Bu and Embla do the Fifth Frontier War - Free Chrissy Prezzie!

MongooseMatt

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It is Christmas time, and we are giving away a free present to all Travellers - Bu and Embla do the Fifth Frontier War!


See what your favourite cosmic duo have been up to while conflict breaks out across the Spinward Marches!

Bu And Embla do the Fifth Frontier War - cover.jpg
 
Just downloaded and had a quick skim through and looks really good, hopefully we'll see more adventues of Blu and Embla as the war progesses.
Thanks for a nice early Christmas present.
 
More Bu and Embla... and some focus on the Lurent, it seems! Nice. (y)

Edit: I'd love if these various Bu and Embla adventures were eventually collected in physical form. Last year's Hlanssai-focused one, this one, and whatever happens next now that the duo are heading off with (well, minor spoiler).
 
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Are they transporting K'kree?
Lurent are big -- at least as big as K'kree -- so they need a lot of space. What's a little amusing, when making the K'kree connection, is that Lurent hail from the vertical rather than the horizontal -- they evolved on vertical floral-shelves of the cliffs on Borlund rather than on grassland. They're used to having lots of open space but they also only feel comfortable with rock beneath their feet, apparently. Hence the answer to their wandering urges being "really big asteroid city-ships".
 
Just read it! Like all of us, I really want the best for Bu and Embla. I love to imagine Embla playing the Hurdy-Gurdy while Bu doodles in a diary. Glad they survived and hope they can get their own ship in the future!
 
Bu & Embla are fun as always and more on the Lurent is cool.

Does touch on one of the biggest Mongoose Charted Space specific things, though. The idea that Imperial nobles are actually operating at the planetary government level. Not my cup of tea, but the story is still pretty cool.
 
Bu & Embla are fun as always and more on the Lurent is cool.

Does touch on one of the biggest Mongoose Charted Space specific things, though. The idea that Imperial nobles are actually operating at the planetary government level. Not my cup of tea, but the story is still pretty cool.

Well, they can be if the Noble is actually "wearing two hats", so to speak (i.e. Local Planetary Governor AND Imperial Noble) if they are two separate positions that just happen to inhere within the same person. For example, The Matriarch & Duchess of Mora.
 
I haven't gotten very far into the book, but on the subject of nobility, it confuses me to no end that in the Third Imperium a Viscount outranks a Marchioness. But that's the deal, and what was probably once a mistake from the '70s (thinking that a Count outranked Marquis) became canon. But this whole 'everybody get a Knight' (which never made much sense) and the extra subdivisions (viscount, baronet, big, little, and bigger duke), rigidly applied like it was a Trade Code, seem like one of those T5 overengineered things that probably should have stayed there. But, alas, no.
 
on the subject of nobility, it confuses me to no end that in the Third Imperium a Viscount outranks a Marchioness
I’m not very well versed in Noble ranks and standings and so forth but here is what I use IMTU…

Back on topic, I love the positive feedback this adventure is getting and am looking forward to a chance to curl up with it. Thank you, Mongeese and Happy Holidays!
 

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I just assume that these titles are all translations, not carryovers from UK system.

Yeah, Marquess used to be a "A count whose territory is on a frontier/march" and viscount was "a count's deputy". And they all later became a status level of rewards once nobles weren't really connected to actual territorial control.

Personally, I like to have a different series of titles for "people who do senior government stuff", another series for "awards for senior military types so they feel important", and a third series for "random citizens we feel like giving headpats to". So IMTU a Viscount and a Count are the same "stat", but a viscount is a very high award for a scientist or artist or whatever. And Count is a rank given to government officials doing certain kinds of jobs.

But I don't have all those "Interstellar Development Agency Nobles" that Mongoose is creating (based on GURPS & T5 stuff, presumably).

(I think I've mentioned before, but it is a lot more Peter the Great's Table of Ranks inspired than the UK Peerage concept)
 
It's easier in a fantasy campaign, since form follows function.

Consider them mostly Imperium middle management, and without real kinetic power, perceptions of status become important to their self worth.
 
I stick to what used to be.
For the frontier sectors.
Imperial government starts at the subsector level.
To which I add:
The duke and their family rule the subsector's Imperial assets (Ministries, civilian oversight of Imperial Military), but can only advise on issues for individual planetary governments.
But.
Every world with an Imperial Starport will have nobles of a lesser rank than duke. There will also be an Imperial embassy. These nobles report back to the local duke.

You may find the odd world where an Imperial Ministry, a Megacorporation, or an Imperial noble and their family own an entire world.
 
I just assume that these titles are all translations, not carryovers from UK system.
. . .

(I think I've mentioned before, but it is a lot more Peter the Great's Table of Ranks inspired than the UK Peerage concept)

It is also reminiscent of 16th-18th Century pre-Revolutionary French Nobility of the ancien régime.

Wikipedia: French Nobility (Titles)
Wikipedia: French Nobility (Origins)

In that system many of the titles no longer had a specific precedence due to the varying circumstances that had occurred to various families (title-precedence was ranked by seniority-of-age of the title, not by title-name (other than Duc and Comte-Paar, which were pre-eminent)), and by the end there were many trying to claim and defend the "right" to a particular title to prove noble privilege, one of the most common claims, coincidentally, being the assumed title of "Marquis", which by the end had proliferated among those seeking to establish or maintain their supposed privileges. Note also that in the French system, there was also the division of Nobles into categories of Legacy, Office-Holder/Patent, and Honour/Patent. And only certain Nobles were Peers-of-France, both the aforementioned Dukes and specifically those Counts designated so ("Comte-Paar").

This was also apparently true of many of the Old Vilani titles that got translated over into Galanglic ones by the Syleans at the begining of the Third Imperium when the Vilani Confederation was brought in; where the title of Saarpuhii, despite nominally being roughly equivalent to a Duke, just as easily might be rendered as a Count to an old Vilani family anciently possessing the title due to actual reduced current family circumstances.

Considering Marc's comments over the years about a French influence on both Galanglic and a few other things within the Imperium, maybe this is the origin of a "fluid" precedence for the title of "Marquis". But note also that canon has also specified that under the Sylean Federation, a Viscount outranked an Earl, and that apparently under the Rule of Man many titles were initially given fairly arbitrarily as rough Anglic renderings of Vilani titles.

Also, unlike UK Peerage-titles (and like the French and other Continental Titles) and going all the way back to CT: Book-1 (v. 1977) * , ALL members of a Noble's family are Noble, not just the Substantive title-holder. The non-substantive courtesy-title holders (or "untitled Nobles") are considered Noble, not Common. Thus the comment under the SOC text description that all family members may use the title even if not active in government. Later iterations of Traveller specified that the next generation of a substantive holder could all use the title at Soc "-1", the Heir increasing +1 at inheritance. Not specifically mentioned, but you could likewise maintain that non-substantive holders' children all devolve at an additional Soc "-1" (using the lesser title when there are two possible levels) until Soc=A (10) is reached. This can then account for many "legacy" titles that have no real power or authority but have "social-position" due to family-connections. Many of the lower-Soc non-substantive courtesy Nobles may simply be referred to as "Lord So-and-so" or "Lord Surname" without further specificity.

Also, don't forget that LOCAL (i.e. non-Imperial) Noble titles are also represented by and overlap the lower rungs of the Imperial Noble Social Scale at about Soc=9-12/13 (Local Gentry thru Local Great Noble/Royal) based on equivalent scope of influence/title.

* - In the 1977 edition, ALL Soc-titles were LOCAL/PLANETARY NOBLES for ALL Noble Soc-values (Soc=11-15 / Knight thru Duke). Imperial-level Nobles were not specifically defined other than the fluff text in later Library Data Supplements about a Duke being the first level of Imperial-authority at the Subsector Level after the Third Imperium was beginning to take shape as a setting.

Personally, I like to have a different series of titles for "people who do senior government stuff", another series for "awards for senior military types so they feel important", and a third series for "random citizens we feel like giving headpats to". So IMTU a Viscount and a Count are the same "stat", but a viscount is a very high award for a scientist or artist or whatever. And Count is a rank given to government officials doing certain kinds of jobs.

But I don't have all those "Interstellar Development Agency Nobles" that Mongoose is creating (based on GURPS & T5 stuff, presumably).

I don't mind the various T5 ranks, but I definitely assume that normally an "Honour-Title" is the lesser of two possible titles at a given SOC-value (with a few possible exceptions, like Baron), and that the "Lesser-Duke" level is normally the highest attainable title for a PC (Honour or retired Rank-title). A High, Rank, or Proper-Landed/Administrative title can be either the Lesser or Greater Title at a given SOC-level, they just are not normally PCs.
 
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