SCRPG Cosmic Tales/Setting
Setting Page for RPG.net pbp game.
INITIAL NOTES
- Set in a fictional milky way galaxy, about 500 years in our future.
- Earth is one of many inhabited planets, but isn't "special" per-se in the way it is portrayed in say Marvel's multi-verse.
- Lots of different sentient alien species.
- FTL travel and causaility, but no relativity (from the line for Sci-Fi of "FTL, Causality, Relativity; pick 2")
- Technology has the "look and feel" of say High Republic Star Wars (just in terms of asthetics)
- The galaxy is dominated by 3 major "powers".
- The Stellar Coalition (think kinda EU in space, but close to post scarcity society, democratic, protecting all sentient rights, providing food, shelter, clothing, healtcare and purpose are baked into the Coalition's laws - inspired by M&M's Cosmic Handbook a bit, and Lancer RPG a bit, and Star Trek's federation a bit);
- The Prime Pontificate (think imperial/authoritarian polity with heavy religious trapings, a union of high tech and religiocity, inspired by Torg's CyberPapcy and Dreadstar's Theocratical Instrumentality; with a seasoning of Marvel's Technarchy)
- The Swarmriders (think a kind of galactic raiders society, multi-species, that's nomadic and violent; the Swarmriders cycle around the galaxy, and basically ravage the region of the galaxy they occupy for a few decades, then move on), clan based with no central leader per se, their movements are a kind of flocking behavior
COSMOLOGY
In the void (also called the bleed, the flux), the black current of entropy and the white flare of creation gave birth to the Firmament.
The Firmament, ineffable in nature, created the universe, and seven ur-powerful beings, the Primordials, to guide the seven fundamental forces of the universe.
The creation of the universe and the primordials was, in many ways, a self-inflicted fatal wound to the Firmament, which ceased its existence as part of its act of creation.
The seven Primordials created their own servitors, the Celestials, to fan out across the universe and ensure the seven fundamental forces were operating as they ought.
The Celestial bands are:
- Preservers
- Agitators
- Oracles
- Charlatans
- Progentiors
- Destroyers
- Adjudicators
Over time, as the universe evolved, a movement of discontent grew among some of the Celestials. They began to covet the power and position of the Primordials.
The Celestial Host split into Adherents, those following the ineffeable laws laid down by The Firmament, and the Deviants, those that rejected the Firmament's laws.
Open warfare broke out among the two factions. The Primordials stepped into the war to stop it, but the Deviants were able to slay the Primordials.
The war, and the slaying of the Primordials, split the universe into 777,777 dimensions. Each dimension, a reflection of the prime dimension. The Celestials became N-Dimensional beings - and the fracturing and fractaling of the universe threatened their existence.
The Celestials crafted themselves containers - which would allow them to manifest in any of creations new dimensions, and preserve their multi-dimensional essence.
The Celestials learned without the Primordials, no new Celestials could be born, and dead Celestials could not be revived. The hot war between the Adherents and Deviants became a cold war - and eventually a proxy war.
The Celestials created the Titans to fight their war.
Editor's Notes:
- Celestials are, well, equivalent to Marvel's Celestials
- Titans are equivalent to Galactus
- The seven fundamental forces are ineffeable, as is the nature of the Primoridals and the nature of the Firmament
- There is one "prime" universe, and 777,776 other dimensions that are aspects of, reflections of, the "prime" universe
- These reflections include things like the "spirit world", the "lands of the dead", "heaven", "hell", as well as mundane dimensions that seem to be "alternate universes"