Another Terran Empire Question: Your Bad guys?

[Hermit]

For those of you using the Terran Empire setting... who are you using as your regular bad guys?

The Ackalians?

The Thorgons?

Criminal scum?

 

The Terran Imperial forces themselves? Or some other antagonist?

 

Yes, this is yet another feeble attempt to pick your brains and get new perspectives on the setting's uses

[BobGreenwade]

Per my plan, I'll be starting off with:

 

The Xenovore Fleet

The Immolators (DH9 page 14)

The Clone Mob

Anti-Terran terrorist groups

 

I'm also working up something about a renegade Sholarron xenobiologist with a large menagerie of creatures and a dislike of ethics laws.

 

Other than that, I'm waiting for Scourges of the Galaxy for ideas.

[Stormraven]

If I were to run one, it would depend entirely on the era. Some version of the TE are actually fairly liberal (in the true sense of the meaning, i.e., closer to personal freedom and sovereignty) while others are fairly blatant autocracies. In the latter case, it would definitely be the Empire itself.

[Ranxerox]

My campaign is reign of Emporer Sigismund and the TE is corrupt, paranoid and occasionally genecidal. Many of the rebel groups aren't really any better being xenophobic, repressive or just plain crazy. So I guess you say that my campaign enemies are human.

 

This doesn't mean that I don't have other species waiting in the wings ready pick up the pieces of the TE when it all falls apart and working behind the scenes to make sure that it does fall apart. Since my players sometimes read these boards, I can't get into specifics there unfortunately.

[Polaris]

As explained in a long earlier post, my SH campaign uses TE with a few changes. In my game, the Terran Empire was born out of the immortality of Alexander the Great, whose death had been 'faked' to hide his ongoing rule. He used the centuries after his alleged 'death' to run a charade of 'independent' nations, but all governments were answerable to him and his "Council of 13".

 

Around the 1800s, Alexander’s Terran Empire achieved interstellar travel. Given the limited technology to monitor space that was available to most humans of Earth at the time, the general population was oblivious to Terra's expansion to the stars.

 

Slowly at first, then with remarkable speed and success, the Terran Empire (under the brilliant tactical mind of Alexander) expanded across the stars.

 

At the time of the game, the Terran Empire now has a little over 1,000 planets.

 

Fairly recently, one of the allies of Terra learned of the slavery and oppression committed by the Thorgans, and gained the assistance of another Terran ally to convince Terra to join with them in a war with the Thorgans.

 

The Thorgans spread fear through virtually every government within Star League (and Gattica--an Interstellar Economic Association/Bank of sorts). It is largely believed if the heroes can demonstrate that the Thorgans truly are beatable, that other governments may join in the war effort.

 

Within the last couple of gaming sessions, Terra and Tellaria (one of Terra's closest allies) were invaded by a 'new' species called Xenovore (I do not have AW yet, so my version is likely a bit different then the official version).

 

In my game, the Xenovore are very reclusive/xenophobic, but will attack anything that gets their attention (in other words, they don't venture out looking for a fight, but if someone gets close enough to the them to get their attention, they strike with relentless brutality). Virtually nothing else is known about this new species, except horror stories TISS (Terran Imperial Security Services) has learned from populations close to the border the Xenovores crossed.

 

Jesca Fei'lya, one of the PCs, went to an Oracle to speak to one of the Goddesses of her world (the Goddess of Nature) to learn what she could about the new threat. What she learned was startling. The 'Xenovore' is a defense of nature. To make a long story short, many species were being destroyed or oppressed by the military expansionism of a few species (such as humans and the Thorgans). Natural selection was ensuring the survival of the military strong, but at too great a loss of the contributions that other species could be making. The Xenovore were created to strike at the aggressive--the ones that would 'catch their attention'.

 

Given the immediacy of the threat posed by the Xenovore, the Terrans and their allies have agreed to a temporary ceasefire with the Thorgans (who have also been invaded by the Xenovore). The Terrans and Chaos (two members of the Tripartite Alliance) have refused to cooperate or work with the Thorgans. The Tellarians, on the other hand, have agreed to cooperate with the Thorgans against their common foe (with the plan of betraying the alliance when the Xenovore appear doomed to defeat).

 

So, I guess you could say that the Terrans, Thorgans and other ‘aggressive’ species are the ‘villains’ (creating an imbalance against nature). You could also say that the Xenovore are the enemy (since they are who the PCs are fighting right now). I would probably say that the Thorgans are the chief enemies right now (the PCs are itching to get back to fighting that war).

 

Polaris

[Hermit]

Thanks for the input guys