Prompts and other bits lifted directly from the rules are in blue<\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0 My comments are in green<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCataclysm<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nExodus<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCommunities<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/b><\/span><\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nLaws<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nReligion<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMagic<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCommunication and Data<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMedicine<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAI<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWars<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nLifeforms<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPrecursors<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHorrors<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCataclysm:<\/b><\/span> Inter-dimensional entities invaded our reality.\u00a0 <\/span>Beings of chaotic energy.\u00a0 <\/span>Titanic creatures of horrific power.<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/span>\r\n\r\nThe human interstellar domain had just begun to flower when inter-dimensional entities invaded our reality.\u00a0 <\/span>Not quite the Great Old Ones, but close enough.\u00a0 <\/span>In the ensuing war to push these Otherlords<\/a><\/strong> back from whence they came, large swaths of settled space were devastated – not just laid waste, but tainted by the evil from Outside.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nExodus: <\/b><\/span>Mysterious alien gates provided instantaneous one-way passage to the Forge.<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/span>\r\n\r\nEntire planetary populations – or what was left of them – had to be relocated in the aftermath of the war.\u00a0 <\/span>Most pushed on past the existing borders of Known Space in search of untainted worlds to settle.\u00a0 <\/span>But a handful of diverse groups decided that one Hell was as good as another, and elected to risk the Itani Gate<\/a> <\/strong>and see for themselves just how inhospitable the Forge was.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCommunities: <\/b><\/span>We have made our mark in this galaxy, but the energy storms we call <\/i><\/span>balefires<\/a><\/i><\/span> threaten to undo that progress, leaving our communities isolated and vulnerable. <\/i><\/span><\/strong>\r\n\r\nLegends 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.\u00a0 <\/span>Once word filtered back about the true nature of the Forge, passages trickled off.\u00a0 <\/span>Now they are rare.\u00a0 <\/span>Some in the galactic plane – \u201cplaners\u201d – still seek the Forge hoping to find Atlantis or El Dorado.\u00a0 <\/span>A few remain.\u00a0 <\/span>Fewer still return.\u00a0 <\/span>Most die.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nLaw:<\/b> <\/span>No prompt really fit.\u00a0 <\/span>Based loosely on Traveler and the Dumarest chronicles.<\/i><\/span><\/strong>\r\n\r\nThe 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.\u00a0 <\/span>Where the population is thin, not so much.\u00a0 <\/span>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.\u00a0 <\/span>A general Covenant is more or less adhered to, particularly in the case of offworlders.\u00a0 <\/span>Locals may wish they were that fortunate.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nReligion: <\/b><\/span>Our faith is as diverse as our people.<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/span>\r\n\r\nMany refugee waves that were religiously heterogenous soon \u201cfound religion\u201d together in the Forge.\u00a0 <\/span>It is a place that challenges one\u2019s fundamental understanding of reality.\u00a0 <\/span>Many have created semi-religions, centered around\u00a0 <\/span>the ritualization of practices that helped a particular group survive in the Forge.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMagic: <\/b><\/span>Unnatural energies flow through the Forge. Magic and science are two sides of the same coin.<\/i><\/span><\/strong>\r\n\r\nSoon after our arrival, some displayed the ability to harness the Forge\u2019s energies. Today, those with “baleshine<\/strong><\/a>” 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.<\/span>\r\n\r\nBut it\u2019s NOT \u201cthe Force\u201d – it doesn\u2019t depend on being infected with an embarrassing blood disorder.\u00a0 <\/span>It appears to manifest in certain people who are exposed to balefire, but that is still speculation, albeit based on long observation.\u00a0 <\/span>Abilities are generally modest, and often unreliable.\u00a0 <\/span>Empathic reading, psychometry, life sense, limited prescience, limited telekinesis, limited healing and so on.\u00a0 <\/span>Abilities are so random, unpredictable and haphazard that they have thus far defied all attempts to study or cultivate them in any organized fashion.\u00a0 <\/span>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.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCommunication and Data: Information is life. We rely on space-borne couriers to transport messages and data across the vast distances between settlements. <\/em><\/span><\/b><\/span>\r\n\r\nDirect 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.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMedicine: <\/b><\/span><\/span>To help offset a scarcity of medical supplies and knowledge, the resourceful technicians we call riggers create basic organ and limb replacements.<\/em><\/strong><\/span>\r\n\r\nMedical technology tends to follow the same curve as law – the more people, the better, on average, the medical tech and care.\u00a0 <\/span>Advanced medical tech depends on advanced systems, and the Forge always plays Hell with those.\u00a0 <\/span>Starships are shielded, and can even dodge the balefires, but space stations, planets and moons generally can\u2019t.\u00a0 <\/span>Medical transport is a lucrative business in the Forge.<\/span>\r\n\r\nThis prompt seems to be written specifically to introduce “cyborgism” into the plot, a la any number of cyberpunk games.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAI: <\/b><\/span><\/span>We no longer have access to advanced computer systems.\u00a0 The energies of the Forge corrupt advanced systems.\u00a0 Instead, we must rely on the seers we call Adepts.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span>\r\n\r\nGood luck with AI in the Forge.\u00a0 <\/span>Even shielded spacecraft are not completely immune from these energy tides and storms, and often rely on evasion to survive them.\u00a0 <\/span>Unfortunately, due to the physics involved, shields cannot be used to cover planets or planetary locations.\u00a0 <\/span>And so far no thickness of native rock or combination of materials has proven completely resistant to balefires.\u00a0 <\/span>Only the Precursor metal known as \u201cblack iron\u201d is proof against them, and it is prohibitively rare and difficult to work.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWars: No prompt fit.\u00a0 When war does break out, it has thus far been limited to on-planet and in-systems fracases.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/b><\/span>\r\n\r\nWhere there are humans, there will be conflict.\u00a0 <\/span>But wars in the old sense, like the war against the Otherlords, are almost unknown.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s difficult enough surviving in a stellar environment that is actively trying to kill you at every other moment.\u00a0 <\/span>War is expensive and depletes all sides, leaving them less capable of enduring the Forge.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nLifeforms: <\/b><\/span><\/span>This is a perilous and often inhospitable galaxy, but life finds a way.<\/strong><\/em><\/span>\r\n\r\nFor the most part, a planetary magnetic field will shield organic life from the worst effects of the balefires.\u00a0 <\/span>For the most part.\u00a0 <\/span>Life can be found everywhere in the Forge, even in the most hostile environments.\u00a0 <\/span>But life on worlds subject to strong, chronic balefires can become warped and aberrant.\u00a0 <\/span>Often Precursor ruins on these blasted worlds are occupied by such balespawn<\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPrecursors: Over eons, a vast number of civilizations rose and fell within the Forge. Today, the folk we call grubs\u2014scavenger crews and audacious explorers\u2014delve into the mysterious monuments and ruins of those ancient beings.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/b><\/span>\r\n\r\nTwo major non-human races occupied the Forge before humans.\u00a0 <\/span>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.\u00a0 <\/span>The second race came and went 50 million years ago, and are known as the Younger.\u00a0 <\/span>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.\u00a0 <\/span>Some speculate that Younger meddling with Builder tech created the balefires.\u00a0 <\/span>Because they never achieved the technological heights of the Elder, there are actually fewer Younger ruins remaining – their works simply didn\u2019t endure as well as those of the Elder.<\/span>\r\n\r\nPlayers are encouraged to alter prompts to fit their vision of the milieu, so I’ve reduced “a vast number” to two.\u00a0 Maybe one more, but we’ll have to see.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHorrors: The strange energies of the Forge give unnatural life to the dead.<\/em><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\nBalefires and Precursor tech can warp organic life.\u00a0 <\/span>The worst of them can return the dead to a semblance of life.\u00a0 <\/span>The phenomenon is not understood in the least, but it is real.\u00a0 <\/span>The undead are real.<\/span>\r\n
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