Wxps, do you plan to explain the appearance of your xenos more?

Anyhow as far as Consortium relations go it will be fun to try to gain influence around ASTA's faction and fail miserably.

@ASTA
Interesting mechs you have.

Shame it is that your kind are incestuous freaks.

@The Captain
So, your emperor is the one and only true manifestation of the cosmic sovereign, THE TRUE emperor of emperors unquestionable and without limit to power or will?

We shall watch closely and see if it is so.

Very closely.

(they may not have this sentiment unless your pretender proves successful enough)

@Senor Herp
We may have mutual interests.

@Raptorman
More nepotism? No wonder you've been around so long and can't even figure out how to make a decent biomech. No progress, with mindsets like these.

Here, have some alien immigrants:

The Vargyn are steam breathing cylindrical alien beings who are like extremely sophisticated, higher order flat worms. Their radial mouth is obscured by many tendrils. The Vargyn don't have any actual orientation, often being able to be vertical, horizontal or curved as needed. The Vargyn come from a low gravity, highly volcanic world with a incredibly dense atmosphere where water tends to be scalding hot (their home world is literally translated to "The Steams of Life"). They seem to be adapted to the mountainous needle forests. The specialized segments of a Vargyn can become more Vargyn given enough food and time, but intelligence requires a larger Vargyn . The Vargyn have trilateral symmetry down their cylindrical body, with their limbs taking different tasks depending on how much food they can attain. Arms with hands can only exist with well fed Vargyn. Less well fed Vargyn use their limbs as legs only and starving Vargyn are reduced to slithering about like snakes, shedding away their limbs to do so. The Vargin come from a lower gravity world and the classes of Vargyn adapted to space have since become dominant among their kind, but the "other" classes of Vargyn still are around. Vargyn can get huge and have dozens of limb sets in space, to the point where some Vargyn cultures will make protective suits to engage into direct combat with other spaceships.

The Vargyn are reliant on detecting movement to catch prey, sensing vibrations and changes in air pressure along with sound. They have very poor eye sight, being color blind and are unable to resolve detail well. While their architecture is drab, the arrangement of their architecture is very suited towards their kind and generally is built to make echolocation a easy task. They tingle about, very sensitive to changes in humidity due to needing to be in humid environments to breathe properly. It's hard for them to breathe in dry mediums because they breathe mist and steam. They tend to have steamy armor systems as a result often only interact with humans outside their suits in a sauna.

The Vargyn have a wide range of pressure tolerance with forms that can adapt to many kinds of worlds- in some worlds they can even "glide" about the place.

The Vargyn don't really have any real "civilization" (or "state"), instead they associate with multiple other species and work within the systems of other civilizations. Vargyn do have cultures, but these Vargyn cultures often are mixed with the traditions and norms of whatever civilizations the Vargyn is part of.

(Here's an addition to the xeno library, no factions attached)

Alright, considering the glut of outsiders and aliens and insurrectionists I'm going to opt for a different concept. I'm intent on playing as the Empire's 'Praetorian Guard'. Their Sardaukar, if you will. Genetically engineered, eugenically pedigreed soldiers of the Emperor's household. Those that remain now occupy a precarious, awkward position. The throne is empty. The Emperor is dead or missing, even if the party line is that he's simply been spirited away to safety. So now, their duty is to find the Emperor, or find a replacement, and try to keep all the disparate 'loyalists' and more pliable parties from tearing the whole institution apart.

Their leadership has collectively abstained from any ambitions towards the throne, but they feel they have the privilege to deny 'unworthy' claimants their own place on it. After all, his majesty yet lives. The coup was a failure. The attempt on his life has failed.

They have to walk a fine line of denying that anything is wrong while simultaneously moving forwards.

And, you know, there's the fact that they failed to protect him in the first place. That must sting.

Likewise making a change, although much smaller. Same xeno-race, tech, societal organization, and aesthetic, with the modest change of being well-established as loyalists, running a more or less autonomous client state with firm allegiance and love for (some/most?) Imperial institutions. Considering the heavy Darwinist philospohical slant and the preexistence of a selective and cooperative caste system, peaceable amalgamation into the conquering Empire is more or less plausible as a matter of both pragmatic acclamation and genuine acceptance of the right of the conqueror who could be doing far worse, silencing the usual grumblings and chafings you find in other xeno and techno-barbarian subjects. Chief value to the Empire was probably in military lease and fissile & fusion weapon manufacture, often both at once, since much of the weapons aren't terribly practical for other species to use or adapt. Less lizard Imperial Japan-Ummayads, more xeno-Byzantine Armenia, or maybe the Britons.

I'm planning on making a loyalist faction, does the old empire have a flag?

Alright, considering the glut of outsiders and aliens and insurrectionists I'm going to opt for a different concept. I'm intent on playing as the Empire's 'Praetorian Guard'. Their Sardaukar, if you will. Genetically engineered, eugenically pedigreed soldiers of the Emperor's household. Those that remain now occupy a precarious, awkward position. The throne is empty. The Emperor is dead or missing, even if the party line is that he's simply been spirited away to safety. So now, their duty is to find the Emperor, or find a replacement, and try to keep all the disparate 'loyalists' and more pliable parties from tearing the whole institution apart.

Their leadership has collectively abstained from any ambitions towards the throne, but they feel they have the privilege to deny 'unworthy' claimants their own place on it. After all, his majesty yet lives. The coup was a failure. The attempt on his life has failed.

They have to walk a fine line of denying that anything is wrong while simultaneously moving forwards.

And, you know, there's the fact that they failed to protect him in the first place. That must sting.

This is literally exactly the faction I was planning to make.

Damn.

Interesting, very interesting... Might have to join this with a pretender faction. Very nice RP you've made @Flagg. Would it be possible to make a pretender/loyalist faction that supports an estranged branch or member of the ruling family or simply a sibling of the emperor who feels that it is his/her right to rule?

@Arawak

Yeah, I'll get to explaining the species more.

@Arawak Also question, how are the Reclicica an example of Nepotism? Everyone in the society has earned their position often through bloodshed and battle, there are no hereditary ranks, and traditional 'friendships' don't really exist.

@Raptorman
It's not.

It's because the Consortium's Composers aren't really as all-knowing as they think even with their bio-mechanical doppelganger spies and make bad assumptions about other societies. The horde is comparatively distant, so not too much is actually known on how the horde works. They just assume it to be like the Empire but much more savage without even being aware that their leaders come from taking the position through bloodshed and not heredity. Even if they learn how the horde actually works, they'd still propagate the blatant lie that the horde is nepotistic to make them look no better than the Empire. The Composers tend to hold actual power despite the Auditor being autocrat since the Composers dispose of Auditors who they find ill suited for the role. (Read: Call them out on their bullshit or try to weaken their position in the Consortium)

Interesting, very interesting... Might have to join this with a pretender faction. Very nice RP you've made @Flagg. Would it be possible to make a pretender/loyalist faction that supports an estranged branch or member of the ruling family or simply a sibling of the emperor who feels that it is his/her right to rule?

Yes absolutely something like that would be perfect

@Arawak Ah okay. That makes sense. I figured it was something like that but was just curious since they didn't seem to fit the definition.

<Snipped quote by Durandal>

Yes absolutely something like that would be perfect

Ok, thanks. I'll try and get up a CS within the next couple of days.

Edit: Would anyone control Almata at the moment?

<Snipped quote by The Captain>

This is literally exactly the faction I was planning to make.

Damn.

Maybe we could make it work. Some sort of schism in the ranks? Or our delegated duties were different?

Maybe there's a debate behind the scenes about what the next step should be for the empire, and we're each playing divergent factions. Maybe one of us is playing the 'Imperial Military Forces' while the other is the 'Palace Guard' or something along those lines.

EDIT: If anything, I'm inclined towards being breakaway radicals. And you could be the main body. Or something.

Snip

I wouldn't wait up on me. I have some pretty bad ADHD and may not even get around to making an app myself. But the idea I had was basically the same as yours, but with some minor changes. Namely that I was going to start them off with someone they were trying to make the new emperor. My inspiration was also partly the Praetorian Guard, and in ancient Rome, it wasn't uncommon for the Praetorian Guard to choose the next emperor after a major crisis, so that was the idea. I was even going to do the whole "genetically engineered and eugenically pedigreed" thing (but with a focus on psionic suppression abilities), so it's like you read my mind, hah.

You beat me to it, though, so do as you will with the concept.

Anybody want to have a shared history with my faction, the Alarethian? Three of their planets have been taken from their direct rule by the Empire; Dehaka as a desert world that was taken for mining interests, and Daruk which is a swamp planet desired by Arcturan merchants for its exotic dyes. The third one is Rama, which was their original capital, and is a prosperous city-world.

Another one of their issues is forcing out all humans in their territory, so they would need another faction agreeing to take them in.

If anyone has a similarly capitalistic, would they mind trying to tie in with my group? I can adjust accordingly but essentially establishing the idea that they're trade partners with KDE and as a way have a way to build narrative based on that cooperation. That or they can be against KDE and involve some way as a competitor.

Hmm... Very interesting RP here. I think I might join up. Could I make a sort of Apocalypse cult that's been around for a while but with the fall is skyrocketing in popularity. No real military, but with followers all around and maybe a planet or two with high percentages of followers where the planetary forces back my cult. Seems like a fun group to add into the mix.

Unless anyone has other designs for it, I think I'll make a decimated Almata into one of my faction's holdouts.

To all others who are not part of the Empire, or who otherwise are interested in history. Due to the nature of the Empire's methods of keeping the Reclicican threat in check there were few hordes that went towards the Empire during its height but the hordes would have still raided and assaulted others. I'm open to working on past history for that if anyone else would like to?

Also I welcome ideas and collaboration with the people who are parts of the imperial military since I will be working on detailing the Culling Forces(Which need a real name) and it might be fitting to have things being somewhat consistent.

You know, it may be a good idea to compile a timeline of events that have led up to the Empire's calamitous present day situation. Nothing too fancy (mostly because engaging in excessive OOC world-building tends to propel adolescent NRPs into a state of perpetual limbo), but enough where newcomers and established players alike can have a reliable reference to fall back on when running post collaborations with other players or making alterations to their own personal sheets.