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THE UNIVERSE
Nov. 17th, 2013 07:44 pmJUST THE BASICS
It is the year 0816 AFL. The known galaxy was once united by the League Of Planets. This was a golden age of peace and development. Since its fall, the galaxy has been consumed by war. The devastation of it left many worlds in ruins and ushered in a hundreds of years long dark age. Only recently has the threat of outside invasions forced the nations of the Core to institute a fragile peace.
The galaxy is roughly segregated into three regions: the relatively prosperous, crowded Core, which consists of the hundreds of worlds surrounding Earth, the hardscrabble Periphery, which rings the Core, and the Beyond, denoting the mostly unexplored space past the Periphery.
NOTE
Parts of this page are left deliberately somewhat vague, to allow players to expand the universe themselves. If you want to add a major new faction, alien civilization, or other major addition to the universe, talk to the mods. We're probably fine with it!
HISTORY
Long ago, the League Of Planets unified the known galaxy. Its emperor ruled from the throne on Earth and humankind was at peace. This was an era of wonders, and the technology of the time often seems miraculous to the people of today. Scheming eventually brought the League down though. With no heir apparent to the throne, the core worlds fell into hundreds of years of war, with the great noble houses each declaring themselves the heir to the throne. The scale of devestation was staggering. Whole star systems were rendered uninhabitable. Many chose to retreat into space colonies rather than continue to live on their ruined planets. Only when the constant war threatened to end interstellar civilization period did warfare begin to become somewhat civilized, allowing a little breathing space to rebuild shattered worlds. Although low level conflict between the noble houses and other factions of the dozens of Core systems sorrounding Earth is constant, it has slowed enough to something that could be mistaken for peace at a distance.
In the last several decades, that peace has been threatened several times. The Zeon war saw its namesake fight for independence and supremacy of space colonists. The Clan and Abh invasions saw genetically engineered descendants of the old imperial legions attempt to reclaim Earth, causing the Core nations to briefly join forces to barely beat them back. And a dynastic succesion struggle that sprawls across several of the great noble houses threatens to reignite old conflicts.
REGIONS
The hundreds of planets nearest to Earth are referred to as the Core. Although the long wars after the end of the League Of Planets nearly ended Core civilization, intensive rebuilding efforts have ensured that the average Core citizen is more prosperous than their counterparts in the Periphery. It's also the most crowded part of known space, with many nations vying for power within it.
Surrounding the Core is the region known as the Periphery. Periphery worlds tend to be poorer than their Core counterparts, less terraformed and more likely to be raided by pirates. Many suffer under harsh exploitation by Core nations. Several rump states claiming the mantle of the short lived Duchy Of Zeon exist there, constantly scheming for revenge against perceived oppression.
Beyond the Periphery, little is known. Certainly somewhere out there are the Clan and Abh homeworlds. There must be other civilizations there too, perhaps even alien ones. But if there are, none has yet tried to contact us.
FACTIONS
Here are short profiles of some prominent factions. This is not an exhaustive list nor is it required reading. Players are encouraged to make up factions of their own if they need to in order to fit their characters into the setting. If you want your faction profiled in this space, please message the mods with a short profile.
Abh Empire: The other large spacefaring faction, the origins of the Abh are shrouded in mystery. What is known is that they're the descendants of genetic engineering, with their natural blue hair and frequently odd characteristics (pointed ears, red eyes, etc). They are adapted to life in space, which is where most of them live, making a living from the planets in their territory through trade and transportation taxes. They are experts at space warfare but disdain the spacenoid supremacism of Zeon, preferring the symbiotic relationship they have with their lander subjects.
The Clans: During the fall of the League, many of the League Legions left known space. Their fate was unknown for hundreds of years until twenty years ago, when their descendants reappeared on the scene in an invasion of the Core. The Core governments banded together and fought them to a peace treaty lasting thirty years. Clan society is frugal, honorable and hierarchical, with its genetically engineered warrior caste at the top. Most Clan warriors disdain the 'pretend fighting' of Solaris, but a few have entered the games, seeing parallels between them and their own system of dueling for conflict resolution.
Earth Sphere Confederation: This state controls the war-ravaged, nearly uninhabitable Earth and the systems surrounding it, from its capitol world of Brittania. They also claim the throne of the old League, though their government is an oligarchical republic, not a monarchy. Heavily dependent on space colonies for resources, the Confederation claims it will one day restore the Earth to a habitable state.
The Great Houses: When the League fell, many of the noble houses that had pledged fealty to it declared themselves the rightful heirs to the throne. These neo-feudal houses were some of the worst offenders in the conflicts that followed, fighting for hundreds of years over the empty throne and they still control large amounts of territory in the Core and often viciously exploit the Periphery. Some of the more prominent houses are Davion, Steiner, Kurita, Marik, Liao and Baratheon.
Mercenaries: The second oldest profession is alive and well in the galaxy. Some of the more famous mercenary units include The Kell Hounds, Wolf’s Dragoons and Tekkadan.
Pirates: Space pirates are a menace to isolated planets and interstellar shipping, especially in the Periphery. Some end up on Solaris as a last resort, taking shelter in the planet's ambiguous legal status.
Zeon: The devastation of the post-League wars led many humans to take refuge in space colonies. Zeon began as a movement around the independence of those colonies, resulting in a long war for independence from land-based rule that was eventually crushed by the Core states, led by the Earth Sphere Confederation. Though their cause inspired sympathy, their tactics, including terrorism and the dropping of derelict colonies onto enemy cities, often didn't. The remnants of the former Zeon government have split into rump states, controlling a few systems in the Periphery, but the threat of a Zeon resurgence is always on the radar of Core nation intelligence agencies.
ALIEN SENTIENTS
True alien sentients are rare and those that exist never achieved interstellar travel, though their technology did lead (as most things do in the galaxy) to advancements in battlefield technology. Many were persecuted during the dark ages following the fall of the League and were resettled in the distant Periphery.
Some alien civilizations escaped conflict with humans due to environmental differences. There are a few civilizations centered around gas giants which have so far escaped conflict with humans. Most governments keep a hands-off policy with them, not wanting to jeopardize their mining interests.
GENETIC ENGINEERING AND ROBOTICS
Far more common than true aliens are those who have been altered by the genetic engineering of the ancients (to the point that true aliens are usually assumed to be genetically engineered by ordinary people). Clan warriors and the Abh are well known examples. There are whole worlds in the periphery inhabited by people genetically engineered. Solaris is a cosmopolitan world, and thus not as hostile to them as many places in the Core, though discrimination isn't unknown.
The ancients also genetically engineered many non-sentient creatures, including some designed for combat. These creatures still roam free on some planets in the Periphery, posing hazards for explorers and lostech hunters.
People with extraordinary mental abilities (such as precognition, extrasensory empathy, mild telepathy) also exist, though that is a very rare trait. Such people often suffer more from their 'gifts' than they gain, since they're frequent targets of prejudice or governments that want to use them to research their military applications (such as psychic controls systems for battlemechs). The official ideology of Zeon glorified space colonists with these powers, calling them 'Newtypes'.
The creation of true artificial intelligence (as opposed to the common non-sentient robots that perform simple tasks) is lost technology. There are still individuals with the knowledge to build them, and ancient AIs from the time of the League still around, but they're very rare, save on the isolated Periphery planets where they still run "wild".