I hadn't realised the Stigmata legion were quite so hard. My idea was that my guy quit the church a while ago, uncomfortable with the way it was going (my thoughts were allong the lines of him not seeing the harm of technology and disliking their treatment of that allongside some other issues. He'd be orthodox in a lot of other ways though, partuicularly involving the Escatonics and so on.)

So if he quit being a priest ages ago would he have joined the Stigmata legion or someone else? (Why did he join? My theory is twofold. 1. His leaving probably upset some people, possibly some with flameguns, and this is a good place to hide out. 2. Wasn't one of the Prophet's diciples a soldier?)

Anyway, that's my thinking so far.

The Game Introduction has been updated. Please take the time period and setting into account when coming up with your concepts. Once you've made a final decision on your characters, submit descriptions (no stats) and histories (roughly one page) to me privately, and we'll begin fleshing out your characters in both backstory and stats. Feel free to use this thread to discuss what kind of group you want to be, or become eventually. For questions on the setting and other details, use the Questions and Answers thread. Let's get this thing moving, everyone. :)

Yeah, good points.  I'm thinking more and more that the relative/mentor that he met on Ungavorox was a bit of an odd-duck amongst the Li Halan.  He had eskatonic leanings, dabbled in xeno-biology, was a bit of an alien-sympathizer.  My character's parents perhaps didn't approve of him all that much, but seeing as how he gave them a place to live for quite some time, they couldn't make too much a fuss about it.  This odd Li Halan wasn't an outcast by any stretch, and was largely considered harmless, but people did mutter and shake their heads a bit behind his back perhaps.

As for the xeno-biology, I'm kind of imagining both my character, and his mentor more as pre-enlightenment naturalists than modern scientists.  They studied, true, but preferred to reason from first principles than from experiment or observation.  All their explanations eventually pointed to "the divine foresight of the pancreator" or something along those lines.  So my character certainly won't rival a guild-trained scientist in his knowledge or understanding.  In fact, such a scientist would probably find his ideas rather quaint and naive.  But he knows just enough to be dangerous, and is quite interested.  The character wouldn't really think he was doing anything counter to the church (even if certain church officials might think he was!), and certainly wouldn't put himself in the same category as "those godless guilders."

Quick question--Are the Li Halan and Hazat still at war in 4991?  No problem if they are, as I think the current situation on Stigmata will probably over-rule any inter-house fighting, but it might have an effect on how Tileira's character on mind get along, at least at the start of the game.

Oh yes, they are still at war. In 4991, the Li Halan and al-Malik are allied with the Hawkwoods (the al-Malik having just recently announced their support of the Hawkwoods - which, by the way, is what spurred the Decados to attack Criticorum), along with the Church and the League. The Hazat and Decados are allied against the Hawkwoods, which of course pits them against the Li Halan, al-Malik, Church, and League as well. This is a year before the Kurga conflict began for the Hazat, so their forces are concentrated against the Hawkwoods and their allies. However, noble officers in the Stigmata Garrison are not as entrenched in House disputes. Their concerns lie with a much graver threat.

One thing to consider for anyone playing a noble in the Stigmata Garrison - your House is probably pressuring you to leave the Legions and help in the ongoing Emperor Wars. Remaining with the Garrison likely involves defying your House's interests to a degree. Granted, some fiefdoms may recognize the honor in pledging service to the Garrison and look favorably upon such actions, but most will be hard pressed to make use of you in conflicts back home. This means that landless nobles and those who have been ostracized by their Houses are more likely to join the Stigmata Garrison during the Emperor Wars than well-placed heirs and ambitious scions. Tycho's noble is a good example of one who might aid the Imperial Legions - if he can convince them his knowledge of xeno-biology is useful enough to make him effective against the Symbiots.

On that note, Tycho, bear in mind that the Symbiot Wars have been going on for nearly a century by now and the Legions themselves are looking for soldiers rather than intelligence officers. The Imperial Eye might have a use for someone like your noble though. How long has he been on Stigmata? Does he have any experience studying Symbiot biology? If you do want to be an Imperial Eye agent, it's possible a few soldiers (player characters) might be commandeered for a special ops unit to help you on your intel mission. A personal bodyguard, a scout trooper, a Captain and a couple legionnaires, perhaps. However, this goes back to what sort of group you guys want to be, which you should start discussing at this point.

I was thinking that my character would only have recently arrived on Stigmata, and not have much experience with the symbiots yet.  I had also thought that he would mostly have ties to the church, perhaps even be part of the manifest light, though I'm not sure if that works with the new, later time frame.  I might be up for being part of the imperial eye, though I'd have to think about how to work that into the concept a bit.  I'd be more up for being recruited for a specialist group by someone else in the eye (the Hazat, perhaps?), though I'm pretty flexible at this point.

As for what kind of group we'd be, I'm again pretty flexible.  I'm sort of guessing we'll be a small team of specialists, who carry out special missions where just going in with tons to troops, guns blazing, wouldn't be the best option.  Perhaps we all decided to go just after the Commander sent the troops to criticorum, and the symbiots took advantage?  Maybe the regent (or the church, or the Eye...) put out a call for volunteers after things started getting ugly, and they were happy to take anyone they could get at that point?

This really isn't very easy when you don't know the setting well. Well, female Hazat soldier I'm working on, I'm going to go for baronet, raised in the high court, probably soldier rather than starman... (cause that'll be easier to make work, yes?)
Also a bit of Soma psi.

And her name shall be Esteban. Esteban Matilde Hazat.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:26, Sat 27 Oct 2007.

there is a really easy way to get my character in on this.... anyone need a grizzled veteran to show the new recruits the ropes. Not in charge at all being a lowely army grunt but more like an adviser.

That works well, Tileira. If your Hazat is a psychic soldier, perhaps she's a Dervish in the Manifest Light Legion? Then you and Tycho could both be part of the same Legion. Here's a brief explanation of the Dervishes:

http://wikihost.org/wikis/fadingsuns/wiki/dervishes

And here's something on the Manifest Light:

http://wikihost.org/wikis/fadi.../wiki/manifest_light

Some general tidbits about the Stigmata Garrison:

http://wikihost.org/wikis/fadi...ki/stigmata_garrison

And something on the Vorox Commandos:

http://wikihost.org/wikis/fadi...wiki/vorox_commandos

Ahhhh, see, this is why much talking with yu guys helps. Dervish it is then.

I will get the History and character concept to you later this weekend. I have typed it up but i need to review it for any Blanks and to make sure there is no odd ends.

Alright, so we have a Li Halan theurge/xeno-biologist and Hazat Dervish in the Manifest Light Legion, and a veteran scout trooper in one of the other Legions - probably 5th or 9th as those are mainly infantry based in Sylan, where as the 7th and 11th legions are mainly cavalry and air support.

After some looking into it I'm going for a stigmata garrison solider, ninth legion infantry, probably a Sargent. Ike, do you fancy doing a combined history? or have our characters vaguely know each other, or no connection/knowledge whatsoever, being types involved in very different sides of the combat? (I'm thinking soldier of the line for my character, no tracking or scouting or any such knowledge or experience.)

gav i wouldn't mind them knowing of each other but as for a combined history i would prefer not to be honest. those get a little too confusing at times.

Thats cool, I wasn't too worried myself, I just thought I'd throw the option out there.

Based on info from Legions of the Empire, it seems the 5th Legion is relatively new to Stigmata, so the 9th Legion (or what the Countess left of it anyway) is probably the most likely bet for anyone not in the Manifest Light or Scions of Zahl (Brother Battle). Dwarf, are you going for that Brother Battle monk or an Eskatonic theurge, or something else?

Since we're sure about the setting choice, now, I've been trying to think of alternative character options.  An Ukari psychic is a possibility, I was wondering what everyone thinks of such? Any suggestions other people have?

One more Alien couldnt hurt anything.

Speaking of which, Exalt, if the Li Halan joins up with the Manifest Light, I'm not sure you'd be able to tag along with him as a bodyguard anymore. For one thing, the Manifest Light is open to theurges and psychics - neither of which includes Vorox, as Vorox are not gifted with Theurgy or Psi according to the info on them. But also, the call of duty and nature of military structure prohibits non-enlisted parties from accompanying sworn-in soldiers in war-zones. In peace time you can be together but once he's on active duty, he has to return to base, which is off-limits to you.

The bodyguard idea works more if you're traveling the stars independently, but if your liege is serving in the Garrison, then the only way to stay (relatively) close to him while he's on duty would be to enlist yourself in a Legion stationed nearby and hope his unit gets assigned to supplement your company. However, here too lies a problem as, by 4991, I believe the Garrison has already restricted Vorox from enlisting, due to the havoc wreaked when Symbiot-converted Vorox turned against the Legions - per what is stated in the corebook.

One possibility I can see is if your Vorox was dropped on Stigmata back before Vorox were no longer allowed near Symbiots - perhaps some 20 years ago or so (the book, fortunately for us I suppose, doesn't specify exactly when Vorox stopped being allowed near Symbiots). If so, then maybe he was discharged to some community on Stigmata following the disbandment of Vorox shock troops (veteran Stigmata troopers tend to have difficulty reentering society after serving long in the Symbiot Wars, due to psychological scars - and because the Garrison doesn't want to take any chances, should said troops be unknowingly infected). Then, come the recent Symbiot invasion and the siege at Sylan, perhaps the Garrison - being at a fraction of their numbers with no reserve after the Commander took the bulk of their forces with her to attack Criticorum - reassigned your Vorox to active duty in simple desperation for experienced troops, Vorox or no. Then they could stick you in the Legion that needed you the most - the 9th Legion - and you could meet the Li Halan and Hazat nobles when their Manifest Light unit gets assigned to supplement your company at Sylan. How does that sound?

Hmm, that does complicate things a bit.  How long after the Countess's abandonment of the post will things start?  Long enough that a call for volunteers could have been answered?  Is it possible that when the reality of the situation became clear, someone (the regent, the eye, the church, the current leader of the garrison?) sent out a call for anyone and everyone who was willing to fight?  (Perhaps promising land for less than the normal 10 years of service?)  Maybe my character and exalt's vorox have only just arrived, and have just been thrown into whatever group needed their help, without much attention paid to the normal rules of who should go where?    Perhaps some emergency, ad hoc groups are being put together as quickly as possible at this point, and don't fit all that well into the traditional organization structure yet?  that could also be how the whole group ends up as a group, I suppose.

Anyway, I rather like the idea of Exalt's vorox being part of (or all of?) my character's entourage, and I guess I'd rather forgo being part of the manifest light than their linked histories, if possible.

Also, I've been considering the idea of my character not being there to get land, but rather just out of a desire to help the church.  So that the character would also have taken on a vow of poverty like his parents (though, like his parents, his view of poverty is significantly different from what most imagine it to be).  That's still sort of up in the air, though, so I still might keep the original idea about him going there to earn some land.  If anyone has any opinions either way, let me know.

Five months into the siege at Sylan.




Not easily. Assuming the Garrison sent out a distress call to the Regent immediately following the Symbiot invasion (which I suspect they would have), Byzantium Secundus is still three jumps away from Stigmata. Even if a fast messenger ship made it to warn the Regent in a matter of weeks, news still had to travel outward from Byzantium Secundus to the rest of the Known Worlds. The closest Li Halan world to the capitol, Kish, is two jumps away. If news traveled like clockwork, I can maybe see Garrison recruiting agents enlisting new troops within a couple months of the invasion. Then you're on your way to Stigmata, which is three jumps from Kish. Even if you joined immediately, you've got to go through a period of basic training (I can see them sending new recruits straight to battle who at least have some prior combat experience, but otherwise sending recruits without any training would probably endanger the Garrison's forces more than aid them). Then, once out of basic training, it's off into combat. It's not necessarily impossible that you could make it from landless Li Halan noble to Manifest Light Legion Officer within five months, but it's a bit of a stretch.




Well Manifest Light units do supplement various other units as needed, so that in itself is not really a problem. The problem is that, emergency or not, you can't really have an entourage following you around when you're being sent into combat. They've got to enlist themselves. So your bodyguard is no longer really a bodyguard, he's a soldier with a duty to the Garrison just like you.



I can see where you're coming from, however, no matter what capacity your noble serves in the Garrison, the fact remains that there are regulations in place against allowing Vorox anywhere near Symbiots. If he's a pre-enlisted, experienced Stigmata veteran I can maybe see the Garrison bending a few rules in light of their present emergency, but I don't think they'd let new Vorox recruits in. As for being part of your entourage, you won't really have an entourage as such once you're serving duty, so all that would be left would be your mutual pre-existing friendship - which, I suppose, you could just as easily have developed during past service together?



Sure, that could work too. Actually, have you considered him joining up with the Garrison prior to the Commander's abandonment and subsequent Symbiot invasion? Maybe he didn't join up under such extreme, perilous conditions. Maybe all this recent chaos was more than he originally bargained for when all he wanted was to serve the Church or gain some land? Joining the Garrison in the previous year, prior to the bulk of the Legions being taken away from the defense of Stigmata, would probably seem (comparatively) far more reasonable and likely to turn out some chance of eventual benefit. Now, you'll just be lucky to make it alive - and that's seeming less and less likely at the moment. Also, if you joined a bit earlier, your remaining term of service wouldn't be as long (maybe a year or less) - allowing for the possibility of leaving Stigmata and venturing elsewhere among the Known Worlds, should your group survive this Drama.

Hey guys, I'm thinking that maybe my ideas for a questing Li Halan without much military training might not make much sense in the stigmata setting, and I'm playing with the idea of an engineer xeno-biologist now.  Still not a combat type, but being much more of a specialist in the field than Li Halan would have been.  Also, he could have been part of the garrison since before the withdraw of troops.

One concern that this raises is how well he'd be able to get along with the other PCs, particularly the avestite and other priests.  I'm imagining him as being pretty well cyberwared, and fairly creepy.  I'm okay with there being a bit of intraparty friction, but don't want to rock the boat too much, or make a character that others will simply not be able to tolerate without ignoring part of their character concept.  So what do you guys think?  Is a creepy engineer character doable, or would you feel obligated to flame-gun him on sight? ;)

To confirm what I said to Alarus through the medium of Gav and a chat program, I'm going to change my character type over to the Combat Engineer he suggested as I think my previous concept isn't as suitable as I originally thought. He's probably still going to have a fairly orthodox view of a lot of things (probably including disliking Theurgy, because that's always fun) but obviously he'll be a bit liberal in other aspects (like technology).

Daz, will your combat engineer have cyberware?  My medic character (no longer a pure xeno-biologist) will have quite a bit of it.  I'm guessing my character won't be particularly popular among the troops, but another engineer would probably get along with him much better.  Especially if they've both got a good deal of cyberware.

Alright gang. We've got a Hazat dervish and Ukari Penitent of the Manifest Light, an infantry trooper, combat engineer, scout trooper, Vorox shock trooper, and a combat medic of the 9th Legion. A very nice mixed bunch. Dwarf, I'm still waiting to hear what you'll be playing. You'd mentioned a Brother Battle or an Eskatonic. What's the verdict?

As for the rest of you, it's time to write up your character-histories and submit them to me. For those already versed in Fading Suns or with access to the 2nd ed corebook, follow the life-stage breakdown for Upbringing, Apprenticeship, Early Career, and Tours of Duty when considering the different parts of your characters' backgrounds. No stats yet - just figure out what they went through and how they got to where they are now. For those new to Fading Suns, simply write up your history summaries and I'll assist each of you in determining appropriate life-stages.