weird_things_about_orion_sphere_lrp
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weird_things_about_orion_sphere_lrp [2025/07/15 16:18] conan |
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| Next, imagine every system in a Faction's control is an inhabited island during the age of sail. The nearest other inhabited islands are days or weeks of travel away. In most cases, the only way to communicate with other islands in your nation is to physically go there and talk to them. In this island metaphor, there are hundreds of other islands in between, but nobody has visited them - they could contain literally anything, from pirates and monsters to rock and barren dust. With this sort of distance, you can't govern directly, no matter your power. You have to rely on local figures to rule in your name - governors, mediators, representatives or priests. They can't communicate with the ruling Faction power directly to get advice - they must interpret the "will of the Faction" on the ground, every day - through their own lens. They have to cope with the specific conditions of their locality - one planet might be an aristocracy, another might elect their representative directly, another might be ruled by its most powerful workers guild head. | Next, imagine every system in a Faction's control is an inhabited island during the age of sail. The nearest other inhabited islands are days or weeks of travel away. In most cases, the only way to communicate with other islands in your nation is to physically go there and talk to them. In this island metaphor, there are hundreds of other islands in between, but nobody has visited them - they could contain literally anything, from pirates and monsters to rock and barren dust. With this sort of distance, you can't govern directly, no matter your power. You have to rely on local figures to rule in your name - governors, mediators, representatives or priests. They can't communicate with the ruling Faction power directly to get advice - they must interpret the "will of the Faction" on the ground, every day - through their own lens. They have to cope with the specific conditions of their locality - one planet might be an aristocracy, another might elect their representative directly, another might be ruled by its most powerful workers guild head. | ||
| - | * Every Faction Contains Diverse Multitudes | + | [{{ :image:ascendancy:ascendancy_parade_e12_byagentbsmith.jpg?400|<html><font color="black">The many inhabited worlds of the Ascendancy are home to a wide range of species and cultures</font></html>}}] * Every Faction Contains Diverse Multitudes |
| A key system might have ships that show up every couple of days, the occasional Faction Naval patrol ship every week or two - a less important system might only have a trading vessel show up a handful of times a year, and an "official vessel" once every couple of decades. With this time, isolation and distance - policies change, culture shifts, even language diverges fairly rapidly. Each Faction has its own "rulers", but they are all different in what they consider to be the "right" way to govern or direct their Faction, and are often contradictory. The Ascendancy has the [[Noble Houses]], who coordinate to protect and exploit their citizens, but compete viciously for prominence, power and status. The Free Union has their bureaucracy, the Bureaus and Divisions, who desperately try to hold their disparate worlds together and retain legitimacy. The Commonality has the Judges, who hold incredible psionic power but cleave more to rarefied ideals and concepts than practical conditions on the many worlds they guide, and they rarely, if ever, coordinate with each other. The Dominion has their priesthood, who interpret the guidance of the Immortal Spirits, directing individuals and whole worlds using their interpretation of the Path and their revelations. There is no one "Ascendancy" just as there is no single, monolithic representation of any Faction, power or institution - the distances and the communication delay is just to much to hold such a thing together. | A key system might have ships that show up every couple of days, the occasional Faction Naval patrol ship every week or two - a less important system might only have a trading vessel show up a handful of times a year, and an "official vessel" once every couple of decades. With this time, isolation and distance - policies change, culture shifts, even language diverges fairly rapidly. Each Faction has its own "rulers", but they are all different in what they consider to be the "right" way to govern or direct their Faction, and are often contradictory. The Ascendancy has the [[Noble Houses]], who coordinate to protect and exploit their citizens, but compete viciously for prominence, power and status. The Free Union has their bureaucracy, the Bureaus and Divisions, who desperately try to hold their disparate worlds together and retain legitimacy. The Commonality has the Judges, who hold incredible psionic power but cleave more to rarefied ideals and concepts than practical conditions on the many worlds they guide, and they rarely, if ever, coordinate with each other. The Dominion has their priesthood, who interpret the guidance of the Immortal Spirits, directing individuals and whole worlds using their interpretation of the Path and their revelations. There is no one "Ascendancy" just as there is no single, monolithic representation of any Faction, power or institution - the distances and the communication delay is just to much to hold such a thing together. | ||
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| ===== Time is Deep ===== | ===== Time is Deep ===== | ||
| - | * The galaxy is incomprehensibly old, and a lot of stuff has happened. | + | [{{ :image:items:floaty_artefact_e12_byagentbsmith.jpg?300|<html><font color="black">The relics of ancient Precursor species can be found in many isolated corners of the galaxy, and still hold unknown power.</font></html>}}] * The galaxy is incomprehensibly old, and a lot of stuff has happened. |
| In the game setting, human civilisation (as in agriculture and buildings, etc), has been around for about 10,000 years. The Milky Way Galaxy settled into its relatively stable modern phase with larger elements and stuff about 11 billion years ago. You probably got the earliest spacefaring civilisations starting at around 10 billion years ago. So you could fit the entire space of human civilisation to our real world today, plus the 4000 years in the future spacefaring Factions of the OSVerse in that time a million times over. You could even fit the entire lifespan of Earth in there more than twice. So there have been countless Precursor civilisations rising and falling before the the game setting even starts. The amount of time they lasted, the strange technologies they built, and the legacy they left, echoes down and down into the present OSVerse, waiting to be uncovered and investigated. With stasis fields, lost rogue planets flying between solar systems, and evolution over time, there are endless threads of history weaving through the present setting. Characters with a mind towards archaeology can uncover and learn more about these alien civilisations, unlock the secrets of their technology, and maybe even discover the source of their downfall. | In the game setting, human civilisation (as in agriculture and buildings, etc), has been around for about 10,000 years. The Milky Way Galaxy settled into its relatively stable modern phase with larger elements and stuff about 11 billion years ago. You probably got the earliest spacefaring civilisations starting at around 10 billion years ago. So you could fit the entire space of human civilisation to our real world today, plus the 4000 years in the future spacefaring Factions of the OSVerse in that time a million times over. You could even fit the entire lifespan of Earth in there more than twice. So there have been countless Precursor civilisations rising and falling before the the game setting even starts. The amount of time they lasted, the strange technologies they built, and the legacy they left, echoes down and down into the present OSVerse, waiting to be uncovered and investigated. With stasis fields, lost rogue planets flying between solar systems, and evolution over time, there are endless threads of history weaving through the present setting. Characters with a mind towards archaeology can uncover and learn more about these alien civilisations, unlock the secrets of their technology, and maybe even discover the source of their downfall. | ||
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| ===== You are the Lens and the Key ===== | ===== You are the Lens and the Key ===== | ||
| - | * Player characters are dynamic and the main driver of change and discovery. | + | [{{ :image:general:e12_night_investigation_byagentbsmith.jpg?400|<html><font color="black">Ascendancy scientists investigate a strange device.</font></html>}}] * Player characters are dynamic and the main driver of change and discovery. |
| Many elements of the OSLRP setting may seem like they are vast, inscrutable and untouchable, because of the sheer scale of it and the depth of possibilities. But crucially, we're running a LRP game - although you as a player are not at the top of the power pyramid, you are still the most effective vector for change in the setting. Almost all of the off-screen components of the OSLRP setting exist in an equilibrium - they tend not to change very much unless somebody notices and interacts with them in play. Cold wars tick along, wanted criminals or figures remain at large, space remains mysterious, technological innovations stay un-invented, or are kept hidden. This is a general state of affairs that does not, however, apply to everything. | Many elements of the OSLRP setting may seem like they are vast, inscrutable and untouchable, because of the sheer scale of it and the depth of possibilities. But crucially, we're running a LRP game - although you as a player are not at the top of the power pyramid, you are still the most effective vector for change in the setting. Almost all of the off-screen components of the OSLRP setting exist in an equilibrium - they tend not to change very much unless somebody notices and interacts with them in play. Cold wars tick along, wanted criminals or figures remain at large, space remains mysterious, technological innovations stay un-invented, or are kept hidden. This is a general state of affairs that does not, however, apply to everything. | ||
weird_things_about_orion_sphere_lrp.1752592711.txt.gz · Last modified: 2025/07/15 16:18 by conan
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