 August 11, 2009 - 1:36pm | Ruling Authority: Depending on the resolution of the modules it should be the Eorna though if the total TV ending of the cryo-egg ship is dropped the Eorna is essentially a dying race. A dying race is likely to be both very posessive and to take huge gambles with their "charge". If the PCs lose the battle but the battle fleet from Pale moves in then its very likely the system will become a protectorate or territory of Pale or the UPF. If its a Palon territory then Streel will be the defacto ruling authority (my take on the situation in Pale) but if a UPF protectorate then all mega corps will abuse and run rampant in the system as the UPF cant be seen to favor any one mega corp so that the mega corps will use that to get away with resource rape and environmental murder while an underfunded Native Protective Agency supported by Space Fleet desparately tries to prevent the worst harm to the natives. Thought must be given to whether you'll introduce the Rim society and races as this will make the Zebulon system a major hub of commerce and communication. Leading to and increased presence by Space Fleet. If the eorna emerge as the ruling authority (only possible IMO with a successfull defense of the planet by the PCs) whether as a dying or thriving society they will be best described as control freaks. WHy? Because they resigned themselves to death and hatched a long term plan to preserve life and oppose the sathar. The fruit of that plan is the 3 primitive native species from which the eorna dream was that one would be able to rise up eventually and replace the eorna and stop the sathar. Now a thriving race wont want to roll over and be replaced so it will try to retain control and a dying race will fear that the newcomer high tech civilization will swallow up and destroy their work of generations so it will try to exert control. Either way the eorna will be percieved as control freaks in certain instances. Rebuilding the Volturnian Civilization: Despite the sudden influx of new blood into their race (which will have to be creche raised) the eorna will be scrambling to rebuild and will be kind of behind the 8 ball. One strategy to overcome this is to negotiate with various entities; mega corps, UPF, Republic of Pale, brother hood of spacers, & etc, trading away "rights" for money, material or manpower. One mega corp could get asteroid mining rights in exchange for building an resource refining and industrial complex that the eorna will inherit ownership of in 30 years. PGC might get a consession to build and operate a space station with certain strings attached like they're required to provide a certain number of berthing slips for Y number of eorna ships and one deck of the station will become eorna property but otherwise no profit generated on or through the station by PGC will be taxed for 20 years. and so on. If the eorna are a dying race I see them doing much of this and creating a trust to be overseen by a vursk trade house that will do nothing but manage the assets of Zebulon in trust for the primitive races. of course if a primitive ever advances to the point of being able to manage their own affairs the trade house will lose its job so just how motivated will they be to see that happen. Funny how the rise in drug and alcohol use has gone up among the natives... The Mechanon Question: obviously the mechanons must play some role in this as the implication of STar Law and the UPF getting involved to resolve the Mechanon Revolt implies a heavy involvment of the mega corps and the UPF as a society in the fabric of a rebuilt Volturnus. I think a the eorna will push for assistence from the mechanons as they represent the only industrial capacity on Volturnus at the conclussion of the SF-2 module. Plus the UPF and the mega corps will be seriously currious about the evolution of the mechanons so that will lead pressure from them. So I'd envision them playing a role but not being happy about it till it boils over into the mechanon revolt much like the boxer rebellion in China (nod to Capt. Hellraiser for that idea). With so much involvment of Frontier citizens and business in Volturnus the revolt will have to be resolved with UPF & Star Law assistence. The Primitives: The truth will be out about the eorna's intervening in their society after the battle for Volkos and while the Ul-mor and the 'Banga will probably take it in stride the edestakai will be the most cut and dry in their response even responding, possibly, with anger. Most of the natives will also resent the control exerted by the eorna and precieve the eorna as treating them like children (which will be ture). There is great fodder here for meddling by those with less than pure motives and a crisis could ensue if someone provided flint lock muskets to the edestakai (something very much with in the technological base, if just barely) which they would quickly learn to copy and produce themselves. Watch out for a holy war to ensue if that happens as they may just decide to put an end to the "god-killing" Ul-mor or riot over the blasphemy of the eorna 'evolving' them. The American Indians will make a good model for the types of corruption and cultural destruction for the Volturnian natives. Whatever native protection agency is set up will undoubtably have its hands full. Security of the System: The eorna will be way out of their league to deal with the security of the system and they will very likely look to license and outfit to do it for them. Mercenaries? Mechanons? Militia advisors brought in to oversee the formation of an eornan organization. Since the Mechanons already have control of a planetary defense center they would likely retain responsibility for ground based defenses and have the capability to shoot down relief drops from orbit during the mechanon revolt latter on. Societies that lack the native population to man their own military usually outsource; mercenaries. I believe someone out there developed a "mercenary star base" on volturnus- this is a great idea- make volturnus a hub for mercenary recruitment and adventure as the eorna routinely outsource their military needs. The problem with mercenaries though is they rarely fight to the death as their stock and trade is the military unit they represent and if it goes away through casualties they are out of business. So with certain developements in the Mechanon Revolt you could have the mercenaries backing off rather than face overwhelming causualties leaving Volkos surrounded and cut off with a desparate handfull of mega corp security personel, eorna, primitive natives, a few Star Law agents, and Land Fleet's version of embassy guards and oh my the player characters! pretty much like the situation in Peking during the boxer rebellion. At that point the eorna will begin to see the value of raising their own militia and stop the practise of outsourcing though the mercenary culture on volturnus will be fairly entrenched and will persist as "the place to find a mercenary" Why reuse Volturnus as a setting: 1. PCs are heros here and that plus 2 cr will by a cup of coffee (of course 2cr buys starsucks coffee everywhere else as well) ie the PCs have some noteriety. 2. its well detailed and populated with flora and fauna (less work than create new plants and animals) 3. it is or will be an important hub for commerce, research, exploration, the meeting of new races (Rim), and a major base for mercenaries 4. lots of exciting possibilities for adventure with the PCs in the roles of native police, mercenaries, eorna hired mercenaries, space fleet personel stationed here as befits the systems importance, the mechanon revolt, Star Law personel, first contact with the Rim occurs here. 5. with the PCs being the heros of the Battle of Volkos and the eorna being desparate for help they very likely will make some sort of offer to the PCs: no docking fees or no tax for life and would you mind doing..... 6. With primitive natives, control freaks in authority, mega corps taking advantage, and mercenaries instead of a proper military organization, how could you not find adventure in such a situation? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 11, 2009 - 3:52pm | Great ideas. Just one thing, mercenaries are actually more effective than you've made them out to be here. Did you know that half the foreign contengent in Iraq are mercenaries sent by mercenary organizations? More mercenaries have died in the war in Iraq than Americans. They are at least as fierce of fighters, and account for more than 80% of the special ops and black ops missions there. When there's a mission that America can't afford to get blamed for, or which are too dangerous for their troops, they recruit mercenaries. The fact is, mercenaries fight tooth and nail, not for themselves, but for the money it will bring to their families or because they can't fight for their country in any other way. Some times they just have bad attitudes that are only good for war; they fight because war is all they know. It's an $800 billion a year business, worldwide, and there are a lot of multi-national mercenary conglomerates with whole armies to rival many countries, and which have more advanced equipment than even many of America's own troops (mercenaries don't typically have to buy their own bullet proof gear and nearly always get the best of the best of those). When you see Anime movies depicting such organizations, they're not shittin'. Organizations like that really do exist in our world today, just not equipped with all that future tech (Spaceships, mecha, laser rifles, etc.). They have fleets of small war ships and even some small aircraft carriers, but mostly specialize in ground operations. Their troops are worth every penny, otherwise they wouldn't be able to stay in business. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
August 11, 2009 - 8:14pm | I see your point, I was thinkin in terms of historic examples where a state, for whatever reason had manpower issues and had to hire mercenary contingents, specifically Carthage where the mother city was concerned that daughter cities may eventually challenge the older city's authority so they forbad the raising of troops anywhere but the capitol. As they grew they couldn't protect every thing with native troops and had to hire copious amount of mercenaries. In the end they could not maintain in the face of Romes manpower reserves. However, your example re-inforces my example somewhat- we dont hire mercenaries because we lack the manpower reserves but rather for other reasons. I think in a situation where there are just too few eorna to really risk them for military operations then maybe the mercenary attitude might be, "they need us we dont need them- there is always another corporate war brewing somewhere." Still you make some good points worth considering. I really do like the mercenary star base idea alot. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 12, 2009 - 1:32am | When you see Anime movies depicting such organizations, they're not shittin'. Organizations like that really do exist in our world today, just not equipped with all that future tech (Spaceships, mecha, laser rifles, etc.). They have fleets of small war ships and even some small aircraft carriers, but mostly specialize in ground operations. Their troops are worth every penny, otherwise they wouldn't be able to stay in business. You mean like Celestial Being? Shadow Shack came up with Mercenary Starbase, by the way, Jedi. "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
August 12, 2009 - 7:36am | I actually had others I had seen in mind. Gundam is more like rebels vs. imperials than mercenaries for hire (Though some of the Celestial Being troops had been mercenaries previously). View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
