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| Orbs spinning in the void, kept in line by ruthless gravity |
Human Slaves of An Insect Nation-Imperium Reginae (a bare-bones attempt at
creating a steampunk setting)
I was never really partial to
steampunk. Not because I found the genre to be beneath me, but because when
you’ve been raised on a steady diet of British trip-your-balls-off science
fiction and Japanese psychic supermen, well…
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You can’t exactly go back to pretending like you give a damn about Star Trek |
But steampunk (for all the
unnecessary goggles, dials and cogs that it has added to perfectly functional
designs), has also added a great deal of awesome to pop culture, the kind that
you can’t exactly shrug off and pretend like it doesn’t exist. It bridges
fantasy and science fiction in that very special, bullshit science kind of way
that I have come to respect and admire.
Steampunk however, as a genre,
did not enjoy all that many representatives in the tabletop rpg gaming
department. Sure, there were a couple of examples
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| Space 1889 being the most epic (if too historically heavy for my tastes) among them |
But none of them caught my eye
like Radiance. I could go on and on about how awesome this system is and the
specifics of its make-up, but that would simply derail the article. Instead, I
will focus on exhibiting my hype for it by generating a world, heavily based
off the existing canon and show it off to the Internet, for your enjoyment and
perusal!
But before we continue, some
ground-rules:
Imperium Reginae, despite being intended for use with the Radiance RPG
system, will attempt to remain as open-ended as possible.
The idea is for this series of
articles to focus on creating a setting that’s
based on steampunk and 50’s space opera but I will refrain as much as I can
from tying it down to the Radiance system.
Imperium Reginae will be an Earth-counterpart, of sorts.
Without of course, going into
too much unnecessary detail, or boring the reader with historical trivia. As I
have come to terms with the fact that I suck at maps and in generating believable
worlds and societies (never mind histories), I will base the Throneworld on 18th
and 19th century Earth, with considerable fantasy elements thrown in
the mix.
Imperium Reginae is sort of a kitchen sink.
The idea is that this setting
is solar-system sized, with considerable regions left uncharted, in order to
allow for pretty much everything to co-exist within this impossibly large area.
For the interest of this ‘vanilla’ version of the setting, consider it to be
electro-tech (as defined within the Radiance book, i.e. as a world with very
access to nuclear power and almost magical access to electricity). However, not
all societies live off electricity and feature wildly fluctuating levels of
cultural progress and development. These, of course, can be modified as each
Storyteller sees fit.
With all this in mind, let’s
move on to…
IMPERIUM REGINAE-THE VOID EMPIRE
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| Austro-Russian void-ship ‘Bog’ en route from Cibinensis |
The Year is 1453 Anno Reginae,
the year of the Empress. There were 13 calendars before it and before that,
there was fire and steel and anarchy. In the times before the advent of the
dominion of the Austro-Russin Empire, the world was a mish-mash of warring
nation-states, vying for power and survival in the face of near cosmic
collapse.
Empires (insignificant little
pretenders to the might of the Empress’ cominion) had risen and fallen by the
dozens in the times following what the Romantics have come to call the ‘Age of
Myth’. It was said, that in that strange, distant past before history, man
would shape the world according to his whim, by using arcane power. It was said
that he paid tribute to ancient gods, long since dead and defunct and wage war
with impossible creatures, the end result of their terrible misuse of their
power.
Little records of the ‘Age of
Myth’ remain. Most are papyri that miraculously survived the hardships of age
and the cataclysm that put paid to the society whose deeds and epics they
contain. Others are stone tablets, their contents unaltered by time or the
elements, yet impervious to translation. The specifics of the life and the
imagination of the ‘Age of Myth’ are mostly wild speculation.
While a number of reasons are
proposed by historians as to what exactly ended that bygone age, all
indications lead to one, solid conclusion: a disaster of incalculable
proportions that some call the Deluge, while others yet call it the Rift War.
The specifics of the Rift War
are not known. From surviving manuscripts and certain epics, this much can be
ascertained: forces alien to the world of the bygone age (and perhaps even
alien to this continuum) spilled out into the world during a war of such
magnitude, tenacity and destructive extent that served to annihilate all
civilizations of the ‘Age of Myth’.
The identity or nature of the
combatants remains unknown. Historians, choosing to simply call them ‘the
Outsiders’, basing their narratives on sporadic findings and anecdotal epics of
oral tradition, describe their clash as
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“The war which scorched the heavens” |
And theorize that the war lasted from any amount of
time: from mere weeks to as long as a decade. Despite its actual duration, however,
one thing is made certain: the ancient civilizations did not survive the
process.
The Outsiders retreated from the world after they had
wrought their destruction, for their own alien reasons, leaving behind them
shattered continents and myriads dead. But they also left behind them
artifacts, remnants of their technology that were either expended, damaged or
left behind in the midst of the chaos.
Historians theorize that those devices (considered to
have significantly lost their potency after millennia of function) could have
been the cause of most of this unknown era’s unrest. Nation-states, vying for
the power of the artifacts, waged war on each other in order to secure the
weapons of the Outsiders, while struggling to unlock their secrets.
Mankind seemed doomed in the face of this constant
warfare and the fall of its civilizations, until an unexpected binding force
came from the East, to unite the masses into a coherent whole, by force of
arms:
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| The Orc Hordes. |
Driven by hunger and desperation, the united Orc
tribes swept across the world, crushing the pitiful nation-states and uniting
the known world. First in the face of a common enemy and then under their reign.
It was during that time, when the age of constant war
came to a screeching halt and mankind had finally the time to devote itself to
the study of Outsider artifacts, as well as the restructuring of their
civilization. The Orcs, once mighty nomads of the steppes, were slowly
integrated to human societies and their Empire ended with a whimper, instead of
a bang.
Using what little information the alchemist-scientists
could glean from the alien technology, new instruments of both war and progress
were introduced and implemented: first, firearms. Then, industrialized
production. A century later came the gradual rise of the Psionic Sciences and
then, finally, the age of Amber dawned.
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| A world, powered by amber. |
It was not, of course, a time of peace but of great
upheaval and crimes perpetrated by rising superpowers, who vied from greater
dominion upon Terra. Wars were once again waged, this time with weapons
designed in factory-cathedrals. Flying engines were utilized and soon enough,
Austro-Russian scientists stumbled upon the nucleonic source of power that was
hidden within the precious Outsider artifacts in their disposal, unlocking
their destructive capabilities.
After the first N-Bomb was utilized in the battle of
Londinium, reducing the city to a heap of molten slag a thousand miles across,
it had suddenly become painfully clear which the new superpower was.
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House Habsburg-Romanov banner. |
The Austro-Russian Empire (under the direction of
Anastasia Habsburg-Romanov, Empress of All Terras) soon came to dominate the
world, its influence and technological prowess allowing it to expand its
territories both toward the center of the planet and later on (in 1012 AR), to
Luna herself.
But where the
daring void-nauts thought they would find empty landscapes, uninhabited and
free for the taking, they found life in such astonishing variety, that they
were first astonished, then pushed by greed, then pushed back by the planetary
natives and finally, after a bloody reprisal, settled for centuries.
The species that comprise the colonial subjects of the
Empire will be covered in a later article. This one will focus, instead on
outlining the domains of the Empire and its colonies, which will be later
outlined in detail.
The Austro-Russian Dominion Map:
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| 4 out of the 9 planets currently under complete or colonial control. |
Moving according to the distance of each planet to
Sol, the planets of the system of Imperium Reginae are set as follows (planets
under complete or colonial control outlined in bold):
Ostanes: Nearest to Sol and considered
uninhabitable, Ostanes began as a small mining outpost for Absolum, a mineral
capable of producing three times the output of nucleonic energy in comparison
to standard fuels used for the procedure.
After the depletion of said deposits by 1234 Anno
Reginae, Ostanes was re-designed for use as a penal colony, where the Empire’s
undesirables are imprisoned and then abandoned, deprived of any hope to escape
(or so it would seem).
While reports tend to come in of prisoners coming in
contact (or being killed by) some heretofore unknown life forms, the validity
of such statements remains to be seen. The fact that the Empire denies
expending manpower or risking some of its finest xenologists based on the
claims of political prisoners plays also an important part in this.
Artephius: Despite
its proximity to the Throneworld, Artephius remains a planet that has resisted
any attempts to be colonized or controlled. The overly hrsh climate, its
carnivorous jungles and its tenacious and well-organized denizens (catalogued
as the Dromites in imperial Xenology) have resisted any attempt of a martial
take-over.
Artephius’s climate and humidity make it a perfect
environment for disease to thrive. Its native predators (creatures that have
evolved to be perfectly adapted to the harsh climate) also pose a considerable
threat.
Terra: The Imperial Throneworld and the
crowning jewel in the Solar system, it is the only planet that houses such a
variety of species (both intelligent and animal). It is the heart of the
Imperial political machine and, along with Fulcanelli, the backbone of its
armies.
Controlled by the Empress Anastasia Habsburg-Romanov,
now in the 4th century of her reign, it is home to the races of man,
Atlan and Gnome on the surface. Its minorities include the orc and hobgoblin
tribes (whose numbers have severely dwindled in the previous centuries), while
Dwarven and Pygmy colonies exist in the Hollow World below.
Terra’s satellite, Selene, is the only other inhabited
satellite in the system (with the exception of Titan). Its denizens, creatures
that were dubbed ‘Elves’ by the first xenologists, appear to have existed there
and maintained a culture since the ‘Age of Myth’. Exceedingly long-lived and
(according to archaeological finds) once technologically far superior to
mankind, the Elves appeared to have been locked in perpetual war with a race of
similar humanoids dwelling on the Dark Side of Selene, calling themselves the
‘Drow’.
Fulcanelli: Home to the serpent-races,
Fulcanelli is a planet that has known strife unlike any that Terra or Selene
has ever known. The native reptilian races (Drack, Grippli and Lizardfolk),
broken into tribes, consumed in constant wars aimed at the extinction of each
species came to a screeching halt when Imperial Forces arrived and provided
weapons and aid to the Grippli population.
Severely outgunned, the other forces soon desisted and
Fulcanelli has since become the Empire’s Foundry, mined for minerals and manned
by engineers with the sole intent of equipping its war machine.
Magnus: A
planet of crushing gravity and considerable size, it is home to a species that
has been named ‘Goliath by Imperial Xenologists. Extremely resistant to
colonization or control by virtue of its environment and inhabitants (like
Artephius), Magnus is the chief stage of operations of the Empire, with its
moons and comet belt manned by Imperial soldiers and officers, intent on
achieving absolute control.
The war has gone on for more than four centuries,
without any indication of ceasing. Had it not been for the mandates of the
Empress herself, the Imperial Army would long since have given up on its
attempts.
Agathodaimon: Until recently considered devoid of
intelligent life, Agathodaimon showed signs of an advanced civilization having
existed in it until recently. It wasn’t until a century later, during a mining
expedition, that the indigenous intelligent species of the planet came in
contact (initially peacefully, then violently) with Imperial colonists and army
officials.
The natives (calling themselves Rakasha and Slith,
respectively) have since conceded to tolerating the existence of imperial
colonies. Extremely isolationist, both species maintain their hold on any of
their ancient technologies remaining and refuse to give them up to Imperial
Xenologists for study.
Attempts on behalf of the Empire to enlist the aid of
the Tengu natives of Titan against the Rakasa and Slith have since failed. The
Tengu, despite their fierceness in the field of battle, were fickle allies to
the cause.
Boyang, Vemana and Cibinensis: Attempts to explore or colonize the
furthestmost reaches of the system have been numerous, but have all culminated
in failure. Any public information on said planets had been deemed classified
by Imperial decree and designated as no-man’s land.
But as the Empire’s population swells and the its
needs in energy, minerals and luxuries increase exponentially, the Empire finds
its hand forced toward having to brave those planets and wrest control on them
once again.
Next time on Imperium
Reginae, the intelligent species of the Empire!
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