The Nagdellians
They are an advanced alien species with a short lifespan and a society built upon a rigid caste system. They come in various types: Soldier, Lieutenant, Captain, and Mage. Their origin is unknown, but they stage frequent raids on the FHS Justice to obtain it's precious Unobtainium.
Nagdellian lieutenants have in-combat regen, and can call for reinforcements when their health reaches 50%.
The Nagdelians are a hostile alien species that does not tolerate competing life forms. With a rigid caste system, short lifespan, and much lower level of individuality, the Nagdelians see themselves more as body parts of a singular empire than as individuals. Wherever they appear, they are always enemies of humanity.
Nagdelians are an advanced species, organized in clans, but completely intolerant of other intelligent life forms. Their hierarchy is a genetic caste system, so higher levels of authority are vested in breeds of Nagdelians designed to fulfill certain purposes. Ship of Heroes has already introduced the Nagdelian soldier and lieutenant, but we will be showing the Captain, the Mage, and other specialized Nagdelians in the future.
As enemies, the Nagdelians like to raid, seizing resources from the ship and killing innocents. Counter-raids by hero groups on the Nagdelian ship are also planned, to recover resources and discourage future attacks on the FHS Justice. It is also true that the Nagdelians are constantly alert for any opportunity to seize the Justice, kill all of the inhabitants, and capture a powerful heroship for themselves.
The Nagdelians make regular Unobtainium dust raids on The Arch in Apotheosis, and they are the villains in the fight demo, fighting half-alien fire blaster and signature NPC, Meltdown. “Dust” of course is the in-game currency – the most inert form of Unobtainium and a byproduct of the pure Unobtainium used to power the Justice’s engines.
A saurian race, the Nagdelians are a highly regimented society with a cast system that is grounded in genetics. They appear in soldier, lieutenant, captain and mage form, each with a specific look and set of physical characteristics. Generally speaking, the higher the rank of the Nagdelian, the larger and more physically powerful it is.
"They see themselves as the only true species. They have a much lower level of individuality, their clans and their species seem to them to be the sum total of who they are. It's a completely different worldview.. They see the universe as space they control and space they don't control yet."
Why are heroes revered, cherished, and able to go about their daily lives without the need to hide their identity? The answer is the Nagdelians. Aggressive, friendless, and considerably more individually powerful, the superheroes are all that stand between the Nagdelians and the conquest of humanity as a whole. Their world view is so fundamentally different that there can be no reasoning with them. They stage routine raids in search of Unobtainium, raids the players must overcome to protect their home.
ruthless alien invaders bent on domination of the Justice, and the Human Federation.
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The Prometheans
The Prometheans are a secret faction of Cyborg/Dark Magic Users that are unique to the FHS Justice, and whose main goal is to create a super race of cybernetically-enhanced humans to rule the FHS Justice. The Prometheans were founded by acclaimed scientist Dr. Cornish after the Justice left Earth.
Dr. Cornish was determined to find a way to bridge the gap and allow ordinary humans to match or exceed the powers of the supers aboard the Justice. At a loss for answers in conventional physics, he turned to magic, and worked for decades to find a way to artificially merge arcane energies with his cybernetics.
This new focus drew in occult revivalists and others who believed that magic was worth studying even in an era of incredible technological advancement. The idea was brilliant, and arcane cybernetics are still commonly used on the Justice today. However, no one knew back then that certain kinds of magical energies which are safe on their own have terrible side-effects on the user when mixed with non-biological systems such as cybernetic implants; Dr. Cornish was the first person known to combine the two in implants, and the first user of his own inventions.
The untested magics slowly made the doctor grow more reclusive and paranoid, until only the most devoted members of his original team saw him even occasionally. Years later several screens in public areas of the FHS Justice simultaneously broadcast an unexpected message. The video they showed was slightly grainy, and all that could be seen was a blurry, mechanical figure. It spoke in a grim monotone, calling for a populist revolution.
“I am the techno-human Prometheus, once known as the human scientist Dr. HR Cornish, and I have come to deliver both a warning and salvation. The great majority of our society lives beholden to the select minority of super-humans who wield power, under whom the average human must live in fear, and ultimately succumb to subjugation.”
“I call upon the remaining pure-stock humans of the FHS Justice to stand with us against the inevitable tyranny of the superhumans. In our technology, we are strong. Together, we can evolve beyond supers, and break free of their shackles. My followers and I – the Prometheans – have discovered a way for anyone to stand up to the supers. Like our namesake, we will steal the fire from these self-appointed Gods, and use it to destroy all who would oppose us.”
FHS Justice Ship Security was immediately dispatched to investigate the message. They arrived at Cornish’s private lab, which was found to have been looted and abandoned. Over 40 of his colleagues were missing, along with Cornish – and upon further searching, so were over a dozen citizens known to have admired his work. Ship Security spent years looking for any sign of where the missing citizens might have gone – or been taken to – but they were never found. With no further leads, the investigation was eventually closed.
Going by the incomplete notes left behind in his lab, Cornish’s work had combined unstable arcane energies with advanced cybernetic implants. Super-humans with the ability to sense magic were able to determine that nothing Dr. Cornish used was inherently evil or mentally degenerative by itself, nor were robotics or cybernetics on their own inherently evil or mentally degenerative. But Cornish’s addition of unstable magic to his devices created consistent results: slowly-growing paranoia, delusions, and eventually, aggression towards anyone who did not also use the tainted cybernetic technology.
Cornish’s blueprints were destroyed, and the remaining cybernetics in use were replaced by safer and more stable configurations, but problems remain.
Centuries later, the story of Cornish’s end and his Prometheans are considered by the average citizen to be an urban legend. Prometheans have been sighted occasionally ever since, and their appearances are rapidly becoming more common. Ship Security even intercepted a second Promethean transmission recently, preventing it from being broadcast. The message claims that the Prometheans’ spiritual leader is still their active leader, in whatever form… but those are unconfirmed rumors, and Cornish has not been seen in living memory. If he does still exist in any form, he certainly isn’t human anymore.
For most people, a disappearance aboard the ship is merely a police matter, likely the result of a kidnapping or a murder, or possibly someone caught in the open by a Nagdellian raid. But for those in the know, the question always remains: which crimes are the work of Prometheans? Rumors of secret tunnels and hidden labs, hidden by Cornish in the early days of the ship and undetectable by the security forces, run through the population. Even the uninformed know that far too few Prometheans have ever been caught to think all of them are dead – and what research was left suggests that a person doesn’t have to be willing in order to be turned into a Promethean. What if their numbers are growing?
The Prometheans want to wipe out all supers, restrict magic to a single type, forcibly convert all mages to cyborgs, and imprint the insane views and dangerous powers of Dr. Cornish onto all mages.
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The Yekus Mercenary Clan
By the 23rd century, humans had burst out of their home system and were colonizing and exploring. The galaxy was a busy place – many species, many worlds, many technologies – and the incredible and inexplicable became almost routine. One thing that surprised no one was that we had entered a galaxy with hundreds, perhaps thousands of organizations that would, under various circumstances, act as military muscle for hire; mercenaries were everywhere. It did not take even one generation before human mercenary groups joined the fray, and human and mixed human/alien mercenary groups now regularly compete for contracts.
Since Hero Ships are spread across the universe and travel at good speeds, mercenaries often find it convenient to travel aboard these ships. Although rowdy and often violent, they can be counted on to both pay for passage and defend the ship during alien attacks, so some captains allow them on board. In addition, it is not unusual for mercenaries to find work on the ship, hired by either wealthy heroes or ship security. Mercenaries aboard a Hero Ship are usually limited to certain areas of the ship, and have to report on their battles to someone from ship security, both to prevent sabotage, and to limit fighting
The Grand Council maintains a loose oversight of countless mercenary organizations, adjudicating disputes, establishing standard contract terms, and regulating feuds, some of which date back centuries. Of course, there are competing mercenary organizations, but on the FHS Justice’s trade route, most mercenaries have joined the Council, and the Justice does not accept unsanctioned mercenaries as passengers.
The most expensive mercenary groups are specialized in fields such as spaceship piracy, computer and technical hacking, heavy assault, unconventional attacks against high value targets, or the protection of elite personnel – often protecting them from other mercenaries. The least expensive mercenaries are the most numerous, and are more or less jack-of-all-trade hired guns; while even they are loyal to a fault within their clans’ structures, they are often employed as supplemental troops or expendable cut-outs in operations large enough to employ multiple units.
The Yekus Mercenary Clan is a multi-species group from the lower end of the price range. Their specialties, insofar as they have any beyond cheap manpower, are scouting and skirmishing. They are known to be active on at least eleven worlds, primarily isolated ones where their low cost and larger numbers are useful for covering large territories. However, like many of the mercenary groups in human space, they make a habit of trying to find and recruit humans with superpowers to join their clan. This means that they can be contracted to take on some tasks that would otherwise be beyond their abilities, using a limited number of supers to accomplish more difficult or complex missions for higher pay. Like most mercenary groups, the Yekus distinguish themselves with their clothing, which has a recognizable style across all roles in the clan, though it is plainer for the fighters and a bit more ostentatious for the officers. They also possess specialized gear for vacuum and zero-g work.
The Yekus Clan’s leader aboard the Justice is Matthew Ingles, more commonly known as ‘Mad Matt’ due to his recklessness and preference for personally leading his troops in fights. He is strongly suspected of having super powers, but he carries and uses such a wide variety of homemade techno-gadgets that it is hard to tell what his innate abilities might be.
Some Yekus are specially trained to identify healers so that they can target and drain them of their powers.
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The Red Sigil
While mages tend to fall into a few general categories, there are countless types of magic in the galaxy, including some odd outliers that are difficult to classify. A few theorists even claim that there are as many types of magic as there are mages, because no two mages’ spells are exactly alike. The Justice‘s meritocratic culture has meshed well with these various magical traditions over the centuries, spawning numerous organizations of mages ranging from groups of a few friends to massive institutions.
Even in the 25th century, old-fashioned witch and wizard outfits remain popular among mages.
By far the largest of these is the Attuned, a general-purpose faction that welcomes all citizens who are mages, or who wish to learn magic. As a result, the Attuned are a diverse group, with many low-level practitioners who know a few spells and have some capabilities, but are not yet individually powerful. While membership is not required, most mages join for access to the Attuned organization’s research archives, lucrative trade contacts for magical items, and extensive mentorship and jobs programs. Since magic is primarily a learned set of skills, the Attuned are notable for their extreme emphasis on hard work and constant practice to the exclusion of everything else, with a great deal of respect and authority given to those who have “earned it” through years or decades of toil. Most, though not all, mages become reclusive and antisocial over time to meet the organization’s expectations.
The Attuned have such a powerful influence on magical learning and practices aboard the ship that it is common to refer to all mages and magical items as Attuned – the theory goes that mages have to work hard to attune themselves to the magic inherent in the universe, while magical items are attuned enough that anyone can use a little magic through them… until they break from the stress of such use. Magical items are a major export of the Justice, and the demand for them is so high that the more experienced mages in the Attuned have access to immense wealth just from being able to make and sell more of them. It is entirely possible that the Attuned could pool enough money to buy their own, smaller ship, if they really wanted to – but the vast majority are happier living on the Justice instead, and the small minority who truly want to leave often do so.
Hidden within the ranks of the Attuned is a shadowy cult known as the Red Sigil. Its leaders seek to replace the leadership of both the Attuned faction and the Justice as a whole, using the justification that mages are natural rulers, and that most of the ship’s budget should be spent on training and equipping more of them. The Red Sigil’s plan is for the most powerful mages to replace superheroes as the first line of defense against all other threats, and also as the leadership cadre of the Justice. While their methods are undeniably evil, attacking innocents and treating their low-ranking members as expendable cannon fodder, Red Sigil members see themselves as good guys who are making the hard choices that heroes like Ambassador won’t.
The name Red Sigil refers to the number 2 written in blood or red ink. This symbolizes the organization’s belief that mages should never be second to anyone, and the fact that they are second in the ship’s governance structure is worth spilling blood over. Red Sigil mages are also rumored to trade extensively with criminal smugglers, illegally selling dangerous and shoddily-produced magic items to planets the ship visits without regard for the consequences.
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The Attuned (Magic users)
The Attuned are the magic users aboard the FHS Justice have a close and friendly relationship with the Mercenary Council; mercenaries are willing to do tedious and unpleasant work for money, while many mages have the egos and the money to hire mercs for tasks ranging from acquiring components, acting as bodyguards, or even being hired as a mage’s private army to attack their enemies. Both groups accept that mages will use mercenaries as expendable muscle, and that they will simply pay a higher price the more mercenaries are killed in the process. In turn, mercenary groups sometimes recruit fledgling mages who are not yet powerful enough to produce magic items, those recruits are treated well; as the ones who live are likely to become future clients, after all.
The mages of the Attuned hate the Prometheans above all others, and this antagonism is reciprocated. The Attuned fundamentally like the ship as it is. Even the Red Sigil only want to seize control of the ship’s political system and revenues; they would be happy to have super-powered subordinates if they could effect a coup. The Prometheans want to wipe out the supers, restrict magic to a single type, forcibly convert all mages to cyborgs, and imprint the insane views and dangerous powers of Dr. Cornish onto all of the Attuned. Philosophically, the Attuned are all about hard work and respect for a meritocratic elite, while the Prometheans are all about reckless innovation and a deceptive brand of populism. The Attuned and the Prometheans are a rare example of factions so hostile that they will continue fighting each other even in life-threatening situations like Nagdellian invasions; in fact, each group will try to help the invaders in killing the other, when they get a chance
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Rogue Robots
The Rogue Robots do not have a unified goal, and can come in all shapes and sizes. You don’t know exactly what you are going to get when dealing with them. Each group is unique – The majority seem to be motivated to remove all biological life forms from the ships as they see biological life as an infestation and will attack on sight. Other groups are more complacent and will continue doing their assigned jobs unless someone damages, or nearly damages, any part of the ship or other robots in their presence, in which case they will see you as hostile to the well being of the ship and attack.
