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NPC nations and independent factions go here. As a general rule, they shouldn't have more than 400 points in military, 15 points in planets, and 100 points in national attributes; this is enough to make them a serious threat to a PC invader, but not so much that they threaten to become active conquerors.

Ernarn

The Ernari species for the most part, unlike their near neighbors on Ronogho and Zambar, elected not to join the Republic of Nashtar upon its formation. The Republic has some individual Ernari citizens, but the system of Ern remained independent, and took with it the Ernari-majority Ragodin system.

Despite their independent streak, Ernarn is a longstanding and trusted trading partner of the Nashtari, and enjoy a complete free trade agreement with the larger republic.

Holdings

Ern System (10 points total):

• *Ernarn (6 points): This rocky and barren (by human standards) world is the homeworld of the Ernari race. The atmosphere is not particularly breathable by human or Zambaran standards, but it causes the Ernari, with their hardier respiratory systems, no discomfort.
  
  *Ernon (3 points): The larger of Ernarn's two moons, this planetoid holds multiple dome colonies.
  
  *Ern asteroid field (1 point): Many Ernari live in asteroid colonies scattered throughout the system's asteroid belt.

Ragodin (5 points): A Mars-like world in a system near to Ern, this planet hosts a repair yard in orbit. Repair and salvage services are a major export of the Ernarn Republic.

Inhabitants

The Ernari are a reptilian race, with skin tones ranging from russet brown to deep orange. Despite appearing to resemble Terran reptiles, the species is endothermic. They are hardy, and able to survive comfortably in thin-atmosphered environments that would nearly suffocate a human.

Politics and Government

Ernarn is a parliamentary democracy. The Ernari home planet has a hereditary monarchy, but it is of little more than ceremonial power in the age of interstellar travel and rule.

Military

Ernarn's navy is almost entirely made up of ships bought from Nashtar, though the largest designs are seized marauder vessels and the smallest are homegrown. While they have the same hull types as several of Nashtar's vessels, they do not have the facilities or expertise to maintain the delicate advanced sensor packages that most of the Republic's ships carry, and so are slightly less capable ship for ship.

Pride of Ernarn class battleship (40 points total), 3 in service
35+2J+3R
The Pride of Ernarn and her sisters are Ernarn's heaviest warships. Unlike the other ships in the Ernari fleet, these are not designs natively built by the Ernari or purchased from the Orodan Shipworks in Nashtar. These three ships were part of a pirate squadron that was in the Ragodin yard for repairs and refitting under false papers when Nashtari Republic Intelligence discovered their provenance and tipped off Ernarn's secret service. The ships were impounded from the yard and later claimed and refitted by Ernarn.

Brood Mother class heavy cruiser (30 points total), 1 in service
25+5J
An example of what Nashtar calls the Kensington class, the Brood Mother was bought by Ernarn, and is the heaviest warship ever produced at Orodan for sale outside of Nashtar. While not as useful as it is to the Nashtar Space Command, since the Ernari do not have large battlefleets and carriers to screen, the ship is still an extremely reliable bulwark against enemy fire.

Claws of the Ernari class light cruiser (18 points total), 3 in service
15+3C3
Examples of the Nashtari Guardian class, though these ships' sensor packages are somewhat degraded through ill repair.

Scales of the Ernari class escort destroyer (12 points total), 3 in service
5+5J+2C3
Polaris class destroyers with ill-maintained sensor equipment.

Tail of the Ernari class frigate (15 points total), 2 in service
5+2C3+8R
The body of a Bandit class frigate, with some Ernari add-ons. Though the Ragodin repair yard does not have the equipment to maintain advanced sensors, it does house a state-of-the-art engine facility. These frigates have been up-engined to give them greater realspace mobility. The name of the class's lead ship refers to the wicked stinger that tips an Ernari's tail.

Broodling class corvette (5 points total), 6 in service
2+2R+1J
Uparmored and upgunned system patrol craft, heavily reworked at Ragodin for survivability and given a basic FTL drive to allow the ships to transition between the two systems. The ships were also given improved engines.

National Characteristics

100 pt Improved Salvage - The Ragodin repair yard gives a greater ability to repair hulks hauled in from a battlefield.

Amazo-X

Basic overview
Corporate hell run by Immortans Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Think your basic Evil Megacorporation, but without any style.
ORBAT is Here! Click this! Check the tabs at the bottom! Exclamation marks!

History

The Unholy Alliance between Earth’s two richest people resulted in this abomination.

While most of Earth sent colony fleet after colony fleet into the void in search of a new home, the Amazo-X corporation stayed on the planet until it was no longer profitable to do so. Oh, they had certainly been involved in several of the fleets fleeing Ruined Earth - but they were considered little more than a complex form of market research.

When the quarterly profit reports dipped just slightly into the red, the Board of Directors and Twin CEOs knew it was time to leave. They took with them an advanced, highly automated fleet of their own - but not a colony fleet. Gigantic Mobile Fulfilment Centres, factory complexes and warehouses the size of small towns, flanked by Resource Acquisition and Retention ships - warships in all but name - took to the stars, carrying with them a couple million or so souls; a literally captive market.

This fleet pounced on and scoured a few of the old slower-than-light colony fleets, enough to secure worker/consumer growth for the next three quarters, but not enough to raise any suspicions. Then, they settled down in an unremarkable system, to wait for markets across the galaxy to grow.

With an extended lifespan, the CEOs of Amazo-X had plenty of time to plan out their next move. They were not, however, immortal - and that posed a problem. With the backing of the Board, one left with several RA/R Ships to find one of his pet projects, a fleet with advanced mind-upload technology that had been lost to Amazo-X in its exodus from Earth.

He returned without the technology, nor did he have his fleet.

Now, Amazo-X bides its time, considering its next move. Its options are running out - its year-on-year growth is beginning to slow, and the Twin CEOs are showing signs of ageing. Will it try again? Or will it attack somewhere else?


Culture and Society
Amazo-X is a business, first, foremost, and only.

To be born to an Amazo-X employee means being in debt from the moment of conception; few parents have the savings to pay off the medical debt incurred from the mandatory scans, check-ups, gene-therapies and so on, not to mention the cost of the birthing procedure itself. Then, the child racks up yet more debt - nursing costs (since the mother must return to work as soon as possible or face termination), yet more checkups, schooling costs, everything that can have a price - does.

Since Amazo-X operates under the illusion that it is still operating on United States of America’s territory, it uses the US Dollar as its main currency. While there is a minimum wage given to every employee below Upper Management ($0.12/hr), this wage disappears before paying even half an employee’s rent. Rent which pays for an apartment shared between five or six families - if you’re lucky. Even your death incurs debt, as your corpse must be disposed of - although at least here you can spare your family some debt by selling it to Amazo-X.

This immense amount of debt combined with pitiful wages would normally lead to a depressed economy, as the debts go unpaid and those who lent the money can no longer pay their own bills - except that the ultimate creditor is Amazo-X, and they do not care about being in debt to themselves. The economy functions because it has to function, and Amazo-X’s line continues to rise.

Oddly enough, though, the birthrate is extremely low.

For those in Upper Management - the Captains and Senior Officers of the various ships - life is somewhat better. They receive holidays, and medical insurance, and a whole $7.25 per hour. They are capable of having children without plunging themselves into massive debt - merely moderate debt. Reaching Upper Management, however, is very nearly impossible - the only applications considered are those from people who have followed a specific path - going to specific schools (who, of course, charge more in tuition), serving a lengthy unpaid internship, being able to pay a security bond for their office, and so on.

Life for the Executives of Amazo-X - all ten thousand of the Vice-Presidents of such-and such or the various Vice-Chiefs of Operations, Accounting, Retention, all of that - is pretty good. You might live in something resembling a house (that your family occupies alone!), you get to choose what to eat - hell, you get choice in general.

And what to say of the Board and CEOs, and their families? They live like gods compared with the rest of the company.

There is no culture besides work and consumption. If you are not on your shift, then you might be playing a video game where every jump, every bullet, every click of the mouse costs real money, or you might be watching videos on Amazo-X’s products, or you might be shopping. Expression of the self is permitted, unless that expression does not provide a new market.


Military
Amazo-X operates a fleet of Resource Acquisition and Retention Ships - automated warships, capable of churning out fleets of drone fighters or legions of ground troops. Not both at the same time, though, as the automated foundries take time to adjust from one blueprint to another. After their experience against Endeavour, Amazo-X has taken great pains to limit the intelligence of these ships, and provide them with some human crew. This makes them far less effective - but also far less likely to turn on their creators.

Internal security is provided by fleets of Customer Satisfaction drones, small quadcopters equipped with various weapons - and a printer for dispensing invoices for their service, should they intervene in any crime or civil unrest.

Black Star Consortium

The Black Star Consortium is an organized band of criminals and pirates that preys upon shipping in the Western Fringe. Their methods run the gamut of piracy and theft, from con games to get their crews onto void merchant craft in port so they can disappear en route, to overt piracy in deep space utilizing a variety of fast warships. Their base of operations is currently unknown, but if that changes, most civilized powers in the region would jump at the chance to eradicate it.

Holdings

While the Black Star's base of operations isn't currently known, what is known is that it - or they, as the case may be - must have significant industrial or at least repair capacity to maintain the number of ships that the pirates use. Nashtari Republic Intelligence codenames this "Tortuga," but it might be two or more bases. Intelligence analysts suspect that at least one major base of operations must be hidden in the nebula the Ronoghans call the Cradle of the Stars, based on the pattern of attacks in the area.

"Tortuga" (8 points): A marginally Earth-like planet, the intelligence-theorized Tortuga is indeed real, if improbable, concealed by nearby stellar phenomena that would in most cases make the formation of a habitable world an astronomical impossibility. It is possible that its status might be artificial, a product of the long-vanished alien civilizations that have left architectural evidence around the galaxy, but the Black Star isn't particularly interested in taking the steps to find out.

"Nassau" (3 points): A barren, rocky planetoid, this body holds several dome colonies and an orbiting salvage yard.

"Port Royal," "New Providence," "Barataria," and "St. Mary's" (1 point each): Asteroid colonies, each of these houses a repair yard and is the demesne of one particular captain. The Black Star doesn't always fully cooperate, and in fact threats from the Nashtari Space Command and Ernarn Republic, among others, are often the only thing keeping the fractious captains and commodores together. Those less inclined to work in flotillas - which often happen to be the captains with the largest vessels - frequently have their own private bases of operations.

Inhabitants

The Black Star organization has members of every sapient race along the Western Fringe, from humans through to Zambarans, Ronoghans, and even a few Ernari, among others.

Politics and Government

The Black Star is a loose confederacy of ship captains and criminal bosses, and operates like most organized crime syndicates.

Military

The term "military" is a bit of a misnomer. No - or at least very few - Black Star captains seek to engage warships, even ones they can individually win against, knowing that more are rarely far behind.

Star Scourge class battleship (40 points total), 2 in service
35+2J+3R
Examples of the three warships captured by Ernarn, these two vessels - the Star Scourge herself and the aptly named Big Stick - are the largest in the pirate arsenal, and the pirates intend to keep them that way. While they can engage and defeat cruiser-weight warships such as the Nashtari Guardian class, there's little profit in it unless they're sure they can attempt a capture, so these are used for deterrence and enforcement, or if the prize is great enough, to seize valuable escorted convoys.

Amaranth Tide class cruiser (25 points total), 6 in service
15+10R
Extremely fast cruisers for their weight, these up-engined gun wagons can run down much smaller vessels, and avoid combat with what they can't beat.

Fang class frigate (10 points total), 12 in service
4+6R
These small warships are extremely fast in realspace, capable of running down nearly any freighter.

Black Eye class scout (5 points total), 10 in service
1+2R+2C3
These ships are scouts, concerned with detecting targets and relaying them back to larger vessels for prosecution.

National Characteristics

75 pt Improved Salvage - The Black Star is very good at getting use out of what they steal
25 pt Improved Espionage - Knowing convoy movements is essential to the pirate trade.

DIMENSIONAL POLICE
("You've just been DP'ed.")

Nobody knows where these people came from, or even what, or where. Sightings over the centuries have shown them appearing at different locations separated by thousands of light years, within +/- 24 hours of each sighting.

They make bizarre references to people, places, events, or things which have no known reference in any record by any species.

NOTABLE DP OPERATIVES

We have collated our records and there are a few DP operatives who are seen frequently. They are:

Bearoids These alien bears (known by the aliases Bragga, Bragscoe, et al) make references to a bizarre galaxy spanning empire known as "Bragule" and obviously ludicrous pieces of technology.

OMSKites: These appear to be multiple factions banding together, who seem to be united by a singular hatred of anything beginning with "Shep"; and are known for brutal strikes within Shepistan, causing massive casualties.
[/quote]

Dimensional Police Leadership

Little is known about the leadership of this group, but we have obtained this grainy image from the optical nerve of a DP operative who was recently killed before he could complete his mission.



There are no known retinal or facial matches in our databases for this humanoid.

--------

Basically, the DIMENSIONAL POLICE are the not-so invisible fist of the MODERATOR.

They can also be used by others who wish to reference past STGODs

Shepistan

Well, you know.

Fascist Republic ruled by General Shepurraf.

The Yrch

We are Kine.
We are the Cattle
We are the Hounds of the God BEZO
We are the Children of the God LON
We are Yrch and we are your end

Many millennia ago, a young race found in a cavern deep beneath the surface of their planet a massive device throbbing with mysterious energies. Some among them reported they could hear, somehow, voices emanating from it. Those who could hear it became powerful among their people, and great in the ways of science.

Somewhere in the span of their history, the apocalyptic War in Heaven washed across their planet, and the few that survived hid in the caverns around the device. Centuries later, colonists from an once-blue planet set foot upon their world. The survivors emerged, and using the powers of the device, they merged their genetic matter with the human colonists to help both species survive the death-world that had evolved from the consequences of the War in Heaven.

Then came LON BEZO. Then came the Tower. Then came the Eye.

BEZO had no particular interest in the people of that world themselves; BEZO was only concerned with the Great Machine and the voices. They all feared BEZO and understood him to be the most powerful of all, but they knew BEZO would not touch them, for once BEZO did, they would be no more.

LON took a more personal interest in the people. He stretched out his hands, and they bowed before him. Some would not bow; those, LON commanded, were to die. Those that followed him obeyed, but those that did not bow fought back. Thus, LON saith, was ever the way to follow. And thus the world became a struggle between the Children of LON, those that did not bow before LON, and both of them against the terrors of Heaven such as the stainless steel rats, the gigantic ouranocarcharadons, and the monstrous stone-wyrms.

The Great Tower descended upon the world when LON BEZO arrived. It was swiftly surrounded by a mighty fortress of black stone, constructed by the peculiar mechanisms of LON BEZO. Upon a great throne in the Tower sat the Eye, tall, monstrous and terrible of aspect, seeing all and knowing all in its sight. Whatever it saw, LON BEZO knew. None upon the world could escape its sight. The Eye was cruel, and the people were terrified of it, so they bowed before it.

LON commanded that they become mighty and great in number, despite the hardships of their world. Every thrice-month, each clan in their turn were to present their best to the Tower. Some were told to turn back to continue growing and fighting; others were granted great and terrible weapons for fighting those who did not believe in LON; and some were taken up into the Tower itself by the Eye. None dared ask what became of them, but there were always stories that in the dark of the night, if you had the courage to venture near the vitreous fortifications, dire screams resounded among the sound of mighty engines deep at the heart of the world.

Above all, the Tower reached into the very skies. Dim lights of heaven-craft could be seen at night at its peak. Occasionally, those heaven-craft would land, and some clan would be taken into the skies and never seen again.

Unknown to the Yrch, as they began calling themselves, the Unbelievers were being supplied by BEZO. Thus they were able to withstand the forces of LON. Many were taken by the heaven-craft in exchange for these weapons and tools of war.

The Tower became a place of wheels and iron, where the Yrch hammered together massive plates into war-craft for the skies. Many Yrch worked deep under the surface of the world, digging out the ores for these war-craft. Once they were complete, those who built them were taken up into the heavens, to drink of the glory of fighting for their gods. More and more were ever willing to build war-craft for LON BEZO, to travel the stars in the monstrous belly-ships that could swallow even the greatest war-craft.

LON spake unto them, one day, they shall all stand and fight for their gods. They will face unbelievers and heathens, creatures like and yet unlike them. And in the name of their gods, they will bring terror and slaughter to them all.

Forces

The Yrch are a race of alien-human hybrids, cultivated by Amazo-X over the past millennia or two. Amazo-X is inherently conservative and prefers to minimise its own losses in warfare. With its intelligence upon the Theophanic Empire, Endeavour, the Republic of Nashtar, and other growing polities in the local star systems, it decided it needed a powerful proxy force to fight for it. Thus, the Yrch.

Their origin was not of particular importance to Elon; he was more interested in them as soldiers. Bezos, on the other hand, was very interested indeed in the Great Machine at the heart of their world. Thus both of them agreed to exploit the world for their advantages. Elon had already laid the groundwork for them to commit to annual cycles of sacrificing their best troops, on both sides. These troops were taken to Amazo-X transports in orbit, placed in cryogenic suspension, and crammed into containers for shipping; therefore these transports as much as triple or quadruple their troop capacity.

A limited number of Yrch are trained to operate spacecraft-- still a very great number, but Amazo-X does not trust them with quite enough ships to threaten Amazo itself. For the same reason, faster-than-light drives are limited, and restricted to only the largest Yrch craft, the gigantic crude cylinder-ships and a few massive warships. The majority of Yrch ships are much smaller and carried aboard the cylinder-ships. These warships in their turn will be covered in parasite craft and shuttles. Yrch space-warfare tactics are similar to those employed by the Theophanic Empire, with the exception that they are more likely to use massive swarms of small fighter craft instead of missiles to tie up and destroy sensors and point defences in order to permit boarding by shuttles. Once boarding is commenced, brutal swarms of Yrch overrun ship internal defences and purge the crew. They will despoil the ship of anything valuable, then destroy it.

The bulk of Yrch are concentrated in their ground troops. Amazo, ever looking after their own interests, will place overwhelming numbers on a planetary beach-head-- but without any particular organisation among clans, dividing them up and mixing them en masse to create a leaderless mass that has little alternative but to sort themselves out and adopt the most direct, simplest tactics to terrorise and overwhelm enemy forces. A small number of Yrch forces are kept cohesive in order to assault key locations in a more organized and efficient manner, but to prevent them from having inordinate impact upon their fellow Yrch and possibly organising against their gods, they are largely kept frozen between engagements.

Upon the unnamed world of the Yrch itself, the inhabitants are terrorised and brutalised by constant propaganda and endless labour in the mines, factories, and agricultural communities. Productivity is emphasized to the detriment of health and well-being. Their entire world is constantly on a war footing. This is maintained by the machinations of… something, nobody is quite sure what, in the cyclopean space-elevator called the Tower. Some claim it is a tall sorcerer clad in white, others a flaming eye that sees all, and some few say it is a giant mechanical being. The machines of Amazo-X are everywhere, watching the Yrch. Whatever it is in the Tower, it sees what the machines see.

Statistics

Settlements

1 -- Isengard, Amazo-X codename, Yrch name unknown, 10pts. This is the primary headquarters of Amazo-X's work upon the Yrch world and where Orthanc, the Tower, is located.

2 -- no designation but a number, serving as a capital for the rival faction of Yrch on the planet, also supplied and backed by Amazo-X. 10pts

3 -- ditto, 5pts

Ship Classes

The Yrch have no real uniformity among their ships. The FTL-capable ones mostly come in two sizes, smaller and larger. Beneath that, everything is considered parasite-craft as they use craft larger than themselves for FTL.

[smaller ship class], 20+5H+5C3, Hyperdrive rating 3, 8 in service
[larger ship class], 30+5J+5C3, 4 in service

(Some of these have been paid for by Amazo-X, which diverted a portion of last turn’s income to the Yrch)

Plus 225 points of army.

National Points

40pts Improved Salvage, for 7% total salvage - the Yrch are resourceful
60pts Defences, either spread out equally between the settlements or clumped up as blockships - the Yrch have heavy system defences.