Truths

Cataclysm

We escaped the ravages of a catastrophic war.

Over millennia, we consumed resources and shattered lives as we fueled the engines of industry, expansion, and war. In the end, a powerful foe took advantage of our rivalries in a violent bid for power. Fleeing the devastation, we assembled our fleets and traveled to the Forge. A new home. A fresh start.

In this final war, we were set upon by self-replicating nanomachines—machines our civilization created, ostensibly for good. But when dark agents and rogue AIs got control of them, they were used against us. We fled to the Forge, hoping our predators wouldn’t follow.

Exodus

When the Exodus fleet set off on a ponderous journey to a new home outside our galaxy, they marked the Forge as their destination. Countless generations lived out their lives aboard those titanic ships during the millennia-long passage.

The refugees built a rich legacy of culture and tradition during the Exodus. Some even remained in the ships after their arrival in the Forge, unwilling or unable to leave their familiar confines. Those vessels, the Ironhomes, still sail the depths of this galaxy.

Communities

Dangers abound, but there is safety in numbers. Many ships and settlements are united under the banner of one of the Founder Clans.

We have a tentative foothold in this galaxy. Each of the five Founder Clans honor the name and legacy of a leader who guided their people in the chaotic time after the Exodus. Vast reaches of the settled domains are claimed by the clans, and territorial skirmishes are common.

Iron

Iron vows are sworn upon the remnants of ships that carried our people to the Forge.

Many of our outposts were built from the iron bones of the Exodus ships. Fragments of the ships were also given to survivors as a remembrance, and passed from one generation to the next. Today, the Ironsworn swear vows upon the shards to honor the sacrifice of their forebears, the essence of the places left behind, and the souls of those great ships.

Laws

Our communities are bound under the terms of the Covenant, a charter established after the Exodus. The organization called the Keepers is sworn to uphold those laws.

Most settlements are still governed under the Covenant and yield to the authority of the Keepers. But as time passed and our civilization began to take hold in the forge, the Covenant was twisted by the Keepers into a dogmatic and unjust means of consolidating power and exerting control over the people. In many places, the Keepers find no welcome, though they may find deference due to fear.

Religion

Our faith is as diverse as our people.

Many have no religion, or offer an occasional prayer out of habit. Others pay homage to the gods of our forebears as a way of connecting to their roots. Some idealize the natural order of the universe, and see the divine in the gravitational dance of stars or the complex mechanisms of a planetary ecosystem. And many now worship the Primordials—gods of a fallen people who once dwelt within the Forge.

Magic

Magic does not exist.

Some look to superstition and age-old traditions for comfort in this unforgiving galaxy. But that is foolishness. What some call magic is simply a product of technologies or natural forces we aren’t yet equipped to understand.

In many places, what looks like magic is reviled because of our civilization’s distrust of nanomachines. The Covenant explicitly outlaws nanotech, though the Keepers are thought to hold onto the technology themselves.

Communication and Data

Information is life. We rely on spaceborne couriers to transport messages and data across the vast distances between settlements.

Direct communication and transmissions beyond the near-space of a ship or outpost are impossible. Digital archives are available at larger outposts, but the information is not always up-to-date or reliable. Therefore, the most important communications and discoveries are carried by couriers who swear vows to see that data safely to its destination.

Medicine

To help offset a scarcity of medical supplies and knowledge, the resourceful technicians we call riggers create basic organ and limb replacements.

Much was lost in the Exodus, and what remains of our medical technologies and expertise is co-opted by the privileged and powerful. For most, advanced medical care is out of reach. When someone suffers a grievous injury, they’ll often turn to a rigger for a makeshift mechanical solution.

Artificial Intelligence

We no longer have access to advanced computer systems. Instead, we must rely on the seers we call Adepts.

Our computers are limited to simple digital systems and the most basic machine intelligence. This is because:

AI was outlawed in the aftermath of the machine wars

The Adepts serve in place of those advanced systems. They utilize mind-altering drugs to see the universe as a dazzling lattice of data, identifying trends and predicting outcomes with uncanny accuracy. But to gain this insight they sacrifice much of themselves.

War

War never ends. Talented weaponsmiths and shipwrights craft deadly, high-tech tools of destruction. Dominant factions wield mighty fleets and battle-hardened troops.

Those in power have access to weapons of horrific destructive potential. Skirmishes and wars flare across the settled domains, and most are pawns or casualties in these destructive campaigns.

Lifeforms

This is a perilous and often inhospitable galaxy, but life finds a way.

Life in the Forge is diverse. Planets are often home to a vast array of creatures, and our starships cruise with spaceborne lifeforms riding their wake. Even animals from our homeworld—carried aboard the Exodus ships—have adapted to live with us in the Forge.

Precursors

Over eons, a vast number of civilizations rose and fell within the Forge. Today, the folk we call grubs—scavenger crews and audacious explorers—delve into the mysterious monuments and ruins of those ancient beings.

Incomprehensible technologies, inexorable time, and the strange energies of the Forge have corrupted the vaults of the precursors. Despite the perils, grubs scour those places for useful resources and discoveries. But some secrets are best left buried, and many have been lost to the forsaken depths of the vaults.

Horrors

Put enough alcohol in a spacer, and they’ll tell you stories of ghost ships crewed by vengeful undead. It’s nonsense.

Within the Forge, space and time are as mutable and unstable as a flooding river. When reality can’t be trusted, we are bound to encounter unsettling phenomenon.