I think I join with a variation of my Principalty of Krugstahl nation. Think of an interstellar Zeon from Gundam spiced up with heavy dose of feudal sheanigans and you pretty much get what I mean.
I like this discussion, I really do. I wish we could have this for the dying breed of Fantasy NRPs,too.
To briefly join up here let me address a few points:
1.) Point system can sound neat but do you even gasp how difficult to create a whole new game system? I don't mind if somebody works on that as a side project and maybe come up with an NRP featuring it later but game mechanics are the kind of things which you need to be absolutely good with if you don't wish to ruin the game experience as a whole. As others said if you want a story-focused game, focus on story. Don't put your hopes in half-baked game mechanics.
2.) FTL and scope of the game. I am probably the loudest person when it comes to the whole issue with the sheer scale of these space NRPs. Galaxies are beyond huge! So yeah, let's make it relatively small. Slow FTL is always the solution to that along with other measures to ensure people won't just be brave and randomly explore deep into the galaxy. Alternatively you can try a bit of B5/Mass Effect solution so there'd be "stargates" that allow faster FTL travel between fix points. These can aid a great deal to polarize conflict. Just don't make too many of these gates because that has the opposite effect. Mass Effect is actually guilty of this so don't exactly copy them. And what the hell is up with this fear of FTL abuses? You know for every technobabble abuse there's a technobabble solution. You fear FTL ambushes? Have FTL sensors that predict incoming fleets or heck even have FTL jammers which would prevent making jumps at well-secured places. Don't go overboard, though. Denying FTL too much would be detrimental to story dynamics rather than helping it.
3.) Lastly the theme. Oh so much this. I am a strict supporter of freedom in NRPs and semi-known for my strange choices in a game (to my knowledge I am the only one wanting to play as Martians in a steampunk fantasy game) but regardless having a more proper direction is much welcome. Mob democracy might help a lot but it's still the GM's responsibility to come up with an overall theme.
@Willy Vereb That's alright with me :) You can move the sheet over to the Character tab and can post in the IC whenever. Also the pictures for your ships are broken :p
I know. I'll fix them once I revisit my fleets a bit. And I think I'll work on this in a few hours before I decide to transplant it to the Character tab.
Name: The Morte Imperium, Das Mortereich, The Morte Empire Species: Morteans (near-humanoid race) Government: Totalitarian Elected Monarchy Official Language: Gothic Standard Homeworld: Mortis, Todestern System Holdings: Star Systems: 7, Habitable Planets: 4, Colony Clusters: 16 Total Population: 85,569,242,144 (according to last year's census) Military Power: 2,500,000,000 personnel (regulated by law, always replenished within a week) Fleet Power: 2,500 warships (as per "peacetime" law restrictions, not including escorts and lesser ships)
HISTORY OVERVIEW
TBA
SPECIES & SOCIETY
Morteans are bipedal creatures who closely resemble humans. Whether they are distant descendants of human colonists or an alien race who are just similar to humans due to the parallel evolution theory, it's unknown. Morteans live in their harsh death worlds which made them look pale and weak compared to an average human. They're at average 163cm tall but there are rare Morteans who grow over 2 meters. Due to the effect of radiation, birth defects and mutations are relatively common and according to statistics 27.4% of the children die at (or before) birth. For every Mortean death is a common experience which swayed their society into an unique direction. Morteans neither fear death nor welcome it. They accept death as a natural element of their lives and strive to serve their community during the short time they're given (average 40-50 years). Morteans are utilitarians to the extreme, acting together like clockwork. In the eyes of other races Morteans themselves may even appear almost machine-like, having little in the way of personal goals and instead striving to complete their duties to the community as a whole. This unique mindset also makes Morteans numb to the feeling of loss other species experience. Morteans are capable of boundless cruelty without the slightest emotion behind it. Compassion in its typical sense is almost completely foreign to them. On the other hand their higher orientation towards logic means Morteans always operate within reason. They have a clear view on risks and benefits which makes negotiations with Morteans surprisingly simple. The official language of the Mortereich is the Gothic Standard. It resembles German from the ancient human civilization albeit they are far from a perfect match to each other. There are also 7 major dialects and even more minor dialects within the population which can range from slight mutation to something that doesn't even sound like the same language.
GOVERNMENT & HOLDINGS
The Mortean government is imperial, formed in the ancient past under the necessity to fend off various invaders. Old databanks detail that until the fourth century IR the Kaiser's title was inherited by the descendants of Karl von Metzel. After the formation of the "Neue Reich" the Kaiser was elected for 4 years by a public vote. Thus the current government system is Elected Totalitarian Monarchy. Anyone can volunteer to be Kaiser candidate but they must pass a rigorous set of selection tests and only the most fit can participate in the actual elections. There are no established political parties albeit having the favor of certain groups can increase a candidate's chances to become the Kaiser. Right after election the Kaiser has absolute power but he must use this with care. After the end of their run the former Kaiser is examined and questioned for his actions and in case of misusing his power he may even face execution. Re-election is possible but only for the maximum number of 4 times in a row. Overall the Morte Empire has a strict system of hierarchy. Anyone is expected to follow the orders of their superior to the letter. Insubordination leads to punishment. Yet if there are questions raised in regards of the superior's competence, these can be submitted to a higher up who upon further evaluation could demote the said person for their apparent lack of ability deserving the post. Extraordinary promotions may be issued the same way, albeit the process is even more complicated. Generally the Mortean government and society works like a constantly running engine. This undoubtedly contributes to their reputation as "machine-like people".
Overall the Mortean Empire holds almost 40% of the Stormlosweg Sector which can be found in the uncharted regions of the galaxy. Stormlosweg Sector is devastated by the Kilonova Catastrophe over a millennia ago. This made life incredibly harsh for its inhabitants. Currently the Mortean Empire controls 7 star systems: Todderstern (their home system), Bekrieger, Heissessen, Brennenweg, Schmelzer, Grossernicht and Saltzricht. In spite of that they only possess 4 barely habitable planets. Their home system Mortis, Tannerbald the only planet with the potential for open terrain agriculture, the mineral-rich Stolzer and Krugern which was the former homeworld of the Luxans. To house their population elsewhere the Morteans built no less than 16 colony clusters in their territory and currently about 32% of Morte's population lives in these.
TECHNOLOGY & INDUSTRY
Since the ancient Kilonova Catastrophe the Morteans came a long way and advanced their science tremendously. It was both by the force of necessity and by reverse-engineering the technology of other civilizations. Nowadays they are the most advanced nation in the entire Stormlosweg Sector, even if compared to civilizations from the galaxy as a whole they have ways to go. Their chief power source is antimatter. Boon of the bane is that the Kilonova Catastrophe turned all stars into irregulars which naturally expel solar winds of pure antimatter. Gathering this up the Morte Empire has an almost inexhaustible supply. Their industry is developed massively over the centuries and their star systems are practically filled with automated mines and factories. These were once fueling the Morte's immense war machine but with the lasting peace these facilities are switched over to civilian production. Just in this century they founded 8 new colony clustrs. Material engineering is similarly advanced in the Empire, with various batches of Durachrome can be found in all construction.
For long centuries Morte's only reliable form of interstellar travel was the Warp Drive. This technology went through dozens of generations yet its chief mechanism remained the same. It manipulates space-time to effectively shorten the distance and allow ships to travel at apparent speeds faster than light. It's a proven and tested device, albeit compared to what most civilizations use in the galaxy the're considered massively slower. Usually ships equipped with warp drives can only travel a few lightyears in a day. Morte also has advanced medicine, cybernetics and AI technology albeit sentient machines are kept under strict regulations and constant surveillance. They also know several terraformation methods yet none of these seems to solve the problem with their home planet. A scientist once proposed the idea to create a planet-wide barrier around Mortis but the results were rather discouraging.
MILITARY OVERVIEW
Mortean military doctrine reflects their society completely. They follow utility and precise organization. Laws explicitly determine the number of soldiers protecting the Empire and their count is reviewed every weekend. During "peacetime" (defined by the lack of major campaigns instead of the absence of any military action or hostilities) this quota was determined to be 2.5 billion, calculated to be just appropriate to keep the hostile neighbors at bay. During major military actions the Kaiser has full authority to raise this quota anywhere. All Morteans receive combat training before reaching adulthood and they're obliged to refresh it on every 4th year. In the Mortean Empire there are no civilians, just active soldiers and those who stay in reserve. The duty of the empire's protection is shared with everyone. The military branch of the Morteans is called Reichswehrmacht.
Name: Reichstruppe Role: Standard Foot Soldier Armor: Nanofiber mesh suit + durachrome/neutrozite plates Primary Weapon: PASER Rifle Misc: Environmental sealing, limited life support and temperature control, artificial muscles, gas mask/rebreather, helmet-incorporated virtual screen with data-link, sensory information and early warning, heat/electromagnetic detector and night-vision modes, medical injectors
Standard soldier of the Morte Empire. Beneath their uniform they wear nanofiber mesh giving slight increase in strength and cushion against common impacts. Against well-armed soldiers the arangement of durachrome/neutrozite layered plates offer moderate protection, only allowing the higher setting of energy weapons to penetrate. Neutrozite layers exist against antimatter particle weapons like PASER rifles to prevent pair annihilation chain reactions. PASERS use minute antimatter reactions to launch microscopic amount of anti-hydrogen at the target at cosmic velocity. Their main killing capability originates from the antimatter packet reacting with regular matter thus they're surprisingly energy-efficient although at the cost of having limited ammunition. Reichstruppe also carry around plasma grenades, impulse missiles and one per platoon has the responsibility to safeguard their antimatter demolition charges.
Name: Panzergrenadier Role: Assault, Raqid Strike, Mobile Fire Support Defenses: Duracomposite Armor, Integrity Field, Countermeasures, Active Protection Systems Standard Weapon Loadout:Assault PASER, Compact Pressed Particle Accelerator (usually PPA-25C), Impulse Missile Pods, Y-Rack, G-Blade
Heavy assault suits of about 2.5m height used both as heavy/elite infantry and as highly mobile strike vehicles. They have surprising amount of protection for their size albeit still not comparable to heavy combat vehicles. What they lack in armor they make up in mobility and sheer versatility. With the combination of micro impulse drives and inertial fields the suit can fly at high speeds like a gunship and it's loaded full with dangerous weapons. Its heaviest hitting armament is the PPA which contains microscopic amounts of neutronium suspended in stasis via a warp field, making it weightless and safely contained. When the trigger is pulled it unleashes a tiny portion of that neutronium towards the firing chamber at near the speed of light in a hyperdense matter stream. Without anything holding back neutronium decays within a split second but not until it travels up to many miles. The thin hyperdense stream penetrates the target and then if the weapon is adjusted well the neutronium violently explodes within. Neutronium is quite expensive to acquire thus PPA is only utilized against high value targets. For everything else it has rapid firing hi-powered Assault PASER, impulse missiles, G-Blade (uses a field of gravity to temporarily form a melee weapon) and lastly but not least the Y-Rack which uses the suit's own antimatter reserves to intelligently deploy plasma grenade charges at nearby targets, allowing to manage large group of targets better. Panzergrenadier suits are compact yet powerful which makes them popular for most ground combat theaters as they save transport space.
Name: Panzerschwebswagen (Armored Hover Vehicle), Pzswgn. IX Ausf. D (Panzer IX, latest mainline variant) Role: Fire Support,Hover Tank, Artillery, Troop Transport (only the turretless Umf. T variant) Defense: Layered Duracomposite with micro reactive layers, integrity fields, countermeasures, active protection systems Weapon: PASSEO-100 (Plasma Accelerated Solid Shell Effect Ordinance) launching 100mm plasma-charge shells, Assault PASER, X-Rack, Optional Impulse Missile Pods
Hover tanks are heavy vehicles mostly limited to fire support and showing up for large open battlefields. They are powerful but most of their roles are steadily taken over b the Panzergrenadiers. In the past there used to be a "destroyer tank" variant equipped with PPA but that duty is long practiced by Panzergrenadiers. Since then the Panzers switched for the role of "economical" fire support and prefer firing solid shells at times even over high angles to act as artillery. PASSEO doesn't match the sheer penetrating power of the PPA but their antimatter initiated plasma charge is not to be underestimated. If necessary the shell can even have the cumulative plasma effect which is basically an advanced shaped charge for anti-armor duty. It's also a popular decision to get rid of the turret and the ammo reserves to make room for troop compartment in the so-called "T" modification. This way the tank effectively transforms into an APC.
The protector of planets and king of battles on the surface the BOLO (Battlefield Operations Logic Object) is a giant landship owning a sentient AI and roughly starship grade equipment.They have extremely durable armor even by ship standards and since the atmospheric close to ground operations don't support typical Force Shields the BOLO has an unique variant dubbed Klein Field. All this is usually powered by an unique Neutron Reactor, utilizing the pair annihilations of neutronium to generate much more energy than its size would suggest. Aside from the command bridge and access tunnels for repairs the BOLO has no place for human crew nor it really requires them. BOLOs are unique and have no standard on them, each of them is different. Usually they're 40-60m long and as said they're heavily protected for their size. Their main weapon is a single or twin-linked starship weapon and overall equipped with many dozens of other arms that are more frequently relied in combat. Yet its most dangerous weapon is the brain of the machine which is capable of processing battlefield information at breakneck speeds. BOLOs obviously have directives to not harm the Morteans. Ironically this makes the BOLO more compassionate thus more "human" in a sense.
Mortean Space Navy (Mortenkriegsflotte) doctrines concentrate on numbers and heavy long range firepower. Their primary propulsion systems are large antimatter impulse engines which provide reasonable acceleration at high efficiency and minuscule reaction mass spent. For interstellar travel or when speed is necessary they utilize warp drives which folds and stretches space-time around the ship to raise its apparent velocity beyond the speed of light. Warp drive is economical and unlike other methods the ship travels through realspace. On the other hand warp drives are much slower (usually a few lightyears per day) and the ship must perform maneuvers and avoid obstacles during transit. Farcasters are a new kind of FTL method reverse engineered from Luxan drives. Their mechanism resembles hyperdrives although not completely and roughly comparable in speed. Unfortunatelly it's still a new technology thus Mortean scientists struggle with power efficiency, accuracy of the jumps and generally have issues to make anything but relatively short jumps at the time. Hyperdrives and their derivatives also have reliability issues within the Stormlosweg Sector due to the presence of exotic radiation. How the Luxans managed to compensate for this if ever remains a mystery. Like on the ground the most common starship weapon is a PASER, albeit with some differences. Unlike the small variations that operate by a distinct mechanism the starship PASERs can be adjusted or modified to various purposes ranging from particle beams to firing physical shells. Another difference is that starship weapons in general use warp effects to accelerate their shots, projectiles and missiles to superluminal velocities. This allows ships to fight enemies from extreme distances and better dictate the flow of battle.
Albeit slow compared to many other civilizations but its reliable economic nature allows ships to use them for constant travel with only moderate impact on the ship's power budget. Using similar theories the ship's main weaponry are superluminal PASER (Positron Accretion by Spatio-antimatter Explosive Reactions) and Grav Lance/QuASAR (Quark Acceleration by Spatio-stimulated Antimatter Reactions), the latter attacks with raw mass particles at FTL velocities, thus penetrating shields and armored hulls more efficiently than regular beams. They also have torpedoes that can be launched from warp catapult to temporarily gain FTL speed until reaching close to the target. Overall these weapons extend the Morte Fleet's range greatly and it isn't rare for them to target enemies from a few astronomical units away. Said weapons are assisted by hypercomms, hyper-radar and hypercameras which are all based on the Warp mechanism thus free of light-lag. For protection the Morte ships use thickly armored Durachrome composite hulls combined with their Force Shields, the latter generating a bubble of rapidly circling gluons and quarks, essentially covering themselves with multiple layers of pseudo-mass. While potent on its own the Force Shield's true purpose is to intercept attacks and attenuate them from afar (as they're usually projected 10-100km away depending on ship size and power), effectively rendering them harmless to the ship's armor thereafter.
The Mortenkriegsflotte is currently restricted by the "peacetime" law which limits them to 2500 warships, at least 70% of these must be the fast attack and individual patrol ships AKA frigates in order to secure the borders. The Morte Empire currently occupies the space of 46 cubic lightyears with their borders spreading for the area of 47 lightyears squared. With their warp drives usually only capable of crossing 1-3 lightyears a day they require at least this many patrols to keep their empire safe.
Name: Mittelschnauzer-class Attack Frigate Clasification: Long-Range Fast Attack & Patrol Space Combat Vessel, Frigate Dimensions:
Length: 428,40cm (prow length: 321,55cm)
Height: 120,25cm (prow height: 54,00cm)
Width: 160,00cm (prow width: 44,20-68,15cm)
Armor: 50-4,00 cm Durachrome composite Standard Mass: 855,725 metric tons (prior to mass-lightening) Crew: 2725 (standard) Propulsion: Impulse Engine Nacelles x 3 (can be ejected for emergencies) Powerplant: Warp Core (w/ 3 rows of antimatter/vacuum reactors) Interstellar Travel: Warp Drive Sensors: 2 x Sensor Domes (armored domes containing various hypersensors), primary hypertelescopes x 4, backup sensors Defense Systems: Force Shield, structural integrity fields Weapons:
50cm Grav Lances x 6 (front-mounted, can be angled to target to any direction to 60 degrees)
30cm PASER Cannons x 16 (8 on each side, 130 degree firing angle)
288cm Torpedo Tubes x 2 (mounted on the front)
40cm 13-tube HVM Pods x 2 (located on the supports connecting the dorsal nacelles)
9cm Interceptor Batteries x 6 (6-tube small missile systems)
2.2cm PASER Point Defenses x 36 (each fit on a flexible ball mount)
Hangar:
5 x Shuttles (capable of carrying maximum 500 people or 1000 cubic meters of cargo)
4 x KSR-271 Spitzer Fighters
1000 cubic meters worth of mines (stored in parts and put together in automatic assembly prior deployment)
Escape Pods
This relatively small class of warship forms the backbone of the Mortean peace defense fleet. Nearly half of its space is taken up by propulsion systems to ensure both speed and long range. Its armaments include slightly scaled down Grav Lances, PASER Cannons and Torpedo Launchers. It also mounts high-velocity missile pods that use their sheer momentum to defeat lighter warships or intercept fighters/missiles from afar. Aside from that it also has the standard interceptor battery and PASER point-defenses to give it full protection. In spite of its size the Mittelschnauzer has respectable firepower and combat utility, military slang dubbing them as "pocket battleships".
Name: Sennenhund-class Cruiser Clasification: Intermediate Class Space Combat Vessel, Cruiser Dimensions:
Length: 400,00cm (prow length: 321,00cm)
Height: 80,00cm
Width: 80,00cm
Armor: 2,00-8,00 cm Durachrome composite Standard Mass: 1,200,000 metric tons (prior to mass-lightening) Crew: 2000 (standard) Propulsion: Impulse Engine Powerplant: Warp Core (w/ four rows of antimatter/vacuum reactors) Interstellar Travel: Warp Drive Sensors: 2 x Primary Sensor Domes, 4 x Secondary Sensor Domes Defense Systems: Force Shield, structural integrity fields Weapons:
50cm Grav Lances x 6 (front-mounted, fire arc: 60 degrees)
50cm PASER Cannons x 6 (Front-mounted at the port&starboard protrusions, fire arc: 50 degrees)
30cm PASER Cannons x 24 (12 on each side, 130 degree firing angle)
375cm Torpedo Tubes x 2 (mounted on the sides)
12cm Interceptor Batteries x 4 (5-tube small missile systems)
3.3cm PASER Point Defenses x 20 (each fit on a flexible ball mount)
Hangar:
10 x Shuttles (capable of carrying maximum 500 people or 1000 cubic meters of cargo)
12 x KSR-271 Spitzer Fighters
2000 cubic meters worth of mines (stored in parts and put together in automatic assembly prior deployment)
Escape Pods
Former mainline warship of the Morte Empire, created in great quantities in the past. It was geared for maximal combat utility within its relatively small size. Compared to the current frigates it has superior firepower, armor, defenses, cargo capacity, hangar capacity, much better survivability and a simple thus easy to maintain structure. Yet because of their inferior speed Cruisers fell out of favor in the recent peacetime and most of them got mothballed. Thousands of decommissioned cruisers orbit Morte shipyards, ready to be reactivated whenever the need arises.
Name: Schwertjager-class Rapid Destroyer Clasification: Fast Attack Light Space Combat Vessel, Destroyer Dimensions:
Length: 185,50cm (prow length: 91,45cm)
Height: 110,00cm (prow height: 30,00cm)
Width: 25,00-38,10cm (narrowest-widest)
Armor: 20-1,00 cm Durachrome composite Standard Mass: 69,500 metric tons (prior to mass-lightening) Crew: 258 (standard) Propulsion: Impulse Engines x 2, Antimatter Thursters x 2 Powerplant: Compact Warp Core (with a single antimatter/vacuum reactor) Interstellar Travel: Warp Drive, Warp Link, Warp Sustainers Sensors: 2 x Sensor Domes (armored domes containing various hypersensors), primary hypertelescope, backup sensors Defense Systems: Force Shield, structural integrity fields Weapons:
25cm Compact Grav Lances x 4 (front-mounted, 60 degrees coverage)
8cm PASER Cannons x 4 (mounted in flexible ball-mounts)
2.2cm PASER Point Defenses x 6 (each fit on a flexible ball mount)
122cm Torpedo Tubes x 2 (mounted on the edges of the front)
9cm Interceptor Batteries x 2 (8-tube small missile system in the ventral area)
Hangar:
Escape Capsules x 8 (can hold 50 people at maximum)
Fast and firepower packed small starship that commonly accompanies warships in combat. Being less than 100,000 tons in mass the Schwerenjager is considered escort instead of warship thus not subject to the limitations of the law. Designed with speed in mind the Schwerenjager is built around twin antimatter impulse engines almost too big for the rest. It also packs the newest compact grav lances to pose threat to enemy warships. Yet even with these the Schwerenjager would be too slow to keep up with the Frigates. To remedy that the ship has no less than two methods to shorten its interstellar travel. First, like many other escorts it can dock with a Warp Carrier which extends its stronger warp field to them for faster travel. Alternatively 3 Schwerenjager Destroyers can dock with each other to combine their own warp fields for a similar effect. For this latter reason Schwerenjagers almost always operate in groups of 3.
Name: Sturmjager-class Rapid Destroyer Clasification:Light Space Combat Vessel, Destroyer Dimensions:
Length: 210,00cm (prow length: 130,40cm)
Height: 70,25cm
Width: 50,00cm
Armor: 10-1,20 cm Durachrome composite Standard Mass: 55,800 metric tons (prior to mass-lightening) Crew: 327 (standard) Propulsion: Impulse Engines x 2, Antimatter Thursters Powerplant: Compact Warp Core (with a single antimatter/vacuum reactor), auxilary compact M/A reactor Interstellar Travel: Warp Drive, Warp Sustainers Sensors: 2 x Sensor Domes (armored domes containing various hypersensors), primary hypertelescope, backup sensors Defense Systems: Force Shield, structural integrity fields Weapons:
9cm Interceptor Batteries x 2 (8-tube small missile system)
8cm PASER Cannons x 8 (in flexible ball-mounts)
2.2cm PASER Point Defenses x 6 (fit on a flexible ball mount)
Hangar:
Escape Capsules x 8 (can hold 50 people at maximum)
Escort ship focusing almost entirely on firepower. It mounts frightening arsenal of torpedoes and missiles that almost belies its size. Unfortunately this comes at the cost of maneuverability and endurance in battle. Even if it had more maneuvering thrusters, the use of 52 mini warp catapults for HVMs and 12 small scale torpedo tubes drain all power the vessel has and even portion of the reserves. As such the Morte fleet only uses them in limited numbers and rather it enjoys popularity with local defense units where abundant supplies make the Sturmjager's massive firepower makes it an effective force multiplier. The module at the front is the Sturmjager's command bridge which can also detach in emergency and act as a non warp-capable spaceship. Sturmjagers traditionally operate in groups of 4.
The Morte Empire also installed a network of space bases and warp jammer relays to prevent intruders to trespass their borders. While powerful enough to take on a few ships, these are still insufficient to prevent an actual fleet assault. The warp jammers also occasionally fail to sabotage the enemy's FTL methods and they penetrate deep into Morte territory. As such vigilance and constant fleet patrols are still a necessity. Aside from the borders the 3 planets, the 12 colony clusters and key industrial chokepoints are also outfit with various space defenses. Thanks to their concentrated nature these are slightly better at repelling attackers albeit without the fleet's assistance they still won't hold up against prolonged siege.
Decided to go wit the Morte regardless. This is still very much work in progress but you can see some of the changes.
The Solarian Star Federation (usually shortened to Federation or SF) is a supernational government of human polities within the Rainbow Cluster. It forms a polito-economical union with the numerous governments in the System Sol and its neighbors. The Federation's origins date back to about 300 years following the end of the Last Great War, the most destructive event of their history. Weary of war and to prevent this from ever happening the committee decided on strengthening international communications, integrating economic systems while synchronizing politics to better reconcile with each other. They planned it step by step with the eventual goal being complete unification within a hundred years, a dream which never happened. From the outside the Federation may seem like a single body but in reality they are anything but that. There are countless nations and political parties each pushing their own agenda. Solarians may have avoided major wars for centuries now but their political forums are very much like warzones themselves. Similarly what once was a benign movement for peace and the good of Mankind turned into the plaything of economic powers. Money is the king within the Federation and as long as they can get away with it the political powers engage in various unethical deeds for profit. The Federation is a highly advanced civilization with many achievements, but this also made them overly confident in their technology. Ironically enough in spite of all their technological advancement the Federation lacked decently fast FTL drives for most of their history. This combined with the fact they are situated within a distant star cluster meant the Federation never encountered any sapient life aside from themselves. With the recent breakthrough with Farcasters the Federation now plans to send expeditions to unknown space in order to explore the galaxy.
Species Overview
On the first glance the humans of the Star Federation may seem to be the same as Terrans and other people originating from Earth. Yet the truth is more confusing, defined as Homo Sapiens Caelis (or Solarians), these people evolved and developed on Solus Prime with absolutely no relation to the inhabitants of Earth. The truth lies within the theory of convergent evolution. Solus Prime and Earth bore many similarities to each other and this combined with play of chance resulted in the Solarians who are eerily similar to terrestrial humans both in features and even culture. Yet being older than human civilization the Solarians long evolved to the frontiers of space. There are many minor differences like adaptation to varying gravity, improved intelligence and reflexes, extended longevity and resistance to most known diseases. The most striking differences happen after the birth. Technological advances in medicine, cybernetics and cosmetic surgery meant so long you had the money you could go completely wild. Solarians have yet to meet any aliens but name a popular sci-fi species and the Federation likely has a fan sporting their looks. Cybernetic enhancements are also rather common, especially computer-assisted brain functions typically referred as "Cogs". Each government has different regulations on what kind of alterations a citizen can do and in certain regions this could go to the extreme. Another major advancement was the technology to transfer human consciousness. As such it's possible to transfer one's mind to a different organism or even an entirely mechanical body. Due to complicated mechanics backing up or copying consciousness is difficult and also strictly banned within the Federation. Similarly while it's possible to transfer consciousness to military hardware memories of the Last Great War (especially the terror once delivered by Ego the Living Battlestation) makes such actions widely opposed by the public.
Technological Overview
The Star Federation may have not met aliens but had plenty of time and will to develop on their own. They made massive advancements in science and could be perhaps considered pioneers in many technologies. Manipulation of matter and fields can allow them feats which others may consider magical. Their impulse drives are seemingly reactionless engines that along with mass lightening fields can allow great speeds and at compact size. Q-Fabs revolutionized industry as versatile manufacturer devices that can assemble objects quickly and down to the last particle from already available materials. Their conversion reactors can extract nuclear energy from any common material and safe enough to power toothbrushes or cell phones. To a common citizen of the Federation it may even see there's nothing that technology cannot accomplish. That being said Federation has complex laws on the use of technology not to mention the extensive ways companies try to protect their copyright. The latter has the unintended side effect of making outsiders even more difficult to reverse engineer Solarian technology.
- Quantum Fabricators: Commonly abbreviated as Q-Fabs they are sophisticated devices which can alter and convert matter and energy to rapidly assemble objects. Q-Fabs are versatile and it can create anything it was programmed to. There are also Q-Meds, medical Q-Fabs used for healing and building biological matter. Knowing the right people and having loads of money can ensure that the wealthiest people can live theoretically forever. Q-Fabs can technically use raw energy to create matter but this is only utilized at sufficiently small scale. Spaceships generally have sufficiently abundant energy to use that alone for air and food replicators.
- Metastable Matter: A development which made Q-Fab technology far more accessible. It's an unique state of matter which is relatively stable and dense with easily accessible energy. Can be useful for batteries (though even more efficient methods exist) but first of all it's used as an intermediary matter for Q-Fabs.
- Fold Drive: Standard and reliable FTL method which manipulates spacetime to raise the apparent velocity of the vehicle beyond the speed of light. It has relatively low power consumption but comparatively slow speed and other inherent issues. Still, it's relatively cheap and has many alternative applications. Fold Accelerators for example can accelerate projectiles and vehicles at faster-than-light apparent velocities even if, without "fold sustainers", they revert to sublight speed after reaching a certain distance.
- Farcaster: The new long range interstellar travel method developed within the Federation. Also referred as the Hyperdrive it punches a hole in reality to the higher mathematical dimension of the hyperspace to allow faster-than-light travel. It consumes great amounts of energy thus the ships have special capacitors for this role. On the other hand the same method can be modified to transport smaller objects and Farcasters can have a limited application as teleporters. The only downside is that Farcasters are rather difficult to scale down thus unless there's a similar device around the teleportation is usually limited to one way trips. The speed of Farcasters is dependent on the power relative to the mass it carries. Thus systems like "Hypercarriers" (huge transports allowing many ships to dock) and "Hypergates" (large almost stationary structures which also use quantum linking to enhance the speed even further) exist.
- Impulse Engine: Standard sublight engines used by Federation spaceships. They expel mass particles at near the speed of light generated from pure energy which means they can have yet unheard level of specific impulse and henceforth their common name. Without the right conditions mass particles rapidly decay into relatively harmless photons thus also making this design the safest engine known within the Federation.
- Gravitics: Electromagnetics within the Federation were long replaced by gravitics, devices that move objects around with the force of gravity. While inherently gravity is a weak force SF scientific developments made countless mechanisms known to amplify them. Gravitic actuators, accelerators, propulsions are all commonly used within the Federation. This combined with the Higgs technology and mass lightening methods resulted in a massive boon for starship propulsion and the renewed dominance of projectile weapons.
- Hypercomms, Hypersensors: A family of devices that use known FTL methods to gather or transmit information rapidly over long distances. Their mechanism can differ by type with each having its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Hypercameras and Hypertelescopes for example gather the tachyonic shadow of electromagnetic waves to allow up to a certain distance to see events in real time regardless of light-lag. Another common hypersensor is the Foldwave Radar which is rather self-explanatory.
- Quantum Link: One of the oldest forms of FTL communication it uses quantum entanglement to instantly transmit information to the linked device. It used to be expensive and not very reliable but the technology reached maturity once other FTL mechanisms were understood. Abreviated as Q-Link this method offers lagless communication free of the typical interference. The only downside that you require to use more standard measures first to establish the link thus it generally only works between two familiar recipients. Q-Link can be also used for power transmission but this method accelerates the degradation of the link thus usually not advised. While free of normal interference there are "Q-Jammer" devices that are designed specifically to scramble quantum comms.
- Conversion Reactors: The most common method of power generation. They can be practically found everywhere, be it in factories, cars or even cell phones. Conversion reactors are the ultimate result of nuclear research and could be said to be the distant relatives of fission and fusion energy. Thanks to their degree of sophistication the conversion reactors are actually fairly safe and incredibly easy to use.
- Zero-Point Energy Extractor (ZPEE): The ramscoop of space-time, this complex device allows harnessing vacuum energy which makes it ideal for starships and other power-hungry machines. The device requires lot of power to run and difficult to scale down, thus they won't replace conversion reactors anytime soon.
- Vacuum Compression Capacitors: Just as space itself can be used to harness energy it also turns out to be the best method to store power. Vacuum Compression Capacitors and ZPEEs are virtually the same technology used for different purposes. In effect vacuum capacitors are zero-point energy extractors that are deliberately inefficient. For this reason they can be made more compact and many hi-energy equipment is relying on these. Actually, many companies within the Federation are working on the means to make vacuum capacitors even more popular and replace other alternate batteries. Its advantages over the other means are weight savings, far higher capacity and even safety. When destroyed the spatial compression within the cell ceases and space expands around the unit. Anything caught within its area of effect simply ceases to exist. Yet space holds massive energy densities thus the failure of a vacuum cell only results in minuscule expansion. Even for the most massive starship batteries it fails to erase the entire vacuum cell. Thus ironically vacuum cell technology is both the safest and most destructive power storage mechanism known by the Federation.
- Durachrome: The most common military grade armors are chiefly made of durachrome. It's a hard, superdensely packed material family with its variants used both for ground troops and starships. Due to its weight anything made from it usually requires mass lightening to compensate.
- Structural Integrity Fields: Special complex field which reinforces the bind of atoms and generates bubbles of fake mass to further enhance the toughness of material.
- Higgs Shield: An extension of structural integrity fields this kind of protection forms layers of fake mass generated by the field emitters which can act like a regenerative extra layer of armor.
- Lightwave Barrier: A rather peculiar type shield which contrary to its name actually traps tachyons in a limited boundary around the vessel. It deflects massless and low-mass particles like light and radiation the best while practically useless against heavier projectiles. Starship-based lightwave barriers also have some other properties to compensate for spatial effects.
- Gravity Deflector: The various gravitic devices can also produce a shield of gravity around the ship. These tend to extend pretty far, up to even hundreds of kilometers and activated only during combat. The gravity shield's main purpose is to intercept, disrupt and disperse incoming attacks instead of directly stopping them. The weakened attacks would be then handled by the rest of the defense systems.
- PASER: Projectile Acceleration Sustained by Effector Rails. It's a gravomagnetic mass accelerator and the basis of most weapon systems within the Federation. In spite of that the term PASER is most commonly used for handheld weapons since the term "gun" earned much notoriety during the Last Great War. For other weapons and devices using the same mechanism they merely use the term Gravomagnetic Accelerator or Grav for short.
- IGP: Intelligent Gravomagnetic Projectile. Common name for the projectiles launched from Gravomagnetic Accelerators. There are countless different kinds of IGP, some of them are entirely solid projectiles while others have sensors, AI, warhead, propulsion and at times even other features. The options are nearly limitless. IGPs are effectively the combination of physical projectiles and missiles.
- PPA: Pressed Particle Arms. Special use of gravomagnetic accelerators when unstable particles of incredible density are created on site and unleashed at velocities very close to the speed of light. The stream of particles are extremely thin, a nanometer or even less. Thanks to their density and concentrated nature the stream is extremely efficient at penetrating defenses after which the particles slow down and violently explode within. While shot from gravometric accelerators this kind of application requires special modifications not available for all PASERS or Q-Boxes. Due to the instability of the metaparticle mix PPA are relatively short ranged and the effectiveness of the stream weakens with distance.
- SAS: Spatio Accelerator System. Also called Fold Accelerators these weapons use Fold Drive derived mechanisms to accelerate projectiles faster than the speed of light. While this obviously increases their effective range compared to Gravomagnetic means the projectile is limited to a relatively narrow "fold channel" which prevents nearly any kind of maneuvering. Certain large ISFPs are also equipped with micro fold drives to mitigate this issue but at the expense of payload and other functions.
- ISFP: Intelligent Space-Fold Projectiles. The Spatio Accelerator variant of IGPs. Unless they are equipped with Fold Drives on their own they are known to have limited mobility compared to IGPs.
TBA
Military Overview
The main military force within the Rainbow Cluster is the Federation Starfleet. They are a multi-national force recruited from the military of other nations. Starfleet has strict selection process and only allows the best. While combat skill is important they put even more focus to human relations and handling stressful situations. They are hardly the only military, though. Each national government maintains their own military and police forces as well as security forces employed in private sectors. Still, when it comes to military power Starfleet is the largest factor, especially in terms of space force. Due to the memory of the Last Great War the term warship and associated aesthetics garnered a huge negative opinion. To avoid being labeled as proponents of war Starfleet eschewed dedicated weapons on their starships altogether. Instead of cannons, guns and missile bays the Federation uses modified Q-Fabs to create projectiles and launch them at various exits. Following that these projectiles are assisted and directed by altering the function of the shields. The end result is the Q-Box, a versatile weapon system which may be less powerful and much less efficient but with centuries of relative peace they never needed more. On the ground the Federation relies on drones and robots considerably though because of the terrors during the Last Great War they are always accompanied with a human operator supervising them. Anything done by these machines is the responsibility of the operator. Overall the size of the Federation military is small and almost more focused on PR than actual military needs. That being said their highly advanced technology allows them to get away with this surprisingly well.
The best of the best, the so-called "elite" of the Federation. Starfleet personnel are thoroughly selected and then pass a difficult training to become part of the main peacekeeping body of the Federation. In the age of drones and robots these people risk their lives for the sake of Mankind. Well, that's how it was supposed to be. In effect Starfleet is an old organization which grown increasingly clique-like. Starfleet indeed has a rigorous selection process, one so insane almost no person can pass. Yet many thousands of people are admitted to Starfleet each year. How? By the mere fact the system is full of faults and corrupt officials. Being admitted into Starfleet is no longer the matter of skills but connections. As such it comes as no surprise that the once highly competent Starfleet is much less than what it's supposed to be. Granted, Starfleet is still the greatest collection of the Federation's scientific and technological prowess but when it comes to combat ability their performance is...erratic to say at least. Starfleet combatants once used their skills combined with technology to be a superior force. Nowadays they use technology to supplement their skills and their inexperience at war makes them commit ridiculous mistakes on occasion. Exceptions still exist but your average Starfleet personnel knows little more about battle than how to pull the trigger. They can disassemble their PASERs or fix a phase modulator even in their sleep but many Starfleet members can't even throw a decent punch.
Specially made outfit which doubles as their protective suit. It's woven of durachrome-enhanced metamaterials and because of that the suit actually weighs over 10kg when not worn. The suit is durable enough to withstand certain small arms but that's only one of its function. The uniform is filled with various sensors both to check the surroundings and to monitor the status of the wearer. It's also equipped with an artificial gravity generator which doubles as an inertial compensator. The suit's wearer is cushioned from force and can walk in various gravities. Lastly the suit has an environmental shield to protect against hazardous environment and provide life support even in space.
Augmented Reaction Systems Suit is a special equipment worn in the rare high-intensity conflicts. Only those who pass Class III Weapons Test can be allowed to wear ARS Suits and only when receiving the permission of the Captain or higher authority. Unofficially called the "Battlesuit" this compact armored suit is enhanced by inertial fields and gravitic acutators, giving the user massive strength and mobility on par with a land vehicle. For further boost it uses micro impulse engines that can both increase speed and allow the capability of flight. In terms of protection the inner suit is made of nanomesh muscle fibers sufficient against light anti-personnal weapons while the key areas are reinforced by durachrome composite plates. For this reason and other concerns the suit weighs around half a ton without the mass lighteners kicking in. Aside from armor it also sports complex shield system using Higgs shields, Lightwave Barriers and Gravity Deflector technology. It also has active protection systems and limited countermeasures. The suit has a micro Q-Fab/Q-Med for providing ammo, food and life support as well as do emergency operations on the field. The suit has a virtually enhanced interface along with various sensors and computer assistance. ARS Suits turn the otherwise frail Starfleet security personnel into a fighting machine fitting both the role of SWAT and vehicular assault. Starfleet has next to no combat vehicles and instead they rely on their ARS Suits to fill that out.
Federation Robotic Intelligence Enabled Normal Drone (FRIEND) is an AI-equipped humanoid machine made to replace flesh and blood infantry. They are based after the robotic armies from the Last Great War but with at least one major difference, they are bound to the orders of their designated (human) operator. FRIENDs have a rather sophisticated AI to rapidly adapt to various combat and non-combat situations but they are fitted with several restrictions for safety. The presence of human operator is only required for one thing: accountability. Anything the robots do are the responsibility of the operator. Technical specifications wise FRIENDs are built of light composites with only minimal use of Durachrome or similar superheavy materials in order to make them more economical. As a consequence FRIENDs are relatively unprotected albeit being machines they can sustain considerable damage before losing capacity for combat. Physically a FRIEND is stronger and faster than a regular man though nowhere close to the capabilities of the ARS Suits. They have sophisticated sensors and targeting system which can make them dangerously good shots.
Federation Interlinked Normal Drone for Escort and Recon. They are various relatively small floating disc-shaped drones that are generally used for advance scouting. Though their role is data-gathering and recon they usually come equipped with an MQB (micro quantum box) which is smaller and more limited than Q-Boxes or even PASERS but can be effective at fighting lightly equipped opponents. More importantly they have a myriad of sensors for analyzing their surroundings and feeding back the results via Q-Link. Actually, many FINDER drones don't even have an actual AI and instead they receive commands via a larger computer system. This saves weight but also make FINDERs useless once they're caught within a Q-Jammer field.
Is it a transport, a plane or a fighting vehicle? None of them yet can fulfill all of these roles. Tactical Transport is basically the Federation's mainline fighting vehicle. Just like warships, tanks and fighters also share a negative reputation. Using these terms or designing vehicles with such specialization are an easy way to label yourself as warmongering madman. At the same time technology advanced sufficiently that specialization was no longer necessary to fulfill these roles. Thus they developed the Tactical Orbital Aerial and Surface Transport (T.O.A.S.T.), a high-speed heavily protected troop and equipment transport equipped with inconspicuous yet significant firepower. Currently the most common variant utilized by Starfleet is TOAST-111 Vantgardeur Tactical Transport (pictured above). Compared to old models it's incredibly compact mostly thanks to the Pattern Storage technology which allows it to compress objects or even living cew into quantum-data while keeping them in a subspace vacuum cell. This is accomplished by a compact Shortcaster device capable of "beaming" people and equipment in and then "beam" them out wherever it's needed. As unbelievable as it may sound this method also improves survivability as the Pattern Hold keeping the data of the cargo could survive many things which the transport itself could not. Thus even if the transport is destroyed the Pattern Hold can be recovered and used to rescue its contents. In terms of armaments it has a CQB (Compact Q-Bay). Strangely enough the smallness of the Vantgardeur forced designers to make a rather controversial choice to give the Transport a sorts of turret on the top. This turret hides a Fold Accelerator necessary for high-performance PPE and anti-orbital scale firepower. For less powerful functions the vehicle can launch IGPs from practically anywhere. Mobility-wise the Vantgardeur can operate in all theaters, accelerate to hypersonic velocities or freely enter/exit the atmosphere. Albeit given the difference in power fighting a Starship with Tactical Transports is nothing less than foolish.
Starfleet obviously put the most focus on space forces. Their starships are top-notch to maintain their overall edge. Many technologies and scientific developments are first employed within Starfleet and knowledge of basic ship system is one thing all Starfleet members are well educated in. On the other hand the memories (or ore like propaganda) about the horrors of the Last Great War made the term warship taboo, as well as anything associated with it. While pistols and rifles are an accepted symbol of authority, any vehicle/vessel sporting gun turrets or any large weapons would be likely mark their users as crazy warmongers. As such rather than using actual weapons Starfleet developed the Q-Box, a weapon system relying on already existing elements to use them for offense. In terms of effectiveness the Q-Box certainly worse than purpose-built weapons but the Federation's technology is lenient enough to make these work. Believing in quality over quantity Starfleet has relatively few starships but each can pack quite a punch. The term "Starship" was actually coined by Starfleet to designate their new "not-warships" as a PR move. Since then any ship with interstellar capability is dubbed starship which was an intentional move in order to further mask from the general conscious the terrible firepower concentrated within Starfleet's hands. For similarly PR reasons the Federation had abandoned the old custom of using wet navy ship classifications.
Not exactly an armament but rather a "software update" and design philosophy for most combat spaceships within the Federation. Memories of the Last Great War its further demonization by propaganda made people averse to hearing about warships. They are weapons of war which is the furthest from the supposed ideology of their "peaceful" society. As such Federation combat ships literally have no weapons. Instead they utilize the already existing Q-Fabs, inertial control fields or even their shields and other systems in order to create, launch and guide projectiles towards their enemy. The exact mechanism are complex and differs from ship to ship. They can use gravomagnetic or spatio-accelerator mechanisms to launch IGPs/ISFPs of various size and specifications. Q-Boxes are versatile though certainly restrained in power compared to what a purpose-built weapon could do. Accidentally for civilizations unfamiliar with Federation technology they'd be unaware of any weapons existing aboard Starfleet ships. On the other hand since shields are involved with the manipulation of the projectiles it's possible to aim and time the attacks right the moment when part of the shields are exposed/vulnerable. Such methods are commonly employed during ship-to-ship combat between fellow Federation ships.
Name: Hull Classification LRTRS-7470HD Vega (also referred as Wāqi for its Arabic origins) Classification: Long-Distance Tactical Recon Starship (equivalent of a Battlecruiser in other cultures) Dimensions: length: 276m, width: 154m, height: 52m Standard Mass: 48,320,000 metric tons (prior to mass-compensation, doesn't include weight above the standard cargo) Standard Crew: 200 Powerplants: Conversion Reactor Pile, Auxiliary ZPEEU, Emergency Reactors Propulsion: Impulse Drives x 2, Inertial Propulsion System, Graviton Thrusters Interstellar Travel: Fold Boosters x 2 (most important for fast and economical travel, limited Fold/Farcaster capacity is always there) Armor: 164mm Durachrome Composite-S (reinforced by integrity fields) Sensors: Foldwave Radar, hypersensory package, GADAR, Hypertelescopes, backup sensors Defense Systems: Inertial/Integrity Fields (surrounding the structure), Higgs Shields (up to 9 layers usually 20-240m away from the hull), Lightwave Barrier (about 1.2km from the center of the ship), Gravity Deflectors (outermost layer extending to 32km in radius) Number of Primary Q-Bays: 20 (6 front, 6 ventral, 8 dorsal) Shortcaster Arrays: 3 Main Dish: 1 Shuttle Bays: 2
Name: Hull Classification LRTRS-7470HD Vega (also referred as Wāqi for its Arabic origins) Classification: Long-Distance Tactical Recon Starship (equivalent of a Battlecruiser in other cultures) Dimensions: length: 675m, width: 195m, height: 88m Standard Mass: 321,680,000 metric tons (prior to mass-compensation, doesn't include weight above the standard cargo) Standard Crew: 750 Powerplants: Conversion Reactor Pile x 3, ZPEEU, Emergency Reactors Propulsion: Impulse Drives x 2, Inertial Propulsion System, Graviton Thrusters Interstellar Travel: Fold Boosters x 2 (most important for fast and economical travel, limited Fold/Farcaster capacity is always there) Armor: 275mm Durachrome Composite-S (reinforced by integrity fields) Sensors: Foldwave Radar, hypersensory package, GADAR, Hypertelescopes, backup sensors Defense Systems: Inertial/Integrity Fields (surrounding the structure), Higgs Shields (up to 9 layers usually 50-540m away from the hull), Lightwave Barrier (about 2.7km from the center of the ship), Gravity Deflectors (outermost layer extending to 70km in radius) Number of Primary Q-Bays: 120 (20 groups of 6 ports each) Shortcaster Arrays: 12 Main Dish: 1 Shuttle Bays: 4
The Vega-type ships are one of the newest starships developed within the Federation. Unlike past starships which needed refits the Vega was already made with Farcaster Drives in mind. Given Starfleet's doctrine saying well-armed is strange but as a ship with 120 Q-Bay primaries it's one of the most combat-oriented starships to date. Its more streamlined shape aids through the currents of hyperspace while the fold boosters are also optimized to enhance Farcasting. These reasons led for the Vega-class becoming the basis of their ultra-long range explorer ship the Enterprise.
Alright, this is used to be the latest NRP profile I wrote for the Solarians. I may change the history heavily since not meeting other civs is unlikely with the galactic empire backdrop but we'll see.
As for the Morte I used to have this:
THE MORTE IMPERIUM
NATION SHEET
Name: The Morte Imperium, Das Mortereich, The Morte Empire Species: Morteans (outwardly almost human) Government: Totalitarian Elected Monarchy Official Language: Gothic Standard Homeworld: Mortis, Todestern System Holdings: Star Systems: 7, Habitable Planets: 4, Colony Clusters: 16 Total Population: 85,569,242,144 (according to last year's census) Military Power: 2,500,000,000 personnel (regulated by law, always replenished within a week) Fleet Power: 2,500 warships (as per "peacetime" law restrictions, not including escorts and lesser ships)
HISTORY OVERVIEW
TBA
SPECIES/SOCIETY
Morteans are bipedal creatures who closely resemble humans. Whether they are distant descendants of human colonists or an alien race who are just similar to humans due to the pararell development theory, it's unknown. Morteans live in their harsh death worlds which made them look pale and weak compared to an average human. They're at average 163cm tall but there are rare Morteans who grow over 2 meters. Due to the effect of radiation, birth defects and mutations are relatively common and according to statistics 27.4% of the children die at (or before) birth. For every Mortean death is a common experience which swayed their society into an unique direction. Morteans neither fear death nor welcome it. They accept death as a natural element of their lives and strive to serve their community during the short time they're given (average 40 years). Morteans are utilitarians to the extreme, working precisely like cogs in well-oiled machine. In the eyes of others Morteans themselves do appear almost machine-like, having little in the way of personal goals and instead striving to complete their duties to the community as a whole. This unique mindset also makes Morteans numb to the feeling of loss other species experience. Morteans are capable of boundless cruelty without the slightest emotion behind. Compassion in its typical sense is almost completely foreign to them. On the other hand their higher orientation towards logic means Morteans always do things with reason. They have a clear view on risks and benefits which makes negotiations with Morteans surprisingly simple. The official language of the Mortereich is the Gothic Standard. It resembles German from the ancient human civilization albeit they are far from a perfect match to each other. There are also 7 major dialects and even more minor dialects within the population which can range from slight mutation to something that doesn't even sound like the same language.
GOVERNMENT/HOLDINGS
The Mortean government is imperial, formed in the ancient past under the necessity to fend off various invaders. Old databanks detail that until the fourth century IR the Kaiser's title was inherited by the descendants of Karl von Metzel. After the formation of the "Neue Reich" the Kaiser was elected for 6 years by a public vote. Thus the current government system is Elected Totalitarian Monarchy. Kaiser candidates must pass a rigorous set of selection tests and only the most fit . But aside from that anyone is eligible to become the Kaiser. There are no set political parties albeit having the favor of certain groups can increase a candidate's chances to become the Kaiser. Right after election the Kaiser has absolute power but he must use this with care. After the end of their run the former Kaiser is examined and questioned for his actions and may even face execution. Re-election is possible but only the maximum number of 4 times in a row. Overall the Morte Empire has a strict system of hierarchy. Anyone is expected to follow the orders of their superior to the letter. Insubordination leads to punishment. Yet if there are questions raised in regards of the superior's competence, these can be submitted to a higher up who upon further evaluation could demote the said person. Extraordinary promotions may be issued the same way, albeit the process is even more complicated. Generally the Mortean government and society works like a fine tuned machine. This undoubtedly contributes to their reputation as "machine-like people".
Overall, the Mortean Empire holds almost 40% of the Stormlosweg Sector which can be found in the uncharted regions of the galaxy. Stormlosweg Sector is devastated by the Kilonova Catastrophe over a millennia ago. This made life incredibly harsh for its inhabitants. Currently the Mortean Empire controls 7 star systems: Todderstern (their home system), Bekrieger, Heissessen, Brennenweg, Schmelzer, Grossernicht and Saltzricht. In spite of that they only possess 4 barely habitable planets. Their home system Mortis, Tannerbald the only planet with the potential for open terrain agriculture, the mineral-rich Stolzer and Krugern which was the former homeworld of the Luxans. To house their population elsewhere the Morteans built no less than 16 colony clusters in their territory and currently over 20% of Morte's population lives in them.
TECHNOLOGY/INDUSTRY
Since the ancient Kilonova Catastrophe the Morteans came a long way and advanced their science tremendously. It was both by the force of necessity and by reverse-engineering the technology of other civilizations. Nowadays they are the most advanced nation in the entire Stormlosweg Sector, even if compared to civilizations from the galaxy as a whole they have ways to go. Their chief power source is antimatter. Boon of the bane is that the Kilonova Catastrophe turned all stars into irregulars which naturally expel solar winds of pure antimatter. Gathering this up the Morte Empire has an almost inexhaustible supply. Their industry is developed massively over the centuries and their star systems are practically filled with automated mines and factories. These were once fueling the Morte's immense war machine but with the lasting peace these facilities are switched over to civilian production. 8 of the colony clusters were actually made in this century. Material engineering is similarly advanced in the Empire, with various batches of Durachrome can be found in all constructions.
For long centuries Morte's only reliable form of interstellar travel is the Warp Drive. This technology went through dozens of generations yet its chief mechanism remained the same. It manipulates space-time to effectively shorten the distance and allow ships to travel at apparent speeds faster than light. It's a proven and tested device, albeit compared to what most civilizations use in teh galaxy these are quite slow. Usually they can only travel a few lightyears in a day. Morte also has advanced medicine, cybernetics and AI technology albeit sentient machines are kept under strict control. They also know several terraformation methods yet none of these seems to solve the problem with their home planet. A scientist once proposed the idea to create a planet-wide barrier around Mortis but the results were rather discouraging.
MILITARY OVERVIEW
Mortean military doctrine reflects their society completely. They follow utility and precise organization. Laws explicitly determine the number of soldiers protecting the Empire and their count is reviewed every weekend. During "peacetime" (defined by the lack of major campaigns instead of the absence of any military action or hostilities) this quota was determined to be 2.5 billion, calculated to be just appropriate to keep the hostile neighbors at bay. During major military actions the Kaiser has full authority to raise this quota anywhere. All Morteans receive combat training before reaching adulthood and they're obliged to refresh it on every 4th year. In the Mortean Empire there are no civilians, just active soldiers and those who stay in reserve. The duty of the empire's protection is shared with everyone. The military branch of the Morteans is called Reichswehrmacht.
Name: Reichsgrenadier Role: Standard Foot Soldier Armor: Nanofiber mesh suit + durachrome/neutrozite plates Primary Weapon: PASER Rifle Misc: Environmental sealing, limited life support and temperature control, gas mask/rebreather, helmet-incorporated virtual screen with data-link, sensory information and early warning, heat/electromagnetic detector and night-vision modes, medical injectors
Standard soldier of the Morte Empire. Beneath their uniform they wear nanofiber mesh giving slight increase in strength and cushion against common impacts. Against well-armed soldiers the arangement of durachrome/neutrozite layered plates offer moderate protection, only allowing the higher setting of energy weapons to penetrate. Neutrozite layers exist as a stop-gate against antimatter particle weapons like PASER rifles. PASERS use minute antimatter reactions to launch microscopic amount of positron at the target, almost at lightspeed. Due to their nature their effectiveness against conventional armor increases 2 to 10 times. Reichsgrenadiers also carry around plasma grenades and one per platoon has the responsibility to safeguard their antimatter grenades.
Mortean Space Navy (Mortenkriegsflotte) doctrines concentrate on numbers and heavy long range firepower. Their primary propulsion systems are large antimatter impulse engines which provide reasonable acceleration at minuscule reaction mass spent. Their efficiency is further enhanced by the mass-lightening and space-folding effects of Warp Drives which are also their method of interstellar travel. Albeit slow compared to many other civilizations but its reliable economic nature allows ships to use them for constant travel with only moderate impact on the ship's power budget. Using similar theories the ship's main weaponry are superluminal PASER (Positron Accretion by Spatio-antimatter Explosive Reactions) and Grav Lance/QuASAR (Quark Acceleration by Spatio-stimulated Antimatter Reactions), the latter attacks with raw mass particles at FTL velocities, thus penetrating shields and armored hulls more efficiently than regular beams. They also have torpedoes that can be launched from warp catapult to temporarily gain FTL speed until reaching close to the target. Overall these weapons extend the Morte Fleet's range greatly and it isn't rare for them to target enemies from a few astronomical units away. Said weapons are assisted by hypercomms, hyper-radar and hypercameras which are all based on the Warp mechanism thus free of light-lag. For protection the Morte ships use thickly armored Durachrome composite hulls combined with their Force Shields, the latter generating a bubble of rapidly circling gluons and quarks, essentially covering themselves with multiple layers of pseudo-mass. While potent on its own the Force Shield's true purpose is to intercept attacks and attenuate them from afar (as they're usually projected 10-100km away depending on ship size and power), effectively rendering them harmless to the ship's armor thereafter.
The Mortenkriegsflotte is currently restricted by the "peacetime" law which limits them to 2500 warships, at least 70% of these must be the fast attack and individual patrol ships AKA frigates in order to secure the borders. The Morte Empire currently occupies the space of 46 cubic lightyears with their borders spreading for the area of 47 lightyears squared. With their warp drives usually only capable of crossing 1-3 lightyears a day they require at least this many patrols to keep their empire safe.
Name: Mittelschnauzer-class Attack Frigate Clasification: Long-Range Fast Attack & Patrol Space Combat Vessel, Frigate Dimensions:
Length: 428,40cm (prow length: 321,55cm)
Height: 120,25cm (prow height: 54,00cm)
Width: 160,00cm (prow width: 44,20-68,15cm)
Armor: 50-4,00 cm Durachrome composite Standard Mass: 855,725 metric tons (prior to mass-lightening) Crew: 2725 (standard) Propulsion: Impulse Engine Nacelles x 3 (can be ejected for emergencies) Powerplant: Warp Core (w/ 3 rows of antimatter/vacuum reactors) Interstellar Travel: Warp Drive Sensors: 2 x Sensor Domes (armored domes containing various hypersensors), primary hypertelescopes x 4, backup sensors Defense Systems: Force Shield, structural integrity fields Weapons:
50cm Grav Lances x 6 (front-mounted, can be angled to target to any direction to 60 degrees)
30cm PASER Cannons x 16 (8 on each side, 130 degree firing angle)
288cm Torpedo Tubes x 2 (mounted on the front)
40cm 13-tube HVM Pods x 2 (located on the supports connecting the dorsal nacelles)
9cm Interceptor Batteries x 6 (6-tube small missile systems)
2.2cm PASER Point Defenses x 36 (each fit on a flexible ball mount)
Hangar:
5 x Shuttles (capable of carrying maximum 500 people or 1000 cubic meters of cargo)
4 x KSR-271 Spitzer Fighters
1000 cubic meters worth of mines (stored in parts and put together in automatic assembly prior deployment)
Escape Pods
This relatively small class of warship forms the backbone of the Mortean peace defense fleet. Nearly half of its space is taken up by propulsion systems to ensure both speed and long range. Its armaments include slightly scaled down Grav Lances, PASER Cannons and Torpedo Launchers. It also mounts high-velocity missile pods that use their sheer momentum to defeat lighter warships or intercept fighters/missiles from afar. Aside from that it also has the standard interceptor battery and PASER point-defenses to give it full protection. In spite of its size the Mittelschnauzer has respectable firepower and combat utility, military slang dubbing them as "pocket battleships".
Name: Sennenhund-class Cruiser Clasification: Intermediate Class Space Combat Vessel, Cruiser Dimensions:
Length: 400,00cm (prow length: 321,00cm)
Height: 80,00cm
Width: 80,00cm
Armor: 2,00-8,00 cm Durachrome composite Standard Mass: 1,200,000 metric tons (prior to mass-lightening) Crew: 2000 (standard) Propulsion: Impulse Engine Powerplant: Warp Core (w/ four rows of antimatter/vacuum reactors) Interstellar Travel: Warp Drive Sensors: 2 x Primary Sensor Domes, 4 x Secondary Sensor Domes Defense Systems: Force Shield, structural integrity fields Weapons:
50cm Grav Lances x 6 (front-mounted, fire arc: 60 degrees)
50cm PASER Cannons x 6 (Front-mounted at the port&starboard protrusions, fire arc: 50 degrees)
30cm PASER Cannons x 24 (12 on each side, 130 degree firing angle)
375cm Torpedo Tubes x 2 (mounted on the sides)
12cm Interceptor Batteries x 4 (5-tube small missile systems)
3.3cm PASER Point Defenses x 20 (each fit on a flexible ball mount)
Hangar:
10 x Shuttles (capable of carrying maximum 500 people or 1000 cubic meters of cargo)
12 x KSR-271 Spitzer Fighters
2000 cubic meters worth of mines (stored in parts and put together in automatic assembly prior deployment)
Escape Pods
Former mainline warship of the Morte Empire, created in great quantities in the past. It was geared for maximal combat utility within its relatively small size. Compared to the current frigates it has superior firepower, armor, defenses, cargo capacity, hangar capacity, much better survivability and a simple thus easy to maintain structure. Yet because of their inferior speed Cruisers fell out of favor in the recent peacetime and most of them got mothballed. Thousands of decommissioned cruisers orbit Morte shipyards, ready to be reactivated whenever the need arises.
Name: Schwertjager-class Rapid Destroyer Clasification: Fast Attack Light Space Combat Vessel, Destroyer Dimensions:
Length: 185,50cm (prow length: 91,45cm)
Height: 110,00cm (prow height: 30,00cm)
Width: 25,00-38,10cm (narrowest-widest)
Armor: 20-1,00 cm Durachrome composite Standard Mass: 69,500 metric tons (prior to mass-lightening) Crew: 258 (standard) Propulsion: Impulse Engines x 2, Antimatter Thursters x 2 Powerplant: Compact Warp Core (with a single antimatter/vacuum reactor) Interstellar Travel: Warp Drive, Warp Link, Warp Sustainers Sensors: 2 x Sensor Domes (armored domes containing various hypersensors), primary hypertelescope, backup sensors Defense Systems: Force Shield, structural integrity fields Weapons:
25cm Compact Grav Lances x 4 (front-mounted, 60 degrees coverage)
8cm PASER Cannons x 4 (mounted in flexible ball-mounts)
2.2cm PASER Point Defenses x 6 (each fit on a flexible ball mount)
122cm Torpedo Tubes x 2 (mounted on the edges of the front)
9cm Interceptor Batteries x 2 (8-tube small missile system in the ventral area)
Hangar:
Escape Capsules x 8 (can hold 50 people at maximum)
Fast and firepower packed small starship that commonly accompanies warships in combat. Being less than 100,000 tons in mass the Schwerenjager is considered escort instead of warship thus not subject to the limitations of the law. Designed with speed in mind the Schwerenjager is built around twin antimatter impulse engines almost too big for the rest. It also packs the newest compact grav lances to pose threat to enemy warships. Yet even with these the Schwerenjager would be too slow to keep up with the Frigates. To remedy that the ship has no less than two methods to shorten its interstellar travel. First, like many other escorts it can dock with a Warp Carrier which extends its stronger warp field to them for faster travel. Alternatively 3 Schwerenjager Destroyers can dock with each other to combine their own warp fields for a similar effect. For this latter reason Schwerenjagers almost always operate in groups of 3.
Name: Sturmjager-class Rapid Destroyer Clasification:Light Space Combat Vessel, Destroyer Dimensions:
Length: 210,00cm (prow length: 130,40cm)
Height: 70,25cm
Width: 50,00cm
Armor: 10-1,20 cm Durachrome composite Standard Mass: 55,800 metric tons (prior to mass-lightening) Crew: 327 (standard) Propulsion: Impulse Engines x 2, Antimatter Thursters Powerplant: Compact Warp Core (with a single antimatter/vacuum reactor), auxilary compact M/A reactor Interstellar Travel: Warp Drive, Warp Sustainers Sensors: 2 x Sensor Domes (armored domes containing various hypersensors), primary hypertelescope, backup sensors Defense Systems: Force Shield, structural integrity fields Weapons:
9cm Interceptor Batteries x 2 (8-tube small missile system)
8cm PASER Cannons x 8 (in flexible ball-mounts)
2.2cm PASER Point Defenses x 6 (fit on a flexible ball mount)
Hangar:
Escape Capsules x 8 (can hold 50 people at maximum)
Escort ship focusing almost entirely on firepower. It mounts frightening arsenal of torpedoes and missiles that almost belies its size. Unfortunately this comes at the cost of maneuverability and endurance in battle. Even if it had more maneuvering thrusters, the use of 52 mini warp catapults for HVMs and 12 small scale torpedo tubes drain all power the vessel has and even portion of the reserves. As such the Morte fleet only uses them in limited numbers and rather it enjoys popularity with local defense units where abundant supplies make the Sturmjager's massive firepower makes it an effective force multiplier. The module at the front is the Sturmjager's command bridge which can also detach in emergency and act as a non warp-capable spaceship. Sturmjagers traditionally operate in groups of 4.
The Morte Empire also installed a network of space bases and warp jammer relays to prevent intruders to trespass their borders. While powerful enough to take on a few ships, these are still insufficient to prevent an actual fleet assault. The warp jammers also occasionally fail to sabotage the enemy's FTL methods and they penetrate deep into Morte territory. As such vigilance and constant fleet patrols are still a necessity. Aside from the borders the 3 planets, the 12 colony clusters and key industrial chokepoints are also outfit with various space defenses. Thanks to their concentrated nature these are slightly better at repelling attackers albeit without the fleet's assistance they still won't hold up against prolonged siege.
I'd probably rework this quite a bit. I have a version of these guys that resemble the Chiss from SW, for example.
Well with Christmas over, time for me to get back to work on my IC posting.
@Willy Vereb: Both a krieg/40k imperium and a proper star trek federation would be good. We already have a star-trek like nation, though it is very small and a minor power so a second one may actually be preferable. The rest of the galaxy is pretty hostile, the three main human nations are all xenophobic, authoritarian states to variable degrees.
Terran Federation = Nationalistic, Xenophobic Heinlein Federation Enlightened State = Totalitarian Pseudo-Buddhist Orwellian Nightmare Holy Empire of New Jerusalem = Authoritarian/Totalitarian, Fundamentalist Theocratic Empire (GM needs to get it done)
If you make a star-trek federation, I suggest making it a major power so it actually has a chance.
Well, I'd rather prefer to be a relatively minor power (BTW, anyone has a map for all the civs and where they are?) for multiple reasons. Including that my activity likely won't be that great. But in general I prefer to be not as important to the whole plot. As for survival, I play for fun rather than to win so if I am facing annihilation at least this is going to be the first NRP where my faction gets a closure.
Anyways, brief summary on the two: Morte Empire is about a human or humanoid alien empire found within a sector devastated by a hypernova (neutron star impact...nasty thing). They basically live on a death world and have a very unique view on life while also suffering from short lifespans. They are practical to the extreme and value duty/objectives over enjoyment and the lives of others. They fought non-stop wars with their neighbors and quite militaristic but at the same time they are just as rational and prefer peace whenever possible.
Solarian Federation is kinda like a post-scracity humanity or human-like aliens that prospered for centuries. They're pretty advanced technologically albeit their FTL was lagging behind till recently and in the original RP they haven't met with any aliens. Their society is consumerist as hell and while they seem to be the most peaceful and reasonable guys, deep down they're money-hungry hypocrites who only look for their own gains. Oh and while they never met aliens technology plus weird ideas had some extreme results in reconstructive surgery. So you can just casually see the appearance of elves, klingons and practically any remotely popular fantasy/sci-fi race walking around them. Cosplaying got to a wild next level and that's just the beginning of weird stuff Solarians can and did do with this technology.
So this is where everyone are? BTW, any info on map locations and such? If possible I would either join as the Solarian Federation or the Morte Imperium. Oldies that RP'd with me probably know these guys well.
Which faction seems fresher in this setting? Deathkorps of Krieg on steroids or Star Trek Federation with hypercapitalist assholes?
I either choose that claim that I previously mentioned. It'd be the equivalent of Italy in many ways. Except united. Another idea I am thinking of is Mongols riding wargs. The only issue is that the main continent seems to be Europe equivalent and there are perhaps not enough landmass to make that style to work. I don't mean I want an area as large as the Mongol Empire was but nomadic lifestyle needs tons of space. So maybe I axe that.
@King of SpadesI might claim the weird looking peninsula right next to your island. It's possible then that our nations shared history. Any input on that?
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