The Scope: You are insignificant

Kizara itself is a fantastical world with a long and rich history... most of which is unimportant when considering current events, even though it is all connected. The solar system that contains Earth is roughly 100 AU across with Pluto's farthest orbit being approximately 49 AU from the Sun (Where 1 AU is the distance between Earth and the sun). The Kizaran solar system is approximately ten times that size, or 1 light year across, has two suns, and hundreds of planets and moons. A good number of these planets and moons have been terraformed and colonized, or have had stations built around them.

The main planet is roughly 20% larger than Earth and has a longer orbit, meaning Kizara's solar year is approximately 2 years of Earth time and has been designated Kizara Prime. Kizara Prime has a particularly peculiar property that makes it stand out from the rest of the planets: Its moon is another planet. Kizara Prime's moon is a planet that is, for all intensive purposes, identical to Kizara prime. It is identical in size, landmass, and rotation and has been dubbed "The Sister Planet" for this reason. In fact, from a particular point of view, one could even say that Kizara Prime is the Sister Planet's moon. A study of the two planet's orbits has revealed that although they orbit one another, each planet is always the same distance from its sun and always has the same facing. How is that possible? Nobody really knows but that's how it is.

"K"urrency? What the hell is an ISK anyway?

Back in the day, people used gold coins as currency. As trade with dragons increased, however, gold became more and more scarce. There is a fundamental problem with trading gold to these reptilian creatures: Dragons covet pretty things, and they are notorious hoarders. Something doesn't even need to be particularly valuable for a dragon to want it for their collection. In fact, a large portion of a certain dragon's horde (name redacted) is comprised of polished rocks and shiny glass beads. It is also a well known fact that gold is shiny.

The common belief is that, over the course of a few thousand years, Dragons gathered up all of the gold for their collection through clever trading and have it stashed in some gigantic hidden vault. The fact that the dragons control all of the banks is not something that conspiracy theorists have missed. It still remains that gold is one of the scarcest resources in the solar system and the dragon bank of Kizara probably controls most of it. As such, with the system's primary monetary system exhausted, there was a push to standardize it.

ISK stands for Inter-Stellar Kredit. Why the K? It has something to do with the intricacy of the draconic language. Personally, I believe they did it purposefully so that mortals would ponder endlessly over the reason. Shiny things and riddles: the main vices of dragons. The ISK is a standardized monetary unit worth approximately one half of an ounce of gold. Now imagine, as the billions of inhabitants make hundreds of millions of transactions per day, that scores of lesser drakes load up gold onto palettes and in wheelbarrows and move piles of gold between rooms as ISK trades hands. Entertaining, isn't it?

A Little History: Interesting stuff that is... interesting.

It all began when seven dragons fled their home, and because I can neither pronounce, nor spell it we will refer to it as the Dragon-home. What they were fleeing isn't clear, only that it was some unspeakable evil which they trapped by collapsing the dimension as they left. Alone, they roamed the cosmos searching for a new home when they happened upon Kizara. Before the dragons, Kizara was an earth-like planet with rudimentary tribal humanoid life established on it. Its common belief that the oldest and most powerful dragon, Jutal, sacrificed her physical form to ascend to Godhood. Now, if you believe certain theories, namely that all matter is comprised of energy, and thus energy has mass, and things with sufficient mass have gravitational pull. Such that a large enough energy mass could have sufficient gravitational pull to attract more energy to itself, creating a self-sustaining reaction.

Thus, the spirit realm, and eventually the planes were born around the Goddess. The other six dragons created heirs to pass down their powers in the likeness of the curious life forms that already inhabited the planet so that if their kind did not recover, their knowledge and arts would not be lost. These six beings were known as the "Firsts."

There is also a second theory that the Goddess, Jutal, made her own heir in secret and there were actually seven Firsts. This theory was never confirmed, but there are rumors of individuals with extraordinary power wandering about, trying to keep their true identity secret. Anyway, the six Firsts were integrated into different tribes across the planet so they could also learn the knowledge and arts of their respective tribes as they grew.

Of course they figured out fairly quickly that they were different from the others, even extraordinary fairly quickly. It was then that they decided to leave their tribes to go on a pilgrimage of sorts, drawn by some inexplicable force from all corners of the world to find one another and band together. Eventually they formed “The Guild” which was an organization designed to use their powers to keep balance across the land. Back then, large scale standing armies were unheard of and disputes between tribes were largely settled by duels. As time passed and tribes grew, they took to raising a champion for this purpose. The Guild was formed so that small or poor settlements that did not have the resources to train warriors to champion them couldn’t just be wiped off the map by the richer tribes. In exchange for trade goods, food, or currency they would champion disputes for anyone who could not defend themselves.

Some tribes didn’t care for Guild interference, naturally, but the power of the Firsts was so great that they could not be opposed, at least not until Luna. Luna, who is suspected to be the seventh First, was a particularly potent psychic, such that she could dominate the will of others. Nobody is quite sure how it worked, but her power spread like a virus from one infected to another and over the course of a few short years, she amassed a sizeable army by absorbing tribes (willingly or not) unknown to the Guild. This all changed when Luna made a push into Guild controlled territory. She used her powers to take over members of the Guild and force them to betray one another, which sparked the first large-scale war in the planets history.

Of the seven warriors, five were known to survive. Jade, the silver dragon’s heir and arguably the most powerful disappeared before the final battle and was never found. Luna was defeated, but not killed and faded into obscurity. Hunter, who lead the battle against Luna disappeared after the final battle and was said to spend his days hunting Luna to far corners of the world so that she could never come to power again. The remaining four warriors dissolved the Guild, mended fences, and founded the four major households of Kizara. Through the mixing of bloodlines and breeding with the natives, the Kizaran race that we know today was born.

The Bloodlines: I don’t know how it works; I only got a C in Biology.

Dragon’s blood is a mystical and powerful thing, so it’s no surprise that the individuals who possess it are formidable people. People who inherit the Dragon’s blood tend to be stronger, faster, and tougher, heal at an astonishing rate, and live incredibly long lives. A recently discovered fact is that Dragon’s blood is dominant, such that it is always passed down from one of the parents, and usually has properties from any side of the family that carries the dragon’s blood. In this manner, any pairing with someone who has Dragon’s Blood always produces a half-blood.

Purebloods

As the name implies, purebloods are produced when two full-blooded heirs mate. Typically this is achieved when two Firsts mate, or the offspring of two pairs of Firsts… as you can imagine, this group is fairly small, and comprises only 1% of the total Kizaran population.

Half-blood

A half-blood is produced when any heir of Dragons blood mates with a Mundane (or sans-blood), or with another half-blood. Traits from the Dragon’s Blood of both families are passed down to the offspring, and typically creates someone with a mix of abilities from both families… this is not always true, however. The half-blood are the largest group of individuals in Kizara, and consist of roughly 90% of the Kizaran population. If you were born in the last 2,500 years, there is a high probability that you belong to this group.

The Mundane

Mundane are descendants of the original inhabitants of the planet who have chosen not to mix with the bearers of Dragon’s Blood. The term “Mundane” does not always imply “without powers,” as you might think. The original inhabitants of the planet practiced various forms of ritualistic magic, communing with nature and the spirits to achieve power. Some Mundane have proven to be powerful shamans or psychics, and their practices have never died away or slipped into obscurity, even to this day. The Mundane consist of the remaining 9% of the Kizaran population, and are located largely on Kizara Prime.

The Households: Don’t let the name fool you, they are as dysfunctional as everyone else.

Wolfwood

The noble household, founded by Seviryn, took power after overthrowing Luna and established a single government to rule over the land. They spent nearly 100 years unifying all of the tribes and establishing the Imperium to rule over the planet with the idea that unification would keep people like Luna from coming to power… a plan that has more or less worked so far. Seviryn decided to distance himself from the actual governing of the lands, having instead created a council and established several other political parties. He split the governing power in such a way that should the council or parties disagree, nothing could be accomplished… which may have been slightly irresponsible, or brilliant depending on your point of view. The Wolfwood became arbiters to settle differences and disputes between parties and council members and ensure that Kizaran government policy was always for balance, and the good of the people. With the military might of house Daine backing him, the system he created prevented any one person from controlling government policy. Ambitious councilmen who have tried to change the system to favor a single party or single person rule through clever machinations, policy writing, or vote influence tend to mysteriously (or not so mysteriously) vanish.

The most notable trait the Wolfwood possess is that they are blind. Every member born into the main branch is 100% visually impaired. The clan as a whole has learned how to navigate by scrying magical auras and currents of energy. It has put them very in tune with the currents and flows of energy and that exist throughout the cosmos. The Wolfwood are “Spell shapers,” able to manipulate the natural currents of energy throughout the cosmos. The most advanced Spell shapers can even transmute that energy into any element they wish.

House Wolfwood is loyal to Balance, but respects the Imperium

Daine

Founded by Micha; the Daine household are the Knights Errant of the Imperium. The founder, Micha, was one of the Firsts who was turned by Luna’s power and forced to betray his friends. Since the founding of his household, they have been working to right past wrongs and regain the honor and respect they once held. Although as a whole, house Daine are tools of the Imperium and protectors of the Noble Council, they answer only to Seviryn. Such that if Seviryn were to one day decide that the Imperium should not exist, the members of house Daine would use their powers to destroy it. This fact is not unknown to the Noble Council and other political factions within the Imperium. The fact that house Daine is the single largest non-Imperium military force in existence is also abundantly clear. They are loyal only to Seviryn because he was the one who freed Micha from Luna’s powers, and the first to forgive him for the horrible things he did to the other Firsts. Micha swore that he would do anything in his power to further Seviryn’s goals, whatever they might be, and all of Micha’s descendants are bound to that oath because of Micha’s belief that Seviryn was the only person who could restore honor to his name.

In addition to being legendary fighters, members of the Daine household are known for being powerful “Metal shapers.” Capable of crafting the most exquisite arms and armor, Metal shapers can manipulate the structure and shape of any metallic object they come in contact with on the molecular level. The most powerful Metal shapers can perform this feat in the blink of an eye, just by being in the object’s proximity. If that doesn’t sound all that useful, think for one moment on just how many things in a modern world are made of metal, or have metal components.

House Daine is loyal to Seviryn.

House of Orion

Founded by Orion, which makes his name Orion Orion… not sure he was thinking clearly that day, but that is par for the course since Orion has been known to be off his rocker. Orion’s gift made him a powerful seer, able to receive visions of the distant future. Luna’s turning of Micha and his subsequent betrayal cost Jade her daughter. Understandably upset, she set out on a revenge quest, which Orion had foreseen to lead to her death. He had also seen that the distant future would have need of her great power. After many failed attempts to reason with her, he took a plan of action that would ensure her survival until her powers would be needed again. Unknown to the other Firsts, he tricked Jade by offering up a red herring that he had been turned by Luna’s power and sought to betray the Guild. Orion led her beneath a mountain where his other powers would be at their strongest. After a short fight, he took hold of a large deposit of crystal beneath the mountain and trapped her inside it, then modified the crystal’s structure to preserve her in stasis exactly how she was.

Orion himself was able to receive visions of the distant future and understand their meaning, but he was unable to control when the visions came and went. Over time he became detached from reality, and even attempted to blind himself to stop the visions (which only made them worse), and he became something of a functioning lunatic. Shortly after the household was founded, Orion vanished. Although new members of the Orion household continue to crop up from all over the solar system (suggesting that Orion himself may still be alive), nobody has any idea where he is, what he’s doing, or whether he succumbed to the madness of his visions. Orion is also the only person who knows the reason for Jade’s disappearance, and where she is located. Members of the House of Orion are prone to having uncontrollable visions of future events, and those with low mental fortitude are slowly driven mad by them. In addition, they are known to be skilled “Earth shapers.” They are able to use their power to shape, shift, or manipulate any kind of dirt, sand, rock, mineral, or crystal in their proximity on the molecular level much like the Metal shapers of house Daine. The most skilled Earth shapers are even able to push themselves through solid stone without interrupting its structure, or travel long distances in an instant through it.

House Orion is loyal to the “Big Picture.”

Blackheart

Founded by Damon; the Blackheart house served the Imperium in the early days, but with their practices frowned upon, Damon eventually took his house and vanished into the criminal underworld of Kizara. He was one of the Firsts to be turned by Luna’s power, though because of a quirk in the way Luna’s power controls its victims, instead of betraying the Guild, it destroyed his inhibitions against seeking certain knowledge and using what was considered to be “Dark Arts” at the time. See, Damon was an insufferable scholar, who knew more than everyone about everything and was sure everyone was aware of it. Dark rumors are whispered about house Blackheart, that they are mere husks of living beings who feed upon the living to sustain their powers. This is only partially true…

Members of house Blackheart are able to absorb information at an incredibly enhanced rate, and are prone to having eidetic memories. Dates, times, smells, the clothes you were wearing 100 years ago and the fact that your socks were indeed mismatched. They forget nothing, and can instantly relive any event or sensation they have experienced, or any piece of information they have learned as vividly as the instant it happened. They are also practitioners of “Blood Magic,” which is where many of the rumors about them originated. At its core, Blood Magic is the transference of energy from one owner to another, typically from a target to the caster. They can then use this energy to attack others or enhance themselves. Because of the fundamental operation of Blood Magic, a Blood mage is only as powerful as the amount of energy he has stored within his body. It’s far more complex than this explanation, but in the interest of time I’ll leave it at that. The long history of Blood Magic use has changed the members of house Blackheart over the years. They are very sensitive to sunlight: their eyes do not adjust well to brightness, and they burn quite easily. Also they tend to have slitted red eyes, pale skin, and pointed canines.

House Blackheart is currently in good standing with the Imperium, but loyal in large part only to the almighty ISK.

Other noteworthy households

Ravenwing

A branch of house Blackheart made up of members who decided not to use Blood Magic. This house was founded by Garian, who is also president of the system-wide mega-corporation: Raven Corp. Members of house Ravenwing retained the eidetic memory and potent power to absorb knowledge from Damon’s bloodline, but having shunned the practice of Blood Magic, their bodies developed along a different path. Hundreds of years of research and exposure to a particular red crystal has fundamentally changed their biology. Their bodies are infused with red crystal particulate, causing them to manufacture a kind of biological nano-machine which acts as an extension of their nervous system. Because of this, over time they have developed an ability which they’ve come to call “Tele-Presence” or “Tech shaping.” It is the ability to control or manipulate mechanical or computerized devices with their mind. Basically, any device powered by crystal matrix technology is at their beck and call. They can talk to machines and computers as though they were living entities, or take control of phones, radios, computers, cars, tanks, transports… the most powerful “Tech shapers” can single handedly control the largest starships and stations simply by being on it. Because of this, they are coveted as technical officers and engineers on Imperium warships. Members of house Ravenwing can be distinguished by the subtly shifting black markings that cover their bodies which resemble tribal tattoos. They are actually concentrations of the biological nano-machines their bodies produce, and act as conduits for their Tech shaping ability.

House Ravenwing is loyal to the Imperium.

Pendrake

Rumored to be descendants of Hunter, the Pendrake house is relatively small. It was originally founded by a warrior named Balthazar and has a long history of infighting and disagreement of ideals. Members of house Pendrake are nomads, wandering the cosmos, driven to root out injustice (or what they perceive to be injustice) and destroy it. They lend their powers to those who cannot defend themselves, or those who have a worthy cause. As the Ronin of Kizara, most members of house Pendrake follow the code and principles on which the house was founded. While individual interpretations of the code are what led to such furious warring between members, they still hold it as their highest ideal. It is rumored that members of house Pendrake are the only people capable of navigating the Netherplanes, Metaplanes, and other Trails and Realms without a device to aid them.

Members of house Pendrake hold a peculiar and potent power. Many names have been given to their ability, but it has commonly come to be called “Blade shaping.” It is their belief that every weapon has spirit and strength imparted unto it by its creator; that a weapon is not just a tool, it is an entity. They can commune with and draw power from these spirits, peeling back the layers separating the material and spiritual and uncovering the hidden potential in each weapon. Members tend to favor a weapon type that agrees with their ideals and personality, such that each member’s fighting style is as unique as they are. Their powers develop around their weapons and fighting style so it’s difficult to gauge what exactly a Pendrake is capable of just by knowing their household. However, it is commonly known that their powers are weapon-centric, such that they are at a disadvantage if disarmed. A Pendrake can pick up any weapon and be proficient, even masterful with it but they are the most powerful when wielding a weapon they have deeply bonded with. The most powerful members of house Pendrake are rumored to also have something called “Infinite Sight,” or “The Eye.” They are able to see past the physical and into the very root of a person’s ability, how it works, and how they as an individual use and manipulate energy around them or through their body to achieve their powers. Using this Infinite Sight, they can replicate any technique or ability they have seen before. Pendrakes with this power are rumored to be marked with a single red eye.

House Pendrake is loyal to their code, whatever the individual interpretation of it may be.

House Phoenix

The Phoenix household was founded shortly after the advent of space travel. They originated on starships and exist largely in space. They have spent so much time in space, in fact, that they have a natural affinity to it. Being on a planet is a foreign and uncomfortable experience for them. They have learned to commune with the void and the cosmos and have an unparalleled understanding of Zero-G physics. As such, they make extraordinary helmsmen, pilots, navigators, and starship engineers. It’s almost as though they can see the currents and eddies of gravitational and solar waves flowing through space. Their understanding of spatial phenomenon and sensor functions allows them to vanish into cosmic white noise, almost like space-ninjas. Nobody is as talented as a Phoenix house member while flying a starship, or in Zero-G combat. Outside of their ships, however, is a different story. Most members of house Phoenix have spent so much time living in starships, fighting with starships, fixing and flying starship that any encounter they have outside of their starship puts them at a huge disadvantage.

Many members of house Phoenix have also developed powerful psychic abilities. This fact is not widely known, as because of the Psychic Registration Act anyone with advanced psychic powers is automatically drafted into the Imperial Navy and closely observed. As a household that values their freedom, those that have developed psychic abilities practice them in secret, so the range and depth of their powers is not known.

House Phoenix is considered a neutral fleet and is directly loyal to no one; however, they tend to favor the Exiles.

The Factions: All the right reasons to hate your neighbor.

The Imperium

As a whole, the Imperium is the governing body of the entire system. It consists of 10 Noble Councilmen, who are each backed by a political faction consisting of approximately 50 individuals from different households. To achieve anything, the council must build a consensus, which means that all 510 individuals that comprise the council must agree unanimously. Any split in the consensus is brought before an arbiter from house Wolfwood, who negotiates a compromise between the disagreeing parties or individuals until a consensus can be reached. As you can imagine, this deliberation process is prone to taking a long time.

The Imperial Navy

Recognizing the need to have a standing military force to police the solar system, defend colonies and stations from raiders, bandits, and other threats, and defend Kizara as a whole against the Exiles, the Noble Council created the Imperial Navy. Because coming to a consensus is such a time consuming process, the Navy itself is considered to be an independent entity which largely governs itself, allowing the Navy to recruit, police, defend, and attack the enemy as it sees fit. This, by itself, would pose a problem, since the policies and standard operating procedures would change depending on who was in charge. What if the Navy decided to go rogue, become an independent fleet and begin attacking the colonies? Some don’t see this as a problem…

On the most basic level, they can’t become an independent fleet because they already are an independent fleet. Like any small nation, they have their own practices and standard operating procedures, and hierarchy of government. Like any corporation, they have a service to trade or sell and colonies can choose to purchase or trade for it, or they can create their own defense force. What’s to keep them from holding a world ransom to get what their way or not perform their duty? Several things, first and foremost: the Imperial Navy isn’t the only military force in existence capable of spaceflight. House Daine has a significant fleet; as does the neutral house Phoenix and several major corporations. Several of the colonies have also opted to create their own naval force instead of relying on the Imperial Navy. Second, space is huge: far too large for just one force to cover. Having territories that can take care of themselves is much more efficient. Third, if they piss off their customers, they won’t be able to fund themselves.

That doesn’t mean squabbles don’t break out between the fleets over things like territorial borders, soliciting, and mining rights. It’s quite frequent, in fact. The Imperium is content to leave the spatial territories to the fleets that govern them. As long as the safety of Kizara or the colonies is not threatened, the fleets are free to engage each other as they see fit. Competition fosters good service.

The Exiles

The Exiles are Kizarans who disagree with the rule of the Imperium and have decided live off on their own. At its most basic level, the whole disagreement boils down to a religious dispute. What is the difference? It’s like asking a human what the difference between “God” and “Allah” is. Regardless of the exact reason, Exiles like their name implies, no longer live in the Kizaran territories. It is rumored that they have constructed massive stations in the dead space outside the orbit of the 200 planets and live off the grid. The war between the Imperium and the Exiles has largely reached a stalemate. Imperium ships don’t have the sensor capacity to find the Exiles in their off-grid homes, and Exiles lack the numbers and firepower to compete in a head-on firefight with them. Since the schism that split the religions and the Exodus of the Exiles happened before spaceflight, nobody is sure where they went, or how they got there. There are thousands of rumors and theories, but there is no way of telling which ones are true.

The Technology: Toys of the age!

Almost 1000 years after Jade’s disappearance and end of the war with Luna, Kizarans began to discover small red crystals dotting the landscape of certain areas. Magicians and sorcerers began using them in staves and wands after finding out that these crystals harnessed a significant charge of energy. Because it could be used to supplement their magical powers, or blast enemies, they named it “Mage-Stone” based on the (incorrect) assumption that they were magic. After approximately 100 years, Kizarans began finding fields of these crystals in fair sized growths, almost bursting from the ground. The newly formed branch family of house Ravenwing discovered that the power within these crystals could be extracted slowly to provide a constant charge. A few years later, they discovered that a crystal shard of sufficient size (roughly 1x1x2 inches) would not only produce a constant charge, but also slowly recharge itself after being depleted. It was this discovery that sparked the industrial revolution. When it was later discovered that the crystals were growing at a rate faster than they had the tools and technology to harvest them, crystal farming became a profitable profession.

500 years later, massive crystal forests are discovered in areas that were previously grassland or desert and the Imperium declares a state of crisis as the growing crystals threaten literally to sunder the land beneath them. House Ravenwing discovered that Mage-Stone is a naturally occurring crystal that has been saturated with energy from a biological source, and that after reaching their capacity the overflowing energy was stimulating rapid growth of the crystal. A stunning blow to their original preconceptions, which house Wolfwood took in stride and spearheaded an initiative to discover the source and harvest as much Mage-Stone as possible in an effort to stem its uncontrolled growth. The Imperium then gave house Ravenwing basically unlimited resources to find new ways to consume the crystal surplus, causing a technological explosion in just a few short years.

The year is now Imperium Date (ID) 4425 and it has been nearly 5000 years since the war with Luna and Jade’s disappearance. House Ravenwing developed an inhibitor system to reign in the uncontrolled growth of Mage-Stone, although its source was never pinpointed. Seviryn continues the hunt, driven by something he won’t reveal. And though every inch of the surface appears to have been scoured and ground penetrating sensors cannot seem to reach far enough underground to pinpoint the exact source of the crystal. With the colonies expanding, and clashes with the Exiles escalating, he fears he may have to abandon his search, at least for the time being.

Raven Corp.

Raven Corp. is the leading manufacturer of crystal matrix goods. Power cores, batteries, HEV technology etc… It is the largest corporation in the Kizaran territories. Though it has many competitors, if it wasn’t built directly by Raven Corp. then it most likely has components manufactured by it. They became self sufficient and outgrew the need for Imperium funding shortly after the beginning of the technological boom of ID 1655. Raven Corp. has a sizeable fleet of starships, and though loyal to the Imperium, are nearly a nation in themselves much like house Phoenix.

Firearms: The Rail Gun vs. the Lance

The capacity for Mage-Stone to deliver not just a constant charge, but a powerful one led to the development of magnetic acceleration. Although other types of firearms, or projected energy weapons exist, the Rail system is the most efficient and advanced design. By super-accelerating a metal slug to extreme velocity, an accurate, low recoil weapon was created. Many variations are on the market: small pistol sized cannons, rapid fire machine guns, even deadly long distance rifles. The Rail gun’s reliance on ammunition is still a topic of debate, but since the Rail gun does not rely on bulky powders or accelerants, a magazine for a standard issue assault rifle can hold hundreds of rounds and be reloaded in less than 3 seconds. Projected energy weapons still rely on bulky heat-sinks and can be overloaded, putting the combatant out of the fight until his weapon returns to an operable temperature. For the accuracy, ease of use, and volume of firepower, in spite of its reliance on ammunition the rail gun is still the best weapon on the market. Mass acceleration weapons capable of super-accelerating large slugs to 1.3% of light speed are the preferred anti-starship weapon of the Imperium.

The Imperium has the Rail Gun, but Exile technology developed on a different line. The preferred firearm for the Exile is a weapon called the “Lance.” It’s a kind of hybrid weapon; a combination between projected energy and Rail technology. Many have been captured and examined, and Imperium scientists have a good fundamental understanding of the weapon’s operation but have not, as of yet, been able to replicate the technology. It carries slugs like a rail gun, but instead of firing these slugs, they are liquefied in the firing chamber and then carried in a wire-thin stream along a charged bolt of plasma. It combines the barrier defeating properties of projected energy with the armor defeating kinetic impact of the rail gun, making it a very potent weapon. The two main drawbacks of the weapon are that plasma generates a large amount of heat and that it dissipates quickly over distance, limiting the maximum range of the weapon. The exiles have large-scale versions of this weapon mounted on their ships.

Armor and Barriers: HEV suit and Charged Barrier vs. EXO and Cyclonic Barrier

The Hostile Environment Suit or HEV is the Imperium standard for armor. It is a full-body suit complete with environmental seals. High grade military helmets include a helpful AI, sensor, communications, and targeting package and are also quite stylish. The standard HEV is low bulk and modular, making it easy to maneuver in and configure for any kind of encounter. They come standard with charged barriers, and strength and speed enhancing hydraulics. There are heavy armor versions of the HEV that are bulky and difficult to move in, but are typically reserved for heavy weapon divisions or individuals with incredible strength. The lightweight HEV has a low power draw and can operate for long periods of time in the field but lacks the sheer protective quality of heavier armor.

The “Powered Assist” suit or EXO is the Exiles standard for armor. It is much heavier than the HEV and provides a much higher resistance against the kinetic impact of rail guns. The EXO was developed with many similar features to the HEV including AI, sensors, communications, and targeting, as well as a barrier system. Like the name suggests, it has “powered assist,” dramatically increasing the strength and speed of the user. Because of the heavy power draw of the powered assist and cyclonic barrier systems however, the suit needs to be charged and maintained more frequently than the HEV. The sheer weight of the EXO also means that if the suit’s energy reserves are depleted in battle, unless the user had superior strength to begin with, it’s likely he’ll become a big metal paperweight.

The Exile barrier system differs in fundamental application. The Imperium “Charged Barrier” absorbs the energy and distributes it equally about the field, so it is easy to read shield strength as it depletes uniformly. The charged barrier is also much simpler in design, using only a single emitter for the entire barrier. The Exile “Cyclonic Barrier” features an array of emitters that spin the field, violently slapping aside incoming projectiles rather than attempting to stop them. The cyclonic barrier depletes much quicker than the charged barrier and has a much higher power draw. Also if one of the emitters is damaged, the balance of the barrier can be thrown off, significantly reducing its effectiveness or even injuring the person inside. Because of its high power draw, however, it recovers much quicker than a charged barrier as well.

Space Travel: FTL vs. the Space Fold

Faster Than Light (FTL) travel was developed by the Imperium shortly after the advent of spaceflight, allowing quick expansion and colonization of the moons and planets in the Kizaran system. As its name suggests, it operates by accelerating the entire ship to light speed. Its comparatively low power draw and efficiency mean that even non-capital (craft smaller than a frigate), small-crew, or even single-man craft are capable of FTL travel without assistance. The main drawback is that because of the sheer size of the Kizaran system, it can take weeks, or even months to reach your destination.

The Space Fold is Exile technology. Fundamentally, it operates by creating a wormhole between two points, such that the craft enters on one side and exits on the other near instantaneously. Once the wormhole is open, it can be sustained so that other ships can enter. The tremendous power required to form the wormholes means that only larger ships are capable of performing the Space Fold, meaning any kind of support craft must either have assistance from a capital ship for point to point travel, or be carried along by the fleet.

Starship Classes

Fighter Craft: Fighters are small, agile craft capable of incredibly fast sub-light speeds and performing insane maneuvers. Fighters are vulnerable to point-defense lasers, but are largely immune to the large anti-ship turrets and spinal mounted weapons of larger ships due to their speed. Imperium fighters are typically manned by one pilot, but have small compartments behind the cockpit for the "comfort" of the pilot on long trips. It usually consists of a tiny pull-out bed, compartment for rations, a hydration tank, and an equally tiny toilet. These long-range craft can hold enough consumables (atmosphere, food, and hydration) for approximately three weeks.

The short-range fighters staffed on Imperium carriers have traded the "living" space for over-sized crystal cores, and larger barrier emitters. Since Exile fighter craft are not capable of keeping up with their respective fleets, they are all manufactured in a short-range configuration. Because of the close-range nature of fighter combat, both Imperium and Exile fighter-craft typically favor plasma based weapons and cap-busting torpedoes. Interceptor class fighters used for screening capital ships from enemy fighter-craft feature over-sized cores, engines, and barrier emitters, and a more robust crystal array for generating plasma, but lack torpedoes for fighting larger ships.

Imperium Fighters are capable of travelling at light speed.

The Gunship At nearly quadruple the size of a normal fighter, these lumbering mountains of holy cleansing fire feature turrets that can cover every angle of approach. Gunships are still quite fast at sub-light and able to avoid larger anti-ship fire but can't outrun or outmaneuver the smaller, faster fighters and interceptors. Gunships vary in size and armament, but typically crew 2-5 with an adequate but small living space for long distance missions. Modular turrets and robust shields and armor make these craft formidable and flexible foes able to tackle nearly any mission. Gunships feature hard-hitting rails or lances and payloads of anti-cap plasma bombs capable of inflicting heavy damage to larger ships. Since Exile gunships must be carried along with their respective fleets, they trade living space for larger engines and payload capacity.

Imperium Gunships are capable of travelling at light speed.

The Transport or Armed Transport: Just like the name sounds, transports are larger ships typically outfitted for moving a small cargo of freight or people. Some pirate and mercenary gangs have outfitted their transports with turrets and modified engines, making them robust combat craft capable of taking on much hardier targets than a small group of fighters. Transports have comfortable living space for a crew of 6 and can transport up to 2500 cubic meters of cargo, depending on how the cargo space is arranged. Mercenary and pirate gangs sometimes carry land vehicles in their transports, or small boarding parties. For an size comparison of a transport, think of the "Millennium Falcon" from Star Wars, or the "Serenity" from Fire Fly.

Imperium Transports are capable of travelling at 2x light speed.

Industrial Craft: As you would expect, Industrials are the workhorses of space. Typically manned by a crew of 4 to 8, this class of ship encompasses everything from salvage ships to the massive mining barges that melt down asteroids into useful ores and metals that are used in the construction of stations and starships. Industrial ships are not fit for combat, but Imperium industrials can travel at 2x light speed.

Freighter: Freighters are massive cargo transports, typically manned by a crew of 12. Easily the size battleships, Freighters are capable of hauling incredible amounts of cargo in their gigantic holds. A freighter can hold as much as 890,000 cubic meters worth of cargo, or 667 semi-trailers. With their battleship-sized engines they are able to travel at nearly 3x light speed. It is unknown whether or not Exiles possess freighters.

Frigate: A frigate is the "fighter" of the capital ship world. They are large ships with crews of 50 or more, but with over-sized drives and thrusters, allowing them to achieve speeds and perform maneuvers that larger ships are typically incapable of doing. In fleet battles, frigates move in under the minimum range for anti-ship batteries and cripple enemy barriers or critical systems with close range lasers or torpedoes. Frigates can also engage in ranged combat with their spinal-mounted bore-sight weapons. Frigates also have decent sized cargo holds, and a bay that can hold two short-range fighters, or two shuttles.

With their over-sized engines, frigates are capable of travelling at 4x light speed for one or two hours at a time (before they cook the crew), otherwise they have a normal cruising speed of 2x light speed.

Blackship: This ships earned their name, oddly enough, by being black. These Exile boats are as dark as the void of space, and reflect nearly no light. In the dead of space, with their lights out, they are nearly invisible. Research done on captured Blackships show that they can hide from enemy sensors by sinking their heat emissions into specially refrigerated capacitors along their hull instead of radiating it out into space. It is the closest thing to a cloaking device that currently exists. It allows the frigate to passively observe unnoticed for days at a time, or move through systems unseen for several hours. The heat buildup within the hull can reach levels high enough to cook the crew if left unchecked, so the invisibility is not permanent, but it is useful. Blackships that have reached their heat capacity must vent it back into space, which effectively doubles their signal radius for a short period of time.

Blackships are capable of Space-Folding.

Crewing a Starship

The average crew complement for an Imperium frigate is approximately 50... 50 crew for an out of the box frigate with a default AI and no Ship's Cat helpers. A well funded frigate with a high level of automation and engineers with KASUMI tech assistants can be operated with a crew of 10. If you want a crew of androids, you can fly your frigate by yourself, but there's one major flaw with these plans: If your ship's computer gets damaged, broken, or hacked in any way that it becomes inoperable... your frigate still takes 50 people to fly it, the AI, drones and ship's cats were just performing the work of 50 people.

A crew of 50 assumes a full compliment of bridge crew and officers, tactical crew, maintenance and tech crew, and support crew, in enough shifts to keep the ship manned and operational 24/7. Because FTL travel barely breaks the light barrier, ships can be out in space for long periods of time (see: space is big).

Finding Each Other in Space

Space is big (see: space is big), and even the huge battleships, massive carriers, gigantic dreadnaughts, and titanic... titans are miniscule compaired to the vastness of space. Since space is empty, and every object in uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it (Newton). Meaning, a 20 kilo ferrous slug fired at 1.3% of light speed that misses its target will tend to remain travelling at 1.3% of light speed unless another object impedes its flight trajectory; in which case it will impact with 35 megatons of force. It might hit the planet behind the target, or fly through space and hit someone in 10,000 years. When these weapons are fired, somewhere, sometime, someone's day is ruined (Making Sir Isaac Newton the deadliest sonofabitch in space). So with weapons that have near instantaneous impact at... say about 2500 miles (~400 miles farther than the coast to coast width of the United States), ships need to be able to find and target one another. The Imperium has four standards of sensor input divided into active and passive catagories. Active sensors "ping" their targets with a signal and await a response. The ship receiving the ping shows a blip on their sensors, which notifies the tactical officers that they have been pinged while the computer attempts to triangulate an origin. Passive sensors wait to receive incoming transmissions, and then calculate an origin relative to the ship. None of these standards can detect an object moving at the speed of light.

Radar: Just like you think it would work; basically ships send out pulses and wait for signals to bounce back, and then calculate an origin based on the amount of time it took the signal to return.

Ladar: Detects other ships by bouncing lasers off of them. It is much more accurate and has a greater range than Radar, but has a much narrower field of view due to having to focus the array on its target. Typically these are mounted as forward facing arrays set to scan in front of the ship in a cone. Ladar targeting arrays are also typically mounted on any kind of weapon battery.

Thermal/Signal: A starship generates a lot of "noise" in space. Thrusters, engines, equipment, weapons, and core systems generate heat which must be radiated into space to avoid cooking the crew. Electrical systems and crystal cores generate Electromagnetic waves, friendly ships broadcast their IFF and generate other miscellaneous radio and light signals from talking to the FTL beacons scattered about the Kizaran territories. These emissions, in combination with their thermal profile create what is called a "signature radius," and is measured in meters. Thermal and signal sensors can lock on to these emissions and calculate an origin much faster than either Radar or Ladar can send out a ping and await a reply. Ships with a smaller signature radius are, of course, harder to lock on to but Thermal / Signal sensors are currently the fastest and most accurate means of obtaining a lock on another ship in space. Ships with stealth systems can sink these emissions into their hulls for short periods of time to fool Thermal / Signal sensors, which is why ships also have Radar and Ladar backup.

Visual Stealth systems only hide the thermal, electromagnetic, and radio emissions of a ship... anyone can still just look out the window and see you.

The Ship’s Cat

As I’ve mentioned: space is big. Without assistance from an AI, plotting FTL travel can be treacherous. The upside is that if you collide with another object at faster than light speeds, it’s likely you won’t even realize that you’ve died. Starships are fitted with an AI, of course, but the ship’s AI is largely meant to regulate the ship’s operations, man the communication and sensor equipment, and other menial tasks which require a lot of manpower. To reduce the number of crew required to operate a starship and also increase the efficiency of FTL travel, the Ship’s Cat was developed.

The Ship’s Cat is an AI construct specifically designed to eliminate the “mortal error” involved with manual navigation. As its name suggests, it has the appearance of a common house cat. These constructs are able to compute orbital paths of destinations, stellar drift and travel time, and a number of other variables involved with FTL travel in a fraction of the time it would take a team of Kizaran with computers to do so. They can interlink with the network of FTL beacons scattered about the Kizaran territories and instantly receive updates and travel advisories from all over the system.

As starship technology has advanced, the Ship’s Cat began coming in several different models, most common of which is the ARTEMIS navigation model. Several non-navigational units have been developed to act as tech assistants, since their small size and agility allow them to access areas of the ship which are too confining for a person to operate normally. Whereas the ARTEMIS is considered to be an android, the KASUMI series tech assistants are nano-machine constructs, allowing them to change their configuration on the fly as the situation merits.

There are unconfirmed rumors of extra-planar beings that resemble Ship’s Cat constructs, and pose as navigational units for their own ends.

Other means of travel: The Planes, Trails, and other places.

If you thought the place where we exist was the only place, you were wrong. Existence as we see it is only part of the puzzle. Kizarans and other entities live on the “material plane,” which consists of the planets and space as we know it. It is known that there are other places of existence and ways to access them. The existence of the planes, trails, and other realms has been known since the early days, however only the dragons, and certain individuals have the power and skill to routinely navigate through these areas safely. Because of this, I only will only touch briefly upon it. The meta-planes are their own universe, subject to their own rules, life, and dangers. It is possible to travel though these places to reach other areas of the material plane, however expeditionary forces sent through to the meta-planes have always met with disaster, so development of this alternate travel was thrown out and left to the dragons, or other individuals who have the capability to do it on their own. It’s important to know they exist, but their influence on your daily life is likely to be nonexistent.