Rules of Eave: Spartan Blooded

I was trying to write up on the Order of the Thorn, the Kingdom of Danaan's spy network.  I gave up after three tries and worked on the Spartans some more instead.  Let me know what you think.  Have fun...

Extra: Tulathian Spartan Training

Permission: Must be Tulathian, a member of the Spartan Blooded race, must be willing to serve in the Tulathian military

Costs: Skills

The Spartan Training extra is a skill that encompasses all manner of weaponry and hand to hand combat.  A Tulathian Spartan may use this skill in place of any combat skill they would use, from Fight or Shoot.  They may also use it in place of any tactics role that they can make to gain some sort of tactical advantage due to their schooling.

Tulathian Spartan of the Third Spartan Elite Guard

Concept: The best of the best in service to the Empire

Aspects: Nothing Can Stop Us; We Are Death Personified; In the Blood and In the Flesh We are Steel

Skills: Tulathian Spartan Training +5, Spartan Blooded +4, Provoke +4, Operate +3, Will +3, Athletics +3, Contact +2, Notice +2, Pilot +2 and Stealth +2.  These are the common skills that they have.

The Third Spartan Elite Guard is only currently twenty in number.  They are led by an old and grizzled Spartan named Janus, the Primus of the Third Spartan Elite Guard.  They are equipped with all manner of artifacts, from the Giant Series Mecha Suits, PPL5 Particle Pulse Laser Rifles and the absolutely hideous Heavy Scribble Laser, nicknamed the “Finger of God”.  They are the elites of the elite and the only ones better than they are the First Spartan Elite Guard.

They have a lot of Spartan Blooded folks running around.  They only reason that they do not have more of the Spartans in such powerful equipment is that they do not have that many artifacts around anymore.  The Tech-Priests already do wonders in keeping them armored and repaired.      

Tulathian Spartan

Concept: a proud warrior in service to the Empire

Aspects: It is in the Blood; Honor Our Fallen Dead; Strike Fast and Strike Hard

Skills: Tulathian Spartan Training +4, Spartan Blooded +3, Provoke +3, Will +2, Notice +2, Athletics +2 and Stealth +1 are common skills that they would have.

This is a common Tulathian Spartan.  He may or may not be trained in Operate, to wear a mecha-suit.  They are trained with everything from a knife to the newest heavy weapons available.

Now those Spartan Blooded of Danaan origin do not have access to the incredible brutal training that the Tulath gives their Spartan Blooded.  In Danaan it is rare to be Spartan Blooded except in places such as the Baronies of Crosstaal and Leavestonne where the major families of danGael, Chan and Kray reside.  Of course, the genes of the Spartan Blooded are strong and every once in a while a woman will give birth to someone that they would call Spartan Blooded anywhere in the Northern Kingdoms.  Most Spartan Blooded people find work in the military, constabulary or some such work that their great size will be a boon.

Section Command

Section Command was borne out of necessity.  The Political Officers were already aboard the UTN Fleet and were instrumental in their many victories.  However they failed when they crash landed on Eave.  In the early years they were as fractured as the petty warlords that split up and threatened the fledging state.  With the coming of the Church of Man they were basically hamstrung and no longer needed.  Remus Coviso saw that the Church of Man was gaining in secret power.  When Tullson II convened power and pulled all the fractured nations together, Remus proposed to reinstate all the Political Officers and to teach the youths of Tulath.  He proposed to have a system of schools and with the schools the political system of the new Empire could be taught and learned and reinforced.  There has been many births since the crash and there was still no way to teach them, so Tullson II agreed.  The youths of Tulath were forced to go to school and with that were then exposed to all the propaganda the state could throw at them.

Section Command was born then.  Slowly Remus started to build his command.  They needed spies internally, so Section 3 was born.  When Danaan was found, Section 4 was founded.  They are a vast network of information.  They let the Emperor know of their existence only when it suits them and they have eliminated certain Emperors to allow others to take his place.  They are loyal to their Nation and not to the man, despite what the propaganda machine may turn out.

• Section Zero: Section Command leaders.  It consists of the Duchess and the lead for each of the Sections.
• Section 1: Propaganda.  The largest propaganda machine on Eave and they work for the Duchess Coviso.  Their front is a publicity and marketing company.  They secretly work on forming, organizing and implementing propaganda in the Empire.  It was Section 1’s idea to allow the an assassination attempt on the Empress and Section 5’s job to see that she was never in any real danger.
• Section 2: The Teachers.  The Teachers look for those student of special worth and slot them for possible recruitment.  Not all of the teachers are members of Section Command but you can bet there are at least one in every large school. 
• Section 3: Internal Security, the secret police.  They just report what they find, they don’t do anything else to make sure that they aren’t found and Section isn’t compromised.  They have infiltrated the Church of Man and know about the secret vaults, but have yet accessed them.
• Section 4: External Security, the spies.  By mandate, they are not allowed to spy on the Empire of Tulath itself.  They currently have at least twenty spies in the Northern Kingdom.
• Section 5: Special Forces.  Made up of Spartans and non-Spartans alike, they are very dangerous force.  If they do their job right, you don’t even know that they are there.  They are there to eliminate those factions that are too dangerous to let live, but too public to let die senselessly.  They are masters of that “accident.”
• The Political Officers.  Political Officers (or Commissars) are publically known not as part of the Section Command but as part of any large, non-Spartan unit.  They are all part of Section Command however and keep the loyalty of the troops in line.  The lead Commissars know of Section Command.
• Section X: Experimental.  They make and experiment everything that the Section may need from weapons to gadgets.  What they are currently working on is rather unsettling as they take prisoners and experiment on them.  They are trying to create bio-weapons that target the eladrin!  They are also working on the nature of magic.  They have come up with some technological items that negate the magic fields that they produce.

The Kingdom of Danaan, Part I

Danaan is a bucolic nation of generally good and hardworking people.  Descendants of the Earth Fleet that crash landed on Eave it took them a great long while to gather their forces together and make the best of the world.  It all started with their main Battlecruiser Danaan crashed into a large lake at the base of a plateau.  Many of the crew were forced to evacuate the ship and the eladrin of Hanali collected them all.  The ship’s captain, Admiral Markan Andahar was surprised to see a boat come out greet them.  A single eladrin armed with only a slender sword and a bow, was on the boat that seemed to glide in the water without any means of propulsion.  They were both rather fearful of each other, but curious as well.  Admiral Andahar was surprised to see a somewhat intelligent being, seeing as how in orbit, nothing technological was found.  Tovar of the Hanli was surprised to see these humans that dropped from the heavens.  It was tense at first, until Tovar cast a spell that allowed them to communicate with each other.  They say that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic and for all their advanced technology Admiral Andahar and his crew could not figure out how Tovar could do that.  When he asked, he just said it was a simple spell.  Magic.  Needless to say that Admiral Andahar unsure about what to do, but the decision was taken from his hands.

The eladrin had just found out how evil the human were.  Prince Elaor and the Aragoi was just slain by the humans of Tulath.  Suddenly the flight deck where the parlay was being held was filled with eladrin, all armed and armored.  Overhead flew an eladrin airship borne aloft by magic.  It seems that they were all invisible, the humans only getting a glimmer of some weird energy from their sensors.  It became tense as they faced off against one another as more humans came out including a mech.  They came to extract their prince and Admiral Andahar stopped his people from firing.

The next couple of years were intense.  Danaan was slowly collecting there people that was scattered across the land.  They eladrin found many of them and returned them.  The eladrin found out that they were two separate forces of the human that fought in the stars and that the ones from the Earth Ship Danaan was not aligned with them.  Eventually the elves seeded them the plateaus, seeing as how the humans could not leave their world.

Tir was the name of the lake that the Earth Ship Danaan landed in.  Danaan Tir soon became the capitol of the Kingdom of Danaan.  Soon they shot out and claimed other plateaus after they developed the airships.  They began to map out this world which they had taking a more and more feudal aspect to their society.  This was mainly due to the eladrin, because when Prince Tovar asked them who their king was.  They have a king now along with eight baronies, each barony acting as a state that works for the betterment of the whole.  They have knighthoods and orders and guilds, very much in opposition to what Tulath has.  Danaan is about the people.

The other cities, the capitols of the Baronies are as follows:

• The Barony of Crosstaal, ruled by House danGael.  The current Baroness of Vorra danGeal.  They stand at Harro’s Wall to the South.
• The Barony of Eastaare, ruled by House danEvan.  The current Baron is Distan danEvan and his wife Jhass.  They are on the Eastern shores and have developed into great sailors
• The Barony of Holdingford, ruled by House danAven.  The current Baron is a man named Coaran danAven and his wife Hylise.  The danAven family are in the center of the kingdom and are the richest family.
• The Barony of Kassingtonne, ruled by House danHanno.  The current Baron is Martin danHanno and his wife Sera.  The developer of the first airships.
• The Barony of Leavestonne, ruled by house danRahn.  The current Baroness in Kanna danRahn and her wife Tully.  A full 60% of the food for the Kingdom is grown here. 
• The Barony of Maarke, ruled by house danTaere.  The current Baron is a widower named Kemmon danTaere.  The Colleges of Danaan are located in this Barony.
• The Barony of Stormtonne, ruled by House danTaven.  The current Baron is Aylen danTaven and he is married to Beyissa of Hanali.  This is the first union of man and eladrin and they are the emissaries between the two kingdoms.
• The Barony of Torringtonne, ruled by House danKavel.  The current Baroness is Syval danKavel and her husband Forret.  They have the active space program of the Kingdom of Danaan.

[If anyone would like to know something specific about the World of Eave, do let me know.  Feel free to leave comments on anything and I will answer as I can!]

The Empire of Tulath, Part I

The majority of cities that are under the control if Imperial Tulath are old dwarven holds, keeps and cities, so much of Tulath is located underground.  Much of what is theirs are connected by impressive train lines that keep the flow of trade goods and most importantly food.  Because of their mountainous terrain they are in they have little to no arable land in order to grow crops.  The ancient fields that the dwarves once used are no more, having been reclaimed by the forests and jungles of the elves.  To feed their large population they have had to beat the elves and slash and burn incredible amounts of land and then hold it from the elves.  Some years are lean, some years are feast.

The capitol of Imperial Tulath is a city named Narimath, to honor Admiral Tullson Narimath.  It was a medium-to-large dwaven city, the first city to ever found by humans.  Over the course of time they have spent on Eave they have dug out the sides of the mountain in which the city lay so it can breathe.  It is a serious feat of engineering.  The Imperial Court is there running the Empire, a huge bureaucracy that seems to be running well.  A cathedral to the Church of Man is there and it shows Admiral Tullson Narimath as a saint in the stained glass.

The Empress is a young girl of thirteen, but to say she is a figure head is a lie.  Corrine Norimath hautTulath is Spartan Blooded.  Even though Tullson II was not Spartan Blooded, it is common for the Emperors and Empress to take Spartan Blooded for their significant other.  She already stands close to two meters tall with blonde hair she keeps short due to the rigors of combat.  She is consoled by the Duke Koromikos and trained by the First Spartan Elite Guard and schooled by the Church of Man.  She has already seen an assassination attempt and she ended up having to slay the two elves form Galadon that tried to kill her when she visited the UTN Tulath.

The UTN Tulath is the spiritual center of Tulath.  It is a hard won battle to take it and keep it and keep it they have.  They have cleared a massive perimeter around the ship and it is the heart of their military.  Tulath City has sprung up around the massive ship and the train line that goes to it is heavily patrolled by Spartan troops on the ground and fliers from the Air Corps protect in from the air.  It is from there they control the various bits of the forests.

The largest city Tulath is Altair.  Named for the star system Altair, it the central home to the Duchy of Coviso.  The Church of Man controls the largest foundries on the planet and they are found here.  Unfortunately the Tech Priests and the current Duchess of Coviso do not see eye-to-eye.  Duchess Dheyla Coviso controls most of the propaganda for the Empire, a job at which they excelled.  She also secretly leads the spy cabal, The Section that along with The Church of Man keeps the Empire strong and unbroken.  They eliminate those that seem to be unassailable and do stuff like let the elves know of a secret ways through UTN Tulath to attempt to assassinate the Empress.  She was in no danger, but the boost to popularity among the populace went through the roof.  They do what needs to be done.

There are like six other large cities and countless towns throughout the Empire. 

Rules of Eave: Goblins

Goblins are not like the goblins of yore.  They are about five feet tall, thin and green skinned which is impossible tough.  They are mean, vicious and bloodthirsty creatures that move in the shadows, because they have a sensitivity to light.  Singly they are sneaky but get them in a group and they are a force with which to be reckoned.

They are a very spiritual people, but they bully and cajole the spirits of Eave to do their bidding.  There are corrupted spirits, such as those in the Aragoi Wastes.  The land has not healed in the nine-hundred plus years since it was the target of nuclear attack by the ancient Tulathians.  These spirits are much sought after by the goblins as they are angry and unforgiving.  It takes a goblin much skill, cunning and provocation to cage such a spirit to use.

Race: Goblins

Aspects

Blood in the Shadows, The Darkness is my Friend, The Spirits Guide Me, Warrior of the Burnt Hand

Racial Skills: Goblin

You can use the Goblin racial skill to know the flora and fauna of the underground area, use this as a survival skill and to avoid hidden dangers.  In addition, pick one of the following flavors; you may pick more at the cost of one stunt or refresh each.

• One with the Spirits: You may use your Goblin racial skill to cast spells relating to pain or sneaking, even if you have no other magical ability.
• Fearsome Mask: You may use the Goblin racial skill in place of Provoke.
• Thick Skin: You may use Goblin instead of Physique to determine your physical stress and consequences, and you get one additional minor physical consequence.
• Sneaky Sneaky: Use the Goblin skill in place of Stealth.

Rules of Eave: Spartans and Eladrin

Hmm, I am using the optional races from the Fate Toolkit.  The eladrin are just the elves listed in the toolkit.  From there I have redesigned the Spartan Blooded into a racial ability.  Hope this works.  Leave comments below!

Race: Eladrin
Aspects
The Experience of Centuries, ”I Know These Woods.”, The Long Game, Magic in the Blood, Perfection in Everything.
Racial Skill: Eladrin
You may use the Eladrin skill to recognize useful flora and fauna, know your way through the woods, or notice hidden dangers. In addition, pick one of the following flavors; you may pick more at the cost of one stunt or refresh each.

• Elven High Magic: You can use Eladrin to cast spells relating to nature or growth, even if you have no other magical ability.
• Perfection in Battle: Choose Shoot or Fight. When you’re using the traditional armaments of your people, you can use Eladrin instead of the chosen skill.

Race: Spartan Blooded

Aspects

It is in the Blood, For the Empire (or the Kingdom), Killing Machine, Proud Warrior

Racial Skill: Spartan Blooded

You are one of the Spartans, having enough blood in your line to claim Spartan heritage.  You stand above others, a giant.  You may use the racial skill Spartan Blooded instead of Physique to determine your physical stress and consequences, and you get one additional minor physical consequence..  You may choose the following the cost of one stunt or refresh each.

• Frightening Presence: you may use your Spartan Blooded skill in place of Provoke.
• Paragon Immune System: You may spend a fate point to cancel the effects of a poison or a disease effect that is affecting you.

Fate, Strategicon, Saga and more

Well, I have had a couple of people express their interest in the Spartans and what I can do to make them more balanced.  I will think of something worthwhile.  I am thinking of making them a race or something… hmm, I am thinking.  I didn’t get the Toolkit until after I wrote them up.  In addition to the races, they also gave us several ways to work magic and I am thinking of a way to work the magic that permeates the world of Eave.  So many things to do.  I may be doing one in the Strategicon events of games in February.  I have read Saga and I am seriously thinking of doing a game in that setting at the very least.

Rules of Eave: Spartans and the eugenically engineered humans of Tulath

Generally, Spartans are huge people.  The tallest one ever recorded was 239cm (about seven-eight).  He was an anomaly and most of the Spartans are about 214cm (around seven feet).  They reach maturity around the age of fourteen and are usually sent to a Tulathian academy specifically to train Tulathian Spartans.  Tulathian Spartans are trained in all manner of combat from knife to energy weapons and a quarter are killed in the training.  The Third Spartan Elite Guard number only twenty and are equipped with all manner of artifact weapons and armor.  They are the terrors of any battlefield and when they are called to a battlefield, it always ends very badly for the opposing force.  Even the eladrin are very wary of Spartans on the battlefield.

In order to maintain their numbers, the Tulathians with Spartan blood have been given special orders to only mate with other Spartans.  In fact, childbirth is a serious business and Tulath is equal to or exceeds the medical knowledge of Danaan.  Female Spartans that show up on the field are rare and are those that do so can no longer bear children or they have already borne a child.  A female Spartan are still trained if they so desire, so a Spartan is still formidable regardless of gender.  Spartans usually die young due to their profession that most likely take.

They are those that do not claim Spartan blood by have some of it in their genetic makeup.  Indeed, all of the Tulathians born on Eave are the product of eugenic engineering and some who even have a Spartan way back when.  Children born in Tulath with birth defects of any kind are euthanized.  (I know it is hard to say, but those are the facts of eugenics).

Extra: Spartan Blooded

Permission: Have at least a +2 Physique to claim that you have the genetically engineered super soldiers in your genetic makeup.

Costs: Refreshes

You gain an additional -2 Mild Consequence and can spend a Fate Point to cancel the effects of any poison or disease that ravages your body as your body’s immune system in put to work to put an end to it.

Extra: Tulathian Spartan Training

Permission: Have the Spartan Blooded feature and must be Tulathian

Costs: Skills

The Spartan Training extra is a skill that encompasses all manner of weaponry and hand to hand combat.  A Tulathian Spartan may use this skill in place of any combat skill they would use, from Fight or Shoot.  They may also use it in place of any tactics role that they can make to gain some sort of tactical advantage.

[Please leave a comment if you may.  This is the first time I am making extras and I would like to have some constructive criticism.  Note that the Spartans are meant to be kings of the battlefield.]

Rules of Eave: Skills

I didn’t want to change or add a bunch of skills to the game of FATE as the system is already beautiful in its simplicity.  I did have to make some changes to the skills list and I may have to make some more to finalize the list.

Here is what I have added and made changes to:

• Lore: ancient, and Lore: science.  I had to divide these two skills up.  Ancient Lore is having to deal with the knowledge of Eave and all its inhabitants.  Ancient Lore is the skill that all the arcane users whether they be human or eladin use to be able to cast their spells.  The Science Lore has to do with the sciences that the humans have brought forth from physics to mechanical engineering. 
• Operate is the skill that humans would have to use to operate their tanks, walkers, exo-suits and mechs.
• Pilot is the skill that has to be used to for all trains, airships and boats.
• Provoke is used as normal but in additions it is the skill the goblin shamans use to cast their spells as they have to bully the spirits of Eave to do their bidding.
• Ride has been divvied up between riding either land or air mounts.
• Shooting has been divvied up between ancient and modern weapons.  

Harro's Wall, Part I

Harro’s Wall was found in Year 185, toward the end of The Dark Times.  It was a huge fortress constructed by the dwarves when they were still a viable people.  Harro danGael was a hearty man (a remnant of the Spartan Project) and a quick look of the defenses showed that the wall defended the Northern side from the Southern side.  This frightened them.  Here was an absolutely huge and seemingly impenetrable fortress which bisected the continents that lay in the ruins of a mighty battle.  The skeletons of the dwarves, beasts and an unknown humanoid creature that looked to be slightly shorter that the dwarves but with exaggerated skulls.  They skeletons they found with the exaggerated skulls numbered over a hundred thousand.

Harro spent his remaining years refortifying the wall, just in case the creatures ever came back.  He found foundries and forges underneath the wall and when he died in Year 221, they had just a quarter of the foundries up and running.  The mountains proved to be impassable for a number of years due to impossibly heavy snowfalls.  Even with the development of airships, all that they were able to do was make preliminary scouting reports or were lost.  Vancent danAndahar, the king at the time, stated that this was the southernmost edge of the kingdom.  That suited the danGaels just fine as the refortification of the fortress took much of their time, in addition the surrounding mountains where a treasure trove of minable ores.  Soon the fortress was bristling with weapons both old and new.

In Year 239 their fears were realized as they got reports of seeing strange humanoid creatures.  Short, green skinned, with exaggerated heads that struck in the night or in the darkened tunnels of the mines.  The goblins where not dead.  For years they have struck at the men and women of Crosstaal.  Sometimes they would slaughter everyone and other times not a sign of survivors was found as if they were taken.  Not many survivors of the attacks where ever found, but the few that survived where surprised at the bloodthirsty viciousness of their attackers.  This was the start of The Goblin Wars which lasted for over a hundred years, countless raids and four massive attacks on the wall.  The wall held and the goblins would not be seen until Year 467, the year that Tulath arrived and tried their hand at taking the wall thus beginning the Age of Sorrow.