Imperial Army (Holy Empire of Man)

The army of the Holy Empire of Man is an organization of vast scale, spreading it’s power across the galaxy. Founded from rebel factions of the Planetary League armed forces, it was taken over by officers loyal to the first emperor, Potus Clarke prior to the start of the Great Reckoning. Through the long millennia of war that followed, the imperial army fought on a continuous basis until the final defeat of the empire in the War of Galactic Unification.

The salute is supposed to resemble a soaring eagle with wings spread.

Because the empire is so gigantic, there are lots of variations in exact designs, but they tend to follow this basic pattern. Enlisted troops usually wear black and white predominately, lower ranked officers tend to have more red in their color schemes, and the upper echelons typically sport at least some gold.

The Chosen, The Penitent, and the Martyrs

The massive war-machine that is Imperial Army is always recruiting fresh soldiers. The Emperor’s glory demands more and more new blood every day. Broadly, these new recruits come from three categories:

The Martyrs are volunteers who sign up to fight. Often they come from the middle echelons of imperial society, and often are trained as officers. They get a salary and some basic benefits. They are the best treated of the emperor’s recruits.

The Penitent are those who owe the empire some debt (real or imagined), and are assigned to (or volunteer for) military service instead of more conventional punishments. They receive little training, and only the necessities of life to keep them fighting, this is made up largely by the fact that they are fighting to gain release from the empire’s atrocious penal system.

The Chosen are conscripts, often chosen from the poor, and any group seen as a minority, or otherwise looked down on. The chosen are used in situations where the number of troops is more important than quality. They often suffer from poor morale, and are the most likely troops to mutiny.

Church of the Shattered God

The Church of the Shattered God is a religion, founded by Markovians, and dedicated to re-uniting the Primordial Mind that created the universe in their belief.  They hold Encephaloids  in special regard as having a larger fraction of Primordial Mind due to the relative complexity and size of their brains.  High Communion is a special occasion when the congregation network their brains together in order to reach an ecstatic state.  All the thoughts and emotions in the congregation run together, producing a variety of responses in the participants.  Many have come out of this ritual permanently altered, personalities changed for better or worse, new memories implanted, or just the feeling of being part of some cosmic harmony with their fellow congregants. 

The Vorgon Empire

History

The Vorgon Empire was founded out of the diaspora of vorgons leaving New Albuquerque after the end of the Thousand Years War. During that war, New Albuquerque had become a dumping ground for wrecked and obsolete military hardware from the Empire of 1,000 Suns. The native vorgons, who previously lacked advanced technology, claimed this scrap as their own. Those who had the most resources and the greatest skill and curiosity refurbished and bashed together a makeshift fleet of star-ships, and set off to create their own empire.

The Fleet Era ended when Kragg the Bold unified the diaspora at the Battle of Sker. Sker became the capitol of the new empire which was named Vorgon (meaning mighty conquerors). Due to a lack of technical knowledge and constant infighting, the empire grew quite slowly. By the time of first contact with the Planetary League in GSC 202, the Vorgon Empire still comprised less than 1000 star systems. The empire grew almost solely through conquest, with very little else. What growth there was came primarily from the exploitation of less advanced civilizations. The empire fought constantly with their more advanced neighbors ( the E1MS, the Planetaru League, and the Convergence), but they were sorely outmatched, and rarely gained any territory in this way.

The Deadly Skrapperz, a raiding party from the Vorgon Empire.

The Vorgon Empire had a complex relationship with their galactic neighbors, the Convergence. Occasionally, there was peace between the two powers, but more often a long series of minor conflicts, often incredibly petty. The vorgons and the Convergence; however did share a common enemy in the Planetary League, and after GSC 202, relations between the Vorgon Empire and the Convergence improved substantially. From time to time the Vorgon Empire and the Convergence would ally to fight against the League. On more than one occasion, however, the petty infighting would resurface even during such a conflict and cost both the vorgons and the Convergence a potential victory.

The Vorgon Empire would continue growing slowly and persist until being conquered outright by the Holy Empire of Man shortly before the War of the Empires.

The Grand Coin is the emblem of the Vorgon Empire.

M.E.D.I.C.

Med-Evac and Defensive Intervention Corps, or M.E.D.I.C. is an independent non-profit organization founded in GSC 136 during the first Convergence War. A team of highly trained specialists, their mission is to intervene in high-risk situations where medical aid is required. Over the years they have responded to wars, natural disasters, and all manner of mass-casualty events. They use the latest technology to protect the injured in extreme circumstances.

The Zodiac Guard

The soldier on the right is wearing power-armor displaying the colors of House Scorpio. The soldier on the left is dressed in a uniform intended for covert operations.

The Zodiac Guard were the most elite combat forces of the Holy Empire of Man. Founded at the end of the Great Reckoning, they served the Empire throughout its history, fighting and winning many battles over the millennia.

Founding

The Holy Empire of Man cherished relentless brutality, and sought to instill it in their troops at a genetic level, so, when the empire captured Earth at the end of the Great Reckoning, a detachment from the imperial army and Cosmid inc. set about gathering DNA from the most aggressive and brutal beings in the galaxy. This initiative was known as Project Zodiac. This DNA was used to create the members of the Zodiac Guard. Immediately, the Zodiac Guard was given the task of defending Earth, and divided into twelve houses, each representing a sign of the Zodiac.

Genetic Supersoldiers

The genes gathered by Project Zodiac were from a wide variety of sources, including the most brutal and hardened criminals, and the resulting soldiers were unrecognizable as human. Averaging 8’ tall, rippling with muscle, and brimming with malevolence, the soldiers of the Zodiac Guard were some of the most feared beings in the galaxy.

The soldiers of the Zodiac Guard never took off their helmets. This served two purposes, it enforced the idea that the guard were a faceless authority without personal identity, and it concealed the wearer’s ghastly inhuman visage, brought about by the patchwork of genes used to create them.

Organization

The Zodiac Guard were organized into twelve Houses, each headed by an Imperial Vizier, a leader chosen by officials from the imperial court for exemplifying the unique traits and tendencies of each house.

Each House was headquartered in a Zodiac Fortress, an entire star system given over to military endeavors. Each of the Zodiac Fortresses was centered on one of the major stars from the zodiac constellation each house was associated with, forming a rough ring around Earth.

Each House of the Zodiac Guard also had a number of affiliate houses scattered in strategic locations around the empire. The number of these affiliates became quite large as the imperial age advanced, and over time many of these became wholly independent entities. Late in Era-2, many of these even turned on the empire that created them, hastening its eventual downfall.

The Ranks of Man

The Ranks of Man is a pivotal text in the Holy Empire of Man. Apart from the religious texts of the Church of God, it is the best selling and most read book in the Empire.

The main body of the text lists a long and detailed account of all the various types of humans, subdivided among gender, race, sex, creed, subspecies, planet of origin, etc. and ranks them into an overall imperial hierarchy. Most entries include stereotypical notes about supposed traits of the various clades of humankind. It begins with a detailed account of the Emperor Himself, and works its way on down through all walks of life.

Also included are various acts of loyalty that can raise one’s rank and a list of acts of disloyalty that can lower it. Dying in service to the empire often merits a posthumous promotion, but not always. The lower one starts in the ranks, the more difficult it is to increase in rank. In nearly any social, business, or governmental interaction the party with the higher rank gets the better part of the bargain.

Nearly every imperial official keeps a copy of this text. In the upper echelons of the imperial court and among the nobility, this takes the form of an electronic text, updated to the most current version published by the Hamsa. Among the less socially advantaged, it often takes the form of a paper book. Some version of the Ranks of Man has been produced in every language and every format known to the Empire, and it is required reading to pass any type of higher education.

Every imperial subject is examined at birth and assigned a rank from this book, and their rank is the first entry in their official identification. Nearly every interaction with the government is touched by its contents in some way. Tax collectors consult it when determining a subject’s bill. Judges use it when passing sentences. The police check it before conducting interrogations. The spirit and contents of this book pervade every aspect of imperial life and culture.

Cosmid

History

Founded in GSC 43, early in Era-1, from the merger of several large pharmaceutical and biotechnical concerns, Cosmid was to become one of the largest corporate states.  Shortly after the invention of FTL space travel, several corporations from seemingly different fields discovered that they were all seeking the same fundamental goal: to productize and profit from the very processes of life, itself. The resulting chain of mergers left the Cosmid name on an even wider array of products and services. 

Cosmid grew into one of the largest of the corporate states in Era-1, using many planets and space colonies as the locations for experiments that would otherwise be illegal. This network of colonies also served as the manufacturing base for their extensive line of products.  The corporate state also included a number of exclusive medical resorts where the wealthy and the powerful could get treatments not available on the general market. (Amadeus Krieg was headed to a Cosmid medical resort, when his ship was lost in a storm.)

One of the more notable of Cosmid’s colonies was the planet Midori, which was the founding-place of the Church of God, and later the Capitol of the Midori Republic.

Throughout Era-1, Cosmid continually came into conflict with the Edenites, who saw Cosmid's practices and methods as immoral, and unnatural.

In the run up to the Great Reckoning, Cosmid started mass producing cloned soldiers and biological weapons for the Holy Empire of Man (both of which were highly illegal in the Planetary League).  During the Great Reckoning, Cosmid officially became part of the HEM, and its ranks of engineers and scientists became the source of the Empire's Bio-Chaplins, and Bio-Priests, who performed all manner of bio-enhancement and medical services for the imperial war machine.

Products

Cosmid's products and services included:

• Bioreactors, and the organisms used in them

• Various medicines

• Cloned organs for transplant

• Crops, and other food-organisms

• Various Bioenhancements, including Algal Symbiosis

• Human Clones, while illegal in most developed civilizations (such as the Planetary League), were one of Cosmid’s most lucrative products.

• The Gene-Right system repaired the mutations that can occur in space travel, but required users to continue taking Gene-Right treatments, lest all the built-up mutations manifest at once.

Colonies of Note

Ovid was the first of the "Garden-Worlds", an experimental colony deep in the Tartarus Sector.

Midori was a testing site for various mind-control experiments, and founding world of the Church of God.

Creations

Sarnak The Immortal was a powerful star-god, accidentally created by Cosmid.

Product Containment

Since so many of Cosmid's products are potentially dangerous, experimental, or illegal, a specialized department was set up within the company to keep things contained.  Product containment specialists are equipped with bio-hazard equipment, medical supplies, and the latest in weaponry for those occasions when the company's latest R&D projects get off the rails.

R&D

Cosmid's research and development efforts were a massive undertaking, spanning multiple worlds and space habitats. Some of the more "controversial" projects were developed within the Cosmid corporate state to avoid laws and regulations (especially those of the Planetary League).

Terraforming Solutions

One of the more prosperous divisions within Cosmid was Cosmid Terraforming Solutions which would send shiploads of supplies and equipment to newly colonized planets to improve the environment.  Many of the small states that sprung up around the fringes of the Planetary League turned to Cosmid for turn-key terraforming.  For an extra fee, Cosmid would even send clones of intelligent species to work as slave labor on the colonies.  Even though the practice was illegal in the Planetary League, and other democratic societies, the financial rewards were high enough that Cosmid would do it anyway.  As Era-1 progressed, and the Planetary League grew corrupt, law enforcement crackdowns on illegal cloning became rarer and more easily bought-off.

The Markovians

Overview

The Markovians are a secretive philosophical/ religious movement dedicated to the belief that all sentient minds should be directly networked together. Inspired by the philosopher of mind Koichi Markov, and later by the novel The Archipelago by Donneth Vogue, they attempted many experiments over the years, many of which were unethical or illegal, in an attempt to achieve a true network of all minds. The secretive and often unsettling nature of their work made them an outcast group, often outlawed entirely.

More radical elements of the Markovian movement, most notably the Church of the Shattered God, would even go to extreme lengths such as removing the brains of kidnapped victims to connect them to a network.

History

The Markovian Movement began in the 22nd century, before the founding of the Planetary League, with the followers of the philosophical writings of Koichi Markov. Markov died in 2168, and the movement would likely have as well, but just a decade later, Donneth Vogue’s novel The Archipelago was released, creating a renewed interest in Markov’s ideas.

In GSC 58, a group of Markov inspired researchers on Mars were discovered secretly conducting unethical experiments on living brains, and public opinion turned against the Markovians in the Planetary League. This event was known as the Cydonia Incident. After this, many Markovians left the League for the corporate states, particularly Klon-Tec and Pegasus Cybernetics.

During the rise of the Holy Empire of Man, a substantial faction of Markovians joined the empire, working on special projects for the imperial war machine. A small cadre of Markovian scientists fled with the remnants of the Planetary League to the Tartarus Sector and helped found the Galactic Republic.

Benefits

The brain-networking technologies developed by the Markovians later enabled the complex control mechanisms that made Titans possible. Several of their technologies were also vital in the development of the pan-galactic hive mind under the Galactic Republic.

Markovian Brain-spider