Editing Stars Without Number: The High and the Mighty (section)

== Volume I ==

===The Jotunn Clan, of the Muspelheim Estate===

'''Overview'''

* While New Eden may be a world in a greenhouse state, the poles are still an uninviting climate. Our clan comes from the small continent at the south pole, which is undergoing collisions and rifting at the same time. While it is mineral-rich, it is unable to support a great population; this limits the clan's ability to exploit its land. It does make it a logical place to build spaceships, which might be the only reason our poor clan is partaking in the new space race at all.

* "I do like the idea of a poorer Clan. The backward agricultural landowners who are looking to get out from under their economic fate. So in a way we're Space Vikings, giving us even more reason to get out there and explore. Also, horned helmets." -- Heavy Josh

* "I like the arctic thing. Even more than the cold, though, I like the idea of being a poor, formerly somewhat backwoods clan trying to vault ahead in the space race." -- Nicias

* Decisions are often made at huge meetings in the Clan-Hall, Bjorgfell, with a great deal of shouting. [[https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?785484-SWN-The-High-and-the-Mighty&p=20244069#post20244069]]

* More delicate situations are often entrusted to select committees of elders. [[https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?785484-SWN-The-High-and-the-Mighty&p=20412206#post20412206]]

* The PCs are all from the same Clan, but aren't necessarily from the same nuclear family. "Cousin" is a highly generic term under these circumstances and is almost always appropriate unless one party is the direct lineal descendant of another. Your great-aunt twice removed is still "cousin." Calling your grandfather "cousin" is a serious mistake. Calling your brother or sister "cousin" may be a calculated distancing technique. [[https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?784701-Sorta-Recruitment-Stars-Without-Number-The-High-amp-the-Mighty&p=20216853#post20216853]]

* "The way it works in practice is that your family/clan/something owns the salvage, but you get credit for bringing it back. Internal to the clan, you're on a kind of reputation/gift economy. You only use money and trade outside the clan. The peasants, like the captain, would get outright cash consideration. The way this works varies by clan.  It might be easiest to think of this like some of those highly extended old-school asian families, where some matriarch with a mind like an abacus is always totaling up who's in favor, who's out of favor, who needs help and who isn't pulling their own weight, et cetera. So you guys aren't going to end up with some giant buried pod you have to figure out what to do with, but you're going to get consideration somewhere down the road that you wouldn't get otherwise." [[https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?785484-SWN-The-High-and-the-Mighty&p=20395264#post20395264]]

'''Clan Strengths:'''

* Our peasants have access to good medicine and education and are paid relatively well.
* We have particularly strong ties to the interstellar spy agency of New Eden.

'''Clan Flaws:'''

*The class system is more rigidly enforced than the already-rigid structures in place elsewhere on New Eden, with churls placed above villeins placed above peons. Guest workers from other Estates are at the lowest rung.
*Over the past few generations our Clan fared really miserably in duels and in front of the Magistrate, leaving other Clans quick to try and muscle their way past us on minor matters. Every new generation seeks to restore our Clan's honor.

'''Notable Personalities:'''

* Torgrimson is our "uncle," not literally an uncle but a family member who is our boss and patron and thus not properly referred to as "cousin." He's the type who argues for our project at clan meetings. He has a heavy cyborg fist that is fifty years out of fashion. [[https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?785484-SWN-The-High-and-the-Mighty&p=20244069#post20244069]]

* Helvig is a wise and powerful clan elder who is heavily invested in ice mining operations further out-system. He was initially a prominent skeptic of our spike-drive project but came around (to a degree) after we helped investigate a problem at one of his outposts that turned out to be the Chittik menace. [[https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?785484-SWN-The-High-and-the-Mighty&p=20244069#post20244069]]

=== More Notes On New Eden ===

* The rights of peasants can vary widely between estates. Links contain a lot of speculation on peasant/noble relations. [[https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?784225-In-which-I-blather-a-bit-about-a-Stars-Without-Number-campaign-I-d-like-to-run&p=20214989#post20214989]] [[https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?784225-In-which-I-blather-a-bit-about-a-Stars-Without-Number-campaign-I-d-like-to-run&p=20215104#post20215104]]
[[https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?784701-Sorta-Recruitment-Stars-Without-Number-The-High-amp-the-Mighty&p=20217436#post20217436]]

* Really serious issues get resolved by diplomacy or the Senate. If the issue is of real importance to the individual clans and it just can't be worked out via normal means, it goes to the Royal Court, which is literally run by an AI, The Magistrate. The Magistrate has some thoroughly scary powers and will make a ruling that serves the interests of justice. Most Clans don't really want to interact with the Magistrate. Problems that are basically bullshit, like something that isn't meaningful in real terms but nobody can back down without saving face, or there are mixed feelings about it within the Clan itself, might be resolved via duels. Duels are where champions in mechs go out and fight each other. [[https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?784701-Sorta-Recruitment-Stars-Without-Number-The-High-amp-the-Mighty&p=20217436#post20217436]]

*Gladitorial fighting is ''in'' on some parts of New Eden, but forcibly drafting teens into it would be too far for most nobles. Convicted felons on the other hand might just work. [[https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?784701-Sorta-Recruitment-Stars-Without-Number-The-High-amp-the-Mighty&p=20217436#post20217436]]

*Estates vary between those that openly embrace the direct rule of the nobles and merely have all practical power consolidated in their hands. [[https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?784701-Sorta-Recruitment-Stars-Without-Number-The-High-amp-the-Mighty&p=20217704#post20217704]]