@Dragonson: I hope this is acceptable! Let me know if you have any problems with it at all!
Centuries ago (the historians suggest anywhere between 481 and 516 years ago, though some more eccentric scholars have proposed around 2342 years ago based on obscure texts and references) there was a world known as Avendia that was inhabited by a race of Humans that pursued the arts of magic and science in equal portion. Though there was little blending, there was also little conflict between the two, and great progress was made as Man learned to master their world completely. The Council of Mages studied away, the High Order of Science toiled away, and the Avendian people grew great and powerful.
It was near the time of The Exodus that a scientist named Victoria Rhodes began work on the greatest technological work the Avendians had ever seen. While space travel was quite common at this time, there were no truly great habitats in space, and most of the extrasolar colonies were small, bland bunkers in hillsides and craters. The
Orchid was designed to house hundreds of thousands of people in a giant domed habitat, with city streets and buildings that would remind one of home, while the ship traveled the cosmos with immense efficiency. The idea was that, if an entire population could be brought from planet to planet, star to star, then they would be able to perform hundreds, if not thousands, of missions in a tiny fraction of the time, bringing exploration and understanding to even greater heights. The
Orchid was being made to be self-contained entirely, not needing to stop off at a planet for any reason, potentially ever, though of course it would be capable of docking at most standard space stations, accepting and sending out smaller craft, or even landing in a large body of water on a planetary surface.
It was also around this time that the great Magus Arkhad d'Arvoslei began his greatest work in the fields of magic. Most aspects of the world had been conquered either by science or magic, though one force of nature still eluded and controlled the Human race entirely: death. Arkhad worked tirelessly for years on researching the cause and process of death, until his last day of true life on Avendia, in which his puzzle was solved. Donated corpses were present before him and his audience, his speech grand and elaborate, his presentation full of flourish and spectacle. The bodies rose, their eyes opened, and they spoke. Records are unclear as to what these first resurrected words were, though it is generally understood that they were spoken in unison and preceded the death and unnatural return to life of every person in the room that day. Some speculate that the first resurrected words were, "Braaaiinnsss..."
A plague of apocalyptic proportions descended upon Avendia after that day, and much of the world plunged into darkness and chaos. Anywhere a great wizard tried to wield his powers to stop the hordes of ravenous undead, a catastrophe unfolded before his or her eyes and the problem became worse tenfold. It is believed that, whatever the source of magic was for those on Avendia, it had become corrupted by Arkhad's affront to death and bid for the immortality of the Human race. No wizard was safe after this day, and so it fell to science to save them all. While great weapons were built, and mighty armies took to the field in terrible machines of war and destruction, the horde grew ever larger each day. After a month, the planet was in absolute peril of succumbing to its end.
The populace turned to one last, great act of survival: the
Orchid received several thousand survivors and left the whole world behind. While the ship was not entirely finished, it was livable and sustainable nonetheless, and the remainder of the Avendian race carried on into the stars, committed to wander the void for all eternity. Never again would they permanently settle a world, out of shame and penance for what evil things they had brought on their home. Stops and visit occurred over the ages adrift, though never did they stay in one place. Eventually, the ship was completed from spare parts and new fabrications, the path of science pressing ever onward as magic was left in the darkness where they believed it belonged, for they were forsaken from it. The
Orchid is now a fully capable city-ship, nearing its population capacity, though capable of building smaller ships from raw materials much in the same way that the old shipyards and aerospace factories could. Though they hold the memories of Avendia that were passed down to them firmly against their hearts, they no longer identify with that ancient home. Instead, to them, they are merely Travelers...
Empire Name: The Travelers
Empire Type: Nomadic
Empire Main Race: Human
Empire Race Politics: Main Race Focused
Empire Starting Technologies:
- 2 Space Travel
- 2 Warp
- 2 Space Ship Building
- 1 Energy
- 1 Fusion
- 2 Mining
Homeworld Name: The city-ship
Orchid is where most of the Traveler population calls home.
Empire Leader Name: Admiral Wilhelm von Hesse
Homeworld Clima: Original homeworld, Avendia, was "Standard" Terrestrial, surface is 85% water, generally on the warmer side as a global average temperature. The
Orchid mimics climatic conditions perfectly.
Homeworld Defence: "The Quick Escape" is an emergency system attached to the
Orchid city-ship, an old experimental teleportation system that has not quite been replicated in a comparable scale since. What it does is, upon activation, draws power away from non-essential systems across the city and then teleports the city-ship somewhere else, possibly at random, in order to get away from impending doom. It is said that the Admiral both fears and adores this device, though no one has had to use it since The Exodus.
Empire Magic Politics: Shunned unless used to thwart other magic. Magic-users are imprisoned in stasis, except for those who perpetrate heinous crimes, in which case they are executed.
Empire Magic Specialisation: Anti-Magic, if any.
Empire Technology Politics: Technology is the driving force of Traveler society, for without it they would all die in the hands of the harsh, cold mistress that is space.
Empire Technology Specialisation: Propulsion and Mobile Industry
