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| Yet however great the Empire grew as it spread across the stars, it knew that others had gone that way before: interstellar travel depended upon a wormhole network wrought from the fabric of reality with powers beyond any but its vanished Builders. | Yet however great the Empire grew as it spread across the stars, it knew that others had gone that way before: it depended upon a network of interstellar gates, wrought from the fabric of reality with powers beyond any but their vanished Builders. |
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| The Guardian faction sought to end wormhole travel. The forces of interstellar civilization arrayed against them, their cause seemed hopeless. But the Guardians had unlocked the secrets of bulk antimatter production, and were able to destroy the ancient stabilization stations that kept the wormholes traversable. | The Guardian sect sought to end use of the Gates. With the forces of interstellar civilization arrayed against them, their cause seemed hopeless. But then the Guardians came to possess bulk antimatter, and they began to use it to collapse the wormholes within Gates, preventing, they supposed, the profanation of heaven. Dozens of systems were cut off from Connected Space with each attack. Galactic commerce and government were shattered. At last, war even came to the frontiers of the Empire. A long dark age brought ruin to countless inhabited planets. Ten worlds, their only known link with inhabited space cut by an antimatter attack, allied to rebuild starfairing civilization within their handful of still-linked star systems. Their inhabitants do not know what has transpired outside. Have the Antimatter Wars ended? Were the Guardians defeated, or is the territory of the Alliance all that remains of Connected Space? Perhaps afraid of the answers they might find, they made little attempt to find out. After many years of uncertainty, an unknown space probe emerged from a wormhole on the Allied frontier, provoking political changes favourable to an investigation. The Assembly has decided to send a grand mission of exploration to survey space through this wormhole, which leads away from what was once the pale of Imperial colonization. The future of the Alliance, and possibly of all that remains of interstellar civilization, hinges on what is to be found ''beyond the Ten Worlds''... ==== Primer on the Setting ==== The player characters will be part of a mission to explore a poorly-known part of the galaxy. For a long time, the government of the planet Dirac blockaded the only wormhole leading away from Allied Space, fearing at any moment the Guardians - or something worse - could emerge and threaten them. However, the first thing to pass the gate since the fall of the Empire was not a war machine at all, but a simple space probe, fuelling hopes that friendly civilizations might exist beyond the Ten Worlds, and encouraging a pro-exploration movement. The expedition's goals will be to conduct an scientific survey, make peaceful contact with civilizations beyond known space, identify opportunities for trade and cultural exchange, to determine if there is some path of wormhole linkages that goes back to what was once the inhabited galaxy, and finally, to determine the final outcome of the Antimatter Wars - answering the question, "is it safe to come out now?" ==== Player Characters ==== ==== Game System ==== |
For centuries, the galaxy flourished under the benevolent aegis of the Empire. Yet however great the Empire grew as it spread across the stars, it knew that others had gone that way before: it depended upon a network of interstellar gates, wrought from the fabric of reality with powers beyond any but their vanished Builders.
In time, these Builders came to be revered by some as gods. And as so often before, disputes about their will led to war.
The Guardian sect sought to end use of the Gates. With the forces of interstellar civilization arrayed against them, their cause seemed hopeless. But then the Guardians came to possess bulk antimatter, and they began to use it to collapse the wormholes within Gates, preventing, they supposed, the profanation of heaven. Dozens of systems were cut off from Connected Space with each attack. Galactic commerce and government were shattered.
At last, war even came to the frontiers of the Empire. A long dark age brought ruin to countless inhabited planets. Ten worlds, their only known link with inhabited space cut by an antimatter attack, allied to rebuild starfairing civilization within their handful of still-linked star systems. Their inhabitants do not know what has transpired outside. Have the Antimatter Wars ended? Were the Guardians defeated, or is the territory of the Alliance all that remains of Connected Space? Perhaps afraid of the answers they might find, they made little attempt to find out.
After many years of uncertainty, an unknown space probe emerged from a wormhole on the Allied frontier, provoking political changes favourable to an investigation. The Assembly has decided to send a grand mission of exploration to survey space through this wormhole, which leads away from what was once the pale of Imperial colonization. The future of the Alliance, and possibly of all that remains of interstellar civilization, hinges on what is to be found beyond the Ten Worlds...
Primer on the Setting
The player characters will be part of a mission to explore a poorly-known part of the galaxy. For a long time, the government of the planet Dirac blockaded the only wormhole leading away from Allied Space, fearing at any moment the Guardians - or something worse - could emerge and threaten them. However, the first thing to pass the gate since the fall of the Empire was not a war machine at all, but a simple space probe, fuelling hopes that friendly civilizations might exist beyond the Ten Worlds, and encouraging a pro-exploration movement.
The expedition's goals will be to conduct an scientific survey, make peaceful contact with civilizations beyond known space, identify opportunities for trade and cultural exchange, to determine if there is some path of wormhole linkages that goes back to what was once the inhabited galaxy, and finally, to determine the final outcome of the Antimatter Wars - answering the question, "is it safe to come out now?"
Player Characters