World Lore

I am going to keep notes here about the world of Orbos as the game develops. Hopefully, it will be a useful reference as the campaign evolves.

Aldean Guilds

An oligarchical island chain to the North of Nar. Most of Nar’s population were colonists of the Aldean Guild. Due to grievous mismanagement of its colonies and misrule by its various oligarchs it collapsed 100 years ago, and is in the middle of a reconstruction.

Church of Aldea

A religion that has organized and contributed to the reconstruction of several nations to the North of Nar after a massive collapse. It has insiuated itself as an important economic and political power across many nations across Orbos. It actively works to make native religions wherever it goes disadvantageous to the locals. On Aadea it is working to strangle the Order of Stars.

Confederated Stars

Miria comes from an interstellar culture called The Confederated Stars. It spans hundreds of populated planets and space colonies. It keeps strict controls on interstellar trade, which means that it has a robust criminal underworld of smugglers, dealers, and manufacturers if restricted goods. It also has a strong conservation policy about worlds with no (official) interstellar contact, and causing either cultural or environmental contamination of “sanctuary worlds” is punishable by slave labor or even execution.

Dark Matter Engine

An ancient alien supercomputer in the dark matter continuum that spans much of the Universe, it is capable of manipulating physical matter in ways not fully understand, and generally called “the Warp” or “Warping” Specific commands in an alien language combined with psychic focus can activate specific warp effects. Particularly experienced “warp slingers” can learn the rudiments of the ancient alien programming language on an intuitive level.

Neo-Barbarian Worlds

At some point in the early days of interstellar exploration, so e colonies got cut off from interstellar communication and trade. Whether that is by the choice of founding colonists, the result of a colony ship crash, or caused by unpredictable hyperspace phenomena, the result is usually the same: A regression back to Bronze age technology and falling into backwards superstition. Often colonists of different species segregate and become insular from one another, if not downright hostile.

Some cultures and criminal syndicates take advantage of the people of neo-barbarian worlds to set themselves up as gods or emperors, or establish secret enclaves. One syndicate, the Gohr, spend years “programming” societies with custom-designed culture and religion to create ideal slaves, servants, or warriors.

Order of Stars

A local mystery religion created by the Trassi Syndicate to manipluate the early Aldean Colonists on Nar. It allowed the people on Nar to remain cohesive and independent after the collapse of the Aldean Guilds, and is a major part of their identity two centuries later. It is currently under serious strain from the Church of Aldea.

Psionics

The subtle powers of psionics are common in the Confederated Stars, and found naturally in both certain native fauna and occasionally in sapient people across Orbos. Often the communication and hallucinatory powers of psionics are so subtle, the subject assumes the communication is only in their own minds.

“Warp”

The term Miria uses for magic. “Warp” is the reality-bending energy that seeps into the world through hyperspace bleed. It can be used by a trained mind to bend reality., but excessive use damages the timespace continuum.

“Warp Dealers” sell mind-altering memetic systems that, when focused upon lets a brain absorb Warp and prime it, upon release, to cause useful, but temporary distortions of reality,. These “configurations” are carefully regulated and restricted in the Confederated Stars. People who use them, Transmutees, are subject to a lot of complex licensing.

The trade in Warp knowledge and Configurations is ancient, and once far more open. Neo-barbarian planets often have institutions of “magicians ” who pass down “spells” that are, in fact Warp Configurations sometimes familiar, sometimes lost the Confederated Stars .