Nation Feature: Hellscapers

Hellscapers NATION

Hellscapers FTL: Hellgate Drives: The laws of reality don't apply to the hellscape, and as such we know that their home dimension is technically allowing FTL travel by some laws we don't understand, though most of its occupants describe it as an ocean of energy with thoughtform worlds of energy that are tied to it. As such they come out of their realm towards the outer edges of a solar system under most circumstances. But they can escape back into their realm at will.

Hellscapers Sublight Drives: Blood Drives: No, this is NOT a bunch of people who go door to door asking for blood donations to pay for fuel for their ships. It is a nickname given to the observed way their drives work, most compare them to Antimatter drives for performance, but there is always a faint red nebulous residue around their ships, and left in their wake. Though study show it is just moisture most are suspicious of it.

Nation Trait Basic:
Daemonworlds: The worlds of the Hellscapers, through arcane technology or other methods long lost to all but the daemoniformers have inhabited their worlds, but as their home realm is inimicable to structure and form the hellscapers used their arcane arts to weaken the bonds between their realm and the material realm, in these breaches of reality entire star systems sit within an unholy blend of dimensions, twisted corrupted and extremely dangerous to even attempt to reach.
Beyond the Pale: The beings of your realm are beyond twisted corrupt abominations, your very presence makes other uncomfortable, your visage terrifies the most stalwart of heart and can even introduce heretical programming errors that corrupt even artificial intelligences who maintain too close a presence.

Nation Flaw:
Unholy Abominations: So great is the corrupting influence and horrific countenance and nature of the Hellscapers that they, their ships and all their like are fired upon instantly by all but the most horrific of deviants, they are as such at a constant state of war with all nations except other Hellscapers and Unforgiven nations. The only nations a Hellscaper nation may deal with are other Hellscapers and the Unforgiven.
Unstable: Though greatly powerful the Hellscapers have become a product of their environment whether they were born of the hellstuff or corrupted to its purpose, and as such the more powerful a hellscaper the more powerfully it is bound to its environment, without daemoniforming the strongest parts of the Hellscapers must return to their realm before their unnatural instability on the material universe forces them to return anyway.

NATION TRAITS:

From Hell:
Daemonships:	Many of the very ships used by the Hellscapers are warped, twisted and inhabited by the otherthings of that unmentionable realm, and they move through space as if literally born to it, like a shoal of piranha, but more disconcerting is their ability to slid in and out of their unreality at will like flying fish moving in for an unnatural kill. Provided they are not too close to a planet in any case.
Unholy Aura:	Their unnatural realm protects the beings that inhabit it with an unnatural resilience to most material technologies, make no mistake such creatures are far from immune to material weapons. But such things are usually robbed of some of their power, or deflected more easily, than is normally the case.
Daemonswarm:	Present only where the largest armies or fleets gather these beasts are drawn to the large gatherings of hellscapers like vultures and flies to a battlefield. Uncontrollable hellthings bent of making their pickings of the battlefield they will swarm upon the losing proposition. No matter whether hellscaper or enemy. All are fair targets for them.
Warped Weapons:	The weapons of the Hellscapers take on an unnatural ethereal quality to their weaponry, weaponry that gains the ability and nature to be far more effective against normal defences than would ever normally be the case, shields yield more quickly, armour fails more rapidly, and flesh stands no chance. No chance at all.

Warped Reality:
Distorted Time:	This is a double edged sword, and is not truly time travel in any sense. But when the concentrations of the Hellscapers are felt on the battlefield time feels warped, one man might react a dozen times more quickly than he believes is possible where another feels like his senses and actions are dulled in quicksand.
Purewarp Weapons:	Extremely rare, not like the corrupted weapons mentioned above these are special artifices only ever seen on the largest battleships dreadnoughts and maulers, and usually only as its main weapon. These weapons allow no defence at all. Anything within the length of such a blast ends. Though it only effects within the beam itself. (Can only be fired once a day for a mere minute)
Unnatural Geometry:	Daemonworlds take on an unnatural geometric nature, they begin to feel four dimensional and beings of the material plane, biological and artificial, are usually disoriented severely the first time they fight in such a place making them quite vulnerable.
Thin Veil:	Beings of the Hellscapers are able to break through the thin veil of a battlefield more easily than anywhere else, though other sites of extreme emotional turmoil weaken the veil enough for incursions. Hellscaper raiding parties thus can be seen to appear almost anywhere at any time, though a battlefield might weaken the veil enough for an army, an especially emotional funeral might only weaken it enough for one or two raiders to appear.

Corrupting Influence:
Whispers in the Dark:	There are some receptive to the Hellscapers, those who have desires for power, unrequited urges and extremely deviant behaviour. They are susceptive to the corrupting whispers of the hellscapers who can corrupt and turn such beings to their own purposes. Cults are the most popular target for such actions.
Uprisings!:	(Requires: Whispers in the Dark) The hellscapers drive their influenced lackeys together over time, and when they reach critical mass the Hellscapers drive and influence them to rise up and rebel against their masters, such a conflict can break the veil enough for an invasion to commence with little to no warning.
Tainted World:	The Daemonworlds of the Hellscapers are violently tainted, as badly or worse as those of the Unforgiven, while the Quantum Curse of accelerated Entropy of the Unforgiven slew all its victims in the end the tainted Daemonworlds corrupted all to itself in the end. Provided an invader didn’t discover a way to strengthen the veil.
Wracking Discontent:	Prisoners of the Hellscapers are rare. The corruption of their very natures extending down to either drive capturers to execute their prisoners, or the prisoners to kill themselves. Lesser Hellscapers may be taken prisoner more easily than many. But it is difficult for all but an Enslaver to keep them.

Strategic/Tactical Developments Traits:
Breach of the Veil:	(Requires: Thin Veil, Whispers in the Dark, Uprisings!) When the veil is thinnest, upwrisings wrack a world and corrupted saboteurs walk the worlds of the enemy, then the Hellscapers breach the veil, and invade the world from beyond, they need no such thing as dropships and troop transports, they make their way onto the world more directly.
Fading Away:	When the battle goes badly and your forces simply cannot continue the fight most have to worry about trying to evacuate their forces before the enemy destroys them. But not you. Your forces simply give up resisting their natural instability and fade away into the abyss. But doing so this way means it can take a while to reform your forces for another attempt.
Warp Storm:	(Requires; all Warped Reality Traits; all From Hell Traits.) A strategic weapon of incredible value, but massive risk. This calls upon your nations complete knowledge of the hellscape and brings it forth in an abominable unreality blending with the material universe cutting off entire worlds, or even solar systems from any possible aid. But the risk is massive. Should you lose control of it it will be your own forces, not theirs, that suffers its very primal, elemental nature.
Inbred Horrors:	The sounds and shapes of the nightmarish creatures that inhabit and form your realm are not entirely random things. No they are influenced by the fears and myths of those they are nearest to, what would appear horrifying to one would change to something equally horrifying for the next. None can fight your forces without the omnipresent crush of raw unchanneled fear.

Nation Feature: False Gods

False Gods NATION

False Gods FTL: Hyperwarp Drives: These drives 'dive' the ship into subspace contained within their own material fields, this drive is not terribly fast but neither is it terribly slow. In the end it is a very dull and uninteresting drive.

False Gods Sublight Drives: Fusion Drives: Normal everyday Fusion Drives like those several other nation types already have.

Nation Trait Basic:
Glowy Eyes: Your gods are eternal, and their very eyes give away the fact that they are gods when they choose to, whether due to technology like a Sarcophagus or simply biology your gods are functionally immortal, unless someone kills them, or they fall down a flight of stairs or something equally improbable.

Nation Flaw:
A Little too Fuedal: Your nation is very feudal with each of the gods ruling their own world or for the most powerful, several worlds, however this leaves a very power-hungry and fractitious nation with people very inclined to seek to power-climb the political ladder, even over the cooling bodies of their rivals.
A touch Gaudy no?: Uh... that is a lot of bloody gold... the toilet seat too? As ‘Gods’ your people are not just gaudy, they were the entire reason that most races sought to even create the word. Ships are covered in gold, thrones of marble, baths of precious gemstones. There is one problem there. Pirates LOVE raiding you. It’s always profitable, even if they just collect bits they shoot off to sell. You have to be the only nation in which the decorations are worth more than the intact ships.

NATION TRAITS:

Power of the Gods Traits:
Kara’kesh:	The hand device is a metal, glove-like object with a large red gem set in the palm. It is the personal weapon of the False gods and requires a specific genetic marker to operate. They are thought-controlled. The hand device can generate a shockwave that throws back anyone in its path with great force. The hand device can also generate an energy stream to a person's head that causes severe pain and eventual death. This function creates a mental link between false god and victim, which may allow them to send a message through. Hand devices can also be used to block ion and stun blasts and generate a personal shield.
The Eyes:	These rare devices are limited to one per member of the ruling lords (up to a maximum of 6), each device is typically used by one of the most important lords to boost the power of his or her personal flagship. A sign of their divine power. All combined may allow a vessel the ability to cause massive damage to an unsuspecting planet.
Ha’tak:	(Requires: Hangerise) These vessels can come in any capital ship size, but are massively multipurpose vessels, they house squadrons of fighters and bombers, are heavily shielded, well armed and carry a large troop contingent with the ability to land on a planets surface. (*ability limited to all Ha’tak’s under the size of Battleship) Also capable of making the ‘gods’ voice heard from orbit.
Voice of Command:	The voice of the gods is an intimidating thing and well received by their people who will obey instantly upon hearing it, but such is its power of suggestion and command that others might hesitate when exposed to it, or lend a threat more credence than is actually warranted.

Slave-Soldiers Traits:
Dependency:	Your soldiers are completely and almost invariably loyal to you, though they can be swayed temporarily your soldiers are dependent entirely on a product only you can provide, whether some sort of symbiote whose removal is lethal or simply dependency on a unique drug that not even the vaunted Crimeocracies could make or procure.
Weapons of Terror:	Your soldiers are slightly less useful than would be the norm, equipped with antiquated armour and weapons designed more to instill terror in others, for all their drop in fighting ability the effects on civilian populations is more marked than most other weapons might inflict.
Expendables:	Your soldiers are ridiculously common, they serve as law enforcement, soldier, labourers and crewmen for your ships and just about anything, this means a large drop in combat capacity, but they can be replaced faster than almost anyone could imagine. You simply draw on the populace you have doing other things.
Fanatics:	(Requires: Dependency)Your soldiers loyalties are beyond question, too far beyond question. They are practically immune to any issues of morale that might plague another, they will charge forwards into artillery without regard for casualties and all other manner of behaviour others would consider insane, but this effects their morale as they become afraid of an enemy so dedicated they will walk into death.

Second-Rate Technology Traits:
Cloaking Beta 0.5:	Your people are technology thieves, nobody denies that, and in fact any vessel smaller than 25 fleet points can be fitted with a cloaking device, though it is not as capable of as much protection as others. They do not maintain stealth at speed or in an atmosphere.
Hok’Taur:	Your Gods bodies are powerful whether hosts or their natural forms, they are naturally capable of limited telekinesis and have a greatly accelerated healing. Though i’d not recommend standing still for a tank.
Ring Transporters:	Fixed point teleporters that come in pairs, they allow limited ranged teleportation, typically no more than orbit to ground, though some ships are fitted with pairs for much shorter ranged teleports.
Kull:	Highly elite, extremely difficult to kill enemies with armour that is almost as capable as ship armour. These soldiers replace Space Marines, though they lack the intuition of Space Marines their resilience and high firepower as well as ability to walk through shields makes them feared elites. Thankfully they are quite a bit rarer. (Replaces Space Marines: Cost x2)

Strategic/Tactical Developments Traits:
Don’t let them get too advanced!:	Your tactics when dealing with advanced civilisation is usually along the lines of hoping to pre-emptively prevent them from ever reaching that stage. As such you’re know for bombing new colonies and non-spacefaring civilisations into ashes. And trying to do it against others when the chance rears its ugly head.
Deep Infiltration:	You send your spies or even try and infiltrate one of your false gods into the enemies infrastructure, the problem is you tend to be quite good at it, and as such it is possible that you will know the enemies moves ahead of time. However your natures eventually assert themselves leading to the infiltrator being caught, often red-handed.
Ba’al Conundrum:	We killed your god! Wait... no? How is he in four places at once? He’s a god... Oh shit. He has clones or something!!! Your highest gods are really really hard to put down no matter how hard you try!
Run away in a dignified manner:	Ok, it’s not often dignified, but when things get too hard your Gods know how to beat a retreat in style. Sure it’s usually loaded with enough clichés to kill a Nukem Nation, but hey, at the end of the day they get both the last word and away with their lives.... usually...

Advanced Politics and their off-limits approaches.

By now you have likely read the first post of this blog, and as such are aware that players will be seperated into four types of power blocs.

The Inter-Galactic United Nations.

The Independent Nation States.

The Rogue States.

The Criminal States.

Now not all nation types are accepted in all of these nation types, some are in fact severely limited in their choice, and some simply have no choice in the matter at all. Below is a list of all those nation types with restrictions. And if need be, a rough description of why.

Artificial Empire:

• No Restrictions

Bio-Technocracy:

• No Restrictions

Crimeocracy:

• Criminal State Only

Cyberneticist:

• No Restrictions

Destroyer:

• May not be a Criminal State

Despoilers:

• May not be members of IGUN

Economist:

• No Restrictions

Empire of Light:

• No Restrictions

Environmentalist:

• No Restrictions

Hunter:

• May not by members of IGUN

Industrialist:

• No Restrictions

Isolationist:

• May only be an Independent Nation State

Nomad:

• No Restriction

Psychic Hive: SEE UPDATE

Scientist:

• No Restrictions

Spymaster:

• No Restrictions

The Culture:

• May not be a Rogue State

The Unforgiven:

• Must be a Rogue State

Theocratic:

• No Restrictions

Warlord:

• No Restrictions

Scavengers (Kalic):

• No Restrictions

Royals (Gat):

• No Restrictions

Justicars (Kalic):

• Must be IGUN

Explorers (Gat):

• No Restrictions

Goliaths:

• May not be a Criminal State

The Ancients:

• May not be a Criminal State or Rogue State

Nukem Nation:

• May not be a Criminal State or Rogue State

Hellscapers:

• Must be a Rogue State

Mecha Nation (Under Gat's care):

• No Restrictions

False Gods:

• May not be members of IGUN

Other Notes and Issues:

The Psychic Hive is up for a vote, when I figure out where the Poll function here is... Basically. Whether the Psychic Hive should be discarded alltogether and replaced with another nation type. Also I want to know if I should simply discard all psychic elements. Feel free to comment on it.

New Engines and FTL's and the powers responsible for their use.

Starting off this one is a description of the new FTL drives, Sublight drives, and who uses which.

First on the list is the

Goliath Nation.

FTL: Fold-Space Drive; Due to the size and mass of even the smallest Goliath vessels no traditional FTL drives are adequate to move them at FTL velocities as either they required too much power or any multitude of other reasons. And so instead of other methods they use still massive amounts of power to literally fold space between the two points and punch a hole through which they travel. This allows them to traverse no more than 100 lightyears at a time, with two hours required to actually do the spacefold.

STL: Orion Drives; Goliath vessels put too much stock in armour and size, and firepower, to use most normal engines, they are simply a waste of space. No, instead they put a giant slab of armour, from dozens of metres thick to hundreds of metres thick, behind the vessels "front" and sticking through it is a hole, this hole matches a cannon perfectly. Now people might think "well that's a weakness" right up to the moment they "turn the engines on" by firing fusion bombs out of it which detonate practically on top of the armour plate using the blasts to 'push' them along.

Of course, it is grotesquely slow, but nobody will ever ever try and get in close to "shoot the engines" for one they're the most heavily armoured part of the ship, for second, they're a constant source of fusion bombs going off. (Is actually a real concept.)

The Ancients

FTL: Supralight Drive; This accelerates the vessel until it passes the 'light-speed barrier' in truth the vessel is sheathed in its 'own reality' where not only is FTL easily achievable, but the velocity makes it one of the fastest drives in the known universe. Conversely its useless without shields to protect the ship, and if it's damaged, well catastrophic boom, or catastrophic "abandoned in the middle of space without power and life support because the reactor died" are the usual results.

STL: Impulsion Drive; This vessel uses advanced technology that most people fail to understand to act upon space like an oar accelerating the vessel without any Gee forces at all. It is not the fastest accelerating drive however as it isn't designed for the pure power input others might have. Relatavistic speeds may take years to achieve.(May not take "Relativity is a Bitch")

Nukem Nation

FTL: Acceleron Drives; Now you stop, yes you, don't even bother asking questions we don't know how their bloody FTL works, they accelerate, then they're at FTL velocities, then they decelerate and are NOT at FTL velocities. As far as we can tell they bend scientific fact over a bench and love it a little too much, then they're there.

STL: Flying Saucer Drives; Now the Nukem Nation might make their enemies, and friends, roll their eyes in ironic boredom when the flying saucers of the Nukem Nation come to visit, pass through, or anything that can actually be seeing. But the "spinning saucer" section is actually their STL drive and allows almost comparable performance to a Reactionless drive. Unfortunately it means all their ships, no matter how big, are flying saucers. All of them.

Hellscapers Nation

FTL: Hellgate Drives; The laws of reality don't apply to the hellscape, and as such we know that their home dimension is technically allowing FTL travel by some laws we don't understand, though most of its occupants describe it as an ocean of energy with thoughtform worlds of energy that are tied to it. As such they come out of their realm towards the outer edges of a solar system under most circumstances. But they can escape back into their realm at will.

STL: Blood Drives; No, this is NOT a bunch of people who go door to door asking for blood donations to pay for fuel for their ships. It is a nickname given to the observed way their drives work, most compare them to Antimatter drives for performance, but there is always a faint red nebulous residue around their ships, and left in their wake. Though study show it is just moisture most are suspicious of it.

False Gods

FTL: Hyperwarp Drives; These drives 'dive' the ship into subspace contained within their own material fields, this drive is not terribly fast but neither is it terribly slow. In the end it is a very dull and uninteresting drive.

STL: Fusion Drives; Nothing special here. Move along.

And that is it for today's feature. Keep your eyes open for tomorrows feature,... if any.

Expected Nation Types of Stellar Empires 4

Existing Nation Types

• Artificial Empire: Your generic artificial intelligence race, highly advanced, highly troublesome.
• Bio-Technocracy: Your biological technology nation. Everything from micro'chips' to starships is made of juicy living technology.
• Crimeocracy: Imagine the Mafia won a presidential election and rebuild the government as they wanted it. Yeah, that's pretty much what we have here.
• Cyberneticist: Cybernetic enhancement is the more popular pasttime of these people, in fact its almost impossible to find someone here without.
• Destroyer: You call that a planet-killer? That's not a planet-killer THIS is a planet killer! These guys are all about overkill.
• Economist: Money makes the world go round. And we have a lot of money, and are quite skilled at getting more.
• Empire of Light: An energy based nation dependent on proximity to the sun.
• Enslaver: These people are your bog standard freedom-deprivation specialists. And involutary labour marketeers.
• Environmentalist: These treehuggers will defend the environment. Very violently.
• Hunter: Ever watched Predator? Thats these guys.
• Industrialist: Their factories cover the skyline and fill the night sky with waste light.
• Isolationist: These guys hate these damned young kids on their lawn.
• Nomad: Without planet to call home their fleets are often unwelcome in civilised space as strip-mining nuisances.
• Psychic Hive: These people have unparalleled psychic power.
• Scientist: Advanced technology, these guys have trouble controlling their scientific abilities. Accidents aren't uncommon.
• Spymaster: These men have intense skill at deploying intelligence agencies and spies into other nations.
• The Culture: The Culture is a powerful advanced group who generally engages in combat by making others want to join them.
• The Unforgiven: The Unforgiven have done acts too terrible to imagine in the past to imagine and this has resulted in the Quantum Curse, they will invade if they must.
• Theocratic: The theocratic nation is totally devoted to their religion, and they even have technology that they believe is derived from their gods power.
• Warlord: These have extensive militaries, their nature is to take what they want by force.

New Nation Types:

• Scavengers (Kalic): Salvaging and Scavenging technology is the highlight of their lives. Even if it is vastly unreliable.
• Royals (Gat): Power and Politics are their game, when you can pry them from a concert.
• Justicars (Kalic): Justicars of peace, they believe in enforcing the universes peace willing or not.
• Explorers (Gat): To boldly go where no-one has gone before. Except everyone who has been there before them.
• Goliaths: Very much like the Destroyers, but on a grander scale. Destroyers might use a fleet of vessels to carry out their work. However the Goliaths don't have fleets, but singular ships, massive terrible vessels.
• The Ancients: An ancient highly advanced civilisation in decay, has a grotesque habit of vastly underestimating their enemies.
• Nukem Nation: A nation that had the misfortune of discovering alien broadcasts early in their development cycle, inundated with B-Grade alien invasion horror and the like they have developed thinking it was fact.
• Hellscapers: Demons and Hellbeasts. They exist outside of the normal universe, and invade from the other side of their hellscape.
• Generic (Under Gat's care): These guys are as bluntly boring as possible.
• Mecha Nation (Under Gat's care): Mecha, transforming mecha... these guys have some weird shite.
• False Gods: Highly Advanced noble class ruling a technologically repressed peasant class. But they are more able than most would expect.

Up and Coming Changes for the next Stellar Empires, proposed, pending and definite.

Welcome

Welcome to the first post of this blog set up to exclusively host content about my RP Engines. Those of you who find this deliberately will understand, those who find it by accident will probably find these posts entirely incomprehensible and leave. In short, not my problem.

So to those of you who do know and understand I can only say. I thought it was high time I had a place to post news for you guys to check if you're not around when I feel like talking about it, or to those who aren't on my Yahoo contact list allowing them to see, drool or anticipate the new and upcoming things I am working on. Or just to provide vague mysterious hints that will lead to anticipatory frustration.

But that is enough rambling on for now. Now to get to the meat and general purpose of this specific post. The changes, proposed and finalised, for the next Stellar Empires engine which is now back on the editing shelf.

We'll start with definite changes/additions.

1. The number of nation types is being expanded to THIRTY.
2. The Pacifist nation type is being rendered extinct, at best they will have a trait in the common traits somewhere.
3. The IGUN trait will be removed from normal circulation and placed in a new mandatory single-choice category.
   
4. Basically, all people that choose IGUN will literally be members of an Intergalactic UN. (See Below in the Political Affiliations Section)
5. Players will be allowed to select two nation types for their nation.
6. Large and Huge nation sizes will only be allowed to a certain number of people, and these people will only be accepted if they are trusted with those nations sizes.

Potential/Likely Changes:

1. Races will be abolished to allow people to be more creative in the races that serve their nation. Sorry to anyone who enjoyed the racial traits, but this will allow people to also have several races as part of their nation instead of being monospecied.
2. The Special Trait may be abolished. If not abolished players will be allowed to "opt out" of taking it in favour for extra common or nation points to spend.
3. The vague fleets will be disposed of in favour of fleet points. These points would be spent on ships of the fleet, the more points spent on a ship, the bigger and more powerful it would be. With extra points having to be spent for a carrier.

Possible, but unlikely, Changes:

1. None so far.

Other Information of Value

Political Affiliations:

There will be four categories the player must choose one of.

IGUN: The Inter-Galactic United Nations, much like the real United Nations, with all the problems that plagues it, but the advantage of, if united to single purpose, little can stand in its way.

INS: Independent nation states.

RS: Rogue States.

CS: Criminal States.

The Rogue States will have major difficulties with any diplomacy, even with other Rogue States, but they answer to nobody for their actions. The INS don't answer to anybody, but they don't want to antagonise their neighbours or the IGUN, the Criminal States enslave, pirate and raid their way, almost totally immune to prosecution by the IGUN, and IGUN will be a powerful coalition alliance, but to do anything requires the votes of the member nations. And all member nations of Large and Huge size hold the power of Veto.

Random Events:

I would be remiss if Random Events did not remain, and so they will. But as usual they will be tailored to players, however there will be an underlying set of events, masked by the random ones, that is not so random or so easily ignored. Some of them will have vast empire-spanning side-effects if ignored, or worse if confronted! Watch out!

War:

War will be a much more... approachable option than has been the case before, sure it won't be perfect, but some people may find themselves unwillingly forced into war! BE AWARE, though you are the ruler of your nation the hand of the GM will rest lightly behind them, and the people can/might/will push for things to happen. Slave Raids and Piracy ignored too often may end up with a discontent people calling for a war. Despite no clear foe. And only a foolish ruler ignores them for too long.

The Inexorable Turn of Time:

Though less omnipresent and directing than Aliria Rises, there will be an inexorable clock ticking the eons now. Take care that you are not left too far behind this curve, for those who fail to heed the wheel of time are all too often ground beneath its wheel.