Talk:Imperial Stars: Fallen League

<Silence> Anyway I'll ramble on about the Star League for a moment
<Silence> the Star League is the dominant power in the known space, its stronghold is the Taranis sector, which has basically taken over either by Houses submiting it to and bringing brought one as member houses or being conquered
<Silence> Some decades before the start of the campaign, the Star League discovered the Verge, the sector of space that was advanced more technology and economically but more disunited, the Star League seeing the threat of nascent Verge launched a pretty impressive and bloody Red Conqusitda the first major intersellar and really intersector war since the destruction of Mereridian and the Republic
<Silence> Since war is expensive and the feudal makeup of the Star League as well as general warlordism, most of the Verge is occupied by fedual troops, often bands of jumped up mercs turned knights who are supplied by Star League's industrial worlds
<Silence> across the Verge worlds that would of been conquerers are now treated harshly as most of the people have been enserfed for foreign overlords, put on their thrones by buster cannons of mortarheads
<Silence> The other major interstellar polities that Star League contends with that can't easily be subdued with military force is the Church of Enoch which has its tendrils on worlds both within the League and outside, and Enoch is home to vast quantity of lostech mortarheads and warships, which means the Director-King of Haln, First Lord of the Star League has to tread carefully, mostly has attempted to co-op the Church
<Silence> so alot of politics there about cornations and church blessings
<Silence> the other major interstellar group is the various Pleadiean worlds that are out there, many of them beyond charted space, they tend to bribe the Star League, but the few attempts at engaging them military has saw castophric losses
<Silence> internal politics has seen the First Lord in the recent years attempt to centeralize power, which occasionaly meets with success such as the Supression of House d'Este and its world, but has caused alot of concern, one of the reasons why the revolt is so succesful is that the Great Houses had only in recent years been sending token forces to the conquered Verge mostly to support family members and their own little fiefdoms
<Silence> Matters are not helped by the fact that Director-King has over the recent decades become complete creature of his whims and the Court has become a increasing perlious place for anybody high or lowborn to exist in, if not for the effiency of his secrect police as well own considerable amount of military forces directly to him, there would of been a civil war long ago.
<Silence> So that's the Star League in a nutshell
<Lokar> So could you explain Huse d'Este?
<Silence> House d'Este
<Silence> Former home to House d'Este, the rebellion of 321 is still fresh in the minds of many of the inhabitants as well as the large armies that occupy this well developed water world. House d'Este fall from grace stems from their involvement in supposed conspiracy to incite rebellion and free the serfs of House Bao. Several of the members are still in hiding, and the rebellion and its repression has lead to wide-scale piracy as
<Silence> d'Este house forces had been one of the best space forces in known space.
<Silence> House d'Este was a member state that joined voluintarily back in the early formation
<Lokar> was the fleet neturalized?
<Silence> more merchant princes than warlords, they were a naval house
<Silence> a large portion of the d'Este fleet is still out there
<Silence> The downfall of Gothenburg (the planet)
<Silence> was that the Bao forces was able to drop a heavy army on the surface
<Silence> and unable to supply the fleet, half the fleet died trying to force a decesive battle, and the remainder fled to fight another day
<Silence> Anyway there is mixed opinions about the Suppressions
<Silence> Several members of d'Este were in fact busy trying to organize the serfs of Bao's worlds, but they were young and it wasn't clear that it would go anywhere. Many of the Great Houses view it as Bao's attempt to show supremacy while neutralizing a potential rival
<Silence> And rumors were that in the days after the fall of the d'Este, many of the Great Houses's suffered "piracy" that was little more sanctuary and aid given a legal cover
<Silence> any other questions
<Silence> if not I say we should introduce the characters, and have them give their thoughts about the two matters at hand
<Silence> 1. Where do they want to Star League Go
<Silence> 2. And what is to be done about Arden, the revolting Verge planet
<Holle_> for reference, I've mostly been pondering between two options as far as characters go: (well, still am pondering)
<Holle_> 1) Knight Sorta-Errant - something of a knight in shining armour kind of character with a Royal Mortarhead; a Great House noble who is a semi-constant headache for her family due to a combination of her position, idealism and also being dense as a lead brick. Bit of a battle maniac.
<Holle_> 2) Niva Sails Again - boat lady with a 3rd Gen Battleship, dark secrets and a book full of grudges; dark secret likely being association with House d'Este remnants and/or the vile spectre of republicanism. Knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy and all of them are pir- freedom fighters
<Holle_> so I figured I'd listen for a bit to see where the wind blows re: the rest of the party
<Silence> both are cool
<Lokar> So if we put down house noble does that make us the head of house, the heir or a member of the family?
<Holle_> a member I think
<Holle_> since heir is the next (and most expensive) tier
<Silence> Great House Noble is non heirs so second sons and cousins
<Lokar> ok
<Lokar> Jonathan (Jon) Walmas is 3rd or 4th child of the large House Walmas, looking for adventure to carve out a hold for himself. Like most of his House Walmas he supports the Leauge and hopes to see it move in a more expansionist direction. As for Arden order should be restored and new nobles to be instated to bring the rebellious world back into the fold.
<Silence> ok
<Silence> So a return to the glory days of the Conquista of Verge> And the restortation of League control on Arden
<Lokar> yeah
<Lokar> And of course House Walmas will be there as in days old.
<Shrike> if I am stuck as Lady Krill you can be Cadet of House Walrus
<Lokar> lol
<Silence> heh
<Holle_> ha
<Exhack> What does High Noble normally represent?
<Holle_> out of curiosity, what would/could Artifact Weapon represent on a warship, if it even applies?
<Silence> Like being a Duke in service to a planetary ruler
[21:30] Silence Artifact Weapon is mostly mech
[21:30] Silence if it did apply on warship it be a buster canon
[21:32] Holle_ from what I'm seeing from the mortarhead stat spread, melee is more oriented towards fighting other mortarheads and archery more vs conventional forces?
[21:33] Silence somewhat
[21:34] Holle_ which one buster cannons fall under?
[21:35] Silence archery
[21:35] Holle_ roger
[21:39] Holle_ I figure I'll go with Option 1 and House Lambert instead, for greater "what is she doingggg" factor
[21:43] Exhack Hmm.
[21:44] Exhack I'm split between two concepts at the moment.
[21:46] Exhack The first is a pretty conventional planetary noble pledged to whoever in the party is a house person.
[21:46] Exhack And the second is a semi-famous travelling demagogue.
[21:50] I00thlurker the alternative is she's a rogue Pleiadian with House D'este survivors
[21:50] I00thlurker which requires less setting fudging probably
[21:51] Holle__ ponders whether he should try to squeeze more points out for a boat, embrace 1st Gen Frigate, or have the family take her boat away because she keeps wrecking them
[21:53] I00thlurker in either concept her overarching goal would almost certainly share the same element of being hunted by the Church since they're after Divers, if I understood correctly
[21:53] I00thlurker and therefore being pro anything that limits the influence of the Enochians, and if that means giving the Star League a stronger hand well
[21:53] Silence They're after divers who are not Church approved
[21:53] Silence rogues
[21:58] Silence well the later one is more interesting to me
[21:58] Silence if you want my opinion
[21:59] I00thlurker sweet, let's go with that then
[22:00] Silence as for Exhack
[22:00] Silence first is easy to play
[22:00] Silence second would be interesting though, thanks to Shrike
[22:00] Silence you guys got the secrect police commisar tagging along with you
[22:00] I00thlurker oh man oh man
[22:01] Holle__ oh dear
[22:02] Shrike I'm still not sure exactly what I'm gonna end up doing
[22:03] Lokar many a BLAM will be found?
[22:04] Silence well yeah
[22:04] Silence Shrike instead of being the probationary master diver warrior
[22:04] Silence could be your commissar
[22:06] Holle__ here we go for now: https://swiki.fancruft.com/index.php?title=Amnelia
[22:07] Holle__ went with "no boat, wrecked her old battleship on a bad plan because Rival and now family doesn't want to give her a new one for the time being"
[22:08] Holle__ with Lurker playing someone apparently sensible I suppose I'll have to cover the "damn fool of the party" niche
[22:08] I00thlurker >sensible
[22:08] I00thlurker well, we'll see about that
[22:09] Exhack lol
[22:09] Exhack Okay, I think I have my concept.
[22:10] Silence so what Lurker and Holle character's opinion of the league and arden
[22:10] I00thlurker what do Pleiadians learn about the League?
[22:10] Shrike if I'm going to be the commisar, I'm going to be the one who's independently wealthy and putting in time as part of the trust fund requirements.
[22:11] I00thlurker obviously it's definitely going to be tilted negatively by the d'este survivors
[22:11] I00thlurker well, negatively to the House of Bao
[22:12] Silence could be a personal goal
[22:12] Silence Restore my house
[22:12] Silence kill Bao
[22:12] Silence become first lord
[22:12] I00thlurker but also probably in a reformist direction given that it's the younger ones and organized peasants who survived in its scattered navy
[22:12] Holle__ ( I do also blame Shrike and this picture, though: https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/3193722 )
[22:14] I00thlurker [22:12] Silence kill Bao
[22:14] I00thlurker Kill Bill...Kill Bao
[22:14] I00thlurker *thinking emoji*
[22:14] Exhack Alright Lurker, do you want a ninja maid or ninja butler?
[22:15] Holle realises that he's the only Great House Noble in the party
[22:15] Holle oh lol
[22:15] I00thlurker exhacku the combat butler
[22:15] Lokar butler?
[22:15] Lokar Where do you think you are?
[22:15] Shrike I was thinking of doing basically that Holle. Just a knight out to go fight in tournies
[22:16] Exhack https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/2959116 It's a better idea than that Lokar.
[22:16] Lokar heh
[22:16] Lokar Just high noble Holle
[22:23] Holle as for League and Arden, I suppose that'd be "Preserve the League and see it invigorated and restored to its noble roots!" and "restore League control over Arden and rescue it from the rapacious forces of space piracy and reckless revolutionism", respectively
[22:24] Holle since while Amnelia's a goof in rose-tinted glasses I think it's pretty hard to just miss what the First Lord is doing entirely
[22:25] Lokar puts hand on Amnelia should 'We have much to discuss...'
[22:25] Holle but being irony-proof over Arden is definitely in the books
[22:26] I00thlurker the pleiadians were at war with the ancient Republic/Star Patrol right silence?
[22:26] Silence yeah
[22:26] Silence the Pleds were descended from those who discovered the power of psi during the first exodus from Earth caused by takeover of AI
[22:27] Silence and basically went off to do their own thing
[22:27] Silence by the time the Republic bumped into them they were a wierd empire highly transgene psi dudes
[22:30] I00thlurker and the Enochians are pretty strictly controlling with their Divers right?
[22:31] Silence in theory
[22:31] Silence nobles who are divers
[22:31] Silence just have to be offically sanctioned by the church as being ok
[22:32] Silence though if they get to eggerious in breaking rules they get witch hunted, but basically if you're a low class
[22:32] Silence and a diver
[22:32] Silence you either a witch or your brought in
[22:33] Silence noblity goes for it because headliners don't like the idea of serfs or citizens getting any funny ideas about who is in charge
[22:33] I00thlurker hrrrmm
[22:34] I00thlurker and as a rogue pleiadian she probably can't forge a bullshit hedge noble family lineage
[22:34] Silence which is also how the church stays in power
[22:34] Silence they have not only the Comguard sitting at home
[22:34] Silence but a bunch of divers of their own
[22:35] I00thlurker yeah I can imagine they'd go sniffing
[22:35] I00thlurker and a fake ID like that would fall apart like wet tissue paper
[22:35] Holle Hm. Dex and strength are non-combat stats, huh...
[22:35] Silence what can save her from the church just mobbing her
[22:35] Silence is she got adopted by a family
[22:37] I00thlurker hrrrmmm that would do it
[22:37] I00thlurker eyes exhack, lokar, shrike, holle
[22:38] Lokar 8|
[22:38] Shrike you can be my family
[22:39] Shrike I adopted you so I would have a sister
[22:39] Holle nobody would suspect the commissar!
[22:40] Holle in retrospect the boat lady does tempt but it's a concept with fairly high potential for inter-party conflict
[22:40] Ent nice boat
[22:41] Holle since her opinion on League and Arden would p. much be "burn it down" and "work towards the ultimate outcome of having it cast off League boot off its throat", respectively
[22:42] Holle Poor Niva never really got a chance to get in touch with her inner terrorist back in the day...
[22:42] I00thlurker oh wait whoops looks like she got scooped by exhack's family
[22:45] Ent gotta find a friend for your scion
[22:46] Exhack https://swiki.fancruft.com/index.php?title=Tarsem_Isageum Since I figured Lurker might enjoy being the silly character I made someone with every important non-combat trait.
[22:47] I00thlurker they're both strategists and that's about where the similarities end lol
[22:48] Exhack In this case, an unjustifiably competent, cool-headed younger sibling.
[22:48] Exhack Who enables her worse habits.
[22:48] Holle_ oh dear
[22:48] Holle_ well, added my goals properly here: https://swiki.fancruft.com/index.php?title=Fallen_League_Goals
[22:50] Holle_ so what is Tarsem's angle
[22:51] Silence Lurker can be Ramza
[22:51] Silence and Exhack Delita
[22:56] Silence Anyway
[22:56] Silence yeah as you get your characters up
[22:56] Silence add to the goals page
[22:57] I00thlurker hrm
[22:58] I00thlurker so I should figure out why Fairika ran away from the Plaiedes in the first place
[22:58] Shrike adventure!
[22:58] Shrike escaping her assigned husband
[22:58] Lokar She's a rebel who doesn't play by the rules of the Seven Sisters!
[22:58] Lokar that too
[22:59] I00thlurker lmao I was literally thinking that
[22:59] Shrike perhaps she came to this land to FIND a husband
[22:59] Lokar but she also smokes and wears a leather jacket
[22:59] Shrike ONLY A MAN STRONG ENOUGH TO DEFEAT HER CAN WED HER
[23:00] Silence well the Pleadians are not united
[23:00] Silence its bunch of satrapys jocking for postion
[23:01] Silence they just loath barbarians and agree to murder anybody invading them
[23:01] Silence maybe her home fell to one of the stronger Satrap-Kings
[23:02] Holle_ adds one bit to the goals
[23:04] Holle_ extra bonus to irony!
[23:05] I00thlurker master divers aren't super common even with the Pleiadians I imagine
[23:05] I00thlurker rubs chin
[23:09] Lokar Carve an slice of League
[23:11] I00thlurker hates her king so much she runs and joins a band of d'este pirate misfits, gets adopted by the Isageums to nab their ships and a master diver before the church can come after her...
[23:19] I00thlurker though hrm wait exhack you said you were thinking of blood siblings though, right
[23:36] I00thlurker Exhack did you want to be blood siblings or adopted
[23:41] Shrike anyway I personally have no particular opinions re :ImpStars
[23:41] Shrike other than if someone is actually going to be some kind of mega superstar that needs to be known ahead of time
[23:41] Shrike I'm not even sure if everyone having their own ship is necessarily the best idea
[23:42] Exhack Blood works better I think.
[23:42] Exhack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u04zbEZ8b-g This is basically an inspiration, assuming you decide to play someone from the Blessed Kingdom of Ham Planet. :v
[23:42] Exhack Which is to be a fawning enabler who is much more competent than he has any right to be.
[23:43] Holle_ has no ship!
[23:44] Ent I'm pretty sure we have more than one ship per player capita at this point, so you could probably just get hosted by someone
[23:45] Ent I'm actually considering paring down to one cruiser myself
[23:45] Holle__ Lurker has 5 battleships as of his last build I believe
[23:45] I00thlurker yup
[23:45] Ent it was 4 last I checked
[23:45] Ent but ok
[23:45] I00thlurker exhack so then we're both pleiadians eh
[23:46] I00thlurker shrike is that adoption still on offer
[23:46] I00thlurker :V
[23:47] Ent I mean mechanically I can justify cramming in 3 regiments of Hussars in one medium sized boat, it just will probably actually play out differently
[23:47] Ent (note, figure out what cavalry does in this setting >.> )
[23:47] I00thlurker in this setting basically just distract a Mortarhead
[23:48] I00thlurker and overrun weaker garrison armies
[23:48] Ent well the idea was to do mortarhead desanting
[23:48] Holle__ as I understand it, Mortarheads here are something of hangar queens and have limited combat duration (due to pilot endurance if nothing else)
[23:49] Ent and be swordy fast attack naval infantry :V
[23:49] Holle__ so armies get a bunch of work done in practice
[23:49] I00thlurker oh so they're power armor dudes
[23:49] Shrike mortarhead desanting
[23:49] Shrike What does that even mean
[23:50] Holle__ power armor dudes riding desant on mortarheads presumably
[23:50] Holle__ or maybe normal dudes, I don't know!
[23:50] Holle__ kind of like elementals and battlemechs I suppose
[23:50] Ent pretty much yeah
[23:50] I00thlurker pretty much exactly the idea yeah
[23:50] Ent I was literally just about to mention elementals
[23:51] I00thlurker lmao exhack just watched the combo attack
[23:56] Holle it's quite the combo
[23:57] Exhack lol
[00:03] Holle hm
[00:04] Holle incidentally, if people get their characters ready
[00:04] Holle is this intended to start this weekend?
[00:08] I00thlurker we're probably seeing the saga of the evil-in-a-can-opener party through to the end first
[00:08] I00thlurker oh man though
[00:09] I00thlurker I was going to joke "fairika will be that for this party" and had an unbidden thought of Rita Repulsa
[00:10] I00thlurker and the image I'd chosen for her has kind of similar headgear
[00:10] Holle oh dear
[00:10] Ent 10000 years, free, etc
[00:12] I00thlurker AFTER 10,000 YEARS, I'M FREE
[00:12] I00thlurker TIME TO CONQUER EARTH
[00:12] I00thlurker isn't that right Tarsem
[00:14] Lokar Does this mean Silence will now go "I need five nobles witn ATTITUDE!"
[00:14] Lokar *begin guitar riff*
[00:16] I00thlurker I mean, you all have giant robots
[00:19] Lokar lol
[00:23] Holle I'm coloured red and silver, even!
[00:27] I00thlurker clearly exhack if we weren't adopted by a PC's family, we were adopted by the Repulsas
[00:28] Exhack Terrifying.
[00:29] Lokar Would you like to specialist troops for House Walmas?
[00:32] Holle if you want I'm sure Amnelia would be willing to take you under the aegis of House Lambert too
[00:32] Holle options!
[00:34] I00thlurker are you solidifying on a concept shrike
[00:35] Shrike have you guys settled on what sort of campaign you want to have?
[00:39] Shrike Like, um, if we're all about having a task force of ships. Does one planet matter? And if we're centering on a planet, why are we mucking about with a big fleet?
[00:39] I00thlurker yeah that's a good question tbh
[00:39] I00thlurker I think because of the nature of the sector the rebels might have a large fleet
[00:42] I00thlurker what is going on with the rebels Silence
[00:43] Holle for reference though the impression I'm having is that this is something of a Bast moment (and House d'Este being wrecked definitely was, given Ser Radowsky's lovely title)
[00:43] Silence rebellions across the sector
[00:43] Silence and also you can't just bombard the surface to win, people have to go down there and fight
[00:43] Holle or at least attempted Bast moment before the rebels crashed the party properly
[00:44] Silence Arden is just the introductry arc
[00:45] Holle_ so far it appears that the party largely wants to reform but not burn down the Star League and reassert control over Arden
[00:45] I00thlurker I figured I'd be the one without a mortarhead because, well, wizard
[00:46] Holle_ presumably without firing up the atrocitrons
[00:46] I00thlurker fairika can meaningfully contribute with psionic woo-woo action without actually being in a mortarhead
[00:47] Holle_ could always salvage her one in a pinch
[00:48] Holle_ unless combat breaks them beyond recovery
[00:48] Holle_ has been admittedly binging Battletech recently
[00:48] Silence just get three dead mortarheads of the same type
[00:48] Silence put them together in a room
[00:48] Silence and they will form a perfectly whole robot
[00:50] Holle_ Voilà!
[00:51] I00thlurker I mean I admit I'm pretty sure the battletech quotient in Imperial Stars is High
[00:53] Exhack From the impression I get we're somewhere between Dune and FSS.
[00:53] I00thlurker yup lol