Academy Factions: In the Academy are five areas:

  • Security — City state guards, the Watchers (The ‘Watch’) etc.
  • Medical — Healers
  • Science — Fixers
  • Engineering — Producers
  • Administration — Bookkeepers, bureaucrats

Acolytes: Initial level of those training to be priests.

Apprentice: Citizen candidates.

Aptitude Tests: Tests given to non-citizens to see if you qualify to enter the Academy, the school which trains non-citizens. Select graduates go on to become Citizens, but it is highly competitive, and most don’t survive to become citizens. Testing may require a sponsor, and re-testing definitely requires a sponsor, typically a wealth or noble patron.

Banishment: Being put outside the fences which gird each city-state and worker village. Assumed to mean certain death due to the Dread and other hazards. The punishment for possession of pre-tech.

Berylium: Slightly radioactive. Used as a component for Repulsors and also Post-tech technology.

Black Triangle: Symbol of the Priests of Syrinx (looks like the ubiquitous Pyramids).

Citizens: Ruling class. Academy grads can be adopted as a citizen into a family like a Roman family.

Colony Ship: After the colony ships touched down the mega-ships became the center points for what eventually became city-states. Sino-Japanese, Russian, British, Australian and Brazilian city-states based on colony ships. Today, pyramid temples are merged into these ships.

Council: Lords from the Bridge Crew.

Dread: The horrid, mysterious creatures which live in the Outlands, against which stand the city and village walls, without which humanity would soon perish. Dread is both singular or plural, like ‘deer”.

Dreadfall: The cataclysmic event during which nameless monsters rose from unknown origins and almost eradicated humanity from Gaia. Dreadfall refers to the event; Dread refers to the creatures themselves.

Greenfields: Plantation which, in addition to normal farming crops, has as its chief purpose the mining of Berylium.

Greenlung: Illness caused by working in Greenfield’s Berylium mines. A common cause of premature death.

High Protector: Immortal Emissary of the 3 1/2 Gods and leader of the Priests of Syrinx, the theocratic government which rules the star system.

ID Chips: Bar code type chips embedded on your wrist as an ID and passport. Color folded according to your station in society. Black= Worker. Red=Protector. Gold and Pewter may mean other things.

Inquisitor: Red eyed and tattooed priests who hunt down heretics.

Mag Lev: Elevated trains that are more for citizens.

Megadon: Sometimes called simply ‘the capital’, it is a large, sprawling metropolis, the largest city on the planet. Largest city-state in large part due to it’s control of Barylium supplies.

Moons: There are two moons: a nameless Major Moon and a smaller Minor Moon.

New Earth: Name of the PCs world, of which Megadon is the capital.

Nobility: Over the long years in space a Nobility evolved. Nobles are called ‘Lords’ and the High Houses are attached to each bridge crew position (e.g. ‘Lord Engineer’ and ‘Lord Captain’). You can buy and vie for titles. If you lose a title you lose status and income.

  • Nobility
  • Lord Captain — Each city-state is led by a Lord Captain.
  • Lord Engineer (House Engineer)
  • Pentarchs — The 5 Lord Captains each of which lead a city-state.

Novice: Acolytes who have graduated to a higher rank, but are not yet priests.

Off-worlders: Little is known of the peoples and worlds outside Gaia, though legend has it there are other colonies throughout the star system. The Priests keep such knowledge to themselves and to some elite citizens, but such details are forbidden from non-citizens.

Outlands: The wild jungles and deserts beyond the gated villages and cities of Gaian populations.

Overseer: The plantation’s ‘mayor’ equivalent.

Pentarchs: Archpriest rulers of the 5 megacities, the chief of which is Megadon, the capital. The other citystates are: Arkoon, Belkan, Osskill, and Zed.

Protectors: The ruling priest class. ‘Protector John’ is an example honorific for a priest named ‘John’.

Protectorate: Another name for priest class. The priests keep the factions at odds with one another, desiring a certain instability to prevent any challenge from the nobility to their power.

Pyramid Temples: Each city-state and large village has a temple, a chrome glasses pyramid where compulsory services are held by the Priests.

Red Sun: Symbol of the Federation.

Repulsors: Technology controlled by the Priests which has some technology which ‘repulses’ the Dread. Located in pylons which surround city-states and villages. Repulsors are also located in large craft and trains. Repulsors are the size of a large refrigerator.

State Organization:

Steam Trains: Used  for goods transport and for Worker transports.

Tech Levels: Generally like Aliens, Divergent, Battlestar Galactica, Hunger Games — normal gunpowder guns and generally tech like today, with occasional slightly-higher tech (in the form of advanced medicine, hovercrafts, bioengineering, etc.) in the Pentarch cities. In the Worker towns, and in the outback, you generally have low-technology. Of course, with the lost empires pre-dating the apocalypse, you have pre-tech — with potentially Gamma-world style high tech features. Such pre-tech items are very rare.

  • Pre-tech: Technology dating from before the Dreadfall. Outlawed save for use by the Priests, who keep it secreted away.
  • Post-tech: Used by citystates and their citizens. Generally late-21st century Earth technology level. Weapons are still standard guns, though of higher quality.
  • Low-tech: Used by non-citizens. Generally late-1800s level technology such as steam engines and six-shooters.

Technology underground: Black market for illegal pre-tech.

Temple Vision: Protector-run ‘TV’ and source for Protectorate propaganda.

The Three and a Half Gods: It is said that “No man has seen the Three and a Half Gods and lived…save the Overlord.”

Vehicles:

  • Destroyer — Mega-craft with weapons, can hover over trees.
  • Ground Car — Hovercraft (but not above trees). Sometimes called a Skimmer.
  • Flyers — Like a ground car but seats about 12 and can fly over trees.

Wildings: Exiles who live (not very long) outside the walls of those under the Overlords rule.

Wire: A ‘wire’ is an email like data transmission; a personal message.

Print to PDF