The Renegade Legion LEGO Skirmish Game

UNIVERSE

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CONTENTS

1 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND ..............................................................................................................................................3

1.1 SCIENTIFIC ADVANCES .....................................................................................................................................................3
1.2 ROOTS OF THE TERRAN REPUBLIC .............................................................................................................................8
1.3 THE TERRAN OVERLORD GOVERNMENT .............................................................................................................. 17
1.4 CURRENT EVENTS............................................................................................................................................................ 19
2 PEOPLES .................................................................................................................................................................................. 22
2.1 THE TERRAN OVERLORD GOVERNMENT .............................................................................................................. 22
2.2 THE COMMONWEALTH ................................................................................................................................................ 29
2.3 BAUFRIN (bou’frin) .......................................................................................................................................................... 34
2.4 KESSRITH (kes’rith) .......................................................................................................................................................... 40
2.5 NARAM (naram’) .............................................................................................................................................................. 46
2.6 SSORA (sa’sor’a) ............................................................................................................................................................... 52
2.7 VAUVUSAR (vou’voo sar) .............................................................................................................................................. 58
2.8 FREE TRADERS................................................................................................................................................................... 64
3 THE SHANNEDAM COUNTY CAMPAIGN AREA ...................................................................................................... 68
3.1 THE ROOTS OF THE COUNTY ..................................................................................................................................... 68
3.2 TOG INCURSIONS............................................................................................................................................................ 72
3.3 THE CURRENT SITUATION ........................................................................................................................................... 74

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1 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND
The history of man is often seen as a series of great triumphs over adversity. This is undoubtedly
because "the victors write the history." For the victors to paint their struggle in anything less than
glowing terms would be the sheerest nonsense, yet it would be the first step toward the merging of
history and truth. What follows is a history of mankind, beginning with its first steps in interstellar
travel. Struggle is a common theme, against enemies real and imagined, within and without, from the
dreaded KessRith to the entropy which is wearing down all of reality. In many ways it is a grand tale,
because mankind is an amazingly creative species. But the story also has its tragic elements, as many
of its creations are meant for nothing but destruction.

1.1 SCIENTIFIC ADVANCES

T-SPACE
Man's first steps into interstellar realms came in the middle 2100s, when Hsieh Ho unveiled a new
branch of mathematics, Polydimensional Non-Euclidean Geometry. He tied it closely to the physics
theory of Superstrings, and through math which was both brilliant and beautiful, provided a proof for
the existence of 496 particles, including tachyons. Hsieh Ho theorized, based on his proof, that any of
the 12 dimensions posited by his research should be accessible from our normal space. In fact he
stated that one of the dimensions, which he labeled Tachyon Space, or T-Space.

In this dimension, the absolute minimum speed of any particle is the speed of light. When a ship
reaches its entry speed for T-space, it instantaneously reaches a velocity above the speed or light in
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proportion to its speed of entry. The minimum speed for entering T-space is 2.5 x 10 C (C=speed of
light), which puts the vessel into T-space at a speed of one light year per month (ly/month). Maximum
entry speed is .5C, which results in the incredible speed of 100.000 ly/month once the vessel enters T-
space.

It is the I-K (Ippolito-Kuldunov) Drive that permits vessels to reach these entry speeds. To accelerate
the ship forward, the I-K Drive uses an anti-gravity compression chamber that superheats hydrogen
and helium atoms to near relativistic energies before they exit the chamber.

Hsieh Ho likened travel in T-space to riding an escalator beside a flight of stairs. The escalator, he
noted, carried one along faster just because of its flow rate. While many scoffed at his idea, he found
that private industrial combines were interested in financing his research. By 2175 the UNSS Magellan
was ready to make the first trip into T-Space. Little more than a cockpit hitched to a fusion reactor and
a T-Space drive, it headed away from earth and vanished into T-Space.

The craft successfully returned in a week. It entered T-Space at .0003C, a velocity of roughly 90
kilometers per second. In T-Space this was boosted to an equivalent speed of 17 billion kilometers per
second or .00185 light years per second (that's a light year every 9 minutes or about 58.000 times the
speed of light). Its 3-day outbound journey, then, took it 480 light years from Earth. After a day spent
orienting itself and establishing proof, the ship returned.

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Examination of the returning ship and its cargo revealed some very interesting facts. The pilot Elliot T.
Courant (an astronaut who had volunteered for the mission) and the other living creatures on board
seemed to have suffered no ill effects from the journey, with one possible exception.

Testing determined that normal matter is slightly out of synchronization with the energies of T-space,
so when the two come into contact, it creates a kind of disharmony, or friction. The phenomenon is
known as Shimmer Heat, and shows as a brilliant flash of light as T-space vessels reenter normal space.
The bodies of the passengers also continue to shimmer slightly upon reentry. Over time, this
disharmony results in serious overheating. The time limit that vessels or people can remain in T-space
is about 30 days. After that time, Tachyon Meltdown—and death—occur. First the ship and its
passengers melt into a pool of metals and assorted organic smears, and then the whole mass explodes
into a shower of Tachyons, with the atoms of the victims converting into base Tachyon energy.

To disperse the effects of Shimmer Heat, people and things must spend an equal amount of time in
normal space as they have just spent in T-space. Someone who has spent 29 days in T-space, for
example, must then spend another 29 days in normal space to totally rid himself of Shimmer Heat.

To navigate in T-space, a ship must aim precisely toward its destination as it accelerates to entry speed.
The further the destination, the longer the distance the ship must travel before entering T-space. To
put the ship on a precise enough path required the development of highly precise navigational
computers. These computers are rated at the acceleration in Gs at which they can calculate an accurate
course.

For example, it takes a 5 G navigation computer 150 hours to calculate a course through T-space
toward a destination 100.000 light years from the entry point. During these hours spent calculating,
the ship must be accelerating up to .5C and be under the computer's complete control. For a
computer rated at 20 G, it would take only 50 hours to navigate a safe course over the same distance
of 100.000 light years. (In a crisis, a captain might choose to override the computer and take his ship
directly into T-space before the computer calculations are complete. He knows, of course, that he risks
becoming permanently lost in doing so.)

Knowing a ship's path and speed is a sure way to infer its destination, especially because T-space
vessels leave telltale trails that indicate their direction of movement. When pursued, a ship's captain
must often play cat and mouse by making many short hops in zigzag fashion in and out of T-space,
hoping to throw his pursuers off the trail.

This opening of the universe to nearly instantaneous travel between Earth and the nearby stars
sparked mankind's fervour for manifest destiny. In 2210 Dr. Wayne Marshman of Northwestern
University discovered a way to warp gravity, which led to the development of artificial gravity and
gravity compensators. This made space travel and the terraforming of new worlds much easier.
Mankind's expansion began.

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P-COMM
With the development of faster-than-light travel, the communication sciences had to catch up. T-space
vessels could now travel across the galaxy in the same time it would take a radio message to get
halfway to the nearest star. More than a hundred years after the development of T-space travel, the
scientists of Delta Alphecca discovered the Phase-Polarization Communication (P-Comm) System, with
help from alien scientists of Huldice.

The basic principle behind the P-Comm system is relatively simple. When an electromagnetic wave is
passed through a wave grate generator, polarization occurs. Those portions of the electromagnetic
wave not lined up with the wave grate being generated are filtered out. If two wave grates were
operating with their wave directions at right angles to one other, they would effectively block the
electromagnetic wave from passing beyond the second wave grate. What no one understood was
what happened to the energy present in the thwarted wave. It remained a mystery until the scientists
of Delta Alphecca passed a Tachyon detector behind two working wave grates and discovered that an
extremely energetic system wave of Tachyons was being emitted.

To test their momentous discovery, the scientists set up two identical sets of wave grates and radio
sets on two different planets. On July 4, 2257 (Standard Calendar), the scientists on Delta Alphecca
huddled around their receiver waiting for some word from the Huldice scientists, who where on
Omicron Tau, some 20 light years distant. Through the fuzz and crackle, they suddenly heard a clearly
audible message from the jubilant Huldice.

The beauty of the P-Comm system is its simple technology. (Indeed, it is so simple that almost anyone
can construct a crude P-Comm system to listen in to what the galaxy is saying.) The P-Comm system
also compacts easily onto a group of circuit cubes, and so is suitable for use by even the smallest ship.

The P-Comm system does have its limitations. The easiest to overcome is the static that grows more
and more severe as transmitters become more distant. A good filter and leveler system solves the
problem, making it possible to send and receive at longer distance. A ship cannot transmit or receive
using a P-Comm while traveling in T-space, which could be inconvenient. It was not until Humanity
had colonies scattered clear across the galaxy that the P-Comm's most serious limitations became
evident: messages sent via P-Comm could travel no faster than 20.000 ly/month. With some empires of
Humanity being 70, 80, even 90.000 light years in diameter, it meant that a message would take four
months to arrive, and the receiver four months to respond. Such slow, unwieldy communications put
an empire at the mercy of any enemy that could move fast enough.

Mankind began an inexorable crawl through the galaxy. While anthropologists and explorers
occasionally claimed to have found signs of sentient lifeforms on various worlds, it was not until 2461
that mankind encountered its first sentient aliens, when the Naram made themselves known to
mankind. Still, they proved to be so close to Human, and acknowledged the Mayans as a colony of
theirs on Earth, that many people took their existence as a sign that God meant for humans to conquer
the stars.

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In fact, by 2488, Tribalism had reached a peak. In this philosophy, the Naram became the Lost Tribes of
Israel who had so pleased God that he had taken them to another planet which, undoubtedly, was a
way station to heaven. The Naram, who had almost succeeded in destroying their own race several
times over, had only spotty records about their past and did their best to keep out of the whole
philosophical fray. At the height of this lunacy the Tribalists formed an unlikely bond with
anthropologists who claimed that the races were so similar that they could not be from different
backgrounds. They stood united against more hardline (and some suspected, secular humanist)
scientists who claimed that just because lightning had never struck the same spot twice didn't mean it
couldn't.

The ability of Naram and Humans to interbreed caused some problems in religious realms, but a
council of religious leaders voted to declare such unions holy in the eyes of God. They also secretly
agreed to begin campaigns to convert as many of these pagan Narams as they could. The Naram
appeared amused by the effort, but bearing in mind the zealous campaigns waged to “save” the Inca
and Aztec people, politely declined to let missionary ships within their realm.

T-DOPPLER SHIP DETECTION

In 2551, an important spin-off of the P-Comm device was developed. Scientists discovered that by
coupling a working P-Comm transceiver system with a doppler radar set, they could obtain a visual or
aural picture of the surrounding sphere of T-space. This joining of the two systems became known as
the T-doppler, and allowed operators to see approaching and departing ships as they traveled in T-
space. Not only did this make space traffic control easier, but it also provided the military with a way to
detect incoming warships before they arrived. Before the T-doppler, surprise had made small-scale
raids possible and profitable, but now only large taskforces could afford to threaten whole worlds.

The next half century continued in relative peace as humanity consolidated its holdings and slowly
expanded outward. This growing empire, in many ways similar to the 19th-century British Empire,
became known as the Human Raj (when the New Roman Empire was established, claiming continuity
from old Rome, references to the intervening Human Raj were removed from most history books). By
agreement mankind explored beyond Naram territory, along the Orion arm of the galaxy. Again, signs
of life and possible civilization were spotted on the worlds man took, but no one, Naram or Human,
met another sentient race capable of space travel.

All proceeded well; settlements had begun to grow in what is now Shannedam County by the year
3000. All of the hardline Millenialists, thwarted at the turn of the last millennium when the apocalypse
didn't occur, had broadcast dire warnings. When the Baufrin hit Shannedam IV, it looked as if their
predictions had come true.

The Baufrin, best described as spider-centauroid creatures, terrified the settlers on Shannedam IV. The
2nd Armoured Cavalry was relocated to the world while human envoys sought and finally found the
Baufrin leaders. By 3010 a treaty was signed between Baufrin, Naram and Human representatives that
made the Shannedam district something of a joint development area. Although some voices still
proclaimed the Baufrin monsters and demons, the area prospered and a strong alliance grew up
between the three races.

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The next two millennia passed peacefully and quietly. Human and Naram forces discovered and
skirmished with the KessRith in a number of systems. The bulky, reptilian aliens seemed to respect the
technology and bravery of the humanoid races, so things remained at a standstill on that front. The
Ssora likewise tested the mettle of these naked apes, and found them a fearsome foe. Mankind, for its
part, began to see that it was not the only race that believed in manifest destiny. Humans began to do
what they could to develop the worlds they had already taken and curbed their expansion (many
consider this the quasi-pacifistic influence of the Walden movement within the Naram and Human
races).

THE SNOW PLAGUE

The Snow Plague was the most horrible affliction ever visited upon mankind. It is commonly believed
to have been born from a spontaneous mutation of the cold virus - hence its name - but various
researches have cast some doubt upon this explanation. Even allowing for TOG xenophobia, it is not
out of the question that the virus was genetically engineered by KessRith scientists to weaken Human
and Naram forces.

The evidence to suggest this perfidy is often suppressed in the Commonwealth and among the
Renegade Legions because the Snow Plague still occasionally flares up and kills people who foolishly
believe it to be a thing of the past. What baffled scientists for so many years is that the illness is
actually caused by two viruses. One is actually a human cold virus that results in mild symptoms, then
remains dormant in the infected person's system. The second virus actually transfers some of its DNA
to the first virus, turning it into a raging sickness that attacks the central nervous system and utterly
disrupts the body's ability to function.

Furthermore, the initial virus has been narrowed down to any one of a dozen strains that made the
rounds through Human and Naram worlds in the twenty years before the outbreak of the Snow
Plague, around 5000. The trigger viruses, which were isolated and numbered at six, were introduced to
a wide number of worlds, all of which could be considered to be on the KessRith border with Human
and Naram holdings. Alternate theories suggest the Ssora developed and delivered the virus or that,
possibly, the trigger virus is a mutation or a virus found in the Vauvusar's Magellanic Republic.

The Snow Plague spared no world. It is believed that 80% of the human population at that time
perished. Even Earth, which had undertaken stringent quarantine procedures, was devastated. The
Naram did not suffer as badly because they initiated harsh but necessary quarantine restrictions,
regardless of the way it tore families apart and left the dying in corpse-ridden cities while the healthy
moved out into the countryside (to this day the Naram are a bit leery of cities, with their anxiety level
rising in proportion to the filthiness of their surroundings).

The KessRith wasted no time in taking advantage of the human race's devastation, whatever the cause
of the plague. They were openly surprised when they met resistance. They initially said they had
believed the worlds they overran to be unpopulated, as if they had attacked by mistake, but that did
not stop their war of conquest. World by world, system by system, the KessRith Empire devoured the
Human and Naram holdings. Human resistance broke and humanity - or that part which could afford
to do so - retreated to a core of ten systems surrounding Earth to lick its wounds and heal.

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By 6331 humanity believed it had recovered enough to once again lay claim to its former realms.
Human troops headed out to former colony worlds, only to find KessRith and Ssora settlements in full
bloom. The KessRith and Ssora saw the arrival of free-born humans, of whom they'd seen nothing for
over a millennium, as a revolting crime against nature (there were by then plenty of humans on other
worlds, all slaves). They rose to the challenge, reveling in the glorious tales of the old wars, and beat
mankind back into submission. It was not kind or pretty, but it was complete.

1.2 ROOTS OF THE TERRAN REPUBLIC

The ten worlds to which humanity was limited became little more than additional breeding pens for
slaves used throughout the KessRith and Ssoran empires. Humans occasionally resisted their masters,
but putting down their rebellions wasn't difficult. Even though Humans looked back with pride to their
history, clinging to the glories of Rome, the Raj and other Human successes, they did not have the
heart to fight weaponless against their masters. For 200 more years they endured utter and complete
slavery.

The dawn of the 66th century began with the Ssoran corporation Sev Tem Aerospace building a
factory and testing facility on Earth. They deemed it more efficient to build the craft near their Human
test pilots than to ship the slaves out to other worlds where they would soon die. By 6509 the factory
was in full operation and the company of human pilots nicknamed themselves "Death Express," in
reference to their high mortality rate.

Midway through the 66th century two other developments took place that would dramatically change
the balance of power in the galaxy. A retired Brigadier of the Terran Militia, Alexander Trajan, began
organizing a movement of mass sporting spectacles, which the KessRith and Ssora masters allowed to
spread across the Human sphere. Trajan's father, Simon, Professor of History at the University of Rome,
was the guru of the cult of the past. Alexander modeled his pageants on the Legions of ancient Rome.
Hundreds, then thousands, of Terran men and women, mostly Militia veterans, dressed like ancient
Roman soldiers and delighted the multitudes with their close-order drills and mock battles.

Television, long supposed to be the new opiate of the masses, brought these spectacles into the
homes of humans everywhere. The Ssora noted a corresponding drop in civil disobedience and
rebellion. Convinced they were on to a good thing, the Ssora encouraged Trajan and gave him
whatever help they could. When he noted the human fascination with aerial combat - a drama based
on Baron von Richtoffen was very popular - and requested the use of the Death Express in some of his
shows, the Ssora quickly agreed (Sev Tem got free advertising, so they supplied equipment and paid
the "actors" for their time).

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VLCA
What would have alarmed the Ssora and the KessRith had they known about it was a technological
breakthrough triggered by research on P-Comms. One of the scientists involved with the P-Comm
discovery had scribbled some notes describing a peculiar, almost imperceptible echo that occurred
when a P-Comm transmitter was aimed at a P-Comm receiver. Not even the fabled Huldice scientists
had realized the importance of this chance observation at the time, yet it would one day help to create
the greatest empire the galaxy had ever seen.

Years later, two scientists investigated these casual observations left by their long-dead colleague
while they were studying possible improvements in the fidelity of the P-Comm system. Using a high-
powered P-Comm system attached to a large, flat array on his lab roof, Professor Neil Stomtra of the
University of Washington aimed it at a similar device located on Pluto. Waiting on Pluto to monitor the
results was Dr. Jessica Sulta, his assistant. What the scientists expected from the experiment was that
an echo would follow the message at a measurable interval. What the experiment actually did yield left
them stunned.

When Stomtra transmitted his message at the appointed time, Dr. Jessica Sulta was startled to hear the
Professor's voice over her speakers at the same instant he spoke. A few moments later, the same
message came across via the P-Comm. After hurriedly verifying the reliability of the local time devices,
the two mulled over their discovery. It seemed impossible, but the "echo" they had been pursuing was
not the trailing ghost of a message but the instantaneous transmission of information from Terra to
far-off Pluto.

Just as Hsieh Ho had speculated about a multitude of dimensions all lying at right angles to one other,
Stomtra and his aide theorized that there must be numerous realities using any combination of
dimensions. "Normal" reality uses length, width, height, and time. Those also exist in T-space, but with
a slight difference in the boundaries of possibility. What the two soon-to-be rich and famous
researchers assumed was that their messages had traveled (if such a word applied) through a
previously unknown reality, where time was not a factor!

This is not to say that the VCLA is without disadvantages. The first of these is the sheer size of the
system. In order to communicate effectively with the most distant star an array of ultra-sensitive
polarizing transceivers at least a kilometer in area is required. This requires that each installation must
draw enormous power from either solar panels or an harmonic crystal generator. Like its predecessor,
the P-Comm, the VLCA is also inoperable in T-space.

The most serious limitation was that the array must be aimed directly at the recipient of the message,
which requires sophisticated computers to accomplish. As a result, VLCAs are usually huge complexes
of arrays, solar collectors, and maneuvering engines orbiting a few select worlds. Some of the larger
VLCAs are equipped with several arrays to handle several messages simultaneously. Communication
ships, usually reserved for navies, are huge affairs bedecked with enormous, yet fragile, panels that can
be lowered and stored for flight.

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Alexander Trajan realized that VLCA - Very Large Communications Array - communications were an
incredible boon. Whereas a message from Earth to Epsilon Eridani took over an hour by P-Comm, it
took less than 2 seconds by VLCA. In practical terms, this meant that Earth troops would have prior
notice of KessRith or Ssora troop movements and could react to such threats instantly. The fact that
this technology was kept from man's alien masters is really a triumph of human solidarity over human
greed.

TRAJAN'S LEGIONS
Trajan's sports legions continued to grow in size and favor among the people. Trajan directed that
VLCA modifications be made to radio telescopes on all ten human worlds. When all the equipment
was in place and working well, Trajan waited for intelligence reports that gave him a window for
rebellion, and took his chance.

Trajan armed his legions with old Dicesium-Tellurium crystal laser rifles. Though these weapons were
of an obsolete Ssora design, they proved effective enough for him to overpower the crews of several
Ssora starships in 6565. The crews, as it turned out, had been invited as the guests of honor at a Legion
show, and had jumped at the opportunity for an on-duty vacation. In very short order Trajan had 10
working Ssora starships and no one was the wiser for his having captured them.

Historians have long wondered where and how Trajan obtained the Ssora rifles. At various times it has
been suggested that they arrived aboard a Naram free trader ship, strengthening the alliance between
the two sister races. More recent research has suggested that the Ssora had been selling great
quantities of these antiquated weapons to the Vauvusar who reportedly needed them in a war in the
Magellenic Republic. It has been speculated that the Vauvusar provided the weapons to the humans to
make amends for their unwitting part in the Snow Plague (if indeed they transmitted the trigger virus)
or just as a social experiment to see what would happen - the Vauvusar and their curiosity being
legend in the galaxy.

DIVIDE AND CONQUER

The Ssora-KessRith alliance had always been, at best, shaky. Trajan decided to exploit the suspicion
between these two races. The VLCA network was abuzz with reports of nearby KessRith fleet strengths,
and Trajan selected a likely target from the human worlds. In a move of near-genius, he led the
captured Ssoran ships in an attack against a KessRith force on Rouke's Drift, thereby setting his two
main enemies against each other instead of against him (a process he helped along with a vigorous
disinformation campaign).

They captured and refitted two KessRith cruisers which then were used to make raids on Ssora targets
of opportunity. The two empires refused to believe each other's claims of innocence and arrayed
themselves against each other. The fact that the exact identity of these phantom fleets could never be
pinned down did not matter to the KessRith and Ssora - they had their after-battle reports and knew
what had happened.

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What they did not realize, of course, was that Trajan's VLCA network could transmit troop and fleet
movement messages instantaneously between worlds, then up to his fleet via P-Comm. Trajan often
knew where the enemy would be before they did, so he could vanish at will and strike wherever they
were weakest. More than once the Human fleet would enter a system, draw a response from nearby
systems and jump into a lightly defended spot that the reinforcing troops had just left. By carefully
watching and calculating Tau Shimmer for the enemy, Trajan managed to stay at least one jump ahead
of them.

Alexander Trajan also realized that he could not win alone. Taking an incredible risk, he entrusted the
secret of VLCA technology to a number of agents who were sent to Human slave worlds in the
KessRith and Ssora holdings. There they directed the creation of VLCA facilities that brought these
Human worlds into the network. They increased the flow of intelligence and told Trajan where there
were hotspots of potential rebellion he could ignite against the KessRith.

THE COMMONWEALTH
One of these hotspots was the stretch of the Orion Arm in which the human race had first met the
Baufrin. In the days before the plague it had referred to itself as the Commonwealth, and it had
stubbornly clung to that title as if it somehow made KessRith enslavement more palatable. Trajan
started running weapons and supplies to the Commonwealth Underground led by the Baufrin Suphra
Decla. As more and more KessRith were pulled out of the Commonwealth to deal with the Ssora
conflict, the Commonwealth revolted and declared itself independent.

That and an independence movement among the Naram opened the KessRith's eyes to who had been
the true instigator of the current galactic war. Because the KessRith code of honor would not allow
them to sue for peace with the Ssora until a number of scores had been settled, the KessRith found
themselves assaulted on a number of sides. Faced with being ripped apart by four enemies, the
KessRith made a bold move.

They withdrew from the Commonwealth because they knew it was nearly as strong as the Earth forces.
They quickly set to work negotiating a separate settlement with the Commonwealth, which was
successfully concluded in 6584, over Alexander Trajan's very vocal objections. Trajan decided - as the
KessRith had anticipated - that whoever was not with him was against him, and immediately cut off all
arms shipments and support to the Commonwealth.

THE NEW ROMAN REPUBLIC

Trajan, realizing he could count on no one but himself and his own people, increased discipline on the
populace of the newly freed/captured worlds. At his request the human worlds were politically
reorganized along the Roman model with a Senate as the ultimate authority. Out of gratitude toward
the leader who had guided them out of slavery, the Senate offered Trajan the position of Caesar, or
absolute dictator of the realm. Trajan declined, choosing instead the position of First Consul, or
executive to the Senate's legislature This gave him; for all intents and purposes, absolute power as
long as the war continued.

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The retired general was not a democrat or an egalitarian, however. He firmly believed that people
should earn what they got, including citizenship and legal rights. Citizenship belonged to those who
fought for the state and defended it. Pacifists, conscientious objectors, cowards, free thinkers—these
people had no rights that any Terran citizen was bound to respect, other than the right to physical
safety. They were not entitled to property, and what they had could be stripped from them. They did
not even have the right to be free. Even though the new Republic had come about as the result of a
rebellion against a slave system, the Citizenship Laws saw slavery reintroduced. Possibly because of the
influence of his wife, Sophia Tyrelli, Trajan subsequently added an intermediate class of Freemen, or
Plebians, who were basically the apathetic masses, entitled to limited rights, with a (remote) possibility
of earning their way to full citizenship. At the bottom, though, remained the class of "nonpeople."

The original intention of the First Consul in formulating these laws was to encourage Plebians and
noncitizens, through a series of punishments and rewards, to rise to full citizenship. What he saw
instead was the law being used to freeze the lower classes in place and to punish political enemies.

Repression of "treasonous troublemakers" was harsh but effective. The Naram, after a 20-year struggle,
managed to throw off the yoke of KessRith mastery, and declared a Naram Republic. They considered
a union with the New Roman Republic, but did not like the all-or-nothing mentality that Trajan
fostered. While their own political system split their people into roughly the same classes, their
suppression of dissent was not nearly as brutal. Afraid they would incur Trajan's wrath as had the
Commonwealth, Naram leaders dragged out negotiations for union until, after Trajan's death, the talks
collapsed under their own weight.

Whereas Trajan might not have been the greatest architect of political structure. he was a masterful
warrior and general. Time and time again he outmaneuvered KessRith and Ssora battlefleets. On more
than one occasion he led both enemies to the same system, then vanished so that their fleets attacked
each other. Having only jumped a short distance away, his fleet would return and mop up the survivors
from each fleet.

THE END OF TRAJAN'S ERA

The creation of the Naram Republic narrowed the KessRith front with The New Roman Republic, which
gave Trajan more time to consider the political monster he had created. He had hoped, through a
carrot and stick approach of citizenship and slavery, that he could encourage the slave and plebian
classes to strive for improvement. He realized too late that the difficulty of becoming a citizen -
something he hoped would make citizenship worthwhile - daunted and discouraged too many people.
He had broken their spirit.

In 6607 Trajan reportedly began to draft documents that, once approved by the Senate, would
radically alter the shape of the government. It has been suggested that these reforms would have
resulted in a bloody social revolution, but it is difficult to imagine Alexander Trajan's text terminal
producing something so chaotic. It is more likely that he planned to fully separate the military
structure from the political and use it as a watchdog over political excesses. As many of the Senators
had personal armies at their beck and call, this was a reform that many feared.

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Only someone of Alexander Trajan's strength could have pushed these reforms through the Senate. It
is not at all unusual that Trajan's death in 6608 has sometimes been attributed to assassination. While
Trajan, at 95, was an old man, he'd survived the rigors of a warrior's life for over 70 of those years.
Those who say he died of a broken heart may not have been wrong, because his wife Sophia died in
late in 6607, but more sinister causes have also been suggested more than once.

Trajan and his wife both were laid to rest in transparent caskets kept on permanent display in Rome on
Earth. Thousands of pilgrims still flock to the site every day to gaze upon the long-dead body of the
man who won their freedom from the Ssora and KessRith. Trajan's body has deteriorated somewhat
since 6775, and there are rumors that people resembling Trajan are occasionally killed and used to
replace the body facing decay.

The New Roman Republic successfully exploited Trajan's death by telling its citizens that KessRith
agents had murdered him. This tale is spread every so often to rekindle patriotic fervor for the wars.
The 6775 desecration of Trajan's tomb, and the supposed theft of tissue samples, has been labeled a
Commonwealth attempt to destroy Trajan's body. Commonwealth agents have never denied being
behind the attack. Underground sources report two differing conclusions from the analysis of the
tissue sample (assuming they have one): either Trajan was killed with a highly sophisticated poison that
stopped his heart, or the DNA of the individual billed as Trajan does not match known samples taken
from Trajan in his lifetime.

This second tale often spins into a corollary story that talks about the emperor's "Hall of the Dead."
According to this story, Ivanolo Buntari exhumed the bodies of all leaders before him - those he could
find of course - and displayed them in what can only be termed a surrealistic mausoleum of the
macabre. In theory, the bodies have been sealed in polymers and mounted in the position Ivanolo felt
appropriate for their "crimes and failures." In Ivanolo's museum, Trajan was crucified upside-down and
referred to as "the Beast" for his change of heart at the end of his life.

WARLORD CONSTANTIN AND BUNTARI CAESAR

In the two centuries following Alexander Trajan's death in 6608, the political pendulum has swung
occasionally toward an easing of the repression of the bottom layers, but each time the pendulum has
returned even harder to the right, where it presently seems to be lodged.

The first hard jog to the right came in the middle of the 67th century, with the reign of Alexander's
grandson, Anthony Trajan. Much of Anthony's young life had been spent in a dizzying cycle of drunken
debaucheries interspersed with episodes of almost psychotic religious piety. During a decade of
unpredictable governmental mood swings, the masses took refuge either in the vicious blood sports in
the Coliseum, and in military service. Shortly after Anthony ascended to power, the moderates walked
out of the government. Their seats in the Senate remained vacant for nearly a decade while they
formed a "Shadow Senate" in hiding. Anthony eventually caught ten of these "Shadow Senators" and
had them executed, but his success was his undoing. The Praetorians united behind traditionalist
Senator John Kershaw and ousted Anthony in a coup in the first week of 6665. The Trajan line ended
when Anthony fell upon his sword in the manner of the ancient Romans.

13
Kershaw was acclaimed the first Caesar (a title he declined in favour of the position of First Consul) and
his 6669 Code Revisions all but abolished restrictions on the rise of slaves and plebians to the vaunted
heights of citizenship. As it can well be imagined, this broadening of power did not thrill the elite.

Socially, the 15 years under Kershaw were something of a golden age. Great works of art, many in
styles remarkably nontraditional (that is, non-Roman), came to adorn the cities. The blood sports so
popular under Anthony Trajan lost their appeal, as people turned their attention to a new wave of
fiction, historical writing, and poetry, and expressed their own creativity through music and crafts. The
sciences saw a number of breakthroughs, including one that greatly increased the efficiency of VLCA
communications. This allowed humanity to stay one step ahead of other realms, including the KessRith,
that now had the original VLCA technology.

The loosening of restrictions on the lower classes opened the way for improved relations with the
Naram Republic, which had itself abolished all legal class distinctions in 6659 (much to the disgust of
Anthony Trajan). The Commonwealth, however, would not relent in its suspicion of the Terran
government; its good relations with the KessRith Empire ruled out an opening toward New Rome,
which had continued to deal out military setbacks to the KessRith and Ssora and to expand at their
expense.

While these military success would prove important, they also doomed the New Roman Republic. By
6679 Grand General Douglas Constantin, Warlord of the Republic and second in authority only to John
Kershaw, had made great headway in the KessRith Empire. However, one of his better generals, Ivanolo
Buntari, was also the one whom he trusted the least. Buntari was given to braggadocio and
flamboyantly self-serving news releases, for which he had already been broken in rank twice. Then he
forced the surrender of 125.000 KessRith troops on Durmella, an important KessRith stronghold.

Buntari lived up to Constantin's mistrust. After grandly wining and dining the captured KessRith
commanders on his battleship, the General had the shutters of a huge window drawn back to reveal a
sparkling panorama of the peaceful green planet Durmella. It was a beautiful, lush world - a
magnificent prize in the Human-KessRith war.

Buntari ordered his fleet to bombard the planet. They hit it with everything they had. Billions of
KessRith and enslaved humans died in the first moments of the assault. Buntari continued it well past
the time any living creatures could have survived. He continued the assault until all water evaporated,
the atmosphere boiled off and the sterile cinders glowed with the heat of repeated attacks. On a whim,
he had annihilated a world.

When reports of this reached Grand General Constantin, he and his carrier battle group, under the
command of his sister, Admiral Sefra Constantin, tracked down Buntari and forced him at gunpoint to
resign on the spot from the military, and would have summarily executed him if it weren't that
Buntari's father, Carlos, was a powerful, retired Illustrus Senator back on Earth. Wary of angering the
Senate, Constantin sent Ivanolo Buntari back to Earth for a court martial.

14
General Buntari's father, Carlos Buntari, a fat, jovial man in his seventies, was a retired Illustrus Senator
of the traditionalist persuasion, still one of the most powerful, and enigmatic, men in the capital. The
retired Senator went immediately to First Consul Kershaw and demanded that his son be reinstated
and that Douglas Constantin be court-martialed. Kershaw firmly refused, and placed Ivanolo under
house arrest at his family estates in Tyrolia. Kershaw also refused to court-martial Constantin, as Carlos
demanded. Carlos and the First Consul parted company without settling their differences, and Kershaw
did not realize he'd doomed himself and the New Roman Republic by his actions.

Carlos Buntari managed to get the Senate to initiate an investigation of the whole incident The
Senate's chief investigator, Illustrus Senator Gregory Novick, headed out from Earth to the fleet to get
Constantin's side of the story. Novick, a former slave and a Populist leader, was a good friend of First
Consul Kershaw. Oddly, even Buntari seemed to back his selection, noting he was a good and fair man
- this despite the fact the two were bitter rivals.

After Novick left Earth, Buntari agitated for more action and got Kershaw to agree to convene the
Illustrus Senate at New Rome. Built out over the Mediterranean Sea as a shining city rising above the
waves, New Rome served as the capital for the New Roman Republic. The site of old Rome had been
preserved as a private estate for the First Consul, and was home to the graves of all the Republic's
leaders, including Trajan. 80 kilometers from New Rome, the First Consul's villa overlooked the
engineering masterpiece that formed the nerve center for a government spanning 90 light years.

On the afternoon of 15th June 6680, as Kershaw called the Senate to order, a .5 kiloton nuclear device
exploded beneath the Capitol building. The Senate and all who were in it died immediately. The
shockwave caused massive damage in the surrounding core of the city and over 2 million more
individuals died as radiation and the resulting firestorm ravaged the city. Worse yet, the explosion
damaged the support structure holding the city above the water. Slowly and inexorably bits and pieces
of the flaming city fell into the ocean, and after half an hour surpassing the great disasters of antiquity
only boiling water and a steam plume marked the grave of New Rome.

The line of succession elevated the Warlord of the Republic to the rank of First Consul. While
Constantin prepared to return to Earth to take control of the situation, Carlos Buntari moved quickly.
He accepted the appointment of Special Investigator from the senators who had not been able to
attend that session of the Senate (Buntari's cronies figuring prominently among them). His
investigation quickly determined that Gregory Novick had been responsible for the attack.

Novick, aboard the Constantins' command ship at the front, prepared to leave immediately for home
to clear his name but the Constantins put him on a ship for the Commonwealth, convinced that was
the only way to save his life. Grand General Constantin himself, faced with the choice of going back to
Terra alone and putting himself in Buntari's hands, or going back with his Legions and risking a civil
war he was not in a position to win. Not wanting to cross this particular Rubicon, he decided to do
neither, and remained on the front with his loyal troops.

15
In the ruins of New Rome, Carlos Buntari supposedly found the long-lost memoirs of Alexander Trajan
in a thick steel and concrete vault. Buntari published "excerpts" of the memoirs, which, he claimed,
embodied the vision of the first Trajan. Instead of sanctioning Kershaw's easing of control, Trajan
apparently wanted a greater tightening of the reigns of power.

The Senate, by now composed solely of Carlos' political\ allies, decided to honor Alexander Trajan's
wishes and elected Ivanolo Buntari Caesar. As he accepted this great honor, Ivanolo announced the
creation of a new class of citizen: the Overlord. He said the Overlords would have the power of
Caesar's name to rid the empire (no longer a republic) of treasonous souls. He also announced the
empire's new name: The Terran Overlord Government. TOG had been spawned.

It was not an easy birth. In the riots that followed, Caesar Buntari ordered that any military units that
hesitated to gun down the populace were to be gunned down themselves by loyal units. One such unit
that was wiped out was the 182nd Heavy Infantry Legion, commanded by Prefect Simon Constantin,
son of Grand General Douglas Constantin.

RENEGADES
Out along the KessRith front, the Grand General and his sister, Admiral Sefra Constantin, called all the
soldiers and sailors of the Fleet to gather around their monitors. In a long and passionate speech, the
Grand General made it clear that he opposed the Terran Overlord Government and everything about
it. He also made it plain that he thought the Buntaris were far too strong to oppose without help. He
outlined his plans to leave the TOG and ask the Commonwealth for permission to flee there. He told
his troops that Senator Novick, was now speaking to the Commonwealth on the Constantins' behalf.
He left it to every legionnaire to decide for himself whether to leave or stay, but Constantin noted that
anyone who loved the old Republic could never be happy under an Overlord's heel.

On 15 September, 6681, 308,364 Legions, 3,804 Battleship groups, and their families followed
Constantin's flagship, the Righteous Fury, into T-Space on the long journey across the KessRith Empire
to the Commonwealth. Legend has it that the only ship left behind was the Dark Destiny, Buntari's old
flagship. Often the story adds that it was decorated with the Renegade graffiti R, but that symbol was
developed much later than the exodus. Official TOG records report the ship as lost, lending credence
to the story that the ship had been booby-trapped and exploded when hailed with a naval recognition
code.

Buntari Caesar was not content to let these Renegades, as he called them, escape. He sent Grand
Admiral Tokar out with a huge fleet to smash them and bring back their broken bodies. Tokar pursued
his duties with a dogged single mindedness that some have suggested was because his family were
guests of the Caesar during this long campaign. Whatever the reason, Tokar hounded the Renegades
through the KessRith Empire, but never managed to catch up with them until they reached journey's
end.

16
The Renegade Legions had not had a good time of it. They faced KessRith Opposition throughout their
flight. To make matters worse, they still did not know if they would be welcomed by the
Commonwealth. Not only was Constantin's taskforce three times the Commonwealth's total troop
strength, but they'd been ripping their way through the Commonwealth's allies, the KessRith. And
whenever they had time to rest, T-doppler picked up signs of Tokar's fleet, sending them scurrying off
again.

On 15 July, 6682, while the exhausted Legion was hoping to catch its breath on the habitable planets
around Frawtaw's Star, a small system in the space between the KessRith and the Commonwealth, it
came under attack from a heavy KessRith naval force. For hours, Admiral Sefra Constantin rallied her
forces and threw them at the KessRith, hoping to protect the packed troopships. Just as all seemed
lost, she was surprised to see the KessRith units pull back. A huge TOG fleet had come up behind the
KessRith commander, who was not about to be caught between the defenders and a rescue force.

He was completely amazed to see the newly arrived Terran fleet pass him by, attacking instead the
Legions gathered about Frawtaw's Star. He realized that all the talk about this force being considered
criminal by the TOG was true. Not wishing to see potential allies destroyed, he came to a quick
decision. He moved his KessRith forces back into the battle, this time attacking the TOG fleet.

Totally outflanked, Admiral Tokar was forced to withdraw. The KessRith quickly communicated with the
Commonwealth, and Commonwealth Regent Debora Stevens sent greetings and messages of
welcome to the Renegades. They were allowed to enter the Commonwealth and make their homes
there. Since that time, the Renegade Legions have fought viciously for the Commonwealth against
TOG, with often incredible results.

1.3 THE TERRAN OVERLORD GOVERNMENT

Buntari used the defection of the Legions as proof of an alien conspiracy to once again establish
control over humanity, and his disinformation network spread countless tales of terror about the
KessRith domination of the Renegades. He gathered a super-elite of Overlords-at-Large around
himself, and gave them official control of the old Republic Information Service. Now the Overlords had
access to the vast information network that had already made its agents, the Lictors, feared
throughout the realm. They gave the Lictors a wide range of new powers. In a word, they "took the
handcuffs off them", the better to rivet the chains on the Terran people.

Buntari elevated the Praetorian Guards from ceremonial status to being the personal force of the
Overlords. He brought them up to their original strength with the best of the new recruits, and gave
them special uniforms and the finest equipment. Heavily indoctrinated politically, fanatically loyal to
Caesar and the Overlords, the Praetorians became an arrogant elite that was not so much above the
law as they were the law itself.

17
On uniforms, on flags, on buildings, on vehicles, on documents,
everywhere, the harsh symbol of the Terran Overlord Government
made its appearance—a red-rimmed Earth enclosed in a black
triangle, superimposed with a red metallic arrowhead signifying "V,"
the Fifth Incarnation of Imperial Rome, and the letters "TOG." The
days of the Republic were over; a new age dominated by Caesar and
the Overlords was at hand.

Drunk with power, Buntari made one serious mistake. In 6691 he issued the Patria Potestas, a bill that
stripped all rights from women and gave them the status of chattel. Oddly, women were still welcome
in the military, though they could not rise above the rank of Centurion Maximus. As it happened, at the
time the new laws were issued, more than 20 percent of the First Praetorian Guards, Caesar's personal
bodyguards, were women and the Caesar made himself free to dally with any of them at will. In
November of 6691, Caesar Ivanolo Buntari departed Terra for a palace on a nearby world,
accompanied in his private ship by elements of the First Praetorian Guards.

The trip was never completed. On 7 December, 6691, a passing freighter picked up his frozen body
from space. His ship, renamed the Venus Laeta, fled and joined the Renegade Legions. Once the news
of what had happened reach TOG outposts, countless other female legionnaires left TOG, forming the
Athena and Minerva units within the Renegade Legions. No one has forgotten why the women left
TOG, so battles between TOG units and female Renegade units are all the nastier and more deadly.

Over the next nine decades, a succession of Caesars followed Buntari (whose family was promptly
expunged after his assassination). During this period, the TOG pushed deeply into KessRith space, and
began a series of attacks against the Commonwealth. In 6717, the TOG signed a Treaty of Peace and
Friendship with the Naram Republic. The Treaty was very generous: in fact, there were those within the
Republic who said it was too good to be true.

It was. A picked corps of political operatives, all of mixed Human-Naram ancestry, began infiltrating
the Republic government. In less than ten years, they were positioned so as to bring that government
to a complete halt. Then in 6727 the Terran Overlord Government presented its demands. About 40
percent of the Republic's territory was absorbed into the TOG and became known as the Dalvik District
(dalvik being Naram for "conquered"). The infiltration of the remaining Naram provinces continued, to
where the current First Consul of the Naram Republic is possibly a TOG agent.

18
The pendulum moved briefly toward the liberal side, in 6779, when the ruling Caesar, Augustus
Tourlaville, died, leaving a teenage son as heir. In his will, Augustus named Warren Mischenko, a
descendant of the Buntaris, as Protector and First Consul. When the boy withdrew because of a rare
genetic nerve disorder, Mischenko continued as First Consul.

A few years into his administration, Mischenko loosened many of the social restraints that the previous
Caesar had laid upon the lower classes. In 6791, he introduced a Bill of Ethics for the Lictors into the
Senate. Though hardly a charter of human rights, the bill would have significantly changed the way the
Lictors operated. Five months later. Warren Mischenko was dead, supposedly of a massive heart attack.

Early the next year, the Overlords and the Senate elevated 26-year-old Nicholas Julianus as the next
(and present) Caesar. As Prefect of the 72nd Praetorian Guard, assigned to protect the Overlord of the
Lictors, Julianus had blackmailed his boss into giving him the "dirt" files on all the members of the
Senate. He then used a combination of blackmail and intimidation by his Praetorians to get the Senate
to elect him Caesar.

1.4 CURRENT EVENTS

Under Caesar Nicholas Julianus, the TOG seized the Mission Stars District and Medina Province from
the Commonwealth. By this time, the KessRith had been reduced to a fraction of their former empire,
and were no longer a TOG priority. From the time the TOG had first commenced hostilities toward the
Commonwealth in the 6720s, Commonwealth forces had been thrown back from province after
province: the Grand Dukedom of Potsdam, Somm Trau Province, the Grand Dukedom of Alesia (in
6783, under the liberal Warren Mischenko), and later under Caesar Nicholas Julianus, the Grand
Dukedoms of Nisus and Grenbern. Though TOG commanders were annoyed that the Commonwealth
did not just give up, they were aware that in campaign after campaign, the resistance was stiffening,
and Commonwealth forces were fighting better.

Since the beginning of the 6800s, the red "R" symbol has appeared with increasing frequency across
TOG space, spray-painted on monuments, scrawled on walls, splashed hurriedly on the sides of TOG
tanks and fighters. This is the sign of an underground movement calling itself "the Renegades," in
honor of the Renegade Legion. (Interestingly, in solidarity with this movement, Renegade Legion units
now use a red graffiti "R" on their combat craft.) Unlike other anti-TOG underground groups, The
Renegades operate on the cell principle: a member will organize a small number of others into a
group, and they, in turn, will organize still others. Under no circumstances do recruits ever know the
identity of their recruiter's recruiter. This makes it extremely difficult for the Lictors to penetrate them.
Prisoners in Lictor hands can yield up the identities of only a very few others.

Caesar Julianus has ordered the Overlords and the Lictors to use any measures necessary to eliminate
the Renegades. Nevertheless, a campaign of bombings and assassinations has hit the outer districts of
the TOG in recent years, focused increasingly against VLCA sites and other communication facilities.
This is clearly coordinated with the Renegade Legion strategy of destroying TOG communications. At
the present rate, TOG worlds along the border with the Commonwealth will go completely deaf within
the next ten years.

19
20
In the Orion District, the Renegades have been stepping up their bombing campaign. They have also
been uncovering TOG agents within the Naram Republic , and clearing out traitors from the
"underground railway" that carries escaped slaves and dissidents to the Commonwealth, and smuggles
sabotage and agitation agents deep into TOG.

In order to make certain this wild spree of Renegade activities does not continue or spread to the
Mochov district, the Caesar has installed two more Overlords. Their reports have been highly critical of
the civil and military administrators there. Overlord Kitrrich Dulor has been charged with the specific
duty of locating an enigmatic and wiley individual known as "The Fury." He (or she) leads the
Renegades and takes great delight in flaunting his ability to escape Imperial retribution. Reportedly
Dulor has narrowed the list of candidates down to a handful of individuals, including Illustrus Senator
Mikenus Koralis.

In the Orion district, which includes the TOG holdings in Shannedam County, the Caesar saw fit to give
power to Overlord Aldron "Blood" Mannius. His reputation for ruthless and quick reprisals earned him
his nickname. He served Julianus Caesar well in the 72nd Praetorian Guard, when he ripped the
Renegade movement apart in the Ssora district (the Ssora copied the Renegade cell system, but
because of their love of organization, they increased inter-cell knowledge so they could efficiently
avoid recruiting individuals who had already been approached to join the underground).

Armed with a veritable army of Lictor, Overlord Mannius has even been granted supreme military
command in both the Orion and Mochov districts (something that does not sit well with Overlord
Dulor, among others). At this point in time, 6830, his efforts are little more than tentative moves. He
seems to be feeling out the enemy before he strikes. Observers figure that he'll either destroy the
Renegades or be destroyed by them within the next decade.

The current Caesar, Nicholas Julianus, was elevated to his present position in 6792. In his previous post
as Prefect of the 72nd Praetorian Guard, he obtained access to blackmail files on all the senators, a
move that got him elected Caesar and one that has made the Senate very open to his suggestions.
While military priorities have shifted from the KessRith to the Commonwealth, it is the rise of the
Renegade underground that gives Julianus the most unease. Julianus, an eminently pragmatic man,
knows his place in history will depend upon the Empire he leaves behind him. If he puts the rebellion
down he will be a god. If he leaves an Empire riddled with the cancer of revolt, he will be reviled and
damned in the minds of men throughout the Terran Overlord Government.

Fortunately for him, the Renegade problem is in the hands of his best Overlords. They are ambitious
men, perfectly suited to counter the ambitions of his Renegade foes.

21
2 PEOPLES
2.1 THE TERRAN OVERLORD GOVERNMENT
Officially, the structure of the Terran
Overlord Government (TOG) mirrors
that of the ancient Roman Empire. In
practice, however, the two are quite
different. There are many reasons for
this, but the foremost is the vastness of
today's Empire. With quadrillions of
people scattered across billions of
worlds, representative government does
not work - despite claims from idealists
that it might function given a chance.
The TOG structure, then, is the most
workable model for efficient
government.

IMPERIAL OFFICES
The Caesar holds the highest office and one of absolute power. Unlike the old Roman Empire, TOG's
Caesar is elected or confirmed by the Senate instead of inherited by one bloodline. In practical terms,
the choice of Caesar is often decided by political maneuvering, assassination, bribery and extortion.
More than once the battle has been won only after bloody clashes between various Praetorian Guards.
The Senate, practically minded as ever, sees fit to confirm the winner in these struggles.

The Caesar rules without open question - his word is law and the Overlords carry out his laws. His
personal bodyguard consists of 20 Praetorians, and he is the commander of all Praetorians. The
Praetorians are notorious in their devotion to the Caesar, but they have not been above removing an
Emperor when they deem it best for the Empire itself (Ivanolo Buntari is an example of this concern for
Empire before Emperor).

While the Caesar never faces public opposition from others in power, it is a foolish and soon dead
Caesar who chooses to ignore the political games played within the Empire. Toward this end the
Overlords and Lictor keep him fully apprised of who is doing what to whom. Various people refer to
the Caesar as "Argus," in an allusion to a never-sleeping mythological creature with a thousand eyes,
and anyone who does not realize that that is a gross underestimation will soon have his scheming
head handed to him on a platter.

The Imperial Warlord, if one is appointed, is second in command to the Caesar for military affairs. He
answers only to the Caesar and, technically, is next in line in case the Caesar is unable to fulfill his term
of office. Practically speaking, being the head of all armed forces and answerable only to the Caesar
puts the Warlord in an excellent position to take power when the Caesar is called away to the gods.

22
The Imperial Consuls serve the Caesar as a Cabinet of sorts. There are ten Imperial Consuls (more or
less). Seven (one for each district) advise the Caesar on regional matters. Three other Consuls usually
handle internal, external and economic affairs, but their duties vary. In the past, the Consuls have been
very powerful, but their power has waned recently. Now their role is almost ceremonial because the
Caesar has invested so much power in his Overlords. Under Caesar Julianus they are little more than
information sources and officials to preside at minor public ceremonies (the true sign of their
weakness is that even the Renegades have not considered them worthy assassination targets).

SENATORS
The Imperial Senate is divided into three classes of Senators. Ivanolo Buntari's Patria Potestas has
barred women from becoming Senators. Aliens are allowed to become Senators, but their number and
power is well below their percentage of the population. Senators are ranked by the scope of their
electorate: by world, by province (about 40 or 50 worlds), or by prefecture (12 to 30 provinces).
Prefectures are divided into a total of seven districts empire-wide.

• Clarissimi Senators represent one world and are elected by the populace. They attend the
Provincial Senate once every 4 years by VLCA. While each planet does have a Governor, the
Clarissimi Senator of that world may overrule him. To avoid problems with this sort of power
brokering, the Prefect of the local Legion often finds himself very much in the Senator's favor
and can often profit enormously by using his troops to back one side or the other in political
skirmishes.

• One Spectabiles Senator is elected per province; he is the TOG ruler of that province. The
provinces themselves are gathered into prefectures and all Spectabiles Senators from within a
prefecture meet twice a year to pass laws and conduct hearings. The site of these meetings
varies yearly from province to province, with the usual circuit taking anywhere from 12 to 30
years. At least twice yearly there is also a VLCA conference to discuss business and, on rare
occasions, a major problem will result in an emergency VLCA meeting being convened.

• One Illustrus Senator is elected per prefecture by the Prefecture Senate, but the Caesar or
Illustrus Senate may reject a candidate if they find him wanting for any of a number of reasons.
For all intents and purposes the Illustrus Senator is the ruler of his Prefecture and is often
more feared than the Caesar, because he is much closer to the people than is a single man on
Terra. Only an Overlord may overrule the Illustrus Senator, and that might not occur without a
fight.

At least once every four years each Illustrus Senator must physically attend a session on Terra.
Otherwise, Senators attend meetings via VLCA, but most try to be present on Terra more often.

23
CIVIL SERVICE
The Imperial Civil Service (ICS) is, as the joke goes, neither civil nor a service. It is a massive bureaucracy
that, for all practical purposes, has become a breeding ground for nepotism and a haven for
incompetents (rumor has it that one Renegade infiltrator was unmasked because of his efficiency). The
main concern of the ICS is to get more time and money to fail doing what little they have been given
to do (in recognition of how much of a drain the ICS is on TOG, the Renegades have long considered
terrorist action against ICS offices and staff an act of treason against the rebellion).

Each Planetary Governor is the Caesar's directly appointed representative on a world. He controls the
ICS world-wide and is usually able, against long odds, to maintain it as a useful information source. In
theory a governor is the ultimate power on a world, but Clarissimi Senators have long disputed this
theory. While the senators usually enlist the military as their allies, governors often work with the Lictor
to keep them in power.

Praetors are district supervisors in charge of the different ICS departments. A Praetor is only as good as
the ICS under him, so many of the departments are run on a patronage basis. Favors are returned by
favors. Successfully managing a district can gain a Praetor enough recognition to either get him killed
before he becomes a threat to the Governor, or get him appointed the next Governor when the
Governor gets himself elected a Clarissimi Senator (or when the Senator kills the Governor to remove a
thorn from his side).

The Governor Praetor is the exception to this rule about Praetors. His purview is tax collection and
nothing will stop him in his duties. Nominally in charge of all of the ICS within his district, he often has
access to interesting information that can even bend an Illustrus Senator to his will. This information
can come from the district or, on special occasions, has been known to flow up from a Governor or an
Overlord as needed. As far as protocol is concerned, a Governor Praetor is nothing to an Illustrus
Senator, but in the real world, a Governor Praetor can be a nightmare come true.

SHADOW GOVERNMENT
Bureaucracies have one major difficulty: they churn so slowly that nothing really gets done. Ivanolo
Buntari, and the Caesars who followed him, recognized this flaw and have exploited it. Getting at a
specific citizen through the official chain of command is like taking a local train - there are lots of stops
and it takes a long time. The following three divisions of government (Overlords, Praetorians and
Lictor) are the express route for retribution and discipline.

The Overlords were created by Ivanolo Buntari to act as "fixers." Caesar sees a problem and they fix it.
It did not matter if the solution were an assassination or a simple word in the ear of the troublemaker.
As long as an Overlord does not hideously overreact and run amok - and he is given plenty of latitude
with the definition of "amok" - he acts with the power of the Caesar. Defying one is not considered an
act of moral courage, it is considered insanity or suicide.

24
Because Overlords are so powerful, the first act of any Caesar is to sweep his predecessor's Overlords
out. A few of them may already be hors de combat because of the struggle for the throne, but the rest
are a threat just waiting to erupt. The number of Overlords varies with each Caesar, ranging from 31
under the reign of First ProConsul Mischenko to 59 during Caesar Tourlaville's reign.; the present count
is 49.

The most powerful Overlord is the one who heads the Lictor, and he is responsible for all espionage,
counter espionage, assassination and blackmail within TOG. The other Overlords are accorded status
within the Lictor and often make use of Lictor agents and resources in the course of their duties. They
are also able to wield power within the normal military structure above and beyond commanding their
Praetorian Guard units - but that sort of appointment comes only after a direct order from the Caesar
or Senate.

Overlords have been likened to pitbulls, in that once they have been assigned a task they do anything
and everything they need to successfully complete it. For most of them, Overlord is the highest post
they will ever achieve. They realize their power and fate are directly tied to the rule of the Caesar who
so favored them, so they do what they must to insure his continued survival.

The Praetorian Guards are 286 of the most elite TOG units in existence. Numbering from the 1st
through the 289th Praetorian Guards, with the 72nd serving as Julianus' private guard, their
membership is drawn from the best of the whole empire. Not only are they given special training, but
they are subjected to intensive indoctrination that makes their loyalty to the Caesar unquestioned.

One unit is assigned to each Overlord as his own personal troop, and a couple of Illustrus Senators
have been given Guard units as a sign of favor from the Caesar (or to keep an eye on them). The 51st,
65th and 109th units defected to the Renegade Legions - the latter being the unit that spaced Buntari
- so their numbers have been banned from the list of Praetorian Guards.

The Lictor is the vilest tentacle in the Terran Overlord Government. They have taken as their symbol the
Fascio, an axe bound within a bundle of sticks to signify that they strengthen the nation by keeping
everyone together. This is somewhat inappropriate as the rampant paranoia they cause has served to
drive a number of people into the ranks of the Renegade Underground. The Lictor have infiltrated
every strata of the culture, so one can never be certain that a Lictor is not within earshot.

The Lictor has two divisions. The Internal Security Division (IS) handles all counter-espionage, anti-
Renegade Underground activities and the various assassinations ordered by the Caesar and Overlords.
The External Affairs Division (EA) deals with foreign realms. Its notable success has been the
"Seduction" of the Naram. The rivalry between these two facets of the Lictor is legendary in its intensity
and, in pursuit of Renegades operating in the annexed part of the Naram Republic, has lead to much
duplication of effort.

25
THE POPULACE
The people of TOG are divided into three sharply defined classes. Passage back and forth between the
lower two levels is possible - usually at the whim of the government or a member of the upper class.
Passage from the lower classes to Citizenship is, in theory, possible. Yet more possible is a fall from
favor (and citizenship), again at the whim of the government for offenses real, imagined or
manufactured. The three classes are Citizens, Plebians, and Slaves. These three strata are found
throughout TOG, and represent the social levels possible on all worlds, regardless of race. Thus a
KessRith born as a Plebian will be a Plebian on any world to which he travels.

• CITIZENS
Citizens are protected by the jus civile. As conceived by Alexander Trajan, citizenship was an
honor bestowed because of an individual's active participation in the effort to free humanity
from alien domination. Citizenship is now hereditary, with citizens making up about 30 percent
of the population. Women lost their citizenship in 6691 after Caesar Buntari issued the Patria
Potestas. Though this relegated women to the status of possessions, they still serve in military.
They cannot rise above the rank of Centurion Maximus, however. TOG citizens are still
expected to maintain their citizenship by helping to further the empire. A citizen's duties
include three years of military service, the responsibility of voting for Senators, and periodic
acts of mercy to their slaves or employed plebians. A citizen can free a slave without much
difficulty, unless the slave is a known criminal, a member of the Renegades, or a member of an
alien race that has yet to prove itself. Citizens are also free to marry whomever they choose,
with the same exceptions just mentioned. Plebians and slaves may purchase citizenship from
corrupt magistrates and senators, though very few can afford it. Members of alien races can
become citizens only after the race as a whole has proved itself. Even then, only individual
aliens are promoted to citizenship.

• PLEBIANS
Plebians are the largest group within TOG, comprising slightly over 45 percent of the
population. Alexander Trajan created the plebian class for those apathetic individuals not
actively supporting his efforts. Plebians are protected by the jus gentium, a body of laws
pertaining to their class and to the administration of conquered races. These laws protect a
plebian from bodily harm and provide limited protection of his wealth and property. Plebians
can hold posts in major corporations, and may even own them if the Firms are not defense-
related industries. Plebians can enter into contracts with citizens, including defense-related
arrangements if the individual has received Lictor clearance. Plebians can enter the military
and may even aspire to citizenship by virtue of some heroic action. Some plebians have
become major moneylenders, either as owners of small financial institutions or as major
partners in larger ones. They may move up in status through marriage. Conquered alien races
rise from slavery to the plebian class once they have proven their loyalty to the TOG.

26
 • SLAVES
Slaves in TOG are the empire's disposable source of manpower. Most of their rights are
covered by property laws that prohibit deliberate mutilation or misuse of one's own property.
Not much other protection exists for slaves, though a few Citizens Consul groups will take
slave cases before Magistrates (this exposes them to intense and constant scrutiny by the
Lictor, however). Only citizens can own slaves. Male slaves may not marry into a higher class,
though females may. Twenty-five percent of the TOG population are slaves. A person becomes
a slave in various ways. First, he may be someone who was caught actively opposing the TOG.
Second, he may be a member of an alien race that has actively fought against the TOG, such
as the KessRith. Third, he may have sold himself (or his offspring) into slavery for a certain
period of time. Such a citizen can reclaim his rights and property once his term of service is up.
Someone who sells himself into slavery would usually serve as a domestic, say, rather than as a
miner of laser crystal ore.

ALIENS
Alien species fall into two different categories within TOG. Lesser Aliens are non-Human/Naram
creatures that have reached a certain level of independent thought. As man expanded through the
universe, sentience became closely linked with T-Space drive technology: if a race could not travel the
stars they were inferior. Various races like the Huldice, Lungdo and the Hivers have been integrated
and inculturated into the TOG populace. In practice this means they were dispersed among the human
worlds and have, for all intents and purposes, died out within sterile settlements. The apparent
exception to this rule are the Hivers. They were discovered in a densely packed cluster, near the center of
the galaxy. While TOG has long proclaimed ownership of the entire area, the efficacy of the Hiver
Diaspora has been called into doubt. It has been suggested that Hivers managed to steal a starship and
have withdrawn to create their own fleet so they may battle TOG. The veracity of this theory awaits
confirmation. Until that time, the Hivers have been consigned to the same scrapheap of extinction that
claims the Dodo bird, the Thylacine and the Huldice]

The Greater Aliens are those races who discovered space travel on their own and managed to expand
throughout the stars to meet man on a (somewhat) equal footing. The Naram, KessRith, Baufrin, Ssora,
and Vauvusar occupy this class of alien. Narams are almost openly accepted as human and can easily
pass as such. KessRith and Baufrin, being easily identifiable as both alien and hostile, are relegated to
the Slave class. The Ssora, who admire TOG for its organization, are an alien race that has "proven"
itself to TOG by continuing to fight the KessRith. Ssora can become Citizens and a Ssoran has even
been elected a Clarissimi Senator in the Ssora district.

The Vauvusar, because of their help to Alexander Trajan, are often accorded very high status within
both TOG and the Commonwealth. Because there are really so few of them (by comparison), this status
is acceptable within the xenophobic philosophy of the TOG. They are considered a "catalyst" who
merely sped up what would have occurred naturally anyway. When a Vauvusar begins to seek too lofty
a position, the rumors about the Vauvusar and the Snow Plague showing up at the same time are
circulated once more. The bottom line for aliens in TOG is this: if you can pass for Human, do so. If you
are not Ssoran or Vauvusar, expect to be treated like a Slave. If you are Ssoran or Vauvusar, don't
expect anything better than the treatment you'd expect of Slaves.

27
THE MILITARY
The military contains the greatest collection of warriors and weapons ever seen in the galaxy. Between
the two branches, the Imperial Legions and the Imperial Navy, there are over 8.000.000 Legions
boasting 50.000 men each, and over 100.000 Battleship Groups with all their attendant escort, troop
transport and supply ships. Even scattered throughout the galaxy, that concentration of power is
staggering. That the Commonwealth even continues to exist is a testament to the will of men to be
free.

Each male citizen, upon his 16th birthday, is conscripted for a term of service not less than 3 years.
Most individuals take advantage of the educational benefits and agree to a longer term of service. 20
years in brings a 25% pension (25% of pay at their last grade/rank) and 30 years in service brings a
66% pension. Plebians may enlist at will, though it is only an exceptional Plebian who will rise into the
officer corps. Slaves may only serve within the military if they are the personal servant of an officer, and
their upkeep is deducted from his wages. Human women make up 20% of the military, and various
aliens account for 30% of the total number of troops.

• LEGIONS
The Imperial Legions are the shock and garrison troops for the Empire. It is their job to take
and hold hostile worlds. They suffer the most casualties and are not often portrayed as
glamorous by the media, though their tank battles hold great interest for the vast population
of ex-tankers (which can be found almost anywhere). Aliens are well represented among the
Legions - TOG is careful not to use alien troops against their own species except in infiltration
and espionage campaigns.

• NAVY
The Imperial Navy has over 4 billion ships in its registry, a quarter of those being warships and
the rest being troop transports or supply/tender craft. The Navy transports the Legions
between stars, protects them from hostile ships and occasionally lends a hand with a planetary
barrage. The power of the Navy cannot be underestimated, as the occasional total devastation
of a planet by naval assault points out. No other military force within the Galaxy can even
begin to match the Imperial Navy for size or firepower. Ships range from Battleships and
Cruisers down through Frigates, Destroyers, Escorts, Corvettes, Gunboats, Transports, Supply
Tenders, to Fighters. Ships in the Corvette class and larger generally carry fighters, and
"carrier" ships are placed within the class appropriate for their size even though their firepower
is determined by the fighters they carry. While colossal space battles hold great allure for the
vast TOG public, their real fascination seems to be with individual fighter squadrons like the
vaunted Death Express and the Blood Eagles, whose exploits the media are quick to publicize.

28
2.2 THE COMMONWEALTH
The Commonwealth is comprised of some 40.000 inhabited stars at the far end of the Orion arm of the
galaxy. From end to end, it stretches approximately 45.000 light years and is divided into 21 Grand
Dukedoms. Each Grand Dukedom has about 50 Counties, and each County has 40 to 50 inhabited
planets. With (on average) 1.3 habitable planets per star system, the Commonwealth is densely
populated with Humans and Baufrin, along with refugee Naram, KessRith and Ssora contingents.
Native alien species make up 10% of the total population. The Commonwealth crest is a crown
surrounded by 21 stars representing each of the Grand Dukedoms, including eight now in the hands of
the TOG.

THE GOVERNMENT
The political organization of the Commonwealth is based on the parliamentary systems common to
Earth and other human worlds before the Snow Plague and subsequent slavery. Each world has a
House of Commons and a House of Lords, with a Prime Minister chosen from the House of Commons to
head the government. A Baron, appointed by the Count or Duke of the area, accompanies the Prime
Minister and insures a lack of despotic rule.

Counts administer the Commonwealth on the County level and Dukes handle business on the
Dukedom level. On New Britannia, the capital of the Commonwealth, the "first citizen" is titled the
Regent (elected for life by the Dukes) and administers the entire government. With each of these upper
levels of the government, the nobles meet in a House of Lords and elect their representatives to the
next level, culminating with the Grand Dukes electing the Regent.

The Commonwealth is unique in that it treats all species in an egalitarian manner. KessRith, Baufrin and
Humans have all served as the Regent. The first Regent of the Commonwealth was the Baufrin Suphra
Decla (6585-6591). She is best remembered for reestablishing ties with the former KessRith enemy,
and for molding the various revolutionary fighting groups into a permanent Commonwealth Armed
Forces, sensing that someday they would be needed to defend against the Terrans.

29
Over the next 230 years, a succession of Human, Baufrin, and Naram Regents, and even one KessRith,
oversaw the ending of discrimination against KessRiths in the Commonwealth, established relations
with the Vauvusar race in the Magellanic Republic, took the Renegade Legion and Illustrus Senator
Gregory Novick into their realm, created a secret service to penetrate the TOG and subsequently
disbanded it when it got out of control, replacing it by hiring the Renegade Intelligence Legion.

War began with the Terran Overlord Government when the Baufrin Regent To’ Siptos refused to hand
over the Renegade Legions. (To’ Siptos, a relatively young Baufrin, later stepped down after he molted
into another personality.)

The first KessRith Regent, Valako, arranged a secret pact with the KessRith Empire, allowing
Commonwealth and Renegade forces to enter that realm, provided they were not too obvious about it.

Valako's successor, the present Regent, is Stephen Lukather, a Human. At 48, he is the youngest leader
of the Commonwealth to date. A distinguished commanding officer of Commonwealth heavy armour
units, he left the military after losing his left hand in a battle in which he won two knighthoods, one
Commonwealth, one Renegade.

He returned to his homeworld of Gaul , where he got embroiled in opposition politics against a
corrupt KessRith administration (even though he was raised by KessRith, many KessRith believe that
Stephen is prejudiced against them). He and Elizabeth Caliburn, Baroness of Gaul, were married during
these years.

Eventually, Gaul sent him to the Grand Parliament in New Britannia, where he led the opposition
against tax increases. In 6929, the Grand Dukes chose Stephen as Regent. Shortly after this elevation,
TOG agents kidnapped his wife, intending to trap the Regent and/or the commander of the Renegade
Legions if they tried a rescue. A rescue force did get through, however, and Elizabeth Lukather was
freed. The Regent loves his wife with a passion, but now that she has been with the enemy, his advisors
have begged him not to trust her completely. Since her return, he has kept her at arm's length. It is
clear that this separation is tearing at both of them.

THE POPULACE
The people of the Commonwealth are both too ordinary to spend much time discussing and too
diverse to be described in under 100 pages. As mentioned above, they are an egalitarian society, with
little evidence of racial or sexual prejudice. Many fleeing refugees see in them a perfect society.
However, this perception is twice-colored by TOG. First, they're comparing the Commonwealth to TOG,
and since they're discontent with TOG, they naturally find the Commonwealth preferable. And second,
the Commonwealth is on a war footing. Its energies are directed against a common foe, unifying it and
leaving it little time for friction from within. If the Commonwealth weren't concentrating so completely
on survival against an exterior threat, it might find more to fight about among its individual societies,
races and worlds.

30
THE MILITARY
The Commonwealth is in the curious position of having two military organizations within its borders,
but exercising only nominal control over one of them. There are 300.000 Renegade Legions stationed
in Commonwealth territory, each organized under the TOG model that places 50.000 troops in a
legion. By comparison, the 200.000 legions within the Commonwealth Armed Forces are not exactly
overwhelming. Granted, the Commonwealth provides 80% of the Renegade Legion's operating
budget, but more than one Regent has lost sleep wondering what would happen if the Renegades
decided to make the Commonwealth their own.

Fortunately, the Renegades are single-minded in their desire to destroy TOG. They actively recruit from
Commonwealth worlds, and accept trained military refugees from TOG space. Refugee recruits are
thoroughly checked out by agents still within TOG, and Lictor spies are dealt with ruthlessly when
uncovered. The Renegades maintain their own academies for training recruits, many of whom come
from the growing number of Renegade homeworlds in the Commonwealth.

Cross-training and cross-service of officers between the Renegade Legions and the CAF has lessened
much of the tension between the two services. The Renegade Legions are seen by almost everyone in
the Commonwealth as the superior fighting force, and not just because of superior numbers, yet they
accept CAF leadership whenever necessary (more than one heated discussion has been had over the
Renegade and Commonwealth definitions of the word “necessary”). Commonwealth citizens recruited
as legionnaires consider the recruitment an honor, and most readily accept.

The Renegade Legions are organized along the lines of the TOG military forces. RL uniforms combine
bits and pieces of Commonwealth styles with material that dates back to the New Roman Republic
armed forces. Prominent now is the graffiti R that marks both uniforms and ships in the Renegade
Legions. It has been adopted by the expatriots as an emblem of solidarity with the Renegade
underground, which many of them have personal reason to thank.

Uniforms worn by members of the Renegade Legions are similar to those worn by the Commonwealth
Armed Forces (actually, Renegade Legionnaires wear a combination of Commonwealth uniforms and
uniforms from the armed forces of the old Terran Republic). They are colored a deep sky blue, with
metallic facings, and silver-grey puttee-like leggings below the knee made of impervious pseudo-
plastic. Some ground units wear ribbed arm and torso coverings of the same silver-grey material.

The Renegade Legions still use the old insignia of the Terran Republic military, which for the most part
are also used by the TOG. Renegades have added the prominent red graffiti "R," always found
somewhere on their uniforms, their fighting vehicles, and their ships, in solidarity with the Renegade
underground operating inside the TOG.

The Commonwealth Armed Forces are divided into quite a few organizations and branches - enough,
in fact, to make the average Ssora weep. Half of the 200.000 Commonwealth Legions follow the
TOG/RL table of organization, though they retain their own rank insignia and titles. The other 100.000
Legions are structured into units favored by one or another of the different species in the
Commonwealth alliance. A list of titles and descriptions includes:

31
 • B'EKKAL (NARAM)
B'ekkal units are those patterned on the Naram style of combat. Fast but lightly armoured,
they rival Legions in size and are peopled by Naram and Humans for the most part.

• KESSRITH
KessRith legions tend to be smaller than Renegade legions. They pack lots of power, but lack
the ease of mobility seen in B'ekkal units. Still, they can take lots of pounding and still be
around to fight, so discounting them would be a mistake, especially when they hold an
entrenched position.

• BAUFRIN
Baufrin units split the difference between the previous two. They have fair mobility, but can't
weather an assault like a KessRith unit can. They are valued for their ability to follow up and
reinforce - equally competent when exploiting opportunities created by B'ekkal units or
succouring a besieged KessRith unit.

• VAUVUSAR
Vauvusar units, the few that exist, hit hard and use their mobility to compensate for their
almost total lack of armour. They join in battles almost at a whim and only their quick-strike
cavalry makes them tolerated on the field of battle by their allies.

CAF SERVICE BRANCHES

The Service Branches of the CAF are each distinct and separate, and there is an obvious rivalry among
them. While this might seem bad on the surface, this unity of one branch against another helps to
bleed off what might otherwise arise as racial tension among the different species:

• The Royal Army handles planetary assaults and garrison duty.

• The Royal Navy deals with space battles, transport and support of ground troops.

• The Royal Marines, a small, elite force, specializes in ship-to-ship boarding actions and quick
assaults of ground targets like a spaceport or industrial complex. (Army troopers note that if
you can't walk and chew gum at the same time, you end up in the Marines because there you
don't have to walk.)

• The Royal Aerospace Force handles fighters in ground actions or garrison duty; fighters carried
on Navy vessels have their chain of command hooked into that of the Navy.

• The Special Forces units of the CAF handle all anti-terrorist activities in the Commonwealth
and foster terrorist activities in TOG space. Their efficacy at getting supplies to the Renegade
Underground has been hailed as one of the greatest reasons for the Underground's success.

32
Each Planetary Militia is composed of natives to that world and are responsible for its defense. They
also help out during emergencies - vast floods, life-threatening storms and the like. Often a militia's
officer corps is totally filled with retired CAF officers. Militia troops are also trained to become
guerrillas if their world is overrun, and serve as special advisors to Marine and Army units active on
their world.

Sky Marshals are selected from among the leadership of the CAF to administer vast fronts in the battle
with TOG. This is more than a ceremonial position, and its responsibilities have broken more than one
commander. While they have been likened to Overlords, this analogy is not accurate. Perhaps better
would be a comparison to an Imperial Warlord appointed for duty in a specific County or Dukedom.

33
2.3 BAUFRIN (bou’frin)
The Baufrin are the strangest form of life found in the galaxy. Mankind's first meeting with them, in the
year 3000, was heralded by many as the first meeting of Mankind with the forces of Satan. While not
quite looking like a traditional demon, the insectoid Baufrin certainly did qualify as the rulers of
Mankind's worst nightmares. To the surprise of everyone, the Baufrin also proved to be reasonable,
intelligent, and as willing to avoid combat as any other rational species. Yet despite Mankind's long
alliance with the Baufrin, they still are almost as mysterious as they were when we first met them.

BIOLOGY
The Baufrin are most easily described as centaur-like
spidermen. Six legs extend down from their abdomen
and their thorax is held up at a 90° angle to the ground.
Their thorax has four arms. The upper pair is used for
delicate and precise actions and the lower, longer pair is
used for things that require strength. Baufrin stand
about 1 meter tall and weigh in at 60 kilos - most of
that coming in the chitinous exoskeleton that covers
their body.

Baufrin have a quadruple set of mandibles and three

pairs of eyes. Each of their eye pairs sees light in a
slightly different range, so they have sight that is
considered much sharper than human sight. Two
hornlike protrusions from the sides of their heads are
used to conduct sound to their ear sacs, but do not
function that well and make them somewhat deaf by
human standards.

The Baufrin exoskeleton is generally an emerald green color, but it tends to deepen and take on blue
shades as a Baufrin ages. The intricate striping on the exoskeleton varies and is thought to reflect
something about the individual the Baufrin was before his last molt. The Baufrin continue to grow
throughout their 50-year life span and molt every 8 years. This molting process is traumatic and occurs
after the Baufrin enters a period of fertile, sexual frenzy. During this sexually fertile period the male and
female Baufrin exoskeletons become a bright, livid red.

The Baufrin remain virtually asexual until the time of mating, and then require three sexes for
reproduction: male, female and mother. A Baufrin may assume either the male or female role at the
time of mating - it's believed that the mother produces pheromones that help sexual determination.
The male and female deposit sperm and ova within the mother. The mother gives birth to a clutch of
eggs that are attached to her abdomen within a clear mucus film. Each mating produces anywhere
from 50 to 150 eggs, of which 5 to 10% prove viable. Each Baufrin reaches maturity by its second molt.

34
Molting presents certain problems for the Baufrin. It is believed that as they age, the exoskeleton
becomes thicker and prevents ultraviolet light from getting through the skeleton. UV light is necessary
for the production of an enzyme that helps deal with blood toxicity. When too many toxins build up,
the exoskeleton turns red, and the Baufrin mate and then shed their exoskeleton. Their new flesh is
soft for 12 to 24 hours, and many of the blood toxins ooze through it to help strengthen and stiffen
the new exoskeleton. The exoskeleton works as well as any armour mainly because it can provide both
shock and ablative protection without hurting the Baufrin.

The molting does more than just change the outside of the Bauffin; it also creates radical personality
shifts. In many cases the Baufrin totally forget who they were and seek out new relationships. Because
they have an affinity for tasks they once performed, and are very adept at recovering these skills
almost immediately after molting, it is believed their brain is not "wiped clean" during the change.
Instead, researchers believe, their former personality retreats into their brain and a new personality is
allowed to appear. The Baufrin do not acknowledge this human theory - treating it as if it were
blasphemous - but certain studies indicate that it might be true.

The ultraviolet light theory was confirmed during a very unusual incident. An independent trader had a
Baufrin navigator who began to get a pinkish tint to his exoskeleton. The medical officer drilled two
holes in the exoskeleton and circulated the Baufrin equivalent of blood through a clear tube that he
subjected to very strong UV light. This treatment delayed the onset of molt for 3 months, with
treatment requiring "illumination" 3 hours a day for the entire time.

The Baufrin claim they only have a 50-year life span, but aside from color variation in the exoskeleton,
physiologists cannot detect any loss of abilities from one molt to another. Because no one has ever
seen an infant or juvenile of the mother sex, and no one has ever seen an Independent Elder, a strange
theory has cropped up among Human and Naram researchers. They believe that after the 50 years of
"adult" life, some of the Baufrin become mothers, and after yet more time mothers become
Independent Elders.

The Baufrin refuse to discuss this theory because mothers and Independent Elders have important
positions within their religion. Researchers have theorized each mother cares for two clutches of young
for roughly 16 years before they go off and molt or die. Those mothers who molt become
Independent Elders and Independent Elders, they believe, undergo a reintegration of their various
personalities (with a molt every 8 years or so, that gives an Elder 7 personalities, including the mother
personality). These Elders, then, have 7 personalities to provide input on problems.

No one has even begun to guess at the age at which an Elder might die, but references to certain
Elders suggest that it might be as much as two centuries.

35
HISTORY
Very little is known of Baufrin history
before Human contact. The Baufrin claim
the planet Baufrinos as their homeworld
and evidence a steady expansion that
suggests they developed T-Space drives
while mankind was still exterminating
the wooly mammoth. Their galactic
exploration managed to avoid any other
sentient race until they ran into mankind
in the area now known as Shannedam
County.

The initial Baufrin/Human contact was hampered by their physiological differences and the inability of
Human leaders to locate and speak with Independent Elders. The brief fighting on Shannedam IV
showed that the two species were equally competent militarists. Human leaders realized the Baufrin
only became aggressive when pressured by attacks, so things cooled to a state of armed neutrality
while leaders met.

Human negotiators have indicated that discussions with Baufrin Independent Elders were not easy. The
Elders swath themselves in silken robes that many people believe are woven of silk the Elder produces
himself (even though none of the other Baufrin sexes/life stages have that ability). The robes vary in
color and the intricate patterns woven into the gown are reminiscent of the striations on a Baufrin
carapace, but no Baufrin will even hint at what they mean.

Aside from wearing more clothing that others of their race, the Independent Elders have the annoying
habit, from a Human point of view, of falling silent for what one man referred to as "internal
discussions" before they render a decision. In this state it is virtually impossible to determine if a
Baufrin is alive or dead, which caused a number of tense moments until humans became accustomed
to the behavior.

Once the two sides reached an agreement to live together, Baufrin/Human cooperation became
legendary. Human settlers often forged a symbiotic relationship with Baufrin neighbors because of
humanity's extended life span and ability to remember more than just the last 8 years. Humans would
tend to agriculture and the Baufrin would undertake difficult tasks, like mining, that suited them better
than Humans.

The Baufrin did not suffer physically from the Snow Plague, but they deeply felt the loss of their
Human friends. There were numerous reports of whole Baufrin families entering caverns to induce
molting prematurely so they could shed the deep grief they felt over the deaths of their friends. Many
moving Baufrin poems were written during that time, and they are often quoted by Baufrin who
volunteer for the Commonwealth (or TOG) armed forces.

36
Because of their differences in size, the larger KessRith had difficulty following Baufrin resistance
leaders everywhere they went, so they brought in Ssora mercenaries who were better suited to the job.
The Ssora thought nothing of chasing after these spider people and, if Baufrin reports are to be
believed, the Ssora even found the Baufrin tasty. As a result of this period, the Baufrin are not very
friendly with Ssora in general, and do not trust them in large numbers. [Editor's Note: The Ssora love of
strong central government is most likely the root of this conflict, but the more visceral story certainly
explains the depth of Baufrin distrust of Ssora.]

The Baufrin appreciated Alexander Trajan's help in the Commonwealth uprising, but felt they had to
negotiate a peace with the KessRith because of the tendencies shown by Trajan's government. Based
largely on the rise of slavery in New Rome holdings, the Baufrin feared the sort of repressive
government that finally did arise under TOG, and they wanted no part of it.

Since the TOG declaration of war against the Commonwealth, the Baufrin have relinquished direct
control of the government. Aside from the fact that they dislike a strong government, they realize that
the mental longevity of Human, Naram and KessRith make them more suitable leaders. While it is
believed that Independent Elders could supply yet greater longevity, to bring them into the
government would be profaning the sacred. Even so, Independent Elders are not reticent about
providing advice for the Regent, or recommending an outstanding Baufrin for consideration as Regent.

CULTURE
The Baufrin culture is based around the triad family unit of male, female and mother. A mother takes
care of her clutch of children until they reach maturity, but that will not prevent her from bearing
another clutch. After being impregnated, the mother locates a newly molted pair to form a family unit.
They help raise the children and later impregnate the mother again. [Note: Because it is very difficult for
a human to distinguish between Baufrin, the possibility that mothers survive forever cannot be
discounted.]

Because molting can cause radical personality shifts in an individual, they are treated by society as
totally new people after the molt. This lack of reliability and constancy has created in the Baufrin a
distrust for any organization broader than the family unit, which is seldom larger than 30 individuals,
counting offspring, adoptees and surrogate mothers. Mothers dominate the family unit, with the
mysterious Independent Elders serving as advisors and the final arbiters of conflict.

Molting also provides a unique form of punishment for those who commit truly heinous crimes.
Whereas petty crimes are punished by exile or imprisonment, serious crimes are handled by
imprisoning the individual without ultraviolet light. Apparently, in such a place, the individual
undergoes multiple moltings and emerges a virtual "blank slate." His former personality has been
executed and the new personality rejoins society.

37
The Independent Elders seem to be a rough cross between traveling circuit judges, prophets and
saints. The Baufrin are strong traditionalists and keep copious records both about what they have done
and what Independent Elders have said. This has obvious importance in a society where you might
"die" every 8 years, and Baufrin who read about their own past exploits in their own diaries assume
they are reading about a third party. Elders are keenly aware of what other Elders have said, and do
whatever they can to avoid contradicting previous advice and rulings - though offering a personal
insight or clarification on a case by case basis is perfectly acceptable.

On the whole the Baufrin are a kind, considerate and deferential people. They quietly admire Humans
and Naram for their wild unpredictability (from the Baufrin point of view) and their staunch defense of
personal freedom. The Baufrin dislike of TOG stems not so much from a love of freedom - which they
equate with being an orphan, a most horrible condition - than from their intense hatred of any
autocratic government attempting to force its ideas upon them.

GOVERNMENT
It has been observed that the Baufrin have government by anarchy, but this indicates gross ignorance
on the part of the observer. The Baufrin governmental structure strongly parallels the family unit, and
each family has been termed a "kinstate" in which the family is seen as its own little nation. Alliances
between these kinstates are common and facilitate the exchanging of mothers and parent pairs. Some
kinstate alliances take on a more formal structure as they raise and prepare the individuals who
dominate particular occupations.

38
The Independent Elders serve as direct authority over districts and are obeyed without question. There
is no appeal from the decision of an Independent Elder, but they rarely issue truly harsh rulings. There
is evidence that Independent Elders remain in communication with each other, and some have
suggested that Elders have a telepathic link with their peers. No information is available on the number
of Elders and whether or not they ever come together to discuss items of great importance.

The difficulty human leadership first encountered with the Baufrin highlights the "hands-off" attitude
the Baufrin like to foster. Human envoys consistently requested that they be taken to the Baufrin
leader, but each Baufrin simply pointed out the mother of his own family. When the mothers were
consulted, each of them indicated a different Independent Elder. Only by comparing the names of the
Independent Elders and polling a few of them - after a lengthy search - were Humans able to
determine the name of an Elder who seemed to be respected by a fair number of the Baufrin. Despite
realizing the apparent need of Humans to converse with a single leader, the Baufrin initially put
Humans through this same chase over and over again.

PHILOSOPHY
Baufrin philosophy is virtually impossible to organize or quantify in terms that the Human mind can
grasp. The Baufrin love of family is incredibly strong. Their respect for the authority of the Independent
Elders is unquestioned, but their hatred of strong central authority is nearly pathological in its
intensity. How they manage to view the Elders as religious figures worthy of respect, but political
leaders as reprobates, is difficult for anyone but Baufrin to reconcile.

They appreciate the selfless bravery of Human, Naram and KessRith heroes who are willing to sacrifice
themselves for others, yet few Baufrin are willing to do the same. This reluctance has been seen both
as the fear of destroying a family and the fear of sacrificing a potential Elder.

Envy and jealousy do not seem to be emotions the Baufrin recognize or understand. They are aware of
the changes that they will undergo when they molt, so they seem to constantly be experiencing and
learning as much as they can, yet without the intrusive curiosity of the Vauvusar. They are nearly
always well-mannered.

They do have a sense of humor and even chitter/laugh at themselves when they make an error or do
something funny. Whereas a Ssora would die of embarrassment at ridicule, a Baufrin might even invite
repetition of the occurrence to insure he had gotten it correctly fixed in his mind.

EVALUATION
The Baufrin form an interesting counterpart to humanity. They don't seem to struggle as hard against
the inevitability of death because of their frequent brushes with psychological oblivion. Their unease
with central governments is a necessary touchstone that stops the Commonwealth from becoming too
much like the enemy they are seeking to repel.

39
2.4 KESSRITH (kes’rith)
For the first three thousand years of Human/KessRith contact, the KessRith were implacable foes who
neither granted quarter or expected it. Since that time, they have also proven powerful and loyal allies
to the Commonwealth. Their fatalistic outlook on life colors everything they are and do, but their sense
of humor mocks this more serious side of their nature.

BIOLOGY
Like the duckbilled platypus, the KessRith have been put
forth as proof that God has a sense of humor.
Centauroid in configuration, they combine the body of a
rhinoceros with a powerful tail and a torso that makes
human gladiators look weak. Their head rests on a
strong bull neck and their gaping mouth is lined with
teeth that look and function much like those of a
terrestrial shark. Their hands have four fingers and an
opposable thumb, but their four feet have only two toes
apiece.

Thick, fleshy plates cap their tail and protect their torso,
arms, neck and skull. While KessRith appear to most
non-KessRith as gray in color, the KessRith claim they
can detect racial differences among themselves. Their
eyes are red and tend to take on a crimson glow in the
backlight of a monitor or flashlight.

The KessRith are built for heavy combat. They are, without a doubt, the strongest of the sentient races
and they value physical strength. In fact, struggle is so noble, for all but pregnant females, that few
KessRith actually reach the 100 years of age their physiology would allow them. Most die 20 to 30
years prematurely, though no KessRith would use that term if an individual died in battle.

Pregnancies last for 23 standard months (which is approximately one year on Sovi' KessRoth, the
KessRith homeworld) and calves are capable of locomotion within two hours of birth. While female
KessRith have no breasts and do not lactate, they do regurgitate a thick, nourishing mucus with the
color and consistency of warm caramel to feed their young. The young reach maturity in 15 years, and
the average female will bear children from that time to the age of 40.

More than one calf at a time is unusual, because KessRith females are able to control their rate of
pregnancy. From a single impregnation a female can retain enough genetic material to fertilize as
many as a dozen eggs. This means a KessRith warrior can continue to provide genetic material for over
a decade after his death.

40
Female KessRith can induce pregnancy if they have a store of sperm, provided the local conditions are
appropriate for gestation. The female's hormonal balance is dependent upon the availability of food
and water. The male/female ratio of 1 to 5 is similar to that of migratory herd animals. The
development of a partially upright posture has been seen as a survival trait for surveying the local area
for predators (the mind boggles at what could have eaten the KessRith, and the fossils in the KessRith
Museum of Natural History make terrestrial dinosaurs look like salamanders).

HISTORY
3214 was the year in which a mixed Human/Naram
taskforce ran afoul of a KessRith clan fleet over the
Naram world of Tloca. The initial engagement
should have been, at best, a draw for the KessRith,
but they kept coming even when their largest
cruiser was falling apart. The humanoids managed
to destroy it, but they took severe casualties on
their flagship in doing so. The KessRith fleet
vanished into T-Space, but within 5 months was
back to contest the world again.

The second battle of Tloca went better for the humanoids, but again the KessRith seemed to prefer
death to surrender. It was only later that the humans realized the Clan was on a Fr' chakti-gcog – a
Clanhunt – because they had been driven from their old home by a clan schism. Their choice was to
find a new homeworld or die. Most of them did die, and the remaining leaders asked for a truce so
they could repair their warships and join the battle again.

The Naram Grand Elders of Tloca finally realized why the KessRith clan was fighting so hard. They
offered to let the KessRith land in peace and join them. The KessRith commander was so angered by
this offer, he took his destroyer into the atmosphere and strafed the ruling council complex. The
destroyer itself was destroyed, but the KessRith reply to the Council's offer was understood.

The KessRith discovered T-Space technology about the same time the Naram and Humans met. While
they claim to have made the discovery on their own, evidence suggests they co-opted the technology
from the Ssora. The KessRith had undertaken interstellar colonization using generation ships - giant
biospheres designed to provide a home for generation after generation of KessRith while they traveled
across the vast distances between stars. Ssora raiders found one of these ships and made the mistake
of opening what turned out to be a Pandora's Box.

While it may be true that the KessRith got T-Space drives from the Ssora they, like Trajan, did more
with Ssora technology than the Ssora ever did. Being powerful and warlike, they swept through space
like barbarian hordes. They worried less about finding suitable worlds to colonize than they did about
finding foes to fight. For a short time it looked as if they would devote themselves to wiping out the
Ssora, but Rlarka GosKler, the leader of All Clans, deflected them. In what became the ruling sentiment
from 2650 to 3214, he asked, "How is it better to pursue an inferior foe than to accept the challenges
of besting a world?"

41
The KessRith threw themselves into transforming worlds, creating hot, arid savannahs. Clanhunts
became a way to split off a portion of the population to find and prepare another world. These
fragmented clans remain allied despite the trauma of being forced off a homeworld by brothers and
sisters.

Before Tloca, the KessRith had met no species they considered to be worthy foes (KessRith historians
begrudgingly admit that the Ssora were an annoyance, but they hasten to point out that Alexander
Trajan accomplished more in three years using Ssora ships and tactics than the Ssora had in the three
millennia they had battled with the KessRith). With the discovery of mankind, KessRith philosophy
began a slow transformation.

KessRith incursions into Human and Naram territory increased, and the KessRith frenzy for battle
became something mothers used to frighten bad children. If the KessRith lost a world with a 10-ship
taskforce, you could be certain a 20-ship taskforce would soon show up. Efforts to appease them only
angered the KessRith and provoked them to commit what Humans viewed as atrocities.

Then, the quick and deadly course of the Snow Plague allowed KessRith forces to sweep over the
Naram, Human and Commonwealth worlds. The fierceness of the opposition that still faced them
surprised the KessRith, but it did little more than slow the juggernaut Those Humans who could
escaped. Those who could not were enslaved.

So it remained until the rise of Alexander Trajan. The Human revolt surprised the KessRith. They had
not expected Trajan's move in splitting them from the Ssora. KessRith society also hampered them
because of the way that an individual KessRith warrior saw himself within that society. His loyalty was,
in this order, to his family, his homeworld, his profession and finally the ruling Quoqa Clan. When the
revolt in the Commonwealth drove the troops out, many remaining KessRith identified with their
homeworld and local family. They came to look upon the Commonwealth as their new ruling clan, and
the quick alliance between the Commonwealth and the KessRith Empire helped assuage whatever guilt
might have remained in Commonwealth KessRith.

CULTURE
The KessRith are organized into extended polygamous family/clan units that generally include
thousands of individuals. Each male has one to five wives - the number determined by the Dominator
as a sign of the male's rank within the family. The Dominator is the senior male of a family, and his
tenure in that post is still often decided by combat, though political and occupational skill make it a
good idea to leave a physically weak but otherwise powerful male in charge of the family.

The typical family unit consists of a Dominator, his wives, his sons and their wives. Female KessRith
leave their family and join that of their husband. Family units combine into herds based on related
Dominators. The Patriarch is the strongest of the herd's Dominators. Herds form clans, the largest
social group.

42
A Dominator is subject only to his Patriarch. He allocates the number of wives any individual may have
and can even order one male to surrender a wife to another. The Patriarch can do the same, even
moving someone from one family to another. The Clan Patriarch has the same power on the clan level;
no one questions unless he is prepared to battle for rank and domination on that level.

With sentience, the KessRith have realized that brute strength is not the way to decide Domination. A
Domination battle takes place in three parts, a survival challenge (to pit the candidates against the
world), a mental/verbal challenge (to test their reasoning ability against each other) and physical
combat. Because of the importance of the first and second tests in deciding dominance, a sharp but
physically inferior KessRith may become a Dominator and will be accorded all due respect for that
position.

This also allows the KessRith to recognize superior ability among other species in the galaxy. The
KessRith often enjoy malavoqa – "sweatless combat" is a rough translation. This is a form of verbal
sparring that involves intricate wordplay, and the human affinity for punning has made them favored
malavoqa contestants.

43
Because inheritance and descent are figured paternally, and because it is a polygamous system, it
would appear that women are little valued and have no importance beyond raising children. This is not
true. The KessRith are egalitarian about the position of women in society and they accept them into
the military on an equal footing with males. Women are limited in politics, but "puppet Dominators"
are not unknown. More importantly, women keep track of bloodlines (since they know for certain who
the father of their children is) and make sure that marriages do not combine poor genetics. As
marriage partners generally come from herds within the same clan, genetic compatibility is constantly
overseen.

Battles between clans are common, though civilization has changed things from the days when two
clans would array themselves on a dusty plain for a fight to the death. Now Banker Clans wage
financial war with other Banker Clans, and so forth. One human historian characterized these battles as
mixing the worst parts of corporate raiding with organized crime wars. Dueling is still legal, however,
and rare is the KessRith who allows himself to get very far from his sword.

The KessRith respect no one who does not value combat above all, but despite this emphasis on
conflict the KessRith are capable of artistic endeavors. Granted, they do tend to martial expression in
their art, swordmaking, armouring and the like are highly valued skills and artforms. Fighting a duel
with a treasured clan sword, then, becomes a performance and is likely to spawn yet one more tale to
be passed from Dominator to child.

GOVERNMENT
KessRith governmental organization isn't, and is cited as the overwhelming reason the Ssora and
KessRith do not get along - the Ssora cannot abide disorganization (the KessRith maintain the Ssora
hate their government because the little lizards don't know who to betray to whom) Each clan is an
entity unto itself, although most are related to a half-dozen other clans because of a blood link
somewhere in the past (these larger clan groupings are called meta-clans or Unities) When a unity
includes a financial clan, a manufacturing clan, a political clan and a military clan, why would it need
any outside help?

Only if a clan has been defeated in combat with another clan does it defer to that other clan. The
dominant clans on a world select two representatives to a loosely defined Diet within the Province
where their world is located, and that Diet then sends representatives to the Council of Champions on
Sovi' KessRoth to select the Thirteen Clan Leaders who rule. The Thirteen choose one of their own as
the Great Dominator and since the time of Z'tac (around 5000), the Grand Dominator has always been
from the Quoqa clan. The current Grand Dominator is Tvarqi Quoqa.

The first major difficulty with the whole system is that no terms of office are set for any of the
governmental structures. Someone from within a clan group could challenge and battle his way up
through the Diet and Council to become a Clan Leader. Z'tac did exactly that. Granted, a radical
turnover is rare, but what happened once could happen again.

44
The other problem with the system is that decisions are passed down from on high, but are ratified or
rejected all the way down to the clan level. Most decisions are upheld, but the law of perversity always
comes into effect. This means that most clans respect the rights of Ssora to live in peace on worlds, but
others occasionally go raiding against the Ssora on a whim. A clan battle and domination may result to
keep such a rogue clan in its place, but the phrase "house rules" takes on a new importance when
among the KessRith.

PHILOSOPHY
The dominant philosophy among the KessRith can be summed up simply: a bull is defined by the
challenges he has accepted and exalted in the struggles he has won. It is simple yet eloquent. KessRith
do not bear grudges because they respect those who are able to defeat them. As with the initial
battles between the KessRith and Humanity, a defeated KessRith will always strive to fight once more,
this is seen as homage paid to the victor.

Without doubt, the KessRith see TOG as the greatest challenge they have ever faced. They know that
to lose the struggle against TOG is to be exterminated as a race. This they refuse to accept and fight
on to prevent it. They recognize, value and respect the abilities of their allies in this struggle.

The KessRith have a very strict code of honor that binds them to family, homeworld and Dominant
Clan. It governs everything from forms of address for all manner of family, herd and clan relations, to
the proper way to kill oneself to expunge a spot on your honor (generally by doing whatever you can
to take as many of the enemy with you). This code specifies 1296 different shades of dishonor and 432
different acts that will atone for those dishonors. Over 90 atonements involve dying.

EVALUATION
Physically imposing, the KessRith are superior combatants. They can be good and loyal friends, but
their ties to family, homeworld and clan can supercede and destroy friendships if they receive a
command to that effect from their Dominator. Personal honor and respect of peers are vitally
important to the KessRith, but fawning over them angers them.

45
2.5 NARAM (naram’)
The Naram were the first T-Space capable race mankind met. Their similarity to mankind was taken as
a sign that man and his close allies were meant to rule the galaxy, a sentiment that continues today
within TOG. Through the centuries of close association and intermarriage with mankind, the Naram
have presented men with an interesting mirror in which to see what we might have become had
circumstances been different.

BIOLOGY
The range of physiological traits shared between the Naram and Human species is truly remarkable.
The Naram tend to be slightly taller and more slender than the average Human. Their range of skin,
eye and hair colors is narrower than Human norm, with blond or blue-eyed Naram being rare. The
average Naram has dark, thick hair and dark eyes. Male Naram can grow lush beards, though Humans
tend toward having more and heavier body hair than their Naram counterparts.

Genotyping of both Naram and Human beings was one of the

first tasks undertaken after the initial contact in 2461. The DNA
compatibility worked out at 99.974825%. This has lead to a test
that can establish if an individual is Naram or Human, but the
test has some difficulties associated with it. First, it is very
expensive. And second, the fact that Terran Mayans were
actually a Naram colony means that Naram genetic qualities
have already spread throughout the Human population
(obviously Naram and Humans can interbreed).

Naram pregnancy lasts, on average, two weeks longer than

human gestation, but their offspring mature about two years
faster. The Naram also seem immune to many of the diseases
that afflict mankind, though the Snow Plague did take its toll
among them as well. Naram life expectancy is slightly higher
than Human norm.

The evolution of two so similar species on worlds 35.000 light years apart has sparked all sorts of
debate about everything from Creationism to punctuated equilibrium. Tribalists immediately embraced
the Naram as the lost tribes of Israel and used them to "verify" the divinity of the Bible. Some
evolutionists have even begun to accept the possibility of parallel development. As one noted, "The
thing about statistics is this: just because the odds against such a thing happening are 55 zillion to
one, it doesn't mean that one time won't happen."

46
HISTORY
Prior to the Naram/Human meeting in 2461 the Naram culture went through what their historians
identify as three golden ages. The first, which has become known in popular literature as "The
Surfacing" took place in antiquity and on a world the Naram have yet to identify. It apparently
culminated in an apocalypse that nearly destroyed the Naram species. In fact, some believe the conflict
was race-related and point to it as the reason why blond Naram are so rare (not because the blonds
lost, but because a fleet of dark-haired Naram left home to find another world).

After this migration the newly-arrived Naram disassembled their

starships and settled down to a more pastoral lifestyle, possibly
because the technology that produced space travel was somehow
linked to the war that nearly destroyed their homeworld. It is not
believed the Naram had T-Space technology at that time, or if
they did it was not refined. Still, the fact that one migratory
spaceship made it to a new world has been used to suggest that
perhaps another made it all the way to Earth to establish the
human race, or yet further to another galaxy where more Naram
wait to be reunited with their progenitors (a Naram arrival early
enough to have established Humanity is generally discounted).

While the Naram attempted to keep conflict out of their lives on

this new world, it did arise. More wars over the course of the next
300.000 years, took the Naram to the brink of extinction on no
less than four occasions.

It was during a lull between these wars that a group of Naram "rediscovered" interstellar travel and
perfected T-Space technology. Having been ostracized for breaking the ancient taboo against rockets,
they left to find another homeworld so their race could be preserved. Their leader was Maya Tikal and
her name (shifted to the possessive Mayan) was given to her colony on Earth.

Mayan did not last very long because of trouble with human neighbors and internal, philosophical
disagreements. In the end the Mayans decided to leave Earth and return to their old homeworld. The
Mayan pacifist movement became very strong when the Mayans returned and took on religious
significance.

The Naram, now aware of Humanity, monitored its progress for a number of centuries. Their interest
picked up as mankind discovered radio and began to broadcast chronicles of worldly happenings.
Apparently some Mayan officials pushed for direct intervention in Human affairs during the Second
World War, but they were overruled by the anti-Mayan elements in the military. The Naram have
denied any connection with UFO incidents in the late 20th century, and their monitoring records seem
to suggest that no interstellar craft actually visited our world (the failure of two Soviet probes aimed at
Mars in 1988/1989 was directly caused by the Naram to avoid revealing the location of their listening
station).

47
When mankind appeared to be expanding in a direction that might bring them into conflict with the
Naram, the Naram revealed themselves to Humanity. Playing upon all they had learned of Humanity
through the centuries of monitoring television broadcasts, the Naram prepared a damaged ship and
left it in a system they knew Humans were bound for. The crew sent out a distress signal when the
Human ship entered the system. The Humans immediately rescued them. By the time the Human ship
returned to Earth with its cargo, a Naram task force had arrived to recover its rescued crew and to
open negotiations with Humanity (curiously, a number of the couples who met through that contrived
circumstance did remain together).

From that first meeting, Naram and Human worked together closely through cultural and scientific
exchanges. Both species respected the other's territory and worked to build up a strong economic
bond between their empires.

The meetings with the Baufrin, KessRith and Ssora bound mankind and the Naram even more closely
in an attempt to stave off these threats to their independence. The KessRith/Ssora captivity went no
easier on the Naram than it did on mankind. The Naram managed to adapt to it because of the way
their culture reacted to change and separation from family. Whereas a Human torn from his family to
work as a slave in a distant world would consider himself alone, a Naram would be adopted into a new
family or would forge a family group around himself. This difference has been seen as the contrast
between mankind's belief that God has a plan for him versus the Naram philosophy of acting to make
a current situation better instead of suffering while waiting for a sign from God.

When Alexander Trajan revolted against the Ssora, he found ready allies in the Naram. With Trajan's
support, Naram world after world exploded with rebellion. The KessRith were shocked by the ferocity
of a people they had believed to be docile for thousands of years. The KessRith realized that trying to
maintain control of their Naram holdings would tie them down and give the New Roman Republic
even more targets to shoot at. Reluctantly, after twenty years of losing battles, the KessRith withdrew
from the embattled planets and the Naram established their own Republic.

In their Human cousins the Naram noted a change. If the captivity had been a crucible, it served to
harden men in a way that disturbed the Naram. They kept the New Roman Republic at arm's-length
politically, but still coordinated activities with them militarily. This rough compromise characterized
Naram/Human relations throughout the early development of TOG.

The Seduction of the Naram, as it is known in TOG, or the Rape, as it is known among the Naram,
started in 6717 when TOG signed a Treaty of Peace and Friendship with the Naram Republic. Lictor of
mixed Human/Naram blood infiltrated the Republic and converted, corrupted, co-opted or
compromised political individuals and organizations over the next ten years. By 6727 roughly 40% of
the Naram Republic's territory was ceded to create TOG's Dalvik District, and the rest of the nation
became little more than a puppet state.

48
Since this conversion deep divisions have arisen in Naram society. Many people liken it to the old
disputes that nearly caused the extermination of the Naram people. Leaders on both sides of the
TOO/anti-TOG line recognize that open civil war would allow TOG to come in to settle things down.
They fear an ambitious Diaspora policy being imposed on the Naram, and the eventual loss of the
Naram identity.

CULTURE
The Naram have an expanded sense of family. Descent and inheritance are matrilineal - that is, they
follow the mother's bloodline. Men, when they marry, leave their own families and join their wife's
family through an adoption process that confers on them the same rights as actual blood kin. More
often than not, three and sometimes four generations of Naram inhabit a "family town.”

A "family town" is the closest translation for what the Naram call the buildings/living quarters they
inhabit. One central building or apartment - human anthropologists have called it a "hutch" - serves as
the general living quarters for everyone in the family. Here they live and play and eat. Satellite
buildings or apartments - "dens" in anthropological terms - are allotted to adult individuals and
couples for privacy and sleeping. These are connected to the hutch through hallways or enclosed
tunnels/paths and seldom do these dens have their own private entrances or exits.

In the countryside this living arrangement produces a vast mansion with a dozen or more outbuildings,
each of which may have yet smaller buildings linked to them for now-adult children. In urban settings
whole apartment buildings become honeycombed with linked apartments and may vary in ownership
from floor to floor. This linking of domiciles is perhaps most unique in the fishing families that live out
their lives in vast flotillas of large and small vessels. There the connections are more flexible and
consist of lines slung between ships or complex networks of ropes that make passing from one ship to
another slightly less difficult than a trapeze act.

Because the Naram cling to this sense of family so tightly, any Naram far from his true family can easily
feel out of touch with the world. Naram families regularly "take in strays" and adopt single Naram. An
adopted Naram would then somehow notify his family of this new connection, forming for them an
obligation to return the favor to another Naram from the family that adopted him, or to another
Naram altogether. A complex network of debits and credits exists within the Naram worlds that few
but the Naram understand.

This focus on the group produces other effects within the society. The Naram conception of
possession is radically different from that common in Human society. Aside from a few very personal
items - generally gifts or keepsakes of particularly strong sentimental value - everything seems to be
communally owned. Whereas a Human might count his blessings by enumerating everything he owns,
a Naram would tally them by looking at how much he has shared with his family, and how much they
share with him. This sharing attitude creates within the Naram a desire to make sure everyone is happy
with a situation. For this reason the Naram are seen as more trustworthy than Humans and have
proved easier-going than the other non-human races.

49
This openness and giving nature extends to personal relationships. Naram do fall in love and marry,
forging a strong alliance between their two families. The Naram conception of fidelity, however, gets
back to the family concept. There is nothing wrong with one sister sharing her husband with another
sister or cousin. It brings pleasure to each partner and, if there is a child produced by the union, it is
considered a gift to the family.

The Naram equate the length and condition of their hair with the length and quality of their life. It has
been suggested that this is a holdover from a time when nuclear weapons were used in one of their
genocidal wars. The survivors, who lost their hair, marked survival by how much had grown back and
how long it was by the time they died. The fact that hair is also very nutrition-dependent echoes this
linking of hair with the length and quality of life.

As a result of this philosophy, virtually no one

but warriors cut their hair. For warriors, the ritual
of cutting off their hair signifies a transition from
child to warrior and an acknowledgement that
life might not be very long or pleasant. The
other times hair is shorn is in social protest. A
hunger striker, for example, will shear his hair to
signify his willingness to die to accomplish a
change in whatever policy or governmental
body he is protesting against.

GOVERNMENT
Government among the Naram is an extension
of the family system. Grand Elders are those
individuals who have grandchildren living with
them. Elders are those who have children living
with them. Each family selects one Grand Elder
to sit on the local Grand Elder council, and one
Elder per 20 people in their family group to sit in
the Elder Assembly. The Elder Assembly, also
known as the Lower Chamber, drafts and passes
laws for the Grand Elder Council - or Upper
Chamber - to ratify or reject.

Candidates for higher offices must be Elders or Grand Elders. It is assumed that if their own family will
not elect them to the local council, there is no reason they should be trusted on any higher level. The
people directly elect leaders from the local to continental level. From there all offices are filled by the
Elder Assembly and Grand Elder Council. The Grand Naram Elder Council elects one of its own to be
First Consul, and that individual is recognized as the leader of the whole Naram people.

50
PHILOSOPHY
The Naram desire to share and accept others as family forms the core of their philosophy and has
been the key to their survival. However, pro-TOG and anti-TOG families each see the other as rejecting
their offer to join together, and righteous anger seeps in where Humans might decide to live with a
difference of an opinion.

The desire to avoid another race-wide war has put a strange stamp on Naram Renegade Underground
terrorism. Instead of destroying an enemy family, the Naram make overt and covert signs to chasten
that family into seeing the light. When the rumor started that the First Consul was a TOG agent,
billions of anonymous cards signed with the Renegade R flooded the capital postal system.

This should not be taken as a reluctance or inability on the part of the Naram to wage war, because
that is directly opposite to the truth. While the Naram are not as given to individual or spectator
violence as Humanity, they are ferocious combatants. Because they identify themselves so closely with
their family, and because they know what grief their death will cause, they fight hard to avoid dying.

Within the Naram there is one strong, quasi-religious movement known as the Mayan People. Its
philosophy stresses cooperation and pacifism. While assailed in some circles as little more than an
excuse for collaboration with the slavemasters, it has remained strong. It addresses the Naram desire
for unity and is occasionally credited with the survival of the Naram race. Some believers leave their
families to join the larger Mayan People family, and Mayan mystics serve as the equivalent of chaplains
within the armed services.

EVALUATION
The Naram can be characterized as beautiful, easy-going humans, but that would give short shrift to
the true depth of their commitment to family and their desire to share with the world. Naram are the
best of friends and will form their own "family" when surrounded by strangers. When betrayed,
however, they can be as unpredictable and nasty as their human counterparts.

51
2.6 SSORA (sa’sor’a)
The Ssora are a curious race often categorized as buffoons or treacherous villains. They are somewhat
secretive about their species history and do not tolerate discussion of personal errors and
embarrassments. They thrive within an ordered and deterministic society that forces them to employ
labyrinthine means to accomplish their goals - as long as it does not take them outside the bounds of
society's rules.

BIOLOGY
Ssora are warm-blooded, lizardlike creatures who average a
meter and a half in height and 70 kilos in weight. While
bipedal, they rely on their prehensile tail for balance. The tail is
interesting in that it ends in two fleshy pincers that can hold
tools or deliver a nasty pinch. Their dry, leathery flesh bears all
manner of striations, dots and decorations, and can adjust
coloration to the current environment. Their hands and feet
each have three digits.

Ssora bond in pairs and remain together for life. Females are
fertile once every two years and lay one or two leathery eggs
that grow and hatch in six months. Ssora children reach
maturity at 10 years of age and are cared for by their parents
until that time. Their average life span is 80 years, with some
Ssora even reaching 120 under favorable circumstances.

It is generally believed, by Ssora and human geneticists, that the Ssora evolved from small predators in
an environment very much akin to the Late Cretaceous period on Earth. Some humans have suggested
the Ssora actually evolved on Earth and left in massive generation ships for the far side of the galaxy.
As they posit that such a migration would have taken place 62 to 65 million years ago, all physical
evidence has been destroyed, if it ever existed. Still, the similarity between Ssora and Terran
mitochondrial RNA has sparked such a debate. The Ssora vehemently deny this theory.

HISTORY
This debate over the Ssora's origin - whether or not they evolved from Terran dinosaurs - is fueled by
some confusion in the Ssora accounts of their own history. While they have no memory of a period of
exploration by ships lacking T-Space drives, when they traveled to a number of nearby worlds they
located traces of what could have been Ssora civilizations. Many Naram have suggested that perhaps
the Ssora, like the Naram, accomplished at least one interplanetary migration in their history
(revisionist humans claim generation ships from Earth seeded that whole side of the galaxy, but only
one of the civilizations survived).

52
The idea that the Ssora had a headstart on all the other sentient races (be it 62 million years or more
modest) has followers because of the amount of time it took for the Ssora to claim their arm of the
galaxy. Though records are unclear, it appears that the Ssora developed T-Space drives about 100.000
BC. Their resultant spread proceeded at a pace not driven by the desire to explore, but by the need to
find new worlds for an expanding population. The Ssora's expansion eventually brought them into
conflict with the KessRith. They ran across a KessRith generation ship orbiting a system. It had long
since downloaded its cargo and had been maintained by the dominant clan as little more than a
gunnery platform. True to KessRith philosophy, the KessRith shot first, then put the pieces of the Ssora
vessel back together. Their scientists managed to reverse engineer the T-Space drive and within a
century (roughly 2589 by Terran reckoning) had a spacegoing fleet capable of T-Space travel.

The KessRith would have pursued the Ssora and wiped them out in another millennium, but ran into a
more worthy foe first - Humanity. The Ssora made the best of this respite - they negotiated an alliance
of convenience with the KessRith and made a run at both the Human Raj (as the Human holdings were
then known) and the Commonwealth.

The Ssora interest in fighting seemed secondary to showing the KessRith

that they were holding up their end of the alliance. This was important
because the Ssora had begun to infiltrate and liberate some of the Ssora
worlds the KessRith had taken. Apparently the KessRith Clan Leaders
decided returning these worlds were worth Ssora help in the alliance
because they did not repudiate the treaty. However, when the Ssora
pressed too hard at some key systems, the KessRith did react and sent the
Ssora home in tatters.

Ssora interest in Human holdings apparently intensified when the Ssora

learned about Earth. This coincidence has been put forward as yet more
evidence of the Terran origin for the Ssora. And while that might be
explained away as coincidence, the Ssora demand for Earth when it fell
after the Snow Plague was very deliberate. While the declaration loses
something in the translation, the Divinity (as the Ssora leader is called)
informed the KessRith Grand Dominator that to refuse his request would
"lead to a war in which we will eat your hearts and leave the rest of you
for the scavengers." The gall of their demand struck the KessRith as
brilliant within the realm of malavoqa, so the demand was respectfully
honored. The Ssora rejoiced at gaining this fine planet and renamed it
Swuivuli – Birthplace. The obvious question begged by this rechristening
is this: Why would the Ssora call Earth their birthplace if it had not been
the world on which they had arisen?

53
Many experts feel the Ssora deny this theory so vehemently because of their current embarrassment
over losing the world. This embarrassment would also explain why the Ssora did nothing to warn the
KessRith about the Human uprising until too late. Of course, an alternate explanation - they didn't
want to lose face in front of the KessRith because of the uprising - also has some validity. In fact, the
Ssora Admiral on Terra at the time literally died from an asthmatic attack over his embarrassment.
Without their leader, and accustomed to following orders, the rest of the Ssora did exactly what the
rebels told them to do.

The Ssora/KessRith conflict flared up anew because of Alexander Trajan's activities, and the KessRith
once more took the worlds the Ssora had previously recaptured. When the Commonwealth and Naram
also revolted, the KessRith chose to ignore the Ssora. The Ssora realized very quickly that TOG posed a
greater threat to them than did the KessRith. Most Ssora support for the Renegades is concentrated
around Commonwealth worlds.

CULTURE
The Ssora believe in order in everything and this makes them seem ruthless to many humanitarians. In
issues of law and order, for example, a deviant - mentally incompetent or not - is given a flat 10-year
sentence for any crime. It is, in effect, a chance to redo his process of maturation. If he commits the
same or another crime after that 10-year period, he is killed. If his crime was truly deviant, like the
smashing of eggs or something equally horrid, his family might also be destroyed to prevent defective
genetic material from being passed along.

That said, Ssora society legitimizes a great deal of behavior that most other cultures consider less than
ethical. Lying, cheating and manipulating are common practices among the Ssora, and do not endear
these lizards to most other sentient races. The trick within Ssora society is to arrange everything so
that what you desire is accomplished without your having to make a direct move at the target. It is a
game of guess and double-guess that horrifies even the most seasoned Human politicians.

An example is in order. If a Ssora wanted one of the jars of macadamia nuts you received in a shipment
from home, he would not ask for it. Were it within his power he would arrange for someone to have
you posted to temporary duty in a place where you cannot take such things. When you offer the nuts
to him because they aren't going to do you any good, he will refuse the gift, commiserate with you on
your horrid fate, then offer to exchange something of slightly lesser value than the nuts for what you
had previously offered free. In this way it finally comes out that he's doing you a favor for taking the
nuts off your hands - leading you to believe he never wanted them in the first place.

Yes, the system is terribly inefficient, which in part explains why it took the Ssora as long as it did for
them to expand as far as they have. Fortunately for the Ssora species, there are cases where this
twisted logic isn't applied. For example, Ssora raised in contact with alien species tend to be more
direct in stating their needs and more reluctant to manipulate others for their own ends. Exaggeration
is still a flaw in most Ssora reports, but even that is retreating to manageable levels.

54
The second place where this double-dealing doesn't enter is in what the Ssora refer to as a Ciesiesr –
soul bond. This is what they use to define the relationship between husband and wife, parents and
children and two friends. It also defines the relationship of each Ssora individual with The Divinity, and
therein lies the secret of progress. The Divinity can declare a Slaciesiesr, which is a soul bonding that
encompasses a group of individuals for the duration of a certain project. One of the Divinity's main
duties is to constantly renew the thousands of Slaciesiesris that make technological development and
military operations possible.

The Ciesiesr is considered so sacred that Ssora rarely enter into

them with anyone not of their blood. Rescuing or being
rescued by another forms the basis of many of these cross-
species Ciesiesris. Only the outright betrayal of a Ssora by a
friend will earn a repudiation of a soul bond. And even then, it
is not unheard of for a Ssora to continue to fulfill those
obligations with the kin of someone who has betrayed him,
assuming the kin will bring their rogue back into line.

The obligations of the Ciesiesr are rather simple: the two

people pledge to do whatever they can to help the other, up
to and including giving one's life for the other. The depth of
the Ssora commitment is evidenced by the fighter jock
admonition that having a Ssora wingman is better than two
guardian angels and flicker rate 140 shields.

The Ssora are able to exercise some subconscious control over the color variations in their flesh. In
particular, their color scheme and patterning change to reflect new status and new responsibilities.
Counting the stripes on a female Ssora's abdomen reveals, in theory, the number of eggs she has laid.
Certain other patterns indicate family and economic status, and minor changes in them reflect almost
daily adjustments in current situations. These differences are all but invisible to alien species, but other
Ssora read them clearly.

Because some children hatch with intricate patterns on their flesh, the Ssora have developed a belief in
reincarnation. While the family may take pride in the fact that their new infant apparently was a banker
with four children and homes on two worlds, it is considered in poor taste to locate the family and
suggest wealth should be shared to insure the child's proper upbringing. The Ssora do not believe in
free will, because they see it as the progenitor of entropy and chaos. They argue that no matter what
you think you could have done, your perception of choice was an illusion and your life would have
been lived this way regardless - everything you are forces you to make the choices you make.

55
GOVERNMENT
The Ssora theocracy works in what appears to be an utterly confusing manner. Members of an oracular
religious sect make pronouncements about what the gods have deemed necessary in a leader: e.g.,
"We need a Ssora with four Life Trauma spots on his Chest in a diamond pattern". Qualified candidates
who are interested in the office put their name forward and the people vote for one by selecting a
ballot with his name on it and giving it to the Registrar of voting.

Because of the Ssora deterministic bent, however, the election does not end there. These ballots, often
in the form of a ball, are dumped into a hopper and mixed. The winner is then selected by chance
(predetermination?) from the available ballots. Obviously, a popular candidate has a greater chance of
winning, but this final step of leaving the selection in the hands of the gods means that the governing
bodies do not have as much deadwood as is found in more conventional democracies.

Obviously the system is open to incredible fraud. The oracles can be vulnerable to bribery or coercion.
The ballot selection could be fixed. The Ssora accept this, however, as the will of the gods. They
assume if the gods have not meant for someone who abused the system like this to reign, they will
already have determined that he will die shortly. Most often the abuse of the system actually takes
place on the part of the oracles, who can closely define the announced qualifications to fit the
individual they want to have the job.

Elections and votes on all governmental matters follow this pattern. Yes and no chits are put into a
hopper when a piece of legislation is being considered. From these votes, the final decision is picked at
random. Juries in criminal cases are polled in a similar fashion.

While this seems utterly counter to the Ssora love of order, it works to make the system flow more
evenly and smoothly. What is the need for lengthy discussion of a law when you know that the gods
will make the right choice for you? Why bog things down in red tape when you know red tape will only
anger the gods? Get things done by whatever means you can, and then move along to do something
else. Vacillation over decisions that are already predetermined is sheer folly (in the eyes of the Ssora,
Humanity is proof the gods have a sense of humor and a willingness to watch time be wasted).

The Ssora government works in triples or triples of triples (i.e., nines). Most cities elect nine City
Councilors and three County Councilors. The County Councilors elect nine State Councilors and three
Continental Councilors. The Continental Councilors elect nine District Councilors and three Sector
Councilors. The Sector Councilors elect nine Division Councilors and three Supreme Councilors. The
Supreme Councilors elect the Divinity, but they are given so narrow a choice of candidates for that
post that they really only ratify what the oracles report is the will of the gods.

56
PHILOSOPHY
The Ssora, because they have rejected the concept of free will, have not developed much in the way of
philosophy. They believe in honoring the Ciesiesr as best they can and, other than that, they seek to do
whatever they can to get what they want. After all, falling for a plan laid out by a Ssora is part of the
will of the gods (the Ssora do know they are blessed by the gods because they had T-Space travel first.
They also know they're beautiful, unlike the other species, which is yet again more proof).

EVALUATION
Unless you're soul bonded to a Ssora, trust him as far as you can throw two KessRith.

57
2.7 VAUVUSAR (vou’voo sar)
These ambassadors and envoys from the Magellanic Republic, while they have not been in contact
with Mankind for long, have played a pivotal role in Human history. They arrived, or at least made
themselves known, in 4996. They witnessed the destruction of mankind by the Snow Plague, and then
assisted his rise from slavery. Always friendly and courteous, the Vauvusar are incredibly "modest" in
discussing themselves and their background. There is much more to these aliens than meets the eye.

BIOLOGY
The Vauvusar are tall, large-skulled creatures who have the
willowy build one would expect in a creature that evolved in an
aquatic environment. Their eyes are set on either side of their
bulbous head, yet provided overlapping fields of sight to give
them depth perception. Bipedal, their whiplike tail is a reminder
of their early development as an aquatic predator, it still can
propel them through water or deliver a nasty swat in a fight. It is
not prehensile.

The Vauvusar's physical development has provided them with

some physiological anomalies that are important to note. The
large head is little but mouth, nostrils, eyes and ears. Each of
these connects to sensory inputs which lead through the back of
the skull to the brain, which occupies a place inside the Vauvusar
ribcage just above and on either side of the Vauvusar's 6-
chambered heart.

The Vauvusar started as omnivorous creatures - though many are now simply vegetarians - eating
floating plants and animals. Their flat head presented little profile to alert prospective meals. When a
Vauvusar finally floated into position, it dropped its massive lower jaw and created an incredible
suction that literally pulled the waiting meal into its maw. By squeezing its powerful cheek muscles, it
expelled the water in a stream and crushed the meal before it slid down its gullet.

This stream of water also became a useful defensive tool for use against winged creatures. Any avian
stooping on a Vauvusar could at best threaten an eye, while the Vauvusar could knock it out of the air
with a directed stream of water. Because Vauvusar still have that ability, it is wise not to anger one or
make him laugh too hard when he has a mouthful of any liquid.

The Vauvusar have four arms and two legs. Their arms are not suited to heavy lifting. Even so, these
arms are capable of quick movement in water, which makes them quicker yet in air. Their legs are
much stronger than their arms, but still unremarkable. Each limb ends in a triple-digit appendage - the
hands having small but opposable thumbs.

58
The Vauvusar have two sexes, more or less. No one is quite certain when they reach sexual maturity,
but females remain infertile until they are chosen to become brood mothers. An older brood mother
takes a female in who, after an amount of time that the Vauvusar leave unspecified, becomes a brood
mother herself. Xenobiologists suggest this transformation occurs because pheromones from the
brood mother trigger the changes in the infertile female, and they suspect the transformation could be
chemically induced. The Vauvusar offer no comment on this and clearly view the associational time
spent between infertile female and brood mother as a period of discovery. If the female is a good
mother (her duties include caring for the brood mother's last batch of children), the change is allowed
to occur. If not, she is discharged and another is taken in.

Partners for mating are chosen by the prospective brood mother and choices are apparently made on
a highly subjective basis. The brood mother produces up to 100 eggs at a time and they are fertilized
in a breeding pond by one or more males. Survival rate is approximately 50%. Fully 80% of the
offspring will be of one sex, 20% of the other, depending upon the ambient temperature of the
breeding pond. Selection for sex is strictly forbidden, though it happens from time to time, especially
when more male warriors are needed. Siblings are those from same birthing pond, regardless of actual
parentage, and sibling bonds are not nearly as important to the Vauvusar as they are to other species.

Curiously, the Vauvusar disassociate breeding from love. As breeding does not require physical contact
between partners, it has become almost a pragmatic matter. The brood mother, it is expected, will
choose the best father(s) for her children she can find. Being in love with one individual and fertilizing
the eggs of another is not considered infidelity, but rather survival of the fittest. In fact, fidelity is not a
word the Vauvusar have in their vocabulary. No one is certain of the Vauvusar life span, but it seems to
be roughly double that of a normal Human, about 200 years.

HISTORY
The Vauvusar have been very private about their history. They occasionally confirm or deny specific
theories, but this only happens within the scientific community. For example, the Vauvusar were
pleased to exchange information on evolution with Humans, but they have politely ignored requests
for formal histories of the Vauvusar people.

We do know that the Vauvusar overcame another nearly sentient creature in their distant history. The
Vauvusar have a dislike of the KessRith that closely approximates the Human revulsion for spiders and
snakes. The few facts and rumors that have surfaced suggest that a centaur-like race either arose on
DurVau - their homeworld - or attempted to conquer it from space. The Vauvusar successfully
defeated the centaurs, but at a cost still apparent today.

There also has been, in Vauvusar history, a certain amount of racial strife. The Vauvusar come in two
colors: dun with green striping and blue with yellow striping. While either Vauvusar race are cordial
enough to aliens, there is some tension between the two groups. The duns appear to be deferential to
the blues, but no good explanation has been offered for this behavior.

59
As noted above, the Vauvusar first came to Human attention in 4996. They introduced themselves on
several worlds, noting they were ambassadors from the Magellenic Republic (over 150.000 light years
away) to the Human Raj. They showed nothing but peaceful intent and seemed to take no umbrage at
being quarantined or even tested before they were allowed contact with the general populace. When
they were finally allowed to travel among the people, the Vauvusar were something of celebrities and
got wide circulation.

It is often thought to be more than coincidence that the Snow Plague hit the worlds visited by the
Vauvusar the hardest. The possibility that the trigger virus was of Vauvusar origin has not been
discounted because, on its own, it is an innocuous virus. It is not catalogued among those isolated in
the first visits by the Vauvusar, but it could have been brought in by subsequent ambassadors or, more
importantly, could have been carried by ambassadors who had seen duty among the KessRith. It is
believed envoys did visit the KessRith Clan Leader Z'tac Quoqa and studied his work in viral genetics,
but it is unlikely they recognized what sort of threat his work posed to Humanity.

What is known for certain about the Vauvusar and the Snow Plague was their tireless work in helping
the sick. Because the virus could not affect them, many of the Vauvusar ambassadors worked within
the quarantined hovels containing the sick. While some people merely thought them ghouls seeking
to assuage their curiosity concerning Humanity and death, those who survived because of Vauvusar
ministrations sang their praises. (This residual good feeling is one of the factors in the TOG tolerance
of the Vauvusar.)

As the KessRith and Ssora arrived to take over the Human/Naram/Commonwealth holdings, the
Vauvusar stepped in to fill the role of go-between. They negotiated the retreat of some military forces
and occasionally used broad diplomatic powers to evacuate people the KessRith and Ssora were
hunting. (They accepted these fugitives' "credentials" as ambassadors to the Magellenic Republic,
though they never took any of them to the Republic itself.)

During the millennia of darkness and slavery, the Vauvusar managed to keep some of humanity's
culture alive by archiving it and buying slaves to study and perform works for them. These Vauvusar
slave plantations later became cultural and educational centers once the worlds were liberated. Aside
from their incessant questions of why and how people did what they did, the Vauvusar evidenced no
other reason for these acts of kindness.

Eventually the Vauvusar began to buy old, obsolete weapons from the Ssora. They hinted at a war back
in the Magellenic Republic and said they were using the weapons to arm insurgents. The Ssora,
amazingly guileless in this instance, sold them millions of seemingly useless Dicesium-Tellurium lasers.
The Vauvusar smuggled them to Alexander Trajan and the rest is history. Trajan later used the
Vauvusar as couriers to get material to various human outposts, and the Baufrin used Vauvusar as
couriers when negotiating the Commonwealth/KessRith treaty.

60
Many have speculated as to the reasons behind the Vauvusar assistance to the Human resistance. TOG
officials claim it was because the Vauvusar realized that Humanity is the only race with the vitality
needed to develop the galaxy to its fullest. Some put it down to their hatred of the KessRith or their
desire to atone for having been used to deliver the Snow Plague's trigger virus. Still others have
suggested it was merely an experiment designed to answer a big "What if'?" question. And some have
even asked if they armed Humanity because they feel Humans are the Milky Way species most
vulnerable to conquest from the Magellenic Republic.

Since the development of TOG and the revolt of the Renegade Legions, the Vauvusar have been
placed in a curious position. They have military units within the Commonwealth Armed Forces which
engage TOG units on an infrequent basis. The Vauvusar claimed, at first, these were observer units who
merely returned fire when fired upon, but that explanation grew old very quickly. The Vauvusar in TOG
territory claim those units are renegades from the Magellanic Republic, though that is not what the
Vauvusar assigned to the Commonwealth or its allied nations call them. TOG has lived with this
explanation if for no other reason than the Vauvusar units are not worth worrying about when
compared to KessRith Heavy Cavalry.

61
CULTURE
The Vauvusar trace descent maternally, as the identity of a father can seriously be questioned in almost
any case. A family unit generally consists of a brood mother, her helper and the children. The lovers of
either the brood mother or helper may also share living quarters, but they have no obligation to the
children even if they are biologically related to them. Still, male or female partners of the "parents" do
willingly contribute to the upkeep of the household and may, in fact, be their sole support. Other
support comes from contributions by the juvenile and grown offspring of the brood mother.

Sexuality among the Vauvusar is decidedly confused from a Human standpoint. Reproduction is utterly
separated from love. What is left, in terms of lovemaking, is what the Vauvusar call "Oulouku" or
"shared joy." As such it is an activity the Vauvusar greatly value and engage in whenever the
opportunity presents itself.

Having disengaged love from reproduction, it would seem that the Vauvusar have no place for love,
but this is not true. Love, for the Vauvusar, involves an emotional bonding between two individuals
who vow to share their innermost thoughts and wishes with each other. It becomes, for the Vauvusar, a
spiritual bonding and is sundered only in the case of insanity or death. Even then, the surviving partner
might refrain from bonding with another out of respect for the first bond.

Love, in the Vauvusar, has such a strong intellectual element that it breaks down into many different
classes. While a Vauvusar will have only one Soullove, there can be many individuals who are loved
and return love on a less intense level. In human terms they might be classified by the following
progression: enemy, acquaintance, buddy, friend, teammate, good friend, best friend and lover. Enemy
is included here because the Vauvusar see it as the utter absence of love between two individuals, and
that forms a very tragic bond in Vauvusar literature and culture.

Again, fidelity does not apply because, to the Vauvusar, to betray someone they love - to any extent -
is to betray part of themselves. This is insanity, and insanity is a state which breaks all bonds anyway.
The Vauvusar can no more think of fidelity or infidelity than we can think of poisoning half (but just
half) of our body. (Self-diagnosis of insanity is the leading cause of Vauvusar suicide.)

As noted above, enemies for a strong tragic theme in Vauvusar culture. Most of the tales revolve
around two individuals who, because they hate each other, fail to reach what was a common goal.
Most common is the "Key and Chair" story in which two children want to get food from a locked
cabinet located high on a wall. They hate each other, so the one who is strong enough to push a chair
beneath the cabinet refuses to do so. The other one refuses to give up the key. Both of them realize,
too late, that they have starved and are now too weak to work together, even if they wanted to. They
die, each blaming the other for his own death.

The most extreme trait of the Vauvusar is their insatiable curiosity. "Curiosity killed the Vauvusar" is a
saying heard often in the Commonwealth. Methods of inquiry vary among the Vauvusar, but they
generally remain quiet, staring intensely at whatever is happening or who is doing it, until they are
invited to question something. At that point a veritable torrent of questions spills forth. While this sort
of badgering can be annoying, police forces have found Vauvusar very effective as interrogation
specialists.

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GOVERNMENT
As nearly as can be determined, the only ones allowed to vote within the Magellenic Republic are
brood mothers. They are the family's source of wisdom, and are assumed to have the best interests of
their family at heart. Brood mothers form Councils from the local level through, presumably, the
Republic level. The First Mother is the nominal ruler of all, but she appears to chair a galactic council of
Mothers.

PHILOSOPHY
The Vauvusar have, from a humanocentric point of view, a very confused philosophy. The uncoupling
of love and reproduction has made them much freer and hedonistic than other sentient races. Their
intense curiosity makes them voracious consumers of information, but they never seem to stop long
enough to digest and consider what they have learned, or what its possible effect on them might be.
Even the times they join combat against TOG seems by whim rather than design. They tend to operate
as if life is an experiment and they are solely observers.

It is virtually impossible to make a Vauvusor angry. Because of their curiosity, they often miss the intent
of insults and slurs while they study the language and gestures used to put them down. Once they
finally realize what is happening, they classify the brutalizer as an enemy. and may even rank him as
insane. From either there is no real return, though the Vauvusar are pragmatic enough to form
alliances of convenience to get out of a jam.

However, jams occur rarely: the Vauvusar seem to have a sixth sense about trouble. Their ability to
avoid ambushes and traps is legendary among other species. It is sometimes assumed to be a psychic
ability, but most rational individuals attribute it to subconscious triggers based on the Vauvusar's many
experiences. It is, in short, as if their brain has an autopilot that steers them clear of trouble. Only when
entering a totally new situation will a Vauvusar find trouble if he's not specifically looking for it.

EVALUATION
The most troublesome thing about these very quiet and friendly aliens is that no one has any better
idea of why they have been sent to visit the galaxy than we did when they first showed up. That they
have been helpful and friendly to mankind cannot be denied. That they seem peaceful and benign is
not in question. What they want is still, however, unknown, and that makes some people uneasy.

That not withstanding, the Vauvusar are very good allies to cultivate. They study and learn everything
and they can recall virtually all of what they learn. Friendly and diplomatic, they can also smooth over
"personality conflicts" when needed. Because they are on friendly terms with everyone, the presence of
a Vauvusar means most folks will ask questions (or answer them) before shooting, and that makes
things much healthier for everyone.

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2.8 FREE TRADERS
The Free Traders, who at various times call themselves The Merchant Races or a religious organization,
serve the galaxy in the same way hemoglobin serves the human body. The trade, in information and
material, that flows through their worlds keeps the galactic economy healthy on both sides of the war.
In many ways they are the ultimate mercenaries - if it has a price they'll undercut it to buy and triple it
to sell.

Their claim to the label of "Merchant Races" stems from the fact that the Free Traders include anyone
and everyone who sees safety in mobility. Many of the races that TOG hit with a Diaspora, like the
Huldice, Lungdo and Ritha, have their last surviving members in this loose conglomeration of
hucksters. The Free Traders have been described as the "Gypsies of Space," a comparison that is
marred only by the fact that the Free Traders do claim some worlds for their very own.

Early on, TOG decided that taking those worlds would pump a direct infusion of wealth into its
economic bloodstream. Profit Margin was the first Free Trader world TOG struck. The Free Traders put
up no resistance and abandoned their trading center there. TOG inserted its own garrison and
bureaucracy to keep the lines of trade flowing. The Free Traders gathered their people and headed out
for the next closest Free Trader world, but before they entered T-Space, they sent a P-Comm signal
that detonated a 500-kiloton nuclear device planted beneath the trade center, utterly destroying it, the
garrisoning personnel and a great deal of surrounding landscape.

The other Free Trader worlds immediately began to undersell TOG traders when TOG was selling, and
charge astronomically high prices when TOG decided to buy. This definitely created ripples of trouble
throughout TOG, so the Emperor repudiated the actions of the Overlord who had taken Profit Margin
and died there, and offered reparations. Since that time, the Free Trader worlds have been relatively
inviolate.

The state of affairs on Free Trader worlds is best described as "seething neutrality." The Free Traders
cloak themselves in the religious trappings of an order that worships the Money Gods. (They make a
great deal out of the misquote, "Render unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar, and unto the Gods
that which belongs to them.") Their worlds fairly throb with the flow of money passing through them.
Lictor and Renegade agents abound. Troops are allowed on-planet for Rest and Recreation, but the
Traders segregate enemy troops into different quarters of their cities.

RELIGION?
The Free Traders claim to be organized by the Holy Cartels of the Merchant Races. The Holy Cartels (an
umbrella organization) functions more like a trade association than it does a true religion, and critics
have charged that it is simply an excuse to allow traders to garner an extra 10% as a "tithe" for the
Cartels. It claims two major branches, those being White and Black, for legitimate and illegal markets. It
professes that government aid programs (it calls them giveaways) are a violation of their practice of
religion. Communists and socialists are considered infidels; causing the death of one has been
successfully claimed, in a court of law, to have been "self-defense."

64
The head of the Holy Cartels is the Chairman of the Board – currently Azurikal, the first Ssora to hold
that office. Below him is an Association of CEOs. They administer the individual Free Trader worlds and
work to help maximize delivery of products to the various markets. Worlds themselves are divided not
into geographical districts per se, but into Market Segments, such as Precious Metals, Contraband,
Military Contraband, Intangibles and so on. Each of these Market Segments is overseen by an Arbiter.
He controls a staff of Arbitrageurs who arrange most of the deals.

Procurators are the next step down and are elected by the individual merchants in a local, geographical
market segment to represent them with the upper echelons. Individual merchants are generally just
called merchants, but their official name within the Holy Cartels is Profiteers. It is through this bottom
level that all product moves, so the Profiteers are highly regarded by their superiors.

A deal might be set up like this: the local CEO is asked by another CEO to help eliminate a glut of gold
on his world before it can depress prices. Word goes to the Precious Metals Arbiter of the world who
sends his Arbitrageurs out to coordinate transactions. The Arbitrageurs might arrange to off-load most
of the gold within the jewelry industry, but only if the merchants who buy it will agree to a 14-day
billing cycle with only a 5% discount for prepayment. The Procurators poll their constituents and
decide if this deal is acceptable, while the Arbitrageurs continue to look for other gold outlets. When
the Arbitrageurs have more than one deal cooking for the same merchandise, they play both ends
against the middle, and try to get even a better deal than the selling Procurators report their people
want. The Arbiter picks the best deal(s) and the materials are shipped to the purchasing merchants,
with any margin between one world's selling price and the other world's buying price going straight
into Cartel coffers. The Cartels also get about half of the 10% tithe charged on all deals, so it double
dips on the best deals.

Many people have charged that the Holy Cartels are not a religion, but the Cartels point to the fact
that at each level the transactions are conducted through ritual and ceremony honoring the Money
Gods. The Holy Cartels claim the revelation of the Money Gods goes back to a 20th-century Terran
merchandiser named James Francis. He realized that people closely equated value with the amount
they paid for items, but rated that value higher if they believed they got a great bargain, even if the
item actually was of inferior quality. He began to spread a gospel that stressed a conspiratorial sell
instead of a hard sell - focusing on the instant creation of a mythical "insider network" to which the
buyer was being given access. Regardless of the price paid, the buyer decided he'd gotten a great deal
and went away happy.

Francis, who once said, "Sympathy and a firm handshake moves more than coupons," found himself at
the head of a trade organization. Charismatic, he hit on the religion angle to garner tax exempt status
for the profits he reaped. Consumers, who have always been gullible, began to correlate good bargains
with merchants who displayed the sacred "snake squashed on a railroad track" ($) sign in their
windows. The rest, the Holy Cartels would have you believe, is history.

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MARKET SEGMENTS
Merchants will buy and sell anything. Prices vary with what the merchant paid for the item and how
willing and able to pay the buyer appears to be. In fact, much of the religious education Merchant
children undergo is in haggling and listening to the gods as they tell you whether or not a buyer is
serious.

Intangibles is one of the largest Market Segments for the Cartels. This Segment deals with information.
The nice thing about information is that it requires very little storage, can often be purchased cheaply,
and can be resold many times over. While news tends to be a bit time-dependent, a good fact file on
anyone or anything will eventually turn a profit. Also some bits of information just create themselves
(requiring payment to no-one!), like "Why are two known Renegade Underground members buying
ballistic polymer blocks in gross lots?" The answer is likely to be more valuable than the question, but
the local Lictor are likely to pay for the question itself.

It's a good idea to take care around a Free Trader. People who have heard stories of a Free Trader
selling out a friend have asked, "Do these people hold nothing sacred?" The answer to that question is
easy: "Yes. Money!" While loyalty is not an unknown quantity among the Free Traders, it too can be
sold, then sold again to a higher bidder. TOG has enough money to make it worth the while of many
Free Traders to turn people into commodities.

WHY DO THEY STILL EXIST?

This question is one that has plagued many analysts who look beyond the economic benefits of the
Free Trader worlds. Even given the Free Traders' willingness to commit suicide by destroying their
cities, TOG could make an effort to neutralize such devices in the future. While it is true that the Free
Traders' efforts to punish TOG did hurt, TOG has the personnel and resources to fully blockade each
and every Free Trader world until their lack of trade starves them into submission.

BECAUSE TOG DOESN'T NEED THEM GONE

The answers to this question run in two different directions. The first, and the one most commonly
believed, is that TOG doesn't take them because they don't need to take them. The Free Trader worlds
rose up in rebellion against the KessRith and Ssora empires at the same time that Trajan led his
uprising. They fought the same battles, both with and without human aid - and in some cases they
aided the human revolutionaries. They won their independence at the same time as TOG and the
Commonwealth, but unlike the latter group, they never repudiated TOG or allied with their former
masters. (It is true, however, that they do trade freely with the KessRith and Ssora, and they number
more than a few KessRith and Ssora in their assemblies.)

TOG sees the Free Traders as armed neutrals, unwilling to take on anyone else's struggle but
absolutely willing to fight back in the best way they can when attacked. They are too difficult to take,
really do not have enough resources to make owning them valuable, and are more than willing to
allow TOG agents to operate on their worlds as long as their neutrality is not compromised. Given that
set of facts, leaving them alone makes logistical sense in that, at the very least, TOG does not have to
commit garrison troops to keep their worlds.

66
BECAUSE TOG NEEDS THEM
The second sort of answer to the question of why the Free Traders are allowed to exist is far more
sinister. Most people don't realize the true size of the TOG military machine. It boasts 8.000.000
Legions, while the Commonwealth and Renegade Legions together total 500.000 Legions. That gives
TOG a 16 to 1 advantage in ground troops. Best estimates put Renegade and Commonwealth
Battleship groups at 10.000, compared to TOG's 100.000. That gives them a better battleship ratio with
TOG, but still puts them behind 10 to 1 in naval strength.

In short, TOG should crush their opposition like a steamroller flattening grapes. Why they have not
done so is not much discussed - just quoting the above figures is enough to depress any of TOG's
foes. Many people suggest that the Renegade Underground successfully hampers TOG's efforts to
organize the massive offensive that could crush the Commonwealth. They also point out that people
who hate TOG would make taking each world difficult, raising the stakes to the point that TOG is
reluctant to make a wholesale attempt. This, mind you, is said of a government founded by a man who
destroyed a planet on a whim.

What most scares the highest circles of anti-TOG leadership is the possibility that TOG has not won
because TOG does not want to win! In fact, as some critics within the Commonwealth point out, TOG
has established the war as a unifying element within the Empire. If not for the war, people wouldn't
have anything to unify them. They would start to protest taxes and other sacrifices they tolerate in the
name of the war. In the worst light, the fight against TOG is sustaining TOG.

The very idea puts the Commonwealth in a curious and uncomfortable position. If TOG has no desire
to end the hostilities, then the Commonwealth is faced with an interminable war, certainly not the type
of thing they'd want to pass on to their children. Then the only way they can be left alone is to bloody
TOG badly enough that TOG loses its taste for war. Still, that may not be possible. What would TOG
see as unacceptable losses when they outnumber the enemy 16 to 1? A reduction to 15 to 1? And if
that objective were to be reached, what would have been the cost to the Commonwealth?

For the Renegade Legions the question is a bit easier to define, if no easier to resolve. The Renegades
suffer from the classic refugee problem: the grass is always greener in the lands that grandfather left
behind. They believe their best chance at living a normal life is to overthrow the Empire. A noble goal
to be certain, but is it one that can be realized? Given that the trip from the front to Earth would take
conciderable time, TOG could summon a taskforce three times the size of any Renegade strikeforce
they detected without noticeable disruption of normal business. While stout heart and strong back
might account for much in warfare, 30.000 battleship groups would chop 10.000 battleship groups into
chaff.

And, of course, the Free Traders have even less strength with which to oppose TOG. Whatever the
reason, TOG does tolerate the Free Traders, and they thrive within this tolerance. They also realize that
TOG could force them to destroy their own way of life, so they strictly guard their neutrality and turn a
profit on every deal.

67
3 THE SHANNEDAM COUNTY CAMPAIGN AREA
3.1 THE ROOTS OF THE COUNTY
The Shannedam County is the seat of the Alaric March Grand Dukedom. First established in the early
67th century, the Grand Dukedom in general, and Shannedam County in particular, are well known for
their rich resources and well-developed industrial centers. It is little wonder that the region is so
fanatically defended by the Commonwealth Armed Forces and the Renegade Legions.

The area has been settled since long before the Snow Plague and KessRith subjugation. The majority
of inhabitants are Human (42%) who can trace their roots back to the "old days" when they threw off
the yoke of KessRith oppression. The remaining humans are refugees from TOG. The main difference
between the two groups is that the newcomers hold themselves to a stricter (and. they believe,
superior) moral standard. The longtime residents, for example, do not attach an onus to birth out of
wedlock - a convention dating back to the days when trying to repopulate worlds after the Snow
Plague was a very pressing concern.

Initially, these differences created conflicts that resulted in riots. There were also difficulties with TOG
refugees who sought asylum in the Commonwealth, but did not want to leave their xenophobia
behind. In the long run, however, disparate groups merely spread out throughout this very rich county
and prosperity brought with it an easing of tensions.

68
Narams form the next largest population group (25%) but have only recently eclipsed the Baufrin. Over
half the Naram have moved to the county since the annexation of half the Naram Republic by the TOG
in 6726. The Naram have easily integrated themselves into society, and mixed marriages between
Naram and Humans are quite common. In fact, only the Naram custom of wearing their hair long
(based on the actions of the heroes of the K'ekasalavo – The Naram Book of Tales) gives anyone a clue
as to who is Human and who is Naram.

With 22% of the population, the Baufrin form the next largest group, and are the group that has the
oldest claim to the area. Some of their colonies date back over 3000 years and already existed at the
time of the dramatic meeting of Humans and Baufrin in this area so long ago. As a race, the Baufrin
have always been tolerant of the actions of "the soft two-leggers," but they are sometimes bewildered
that beings with so many varieties of thought can manage to reproduce, let alone do anything
requiring the cooperation of more than two.

In their official dealings, the Baufrin have always maintained a respectful distance from Humanity and
the Naram, keeping official contact at a minimum. Socially, the Baufrin are much more open, and
friendships between the Baufrin and other races are many.

The Baufrin are especially well suited, because of their exoskeletons and small size, to Gennium-
Arsenic mining. This puts a substantial amount of the County's wealth in their hands and their
willingness to share that wealth has prevented any Human prejudice arising against them.

The rest of the population, roughly 11%, is a mix of KessRith (dating from their Imperial days), Ssora
refugees, and a handful of members from other sentient races such as the Raynsarr and members of
the Merchant Races. There are even some members of the enigmatic Huldice in the county, as well as
Vauvusar representatives from the Magellanic Clouds. On some worlds, these extreme minorities are
ghettoized, but unity in opposition to TOG has bought all of them acceptance within the
Commonwealth's society.

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There are 40 worlds in the County. Initially TOG made some quick advances, but the war has bogged
down and crawls on at a slow, bloody pace. As of 6831, TOG has captured 16 Shannedam worlds
during the 20 years of fighting within the County. Eight worlds are currently being actively fought over.
This includes Defiance, the capital of the Grand Dukedom. Two other worlds have been granted neutral
status, and are currently controlled by the Merchant Aliens for their personal use. This leaves a total of
just 14 worlds under the control of the Commonwealth.

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RESOURCES AND ECONOMY
The County has been one of the Commonwealth's major suppliers of Gennium-Arsenic ore, the raw
material from which G-A crystals are grown. The G-A crystals are the core of all laser weapons used on
the battlefield today. A constant supply of the vital ore and crystals is crucial to the Commonwealth's
continued survival against the Terran Overlord Government.

The planets of Ope' Diar, Rolunitru, Messana, Mysia, and Pisae are the five major sources of the crystal
in the Shannedam County. Before the fighting, most of the mines on these worlds were co-owned by
the Commonwealth government and the Massus Mining Company, a corporation partly owned by
Grand Duke Duclassius Massus. As the mining of the precious ore is an extremely dangerous
procedure, the people who worked at these mines tended to be very hardy and very well paid. The
alien Baufrins, with their tough exoskeletons, are especially suited to the mines, though they do not
like the hellish conditions any better than anyone else.

Precious metals are another vital resource with which the Shannedam County is blessed. It matters
little what metal is needed, be it TroCobalt for the construction of advanced electronics, or rare
Molybdenum-Titanium alloys, Ancona, Menders, Moshelle, New Janos, Tarraco, Thapsus, or any of
another handful of County worlds can probably provide it.

Industrial worlds to process the abundant natural resources are numerous in the region, but none are
more important than the Rilus-Tiven-Ope' Diar Industrial Megaplex. This consortium of major
industries on the three worlds banded together about a century ago to drop all barriers that restricted
free trade between them. As a result, goods and resources travel between these three worlds without
any of the normal governmental hassles.

Though this unrestrained free enterprise system has resulted in many complaints about the callousness
of the Megaplex toward the common person, the Grand Duke does little about it, saying that the
benefits flowing from the consortium far outweigh the bad. This attitude is not surprising, considering
that Massus Interstellar, owned by Grand Duke Massus, is a charter member of the Megaplex.

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3.2 TOG INCURSIONS
The Terran Overlord Government conquered the last world in the Keserdal County in 6809. Shannedam
County's leadership, in conjunction with the Commonwealth, realized Shannedam would be next. They
allotted 21 legions (12 Commonwealth and 9 Renegade) as the first line of defense and parceled them
out to cover the worlds they saw as most likely to be attacked. Another 12 Legions (5 Commonwealth
and 7 Renegade) were designated as a reserve force, and 5 Carrier groups and 10 Battleship Groups
would form the bulk of the naval strength in the region. The Commonwealth examined its plan and
decided it was ready for anything. 6811 proved them wrong.

The Commonwealth was not expecting Caesar Julianus to place so much importance on seizing the
capital of the Grand Dukedom. In 6811, a massive TOG armada, made up of three carrier groups and
four Legions, bypassed such obvious targets as Thapsus or Ve' Fros, and struck instead at Ancona.

This attack caught the Commonwealth utterly by surprise. Ancona fell, and that victory threw the
defenders into chaos. As they scrambled to transfer troops to all the new targets available to TOG
troops. TOG lashed out again, hitting several worlds at once. In the next ten years, attacks were
launched by the TOG from Ancona at Grosianus, Mysia, Yolz, and Olisipio, while other TOG Legions
from the Keserdal County launched their own attacks. Over the first ten years of the war for
Shannedam, the Commonwealth scored no victories at all.

THE BATTLE FOR SAGUNTUM III

The first turning point in the conflict came in 6815, but its full import was not felt until 6818 and later.
The elite 3241st TOG Strike Legion (The New Rome Spearmen) struck at Saguntum III and ran into the
121st Commonwealth Legion (The Stone Throwers). While the planet is not resource-rich, nor does it
have important industry, it is a nexus that would give the TOG access to the Yoventrov County, which
sits adjacent to Shannedam. Brigadier Sesutra Kenderson, a Naram in charge of the 121st used the
world's hideous climate and weather conditions to continually outmaneuver her more powerful
enemies.

In the end, Saguntum III fell in 6818, due to the overwhelming presence of the Strike Legion's Fighter
Wing. The fact, is, though, that the Commonwealth defenders were able to hold on for two years,
instead of the nine months the TOG officers were expecting. This threw into chaos the enemy's plans
to conquer the Shannedam County in ten years.

More important than adding two years to the TOG schedule, the stubborn defense of Saguntum III
dulled the gleam of the county in Julianus Caesar's eyes. Suddenly 25% of the troops and supplies
allocated for Shannedam's conquest went to other endeavors. This aggravated the whole situation, yet
TOG troops fought on and, over the next seven years major victories at Pisae and Carthage X put the
TOG in firm control of over half of the Shannedam County. Still, the lack of support from the Caesar
meant that the worlds of Caralis and Messana have been able to hold out against TOG, and seem able
to do so for the immediate future.

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Both worlds are major resource centers, and therefore major targets of the TOG military from the very
beginning. Resistance on both worlds was proving extremely stiff. Messana was laced with large
fortifications built by a long-dead alien race, for which the defending Renegade Legions were most
grateful. On Caralis, the problem for the TOG forces was one of supply. The planet was protected by a
very energetic Commonwealth naval force that took every chance it had to destroy the freighters and
cargo ships carrying the attacking TOG Legion's supplies.

In 6825 Julianus Caesar again decided to play in the County. He installed a new commander,
Lieutenant-General Marcus Spartivalcus (a veteran of ferocious reputation), and promised him more
support. Anxious to prove himself worthy, Spartivalcus redoubled efforts to crush Caralis and Messana,
with very poor results because the assaults were tactically unorganized. Despite his failure to take the
worlds, Lictor have noted the Commonwealth is slowly pulling people and resources off those worlds
with very daring convoys - conceding the fact that they cannot support both worlds forever.

In 6829 Spartivalcus decided, at the Caesar's urging, to strike at Syriph XX. Unbeknownst to him, the
world he planned to use as a staging base for a strike at the County capital Shannedam (just recently
renamed Defiance) was a Renegade Legion reinforcement and supply base. When his two Legions
landed on the world, they found themselves facing considerably more than "token resistance."
Disgruntled TOG troops, fighting for their lives and to avoid being thrown off the planet, christened
the world "Caesar's Folly" - a nickname the Commonwealth readily adopted and promoted. The
fighting continues to this day, the highlight of which was the complete destruction of the TOG 816th
Strike Legion in 6830.

General Spartivalcus, realizing that Caesar's Folly was not going to fall anytime soon, used the new
Legions coming from other portions of the empire to launch an attack on the capital itself despite not
having secured their staging area. In 6829, a full carrier flotilla moved into the Defiance system. The
plan was for the flotilla to bully its way past the system's defenses and drop the two legions the ships
carried. They didn't make it. Even though the TOG force outnumbered its opponents, the
Commonwealth fought well enough to avoid immediate defeat. When the CPS Windwona rammed the
TOG battleship IWS DeathWind and killed it, the TOG spirit broke.

The sight of one of the TOG Navy's best battleships floating about dead caused one of the two TOG
carriers to turn tail and run. In doing so, it stranded one of its own Fighter Wings. Seeing this, the rest
of the TOG naval forces no longer fought to win, but merely to survive. Though the battle was to last
another two days, the TOG forces never came close to landing their ground units.

73
3.3 THE CURRENT SITUATION
General Spartivalcus is under a great deal of pressure, for rather obvious reasons. The fact that he has
secured five worlds is the only thing that outweighs his stalemate on Messana, Caralis and Caesar's
Folly. The disaster of the strike at Defiance has not been fully realized back on Earth - after all, what's
the loss of one Carrier Group and two Legions from among millions? Caesar has sent three new
Legions to the County for Spartivalcus to use as he sees fit, and everyone knows he'll have to take a
world in rather dramatic fashion or his career is going to be over very quickly.

On the Commonwealth side of things, General Timons McKettrick is retiring after having marshaled the
County's defenses for the past 20 years. General Anthony Biders, of the Renegade Legions, is stepping
in to replace him. A veteran of the Shannedam fighting, and the aide to General McKettrick, General
Biders is expected to perform well in the coming battles. However, the question of friction between
him and Alaric Grand Duke Massus is one that worries many people. They fear Massus, who still bears
a grudge over Biders' having commandeered a Massus naval convoy eight years ago, might overrule
Biders' commands just to irritate him. While many think Biders could stand being taken down a peg or
two, they don't want to see their own worlds get blasted as a result.

74