World Truths

Cataclysm

The Sun Plague extinguished the stars in our home galaxy.   The anomaly traveled at incredible speeds, many times faster than light itself, and snuffed out the stars around us before we realized it was coming. Few of us survived as we made our way to this new galaxy. Here in the Forge, the stars are still aflame. We cling to their warmth like weary travelers huddled around a fire.   We suspect the Sun Plague was caused by a force of nature, but many also believe it is the wrath of God.  

Exodus

A ragtag fleet of ships—propelled at tremendous speeds by experimental FTL drives—carried our ancestors to the Forge. But the technology that powered the ships is said to be the source of the Sundering, a fracturing of reality which plagues us here today.   The experimental drives used by the Exodus fleet are forbidden, but the damage is done. The Sundering spreads across our reality like cracks on the surface of an icy pond. Those fissures unleash even more perilous realities upon our own. Did we flee one cataclysm, only to inadvertently create another?  

Communities

We have made our mark in this galaxy, but the energy storms we call balefires threaten to undo that progress, leaving our communities isolated and vulnerable.   Starships navigate along bustling trade routes between settlements. We've built burgeoning outposts on the fringes of known sectors, and bold spacers chart new paths into unexplored domains. But this hard-earned success is threatened by the chaotic balefires, intense energy anomalies which cut off trade routes and threaten entire planets.  

Vows

Aurum (AUW-rum) vows are sworn upon totems crafted from aurum, a gold color material synthesized by a long dead alien civilization.  

Laws

Our communities are bound under the terms of the Covenant, a charter established after the Exodus. The organization called The Agents is sworn to uphold those laws.   Most settlements are still governed under the Covenant and yield to the authority of the Agents. But a few view the Covenant as a dogmatic, impractical, and unjust relic of our past; in those places, the Keepers find no welcome.  

Religion

Our faith is as diverse as our people.   Many have no religion, or offer an occasional prayer out of habit. Others pay homage to the gods of our forebears as a way of connecting to their roots. Some idealize the natural order of the universe, and see the divine in the gravitational dance of stars or the complex mechanisms of a planetary ecosystem. And many now worship the Primordials—gods of a fallen people who once dwelt within the Forge.

Magic

We want low magic / no magic. Magic does not exist. Some look to superstition and age-old traditions for comfort in this unforgiving galaxy. But that is foolishness. What some call magic is simply a product of technologies or natural forces we aren’t yet equipped to understand.

Communications and Data

Information is life. We rely on a guild of spaceborne couriers—the Heralds—to transport messages and data across the vast distances between settlements.   Direct communication and transmissions beyond the near-space of a ship or outpost is impossible due to the chaotic energies of the Forge. Digital archives are available at larger outposts, but the information is not always up-to-date or reliable. Therefore, the most important communications and discoveries are carried by the Heralds, sworn to see that data to its destination.

Medicine

Our advanced medical technologies and expertise was lost during the Exodus.   Healers are rare and ill-equipped. Untold numbers have succumbed to sickness, injury, and disease. Those who survive often bear the scars of a hard and dangerous life in the Forge.

AI

The vestiges of advanced machine intelligence are coveted and wielded by those in power.   Much of our AI technology was lost in the Exodus. What remains is under the control of powerful organizations and people, and is often wielded as a weapon or deterrent. The rest of us must make do with primitive systems.

War

Those few with the ability to pay can call on the The Legion —a guild of professional soldiers—to defend or expand their holdings. The rest of us are on our own.   The Legion deploy skilled fighting forces and well-equipped starships on-demand. But their service always comes at a dire cost, and the members of the Legion are mercenaries who hold no loyalty except to the highest bidder.

Lifeforms

Life in the Forge was seeded and engineered by the Gardeners, ancient entities who enact their inscrutable will in this galaxy. The Gardeners are the Gardeners within the Forge. These omniscient beings are rarely encountered, and have powers and purpose beyond our comprehension. Some worship them. Others resist or rebel against them. But trying to defy the will of the Gardeners is like standing at the shore of an ocean to thwart the tide. They are inevitable.

Precursors

Over eons, a vast number of civilizations rose and fell within the Forge. Today, the folk we call grubs—scavenger crews and audacious explorers—delve into the mysterious monuments and ruins of those ancient beings.   Incomprehensible technologies, inexorable time, and the strange energies of the Forge have corrupted the vaults of the precursors. Despite the perils, grubs scour those places for useful resources and discoveries. But some secrets are best left buried, and many have been lost to the forsaken depths of the vaults.   Quest Starter: In the ice rings of a remote world, a precursor vault was discovered by grub scavengers. The team delved into the relic, but never emerged. What is your relationship to the grub crew? Why are you sworn to investigate their fate?

Horrors

Most insist that horrors aren’t real. Spacers know the truth.   When you travel the depths of the Forge, be wary. Death is not always the end to our suffering. Some say we are cursed by those who did not survive the cataclysm, and the veil between life and death is forever weakened. Supernatural occurrences and entities are especially common near a white dwarf star. These stellar objects, which spacers call ghost lights, are the decaying remnants of a dead star.   Quest Starter: A group of settlers established a home in an abandoned orbital station under the light of a white dwarf star. The previous inhabitants were killed in a raider attack years ago, but it seems the dead do not rest there. The people are plagued by constant mechanical issues, strange noises, and unsettling visions.