Periphery Tales

Overview

Periphery Tales is set around the small Periphery state of Xanadu, following the exploits and misadventures of the as-yet-unnamed mercenary lance starting in the year 3047.

Periphery Tales posits a somewhat decanonized Battletech setting and differences will be explained below.

Xanadu

One of the far-flung worlds established by the Star League in the 25th century, Xanadu was to be a stepping stone and staging ground for further colonization. While this never materialized beyond a limited bubble of secondary worlds, Xanadu did become famous for something else. This was the Xanadu Vines.

Xanadu vines could be processed to extract complex bio-active compounds that are the precursor for anti-aging drugs; taking them substantially retards and can even roll back the aging processes. For centuries the carefully harvested and preserved vines were packaged and shipped into the Inner Sphere to be rendered down into drugs for the aristocrats and merchant-lords.

Today Xanadu has a population of approximately 800 million across its three main continents. Having fortuitously avoided the destruction wrought by the First Succession War by virtue of distance, Xanadu maintains a solid technical sector to support both local space travel and the machinery demands of the local Periphery. While capable of building both dropships and jumpships (in admitedly both small numbers and small tonnage) Xanadu has a limited arms sector and most actual weapons come from the Inner Sphere proper.

Xanadu is outwards of the Steiner-FWL border. Over a hundred light years outside the Inner Sphere it is an isolated center of civilization and the destination for many expatriates from the Inner Sphere, which make up a substantial and sometimes influential minority of its population.

The Inner Sphere

Genetic Engineering

The technologies of genetic engineering the human form have existed since humanity first left the Homeworld, however anti-gengineering laws put in place during the Star League put a halt to a process that many considered frightening. However that didn't stop many members of both the Great Houses and the Minor Houses from pursuing their own covert plans. These took the form of both eugenic breeding programs to improve what already existed and surrumptious continuation of genetic upgrades.

The disruption of the Succession Wars curtailed many of these programs and slow creep both spread and dilluted the 'improvements'; nonetheless many nobles are still superior examples of humanity relative to the teeming masses of the Inner Sphere.

Inner Sphere nobles generally use the Clan Mechwarrior ('Noble') phenotype.

Even before the nobility however, genetic engineering from the earliest era of spaceflight gave rise to 'spacers', who had much-improved traits for long periods in low or null gravity. Generally delicate and large-eyed, the space phenotype has proven to be surprisingly enduring over the centuries and even today many of those who brave the depths of space show its heritage.

Many jumpship and dropship crews will use the Clan Aeropilot ('Space') phenotype.

Finally, the various super-Earths (terrestrial worlds with substantially more mass and consequently greater surface gravity) that were colonized over the centuries also gave rise to a recognizable phenotype of humanity. Part genetic engineering, part Lamarckian adaptation, the heavy worlders ripple with muscles and are sought-after by Inner Sphere recruiters for elite battle armor formations.

Heavy Worlders use the Elemental ('Heavy Worlder') phenotype.

Characters

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