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CIVILIZATION IN THE NEW ERA
- - -
THE REGENCY
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Come on guys, lets DEVELOP the background rather than just
discuss it!
There is a definite gaping hole in TNE's background material --
the REGENCY and surrounds -- which leaves us SPINWARD MARCHERS
in the lurch. This isn't a complaint, but merely an observation.
My opinion is, you can either FEEL BAD about this, or you can DO
SOMETHING about it! And since GDW isn't working on the area, and
since they don't show anything on their release schedule for it
for at least the next year, that leaves the area wide open for US
to develop. I've seen several complaints on the TML about the
Regency not being supported, and my response to all of them is
DON'T JUST SIT THERE, JOIN EFFORTS, HAVE FUN, AND WEAVE ITS
FUTURE! I'm sure we could come up with something truly
excellent.
So in the spirit of fantastic science fiction, I'll attempt to
get the ball rolling. Here goes...
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Breaking the TL15 Barrier
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Thinking ahead to the New Era in the still-civilized regions,
did you ever wonder how the Regency managed to remain virus-free?
Well, they didn't do it by merely patrolling their borders, I can
assure you of that!
Here are the worlds from the Regency and its neighbors in the
Spinward Marches that are destined to break the Tech-level 15
barrier in my campaign, and the role of each of them in the war
against the Virus:
In my campaign, the following worlds are at the forefront of
technology in the New Era:
In the Spinward Marches:
GLISTEN -- A major robotics center, where environmental
mining suits and battledress have evolved into
sophisticated unmanned robots. Most emergency service
personnel (paramedics, firemen, search and rescue, swat
teams, etc.) are bots, as are most of the workers in the
housekeeping, maintenance, and mining industries' labor
forces. When the Virus first struck, all robotics
interfacing had to be reduced to direct sophont-given and
coded commands, which put a major damper on industry in
Glisten. Work began immediately to develop a form of
telecommunications that was safe from viral intrusion,
and this research and development has continued to this
day -- the resulting comm-filter technology is nearly
full-proof and such filters are installed in all bots,
ships, and communications equipment manufactured in
Glisten. As an additional security measure, all such
equipment undergoes regular routine anti-viral
diagnostics.
The shipyards of Glisten have developed a sophisticated
anti-virus defense system that is itself autonomous, and
is a major export: Unmanned drone SDB's, each outfitted
with "canary" virus traps, are designed to patrol systems
on the lookout for virus-infested ships. The "canaries"
are isolated computer chips that are allowed to become
infected (only one is active at a time) in direct open
communication with another ship. Sophisticated
diagnostic methods are used to monitor the canary's
health, thus providing a way to detect virus-infected
ships. Advanced scanners, polygraph equipment, and
automated boarding inspectors are also used to screen
ships, whether manned or not. These ships are the
closest things to "white blood cells" in space, and
combined with Glisten's comm-filter technology makes that
place one of the safest from the Virus.
MORA -- Is home to the largest sim-space data
environment in existence. When it was invaded by the
Virus, many cyberspacers of the system encountered the
viral aliens mono a mono. At the height of the crisis,
several dozen citizens became possessed by viral control
through the net's direct neural interface, and ran amuck.
Many deckheads were killed before they were able to rally
together and successfully wipe the electronic symbiotic
intruders out. Several viral strains were captured in
the net by cybertroopers, and a careful study of the
quickly evolving species has proceeded since then. The
computers of Mora are patrolled by cybernetic police who
jack directly into the system, and all cyberspacers can
be called upon as militia if the need ever arises.
RHYLANOR -- The pseudoreality capital. Anthropomorphic
robots have long been a part of the culture of this
thriving world. By the time of the Virus, Rhylanor had
progressed into early AI, and the development of
life-like androids and hologrammatic projections. Home
of the first android citizen, AB-101, "who" was actually
knighted by Emporer Strephon himself and made sentient by
Hiver manipulators at the computer concord at Shudusham.
"Abee Wan Owen" did much to alleviate the public's
initial apprehension toward life-like androids and
holograms, and their numbers grew rapidly.
However, when the Virus devastated Trin, robotophobia
became the norm, and all androids were ordered to be
powered down. The effort went further, and one sentient
android in particular was dismantled (killed). Other
androids protested in court, making a martr of their
fellow, and were interned instead and required to wear a
prominent "A" on their foreheads to distinguish them from
true biologicals. Quarantined before the Virus reached
the planet, the android population was thus spared. In
their confinement, the androids of Rhylanor became the
developers and keepers of the world's prominent computer
systems, and developed their own subculture. The
"pseudos" undertook the mission to produce a vaccine that
would protect them from the Virus. After decades of
unsuccessful attempts to isolate a genotype of the Virus
due to its rapid adaptability, the androids eventually
turned their efforts toward redesigning themselves to be
virus-immune. The quarantine on androids was lifted some
time ago, but most of the world's androids prefer their
own company and infrequently venture from their communes,
though biologicals frequently visit them!
The holoprojected people of the world weren't so lucky.
Arnold J. Rimmer holograms were a hot item on Rhylanor
for awhile, until most of them became infected by a
strain of the Virus dubbed the "Napoleon Complex",
and tried to take over the world. No one likes Arnold
Judas Rimmer anymore, though there are still a few
(uninfected ones) left, complaining about their
unfortunate circumstances, and envying their android
counterparts who have actual physical forms and who got
all the lucky breaks.
PALLIQUE -- Thrust into prominence by the fall of Trin,
this mineral world was forced to fill the economic gap
caused by that disaster. Pallique has traditionally had
an amber zone rating, due to its extreme distance from
its sun, resulting in the world's critically low
temperatures. This environmental factor, compounded by
the world's very thin atmosphere and scarcity of water
(it was all frozen), cost the inhabitants over 1/2 of
their world's rather high GWP (gross world product) just
to control the environmental conditions within their
habitats.
This situation eventually led to the development of
extremely light but well-insulated vacc-suits, which were
much more cost-effective to heat and pressurize than
entire habitats, yet not so cumbersome as to restrict
movement and comfort. So each individual became isolated
in his or her own tiny habitat most of the time. For
daily hygiene and intimacy, one could retreat to the
fresher which could be heated and pressurized once you
entered, so you could desuit.
This was the state of affairs on Pallique when the Virus
came to be. It was here that it was discovered that the
Virus does not thrive well in very low temperatures. As
Pallique's computers were designed to operate in the
extreme cold, this planet was barely troubled by the
virus at all. This allowed the planet to progress
without devoting much of its resources to combating the
virus, concentrating instead upon shifting from mining to
the manufacturing of goods for export, including vacc
suits, efficient heating and lighting systems, air and
water recycling units, and air compressors and filtration
systems.
DARRIAN -- The Maghiz cataclysm shocked the Darrian race
out of their hyper technological ambition, and the Virus
shocked them back into it when it caused one of their
great floating cities to come crashing down from the sky.
In this age of monumental dangers, the lack of ambition
to them equates to negligence. Their response to the
Virus was to declare war upon it, and bring all their
resources to bear upon developing offenses and defenses
against it. They adapted immunity to electronic viral
infection by progressing beyond silicon-based computer
technology to fiber-optic and direct energy transmission
(DET) computing systems. To protect themselves from
physical assault, they learned to duplicate the
technologies of their distant past. Vampire ships are
vaporized with disintegration weapons, now standard
armament on all Darrian military spacecraft. [And no,
their military technology is NOT for export].
CHRONOR -- Ironically, with the coming of the Quarantine
came increased rather than decreased trade with the
Imperium, or at least with what was left of it.
Chronor's major export: Psionicists, psionics
knowhow, and advanced robotics. Its major import: Hi
tech cargos and data packages.
The industry in the Consolate to get the biggest boost
from this trade was, again ironically, communications.
The Zhodani, masters of communicating via the direct
transfer of thoughts, were decidedly behind in the area
of mass communications systems and computer interfacing
technologies.
The most significant development of this technological
influx was the meshing of psionics and DNI (direct
neural interfacing). The Zhodani, already adept at the
formation of mental constructs for telepathic transfer,
and in the methods of training this special skill, now
had the technology to transfer thoughts directly into
computers. They took to it like fish to water.
Pseudo-telepathy became the rage, and surpassed all other
industries. The masses, who longed for the abilities
heretofore reserved for a privileged or gifted few, were
exposed to a technology that would let them communicate
mentally amongst each other. Universities scrambled to
reorganize their medical schools for the training of
neuro-cybernetic surgeons, and several bio-cybernetic
companies exploded into mega-corporations, the demand
was so great.
The Virus was no match for the Zhodani. They quickly
learned to sense it supernaturally, and once they
learned its basic nature, destroying it was relatively
easy. It was made of minute particles of sand! Zhodani
telekenticists had no trouble obliterating it.
Unfortunately, this also resulted in the destruction of
the infected hardware as well. But it was a small price
to pay.
As DNI technology expanded, hooked-in telepaths could
easily pinpoint viral invaders and telekineticists
equipped with detailed biofeedback aquired microscopic
control over their mental skills, and eventually learned
how to excise the virus directly and to repair the damage
done by it.
I haven't gotten around to Deneb, Reft Sector, or the Trojan
Reaches yet, but noticed several high-tech worlds in the sector
data, including a couple TL16 worlds. Since the stats were dated
1120, those worlds are bound to be even further advanced by the
turn of the century!
As for the Spinward Marches, what material have YOU developed for
it, whether CT, MT, or TNE?
Come on, post it here so everyone can benefit by it. Help make
this repository of Traveller material GROW!
Rodge.