A Character Driven Political RP in the Far Future
IC|Events|Characters
When primitive man looked up to the night sky, huddled around the protective warmth of his camp fire he saw something that stuck with him. The glittering of the stars as the rose above him, some would be used to help mankind navigate as the species spread across the planet, others would be used to paint pictures that told would tell stories for thousands of generations. He used the stars to tell the seasons, when to plant the crops and when to thank the gods for a good harvest. He never thought that one day his descendants would one day have the courage and means to go past the protective warmth of the planet the he had called home.
But go forth they did, and courage those early explorers of space had in plenty. Strapping themselves into tiny thin skinned vehicles strapped to what would be considered a bomb under any other circumstance the made the first leaps into the inky void that had held mankind's fascination for so long. Those first steps would prove to be an enticing invitation. Soon mankind took began its next greatest exodus, leaving the cradle world for the promise of a new future in the stars. This is unfortunately all that is remembered of those old days. Two millennia have passed since man went off to live amongst that stars he had once looked at around the primordial fire. Few remember the names of those first pioneers. Sure, the great names like Armstrong and Gagarin echo down to us down the centuries, but know one remembers the first martian nor the men and women who terraforemd Venus into a garden world, for those events are closer to the building of the great pyramids than they are to the world of 4,000 AD.
For the last five hundred years Mankind has been ruled over by the Terran Empire, a vast and powerful realm, the largest single polity in the collective history of mankind. Billions live under its banners from the misty jungles of Venus to the icy wastes of Pluto all the out to the farthest frontiers of the mans interstellar holding around alien suns. The Empire has for its entire history been ruled as an autocratic absolute monarchy. Sure there has been the Imperial Senate to give the Emperor a semblance of having the will of the people, but for the most part it has been the iron wills of Earth emperors and empresses that have moved human history. That was until recently. Starting with the reign of the Emperor Magnus the Golden true power has begun to become less and less centralized in the Imperial Throne and more and more invested into the smaller noble houses, senatorial families and corporate concerns. No with the reign of Maximilian IV the Imperial government is a weak and lethargic creature. Wasteful and inefficient it takes weeks for even simple legislation to become enacted as law, infrastructure and welfare projects wade through miles of red tape all while those who control this corrupt mess make sure they are the only ones to benefit from there system.
And now we come to the great cross road of the age. For the Emperor Maximilian IV lays upon his death bed at the age of 105, his son and rightful heir is a vain and lazy man who promises to be much like his father. Out on the frontier the colonies chaif under the rule of a world they no longer see as the homeland, worse yet an alien threat has emerged on the farthest edges of mankind's domain. First contact has proven to be a violent affair, with an unlikely hero holding off the xeno tide. The emperors bastard son Jonathan of Olympus Mons seems to be the only hope the outer worlds has as he commands his tiny force. And so here is where you come in. See, your one of the shakers and movers in the Terran Empire, either a corporate CEO, planetary governor, senator or high ranking member of the Imperial bureaucracy. As the year 4,000 dawns it will be upon your shoulders that the fate of mankind is decided.
The territory of man covers nearly every single star within 3 parsecs, within it some 90 billion humans live and work. It is the largest empire to ever exist in human history, with humanity at the most numerous it has ever been. This section will give you information about the most important parts of the Empire starting with the Sol system and working out to the major colonies.
If you want to add stuff to a different system on the map please feel free to add it in your app.
Since Emperor Adam Ignus first united the warring states of Sol some 500 years ago there has been a senate. In Adam's time it was just a weak and ineffectual body to make thing appear that the power of the Throne came from the will of the people. For most of its history it was indeed a freely elected body that advised and petitioned the Emperor on behalf of the people. This changed with the reign of Emperor Magnus the Golden. Magnus was never interested in the concerns of state and gave the senate power to actually make choices. This would look to many to have been a wise choice, and it may have worked to the best of the Empire if he also hadnt split the Senate into two groups. The first was the still elected Senate, the second was a new branch of government made up of the nobility and the personal friends of the emperor. To this group was given the most power. From here on out the senate would splinter along the lines of reformers, the new senatorial families, conservatives who want to keep the status quo and the radicals who wish to see the Imperial state dismantaled and humanity return to democracy.
Since Emperor Adam there have been titled hereditary houses. Some trace there lines back to the old families of the middle ages, others where rewarded there status because of the merits of there ancestors. All told the noble houses are both a part of the senate and compete against it for power. And as ever there is the constant struggle of one house to become more powerful than the others. Each trying to gain favor with the Emperor, each secretly plotting to take more power from the State. Sol has the greatest concentration of noble houses with most of Earths cities being ruled by one house or another. Venus and Mars are both the properties of noble houses as well as many of the larger objects in the Belt. The goals of the nobility are myriad and often conflicting.
The corporations, mining concerns and colonial companies. These perhaps have the most to lose and most to gain in this uncertain time. Should the current system fall there is a risk that there noble benefactors may fall, that worlds may break free and monetary systems lose value and economic ruin comes. But there is also money to be made off the suffering of others. The military always is looking for more material and if a civil war should break out there will be more than enough customers.
1: My word is law.
2: Conflict will arise between characters, if players cant decide who will win and who will lose, I decide.
3:The standard civility rule
4: Dont powergame, dont meta game. You know the drill.
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[align=center][color=#004000]Imperial Census[/color][/align]
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[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Place of Birth:[/b]
[b]Appearance:[/b]
[b]Occupation[/b]
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[b]Base of Power:[/b](How is the character able to move the event on 4,000AD? Do they have the loaylty of a military unit, are they a rich noble or have the backing of a corporation?)
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[b]Additional Information[/b]