After-War Lullaby

BNE 00

01:01 - The signing of the Final Armistice, ending political distinctions among the nation-states of Earth and space.

The end to two-hundred years of endless war which has devastated the Earth's ecology and society.

The beginning of the Brave New Era.

BNE 00

02:30 - The First Winter of Discontent, the remaining military forces of various nations on Earth and in the colonial regions declare resistance against the new government.

BNE 01

05:15 - The end of the First Winter of Discontent.

Mistreated, war-era espers band together in the service of the New Order and use the superweapons of the wars to destroy the resistance.

BNE 03

05:15 - The Edict of Fimbulwinter, the declaration that cryogenically frozen survivors from the wars leading up to the Final Armistice would remain so in permanence, to protect the Brave New Era.

All military forces are dismantled, except for a handful of loyal forces which were given political autonomy.

BNE 5

11:18 - Venus, Mars and the remote trojans of the Inner Orbits come under military control of the New Order.

BNE 12

07:11 - Espers largely come to dominate the military sphere and form their own realms within the Inner Orbits, becoming powers unto themselves called the Peers.

12:25 Catherine Formosa is born on Venus.

BNE 49

05:14 In the special autonomous city of Alta Regio, Formosa leads the Cytherea Convention which demands independence for Venus, claiming mismanagement by Earth and the destruction of Venusian culture as a means of control.

Widespread protests follow and the Venus independence movement is widely imitated elsewhere outside of the Zones d'Euterpe where the New Order administrates people's lives directly.

07:19 Formosa is put under house arrest by the New Order.

Days later she vanishes, but is presumed dead due evidence at the scene.

BNE 50

01:01 - Rebels stage an attack on a military museum, liberating numerous artifacts and cryopods from storage.

They proceed to awaken the Sleeping Giants, legendary heroes from before the Brave New Era, and declare the Second Winter of Discontent on the fiftieth anniversary of the Final Armistice.

Among the items stolen are also the Hræsvelgr, a winged ship from the very end of the war equipped with experimental research and nano-fabrication facilities.

Character Generation

Step by Step

Concept

Who were you before the war? Did you leave anyone behind?

Were you put into stasis as punishment? Did you have to be sealed away for medical reasons? Was your ship lost in space after some terrible battle?

How do you feel about the New Order? The world of mandatory happiness, where culture and identity are controlled to suit the needs of the vast bureaucratic state that controls society? The mismanagement of the uncontrollable periphery? The rise of Espers as the Peers, warrior-clans who enforce the will of the New Order?

Attributes

Assign 8 points between the five cardinal traits with one free in every rank. They are Force, Cunning, Finesse, Poise and Esper.

Spend points from cardinal traits on various talents.

Talents

Choose from a list of existing abilities, or request a new one.

Investing more ranks in a talent will increase the potency.

Some talents may allow the character to explore the research tree in the pre-game, improving the group's starting equipment.

Special Traits

Choose a Lucky Number. When this number is rolled, the character rerolls all die with it as their result and adds them to their total, repeating until no dice have their lucky number.

Choose a Favorable Position. When performing an action in their preferred circumstances, the character may reroll failures but must take the second result even if it is worse. This must be a somewhat specific situation with some sense of position, such as "frontal assault", "side flank", "death from above/below", "rear pursuit", "frantic defense", etc.

Game Information

Characters

PCs

Aletta de'Van-XII

Concept: Before the final war, Aletta de'Van was a minor scion of the orbital de'Van family, and heir to the vast resources of its social wealth and the huge stores of favours it had built up with other orbital houses and various groundlings and deepers. More physically inclined but still media savvy and with a growing Esper talent de'Van parleyed her rep into a backing for various advanced racing and gladiator combat frames before the war, and a series of advanced augmentations which enhanced her latent ability. When the final war begun, patriotism saw Aletta join up with the orbital guards, where her long experience in frames saw her quickly becomes one of their top aces, nicknamed the Red Knight for the distinctive markings on her suit.

Fighting on through the eternal war and multiple different cloned incarnations, Aletta was killed a number of times, but always enough of her off site backups and hardened survival implants survived for another version of her to be quickened. As the fighting went on and the initial reasons for war grew more and more distant, Alette grew more and more disillusioned with the military. By the wars end, she was the Orbital Guards highest scoring ace, and a shadow of her former self.

When the military rose against the Final Armistice, Aletta fought against them without hesitation, joining fully in their suppression. In the last battle of this war her frame was crippled and she went into stasis, hoping to wake in a brighter future. She did not. Instead she awoke in the dystopian new order, a world far worse than she could have imagined. Aletta fights now because of guilt. Guilt at the world she helped create, and survivors guilt for living where so many others did not.

Force 3

Cunning 2

Finesse 2

Poise 4

Esper 2

Lucky number: 8

Favorite Position: In the middle of the enemy formation