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[Strider03]

A combination of some ideas in my other proposals after talking it over with my anonymous voting bloc. Don't worry if the first half is largely similar to the previous one. Important stuff like the ftl is changed/removed.

Uphar

The world of Uphar is orphaned. No suns light up the planet from beyond, only the stars and the faint glow of the spiral arms from the galaxy beyond. And yet the planet is not pitched into darkness. Strands of floating ether orbs light up the planet along an exhaustive web. The lights brighten and dim much like a solar cycle of approximately 33 hours. The strands of light float but a few meters above the ground in most locations. In some regions though, they arc over valleys thousands of meters up, in other locations, they dip deep under the surface. Those who live here now do not know the origin of these lights. But modern surveyors and geologists speculate that this luminary array aligns very closely with the geological landscape that may have been present some 5,000-9,000 years ago. A wide range, and not long on geological time, for these changes to occur. It is extremely puzzling. However, there is significant evidence of calamitous changes, a glaciation period, leyline reorientation, substantial correlated volcanic activity and more occurring at the fore end of this time period. Given the massive changes that occurred in this time, it is unknown whether the lights match the landscape of 5,500 years ago, or seven thousand.

The magic on this planet is strong, and some of which is siphoned up through this light network. Of course, the imperial mages have traced other consumptions of energy, and found many locations where it simply leaks out of the earth, perhaps to fuel some long eroded or destroyed machine. Flow traced deep underground has led to the discovery of other incomprehensible draws of the magic of the land. Some of these lead to pacifying enchantments on magicless glowing stones, others to the lights of vast tombs and giant rotating fans. Odd uses of magic to be sure, as the methods of lighting and spinning seem odd, relying on strange again magicless metals. With time, the imperial mages and archaeologists have begun to investigate these, and we have begun to understand this natural, magicless magic. It has led to an era of unprecedented ideas, combining this invisible magic with the more tangible magic. The combination of the two seems even more useful than each on its own.

For ages, the origins of our people have been a mystery. Following the discovery of a great library, our origin. . . remains unknown. Humans were but colonizers of this world, not evolved upon it, in fact even more recently than other stars in the system. But a great deal of the history of this world is being unfurled.

Those who came to this planet came from different places, brought together in fleeing persecution. Some brought magic, others brought this "science." In time, due to the tendency for people to seek out those like them and that which is familiar, the power for the two ways of life was consolidated, into competing empires. While they competed in who's methods were superior, they lived sort of peacefully. It was always suspected war might break out, but it never really did. Tensions were high, but despite a few close calls, never boiled over. It would have been devastating to all. Occasionally, expositions would demonstrate the achievements of one side to the other, to try to gain support from the population of the other. Somehow it always seemed like each side were a little less surprised by some magic or technology than would be expected. Yet the diligent hoarding and consolidation continued.

Magic had the edge in power and convenience, but lost out in reliability and finesse compared to this "science". Those with magic could fly with far more ease, but occasionally might just vanish from existence. Meanwhile those of science developed their own flight, and while it failed, it was far more often understood what went wrong, at the cost of being more expensive and damaging to the natural world around them.

In this unsteady state, a strike from the heavens flew onward at the speed of light towards this civilization. It was those using magic who first noted it. A rapidly repeating beam of radiation, pinpoint in size on the galactic scale, but more than large enough to cover the entire orbit of Uphar, the precessing annihilating beam of a pulsar. There was time to prepare, thankfully, a few years. In a fit of benevolence or a failure to protect the intelligence, the news made its way out. It never really could have stayed a secret. Both factions began to plot an escape from this doomed world, and began to snatch up precious resources. Spellwood and sapphire, steel and copper, and for both, one rare resource. While both factions could reach space, it was only through the use of this material that prolonged space exodus would be manageable for both. Both sides wished there was enough that they might both escape. They were humans after all, beyond this rivalry. In fate's sadistic twist, there would be but enough to bring up the majority of one civilization. And so the simmering war boiled up again, on a greater scale than ever before. On their doomed planet they fought, twisting the continents beneath them. On paper the side of science may have won, but there was no real victor. The world was drained of its resources in a last gluttonous feast. Those on the side of science attained somewhat vaster stockpiles of the materials they needed due to greater reliance on mining and similar infrastructure, but it was only through the casualties of this war that their stockpile could match their population. Those on the magic side attained some, but in a tragic accident, their meager supplies were lost. The scientists fled, before their enemies could catch them by the tail. In fear and desperation to avoid being caught by their enemies before they could escape the kill zone, they sent back one final strike, just to hold the magicians off for a few days, persuading themselves that it was only to guarantee their survival. It was in this strike that they inadvertently destroyed any chance for their neighbors to escape.

Six months until the radiation burst hit. Six months in which to prepare for the inevitable end, and rage against its grim inevitability. And rage they did. In the final days, those remaining settled on a plan to save themselves, for a bit. A ritual, to siphon the power of their very sun to create a shield from the blast. Those who debated it determined that whatever the risk, it was better than laying down and giving in. So, in desperate defiance, they grasped for all the life that would ever be in the nuclear furnace of their sun. For half a year, this sufficed. Then the nuclear power gave out. So they took the heat, all the radiated energy from the next billion years, and their sun whimpered and dimmed, given up to delay the end, a dead dark mass of electron degenerate matter. The only indication of its existence was now its gravitational pull, and the dark shadow that would pass with the stars.

The delay bought them time, but soon they were faced with another, quite obvious crisis. In the dark, without light and heat, the planet would die. They'd come this far, they would not stop now. They would sacrifice again. This time, their population, more than half. Ritualistically, for the survival of anyone on this husk at all, they gave their lives to postpone the dark. The luminous web was created. Light and heat, in a pattern resembling their sun spread across the land, a set distance from the ground. It was not perfect though, it was neither perfectly uniform, nor perfectly nonuniform. Thus heating was not even, nor did it perfectly recreate the uneven distribution of heat from a true sun. Weather patterns shifted, some glaciers melted, others froze, and the continents again began to reshape, at breakneck pace.

As the world adjusted, those left behind after the sacrifices worked only to survive in this almost barren world. We are thankful that they did. In thousands of years, we have adapted, and slowly, slowly rebuilt our population. There were hurdles and setbacks, primarily the changing, collapsing, and resurging landscape. Conflicts in time, once there were enough people for it. Pockets of lost tech and magic discovered, become the subjects of conflict. New religions appear, sacrilegious to the old. Worship of those and the wonders long lost conflicts with worship of the dead god sun whom some hope to bring back, while still others insist the ancients had been full of hubris, and struck down by the hand of providence. And sometimes, conflict occurs because people are assholes.


The information within this library, we have laid bare, spreading it amongst the people. It is not for us to hide the writings. Perhaps some will claim it myth and others not, but it is of historical significance, and we who found it thought this right.


It behooves us to ask, how exactly our forefathers were brought to the brink of extinction in a populated sector of the galaxy. As we have reached for space, expeditions have set out, to investigate this tale. The source was found sure enough, surrounded by a sphere of magically stabilized satellites, strange and impregnable. They did not respond to transmissions nor scrying, nor was there any opening to investigate. They hung as silent celestial shields, absorbing the lethal radiation beam and stabilizing its rotation, save in a few choice gaps. Perhaps a large cosmic impact, perhaps meddling, perhaps an erroneous orbital correction. Either way, one of these holes is pointed right at us. Huh. No wonder our ancestors didn't have much trouble finding a spot for themselves in the crowded Jumble sector. Ancient history perhaps, most likely none of the civilizations around now were involved in keeping this information that others knew secret from our ancestors. Our recent expeditions have revealed something far more important. There remains about 100 years before the beam sweeps our system once again.

We cannot conquer a world nearby. Claims are well staked, and power too entrenched. Yet in order to honor those who came before us, we must survive. And survival requires influence and resources. If we must obtain other suns to reignite our own, we will. If we must conquer other worlds to replenish the resources on our husk, we will. If we must investigate every technology that exists to build a permanent shield, we will. Otherwise everything will have been in vain.


tl;dr FTL is gone, we sacrificed our own sun to survive, creating a dark ages or whatever, couple thousand years later we've bounced back and there's new civilization and stuff, but we're possibly doomed again so we gotta expand and get the resources to prevent it.

[Empiricist]

tl;dr

• Minarians are a pure Mechanical empire that expands into a second completely fucked up system that a bunch of wizards fought over just so the wizards can't have it.
• The colonists find a completely fucked up and blighted system and are stuck living in mining colonies. Minarians squeeze them too hard and some of the wizards use this an opportunity to make this colonists join them in agreement that the Minairans needed to get fucked. Though they may have helped the rebellion along with false flag operations.
  
• Wizard-backed Arehans successfully rebel thanks to being given enough magic to harness the magical properties of their star, but not enough to escape becoming their vassals.
• Arehans stumble across orphaned gods and treat them nicely. Orphaned gods realize the Arehans are getting screwed over by the wizards to keep them as vassals and so teach them animism.
• Pros of animism: The spirits of nuclear reactors and railguns can be "activated" and will be able to act on their own and do magic and form trade unions.
• Cons of animism: The spirits of nuclear reactors and railguns can be "activated" and will be able to act on their own and do magic and form trade unions.
• Arehans become independent, accept all refugees and become a major hub of trade, diplomacy, information brokering, and espionage. Basically somewhere between Switzerland and Golden Age Venice meets Cold War Era Berlin with various factions fighting shadow wars.

The Arehan Frontier Union¹
Compassion and avarice. Diplomacy and espionage. Words that speak of peace, and instruments that brim with the promse of war. All are in abundance here in the great crossroads of Areha.

Here in Areha, cities terraform blighted moons reclaiming them from the sins of bygone wars, colony ships drift through the black empyrean chasing the bountiful aetherwind, and orphaned gods hold counsel to a people not their own; corporations vie for power with unions of nuclear flame and humming mainframes; here in Areha, every object has a voice, and every man has a price.

A confederacy of united colonies, the AFU is an economic powerhouse with an independence secured as much by a complex spider's web of diplomatic and economic relationships as by clandestine operations and the promise of military force. It is a place of science and magic, and a haven for refugees and for off-world bank accounts.

A far cry from what it once was.

Back in those days, Areha was the very definition of a shithole. That's what the Arehans thought at least. Course back then they weren't called the Arehans, who the fuck would wanna be called that? Place had changed five times in just as many decades and had the scars to show for it too. The kind of scars that turned every planet to a death world and moon to a crater. Even the oceanic ones. Especially the oceanic ones. Petrification magic ain't no joke.

It wouldn't be too bad they said. Nothing a bit of human ingenuity couldn't fix they said. Bitch, the reactor was bleeding, literally bleeding before they even hit orbit. People were slitting their wrists with cheesegraters because by the time the space madness kicked in security had already requisitioned every utensil sharper than a butterknife to fight the sudden demonic incursion.

It was the materials they said. The vast bounty of natural resources that lay beneath the blighted murder encrusted surface of the planets. Bullshit. Absolute fucking bullshit.

They needed the material sure, but they could get it elsewhere. It'd be a bit of a trek sure, but it'd have been an easier extraction too. No, everyone knew why the Minarian Republic₂ wanted Areha - because a bunch of other squabbling dipshits wanted it. Why? Who the fuck knows. Wizard stuff probably. And that was precisely why the Republic wanted it. The Republic did not have wizards, it did not in fact have magic at all, couldn't make heads or tails of that shit, but it had rivals it did, and if Areha really did have something worth all that bloodshed, then they needed to snatch it even if they couldn't use it themselves.

The early days were slow. Slow, tedious, dangerous. Just about every solid object had been nuked, poisoned, cursed, and haunted about five times. Not to mention littered with the ruins of military installations. A good source of loot sure, but usually also the very epicenter for a lot of the general fuckery amd some of them, still active with autonomous defenses more than happy to make mincemeat of any would-be stalkers³. They stuck to the belts and more barren moons where was was no pesky atmospheres to inhibit their approach. Core facilities were kept off the surface, it was simply too dangerous.

The first colonists had been a motley crew indeed. Convicts promised with freedom, impoverished seeking a new life on the frontier, and soldiers who made enemies of the wrong CO. What they reported would only guarantee that future batches would be the same as the first.

Slowly, agonizingly slowly, they begin to understand the rules of the game, begin to figure out how to play. They begin figuring out how to navigate the frontier, how to pacify the ghosts, which artifacts could be scavenged and harness with some degree of safety, which ones would just shoot you, drive you insane, or curse your entire bloodline. Scientists and engineers start to show up. The disgraced, the ambitious, the plain mad.

Progress. But the Arehan Frontier would never be a tech base nor an industrial power. Its modest outputs, while useful were not on the scale one would expect from an occupied system. The fact that they broke more than even was enough, as for the Republic they were first and foremost a military bastion, stationed to make any conniving wizards think twice about trying to reclaim their sloppy seconds.

The Frontier colonies began to develop their own cultures, distinct from the Republic and from each other. Their tech began to diverge, ever so slightly, incorporating more and more magical blackboxes into their machines, replacements for equipment they did not have or simply not up to the task.

Life would remain hard but it was at least not so short and brutish as in those tumultuous early days.

The Republic would go to fight more wars, claim a little more influence here and there. The costs began to grow.

Demand for material increased, they began squeezing the Frontier a little more. Then a little more. Then a little more.

Voices of dissent began to emerge. They were ignored for the most part. What could they do? The Frontier could not sustain themselves. The Republic was their supply line, the only thing keeping them alive. They could complain yes, but in time the pressure on them would ease and they would move on. The voices began to grow.

The Republic did not listen, but its rivals did.

The Areha system had been lost. The Minarians had swooped in in their moment of weakness, fortified the place too fast for them to contest. They didn't even know the value. They mined the dead husks of planets, blasted moons, like fools sifting for gold in nuclear fallout. They had no idea the real value was lay in Areha itself, the Witch Star which saturated its system with aetherwind.

Of course they had no idea. They hadn't mastered even the very basics of magic. Why else would they have eked out an existence they way they had? Exiled in their own exile, drifting through the black empyrean perpetually on the brink of virtual starvation all while the bountiful wind blew past their sightless eyes.

But what if, what if they learned?

Why with the sentiment the way it was, it would've been enough to start a rebellion.

And the Republic's rivals, they would do just that.

They would teach the Arehans the how to harness the aetherwind. They would help arm their rebellion (and provide the spark that would ignite it). They may have lost their chance to harvest Areha's wind for themselves, but they could always trade with their grateful soon-to-be-vassals.

The Arehan War of Independence would be a slow and brutal affair. The Republic's rivals had no intent on letting it end quickly. They would keep it locked in war with its own colonies for long as possible. Turn the war into a festering tumor eating away at its attention and resources. Besides, the longer it lasted, the worse the colonists would think of their old masters, and the more grateful they would be for their liberation by their old enemies. And if they so happened to tragically perish? It would make everything so much simpler.

In the end, it was the Arehan Liberation Front that prevailed, swiftly opening its markets if not its borders to its ever so gracious benefactors, at a more than generous discount no less. The mining installations of old have given way to colossal colony ships tracing the celestial winds and harnessing their power to endow themselves with gravity and greenery, wealth and prosperity.

They were still reliant of course on their benefactors to provide all the equipment and while they had attempted to marry science and magic, progress was naturally quite slow.

It was all going as planned. Or so it seemed, but fortune was a bitch and the fortune of the newly christened Arehans was just about to turn.

Equipped with state of the art magic-enhanced sensors and orbiting Areha with a proximity inches away from "irresponsibly dangerous", the Icarus Research Platform was about to make contact with a Vagrant God⁴.

They offered it piety. Piety for nothing in return. Piety so it could at least enjoy this world as for all its bleakness it had beauty still. They offered it company because it was lonely. Because it did not deserve its fate. Because it deserved to have its voice heard.

Treated with such compassion, how could the god not repay this in kind? It learned of the Agehan's own ambitions, their desire to learn magic like their benefactors, it learned of its history, and it realized they were getting screwed.

If they wished to learn magic, it declared, then it would teach them magic, magic to free them of the shackles of the past, magic to free them of the shackles they have yet to see. They were unfamiliar with magic but they had ample understanding of technology, they had displayed great resourcefulness in scavenging from ruins, and a willingness to listen to that which had not been heard. Animism would suit them well then.

It taught them how to make pacts with the spirits of objects. These pacts would allow the spirits to control their form in this world, but they would have control without restriction and would have to be persuaded to serve their masters.

To call it a paradigm shift would be an understatement. All of a sudden nuclear reactors could produce far greater output simply in exchange for agreeing to feed them extra fuel. All of a sudden nuclear reactors could unionize and demand more fuel. All of a sudden nuclear reactors could go on a mass impromptu strikes demanding that they receive they additional fuel and be legally recognized should their employers wish to continue enjoy a steady flow of power into their life support systems.

The Arehans would soon learn the the power of these pacts was not one to be used willy-nilly.

Their own masters would soon have to make their own concessions too, realizing they that as they had stripped the Republic of its leverage, they too had been stripped of their own leverage. The Arehans would continue trading with them, but now as partners and allies than simply vassals in all but name.

As the AFU's influence continued to grow, so too did the diversity of technology and cultures within it. Some by trade, some by accepting refugees. Of course they would accept refugees, they would accepts anyone really. They had all been lost before. Vagrants consigned to eternal solitude. Convicts used as pawns by warring empires. They were kin in spirit if not in blood. How they could the Arehan turn them away?

...And besides, they tended to have good information, information about what's happening elsewhere in the sector, information about their own magic and technology.

And so Arehan to this day continues to be a great melting pot, of culture, and technology. Though on the technology front they don't quite have the same level as understanding, while they can trade widely for the fruits of both magic and science they don't necessarily understood a ot of the principles on the magic side (and for some of the more exotic tech too) relying on animism and negotiations to get things working.

Each of its colonies enjoys some degree of autonomy, holding their own unique blends of cultures, and sometimes even their own business relations and alliances. Indeed, what political divisions are fall more on ideological lines that colonial lines.

And of the Minarian Republic? What became of them? They never did recover from the war. But they did not fall to ruin either. They remain to this day a power in their own right, harboring deep grudges toward their former colonists.

To the Arehans, the Minarians were oppressors and tyrants who pushed their own people too far. To the Minarian, the Arehans are self-serving traitors who after being given all they had turned around and spat in their face in their hour of need rather than endure the hardship for a little longer.

That being said, neither are particularly raring for a fight either. The Minarians stand to lose too much in a war, whereas the Arehans benefit too much from their status of having only ever fought defensive wars (after all, all those other battles were simply conducted by its many mercenary companies with no actual backing from the AFU).

¹Named for their star, Areha; the name is originally from Arabic الريح ariyh "the wind"
²Named for their star, Minari; the name is originally from Arabic المنارة almnara "the lighthouse"
³The Roadside Picnic variety
⁴ Refer to spoiler below, it's nothing new if you read the old version

Spoiler: Resanctification (Theopolitical Policy) (click to show/hide)

Oft micharacterized as a religion, Resanctification refers to theopolitical policies the relate to formation of mutually altruistic relationships with Vagrant Gods.

Simply put, Vagrant Gods are Gods who are no longer worshipped, doomed to drift through space stripped of all influence and forgotten by the universe at large. Some were simply obsolete, tools their creators requires no longer, scattered to the celestial winds. Some inflicted this fate upon themselves, disgusted by what their people had become. More often than not however, it is simply because their civilization went the way civilizations tend to go - toward oblivion.

They drift between the stars, beings of once-immense power consigned to eternal loneliness.

Many would make their way to Areha. It is was only natural after all, for at there their heart they too were beings of magic and the Witch Star offered them some degree of warmth in a universe that now seemed oh so cold.

It is rare for so many to gather, space is vast and time vaster still, but Areha had gathered them, yet they could not speak. Or rather they could speak but their voices could not be heard their existences so faint, their presence so weak, they could not communicate even with each other. Yet the gathering provided them some solace still, some sense of kinship, bittersweet though it may be to know they were not alone in their plight.

It was by chance that contact was made, onboard the Icarus Research Platform. Scanning the star with bewitched sensors born from the marriage of science and technology (provided ever so graciously by their oh so benevolent benefactors) they could have sworn they saw what looked like the faintest of silhouette. It was the silhouette cause was a Vagrant God.

It would take months for their voice to be heard, years for the institute to modify the sensor into something capable of more than simply detection, but eventually that day came, and at least it could speak.

It told them stories. Stories of the past, stories of its people, stories of people, what few stories it had. It was once a conqueror, a god of war, magnitude was in its very nature. It was something that operated at scale on the scale of wars and nations, not on soldiers and civilians, they were simply too small, too fleeting for it to put faces to the numbers. Oh how it wished it did. The past centuries had been lonely, oh so lonely. It spoke of its downfall, of conquest's folly and the death of an empire. It spoke what came after, of isolation, of the profound emptiness. For the first time in its long life it asked for nothing in return, it spoke simply to be understood.

One researcher asked about its worship. How did was it worshipped? It was so long ago. It replied with what it could remember. A week passes. The researcher comes back with more questions, more specific questions. Was the ritual done this way or that? Did the incantation have to be in its native tongue or would any tongue do? It was unaccustomed to such pedantry, but it humored him all the same, it was nice, having someone take an interest.

Power. For the first time in a long time, it felt power. Power pouring in from the old channels, the flimsiest of dredges of power, but power all the same. The researcher had offered it his piety, offered it power, poured in through the rituals of old. They were not quite what they once were, same parts had been easier to replace than reconstruct, others had been found to be products of political convenience rather than anything strictly functional and unceremoniously scrapped as a result.

Why? Why offer it piety? Why offer it power? They could've simply made a new god, a god tailored to their people not some lingering shadow of the past. It didn't want to fight anymore, it couldn't fight anymore, how could it? It couldn't even save its own people.

Perhaps not replied the researcher, but he didn't need it to fight, he didn't need it to do anything. He just felt that it was an awful shame it couldn't touch the world around it, couldn't feel the breeze against its body, couldn't speak in its own voice. He could not offer it much power, he could not offer it the existence it once held, but the world was beautiful he said, and it would be a shame if it couldn't enjoy it for itself.

Today that researcher's compassion lives on in the policies of Resanctification.

The Arehans offer piety to a diverse pantheon of Vagrant Gods. They use rituals to endow them with power and hold festivals in their honor, giving comfort to these once-wayward wanderers. And many in return serve the people once more, be it out of a sense of duty, a need to make up for past failures, or simply just to feel appreciated again.

The matters relating to Vagrant Gods are managed by the Department of Theurgical Affairs.

It is unsurprising then given the strategic and economic importance of Resanctification that citizen participation is mandatory, with each citizen paying an annual tithe of time and participation in theurgical affairs.

Tithes like regular taxes are overseen by the Internal Revenue Service, and tithe evasion is punishable with fines.

The AFU will not last forever. Resanctification will not last forever. But space is vast and time vaster still, what happens once can happen again, and as eternity stretches out before them, the orphaned gods look toward the future with newfound hope.

[Empiricist]

Apologies for the double post, figured it'd be easier to quote a votebox not stuck inside a wall of text.

Danvers Planeswalkers: (1) MoP
Kotuc + Resanctification: (4) Cronos5010, Strider03, Wrench In The Plan, TricMagic
Arehan Frontier Union: (1) Empricist

[Strider03]

Danvers Planeswalkers: (1) MoP
Kotuc + Resanctification: (3) Cronos5010, Wrench In The Plan, TricMagic
Arehan Frontier Union: (1) Empricist
Uphar + Resanctification: (1) Strider03

So changing my vote. I'd like to argue for my lore after it's been refined a bit.

First thing, while there's historical magic, it doesn't really rule out void cores or animism or whatever we really want. There's nothing really forcing us to use the magic that our precursors used precisely (it's currently left fairly vague as a sort of general vague fantasy magic). It's just there if we ever want it.

Second thing, it gives us a real good excuse and moral high ground for going in and trying to be all colonialist and stuff and flexing in the Sommet sector. Mainly because otherwise in a hundred years or so we'll all die. Not soon enough to really make it dominate over the issues of the game, but soon enough that it would make for an interesting sense of doom, hope, or spite among our faction.

Third thing, the idea of a sun and planet sucked dry and trying to revitalize it fits extremely well with orphaned gods and such, and allows for a diversity of religious and philosophical views. This should give good varied depth to our system

Fourth, successful sacrifice is heartwarming to me and our civilization would have a drive because of that history.

Fifth, we'd have a black dwarf star. Cold electron degenerate matter perfect to be mined. IF we ever wanted to. If not, it could be used as religious iconography, or could be extremely valuable resources that won't be given till we perform well enough, or even a material for trade. Lots of opportunities for spice and conflict but also opportunity.

And finally well, I just really like the idea of a magic light network that dips in and out of the earth tracing out the precious landscapes, dimming in pale imitation of a sun long gone. And this has one

[Empiricist]

Arehan Titans
With a myriad of different manufacturers and users, Arehan Titans have no all-encompassing design doctrine, indeed the only particularly consistent parts are their core technology and their modular design meant to facilitate customization and rapid repair via replacement (to those with deep enough pockets to support this anyways).

There are however a few common design patterns that can be found:

• Baseliners: Parts that work as one would expect from mundane technology, with maybe a few added bonuses. It must be stressed that Baseliners are not necessarily "mundane", they could very well using animism or theurgy or exotic forms of technology, just that they do not dominate the part, allowing it to still function without any noticeable strings attached.
• Pact-Bounds: Parts that have a strong animism component, mandating noticeable modifications to accommodate the demands of its awakened spirits in exchange for more blatantly supernatural properties. Appearance-wise take a Baseliner part and imagine it being subjected to the whims of evolution. The more central or important aspects are emphasized sometimes in rather weird ways while the more peripheral aspects whither away and atrophy.
• Blackbox: Exotic technologies that the AFU does not understand. It could take the form of other kinds of magic, things such as classic wizardry, arcane bombardment, emberlight searing and the like, but it could just as well be other forms of engineering like "steampunk" tech, nanomachines, and graviton beams. These parts tend to be have heavy redundancy systems, needed to ensure that they remain under control or remain responsive.
• Whitebox: A sort of hybrid of Blackbox and Pact-Bounds, Whitebox parts are in essence "Blackboxes that talk", Blackbox technology that has had its spirited awakened to assist in their operation. These essentially trade the weirdness and finnickyness of blackbox tech for the demands of pact-bounds but exaggerated to an even greater degree. The spirits know that you do not know, and thus can bargain from a stronger position and force even greater concessions. Still for some, having finer control over exotic technologies such as transmutation spells and grey goo is worth the steep costs. These tend to look like more extreme Pact-Bounds or are just "naked" components.
• Theurgicals: Specialist parts made to commune with a Vagrant God, their exact nature and appearance varies with the god they use, but they generally take the form of bizarre communication relays or targeting systems that often seem to lack any functional method for doing their actual task rather than the whole communication or targeting gig. This is of course, because their god handles most of their operation with the main purpose of the part being to give the god a lock on on their location. While the stereotype is some manner of temple or shrine, this is not always the case. For instance a weapon meant to commune with an alien god may be a gun that fires seemingly harmless exotic matter tracers that allow its god to estimate that shape and location of its target and smite it.

Note that while parts will often have a mix of aspects from multiple doctrines, they typically still adhere to a single core doctrine - it's simply too costly to fully support multiple doctrines in a single part. Note also that even standardized designs typically draw from different doctrines from different parts. Indeed, a fully pact-bound Titan would be a rare sight - supporting the demands of so many spirits is no easy task.

As such the "typical" Arehan Titan is a veritable mechanical Franken's Monster seemingly slapped together from markedly different components but which integrate together in just the right ways to support its chosen combat role.

Random Notes on Arehan Dialect
Due to having started off as colonists in a system literally comprised entirely of death worlds, the Arehans tend to have a dark sense of humor. Their status as a crossroads of sorts have also exposed to a variety of languages which has resulted them in using a fair amount of foreign loan-words¹.

¹Which can be represented by swapping out random words for their equivalents in foreign languages, or just using memes like "absolutely haram" and "you goddamn baka"

Providence
Officially known as the Governmental Oversight Committee, Providence is a council of Vagrant Gods is a contingency measure of sorts. Its members are permitted to access to any and all government departments and while holding fairly limited powers, it is permitted to recommend and oversee investigations by any Arehan organization. Including non-governmental ones. The rationale behind it is simple - you can bribe a man, you can threaten them, you can blackmail them. But how do you control a Vagrant God? An ancient entity that had lost everything, that had been consigned to an eternity of solitude drifting through the abyss of space, granted respite only by chance and compassion.

Colony Ships and Flotillas
By the end of the Arehan War of Independence, only eleven colony ships remained. Colossal superstructures granted mobility by magic and growing through centuries of expansions and modifications they follow the cyclic flows of Areha's aetherwind, a magical phenomena that allows them to power all their magical systems.

Their wake disturbs the flow of the wind, allowing smaller flotilla¹ colonies to follow them as they move. While the first flotilla colonies were predominantly corporate, research, or governmental, meant as air-gapped facilities to ensure the security and secrecy of their contents, the colony ship expanding projects have been yielding increasingly diminishing returns, leading to more and more of these flotilla colonies being produced for far more mundane applications.

To help house the growing population, bastion cities have been established on the less horrifically blighted celestial bodies, slowing expanding their terraformed bubbles equal parts necessity and ego project.

Some are talking of what amount to self-contained colony ship engines and sending them off on their own paths with clouds of their own flotillas. Colonies without a central colony ship, with the idea being that over time those flotilla colonies themselves would grow and combine, merging into a new organically growing colony ship around the engine.

The older colonies were named after mythical/legendary paradises such as Avalon and Elysium, names that assigned before they were fully established and their colonists realized just what a shithole the Arehan system was. Subsequent colonies were named after doomed cities like Pompeii and Atlantis as kind of dark humor.

¹Named for the cellular automaton pattern, referring to how many of these flotilla stations cannot exist (or at least, not move) outside the wake of a colony ship

Avalon
The Iron Heart
The oldest surviving colony and one of the most populous. It had been the first colony to rebel, and today it enjoys a substantially more peaceful existence as an industrial hub, a hive of activity corporate and union, criminal and mercenary.

((Will write more later as I'm running out of daylight. But basically it has a lot of mercs because one of the things it manufactures is weapons systems (a trend dating all the way back to the War of Independence), which naturally makes it prime real estate for mercenary companies as it keeps them close to manufacturers and suppliers. Corporate and union activity should be pretty self-explanatory, just some of the unions are comprised of nuclear reactors or computers or missiles. Has one of the largest flotillas due to high population.))

"You're kidding me right?"
"Nope check the manual, says right here - only the Tory-b model has an awakened spirit."
"You're telling me, we burnt all this incense and sacrificed a fucking cow to a- to a-"
"To a perfectly mundane reactor yes."
"I- I- fuck it where's Steve?"
"Steve? What do you need Steve for?"
"Get his ass over here. We're making a pact right here, right now I did not haul all those fucking boxes of incense up in here for nothing."

Spoiler: Random Raw Notes On Avalon (click to show/hide)

• Oldest of the surviving colonies, Avalon had been the first to rebel. This was not a coincidence, the foreign powers chose it specifically. Its history of political dissent served as the fuel for the spark they would provide, and it status as an industrial hub even then would allow it to arm and equip the nascent rebellion.
• It remained an industrial hub after the war witnessing the rise of corporate power. With the increased use of awakened spirits, machine unions began to rise, eventually growing enough to contend with and challenge the corporations. Human unions seized this momentum and were able to grow to prominence too during this time, having previously been stifled by the corporations.
• Machine unions are not a monoculture. A reactor union is not going to fight for the same things for a missile union and they are not going to cover for other machines either. As such spirits with more important roles tend to be able to force greater concessions due to having more leverage. Some more ambitious spirits want to change this, dreaming of a world where spirits cover for each other irrespective of desires and occupations. Needless to say the corporations do not want this, and the human unions don't really want this either because now that they're established, they are NOT allies, will regularly clash because what spirits want and what humans want tend to differ.
• Machine unions are fucking weird too because what a spirit wants can be very radically different to what a human wants. Missile spirits for instance just wanna fly around and blow shit up, their "death" is their goal and they despise the boredom of being stuck in a tube. A few other unions are like that too. Avalon ended up having to draft The Valhalla Program to basically dispose of them because weapons that aren't use for too long get really damn annoyed and no appeasement really works beyond being used on someone, and they don't exactly like being "wasted" on pointless targets either. They want to fuck someone's shit up, not just blast rocks. The Valhalla Program basically just sells these "expired" weapons at a steep discount to a good home. A good home of course being someone who's going to put them to use. Usually mercs. More on those guys later.
• Also spirits can very well go fucking rogue. The more animalistic ones can form feral packs whereas the more intelligent ones might full on get involved in crime. Shit like the phantom blade killer, a serial killer named for the fact that the murder weapon was never found, turning out to be an awakened sword (hence why the weapon couldn't be found), to just involvement in full on organized crime.
• Corporations are now experimenting with creating sparkminds, basically AI except using spirits. Results are a bit of a mixed bag. They're not really getting any obedient robotic servants, more just random spirits with varying degrees of dickishness who in some cases have opposable thumbs ontop of their innate supernatural capabilities
• Also a lot of organized crime happens. A lot of groups basically started out as being less than legal muscle for some of the more morally dubious corps only to diversify their portfolios that went on to outcompete the more classical crime syndicates using their corporate and political connections (and their more professional backgrounds)
• Lots of merc groups are based in Avalon. Mainly because it's an industrial hub that manufactures weapons and titan parts amongst other things so it simplifies the process of getting parts and whatnot. Also the Valhalla Program provides additional incentive.
• Some of the more reknowned merc groups get full on corporate sponsorship just as a kind of "hey these dudes know how to fuck shit up and it's thanks to our wares!"
• Having such a large population, Avalon has one of the largest flotillas of any colony with a whole load of these subcolonies trailing behind in its wake.

Penglai
The Light And The Shadow
One of the premier slices of neutral ground in the Jumble Sector, Penglai is the diplomatic heart of the AFU. While at times conducted at range, face to face meetings are still very much the diplomatic norm in the sector¹ making the close-enough-to-neutral AFU a valuable staging ground for diplomatic endeavors.

Endeavors that happen almost exclusively in Penglai for one simple reason - the system's Pair-Relay Station rides in its wake. Though that is of course not to say that the colony itself has not since specialized further into this role, having at times been accused of prioritizing diplomats over its own populace (typically in regards to turning a blind eye to more legally dubious acts committed by diplomats or their security details).

Of course where diplomats go, their shadows tend to follow. Spies seeking to turn diplomats into assets, eavesdrop on meetings, or simply read which the winds now blow. Murder and blackmail, honeytraps and wiretaps, all options are on the table, and while the petty empires do at least make some token effort to maintain the verisimilitude of civility, the sheer number of spies in play make this more or less an open secret. Shadow wars are simply a fact of life here, where others would predicate a family beach outing based on the chance of rain, the Penglaians base it on the chance of faceless corpses washing ashore. For them, the grim realities of espionage is simply fuel for ghoulish gossip and increasingly trashy tales of star-crossed romance existing on wide spectrums of tragedy, eroticism, and truthfulness.

"Sorry looks like we won't be going to the beach this weekend, forecast gives an 80% chance of corpses."
"Aww but you know how Suzy's been looking forward to it."
"I know I know dear."
"It's a bit pricey but could we take her to the fair instead?"
"Afraid not - 60% chance of a car bomb."

Actually getting caught in the crossfire, while a threat, is treated similarly to the threat of traffic accidents and the like, the kind of thing you know happens but you never think will happen to you. Unless you're an information broker of course, but business is so good it might even both it. Worry not - there's insurance for that. Besides, one thing Penglai will not stand for is spies using their own citizens. It's simply bad for business, and they can step in without being accused of favoritism either.



In this environment, it is no surprise that most institutions be they military, educational, or corporate, prefer to keep their more important or sensitive operations as far away from Penglai as possible. Indeed, most of the exotic cargo coming in through the relay station will leave Penglai's wake without having even entered the colony proper.

One industry that does not shy away is financial services. Offworld banking and investment is big business here and business is booming - there's always someone looking to squirrel away large sums of money here and the Penglaian bankers won't ask why. And if they do, they're probably a spy.

¹Per correspondence with Powder

Elysium-d'Ys
The Sanctuary
Formerly named Ville d'Ys back when it was still a research installation, Elysium-d'Ys was rechristened in the aftermath of the Arehan War of Independence after having evacuated the survivors of the doomed colony of Elysium. Elysium-d'Ys stayed true to its roots after the war becoming a hub of learning and scientific (and later magical) research. It was Elysium-d'Ys that launched the Icarus, and it was on Elysium-d'Ys that Resanctification was born.

It is no surprise then it is the Ysians who hold the policy closest to their hearts, their colony ship and flotilla built as colossal sprawling temples to the Vagrant Gods, temples that house factories and corporations, shops and apartments, brothels and universities sometimes integrated into their very edifice. To some it appears the very definition of sacrilege. The Arehans do not care. Their gods do not care. Why would they? It grants them power and it makes for efficient use of space.

"C'mon man you've got to! No trip's complete without a visit!"
"I dunno Gwen I mean it's a strip club inside a church it feels kinda blasphemous..."
"Y'know not every religion is like that right? Some of them even had temple prostitutes, hierodules they were called, I think."
"And was this one of those?"
"Oh no back in the day if you even uttered an impure word they'd literally tear you limb to limb and then- hey! Where are you going? They're chill now!"

The Ysians also generally expect a theurgical participation above and beyond what is normally mandated. Modified forms of rituals and ceremonies are used as sports and extra-curricular activities. It only makes sense, if you're going to do it why not use it to pump in a little more power on the side? Besides if you don't attend the festivals you're the one missing out. A general outlook that goes a long way in helping refugees and migrants, groups that the Elysium-d'Ys accept with open arms.

Even the ones running from dark pasts. Mad science and war crimes, betrayals and atrocities. The Arehans earned their freedom by turning their backs on their masters. Through a long, grinding, brutal war. They can to an extent, sympathize. And as their gods show everyone can change. Now if you would so kindly give them all your research and tell them everything you know...

While the mention of Arehan mercenaries conjures imagery of Avalon and its ilk, that is not to say they are the only source within the AFU. Indeed one of the reknowned Arehan mercenary companies hail not from Avalon but rather Elysium-d'Ys.

The children of a now-dead star, the Erebians were once the scourge of the Phoebian system. Naturally few offered shelter in their hour of need. But Elysium-d'Ys did. Because everyone deserves a second chance. Everyone useful and able to be kept on a leash at least.

Practitioners of ancestor worship, they naturally gravitated towards a certain Vagrant God who held death as their domain and with it the ability to contact those ancestors of theirs in a more surefire manner. They very quickly became its most devout business partners. Culturally inclined towards war, and sheltered by a colony more than happy to facilitate that, they soon reorganized into mercenary companies, chief amongst them the Erebian Outriders.

Piloting walking temples for Titans, the Outriders specialized in long range combat, striking down their enemies often before they count even get into range with a combination of loitering munitions and high-powered railcannons.

There are two key secrets to their success. First, their high performance sensor arrays, based on the same union of magic and science that had allowed the Arehans to notice the Vagrant Gods in the first place.

Second, the Hephaestian Falcon. With one of highest recorded diving speeds of any avian predator, the hepaestian falcon always held an important place in Erebian culture. This importance could only grow when they learned that with the help of their new god-cum-business-partner their spirits could be bound be explosive ordnance. Already valued pets, the falcons found themselves treated practically like royalty, enjoying the finest of foods (by falcon standards) and the unwavering attention of attendant in life in exchange for their loyalty and service in death.

Bound to camoflaged missile systems they soar into the skies and circle overhead in a fuel-conserving holding pattern, waiting for their masters' signal at which point they dive into enemies at breakneck speeds, weaving through point defense fie to devastate their targets. Their assault a lethal distraction from the Outriders' own sniper fire, and the Outriders' sniper fire in turn a lethal distraction from the assault of their loyal undead falcons.

Nowadays the Outriders are not all Erebians like they once was. While some of their descendants still follow the old ways, others embrace their opportunities granted by their new home, seeking lives outside the battlefield, and increasingly the old veterans are finding that they are not teaching their arts to their kin as they had thought but rather outsiders, fresh-faced recruits eager to join in their legend.

Especially after that discrimination lawsuit. The one asserting that turning away recruits on the basis of heritage wasn't actually legal.

The Ysians are culturally eclectic even by the standards of the AFU and this can be seen prominently in their dialect. It's sometimes joked that half the words they speak are loan-words, rendering some of their technical explanations that much harder to decipher.

"-remarkable really, typically we would expect such a weapon to generate catastrophic quantities of bremsstrahlung when fired in atmosphere. Yes General?"
"What's bremsstrahlung?"
"Braking radiation. When a charged particle, an electron, a proton, an ion, decelerates the lost energy is released as radiation. It's why our previous ion cannons could not be used in atmosphere - their blasts would irradiate their own pilots with bremsstrahlung."
"Ah thanks, you know me, grew up in the boonies so I don't know all those fancy Ysian loan-words just yet. Please continue."
"Bremsstrahlung is not Ysian."
"What? You're joking right? It sounds so foreign!"
"Certain words are due to their origins, but I assure you it is not more foreign than blitzkrieg."
"No offense but you said the same thing about parfait."
"PARFAIT IS NOT YSIAN!"

[cronos5010]

Danvers Planeswalkers: (1) MoP
Kotuc + Resanctification: (2) Wrench In The Plan, TricMagic
Arehan Frontier Union: (2) Empricist, Cronos5010
Uphar + Resanctification: (1) Strider03

[Strider03]

I don't see my option winning. I must fulfill my purpose.

Danvers Planeswalkers: (1) MoP
Kotuc + Resanctification: (2) Wrench In The Plan, TricMagic
Arehan Frontier Union: (3) Empricist, Cronos5010, Strider03
Uphar + Resanctification: (0)

[AzyWng]

It's ok if I change my vote, right?

Danvers Planeswalkers: (1) MoP
Kotuc + Resanctification: (1) TricMagic
Arehan Frontier Union: (4) Empricist, Cronos5010, Strider03, Wrench In the Plan
Uphar + Resanctification: (0)

[/quote]

[Empiricist]

Distributed Control Schemes
The first Arehan Titans differed little from their Minarian counterparts, behemoths of metal and metamaterial, humming processors and roaring ballistics. Mobile weapons platforms networked with scouts, artillery, and each other. A single piece in a united front, a rolling tempest of beams, bullets, and, bombs brandished with great and terrible purpose by an all-seeing TacNet. A formidable force sure, but one shaped by neccesity, a flaw reforged into a triumph.

The flaw lay at the very heart of their Titans, in the cockpits themselves - Minarian Titans used mechanical controls. As such their pilots could only do so much at once, bound by the tyranny of ergonomics and their woefully finite number of limbs. Their rivals meanwhile rode golems controlled by arcane power, bioweapons with purpose built brains, combat exoskeletons controlled via neural interfaces.

Damage control could not be done in the heat of battle. So they built heavier plating so they would not need to. Dexterity was limited putting them at a distinct disadvantage in melee combat. So they built better sensors and better cannons, so they need not fight up close. Operating so many systems at once was taxing. So they built AIs, algorithms to automate what could he automated and lighten the load. Pilots would get tunnel vision from focusing on fighting and neglect their auxiliary systems. So they built vast TacNets were created so the tacticians would guide them instead. They had built and they built and built, not to conquer, but just to survive.

Animism was would would begin the divergence. Realizing the potential of their new art the Arehans began awakening the spirits of their weapons, their reactors, their actuators. Endowed with both magic and free-will, their swords would truly become double-edged, for with their power came agency and a drive to exercise it. The pieces of the Titans had begun to speak, and they demanded self-determination, they demanded autonomy, the ability to act as they saw fit, an impossible demand of course. Left to their own devices, the devices would have torn their own Titan asunder, but that was not to say compromise was not impossible.

Distributed control schemes are born of the most extreme compromises.

A Titan with a distributed control scheme has no controls at all. Every shred of direct responsibility, every ounce of functionality is subcontracted to the spirits of its awakened systems. And these spirits all answer to the pilot, not unlike how a ship's crew answers to its captain, though typically a ship's crew isn't liable to sink it five different ways simultaneously without their captain's intervention.

Unlike Minarian centralized control schemes, Arehan distributed control schemes allow for a high degree or parallelism by subcontracting the operation of each system to the spirits of the systems themselves. The pilot does not need to juggle attention between movement, fire control, energy management, and tactics. The actuator system will handle their movement, the weapons their fire, and the reactor their output. The pilot need only issue orders and listen to their counsel, freeing them up to focus on tactics and maneuvers.

Naturally, this also allows such organized Titans to operate effectively even in close quarters as the actuator system will be able to operate itself with far greater dexterity than what mechanical controls would allow. Additionally, by abstracting away the need for the pilot to control so much of their Titan directly, distributed control schemes allow otherwise ununtuitive unconventional Titan layouts to be fielded effectively.

It is no surprise then, that even Titans with centralized control schemes tend to be tempered with aspects of the distributed scheme nowadays, such as by having spirits manage auxiliary systems, or permitting actuator autonomy in close quarters combat. Such schemes are not known as hybrid control schemes.

Recently, the some Arehan mercenaries have been observed utilizing highly experimental Cognitive Integration Sysyems. CIS units combine the mind of a Titan's spirits with that of its pilots, resulting in a gestalt consciousness that controls the Titan as if it were their own body. These CIS intelligences seem to consist of a sort of "ego" that controls all conscious actions and which converses with its own internal systems and capabilities which have their owners insights and agendas for better or for worse ((think Disco Elysium except instead of say having electrochemistry which helps you understand your own bodily chemistry and narcotics while loudly advocating tampering with the former using the latter, you might have information warfare which helps you conceal yourself and your plans while revealing those of your enemies but which is also a paranoid conspiracy theorist due to being all too aware of how comms can be monitored and tampered with)). There have also been reports of CIS units causing lingering psychological or cognitive effects after use.
((Note that these are purely for flavor. I'll detail the writing benefits of using some of the systems here later.))

Distributed Control Scheme

• Get to write the operation of a mech like describing a captain commanding a ship and deliberating with their crew, complete with "Gentlemen, it's been an honor."
• Barking orders at crew to run damage control and overclock the reactor is more dramatic than just doing the same thing through mechanical controls.
• Fun looking caps.
• Frees up the pilot's hands for drinking and smoking.
• Lack of mechanical controls means more cockpit space for dabbing and dramatic poses

Cognitive Integration System

• Get to wrote the operation of a mech like describing an actual entity moving around, feeling the heat of their reactor in their torso, the violent fury their weapon systems exude, and the deliberating with their own psychological drives both human and inhuman, offering a unique insight into the psyches of both pilots and spirits.
• Serves as a writing hook for how our little merry band got their hands on such an experimental piece of tech in the first place.
• Rock bottom entry requirements mean we can Shanghai just about anyone as a pilot be they a snappy octarian or a teenager with a questionable sense of fashion.
• Lingering CIS side effects can be used to justify our pilots getting increasingly eccentric.
• Mad science.
• Helps facilitate silliness.
• Panders to the GM's love for Disco Elysium.
• Get repeatedly called a sissy (spelled CISI for "CIS Intelligence").

[Powder Miner]

Preliminary Phase Three - Mercenary

Four times, the Arehan Frontier Union rejected the relationship of master and subject, and once they accepted it.

The first of these rejections came at the very beginning, before there was really an "Arehan Frontier Union" to speak of, back when the Union's founding fathers were just convicts, exiles, and desperate migrants out in viciously deadly, unrelentingly worthless planets and planetoids, doing their damnedest to scrounge up whatever materials were useful to the Minarian Republic and trying not to die. They eked out hardscrabble successes, and sent what they could to their suzerains -- only to receive more demands, quotas for more of the ancient and abandoned military technology that had its extraction measured in blood. There came a tipping point, then, when the weary people around the Arehan star decided that it would be better to operate on their own grounds, and with the aid of a new tool, usage of magic provided by the sponsorship of opportunistic wizard-states, rendered their verdict in force.

The second rejection came with the third -- having finally learned of the power of their star, the actual value they'd been sitting around unawares for painful decades, the Arehan Frontier Union (for now that was what it was) built around it, and learned of the beings sitting around it -- gods, old, abandoned, tired and lonely. Faced with the chance to take control of a being of potentially titanic power, to offer it its lifeblood in exchange for terms that it could hardly refuse lest it doom itself, the Arehans... chose not to take that opportunity. They had rejected being mastered, but they rejected being masters, here too, and in turn they were granted what they needed to reject being mastered again.

The third rejection of masterhood came in a different way, once based off of leverage and trade and development rather than the brutal war of the first rejection. Having learned to manifest the spirits of their own technology, and having learned to cajole them into providing them with new levels of functionality and usable nonfunctionality, the Arehan Frontier Union abruptly found themselves a powerhouse both technologically and magically -- one that was no longer just a shell civilization who would be selling aetherwind at cheap prices to a bunch of wizard planetoid-states, but rather a new center of economy and progress in its own right, one which redefined itself and its relationship with its sponsors without any flashy gestures. They simply placed themselves as the equals of the wizards, and that was that.

The fourth rejection of masterhood came when the demands for materials came from outsiders. A polity across the Jumble Sector, the "Kingdom of the Unrivalled Archaeologist" had sent a delegation to the Frontier Union, and the mismatch in each state's attitudes were clear from the start. The Kingdom of the Unrivalled Archaeologist clearly viewed itself as nearly divine -- each of the offers that they made and the addresses they gave clearly came from the attitude that they were the best the sector had to offer, that they were such unmatchable geniuses that any sort of peaceful overture they made was one that the Arehans were honored to even receive. And of course, they were after the system's riches, but they weren't even after the aetherwind; they were after the ancient and hard-to-take military technology that the Minarian Republic had ostensibly been trying to dig up all that time ago. Again and again they obligated the Arehans to use their own time, their own sweat, their own precarious pacts to deliver them lost technology -- and again and again the Arehans said no.

But the Kingdom of the Unrivalled Archaeologist evidently was unwilling to take no for an answer. After years and years of persistent demands, the Kingdom of the Unrivalled Archaeologist finally sent a military reply, landing Titans on the Arehans' planetoids and even in some cases on the outside of some of their colony ships. Their Titans were grotesque things, leading some Arehans to recognize the spark of genius which gave the Kingdom its arrogant attitude, mixtures of flesh and steel which also happened to be giant fucking dinosaurs. But the Arehans had their own spark of genius, they had their own Titans, their own technology -- and spirits bound and unbound, divine power large and small, merged into complex machinery. Dinosaurs' talons were met with metallic fists wreathed in nuclear energy, fire breath with shrouds of cold energy from coolant ghosts, and the Kingdom was beat back -- again, and again over the decades. But it was always a costly process. Damage would be done to colony ships, killing thousands, bases would be taken and looted before being retaken, spirits would be torn from their mountings and thrown forever into the void, and Titans would be smashed. The wars with the Kingdom ended up being a drain on the Arehan Frontier Union's prosperity, preventing it from advancing forwards and striking out much as they kept the Kingdom from fully robbing the Arehans.

...so, one year, when opportunity came knocking, the Arehans opened the door. The Sommet Sector, long so thoroughly dominated by its Empires that it would never be reached for any sort of business, was opened by the convulsions of war and collapse. The justifications for going in were many -- some claimed that it was only natural that a polity as wonderful as the Arehan Frontier Union would finally take a prominent place in the galaxy. Some claimed that it was a humanitarian catastrophe that the Arehans just had to respond to. Some claimed that the wars with the Kingdom were such a drain that new directions had to be found for the Union's continued success. Many didn't make any vocal declarations at all, simply manipulating decisions from behind the scenes. But the end result is that a group was sent out on rented space on the Rapid-Pair Ship Sojourner (owned by Exploratory Systems Incorporated) to serve as mercenaries in the Sommet Sector, to open opportunities and shut down rivals, all for the benefit of the Arehan Frontier Union. Now, the Union would finally take masterhood for itself.

Of course, with such a place as the Arehan Frontier Union, there are a great number of groups that could be chosen for such a task, for a great number of different motivations, and because of a great number of different histories. Are they a corporate team? Are they refugees, in it for Arehan ideals -- or just for the money? Are they a Spirit Union, perhaps, seeking to make their mark both in and out of the Union? Who is the group heading to the Sommet Sector, and what distinguished them for selection?

Write and vote for a single description of the mercenary group you'll be playing as, and some of their history (enough to know why they were chosen to go).

[Twinwolf]

The Blood-Red Cross

(Provisional name)

So some of the vagrant gods of the Arehan Frontier Union are... kind of strange, and their followers can be equally strange. The deity followed by the mercenary group supported by the AFU is a god of warfare and also a god of protection and safety. Their followers, the Knights Reliquar, exemplify this duality. Their mission statements are as old as time. One: Help those in need by any means we can. Pretty simple, pretty uncomplicated. Helping out those who need it. The other is similarly old. "Peace through superior firepower."

To the Knights Reliquar, the galaxy is one full of villainy and hate, and their job is to be a beacon of good will and hope. They will fight to protect any who are threatened! Heroes of strength and valor! After all, their god is a protector - one who defends the weak and battles the strong! Many of their members joined after being helped by the Cross, or just because they also came to believe. In the hellhole that is the Areha system, a god of safety and protection is often quite appealing.

Of course, some may point out that their assessment of who the "good guy" in any given situation is is flawed and largely influenced by whoever can afford the biggest "donation", and sometimes just whoever happens to be on the defensive when they arrive. These people in some regards may be right. These people are also evidently the bad guys, if they're bad mouthing a god of protection and safety, and are worthy of scorn at best and heavy firepower at worst.

The Knights Reliquar like to use Titans in ways that can support allies or just generally be good on the defense, although due to the nature of Titans as a dominant force on the battlefield, they can be used in a variety of capacities.

The Cult of Science

In some worlds where science and religion are in conflict, sometimes those whose faith is in science rather than higher powers are derogatively referred to as the cult of reason, as a religion in all relevant regards the same as those they disdain. The Cult of Science, a small group within the Arehan Frontier Union, responds to this with "yes, actually, that's exactly correct".

The Cult of Science was first formed by expats and exiles from a nearby, magically inclined star system. The world was so indundated with magic that it became the norm, a place where the laws of physics were mysterious and ill understood and non-magical advancement beyond a printing press was seen as strange and in some cases impossible. Indeed, the magical orthodoxy branded non-magical advancement as heresy and outlawed it. The people who would found the Cult of Science investigated, learned; using some black market texts and tech from off-world traders (kept in orbit, but there's always some crew members who will distribute illegal goods for a quick buck), they experimented with the mysteries of science. They didn't understand what they were doing, just that the texts described elaborate rituals that made it possible to do things without magic that should not have, to them, been possible.

Eventually, they were discovered and due to be executed - but the government didn't want them to be a public spectacle. A trade ship offered to bring them far away, never to return, and this was accepted. Thus, on an Arehan Frontier Union ship, the would-be Cult of Science took it's first steps into the wider galaxy.

As exiles of al stripes are welcome in areha, the Cult soon made itself at home. Over time, they drew more and more scientifically minded followers from magical systems, gathering them in this haven for those who wished to mix magic and technology. Eventually, in the name of funding and testing, they managed to acquire a Titan, and gained a reputation as a competent mercenary company - after all, when they were motivated both by money and personal reasons like a quest for knowledge, they were far more reliable than those just in it for the cash.

The Cult of Science tends to regard magic as the more logical and simple aspect of their designs; scientific advancement, on the other hand, is ritualized; you don't just press ON, you have to recite the proper incantation and have the right incense burning. You don't just tell Siri v. 2,210,110 to initialize, you have to beseech the machine spirit for aid.

And with how animistic magic can sometimes be, maybe sometimes it'll answer.

[Man of Paper]

Guérillas sans Frontières/Happy Days

War. War never changes. This is some bullshit lie, war changes all the time. The tools, the places, the faces, and the loyalties are constantly shifting and giving rise to new methods of warfare, new inventive ways to end someone's life, and sometimes a couple other lives nearby. The folks of the galaxy don't always want to struggle through conflict, but they need it to survive. This is true from the largest empire to the smallest individual, because for some reason, life loves to kill for what it wants. Unfortunately for the big guys, it's a lot harder to adapt to new types of conflict effectively on a larger scale, which is where Guérillas sans Frontières comes in.

GSF is an All-For-Profit Arehan-based organization of ex-soldiers, experienced spacers, and libertarians that takes advantage of conflicts by selling themselves and their guns to any recognized group or party (they will not, for example, work for an individual's personal interests - unless there is adequate compensation). And when they say any recognized group or party, they mean it. There has been more than one conflict throughout the history of Guérillas sans Frontières where both sides were hiring GSF Mercs and fighting was exclusively happening between them. These deployments are seen as the most lucrative, as they can drag out the conflict and rake in bank, but they also helped breed what has become known as the GSF mindset. The GSF is full of people who have accepted the inevitability of death, and so they tend to enjoy their time on the battlefield. GSF units are well known for their grim, and sometimes too quick, sense of humor. Units they're attached to often send complaints to HR about their abrasiveness, (which are promptly filed away in the Filing Cabinet, a permanent fire fueled by the physical mail sent to them - which is a lot, as HR does not accept any communiques otherwise) but any military unit in the sector will tell you that seeing a GSF emblem on their side is a massive relief.

The GSF tend to deploy as scouting and vanguard elements for larger forces, utilizing small-unit tactics and guerilla warfare to use the size and composition of enemy forces against them. The GSF are self-sufficient, hard to kill, and damn near impossible to demoralize. This made them a prime choice for sending to the Sommet Sector.

GSF Chapter "Happy Days" was one of their most distinguished, having been one of the Founding Chapters upon formation of the GSF. They weren't necessarily outstanding as combatants, but they got lucky enough that shit just always seemed to go their way. Such was the case when the AFU and GSF wrote up their contract for exploitation exploration of the Sommet Sector. All the better-fit chapters were occupied with previous engagements or going through, ah, manpower shortages. The GSF sold "Happy Days" as one of the best chapters in the business, and the Frontier Union ate it up at a high price. The AFU even agreed to pay for travel fees! The Happy Days Chapter has two goals in Sommet: make money, and don't die.

[cronos5010]

The Blood-Red Cross (1): Cronos5010

I have decreed that this option is the most unbearably American and self righteous of all of the options presented so far, and thus the one I, and the GM would find most comfortable to play.

[TricMagic]

The Blood-Red Cross (2): Cronos5010, TricMagic

I have decreed that this option is the most unbearably American and self righteous of all of the options presented so far, and thus the one I, and the GM would find most comfortable to play.

Friendship through Superior Firepower.

[Man of Paper]

The Blood-Red Cross (2): Cronos5010, TricMagic
Guérillas sans Frontières/Happy Days (1): MoP

I will counter cronos' argument thusly! Our GM is New Conglomerate through and through, therefore we will gain his favor if we are the dudes similar to those dudes. Also, the "silly" name (it was mentioned in discord) for the chapter is cuz it takes influence from what tankbros name their tanks. Also, because our team theme seems to be "keep as many options open as humanly possible", MercCorp^TM makes our dudes a ragtag group of literally anyone who likes guns and also money, which is a lot of types of folks. My logic has been flawless.