Across the stars there exists a legend walking among the myriad species of the stars, and his name is Zarus.Zarus is a creature that is known as a human, a species that came from somewhere unknown. In truth, they aren't too much unlike those of the intergalactic community, with meager lives only a fraction as long as yours, of flesh and blood and with hands and feet, spacedust given fleeting form. Only, Zarus himself isn't like other humans - at least, not to your or anyone else in the galaxy's knowledge. Zarus is the most powerful of all psykers in the galaxy. This is by far, no contest. He doesn't perform acts as directly lifting his enemies and sending them flying, no. His reality changing powers are matched only by his warped perspective and inflated ego. Many have tried to kill him, and the world itself bends over backwards to protect him. Bullets sheer by him, laser weapon systems malfunction as they pull the trigger, bombs spontaneously detonate before he enters their blast radius, and other psykers lose their powers as he draws near. Some speculate you could catch him off guard with orbital bombardment or destroying the very planet he stands on, but the empires of the galaxy know he is more precious alive than dead. If it weren't for his self-centered attitude and racial prejudice, he would have had any seat he desired in any empire of his choice, but he prefers the free life of a gun for hire.If you were to believe the man himself, he was once part of a crew of fifty men sailing through the stars, incidentally struck by debris of an ancient errant missile smashing into a nearby asteroid. The lone survivor, he landed on a fertile planet in the process of colonization and took it as a sign he was still protected by his gods. The planet he refused to name, but rumor has it he calls his home the "mystic city of Agartha." Many have gone to search for it. Some empires are running vast intelligence operations to acquire any information they can about the city. You know better than to actively go and find a planet where there may be hundreds, thousands, millions of humans just as capable as Zarus in the psychic arts. Their elevation to a spacefaring race would upheave the order of the entire galaxy.So of course, you came across the planet on pure accident.
>>6337935The unnamed and undiscovered system was obscured from most of the galaxy by its proximity to a black hole which both obscured it from the most dense areas and warped how those on fringe systems perceived it. It had only caught your attention from the faint chirping of a colony ship's decade old beacon. The bright blue and green planet was speckled with signs of what would be an advanced civilization, only it seems to lack a sophisticated space program. Perhaps one nation is able to send out a vessel every few decades, maybe. A handful of sites in the northern hemisphere catch your interest; a gold city at the subarctic region, a black expanse of basalt pillars that have the unmistakable signs of a seaport, a bustling topical city that preliminary examinations have fascinating biodiversity on some of the most fertile soil in your empire's records, and a tree that breaches the vault of the sky, the largest of its kind you've seen on this side of the galaxy. Those from the gold city seem to share the same language of communication as Zarus, making observations and study of that region in particular a relief. All of this, and they are all carbon-based lifeforms that breathe oxygen and consume hydrogen, same as you. It is technically safe to land.There are a number of factors that prevent you from communicating with the capitol about the discovery. The most obvious of which are the raw logistics of the idea. The speed of light is barely sufficient for global communication networks, and your hypralight communications are slower than turning the ship around and delivering the message with your own mouth. Further, there's always the possibility there are other elements capable of intercepting the message and arriving before a response from the top can even be sent. Lastly, and most personally of all, you know for certain that your naive elders would command you to uplift them into the galactic community as their first command. Not that you are flirting with genocide, but they pose a danger that it would be tactless to ignore, like introducing boars unto an unsuspecting world.Such a hypothetical global assault is a task your fleet is not capable of performing. You are not commandeering a capital-class ship capable of any viable amount of orbital bombardment, let alone shattering the planet like you imagine you would need to kill a million men like Zarus. So outright violence is not the strategy here. The fact that you are as of yet unknown to them is your ally. You, Fleet Captain Ygdrun of the Second, have to work with what you have.
>>6337937https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5GD0Pbvmx4These humans have likely named the planet, but to your commission it shall be known as KTISIS. Lest your empire fumble in its bureaucratic way or other less harmonious factions of the galaxy come to sink their teeth into this planet, you must take this responsibility by yourself and your crew. It may take you years. Dozens, hundreds. You have time. Your kind may change with age, but let it be known that you and your kin are truly immortal.By studying different parts of Ktisis, you will come to know the secrets of Agartha. There are three branches of research; Anthropology, Biology, and Psychic Potential. Anthropology regards their past and the factors which made them how they are today, their history or challenges as a species that may have had an affect on them. Biology refers purely to the study of the biomechanical construction of the fauna of Ktisis, including Humans. How their brains function, what they eat, what those things they eat do to their brains, which species are naturally occurring. Psychic Potential involves reading the noospheric realm of sapient consciousness. Psychic power is humanity's greatest strength, and yet no researcher has ever had the chance to properly measure just how much Zarus is capable of. It would be of great worth to properly measure a human's capability and come to an understanding of how they can do it - and perhaps increase the strength of psychics within your own empire and commission.There is a Veil of Secrecy you might wish to uphold. Studies and actions you perform will lower the Veil, while time will passively recover the Veil. When the Veil is lowered, the native humans will begin to notice your actions. Their reactions depend on what things they see you perform when the Veil is low. Some groups may see through the Veil much easier than others, though fortunately they would scarcely communicate the secrets they keep. Generally, low-yield research offers net positive returns on your Veil, but as time passes, the situation on the planet may change.Studies are done in 3d20 pools against a target DC. Upon success, you gain a set value of Progress into that Research. Harder Studies have the chance of higher rewards than simple studies, with each success counting as additional Progress Points. Veil starts at 100% secrecy, and all Studies reduce a number from 10-30%. After each Study you regain 12% Veil. For any number of turns you lay below a given society's Veil of Secrecy threshold, you make yourselves known to them. Performing Studies while the Veil is beneath societies' threshold invites Contact - a mutual meeting between native and alien, which complicates every subsequent study.
>>6337938>Choose your ship.DEALBHÓIR - Terraformer - A cruiser with thousands of staff capable of performing advanced changes to a planet's climate, transforming even barren rocks into resplendent forests or wild jungles in a manner of years. While this can be devastating upon an unprepared civilization, it is extremely noticeable and paints you as an enemy to all of the planet. It would be more prudent to use the ship's resources to understand the properties of fauna and flora.Provides an extra D20 on Anthropology studies. Can fertilize land and bolster a chosen faction's farming yields to give them an advantage in conflicts.TOMHAISEOIR - Research Superyacht - A part-commercial ship staffed with hundreds of scientists from across the empire with the purpose of finding and studying reservoirs of rare deep-space resources, such as metals that have been compressed into unfathomably dense and durable materials by the gravity of passing black holes, multidimensional objects, and cognitohazards. These brilliant minds should be able to reverse engineer most technology these people could have made.Provides an extra D20 on Biology studies. Any recovered technology is immediately understood and reverse engineered, and can "donate" new technology to desired societies.ITHREACH - Greater Colony Ship - Unlike most races, you do not colonize by homesteading unknown environs until you have civilization. This ship is capable of gathering large amounts of deep-space gasses and using nuclear fusion to fabricate it into materials and resources. From fertilizer to iron to gold, anything can be made. In addition, it sends the fastest signal your empire can manage; a request to send materials to your location faster than anyone can safely travel to the very heart of your empire's automated logistic system.Permits the establishment of a colony in the canopy of the World Tree. The Veil will start at 80% rather than 100%, but all DCs will be lowered by 1.And your mission? By your decree:>Choose one.Through charity and subversion, you must domesticate a people to be loyal and faithful allies of your empireThrough science and study, you must understand what it is that makes humans psychically capableThrough espionage and sabotage, you must send them back to the stone age and leave them to rot on this rock
>>6337940ITHREACHThrough charity and subversion, you must domesticate a people to be loyal and faithful allies of your empire
>>6337940>Through espionage and sabotage, you must send them back to the stone age and leave them to rot on this rock
>>6337940>>6338011DEALBHÓIR - TerraformerForgot the ship.
>>6337940>TOMHAISEOIR>Through science and study, you must understand what it is that makes humans psychically capableWe must unlock the secrets of human Vril
>>6338000>>6338011>>6338049>>6338135a more perfect tie there never wasif there's no new votes soon i will roll
>>6338414TOMHAISEOIR - Biological Ascendancy to Overman is di wae.
>>6338135>Through science and study, you must understand what it is that makes humans psychically capable>We must unlock the secrets of human vrilVery trve. I am in complete agreement.
