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Setting overview

Getting ready to set out for the Circinus Galaxy? Here is a quick overview of what you need to know. 

​Thousands of years ago, Ancient civilization spread across the galaxy, powered by impossibly advanced technology. Seemingly overnight, the Ancients vanished in a mysterious event archaeologists refer to as the Eschaton. After their disappearance, human civilization re-emerged on six different planets, known as the six Homeworlds.

Baryos
Baryos is a temperate and heavily forested world, watched over by mountain-sized Ancient machines known as the Titans. Much of early Baryosi society revolved around their worship. The Baryosi were the first to leave their planet, after reverse-engineering warp drives from the ruined Ancient starships that comprised the ring around the planet. Baryos was the capital of the United Association of Worlds before the Homeworld War, and is currently the capital of the Galactic League. In recent years, Baryosi influence in the galaxy has faded, as interplanetary governance becomes less and less relevant.

Agerre
A harsh and rocky world, whose inhabitants keep to their network of tunnels and caverns. Scarcity of resources led Agerran society to develop around ideals of careful control and minimalism. The same tenacity that led the Agerrans to being well-suited for military life in space led to their violent independence, and eventually to a civil war. Today, Agerre is isolated from the rest of the galaxy, blockaded by its own rebel fleet.

Zé
The surface of the planet Zé is divided into distinct atmospheric sections, and for generations its civilization was similarly divided into castes. The Peakborn lived in the clear air atop the high mountains, while the Sunken climbed down into the toxic air of the valleys to mine and hunt. The floating raft-cities of the Unmoored drift on the winds, caught between both worlds. After being liberated from the Agerran Commonwealth, a bloody uprising has overthrown the caste system on Zé, leaving the world socially and economically in a period of transformation.

Dor Len Sono
A quiet world of sprawling farmlands and a slow pace of life, Dor Len Sono spent several decades in a series of recessions. The Dor Len believe that no decision can be made until everyone involved has had a chance to speak, which means planetary politics moves incredibly slowly. Despite being the second Homeworld to be found by Baryosi explorers, Dor Len Sono was the last to join the U.A.W. after its formation. Dor Len Sono took in many Gyra refugees after the Homeworld War, and has now become New Gyr's closest trading partner. This strong relationship has bolstered the Dor Len economy, leading to a period of sustained recovery as New Gyr relies on Dor Len Sono for support, equipment, and a steady stream of emigrants. 

Ottsalia
The only one of the six Homeworlds to have stayed independent since the collapsed of the U.A.W., Ottsalia has had a long history of going its own way. It is a world of rampant biological evolution, where ancient genetic tampering resulted in a constantly mutating ecosystem. Ottsalia is the economic and scientific center of the galaxy, home to the headquarters of most major corporations. Galactic culture tends to follow the trends established on Ottsalia, though sometimes a decade or two behind.

New Gyr
The most recently-established Homeworld is a temperate planet of several large continents and enormous seas. It is home to the Gyra refugees, those who survived the Immolation of Gyr. Most Gyra cultures were seafarers, living on their planet's shallow seas and uncountable islands. Gyra from across the galaxy have flocked to New Gyr, and though it is still a young world, it represents a beacon of hope for rebuilding the galaxy. It is also home to numerous Ancient artifacts, including a fully functional AI, as well as being the home of the first Innate Academy. These two facts have made it a major destination for those who want to study or worship the Ancients and those who wish to hone their Innate powers.

The Colonies
During the Expansion Era, over a hundred human colonies were established. These outlying worlds were originally part of the U.A.W., but most seceded during the Homeworld War, frustrated by their lack of representation or respect by the government. Most of the colonies have now joined the Colonial Congress, founded and headquartered on Windrock, first of the colonies to be established. The Colonial Congress has emerged as the de fact galactic government, as the other attempts at interstellar governance have faded into irrelevance.  
If you play a Colonial character, you may choose to be from one of the pre-written Colonies or design your own Colony world of origin.

Human Variants

As humanity has spread through the stars, it has branched out into several subspecies. These variants are not distributed evenly among the planets, and are not always treated equally.

Baseline Humans
The most common form of intelligent life, Homo Sapiens are found on every inhabited planet in the known galaxy.

Evos
Genetic enhancement began on Ottsalia but has since spread to other worlds. Evos alter their own bodies to include flashy and sometimes functional changes like scales, eyes that can see in the dark, or even stranger modifications. On more conservative worlds, there is considerable distrust and fear of Evos.

Augments
For various reasons, many humans use cybernetics to replace and change their bodies. Most Augments work as physical laborers, in service to various corporations. Many of those are working to pay off the debts incurred to their corporation to pay off their cybernetic enhancements, a practice that many decry as unethical. The Augment rights movement is a major political cause on certain planets, though new Augments continue to sign up, desperate for a chance at a paying job.

Navigators
A subclass of Augments, Navigators have been neurologically altered to be able to interface directly with Warp engines. As time goes on, they develop symbiotic relationships with their Warp engines and ships. They are necessary to pilot starships through Warp, but are sometimes shunned from outside society. 

Innates
The rarest of human variants, Innates are those born with telekinetic or telepathic abilities. They have been shunned and feared throughout history by most groups other than the Paladins of Dawn, who recruited them actively. In the wake of the Homeworld War, in which Innate soldiers were used to destroy the planet Gyr, use of Innate powers has been outlawed across the galaxy, and most Innates have gone into hiding. New Gyr has emerged as a safe haven for Innates, and is home to the galaxy's only Innate Academy.
​

timeline

A Timeline of Civilization in the Circinus Galaxy

Dates listed in PC (Pre-Contact) and GT (Galactic Time)

Prehistory
[Unknown]        Ancient civilizations emerge
[Unknown]        Rise of the Order of Dawn
~6000 PC        The Eschaton
~400 PC        Baryosi Renaissance
80-72 PC        The Scavenger War
~50 PC        First Augments

Expansion Era
12 PC            First Warp Drive
11 PC            Nossein IV discovered
8 PC            Windrock Colony established
5 PC            Rovarr VI discovered
1 PC            First Contact between Baryos and Agerre
1 GT            United Association of Worlds founded
9 GT            Contact with Dor Len Sono
13 GT            Contact with Gyr, Gyr joins the U.A.W.
21 GT            Contact with Ottsalia, Ottsalia joins the U.A.W.
35 GT            Contact with Zé, start of the Veil War
37 GT            End of the Veil War, Zé joins the U.A.W.
46 GT            Dor Len Sono joins the U.A.W.

Homeworld War
133 GT        Agerran activists present to the Senate, sanctions declared
134 GT        Agerre secedes from the U.A.W., outbreak of war
136 GT        Windrock secedes from the U.A.W.
137 GT        Draft instituted by U.A.W.
138 GT        First Battle of Gyr
139 GT        Zé secedes from U.A.W.
140 GT        Agerre occupies Zé
141 GT        Battle of Baryos
142 GT        Second Battle of Gyr, end of the war
143 GT        Agerran Commonwealth established

Postwar Era
145 GT        Colonial Congress established
152 GT        Galactic League established on Baryos
154 GT        Dor Len Sono joins the Galactic League
165 GT        The Phaelos Crisis
166 GT        Agerran Civil War begins
168 GT        The Ascension Revolts begin
195 GT        New Gyr Thirty Year Anniversary (present day)

• TECHNOLOGY
• THE HOMEWORLDS
• THE COLONIES
• HUMAN VARIANTS
• GALACTIC SOCIETY

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​Due to the presence of Ancient technology through the galaxy, scientific progress has taken a somewhat winding and complicated path. Prior to the advent of interstellar travel, the Homeworlds each developed their own technology. Afterwards, technology began to improve rapidly, by leaps and bounds. Today, science mostly advances incrementally, building on existing theories. Periodically, though, a scientist or research lab will make a new breakthrough, usually based on a new understanding of an Ancient machine.Most technology in the galaxy is what’s referred to as Retrotech--new machines built based on Ancient designs and principles, reverse-engineered for the originals. Rarer and generally substantially more expensive are Artifacts--authentic Ancient machines that are still working or have been refurbished. The third category are Moderns, machinery built entirely based on modern science, without a specific Ancient basis. (Of course, whether or not any technology or science can be said to be truly with Ancient basis is a subject of considerable debate among techno-historians.)

The balance of these three types of technology varies from planet to planet and culture to culture. Baryosi love Artifacts, seeing them as status symbols, while Ottsalians lust after the latest and shiniest Moderns. Agerrans, meanwhile, pride themselves on their Retrotech, seeing the fusion of the classical and the contemporary as emblematic of Agerran history and prowess. Augments--especially Augment activists--tend to be fond of Moderns, seeing it as disconnected from the rest of human history, just as they themselves are disconnected from much of the rest of humanity.


Medicine

The most significant medical machinery comes in the form of Health Hubs. Hubs are powerful Artifacts that to this day are barely understood, and to many seem to be essentially magic. They project an energy field over a localized area--generally about twenty miles--that can significantly amplify the human body’s natural healing properties. The field is activated whenever a person within it experiences an injury significant enough to alter the body’s life signs. Losing a limb or getting stabbed will activate the field; stubbing your toe or cutting your finger won’t. Breaking a bone is an edge case, and depends on the bone and the severity of the break. When the field is active, the body kicks into overdrive, patching up the injury until the person stabilizes. The field cannot regenerate lost limbs or organs, but it will keep the body alive and functioning largely indefinitely.

On the Homeworlds, every major city has a Hub, or set of overlapping Hubs. This means that death due to violence is extremely rare in cities, as the fields very effectively keep people alive until medical professionals can get onsite. The Colonies do not have as easy a time of this, and often only have a Hub in their capital city. Interestingly, the field of a Hub does not always interact well with the altered genetics of Evos. While the process is normally painless (or at least does not create any additional pain beyond that of the initial injury), many Evos have reported extreme discomfort and even intense neurological pain while being restored by Health Hubs.
Medical technology is far from perfect, but it has come a long way. Recent advances in Ottsalian genetic engineering have made flash-cloning organs and entire limbs possible, though this is still prohibitively expensive. More common are cybernetic replacements for lost or damaged body parts. Medics and doctors carry spray-bottles of synthetic skin to patch up cuts and abrasions, as well as spray anaesthetics to use as needed.
​
Diseases are still a major issue, especially on colonial worlds with unfamiliar biospheres. Epidemics are rare, but sometimes a disease like the Merresi Tangle Flu will spread contagiously across a dozen planets. Pathologists and medical researchers are always needed on colony worlds, and the study of infectious diseases remains an eternally active field.


Transportation and Communication

Interstellar travel is done via warp drive, allowing starships to travel through wormholes, moving from star system to star system in a matter of days. There are two very different types of warp drive--skip drives and tunneling drives. Tunneling drives are Artifacts, and can create their own wormholes. They require three networked Navigators to operate, and can power and transport extremely large ships. Ships powered by tunneling drives are referred to as Capital ships, and are the size of small cities, potentially carrying tens of thousands of people. Capital ships are rare and precious, being limited by the number of tunneling drives found. Many capital ships were destroyed during the Homeworld War--at present, only ten fully-functional capital ships exist.

Skip drives are Retrotech, reverse-engineered and somewhat less functional than tunneling drives. Skip drives can traverse existing wormholes, both natural and those left behind by tunneling drives, but cannot create new ones. They are piloted by a single Navigator, and can transport medium-sized ships, generally called jumpships. Jumpships make up the majority of starships, and can be found throughout the galaxy.

Interstellar travel is not always safe. Wormholes decay over time, and jumpships can only travel so far through them. Every so often, a jumpship vanishes outright while traversing the warp, but in the modern era this is exceptionally rare. The passage of a capital ship’s tunneling drive is enough to stabilize a wormhole for four to five years, rendering it generally safe for jumpships. These days, there are established interstellar wormhole routes, and capital ships travel them regularly enough to keep the the vast majority of wormholes perfectly safe. Of course, outlying colonies do not get visited by capital ships nearly as often, making their wormholes slightly more precarious. This is a major political issue, and the singular capital ship controlled by the Colonial Congress is essentially on an ongoing travel cycle, visiting each of the colonies in turn to keep their wormholes stable.

Ships such as starfighters and shuttles are too small to have warp drives of their own. Capital ships generally carry a complement of starfighters and shuttles, and it’s not uncommon for larger jumpships to have a small shuttle or two.

No form of faster-than-light communication has yet been discovered, leading to the advent of Couriers. Couriers are the smallest kind of jumpships, with a crew of only two--a Navigator and a copilot, generally an Augment built for the purpose. Couriers are primarily large storage drives and communications arrays strapped to a jump drive, with just enough room for the two crew members. They jump from planet to planet, transmitting and picking up bursts of data at each stop along their path, serving as the interstellar mail service.

Couriers travel the routes between the Homeworlds on an hourly basis, but often only reach outlying colonies on a daily or even weekly schedule. Courier crew are augmented to be able to fly and travel for weeks on end without pausing to refuel, eat, or sleep. The cause of Courier rights is a major one undertaken by Augment activists. Unfortunately, few are eager to give up their regular source of news and communication, making the cause one that has gained little political traction.


Military

Military history is different on each Homeworld, but most modern martial traditions derive from Baryosi and Agerran history. Ottsalian weaponry was mostly focused on defense against their own environment, while Zé and Dor Len Sono had minimal military technological history to speak of. The Gyra, meanwhile, mastered the art of the bow and arrow, and Gyra archery is still seen as an important cultural tradition (though more as sport than military technique).

Around the time humans developed interstellar travel, Baryosi weapons technology had reached approximately the level of the musket, and was the most advanced in the galaxy. Muskets were both inaccurate and inefficient, not to mention completely stupid to use inside a starship. Once people started getting Health Hubs online, muskets and pistols were rendered even further irrelevant. Guns do exist in the modern day, but they are rare and seen more as a tool for sport than anything else.

Blasters are the colloquial name given to a particular type of Artifact weapon. They are handheld weapons, roughly gun-shaped, that temporarily shut down the nervous system of a target, rendering them unconscious for anywhere from a few minutes to an hour. Blasters are both rare and illegal, making them the province primarily of outlaws and scoundrels. They are also unpredictable, and often take several hours to recharge between shots. It is generally assumed that they were originally both more reliable and faster to recharge, but their power cells have weakened with the millennia.

Much more common are swords. The modern vibrosword is a descendant of old Agerran designs, and can be seen in various makes and models throughout the galaxy. Vibroswords make clean cuts, and are designed to sever limbs efficiently and permanently. Most ground combat since the dawn of the Expansion Era has been conducted with vibroswords, when it happens. Agerran dueling culture has also become commonplace, with many people casually carrying vibroswords on their person. The presence of Health Hubs mean that dueling to first blood is not an uncommon way to settle a disagreement that gets out of hand, and most cities have dueling grounds set aside for just such a purpose.

Combat in space is substantially stranger and more dangerous. Most ships carry at least one railgun, a large projectile-launcher that throws metal ingots across vast distances. Railguns are neither accurate nor efficient, but they are effective if they land a hit. The ship’s Navigator must account for the expenditure of kinetic energy and thrust that firing a railgun entails, making ship-to-ship combat a complex dance. More than one battle has been lost when a Navigator collapsed under the mental stress of steering a jumpship through evasive maneuvers while also trying to account for firing its weapons.
​
Starfighters are essentially bombers, or mobile railguns. They align themselves with an enemy ship, accelerate to speed, then release a projectile that continues at the target while the starfighter alters course. This means that starfighter-to-starfighter combat is rare, though not entirely unheard of. Many starfighters are equipped with what amount to ship-mounted muskets for discouraging enemy fighters, though these are rarely effective at anything less than point blank range. There are stories of idiotic cadets at the Agerran Naval Academy playing railgun chicken with each other. The theory is that the two ingots will collide with each other and explode, putting on quite a show for the other cadets. More than one of these (ambiguously apocryphal) stories ends in tragedy for the cadets involved.

Baryos
behr-ee-os / behr-yohs - [bɛɹ-i-os] / [bɛɹ-jos]
Population: 7 billion
First Contact: 1 PC
History and Culture
A ringed temperate planet with a relatively mild climate, Baryos is defined most by the Titans. The Titans are colossal machines left behind by the Ancients. There are several dozen, scattered across the world, ranging in size from a mile across to larger than a mountain. They have animalian forms, though most bear little resemblance to any of the actual fauna of Baryos. They move slowly, in mostly predictable patterns, simply making their way across the landscape. They seem to serve no practical purpose, and their original function remains entirely mysterious. In addition to the live ones, shells and skeletons of seven dead ones also exist. Unsurprisingly, much early religion on Baryos was built around worshipping either the Titans or the mythical artificers who created them.

Baryos has several large continents and deep seas, and is the most Earthlike of the Homeworlds. Civilization emerged in several places, with wars being a periodic, if not frequent, occurrence. The inventions of optical telescopes during the Baryosi Renaissance led to the discovery that Baryos’s rings were not natural. They were in fact made up of machine debris of all kinds. This discovery led to a massive global cultural interest in spaceflight.

It took well over three hundred years after that for the Baryosi to successfully make orbit. The rings turned out to be a treasure trove of damaged satellites, remains of starships, and other strange machinery of the Ancients. What followed was known as the Scavenger War, as the various global superpowers raced to find useful technology in the rings and put it to use. The Scavenger War ended brutally, as one country dropped a massive piece of debris from orbit onto another’s capital city, wiping it entirely off the map.

The wake of that devastation led to the signing of international peace treaties that ended the war and ushered in a new era of relative peace, though of course bitter mistrust remained between many of the nations. Peacetime led to international scientific rivalries, and the space race continued. Technology scavenged from the rings led to massive breakthroughs, as ancient machines were reverse-engineered.

The first true Augments emerged, as one nation’s scientists began to experiment with incorporating ancient technology into their bodies. Their culture was one that still held the Titans as deities, and becoming more like them was seen as an almost holy act. These early Augments were faulty and had a high mortality rate, but were necessary for the next breakthrough: interstellar travel.

A single functional warp engine was found in a ship in the rings, and from it other damaged ones were able to be repaired. Skeletons had been found in other ships with neural augmentation left in their hollow skulls, and eventually those augments were reverse-engineered as well, and the first Navigators came into being. The early warp engines were weak, and only able to power small exploratory ships.

With warp travel came the beginnings of the Expansion. After a number of lifeless rocks, Baryosi explorers found the first two colony worlds, Rovarr VI and Nossein IV. Both showed clear signs of past terraforming, and Rovarr VI was mostly a junkyard of ruined technology. It was an immediate confirmation that the Baryosi were not alone in the galaxy, or at least, that the Ancients had been here before. Rovarr VI’s junk led to further technological advancements, and the rise of slightly-larger starships. Colonies and research facilities were established, and the settlement process began.

A destination solution was discovered in the navigation system of a downed ship on Rovarr VI, which led to First Contact with Agerre. Communication was established, and almost immediately Agerre and Baryos formed the United Association of Worlds. Agerre had not yet developed spaceflight, but accepted the technological gifts of the Baryosi with open arms. Soon Agerre’s Hangar Moon was unlocked, and with it, the great starmaps of the Ancients. With Homeworlds Agerre and Baryos working together, the Expansion Era began in earnest.

Over the decades since then, Baryos’s various nations have gradually set aside their differences. There is still a decent amount of cultural distinction, but for the most part the society is a fully global one. A coalition government rules from a planetary capital city, mounted atop one of the Titans--a slow-moving island turtle. The University of Titan’s Passage, the oldest university on Baryos, is now the most prestigious school for students throughout the galaxy, dating back well over a thousand years.

During the Homeworld War, animosity between Agerre and Baryos ran particularly and viciously deep. Agerran capital ships attacked Baryos from orbit, and three of the Titans were destroyed by large-scale weaponry. It was a tragic moment for the world, and one that shook Baryosi society to its core.

After the close of the War, Baryosi society became fairly insular for a decade. Then came the birth of the Galactic League, formed in the image of the United Association of Worlds. It was an attempt to recapture that beautiful peace, and seeks to be inclusive and welcoming of all. However, it gained little traction in the grander community, with only Dor Len Sono ever joining.

Baryosi culture places a high value on hospitality, knowledge of history, and determination. There is quite a lot of Baryosi planetary pride. Non-Baryosi might say they have a superiority complex (and probably wouldn’t be too wrong). Depending on your perspective, most Baryosi are either deeply idealistic or deeply naïve. Plausibly both.

In addition to its rings, Baryosi has two moons, both of which are inhabited. Rasa, the closer of the two moons, is primarily a military stronghold. For decades, it was the main staging point for the U.A.W. Navy, though that became complicated during the Homeworld War when the Agerran members of the Navy defected and took most of the capital ships with them. Today, it serves as the main base of the considerably smaller Galactic League Navy. Half of the base has been converted into the headquarters of the Galactic Expansionary Corps. The Corps is the public aid wing of the League, dedicated to supporting and establishing colonies. Of course, many colonies have refused aid from the Corps, especially those that have joined the Colonial Congress. Some in the colonies claim the Corps is little more than a PR move on the part of the League, and is doing more harm than good in their attempts to help.

Baryos’s second moon, Enzan, is considerably smaller, and is actually a massive captured comet composed primarily of ice, with a dense rocky core. Tunnels have been dug into the ice, and Enzan has for many generations served as a maximum security prison. It was originally operated by the U.A.W., but now is run independently. To citizens of the galaxy, being iced means being sentenced to life in prison on Enzan.

Agerre
uh-gair - [ʌ-geɹ]
Population: 3 billion
First Contact: 1 PC
History and Culture
A harsh and rocky world, Agerre is too close to its sun for its surface to be human-habitable. The flora and fauna tend to be mostly aggressive and predatory, with vicious serpent-like creatures and terrifying insectoid hunters. Beneath the surface is a massive network of caves and tunnels, home to the Agerran people. Most of the caves were excavated artificially by the Ancients, though their exact purpose is mostly unclear. Additionally, there are numerous naturally-occurring massive underground caverns, where the Agerrans make their cities and farms.

With resources in such finite supply, Agerran society trended towards tight control. Food, water, and above all habitable space were always rationed carefully. Agerrans believe fiercely in the idea of control and sacrifice for the greater good. If any one person becomes too greedy, the whole cave might starve. Cities are carefully planned and rigidly structured.

While war did occasionally happen over the course of Agerran history, it was a relative rarity. Politics tended to be carried out through negotiation, espionage, assassination, and dueling. Victories were decisive and harsh. At several notable points throughout military history, specially trained commando units actually made their way a significant distance across the surface to strike back down into an enemy city from the outside. The leaders of these raids are seen as folk heroes, and their names have been passed down through the generations.

When young Agerrans come of age in their sixteenth year, they are given the option of facing an important trial ritual: the Sunwalk. They may journey out of the caves and face the surface, bringing with them only tools they made on their own. They are to survive for one week, and come back with proof that they killed one of the planet’s myriad deadly predators. Over half of those who attempt Sunwalking do not survive, but those that do are hailed as heroes upon their return. The trial is entirely voluntary, but those who opt out are generally seen as weaker of will. It is rare for an untried Agerran to rise to any noteworthy position in society or politics.

Agerrans see themselves as intensely passionate people, though it manifests in complex ways. They detest excess in all things, including outward displays of emotions. Their art is subtle, and often very tiny. Short poems, palm-sized sculptures, and delicate line drawings are all common forms of Agerran artwork.

When the Baryosi first landed on Agerre, they thought it was uninhabited. They were quickly proven wrong when an Agerran surface raiding party captured their landing ship. After the initial confusion was cleared up, things changed rapidly. Baryosi technological advancements gave rise to surface cities, faster growing techniques, and all other manner of lifestyle improvements for Agerrans. Many were resistant, though, seeing reliance on outside technology as weak or un-Agerran. The governing bodies decided to embrace the new ideas, in the end, and Agerre and Baryos came together to form the United Association of Worlds.

Baryosi scanning teams noted strange patterns on the surface of Agerre’s moon, and expeditions were soon mounted. They discovered that the moon was in fact mostly hollow, and was a hangar bay for seven massive Ancient capital ships, all still in nearly perfect condition. Two still had full crews of skeletons sitting in their chairs, wasted away by the generations.

It took years to get the ships operational again, but once they did, Agerrans proved extremely well-suited to crewing them. A culture that had oriented itself to survive as ascetically as possible in the resource-starved caves took quickly to a similar life aboard the massive starships. A carefully controlled life with minimal living quarters wasn’t that different in space. As such, the U.A.W. Navy was initially almost entirely crewed by native Agerrans.

During the Expansion Era, tensions grew gradually between Agerre and the rest of the U.A.W. for a number of reasons. The Agerrans saw the other planets as excessive and wasteful. Meanwhile, most of the rest of society looked down on the Agerrans as barbaric and primitive. The Sunwalking tradition was seen as particularly horrifying.

As with any war, the Homeworld War had a number of causes. The details will be explored elsewhere. Suffice it to say, a group of young activists from one of the Agerran caves made a presentation on the harshness of life underground before the U.A.W. senate. The senate overwhelmingly voted that the Agerran way of life was a civil rights violation, and demanded that Agerre move away from its authoritarian ways and give its citizens more freedoms. What began as Agerran resistance to outside control over their way of life quickly spiralled out of control, and the war began in earnest.

After ten years, the war ended when an Admiral Therra of the Agerran fleet took specially trained Innates and channeled their power through Ancient technology to trigger a massive geological cataclysm on Gyr, turning its entire surface to magma. It was meant primarily as a shower of power, a threat against Baryos. Admiral Therra claimed that the weapon had gone too far, but he was arrested by his own people for speaking out against the high command. Agerre declared victory in the war, and formed the Agerran Commonwealth, which consisted of Agerre, Zé, and several annexed colony worlds.

​Dor Len Sono
dohr-len-so-no - [doɹ-lɛn-sono]
Population: 5 billion
First Contact: 9 GT
History and Culture
Dor Len Sono’s defining physical feature is that it is almost completely flat. It is impressively tectonically inactive, with no major mountain ranges or canyons. Even its oceans are very shallow, with minimal elevation difference between the seafloor and the highest hills. There are few significant weather events, and the majority of the biosphere consists of prairie, scrub, steppe, and tundra. Due to the aridity of the atmosphere, few large trees grow. Dor Len Sono’s only particularly significant points of interest are the Mausoleums, a massive set of Ancient tombs embedded within the icecaps of the South Pole.

The Dor Len people are generally very patient and introspective, and its culture has been impressively slow to shift. For as long as anyone can remember, the planet has been divided into Queendoms. The exact number of Queendoms has shifted with time, as families intermarried and children divided realms, but the Queendoms have always held highest power. Eventually, all of the Queens managed to gather together and agree to a global government. Thus the Council of Nine was formed, and for the last six hundred years they have ruled largely uninterrupted.

The monarchy is hereditary, but most day-to-day governance of any given Queendom is handled by various elected sub-councils. An important element of Dor Len culture is that all voices are valid and worth hearing, which means that decisions often take months to reach. Everyone is given a chance to speak, from the youngest to the eldest. Even though Dor Len Sono was the third Homeworld discovered, it was the last to formally join the U.A.W., as it took over a hundred years for a consensus to work its way up from the general populace all the way to the Council of Nine.

Dor Len Sono’s introspective and methodical culture has left it with a few major claims to fame. Many of the most famous philosophers of galactic history are Dor Len. There are various theories as to why, with several scholars having gone entirely seriously on record as claiming that Dor Len Sono’s “utter lack of external distractions” make it a perfect place to force internal development. Dor Len Sono also has a rich tradition of keeping personal journals, with some of those journals going on to find publication, posthumously or otherwise. To willingly give another access to your journal is seen as a sign of great trust, as it lets them know your inner thoughts. Young Dor Len sometimes exchange their journals as part of the courting process.

The majority of people on Dor Len Sono work in agriculture and animal husbandry. With ample resources and little conflict between Queendoms, the small farming cultures thrived. Different leisure classes began to emerge, supported by the farming class. All manner of art forms began to flourish, including painting, writing, interactive theater, and dance. Notably, in a few Queendoms monasteries were built to enshrine practitioners of philosophy, math, physics, and natural sciences. The leisure academics were responsible for most of the technological advances of Dor Len Sono before the expansion era, but how those technologies were integrated into the Queendoms was not always easy, and at times extremely contentious.

When communities were small, it was easier to come to collective consensus, and make sure that everyone was heard and respected. Often there was one mediator in a farming community who would handle outlying opinions and social mavericks. However, as the leisure class grew, and communication and transportation methods advanced, communities grew larger and larger. Large towns were more likely to suffer from what academics called "community collapse" and the "collapse cycle". As settlements and communities grew, it became more difficult to come to pure consensus, and they would split, move, and then slowly grow again.

During this time of communal instability, many Queendoms came to the same conclusion: outsiders who expressed outlying opinions would be happier if they joined communities of similar thinkers. Radical thinkers joined academic monasteries, artists joined similarly enshrined art collectives, and occasionally troubled individuals fell through the cracks.

The art collectives and monasteries did not have autonomous power outside of their Queen, but as communities they did form alternative societies and had different values. Art, philosophy, and sciences thrived - but did not impact the Queendom at large. For example, telegraph technology was invented 150 years before any Queen used it.

Mediators now had a greater role in the Queendoms. Mediators worked for years with the monasteries and farming communities to smooth integration of new ideas and technology. Often this process was slow but peaceful - and occasionally there was civil disobedience, and years of art and information were lost. For the last 200 years, Mediators have formed the majority of citizens who speak between sub-councils and directly to the Queens, and serve as ambassadors to other planets.

During the Expansion, offworld technological advancements brought complications to Dor Len life. Dor Len Sono’s prairies are good farmland, making it ripe for harvesting to feed other worlds. Offworld corporations began to set up automated farming operations, which, while profitable for them, left millions of Dor Len out of a job. The slow-moving governmental systems were unable to keep up with the rapid and abrupt pace of technological shifts. Disenfranchisement and unemployment rose rapidly.

That changed with the dawning of the Homeworld War. The unemployed Dor Len leapt at the chance to join the U.A.W. Navy, hoping for a better life offplanet. They became frontline soldiers, and died by the thousands against the better-trained forces of Agerre. But those who survived had money, money to send back home to their families. It was the first economic boost Dor Len Sono had received in generations.

When the war ended, the soldiers came home, and the recession redoubled. What’s worse, over-farming had begun to damage much of the soil of Dor Len Sono. With minimal significant weather and nonexistent tectonic action, the soil turnover rate was basically zero. All the nutrients were gone, and many farms had already begun to collapse. The corporations started to pull out en masse, and the Dor Len economy folded even deeper in on itself.

Local Dor Len began buying back up the abandoned farmland, and have been attempting to gradually rehabilitate the soil, year by year. But many theorize it’s too late--too late for the land, and too late for Dor Len Sono itself. With the utter lack of opportunity, many young Dor Len save up their money for one thing: a one-way ticket offworld. Repeated waves of emigration--mostly to Baryos, Ottsala, and the Colonies--have left Dor Len Sono largely without its young people. The youth that have stayed behind are turning to escapism via Ottsalian virtual reality.

The farming collapse damaged most monasteries, since their arts were supported by donations from farmers. However, the more insular and self-sufficient monasteries were quicker to adapt to outside economic forces, since they had something besides food and textiles to trade. The monasteries' looming independence is a threat to the majority of Dor Len Sono, and the Queens have been slow to bring them back into the fold. As the differences between the people grow, and the majority of Dor Len suffers from poverty and rapid community collapse, some theorize that Dor Len Sono may face its first civil war in known history.

There have always been rumors that monasteries practice taboos, but since Dor Len Sono made contact with other Homeworlds, those rumors have only become more imaginative. Assassins, spies, radical augmentation, Innates, artificial intelligence, radical evolution, and alien contact are all rumored to lie behind monastery doors.

Hoping for economic salvation, Dor Len Sono joined Baryos’s new Galactic League. Dor Len like to joke that it was the fastest the Council of Nine ever came to a decision, but their joking may not be too far off the mark. Unfortunately, the aid that Dor Len Sono has been seeking never arrived from Baryos. In the years after the war, many young Dor Len began leaving the world, seeking work elsewhere. They were replaced by millions of Gyra refugees.

Modern Dor Len society (and philosophy) is divided sharply into two schools. The Customarians hold to old ways and old traditions, and believe that the best thing for Dor Len Sono would be to distance itself from galactic civilization and focus on rebuilding its economy and farms alone. The Dynamists embrace change and argue that the galaxy has changed, and that Dor Len Sono needs to adapt with it. They were the ones who pushed for Dor Len Sono to join the Galactic League.

Ottsalia
aht-sah-lee-uh - [ɑt-sɑ-li-ə]
Population: 16 billion
First Contact: 21 GT
History and Culture
On a planet of constant change, the only path to survival is adaptation. Ottsalia is a world of extreme change and contrast, with a hyper-evolutionary biosphere that is always trying to outdo itself. The presiding theory holds that the Ancients used Ottsalia as a testbed for experimental genetic augmentation, and when they vanished, their prototypes infected the biosphere, leading to uncontrollable biological chaos.

The civilizations that emerged on Ottsalia learned how to adapt to stay ahead. New predators emerged every generation, and hunters and warriors had to constantly develop new weapons and figure out how to outsmart the latest beasts and carnivorous plants out for their blood. Ottsalian civilizations prized innovation and creativity, as it led to survival. Competition and warfare between cultures and tribes on Ottsalia was rare, even in its infancy, as humans needed to work together to stay alive. Property--both physical and intellectual--tended to be communal rather than private. What’s good for the family on Ottsalia is good for the species.

The humans of Ottsalia knew they were different from the start of their history for a simple reason: their children were born looking roughly like them, unlike just about every other species on the planet. In order to survive, Ottsalians developed technology. They learned from nature, and started figuring out how to get ahead. Permanent civilization was an uphill battle, but one that the Ottsalians were willing to fight. Cities emerged, generally with massive walls to keep the jungle of a thousand glorious nightmares away. These cities remained independent from one another as city-states until a global government emerged during the Expansion Era, with no national political stage in between. Ottsalia does not have much information on its own history, and has never cared much to keep records of it. After all, the future is both more exciting and more important. When you need to figure out what’s going to try to kill you tomorrow, what tried to kill you yesterday just isn’t that interesting.

Today, Ottsalia is the galaxy’s center of science, technology, and culture. The massive cities are connected by trains, their tracks patrolled by automatons that fight back the overeager flora and fauna. The planet is home to over sixteen billion people, the most of any Homeworld. Most major corporations have their headquarters on Ottsalia, especially those in the pharmaceutical or technological fields. Ottsalia’s laws on ethics are few and far between, making it a rich hotbed for experimentation both medical and otherwise.

Ottsalian technology trended towards the biological, drawing inspiration from its environment. Genesplicers began altering humans for fun and profit, leading to the emergence of the Evos--humans who voluntarily change their bodies and their DNA. Some take on animal characteristic such as scales or bioluminescent patches, while others heighten their senses or just grow a tail. Almost a third of the population of Ottsalia are Evos of one kind or another, and while Evos are eye-catching elsewhere in the galaxy, they are a common sight on the streets of any of Ottsalia’s major cities.

Up until recently, the alterations meant that most Evos were sterile. However, new advancements have resulted in Evos (at least, those with the money to afford it) being able to reproduce biologically. This has led to some major public ethics arguments, as society at large debates whether or not Evos should be allowed to pass on their alterations to their children. The Evo parents see their changes as parts of who they are, while their opponents insist that their children should be allowed to choose their own alterations (if any) when they come of age.

Life in Ottsalian cities tends to be disorienting for non-natives, for a number of reasons. Most needs are provided for through biological engineering. Trees in massive public orchards generate fresh fruit and three-course meals overnight, while moss gardens purify water into sweet-flavored drinking troughs. Meanwhile, public art exhibits and performances pop up spontaneously on the streets, occasionally stopping traffic and throwing streets into temporary chaos. Everything is loud, flashy, and extravagant, which is exactly the way Ottsalians like it.

Jungle adventuring is a popular--and extremely dangerous--sport on Ottsalia, attracting natives and offworlders alike. Going into the jungle and coming out alive with a prize is a major goal of teenage Ottsalians, and many lose their lives on drunken underprepared expeditions. There are, of course, many famous explorers, most with their own livecast shows. Comparisons to the Agerran Sunwalk are both common and thoroughly offensive to Agerrans and Ottsalians alike.

Politically, Ottsalia has always been very independent. Technically it joined the U.A.W., but galactic events rarely had much relevance to life on Ottsalia. It stayed entirely out of the Homeworld War, seceding early on from the U.A.W. and then mostly ignoring the rest of the war. This has left some people bitter at the Ottsalian government for not intervening, but that neutrality kept life on Ottsalia safe. Ottsalia recently joined the Colonial Congress, but its delegation votes almost exclusively when policies about minimizing intervention are on the floor.

Ottsalians tend to have deep pride in their world. Most natives go the majority of their lives without ever going offworld. Their prevailing claim is that anything they could ever want is on Ottsalia--why would they ever willingly go somewhere less interesting? After all, cultural, musical, and fashion trends tend to follow what happens on Ottsalia, about a decade behind. Ottsalia is a garden of beautiful madness, and its denizens wouldn’t have it any other way.

Ottsalians also take a different approach to naming than much of the rest of the galaxy. While on other Homeworlds, children commonly carry the same names as the rest of their families, on Ottsalia children are often only given one name. They are expected to choose a surname when they come of age, based on their interests or accomplishments. These names can and do change, as do personal names. It is not uncommon for an adolescent Ottsalian to go through a dozen or more name changes before they settle on one they feel is right. This practice has begun to spread to other worlds, especially among the Colonies.

Zé
zay - [zei]
Population: 2 billion
First Contact: 35 GT
History and Culture
Most of the Homeworlds show significant signs of terraforming by the Ancients, to make them more suitable for human habitation. Zé seemingly received no such treatment. Much of its atmosphere is toxic to humans, and Zé society evolved in response to their strange and harsh world.

The atmosphere of Zé contains gases of very different densities, dividing the atmosphere vertically into four distinct levels. At the bottom is the Miasma, the thick, nearly-opaque soup of toxic gases that are emitted by geothermal vents. Several hundred meters above that is the Haze, a thin region where the toxins of the Miasma circulate and mingle with the breathable upper sections. Above the Haze is the Clear, which comprises most of the atmosphere, and is breathable by human standards. Go high enough in the Clear and you reach the Veil. The Veil is a permanent layer of water-vapor-rich cloud cover, opaque enough to render the stars invisible at night, but still clear enough to allow some light through.

The existence of the Veil led to the first (fortunately brief) interplanetary war, when U.A.W. explorers made contact with Zé in 35 GT. The people of Zé had no concept of anything beyond the Veil, and did not react well to the arrival of strangers from other worlds. The U.A.W. explorers, worried about hurting the locals, did not launch counterattacks, and for almost a year, every landing craft was taken down by Zé airships. Eventually the U.A.W. forces established a defensible landing point atop an uninhabited mountaintop, but it took another few months for them to actually establish lines of communication with the people of Zé. After that, word spread quickly from mountaintop to mountaintop, and Zé soon joined the other Homeworlds, though offworld travel remained rare for many years after the Veil War.

Across the planet, numerous mountains and mountain ranges rise well into the Clear, and most human civilization exists in cities built atop those peaks. Most does not mean all, though. Zé society is as divided as its atmosphere, split into three castes--the Peakborn, the Sunken, and the Unmoored--each with a radically different way of life. The three are symbiotic, each relying on the other two for survival, but nonetheless each caste resents the others, and has for as long as anyone can remember.

The Peakborn live in cities atop Zé’s mountains. They generally see themselves as the ruling class, and Zé is for the most part governed from Peakborn cities. The Peakborn make up almost half of Zé’s population, though they are distributed very unevenly, as different mountains have differently-sized cities. Peakborn society is centered on the Jaw of the World, a huge semicircular mountain range that’s home to a chain of seven distinct but linked cities.

The Sunken are a subordinate caste, living in the Haze below Peakborn cities. They wear specially-designed environment suits that allow them to survive the Miasma while outdoors, and their homes are filtered and airtight to keep the toxins out. The first Sunken fogsuits were made from pieces of exoskeleton hunted from creatures that dwell in the Miasma. Artificial fogsuits now exist, but their role in Sunken society is complicated. Some refuse to use them as they say it’s defying tradition, and all Sunken should harvest and make their own fogsuits. Others claim they’re faulty or mediocre, and that the Peakborn are intentionally holding back fogsuit research in order to keep the Sunken in the Haze. Regardless, even the best fogsuits are imperfect, and all Sunken develop symptoms due to lifelong low-level exposure to their toxic enrivonment. These symptoms manifest in different ways, from respiratory issues to memory loss to cracking skin. Each Sunken responds differently.

The Sunken exist in uncomfortable symbiosis with the Peakborn. Many resources necessary to Peakborn life can only be found down on the surface, so the Sunken serve as harvesters and miners, journeying down to the foothills and flatlands in the toxic fog on regular expeditions. Every Peakborn city has its Sunken. Often Peakborn families will establish trade relationships directly with a particular Sunken family. These familial bonds can last generations. In some cases that leads to emotional closeness, if the Peakborn treat and pay their Sunken partners well, but in many cases it just leads to multigenerational buildup of resentment.

The Unmoored (often colloquially called Drifters) originated as the transportation guild of the Peakborn. They harnessed the native blimp-like creatures called zeppelids and rode them, bringing people from peak to peak. As time went on, they learned how to harvest the gas that the zeppelids produce and trap it, using it to create giant floating raft-cities. These cities float atop the Haze, supported from beneath by huge balloons that are filled with lighter-than-air gasses. The cities are mostly migratory, following the cycles of wind and moving between the various mountain ranges. While the cities do have both enormous sails and engines that allow them to travel on their own power, these both take enormous expenditures of energy to operate, meaning they are only utilized in times of emergency or with great planning.

For many years, Unmoored continued to serve their initial role of providing transport to Peakborn, and it was not uncommon for young Peakborn to spend a year aboard a raft-city, working and seeing the world. Unmoored raft-cities are very independent from one another, each one tending to operate as a large family or clan. There have been a few occasions of raft-cities going to war against one another, but those tended to be brief.

Skyship pirates are a major danger for Unmoored. Peakborn cities tended to be too well-defended for raiding (though some pirates certainly try), while raft-cities are seen as easier targets. With the dawn of interplanetary trade, the Unmoored started arming themselves against pirates more heavily, but the pirates have retaliated in kind, leading to an ongoing and very dangerous arms race.

The Windlock Commune is a unique place on Zé, near the south pole where a mountain rises to just above the Haze, barely into the Clear. Decades ago, a group of disgruntled Zé gathered together and bought out the wreck of a raft-city that had fallen to piracy. They refurbished it and tethered it to the peak. Since then, it has grown dramatically, expanding outwards as more skyships tether themselves to it and become a part of the city. It’s a strange place, where members of all three castes intermingle and coexist. Its inhabitants tend to be poor, and it has little communication or interaction with the outside world. Young radical Peakborn have been heard to use the threat of dropping out of society and joining the commune to scare their parents on more than one occasion.

Zé is also the headquarters of the Paladins of Dawn, and is home to its two largest temples. Both temples take up entire mountain peaks of their own, though they are very different. The Cliffgate Temple has been fully restored, and until recently it served as the central temple of the Order of Dawn. Much of what is known of the Ancient Order comes from the carvings and codices found within Cliffgate. For decades, it has been occupied by monks and paladins of the Order, living, practicing, and studying the ways of the Ancient Order. Before the Homeworld War, followers of the Order often made pilgrimages to the Cliffgate Temple, to spend time studying and meditating.

The Stormgate Temple, however, has never been restored nor has it been brought back into use. This is due to the local meteorology--the entire mountain Stormgate is built on is surrounded by a permanent hurricane-level storm that makes access incredibly difficult. Most believe the storm to be artificial, somehow engineered by Ancient Paladins as a defense for the temple, in the time before the Eschaton. Archaeologists and the particularly devout braved the storm to study the temple, but much of the interior of Stormgate remains unexplored, to this day.

For the most part, Zé stayed out of the Homeworld War. With no real military or navy to speak of and no particular strategic value, it was ignored by both the U.A.W. and Commonwealth forces. During the war, Zé formally seceded from the U.A.W. alongside Dor Len Sono and Ottsalia, after the U.A.W. navy decided to implement a draft. Rather than send their children to join the navy, the Peakborn government decided to leave the U.A.W. entirely. With the planet thus left totally undefended, the Agerran Commonwealth swept in and conquered the world in a single strike, with landing crafts dropping onto every Peakborn city at once from above the Veil. The Peakborn government surrendered, and the occupation began.

During the twenty-one years under Agerran occupation, life did not change enormously for most Zé, but the pre-existing tensions grew much stronger. The Unmoored and Sunken both resented the Peakborn more than ever--initially for not resisting more, and then for being willing collaborators with the Agerran occupiers. The Agerrans only really governed the Peakborn cities, leaving both the Sunken and the Unmoored raft-cities alone. The Windlock Commune became a particular hotbed of rebel activity, host to a number of revolutionaries who called for uprising against the Agerran occupiers.

The Commonwealth also dramatically limiteded travel to and from Zé. For native Zé, the only legal way offworld was to join the Agerran Navy. Of course, smugglers did visit Zé, and many young people dreamed of saving up enough to pay for passage off-planet. Major religious officials were allowed occasional visas to visit the Cliffgate Temple, and every so often one was issued to an archaeologist or other researcher.

The Commonwealth also put the Stormgate Temple to new use, repurposing it into a political prison. Admiral Therra, the man responsible for the destruction of Gyr, was locked up within Stormgate, as well as numerous political dissidents from both within and beyond the Commonwealth. When this became public knowledge, ten years after the end of the war, the Paladins of Dawn formally denounced the Commonwealth for desecrating one of their holiest sites. It was the first time in known history that the Paladins have set aside their neutrality and made an explicit political statement.

New Gyr
new gear - [nu gi:ɹ]
Population: 20 million
History and Culture
New Gyr is the newest Homeworld, settled by the surviving refugees of Gyr, the planet that was destroyed at the end of the Homeworld War. Prior to its destruction, Gyr was a planet of shallow seas and a thin crust. This resulted in intense and somewhat unpredictable volcanic activity and numerous chains of small islands. The nutrient-rich seafloor was a happy bed for massive coral reefs. Many species of Gyra coral evolved to impressive heights, reaching to the surface and rising high above it. Some were even carnivorous, consuming any of the seabirds foolish enough to try to land on their raised branches.

The people of the islands of Gyr developed an enormous variety of cultures, with languages and belief systems varying wildly from island to island and atoll to atoll. Many cultures and tribes were heavily nomadic, moving islands with the seasons and with the good fish. One commonality between the Gyra peoples was a strong martial tradition, as inter-cultural conflicts over islands were extremely common.

Gyra technology evolved gradually and inconsistently, with advancements tending to be closely guarded within particular clans. That started to change with the rise of the Silent Conversation. Certain Gyra began to leave messages for each other, coded and hidden away. Others would find the messages and add to them, making them more and more complex. To the casual observer, nothing was amiss. Eventually, the messages pointed to times and places, and the Conversation met in person for the first time. The group grew gradually, bringing in members from across different cultures and tribes. In keeping with their muted origins, the Conversation communicated at their meetings only in sign language. Their conversations were intense, secret meetings of minds for debate and lengthy discussion.

Eventually they were betrayed, and the world learned of their existence. The Converse were terrified at first, fearing that their tribes would shun them. Indeed, some did. But most instead chose to embrace the Conversation. Soon every tribe was appointing a single member to be a part of the Conversation, and these Converse were given special consideration. When tribes met, no longer did they immediately fight. Their Converse representatives would instead meet and negotiate, trading ideas and finding a settlement.

Of course, it didn’t always work, and battles over islands or particular favorite hunting grounds remained commonplace. But with a global network of tinkerers, the flow of ideas and science began to accelerate, and genuine technological advancements began to occur. By the time the U.A.W. made contact with Gyr, the Silent Conversation had developed steam engines for their boats, refrigeration technology, and fairly advanced surgical techniques.

With their propensity for being nomadic, many Gyra made for excellent colonists. They were on the forefront of the Expansion Era, adapting to all kinds of strange and harsh new environments. Many Gyra became professional colonists, striking out and establishing the infrastructure for a settlement, then moving on to the next new colony world once more permanent settlers had arrived.

The Gyra also turned out to be phenomenal starship designers, once introduced to the concepts and scientific principles. Their long seafaring history translated fairly directly to astronautical engineering. The orbital Gyra Shipyards became known throughout the U.A.W. as purveyors of both the best military-class starfighters as well as customized luxury star yachts. Two rival starship design companies emerged, one from the icy southern seas and the other from the more temperate northwestern oceans.

Tragically, the Shipyards that had brought Gyr such wealth and prestige eventually proved to be its downfall. During the Homeworld War, Gyr was a major military target. The Agerran Navy made regular strikes, forcing Gyr to restructure how it approached manufacturing. No longer could they simply mine the distant asteroid belt for materials, and do all assembly in orbit. Manufacturing and mining were relocated to surface facilities, and shuttled up to orbit for the final assembly at the heavily-defended Shipyards.

The Battle of the Yards was the definitive end of the Homeworld War. An Agerran fleet jumped in-system, with multiple capital ships attacking the Shipyards directly. That proved to be a distraction, however, as a small corvette approached the far side of Gyr. The Agerran admiral had a specially-trained group of Innate soldiers. They focused their powers through long-lost Ancient technology, and reached into the crust of Gyr. They triggered massive volcanic eruptions, targeting the mining and manufacturing facilities on the surface. Unfortunately, their attack had unforeseen consequences. The seismic shifts caused a chain reaction, triggering a geological event known as a basalt flood. The tectonic plates folded in on themselves, exposing the planet’s mantle. In a span of hours, the seas boiled and the islands melted into lava. The entire surface of Gyr was rendered into molten nothingness.

At the time, almost twenty million Gyra were offplanet, either as members of the U.A.W. Navy or on the distant colonies. Of the three billion Gyra on the planet, however, less than a million escaped during the Immolation. The surviving Gyra spent a generation as interstellar nomads, doing what they could to keep their cultural traditions alive.

Old rivalries were all but forgotten--whatever they were once, all Gyra became survivors first and foremost, and keepers of their old ways. Some Gyra collected art, stories, and artifacts of their old world, while others preferred to try to forget, moving on and pretending the old world had never mattered. This led to violent disagreements and altercations on more than one occasion. Some Gyra took to wearing their history, developing fashions that mixed together as many different historical cultural elements as they could fit on their body. Shards of Gyra coral became particularly valuable as mementos, and remain iconic as keepsakes of the world that was.

Life on New Gyr
Thirty years ago, the first colonists to arrive on Phaelos III voted overwhelmingly in favor of giving it to the Gyra refugees as a new world they could call home. It was named New Gyr, and millions of Gyra from across the galaxy flocked to the fledgling planet. It is a complex and rapidly evolving world, where multiple cultures clash with corporate interests. Everything that happens on the planet is also under the close watchful eye of the galaxy at large. It is seen by many (and often spoken of in the media) as a beacon of hope for galactic progress, which adds considerable weight and stress to every change and struggle that the fledgling world confronts.

The Enterios Corporation has been an integral component in life on New Gyr since its founding. Enterios provided the financial backing for the initial expedition, and continued to be the largest investor in the development of the planet. As such, Enterios has had a powerful hand in shaping life and civilization on New Gyr. This has been controversial, with many arguing that Enterios is just using New Gyr for positive press, but none can deny the immense amount of financial support the company has given to the world.

After a generation of being a secret activist organization, the Silent Conversation has once more returned to a public role, this time as the primary governing body on New Gyr. Conversation Circles exist at both local and regional levels, helping coordinate development, establish infrastructure, and facilitate communication. Formal meetings of the Converse are conducted in a rebuilt form of Gyra sign language, but it is not often used for casual conversation outside of those meetings.

The Conversation has also played an important role as cultural mediators. The Gyra refugees were part of many different cultures and civilizations on Gyr, and there have been significant cultural clashes on New Gyr. Most cities contain a mix of people from different Gyra cultures, with many grouping together to form cultural enclaves and neighborhoods. There have been attempts to develop a more unified New Gyr culture, especially among those Gyra who were offworld for a generation or two before the Immolation, but this has been met with resistance by those who have stronger ties with their distinct cultures. There are additional clashes between the Gyra and non-Gyra settlers on the planet.

The law on New Gyr is enforced by two parallel organizations. The New Gyr Militia answers directly to the Silent Conversation, and deal with most local disputes and violent crimes. The Enterios Security Team was originally brought in to temporarily help handle the early crime waves that plagued the colony before rule of law could be more firmly established, but thirty years later they are still an active presence. They handle property disputes, theft, the ever-present drug trade, and any crime involving offworlders or interplanetary issues. The Militia and the Security Team have a longstanding rivalry, but continue to cooperate for the good of New Gyr.

New Gyr is home to a sizable number of Innates, with estimates placing them between 10% and 15% of the population, the highest of any planet. It is also the only world where Innates can live openly without fear of legal retribution, but that does not mean it is entirely free of prejudice. There are still those among the Gyra who blame the Innates for the Immolation of Gyr, though the Silent Conversation has made it clear that such a stance is unwelcome. The Conversation fully supported the recent founding of the first Innate Academy, which has welcomed students from across the galaxy.

During their time as refugees, many Gyra settled on Dor Len Sono, and the two worlds have maintained a strong positive relationship. Many Dor Len have settled on New Gyr, and their experience with farming and homesteading has been welcomed. Dor Len Sono and New Gyr have a healthy and thriving trade relationship, which has bolstered and supported both of their economies. Dor Len Sono supplies New Gyr with necessary farming equipment and goods that the young world cannot yet provide on its own, while New Gyr sends rare minerals and other useful resources back to the Dor Len.

There are four major cities on New Gyr, in addition to several dozen smaller towns. The capital is the city of Three Stone Harbor, the first to be established. It is not the largest city, but it is populated almost entirely by Gyra, and is unquestionably the center for arts and culture. Its isolated location in a sheltered bay, just down the coast from the first landing site, has protected it from the elements but also prevented it from growing as rapidly as other settlements, given its lack of readily available farmland.

Black Snow Mountain is by far the largest (and wealthiest) city on New Gyr, and is where Enterios maintains its headquarters and manufacturing centers. It is a very modern city, built around a major mining operation in the side of a mountain. It boasts the largest starport on New Gyr, and is the hub for both local and interstellar transportation. Storm Mountain is home to many immigrants from across the galaxy, as well as the Innate Academy. In the eyes of the Galaxy, Black Snow Mountain is the beacon of modern urban design -- at least, that's how Enterios sells it.

Spiral Shoal Island is essentially a resort city, catering to the rich and powerful from elsewhere in the galaxy. Several large corporations have taken to having annual meetings there, bringing in their entire leadership staff with families in tow. Few local Gyra can afford to stay at its hotels, but it brings in a steady supply of tourism and the associated economic boost. It is seen by many as a necessary evil. Many young Gyra take seasonal jobs on Spiral Shoal Island and sell traditional Gyra crafts to the tourists.

Gerant City (the only one not to follow the Gyra tradition of naming cities for their geographic features) is an oddity on New Gyr. It was established by a small group of settlers who refused to acknowledge the sovereignty of New Gyr or the legitimacy of the Silent Conversation. They have largely cut themselves off from contact with the rest of New Gyr, and continue to refer to the planet as Phaelos III. Most of Gyra view the Gerant Separatists as little more than an eccentric curiosity, though some see them as a threat. There are rumors that the founders of Gerant City with Agerran loyalists, and that there may still be Agerran Purists living there.

New Gyr is home to a sizable number of Dawnlighters, with large Morning Shrines in both Three Stone Harbor and Black Snow Mountain. There is also a strong push among the Gyra to reclaim traditional faiths, though given the many different traditions it is hard to put an exact count on how many followers these paths have. Current estimates put them at about equal to the Dawnlighters in number, though they are divided into many different faiths. One notable unifying factor is the rebirth of the mudfish, enormous creatures that were held sacred by many different Gyra cultures. The Silent Conversation was able to preserve their DNA, and cloned mudfish have been released into the wild on New Gyr. Their impact on the ecosystem is being closely monitored, but early indications are that the mudfish are thriving in the new seas. Many see this as a strong positive omen for the future of all Gyra.

Life on New Gyr varies depending on where you live. For those in the outlying towns and farms, life is much like it is in the colonies. Survival means hard work and long hours, but it’s a life of opportunity and a close relationship with the land. For those in the cities, life is about rebuilding lost culture, navigating the complex world of nascent politics, and developing scale and infrastructure. The world is rapidly evolving, but the sense of community and culture runs strong. Festivals of stories and art are common, and each new year brings with it both new challenges and new reasons to celebrate. New Gyr is a world of optimists, working together to build something new from the beautiful memories of the world that came before.

During the Expansion Era, several hundred human-habitable worlds were discovered through warp exploration. A few seemed to be naturally-occurring, but most had some sign of Ancient terraforming. On some worlds actual ruins have been discovered, while on others the signs are more subtle--curious geological events, recognizably non-native flora and fauna, or even just a suspiciously perfectly breathable atmospheric composition.

The push for colonization was a widespread one, with people from almost every world eager to establish footholds in the stars. Corporations began to financially back colonial expeditions, both as a PR move and as an investment. Four massive Ancient starships were retrofitted to become Colony Ships, suitable for transporting thousands of people and all of their belongings. These ships would travel through the Homeworlds, picking up would-be colonists at each stop before heading out to their final destination.

About a year before the arrival of the colony ship, a fleet of smaller ships go to the world, in order to lay the groundwork for the new colony. Historically, most of this first wave consisted of professional colony-starters from Gyr, who would move on to the next colony shortly after the arrival of the permanent colonists. This process continued for the duration of the Expansion Era, leading to the establishment of over a hundred colony worlds of varying population sizes. For obvious reasons, that came to an end with the outbreak of the Homeworld War.

For most of the Expansion Era, the colonies were governed by the U.A.W., though they had little representation in government. Technically there was a senate, and any colony world with a population over ten million was entitled to a senator, but functionally they had minimal power. Early in the Homeworld War, the majority of the colonies seceded from the U.A.W., following the lead of Windrock, the oldest colony. During the war, Agerran forces conquered five colony worlds, all of which are only accessible via links in Agerran space. All five remain occupied as part of the Agerran Commonwealth. These colonies were all liberated by Ya-Rett’s Irregulars, but there are still many in the colonies who harbor resentment towards the Agerrans, a full generation later.

If your character is from the colonies, you can choose to either be from one of the listed colonies or design your own outlying planet.

Recent History
The successful establishment of New Gyr led to a renewed excitement for colonization throughout the galaxy. In the thirty years since then, four new colony worlds have been established, though only three have survived. The fourth was abandoned when the planet, Lobvess, entered an unexpected extremely intense ice age, rendering it essentially uninhabitable. Unfortunately, this interest in new colonies has not led to increased support for the existing colonies, which are still seen by many Homeworlders as “uncivilized backwaters.” This has left some colonials with a healthy degree of resentment towards the six Homeworlds, including New Gyr, which is seen by many as not a “true” colony world.

In the wake of the collapse of the Agerran Commonwealth and the growing irrelevance of the Galactic League, the Colonial Congress rose to become the dominant interplanetary government. Nearly every planet, colonies and homeworlds alike, have joined it and maintain congressional delegations. The Commonwealth maintains its headquarters on Nossein IV, unofficial capital world of the colonies and an increasingly important planet.

Nossein IV / Windrock
no-sayn - [no-sein]
Population: 1 billion
Established: 8 PC
Nossein IV was the first habitable world discovered by the Baryosi explorers after the discovery of starflight. It’s a fairly Baryos-like world, orbiting a pair of binary stars, though one with intense and constant gale-force wind that buffets the entire planet’s surface. Cities exist in the lee of mountains, hidden away from the winds. The first settlers gave the planet the name Windrock, which stuck. Windrock has the biggest population of any of the colonies, and long campaigned for independence from Baryos, or at least for equal representation in the U.A.W. senate.

Given that it predates contact with Agerre, Windrock saw itself as in many ways superior to the other Homeworlds. When the Homeworld War broke out, Windrock organized a coalition with the other Colonies and led them in their mass secession from the U.A.W. Shortly after the close of the War, Windrock announced the formation of the Colonial Congress. In the decades since then, the majority of the Colonies have joined the Congress. The headquarters of the Congress are in the capital city of Windrock. Almost every Colony--and at this point, every Homeworld as well--maintain a consulate there, to meet with the Congress. To show solidarity with the other colonies, Windrock formally restored its official name to Nossein IV, though most locals still call it Windrock.

Rovarr VI / Wasteworld
roh-vahr - [ɹo-vɑɹ]
Population: ~10 million
Established: 5 PC
Long ago, the Ancients ruled half the galaxy. A civilization of that scale by necessity generated enormous amounts of trash. Rather than throw it into a sun or a black hole or something reasonable like that, they decided to dump it on the largely lifeless wasteland planet of Rovarr VI. Eventually, enough biomatter was left behind that Rovarr VI developed its own terrifying ecosystem.

Rovarr VI was the second planet discovered after Windrock by the Baryosi explorers. A colony was never fully established, but a research outpost was launched and then eventually abandoned. But that’s not to say the planet is uninhabited--far from it. Since Rovarr VI’s discovery, enterprising treasure-hunters have come to the planet seeking ancient technology. At first it was plentiful, but these days useful things are hard to come by. Most folk there are down on their luck or desperate. It’s a lawless world of scavengers, tinkerers, and the lost. Those who live there call it Wasteworld, if they have to call it anything at all.


Merres
mare-ess - [mɛ-ɹɛs]
Population: 40 million
Established: 58 GT
Merres is a breathtakingly beautiful planet of lush growth, placid lakes, dramatic mountains, vivid coral reefs, and a general lack of predators that might endanger humans. It features one enormous palatial Ancient ruin, and the archaeological consensus is that it was once a single extremely powerful family’s estate, maintained deliberately as a garden.

These days, it has been settled heavily and would seem to be a prime location for would-be settlers. Unfortunately, it has been torn by civil war for over eighty years. The war flares periodically between hot and cold, with multi-year detentes that invariably give way to shooting again. Of course, many settlers still arrive anyway, lured in by the promise of the lush environment, but they either wind up getting drawn into the war or striking out on their own to hide in the wilderness.

​
Tona II
toh-nuh - [to-nʌ]
Population: 5 million
Established: 112 GT
A major mining planet, owned and colonized by Triskele Enterprises. Tona II is inhabited almost entirely by Augments, with its “capital” being essentially a company town. It provides easy access to two separate asteroid belts, and its strip-mined moon is rich in rare ores and minerals. It has no breathable atmosphere, though many of its inhabitants have been augmented to be able to survive in vacuum for extended periods of time. After recently purchasing Tona II from the Vasala Corporation, Triskele has begun the process of replacing the Augment labor force with an all-Android one, a process that has not gone smoothly.


Din Shass
din-shass - [dɪn-ʃɑs]
Population: unknown, estimated 70-80 million
Established: 24 GT
Once, long ago, Din Shass was a major population center of the Ancients. It was an ecumenopolis, with every piece of available landmass covered in high-rise cityscape. Then the Eschaton came, and the Ancients vanished. Over the thousands of years since then, the infinite city crumbled, the towers fell, and a wild jungle bloomed in the ruins.

Much like Rovarr VI, many of the initial explorers of Din Shass came seeking technology left behind by the Ancients. There is plenty of it to be found, but most of it has decayed to the point of being worthless. Furthermore, the concrete jungle is incredibly dangerous to explore. Most buildings are physically unstable, and large predators hunt with abandon.

In the years since its discovery, Din Shass has become a planet entirely run by outlaws. There is no formal colony or legitimate authority on Din Shass, but it is well understood to be under the control of the two major criminal organizations. It is a hotbed of underworld activity, with a sprawling population of smugglers, drug-runners, crime bosses, bounty hunters, and every other unsavory type imaginable. The crimelords live in palatial bunkers buried within the depths of the cityscape, while the poor fight to survive in the uppermost levels of the ruined jungle, hunted by the predators who stalk the rooftops. Most inhabitants of Din Shass live somewhere in the middle layers, enjoying a lifestyle of gambling, drinking, and constant danger.

If you want an unsavory job done, or need somewhere to hide from the law, Din Shass is the place you go. Over the years, there have been many attempts to bring law and order to Din Shass. The U.A.W. tried decades ago, but literally wasn’t able to find the criminals or their hideouts within the vast crumbling ruin of the city. Din Shass then stayed out of the Homeworld War entirely, and has risen to further prominence since its end. With no interplanetary authority governing shipping or commerce, the crime lords have become all the more powerful. Both major galactic crime syndicates--the Stormriders and the Downcity Partnership--are based there.


Hinge
hinj - [hɪndʒ]
Population: 120 million
Established: 29 GT
Hinge is a planet most notable for its location. It happens to be at a major junction point in the link network, providing easy access to all six Homeworlds and over a dozen colony worlds. It serves as a major crossroads, with its cities all hosting spaceports, trading hubs, repair shops, and currency exchanges. Natives of Hinge see themselves as nomadic by birth, with many spending time offworld on a regular basis, either to work the spacelanes or just see the stars. The orbit around Hinge is thick with space stations, serving as orbital hotels and refueling stations for ships passing through in too much of a hurry to actually land. After decades of independence, Hinge finally joined the Colonial Congress several years ago.


Inzennia
in-zen-i-uh - [ɪn-zɛn-i-ʌ]
Population: 500,000 permanent, 1.5 million additional seasonally
Established: 75 GT
An icy moon of a gas giant, Inzennia is in the same system as Homeworld Ottsalia. It is a planet covered entirely in a massive sea, which is capped by a thick layer of ice. A series of research outposts were established on the underside of the ice sheets, but when the research missions were finished, the outposts were abandoned. Decades later, Ottsalian tourism companies started buying out the outposts and converting them to underwater hotels. Today, Inzennia is a resort planet, a retreat for the elite of the galaxy.


The Chained Moons
One of the great mysteries left behind by the Ancients, the Chained Moons are a set of thirteen moons orbiting a gas giant. What makes them interesting is that they’re all in the same orbit, equidistant from one another, orbiting in sequence. It’s an orbital pattern that could never have formed naturally, according to the physics of planetary dynamics. All thirteen moons are lifeless rocks, each of a different size and different composition. There are numerous theories as to who arranged the moons and why--some say it was just a ridiculous art project, others a component of some great machine. Regardless of its purpose, it stands as a testament to the power wielded by the Ancients.

In modern times, the Chained Moons serve as the site of the Backspin Orbit racing circuit. The annual Orbit Invitational is the most prestigious starship race, with teams from every world competing. The course starts and ends at the circuit’s headquarters facility in a domed base on one of the moons, and requires ships to run an orbit of each of the Chained Moons. Daring pilots drop into the gravity wells of the moons as they go, using gravitational slingshots to accelerate, but this risky maneuver results in at least one deadly crash each race.

The entire racing circuit is technically illegal, but any semblance of secrecy vanished in the wake of the Homeworld War. These days, even the the Homeworlds often sponsor ships in the Orbit Invitational. The most recent prize-winner is the Whispering Veil, a racing ship out of Zé. The Veil is the first non-Gyra ship to win since the legendary Windlance began its decade-long streak. In the wake of the Veil’s win, a number of Gyra ships are jockeying to become the official ship of New Gyr in the hopes of dethroning the Veil, and many are calling for the Windlance and its crew to come out of retirement to reclaim their title.


Augment Station
The precise location of this orbital city is kept secret from outsiders, but it is generally understood to be in the upper atmosphere of a massive gas giant, likely one in the same system as one of the Homeworlds. It is inhabited entirely by Augments, living and working independently from the systems that created them. Many Augments dream of leaving behind their lives and journeying there to join with their people. Few non-Augments know much at all about life on the station, and rumors abound. It is reportedly the origin of all kinds of radical augmentations, and many whisper that its leaders are hundreds of years old, having replaced their organs bit by bit with more and more technology until barely any of the original biological matter remains.


Kaldir
kal-deer - [kɑl-diɹ]
Population: 2 million
Established: 79 GT
Kaldir is a humid, swampy planet, and for decades was both occupied by and loyal to the Agerran Commonwealth. Its spatial isolation from the larger link network may be a contributing factor to that loyalty. The entire Kaldir biosphere is joined by a rapidly-growing fungus known as the Lattice. The Lattice often tries to consume human settlements on Kaldir, and needs to be regularly burned away from the edges of any town. While it is not toxic to humans, it does sap nutrients from any plant or animal it absorbs within itself, to rather deleterious effect. According to local legend, the Lattice itself is both conscious and psychic, and is the source of the dreams of hunger that are a common occurrence to both locals and visitors. Every so often, a Kaldiran will vanish out into the swamp, claiming to have heard a message from the Lattice, and eager to commune and find its truth.

Kaldiran Pearl Emeralds are some of the most expensive jewels in the galaxy, prized for both their beauty and their rarity. They grow as part of the Lattice, for reasons no botanist has ever been able to adequately explain. Removing them requires journeying deep into the swamp and returning, which, while not exactly dangerous, is done very rarely. After Kaldir was liberated from Agerran control, there was a massive rush of pearl-hunters to the planet. This did little to drive down the price of pearl emeralds, but quite a lot to raise the death rate of offworlders on Kaldir.


Edge
edj - [ɛdʒ]
Population: 3 million
Established: 109 GT
Edge is a unique world, one of the few that joined the short-lived Baryosi Galactic League. Edge is a small, rocky planet that orbits a black hole, called the Pit. The surface of Edge was melted into a thick layer of tar when its star blasted off its outer layer before collapsing to become the Pit. The inhabitants of Edge live in massive research stations set up as observatories, both pointed towards the Pit and out into deep space. Remnants of Ancient research facilities seem to hint at Edge having been an observatory thousands of years ago as well. Modern-day astrophysicists theorize that what lay beyond the event horizon of a black hole was a mystery even to the Ancients. Inhabitants of Edge are accustomed to life with minimal light, due to the eternal night of a world without a sun. Few who grow up on Edge spend time offworld, but those who do can always be recognized by the protective goggles they wear in sunlight.

HUMANS (A.K.A. NORMALS, STANDARDS, SAPIENS)
​
Homo Sapiens are an interesting life form, bipedal and bilaterally symmetrical. Their original homeworld is unknown, but they have an astonishing capacity to survive in extreme climates. They adapt rapidly, developing technology and tools that allow them to inhabit worlds and environments of all kinds. They have a high pain tolerance, can regenerate large quantities of their skin and blood if given time to recover, and breed very rapidly.

​The original birthplace of the human species is at this point unknown. It is known that at one point there were several human civilizations that spanned as much as a third of the galaxy. Approximately six thousand years ago, some kind of cataclysmic event wiped out the overwhelming majority of humans. Humans survived on six planets, all of which were knocked back to the stone age. All modern day humans are descendants of the survivors of that cataclysm. As time has progressed, humankind has begun to reclaim some of its own lost marvels, and reach back out towards the sta

​EVOS (​A.K.A. GENEFREAKS, SPLICERS, NEXT-GENS)

The trend of altering the human genome to include DNA from nonhuman life forms began on Ottsalia, but has begun to spread to other parts of the galaxy. The Dynavolution process is a mix of genetic and surgical transformation, using techniques derived from the aggressively hyper-evolutionary Ottsalian biosphere. Most Evos alter themselves for purely cosmetic purposes, adding scales, different colored eyes, tails, or stranger things still. Some Evos make functional changes, like giving themselves gills or claws, but those are relatively rare, even on Ottsalia. Some Evos engage in truly extreme alterations, such as giving themselves wings and hollow bones to be able to fly, or replacing their legs with additional arms to live in zero gravity, but these Evos (often called Full Splicers) rarely leave Ottsalia and its surrounding stations.

A significant portion of the population of Ottsalia are Evos, but in the rest of the galaxy, Evos are still treated with a fair amount of skepticism. The rise of Evo pop stars and actors has begun to normalize the sight of them, but that only goes so far. On Agerre and Dor Len Sono, few if any Evos exist, and it’s not uncommon for a native of those worlds to never see an Evo in person.

​Up until recently, the alterations meant that most Evos were sterile, or at least unable to pass on their traits to their children. However, new advancements have resulted in Evos (at least, those with the money to afford it) being able to reproduce biologically. This has led to some major public ethics arguments, as society at large debates whether or not Evos should be allowed to pass on their alterations to their children. The Evo parents see their changes as parts of who they are, while their opponents insist that their children should be allowed to choose their own alterations (if any) when they come of age.

​AUGMENTS (​A.K.A. CYBORGS, TECH-HEADS, METALLICS)

​Throughout the galaxy, many have turned to technological augmentation to improve their bodies, incorporating machinery into their anatomy. For the most part, this is done for purely practical reasons, such as enhancing physical strength, expanding memory, or removing the need to breathe. Physical labor on most planets is handled primarily by Augments, especially labor that requires spending time in hazardous environments. Augmentation to unlock telekinetic abilities does exist, and was developed for use in both labor and for its military applications. Since the outlawing of all psychic actions in the wake of the Homeworld War, these augmentations have become vanishingly rare, the province only of the crime circuits of Din Shass.

Due to the cost of surgery and parts, most Augments receive their enhancements through sponsorships, either from corporations or organized criminal elements. Unfortunately, this often puts Augments into debt to their benefactors, who force them to spend decades working off the payment for the upgrades. Less ethical corporations will even force their Augmented workforce into updates lest they risk obsolescence, prolonging the debt indefinitely. Augments who try to flee their debt can have their parts deactivated remotely.

​Poor treatment of Augments has led to a painful tension between most Augments and other variants of humans. Augments are often looked down on as being low class, and on some worlds have few rights or protections from their corporate overlords, despite growing Augment rights movements. Those Augments who do work off their debts often leave the rest of human society entirely, retreating instead to the Augment-only enclaves hidden throughout the galaxy. Life in these Augmented spaces is spoken of in hushed tones and rumors. Many say that the Augments there live for centuries, replacing more and more of their organs with machines as they age.

• Navigators •

Navigators are a specific and very important type of Augment. They are fitted with special neural cybernetics, reverse engineered from Ancient technology, that allows them to interface directly with warp engines. Every starship needs a Navigator, as they’re the only ones who can actually operate a warp engine and get it moving. Like other Augments, most Navigators serve a particular company--generally one of the shipping or colonial corporations.

​Generally, Navigators work alone, interfacing directly with their warp drives. Often Navigators will cultivate a very personal relationship with their engine, which most Navigators say begins to feel like an extension of their own being. Capital ships are unique in that their drives require multiple Navigators to operate, networked together. The technology to link minds in that manner has yet to be replicated, which is one of the biggest obstacles to building new capital-scale ships. These Navigator clusters, generally groups of three or four, become closely bonded through their engines, and are rumored to share feelings and memories, even when not aboard their ships.

ANDROIDS

 While not technically a human variant, it is useful to consider androids in this context as well. In the past few decades, Android development has accelerated. Previously robots were quite rare throughout the galaxy, as they were generally been found to be impractical and inefficient for most tasks when compared to Augmented human labor. Thanks to the discovery of an Ancient Artificial Intelligence on the planet New Gyr, there are now numerous Androids with a range of intelligence. Androids are artificial humans, made from a mix of cybernetic components, advanced circuitry reverse-engineered from ancient designs (similar to the implants used by Navigators), and cloned tissue as an outer cover.

Most androids with AI are built by the Enterios Corporation, who has an Android as its CEO. Not only is Enterios at the forefront of this new technology, they are also championing Android rights. Previously, Androids were not considered to be "true intelligences", as they were programmed with convincing constructs of personalities, but did not have flexible and growing computational abilities. Enterios Androids are built for every conceivable task, and have the freedoms to choose their paths in life. 

On the other hand, the Triskele Corporation is creating androids to replace human augment labor. Triskele models have intelligence caps and are generally considered disposable. 

Many android models are used for human interaction tasks, such as personal assistants, nannies, or hospice workers.

The Homeworld War
The exact causes of the Homeworld War will likely be debated in scholarly papers for generations to come, but the catalyzing events were clear enough. Over the late 120s and early 130s, a movement began among Agerran youth calling for social reform in the caves, known as the Selfish Minds. Its leaders had mostly attended the University of Titan’s Passage on Baryos, and brought back with them ideas of radical individualism and freedom. In 133 GT, a group of Selfish Minds made a presentation to the U.A.W. Senate on Baryos, arguing that life in the Agerran caves was limited, controlled, and in violation of Baryosi ideals of human rights.

Many Baryosi had long seen Agerre as primitive and backwards, so it was not long before the U.A.W. issued a set of demands that Agerre change their social structure and give their citizens more individual freedoms and choice. Agerran Grand Minister Woll objected strongly, arguing to the Senate that Agerre was a collectivist society, and being egregiously misrepresented and misunderstood. Undeterred, the U.A.W. imposed economic sanctions and trade restrictions against Agerre.

Tensions rose rapidly, and in 134 a misunderstanding in orbital procedure led to a U.A.W. frigate opening fire on a military shuttle heading to Agerre’s moon. Agerre treated it as an act of war. Within a week, Agerre had formally seceded from the U.A.W. and declared war. As most of the U.A.W. Navy was crewed by Agerrans, most of the Navy sided with Agerre.

It is worth noting as an aside that the Homeworld War was the first true interstellar war since the days of the Ancients. A hundred years earlier, the Veil War was fought during first contact with Zé, but it was a strange and brief affair. The Peakborn did not respond well to the first explorers to arrive on Zé, and shot their landing ships out of the sky as they broached the Veil, the layer of thick clouds that covers the upper atmosphere of Zé. The U.A.W. did not want to conquer Zé outright, despite having the technology to bombard the Peakborn cities from orbit. In the end, it took almost two years for the U.A.W. forces to find a way to convince the government of Zé to stand down and join them rather than continuing to fight. For the most part, the Veil War is little more than a historical footnote, but it is worth considering when thinking about the unfamiliarity of the Homeworld War.

The Homeworld War was a strange one, with battles fought both on planets and in orbit around them. In the early years of the war, most of the battles were fought on colony worlds, as Agerre attempted to take control of them for resources. In 136 GT, fed up with being left largely defenseless, Windrock seceded from the U.A.W., and many other colony worlds rapidly followed suit. Without an influx of recruits from the colonies, the U.A.W. instituted a draft in 137 GT. The draft drew primarily from Dor Len Sono and Gyr, and was highly unpopular.

In 138 GT, an Agerran fleet led by the then-unknown Admiral Therra launched a major attack against the orbital shipyards above Gyr. It was the first serious attack against another Homeworld, and the U.A.W. fleets responded rapidly. The Agerran fleet was repelled, but the damage to the U.A.W. fleets was overwhelming. The U.A.W. ships were largely crewed by fresh recruits from the drafts, who were dramatically outflown by the highly trained Agerran Naval crews, and the brilliant tactics of Admiral Therra.

After that battle, the Agerran Navy continued to make regular small strikes, forcing Gyr to restructure how it approached manufacturing. No longer could they simply mine the distant asteroid belt for materials, and do all assembly in orbit. Manufacturing and mining were relocated to surface facilities, and shuttled up to orbit for the final assembly at the heavily-defended Shipyards.

By a year after the First Battle of Gyr, tensions between Baryos and the rest of the U.A.W. had reached their breaking point. Many politicians had noted that the draft policies were weighted to impact Baryos far less than the other worlds. Queen Ja Len Ro of Dor Len Sono made a now-famous speech on the floor of the U.A.W. Senate decrying Baryos for dragging the entire galaxy into what was, at its core, fundamentally a war between Baryos and Agerre. Shortly thereafter, Dor Len Sono, Zé, and Ottsalia seceded from the U.A.W., leaving Baryos and Gyr as the only remaining Homeworld members. The coalition reached out to Gyr as well, but Speaker Vira responded that Agerre had attacked Gyr directly, and Gyr would not back down from the fight now.

In 140 GT, Agerran forces took Zé. There was almost no battle to speak of--Agerran ships dropped through the Veil, simultaneously landing in every Peakborn city and taking control of the governing bodies. It is now well-known that there were insiders among the Peakborn who reached out to the Agerrans, and invited the occupation in return for protection and positions of power within the new regime. Agerran soldiers almost immediately began exploring both the Stormgate and Cliffgate Temples, for reasons they would not explain.

Empowered by their victory on Zé, Admiral Therra’s fleet attacked Baryos directly in 141. The battle turned into something more closely resembling a siege, and lasted for over a month. Agerran forces landed at various strategic points across the planet, but, being inexperienced at ground combat, were repelled by Baryosi soldiers. The orbital battle went less smoothly, and Admiral Therra began shelling Baryos from orbit. Three of the Titans were destroyed, in a grim echo of the Scavenger War. On the thirty-ninth day of the battle, Speaker Vira arrived with the force of the Gyra fleet, backed by personal allies she had called in from the colonies and Dor Len Sono. The emergency defense coalition fleet was enough to push Admiral Therra into retreat, but the damage to Baryos had been vast, and Speaker Vira’s personal jumpship was destroyed with her aboard.

The end of the war came in the year 142 GT. Admiral Therra planned for a show of force to establish Agerre as the dominant power in the galaxy once and for all, a final threat meant to push Baryos into outright surrender. Therra’s investigators on Zé had uncovered an artifact that they believed would end the war outright. Satisfied with the research their investigators had done, Therra began final preparations. Near the end of the year 142, the Second Battle of Gyr (also known as the Battle of the Yards) commenced.

The majority of Therra’s fleet jumped in and attacked the orbital shipyards directly, as they had done in the First Battle of Gyr, four years earlier. The combined Baryosi and Gyra fleets were ready, having been tipped off by Zé informants. Many of Speaker Vira’s old allies came as well, even more than had come to the defense of Baryos itself the year before. Quite a few colonial ships joined the fleet, citing debts they felt they owed to Speaker Vira and her memory for her hand in helping establish their worlds. At first, it seemed the defenders would be able to win the tide, as the Agerran fleet did not push the offensive. As it turned out, the main Agerran attack was largely meant as a distraction.

Therra’s personal jumpship approached the dark side of Gyr, with the artifact and a specially-trained team of Innates aboard. They focused their powers through the Ancient technology, and reached into the crust of Gyr. They triggered massive volcanic eruptions, targeting the mining and manufacturing facilities on the surface. Unfortunately, their attack had unforeseen consequences. The seismic shifts caused a chain reaction, triggering a geological event known as a basalt flood. The tectonic plates folded in on themselves, exposing the planet’s mantle. In a span of hours, the seas boiled and the islands melted into lava. The entire surface of Gyr was rendered into molten nothingness.

As with any war, the aftermath is as difficult to explain as the origin. Grand Minister Woll declared that the war was over, and that Agerre had won, despite the lack of any official surrender from Baryos. Admiral Therra issued an open letter--a rare instance of a non-anonymous political letter--stating that the destruction of Gyr had been an accident, and that the weapon had only been meant to destroy the mining facilities, not the entire planet. The letter was redacted by the Agerran government, and Admiral Therra was arrested for treason.

In early 143, less than half a year after the Battle of the Yards, Grand Minister Woll announced the formation of the Agerran Commonwealth, which he claimed was now the ruling authority of the galaxy, with jurisdiction over every inhabited world. In practice, the Commonwealth consisted of Agerre, occupied Zé, and half a dozen colony worlds. But with the United Association of Worlds gone, the Baryosi fleets broken, and Gyr nothing but molten rock, there were few in the galaxy who could argue with Woll’s claims. The Homeworld War was over, and by any reasonable definition, Agerre had won.

​
Interplanetary Governance
During the Homeworld War, the United Association of Worlds collapsed. Over the next few decades, three attempts at interplanetary governance were attempted, though only one reached any particular success--the Colonial Congress. The Agerran Commonwealth collapsed into civil war while the Galactic League has simply faded into irrelevance.

Established in 143 GT, shortly after the end of hostilities in the Homeworld War, the Agerran Commonwealth consisted of Agerre, Zé, and three colony worlds, including Kaldir. It was a tightly-controlled collectivist planned society, led by a Grand Minister. The Agerran Commonwealth maintained a sizable Navy, much of which was commandeered by Admiral Therra to become Ya-Rett’s Irregulars. The Commonwealth collapsed over the course of 166-168 GT, with the start of the Agerran Civil War and the Ascension Revolts.

After ten years of postwar isolation, the Baryosi government announced the formation of the Galactic League in 152 GT. The goal was explicit and clearly stated: to recreate the stability and peace of the United Association of Worlds, without attempting to control member worlds as tightly. Every civilized planet was invited to join, even those who had already pledged to the Agerran Commonwealth or the Colonial Congress, but few responded. While the Galactic League technically still exists, it wields almost no power, and its senate meets only symbolically at this point.

Established in 145 GT, three years after the end of the war, the Colonial Congress is an assembly consisting of almost every colony world and Homeworld. The Congress is headquartered on Windrock, the first of the colonies to be founded. Each member world sends delegates to Windrock, where the Congress meets and votes on issues of galactic significance. For the most part, colony worlds are allowed an extremely high level of independence, and can decide policies that affect their citizens for themselves, as long as they are not in violation of any major civil rights issues.

The purpose of the Congress is to foster trade and respect between its member worlds, and to make sure each is taken care of. If there is a famine on a particular world, or a major outbreak of disease, other Congress worlds will provide relief efforts. So far, this has been mostly successful, though there have been issues of certain worlds feeling like they are pulling more than their weight. Voting blocs have risen and fallen as the years have gone by, as various planets jockey for position and prestige within the Congress.

Over the last decades, three factions have emerged in the Congress, though they are not formal political parties. The Quietists are the dominant power in the Congress, and they support minimal government oversight with as little intervention as possible. Under their leadership, the Congress operates primarily to maintain interplanetary standards of communication and travel, with each member world operating its own separate legal systems and political structures.

The Formalists have grown to prominence over the last decade, with several dozen delegations joining their voting bloc. They are proponents of creating a more organized structure of government and voting that can be implemented on member worlds. They began as a campaign for a unified judicial system, in order to better handle interplanetary crimes, but their platform grew broader as more and more worlds joined the faction.

The smallest (but often loudest) faction are the Boundarians. Founded by several colonies that had been under Agerran occupation, the Boundarian faction has called for the Colonial Congress to establish its own standing military force. They insist that such a force would exist to defend against what they claim is an inevitable counterattack from the Agerrans. In the last few months, their messaging has shifted to include using such a Colonial Navy to defend against piracy. With the escalation in pirate attacks, a number of new worlds have begun meeting with the Boundarian leadership, especially those with little ability to defend themselves.

The leaders of the Congress are known as the Speaking Triptych, consisting of three delegation leaders, known individually as Thirds. Each Third serves a three year term, offset from one another on a rotation, with one election every year. Each planetary delegation is only allowed to vote in two out of every three elections, which is meant to prevent any one voting bloc from dominating the Congress, but in practice has only made the system of backroom vote trading all the more complex.

Though there is no rule about it, since the founding of the Congress at least one Third has always been a delegate from Windrock itself. The current Windrock Third is named Laron Vindicate, and they’re a Quietist, happy to focus on interplanetary regulations and little else. The other two Thirds are Lan Nou Asan, a Formalist Princess from Dor Len Sono, and Vinn Flax, a Boundarian from Kaldir.

The Last Voyage of the Falls The Shadow
In the year 94 GT, a joint expedition was launched from the planet Edge. Astronomers, working using gravitational lensing and massive telescopic arrays, had determined that at the center of the galaxy was a supermassive black hole, which they named The Horizon. One researcher, Dr. Yana Kyr, dedicated her life to studying the Horizon. She had been the head of the astronomy department at the University of Titan’s Passage, and was able to use her notoriety to push the idea of the Horizon into public consciousness.

The question of what lay beyond the Horizon was an exciting one, and many in the public (and the press) were eager to latch on to something new. It had been seventy years since the discovery of a new Homeworld, and the expedition seemed like a promising and exciting potential new breakthrough for the sciences.

A unique starship was constructed, and given the name Falls The Shadow. It was built around a tunneling drive, but was much smaller than most capital ships. It was stocked for a long research voyage, not for war or colonization. It carried a crew of two hundred, mostly astronomers and physicists from across the galaxy. Researchers from every university on every Homeworld competed for the chance to join the expedition.

While Dr. Kyr was the head of the research team, Alecto Glass was the captain of the ship. Captain Glass had served in the U.A.W. Navy for most of her life, and was selected based on her impeccable service record. During the year leading up to the launch of the ship, rumors of all kinds circulated in the tabloids, speculating about the relationship between Dr. Kyr and Captain Glass. Some claimed they were lovers; others claimed they had nearly come to blows over disagreements about the ship’s course.

To this day, no one knows the real truth about what may or may not have happened between Dr. Kyr and Captain Glass. The Falls The Shadow left from Edge in 94 GT. It made a series of wormhole jumps towards the galactic center. Every few jumps, it would send a courier back through the wormholes it had left behind, carrying data of various kinds.

The last courier arrived at Baryos in 98 GT. It carried no data, and the courier crew were both in a comatose state. They never awoke.

The eventual fate of the Falls The Shadow has been the subject of numerous writings and videographs, both scholarly and fictionalized. A second expedition was proposed in 99 GT to try to track the ship’s course, but given the massive expense that had gone into building the first ship, the second expedition never got off the ground. The project’s leaders continued working on trying to fundraise for it, but even those efforts dried up when the Homeworld War broke out. During the Phaelos Crisis, rumors emerged that Kyr and Glass had both somehow survived the expedition, and were active among the Homeworlds, working towards some mysterious end, but little ever came of these rumors.


Ancients and Archaeologists
For as long as intellectuals have existed, they have asked the questions: who came before us? Where did they go? As time has gone on, theories have emerged to answer those questions, but each proposed idea raises a dozen more questions. Each of the six Homeworlds bears some clear evidence of prior human civilization, from the Titans of Baryos and the grand temples of Zé to the genetic tampering of the Ottsalian environment. Radically different architectural styles imply that these Ancients were far from monolithic, with numerous distinct cultures and even separate civilizations, all interacting.

Much of modern society is built on the ruins of the societies of the Ancients. Warp and skip drives are derived entirely from reverse-engineered Ancient starships, and most colonies are on planets that were terraformed by the Ancients. Ancient technology was extremely advanced, far beyond anything modern humans are capable of. The grandest example of their prowess is the Chained Moons, a set of twelve mismatched moons orbiting a single planet, all on the same orbital path. Astronomical and gravitational calculations say it should be an unstable system, but some hidden mechanism keeps the moons orbiting smoothly.

Ancient buildings and structures are found on many worlds throughout the galaxy. Most are no more than frameworks in the ground, but every so often larger and more intact structures are discovered. Each one inspires an intellectual race to unlock all of its mysteries. The field has made huge strides forward as time has gone on, but there is still much that remains unknown. Archaeological expeditions can be dangerous, as so much of Ancient technology is still a mystery. Ruins are sometimes full of deadly machines--not so much because they were designed that way, but because after thousands of years of decay, even the most benign device can decompose into a deathtrap.

As the field of linguistics has advanced, Ancient documents have been translated, unlocking treasure troves of new data. Nine distinct languages have been at least somewhat deciphered, several of them closely related to one another. These translations have led to quite a few major breakthroughs in modern understanding of Ancient culture.

The current understanding of the Ancients is that they were a set of civilizations locked in an unstable cold war that spanned millennia. Occasionally that conflict would break out into open war, with cataclysmic consequences. Into this chaos emerged what are generally referred to as the Paladins of Dawn, a monastic order that existed within and apart from each of the other cultures. The Paladins were able to keep the peace, though there is considerable disagreement as to whether they did so through diplomacy or through shows of force. The modern-day Order of Dawn see themselves as the descendants and heirs to that legacy, and attempt to model their lives on reconstructed texts left behind by the original Paladins.

Whatever they did to avoid war, it clearly wasn’t enough. There are many competing theories as to what happened to the Ancients. Modern scientific dating has been able to establish that whatever did happen occurred on every planet yet discovered nearly simultaneously. This event is known as the Eschaton. There are four major theories as to what the Eschaton was. The first and most prevalent theory is that some kind of weapon or attack, triggered by one of the civilizations, that cascaded through the Ancient worlds, wiping them out. The discovery of the Phaelos Weapon has rendered this theory extremely solid in the eyes of most of the galaxy, though the details as to exactly how and why the Weapon was fired are still a source of considerable debate.

The second theory is similar, but places the blame on an outside threat--a nonhuman civilization, encountered by the Ancients, who may have viewed the Ancients as a threat. The third theory, the least popular, attributes the Eschaton to a natural disaster, such as a plague or disease of some kind. The fourth and final theory holds little weight in academic circles, but is beloved by many laypeople, especially among the Paladins of Dawn. This theory holds that the Ancients used their technology to somehow transcend their physical bodies, becoming beings of pure energy. Regardless of the details, the Eschaton was not total, as it left survivors on six worlds, which would eventually become the six Homeworlds.

Modern archaeology is divided into three major fields of study. The Decipherers dedicate themselves to linguistics, translating Ancient languages and using that information to map out the spread of Ancient cultures. The Civilites are mostly interested in the day-to-day lives of the Ancients. What were they like? What did they do? The Eschatists, meanwhile, focus primarily on attempting to figure out what happened in the Eschaton. They refer to it as the Grand Mystery. Many young would-be archaeologists dream of going into Eschatology and being the one to solve it, but often find themselves actually enjoying the work of Deciphering and Civility more. Of course, all three branches of archaeology keep an eye out for workable Ancient technology, as the promise of that technology is what keeps them funded. Most expeditions are backed by at least one corporation, eager to stumble upon and patent some newly uncovered piece of Ancient science.

As it stands, there are many mysteries surrounding the Ancients. The extent of their civilizations is still unknown, and there may be hundreds of entire worlds yet to be found. During the Homeworld War, archaeology was seen as unimportant, and funding dried up. The rediscovery of Phaelos III, a planet rich in ruins, jumpstarted public interest in the field. The new evidence and information provided both by the ruins and from the planetary AI have prompted re-analysis of many existing structures and the reconsideration of longstanding theories throughout the field.

The Pilgrims and Paladins of Dawn
Each Homeworld has its own set of religions and belief systems, and many colonies have imported those religions. However, in the early days of the Expansion Era a new religion emerged: the Order of Dawn. The Order spread rapidly, and in the modern day is the most popular religion in the galaxy, outnumbering even worshippers of the Baryosi Titans. Dawnlights, as they call themselves, follow the teachings of an Ancient group, one that apparently spanned the galaxy.

Archaeologists throughout the galaxy have identified at least seven distinct Ancient civilizations, each with their own sets of architecture and languages. Between them all, however, there is one constant: temples of the Paladins of Dawn. The full details of the Ancient order are still hotly debated and not fully understood, but the modern Order does what it can to recreate the original tenets. As such, the modern Order dedicates a significant amount of time, energy, and research funding into archaeology. The Order is always eager to fund Decipherers who are willing to help translate more scriptures.

Present understanding is that the original Paladins of Dawn were an organization dedicated to keeping the peace between the different civilizations of the Ancient world. They accepted members from all worlds and trained them. They were translators, diplomats, and ambassadors, following a path of nonpartisan enlightenment. The majority of them were Innates, and they used their psychic powers for humanitarian purposes. Some writings have hinted at the Paladins having mastered Innate powers beyond anything known to modern humans, such as precognition and teleportation.

The modern Order does their best to follow the teachings and scriptures their forebears left behind, and have attempted to recreate the Order for a new world. They are for the most part pacifists and peacemakers, and as such are generally welcomed on most planets. Every Homeworld has a Temple of Dawn, and most colonies have at least a Morning Shrine. Prior to the Homeworld War, the Order was headquartered in the Cliffgate Temple on Zé. However, due to Zé being inaccessible to most people, the Order’s leadership have moved to the Lightbreak Temple on Baryos.

The most recent galactic census showed that almost twenty percent of the galaxy identified as at least somewhat a Dawnlighter, a number that continues to rise. Few are full-time monks or seekers, but in general following the teachings of the Dawn is seen as a reasonable set of life philosophies. The scriptures are simple and non-binding, focusing on hospitality, generosity, and empathy. They do not preclude or promote any particular familial or romantic structures, emphasizing instead personal introspection and enlightenment through community.

The Order is currently divided into two branches, based on slightly different interpretations of scripture. The Pilgrims are the more passive arm of the Order, and believe that the Order should focus on helping individuals. Most of their energy goes to work in soup kitchens, free medical clinics, and public schools. Many laypeople who identify as Dawnlighters would consider themselves Pilgrims, even if they only attend monthly services. Those who live full-time as members of the Order call themselves monks, seekers, or peacewalkers.

The more active branch are the Paladins. The Paladins take a more radical approach to understanding the original Order. They see themselves as warriors in the name of peace, and take up swords in order to protect the innocent. Initially they were seen as little more than vigilantes, taking the law into their own hands. That changed during the Homeworld War, when most planetary police forces were drafted into military service. The Paladins stepped up and filled the vacuum, serving as volunteer interim police forces for many cities. Since the end of the War, the police and the Paladins have coexisted in a strange balance. On many worlds, people trust the Paladins above the police, and will go to them with problems first.

The Paladins have also been engaging more and more in politics. They see preventing a second Homeworld War as a fundamental imperative, and are willing to do what they have to to make that happen. The Pilgrims, however, prefer non-interventionist policies. The friction between the two branches is growing, and some whisper that it may lead to an outright sectarian split. For the moment, the Order’s leadership has kept the peace, but it remains to be seen how long that will last.

In a time of galactic chaos, with few things stable, more and more people find themselves drawn to the Order of Dawn. With a history that dates back before the Eschaton, it can be comforting to connect to an organization with longevity and provides a welcoming communal home. Both branches of the Order are always happy to welcome newcomers of all levels of belief and engagement.

Prior to the Homeworld War, Innates played a major role within the Order. The Paladins actively sought them out and recruited them, to train in what they saw as “the old ways.” Since the War, of course, use of Innate powers has been outlawed, but many still seek shelter in the Order. Some of the more extreme in the Order believe Innates to be direct descendants of the original Ancient Paladins, and treat them with great reverence.

The discovery during the Phaelos Crisis that the Ancient Paladins of Dawn almost certainly built the superweapon that triggered the Eschaton has led to a massive crisis within the modern Order. Many Dawnlights claim that this is somehow untrue, or that it was a splinter sect behind the Weapons. Some leaders of the Order believe that even if the original Paladins were behind the Eschaton, nothing has to change. Even the Ancients were fallible, after all, and this can be simply another lesson for the Dawnlights. Some, though, especially the most radical Paladins, have taken this as a blessing for even more active interventionist activities. If the Ancients were willing to build great weapons to do what they saw as keeping the peace, shouldn’t the modern Paladins be just as active?

The Ascensionists, meanwhile, previously a fringe sect within the Order, have risen to prominence in recent years. They had long espoused the belief that the Eschaton was the Ancients ascending, leaving their physical bodies behind to become beings of pure energy. They insist that the Phaelos Weapon should be activated, allowing modern humans to follow the Ancients to a higher plane of existence. While the Order officially denounces the Ascenionists, they have splintered to become their own movement, and it is a rapidly growing one. Unsurprisingly, it has little actual presence on New Gyr itself.

The Bulletin and the Journal
There are, of course, many sources of news in the galaxy, from independent blogs to Ottsalian chat-shows. Two news agencies stand out from the pack as being both more respected and wider-reaching than any others. The Journal of Interplanetary Affairs and the Colonial News Bulletin are rival organizations, and have been for almost a century, but both are widely trusted and widely read. Both put out news in various forms on various planets--video broadcasts, audio feeds, text scrolls, and even printouts on some colony worlds and parts of Dor Len Sono.

The Bulletin is the older of the two institutions, originally established in 6 P.C. as the local news program of Windrock. The Journal was founded two decades later by a joint group of writers from Baryos and Dor Len Sono, all with backgrounds in existing news organizations. Initially, the Journal was slow to catch on, but as interplanetary politics rose in importance and complication, it overtook the various Homeworlds’ local news organizations in circulation.

The two organizations have different organizational structures. The Journal maintains a significant number of full-time professional journalists, each dedicated to a particular Homeworld. Their consistency and focus allows them high-level access to governments, deep analysis, and plenty of cultural caché. The Bulletin, by contrast, has some full-time reporters, but relies heavily on an army of paid freelance citizen investigators. This allows them to keep informed about events on every planet, even worlds they don’t maintain a major office on.

For most of the early Expansion Era, the Journal focused primarily on the politics and culture of the Homeworlds, while the Bulletin expanded to each new Colony world as they were established. The two came into direct competition in the late 70s, when the Bulletin established a new major office on Ottsalia. The Bulletin started including Homeworld news in its coverage. The Journal transmitted to the colonies, but had no interest in covering their affairs or events. Many on the Homeworlds had little interest in colonial life, and did not bother with the Bulletin in their early years of competition.

The massive change came during the Homeworld War. The Journal offices on Agerre were shut down early in the war, cutting them off from news on the other side of the war. The Bulletin, however, still had freelancers on Agerre and its colonies who could provide an inside view. Suddenly, the Bulletin’s readership numbers across the Homeworlds skyrocketed, and they remained the dominant information source for news on the war.

After the end of the war, the two organizations have maintained roughly equal readership numbers. The Journal was allowed to reopen their offices on Agerre and Zé, but with close government oversight. There has been no concrete evidence of governmental censorship of headlines, but many suspect such, and the Bulletin has an open bounty for any freelancer who can find proof.

The Bulletin maintains a large office on New Gyr, employing almost as many full-time reporters there as it has on Baryos. The Bulletin was reporting live throughout the Phaelos Crisis, earning it great prestige and countless readers. The brave journalists who survived the Crisis and reported from the frontlines were hailed as heroes, with many saying their ability to spread accurate information about the chaos in realtime was vital to the survival of the fledgling world. While the Journal does report on New Gyr, the Bulletin is without a doubt the preferred news source of the Gyra.

Crime and Enforcement
Since the end of the Homeworld War, crime has been on the rise across the galaxy. Without the U.A.W. to keep the peace, it’s up to each individual world to enforce the laws, and they do so unevenly. The Colonial Congress leaves the law in the hands of each individual member world, which on most planets means the local Paladins of Dawn or a militia. In recent times, corporations like Enterios and Triskele have been deploying their security forces to keep the peace, especially on worlds where they have material interests.

Bounty hunters are another common form of unofficial law enforcement throughout the galaxy. If someone causes a problem and goes offworld, local law enforcement generally won’t follow. Which means for any kind of interplanetary crime, bounty hunters are the way to go. There are bounty hunters of all kinds--some honorable, some not, some who’ll shoot to kill and some who’ll bring back the bounty alive. Most civilized worlds like to officially claim they don’t deal with bounty hunters, but when it comes down to it… even on Baryos, they’re a necessary evil.

Organized crime in the galaxy has long been headquartered on Din Shass, a lawless colony world. For decades, three major crime syndicates existed in an uneasy balance--the Seventeen Hands, the Kin, and the Downcity Partnership. As the Homeworld War was ending, the Kin made a bid to seize power from both the Hands and the Partners, and overextended themselves. The Hands and the Partners set aside their differences long enough to eliminate the leadership of the Kin, and the organization has never resurfaced in any significant capacity.

For several decades, the Hands and the Downcity Partnership coexisted with relatively little violence between them. The Partners established themselves as the dominant power in the drug trade and the assassination business, while the Hands attempted to move into launching legitimate businesses. However, in recent decades, the Hands collapsed into infighting and have largely vanished. There are rumors that the end of the Hands was heavily influenced by several corporations, attempting to eliminate the threat to their various businesses. Interestingly, one of the companies launched by the Hands, Stardust Shipping, survived the collapse of the syndicate, and continues to operate today as a seemingly entirely legitimate major transportation company. Today, Stardust is one of the few companies other than Enterios actively training and licensing Navigators.

With the Seventeen Hands gone, a new syndicate called the Stormriders have emerged to take their place. The Stormriders originated as pirates on Zé, and used wealth and resources acquired from the Peakborn during the Ascension Revolts to establish themselves on a galactic scale. They have relocated their headquarters to Din Shass, but remain active throughout the galaxy. The Stormriders are primarily pirates, preying on any jumpship convoys that aren’t heavily defended enough. They have a longstanding rivalry with Ya-Rett’s Irregulars, who they often attempt to frame.

​The Corporations
As the role of governments diminishes in the galaxy, interplanetary megacorporations have risen even further to prominence. By far the largest is the Enterios Corporation, headquartered on Ottsalia. Enterios has been around for over a hundred years, and dabbles in just about every major industry in one capacity or another. Enterios owns and controls shipping companies, media companies, and food production companies on a dozen worlds. Enterios also funds major research efforts, and has been many of the research projects into Ancient sites and relics.

Enterios has been behind many of the advancements in Augmentation technology over the last century, and actively recruit people from across the galaxy to work as part of their Augmented labor force. Activists have claimed that they force people into dangerous and exploitative contracts, but Enterios lawyers have consistently won their legal battles. Three decades ago, in a surprise move, Enterios CEO Ned Stormsmith declared his personal AI secretary, CAS-9, as his successor, then stepped down. CAS-9 has remained CEO since then, bringing in a new wave of changes for Enterios--as well as enormous profits. The modern Enterios has taken a strong stand in favor of AI rights, funding AI activists throughout the galaxy and attempting to push legal reform bills through the Colonial Congress.

Enterios’ main rival is Triskele Enterprises, another Ottsalian business venture with broad, interplanetary reach. Triskele acquired the resources of the smaller Vasala Corporation a decade ago, allowing it to compete in Enterios’ weight class. Triskele’s primary interests are in medical devices, biogenetics, and human augmentation. They have spent the last several years waging a PR war with Enterios, claiming that Enterios and its AIs are a threat to the future of humanity. They point to Enterios’ widespread use of Augmented labor as evidence. Triskele has been mass-producing simplified Androids, with limited cognitive functions, to replace human Augments as labor.

This philosophical and corporate clash has been playing out across the galaxy, as Enterios and Triskele control more and more aspects of modern life. The causes of both AI rights and Augment rights have been positioned as opposites by these corporate giants, which dominate the discourse. In recent years, anticorporate organizations, such as the Stinging Eyes on Ottsalia, have begun to speak up. However, with companies like Enterios and Triskele operating more like governments than businesses, the anticorporate movement seems to stand little hope of progress.