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TO MODS AND ADMINS: I'm not exactly sure if this is where a thread like this belongs, so if you can let me know where would be an appropriate place, I would greatly appreciate that.


This is a thread I've made for a fluff-developing project named Starlight. It originally started out as a tabletop game developing project by a group of people (including me) but the "gaming" part of it is currently put on hold due to various reasons. However, after checking around dakka, people who were interested seemed to want a place where fluff could be shared, written and brainstormed together... so this is it.

If you are interested in Starlight, throw me and PM and I'll let you know of the details. If you've already talked to me... well, here is what is done so far. Anything new written, established, etc will be updated in this first post so check it out once in a while for updates.
Also for people participating in the project, I would like to request that anything you write be in spoilers box in order to minimize space and make it easy for people to find others' posts later on. Thanks!

NOT ALL OF THE STUFF is currently up but they are on its way. If anyone has a very specific question, toss me a PM.


Overview




Timeline (just a note, we only have the human part of the timeline down so far)




Locations




Factions - short vignettes

I'm not exactly sure of the exact way fluff should be organized currently so I'll list them in a bullet-point style under general categories. I expect things to clear up, details to be added and more... "professional" writing to be implemented as time goes on. Still adding stuff too.



Confederacy of Mankind

- The descendants of the original Earth-based humans. As such, based on the Solar system and controls a large territory around it.
- Used to be the only human faction called Solar Federation. However through the Terran Independence War in 2991 AD, Federation ended up rebuilding itself into the current Confederacy.
- Despite the fact that its territorial control has nearly halved thanks to the civil war with its colonies, it is one of the more powerful galactic powers currently due to being rebuilt into a complete military nation after 2991 AD. Without new colonies who drain resources for development, the Federation (soon to be Confederacy) was able to consolidate its resources and bring massive changes to its national image through extensive propaganda.
- Governmental structure is that of a confederacy formed between all PLANETS belonging to the faction. Back in the Solar Federation (who is, by the way, decedent of the Russian Federation from today who won WW3) days it was a smaller federation which only included the planets belonging to the Solar system, treating any other colonial or extra-solar planets as an asset.
- Mainly at open war against nearly all other factions currently.

FOR FLUFF DEVELOPERS: Your average, "normal" human faction. The basis of what every other faction is. Kind of like the Imperium or Man from 40k but not as omni-present in the galaxy as a whole and definitely not failing into darkness of grimdark. Can be considered to be the protagonists, if not for the fact that they are somewhat evil. However, moral reasoning can be ambivalent with this faction (as intended). For instance, extensive propaganda and being a military nation can be viewed as antagonistic or outright evil, but in the fluff there should be cases where the state actually cares for all its citizens and its militaristic approaches are actually effective at keeping the enemies at bay so that non-military part of the population can enjoy relative peace.




Neo Terran Coalition

- The second human faction that was created after the Terran Independence War in 2991 AD.
- Past colonial powers who rebelled against the oppressive Solar Federation who basically taxed them into hell while giving them essentially no political powers.
- Governmental system works based on a tithe system where a group of single, smaller scale governments are overseen by a larger, state-wide government (very much like current day USA). Each smaller government installs the Coaltion's law and justice system and pays its tithe (whether it be manpower, resource, production, etc) to the Coalition itself and Coalition grants them military protection and other broader services.
- The Coalition Council meets on Esnoella, the seat of the Neo Terran Coalition's power, which includes representatives from all the individual governments.
- Maintains a smaller but powerful military force, aimed more at defending territories rather than making war.
- Implied to have a corrupt governmental system where Esnoella and 8 other most powerful former colonial powers and making grand plans for dominance.


FOR FLUFF DEVELOPERS: Direct contrast to the Confederacy of Mankind, NTC represents freedom and one's self right. While seemingly good on the outside and for the most part, the corrupt governmental system where the Esnoella and 8 colonial powers (imagine Illuminati) are moving things in the shadows makes the NTC have a dark side. In the end, its very hard to tell whether or not Confederacy is better or not. Its a very gray area topic, of course as intended from design.




Drozelian Collective

- Originated from the far side of the Milky Way.
- Responsible for creating the Corachnidites, an organism that has destroyed their society through war and responsible for the poor state the Drozelians are.
- First contacted other factions when they were running from the advancing Corachnidites.
- The entire species as a whole now are nomadic, moving from planet to planet, stripping resources and taking whatever they can until the Corachnidites close in.
- Were highly advanced in science in general, especially biology (explains how they managed to make the Corachnidites in the first place).
- Uses a mix of traditional sci-fi mech science as well as bio science.
- Highly mobile due to their nomadic nature. While their science is very well advanced, they have not made much progress in the recent times due to their dire condition.
- On the verge of a civil war, where different sects are suggesting different ways of survival. All of them are working together for the greater good currently... for now. But at any notice, Drozelians could potentially fall into greater turmoil.
- Currently invading other factions' outer territories out of no choice, therefore starting up conflict on multiple fronts.


FOR FLUFF DEVELOPERS: Probably the most grimdark faction currently and the only one that has a solid potential to get wiped out. We could plan like a rebirth of the faction in later editions as the storyline progresses potentially. Like Drozelians actually claiming territories and putting their roots down to face other galactic powerhouses.


Central Singularity


- Religious Transformers in a nutshell.
- Created by unknown aliens a very long time ago. Singularity believe the the creators to be "Gods" and operate their entire race based on the religion made to serve them.
- Their main religious "text" is an encrypted coding that the Singularity attempts to solve. Every time a few codes are solved, a new prophecy or orders are given. And it is implied that these coding are encrypted in just the way where the most perfect message comes out in the most appropriate time, almost as if calculated. Implying the aliens who created the Singularity were extremely advanced.
- Ruled by the Trinity, a governmental structure that divides the entire society into 3 distinctive sectors; the religious, the industrial and the military. While the Religious sector is the most powerful on its own, it is and never will be more powerful than the other 2 sectors combined, maintaining balance. New beings (AIs) are created by the Religious sector. Military and industrial sectors do exactly what you'd think they'd do. Production of war-materials however falls to the industrial sector.
- Extremely religious almost to the point where they will not take action even if it means them harm unless there is an approval from the religious sector.
- Not a hivemind control of AIs, each individual has its own will and free action. And each of them even has different personalities, although rather limited from a human point of view.
- Consider their coding to be their soul and their current bodies nothing but a shell. As such they employ a modular technology where a Singularity may be inserted into different bodies and machines most suitable for their task. Similarly, their military operates wargears in similar ways. For instance, if the engines on a Battleship goes down and ship loses propulsion, a nearby smaller ship (like a Destroyer) can come and attach itself to the Battleship to push it along, giving it emergency mobility. Essentially all their hardwares have the ability to lock into each other.
- First contacted humanity during the Terran Independence War when their religious scriptures commanded them to explore a specific edge of their territory. Currently at war with the human race in general as the religious scriptures implies to "remove all who are not needed for the creators' return".

- FOR FLUFF DEVELOPERS: The faction was created with religious and moral implications in mind. Science and religion in history of mankind has been at odds with one another for numerous occasions but in Starlight, there is a faction who is not only based completely on religion (that has plausible backgrounds to make it not a religion at all) but the race itself is consisting of highly advanced technology. Also in terms of morality, Singularity to do produce and make use of other, "lower" AIs and expendable servants of sorts. Its like humans creating smarter chimps who can talk so they can be expendable servants for humanity.




Pilgrims of The Void


- Arguably most technologically advanced race in all of Starlight, although most of their technological marvels were non-violent in nature. Only recently have they started militarizing their ships.
- Originates from the Andromeda galaxy and arrived in the Milky Way only very recently. Pilgrims call this event The Exodus. Its implied the vast majority of the original people who made the travel have been lost on the way, details of which the Pilgrims are not willing to speak of under any circumstance. Upon arriving in Milky Way, The Exalted One became leader of the remaining people and vowed to build an empire in Milky Way in order to honor the dead.
- As seen above, Pilgrims have a culture that has a religious feel although due to their extremely secretive and mysterious nature its not quite understood with any clearance.
- Mostly called Voidwalkers by all other factions of Milky Way due to their mastery of physics through their advanced technology.
- Considered to be honorable and takes great pride in the fact. However, this only extends to beings who are worthy of respect which for MOST of the time only extends to others of the same race.
- First met humanity after the Terran Independence War. First seen by the Neo Terran Coalition (NTC) who fired upon the Voidwalkers as a mistake. Ever since has been at war against humanity in general.
- Finds the fact that humanity is split into 2 distinctive nations very curious. Voidwalkers believe that even if united as a whole with no constraint, no race is equal before their full might.
- Currently no other race knows what they truly look like for all members of the species wear a suit that hides their details. The suit also disintegrates their body down to molecular levels if at risk of being seen by other races since Voidwalkers consider it a great dishonor to have one's face be shown to its enemies.

- FOR FLUFF DEVELOPERS: Easy the faction with the least amount of fluff and most likely will stay that way since they are the typical "mysterious with high-tech" faction. Could explore deeper into their intricate culture as well as what The Exodus actually was and why it happened.









General Notes:

- Corachnidites are NOT described really because honestly speaking, we have not decided on their true nature yet. We have the most important, basic outlines (such as being created by Drozelians, slowing wiping them out, approaching from the far side of Milky Way with the intention of destroying everything) but we have not established exactly what they are. We can actually discuss that together and vote on it.
- As you may have noticed, everything was designed to have a sense of moral, religious, etc implications. Somewhat philosophical, I suppose we can imagine it as making a satirical sneer at what future may look like in real life.
- There is no outright good or bad. Everyone has their own reason for what they do.
- Lastly, the game is NOT grimdark like 40k. Definitely. While it does have war and it does have blood and conflicts, another main focal point about the game should be the mystery and exploration of space. The feeling of "there is still much we do not know, only the future will tell us". You could imagine it like the space opera/fantasy theme like original Star Wars or Star Trek in a way. In the fluff of Starlight, humanity (and other races) are still meeting new aliens (albeit mostly enemies) exploring space, learning new things and "sailing a sea of stars". I personally somewhat imagine it like Captain Harlock or Galaxy Express 999.





Military, War and how it works in Starlight

- Being a sci-fi... its never going to be to the very fine point, scientifically accurate. Some laws of physics will be ignored and some most obvious realistic possibilities perhaps ignored. As Mark Twain once said... "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story."
- Naval (space navy) might is the main military operation for all galactic powers. While ground combat and even surfacexspace combat does occur, it is to the understanding of all factions that once outer space is taken, any ground resistance is sure to be wiped out at one point through continuous bombardments and added reinforcements. Just like how siege warfare works. As such, every faction puts majority of its efforts into naval mights.
- All factions run a combined fleet where various ship types and classes are mixed in order to achieve maximum effectiveness. A good way to imagine it is like in US's Carrier Battle Group. Anywhere from single-pilot Fighters to massive Battleships.