Glad to hear it. Now the question comes in of what are their relations with the other established powers? I can't imagine that my and Skylar's peoples haven't butted heads at least once at some point in the past if they're in the same galactic neighborhood. I also had an idea floating in my mind that within the last generation or so the Dominion fought and lost a war against somebody (Said enemy managed to jump in on an antimatter world, the destruction of which crushed the Dominion's will to fight) and have only just recovered from the damages dealt to their infrastructure and society. The new Vaata-Kreg are making big speeches about how they're gonna rise from this chaos stronger than ever before and about expanding the fleet and all that other good propaganda stuff.
The Terranis Empire can be that enemy either if you want. A daring attack on an antimatter-producing system does sound like the thing a daring admiral would do during the height of the Empire's glory or during the beginning of its decline. Now the Empire is weaker and corrupt, and the time for a counterattack is becoming more possible and lucrative.
Ah, to be a giant space empire. Everyone is gunning for you, so there is no shortage of plots and schemes to be had. Why didn't I do this before?
For the Human players, I'm looking to "borrow" a human from either a player nation or an NPC nation for a plot-line central to the Synchronicity's mainplot. If anyone is interested, either let me know here or shoot me a PM.
I am certain there will be one noble house among the Empire that can be suitably entangled in alien affairs. Whats the game?
I would say the Federation would view them quite poorly :P although that won't stop trade, commutations and such(if they do engage in trade that is).
And added nervousness of it the decaying state :p
Well there certainly will be any number of ambitious noble houses wanting a leg up in the constant courtly intrigue of the Empire. Not to mention there is plenty of market potential for specialized biosynth slaves and the hedonistic luxuries of the Empire.
And the question is, does the Federation want the empire destroyed, or does it want it still intact to avoid having to deal with a messy aftermath?
And if you're nobles and such need a target, the federation sounds perfect :P (Perhaps its already happened in the past)
Perhaps it would, if the will to fight existed to begin with. I wonder what kind of view the Federation has on this eternally decaying empire? Built upon despicable biosynth slavery and conquest and Imperial rule, yet too powerful and rich even in its decadent state to really want to wage war against?
Terranis Empire profile is developing. A human empire built upon fleets upon fleets of grand battleships, dreadnoughts, and capital craft. Built upon endless armies of biosynthetic warriors that have already conquered many alien races and turned them into subjects of the Empire.
An empire decaying under its own weight. Can an imperialistic empire that no longer conquers be called a real empire? It has become lazy and corrupt, decadent and hedonistic while resting atop its riches and plunder. Its citizens do not wish to pay taxes, its nobility do not desire to wage war, and yet it still stands. And yet, there are some who still desire to relieve the glory days of the Empire.
I look forward to seeing how this game will play out. Truth be told, playing a giant, old, and corrupt empire is a new thing for me. Fertile ground for plot ideas though.
Government Type: In theory, an absolute monarchy. In practice, increasingly decentralized neo-feudalism.
Capital System/World: Terranis Dominant Species: Humans Other Species: Human biosynths, Mekniks (Short canine industrial species, nicknamed "Gremlins"), Mithrans (Subjugated felinoid servant race), Snathi (Subjugated evolved squirrel-esque species), various other conquered alien species. Leadership: Star Empress Sylina Tyran
Persons of Importance: Lord Chancellor Valarn- Master of the Empire's economy, and notorious for his tax-farming methods and corruption alongside his economic prowess. Disdainful of war, mostly because he cannot apply his cost-cutting methods to turn a personal profit from it. "Ishmael" - An ancient noblewoman of the early Empire age, now a cynical observer of its decline and decadence while one of its greatest players.
House Wander: One of the core Houses of the Empire, being custodians of several Pleasure Worlds and vital positions in the Imperial Administration. While unambitious, their connections and administrative positions have resulted in the extended House family possessing considerable political power. That, and they also maintain a lot of nobility's resort palaces.
Military: The Terranis Navy is a vast and powerful organization, composed of fleets upon fleets of heavy capital ships. The Empire's navies are built upon the premise of shock and awe. If a capital ship's firepower is neccessary in a battle, send a whole battlegroup of capital ships to put the issue down for good. To that end, they have built grand battleships, titanic dreadnoughts, missle-swarm laiden podnaughts, grand battlecruisers, and mobile starbases to wage conquests and war that few other powers could match during the height of its power.
However the Navy is not the all-conquering superpower it once was, in part because it is now so vast and widespread and numerous. Fleets of battleships and dreadnoughts depend on massive amounts of fuel and infrastructure, which makes conquests difficult due to their enemies not possessing the same scale of capital ship infrastructure as the Empire that can be captured and repurposed to fuel campaigning fleets, and the costs of long-range supply chains or building forward supply bases of sufficient scale are unstomachable to the current administration. Under the guise of "consolidation", the Battlefleets have been quietly retasked as defensive forces, and only lighter (and cheaper to maintain) battlecruisers and escorts are used beyond the core and mid-shell worlds. Furthermore, much of the older elements of the fleet are being mothballed or sold off to private noble fleets and planetary organizations to deal with the growing costs of a warmachine that does not conquer.
Superheavy capital starships. 2-4 kilometer craft, often equipped with triple-stacked broadsides of heavy ordinance, entire fleets of small craft, and some of the greatest weaponry and technology the Empire has. The last deployment of the dreadnoughts beyond the core worlds was over 50 years ago, and they are largely a prestige position for the noble admiralty. Only the supercarriers see any real use, and even then precious few times.
2nd Rate: Battleships, Flag Battlecruisers, Fast Battleships, Fleet Carriers
Large capital ships meant to be the core of the battlefleets.
3rd Rate: Battlecruisers, Escort Carriers 4th Rate: Cruisers, Flight-deck Cruisers 5th Rate: Light Cruisers 6th Rate: Destroyers, Frigates, Corvettes Escort craft built en masse for a immense array of duties and patrol tasks
History: "Too vast to conquer, too decadent to incite fear, too corrupt to be respected, too old and powerful to be ignored. The ideal state of empire, really." - [REDACTED], aka [REDACTED], aka "Ishmael"
The Terranis Empire's origins lie within the nebulous and ill-recorded times of the early Terran Diaspora, where an authoritarian imperialist government rose to power amidst a collection of destitute colonies under siege from the expansionist Meknik Confederacy in a desperate bid to fight back. Yet despite their efforts, the fast-breeding Mekniks and their superior industry resulted in a steady grind of attrition against the human colonies.
The tide was turned ten years into the war by the discovery of a lost colony ship, intended to seed a world with biosynths, an artificially bred and genetically specialized series of subhumans. Yet biosynth designs optimized for colonial engineering and farming could be repurposed for maintaining warships and freeing up support personnel for the frontlines. And biolabs made to produce workers could be reverse-engineered into massive forced-growth plants for entire divisions of biosynthetic soldiers. Implementation of massive numbers of biosynths on the frontlines was the essential turning point of the war. Even then, it would be a slow grind to reclaim lost worlds and take the fight back to the Meknik worlds. 30 years would pass before the Meknik's were finally driven out.
Yet the rising central government would not be content with merely retaking the lost human colonies. In a daring blitzkrieg assault, one of the Meknik supercapital shipyards was captured and turned to produce battleships for the Empire while biosynth production reached massive heights. And the conquest of the Meknik worlds began.
Worlds burned in the Empire's desire for revenge, while the Meknik race were deemed to become a subjugated vassal species under humanity in reparation for its assault on human colonies. Turning the industries and technology of the Meknik's against them while guided by legendary commanders, the Empire soon conquered the Meknik Territories and established itself as a stellar power of the Orion Sector in blood. But it would not stop there.
Border tensions with the Snathi State, who profited from the war and had pirates raid both sides, turned into full blown war that did not last long as Mithran raiders were flattened under thousands-strong battleship fleets. Then the Mithran Corporate Union was the next to find themselves in the crosshairs as the humans lashed out at their exploitive policies towards other human states. Yet while the first conquests were brought about in the name of saving fellow humans, gradually over time the noble leaders of the fleet and Empire were replaced by those with less noble goals as successes grew less important and conquests gradually became more costly than the plunder they returned, and the fleets grew far too large to maintain across increasingly greater distances from their bearths within the Empire.
Gradually, expansionism gave way to consolidation, and consolidation turned to being content with the sizable gains they had. An Empire of a hundred stars, both within and some even beyond the Orion Sector, was to many enough of a prize. A prize worth exploiting to its marrow.
Decadence and corruption set in among the now unconquering empire. While new life was infused at times when outside and internal powers dared attempt to strike at the Empire, they were fleeting remembrances of a past age of heroism and courage. Without true enemies, as the fat and rich empire preferred to settle matters through court intrigue, trade, and weight of bureaucracy to the point where many other stellar powers left it alone, the Empire slowly began to decay in a million cumulative ways.
"The Empire is dying. Yet the Empire is eternal. The two conditions are hardly exclusive." - Ishmael
Government Type: In theory, an absolute monarchy. In practice, increasingly decentralized neo-feudalism.
Capital System/World: Terranis Dominant Species: Humans Other Species: Human biosynths, Mekniks (Short canine industrial species, nicknamed "Gremlins"), Mithrans (Subjugated felinoid servant race), Snathi (Subjugated evolved squirrel-esque species), various other conquered alien species. Leadership: Star Empress Sylina Tyran
Persons of Importance: Lord Chancellor Valarn- Master of the Empire's economy, and notorious for his tax-farming methods and corruption alongside his economic prowess. Disdainful of war, mostly because he cannot apply his cost-cutting methods to turn a personal profit from it. "Ishmael" - An ancient noblewoman of the early Empire age, now a cynical observer of its decline and decadence while one of its greatest players.
Military: The Terranis Navy is a vast and powerful organization, composed of fleets upon fleets of heavy capital ships. The Empire's navies are built upon the premise of shock and awe. If a capital ship's firepower is neccessary in a battle, send a whole battlegroup of capital ships to put the issue down for good. To that end, they have built grand battleships, titanic dreadnoughts, missle-swarm laiden podnaughts, grand battlecruisers, and mobile starbases to wage conquests and war that few other powers could match during the height of its power.
However the Navy is not the all-conquering superpower it once was, in part because it is now so vast and widespread. Fleets of battleships and dreadnoughts depend on massive amounts of fuel and infrastructure, which makes conquests difficult due to their enemies not possessing the same scale of capital ship infrastructure as the Empire that can be captured and repurposed to fuel campaigning fleets, and the costs of long-range supply chains or building forward supply bases of sufficient scale are unstomachable to the current administration. Under the guise of "consolidation", the Battlefleets have been quietly retasked as defensive forces, and only lighter (and cheaper to maintain) battlecruisers and escorts are used beyond the core and mid-shell worlds. Furthermore, much of the older elements of the fleet are being mothballed or sold off to private noble fleets and planetary organizations to deal with the growing costs of a warmachine that does not conquer.
History: "Too vast to conquer, too decadent to incite fear, too corrupt to be respected, too old and powerful to be ignored. The ideal empire, really." - [REDACTED], aka [REDACTED], aka "Ishmael"
You think your empire would have dealings with an eccentric synthetic civilization that has advanced to the point where they do things just to do them? : O
Empire at large: doubtful. Various nobility and members of the empire: Very likely. The Synthetics will probably like watching the courtly intrigue or watching the fallout of them throwing some old gadget at a upstart noble brat on a wim. Afterall, watching organics squabble over something like a old nanite-factory is a reliably interesting form of amusement for the synthetic interested in organic psychology or psychosis.
I'd say either sounds great :)
Empire it is then. I need to get out of a rut of playing traders and underdog factions. Just waiting on NS to get started.
Interested. Not sure whether to go for a human or alien faction, but probably something along the lines of a big, powerful empire-type nation that is also strategically sluggish and facing severe internal decay and decadence.
If that doesn't work, I'm game for a underdog coalition faction, compensating for bad tech and infrastructure with brilliant leaders.
Plot: A good setup to have nations and factions without having Earth be an overwhelming influence. Elimination of nuclear and antimatter arms at the start is also a nice touch, rebuilding those specialist infrastructures is going to be a serious ingame task I suspect.
Mechanics: Not entirely understanding how the temporary points work. Wording doesn't click for me and I generally am suspect of heavily stat-based games. Implementation of traits and ability to add twists to how stats are interpreted would be nice.
For my planned nation archetype: coalition of Martian colonies, sitting ontop of a lot of valuable resources and they know it. But lacking in heavy shipbuilding industry, and thus need to be....creative in their defense. I'll adjust as needed depending on how the mechanics go.
