Double Galaxy Sci-fi mashup setting

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Skarii Serket, The Marquis Spinaret Mindfang, commander of the Eight Fold Fleet: I'm home! Had to spend a couple days out on the Longshanks, raider trash wanted to try something, they're dead now. Let's have nachos for dinner.

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As for what brought on the downfall of the first human empire. No one is certain.

All that is certain is that the old capital world is gone. And many stars that should have had hundreds of millions of years of life left in them went nova. The history of the old empire lost in a wave of early nebula birth.

There is some record of the old empire. Luse Baoshi, the oldest contiguous human government in the galaxy, was a backwater world during the time of the empire, an outpost in one of the spiral arms of one of the galaxies. They took much less time to rebuild after the fall.

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You wanna know what passes for a pirate operation in this era of piracy in decline?

A half dozen mig-15 or Su-7 flinging themselves off of a converted tramp freighter.

The thing about those older designs is that, in this setting, they are cheap!

For the cost of a single base model SU-27 flanker, you can get a dozen mig-15s and the hardware for maintaining them. And so many licensed manufacturers, and unlicensed manufacturers, have been making them for decades that they won't go away.

And this is where the whole setting's piracy arc clicks into a single, devastating gradient, because I've now shown you all three tiers of it at once, and they tell a complete story of decline:

At the top, the past: the Cardaheinia pirates. The Leprechaun, the Crescent Rose, the Laughing Monk. Formidable vessels, real captains, an era when piracy was grand, when a pirate could be a legend with a named ship worth mourning. That era is dead. The galaxy ended it. It's a wreckage field now.

In the middle, the exception: Skarii. The one who saw it coming and transcended it. Who stopped being a pirate before piracy died, who built a nation-peer fleet from salvaged warships, who left the life for legitimacy, who is so far beyond this bottom tier that calling her the same word, "pirate," is almost absurd. She's not a pirate anymore. She's a head of state who used to be one.

And at the bottom, the present, the pathetic now: this. Six MiG-15s off a tramp freighter. The degenerate remnant. What piracy has collapsed into now that the great age is dead and the one who escaped it has moved on. This is the tide going out. This is the last, desperate, obsolete gasp of a dying way of life.

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One summer, Skarii ends up taking her daughters on a tour up and down the pan-galacitic line. Six weeks spent hitting up every freeport, trading depot, and gaudy tourist trap along the way! I like how one category of places Skarii took the girls included goofy tourist traps.Deep down, Skarii is all about that goofy stuff. Some of the knick-knacks Vriska brought back include:

A miniature version of the galaxies largest bottle of mustard on Kilterry II, a t-shirt that reads "I lost my cheese-sanity on Polaris Prime", a snow globe featuring a miniature version of the Silent Queens Palace on Senica III, a plush version of Benny the Bison from the WildLand themepark on Farpoint. Aranea couldn't help but pick up an at-home cheese making guide on Polaris Prime, a detailed print of the Silent Queens Palace, and t-shirt from WildLand that just reads "CHARGE!!!" Featuring a charging bison. She also picked up a genuine cephalopod fossil from the world of Eire II.

One of the places that Skarii took her daughters during their trip was the wreckage fields of the battle of Cardaheinia.

A somber visit, more for Skarii to pay respects to former peers.

The Leprechaun, the Laughing Monk, the Crescent Rose, the Snake Eyes, the Deuces Wild.

Each one of these a formidable vessel and accompanying fleet in their own right, each one ripped to shreds by the combined forces of the galaxy. These wreckage fields represented the end of the most recent pirate era, and era Skarii survived.

For what it's worth, Chance City itself was probably not on the trip itinerary.

You don't take a 13 and a 16 year old to Chance City, it's space Vegas. And not modern cleaned up corporate Vegas, I mean 50s and 60s Vegas when the mob still ran things.

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I ported over the trolls from homestuck, and culturally split the difference between Alternia and Beforus. Prototeria was militarized, but not in the same way Alternia was, they were protective and nurturing, but not in the same way Beforus was. Proud warriors, but not sadistic killers, protectors, but no coddlers. mutation wasn't hidden away on Prototeria, it wasn't coddled either, they stood and learned alongside the others. expected to pull their weight and prove their worth like everyone else. the hemospectrum still exists within Prototeria, but the caste system is a LOT looser. Fuchsias and Violets still have outsized social weight, but also a significant amount of expectation and responsibility. the Fuchsia caste. the leaders, the arch-mothers, the high patriarchs. to be a Fuchsia on Prototeria means to bare even more expectations than even the Violet bloods. they are the imperial leaders, with all the weight of power and responsibility that entails. from childhood, the importance of effective leadership is taught to them. not tyranny, not coddling, but genuine leadership.

there isn't just one or two Fuchsia bloods, there is actually a relative large amount of them compared to Alternia or Beforus, about 1 in every 100 million hatchings. which isn't a lot. at earths population density that would mean about 80 of them. but that's a lot more than the two per world that seems to be the theme for Alternia or Beforus. Does the fuchsia caste govern collectively in some formal sense, or is it more distributed regional authority? little bit of both. a Fuchsia governor or governess may have direct authority over their region, but they also are expected to convene and collaborate. no one troll is a fortress unto themselves.

the annual forum convening at the capitol. the majority of the Fuchsias are in attendance, the arch mother, the high patriarch. from every elder to the youngest grub.

What are the arch-mother and high patriarch specifically — elected positions within the fuchsia caste, or something else? basically the eldest female and eldest male fuchsia who are willing to take on the role of being the face of leadership for the empire. (on the topic of the lifespans, I always figured that the lower lifespans on alternia tended to be mostly a societal byproduct, lower castes getting culled for any reason, rather than a strict function of biology. and we are given no real data on lifespans on Beforus. I always figured that most of the lower castes tended to live about as long as humans do, 6-8 decades being the reasonable range, with the occasional 10 decade long liver.) now we can touch on the violet bloods, the aristocrats, the executors of the fuchsia governors will and decisions, violets tending to outnumber fuchsias 6 to 1. again, privilege being paired with responsibility here. some are more numbers and statistic oriented, some are more social oriented, some tend to be more of right hand man or woman to their fuchsia governor. the right handers tend to stick with a governor for life, the other roles tend to shift location from time to time, usually an older one mentoring a younger one. the prototerian empire is an empire that expands slowly, they don't move on a potential new colony world without having everything ready to go, looking at a world with the intention of having it integrated into the empire and made into a world that will be lived on for tens of thousands of years. the Prototerian Empire is quite old, they were around and actively trading and conducting diplomacy with the first human empire long before it fell.

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The Ctarl-Ctarl Empire are not a huge empire, about 36 worlds at this point. but they're not alone. they have friends.

enter The Caliban League>

my inspiration came from, not from Shakespeare, but from Warhammer, but aren't as much of a straight lift as this might imply. Caliban itself is forest from pole to pole.

The Caliban League consists of 85 star systems, but those systems are incredibly wealthy in resources. This is why the Ctarl-Ctarl and the Calibanites could afford to build a gate from scratch.

The knight houses of Caliban are some of the few people who could fight a Ctarl-Ctarl to a standstill in melee combat.

The gate within the Ctarl-Ctarl empire is an original gate, and remained in quite good shape. It's original destination gate was completely destroyed. The construction a new destination gate within the Caliban League was a joint effort between the Ctarl-Ctarl empire and the Caliban League.

The knight houses are very selective of who they recruit, but not from where they recruit. Knights often are expected to pick their proteges from the poor and the humble in order to raise them up. The knightly houses, more akin to orders than a hereditary house, suffer few fools or glory seekers.

What is the washout process like for recruits who don't make it? Here's the thing, someone who gets far enough to be selected and begin training but washes out isn't doomed. They likely are still very worthy soldiers, the path to the knights oath is very demanding, not everyone can make it 100%. This speaks to no failing to the proteges, but simply that the order cannot yield to mere 90% adherence. Oftentimes these washouts become quite skilled warriors and commanders and statesmen in their own right.

What does the knight's oath actually demand that makes it the final threshold so many can't cross? The oath demands that so long as the knight shall breath, their existence is to protect the league and all who dwell within, to put the good of the league and the knight houses before their own desires, to reject the desires of pride or ego for the rest of their days, and to be ready to lay down their lives in glory or obscurity.

this is why there is such a high washout rate.

What happens when a knight breaks their oath? See, there is a number of mechanisms in place to prevent that. A knight feeling a pull in those directions should seek counsel of their brothers and sisters (knighthood makes no requirement of gender). That's said, a Knight falling to such temptation is not impossible, and these fallen knights are incredibly dangerous individuals. That said, any knight who lives long enough will eventually lay down their blade, usually in old age, and take the role of an oath watcher. Those who have served long to the point they can no longer carry the duty that comes with the mechanized auto-plate armor. There is no shame in recognizing when one has reached the end of physically carrying out the duty of the knight, and are still bound to the oath, leaning more heavily on the monk side of warrior-monks. the ones who pursue the fallen knights are known as the order of the black tapestry, also known as blackhoods. they are drawn from all the knight houses, they do not speak highly of their deeds, there is no real joy in this. they don't go after knights who have merely stumbled, they go after ones that have gone full tilt betrayal.

What does the mechanized auto-plate armor actually look like and how does it function in combat? Aesthetically, it's a lot closer to fallout power armor than the armor of an astartes. Common gear tends to include a kinetic dampener shield, some form of electro-blade sword, though the style will shift from house to house, some form of heavy laz-rifle, and those are the most common load outs. Again, it'll vary on specific knightly houses on what a knight tends to carry specifically. The average knight is a lot more jovial outside of combat than one would expect. They are sons and daughters of this league, like those they protect. They do not keep themselves locked away form it.

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Skarii herself carrying a pair of Heatray pistols, known as her Cheliceras. these along with her power-cutlass, are her personal weapons.

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Figure I'd give a bit of musing on the various types of firearms in the setting.

First up is the most familiar. slug guns. these are just IRL firearms. hammer striking a primer setting off gunpowder propelling a usually led projectile out of a metal barrel. which means yes, even in a different galaxy where an earth may or may not have existed, the Colt 1911, Browning M2, and AK-47 still exist. the big upside to slug guns it that they are comparably super-durable and super cheap to feed.

next up is Laz weapons. like their voidfighter cousins, they are not true lasers, but instead Light Accelerated Plasma. these fit into most all the same niches as slug guns, from the petite laz-derringer for self defense, to massive laz-bombards on naval vessels.

Then we have, confusingly named, Plasma weapons. not light accelerated, hit a LOT harder. they do come in pistol form factor, but they are heavy and hot in that form factor, heavy rifles and crew served weapons make more sense in the man portable context. they punish deferred maintenance more heavily than any other type of weapon, as if you don't take care of it, if you run it too hot too often, it may explode, and if you are not a Ctarl-Ctarl, you are DEAD.

next up, Gyro guns. these are bolters. like plasma, they can come in a pistol form factor, but it makes more sense in rifle form factor at the smallest, and really fits a more LMG to HMG range. there is no stealth with these.

last major type is Heatrays. these are microwave weapons cranked to the extreme. super expensive, super deadly, unlike Plasma, they will fail safe instead of fail explode. preferred type of weapon among Prototeria. there are more niche weapons types for firearms.

Flamer weapons, the flamethrower. Sonic weapons, weaponized ultra-high frequency sound. Cryo weapons, liquid nitrogen projector weapons, one of the few things that can reliably and quickly kill a Ctarl-Ctarl. Needle guns, super high velocity ultra thin needles, stealthy but any plate armor hard defeats it.

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Enter the Ctarl-Ctarl. The Ctarl-Ctarl are a humanoid metamorphic alien race. The Ctarl-Ctarl are relative newcomers to the galactic scene. when the first human empire fell, they were just getting out of the bronze age, and having only really reached type 1 civilization status shortly before humanity emerged from its dark age, making first contact with humanity shortly after unifying as a species and beginning to settle and draw resources from the other worlds in their home system. It is implied heavily that the Ctarl-Ctarl had a developmental shortcut to Chernenko drive tech from neighboring human worlds, worlds that have more or less become member worlds of the Ctarl-Ctarl empire.

Those human worlds under Ctarl-Ctarl rule find themselves more aligned with the Ctarl-Ctarl than with other nearby human empires, mainly because the nearest human empire was a pirate empire that was ransacking those worlds. The exchange was a natural one, give the Ctarl-Ctarl the tools, and they will protect the humans who gave them the tools. This eventually evolved into these worlds being under protection and interstellar policy of the Ctarl-Ctarl.

That pirate empire was about 6 actual worlds but a lot of stations. And they don't exist anymore. The joint Ctarl-Ctarl and Human force wiped them out within a generation.

The Ctarl-Ctarl know that war by two names "the war of the first expansion" and "the first war of the empire"

This war is what basically made the Ctarl-Ctarl into something beyond their home star system. Those first 4 human member worlds, and the 6 pirate worlds after that, were the seeds of the the beginning of the empire.

the Ctarl-Ctarl specifically have a constitutional monarchy, but the human member worlds are more straight forward republics. On the humans who live in the Ctarl-Ctarl empire.

You would think these worlds would be a good target for neo-Calpatrian operations. Right?

Wrong. Dead dead dead wrong.

The humans of the Ctarl-Ctarl empire, don't see themselves as clients of the empire, they see themselves as part of the empire. They have spent a good few generations fighting and working and living beside the Ctarl-Ctarl. It was the Ctarl-Ctarl who fought on their behalf when human pirates were raiding and robbing.

Multiple indepence referendums have been held on multiple majority human Ctarl-Ctarl worlds, and every time the supermajority of votes goes to remain.

Expressing openly Calpatrian ideology on even a near completely human world within the Ctarl-Ctarl empire will get you the same results as wearing a Nazi uniform in Downtown Tel Aviv.

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Enforcing the rule of law over the 4000 square miles of Chance City, clad in armor of green and black, the Chance City Constabulary Corps, shortened to Four C, further shortened to Force, ensure that the flow of pleasure and profit flows smoothly, keeping troublemakers and organized crime under control, meaning they have to keep any of the twelve families who run Chance City from making moves that could destabilize the city.

The ships of the Force can be easily identified by their dark green coloring.

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Freeports. Single star system states that tend to air on the side of neutrality and commerce.

The big example I lean on for this is Argo. A Freeport that sit smack dab in the middle of the pan-galacitic line, the single longest contiguous line of gates. Argo, like all freeports, tends to have its own protection force, just Argos tends to be a dozen super heavy battleships. Not the fast thing, but they aren't intending to leave the system very often, and they need to be able to smack any threat stone dead. This grouping of ships is known as the Beltway Fleet.

Each ship a bristling with lightning lances and plasma bombards, big heavy dazzle camouflage clad ships ensuring that the rule of law is followed by all visiting craft.

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Another non-state faction.

The pan-galacitic order of the red diamond. Effectively this settings red cross.

They operate a number of ZT-9590 which have been converted to hospital ships. In a fractured setting like this, the Red Diamond is more or less the only group who can go anywhere uncontested. No state would dare stand in their way, for if those ships are move, it is to respond to disaster, and none but the most bloodthirsty of pirates would even consider attacking them.

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And now, we begin a rundown on various freighter classes

The smallest freighters are effectively the equivalent of delivery vans. They stay within a star system, while they have Chernenko drives, they are quite slow and very energy efficient. Next step up is the actual freighters, the ZT-2420.

This is the tier most owner-operators get into the business properly through. Dedicated crew Berths, full function Chernenko drives, decent cargo capacity, a number of these vessels tend to take up the role of tramp freighters.

Skarii Serkets personal vessel, the "Orb Weaver", is a heavily modified ZT-2420.

ZT-3860 ZT-4590 ZT-5230 ZT-6670

The ZT-3860 is the next obvious step for owner operators who have outgrown the ZT-2420, and the ZT-4590 is the upper limits of Owner Operator spaces. It is also the point where freighter operations tend to start considering escorts, whether that be blister hangers, or a dedicated escort vessel.

The ZT-5230 and ZT-6670 are where you absolutely hit the corporate operators of the Merchant Marine Fleets. These ships always move with at least one escort vessel. Sometimes more.

ZT-7770 and ZT-8680 are more of the same, bigger ships, bigger cargo, more expensive. This hits its peak with the ZT-9590. Freighters that move with their own escort fleet. Escort destroyers and escort carriers, or even built in full service hangers.

But the ZT-9590 isn't strictly the largest, just the largest you would regularly see.

The largest is the ZT-10500. For every 50 9590 class vessels, there is maybe 1 10500. These ships don't have dedicated corporate escorts, they have dedicated navel vessels of their customer states running escort. These are specialist freighters. Examples of what the 10500 carries, gate components, these vessels can push entire empty O'Neil cylinders on their own. Asteroids for whole sale processing down to individual components. The hulls of other vessels. Just gargantuan amounts of goods.

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Every good sci-fi setting has its own space coffee analogue.

Star Trek has the Raktajino

Star wars has caf

Warhammer 40k has Recaff

The standard coffee is here, but also something unique along side it, hailing from the Ctarl-Ctarl empire, a beverage made of various ground dried roots and leaves, Tap-chirau.

Tap-chirau is served in many styles, from a hot, bitter, and potent concentrate similar to espresso to a large iced version served in sizes no less than 32 ounces.

It is the single biggest cultural export of the empire. It also points to a lovely little cultural note about the Ctarl-Ctarl. They feed their guests. If you visit a home in the empire, human or Ctarl-Ctarl, expect to be fed, or at least offered a mug of Tap-chirau.

And beyond the hospitality, you have the variants, each world, each continent, each region, each town, hell, each family has their own way of making it. From the home made hand ground classic artisanal versions to the mass produced quick service coffee shop version at the mall or the space port.

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If you ever wondered why a 19 year old Aisha Clan-Clan ended up with command over a frigate, it wasn't just being a noblewoman, but one of that specific family.

The Clan-Clans are known for two things, the first is being a cornerstone for the more moderate faction within the Ctarl-Ctarl house of Lords, lead by Aishas father Lord Cassian Clan-Clan, and before him his father Lord Reycacu Clan-Clan.

The other thing being a long standing naval tradition. Ashias uncle is Admiral Malcus Clan-Clan, brother of Cassian Clan-Clan, Commander of the 3rd wind fleet in general, and the Azurdaradara supercarrier in particular, he was there at Cardaheinia!

And it isn't just privilege or nepotism, Aisha graduated top of her class in the naval academy, but even with that in mind, she's still a greenhorn commander.

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fleshing out the underworld of Chance City, the families who run things

there are 12 "Families"

The Kims

The Sandinos

The Laredo Clique

The Highpointers (a Ctarl-Ctarl family)

The Leones

The O'malleys

The Chengs

The Basilisks (a mixed family of Trolls and Humans)

The Seraphim Organization

The Anastasica Compact

The Mazianni Clique

The Al-Baghdadis

each family runs their own casinos clubs and bars in Chance City, they all pay in for the maintenance, utilities, and upgrades.

each one would take the whole pie for themselves if they thought they could. they know they can't.

if you wanna know how long Chance City has kept this balance going, it's longer than you might think.

the youngest family at the table, the Highpointers, they've been there for 140 years already. outside of a seadweller violet blood who is quite old over in The Basilisks, there is no one around who remembers before the Ctarl-Ctarl showed up.

All of the familial/clan based families over the centuries are so intermarried that the Kims, the Al-Baghdadis, the Leones, the O'malleys, they are all distant cousins at this point.

the Cliques are the least stable but have the most potential for shaking things up depending on who is in the seat at the time.

The Seraphim Organization and the Anastasica Compact, whatever their original mission statement was centuries ago when they bought into Chance City, that's rolled through a gross of CEOs and major shareholders to the point that they are the most honest about just wanting to keep things stable and collect their money.

The Basilisks are the most complicated of the families, because you have troll blood castes mixed into it, but also humans who don't really have a blood caste but are tied to the troll member that sponsored them in to a degree. It's a somewhat confusing setup to an outsider troll and utterly baffling to an outsider human.

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There are two types of FTL in this setting.

The first is the far more common Chernenko drive. The Chernenko drive allows for navigation controlled FTL travel. Various classes of Chernenko drive exist, some faster, some able to maintain FTL for longer stretches without recharging. Anything bigger than a void fighter is gonna have one.

The other type is the faster but much more inflexible gates. The gates are basically super highways for interstellar travel. The Gates are remnants of the first human empire.

After the collapse of the first human empire 3500 years ago, roughly 1% of the Gate network remained functional, 250 years ago the technology behind how the Gates function was rediscovered, and after 2.5 centuries of reconstruction, the gate network is back up to 2.5% functional.

The longest stretch of contiguous functional Gates is the Pan-galacitic line, running from the S.H.U.F.L.E Alliance port.of St. Abraham on one end all the way to the Luse Baoshi capital world or Yynxi at the other end.

Having a single functional Gate is not enough for a gate to actually function. There has to be a paired Gate also functional at the other end of the end. This is why having one functional Gate is only half the battle, and why so much of the old Gate network is non-functional, you might have one working Gate, but it's companion gate might be broken, or fell into a gas giant or a star, or is just gone.

Gates can be repaired or recalibrated, but this is incredibly costly, but not as costly as wholesale building new Gates.

In short, Chernenko Drives are slower but common as common can be, Gates are faster but rare. Chernenko Drives are components of individual starships, Gates are nation state level infrastructure.