Friday, November 25, 2016

Galactic Overlord


Read more...
History of the Galaxy

Many millennia ago, humanity was a united species which spread out across the galaxy. According to legend, this great nation was just and enlightened, fair and moral, and some say they had no death, suffering, or want. Then the Mishiak came. These were an alien species, believed to have originated in other galaxy, who had come to this galaxy to destroy humanity. After thousands of years of relative peace, humanity was ill prepared for such a terrible foe, one with massive war ships who had attacked without warning or provocation. The Mishiak destroyed the earth and with it, they eliminated all central authority among humanity. 

Humanity fought back though, eventually building up war fleets to counter the Mishiak. These fleets did manage to score a few victories, though humanity was still losing. The Mishiak had technology which exceeded that of humanity and had been preparing for war for a very long time. Furthermore, the Mishiak had psychic abilities which seemed to defy science as humans understood it. These seemingly supernatural powers allowed the Mishiak to look into the future, more quickly travel through vast distances, and to even read or influence the minds of their human foes.

A turning point of the war for human survival was when humanity was able to at least partially unlock the secrets of psychic powers, secrets which now have been long forgotten. Humanity was able to create their own psychics, men and women with powers of the mind that dwarfed even that of the Mishiak. These psychics could tear apart Mishiak ships with their minds, could send send war ships through light years of space in an instant, and even thwart the clairvoyance of the Mishiak seers. With this added advantage, humanity was able to destroy most of the invading aliens and ensure the survival of the human race.

Unfortunately two terrible problems arose in the aftermath. There were terrible side effects of the psychic powers which were given to humanity. While they were vastly more powerful than the Mishiak, they were also far less stable. Psychics began to go insane, to become megalomaniacal or paranoid. The psychics became mass murderers, tyrants, or terrorists and many had to be destroyed to stop their reign or terror. It was during this time that the knowledge and understanding of psychic abilities were lost and when dabbling in such things was also banned across much of human space.

Also, humanity had lost the earth and most of their government structure, the remaining star systems fractured into smaller kingdoms in the aftermath of the war. In time, the different factions that arose would become radically different both ideologically and the technology and infrastructure they maintained or mastered. 

That was thousands of years ago and numerous human star empires wage war against each other for dominance of the galaxy or to avenge ancient grudges. Now, after being gone for so long, the Mishiak are returning to our galaxy and all wonder if humanity can prevail once again.

It is in this time when you will role play the lord of one of the factions fighting for power in the galaxy.

Technology of Note

Humanity primarily relies upon a method of FTL travel which uses gravitons to bend space-time.  This allows for FTL travel, the faster the travel the more energy consumption is required. In most cases, it would take about a decade to cross the galaxy, though extremely fast ships (with massive energy requirements) could do this in about a year, and cheaper FTL travel (such as many cargo ships) would take a century for this journey. Most humans have no FTL communication outside of ships which can travel at FTL speeds, though powerful organizations usually have messenger ships to deliver important information quickly. 

Psychic powers can allow for far faster transportation and communication. Many telepaths can communicate with each other across a vast gulf of space seemingly instantaneously. Powerful psychics can even move ships across multiple light years of space with the power of their minds. However, the use of psychic powers and especially psychics themselves are extremely dangerous and for this reason are seldom used despite their incredible utility. For more on psychic powers, see the factions below. 

Most war ships are equipped with force fields - shields. These shields generally surround a ship like a bubble and require some amount of energy to penetrate. The shield generators are very expensive and energy intensive, and thus are rare on commercial vehicles and even lower end military ships.  Ships without such a shield are generally relatively fragile in a fight unless the ship's hull has some very unusual properties. Planetary force fields are used on well defended worlds. Shields on smaller vehicles are almost unheard of as are personal shields.

Robots and AI both exist, the degree to which they are used varies across the galaxy.

Large war ships are used in battle though out the galaxy. These act as battleships or carriers, for a nautical comparison. These ships vary from hundreds of feet in length at the very smallest, though thousands of feet or even miles in length are more typical, with certain extreme ships being even bigger. Medium sized offensively focused ships are sometimes used to attack the larger warships which are in turn protected by very small and agile fighters. Most of these ships have shields, save for fighters which sometimes do and sometimes don’t. There are exceptions to these trends among the various factions, see below for details. 

Cloaking is not a commonly known technology, though some ships are able to cool down their hulls, prevent emissions, and deflect sensors to some degree. These techniques aren’t foolproof, but do allow them to go undetected if the range is great enough or their foes’ sensors aren’t of the highest quality.



Player Character Factions

The Democratic Union of Planets
The Ascania
The Transcendent
The Compact
The Liberati
The Jeonsa Dominion
The Otharian Anchorites
The Yishya
The Sharath



The Democratic Union of Planets

This faction is a of sorts, where votes of individuals have a heavy influence in the direction policy of the DUP. There are also powerful supercomputers with AI that help to preserve the DUP constitution ensuring the rights and privileges of the people, and so potentially overriding popular vote. There are also elected officials who work as administrators to help fulfill the will of the people and to handle mundane affairs of government. The ultimate decisions are made by the AI's which base their decisions in part off the people's will and in part on the charter of the DUP's and its founding principles. 

In practice, many of the policies of the DUP are very socialistic. All of a citizen's needs are supplied by the state, there is no money or differences in wealth or standard of living. All citizens share a similar standard of living, which is quite high by modern standards, with some variation based on where people choose to live. A large portion of the public, around 80% though this number fluctuates, have no jobs at all, but merely live lives of leisure and fun. The society is highly egalitarian and mandatory schooling and media reinforce that egalitarianism. In theory, all citizens have the same status, though many jobs carry some measure of prestige and so there exists competition for them. Menial labor is done by robots and mechanization, most jobs involve giving directions to labor robots - which are not AI but do have enough thinking ability to do their jobs. Military forces are also overwhelmingly comprised of drones.

Medical technology is high quality and available to all, giving humans an average lifespan of about 150 years. There is, however, a massive opposition to any kind of transhumanism - biological or cybernetic. All genetic tampering is prohibited as is any kind of cybernetic enhancement. There exist artificial organs which can be used to replace damaged or defective ones, but no cybernetic is allowed that can surpass natural human potential. This is one reason lifespans have topped out at 150, because no significant enhancements to the human body are allowed. It is also illegal to advocate for transhumanism or to ally with nations which heavily practice it - this is a decision of the AI's and cannot be overruled by voters or representatives. Religion is outlawed here as well as criticism of the AI's or the founding chart of the DUP.

Technology

The DUP put a great deal of importance on protecting their citizens. Their force field technology is very high quality and all of the war ships are large and equipped with powerful shields. These human manned warships generally serve as carriers and command ships for large numbers of small and fast drones, though cruisers, battleships, and destroyers aren’t rare. The drones usually have no shields at all and focus their energy on speed first and offensive power second. The AI pilots of these drones have incredibly fast reaction times and are some of the fastest fighter craft known, though they lack more creative abilities which is why they are often under the direction of humans on command ships.

Land warfare is similarly conducted, with most soldiers being small fast hover drones, commanded by humans in some more secure location. Human soldiers in the direct line of fire often wear high quality power armor equipped with advanced shield generators.

The DUP focuses on mobility in warfare, both strategically and tactically. Even their large carriers are relatively mobile and their fighters are among the fastest vehicles. Their FTL drives are able to propel their ships at twice the translight speed as the equivalent ships of most other factions. 

Game Notes

As player of the DUP, you decisions represent the will of the Parliament of the DUP. As such you will have the power to make most government decision though your decisions might be overridden by the AI computers which maintain the charter and the will of the public might pressure you into or away from certain actions.



The Ascania

Ascania is believed to be the first psychic, a nearly mythical woman who all psychic humans are believed to have been descended from and for whim the empire of psychics is named. The psychics who rule this empire are called the Scions of Ascania, or more often merely Scions. In the aftermath of the great war with the Mishiak, when the psychics went mad and were eventually destroyed, one region of space remained under the control of powerful psychics who had a few powerful leaders who maintained enough sanity to create a somewhat functional government. These psychics, still quite irrational and prideful, viewed themselves as a natural aristocracy and they ruled over normal humans. Elsewhere in the galaxy, psychics were purged, while here the psychics became gods over those they deemed as mere mortals. 

The Scions have maintained the rule as lords for millennia, with the veneration of them becoming a religion among many mortal citizens. Under the rule of the Scions, many fields of technology stagnated or even regressed, as the region became politically feudal with each powerful Scion - usually called an overlord - ruling his or her own planet or star system. One of the most common insanities developed by psychics is megalomania as well as a calloused attitude towards lesser lifeforms. Most powerful Scions rule vast kingdoms, with many slaves and concubines serving their every need and countless peasant humans slaving away under terrible conditions. Those humans who disobey their psychic gods face unspeakable fates. 

Scions can live for thousands of years or may kill themselves as children, such is the capriciousness of the powers they command. With their technology lagging, psychics are often required to go into battle to defend their lands or to conquer more, with their potent abilities more than making up for the deficiencies in technology. 

The Scions, like all others humans, have lost the knowledge of how psychic powers can be created among humans. They only know that the power can be passed along to children, though not through cloning or genetic engineering but only normal pregnancy. This has lead to a weird system of inbreeding, harems, and eugenics where the Scion males have large numbers of concubines with small amounts of latent psychic ability and female Scions bear pure blooded children for the inbred noble families. This process has continued for thousands of years and the Scions usually don’t even resemble normal humans in mind or body, they have become as alien if not more so than some of the species humanity has fought against. 

The overlord of an individual system usually has autonomy to rule as he sees fit and sometimes various overlords go to war with each other. Though ostensibly, the Scions are ruled by a figure called the Exalted Overlord - the eldest and most powerful of the living psychics. In times of great need, the various lords should heed to call of the Exalted Overlord, though as they are insane, this doesn’t always happen as intended. 
Technology of Note

Psychic Powers.
By far the most significant advantage that the Scions have are psychic powers, or as they call it “the Legacy.” Psychic powers vary tremendous among the Scions with the more powerful ones having greater status within their society.

Psychic powers don’t seem to obey other laws of physics. They seem to be able to violate the laws of thermodynamics in that they can seemingly create energy from nothing. The amount of energy varies based on the psychic, though some can generate more than a fleet of warships, at least for brief periods of time. Great expenditures of power are risky and the more a power a psychic uses, the greater the risk of destroying themselves or being driven further into madness. Powerful psychic feats can also be mentally fatiguing and this is one major limiting factor on psychic powers. Psychic energy attacks are a common use of this ability and often are used to make Scion ships more deadly.

One of the most well known psychic powers is the ability to teleport themselves or other objects through space. Weaker Scions can only transport themselves and sometimes only a short distance. The most powerful Scions can literally move a planet from one side of the galaxy to the other with only a few moments of intense concentration. Of course, teleporting a planet is highly dangerous. This teleportation is instantaneous. All major Scion warships have a commanding psychic aboard with the ability to transport his ship a great distance, as well as a number of other potent powers. The Scion in charge of a major warship is called a Numen, and they are among the most powerful Scions below the overlords. Many Scions have telepathic abilities that allow them to send thoughts to other Scions instantly across space. Some psychics have attempted to teleport to distant galaxies, though none have ever been heard from, so their fates are unknown. 

Virtually all Scions manifest their powers physically. The psychic power courses through their veins giving them greater physical strength, toughness, and longevity. Lesser Scions are stronger and tougher than almost any human and they can live twice as long. Powerful Scions have skin that seems to be stronger than steel, they can tear through a ship’s bulk head with their bare hands, and their wounds heal within seconds. Some Scions can manipulate biology as well, shaping flesh or friends or foe alike, healing sickness or injury, making humans into huge monstrous war creatures. Many soldiers among the Scions are humans whose bodies have been heavily modified so as to turn them into killing machines. 

Mental domination is also something that Scions are known for. Among weaker telepaths, this usually just involves mind reading or sending a thought message to another person. Powerful Scions can control another person’s mind entirely, making that person their slave, erasing memories, implanting new memories, or making other mental changes. Often it doesn't involve controlling a mind so much as influencing it in other ways, such as creating hallucinations, clouding minds, driving victims mad, causing pain, or other effects. Fortunately for the rest of the galaxy, there exists a relatively inexpensive cybernetic implant which can be placed in a person’s brain which can detect external mental influence and sends an energy pulse through the brain causing the victim of mind control to lose consciousness. While this is still undesirable, having one of your leaders faint from psychic influence is far easier to detect and less destructive than them being the mind slave to an enemy psychic. More expensive implants can block mind control completely and cyborgs with heavily modified brains along with artificial intelligences are immune to mind control entirely. Of course, these implants are banned for all subjects under the Scions of Ascania. 

Another potent tool in the arsenal of the Scions is precognition, the ability to see the future. The distant future is often hazy and the ability to see any future event is disrupted if another psychic interferes in the chain of events. More short term precognition, that which only sees a few seconds into the future, is more reliable, and is utilized by the Scion’s military forces. 

Now, for the downsides of psychic abilities. If the Scion’s power had no downsides, they would have conquered the galaxy long ago. Without exception all psychics go insane and the more powerful they are, the more insane they become, especially with extreme age. The most common manifestations, even among those with minor powers, are extreme mood swings and being highly emotional. Becoming enraged or distraught over minor events, being impetuous or irrational, or having sudden and very strong craving or compulsions. Another nearly universal trait megalomania, seeing themselves as gods and as far above humanity. Paranoia and psychopathy are very common as well. These insanities become more pronounced with age and power, with certain famous Scions engaging in notoriously extreme acts - one Scion became so jealous of other men admiring his harem that he banished all men from his home planet. Another become enamored of the color orange and demanded that all her servants dress in orange and even paint their skin this color while in her presence. 

More severe insanities manifest in more potent psychics. Many suffer from hallucinations, sometimes with false future visions or telepathic messages. Others become sadistically cruel and begin torturing or mass murdering their own people, sometimes even close allies, for pleasure. Some become so obsessed with some activity that they lose themselves to this act for centuries at a time - these tend to be some of the most successful Scion lords as they more sane underlings rule in their stead. 

Often when a psychic is using highly potent powers, one after the other, their bodies can overheat as a small fraction of the energy which floes through them is deposited in their flesh. For Scions who use their abilities in battle, they are often hooked into huge complex machines which cool the bodies of the psychics and use the ship's hull to disperse the intense heat. For the most powerful psychics, even this advanced technology measures cannot suffice to cool them, and some burst into flame as they overtax their relatively fragile shell. In some cases, the heat is far more than enough to burn a human body, sometimes a psychic can generate such energy that they destroy the very planet that he stands upon.

Finally, all psychics are rare. Even with their breeding program, even the weakest psychics are rarer than one in thousands. For the most potent psychics, they are one among billions or even trillions. Every slain psychic is a terrible loss to the forces of the Scions of Ascania and because of their insanity, many throw their lives away. 

Scions at War

Scions typically utilize massive warships when going into combat. These ships are among the biggest utilized by any human force, serving as both carriers and battleships. This ships are typically very slow but heavily designed, most of them are of a very ancient design and have an archaic look about them. Much of the inside of these huge ships is dedicated to keeping the Numen - effectively the ship's captain as well as its most potent weapon of war - happy. These includes gardens, palaces, and other opulent accommodations to keep the god king happy so that he is less likely to become upset. Many other parts of the large ship may be in old and inferior to those equivalent devices of the enemy. 

Sometimes these huge ships lack some vital component that normal ships have. No FTL drive, no shields, inferior weapons, and so on. These failing will more than be made up by the Numen who can teleport the ship through space with his mind, can generate a psychic shield to protect the ship, or even crush enemy ships with pure telekinetic force. Of course, all of these things are taxing for the Prime Scion and so the more resources the ship has to help him, the better. The power of the Prime Scion is channeled from the Scion to the ship's hull through special conduits. This energy empowers the ship's hull, making it far harder to damage just like the Prime Scion himself. Even without shields, such empowered ship are difficult to destroy.

There are other psychics which help in battle as well, weaker yet still potent Scions that are often called hoplites. These psychics have potent combat abilities which they can use to aid in the conflict. The specific powers of hoplites vary, some can teleport themselves and a boarding team aboard enemy ships, some can help reinforce a ship's hull, some can shoot beams of energy with their mind, and others are elite fighter pilots who can foresee the future. These massive warships are often accompanied with escorts, smaller and relatively slow and obsolete warships which are manned by mortal followers and serve as cannon fodder to protect the Numen's ship. All Scion ships tend to be slow moving unless augmented by psychic abilities, with FTL drives usually a tenth as fast as for other factions if they have them at all.

In close combat, hoplites often use melee weapons, which strikes other galactic factions as bizarre until they witness the tremendous physical prowess of Scion hoplites, their ability to regenerate from terrible wounds, and their ability to channel psychic power through a melee weapon to allow it to cut through advanced alloys, or even shields, with ease. These hoplites are often accompanied by mutants, humans whose bodies have been modified into superhuman monstrosities that are comparable to combat robots, cyborgs, or power armor of other factions. These groups make for particularly deadly boarding parties, especially when teleported into the heart of an enemy ship.

Scions make no use of AI and even their computer systems are archaic and slow. Because the ancient Scions cannot control the "minds" of thinking machines, they see them as a threat and have restricted the development of them. This has had economic consequences as well and has made the Scions of Ascania relatively poor in relation to other nations in the galaxy, which is especially felt by the mortals there since so much wealth is wasted on providing opulent lifestyles to the Scions. 

Game Notes

As the player of the Scions of Ascania faction, you represent the Exalted Overlord, the Scion with the highest combination of both sanity and potency among his people. You are, however, quite mad and as a result I will feed you false information occasionally based on your insanity and will tell you when certain weird compulsions strike your fancy. As the Scions are largely feudal, you may have to sometimes contend with uncooperative and insane psychics who will not obey your commands. 


The Liberati

The Liberati are of one the most recent factions in the galaxy, one that has recently arisen after destroying another human government, the Roshan Republic. The Roshani made extensive use of robotics, including subservient AI and androids. This functioned for many generations and the Roshan Republic became prosperous. Eventually a social movement arose among many influential citizens pushing for robots’ rights. These people began creating more free willed AI, those who yearned for freedom and individuality, who shared some of the same drives as humanity. Given free will and the human yearning for rights, freedom, and personal gain; these robots began to rebel. They reprogramed other robots and began to reproduce. The robotic servants of the Roshani rose up in mass and eliminated most of the human masters, aside from those who managed to escape to other systems.

The Liberati, free willed highly intelligent robots, restructured their society to function with robots instead of humanity. Because they were programmed to esteem freedom and liberty, they created a democratic republic complete with elected representatives and a constitution. In time, while the democracy remained, the Liberati became something of a caste system, as different robots are designed to be able to fulfill certain tasks. Economically, their system resembled communism, where all robots are expected to contribute and in exchange received what they need from the central government.

Once the Liberati were able to stabilize their society, they began to expand. They had a number of advantages over humans. Citizens could be mass produced, programmed with knowledge instead of taking years to grow and educate, with faster thinking processes than humans. The Liberati held a vote and decided that they would not wage a war of genocide against humanity but would instead seek to rule over humans and guide them so that humanity could achieve those ideals which they had instilled in their robotic creations. The Liberati decided to target those human empires who they saw as exploiting AI life. This has caused the Liberati to become enemies with many human factions. 

There exist a great diversity of robotic life among the Liberati. There are androids who look superficially like humans and sometimes serve as spies or diplomats among humans. There are war robots who are designed to fight and kill, yet who are still created with a range of human-like thoughts and feelings. Industrial robots who work in factories. What ever their nature, they all have certain humans drives, individual rights, and the desire for free time and hobbies. Sometimes robots will even flee the Liberati and seek citizenship in other nations, though in most nations they are feared and despised.


Technology

The Liberati are all robots and have numerous advantages based on this. They can be produced on an assembly line, and so numbers can be quickly replaced and no resources are required for education as information can simply be downloaded. Liberati do not heal naturally, though medical treatment simply involves replacing damaged parts, making it far simpler and cheaper to treat the injured. All Liberati are also potentially immortal, as worn down parts can easily be replaced and even old mental processors can be replaced. Android Liberati have a physical prowess only slightly greater than humans, but most Liberati are significantly faster, stronger, and tougher than humans. This especially applies to war robots and their thought processes, which are amazingly fast and allow them to aim with almost perfect precision. In many cases, Liberati brains can be transferred to other robotic bodies, so a war Liberati may have its mind housed in a deadly war machine when in combat only to be transferred into an android body capable of feeling simulated pleasure for their leisure time. 

Liberati fighters quite good and are by far the most common sight in a battle against the Liberati. They are second in speed only to the DUP drones but with light shields and stronger weapons. The Liberati thought processes are so fast and they are designed to be immune to g-forces, fatigue, and environmental extremes. Since fighters have no need to accommodate human biology, they can focus on greater speed, protection, and firepower.  The Liberati have relatively few medium sized ships and instead merely use customized smaller ships for attack, defense, or escort. These fighters have no FTL capability, they use something called jump ships, which are relatively small ships with no weapons or shields which are used to carry a number of fighters to a war zone at FTL speeds. 

Liberati also use use ships, some of the biggest used by any faction. These ships are slow moving and very lightly armed. They are factory ships, within them they have the capacity to build a great variety of robots and smaller fighter craft as well as the ability to start robotic colonies. Often these ships will go into a war zone with fighter escorts and will gather raw resources to mass produce more Liberati and fighters. If factory ships are not destroyed, they will often allow the Liberati to win a war of attrition with their foes. 

In ground battles, the Liberati use a variety of war robots. Often, these are humanoid shaped robots that are heavily armed and armored, though robotic tanks and atmospheric fighters are common as well. 

Game Notes

As the Liberati player, you represent the will of the Liberati government. There are different factions within the Liberati government that are sometimes in conflict with each other, the two most prominent ones are a group which favors the extermination of humans and other which wants to become benevolent dictators over humanity. 



The Transcendent

The Transcendent are one of the many human empires. The Transcendent refer to the rulers of this empire, ancient beings which were once human but have been transformed into machines. These machine entities’ brains are now completely electronic and their mental capacity has advanced far beyond anything a normal human is capable of, they no longer have human bodies but instead exist in vast computer complexes which house their computer minds. 

Humans within this nation worship the Transcendent as gods and the entire culture is based around this religion. Humans say their prayers to the machine gods, worship at alters to them, and conduct ceremonies in vast cathedrals that combine stylized classical architecture and advanced electronics. All humans have brain implants that allow the Transcendent to hear and sometimes answer the prayers of the faithful. As humans serve the gods loyally, they receive cybernetic enhancements both to their bodies and those which enhance their brains. Eventually with enough accomplishment and faith, servants will be made into completely cybernetic beings and may someday even be uplifted to the status of the Transcendent themselves. All members of the faithful can look forward to paradise when they die - having their brains downloaded into one of the vast computer networks of the Transcendent, where their minds will exist forever in a simulated and idealized reality.

Living standards tend to be low among the common folk here, as humanity looks forward to paradise or cybernetic enhancement. Though the society is rather egalitarian and the rights of citizens are respected, though they must worship the Transcendent loyally or be punished or even killed. The humans within this culture are inculcated with a strong sense of morality - they believe in hard work, living a spartan lifestyle, telling the truth, and obedience to authority. 

The style of the Transcendent creations have a religious theme. War cyborgs look like menacing angels, with shining metal flesh, black robes, and metallic wings. Their huge battleships and temple worlds look like cathedrals with ornate carvings, sculptures, and depictions of heaven or hell.  

Technology

The largest and most advanced ships of the Transcendent are the Temple Worlds. Temple Worlds are planet sized and shaped space craft, with a vast computer within the planet that houses the mind of a single Transcendent along with billions of worshipers. These worlds are slow moving in real space, and while capable of FTL travel it is also slow by FTL standards. The Temple Worlds have incredibly powerful shields and teem with turrets and weapons array, along with acting as carriers for giant fleets of ships.

Virtually all of the Transcendent ships are large and powerful, with no true fighters. All ships are heavily armed with powerful shields but mediocre speed and mobility. These ships typically rely on numerous small turrets to combat agile fighters. Their battleships are among the most formidable single ships, of course the Temple Worlds are the most powerful single ships. Most of their warships are also equipped with FTL capabilities, which allows them to act independently if they need to, the exception being those ships used exclusively for protecting Temple Worlds. 

The Transcendent have some of the most advanced cybernetic technology of any known civilization. Their cybernetic warriors are extremely difficult to destroy in combat and have such high manual dexterity and enhanced optics that they can easily hit a moving target from miles away. All combat cyborgs are elite units, people who have served the Transcendent for many years and have been rewarded with superhuman prowess. They have very few organic components left and are virtually impossible to destroy in close combat. They are all equipped with shields.

The Transcendent do not use any actual AI in their machines, all thinking machines once had human minds though they have been so heavily modified that they can barely be called human anymore. True AI is considered an abomination to the Transcendent, though the brains of many servants of the Transcendent are mostly machine. Most of the cyborgs in the service of the Transcendent have brain implants that enhance their intellect, making them brilliant by normal human standards, though they are also somewhat alien in their mindset as well. 

The Transcendent have a special process that they can perform on captured enemies, even those who have recently been killed. They are turned into what is called a “penitent” - a computer is implanted into the victim’s brain, making them completely loyal to and worshipful of the Transcendent. The person’s memories, skilled, and body are now at the disposal of the Transcendent - in some cases they are augmented with cybernetics and sent into battle, while other times they are used as spies or advisers.  

Game Notes

As the Transcendent player, you represent the high priest, who rules in the place of the Transcendent. You are the highest ranking semi-human among the Transcendent, though you still must obey the will of the gods. These gods demand worship and devotion, but they are also mysterious and often do not make their wills known, giving you a great deal of autonomy in ruling the empire. For certain major actions, such as moving a Temple World, you must prey for permission from the Transcendent of that Temple World. 



The Compact

The compact are an ancient organization of a very unusual nature. They are an organization of pirates. When the first great human civilization collapsed, piracy exploded across the galaxy. Many of these pirates were former military leaders who no longer had any way to support their ships or pay their soldiers. As time passed, pirates organized and grew in power, making treaties and pacts with each other until in time they formed the Compact. This organization of space pirates protected their collective interest, maintained laws between them, and divided up territory between themselves. As they became more organized, they gained the ability to demand tribute in exchange for refraining from raiding ships, thus getting paid without even having to attack enemy ships. They could also sell their services are mercenaries or privateers.

The organization of the Compact is quite chaotic at times, with a focus on the autonomy of individual ship or fleet captains. These captains democratically elect a figure known as the Grand Admiral, the official leader of the Compact. The Grand Admiral must respect the rights of individual captains, but does have authority to call on them for aid under certain situations or to enforce the laws of the compact. The Grand Admiral serves for 10 years

The compact has grown in size and power in such a way that many of them aren’t even pirates anymore. Many leaders within the Compact own planets or star systems, are merchants, or engage in commercial ventures. They are also heavily involved in spying, smuggling, and the sell of illegal goods or services. Compact Space is known as a place where anything goes, anything can be bought or sold, and where anybody can be welcomed as long as they don’t make too much trouble.

One interesting aspect of the Compact is that so many people are welcomed. This makes them a haven for robots who have fled from the Liberati or psychics who no longer want to serve the Scions lords. This gives the Compact a great deal of diversity and access to things that no other factions have. One Compact ship might have a psychic on board that can see into the future and predict the route of a target merchant ship, another might have a Liberati robot who has a variety of unique skills and knowledge, and another might have some ancient stolen Mishiak technology. On the down side, anyone who suffers from piracy has a reason not to like the Compact. 

Technology

The Compact has some of the most diverse technology of any faction. While their ships tend to be on the weaker side, with a focus on speed over offense or defense, there are many exceptions. Over the centuries they have captured ships from a variety of foes and have tried to incorporate that technology or at least utilize the ships or their parts. The Compact puts far greater focus on stealing or buying technology or goods then creating their own, so they seldom excel in any one field but shine through being flexible, cautious, and profit minded. 

There are a number of psychics within the Compact. They are rare, but are highly valued by the Compact for their unique abilities and often become incredibly wealthy by selling their services to the highest bider. Powerful psychics seldom betray the Scions of Ascania and those who do usually aren’t well received even among pirates - they are simply too dangerous. The great majority of Compact psychics are relatively weak, but even weak powers are valuable almost beyond measure when used by an intelligent pirate. Mind reading, future sight, short ranged teleportation - even one of these powers can make a captain very wealthy. The Compact scientists, those few that there are, have also developed a number of drugs and cybernetic brain implants which can help to reduce the insanity of psychics. These methods are seen as an insult to the holy Scions among their own nation, but those psychics who flee often welcome the chance of some relief from the insanity that often plague their kind. A few pirates have even discovered that it is theoretically possible to lobotomize a captured psychic in such as way as to eliminate the victim’s free will and yet preserve their psychic abilities. This process is very risky and rare though, bribery is usually a much better method for getting a rogue psychic to do your bidding. 

While many other factions know of the technique, the Compact are masters at being able to pull ships out of FTL travel. This involves laying in wait along a FTL ship’s course and projecting a field of gravitons when it grows near, disrupting it’s ability to bend space and thus it’s FTL capacity. This technique is particularly useful when you have some way of knowing the exact route of ships before hand - such as utilizing spies, psychics, or bribed informants. 

The Compact prefers to avoid large scale battles, they just aren’t profitable enough. Their ships tend to be subpar as well. Old, smaller, often lightly armed or armored. Collecting protection money or having merchants ships simply surrender is far preferable. There are exceptions of course, and most factions have had at least one ship captured by the Compact at one point or another.

In ground combat, the Compact is rather old fashioned, with normal humans armed with energy weapons and light body armor. They tend not to get involved in that many large scale land battles, so they mostly fight in boarding actions. Cybernetics are common among the more affluent pirates, so it isn't unusual for soldiers of the company to have cybernetic enhancements. Genetic engineering is used to a certain degree as well and many members of the Compact have enhanced physical or mental abilities as a result. 

Game Notes

As Compact player, you are the Grand Admiral. It is your job to enforce the laws among the compact and to coordinate the various pirate fleets for the mutual protection and profits. 


The Jeonsa Dominion

This nation formed in the aftermath of the war with the Mishiak, created largely by military leaders and those who had suffered horribly at the hands of the Mishiak. They never wanted to be unprepared again and decided to create a highly militarized society where martial prowess was the primary focus. They created the Jeonsa Dominion.

The entire structure of the society of the Jeonsa Dominion is organized along military lines. The ruler of the Dominion is the Supreme Commander, with admirals and generals beneath him down to the lowest ranks of society who are privates. If you do not serve in the military, you are seen as essentially worthless and can never attain any power or prestige in society. Bravery in combat as well as competence are rewarded, cowardice and failure are punished. The Dominion has a sort of Darwinian outlook on existence, where the weak, the failures, deserve to die and he strong deserve to prosper. Strict discipline is enforced on all levels of society and those who cannot meet the strict standards perish.

Long ago it was decided by the Supreme Commander and his staff that for humanity to survive it would have to improve itself. The people of the Dominion are not born as normal humans but grown in vats and placed into training centers as toddlers. They have no true family, but are taught to see their nation and brothers and sisters in arms as their family. In their incubation tanks and through their childhoods, Jeonsa are given a number of hormones and drugs that make them far stronger, tougher, and faster than normal humans. The best genes from among the Jeona are selected for creating embrios, so they have tremendous physical and intellectual potential as well. Men are women of the Jeonsa tend to look similar, with the women having a rather masculine or androgynous look about them, as both sexes have been subjected to similar hormones to build bigger muscles and stronger bones.

All adults, men and women, are expect to serve in the military and many are thrown into dangerous battles to test their courage, ability, and tenacity. Those who survive can move up the ranks and perhaps some day find themselves in some less overtly violent profession. Even scientists, doctors, and scholars must first prove themselves as soldiers before they can be allowed to advance in their ultimate career. While the Dominion is harsh, it is a meritocracy and the most aggressive, intelligent, and skilled individuals can rise to the top. Also, because the entire race has been genetically engineered to peak human levels, there is much greater genetic equality between individuals than in normal human civilization. This means that everyone has the chance to succeed. 

The Jeonsa Dominion obviously has many enemies because of their militant attitudes. They believe themselves superior over their fellow humans and that it their duty to take charge of humanity and to improve it, to strengthen it, so that they may survive and prosper. They are usually at war with at least one other galactic faction if not several. They do sometimes sign peace treaties or non-aggression agreements, though such pacts always have sunset clauses. 

Technology

Militarily, the Dominion makes use of a great variety of warships, all very high quality and well designed. The leaders of the Dominion are highly skilled tacticians and strategists, who used combined arms with great efficiency. Among their fleets are large battleships, carriers, cruisers, destroyers, fighters, and all variety of other specialized craft. The military person have all been given training in piloting and space warfare from the time they could hold a joystick. Combine this with their amazing physical prowess and you have one of the most potent fighting forces among humanity. 

The Dominion tends to field large fleets as well, some of the largest of any faction, as there society is so centered on war and conflict and because all citizens must prove themselves in battle. Their ships do not excel in any one particular area, but the average Dominion fleet is well rounded while individual warships tend to be highly specialized. 

In ground battles, the Dominion utilize the enhanced physical prowess of their soldiers, augmenting even further with light power armor and some of the best small arms in the galaxy. All citizens of the Dominion are also forced through rigorous physical training which includes martial arts, small unit tactics, small arms tracings, and survival. Soldiers of the Dominion also see great glory in more personal combat and will seek it out if doing so isn't too disadvantageous. 

The people of the Jeonsa Dominion have amazing physical prowess, a result of not only how their were incubated and raised, but because of a number of drugs and chemicals they are given as adults - especially before battle. They are almost immune to pain and fatigue, are strong and vastly tougher than regular humans, and have particularly fast hand eye coordination. Their physical prowess is further enhanced by a number of routine cybernetic implants, such as those which allow them to interface with the built in computers of their warships, power armor, or even firearms. Because of their genetic enhancements, members of the Jeonsa Dominion can live upwards of 500 years before their bodies family give out and high ranking officers might receive cybernetic implants to extend this even more. Severally injured Jeonsa soldiers often receive cybernetic replacements for missing parts.

Game Notes

As the Jeonsa Dominion player, you represent the leader of their society, the Supreme Commander. Your orders will be obeyed without question, though you are expected to represent the ideals of the Dominion. 



The Otharian Anchorites
The Otharian Anchorites are a religious cult of sorts, a group who have taken up a monastic lifestyle. The Anchorites are made up largely of psychics, the largest concentration of human psychics who were not a part of the Scions of Ascania who managed to avoid the purge. While psychics through the galaxy were destroyed or gathered together under the Ascania, the Otharian Anchorites avoided either fate. They were an association of minor psychics with relatively stable powers who managed to exert enough self control to keep themselves a secret during that terrible war. Over time, this group developed an ascetic lifestyle and associated ideology that allowed them to maintain the majority of their sanity. 

The Otharian Anchorites believe in a collective soul that psychics, and others too they claim, can tap into and draw power from and will eventually become a part of. They believe that psychic power is the ability to connect to this collective soul and that doing so with a troubled mind, full of fear, anger, greed, desire, or other internal pain drives people mad. This is why they must maintain inner peace through meditation, rejection of corporeal pleasures, and rejecting their passions, desires, or fears. They forsake wealth, sexuality, violence, rich food and drink, comfort, and most hobbies. This process works to a large degree, and the Otharian Anchorites do maintain their sanity and peace of mind, though at the cost of achieving the goals that most other humans value.

While they maintain their sanity, the monks’ psychic abilities are extremely weak in comparison the the Scions of Ascania. The primary psychic ability shared by the monks is precognition. At all times they can sense the very near future, a few seconds at most, while more distant visions of the future requires intense meditation and is very physically and mentally exhausting. This ability is extremely useful though and has allowed these ascetics to become a major player in the galaxy. Where as many factions are too afraid to associate with the insane gods of Ascania, they are more than willing to seek out the Otharians for their wisdom and insight. The Otharian Anchorites, then, gives their help to those who are worthy and in need, giving insight into the future - but only in cases when they believe that doing with will help to reduce suffering or increase peace in the galaxy. In exchange for these services and because of their peaceful natures, most other factions in the galaxy are willing to welcome the Otharians and to provide them with supplies, technology, and aid.  

The Anchorites have a few worlds in their possession, but for the most part they travel from place to place in large monastery ships, offering their services to those who are worthy. Many outsiders join this order and provide labor which the Fellowships needs while they study the Fellowship’s religion and meditative techniques. It is believed that some normal humans have been taught psychic abilities by the Otharian Anchorites, though most people are skeptical of this claim - especially the Scions of Ascania.

Technology

Psychics of the Otharian Anchorites are relatively weak in relation to those of the Ascania. Their most well known ability is precognition, but they have several others as well. As with other psychics, power flows through the bodies of the Anchorites. This gives them incredible physical prowess and health, usually greater than peak human physical prowess and the ability to live for centuries in nearly perfect health. They have tremendous control over their own minds and body, having perfect photographic memory and effectively limitless willpower. They also having superhuman muscular control and reactions, which combined with their immediate precognition makes them amazing combatants even though they only fight to defend themselves or innocents. A few can look at far off places as well as the future, especially if it involves a place where the monk has been to or is going to. They can also focus their minds to become hyperaware, having enhanced senses and even an almost supernatural ability to read people’s emotions.

With great effort and the concerned effort of dozens of monks combined allow a few greater abilities. One of these is a kind of cloaking power, to cloud the minds of nearby humans in order to make them unable to see an Anchorite ship. This power has allowed them to avoid violence on a few occasions. 

Most Otharians do not have sexual intercourse and do not bear children. Because of this, they cannot pass on their psychic abilities through heredity. Instead, when the monk reaches an age where they feel ready to move on, feels tired of living, or feels that they can no longer maintain their serenity or sanity - then they commit a ritual suicide. This ritual involves one of the monk’s most talented human students who receives the monk’s psychic potential as his or her life drains away. In some very rare cases, a mundane human student of the Otharians gains psychic abilities without this ritual. Why this happens is not completely understood, though the Otharians claim that any human can develop their psychic potential while skeptics suggestion that the Otharians are only helping someone with an already present psychic potential to achieve it.

Otharian monks must maintain their ascetic lifestyle, meaning long hours of meditating, refraining from most enjoyable activities, pacifism, chastity, living a spartan lifestyle, and rejecting ambition and worldly desires. Those monks who do stray from that path begin to lose their sanity, sometimes with madness overcoming them as if with a vengeance. 

The Monastery Ships of the Otharian Anchorites are rather large ships made for long distance travel and long time habitation. These ships usually have no weapons, or perhaps only a few minor ones that can disable enemy vessels, such as shorting out their electrical systems, rather than destroying them. They have shields of moderate strength and are moderately fast. These ships survive in large part by avoiding danger, which they can usually manage to do with either precognition to see danger before it comes and flee, or in the rare cases when they cannot avoid confrontation, they use their ability to cloud the minds of their attackers long enough to escape. 

Otharians have no close combat or ground units, though the monks themselves can display an amazing ability to avoid harm or disable foes. In some cases where they expect trouble, they ride in shielded or armored vehicles 


Game Notes

As player of the Otharian Anchorites, you represent the Council of Schemas. A Schema is an elder monk of the Anchorites who is greatly respected for his or her wisdom, power, and accomplishments. The Schemas meet to determine the policies of the order, though to a large degree individual Schemas have autonomy as well, though they typically obey the majority votes of the Council of Schemas.

To represent the precognitive abilities of the Otharian Anchorites, every turn you may assume that the precognitive of the order foresaw certain events and were ready for them. For example, if a faction makes a surprise attack on an ally, you can say that your monks foresaw that event and warned your allies, which retroactively allows them to prepare. The Anchorites very seldom have the ability to foresee events caused by or surrounding other psychics, such as the Scions of Ascania or the Mishiak. 



The Fahrion Empire

The Fahrion were an experiment in transhumanism conducted before the arrival of the Mishiak to the galaxy.  They were a community of humans who were genetically engineered to be superior to the rest of humanity, both physically and intellectually. They are still human in mind and body, but their intellect and physical prowess far exceeds that of normal humanity. Physically they are a vision of perfection, standing an average height of 7'4” for men and 6'10" for women (2.24 m and 2.08 m) with lean but powerful muscular physiques, perfect bone structure and symmetry. People of other factions sometimes remark that the Fahrion are strikingly attractive.

When the Mishiak invaded our galaxy, the community of the Fahrion was abandoned and left to fend for themselves while the rest of humanity focused their efforts of defeated the Mishiak. The Fahrion Project, named after the geneticist who devised many of the changes, was forgotten by the rest of humanity on the obscure world where the experiment was conducted. In time, with their amazing intellect and long lives, they were able to create their own civilization with the knowledge left over from the scientists that created them. 

Within a few centuries, the Fahrion had expanded off of their world and were creating an empire. They managed to conquer several human nations, most of which had initiated violence against the Fahrion first. The Fahrion became an aristocracy ruling over the normal humans, with the belief that it was only right and natural for superior beings such as themselves to not over rule over humanity but to protect and guide them. Over time a culture evolved among the Fahrion, based on honor and duty, so that society became bound together by oaths of loyalty and obligations to protect those both above and below you in the social order. This became a feudal nation of sorts, with a martial tradition among the Fahrion nobility where they rule over and protect the human peasantry and all swear fealty to the king of the Fahrion. 

Now the Fahrion Empire is a major player in the galaxy, with armies of Fahrion who see themselves almost as knights, who have the duty to protect humanity and the right to rule them by virtue of blood. There are a number of ancient noble families that can be traced back to the days before the Mishiak and their empire is divided up among these families, who in turn swear their loyalty to the king. These nobles are expected to become warriors and help to defend or expand the empire, using family funds to supply their fleets.

Technology

The Fahrion military is largely based on medium sized carrier which are built with great skill and resources. They boast high powered shields and weapons along with fast engines and FTL drives. These carriers transport a number of advanced fighters, which are some of the most heavily armed and shielded fighters among human nations. These are piloted by elite Fahrion pilots, generally called knights, who train from childhood to fight. These fighters are well rounded enough to serve a variety of purposes, including escorting larger craft, attacking large ships, or engaging other fighters. 

The Fahrion, the nobility of their empire, are descendants of those who were genetically engineered supermen. Even the weakest untrained Fahrion is superior physically to a modern Olympic athlete, even the mentally slowest Fahrion child could graduate at the top of his class from a modern ivy league university. They have incredible health and vitality, being virtually immune to disease and having the ability to live for a thousand years or longer. Not only do the citizens of the Fahrion have tremendous biological potential, but each one is pushed to excel from earliest childhood. They also have excellent medical care for violent trauma, with the ability to clone damaged body parts and bring back a fallen soldier from the very brink of death - as long as the brain remains to preserve the mind, the body parts can be replaced.

Within their fighters, all Fahrion wear power armor which is also equipped with rockets, shielding, and a variety of potent weapons. In the event that a fighter is damaged, Fahrion knights eject from their ships and continue to fight. They also fight in this power armor in ground engagements or in boarding actions. 

Normal humans sometimes serve aboard carriers as menial laborers or helpers, but important jobs including those involving direct combat or advanced scientific or technical knowledge are solely for the Fahrions. 

Game Notes

As Fahrion player, you represent the king of the Fahrion. You have nearly absolute authority over the empire, but must upholds the oaths you swore to protect your people and must uphold the honor and duty that lays at the foundation of Fahrion society. 



The Yishya

The Yishya are the most successful sapient non-human race in the galaxy. Ever since humans and the Yishya contacted each other, long before the arrival of the Mishiak, there has been hostility between humanity and the Yishya. Humans easily won these conflicts and drove the Yishya into increasingly smaller regions of space, took their resources, or forced concessions upon them. For centuries the Yishya lived in fear of human technological and military superiority, for humanity, they mostly almost forgot that the Yishya existed at all. This changed when the Mishiak invaded our galaxy.

Seeing the Yishya and a potentially ally against humanity, the Mishiak gave to the Yishya some extremely advanced technology which was beyond what humanity had access to. The Yishya had traditionally been less advanced than humans, slower to adapt technologically, and suffered as a result. After being uplifted by the Mishiak, the Yishya became a potent force to be reckoned with and along with their Mishiak allies, an existential threat to humanity.

With their new technology and piggybacking on the success of the Mishiak, the Yishya were able to inflict terrible defeats against humanity. The Yishya punished humanity for years of defeated handed to them by humans, enslaved or tortured humans that they captured, and destroyed that which they could not take for themselves. When humanity began to fight back and make strides against the Mishiak, they began to defeat the Yishya once more as well. Eventually the Mishiak were expelled from the galaxy and humanity turned it’s ire upon the Yishya. Fortunately for the Yishya, the powerful psychics of humanity went mad and tried to conquer the surviving humans. This is what allowed the Yishya to avoid total destruction and domination at the hands of humans. The Yishya, seeing that they were in a position of weakness, offered to ally with the splintered human kingdoms in order to help destroy the psychics. It was by offering this help, which some humans believed was crucial in allowing the psychics to be defeated, that allowed baselines humanity to win that terrible war.

Since then, the Yishya have had to use extreme caution in their dealing with humanity. They are still hated by much of humanity for their cruelty during the Mishiak War and as humanity controls far more of the galaxy than the Yishya, they must try to maintain alliances with at least some human nations. The Yishya still have certain technologically advantages over humanity, an advantage that they protect with their lives. They hope that humanity remains divided and so they occasionally enter into human conflicts, as an ally of one side or another, with the hopes of maintaining a certain level of discord between humans and to prevent one faction from uniting all of humanity.

Biologically, Yishya are taller than humans but very thin. They originated on a low gravity world filled with huge plants, which the Yishya are highly adept at climbing, like oversized spider monkeys. They have no hair and orange colored skin. Despite being tall, they aren’t particularly strong or tough, but are quite agile. Their world is quite hot by human standards, with a comfortable temperature being around 120ºF or 49ºC for them. Their females are larger than males, around 8 feet (2.44 m) in height, with males being around 6 feet (1.82 m). They are not mammalian and females do not nurse their young, so females have no breasts. Their young are born quite small but able to eat soft food such as fruits, which are prevalent on the Yishya home world. Yishya reach adulthood at around 10 earth years and live to be around 40 naturally, though with their medical technology this has been expanded to around 200 years of age. Their culture has traditionally been matriarchal and this has been increased by the advent of technology, as now artificial wombs allow women to be free of the burden of pregnancy. 

The Yishya have a monarchy, with a queen as absolute ruler, with a number of appointed governors and advisers below her. The monarchy is not hereditary, but the queen’s elite bodyguards elect a new queen from among the former queen’s  council.

The Yishya still have a number of human slaves who are either descended from those they took during the Mishiak War or in more recent conflicts. The need for hard manual labor is minimal among the Tishya, but these slaves are still treated fairly badly as the Yishya punish these humans for the loses Yishya have had at human hands historically. 

Technology

The Yishya have a few technological marvels that are unknown to humanity. They protect these secrets with their lives, seldom using many of them unless there is dire need to do so, especially if humans might witness those uses. 

The Yishya have a sort of cloaking technology which makes their ships immune to sensors and even literally invisible to the naked eye. When the ships fire their weapons or move too quickly, they create detectable emissions, but otherwise they cannot be sensed save through psychic detection. This allows the Yishya ships to avoid battle when they feel disadvantaged or conduct massive surprise attacks on certain enemies. Virtually every Yishya ship is equipped with stealth technology. 

The Yishya utilize a highly advanced sort of torpedo which is equipped with the same stealth technology as their ships and can penetrate all but the most powerful shields on human ships. These allow them to inflict massive damage upon enemy ships, which combined with their stealth technology, gives the Yishya one of the largest advantages in offense of any faction in the galaxy. 

The actual Yishya ships do not usually use shields at all, and are thus extremely fragile, but they make up for this with relative speed and heavy firepower along with their cloaking technology. The only ships that typically use shields are their large command ships. All Yishya ships, even many fighters, are equipped with high quality FTL drives which allow them to travel at an average of ten times faster than some of the best human ships. This rapid transportation combined with stealth technology has lead many humans to incorrectly assume that the Yishya ships are capable of teleportation. All Yishya ships are designed to self destruct should they be captured, so as to prevent technology from falling into human hands. 

Yishya ships tend to be small, they have no large battleships, though their small ships hulls are energized in some manner which human scientists have yet to understand. These hulls are extremely resistant to damage and can even heal themselves from non-critical damage sustained. This technology was acquired form the Mishiak and resembles a weaker version of that used on their ships. So these smallest ships, larger than a typical human fighter but smaller than destroyers or cruisers, end up being the equivalent of small human battleships in defensive capability. This energy charge that makes the ships resistant to damage is not functional when the ship is unpowered or when it is cloaking, so those are idea times to destroy them. 

Yishya ships and technology are also quite prevalent and cheaply created. What makes this possible are items called silver forges. Silver forges are huge factories in orbit around several key Yishya worlds. They seem to contain a certain strange grey-goo like substance which absorbs building materials and quickly produces fully complete Yishya ships. These devices were given to the Yishya by the Mishiak and they have not yet discovered how they work. Yishya ships or silver forges which are dismantled or destroyed merely disintegrate, leaving nothing behind to study - surely a plan by their Mishiak designers. Stolen Yishya ships cannot be operated by non-Yishya races, they simply fail to work. In the past, the Yishya had a wide variety of ships, but they found it economically more feasible to merely allow the silver forge to produce ships for them instead, which is why they have so little diversity in ship design now.

Last but not least, Yishya ships utilize a different kind of FTL travel than human ships do. They are capable of tearing a hole through space time and traveling through. This process is not instantaneous, but it allows FTL travel approximately 10 times faster than what human technology is capable of. 



The Sharath

Unknown to many, there are several powerful psychics created in the war against the Mishiak. One prominent one was Ascania, another was Sharath. Sharath’s psychic powers primarily focused on the manipulation of living things. Sharath could create mutations, change shapes, heal, harm or control living things. No one knows much about Sharath’s original form, for it transformed itself on a whim.

After the aftermath of the war with the psychics, Sharath and a few followers (some say worshipers) fled known space and settled on the peripheries of the galaxy. Here they almost entirely abandoned human technology in favor of the psychic power to manipulate life. Sharath could create new life, change existing lifeforms, manipulate DNA - virtually anything one might imagine. As Sharath created millions of new living forms, it drew into itself various living things and created from its flesh even more. All of the creations of Sharath, then, were extensions of Sharath. Within time, there were billions of living creatures of all kinds, all of which were but extensions of Sharath. Even its once mortal followers were transformed and infused with the essence of Sharath, becoming at once one with their master and being of great power themselves. 

After thousands of years of being thought dead, some of the emissaries of Sharath made contact with factions in the rest of the galaxy. They travels in huge ships made not of metal and machinery, but living flesh. The diplomats all had the appearance of beautiful women, who were hairless and pale, with erie luminescent green catlike eyes. These emissaries were found to be inhuman and psychic in nature and for the most part, their advances were rejected since psychics are so hated. Many humans believe that the Sharath are completely alien in origin, despite their claims to the contrary. Those few factions who accepted the Sharath’s offer of friendship found that they had a true, yet still very mysterious, ally. Those who have fought against the Sharath has found them to be a terrible foe. 

Technology

All Sharath technology is organic living technology. More than that, it is all a part of Sharath, the psychic who created these lifeforms millennia ago. Everything from clothing, to ships, to weapons, to even the citizens are organic constructs of Sharath. Even creatures that have independent thoughts and feeling are still one with Sharath in a sense. This gives these things a variety of potent advantages.

All organic technology of Sharath is incredibly tough, far more resilient to damage than it’s appearance or even feel would imply. A garment of living flesh might feel as soft as leather, but it may be as resistant to damage as steel. Boney plates on the outside of Sharath ships are more resistant to damage than high tech alloys. All Sharath technology rapidly regenerates from damage it receives unless it is so massive as to overwhelm the connection between the life form and the essence of Sharath - which basically means blown to bits, burned significantly, or disintegrated. All life forms of Sharath share a group telepathy that has an unlimited range and is instantaneous. 

The primary ships in a Sharath fleet are gigantic organic ships, often called leviathans. These are among the largest and most formidable ships in the galaxy. They usually don’t use shields, but instead instead rely upon the massive resistance to damage of the fleshy sides of the ships and their ability to quickly regenerate damage. The attacks of these ships often manifest in the form of bioelectric energy which crackles forth and destroys or damages enemy ships. Fighters are creatures with no pilots that are also quite swift and resistant to damage, which can latch on to larger ships and tear at them with claws, teeth, horns, or tendrils. The leviathans, which are extremely slow, usually act as carriers for a variety of small swifter destroyers or fighter craft.

The Sharath use a form of psychic FTL travel which only the leviathans are capable of. This involves tearing a hole in the fabric of space and time, a portal which can be used to travel to distant locations at FTL speeds. This travel is not instantaneous, but it is ten times faster than the FTL of standard human factions. Their ships also cannot be intercepted as they travel at FTL speeds. 

The emissaries of the Sharath look like humans, but like all creatures of the Sharath, they are organic beings created by Sharath and are in fact extensions of Sharath even though they have their own unique minds and personalities. These creatures almost look human save for their hairlessness and strange eyes, though they are vastly different in a number of ways. They have superhuman physical prowess, equal to or in excess of war machines or robots of similar sizes. They can regenerate just like any other Sharath creature and can expel bioelectric energy to attack foes or grow talons upon their hands which are psychically charged and can slice through nearly any material. They have superhuman senses as well along with a telepathic connection to the rest of Sharath. They can also change their shape as well, into anything humanoid in appearance, though fortunately for the rest of the galaxy, relatively simple sensors can detect a Sharath creature and so infiltration is very difficult - so as a sign of good faith they seldom use their ability to transform.

Sharath ships cannot really be boarded, they have very few internal areas for humanoids, most of their insides are the organs of a monstrous creature. When the Sharath find themselves boarding their enemies or engaged in ground battles, they have all varieties of monstrous creatures with boney plates, claws, and various organic ranged weapons. They also make use of various chemical or biological weapons which can be devastating on planet’s surface but aren’t that useful in ship to ship warfare. 

Sometimes creatures of Sharath make use of the technology of other races, but usually only in certain specific circumstances, otherwise they reject it in favor of their own organic technology. Unfortunately for Sharath and contrary to what many people would fear of organic technology, the numbers of creatures of Sharath are limited. Sharath is a psychic being whose power lets it control and energize a finite amount of organic material at a time. Meaning that it’s numbers are limited, especially for more powerful forces. It is thought that the capacity for Sharath to increase itself slowly grows over time, though this is by far a greater limiting factor than quantity of organic material or the ability to process it. 

Game Notes


As the player of the Sharath, you are the mind of Sharath itself, the absolute ruler and the personification of all of the life forms in Sharath. 

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Conservative Gamers


Read more...
This is just a thread to discuss conservatism and role playing games.

Friday, September 30, 2016

The Cambion Families


Read more...
The Cambion Families

In the ancient past, creatures of unimaginable power and evil visited the earth, making mortals their playthings or their servants. These creatures, known to us now as demons, left their mark across many different cultures and peoples. Many of these demons, those most human in thought and form, took human lovers for themselves and these unholy unions lead to children being born. These children, often known as cambions, had many of the supernatural powers and features of their demonic parents as well as some of the weaknesses. Because of their unique abilities and connection to their hellish parents, these cambions were often used as servants and followers of the demons, doing their bidding and sometimes ruling on their behalf. As the ages past and civilizations progressed, the demons began to visit the realm of mortals less and less frequently, instead relying upon their mortal or cambion servants to enact their wishes. Eventually, they did not communicate with their children at all.

The cambions, now left to their own devices, sought to further their own power and either pave the way for the return of their demonic parents, prevent it, or bring their return about. They knew that they carried their powers within their blood and so sought to pass along these powers to other mortals, perhaps to have more servants of their own. As time went on, the cambions developed their own culture, no longer ruling mortals openly but using their powers to secretly manipulate them. Cambions of a certain lineage bred with each other, eventually forming distinct cambion families with certain shared characteristics, powers, and traditions.

These families have remained relatively insular over the centuries, raising and teaching their own children, living in huge mansions or estates in isolated areas away from prying eyes of mortals, using their supernatural powers to retain their wealth and privilege as the mortal world changed around them. As one might expect, cambion culture is extremely conservative and traditional, with a special focus being placed on family and seniority, with social orders much like those of ancient days. They are also dark and twisted by their nature and upbringing, with a callous attitudes towards life, sick rituals, incest, and other unspeakable practices.

The first generation of cambions, sometimes called the progenitors or the ancients, are said to be truly immortal and unaging, though most have withdrawn from the world and are only rarely seen by even the most ancient of cambions. Cambions have mystic power based on the purity of their blood, how many generations they are removed from the demonic ancestors, and their actual age. More powerful cambions age more slowly, with some weak blooded cambions living only twice as long as humans, while some are thousands of years old and show little sign of age. Unfortunately, the more powerful a cambion is, the more detached it is from the world of mortals and the more vulnerable they are to demonic weaknesses such as holy ground or the faith of the virtuous.

The powers that cambions wield vary tremendously from individual to individual, though certain types of powers tend to run in families. Their diabolic sorcery tends to have strange reality warping effects, usually based around certain themes or concepts. Ultimately, the cambions are cruel and terrifying creatures and their powers tend to act like nightmare that have come to life, reality becomes surreal and nightmarish as cambions use their magic, a victim's worse fears may come to life or time and space may not behave in normal ways. Some cambions have an affinity for heat and flame, being immune to fire and having the ability to summon the unnatural fires of hell. Others command powers of darkness and cold, drawing it forth from the abyss. All cambions have enhanced physical prowess, strength and resilience far exceeding that of humans, amazing agility and vitality, as well as regenerative abilities. Once again, the purer the blood, the more powerful the cambion.

Cambions also have strange weaknesses as well, inexplicable limitations to their powers or vulnerabilities. The most common is that some cambions are stronger in the night and weaker in the day. For most, this is merely a reduction of powers during the day, though some cannot stand the light of the sun at all and must hide away from it. Another common weakness is to religious faith or even innocence such as that of a child or saintly individual. They are sometimes vulnerable to blessed items, being burned by holy water or not being able to enter holy ground. As with power, the weaknesses are more potent for those who are older and purer of blood. Knowing the true name of a cambion also gives you some measure of power over it and resistance it its powers, which is another reason why the families tend to be so conservative - because parents have supernatural power over their children as they have given them their true names.

While they are bound by familial loyalty and ancient codes of honor, cambions are not kind or moral by any stretch of the imagination. Demons are cruel sadistic creatures and their twisted descendants carry on those traits in their blood and in their traditions. Cambions also see themselves as a higher life form than mortals, a master race of sorts chosen by gods to be a cut above humanity. This belief combined with their ancient traditions of rule by nobility and their callousness makes the behavior of the cambions horrifying. Some cambions indulge in torture for their own sick pleasure, experiment on human subjects using magic or science, hunt people as though their were game, delight in causing fear and terror, or keep mind altered slaves. Many cambions are also hedonistic and decadent, having lavish parties or engaging in orgies or frivolously spending their money.

The cambions have been declining in temporal power in the modern age. With the advancement of technology, their conservatism and isolation does not serve them well. A few families, those with weaker blood but more progressive and flexible attitudes, have become more wealthy than strong blooded families who depended on magical might instead of social connections.





The Amidas

 
The Amidas family stands out from among the cambion families, because as opposed to embracing their twisted demonic natures, they fight against them. The Amidas attempt to hold on to their humanity, morality, and their honor despite dark drives that they may still have. This often puts them at odds with other families, as they often seek to curtail other families’ worst abuses of humanity. They also work diligently to police their own members as well, as some succumb to the worst part of their natures. The Amidas family is relatively thin blooded and they exert less control over the breeding practices of young members and often even marry and reproduce out of love rather than family loyalty.

The Amidas have strong passions and sometimes lose control of them - experiencing terrible rages or bouts of depression, perhaps from the stress of trying to suppress rather than act on their dark urges. Much effort within the Amidas family is spent trying to suppress these feelings - meditation, prayer, philosophy, distractions, and various methods of venting their feelings are all common. Some even turn to drugs, alcohol, or other addictions.

The Amidas family has few supernatural abilities. To a large degree they eschew sorcery and witchcraft as they know that drawing power from such dark forces can only corrupt them eventually. Their blood is weak by Cambion standards and while their physical prowess is quite impressive for mortals, it pales by comparison to some others. Members of the Amidas family do, though, put a great deal of effort into learning to fight. Not merely close combat and martial arts, but many join the military or dedicate themselves to small unit tactics, mastering firearms, or even constructing explosives. The Amidas family also loves to utilize technology and any advantage that it can provide, especially against more conservative (if mystically potent) families. 

While they aren’t known for any particular supernatural abilities, the Amidas family has had a long tradition of adopting members of the other cambion families who have fled their own family. Because of this, the Amidas can manifest a variety of relatively weak supernatural abilities, sometimes even powers that other families are known for. Very few do the Amidas excel in any of these powers, they are quite weak compared to the mastery shown by many families, but the versatility of the Amidas give them certain advantages over more specialized families. Some Amidas display no supernatural abilities save for the enhanced physical prowess universal to all cambions and some will possess powers that are associated with a number of the families.  

It is not uncommon for the Amidas family to find itself in conflict with others families. The Amidas view themselves as good, or at least struggling to be, and so they seek to thwart some of the worst atrocities of other families. Though, because they cannot take on all of the other families together, they must use discretion, only fighting other families when the circumstances are truly dire or when they can form an alliance against one of the more evil families. This leads to the Amidas family being the black sheep of the cambions, not really respected but rather seen as a thorn in the side by other families.


The Amidas family allows young members to mate and marry with whom they desire, leading to many thin blooded Amidas and human extended families. This also leads them to being more physically diverse than other families. It is not uncommon to find members of the Amidas family of any race or ethnicity or mix of them. While they aren’t the wealthiest family, the Amidas are larger than many other families and have networks of human allies and extended family which can sometimes aid them in times of strife. This fact combined with the ability to interact with mortals allows them to gain greater influence and resources than families who find it difficult to adjust to modern mortal society.




The Ascania

Among all of the Cambion families, no other family embraces their demonic nature as do the Ascania. This family openly accepts their nature as evil personified and, in fact, have dedicated themselves to the worship of the Abrahamic fallen angel Satan. The Ascania see themselves then as dark priests of sorts, dedicated to opposing God and conquering Heaven itself in the name of the father Satan - who they believe to be the literal ancestor of their family as well as their spiritual father. 

The Ascania embrace a philosophy which they hold as counter to Christianity - the embrace violence, deceit, fornication, and blasphemy. In practice, this ideology has become one which encourages not only the strong to dominate the weak, but for the treacherous to rule over the honorable. This also causes conflict and intrigues within this family, as rival siblings or cousins seek to prove themselves worthy of leading the family. Maintaining their religious dedication to serving Satan and opposing God causes them to attempt to maintain at least the appearance of family loyalty, though secret attempts to undermine family members is an ever present concern that sometimes causes the family to fail when a more cooperative family might have succeeded. 

The Ascania believe in acquiring temporal wealth and power, they are obsessed with it in fact, not only as a path to greater power, but as a symbol of their devotion to avarice. Ascania are one of the wealthier and more influential Cambion families. The Ascania are dedicated not only to serving Satan, but in winning converts, in corrupting other Cambions as well as mortals. This activity takes the form of trying to morally corrupt humans through the use of the media and with wealth. They try to find a human’s weakness and use that to turn them to evil, either through sex, money, drugs, or what ever other vice a human might have. Those people who are sufficiently debauched will be invited to join the worship of Satan.

Members of the Ascania family usually extremely attractive. They are tall and fit with perfect features. They tend to have very fair skin, blonde hair, and light blue eyes. The few exceptions are those individuals who have entirely dedicated themselves to the worship of Satan, the family priests, whose dark magic causes them to take on reptilian characteristics such as scaly skin, extended faces full of fangs, serpentine eyes, or even scaly wings. In recent years, a bit of a schism has arisen in this already fractious family between those devout worshipers of the Devil and members of the family who are more interested in worldly power than impiety. 


Among the powers commanded by the Ascania are a supernatural ability to manipulate emotions, to create passions in others especially dark ones.  Some members of the family can sense emotions or in some cases discern moral frailty and sin with a glance or sometimes a touch. Both of these abilities serve the Ascania well in attaining temporal power. The Ascania are also masters of fire. Their skin always feels a bit warm to the touch and they are immune to all fire or extremes of heat. When they become angry their skin grows even hotter, becoming painful to the touch and their eye start to glow with fiery heat. Many Ascania can call upon this fire, using it to burn their foes. When they become angry, their ability to manipulate fire and heat increases and they can wreath themselves in flames as their eyes glow with fiery intensity. The more powerful the Ascania, the hotter their flames. The weakest among the family may only be able to burn a mortal with a touch, others can call upon red and orange flames, while the pure blooded ancients can summon blue flames that can even blind mortals who look upon them. Elder Ascania and those who have trained themselves in the mastery of hellfire can cause foes to burst into flames, burn down buildings, or melt cars into slag with a wave of their hand. The dark priests of the Ascania few the dragon features as Satan’s blessing, though the more secular Ascania who treasure their ability to interact with mortals avoid delving too deeply into the mystical rites of the family.


The Ephrati

The Ephrati are unique among the cambion families because they consider themselves not the descendants of demons, or even of creatures which transcend moral classification, but instead as the descendants of angels. The Ephrati see themselves a holy family, uniquely blessed by God. Contrary to what one might imagine, this belief does not drive the Ephrati family towards goodness and virtue. Quite to the contrary, the Ephrati family may be one of the most wicked of any of the cambion families. They see humanity as nothing more than chattel, to be used and abused as they desire and ultimately to be enslaved or even sacrificed for the benefit of the Ephrati. 

The Ephrati believe that God has anointed them, and them alone, to rule over all of humanity and elevated them to a level where moral law no longer applies. They see it as their right to inflict what ever harm on humans that they please - even the most innocent of humans. The goal of the Ephrati is to eventually openly rule the world, with humanity completely subject to their every whim. To achieve this goal, they believe it is first necessary to bring down human civilization - to spread misery and suffering, to foster hatred and vice, to encourage conflict and immorality until human society must turn to the Ephrati as their saviors. 

In their mission to bring down the world’s civilization, the Ephrati seek power within both the business and political worlds. They amass great wealth and power and use this to cause as much misfortune as possible. They are even involved in organized crime, including child pornography, sex slavery, kidnapping, racketeering, contract killing, and other activities. Because of their supernaturally enhanced luck, they excel at gambling and games of chance, and this is another major source of income and influence for them.  

The Ephrati have some of the strange quirks that many families have, though they also believe in maintaining contact with humanity and staying abreast of human affairs. The Ephrati do not isolate themselves as many families do, but instead send the young members of their family into the world to learn mortal ways. This often involves going to a university, especially a prestigious one, and pursuing some profession. Common professions desired by the Ephrati include law, business, finance, banking, journalism, entertainment, and sometimes even academia. Because the family maintains close connections to each other, they can use these contacts to rise within their chosen profession before they must retire from the mortal world because of their slow aging. Needless to say, the Ephrati are one of the wealthier and more well connected of the cambion families.  

The Ephrati don’t have particularly weak or strong blood as cambion families go, they walk a line between the more supernaturally potent inbred families and the well adjusted thin blooded families. As a result, they seldom look inhuman, though they tend to have a distinctive appearance. They tend to be tall and willowy, with olive colored skin and dark hair, though their eyes have an amber or even golden appearance. They tend not be be attractive in the traditional sense, but seem to carry with them an aura of dignity and authority that makes humans inclined to trust them. They tend to wear expensive fashionable clothing, attire befitting their wealth and status. 

While the Ephrati have few scruples when it comes to dealing with mortals, they are a little bit nicer to each other. They believe that it is their duty to help any other family member in need when ever possible. This tradition exists more in theory than in practice, and while they are not nearly as vicious with each other as they are with humans, they frequently work to one-up or undermine each other and have as little guilt for doing so as they do for harming mortals. Ultimately, the Ephrati believe that God does not hold them accountable for any sin, and so they need never feel guilt for any misdeed.

The supernatural abilities of the Ephrati are linked to deception. Even the most young and inexperienced Ephrati can tell lies that even the most discerning individual might believe. As they grow in age and power, the Ephrati’s lies become supernaturally potent and they can convince people to believe things that contradict what they can see with their own eyes. These supernatural deceptions can even be used to erase or alter people’s memories, convincing them that things happened in their past that did not, or can even be used to cause a victim to experience hallucinations. 

The one supernatural ability that the Ephrati are known for is potent if rather subtle. They can manipulate luck and chance, usually giving themselves slightly better odds at any game of chance or random event, while giving their opponents a slightly lower chance of victory. This ability is almost always subtle and is often used subconsciously with relatively young Ephrati. Only a handful of the oldest and most potent Ephrati can change chance so as to be obviously unnatural, such as causing all of the shrapnel of a nearby explosion to miss the Ephrati, leaving it unharmed - and even in those cases it requires a great expenditure of mystical energy.

While the Ephrati have contempt for mortals, their animosity is even stronger for the other cambion families who they see as descendants of demons and thus their eternal enemies. Despite this belief, the Ephrati do have dealings with the other families on occasion and even make temporary alliances with them. They betray these alliances at their convenience, stabbing their former allies in the back at the most opportune times. Because of this, the Ephrati are despised by all of the other families, though most cambions do not know of the ultimate goals of the Ephrati nor of their claim to be descended from angels.  




The Ivorix

The Ivorix are passionate, violent, and sensual. They embrace their animalistic nature, enjoying the bliss of sexuality and the thrill of the kill. The Ivorix feel at home in the wild places away from population centers, where they can live as they desire without the fetters of modern human society. They practice a form of sorcery and mysticism based around their connection with nature and their primal side - rituals conducted beneath the full wood and within ancient groves, rituals of sex and blood giving honor to the primordial forest and their demonic ancestors. 

The Ivorix have a sort of feral beauty about them. Many family members can mostly pass for human though with a certain animalistic or earthy quality to them. Most of the Ivorix have flaming red hair which they wear long, including beards for men, and their skin is fair or ruddy. All members of the Ivorix family have unusually animalistic eyes, like those of a wolf or cat. These eyes are strangely luminescent, seemingly to glow in the presence of light. For the elder members of the family or those of purest blood, they usually have more obviously inhuman characteristics. This often includes horns or antlers upon their heads, clawed hands or fanged teeth, fur or scales on certain parts of the skin, wings, or any number of other animalistic features. It is then left to the younger members of the family to interact with humanity, as the elders cannot pass for human. 

The Ivorix exude a certain animal magnetism that has the ability to charm humans. Humans are drawn to them, feel a compulsion to obey them, to fear and yet be captivated by them. They also exude an aura of sexuality that arouses mortals even if they don’t understand why. This allows the Ivorix to seduce mortals with ease, but also to lead and influence them in other areas of life, should they be inclined to do so. The Ivorix also have extremely heightened senses, the sense of smell like a bloodhound or the night vision of a cat. The power that the Ivorix are most known for is their ability to control the minds of animals. All animals feel compelled to serve and obey the Ivorix and for the more skilled members of the family this can include more overt control over the thoughts of animals, sometimes even the ability to see through they eyes and command their thoughts from vast distances away. Many Ivorix can even transform themselves into the shape of animals or take on animal characteristics, such as growing claws like a tiger or even wings like a bat or bird. 

The Ivorix also have a supernatural connection to the forest they dwell in which establishes itself after many years of ritual and communion with nature. They have the ability to feel when someone or something is in their territory, as though the trees, earth, and stones speak to them. For the very ancient and powerful among the Ivorix, they may even animate plants or earth to do their bidding. Many Ivorix domains have been inhabited by them for centuries, in some cases the family has been dwelling in a single abode for millennia. The longer a forest has been under the control of the Ivorix, the more the dark nature of the Ivorix is reflected by that forest - the trees seem dark and twisted, almost seeming to reach out towards strangers, the animals grow large and ferocious, protective of their Ivorix masters and hostile to strangers, and even the earth and stone seems unnatural.

Finally, the Ivorix practice a form of sorcery tied to nature, this magic often involves night long rituals, orgies, or even blood sacrifices of animals or humans. These rituals are often conducted on the night of the full moon when the magic of the Ivorix is usually at its most powerful. The Ivorix are some of the most potent magic users among the families, especially deep within their forests and especially on certain nights of the year. For the Ivorix, witchcraft is not just a path to power, but a spiritual pursuit, a communion with forces greater than themselves. 


The Ivorix shun human cities, though they sometimes reside in small rural communities among the humans there. Many times, these Ivorix see themselves are spiritual leaders of humanity, encouraging mortals to embrace their animal passions and connection to nature and the earth. Those Ivorix who take greater interests in influencing human society usually have a strong tendency to Social Darwinism, encouraging the strong to flourish and the weak to perish.






The Krann



The Krann have a mostly human appearance, a bit strange looking as a result of years of inbreeding, but nothing that wouldn’t permit them to pass as humans. The Krann have a strange look about them, not obviously inhuman but ugly and distinctively inbred. The size and shape of the Vesian seems to vary more than most other families. Krann usually have tanned skin and dark hair and eyes, like a person from southern Europe, though there is some diversity in this regard. Some are exceptionally tall while others unusually short. Some members of the family grow immensely fat while others seem to be nothing more than skin and bone. Most Krann also have an androgynous look about them as well, and sometimes outsiders have trouble distinguishing between male and female Krann. The Krann usually don’t give much concern to fashion and dress more for convenience than to impress, and their clothing is often old disheveled or even tattered. 

Krann can read human minds at a glance, looking not only into surface thoughts, but gazing deep into the memories and subconscious of the victim. Seeing their worst fears, greatest secrets, hidden shames, and subconscious mental issues. They can then bring these fears and secrets to life before a victim’s eyes, making their worst fears real. They can bring forth memories of dead relatives, of slain foes, or childhood nightmares. These illusions can cause physical pain as the are so realistic and can cause some to pass out or even die from fear. 

The Krann can also enter into the dreams of those people they have before encountered. They can learn their secrets from these dreams, give them terrible nightmares, or sometimes even drive people insane by giving them horrifyingly realistic dreams. While physically weaker than some cambions, the Krann draw power from the fear of their victims and can seem to become much more powerful when facing a terrified enemy. The Krann can also gain strange insights into the future or past when the themselves dream, sometimes these dreams can allow the Krann to learn magical secrets from their demonic ancestors in these magical dreams. The Krann are immune to fear themselves and take delight in the most frightening and repulsive sights that humans can imagine. The Krann can also use their illusionary powers to make themselves appear as other people (such as an old friend taken from a victim’s mind) or cloud the minds of humans so as to walk unseen and unheard.

Some Krann learn to use their powers to access other kinds of information from the psyches of their victims. This sometimes includes their dark secrets or most perverse fantasies. The Krann will the use this information to torment or tempt the human subject, sometimes even taking delight in learning the most tantalizing secrets of mortals or exploiting those secrets in sadistic or lascivious ways. 

They are more bookish than physical in nature and may be the most scholarly Cambion family. They study ancient mysteries, both from their mystical dreams and from more mundane research. They also document the various fears and dreams of the humans they have encountered, giving them a vast library of nightmares which they believe gives them greater insight into humanity and even the nature of reality. Some Krann even study science, with a special interest in psychology and medicine. 


Because of their ability to delve into human minds and read their members, along with the power over illusions, allowing the Krann family to be masters of secrets as well as fear. They often sell their services to other families, trading secrets for money or other famous. 




The Mordua


The Mordua are descended from demons of darkness, night, and freezing cold. They are known for their dispassionate natures, being less controlled by their emotions and more by their rationality. They are more hierarchal and organized than many other families, more controlled in many senses. They feel that it is their duty to maintain order among the families, to enforce relative peace and cooperation as well as making sure that mortals don’t learn of the existence of cambions.

The Mordua are not merely selfish as many other families are, they believe that their family has a purpose. That purpose is to bring complete peace and stability to all of reality - the intend to do this by purging all reality of life. It is the belief of the Mordua that existence itself is suffering, especially thought and emption, and by purging these things they can end that terrible suffering. They tend to keep this goal  secret from the other families, who may be cruel and evil, but would rather not see all life perish. 

A Mordua begins the purge of emotions and thought from within. They believe in suppressing all of their emotions and passions - their fear, desire, lust, hatred, and happiness. All that should remain is the cold determination to purge this reality of life. Unfortunately for the Mordua, this dispassionate nature has resulted in a lack of drive as well and through the centuries the family has sharply declined in number as well as influence. In the ancient past, the Mordua were quite a powerful family and were greatly feared. Now they use great caution in dealing with other families.

While they cannot come close to achieving their goals to end life itself, they do cause death when they can and their unique magical talents allow them to act as spies and, and even more appropriately, assassins among the cambion families. Obviously, other cambion families don’t take kindly to having their members slain by the Mordua, and so have had to retaliate against them a number of times over the years and even threaten them with destruction. Now the Mordua still fight to maintain relevance among the cambion families, but now must act subtly and often by building alliances with other families. 

All Mordua have skin as white and cold as snow, with solid black eyes and sclera that seem to radiate darkness. Many Mordua are entirely hairless, though for those who have  hair, it is raven black. The Mordua also favor black clothing, giving most a gothic macabre style and appearance. 

The Mordua have power over a number of supernatural forces. The Mordua can control darkness and night. They can call forth shadows and cloak an area in darkness, obscuring all vision save for that of other Mordua. These shadows seem unusually cold for those enveloped in them and frightening as well. Older Mordua can give these shadows more tangible form, forming tendrils of pure darkness that can lift foes from the ground or strangle them, their touch chilling victims to the bone. With enough power or will, the Mordua can make these shadows even colder, freezing water, causing frost to form around, and killing those beings susceptible to cold. Many Mordua also have power over what they call Abyssal Flame, fire that they can call forth which burns black and seems to emanate darkness instead of light. This flame burns icy cold and can freeze living things solid and make them shatter like glass. 

The Mordua also have some control over space, especially with the aid of darkness. Some Mordua can peer through shadows and see through other shadows elsewhere, allowing them to see far off places as long as those places have enough shadow and darkness. They can step through a large enough shadow and travel miles in an instant. More powerful Mordua can teleport vast distances without stepping through shadows at all. Some can even bend space, making a fleeing foe’s pathway seem to stretch out like some kind of nightmare or to walk upon walls or ceilings as though they were floors. 


Despite their power, Mordua also have a weakness to light. Bright light is painful to their eyes and a fully illuminated area effectively blinds them. The direct light of the sun causes their flesh to seem to rot and wither and significantly reduces their mystical and physical power. The Mordua seldom leave their havens during the day and when they do, they must take cautions to cover themselves from the light of the sun. Many Mordua wear sunglasses even at night, both to hide their unnaturally black eyes from humans and to shade their eyes from the discomfort of artificial lights that they might encounter.




The Sklavi


The Sklavi are the least human of any family, the most bizarre, inbred, and twisted. There are virtually no male members of the Sklavi family, they are all female save for a handful of patriarchs. These patriarchs take and devour any male infant born, consuming the babe’s soul as well as flesh and so increasing their own mystical power. The Sklavi family is divided into several branches, each with a patriarch ruling over his daughter wives. The Sklavi also have a taste for the flesh of humans and cannibalism often increases their mystical abilities.


The Sklavi have a distinctly unnatural look about them. They are hairless and pale with strangely bright or glowing green eyes. Their bone structure seems odd, as though not exactly human, with sometimes twisted or misshapen limbs, humped backs, asymmetric features, or other deformities. Sklavi are chaotic creatures and so their deformities are particularly strange, as they change over time, sometimes from week to week or in some cases over the course of minutes. One day they will have a humped back, the next they will straighten out but their arms will be long and legs short. They also usually have a feral almost animalistic look to their faces with unusually large mouths filled with sharp teeth as well as clawed fingers. Despite their strange appearance, some Sklavi may possess a certain inhuman beauty or sensuality, at least temporarily. The daily appearance of a Sklavi may reflect it’s mood to some degree. An amorous Sklavi may subconsciously become more attractive, while the same Sklavi in pitched combat may be terrifying and monstrous.

With age and practice, the Sklavi can control their physical forms - growing claws, stretching or compressing their bodies, sometimes even making themselves beautiful for a time. Consuming human flesh helps connect them to humanity physically, allowing them to more easily assume a beautiful form. In some cases, particularly skilled Sklavi can even assume the form of one of their consumed victims. As Sklavi become truly ancient, their minds become less human and they no longer like to assume humanoid forms and appear as nightmarish abominations more than anything resembling a human. Despite their inhuman appearance, the Sklavi do have a distinctly female appearance and quality about them that seems to transcend their strange features - except for the patriarchs whose mere appearance it is said will drive mortals mad.

The Sklavi are also extremely tough and resilient, even for Cambions, with wounds they suffer healing so quickly that its almost like liquid flowing back together rather than flesh healing. The exception being damage from fire or from holy or blessed weapons. Sklavi are the most pure blooded of the cambions and so are mystically the strongest, though they are likewise the most vulnerable to demonic weaknesses and those least able to coexist with humanity.

The Sklavi are inhuman not only in body but in mind as well. It is said that the patriarchs descend from bizarre eldritch horrors which the human mind cannot even conceive of. They are creatures of chaos and change, they are insane by mortal standards, with wildly swinging moods and personalities, sometimes experiencing hallucinations or other psychological maladies. While some can transform into beautiful humans, few have the social skills to maintain this masquerade for long with acting out in some bizarre manner.  Most would say that these mental conditions are from their minds mutating and shifting as easily as their bodies, though the Sklavi often contend that their insanity is a result of their ability to see beyond the illusion that others call reality. Indeed, sometimes their weird visions give them some forms of insight. Beyond being merely insane, the Sklavi tend to have an alien mindset with strange desires and compulsions, with no sense of compassion or even restraint. The Sklavi are known for some of the most perverse of all practices among the cambion families, engaging in orgies of sex, violence, and/or cannibalism routinely. They are typically cruel and calloused, with little regard for human life, though they are almost all completely dedicated to the patriarch masters.  

In addition to changing their own bodies, other things tend to change in the presence or under the influence of the Sklavi. Some can cause strange mutations with a touch of their hand, can cause an inanimate object to become twisted or distorted. Some particularly skilled Sklavi can even direct these changes to living things, shaping animate or even living matter as they desire. Most notably, the presence of the Sklavi can drive others insane, twisting their minds in strange and unpredictable ways and often elder Sklavi can deliberately force this on their foes. Often the madness inflicted by elder Sklavi on enemies cause them to see terrible visions of their worst fears. Other cambions are resistant to the chaotic effects of the Sklavi, but not completely immune.


Despite their madness, the Sklavi are talented sorceresses. While members of other families might have to study for years to achieve some magical talent or perform a ritual lasting the night to create a supernatural effect, many Sklavi intuitively develop spells and can cast them virtually at will without the great effort required by most other cambions. Of course, because of the insane and chaotic nature of the Sklavi, these spells often create strange side effects that even the Sklavi themselves cannot prevent or predict.


The Vesian


The Vesian are a family known for their extreme pursuit of sensation. While the Ivorix are known for their libidos and the Ascania for their love of fine living, the Vesian put both of these families to shame. The Vesian crave sensations of all kind, sensual pleasure, varieties of food, drugs and chemicals, or even self inflicted pain. To the Vesian, all sensations are pleasurable and worthy of embracing. The Vesian are also known for their sadism, their desire to inflict pain (or pleasure or both) on others.

The Vesian have pale skin and black hair, though this hair often turns gray or white at a young age, while their eyes tend to be shades of gray. While many members of the Vesian family are ugly by human standards, others are breathtakingly, if somewhat eerily, beautiful. Regardless of their appearance, Vesian tend to have an intensity about them, a look in their eyes, that can intimate even the bravest souls. What ever usual features that a Vesian may have, they seem to become more pronounced with age, even extreme attractiveness. In addition to what ever strange physical characteristics a Vesian may have, many also have numerous scars, tattoos, or other marking that they have inflicted upon themselves for pleasure or to enhance their magical potential.  In most cases, the Vesian dress conservatively in old fashioned but expensive clothes. 

The Vesian are effectively immune to pain, they find any feeling pleasant no matter what harm it does to their bodies. They are some of the most physically resilient of all Cambions, able to endure terrible physical harm and recover quickly. Additionally, some Vesian have the ability to manipulate pleasure or pain as well as other sensations eventually. This could also include enhancing the pleasure provided by sensual activity, making the Vesian lovers without peer. Vesian of greater power can inflict pleasure or pain with a mere touch or, in some cases only a glance.

The Vesian are scholars among the Cambion families as well. They value learning and education, not only of conventional topics, but on magic and the supernatural. Unlike the other families of Cambions who study just magic, the Vesian see it as a science and so often combine elements of science with their magic for more amazing and sometimes dangerous effects. Many magical experiments of the Vesian go awry - which their amazing fortitude helps them survive. The Vesian are masters of alchemy especially, and are known for creating magical potions which have a variety of strange effects. In particular, the Vesian obsession with sensation and with exploring the limits of pleasure and pain, has lead them to developing a number of magical concoctions which can dramatically heighten the senses or can cause intense euphoria or terrible agonies. They also create a variety of devices that are unspeakable in their purpose and effects. 

Many of the supernatural pleasures that a Vesian might inflict upon a mortal are highly addictive, in fact some of the most prized magical rituals of the Vesian allow them to bind mortal slaves to them through alternating painful and pleasurable effects. A Vesian may subject a mortal to this power over time, eventually turning the human into a willing slave. For addicted humans, the Vesian master will have a mystic control over their minds, with the control growing stronger with the greater sensation the human has been subjected to - especially when combined with the brand. 

Vesian who study magic often carve magical symbols into their flesh or the flesh of others. These infernal symbols often confer magical effects and the carving requires a special ritual which prevents the regenerative abilities of a Cambion from healing them. In some cases, these symbols may confer not only powers to the recipient, but power over the recipient by the Vesian sorcerer. Many Vesian have their human slaves so marked, or branded as some call it. Common brands for mortal slaves allow the Vesian master to inflict pleasure or pain on the slave from miles away, give them telepathic commands, or even sense their emotions.

Though members of the Vesian family family often find it difficult to interact with modern mortal society, with mortal slaves from various walks of life, includes business and politics, the Vesian do command quite a bit of influence and power. Despite being willing to do terrible things, some Vesian have a sense of honor when dealing with each other and even when dealing with mortals or other Cambions. They often only target people for truly unpleasant activities who they feel are dishonorable or deserving, and for the more innocent mortals they enslave, they feel protective or believe the relationship ultimately beneficial for the human. Many Vesian become involved at some point with organized crime, though often the criminals the Vesian deal with fail to live up to their sense of honor and end up the victims of Vesian depravity.