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Thread: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

  1. #1
    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude


    See all this? Yes? The Stuarts want it. All of it.

    I see my reflection in the window
    It looks different, so different than what you see
    Projecting judgement on the world
    This house is clean babe
    This house is clean
    -Metallica, 'Dirty Window'

    It's the year 10,007 AD.

    Nearly 8,000 years ago, the House of Stuart finally finished their conquest of the globe, and in doing so realized their ancestors' three-hundred-year-old dream.

    It was then that they decided to dream of a new, even greater goal to pass on to their descendants: to conquer the entire universe.

    Following a complete religious and political unification with the religions of the world (primarily through the Roman Catholic Church) and the elimination of the last overt popular resistance to their rule one way or another (to massively oversimplify), the newly-christened Magisterium looked to deep space for new acquisitions. Almost 8,000 years later, their war on the rest of existence, which by the way was totally fueled by divine instruction rather than greed, hatred and/or self-righteousness (how could you, indeed how dare you possibly think otherwise, I wonder?), has brought them to the edges of the Milky Way; over three-quarters of the galaxy has been subjugated under the might of Earthling arms, and there's still that remaining quarter to look forward to, teeming with the hostile alien 'Squids' and Space Pirates, enemies of all mankind alike, on top of whatever else might be out there. Should they prevail in that, well there are countless other galaxies out there you know.

    Wars of expansion and extermination aside, the Magisterium is still made up (mostly, anyway) of humans, with all the good and all the evil that it brings. For the past 8,000 years countless generations of men and women, commoner and clergy and noble alike, have fought or labored, bled and died under the Doves of Heaven on countless planets and in the deep darkness of space (sometimes even against other humans), and countless children have grown up in the middle of this universal conflict only to follow in their parents' footsteps. Some of these men and women made sure that their names will go down in the pages of history, however distorted it might have been by the Magisterium's Scribes - whether as great leaders, loyal servants, valorous warriors, faithful believers, resourceful businessmen, wise scholars, forces of reform or reaction, vile traitors or wicked apostates.

    Now it is time for your story to be told. Against the backdrop of a totalitarian absolute monarchy led by men largely incapable of admitting even for one second that they might be in the wrong, an endless war against the rest of the universe in which a million deaths is but a Tuesday to the Census Bureau, and a history so distorted that serious work is needed by the thoughtful just to separate a few precious grains of truth from oceans of falsehoods, will you be able to imprint yourself in the annals of the Magisterium's history - and as what? Faithful servants? Rebels? - or be forgotten alongside the (at least, at a conservative estimate) octillion humans who have perished under Magisterial colors to date?

  2. #2
    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    Character Rules
    Character format
    I fully expect everyone to follow this format when creating a character:

    (image is optional)

    Name: Self-explanatory.
    Age (Date of Birth): See above. This can range between 14 (the minimum age of conscription in the Magisterium) and 200 (at which point the last natural parts of your brain have to be replaced, meaning you might as well die at this point anyway since going through with such replacements translate to becoming a completely, literally new person).
    Gender:
    Genetics: Natural or Supreme? Skip a few sections below for details.
    Occupation: See above

    Noble rank:
    Military rank:

    Stats:
    Strength:
    Perception:
    Endurance:
    Charisma:
    Agility:
    Intelligence:
    Luck:

    Skills:

    Perks:

    Personal equipment:
    Keep track of this as you get more items.
    Income: Calculate & update this as necessary.
    Money: Keep track of this.

    Biography: I expect at least one six-sentence paragraph, the longer the better. Anything shorter and I won't accept your character. I may also provide monetary bonuses for particularly well-written biographies.

    Character statistics
    As you can see from the profile format, this will be the first RB game to feature an actual stats & skills system to better govern roleplay. So no, you can no longer take dozens of heads off singlehandedly unless you have the actual ability to do so

    Genetics
    About 5,000 years ago, (what was then) the Magisterial Scientific Bureau perfected the art of genetic engineering; a pregnant woman could now have her child altered to her specifications, from simply eliminating genetic disorders to increasing potential muscle mass or brain size to giving it unnatural hair colors running from lily-white to blue or puce, so long as the treatment was undertaken within the early stages of embryonic development. Countless humans - but especially the more affluent nobility and the Stuarts themselves, who sought to eliminate a genetic history of violent insanity - took steps and coughed up exorbitant sums of cash to make their children stronger, faster, smarter and more beautiful than their peers. A divide between the genetically-altered humans, termed the 'Supremes', and unaltered 'Natural' humans grew, with 'Supremacists' insisting on the enslavement or extermination of Naturals and Natural 'Purists' who considered the Supremes genetic abominations and sought their annihilation, until the tensions exploded into the Magisterium's only civil war to date, the 'War of the Supremes'. The result was the deaths of trillions and a 'compromise' solution that left the Supreme extremists exterminated, the Purists rendered irrelevant, and a new, theoretically more 'equal' society with a predominantly Supreme nobility lording it over a mostly Natural population, but which banned future genetic modification and presumed that their generation of Supremes would be the last.

    Now, as of 10,007 AD, genetic engineering officially remains banned in the Magisterium; the only (and mandatory) exception is state screening of all unborn children within a week of conception, at which point any major birth defects (in other words, six-fingered hands are discounted, but anencephaly will be rectified) and genetic traits deemed negative by the Magisterium (most importantly sociopathy/psychopathy, and diseases such as multiple sclerosis) are eliminated to ensure the successful birth of a future contributing servant of the Stuarts.

    This has in no way stopped the many noble houses that could afford it, including especially the Stuarts themselves, from breaking the law they had almost unanimously approved 4,000 years ago and genegeneering their children to be stronger, smarter, healthier and more attractive (in their eyes, anyway). Genetic engineering among the upper class has been so endemic that many Naturals promoted into the peerage try to do it just to keep up with Supreme aristocrats, while many Supreme families have tinkered so heavily with their genetic history that further genegeneering is becoming unnecessary for them; their children are more frequently than ever entering the world as 'Natural Supremes', which to say they're being born with Supreme traits without any interference. On a side note, this means that the Magisterial aristocracy and royalty are quite literally born better than their underlings.

    You may wonder, 'why the hell are all these Supremes still running around? Surely they look different from all the Naturals around them.' And you'd be right to do so, because they do!

    Compare and contrast, two kinds of Naturals and two kinds of Supremes:

    A Natural colonial militiaman takes his turn at guarding the homestead

    Natural civilians shopping on Titan

    A Supreme nobleman smoking in a non-ominous manner

    A Supreme lady in summer Osaka

    The Stuarts, for their part, dismiss such concerns with a wave of the hand and a reassertion that such obvious oddities are 'God's blessings upon our house for X reason'. Those who continue to ask questions are usually paid a friendly visit from the Inquisition. Among the nobility, they have attempted to enforce a code of 'noblesse oblige' calling on the Supreme aristocracy to actively support their Natural subjects, both to better play into that 'we are your guardian angels' propaganda they've been spinning for thousands of years and to avert any chance of revolution.

    Now then, on to the important part. What does your genetic background do for your character? Naturals get a number of additional Skill points at creation; they have to work much harder than the Supremes to catch up after all, and sometimes do exactly that through their own will and hard work. Supremes, being literally 'born better' than the Naturals, start with extra Stat points at character creation.

    Occupations
    The available starting Occupations, pick one and only one:

    Court Aristocrat
    - Your family rules more prosperous domains in the Core Region or the Inner Rim of the Magisterium, relatively close to Earth, and you spent a fair amount of your childhood in the Grand Court, learning courtly etiquette & how best to navigate the web of intrigue being spun by Humanity's finest. You've also got yourself a commission in the Earth Forces, whether through your own merit or the strings your parents have been pulling for you. You'll start with a Baronetcy + a +1 bonus to all Speech and Scholarly rolls + the rank of Lieutenant in the Earth Forces.

    Frontier Aristocrat
    - Your family rules more recently acquired domains out in the Outer Rim of the Magisterium, constantly fighting threats to all mankind that the nobles back at court could only dream of, and you've had to help them from a young age. You've also got yourself a commission in the Earth Forces, whether through your own merit or the strings your parents have been pulling for you. You'll start with a Baronetcy + a +1 bonus to all Combat rolls + the rank of Lieutenant in the Earth Forces.

    Inquisitor
    - When you were young, you dreamed of serving God as one of His many eyes on this Earth, investigating and snuffing out all those mean cults and dissidents working to undermine His servants' rule on Earth and the peace they bring us all. Now you've finally got your chance, having been accepted as a member of the Inquisition's Chapter I Allen, the section responsible for 'soft' domestic intelligence operations such as electronic surveillance and detective work, named after the Cardinal Allen who intrigued against the Anglican Queen Elizabeth of England in ages past.

    OSS Agent
    - When you were young, you dreamed of setting foot in new, unfamiliar places - not for fun mind you, but as an Agent of His Apostolic and Serene Majesty's Office of Strategic Services, assassinating enemy leaders, blowing up forts and stealing blueprints to support the boys in beige from behind enemy lines. Now you've finally got your chance as an Agent of the OSS.

    Scribe
    - When you were young, you were quite the nerdy nerd. You pored over every textbook, actually stayed awake in class, and took extra time out of your schedule to ask your teacher questions while expecting in-depth answers. Now you've joined the Inquisition's Chapter III Jerome, named after the Saint who first translated the Bible into Latin, a line of work that will bring you into contact with ancient texts and artifacts - and which will require you to preserve those deemed acceptable to the Magisterium while censoring or destroying that which isn't.

    Stats
    Your stats will figure into every major action roll you take, adding on to your roll result if a positive result is desired or subtracting from it if a negative one is needed. For example:
    Quote Originally Posted by Roll to hit someone across the face with a plasma saber
    Roll: 3

    Dexterity stat: 12

    3+12 = 15

    Opponent's agility stat: 12

    B/c your roll + stat is greater than the target's agility, you've successfully hit him.

    Now, for the damage roll. Let's say the plasma saber has a base damage of 10, you have a Strength of 9 and the other guy has an Endurance of 11.

    10 + 9 = 19 - 11 = -8 HP for the other guy.
    Quote Originally Posted by Roll needed to dodge a falling bridge, without falling into the ocean
    Roll: 9

    Agility stat: 12

    Roll needed to dodge: 6 or less

    9 - 12 = -3, so you've passed this roll and avoided two potential fatal outcomes.
    The stats are:

    Strength: Raw physical strength. Necessary for melee specialists, and for non-combat physical tasks like moving heavy loads (say, a boulder that's trapped your friend).
    Perception: Your ability to spot, hear, smell or otherwise detect other people, hostiles and generally anything out of the ordinary. Necessary for sharpshooters, mech pilots and Scribes.
    Endurance: Your ability to take a beating and to work at lengthy, exhaustive tasks. This x2 = your character's HP.
    Charisma: Your character's appearance and ability to get along with others. This will be needed when trying to convince someone that X is a good idea, when schmoozing with the aristocracy, and so on.
    Intelligence: Your character's ability to gather and process information. The higher this is, the faster you'll be able to go through thick texts like historical pieces or mech instruction manuals and the more useful information you'll extract from them.
    Agility: Your natural reflexes and coordination. This counts the most when dodging attacks or obstacles and when piloting a mech. This = the max # of actions you can take/turn.
    Luck: A catch-all stat that will be added as a bonus to any roll of your choice, per turn. Just make a request along the lines of 'I'd like to use my Luck stat to avoid this oncoming beam of doom' or something. Who knows, maybe even a few points can make the difference between life and a humiliating, painful death?

    All players get 20 points to distribute between these seven stats however they want. Supremes get an additional 10 points.

    Skills
    Skills represent the abilities your character's learned (and will continue to learn) over the course of his or her life. All players start with five skill points, except for Naturals who start with eight. Over the course of the game you'll acquire skill points with which you can either unlock new skills or upgrade existing ones.

    The Skill list goes:

    Combat skills
    Melee weapons - Your ability to fight with hand weapons, from knives and bats to solid & energy swords, in close combat.

    • Level 1: Scrapper: +2 to melee rolls with a weapon
    • Level 2: Duelist: +4 to melee rolls with a weapon
    • Level 3: Melee Master: +6 to melee rolls with a weapon

    Kinetic ranged weapons - Your ability to fight with weapons projecting solid projectiles or the solid projectiles themselves, from throwing knives and pistols to shotguns and sniper rifles.

    • Level 1: Skirmisher: +2 to ranged rolls with a kinetic weapon
    • Level 2: Designated Marksman: +4 to ranged rolls with a kinetic weapon
    • Level 3: Deadeye: +6 to ranged rolls with a kinetic weapon

    Energy ranged weapons - Your ability to fight with weapons projecting bursts or beams of energy, from ion pistols to plasma rifles.

    • Level 1: Skirmisher: +2 to ranged rolls with an energy weapon
    • Level 2: Designated Marksman: +4 to ranged rolls with an energy weapon
    • Level 3: Deadeye: +6 to ranged rolls with an energy weapon

    Explosives - Your ability to handle explosive weapons, ranging from simple sticks of dynamite to frag, plasma and EMP grenades, without getting yourself killed horribly.

    • Level 1: Bomber: +2 to rolls involving explosives
    • Level 2: Grenadier: +4 to rolls involving explosives
    • Level 3: Smiter: +6 to rolls involving explosives

    Unarmed - Your ability to fight with your bare fists.

    • Level 1: Brawler: +2 to melee rolls with no weapons
    • Level 2: Street Fighter: +4 to melee rolls with no weapons
    • Level 3: Fighting Artist: +6 to melee rolls with no weapons

    Piloting - Your ability to pilot a mech in combat. Considering mechs are now the bread & butter of the Magisterial army, you should have at least one point in this.

    • Level 1: Trained Pilot: +2 to all rolls (shooting, striking, blocking, dodging, etc.) in a mech
    • Level 2: Veteran Pilot: +4 to all rolls (shooting, striking, blocking, dodging, etc.) in a mech
    • Level 3: Ace Pilot: +6 to all rolls (shooting, striking, blocking, dodging, etc.) in a mech


    Non-combat skills
    Medic - Your medical knowledge & ability to put it to good use, whether it's in treating children's upset tummies or a pilot who has just barely climbed out of a burning mech.

    • Level 1: Paramedic: +2 to all treatment rolls
    • Level 2: Doctor: +4 to all treatment rolls
    • Level 3: Medical Savior: +6 to all treatment rolls

    Electronics - Your ability to bypass or set up electronic defenses.

    • Level 1: Script Kiddie: +2 to all hacking rolls
    • Level 2: Hacker: +4 to all hacking rolls
    • Level 3: Black Hat: +6 to all hacking rolls

    Lockpicking - Your ability to pick physical locks.

    • Level 1: Lockpicker: +2 to all lockpicking rolls
    • Level 2: Lock-breaker: +4 to all lockpicking rolls
    • Level 3: Vault Cracker: +6 to all lockpicking rolls

    Charm - Your ability to persuade other people to see your way, intimidate those who need to be scared off, and seduce those susceptible to your charms.

    • Level 1: Scoundrel: +2 to all speech rolls
    • Level 2: Public Speaker: +4 to all speech rolls
    • Level 3: Angelic Charmer: +6 to all speech rolls

    Repair - Your ability to fix broken or malfunctioning equipment, from a battered mech to haywire computers.

    • Level 1: Handyman: +2 to all repair rolls
    • Level 2: Engineer: +4 to all repair rolls
    • Level 3: Mr/Ms. Fix-It: +6 to all repair rolls

    Research - You're awfully good at investigating scholarly topics and digesting information.

    • Level 1: Fact-Finder: +2 to all searching & scholarly rolls
    • Level 2: Academic: +4 to all searching & scholarly rolls
    • Level 3: Eminent Scholar: +6 to all searching & scholarly rolls

    Survival - Your ability to survive in the great outdoors, whether by swimming across rivers, fashioning tents out of branches & leaves or catching, identifying & cooking food.

    • Level 1: Camper: +2 to all survival (food-gathering, cloth-making, swimming, climbing, etc.) rolls
    • Level 2: Outdoorsman: +4 to all survival (food-gathering, cloth-making, swimming, climbing, etc.) rolls
    • Level 3: Frontier Settler: +6 to all survival (food-gathering, cloth-making, swimming, climbing, etc.) rolls

    Sneak - Your ability to slip past hostiles unnoticed.

    • Level 1: Creep: +2 to all sneaking rolls
    • Level 2: Silent Stalker: +4 to all sneaking rolls
    • Level 3: Ninja: +6 to all sneaking rolls


    Perks
    Perks are 'flavor' bonuses you can obtain during character creation. Each player is entitled to two, and only two perks.

    List of perks
    Authority's Friend - You're a personal friend of the Authority. Maybe you were a childhood playmate of his, maybe you went to class with him before he skipped up to university two years early, maybe his mother hired you as a tutor for a year or so before dismissing you. Whatever the case, he'll give your requests a lot more consideration, forgive your failures in his service more readily, and will generally be friendlier to you, but will take any betrayal ten times harder and be that much more determined to wipe you out of existence.

    Disgraced Family - Your family used to be an important, high-ranking one - until something happened in the past to ruin that image utterly and render them social pariahs. Maybe they revolted against the Stuarts, maybe a patriarch or matriarch had an extramarital affair that turned ugly, maybe they got drunk and puked on an Authority's shoes. Whatever the case, you had to endure a lot of bullying & mockery even from the commoners growing up. +1 to all combat rolls, but -1 to all speech rolls.

    Casanova/Seductress - Something about you is nigh-irresistible to the other sex. +3 to all speech rolls directed towards someone of the opposite sex.

    Educated - You've got at least a Bachelor's Degree (in anything, from Political Science to Nuclear Physics to Alien Behaviors) from one of the Magisterium's many prestigious universities. +1 to either combat (choose between melee/kinetic/energy/piloting), speech, scholarly, medical or repair rolls; just make sure your degree actually fits it (ex. a degree in History + bonus to scholarly rolls is fine, one in Anthropology + bonus to piloting isn't).

    Fortune Finder - For some reason, you're awfully good at finding whatever it is you're looking for, from that jar of cookies Mom hid under the counter to 21st-century Bulgarian Bibles. +1 to searching rolls.

    Social Butterfly - You were always the popular kid in class, and even now you've got that commanding presence and impressive voice to grab and hold people's attention - a useful talent to have when navigating courtly politics. +1 to speech rolls.

    Alien-Slaying History - Your family has a history of butchering aliens wherever they find them. +1 to combat rolls against Aliens, -1 to speech rolls with with Aliens.

    Alien-Friendly History - Your family has a history of benevolent treatment, at least relative to the Magisterium's 'enslave/exterminate' approach. +1 to speech rolls with Aliens, -1 to combat rolls VS Aliens.

    History of Faith - Your family has a history of zealous adherence to the Church's teachings and pious reverence for its leaders. The Inquisition will be more inclined to give you lenient imprisonments and punishments, but will keep a closer eye on you as well.

    Fighting History - Your family is one noted through history for their fighting ability with melee weapons and their bare fists. +1 to combat rolls with melee weapons & no weapons.

    Sniping History - Your family is one noted through history for their fighting ability with ranged weapons. +1 to combat rolls with energy & kinetic ranged weapons.

    Piloting History - Your family is one noted through history for their expertise in a cockpit. +1 to combat rolls in a mech.

    Explosive History - Your family is one noted through history for their demolition expertise. +1 to rolls with explosives.

    Light Step - You've always been able to sneak around your family's home without making a peep. +1 to sneaking rolls.

    Whiz Kid - You're not half bad with electronics yourself, and fancy yourself capable of cracking anything from handheld games to the local Inquisitorial security system. +1 to hacking rolls.
    Last edited by Barry Goldwater; December 04, 2012 at 10:40 PM.

  3. #3
    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    Peerage Ranks
    As with the older char-driven RB games, the Interlude features its own noble hierarchy. It isn't too different from the older ones, so veteran players shouldn't find much to be surprised about in it. I've mostly added just styles of address and two new ranks (plus two unattainable ones), really.

    Authority: This is it. The Voice of God, the Sacred King, the Fount of Honor, the Lord and Master of the Universe, the Big Cheese, the Grand Poobah, etc. This is the dude or dudette the rest of the Magisterium revolves around. They are to be addressed as 'His/Her Apostolic and Serene Majesty', ex. 'Your Apostolic and Serene Majesty'.

    Grand Prince/Grand Princess: A rank issued only to members of the House of Stuart at birth regardless of whether or not they actually have estates of their own. They are to be addressed as 'His/Her Illustrious Highness' and are styled 'The Much Honored', ex. 'His Illustrious Highness Bob Stuart, Grand Prince (of Lalaland, if he has any possessions' or 'Your Illustrious Highness'.

    Prince/Princess: The highest noble rank outside of the Stuart family itself. The Princes and Princesses of the Magisterium are the leaders of its aptly-titled Great Houses, and the mightiest among them are considered second only to the Authority & the Pope in power. Their pension amounts to 150,000 credits. They are to be addressed as 'His/Her Highness' and are styled 'The Most Noble', ex. 'His Highness Bob Bobson, the Most Noble Prince of Lalaland' or 'Your Highness'.

    Archduke/Archduchess: These folks are just a step below the Princes & Princesses in power, and generally run particularly powerful branches or vassals of a Great House. Their pension comes out to 100,000 credits. They are to be addressed as 'His/Her Illustrious Grace' and are styled 'The Most Noble', ex. 'His Illustrious Grace Bob Bobson, the Most Noble Archduke of Lalaland' or 'Your Illustrious Grace'.

    Duke/Duchess: These are to the Archdukes what the Archdukes are to the Princes. Duchies generally consist of dozens of star systems governed by Marquesses and Earls under the liege Duke or Duchess. Their pension comes out to 85,000 credits. They are to be addressed as 'His/Her Grace' and are styled 'The Most Noble', ex. 'His Grace Bob Bobson, the Most Noble Duke of Lalaland' or 'Your Grace'.

    Marquess/Marchioness: A cut above the Earls but a step below the Dukes are Marquesses and Marchionesses. They aren't that common, as most Dukes directly rule over their Earls, but wherever these guys are they usually administer six to twelve star systems governed by Earls for their Ducal overlord/lady. Their pension comes out to 75,000 credits. They are to be addressed as '(My) Lord Marquess' or '(My) Lady Marchioness', and are styled 'The Most Honorable', ex. 'The Lord Marquess Bob Bobson, the Most Honorable Marquess of Lalaland' or 'Your Lordship Bobson'.

    Earl/Countess: Making up most of the 'greater' nobility are the Earls and Countesses, who sit in the middle of the aristocratic power ladder of the Magisterium. Earls and Countesses usually govern over one to three star systems apiece. Their pension comes out to 50,000 credits. They are to be addressed as (My) Lord' or '(My) Lady', and are styled 'The Right Honorable', ex. 'Lord Bob Bobson, the Right Honorable Earl of Lalaland' or 'My Lord Bobson'

    Viscount/Viscountess: The upper crust of the 'lesser' nobility, Viscounts and Viscountesses are often (and legally, certainly) the closest associates of the Earls and Countesses, and besides administering their own fiefs (which usually span over multiple planets, but not enough to make up a system) they are often called upon to advise their overlord in a mini-parliament of sorts. Their pension comes out to 35,000 credits. They are to be addressed as '(My) Lord' or '(My) Lady', and are styled 'The Honorable', ex. 'Lord Bob Bobson, the Viscount of Lalaland' or 'My Lord Bobson'

    Baron/Baroness: Sitting at the bottom rung of the Peerage, Barons and Baronesses govern individual planets under Viscounts or (if there is no Viscount) the direct rule of the local Earl. They are considered the lowest of the 'true nobility', the unlanded Baronets and Knights merely considered 'gentry'. Their pension comes out to 20,000 credits. They are to be addressed as '(My) Lord' or '(My) Lady, and are styled 'The Honorable', ex. 'Lord Bob Bobson, the Honorable Baron of Lalaland' or 'My Lord Bobson'

    Baronet/Baronetess: More of a courtesy title issued to lesser sons and daughters of the proper nobility, Baronets and Baronetesses don't actually have any estates to their name and are expected to find their own way in the world with only the aid of their family and attached pension. For this reason, they aren't considered 'true nobility', but 'gentry' - somewhere between 'proper' nobles and the commoners. Their pension comes out to 10,000 credits. They are styled 'Sir' or 'Lady'.

    Knight/Dame: The only rank initially open to commoners unless the Authority is feeling mighty generous, Knights and Dames are issued a state pension but govern estates the size of a small city (or a small city) at best. For this reason, they aren't considered 'true nobility', but 'gentry' - somewhere between 'proper' nobles and the commoners. Knighthoods are hereditary and thus will pass on from generation to generation unless attainted, and will also remain with the holder even as he advances through the Peerage. Their pension comes out to 3,500 credits. They are styled 'Sir' or 'Lady'.

    Earth Forces ranks
    The Earth Forces (or more formally, the 'Earthly Host of the Grand Imperial Salvatory under Heaven') at present number in the septillions, so it's no surprise that the sizes of military units have been increased. Expect to see Lieutenants directing many hundreds of men in battle, for example.

    It is also no longer possible to outright buy commissions, though favorable connections in government can still be used to snag promotions without actually working for them.

    Grand Marshal-Admiral: The top dogs of the Earthly Host, the Grand Marshal-Admirals are handpicked by the Authorities and form the top echelon of their immediate general staff. They're responsible for commanding entire theaters of operation. Their salary comes out to 200,000.

    Marshal-Admiral: Commanding hundreds of terrestrial and celestial formations, Marshal-Admirals sit just one step beneath Lord M-As. Their salary comes out to 150,000.

    Marshal/Lord Admiral: With authority over up to a dozen army groups or fleets, Marshals and Admirals serve as a stepping stone between the true top dogs of the Earth Forces and the lesser general officers. Their salary amounts to 125,000.

    General/Admiral/General-Admiral: The general officers of the realm command single armies (made up of 2-4 corps of 1 to 5 million men each) or fleets (made up of 2-4 task forces of 100-300 ships each). Specially appointed General-Admirals command both, though unlike the higher-up M-As they're still considered to occupy the same spot on the totem pole and have the same salary. Their salary amounts to 100,000.

    Lieutenant-General/Vice-Admiral: Serving as second-in-command to their immediate General/Admiral and commanding corps of 1-5 million men or task forces of 100-300 ships, these folks make up their boss's advisory council on top of their actual commanding responsibilities. Their salary comes out to 80,000.

    Major-General/Rear-Admiral: Beneath the Lieutenant-Generals there are these guys, the second-lowest ranking of the general officers. They command divisions of 250-500k men or task groups of 25-50 ships. They have a salary of 70,000.

    Brigadier-General: A Terrestrial Forces-exclusive officer, Brigadier-Generals are the lowest ranking General Officers and are in charge of...wait for it...brigades. Their brigades generally number 20-40k men apiece. They have a salary of 60,000

    Colonel/Commodore: As the highest ranking field officers, Colonels and Commodores are still fully expected to stand, fight and possibly die at the front lines with their underlings. They lead regiments of 10-20k men each or flotillas of 5-10 ships. They have a salary of 50,000.

    Lieutenant-Colonel: Another TF-exclusive officer, Lt. Cols. serve as advisers to their commanding Colonel while simultaneously directing battalions of 5-10k men. They have a salary of 40,000.

    Major: Yet another TF-exclusive, Majors command two companies each under a Lt. Col. They have a salary of 30,000.

    Captain/(Naval) Captain: The second lowest commissioned rank in the Earth Forces, Captains are responsible for a single 2,500-strong company composed of five platoons of 500 men each or, in the navy, a single ship. They have a salary of 20,000.

    Lieutenant: The lowest commissioned rank in the Earth Forces, this is where a lot of young military-minded nobles wind up. Each Lieutenant is in charge of a 500-strong platoon in the Terrestrial Forces, or a part of the crew in the Celestial Forces. They have a salary of 10,000.

    NCOs and enlisted ranks (unplayable):

    Sergeant-Major/Warrant Officer

    Color Sergeant/Ensign
    (no longer a commissioned rank since 6,115)

    Sergeant/Petty Officer

    Corporal/Leading Seaman

    Lance Corporal

    Private 1st Class/Crewman 1st Class

    Private 2nd Class/Crewman 2nd Class

    Private Basic/Crewman Basic
    Last edited by Barry Goldwater; December 03, 2012 at 09:00 AM.

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    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    Personal equipment
    Melee weapons
    Baton - Exactly what you'd think, a lightweight plastic baton usually used for crowd control purposes (or roughing up someone before hauling them in). 1d4 damage, 2 attacks/turn. Costs 10 credits.

    Stun baton - An electrified baton, used primarily to subdue particularly uncooperative suspects. Or as an ad-hoc taser when you want to shock a random civilian for kicks. 1d2 damage, 2 attacks/turn, 75% chance of paralyzing target with every blow (immobilizing them for 3 turns). Costs 40 credits.

    Knife
    - A plain garden-variety knife. Easy to hide and fight with, but useless against properly armored and prepared opponents. 1d4 damage, 2 attack/turn, can be thrown. Costs 20 credits.

    Vibroknife - A knife whose blade vibrates at extremely high frequencies, allowing the wielder to kill far more effectively than with an ordinary knife. 1d6 damage, 2 attacks/turn, can be thrown. Costs 100 credits.

    Chainknife - Exactly what it says on the tin, a dagger with a rotating chainsaw-like blade. Obviously extremely deadly, but harder to wield than the simpler vibroknife. 1d10 damage, 1 attack/turn. Costs 300 credits.

    Plasma Knife - A knife with a controlled projection of superheated plasma for a blade. One strike can cut through all but the thickest armor, and most nobles worth their salt don't leave home without one. 1d14 damage, 2 attacks/turn, armor-piercing, can be thrown. Costs 1,000 credits.

    Vibro-bayonet - The standard-issue bayonet of the Earth Forces infantry, vibro-bayonets are exactly what you think they are - 400 mm of rapidly vibrating death that can rip through all but the finest armor as though they were made of papier mache. 1d14 damage, 1 attack/turn, can be mounted on any rifle, AP. Costs 1,400 credits.

    Sword - A plain, solid-bladed sword, ranging from claymores to katanas. They've gone out of style with the advent of vibro- & plasma swords and are now mostly used to impress party guests, but that doesn't mean you can't kill people with them anymore. 1d6 damage, 1 attack/turn. Costs 500 credits.

    Vibrosword - A sword whose blade vibrates at extremely high frequencies, allowing the wielder to kill far more effectively than with an ordinary sword. 1d12 damage, 1 attack/turn. Costs 1,000 credits.

    Lightweight Sword - Mostly made in the style of classic rapiers, these swords (as the name implies) are made out of an extremely light, silvery material mined mostly in the Sirius system, creatively titled 'mithril' by the enterprising businessmen who found it first. They lack the sheer killing power of plasma or vibroswords but can be swung/thrust much more quickly. 1d8 damage, 2 attacks/turn, +1 to accuracy rolls. Costs 5,000 credits.

    Plasma Sword - This is the good stuff. Truly, no action scene would be complete without someone charging in with a blade of controlled, superheated plasma, slicing through armored goons left & right in their righteous glory. Most plasma blades come in red, green, blue, purple, white, light-blue or orange. 1d20 damage, 1 attack/turn, AP. Costs 10,000 credits.

    Dual-Bladed Plasma Sword
    - What's better than one plasma blade? Two, of course! A dual-bladed plasma sword can, unlike lightning, strike twice, and some sword connoisseurs would argue look infinitely cooler than their one-bladed cousins. Th problem, of course, is that you can't have any other weapon in your hands when wielding this baby. 1d40 damage, 2 attacks/turn, AP, 2-handed. Costs 40,000 credits.

    Spear - A plain spear. There's...really not much else to say about it. 1d4 damage, 1 attack/turn, can be thrown. Costs 300 credits.

    Orichalcum Spear - Made from the hardy bronze-gold metal found predominantly in the Sirius system that has been sharpened even on the molecular level, Orichalcum Spears are heavier and much nastier than ordinary spears when it comes to a desire to impale your enemies, and can penetrate all but the finest body armor. 1d10 damage, 1 attack/turn, can be thrown, AP. Costs 7,000 credits.

    Plasma Lance - With a spearhead composed of superheated, carefully controlled plasma, there are few things this lance can't turn into a kebab. (Probably literally - the plasma cooks just as effectively as any grill) 1d16 damage, 1 attack/turn, can be thrown, AP. Costs 14,000 credits.

    Ranged kinetic weapons
    Glock 10mm Pistol - The standard-issue sidearm of the Earth Forces infantry and naval crew, the Habsburg-promoted Glock 10mm semi-auto is a reliable weapon packing decent punch, stopping power & rate of fire. 1d8 damage, 15 rounds/magazine, up to 5 shots can be fired/turn. Costs 3,000 credits.

    MAC-40 machine pistol - The standard issue sidearm for Earth Forces pilots, the Stoneman-sponsored MAC-40 machine pistol carries a large number of 9mm rounds and can discharge them all extremely quickly, sacrificing stopping power for quantity & firing speed. 1d6 damage, 40 rounds/magazine, magazine can be emptied in one go. Costs 3,000 credits.

    Rottmeyer battle rifle - The 'RBR', as it is popularly known, is a semiautomatic rifle that combines accuracy, carrying capacity and sheer killing power into one jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none package. It is the single most common kinetic rifle in the Earth Forces infantry. 1d14 damage, 25 rounds/magazine, up to 5 shots can be fired/turn. Costs 7,500 credits.

    SA10000 assault rifle - The 'Small Arms, 10,000 AD' is the standard-issue assault rifle of the Earth Forces. Sacrificing stopping power for a larger carrying capacity and the ability to sweep mobs of improperly armored opponents, it's usually given to the 'designated suppressor' of infantry squads. 1d10 damage, 35 rounds/magazine, magazine can be emptied in one go. Costs 6,000 credits.

    SA900 shotgun - The 'Small Arms, Mk. 900' is the standard-issue shotgun of the Earth Forces. It is a double-barreled firearm capable of discharging either heavy solid slugs or shotshells loaded with pellets, either of which can reduce even the toughest Squid's head into a fine pink mist in one blast. 1d30 damage, 10 shots/magazine, 2 shots/turn.

    Heckler & Koch 'Maschinenpistole 600' SMG - The standard-issue submachine gun of the Earth Forces, this product of the Heckler & Koch arms manufacturer (itself a subsidiary of Habsburg Industries) is a designated crowd-sweeping weapon with a considerable drum magazine. It sacrifices accuracy & sheer firepower in favor of a greatly increased rate of fire, with which one can sweep entire rooms of (lightly armored, mind you) hostiles. 1d6 damage, 150 rounds/magazine, up to 150 rounds/turn.

    (Dragunov) Elizaveta Romanova Mk. XIII sniper/anti-materiel rifle - Named after the venerated Tsarina Elizaveta of Russia (1958-2042) at the insistence of her Romanov descendants, the Dragunov XIII fires powerful .700 rifle rounds meant more for destroying armored objects than turning a target's fleshy upper body into pink mist. Needless to say, with the enemies the Stuarts are facing today, those .700 rounds are considered nothing short of a blessing by designated snipers. 1d40 damage, 10 rounds/magazine, 1 round/turn, +1 to accuracy rolls. Costs 20,000 credits.

    Leone XVI semi-automatic anti-materiel rifle - Produced by the very same Leone Arms that has had a long history of collusion with the Papacy and usually found in the hands of the Papal Guard, these rifles spit out .50 caliber rounds to tear through hostiles and materiel alike with alarming speed. 1d30 damage, 12 rounds/magazine, up to 3 rounds/turn, +1 to accuracy rolls. Costs 50,000 credits.

    Magazine - A single magazine of bullets. Costs 100 credits/magazine.

    Energy ranged weapons
    Plasma Pistol - A standard-issue sidearm for Earth Forces infantry officers, the plasma pistol is...well, a pistol that fires bursts of superheated plasma. With reasonable accuracy and little chance of a breakdown, it should be noted. 1d14 damage, 30 shots/battery, AP. Costs 30,000 credits.

    Plasma Rifle - The most common energy weapon in the Earth Forces infantry, plasma rifles are capable of discharging nearly a hundred bursts of searing hot plasma with remarkable accuracy. 1d24 damage, 90 shots/battery, AP. Costs 50,000 credits.

    Plasma Repeating Rifle - Sacrificing power for an improved rate of fire, plasma repeating rifles are best used to clear out mobs of armored hostiles. Their bursts are less focused, but this means that not only can they discharge bursts faster, their batteries will be left with more energy to spare. 1d10 damage, 140 rounds/battery, -1 to accuracy rolls, AP. Costs 50,000 credits.

    Plasma Devastator - The exact opposite of the PRR, Devastators fire and sustain concentrated beams of plasma for up to 10 seconds, allowing one to burn through solid objects or sweep entire rooms. Unfortunately, they burn through their batteries pretty quickly. 1d50 damage, 20 shots/battery, AP. Costs 80,000 credits.

    Flamethrower - Now you too can douse your enemies in God's holy fire! Well, the other holy fire, anyway - nukes are impractical for close range combat. 1d20 damage, burns hostiles (1d20 damage/turn on fire), 10 shots/tank, AP. Costs 75,000 credits.

    Ion Pistol - A rather simple EMP sidearm used to disable mini-mechs or robotic enemies. 1d30 damage against mechanical opponents, 0 damage against organic opponents, 20 shots/battery. Costs 30,000 credits.

    Battery - A single high-energy battery. Costs 350 credits/battery.

    Explosives
    Dynamite - Bundles of dynamite, usually used to clear obstacles. 1d10 damage, thrown, 5 sticks to a bundle. Costs 10,000 credits.

    Frag Grenade - Solid grenades that disperse into razor-sharp shrapnel upon detonating. 1d20 damage, thrown, 5 grenades/pack. Costs 15,000 credits.

    EMP Grenade - Grenades used to take out clusters of mechanical hostiles. 1d50 damage against mechanical opponents, 0 damage against organic beings, thrown, 5 grenades/pack. Costs 15,000 credits.

    Plasma Grenade - When thrown, this grenade's inner magnetic seal fails upon detonation, bathing the unfortunate targets in superheated plasma. 1d32 damage, thrown, 5 grenades/pack. Costs 25,000 credits.

    Flash Grenade - The classic flashbang grenade, producing a blinding burst of light & a loud noise upon exploding but nothing more. Wielders should be careful not to blind themselves with these things. No damage, 75% chance of blinding everyone in the room (-3 to all accuracy rolls). 5 grenades/pack, costs 15k credits.

    Tear Gas Grenade - As one can guess from the name, these grenades release a large quantity of lachrymatory agents into the air upon detonation, reducing your enemies to weepy shells of men squirming on the ground like the maggots they are. No damage, 75% chance of paralyzing everyone in the room (immobile for up to 3 turns). 5 grenades/pack, costs 15k credits.

    Grenade Launcher - A simple and oft-underappreciated tube mounted under a rifle (any rifle) that can then be used to fire grenades over a distance with more accuracy. No damage, must be mounted on a rifle-sized firearm, +2 to grenade accuracy rolls when fired with this. Costs 45,000 credits.

    Body armor
    Ballistic armor - Consisting of a simple ballistic vest and visor-less combat helmet, this is the lightest and weakest of the three armor types. -5 damage max, costs 25,000 credits.

    Combat armor - Covering most of the body and made of lightweight armor plates sandwiched under kevlar and environmental-protection (mostly anti-acid fire-retardant) materials and with an anti-corrosive coating, combat armor is the standard-issue armor of the Earth Forces infantry. The armor also comes with a heavier helmet, featuring an infrared/nightvision-capable visor. -10 damage max, +1 accuracy, costs 60,000 credits.

    Powered armor - Though rendered largely irrelevant by the advent of mechs, powered armor (however cost-inefficient) provide their wearer with unparalleled protection from both hostiles and the environment, as each suit comes with a life-supporting system built right under their metallic exterior. Their helmets also feature infrared/nightvision capabilities and an 'aimbot' (auto-targeting program) to assist in the identification of & aiming on threats. -20 damage max, +2 accuracy, costs 120,000 credits.
    Last edited by Barry Goldwater; December 21, 2012 at 08:04 PM.

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    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    Mech equipment
    Note: Mechs will only ever have 3 weapon slots, except for some special mechs. If you want to install a new weapon on a fully-loaded mech, you'll have to get rid of one of its existing weapons first.

    Light Autocannon
    - .50 MGs, 20mm autocannons. 1d4 damage, 25 rounds/burst, up to 100 shots/turn. Costs 30,000 credits.

    Medium Autocannon - .500 to .600 cal MGs, 30-40mm autocannons. 1d6 damage, 25 rounds/burst, up to 100 shots/turn. Costs 60,000 credits.

    Heavy Autocannon - .700 to .950 MGs, 50mm autocannons and above. 1d10 damage, 25 rounds/burst, up to 100 shots/turn. Costs 120,000 credits.

    Kinetic Missiles - Self-propelled explosive weapon systems, ranging from 'garden-variety' air-to-air or air-to-ground missiles in use by aircraft to thermobaric rounds that rely on the surrounding air to sustain its blazing blast wave for an extended period of time. 1d40 damage, shots depend on # of missiles. Costs 80,000 credits per 10 missiles.

    EMP Rockets - Exactly what it says on the tin, missiles that release an electromagnetic pulse upon detonation. 50% chance to disable up to 5 opposing mechs. Costs 80,000 credits per 5 missiles.

    EMP Projector - A bulky device projecting electromagnetic waves over an area, capable of frying dozens of opposing mechs. 50% chance to disable up to 36 opposing mechs. Costs 200,000 credits.

    Assault Rifle - A heavy handheld assault rifle built for mech use, capable of spitting rounds between 50mm to 75mm in size depending on the exact gun, formerly standard-issue in the Earth Forces before being phased out in favor of energy weapons. 1d20 damage, up to 40 shots/turn. Costs 75,000 credits.

    Flechette Rifle - A kinetic rifle firing heavy steel or tungsten flechettes rather than bullets, sacrificing firing rate for sheer penetrative power. 1d70 damage, up to 3 shots/turn, 50% chance for critical (double damage). Costs 120,000 credits.

    Railgun - A weapon that magnetically accelerates its ammunition up to and beyond the speed of sound, allowing it to penetrate even the thickest armor. 1d150 damage, up to 1 shot/turn. Costs 120,000 credits.

    Gatling Laser - A Gatling gun that shoots lasers, duh. The high rate of fire and tendency to overheat means the fire is less accurate & less powerful than even a plasma carbine's, but that doesn't really matter when there's fifty or so such shots coming your way at a nigh-unavoidable speed. 1d30 damage, 25 rounds/burst, up to 50 shots/turn. Costs 250,000 credits.

    Plasma Carbine - The weakest energy arm in Magisterial service, a shorter-barreled but cheaper & more easily produced rifle with weaker focusing capabilities. It's still a respectable weapon that can destroy an opposing mech (weaker ones, anyway) with a lucky shot, though. 1d50 damage, up to 10 shots/turn. Costs 100,000 credits.

    Plasma Rifle - Long-barreled firearms spitting out highly-focused bursts of searing plasma, capable of destroying even powerful enemy mechs. 1d80 damage, up to 10 shots/turn. Costs 200,000 credits.

    Plasma Cannon - Virtual handcannons capable of firing and sustaining beams of superheated plasma for up to 5 seconds, sweeping entire formations of opposing troops away. 1d200 damage, up to 1 shot/turn, up to 5 targets selectable OR focused on one target for 1d1000 damage. Costs 500,000 credits.

    Solid Melee Weapon - Exactly what you think it is, a melee weapon made of solid metal. 1d10 damage, can only be used in close range. Costs 25,000 credits.

    Vibro-weapon - A weapon whose blade's frequent vibrations keep it sharpened to a molecular keenness. 1d20 damage, can only be used in close range. Costs 50,000 credits.

    Plasma Saber - The basic energy melee weapon, a sword hilt that projects a controlled blade of searing plasma between two-thirds to as long as the length of a basic mech's arm. 1d30 damage, can only be used in close range. Costs 75,000 credits.

    Shield - A titanium-alloy tower shield with a screen of ablative coating, capable of soaking up some hits for your mech. 50% chance to negate most attacks, 25% chance of negating Plasma Rifle and Flechette Rifle fire, cannot withstand Railgun or Plasma Cannon fire. Can take up to five hits per battle before breaking (will be restored to full functionality after every battle if it hasn't been destroyed). Costs 50,000 credits.

    Special - Some mechs in the possession of the Great Lords have unique weapons that can't be acquired elsewhere. The only way you can get your hands on these things is by hijacking their mech, or destroying it and looting it off of its mechanical corpse.
    Last edited by Barry Goldwater; December 03, 2012 at 08:43 PM.

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    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    Magisterial Society & Government
    Gov't
    The Magisterium is best described as a theocratic absolute monarchy in theory, and a theocratic semi-feudal monarchy that still claims to be absolute in practice. Society is structured around an aristocratic hierarchy with the Authority and his or her family, the House of Stuart, sitting on top; they are considered nothing less than representatives of God's authority & power on Earth (especially by themselves), whose every decree is divinely mandated, and to defy or even question their will on any topic, from the Universal Crusade to their choice of pizza toppings, is to defy or even question God's will. (Does God have a favorite pizza topping? Better not try to mock the Stuarts with such a question, however funny it would be) One may even argue that the Authority is the state; certainly, the Stuarts very much believe this, to the point that since 5,223 the entire state treasury of the Magisterium has been decreed by an Authority to be the House of Stuart's personal wallet as well. So whenever you see the Authority's daughter buying a new space-yacht to impress her friends, or the Crown Prince buying an asteroid belt just so he can tell his buddies he has an estate of his own, you can be pretty sure that's your tax credits at work.

    Aside from that, theoretically speaking the Authority can shoot down any proposal made by the Lords regardless of numerical support, unilaterally pass laws as the aforementioned divinely-mandated decrees at a whim, and can summon anyone to the Court of the Star Chamber where they will judge that individual themselves and can issue or reverse any decision they'd like, throwing all of their own laws out the window in the process; however most Authorities, having to deal with reality, don't exercise their absolute power as often or in such ridiculous ways as one would think, and in fact often act with considerable restraint. What isn't theoretical is the nature of human rights; as far as the Magisterium is concerned, there are no natural rights except for the rights to 'life, justice and order', which originate from God and can be forfeited in an instant by acting against His Authority on Earth anyway, and all other rights that aren't related in some way to those three are extended to mankind purely through the good will of the Authorities, who can taketh away whatever they giveth on a whim. Pfft, rule of law, what's that? Something wimpy two-bit dictators and even wimpier democratic pansies have to abide by, not the divinely-sanctioned and ever-righteous Stuart Authorities over all things under Heaven, who sit well above all laws but God's! (but then wouldn't they still be subject to their own laws, which by their own word carry the weight of God's justice in them anyway? Again, better not bring this up!)

    In practice, as implied earlier, the Authority's power is still far from absolute. The sheer size of the Magisterium means most day-to-day responsibilities are devolved to the nobility and a vast governmental bureaucracy, the former perpetually stuck in a web of intrigue and the latter choking on red tape to this day. The aristocracy, led by the 'Great Houses' - the oldest, most prestigious and most powerful, whether in 'hard' (military prowess) or 'soft' (riches, influence) noble families - of the Magisterium, meet in the House of Lords in the Magisterial capital, and have a rigid hierarchy from the highest Princes to the lowest barons and knights. While theoretically speaking anyone should be able to advance through this hierarchy on basis of merit, the reality is that most commoners and their families are stuck in the lower rungs (few ever advancing beyond Baron, and none beyond Viscount, in at least two lifetimes) while the higher nobility try to keep them down to create opportunities for their own children's advancement and to suppress potential future competition. Even at the local level, mayors & councils are usually appointed by the local baron; nobles generous enough to allow their subjects to elect mayors and town councils democratically are rare, and such behavior is often taken as sign of weakness or sloth by other aristocrats.

    Some enterprising high aristocrats do give a helping hand to lesser, newer nobles in exchange for future support, but never elevate them quickly and never beyond the rank of Earl before leaving them to their own devices.

    The Roman Catholic Church, still headed by a Pope in Rome, remains the official religion of the Magisterium, and certainly the only legal faith. While the Pope is theoretically equal in stature to the Authority, and indeed is the only one supposed to crown him or her upon his or her ascension, the stark reality is that the Authority does wield veto power over Papal elections, that the Authority's the one with armies to back up his decrees, and that it has proven rather unhealthy time & time again for Popes to oppose an Authority's decisions. Beneath the Pope is the College of Cardinals, archbishops whose archdioceses encompass entire stellar systems, bishops who have jurisdiction over planets, and then the lowly priests. Monks and nuns have a separate hierarchy from the priesthood under their abbots & abbesses, but still ultimately answer to the Pope.

    (one should note that while virtually all non-Catholic practices and rites have been excised from the Magisterium and the traditional, unmodified Douay-Rheims Bible readopted for use since 4,334 AD when the Authority & Pope of the time both decided it was safe to return to Catholic doctrinal purity, excising all the elements that had been subsumed from other religions; why of course this was totally peaceful and did not involve any incidents like system-wide riots, how could you possibly think that!)

    The Church is responsible for handling all healthcare, education and welfare, maintaining and staffing the Magisterium's elementary & secondary schools, hospitals, shelters and the issuing of welfare checks, food stamps and the like. With the own Inquisition watching them just as thoroughly as it watches itself and countless credits flowing into their coffers for this express purpose (tithes don't count, since they're used to maintain Church property & pay the salaries of the clergy) as part of the state budget, this is one thing they're actually fairly competent at. The Church also administers vaccinations, though it doesn't administer mandatory genetic treatments for every newly-conceived infant (which is done in Church hospitals by secular doctors instead, and justified as 'an act to save divinely-created souls from infernal corruption'; the basic, mandatory treatment targets only genetic diseases such as multiple sclerosis, problematic birth conditions such as anencephaly and future threats to society such as sociopathy/psychopathy, with the more advanced treatments needed to create actual Supremes requiring great discretion & private doctors).

    The Inquisition exists as the supreme law-enforcement and domestic intelligence body of the Magisterium, wielding authority over the regular police services & maintaining electronic surveillance in the form of hidden cameras & recorders on every street, in every office and in every home on top of a massive DNA database with samples collected from every citizen upon their tenth birthday, though in the model of the Spanish Inquisition they are more beholden to the monarch than to the Church; the start of their oaths always reads 'I swear to God, to His Authority, and to His Church' in that specific order for a reason. For all of its invasive surveillance and wanton brutality, the Inquisition actually cracks down on its own the harshest; the Internal Security Service of Chapter I Allen, responsible for keeping other Inquisitors on the right & narrow, is notorious for the zeal with which they prosecute their duties.

    Aside from the nobility, the Church and the Inquisition, a fourth, secular arm of government exists in the massive civil bureaucracy. However choked in red tape, it cannot be denied that the bureaucrats deserve most of the credit for keeping the Magisterium running. The fire service, countless regulatory boards, even road safety & the taxation system all owe their continued existence to the bureaucracy that keeps them functioning and regularly paid.

    The Economy
    The Magisterial economy is best described as 'aristocratic fascistic state-capitalist tripartism'. The noble houses of the Magisterium not-so-coincidentally run its vast businesses, with the Great Houses predictably leading the pack; while not always de jure guaranteed a monopoly by the government, de facto wield it through sheer economics of scale ('mom-and-pop' stores & small businesses can't exactly be expected to compete with a noble's corporation backed with resources from six different star systems or more, after all). These massive corporations (referred to as 'aristocorps' by the masses) can be either conglomerates, consisting of a core 'parent company' often directly operated by the house ma/patriarch or at least someone from their immediate family & attached subsidiary companies branching out into other fields (ex. robotics, nanotech, agribusiness) headed by less important family members, vassals & other associates, or focused purely on a few fields; most houses, figuring they can probably make more money by sticking a thumb into every pie on the market instead of monopolizing one field, have taken the former course, though some that have taken the latter instead still exist and indeed have come to dominate whatever market it was they chose to concentrate their resources on. Nobles in charge of a corporation's subsidiaries at the behest of their ma/patriarch or overlord are colloquially referred to as 'corporistocrats'.

    The Stuarts have no aversion to spending their (which is to say, the taxpayers') money within their own economy. Houses favored by the Authority & the Stuarts can expect generous subsidies and tax breaks every business quarter (the tax breaks, while technically good for only one year, can actually be extended at the Authority's leisure, so particularly favored Houses can keep them going indefinitely as long as they remain in the Stuarts' good graces). On the other hand, houses that annoy the Stuarts too much can expect their businesses nationalized and their assets directly dumped into the Stuarts' personal wallet national treasury. Other breaks (such as first dibs on a newly conquered planet's resources, temporary relaxation of the Magisterium's surprisingly strict Church-mandated safety laws) are routinely issued in exchange for generous kickbacks, while the biggest aristocorps regularly hire the slickest speakers they can find to act as lobbyists in the Grand Court & convince the Authority to steer the Magisterium into conflicts they're most likely to profit from. The Stuarts do directly run essential services such as firefighting, the police, national infrastructure and so on through the government proper & run their own aristocorps (which inevitably soak up the biggest subsidies), while healthcare is operated exclusively by the Church.

    While workers' unions are technically legal, the few that haven't been busted already are uniformly in the pockets of the aristocratic corporations. Only the Church, as an organization operating largely by its own laws and certainly the only structure with the wealth to match the biggest aristocorps, can reliably stand up for the common worker's rights, from his right to earn a living wage to his right to not get beaten into a coma by corporate guards or to slip into a vat of industrial acid. Which it does with surprising frequency; besides maintaining popular goodwill, the Church has estates and other aristocorp friends of its own to safeguard. Many Popes throughout history have made at least one speech on corporate responsibility, only for the aristocorps to nod politely & then forget about it entirely - it usually takes at least one high-stakes, highly publicized battle of corporate & Papal lawyers to get them thinking otherwise.

    One would expect the nature of the Magisterial economy to render competition nonexistent, while making the formation of business cartels between the various aristocorps a frequent occurrence. And guess what, it is! Aristocorps enter cartels to engage in dubious practices such as price fixing, bid rigging and the like to drive up their own profits while driving down competition, usually screwing over the consumers in the process. Paradoxically however, the aristocratic side to the corporations - the side responsible for providing them with the credits to remain operational & with new planets to exploit - is also the side that renders such agreements rarely more than a short-term profiteering move; rivalries between family heads, or acts of sabotage & murder between families, can completely wreck a perfectly operational and profitable cartel - 'rational self-interest nothing, those sick bastards shot my cousin/blew up my cat/stole the hand of the Authority's daughter/pissed on my lawn, dammit!' is naturally the single most common sentiment behind the generation of new competition between aristocorps.

    When aristocorps do compete, boy does it ever get ugly. While they aren't allowed to have any armies of their own, no aristocorp hoping to survive will be beneath buying up ad space on the Universal Broadcasting Corporation just to unload venomous attack ads, deploying trustworthy family members and hired agents to sabotage their opposition, extract blackmail material & steal corporate secrets, or just straight up murdering the competition. (coincidentally, a lot of aristocorps traditionally deal with 'dem peasants' who dare set up successful small businesses of their own by having a corporate rep pay them a visit, offer them a relatively generous monetary settlement & a mid-to-high level management opportunity at their soon-to-be old business is presented alongside not-so-subtle insinuations of 'nice sister/house/puppy you have here, it'd be a shame if something happened to her/it', followed by actually carrying out the threat if the businessman fails to comply) Players can take on these dubious missions if offered, or actively seek them out, but neither failure not betrayal will be tolerable; forget the state of mankind's souls or family honor, money is at stake here, and the aristocorps will not look kindly upon a loss of face and/or income, at all.

    (for the record: the Magisterium's official currency, the Universal Credit, is purely electronic, meaning the Inquisition is able to monitor every single transaction and every spot of economic activity at their leisure, making acts of economic terrorism or financial support for dissidents that much harder to pull off)

    The Law & Prisons
    The Magisterium's code of laws, being a compilation of every passed legal bill in the Lords and every legal decree of the Stuarts, is so long and extensive that nobody, barring law students and the Inquisition, often bothers to actually sit down & seriously read through it. Suffice to say that while similar to the laws of the 'Early Modern Era' (1900-2262), outlawing the expected business from petty theft and jaywalking to arson and robbery to rape and murder, the Great Book of Laws does mandate far harsher punishments than one may consider necessary for numerous crimes, and explicitly rejects the notions of 'free speech', 'freedom of expression' and 'freedom of religion' in its opening pages. Among other things:

    • Lèse majesté or 'injured majesty', the act of offending the majesty of the Authority or his immediate family in any way from defacing posters to insulting them over the Uninet, has been punishable by death by burning, impalement and sawing (not in that order, but simultaneously) followed by the state seizure of the individual's property and financial assets since 6,553. More recent Authorities have been increasingly generous with the application of this law, usually downgrading the punishment to flogging, ten thousand electric shocks or solitary Level 3 confinement for up to 20 years. Indeed, that death punishment outlined above was itself a product of Stuart sanity; it replaced an older law governing injured majesty in effect 2,490-6,553 that called for such a punishment to be levied on the offender's entire family before the offender himself.
    • Insulting a government official in any way and over any medium of communication, from plain face-to-face speech to Uninet posts, carries the penalty of a 10 years' imprisonment with parole.
    • Insulting a church official in any way and over any medium of communication, from plain face-to-face speech to Uninet posts, is punishable by 20 years' imprisonment without parole.
    • Holding to any creed other than the Catholic Church means an indefinite stay in the Magisterium's prisons, starting at Level 3 and downgrading by one level every decade, until such beliefs have been cast aside and the criminal converts.
    • Possessing an unlicensed firearm is punishable by a fine of up to 30 million credits and two years' house arrest. Actually carrying a weapon in public, openly or concealed, merits a summary execution on the spot, preferably with whatever firearm you were carrying. (before you ask, no, the Magisterium does not allow for the public carrying of weapons except in frontier settlements)
    • Failing to immediately comply with police or the Inquisition is punishable by a non-fatal beating and/or shooting on the spot, followed by up to 50,000 credits in fines.
    • Actively resisting the police or the Inquisition is grounds for a summary execution by whatever officers are on the scene. Partaking in a riot is punishable by a fine approximate to the damages caused and the number of rioters, however the police and the Inquisition may kill you anyway without repercussions.
    • The existence of homosexuality has not been considered a factor since 5,523. As far as the Stuarts are concerned (despite few having done research into the topic), if it is genuinely genetic then it can and already has been excised from the population through the basic mandatory genetic engineering for all newly-conceived Magisterial citizens, and if it isn't well that's what the Inquisition's for.
    • Drugs are illegal, possession of drugs is punishable by up to 100 billion credit fines and up to 50 years in Levels 3-5 in the nearest Magisterial prison, and the sale of drugs is punishable by death. Robert I-A, the drug used by the Inquisition's Jehuites, are officially not drugs, but 'vital medical supplies' (which, owing to its fatal withdrawal symptoms, is technically true).
    • Divorce is officially illegal, though the Catholic Church offers annulment as an alternative.
    • Smoking outside of a designated smoking area & public drunkenness are both punishable by 5 years' imprisonment.

    Magisterial prisons, staffed by an assortment of ordinary guards and Inquisitorial personnel, always follow the same format: seven levels, five of which are used to actually hold the prisoners, with the uppermost and only above-ground level being a reception & detention area and the lowest level...well, see below. (note that the lighting gradually becomes weaker & sparser the further one delves into a prison, until Levels 5 & 6 are left completely pitch-black)

    • Level 0: The topmost and only above-ground floor. Reception and detention areas.
    • Level 1: Criminals convicted of misdemeanors (public drunkenness, vandalism, petty theft, etc.) are held here in reasonably spacious, four-man cells. High-power white lights are kept on at all times in every part of the floor, which combined with the white floors & walls, has led to this level being called the 'place where there is no darkness'. Food (consisting of porridge & toast for breakfast, a simple stew for lunch & dinner) is issued three times a day, with flavored paste snacks and certain privileges given out for good behavior. TVs are provided in the lounge areas. 10/20 chance to escape.
    • Level 2: Men and women convicted of more serious crimes, such as assault, are held here in two-man cells. Other than that, identical to the above, with lower-powered lights. 8/20 chance to escape.
    • Level 3: Those convicted of thought-crimes ranging from apostasy to disloyalty towards the House of Stuart are held here alongside more serious criminals such as first-time murderers, arsonists and grand thieves. Criminals are held in isolated rubber-padded cells. Food always consists only of a thin gruel at breakfast, and tasteless paste at all other times, though flavored paste may be issued for good behavior. Reeducation is enforced more stringently, this time (and on all floors below this) on a daily rather than weekly basis and by clergy directly affiliated with the Inquisition. Inquisitorial guards start appearing on this level. 5/20 chance to escape.
    • Level 4: As above, except holding even more serious criminals and with smaller cells, less lighting and no TVs whatsoever. This level is guarded entirely by Inquisitors, mostly Amalricians but also a small number of Jehuites. 2/20 chance to escape.
    • Level 5: Holding only the most serious criminals, from serial killers and rapists to the treasonous and recalcitrant heretics, this level is patrolled entirely by Jehuite Inquisitors and lethally-armed robots, and is completely devoid of light. Cells are barely big enough for the average adult male to uncomfortably crawl into. Only one meal, a thin tasteless gruel, is issued every day. If your character gets sent here, it's game over for them: nobody ever escapes this level.
    • Level 6: The torture level. This level must always have only 16 rooms, fifteen to be filled with any torture devices & methods the prison warden can think of, increasing in intensity from Room 601 to 615. Absolutely no instantly-killing devices like guillotines are permitted in these rooms. The last room, always marked Room 616, is where a criminal is to be subjected to his worst recorded fears, no matter how ridiculous they may be. Most criminals are only tortured until they recant; medical technology is advanced enough to keep even someone who has 'only' been mostly sawn apart alive and indeed regenerate their injuries within days, after which they can be subject to the exact same torture all over again (light amnesiac drugs may be injected to make sure nobody gets used to any punishment). These chambers are also used for the summary execution of criminals judged 'irredeemable' after an extended stay in prison with little to no improvement.

    Pipes connect every cell from Level 3 and below to the torture chambers on Level 6, allowing inmates to hear the screams of those beneath them. The lower the level, the worse the noises; level 3 inmates will usually hear only indistinct murmurs, Level 5 inmates will hear the agonized howls in all their glory.

    Society
    Fashion
    Since the end of the 'Neo-Puritan Era' in the mid-9th millennium, fashion has been liberalizing in the Magisterium. Knee-length dresses were permitted and headwear no longer mandatory for women since 8,944; full-length pants were no longer mandatory for men above 14 since 8,985; one-piece swimsuits have been allowed for women, replacing the much-reviled full body 'burkini', since 9,102 (though speedos for men remain banned); socks no longer had to be knee-length since 9,202; women have been allowed to wear shorts since 9,319; and most recently, the late Authority Elimelech issued a decree permitting women to wear bikinis in 10,000 after deciding his wife, current Regent Holy Mother Elizabeth Stuart-Stoneman, looked good in one. (this was also reportedly Authority Emmanuel LXV's reasoning behind the legalization of one-piece suits & Authority Camael LXII's legalization of shorts for women before him)

    As the fashion-related decrees established by Authority James CIV in 6,102 (actually solidifying earlier public decency laws, except for the last part, which is...well, read on) have not yet been struck down, publicly going topless, without a bra or only in underpants remains punishable by a fine of up to 10 billion credits, public nudity remains punishable by up to 10 years' imprisonment without parole, and public nudity while morbidly obese remains punishable by death, as does asking why such a specific distinction was made. It is said that that the reasoning behind that part of James's decree is a secret buried deep in the Stuart's personal archives in Samaria, meant only for the eyes of the Authorities...though it is also said that every Authority after him who was exposed to that particular truth wishes they'd never had the misfortune of seeing it.

    Today's male fashion revolves around classic black or white dress coats, ties or bowties, and pants for formal wear, and weather-dependent casual wear ranging from sweaters and jeans to simple t-shirts and shorts. Female casual wear remains limited to knee-length dresses at the most and conservatively-cut blouses (preferably with shirts underneath), though shorts have been permitted in some cases (ex. private residences, sports, exercises), while full-length dresses in any color remain fashionable formal wear.

    More recently, a certain rare, flexible sparkling coral, often fashioned into jewelry, found on formerly Squid-dominated planets have become a luxury item among the nobility since Authority Eliezer CXIV presented his wife with such a necklace for her 119th birthday in 8,996.

    Music
    Like fashion, Magisterial music had remained stagnant for millennia, only to experience a surge in new styles under the more recent, saner and more liberal Stuarts' reigns. Older generations still listen fondly to classical, jazz and swing music, but among the younger generations new styles have been taking hold; 'rock' has been increasingly considered 'cool' across the board, 'metal' with its brutal lyrics and thick sound has become the music stereotypically associated with the 'uncivilized' younger grunt soldiers as opposed to their classical-minded 'gentleman officers', and the 'pop' genre with its classically idol singers, first jointly sponsored by the Gardener-Hojo and Stoneman families, has been permanently embedded in the public consciousness for good or ill.

    All songs must first be approved by the Inquisition, and financial bonuses thrown in for the promotion of Catholicism and/or the Universal Crusade in music. The use of inappropriate lyrics bears a 100,000-credit penalty, actually singing a song with such lyrics merits 10 years' imprisonment without parole.

    Cuisine
    Suffice to say, Magisterial cuisine has become so varied that to list all the foods humans have come up with since 2262 AD would be a Sisyphean task. However, bread, corn, rice and potatoes, with all of their planetary variations, remain staples; meat remains a big part of almost everyone's diets; Earth-grown food & wine are the absolute peak of luxury foods; and vegetarians still exist.

    Any aristocrat worth his or her salt will always have some Earthling dishes, and certainly at least one bottle of fine wine from Earth, prepared for his/her guests at parties. Wealthier nobles present gourmet dishes (ex. foie gras, Beef Bourguignon) & fine wines made solely from Earth imports.

    Clergy (yes, even the higher-ups) generally restrain themselves to more basic diets of staple foods, a limited selection of meats and vegetables, and water. However, they (especially the higher-ups) have a reputation, undeserved or not, for really 'letting go' of their appetites on days where it is permissible, ex. Mardi Gras, and eating like aristocrats.

    Soldiers are uniformly supplied MREs, which always consist of an entree (ranging from spaghetti to pizza to butter chicken), a candy bar, a loaf of bread, a flavored beverage mix, and an assortment of condiments. Aristocratic officers often do their damndest to get out of munching on MREs by calling for food from home whenever possible.

    Movies
    Full-color, high-definition 3d movies are bog standard in the Magisterium of 10,007 AD. They range from light-hearted children's films, mostly rehashed classics and fairy tales made into film with strong themes (exaggerated from the original or otherwise wholly invented) of friendship, love, unity, obedience to authority and the inevitable triumph of good (doubtlessly connected to light & the color white) over evil (always connected to darkness & the color black). Historical movies also remain popular, and cover a wide variety of topics from the English Civil War to the stormy but ultimately loving (if, by the end, one-sided) relationship between the Saint-Emperor Robert I and his wife. Most recently, director Zack Orson Wood has been working on a series of films spanning the entirety of the tumultuous 20th century, from the First Great American War to the Russian Civil War (coinciding with the 11th & Twenty-Four Hour Crusades), and is presently directing the filming of Ivanovich, the story of early-Second Great War Ukrainian Cossack leader Alexei Ivanovich as he sets out on a doomed quest to win a homeland for his people from the Holy Roman Empire.

    Cults & the Great Satanic Conspiracy
    Cults. Well, they do exist, and those still in existence are generally every bit as vile and reprehensible as the Inquisition responsible for their annihilation actually say they are. The passage of time, the dilution of ancient knowledge & the brutality of the Inquisition have led to the destruction of most of the more 'friendly' cults, with only the genuinely diabolical or otherwise overtly malevolent (and thus heavily armed) still surviving to this day. However, contrary to popular belief, their influence is often local, their numbers in the dozens or low hundreds at best, and their crimes more along the lines of vandalizing churches & desecrating the Eucharist at worst (well, generally) than kidnapping babies for human sacrifices or violating virgins in Satanic orgies.

    Heresies (mostly underground Protestant or pseudo-Protestant faiths, from simple Lutheranism to the 'New Church of Christ' circa 7500 AD that simultaneously holds Arian conceptions of Christ's nature and a Pelagian disregard for faith's role in salvation) also survive, albeit in smaller and even more marginalized pockets, and are generally extremely inclusive and distrustful of new converts; they rightly fear that far too many would-be 'followers' are just Inquisitorial agents provocateur working to infiltrate them & bring them down from inside.

    None of this has stopped the Inquisition from overplaying the threat level of cults & heresies, linking them all to the Great Satanic Conspiracy, as a boogeyman with which to scare people into accepting the brutality of the Inquisition and the general oppressiveness of the Magisterium. What IS the Great Satanic Conspiracy (which shall be abbreviated as the GSC from now on)? Well, to put it simply, an association of diabolical sages who directly take orders from Satan and are responsible for literally every negative thing in human history, from the prehistoric Ice Age to the Great Schism to wars & economic disasters to even personal problems (ex. your wife is cheating on you? No doubt, Satanic agents are amusing themselves by messing up your home life!), for whom every single organization opposed to the Stuarts are a front of, and for whom every such rebellious individual is an agent. While the Stuarts insist that they were purged on Earth in the Great Cleansing of 2262, they also insist that some of these 'monsters in human skin' escaped aboard the Ark II that, also through the work of the GSC itself, escaped Earth's orbit without being blown up, and now still work to undermine the Magisterium internally (preying on the all-too-human nature of its citizens) while also driving alien species into war against it to destroy it from the outside.

    If that was too long for you, well:

    The role of the GSC in society, according to the Magisterium


    Even the Stuarts, despite having practically singlehandedly invented the GSC, now believe it as thoroughly as the random fellow on the street, that is to say, with absolute certainty, and are practically waiting for a chance to meet the descendants of those ancient Exiles just so they can finally destroy this conspiracy of devil-worshiping magic-practicing baby-eating orgy organizers.
    Last edited by Barry Goldwater; December 12, 2012 at 07:25 PM.

  7. #7
    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    The history of the Magisterium and its preceding organizations according to the Stuarts, pt. I
    (snipping a lot b/c otherwise there will be too much to fit into this one posting)

    ~10,000 BC: With the first humans come the first Satanists. The Great Satanic Conspiracy that will be responsible for literally every negative thing in history, from the Little Ice Age to the religious wars of the 16th-17th centuries to the Final War, arises here, and will be reborn among Noah's descendants even after the entirety of the first conspiracy is wiped out in the Deluge.

    30's: Corrupted by the GSC, the Jews work together with the Romans to kill Jesus Christ. They would eventually be forgiven as a race for the sins of those particular fathers in 1974.

    6th-8th centuries: The Picts, forerunners of the Scots, are gradually converted to Christianity by inspired holy men such as Saint Columba. The ancestors of the Stuarts were no doubt among the first to be converted.

    1054: The Great Schism splinters Christ's Church into (Western) Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox branches. This is of course the work of the Satanists.

    1095-1396: The First Age of Crusades. Christians did battle with Muslims for control over the Holy Land, succeed at first, even establishing a Kingdom of Jerusalem that briefly spanned the entirety of the Holy Land, but eventually fail miserably. So miserably, in fact, that no Christian state would regain a foothold there until 1912, when Britannia took Lebanon.

    Along the way, the Fourth Crusade had to be diverted to the Byzantine Empire to counter the rise of a Satanist dynasty, the Angeloi, to the Eastern Roman throne and the complete subversion of the Byzantine court by Satanic agents. The populace of Constantinople opened their gates to the Crusaders and burnt down their own city as a show of repentance, and the Latin Empire that lasted until 1453 (despite hostile Orthodox & Muslim neighbors, hostile Orthodox subjects, and internal strife that saw eleven royal houses seating themselves on the Latin throne). 'Empire of Nicaea'? 'Despotate of Epirus'? What are those?

    The last crusade wasn't even directed at the Holy Land, but at the Ottoman Turks threatening to break through the Balkans, and also ended in dismal failure at Nicopolis 1396. This led directly to the Fall of Constantinople when Emperor Constantine IX of the House of Giustiani, despite a heroic last stand, was betrayed by an Orthodox subject on the Satanic payroll to open the Kerkoporta gate to the hundred-thousand strong Turkish army that had been besieging the city. What a shame.

    1206: The Mongol Empire rises to torment all of humanity at the behest of the GSC. Even after they had largely faded in the 15th century, Tamerlane would unleash hell on the Muslim infidels of the East as the GSC's last laugh behind a Mongolian agent.

    1371: The House of Stuart rises to the Scottish throne.

    1517: Martin Luther kicks off the Protestant Reformation at the behest of his Satanic backers, further fragmenting God's Church. It becomes apparent that drastic measures, up to & including violence on a scale never seen before, would be needed to rectify these schisms.

    1534: The English King Henry VIII of the House of Tudor, being a Satanic agent on top of a fat, corrupt, syphilitic, whoremongering excuse of a human being, takes control of the Church of England to grant himself a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Because this wasn't enough, he would execute a number of his future wives for fun, and waged a war (the 'Rough Wooing') against the Scottish in an attempt to force King James V of the House of Stuart to marry his daughter Mary to Henry's son Edward. 'What a bastard' doesn't begin to cover it.

    1587: Mary Queen of Scots, mother of the future James I/VI and grandmother of the future Saint-Emperor Charles I, is murdered by her first cousin once removed, Elizabeth I Tudor of England. This leads to...

    1588: The Spanish Armada. Philip II sends a fleet to invade England & restore Catholicism, avenging both Mary of Scots and the sullied memory of his greataunt Catherine of Aragon in the process. Satan whips up a storm to wreck his fleet. As God's plan decreed the Stuarts, not the Habsburgs, would be the ones destined to burn Britain clean of Protestantism, this was permitted, and the Armada ultimately failed.

    1605: Guy Fawkes and other fanatical Catholics orchestrate the Gunpowder Plot against the recently-crowned James VI of Scotland & I of England, intending to kill the king, his oldest son Henry and all but the Catholic lords and members of Parliament, then install James's daughter Elizabeth as Queen of England and restore the True Faith. While well-intentioned, their plan got in the way of God's & they had plotted to crown the wrong person (Elizabeth, as opposed to her brother the future Charles I) and so they had to fail.

    Following this, James was ordered by an angel of the Lord in his dreams to spare the conspirators. Which he did. Really. What, did you think Fawkes & friends were hurt (much less say, hanged, drawn & quartered) when they obviously lived long, full lives as monks, witnessed the restoration of the True Faith under Charles, and became popular heroes? Would the Stuarts lie to you on this account?

    Guy Fawkes Day, a national holiday in which a man is elected by his peers to dress as Guy Fawkes to burn an effigy representing all Protestantism, is annually celebrated on November 5th.

    1618-1643: The Great German War is fought between the Catholic Habsburgs and their Protestant opponents. The Habsburgs eventually won and went on to centralize the Holy Roman Empire into a unitary state under their rule, but failed to exterminate Protestantism entirely (indeed, they even tolerated Protestants in their own borders! For shame!) and thus lost God's favor the same way Saul lost it for failing to wipe the Amalekites off the face of the Earth in ancient times.

    1639-1650: The Wars of the Three Kingdoms are fought between King (later Emperor) Charles I & his Cavalier supporters, his own Parliament (which sought to curb his authority and promote Protestantism) and their Roundhead partisans, the Irish Catholics and the Scottish Presbyterian Covenanters. Needless to say, both the Roundheads & Covenanters were agents of the GSC. Obviously, Charles won as he was destined to - would we be here if he hadn't? - and so he went on to solidify his absolute, divine right to rule and to restore the true faith to the Isles.

    1689-1691: The Puritans in the New World, driven by Satanic agents, rise up against their lawful overlord and wrest control of Britannia's American colonies, forming the Commonwealth of Columbia and becoming Britannia's primary nemesis for the next 300 years.

    1902: The reign of the Saint-Emperor Robert I 'the Magnificent' begins with a bang, literally, as most of his family are slaughtered by bomb-throwing anarchists (no doubt, agents of the Great Satanic Conspiracy). He opens his rule with his righteous vengeance against the murderers.

    1913-1918: The First Great American War is fought between Britannia and Columbia, ending in a righteous victory for the former as it must. Not even the betrayal of Canadians John Kieth and Alexander Frye, no doubt either brainwashed or bought off by the GSC, could stop Stuart arms from prevailing with the support of God and the prayers of all the Saints in Heaven.

    1914-1918: The First Great War is fought in Europe between the Holy Romans and the schismatic Russians. The Holy Romans, of course, prevail as they must, being Catholics under God's protection.

    1938-1939: Robert goes to war with the Habsburgs to assert his claim to the long-vacant throne of France, whose estates had been carved up by the Germans, capitalizing on the disastrous blunders of the existing Imperial administration of the time. He wins, of course, aided by the conveniently timed outbreak of...

    1939-1946: The Second Great War. Initially fought between the Habsburgs and the Romanovs yet again, while it opened with a crushing defeat for the Russian side - Cossack leader Alexei Ivanovich, first and only self-styled Knyaz of Ukraine, led 150,000 horsemen to their grisly deaths in the opening days of the war for some reason that remains hotly debated even today, ranging from misleading orders from his boss Fr. Djugashvilli to suicidal depression - it actually played into Fr. Djugashvilli's hands, allowing him to annex the Ukrainian Principality (erected by Ivanovich against Djugashvilli's wishes) and getting rid of a potential opponent of his.

    By 1944, things had decidedly gone south for the Habsburgs, with the Russians threatening to break past the Oder River and the Carpathians. It was then that Saint-Emperor Robert intervened, singlehandedly saving his fellow Catholics from the Russian schismatics with liberal application of nuclear weapons starting in early 1945, and convincing the Habsburg Kaiser Karl to step down & recognize him as Emperor of all Europe. Unfortunately, the Russians cracked the secret to nukes as well, and retaliated in kind starting in late 1945, shocking Robert so badly he suffered a heart attack & later died upon receiving word of the first Russian nuclear strike.

    The Congress of Prague in 1946 created an uneasy peace between Russia & the new European Imperial Union, and establishes their boundaries for the next ~50 years.

    1939-1944: The last of the Great American Wars is fought between Britannia and Columbia. After five years of bloody, grueling stalemate, the British achieve breakthroughs in their nuclear project and deploy the first nuke against the Puritans, leveling Boston and wiping out the Puritan upper leadership in a righteous torrent of holy fire. The shattered Puritans are forced to surrender.

    Not long afterward, the GSC capitalized on the popular uproar and backlash against Puritanism to make their move and manifest themselves publicly, seizing control of what used to be the old Puritan Commonwealth and driving the diehard Puritans onto Hawaii.

    1946-1991: The quad-polar Cold War between Catholic, absolutist Europe; Orthodox, absolutist Russia; Satanist, syndicalist America; and secular, republican China. For a time, the developed world remained under an uneasy peace while the developing world, mostly Europe's vast colonies, Russian & Chinese Central Asia, or the oppressed continent of South America, were the stage for proxy wars between all four powers.

    In all this time, the Stuarts never lost such a proxy war. Ever. Vietnam was a tie, dammit.

    1991-2001: The Russian Civil War is fought in two phases, the 'February' (1991-93) and 'October' (1993-2001). The first pitted the righteous defenders of Tsarist autocracy and the Christian faith, however mangled by the men of the East, against the corrupt, hedonistic and Satanically-influenced forces of the Duma, in what seemed to be a Russian rerun of the English Civil War. Unfortunately, the wise & noble Tsar Ivan was killed in the early days of the conflict, and his equally wise & saintly wife, regent for their boy-son (now Tsar Konstantin I) was cruelly betrayed by Satanic elements in the Tsarist cause led by the Patriarch Alexei. Who was, in fact, secular progressive leader & President of the Duma Boris Yeltsin in disguise.

    Yes, really.

    The second phase came about as the Satanists got rid of Yeltsin and moved their true puppets, the Bloody Shirts, into the open. While the Bloody Shirts went into war confident of their inevitable triumph, the 24-Hour Crusade (see below) eliminated their biggest source of support and threw their victory into uncertainty. In the end, neither they nor the myriad and irrelevant other factions that had arisen to fight for the soul of Russia could prevail, and the Russian Army had to march in and slap everyone else into submission under a new, technocratic military dictatorship under Vladimir Putin.

    1994: The Twenty-Four Hour Crusade sees the Satanists laid waste in a nuclear firestorm courtesy of Saint-Emperor Richard II, who rightly realized that they were behind the events in Russia and saw no option but violence to finally subdue them. America would later be resettled by colonists from the rest of Europe. And no, not one drop of fallout spilled over the border into Imperial Canada. Why do you ask?

    2060-2061: The Final War is fought between the nations of the Earth. The Saint-Emperor Robert II, known for his ability to directly converse with God, heroically sacrificed himself by plunging the Megiddo I space station towards Moscow & bringing the Russians to their knees by killing their Satanic Vozhd Ivan Putin, just as the Russians' army of unholy mutants (no doubt demonically possessed soldiers) were about to completely overrun the European conventional forces' defensive lines along the Vistula.

    The Chinese President apparently attempted to set himself up as a living God on Earth, an Antichrist in truth, but had his plot foiled by his own nephew & other rebellious righteous pagans. Their sacrifice will be remembered forever, both for slaying a would-be Antichrist and making it possible for Robert II's successor Richard III to annex the disorganized China, thus finally completing the first chapter in the destiny of the House of Stuart - to rule the entirety of planet Earth.

    2172: The religions of the world are subsumed into the Roman Catholic Church, soon to form the religious half of the Magisterium.

    2262: The Great Cleansing, an effort to purge the Earth of all sin in holy light and fire, is undertaken by the Emperor Robert IV. While successful in wiping out the entire human population outside of Sanctuaries, the new arcological Arks constructed by Robert's predecessors on divine instructions, a bunker of reprobates managed to survive. In his generosity, Robert allowed the reprobates to leave Earth in Space Arks with absolutely no further interference (do you dare question his mercy?), only for one Ark to suffer mechanical failure in orbit that was in no way the fault of the Stuarts.

    The second Ark escaped the Earth's orbit. Unfortunately, it had agents of the GSC on it, now free to start over in a distant star system. The Magisterium looks forward to meeting them, if only to finally prove once & for all that the GSC schtick isn't actually a completely fictional conspiracy spun to justify Inquisitorial brutality and the hyper-authoritarian nature of their empire.

    Back on Earth, with humanity supposedly burnt clean of its sins (except, you know, the ones that got away), Emperor Robert sees fit to weld church and state together into one monolithic government (which, to be fair, it already was; this just formalized the reality of the situation) and assume the title 'Authority over all things under Heaven', completing the transformation of the IU into the Magisterium.
    Last edited by Barry Goldwater; December 06, 2012 at 07:13 PM.

  8. #8
    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    r7

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    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    r8

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    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    r9

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    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    r10

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    Dave Strider's Avatar Dux Limitis
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    Barry, again, I love you for the song quote you used.
    when the union's inspiration through the worker's blood shall run,
    there can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun,
    yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one?
    but the union makes us strong.

  13. #13
    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    Lol, thanks Character rules up.

  14. #14
    Watercress's Avatar Praeses
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    Looks lovely. Although it's going to be challenge to find pictures for our characters for this

    "Only Connect!...Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer."

  15. #15
    Pericles of Athens's Avatar Vicarius Provinciae
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    I like it, the whole Skills, Stats, and Perks seems to be alot like Fallout.

    Will you gain more Stats over time or is what you got what you get?


  16. #16
    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    Peerage & military ranks up. I'll get the Earth Forces proper up tomorrow, the Inquisition & OSS Tuesday, the Great Houses starting Tuesday or Wednesday.

    @MMM Plenty of pics of actual nobles/rich people for Naturals, and DA pics/games & anime to sift through for Supreme characters

    @Perry Lol, the SPECIAL system is borrowed straight out of Fallout actually. And you can get more Stats over time, but they'll be a lot harder (and riskier, since other than Luck they all need you to directly make changes to your body) to get than Skill points.

  17. #17
    Pericles of Athens's Avatar Vicarius Provinciae
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    Quote Originally Posted by Barry Goldwater View Post
    @Perry Lol, the SPECIAL system is borrowed straight out of Fallout actually. And you can get more Stats over time, but they'll be a lot harder (and riskier, since other than Luck they all need you to directly make changes to your body) to get than Skill points.
    I knew it! Silly Barry you dont need to make a change to your body you just need to find a bobble-head..

    But really you can increase say strength by working out, agility by practicing, etc dont really 'need' implants or anything.
    Last edited by Pericles of Athens; December 07, 2012 at 06:12 PM.


  18. #18
    jacb547's Avatar Primicerius
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    Barry will there be the option to colonize planets?
    "We all know whatmy brother would do. Robert would gallop up to the gates of Winterfell alone, break them with his warhammer, and ride through the rubble to slay Roose Bolton with his left hand and the Bastard with his right. I am not Robert. But we will march, and we will free Winterfell … or die in the attempt."

  19. #19
    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    @Perry Too easy It also gives Supreme players an even bigger edge, since they already start with more Stat Points than Naturals and would be able to acquire them even more easily.

    @Jacb Yeah. You just need to actually get a planet of your own first

  20. #20
    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: [RB] Britannia Rules the Heavens - The Space IH Interlude

    I'll post mechs in the new Earth Forces thread + personal equipment in this thread later today.

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