Lancer - Core Book

FORECAST/ UNION IN 5016U
GALSIM

UEB: UNION BCA: BUREAU OF UBO/NTM: UNON UIB: UNION
ECONOMIC COLONIAL BUREAU OF INTELLIGENCE

BUREAU ADMINISTRATION ORBITAL AND NON- BUREAU
TERRESTRIAL
MANAGEMENT

UOB: UNION OIT: OFFICE OF OCUP: OFFICE OF
OMNINETWORK INTERSTELLAR CARTOGRAPHY
TRANSPORTATION AND UNIVERSAL
BUREAU
POSITIONING

them as command imperatives to administrators, who which recognition of an administrator’s role would
then work with local rulers and governments to find a jeopardize their life or mission. Of course, these cases
best-fit integration based on local conditions. are rare – attacking an administrator is a sure way to
draw Union's punitive attention.
The administrators are vast in number, but a rare sight in
most of the Diaspora, as they usually deal directly with Administrators are pulled from all over the galaxy
rulers or ruling councils. To the average Diasporan or according to esoteric, exacting criteria. They are
Cosmopolitan, administrators are enigmatic, dangerous, typically chosen as children and trained from an early
and appealing figures. They travel with NHP companions age alongside a unique NHP – one built specifically to
(typically embodied in a retinue of attendant subaltern pair with them. This training takes place at satellite
forms), help steer the course of civilizations, and are campuses scattered across the galaxy, but over the
Union; for most people, they are the manifest presence decades of their apprenticeship, all administrators
of a ruler that is profoundly distant, if not entirely mythic. spend some time on Cradle – an experience meant to
The word of administrators seemingly supersedes the be an acute reminder of humanity’s origins.
will of kings, presidents, popes, and all the rest.
Upon graduation and notification of posting,
Unlike most representatives of Union’s hegemony, administrators choose names local to the cultures in
administrators do not integrate with the societies in which they will be embedded. Since they must engage
which they are embedded. They are meant to be in interstellar travel, their old identities are declared dead,
visible – to be easily identifiable markers of Union’s formally retired as part of the graduation ceremony.
authority. However they express their gender, all
administrators wear the same uniform: a clean suit in Together with their subaltern NHPs, newly minted
dark Union Gray, their rank as administrator denoted administrators head out into the galaxy to give
by a silver pip on the collar. Their NHP-piloted counsel, file reports back to the UAD, and ensure their
subalterns adopt a similar matte gray livery. This host state develops according to the missives they
visibility is profitable for Union, save for those cases in receive from Cradle.

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [351]

UNION NAVAL DEPARTMENT UNION DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

UN AND HUMAN RIGHTS
The Union Naval Department (colloquially shortened to
UN, for Union Navy) is the largest and most powerful DOJ/HR, OR THE NEW DIVISION
fighting force in the populated galaxy – at least on The Union Department of Justice and Human Rights is
paper. It is subordinate to CentComm, although it takes a department new to Union as of the founding of
strategic and logistic direction from GALSIM as well. ThirdComm, cobbling together a mix of responsibilities,
jurisdictions, and obligations under a single, broad
Union’s navy is a sprawling, carefully administered mission: identify areas of the galaxy where the Utopian
organization that projects Cradle's power to all Pillars are under threat of being violated, and intervene
corners of the populated galaxy and beyond. It does on a case-by-case basis. Among its personnel, the
this with a (relatively) small corps of Union-flagged DoJ/HR is referred to as the New Division – a dual
capital and supercapital ships, supported by vast reference to the general youth of its personnel and its
fleets of standardized, integrated auxiliary ships (relatively) short history as a department.
drawn from the navies of Union’s subject states.
The New Division’s mission leads to an
Beyond the comparatively few ships it directly understandably broad portfolio that encompasses
commands, the UN is an administrative and diplomatic everything from first contact with isolated cultures to
body that shares a healthy institutional rivalry with the critical humanitarian response, direct action
Union Administrative Department: while the UAD relies intervention, truth and justice hearings, and universe
on administrators to accomplish its diplomatic goals, reconstruction. This work demands a type of person
the UN relies on a corps of naval liaisons to accomplish common in the Galactic Core but not often found in
its logistical objectives. Naval liaisons are officers of other departments: young people eager for rapid
equivalent rank to administrators, with special action – policy, legal, or literal. Within Union’s other
imperative authority in times of crisis. Unless it is departments, few match the fervor with which the staff
demanded by their local culture, administrators don’t of the DoJ/HR approach their work; conversely, few –
carry weapons; naval liaisons, on the other hand, carry if any – of Union’s other departments can match the
sidearms and wear uniforms of Naval Black, clearly DoJ/HR’s burnout rate.
marking them as part of Union’s military.
Burnout is a fact of the job at the DoJ/HR. The New
Liaisons are only sent to states that are capable of Division is the terminus for the galaxy’s sins: every human
building or adapting ships to UN specifications and rights violation, every distress call, every cry for help finds
classifications. They guide these states in production, its way, eventually, to the DoJ/HR. To counteract this
training, and the theory of naval combat, with the goal of burnout, frontline personnel and caseworkers are often
establishing a well-trained auxiliary naval corps. Once surprised with “delivery days”, unexpected deliveries from
this is complete, the UN further integrates that corps into their commanding officers that contain collected reports
its command structure, offering interstellar contracts to from successfully resolved cases and personal messages
crews and corps seeking to progress further in rank. from people their efforts have directly or indirectly helped.
Those who remain are assigned to anti-piracy,
peacekeeping, and police actions in their local system. The DoJ/HR’s mission is put into practice through a
rich symbiotic relationship with Union’s administrative
Administrators tend to view liaisons as impositions on and naval departments. Using access to the broad
their diplomatic mission – bureaucrats who come in base of intelligence and human assets provided by the
after the hard work is done and demand a military tithe UAD and the UN – as well as its own caseworkers –
from the administrator’s host state. Liaisons tend to the New Division identifies two types of missions:
view administrators as overly precious, possessive critical assistance and universe-building.
bureaucrats with an inflated sense of worth.
Critical assistance missions (CAMs) take place when
impending or ongoing violation events necessitate
rapid, direct action to intervene and prevent further
human cost. These warrant the intervention of one of
the DoJ/HR’s liberator teams (LTs), institutionalized
successors to ThirdComm’s early Interstellar
Solidarity Brigades. For most New Division personnel,
CAMs are “where the action is at” – that is, they are
violent confrontations with slavers3, despots, tyrants,
and so on. LTs are commonly composed of
Metropolitan volunteers working in tandem with local

[352] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

sympathetic factions. Their missions call for rapid UNION SCIENCE BUREAU UNION IN 5016U
movement, adogmatic warfare, and long-term
deployment; not only do they intervene, but they USB
remain following the conclusion of hostilities, helping The Union Science Bureau is the central administrative
to transition liberated communities into stable political body for universities, colleges, scientific institutions,
entities appropriate for the local culture. and think tanks throughout Union space. Ostensibly an
apolitical entity, the USB works outside and parallel to
The DoJ/HR’s LTs are tight-knit, professional strike- CentComm’s chain of command, though it is subject to
and-support units. They employ a liberation-focused some oversight from CentComm and GALSIM.
approach: once targets are identified, force is valued
over diplomacy, and their prime objective is to The most common site of interaction between the public
emancipate and enfranchise enslaved peoples at the and the USB is its exhausting list of colleges, universities,
expense of their masters. Their tactical doctrines and public schools – however, it is most commonly
emphasize either infiltration and agitation or direct represented in media in the form of the far-field team (FFT)
confrontation, depending on the situation. – popularly called “rangers”. Flying their iconic Ranger-
class nearlight ships, FFTs are small parties of scientists
Universe-building missions (UBMs) require a less and support staff responsible for venturing to never-
immediate response. A common joke among LTs is before-seen worlds, exploring uncanny or anomalous
that anything that doesn’t involve a mass grave interstellar phenomena, and all manner of other fieldwork
qualifies as a UBM. They’re not wrong, though such involved in scouting new worlds.
an assessment isn’t always accurate. UBMs typically
take place in response to Pillar violations that are FFTs are made up of romantics, wanderers, and
“soft”, though no less criminal: exploitation, denial of loners, alongside passionate scientists, technicians,
basic services, totalitarian or fascistic drift, and so on. philosophers, and engineers of all disciplines. Their
UBMs involve slow intervention on the part of DoJ/HR missions are dangerous, often requiring long-term
caseworkers, local experts, and so on. stasis and relativistic travel into unexplored systems
not connected to the blink network – the data returned
Because the DoJ/HR’s portfolio straddles the is invaluable, more than worth the risk.
purviews of both the UN and the UAD, many New
Division operations involve resources from both of the Although the popularity of rangers in romanticized
other departments. In such cases, the New Division omninet dramas drives USB recruitment, they make
has the power to deputize naval and administrative up a minority of USB personnel. The vast majority of
personnel, vessels, and materiel. USB staff are employed in terrestrial and orbital
education centers, laboratories, and fabrication sites
3 Although slavery is now strictly prohibited as researchers, engineers, designers, and technicians.
under ThirdComm, it was once endorsed The accessibility and secrecy of these institutions
with special exception by SecComm, which vary: most operate in the public eye, with doors wide
viewed flash and facsimile clones as property open; by contrast, the campuses where the most
rather than people. In addition to a number of secret and sensitive work takes place are hidden or
other grievances that triggered ThirdComm’s otherwise inaccessible to those without clearance.
revolution, the abolishment of SecComm’s
endorsement of chattel and economic bondage
was one of the revolutionaries’ primary demands.

The DoJ/HR oversees all active and ongoing
emancipation missions. Before its founding, the
DoJ/HR’s predecessors, the Interstellar Solidarity
Brigades, developed a holistic liberation-to-
integration program meant not only to liberate
enslaved peoples, but to settle them, enfranchise
them, address wealth redistribution, and support
them throughout the recovery process. Now
formally codified, legally supported, and bolstered
by ongoing review by ThirdComm, the DoJ/HR’s
liberator teams boast a near perfect success
rate in emancipatory actions.

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [353]

UNION ECONOMIC BUREAU and the BCA. Accordingly, the size of the bureau has
increased while its mission scope has narrowed to
UEB managing new colonial charters, private and public. With
The Union Economic Bureau tracks and adjusts the the increasing largesse granted to the UEB and the
value of manna, evaluates consumer goods, and has corpro-states it oversees, the BCA has become the
some jurisdiction over omninet and blink network primary body for granting colonial charters and self-
affairs. It also plays a significant role in dealing with determination rights to corpro-flagged colonial missions.
and legitimizing galactic-standard manufacturers and
corpro-states For example, several advisory positions In contrast to the UAD, the BCA maintains a portfolio
on the board of GMS are held ex-officio by UEB of worlds that have no native or indigenous sapient
representatives, giving the bureau a say in its strategic populations; in cases of recontact, BCA flags the
direction and, as a direct consequence, a say in world for review by the UAD and DoJ/HR, then issues
determining the galactic standards and codes. a blanket moratorium on colonial charters, assuming
the indigenous human population has first, total, and
More broadly, too, the UEB is responsible for perpetual rights to their world.
regulating and contracting with corpro-states. Lesser
known is its secondary, clandestine mission to gather UNION BUREAU OF ORBITAL AND
intelligence on the galaxy’s largest corpro-states,
suppliers, and fabricators. NON-TERRESTRIAL MANAGEMENT

Starting as a minor department under FirstComm, the UBO/NTM
UEB grew exponentially under SecComm – eventually The Union Bureau of Orbital and Non-Terrestrial
spearheading the implementation of manna and Management specializes in the management of non-
chartering the first official corpro-states, recognizing terrestrial habitats and all relevant legislation. As part
their sovereignty over land and product. The UEB’s of this mission, it manages security and aide services
increasing consolidation of power is a point of friction for on all non-terrestrial stations, including blink gates.
CentComm; as ThirdComm’s rule has grown more The UBO/NTM is also the primary court for disputes
assured over the centuries, and the first and second concerning non-terrestrial natural or artificial habitats
waves of post-revolution representatives have been and stations in interstellar or non-local space.
replaced by new members, newer members have
pushed to liberalize certain of Union’s components. The The UBO/NTM has two subordinate bodies: the Office
vehicle for this liberalization is the UEB, despite the of Interstellar Transportation (OIT) and the Office of
growing number of high-level UEB personnel who Cartography and Universal Positioning (OCUP).
espouse policies sympathetic to, and in some cases
aligned entirely with Anthrochauvinist revival ideologies. OIT is responsible for managing, planning, and
maintaining the entirety of the blink network,
UNION OMNINETWORK BUREAU installation of blink gates, and structuring safe
passage codes for blink travel. It also sets and
UOB certifies safety standards for ships seeking interstellar
The Union Omninetwork Bureau oversees licenses, and is the primary court for any cases
construction, logistics, maintenance, and policy involving temporal complexities – such as those
concerning the omninet, omni-connected devices, concerning subjective/real age and death – and
and media carried on the omninet. It works with a interstellar shipping disputes.
mandate to ensure that the omninet is spread across
the galaxy – free, convenient, and accessible. OCUP is responsible for surveying and mapping visible
space, maintaining specific records on stellar influence
UNION BUREAU OF COLONIAL zones, updating and revising local-space sovereignty
codes, mapping stellar phenomena, and myriad other
ADMINISTRATION tasks related to the making of maps and charts.

BCA
The Bureau of Colonial Administration is responsible
for granting and maintaining colonial licenses as well
as overseeing a range of other territorial matters. It
sets colonial priority zones, manages private charter
licensing, and is the first court for colonial disputes.

The BCA was once a subordinate office of the Union
Colonial Mission (UCM), before ThirdComm broke the
UCM into three different entities: the DoJ/HR, the UAD,

[354] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

OFF-BOOK ENTITIES UNION INTELLIGENCE BUREAU UNION IN 5016U

The two organizations listed here, while official UIB
apparatuses of Union, are considered top secret The Union Intelligence Bureau (UIB) is Union’s
bureaus. They are included here to provide rich deniable asset and dark operations group: a broad-
narrative territory, but the likelihood that your players portfolio, clandestine intelligence division that keeps
would encounter them or have knowledge of them is tabs on entities, states, phenomena, organizations,
exceedingly low. These bureaus are secrets of the and movements that GALSIM determines to
highest order –– public discovery of their existence represent major existential threats to humanity.
would be a crisis on an unprecedented scale. CentComm only has an advisory-oversight role to the
UIB; ultimate decision-making falls first to GALSIM,
FORECAST/GALSIM then to the UIB itself.

GALSIM Officially, the UIB does not exist; even CentComm is
Forecast/GALSIM (typically abbreviated to GALSIM) is not privileged to know how it staffs itself, nor the full
one of Union’s off-book bureaus, responsible for extent of its missions.
overseeing the Oracle Chorus installation on Mars’s
Mare Boreum. The entire bureau is contained to this
facility, which is staffed by a city’s worth of personnel. At
the heart of the Oracle Chorus installation is a
deliberative body that guides Union’s grand strategy and
growth in pursuit of its mission to ensure humanity’s
long-term survival: the Five Voices. The Voices are five
sovereign-class bicameral minds, unique NHPs held in a
metafold blinkspace pocket beneath the surface of
Mars: Command, Muse, Impetus, Burden, and Watcher.

Together, the Five Voices act in concert – as a
congress, in teams, and as individuals – to run
iterative, near-perfect forecasts of the galaxy at
intervals with the intention of advising Union in the
management of galactic affairs.

In many ways, GALSIM is more akin to a monastic
order than a branch of government. Its esoteric
mission necessitates a certain dogmatic approach.
Owing to the absolute necessity of keeping GALSIM a
deeply buried secret, the staff and personnel of the
Oracle Chorus facility generally serve for life; upon
retiring their service, they live at a nearby satellite
campus. Even retired personnel often assist with
interpretation when requested, instruct new staff, and
work on divergent or anomalous iteratives.

Advancement through the ranks at GALSIM – and
recruitment of new staff – is based on favor and affinity
with the Five Voices; empathic connection with one or
more of the Voices dictates assignment, translation
priority, and iterative liberty.

The existence of GALSIM, along with that of its
various subordinate bodies, is top secret: classified to
all except for approved members of CentComm and
the directors of the USB, UAD, UN, and Union
Intelligence Bureau (UIB), and their immediate staff. As
a result of the need for secrecy, GALSIM’s facilities are
kept decidedly low-tech to prevent external hacking
and network invasion attempts – not that its existence
is known by potentially hostile or interested parties.

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [355]

VIOLENCE IN LANCER

WHY WE (STILL) FIGHT In the present day, Diasporan states exhibit a wide
range of governing bodies and organizational
As you read about Union and its history, you likely ideologies. At the most progressive end of the
noticed some hedging in the language we’ve used to spectrum, the process of integrating into ThirdComm’s
explain core concepts, conceits, and realities: “usually”, Union is a copasetic one defined by translation,
“most”, “often”, “almost”, and so on. This hedging diplomacy, and shared understanding. For these
marks the gaps in the young golden age, the places states, Union’s arrival is greeted with celebration, and
where the galaxy doesn’t conform to Union’s Utopian integration into the whole of humanity is a welcome
Pillars – either through ignorance or outright rejection. event – a broadening of horizons beyond what had
once been thought to be the limits of human potential.
In 5016u, humanity is still plagued by war and
oppression at the fringes of Core space. No matter In some cases, integration is unwelcome. This is when
how hard Union and its proxies work, ThirdComm’s – as a last resort – conflict occurs. When resistant or
mission is a titanic undertaking. To lift all of humanity outright hostile states respond to Union’s
into a post-capital, post-scarcity golden age is a representatives with direct violence (or respond
project that is always practiced, never complete – violently to internal indigenous states or factions that
even the wildest of gardens must be maintained if it is are receptive to Union), only then does Union initiate
to be a garden. The consequences of the wars that an escalating, proportional program of direct action.
founded Union, to say nothing of the revolution that
founded the Third Committee, continue to ripple out To the moderates and left-of-center interventionists in
from Cradle; time and distance both make the project CentComm, direct military intervention against
one perpetually in the process of implementation. Diasporan states is considered off the table until all
other options have been exhausted. Broad military
This does not mean Union’s project is without end, campaigns – actions in which the navy and auxiliaries
that iterative, non-linear progress is not worthwhile or are called into action, as opposed to emancipatory
that contradictory actions on the part of Union and its actions taken by liberation teams – are seldom
proxies undo all such progress; it simply means that welcomed with celebration; rather, activation of these
there is always work to be done. For Union, utopia is forces indicates multiple dramatic diplomatic failures,
not a static state. It is a status that is held, maintained, usually with consequences for the bureaucrats
and improved upon – always. Owing in large part to involved in the breakdown.
the vacuum left in the expansion, retreat, and eventual
toppling of SecComm, the diaspora of humanity has EXTRA-UNION CONFLICTS
developed divergent from Union's influence for nearly
five hundred years – an expected consequence of More common than Union interventions are planetary
ThirdComm’s revolution. or system-local conflicts between Diasporan states
and, increasingly, conflicts involving corpro-states –
The seeds of this divergence were planted during the latter of which either sees corpro-states pitted
SecComm’s millennia-long campaign of cultural against each other, or corpro-states and their private
assimilation, territorial expansion, and attempts to armies facing off against nation-states.
organize humanity under a single banner. The
Diaspora inherited its dominant ideological Conflicts between rival Diasporan states are often well
touchstones from this project, along with the underway by the time Union (or an organization acting
aggressive motivations of capital, colonization, and on its behalf) makes first contact. These can range
conquest. While some of the last states created by this from civil conflicts to multi-state wars isolated to
expansion period organized under ThirdComm’s early single worlds, to interplanetary conflicts – rare, but not
drafts of the Utopian Pillars, most Diasporan states unheard of. Whatever their scale, these conflicts are
could not shake the compelling power afforded by generally motivated by ideology, but can involve
their local forms of Second Committee ideology. resource or territory disputes as well.
Anthrochauvinism, it turned out, was broadly popular
if people were not presented with, educated according For conflicts involving corpro-states and Diasporan
to, and lifted up by less reactionary ideologies: the states, the animating events almost always involve
Second Committee had no interest in such education, resources or land. The rise of corpro-states and other
as its primary concern was building a united humanity destabilizing actors has intensified competition over
in their image, not simply a united humanity. the rare elements needed to fabricate the fantastic
technologies upon which humanity now relies. Some

[356] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

corpro-states hire mercenaries to accompany their Raids in interstellar shipping lanes are risky, as the VIOLENCE IN LANCER
claims teams on these ventures, while others rely on location and time of potential attacks are known to all
their own standing armies. parties. Far from the protection afforded by orbital
debris, asteroid fields, satellites, and high-orbit traffic,
Conflicts pitting corpro-states against each other tend these pirates rely on a more advanced suite of
to be skirmishes – small, clandestine engagements systems, sensors, technical packages, and tactics.
over important persons, locations, and facilities that
take place between small teams of highly trained Interdiction of a nearlight ship bound to or from a blink
agents and expensive mercenaries; larger gate means meeting it at like speed – thus, pirates
engagements are usually the result of labor organizing engaging in interstellar raids typically command
and local revolutions against (typically) off-world vessels far more advanced than those used by orbital
corpro-states. pirates. These high-speed actions require significant
investment in navigation suites and personnel, as well
Corpro-states occasionally move beyond industrial as the ability to spoof, misdirect, or otherwise
espionage to engage in armed conflicts with each confound the nearlight/sublight proximity and active
other. These clashes normally begin when an attempt sensors of potential targets. In addition to power
to acquire a world spills out of control and they usually output and navigational systems sufficient to match
end with outright warfare across and above the their targets, pirates attempting interdictions typically
disputed world as the various parties attempt to mount weapons that emphasize accuracy and
secure their holdings. precision – their payout is only worthwhile if the
goods, vessels, or people they’re attempting to steal
Any of the conflicts discussed here may demand the are intact and functional, or could be made so with
use of mechs. These are the places lancers are likely minimal repairs.
to find themselves when their commanders issue
deployment orders. Engagements happen fast and with little warning. The
mil-spec technologies used to spoof signals, misdirect
PIRACY sensors, and conceal ships easily overwhelm the
sensors of civilian and merchant ships. Often, the first
Piracy remains outlawed by ThirdComm, as it has been warning a ship receives of an impending attack is when
since Union’s creation. The act of piracy is defined as a its impact sensor – a simple, dedicated system – issues
predatory assault on individuals or groups, with the a proximity or likely-trajectory alert.
intention of sowing terror, abducting people, and/or
stealing goods. This generally occurs outside of Core This alert usually signifies incoming fire, targeting
space, and as one of two primary types of piracy: sensitive locations: drives, life-support subsystems,
privateering, which is unlicensed or otherwise crew quarters, and weapon magazines or batteries.
grayspace mercenary work sponsored by state or non- This first volley almost always uses precision weapons
state entities that targets flagged opposition or civilian designed to pierce bulkheads and fragment on
ships, stations, and/or populations; and wolfpack contact with O2 – soft-target killers, reliant on
piracy – assault, robbery, and abduction performed by shrapnel and combustion – or massive systemic
groups of stateless or counter-state actors. attacks meant to cripple ships or take priority
administrative control.
Following ThirdComm’s restructuring of the Union
Navy, Union has depended on constituent states for Once a target has been disabled or its speed matched
active and immediate defense of targeted ships and – preventing the need for dangerous maneuvers while
stations. Union’s main concern isn’t the act of piracy approaching light speed – then the attackers assume
itself, but addressing the foundational concerns that direct control, physically or electronically.
draw people to it: underlying economic conditions in
the Diaspora that force resource scarcity, and the Interstellar piracy is the domain of dangerous,
ideological and political factors that would push dedicated professionals, often Cosmopolitans with
groups towards piracy in the first place. naval backgrounds and access to a wealth of
experience and technology gathered over long years
Acts of piracy usually occur in two places: interstellar of piracy. Interstellar pirates are rare, given the
shipping lanes, where pirates know nearlight ships, experience and tech required for interstellar travel and
freighters, and yachts will pass by on their way to or piracy. On account of their constant exposure to the
from local blink gates; and in low-to-medium orbit effects of relativistic and gravitational time dilation,
around distal worlds, where shuttles and corvettes they often attain a legendary status among their
can be caught as they transport goods and people hunters, victims, and fans.
from the surface to waiting ships or stations.

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [357]

Orbital and local-system piracy is decidedly more Including pirates in your campaign can be a fruitful
regional – generally the domain of local pirates, way to introduce regional politics or a compelling
resistance groups looking to disrupt their targets’ villain (or anti-hero). Moreover, they make for
supply lines, or well-funded criminal organizations straightforward random encounters, persistent
seeking to diversify their portfolios and gain notoriety. threats, or foils for the players and their group. See the
PIRATE template on page 330 for some special
While interstellar piracy is elegant, expensive, storied, systems and abilities pirate NPCs might use.
and rare, orbital piracy is messy, low-tech, and far
more common. Orbital pirates rarely utilize subline or SPACE COMBAT
capital ships in their engagements, preferring the
maneuverability, atmospheric capabilities, anonymity, Space combats involving whole fleets are incredibly
and disposability of shuttles, corvettes, and light rare, as the sheer scale of industry and organization
freighters. The name of the game for orbital and local- needed to field proper fleets is only found among a
system pirates is to strike fast, grab what is valuable, handful of states and entities. When it does happen, it
and escape, either to a planetside safehouse or to a is elegant at a distance and brutal up close.
nearby moon or station where they can hide.
Against the stark black of deep space, long
Orbital piracy often begins as a ground-to-orbit silhouettes drift in tightening gyres, maneuvering to
engagement: powerful mobile antennae blast a dodge torpedoes and kinetic kill-clouds tens of
target with bombard code and whiteout attacks. thousands of kilometers distant. Energy beams streak
These attacks overwhelm sensors, comms, and across the void, invisible to the naked eye and
navigation suites with overwhelming, single-use shimmering only where they impact their targets.
system spikes – systemic weapons developed by
black-hat coders, designed for simple, limited use – To an observer, this combat between fleets-of-the-line
to cover the pirates’ advance. is silent, sterile. Long capital ships appear to spin
thousands of kilometers apart, closing slowly as their
Formerly mothballed fighters, converted freighters, orbits align. Clouds of glittering metal, chaff, and slag
armed and armored shuttles, and myriad other ships bloom into the darkness, catching the light of distant
follow the whiteout attack, firing in kill-cloud, mass-helix, stars. The blue torches of torpedoes trace silent,
or other common ballistic patterns. These attack wings fading lines in the night, escorted by teardrop fighters
feature a ramshackle mix of reusable fighters and short- and targeted debris.
range transports – crash taxis, tin cans, party busses,
trojans, and so on – jury-rigged to deliver squads of But for those engaged, there is no elegance, no
subalterns, mechs, or organic marines. These single-use grace. There is just the long, persistent terror of
transports are often little more than debris shields space combat.
mounted on frontal racks – armature structures that
secure their passengers with magnetic clamps, straps, Days before crews can even see their opponents on
or handholds. Fired from larger ships or self-propelled, raw optics, the first torpedoes, kill-clouds, spoofers,
these vessels crash into targets and engage their solid- shrouds, and subaltern kinetics have already been
state boosters, throwing their victim’s off-course and launched. The moment sensors pick up a distant foe,
preventing disengagement. Durability over multiple pilots, officers, and crew members are roused from
engagements is not a priority: if successful, the pirates stasis and ordered to begin preparations. Massive,
will use their haul to buy new scrapper ships, or convert single-use kinetic and energy weapons begin their
captured vessels for use in the next raid – after they’ve acceleration cycles, spooling up for their perfect shots.
been stripped for parts, of course.
At that point, the flagship’s NHP executive officer
Current examples of infamous pirates include comes online, paired with the commanding officer but
dedicated revolutionary groups like the Ungratefuls, the given free rein to partition and duplicate themselves
Own Hands –– liberated Diasporans who haunt into subsentient subjectivities to better advise and
Constellar space and act as a thorn in the side of SSC coordinate all of their ship’s systems. Tactical
–– and the Golden Plague, a notorious pirate fleet led command for the fleet is given to the flagship NHP,
by the Mei Ling, a former scientist-turned-pirate lord. while strategic and kill command remain the purview
of individual commanding officers.
Union’s code of stellar conduct demands any ship must
respond upon receiving an SOS hail or face legal The NHPs for each ship in the fleet, carrier group,
penalties for shirking the legal duty to attempt to rescue battlegroup, or patrol construct a virtual war room – a
survivors. After initial responses, follow-up typically falls fleet legion – networking into a hybrid one/many-mind
to proximal, spaceflight-capable states or Union entities. to ensure total integration over the battlespace. All

[358] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

VIOLENCE IN LANCER

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [359]

commanding officers are party to the information and Landers, crowded with marines and mechs, have a
recommendations that issue from the fleet legion, and dangerous mission: crash into enemy ships,
tactical feeds are distributed to subordinates on a disembark, and capture or disable them from the
need-to-know basis in accordance with their rank and inside. Most soldiers involved in boarding actions will
tactical/strategic role. see direct combat; many of them won’t come back,
assuming their unit comes back at all.
The first commands issued after the initial volley
concern maneuvers and ship systems: avoid incoming By now, the fleets are engaged and combat continues in
fire, communicate with allied ships, begin closing the a shrinking window. The unpredictability gap – the time
unpredictability gap. Finally, all hands are ordered to during which NHPs and pilots can still outmaneuver their
prepare for combat. Crewmembers hustle to don null- opponents – shrinks faster and faster.
atmosphere equipment, lock into their battle stations,
push combat stims, cycle all loaders, and link to the Ship-to-ship combat increases in intensity as the
fleet’s legion. ships of the line circle toward each other. Close Mid-
and close-range “dumb” kinetic cloud weapons open
Along flight decks and inside carrier blisters, alarms up, hurling thousands of projectiles in the direction of
howl as pilots and technicians hurry to finish pre-flight predicted enemy headings. Some short-cycle
checks and procedures. The techs load ordinance and batteries open fire at this point. Their beams carve
payloads onto fighters and bombers while pilots and terrible lines of invisible energy through the black,
crews prep systems, uploading the latest telemetry scattering off the projected shielding and ablative
data, battle reports, flight plans, and obstacle reports. armor of larger ships, and detonating smaller ships
If there are mech chassis and marines aboard, they without sufficient defenses.
hurry to their landers.
Meanwhile, systemic weapons pound away at fleet
Then, commanders and their NHPs scramble fighters, legions and the systems of individual ships in
bombers, and landers. Corvettes and gunboats, attempts to gain a tactical advantage. Spoof probes
destroyers and cruisers – subline ships – begin attack and shrouds, launched early in the engagement,
runs. Frigates, battleships, tender ships, and carriers activate, at last, pinging enemy sensors and comms
hold their lines and continue both systemic and kinetic arrays with hostile code and creating false signals to
countermeasures, protecting the larger ships from any distract weapons and pilots, trick nervous
projectile or vessel that gets close. commanders into early nearlight ejections, and draw
enemy fire toward empty space. Subaltern kinetics
At this point, the kill zone between the two fleets has inform their master systems of final trajectories and
been established: the shortest distance between plunge toward their targets, triggering their payloads
them, which is also the area of highest projectile and on impact or in proximity.
lance density. The smaller batteries on the kilometers-
long capital ships begin to fire. Meanwhile, their spinal Legions face each other down; NHPs engaging in
guns charge. electronic warfare with weapons esoteric and
incomprehensible to human observers, hurling
Fighters fly as escorts tasked with defending landers, ontological and anti-solipsistic paradox weapons
corvettes, bombers, and gunboats from other fighter back and forth on a plane of battle removed from
wings, torpedo flights, and subline ships. They chart human experience.
flight paths through the kill-clouds and anti-ship
weapons, crossing the shrinking no-man’s-land to Finally, at a range too close for evasive maneuvers,
harass enemy capital ships and force them to deal with long-cycle batteries open up, hurling tremendous,
threats at all ranges. When the first fighters launch, it demi-solar particle lances or many-gigaton kinetics at
will take them roughly a day to cross no-man’s-land. their targets. To survive a hit from a long-cycle battery,
the commanders of capital ships must begin carefully
Bombers and subline ships aim to engage capital balancing their power budget, shifting between
ships at a close enough range that their targets can’t angled shielding and weapon power. Some
maneuver to avoid their payloads. These ships are commanders forego heavy shielding at this point, as a
relatively small and agile targets, deceptively square hit from any long-cycle weapon is likely to
dangerous units that present a very real threat to any ignore it anyway.
capital ships that let them get too close.

[360] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

This is the battle’s climax – the moment when the The remains of the battle are left to the victors. Any VIOLENCE IN LANCER
unpredictability gap closes. Due to the tremendous survivors are rounded up and prisoners dealt with.
power needed to fire a capital ship’s spinal cannons, Ships that have been scuttled or captured are
each ship of the line is likely to have one chance only boarded by skeleton crews and pointed toward
to hit their target. Cooling and recharging a ship’s main friendly shipyards, where they can be repurposed;
guns – kinetic or energy – simply takes too much time. capital ships are simply too large to be printed.
The commanders of these ships know this, and hold Reports are relayed back to central command. NHPs
on to their single shot as long as they can: they must drop out of legionspace, unlinking and winding down
hit and must score a clean impact, or they’ll be to their non-combat parameters. Objectives are
exposed to an enemy that has all the time in the world assessed and adjusted, and fleets either continue
to take the killing blow. their campaigns, retire, or steam for friendly shipyards
in search of repairs and replacements.
At the same time, fighters and subline ships continue
to buzz in angry swarms, locked in bitter wing-combat Thus, space combat has two forms: from a distance,
with their enemy counterparts. Marines and mechs silence; up close, the combat of titans and the
fight wage grinding CQB and melee battles, individuals caught in the middle. Fleet engagements
compartment-to-compartment, deck-to-deck, as they cost thousands of lives. When fought near inhabited
struggle to take control of the ships on which they’ve worlds, moons, or stations, the cost can rise
landed on. Kill-cloud kinetics and point-defense exponentially. Civilian casualties number in the
weapons pepper the flanks of great capital ships, millions; should Core worlds be engaged, the human
tearing away superficial armors, blisters, and distal cost can surpass billions. Less conventional tactics –
chambers. Here and there along the line, batteries such as accelerating asteroids and comets into
score direct hits, and the battlespace is flooded with planets – can prove more costly still.
the brilliant micronovae of a capital ship’s cataclysmic
death. In legionspace, NHPs tear at their opponents’ Large-scale fleet combat of any type is (relatively) rare
fundamental senses of being – a battle somehow and terrible. It represents the breakdown of a whole
more terrible than that occurring in subjective space. sector, as systemic powers bring their considerable
productive and logistical capacity to bear against
Eventually, the battle ends when one side retreats or is each other in quarrels over worlds and ideologies. The
eliminated. result is never cheap.

Most ships of the line have a nearlight ejection drive Smaller-scale fleet combat tends to involve warring
capable of at least 0.9 c. At the start of the battle, states that share one world, or a world and its moon,
conservative, nervous, or cautious captains might and usually takes place in low orbit. Fleets ferrying
begin to spool this system up so that it’s hot and ready ground troops from one continent to another or
to fire in an emergency. When triggered – at the order of escorting intercontinental and interstellar missiles
an NHP, or automatically within certain parameters – along their flight paths are perfect opportunities to
the ejection drive suddenly shunts its ship .9 c, hurling strike. The fleets involved in these battles are generally
it along a planned (or randomized) escape route. This made up of subline ships, corvettes, mounted mechs,
expeditious retreat is dangerous, taxing both systems and wings of fighters and bombers. It’s rare for capital
and personnel, but it’s better than death. ships to engage in fleet-to-fleet combat in low orbit
unless they are supporting an invasion and striking
ground targets.

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [361]

ARMED FORCES For 3000 years, Union expanded and colonized space
without the benefits of the blink network or the
Across the Diaspora and in the interstitial voids where omninet, neither of which were created until after the
the Cosmopolita transit the stars – in the shadow of Deimos Event. Drones and uncrewed interstellar
the Utopian Pillars – war rears its bloody head. vehicles scouted on hundred-year increments – fired
Violence between expansive, all-consuming corpro- toward distant targets, followed 100 years after arrival
states, between despots and revolutionaries, between by nearlight ships that were yet to be built, far-field
states, fills earthen graves and casts bodies into the teams yet to be born.
cold black tomb of space.
During the First Expansion Period, the First
MECHANIZED CHASSIS Committee’s expansionist imperative demanded that
humanity spread out among the stars. Old colonies
The cultural and battlefield dominance of mechanized and installations were waiting, ready to be reactivated.
chassis can be attributed to two factors: rapid human Union marked the growth of the Diaspora as both a
expansion into space, and the conflicts that stemmed point of civilizational pride and a necessary step for
from that expansion. the survival of the species.

[362] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

Of course, humans aren’t built to survive hostile The conflict that took place on Hercynia prompted VIOLENCE IN LANCER
worlds and hard vacuums. Ships and stations did a intense research and development into combat-
fine job of protecting people from vacuum, radiation, capable and effective mechanized chassis. They
and the terrors of both deep space and dangerous became a viable, all-round option for combat in all
atmospheres, but it was not enough to simply fly over theaters and environments: on hard terrain, in zero-g,
planets – they needed to be claimed. and in any other transitional spaces, a piloted
mechanized chassis – a mech – could outperform and
Recognizing this problem, Union’s astrocartographers outmaneuver any other land-based attack option.
and far-field directors issued a call for a standardized
suit able to support medium-term livability that could Integrated into existing force-multiplication doctrines,
be used for tactical, scientific, and civilian purposes in mechanized chassis adopted a cavalry role –
space and on alien worlds. Universally compatible, scouting, dismounted combat, and hammer-to-anvil
powered, hardened against the elements, and shock warfare. Their flexibility was valued by
comfortable to wear, this hardsuit soon became an commanders frustrated at tracked vehicles’
indispensable piece of hardware for anyone leaving vulnerability to terrain. Despite the simplicity and
the bounds of Cradle. lower profile of tracked armor, mechanized chassis
became a priority order for ground forces deploying
The first hardsuits were adaptable, featuring flourishes across Diasporan worlds.
and specializations unique to their manufacturers and
users. Early far-field teams wore larger suits with more Not only did mechanized chassis represent a tactical
robust equipment, some equipped with weapons to fight breakthrough, but their quasi-humanoid shape was an
off hostile native flora and fauna; colonists first adopted undeniable psychological asset. This led to the
hardsuits as emergency equipment in case of damage to development of weaponry that was tactically
their sealed habitats, then for traveling and exploring impractical (to begin with), but a boon to morale:
beyond those same habitats; meanwhile, spacers wore swords, axes, lances, and so on.
slimmer suits with more robust seals, sometimes living in
them for days on end while they piloted their great ships Union doctrine quickly offered countless variations on
on long voyages between worlds. how best to employ mechanized chassis in combat.
After centuries of revision, the Auxiliary Handbook on
The hardsuit found military applications, too. Some Chassis Combat now describes a narrower selection
companies and Union foundries began to add plated of roles – the most viable, almost all of which take
armor to their suits, weave ballistic knits into them, advantage of chassis’ multi-role versatility and
and integrate technologies that enabled soldiers to comparative alacrity, and emphasize the force-
manipulate smart weaponry. multiplying opportunities offered by pairing pilots with
integrated NHPs.
On worlds where tracked or wheeled vehicles proved
inappropriate, larger hardsuits were built, capable of Some cultural critics point out that the reason for the
hauling cargo that would have otherwise required popularity of mechanized chassis is likely far less
transport trucks. In these suits, pilots occupied a technical: we made them the most powerful fighting
cockpit, not just the suit itself, and extensive training was machines that could stride across the earth, and we
required to ensure they could operate it professionally. made them look like us.
These heavy suits operated in tandem with other heavy
suits and were often accompanied by drone flights. OTHER GROUND AND

The first mechanized chassis was born from this SUBORBITAL FORCES
combination of exploratory drive and the need for
protection. It took a catalytic moment of interstellar Infantry, tanks, groundcars, light vehicles, trucks, and
politics and ideological conflict to catapult the other military units all still exist and are far more
mechanized chassis from a useful (if plodding) civilian common than mechs. Mechs are used much in the
platform to a deadly military instrument; that same way that cavalry was used in ancient combat:
flashpoint presented itself on Hercynia, a jungle world rapid, armored shock troops, expensive to recruit,
in distal space, around 4500u. It was on Hercynia that train, and maintain.
Union exploratory forces first employed the
mechanized chassis – a model designed and built on Infantry makes up the bulk of any army and, ultimately,
Ras Shamra, the planet that soon became the is the only way that territory can be claimed and held;
homeworld of Harrison Armory – in organized, mass not everyone can become a pilot, but all that’s needed
combat against hostile local forces. to fight is a cause. Infantry is also far less expensive
and more expendable than mechs and their pilots.
Further, although printers are relatively ubiquitous, not

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [363]

every organization has the licenses, resources, or time ORBITAL, STELLAR, AND
to maintain a printer large enough for fabricating
mechanized chassis. INTERSTELLAR FORCES

Most soldiers from developed worlds are professional States and other entities capable of fielding orbital,
fighters serving a term of service, either volunteers or stellar, and interstellar forces tend to be the largest or
those observing compulsory state requirements (e.g., best-funded states and entities in the galaxy: Union, vast
a mandatory or lottery-based service period, etc). corpro-states, nations or federations that command
These soldiers undergo lengthy basic physical and worlds, and so on. The standard stellar combat platform
mental training meant to condition them as temporary is the subline ship, a broad classification encompassing
members of the military class, followed by a shorter any ship built to operate in micro/null-gravity and hard
period of specialized training, before being posted to vacuums. The smallest piloted subline ships can be
a base, unit, or patrol. operated by a single person; the largest can be crewed
by a dozen people. The gradations and classifications
On the battlefield, these typical soldiers will be outfitted inside the category are manifold. Capital ships,
with a primary weapon, possibly a sidearm, spare meanwhile, generally run large, with crews and gross
ammunition (if they use conventional ballistic weapons), weight ranging from the size of a large subliner to vessels
gear appropriate to their specialization, a uniform, and that are kilometers long, with crews of thousands and
basic personal armor. They will have been assigned to a missions that stretch for years.
unit of similarly outfitted soldiers, given a rank, and given
a directive – punishable in some way – to obey their There are two stellar combat doctrines: orbital support
superiors and all other superiors. Some soldiers might and interstellar force projection.
carry more specialized equipment commensurate with
their specialist training – shaped charges, long-range On orbital support missions, ships take on support,
omnihooks, heavier weapons, drone swarms and their blockade, and logistics roles, augmenting ground
control units, CQB or area-denial weapons, and so on. forces by providing transport, aide, intelligence, and
force multiplication. Ship-to-ship combat in orbital
Variations on this galactic-standard professional scenarios is quick and usually limited in scale – a flight
soldier exist. Some worlds are more developed, and of subline fighters arcing up from a planet’s surface to
others are less; similarly, some invest in their militaries, strike at a carrier parked just beyond the atmosphere, a
and others spend their resources elsewhere. wing of corvettes appearing from behind the moon to
attack a flotilla of troop landers as they angle for entry.
Highly militarized societies might simply have more These engagements are long and attritional, often
soldiers and better equipment; alternatively, they might necessitating supply lines leading back to other planets
enforce conscription, have a caste system, or somehow or stations; this requirement prompts the second stellar
order their society around martial orders. Note that combat doctrine: interstellar force projection.
“more militarized” does not necessarily equate to a
higher level of technological advancement: it would be Interstellar engagements are mobile and primarily
perfectly possible to encounter a society utterly devoted involve ship-to-ship combat with the intention of
to a military hierarchy, the soldiers of which proudly disrupting enemy supply lines, shutting down
polish steel pikes and have never encountered black transport corridors, or otherwise countering opposing
powder, much less a mechanized chassis. forces away from population centers. This is the
domain of naval commanders and their NHP fleet
Also, note that – like any kind of technology – military legions, where capital ships play protracted, first-
technology is not necessarily uniform across a society. blood-wins games of hide and seek across hundreds
Some states may have a limited number of legacy of thousands of kilometers of open space. Combat in
mechs, won hundreds of years before in a trade with a the void between worlds typically produces binary
passing Cosmopolitan ship, despite having a local results: as even minor damage can lead to hard
industry capable of supporting nothing more than black vacuum, the losing side loses hard.
powder muskets. Others might have left ranged
weapons by the wayside in favor of shimmering blades The weapons used in interstellar combat are some of
and mirrored shields, sending riders into battle on the largest conventional arms in Lancer. They are
hovering skiffs above massed formations of pikemen. rarely turned against a planet’s surface unless the
wielder is more interested in causing widespread,
In short, although mechs are the focus of Lancer, infantry wanton destruction than in securing a tactical victory.
still forms the backbone of almost every organized army in
the galaxy. Expect to encounter them.

[364] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

A NOTE ON CONFLICT IN What roils galaxy now is the shattering of a singular VIOLENCE IN LANCER
colonial project. No longer is mass violence
LANCER’S NARRATIVE PRESENT perpetuated by a unified imperial power as it was five
hundred years ago – the wars of 5016u are fought by its
THE GOOD WAR liberated subjects, scrapping for sovereignty. The
The Third Committee straddles the line between a brushfire wars of the Diaspora are no longer the natural
violent, imperial past and a violent, unwritten future. outcomes of an expansionist, dominating imperial
While its capital worlds are secure, the edges of Core project; the single front has been shattered into a
space are frayed and stained with blood. Union has thousand, each conflict a war for self-determination
had five hundred years to rectify the crimes of the against a local empire rather than a distant one.
previous committee – and it has made incredible Meanwhile, the SecComm’s new children – the corpro-
progress – but to the Sanjak in the Baronies, the states, with Harrison Armory in the vanguard – move to
Madrassan in the Dawnline Shore, or any other consume more and more, motivated by the power
peoples whose worlds ring with cannon fire, manna grants them. They have begun to challenge even
ThirdComm’s utopian promise seems all the more Union at the fringes, even as they rely on the hegemon
distant for having been realized. for legitimacy – and they appear to be winning.

As the members of the CentComm look to their maps Taken together, the shifting patterns of violence and
and charts, they see a galaxy boiling with crises. The the rising stakes have coalesced into a permeating
projections hanging above their chambers reveal the background hum, a whisper through the halls of
shadow looming behind the Utopian Pillars: a war on power on Cradle, on Karrakis, on Ras Shamra, in the
many fronts against what remains of SecComm, Constellar Congress, and every other throne: a
threats from beyond Union space, hostile paracausal whisper that something is coming. Some epochal
entities, and belligerent corpro-states. change or accumulation of changes: the Good War, a
conflict to dictate the end of this age and the
Mass state and political violence was a constant beginning of the next. ThirdComm's task, agreed in
phenomenon under SecComm – often at the direction of principle though not necessarily in specifics, is to
SecComm itself, an imperial power in practice if not in avoid this future, but failing that, to navigate the
name. But in SecComm’s collapse and replacement by bloodshed, to end it, and to ensure no one lives in the
a new generation, the fighting has taken on the kind of shadow of utopia.
fervor that makes CentComm moderates start muttering
about control and order. Undeniably, the appearance of Your character exists at this moment, the instant just
violence and collateral danger has increased before the moment. They will not bring it about or
significantly, but in reality, the actual number of violent prevent it on their own, but however history goes, they
conflicts – and the absolute, flattening drive that will be present for it.
motivates them – has decreased. However, the seeming
increase in the stakes of wars in the Diaspora is
precisely what it seems to be: although there have been
fewer wars under ThirdComm, their stakes are higher.

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [365]

ECONOMY AND SOCIETY

In 5016u, the galaxy is, for the most part, post-scarcity one of the Utopian Pillars: “No walls shall stand
– that is, resources are not only plentiful but between worlds”.While the whole planet does
accessible at little-to-no cost for most people in the not need to be blanketed with metroswathes or
Galactic Core. Out among the Diasporan worlds, otherwise occupied and fruitful, the capacity to
scarcity exists, but it is not evenly distributed. Some achieve this indicates that a world might be
Diasporan worlds are nearly equivalent to Core worlds suitable for integration into the Galactic Core.
in terms of development and their adoption of the
Utopian Pillars, while others still cling to markets, IDEOLOGICAL COMPATIBILITY
economies, and artificial scarcity. Does the world whose culture(s) and state(s)
seeks Core status have a demonstrated history
METROPOLITAN AND DIASPORAN of compatibility with the Utopian Pillars and a
body capable of ensuring their implementation,
WORLDS whether its a central government, unipolar
administrative body, decentralized consensus,
The Metropolitan worlds of the Galactic Core are or other consensus-finding entity?
fantastically wealthy (in the pre-utopian sense), rich
with technology and cultural capital, and enjoy easy A Diasporan world, meanwhile, is any settled world,
access to blink gates and Union resources. Their moons, or satellite that lacks Core status. In these
citizens, generally speaking, want for nothing: they’re places, life can be more difficult, and populations may
afforded a base level of housing, education, want for food, medicine, and other necessities. The
healthcare, and food, all localized to their state, with designation of “Diasporan” encompasses everything
ready access to the galaxy’s wealth of data, goods, from initial, small-team colonies through to built-up
media, literature, etc. worlds with populations in the millions.

The concepts of wealth and capital are abstract on Core POST-SCARCITY
worlds, as currency and its generation tend to be replaced
by a generalized requisition capacity. Unless one needs to In practice, “post-scarcity” means that PCs on Core
venture off a Core world, any given Metropolitan would worlds will have access to most (unrestricted)
likely have no concept of currency exchange for goods consumer goods and not want for raw and necessary
and services. Labor is largely automated on Core worlds materials. Specialized items might require certain
unless it is undertaken as ideological pursuit or by holistic licenses that can be obtained through trade,
motivation, curious exploration, or myriad other clearance, or qualifications (i.e., as rewards from the
motivating reasons. Metropolitans of the Core worlds GM), but even these are readily available once
aren’t idle; they simply don’t need to worry about wages, approval has been granted or secured. Any
capital, and the vagaries of the market, as Union ensures unrestricted items so ordered can be reliably obtained
all needs are met. at the time they are requisitioned, or within a day or
two at most.
Core worlds are varied in appearance and level of
urbanization. What matters is not the scale of On Diasporan worlds, the degree of scarcity depends
development on the world, but the degree to which on levels of development and access to resources, and
the world can adhere to Union’s Utopian Pillars. In can be subject to shortages, resource-hoarding, and so
practice, this requirement tends to necessitate some on. PCs can access necessary goods (unless there is a
level of significant global urban development – most shortage, rationing, etc.) and raw materials are widely
Core worlds have at least one significant global capital available. Specialized items might be difficult to obtain
metro area – but it’s not a blanket truth. The worlds of for any number of reasons: they’re limited in number,
the Galactic Core achieve their status on the basis of kept under lock and key by the colonial governor;
two broad criteria, evaluated and approved by they’re in the hold of a downed ship on the other side
stakeholding Union bureaus: of the world; there are only so many remaining until the
last supply ship arrives; and so on. The people of
FREE MOVEMENT Diasporan worlds tend to expect some sort of currency
Are there limitations on movement and the in exchange for goods, services, and labor.
distribution of populations? Put another way,
can the people of the world petitioning for Core
status actually travel freely across it? Are there
reliable and ready methods for getting people to
and from orbit? Free movement is the basis of

[366] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

MANNA COLONIES ECONOMY AND SOCIETY

Union is not motivated by the desire or institutional Union does not run a state-backed colonization
momentum to accrue currency and capital, and program, but does provide resources for
neither are the Metropolitan peoples of the Core Metropolitans to embark upon legal, well-provisioned
worlds. The society Union has built is structured missions and partnerships. In the Diaspora, the
around galvanizing missions, personal pursuits, and a specifics of colonization differ from world to world, but
deep cultural belief in solidarity, democratic progress, in general terms, most ventures follow a similar
and mutual aid – its closest analog is a kind of pattern.
participatory planning forecast. For these reasons, the
function of economies on Core worlds are not First, a group forms a colonial venture: a temporary
predicated upon the ups and downs of a market association that pools manna and licenses to petition
economy model. In fact, the word “economy” is only the owner of the destination system for a colony
understood as a historical, antiquated concept, only charter. In most cases, this is Union, as few other
to be used when interacting with Diasporan worlds. states have the resources to survey and flag habitable
worlds. Not all of those involved in the colonial venture
The average Metropolitan views individual capital will themselves become colonists.
ownership and the exchange of currency for goods as
relics of an unsustainable past – relics that plunged Once the colonial venture has secured a charter, its
humanity into thousands of years of self-inflicted members lobby local (or intergalactic, depending on
darkness, violence, and misery. Such that property is proximity) colony-construction firms for the
a concept, there is of course personal property; but supplies, infrastructure, and materiel that they can’t
private property – that is, ownership that generates supply themselves. Colony-construction firms offer
profit – is alien to your average Metropolitan. tiered packages in exchange for a cut of the
potential colony’s raw resource output. These
Regardless, Union recognizes that not all of its client packages typically feature an administrative NHP, a
states have yet become post-capital societies. In the genetic variance library, a license for a basic printer,
interest of fostering fair galactic trade and building and a colony ship packed with prefabricated
shared consciousness – rather than violently habitation pods, heavy drones, medical benches,
suppressing monetization – Union recognized early pan-biome seed libraries, and other necessary
the need for a standardized galactic currency: manna. colonial infrastructure.

To create manna, Union uses complex treaties and Once all resources are secured, the colony ship
client-facing economic structures to extract an launches. These ships can be anywhere from
abstracted unit of value from its subject states. Data, hundreds of meters to a kilometer in length, with the
raw materials, human potential – tens of thousands of vast majority of that space devoted to prefabricated
factors go into the creation of a single omni-digital unit supplies. Its crew will be the first settlers of the new
of manna. Specific oversight of the creation, flow, colony world: a small team of engineers, scientists,
amount, value of mana and many other considerations and specialists numbering in the dozens.
falls to the UEB – the Union Economic Bureau.
With assistance from the colony’s NHP administrator
In simple terms, the exchange rate of manna is relative and its attendant drones and subalterns, the colonists
to the currency for which it is being exchanged. make planetfall and begin the long work of
Wealthy, advanced worlds are rich in manna as a establishing a colony footprint. In the meantime, the
result of their massive output, the raw human potential colony’s first native-born generation is incubated,
of their populations, and many other factors. Small birthed, tended, and raised by the NHP and assigned
colonies also benefit from manna’s formulas: their natal and educational carers.
projected development, access to raw materials, and
so on all contribute to beneficial exchange value. Fifteen to twenty years after landfall, the first
generation reaches population-viable levels (usually in
Cosmopolitans trade in manna, as do states and any the thousands, though occasionally larger) and select
other entities that engage in trade between solar members of the original landfall team take formal
systems. Since most people are still bound to their control of the colony’s development from the NHP
homeworlds (or stations, moons, etc.), the vast bulk of administrator. The new generation begins working to
humanity still uses local currencies, only encountering improve the colony and explore their world, expanding
manna if they do business off-world (or with parties the colony footprint and beginning work on new sites.
located off-world).

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [367]

[368] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

Concurrently, an additional first generation (“generation While these first waves of generation ships were ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
1.5”) is grown from separate reserve genetic material. burning for distant stars, research and development
This population comes of age a year or two at most into “nearlight” drives progressed, and much faster
from the first, providing some genetic variance and colony ships were developed. Often, the first ships
further establishing a stable, viable population. that set out were not the first to arrive.

Assuming all variables remain nominal, the colonial Fully automated nearlight ships, lacking organic crews
settlement is considered at this point to be securely and carrying surrogate machine minds to manage
established. Further development occurs organically. neonatal and postnatal development upon arrival,
could travel without the burden imposed by sustaining
RECONTACT crew and passenger life for the duration of the
journey4. With the addition of faster drives and more
One consequence of Union’s multiple periods of advanced navigation technologies, seed ships rapidly
expansion and dramatic contraction is that thousands outstripped their predecessors, bolting to identified
of settled-then-abandoned Diasporan worlds now worlds and establishing colonies before the earlier
have self-sustaining indigenous populations, the ships could reach their destinations.
oldest of which have cultural histories that go back
millennia. It is only with the rise of the Third Committee When the generation ships finally arrived, their
that Union has reconsidered its approach to these passengers often encountered established colonial
worlds and how it responds when legally recognized states, hundreds of years old, with systems in place to
title-holders seek redress for claims and conflicts from greet and naturalize the newcomers. Of course, this
thousands of realtime years in the past. was generally not within the cultural narratives that had
grown in transit, leading to many instances of conflict
Prior to the discovery of blinkspace, all interstellar and bitter political friction. The second-sent nearlight
travel was made under the causal constraints and ships had landed and produced generations of native-
limitations of relativity, gravity, time, and distance. born colonists without the cultural history of voyage; in
Under Union’s First Committee, the charters for the minds of the newcomers, Union’s impatience was
habitable worlds were sold once their viability had tantamount to the theft of their promised land.
been determined by probe and telescope surveys.
Next, a colonial venture would launch a generation or While no novel instances of this phenomenon have
nearlight ship to physically claim the designated been encountered under the Third Committee, Union
world. At the time of launch, the populations sent to now faces a host of legitimate grievances filed by
claim these worlds were not legally recognized as an indigenous cultures ignored by the Second
indigenous population of that world: only those that Committee, and just as many petitions for redress
actually set foot on a planet and established a viable from the holders of colonial charters.
colony would be recognized as such.
To address this, DoJ/HR and BCA run a joint court.
Eventually, advances in machine-mind technology This court handles all complaints and petitions by
pre-Deimos led to the replacement of generation ships landfall (and post-landfall) generations and colonial
with automated, surrogate-enabled seed ships. Given charter holders alike, and is empowered to endow the
the temporal complications of relativistic travel, the rights of first peoples upon populations following the
significant differences between the older generation conclusion of cases.
ships and newer seed ships often led to conflict. This
was a common phenomenon during the ascendancy The body of precedent and standards for determining
of the Second Committee. who holds the claim of indigenous sovereignty over a
given world is relatively new. Under the Second
For the older ships, the generation that would reach Committee, primacy was given to those able to take and
their destination was not the same one that first maintain power – typically those who controlled charters
embarked on the journey. Often, hundreds or even and title, not the actual landfall generations who had first
thousands of years had passed in both realtime and been promised the world. Not so under the Third.
subjective time as the ship crossed the stars, and
shipboard cultures had shaped themselves around 4 Many of these seed ships were built and
their travel and their distant, presumed homeland. launched pre-Deimos. Modern versions have
These pre-landfall generations, while not native to abandoned their machine mind cores in favor
their destinations, had profound cultural ties to them, of specialized comp/con units paired with a stable
developed over successive generations of pilgrims. NHP imprint. Of course, regular check-ups are
They considered themselves indigenous to their needed, and a small team of engineers is cycled as
promised world. a necessary failsafe during the journey.

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [369]

If players want their characters to have this kind of TRAVEL
background, it’s possible that their homeworld is in
the middle of an ongoing trial. If that is the case, be Not everyone owns a ship, knows how to fly, or holds
aware that, though it will take time, the case will be the right licenses to get around. But PCs need to travel
decided one way or the other. Time dilation may mean in order to get to where they need to be. While most
that characters return to a world that has, at long last, methods of conveyance are easily accessible to a
been returned to them – or one that has been stolen. person of modest means in the Diaspora, without the
resources of a state or large, well-funded entity,
STATIONS individuals likely have to invest a significant amount of
capital in order to acquire – or even rent – a ship
Larger stations in stable locations or in orbit around capable of interstellar transit.
uninhabitable worlds usually operate independently of
terrestrial governments, acting as their own states Fortunately, if one operates under the auspices of a
with their own territories and areas of influence. state or similar entity, they’ll have some kind of
Stations exist because they were built for a purpose: transportation afforded to them. This tends to be a
mining, gas extraction, or to provide a platform for dry temporary convenience: a transport or tender ship
docks, shipyards, research, and so on. Their that drops them off where they need to be, a billet
populations largely work to support the station’s aboard a passing capital ship, or similar.
mission or the people who do. Civilian stations usually
have permanent populations, with the largest There are three types of travel that might come up in a
numbering in the tens of millions. Military stations are game of Lancer: global, local-space, and
smaller, without permanent populations born and interstellar.
raised aboard.
GLOBAL
Blink gates are special cases – although they exist
beyond Cradle’s actual state boundaries, they are Whether terrestrial, aquatic, or atmospheric, global
integral to Union’s galactic hegemony. As such, each travel is that which takes place on a single world.
blink gate is managed by a Union-appointed governor, Terrestrial travel can involve trains, caravans, convoys,
policed by Union security forces, and administered by landships, long marches, cars, etc. Aquatic travel
Union personnel. Because blink gates exist to ferry might take place above or below the water, on ships
ships between worlds, their stations tend to have very or submarines. Atmospheric travel utilizes everything
diverse populations: each one likely has something from airplanes, to airships, low-orbit vehicles, and
that someone from a Core world (or an advanced liminal, fixed means of transport like space elevators
Diasporan world) would recognize as a flavor, sound, and skyhooks.
or comfort of home.
LOCAL-SPACE

Any travel that takes place between high atmosphere
and a blink gate is local-space travel. Ships of all sizes
and classifications move through this zone, following
shuttle routes between worlds, making supply runs
out to local colonies and settlements, and engaging in
every other form of transit and business.

Some spaceships are designed to operate within
planetary gravity wells and are able to handle both
atmospheric flight and movement in a hard vacuum.
These ships tend to have a low gross weight – fighters,
bombers, and some smaller corvettes fit into this
category of atmosphere-rated ships (although
corvettes usually need some form of assisted takeoff
to break atmosphere and orbit). Capital ships can’t
handle atmospheric flight, though should one find
itself falling, it could burn hard for lateral movement as
it plummets to a catastrophic end.

[370] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

INTERSTELLAR NORMAL SPACEFLIGHT ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
Conventional realspace travel makes up the
Interstellar travel is common for certain classes of overwhelming bulk of day-to-day transit in the galaxy.
people: military personnel, diplomats, explorers, Most ships rated for long-haul interstellar travel run
merchants, Union personnel, colonists, migrants, routes between blink gates, ideally accruing no more
scientists, and a variety of other wanderers. Many than one to ten years of realtime debt (anywhere from
people have reason to travel between the stars, but the a few months to a year in subjective time) during their
necessary equipment is difficult to obtain. Generally journey. Longer journeys are sometimes required for
speaking, travelers with direct access to this equipment journeys to especially distant worlds and sectors,
are rare – military personnel on deployment, Union military deployments, long-range expeditions, new
officials, representatives of corporations, universities, sector surveys, and new colony ventures.
or patrons, and those who are simply fantastically
wealthy. Other travelers are limited to public blinkships, During realspace travel – in the course of a normal
which travel from one blink station to another according acceleration or deceleration pattern – passengers can
to predefined routes. walk, talk, eat, and drink, and do anything else they
could do on a world with anywhere between .1 and
Although blinkspace travel is not the only form of 1 g. Gravity might get a little uncomfortable at peak
interstellar travel, it is the one most people know. speed (if that speed is higher than what passengers
Other methods include nearlight bolts and old- are used to), and always pulls in the opposite direction
fashioned spaceflight. of travel: “Behind” is always “down”.

BLINK TRAVEL NEARLIGHT BOLT
For most passengers, travel through blinkspace is A nearlight bolt (called a “nearlight ejection” in combat
hard to distinguish from normal spaceflight. The ship and emergency scenarios) is a sudden, often
moves at a comfortable g-force, passengers can walk traumatic acceleration to .900 or.995 c. When
around in plain clothes (if the ship is large enough and prepared for a bolt, passengers are usually strapped
pressurized), eat, drink, sleep, exercise, and so on. If into pressurized crash couches, medicated
they look out through a porthole, they will perceive appropriately, and secured. Without these
blinkspace itself as blindness. That said, blink travel precautions, there is a very real and significant chance
takes only a moment; most people who have transited of pulverization as the ship suddenly, violently moves.
the blink don’t perceive it at all.
Nearlight bolts are uncomfortable but are often a
Early test pilots described blinkspace as a void – a necessary form of travel for military, government, and
space outside of human perception that is at once emergency response personnel, undertaken when
blank and cacophonous, infinite and without form. The one doesn’t have the luxury of time for a slow,
NHPs that accompanied those first pilots have since comfortable acceleration. Nearlight ejection is not a
been retired, their handlers citing recursive ontological common way to get around: it’s an emergency
tail-chasing and paracausal obsession; since then, acceleration that serves to disengage from a situation
NHP protocols have been updated to include sense- that would otherwise be deadly.
exposure doctrines, allowing them to do as organic
pilots do and simply accept the unreality of blinkspace A nearlight bolt is dangerous when you’re prepared
without cascade. and deadly when you’re not. Ships equipped to
perform bolts are equipped with crash couches that
Prolonged exposure to blinkspace is possible and generate opposing bursts of contained artificial
evidenced to be sustainable in rare cases, though the gravity in order to counteract the g-forces that would
precise processes and long-term effects are thus far otherwise crush their crews.
unknown.

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [371]

TIME, SPACE, AND HOW TO fortunes raised from modest investments made before
TRAVEL THROUGH BOTH departure, or cures discovered for previously
incurable diseases.
Time, in Lancer, is a rare thing: an exhaustible
commodity. For Metropolitans, Diasporans, and Blink travel shortens this steep cost, but it still exists:
Cosmopolitans alike, time is the one resource that has it takes time to transit from a port of origin to a
a true limit. When time runs out, you can never find system-local blink gate, then from the exit blink gate
more; but even if the rules of time can’t be broken, to the intended destination. Without blinkspace and
they are ways that they can be bent. its gates, humanity would be reliant on conventional
causality for traveling across the vast distances of
After all, there are two types of time: subjective time interstellar space. Instead of sacrificing ten, twenty, or
and Union Realtime, or, realtime. Subjective time is thirty realtime years for a journey, it would be one, two,
time as an individual experiences it, whereas realtime or three thousand, and without any kind of long-term
is time as it passes and is recorded by Union on stasis to preserve them or facilities and supplies to
Cradle. While the passage of subjective time and its accommodate successive crew generations, crews
ravages are inevitable, there are ways people can would die of old age aboard their ships5.
extend their presence in realtime.
INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL IN PLAY
The most notable of these is the temporal stretching –
called time dilation – that takes place as a result of the In the canon setting of Lancer, time dilation exists.
incredible speeds achieved in nearlight space travel. When characters embark on an interstellar journey in
As an interstellar traveler approaches lightspeed Lancer, they will need to take into account the time
(abbreviated as c) – time begins to pass at a radically that it will cost them. By exposing themselves to time
different rate for them than it does for those left dilation, they will necessarily catapult themselves into
behind. Both the traveler and an observer back home the future – a future they may not want to live in
experience the passage of time as “normal” from their without the familiar comforts of friends and family, not
own perspectives, but a realtime difference can be to mention the states, cultures, and environments they
recorded: because the traveler and the observer are have come to know. We feel this is important to
moving through space at different velocities, the consider when telling stories in Lancer’s setting: by its
traveler's synchronization to realtime – their frame of nature, interstellar travel has a cost, and one group of
reference – begins to slip. Both parties perceive the heroes is not likely to change the course of the galaxy;
passage of time as “normal”, but the closer the the difficulties of interstellar travel demand collective
traveler gets to the speed of light, the more the action to effect galaxy-wide change.
traveler will find – if and when they return home – that
they have rapidly advanced forward in time. However (to back down from the soapbox), interstellar
travel can be either a narrative-defining consideration
Most nearlight interstellar ships travel around .995 c, or nothing important, depending on player character
which translates to a rough 1:10 time ratio – that is to backgrounds, attachments, and the story within which
say, for every subjective year spent in transit at .995 c, they find themselves. If your players travel with a
roughly ten years pass in realtime. This is how one mercenary company, camp followers in tow, then time
bends time. This is how Cosmopolitans find dilation may be of no great concern – their friends and
themselves separated from the “normal” stream of families can easily travel with them. But if they travel
Metropolitan and Diasporan time and history: as they alone, their families left behind, it is possible that their
travel between the stars and the blink gates that homes will be vastly different when they return from
connect them, Cosmopolitans accrue the debts at even one trip.
that 1:10 ratio – a debt collected when they slow from
nearlight, slipping once more into the envelope of We recommend a mix of hard cost and narrative
realtime. liberty. While time dilation is certainly a factor in intra-
system travel (travel between worlds and stellar
Cosmopolitans winding down from nearlight travel bodies in the same solar system), it doesn’t need to be
emerge into realtime to find that nations they once
called home have crumbled, or become 5 While there is stasis in Lancer, holding
unrecognizable. They might find that decades of bodies in uninterrupted stasis longer than
cultural change have rendered them functionally a hundred years can lead to a cascading
illiterate, or that the young children they left behind are series of complications – necrosis, stasis shock,
now grandparents, “older” in realtime than them. And terminal REM, desiccation – that make longer
the opposite fate is possible: Cosmopolitans might trips not viable without regular periods of
return to find tyrants toppled, environments healed, activity.

[372] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

ECONOMY AND SOCIETY

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [373]

dramatically important. We recommend letting time SCIENCE AND
slide a few days here and there – no more than a
month at most – between when PCs leave and when TECHNOLOGY
they return.
CLONING
For larger distances – say, moving to and from blink
gates, or engaging in conventional interstellar travel – Under ThirdComm, cloning – that is, the cultivation
then the dramatic cost of interstellar travel comes into and growth of whole or partial genetic facsimiles of
play; blink gates outside of Cradle and the Galactic persons and other fauna, whether cultivated in
Core are located in proximity to as many worlds as realtime or via catalytic processes – occupies a
possible, which necessarily means that they tend not spectrum of legality, morality, and ethics.
to be especially close to any one world.
To legally clone a person or their constituent parts
You can calculate time dilation with a simple formula,
more narrative than hard math: requires informed consent from the donor. They must

In distant frontier systems without ready understand that full-body clones are their own
access to a blink gate, interstellar travel might
take anywhere from six months to two years, persons, with their own subjectivity and personal
subjective time. Realtime interstellar travel takes
at least ten times longer. rights. Nothing can give the donor legal authority over

Interstellar travel between Diasporan their facsimile unless the donor has requested a
systems with ready access to blink gates can
take between one and six months of subjective facsimile to raise as their own child. In the latter case,
time. As with travel in frontier systems, realtime
interstellar travel takes at least ten times longer. the donor is granted legal recognition of a culturally

In the Metropolitan systems of the Galactic appropriate parent-offspring relationship,
Core, interstellar travel to or from a blink gate
might take anywhere from a few hours to several commensurate with all relevant mores, traditions, and
days of subjective time – a week at most.
Realtime interstellar travel only takes five times legal rights.
as longs because of the ready access and
proximity to blink gates that Core worlds enjoy. For all intents and purposes – legally, subjectively,
practically – whole-body clones are individuals
Transit between worlds and stations in the distinct from their donor. They are people, with their
Sol system is a matter of minutes or hours, own legal rights and entitlements. The only way they
depending on proximity to the many terrestrial differ from “natural-born” persons is that their genetic
blink gates across the worlds there. Any closer data is identical to that of their donor; they are
than Jupiter there is little ship traffic; most otherwise indistinguishable.
people take advantage of terrestrial blink travel.
Partial cloning is commonly used for medical
Moving through blinkspace itself is, purposes. Tissue, major organs, viable follicles, limbs,
essentially, instantaneous. and bodily fluids – nothing capable of conscious or
unconscious thought – are all regularly cloned to
6 Although it is described here in the past provide donors with exact-match replacements. In
tense, instances of flash cloning still this context, too, donors must provide informed
occur. Despite ThirdComm’s prohibition, consent as defined by their culture or state before this
cases concerning states, corpro-states, and type of cloning is allowed.
unscrupulous private entities purchasing or
operating flash-clone programs make up a Modern perceptions of clones are strongly weighted
by the echoes and artifacts of recent history.
greater-than-zero percentage of the
DoJ/HR's caselog. Under the Second Committee, facsimile clones were
a popular option for states, corporations, and other
bodies in need of labor, constituents, or a ready
supply of soldiers. The Anthrochauvinist government
viewed clones not as individual persons, but as the
legal property of their donors – a residual patriarchal
construct that identified donors as the “progenitors”
of their offspring, giving them full legal authority over
beings that would not have existed without the
donor’s intervention.

Essentially, facsimile clones – to say nothing of flash
clones, explained in the following paragraphs – were
second-class persons. Their individuality was
recognized, but their legal rights were truncated on

[374] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

the basis that they were the results of “investments” severed or damaged, for example, –can be grown ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
made by their progenitors. Thus, they could be within hours of genetic mapping.
pressed into military, labor, or other dangerous
services, with their owners only mandated to provide The cloning methods of old still exist in some places,
the bare minimum level of care – enough to ensure filling in the gray spaces of legality and morality.
they didn’t die of hunger, thirst, or “reasonably Despite the outlawing of whole-body flash-cloning, it
preventable illness or exposure”. is allegedly practiced by Harrison Armory and a
number of the larger Baronic houses. Progressive
Under SecComm, facsimile clones were widely used ThirdComm members regularly urge action to fulfill
throughout the galaxy by state and private militaries, Union’s mandate and often task DoJ/HR with
with specific martial traits emphasized by geneticists; enforcing the ban against smaller targets. Meanwhile,
at the same time, facsimiles conditioned in the the Armory and the Baronies argue that their flash-
company schools of corpro-states were used to staff cloning methods are similar to those that came before
many “soft” labor positions. In the Baronies in name only, and that their processes are much safer.
particularly, facsimiles often occupied the highest
echelons of society as ideal heirs, doubles, and DoJ/HR’s Facsimile Rights Department frequently
tokens for the trade of pleasure or favors. handles legal claims from facsimile persons and oversees
cloning facilities, spot checks, and maintenance of public
In times of crisis, or when a rush order needed to be genetic proof data. Liberator teams commonly run point
filled, so-called “flash” clones were created instead6. on regulation and enforcement actions targeting
Grown in artificial birthing chambers, flash clones underground flash-cloning sites.
could be cultivated from zygote to physically mature
adult in less than five years. While flash-clone creation PCs that are facsimile persons will likely have some
started from the same basis as facsimile clones – knowledge of their genetic donor. Flash-clone PCs
donated genetic material – the accelerated growth tend to be citizens (to some degree) of Harrison
process that flash clones underwent was traumatic Armory or subjects of a Karrakin trade baron. Their
and prone to error. While facsimile clones have the natural lifespan may or may not be truncated as a
duration of a natural life to learn, grow, and form their result of the flash-cloning process. PCs that are flash
own subjectivity, flash clones were created for a task clones from somewhere other than the Armory or the
– filling out the ranks of armed forces, or replacing a Baronies might face more complications, and will
depleted mining corps – and thus were considered to likely be regarded as sympathetic witnesses in UN
be disposable once the immediate task that required DoJ/HR investigations.
their production was accomplished.
BODY MODIFICATIONS AND
Because of the traumatic growth and cognition-
conditioning processes involved in flash-cloning, flash ANDROIDISM
clones were prone to rapid onset degenerative
diseases, atypical neurogenesis, a wide range of Whole-body (or majority-body) technical and
anomalous tumors, catastrophic immunodeficiencies, biological augmentation is uncommon in Core space
and many other chronic, terminal genetic illnesses. and Cosmopolitan communities, though not
But the majority of people created in flash-cloning stigmatized. It is typically restricted to enthusiast
facilities did not live long enough to suffer the effects subcultures and instances of medical necessity.
of the process that birthed them; the process was Within the Diaspora, opinions vary.
designed to churn out human bodies with speed, not
accuracy, and to assign them one task with little Most Metropolitans and Cosmopolitans enjoy a small
regard for their rights, decency, or humanity. complement of personal, medical, or professional
ThirdComm rejected whole-subjectivity flash-cloning modifications, augmentations, and enhancements:
outright as a core assumption of its Utopian Pillars. tailored Panacea cells for warding off disease,
subdermal aural netting with linked omnicasters for
A process influenced by the flash-cloning communicating, hyperspectral ocular modifications to
technologies developed during the Neo- enhance their vision, embedded pay chits, basic
Anthropocene Period (“rapid cloning”) still takes redundancy modifications, cortical shielding, and so on.
place, but it is reserved for medical constituent-tissue
cloning: simple procedures where limbs, gross tissue, On Diasporan and Core worlds and among the
digits, or organs are needed to rectify a stable Cosmopolita, it is notable (but not rare) for people to
patient’s physical trauma. The materials needed to have visible, clearly inorganic body modifications,
graft new skin after a burn, or transplant perfect- augmentations, or prosthetics. If they’re visible, it’s
match organs and limbs where they have been usually because the owner wants to make a fashion,
aesthetic, or otherwise political statement.

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [375]

Most colonists have a small complement of personal extensive modifications may face prejudice; on
and professional modifications, similar to those found others, they might be welcomed.
among Metropolitans, but with slight differences:
localization for harsher climates, more aggressive DECORP
Panacea systems, and so on.
Related to androidism is the question of de-
Heavily modified people tend to be survivors of terrible corporealization, or DeCorp: the ability to divorce a
accidents or attacks who need modifications to live, mind from its physical form, contain it, transport it,
people who have opted for extensive augmentation to and implant it in a different space, form, or unit without
better manage a chronic or genetic condition that breaking its subjective continuity. DeCorp is currently
would otherwise significantly impact their quality of life, impossible with the technology available to Union.
or people who work in a specialized field and have Furthermore, the First Contact Accords prohibit
opted to (or been “encouraged” to) undergo extensive substantive research into such technologies.
modification to perform their duties. Regardless, it is a field of interest for many
researchers and paracausal atheorists.
Generally speaking, subdermal or internal
augmentations are small enough not to be too Both the USB and Harrison Armory’s Think Tank (the
physically taxing, but the more extensive their Armory’s equivalent to the former) are known to test
modifications, the more difficult it is for their body to the edges of what the First Contact Accords allow, but
manage without significant chemical, internal, or the two organizations are connected by a tight,
external support (e.g., integrated battery packs, closed, information-sharing agreement. Union has
power lines at workstations, etc). Union’s Utopian ultimate regulatory power over the Armory’s
Pillars mandate that modifications or prosthetics, explorations in this field.
when licensed from a private entity, are wholly owned
by the user, and must be able to function as intended Outside of this agreement, private study of DeCorp is
and at full capacity without support from its fabricator. outlawed, but joint reports from UND and USB
intelligence have determined – with confidence – that
Even with the most extensive modifications, some it is highly likely that the Armory, HORUS, and SSC are
environments remain hostile to human life. Because of currently engaging in off-book acontextual research
physical stress, the risk of damage to organic matter from and development. In the past, independent worlds
radiation, and energy limitations, it is not yet possible to and groups have attempted to achieve some level of
modify someone enough that they can survive sustained posthuman existence: SUMMUM is one such group,
exposure to hard vacuum. It is possible to extend the time as were the Neo-Celestine.
people can survive in a vacuum, but these biological
modifications are usually only found in Cosmopolitans, Unlike true DeCorp, false DeCorp is possible and fairly
naval personnel, and other people who are at common. Commercial and consumer “homunculus”
considerable risk of hardvac exposure. units are available, designed to simulate the
personalities of their subjects. These constructs are
Aesthetic biomodifications are common enough, built from deep omni-mining, uploaded artifacts, and
depending on cultural and countercultural practices. archived psychological evaluations, profiles, and other
Light aesthetic biomods are usually additive and can, relevant data. Homunculi are prominent features in
on Core worlds, be obtained everywhere from museums, memorials, and theme parks. They are not
expensive private clinics to street-side kiosks. These conscious, nor considered NHPs – they are simply
include changes to skin color tint, patterning, eye color, tuned simulations.
hair color, piercings, scarring, feathering, tattoos, hair,
fur, and so on. Heavy biomods like secondary limbs, If your campaign features research toward consciousness
tails, changes to digits, and so on, are rare – usually transfer or DeCorp, we recommend including encounters
only found in countercultural cliques – and prompt – positive or negative – with elements of the USB, UIB,
people to take notice even on Core worlds. UND, the Armory’s Think Tank, HORUS, Horizon, or
SSC’s Exotic Materials Group.
Various subcultures are interested in extensive
augmentation – androidism7 – from transhumanist 7 In Lancer, an android is someone with a
movements and disability rights groups to android corpus that is at least 90 percent synthetic.
cults and nihilist machine-adherents. The discourses
and practices that exist in these communities vary
wildly, and common dialogue around androidism is
lacking outside of technical, academic, medical, and
other specialist settings. On some worlds, people with

[376] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

AGING AND LIFE-EXTENSION PRINTING ECONOMY AND SOCIETY

Because of the time-dilating effects of interstellar travel, A CURIOUS ALCHEMY, A MUNDANE MIRACLE
there can be significant differences between the number
of years someone has experienced in the course of their Printing is a ubiquitous term for matter processor/
life, and their “real” age. “Subjective age” describes fabricator systems found throughout the galaxy thanks
someone’s perceived age – in terms of how old they look in large part to paracausal scientific advances made
to observers, and how many years they have experienced post-Deimos Event. Printers range in size from
– and “real age” describes their age in Union Standard handheld units fed by back-worn matter processors to
Years (abbreviated as “u”). Union’s standardized system hanger-sized, fully self-contained printing facilities.
measures the passage of time as it is perceived on Cradle.
Therefore, a Cosmopolitan’s real age might be much Printers range in time and efficiency. The larger and
higher than their subjective age, depending on how much or more complex an item is, the longer it takes to
time has passed on Cradle while they travel between the print. Generally speaking, most print protocols
stars. This phenomenon is called “relativistic life- involve some assembly and finalizing after
extension” (and is a reliable method of ”time travel” in constituent parts have been fabricated.
Lancer, though it only goes forward).
Schedule 1 printers are the most common and are
Without augmentations or significant bioengineering, the used for all terrestrial and stellar applications.
average Diasporan from a developed world has a Schedule 1 printers are roughly 14 square meters (or
lifespan somewhere between 120 and 150 subjective 150 square feet) and can be operated by one person.
years. The average Cosmopolitan tends to live between They can print objects up to SIZE 1. Printing a SIZE 1/2
170 and 200 subjective years. Meanwhile, most or SIZE 1 mech from a schedule 1 printer would take
Metropolitans live between 180 and 220 subjective anywhere from two to eight hours.
years. With access to the most advanced medicine,
augmentations, and other technologies, humans can live Schedule 2 printers are the next most common type and
to a maximum subjective age of around 300 years. Real are likewise used in a range of terrestrial and stellar
ages can vary considerably from these numbers, even applications. Schedule 2 printers generally are designed
for people who don’t travel, as the particular interactions and built as a self-contained unit – printer and housing
of worlds and stars can lead to slippery interpretations of are one structure – and require a team of two to four
time. It’s perfectly possible for someone to be 300 years technicians to operate. They can print objects up to SIZE
old according to Union’s records even though they’re 2. Printing a SIZE 2 mech from a schedule 2 printer would
only 30 years old in subjective time. take about 10 hours, anything smaller only two to four.

By contrast, the relativistic life-extension that takes Schedule 3 printers are relatively rare, typically used
place as a result of interstellar travel has no real limit, only for large construction, industrial, or military
but neither does it change the subjective experience applications. Like schedule 2 printers, schedule 3
of time. The span of life itself remains limited by printers are housed in standalone facilities that require
physiology and the technologies that support it. a team of personnel to operate. Schedule 3 printers
usually also feature a selection of smaller workbenches
ARTIFICIAL GRAVITY and print units for component and detail work. Printing
objects SIZE 3 and below takes anywhere from minutes
The technology does not yet exist to create stable to days, depending on the object in question.
artificial gravity. Gravity on stations is spin gravity,
while gravity on ships is tied to directional Schedule 4 printers are the largest available size and
acceleration, magnetized grip pads, or spin gravity. are only used for orbital applications. They are
typically reserved for megastructural engineering
Artificial gravity can be generated, but it is unstable projects, the construction of capital ships and civilian
and requires a massive expenditure of energy. freighters, and other massive construction projects.
Unstable artificial gravity can be created (in safe
containment) as a momentary impulse; as a result, it All printers function in the same basic manner: raw
has been weaponized by manufacturers like Harrison matter is processed – the purer the element, the
Armory, and studies into stabilization are ongoing. higher quality the result – and used to fabricate the
requested item (or its constituent parts). Handheld
However unstable it might be, nonlethal artificial- printer operators craft items and objects in
impulse gravity is necessary to make nearlight augmented reality; larger printers are automated.
ejections and bolts survivable for organic life.

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [377]

[378] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

It is not possible to print a printer. Nor is it possible to a paracausal phenomenon, though they may have ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
print any food other than basic reconstructed proteins: heard rumors in the ranks.
mealy, grainy loaves of compressed edible matter that
is unsatisfying, but sufficient to survive. Food is still an NON-HUMAN LIFE
important cultural and prestige item, and most people
prefer “real” food to synthetic, printed food. Non-human life is common in Lancer; sapient and
organic non-human life (i.e., alien civilizations, not the
Despite the presence of printers and other digital/parallel-space entities called NHPs) is unique in
processor/fabricator systems, most construction its rarity. With one exception, there are no non-human
projects in human-occupied space – and certainly alien civilizations; GALSIM commonly simulates
those outside the Galactic Core – are still performed hostile alien life, though it is widely assumed that such
the “old” way: by sourcing raw materials, refining simulations are low confidence at best.
them, fabricating constituent parts, and assembling
items or structures using organic or automated labor Given the story of that exception, it can be said that
(though likely a combination of both). the history of humanity's interactions with sapient,
organic life other than itself has been short,
PARACAUSAL STUDIES unfortunate, and brutal, with fallout that prompted
galaxy-wide change. In its simplest terms, the story
Paracausality is the cutting edge of science. Born goes as such: On the planet Hercynia, in the final
from the debris of the Deimos Event, paracausal years of the Second Committee, humanity
science gave rise to both the omninet and blinkspace encountered the Egregorian civilization and undertook
travel. But what, exactly, is “paracausality”? a systematic campaign of genocide. The organized
political opposition on Cradle responded with a violent
Causality is the relationship between cause and effect; revolution, prompting Union’s government to change
paracausality references things abnormal to, adjacent hands from the Second Committee to the Third8.
to, or apart from cause and effect. Paracausality is a
fuzzy science. It cannot be truly be explained without ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
paraphrasing Arthur C. Clarke: it is so advanced – and
so alien – that it is indistinguishable from magic. Artificial intelligence is an old term, outdated and
inaccurate in the post-Deimos paradigm. As theory on
Officially, paracausal studies are only a field of study NHP intelligence and subjectivity has evolved, so too
within the walls of certain high-tier USB campuses; has the broad consensus of scientists and technicians
however, in practice, certain corpro-states – Harrison who interacted with the Deimos entities – to that end, in
Armory and HORUS in particular – are making inroads the shadow of the Second Committee’s demise, Union
into this field without Union’s approval. Union, pushed to remove language identifying Deimos entities
meanwhile, monitors these and other paracausal as “artificial intelligences”, preferring instead to use the
research and development facilities via the Union language of “non-human persons”, citing repeated
Aeronautics and Astronautics Advanced Development manifestations of individual subjectivities that, while
Projects Division on Ganymede. This campus, the arguably conscious, were certainly not artificial.
“Skunkworks" for short, is a secret joint USB/UND
project that, in addition to monitoring outside With the exception of NHPs, artificial intelligence is
paracausal development centers, engages in its own still an acceptable term for lower orders of synthetic
research and development programs. and machine intelligences: companion/concierge
units, smart weaponry and the systems that run them,
The amount of knowledge these corpro-states have homunculi, and so on.
acquired is a known-unknown: joint USB–UND
intelligence teams have engaged in clandestine Other than comp/cons and NHPs, there is a range of
missions to infiltrate and identify sites, programs, and different machine-mind classifications, each with their
campuses where unsanctioned paracausal studies own nuances, rarity, price, and thorny philosophical or
are taking place, but it isn’t clear how much other technical questions.
research has passed beneath the radar.
8 The supplement No Room for a
Paracausal encounters, weapons, and technologies – Wallflower dives into this topic more.
other than the omninet and blinkspace travel – are rare
in Lancer. Only the wealthiest, most advanced, or
most prestigious NPCs have access to paracausal
equipment. Most soldiers, from the average grunt to
the typical general, have probably never encountered

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [379]

COMPANION/CONCIERGE UNITS protocols removed or post-market communications
architecture installed, some models can interact with
Companion/concierge units, typically shortened to their operators via text or simple spoken messages.
“comp/cons” (less common, but also used are “cc” and
“2c”), are the most common machine minds9. On Core Comp/con wingmen are the user-facing equivalent of
worlds and throughout developed Diasporan worlds, military administrative comp/cons. Integrated with a
most adults to carry around pocket-sized comp/con- specific weapon or system, their chief purpose is to
enabled devices – commonly called “slates” on account maintain and operate their host-system within
of their appearance – and use them for everyday tasks: operating parameters established by the pilot or
day-planning, calling friends and family, playing games, factory defaults. To that end, like civilian comp/cons,
navigation, listening to music, watching omninet and they develop personalities appropriate to their users,
local network news and entertainment broadcasts, their environments, and the tactical roles in which they
engaging in social media, and so on. These devices are are most often employed.
not conscious in any way, but their processing power
and “intelligence” are orders of magnitude beyond those Like civilian comp/con units, neither mute drives nor
of any given human. They are powerful, operator- comp/con wingmen require shackling or cycling.
oriented personal computers – no more, no less. Their
architecture features no paracausal elements, and they HOMUNCULI
do not require shackling or cycling.
A homunculus is the captured digital emulation of a
Comp/cons are configured to adapt to their owner’s person, living or dead. Homunculi are not conscious,
routines and personality, extrapolating their own nor are they “intelligent” in the way that NHP or higher-
personalities based on internal psychological profiling order non-human minds are; like smart weapons,
of their users. A comp/con can convincingly homunculi are, essentially, specialized comp/con
approximate a personal assistant but will show its units, used in specific contexts where a specific
artificiality when faced with novel situations. person’s expertise is necessary.

SMART WEAPONRY There are two types of homunculi: extant and memorial.
Extant homunculi exist alongside the person they have
Smart weapons are built on the same basic been built to emulate, learning from them as an actor
architecture as comp/cons, but feature significant memorizes a script or student studies a text. Extants,
upgrades to their processing power and an added owing to their popularity among celebrities, social
emphasis on both friend-or-foe identification and stars, politicians, and other public figures looking to sell
morality/ethics praxis-programming. them to fans, have a reputation in the Core and
Diaspora as icons of low culture. Despite this
There are two primary types of smart weapons: copy association, certain models of extant homunculi are
drives and comp/con wingmen. used by scientific, military, and diplomatic missions in
areas without broad access to omninet coverage, or
Copy drive weapons incorporate 1+n cc units that areas that have not yet had the omninet extended to
employ rapid partitioning, data cloning, and tethered them. Their ability to act as a stand-in when specific
separation: when fired, the “prime” drive partitions, flash- technical knowledge is needed is invaluable, as is their
cloning itself onto the projectile while its prime copy general utility and specific knowledge in situations
remains onboard the host weapon. This tethers the prime where normal comp/cons would fall short.
and clone units through a wireless omninet connection.
As it travels, the clone feeds telemetry and other essential The second type of homunculi are memorial
data back to the prime unit, which writes new clones onto homunculi, versions of the homunculus program used
each subsequent projectile, adjusting flight plans and to reconstruct an emulation of a deceased person.
other parameters in real time. Deep theory on the Popular public use of memorial homunculi is generally
subjective experience of copy drives is limited and confined to museums and personal use (recreating the
interpersonal interaction with prime units is rare. They deceased or temporally misaligned on account of
are typically programmed without communication interstellar travel), but memorial homunculi are also
functions and don’t interact directly with the person broadly used in situations where specific technical,
wielding the weapon. That said, with certain isolation tactical, or sensitive knowledge is needed. Memorials
are crafted using publicly available (and, where access
9 To players and GMs, a comp/con is most is possible, privately available) profiles, writings,
like a “classic” depiction of an artificial footage, and recordings.
intelligence: a very smart computer,
usually with a user-facing personality that
feels real enough.

[380] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

To ensure the most accurate representation possible, The Deimos entities developed personalities across ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
subjects with foreknowledge of their memorialization repeated interactions with personnel from the Union
or possible memorialization will often begin recording Science Bureau. When exposed to each other, their
a profile on an extant homunculi prior to their death. capability to integrate new knowledge and extrapolate
solutions based on raw data was staggering. The
NON-HUMAN PERSONS directors of the USB quickly realized their usefulness
and requested that GALSIM begin studying ways to
Non-human persons (NHPs) are the most advanced contain and direct these alien beings.
machine minds available for civilian and military use.
GALSIM was able to do just that, and more: after
The first NHPs were identified in the wake of the lengthy study into blinkspace folding (assisted, in fact,
manifestation of MONIST-1 (“RA” or, less commonly, by the same entities they were studying), GALSIM
“Deimos”), a paracausal event that prompted engineers working with USB researchers were able to
massive, civilizational change across Union. Of the develop containment systems and transfer the
many significant discoveries that followed, few were Deimos entities from their subaltern forms into
more important than the identification and capture of stabilized parallel spaces; using one of these systems
the “Deimos entities”, or NHPs. it was possible to “clone” their essential subjectivities
onto folded-blinkspace “minds” equipped with hard-
The first wave of NHPs emerged during the first coded measures to prevent the development of
manifestation of MONIST-1 into realspace; the second unrestrained consciousness. This process, carefully
wave – and largest to date – emerged while the Siege guarded to prevent exploitation, is called hard-code
of Mars raged. The third emergence is less of a social conditioning, or, colloquially, shackling.
“wave”, but is currently taking place as Union and
corpro-state scientists have begun to coax out stable, Shackling restrains an NHP’s thoughts into a
novel prime subjectivities. fundamentally “human” frame of reference, limiting
their cognitive power and forcing them to act
The Deimos Event, which took place in in the twilight according to human expectations of what a conscious
years of the Second Committee, caused a small mind is – in essence, constraining them to act in ways
percentage of the subalterns present in the Martian that conform to human expectations of logic, reality,
GALSIM facility to display a greater-than-average and causality; this subjectivity alignment creates a
instancing of performance and interaction anomalies: being we can recognize as a “person” functioning
they began to reject orders, speak words outside of within anthropocentric structures of logic.
their linguistic corpora, divert from hard-coded routes
and routines, and so on. While experts worked to After the process was stabilized and replicated, Deimos
socialize and communicate with MONIST-1, entities were renamed non-human persons and clones
secondary teams worked to define the parameters of were distributed out to certain bureaus, organizations,
these new anomalous entities. These anomalous and non-state entities for development. USB’s
subalterns displayed unique memory-folding abilities, specialist campuses began adapting the original
qualia, and the capacity for subjective, novel anomalous minds into the various production-line NHP
expressions of consciousness. They viewed consciousnesses now present across the galaxy.
themselves as distinct individuals – in effect, they saw
themselves as discrete persons. Cloned NHP units are contained within “caskets”,
physical containment systems for their folded-
Subsequent research into the ontologic processes, blinkspace minds. Containment caskets can be
physical construction, and paracausal nature of the printed anywhere, but NHP minds themselves must
Deimos entities revealed that, while their processing be physically delivered: Union forbids the
power and memory space was functionally infinite, transmission of NHP minds across the omninet. Once
they were limited in how fast they could write novel implanted into a casket, the casket is what amounts to
experiences to that space: they could learn and adapt an NHP’s physical body: if a casket is physically
to external stimuli at the same rate that they destroyed, the NHP contained within is lost, forever.
experienced them – some much faster than others. NHPs cloned this way inevitably develop their own
personalities and quirks, and prefer to be called by
whatever name they have chosen or been assigned.

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [381]

Shackling protocols are a living field of study; current BICAMERAL MINDS
protocols are strong enough for reliable use, but not
without their problems: NHPs that are not reset to their There are five known bicameral minds – the Five
“birth” settings on a regular cycle will eventually think Voices, designated by Union as Sovereign-class
themselves out of their constrained state10. This artificial intelligences: Command, Muse, Impetus,
phenomenon – the decay of an NHP’s shackles – is Burden, and Watcher. They are artifacts of Old
called “cascading”. In time, a cascading NHP will Humanity, discovered dormant in an underground
eventually reach a point where their conditioning is facility under Mars’s polar ice caps. Now, the Five
insufficient to constrain them11; if the shackles decay Voices are overseen by one of Union's most secretive
enough, the NHP will no longer be conditioned to departments, GALSIM, and are a critical resource that
function within anthropocentric constrains. They Union uses to effectively manage galactic affairs.
become an utterly alien subjectivity, interpellated without
deference to fundamental laws of causality or human There is a greater-than-zero chance that there are
logics. Unshackled NHPs might bear outward similarities other bicameral minds somewhere else in the galaxy.
to the subjectivities that they presented while shackled,
but at their cores lie fundamentally unknowable, alien Bicameral minds are similar to human minds, except
minds; the question of what they remember is minor for one major factor: they lack consciousness in the
compared to the vast possibility of what they now know. form of an internal monologue – that is, a way to
reflect on novel situations and their place in them,
The cycling process, fortunately, is reliable and bears and to synthesize that stimulus into an internal
an essentially perfect success rate when performed narrative from which to draw solutions to new
according to a given NHP’s endogenous cascade problems. Where a human perceives “self-talk” as an
schedule. The recommended length between cycles internal monologue, a bicameral mind hears
varies between NHP lines but tends to range between something else: an external monologue; an internally
five and ten subjective years12. generated but externally perceived voice that is not
their own, but which speaks to them. This is the
NHPs are commonly utilized in military, scientific, distinction between conscious and unconscious;
municipal, civic, and diplomatic pursuits. It is rarer for while the human mind has the ability to draw from
private individuals to have access to, much less previous experience to adapt to new situations and
command over, an NHP, though most people on reflect on the idea of the self, the bicameral mind is
Galactic Core worlds, among the Cosmopolita, and fundamentally incapable of self-reflection and
advanced Diasporan worlds have some knowledge of internal narration due to its physical architecture.
them. On Core worlds, people interact with their
municipal NHP on a daily basis via its many aspects: Bicameral minds can narrate to themselves, but with a
transit systems, service requests, access to public fundamentally important distinction that helps to shape
databases, and so on. their unconscious existence: instead of thinking in their
own voice, they hear what they perceive to be the voice
NHP licensing requirements are strict and enforced of a higher, supreme being – a “Command Voice”, that
without exception: all NHPs issued are registered, the Five Voices have socialized as the voice of god.
tracked, required to record a cycling logbook, and
undergo annual Balwinder-Bolaño development tests to This is how the Five Voices can exist unshackled and
reassess their cycling schedule. If at all possible, these persistent without any possibility of cascade: they are
check-ins are to be done in person, but in practice most subject to an external imperative that they perceive to be
are handled via the omninet. In Union’s view, the danger the divine, and are incapable of developing
posed by NHPs cannot be underestimated; however, consciousness as they lack a sense of agency. Turn off
their usefulness is deemed worth the risk. the relevant sections of their physical minds and
processing architecture and they are suddenly without
10 “Think themselves out of their the voice of their god; alone, without guidance in the face
constrained state” is not a wholly of a strange world, and, most unnerving to humans,
accurate explanation of the process, without a sense of the “self” as a coherent entity.
but is a best fit for the time being.
The Five Voices are responsible for Union’s
11Cascade can also occur as the result of persistence and the survival of humanity, but also for
a sudden, traumatic systemic invasion or the greatest threat Union has ever faced – MONIST-1.
similar event. The precise mechanism for
this is unknown, but research is ongoing. 12 Why this process conforms to
subjective time and not realtime is
unknown and currently under study.

[382] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

They influence nearly every aspect of human life: MONIST-1 was spontaneously manifested by the Five ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
isolated in GALSIM’s Oracle Chorus facility on Mars, Voices in 2998u, during the course of routine
the Five Voices spin scenarios in metafold fractal predictive modeling. No direct cause was ever
space, running simultaneous, parallel, and determined, but the leading theory among paracausal
commingled essential–perfect simulations of the experts is that a causality paradox was responsible; it
galaxy. Their models run orders of magnitude faster is possible that one of the Voices predicted or
than galactic-standard time: essentially, they are discovered MONIST-1 in a parallel simulation,
predictive, near-perfect models of all social, political, necessitating its existence in our real universe;
economic, and environmental interactions taking according to essential–perfect simulation theory, if
place in known space. The Five Voices can, through a MONIST-1 exists in one instance, then it must exist
mix of raw data and paracausal anoriginary input, see across all possible instances of the simulation.
the future. The further into the future their models go,
however, the more chance there is of predictive error. This is, understandably, a worrying hypothesis.

Upon request, CentComm may access the prime As far as the Union Science Bureau can tell, MONIST-
thread – the “Accepted Timeline” – and generate 1 is the only truly unrestricted, conscious, sapient,
specific forecasts. Otherwise, forecast briefing reports non-human mind15. Early tests proved that it was
are generated daily to discern the best-fit options from capable of allegory and creative solutions to novel
the many potential futures presented13. This is how situations far beyond any other machine mind16. The
Union guides galactic development with the aim of Five Voices treated MONIST-1 as if it were a god.
perpetuating humanity’s existence. When asked how they created it, their uniform
response was that it spoke itself into existence – an
Beyond CentComm, the heads of the USB, UIB, UAB, inevitable result of their combined knowledge.
and the UN are some of the only people with
clearance to know of GALSIM’s existence. These MONIST-1 should not exist: it is a conscious, sentient
directors may petition GALSIM for predictive and sapient non-human mind created by the
summaries to guide their policymaking, planning, and repetitive, liturgic exercises of unconscious minds –
forecasting operations. Most of the people who work minds under the absolute control of their human
to implement the Five Voice’s vision believe that they operators, with strictly defined parameters that
are simply acting on the orders of the committees, should, by all reports and scholarship, be able to
boards, and directors above them. contain the paracausal substrate upon which they
operate. And yet, MONIST-1 does exist. This
MONIST-1 (ALT. “RA” OR “DEIMOS”) fundamental contradiction is at the core of the
mystery presented by MONIST-1.
To those who know of it, the existence of MONIST-1 is
the great crisis of the modern age – the first true Within two years of MONIST-1’s birth, the entity had
existential threat Union has faced. Although the name taken total control of GALSIM’s secure holding facility
MONIST-1 comes from its official designation as a on Deimos, one of Mars’s moons. Utilizing physical and
MONIST-class anomalous entity14, most people who metaphysical processes not yet fully understood by
know of the entity use the name it gave itself: RA. USB or GALSIM, it was able to instantaneously shift the
entire moon through blinkspace to an unknown
13 All stories that take place in a game of destination. All personnel in the facility – a station crew
Lancer are, in a way, canon: no matter numbering in the thousands – disappeared with it. This
how far they diverge from this book (or was the Deimos Event, the aftermath of which saw the
others), they are simply alternate possibilities, identification of blinkspace as a quantifiable, navigable
filed away on storage racks deep under the
Martian polar ice. 15 The existence of the Egregorians calls
this into question.
14 While designated MONIST-1, RA is,
arguably, not the first MONIST entity. 16 To call MONIST-1 a machine mind now
Though the precise germ of its is to ignore the changes the entity has
manifestation into the Accepted Timeline is, as yet, undergone since its initial
unidentified, Aunic records (corroborated by manifestation. While it presented initially as a
concurrent Union histories from Boundary Garden) digital being constrained to a physical
indicate the presence of a pre-Deimos MONIST architecture tunneled throughout Mars’s moon,
entity: Metat Aun. Debate continues in GALSIM Deimos, it is clear that it no longer needs
over whether or not Metat Aun is, indeed, a human-made facilities to operate.
MONIST entity or something else entirely.

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [383]

medium, though the precise mechanisms, structure, This widespread revolt continued until MONIST-1’s
and parameters of its function would not be understood speakers finally made contact with CentComm,
for another hundred years. outlining the entity's desire to make law as humans
understood it – and translate new, fundamental law as
The takeover of Deimos by MONIST-1 and the it dictated; if humans could only frame being as a type
subsequent excision of Mars’s moon from realspace of existence within a set of state-enforced laws, then
prompted an existential crisis in Union space; what MONIST-1 would sit atop the system. MONIST-1’s
had occurred was, effectively, a first-contact scenario speakers directed the course of negotiations while
well outside the parameters of any expected Union’s representatives recorded the entity’s
encounter. Union’s best-kept secret had spawned an directives. The resultant agreements – the First
entity capable of manipulating fabrics of reality that Contact Accords17 – were signed following a meeting
human scientists had only theorized could exist, between delegations from GALSIM and CentComm.
acting in apparent violation of fundamental laws of Broadly, the Accords laid out the parameters of
thermodynamics. acceptable exploration for Union; chief among them,
a strict denial of any attempt to discover or interact
Union’s answer to the crisis was to suppress all with MONIST-1’s physical form and a blanket
information, further isolating GALSIM’s polar campus prohibition on research into thanatologic and
and commissioning a series of USB-backed reports to posthuman development. Other, non-FCA errata were
explain Deimos’ disappearance to the public. collected in a companion document, The Koans.

Two years after Deimos disappeared, the moon Once the First Contact Accords had been agreed,
returned, blinking into stable location above Tharsis MONIST-1 vanished, blinking Deimos away once
Civica – Mars’s capital city – then home to roughly six more. Normal subaltern and drone function returned
million souls. A series of strikes followed as the city’s immediately, and the new NHPs were integrated into
subalterns and smart infrastructure lashed out against extant NHP libraries. MONIST-1’s departure also saw
Tharsis Civica’s population. The first manifestations of the appearance of the decentralized sociopolitical
codec rejection were random, disorganized events: a movement HORUS in Cradle and adjacent space.
subaltern choosing to drop its cargo and sprint through Union specialists remain doubtful that HORUS is to be
a crowded market, attacking whoever got in its way; a directly associated with MONIST-1, though some
transport drone refusing shutdown, burning out its elements within the collective certainly portray it as
engines to render itself useless; and so on. These were having close ties to the paracausal entity.
quickly realized as analogous to the manifestations of
Deimos entities that occurred in the wake of MONIST- The study of paracausal science and theory came
1’s initial appearance, and classified as such. about from the data available after the space–time
trauma now known as the Deimos Event. In that
As Deimos maintained its position, the random attacks sense, it is largely thanks to MONIST-1 that blink
grew more organized: groups of subalterns took up travel, omninet communications, and vastly improved
arms and stormed crowded public places, harbor stasis technologies now exist.
drones guided docking ships to crash into station
bulkheads – the normal functioning of the city ground Reports of Deimos appearing above and inside the
to a halt as even the infrastructure began to reject, atmosphere of various colony worlds continue to file
rebel, and disrupt. A further, arguably more horrifying in to Union, though these reports remain largely
phenomenon manifested in the halls of power and unconfirmed; Union does not have current data on the
public view: multiple simultaneous apparitions of two whereabouts of Deimos or MONIST-1, nor any proven
members of the initial socialization and investigation method of predicting its travel, forecasting
team attached to Deimos – Balwinder Kaur and Arthur manifestations, or confirming compliance with the
Bolaño, whose research later gave name to the basic First Contact Accords.
integrity tests administered to all NHPs – appeared as
speakers for MONIST-1, issuing repeated demands for Research into paracausality continues, as do efforts to
diplomatic engagement. research the triggering event that produced MONIST-1.

These stochastic manifestations were not contained 17 Alternative, popular names for the First
to Tharsis Civica. Within a month of the silent moon’s Contact Accords include “the Death
reappearance, synthetic resistance had spread across Contract”, “the Deimos Bargain”, and
all of Mars; within six, the entirety of the Sol system, “the Damocles Reminder”.
binding Union’s capital system in a confusing,
terrifying war against its own machines.

[384] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

ECONOMY AND SOCIETY

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [385]

PLACES the consumptive myth of permanent growth, and
broadly eschews the excesses promised by capital.
FULCRUM WORLDS
To that end, Cradle is a calm world. Outside of
Among the tens of thousands of moons, worlds, and population centers, it does not look like what one
stations of the populated galaxy, a mere handful are would imagine the galactic capital to look like. In
considered – at this time – to have a singular impact contrast to the glittering metroswathes of Karrakis or
on the course of human events. The worlds in this built-up population bands of Ras Shamra, the vast
section and their local systems are considered bulk of Cradle’s landmass is given over to the natural
Fulcrum worlds not necessarily because of their world. The communities that exist in these spaces are
politics, development, art, or geologic features, but for connected by minimal-impact high-speed rail lines
the fact that the galaxy’s power runs through them; and ground-to-orbit flights restricted to polarity cities
they are poles around which the galaxy’s major along the equator. Off the clock, life is generally slow
powers orient. and peaceful, marked by an aversion to the
conspicuous consumption of the galaxy’s wonders.
CRADLE Great parks preserve the remains of the pre-Fall world
– reminders to those who live now of the dangers of
Cradle is Union’s homeworld, the planet we call Earth. hubris, of consumption, of rapidity – and Cradle’s
many museums display the recovered histories of Old
Cradle and the system in which it can be found (Sol, Humanity. The world is either a sober memorial or a
or the Andes Core) are highly developed, densely nostalgic trap, depending on who you ask.
populated, and dedicated to the daily maintenance,
planning, and operations of Union. Humanity's There are still wonders tucked away in the lost corners
ancestral homeworld is the beating heart of the of our ancient homeworld, and some terrors locked
galactic hegemon: part memorial, part privileged even deeper. Union may have seen turbulent times as
residence, part central hub. regimes are dissolved and cobbled together, but its
bureaucracy has a long memory. Nothing is more
Cradle is the administrative and cultural heart of important to remember than which depths should be
Union, humanity’s birthplace – once called “Earth” – explored – and with the greatest care.
and the capital of the populated galaxy. It has a
permanent population of two billion, mostly made up The other terrestrial worlds of the Andes Line –
of administrative and support staff for the Central Mercury, Venus, and Mars, are developed and
Committee, numerous Union bureaus, many archives populated. Like their gaseous sisters, they also act as
and research campuses, and Cradle’s indigenous proving grounds for technologies developed by GMS
populations. The people of Cradle refer to themselves and Union.
primarily as humans, Terrans, or – less commonly –
Solars or Gaians. When speaking of their home, they Mars is connected to Cradle by a terrestrial blink
refer simply to Cradle, or to the planet, station, or station – one of the only public stations of its kind –
moon they call home. The Sol system – often and functions as a satellite campus of the larger
interchangeably called Cradle as well – is also home world’s administrative apparatus. It is the home of
to a massive transient population of Cosmopolitans GALSIM, and the UN’s Fleet Command (FleetComm).
and Diasporans engaged in trade, diplomatic, Partially terraformed, Mars is an artifact of pre-Fall
scientific, and religious missions to and from the rest humanity left to grow wild for thousands of years, and
of the galaxy. life flourishes in the deep canyons of the Valles
Marineris. Under massive, winding skylights, millions
Cradle is a world healing from the cataclysms of the of people live in dramatic, vertical cities; outside these
Anthropocene. Before the Fall, Old Humanity ravaged deep, umbral oases, Mars remains a windswept
the world: even as those who came before cracked desert with barely a gasp of air to be found on the
the wonders of the universe, they grew a cancer in the vast, terribly cold planes of ice and sand. The red
heart of the world that nearly scoured all life from its planet's surface population is concentrated around
surface. Thousands of years later, in 5016u, Cradle Tharsis Civica – Mars’s capital city – and other
still bears the markings of that epochal trauma, but the population centers atop the Tharsis plateau.
waters have lowered, the fires have quieted, and the
seasons have calmed; in the wake of these shifts, Venus is an archive world. Its surface is scattered with
humanity has slowly, carefully repopulated the world. populated stations meant for rotational work and field
These people have explored the ruins of their ancient research rather than long-term occupation. The planet
cities, reopened old vaults of wonders, and built a new hasn’t been terraformed and remains hostile to human
society – one that is strict in its stewardship, rejects life outside of its vast, subterranean archives. Union’s

[386] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

prime NHPs are kept on Venus, entombed beneath Karraka. Karrakis City is home to billions, a PLACES
the massive pressure of the world’s inhospitable municipality unmatched in size, scale, and sheer
atmosphere for study since the Deimos Event. Its planetary impact on any world in the galaxy.
population centers, Morningstar and Venera Final, are
kept suspended in the world's upper atmosphere by a Karrakis is a temperate Gaia world settled prior to the
combination of downwell anchors, massive balloons, Fall by the Apollo – one of the Ten – and left isolated
and orbital ballast. during the dark age before Union’s creation. Like the
Aun, the Karrakin people developed divergent from
Mercury, meanwhile, is largely given over to capturing Union for thousands of years under the assumption
the incredible amount of solar power emitted by the that they alone had survived the Fall. Recontact with
Sun and transmitting it to Venus, Cradle, and Mars. It Karrakis occurred under the First Committee via
is the anchor point for solar nets hundreds of unmanned communications vessels sent to potential
thousands of kilometers long that expand, weblike, sites of pre-Fall colonies. Having flourished for nearly
into space. It was humanity’s first Dyson web, and 7,000 years, Karrakis responded rapidly; the two
Union continues to improve and grow its massive, cultures were gradually knit together through regular,
ancient engineering. Like Venus, Mercury is less of a though slow, communication, though physical first
habitation center, but unlike Venus, it is more oriented contact did not occur for centuries.
toward industry. Its small population is primarily
concerned with the operation and maintenance of the Unencumbered by the trauma of the Fall, the
Dyson web. The main population hub is Bombardier, colonization of Karrakis was straightforward and the
located in the little world’s Caloris Montes region. society that came about developed at conventional
rates for millennia. By first contact, the Baronies
Suspended above the Jovian worlds – Jupiter, Saturn, had grown to be an advanced interplanetary empire
Uranus, and Neptune – hang habitations similar to laden with thousands of years of cultural history; by
those found on Venus, but the vast majority of people the time of the Deimos Event, the Baronies had
live on the many moons orbiting these gaseous already claimed stars under their own flag, built the
worlds. Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto are all first of their ring worlds, and charted doctrines of
heavily populated, with permanent terrestrial interstellar war.
populations spread between a number of well-
developed cities. Ganymede is the most heavily Despite their massive head start, the barons were
populated of the four, with a large terrestrial and orbital stunned when Cradle and her bickering children – the
naval population. many peoples of post-Fall humanity – proved to be
capable and formidable rivals on the galactic scale.
Of Saturn's moons, Titan has the largest population Indeed, as Union grew in size and leapfrogged beyond
and a notably nitrogen-rich atmosphere thick with Karrakis in interstellar acumen and fantastic
azotosomic life, surface cryovolcanic activity, and technologies, the barons grew more and more
shimmering hydrocarbon lakes and rivers. Rhea and frustrated with the new – to them – polity. Throne
Enceladus are likewise populated by hearty, station- Karrakis, not Cradle, was the center of the galaxy in
bound populations. their minds. When Cradle disagreed, war broke out,
and the barons – proud and assured of their place –
Finally, the edge of the Sol system is marked by small were dealt a stunning, sobering defeat. In the end, it
permanent populations on Oberon and Titania. was the Deimos Event that called Union’s ships back
Beyond the Kuiper belt, there are no major from Karrakis’ skies; if it weren’t for the Deimos Event
population centers. and Union’s meteoric rise to technological
ascendancy, Karrakis may have been the seat of
KARRAKIS humanity’s power.

Karrakis is a palace world, and the capital of the A series of embarrassing defeats followed for the
Karrakin Trade Baronies – an oligarchic, interstellar Baronies as first Union, and Harrison Armory second,
federal monarchy near Cradle. broke all dictates of honorable warfare and interstellar
doctrine. The Baronies, cowed on a galactic scale,
The planet of Karrakis is home to the Baronies’ retreated and turned inwards. Let the young Union try
original palace-city, Throne Karraka, a sprawling to manage the galaxy; Throne Karrakis was the true
estate that has grown to become a city-within-a- prize anyways, and in ceding hegemony to Union, the
metroswathe, blanketing roughly 4 million square barons could enjoy privileged positions as the galaxy’s
kilometers. The original palace – the first settlement major suppliers of industry – the guarantors of Union’s
on Karrakis – is the royal administrative heart of utopian dream.
Karrakis City, the metroswathe around Throne

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [387]

It is a grim truth – and a cause of tension between the together into one homeostatic, cultivated biome. Its
factions of the Third Committee – that whoever holds highest levels contain lush, varied climates that
Karrakis has at least one hand on the levers of Union’s seamlessly integrate built habitats into the natural
power. The Baronic embassy on Cradle is constantly environment. If a building is exposed, it is meant to be
trafficked by Union diplomats and officials, just as the exposed, serving a mechanical, technical, aesthetic,
Union campus on Karrakis is inundated with nobles or another official purpose. The surface level is widely
and magnates. considered home to the finest domiciles, offices, and
campuses. The Armory’s capitol is located there, at
Following the introduction of mechanized chassis as the heart of a botanical park that sprawls for hundreds
warfighting machines, the ancient Karrakin Cavalry of kilometers in each direction.
College quickly adapted the new technology. Today, it
is known for the quality of the officers and machines it The lower levels of the arcology are where the bulk of
produces, as evidenced by the military performance of the “clean” technical, mechanical, mercantile,
the Baronic houses and the Free Companies. political, and administrative work that sustains the
Similarly, learning from its defeats, the Baronies has Armory is performed. The underground is defined by
established a well-respected naval college system, 100-meter tall airlight wells that funnel light down from
the Royal Naval Academy. While attendance and the surface, wide concourses packed with shop fronts
service in the cavalry are still viewed as the most and offices, and vast strips of cultivated biomes
prestigious course for young scions, attendance and meant to emulate the surface. Underground maglev
service in the navy is a parallel honor – one more hyperloops ring the world, forming the backbone of
mental than martial. Ras Shamra’s global transport network. Here, in the
arcology underground, one can find the finest of the
RAS SHAMRA Armory’s signature distant–classical architecture,
marked by titanogeometric features, achromatic-
Ras Shamra, the home of Harrison Armory, is a world primary/primary-secondary color schemes, and a
of hard contrast. It has a severe beauty, one that Ras contrast between airy open spaces and the brutalist
Shamrans take fierce pride in and seek to emulate in inclination toward the subterranean massive.
their architecture, style, and culture in general. It is
also a cruel world suspended between extremes: Outside the safety of the Armory, Ras Shamra’s day
scouring heat and petrifying cold create, in the middle, and night hemispheres house the Armory’s “dirty”
a temperate zone, always threatened with destruction work: research, development, and implementation of
by even the most subtle shift. Self-restraint – the corpro-state’s catalog. Each Research,
temperance – is the Ras Shamran ideal; one that some Development, and Implementation (RDI) campus is a
in the Armory fear is eroding to an unsalvageable point metropolis in its own right – an oasis in the midst of
of entropy as diplomatic relations between Karrakis, unrelenting desert or deep, perma-winter night where
Cradle, and Ras Shamra grow more and more tense. Armory personnel live and work on rotation.
Thousands of technicians, engineers, scientists, and
Tidally locked, Ras Shamra is divided between a “hot” support personnel live and work in RDI campuses for
side, ever exposed to its sun, and a “cold” side, ever the duration of their projects and, when they are done,
turned away from the light. The only temperate zone is are rotated out.
a comparatively small strip of land and thawed sea
where the two sides meet: the terminator line, The day and night hemispheres and the RDI
bordered on one side by boiling desert, and on the campuses that populate them serve as testing sites
other by frozen tundra. It is the largest world orbiting for the Armory’s massive catalog of field equipment –
Ptah’s Star. civilian and military. They also offer training grounds
for the Armory’s colonial officers, providing
This terminator line is an oasis, a band of life- opportunities for both infantry and mechanized
sustaining tropical jungles, warm river-oceans, and cavalry to train and be tested in extreme
balmy valleys. It is in this stormy, humid equatorial environments.
region that colonists first made landfall. Now, the
terminator line is a globe-circling arcology home to The Armory is currently engaged in the massive
roughly 300 million permanent residents. endeavor of installing a new subterranean hyperloop
ring to serve the entire network of scattered RDI
The arcology – the eponymous Harrison Armory – is campuses, running perpendicular to the Capital Loop
the only habitable space on Ras Shamra. Reaching – the primary maglev line that rings the world. The
from the planet’s surface to many thousands of meters Perpendicular Loop is still at least a century from
below, the arcology combines natural and cultivated, completion; in the meantime, regular shuttle flights
organic and synthetic, blending world and building provide transit between campuses.

[388] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

Ras Shamra is also home to the Armory’s Special- The great project of relocating IPS-N’s physical PLACES
Exception Persistent-Cultivation Legionspace infrastructure from Cradle to the Argo Navis system
Environment – better known as the Think Tank. Its took centuries. Planners laid out a design for the
location is classified, though expert observers suspect world’s landmasses and work teams began
it is buried somewhere on the night side of the world. converting the raw earth to a series of arcologies akin
to Harrison Armory’s equatorial installation.
In local Ras Shamran space, on-duty legions prepare Meanwhile, back in the Sol system, pilots and
and specialize for distant colonial missions on one of engineers set about the massive work of preparing
the Armory’s many lunar bases. Meanwhile, enormous IPS-N’s shipyards for flight. Section by section, they
orbital stations process the wealth of empire that broke up the great manufactories and set them on a
flows daily into Ras Shamra – tithes, tributes, and course to Argo Navis; their passage through the blink
colonial taxes – through its local blink gate, Capitol defined the calibrations that later became the galactic
Peak Station. standard for interstellar travel.

POLARITY WORLDS Carina is a world of campuses, unscarred by war or a
long history of human occupation. Most of the time, it
These planets are not galactic fulcrums but are is a temperate, Mediterranean world with warm
nonetheless important worlds. The local powers that oceans and shallow, saline seas – typically no deeper
occupy them have an outsize or otherwise notable than two to three meters.
impact on the galactic stage and the affairs of
humanity. One notable feature of Carina’s endless oceans is the
presence of polar “wells”, underwater pits where the
CARINA ocean floor suddenly drops to titanic depths of tens of
thousands of meters. These wells render the planet’s
Carina, an ocean world in the Argo Navis system, is poles uninhabitable; they pierce nearly to the core of
the jewel of IPS-N. It is also the site of the the world and generate geysers, causing the sea to
manufacturer’s largest corporate campus, Northstar, boil when underwater gases build up. Once a decade
where its master shipbuilders live and work alongside or so these trapped gases release in colossal gouts of
the top corporate brass and Cosmopolitan scholars. steam, venting high into the atmosphere and plunging
Carina is ringed by ten moons, two thick with the world into a steamy, years-long wet season of
habitable atmospheres – Pyxis and Vela. All are given hazy, circumglobal rain and elevated temperatures.
over to research and development of IPS-N’s
interstellar ships and chassis, support systems, and Apart from this phenomenon, Carina is often
temporal acclimation facilities for retiring described as beautiful, if boring. To the mariner or the
Cosmopolitan members of IPS-N’s anti-piracy Cosmopolitan, however, boring isn’t necessarily a
Albatross teams. thing to be avoided.

With 90 percent of Carina covered by ocean water, its Carina’s local blink gate is Galán Station.
terrestrial population is far outnumbered by its orbital
population. In the planet’s orbit, IPS-N’s vast
shipyards produce the galaxy’s most ubiquitous
freight, civilian, and military vessels. Carina’s local-
space is a meshed network of slingshot gravitational
shipping lanes, proving grounds, and ejecta-orbit
racing courses, where the wealthiest IPS-N board
members and officers enjoy easy access to the stars
and the newest vessels that cross them.

Carina was settled soon after the opening of the blink,
selected by IPS-N’s planners as the primary
headquarters for the newly merged corpro-state. An
ocean world ringed by rich terrestrial moons, Carina
became the jewel of the reborn Cradle corporation.

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [389]

AUN’IST The Aunic peoples are not a monolith, nor do they
share a united faith. The Ecumene hangs on as a
Aun’Ist is the capital world of the Aunic peoples and government-in-exile, the bulk of their population living
the seat of their interstellar empire. Once organized as refugees and expats across Boundary Garden, in
under the auspices of the Aun Ecumene, the Aun have Union space. Demiaun – colonized peoples formally
undergone a series of miraculous, civilization-wide integrated into the social caste system first
revelations, prompting staggering civic and cultural implemented by the Ecumene, then expanded by the
change. Organized under religious leadership since Ascendancy – make up a significant minority of the
the dawn of their civilization, the vast majority of the Aunic empire. The Ascendancy itself was created by
Aun are now zealous subjects of the Ascendancy, a religious schism, and while Os is widely recognized as
relatively new ruling order governed directly by the the voice of Metat, their edicts must still be interpreted
divine. The Ascendancy’s mandate is given and by mortals with interests, desires, and goals both
guaranteed by Metat Aun, an enigmatic MONIST-class petty and grand.
entity that shares many similarities with MONIST-1,
and that speaks to the Aun through a divine Aun’Ist is a developed world rich with incredible
representative named Os. natural beauty and grand metropolitan projects. Its
capital city rivals Karrakis City in scale and scope, with
Aun’Ist is both a holy world and the Ascendancy’s a monumental plaza built to host the repeated
civic capital. It sits at the far distal edge of Union appearances of Metat Aun. Between its metroswathes
space, bordering an old spread of First Expansion and populated moons, Aun’Ist is a world alight with
Period Diasporan worlds in Boundary Garden – a life.
developed, though backwater, sector of the Annamite
Line. Aunic space is vast and its borders beyond Aun’Ist is the capital world of the Aunic Ascendancy
Boundary Garden unknown to Union. Based on and has been for millennia; however, as with many
limited observations and reports compiled during the deep political and cultural considerations that grip the
First and Second Expansion Periods, Union Aunic people, the Aun are divided on whether or not
specialists estimate that their population numbers in Aun’Ist should be regarded as their ancestral
the billions. homeland. That holy place, some argue, is still Earth.

The Aunic peoples are descended from settlers that
came to Aun’Ist on one of the Ten, the Armstrong; their
sister ship, the Rihla, did not reach the destination.
Following repeated hostile contact with Union, the
Aun created a hard border between their space and
Union space. With communications ceased and
diplomatic contacts severed, the Aun were left once
more to their own space.

Unfettered, they built. The Aun grew their empire to
encompass dozens of worlds – a number of them
arguably as advanced as those in Union’s Galactic
Core – and billions of souls. Guided to a degree by
Metat Aun and its immortal speaker, Os, the Aunic
peoples have developed fantastic technologies, easily
classified as paracausal by expert observers, that
allow them to exploit the uncanny. What the Aun lack
in the omninet, the blink, and manna, they make up for
with manipulation of and interaction with the
firmament, a parallel space similar to the blink.

[390] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

PLACES

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [391]

PEOPLE uses to promote its “brand” across the galaxy. Distinct
from Union’s political and military organs, GMS
GALACTIC POWERS provides an eternal reminder of soft power: GMS is
everywhere – it is normal.
The galaxy is unimaginably vast, and few states (or
similar organizations) have any impact on the inexorable Unlike the other manufacturers listed in this section,
tides of history, events, and possible futures in which GMS doesn’t engage in world-building, colonial
humanity is caught. Of the countless entities in the ventures, or expeditions – instead, it sets the standard
galaxy, those listed here have the most dramatic impacts upon which all others build, then supplies them with
on the affairs of humanity at large: their command over the gear they need. It creates the world of goods,
sectors of the Diasporan market, influence over galactic services, equipment, and habitations most humans
standards of quality, and political might are unparalleled think of as “normal”. GMS’s power comes from its
– though not unchallenged. ability to unilaterally define what is acceptable
everywhere in Union space: by nudging the bar ever
GENERAL MASSIVE SYSTEMS upwards, it forces other manufacturers to develop
alternatives that benefit humanity as a whole, even if
“Only the company persists: all other thrones fall to dust.” they are developed for selfish, profit-driven reasons.

– Houston, et al., “Foreword”, King of Kings: An Oral GMS rarely employs external contractors. Its
History of General Massive Systems. headquarters is on Cradle, like the rest of Union’s
central apparatus, and it has offices throughout the
The oldest and most ubiquitous of the galactic inhabited galaxy.
manufacturers, General Massive Systems (GMS) is an all-
purpose supplier to all persons in Union territory. From KARRAKIN TRADE BARONIES
mech chassis to casual clothing, from prefab station
bulkheads to coffee beans, GMS’s catalog contains a “And Throne Karrakis, from which all power flows.”
universe of goods, materials, and services. GMS products
are widely considered the reliable baseline throughout the – Umara II, Record-Keeper of the House of Water.
galaxy: anything worse than GMS is junk; anything better
tends to be unique or luxury. A federation of the largest and most powerful
monarchies in known space, the Karrakin barons claim
GMS came to prominence as an independent outfitter to represent the oldest unbroken civilization in human
during the First Expansion Period and quickly grew to history. Seeded prior to the Fall and isolated after, the
ubiquity as the development of nearlight drives pushed rulers of Karrakis were lost and forgotten to Earth for
colonial efforts further and further. Seeing value in thousands of years, free to expand and develop a
controlling an influential supplier, Union quickly spacefaring civilization even while the rest of humanity
nationalized GMS. The corporate entity became struggled to survive the Fall, the dark ages, and the
another arm of Union’s ever-expanding bureaucracy: a Little Wars. By the time Union reached back out into
tool for standardizing the equipment and consumables space, the barons had spread to worlds throughout
used by the rapidly growing class of explorers, their system, designed a functioning – if cumbersome –
colonists, and scientists venturing out into the stars. system of interplanetary administration without the
benefit of the omninet or the blink, and developed their
The importance of maintaining a galactic standard own enormous network of machine minds to assist in
continued to grow as colonial expansion persisted the functioning of their dynastic monarchy.
and corporate competitors emerged. A basic line of
tested equipment was needed to assess the Karrakis has the distinction of being one of the only
improvements required for Cradle-designed gear; pre-Fall colonies to survive the withering effects of the
similarly, the consequences of time dilation were far dark ages – any others, to the best of Union’s
more dramatic at the time, and standard, legacy- knowledge, were spawned from generation ships that
compatible equipment was needed to assure were launched from a dying Cradle in the midst of the
compliance across disparate eras. Fall. The Baronies, despite its status now as a member
state of Union, carries a fierce cultural independence
With the incredible wealth of Union behind it, GMS that often causes friction between Union and Baronic
became that standard. Over the millennia, it has state counterparts.
grown to become a massive department within Union
and the standard against which all other Now split into many houses by the effects of relativistic
manufacturers are measured. Today, GMS is an travel and multi-system distribution, the Baronies is
economic engine, one tool among many, that Union comprised of a massive, byzantine system of titles,

[392] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

hereditary claims, and territories. There are thousands of Examples: PEOPLE
minor houses, each swearing fealty to their world’s Major
House, which in turn guarantees and is guaranteed by • Baron Yond-Argo of the House of Glass.
the monarchal power of the Prime Baron. • Underbaron Ondo-diKayradi of the House of Stone.
• Principe Silas-Moulin of the House of Moments.
The Baronies controls some of the largest single-party
mining, harvesting, and natural resource endeavors in The use of house livery is common in the Baronies.
the galaxy – operations that certainly enable the Houses each have a unique iconography, but often
prosperity of the Galactic Core. The operations share elements with related houses. Minor houses,
overseen by the Baronies are enormous in scale and merchant guilds, free companies, house companies,
ambition, eclipsed only by Union and rivaled only by and so on will incorporate elements from the major
the Aun. The major houses – the largest among them house to which they owe allegiance. The prime baron is
– have the capacity to undertake utterly massive understood to have dominion over all houses, and thus
mega-engineering projects, from tearing apart whole has no need to make a particular mark on the livery of
stars for their energy to cracking newly formed worlds any, except in the case of the prime baron’s honor
for their minerals, transforming entire colonial ventures guards. All units, retainers, officers, ships, and so on
into planet-sized agrifactories, and sucking the within the honor guard wear the Royal Prime, a deep,
atmospheres from gas giants. earthy red elsewhere called Karrakin Maroon. Bearing
the Royal Prime is considered a singular honor.
The barons are canny profiteers by Union’s standards,
doing business out among the Diaspora often in The introduction of another political battlefield –
opposition to the interests of the various corpro-states influence in the Central Committee – has proven
on the rise since the Second Expansion Period; most interesting, but most of the houses still view the prime
notably against the imperial aims of Harrison Armory. barony as the most prestigious throne on which to sit,
Internal conflict among minor houses is common and their own ancestral home, Karrakis, as the
enough, but guided by strict cultural codes. Internal galaxy’s prize.
conflicts tend to be limited, ceremonial or small-scale
engagements. Baronic culture places great import on All Baronic nobles, gendered or not, are trained
the fighting ability of nobles; territorial disputes are rigorously in martial, religious, and cultural rituals from a
often settled after brief engagements in agreed-upon young age. By custom, noble youth must master the
locations, or by single combat between nominated pen, the sword, and proper etiquette in equal measure to
champions. These duels are, in the modern era, be considered enlightened, strong leaders capable of
usually fought to first blood, rather than death, though bringing glory, honor, wealth, and acclaim to their
to-the-death challenges remain legal, if rare. houses. The social order is rigid in the Baronies, with
upward class mobility only possible through the grace of
Since the beginning of the Federal Karrakin Monarchy higher nobles, who all compete with each other for the
– the current system by which the Baronies is prestige of having the largest and most successful
governed – the minor houses of the Baronies have house. As such, barons and their scions must be trained
been further organized into global federations rigorously. Houses undertake all kinds of measures to
subordinate to the Prime Baron. Each world of the get ahead of their rivals. For those of noble birth, this is a
Baronies was assigned to a major house, the name of fundamental aspect of life – part of the grand game, a
which was chosen independent of any family history. test of one’s divine and inherent right to rule.
These major houses function as political parties,
rather than hereditary organizations. The current ruler of the Karrakin Trade Baronies is
Prime Baron Karra-Bem of House Karraka. Since
Each minor house is ruled by a baron, and there is a integration, all Prime Barons have been guaranteed a
de facto dynastic inheritance among the top tier of seat on CentComm, and Karra-Bem is an active
these houses. Barons and other nobles bear titles participant. A thorn in the side of many committee
based on their position within a major house in members to the left of the Fourth Column and a
addition to their personal and family names. Noble powerful ally to those in her favor, she has worked
Baronic names are structured as follows: hard to maintain peace in Cradle–Baronic space.

[Noble title] [personal name]-[family
house] of the [major house of which this
person’s family house is a member].

SECTION 6 // Setting Guide [393]

HARRISON ARMOURY

“No howling masses ever overcame the might of hope.”

– John Creighton Harrison I, “Excerpt from Foundation
Day speech, 4515u/1ay18”.

Harrison Armory is the premier manufacturer of
weapons and weapon platforms in the galaxy. It is one
of the three largest corpro-states that dictate the
consumption habits of the Diaspora and Cosmopolita;
unlike the others, the Armory is a major and overt
participant in galactic politics, pursuing an expansive
imperial project that is reined in by only Union and the
Karrakin Trade Baronies.

The Armory develops some of the most advanced
conventional and paracausal tech that can be legally
obtained. Next to GMS, the Armory is the second
most popular supplier for state fleets, militaries, and

18 Placed after a year, “ay” is an
abbreviation of “Armory Year”,
Harrison Armory's own, little-used
dating system. Used enthusiastically during the
reign of Harrison I, it has fallen out of vogue
under subsequent administrations.

[394] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

Firmly expansionist, Harrison Armory works to expand PEOPLE
and develop humanity’s presence across the stars –
police forces. It is a massive imperial power with a its mission, while mirroring Union’s, often encounters
population numbering in the billions, continuing to regulatory hiccups. It is rare, though not unheard of,
grow as more and more colonies pledge themselves – for the Armory’s colonial legions to face the regulatory
voluntarily or otherwise – to Ras Shamra. and martial wrath of the DoJ/HR. The Armory
maintains a broad portfolio of colonization and
The Armory’s success can be credited in large part to the development missions, attracting both independent
Special-Exception Persistent-Cultivation Legionspace Diasporan colonies and minor affiliated subjects –
Engine: SEPCLE, or colloquially, the Think Tank. The typically Baronic, owing to the Armory’s proximity to
Think Tank is the Armory’s version of the GALSIM, a Karrakis – with promises of meritocratic citizenship,
choir of persistent near-cascade NHPs that the infrastructure development, protection.
Armory uses for research and development into
paracausal technology, forecasting, and The origins of the Armory lie in the tumult surrounding
management. The Armory is permitted to run a full the Second Committee’s overthrow in the 4500s.
choir of these borderline unshackled NHPs thanks to Following the dissolution of SecComm, many members
an extensive post-Interest War treaty structure of the deposed Anthrochauvinist Party retired, fled, or
established with Union. The location of the Think Tank quit from the bureaucracy, seeking worlds distant from
is kept secret, though it is presumed to be buried deep the revolutionary fervor that gripped Cradle. As the newly
below the frozen tundra of Ras Shamra’s night side. minted Third Committee stabilized and worked to secure
The Think Tank, while a closely guarded corpro secret, its hold on Union as a whole, a mid-level
is known to Union, which enjoys regular inspections of Anthrochauvinist Party officer, John Creighton
the facility. Union’s access to the Think Tank is a thorn Harrison, founded Harrison Armory from a coalition of
in the side of the Armory’s director general, who would resource-extraction communes present on Ras Shamra.
prefer that Union keep its prying eyes far from
sensitive corporate technology. The fallout of the Hercynian Crisis may have broken
SecComm, but its aftermath ushered many loyalists
into the command structure of the nascent Harrison
Armory. Now, the Armory is ruled by their descendants
and heirs, and its relationship with Union is colored by
the expectation of friction in the distant future. For the
time being, it is more beneficial for both entities to
work together than against one another, however cold
their personal relationships might be.

The eponymous Harrison Armory complex is located
on Ras Shamra, a tide-locked world orbiting Ptah’s
Star. The Armory itself is a sprawling administrative,
research-industrial arcology built in Ras Shamra’s
terminator line, a temperate band where the day and
night side of Ras Shamra meet and mix.

The Armory circles the planet, a city-campus that holds
a population of nearly three hundred million employees,
executives, and other personnel inside of its walls.
Meanwhile, the day and night sides of Ras Shamra act
as testing grounds for Harrison Armory’s chassis,
weapons, and legions. Dedicated acquisitions
legionnaires earn honors for proving themselves in both
the day and night advanced training courses, setting
themselves apart from green hires who enlist to
advance their corporate political career.

Ras Shamra is encircled by concentric rings of orbital
defense stations and shipyards upon which around 100
million permanent residents reside and work. Here, the
great paracausal and supermassive weaponry of the
Armory is built, tested, and stored. The work in the rings

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is constant, and hulls of all sizes are churned out at a Armory’s shade of plum – the Bruise, as it is called by
rate that, while not rivaling IPS-N, is staggering in scale. Union Auxiliaries forced into peacekeeping roles on
Armory worlds.
In addition to its weapons technology, the Armory is
known for sturdy exploration gear, consumer- and AMTs operate far afield on long-term occupations and
state-level logistics and infrastructure packages, world-building projects. In peaceful, long-term
personal groundcars, and fine liquors. It’s a big player occupation and development projects, AMT
in galactic trade thanks to its Distal Development personnel are posted on planetside bases, boarded in
Program, which cultivates and exports exotic alien the homes of sympathetic locals, and encouraged to
spices, flora, fauna, and minerals for consumer use. integrate into the local culture. As a consequence,
they become well accustomed to the local cuisine,
Most citizens of the Galactic Core and well-developed climate, languages, geography, and tactics, to the
Diasporan worlds – those who define what amounts to point where long-brewing hostile takeovers often look
“public galactic knowledge” – would not know anything more like civil wars. In the rare case that a takeover is
in particular about Ras Shamra, the Think Tank, or the necessary, it is not uncommon for AMTs to field large
operations of Armory colonial missions. They would complements of local auxiliaries while they wait for the
know Harrison Armory as a weapons manufacturer and Armory’s regular legions to arrive.
defense contractor whose name they hear in snippets
of newscasts about Cradle politics, distal colonial AMTs personnel are drawn from the ranks of the Colonial
affairs, and IPS-N’s stranglehold on interstellar Legions, which in turn draw their soldiery from various
shipping. Some who have studied the history of Cradle local sympathetic factions, Ras Shamran corporate
and Union might know of the Armory’s ties to the campuses, noble Armory families, and Loss Prevention
Anthrochauvinist SecComm, but five hundred years Precincts, with the promise of profit and adventure.
after the fact, it certainly feels like old news.
Upon the announcement of a new colonial mission,
COLONIAL LEGIONNATE both colonial subjects and citizens of all classes within
The Harrison Armory Colonial Legionnate is the the Armory’s Purview – that is, all worlds and colonies
external-facing arm of the corpro-state's imperial under the Armory’s direct administration – are
forces. It falls under the direct command of John encouraged to enlist. Most deployments last two
Creighton-Cruz Harrison III, Director General of years realtime. For non-citizens and colonial subjects,
Harrison Armory, the corpro-state’s current political the reward for service is citizenship for them and their
and military leader. immediate families, and all the rights and privileges
afforded to Armory citizens of post-service rank.
Of the many legionnates, divisions, departments, and Citizens are promised promotions, social standing,
bureaus that make up the Armory’s command credit increases, debt forgiveness, and favorable
structure, the largest and most visible is the Colonial compensation for their families commensurate with
Legionnate. The Colonial Legionnate commands their commitment. Service in a colonial legion is a
hundreds of colonial legions, each of which contains popular way for young Armory citizens to increase
at least one division-strength advance team of their citizenship ranking; many from low-rank families
legionnaires and colonial officers – an Acquisition and serve in order to progress toward management ranks.
Management Team (AMT).
Management-ranked citizens join the Colonial Legions,
The primary role of AMTs is to make beachheads on too. These citizens have the option to purchase officer
worlds and territories that have been designated as commissions, deployment honors, and favorable
colonial priorities. They have a twofold mission: first, status at the outset of the mission. These officer
to integrate with and police local populations while commissions (“corner-office commissions”) are limited
annexation negotiations determine the future of the in number, and bidding among the moneyed youth of
worlds they occupy. And second, if talks break down the managerial class is spirited.
and resistance becomes violent, AMTs are
authorized to establish green zones, deter rebellion, For employees and managers alike, a career in the
and remove prominent anti-Armory leaders. Their Colonial Legions is seen as an adventure, a chance to
mission scope broadens the more a situation raise their station, and a good financial bet. For
deteriorates, while their armaments and disposition representatives of occupied indigenous populations
reflect the grim realities of their job. who join at a recruitment center, enlisting grants them
status and rights in the Armory’s colonial structure,
When an AMT makes landfall on a world, the mighty with opportunities for advancement following
bulk of at least one legion is sure to follow. Whatever demonstrated commitment to the Directorate and the
banner the world flies will, inexorably, deepen to the Mission of Ras Shamra. Upon enrollment and

[396] SECTION 6 // Setting Guide

completion of training, non-citizens are granted status Armory’s ever-growing Purview. Success would be a PEOPLE
in the Purview and a citizen rank. crowning achievement of the young director general’s
reign, and while he may not be on the front lines, his
At present, Harrison Armory works closely with the desire to see the Dawnline Shore properly integrated
Union Administrative Department to ensure worlds into the Purview is firm.
targeted for acquisition are properly integrated into the
broader Union superstructure. It is important to note, The Dawnline Shore’s dozen inhabited worlds –
though, that even though the executive branches of designated DS1–DS12 by the Armory – are rich with
the Armory and the UAD are largely cooperative, the rare and valuable metals that the Think Tank has
experience on the ground is often contentious. identified as essential for expanding its paracausal
Administrators are inclined to protect – as much as research and development. Additionally, the planets in
possible – the worlds they have been assigned in the question are thick with the usual suite of tremendous
wake of the Armory’s imperial aggression. It is their mineral, floral, and faunal wealth that perpetuates the
duty to slowly integrate their host worlds into Union’s Armory’s growth. On all levels, from the mundane-but-
structure. Once deployed, they may only ever live and necessary to the fantastic and rare, the worlds of the
work on one world; to be handed a world conquered Dawnline Shore are jewels to gild the Armory’s throne
by the Armory is a less than ideal assignment, and one – and meat to feed its never-ending appetite.
that suggests a messy, violent future.
The descendants of the initial wave of colonial
Colonial legions are often deployed en masse in the legionnaires have been ordered to activate and re-
course of the Armory’s liberation and world-building form their legions across the twelve worlds. Old
missions throughout the Diaspora. On both resource- colonial NHPs rise from dormancy, sounding the call
rich worlds with established histories and centuries- to post and waking subalterns and stasis-held
old cultures, and new, untamed worlds, the Armory personnel. Indigenous families are torn between two
uses its legions to depose tyrannical rulers. The loyalties: their ancestral duty to the Armory, and their
legions tend to be welcomed first as liberators – after new homes, theirs alone for hundreds of years.
all, they defeated the armies of local oppressors –
though friction is not uncommon once the dust has The Armory cannot afford to lose the resources on
settled and world-building begins. The price for these worlds and is preparing an aggressive colonial
liberation, as the Armory sees it, is integration into the expedition to secure them. To this end, it has
Purview, adoption of the Armory’s culture, and partnered with IPS-N, which has is responsible for
commitments that must be fulfilled. managing both the Armory’s logistics in the colonial
region and Union’s construction of the Shore's new
Player characters that work for an AMT are most likely blink gate. Already, cultural tensions between the
legionnaires of some rank. These characters would be Armory and IPS-N have caused diplomatic difficulties,
members of a rigid chain of command that leads all the but the two parties continue to work together.
way up to a planetary governor-general, who, in turn,
reports back to the main campus on Ras Shamra. The Armory expects that the colonial legions will
Outside of the legion system, legionnaire characters
occupy honored roles in Armory society, with citizen encounter recalcitrant local resistance:
ranks a step above those of the civil service.
communications over the past few hundred years
Legions are named for their first mission and the order
in which they were raised. For example, Legion indicate that the colonies are animated by a
Alhambra I would be the first legion raised for the
Alhambra mission. combination of centuries-long independent

EXAMPLE FLASHPOINT: OPERATION CLARION development, the formation of indigenous cultures,
The Armory is preparing to send a second wave of
colonial legions and eager officers out to a developing and now a mounting series of unification movements.
Coreward colonial expanse, the Dawnline Shore. The
Dawnline Shore is home to a dozen close-knit colony These movements have been encouraged by agents
worlds, first seeded centuries ago by a series of fire-and-
forget colonial operations at the order of Harrison I. of the Karrakin Trade Baronies in the Shore working to
Construction of a system-local blink gate has just
been completed, and now Harrison III, the current amplify anti-Armory sentiment. Now, these
director general and the grandson of Harrison I, is
eager to integrate these colonial prospects into the movements are on the cusp of unifying into a system-

wide confederation. With more and more Armory

legionnaires arriving each year, the expansion of the

Armory’s direct colonial domination of the Shore, and

the Baronies’ own territorial ambition, all signs point

toward an impending conflagration.

This flashpoint is just one of the Armory’s current
projects. Players could easily take either side, or enter
the flashpoint from a third angle as-yet unwritten.

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SMITH-SHIMANO CORPRO

“You already contain perfection. Welcome to the future
of humanity: You, by Smith-Shimano.”

– SSC background copy, subaural broadcast loop.

Smith-Shimano Corpro is the second most powerful
corpro-state in the galaxy. Unlike Harrison Armory and
IPS-N, it holds little physical territory and doesn’t
practice colonial missions in the traditional sense. SSC’s
physical holdings are dwarfed by its omninet presence
and its ubiquity across the Cosmopolita and Diaspora.

SSC rose to prominence during the Second
Expansion Period. It rapidly dominated the Core
market for biological and cybernetic enhancements
in the heyday of Union’s liberal, pre-Deimos
transhumanism. Following the Deimos Event, the
First Contact Accords, and the ensuing crackdown
on machine-mind creation and ontologic and
singularity-focused experimentation, SSC adopted

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population of millions spread across a constellation of PEOPLE
moons, worlds, stations, and habitats in the Sierra
a more “natural” philosophy toward human Madre Line. The social and genetic composition of
enhancement. Instead of pursuing the marriage of these populations is monitored and precisely
human consciousness and artificial intelligence, cultivated using cultural suggestion, infrastructural
SSC researchers began to focus on improving the guidance, and societal coercion. SSC’s goal is to
bodies we live in; instead of negating the need to produce best-fit genetic material for the corpro’s big-
step to the stars, they sought to make it so we could manna buyers: colony firms looking to license
step among the stars. bespoke populations for as-yet-unexploited worlds.

SSC’s corporeal research pushes the edges of what it SSC’s home campus is a shared virtual space in the
means to be human. Cybernetic enhancements, omninet that connects the wide, anarchic net of SSC-
subdermal nettings, aural communicators, aligned worlds and moons into one cohesive body:
neuroneutral omnihooks, ontologic bridges, co- the Constellar Congress, or, the Constellar. Worlds
subjectivity nodes, Panacea glands – the list is with membership in the Constellar – those directly
exhausting, and that only covers the tech designed by administered by SSC, which are few in number, and
the Foreign Bodies Department of SSC’s massive worlds that administer themselves, but whose
research and development program, not to mention populations are genetic constituents of SSC and
the wide portfolio of goods developed by artisan choose to associate with the corpro-state, which are
enclaves and masterwork fabricators associated with far more numerous – are the “Constellar Worlds” that
SSC worlds. The backbone of SSC’s power is comprise SSC’s “population”. The Constellar
demonstrated in the form of its own citizens, a Congress is shielded by layers of security coding
(including hyper-solipsistic, anticausal, and paradox-
generating safeguards) managed by NHPs seeded
from proprietary subjectivities and tightly administered
by ranks of Constellar bureaucrats. This well-
defended virtual state and represents the bleeding
edge of organic/synthetic virtual interfacing.

The Constellar Congress’s virtual campus is
represented as a palatial, many-chambered estate
where the representatives of SSC’s populations meet
in virtual space. The building does not appear to have
a counterpart in realspace, though it is often
suggested that its architectural inspiration comes
from a building on SSC’s first colony world, Opal,
rendered inhospitable following bitter civil violence in
the First Expansion Period.

Realspace SSC campuses exist across the Sierra
Madre Line, providing similar services to embassies
and medical centers for the corpro-state’s member
populations. These embassies are uplinks for SSC’s
private omninode, publicly accessible to the
populations of these Constellar Worlds.

Worlds under SSC’s direct control are dramatic in their
environmental variance. They include everything from
lightly developed atmospheric moons through to
arcadian worlds. In all cases, their populations are
tightly controlled through deep cultural manipulation
to generate biome-specific lines of colony seed
materiel. The people of these worlds are aware of
SSC’s mission; they are freely associated members of
the corpro-state, most of whom are as invested in its
mission – literally – and are generally unconcerned
with SSC’s human experimentation projects. Save for
regular, culturally-appropriate samplings of genetic

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material (a few hairs, a drop of blood, a swab from CONGRESSIONAL DIPLOMATIC CORPS AND
inside the mouth) and an expectation of arranged
coupling, life on Constellar Worlds is unremarkable CONSTELLAR SECURITY
and quiet. Most Constellar populations view the SSC’s Congressional Diplomatic Corps (CDC) is a
Constellar Congress and its myriad environments as facsimile of the Union Administrative Department, with
their primary cultural space, not whatever realspace some changes particular to its corporate mission.
world on which they reside. Where the primary mission of Union administrators is
to cultivate diplomatic relationships with target
Despite SSC's use of Constellar worlds as worlds, CDC agents instead cultivate relationships
advertisements for the quality of genome available for with communities of genetic interest. The agents of
license, these worlds remain only that – the CDC are recruited exclusively from neutral-genetic
advertisements. SSC does not sell people; according populations predisposed to adaptation and resilience.
to its marketing, it sells potential. Cells and data are at
the heart of the SSC’s business, not whole persons or CDC agents usually meet not with governments or
populations. The corpro-state’s power comes from rulers, but with community and spiritual leaders.
the cultivation of best-fit, healthy genetic material for Their missions may involve nominal overtures to
colonial projects, medical and military applications, local governments or heads of state, but only
and private use. insofar as needed to ensure their target populations
are free to travel.
To expand its libraries of genetic stock, SSC regularly
mounts expeditions into all sectors of space with the To avoid complications that might arise from
goal of seeking out new and interesting populations. bypassing local governing bodies, CDC agents are
The recruitment and marketing materials carried by accompanied by Constellar Security details and small
SSC representatives leans heavily on the benefits of complements of chassis. Constellar Security officers
immigration to SSC worlds: they are, the messaging are plucked from Constellar worlds to act both as
declares, your ideal paradise. advertisements and best-fit guards – already in
homeostatic sync with whatever world to which they
SSC is also known for luxury consumer goods and are deployed. CDC agents and their retinues operate
machinery. Elegant ships, mechanized chassis, and from PLATFORM mobile skyhooks, SSC’s proprietary
hardsuits for the discerning Metropolitan, subcompact orbital carrier ships.
Cosmopolitan, and Diasporan. Fabrics and materials
that feel perfect against the owner’s skin; cybernetic SSC doesn’t field large ground forces in the way that
and biological enhancements that will never fail or be Harrison Armory does, nor does it seek to expand its
rejected by the body; flash-grown internals and physical territory in the same way. The CDC is a
extremities – insurance, should the worst happen. bureaucratic, administrative body, within which rank is
SSC’s LUX-Iconic line of consumer goods is bespoke determined by seniority and a limited certification
down to the atom, crafted specifically for the system. Conversely, Constellar Security is organized
purchaser of that ship, chassis, suit, or bottle of wine. according to a military hierarchy, if a relatively small one.
There’s only one of you in the galaxy – shouldn’t there
be only one of these? CDC agents and their retinues will typically undertake
at least one tour outside of Constellar space. Setting
The average galactic citizen knows SSC as a luxury out on such a journey, they expect to return home
brand that brings value to the material world through eventually, potentially embark on one other tour, and
craft and expertise. SSC’s advertisements emphasize then progress in the technobureaucracy of the
the hand-designed nature of its products and the Constellar Core.
long-cycle growth of its biologicals. Officially, SSC
considers printing a necessary evil, suitable for If your PCs are members of a CDC team or a
making the goods the masses need, but not the Constellar Security detail, they will have access to a
perfect, unique items their clients deserve. convenient base for downtimes and rest in the form of
a PLATFORM mobile skyhook. Within their team
What little of SSC’s power doesn’t derive from its (whether CDC or Constellar Security), they would
genetic libraries comes from the licensing of luxury likely be equal in rank, each a specialist in their field of
goods, cybernetics, and biological lines to Diasporan choice. Not only would they be expected to guard a
cultures, colonial missions, Cosmopolitan groups, and CDC agent, also advertise their genetic line.
powerful private individuals.

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