Hello and welcome!

the idea here is for a character-driven NRP set in a far-future, low fantasy 'fall of Rome' type scenario, in which a powerful galactic empire is crumbling under the pressure of civil war and perhaps external invasion. The tone will be that of a gothic space opera, borrowing more from Dune, 40K, the good star wars films, and cyberpunk than from say, Star Trek or hard SF. Magic, psionics, etc are allowed in this RP, but should be a somewhat muted presence.

My hope is that since players will be rping as factions of a crumbling empire, or former rivals or subjects to that empire, a major focus of the RP will be building a shared setting and history. I am intentionally leaving details about the Arcturan Empire and the conflict relatively sparse, so that people can fill in their own factions and histories and build the setting collaboratively. Below are a few suggested factions in the civil war, that people may want to use as inspiration for their nation sheets.

Please note that everything below is just meant as an inspiration. Names and ideas are thrown out as starting points for folks to run with. I do not have definite plans for anything mentioned below. In terms of lore, we're going to go with a first-come, first serve system, so that as people establish details about the Empire etc in their faction sheets, and once I approve it, the setting and details will get fleshed out.

Faction Suggestions:

LOYALISTS: Those still loyal to the old order and to Emperor Fashti XI before the Sack of Almata, which was a massive defeat for the loyalist forces. The Arcturan Empire was a humano-centric, caste-based, militarized autocracy governed by a vast bureaucracy torn between meritocratic reforms and an entrenched aristocracy. Xenos races were in most places treated as slaves or at best as second class citizens. It was the First Emperor who, millenia ago, brought an end to the House Wars and subjugated the xenos empires. Loyalists will cherish the millennia of peace and order the line of Emperors wrought out of galactic chaos.

PRETENDERS: Upstarts seeking the title of Emperor for their leader. Pretenders could be anything from ambitious generals, admirals or warlords to Utopian revolutionaries to neofascists tired of the inefficiency and sclerosis of the old order. Given the humano-centrism of the Empire, a (genocidal?) monohumanist element blaming the xenos for Imperial weakness is likely to be present among many of the Pretenders.

REACTIONARIES: Aristocrats and conservatives of the ancient, pre-Imperial Great Houses who see opportunity in the present chaos to win back their ancient rights and prerogatives from the power of the Imperial Bureaucracy. The reactionaries likely recognize their economic dependence on the xenos races, and so would look with suspicion on monohumanist radicals or xenos liberation fronts.

CHURCH: The Arcturan Empire tolerated many religions, but the official creed of state was the Cult of Kaasid, which exerted considerable power throughout the Empire.

SEPARATISTS: Xenos liberation fronts, corporations or Great Houses wishing to be free of the Imperial yoke, client states seizing a chance to break free from the collapsing empire, religious dissidents, etc.

INVADERS/ASTROGOTHS: Factions from outside the Empire taking advantage of its current crises. In fact, an external invasion may have precipitated the current civil war.

Faction Sheet:

Faction Name:

Faction Type: (Loyalist, Pretender, etc)

Faction leader(s):

System(s)/Territory: (Please be aware that as faction sheets get completed, they may need to be tweaked to fit with other players' faction sheets, since everyone is playing as parts of the same [collapsing] super-state)

Planet(s)/Holdings: (btwn 1-5 systems if your faction controls any, unlimited [within reason] other holdings like asteroid bases, etc)

Faction/Government Desc:

History: (Feel free to make up details about the setting and the major powers. I love collaborative worldbuilding, so feel free to work with me and your fellow RPers at building the setting)

Relations with the Empire and Other Factions: (this section is super important, please work with other players to work out shared history, etc)

Military Capabilities: (ships in faction fleets must be under 3 kilometers, though I will allow exceptions. Please keep in mind that militaries are likely to be parts of the old imperial military, and so some commonality between factions is to be expected. As for ground forces, no hard limits here. The Rule of Cool and the Rule of No Effing Godmodding obtain)

Note: Please stick your NSes (even WIP NSes) in the character tab with NOT ACCEPTED at the top until I accept. Also, this RP will begin just after the Sack of Almata by one of the pretenders.

NOTE:

Important announcement- real life issues have just come up in a big way. I'm not sure that I will be able to devote the time and energy necessary here to be a successful GM. If anyone would like to take over this RP, please let me know, you're more than welcome to it. I'll be more than happy to help get things started with this, but I just can no longer GM properly.

My apologies to everyone involved, I had thought I would have sufficient time for this, but circumstances have changed for me (not in a bad way).

Consider me interested. I'll look into coming up with a Nation Sheet

My empty sheet from now.

Faction Name
WIP

Faction leader(s)
WIP

System(s)/Territory
WIP

Planet(s)/Holdings
WIP

Faction/Government Desc
WIP

History
WIP

Relations with the Empire and Other Factions
WIP

Military Capabilities
WIP

Here's a question, since you stated that this Arcturan Empire was Human could I possibly play a nation with control of Earth and the systems around earth?

Interested in setting up a frontier separatist faction. A coalition of pioneers, alien exiles, separatists, rouges, and homesteaders trying to survive the collapse of the empire.

And unfortunately they are sitting ontop of a lot of exotic materials and valuable trade routes. Wealthy, but a target for many.

One factor I'd like to propose for my sector: the Coalition has succeeded in taking or destroying major logistics strongpoints, and the neighboring systems do not have major military infrastructure to support capital ships or large fleets. This means battle on the frontier is about skirmishes, raids, more age-of-sail lone cruiser operations than of grand battlefleets duking it out. The stakes are high, because if those logistics bases are taken then one could roll in the battleships and dreadnoughts.

I think it would make for better character interaction and conflict.

Here's a question, since you stated that this Arcturan Empire was Human could I possibly play a nation with control of Earth and the systems around earth?

I'd rather keep earth out of it, if that's ok.

<Snipped quote by MetalLover>

I'd rather keep earth out of it, if that's ok.

Ah damn, okay.
Time to think of something else.

I'm thinking of doing a crusade style thing, so there's a great general and he leaves a campaign for the empire, and then when the empire is defeated, he's too far away to get back so must become a loyal isolated string of systems. Something like that!

This setting is right up my alley. Wondering what sort of user created aliens will be setting 'canon'. If anyone cares to collaborate (swap species) give me a shout.

Possibly interested with Space Huns

Am I right in assuming that the civil war has pretty much knocked out all of the big ships? I mean if your fighting a war for a long time wouldn't all of the major forces be damaged/fatigued/destroyed?

I might do an annexed civilization that is trying to hold together in the sea of chaos.

Wow.

This is the RP I've been waiting for. I've already got several ideas in mind.

I am keeping an eye on this.

Thrilled to see all this interest and interesting ideas. I'm going to wait until two or three NSes are in progress before designing a faction of my own.

@Flagg Question about the proposed space huns I'm thinking of, would it be okay to say that their ships are generally much larger than 3 km seeing as they're going to be space nomads?

Not Flagg, obviously, but your faction doesn't need all of their ships to be bigger than 3km. They just need the "home" ship(s) to be big. Escorts and such don't need to be that big. My two cents.

nevermind.

Not Flagg, obviously, but your faction doesn't need all of their ships to be bigger than 3km. They just need the "home" ship(s) to be big. Escorts and such don't need to be that big. My two cents.

@ClocktowerEchos: ^Basically that.

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@Rhymer Fantastic, love it so far.

So I know the Arcturan empire is a Human one, but does it have any alien civilizations that it annexed/imperialized?