Blesh

The blesh are members of the Alliance in the Orion Spur. Unique among the Alliance species (and rare in the known galaxy), the blesh are gestalt beings, a blending of human and nonhuman.

Appearance and Biology: Physically, the blesh are six-limbed bipeds, with some vaguely insectoid features. They appear to made of crystal, with translucent bodies within which their organs (like strangely-shaped decanters) can be glimpsed.  They are likely either the bioroid creations or descendants of a long dead species. Blesh do not reproduce sexually, but are instead grow like fruit from specialized cybernetic “trees” on their homeworld.

History: Until their “Great Awakening,” the bioroids were a post-sapient species; they had long ago broken the strange-loop of self to live edenic lives in the tranquil gardens of the totally controlled biosphere of their homeworld. All their needs were provided by the techno-organic trees they tended. Sometime in the dark age following the Great Collapse, a slower-than-light ark, launched from Old Earth long ago, crashed on their world. The trees dutifully downloaded the refugee human minds from the ark and (reading the ark's purpose) began distributing the minds to their charges/gardeners. The blending of the human minds and the minds and bodies of the bioroids formed the merged entities who call themselves blesh.

Psychology: There were 1803 human minds recovered from the ark. Every blesh is one of these minds blended with a bioroid post-sapient to form a new consciousness. They name themselves by combining the name of the human mind, a number designation related to the tree they grew from, and a monosyllabic prefix. Blesh are a peaceful species with respect for other sophonts. They have not historically been explorers, but they believe their culture to be enriched by learning about other species, and they are interested in galactic stability. Perhaps from the human elements in their minds, they have a great curiosity about ancient human artifacts. Though the blesh have the memories of the human part of their composite mind, these memories belong to someone long dead and have for them a dream-like quality; they feel like visions of the past rather than events actually experienced.

Stats: Blesh have a minimum Intelligence and Constitution of 9. Due to their synthetic biology, they have a +1 to saves against most poisons and diseases. Their integument provides AC 7 against weapons Tech level 3 or less. Their bodies heal slowly, however, without the aid of their engineered trees (+1 to all roles for length of time required for healing).

Warlord Wednesday: the Gods Make War (part 2)

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here. This is part 2 of my review of the last Warlord Annual:

"When the Gods Make War"

Warlord Annual #6 (1987)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Art by Pablo Marcos

Synopsis: When last we checked in on Skartaris, the Apokolipsian invasion forces were attacking all the city-states.  Lonar wants to use his mother box to call in reinforcements from New Genesis. He gets taken out, but Morgan manages to grab the mother box and escape.
In Kiro, Y’Smalla (disguised as Tara) makes her move to assassinated Machiste. She might have succeeded, had the real Tara not come to the rescue:

The two identical women fight a pitch battle. Y’Smalla, fearing she’s out-matched, escapes out a window.

Tara and Machiste join the battle outside and spot Desaad watching the proceedings with glee. They decide to drop in on him. A cowering, defeated Desaad delivers an ironic line:

The Apokolips army is forced to withdraw from Kiro, but Shamballah is still under siege. Morgan manages to get a message sent via the mother box before the Apokolipsians find him. His pistol jams and things look grim, but then the cavalry arrives in the form of a contingent of new gods. Living up to his nom de guerre, the Warlord takes command: He sends the new gods out to liberate the other Skartarian city-states while he takes one of the new Darkseidium Apokolips rifles and goes after Mantis, the leader of the Apokolipsian forces in Skartaris. Lonar worries about Morgan facing Mantis alone, but Morgan says he can handle it.

So we get a lot of snippets of fights among new gods: Lightray takes down Kanto in Bakwele. Orion puts a beat down on Kalibak in Kallistan. Forager disgraces Baron Vundabar in Kaambuka. Everywhere they go, they tell the people they come at the Warlord’s bidding, rehabilitating the image tarnished by Desaad’s shenanigans.

All the while, Morgan is maybe regretting taking on Mantis alone. His gun doesn’t work against him. All he can do is evade—which in the end, turns out to be enough. Mantis drains his power trying to hit him and is forced to return to his power pod.

Skartaris is freed. All the new gods boom tube back to their respective worlds. Lonar warns Morgan before he goes that Skartaris still has the ore Darkseid wants—and the lord of Apokolips doesn’t take defeat gracefully.

Things to Notice:

• Lonar's predictions about a return of Darkseid prove false. He doesn't show up again in the series.

Bonus Pin-up:
From Gil Kane:

The Gnomes of Dzrrn

The gnomes are a member species of the Alliance. They hail from ancient subterranean habitats on Dzrrn, a large asteroid. They've colonized more asteroids in their own system and in others.

Appearance and Biology: Gnomes are small (1.-1.3 m) humanoids with loose, wrinkled skin and large ears. Most gnomes encountered will likely be male, but there is little sexual dimorphism. Gnome clans are seldom made up of more than 100 individuals, though they tend to have close ties with nearby clans. Only few individuals in a clan are capable of breeding at a time, though a female may breed with multiple males. Mating produces an organism the gnomes call a”mother”--essentially an external womb. The mother generates gnome embryos from the genetic material donated from its maternal gnome and all the males she mated with. The female coordinates the mother’s care, but all members of clan take part.

Gnomes have castes, as well. Most males (and a few females) are “workers” responsible for the care and maintenance of the habitat. The somewhat taller “managers” are disproportionately female, but still numerically mostly male. They have primary responsibility for the rearing of children, the protection of the clan, negotiation with outsiders, and strategic planning.

Psychology: Gnomes are gregarious and inquisitive, but deliberate in their thought process. They seldom act rashly. They observe less need for personal space than most humanoids, and in fact, are prone to depression if forced into situations where they can have little physical contact with others for extended perionds. Many gnomes suffer from a fear of open spaces, and may experience a panic reaction.

Stats: Gnomes have a Constitution of 9.

The Maze

The so-called Apotheosis Maze is an ancient structure of great power. It sits on an all but lifeless world on the seldom-traveled fringe of civilized space, yet still it draws visitors willing to accept it’s wordless challenge: Find the path through and perhaps attain godhood.

The maze covers nearly 20,000 m2. From a distance, it appears to be made of marble. Closer inspection reveals the material has an iridescent, oil-slick sheen when the light hits it right. Scanning reveals it to be much more than simple stone: There are patterns in its structure at the picometer (and possibly smaller) level: circuits repeating. The maze has a psionic presence, too--like faint, whispering voices in an adjacent room.

It’s said that no known weapon can damage the maze’s structure. It is uncertain whether anyone has ever actually tried. The guardians of the maze move quickly to stop any visitor who attempts violence against them or the maze. They wield quantum weapons, that are powerless cubes outside of their hands.

The guardians are tall, robed humanoids with enlarged craniums and skin as black as starless space. There are always three, though perhaps not always the same three. Their primary task seems to be to decide who may walk the maze from the supplicants present. They never allow more than five in, but the number varies; they often select fewer. Those they choose must divest themselves of weapons, equipment, and uplinks, and don simple robes before entering the maze.

Despite the fact that the maze is open to the sky, no one has ever been observed traversing it. It would appear that the maze's interior exists elsewhere. The vast majority of those who enter the maze never emerge. In fact, there is no recorded instance of anyone emerging--but many stories exist. All the stories suggest sophont beings who walk the maze transcend in some way--perhaps even to godhood. The hyehoon faithful believe their Mother Creator, Anat Morao, walked the maze before ascending into heaven where she continues to watch over her children. Some versions of Instrumentality doctrine mention attempts to walk the maze, either praising or condemning them. A conspiracy meme during the Radiant Polity held that the first psi mutant (an immortal being of immense power, supposedly) was born of a pregnant mother who had walked the maze.

The legends keep people trying. Some attempt to hedge their bets by finding a map of the maze. Such maps surface from time to time--and people have killed to get them--but as far as is known, they've all turned out to be fakes. A rumor current among spacers is that there’s a mendicant on a backwater world called Oriax, who carries the map (perhaps unknowingly) in his brain, but few have been able to locate the planet much less any miraculous vagrant.

Ready for a Mall-Crawl?

This has been a good week for free stuff. Today, let me direct your attention to an offering from Justin, the chronicler of A Field Guide to Doomsday. Justin has served up The Ruins of Woebrook. It's either a stinging critique of 21st Century American consumerism disguised as an adventure module or an excuse for mall-inspired encounters with creative, punningly named mutant monsters: You decide!

The Cinnaman gives it two stick-sweet thumbs up/

A Strange Stars Appendix N

The Strange Stars setting I’ve been working is on is a combination of several different things I like in science fiction. I would call it: far future transhuman(ish) space opera. Far future sort of explains itself; it only has weird connections to the world of today.  It’s space opera, because its an adventure setting set in space (though more of the picaresque Jack Vance or Harry Harrison variety, than the “planet-wrecking" of Edmond Hamilton).
Unlike traditional, space opera whose basic form was laid out decades ago, I do want to take into account the effects of technology on human society--and humanity itself. This isn’t a new idea either really; there’s plenty of fiction in this vein and a few rpgs--though most of the rpgs seem to go for a smaller scope or harder science than space opera. I want Dune plus the stuff in Transhuman Space. The “ish” is because this sort of stuff is always going to take a bit of a backseat to the space opera.
I want both of these wrapped in the now even stranger visions of the future from the late 60s to the early 80s, shown on the covers of science fiction paperbacks, and in the Terran Trade Authority books. I want it to be populated by people like might show up in the pages of Heavy Metal in the works of Moebius, Caza, and Druillet, and in the disco-era stylings of the 70s sci-fi comics of Starlin, Cockrum, and Chaykin.

So here are some specific inspirations, broken up into where their influence is felt:

Human & Alien Cultures:
Wayne Barlowe. Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials.
David Brin. Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide to David Brin’s Uplift Universe.
CJ Cherryh.Chanur’s Venture. (particularly the appendix on species of the Compact)
Frank Herbert. Dune.
Willis McNelly. The Dune Encyclopedia.
Jack Vance. “The Moon Moth” and other short stories, Planet of Adventure

David Zindell. Neverness.

Technology & Societies:

Tony Daniel. Metaplanetary.

Greg Egan. Diaspora.

David L. Pulver, et al. GURPS Transhuman Space and its supplements.

Hannu Rajaniemi. The Quantum Thief, The Fractal Prince.

Karl Schroeder. Permanence.

John C. Wright. The Golden Age Trilogy: The Golden Age, Phoenix Exultant, and The Golden Transcendence.

Visual Inspirations:

Howard Chaykin. The adventures of characters Cody Starbuck (appearing in various places), Ironwolf (Weird Worlds #8-10), and Monark Starstalker (Marvel Premiere #32).

Jim Starlin. His Warlock stories (Strange Tales #178-181, and the various graphic novels and series related to the Dreadstar saga.

Steven Cowley (writer). Terran Trade Authority books.

Heavy Metal (magazine). particularly the works of Philippe Druillet (Lone Sloane 66, Salammbô), Moebius, Caza, and Enki Bilal (Exterminator 17).

Legion of Super-Heroes in the 1970s, particularly the designs of Dave Cockrum and Mike Grell, and a bit of Giffen's "Five Years Later" run beginning in 1989.

Star Wars, particularly Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Warlord Wednesday: When the Gods Make War

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"When the Gods Make War"

Warlord Annual #6 (1987)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Art by Pablo Marcos

Synopsis: It turns out the aliens Morgan tangled with in issue #121 were mining a previously unknown element that can increase the killing power of Apokolips’s forces. Desaad has named it “Darkseidium” to suck up to his master. Darkseid has gathered the forces of Apokolips for a a full scale invasion of Skartaris to acquire the element.

The New God Lightray has been held captive by Desaad. A couple of careless guards allow him the opportunity to escape after accidentally filling him in on the invasion plans. Lightray flies back to New Genesis and shares what he has learned with the other New Gods. Highfather, their leader,dispatches Lonar to Skartaris to join forces with the Warlord. When Lonar swoops do on his space horse, Morgan is wary at first but the New God convinces him they’re on the same side.

In Kiro, Tara has located Y’Smalla, the woman who's been masquerading as her, but before she can get revenge Desaad shows up. He tells Y’Smalla about the impending invasion and gives her orders to assassinate Machiste.

In Shamballah, Morgan and Lonar are marshaling the troops for the assault. They don’t have to wait long.

All across Skartaris, the gods wage war against humanity!

To be continued...

Things to Notice:

• This is the last Warlord Annual of this series and the last one period, to date.
• This issue features pinups by Gil Kane and Dan Jurgens. 

Where it Comes From:
The guest stars and villians in this annual spring from the mind of Jack Kirby, a cosmology that is often referred to as the "Fourth World." The concept made it's debut in Jimmy Olsen in 1970 and blossomed into four interrelating titles. Essentially, it told the story of the conflict between the new gods from New Genesis and their foes on the world of Apokolips. Kirby's titles only lasted until 1973. In 1977, an attempt was made to revive the series, but it died almost as soon as it was begun due to the "DC Implosion." By the time of this annual, however, the characters and their conflict had been integrated into the wider DC Universe--as had Warlord with the events of recent issues.

Of Space Ages & Sorcery

The gestalt mind of Hereticwerks, aided and abetted by the equally outré intellects of Needles and Porky, have unleashed upon the unsuspecting blogosphere Space-Age Sorcery. It's 27 pages of enough weird science fantasy spells (and a few evocative tables) to fill a campaign, easy. It's so dense with cool not even light escapes its surface. I'm probably exaggerating a bit, there--but this is a unabashed plug not an unbiased review.

Anyway, check it out for yourself here and see if I'm wrong.

Oh, and for those of you that have been following my Strange Stars posts, here's a doc with some of the more esoteric terminology I've been using.

The Pleasure Domes of Erato

During the time of the Archaic Oikumene, the most famous of the so-called “pleasure worlds” was Erato. Called the “New Venus” (the original Venus having been a much less hospitable planet around Old Sol), it was home to a collection of resorts and parks catering to every imaginable sensual pleasure. The domes were themed by passion or interest and provided a variety of different environments from lush gardens to freefall. The bioroid staff, in a myriad of forms, catered to every taste.

Then came the Great Collapse. For a few generations, the last visitors to Erato and the humanoid administrators lived an end-of-the-world party in high decadence: then the bioroids took over. They developed a society of their own, closed off their world to the rest of space.

Sometime near the end of the Radiant Polity era, Erato was re-contacted, and reemerged as a purveyor of pleasure. As before, it offer a variety of experiences in a discrete setting--but this this time under the control of the bioroids themselves. They’re an eclectic bunch: androids, gynoids, and a number of combinations thereof, with a myriad of modifications to primary and secondary sexual characteristics, sexual performance, and biochemistry. The facilities are less expansive than in days past (as many are given over to expanded living areas, storage, and manufacturing for the bioroids), but current visitors don’t seem disappointed.

Ever seeking to expand their market share, the Eratoans have began to generate members of their race with new uses. Bioroids with idiopathic poison biochemistry or weaponized genitalia command a high price on the black market as assassins.

Engineers

No. Appearing:1-4

AC: 4

Hit Dice: 1

Saving Throw: Warrior 1

Attack Bonus: +0

Damage: by weapon, or 1d4

Movement: 20’

Skill Bonus: +4

Morale: 7

The Engineers [mnadnzat; mnaat sing.] are a cybernetic species and citizens of the Vokun Empire, responsible for much of the Empire’s technology. Though they are essential to the Empire’s function, the vokun keep them under close control due to their fear of artificial intelligence.

Appearance and Biology: Engineers vaguely resemble isopods of ancient Earth, but with more human faces. The average 1.2 m tall and have eight limbs, but typically ambulate bipedally. Either of their upper pairs of limbs may be used as manipulators, though the first pair is shorter and more dexterous. Though they have an internal skeleton, they also possess thick plates of carapace that extend the length of their bodies. This carapace has an iridescent sheen as it has a coating of metalofullerene. The integument of Engineers comes in several different colors that may denoted their caste.

Engineers as a species have integrated with their technology. All adult Engineers have metaganglia providing conscious control of many aspects of their bodies' functioning and linking them to their spimes and noosphere. If an Engineer’s body is badly damaged, they can download their minds into another from a remote backup.

Other than having a sense of their species as a whole, Engineers do not recognize kinship, nor do they form pair bonds. Mating is a casual affair with no real associated emotion. Young are born in communal nurseries and are pre-sapient. They crawl around Engineer ships, directed by signals from adults, just another tool. Those that survive the second instar are “uplifted” to full sophont status by infection with the appropriate nanites.

Psychology: Engineers are somewhat literal-minded and pedantic, though they're fairly gregarious when their is a topic of conversation that interests them. They are adverse physical confrontation and danger, often to the point of cowardice from the perspective of other species. When they feel endangered they attempt to roll themselves up as much as possible. They make poor fighters, but their aptitude for technology makes them excellent technicians and (of course) engineers.

Strange Stars

After over ten posts, I've finally decided (maybe) on a unifying title for the science fiction setting posts I've been doing: Strange Stars. Why that? I don't know. It sounded better than anything else I came up with. There is a real thing called a strange star--though I don't know that that has anything to do with the setting.

So anyway, now those posts will be found under that label.

More to come.

Ibglibdishpan

Appearance and Biology: Ibglibdishpan are spindly humanoids with yellow skins. Their skulls are large, hairless, and somewhat ovoid, but this appearance is accentuated by a shield-shaped “mask” of osteoderm covering their face above the jaw. They do not have external ears or noses. Ibglibdishpan exhibit very little sexual dimorphism [in fact, discussion of gender is considered rude by them.]

History: The ibglibdishpan are citizens of the Vokun Empire. Their natural cognitive traits have been enhanced by a vokun eugenics program and genetic modification to make them “humanoid computers” capable of computational tasks beyond most unenhanced humanoid brains.

Psychology: Ibglibdishpan tend to be restrained in their emotional responses compared to other humanoids. They also tend to lack empathy, and are sometimes at a loss as to my other humanoids don’t take the obvious, logical action. They are often considered pedantic and overly precise. They tend to avoid violence and make poor warriors. Due to their neuronal structure they are prone to the development of obsessions and compulsions, or perseverations of certain behaviors.

Stats: Intelligence of at least 14. Charisma and Strength no higher than 10.

Mental Breakdown: There is a 25% chance with any intelligence related skill check or other intelligence related task, that the peculiar mental structure of the ibglibdishpan may lead to some sort of failure. A save vs. Mental Effects must be made. On a failed roll, consult the following table:

1 catatonic state, repeating the last statement made for d100 minutes

2 screams for d100 seconds, then returns to previous activity as if nothing happened.

3 develop a phobia which lasts for 2d12 weeks.

4 Develop a reaction akin to Stendhal Syndrome for d4/2 hours.

5 seizure for 1d4 min. -1 to all rolls until a period of rest.

6 Lose 1-2 points of intelligence for 1d20 days. At that the end of that period, a second Mental Effects save must be made. Failure means the loss is permanent.

Warlord Wednesday: Clouds of War

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"Clouds of War"

Warlord #121 (September 1987)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Pencils by Art Thibert, Inks by Pablo Marcos

Synopsis: Two armies face each other across the Ebondar River. On one side is a contingent from Kaambuka led by General G’Barr, and on the other is a Shamballan force led by Travis Morgan, the Warlord. The armies engage and Morgan moves to avoid bloodshed. He goes straight for the general and defeats him in one on one combat.

Morgan demands to know why the Kaambukans have invaded Shamballan territory. The general accuses them of launching catapult attacks on their capital for 3 days--something Morgan knows they didn’t do. The Kaambukans retreat, leaving Morgan to puzzle over what the hell is going on.

Meanwhile, Kara and Jennifer can’t find the demon. They utilize the history tapes of the Atlanteans to try to find ways to locate the demon and combat him. Turns out:

Azmyrkon had a tripartite rod--”a weapon of unimaginable power.” He wrecked a lot of havoc until Arion showed up to throw a beat down on him and lock him in a prison. He split the demon’s rod into three pieces and hid them.

An earthquake interrupts the ladies’ history lesson and it appears to be an ominous sign.

Morgan is roaming around the desert looking for Tara. He comes across some guys in futuristic gold outfits doing some futuristic stuff with rocks and a launcher. They shoot at Morgan, and he returns fire, knocking one out before he gets knocked out by a rockslide himself.

That gives us a chance to check in on Morgan's CIA nemesis Redmond, who has now undergone full yeti transformation. He’s not about to wait around until the Atlantean snowmen have made enough depilatory for everybody. He stills the antidote and escapes after shooting two of the hairy folk that saved his ungrateful life.

In Kiro, Machiste is being pushed to war on Shamballah by continued reports of raids. He doesn’t buy it, but his ministers are instant. “Tara” is being no help--because she’s really chaos-sowing Y’Smalla disguised by Akolipsian tech.

The real Tara is being kept chained in a dungeon, about to be whipped by a sadistic thug, until:

She eaves him chained to the wall and escapes.

Kara and Jennifer find Azmyrkon causing the Mountain of Dragons volcano to erupt so he can get the first peice of his weapon. Our heroines take him on, but after a battle they’re only able to escape with their lives. Azmyrkon carries the day.

Morgan finally wakes up from his umpteenth concussion since the start of this series. The guys in the weird outfits are gone--except the one he had grazed. Morgan manages to wake the guy up. Before Morgan even thinks about harsh interrogation techniques, the guy begins to panic and warns Morgan to stay away

Elsewhere, a cackling Desaad watches the scene on a console. He presses a button and the man disintegrates before Morgan’s eyes.

Things to Notice:

• Unlike Morgan and Machiste, Ashir, King of Kaambuka, doesn't lead his armies from the front.
• Redmond (yet again) takes his quest for revenge too far. 
• Y'Smalla didn't have very good security on Tara.

Where it Comes From:
Here we have the first appearance in story in Warlord of Arion, Lord of Atlantis.

Jerry Bingham's cover for this issue recalls Frank Miller's cover for Daredevil #189 from 1982:

Tales from a Spacer's Bar

A Tale from a Spacer's Bar is a two hundred (at least) year-old work of fiction that has appeared in many different media. It's author and the world that it originated on has been lost to history--in fact several variant forms exist, so it is difficult even to determine what the original contents were. The work is an anthology of intertwining short stories and vignettes that the nameless narrator hears (and ultimately participates in) in several different bars catering to star pilots and crew on several different worlds. Here are a sampling of images appearing in various adaptations of  A Tale over the years:

"The Prospector's Tale" involves an encounter on an all but lifeless world between a determined misanthrope and a deva. The prospector is taken to the devas' diamondoid sphere habitat, where ironically, his dislike of his fellow man saves him from a demon sprung from the malfunctioning moon-size brain.

This scene is from a retro-psychedelic sim version of "The Clubber's Story." The club habitué (already high on chroma) takes a large dose of an experimental drug called "Proteus V" (a substance generally thought to be fictional). After a serious of comical mishaps, ve accidentally opens a forgotten spacetime oubliette and frees an angry contingent of amazons. Even worse, the amazon commander takes an amorous interest in ver.

"The Three Grifters and the Almost Aptheosis" involves the mysterious artifact known as the Apotheosis Maze. Two humans and a moravec in possession of a dubious map of the Maze set out in a stolen ship with the plan to walk the path and gain godhood. The ambiguous ending of the tale inspired the "Blue Shift" movement in the Gods and Devils neurosymphony by the composer collective Orm 7 Trang. 

A Cold War

The moon Boreas is covered by an ocean eternally sheathed in ice. Though this environment is harsh, a blue-skinned humanoid people called uldra have made the mood their own. With few exceptions, the uldra have built their settlements beneath the surface of the insulating ice, exploiting the sunless seas. At some point, the uldra city-states discovered they weren’t alone: there were monsters in the depths. That was when the war began.

Given the average thickness of the planetary ice sheet, the only source of energy in much of the ocean are deep sea volcanic vents. All sorts of life are found in the oases surrounding them, including a life form unique to Boreas: sapient organisms called “cold minds.” The cold minds are vaguely like colonies of coral, sometimes extending for miles. Their intelligence is adapted for their colder, less energetic environment; their thought processes are laboriously slow compared to humans. it took them decades to decide what to do about the invaders on their world and decades more  to formulate their counterstrike.

Decades ago, the uldra city-states warred against each other. They grew bioroid sea beasts as terror weapons. While not all of the warbeasts were accounted for at the end of the conflict, they had been built with a failsafe: They ceased function if they didn’t receive periodic treatments of certain chemicals. It came as a shock then, when warbeasts began attacking again-- and wouldn’t obey any of the emergency halt codes.

Tensions flared and there were accusations that one city-state or another was responsible. Only after after parasitic organisms were found in the nervous systems of the recently dead that rose to attack their horrified fellows, did the uldra suspect they had another enemy.

And so the war goes on. Uldra rangers are vigilant for attacks of war beasts or undead and exotic, weaponized sea life native to the Boreal ocean. They have destroyed cold minds at times, but the oceans are dark and deep, and the their enemies too dispersed and resilient.

Some uldra have suggested attempts at negotiation, but even if they could find a way to communicate with the slow cold minds, it could be generations before they reached any meaningful dialog.

The Emerald City of Smaragdoz

The capital and only city of the world of Smaragdoz is the green crystalline megacity of the same name, which is also the de facto capital of the Alliance and a nexus of trading routes. Smaragdoz has a unique form of government: a psydemocracy group-mind. The captured thoughts and desires of the citizens form a composite psionic entity that makes all the polis’s laws by decree. This civic mind often manifests as a giant disembodied head off-worlders sometimes refer to as “The Wizard.”

The land beyond the capital is divided into four bucolic prefectures: Smalt, Gules, Xanthic, and Purpure. Though pre-industrial in appearance and pace of life, these carefully controlled farmlands, orchards, and forests are more a sanitized, theme-park version than a replication of any historic rural environment. The farms and hamlets are  inhabited by Smaragdines disinclined ito city life, criminals sentenced to labor, and atavism tourists in animal bodies. The convicts aren’t under any restrictions--other than being forbidden from returning to the city until their sentence is up and being followed at all times by conscience wisps. The wisps provide escalating levels of admonishment and finally neurologic lockdown if the convict attempts to commit further offences.

The inhabitants of the prefectures are not part of the civic mind, but the mind monitors the prefectures and interacts with them through avatars. Scarecrows in fields are often criers announcing important events, and quaint clockwork robots help settle disputes among the rural folk.

The outer border of the province is formed by the Waste, or the Deadly Desert: a “no man’s land” made as lifeless and poisonous by the environmental nanites as the prefectures are fertile and inviting. The lands beyond the border are genuine wilderness.  These sparsely populated lands are home to political dissidents, radical nonconformists, and criminals.

The Instrumentality

Attributes: Force 8, Cunning 5, Wealth 7
Hit Points: 49
Assets: Space Marines/Force 7, Planetary Defenses/Force 6, Strike Fleet/Force 4, Zealots/Force 3, Pretech Manufacturers/Wealth 7, Marketeers/Wealth 5, Organization Moles/Cunning 5, Cyberninjas/Cunning 3
Tags: Theocratic, Planetary Government

The Instrumentality of Aom is a theocracy controlling several systems in the Orion Arm and providing spiritual guidance for the faithful scattered throughout many more. It aggressively seeks to expand its sphere of influence, primarily by peaceful conversion, but it’s not opposed to violent conquest.

“Aom” can be many things (depending on the context and the audience) but is generally described as both the godhead and the godhead-receptive spiritual being complex. Church liturgy often uses litanies of statements of opposites to analogize the ineffable Aom.

Church hierarchy has both an exoteric and esoteric version of its history--and the exoteric version is carefully crafted for a given audience and prone to revision with each doctrine update. The esoteric version conforms to known history in most respects. The faith had its origins in the early days of the Radiant Polity. Two memetic engineers working for a political action group became interested in ancient forms of spirituality and embarked on a private project. The Church views this as divine inspiration; whatever the case, the engineers set their ais to synthesizing a belief system from the commonalities of the “paleo-faiths” still extant within the human sphere: Trimurtitarianism, Prosperity Wicca, Mantrayana Hubbardism, Santerislam, Metaqabala, Ghost Dance Sufism, the Tao of the Taheb, veneration of the Mahdi Magdalene, various public domain forms of Corporate Confucianism, and others.

The first version spread rapidly after release into the Polity noosphere. Soon, various permutations of the faith were being practiced in different systems. Conflict between sects followed. The developers were both martyred in the first twenty years of the faith’s existence. The sectarian strife and clashes with other memes intensified over decades and eventually tore the Radiant Polity apart.

The Instrumentality was one of the entities to emerge from the four centuries of chaos that followed. The numerous sects had been winnowed down to a single orthodoxy with a rigid hierarchy. While the Instrumentality’s evangelists revise doctrine to best win converts, on the worlds already under church control it’s rule is uncompromising, even if it’s actual tenets are sometimes vague.