Last week I introduced you all to the Coreward setting of Milieu XX16. This week, I’d like to go over the decisions I made in crafting that introduction. Without further ado:
The biggest change I made was in bringing the Society of Equals to the foreground. The Society of Equals captivated me in my early days of tinkering with this setting for my own creative endeavors. Among the Vargr, who felt so compellingly heroic and noble, they were the worst of the worst. Eugenicists and slavers with a vast and homogeneous empire, rounded out with the gory details of tooth yanking and piracy. Before I really gave much thought to what was near where, I wove the Society into the backstory of characters who hailed from the Coreward Setting. When I finally looked at the official map, I was crushed to realize they would be largely irrelevant.
Why did I want them so badly? It’s not to have a source of faceless fascists who can be mulched uncritically, much as that’s a common tactic employed in games and one I’ve used myself. It does suit some games to have an Enemy of such a type in order to streamline the agonies playing a game about combat as someone who opposes killing the innocent. No need to prelude every battle with a lengthy scene in which all other avenues are tried; waves of unrelenting background Nazis are here for your punching pleasure. But Traveller is no d20 system game with all of its rules text outlining ways to kill anything that opposes you. (Traveller is, in fact, mostly about capitalism.) Here, we are respecting every life–not respecting fascism, but respecting that fascists are people who have chosen a cruel ideology for reasons they believe are correct. So the Society are here for reasons which respect the fact that its leaders and supporters are people who have followed the allure of eugenics and slavery for real reasons.
First, because it would not be fair not to show the worst of the Vargr. This setting does not shy away from the worst of humanity–imperial ambitions, totalitarian control, violence, cruelty, and banal evil. (Nor will this setting shy away from the great good of which we are equally capable.) But it would be foolish at best to say that humans would be exceptional in that evil in a world of many sophont species. The Vargr, though they are not human and they will not always act human, are still people, capable of great good and great evil. There is no species or sub-species or sect or evolution that would lead us to salvation. Humans are not inherently evil, aliens not inherently better.
Second, because what is depicted can be deconstructed. By putting the players into direct conflict with slavery, eugenics, and empire, they can be empowered to fight them, not on the battlefield, but to engage with their systems and take them apart. Milieu XX16 is not a setting where one should be able to remain neutral–the players are living in a world of great injustice and need to take a stand. Delving deeply into what causes eugenics, slavery, and fascism, and the fact that it is neither human nature nor inevitable fact, is a major goal of this project.
And third, ironically, because one of the goals of this project is to foster a sense of wonder in the players. Horror is a kind of wonder, its sadistic offshoot which asks, “How bad could it possibly be?” Like wonder, horror draws us into a world totally unlike our lived experience. Much has been said about the power of horror for catharsis, but I think one unsung power horror has over tragedy in this department is the presence of hope. Many horror stories do not end in disaster, but with the resurgent power of the human spirit prevailing against all odds. By our heroes facing the worst desecration, that which can and has and may yet ruin them in ways we could never dream of facing in real life, and now and again succeeding, we learn to believe that we can indeed face our greatest fears. After all, they now pale in comparison to what was just survived. In some games, the Society of Equals will be the single greatest horror the players will face–the threat of being captured, defanged, and sold into slavery parsecs from home, presented correctly, could be as terrifying as death.
I’ve already discussed some of the most important considerations with my presentation of the Vargr in my explanation of my choice to move the Society towards the center of the map, so here are some important specifics. The Vargr have the scientific name Canis sapiens because they are counterparts to Homo sapiens in the genus Canis, as descendants of wolves. Kneng specifically does not translate to “Lair”, it is, as we’ll see when we explore the Vargr conlang, one of a number of pervasive mistranslations. The date of roughly 300,000 years ago was taken from official Traveller media and is subject to change. Facultative carnivory is similar to real wolves and may help explain their survival on Kneng, as real-life carnivores often rely on their prey to process compounds they cannot.
The pack structure of the Vargr is something else we’ll come back to soon, but it is one of the most interesting parts of their psychology and the thing which distinguishes them most from humans. One thing I really intend to dig into as we go more in-depth on the Vargr is the way their lives are different than humans’ due to their differing social structure, showcasing radically different ways of life in a respectful and interesting way. This is something I’ve done a lot with in my personal work on this setting, including the Vargr conlanging project, and one of the reasons I’ve stuck with Traveller through it all. One major change you’ll notice right away is that for my Vargr, “Charisma” captures only a shred of what Kfaegzhoukin represents. While it is useful to have a recognizable English word, Kfaegzhoukin is untranslatable, because it is an underpinning part of a consciousness fundamentally alien to our own. We need many words to explain what the Vargr can in one, and there will be instances where it works the other way around as well.
The dhoune are something I struggle a lot with. They’re one of the central aspects of the Vargr as presented in Traveller canon. I really love the idea of heroic pirates, but the historical record shows that pirates usually reinforced imperial structures, if anything. It wasn’t better for Indigenous communities if their priceless historical artifacts were stolen from the looting army on their way to market and sold by pirates. It wasn’t better for the chattel slaves to be taken by pirates rather than the legal slave trade. It wasn’t better for the colonized peoples whose produce and labor was sent away to foreign markets if the merchants’ ships were sunk along the way. They never stopped the imperial machine, and by and large they didn’t mean to. They just siphoned off a bit of profit along the way.
But the dhoune don’t have to be just pirates. One of the major things I’m playing with in this setting, to allow for dhoune who really fit that heroic mold, is to have the dhoune also be modeled off Indigenous resistance. Building out the idea of why it is the dhoune are wanted, I arrived at the thought that rather than a standing army, in times of distress, the dhoune are the last line of defense for their people, and fight to the last as guerilla resistance. This has made them a symbol of defiance against empire, a symbol that many strive to live up to. There’s always the lure of punching down, or punching sideways, and when their communities become the ones committing the violence, there’s always the question of what the dhoune will do to defend their ideals. Not all dhoune are heroes. Plenty of dhoune are just pirates. But centering traditions of resistance, rather than traditions of exploitation, seems like a good start to make this unique Vargr practice something worth preserving.
On to the major polities! We already discussed the Society of Equals, and some of these polities I haven’t yet decided much about, but I’ll go over what I have.
The Worlds of Leader Rukh are meant to be a way to explore a very Vargr take on empire. Driven by kfaegzhoukin, it is short and not sweet, never really meant to outlive its progenitor. Definite shades of Alexander the Great are to be expected here. A campaign here is almost certain to involve riding out the violent collapse of Rukh’s dictatorship.
The Anti-Rukh Coalition are a Vargr take on unity against empire. A fascinating campaign could be set here during the fall of the Worlds of Leader Rukh, transforming a hasty coalition into a more permanent structure based on principles of solidarity and opposition to imperialism.
The Thoengling Empire is a distant, stable, power. It is more or less what it seems–a peaceful, modern, democratic power not interested in expansion or astropolitics. A campaign here is likely to involve incursions along the large border with the Society of Equals, and possibly the Thoengling Empire being forced to respond to astropolitical situations for the first time in over a century.
The Thirz Empire is not so much a setting as a sign of the Zhodani Consulate’s influence on the Vargr polities of the area. It’s also only really two relevant worlds, since it is mostly located further coreward than the Coreward setting.
The Kedzudh Commonality is a great place to explore the complexity of the dhoune identity. This is one great place to set a campaign where the player characters are a pack of dhoune. Unlike some of the other places I’ll recommend this kind of dhoune, it’s relatively stable on an astropolitical level–all the drama here is within a single polity.
The 40th Squadron are likely doomed, but not as soon as the Worlds of Leader Rukh. Their issues are not necessarily political, as the military structure inspires a lot of unity and obedience, but financial. None of their worlds are well suited to permanent settlement, and all of their energy is focused on military endeavors, rather than supporting the populace. It is likely to rot from the inside out. If one must run a traditional trading campaign in Milieu XX16, this is a great place to do it.
I don’t know if I am fully satisfied yet with my take on the Zhodani Consulate. Canon Traveller does a great deal of work to set up a moral dilemma of whether totalitarianism is okay if it makes everyone really happy, which is kind of a “what if the world was made of pudding” type of moral dilemma. I think I was finally beginning to tap into something with the comparison to Omelas, but it isn’t exactly the same. There’s no one miserable child. All of the sacrifices to keep everyone perfectly happy are meticulously covered up and erased so that they are barely missed. There’s no way to walk away. Trying just gets your rebellion erased from your mind. In a vacuum, it’s a little too resilient. I probably do need to introduce more flaws in the system. But one of the greatest stresses on the system is the setting itself. The part of the Consulate which extends into the Coreward setting is sectors away from the heart of the Zhodani Consulate, and the search for the truth of the Ancients draws resources out of the area. The best and brightest of the Nobles and Intendants are funneled far away. The attention of the Tavrchedl’ is as diverted as it ever is. And the borders of the Consulate abut two cultures which passionately value freedom and are hungry for land, both the Vargr and the Imperium. If ever Consulate worlds were to free themselves from the system that defines them, it would be here, and soon.
Speaking of the Imperium, I decided to run with the idea of techno-feudalism which I saw used as a descriptor for the Imperium here. Like the Consulate, I’m not sure I’m quite happy with it yet–in my personal version, the military prowess of the Imperium was far more central as a theme. Regardless, a lot of the character of the Imperium changes depending on what subsector and world you’re talking about, so I think the deeper dives into subsectors will benefit this understanding a lot. The only thing I know for sure is that here, over a year from the Imperial capital, the only thing the greater Imperial government protects is its own borders and the interests of stakeholders. Member worlds are on their own.
That should be all for now! I’m not quite sure what I’ll do next week. If you have a preference between introducing the Monsters, beginning our tour of the subsectors of the Coreward setting (beginning in the middle with Uthe subsector, where the 40th Squadron is located, and spiraling outward), or digging deeper into Vargr culture with some worldbuilding on the species’ history, let me know in the comments!
Wow, these posts are fascinating. I’ve read a fair amount of Traveller material from different eras, so I think I understand a lot of what you’re working through.
One of my questions here is specifically about your take on the Zhodani. If they’re as big and powerful as they are in canon, and they’re dedicating almost all of their resources to studying the Ancients… why haven’t they succeeded and learned (almost) everything there is to know? Is there some sort of countermeasure at work, are they poorer researchers than other branches of Humaniti because of their psionic control, do they lack physical access to key facilities?
Thanks for the comment!
The primary hurdle to the Zhodani learning about the Ancients is the sheer magnitude of the devastation that the Ancients wrought upon themselves. Charted Space in Milieu XX16 is actually somewhat unusual among places the Ancients once lived because it was the first battleground and contains some Ancients sites that were vacated before the worst began. As the Ancients fled/attacked Coreward, the war developed from “only” using the most destructive weapons we can understand to using weapons we cannot begin to comprehend. The Zhodani are incredible researchers with a powerful empire, but the evidence that they have to work with, especially as they get closer to the Ancients’ homeworld, is increasingly scattered and corrupted. For example, if an entire populated planet was ejected into leap space, the only record that planet once existed would be the alterations in other planets orbits and millennia old cognitohazardous residue of a jump, and they might work on that little evidence to try to establish not just proof that a populated planet existed there, but also its role in Ancient society and the timeline of its involvement in the War. They do understand a great deal more about the Ancients than other cultures, which I’m hoping to get into more as I work more on their culture, but the scale of what they hope to discover compared to the amount of evidence that exists is so enormous that it has lasted their society millennia even to get as far as they have.