The Setting
It started with Civil War.
Various Overlords, as they were known, began fighting among themselves when the Galaxy was nearly filled with their colonies. There was little place to expand other than to take from one another, and they were greedy. The war ebbed hot and cold and eventually erupted into a full blown galactic war, with the conflagration of destruction covering the entire galaxy and leaving nothing untouched. At the height of it, the Scourge flew in, and things went from bad to worse.
They were attracted by all the negative psychic energy, it seems, and the evil of the warring Overlords, along with the fear, hatred and utter terror that the war bred, attracted them like a beacon. Everything crumbled, and every little planet was fighting on in isolation in a battle that seemed destined to end in the utter destruction of all intelligent life. The general consensus was that the Scourge were not alive and were death personified.
When all seemed hopelessly lost, the Protectors arrived. They were able to repulse the Scourge and to induce them into a state of hibernation. They collected up survivors, and brought them to central locations, setting up safe havens on wonderfully rebuilt planets hidden from the sleeping Scourge by shields that would keep their psychic energy from awakening them.
Years of peace went by, and then The Races became restless. They wanted to move out and expand again. Each of the Major Races had their own governing councils by then, and although they were separated from each other by vast distances, they knew of each other and still harbored racial anxieties and even hatreds from the past. These animosities had been bred and ingrained into them by the Overlords over many generations of being pitted against each other in order to control them. The Protectors reluctantly agreed to let them move out from under their protection, but set up a Confederation and basic rules that were to be adhered to.
Of course, they all agreed in word, if not in spirit, to comply. A Central Council was established, and rules of limitation were set up to ensure that the Scourge was not reawakened. The Central Worlds to each Race were put under the strict protection of the Confederation of Races, and beacons were placed that signaled that warships could not approach. The Races were all elevated to some extent by the Protectors in the technologies they had access to. Parity was established, and out they went. Some went out to establish empires. Later, Trade Corporations, backed by their various Racial Councils, followed. Some, of course, tried to reenter with fleets of warships, only to find the fleets were decimated and subdued by but a single ship of the vastly superior Protectors.
Wars were allowed between empires. Very little was done to establish order for those on the outside, and occasionally, wars of significant enough activity erupted to awaken the Scourge again, at least locally, which usually led to the complete annihilation of all sides involved in the conflict. The Protectors allowed this, for reasons of their own, and only enforced their protection in the areas under the control of the Confederation.
This is the current state of affairs. The Races are quickly finding out that some cooperation is needed to prosper their own race, but the conflicts were inevitable. Some Races were so very much at odds with each other that peace seemed impossible in those situations. This was especially so since either side could start a war without fear of utter annihilation. Empires grew and fell in "The Outside." Traders traded and Explorers explored. It is a time of great potential and great risk. Who knows where it will lead to?
Various Overlords, as they were known, began fighting among themselves when the Galaxy was nearly filled with their colonies. There was little place to expand other than to take from one another, and they were greedy. The war ebbed hot and cold and eventually erupted into a full blown galactic war, with the conflagration of destruction covering the entire galaxy and leaving nothing untouched. At the height of it, the Scourge flew in, and things went from bad to worse.
They were attracted by all the negative psychic energy, it seems, and the evil of the warring Overlords, along with the fear, hatred and utter terror that the war bred, attracted them like a beacon. Everything crumbled, and every little planet was fighting on in isolation in a battle that seemed destined to end in the utter destruction of all intelligent life. The general consensus was that the Scourge were not alive and were death personified.
When all seemed hopelessly lost, the Protectors arrived. They were able to repulse the Scourge and to induce them into a state of hibernation. They collected up survivors, and brought them to central locations, setting up safe havens on wonderfully rebuilt planets hidden from the sleeping Scourge by shields that would keep their psychic energy from awakening them.
Years of peace went by, and then The Races became restless. They wanted to move out and expand again. Each of the Major Races had their own governing councils by then, and although they were separated from each other by vast distances, they knew of each other and still harbored racial anxieties and even hatreds from the past. These animosities had been bred and ingrained into them by the Overlords over many generations of being pitted against each other in order to control them. The Protectors reluctantly agreed to let them move out from under their protection, but set up a Confederation and basic rules that were to be adhered to.
Of course, they all agreed in word, if not in spirit, to comply. A Central Council was established, and rules of limitation were set up to ensure that the Scourge was not reawakened. The Central Worlds to each Race were put under the strict protection of the Confederation of Races, and beacons were placed that signaled that warships could not approach. The Races were all elevated to some extent by the Protectors in the technologies they had access to. Parity was established, and out they went. Some went out to establish empires. Later, Trade Corporations, backed by their various Racial Councils, followed. Some, of course, tried to reenter with fleets of warships, only to find the fleets were decimated and subdued by but a single ship of the vastly superior Protectors.
Wars were allowed between empires. Very little was done to establish order for those on the outside, and occasionally, wars of significant enough activity erupted to awaken the Scourge again, at least locally, which usually led to the complete annihilation of all sides involved in the conflict. The Protectors allowed this, for reasons of their own, and only enforced their protection in the areas under the control of the Confederation.
This is the current state of affairs. The Races are quickly finding out that some cooperation is needed to prosper their own race, but the conflicts were inevitable. Some Races were so very much at odds with each other that peace seemed impossible in those situations. This was especially so since either side could start a war without fear of utter annihilation. Empires grew and fell in "The Outside." Traders traded and Explorers explored. It is a time of great potential and great risk. Who knows where it will lead to?
posted by Mel at 3:17 PM
2 Comments:
Do you have concept sketches for production yet?
Sounds like a great start.
Not Really. I am concentrating more on conceptualization at this point. I intend this to be a Massively Multiplayer Game, ideally suited to those who only wish to play a certain amount of time per day. There will be games set up for different paces of play, and I want to set it up as a network of servers, with one central login. I plan to use PHP and MySQL on the back end, and AJAX and JavaScript on the front end. I'll provide rudimentary graphics, but I intend for the game design, from the begining, to be designed so that people can "skin" the game, and get credit fo their "skins". The hope is that with little incentive beyond recognition, that Ad Hoc enhancements to the look and feel of the game will be possible.
Thanks for you encouragement. I actually spent two semeseters of Grad School (one class each semester) where the buisiness design was done. That part is sound, and relatively low risk. Now comes the hard part...
;'{P
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