Marca Estrella: A Game of Chivalry in the Time of Archengines

[George]

[X] What's the situation in the Capital?
[X] What will I be doing in Gran Castille?

Voting this so I don't support bad combos.

 

[Exhack]

​

[X] What interest do you have in Avagis, specifically?
[X] Where exactly do we stand, in terms of power?

"First, I'd like to know why you're so curious about Avagis."

"Not jealous, are we?" Sidonie asks, with a smirk.

You give her a look. Why must everything be about romance with people.

"I surely mean no offense, but partners should understand one another, don't you think?"

"I am not-quite your subordinate, Avagis is almost certainly my vassal, my household retainer if we go by the classical definitions. Our arrangement is that you'll sponsor me in the court and I'll act favorably towards you once I have the influence and power necessary to be useful to you, isn't it?"

"Well! A young girl like me with no ranks or titles of her own beyond a bureaucrat's license would hardly be a woman three times a countess, now would I?"She puts her head up on her hand and smirks at you. "So that sounds about right. The first part as well."

"Then I'm understood. I want to know your intentions so there's no conflicts of interest between us."

"I already have an escudero!" She winces a bit and pipes down as Avagis stirs and snores loudly, looking a bit sheepish. "Two, in fact, who are the very best in the world as far as I'm concerned."

"Two?"

"I use them for different things."

"...ah." You ponder that. "So why did you want Avagis?"

"Do you know how old the oldest person in the Holy Ispano Empire is?"

"No."

"Do you want to guess?"

"...two-hundred?"

"Two-hundred and ten. And he's a very old, sick man." Sidonie looks slightly sad "And while there numerous things which are not men that have been around for longer, I find myself mistrustful of their perspectives."

"So you want to ask him about the past?"

"Mhm! Don't you want to know how people lived two-hundred, four-hundred or even a thousand years ago?"

"More or less the same?"

"Oh my beautiful country girl, no! Simply no!" Sidonie exclaims, then covers her mouth and continues in a lower tone. "Fashions have changed, gastronomy has changed! Trade between the kingdoms and empires of the Guirlanda is at a thousand-year apex. Archengines of all kinds exist in greater variety than any preceding era."

"I… mmm." You ponder this. Of course she's right. "I'm very tired, and worried that you're going to keep me awake all night with this second wind of yours."

"Well, that was the plan."

"Hmm. The more I lie here the more I must apologize for simply not being in the right state of mind to entertain you."

"Oh, nonsense. I'm entertaining myself just fine."

"And what about the two of us? What's our… state of things?"

"Well! You're a nobody, though I expect a rather popular one soon. I am not overly esteemed, but I have my place in the court. I do have rather tremendous contacts that you will benefit from greatly, as large or little as you enjoy them." She shrugs.

"And equipment?"

"Haha… what a question! We're not off to war just yet."

"Is that what the Capital thinks?"

"It's what I think your circumstances will be, for now. The nation will be going much sooner." She sighs "But if you're genuinely curious, I have an old cocha in orbit for my personal usage, and the archengine Langevin at my beck and call. She's a not some old pedigree'd one like the Michael, but quite effective."

"Mmm. How is she armed?"

"Not for dueling. A bit of a dirty model, really, with all kinds of weapons on all sides for dealing with infantry, with a plasma-caster and shield in the hands and a sword spezzante."

"And how does she compare to Michael?"

"That's a silly question. First, because she is possibly one one-hundredth of Michael's age. And second, because Michael is barely functional after the damage you took in your duel." She ticks off items on her fingers, getting to three with only two items. "But a glancing hit with those mighty thews would put her right out. She's layers of glass meant to break in succession to stretch fights out to agonizing length, but the engine on that antique of yours would punch through them all in one go."

"...hah. Hmm."

"Mireia?"

"...yes?"

"Thank you for talking, but you should go to sleep." Sidonie yawns loudly, "I won't be long. The conversation is all that's keeping me up."

"Mmm."

Sidonie smiles. "They'll be plenty of time for us to discuss everything in the morning, and on many mornings after that."

"Fine." Your eyes are heavy. You just want to sleep.

The issues of the world fade from your mind and you drift off...

-PART UNO: HEARTH AND HOME-
Completed​

STATUS

• Affection: 84%
  • Filial Affection (Good Daughter): 100% of current max
  • Aina Affection (Best Friends): 100% of current max
  • Avagis Affection (Infatuated): 100% of current max
  • Sidonie Affection (Friendly): 70% of current max
  • Balduino Affection (Amused): 45% of current max
• Reputation: Unknown: 0% to next rank.
  • Honor (Honorable): 75% to next rank.
    • Fought honorably on the battlefield, without resorting to fear or trickery.
    • Accepted and won a duel against an acclaimed pugilist and swordsman.
    • Resolved to bring a treasonous man to the Emperor's justice.
  • Loyalty (Loyal): 60% to next rank.
    • Respected the associations of the family.
    • Protected members of the household staff in the heat of battle.
  • Piety (Deeply Filial): 5% to next rank.
    • Protected the family's interests.
    • Respected your parents' dignity despite their crimes.
    • Protected the family name, despite the scandal this may lead to in the future.
  • Largesse (Merciful): 50% to next rank.
    • Accepted the surrender of mercenaries.
    • Accepted the surrender of a dueling opponent.
  • Benevolence (Generous): 70% to next rank.
    • Gave a place to a landless man out of time.
    • Let Balduino's people stay on their lands.

REWARDS

• New Rank: Countess
  • County title for Barranco Verde
  • County title for Alta Trigal
  • County title for Montoro
• x6 noble mercenaries of the Night Brigade for ransom.
• Various Archengines:
  • x1 Archengine Michael (Damaged)
  • x1 Archengine Murlgeys (Damaged)
  • x2 Archengine Mach Mustang (Damaged, Critically Damaged)
  • Miscellaneous Archengine scrap, from Mach Mustang
  • Miscellaneous Archengine weapons, including a Lance Spezzante

 

[Exhack]

Part 2 start is tomorrow.

Supplemental and character cards will be delivered over the weekend!

 

[Ford Prefect]

Congratulations on getting us this war, FBH, Exhack. It's been great and I look forward to seeing where the story goes next.

 

[Exhack]

Last call for the poll, by the way.

It'll officially close at the listed time (it's very nearly 1 PM EST) and then the supplemental write-up that won will be posted.

 

[Tabron89]

So...we are potentially going to war with either the nation we are technically living in (large enough landowners can succeed and declare independence, setting up their own nation/city state within another nation....it's just a pain in the backside to become a nation) or the entire planet we are on due the whole family being rebels thing?

Not a bad starting point, I guess.

Just have to repair Michael.

 

[Exhack]

Author's note: And the chosen chapter end supplemental is here! Enjoy the content!​

​

MAJOR RACES
The main rivals and sometimes-allies of humanity in the Guirlanda, with nations of their own which challenge or even rival the heights of the Holy Ispano Empire, Royaumes Unis de la Gallia and others.


THE SULTANATE OF BAHAMUT

Name: Bahamuti
Scientific Name: Draco fabulam narrantes
Homeworld: Falak
Population: ≅1 billion Bahamut (and many billions of humans)​

The Sultanate of Bahamut, is at once the most powerful alien empire in proximity to the Guirlanda, and the most significant human power in the area that does not share common ancestry with the Guirlandians. The alien component of the Sultanate gives it its name, they are the massive and powerful Bahamut, a proud and ancient people whose warriors can contest an archengine in single combat.

The long-lived and inscrutable Bahamut have seen many things over the years, but appear to have a special fondness to humans. The Sultanate's history states that it begun as a joint exploration between two great empires, one of each race, and that it has existed in partnership ever since, bound together by a shared history and by the bonds of its collective religion, Islam.

By tradition, the realm is ruled by a Sultan elected by the Bahamuti landowners to represent her kind and a Grand Prince chosen by the ranks of the human nobility at the death of either of the last generation. The two rule jointly, although in practice the Sultan determines foreign policy and the Grand Prince presides over domestic issues due to the roles the two nations have. The Sultanate tends to have somewhat troubled relations with Guirlanda in general, and the Holy Empire in particular, with constant low level skirmishes along the border.

Physically, Bahamut resemble the dragons of lore, massive winged reptilian beasts which appear in a variety of shapes and sizes: the largest of which can physically challenge an archengine by strength alone and the smallest of which stand on two legs, a head taller than a man. They possess vastly powerful mystical powers, which allow them to fly and to breath lethal energies of one kind or another. Others can create and possess bodies made for specific purposes, change shape and perform great feats of alchemy and creation. Due to the vast amounts of food they require, the greater forms of Bahamut tend to be few in number, but are very long lived. Human-Bahamut half-breeds are uncommon but appear in consistent numbers within the higher court, where it is traditional for the Sultan and Grand Prince to produce mixed children, through conventional means or otherwise.

The Empire and the Bahamut fought a series of wars fifty years ago, which eventually ended in bloody stalemate. Since then, peace has more or less reigned along the border, but with a constant number of small duels and skirmishes.


VOR

Name: The Vor
Scientific Name: Vitro latronis
Homeworld: Unknown
Population: 500 million in the area around Guirlanda, unknown to anti-spinward.​

A fierce and warlike species, that migrated into the Guirlanda from anti-spinward, the direction away from old human space, the Vor are even more than the Bahamut, known to many in the Holy Empire and Galliea as humanity's greatest non-human foe. Little is known about the Vor's empire, lying as it does across the great interstellar waste of uninhabitable worlds beyond Alabaster. According to legends, and tales told by the Farsenti and human traders, the Vor control a massive empire of great wealth and technological sophistication. The great arts of the Vor spin towers of glass from the ground, and pull energy from the air and sunlight. They speak of great mechanical trees, and bridges of warped space time, and the great court of the Vor stead holders, where the ten thousand lords of the Vor meet in session.

These tales, probably fanciful, count for little next to the Vor's ambitions as a war making species. Two hundred years ago they rolled over both Imperial and Gallian space, their vast fleets bringing legions of well disciplined infantry and powerful cavalry. Over the next three hundred years, it is said, but disunity at home, the Guirlandians have driven the Vor back. Vor attack ships are able to rapidly deploy their troop compliment onto a planet, using some form of space time manipulation, and to attack enemy ships with similar weapons which cross most of the distance to a target without moving.

On the ground, the Vor deploy large numbers of infantry wearing the famous Vor glass armour to push through their assaults. As well as infantry, they employ heavy guns, and fierce cavalry mounted on predatory six limbed Ithacki, and giant, lumbering Behemoths.

The Vor's military machine is hampered however, by its lack of counter to Archengines. However powerful and disciplined their companies of the foot, and however heavy their artillery and fierce their cavalry, they are unable to stand against the full power of an archengine. However, with a race as technologically sophisticated as the Vor, most Imperial military scholars believe it only a matter of time before they deploy some equivalent to humanity's Archengines.


FARSENTI

Name: Farsenti
Scientific Name: Alta negotiatores
Homeworld: The Nulgarnia Ark
Population: 100 Million​

First contact between the Holy Ispano Empire and the Farsenti took place just over a century ago, when the first of their massive bone coral city ships arrived at the Imperial borders. According to the Farsenti's own accounts, they are of an ancient lineage, which has previously contacted humanity on many occasions, and of which they are a nomadic trading clan.

The many strange wares of the Farsenti are renowned throughout space, traded for a strange array of items from the empire. For instance, the Farsenti seem to have an endless appetite for such commonly available food stuffs as maize, and for sand milled to particular consistencies. In return they sell various fine crystalline structures, many of which grow from one use to another over their timespan.

Physically, the Farsenti appear to be long limbed beings, not at all resembling humans, but rather with a central trunk body supported between a eight of long arms which they use to both walk and manipulate objects.

Human and Farsenti have rarely tested one another on the battlefield, but when they do, the Farsenti deploy large crystalline war machines, apparently under remote control.


PRETANS

Name: Pretans
Scientific Name: Rattus proclivis
Homeworld: Unknown
Population: 23 billion​

The Pretans are race which has coexisted with humanity since before the migrations to the Guirlanda. They are universally small, glossy-black furred humanoids between two and three feet tall, with hunched postures and features resembling rodents. Their faces taper to a bristle of soft, almost gellatinous bioluminescent tendrils that allow them to see in the dark, detect vibrations in the air and bioelectrical patterns in water. Although physically weak and intellectually unremarkable, the Preta are dogged survivors who have outlived (or so they say) every race that has attempted to destroy them. They tend to have short, tempestuous lives which end around the age of 40- although all Pretans are actually biologically immortal, with disease and the accumulation of injuries being the primary mitigating factor on their lifespans. Their genetic traits predispose them to many illness of old age, tumors and infirmities which require advanced medical care which is typically not available.

They are not especially sociable creatures, but when a Pretan with the temperament and desire to participate in human society does arise, they tend to be quite successful. Their ravenous and addictive personalities produce extremes of competence and self-destructiveness, with autodidact scientists, great warriors and merciless social climbers arising in great numbers. The Count Meryn Corliss, a Pretan noble elevated to a title in the Gallian court for his role in saving Emperor Lugh from an assassination attempt, is a famous folk hero in that nation and an idol among Pretans in the Guirlanda.

The Pretans have pirate kingdoms around uninhabited moons and scrapyard planets, where they live deep below the earth or in isolated mountain ranges where humans are unlikely to find them. The Great Convocation is a small kingdom some five hundred years old which rules an icy planet on the spinward frontier just beyond the Guirlanda, and claims to be the original homeland of the Pretan race (though many, including Pretans in the Guirlanda dispute these claims). They have a presence in major cities like the Ispano capital of Gran Castille, the Gallian court at Londor and others, numbering in the tens of millions inside the Guirlanda proper.

Like their neighbors, Pretans favor the use of archengines in combat and control them precisely with facial recognition systems which map the undulation of their facial cilia and convert them into actions. Although their pirate realms tend to field ramshackle, poorly-maintained machines, the Great Convocation is known to have three orders of knights with over sixty units of splendid quality and has been known to fight duels on behalf of kin in diplomatic disputes. In personal combat and diplomacy they are known to use baroque suits of powered armor which bring them to equivalent stature to humans.


MINOR RACES
Those non-human races which exist in large numbers in or beyond the Guirlanda, or are notable enough to bear mention, but do not have kingdoms of their own in the region.


ANAVEL

Name: Anavel
Scientific Name: Felis habilis
Homeworld: Unknown
Population: >30 000 Anavel purebloods, 1.7 million Half-Anavel or significantly mixed​

The Anavel are a stout, diminutive race of catlike beings acclimated to the arid climates of desert worlds like Cofre del Tesoro, Laccona and the Carcosse. They are an insular race who refer to themselves as 'Clan', with an ethnic and cultural identity which extends beyond the borders of kingdoms and nations. Although distinctly unlike humans in appearance, they are generally considered cousins of humanity due to their ability to interbreed with humanity and human-like intellects and manners. They are valued to to their preservation of myriad technological secrets and great aptitude for mechanical work, bolstered by sharp eyes, delicate fingers and flexible bodies that go to good use when working in the cramped confines of a ship's ducts or an archengine's internals.

The history of the Anavel dates back several millennia before the migrations to the Guirlanda. In their own mythology they were raised from lowly animals by their gods and left to tend to the ruins of their Creators civilization aeons ago. They arrived in great numbers sometime after the fall of the last great kingdoms to rule the region, and insinuated themselves into the cultures of the time thanks to their abilities. For a time, their presence in lands was prestigious for landlords and monarchs. Rulers who patronized Anavel guilds were rewarded with splendid war machines and well-engineered wonders which exceeded the competence of traditional guilds.

Opinions turned several centuries ago when the Anavel withdrew from participation in their landlord's affairs in large numbers and became vagrants, tending only to their own communities. The reasons for this are varied: it is believed that their plummeting population was responsible for the retreat and that interbreeding with human had initiated permanent population decline. This is partly true, since human and anavel unions produce half-Anavel who can only produce half-Anavels in union with their beastly kin and increasingly human children as they continue to mingle with men. The number of pureblooded Anavel is less than thirty-thousand, while their part-Anavel descendants are hundreds of times more numerous and constitute substantial minorities in major urban regions of worlds like Gran Castille.


KINTRIEVE

Name: Kintrieve
Scientific Name: Canis potens
Homeworld: Unknown
Population: 5.3 million, pureblooded and mixed-breed.​

The Kintrieve are a race of beastmen, related to the Anavel although having great enmity towards them due to old blood feuds that date from their time before arriving in the Guirlanda. They resemble humans more fully than other beastmen, and have elegant features and taut musculatures that make them resemble very tall humans from a distance. Most stand around seven feet tall, have wavy golden hair and slack, drooping ears like those of a dog. Like the Anavel they can reproduce with humans, but unlike them they breed true more reliably and have never suffered the same population decline. Intermarriage between Kintrieve reliably thickens their blood, and marriage with humans does not soften it as dramatically as with Anavel.

They are distinctly superhuman in physical ability, with more than a few hidalgo houses trace some part of their lineage to old kintrieve ancestors, but suffer from a dullness of wit and personality that makes them prone to repetition, obsession and micromanagement of their subordinates. A rigorous practice of eugenics and infanticide in many of their larger clans has kept their population limited.

The Kintrieve arrived at some point in the past two-thousand years, following migration spinward into the Guirlanda. Too late to form their own kingdoms, most settled within the realms of others as foederati and served as vassal warriors for centuries. Clannish and insular, the have settlements spread across Gallian and Ispano worlds but owe little loyalty to their landlords. Kintrieve are immensely loyal to family, commanders and personal associates, but seem to not grasp the higher ethics of duty to a realm or monarch.


OGDOMAN

Name: Odgomans
Scientific Name: Annelida sexartus
Homeworld: Laminaria
Population: 531 million across the Guirlanda​

One of few races truly native to the Guirlanda, the Odgomans are a species of stone-skinned, worm-like beings found throughout the Guirlanda. They stand between six and seven feet tall on average, with three arm-like appendages jutting around a seemingly eyeless serpentine head with a mouth that separates three ways from the center, and three leg-like limbs blooming out from the beginning of an extended abdomen which houses their vital organs. Despite their size, their low-gravity world gives them relatively underwhelming strength for their scale and their abilities are usually lower than most hidalgo. However, their placement of sensory organs and neurology give them 360 degree vision, immunity to motion sickness, excellent reflexes and coordination for their size, making them adept watchmen and superb laborers in low and zero-gravity environments.

Their biochemistry is largely compatible with that of humans, allowing them to consume mostly the same foods as other Guirlandians and sell their own foodstuffs in markets. They are prone to addiction to the savory effects of glutamates due to the specifics of their digestion, in a similar way as humans are easily addicted to fats and sugars. They also cannot vocalize in the human range and must use translation matrices worn around their necks at the junction of their upper limbs, produced en masse in factories on their homeworld from Guirlandan designs.

Their race lived in relatively primitive conditions on the aquatic world of Laminaria when it was found by explorers, using iron tools and weapons and the most basic levels of agriculture. The Ogdomans had a relatively sophisticated culture and sciences despite this, with a fairly complex understanding of astronomy and navigation, and accepted their place in interstellar society readily. The monarchical elites of their society benefitted greatly from exchange with Guirlandan society, bartering their serfs off in exchange for technology and resources, and still rule their homeworld under influence of several nations which have interests there, including Gallia and the Bahamuti. The descendants of those sold off tend to find work as guards, civil servants and laborers, and have largely adopted the cultures of their neighbors. Most of them are found within Bahamuti space, and have converted to a melange of their original polytheistic folk religion and Islam. Odgoman soldiers are rare due to the preference for hidalgo, although the Sultanate of Bahamut fields a banner of all-Ogdoman cavaliers known as the the Ogdoman Dervishes with ten archengines total.


IRONBLOOD

Name: Ironblood
Scientific Name: Ignis parasitum
Homeworld: Unknown
Population: Unknown​

Superhuman mercenary creatures used by the Vor, the Ironblood are some form of symbiotic entity that is given a human or Vor body to take over, rapidly burning it out but granting it a brief burst of superhuman power.

It is thought some Vor undergo this fate willingly in order to erase some stain on their honour.


YATAGODIN

Name: Yatagodin
Scientific Name: Oraculum corvi
Population: Unknown
Homeworld: Unknown​

A race of black-feathered, bird like creatures of unusual intelligence and wisdom who stand with the height and posture of humans and wear brightly-colored robes of elaborate cut and style. Their kingdom is very distant from Guirlanda and those who visit are travelers or scholars. The Yatagodin are said to possess many secrets lost to Guirlandian society and many seek to meet the few in the region for a chance of obtaining their knowledge and wisdom. Less known is their love of puzzles and word-play, befuddling those who attempt to coax information out of them without proper etiquette.

 

[Exhack]

​

You awaken heavily, from an unusually dreamless sleep. Dappled sunlight is falling across your face. For a moment you forget where you are, a languorous feeling throughout your body, warm and sleepy.

An old feeling, something you've not experienced for your many years in the Michael's cockpit. The feeling of sleeping in a soft bed, with humans near.

Then awareness returns more.

You open your eyes.

Mireia is lying next to you, covers thrown back to reveal a light nightdress that fits her very well. Her face fully asleep looks somehow surprised, endlessly amazed by its sleeping dreams.

On the other side of you, you can feel the mind of Sidonie, the Imperial magistrate.

Oh my god. With two at once. This is just…

You feel a different kind of warmth coming.

What do you do?

[ ] (x1.2) Lie still and hope neither of them wake up.
[ ] (x1.5) Fluster and blush.
[ ] Sneak out and wander the estate a little before they walk up.
[ ] (x0.9) Sneak out of bed and get them breakfast.
[ ] (x0.5) Wait till they awake and greet them with the self satisfaction of the Casanova you obviously are.

 

[Fumbles]

[X] (x0.5) Wait till they awake and greet them with the self satisfaction of the Casanova you obviously are.
I should not, and yet I must.

Those aliens are all kinds of fun. I love the space opera trappings, and I think the dragon sultanate is my favorite.

 

[Jeboboid]

[X] (x1.2) Lie still and hope neither of them wake up.

 

[Lokar]

[X] (x1.5) Fluster and blush.

This.

 

[veekie]

[X] (x1.5) Fluster and blush.

 

[notthepenguins]

[x] (x0.9) Sneak out of bed and get them breakfast.

Gentleman Avagis, go! Give them breakfast in bed!

 

[George]

[X] (x0.9) Sneak out of bed and get them breakfast.
I feel like Sidonie might appreciate the practicality, and Mireia gets to share in some of the discomfort since she's the host and he got breakfast.

 

[Ford Prefect]

[X] Fluster and blush.

Oh Avagis.

 

[Theunderbolt]

I'm stuck between going smug and going blush....

 

[BiopunkOtrera]

I'm stuck between going smug and going blush....

Click to shrink...

You can vote both.

 

[BunBun299]

[X] (x0.5) Wait till they awake and greet them with the self satisfaction of the Casanova you obviously are.

 

[Theunderbolt]

[X] (x1.5) Fluster and blush.

 

[Fumbles]

[X] (x1.5) Fluster and blush.
[X] (x0.5) Wait till they awake and greet them with the self satisfaction of the Casanova you obviously are.
Oh, hey, it's everything I ever wanted.

 

[Arcus]

[X] (x1.5) Fluster and blush.
[X] (x0.5) Wait till they awake and greet them with the self satisfaction of the Casanova you obviously are.

 

[LucidProp]

[x] (x0.9) Sneak out of bed and get them breakfast.

 

[Bursting Eagerness Soul]

Over the next three hundred years, it is said, but disunity at home, the Guirlandians have driven the Vor back.

Click to shrink...

This seems to be missing a chunk.

[X] (x1.5) Fluster and blush.
[X] (x0.5) Wait till they awake and greet them with the self satisfaction of the Casanova you obviously are.

Oh Avagis...

 

[Winged One]

[X] (x1.5) Fluster and blush.
[X] (x0.9) Sneak out of bed and get them breakfast.
[X] (x0.5) Wait till they awake and greet them with the self satisfaction of the Casanova you obviously are.

I can't decide, these are all so great!

 

[bobnik]

[X] (x1.5) Fluster and blush.