A tall, dark skinned young woman with questioning eyes and a nervous gait. Like all hedge mages, she is bald and must never go more than two weeks without shaving her head. Since leaving the Schools, Hanabaptiste has been confined to wearing an olive green gown and walking shoes. A massive straw hat shades her face, bobbing as she walks. She carries an oak staff with the ends clad in bronze in her hand.
Magic:
Hanabaptiste completed four of the seven years needed to become a Weather Scholarmage. Despite never finishing the education at the Schools, Hanabaptiste is a competent weathermage, possessing the technical knowledge of the trade that so many other hedgemages lack. Like all weathermages, Hanabaptiste can summon wind gales, disperse fogs, and settle storms. Like all students at the Schools, Hanabaptiste was taught the basics of battle magic, and can hold her own in a fight against nonmagical opponents. Additionally, the common requests of all hedgemages- curing livestock, dispelling flees, five different love potions and an a la cart for various minor curses to put on the neighbors you don't like.
I'd be game to try my hand at some sort of weather mage running away from debt collectors and trying to start a new life. I've never played a 1x1, but maybe its more my speed.
Brief Description: Permanently nomadic people living in a flotilla of spaceships, traveling between the stars inside massive generation ships, traveling along the northern edge of the Empire, pillaging and trading with the half settled outposts in turn. During the collapse of the Empire, the small time bandits grew vast preying on the refugees. Now with the constant stream of easy pickings having died down, they have turned towards what used to be the heartland of the Orionic Empire.
Claim: The Star People don't maintain land in the same way as their planet bound neighbors do, so their concept of borders is a loose one. With their homes aboard their ships, Star People hold no attachment to planets. Nonetheless, the traditional traveling range of the Star People was along the northern edge of the Orionic empire.
Government: The Star People is the title and collective name for a loose confederation of five semi-autonomous states with referred to as Tribes. Though Each Tribe self governs and is free to do what they will, a rudimentary centralization exists in the form of the Admirals counsel. Every Tribe chooses an Admiral to represent them at the counsel. The Admirals convene every four years to settle grievances, agree to new laws, and organize the Star People. The Tribes are:
Originally formed from a fleet of colony ships headed to Canis Major, the Mykolli were especially feared by colonies during the time of the Empire, who were brutalized during Mykolli attacks. Even today Mykolli are considered pugnacious, with a willingness to start fights that more cautious Tribes would avoid. Mykolli government and society is run by hereditary captaincies. Mykolli captains appoint one man (women, under Mykolli law, can't inherit) from the crew to become heir after the current captain retires or is killed. Since individuals can captain and crew multiple ships (captain and crew have different meaning among the Mykolli) heirs can have the opportunity to multiple ships. Slaves are used by many Mykolli captains to prop up their crews. Every nine years the captains elect an admiral to represent them at the Counsel. Presently, the Mykolli have been led by the same Admiral for the last fifty years, Admiral Shunbach
Cadet Tribe to the Mykolli, like all Cadet Tribes the Corvalli were formed when the Mykolli Tribe became too big to manage. Corvalli society is near identical to Mykolli, though the ships are in worse condition and few captains own more than a single ship.
The most populous of the Tribes. House Bear is made up of massive generation ships capable of supporting megalopolis cities in them. House Bear also has the most biome ships, which produce and the majority of the other Tribes food and air. House Bear is a representetive democracy, these representtives elect an Admiral to represent House Bear at the Counsel. Given its more urbane nature, artists, scientists, and tradesmen are drawn to House Bear's many cityships. While slavery is present, it is not as relied upon as it is in other Tribes.
A powerful faction inside House Bear that consists entirely of industrial biome ships, the Growers Union collectively negotiate with House Bear and other Tribes for the biomaterial that is produced by the Union. While many of the biome ships are nothing more than algae growing factories, others are perfect recreations of natural enviroments, highly complex systems of interconnected plants and animals that provide stable habitats in space. The Growers Union doesn't permit slaves, and the nascent abolitionist movement is found here.
Elder Tribe deeply involved in the slave trade, the Families comes from the crime syndicates that began to follow the Star People during their raids, forming a symbiotic relationship with the Tribes. The Families have a near monopoly on the slave trade, raiding remote colonies or establishing trade connections with slavers on planets. The Families are constantly bickering, and hitting a rival ships engines or asasinating the head of a rival Family is common. The Admiral is a role granted to an outsider, typically a clergyman or a clerk, who is then expected to act as the peacemaker among the Families. Since the Admiral has no real power, they (either gender can be made Admiral) mostly try and facilitate goodwill among the Families and prevent all out war. They mostly succeed. Obviously, slavery is key among the Families.
The Families personal coterie of slavers, cut throats, murderers, and cheap muscle. This criminal army comes from washed up warriors, released slaves, and otherwise brutish people. Their name comes from the saying that when they raid anything, they'll take everyone, including the dogs. Most Dog Snatchers were born planetside, Star People struggle under planetside conditions without specialized suits.
Oldest and wealthiest Tribe, the Firstborn can trace their history back to the 15th interstellar colony ship ever launched by humanity on Old Earth. Living among the stars before warp drives made the galaxy accesable, the Firstborn adapted themselves genetically to survive in space. Visual reliance on horizon lines removed, motion sickness a faint memory and bone structure adapted for life in space. These people survived on the harsh emptiness north of the galactic core. In countless systems all habital worlds had been slagged, incinerated, or irridiated to death and back. The only ruins left on any of them just twisted masses of metal amid deserts. No species in the galaxy knows how long ago the stretch of space known as the Wastes came to be. The Firstborn survived by luck and a willingness to embrace what it took to survive in space.
The Firstborns foreign legion, Golden Ray consists of master warriors.
The smallest of the Elder Tribes.
History: The earliest roots of the Star People can be traced before the Empire, when early human colonizers sent out colonization ships to reach then distant stars that would take generations to reach. To solve this problem, ships that could maintain populations of thousands for hundreds of years were built, sent out into the dark to spread humanity. And while most of these ships eventually reached their destination and colonized planets, some remained among the stars, traveling to new planets endlessly. The number of these ships began to grow, and they assembled into fleets. At this time the Empire was in it's infancy, and found the nomadic people to be a problem- they weren't easy to tax or control, so the Empire issued an ultimatum- settle on planets or leave Empire territory. A portion of the Star People settled and quickly forgot their heritage. The rest went beyond the eyes of civilization, surviving a hardscrabble life far past any support. Still, as the frontiers continued to grow, the Star People found that piracy and trade were much easier ways to live than try to manufacture everything yourself in the middle of nowhere. They soon became one of the Empire's favorite problems- just troubling enough to keep the unruly colonists planetside in line, but not actually a threat to the concerted might of the Imperial Fleets. During the collapse of the Empire, the Star People grew vast preying on the refugees. Now with the constant stream of easy pickings having died down, they have turned towards what used to be the heartland of the Orionic Empire.
Military: generalisations concerning the Star Peoples technology and military tactics are inacurate, individual tribes must be examined.
Mykolli
Cadet Tribe to Mykolli.
The most populous of the Tribes.
A Cadet Tribe To House Bear that consists entirely of industrial biome ships.
Elder Tribe deeply involved in the slave trade.
A Cadet Tribe of slavers, cut throats, murderers, and cheap muscle.
Oldest and wealthiest Tribe.
Cadet Tribe of master warriors to the Firstborn.
The smallest of the Elder Tribes.
Religion/Culture: While individual Tribes have different religious beliefs, a unique tradition shared by all Star People is the creation of Reliquaries. Ancient ships that have become imbued with value through one way or another (the fighter craft of a great leader, a medical barge that saved many in a disaster) and are turned into shrines. These ships act as chapels and museums for Star People, a way to permanently commemorate heroes and ancestors and keep ties to the past. They are also the pride of the Star People, who dedicate their finest decorative arts to the Reliquaries. Star People made ships have long been a subject of fascination, as the Orionic art historian Rult Tiklo said in their landmark study Harsh Lives and Beautiful Sights, "To see a barbarian's spaceship is to see Spiritus work in a godless people."
Demographics (Species): Human dominant across all Tribes, different Tribes have different alien minorities.
Characters:
A young Myklonii spacefighter pilot.
An apprentice artist dwelling aboard Hona, House Bear's Capital.
A struggling Aystari trader.
A recently enslaved man serving his sentence for the Families.
Relations: Complex and ever changing.
Habitation: Star People inhabit a wide range of spaceships capable of surviving in deep space. The Star People are perhaps most famous for their Generation Ships, the largest of which are capable of supporting 6 million in perpetuity.
