The Business: OldPub Don't Pay Shit

The leading Hispanic voice in Science Fiction, Jon del Arroz, cut a video on how badly OldPub treats all but a very elite few.

For a lot of us in the game, learning just how routine this treatment is pushed a lot of us away from OldPub and into being indie and into NewPub.

Yet this persists. Even after being shown the data as to how better the situation is for NewPub, they refuse to leave. Some are decades into their position, so Sunk Cost kicks in and disincentivizes most of them--not being business people--to abandon the publishers that long ago abandoned them. But for others, such as the SJWs, this isn't about making a living; it's about the clout.

In other words, they're in it to steal your kids, mindrape them with cult-style culture jamming, and turn them into parasites like themselves. (Y'know, like what routinely goes on at the universities; see "Before/After Feminism" memes to see it in action.) They're willing--as shown by their behavior--to endure deprivation so long as they get to fuck over their enemies (you) by replacing themselves with their enemies' offspring (your kids).

So I have no sympathy for SJWs in OldPub anymore than I have any for OldPub itself. They deserve all that they get for what they've done and are doing.

And let their wretched state be a lesson to you. Don't drink the Kool Aid, come over to NewPub (because OldPub is just going to screw you; you have to do all that work yourself anyway, so you might as well get paid for it), and leave the bloating corpse-zombie far in the distance.

Star Knight Lore: Baden-Powell, Lord Roland's Starship

Baden-Powell (Longboat-class)

General & Technical Data
Class: VGSS-CS-M20
Name: Longboat
Ships of the Line: Longboat, Baden-Powell, et. al.
Unit Type: Corvette
Manufacturer: Shipwright's Guild, Earth
Operator: Vatican Solar Guard (Baden-Powell: Sir Ramsey Hennepin, Lord Roland)
First Deployment: AD 2950
Length: 100 meters
Width: 35 meters
Height: 20 meters
Crew: 2 (capacity for another 10, albeit in cramped conditions)
Armament: Tri-gun beam cannon in dorsal universal turret, missile launchers x2 (fixed forward, recessed in ventral hull).
Compliment: Destrier-style hover cycle x2.

Technical & Historical Notes

The Longboat is an old design, but it remains in service because it served as a first-order field testbed for many technological refinements that would go into more recent designs. Originally designated for long-range reconnaissance patrols and other similar scouting duties, the Longboat's ease of maintenance and rugged design made it a venerated favorite even for Guard officers who went on to the Admiralty.

It is now most often seen in service now as a litoral cutter across the Terran system performing customs and law enforcement functions, but its capacity to operate at long range for long lengths of time make it ideal for covert operations and several are still used in this capacity. Others remain in use as scouts, performing their original duties, often in conjunction these days with backup from a nearby Arrowhead-class cruiser if required.

Common Longboats use the universal turret on the dorsal side, but mount only a single beam cannon. There is no provision for mecha storage, requiring external mountings to carry any, but the duty profile of this ship class rarely calls upon needing such a capacity. Powered armor can be kept in the modest hold, but ground craft or a small boat are more common.

Certain older models have been retired from active duty and are seconded to honorably retired Guardsman willing to use it in private service on condition of reporting their doings to the Guard periodically as well as remaining in the Reserve for emergency recall. It is this provision that allows the Guard to routinely assign such ships to their elite class.

When Sir Ramsey Hennepin of Earth became the 12th Lord Roland in AD 2995, he received a reconditioned Longboat for his personal use as part of the panapoly of his new office. This recent refit upgraded many of the systems aboard, some of which were test-type items.

The turreted weapons were a new tri-cannon design; each barrel has its own traverse on the horizontal, allowing three targets to be engaged independently. (As of AD 2990 this was a test-type item; by 3001 it was being implemented throughout the fleet.) The power of these cannons were on par to what would be expected on larger capital ships, making Baden-Powell able to punch well above its weight class. (Deemed a successful test, but too expensive to make standard on subsequent refits of active units.)

The missile launchers, while standard, featured several new munitions types over the course of Sir Ramsey's adventures. Some did meet later approval for fleet-wide deployment and others remains reserved for limited use by elite actors. The automation aboard the ship easily allowed Sir Ramsey and one other to effectively operate the vessel, and Ramsey's access to Durendal made moot the lack of on-board mecha. It performed like a fighter in its flight operations, allowing it to keep pace with units such as the Sun Imperium's Ryujin units (a high-performance transformable design by House Kawamori).

It would remain as the 12th Lord Roland's personal starship until the conclusion of the Battle of Onares in AD 3010, where it was lost in the final moments of the battle.

The Business: Simon & Schuster Sold

Big, but not unexpected, development in the OldPub World.

Observers of the Western publishing industry have noticed the massive upset that independent publishers have had on the establishment. It's been on a downward slide for years, and we all know that it was only a matter of time before another event--the one that made the Big Six become the Big Five--hit and that has come.

And the Big Five have learned nothing. This is why this sale has happened. The Bigs are going to collapse down to The Big before that last one finally falls apart and collapses. However, I feel no sympathy at all for any effect. OldPub did this to themselves, and they therefore deserve all the pain coming to them.

Star Knight Saga Lore: The Dragoon

Dragoon General and Technical Data Model Number: VSG-GV-045
Code Name: Dragoon
Unit Type: Mass Production Powered Armor.
Operator: Vatican Solar Guard, Church Military Orders.
First Deployment: 2932 A.D.
Accommodation: One pilot in torso cockpit
Dimensions: Height: 12.6 ft. (3.85m), Width: 3.9 ft. (1.2m)
Armor Materials: Classified.
Powerplant: Aramaki Type battery-powered engine.
Propulsion: 2x wheels in the feet.
Performance: 100 mph (wheeled), 60 mph (running).
Equipment & Design Features: Wheeled feet, UI feed into pilot helm.
Fixed Armaments: Beam Saber kept in hip socket, Beam Rifle stored on the back.
Optional Fixed Armaments: Grenade, Missile, Rocket Pods in shoulder mounts.
Optional Hand Armaments: Ordinance (grenade, rocket, missile) Launcher, Beam Lance.

Technical and Historical Notes

The Church needed a smaller unit to act in the roles that larger mecha would be awkward at best to handle. The current model fulfilling this role is the Dragoon, introduced as a mass-production robot-only derivative of the Cavalier, and meant for primary use as a garrison and paramilitary unit to provide security at Church facilities throughout the galaxy. While the Vatican Solar Guard's use is most prominent, the Church's military orders also make routine use of it for their facilities; Dragoons in Hospitaller colors are the second-most common sighting.

As a mass-produced model, its stylings are far less sophisticated than its transformable counterpart; if Cavalier is the knight in shining armor, Dragoon is the army of mail-clad men-at-arms under its banner. The wheels in the legs are intended to allow for speedy deployment and maintain some chase capacity while reinforcements converge on any pursuit. Most use of its standard rifle is at a low-powered state, intending to minimize damage to just the intended target; its full power state does allow it to take on larger targets and pose a viable threat in numbers, especially when some are outfitted for firepower.

The unit is well-regarded by its users, and a space-specific variant exists that swaps the wheels for magnets so it can be deployed to defend the exteriors of stations and ships; the Church looks to make the next iteration of the design such that it has both by redesigning the feet servos to incorporate them into the structure directly rather than swap out the wheel subsystems. It remains in service throughout the Matter of the Milky Way, first out of institutional inertia and then out of necessity.

Miscellaneous Information
Pilot: Various Guardsman and Brother-Knights
First Appearance: Hounds of Nimrod
Original Mechanical Designer: (TBD)

Star Knight Saga Lore: The Barsoom War College

The Barsoom War College

In the Year of Our Lord 2543, the 7th Terran Crusade succeeded in pushing the last Nephilim warlord out of the solar system. A pause in the action arose. Rather than allow the incredible energy generated and focused by the Crusade dissipate and risk falling into infighting, Pope Simon V called the crowns of the nations together to counsel.

Now recorded as The 7th Terran Counsel, this meeting resulted in two key decisions. The first is the agreement by the nations to regard Holy Terra as neutral ground, to be direct administered by the Church. The second is the command to spread across the galaxy in all direction, with the aim of carving out new domains--new kingdoms--wherein the nations of Christendom may thrive.

The first of the core institutions that comprised Galactic Christendom arose at this time, the Barsoom War College. Founded by Papal decree that same year, the Church took over a shipyard and its associated colony holding a geostationary orbit over Olympus Mon, Mars. It was meant to be an archive and clearing house for the military arts and sciences, and the shipyard was to be as much a museum as it is a college.

As such, the College's initial academic staff were retired war heroes from every nation, be they clergy or laymen. In time, the College became dominated by the Vatican Solar Guard and the Military Orders with only a minority of students or professors being from one of the many domains across the galaxy. Far more common are pilgrims visiting the College's museum, wherein students often voluteer as docents for the touring groups.

In time, as the nations founded their new kingdoms, the people of Galactic Christendom would build their own parallels to the core civil institutions of the Church using these as models and establishing institutional fellowship--and rivalry--with one another. In addition, the College continued to have guest speakers and teachers come from time to time, all of which turned the College into a well-known place for laymen and professionals alike.

Star Knight Saga Lore: The Knights Hospitaller

Welcome back to the Lore Archives. Today, we're talking about Galactic Christendom's most welcome arm of the Church's military orders: The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem Instead of their historical, real-life origins imagine them more like this instead.

Star Knight Saga Lore: Cavalier

Cavalier

General and Technical Data
Model Number: VSG-GV-044(VF)
Code Name: Cavalier
Unit Type: Limited Production Variable Form Powered Armor
Manufacturer: Harlan Motorworks w/ the Shipwright's Guild
Operator(s): Vatican Solar Guard
First Deployment: 2932 A.D.
Accommodation: One Pilot in torso cockpit
Dimensions: Height: 12.6 ft. (3.85m), Width: 3.9 ft. (1.2m)
Armor Materials: Classified
Powerplant: Aramaki Type battery-powered engine
Propulsion: 4x Grand Tour All-Terrain wheels governed by CHM Smart Power transmission (Bike Mode); 2x wheels in feet (Armor Mode), 2x thrusters on shoulders.
Performance: 124 mph (cruise), 250 mph (maximum) (Bike Mode); 100 mph (Armor Mode, Ground), 100 mph (Air)
Equipment & Design Features: Headlight (multiple frequencies possible; visible light is default, w/ options output into rider's helmet). Variable-configuration chassis to support two-wheel and four-wheel operation modes. UI link to rider's helmet or ride goggles.
Fixed Armaments: None standard
Optional Fixed Armaments: Blaster cannons on front wheels (arms in Armor Mode), rocket launchers x2 on each rear wheel (legs in Armor Mode)
Optional Hand Armaments: Beam saber in main hand (Armor Mode only) stored in hip socket

Star Knight Saga Lore: Enkidu

Endiku

General & Technical Data

Model Number: REA-02
Code Name: Enkidu
Unit Type: Ace Custom Limited Production Combat Mecha.
Manufacturer: Red Eyes Armada.
Operator: Red Eyes Armada.
Rollout: AD 3001.
First Deployment: AD 3001.
Accommodations: One pilot in torso-mounted panoramic cockpit with linear seat.
Dimensions: Overall Height: 15 meters; Width: 5 meters.
Weight: 50 metric tons (70 fully loaded).
Armor Materials: Unknown.
Powerplant: Unknown.
Propulsion: Rocket Thrusters in feet, shoulders, and back with vernier thrusters
Performance: Turn (180) 1.5 seconds; Run (land): 160 kph (100 mph); Flight (atmosphere): 800 kph (500 mph) w/ ceiling of 30 Km & no stall speed; Underwater: Max depth 200 meters. Equipment & Design Features: 360 degree cockpit view system; Sensors: 6000 meter range; advanced DNA-coded enhanced control system.
Fixed Armaments: Red-colored Beam Sword in recessed hip socket.
Optional Fixed Armaments: Missile pods on the hips, lower legs, or shoulders.
Hand Armaments: Beam Rifle, Missile Launcher, Shield.

Star Knight Saga Lore: The Destrier

Destrier

General and Technical Data

Star Knight Saga Lore: Loveheart

Loveheart (Pigeon-class) General & Technical Data
Class: HMS-SCM-07
Name: Pigeon
Ships of the Line: Pigeon (retired), Loveheart, et. al.
Unit Type: Scout/Courier
Manufacturer: CMH Manufactures, Second Salisbury
Operator: Grand Duchy of Great Britain
First Deployment: 2901 A.D.
Length: 156ft. (48m)
Width: 26 ft., (8m)
Height: 22ft., 9in. (7m)
Crew: 3 standard (pilot, co-pilot, navigator), 1 minimum.
Armament: Two fire-linked anti-mecha blaster cannons mounted in a dorsal turret.
Compliment: (Standard) A wheeled ATV for manned ground missions, a ship's boat for manned space missions, short-range drones for unmanned scout missions; (Loveheart) Gabriela's private car and a ship's boat or lifepod.

Technical & Historical Notes

The noble families comprising the aristocracy of the Grand Duchy of Great Britain remain noted for their affection for the cultural traditions of their ancestral homelands, and one of them is a tradition of seamanship, including naval architecture at all scales. A preference to retain a successful design for as long as possible is one of them, and the courier vessel originally commissioned at the beginning of the 29th Century--the Pigeon class--to be a fleet scout and courier is one such example. Its armaments reflect this mission profile, with just enough gun to protect against enemy strike craft while making a run for it, and run it can.

The ship's auxiliary craft capacity is small and ordinarily forbids carrying mecha of any size, again in conformity with its mission profile. Compensating for this is a sensor suit and communications package far more effective than its small, cigar-shaped hull would seem to permit as well as a design emphasizing stealth, speed, and efficiency; Pigeons are meant to run, not fight.

To ensure a long service life, the architects at CMH Manufactures went with an adaptable and easy-to-fix naval frame; this had a deliberate secondary objective, which was to sell refit vessels to private users, especially the noble families of the Grand Duchy. They routinely acquired such vessels as couriers and yachts, and by the dawn of the 4th Millenium in 3001 A.D. many families had small fleets of older Pigeons in their hands. One of these, refit as a yacht and rechristened "Loveheart", was the personal yacht of Countess Gabriela Robin- the Songbird of Second Salisbury and the catalyst sparking the Matter of the Milky Way.

Misfortune would become the infamous mark of that name, as the Countess would go through several Pigeons over the course of the Matter, with each successor adding a numeral to its designation. The first would be lost shortly after the beginning of the Matter, when she attempted to bring to justice the instigator of her own abduction by the pirate warlord Red Eyes. Another got sunk after she lent it to Lord Roland's squire for a courier run, who arrived at the same time as the invasion fleet at the start of the Siege of New Vienna.

Miscellaneous Information
Pilot: Countess Gabriela Robin
First Appearance: Reavers of the Void
Original Mechanical Designer: (TBD)

Star Knight Saga Lore: The Baden-Powell, Lord Roland's Starship

Baden-Powell (Longboat-class)

General & Technical Data
Class: VGSS-CS-M20
Name: Longboat
Ships of the Line: Longboat, Baden-Powell, et. al.
Unit Type: Corvette
Manufacturer: Shipwright's Guild, Earth
Operator: Vatican Solar Guard (Baden-Powell: Sir Ramsey Hennepin, Lord Roland)
First Deployment: AD 2950
Length: 100 meters
Width: 35 meters
Height: 20 meters
Crew: 2 (capacity for another 10, albeit in cramped conditions)
Armament: Tri-gun beam cannon in dorsal universal turret, missile launchers x2 (fixed forward, recessed in ventral hull).
Compliment: Destrier-style hover cycle x2.

Technical & Historical Notes

The Longboat is an old design, but it remains in service because it served as a first-order field testbed for many technological refinements that would go into more recent designs. Originally designated for long-range reconnaissance patrols and other similar scouting duties, the Longboat's ease of maintenance and rugged design made it a venerated favorite even for Guard officers who went on to the Admiralty.

It is now most often seen in service now as a litoral cutter across the Terran system performing customs and law enforcement functions, but its capacity to operate at long range for long lengths of time make it ideal for covert operations and several are still used in this capacity. Others remain in use as scouts, performing their original duties, often in conjunction these days with backup from a nearby Arrowhead-class cruiser if required.

Common Longboats use the universal turret on the dorsal side, but mount only a single beam cannon. There is no provision for mecha storage, requiring external mountings to carry any, but the duty profile of this ship class rarely calls upon needing such a capacity. Powered armor can be kept in the modest hold, but ground craft or a small boat are more common.

Certain older models have been retired from active duty and are seconded to honorably retired Guardsman willing to use it in private service on condition of reporting their doings to the Guard periodically as well as remaining in the Reserve for emergency recall. It is this provision that allows the Guard to routinely assign such ships to their elite class.

When Sir Ramsey Hennepin of Earth became the 13th Lord Roland in AD 2995, he received a reconditioned Longboat for his personal use as part of the panapoly of his new office. This recent refit upgraded many of the systems aboard, some of which were test-type items.

The turreted weapons were a new tri-cannon design; each barrel has its own traverse on the horizontal, allowing three targets to be engaged independently. (As of AD 2990 this was a test-type item; by 3001 it was being implemented throughout the fleet.) The power of these cannons were on par to what would be expected on larger capital ships, making Baden-Powell able to punch well above its weight class. (Deemed a successful test, but too expensive to make standard on subsequent refits of active units.)

The missile launchers, while standard, featured several new munitions types over the course of Sir Ramsey's adventures. Some did meet later approval for fleet-wide deployment and others remains reserved for limited use by elite actors. The automation aboard the ship easily allowed Sir Ramsey and one other to effectively operate the vessel, and Ramsey's access to Durendal made moot the lack of on-board mecha. It performed like a fighter in its flight operations, allowing it to keep pace with units such as the Sun Imperium's Ryujin units (a high-performance transformable design by House Kawamori).

It would remain as the 12th Lord Roland's personal starship until the conclusion of the Battle of Onares in AD 3010, where it was lost in the final moments of the battle.

Star Knight Saga Lore: The Arrowhead, The Solar Guard's Classy Cruiser

General & Technical Data
Class: VGSS-CS-M42
Name: Arrowhead
Ships of the Line: Arrowhead, Crockett, Magellan, Lewis, Clark, John Smith, Ponce de Leon, et. al.
Unit Type: Cruiser
Manufacturer: Shipwright's Guild, Earth.
Operator: Vatican Solar Guard
First Deployment: AD 2990
Length: 200 meters
Width: 40 meters
Height: 20 meters
Crew: 30
Armament: One primary beam cannon in top nacelle mount (fixed forward), two secondary beam cannons each in dorsal and ventral universal turrets, missile launchers x2 (recessed into hull, ventral side), personal defense cannons x20 (five per side recessed in arrowhead)
Compliment: Four Legionnaire-class mecha (aft hold)

Technical & Historical Notes

The Vatican Solar Guard began its modernization program well before the Matter of the Milky Way began, starting with its cruisers and battleships. It replaced the venerated, but aging, Ranger class of cruiser with the Arrowhead beginning in 2990, with the aim of making a proper successor that was an all-around upgrade. Being the most likely independent capital ship to operate alone beyond Holy Terra, it needed just enough capacity to be useful in whatever capacity it needed to display.

The design emphasized advances in automation to vastly reduce the amount of crew required, which in turn allowed the ship to be far smaller than the Ranger it replaced. With speed and resilience being prized by Shipwright architects, Arrowhead came out to be cruiser with surprising agility for a ship of its class. Some call it a corvette for Admiralty-tracked senior captains, and others a pocket battleship masquerading as a cruiser, but none call it ineffective- not alone, not in formation.

Its combat performance before the Matter began, it went against poorly-organized opposition such as your typical space pirates and heretical cults. Not one ship of this class had so as a scratch laid against it in such actions. It faced real opposition for the first time in action against the Red Eyes Armada as Arrowhead, Lewis, Clark, and Ponce de Leon participated with the battleship Oklahomain the reprisal campaign upon Hell's Heart in AD 3001.

Properly tested in combat, Arrowhead and its sisters proved its worth and the class would go on to be regular sights across the galaxy during the wars that would follow and define the core of the Matter of the Milky Way's many tales. It would serve well in many fleet actions and isolated encounters, with the last of the class being retired in AD 3030 where it became part of the Guard Archival Museum in orbit over Mars near the Barsoom War College.

Star Knight Saga Lore: The Ferguson-class, House Ireton's Heavy Cruiser

Ferguson

General & Technical Data
Class: Ferguson
Name: NSRA-NCSS12
Ships of the Line: Ferguson, MacCullough, MacLeod, Robert The Bruce, William Wallace, et. al.
Unit Type: Cruiser
Manufacturer: Royal Arsenal of New Scotland, New Glasgow
Operator: House Ireton, Dire March
First Deployment: 15 March, AD 2980
Length: 300 meters
Width: 70 maters
Height: 60 meters
Crew: 100
Armament:Spinal-mounted mega-beam cannon, primary cannon x4 (fixed foward in the bow), missile launchers (recessed in the hull) x2, personal defense cannon batteries x12
Compliment: Four Gallowglass-class mecha on external docking mounts.

Technical & Historical Notes

The Grand Duchy of New Scotland commissioned the Ferguson as part of a standardization of the Grand Duchy's military assets across its vassal domains. It was a peacetime design, concerned at most with pirates and other criminals and not with full-scale military operations. In its intended role of being a glorified paramilitary patrol vessel, it performed adequately, but participation in naval operations exposed the class's weaknesses as being undergunned and under-equipped.

Piracy on the edge of the domain's borders, such as the Dire March of House Ireton, revealed the key weakness of the class as being a lack of internal capacity to carry mecha and thus its ability to operate independently. To counter this Ireton ceased to do so in contested space and began assigning it as a command vessel to small groups meant to operate as rapid-response units. With its anti-mecha weakness ameliorated, the Ferguson class once more proved adequate.

After the Taking of Gabriela Robin, with many of the class lost at Dara's Folly, the Ferguson would first be demoted to garrison and second-line duties and then be replaced entirely with the Culloden class in AD 3005- a new class meant to function alongside the replacement for the Gallowglass, the Highlander. The last of the class would survive the wars to follow and is now a floating museum in orbit over New Glasgow.

Star Knight Lore: The Gallowglass, House Ireton's Front Line Mecha

Gallowglass
General & Technical Data
Model Number: NSRA-GPMS06
Code Name: Gallowglass
Unit Type: Mass Production Soldier Mecha
Manufacturer: New Scotland Royal Arsenal, New Glasgow
Operator: Grand Duchy of New Scotland
Rollout: AD 2901
First Deployment: AD 2902
Accommodations: One pilot in torso cockpit
Dimensions: Height: 15 meters; Width: 5 meters
Weight: 35 metric tons (50 loaded)
Armor Materials: Lunar Titanium alloyed w/ Carbon Fiber Composite
Powerplant: Cold Fusion
Propulsion: None standard; (Optional) Rocket Thrusters w/ maneuver verniers on backpack hardpoint
Performance: Turn (180) 3 seconds; Run (land) 160 Kph (100 Mph); (Optional) Flight Pack: 800 Kph (500 Mph) w/ 10KM ceiling; Underwater: 100 meter limit
Equipment & Design Features: Sensors: 4000 meter range; tri-screen cockpit in a reinforced compartment.
Fixed Armaments: Beam Sword x1 in a hip socket, Beam Rifle (stored in lower back); (Optional) Missile Launcher (replaces Beam Rifle), Anti-Ship Cannon (ditto), Shoulder-mounted Missile Pods (exclusive with Flight Pack).
Technical & Historical Notes

The Grand Duchy of New Scotland needed a unit it could produce in-house to field in massive numbers to garrison the planets and other stellar locations it claimed dominion over, and it had to do so quickly. This compelled a design with basic features, but also a degree of modularity, with the intention of producing mission-specific modules to expand the viable range of operations. The result, taking inspiration from an Old Earth design that never got produced before the Cataclysm, was the Gallowglass.

The design proved to be effective within its intended operational parameters; as part of a unit, the model met expectations and saw favor with its pilots. The mission modules allowed this one design to dominate the Grand Duchy's military, with many Houses filling their arsenals and garrisons with this model as the 39th Century elapsed and the frontier space within the Archduke's grasp became pacified and colonized by his vassals' subjects.

Because of this design's emphasis on ease of production and modularity, it remained in active service for generations and older units got refurbished and upgraded to newer specifications over the years. It was only as The Matter of the Milky Way began that its age finally caught up to it, when its performance against the Red Eyes Armada's Goblin and Hobgoblin during The Taking of Gabriela Robin showed that this venerable design had met the end of its life at long last. At the insistence of House Ireton's duke, the Archduke commissioned the design of its replacement.

The Royal War Museum on New Glasgow would retain a working Gallowglass unit for archival purposes, in conjunction with the Royal War College, and the design's influence would be seen in its successors for generations to come. The aesthetic trademark of a plainly-appearing manlike model, like a giant-sized toy soldier, would become well-known as a hallmark of New Scotland design.

Star Knight Lore: The Black Knight, When Good Mechs Go Bad

Cataphract (Black Knight)
General & Technical Data
Model Number: LNR-EM01A
Code Name: Cataphract
Unit Type: Limited Production Elite Combat Mecha
Manufacturer: Beretta-Ferrari Manufacturing of New Venice
Operator: Lega Nuova Roma (Black Knight, Red Eyes Armada)
Rollout: AD 2950
First Deployment: AD 2951
Accommodations: One pilot in cockpit torso
Dimensions: Height: 15 meters; Width: 5 meters
Weight: 50 metric tons (empty); 75 metric tons (loaded)
Armor Materials: Lunar-Titanium w/ Carbon-Fiber Composites.
Powerplant: Cold Fusion
Propulsion: Rocket Thrusters (feet, back) w/ maneuvering verniers in shoulders
Performance: Turn 180) 2 seconds; Run (land): 200 Kph (125 Mph); Flight (atmosphere): Mach 1 (10Km ceiling); Underwater: 200 meter limit.
Equipment & Design Features: Sensors: 6000 meters; 360 degree panoramic viewscreen w/ linear seat cockpit in ejectable ball module.
Fixed Armaments: Beam Sword x2 in forearms (eject out the palms to activate), Beam Shield x1 on off-hand arm, Beam Rifle x1 in main hand; (Optional) Missile Pods on leg and hip hardpoints, Missile Launcher (replaces Beam Rifle), Anti-Ship Cannon (replaces Beam Rifle), Shoulder-mounted missile hardpoints (for anti-ship missiles) x2

Technical & Historical Notes

The New Roman League--a confederation of Italian mini-states sharing a region of space coreward and towards Galactic North from Earth, underwent a modernization program for its militia in the middle of the last century. The lords of the league agreed upon a policy of issuing a shared model of manlike mecha to elite personnel. That model became the Cataphract, and the sight of these mecha--resembling plate-armored warriors from the Italian Renaissance of Old Earth in their aesthetics--became famous around the galaxy.

In the years since its introduction, the Cataphract became the model around which elite rapid-response and shock troop units built their ranks as those originally using them in household guard units transitioned to the Praetorian model from Mazarati-Benelli of Second Salermo. The Cataphract refined its design over the years, becoming well-known throughout Galactic Christendom and inspiring many other realms to build their own Limited Production models for use by elite units.

Because these units were meant for elite pilots, designers made the cockpit module in its entirety able to eject from a critically damaged mecha; those later retrieved could easily slot into another of the same model, during which time their personalized settings would export into the unit's firmware. This cut the downtime before a pilot could return to action greatly, and thus it became common practice for repair crews to swap a module to a fresh unit before commencing repairs on a damaged one. This modularity also allowed a pilot to quickly adjust loadouts. This greatly extended the lifespan of the model, with most Lega Roma elite units still fielding Cataphracts into the dawn of the 4th Millenium.

It is also because of this practice that one unit became the personal unit of the Red Eyes Armada pirate captain known as "Dashing Jack". During a daring heist in 2997, Jack and his crew followed up their daring theft in 2996 of the battleship that would become infamous as Redalen's Revenge with a raid upon New Palermo. They slipped past security on a stolen transport, took that ship all the way to a Lega Roma arsenal where damaged mecha get refurbished, and stole a total of 30 units- one being the Cataphract that would become Black Knight.

Now in the service of the Red Eyes Armada, it would sully the honor of the class by participating in a long series of pirate actions culminating in The Taking of Gabreila Robin in AD 3001- the inciting incident in The Matter of the Milky Way. That would be the beginning of the end for Black Knight, however, as volunteers from Lega Roma units would answer the call to come against Hell's Heart to rescue Countess Gabriela. Alongside Lord Roland of the Solar Guard, and other Solar Guard units, Black Knight would come to its end and the honor of the Cataphract would be washed clean.

On The Importance Of Studying Historical Wars

The wars of the past have had impact reverberating down the ages to the present. Patterns of behavior we see today went along then, and that is one of the reasons everyone ought to be familiar with the great men and events of days long past. You can get off to a good start with a well-annotated edition of Classical history, and this edition of Herodotus' Histories (and the two companions suggested to go with it) are good places to start- including if you are a father teaching your children at home.

Especially if you are a father educating your children at home.

Connecting these ancient events to more recent echoes is a thing for another post; suffice here to say that the Athenian expansion into Syracuse and the Persian incursions into Greece are good places to start. (On a related note, do take the time to ensure that your child doesn't mistake Frank Millar/Zack Snyder's 300 for the real events.) As these are meant to hold up over time, and given that the events covered are long gone, if you do your part to take care of these books then you'll be teaching your great-grandchildren with them 50-75 years later.

The entire period that began with Persia's two big invasions of Greece and ended with Alexander's sacking of Persia describes a sequence of events whereby one imperial power, in its hubris, underestimated the resilience of the nation it targetted for conquest. That pair of failed invasions would then lead to the two leading cities each succumbing to the same curse in turn, before a heretofore ignored backwater rose to power, conquered and unified Greece before enacting revenge upon Persia and destroying that empire before itself overextending and collapsing.

That's a pattern that's played out more than once since. (Specific examples I leave to readers to discuss.) These are patterns manifest by means of war, war conducted up close and person by men stabbng and slicing each other to death while avoiding getting smashed by boulders or trampled by beasts. Only recently did we extend that hellscape to include firearms, cannons, and air-dropped bombs. Those men that survived would come home and pass on what they learned--and earned--to their sons, making them ready for when war came yet again.

It is one thing to honor our own veterans. It is another to forget what put them in the field, and by connecting the chains from past to present we can detect the patterns behind them (as well as the men that use them to their benefit and the detriment of common men) so we may forecast the future with reasonable accuracy- and decide what to do accordingly. That this is not done in our schools, save for those in the elite--and to the end, as we learn, of exploiting we common men--is unacceptable; we cannot rely on enemies within to do good for us, so we must--as we did before--do for ourselves.

Star Knight Lore: Anakim

Anakim
General & Technical Data
Model Number: REA-X02
Code Name: Anakim
Unit Type: Prototype Manlike Combat Mecha
Manufacturer: Red Eyes Armada
Operator: Red Eyes Armada
Rollout: AD 3001
First Deployment: AD 3001
Accommodations: One pilot in torso-mounted cockpit
Dimensions: Overall Height: 15 meters; Width: 5 meters
Weight: 50 metric tons (70 fully loaded)
Armor Materials: Unknown
Powerplant: Unknown
Propulsion: Rocket Thursters in feet, shoulders, and back
Performance: Turn (180) 1.5 seconds; Run (land): 160 kph (100 mph); Flight (atmosphere): 800 kph (500 mph) w/ ceiling of 30Km & no stall speed; Underwater: Max depth 200 meters
Equipment & Design Features: 360 degree cockpit view system; Sensors: 6000 meter range; advanced DNA-coded enhanced control system.
Fixed Armaments: Red-colored Beam Sword in recessed hip socket; (Optional) missile pods on the hips, lower legs, or shoulders.

Technical & Historical Notes

When Red Eyes began designing his own mecha for the pirate armada bearing his name, he knew that he would have to have something both potent and prestigious to offer to his best pilots in order to cement their allegiance to him in the long term. That meant the implementation of his own models of mecha designed from the start for use by his ace pilots and chief lieutenants, starting with his own sister--Zuzu the Painbringer--and his best captain: Dashing Jack, captain of the battleship Redalen's Revenge.

What would become the testbed prototype Anakim began as a collection of desirable elements from similar mecha designs from across the galaxy as well as in the legends of Old Earth. He compared those elements to what he could afford to manufacture, and thus began a series of frustrating failures lasting from 2996 to 3000. Several daring test pilots died in testing the previous versions of Anakim, and it seemed that Red Eyes would have to conduct some serious industrial espionage to find solutions to his production problems.

It was the arrival of his prize from Garmil's Gate that allowed him to finish Anakim. The Warforger, the angel Azazel, saw fit to reward Red Eyes by fixing his problems. This effort proved trivial for the angel, as Azazel had access to abilities that the pirate warlord did not, which the angel used to shake the cobwebs from a mind asleep for many generations of men and establish his worth to Red Eyes- and especially to the pirate's patron and master.

Anakim's performance capabilities put it on par with the top-end designs it is intended to compare favorably to and contrast against just as well. The core of this is a control system meant to attune the assigned pilot to the machine via a DNA bonded sequence, a new biomechanical element added by Azazel to its control mechanism. This control scheme, assisted by a 360 degree viewscreen in the cockpit, gives the pilot reaction times as if he truly wore the unit as an armored suit.

While Anakim had only one weapon built into its frame, it featured quick-detach points on its hips and back for hand-held weapons and ordinance; Zuzu would take a beam lance, a long-range rifle, and some mech-sized grenades on a sortie usually but provisions for mech-sized rocket launchers, battle rifles, and a beam shield existed in the specifications. This allowed the suit to easily take up battlefield pickups to augment or replace deployed arms. As for protection, its armor materials were unknown at the time of its debut at The Taking of Gabriela Robin and so were the details of its powerplant. Observation only noted unusual degrees of aesthetic design in its frame; it resembled a giant-sized warrior of antiquity, albeit as a robot.

While Anakim would be a short-lived prototype unit, the data gained during its operational lifespan permitted the finalization of Red Eyes' intended elite pilot model--the Enkidu-class--which would roll out in the aftermath of the Taking of Gabriela Robin and thus ensure Anakim's place in the annals of the Matter of the Milky Way forever after.

Star Knight Lore: Hell's Heart, Red Eyes' Fortress

Hell's Heart
General & Technical Data
Name: Hell's Heart
Unit Type: Space Fortress
Manufacturer: Red Eyes Armada
Operator: Red Eyes Armada
Operational Date: 6 June, AD 2995.
Dimensions: Height: 12 kilometers (7.5 miles); Length: 8 kilometers (5 miles); Width: 4 kilometers (2.5 miles)
Crew: 20000, w/ 3000 pilots, plus additional personnel from visiting starship crew/pilots.
Armament: Anti-ship missile launchers x20, anti-ship blaster cannons x20, anti-mecha personal defense cannons x200.
Compliment: 3000 Goblin-class GERWALK mecha (garrison), plus any vessels in dock.

Technical & Historical Notes

Long before the pirate Red Eyes became a warlord seeking to conquer Galactic Christendom, he decided to become more than just a savage alien pirate raiding for profit and prestige. To become a real power-player, one needed a base to operate from, and either you took one over or you built it yourself. In the first major exhibition of Red Eyes' future ambitions, the pirate convinced his crew to stake out a place of their own.

They found, out on the fringes of the galaxy, a massive planetoid. Having already build into smaller asteroids to create supply depots, caches, secret bases, and so on they took to the task of turning this huge floating rock into a space fortress. It was not done swiftly; knowing how his people think, Red Eyes wisely built out the fortress in stages. He rotated personnel on the regular, using the construction projects as the means for too-hot crews to lie low and wait out pursuits away from curious eyes.

Once complete, Red Eyes' celebrated the occasion by proclaiming the whole of the galaxy as fair game for their raiding, quoting a work of Old Earth: "From Hell's Heart, I stab at thee!" Ships stolen elsewhere soon came here to be stripped down and refit as raiders, and mecha stolen from elsewhere likely came here in increasing numbers for the same refit process. It was a short step from possessing the power to refit another's construction to doing your own.

That jumped into overdrive when a mysterious figure arrived just before Christmas of 3000. Shortly after his arrival, Hell's Heart underwent a stem-to-stern overhall and the original designs started rolling off factory lines running at all hours. The debut of the Goblin, and then the Gomorrah, worried many in Christendom- but it would be the debut deployment of a new and powerful machine that would horrify the surivors of The Taking of Gabriela Robin.

Hell's Heart would eventually be discovered, beseiged, sacked, and destroyed by the Solar Guard and several naval task forces volunteered for the mission, but its influence would be felt for many years thereafter as this mode of speed-constructing a space fortress would be rolled out on a galactic scope and scale in the wars that followed.

Star Knight Lore: The Gomorrah-Class Carrier

Great Gomorrah

General & Technical Data
Class: Gomorrah
Name: RPASS-C01
Ships of the Line: Great Gomorrah, Lilith, Delilah, Endora
Unit Type: Carrier
Manufacturer: Red Eyes Pirate Armada
Operator: Red Eyes Pirate Armada
First Deployment: 5 January, AD 3001
Length: 450 meters
Width: 250 meters
Crew: 100 (skeleton); 300 (standard) plus 60 pilots.
Armament: Corner-Mounted Point-Defense Weapon System (anti-mecha/anti-asteroid/anti-missile) x8, Multi-Purpose Missile Launcher x4.
Compliment: 60 Goblin-class GERWALK mecha (standard)

Technical & Historical Notes

When Red Eyes commissioned the design of the Goblin, he also decreed that a carrier vessel be produced to carry them forth. The same industrial constraints applied, so the resulting design is as basic as a carrier could be while remaining capable of fulfilling its intended purpose. The result was the Gomorrah class, the first purpose-built original design warship by a hostile alien power since the conquest of the Milky Way by Galactic Christendom.

The intention was to reduce Red Eyes' reliance upon stolen carriers, or transports converted into carriers, by taking the common elements of the models they've previously hijacked and stolen and building their own version of it. The result is a star-faring box with engines on one end incapable of atmospheric entry, a hangar bay in the middle, crew quarters squished as close to duty stations as possible, and fixed armaments reduced to the minimum for self-defense.

The Gommorah is a class meant to stand off beyond the range of most ships' guns, using its mecha as its offense primarily and its missile launchers as a supplement to that primary capacity. The point-defense cannons on the corners are its primary defensive arms; the ball turret design decision cuts cost by offering maximum coverage possible.

Its bridge doubles as a fighter command center, making this class ideal for managing a fleet and therefore selected as a flagship. This was the case for the fleet deployed upon New Edinburgh at its debut; Vice Admiral Zuzu, the Painbringer, chose the Great Gomorrah for that reason as her flagship.

This class would turn out to be a fragile one. Speed of construction came at the cost of protection and safety systems, which became apparent when Ireton and allied forces retaliated against the Red Eyes Armada after the raid on New Edinburgh, the taking of Countess Gabriela Robin, and the start of the Matter of the Milky Way. Several ships of the line got sunk, making it clear to Red Eyes that the doctrine regarding their use had to move back to their strengths as raiders, which would be the case thereafter.

In time this class would be superseded and replaced, but for the brief time it roamed the galaxy it proved potent, and later it would find a second life reconfigured into a logistical support role as a fleet tender or a hospital vessel. The last of the class would meet its end at the Battle of Onares, when Duke Far's famous "Ghost Fist Gambit" let him take Baron Sheelak prisoner and turn the Baron's flagship against Duke Onares' planetary shield.

Star Knight Lore: The Goblin

Goblin
General & Technical Data
Model Number: REA-01
Code Name: Goblin
Unit Type: Combat GERWALK Unit
Manufacturer: Red Eyes Armada
Operator: Red Eyes Armada
Rollout: AD 3000
First Deployment: AD 3000
Accommodation: Pilot only in torso cockpit.
Dimensions: Overall Height 10 meters w/ legs extended; Width: 3 meters
Weight: 20 metric tons (30 tons loaded)
Armor Materials: Composite of scavenged materials.
Powerplant: Cold fusion
Propulsion: Rocket Thrusters w/ verniers (legs and torso)
Performance: Turn (180), 2.2 seconds; Run (land): 200 Kph (125 Mph); Flight (atmosphere): 800 Kph (500 Mph) w/ 8Km (5 mile) ceiling
Equipment & Design Features: Sensors, range 4000 meters; extendable manipulator arms for cargo/asteroid; tri-screen cockpit.
Fixed Armaments: Torso-mounted paired blaster cannons. (Optional) Missile pods on side hardpoints on the torso.
Technical & Historical Notes

The Goblin class of GERWALK-style combat units represents the first original mecha manufactured by the space pirate Red Eyes. It marked the point where he acted on his pretentious ambitions of conquering the Milky Way galaxy, as heretofore the pirates used only mecha stolen from other parties and adapted for their use in piracy.

Observers in the domains afflicted by them report that they took the deployment of the Goblin as a sign that things had turned for the worse. This is not because the Goblin is a potent unit--it is a simple, cheap, and easy design to produce--but rather that demonstrating the power to design and produce their own mecha turned a desperate pirate band into a hostile power to contend with.

The Goblin fits into the most basic class of mecha: a pair of legs mated to a box with a cockpit, engine, and some additional thrusters. As a GERWALK-style design, it is easily able to handle unsteady terrain, but it lacks the ability to fold back the legs and thus has no Flight Mode. It cannot withstand atmospheric re-entry, but it has flown inside an atmosphere- though not at great speed. Hardpoints on the box's sides, where one would expect arm servos to attach, are usually used to mount external missile pods for additional firepower. The manipulator arms are kept retracted until the time to grab booty from a target arrives. The set of sensor eyes light up red, as one would expect of any Red Eyes Armada mecha.

While most Goblins are deployed in squadron-level strength or less from attacking pirate raiders, full wings of them were seen during their first year of deployment when a House Far flotilla engaged a Red Eyes operational base built from a handful of asteroids linked together with stolen colony construction gear. One was the resident garrison force, and two more came from a pair of half-refit stolen carrier vessels moored there. Despite horrific losses, the numbers compelled the Far flotilla to withdraw. When the Far warships returned, the pirates had since abandoned the base and fled the area.

By the end of the year, a captured Goblin arrived at House Kawamori's factory fortress at New Osaka. The forensic team quickly deduced the genius of the design, as they found the controls and user interface to be intended for pilots who could not read and had no formal education- the sorts that made up the masses of pirate crews across the galaxy. Duke Kawamori presented the team's findings just before Christmas at the Court of Stars on Earth, implicitly endorsing the argument that the Red Eyes pirates were a truly significant threat to galactic order.

The presence of an original pirate mecha design is distressing enough. That is is manufactured in great numbers makes this even worse of a development, as it means both that Red Eyes acquired industry capacity somewhere as well as a recruitment capacity to put flesh and blood at the controls- men loyal to the notorious pirate. Various experts on the matter speculate that it is now only a matter of time before more advanced designs appear.

In January of 3001, that time arrived. A higher-quality variant, dubbed Hobgoblin, debuted at the Taking of Gabriela Robin, the massive pirate raid upon House Ireton's seat of New Edinburgh in the Dire March- the incident that chroniclers now agree is the inciting incident marking the beginning of the Matter of the Milky Way.

Signal Boost: "Dreamers & Misfits", By Alexander Hellene

Friend of the Study Alexander Hellene released his first non-fiction work yesterday: Dreamers & Misfits: The Definitive Book About Rush Fans.

It's available now at Amazon.

I'll quote the man's own description here. He does a fantastic job of it.

There Is Nothing Average About the Average Rush Fan!

Rush, the legendary Canadian progressive rock trio, has a legion of devoted fans. But what is it about the band that inspires such a loyal and dedicated fan base? And what is it about these fans that has created this powerful bond between artist and audience?

The story of these fans has never been told . . . until now.

Being that this is a non-fiction book, you can expect--and Alexander provides--answers to those questions in the formers of collected documentation, interviews from a couple of key people in the band's story, and testimonials from fans on what Rush means to them and has done for them.

It's going on the To Read pile. I'm by no means a big fan, but neither did I hate Rush. They were a great band with a run many envy, and we'll see their influence persist well beyond their lifetimes.

Again, you can find it here. Pick up a copy. Support independent authors.

Star Knight Lore: The Court of Stars

The Church, wanting to promote Christian brotherhood as a matter of principle and find as many practical means to reduce full-scale war within Christendom as possible, decided upon the reinvention of a deliberative body wherein grievances could be heard and resolved in as peaceful as manner as could be had. This was intended to turn as many problems into ones wherein disputes were made into practical problems to solve and not causes to be celebrated. The Court of Stars was that body.

Established by treaty prior to the first great expansion outside the Terran solar system, the Court of Stars has worked more or less as intended for centuries as of the dawn of the 4th millennium. The great houses of Man's nations all established and maintained ambassadors in family estates, and through agreements struck here since its founding most of the trade is agreed to at this location before being conducted by merchants great and small. Other functions, such as marriage brokering, is also done in or around here.

The Court's physical location is on Earth in the city of Rome, having established itself in the ancient Roman Senate building after its full and complete restoration by the Church during the Great Terran Crusade. The Senate floor is wired for holographic video and full audio, allowing diplomats to attended remotely if the Speaker allows it.

Most Court sessions are open to varying degrees, as befits an institution whose function is to be a forum for the airing and resolving of disputes and grievances, and they focus on disputes between the great nations in the name of the Grand Dukes that lead them. (The assumption is that intra-national disputes will be handled by internal processes.)

The Speaker is meant to be mostly ceremonial role. Its primary function is to maintain an orderly operation of the Court's proceedings, but because the Speaker decides who speaks and for how long as well as what is discussed and when that necessary functional capacity is open to abuse by a corrupt actor. The position is decided by election, with votes cast by the present diplomats in closed session. The Church observes this body, but ordinarily does not interfere with it.

Due to its deliberative nature, it has no actual power. It merely has influence, but influence is often sufficient to achieve the aim of a more peaceful Christendom. This usually takes the form of abating tensions and limited hostilities to the actors concerned, so what would have been a war gets resolved instead in a duel. As such, the Court has contributed to keeping the potential for horrific death and destruction via total warfare confined to declared crusades against Christendom's enemies, man and monster alike.

The structural weakness that is the Speaker's position would become apparent during the Matter of the Milky Way, and with its exploitation came much worse to follow.

Star Knight Lore: Terra, Center of Galactic Christendom

Terra, the homeworld of Mankind, and still the seat of the Church in the 4th Millenium embodied still in Vatican City, and as such is one of the most developed systems in the whole of Galactic Christendom. It's time to start talking about what that means.

Space settlement and development centers around the system of Lagrange Points within a given solar system. This follows the model developed when Mankind returned to space after the Cataclysm. After exhausting all of the stable points in near orbit, Man went on to seize the Moon. From there came the settlement of the system of Lagrange Points, which is where the explosion of space colony construction began.

The Earth-Moon set of points, being closest, got discovered and exploited first. As Mankind spread throughout the solar system, other points were found and identified. Each and every Lagrange Point in the Terran System is saturated with space colonies. As each one easily holds a million or more residents (if not tens of millions), and each point can hold massive clusters of colonies of that size, it is not at all hard to see how the population of a given system can have billions of residents just in the space habitations in these points alone. If you add asteroid homesteads, great and small alike, and imagining such a population in the billions is easy to do.

As I imply above, there are multiple sets within a solar system and mapping them out is part-and-parcel to interstellar exploration and colonization. This is how a nation's expansion into space can result in a nation's population exploding into the billions and still live in a manner than folks like Wrath of Gnon (and those he cites) would find charming.

Which leads to how this plays out in Galactic Christendom.

The entire solar system is the sovereign territory of the Church, as agreed to by treaty centuries ago. The nations have estates within it, including on Earth itself, but they are subject to the temporal authority of the Church as soon as they arrive in Terran space. Enforcing this authority is the fundamental mission of the Vatican Solar Guard, so this is where the Guard is headquarters--the Admiralty is on Palatine Hill in Rome--as well as the rest of its institutional infrastructure rests. The other armed elements of the Church are more specialized, and as such often cooperate with the Guard to reduce friction and avoid disorder.

Most of the diplomats are in House-held town homes in Rome, as the Court of Stars is there just outside the Vatican in a fully-restore Roman Senate building. They keep second homes often in other cities on Earth. (e.g. Count Qis's family has a home at Oslo, Norway as they are a Norwegian noble house.) Many also have other Terran holdings elsewhere in the system, be it Earth orbit or elsewhere. The large intersteller guilds also have officials posted in Rome, and otherwise copy the nobles, and therefore the city once more is a hotbed of politicking and intrigue petty and grand alike.

The cities of Earth use the traditional vernacular architecture of that nation, with things like power generation kept to a point that best balances security (political and geological) with accessibility, and are deliberately (re-)created to be walkable from end to end with minimal disruption by any motorized transport. This ethos is replicated in all of the space colonies and other planets in the system, and through the influence of the Church dominates the rest of Galactic Christendom.

As for planetside populations, those are found only on Earth, Venus, and Mars. The latter two had their gravity normalized to Earth-standard during the expansion from the Moon to the rest of the system when colonization of those planets occurred in the wake of their liberation from the Nephilim by means only the Church possesses to this day.

Mars and Venus are terraformed to varying degrees as the original industrial and military concerns behind their colonization passed and it became apparent that long-term peace and security entailed permanent settlement of the planet and its subsequent justification of the world to Christ. This also is why Mercury has its orbital population, despite the planet itself being inherently hostile to Man, as well as why the other planets remain surrounded by orbital colonies; some call it a pacification, and they are not wrong.

Star Knight Lore: Tengu Team

Welcome back to the Lore Archives. Today we're visiting a group that isn't going to show up for a while, so here's one to look forward to seeing in action down the road.

Star Knight Lore: The Sons of Ken

Earth in Galactic Christendom is directly held by the Church, headquartered out of the Holy See (i.e. the Vatican). Most of the nations of Galactic Christendom maintain households planetside for the specific purpose of maintaining diplomatic ties with galactic neighbors. However, there is one nation that calls Earth its homeworld: the Sons of Ken.

Most people have never seen a Son by the dawn of the 4th Millenium, and when they do it's usually in the company of an Inquisitor or a Brother-Knight of Saint George. They are a nation whose unique calling concerns the supernatural, specifically the killing of it, and their continued existence is a reminder of the previous centuries of high weirdness as giants and other monsters once strode across the land and Mankind was on its heels prior to re-establishment of the Church by Pope Simon I, The Miner's Son.

The Sons tell the tale that their father was once an ordinary man, born and raised in the final years before the Cataclysm, who could not--and would not--conform to the sick spirit of that age. Ken wandered the land, stalking the monsters that preyed upon Mankind as they preyed upon Man, often getting little but appreciation and assistance escaping from the corrupt officials hunting him.

But Ken's true calling came after the Cataclysm. It is said that he was the only man burned by the flames that was not consumed by them, but instead transformed- first by the flames, then by the deadly-cold frost of the depths of Winter. He assumed the mien now famous among his kin: skin white like a winter wonderland, eyes burning like a thousand suns, nails become talons, teeth become jaws. Soon thereafter, having found himself surrounded by the undead hordes of The Necromancer, he took the last tool of terror from that first Dark Lord by consuming the consumers of human flesh.

He was not acclaimed. He was not beloved. He was feared at first, and in time respected, but no honor came to Ken until his own time had come. An aged Simon came to him, long after the Necromancer's fall, and took Ken's final confession before the father of monster hunters died in the manner rare to his own: peacefully, in his sleep, in his own bed, of old age. Ken was 120, and 80 of them were after the Cataclysm.

By then he had sons and grandsons, and the truth of his blood bore out: his sons were like unto him, while his daughters merely carried his traits dormantly and were otherwise as ordinary women. Despite the fates many would meet over the centuries since, the Sons fought in every Crusade and would set foot across the galaxy in pursuit of ever-rarer prey, and as such the Sons are spread thin. However, by decree of The Miner's Son, the lands of Ken's origins deep within North America would be recognized as the homeland of the Sons and no one has ever been crazy or stupid enough to encroach on a nation where every boy is raised to stalk and kill as a way of life.

And soon the Sons will be needed in strength yet again.