A Space Opera Setting
<aside> ‼️ Character creation prompt
You are all senior officers aboard Station 5, under the direct command of Baron Pvorid (Copper Dragonborn). You should have at least one tool proficiency, which determines your specific command post. See Travel Rules for more details. If your chosen class and background do not give you a tool proficiency, you gain one by default.
You are level 8.
You have 3 points of motivation (inspiration), one for each of your goals, bonds, and rivalries. Work with your other players to determine what your bonds and rivalries are.
Classes do not exist in the traditional DnD sense. Instead, class features belong to mechanical mobile armour suits called Dragons. To date, only dragonborn have been allowed to pilot Dragons. However, as part of a top secret research trial, each of you have been chosen as candidates as pilots for your own mobile armour suit. If you are a dragonborn, your mobile suit is a Dragon. If not, it is only a humanoid chassis, although the functionality is the same.
Non-combat class abilities, such as those that give you proficiency in skills, or some social benefit do not require the use of a mobile suit and can be used freely in the station during travel.
Using combat class abilities places a tremendous amount of strain on pilot’s central nervous system and mind, meaning that even if some mobile suits are technically capable of attacking several times, or casting 9th level spells, they will be locked from doing so until the pilot has gained the experience and skill necessary to do so without dying. However, under dire circumstances when there are no other options, system limiters can be lifted allowing the pilot to access skills that they wouldn’t normally be able to. Doing so always either kills the pilot outright, or renders them permanently physically and often mentally incapacitated.
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When the World-Egg hatched, the shattered continents of Szareth were flung to every corner of the solar system. The Mortal Races, the now obsolete immune system of the hatched celestial, would have perished in the apocalypse had it not been for the actions of a small council of heroes who built Station One, an experimental ark that could save as many people as possible. S01, and all the following stations, used Aqua Vitae as a power source, the amniotic fluid present in vast quantities under the crust of Szareth.
But the last remains of the Aqua Vitae is running out, along with the time and means necessary to make the sundered pieces of Szareth habitable once more.
S05 is an advanced research-class station, entrusted with the mission of seeking out ways to rehabilitate the now barren pieces of Szareth. It is smaller than the habitat-class stations S01-04, but perhaps the most important. It zips around the solar system, harvesting Aqua Vitae, experimenting with terraforming magic, and dealing with the space-faring scavengers drawn to the rich organic debris left after a celestial birth. Commanded on a rotational basis by a Baron appointed by each of the Houses, S05 is ever a hotbed of political upheaval and jostling.
You and your team are a band of researchers, soldiers, politicians, technicians and common citizens tasked with carrying out S05’s mission.
Life was saved. Not by the Gods, who had abandoned the Mortal Races when their purpose has been satisfied, but through ingenuity, order, and leadership. Emperox Kazap, pilot of the legendary silver dragon, Annex Destiny, outlawed all worship of the Gods, and placed themselves at the pinnacle of the great pyramid from which all authority flows.
Under them, the Royal Houses of the Mortal Races jostle for space, resources, and favour. There is precious little tolerance for open warfare, but conflict has only become fiercer ever since living space became the most precious commodity around. Those who can claim ownership of even a room on one of the stations is considered notably wealthy.
Ruled by the iron, or rather, silver fist of Emperox Uzamiel – heir to the Annex Destiny and Duka of S01 – House Dragonmarque claims all Dragonborn as its citizens, whether they would or no. From one perspective it is a well organised army, breeding generations of fearsome dragon pilots who have defended the stations for generations. But in reality is it a tangled hive of allegiances and rivalries between metallic and prismatic castes alike.
Only those who belong to Dragonmarque can hope to ever pilot one of the mechadragons, but although non-dragonborn have occasionally been adopted into the house, and even achieved great rank and glory, none have ever been allowed to take the helm in one of those majestic war machines.
Duchess, Doctor and Gnome Nessa of S03, the semi-elected Queen of a disparate group of nations of Humans, Hoppits, Dwarves, Elves and Gnomes – each of whom adhere to a distinct mish-mash of feudal systems of authority and family allegiances.
S03 was given the important task of carrying and maintaining most of the terrestrial plant and animal life – and is therefore responsible for ensuring that there is enough food to go around. Nothing is wasted by House Marienfold, even the corpses of the Empire’s citizens are returned to precious soil to ensure the next generation have a chance at survival. Who would have thought that the fate of everybody now rested in the quiet, dedicated, work of a cabal of necromancers?
Duke Yamriel of S02, the proud sea-elf, commands the largest of the stations, and the only one to contain within it an ocean. Entrusted with the safety of almost all aquatic life - and most of the liquid water that still exists, House Anchorage takes great pride and power in their position. Aqua Vitae, the most precious substance in the Empire, is also harvested and rationed by House Anchorage.
Anchorage’s citizens are, naturally, mostly aquatic beings. Sea-elves, merfolk, and triton all call themselves members. Perhaps owing to a long forgotten sea-faring tradition of always trying to rescue stranded sailors, House Anchorage has a reputation for never failing to attend to a disaster anywhere in the solar system.
Duchess Rancor XII, the fiery Teifling Queen, rules S04 with a mix of fear, force, and a philosophy of restorative justice. Such is the lot when you are given to govern the lowest caste members of the empire, who are constantly being provoked into rebellious states of discontent.
S04 was controversial from the first time the lottery to populate the stations was run. Not a few were of the opinion that orcs, goblins, tielfings, kobolds, lizard-folk and numerous other uncivilised peoples could not have a place in the new world amongst the stars. But in the end the conscience of the station’s builders won out. However, space and resources are even more limited on S04 than anywhere else, and many see it as a matter of when and how, not if, it eventually explodes.