Traveller Universe Basics

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Iracundus
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Traveller Universe Basics

#1 Post by Iracundus »

This thread is for description of the universe basics IMTU (In My Traveller Universe) which is what will be true for this campaign. There may be differences between this and the canonical Traveller universe.

The following is an adapted version of the Traveller description by Marc Miller.

TECHNOLOGICAL SCIENCE PROVIDES A FOUNDATION

The technological basis for Traveller provides a common ground from which all extrapolations and story ideas can spring.

The Jump Drive: The secret of interstellar travel is the jump drive. While in normal space, travel is limited to the speed of light (and it takes years to go from one star to another), jump drive leaps around space: a jump covers one parsec (3.26 light years; the average distance between stars) in about a week. This is one hex on the flat 2-D Traveller starmaps. There are higher levels of Jump drive, titled Jump-2, Jump-3, etc... Each higher level enables jumping further in the same amount of time. So a Jump-2 drive enables jumping 2 parsecs or 2 hexes in 1 week while Jump-3 does 3 hexes and so on. The current highest maximum known Jump level is Jump-6.

Communication Limited To the Speed of Transportation:
But the universe is so vast that even the mega-speeds of jump drive can't work miracles. There is no known communicator that can send messages faster than light-speed. Communication is limited to the speed of transportation; a message to the edge of the empire needs to be carried there via a jumping ship. For an empire 300 parsecs to the border that message takes more than a year to deliver, even under the best of circumstances. News of war, conflict, invasion, disaster, or even peace takes just as long to get back to the center of government. This affects social and governmental organization.

Gravity Manipulation: The advance of technology has resulted in practical methods of gravity manipulation. Gravity manipulation expresses itself in three ways: as artificial gravity, as inertial dampers, and as thrusters.

Artificial gravity is built into the deck plates of starships, many other vehicles and structures, rendering a natural environment most like that of a planet surface.
Inertial dampers eliminate the extremes of inertia that can pull and push people and equipment as it maneuvers. Although such dampers are imperfect, they do allow a normal environment on ships as they maneuver, and they allow extreme physical maneuvers on small craft as they perform high-G maneuvers.
Thrusters are the final aspects of gravity manipulation: they move vehicles forward without the necessity of reaction mass (as required for rockets). Thrusters work like rockets, but without the requirements for large amounts of rocket fuel. This is impossible under the laws of physics as known to 21st Century Terrans.

Fusion Power: Cheap fusion power means that the inhabitants of this universe are not tied to gas stations or complex fuel systems. Hydrogen taken from water, ice, even the methane of gas giants like Jupiter is all that is required to produce abundant electricity. Once a culture rises to the minimum required tech level, its cities depend on electricity produced by efficient, pollution free fusion power. Starships draw their fuel from the worlds they visit.

SOCIAL SCIENCE ADDS CHARACTER AND FLAVOR

The social sciences add a characteristic flavor to this universe by emphasizing the effects of the social sciences on societies in the universe. Psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, and economics all impact the activities of the people and the stories of this universe.

A Cosmopolitan Universe: Traveller is a diverse, heterogeneous universe composed of many different factions, concepts, races, communities, and individuals. People (and the term is used to refer to "beings") come in many different forms, all of whom constantly interact as a matter of course. Naturally, there is conflict, antagonism, friction, and strife between various groups, but the universe itself allows any with talent to rise to the top.

A Human Dominated Universe: Through a combination of fortuitous accident and strong-willed effort, humanity has reached a position of dominance in the universe. Three distinct groups of humans (the Vilani, the Solomani, and the Zhodani) have each created empires that span thousands of stars and trillions of citizens. In addition, more than a hundred additional human societies scattered among the stars; each is, in its own way, a commentary on the strengths and the particular weaknesses of the human condition.

Duty, Honor, and Loyalty: Naturally (see: Communication Limited To The Speed Of Transportation), interstellar society values people (human or not) on whom it can depend: those who are loyal and who faithfully do their duty are the ones to whom society awards responsibility. A natural nobility arises of those leaders of society who faithfully and with innovation follow the orders of their superiors. At the same time, superiors have learned to express their orders in the most general of terms: to give greater freedom of action.

There Is No "Prime Directive": Interstellar governments have never felt it their duty to impede development, especially economic development. As a result, no government has ever promulgated the "Prime Directive_ (that undeveloped cultures and societies be allowed to develop without interference until they can enter the community of interstellar civilizations). Instead, economic forces have driven the development of those worlds rich in natural or exploitable resources, and have retarded the development of worlds without resources.

Everything Is Driven By Economics: Regardless of the pronouncements of political, moral, or cultural leaders, action in this universe takes place because it will produce some economic advantage. Economic advantage generally means rewards in a monetary sense, but it can also mean rewards in political or social power. But at the foundation of all action is economics.

Wheels Within Wheels: The quest for meaning is always fruitful in the Traveller universe. Environments shape events, ideas, concepts, and beliefs, but they are also shaped by the thinkers themselves. And as those thinkers (be they readers, players, or viewers) learn and mature, they begin to have new insights into their beliefs. For example, the uninformed consider the Zhodani (an human race with some ability in psionics) an evil empire intent on destroying the Imperium. Only with time is it possible to see these Zhodani as humans with families, goals and desires just like other humans. And only with time is it possible to see that some Zhodani are evil. In the Traveller system, Wheels within Wheels constantly shows new ideas and new facets of old ideas to the participants.

Iracundus
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Re: Traveller Universe Basics

#2 Post by Iracundus »

This is a reference document, and players are not expected to know all of this by heart. Such information is public and can be looked up though individual sources may have biases.

HISTORY OF THE KNOWN UNIVERSE (with focus on the Solomani Rim)

Now it is commonly accepted that a highly advanced ancient alien race (or races), the Ancients, for unknown reasons took a variety of species (including humans) from Terra hundreds of thousands of years ago, modified them, uplifted them, and seeded them across known space. Then again for unknown reasons the Ancients vanished, possibly in a cataclysmic war.

The Vilani Era (4700 BC to 2303 AD): Of the humans they left scattered among the stars, one group of them, the Vilani from Vland, became the first to become advanced enough to discover the Jump drive. About 5,000 BC, they began to create a star-spanning empire through their monopoly on the jump drive. Only they had the secret of faster than light travel, and they used it to monopolize trade and dominate both human and non-human cultures for dozens of light years around their home system. They declared their empire the Ziru Sirka (Grand Empire of the Stars), now known as the 1st Imperium. Then they decided their empire had reached its natural limits (just short of Terra) and deliberately turned inwards and ruthlessly suppressed technological research, advancement, and exploration in favor of social stability. Their society was engineered with a caste system and command economy to provide a safe comfortable steady-state economy for its inhabitants, with greed and ambition channeled into the pursuit of position within the Imperial hierarchy. They maintained their advantage over their subjects through their advantage of Jump-2, which allowed them to travel twice as far in the same time as anyone with just Jump-1. The Vilani can be envisioned as a mix of collectivism and corporatism, with decision by consensus. Culturally they are intensely conservative, traditional, and can be imagined as sort of Space Sumerian crossed with Space Jew, Space Chinese, and Space Japanese.

The Terran Confederation (2124 to 2317 AD): Humans on Terra first discovered the basics of gravity control in the mid 21st century, followed later by the discovery of the Jump drive. Upon the first jump to another star system in 2097, they were astonished to make contact with intelligent life. The Vilani Imperium relied upon rigid cultural stasis and a controlled command economy for stability. The Terrans, with their radical ideas of free enterprise and rapid research, were a destabilizing influence. Friction led to several wars and the Terrans re-organized themselves as the Terran Confederation, with old national identities becoming submerged. Over the course of 200 years, the Vilani and the Terrans fought a dozen interstellar wars each edging the Vilani Empire closer to collapse. Most of these wars were effectively won by the Terrans as the local Vilani governor did not want to appear weak by requesting the necessary help from higher-ups to crush Terra once and for all. After Terra was subjected to a limited nuclear missile bombardment during the 3rd Interstellar War, the Terran Confederation knew that further conflict was inevitable. Gradually the Terrans gained the advantage. Terran free traders destabilized the old command economy of the Vilani, and the Vilani were vulnerable to the diseases from Terra. The Terrans rapidly caught up to the Vilani and gained Jump-2 on their own. By the time the wider Vilani Imperium took notice it was too late. Terrans overtook the Vilani and invented Jump-3, and meson weapons which ignored the heavy armor of Vilani ships. The Vilani fleets were defeated and the 1st Imperium began to unravel quickly as the subject races began to rise up in revolt.

The Rule of Man (2317 to 2745 AD): The Terran Confederation faced the immense task of ruling the now collapsed Ziru Sirka, which was eight times its size. Unprepared by the magnitude of its own success, the Terran Confederation government voted that the entire Imperium was to be administered as occupied territory and governed from Terra. Terran Grand Admiral Hiroshi Estigarribia believed this an impossible arrangement that would cause untold suffering to everyone as he believed governing the sheer size of the Imperium required the cooperation and co-opting of the existing Vilani government structure. So he, with the support of the majority of the Terran fleet which by now comprised mostly Confederation colonials rather than people from Terra, launched a military coup and overthrew the Confederation and established himself as military dictator. His rule and that of his successors (who crowned themselves Emperors) became known later as the Rule of Man, or the 2nd Imperium. Military feudalism was reintroduced as the scale and long travel times prevented easy central rulership. During this time, the people descended from Terra became known as the Solomani (people of Sol) and they spread across space, often marrying and having children with the Vilani. One some worlds the Solomani formed a new ruling caste, while on others a new hybrid Solomani-Vilani society formed. But try as they might, the rulers of the 2nd Imperium could not prevent the collapse that was already underway. The old Vilani caste system and controlled command economy had been swept away but the Solomani failed to replace it with a new solid social foundation. After 400 years of delaying the end, the 2nd Imperium itself collapsed in 2745 A.D. and the dark age of the Long Night fell across known space for 1700 years as interstellar travel and commerce declined or ceased entirely.

The Long Night (2745 AD to 4518 AD): When interstellar trade shut down, the Rule of Man ceased as an interstellar government. Each world found itself on its own, living or dying on its own resources. Outpost worlds dependent on food or supplies shipped in from agricultural worlds simply died. Scattered starship trade kept other worlds alive, but after a few centuries, even the starships stopped running. Each world found itself alone in a sea of space, completely dependent on its own resources.

The Third Imperium (4518 AD to Present, Imperial Date 0 to Present): On the world of Sylea, which had held on to some measure of technology and knowledge, the industrialist Cleon Zhunastu claims descent from one of the last claimants to the throne of the 2nd Imperium and reforms the Sylean Federation in the 3rd Imperium. A new calendar is started with Year 0 being the year of the 3rd Imperium's founding. From a base of a dozen worlds, the Third Imperium began a systematic effort to recontact the 40,000 worlds of the old Ziru Sirka and bring them under one rule. Some accepted immediately while others resisted, but none could resist the combined military might and economic incentives that the Imperium could offer. Over the next 500 years, the Imperium reached out to absorb tens of thousands of worlds. It encounters other major powers such as the Zhodani Consulate (and fights several wars against the Consulate), and the Aslan Hierate (with whom a treaty is signed establishing a buffer zone between the two powers). Terra joins the 3rd Imperium in 538. Sylea becomes over time known simply as Capital, and its sector as the Core.

The Emperors of the Flag(606 to 622): At the end of the First Frontier War against the Zhodani Consulate, Imperial Admiral Olav hault-Plankwell returned with his fleet to Core and assassinates Empress Jacqueline I, declaring himself Emperor. This starts the era of the Emperors of the Flag, a sequence of Imperial admirals who each attempted to seize the Iridium Throne, only to be quickly replaced by another. The chaos nad suffering weakeened trust in the legitimacy of the Solomani economic and political interests that still dominated the court and military. A resurgent bloc of culturally Vilani megacorporations, nobles, and industrialists argued for a return to the corporate-dominated era of the Ziru Sirka but without the rigid caste system, and they began to offer a serious challenge to the Solomani aristocracy.

In the more culturally Solomani areas, some began to lose faith in the idea of an autocratic Imperium itself. These Solomani Constitutionalists advocated for a constitutional monarchy, with the Imperial Moot transformed from a near powerless body into a functional parliament. The Confederation Movement, the Devolutionists, went further, arguing that the Emperor and nobility should be replaced by subsector, sector, and Imperium wide assemblies. The Movement argued that the overthrow of the Terran Confederation when it tried to absorb the Vilani Imperium lay not in the failure of the idea of a confederation but incompatibilities between Solomani culture and Vilani (and other non-Solomani) cultures. This concept would sow the seeds of a more virulent form of Solomani nationalism.

These issues were temporarily shelved when the Admiral Arbellatra Khatami Alkhalikoi defeated Gustav, the most recent Emperor of the Flag, and took the position of Regent instead of claiming the throne for herself. After 7 years of demonstrating good government, and while ostensibly searching unsuccessfully for a suitable surviving heir to the throne, Arbellatra allowed the nobles to proclaim her Empress in 629. Her court initially pro-Solomani, would turn into a political battleground between Vilani and Solomani power blocs. For a time, the newly triumphant Solomani aristocracy kept the Solomani Movement quiescent, though some newer concepts of Solomani exceptionality found fertile ground among aristocrats, the military, and ordinary citizens of Solomani descent.

Solomani Alienation (666 to 871): Arbellatra's son, Zhakirov, became Emperor in 666 and then married, in 679, the Vilani woman Antiama Shiishuginsa, whose family controlled the Vilani megacorporation Zirunkariish. This marriage broke the power of Solomani aristocracy at court and ensured that future rulers would be of mixed Vilani-Solomani blood. While Zhakirov and his successor Margaret I did not openly favor the Vilani megacorporations, their economic policies promoted the interests of Imperium-wide megacorporations at the expense of subsector or smaller businesses. Although many of these megacorporations were of SOlomani origin, their interests were increasingly aligned with the entire Imperium rather than particular regions or cultures. While this cemented an alliance between the Imperium and the Vilani megacorporations, it alienated the Solomani Movement, which became increasingly anti-Imperial.

In response to the formation of the Solomani Party in 685 at the first Solomani Party Congress, Empress Margaret I created the Solomani Autonomous Region (aka the Solomani Sphere) in 701, in what was widely perceived as a capitulation to Solomani demands. However friction still developed between the Solomani and the Imperial Navy and Scout Service. The Scout Service's interdiction of new worlds to protect developing cultures or fragile ecosystems was seen as hampering the pro-expansion ideology of the Solomani Movement, and the Solomani alleged the Scout Service interdiction policy was usbject to manipulation by Imperial megacorporations. The Imperial Navy was called to defend worlds from Aslan counterattacks after Solomani colonial struck into Aslan space to aid humans outside the Imperium. Most Solomani worlds by 850 had replaced much of the Imperial government structure with Party-run institutions yet still paid taxes to the Imperial treasury to support Imperial services they no longer trusted. Attempts to secure further Imperial concessions in 860 failed. In 864, the Solomani Party Congress began to prepare for a unilateral secession. In 871, the Solomani Confederation was established with its capital on Terra.

Prelude to War (871 to 990): The non-Solomani within the Confederation were increasingly subjected to social prejudice and discriminatory policies, with the justification that they had opposed the formation of the Solomani Autonomous Region, the Party, and the Confederation. Resistance against the Confederation government led to the formation of Solomani Security (SolSec) which in time would grow to become the secret police of the Confederation, with broad powers to arrest or eliminate any threat to the Solomani Cause.

In turn, Solomani within the Imperium became subject to an anti-Solomani backlash. Some Solomani remained loyal to the Imperium. Others moved to the Confederation.

On Terran date 13 March, 5471 AD (292-950 Imperial), the anniversary date of Terra's incorporation into the Imperium, Empress Margaret II dissolved the Solomani Autonomous Region and ordered the reintegration of Terra into the Imperium. The Imperium built up for an invasion against a still militarily unprepared Confederation. Then Margaret II died of natural causes.

Her successor Styryx attempted diplomatic efforts to avert war. During this time the Confederation built up its military, and accelerated preparations upon hearing Imperial plans to grant the non-human aliens, the Vegans, their own Autonomous District within the Solomani Rim. Various other crises and Styryx's abdication delayed things until 990, when newly crowned Emperor Gavin declared war on the Solomani Confederation in response to the Confederation reasserting claims to all worlds within the Solomani Sphere (including worlds that had come back under direct Imperial government).

Solomani Rim War (990 to 1002): The Solomani made gains in the initial phase, against the numerically weaker Imperial border fleets, but stiff resistance continued on planetary surfaces of major worlds. The Solomani Army took heavier than expected losses and Solomani generals increasingly came to rely on siege warfare and massive artillery bombardments, showing little concern for high civilian casualties to regions with largely non-Solomani populations.

From 993 to 998, the momentum shifted against the Confederation as Imperial reinforcements led to panicked demands from Solomani Party representatives to defend every world. In a grinding war of attrition, the Imperium had the advantage. The Confederation was pushed back and finally in 1002, Terra itself fell.

Imperial strategists believed the fall of Terra would trigger an immediate Solomani collapse. They failed to consider that the Solomani were not the centrally Party-run dictatorship propaganda painted them to be. Much of the Confederation saw itself as a coalition of independent worlds bound by common ties of blood. Many no longer saw themselves as Imperials, and some newer worlds worlds had never been Imperial. Although 25% of the Solomani Sphere had been reclaimed by the Imperium, both sides were exhausted and an armistice was agreed to in 1002, which has held to this day. Although Terra may have been a Pyrrhic victory for the Imperium, the war as a whole had been a Solomani defeat.

Post-War Reconstruction (1002-Present): In the wake of the war, SolSec grew stronger relative to the Navy and the Solomani Party, as belief in the Solomani Cause was challenged. Dozens of systems seceded from the Confederation, and many of the political and economic reforms that promoted reconstruction came at the expense of centralized Confederation control. Member states and individual worlds gained more military power with the establishment of Home Guards (think National Guard).

In the 1080's and 1090's, more radical factions of the Party arose, advocating equal rights and full Party membership for uplifted animals and/or mixed race or non-Solomani. However they remain a minority view. Meanwhile a state of detente exists with the Imperium, despite the Imperium still refusing to recognize the Confederation. There is increasing cross border trade, and some occupied worlds have had their Imperial military rule lifted. There remains guerrilla activity and covert ops activity on both sides of the border, with varying degrees of official denial, while hawks on both sides of the border advocate or prepare for renewed hostilities at some time in the future.

The Present (1115 Imperial, 5633 A.D.) The current Emperor is 66 Imperial year old Strephon Aella Alkhalikoi. In the early 1100s, Strephon launched a series of reforms, giving Archdukes (nobles of a Domain comprising 4 sectors) additional governing powers and taxation authority. The restoration of governing and taxation powers was part of a series of reforms meant to shake the government from the grip of complacency and stagnation and to reconnect the Iridium Throne to the lives of Imperial citizens, shifting from its previous position as a distant and abstract authority. To lead the reforms, he appointed Dulinor Astrin Ilethian Archduke of the Domain of Ilelish. Both the reforms and the selection of Dulinor was accomplished over significant opposition within the Moot. Meanwhile, Imperial occupied Terra was granted home rule in 1110.

Map courtesy of https://travellermap.com/
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Iracundus
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Re: Traveller Universe Basics

#3 Post by Iracundus »

Technology Levels

Individual worlds can have different technology levels reflecting the overall technology of a world. Individual areas on a world may be effectively at a lower Tech Level, even though items of higher Tech Level may be present, sort of like having a mobile phone in an Amazonian rainforest village on Terra today.

Unlike the canonical Traveller universe's exponential model, my Traveller universe and this campaign has an S curve in technology. The pivotal breakthrough of gravitics that opens up the path to the stars is at Tech Level 9. Things level off and have hit a plateau by about Tech Level 15 or 16, awaiting the next pivotal breakthrough. The highest Tech Level in the Confederation is 14, while the highest in the Imperium is 15. The average Tech Level is closer to 11 in the Confederation and 12 in the Imperium.

For individual technology comparisons please refer to:
http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Tech_Level ... ison_Chart

Tech Level Historical Era
0 Stone Age (fire)
1 Bronze Age (3500 BC)
1 Iron Age (1200 BC)
1 Medieval Age (600 AD)
2 Age of Sail (1450 AD)
3 Industrial Revolution (1730 AD)
4 Mechanized Age (1880 AD)
5 Circa 1910 AD
6 Nuclear Age (1940 AD)
7 Circa 1970 AD
8 Digital Age (1990 AD)
9 Early Stellar (2050 AD)
10 (A) Early Stellar (2120 AD)
11 (B) Average Stellar
12 (C) Average Imperial
13 (D) Average Stellar
14 (E) High Stellar
15 (F) Imperial Maximum
16 (G) Darrian Historical Maximum

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