In this last Alussein installment, you’ll get to know the history of the Shiara’garr, how Majestic 12 was formed, understand a bit of the nature of the superpowers and get a look at what I was planning for the other two acts of this campaign.

Under a red star

The Shiara’garr are native to Shiarane, a tide-locked world orbiting Barnard’s Star, 5.96 light-years from Earth. They evolved from reptile-like pack hunters that prowled the plains and jungles that filled the area above of the 60th parallel north, the only part of their world not consumed by arctic temperatures and never-ending blizzards.

These ancient Shiara’garr were already telepathic, but their telepathy existed in a broad ‘spectrum’. Packs tend to form around individuals whose telepathy frequency clustered around the same ‘wavelength’. Breeding between these individuals assured the offspring’s telepathy worked on a similar frequency.

Inside a pack, there was some variation in telepathic channels – some individuals were a bit above or below the average frequency. This allowed packs to establish alliances, using the members who intersected in their wavelengths as liaisons.

Still, there were too many packs with which communication was impossible, so the Shiara’garr used their claws to marks territory and warn other packs away from their domains. These markings eventually became more complex and evolved into an elaborate ideographic language called Share.

Telepathy was common to all Shiara’garr, but the population also displayed other psionic talents. In descending order of frequency in the population: precognition/postcognition, clairvoyance and telekinesis. Although useful to the primitive Shiara’garr, these disciplines would be exploited to their fullest later on, when the society and the technology developed.

Clan and lines

As the Shiara’garr evolved, the packs banded together in clans. While before pack members were generalists – all had basically the same job: hunter --, the development of the larger social unit forced individuals to have specialized roles, like warrior, administrator and oracle, among others.

Eventually, these roles developed into subcultures within the clan, the lines. They had their own clothing style, jargon and rituals. Rivalries between lines were common, but despite them, line members recognized themselves as being from the same clan.

When the Shiara’garr discovered and developed biotechnology, the rift between the lines became biological. Genetic modification of embryos was used to enhance an individual’s performance in their appointed role, transforming the lines into de facto subspecies.

The clanlines, as these subspecies were called, became the primary social unit of Shiara’garr society. Their ancestor clan was no longer a strong enough social ‘glue’ to hold them together and the clanlines became entities of their own.

Rise of the Psitech

Biotechnology not only allowed the Shiara’garr to reinvent themselves, it also gave them the ability to expand the use of their natural gifts by creating psionically active and/or responsive biological equipment. This gave a whole new meaning to ‘smart tech’.

The Shiara’garr accomplished this by cloning (and later synthesizing) neural tissue from the psionically active parts of their brain. In time, they developed rudimentary brains – varue -- in laboratories that could respond to telepathic stimuli and perform telepathic and telekinetic feats.

Manipulation of the creation process of these varue let the Shiara’garr adjust things like output, as well as tailor effects to cover all sorts of feats. This versatility made the varue the basis of all psitech, and psitech the cornerstone of Shiara’garr technology.

An example of psitech is the Imbe’bara, the standard armor of the Shiara’garr trooper. It is built with synthetic fibers and a crystalline composite, as well as engineered living tissue. In its ‘off’ state it’s malleable and doesn’t really offer that much protection.

However, after a simple telepathic command from the trooper, the built-in varue generates a TK field that realigns the fibers and rearranges the composite to make key parts of the suit rigid. This field also doubles as a force field that deflects energy attacks.

Deactivating the Imbe’bara requires the same telepathic command. Each suit is primed by its first user and learns to recognize it as its master. It won’t respond to another’s telepathic command, unless it senses that its user has died.

Special features of the Imbe’bara include being able to derive sustenance from the user’s excretions and sunlight, and the ability to reshape itself so as to accommodate, within a limit, different-sized users. Some suits belonging to important users have some other features that are not found in regular ones.

The final frontier

Space exploration had always been a main interest of the Shiara’garr. They knew the limited prime estate they had on Shiarane would not accommodate the ever-increasing population and not many would like to live in domed cities scattered around the dark and cold rest of the world.

Like on Earth, they had early successes with artificial satellites, unmanned probes and manned spaceflight, but those seemed like child’s play after the varue came into the scene. The TK slave brains made reaching orbit easy no matter the size of your payload.

The varue also allowed both manned and unmanned ships to reach speeds well over 0.5 lightspeed. This, coupled with clairvoyant pilots and precognitive astrogators, led to a booming age of space exploration. Soon the Shiara’garr had colonized their home system and were off to other stars.

One in particular had drawn their attention. Circling its yellow sun, there was a world unlike the Shiara’garr’s, but the fate of which, according to the oracle clanlines, was inexorably linked with them.

The Ultimate Psionic Metadiscipline Theory

The Shiara’garr believed that the four psionic disciplines they knew were not the only effects possible. In fact, they thought that at its core, there was only one ability, which could be manipulated to provide all manner of effects.

However, despite a thorough understanding of the neurobiology and of a good deal of the physics behind their psionic talents, they were unable to access these abilities.

Extensive research on Shiara’garr individuals might reveal a glimpse on information, but the authorities were adamant against it and cracked down hard on anyone who attempted it. Fortunately for them, the solution was just six light-years away.

The Shiara’garr had already ascertained that the human cerebral cortex had anatomical and functional structures that resembled the ones responsible for psionic activity in the Shiara’garr brain.

They were pathetically primitive, but humans were also based on DNA and after decoding our genome, the Shiara’garr felt confident they could splice genes into us that would grant the same abilities they had.

Well, not exactly the same, since they hoped their manipulations would bring forth other disciplines and eventually the ultimate one. And so they started their grand experiment.

Gods and monsters

Shiara’garr civilization was not monolithic and it had its share of problems throughout the 20,000 years since the discovery of Earth. As such, the experiment on our planet passed through phases of intense scrutiny, abandonment and near-termination, but its appeal to Shiara’garr culture was so big, it survived all this.

However, as a result, there were large periods of time when the experiment run its course without being monitored. Due to the nature of the modifications made by the Shiara’garr and the fact they went with a more classical approach of crossbreeding the manipulated stock, there were partial successes along the way.

The gods of myth and the legends of supernatural creatures were born from these successes. Other times, the manifestations were not as drastic, but still some psionic activity ‘leaked’ due to the genetic configuration of an individual. From these people came the seers, witches and prophets.

A note on precognition

You may be wondering how a species in which precognition is the second most common psionic ability can have their plans thwarted by the PCs. It’s a good question and here’s the answer.

In the Alussein setting, when a precog sees the future, he doesn’t see an absolute future – he sees a possible one, given the circumstances at the moment of the forecast. Most precogs only see this most probable future, others are able to see some of the lesser ones.

The problem is that when a precog looks into the future, he generates noise. The next person to look into that specific event, or one dependent on that, will have a less clear view and so on.

Given how important Earth is to the Shiara’garr and the number of precogs they have, plus the ones created by their experiment on our planet, the near future involving the actions of the PCs is a muddled mess.

Majestic 12

In 1947, a small group of Shiara’garr scientists left their base on the dark side of the Moon to check on a few human strains (usually done by abducting and experimenting on the targets). This was not the first time they violated the ban on experimentation ordered by the home world.

As the ship entered the upper atmosphere, a malfunction on one of the propulsion slave brains forced the craft into a dive and it crashed on New Mexico, near the city of Roswell, killing all four crew members.

The remains of the ship as well as the bodies of the Shiara’garr scientists, were recovered by government officials and handed over to a secret agency created by Harry Truman with the specific purpose of studying them.

Led by Dr. Vannevar Bush, this agency – Majestic 12 --, investigated every possible aspect of the technology and the biology of the Shiara’garr. At first, progress was slow, since DNA structure was only elucidate din 1953. After that, Majestic 12 made long strides in understanding the alien biotechnology (leading to birth of Alphas 20+ years before the campaign starts).

Bush and the other MJ12 leaders soon realized the Shiara’garr were performing some kind of experiment with humans and it had to do with psychic abilities. They came to the conclusion the aliens were trying to create hybrids or sleeper agents with mental abilities that could work as a sort of fifth column when they invaded Earth.

So MJ12 established a program to investigate all stories of paranormal phenomena. If the investigation showed they were dealing with the real deal, the agents would arrest the ‘psychic’ or terminate her. Many a pre-Skyplosion alussein met their end at the hands of MJ12 operatives.

The agency became one of the most heavily guarded secrets in US history, most of the time operating without White House sanction. For all intents and purposes, it went rogue after the Skyplosion – its current leaders (mistakenly) realizing the aliens had upped the ante.

Second act

The second part of the campaign would start 10 years after the end of the first one. Public sentiment about the alussein (now a common term to refer to paranormals) had deteriorated during that time thanks to a few incidents and a new wave of superpowered terrorism.

Most countries had passed, or were on the verge of passing, laws to regulate paranormals, with the United States leading the charge. Despite this, governments and corporations were more than happy to take advantage of citizens and employees with superpowers.

Technology had advanced a bit faster: high-end electronics, affordable renewable energy power (but no fusion yet) and the first power armors.

The campaign starts with the PCs being gathered by Elahi and sent to the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, where Greek tactical genius Ares had joined forces with the Macedonian government and declared the country a safe haven for all alussein.

The characters have to recruit Ares to help with the impending threat of the Shiara’garr ship that is arriving to exterminate the paranormals and possibly all humankind. They get embroiled in the tug-of-war between Ares and the major nations of the world and end up having to help him, while searching for other alussein to recruit.

This act concludes with the arrival of the Shiara’garr ship during the battle between Ares’ forces (which includes lots of paranormals) and a coalition of international armies. The PCs and their recruits attack the ship, which crashes near the battlefield.

Now the combined forces of the alussein and the normal have to join forces to fight the Shiara’garr troops. Their victory is the first step on the road for peace between the two branches of humankind, who realize they have a far more dangerous enemy.

Third act

Fifty years after the second act, the world has changed. Alussein have been embraced and the use and study of their abilities has allowed humankind to enter a new golden age. Poverty has been virtually eliminated, wars have all but disappeared and diseases have mostly been cured.

The advanced genetics knowledge developed by both alussein and normal researchers, plus the one gathered from the Shiara’garr prisoners and computers, has recently allowed the newest generations of humans to be uplifted into ‘alusseinkind’.

No longer confined to Earth, humans have spread through the solar system, with colonies being established on the Moon (the Shiara’garr’s base has been found and secured), Mars, the asteroid belt and Jupiter’s satellites.

It’s been concluded that lightspeed is the maximum speed physically attainable, but astrally-projecting paranormals have discovered the astral plane is akin to hyperspace and traveling through it works basically the same.

Now, Earth has finally built an astral ship and its first mission it to visit Barnard’s Star. Humans never heard again from the Shiara’garr and want to find out what happened in the last 50 years. The primary mission of the Terran Astral Ship Argo is diplomatic, but it’s prepared to defend itself with several weapon systems and, literally, a boatload of alussein.

The PCs, who are revered heroes after their part in taking down the Shiara’garr ship and cementing the peace between normals and alussein, are important members of the crew (the characters find out another perk of being a paranormal: slowed aging).

When the Argo arrives at Barnard’s Star, the crew will find the Shiara’garr in a bloody civil war, sparked by the apocalyptic announcement of the oracle clanlines that whenever they try to peer into the future of the Shiara’garr, they only see darkness.

The PCs will find (few) allies, like the Bura, but most Shiara’garr will interpret their arrival as the sign of impeding doom and will react accordingly. That’s when the characters find out that 20,000 years of research have finally paid off and they meet the Shiarein, the alussein Shiara’garr.

The third act would cover the characters participation in the Shiara’garr civil war, which could lead to their deaths, the end of the Shiara’garr or, finally, peace between the two species.

Well, that’s it. I didn’t expect the alussein seed to be a three-parter, but as I wrote it, I realized there was a lot of information I couldn’t leave out, otherwise the campaign would loose flavor.

I hope you liked it. Feel free to share any comments, suggestion and criticisms on the forum.