Rusty_Unycorn
Mongoose
You can thank or blame Egil for giving me this particular brainstorm...
Something had gone wrong. Our ancestors were a slowship colony from Old Earth, fleeing from what was a dying planet. We aimed for the Galactic Core, where we believed the most habitable planets existed.
But something went wrong. We went towards the rim instead. Something threw the ships off course, nearly wiped the databases, and our ancestors forgot who they were. They landed in a cluster, cut off from the rest of universe. They rebuilt, they grew, and we expanded back into space. Eventually, we discovered the Warp Drive. We could cross parsecs in matters of weeks.
In our travels, we met two variants of humans. At first, we were scared and hostile, and they were alien to us. We thought that we were alone in our universe, but we weren’t. One, the short and brilliant Tenal, or Goblins as the explorers first nicknamed them, had settled their home system, Myral, in the Trail Sector. They welcomed us with open arms, and we accepted them as our long lost brothers. We expanded in unison with them.
The others, the Mi’Tu from the world of K’Temar, did not view us as kindly. They launched their primitive warheads at our explorers, and began a war. A war we did not want, as we only wished to bring them back into brotherhood with us, to rejoice in our common humanity. Eventually, we succeeded. They were subdued, and we brought them into the universe.
We kept expanding, and then we fragmented into multiple nations. We, the Central Alliance of Humanity’s New Hope, were the first. We only wished for brotherhood, and to make our lives be the way they should. And they stabbed us in the back. The Betrayers formed their own nations across the stars.
The first were the Federation of Brothers. They claimed that we hadn’t been true to our purpose of Unifying Humanity, that we only wished to dominate. Second to go were the Grand Unity Under God, a band of self-proclaimed True Believers that were disgusted by our choice to bring our lost brothers into our arms. The others followed quickly.
The Japanese and those who followed them left to create the Dynasty of the New Sun and to bring back the old ways that they had lost. The Galactic Union claimed the same thing as the Federation, but wished to go a different way while the Empire of the Phoenix decided that Humanity needed a new, firmer direction that could look towards the long term. Then the Final Blow came.
The last of the Betrayers, the Coalition of Independents, claimed that no one government could direct the true direction of Humanity, that we were meant for diversity and to find our own paths. We fought back, and the Fragmentation War began.
It was a long war. We had the better technology, as befitted our status of the eldest and wisest. But they fought tenaciously, holding onto their right to be blind. The Empire and the Dynasty joined in, and the fighting got bloodier. We eventually demanded peace, before the fighting could get to the point of grinding our new homes into glowing bedrock. It has been an uneasy peace, and many other systems withdrew from us, or from the Betrayers. We held onto the core of our systems, but we remember the Betrayers and the Betrayal. We remember the Final Blow and the Fragmentation War. And we will bring Humanity into a new golden age.
-Standard Alliance History Textbook, written for the 2nd Grade , explaining the origins of the current state of affairs.
Welcome to the universe of Hard Burn... What started as a small Firefly/Serenity inspired setting quickly (and I mean it, it took less than half an hour) ballooned into a 4 sector, 7 government, 3 human variants, warp driven, TL12 overall little project. Well, maybe a big project.
I'm assuming the following:
3 Variants of Human: Terran, Tenal, and Mi’Tu.
The cluster covers 4 sectors, and has a 20 parsec or more rift around it.
Alliance core worlds have TL 14, with some very rare examples of it scattered around elsewhere. The Empire has TL 13, but everybody else is stuck at a TL 12 maximum. The exception is Warp 5, which was reverse engineered from captured Alliance ships and spread to all the shipyards.
The Warp Drive functions as stated in the CRB, but has a 1000 diameter limit instead of a 100 diameter limit.
Psionics are very rare.
Tenal: +2 Int, Small. Short, thin, and quick minded with a large brain, the Tenal have blueish skin with pointed ears, and a penchant for making things, whether it be art or machinery. They are rarely psionic, but it happens more often than it does for the Terrans. Tenal and Terrans can interbreed, with the result typically, being between the parents for height, less blue in the skin, and the ears being fully dominant with a +1 Int. This continues for 1d6+2 generations before the Intelligence bonus fades into the background. The ears never go away, so to this day it is possible to tell that someone has a Tenal ancestor from the ears.
Mi’Tu: +1 STR, +1 END, -2 DEX, -1 SOC in the Alliance (“Our violent younger brothers…”). The Mi’Tu would look like Terrans, but they are covered in fur of various colors. While they were violent, they were mostly trained out of it by the Alliance. Of course, usage of the Mi’Tu as violent characters in the entertainment media is subtly encouraged in the Alliance. After all, how else are they supposed to get good shock-troopers? Elsewhere, they are as free as everybody else and face no SOC penalty. It is possible for Mi’Tu and Terrans to interbreed, but the Alliance heavily, but subtly, discourages that and the attitude has spread. A Terran/Mi’Tu child looks like an average Mi’Tu, but with no bonuses or penalties. The fur lessens over 2d6 generations and will disappear after 4d6+4 generations. A Mi’Tu/Tenal child follows these rules: +1 INT, -1 DEX, with the ears and the fur, staying in the line until someone interbreeds with a Terran. The bonuses, ears, and fur then follow the regular breeding rules.
Whoops, how did that batch of rules get in there?
You want a timeline? I got one:
2098 AD: Colony Ships leave Earth with a population of 200 million.
2156 AD: Date that Earth is believed to have died.
2892 AD: Colony ships arrive in the cluster. Settlement begins on the world Terra-Alpha.
2893 AD: Declared Year 0 of the New Era. Years are declared to be 364 days in length to prevent leap years.
72 NE: Major expansion into space begins.
150 NE: Terra-Alpha system is heavily colonized. Population is 600 million.
363 NE: Researchers discover the Warp Drive. Exploration begins, but is limited by the .5 speed limit.
413 NE: Warp 1 obtained. Colonization of other systems begins. Population of Terra-Alpha is 1.5 Billion.
445 NE: Tenal contacted. Terra-Alpha has settled two other systems.
446 NE: News of the Tenal reaches Terra-Alpha. Massive debate begins on what to do.
447 NE: News arrives that the Tenal are genetically human.
448 NE: Decision is made to incorporate the Tenal into society, with the term Terranic or Terran being adopted as the name for the ones descended from the Earth colonists. Trade begins. Population of Terra-Alpha is 2.3 billion, Tenal 2 billion, with almost 900 million other humans in systems settled from Terra-Alpha.
456 NE: Terranic population across 3 systems is 3.9 billion. Tenal are at 2.3 billion, with small populations on Terra-Alpha.
487 NE: Terran population is now 4.6 billion, with a fourth system added. The Tenal are at 3 billion, with cross breeding showing up.
562 NE: Warp 2. Grand Central Alliance Declared. Terran population at 10 Billion, with Tenal at 8 billion.
589 NE: Massive population and colonization expansion begins.
617 NE: Terran population at 69 billion across 50 systems. Tenal at 55 billion, spread out amongst the Terrans.
629 NE: Mi’Tu contacted. The Useless War begins.
636 NE: The Useless War end.
672 NE: The Mi’Tu are incorporated into the Alliance.
678 NE: Terran population at 483 billion. Tenal at 385 billion. Mi’Tu at 1.6 billion. 150 systems settled.
769 NE: Warp 3. Terrans at 4.8 trillion, Tenal at 3.5 trillion, Mi’Tu reach 8 billion. 800 systems settled, with an average Terran population of 6 billion.
857 NE: Population boom ends.
962 NE: Alliance celebrates its 400th year. Terrans at 2.2 quadrillion, Tenal 630 trillion, Mi’Tu 2.7 trillion, with over 1,500 systems settled.
1011 NE: The Alliance Census Bureau gives up.
1022 NE: Warp 4. Humans have covered the entire cluster is some fashion.
1052 NE: Federation of Brothers declared.
1126 NE: Grand Unity Under God is declared and pushes the Tenal and Mi’Tu from their claimed space.
1250 NE: Dynasty of The New Sun declared. Rumors circulate that the Alliance is experimenting with Psionics.
1302 NE: Galactic Union declared.
1305 NE: Empire of The Phoenix declared.
1317 NE: Warp 5.
1423 NE: Coalition of Independents formed. This is referred to as the Final Blow in Alliance history texts.
1450 NE: Fragmentation War begins.
1495 NE: Alliance is shattered to a fraction of its former size.
1498 NE: Alliance begins use of WMDs. The first strike is on one of their own worlds, to frame the Independents.
1515 NE: The governments of the Independents (In-so-far as they had one…), the Empire, and the Dynasty force the Alliance to sue for peace, and threaten to reveal that the Alliance destroyed its own worlds in a bid to gain political permission to use WMDs.
1520 NE: The Alliance finds it hard to get worlds to come back to its fold.
1534 NE: Present day.
And now I want your thoughts and ideas!
Something had gone wrong. Our ancestors were a slowship colony from Old Earth, fleeing from what was a dying planet. We aimed for the Galactic Core, where we believed the most habitable planets existed.
But something went wrong. We went towards the rim instead. Something threw the ships off course, nearly wiped the databases, and our ancestors forgot who they were. They landed in a cluster, cut off from the rest of universe. They rebuilt, they grew, and we expanded back into space. Eventually, we discovered the Warp Drive. We could cross parsecs in matters of weeks.
In our travels, we met two variants of humans. At first, we were scared and hostile, and they were alien to us. We thought that we were alone in our universe, but we weren’t. One, the short and brilliant Tenal, or Goblins as the explorers first nicknamed them, had settled their home system, Myral, in the Trail Sector. They welcomed us with open arms, and we accepted them as our long lost brothers. We expanded in unison with them.
The others, the Mi’Tu from the world of K’Temar, did not view us as kindly. They launched their primitive warheads at our explorers, and began a war. A war we did not want, as we only wished to bring them back into brotherhood with us, to rejoice in our common humanity. Eventually, we succeeded. They were subdued, and we brought them into the universe.
We kept expanding, and then we fragmented into multiple nations. We, the Central Alliance of Humanity’s New Hope, were the first. We only wished for brotherhood, and to make our lives be the way they should. And they stabbed us in the back. The Betrayers formed their own nations across the stars.
The first were the Federation of Brothers. They claimed that we hadn’t been true to our purpose of Unifying Humanity, that we only wished to dominate. Second to go were the Grand Unity Under God, a band of self-proclaimed True Believers that were disgusted by our choice to bring our lost brothers into our arms. The others followed quickly.
The Japanese and those who followed them left to create the Dynasty of the New Sun and to bring back the old ways that they had lost. The Galactic Union claimed the same thing as the Federation, but wished to go a different way while the Empire of the Phoenix decided that Humanity needed a new, firmer direction that could look towards the long term. Then the Final Blow came.
The last of the Betrayers, the Coalition of Independents, claimed that no one government could direct the true direction of Humanity, that we were meant for diversity and to find our own paths. We fought back, and the Fragmentation War began.
It was a long war. We had the better technology, as befitted our status of the eldest and wisest. But they fought tenaciously, holding onto their right to be blind. The Empire and the Dynasty joined in, and the fighting got bloodier. We eventually demanded peace, before the fighting could get to the point of grinding our new homes into glowing bedrock. It has been an uneasy peace, and many other systems withdrew from us, or from the Betrayers. We held onto the core of our systems, but we remember the Betrayers and the Betrayal. We remember the Final Blow and the Fragmentation War. And we will bring Humanity into a new golden age.
-Standard Alliance History Textbook, written for the 2nd Grade , explaining the origins of the current state of affairs.
Welcome to the universe of Hard Burn... What started as a small Firefly/Serenity inspired setting quickly (and I mean it, it took less than half an hour) ballooned into a 4 sector, 7 government, 3 human variants, warp driven, TL12 overall little project. Well, maybe a big project.
I'm assuming the following:
3 Variants of Human: Terran, Tenal, and Mi’Tu.
The cluster covers 4 sectors, and has a 20 parsec or more rift around it.
Alliance core worlds have TL 14, with some very rare examples of it scattered around elsewhere. The Empire has TL 13, but everybody else is stuck at a TL 12 maximum. The exception is Warp 5, which was reverse engineered from captured Alliance ships and spread to all the shipyards.
The Warp Drive functions as stated in the CRB, but has a 1000 diameter limit instead of a 100 diameter limit.
Psionics are very rare.
Tenal: +2 Int, Small. Short, thin, and quick minded with a large brain, the Tenal have blueish skin with pointed ears, and a penchant for making things, whether it be art or machinery. They are rarely psionic, but it happens more often than it does for the Terrans. Tenal and Terrans can interbreed, with the result typically, being between the parents for height, less blue in the skin, and the ears being fully dominant with a +1 Int. This continues for 1d6+2 generations before the Intelligence bonus fades into the background. The ears never go away, so to this day it is possible to tell that someone has a Tenal ancestor from the ears.
Mi’Tu: +1 STR, +1 END, -2 DEX, -1 SOC in the Alliance (“Our violent younger brothers…”). The Mi’Tu would look like Terrans, but they are covered in fur of various colors. While they were violent, they were mostly trained out of it by the Alliance. Of course, usage of the Mi’Tu as violent characters in the entertainment media is subtly encouraged in the Alliance. After all, how else are they supposed to get good shock-troopers? Elsewhere, they are as free as everybody else and face no SOC penalty. It is possible for Mi’Tu and Terrans to interbreed, but the Alliance heavily, but subtly, discourages that and the attitude has spread. A Terran/Mi’Tu child looks like an average Mi’Tu, but with no bonuses or penalties. The fur lessens over 2d6 generations and will disappear after 4d6+4 generations. A Mi’Tu/Tenal child follows these rules: +1 INT, -1 DEX, with the ears and the fur, staying in the line until someone interbreeds with a Terran. The bonuses, ears, and fur then follow the regular breeding rules.
Whoops, how did that batch of rules get in there?
You want a timeline? I got one:
2098 AD: Colony Ships leave Earth with a population of 200 million.
2156 AD: Date that Earth is believed to have died.
2892 AD: Colony ships arrive in the cluster. Settlement begins on the world Terra-Alpha.
2893 AD: Declared Year 0 of the New Era. Years are declared to be 364 days in length to prevent leap years.
72 NE: Major expansion into space begins.
150 NE: Terra-Alpha system is heavily colonized. Population is 600 million.
363 NE: Researchers discover the Warp Drive. Exploration begins, but is limited by the .5 speed limit.
413 NE: Warp 1 obtained. Colonization of other systems begins. Population of Terra-Alpha is 1.5 Billion.
445 NE: Tenal contacted. Terra-Alpha has settled two other systems.
446 NE: News of the Tenal reaches Terra-Alpha. Massive debate begins on what to do.
447 NE: News arrives that the Tenal are genetically human.
448 NE: Decision is made to incorporate the Tenal into society, with the term Terranic or Terran being adopted as the name for the ones descended from the Earth colonists. Trade begins. Population of Terra-Alpha is 2.3 billion, Tenal 2 billion, with almost 900 million other humans in systems settled from Terra-Alpha.
456 NE: Terranic population across 3 systems is 3.9 billion. Tenal are at 2.3 billion, with small populations on Terra-Alpha.
487 NE: Terran population is now 4.6 billion, with a fourth system added. The Tenal are at 3 billion, with cross breeding showing up.
562 NE: Warp 2. Grand Central Alliance Declared. Terran population at 10 Billion, with Tenal at 8 billion.
589 NE: Massive population and colonization expansion begins.
617 NE: Terran population at 69 billion across 50 systems. Tenal at 55 billion, spread out amongst the Terrans.
629 NE: Mi’Tu contacted. The Useless War begins.
636 NE: The Useless War end.
672 NE: The Mi’Tu are incorporated into the Alliance.
678 NE: Terran population at 483 billion. Tenal at 385 billion. Mi’Tu at 1.6 billion. 150 systems settled.
769 NE: Warp 3. Terrans at 4.8 trillion, Tenal at 3.5 trillion, Mi’Tu reach 8 billion. 800 systems settled, with an average Terran population of 6 billion.
857 NE: Population boom ends.
962 NE: Alliance celebrates its 400th year. Terrans at 2.2 quadrillion, Tenal 630 trillion, Mi’Tu 2.7 trillion, with over 1,500 systems settled.
1011 NE: The Alliance Census Bureau gives up.
1022 NE: Warp 4. Humans have covered the entire cluster is some fashion.
1052 NE: Federation of Brothers declared.
1126 NE: Grand Unity Under God is declared and pushes the Tenal and Mi’Tu from their claimed space.
1250 NE: Dynasty of The New Sun declared. Rumors circulate that the Alliance is experimenting with Psionics.
1302 NE: Galactic Union declared.
1305 NE: Empire of The Phoenix declared.
1317 NE: Warp 5.
1423 NE: Coalition of Independents formed. This is referred to as the Final Blow in Alliance history texts.
1450 NE: Fragmentation War begins.
1495 NE: Alliance is shattered to a fraction of its former size.
1498 NE: Alliance begins use of WMDs. The first strike is on one of their own worlds, to frame the Independents.
1515 NE: The governments of the Independents (In-so-far as they had one…), the Empire, and the Dynasty force the Alliance to sue for peace, and threaten to reveal that the Alliance destroyed its own worlds in a bid to gain political permission to use WMDs.
1520 NE: The Alliance finds it hard to get worlds to come back to its fold.
1534 NE: Present day.
And now I want your thoughts and ideas!
Superb, Rusty_Unycorn, quite superb. 
