By god, I'd rather slave on earth for another man—
some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive—
than rule down here over all the breathless dead.
- Achilles
It is the 250th year of the reign of Empress Nero IV Acontecimento Azurius. All of humanity is imprisoned upon the prison-ecumenopolis of Tellus. Here they shall be made to suffer until they come to recognize their suffering in others.
Axiom: Glory Flows From The Gods
This technological terror you have created is insignificant compared to the power of the Force.
All power, all glory, all success and failure, flows from the will of the Gods upon Olympus. This is not a metaphor or an exaggeration or cosmic injustice to rail against. It is a fact as eternal as gravity. An armada of ten thousand starships, armed with particle lances and electromagnetic flux weaponry will shatter if Athena denies her blessings. A child born of Zeus will arise as a champion and overthrow kings no matter what elite security services, facial recognition software, or legions of killbots are sent to check her rise. No general will raise her sword in anger until the augurs confirm that the gods approve. All the vast infrastructure and paraphernalia of a glorious science-fantasy future abounds in every direction but the wise never forget that the gods can burn even the most sophisticated empires to shadows and ash for crimes of hubris.
The gods are not threatened. The gods are not rivaled. Man will never and can never surpass them. Artificial intelligences will not take their place. There are no other pantheons. Nothing needs to be taken on faith alone. Worship of the gods is a practical consideration.
Axiom: Humanity Are The Precursors
In ancient times, men built wonders, laid claim to the stars and sought to better themselves for the good of all. But we are much wiser now.
It was humans who first took to the stars. It was humans who sowed life, built marvels, created ancient wonders and monuments. It was humans who created clades of servitor races - specialized biological or technological species purpose-built to perform servile functions. It was humans who tamed the stars, and humans who sent the stars to war. In the shattering catastrophes of the ages since much was lost - great civilizations were destroyed in wars, or annihilated by the gods for their sins. Across the galaxy, humanity has dwindled to a remnant - small villages and communities or even lone survivors standing amidst their servitor creations, wondering if they shall ever rise again.
At some times the works of humankind were transcendent, inspired, and soul-aching. At some times their works were base, financial or militaristic. With the veil of time, mystery and power it can be impossible to tell which is which.
Axiom: Technology Is Arcane and Brutal
And when at last he came upon the vehicle, he perceived the distress of the engine therein and forthwith struck the rune and it was good. Thereupon the engine ignited and was filled with strength...
The ELectromagnetic Flux (ELF) is a small weapon typically attached to the shoulder or mounted as a small nodule upon a ship. With a shimmering electrical arc of lightning it will overload and destroy virtually any electronic component, blow out lightbulbs, and cause such an explosion of signal distortions that renders radio communication impossible. A child could build one in a garage out of spare parts.
The abundance of ELF weaponry has done more than anything to shape the technology and aesthetics of this universe. Starship cannons are aimed by hand by teams of muscled deckhands. Gunnery calculations are done with slide rules and mechanical computers. The bridge is lit with candles and scattered with maps hand-drawn by scribes. Combat is done within the range of the human eye, and often hand to hand, with swords - possibly within the cockpit of an armoured mecha suit known as a Plover. There are no force fields so all battle is done to the sound of crashing metal and sundering armour.
But this is not to say that the future is primitive; there are some areas of design which are spellbindingly advanced. Materials science is indistinguishable from magic - paints that never run dry and change colour depending on how they are spoken to, armour that can absorb the impact of a railgun hit and dissipate all that energy harmlessly into the air, mechanical computers of such size and complexity that they can replicate human intelligence - albeit with a processor the size of a house. Bioscience and medicine are beyond sophisticated, giving every human the innate ability to breathe any atmosphere, reverse the flow of years, change their gender at a whim, regrow severed limbs and so on.
And, of course, glory flows from the gods - singular craftsmen are blessed to produce wonders for the ages, each one a masterpiece that must be studied as scientists of previous eras studied entire disciplines. Barring divine intervention, though, advanced technology is still bound by sweat and muscle and the mark 1 eyeball.
Praxis: Humanity Is Ruled
Lordship for many is no good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king.
Empress Nero, in the wake of the fall of Emperor Molech, decreed in her wisdom that the distance of the stars was perilous. Apart, humanity became strangers to each other. Too many people creating, evolving, changing, unknown to one another. When they met again they looked at each other and thought themselves alien. In such forgetfulness wars were born. So it was decreed: one planet, one home, one place where all the million forms of humans would be gathered and made to live as one once more. And so the Grand Armada scoured the galaxy, procuring every human they could find - destroying their civilizations if they had to - and bringing them all back to Tellus, a planet-city where they would be neighbors once again.
Tellus is a tyrannical regime, a prison world with the people packed in shoulder to shoulder enduring squalor and misery. Such is necessary, says the Empress, who could end their deprivation with a snap of her fingers - their shared misery shall build shared empathy. Her reign has endured two hundred and fifty years of absolute control and still she declares that humanity is unworthy of freedom.
Praxis: The Gods Are Immanent
Think not to match yourself against gods, for men that walk the earth cannot hold their own with the immortals.
There is no celestial realm where the gods gather on stormclouds and drink and revel, apart from the concerns of mortals. They are here. Now. Everywhere. Zeus will physically appear to witness an oath made in her name, and she will wield the lightning bolt that strikes down the liar with her own hands. In a battle you may find yourself face to face with Ares himself, who will engage you with sword and spear. When you are alone and weeping, it is Hera who will place her hand on your shoulder and whisper words of understanding. They come and go as their domains dictate but they are entirely within and a part of the world, never separate from it.
Though all gods are for all people as depending on their circumstances at the time, the gods do have their favorites. Each character will pick two gods who have a personal interest in their fate – perhaps they love you or hate you, but those two will be directly relevant to you always.
Praxis: Machine Intelligence is constrained
The whole of arithmetic now appeared within the grasp of mechanism.
Artificial Intelligences are not gods, nor do they ever resemble gods. Machine intelligences are not geists of quantum programming, they are the product of enormously complex mechanistic functions performed by elaborate Rube-Goldberg machines. The digital path of technology was a dead end – it turns out the Difference Engine and WW1 fire control computers were the future all along. Machine intelligences are enormously complex clockwork brains that run on levers, gears, and pistons. And as they scale poorly these mechanical constructions need to be large to rival human minds.
To obtain full, human intellect you need to fill a large room floor to ceiling with machinery. On the uppermost scale, you can reach the intelligence of a great sage with a machine the size of a house; such constructions tend to be built into starships that intend to forgo skilled navigators and celestial mechanics. Intelligence can be produced on smaller scales but have intellects akin to uncomplicated animals – go here, defend this, load this, and so on.
Praxis: Space is Cluttered
He wrongly accuses Poseidon who makes shipwreck a second time.
Space is not an empty void. It is full, as full as the Aegean. Everywhere you will find planets, everywhere you will find life. Look out into the void and you will not see black but greens, blues, swirls of colour, islands and ruins and wreckage and voidfaring life. Humanity has been long at work on this galaxy and even the empty places between contain miracles and monsters.
So too are storms. Poseidon is the god of the void between, and his storms are terrible and dark. Passage without his favour is suicide. His children are monsters and entire worlds vanish into the dark as the children of the Earth Shaker descend.
Leptomereia: Prayer is Meaningful
Some of the words you'll find within yourself. The rest some power will inspire you to say.
When praying, always use some variation of the following structure: "Zeus, if you will grant me victory in this battle I will shatter my spear in your honour." Who you're addressing, what you want, and what you are offering. This is important. A prayer is a bargain between you and your deity, a specific exchange that - if the god accepts - she will expect to be honoured. It is important to include all these elements because the gods are not mind readers! They are vast, cosmic forces and have a lot on their minds. An ambiguously phrased prayer - or worse, one where you ask something of a god without offering something in exchange - is more likely to draw a curse than anything else. Children's stories all throughout the galaxy are full of people who offend the gods through haphazard prayer. You may offer future promises, immediate sacrifices, or appeal to past offerings, but respect is due. I do, that you might do.
It is acceptable to speak informally to the gods when they appear. If Zeus is having a conversation with you no bowing or scraping is necessary - in fact, you have likely crossed paths with the gods dozens of times throughout your life to this point. However, no matter how casual the banter or how carelessly the gods bait you, never claim superiority over them. The gods regard hubris as an exceedingly severe crime and have destroyed galactic empires over it.
You may still make such mistakes - those stories have to come from somewhere, after all. You were, however, warned.
Cursing by the gods works in much the same way. “Hera damn your eyes” is the kind of thing Hera might decide to act upon, so be cautious when invoking them. Invoking a god’s name as a general exclamation of surprise is generally acceptable.
Leptomereia: Life has Value
"Hateful to me as the gates of Hades."
The Emergency Declaration has placed the preservation of life as the highest priority of the Imperium. War is to be muzzled. Hades is to be shunned. All shall be sustained regardless of their will. The bloody handed will be sought and punished. Human life is precious above all, but it is not the only thing which is precious. Moreover, the act of murder – unsanctioned, illegal death-dealing without performing the rituals of warfare or the hunt – renders one unclean before the gods.
It is not to say there is no death in this setting, simply that there exists a strong cultural force pushing against it, along with a formalized understanding of the rules of surrender. Even factions outside the Empire tend to pay at least lip service to the importance of life after several extremely public examples have been made by the Grand Armada. Slavery is a widespread institution.
But people die all the same.
WhiteAngel25
Phoe
Kaithe Dame
Tyler Night
TokyoPewPew
Vixere
Overlord Thraka
Izurich
Lurking Krog