Wushu Skidoo
“Maintain course and await my return.” He spins on his heel and, plucking his farblade off the wall, steps out onto the deck. The stars rush past like a river, serene in the blue glow of a passing nebula. Wei closes his eye and meditates, expanding his senses through the nano-computer network until he can feel the approaching ship’s inertial dampeners. Then, he refocuses on the Fire nanites that infuse his body, bends slightly at the knee, and leaps into space!
Immense force fields envelope him, propel him forward. The rebel ship opens fire with its beam weapons, but Wei’s farblade is ready. His arms move in a blur, deflecting hundreds of energy bolts before he closes the distance. Then, he draws his sword down in a perfect stroke! The two-dimensional force field that projects from its blunt blade cleaves the ship’s bow!
Moments later, Wei lands on the foredeck and swings his sword again, splitting the ship in half. Sailors and soldiers rush forward with murder in their eyes, but the General is already gone. He pushes off the wreckage and flies back on invisible wings as the rebels are reduced to cosmic dust.
Celestial is a far future science fantasy setting inspired by Taoist mythology. It had its genesis in Eric Brennan’s “Mandate of the Heavens” project, which spawned a short-lived but very lively Yahoo Groups community in the summer of 2005. I couldn’t get the concept of Five Elements Nanotechnology out of my head, where it soon cross-pollenated with the U.S. release of Samurai 7. This is their hybrid love child…
The Empire of Heaven
Thousands of years in the future, human technology has become so miniaturized and pervasive that it is considered a natural part of the environment. People use it on an almost instinctive level. The First Emperor was the last person to comprehend this technology in its full glory. It allowed him to rearrange the stars themselves and forge an interstellar empire that has endured for centuries.
The Dynastic Worlds
His masterwork was the Forbidden City, a monumental palace whose rooms are scattered across dozens of worlds and bound together by transdimentional portals who inner workings were known only to him. For the residents of these planets, interstellar travel is as easy as walking through a door. Consequently, the dynastic worlds have become the empire’s beating heart.
Their rulers are the Immortals, descendants of the First Emperor and inheritors of his greatest treasure: an artificial plant whose fruit grants eternal life. Having long ago turned over the empire’s day-to-day administration to AIs, the Immortals live isolated lives of leisure and excess. When they do get involved in events beyond the Forbidden City’s walls, it is solely for their own amusement. Common folk have learned to cover their heads and wait for the storm to pass.
The real power lies in the Celestial Bureaucracy, a virtual world of AIs built upon the nano-computer network that permeates the empire. The Jade Emperor, master AI, was built from a neural map of the First Emperor’s brain shortly before he died/ascended/disappeared/whatever. In all the ways that matter, they are one and the same.
Similar neural imprints are made of every citizen who is interred using the proper burial rites. Through the Celestial Bureaucracy, one’s virtual ancestors can be consulted at any time, day or night. Of course, no system is perfect and ancestor programs do occasionally run on their own. These “hungry ghosts” tend to show up as sensory illusions in their ancestral homes and get rather upset if their descendants don’t set a place for them at the head of the dinner table.
The First Emperor lives on in one more way: The Corpus. Bureaucrats with a poetic streak like to characterize the imperial army, navy, and administration as the the Hands, Feet, and Voice of the Emperor. (There is a forth branch, a secret police called the Emperor’s Eyes, but wise men speak of it only in whispers.)
The Merchant Worlds
Away from the hallowed halls of the Forbidden City, people use the River of Stars to get around. Via the lost art of galactic feng shui, the First Emperor created a branching region of space-time wherein starships can travel much faster than light. The prosperous planets along the river’s main branches are commonly called the Merchant Worlds.
Here, the empire’s influence is felt primarily through the Resplendent Carnival, a traveling city built by the Immortals. Its primary purpose is to collect taxes, but it also plays several political roles. First, it is a grandiose display of the Dynastic Worlds’ wealth. Second, it acts as a mobile base of operations for the Corpus. Finally, it allows the Immortals to visit their far-flung subjects in person. (They take turns, as leaving the Forbidden City is considered a profound imposition.)
In the carnival’s absence, daily life is dominated by various trading companies. There are hundreds of them and each wields varying degrees of power over different star systems. As commerce carried people away from their home planets, usually to seek employment in trade centers, the companies emerged as an extension of familial clans. As such, their members tend to share the same last name. Some are fleets of merchant vessels, others are professional guilds, and a few are bands of mercenaries. (Soldiers who used to be Hands of the Emperor, but deserted or were cast out, are colloquially referred to as “demons.”)
Religion plays a much larger role along the River of Stars. On Dynastic Worlds, life is structured by a form of Legalism that venerates the empire and its laws; nobles are held to higher standards of behavior than commoners, who are pretty much ignored (until they cross the wrong noble). On Merchant Worlds, the First Emperor is often deified and one's ancestors are the main authority. Members of the middle class adhere to strict codes of conduct, for fear of being ostracized from their surrogate families, the trading companies.
Cults also drink deep from the River's proverbial waters. The Reclamation seeks to follow in the First Emperor's footsteps by unlocking the secrets of advanced technology. Enlightenment through science. The Clavigers believe that they carry the keys to lost technology within their bodies. They await the First Emperor's return, for he will remake the galaxy in their image.
The Fringe Worlds
The First Emperor's last miracle was a vast region of impassable space-time, a cosmic wall erected against an enemy known only to him. The star systems along the edge of this void are called Fringe Worlds. They are the backwater havens of criminals and outcasts.
The underworld of heaven is ruled by a loose confederation of gangs known as The Brotherhood. They are the cast-offs of ruined trading companies and failed rebel clans. Young men, far from their home planets and desperate for cash, are lured into the Brotherhood with promises of wealth and power. Most find only an early grave.
Though fiercely independent and notorious for their rivalries, the gangs are united by a blood oath to the Fathers. These overlords pull imperial strings from the edge of space, trading favors and blackmail with power players from the River of Stars to the Forbidden City. The Fringe Worlds are their fortresses and fiefdoms.
Other netherworlds are inhabited by outcast races of transformed animals. Granted sentience by Wood geomancers (see below) whose ambition exceeded their wisdom, these "abominations" have been exiled from every star system in heaven. Most are humanoids with feral features, others are animals with human traits (large brains, opposable digits, etc). Foxes and monkeys are by far the most common, but the entire zodiac is represented: roosters, snakes, oxen, tigers, rats, you name it.
Five Elements Nanotech
There are five generally recognized kinds of nanotechnology, each identified with one of the traditional Taoist elements. No one since the First Emperor has been a master of them all. Which one a person specializes in is largely determined by their social class.
Every Celestial character has five Traits: one for each Element. Rank order them from 1 to 5 and you’re ready to go! Minor Nemeses should default to 2’s in most Elements and 3-4 in their primary Element. These Traits cover a lot of ground. First, they allow you to manipulate nanites of that kind, a skill known as geomancy. Second, they include at least a working knowledge of any skills associated with its traditional occupations, as well as social interactions with members of that class. Finally, each Element has its own type of kung-fu. That’s right, everyone in Heaven knows how to fight, even the cooks and calligraphers.
Wood Geomancy
Farmers and doctors specialize in Wood. These nanites bind to living tissues; they fight disease, heal injuries, and prolong life. By learning to control the nanites in other organisms, wood geomancers can also accelerate plant growth, control animals, create new species, heal the sick, and inflict illness upon their enemies.
Masters of wood style kung-fu learn to harden their flesh and increase their strength. They turn their bodies into living weapons. Their signature attack is called the Poison Palm; with a touch, they can shut down an opponent’s entire nervous system!
Earth Geomancy
Craftsmen specialize in Earth, the industrial nanites that build everything from tea cups to starships. They remain a part of all objects even after manufacture, so Earth geomancers can reshape, repair, or destroy just about anything.
Those with a mind for combat often learn to transform common objects into lethal weapons. They are known for breaking swords and shields with their bare hands. Their signature weapon is the Teeth of the Dragon. These lengths of micro-serrated chain can slice through steel! However, they are difficult to control and nearly as dangerous to their wielders as to their victims.
Metal Geomancy
Priests and bureaucrats specialize in Metal. Unlike the other elements, Metal does not have its own class of nanite, it represents the computing network created by all nanites. This is the home of the Celestial Bureaucracy; Metal geomancers often act as messengers and advocates for the people.
Masters of Metal style kung-fu use the network to expand their senses and quicken their reflexes. Many specialize in a weapon called the Scholar Sword. Its nearly microscopic blade is designed to keep up with their lightning fast movements.
Fire Geomancy
Soldiers specialize in Fire. They learn to use power-generating nanites to project fields of unimaginable force. The offensive applications are obvious, but Fire can also be used to levitate objects, deflect projectiles, and leap incredible distances. Masters of Fire are limited only by their ability to comprehend and control these forces.
Hands of the Emperor are issued Farblades as badges of office. These devices look like blunt practice swords, but they are infused with billions of Fire nanites. In the hands of a master, they project sheets of energy that can cleave a starship in half!
Water Geomancy
Sailors and thieves specialize in Water. Named in honor of the River of Stars, their most famous application, these nanites stretch and warp space-time itself. Sailors use them to provide artificial gravity and to propel their ships beyond the speed of light. Thieves use them to fly over walls and walk on ceilings.
Water kung-fu’s only signature weapon is a curiosity called the Other Oar, as in “go get the Other Oar.” It is a gargantuan sword, far taller and heavier than any real oar. Masters manipulate its Water nanites to make it light enough to swing, then increase its effective mass at the moment of impact!
Pick Me Ups
An elite team of Emperor’s Hands (and their support personnel: sailors and bureaucrats) travel all across the heavens, hunting down fugitives and suppressing revolts. Their enemies include rebellious transformed animals, the Fathers of the Brotherhood, mysterious aliens from the far side of Great Wall, and their old masters… who have since become mercenary demons.
A rag-tag group of performers tour the River of Stars as part of the Resplendent Carnival. They get entangled in all manner of heists, romances, and political intrigue. On occasion, the Emperor’s Voice (or maybe even an Immortal) taps them to do some undercover work… or tries to set them up as patsies.
The crew of a merchant junker sails from planet to planet, just trying to get by. Each has secrets to protect, but their pasts keep coming back to haunt them (sometimes quite literally, in the form of hungry ghosts). They make far more enemies than friends: imperial tax collectors, Hands who think they’re criminals, greedy trading companies who try to swindle them, Brotherhood pirates who board their ship, and religious zealots who book passage to strange locations, then stiff them on the bill!
Transformed villagers struggle to defend their isolated planet from Brotherhood warlords and mysterious alien invaders. Hungry ghosts, incensed over years of perceived neglect, sabotage them from within. An ancient relic known as the “Eye of the Dragon” (an orbital laser?) may hold the key to their salvation.
Estranged relatives come together when a family elder falls ill. To save his life, they must infiltrate the Forbidden City and steal a peach of immortality. Their journey starts with the Resplendent Carnival and takes them through the back alleys and ivory towers of the Dynastic Worlds. They will have to contend with the Emperor’s Eyes and sophisticated security systems devised by the First Emperor himself. Then, it’s a race against time to return home with the entire Corpus hot on their heels!
Next Up: Hoodoo cops vs. the restless dead!
