Worlds Without Number: The Orcquest (Campaign Concept)

The 'orc' archetypes keep making rounds these days, again and again, as society goes in circle over the same lie and nonsense. These creatures, indeed all so-called Savage or Evil Humanoids are caught between two roles and concepts. One is their archetypal concept as humanoid forces of destruction, be it that of nature or a representation of humanity's animalistic and barbaric side. The other conception is the 'orc' is a misunderstood, sometimes even oppressed victim. So which one is truer to the 'orc' nature: barbaric despoiler devoid of any redeeming qualities and only fit to die at sword point or misunderstood victim?

Perhaps in Latter Earth, they are both true in a way. After all, Tolkien's orcs have a proposed origin of having once been Elves twisted by Morgoth.

The Orcquest

“What is better ? to be born good or to overcome your evil nature through great effort ?”     

-Paarthurnax, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Art by Markus Neidel

Game Concept: Arthurian legends quest for the Holy Grail+Warhammer's Warriors of Chaos+Orcs

You are an Anakim, a descendant of demi-human engineered by the cruel alien Outsiders to be a living weapon against the rest of humanity. Your ancestors were made stronger, faster, more vicious and filled with an intense built-in hatred for anything close to the baseline human. For generations your kind has existed, all across the fragment of Latter Earth. You were born in the Nameless Wastelands, a horrible patch of land partially transformed into an Arratu. For eons your kind has lived there. When the other beings, the human and demi-human's power waned or when they grew fat and weak your kind swarmed in to destroy and pillage their lands only to inevitably be driven back into your horrid wilderness which pass for a homeland. This is the only existence your kind has known for all of their (poorly recorded) history. That and constant strife, rivalries and genocides against each others.

Every generation there are a few like you which are either born with the curse weaker in their blood or who possess the natural strength of character to surpass the blight which affect your people. Often such individuals with a greater sense of vision and purpose rise to become great heroes, war leaders, shaman or revolutionaries. However you and your like-minded compatriots have realized this is not the way to go, as anything these Anak men and women build will invariably come undone or twisted. It is in the nature of your people to crave violence and to fear and hate everything around them. Whatever gods or demons you pray to have never answered your prayers with peace because such peace would be unnatural to your people.

You know your kind are both the monsters people say they are but also more than that, at least in potential. You have lost too many friends to bloodlust or petty emotions. Maybe you've had to kill a son, a husband or sworn friend because they could not be reasoned as they smelled the scent of demi-human flesh and ancient memetic kill codes imbedded in their genes activated. Not that you'd know what those are. Your kind simply calls it The Hate or The Curse or The Nature. Anak hate and fear all of the other things which call Latter Earth their home. You know deep down your kindred are cruel, petty, cowardly and lacking in empathy (a word you only learned from scant few interaction with purer humans).

So you and your band of warriors set out on a foolish quest which no other Anakim has ever attempted. A quest some believe to be impossible. You intended to find the birth place of your kind, where the Outsiders first molded the flesh and mind of your ancestors to become twisted creatures. You wish to find the mythical ur-blood, the flesh-cradles and the spawning pits of legend. Perhaps an Outsider still live there or perhaps it left behind secret notes on the Anak's creation. You and your band hope to find it or die trying so you may free all of your people and all their distant kindred from their twisted nature. Then and only then will your people be truly free to choose their own destiny and turn their passion and anger to a greater purpose.

Or perhaps, should you succeed, you'd only doom Latter Earth with a tide of renewed and empowered Anakim...

Non-Oldschool Game Concept: The Monster Earth

Primarily this has been a very OSR-influenced blog when it come to the RPG content but OSR and OSR-derived/inspired games aren't my only area of interest. There are game concepts where, frankly, that game ecosystem, mindset and concepts just don't really work. This is one such example, although I do still plan to make use of some amount of sandboxing tools to help myself should I get to run this.

The Monster Earth

"History shows again and again/How nature points out the folly of men"

-Blue Oyster Cult, Godzilla

Sometimes it may not seem like it given how much material on this blog is influenced by Western works but as many post have hinted or openly stated I'm actually quite the weaboo. Its just that influence from Japan has its time and place. The daikaiju (Giant Monster) genre is something I've been a fan for years even if I rarely get to gush about. That said, the genre has seen quite the nice resurgence in the mid-to-late 2010, with Legendary Picture's 'Monster Verse' and the Pacific Rim franchise while on the other side of the ocean, Toho resurrected Godzilla in their own way with the controversial re-imaging Shin Godzilla and the highly disappointing Godzilla animated movies trilogy. These last few years have really given the anemic and forgotten genre of giant monsters the kick it need and, just like Godzilla himself, this ancient behemoth has risen from the depths and triumphantly roared, declaring it will not be easily put down.

King of the Monsters concept art(?)

The Monster Earth joins my other ongoing settings as I flesh out a world for future games, if maybe one day the world is ever so slightly less shitty and dystopian. This seems unlikely but the looming sense of dread and powerlessness of this year has certainly got me thinking about the apocalyptic nature of kaiju. The 'kaiju' is a giant monster yes, but it is also more than that. It is also often a true monster in the mythical and symbolic sense, a primordial beast of chaos from mythology reborn in the public consciousness. It is the primordial monster like Tiamat, often reptilian or serpentine and emerging from the dark depths of the world. Yet at the same time it is also a creature born of mankind's folly and corruption and how we often unleash in the world forces which remind us how small and insignificant we can sometimes be. The kaiju is a fusion of primordial monster and science fiction's dire warning about things we cannot control. Its, also, a giant fucking monster that often breathe fire or spit acid and there is an undeniable cool factor to it. The greatness of kaiju is that evoke all these things (mythical terror, eldritch forces, looming dread) while also being completely at ease with engaging in the simple fun of seeing giant monsters fight and break stuff.

Currently its unclear what system I'd use for the Monster Earth, although a mecha-related system is possible. Giant robots and giant monsters go together like peanut butter and chocolate and its generally accepted that creating a giant, man-made mechanical monster is the logical coolest conclusion when it come to mankind defending itself. As Pacific Rim said, 'we created monsters of our own'. It is also possible that human mind-linked to Kaiju could be an option but right now nothing is certain when it come to mechanics.

The Birth of the Monster Earth

Let no blame lie at the innocents/
Who have prayed

Unsurprisingly given the Godzilla roots of the setting, the Monster Earth properly begin with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even if technically previous atom splitting had occurred. Still, the nuclear tests and explosions from WW2 and then the Cold War are what truly began mankind's downward spiral and the awakening of monsters, even if the monsters had always been with us all along. In the Monster Earth setting, 'radiation' doesn't work as realistic radiation does but rather function in a retro futuristic fashion, often creating monsters and mutants or at the very least accelerating their growth. From the 1940 onward, humanity had started to split the atom in earnest and it seemed like nuclear power would be the way of the future for whatever side of the Cold War could truly harness its full potential.

In the Monster Earth setting, giant monsters had been spotted and recognized by science before the 1950 but these had been flukes or long lost specimen. In the 1920 and 1930, explorers had found things such as rare exotic beasts living on isolated islands where specimen grew to prodigious size. Sea monsters had also been spotted yet in most cases these were one off mutations or rare specimen limited to a single area. The 1950 and 1960 saw a drastic increase in monster attacks as nuclear testing created monstrous mutations which grew in size and aggression. The birth of these creatures only spurred the development of stranger, more dangerous sciences as the world's greatest minds struggled to find new and inventive ways to quickly destroy these beasts.

Super science & Ultra-terrestrials

Megalon is cruelly underrated.

In the Monster Earth timeline, human scientific development takes a different direction from ours, both due to the change of events and a chance of fundamental physics. For example, radiation-related technologies flourish in new and bizarre ways, allowing for the glorious 'atomic age' of old science fiction while also creating ever increasing pollution which birth monsters. However, in turn, this does create entire new scientific fields dedicated to the restoration and decontamination of Earth. Energy weapons (such as Maser) are developed and tested to repel giant monsters, even if at that point they are crude, primitive and only able to be mounted as bulky weapons carried by large vehicles. At that stage they are only useful against massive, lumbering targets such as kaiju.

It is around this time which humanity uncovers that it is neither alone in the universe or on Earth. As space exploration escalate, ruins are found on the moon by Soviet explorers who attempt to visit the moon's 'dark side' to claim it against the Americans. Instead what they find are alien ruins and their visit awakens the Selenian, a race of human-like aliens who declare war on humanity. Around the same time, impossibly old ruins are found on Earth and confirmed to be of a civilization older and more advanced than any other recorded in history. The undersea kingdom of Atlantis and later the Subterrnean Lands and lords of mole men and morlocks both at various points fight against the surface-dwelling humans, unleashing and/or controlling monsters of their own. What is later gleaned from the history of these people through more peaceful contact is shocking: they claim Human (or, as they call them, the Young Race or the Unworthy among many other epithet) share a common ancestor with their people, some ancient and primordial 'root race'. The humans spread over the surface after some great cataclysm and the end of an era of 'Gods and Monsters'. Human super science and their rapid advancement (and their wars) brought back to the world a level of radiation which had not been seen in eons.

In time, not even deeper space was safe. Humanity's rapid ascent and defiance of monsters attracted the attention of the scheming Xorinth and other alien factions. There are dark powers, hiding in the depths of space. Would be alien overlords, manipulative cabals, planetary looters and, of course, giant monsters with a vicious streak a mile long. As monsters from Earth and space fought there were no winners, only losers. It is from these short lived wars between species that humanity developed its next generation of weapons.

Creating Monsters?

If I die in this world/Who will know
something of me?

So what is it that birth a kaiju? What are the phenomena which transform an animal into a being of phenomenal size and power? Not all kaiju are ancient beings, many of the lesser kaiju were born in the modern age and are the byproduct of human science or at the very least saw accidental exposure to nuclear waste, chemicals and other pollutant as the catalyst for their mutation. Many kaiju are unique monstrosities with little in common with each others. Some are blotched, misshapen and bug-eyed creatures which thrash around in pain while others breed true, sometimes by themselves. 

Kaiju only vaguely display related traits, which are generally called the K-Factor which is also a scale, with an incomplete rating being a small mutation or species which display only partial Kaiju traits, such as larger-than-average size or primal traits while full rating indicate all common kaiju traits of increased size, near immortality, enhanced regeneration and partial or complete ability to resist or metabolize one or more form of radiation. Even high rating mean the creature exhibit one or more of these traits on a level beyond the traits of first generation kaiju. The scale has indeed been broken more than once. The most common factors in kaiju birth/metamorphosis are as follow, bearing in mind that most are completely unique organisms:

• As previously mentioned, in the Monster Earth's world, radiation can cause massive mutations. What, in our world, would cause cancer creates unnatural growth in many 'lesser' life forms. When combined with the other factors in this list, the increased levels of radiation in the Monster Earth creates an environment where radiation become like monster steroids.
• Under kaiju film logic, more primitive=bigger and stronger. Atavistic mutations produce bigger, stronger and meaner animals and creatures which undergo such mutations from exposure to toxin and pollutants often find themselves displaying primitive traits and increased aggression, going as far as to display traits which appear reptilian. Since all mammals descend from reptilian creatures, this make many kaiju display traits from both.
• Many creatures descend from older, more primordial creatures developed/mutated/engineered by the 'Root Race' in Earth's prehistory. These creatures were engineered for a different, wilder world. It is also believed that prehistoric retroviruses, which preyed upon truly ancient organism, maybe have been awakened and released in the modern world and are mutating animals.
• Earth may very well be alive and its been noted that as the more humanity encroached on nature the faster the rate of kaiju mutations, as if the planet itself was accelerating the transformation.
• Some kaiju, as mentioned, were simply born/created as kaiju, back when the creatures were part of the ecosystem which the so-called Root Race shaped. These creatures diverged from the evolutionary tree possibly before the dinosaurs. Any traits they share with modern animals has a chance to have evolved independently through evolutionary convergence.
• Kaiju of previous categories exist inside their own 'pocket dimensions' if isolated islands and cave networks. Science learned from Selenian, Atlanteans and Subterranean shows that an ancient cataclysm bathed the Earth in unique cosmic energies which 'splintered' reality. Separated from our time/space continuum, creatures either naturally evolved or survived from the Root Race's era.
• Ironically, many attempts at cleaning the planet created kaiju. Every research, every byproduct of it or experimental process which clean the planet or experimental weapons which kills kaiju has a chance to eventually itself produce a situation which birth a new mutation.
• Some kaiju aren't fully native to Earth and have become mutated by exposure to alien effects, be it extra dimensional energies or the leftovers of alien technology. This and the presence of aliens, however, is a story for another time.
• Finally many Kaiju are very clearly man made and not in an accidental way. As the creatures appeared more and more, the twin sides of the Cold War first tried to control, then weaponize and finally flat out create monsters. Even with the end of the Cold War, this has not stopped. In the modern era, many eco-terrorist have taken it upon themselves to illegally acquire kaiju body parts to dump in the wilderness. This can also happen accidentally when a kaiju dies at sea and its body become food for other animals.
• Strangely enough, humans have shown a shocking degree of resistance to being mutated into Kaijus. While human DNA can be (and has been!) used in various mad science projects there haven't been any successful projects where a human has been mutated into a giant, city-crushing monster. This isn't to say that humans haven't reacted weirdly to their changing world: odd psychic powers and radiation-induced deformities creating mutant tribes have occurred. Yet the odd 'K-Factor' which transform a being into a kaiju has never manifested inside humans. It has been theorized that this is due to the possible link modern humans have with the Root Race.

Slay The Ascended: Full Premise

This is a rework, rewording and expansion of my Slay The Ascended! post which, hopefully, better outline the ideas and concepts since that original post was an old draft I one day decided to just overhaul a bit and finish just because it was the mood for the day, not knowing it would become one of my most viewed posts. The original ideas, outlined less formally, can be found in that post and its recommended to read it first.

The Time of Ending

On some fundamental level, Mankind always understood there would come a time where our species would end. It could be a species-wide fear of the inevitability of Death as every civilization out there, every culture, speak of the end of time: be it a permanent end or a great cataclysmic era which will usher in a new era. From the Mayan Calendar to the Book of Revelation to the cycles of the Kalpa to Ragnarok. On some level we always knew it was coming. Or maybe its just species-wide neurosis and fear of death and change or, perhaps, we knew that whatever great unknown would follow would cause is great distress and reveal to use new fears beyond our imagination.

Art by Mario Alberti.

The Ages turned. Around 2030, it just seemed humanity was falling apart: pandemics were in increase even after the somewhat hysterical (at times) response to the 2020 pandemic. The first superbugs arose in the following years and made a Chinese flu look like a complete joke. Entire species of animals and plants died in a mere year or two. Those were the easier times. As the world seemed on the verge of collapse, political and social tensions of all stripes just seemed to unravel at an ever escalating pace, with every continent erupting in either war and/or civil disorder and millions died. More died from the superbugs. The rest? It was merely the start of a new nightmare in a depleted world. The voices started. There were spikes in mental cases which many attributed to the decade of chaos but as time progress, it seemed as if some deeper madness was gripping humanity as mental breakdowns escalated and turned people into monsters: cannibalism, cults and the likes arose in this period which only fueled the chaos.

By 2040, the brief Age of Monsters had begun. Unexplained freak mutations had dramatically increased in the past decade but by the 2040 it had reached a boiling point as nature itself seemed to unravel in ways which past science could not explain. Cancerous growths of unexplained fleshy matter, parasitical worms with mind control and farm animals reverting to an almost primal state, such as chicken growing teeth and a taste for flesh. As mad dreams and visions kept increasing, the humans changed as well, only further driving humanity in a frenzy. Entire new religious branches were born then, only to fuel the fires of war, as entire population began accusing each others of devil worship or similar concepts. Others blamed the government mandate vaccines of the 2030 which had prove ineffective at best or dangerous at worst. It seemed humanity would never catch a break. The wheel of the Ages was turning. There was a new reality boiling on the surface of the world which seemed ever stretched. Night kept growing darker. Madness kept running deeper. Stars burnt out in the sky. Freak or still births peaked to three quarter of all births in a single year. It rained blood. Entire populations shuffled into the wilderness, naked and screaming the names of what could be alien gods. The end of days had come.

The Ascended

No one knows for sure when exactly the first of the Ascended arrived. Perhaps they had always been among us, even if this seems unlikely or, more likely, they are the byproduct of those times of ending when the ages of the world turned. When they appeared it didn't take long for people to take notice and, within days of their appearance, small towns and outpost had fully surrendered to their new master without a single weapon being fired. There was something so fundamentally perfect about the Ascended which, combined with their innate gifts, just made them natural leaders. Some were gurus and philosophers while others presented themselves more akin to warrior-gods who would help their faithful reclaim their lands from raving bands of lunatics or particularly dangerous bandits and traffickers. One by one, the various remaining pockets of human civilization bent the knee to their new masters, the new rulers of mankind and our species direct successors: the Ascended. Their reign had come.

Ascended Culture and their Thralls

Art by Anthony Jones

The Ascended are called that way because they are above and beyond the mere humanity they emerged from. They do not hide that they were once human, because much of their perfection is an improvement upon humanity. Ascended have a language of their own and their own word to describe themselves but this language cannot be spoken by human or even understood by our puny, primitive minds. They communicate in a language with concepts utterly beyond our understanding but beyond that little is truly understood of their emergent culture. Ascended see themselves as above and beyond human failings and the natural leaders of our species from here on out. They have emerged across all human cultures and all creeds and claim to be beyond and above petty distinctions of mankind, even if many speculate they must have their own cliques, philosophies and beliefs but we would not be able to understand them.

An Ascended is the master of any settlement, with the largest settlements on Earth hosting a population of Ascended in a certain hierarchy which vary depending on the local culture. Different Ascended groups, called either pantheons or cabals have different societal organization depending on the ruling Ascended's specific plans for humanity, as they organize mankind and tend to them much like in a way we would tend a garden. Some Ascended have created military-like places, ruled with an iron (but just?) fist, with a meritocratic system rewarding skill and loyalty for the human soldiers as to encourage them to see themselves as mankind's defenders. In other places, they create almost anarchist commune of pot-smoking pseudo hippies which encourage free love while in others they could create religious cults or even hyper traditionalist places with the goal of ensuring a steady breeding of new humans for generations to come. War between different pantheons and their thralls should be seen as non-existent, even if in reality it is more complex.

Those who serve the Ascended are wholly devoted to their new masters. After all, are they not perfect? All Ascended have an innate charisma and magnetism which borders on mind control and they are able to draw strong emotions from entire human populations. This is not pure mind domination, however: very few Ascended (if any) can truly order a human like a full puppet. Rather, they built their devotion through the years by engineering a culture where the Ascended are not only seen as infallible gods but also by ensuring people have a reason to believe it. Ascended-ran settlement are the most prosperous, stable and safe of all the world's remaining human cities. Any mutated monster in the area is slain in glorious combat by the local Ascended, their heads display on pike or their skins turned into coats and capes. The Ascended cultivate an image of heroism and godhood which help reinforce the belief system they have created. Slowly but surely, humanity has slowly changed and simply accepted that they must defer to the superior Ascended, much like how a child defer to their parent because their parent knows more. To be a second class citizen and chattel to the Ascended is a gift and a privilege, for who would not want to be loved by living Gods? Some are driven by love, by faith or even by lust as many Ascended have such a perfected physique and raw animal magnetism that entire crop of humans willingly surrender to become their sexual slaves and perhaps one day hope to help them birth Ascended children.

Ascended Biology

Art by Nyctoinc Illustrations

Each Ascended began its life as a mortal human and was transformed into another Ascended through infusion of genetic material. The process is dangerous and unstable as well as excruciatingly painful as well as utterly destructive to a human sense of self and identity. After days of agonizing with a body riddled with ever creeping cancerous, alien growth the flesh will slowly dissolve and the body will seemingly melt and then harden into a crystalline cocoon, at which point transformation into an Ascended can begin. Nothing of the original body remain unchanged and the individual is changed at a cellular or even molecular level. The trauma and confusion of Ascension leaves the individual original humanity behind no matter what. There are no 'friendly neighborhood Ascended' who secretly retain their old personalities. While they can retain their memory of past lives, most willingly discard them as their newly born body continues to mature.

Ascended appear, at least initially, as physically perfected humans even if this can somewhat vary. They are tall (most start at six feet and a half and can grow to eight feet tall), clean limbed and perfectly symmetrical. Some appear eternally youthful while others have a completely cosmetic age, appearing as well formed and well preserved older individuals: these tend to radiate more a sense of wisdom, kindness, paternal love or intellect. Yet even the 'old' looking Ascended have a supernatural, nay, unnatural beauty and perfect to them. Their skin tone and hair color can vary and can include all human permutations and even colors or traits which do not exist in humans, such as green hair, pure white skin or even blue skin. Their eyes tend to almost shine in the darkness, with some even having flat out glowing eyes. Some are elfin, with a thin and tall wispy beauties while others are brawny, with a perfectly sculpted physique no human could ever hope to match. Different strains of Ascended have different styles or even fashion to their biology, such as those who prefer a more divine or even almost 'demonic' appearance, with horns and fangs or even growing an extra pair of arms. One must keep in mind that the subtle mind warping of Ascended ensure that human thralls are not bothered: indeed, should a particularly popular Ascended decide to reorganize their biology on a whim, expect sycophants to self mutilate to emulate their master or mistress. To some extent, Ascended biology is just as much sculpted and engineered as it is part of their biology, as each represent an idealized form of perfection to their old human selves. Several Ascended are also hermaphrodites or, in some odd cases, utterly lacking in sexual organs if such was the perfect the individual desired.

This, however, is a lie.

Art by Marcus Siergiejew

The idealized human form of an Ascended is not their true form. Their 'godly' form is a coping mechanism of the newly reborn Ascended, as their real form is utterly alien and disgusting. While there is an eldritch, unnatural and alien mindset inside every Ascended they retain enough of their humanity for vanity. Indeed, such vanity is generally enhanced to an absurd degree. The true form of an Ascended is always unique and always alien and disgusting to look upon, with some even lacking a human form at all are nothing but a head and snapping, razor-tipped tentacles or stretched multi limbed bug-forms with ephemeral wings or floating piles of organs held aloft by gaseous excretion. The Ascended never show these forms to their followers and most, if not all, are unaware of them.

Ascended are eldritch monstrosities, with an unnatural physiology. They are by default stronger, faster and smarter than the average human and able to heal extremely quickly without any lasting consequences, even if healing larger wounds require consumption of human biomass. As one would expect given the thematic, the Ascended are vampiric creatures and they sustain themselves off of humans. Actual consumption of flesh and blood is rare, usually every few months and rather they live off the mental energies and devotion of their human thralls. Through a mixture of pheromones and psychic abilities, the Ascended inspire the blind devotion in humans they crave so much and in turn slowly feed the mental energy this generate as human minds are slowly warped and sucked of their sanity. The full abilities of the Ascended are unclear and it is likely even they are not aware of their full potential and limitations.

Despite their clear advantages, however, Ascended are not immortal (even if its likely they do not age). They are still flesh and blood, even if said flesh and blood can sometimes appear to bend the rules of reality a bit. When not surrounded by their entourage of thralls and servants, an Ascended can be cornered and killed with human weapons. Blowing their brains out and then setting the twitching remains on fire usually works, as does hacking or blowing them apart. According to their own propaganda they are true immortals but this is false: around the world, some have already been killed in gruesome manners. They are not Gods. They are creatures of flesh. They can be killed.

The 'Slay the Ascended!' Sandbox

Art by Lina Porras

A 'Slay the Ascended!' campaign is very well suited to a sandbox and a lot of it can overlap with typical fantasy setting sandbox, even if it is set in the near, post apocalyptic future. There are ruins to explore (the lost cities, full of mutations, madness or cults) and there are monsters roaming around, namely the remaining mutations from the Age of Monsters. The key difference, however, is that player characters plays the part of the 'Rogue Humans', which are these human populations which have either not submitted to the Ascended or composed of people who have slowly broken away from the brainwashing and fled their fellow thralls. The key locations in a Slay the Ascended campaign are the various settlements under Ascended control, which own the most resources be it food, water and/or guns. Functionally, this mean players are either going to be functionally bandits and raiders or they will be saboteur, spies and 'fifth columnist' inside the Ascended-ruled settlements.  The more characters attack Ascended stronghold the more they will be hunted. This can be a good chance to take down an Ascended for good, should they be goaded to attack themselves.

One issue they will need to deal with is that most of their enemies are humans too. A life freed from the Ascended is not an easy life nor is it a good life. It requires, more often than not, to kill and steal from fellow humans and to uproot their way of life and ruin their day. The world of 'Slay the Ascended' is a bleak place and doesn't shy away from the realities that a resistance group can be a particularly violent and dangerous group that often cause more harm than good. To oppose the Ascended may be morally right in terms of human freedom but it requires one to actively harm other humans which is a difficult moral choice to make. Rogue humans are seen, by the thralls, much in the same way we see dangerous fringe groups and/or insane preppers who amass guns in their bunkers for the 'coming race war' or similar concept. From the POV of a Thrall civilian, a 'Rogue Human' is a dangerous, narrow minded, bigoted and irrational unbeliever at the best of times and an absolute monster at worst. Even those few in the Thralls who know the Ascended brainwash (and sometimes eat them), the life of a Rogue Human seems dangerous or even destructive: after all, modern society of the 21st century generally required us to accept that sometimes, things are rather imperfect and that we sometimes work for bad people doing morally dubious things. To those folks, serving a flesh-eating alien man-god isn't really much different from their parents who worked for a soulless global mega corporation which exploited uncertain child labor laws in foreign countries while pretending to be virtuous. At the end of the day, its meet the new boss same as the old boss, right?

Who is really in the right here, anyway?

One difference, of course, is that the Ascended are not human. Not anymore. They are creatures of an alien origin, even if they were derived from human stock initially. Many 'Rogue Humans' are individuals afflicted by some odd form of 'madness' which fills them with a revulsion for the Ascended. Perhaps this is akin to a species-wide immune response to a parasite having entered the body of collective humanity. The same alien dreams which drove people mad in 2030 and onward are still there. There is an unspoken fear that the Ascended are but the first step toward...something? Slowly the Ascended are changing humanity society, creating these assemblages of human civilization toward a certain goal they themselves perhaps don't understand. They have only ruled for a few decades, after all. Whose to say their existence is not the mere first step toward a horrific transformation for humanity, as we are turned into food, cattle or who knows what else for alien powers. After all, where did the First Ascended come from? Who created them? And why?

You can feel it gnawing at your brain. The wheel of the ages hasn't finished turning. You know it in your gut: this is just the start. The parasites must be removed from humanity before its too late, before they consume us and make us into something else.

Game Concept: Slay the Ascended

Edit: A more in depth description of the concept can be found here.

The idea of mankind now ruled by Vampires or vampire-like beings is hardly new. In fact, it's been done to death and then some. The same way that reimagining or expanding on the idea of 'utterly alien Fair Folks' elves with a superiority complex has also been done to death. That doesn't make the idea bad, however. If you twist it a little more you get something which, at least to me, is even more disturbing. Suppose the world was now indeed slowly but surely ruled by a race of super beings (albeit not that super compared to other settings) who are better than humans in every way. Suppose these beings were once human. Now suppose that their perfect, ethereal, godly image was born of their twisted, all too human ambitions? I mean, why else would such beings invoke beauty, awe or power and authority as humans understand them? There is a concept which I'm quite fond of, as bizarre as it seem, and that is to take a being which is 'eldritch' and make it all too human. What if you stared down the eldritch abomination and realized that, underneath that mask it's actually too human? What happen when human ego and abomination is given eldritch form and power?

We've seen this garbage plenty of times before in RPG, movies, literature and more. Now let's wrap it up into a bit more layers of horror. This is also me flipping on its head the general ideas I've often outlined for urban fantasy or Godbound.

The Ascended Arrive

They arrived as the world was falling apart, at the turning of the Ages where our reality slowly slipped into a period of greater cosmic connection. There was a brief period (a mere decade or two) of societal and environmental decay which simply exceeded any blame we could place on mankind. Seas churned, animals birthed abominable offspring and people became so haunted by visions they became mad. You know, the usual Lovecraft-lite slow apocalypse.

Then came our new masters, the Ascended. They call themselves something else, of course, in a perfect language only they can speak. Their form is human but better: stronger, faster, taller and able to regenerate from wounds much more easily and immune to all known sickness. They are smarter too, and more spiritually enlightened. In fact we should count ourselves lucky that, as the ages turned, a new race emerged. They ascended from the rank of humanity (for they admit as much), with no particular roots or ties to any specific ethnicity, country of origin, creed or religion. They formed the core of our new society and rule as just and merciful. They only demand our love, admiration and sometimes sacrifice but who would dare to say no? They are elfin creatures of myth reborn or towering demigods. Some are man, some are woman, some are something else. No two is alike but they all radiate perfection, awe, wisdom or virtue. We are all their lesser. They are the Ascended and each is a goddess, a warrior king, a rock star and guru rolled into one.

That's a bunch of horse shit, however.

The origins of these beings is unknown but we know they emerged when the wheel of the ages turned. Was it sorcery, suddenly unlocked by a new era of magic? Was it some sudden metaphysical mutation? Nobody know, but those of us in the know understand that the Ascended only appears to be so perfect out of their own hubris. Their 'human' form is but a veneer. Each one is unique but truly monstrous in form: tentacled monsters, gangly cicada monsters or towering hulks of bone and sinew. The worst part isn't that Ascended are transformed into monsters but rather than they retain their humanity, albeit in some twisted form. That perfected 'shell' they present to us? It's born of human ego and one's idealized self. Some people speculate it's a coping mechanism, because they hate their monstrous true form. Their minds are twisted and alien but not alien enough. Their entire society is a lie they tell not just the masses of humanity but themselves. Behind both faces (god and monster) is a human unshackled from their old limitations and experiencing the same old emotions and thoughts we humans experience every day but pushed to a new extreme. They still feel love, sadness, hate, rage, greed and jealousy and all that.

The Ascended are the 'smug dickass elves' who believe they have some omniscient morality but due to bad writing come off as aloof assholes. They are the smug aliens. They are the asshole vampires and fey and the abusive Gods of mythology. The Apostles from Berserk. The Scions and Exalted. They are things which, in another game, could almost be the player character option. This is not one of those games.

Ascended Nature

Its like Wreathu but without
the weird sexuality.

Each Ascended was once human but they've been transformed into another ascended through a ritual of implantation, which requires the flesh of one or more Ascended to be implanted inside their body. The process is messy, painful and maddening but those who survive will dissolve and reshape into a cocoon of flesh-crystal. After an extended period of time they will be mutated in body into something else entirely but retain all of their memory and personality. The fact the event is so traumatic helps with the mind screwing involved to ensure loyalty. Whatever emerges is no longer human. It has become both more and less. Over the next few weeks they will slowly awaken to whatever supernatural powers their might have, in addition to grow ever stronger, faster and smarter. Of course the reality is that these beings aren't quite as powerful as they believe themselves to be.

As previously explained, their external 'Godly' form is just as much a tool of predation as it is a coping mechanism. These creatures appear to be over six feet tall, with very little cosmetic flaws. The exact 'vibe' each gives varies depending on their nature: obviously those with more, shall we say, carnal desires exude sexuality but the Ascended aren't limited to forms like these. Those who radiate wisdom and authority can look quite old, for example: however they still are very dignified and statuesque and none of them suffer from the effects of old age. Think a very tall and buff old wizard guy or Zeus in a toga, with booming voice and glowing eyes.

The Ascended have an innate aura of near inexplicable 'magnetism' or 'charisma', which varies from individual to individual: sexual magnetism that transcend sexual orientation for those driven by carnal desires or a brainwashing religious aura which fills the mind with 'higher thoughts' and make individuals believe whatever crap the Ascended peddles. This is a key thing with the Ascended. No matter how insane their personal ideology and bullshit it is, they emit this aura (pheromones? psionics?) which slowly worm its way into human brains and make them believe it, filling human minds with a fundamental and innate understanding of their place in the world and that the Ascended are not only stronger, faster but also more moral no matter what they do.

Slay The Ascended!

The Ascended are assholes, that much is obvious. They have become the self-appointed master race. They are smug monsters who believe themselves to be beyond and above humanity but under that veneer they are nothing but parasitic monsters and predators. The obvious is coming: humans will rise up and start to fight back. Under their rule, the new unstable countries and demented religious cult they have created are ruining humanity. They see themselves as healing the perceived 'past wounds' of human nature: war, violence and more. However, it is worth remembering that Ascended are basically all insane and filled with hypocrisy. They still wage war, they still kill and they still take slaves, the only difference is that under their brainwashing humanity sees it as fair, just or 'better'. Some people are bound to see through their bullshit or innately resist it. The Ascended are powerful but they aren't invincible: they might heal without scarring and be able to take a serious beating but, cut one off from its minions and assemble a mob with torches and pitchfork and it will die. And if that doesn't work? Well, its fine: we invented explosives for a reason, right?

Game Concept: The Lands of Mirhne

Art by Michal Kvac.

A random thought evolving into a potential future setting, likely to collect dust alongside all my other abandoned ideas because I can't get everything done. Ah well, the usual. The concept of Mirhne (and indeed, even its name which seemingly mean nothing) came to me at utterly random, following a bit of a rant with someone at how people really don't get Lovecraft and don't know how to use his material even slightly correctly. The Lands of Mirhne were conceptualized as a mixture or bridge between several disparate ideas which are that I wanted to do, among other things: a (very) low fantasy setting, the idea that 'less is more', run something more akin to Sword & Sorcery, take cues from historical settings and finally return eldritch horror to a status that's a bit more accurate to what the genre is about, namely fear of the unknown.

Facts About Mist-Haunted Mirhne

Currently the lore for Mirhne is a bit sparse because the setting only exist as a series of bullet point notes:

• The Lands of Mirhne are, as far as its people are concerned, mostly all there is to the world. It consist of an island chain. There are traders from far away lands but they remain mostly alien to the the people of Mirhne.
• The land is cold and mist-haunted, with very few of the lands ever experiencing a truly warm summer. It is loosely similar to a mixture between the Scandinavian lands and the British Isles, to get a loose ideas of what its geography would be like.
• Mirhne is very loosely at the level of the early iron age, too crude to be properly called 'medieval'. Its people are a harsh people, formed into large clan, tribes and early kingdoms who frequently war with each others.
• Mihrne is a human-only setting and is somewhat of a Sword & Sorcery setting, just one trying to be a bit more coherent and historical than pure pulp cheese. The land is cruel, harsh and often wars can be bloody and pointless.
• The primary enemies are human and, initially, mere 'bandits' (read: men serving a rival lord). Other enemies include the barbaric and inhuman near-Men who live beyond the light of civilization and live in the woods.
• The Beasts of Mirhne are said to be immortal until slain and the land has many beasts which have grown truly massive with age and possess a cruel, almost alien intellect. Black wolves the size of a horse haunt the land, as do the Spiders of Mirhne, which are unnaturally large and intelligent. Crows and large sea-beasts almost haunt the land and are increasingly common where once they existed in myths.
• Speaking of myths, Mirhne's extremely low magic status leave much ambiguous as to what is indeed truly 'magic' and what is really just a natural part of the land. Are the spiders large due to being some antediluvian terror or is that just natural to spider biology in that world? Are there truly 'goblins' hidden in the forest or are they just another, more primal branch of humans? Or maybe they are just a myth spread by bandits. In Mirhne, the players will not know what is truly tall tale and myths and what is truly supernatural until they encounter it. The land has many myths. Some are true, some are false. Or maybe they are both and neither at the same time.
• As the campaign advance, the Mist and the eldritch will slowly grow in power. The curse which haunt the lands of Mirhne will grow in potency and the age of the world will turn to a new page. Monsters will be born more and more both from beasts and men alike.
• There is a chance that any myth, any fantastical element in Mirhne ties into a greater 'mythos' of eldritch terror. The Old Gods are indeed real but they are alien beings which the primitive men of Mirhne cannot hope to truly understand. There is a dark secret or ten hidden in Mirhne but, currently, not even I know what it is or how it might develop.

The Glorious Insanity of Xianxia (And how it accidentally relate to D&D)

EDIT: The following is reposted from my comments off Deathblade's video response:
"Hey, that IS my post and the last damn place I ever expected to see it referenced. You have to understand that these were my thoughts as a newcomer to Xianxia and finding it interesting where it did relate to the experience and worldbuilding of modern Dungeons & Dragons. This is in NO WAY an in depth thought process, for one thing I am not that smart secondly these were just my thoughts following a binge of a few novels early chapters and reading up on what would happen later, as I wasn't feeling ready to fully binge a 1000+ chapter novel. That's why I ended up reading your novel, Legends of Ogre Gate, because it was shorter and seemed more approachable. The 'murder hobo' thing relate to some, not all characters.

This was not an in depth analysis, more of an odd moment of realization that the two had more similarities to it than I initially thought. It was not, in any way, shape or form an assessment that D&D or basic western fantasy is Wuxia/Xianxia and never was. Simply some thoughts that D&D's more absurd end game power level of recent editions is somewhat closer to it than other works of western fantasy, such as LOTR or Conan."

And the other comment:

"Look man, in all honestly I did not even remotely expect this to fall under your radar.
My blog is a very small blog that primarily post things related to the indie RPG scenes of the so-called 'Old School Renaissance' meaning generally I'm posting things in circles which involve people older than me. These people are generally more into older western fantasy, such as Conan, Elric or the work of Jack Vance. Anything from Asia is, often to them, completely alien or called 'anime' because these are people who are really not into anything else. I'm a bit of an outlier, being not even in my thirties yet but quite the fan of that RPG style and scene. This was basically a nobody making a small post of 'Hey, this genre I'm getting into is kind of neat' and talking about that subject to a very small audience. In fact, barring a few good posts, I barely can reach 40+ views on minor posts. I am an absolute nobody and never expected this minor post I did for shit and/or giggles to get noticed by a major translator of Chinese web novels."

Artist unknown.

The concept of Wuxia and Xianxia (two overlapping genre of 'Chinese Fantasy') is one which I've mentioned here and there in some shape or for on this blog. Generally speaking, all this stuff has always existed at the periphery of Western pop culture: always present enough to leave an influence but never enough to ever hit big in the mainstream. For example, its no surprise if I mention how the entire Monk class is pure Wuxia and martial art concepts. It's been a genre which is slowly creeping to my headspace as I turn into more and more of a hipster every day.

Oh did I mention how fucking insane this Chinese stuff is?

What, you thought 'wire fu' and revenge tales of kung fu and swordplay was all there was to it? I thought that to too, but going into Xianxia more than Wuxia. This stuff is completely and utterly absurd and even more so its completely shameless in how insane it is. Interestingly, a lot of the core ideas found in D&D, especially more modern editions, seem more out of Xianxia than any Western fantasy:

• Xianxia Protagonists aren't 'heroes' in the traditional sense and, in many ways, are the archetypal 'murder hobo' given a in universe justification. The world of Cultivation is an absolute banana dog-eat-dog world where every power source exist in a limited amount and every fights over whatever scrap of magic bullshit which can be used to boost their kung fu and magical powers. It is a world with a lot of stratification of power, rule of might and limited resources making it the logical, if slightly demented, conclusion to the adventurer paradigm. This is the ultimate power-driven sandboxing experience where every other antagonist could arguably the main character in their own right, carving up their own kingdoms or grinding away all the XP and hoarding magical treasures for themselves.
• In many ways, the higher end of the 'power level' of Dungeons & Dragons especially the more one goes into later editions the more it resemble something out of Xianxia. In modern D&D editions, a high level Fighter has so many HP, such a high attack and such good saves that he is basically superhuman to some truly bullshit level which fly under the radar due to everyone focusing on spellcasters. Yet compare a high level Fighter to the average human and you can see he has long utterly surpassed any kind of realistic human limitation. In Xianxia, this is not an accident of mechanics or an afterthought, it is the entire basis of the world.
• In many ways, the D&D concept of a Wizard is a lot closer to a Cultivator than any historical and folkloric perception of magic. The D&D Wizard, at least when presented out of the box, is a being who can learn to bend reality to his will through sheer perseverance, training, learning and acquisition of magical artifacts and secret techniques. They are basically Cultivators without the Daoist and Buddhist bent and without the martial and physical prowess.
• It was generally expected that D&D characters would one day 'tire' of the Material Plane and that higher level play was truly intended to take place in other dimensions. Xianxia is full of different 'tiers' of reality, different Heavens and Hells...which are basically more of the same when you boil it down but with bigger numbers. Doesn't that sound familiar?

Of course there are even more stupid and/or crazy things in Xianxia, especially in the Chinese web novel scene which is basically the equivalent to 'Chinese Pulp fantasy' with the same intended demographics. I've barely scratched the surface and only just gotten into this insanity.

"But Star Wars will be done my way! I don't care what you (Disney) have to say!"

Star Wars: once loved and adored as the modern mythology, now reduced to a punchline and cautionary tale of corporate greed, mishandling and misplaced politics from the people involved. What happened to the Star Wars we used to know? Well, it's dead and gone. At least as far as 'official' material is concerned.

"No, I am the correct line. Not 'Luke, I am
your Father', damn it!"

The thing is, Star Wars is the modern myth and Disney has no power over me as a tabletop Game Master. They can burn, they can destroy, corrupt and revise the lore as much as they want. As long as someone, somewhere, still has a copy of the original trilogy out there, Star Wars will live. We're not yet at the point where Disney can destroy people's old copies. I'm sure eventually they will be as insane as to remake Episode 1 through 6 and corrupt and twist every character but we're not there yet. I'm lucky enough to have been old enough to remember a time before even the Prequel trilogy, where my father rented the VHS of the original trilogy (in its old, slightly crappy French dubs) and sitting on the couch being blown away by that line. You know, "No, I am your your father!". There was a time where this was still something a kid would be able to watch without knowing it was coming. But enough of more of my 'premature old man shtick'.

You Can Run Star Wars Without $$$

As I was pointed out on MeWe today, there's Mini Six: Bare Bones edition. It's a slimmed down, free version of the Open D6 System, itself derived from the classic Star Wars D6 by West End Games. It comes with a stripped down version of Star Wars, or rather Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off. Why get a copy of Edge of the Empire or anything owned by Disney? You don't need it. What, do you need the 'lore'? The lore is available on Wookiepedia, be it the movies lore, the early WEG proto-Expanded Universe, classic Expanded Universe or the Disney garbage if you feel like a masochist. It's all written down by obsessive fans already.

Of course, in my personal opinion a more 'proper' Star Wars game would require a much more 'minimalist' approach to lore. This isn't me agreeing with the dickweeds at the modern Lucasfilm-Disney about canon. These people are idiots anyway. No, the issue is that while the EU has pretty good stuff its also quite messy. A GM is much better served by sticking to the movies and extrapolating from there, only adding any WEG/EU/whatever else lore if it benefit their game. The appeal of Star Wars originally wasn't in dozen upon dozen of metric tons of lore. I'm aware this may piss off EU fans and I understand, but the reality is there is such a thing as 'too much lore' when it bog downs your game or create arguments with players about what model of gun Storm troopers use or something along those line. To me, the most important lore elements are in the big lines, not the small details. So to recap, what you'd need:

• An internet connection.
• Mini Six (Free or a printed copy for about 3$).
• Maybe a printer, some sheet, pencils and dice.

Now considering most people in this hobby have a ready accedes to paper, a printer, a computer and all that it mean you can basically run your dream Star Wars game for under a few $. I guarantee you whatever the hell you run has a good chance of being more true to Lucas' original vision. It's about the spirit of adventure and cheesy scifi-meet-western-meet-fantasy. Now, to be fair, the prequels had a very different focus and a lot more politics but I'd argue the prequels are material for a group more focused on RP than raw adventure.

Still. Not a penny spent on new Star Wars material. As for my players, I'd encourage them to play into the archetypes. Now obviously, trying to directly copy Luke or Han is a bad idea, but there are many, many archetypes out there in fiction. Not everything needs to be some fancy, fart-huffing deconstruction. Let heroes be heroes and villains be villains, not everything need to be 'deep' (or a faked attempt a depth). Sometimes you just want to have space samurai cutting off space villains with laser swords. There's nothing wrong with mixing your inner child with time-honored mythological archetypes: that's the very thing one should strive for in terms of style and tone.

Game Concept: Warhammer 25 000

It is the 26th Millennium. For more than two thousand years, Mankind's fate

in the galaxy seemed to have been in a state of decay and uncertainty.

Once it seemed as if mankind was poised to conquer the stars,

even in the shadow of the Eldar's galaxy-spanning Empire.

From their humble beginning on Earth, the human race has expanded

into the great void of space and mastered nearly all areas of science

that they could ever hope to discover with their mortal minds.

In their folly, the greatest minds of the past unleashed what could have been our doom.

The birth of Artificial Intelligence, now deemed Abominable, was both a blessing

and a curse. With their aid mankind expanded ever further. And, for a time, it was good.

This age of artificial evolution has come to an end in the devastating conflicts.

Mankind emerged victorious but diminished. For a brief moment it seemed as if

the horrors of the past would have been put behind us. We were wrong.

Earth has grown silent. The invisible, immaterial realm of the Warp is stirring.

Mankind is on the cusp of either a true rebirth as a Psychic species or, perhaps

at the very edge of a damnation we cannot even fathom the depths.

To be a Man in those times is to live in uncertain times. It is a life focused on rebuilding

what has been lost while fearfully looking to the future without a clue on what it may bring.

To stand in the sunset of Mankind's greatest era and to fight to keep Old Night at bay.

These are the tales of those times. Preserve the power of Technology and Science,

for so much more risk being lost every day. Cling to the promise of progress and

understanding, less savages we become. For in the dying light of the future, there is

only uncertainty and the stirring of thirsting Gods.

Art by Adrian Mihai

Call it a silly pipe dream if you will, but one idea which has long haunted the wildest dreams was to run a tabletop campaign set in the Warhammer 40 000 universe, albeit away from the two major eras of the timeline, namely the Great Crusade/Horus Heresy, set in M31, and the 'modern' 40k set in M41 to M42. Its been a long established fact that giant chunks of the lore remained (thankfully) unexplored. Being a big fan of Kevin Crawford's work, I've realized that a lot of the material present in Stars Without Numbers seems rather similar to what we could extrapolate to have existed near the end of the Golden/Dark Age of Technology and the beginning of the Age of Strife. While any mention of crunch here mention Stars Without Numbers, this could easily be ran with a very heavily modded Dark Heresy or even GURPS.

There's going to be quite a bit of 'headcanon' going on here. I don't claim to be an expert who know all the minutiae of 40k lore down to the very last bit. In addition, since this is an era which will likely forever remain shrouded in myth, it means a lot of assumptions have to be made. As a final note, the tone of such an era is different from 40k. Because that's the point. To showcase the galaxy-that-was.

Can 'Stars Without Numbers' support such an era?

Most worlds which have not
degenerated would be TL4, with
some TL5 (but not all)

In my humble opinion, yes absolutely. In fact, it was looking at the Tech levels as outlined in the game that I realized that TL4 and TL5 would be fairly close to the level of technological prowess of post-Men of Iron humans. Most, if not all of the things outlined in there do in fact already exist in Warhammer 40 000 and have existed for most of the game's history. They simply represent forms of technology which aren't mass produced for consumer and civilian use but exist in extremely limited forms across Imperial technology:

• Cybernetics: These are extremely commonplace in Warhammer 40k, just in a somewhat more clunky form than they would be in the past. The Imperium and the Mechanicus make use of robotic limbs and cybernetic implants all the time. However they are rather ugly, bulky and baroque things full of wires and tubes. If I was to theorize, I personally believe a lot of the Mechanicus tech isn't so much the most advanced as it is the most rugged and versatile, able to sustain itself with minimal maintenance for centuries. Late Golden Age technology in this area is likely somewhat sleeker. However the most advanced designs are now lost tech and the implants are changing, increasingly devolving toward the clunky, techno-gothic style we all know and love.
• Genetic Manipulation: We know for a fact that, by around M22 the Navigators were deliberately genetically engineered. With that in mind we can assume that, prior to the initial phase of technological decay, humanity was reaching well into TL5 (if not TL6 of 'techno magic'!) areas of biological engineering. If anything, with the increase in Psyker population, the stirring of the Warp likely increasing mutation chances and the need to further engineer populations to better thrive on alien worlds (now that Earth has been 'lost'), this is one area which is likely currently thriving. It is likely most Humans by M26 descend from genetically augmented stock, healthier and engineered to reduce the odds or to eliminate genetic defects and diseases. It is my theory that this engineering, still existing within the genome of the Imperial population, can and does go 'haywire' due to pollution and other degradation, explaining why so many mutations in older 40k books seem so random. Not every mutation is Chaos (although many are). Some could be long dormant, spliced genes going crazy and suddenly expressing themselves.
• Near Immortality: This one would be 'lost technology' right from the get go, but there is some lore evidence to suggest that aging could have been, at the peak of the Golden Age, a thing of the past for the elite. Considering that 'Juvenat' treatments exist in 40k and that the Space Marines and Custodes are near-immortal, the posthuman elites of the Golden Age could have been able to indefinitely suspend aging.
• Localized Temporal Manipulation: These exist in 40k too, going far back into the lore as the Stasis Grenades. This type of technology is called Stasis Fields and they are still in use in the modern Imperium.
• Artificial Intelligence: This one is a no-brainer, as we know that the creation of the Men of Iron is what led to the development of the STC and the true dawn of the Golden Age.

Art by Tim Razumovsky

As one can see, much of this technology has long existed in 40k lore. The key differences, however, are in two things: how common is it and how is it treated? A game set at the start of the Age of Strife would see everything listed under T4 as commonplace on any sufficiently large and industrialized world which isn't too damaged by past centuries of war. The overall standards of life would be massively improved over the basic Imperial menial and these worlds would be, in many aspects, closer to our time. Personal computers used for both work and entertainment, a decent access to medical care (which, even in a highly diminished state, would surpass our current medical technology) and more would be the norm whereas in the Imperium these things are at best used only by Nobles. Even on a planet which spent centuries rebuilding from the conflict with the Men of Iron, technology would still be beyond that of the average Imperial world.

Secondly and, most importantly, much of this technology would still be understood. Maybe not completely, as the massive databases and the complete STC have been lost but much would still remain. These people would not regard technology with superstition. Now obviously these people would know and understand that things used to be better, that in the days of their great grandparents there used to be inter planetary transit on a much larger scale before these warp routes were lost, that people used to live several centuries more and that machines automated even more to the point it was a near utopia. However there would be none of that superstition which is built into the 'cargo cult' of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

The Gene-Wars and Psychic Abominations

Art by Vlad Bolotov.

One of the greatest dangers of this dwindling age, beyond the isolation of entire systems or planets by the Warp, is the threat posed by rampant genetic engineering and the growth of the 'Psyker' phenomena. Psykers were recorded among humans as early as M22 but they would presumably only explode in numbers around the start of the Age of Strife. But why are these two factors so important to the downfall of mankind? Codex: Custodes states the following:

"Thinking machines and the development of ever more esoteric weapons and transportation technologies played their part, but the single greatest factor to drive this expansion was the ability – and the reckless will – to manipulate human genetics. Utterly certain of their own primacy, scientist-kings and techno-demagogues followed every strand of curiosity and exercised powers of creation that made them seem like gods. Ultimately, their hubris led them to catastrophe, and onwards to the very brink of extinction. Worlds were overrun by bloody uprisings within their own populations, much of which were mutated beyond sanity and recognition. Gene-wars consumed entire star systems, while a psychic apocalypse drowned the stars in fire. The vast empire of Humanity was shattered amidst horror and anarchy, and the oppressive shroud of Old Night settled over all."

My personal theory on the matter is that, since Mankind could not rely on thinking machines as much they sought alternate ways to expand their power. With true artificial sentience outlawed/destroyed on any surviving world, power hungry individuals had to find something else. The human body and mind provided the right 'canvas'. The increased rate of mutation attracted scientific curiosity and, as with all things, someone somewhere will see it as a mean to gain more power. At first there would not really be anything seen as truly malicious in this, as humanity would already be used to posthuman modifications. However, humanity in that era was also quite naive and the powers of the Warp were misunderstood and the full ramifications of tapping into the Immaterium would not be immediately clear.

Fear and loathing of the 'mutant' would not be universal, especially on still well developed worlds. There would be a certain naivety to it all, as players could be allowed to take Psychic or even Arcane Foci. It would be treated no differently than any other technology. At least, until someone somewhere had a particularly bad roll. Human variations would also be commonplace and no one would really blink an eye, unless they were particularly repulsive or hostile. However, in the slums and former war zones the first true mutants, as modern Imperials would recognize, are being born. Without the full knowledge of ancient sciences, many anomalies are growing inside the human genome. These, in time, could create divergent strains of humanity which would unfortunately be exterminated by the Legiones Astartes five thousand years later. Other, more stable breeds would become the Ogryn, Ratling or the infamous Squats.

Another area of divergence to take into account is that of pre-Warp travel human civilizations. In the Warhammer universe, humanity was already spreading across the stars far before they ever invented primitive Warp Travel (around M18) or the Navigators (estimated M22). Even before the true dawn of the Golden Age they had already been colonizing their own solar system and nearby (or even distant) worlds for a very long time, using generational ships filled with enough raw material to enable self sufficiency for the colony. These worlds, assuming the colony did not die, would develop radically different ways of life or even biology. According to the old lore of a 1991 issue of White Dwarf, Mars' terraforming began (and seemingly, somehow, ended) in M3! In other words, it began in our own millennium. This means that by the start of the Golden Age, where Warp travel began connecting all these worlds, that humanity already had existed in isolated pockets outside of Earth for about 15 000 years.

Posthuman Augmentations

Art by Josiah Duncan.

For players, genetic engineering and biomechanical augmentation are a viable option when it come to increasing the capabilities of their characters. While the most advanced of genetic augmentations are now considered lost following the destruction of the Men of Iron and the most technologically advanced STC patterns (which logically would include medical data) and while the Emperor hasn't yet obtained the greatest troves of knowledge left on Terra to combine with His genetic material (to make Custodes, Primarchs and Astartes) this hardly prevent now stranded human colonies from creating super soldiers. True, they will never rival the future Astartes but we know from established 40k lore that genetic enhancement to make bigger, stronger, faster soldiers do exist. These type of people still existed early into the Great Crusade, before either falling in battle or being assimilated into the greater Imperial populace. In addition, with Psykers on the rise and the abilities of Biomancy, warp-fueled genetic modification is an area where the maddest of genius would dare to go.

• The Diehard and Iron Hide Foci from the Core Book, as well as Arcane Mind and Arcane Physique can all represent different expression of the Transhumanism used at the start of the Age of Strife. This can range from being born from a genetically engineered sub-species/ethnic group within the sector the game is set (whose descendants would one day be classified as Abhumans by the Imperium) to simply being an elite soldier or special agent whose rich and powerful masters have allowed access to permanent augmentations. Others might be Warp-tained and not even aware of why their bodies and minds are enhanced and the full extent of their degeneration has not manifested yet.
• Alternatively, these augmentations could be mechanical in nature. While the Mechanicum currently doesn't really exist in anything resembling its future form, it isn't as implausible as it sound for select individuals on these far off worlds to be implanted with mechanical augmentations which are similar in function or even directly based off the design templates which form the full range of Mechanicus implants, if not for them to carry augmentations which are lost in the modern Adeptus Mechanicus. Possibly, the Hacker Foci could be restricted to those whose bodies are implanted with these augmentations as they are able to more easily plug into the Noosphere, which would presumably also exist on these worlds through all the wireless technology which still exist.
• Playing a member of the Navigators is also an option. Presumably they are not quite as inbred and monstrously deformed in those days. With the Warp storms growing in potency, the Navigators cut off from Terra have settled on worlds which remain relatively stable and have become a local nobility of sort, sometimes attempting to mount reckless travels to reach nearby worlds and obtain rare resources. Navigators would use the Starfarer or some similar Focis to represent their Warp eye. However they would only ever be able to reach the nearest of star systems and only under considerable strain.

In the 26th Millennium, overall the nature of 'humanity' would be a lot more open ended. Being set in an era where genetic engineering is still commonplace means that the fear of mutants is not quite ingrained into humanity yet. While there are monsters and abominations lurking, the full scope of the isolation of Old Night hasn't fully taken hold yet and Abhumans don't exist so far. The worst is also yet to come on the subject of Psykers and Warp taint.

Familiar Foes

Were you expecting something else?

One of the reasons to set something within the Warhammer 40 000 universe is to, after all, make use of pre-existing material. While many of the game's factions would not exist in M26, there's still a pretty good amount of critters and aliens which are indeed recognizable from the lore, especially Rogue Trader-era lore.

• The Orks: An ever-present menace, the Orks have been a blight on the galaxy since times immemorial. At the height of the Golden Age, the superior technology of mankind kept the monsters at bay, destroying entire Waaaaagh!!! and leaving behind, at worst, scattered pockets of Feral Orks growing from the spores. However, in this period of isolation, instability and technological decay the Orks are growing bolder again. Space Hulks emerge from beyond the veiled Warp routes. Rumours are spreading that the green tides seen in past centuries were but minor incursions. The Orks encountered in the sector where my game would be set would be, as a nod to 1st edition lore, mostly of the Blood Axes clan and an overall more intelligent, sneakier lot. There is also a nod to the Beast Arise series, which depicted Orks as more intelligent and organized when under the influence of so-called Prime Orks, who will still be alive in those days. Overall these would be full of nods to 1st and 2nd edition Ork lore.
• The Eldars: As of M26, the empire of the Eldars has not fallen yet. The race has not yet splintered into Craftworld Eldars, Dark Eldars, Exodites or other groups. Their race is very powerful but also incredibly corrupt, as they are on the downward spiral that will eventually lead to the Fall of the Eldar. The best one can hope of the Eldar is that they simply leave humanity alone.  It seems most likely that Eldar machines were more often seen and interacted with than an in-the-flesh Eldar so overall the race remain mysterious.
• The Necrons: Initially it may seem silly. However, there indeed was Necron activity before M41 as there are mentions of Tomb Worlds slowly waking up during the era of the Great Crusade. There is so much we don't know about Necrons that they can still fit within such a 'prequel'.
• The Slanni: The reptilian Slann date back to Warhammer 40 000: Rogue Trader and were essentially the Lizardmen analogues before 40k reduced the amount of races it had that were copy pasted from Fantasy. The Slann encountered in M26 would be greatly diminished tribes of reptilian/amphibian creatures with ties to the Old Ones.
• The Hrud: The nomadic buggers have been around far before the time the Imperium ever found out they existed. Indeed, they most likely predate the rise of humanity as an interstellar species. It is likely they existed beneath mankind's notice, much like how mankind was beneath the notice of the Eldars.
• Warp Predators: There are creatures from the Rogue Trader book which still exist within the lore and would be around in this era, such as Enslavers, Vampires and Psychneuein. With the unregulated and misunderstood psychic powers going wild, these creatures could pop in anywhere.

Overall, not a bad list despite the lack of any Imperial factions, Chaos (beyond daemons) and Tyranids. Obviously Tau also be completely out the picture as they are still busy banging rocks together trying to figure out fire. Same with, presumably, the Kroots.

Madness & Damnation

Art by Johan Grenier.

One addition built into such a campaign would be the Sanity found in Silent Legions. Now, unless the characters are civilians generally speaking there shouldn't be too much that put a strain on their sanity. As the past centuries have had plenty of wars and societal decay at some point or another, soldier, assassins and mercenaries know what to expect. After an encounter or two with some Xenos, things get pretty easy to process, as these people aren't as brainwashed as modern Imperial citizen.

However there is one aspect of the universe the mind is not ready for yet and that is the Warp and Psychic powers. At this point, humanity knows that the Warp exist (having used it to travel since M22) and Psykers are becoming more common. The problem which is arising is that of Daemons and Warp Predators increasingly being attracted to the growing psychic potential in humanity. When the fabric of reality gets torn asunder and some Daemon of Tzeentch or some other ruinous entity emerge and start murdering people and eating their souls, this is where madness come in.

And yet, Hope?

Art by Sergi Sokolov.

However in the end things are not Grimdark. Not yet. Within the life span of the player characters, things may not look so bad. The best analogue for this era would be a game set during the fall of the Roman Empire. No one could predict how long the fall would last and how much time it would take to climb back to the heights of such an era. Five thousand years is a long time. Ultimately, this is an era which, while connected to 40k lore, in many way still draws more upon classic space opera and pulp scifi. Humanity isn't yet this degraded, crazy, superstitious and hateful thing whose sense of idealism has been utterly crushed. Yes, things will one day be truly terrible. The Grim Darkness of the Far Future will come but not today. Not tomorrow. It isn't here yet.

Time to hold back the darkness. One day at a time.