Milieu Overview: Virus (1130-1198)

[robject]

The quasi-milieu "virus" has clear boundaries, and is distinct enough from the Rebellion and New Era milieux to benefit from its own synopsis. Hence, this.

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The Rebellion milieu goes out with a bang in 1130. An unfinished AI weapon is unleashed from RS Omicron on 079-1130, which transmits to all ends of Charted Space. By 312-1130, the Domain of Deneb recognizes this threat and establishes a quarantine zone for ships entering the domain. The rest of Charted Space is pre-interstellar after 1130, with a few pocket empires springing up in the years leading up to the New Era milieu.

The Virus milieu effectively begins in 1131.

As this milieu progresses, the most extreme forms of virus die off. By the end of the milieu, virus has mutated to an advanced, though aggressive, form of ship AI. Ships which are fully under control of virus resemble rational, independent, thinking organisms. Though now interested in self-preservation, these units will still tend to be hostile against other ships or planetary communities. 



Also in this time period, the Wave flows through the entirety of the Zhodani Consulate and the Vargr Extents. The two cultural groups show starkly different methods for dealing with the Wave. The Vargr, chaotic to begin with, are the first to recover and jump-start the Extents, nipping at the heels of Virus as it goes. The Consulate fragments. Many factions change towards individualism and away from planned society. Many different plans are made to save some populations. Three succeed.

Largest PC relevant structures. With a few exceptions, much of charted space is pre-interstellar “wilderness” from 1131 onwards, and plays similar to the wilderness in the “Hard Times” phase of the Rebellion milieu.

The Regency of Deneb, which encompasses the old Domain of Deneb, plus remnants of the Zhodani Consulate in Cronor subsector, continues much as the Golden Era did before the Rebellion and Virus. This includes interstellar corporations and concerns, sophonts, modes of play, ship sizes and rules, and careers.

Star Vikings.

Unity of Promise.

Other Pocket Empires.


Modes of Play. Characters are most typically from one of the surviving bits of civilization. Alternately, some "bootstrap" campaigns may have characters begin among the ruins of marginal wilderness worlds.

Travel Guidelines. Ships are at an extreme premium, and are unlikely to be owned by individuals. Any working ships would have been confiscated by strong worlds, pocket empires, the Regency of Deneb, and so on. Travel through the wilderness would be dangerous and rare. "Vampire" ships prowl the frontiers, picking technology from derelict hulls and dieback worlds.

Adapting Careers. TBD...

Equipment Guidelines. Good working equipment will be in high demand, as production will likely be constrained. (Is this true, though?)

 

[mike wightman]

You didn't play much TNE? It starts in 1199 we know little of what really happens outside the Regency.

We can only take a guess at the horrors that befell the wreckage of the Imperium post 1130 and the release of Virus.

The Imperium was already reduced to a few safe regions surrounded by devastation as documented in MT HT.

Virus finished the job - or did it?

There is a big gap between 1130 and 1199 and we only know the bare details. Virus was the horror in the dark , but the reality was that without a stream of interstellar traffic it can't get far - the story of its spread and effects are likely an exaggeration. The Imperium was already shattered, Virus just became a convenient excuse for some to declare a greater emergency.

Ship travel did dry up, and the transfer of Virus across the Imperial border is also probably worth a second take.

The Hive have TL16 robotics as baseline, they likely have secret TL17+. I fail to see how Virus can have been little more than a puzzle to solve for the Hivers - but once solved...

The Solomani fell to a covert civil war of sorts, with the different power groups within the Confederation having different ideas about how they could exploit the shattered remnants of the Imperium. Virus likely did cross into Solomani space, but some of the polities within the confederacy would have more time to deal with it.

The covert 'civil war' likely turns hot at some point, which allows Virus, the Hivers and even some Aslan the opportunity to divide the confederacy into a collection of much smaller polities.

We know that Norris had decided to make his own little Imperium in the Domain of Deneb, and the deals he makes with the Zhodani, the Darrians, Aslan, Sword Worlders and Vargr allow him to maintain the integrity of the Domain as detailed in TNE.

The Vargr states would fall victim to the usual squabbling that prevents their unity.

The K'kree is where it gets interesting. The Lords of Thunder launching their crusade against the Vargr and the Imperium (and other K'kree who won't join in) are the likely reason for the Jullian Protectorate being taken out of the picture, buying time for Lucan to organise enough of a counter to the existential threat posed by the K'kee.

By the time the dust has settled from countering the Lords of Thunder and dealing with Virus Lucan settles back to play the long game...

 

[robject]

^ This is all good stuff. This is what we know of the missing years?


I played -no- TNE.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

^ This is all good stuff. This is what we know of the missing years?


I played -no- TNE.

There is much more history of those Virus years in the 1248 books. There is more than 100 pages of history describing the events between 1131 and 1198 in the four sourcebooks

There are a few styles of play you can emphasize in this time period:
Virus and Lucan and later Viral Lucan can be played as a grim Paranoia style game with conflicting and insane orders from 'The Computer'
The rise of the Gods of Thunder and the alliance of Kkree/Virus encourage a Terminator style campaign.
The Domain of Deneb can give players a sense of normal Traveller
Avery and his mission to gather intel on the Empress Wave provide exploration campaign opportunities.
The resurgence of two Solomani Empires, their open war against each other and the secret war the Hivers engage to contain them both lend to your typical Solomani "who do you trust?" games

 

[mike wightman]

Sadly MJD wrote those books before Dave Nilsen revealed some of the details that would have made it into TNE had it continued, and there are issues with changes made by MgT to the OTU which contradict/invalidate 1248.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

You didn't play much TNE? It starts in 1199 we know little of what really happens outside the Regency.

The Solomani fell to a covert civil war of sorts, with the different power groups within the Confederation having different ideas about how they could exploit the shattered remnants of the Imperium. Virus likely did cross into Solomani space, but some of the polities within the confederacy would have more time to deal with it.

The covert 'civil war' likely turns hot at some point, which allows Virus, the Hivers and even some Aslan the opportunity to divide the confederacy into a collection of much smaller polities.

This part is not quite right.


According to the 1248 books, the Solomani Confederation is holding successfully against Virus during 1131-1133 or at least losing the least amongst all the polities, next to Deneb and the Hivers of course. It falls in 1133 directly because geneticafriendllly enhanced "Sauron supermen" descendants from the IW period (as mentioned in DGP Alien Vol 2) rise up and assassinate the Confederation leadership at Home. This destabilizes unity and 1135 the Confederation is overrun.

By 1150, the Solomani are already back on their feet and creating a new empire. By the 1170's the Hivers become aware of the Solomani and begin the secret war. They also debate between genocide or creating a "friendly" human state as a counter to the Solomani. This is the basis for the Reformation Coalition. Internal pressures cause the Solomani to split into two, hostile to each other.

There was no mention of Aslan involvement and there are no references to smaller Solomani polities. I'm not attempting to say that the narrative I present makes sense, but it is a summarization of the one in the 1248 books. I have to pull out the books to be more accurate.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Sadly or not, the published books of TNE and 1248 are canon and the story most easily available to a perspective player (available at FFE and DrivethruRPG). not the unfulfilled intentions a designer posted on some forum. Since we are talking only of this time period (1131-1198) exclusively for a summarization, the contradictions are largely irrelevant. Unless those contradictions are to be resolved.

 

[mike wightman]

They can't all be canon since they contradict each other, and I will take the plans of the original author over a third party. While I do like the 1248 stuff there are a couple of things that strike me as 'not-Traveller' - the godlike view of those commanding the twenty seventh grand fleet of all known multiverse. The original intent was for a Star Viking atrocity to solve the Lucan issue, not for Honoor Harrington to show up (that last bit is a joke by the way).

The political machinations within the Solomani can be inferred from the GT ATU and the state of affairs of the Solomani by the time Virus is released (note the Solomani are likely to have discovered the Cymbeline chips too). The confederation has its own fractionalisation to contend with , along with virus, Aslan encroachment and the threats from the rim...

 

[Condottiere]

The irony being that the Confederation likely did it to itself, being somewhat xenophobic, yet tolerated, if not advanced, genetic manipulation.

Or that toleration was a subversion by Terran groupings with rather long term agendas.

 

[mike wightman]

The confederation was never a stable interstellar government if you scratch the surface. Some of the polities in the confederation were never members of the Third Imperium and yet traded happily with them, while others were antagonistic.
The more liberal and freedom loving polities within the confederacy likewise would take issue with Imperium membership, and upon the creation of the autonomous zone never want to go back to an authoritarian over-government.

I guess it is just in Solomani nature to prefer 'balkanisation' to unified government.

 

[Condottiere]

The tension between individual freedom and mutual defence predate the First Imperium.

Likely a major threat reveal will regather the lost sheep.

 

[whartung]

What I've read of 1248 is really good. It paints a very desperate time indeed.

 

[Spinward Flow]

What I've read of 1248 is really good. It paints a very desperate time indeed.

That tends to happen when multiple ROFLstomp events converge upon a previously safe/secure/settled location to wipe out civilization (Virus AND Empress Wave plus war and upheaval) on not only interstellar scales but across entire swaths of every sector of charted space.

Or to put an Elden Ring meme to good use ...

YOU HAVE DIED

 

[mike wightman]

1130 to 1199 are the darkest times of this mini-long night (I would have preferred a much longer gap to the TNE but hey ho)

Virus - all the stuff is written by the usual in game unreliable narrator, so don't believe the hype.

It's release date and method of propagation mean it would have spread back towards Illiesh first as the fleet went home, while the small amount of traffic carrying it in other directions means it could have taken several years to reach the farthest borders of the Imperium. We now know the Imperium takes such threats very seriously so I can imagine a certain wafer based entity being very busy (I have to also wonder of Bland didn't have a plan for Virus with hindsight)

Speaking of Bland we now have to discuss the metagame and the inclusion of retcons - there was no wafer tech, virus, or empress wave in the golden era but we have to assume they were always there, likewise while MT sort of introduced Virus and the Empress Wave in the crossover to TNE we have to assume again they are always there, and now the wave has been reconned into an FTL phenomena.
Surely Bland has sent a copy of himself to go and investigate it. Have any of the other Agent wafers noticed Bland's grand schemes? Virus can now be better understood thanks to wafer technology. How active are the Agents during the rebellion era and the 1129-1199 era?

Hard Times begats worse times - Mr Gannon explains this bit himself, by the end of the Hard Times cycle most of the damage has been done. During the following few decades there will be more consolidation of positions, a bit more die off, but there will also be survivors in the most unlikely of places and worlds. This is the post-apocalypse era. It is also the time when canny PCs could establish dynasties...