STGOD 2k8 background thread

[Beowulf]

For all background plotting purposes. This way, we can discuss background separately from mechanics.

[Academia Nut]

Okay, taking off from Covenant's suggestion in the 2k7 thread about how the empire could have worked, I propose that my barbarians were forced to live out in the Deadlands, the zone outside the empire that was turned into a demilitarized zone as a buffer between the empire and anything else out there. They were not completely crushed because they served as a useful boogeyman and scape-goat for the empire: human, but with foreign beliefs and alien abilities. Every couple of generations they would rise up, only to be bitchslapped around a bit to serve as an object example of why not to mess with the empire. They were never forced to assimilate because they made a better whipping boy, and without their strange, somewhat heretical powers they would have been useless militarily. Sort of think of the tribes on the north side of Hadrians wall. The Romans could have gone further, but at that point they just stopped caring and said, "You can have your miserable little hellholes up in Scotland, we've got all the good stuff already"

But now the empire is gone and there are old debts to be paid.

[Darkevilme]

The Chamarans, or Chammarans, or Chamarrans, are a race of catgirls from another galaxy which was eaten by a precursor weapon utilized by one or the other of the two sides in the war there. They've crossed the gulf in massive motherships, spacegoing cities, and in a century arrived at the outskirts of Terran space. Their mothership's pushed to the limits to arrive here in a century simply broke down, engines worn down and useless after one last push to arrive at the nearest system. The motherships were towed into stable orbits around the red giant star, the neko's now the sole power and life in a barren star system of rock, dust and gas on the edge of the imperium. And now they must rebuild their nation, atop the lands of the empire and the bones of man.

Cultural elements picked up are that the feline's now have a superiority complex from being so they see the only survivors of the cataclysm that destroyed every other race they knew. Also all the Chamaran's were born on the ships on their way to this galaxy, they've been waiting for this moment and a new place to settle their whole lives, a promised land if you will.

[Beowulf]

Decided on a human power. This should fit into the existing framework, with no problems.

Long ago, two expeditions colonized the planets of the binary star system Sparta. For various reasons, both expeditions ended up with a monarchical system of government. As the colonies grew, they traded, and clashed, and allied, over the years. Then, one king had a bright idea. The two colonies merged into one government, with two kings, co-equal in power. The Spartans expanded, colonizing more worlds, both terraformed, and not. The Terran Empire noticed, and forced the Kings into fealty to the throne of Terra.

While under the yoke of Terra, expansion stopped. Worlds filled up, and only minor colonies were created. When Terra was destroyed, the Kings were released from their oaths, and so have begun to eye the territory of others.

[Crossroads Inc.]

*Robots*

Long ago during the Golden age of the Empire, A mission was planned to explore the very deepest regions of the Galaxy.

A Colony ship of Epic scale was constructed. The "ship" was built to the size of a small moon and was designed to be both a Home to the people on thier journy as well as a Mobile Industrial base that could provide anything they should ever need.

However, as the ship approched the far reaches of the Galaxy, it encountered a devastating Virus the likes of which had never been seen. The virus ravaged those abored and it seemed all would be lost.

Yet there was one, although Drastic option. Medical and Tech officers, who already knew how to merge Mind and Machine, offered to shed the Disesed Organic bodies and transfer all they could to Human like Machines.

While countless died before the operation was completed, enough survived to slowly rebuild thier hopes and dreams. The massive Ship settled in a rich system and, without the constraints of Organic forms, quickly expanded its industrial base and began to grow a new Empier.

One that would be pure! Good! and free from Organic Taint!

[Nephtys]

In this theme, what happens to the Home System (IE, Sol) again? We certainly don't want it to be PCed, right? Or is it going to be empty and like a prize up for grabs?

I'm thinking of placing my empire near the inner set of stars (such as the Draconis Constellation, or maybe at the Aquilae constellation). Also, how long ago did the empire 'fall' enough to cause such radical changes? 200 years? Enough for a few generations, or sooner?

[Dark Hellion]

Ok, my preliminary thinking goes like this.

The planet of (insert name) and the colonies supporting it where a major center of technological development for the old Empire. Located on a verdant, temperate world over the centuries huge self supporting hive cities built up, supporting a populations of (insert large population ~25-50 billion?). However, far away from the imperial center of terra (planet) was only protected from the deadlands by a thin picket line of Imperial ships. As the decay of the empire set in, and the ships spread thinner and thinner, barbarian raids slowly slipped in. These where not a major problem for the (planeteers) because of their highly developed and refined systems of Imperial technology and highly refined theories of omnikinesis (Imperial magic). This all changed when the picket fleet was entirely dispatched to secure Terra. Unable to fend off the numerous barbarian tribes entirely, one of the most devestating things that could happen did. The barbarians released an Imperial Tech nanite destroyer bomb on (primary planet). In under a year most basic technology was eaten, and only the heavily shielded and protected military technologies, and the almost impossible to destroy Hive support systems remained. (system) plunged into a near dark age, as it scrambled, now cut off from Imperial Terra to import technology from its supporting colonies, convert its colonies to protected aggro-worlds to feed its immense population, and reestablish governance with the separation from Terra.

After a decade, it has done so, and the former supplier of trade goods, diplomats and assassins has been reborn into (needs a name). The Hives have been aristocratic playgrounds for the extremely cybernetically enhanced leadership class, and the workers, while enjoying the benefits of the Hive cities spartan but well providing under-stories provide a happy, if somewhat resentful proletariat. With order and barbarian protection provided by the Techno-legions and the Techno-magus, people of varying cybernetic enhancement, armed with advanced weaponry and possessing extremely powerful defenses, they are an extremely hardy defense force, and if pressed, a deadly offensive power.

Tech ideas: My power, while not possessing the strongest, fastest or toughest of anything, has the most refined systems of the former Imperial powers. An imperial tech computer may have more processing power, but my computers would have a much better OS and much better peripherals. My ships wouldn't have the biggest guns, but the guns would be accurate, multipurpose and nearly unfailing. Their EW suites would be good enough for other powers to kill for (and they will). The techno-legions may not have the biggest guns, but they have multi-rifles that do damn near everything you could ever want your gun to do, and are still lighter and tougher than the opponents guns. Everything is smooth, precise, finesse-y. At the same time, if the shell games collapse, my stuff just isn't as big, fast or good in a slugging match, and invariably I'll lose and be forced to retreat.

Cultural idea: Techno-feudalism. As cybernetic technology and personal shielding technology allows someone who is wealthy or influential enough to make themselves immune to any non-military grade weapon, and all the military are given low aristocratic titles, the Aristocracy has little to fear from the proles, especially considering the fact that the proles still live well provided lower-middle class lives for the most part, and receive a lot of trickle down of tech, such as immediate streaming media from all of earths history, total net access, etc.
Numerous complex political games exist among the Aristocracy, blackmail, extortion and bribery are common. However, these are acknowledged as diversions, and in time of crisis solidarity is shown over backstabbing breaking the Aristocrats into 3 parties. The liberals, the imperials, and the crazers. The liberals seek large, socially equal and benificial strategies, and are likely to be moderate, level headed and very forgiving. The Imperials want to eventually rejoin the imperium and seek this end, and thus attempt to uphold their view of Imperial policy. The crazers are a miscellaneous bunch who have views based upon religion, philosophy, psychopathy or just do not agree with the previous two but don't have enough pull to form their own bloc. They simply represent the approximately 20% of the Aristocratic power who do not fall into the other two catagories, and can be either good or evil just as easily. However, as said solidarity is placed above infighting, as the aristocracy has learned some lessons of history, and seek to maintain their place in the sun.

Imagery: Think outlaw star a lot. Very integrated tech into daily life, and strange things being very commonplace and accepted. The aristocracy is very wealthy, and are exceedingly eccentric. They also without a doubt are just as deadly as many nations common special forces because of the extreme amount of cybernetic implantation and high technology accessories. The proles are proles, common people getting by, working a 10-4 job, watching movies, making love and doing the things normal people do.

[Beowulf]

Terra has been turned into space dust, along with much of the rest of the Sol System.

I don't think the precise amount of time that has passed since the fall of Terra has been set. It's just in the past, AFAIK. Three generations ago would probably be a good amount. It's long enough that it's mostly just a memory, while not so long that people can't have been alive during it's heyday.

[Covenant]

So Hellion's essentially making iPeople from iPlanet of the Macpire of Holy Jobs. Only if their tanks are white and translucent plastic, DH!

And I gotta say I'm a bit frustrated with the amount of AI/Cyborgs in the game so far. I announced my plans to make that kind of a species real early on, and I was hoping to avoid being up against several other similar ideas. Not criticizing anyone else's creativity, just annoyed it's turned out that way.

[Dark Hellion]

No, covenant. It is much worse. I am making I-phone wielding magic girls. Fear my powers!

And to beowulf, Terra turning into dust is a pretty good reason for the picket fleet to go home, and 3 generations is fine to build up an Aristocratic power structure.

[Redleader34]

Time Space Adminstration Berau

Time-Space Administration Bureau Extempt

Society: mostly mechanical vehicles, occasional mages, few integrated mages

Several years, a secret experimental portal between worlds was under construction. This portal, run by an AI called “Yddgrassal “ was meant to boost hyperspace speeds. Unknowingly, this portal project dragged many ships traveling in the massive intra dimensional void. These ships were torn, battered, and nearly destroyed, as they crashed on the machine hiveworld of U Prime. Their passengers, mages from another dimension, quickly set a treaty with the only human living on the world, the U. The U, a pysker himself, agreed to allow the mages to form the missing, human, element in his sector of space. He designated several of the mages to run parts of his empire, and the machine consensus went on, making a name for themselves in space

Tech Ideas: Well I’ll be using technological magic, as in magic is treated like a known substance, with effects documented through experiments, and mages classified through a standard power level system. Most of the time, the worlds are filled with machines with either low to no intelligence, and the AI’s that run things are all created by the U’s extended spirit. The Mages are mostly experienced, as their fleet was an exploration fleet, sort of like the “USS Enterprise” of expeditions. My ships won’t be based from standard Imperial Technology, but more of the Mage’s wrecked ships.

Culture Ideas: The Ai’s are mostly lazy rulers, who run the society with Effencty on their minds, while the Mages try to protect the non AI dominated worlds from having their environments completely collapse into worlds of polluted hellishness. The Mage’s are independent, and have their own political council made you of your standard parliamentary body,. A Dictator is elected in times of crisis to assist and represent the mages to the U himself. The U is the only one who was from the Imperium, and he mostly rembers the Massive starcruisers and protection they offered.

Imagery: Think typical “hedgemoning AI swarm” for the machine worlds, and the Mage’s worlds are more “Small, European style civilzation, mostly rail based, cars for forest treks” Mages are from the anime Nanona StrikerS metaseries, with bits ripped from the Eldar for taste.

I focus more on defenses, and swarming tactics, lots of small sheildships, and homeworlds with heavy defenses.

[Covenant]

Could we at least settle on our theme before people give us entire big posts about their entire govenrmental structure? I don't believe magic is compliant with our original setting for this matchup, and we're going to get more and more of these "I like to play, but I didn't realize we had a specific setting" style responses the longer we go without actually addressing (and enforcing) a setting. Honestly, if there's one thing we shouldn't have, it's magic. There's no need for it in a world of highly advanced technology, especially if we're allowing Psionics to be technologically assisted instead.

We're getting a pileup of proto-empire ideas, but few of them are actually apparently done to fit the theme--and are just dropped in. Choking creativity isn't good, but what's the use of a theme if we can't even ask people to play within it?

[Dark Hellion]

Cybernetic enhancement is going to be common place within the Imperium if it develops anywhere realistically. The idea of people who don't remember things like internet, relatively free interplanetary travel and the other things that ROME (empire) offered is kind of ridiculous. Sure, everything of the Imperiums will be better than what we got, but will that make us go back to total non-use of readily available technology?

As for the setting, I am pretty sure that the idea is to try to fit our different ideas together. Edit each others if possible. Teamwork out an interesting and tense environment in which to enter our avatar nations and then play out the future through ourselves. Or am I mistaken and a few over-authors are going to write a setting and then we make ourselves fit?

[Covenant]

We actually were attempting to author the setting first, independant of the powers, and then cast ourselves as sucessor states to that fractured Empire. So in that sense, while we're all allowed to contribute to that idea, we would be reigning in the creativity somewhat by creating a theme first, and then fleshing out aspects of that theme for our nations--not flying in the face of it by having hidden empires, a legion of aliens, and so on and so on. As Hotfoot's stated before, there's a lot of stability to a game with a strong internal consistancy, and for every 'Totally Wierd' nation we allow, the theme itself fits a bit more uneasily and things get progressively harder to quantify. Such as FTL. I think it's an absolutely ironclad rule that every human force's FTL drive works the same way, so no fiddling with that. ;P

But, you should seperate that from my personal annoyance. While cybers, bionics and so on are probably going to be far more common than cellphones and cosmetic surgery is nowadays, there's a wide gulf between that and entire body replacement, one I wasn't sure a lot of humans would make, and thus would be rare to see at a large scale. That was my personal complaint, as my human minds in metal cases idea was established before, and I think I'm going to lose the individuality the idea would have had otherwise by being so similar. I think variety is a lot more fun than uniformity, but there's a whole galaxy of options for transhumanism, and I think it's understandable if I'm temporarily peeved to see a lot of other people casting similar lots.

However, personal annoyances aside (my opinion of other people's empire has no bearing on if they're allowed to be what they want to be), we are basically designing a space Empire, and then dividing up the majority of the powers into people who used to be apart of this vast human Empire. If we want to write massive cyborging into the fluff as something extremely common in the Empire, then our proponderance of AI/Machinemen would make sense... but if this is supposed to be of fleshy normal men then that would be unusual. We could change the theme so that machine people are more common than non-machine people, but either way, we need people to agree that most of us should be From The Empire, and that we should figure out what stuff is like in the Empire, so we can figure out how it would be like to be From It.

[Dahak]

The nation of <insert name here> (of former Stuart Corp./Avalon fame ) originally started out as a highly secure military experimental science lab. It was only known to a limited amount of Imperial people and during the times, less and less people knew it existed. With time (and possibly waning of the empire) came independence.
They live in floating cities of gas planets and, while heavily employing nanotech and genetic enhancements, still resemble base-line humanity outwardly. But the physical body is just a shell nowadays for interaction with real-life, to which they still feel the need to connect. They exist mostly in a huge mental network and have created their own virtual world.
Well, this is just the first sketch, will be refined when we have a better general understanding of The Empire of course.

[Covenant]

Dumping my post from the other thread here. I figured it was more fitting as background stuff.

Well, my to-be-nation has been through two STGODs now, so I am above any "idea duplication" claims
You just have to live with it, I guess, Covenant.

I'll adapt. I think it shows poor sportsmanship to make an extremely similar force, but I can always come up with a new idea I like. Last game I was gonna be Space Dwarfs until someone apped that first, and then I made the Dinosaurs, which everyone seemed to like too.

However, your nation's best part is that it's actually human and it makes sense in our current theme--mostly. We already have one other "hidden installation" faction, and I'd question how many secret hidden installations with the military and logistical power to become independant nations with established, fully-developed homeworlds there are. I'd also say that unless the Empire was already dead and gone, and the Faction was not under the control of another regional power, the idea that they shrugged off the chains of the Holy Solar Empire themselves to be a little implausible.

Even aside from my personal sniffles about intellectual property, other people are going to need to conform their ideas somewhat to fit inside the theme we're working on. If they want to expand the theme to accomidate their ideas, then we should discuss that. I'll repost my thing from the non-imported ST2k7 Thread, so people can hammer away at a theme of their own and we can come up with something consistant, clear and agreeable. And if we can do that, people gotta fit themselves into it.

Non-Imperial forces get no Imperial caches. Nitram's forces are nearly a ModForce of Troublestarters, and are not to be considered a 'normal' force, so aside from them, anyone not an Imperial is a Barbarian. There's no Cache-wielding Non-Imperials, so people gotta realize they're already not playing with the same deck of cards as an Imperial faction if they decide to be a bright-eyed newcomer who doesn't know how to active an ISD. I would definately take exception to people from Galaxy X popping over and starting to churn out Imperial equipment the month they first get their hands on it. A barbarian force might know something minor about how to do it, but that knowledge came at a cost of being chewed up by the Empire for a while. You can't be from a Galaxy Far Far Away and also know how to turn on the Imperial ships and intergrate their technology.

Here's the thing I posted elsewhere. It bears repeating that while I'm being loud and annoying, I'm not a Mod nor will ask to be, and my opinion carries no weight. I just like consistancy, and I wanted to give us a 'story' to work with based on our previous one, so at least we have something to argue about and work off of rather than 100 different stories. For people who haven't been watching the threads, this may be their first introduction to the backstory, and my explain why some of us are trying to get more normal human factions to pop up than bizzaro alien ones.

Lemme be clear--I've got no attachment to this story other than that I think it allows us to have a) aliens b) transhuman factions of variety c) Nitram's forces d) Imperial caches and remnants and e) a lack of sureness about if we should turn on each other like cannibals, try to ad-hoc a system for trade, or just wait for mommy and daddy to get back. It's the old Stranded Guy problem. How long do you wait for the coast guard before you kill your friend for food?

Mine is just one idea of many, but I decided to flesh it out a bit so someone else can either refine it, correct it, or replace it--but so we, at least, have a more cogent place to start working from. Oh, and, I didn't mean to make it so 40k. I called it Fortress Terra as a joke about our previous game.

---------------------------------------------

A radius of around 350 Lightyears from Sol, the Holy Solar Empire of Fortress Terra was a regime built upon state-enforced fear and a distributed network of relatively small feudal powers that all gave Terra Proper what it demanded in exchange for protection, both from forces outside and unknown and from Terra's own Star-Smashing Armadas.

Transhumanism had taken humanity to great heights, but internal and external pressures had forced Fortress Terra to comprise between total control and regional autonomy. Growth was encouraged, but at a price. Controlling interplanetary commerce, the dukedoms of the Holy Solar Empire were beholden to Fortress Terra for their own vitality. Compliance to a distant power was a small price to pay for a modicum self government. There was a draft to be complied with, several taxes and Holy Observances to be followed to bribed away, and the demand that each force levvy and supply the Empire with elements of it's own war machine. No single world would ever build a vessel--much to their own credit, they engineered vessels so labyrinthine that no single power knew all elements of their design, and instead supplied materials and parts.

With their ships of immense power, Terra projected power far beyond their actual boundaries, establishing a network of Deadlands around the core systems that were patrolled, monitored, and zealously defended from outside encroachment. Alien forces were known of, but only dimly, spoken of in the same terms as Demons and Angels--half believed, but completely feared.

At it's height, the Empire was an impenetrable wall of humanity's might, and all foreign powers knew better than to test their patience. The few that were unlucky enough to have begun developing near Terran Space were obliterated and chased within a year of Sol, an ever-increasing Deadland that threatened to one day turn the entire nonhuman galaxy to Wasteland.

But as with all heights, there was threat of a fall. With every expansion of it's sphere of influence, new Empires of enemies were created, destroyed, and scattered to the void between stars. Here they waited, learning of each-other's presence, and gathered strength. It was harder to patrol these voids, and barbarians gnawed at the edges of Terra's deadlands--like Rats in Versailles. (Damn you Ryan, how do you spell that?) Control of the Empire depended on isolation and fear, not from actual fears that couldn't be controlled and disposed of successfully.

As new strategies were contemplated, methods to shrink the demands of a boisterous Empire and quell the rivalries between factions, something happened. Maybe the arrival of Nitram's forces, powerful as they were, set off a chain reaction of terror down the authoritarian ranks. New enemies posessing of vessels of nearly equal power, travelling enmasse to the Solar Empire's root. Perimeter fleets have already clashed with them--gutting many of the outsider's vessels and leaving them with a mere fraction of their original fleet, but the advance has torn a hole in the Imperial defenses, through which are pouring a number of vengeful barbarian forces. Enemies far outside, still strong and long prepared for an eventual clash with Earth, turn attentively towards the scuffles.

When it becomes clear the invaders are humans--true humans in blood and mind and all, terror sweeps over Terra, and in an orgy of Xenophobia and body-snatcher style hysteria, the Empire descends into chaos as Fortress Terra obliterates the surrounding sectors and walls itself off. It is unknown if Terra survives at all, but the Imperial Remnants flail about without orders from Earth, and the peacekeeping vessels have either returned to Sol, or left abandoned in their stardocks.

The galaxy sits, breathlessly, awaiting the next move--what next? Do they wait for the Empire's vessels to return, bringing the resources and security they need to survive? Or would they commit a Cardinal Sin, and seize the great ships for themselves, and take what they need from their neighbors? Or will they all wait around like retards and attack only the first person to send a fleet anywhere? Only time can tell.

[Nephtys]

Working Name: Aquilae Confederation

A government and ethnic grouping of transhumans centered around Beta Aquilae (approx 41 LY from Sol), that were some of the most successful of the first interstellar colony missions due to finding a particularly rich and easilly terraformed landing planet with excellent lunar and asteroid resources.

In the Imperal Era, Aquilae was a major center of the production of advanced technologies, consumer products and entertainment. It was an affluent world as far as things went, and submitted the necessary tithes to Terra. As a result, they were rarely bothered and developed with a somewhat more distant attitude to Imperial Culture.

After the fall, the systems of the Aquilae Province remained largely intact and unaffected, save that they found themselves required to police their own borders, establish more intensive industry that was once the domain of Imperial-run facilities and imports and so forth. As a time of change, a cultural mythos developed to fan the imaginations of the average Aquilean Citizen. It was 'rediscovered', 'historical' documentation of the first space explorers, soldiers and colonists. These documents of course, depicted them in crude rocket-ships, bubble helmets and miniskirts, firing zorch blasters against hostile aliens as they established farms.

Over the last two hundred years, the Aquilaeans have developed their already impressive technology further, aggressively pursuing their manifest destiny beliefs that they are the proper successors to the Imperal legacy. With a cultural belief in their enlightenment, superiority and aesthetic appeals (all retro-60's style of course!), their Spacelane Patrol and Astro-Fleet Rocketships (far more advanced than the primitive ones of their glorious history of course).

Biologically, they'll be quite human, except mildly able to change shape and figure from generations of genetic alteration for aesthetic purposes. The average Aquilaean will be able to somewhat change their facial shape to a limited amount (not too far from their 'natural' look) for the sole purpose of emphasis and expression. Being a very internally social bunch, they're all very much into show and flair, and have some republic-like system of government, including opposition parties.

[consequences]

The Fifth Imperial Battle Fleet(Experimental), and Attachments.

Just before the Cataclysm, the Fifth Imperial Battle Fleet was selected to undergo a revolutionary retrofitting with a new generation of man-machine interface technology. The results were nothing less than astounding, as drastic increases in reacton speed and efficiency rendered the force exactly 243% more effective than other Imperial formations in combat condition.

Unfortunately, the reason why the increase in efficiency is so certain is that no sooner did the fleet complete the upgrade cycle than it turned upon the Sixth Imperial Battle fleet, annihilating it, as well as the Seventh which attempted to assist. From there, it went on a rampaging orgy of destruction, briefly halting after Terra was removed from the equation.

Now, it is on the move again. Any hope that they might have been shocked into regaining their sanity was swiftly dashed, as it became apparent that whatever was in control was delving even more deeply into sadistic revelry, now even at the expense of efficiency.

Only three hopes, faint as they may be, bolster the spirits of those cowering near the Fifth Fleet's swath of destruction. The first is that it is a bare shadow of its former strength, having been winnowed by the desperate and so far futile effort to stop it. The second is that whoever is calling the shots seems to care more for excesses of dregadation, perversity and pain, than the effortless perfection that was the hallmark of the start of the reign of terror. The third is that its stock of strategic weaponry has been confirmed as expended. Whether it was used to aid in the apocalypse that surrounded Terra, in the utter obliteraion of numerous colony worlds, or simply to scrawl an obscene message in the stars for generations in the far future to be scarred by is currently unknown.

[Tanasinn]

I'm looking at doing a sort of posthuman meritocracy.

I figure that in the waning days of the Empire, my power (as of yet unnamed), whose primary contribution to the Empire had been auxillary military forces, slowly cut itself off from the rest of the galaxy until it was really nothing but a semi-independent, highly insular collection of worlds on the fringes of known space. What I'm figuring is getting my guys back in the game is the greater fracturing of the Empire: my power's shadowy leaders are looking at expanding their territory and resources, ostensibly under the guise of spreading the glory of their brand of posthumanism to the unwashed masses of the Empire.

Will this work?

[Covenant]

Will this work?

Only if you accept that you were only semi-independant because you paid your taxes to the Empire and they felt you were compliant enough, and that you acknowledge that everyone else does indeed know the location of your worlds! So yes, with modifications, assuming I know what I'm talking about.

[Beowulf]

Please, do a decent job of filing off the serial numbers of stuff you steal. I'm pointing specifically at he who has Subaru as his AV. In any case, that was my idea last STGOD. Also, I agree that magic shouldn't really be a part of one of the successor states.

I like what Covenant has put together from the fragments we had earlier. The only real exception is that I really think Terra should be space dust, not merely unknown what happened to it. It shouldn't be hard to tell what's happened to it.

[Tanasinn]

Will this work?

Only if you accept that you were only semi-independant because you paid your taxes to the Empire and they felt you were compliant enough, and that you acknowledge that everyone else does indeed know the location of your worlds! So yes, with modifications, assuming I know what I'm talking about.

If anything, that makes things more fun: it adds to the resentment my nation feels towards the Empire proper for being nothing more than a bitch-state when you shed pleasantries. I certainly have no problem with people knowing where my worlds are: I figured the primary way my power kept itself cut off was by being unfriendly, uncooperative, or outright hostile to foreign interests that they didn't absolutely have to accept.

[Dahak]

Dumping my post from the other thread here. I figured it was more fitting as background stuff.

Well, my to-be-nation has been through two STGODs now, so I am above any "idea duplication" claims
You just have to live with it, I guess, Covenant.

I'll adapt. I think it shows poor sportsmanship to make an extremely similar force, but I can always come up with a new idea I like. Last game I was gonna be Space Dwarfs until someone apped that first, and then I made the Dinosaurs, which everyone seemed to like too.

However, your nation's best part is that it's actually human and it makes sense in our current theme--mostly. We already have one other "hidden installation" faction, and I'd question how many secret hidden installations with the military and logistical power to become independant nations with established, fully-developed homeworlds there are. I'd also say that unless the Empire was already dead and gone, and the Faction was not under the control of another regional power, the idea that they shrugged off the chains of the Holy Solar Empire themselves to be a little implausible.

Well, as I said, it is just preliminary and I wait for the final origin description until the history of the Empire and its fall stabilises.
So I think I will find a somewhat believeable way to have them pop up
And hey, if the US can lose some billions of dollars in Iraq, an Empire can "lose" a small science outpost

[Battlehymn Republic]

I basically agree with Covenant's call for restraint in designing loads of wildly biologically eclectic factions. It kind of screws with the whole "xenophobic human empire" premise. But I think I've come to realize that we're not really playing with the falling neo-feudalistic space empire of Foundation, Dune, WH40K, Traveller, Fading Suns, etc., so oh well.

I'm torn between going with a remnant of the old empire in the neo-feudalistic vein (think white, light grey, vestigial imperial style), or a more "modern" coalition of four political experiments- a communist world, a libertarian one, a communitarian one, and a right-wing one.

[Noble Ire]

All right, I've shelved the Silencers for now, and developed a human remnant power. I'm not certain what time scale we're using (this version assumes 100+ years post collapse, but I can change it).


The Eighth Enclave

Founded during the Terran Empire’s second major period of expansion, the Eighth Enclave was initially an assemblage of bureaucratic convenience. The region was composed of several prosperous, relatively young agricultural colonies, arrayed around a section of one of the major trade routes that connected the Empire’s heart with the ever-receding frontier. The collapse of the Drassian imperial line and the subsequent civil strife, though brief, stemmed the tide of expansion and shunted the Eighth Enclave into relative obscurity, just one of many tributaries of the core. There it remained for centuries, until the Empire dissolved into chaos and war began to sweep Known Space like a firestorm. Generals and admirals became plundering warlords and pirate kings, and the bountiful worlds of the Enclave began to wither under the onslaught of their former protectors.

Unlike so many, the Imperial governor of the region at the time of the great collapse, Lynus Adrati, refused to abandon his people to the rising chaos. With the allegiance of the 52nd Legion, composed mainly of soldiers and sailors native to the Enclave, Adrati drove off the encroaching barbarians and rebuffed three subsequent assaults from neighboring warlords. The Enclave emerged drained and battered but intact, and Adrait spent the rest of his life ensuring that his people would enjoy at least some of the comfort and safety that they had taken for granted under the Imperial seal.

A century later, the Eighth Enclave is one of the last candles of order in an endless night. Now under the rule of Governor Cinnus Adrati, the modest collection of worlds exchange foodstuffs and light manufactured material for essential industrial equipment and fuel, dependant on tenuous trade for the relatively high standard of living that stability has given the Eighth Enclave’s people. The military traditions of the old empire which saved the Enclave from rampaging warlords persist in the regimented patrol fleets and cyborg sentinels who keep a close watch over its borders and trade lanes. As the remnants of the Terran Empire emerge from the chaos with their minds on new dominion and barbarians probe ever farther from the desolate edges of space, these defenses have grown even tighter. Both commander and politician, Governor Adrati is determined to safeguard the worlds that his father saved, even if it means seeking out threats and eliminating well beyond his domain.