Futuristic Star Knights- Lore

[Deepfish]

Post earth History

The 21st century was not kind to humanity. We faced a multitude of challenges to overcome. Cultural shift, Resource Reassessment, World war 3, Dramatic climate shift. For many people it seemed the end of the world was around every corner. But we overcame each hurdle. Our cultures came to an agreement right around the time Nuclear War began. Even today scholars debate as to wether or not the horrors of the war, resource scarcity, and civilizational collapse Changed peoples minds, or just killed enough people for the fighting to stop. Either way the world agreed to come together like never before after losing nearly half of the world population. Everything was rebuilt within about 30 years, during which time peace treaties and national borders were redrawn. It was in the year 2072, that the World Signed the United Earth Treaty to end all wars, each and every nation signed and world peace was achieved. Almost as though it were a period at the end of a sentence this signing coincided with the launch of the first martian colony. Funny the same time the world found peace, it found another world.

The martian colony would reach 100,000 residents before the year 2090 and new colonies would begin to spring up in the 20 years between. Lunar colonies, Heavily shielded Venusian Colonies, Martian Colonies, Astroid mining Cylindrical Colonies, Even a few out by Jupiter’s moons. However a new problem was beginning to rear its ugly head. It seems that with all the prosperity and none of the reasons to cut back, mankind was back into a baby boom. The population was quickly approaching 10 billion and colonization was not fast enough to meet demands, plus it was resource consuming. People began to fear a coming decline again, so research began seeking new forms of energy production, space travel, food production and Population distribution. For about thirty years the future of humanity began to look more and more progressively dystopian. But in 2123 A discovery shifted the course of history and hope came back. Mankind had discovered the astral plane.

At first it was used to solve energy problems, as it was initially thought to be a pocket dimensions contained by our local heliosphere. Yet research would continue into this and the rate of scientific development was exponential. Strange new types of energy were being catalogued, exposing materials to it would produce a variety of effects, harder spaceship hulls, more efficient engines, reactors which could harness this strange energy. Slowly our curiosity would grow and we would begin sending things into this realm, and a few decades later we would learn how to pull them out. In 2168, a probe called Genesis 2 Was sent out with a Astral Anchor system, and an astral engine, it took twelve years to reach proxima centauri B at a little over 1/3rd the speed of light. And upon its arrival in 2180 it was activated and the first ever Astral warp travel occurred. A habitat carrier was sent through the astral gateway built on earth, with the other side of the gateway being the astral anchor of the probe. Through the tunnel a 4 lightyear trip was able to be completed in just under 4hours, meaning Mankind had just traveled a bit over 5000x the speed of light. Humanity had just solved its population problem.

Over the next couple hundred years Space travel, exploration and pioneering became the culture of mankind. We were star sailors, explorers of new horizons and discoverers of new worlds. Ships became better and better, with the first few Permanent space ships being built, ones designed the stay in space without ever landing, islands unto themselves in the sea of stars and void. The United Earth Federation was changed to the United Systems Federation in the year 2700 with every colony in the Solar system being restored and Greenified by terraforming technology, they became the capital system. By the year 3000 we had Over a hundred worlds, and were creeping up to a trillion people. But in 3002 the coverups of the United Systems began to Unravel, they had long since denied any evidence of extraterrestrial life, but the discovery of ruins on a world that was at the center of public attention due to its being hidden between binary stars, revealed that mankind was not the first ones to take to the stars. Investigations into the department that came to see the ruins eventually revealed the coverups of nearly a dozen different primitive civilizations predating mans arrival.

While the discovery was first reported it was ridiculed, but eventually evidences of the coverup became more difficult to hide. This would lead to tensions and distrust that would go unheeded for nearly two centuries. Until in 3207 The planet Xympole Refused to pay a planetary tax, then fired upon the collectors that were sent to negotiate the deals. They would hide this fact from their neighbors and when a federation fleet was sent to respond it was met with the defensive response fleets of more than thirteen worlds. This would start the first interplanetary conflict known as the Xympole Rebellion. Lasting 4 years and claiming over 492 million lives as it crescendoed with the orbital bombardments of cities This would set the tone for interplanetary conflicts to come. The period between 3207-3723, over five hundred years, would come to be known as the fragmenting period, as the conflicts grew is scale and complexity over five centuries accumulating in the splitting of the federation into multiple factions. This period ended with the Bloodtide Crusade, where a rogue fleet from the original federation, spurred by stress and racism, would completely destroy 16 planets, taking the lives of nearly 40 billion people.

Finally in the year 3724 The Helix Accords would be written up and every human world was forced to sign it. Effectively it. Would call for EVERY system to Cut trade with any that started warmongering, whichever planet or group of planets tried to invade another, would also find resources from the collective of mankind being rained upon them. This treaty would maintain relative peace for over a thousand years and be the spur that kicked off a new golden age for humanity. With all the war and politics seemingly hammered out mankind once again turned towards expansion and exploration, however it was without the same vigor as before. Yet it wasnt only the stars that would be explored, the astral plane would begin being mapped and explored around this time as well. It was around the year 4000 that it became known that the astral plane was like a reflection of our own, marked by the same planets and stars just make of different stuff and with weirder physics, and strangely signs of life.

Turns out the astral plane also had ruins, and you could reliably find them on every world that ruins had been discovered on the material plane. We began to even find new ruins in the astral plane, and sure enough where they were found in the astral world, they could be found on the material planet counterpart. But perhaps the most odd was That Ruins were found on astral earth, now we couldn’t date any ruins found on the astral plane, but their counterparts on the material plane could be dated and the ones found on earth revealed a civilization at least 30,000 years old. Apparently mankind had found the astral plane once before, and no one could tell what happened. These astral travels would eventually discover ruins on another world at the edge of the galaxy not too far from earth, thandren. These ruins seemed to be the same as the ones found on the ancient earth and so a colony was sent there. The area at the time was known as an edge territory filled with criminals and rebel holdouts, as such this explorational team was forced into a defensive posture and with little help from the core systems of the Federation, it became independent and fierce. Enough so that when conflicts began again in the most recent century, the forces of thandren would be sent to many battles across the territories of man. Accumulating in their development of a culture of warfare and strength. This would cause their scientific mission to be put on the back burner for nearly nine centuries slowing their discoveries to a crawl, but nonetheless they would find this ancient civilization to be one of Man, likely the first humans. And from the discovery and deciphering of their language a mew way to use the astral plane was developed. Just in time for Thandren to Secede from the greater Terran Federation, which was the fragment of human territories containing earth and the solar system along with its nearest neighbors. Once again the human empire looks like its about to go to war, but this time, an actual winner may be abundantly more clear.​

 

[Deepfish]

The History of Thandren.

Thandren, a double ringed twin mooned super earth, roughly 144% the size of earth, was founded in the year 4009. After the discovery of Apparently human ruins, first on earth, and then older ones found on Thandren. A colony ship was sent with a small escort fleet and was actually shot down by pilots killing nearly half of the crew on board. This resulted in about half of the initial colonists being flight crews and a few scientists, with the entire other half being military escorts sent to guard them. When pirates and Rebels tried to raid them they were forced to defend themselves, thus the first few hundred years of this planet were dedicated to warfare and defense, all of which would have failed without resources coming from the Terran system. However in their third century they got a stable foothold, astral reactors were rooted on the planet and cities sprung up around them. Finally with populations reaching into the millions Thandren could create a planetary defense force and allow for Non-combatants to find the education and research opportunities to actually start their mission.
Slowly but surely rebel factions would be swallowed up into thandren, first they would be put in prisoner work camps to pay off their debt to the people they had been attacking, but then they would be given a plot of land and a order to develop and build. This would in turn give them a reason to defend what they had built, you wouldn’t let raiders take YOUR farm would you? By the five hundredth year, every square mile of the planet was mapped, from the valleys of the ocean floor, to the highest peaks, with only caves and deep jungles remaining uncharted. Research into the ruins would finally pick up traction, but the militant nature of Thandren would remain as neighboring systems began to rebel, only to have their entire rebellion crushed once it reached Thandrens territory. It became known as a military powerhouse. And the discovery of Ancient depictions of Humans turned into astral beings, and the materials which could do so would only serve to make that reputation all the more intimidating.

It was Thandren Astral Explorers that Discovered the Astral Crystal Deposits and the Nth metal veins. Granted it took them nearly two centuries after that to figure out how to mine them and bring them here without changing their properties, but it was eventually discovered that if they were refined inside of the Tunnels between the realms they could pass through the portals without changing properties to match their material world variant’s. as the Yellow metal Orichalcum would become Gold, The Grey metal Mythril would become Platinum, and the Purple metal Adamantine would become Bismuth when passing through the portal membrane. For another two hundred years Thandren would have to keep its research hidden, as they continued to expose humans to these materials, at the cost of thousands of lives, until they figured out a bonding method, again performing the process of bonding it to a person in the tunnels between dimensions. Finally in this last century they have perfected the process, and just in time as their human experiments, Warrior culture, and the new planetary governors unwillingness to pay taxes to the terran system have turned thandren into the black sheep of the empires of man.

With a Reputation for being A conflict driven people, a fierce independence nurtured by centuries self reliance after the Terran systems aid fell off around their fifth century. No one is really excited to tango with thandren, and with the madness and monsters spreading through the empire like fire, no one is too keen to tell them not too. The humans across cosmos all see this for what it could be, either the end of mankind as a species, or the rise of a new militant empire that will save mankind, but doom it to repeat its cycle of violence again. Yet even with the warning of some systems, the begging of others, and the call to act from some others, thandren will do what is best for its own security. The new governor seems to think that means creating one of the most powerful vessels mankind has ever seen, loading it full of thandrens greatest military force ever mustered to date, and sending them to secure a radius around the planet. Thandren knowns war comes their way, and they intend to meet it head on and be victorious. They must, for if they fail, mankind may very well perish. At least thats how they see it.
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[Deepfish]

Star Knights

Arguably the most powerful military unit mankind has ever brought to bear, these troops are hardly even considered human anymore. Their power can in many cases rival that of stellar Battleships and though they have yet to see the field of battle, on several occasions entire bunker facilities, or even whole islands in the astral plane have been brought to ruins by just two of these elite fighters sparring. How does one get to the point of being an armor clad demigod? Well it all starts in the astral plane.

In the astral plane materials are different, three metals in particular are known as the Nth metals. Orichalcum ( gold one), Mythril (Silver one) , and Adamantine (Purple one). Now for the longest time these metals would change when we brought them into the material plane, but we found that refining them in the bridge areas allowed them to maintain their properties in either dimension. However this alone would not be enough. Sure Adamantine made some epic armor, Orichalcum had energy conducting properties, and Mythril was remarkably flexible and light, but these metals would decay faster than their mundane counterparts and eventually become brittle and useless. To counter this some really kooky Metallurgist would go into the tunnel areas and begin forging these metals with material metals and would come up with the Living metal Theolium, or God metal.

Theolium was equal parts Orichalcum, Adamantine, Mythril, Gold, Platinum, And bismuth. And it had amazing properties. Firstly it radiated brainwaves, and seemed to react to brainwaves, causing many to believe the metal was living. When exposed to a human this metal would begin feeding on their mental energy, which did kill many in the early phases, but as it became apparent that one could help to “steer” the metal’s appetite for thoughts and mental energy, and the metal did display signs of liking some people more than others. Particularly those with high emotional trauma, and strong wills. Meaning elite soldiers were the perfect candidates. Each candidate is given a hunk of this metal and is expected to maintain ownership and near constant contact with it for about two years.

During this period the metal will feed on thoughts and emotions, targeting those that are “given” to it with the least fight by the holder of the metal. It will grow and change shape until eventually it reaches “maturity” once it has completed its feeding stage usually taking about a year, it will burrow into its users body, implanting itself into the users Marrow in a process that has been described as “more mind numbingly agonizing than natural child birth.” From that point on the user and the metal are inseparable without the user dying. the metal remains in a liquid state until it detects the user willing it to come out. At which point it leaks through the skin and forms the armor and weapons. Luckily after the bonding process, this metal seems to disconnect pain nerves during the surfacing process.

Knights all seem to possess incredible physical attributes, which while much lower when the armor is still inside the body, are still well beyond a standard human. However the armor itself, and the weapon with it are where the real power lies. While most usage of power has occurred in training conditions in either remote areas of the world or on the astral plane, the knights have displayed multi-megaton levels of power, cleaving to tops off of astral mountains, cracking the bedrock beneath bunkers, even hefting weights equivalent to skyscrapers. These knights are the titans of Thandren, and the Galaxy is not ready for the power they bring to bear.
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[Deepfish]

Cosmic Sorcerer’s

The reason why Star Knights are only “Arguably” the most powerful military unit man has ever deployed, is because the Cosmic sorcerers are a good competition for them. Discovered around the same time as the Nth metals, were the Astral Gems. Unlike the metals which came in a variety of forms astral gems only have ever been found in one form. This gem is strange, actually absorbing energy from our plane of existence and depositing it into the astral plane. Believed to be a fundamental part of the balance between realms Thandren has been accused of starting the madness plague and the Spawning of the horrors via their research into this crystal.

The astral gems were imbued with unique properties that promised advances in astral gate travel, energy production, and a variety of other functions. But a strange combination of traits made them quickly fall into human testing even before the Nth metals did. In the bridge space between dimensions, these crystals would turn into a liquid state, and they would turn into a gaseous state in the physical world, unless they were injected into a person in the bridge space. So long as they remained there, they could see their thoughts and emotions manifest as energy and matter in the bridge world. However if they went to the astral plane they would die as the liquid crystal hardened and they became statues, if they entered the material plane they would explode as the liquid crystal became a vapor. Eventually someone stayed in the bridge space for about three years with the injection, sporadically meditating and doing puzzles. Eventually this person was able to weave a bubble os stabilized bridge space around them and could traverse either dimension maintaining their abilities to manifest matter and energy.
Thus came the first Cosmic sorcerer, pre dating the first star knight by nearly a decade, it was their research into Nth metal that allowed the knights to exist. These sorcerers would change the way thandren operated. All of a sudden there were people that could think and dance a starship into being, or meditate and fuel a reactor with their mind. For almost a fifteen years the Sorcerers have worked alongside scientists and researchers to hone their art, in the same way the knights would work with the military and one another. The sorcerers would oversee the updating of the entire military of thandren, converting materials, updating technology, and furthering the astral arts. But as remarkable as they were flaws began to become apparent.

The sorcerers did have limits, and channeling the astral energies would make this apparent. As they pushed further and further into their arts they found that their limit for what they could reach for was their imagination, while the limit for what they could actually hold, was their bodies. As the sorcerers arts began to rival starships, reactors, and even weapons of mass destruction in power and scale, sorcerers began to see the problems associated with abusing power. The astral energies were fluctuation the bonds of their atoms, now we humans have a natural defense against this believe it or not, it manifests as migraine like pains. However if pushed beyond this cells begin to rupture, DNA begins to unravel, and the mind itself begins to fracture, carrying entire chunks of memories off into the astral surges. The more the limits are pressed, the less the mind acknowledges them and the greater the danger becomes until the sorcerer finds themselves unable to maintain the stabilizing bridge field around them and They explode, only late stage explosions can be comparable to a nuclear weapon detonation. Yet that is only half the threat, The sorcerers have began to notice a mass gathering in the astral spaces around thandren. Horrors and abominable creatures swarm towards the planet, drawn by the sorcerers psychic light, and torn to shreds by the Stabilizing bridge field around the planet due to its concentration of sorcerers. Many of these sorcerers claim to hear these monsters, chiding and mocking the people of thandren. Braying for blood as it were and laughing maniacally as if having just heard the most hilariously cruel cosmic jokes. This is a burden that all sorcerers share, a sort of Bonding trauma that none understand, not even the knights. Though the two still often bond on no longer feeling entirely human.
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[Deepfish]

Cosmic/Astral Horrors lore

Astral and Cosmic horrors are actually the same things, They are Astral Horrors when in the Astral plane, and Cosmic horrors when on the physical plane. They can sometimes appear mundane but any creature that is made of astral matter and has astral energy flowing through it is one of these creatures, technically speaking this includes Cosmic Sorcerers and Star Knights. These creatures are rated in a ranking system that is based off of the amount of Astral energy Flowing through them, so far that seems a reliable means of measuring their overall strength. The rankings are as follows.


AER-0: The least threatening class of horrors, usually small creatures that do not pose a threat to a human being individually. They can be deadly in swarms and have potentially devastating consequences for local environments.


AER-1: Beasts usually ranging from large dog to cattle sized and presenting life threatening danger to individuals and livestock. Hordes are usually made up of these creatures.


AER-2: With Sizes ranging from human sized to large Whale Most monsters requiring military attention start in this rank as These creatures can pose credible threats to small communities and the crews of starships with only one of them present. To date the Edge feat of a AER-2 creature is withstanding a strafing run from three star fighters.


AER-3: Inverting the scale AER-3 creatures are usually midsized beasts with the largest on record being the size of a Bull elephant. However their concentration of astral energy is huge, some of them even seem to have intelligence with records showing one being able to formulate plans and even force a man to open a locked hanger door so it could reach the crew behind it. Creatures of this level are considered a decent match for a Star Knight in battle.


AER-4: Rare as they may be creatures of this magnitude are threats to entire worlds, with planet Kephrit having fallen to one of these in only four days. Full scale planetary defense forces will be mustered for threats of this order, and even then casualties will be high. Even Knights and Sorcerers my fall against these according to projections. To date No knights or sorcerers have yet engaged a AER-4.


AER-5: Currently a theoretical Ranking as the Destroyer serpent of Kephrit seemed to be Slurped up by something in the astral plane. Sorcerers report seeing MASSIVE shadows beneath them in the astral plane. And it is believed that one of them is what ate the Serpent. Meaning creatures of this theoretical category may well be able to one shot AER-4’s, meaning its entirely likely that the human race could be wiped out by ONE of these possible threats.
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