Hundreds of years ago, humans fled a cataclysm in their home galaxy, and migrated to a globular cluster 1700 light years above the galactic plane. They called the cluster the Starforge, or simply the Forge.
Prompts and other bits lifted directly from the rules are in blue. My comments are in green.
- Cataclysm
- Exodus
- Communities
- Laws
- Religion
- Magic
- Communication and Data
- Medicine
- AI
- Wars
- Lifeforms
- Precursors
- Horrors
- Cataclysm: Inter-dimensional entities invaded our reality. Beings of chaotic energy. Titanic creatures of horrific power.
- The human interstellar domain had just begun to flower when inter-dimensional entities invaded our reality. Not quite the Great Old Ones, but close enough. In the ensuing war to push these Otherlords back from whence they came, large swaths of settled space were devastated – not just laid waste, but tainted by the evil from Outside.
- Exodus: Mysterious alien gates provided instantaneous one-way passage to the Forge.
- Entire planetary populations – or what was left of them – had to be relocated in the aftermath of the war. Most pushed on past the existing borders of Known Space in search of untainted worlds to settle. But a handful of diverse groups decided that one Hell was as good as another, and elected to risk the Itani Gate and see for themselves just how inhospitable the Forge was.
- Communities: We have made our mark in this galaxy, but the energy storms we call balefires threaten to undo that progress, leaving our communities isolated and vulnerable.
- Legends now tell us that the Crossing was made by one huge fleet of refugees, but the reality is that there were successive waves over the next decade. Once word filtered back about the true nature of the Forge, passages trickled off. Now they are rare. Some in the galactic plane – “planers” – still seek the Forge hoping to find Atlantis or El Dorado. A few remain. Fewer still return. Most die.
- Law: No prompt really fit. Based loosely on Traveler and the Dumarest chronicles.
- The nature and weight of laws tend to reflect the local population density – where there are many people relatively close together, laws are stricter, more numerous and more enthusiastically enforced. Where the population is thin, not so much. Even in the same star system, there can be metropolitan centers that are safe and orderly, as well as outposts with a more frontier lifestyle. A general Covenant is more or less adhered to, particularly in the case of offworlders. Locals may wish they were that fortunate.
- Religion: Our faith is as diverse as our people.
- Many refugee waves that were religiously heterogenous soon “found religion” together in the Forge. It is a place that challenges one’s fundamental understanding of reality. Many have created semi-religions, centered around the ritualization of practices that helped a particular group survive in the Forge.
- Magic: Unnatural energies flow through the Forge. Magic and science are two sides of the same coin.
- Soon after our arrival, some displayed the ability to harness the Forge’s energies. Today, those with “baleshine” invoke this power to manipulate matter or see beyond the veils of our own universe. But this can be a corrupting force, and the most powerful mystics are respected and feared in equal measure.
- But it’s NOT “the Force” – it doesn’t depend on being infected with an embarrassing blood disorder. It appears to manifest in certain people who are exposed to balefire, but that is still speculation, albeit based on long observation. Abilities are generally modest, and often unreliable. Empathic reading, psychometry, life sense, limited prescience, limited telekinesis, limited healing and so on. Abilities are so random, unpredictable and haphazard that they have thus far defied all attempts to study or cultivate them in any organized fashion. One beneficial ability that is fortunately quite common among the affected is the ability to sense impending balestorms, which comes in quite handy when navigating and exploring deep space.
- Soon after our arrival, some displayed the ability to harness the Forge’s energies. Today, those with “baleshine” invoke this power to manipulate matter or see beyond the veils of our own universe. But this can be a corrupting force, and the most powerful mystics are respected and feared in equal measure.
- Communication and Data: Information is life. We rely on space-borne couriers to transport messages and data across the vast distances between settlements.
- Direct communication and transmissions beyond the near-space of a ship or outpost are impossible. Digital archives are available at larger outposts, but the information is not always up-to-date or reliable. Therefore, the most important communications and discoveries are carried by couriers who swear vows to see that data safely to its destination.
- Medicine: To help offset a scarcity of medical supplies and knowledge, the resourceful technicians we call riggers create basic organ and limb replacements.
- Medical technology tends to follow the same curve as law – the more people, the better, on average, the medical tech and care. Advanced medical tech depends on advanced systems, and the Forge always plays Hell with those. Starships are shielded, and can even dodge the balefires, but space stations, planets and moons generally can’t. Medical transport is a lucrative business in the Forge.
- This prompt seems to be written specifically to introduce “cyborgism” into the plot, a la any number of cyberpunk games.
- Medical technology tends to follow the same curve as law – the more people, the better, on average, the medical tech and care. Advanced medical tech depends on advanced systems, and the Forge always plays Hell with those. Starships are shielded, and can even dodge the balefires, but space stations, planets and moons generally can’t. Medical transport is a lucrative business in the Forge.
- AI: We no longer have access to advanced computer systems. The energies of the Forge corrupt advanced systems. Instead, we must rely on the seers we call Adepts.
- Good luck with AI in the Forge. Even shielded spacecraft are not completely immune from these energy tides and storms, and often rely on evasion to survive them. Unfortunately, due to the physics involved, shields cannot be used to cover planets or planetary locations. And so far no thickness of native rock or combination of materials has proven completely resistant to balefires. Only the Precursor metal known as “black iron” is proof against them, and it is prohibitively rare and difficult to work.
- Wars: No prompt fit. When war does break out, it has thus far been limited to on-planet and in-systems fracases.
- Where there are humans, there will be conflict. But wars in the old sense, like the war against the Otherlords, are almost unknown. It’s difficult enough surviving in a stellar environment that is actively trying to kill you at every other moment. War is expensive and depletes all sides, leaving them less capable of enduring the Forge.
- Lifeforms: This is a perilous and often inhospitable galaxy, but life finds a way.
- For the most part, a planetary magnetic field will shield organic life from the worst effects of the balefires. For the most part. Life can be found everywhere in the Forge, even in the most hostile environments. But life on worlds subject to strong, chronic balefires can become warped and aberrant. Often Precursor ruins on these blasted worlds are occupied by such balespawn.
- Precursors: Over eons, a vast number of civilizations rose and fell within the Forge. Today, the folk we call grubs—scavenger crews and audacious explorers—delve into the mysterious monuments and ruins of those ancient beings.
- Two major non-human races occupied the Forge before humans. The first, known generically as the Elder, existed over 500 million years ago, and all that is left of them are the so-called vaults, a general term for the monolithic structures they left behind, some sealed, some empty and a rare few containing artifacts that can be studied. The second race came and went 50 million years ago, and are known as the Younger. They were able to reverse-engineer and mimic a certain level of Elder tech, and learned to use some that they could not replicate, but much remained unfathomable even to them. Some speculate that Younger meddling with Builder tech created the balefires. Because they never achieved the technological heights of the Elder, there are actually fewer Younger ruins remaining – their works simply didn’t endure as well as those of the Elder.
- Players are encouraged to alter prompts to fit their vision of the milieu, so I’ve reduced “a vast number” to two. Maybe one more, but we’ll have to see.
- Two major non-human races occupied the Forge before humans. The first, known generically as the Elder, existed over 500 million years ago, and all that is left of them are the so-called vaults, a general term for the monolithic structures they left behind, some sealed, some empty and a rare few containing artifacts that can be studied. The second race came and went 50 million years ago, and are known as the Younger. They were able to reverse-engineer and mimic a certain level of Elder tech, and learned to use some that they could not replicate, but much remained unfathomable even to them. Some speculate that Younger meddling with Builder tech created the balefires. Because they never achieved the technological heights of the Elder, there are actually fewer Younger ruins remaining – their works simply didn’t endure as well as those of the Elder.
- Horrors: The strange energies of the Forge give unnatural life to the dead.
- Balefires and Precursor tech can warp organic life. The worst of them can return the dead to a semblance of life. The phenomenon is not understood in the least, but it is real. The undead are real.
- The inclusion of the undead was such an unexpected prompt that I had to include it. The weirder the better.
- Balefires and Precursor tech can warp organic life. The worst of them can return the dead to a semblance of life. The phenomenon is not understood in the least, but it is real. The undead are real.