SolCannibal wrote:I'm not 100% sure about locating the Botwin Union in Anvil since i saw things just in passing, might look again just to sure i didn't mix up details, but it is the overall impression i got. Either way a connection or interest in events from the colonial race in Thundercloud sounds sensible. It can certainly be facilitated with the Union coming across a rift or wormhole leading to the galaxy - an accidental discovery resulting from Minion War operations, perhaps - and possibly seeking either UWW or USA for consulting on their more effective use and vigilance.
The Botwin, I thinlk, are going to be MOST definitely interested in extending the light of civilization and the protective shield-claw to the aboriginal peoples of the THundercloud, and if they don't already have wormhole connections or enclaves of Marshals in place, I'm sure their USA allies will be happy to provide them with wormhole connections.
Like the Denlech x NE situation in the tip of Oswoe's Arm. I bet the Botwin would be most happy to intervene, since the CCW are mostly twiddling their thumbs.
RGough if the Denlech were found to be abusing any natives, the Botwhin would be having ...words.....with them as well.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
(Early in the WZT postings I mentioned that the Raptor was designed by the Freyos, a race of giants living on ‘Freymos Prime’, but never expanded on that. Well, going back over my older posts, I discovered the throw-away reference and thought it could do with some attention to remedy the lack of coverage. Some random dice rolls and some creative hole-plugging and things REALLY started getting interesting...)
Freymos Prime(United Systems Alliance member)(Anvil Galaxy) “When a Freyos negotiator tells everybody to cool down, they mean it LITERALLY. I saw one peace conference that was degenerating into an all-out resumption of hostilities when suddenly everybody got too distracted trying to keep from contracting hypothermia to try fighting each other. I saw ICE forming in the water jugs on the conference tables!”
“Good thing our Quest-class diplomatic ships have reconfigurable interiors, including headroom; it makes accommodating our Freyo delegates so much easier.”
“To correct you, Esteemed Chairbeing Kol, so as not to embarrass us further in negotiations; the tall one is NOT the usan ambassador’s bodyguard, the tall one IS the usan ambassador. The small one is the bodyguard, and is even more dangerous in combat than you thought the ambassador is, and can most likely clean the floor with our entire security complement. I am not so intimidated by that, however, as I am by the fact that the usan ambassador can, by her acumen and influence, render our entire nation a fifth-rate power in this arm of the galaxy! So try not to trip over your tongues again and ruin our chances of coming out of this with a treaty that doesn’t sell our ancestor lands to outworlders!”
Freymos is another former WZT client who contracted the conglomerate to build ships for them, and who later joined the United Systems Alliance on the basis of their prior good working relationship. The dominant inhabitants of Freymos are the Freyos, high-tech-using Algor Frost Giants who designed the original WZ-HIS-875 Raptor high speed interceptor. The Freyos may represent one of the largest(in terms of numbers, not physical stature) populations of Algor anywhere in the megaverse, even more impressive given their slow birth rate. Though they got much of their Galactic spacefaring technology through trade with offworlders, the Freyos had already established an impressive technological and industrial society at the time of Contact, including using laser launch systems and nuclear-pulse drives to move about their star system. Freyos tradition tells that their original population was banished from their homeland in the midst of a war of magicks by the triggering of an ancient artifact that drew their community into what sounds very much like a dimensional rift. As reality tore itself apart around them, magic members of both their enemies and allies, who were fighting at the walls of the Algor city at the time, desperately tried to stop and stabilize the unraveling of reality...even to the point of setting aside their differences and working together for mutual survival. The effort cost the mages their lives, but their efforts bought time...time for the beleaguered giants’ prayers for succor to reach divine ears. In the midst of the great storm, a god and goddess appeared, and they added their efforts to the surviving mages’ own, and brought the city to safe harbor...on a totally new world. In honor of their saviors, Freyr and Freya, the Algor renamed their city and their people Freyos, buried their late allies and enemies(none of who had survived the dimensional transit, nor the shock of arrival on the new world) with dignity and respect, and set about creating new lives for themselves on what would become known as Freymos Prime. The Freyos don’t know whose hand triggered the artifact that dropped the Algor fortress down a dimensional rift, whether it was a Dwarf, and Elf, or even one of their own people, but the example shown by the elf and dwarf mages working together to save the city)(even if it was only to save themselves in the end) impressed them, and the Freyos are thus quite forgiving and tolerant when encountering any of the other species. The Freyos were also impressed by the fair-mindedness and levelheadedness of the god Freyr, who stuck around long enough to help the giants settle into their new homeland. While helping the Algor-Freyos rebuild, Freyr would have discussions with the giants on all manner of topics, but mostly about cooperation and the setting aside of petty differences in favor of a greater good, and of unifying against true evils. Freyr’s zeal on the subjects and his evenhandedness and deductive reasoning when mediating disputes led to his talks becoming the basis of principles of self-improvement taken up by the Freyos. While not quite open worship, the Vanir sun-god is held in very high esteem by the former Algor. Freya was generally less involved in helping the Algor-Freyos, feeling some tinge of the Norse-Vanir suspicion of giants. She left Freymos Prime soon after it became possible to leave(though Freyr stuck around for a while). However, she still made an impression on the Freyos, and subsequent baby booms and romantic arts fads have been attributed to her influence. The Freyos dedicate at least one love festival to Freya, which pleasantly surprised the goddess when she learned of them.
The irony of a race of FROST GIANTS paying a Vanir god homage isn’t lost on Freyr, nor is the fact that he’s getting devotion from a planet that doesn’t know rain and is too far from its star to get much sunlight. His father, Njord, just breaks out laughing every time Freyr tries to explain it. But Freyr has decided to take it in stride; he’s seen or heard of stranger things in the megaverse. Besides, if and when some greater evil breaks loose in the megaverse, having a civilization of giants willing to set aside that Ragnarok single-mindedness and support a coalition of greater good would be a GOOD thing to have, Freyr reasons. He furthermore sees the Freyos as a possible point of contact between the United Systems Alliance that the Freyos have joined, and Vanir-Norse interests(Thoth would be delighted to learn of this, having already maneuvered the USA into several contacts with his own Egyptian pantheon).
Freymos Prime is currently on the verge of a political upheaval; Galactic contact has been so good to the Freyos that they’ve decided a new look (and government) are in order. Though this would normally alarm their neighbors and allies, both sides of the dispute on Freymos Prime have assured everybody that the revolution will be a peaceful one, following Freyran principles, an assurance that would normally alarm people even more, but the Freyos have managed to keep calm and cool and people have come to take them at their word. So far, offworld business and activity have not been appreciably interrupted by what other species and polities would regard as a massive political upheaval on the homeworld.
Solar System(Klentos) Number of Stars: 2 Types of Stars: - Blue Dwarf(Klentos-A) -Yellow Dwarf(Klentos-B) Number of Planets: 7 -Gas Giant (Balfos)---This microscopic gas giant is barely a gas puff, eroded as it has by the solar winds from Klentos-A and -B.
-Gas Giant (Phelfas)---Saturn-sized Phelfas has captured a great deal of solar radiation in its magnetic field, giving it a strong plasma shell that can cook unshielded ships and instrumentation. There have been some efforts to see if it might be possible to extract commercially exploitable amounts of antiparticles from the energetic plasma field.
-Asteroid Belt---The Dedaga Belt is a dense region of rocky debris that might have constituted three or more large rocky planets at one time. Now they’re just scattered debris. The Freyos have begun exploiting the rich mineral traces found throughout the orbiting rocks.
-Gas Giant (Sudjorga)---Tiny Sudjorga barely merits mention, save that the Freyos found a number of ‘green asteroids’ in its trojan orbits, said asteroids proving rich in the mineral murnite.
-Gas Giant (Malforn)---Enormous Malforn sports one massive planet-sized moon, Telgrim, that is veiled in a dense atmosphere of methane fog. The Freyos have established several domed colonies on Telgrim to mine the large deposits of copper and titanium there.
-Gas Giant (Juggorn)---Enormous ringed Juggorn, with its massive complement of moons(15 of mid- to large-size) is the primary source of the Freyos’ offworld mineral wealth. The Freyos maintain several starship refueling depots around Juggorn, and have allowed several non-Freyos to establish starship brokerages ad businesses catering to smaller-statured folk on the moons of the gas giant. .
-Terrestrial (Freymos Prime)---System Lifeworld. It’s far out enough from its binary stars that a Freymos Prime ‘year’ is roughly 935 terrestrial years.
Planet(Freymos Prime) “For such an out of the way place, Freymos turned out to be ‘just right’ for the Algor.”
"Need anything in 'extra-' or 'extra-extra-large' sizes? Stop over on Freymos Prime and check out the local marketplace. They'll likely have it in the size you want...as long as as it's LARGE."
“There’s a rumor going around that a Vampire Intelligence somehw managed to teleport to Freymos and tried to set up shop...Planet with hardly any sun? No rain, and most of the running water locked under ice? Sounds like a perfect place for a vampire to start converting, no? Only the first would-be recruits to its flock turned out to be some of those wild and crazy Freyos girls who savagely beat the thing to death with their silver chainmail lingerie for interrupting their fun. Or maybe the beating was the floorshow for their boyfriends. Anyway, vampires shouldn’t linger on planets where SILVER’s used for cheap ornamentation.”
“The Revolution will be slow, bloodless, and involve lots of conferences. I’ve heard that from both sides, so it must be true.”
It’s unusual to find a system lifeworld on the far edges of its solar system in the ‘freezer zone’, let alone one with a vibrant and non-cryogenic native ecosystem, but that’s just one of many oddities about Freymos Prime. Freymos Prime is a cold world, heated more by internal radioactivity than solar radiation, but escaping internal heat is significant to warm a breathable atmosphere, power a hydrological cycle, and fuel a viable ecosystem able to support a global population of giants. It’s been suggested that Freymos Prime may have been down closer to the Klentos binaries at one time, evolved life, and got somehow flung into the outer system, the sun-powered ecology adapting, or re-evolving, to a geothermal power source while on the way out. Freymos Prime is both a biological and a mineralogical treasure house; its ecology is well-adapted to the unique conditions of the planet, while the crust is rich in valuable minerals, especially crystals. Freyos live both below the crust of their planet in massive excavated and natural caverns and tunnels heated by geothermal heat, and in great domed cities on the surface. Freyos are more gregarious than other Algor, are more tolerant of others, and show no resentment of either elves or dwarves(arguably, their original city was transported from a time before the Algor suffered the sort of grievous casualties that would turn them against the elves...in fact, it’s possible that the disappearance of the original Freyo settlement may have been one of the incidents that engendered that resentment). Though fierce fighters perfectly at ease with weapons, especially in self-defense, the Freyos have taken the teachings of Freyr to heart, and prefer to exercise diplomacy first over aggression, so a good number of Freyos are part of the United Systems Alliance’s diplomatic corps. The Freyos are often the voice of moderation and meditation when the USA considers taking military action, and the giants provide valuable criticism of aggressive policies(though notably it was a Freyos team that was the last to try negotiations with the Sorm; in the ensuing debacle the negotiators barely escaped with their lives and the leader lost an arm to the rapacious creatures. After that last attempt the USA declared open season on the Sorm). The Freyos even offered to try approaching the Arzhur and negotiating peace with them. Freymos Prime, however, is well-defended, with the locally-produced Raptor interceptor playing a prominent role in local space interdiction and defense. When committed, Freyos peacekeepers devoutly do their duty; despite their literally cold manner, they have earned a reputation for being fair-minded and just, even among those they are policing. Because of their tall stature, Freyos find it difficult to travel on most others’ star vessels; they either have to build their own or use specially modified models to accommodate their great heights. To further facilitate travel abroad, the Freyos have developed a number of personal cooling devices to reduce their vulnerability to heat, including their distinctive silvered murnite-lined heat-cloaks(reduce damage from heat-based attacks by HALF). Since joining the United Systems Alliance, the Freyos have become well-integrated into its emerging cosmopolitan society. As mentioned before, the Freyos preach mediation before force, and can often impose order amidst heated arguments simply by being in the same room. They get along famously with the wind-talking Wynaro and the elven Skenzians. The Freyos are so different from their dour Algor kin that the Freyos are sometimes mistaken for Titans.
Freyos effectively constitute a variant sept of Algor, having gone through several generations on what can be considered a high-gravity twilight world: -Good Low-Light/Nightvison---Can see in total darkness 200 ft and their low light vision is x4 that of normal human beings’. -Low Light Tolerance---By the same token, Freyos find bright natural light uncomfortably glaring, and most find wearing eye protection such as tinted sunglasses an easy fix to this problem. - High Gravity Builds----Freyos get a bonus of +1d6 to their already impressive physical strength, + 1d6 to P.E., +2d4x10 SDC, and DOUBLE their speed under normal terrestrial gravity. -Mental Fortitude---Freyos have also benefitted from generations of Freyran doctrine being taught in their educational institutions, and enjoy a +2d4 to their M.E.
Type: Terrestrial Diameter: 15,000 km Gravity: 3.2 g Temperature: Cold(-270 F) at the poles, shading to Cool(-95 F) in the middle latitudes, and roughly 0 to 39 F in the equatorial zones and ‘heat islands’. Unusual/Special Features: -Moons(2)--- Detalos and Phigan are the two modest-sized moons of Freymos Prime. It has been determined that Freymos Prime’s twin satellites’ gravitational influence help keep the planet’s core and frozen-over oceans in liquid motion. The Freyos have established large lunar colonies on both moons, as well as additional laser propulsion stations, able to push light sails across the solar system. Atmosphere: Exotic----Besides being a breathable nitrox mixture carrying enough heat to remain unfrozen long enough to form an atmosphere and transfer moisture across the planet, Freymos Prime’s atmosphere still manages to form storm fronts and powerful ‘ice-nadoes’ in spite of the planet’s location. The Freyos, being immune to cold, take little notice of the cold, being only occasionally inconvenienced by being flash-frozen in shells of ice, requiring a few minutes to break out(ice axes and heat-bars are standard equipment for anybody venturing outside). Terrain: Unusual Mineralogy---Freymos Prime is rich in magical crystals, notably Kryderos Crystals and Xanthine. Notable Mineral Concentrations: - Pitchblende - Amethyst - Tin - Gold/Silver - Thorium - Sulfur - Quartz - Diamond -Kryderos Crystals -Xanthine -Psylite Hydrosphere: 65% of Freymos Prime is covered in generally frozen-over oceans. Biosphere: Dense----The original Algor refugees/settlers found a dense and vibrant native ecology that they have since taken care not to overexploit. The naturally-heated caverns under the surface are practically choked with growth, including the cassava-like ‘potatoes’ that make up a good portion of the Freyos diet. On the surface, surprisingly large bilgorbests graze on heat-generating tundra plants, while trying to fend off the attacks of faster and more agile predatory zeem. Civilization: Settled Population: 4.9 billion Algor Frost Giants/ Freyos Technology: Galactic, with their own advanced technology, spaceship construction yards, fusion power systems, and global computer network. Before acquiring contra-gravity, the Freyos devised a powerful fusion/laser-launch system to lift spacecraft out of Freymos Prime’s powerful gravity. These laser launchers have been retained, and double as part of the planet’s defense systems. They are well-regarded, though, as industrialists, and they can repair many Galactic systems. Economy: Commercial---The Freyos provide ship servicing and refueling/restocking services to travelers through their sector. They also manufacture a fair number of products, including starship hulls, cargo pods, ship components, and heavy machinery, though their tech tends to be on the large size. Freyos shipping agents are also prized for their fir and unbiased treatment of others, so the Klentos system is often used as a transshipment point. Wealth: Prosperous---The Freyos are making healthy amounts of money trading, selling minerals, licensing technology, and providing services to itinerant travelers through their sector. Government: Theocracy--- The Freyos government is a mash-up theocracy of ancient ancestral religions merged with worship of the Vanir Freyr and Freya, with the priesthood doubling as government officials. Just about everything that happens on Freymos Prime and in its more strictly-controlled colonies has to be checked and approved by the Freymonian Church, with some activities requiring evaluation by a religious council or synod for purity in the eyes of the divinities(which can take considerable time) . Though beholding to the principles expressed by Freyr while he was among the Algor-Freyos, the theocracy has also expressed a self-interest more in keeping with Freya’s acquisitiveness, and corruption is rife in many levels of the government. High tithes and bribery solicitation are common in many theo-government offices, especially to grease approvals and avoid the aforementioned lengthy council-commitee evaluations. As it is, Freyr would find much to dislike about the current government, despite their public lauding of his principles of leadership; their corruption mocks his belief in the power of negotiation. He frankly would be pleased to see a reform government take over, and if it’s done bloodlessly, would see it a true tribute to what he taught those folks back then. Law Level: Overbearing----Life on Freymos Prime is still hard, and the law reflects this. Wary of re-igniting ancient feuds, Freyos law can come across as stiff and hard, with harsh penalties for violators. One of the reforms sought is a relaxing of some of the stricter misdemeanor laws and abolition of those dealing with issues rendered obsolete by Galactic contact and technologies. Popularity: Unpopular---With the growing prosperity and influx of new ideas flowing in from Galactic contact, there’s a growing demand for reform amidst the populace. In keeping with Freyran principles, however, violence has not be been considered, but numerous strikes and sit-downs(reminiscent of the Rebliss passive aggression movements against the Golgans) are growing. While this hasn’t adversely affected offworld trade, it has begun cutting into the take many theocracy officials take in the course of their ‘duties’. For their part, the Freyos theocracy maintains that it has been their long leadership that is responsible for the advancement and prosperity enjoyed by the Freyos people, but their critics maintain that the current prosperity has arisen from businesses operating outside the theocracy’s control. Furthermore, the critics contend, these operations would be a good role model for reforming or replacing the current government. On top of the economic protestations against the current government, there is a small, but growing, Lutheran-style religious reform movement seeking to reinvigorate the church establishment and rid it of its corruption. Stability: The USA would rate the current situation on Freymos Prime as Unrest verging on Uprising, but Freyos OPO operatives have shocked their colleagues by delivering a very clinical(and amazingly unclassified) report on their own people, predicting a smooth overthrow of the current government and institution of a reformist government likely based along democratic principles, without any disruption of the working relationship within the Systems Alliance. The outcome, once the shakeups come to their conclusion within the next 10-15 years, will be a stable and long-standing new political-economic system.
Last edited by taalismn on Fri Sep 24, 2021 1:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
Space giant theocracy with somewhat republican leanings sounds fun. Also makes me remember it has been months, if not a whole year, since i last messed with the Colossians. Damn, i'm a lazy bastard....
Any plans on writing up on the Lucim Empire, Celec Union and how one splintered or not from the other?
Oh yeah, this was an unexpected fun challenge to write because a) I discovered I had a possible in for some big canon badasses (the Algor) to join the USA, while random rolls made their world a challenge to come up with something halfway-plausible. The connection to Palladium's Fantasy Elf-Dwarf Wars came out of nowhere, but also made sense, as did the Vanir connection(allowing me to hook in the USA to ANOTHER group of badasses in the Norse/Vanir). And the slow-motion revolution came as a result of trying to reconcile a few bad dice rolls with how the Freyos were shaping up. It might have been easier to simply say 'yeah, planet of badasses on our side, living in a blissful warm happy prosperous paradise'...but repeating that umpteen times is cheating and not very interesting after umpteen interations to the casual reader.
The Lucim I figured were a group of Ivioians who decided to try colonizing planets far away form the Celec Union, in hopes thet they would find more fertiule and unclaimed territory as opposed to butting shoulders with a more populated neighborhood closer to home. They thought they found one, with some underdeveloped lower-tech locals to exploit....then they discovered the Botwhin were also also in the neighborhood and the whole 'expanding new offshoot of Ivoianship' went all to hell. Not so much philosophical differences with the Celec Union as 'it might be easier to grow big and strong if we find someplace less crowded to build up'. I'll expend on that as I have the time.
I'm getting ideas for at least one Ivioian, possibly Lucim, warship that reflects their problems.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
taalismn wrote:The Lucim I figured were a group of Ivioians who decided to try colonizing planets far away form the Celec Union, in hopes thet they would find more fertiule and unclaimed territory as opposed to butting shoulders with a more populated neighborhood closer to home. They thought they found one, with some underdeveloped lower-tech locals to exploit....then they discovered the Botwhin were also also in the neighborhood and the whole 'expanding new offshoot of Ivoianship' went all to hell. Not so much philosophical differences with the Celec Union as 'it might be easier to grow big and strong if we find someplace less crowded to build up'. I'll expend on that as I have the time.
I was considering something like that, since they are mentioned as a splinter of the Ivoians as a whole instead of the Celec Union in particular. Good to see my hunch was right.
taalismn wrote:I'm getting ideas for at least one Ivioian, possibly Lucim, warship that reflects their problems.
Asking myself, based on those reported contacts with the Altarans - and through them possibly with the Splugorth - might perhaps lead to techonological exchanges or influence such designs for either nation, in the present or future....
SolCannibal wrote:Asking myself, based on those reported contacts with the Altarans - and through them possibly with the Splugorth - might perhaps lead to techonological exchanges or influence such designs for either nation, in the present or future....
If the Altarans were proper renegades, I doubt they'd have much to contribute, ship design technology-wise. Altarans are not noted for their mechanical, technical, or piloting expertise. And while the Ivoians might prove amusing to the Splugorth to toy with, long term the Ivoian mental attitudes would likely prove troublesome and require some hard adjustment to make them good Minions.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
SolCannibal wrote:Asking myself, based on those reported contacts with the Altarans - and through them possibly with the Splugorth - might perhaps lead to techonological exchanges or influence such designs for either nation, in the present or future....
If the Altarans were proper renegades, I doubt they'd have much to contribute, ship design technology-wise. Altarans are not noted for their mechanical, technical, or piloting expertise.
True, but purloined items for reverse-engineering can go a long way in fostering goodwill and a desire to help on occasion.
taalismn wrote:And while the Ivoians might prove amusing to the Splugorth to toy with, long term the Ivoian mental attitudes would likely prove troublesome and require some hard adjustment to make them good Minions.
True, true. But sometimes bad minion material can make pretty good cat's paws or puppets, as shown by Splynn's diplomacy with the Phoenix Empire in the Mediterranean or the Republic of Lagarto in South America.
Lucim Imperium(Anvil Galaxy) “You know what they refer to the Lucim Imperium as now? The LIMP-erium.”
“We cannot continue to allow this foreign army of occupation to continue to corrupt our children, deny them of their true heritage, take them away from their destiny!!!!-” “If we try ANYTHING, the big armored wyrms stomp us flat again.” “-right. What does the Emperor have to say about this?” “*Sigh* He just belches and last time we petitioned him for a decision he threw up on the chancellor.”
The Lucim Imperium is an offshoot of the Ivoian Celec Union. The LImperium was founded by Ivoians who wanted to expand into space and build an Ivoian stellar empire, but not in the immediate vicinity of the Ivoian homeworld, since available space around the Celec Union was already being colonized by others. The answer to the problem of successfully building an Ivoian space-empire, these dissenters claimed, was to find space that was unclaimed, and ideally with fewer and less-advanced neighbors. The proponents of this plan were able to persuade central authorities of the Celec Union to allow them to take ships and colonists as far as possible with their limited technology and navigation charts, and find some distant fertile sector where the Ivoians could flourish. The Union Council agreed, and a colonial taskforce, made up mostly of colonists who beheld to several minority subgroups in the Union, set out in the largest FTL transports the Union could spare. Ultimately the colonial expedition found an attractive looking world and sector on the other side of the Anvil Galaxy from the Union. The Lucim Imperium is, for the most part, a mirror of the Celec Union’s policies and attitudes, only with a nominal Emperor, a throwback to some of the nationalist cultural factions that made up the expedition, is charge of the syndics. Then the Lucim discovered Solahm, a terrestrial planet inhabited by Humans living at a 20th century level of technology, who had had little contact with the rest of the cosmos. The Lucim approached the Solahm humans as friends; the humans greeted the Lucim as friends from the stars. After impressing the Solahmans with the wonders of (low-end) Galactic technology and a promise of sharing their cosmic wisdom and prosperity with their good human star-brethren, the Lucim cheerfully began the systematic genocide of the Solahmans, clearing the planet for Lucim expansion. A few of the Human vermin would be preserved for experimentation, but the rest had to go as being inconvenient to Ivoian manifest destiny. Unfortunately for the Lucim, Solahm was also being eyed by ANOTHER extraterrestrial species with different plans for the planet. The Botwhin Char’chuga had been drawn to Solahm by the radio emissions of the natives, and the giant centipede Botwhin thought the planet and its charming little natives would be a nice place to visit. The First Contact with the Lucim made for even more interest, and several Botwhin family groups had already made landfall, largely undetected and unnoticed by the Lucim when the latter began implementing their final solution on the natives. All it took was the first of the very observant Botwhin tourists to catch glimpse of Lucim soldiers killing busloads of Solahms, and complaints, accompanied by multimedia evidence, were instantly being transmitted to the Botwhini Bureau of Tourism, and from there forwarded to the Senexi Arm Aboriginal Protection Act Marshals’ service. The Lucim commanders in charge of the initial stages of the Solahm global population drawdown were startled enough by the presence of Galactics in the form of giant armor-plated centipedes on Solahm, but they were absolutely disturbed when suddenly confronted by several Galactic nuclear-armed dreadnoughts demanding to know what was going on. When several addled and desperate ground commanders tried to silence the witnesses by opening fire on the tourists, only to discover that it would take tactical nuclear weaponry to put down a Botwhin, the SAAPAMs didn’t bother waiting for an explanation and expunged the Lucim genocide force from orbit. Then they went after the fleet’s leadership, which meant blasting through the scant Lucim homeguard forces and turning the military infrastructure into so many impact craters. The Marshals then leveled harsh penalties for attempted genocide, and brought in the BABES to reeducate the Lucim in being properly responsible ad contrite Galactic citizens. Despite its promise of planting the flag of Ivoian supremacy in another part of the cosmos, the Lucim Imperium, has, to put it mildly, failed miserably. Its infrequent, but generally good, contacts with its mother-culture in the Celec Union have almost completely ceased. Most of the Celec Union, upon hearing of the discomfiture of the Lucim, have written the effort off, and there’s an increasing media movement to demonize the Lucim as incompetent, the result of entrusting such a bold and important venture to a group of cultural throwbacks. Post- Solahm, Lucim hard-liners have made a few attempts to rebuild their military state, but these clumsy efforts have only worsened things for the old regime. Botwhin efforts to reform the Lucim have begun to show a few signs of success in that local recruitment of young Lucim into a Botwhin-run peace corps has gone up while the Imperial Service has seen a sharp decline, and the younger generations of Lucim seem more inclined to follow the Galactics, rather than the Imperial line. Given that the Lucim Emperor has been seen increasingly in a suspected inebriated state, Lucim confidence in their leadership has been nose-diving.
A. Size 3 planetary systems; one life-sustaining and adjacent two resource systems B. History Colonial Offshoot of the Ivoian Celec Union C. Level of Technological Sophistication Mature Space Age---They possess FTL drives, but their indigenous technology is still several generations behind the CCW and TGE. The Lucim are actually a little behind the parent Celec Union because of the time spent reaching their current location, the separation from the larger and more pressurized R&D of the Celec Union, and lack of trade/tech-theft from other species in their area. D. General Attitude/Culture Warrior Society---Though peaceful on the surface, the Ivoians see themselves as fierce, proud, and superior. They claim Warrior status, though this shades increasingly toward Racial Supremacist. E. Racial Composition 100% Ivoian F. Government Monarchy---An Emperor, effectively the top man who clawed his or her way to the top of the operating technocracy, rules the Imperium. The monarchy system is a throwback to a nationalist faction that left the Celec Union in order to preserve its traditions. G. Administrative Control Strict---The Lucim couldn’t afford to let its citizens have as much leeway as the Celec Union did, and so it exerted/exerts righter direct control through police laws and a more regimented paramilitary organization. H. External Trade The Lucim are not trading with anybody, because a) there wasn’t much interstellar trade in their sector, b) they were building up their own resource systems, and c) they were setting up to wipe out the Solahmans and take over their planet. Since the Solahm debacle, the Lucim Imperium’s economy now effectively services the battered human planet. Aside from the occasional trade vessel able to make the long and convoluted way from the Celec Union, the Lucim were either ignoring or unaware of any potential trade partners in their sector(the humans of Solahm don’t count, since the idea of ‘trade partners’ implies EQUALS, and the Ivoians don’t regard humans as equals, especially those they were planning on exterminating). H1. Commodities Exports: The remaining Lucim industry has been suborned to manufacturing goods for the Solahmans, with several early attempts to sabotage said goods leading to even stiffer oversight of the Lucim. Imports: The Lucim aren’t importing anything; they’re paying stiff reparations to their neighbors. I. Status Imperiled/Effectively Defunct; the fallout from the Solahm debacle is still being felt. Besides having the spacefleet effectively destroyed, and their military-industrial capability reduced to large craters, the Lucim economy is being forced to pay massive reparations to the Solahmans, effectively bootstrapping the humans of the planet into the Galactic culture. Lucim media and communications have been taken over by the Botwhin, and the Imperium’s education system is obliged to teach mandatory empathy and galactic civics classes. The Lucim Emperor is effectively a prisoner in his own palace and has taken to avoiding being seen in public, fueling rumors of substance abuse. During the Minion War in the Three Galaxies, some hardline Lucim attempted to lead a resistance movement to remilitarize the Imperium, but a poor choice in arms suppliers led to the conspiracy being outed and crushed. This has arguably extended the projected occupation of Lucim space by the SAAPA forces, and has proven to be nowhere near the rallying call for Lucim resistance that the hard-liners hoped.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
taalismn wrote: “We cannot continue to allow this foreign army of occupation to continue to corrupt our children, deny them of their true heritage, take them away from their destiny!!!!-” “If we try ANYTHING, the big armored wyrms stomp us flat again.”
That is an interesting word choice to refer to the Bothwin there. Seems to imply some interesting conflation of animal, from serpentine to eruciform, shapes in the literature and/or mythology of the Lucim, if not the Ivoians as a whole.
Either way, when a giant heavy gravity hellworld-raised armored centipede that can shrug off artillery fire and packs a repeating shot Davy Crockett tacnuke rifle for a sidearm tells you to stop massacring the local apes or else she's going to go Saint Harry Callahan on you...you better listen.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
taalismn wrote:Either way, when a giant heavy gravity hellworld-raised armored centipede that can shrug off artillery fire and packs a repeating shot Davy Crockett tacnuke rifle for a sidearm tells you to stop massacring the local apes or else she's going to go Saint Harry Callahan on you...you better listen.
Oh, that's a given, no denying. It's just some Lucim courtier-politician calling them "armored wyrms" that i find curious and inspires me all kinds of wild guesses of the cultural context behind that.
Coulda been worse; the Lucim coulda been trounced by good-natured altruistic Shoggoths.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
Seeing the bits of info on the Indrel Khonate, it kind of got my attention that 3 of the 10 conquered worlds are of elven majority populations, what i can see generating some interesting dynamics due to different lifespans creating considerable dissonance of expectations on a number of issues political, economic, social & other.
That said 1 of the 3, Aldenec, is a colony of one of the others, Shrebadar - and basically a planet-sized anarchist/hippie commune created to serve as pressure valve for youths dissatisfied with Shrebadar's gerontocratic state (that still exists in puppet form).
I ask myself if any oligarchs from Pola have tried to connect with their cousins and share ideas, opinions or plans with their "cousins" about their current "imperial subjects" status quo.
Last edited by SolCannibal on Thu Jan 13, 2022 11:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
SolCannibal wrote: I ask myself if any oligarchs from Pola have tried to connect with their cousins and share ideas, opinions or plans with their "cousins" about their current "imperial subjects" status quo.
Count on it, but Indrellian Internal Security is pretty nasty when it comes to hunting down suspected dissent. Not SS-regimentation, but akin to the Caliphate states of the Middle Ages. You're useful, you get to stay in your neighborhoods and make money for the INdrel; step out of line and operate secret lines of communication, you could start losing limbs.
The good news is, the Indrellians are overstretching themselves trying to ride herd over a much larger empire than they have operatives to secure. They increasingly rely on the equivalent of janissaries and a local snitch network...whch can be subverted from within.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
SolCannibal wrote: I ask myself if any oligarchs from Pola have tried to connect with their cousins and share ideas, opinions or plans with their "cousins" about their current "imperial subjects" status quo.
Count on it, but Indrellian Internal Security is pretty nasty when it comes to hunting down suspected dissent. Not SS-regimentation, but akin to the Caliphate states of the Middle Ages. You're useful, you get to stay in your neighborhoods and make money for the INdrel; step out of line and operate secret lines of communication, you could start losing limbs.
Yes, risks definitely exists in attempting to establish contacts & allies to the subjugated worlds of the empire, specially considering most of these systems apparently didn't have much in the way of diplomatic or trade networks of their own before assimilation. The degree of disatisfaction of these subjects, their local power & organization x the empire's capacity to spread its net of espionage without stretching itself too thin in the process should be deciding factors.
taalismn wrote:The good news is, the Indrellians are overstretching themselves trying to ride herd over a much larger empire than they have operatives to secure. They increasingly rely on the equivalent of janissaries and a local snitch network...whch can be subverted from within.
Or fossilize a state's capacity for military renewal and reformation in the name of preserving their own growing niche in the maintenance of power, like the historical janissaries to a certain degree.
Yah...I remember reading of a few Ottoman emperors whose first order of business on taking the throne(besides killing all their relatives) was bribing the Janissaries...until the Jans went too far and got wiped out for going on strike.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
The GNE Life Division senior somatistian ignored the organic sounds coming from his taller companion as they watched the procedure in front of them. The biotechnician, an old hand at this sort of thing, forged on ahead with his exposition on a subject that happened to be very near and dear to his heart. “First resurrection you’ve ever witnessed? They always fascinate me; there are so many ways to destroy a living body, that observing the reconstruction of one is just such a wonder to be cherished. I admit we usually don’t have a body arrive in such a ...disorganized condition...but then dropping several thousand feet onto bare metal deck plating does tend to ...break things up. But have no worries; we got enough of the corpus that the revitalization will have something to work on.” Inside a clear cylinder inscribed with glowing sigils, sitting inside a circle of power inscribed on the room’s floor, a bloody mass of disorganized body parts was twitching and pulsing as it pulled itself, with increasing rapidity, back into a semblance of order. Even through the ectoglass, the sounds of bubbling, squeaking, and gurgling could be clearly heard as liquids redistributed themselves, soft tissues reconnected, and skeletal linkages jockied back into position. That was nothing, however, compared to the increasingly fluid sounds coming from the tall Space Patrol operative standing next to him. Ever a believer in prevention, the biotech gestured to one of his junior interns, who rushed off. “Of course, we’re also running a restoration spell matrix at the same time to insure that once the spark of life has been re-lit, it will have a proper place to STAY re-lit,” The biotech gestured to the multi-armed masses of biomechanical equipment waiting nearby, ”And we have more conventional means standing by to replace and regenerate anything that might have been left out. We can even improve on nature while we’re at it! And, of course, we have the neurological damage to contend with; one just doesn’t stop that suddenly and not have some potential mental effects. But we have some experience treating that as well. Oh, look, the facial bones are reforming, and here come the eyes! It’s like watching decay in fast-reverse! Wonderful!” The intern returned pushing a wheeled bucket, in time for the black-jacketed SP man to jackknife over and empty his digestive tract contents into it. The somatistician ignored the sick noises coming from behind him in favor of watching the resurrection accelerate. Really, the man was missing out on observing something wonderful. Sure, they’d had one failed attempt first, but the second go had taken quite satisfactorily. Why, the patient’s(and , with the biomonitors registering vital signs, it was no longer a corpse and now officially a patient) newly regenerated scalp was growing back hair already! And the newly reformed lungs were beginning to spasm-expel excess fluids! “We should celebrate after this with some lunch. You like some lunch? You’ll need to fill up. And I think they’re having something in the cafeteria you Space Patrol types like...barbecue.” The somatisician did love his job for days like this.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
taalismn wrote: The somatisician did love his job for days like this.
Sigh. Certain jobs attract certain kinds of people.
Paladin Steel Human Resources, expanded into the United Systems Alliance JobWeb.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
taalismn wrote:Yah...I remember reading of a few Ottoman emperors whose first order of business on taking the throne(besides killing all their relatives) was bribing the Janissaries...until the Jans went too far and got wiped out for going on strike.
Yes, being part of a ruling family can be something of a trap indeed, in that even if you don't desire at all to sit on the throne, a lord that is somewhat liked or respected might attract followers, opportunistic, sincere or a mix of both, that might spur him or her to do so out of a desire to see a contentious period of crisis solved by the best (or at least most conveniently placed in their perspective) person.
It's the kind of thing that can make family relations and sucessions periods quite frantic indeed. So much worse in places where a ruler has an harem, possibly resulting in dozens of children divided by potential rivalry across matrilineal lines.
Now asking myself if the Khonate's rulership might make use of political marriages &/or hostage-wives as a tool of diplomacy with the conquered worlds of mostly human population - that can definitely complicate internal power dynamics...
Last edited by SolCannibal on Thu Jan 13, 2022 11:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
SolCannibal wrote:Now asking myself if the Khonate's rulership might make use of political marriages &/or hostage-wives as a tool of diplomacy with the conquered worlds of mostly human population - that can definitely complicate internal power dynamics...
That might have been one of the deals offered some of the conquered territories, and even some of the Rosallen leadership....before or after they turned pirate...with rejection of said offers ranging from a simple 'no' and fleeing out of the palace before the wedding, to a violent kick to the groin before being dragged back to the prison cell.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
SolCannibal wrote:Now asking myself if the Khonate's rulership might make use of political marriages &/or hostage-wives as a tool of diplomacy with the conquered worlds of mostly human population - that can definitely complicate internal power dynamics...
That might have been one of the deals offered some of the conquered territories, and even some of the Rosallen leadership....before or after they turned pirate...with rejection of said offers ranging from a simple 'no' and fleeing out of the palace before the wedding, to a violent kick to the groin before being dragged back to the prison cell.
That's what you avoid by courting the potential spouses before coming up with any such proposals. Silly overlords of no class, women can assassinate with blade & blaster just as well as any man, better even as in many human societies the male is the more prone to being distracted by the pretty. Well, not every conqueror can be Cortes-level of smoothness in coopting local gems, i guess.
P.S. Possibly channeling a bit of Ciprian Dunscon's "casanova overlord" proclivities on this one.
Celec Union (Anvil Galaxy) “Be advised, on Ivoian worlds, the law is more likely to impose serious penalties, including the death penalty, if you’re a human. And there’s no shortage of ivoians all too happy to help you get into trouble with the law.”
The Celec Union is the interstellar conglomeration of the various earlier planetary factions of the Ivoian homeworld, Rothmere. Though it presents itself as a peaceful, enlightened, intellectual society devoted to promoting the wellbeing and quality of life of its citizens, the Union is really seething under the surface with the desire to claim manifest destiny and expand explosively into neighboring space. Incentives are offered in Ivoian society to develop and refine the technologies that will make them a major player in the Three Galaxies. Competition is fierce among Ivoian technology firms and engineering schools to develop the technologies that will make them major powers in the government. Meanwhile, the Union is building a military to spearhead their expansion. The problem is that the Ivoians believe that they are late to the table, and that available territory is being snapped up by other species, especially the less-worthy humans. The Ivoian desire to claim a destiny in the stars is, they feel, being blocked by the rampant expansion of lesser species, especially the humans, who appear poised to outbreed the rightful heirs to the galaxy out of the picture. The Celec Union has a history of abrasive relations with its human neighbors, who they see as encroaching on Ivoian territories. It is rumored that they have been behind an increasing number of disappearances of Human ships and tourists in the sector, and that they have been sponsoring anti-human violence in neighboring sectors.
A. Size 14 systems B. History Newcomers C. Level of Technological Sophistication Mature Space Age---They possess FTL drives, but their indigenous technology is still several generations behind the CCW and TGE. D. General Attitude/Culture Warrior Society---Though peaceful on the surface, the Ivoians see themselves as fierce, proud, and superior. They claim Warrior status, though this shades increasingly toward Racial Supremacist. E. Racial Composition 100% Ivoian F. Government Technocracy---Ivoian society is run by the technologically literate; those able to understand and improve on technologies gain prestige and status, heading up increasingly larger and more important development projects and programs. For example, the Ivoian group that created the first successful Ivoian FTL drive has effectively created a dynasty that is still a major power in the government to this day. G. Administrative Control Lax---Ivoians are allowed a great deal of leeway by their governments, and the only real crime is being too stupid to avoid the law, when it is so easily avoided. H. External Trade Trade---Ivoians are enthusiastic traders with anybody with the goods and the money....well, they hardly trade with humans, and when they do trade directly, will try to cheat them any way they can. H1. Commodities Exports: Biotech---Usually environmental testing gear and pest control measures. The Ivoians have developed several profitable space-ugly repellent and control sprays. Imports: Agriculture---The Union imports a lot of meat I. Status Boom---The Celec Union is growing in strength...but not nearly fast enough for the Ivoians. They look to the even more rapidly expanding human polities around them and see competition trying to pen them in and squeeze them out of the galaxy.
Dalzugon/Nezvii(United Systems Alliance member)(Thundercloud Galaxy
“If you’re ever traveling near the Pocti system and you start seeing ghosts on your ship, don’t be alarmed; it’s only the locals checking you out.”
Dalzugon is a terrestrial world settled by a variant sept of Lizardmen, the Nagunsa. Interestingly enough, Dalzugon is a rare example of working cooperation between two entirely different orders of life; the lizardman world sits next to a gas giant (Nezviii) inhabited by one of the few known intelligent hydrogen-breathing species, the Mawli, though initially the Nagunsa were completely unaware of this. The Mawli are superb astral projectionists of almost unheard of power, able to project their astral selves across solar system distances. In this manner, the Mawli have explored their solar system, though initially they looked at the gas giant worlds most like theirs, hoping to find life like themselves...without any success. It was the activity, physical and mental, on Dalzugon that finally drew the Mawli’s attention like a beacon. When the Mawli began astrally apparating about liizardman communities checking out their neighbors, it threw the Nagunsa into a panic, thinking they were looking at a plague of non-corporeal haunting entities. Fortunately, calmer heads prevailed before the Nagunsa went totally overboard, and less panicky/voyeuristic contact was made. Once the initial confusion and shock died down, the two peoples were more fascinated by each other than repulsed. The Nagunsa and the Mawli have formed a mutually beneficial partnership. The Mawli can astrally travel through solid matter, and can be trained to recognize various minerals that they can report to Nagunsa miners. The Mawli are also part of the solar system’s defenses, able to psychically board incoming vessels and inspect/identify them, often without the ships’ crews being aware of them. Thus the Nagunsa planetary militia can recieve a head’s up whether newcomes are reason to roll out the red carpet or the guns. In return, with the offworld credits the Mawli earn working, they order items that the Nagunsa either buy or build for them, then deliver to their partners with special capsules that float down to the levels of Nezviii ‘s deep atmosphere where the Mawli live. The worlds of the Pocti system joined the United Systems Alliance because , despite being well-off as small systems go, the Magunsa and the Mawli both agreed that the USA had much to offer them as cooperative trade partners. Though the Nagunsa do not build their own starships, they do maintain a small naval force of second- and third-hand military ships to protect their near-space assets. Prior to joining the USA, they had acquired some Hartigal equipment, but have accepted the USA’s upgrade program to supply them with brand new Hauberk-class destroyers and Bullet-class pickets.
Solar System(Pocti) Number of Stars: 1 Types of Stars: -Yellow Dwarf Number of Planets: 5 -Terrestrial(Ghungoc) ---Miniscule Chungoc is a rocky airless planet that would norally be of little interest, except that some of the early Mawli psychic explorers sensed tantalizing hints of exotic mineral deposits deep inside its crust. The Nagunsa are currently wrangling with their offworld contacts for sensor equipment able to determine just what those minerals are, whether it’s economically feasible to mine them, and what would be necesssary to do the job.
-Terrestrial(Dalzugon) ---Home of the Nagunsa
-Gas Giant(Nezviii) ---This enormous gas giant is home to the Mawli, who inhabit the upper reaches of the planet’s atmosphere.
-Gas Giant(Fallan) ---The Mawli were hoping that this neighboring large gas giant held kindred souls, but to no avail. Still, it is used as a target for beginning interplanetary astral travelers from Nezviii. Under the terms of an agreement signed with the Nagunsa, the Mawli have final say on any development of Fallan. Currently Fallan plays host to a gas-mining operation and civilian refit yard on its largest moon; staff there have gotten used to ghostly visitors. For those outworlders wanting a little privacy, there’s no shortage of on-station Nagunsa who will(or who claim to be able to), for a fee, set up the equivalent of ‘do not enter’ protections keeping out the ‘restless spirits of Mawli’ . It’s a sign of the close cooperation between the two wildly-different species that the authorities have discovered some Nagunsa-Mawli criminal teams scamming offworlders.
-Gas Giant(Doheg) ---Likewise huge Doheg was silent as far as other voices went. Several of the moons of Doheg have been purchased/leased by the United Systems Alliance Jount Command as naval base sites.
Planet(Dalzugon’) Type:-Terrestrial Diameter: 13,000 km Gravity: Light; 0.4 g Temperature: Temperate; on the tropical side Unusual/Special Features: -High Ambient PPE Field---Conducive to magic and psionics. Atmosphere: Dense, but breathable, nitrox mix Terrain: Four+ terrains, with broad wetland valleys and large island chains predominating Notable Mineral Concentrations: - Aluminum - Colombite - Iron - Scheelite - Gypsum - Titanium - Talc - Samarskite Hydrosphere: 86% surface coverage Biosphere: Dense----Dalzugon’ has a dense and diverse ecosystem rich in unique species, both terrestrial and aquatic. Civilization: Settled Population: 3.1 billion Nagunsa Lizardmen(variant sept). Technology: Stellar Age, thanks to imported technology. However, the Nagunsa do not build their own starships as such, nor do they exhibit much interest in venturing abroad. They do maintain several small shipyards for repairing starships and they’ve signed a deal with WZT to upgrade their capabilities. Economy: Commercial---While the Nagunsa do a little of everything, agriculture, manufacturing, and services, the bulk of interstellar commerce is in serving as a transit hub, providing a stopover point and trading post for Galactics. Wealth: Prosperpous----The Nagunsa-Mawli alliance has allowed the two species to make money hand-over-tentacle. Government: Hierarchy----The Nagunsa are ruled by a series of nested professional guilds and councils, either vertically or laterally answering to other organizations in the hierarchy. The topmost level is a Great Council of senior members selected from all the lesser organizatins. In an emergency, a single dictator-style leader may be selected to lead(or take the fall) during the crisis period. Law Level: Lawful----The Nagunsa-Mawli alliance could easily become a psychic police state, but both species have too much respect for each other. Besides, each species has its own special psionic and magic abilities that balance and counter each other effectively, so fears of a tyranny of mages/mind-walkers is unjustified in the locals’ eyes. Popularity: Ambivalent----The Nagunsa and Mawli populations are fairly divided about getting more involved in Galactic affairs than they already are. Some want to keep the current arrangements as they are, while others want to participate more activately in USA affairs. Stability: Solid----The Nagunsa and Mawli have a solid working arrangement that nobody is willing to upset.
Nagunsa Lizardmen(Variant Sept) The Nagunsa are not native to their world of Dalzugon, but are believed to have split off from their baseline cousins some 80,000 years ago. As no records or oral traditions have survived that long, it is unknown from where the Nagunsa originally hailed from. They have, however, since adapted to life on Dalzugon, becoming distinctive different from their baseline stock, even in the relatively short time since the split(when presumably the Nagunsans; ancestors were, most likely by dimensional rift, brought to the planet). The Nagunsa are, on the whole, thinner and more spindly than the average/baseline Lizardmen. They have adapted to living in the massive swamp-trees of Dalzugon and making their ways through the dense underbrush that rapidly defies even technological efforts to keep open rights of way. Nagunsa are magic-users, mainly focusing on environmental manipulation magic(though Elementalism is still very rare among them), and had begun developing the rudiments of Technowizardry on their own. Since joining the USA and getting access to some usan TW and basic TW grimoire-manuals, this latter school has really taken off among the Nagunsa. -Double-jointed: +2 Roll with fall/impact, natural escape artist skill of 79% -Prehensile Tail; +1 strike/parry w/ tail, +5 to dodge w/ the tail, +20% to Climbing skill - Odd Skin Color: Nagunsa have a striking gold-tint skin coloration. -Tough Skin +30 SDC Penalties: As low-graviy worlders, Nagunsa suffer the appropriate penalties when traveling to higher gravity environments.
Planet(Nezviii) Nezviii is the second life-sustaining world in the Pocti system, and is home to the Mawli. Life on Nezviii of necessity developed without terra firma for it to stand on; Nezviii’s solid core exists at depths and pressures too great to sustain any known form of life. However, layers of the atmosphere contain materials and conditions in which life CAN and did develop. Powerful upwellings from the planet’s depths bring up valuable carbon and other elements, eagerly snapped up by various atmospheric layers of ecosystems. The Mawli and other native lifeforms learned to use updrafts and down-dumps to travel between atmospheric layers to hunt and gather materials; the Mawli later learned to ‘fish’ these air currents using large floating nets and draglines. Nezviii’s strong electromagnetic field and radiation belt interfere with most radio communications, so any radios or electronics sent to the Mawli need to be specially constructed to survive the harsh conditions and still be able to punch through the thick interference. The Mawli use powerful radios and lasers/masers to communicate technologically with offworld, but rely mainly on their psionics and TW magic to keep in touch with their Nagunsa partners.
Type:-Gas Giant Diameter: Enormousl 1,800,000 km Gravity: 12 g Temperature: At the levels at which the Mawli live temperatures range between -30 degrees F at the upper reaches and 90 degrees F at the lower reaches. Hot upwellings of up to 500 degrees F can occur, as can ‘cold sinks’ of -190 degrees F. Unusual/Special Features: -Moons(11)----Nezviii has eleven sizeable moons. One of them is home to the Poc-Mawlnag Interface Station, which is a sort of crossing station between the two peoples, Technological commuications are handled through the station, as is delivery of ordered goods. The station also maintains a small fleet of contragravity-equipped ‘bathyscapes’(built with outworlder help) that the Nagunsa occasionally use to visit the Mawli in their native environment. The station also has several wings with the complicated and oversized equipment needed to keep Mawli alive off Nezviii. The moon bases als serve as part of the system defense; data relayed from sensor platforms elsewhere in the system is passed to ready-state Malwli ‘psychic interceptors’ who astrally scramble incoming anomalies.
-Energy Field---Perhaps as a result of the rich ecosystem in its atmosphere, Nezviii possesses an exotic energy field...or perhaps the energy field is what made life on Nezviii possible in the first place. Nobody is entirely certain which came first, life or the exotic radiation permeating the gas giant. In any case, both local and offworlder scientists are studying the unique energy field to see what properties it has.
Atmosphere: Hydrogen-Helium Terrain: None Hydrosphere: None, unless one counts the large amount of water vapor clouds covering most of the planet. Biosphere: For a gas giant, Nezviii has an incredibly rich biosphere, with not one but several layers of aerial life. Local lifeforms range from microscopic airborne bacteria to massive floating colony organisms, swift aerial predators, and roaming sky-grazers. Civilization: Settled(Native species: Mawli) Population: 9 billion Mawli Technology: Can be considered late Stone Age for lack of locally available metals, but the Mawli have built a fairly impressive tool-using society using bone, sinew, and plant fibers. They have learned how to make various appliable chemicals, such as animal repellents, varnishes, adhesives, sealants, and medicines. The Mawli have built large floating rafts, sail-craft, and aerostats using locally-sourced materials. The Mawli even learned to build pressure- and temperature-resistant ‘diving suits’ and pressure- and temperature-retaining ‘aircraft’ to descend and ascend to lower and upper levels of their atmosphere respectively to explore and exploit them. And they had a psychic internet even before they learned how to capture electrical charge in a chemical battery. With the money they make working with the Nagunsa, the Mawli have acquired some Galactic technology, especially electronics, that have been ruggerized to survive the harsh conditions, and been delivered by a combination of reentry pod, parachute, and contragravitic sled. Economy: Service-based; astrally-projecting and skysearching Mawli make good livings prospecting and patroling Pocti space. Wealth: Prosperous---By past standards, the Mawli are doing very well indeed, able to afford special offworld merchandise and material imports down to their levels. Government: Gerontocracy---The Mawli revere their elders, who have learned all the tricks of surviving in Nezviii’s tough environment. Generally, anybody who makes it past the age of 100 years is qualified for government duty. Law Level: Moderate----There’s firm laws but a lot of leeway. Those few crimes that get punished tend to be the serious ones; theft, assault, and murder. Theft generally carries the requirement that the thief work to replace or pay back the offended parties, while psychic assault and murder carry death penalties; the codemneds’ flotation organs are pierced and they are dropped to the death pressures and temperatures of the lower atmosphere. Popularity: Popular Stability: Long-Standing----The Mawli LIKE being civilized and te current system they’ve hashed out works well for them.
Mawli RCC----Gas Giant Hydrogen-Breathers The Mawli are ‘’floaters’, jellyfish-like organisms that inhabit the upper reaches of the gas giant Nezviii. Mawli traditionally float in small communal ‘pods’, grazing off aerial phyto- and phyloplankton living in the same clouds. Mawli are traditionally born in the calm centers of the massive storm cells covering Nezviii. Unfortunately, these regions of calm are also deficient in nutrients brought up from the depths by the storm wall winds, so adolescent Mawli were dependent on food provided by their parents. Learning to station-keep, and make headway against hard winds enough to migrate out of the nursery eyes and into richer feeding grounds is seen as a rite of passage for young Mawli, though in the past it was also a winnowing process, with the transit proving fatal to as much as two thirds of a season’s adolescents. Today, the Mawli are stronger, and provide escorts to transiting younglings, though occasionally the eye-wall winds still claim a few in a season. The Mawli accept this as part of the cycle of life. The Mawli never developed an advanced technological society as such, but have learned to craft artifacts from materials suspended around them in the air columns. They have learned to construct more or less permanent floating dirigible rafts to hold material tools and possessions, and even blimp-like ‘carts’ with which to haul goods about to other pods. However, it is their mental development which is incredible. The big thing that ultimately evolved the Mawli from simple airborne hunter-gatherers to a global society was the emergence of their powerful psionics. Though originally developed to sense prey and danger, Mawli psychic abilities diversified into a variety of talents, though their most powerful abilities are related to far-sensing and communication. Mawli are incredibly powerful astral projectionists, able to send their consciousnesses across interplanetary distances. On their homeworld, the Mawli have used this ability to create a global communications network, binding the many scattered pods drifting across thousands of miles of sky and cloud into a cohesive culture and society. Then they began exploring their world, projecting down into its core and up and out of its atmosphere. However, as Mawli astronomical knowledge was limited to Mark One Eyeball(they couldn’t build large telescopes), their first efforts to travel beyond their atmosphere, their astral senses rather limited, were very tentative. However, early upper atmosphere expeditions had caught sight of Nezviii’s satellites and of course Pocti itself, giving the early astropsinauts targets to shoot for. This in turn led to the discovery of the stars, eventually other planets, and the Nagunsa, the lizardmen living on the nearby terrestrial world of Dalzugon. Mawli CAN leave the atmosphere of Nezviii and travel offworld, but such requires special and elaborate life support systems, so few Mawli do. Nor do all Mawli take up offworld astral travel as careers, only fairly recently has that become the norm.
Alignments: Any Life Span: 200 years Size: 30 ft in diameter, 100 ft tall Gender: Hermaphrodites. Because of the huge distances between prospective mates, Mawli have several reproductive strategies when close contact isn’t possible; they can cast gamete packages on the wind and hope that another Mawli will find the gametes and use them(and Mawli can store sex cells for decades), or they can clone themselves via auto-fertilization as a measure of last resort. Physical Description/Appearance: Upright roughly cylindrical masses of shaggy clumps of alternating purple and dark protoplasm, with eight long tentacles emerging from the sides, and six long eyestalks each ending in a large golden eye. The mouth is in the underside of the body, surrounded by dozens of long golden feeding tendrils. Mawli feed off plants and small aerial animals sharing the air column with them. Mawli often drape themselves in natural webbing and fibers, that attract small colonies of symbiotic plants. These ‘clothes’ can also serve as utility webbing, and the plants(and animals) nesting in them can serve as supplemental food sources, but they can also serve a decorative purpose as well. Mawli exist most comfortably at an atmospheric level where the temperature is slightly cooler than Earth average, and the air pressure only slightly less than that of Earth sea level. They can safely, with acclimation, ascend and survive at altitude levels of 0.3 sea level pressure. or depth-pressures of 8 times sea level, though ascending from such depths carries the equivalent hazard of the ‘bends’ in Mawli if they come up too fast. Disposition/Attitudes: Curious, intelligent, and very patient. In their psychic society, chatter comes fast and open minds are an invitation to come, see, and converse. This doesn’t always work well when encountering non-psychic species, as the Mawli can come across as voyeuristic, intrusive, and overly curious. Physical Attributes: IQ: 3d6+6 ME: 2d6+10 MA: 2d4 PS: 2d6+6 PP: 2d6+13 PB: 1d4 PE: 3d6+20 SPD: Can fly at a speed of 110+4d6(roughly 75 MPH) (ISP): 3d6x10+M.E. +10 per level of experience (PPE): 3d10 Hit Points:---- SDC:---- MDC: P.E. +1d6 MD per level of experience Horror Factor: 14 Natural Abilities: -Minor Megadamage Beings----Mawli are fairly tough; P.E. +1d6 MD per level of experience.
-Acute Eyesight----Mawli have very sharp eyesight, having hawk-like vision up to 10 miles.
-Acute Sense of Smell----The Mawli have a combination of smell and taste through their integument that allows them to sense changes in the chemical composition of the atmosphere around them. Can detect, identify, and track trace airborne chemicals with a proficiency of 60%+5% per level of experience.
-Webbing----The Mawli have a developed ability to create quantities of an aerogel-like foam webbing, very light, but very tough, from glands on their bodies. In the past, this was used to trap small airborne plants and animals on their skin, as well as provide ‘parasols’ for packages of sexual gametes sent on the winds to be fertilized by prospective mates, but the ability has developed over time into the equivalent of personal duct-tape. Can produce 10xP.E. in ft of webbing per 24 hours. Mawli webbing has equivalent of 50 SDC per 5 ft length, and can hold up to 1,000 lbs.
-Weather Sense----Floaters in a gas giant atmosphere develop a good weather sense as a matter of survival; Mawli can sense changes in the weather 1d6 hours ahead of time with a proficiency of 40%+5% per level of experience
-Dual Brain---Like terrestrial dolphins, Mawli never really go to sleep; part of their brain continues in semiconscious state to keep them positioned in the air column. While astrally projecting, this ability is hampered somewhat, and so astral travelers typically attach themselves to a floating ‘grove’, companion, or artificial raft(the astropsinauts and frequent astral ‘commuters’ on Nezviii typically have attendants watching over their bodies while their minds go jaunting off).
Psionics:(Considered to be Master psychics) -Astral Projection(Special)-----Mawli have an extended form of Coexistent Astral Projection; they can travel through space at an equivalent speed of 50% of light speed. They can maintain this state for 16 minutes per level of experience + their M.E. in minutes. Mawli remain as yet unaware of the Astral Plane and do not travel it, being ignorant of its existence. However, if proof of it could be presented to them, it’s very likely that they could travel it.
-Telepathy---Mawli can use their telepathy both to communicate wen in their astral forms with others they appear before, as well as pass telepathic messages back to and through their bodies to anybody guarding them.
-Empathy---Likewise, this can be used while in astral form.
-Telekinesis---This cannot be used while astrally projecting.
-Telekinetic Flight Booster---This is actually a form of TK propulsion that allows the Mawli to stay stationary against a hard gale, or fight upstream in a windstorm. For 20 ISP, the Mawli can DOUBLE their flight speed for 10 minutes per level of experience.
-Select 3 OTHER powers from Sensitive, Healing, and Physical at Level One. -Can select an additional 3 at Level Two. -Can select ONE power from the Super category at Level Three -For each subsequent level of advancement can select 2 powers from any of the lesser categories or ONE Super psionic power.
Magic: None, but the Mawli have the potential, and are intrigued by what they’d seen Nagunsa sages and mages perform. They’re also very interested in Technowizardry, and have evinced interest in acquiring TW items from their new USA trade partners. Elemental weather control especially excites them, as does word of psionic amplification methods. Cybernetics/Bionics: None Available OCCs: While there are a few specialists in Mawli tinkering and medicine, the vast majority of Mawli are of the Mawli Floater generalist occupation, described below.
RCC Skills: Native Language 98% Navigation(Air)(+15%) Math: Basic(+10%) Ropework(+15%) One Domestic of choice(+10%) Two Technical of choice(+10%) W.P. Harpoon Skills: Select 6 ‘other skills at Level One, plus an additional 1 at levels 4, 9 and 12. Communications: Any(+10%) Domestic: Any(equivalents)(+10%) Electrical: Basic Electronics, Computer Repair, Electrical Engineer, and Electricity Generation only. Except for the Basic Electronics, all others cost TWO skill selections. Espionage: None Mechanical: Basic Mechanics only Medical: First Aid and Paramedic only(the latter takes 2 selections) Military: Military Etiquette only Physical: None Pilot: Limited to Pilot: CloudSailor(equivalent to Sailboat), Hangglider, and LTA Airships(equivalent to Sailboat)(+15%) Pilot Related: Navigation only Rogue: None Science: Any(taking a skill selection TWICE gives a +10% bonus)) Technical: Any, though most History and Lore skills are going to be of limited use/interest to gas-floaters. Wilderness: Any(but limited to gas giant flora and fauna) Weapons Proficiencies: Any except Heavy Weapons. Main focus is on Ancient Weapons, as the Mawli learned to fabricate pointed and edged weapons from the carcasses of other floaters and floating plants, as well as projectiles. Airguns and crude chemical projectile weapons came later(and are highly prized for their materials and workmanship). A few have acquired more modern weapons from offworld.
Secondary Skills: 4 Secondary Skills at Level One, plus an additional secondary skill at levels 3, 6, and 9. Note: Mawli skills should be coached in terms of what is likely/available in a culture suspended thousands of miles in the atmosphere of a gas giant.
Experience Table: Use the Mind Melter Exp. Tables
Culture: Typically live in ‘pods’ of 10-30 individuals, but have been building larger communities of ten or more thousand. Pods, both small and large, are typically based around floating ‘rafts’ or ‘groves’ of aerial plant life. In recent centuries, larger artificial constructs have been created as floating workshops and warehouses. Mawli culture is not big on material possessions given the environment(most material goods are communally owned), and even personal grooming is lacking(though some Mawli attempt to decoratively cultivate and groom their skin-coverings of aerial plants in colorful patterns). The development of psychic abilities caused an explosion of development amongst the Mawli. Using telekinesis they could move more effectively against the winds that once scattered them. Using astral projection and telepathy they could communicate with other pods and arrange meet-ups. This has developed into a sort of ‘psychic internet’ that links the far-flung Mawli community-pods.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
Trying to make something out of a few funny rolls i made, so here go a few questions:
- Do you imagine a "subdemon"/lesser infernal race, one with no known home dimension, used as cannon fodder by both sides of the Minion War equally but not really belonging to either, being amenable to inhabiting and trying to carve a niche or territory its own in the Three Galaxies on the aftermath of the conflict?
- How adaptable or not might one such group of beings be to the use of technology & technicians already available in devastated worlds they manage to stealthly occupy, versus trying to purloin magical or TW know-how of other civilizations?
Last edited by SolCannibal on Sat Jan 15, 2022 2:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
SolCannibal wrote:Trying to make something out of a few funny rolls i made, so here go a few questions:
- Do you imagine a "subdemon"/lesser infernal race, one with no known home dimension, used as cannon fodder by both sides of the Minion War equaly but not really belonging to either, being amenable to inhabiting and trying to carve a niche or territory its own in the Three Galaxies on the aftermath of the conflict?
- How adaptable or not might one such group of beings be to the use of technology & technicians already available in devastated worlds they manage to stealthly occupy, versus trying to purloin magical or TW know-how of other civilizations?
1) Easily...I even have, in work-up, a species of demonic-looking aberrant-alignment beings who got drawn into the MinionWars, for a time were considered elites, and like the news cycle, eventually became yesterday's news as newer, more dynamic, fresher minions were discovered and thrown into the conflict. Eventually (our heroes) decide to quite and leave the battlefield(their masters cut them off from their homeward) and they went roaming the dimensions, gathering intel and materials to make their way home, doing possibly evil things here and seemingly good things there. So, yeah, it's possible and quite probable, given how long the MinionWar was been shimmering. .
2) If the subdemons had some quality that was of benefit to the people they came upon, like an Elemental ability to churn up uncontaminated soil from deep underground, reclaiming devastated land, or weather control, or, if you go the 'we're too evil to change our ways' route, maybe mind control...yeah, they could do that easily enough.
I'm looking forward to see what you come up with.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
Because I can’t think of a better place to put this...
Golgan G-176 Light Dual Disruptor Cannon “The Assemblage has begun to realize what a monkey Naruni’s becoming on the Republik’s back, and a few of them are authorizing efforts to wean the military off dependence on NE. But Naruni’s sunk its hooks in deep, and efforts to politely dislodge them like this may be too little too late. Still, the odd piece of new kit’s beginning to show up in Argosy and Guard forces, so combatants along the Golgan fronts are advised to be wary of the old frogs pulling new tricks.”
An attempt to create a weapon comparable to Naruni laser/plasma machine guns, but using locally available technologies, the G-176 combines two heavily-modified G-88 rifles coupled side-by-side with longer focal barrel systems for increased range. A common power feed supplies power to both barrels. The G-176 counts as a heavy energy weapon for purposes of training and carriage; it is typically crew-served or vehicle-mounted, though a few of the stronger or augmented members of the Republikan Guard can carry the weapon individually. The G-176 is part of the Kultural Revolution’s effort to upgrade Golgan military capabilities, similar to the expansion of the Argosy with new ship designs. However, even the development of the G-176 stretched already thin military budgets, and plans to put the G-176 into widespread mass production, as the Republikan Guard had been agitating for, had to be shelved, especially after the Battle of Altess Prime failed to deliver an expected windfall in ransom. Thus, the G-176 has only been issued to elite units assigned to trouble spots along the Republik’s troubled borders. The Guard’s cost of developing the G-176 may be defrayed, however, by the Argosy wanting to buy in and replace some of their older point defense weapons with the double-barreled disruptor, thus expanding production and deployment across the services.
Weight: 28 lbs + mounting(typically adds another 30-50 lbs) Range: 4,000 ft Damage: Single shot does 4d6+6 MD plus 25% of base damage to a 1.5 ft diameter around point of impact. A single-barrel 5-shot burst does 2d6x10 MD, and a double-barrel 10-shot burst(counts as one attack) does 4d6x10 MD plus 25% base damage to a 5 ft diameter blast area. Rate of Fire: EGCHH Payload: Standard-issue power pack holds 200 shots, and a nuclear RTG pack holds effectively unlimited power for 2 years. In a pinch regular e-clips can be used to charge the weapon, but energy consumption is exorbitant; a single standard e-clip can only provide enough power for 16 single shots or 3 five -shot bursts Special Features: * Sighting Package Rail---The Guard has been experimenting with various ‘smart sights’, especially linked to powered articulated mountings, in imitation of weapons seen deployed with the CAF and USAJC. *Tripod or powered-ring mountings available Cost: 120,000 credits Options: *Gunshield---Some static-mounts carry armored shields to protect the gunner. Typically 60-100 MDC.
Golgan GIP-01 Incendiary Launcher (aka ‘Frybalma’, ‘Frog-Fire’, ‘Squish-Flamer’) “Terrifying weapon. especially since the Golgies like to use it when they’re on somebody else’s turf and don’t particularly care about how much damage they spread around.”
This weapon came as something of a shock to outsiders, as the Golgan military has normally been a conservative force, especially after the expensive Ulmore uprising. The idea of an infantry weapon that deliberately does massive collateral damage doesn’t mesh in the minds of many with the image of the defense-inclined Republikan Guard. However, what with disruptor weaponry setting a precedent, it shouldn’t come as a surprise. The GIP-01 is a weapon akin to a light bazooka, firing softball-sized spheres of thermite-like explosive that sticks to targets and burns with an intense thermal reaction. The chemical explosive contains its own oxidizing agent, to it can burn even underwater and in space. Its megadamage properties make it a handy anti-armor weapon, as the sticky rounds can melt through armor plate and damage internal systems unless somehow dealt with. Under the Kultural Revolution’s New Campaign, GIP projectors have been issued to Argosy marines and Republikan Guard units venturing beyond the frontier to deal with the threat of the more aggressive secessionist polities. The thinking is to use the incendiary weapons to destroy the material assets of threat forces and deny their use to the enemies of the Republik. Thus the weapon is typically found in the hands of raider forces and affiliated proxies. The weapon has also reportedly been supplied to pro-Republik terrorist organizations in the former satrapy territories, especially Zyganian space.
Weight: 12 lbs Range: 3,000 ft Damage: 4d6 MD to a 5 ft diameter area, plus does an additional 2d6 MD per melee for 2d6 melees. The incendiary reaction cannot be put out with water or ordinary fire retardant means, and even burns in the vacuum of space. Magic works just fine, as do oxygen-bonding agents and inert cryogenic chemicals. Scraping the flaming gel off is easiest, but risks damage to the scraper. Rate of Fire: Single shot, ECHH Payload: 6 rds in a tubular magazine. Can be easily reloaded with a speedloader from the back of the launcher. Cost: 22,000 credits. 350 credits per thermite-gel round. Rarely available.
Golgan GLM-01 Micro-Missile Launcher “The good news is the Golgies and their satrapy troops haven’t yet learned good fire discipline with their new toys and so they tend to burn through their ammunition supplies really fast missile-spamming at the slightest sign of trouble. The bad news is that if you’ve managed to close the distance and you’re in range...well, you’re going to get missile-spammed hard enough that you’re not going to be in any sort of shape to take advantage of them running out of missile ammo.”
PS/ASI’s micro-missile technology has reached even the Golgans, who aren’t above stealing an idea if it’s useful. Enough examples of the PS/ASI weapons(or their knockoffs) have reached the Republik through various backdoor routes that the Golgans have reverse-engineered them and begun manufacturing their own copies up to Pattern-1C. The GLM-01is simply a handheld launcher-frame with a ten-round cassette of micro-missiles in the front. The ones first seen in Republikan Guard martial parades in the Golgan coreworlds featured smooth-skinned streamlined pod-housings wrapping around the trigger-handle, but weapons issued to field units have much more basic bare bones frames. While the more elite units of the Republikan Guard continue to use Naruni weaponry(such as the NE-800R and K-HEX micro-missiles), the locally-produced GLM-01 is filling out the complements of the Auxiliary Guard and less-favored Republikan Guard units.
Weight: 8 lbs MDC: 30 Range: Varies by MicroMissile Type but the standard issue Golgan Pattern 1c has a range of 6,000 ft Damage: Varies by MicroMissile Type but the standard issue Golgan Pattern 1c has a damage rating of 3d6 MD per missile Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-16(all) Payload: 16-shot cassette Special Features: -Laser Sight/Designator-----Paints targets for laser-riding micro-missiles to home on. -Compatible with other laser designators Cost: 19,000 credits. A fully loaded cassette of Golgan Pattern 1c s costs 800 credits.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
After seeing these weapons, now i'm asking myself what other unexpected novelties & surprises could non-golgan members of the Republik like the Lurgess, Ultrovians & Zebuloids (not to mention other less noteworthy, so far, races) bring to the table.
SolCannibal wrote:After seeing these weapons, now i'm asking myself what other unexpected novelties & surprises could non-golgan members of the Republik like the Lurgess, Ultrovians & Zebuloids (not to mention other less noteworthy, so far, races) bring to the table.
Yah, I'll have to report/update/finish some vehicle designs I'd done for the Golden Republic prior to Fleets of the Three Galaxies introducing Golgan disruptors and some general guidelines for what the Republic is using. Most of the stuff is pretty crappy, but falls in line with the idea of the Republic being a decaying empire(the Soviet Union, obviously, but echoes of France, too), with the bulk of their native-produced mass production stuff being three or four generations behind the times and akin to the mass production Sino/Soviet-knockoff vehicles and weaponry clogging the Third World nations. Though the Golgans don't seem to have created the equivalent of a Mig-21 or AK-47. Still. I expect one can find front line hover tanks without forcefields, warships without cruise missiles, and power armor for the satrapy states that Chipwell would be happy to claim. Remember; the Golgans are buy-in Naruni, so we can look at the Carnivore tanks and use them as a benchmark for what the Golgans had BEFORE they decided it was a good idea to buy NE.
The Assemblage likely has a few projects to upgrade the Republikan Guard as they have the Argosy, with an eye towards doing what the Chinese just did with their new hypersonic missiles(though, do we have independent confirmation on them really having them? It could be just a bluff). That would help the Kultural Revolution cut the Republik free of debt to an outside power. But whether such programs would yield deployable fruit before the Golgans jump off and into the fire remains to be seen.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
taalismn wrote:The Assemblage likely has a few projects to upgrade the Republikan Guard as they have the Argosy, with an eye towards doing what the Chinese just did with their new hypersonic missiles(though, do we have independent confirmation on them really having them? It could be just a bluff). That would help the Kultural Revolution cut the Republik free of debt to an outside power. But whether such programs would yield deployable fruit before the Golgans jump off and into the fire remains to be seen.
Yes, i'm thinking of something along the lines of military cadres of people from the Republik's minority races going "we must come with ways to show our mettle as kompatriots too and help with this welcome new spring of our great nation" and coming up with a few designs playing to their particular strengths somehow.
Like line of sight combat for the Lurgess, where recognition of who one's fighting with - and the fear of breaching their suits - could be quite the deterrent and psychological warfare resource. Mass-produced lightly armored but highly manouverable assault ships to cut into the enemies warships and infiltrate whole platoons of Lurgess marines to take them over, or immense planetary dropships to infest the urban centers of neighbouring worlds with thousands upon thousands of those soldiers in their distinctive enviromental suits and whom only the very desperate or foolhardy want to get in a serious fight with, for example.
Dirty and borderline exploitative? Yes. But effective and makes the Lurgess invaluable in recovering lost territory.
Remember, though, that the Lurgess are just as susceptible to infection going the OTHER way...so while opening their suits to the enemy may work with the suicidal terrorist types, the majority of Lurgess ain't crazy to become WMD martyrs.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
taalismn wrote:Remember, though, that the Lurgess are just as susceptible to infection going the OTHER way...so while opening their suits to the enemy may work with the suicidal terrorist types, the majority of Lurgess ain't crazy to become WMD martyrs.
Obviously the point is not for them to open their suits at all, but the idea of a breach as psychological tool for use by assault troops, as an example of underhanded tactics making use of their peculiarities.
I figured as much, but I remember the tales of the African soldiers being issued ointments that claimed to make them bulletproof.... I can picture some Lurgess saying 'Dude, how are they going to know it's us? WE going to announce our attack in advance? They might be waiting for us with sanitizing plasma or sterilizing radiation if that happens."
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
Golgan ‘Calvok’ All-Terrain Transport “The Calvok’s actually a pretty decent all-around rough terrain machine if you’re meaning to explore a new planet or get around unimproved terrain in a hurry...Pity you gotta deal with the Golgans to buy one, and go through eight or ten allocation and licensing bureau offices to do it, because if the froggies just sold ‘em straight on the open market, the Calvok would sell millions....” ---Limnaster Croag, Colonial Scout
The Calvok is an indigenous Golgan design for an all-terrain utility/combat transport vehicle that is used extensively throughout the Republik. Some outsiders regard the Calvok as a sign of what the Golgans could achieve in their hayday. Though the design is old, the Calvok has seen a renewal of interest and production, as the Republik breaks up, and the central government’s relationship with its foreign weapons producers(most notably Naruni Enterprises) has deteriorated. In an attempt to shore up their flagging military forces and local industrial infrastructure, the Republik has been dusting off many older hardware blueprints, updating and modifying them with new technology they’ve developed(or copied), and getting them back into production. Thus, the armed services of the Republik have recently begun receiving massive shipments of sparkling new vehicles and equipment, that in reality are older designs and in many cases outdated, or experimental, technology, turned out by enthusiastic production yards back in the homeworlds. Most of the new gear is inadequate to turn the tide of civil wars and defections, but a few pieces of gear show promise of bolstering the flagging fortunes of the Republik, at least if it comes to war. The Calvok is an oversized wheeled vehicle that resembles a cross between a bullfrog and a Mountaineer ATV on steroids, with a bulging, curved, pugnacious prow slung between oversized tires. Its cabin is spacious, with provision for long duration travel and exploration, the chassis durable and well-shielded, and the powerplant is a time-tested make that can handle most any demands a driver is likely to make on it. The massive wheels give it plenty of clearance, allowing it to ride up and over rough terrain, debris fields, and other vehicles, and their wide tread allows the Calvok to practically skim over soft terrain such as beach-sand, deep desert dune, and marsh bog. The Calvok, as befits its appearance, is fully amphibious, able to drive into a planetary hydrosphere and float like a boat, or submerge and crawl along on the bottom(depending on preferred modifications and the density of whatever passes locally for water). It also has limited flight abilities, able to deploy a set of hoverjets from its oversized wheel hubs....This increases the range of operations the Calvok can engage in, as well as it appears to be an attempt to allow/recruit more of the Golgans’ Nebulan allies into other branches of the Golgan military. The flight capability is also impressive as hell to the average Golgan conscript. The Calvok is used throughout the Golgan military and industrial sectors, and more than a few bureaucrats have acquired Calvoks as personal vehicles, because of their size and toughness(like an SUV), especially when looming over the ground cars of the second-class subject races of the Republik. Though not designed for front line combat, its all-terrain capabilities and innate toughness make it common practice to press the Calvok into service with counterinsurgency forces and garrison units along the Golgan rim-states. It is also commonly found as a security force APC in more built-up areas, due to the intimidation factor of its size. The Calvok has also made it into black markets outside the Republik(it is unknown whether these are military surplus vehicles stolen by breakaway factions of the Republic, or whether the Golgans are deliberately ‘leaking’ vehicles for sale for added foreign income), where they have been nicknamed the ‘Calaveras’ by Human scholars, after a fictional oversized lead-ballasted amphibian of Human literary lore.
Update: (GNEverse) Post- Kultural Revolution, the supply of general market Calvoks dries up as Golgan manufacturers supply the expanded Republikan Guard, rather than anybody else. A few outside worlds and former satrapies have begun producing knockoffs, but the word is that anybody producing unlicensed copies of Golgan hardware is inviting a razing of their factories by the Argosy or Guard(and license contracts are currently very expnsive, with a stipulation that a portion of production goes to the Republik). The Calvok is seeing use as a security and recon vehicle with the Republikan and Auxiliary Guards.
Type: GK-ATV1045 Class: All Terrain Vehicle, Heavy, Utility Crew: Two, plus enough room in the cabin for 1-12 passengers MDC/Armor by Location: Main Body 320 Reinforced Crew Compartment 100 Headlights(8) 10 each Sensor Bar 40 Wheels(4) 90 each Lift Jets(4, retractable) 45 each Height: 20 ft (cab has 7 ft ground clearance) Width: 20 ft Length: 30 ft Weight: 70 tons Cargo: Large internal cargo bay below the cab that is roughly 10 ft x 5 ft x 5 ft and can hold up to 8 tons of gear. An external cargo bed on the dorsal back deck can carry an additional 7 tons of gear. Powerplant: Nuclear Fusion w/ 18 year energy life Speed: (Ground) 100 MPH; typical off-road speed over swampy/soft ground is about 60 MPH. (Flying) Hover to a leisurely 120 MPH, maximum altitude of 1,000 ft (Water) Can float on the surface and motor along at 10 MPH, or can submerge and crawl along the bottom at 6 MPH, maximum depth limit of 1,000 ft Market Cost: 950,000 credits, but going through all the Golgan bureaucratic license fees and paperwork handling typically drives the price up to 1.8 million credits. Systems of Note: Standard Robot Systems, plus: * Full Environmental and Life Support *Internal Water Recycling System *Internal Latrine with water-filtration/recovery *Powered Winch and Mini-Crane Stand, with 200 ft of cable Weapons Systems: None standard, but most buyers will add a pair of forward mini-laser turrets on the prow, and a heavy weapon(such as a missile launcher or rail gun) on the upper sensor vane pylon.
Variants: The Calvok is common enough in Golgan service that hundreds of regional variants of the vehicle exist, most adding additional equipment such as plows, cranes, sensor gear, and the like. Security Force Calvoks typically mount an additional 100 MDC in armor appliqué, plus gun-shielded water cannon, chemical sprayers, grenade launchers, or sonic blasters on the upper deck.
“That looks like my kid’s wadding pool float out there...” -----Last recorded words of anonymous rebel, McKreg’s World
The Manqlar is the next step up in sophistication from the Calvok, and is part of the Republik’s efforts to re-equip its armed services with wholly indigenous and locally-produced hardware. Inspired by observations of the UWW’s Warlock Marine grav-tanks, the Golgans have attempted to produce a contra-grav APC of their own, with limited flight capabilities and the ability to enter into combat direct from a still-airborne dropship. The Manqlar has to be one of the ugliest-looking AIFVs yet produced in the Three Galaxies, looking to one observer like ‘an overweight plesiosaur with a pair of necrotized limbs’. The general fuselage resembles a flattened pear-shape tilted over to the front, with the stem elongating into a reptilian nose, slightly drooping at the front, where an underslung sensor turret and gun mount can cover the disembarking of the AIFV’s troops from a front-opening ramp at the front of the main body’s lower bulge. Two large ovoid propulsion pods flank the base of the ‘neck’ and troop ramp, while another two pods crowd the rear and another smaller ramp-way there, protected underneath a flat, spade-like ‘tail’ that can be raised to serve as a long range communications and sensor tower. Larger and bulkier than many of its contemporary Three Galaxies rivals, the Manqlar mounts only a moderate amount of armor, but its propulsion system is fairly powerful. Besides giving the AIFV a good ground speed, the combination of contra-grav and turbofan drives gives the Manqlar a limited flight capability(the Golgan specs called for the Manqlar to be capable of battlefield drops from high altitude dropships), partially justifying the Manqlar’s streamlined and vaguely shuttle-like design. The Manqlar, like so many other Golgan designs, is fully amphibious, and can act quite adequately as a submersible, further increasing its versatility in alien environments. The Manqlar sports abundant firepower in the way of multiple light weapons turrets about the main body, but its lack of a main turret prohibits it from mounting any large weaponry with a main arc of fire. Instead, the Manqlar has two sponson-turrets mounted on either side of the main cockpit neck, with limited arcs of fire to the side, a pair of smaller turrets on either side of the infantry ramp, another pair of turrets on the upraised ‘head’, and a pair of smaller rear-pointed gun blisters. This gives the Manqlar good overall fields of fire against all approaches, but the inability to deal any real heavy damage with the light turret armaments. The multiple gun stations also require large gun crews to keep manned, and the Manqlar has an inordinately large crew for an AIFV. The main long range armament of the Manqlar is a large dorsal missile bay in a dome-bulge atop the cargo/fighting compartment. General Golgan battlefield doctrine seems to favor large saturation missile strikes on anything that can’t be handled with a screaming infantry charge(some critics of the Golgans opine that the Golgans like the entertainment value of lots of rockets launching). Accordingly, the Manqlar has plenty of reload missiles for its launcher, to soften up an enemy position before the infantry debark, or to cover their rapid retreat. The Manqlar is beginning to replace a hodgepodge of older designs in the Rpiublikan Guards. starting with the Home Guard units.
Update: (GNEverse) Post- Kultural Revolution, the Manqlar has been issued to about fifty percent of the Republik’s Home Guard forces, starting with the rapid deployment forces, where the machines have seen action in a several suppression operations. Production is still lagging behind demand for the machines, and replacement machines are barely keeping up with front line attrition, leaving little surplus to re-equip new units. However, a number of battlefield salvaged examples have already ended up in the hands of anti-Republik forces.
Type: GK-AIFV-050-MANQLAR Class: Contra-Gravity Armored Infantry Fighting Vehicle Crew: 7(pilot, copilot, commander, sensor operator, and three gunners)+36 troops MDC/Armor by Location: Main Body 550 Sponson Gun Blisters(2) 150 each Laser Turrets(6) 60 each Dorsal Missile Bay 150 Sensory Tower 100 Height: 25 ft Width: 30 ft Length: 48 ft Weight: 140 tons Cargo: Can carry up to a ton of cargo on internal racks(in addition to troops). If not carrying troops/passengers, up to 6 tons can be loaded into the main bay Powerplant: Nuclear Fusion w/ 10 year energy life Speed: (Ground) Hover to 200 MPH, 1-8 ft above the ground (Flying) Can boost its altitude, to 200 ft, for up to 5 minutes at a time Can also make unassisted drops from 15,000 ft (Space) Not possible. (Underwater) Fully amphibious; can travel at 20 MPH underwater, maximum depth of 6,000 ft. Market Cost: 58 million credits on the Black Market for a fully operational Manqlar Systems of Note: Standard Robot Systems. Weapons Systems: 1)Lateral Sponson-Mount Particle Beam Cannons(2)----Mounted on the massive ground-effect engine blisters are a pair of double-barreled particle bean cannons, each with 90 degrees arc of fire. Range: 3,000 ft Damage: 2d4x10 MD per blast, 4d4x10 MD for a double blast(counts as one attack) Rate of Fire: ECHH Payload: Effectively Unlimited
In the alternative, these weapons can be replaced with other armaments, usually ones with longer range. b) Medium Laser Cannon Range: 4,000 ft Damage: 1d6x10 MD per blast, 2d6x10 MD for a double blast(counts as one attack) Rate of Fire: EGCHH Payload: Effectively Unlimited
c) Dual Disruptor Cannon---This weapon option is gaining in popularity due to the unique ‘Golganiss’ of the disruptor weapon, but supply is not keeping up with demand, so actual deployments are currently rare. Range: 4,000 ft Damage: Single shot does 4d6+6 MD plus 25% of base damage to a 1.5 ft diameter around point of impact. A single-barrel 5-shot burst does 2d6x10 MD, and a double-barrel 10-shot burst(counts as one attack) does 4d6x10 MD plus 25% base damage to a 5 ft diameter blast area. Rate of Fire: EGCHH Payload: Effectively Unlimited
d) G-Cannon Range: 4,000 ft Damage: 1d6x10 MD per 10-shot burst Rate of Fire: EGCHH. Can only fire bursts. Payload: 1,000 bursts per cannon.
e) Grenade Launcher Range: 5,000 ft Damage: 4d6 MD to a 30 ft diameter blast area. Rate of Fire: EGCHH, bursts of 1-10 rds Payload: 500 rds per launcher
2) Light Laser Turrets(6)----The Manqlar mounts no less than six auxiliary laser turrets, one on each side of the main troop ramp in front, one on either side of the rear ramp, and one on both the top side and lower ‘lip’ of the head. Each turret has 120-degree arc of fire. Range: 4,000 ft Damage: 3d6 MD per single blast, 1d4x10 MD per burst Rate of Fire: ECHH Payload: Effectively Unlimited
3)Dorsal Missile Bay---Mounted on top of the Manqlar is a set of dorsal bay doors that open to unleash a storm of missiles. This makes the the Manqlar a potent artillery weapon. Range: Varies by Missile Type Damage: Varies by Missile Type Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-8 Payload: 16 long range missiles OR 32 medium range missiles, OR 64 short range missiles, OR 128 mini-missiles.
Variants: A number of variant models of the Manqlar have also appeared; a command model with 20% extra armor and a more powerful communications and sensor array(it typically only carries a command staff of 22, plus attached security squad of 6), an engineering vehicle with two extendable robot grappling arms and top-mounted crane/shovel arm, various ambulance and cargo versions, and an antiaircraft model that has NO troops, but has an air defense radar that gives a +2 to strike airborne targets, while the particle beam mounts are moved up towards the top sides of the APC for greater arc of fire, and replaced with longer-ranged lasers(7,000 ft range, Damage: 2d6x10 MD per blast). There’s also a specialized ‘flamer’ version that replaces the troop compartment with tankage for flame-thrower fuel, and the nose mounts a heavy flamer turret(range of 500 ft, damage is 4d6 MD to a 15 ft area, plus an additional 2d6 MD per melee for 1d4 minutes. 500 blast capacity) . The vehicle is sheathed in heat-resistant refractory armor(plasma- and heat-based attacks do only 1/3 their normal damage). The missile racks are typically fitted with additional incendiary warheads or fire retardant foam. The flame-thrower version is encountered most frequently in the Republik’s holdings in the Thundercloud galaxy to clear colonial zones of brush and local wildlife.
Golgan ‘Festa’ Hover Tank
“The Festa’s a real Golgan bureaucrat’s dream project----inexpensive enough to produce in bulk to arm the masses, cheap enough to lose in training exercises, no big project development overheads, easy enough for weekend warriors to learn to operate and civilian-sector-trained mechanics to fix, snazzy enough that the civilians feel good about where their defense-tax credits are going, with enough common components that all the Golgan corp-heads can feel like they’re making a real contribution to the defense effort while still making a profit on churning them out. True, the Festa’s a duraplas-waxed deathtrap that can’t take more than two or three hits from the secondaries on a REAL grav-tank, but the froggies build LOTS of the things, and while they ain’t real good tankers, the enthusiasm with which they use what they got means odds are any experienced force attacking them is going to lose a lot of vets to lucky amateurs.” -----Martial-Captain Kammadrie Derryk Rustsoul, Central Alliance MilIntel.
The Festa is a sign of the desperation of the Republik Army to bolster its flagging military strength with a cheap, locally produced, effective AFV using commonly-available off-the-shelf components. While the Republik Navy and the Republikan Guard have been getting the lion’s share of funding for new projects, the People’s Army(the regular ground forces) has been scrambling for ways to upgrade their arsenal...or at least cover their bases when their current generation of Naruni weaponry passes its warranty date. The Festa is an adaptation of the common civilian Ykksp heavy contra-grav truck, with a modified Klass 48C Medium Kaliber Static Defense Turret on a retractable mount in the central cargo bay. Four smaller laser turrets adorm blisters covering the front, flanks, and rear of the tank. A rounded shell of megadamage composite and light alloys is mounted over the whole frame, while an extra pair of ball-mount attitude thrusters gives the converted truck frame extra power and maneuverability. The Festa has a large crew of six, including four dedicated gunners, saving on automation for point-defense coverage, and allowing semi-experienced infantry to serve as tank-gunners. Wherever possible, the Golgan designers used existing hardware, including gunnery stations and computer gear, to streamline production, save costs, and facilitate easy repair. The Festa IS very easy to learn to operate, and the ready availability of spare parts from both military and commerical sources allows the Festa to be quickly deployed to worlds of the Republik, without much follow-up logistical build-up. While Golgan militia officers have praised the remarkably streamlined looks of the Festa as ‘the sleek new lines of future Golgan armored design’, the whole assemblage comes off looking, in the words of a Zyganian military intelligence officer, ‘like a tin toy turtle that’s been stepped on by a Dominator’, . The Festa is cheap and easy to build, which means that the Golgans can produce thousands of these machines for each planetary garrison. Being derived from a common industrial hovercraft design, the Festa is also very easy to learn to operate, especially by planetary militia weekend warriors without much experience. Though laughable in capabilites compared to such high-tech war machines as the Naruni Carnivore Mark I(let alone the Naruni Juggernaut), the Republik can build and outfit four Festas for the cost of one Carnivore. Besides, the sight of hordes of sleek, gleaming, hovertanks crowding the parade boulevard on Freedom Militia Day is a major morale booster for the embattled-feeling Golgan citizenry. Despite the generally good quality of construction of Festas manufactured on Golgan worlds, those produced on outlying garrison planets and satrapies are rumored to already suffer the usual litany of complaints about Golgan colonial hardware, due to endemic beancounting and short-sighted production shortcuts. The most common complaint is the substitution of different materials in the already light armor protection. Already, Festas produced on three worlds in the Meman Cluster were recalled after its was discovered a lower-quality composite plate was substituted for the recommended ceram-polymernet matrix-plate...The cheaper plate contained bubble-flaws in its composite sandwich; bubbles which, when hit with ion and particle beam weapons fire, ‘boiled’ inside the armor and resulted in a dramatic ‘snap, crackle, pop’ shattering and rapid degradation of protective properties. Other complaints have included degraded performance of the main ion gun in thunderstorms and other heightened EM-fields, easily-clogged hoverjet air intakes, deteriorating attitude-thruster coordination control(sending the tanks careening out of control in some cases), and an annoying mounting wailing noise from the modified commercial-grade heavy contra-grav engines when under full load and at full throttle.
Update: (GNEverse) Even with the Kultural Revolution, many worlds in the Republik continue to be saddled with Festas
Type: GRK-AFV-1189 ‘Festa’ Class: Medium Contra-Gravity Armored Fighting Vehicle Crew: Six(Commander/communications officer, driver, and four gunners). Two additional passengers can squeeze into the forward compartment, and one each into the three auxiliary gun stations. MDC/Armor by Location: Main Body 420 Reinforced Crew Compartment 100 Main Turret 190 Hoverjets(4) 90 each Point Defense Laser Turrets(4) 50 each Gunner Compartments(3) 80 each Height: 25 ft (turret can retract height down to 18 ft) Width: 24 ft Length: 46 ft Weight: 75 tons Cargo: Small space behind crew station seats for survival packs, sidearms, and tools. Powerplant: Nuclear Fusion w/ 10 year energy life Speed: (Land) Hover 1-5 ft off the ground, and hit speeds of 110 MPH (Water) The Festa can actually float, skimming along the water’s surface at 100 MPH, but in wave conditions over a 5 ft swell, the tank founders like a rock. Market Cost: 10 million credits Systems of Note: Standard Robot Systems Weapons Systems: 1) Klass 48D Medium Kaliber Heavy Ion Cannon---Actually a derivation of a common static-mount garrison fortification and towed heavy weapon, this heavy ion cannon has been adapted for turret-mounting in an unmanned, remote operations weapons turret that can rise out of the converted cargo bed, traverse, elevate, and fire in a full arc of fire around the Festa. Adapting the weapon to vehicular use, however, has come at some cost; cutting the weight of the fortification cannon has come at the expense of rapid fire capability. Range: 1.5 miles Damage: 4d6x10 MD per blast Rate of Fire: 3 times per melee Payload: Effectively Unlimited
2)Co-Axial Rail Gun----Mounted alongside the ion cannon in the main turret is a comparatively low-tech rapid-fire rail gun. Range: 4,000 ft Damage: 2d4 MD single round, 2d4x10 MD per 80 round burst Rate of Fire: ECHH Payload: 10,000 rd drum
3) Point Defense Lasers(4)---Mounted in small turrets covering the front, sides, and rear of the tank, these light pulse lasers provide close-in defense against enemy infantry, rioters, and anti-tank missiles. The rear and side turrets actually have their own reinforced gunner compartments, while the forward laser is manned by the driver. Range: 4,000 ft Damage: 3d6 MD per single blast, 1d4x10 MD per burst Rate of Fire: ECHH Payload: Effectively Unlimited
Variants: Because of the lack of missile weapons on the Festa, some Golgan garrison commanders have petitioned for a variant that replaces the ion cannon with a multi-bank missile launcher, with 48 short range missiles, salvoing them in barrages of 2-12 missiles at a firing, instead.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
All quite plausible and Golgan. The Festa makes complete sense form their perspective, and if you actually do have enough low end resource/man power to burn the swarm tactics are quite viable. The Calvoks looks like a steal for its price vs capabilities, and while the split drives are silly the mounting for them isn't particularly poor in terms of mass penalty. Still vulnerable in use, but you get what you pay for.
The Manqlar is stuck with the Golgan's poor electronics industry, which results in the crew load and internal volume problems. This is likely the cause for the lack of durability for its mass, but considering how far behind the Republik is in small scale (fighter/tank) tech they likely don't have the production capacity to make worthwhile shield systems to put on them either. Not a good 'tank-tank', but it can do against breakaways using older equipment.
Omegasgundam wrote:All quite plausible and Golgan. The Festa makes complete sense form their perspective, and if you actually do have enough low end resource/man power to burn the swarm tactics are quite viable. The Calvoks looks like a steal for its price vs capabilities, and while the split drives are silly the mounting for them isn't particularly poor in terms of mass penalty. Still vulnerable in use, but you get what you pay for.
Yah, I figured the Calvoks was cheap for its capabilities, but the Golgans should have some good designs...As for the dotty split drives? I wanted to capture the strange sense of Sovietness...the Russians had cheap virtually useless designs like their light tanks, cheap but excellent designs like the T-34, and crazy designs like some of their early flying wing experiments and parasite fighter carriers. Now, if I were logical and reasonable, the Golgans would be pumping out boxy barebones equivalents of BMPs and BRDMs, but I wanted to spice things up with a dash of post-colonial French sci-fi, in terms of styling.
More Golgan military gear to come....
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
Golgan ‘Opka’ Fast Strike Contra-Drive Tank “I don’t care what a bunch of whining politicos say about ‘ungrateful colonials’ or ‘treasonous secessionists’, or ‘internal dissentist elements’....what I care about is if someone comes after me with intent to kill....I don’t care if they’re rebels or invaders...If they come to kill me, I will kill them first, hard, and quick. So take this through all your damn committees and through all your damn paperwork...I WANT SOMETHING THAT KILLS!” ----Gaus-General Ogckan Spazzar, Golgan 657th Republikan Fleet
Not all the efforts of the Republik to devise its own military hardware, and break from dependence on foreign arms dealers have resulted in uninspired, lackluster, rush-jobs. The Opka is a top-of-the-line cutting edge piece of military hardware that any military would be proud to claim as its own. The Opka is designed for fast, open-country, offensive operations. The vehicle is contra-gravity propelled, a flattened ellipsoid hulled armored fighting vehicle with a nose-mounted heavy grav-cannon. The Opka lacks a central turret, sacrificing the complex turret mechanism and counterbalancing compensator gear for space and weight to other systems; to aim the main gun, one must aim the tank(a difficult if not impossible task in close quarters). The main gun is backed by four auxiliary laser turrets, providing all-around fire support against enemy infantry and missiles, and a set of hatches in the nose conceal a set of missile launchers. Armor is substantial, but not as heavy as on other MBTs; the Opka’s main defense is its incredible speed and agility. A high-quality contra-grav repulsor engine provides the Opka with the sort of acceleration more often seen in atmoceptors, than ground combat vehicles. However, the souped-up engine requires more attention to keep it finely tuned for optimal performance; maintenance on the Opka takes half again as long as on other Golgan MBTs. Ironically, the world where the Opka was developed and was to be produced at, Fremor, seceded from the Republik shortly after the production details for the Opka were finalized. Though the secession of Fremor was nonviolent, and the Fremorians continued to do business with the Republik, the Fremorians were adamant about renegotiating any and all high-tech deals with the Golgans, with the new terms favoring the Fremorians. Since the Republik had anticipated mass-producing the Opka with cheap, government-nationalized, labor, the Golgans have been stodgy about meeting the Fremorians’ upscaled price. As a result, the Golgan military has only received small numbers of Opkas(though they have hopes of receiving more with the creation of duplicate factories within secure Republik space...something which is still several years away, but the Golgans are hoping to wear the Fremorians down before that time lag becomes critical), while the Fremorians, attempting to make up their expenses in building the massive Opka factories, have been selling the tanks to other governments and free mercenary companies.....Thus, the tank meant for the Golgan military is more likely to be found in the hands of its enemies. Besides Fremor, the Opka is also produced at a wholly-Golgan-controlled site, the factory works of Replikat Novomechnik. Construction of an Opka production line was begun before the Fremorian breakaway, but was not finalized in time to produce the finished design. The Golgans had to reverse-engineer the final design from the field-testing prototypes they’d hung onto, and from Fremorian-built examples they bought. Replikat Novomechnik is not yet up to mass production, despite rush priority to expand the facilities(the expansion effort is helped by the fact that the owner/director of Replikat Novomechnik is also an Assemblage member).
Update: (GNEverse) Gaus Elia Binjo’s Kultural Revolution would change the policy the Republik had towards its former satrapies, especially those of importance to the Republik’s security. The factories of Fremor were too important to leave on the outside, and the Argosy was ordered to make sure the Fremorians weren’t selling any more weapons to the Republik’s enemies. The Republik wasn’t ready to invade and reoccupy Fremor, but instead blockaded it. Using battleship diplomacy, the Gaus-admiral made the Fremorians an offer; sell exclusively to the Republik at a healthy discount, or lose their all-important factories(and other facilities) to orbital bombardment. Surprised by the Golgan aggression, the Fremorians acquiesced to their demands, and now Fremor is back in the business of building war material for the Golgans.
Type: GK-111/FR-HT11 Class: Fast Grav Battle-Tank Crew: Three MDC/Armor by Location: Main Body 750 Main Grav Gun 120 Reinforced Crew Compartment 200 Secondary Laser Turrets(4) 70 each Height: 16 ft Width: 20 ft Length: 40 ft Weight: 120 tons Cargo: Enough space in the cabin for survival packs, tool kits, sidearms, and a few small personal possessions. Powerplant: Nuclear Fusion w/ 20 year energy life Speed: (Ground) 280 MPH, 1-10 ft off the ground (Flying) Limited; the Opka can lift to altitudes of 500 ft and fly at 150 MPH, and can make controlled unassisted drops from 25,000 ft. (Space) Limited; the Opka can maneuver at roughly 100 MPH in space (Underwater) Can actually operate underwater, moving at 40 MPH, at depths down to 2,000 ft. Market Cost: 90 million credits Systems of Note: Standard Robot Systems Weapons Systems: 1)Heavy Grav-Gun(1)---The main weapon of the Opka is this heavy hypervelocity gravitic rail gun that takes up nearly half the tank’s mass. It is NOT turret-mounted, but locked in a fixed position like that of a self-propelled gun or tank destroyer. To aim it, one turns the tank or tilts its to the appropriate bearing. Range: 13,000 ft Damage: 3d6x10+15 MD per shot Rate of Fire: EGCHH Payload: 120 rds
2) Pulse Laser Clusters(4)---Mounted around the edges of the elliptical hull are four secondary pulse laser turrets for self-defense and antipersonnel work. They can be manually operated, or fired by an automated defense program that fire on anything registering as ‘enemy’ to predetermined criteria entering sensor/weapon range. Range: 4,000 ft Damage: 3d6 MD single shot, 1d4x10 MD pulse burst Rate of Fire: ECHH, or 4 shots per melee in autodefense mode Payload: Effectively Unlimited
Variants: It is expected that with the recent separation of Fremor from the Golgan fold, and the establishment of independent production on either side of the line, the Golgan- and Fremorian-produced versions of the Opka will likely diverge in spec. * Already, the Golgans’ Replikat Novomechnik facility has begun producing a model with the option of mounting two 24-shot mini-missile launchers or two 2-shot medium-range missile launch rails at the rear of the tank, on either side of the cockpit cupola. Another experimental model replaces the main gun with a more powerful, if shorter-ranged, particle beam cannon(derived from efforts to reverse-engineer Naruni hardware)(1.5 miles range, 4d6x10 MD per blast). Meanwhile, Fremor Milindustrial has reportedly rolled out a similar model with 2x3 shot MRM launchers, a light rail gun turret atop the command cupola, and forcefield generator(600 MDC) for export sales. Another Fremorian variant, nicknamed the ‘Twenty-Fiver’, that has been seen in service with several mercenary units adds a larger turret (120 MDC) to the rear of the tank, mounting a rapid-fire rail gun(4,000 ft range, 1d6x10 MD per burst, 200 burst magazine) and heavy laser cannon(4,500 ft range, 2d6x10 MD per blast), carries additional armor(25% more) as well as reactive armor appliqués, and three remote surveillance drones, but is 25% heavier and reduces maximum speed by 25%.
*Naturally, with the orbital blockade of Fremor and the hijacking of production, the Golgans are now getting the Fremorian upgraded versions as well as the old-style vehicles, and the Replikat Novomechnik facility is being upgraded with data copied from the Fremorian upgrades to their own factories. Already Replikat Novomechnik has developed a new variant for the Republikan Guard that incorporates the Fremorian armor upgrades, secondary turret, and MRM launchers, as well as the speed penalty, but also adds a speed booster(can accelerate the tank up to 250 MPH for 20 minutes, before needing an hour to cool off). It also has the option of swapping the Heavy Grav-Gun for a Heavy Disruptor Cannon( 12,000 ft range, 4d6x10 MD per blast, plus 25% of baseline to a 7 ft radius, 3 shots per melee).
Last edited by taalismn on Fri Nov 05, 2021 8:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
SolCannibal wrote:Everybody is caught by surprise when the seemingly mouthless decide to bite....
Yes....just as the United States seems to have been caught off guard by the Chinese putting all the tech they've been copying together and stealing a march on the rest of us.
However, the Republic does have some issues: a) Inertia---The sheer bureaucratic inertia of Council Politik makes things difficult to accomplish in any meaningful time frame, even with the Assemblage's coup. In order to garner support and not alienate too many entrenched power blocs, the Assemblage had to cut some deals...and even among the Assemblage, there's self-interest, which is going to show over time.
b) Tech Gap---The technological gap between the Republic and the other major powers isn't huge, but it is significant. There may be islands of high tech achievement, but scaling them up and making them practical to support in galactic-scale deployments is going to take time and resources.
c) Resources---The Republic isn't set up for the sort of mass-scale mobilization that spends resources like water to quickly bring them up to par with the TGE and CCW. They're already behind on paying Naruni, and the Assemblage is maxing their gold cards.
d) Motivation----THe Assemblage and the Kultural Revolution claim that 'securing their future' is the motivation to expand once more...but is it enough? The Republik is not in a dire fight for their lives, they're not being invaded, and there;'s no clear monolithic threat to their existence that they can pull everybody behind. It's basically 'us against everybody else who stands in our way'. Without going full tyranny(like the TGE), the Assemblage may have trouble sustaining the public's support in the long term for. their jingoistic agendas.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
Golgan Republikan Guard ‘Ruffian’ Heavy Hovertank (aka “Goldark’)
“It doesn't matter if it doesn’t have a design aesthetic appealing to our sense of Golgan-ness; it has to work, and in the short term that’s more important than our offended sense of design. Once we have secured the future for our Republik, we can start prettying up our hardware and put our artistic stamp on our tools of war.” ---Niron Gedsec, Golgan Industrialist and Assemblage member.
“ Damn, but these Froggie D-slayer clones are a right pain in the crotch! And those damn As-Thans know how to use them!” ---Daesis-Colonel Nffrem Dham, Zyganian Royal Army
“Better hope that the Golgans can’t pump these things out in the same sort of numbers as the Empire can. Fortunately, early indications are they can’t, what with both the expensive improvements and the labor problems in the pleb worlds. Also finding enough crews for those sorts of numbers is a problem; the Repiblik can’t just conscript cannonfodder like the Kreegies do. On the bad side, that means that they’re assigning these things to experienced combat crews that don’t make the grade for their limited supply of Naruni vehicles.”
One of the trends that the more conscious members of the Assemblage realized was that the desperation that drove the construction of adhoc vehicles like the Festa would do little to help the Republikan climb back to the heights it once commanded. The Republikan Guard was being swamped in cheap vehicles good mainly for security duties, but mass -produced by cheap labor on worlds that were just as likely to secede from the Republik as stay loyal to it. Buying top-quality battle gear from Naruni Enterprises gave the Republikan Guard staying power in the field, but only if they were willing to shell out scarce credits to an outside arms dealer with a reputation for selling to anybody with the credits, and for cracking down hard on those who didn’t pony up payment on schedule. As with the Argosy’s new ships, there were those in the Assemblage who wanted to upgrade the Republikan Guard to match, but using indigenously-produced hardware. However, an old problem cropped up; the Republik had neither the time nor the resources to launch the sort of research and development programs that could realistically match the other major polities with original designs, at least not within the timetables the Assemblage had set for their nation’s great renewal. The Kultural Revolution saw delay of the launching their grand campaigns as risking losing the initiative. Some corners would gave to be cut to even get new weapons systems into production in time. One answer was to copy work that had already been done by others, rather than do original research and testing, and several initiatives were launched to study others’ hardware and scientific achievements and see what could best be adapted by the Republik. While some effort was made to secretly reverse-engineer Naruni equipment(the Republik was unaware of the CCW’s own more advanced programs), other programs studied the CCW, TGE, and other star nations for ideas and designs. The ‘Ruffian’ HHBT is an unashamed knockoff of the TransGalactic Empire’s Dark Slayer hovertank, but utilizes substitute Golgan-made systems in place of several Imperial ones. It has a slightly more rounded appearance to it, especially with the larger turret, but is otherwise recognizable in its configuration as having its origins in the TransGalactic Empire’s design stables. Ironically, though a knockoff, the Ruffian is actually of slightly better quality than the Dark Slayer. The TGE design was meant to be pumped out by factory worlds, built and manned by conscript labor, while the Kreeghor officers rode in more advanced vehicles. The Golgans, on the other hand, were more likely to put themselves in their MBTs(while Auxiliary Guard rode in cheaper vehicles), and so place a higher value on their lives and hardware. Additional armor increases the survivability of the tank, more powerful(if shorter-ranged) guns give the tank serious bite in its range, and the addition of an artillery rack makes the Ruffian a damn outright dangerous nuisance even to enemies out of line of sight. The Ruffian so far has seen only limited deployment both because production is only just starting up, and because the majority of recent actions in the Kultural Revolution’s expansion campaign have been borne out by the Argosy’s warships. The more loyal of the Republik’s allies, such as the Republik of As-than , which is actively engaged in ground campaigns against forces hostile to the Golgan Republik, have reportedly received Ruffian hovertanks, according to Zyganian sources. However, with Naruni Enterprises now openly at war with the Republik, cutting off the latter’s supply of its most advanced warmachines, new impetus has been given to new-sourcing locally-produced alternatives, and intelligence agencies are observing renewed activity around many industrial sites throughout the Republik. The prediction is the ‘Ruffian’ may soon become a far more common sight in Republikan Guard deployments.
The Ruffian takes its Trade Four reporting name from the Golgan ‘@qn#gla$’ which translates roughly as ‘uncouth/uncivilized brawler/fight-seeker’.
Type: GRG-HHBT011 ‘Ruffian’ Class: Heavy Hover Main Battle Tank Crew: 5 MDC/Armor by Location: Main Body 700 Heavy Disruptor Cannon(1, turret) 200 Main Turret 350 Missile Launchers(3) 150 each Bow Disruptors(2) 80 each Fan Skirts 360 Reinforced Crew Compartment 180 Height: 22 ft Width: 24 ft Length: 35 ft Weight: 130 tons Cargo: Small space in hull and turret for survival packs, side arms, and a few small personal possessions. Powerplant: Nuclear Fusion w/ 20 year energy life Speed: (Land) Hover to 200 MPH, 1-4 ft off the ground Market Cost: 42 million credits Systems of Note: Standard Robot Systems Weapons Systems: 1) Heavy Disruptor Cannon(1)---The Ruffian replaces the Dark Slayer’s laser cannon with a Heavy Disruptor Cannon of Golgan manufacture. Range: 2.5 miles Damage: 4d6x10 MD single shot, plus 25% of baseline to a 4 ft radius Rate of Fire: ECHH Payload: Effectively Unlimited
2) Cupola G-Cannon----The Ruffian replaces the Dark Slayer’s pulse autocannon with a more powerful and longer-ranged g-cannon. Range: 4,000 ft Damage: 1d4x10 MD per 10 rd burst. Can only fire bursts Rate of Fire: ECHH Payload: 200 burst ammunition drum
3) Medium HeavyHitter Missile Rack----The Golgans have no equivalent of the TGE’s Kinetic Kill Rockets, or else they consider equipping such weapons with contra-gravity drives to be a waste of good CG-units. Instead, in a case of parallel development, they’ve long had the equivalent of Rifts Earth’s ‘heavy hitter’ missiles; chemical propulsion stages with the next heavier class of warhead fitted to them. Given the Golgan predilection for missile spam, having more missiles to play with suits them just fine. In a pinch, this launcher can fire regular medium range missiles instead. Range: 30 miles Damage: Varies by warhead type(Long Range warhead) but generally 4d6x10 MD Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1, 2, or 4 Payload: 8
4) Medium Range Missile Launchers(2)---Copied straight from the Dark Slayer Range: Varies by Missile Type Damage: Varies by Missile Type Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-16(all) Payload: 8 medium range missiles per launcher, 16 total
5) Bow Disruptors(2)---The Golgans replace the Dark Slayer’s bow-mounted lasers with disruptors instead. Slightly shorter range, but greater damage. Range: 1,700 ft Damage: 4d6 MD single shot, 2d4x10 MD pulse burst, plus 25% of baseline to a 1 ft radius. Rate of Fire: ECHH Payload: Effectively Unlimited
Options: None are known as standard, but Zyganian sources report seeing Ruffians fitted with additional appliqué armor, increasing overall MDC values by as much as 25%, but reducing top speed by 25%, other examples with reactive armor panels, and a third light disruptor mounted in the rear of the tank.
Variants: The loss of their supply links to Naruni Enterprises, while not unexpected, has still dealt the Golgan military a blow in that they can no longer order up advanced new weapons. However, it also The Ruffian is expected to serve as a basis of a good number of support vehicle variants, many of them copied from the TGE’s and FWC’s own experiences, so it is predicted that the Republik will be fielding missile, air defense, and APC variants sooner rather than later. There’s also rumors that the Republik is looking at an export variant that’s CHEAPER(and correspondingly less powerful) than the TGE’s Dark Slayer, and would be meant for the Auxiliary Guards. Likely places of cutback and substitution would be less overall armor, lower quality laser cannons replacing the disruptors, a regular rail gun or chemical-propellent machine gun replacing the g-cannon, and a mini-missile rack replacing the heavy-hitter mount.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
Sounds about right for them. The Darkslayer is crude enough to do a good emulation job given their industrial tech level, and the given reasons are sufficient to increase the overall quality. I've fluffed the DS as using heavier but much cheaper alternatives to normal materials and systems as an explanation for its weight to capabilities and cost, so it fits the Golgan's need for a rush job product that's still functional.
The Golgans could make things work much better for them overall if not for their desperate thirst for quick conquest for the sake of jingoistic propaganda.
- Better explore mineral resources within their present borders. - Set up some socio-economic sabotage within the breakaway states - Conquest & capture of worlds or systems with strategic resources for the sake of Golgan infrastructure & previously mentioned sabotage instead of whole states. - Acquisition of occult know-how & lore from any captured Minion War remnants in their close vicinity.
In fact, how did the Minion War affect or not the Golgan Republik, has it even been explored?
Fremor---Homeworld of the Fremorians, Golgan Zone World(Anvil Galaxy) “Fremorians are good armorers, but one seldom gets to see their best work, as it’s snapped up by the Golgans almost as fast as it comes off the assembly line.”
“The Golgs might not be patrolling our streets, hauling in anybody who looks suspicious, but they got enough firepower visibly parked in orbit that it casts a gloom over everyday life. Nobody wants to be the ones who provoke the Golgs into setting off their nukes and wiping out the factories rather than let us have them back.”
Fremor is a planet in the Anvil Galaxy that sits in the territory historically claimed by the Golgan Republik. The parrot-like avian inhabitants of Fremor, the Fremorians, would be recognized by experienced dimensional travelers as Timneh(see Aliens Unlimited, pgs. 79-80), though the Fremorians lack the magical abilities of the Timneh. Whether this is due to the Fremor being a parallel evolution of the Timneh who never evolved magical abilities, or they are the descendants of dimensionally-stranded Timneh who lost their magic abilities in a region of space low in ambient PPE remains unknown, as little of Fremorian history is known to outsiders.
Fremor was a former satrapy of the Golgan Republik and an important one at that. Fremor was heavily industrialized and was a provider of much military equipment to the Republikan Guard, though its offerings were considered second- or third-rate compared to Naruni’s hardware. Fremorian-made weapons and vehicles filled out a significant number of lesser Republikan and Auxiliary Guard units. However, the Fremorians twigged to the fact that their productivity was hardly being properly compensated and the Golgans were relying on cheap Fremorian labor to save on their military expenditures. By way of renegotiating their production contracts with the Republik, the Fremorians seceded. Though they continued to trade with the Republik, the Fremorians also felt free to trade with other ex-Golgan states, many of whom had left less peacefully. During this period of free and open trade, Fremor enjoyed a brief technological renaissance, fueled by its galactic economy. However, it was not to last. With the Kultural Revolution’s Assemblage in charge of the Republik, renegotiating trade deals with Fremor became a priority yet again(especially with Naruni Enterprises now officially at war with the Republik and not supplying them with any more weapons), with talks being weighted in favor of the Golgans this time by the resurgent Argosy’s battleship diplomacy parked in Fremorian orbit. While the Golgans aren’t prepared to reoccupy Fremor at street level, neither are they willing to let the Fremorians trade with their enemies. The Golgan Gaus in charge of the Fremorian taskfleet has made it clear that if the Fremorians do not sell exclusively to the Republik(under terms dictated by the Republik), then their factories will have to be permanently shut down(and the Argosy will do it via orbital bombardment). The Golgans have promised that if the Fremorians cooperate and continue to produce export goods for the Republik, the current restrictions will be eased once the ‘state of galactic emergency’ has stabilized. The Fremorians currently sit and wait uneasily under the watch of the Golgans again, aware that their survival depends on remaining useful to the Republik.
Gaus Altum Nibor, the Golgan in charge of ‘pacifying’ the Exmere Sector and stabilizing the Fremor situation, arguably might be overstepping his mission parameters somewhat(though, by TransGalactic Empire standards, he’s positively liberal in his handling of the system), but Gaus Binjo had given him rather broad authority to take care of the region, and hasn’t yet called him to task for his actions. That Gaus Nibor’s sister-in-law is Niron Gedsec, Golgan industrialist and Assemblage member, whose Replikat Novomechnik works are benefiting handsomely from both the Fremorian factories being forced to sell to the Republik at cut-rate prices AND turn over their most promising technologies to the Golgan industrial conglomerate haven’t been called into question either. Nibor is a Golgan supremacist, though not a genocidal one. He means to extract as much value from Fremor as (borderline) legally possible. If the cost of policing a rebellious Fremor and its production facilities outweighs what the Republik is getting out of the planet, he’ll remorselessly bomb the factories and infrastructure into the stone age and not shed a tear for what it costs the Fremorians. Any civilian casualties and collateral damage will be unfortunate, but an unavoidable cost of war and rebellion.
Solar System(Exmere) Number of Stars: 1 Types of Stars: -Blue Dwarf Number of Planets: 5 -Terrestrial( Fremor)-----System lifeworld, home of the Fremorians.
-Terrestrial(Detton)-----An almost microscopic(as planets go) worldlet, Detton may be the remains of a planetary core captured by Exmere’s gravity. The worldlet is composed mainly of heavy metals, and as such is an invaluable source of material to feed Fremor’s factories. The Golgans have taken over mining operations on Detton for the most part, paying the Fremorians a pittance fee on material extracted.
-Terrestrial(Rorchlin)-----Miniscule rocky world with a very thin carbon dioxide atmosphere. The Fremorians established a small colony on the planet, and were building large farm domes to take advantage of the heavy covering of ice on the planet. The colony has been left largely to its own devices and allowed to continue communicating and trading with the homeworld, but the brooding presence of several Golgan warships in orbit have made it clear who’s really in charge. Rorchlin also has a small moon, Lorlin, which supported a small and new Fremorian gravitics laboratory. The Argosy force evacuated the staff of the facility, citing ‘safety concerns’ and have prevented the Fremorians from going back to it, but it’s rumored the research base has been stripped bare of anything of value.
-Gas Giant(Phorese)-----Small gas giant, with nine moons of any mention. The Fremorians were looking at setting up a gas mining operation of their own to replace the Golgan facility that once existed before the secession, but which was dismantled by the evacuating Golgans. Gaus Nibor is considering bringing in Golgan engineers to reestablish the fuel-harvesting operation; currently his fleet tenders are keeping his warships in remass and fusion fuels.
-Terrestrial(Molden)-----Tiny iceworld, too far out and too cold to be of much value, so it goes largely ignored.
Planet( Fremor) Type: Terrestrial Diameter: 11,000 km Gravity: 0.9 g Temperature: Temperate, but on the tropical side. Heavy industrialization has contributed to climate change and Fremor is suffering from a mild greenhouse effect. The Fremorians have been hoping to import Galactic technologies to remedy this. Unusual/Special Features: -Moons(4)---The Fremorians have small outposts/colonies on two of the moons, Freska and Domiac. The Golgans have taken over the third moon, Salamok, and the nascent shipyards the Fremorians were constructing there. The fourth moon, Alster, is little more than a large asteroid in a stable orbit; it plays host to an automated science platform and communications relay station. Besides the natural moons, Fremor is orbited by a good many artificial satellites and space stations, most of it legacy hardware put in place by the Golgans during the earlier occupation. Citing this, Gaus Nibor’s Argosy marines have occupied most of the still functional stations and oversee the operations/comings and goings to/of the rest.
-Craters---Fremor is pockmarked with evidence of past cosmic bombardments in the form of large craters. Some outsider cosmologists take the geological evidence as an indication that life did not evolve naturally on Fremor, but was seeded after the bombardments(and by extension, the Fremor could not have evolved on Fremor either).
-PPE Null Zone----Fremor is lacking in ambient PPE fields even equal to an Earth like Beyond the Supernatural. This may be what killed the Timneh magical abilities if indeed the Fremorians are Timneh descendants. The Ultrovians do NOT l ike visiting Fremor; it feels almost dead to them.
Atmosphere: Dense, but breathable, terrestrial nitrox mix with a slightly higher than average ratio of greenhouse gases. Terrain: Unusual Seismology--Fremor is exceptionally stable, geologically, with barely any earthquakes. Though it has tectonic continental plate spreading and subduction, the continental plates may as well be on well-greased rollers given the lack of earth shocks. Both Golgan and Fremorian seismologists are at a loss for why this might be. One notable consequence of this is that Fremorian building codes, while very stringent about fire- and weatherproofing structures, have virtually no protections against seismic shock. Notable Mineral Concentrations: - Cobalt - Mercury - Copper - Chromium - Quartz - Talc - Diamond - Fluorite Hydrosphere: 53% of the planet’s surface is covered in open water Biosphere: Dense, though there have been a disturbing number of species die-offs due to industrialization-induced climate change. The loss of a number of ‘coal mine canary’ species has alarmed the Fremorians into making changes in their industrial infrastructure, changes that now have to face Golgan review. Civilization: Settled Population: 5 billion Fremorians(Aliens Unlimited Timneh, without the magic abilities. The Fremor actually have the ability to learn magic, but are hampered by a lack of belief and almost nonexistent ambient PPE levels in their star system. It would take a great deal of persuasion and effort to convince the Fremor that they can perform magic, let alone get them up to anything near Timneh levels of proficiency in the mystic arts.) Technology: Low Galactic---The Fremorians have fusion power, high-intensity lasers, megadamage materials, computers, local spacedrive, contragravity, and the like, but were deliberately prevented from getting forcefield and stardrive technologies. During their brief fifteen year period of independence they were able to acquire or develop some of the ‘forbidden’ technologies, but not fast enough to develop their own advanced space defenses or FTL fleet capabilities. Fremorian industry mainly turned out ground vehicles and weaponry for the Republik’s armed forces, as well as heavy machinery for industry. With the return of the Golgans, weapons manufacturing is closely monitored and factory output immediately inventoried and impounded by the Guard units assigned to overseeing the terms of the Republik’s new ‘contracts’. Economy: Industrial---Under the Republik, Fremor became a factory world to the point that at the time of secession, food production was suffering. While Fremor can still support its population, the planet is only a few bad seasons away from widespread famine. The current Golgan blockade is not only threatening Fremorian industry, it’s also threatening what was an increasing stream of food shipments from offworld. The Fremorians are painfully aware(and perhaps the Golgans are too) that if the Argosy were to shut out the imports, the Fremorians will have to begin rationing to stretch out their existing reserves of foodstuffs. Wealth: Could be Wealthy from industrial exports, but the Golgan reoccupation has tanked the economy down to Depressed, with the financial markets hemorrhaging value under the extortion-level contracts Fremorian industry was forced to sign with the Golgans. Government: Technocracy---Skills in engineering are valued on Fremor, so much so that not only do skilled engineers command high salaries, but also government positions! Law Level: Was Lawful, but has become Overbearing, with the need to avoid provoking the Golgans. Popularity: Was Fanatical, but has become Ambivalent. Not everybody is happy catering to the Golgans again. Many Fremorians are questioning why their government didn’t see something like this coming and build up space defense capabilities while they had the chance. Others are less certain that would have made a difference and that the original secession was as peaceful as one could expect. A few actually welcome the stability that being part of the Golgan fold again has brought the planet. Stability: Stable. Though the majority of Fremorians stand behind their government, the wait-and-see attitude is beginning to strain as the Golgan Kultural Revolution keeps slogging away in their interstellar campaign to recover lost glories, and keep reneging on its promises.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
SolCannibal wrote: In fact, how did the Minion War affect or not the Golgan Republik, has it even been explored?
The canon sources make no mention of the Republik being affected or involved in an y way by the Minion War, though I’d guess that each Infernal faction may have at least scouted them for possible dupes. There might have even been some small incidents that the Golgans subsequently covered up. In general, though, the fact(or at least the appearance) that the Infernals aren’t bothering with the Golgans and instead beating on the other major power blocs might well have encouraged the Golgans that their Kultural Revolution expansionist campaign stood a chance of working while the CCW, TGE, and UWW were distracted. So they threw the dice with the Altess blitz. They lost and found themselves wallowing, laboring to regain the initiative by snapping back up some of the secessionist territories, and making do with increasingly scant resources. The irony of is that the some in the Republik might just take up an offer to be Infernal agents, if it wasn’t for it that by the time this occurs to anybody, the Infernals are on the decline in the Three Galaxies and not likely to support an obvious bunch of losers, even in a spoiling operation. And Gaus Binjo would, to his credit, be revolted by the idea of collaborating and accepting aide from the likes of the Infernals, and would sic the Republikan Guard on any member of his own people who tried such a thing.
That doesn’t rule out minor supernatural subversion and Infernals taking targets of opportunity for a quick snack or entertainment, but nothing on the scale of the larger corruption ops like getting under Naruni’s skin.
If there was any larger Republik involvement in the Minion War, the Ultrovians were probably at the forefront, figuring(boastfully) that their magic abilities would give them the edge. They get slaughtered, though the Republik lauds them as heroes and pumps up their achievements via the polity-wide propaganda machine, which further encourages the younger Ultrovians that they ARE a bunch of magic badasses, making them even more reckless(they then get shellacked in encounters with the United Systems Alliances ‘hedge mages’ and technowizardry, let alone the UWW’s seasoned veterans). The few survivors, well, a few of them, having seen the elephant(seeing combat) actually deserve the badass title.
There probably is a Bureau of Policies Metaphysik or a government PsykoPsionica Studies Division, but it's likely underfunded and/or staffed with weak talents prone to exaggerating their powers.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"
taalismn wrote:If there was any larger Republik involvement in the Minion War, the Ultrovians were probably at the forefront, figuring(boastfully) that their magic abilities would give them the edge. They get slaughtered, though the Republik lauds them as heroes and pumps up their achievements via the polity-wide propaganda machine, which further encourages the younger Ultrovians that they ARE a bunch of magic badasses, making them even more reckless(they then get shellacked in encounters with the United Systems Alliances ‘hedge mages’ and technowizardry, let alone the UWW’s seasoned veterans). The few survivors, well, a few of them, having seen the elephant(seeing combat) actually deserve the badass title.
True, the Ultrovians peculiarity of NOT working well with Ley Lines & Nexus gives them something of a severe disadvantage when it comes developing any sort of magical infrastructure or force multipliers, limiting their esoteric resources to mostly themselves and their active participation, far from ideal when it comes to trying to increasing one's strategic relevance in a government. At least in any role beside arcane consultants or bodyguards for major government leaders or administrators.
taalismn wrote:There probably is a Bureau of Policies Metaphysik or a government PsykoPsionica Studies Division, but it's likely underfunded and/or staffed with weak talents prone to exaggerating their powers.
I don't know, such a department could have much more bite than its non-existent bark makes us give credit for, now that i'm thinking about it.
The racist mindset that currently permeates Golgan culture and policy-making hangs in no small part in a (fallacious) association of the heightened senses common to their kind with enlightnement. A kind of worldview that i can see in some golgan individuals, specially some mid-level administrators with large egos and far too much free time in their hands, perhaps evolving into the manifestation of self-taught Mystic talents and finding validation of their cultural vanity in newfound senses and strategic potential of this combination of magic and psychic power.
Depending on the circunstances involved, they could either brew some kind of societal turmoil - can those with heightened mundane senses but no See the Invisible, Sense PPE and other capabilites be truly considered "the most observant" anymore - and phylosophical within the heart of the revolution.
Something that crossed my mind. If Anvil Galaxy serves as indication, the Splugorth Kingdom of Rynncryyl is close to Golgan territory, so much so that Rynncryyl was considering anexing a number of breakaway states before he was tag-teamed by the CCW and TGE.
A situation that makes the now much weakened, (secretly) rulerless and tottering Splugorth Kingdom into a very ironic and convenient target of opportunity and reserve of resources, mundane AND magical to shore up the Republik's own flagging coffers.
Damn, the Ultrovians getting their hands on Splugorth materials for research and study is the definition of a cataclysm ready to happen.
Last edited by SolCannibal on Thu Nov 11, 2021 11:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.
