"We are the lesser sons of greater fathers, all of us, and our martial skills have not escaped the general decline afflicting all the arts of civilization. The noble-born dilute their valorous blood with unworthy marriages; the guilds forget how to repair the great works of their predecessors; and so weaker hands wield ever-weaker weapons, and the arms and armor inherited from the past are precious heirlooms all too often beyond our skills to use."
Bloodstained Stars. An Old Warrior's Meditations on the Art of Killing in the Iron Empires, Addressed to My Most Warlike Prince; On the Art of War in an Age of Decline.
For Humanity, it is the year 597 of the Hanrilke Era. The Great Civil War has come to a close. Rather than settle the succession, it fractured humanity into numerous warring states.
The Hanrilke Empire, once a symbol of order and peace, is a distant memory akin to the days of the Federated Empire and the Federation before it. The noble houses of the Darikahn Empire possess the Hanrilke throne. The Gonzagin asserts its claim to the Hanrilke bloodline with support of the Mundus Humanitas that has lost its status as state religion and been outlawed by the Darikahn Empire. Where humanity was once united under a single emperor who oversaw all of human life, there are now "Iron Empires"; interstellar states run by petty, warlike nobles.
Once again human civilization stands at the brink of the disaster and the human race threatens to tear itself apart with jealously and greed in the face of our ancient enemy, for we do not wish to die, but we simply can't agree on who is to restore us to our former glory and so bitter are we – are all of us!- that we would rather see our neighbour gutted by the enemy, than to support him against a common foe.
The Casiguran Matriarchy, a society which is ruled by woman despite the warnings of the Mundus Humanitas, The Comoran Worlds, who are embroiled in ceaseless religious wars with those that doubt its orthodoxy, The Darikhan Empire, most potent of the Iron Empires, but unable to marshal its own Dukes, The Dunedin Worlds, whose crusades serve to fill their treasuries and spread the faith, The Ganzogin Empire, who opposes the Darikahn to their dying breath, The Karsan League were science and progress are hailed as defence against the ancient foe, and the Urfan Worlds, poor and remote but ever sure in their ways: These vast realms contain a myriad of worlds each, but are tiny and impotent compared with the glory of the past.
These eight weary nations span three million light years of the Milky Way Galaxy. They are the withering remains of a human civilization once immeasurably vast – and Their dying has not been quiet.
Once, the human race was great, creating wonderous civilizations that spanned a galaxy: planets were terraformed to human needs, vast orbital elevators and spaceports were created to enrich the all of Mankind. Unthinkable as it is in these dark ages, but all true: once all of mankind enjoyed the bounties and abundance of High Index Technology. Wondrous and powerful technology like force fields, transhuman biomodification, the ansible, matter converters, mirco-blackhole reactors and technology that allowed to enhance or restrict the psychological powers of those with the bright mark. It was a time when humanity was united, when messages could be sent across the galaxy in a matter of days and no enemy existed that could prevail against the overwhelming force of our ancestors.
But is not the first and fundamental teaching of our Prophet Amilahk (may his name life forever) that all of us must submit to Fate? How arrogant our ancestors in the days of the Federation had been? To think they could reshape the world at their will, that humanity under the Church of Science would guide to perfection. Today we know better and then the Worm infiltrated the ranks of the Federation, when world after world fell to Insidious Infiltration, did not the Wheel of Fire turn and with it rose the first Emperor of all Humanspace: Astal Merovingen as Chief Executive Minister?
But even as they turned to the Church of the Machine in their heresy, the Wheel turned and the Empire was beset by dissension, invasion and the Worm, and only once generation after generation had been chastened by disaster did our Prophet Ahmilahk (may his name life forever) arose to preach the river of fire and alongside him the great Ober Hanrilke rose to become the first emperor to impose the true religion by Imperial Law.
But what are these religions, these civil wars and Schism against the Worm? To the galactic south of these powerful and petty Empires, engulfing what were once the Sovereign, River, Golden and Glorious Prefectures of the great Empire and long before it the core of the Federation, dwells the enemy: the terror, the worm, the Vaylen.
To face them is to accept the inevitability of humanities fall from grace, to see what we have lost in planets, technologies and people: the end times have come and when we see the face of collapse, we see the gemini essence: human and inhuman, it has shaken us to the core. There has been no great drama, no cataclysmic wars, no dousing of the sun: the end has come slowly over the millennia, only an infection eating at the edges and slowly darkening the outer rim of human space. Perhaps our greatest fear is that the end wears a human face: that of our lovers, our spouses, our families and friends. It seems so farfetched that there exists a race of aliens whose utmost desire is to be human, to wear our skin, to think our thoughts and live our lives.
But it true: they want us – the need us. In humanity the Vaylen have found what they fundamentally lacked: emotion, unpredictability, utility, artistic creativity and most importantly: true sentience. Without us they are doomed to be confined to an animal state or something less than human, only when placed inside a human mind can they live the lives they would never – could never – have without us.
The worm comes again and again hungry for hosts for their trillion of offsprings, the eight empires are all that remains to stem their feverish tide, before they swallow us whole as they have done to whole sectors before: preying upon us world by world, taken body and mind of countless billions, Farmed us, hulled us and used us – as vessels, templates and surrogates.
But even as humanity seems poised to burn brightly in one last final moment, as the Iron Empires turn into themselves, forsaken the legacy of the Federated Empires crusades which had aimed to liberate those full and innocent worlds of humans that serve as farms to the Vaylen, not all hope is lost. Even as the Vaylen ready themselves for the last final push, as mighty fleets and armies are build or grow in their laboratories: humanity might still stave off the end and live to rebuild.
This has brought you to Decoth, a world that has been ravaged by Vaylen invasion, a world at the edge of even Urfan space. War has seen it scoured clean of much human life, what had not been kidnapped or hulled on the spot has been killed by thermonuclear weapons or poisonous gas: for what other mercy is there for a population with infected in them? Today Decoths industry has been smashed to pieces, its Hammer Lords killed aside from a few Lord-Pilots that operate the surviving gunships of the Forged Lord and its three surviving Anvil Lords have formed a Triumvirate to support the Forged Lord, who has come to rule after his father – and has only aged to his eight year: a child on the throne of a war ravaged planet.
It is by the grace of Count Basset that you were chosen to be send to this world: second sons and unmarried daughters: pillars and pedestals of your houses: Lords of the Anvil implanted with the lifelong training and Crucis interfaces to operate iron battlesuits or high-performance hussar antigrav crafts; Lords of the Hammer who own neither territory nor troops aside from their orbital base, but who wield the power to raze entire cities from Orbit or Lord-Courtiers whose martial training has been enhanced by training in Oratory, history, the arts and courtly skills.
You shall be send with a new household and these followers you gathered to stand before the Forged Lord, Baron Evestone and be given lands to call your own in return for fealty to him. For Decoth stands at the edges of the Dukes eight worlds and bandits, warlords and ambitious neighbours eye its resources enviously, even as the great worm enjoys its human bounty.
"Like you, great prince, I have known loved ones and whole worlds lost to the ancient foe. Like you, great prince, I have stood the long and lonely watch against the common enemy of humankind. Like you, great prince, I was born and raised in the Astartian worlds, the southern rampart of known space, charged by Fate with the sacred, thankless task of defending northern worlds from a threat they would prefer not to acknowledge. And in one way, sire, I have the advantage over you, for in my youth, I fought the Vaylen face to face; and in my youth, I saw they could be defeated."
Bloodstained Stars. An Old Warrior's Meditations on the Art of Killing in the Iron Empires, Addressed to My Most Warlike Prince; On the ancient common enemy of humankind.
"From a threatened planet on the borders of a given sector, a high-speed courier can carry word of invasion or revolt to the central worlds, a hundred light-years distant, in about four weeks; but a combat squadron sent from the centre to quell the threat will take, easily, twice as long, that is, two months or more. You may give an order to your courtiers, great prince, and see them scurry to obey it at once; and yet between an event transpiring on your frontier and your response to it, three months may well elapse.
Such distances and delays strain any central government to its limits, which is why a certain delegation of authority to local lords, that is, a system of feudalism, is best and more natural for an interstellar civilization."
Bloodstained Stars. An Old Warrior's Meditations on the Art of Killing in the Iron Empires, Addressed to My Most Warlike Prince; On the Great Lords.
Unlike the grand Empires, Theocracies and alliances of the Iron Empires, the Urfan Worlds are a loose collection of baronies at the northern fringes of the old central Prefecture, its golden age long lost and what planets remain settled have long since falling into isolation as others descend into barbarism and hard-bitten survival. While they are the furthest from the Vaylen threat, attacks to happen sparsely as they are not as shielded from the threat of the Worm as the inner worlds and raids and infiltrations are sometimes performed by Clans who took the long way around human space in the hunt for easy picking.
Lying at the very edge of human space, they are very poor, resting between the Silver and White Courses, regions of dim, failing stars that never promised much for human colonization efforts in the age of the Federation and Empire. Isolated both by distance and a lack of trade, they distrust strangers and remain stiffly conservative in face of the changes in other realms, sharing the religious fervor of the Dunedin and Comorans, they count themselves to the orthodox strain of the faith and differ from the Mundus Humanitas in matters of structures and worship, seeing their own teachings as the true distillation of the prophets words and the others as those who have "lost the way".
The people of the Urfan worlds are hardy and fierce fighters, talents they have to show often as formidable pirates contest their borders, hammer lords that turned to banditry and now pillage to support their fleets. Even so, the lack of wealth in the realms make any larger scale or even coordinated military strikes a thing of near impossibility and thus their joint operations remain disjointed on an interstellar scale.
Rule of the Urfan worlds rests in the hand of a Grand Lord called the U'zar, whose lineage can be traced back to Ahmilahk himself and by the blood of the prophet that does flow in his veins does he head the Mundus Faith in the north. But both titles ring empty as he can only lay claim direct control of his singular capital and a small number of industrialised worlds, the lesser worlds only counting in faithful but not in real power. Thus he lacks the authority to force the petty nobles to do his bidding like the Dunedin Emperor and he lacks the support that the lords in the Theocracy give their metropolitan. Thus the title has turned into more of a spiritual role to which the Barons and Counts give lip service, as they war between another and while he does not have the power to force the nobles into line, neither do they have the power to overthrow him and what Dukes arise in the Urfan worlds are not able to hold their gaggle of Counts together for long.
Your patron in this case is one of the few rare Barons who has been able to, via marriage, bribery, blackmail and conquest, been able to gather eight worlds around himself. Count Basset comes from a long and established bloodline that can boost more than a few ties to the U'zar and his court, where he has been established as Chamberlain for a decade, even if he has only officially performed his duties a handful of times. Your family have been loyal vassals so far, or merely some who have warranted a reward of some kind or another and with the Baron of Evestone and Decoth having been unable to resist the advances of the Count Basset either. Your presence on his world is going to be both a help in rebuilding it to once more turn into a source of wealth and military power for the Count, but also a reminder of his new loyalties as the ties of your family bind you to the Count even as the Baron will grant you new land in return for fealty and military service.
In this world the Grand Lord stands above all nobles of U'zar, below him come the occasional rising Dukes that unite dozens of planets with a handful of truly industrial, then the Count who do so for maybe a generation or two and below them the Forged Lords: Barons of single worlds and sometimes outposts, who hold command above Anvil-Lords like you that hold fiefs and command the ground forces and Hammer Lords, whose mighty cruisers strode through the vastness of the void to bring destruction to their lieges enemies. Below you stand the lesser nobles, Lord-Pilots Anvil of the Iron and Lord-Pilot Hammers with their gunships, who in turn might command detachment of commoners to bolster your forces. Thus the web of feudalism spans from the highest to the lowest of the World and brings with it the order necessary for the security of your worlds.
Primary Industry: Raw Materials – former Refined Goods
Quarantine: Standard Quarantine (nothing better is possible)
Regulations: Loosely Regulated
=}+{=
Even for the already remote Urfan Worlds, Decoth is even more isolated than it is the case for most other planets. Set at the north-eastern galactic edge of the Urfan worlds, it lies at the very border towards the Void, planets and dying stars, where pirates, bandits, outriders and worse gather and keep their lairs. Raids by Hammer-lords turned outlaws, terrible worm raids like the one that had just happened: life on the outworlds is harsh and unforgiving, the two things that have kept Decoth nearly continuously settled by humans are its strategic position; serving as connecting between a Ulora to the galactic-north and Atis to the galactic-west – as well as Nedinia to the galactic-east, even or especially because the later has turned into a lair of pirates and petty warlords, Decoth had served as border fortress and listening post; and it's the atmospheric conditions that support human-life without any artificial support.
No one can say today, for sure that is, if the Atmosphere of Decoth has been a stroke of luck for the initial human colonists or the end result of hard generation long work back when humanity had still been able to design whole new worlds in the image of the lost and and fabled motherworld. What life is spread on Decoth is edible for humans – but humans are in return so for the few predators that have survived close to human settlements – with their numbers having increased and gained some new entries thanks to wild creations of the Vaylen that had been left behind as their alien masters pulled back with the bodies they had sought out. Even so, Decoth is famous for a variety of apples and other fruits that have grown on the rich soil of its equatorial regions, delicacies that not only make a good profit if frozen and brought to the courts of other Baronies, but also serve as crew food if dried or canned properly.
Much of the planet is covered in oceans, seas and river: water making up a large portion of its surface has led to a comfortable climate in many regions of the planet, with some nudges by human hand to make sure that as much of its surface as possible could be farmed as pleasantly as possible – these designs of an ancient times have proven their worth time and time again as Decoth remains able to supply other words even as the technology used in the agriculture diminishes and regresses. While it only a few years ago had been able to call multiple factories its own, small arms, agricultural machines and other goods being produced both for the local market and abroad, the Vaylen invasion and the pirate attacks that happened after it, have stripped many of the old factories of first manpower and then machinery, with most of the remaining serfs on the planet working their fields with old tractors or even beasts of burden once more. Much of the advanced technologies now have to be imported and very little can be produced a new as opposed to being salvaged by enterprising salvagers and nobles.
What government remains on the planet is centred around the fortifications that have been undertaken around the capital city of Ridiff or more precisely: its Keep. Situated on top of a Plateau that must have served as landing point for the Forged Lords Evestones original landing, this thermal powered fortress connected hidden Q-Beam Silos, communication and sensor networks around the world and of course deep bunkers and defence systems – that large lie in ruin today. From its role as planetary defence fortification it has been shrunken down to the fortified remnants of human rule on a planet, where all other military installation and units have been overrun or bombed to so much rubble, with the remaining Anvil-Lords having survived in its protection, while nothing more than scattered bands of survivors remain of the other planetary holdings.
Nominally the authority over all Anvil and Hammer Lords on the planet rests in the hands of Baron Halbart Evestone, but as the boy in question is an eight year old child, the remaining Anvil Lords have banded together in a Triumvirate, which had been able to absorb the shattered remnants of their beaten peers forces to hold the Keep till negotiations with Count Basset had led to an Hammer Fleet saving them in return for Baron Evestone swearing himself to the Count. With this has come to confirmation that the planet of Decoth was going to stay the Noble Fief of the Forged Lords Evestone and thus your ascension as new vassals to a weak ruler.
As the Introductory Intro might have hinted at: this is going to be a game of noble Houses and families. Your characters are going to have their roles to play, but it was POV for your written pieces, for player interaction or merely for the boni they carry, but the play itself will be carried forward by the eight of the house and the family line, no matter how much time passes or how many lords have to fall in glorious battle or less glorious endings to secure its position on Decoth. Anvil Lords come and go, but the House remains. Thus, your primary task will be the creation of your House, Clan or Family – but mechanically and fluff-wise. For the creation of the House we will begin with the following steps:
Who leads the House?
The four kinds of soldiers
What Values does your House revere?
What Holdings do you bring with you to Decoth?
What is the Name and Heraldry of your House?
=} Choosing a Leader {=
The nobility of the Iron Empires rules through a hereditary system in which the right to govern is passed by blood from father to son, mother to daughter. The families of the nobility can trace this back to the ancient past, when their ancestors were granted this right by the divine Emperor himself – thus the right to rule is divinely inherited as well. Others might of course announce baser reasons, those who like Baron Drake see that the essential ability of the nobility is the will to kill and the will to risk being killed, expressed in the nobilities ability to be implanted with the Crucis and to bear the bald headed Corvus in exchange for being able to pilot Iron mechanized armour and Hammer Space Forces via mental commands. Very few can match the heavy armour and weaponry of an noble wearing Iron on the battlefield and very little can withstand the firepower of even the smallest of Hammer Cruisers.
If you have been send to Decoth there are few reasons the Count has chosen you instead of many other possible nobles who could have been tasked with spreading his influence to the new world, are you an Anvil Lord who controls a force of Lords-Pilots Anvils Iron Trained, a wise Courtier Lord or something else altogether?
1. Anvil Lord: Skilled in the classics you have been trained from a young age in the classics like The Principles of Planetary Security, learned by serving in the Anvil Forces of your family, where you were schooled in all weapons ranging from the humble assault rifle, to the squad support weapons like the anti-tank laser weaponry. When you came of age your scalp was permanently depilated and the Crucis implanted: an electronic port in the back of your head, shaped like a cross, that allows you to control your mighty suit of Iron Armour. You are trained in the arts of strategy and command, physics and artillery and have been taken along in minor campaigns to learn the roles of Anvil and Hammer.
Classic Commander: Your House enjoys a +2d to all rolls when Might is brought to bear in large scale battles or to intimidate others, your commands keeping your troops well-ordered and led.
2. Court Lord: Like any other Lord you bear the Crucis that connects to your occipital lobe and you have trained for the Iron in your Youth. But you never choose to limit yourself to the martial class like many of your peers did, instead you flocked to the court of the Duke, where you spend your young years as Coeptir as page to various courtiers, learning the in and outs of high society as you styled ever elaborate wigs, learned the mysterious was of accounting and even accompanied a few diplomatic missions to the various independent Barons of the region in the name of your liege. You were at the right position and had the right ears when it was time to find new vassals for Decoth: and here you are.
Courtly Manners: Your House enjoys a +2d to all rolls that Influence other noble houses and at court. After all, a glittering show for the right eyes can be as impressive as a Hammer.
3. Void Lord: You have seen much, too much: following the diaries of the crusaders of eras past you had joined expeditions setting out into the void between the Iron empires: you have seen barbarism without peer imagined by human minds and seen efficient nightmares created by human hands under the control of alien minds. You have fought on distant worlds to reclaim the Lost secrets of the past and you have battled the Worm in all its forms – and these experiences have left you wary and bitter. It is intended as a reward this posting, to allow you to come to rest, to build something to last – and to put you far away from a court that distrusts those that ply the Void: after all, where the shadows loom, the Worm waits.
Late-born Crusader: Your House enjoys a +2d to all rolls in regard to actions against the Vaylen and in understanding and salvaging high-index artefacts.
4. Martial Psychologist: Created and perfected by the genetic engineering of the long-gone Federation, psychology was once mankinds most profound science, but as many things today has degenerated into a weapon of war, controlled absolutely by church and nobility. The Bright Mark on your face around your eye, akin to a long drawn out scar or the rays of a sun sketched into your skin, identifies you to all those around you as a Psychologist. Able to decipher the gossamer veils of emotion, deception, clarity and purpose you are able to understand, bolster and command those around you. Trained in the arts of deception and warfare, a foundation of noble psychologists had trained you in their ranks – giving you an even brighter sign of your status than the crucis that you lack: revered and feared – with good reason.
Psychologist: Your House gains a +2d roll to Influence actions seeking to understand the viewpoint of others and a +2d roll to all military actions happening in coordination with another faction.
5. Lord / Lady: You were never supposed to rule, you were not even afforded the training for Iron and Anvil. Maybe you are a seventh born son or daughter, or a child born to the mistress of your noble father. Your faith might have been to life your days as Cotar of the Mundus Humanitas, a Stentor helping one of your cousins into their Iron and out of it, a Ravilar to recod your Houses history or maybe just the participant of a wedding for the benefit of your house. But the Wheels turn eternal and fate has bestowed upon you the chance to rise far above what anyone would have expected of you.
Favoured by Fate: Your House might be surprised by your ascension but is nonetheless willing to support you with all their power: choose an additional Holding.
=} The Four Kind of Soldiers {=
"I do not deceive myself. I will feel fear, but it will make my senses sharper. I will feel anger, but it will make my blows fall harder. Let others fear fear and hate hatred: I will master them. I am not a killing machine: I am a lethal animal."
Form the "Anvil Coeptir's Creed" in The Catechism for Imperial Cadets
There is little to a noble house as important as the strength of their armed forces and many if not most realms rely on the fighting prowess of their Iron clad nobility and the sleek armoured Anvil-forces of commoners they command. Still, most often these born warriors are too few to make up a whole planet's military, even if they might just be the main fighting force of a particular wealthy fief or family, and consequently the militaries of the Iron Kingdom are made up by commoners of all kinds of shapes, supported by tracked, hover or even anti-grav warmachines and weapons ranging from the durable assault rifles to the devastating particle weapons. Still what kind of military system does your House employ?
1. Levy: The largest formations of these kind are the Landwehr of the Karsans, which get employed as last-ditch defence against the Vaylen and other aggressors and while their performance can be spotty, they have shown again and again that the man and even the occasional woman defending their homes can be highly motivated – if not trained- against those who would rain death and destruction upon their families. Clad in Ballistic Body Armour and armed with assault guns and rifles, they bolster their Lords forces in large numbers and with the best knowledge of the terrain if fighting at home.
Irregular Forces: While they might not have the holding power of heavy infantry or the swiftness of grav-equipped mechanized infantry, they are versatile and deadly when fighting irregular battles in the lands they call home. You get a +2d bonus when rolling to evade enemy pursuit or counterattack.
2. Conscription: Baron Drake would compare conscripts to Anvil-born like pig-iron to steel: readily available and easily reshaped into a variety of forms, even if they do lack the inner fire that wold make them fine combat troops. But to turn adults into professional soldiers many planets do keep them in the army for up to a decade, turning them into a readily available pool of manpower that can be called upon with some measure of reliability and entrusted with even heavier equipment.
Canton System: From their birth on, commoners that serve your House are put into long lists that detail the date and duration of their drafts upon reaching adulthood. This gives you a +2d rolls to replenishing your Might-Quality after having suffered loses.
3. Professional Volunteer Force: While many nobles might find those dangerously unexpectable people who volunteer to be soldiers of their own free will deeply suspicious, there is an certain esprit-de-corps that nobles find deeply unsettling in their armed forces and is more often seen in the petty armies of "citizen-soldiers" fielded by self-ruled communes. They might either be a state-run armed force that recruits without regard for rank, privilege or religion or a well-funded mercenary outfit that has found more or less permanent employ in your services.
Professionals: Trained and drilled in the classics, these highly motivated forces give you a +2d Bonus to raising your Might quality temporarily be it by Sovereignty or Treasure.
4. Anvil-Born: As there are not enough nobility and pilotry to man a handful of elite units and to officer the rest, most noble families call upon the uncommon commoners who have spend generation after generation as line soldiers of the Anvil forces in their command. This self-producing caste of soldiers live in cantonments with houses, schools, temples, wives and children, who in turn learn their father's trade. Don't even foot soldiers benefit from a little breeding and is not every common trade passed from father to son?
Born-Soldiers: A conscript, volunteer or militiaman might fight for glory, loot, love of home or fear of punishment; but a soldier fights so his father will not be ashamed. Thus Anvil-Born forces gain a +2d to withstanding any attack on their moral or integrity.
=} What do you Value? {=
Unity! – There's not a single person not united behind your leaders and their vision, there's a role for everyone and your house strives to encompass all below it in its harbouring embrace, allowing you to roll for Territory + Treasures to raise Sovereignty or Sovereignty + Territory to raise Might, with a reduced Difficulty by 1.
Loyalty! – In your vassals and commoners, the name and sign of your House inspires loyalty born from tradition and full-fledged support. Your people are willing to do more, endure more and risk more not because they expect a reward, but because this is rewarding in itself. +2d to Might + Sovereignty rolls for policing against unconventional attacks.
Defiance! - Your people submit only when forced and have a long history of repulsing invaders – but also your taxman. While they are not the easiest to govern, they won't be pushed about and outside pressure only makes them band tighter together: +1d bonus to all Sovereignty rolls if your House is under attack by outside forces.
Piety! – As the six-fingered Prophet Amilahk has foretold the Wheels of fate turn and burn as nothing stays and nothing remains constant as our fates raise us up the highest pedestals, only to strike us down to the lowliest of the low. Your people are devout members of the orthodox Mundus Humanitas and invoke the Prophets name for his aid. They are fearful of the demons and the Worm and not above telling on their neighbours if they suspect them of failing the prophets teachings. You gain a +2d bonus when making to Might + Sovereignty rolls in policing your population.
Privacy! – Your people are withdrawn and polite, their formality might not extend as far as that the Karsan League are known for, but they respect boundaries and are not the kind of people to gossip. They are also quite aware that loose tongues can be deadly for the House or at least get the offending tongue torn out and thus you gain a +2d bonus for Counter-Espionage (Territory + Influence).
Style! – Maybe your House is trying to outdo the Baroque look of the Darikahn Empire maybe you are going your own way: either way you are turning heads as you choose complex, ornate, oddly shaped and coloured clothing, accessories and jewellery that bring much needed splendour to the dreary frontier. You gain a +2d bonus to Sovereignty + Treasure rolls on raising your Influence – with those who value your stylishness.
Opportunism! – Be it on the battlefield or at the court, your House sees any opportunity not seen and not taken as one that was wasted and your knives, smiles and skirmishers are always ready to step into whatever opening has exposed itself to you. Thus your House gains a +2d bonus on clandestine operations undertaken by Might + Influence rolls.
Austerity! – It is a dark age we live in and a solemn one. Maybe you are thinking of this when you choose your dress, maybe you are harking back to the austere dress styles of the Federated Empire or maybe you find simple clothing and ceremony, with monochrome colours the most practical. You gain a +2d bonus to Sovereignty + Treasure rolls on raising your Influence - with those who value your modest seriousness.
=} What Holdings do you bring with you to Decoth? {=
Armourers and Gunsmiths: Small in numbers are the armourers that still understand the craft of creating and repairing the Iron, but when it comes to the creation of suits of ballistic body armour or the heavy Anvil armour – anvil for short- your house can boost with a large number of experts in the field. Masters in the creation of high-test ceramics, plastics and more complicated systems like basic environmental systems and user feedback interfaces, your artisans can create all manner of protective suits. Adding in your gunsmiths and weapon engineers, your House enjoys a +2d bonus to Sovereignty + Territory rolls to increase Might.
Fortress Architects: As the keep of Decoth has shown, fortifications can make the different between victory and defeat. Unlike in space cover is abundant on planets and the craft of your engineers only adds to the already existing features, as sensors can be fooled by trees and moving cattle and even dirt, piled sufficiently thick, can absorb an antimatter explosion. Small things like that, paired with deep subterranean bunkers allow you to keep your keep quite protected and invading arms have to face you with a +2d bonus to Might+Territory defence rolls.
Actors and Artists: The creative and the epic flock to your house, poets, historians and artists who bring with them a whole variety of themes and techniques that are put to use in bettering the standing of your House. Often enough they are the kind of people you need when having to stabilize your rule or show your glory and wealth off for your subjects to see. You thus get to add a +2d bonus when rolling Territory Treasure to temporarily raise Sovereignty.
Foreign investments: Maybe you engaged in some high risk investments on another planet before you were called here, maybe you took part in a consortium or two or maybe you brought a particular picky cash crop onto the planet, the result is quite simple: for two turns a year you will get +2 Treasure, for the other two turns you get a -1 to your Treasure.
Serfs and Slaves: Detestable as it might seem to an enlightened and noble mind, slavery is still prominent and prevalent through the Iron empires and can range from those who work themselves to death in the mines to these elevate few who serve in the personal households of nobles. Maybe you have brought your own score of slaves from a recent raid, maybe you have a large number of serfs who are bound to ground and farm in your name: what you have is a cheap workforce working your lands and factories. Once at the beginning of a year, you might permanently decrease your Sovereignty by 1 and increase your treasure permanently by 1.
War pays for War: War in the Iron Kingdoms has become one of the few ways a domain is able to enrich itself, gone are the monuments of the past or at least the means to build them and to plunder or conquer your enemy has become the way you increase your wealth and that of your people. Your armed forces have an Expert Dice (say which number you want it to be) when raiding the enemy.
Predictable Bounty: There's a time of year when your House is enjoying the fruits of its labour. Maybe you have an annual harvest festival, maybe you have a contract with an enterprising merchant that visits you once a year or maybe there's a religious festival in your holdings to honour the Prophet and the burning Wheel. Money flows more freely and people let down their guard. Pick one season in a year, during which your company temporarily has +1 Territory, +1 Treasure and -1 Might.
=} Who leads your House? {=
Name:
Nickname:
Gender:
Age:
Appearance:
Personality:
Motivation:
Biography:
=} What is the Name and Heraldry of your House? {=
Name:
Motto:
Goal:
Heraldry:
History:
=} What are the Qualities of your House? {=
While your House exists to follow one Goal or another, with your House leaders having shorter lifespans, but bring their own motivations into the mix, it is the qualities of your House that allow you to act upon those short or long-time goals. Each Quality is needed to get things done in the world. Spying out secrets, toppling governments, making a fortune and so on. The five qualities are abstract to keep things fluid and easier to keep track off. You can spend actions on trying to raise them, which is harder, or try to frame your orders in a way that either gives you situational boni on your action or hands you one as preparation for the next action.
Your seasonal actions are resolved by adding the number of your qualities together and rolling that number xd10. Success is measured via the matching dice you roll, with the height of the eyes you roll showing the quality of success, while the amounted of matching pairs shows the quantity of your success. In the end things aim for you to bolster your rolls to be as high as possible, with rolls bearing the risk to diminish your qualities both in success or failure, depending on your actions and their results.
For example if you want to sway the opinion of the local refugees about you, you might use your Influence Quality of 4 (showing your ability to start a campaign in their camp) - together with your Treasury of 3 (used to buy food and other necessities to bribe them ) and on top of it a permanent modifier of +1 because you are playing as a pious house, which values generosity. Now with a Pool of 8 dice, you throw 1,1,8,8,5,10,6,10 and thus gain 3 Successes (/Paris), winning your challenge and getting the refugees of your local district as supporters.
To personalize your House after the Assets you have chosen so far, you gain 20 Points to spread over the 5 Qualities that you have to choose from. Which are the following:
Might: is the faction's general aptitude at applying physical violence, commanding troops, recruiting armies etc. A rating of 1 implies an organisation with little or no aptitude for physical coercion, while a rating of 10 usually involves a force that is able to reconquer whole continents of your ravaged word - everything beyond that only gets more impressive. It encompasses the number of soldiers active at a given time, their degree of training and equipment, their access to cutting edge technology, and the brilliance (or foolishness) of their commanders.
Treasure: indicates the faction's commercial and industrial resources. A Wealth score of 1 means that the faction has little in the way of income or investments, no dedicated manufacturing facilities. A Wealth score of 10 is appropriate for someone who has nearly single handedly restored global trade to our torn world and can showcase facilities and impressive marvels of industry that would fit on any other Low-Index world. A House with a wealth of 1 only has worn out tools, simple clothing and very industrial and agricultural equipment. At level 3 you have a variable city with areas of poverty and prosperity, while a level 5 House has deep reserves and can allow a comfortable lifestyle. From level 7 onward your city radiates casual opulence and wealth.
Influence: is the word which you can use for everything and nothing. It gives you a gauge of how much your city knows and how powerfully (and subtly) a group can sway the opinions of other groups. This is not the power to redraw borders directly, but the power to learn what the other leader believes, and perhaps persuade him otherwise. At level one you barely know more than your immediate surroundings, at level 3 you start to learn of major events with some lag and are able to gain influence and at level five you have a pretty good picture of things happening around the world. From level seven onward the whole world listens to your words and gets observed by you in turn.
Territory: Another very abstract Quality, Territory measures more than just acreage (though that's part of it). Territory means population, it means the strength of the land and its fertility, it means factories, tractors and cities. Good Territory indicates educated followers and efficient workers. It is the measure of your City's physical ability to grow and to recover from setbacks. At the beginning of the game, you will be given a fief for the acreage part of this value, so fluff wise all points you put into this now are machines and people you bring with you.
Sovereignty: Perhaps the least-tangible Quality, Sovereignty indicates the inner strength of your society. It measures the loyalty of the people to the House and its leaders, and more, their dedication to one another. It is, essentially, their identity as subjects of your House and with a high Sovereignty you can expect a great deal of voluntary aid from even its lowliest followers — acting not from hope of reward, but out of a sense of pride or civic duty.
Factions with low Sovereignty may dissolve from within, even when there's no external threat. Sovereignty is different from every other Quality in one important way: Every Faction must have at least one point in it every season. It can be a temporary point caused by strenuous leadership, but it has to be there. Otherwise the House dissolves into infighting and can be swallowed by a neighbour. You can survive hitting zero in anything else. If your group identity dies, your group dies. At level one your people barely restrain their hate on you, level three is the typical loyalty of citizens and at level five they actually take pride in their fealty to you and your accomplishments. From level seven onward there's a total cultural cohesion to the point of xenophobia or at least snobbery.
Maybe your factions are feeling as if they can work well together, better than one might have expected in this situation. In such a case you can merge your factions together into a new one. Qualities of equal value get combined and raise by 1, qualities which are unequal are changed into the higher stat. This means that If two factions with Might 4 combine, the new faction would have Might 5. While a faction with Influence 3 combining with a faction of influence 5 would result in the new merged faction also having an Influence of 5. Things get even funnier if multiple factions decide to merge at once.
If you split up Qualities (maybe to use soldiers at two actions/places instead of just one), you split it according to the rules above – so a Might 5 military is made up by 2 x Might 4 or 4x Might 3 armies. Careful if they degrade on their attack thought – you might lose in power when you recombine them once more.
Improving qualities (aside from mergers of the voluntary or involuntary kind), happens by using them, improving them through actions and generally gaining experience points with them. The XP cost for raising a Quality is equal to ten times its new level. If you want to raise your Company's Might to 6, you need to put in 60 XP. Raising Sovereignty from 1 to 2 costs 20 XP.
=} Turns/Seasons and Court {=
Time passes in Seasons, an local adaption based not too different from the way time was measured on the fabled homeworld of humanity, even or especially in these dark ages the times of sowing and harvest mark the passing of the year. Each season you can undertake a variety of actions that typically involve combining up to two qualities together for an action, only to see the result at the beginning of the next season.
To top all of this off, Baron Evestone invites all Anvil-Lords of the planets to his court at the start of each new year to give praise to the Prophet (may his live forever), hold court above the squabbles of your Houses and to bring forward new large scale projects and decisions that only the planet at whole can manage. You can send an PM to me to nominate one topic you want the Court to talk about, with the decision on which topics will be discussed by the Lords lying by the young Baron. That serves to give your characters a stage, allow you to call upon your house qualities to nudge the Court in your favour and do all the courtly backstabbing we are here for.
The game will begin with such a Meeting of the Court to divide up the currently fiefs between the newcomers and the three Anvil Lords that survived invasion and Raids so far.
Name: Lord Hadrian of House Aurelius. Hadrian Aurelius for short. Nickname: The Valiant, the golden. Leader Trait: Favoured by Fate. Gender: Male Age: 24
Motivation: Power: power to survive, power to deny the worm, power to safeguard those sworn to him. Power there is so little off. Biography: Born noblity, Hadrian would have had his lordship if not for the fact he was a fifth son of a 3rd in line for the throne of the world he was born on. It would have been fine if not for the fact the boy was too ambitious for his own good, ill suited to be a hammer or anvil lord so he was instead gifted the means to see to his own fortunes in the void between planets: an aged military vessel with a considerable now emptied hangar bay to do what he could to find glory among the stars.
He was not expected to be as favoured by fortune as he would later be known as his moniker the Valiant for several bold intrusions to seize goods or ships from pirates that would see his favour rise and as the courts feared what he would do with this clout his mother and several of her allies decided it was best he was granted an reward: and stop shaking things up a
Name: House Aurelius Motto: "Standing together upholding the Eagle." Goal: Establishing a major fief on the planet of Decout.
Heraldry: Golden twin headded Aquila. History: A group of mercenaries, house retinues and adventerous nobles, House Aurelius formed around the young Lord Hadrian when he headded out with his first vessel and started to ply the shipping lanes doing various forms of transport jobs, anti-piracy operations, as well as several oppertunistic strikes to liberate interesting goods or people while blaming rivals of his friends among higher noblity. All that work paid off as the group swelled, and openings arrived on Decout proved to the perfect means to establish himself. He took it willingly, and with delight here Mother who had assumed he would die early backed his claim and set several able architects from her holdings to counter the fact his group while able to maintain and keep their vessels and anvil suits operational had never really had any land based fortifications and solved the main issue the group had when it came to establishing themselves on their new fief and allowed the young lord to draw more people to his banner as a result.
Value: Unity. Hadrian's people had to depend on themselves and his leadership for years. The group leaves nobody behind.
Holdings:
Armorers and Gunsmiths: +2d bonus to Sovereignty + Territory rolls to increase Might.
Fortress Architects: +2d bonus to Might+Territory defence rolls.
Soldiers: Anvil-Born. As the Father served, so will his sons. House Aurelius depends on it's population of knights and servant houses to provide the bulk of it's armed forces and naval crews.
Qualities:
Might: 4
-A single army of mixed arms, able to split up into two lesser groups to deal with issues as they crop up.
Treasure: 4
-Several prospering investments, machinery and equipment bought in bulk, all there to make Kethar a profitable center of industry.
Influence: 3
-Lady Laetitia handles the day to day of the court, and scheeming best left in the dark besides the skeletons in the closet.
Territory: 6
-Kethar is rich in resources and House Aurelius has several experienced cadres of artificers and engineers to lead the industries to turn iron ore into anvil and hammer.
Soverignity: 4
-While the locals of Kethar wishes for their old lords, fact remains that the banner of the twin headed eagle flies high and her subjects are in enough places to smooth over any unrest.
House Aurelius Charcters:
Lady Laetitia Aurelius.
While both her husband Hadrian and her are Anvil-Lords in truth as they have a history of going into battle depending on each other, Laetitia is of a more delicate emotional state than her stoic and unbreakable husband. Raised from a young age to raise her house to greatness, only a series of events and the unlikely bond between her and the young Lord Aurelius resulted in her marrige into House Aurelius where she is the quick and agile blade to her husband's shield and unbreakable armor and allowed her emotional state to benefit from the lessening of the pressure laid upon her and the wish to change how things was spiraling downwards seems less like impossible task with someone she can trust besides her.
While she always have been known to smile, the ones she sends Hadrian when she thinks nobody else is watching is genuine and filled with happiness.
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Romulus - Lady Astoria of House Harkone - Favoured by Fate
Personality: Wistful of the humanity's past glories, disdainful of present environs, and resolute on a better future.
- Lord / Lady: You were never supposed to rule, you were not even afforded the training for Iron and Anvil. Maybe you are a seventh born son or daughter, or a child born to the mistress of your noble father. Your faith might have been to life your days as Cotar of the Mundus Humanitas, a Stentor helping one of your cousins into their Iron and out of it, a Ravilar to recod your Houses history or maybe just the participant of a wedding for the benefit of your house. But the Wheels turn eternal and fate has bestowed upon you the chance to rise far above what anyone would have expected of you.
Favoured by Fate: Your House might be surprised by your ascension but is nonetheless willing to support you with all their power: choose an additional Holding.
Motivation: To better the situation of humanity at current and achieve the glories of its past once again.
Biography: The eighth daughter to the 2nd in line to the throne, she spent her time reading and learning in the House's libraries, listening to the advice of experts in their fields, and watching how society ebbed and flowed both in lands under the guiding hand of her House and those under other Houses or even in Anarchy. She learned about the old glories of humanity, of its strength and ability to shape worlds, of their philosophy and peoples, and dreamed of returning to the splendor of yore. She spoke out against the House view of merely being a rock of stability in the ocean of the anarchy. Instead she opined of being the first to spread that stability, of harkening back what humanity used to be able to do instead of simply surviving.
Alas, while her opinion was admirable the majority of her house saw it as the words of an idealist, ignorant of the wider state of humanity. No one has the resources to attempt such an endeavor, especially when faced with the end of humanity in the form of the Vaylen, nor when struck by the chaos that surround all of human space. Yet still Astoria put forth ideas and plans to create the resources needed to do so, ways to force a path out of the death spiral humanity is heading towards. With her ascension to a true Lady under the vassalship of House Evestone on the ruined planet of Decouth, perhaps she finally can pull what she envisioned from the immaterial into reality.
=} What is the Name and Heraldry of your House? {=
Name: House Harkone
Motto: "Strength in Unity."
Goal: Defiance in the face of adversity, rebuild one of humanty's homes.
Heraldry:
Gules a chaplet of laurel argent in full, per saltire sable, over a chevron argent.
Soldiery:
- Conscription: Baron Drake would compare conscripts to Anvil-born like pig-iron to steel: readily available and easily reshaped into a variety of forms, even if they do lack the inner fire that wold make them fine combat troops. But to turn adults into professional soldiers many planets do keep them in the army for up to a decade, turning them into a readily available pool of manpower that can be called upon with some measure of reliability and entrusted with even heavier equipment.
Canton System: From their birth on, commoners that serve your House are put into long lists that detail the date and duration of their drafts upon reaching adulthood. This gives you a +2d rolls to replenishing your Might-Quality after having suffered loses.
Value:
- Unity: There's not a single person not united behind your leaders and their vision, there's a role for everyone and your house strives to encompass all below it in its harbouring embrace, allowing you to roll for Territory + Treasures to raise Sovereignty or Sovereignty + Territory to raise Might, with a reduced Difficulty by 1.
Holdings:
- Fortress Architects: As the keep of Decoth has shown, fortifications can make the different between victory and defeat. Unlike in space cover is abundant on planets and the craft of your engineers only adds to the already existing features, as sensors can be fooled by trees and moving cattle and even dirt, piled sufficiently thick, can absorb an antimatter explosion. Small things like that, paired with deep subterranean bunkers allow you to keep your keep quite protected and invading arms have to face you with a +2d bonus to Might+Territory defence rolls.
- Foreign investments: Maybe you engaged in some high risk investments on another planet before you were called here, maybe you took part in a consortium or two or maybe you brought a particular picky cash crop onto the planet, the result is quite simple: for two turns a year you will get +2 Treasure, for the other two turns you get a -1 to your Treasure.
Territory:
Iralasia:
Set along the lines of the Northern -Eastern Seashores, the Fief of Iralasia had been renown for the beauty of its coastline and the wealth of the settlements along it: the heavy harbours of Puervemios und Calla serving as transit station between the ocean going freighters and the monorails on land. Who could have known that that it was going to be these centres of commerce and travel that were going to spell the doom of the province? Insidious are the Vaylen and places of movement and transit are the weak points in any human territory and thus they spread along the rivers, the seas and among the traders and specialist that plied their trade from province to province. When their Raiding fleet arrived in Orbit a year ago, much of House Rohlera had been hulled, their mind compromised and their guards confronted with worms in their midst and conflicting orders from nobles that were either Vaylen themselves or just as confused and paranoid about whom to trust and who to trust not.
With the Anvil Forces in disorder, Iralasia was one of the main landing points of the Vaylens raiding operations and many of its population was kidnapped or hulled. In reply to this the neighbouring Houses organised several chemical strikes against the two Port cities and other major population centres. While this had been intended as a mercy, not many survivors do see the cold calculation in it, instead preferring to blame the Lords and specially Lord Sorensen for the death of hundreds of thousands of their fellows.
Today the Province is slowly rusting, its great works of industry and infrastructure only holding a small number of people living in them, wretched survivors who form small paranoid settlements that live in constant fear of Vaylen agents left behind, marauding Anvil Soldiers and the many other dangers that lurk in this lordless territory.
Bonus: Ruins of Commerce: +2d bonus to Wealth Rolls for Trade Actions; Territory +1, Wealth +1 Malus: Empty Cities: -1 to Influence rolls in opposing Infiltrations Challenge: Marauders, Independent Communes, Tales of leftover Vaylen Infiltrators.
Qualities: [As of Turn 5 - Spring | 2 PVI]
- Might: 5
Small is a word ably used to described House Harkone's military presence on this new world, but placed behind sturdy bastions and fortifications it is a negligible quality.
Rich is one way to describe the wealth House Harkone commands. Their philosophy lends well to creating even more wealth, and they have brought a sizable amount to this new world.
- Influence: 4
The wealth House Harkone brings with them opens doors, but wealth on its own does not open them all.
- Territory: 6 [Base 5 + 1 Fief]
The amount of manpower and machines brought by House Harkone may be small, but in addition to the wealth they have brought is all they need to form a seed for future growth.
- Sovereignty: 5
United as one in heart and mind is House Harkone and all of its members, from the lowliest servant to the highest Lord and Lady.
Assets:
Intelligence Apparatus: +1 Espionage
- Currently in Iralasia
History: The true history of House Harkone is shrouded in half-truths and lies, but what is known is that our ancestors survived the fall of the Federation, who survived the fall of the Federated Empire that came after, and once again survived the fracturing of the Hanrilke Empire. These same survivors always brought with them as much of the old technology as they could, and few were times where the Family ever squabbled like other Houses to violent results. United were they in the face of coming chaos and anarchy, for united together is the only way to survive. We find Strength in Unity, so says our ancestors, and so say we, and thus is our motto, our rallying cry borne.
Our House prides itself in its industrial ability, able to produce machines of war and peace few others have others have the capability to create; a result of our ancestors prioritizing the safe keeping of technology in the face of the collapse of society. With this ability forming one of the core of our House we have always survived whatever comes our way, providing an island of stability in the present state of chaos in the human realm. Yet never are we able to reproduce the grandeur of what came before. Year after year and age after age we have lost much of what we have attempted to save. What we are able to create now is a shadow of what we were able to produce before the Great Civil War, and what we were able to produce before the Great Civil War was a shadow of what we were able to create during the Federated Empire.
Perhaps with the ascension of one of our Daughters a new future may be found, a way out of the cycle of destruction we have survived in the past.
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EternalStruggle - Lord Johan Frederick von Ailure - Anvil Lord
Name: Johan Frederick von Ailure Nickname: The Vanguard Gender: Male Age: 28 Appearance: A reasonably tall, mostly average looking man with a full head of black hair and a carefully maintained moustache. Dresses formally in a mix of suits and tastefully ornate military dress uniforms. Personality: A man who at first glance seems to be overconfident and rather formal. However, this overconfidence is not entirely unearned, as he has carefully manoeuvred his way through many battles, is quick of wit (sort of), and is in possession of strong moral principles. He is still rather formal though. And somewhat of an idiot, but he knows when to subtly delegate. More importantly, he knows when to be suitably dashing, and can maintain a good first impression of himself with other members of the nobility... usually.
Motivation: Create a powerful and more importantly stable realm on Decoth that might last the test of time. Lord Type:Anvil Lord. For a lord who styles himself a manager more than a warrior, it would nonetheless be foolish to underestimate his skill in combat.
Biography: A third born son and fifth born child of a semi-notable House of the Urfan Worlds, Johan nonetheless took keenly to the arts of traditional governance, and more usefully for his family to the art of classical war. Presenting himself as a classical knight for the brief duration of his military service, he was fully educated on a wide variety of matters, and personally took to the field on multiple occasions. Mostly against minor pirate and raider bases it must be said, but he is thus undeniably experienced in military matters.
While he might have been sentenced to an eventual comfortable fate as Commander of the Armies for his mix of breeding, charm, and genuine skill, fate had other plans. After one successful battle, he ended up being reassigned as the one with the ideal combination of capability and expendability to run the new sub-house of Ailure on Decoth. Armed with a small but capable force, a sizeable starting fund, and a cautiously loyal populace, he's ready to make a start
=} What is the Name and Heraldry of your House? {=
Name: House Ailure Motto: "Everything has its price." Goal: To increase their standing and prosperity among the Worlds via development that can ensure later wealth. Heraldry: A clenched fist symbolising resolve... and their tendency to take hold of resources where possible. Primary Value: Loyalty. The House provides for all underneath it faithfully, and asks for obedience in return. Loyalty is a two way street, and House Ailure owns a well maintained superhighway. Holdings: Foreign investments. Ever the investor, F. Ailure has amassed quite a horde of foreign assets in his short time before becoming lord of a fief. They don't always provide the most stable of incomes, however. Fall Expo. Recent actions have ensured a repeating export fare occurs in the third season of the year, allowing for an increasing income in that period. +1 Wealth during each Fall. Soldier Type: Professional Volunteer Force. The family has always used its economic wealth to maintain a core of reasonably elite soldiery capable of protecting their holdings from most threats. House Ailure in particular is no different.
History: The greater House from which Johan von Ailure was born was a proud one of the Urfan Worlds, steeped in tradition that its newest governor inherited well. Never a group to be too focused on matters of intrigue or warfare, they plied the stellar lanes with vast trade fleets delivering goods from their powerful industries to where they were needed. They trace their heritage all the way back to the grand merchant marine of the Empire, and a powerful interstellar corporation in the Federation prior. Only modestly sized overall for a noble house, they were nonetheless exceptionally wealthy for their overall standing. Wealth is the great measure of success. Wealth buys influence, buys loyalty, buys hard and soft power. He who controls the wealth controls everything that wealth touches. Wealth can be measured in industry like that of the House, or in other more ephemeral ways. Still, the oft-dour lords and ladies of this particular clan much preferred that which could be held, especially in these dire times.
Wealth has always been the House's greatest ally, and may yet be the ally of this branch of House Ailure.
Qualities:
Might: 2 (The force is still a little small, but undeniably well equipped and trained. It is now once again tiny due to the exacting nature of the war-tithe.) Treasure: 4 (Wealth flows like water from the coffers of House Ailure, thanks to the generosity of their patrons. However, due to the funds funneled away to fund the war, it is now only at a more ordinary level.) Influence: 3 (This House has an utterly unexceptional intelligence network, neither particularly good nor bad.) Territory: 5 (While slightly less significant than their wealth, the people and machinery of the House have always been a well cultivated asset, one shared with their scions.) Sovereignty: 4 (The loyal people of all the House's local members see that their new liege is a great, magnanimous man, and are steadfast in their trust. Not to mention especially capable of coming together when their liege is under threat.)
Other Modifiers:
For The Crusade: This house is providing financial and military aid to the war against the rebel claimant Amara Evestone. -2 Might, -2 Treasure for Year 2. Excavation Teams: This house is providing aid to the expedition it is also running. -1 Influence, -1 Sovereignty for Year 2.
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Ceslas - Lord Soleon of House Pyram - Favoured by Fate
Name: Lord Soleon of House Pyram Nickname: The Promising, The Surprising (Privately: the Mistake) Leader Trait: Favoured by Fate. Gender: Male Age: 29 Appearance:
Personality: A man whose formality mostly conceals a nervousness that makes him seem younger than he really is. That being said his upbringing has gifted him with intelligence an enthusiasm for history and the sciences that comes out when he is at his ease.
Motivation: Officially to restore the honor and fortune of the noble House Pyram, which has fallen as a result of outrageous ill-fortune. Unofficially, survive, no matter the costs. Lord Type: Fortunate Lord
Biography: House Pyram was once ruled by the great Lord Hieronymous the Prodigy. Beginning as a mere starship captain, he excelled at arts both valiant and treacherous to lay claim to the title of Void Lord and through an array of mistresses, a slew of sons and daughters, talented in various arts, compleneting each other well with they worked together.
This story is not about any of them.
The reason for this is that the vast branches of House Pyram were kept in check by Hieronymous. But as soon as he was dead feuds began to break out among his scions for power and influence. Alliances meant to last generations were broken in years and one by one, the branches extinguished themselves on battlefields across the stars.
All except one.
Every family has one waste in a generation and that waste was named Perseon Pyram. A man possessing all of Hieronymous's vices, and none of his virtues, he was a drunken layabout with no skills or prospects of getting any. In anger and despair, Hieronymous saw to it Perseon's inheritance just enough credits to live for a month on one of the the poorest worlds on the sector. He bought a ticket, disappeared, and it seemed inevitable he would found dead in an alley.
But adversity does surprising things to a man. When pushed into a corner, a man can find strength he never knew he had. Forced to survive on his wits and memories of lessons he had done his best to ignore, he foudn he was able to find work, find a home, find a wife, and even raise a son, who he named Soleon. Soleon inherited a great intelligence form his grandfather and developed a knack for working with consumer electronics. When Perseon finally died as his debauched life caught up with him he left Soleon enough money to live off while he found a decent technical job. A few days after he started work he heard a loud knock at his door. Upon opening it he found a squad of soldiers demanding to know if he was Soleon Pyram. When he confirmed it, he was led out to a windowless transport, bundled onto a shuttle at the nearby starport, and presented to a crowd of old retainers as the last son of House Pyram. For Hiernonymous had never fully disinherited his most worthless son, perhaps refusing to find him completely worthless and this placed Soleon as the rightful heir after the deaths of his cousins.
Not that Soleon had much choice, the House had too many proud warriors to accept dissolution and they made it quite clear he would rule even if it was in name only. Soleon accepted his fate and to his credit, he has done everything in his power to give, at least the appearance of rulling well and the new fief will give House Pyram a chance to regain some of its lost glory.
House Name: House Pyram Motto: "Bright are our minds. Bright is our fire. Bright is our future." Goal: To rebuild the House's dissipated fortunes and this time, ensure they remain secure from both outsiders and the House leaders. Primary Value: Austerity-Lord Soleon's roots and the House's fallen status have made it impossible to maintain the same style and fashion of other nobles. Thus it has chosen to use this situation and try to make the lack of decor a sign of their deep focus on the dire crises confronting mankind. +2d bonus to Sovereignty + Treasure rolls on raising Influence - with those who value Stoic Reserve. Holdings: Armourers and Gunsmiths: When nobles feud, only the well-armed survive and that was no exception to the remnants of House Pyram. Those who lived longest during the succession wars learned the value of establishing arms production at every convenient facility for maximum speed during operations. The leaders are dead but the skills remain. +2d bonus to Sovereignty + Territory rolls to increase Might Fortress Architects:The retainers of House Pyram have lost far too many nobles. They will not lose Soleon. Accordingly, every expense has paid to ensure the house's few remaining holdings are secure against all attack. Lord Soleon will be protected as long as he stays within. +2d bonus to Might+Territory defence rolls Apple of Discord-Ineza is a vital energy production center. The sheer knowledge it will be attacked is undermining the morale of the men. -1d on the defence against Might+Influence Actions Soldier Type: Anvil-Born-During the succession wars it became vital to expand the number of Anvils under each claimants' command. Thus mass conversion of the house's best officers took place to provide a mechanized force that might outnumber the others. The remaining forces are few in number but all battle-hardened and fortified with the special courage only a mixture of desperation and determination can give. +2d to withstanding any attack on their morale or integrity
Qualities:
Might: 5 (Original: 7-1 (-1 Until an offensive is launched))-The recent defeats inflicted upon the House by the rebels have left it weakened. Treasure: 4 (Base: 4, Original: 5+2 (-3 Until offensive operations are launched))-The actions of House Mosani have weakened the House and will only lead to the death of many servants. The Mosani must pay! Influence: 4-Hieronymous Pyram left a House with great sway on affairs of the realm. While that influence has greatly diminished it still gives them a slight advantage even with a lowborn Lord. Territory: 4 (Original: 2)-The House has lost almost all of its members and many retainers as well. While those that remain are skilled servants there are all-too few of them. Sovereignty: 4 (Original: 2)-The remnants are well-aware how tenuous House Pyram's position is. If Soleon cannot lead then many would resign themselves to becoming mercenaries. The best way to avoid this happening is for Soleon to listen to them carefully.
