lost and humans died in the hundreds of billions at the hands of starvation, demonic and alien attacks, and infighting. Nonetheless, some element of order did recover, in a savage sense. As the religion of the Human Pantheon began to spread from planet to planet, becoming the species' dominant faith, strong warlords created order through strength and brutality, over centuries taking the titles and arms of noble families. These noble families would unite through violence and political marriage into three empires that would dominate the most of . In the smallest, and weakest, of these Empires, your characters emerge. The Terran Empire: The Terran Empire is so named because it includes the human homeworld within its borders (though Earth at this point is a barren, worthless rock, and inhabited almost entirely by church figures, who name it Holy Terra). Despite the honour of owning the cradle of humanity, the Terran Empire has the least amount of planets and the weakest military of the great human empires. Still, though, it consists of hundreds of inhabited worlds, and thousands of star systems. Like the other empires, the Terran Empire is feudal, with a strong noble class. The old Terran Emperor, Agammenon II, recently died on campaign with most of his sons, when the imperial flaship exploded. His youngest son, Carius I, has just taken the throne. Carius I Carius is well regarded as being intelligent, but being the youngest of his family, he was given little training on how to rule, and is rather shy to boot. Many wonder if the young man, only 19, will be able to fill the shoes of an emperor, or if he'll just end up as someone's puppet. Factions of the Empire: The Church: The Holy Mother Church is the supreme religion of humanity, with its influence spread across all three human empires. Though the church doesn't officially involve itself in politics or take sides, its influence can be felt through the way it gives or denies support to various figures, based on their interests. The church has no army, officially, but its inquisition, the body charged with finding and exterminating demon worshippers, is powerful indeed. They have little physical presence through the Terran Empire as a whole, but Terra itself is indisputably their planet, the barren landscape covered in churches and monasteries. The Church implements restrictions on what technologies can be used and researched, naming those that they disallow as 'heretical', threatening any that disobey their restrictions with excommunication and a visit from the Inquisition.. The Nobility: The nobility are the rulers of planets and star systems within the Empire. They've sworn oaths of loyalty and service to the emperor, but they all seek personal advancement, no matter how patriotic they are. The Terran Order of Sorcerers: As humans expanded into the stars, they quickly came across a mutated power called psionics. Psionics allow certain humans to influence the world in different, seemingly supernatural, ways. Nowadays, much of the science behind psionic powers has been lost, and most people believe that those with the ability are sorcerers. They're a highly feared and ostracised group, but their powers make them too useful to ignore. Sorcerers specialise in different paths, the main being: - Telekinesis (the ability to move things with the mind) - Telepathy (The ability to read, or even control, minds) - Bionics (The ability to alter the human body, granting the power of healing, and even changing a person's appearance and shape) - Combat Sorcery (The ability to use fire, water, lightning, air etc, as powerful weapons) The Terran Research Institute: Charged with rediscovering, and on rare and highly monitored occasions even inventing technology, the Institute is a highly progressive organisation, more so than any other in the Terran Empire, equipped with better technology than any other humans in Terran Space. They have a rivalry with the church, who consider them little better than heretics, and who constantly try to restrict what the Institute researches. The Terran Trader's Guild: The traders are the backbone of the Empire's economy, and they know it. Shipping goods from one planet to another, they constantly pursue wealth. Their politics tend to be quite simple: Make them money, and they're on your side. Get in the way of their profits, and they'll work against you. Despite this, however, the merchants are all competing against each other, so what makes money for one could hurt the profits of another. Aliens: In Human space, there are two kinds of aliens: - Humanoid aliens, who are human descendants mutated by generations on different planets. These 'aliens' might be blue, green etc, or have racial abilities like pheromones or the ability to breathe underwater, but nonetheless they're human in most respects, and treated as such by most. - True Aliens, members of non-human descended races, often species from empires beyond human borders, or from planets that swore oaths of vassalship to the human empires. These aliens tend to be distrusted, but it's not unheard of for them to find positions in human court. Biologically, due to being from all over the galaxy, true aliens come in all shapes and sizes.
The Imperial Court: The Imperial Court is a group of powerful figures within the Terran Empire who advise the Emperor and are in charge of various aspects of the government. The court is made up of members of different factions within the Empire. In gameplay terms, each has a bonus to different types of dice rolls. As follows they are: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (These two are the positions you can claim. 1 player to 1 position) The Dowager Empress: Though not technically in charge of any particular area of the government, the mother of the new emperor is given the honour of having a seat on the council, as one of her son's closest advisors. Whether looking to guide her son into becoming a skilled and independent ruler, or to mold him into a puppet through which she can become the Terran Empire's true ruler, the dowager has a great deal of influence over her son. (Roll Bonus - Motherly influence: +15 to any roll to persuade, seduce or influence Emperor Carius) The Emperor's Uncle/Aunt: Kept from taking the throne by politics and the old emperor's last will and testament, the Emperor's uncle/Aunt is a powerful noble, with a good deal of support from the rest of the nobility. Whether they plan to use that power to help the Emperor, or to seize the throne for themselves, remains to be seen. (Roll Bonus - Beloved by the Nobles: +15 on any roll to persuade, seduce or influence a noble) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (These are character classes/factions that anyone can pick for their character. There's no limit to how many people play one class/faction) Court Priest: Technically one of the Emperor's personal priests, the Court Priests act as experts on religious matters, and are the bridge between the church and the Emperor. Each Priest powerful enough to get to the imperial court will have a retinue of guards, as well as a group of devout followers. (Roll Bonus - For the Faith: +15 to rolls involving conversion and matters of faith) Court Sorcerer: One of the Emperor's personal sorcerers, and a representative of the Order of Sorcerers. These generally have small retinues and property, but they make up for it by being powerful sorcerers. Unlike normal people with magic abilities, these sorcerers can choose multiple magic paths. (Roll Bonus - The Arcane Arts: +15 to magic rolls) Court Technomancer: One of the court's resident tinkerers and scientists, these figures are in charge of advising the Emperor about matters of science and technology, and doing independent research of their own. They belong to the Research Institute. Though they don't own planets or armies, they have access to advanced technology that no one else does (think mechs, plasma rifles, drones etc.) (Roll Bonus - Egghead: +15 to rolls involving science and technology) Powerful Nobles: These figures are heads of great houses within the Empire. They own a particularly rich or strategically important star system, and thus are treated with great respect. Though not as militarily powerful as an admiral or general, they have their own small house army and fleet. (Roll Bonus - Silver Spoon: +15 to rolls to persuade, seduce or influence other nobles) Powerful Generals/Admirals: These are the leaders of the largest and most powerful of the Empire's armies and fleets. Though technically subservient to the Lord High General/Admiral, their command is so strong that they have near independence. (Roll Bonus - Combat specialty: +5 to all combat rolls, +10 to space or ground battles) Inquisitors: Charged with finding demons and demon worshippers, Inquisitors are able to call upon vast resources, including military resources, to find and purge their foes. (Roll Bonus - Purge the Unclean: +15 to rolls against demons and demon worshipers) Traders: Members of the Traders Guild, these are intrepid adventurers and merchants who are skilled at trading. Traders of this caliber tend to own their own trading companies, with many trade ships and a private security force to defend them. (Roll Bonus - Midas Touched: +15 to trade and economic actions)
Just so everyone knows, you only have to claim to play the mother or the uncle. With every other class, you can make whatever you want when the character creation page goes up.
I... kinda have an idea for the Empress and might want to claim it, though would a step-mom be given the same privileges? Like, say the birth mother died during the delivery or been assassinated early in Carius' life and the previous Emperor remarried but the new wife had not born him a direct child before his untimely end.
I'd say so, yeah. Dowager is a title that goes to the widows of emperors, so she wouldn't have to be the mother of the current emperor to get it
Ahh... from one side the empress/aunt is tempting, but I've done a few of those recently... On the other side, this picture is somewhat making me go with a priestess/high priestess -
Unless I find something I like better I'll go with one: Eanne (called Ea), part of a powerful noble family. Further details to be decided during character creation.
Yes, I had both of those originally, but deleted them when I was redoing the post. I'll put more detail in later, but yeah, there's a bodyguard and a spy corps.
I don't know. I can't really think of anything to actually do with those that I won't get bored of doing pretty quickly. Of course, I'm inclined for Empress too, but I won't take it if other people want it and I've done a lot of that lately anyway as well.
Yeah, I kind of had a similarish thought. At least like an alien parental mentor. Mmmm personally, I never really felt much towards aunt/uncle stuff. Just...not even in a negative way...like...no thoughts on it. It's a non-issue really, but I'm still really not sure what I could actually be doing that feels like I won't get bored of doing really fast here.
I don't know what I'll do yet, but I'll leave this here. Not enough time to write out all the backstories for each of them yet. Wrote up the fourth one so far, but.... Spoiler Name: Jacqueline Tamihana Faction: Institute Background: Wars aren't won on the battlefield. Granted, soldiers help, but you can train anyone to point an shoot things. The real war effort and progress goes on behind the scenes at the Institute. Researcher, doctor, mother, and every now and then warrior herself, Jacqueline spearheads a lot of special cybernetic projects. A little bit hotblooded and prone to field-testing things herself, robot suits and internal cyborg parts are where she's best specialized in. Jacqueline's robotic expertise is where she best excels and as long as nobody is actively disrupting her work, she's not overly concerned about the state of affairs. Scientists are always useful after all, and she won't be easily replaced to find someone else with her skill set. While she's not personally offended by the idea of religion, she considers the particular Terran faith for idiots, though shows a lot of interest in the belief systems of alien cultures. As far as she sees it, the Terran Church simply lost their right to dictate humanity through their own hypocrisy and stupidity. They had their chance to guide and lead people to a brighter future, and squandered it with pettiness, selfishness, and greed. Most see the Institute as cold people with a thoughtless approach to what they do and while some are like that, Jacqueline always viewed the Institute as the only ones brave enough to actually ask hard questions instead of being complacent. Pushing at least 40, you wouldn't know it due to all the machinery in her body, making her not just a scientist, but also an effective force when put into a position of one. When she does goes on missions herself, she tends to take the role of something of a combat engineer. Comfortable with all the hard technical stuff as well as bashing someone's face in. When it comes to intergalactic politics, she's deeply interested in what can be learned from other species and encourages think tanks and collaborations, believing in more strength working with each other than against. Spoiler Name: Vivian Allevra Species: Vraill: Humanoid Alien Faction: Order Background: Deep within the reaches of the galaxy, a crevix far removed from most other systems exists. Only about three planets in size. The rest of the system and it's neighbours either tomb worlds too desolated to settle in or destroyed. An empire that once spanned nearly a third of the galaxy pushed into a single system, but one fiercely defended by legions of ships, impressive technology and not to mention the species innate psychic powers making any would be invaders regret it. However, very few people are aware, even a good number of the Vraill themselves that there is still a homeworld at all. A long lasting race and one that has frequently been the subject of wars by other fallen empires, they infighting eventually reduced the sprawling masses to ruin freeing up all the space and unclaimed land for new people to take. This leaves two groups of Vraill. Those who still remain their pride as having grown up in the civilization on their home planet, that love to refer to themselves as the "Pure Vraill" and the "Rags Vraill" who were born on other planets, typically from either their ancestors being captured slaves or refugees(In some places, still are.) As such, their presence is fairly widespread across space, though most adopt local culture and religion due to not knowing anything about their own. (Undecided which group she'd belong to). Vivian doesn't have the physical strength to be a soldier, but strength is nothing compared to the power of the mind, and her mind is vast. Technological capable and a pretty powerful psionic, she can comfortably do lot's of things. Spoiler Name: Alendra Morhami Species: The Alari Collective Faction: Inquisition? Background: They came from beyond the stars. Their ships, not made of metal, but of flesh and blood. They touched down on the planet and the sky blackened. It wasn't night. There was just that many of them. And they ate. They just ate. Incapable of independent thought, most of the Hive's population was simply just drones to carry out and bend to the Hive Mind's will. The desire to consume all possible bio matter in the galaxy. When the Hive Mind made it's move, it wasn't pushed back. Entire sectors of Galactic Space swallowed by the swarm, the Alari was one of the few things that most empires were willing to set aside their differences to fight back against. And that only did so much good. At best, their numbers can only be sought to be contained, but as their infinitely growing numbers grew, so did the Hive Mind's need to make more snyapses that could subsume the Hive's will. And after how many generation's of absorbing and eating races, consuming some of their knowledge in the process...it happened. The Hive Mind made it's plans, gave an order to all it's appendages, but then they asked "Why?" Perhaps the forces of chaos played a role, or some kind of covert experiment to convert the Hive, but it happened. A few of the synapses actually began to question orders. Some vying to consume and eat the consciousness itself, others starting to sever their connection with it entirely. The Alari Hive is a present and still real threat. The Alari Collective, is a fairly new and unusual product of the intelligent appendages to resist and fight back and oppose the Hive. The Collective find itself short of allies. Not only does the nature of the Hive Mind make them alien to understand, but the fact that the Hive still exists as a real danger is something that makes even those who are willingly to give them a chance wary of them. Alendra is the product of reproduction of the independent thoughts of the mind forming to make new ones. Most of the males in the Alari race still remain little better than little thoughtless creatures with no sentience, falling to the Matriarchs to reign them in with their call. Alendra's main purpose in the Terran Empire is to do exactly that. The Alari breed everywhere and quickly, and without a hive queen to lead them the damage they would do is dangerous, but with proper direction, they make productive workers. While Aldenra sees this as a good thing, she somewhat finds it a bigger issue that the Collective seems to spend more time trying to prevent their drones from causing damage than able to do anything about the Hive that doesn't care. As a Collective, the Matriarch's regard each other on equal footing, and bad or good, many of them work with the Collective since they have no other choice. The Hive Mind will never allow a independent thought other than itself to exist. Like was, Alendra is as dangerous as she looks and has ambitions, but if the Hive eats the planet, there is nothing left to rule. Spoiler Name: Thyme Loreius Species: Khell'Zen Faction: Order/ Inquisition? Background: "I screamed into hell, and it screamed back." A fairly new species to emerge from humanity, it's only on it's third to five generation with a lot of information still being compiled on them and all the actual physiological differences. For some inexplicable reason, they have found some popularity with humans and other humanoid species leading to sizeable population growth, albeit still rare. The extended lifespan and improved psychic powers come to mind, but if the original host generation is anything to go by, they aren't without their flaws. Changed from humanities first explorations into the warp, the Khell'zen resemble classical deceptions of elves. Researchers debate if this was unconsciously influenced by human's latent psychic potential drifting towards the evolutionary chain or perhaps one of the beings from the Warp directing it this way on purpose using what it knows about human culture. Original attempts to expand by the Terrans were...complicated. Fairy young as a whole to the situations of space, obviously a few of them felt the need to brave the Warp and attempt to colonize the planets and grab the previously untapped resources inside it. Touching down on Modrin X bordering on the fringes of the Warp, the colony became one of the first examples for humanity learning why all those free resources in the Warp were left alone the hard way. Being part of the early generations of Khell'zen, Thyme remembers two large parts of her youth. Spending most of her time with annoying tech nerds poking at her with tools and the pure madness and chaotic nature of staying too close to the Void. Seeing the forces of chaos at work unfold, many of the Khell'zen grew up in fear of the forces of the void, but others began to look at it with a certain sense of beauty and admiration. Humanity sees itself separate from the whole, but Thyme had saw it. She had seen the truth. The faith possessed by these void touched humanoids isn't easily understood by outsiders and many aren't trusted as being seen as servants of chaos. At the same time, this is true, and also not. Thyme grew up as a monk of the Khell's Order. Despite popular belief, their religion is not innately hedonistic by design and it does not encourage vile acts by intention. Their belief comes from the idea that only by meeting your darkest self, can someone's will truly be tested. To push past limits is part of unlocking someone's true psionic potential and to accept the balance of good and bad is part of ensuring the light doesn't turn on itself. Accepting people's darker desires is in fact, a fundamental part of keeping the light guided. Good should ultimately win over evil, but it shouldn't always win, lest it becomes the source of oppression and tyranny itself. The monks aren't strangers to violence or war, but neither do they seek it. They see themselves as dedicated into growing humanity's potential as a whole. Thyme arrived into court as something of a spiritual advisor as well as offering her services to the Order. While she's happy to give input, she silently judges the original strain of humanity as unevolved, but aims to try and help them overcome their "handicap." The typical Khell'zen condescension is not a new trait in just her, and while desired for their rarity, they aren't necessarily well liked by most humans. Thyme herself as the second generation is among the generation that showed the signs that the Warp is not your friend. While an extended lifespan, and "dark skinned elves" isn't the worst fate, they research shows how it hits them internally. Prone to seizures, migraines, unheard of disease, organ failure, uncontrolled psychic episodes, the list of issues goes on and on. In Thyme's case, the severe neurological damage in her hands makes the defects apparent. Training her psionic powers to compensate out of necessity to do basic things she developed them as a force, through constant need to use them. Most of her arm movements are guided by her own psychic energy and while this is enough to get by for most things, she struggles greatly with any fine motor skills where force won't cut it. Despite this, most days, she can get through basic day to day life without needing much help.
Well, my basic idea is this. Woman who married into the family wants to keep him on the throne and mold him into a beloved ruler that takes care of his people so that: A) Most people are happy enough to not want to kill him. B) There are a metric fuckton of people who will WILLINGLY defend him to the death because then... C) ... she doesn't have to risk giving up her lazy lifestyle of enjoying rich parties and the occasional day drinking because of a potential proletariat coup or a general convincing enough of the populous that he'd be better for them. Basically someone doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. ... Oh and also occasionally offering her step-son a hand/tit/blowjob if he's feeling a bit tense and hasn't really picked out any concubines/future queens yet. This could probably work as the Aunt too though, if people have a really strong attachment to playing the mom figure. I just thought the closer proximity would be better for it.
I do have a strong plan of what I would like to do with the Dowager Empress. And while I would still LOVE to play her, you did call her first. I might still play without taking over her role. I've been brainstorming another character and sent some details to @Tjf in a private message so if you're set on her @Daylan I will respect the dibs that was called
