Superseeds
I described my pitch as a sort of Duneish Legion of Super-Heroes, with noble houses having spaceships and metahumans they use in their conflicts with other houses.
That post was short, so I decided to expand the concept in two Superseeds installments. Like in the UNION columns, this first article will give you the basics to run the campaign, while the next one will introduce other elements.
Pitch
In the far future, posthumans created with alien technology help star-spanning noble houses acquire power and influence.
Premise
Despite the wars and crisis, humankind survived and went to the stars. At first, Earthís colonies dotted the solar system, but after the discovery of the jump drive, nothing could contain humanityís wanderlust.Ship after ship left Earth toward stars with habitable planets. The nearby systems were quickly colonized and the wave went on. Centuries later, thousands of worlds had been settled and human space extended through hundreds of light-years.
Humanity never found aliens, but it wasnít alone. New genetic variants, uplifted animals and artificially-intelligent robots walked along humans in their adventure among the stars. For thousands of years, civilization flourished.
But as in other societies before them, human space grew decadent. And with decadence, came conflict. No longer content to play second fiddle to their carbon creators, the robots revolted and waged war upon them.
There had never been a conflict like that: planets were bombed, populations exterminated, cities razed. At the end, humans prevailed and the surviving machines fled into unknown regions of space. But it was a pyrrhic victory for humankind, as civilization collapsed and technology was lost, isolating planets for a long time.
No one knows how long it was after that, but humans from a planet called Corazan rediscovered the jump drive. They explored the nearby systems and found other forgotten colonies, eventually forming a new interstellar society called the Luminarum, comprised of 75 star systems and ruled by a chancellor and a parliament of noble houses.
A thousand years after the rediscovery of the jump drive, a Luminarum ship met the Consortium, a seemingly alien species that wanted to sell its advanced technology: genetic engineering, force shields, advanced jump drives. With these, the Luminarum expanded even more quickly and, forty years ago, stumbled upon the Elder Stations.
Alien space stations of immense size, the Elder Stations were neither human- nor Consortium-created. Inside, there was a wealth of new technology ñ eldertech ñ and the most significant prize of them all: the transmutation chambers.
The first one found could change a regular human into a low-level superhuman with formidable physical abilities. These were called elderborn. Then, there were the ìotherî chambers, the ones that changed a person beyond simple physical enhancement, that gave him or her abilities that could not be explained or understood, that made that individual into an Other.
Today -- 2000 Anno Luminarum (AL) --, pulse guns, force shields and starships are the main weapons of the noble houses of the Luminarum. But everybody knows that a company of elderborn can tip the scales of a battle and just one Other can snag victory from the jaws of defeat for his master.
All of them are tools for supremacy in the dangerous, political arena of the Luminarum.
Who are the PCs?
The default assumption for this campaign is that they are Others. Their characters were ordered to enter a transmutation chamber and emerged changed, powerful. The noble houses only assign to transformation individuals they trust completely. Usually, these are longtime retainers, but itís not uncommon for a noble himself to undertake the process.Physically, Others are superior to the regular elderborn, so base physical stats (and perception ones) should start at above human maximum ñ a weak Other should be able to bench press half a ton, but average strength is around 1 ton. Other physical traits should follow these benchmarks in their respective tracks.
Mentally, Others are a little off. I mean in behavior, not intellectually. Mental drawbacks, exotic quirks and such should be part of the characterís sheet. Nothing too extreme, though, because Others are still functional, but they should definitely give off weird vibes.
Of course, the biggest difference between Others and elderborn is the formerís powers. An Other should have a powerful (lots of ranks), specialized, but flexible ability. For example, The Azure Man can teleport himself and others; summon things and people to him; and do all sorts of teleportation-associated stunts.
Others can have physical mutations ñ The Azure Man has blue skin --, but none of them have displayed extreme ones, like an animal head. Finally, they seem to recognize they are no longer truly humans and dress in exotic fashions, as well as adopt flowery names, such as The Lady of Gears or The Scion of the Sun.
Nobility great and small
The noble houses are the force behind the Luminarum. They control the planetary resources, rule the population and wield the military might. The houses are always conspiring and jockeying for position within society and they are not above using warfare (or more discreet means) to reach their goals.There are three tiers in house hierarchy: minor, major and great. Minor houses are vassals to a major one. They control a planetary region that can vary from a city and its surroundings to a whole continent.
Major houses control a solar system. The main branch of the family rules from the systemís most important planet, with lesser branches administering the other planetary bodies. Not all major houses luck out on having a garden world in their systems, but most make do with what they have.
Great houses are the big movers and shakers of the Luminarum, because they control more than one system. Besides all the resources and wealth they get from that, they also gain political clout -- the number of seats (and votes) a house gets in the Council of Peers (ConPer), the parliamentary body the rules the Luminarum, is equal to the number of systems it controls.
Currently, there are six great houses: Corsigan, Maedhros, Moritur, Perseides, Shizumoi and Suresh. Although all of them are extremely powerful, Corsigan has a slight advantage, because it controls the chancellery, the de facto seat of power in the ConPer.
Although the great houses are for all intents and purposes self-sufficient, they usually forge alliances with several major houses so as to guarantee voting power and the occasional resource they do not have access to.
Every good a house produces, from food to industrial machinery, must be sold to the Corporation Hegemonica of Luminari Assets and Mercantiles (CHeLAM). The corporation allows the producing house to separate an appropriate quantity for its own consumption, but buys all the rest and sell to other houses.
Inter-house warfare is only allowed by the ConPer with a formal declaration of war. Assassination attempts, clandestine sabotage missions, spying operations and such are tolerated, however, as long as the offending house covers its tracks. If evidence of those activities comes to light, the offending house will suffer stiff reprimand from the council.
Luminarum tech
The cornerstone of Luminarum civilization is the rediscovered jump drive. It allows a ship to cross from one to three parsecs instantaneously, enabling the existence of a multisystem society and interstellar trade.The main component of the jump drive is the jump coil made from solium, the 126th element. Solium is extremely rare. So much so that CHeLAM demands 95% of its production be destined to Corazan (the Luminarum capital) so as to ensure the constant supply of jump coils.
In 1352 AL, Lord Volstrung Maedhros, after discovering that adding minute amounts of solium to explosives significantly increased their power, created Solium-Laced Ammunition (SLA). Although still in use, many consider SLA to be an incredible waste of a valuable resource.
The most popular weapon system in the Luminarum is the pulse gun. It fires cobalt-cemented tungsten carbide bullets accelerated by powerful magnetic fields (think gauss). There are starship-sized versions as well, pulse cannons, but ships can also sport laser weapons.
Melee weapons, mostly swords and knives, are also common, especially with nobles (or those that want to kill them), thanks to Consortium-provided personal force shields that stop anything moving faster than a thrown knife.
Personal armor varies from light suits made of sorboweave, an extremely resistant, but flexible polymer that disperses kinetic energy; to combat armor (sorboweave plus ceramic plates); to power armor (sorboweave undersuit plus a tritanium-covered exoskeleton).
Starships have hulls and armor made of quadritanium, a light but resistant alloy. They also employ heavy duty force shields developed natively in the Luminarum. Only personal force shields are Consortium-created.
The Luminarum distrust (or phobia) of sentient machines have not prevented the creation of computers. However, these are nowhere near as powerful as our 20th-century supercomputers. They are basic models that can run specific, dedicated functions. They are mostly used in administration, communications and starships.
Consortium tech
The first thing to understand about Consortium technology is that it is a black box. Each and every piece of equipment or organism sold to the Luminarum has lacked any sort of user manual, besides basic operation instructions. In fact, any attempt to tamper with the inner workings of a Consortium item results in its destruction.Mostly, Consortium tech is more advanced, elegant and energy-efficient than its Luminarum counterparts. It can also perform functions the human ones cannot. For example, the Consortium sells five-parsec jump drives and its rumored their own ships can jump twice that far
The Consortium also dabbles in areas the Luminarum considers taboo, like genetic engineering. Although the main war of the old human civilization was against sentient robots, history says that the genetic variants and uplifted animals stood aside and let their masters get pounded by the gearheads. They were punished at the end of the war, though. With extermination.
Being a pragmatic bunch, the house lords saw no problem when the Consortium offered them force-grown clone soldiers, the Acheron legions (think Captain America types). These units are sold exclusively to the chancellery, which leases them to a few allied houses.
The Consortium was greatly displeased by the discovery of the Elder Stations, since it broke its monopoly on advanced technology. Although Luminarum scientists have not been able to duplicate eldertech, just studying it has opened new areas of research and it may not be long before they start cranking out new devices and technologies.
Elderborn in particular (even more than Others) are a great inconvenience to the Consortium. Although nowhere near as abundant as the Acheron legions, elderborn are more powerful than the cloned soldiers and the chancellery has used this detail in its negotiations for the acquisition of new legions.
The Consortium representatives ñ seven-feet tall beings that wear expressionless metal masks set in black form-fitting hoods that extend all the way to the floor as robes ñ hint they are going to introduce a new model: the Stygian legionnaire, able to best ten elderborn. No one has seen one of those yet.
Eldertech
Elder Stations are 1 km-high octahedral monstrosities that orbit cold, forgotten worlds in the outer edge of the Penumbra, the sphere of space around the Luminarum that is in the process of being explored.Four such stations have been found so far and although they have many wonders, mostly deactivated, the greatest prize in all of them were the transmutation chambers. Each station had a lesser and a greater chamber. Unfortunately, these devices had a limited charge.
The lesser chambers produced 200 elderborn each, while the greater ones generated 10 Others each. After their allotted quota was reached, the chambers shut down. Of the 800 elderborn created, thereís a little over 500 alive, most having died in combat, since transmutation slows aging. Of the Others, thereís still 30 around.
Exploratory missions were multihouse affairs that obligatorily included one great house, so elderborn and Others were divided among the participating houses, with the lionís share going to the great ones.
Today, each great house with the exception of Corsigan, has around 100 elderborn who are used mainly as commando units, given their rarity. The chancellorís house makes up for its lack of superhuman troops with the sheer number of Acheron legions at its disposal.
In terms of Others, each great house has its squad, varying from three to five members, which accounts for 22 of the 30 posthumans. The other eight are dispersed among the major houses, with no more than one for each. The great houses are always trying to cajole, bribe or intimidate these nobles into letting go of their Others.
There are a few nagging questions about the Elder Stations. Why is there no record of their existence in the old human records? If they are of alien origin, why have humans never met an alien species?
The Consortium doesnít seem to count, because its representatives were truly surprised by their discovery, which prompts another question: why the Consortium didnít find them first given their advanced technology?
Meet the Others
Here are three sample Others. I briefly described their background and powers, but not which house they are affiliated with, so as to leave things open.The Azure Man: Kurt Azevedo was captain of the garrison in the exploratory mission that found the first Elder Station. After his men accidentally entered a lesser chamber and emerged enhanced, the leaders of the mission ordered the soldiers to sweep the station in search of more chambers. Azevedo was cut off from the rest of his troop by a blast door and found himself locked in a section with another chamber. Afraid of being entombed in the station, he entered the chamber, thinking the minor super-human abilities would allow him to force the blast door open. To his surprise, it was a greater chamber and Azevedo became the first ever Other. With blue skin and an unfocused stare, as if seeing things that are very far away or not there, The Azure Man is a teleporter with a confirmed range of 300,000 kilometers, although rumors say he is much more powerful than that. One tale tells of how a ship he was aboard managed to jump out of an ambush even though its jump drive was shot. The Azure Man has also mastered the art of combat teleportation and is a deadly enemy to his adversaries. Sometimes Azevedo will talk of a strange place where he ëmisjumpsí to. This is usually a conversation stopper, because The Azure Manís descriptions are frightening to normal people.
The Lady of Gears: Nazira Stravos was an overachiever both athletically and intellectually. A trusted retainer of her house, she was chosen as the perfect candidate to undergo greater transmutation. Stravos emerged from the chamber as The Lady of Gears, able to communicate and control technology in its myriad forms, from locks to car engines, from a pulse pistol to whole starships. Stravos must be within conversation distance of the device she needs to interact with, but her power works over communication equipment. Once, during a space battle over a contested world, The Lady of Gears made an enemy ship shoot its comrade vessels and shut down. Because of that, standard protocol when facing Stravosí house is to maintain radio silence, which can make coordinating a space battle difficult, to say the least. The Lady of Gears often talks to herself. When asked about this behavior, she says sheís actually talking with the equipment around her. One thing Stravos neglected to tell her bosses is that she could listen to the Elder Station. It spoke in a humming whisper that The Lady of Gears could not quite understand, but that sounded like a warningÖ
The Scion of the Sun: Huang Wayne lost the selection process for greater transmutation. He came in at eleventh place. ëNo problemí he thought and proceeded to poison the tenth candidate, making sure it looked like an accident. And so was born The Scion of the Sun, the embodiment of a star. At first, Wayne could sheath himself in plasma and shoot blasts of superheated matter, but as his control over the power grew, he became able to turn into plasma and generate gravitic effects. Now, The Scion of the Sun is a terrifying vision in any battle, ground- or space-based. Wayne loves to emerge from a ship as an incandescent avatar of destruction and plunge right through the quadritanium hull of an enemy vessel or to fly over a battlefield and incinerate soldiers and vehicles alike to a crisp. His enthusiasm is so great, in fact, that house lords and military officers are concerned about their own safety. The Scion of the Sun is getting ever more rebellious, seeing regular humans as inferior beings that are not fit to order him around. For now, Wayne is biding his time. He knows the other house Others can put him back in line if he deviates too much, so heís waiting for the right moment to break his shackles.
Some Luminarum Others seeds
Here are a couple seeds for you to use. I donít name the PC house, but in the second seed I have Maedhros as the antagonist. This can be easily changed, though.The Beasts of Tantale: The PCs are sent, together with a detachment of regular soldiers, to the last planet of the system, Tantale, where thereís a small solium mining operation. Sir Galston, the station commander, sent a distress signal and then all contact was lost. When the characters arrive on Tantale, they find the remaining 43 crewmen (of a total of 60) entrenched in the base. The communications array has been leveled and other parts of the station have been destroyed by explosions. Galston reveals their problems started one week before, when a prospecting team failed to report. Another team sent after them also disappeared. Then, the station itself suffered sabotage. Galston barely had time to activate the distress signal before the array went up in a ball of flames. If the PCs decide to search for the missing teams, they can follow their route, but will need to use one of the rovers in the station and pack vacc suits (Tantale has no atmosphere), unless their Other abilities include life support. Eventually, they will find two other rovers parked several miles away from the station next to a cliff. On the cliff wall, thereís a secret bunker filled with computers and advanced electronic equipment. The data banks have been wiped, but itís clear the bunker was reactivated recently. On the way back, the group will be attacked guerrilla style and if they make it back to the station, the attacks will intensify. What happened is that the prospecting team has awakened the Third Gear of the Fifth Machine of the 150th Network, i.e., a squad of sentient robots from the war. Their first priority is leaving Tantale, so they have attacked the station in order to bring a ship to the planet. Now, they intend to eradicate the humans and steal the PCsí ship. These robots are anthropomorphic, superstrong and fast; armed with advanced weaponry and full scanners; and sport cloaking systems and a wi-fi comm network. Plus: they are really smart. The PCs powers will take them by surprise, but they will adapt fast.
Under Samirian Skies: Samiri is an inhabited desertic world (daytime temperature can reach 50 degrees Celsius) in the Penumbra that was found independently by two different scouting expeditions, one backed by house Maedhros and the other by the PCsí house. Both houses have appealed to the ConPer to gain exclusive exploitation rights, but while the council is deliberating, they are working to increase their influence on the new planet. Maedhros has a significant head start and already counts many officials in Samiri government as their allies, not to mention having a strong presence on the main Samirian cities. Even if the PCsí house gains exploitation rights, Maedhrosí influence could prove difficult to manage. Fortunately, thereís a way out: Sheyakim warriors. These are legendary freedom fighters that have battled tyrants and oppressors throughout Samiriís history. They havenít been seen for two hundred years, but intelligence reports suggest they are still active in the inhospitable northern mountain range. The plan is to drop the PCs onto Samiri in stealth ships (both Maedhros and the PCsí house have starships in-system, just in case). They will meet Abul, a caravan merchant whoís their houseís contact, and he will take them to the northern city of Mahadir. The characters will have to dodge Maedhros spies and elite soldiers (Fomoire Guard) in order to find the Yujirdam, a nomadic people who may know how to get in touch with the Sheyakim. Of course, they will also have to contend with Maedhros Others sent to Samiri in order to foil these political sabotage attempts. Even if the PCs survive all this and find the Sheyakim, they will have to convince the freedom fighters that house Maedhros is the true enemy ñ because for these legendary warriors, any ëaliení is a foe, especially if they have sorcerous powers.
Inspiration
Dune & A Song of Ice and Fire: The influence of Frank Herbertís work is acknowledged right in the introduction of this installment, but elements of George R. R. Martinís saga also have their role in this campaign.
Traveller: Not only Luminarumís history mirrors that of the main Traveller setting, its FTL system is basically the same. In fact, you could do worse than plunk Luminarum on an unused corner of the Third Imperium. The campaign could be set around the Long Night period.
OK, thatís it for this installment. Next month, Iíll talk a bit about introducing a few other elements that can increase the diversity of the setting.
I hope you liked it. Feel free to share any comments, suggestion and criticisms on the forum. If you ever run this, let me know too.
