Algol System
Consisting of the lush and green Palma, the arid and barren Motavia, and the icy and desolate Dezoris, all orbiting the Algo star, this planetary system, where both magic and science co-existed.
Until the rise of King Lassic. First a benevolent ruler, he became a cruel dicatator after converting to a mysterious new religion. His became a reign of terror and supression, until the legendary heroine Alis and her companions rised to defeat him.
From there, the Algol system saw the flourishment of extremely advanced technology over the next millenia, which among other things was used to turn the desert Motavia into a paradise world. Its inhabitants of multiple races lived relatively in harmony. The weather itself was kept stable, engineering plants were made to mass-produce both genetically modified living beings and advanced machines to serve civilization's needs. Artificial intelligences took the boring decisions needed for the day-to-day life.
Great Collapse
I wonder what
The People will see
In the final days.
But then strange things started to happen. Malfuctioning systems, rampaging biological experiments. And the people had grown so depedant on those commodities that they didn't know how to react. Palma itself was destroyed when its mechanized mechanized moon was made to crash into its surface. In the end, the young hero Rolf and his friends sacrificed themselves to destroy the Mother Brain computer that was responsible for keeping all the engineering plants and weather systems working. Yet in the aftermath as the survivors struggled to rebuild their lifes, there lingered the question of who had built the Mother Brain to begin with? The cloaked space station that housed it had exploded soon after for unknown reasons with Rolf and his friends inside, leaving no witnesses and little evidence behind. The closest thing to a clue are enigmatic references to “earthpeople”.
There was also left the issue of the survivors of Palma that had managed to escape in space ships or were in orbital stations when disaster struck. Motavia was slowly but surely degrading back into a desert world, so the Algo system could no longer support its population.
Whole New Worlds
Innumerable stars
Won't tell us where to go
It's a long long run
To the Place in the sun
With hopes and dreams
Our ship will cross the sea
To the whole new world
Shining like a Pearl
The whole new world
Only one pratical solution remained. A series of colony ships were built at great pains from whatever technology remained, and then pointed to the most promising worlds in the nearby stars. Initially with most of their population kept it cryo stasis, those ships set off to the long crossing trough the empty space. Many of those ships consisted of combined domes with their own soil and atmosphere, allowing for the growth of plants and animals inside, both for self-sustenance and seeking to re-learn the art of bioengineering.
As new generations were born and died inside those domes, in some cases they forgot they were inside an artificial ship, developing their own civilizations that considered their enclosed spaces as all there was to the world, even forgeting about the technology that surrounded them.
In other cases, power struggles broke out among the ship's crew on what courses to take, on how to invest their limited, dwindling resources.
Due to that and the harshness of space, more than one colony ship was destroyed, and many more simply vanished. Some resurfaced, some were found wrecked, but a significant number is still unacounted for after millenia.
Eventually tough, some of those colony ships managed to reach new planets filled with life that could house the population they carried.
The colonization process wasn't easy. Agressive wild life, local civilizations already there and darker, hidden things that weren't meant to be disturbed meant the colonists had to adapt to build their new homes.
Still, civilization flourished, with people remastering advanced technology. “Magic” had became something of the past, replaced by the more sophisticated and mass-produced Techniques Systems. Advances on star coordinate system beacons allowed for much easier travel between the newly colonized worlds. A voyage that had taken centuries to make could now be performed in a matter of hours!
The Government
Tecnically speaking, the worlds populated by the colony ships are still all under the command of the Government back in Motavia. In practise, the Government holds little actual power ever since the colony ships left the reach of the Algo System. Only after the stablishment of the star coordinate system beacons could the government start playing an active role on the distant citizens again. Due to that, government representatives and government army members can be found in every one of this new worlds, even those that openly declared their independence. The government officials usually let the local people govern themselves, but will intervene when big incidents happen, in particular trying to prevent any new inter-conflicts.
The biggest achievment of the government is probably that they managed to keep the economy relatively unified in the form of Meseta-golden diamonds fabricated by a mysterious process, virtually indestructible (to the point they can be found on the guts of monsters that chew right trough ceramite plate), yet easily compatible and transportable, Meseta will be acepted as a valid currency in virtually any place (including virtual space).
Hunter's Guild
Long ago with the rise of rampaging biological experiments, a new profession was born in the form of individuals specialized in hunting down those “biomonsters”-The Hunters. First acting alone, they soon started coordinating with each other in order to find the better jobs and payments, and supporting each other against tougher threats. This loose cooperation evolved over the millenia into a multi-planetar based organization that is willing to do almost any violent job for the right price.
Araguably as powerful as the Government, if not outright not more powerful, the Hunter's Guild is always willing to take in new talented members, and won't hold grudges if you break off with them. Its biggest mystery is how it can organize itself whitout any kind of visible leaders.
The Devastation War
After the new planets colonies stablized themselves, the people could enjoy some centuries of relative peace. But even then it was just a matter of time that somebody somewhere decided that they wanted something-and raised an army to take it by force.
The biggest conflict of that kind in recent history was the Devastation War in the Gurhal Star System. The main planet, Parum, was a lush paradise inhabited by a variety of races. However among the planet's human population, a movement arised that decreed their supremacy and started a war to enslave the other planet's races and destroy whoever resisted. It didn't help that certain underground cults took the chance to try to spread as much havoc by themselves as well. The conflict raged for 500 years, devastating most of the natural ecosystem of the planet, and would've actually wiped out every single living being on it if not for the Androids revolt. The needs of war had led to the mass production of androids with advanced combat AIs as each side tried to get an edge over their enemies and natural resources dwindled. Tired of being used as weapons of war for others, those androids united and suceeded on finally conquering the planet and crushing everybody else, forming a new robotic administration, ruling with cold efficiency. They even managed to convince the neighbour planets, water-covered Neudaiz, inhabited mostly by Newtypes, and the dangerous but resource-rich Moatoob, to form an alliance.
Start of the Millenium
It's the year 7000 of the Algol calendar, a century since the Devastation War's end, and the alliance celebrates its 100th anniversary with the announcment that they negotiated with the Government the colonization rights for Ragol, a new, life-filled planet on a distant system, ripe for colonization. The first wave of settlers actually has already installed the basic infrastructure, including the Star coordinate system beacon to and everything is ready for sending the second wave.
Yet as candidates start signing up, the Android Administration suddenly declares the second colonization wave to be delayed indefenetely, and starts negotiations with the Hunter's Guild for the organization of an elite investigation force. To investigate what exactly remains undisclosered, but the promise of twenty thousand meseta per hunter sounds quite tempting.
