Runes of Electronic Suns

History

The latter half of the 21st century and into the 22nd century saw the progressive, explosive growth in various -techs; infotech, biotech, neurotechnology, nanotechnology, etc. These eventually birthed the long-prophecised Technological Singularity (or at least a reasonable facsimile) but also on a more individual level these transformative technologies flowed through the various states of the world in multiple overlapping ways; a social singularity.

Against this backdrop of transhumanism reshapings swathes of an increasingly environmentally-degraded Earth, the 22nd century saw various developments in space flight, the first crude terraforming attempts on Mars and the slow creation of permanent civilian off-Earth settlements. Progressive developments in gravity control and manipulation by the uploaded human-AI 'posthuman' hybrids only accelerated this and eventually led to the invention of the interstellar jump drive; by the end of the 22nd century humanity had begun to explore the stars, not just its home system.

The 23rd and 24th centuries were the golden centuries of interstellar colonization; many governments saw space settlement as a way to solve various ills and of course an extrasolar colony was a source of national prestige. A whole host of incentives, encouragements, blandishments and threats were used to move people to the exocolonies. No small number were settled in whole or in part by minority groups, subcultures or special interest groups, leading to a crazy quilt of sociocultural groups across settled human space.

If the 23rd century had been characterized by the 'Star Trek' as various leading nations explored and settled accessible human space, the 24th saw the rise of great power competition. The oldest colonies exceeded a century in age and had become well-populated, industrialized and increasingly home to forward-deployed military forces to safeguards interests and sovereignty. It was inevitable that clashes would occur and there were small but regular skirmishes 'out there'. Unspoken agreements kept these disputes out of Sol and its teeming billions and for a time these colonial brushfires became normalized.

The Berlin AI changed everything. Even though by the 24th century the posthumans had become increasingly detached and Delphaic, purpose-built AIs of lesser but still impressive capabilties were ubiquitous. Various militaries were no exception, such as the European Union's Strategic Planning Network - later immortalized as 'The Berlin AI' - which was fully activated just a few years before the end of the 24th century as a minor scuffle on the EU's eastern periphery rapidly turned into a unpleasant war, one the poorly-prepared EU was losing. This rapidly spiralled out of control as other states escalated, ultimately resulting in the operators desperately removing all shackles from the AI and turning much of the entire warfighting effort over to it. In the end the Berlin AI and the EU's resources weren't enough to achieve victory but Sol as a whole was traumatized by the damage an unchecked military AI could do. What became known as the Recall was a reaction to various transhuman and cybernetic technologies, seeking to turn the clock back on their ubiquity in society. (many histories glossed over the role various European policymakers and warfighters had in the war, focussing on the far more salacious and easily-demonized AI)

Reactions to the Berlin AI also reverberated into the exocolonies. Solarian states clamped down on the free movement and free ownership of ships outside of Sol, centralizing transit and commerce under a handful of sprawling state-operated mega-organizations. While ships - many ships - still travelled the stars, they did so tightly regulated and on centrally scheduled routes. Ironically, despite this a number of exocolonies prospered; outside the stiffling strictures of Earth they could continue to use the fruits of AI and engaged in swift business exporting safe-but-AI-adjacent technologies back to humanity's homeworld. For many more smaller colonies the story was entirely different though; the consolidation of the bulk of jump-capable shipping under much more direct Solarian control saw many 'unprofitable' colonies essentially cut off, visited only rarely by Solar-flagged ships. Squeezed out of regular operations to the larger, richer colonies, it didn't take long for the surviving independent operators to become the lifeline to these slowly faltering minor worlds. An increasing number even began arming themselves (illegally of course, but nobody was inspecting their ships anyway) using European weapons abandoned in the haste to return home after the Crisis shattered European operations in the Verge.

Life very rapidly became rough for what became known as the 'Disconnected' exocolonies. Most were effectively abandoned by their Solar patrons specifically because they were poor or undeveloped and as machinery wore out with no replacements in sight, the average living standards fell back towards that of the 20th (or for the lucky ones, 21st) century. Many people emmigrated to more prosperous worlds, but many more stayed and by the end of the 25th century these disconnected worlds were predominantly rural. Black markets thrived in the disconnected worlds as even more reputable worlds were not above buying abandoned equipment or even posthuman overtechnology from the disconnects - no questions asked - and the inhabitants of the disconnected worlds still needed access to advanced technology.

The 25th century also saw the formation of the United Lawful Outer Rim Defense (ULORD), created as a joint solution to the issue of security in the Verge. There was little desire to police all these exocolonies but it was seen as something that needed to be done as Sol's newfound paranoia about AIs and other transhuman exotica demanded a watchdog. By creating a nominally independent and specialized organization this burden could be shifted to a group that answered to the Solarian great powers but did not threaten them. It would also allow for cross-border actions without the sort of great power games that often hampered them. Within a decade all the great powers of Sol had accepted this logic and were either directly supporting ULORD or on track to do so and ULORD's remit had likewise expanded to dealing with the armed 'illegals' operating on the fringes of charted space. This abdication of responsibility by the Solar states was to sow the seeds of the Gateway Mutiny more than a century later, but for much of its existence ULORD dutifully completed its mandate as well as could reasonably be expected.

No organization would remain static forever however, and as the exocolonies grew the demands on ULORD grew with them. The situation reached a critical point when in the middle of the 26th century it was revealed that Grand Admiral Roscoe van der Graff of the ULORD had used ULORD's own resources to construct an extensive array of capital weapons and semi-AI technologies. The Grand Admiral's protestations that none of this was directed at Sol mostly fell on deaf ears and the great powers of Sol moved swiftly to deal with their wayward creation. This was to be the first true 'Space' war in human history, pitting the unprepared Solar Coalition fleets against not just the experienced ULORD crews but the various sophisticated weapons that van der Graff and his predecessors had carefully secured, stored and locked up over the decades. The primary conflict only lasted a year but it was devastating to both sides as well as the Verge; the first action taken by the Solar Coalition was to disable the jump gate network to strand various ULORD task groups far from Sol. The fact that this would also instantly cripple everything but local trade was hardly a concern to the distant and uncaring colonial masters in Sol. If the first disconnect had affected only the smaller and poorer colonies, this second disconnect affected all of them. Trading patterns that had relied on jump gates for two centuries were suddenly shattered and the entire exosolar economy went into a nosedive; at least the first disconnect progressed over a decade. The second happened in a matter of weeks.

In the aftermath of the Gateway Mutiny the Solar states had even less available military resources to police the Verge; the solution was simple. They transferred every last scrap of surviving and captured ULORD materiel to the UN's space arm, deputized them to use military force and told them to sort it out. With far more oversight and much greater restrictions on technology, the UN did what the Security Council told them to. Among the first missions they undertook was a continuation of the "Man-Hunting" missions, mostly ineffective attempts to run down surviving van der Graff ULORD hardliners. More successful was the so-called "Second Recall" which over several decades seized all manner of borderline technology from the Verge to be scrapped. They also returned stability - defined as the exocolonies heeding Solar diktats - to the Verge after a decade of chaos following the disconnect.

The UN has begun to slip its leash however; the Prelude War and the Solar War both consumed the Solar System even as various Verge exocolonies began to not just emerge from the post-Mutiny malaise but reach heights exceeding the pre-Mutiny time. For the past fifty years Sol has been weak to a historically unprecedented degree and the brave men and women of the UN are faced with stark choices. Where do their loyalties lie? To the Verge? To Sol? To the mission? Or just to themselves?

Timeline

• 2075-2160 - "Social singularity", uploads and transhumanism
• 2160 - First gravity technology
• 2190 - Jump drive invented
• 2200-2300 - Early colonial period
• 2300-2396 - Late colonial period - colonial powers regularly engage in minor conflicts in the periphery
• 2396-2398 - Berlin AI Crisis
• 2400-2415 - Great Recall
• 2420 - Creation of ULORD
• 2540 - Gateway Mutiny and Disconnect
• 2541-2560 - "Man-Hunting Missions" to track down ULORD escapees, often unsuccessful.
• 2545 - UN Reformation
• 2550-2580 - Second Recall
• 2623 - Prelude War
• 2646-2649 - Solar War
• 2700 - Current Day

New California

Discovered at the end of the 23rd century, New California is a paradise world, very similar to Earth and with a compatible biosphere. American settlement and investment was sustained and by the Berlin Crisis New California had become a distant but important American exocolony. The completion of a jump gate chain there in the middle of the 25th century connected it to the Solarian economy and New California boomed. This connected was broken during the Gateway Mutiny as the jump gates were disabled and New California was left on its own. Seeing this as a gross betrayal by the homeworld, domestic politics in New California swung rapidly towards the position of independence and ever since, the former colony has charted an independent path. The ULORD squadron based out of New California was one of the few that did not move into the core systems during the Mutiny and it became the nucleus of the then-raw New Californian Defense Force.

New California sits astride a number of jump routes, giving it sway over the immediate area and the Transcali Spur beyond New California is a de facto New Californian protectorate. The settlements there and several other nearby worlds have been bound into the United Systems Organization, the name a clear slap at the mother country. While relations have generally thawed since the late 25th century nadir, New California and the United Systems as a whole remains outside of the UN supervisory structure and smuggling both to and from the high-tech world remains a thorn in the UN's side.

The United Systems have adopted a joint military structure, the United Systems Military - though New California is by far the largest contributor. The USM fleet is dominated by various models of short-ranged attack ships and destroyers, built in large numbers and with few of the frills found on UN ships - with missions rarely lasting more than a month, austerity is not a penalty. New California does operate a number of larger ships however, including both short-range 'pocket dreadnoughts' and more conventional frigates and cruisers for operating down the Transcali Spur and showing the flag outside of the United Systems. Overall though, much of the USM fleet is aging, particularly the small ships. Built in large production blocks during the first century of New California's independence, construction slowed down greatly after the Solar War and the collapse of (perceived) Solar hostility. Many of these smaller and shorter-ranged ships have been mothballed or at least reduced to light maintenance only, while others have been transferred to USM states. No small number have been sold to third parties as well, though this policy has been put on hold ever since the Void Emergency.

Elysium, Star Kingdom of

Elysium was one of the first major junction systems to be discovered and by the middle of the 23rd century its lone habitable planet was being steadily colonized. While the original settlement and colonial charter originated as an Anglo-Saudi-Australian project, a century and a half of immigration from all across Earth gave it a culture all its own. Elysium was a winner in the post-Crisis age, far enough from Sol to not get hit by various onerous restrictions on advanced technology but close enough and advanced enough that it could become a major supplier of such. The defining moment in Elysium's history though was the Mutiny; immediately throwing their lot in with Sol, Elysium became a strongpoint for Solar operations against ULORD forces and has been reaping the benefits ever since. The Star Kingdom today is arguably the second most influential and powerful polity in the Verge outside of the UN itself and while Solarian patronage is not what it used to be, the UN still finds itself working around the Star Kingdom as often as it's working with.

The Star Kingdom has both protectorates in its near abroad - mostly disconnected worlds now brought into Elysium's orbit - and an informal empire spread across a rather larger span of space. The latter is bound together both by economic interests and the benefits of being an Elysian client, namely a certain protection from UN entanglements. There are an increasing number of people - and not just inside the Star Kingdom - that see Elysium as the future leader of not just the Verge but humanity as a whole, something that the Royal Court generally gently dismisses - publicly, anyway.

As the premiere trading power of the Verge and one that was granted exceptional leeway by the UN's Solarian masters, the Star Kingdom has interests across many systems and worlds. The Royal Highfleet is thus both large and well-equipped, with a particular bias towards cruisers of various type. For well over a century it is a rare crisis situation that is not graced by a squadron of Royal Highfleet star cruisers and a force of Royal Colonial Marines. The High Fleet also operates a number of dreadnoughts, though they are as much prestige pieces as anything else.

Danu Junction

The Danu system was first discovered near the end of the 23rd century, near the outer edge of what is generally considered the Verge. Its primary habitable world of Cliona is unusual in that it sits at the L4 point of the super-jovian Mave (which has some six times the mass of Jupiter), while the second (extremely) marginally habitable icebox world of Skadi orbits outside this. While it was habitable, pleasant even along the subtropical shores of its massive southern polar ocean, Cliona was simply seen as too far from Earth to be of interest to the efficient, prestige- and profit-minded colonization efforts of the great powers. Instead it was settled by a variety of oddball and often well-off groups looking to create new consocieties - many of them had also embraced varying degrees of transhumanism, thought little that was considered extreme. In this it was fairly representative of the Eversea sector as a whole.

As of the Berlin AI Crisis Danu was something of a backwater and it was disconnected in the aftermath; even if the various groups on Cliona had the private resources to create a surprisingly comfortable little nest, they had little value to distant Sol. The Clionans dealt with this situation by unearthing an atavistic piratical streak and for a time the 'Pirates of the Fairy Moon' ranged across all of Eversea. Often seized by some bizzare nobility, this state-ignored criminality was eventually dealt with by the young ULORD. This also coincidentally led to the discovery of three additional jump points at Danu; long theorized it was only the modern equipment of the ULORD task force ships that led them to being navigationally plotted. Suddenly, Danu was important and by the end of the 25th century a jumpgate chain had been lain to the Danu Junction and the previously sleepy Eversea had become a new nexus of investment. Several maegacorps set up on the then-uninhabited world of Skadi, seeking to investigate and exploit various posthuman and archeosophont sites there.

Like other sectors the Mutiny and second disconnect hit Danu hard, though as a latecomer to the jump gate network its trade was not savaged nearly as badly as others and after a few wobbles - and the seizure of several ULORD blacksites from half-hearted defenders - Danu returned to an even keel. Some strategic 'nationalizations' of stranded core world shipping and the Clionan merchant marine was the largest in the outer Verge while their ground forces were trained by stranded ULORD defectors. The ships were eventually returned of course, but by that point local shipyards had begun constructing replacements.

While the Eversea sector during the post-Mutiny era was always 'busy' from a perspective of metaphoric street-level activities, it had little of the larger-scale Problems that the UN had to regularly deal with and by the Solar War had acquired a reputation as a quiet sector. The creation and growth of the Clionan Aerospace Force from little more than a handful of observation ships as of the Solar War to the modern wide-ranging fleet of today has raised some concern among the UN but a continued working relations and some minor corruption have kept things from worsening.

UN Commands

United Nations Extra Solar Fleet - (Core Sector)

Player: NPC
-HQ Gateway
The First Fleet is the UN's primary reserve and training fleet; every officer and most enlisted has spent a minimum of one tour in the 1st Fleet. It is also where most UN ships (especially the large starcruisers) are assigned for their first deployment after leaving construction facilities in Sol or Gateway. As such the 1st fleet has a large number of subsidiary formations with evocative names like the 43rd Maintenance Group, the 11th Reserve Flotilla (Heavy) and the 99th Provisional Test Squadron. The Aresian Espatier Academy (aka Fort Durestan) also falls under the administrative aegist of the 1st Fleet. All in all, the 1st Fleet has significant fighting power on paper, but much of that is actually non-operating reserve ships or training groups.
The First Fleet also has authority over the UN's Secure Containment Facility - while there are others scattered around, when a UNnie talks about *THE* SCF (the 'Skiff'), they are talking about the massive, slowly-expanding and heavily fortified facility on Mercury's northernmost crater of Tryggvadóttir. It is broadly rumored that the facility is ringed with over a hundred nuclear land mines, enough to destroy anything inside and bury whatever's left.

Second Fleet (Columbiad Sector)

Player:
-HQ Novopol
Second Fleet has been tasked since its inception with not only the broad mandate to police the Verge but to contain the rebels of New California. This led to a constant state of belicosity in the 2nd Fleet's area of operations and once the New Californians and their USO allies felt secure under an umbrella of steel they began to smuggle all manner of weapons to like-minded groups. The Solar War and consequent political realignments have released some of the tension but by no means have relations became 'good'. As such the 2nd Fleet's ships tend towards anti-piracy and anti-insurgent with a preference for carriers and ships with long legs.
HQ Novopol is a sprawling surface base built inside a crater on Novopol's lone moon, a large asteroid captured billions of years ago. Originally a fairly small ULORD installation it expanded greatly to serve the needs of the 'USO Containment' and has now become the single largest UN facility in the Verge.
Second Fleet also has access to several captured 'pirate' shipyards (pirate in this context being anyone that ran afoul of the UN), giving it a broad but decentralized ability to construct smaller warships as needed.
Starting Bonus: Support Modules are free during faction creation. Additional Secondary shipyards.

Third Fleet (Eversea Sector)

Player:
-HQ Danu
Third Fleet is the current home of the UN Exploration Command, an organization that actually predates ULORD (never mind the militarization of the UN in following the Mutiny). Many of the activities of Exploration Command have steadily wound down after the major burst of exploration and settlement in the 25th century and much of Exploration Command is scrapped, mothballed or simply unfilled - depending if one is talking about hardware or staff.
Overall 3rd Fleet oversees a young, underdeveloped region of space and as such much of its available assets are smaller and/or older ships, many of them exploration and survey ships that have been militarized (highly modular UN designs making this easy). This level of military strength is generally sufficient as most of the problems they deal with are petty piracy of starving asteroid miners in 3d printed gunboats raiding each other in backwater systems or theotech smuggling between dig sites, buyers and corporations. Many of the UN's rear-area facilities ended up in Eversea along with the a number of training elements, particularly those servicing the Sunbreak and Columbiad sectors. While these are important, they are not exciting; 3rd Fleet has long been considered a deadend and a place where careers go to die.
HQ Danu is built on the former den of the 'Pirates of the Fairy Moon', conveniently close to the Clionan manufacturing hub and a major source for non-sensitive supplies.
Starting Bonus: Low sector threat. Bonus $XXXX of Secondary ships during faction creation.
Starting Malus: Core ships cost double during faction creation.

Fourth Fleet (Elysium Fields Sector)

Player:
-HQ Solidarity
Fourth Fleet's area of operations include both Elysium (which poses its own unique complications) and a substantive number of prosperous worlds, many of which squabble among themselves even as they chafe under UN oversight. As such it is filled with a large and ever-increasing number of general purpose starcruisers and 4th Fleet is broadly considered the most powerful of the four numbered UN fleets. 4th FLeet has also gotten a well-deserved a reputation for being very in your face among the colonies which has driven a number into the arms of Elysium.
HQ Solidarity is fortified moon inside a large exclusion zone, completely closed to the public and home to shipyard and factories to support the heavy UN Espatier forces in the region. While not quite as large as HQ Novopol in terms of ship berths and the like, HQ Solidarity has multiple enclosed assembly rooms. 4th Fleet also operates a number of major bases across Elysium Fields and into neighboring sectors.
Starting Bonus: Bonus $XXXX of starcruisers during faction creation. Additional Star Cruiser shipyards.

Fifth Fleet (Sunbreak Sector)

-HQ Leitner
During the tenure of ULORD, Sunbreak was a continued quagmire of violence both local and interstellar, fed by various conflicting New Faiths and other ideologies. This had been slowly calming by the time of the Mutiny however, and while Fifth Fleet was initially large (and in familiar ground, given how many UN operations beforehand had worked to mediate various conflicts) its ships and crews were progressively reassigned to more needy regions over the decades. In the current day, 5th fleet is little more than an administrative HQ and a couple patrol squadrons - many believe that the 5th Fleet has in fact been cut much too deeply and that the UN needs to properly garrison the sector but so far, the demands of other sectors have came first. Some opine that this has allowed the criminal element to take root and the perceived placidness of Sunbreak is just a mirage.
HQ Leitner is a surface facility, an entire Ireland-sized island ceded as a base of operations. Originally dotted with various Espatier camps and training sites, the progressive reduction of Fifth Fleet has seen most of them fall into disuse. The former orbital station has actually been sold to private industry and a new, much smaller orbital facility provides local moorage while most depot-level maintenance is handled by Third Fleet in Eversea.

Sixth Fleet (Farsight)

-HQ Tempest
Sixth Fleet was effectively disestablished in 2671 after the Hilda Affair and Circle of Six court-martials, its ships and crews reassigned to the Fourth Fleet. While the 6th Fleet does exist on paper, these days HQ Tempest is nothing more than a cluster of offices inside HQ Solidarity. Even after thirty years the Hilda Affair still rankles many in the upper echelons of the UN and it seems plausible that if a new fleet is to be assigned to Farsight it may be a new, seventh fleet instead of the disgraced 6th.

UN Task Forces

The UN Task Forces are the other half of the overall UN enforcement and oversight structure; whereas the numbered fleets are assigned to a specific static region, the named TFs are mobile and move from region to region as needed. In practice the UN organizational structure lets them 'unload' much of their support needs onto the local numbered fleet, while the TFs bring a well-coordinated and often specialized set of hardware and staff to deal with pernicious problems. In the UN structure the commanding officers of the Fleets and Task Forces are considered equivalent, even if for operational purposes TFs are generally considered subordinate to the numbered fleet who's sector they are in.
While the numbered fleets are broadly organized on the same lines, albeit with significant variation in the specifics, the task forces are almost all functionally unique. Created for some specific purpose even if said purpose has expanded enormously, TF organization and capability is normally idiosyncratic if not downright byzantine.

RULES

Nation Creation

Nations-states are the intended primary player style of Ruins, these are the planets located in the Verge that are seeking their own destiny among the alien stars and represent the rare highly stable worlds that survived the Disruption. Most but not all of them are worlds that were amicable to human life and development and range from developed to mid 21s century to late 22nd in terms of infrastructure, and have populations that numbers in tens of millions.

Nation Starting Package

• National Template
• 5 NP (Nation Points) in National Taxes
• 2 NP in Trade
• 2 NP in Ground Forces
• 2 NP in Aerospace Forces
• 2 NP in Noncombat Units
• 2 NP in unassigned military
• 5 Nation Points to be used as desired
• 3 Special Points (SP) to be used as desired
• Resting Stability 50

Player nations have to describe their:

• Homeworld:
• Government Type and Ideology: Affects stability, if you’re the baby eaters of Zardoz and you ally with Ghandi of Neo-Avatar, you’re going to lose stability, if you’re the Iron Prussians of New Stadheim and you invade Bonaventure to increase your realpolitik you will gain in stability. High stability allows for bonus income and rules and special events that are good. Low stability leads to unrest and potential civil war.
• Background: Were they are a forced colony of exiles or planned colony settled by the space Mormons?

Fluff will help integrate you into the game setting, as well as how your nation develops, a Marslike planet of underground space dwarfs might get a bonus to asteroid mines as a random example while a Earthlike planet may get an economic boom as more people settle the untouched lands.

National Templates

Colony Origin
Everyone came from somewhere.

• Major Power Colony - The major states of Earth scattered colonies far and wide, master-planning them as microcosms of the homeworld. +3 Diplomacy ranks
• Polyglot Settlement - A majority of colonies were settled in a relatively ad-hoc manner with no strictly defined cultural origin. +2 Diplomatic ranks
• Frontier Consociety - Many of the later or more distant settlements were spearheaded by various groups with plans to create strange new societies. +1 Diplomatic rank, +1 Perk (must cost 1 point, does not count against normal limit)
• Absolute Weirdos - A rare few colonies have, often due to events that happened after the colonial founding itself, gone completely strange by the standards of most people. +0 Diplomatic rank, +10 Resting Stability, +1 Occult Rank

Astrographic Location

• Just A Place - Most colonies (and the vast majority of major ones) have no particularly noteworthy location in overall human space. [+1 Nation Point]
• Ragged Edge - While human space has no strictly defined border, the outer edge of the Verge starts to fade into poorly plotted systems very rapidly. Out on the edges of known space you'll find a lot of time to stare into the abyss. [+1 Special Point]
• Busy Neighborhood - Your system is in a particularly dense region of space, giving you both ample local trade opportunities and regional rivals. [Trade +$50/per, Military +$1000, must have at least one neighbor-related trait]
• Nexus - A handful of star systems are blessed with a particularly large number of jump points, making them natural gathering points. [-1 Nation Point, +$500 Trade, enhanced UN presence, some traits have modified costs]
• Cul-de-Sac - Not every jump point leads to more jump points. Many don't lead anywhere exciting, while a few lead to nice planets that sadly have no other jump points. [Some traits have modified costs]
• Backwater - Sited in a cluster of closed jump points, navigation near your home system is a notorious pain. This hampers large-scale settlement and trade, but it also hampers all but the most determined UN patrol squadrons as well. Win some, lose some. [Modified nation generation]

Diplomacy and Relations

• Rank 0: Your society (or at least your diplomatic corps) is strange and difficult for outsiders to deal with.
• Rank 1: You are often characterized as standoffish or having weird cultural quirks that fairly regularly cause problems for more straight-laced types like the UN.
• Rank 2: People are people all across space, though distant Earth and its people share little points of understanding with you.
• Rank 3: You are a precious copy of your Solarian patron.
• Rank 4: Your society follows Earther trends and cultural norms to a level that is downright slavish, if not outright Stepfordian. Your people actually find it difficult to deal with fellow Vergers.

Economic Structure

• Continental Economy - While technically incorrect, the concept of "continental" powers and economies is still useful when discussing far-flung worlds in the blackness of space. These economies are inward-focussed with much of their strength being internal; at the most extreme they are autarkic and isolated from the rest of humanity in any meaningful sense. Taxes +$50/per, Trade -$100/per
• Trading Economy -

Landmarks

Landmarks are large, noteworthy structures; examples include orbital elevators, enormous lunar massdrivers, a massive space fort built during the rough years, etc. While many landmarks (in this context) are built objects, particularly critical bits of geography may also classify; vast deserts that surround the habitable cities Many major worlds have one, a few have more. The effects of each will be determined with a GM, though all of a same type (eg, orbital elevators) will generally have the same effect.

Nation Points

These are used to customize your nation. They can be spent on the following in whatever combination desired.

• +$150 National Taxes
• +$200 Trade
• +$2000 in Starting Military
• A Landmark
• Raising Diplomacy and Relations one level
• Perks
• If your number of perks is greater than 3 + your number of flaws, each perk that exceeds this costs 1 extra NP

Special Points

Unique Technology
These are special technologies that you have invented, improved, mass produced and generally made your own. While not secret, they are not easily copied by others without either diplomacy or theft - it's one thing to know that your ships are armored in Krupp-II Ferro-Scale Armor, it's completely different to know the specific manufacturing process. A GM will work with you to create them.

• Rank 0 (0 SP): Nothing special.
• Rank 1 (1 SP): 1 unique tech.
• Rank 2 (2 SP): 2 unique techs.
• Rank 3 (4 SP): 3 unique techs.

Unique Abilities
These are more nebulous 'abilities', things that your state has cultivated over the years. They are organizational and structural in nature and cannot be easily replicated without sometimes literally a generation of work - technology can be stolen, but the KGB wasn't built overnight. Examples might be an omnipresent security state, deep and abiding ties with revolutionaries across the Verge, covert vampire hunters, an exceptional ability to make sense of the delphaic pronouncements of the posthumans, etc and sundry. A GM will work with you to create them.

• Rank 0 (0 SP): Nothing special.
• Rank 1 (1 SP): 1 unique ability
• Rank 2 (3 SP): 2 unique ability
• Rank 3 (6) SP): 3 unique abilities

Occult Lore
The occult is a very broad set of believes, practices and knowledges that fall outside the 'accepted' norm. At the dawn of the 27th century this most regularly means topics like interacting with posthumans or decoding the works of the long-lost Forerunners who settled the worlds when humans were still inventing fire. That is not the limit though, there are many poorly-explained and poorly-understood phenomenon in the deep black, some of which harken back to a more mythical era of Earth's history.

• Rank 0 (0 SP): 21st century level of understanding of all things paranormal, from posthuman theotechnology to exotic and dangerous xenomorphs to the haemovore virus to the Things Outside - the truth is out there and maybe you know it exists, but its not wherever you are. (Most Solarian powers and those that reject various dangerous theotechnology sit here)
• Rank 1 (1 SP): You have accumulated some occult lore. At this stage you can broadly identify differences between the origins and sources of occult power, and with some effort conduct appropriate countermeasures. You may select one field of knowledge that you are proficient in. (Most Verger states that have spent any significant time chasing posthuman technology sit here)
• Rank 2 (3 SP): Your library is well-stocked and smells of rich mahogany. The paranormal is no longer a stranger and you are one of the elite few to have knowledge spanning multiple disciplines. You may select two fields of knowledge that you are proficient in.
• Rank 3 (6 SP): You leave the matters of the occult to top men and even the Lin Chinese consider you a peer - or perhaps a threat. You can be assumed to be proficient in all types of occult knowledge.

Nanofabs
Additive manufacturing technology (3D printing) is ubiquitous and has been for a large part of a millennia. However there is still degrees to it, and advanced posthuman-derived nano-fabs can construct objects rapidly and at atomic levels of precision.

• Rank 0 (0 SP):
• Rank 1 (1 SP):
• Rank 2 (2 SP):
• Rank 3 (4 SP):

Perks

• People's Champion - Your government is popular with the people, harder to lower your stability and easier to increase it.
• The War Machine - Your society has been oriented towards the production of weaponry and your people accultured towards the need and righteousness of doing so. For every $1 spent on military procurement you receive $1.5 in actual military units, though your people expect you to use it. Giving this largess away to fellow travellers is acceptable, but profiteering will swiftly stack up negative issues - from popular revolt to the rapid growth of a fantastically corrupt industrial-mafioso class.
• Star Fleet - Your State is greatly invested in exploration and commerce. For every 4 dollars you spend on non-military spacecraft (explorers, freighters) receive 5. However, your people will require that you continually conduct exploration and commercial missions due to the importance of exploring and helping the universe.
• Admiralty - Your fleets are well trained and your admirals can sometimes miraculously avoid catastrophe. Be warned though, excessive losses will grind away skilled troops.
• Fanatics: Ground troops will fight to death if ordered.
• Occult Nexus - Your world is a mecca for the unusual. The specifics can vary greatly and must be defined - posthuman spires out in the countryside, a shallowing to the Things Outside, dangerous xenomorphs thankfully on the far side of an ocean, etc and sundry. This provides easy access to the physical artifacts of a field of Occultism, though it does mean you may regularly deal with unwelcome visitors, thieves and fedora-wearing, whip-wielding lion uplifts.
• Client States [subservient]: A nearby system is under your thumb, either as three independent small states underneath you or 1 larger state indirectly guided by you.
• Mayflower Society: Colonization bonus, civilians are quicker in moving in and making you get money. Gain +1 prestige for colonies and quicker advancement to next rank, though your population will expect you to defend the colonies with full force.
• Star Patrol - Your anti-piracy patrols are very effective and you can engage in anti-piracy patrols in NPC systems to increase goodwill.
• The Biggest Gang - You have deep connections to the various pirates and criminals of human space and your anti-piracy operations are as much an enforcement of turf as they are an enforcement of laws. Engaging in anti-piracy operations provides a return of money, though you are also known far and wide as being dirty as sin.
• 7.62nd Amendment - Your country includes numerous organised armed groups, small and often well-hidden fortifications, and a general do it yourself creed when it comes to defense. This can be helpful against invasion but any major stability drop is likely to lead to violence. You are basically Lebenon, Afghanistan, Star Wars, or Medieval Europe.
• Lotus Eaters - Your population works through the system to iron out grievances, doubling your return to resting stability if you are below resting, but as it is thoroughly disarmed and rules-following any invader will find little or no popular resistance.
• The Trusted Organs of Morality - You have some force in your state, a religion, cult, or even just a powerful press which has the trust of vital sections of your political classes which gives you a shield of virtual stability. However, you must appease this force or the virtual stability will become negative.
• Office of Naval Infanticide - For whatever reason you can't stop making new technology in the most dangerous and immoral way possible. Each new technology you develop takes 3/4ths normal time but also costs has a GM-determined stability loss.
• Ship Enhancer - you may buy any one (1) enhancement off a hull enhancement list twice, with the exception of Variants.
• Core Ship Yard - you may construct Core Warships.

Flaws

• UN Sanctioned List - You're a rogue state as defined by the UN as well as your previous actions. While at the moment there is no political will in regime changing your state, you are on thin ice with Earth and other NPCs. This flaw may not be taken if your Diplomacy & Relations stat is 3 or higher.
• Bete Noire - The collective Verge states and even possibly the UN treat you with distate if not outright hostility, but your Solarian patron ensures your safety in face of this obviously completely unwarranted opprobium. This flaw may only be taken if you have Diplomacy & Relations 3 or higher.
• Peaceniks - Your people don’t like offensive war and will lose stability if you engage it.
• Dirty Cops - Your anti-piracy efforts have been compromised and you are more vulnerable to it
• Keystone Navy (2) - Perhaps regime loyalty is more important than competence or you just regained the stars, for the immediate future your fleet will make blunders.
• Supernormal - While you may have knowledge of the occult and even a map to it, it seems to continually elude you. Posthuman spires will be bereft of any easily-accessible machinery, vampire cults will actually just be goth nightclubs and aliens will be nothing more than musty old stonehead carvings - impressively large and disapproving but how many carven basalt heads do you really need?
• Cerberus Syndrome - Your people just can't stop licking the black goo. You can investigate and even exploit occult artefacts but you will take a steady stream of casualties and overrun research facilities doing it. This may however lead to faster occult research
• Prophet of Profit - You state is fantastically inefficient when it comes to weapons, perhaps seeing the entire military as just a massive state-sponsored grift program or simply one with overly excessive bureaucracy. It requires $5 of spending to get $4 of military items. Moreover, altruism is a foreign word and both your state and your people will look poorly on acts of charity.
• Disunited - You are the single greatest power on your homeworld but it is not under your control, there are 1-3 powers on your planet who are not easy pushovers even if they are significantly smaller than you individually. They are not intrinsically hostile but expect them to react to your actions, especially bad ones.
• Factious - You merely one among several PC grade powers on your homeworld (1-3). The other powers are not intrinsically hostile; they may object to certain actions taken against you (for instance, an off world invasion) but may also attack you if you conduct yourself poorly. This flaw will generally have a GM meddling in your affairs fairly regularly. If combined with Coldest War, this flaw is worth 2 points.
• Surrounded - You are in a particularly thickly settled region of space, meaning that you will generally need to pay better attention to your (many) neighbors lest you trip over them.
• Coldest War (2) - A nearby system houses a power that wants your blood, if combined with Disunited they will have a client state among your neighbors. If combined with Surrounded, you are probably facing a coalition of powers. You may elect to be mutual Coldest War with another willing PC, for those who want to engage in guaranteed PVP.
• Political Science: Your R&D efforts are behind the times and focused on other matters then important stuff of better laser guns.
• 5 Year Plan: Economic slow growth hampers your nation.
• Dark Fate - The universe just has it out for you. This is a meta-game disadvantage which will effectively harden the GMs hearts against you; they will not give you the benefits of the doubt or fudge dice in your favor. You are still the protagonist of your story but you're no longer playing Civilization, you're playing Dwarf Fortress.
• No-Name Ships - hull enhancements cost double.
• Limited Shipbuilding - you may only construct Secondary Warships, though this limit does not apply to using NF. If you are a Cul-de-sac this flaw returns 2 points.