[AUTO-CANON]The Winterking Flotilla

[Omnivac]

Type (e.g. Planet, Faction, System):Independent Fleet

Founding/Settlement Date (if applicable):2251

Region of Space:Traveling a route in and out of the frontier and outer colonies

Controlled by (if not a faction):N/A

Other Snapshot information:

• A generation ship fleet that set out looking for a planet that is no longer there.
• Caste System consist of four castes:
  • Tigers, Essentially a military and police caste
  • Spiders, Scientist, Technicians and Engineers
  • Hawks, Explorers, Diplomats and Traders
  • Foxes, Doctors, Advisers and Scholars

[*]Due to eugenics, nearly everyone has

• Dark skin
• green eyes
• black hair
• typically over 1.8 meters tall, but no taller than 2.2

[*]Tradeband is the native language

 

Long Description:

A brief history:

The legend goes the man who would later be called Ḣiram'Kil'Camc the Exalted Prophet and primary founder of the winterking generation ship was visited by Two Goddesses who foretold mankind's demise and told him to take his fortunes and those who would listen and find a world that mankind would survive a coming cataclysm on. The truth of this is up for debate, but it does not change the fact that he took his the sum of his wealth and had a fleet of large ships constructed, he then took a large group of people and set out among the stars. After Hiram's death, infighting lead to the fleet separating into four smaller fleets: The Winter King, The Summer Queen, The Prince of Spring And the Duchess of Autumn.

Now generations later, the people of the Flotillas await the day their holy land is found. Some more than others, as life traveling across the stars has become the only life they know.

Life in the Flotilla:

At birth children are given their parents names as their own. If male, the father's first name and the mother's first name as their last name. If Female the mother's first name as their first name, and the father's first name as their last. They may choose one of their parents castes as their own, though typically they choose their same gendered parents caste as theirs. They wait until a rite known as the long walk to decide. The long walk consist of a child around the age of 10 being taken from their bed and placed in an airlock with a suit and given no other instruction than a 90 second countdown for the airlock to open. Failure results in an obvious conclusion.

Over the course of their travels, strict population control began in order to conserve resources, this eventually evolved into a rite of passage in which at the age of 20 the medical database determines who is the most genetically compatible person available and arranges a “marriage”. It is only after the child is born that the parents are considered adults and full citizens.

An other practice that began was “The Journey” in which a Member of the Flotilla in order to show their personal resolve and skill will consent to being taken to a random port somewhere with only a knife for self protection and are expected to return to the flotilla only after learning a great truth, this truth is subjective and a great many people end up never returning. Despite this the population remains stable around 500,000 on the main ship and and additional 200,000 across smaller ships and way stations.

People are typically conservative in public however there are few taboos in small groups of friends, but face is crucial to members of the flotilla, anything that could be considered an attack against honor will be remembered for a long time, and seldom ever forgiven.

Religion:

There are two religious groups on the flotilla, Orthodox and Neodoxy. Orthodoxy holds true that everything in scripture is literal. There are gods and spirits. The primary goddesses are Silvia and Yrma. Silver and Gold they cast themselves out of starlight and moonlight. They molded humanity from their flesh and made the spirits to protect and guide them. The four primary spirits being: The Tiger, The Spider, The Hawk and The Fox. These spirits guide people from the cradle to the grave, and are prayed to at times of need for aide rather than the goddesses. Neodoxy treats the old stories as metaphors or Cautionary Tales. More like a system of philosophy rather than one of faith.

Both groups perform ceremonial rites together and observe the same holy days of which there are very few. The two most important days are Remembrance and The Day of mourning which take place on The summer and winter equinox of earth respectively. The Day of Mourning is similar to a somber Halloween, and it's believed that the spirits of the dishonored dead come for vengeance and all members of the Flotilla wear their masks. Remembrance is a celebration of the launch of the Flotilla and is the only time of year people are permitted to drink.

The closest thing to a priest or shaman on the flotilla is the Storyteller. People can be ordained as storytellers if an other storyteller feels as if they survived a test of will gain the title of storyteller. Those who gain this title often give advice to younger members of the crews of vessels they are on, but normally are given little else than extra respect as many consider the title archaic.

Funeral rites consist of the dead or dying being taken by the touched, people who have genetic flaws to a degree the computer system will not allow them to find a spouse, to a section of the winterking that used to be the botany decks. If they are still alive they are given comfort and medical treatment to ease their passing. The dead are cleaned and given their mask and launched into space.

Law And Government:

The Flotilla's government is broken up into The league of castes each ship sends four members of each caste on board the the winter king. These castes judge those within their castes in the event of crimes and set polices and laws to be followed within the caste. These four castes elect representatives to become elders in the Court of the Winterking once a year. They have final say and veto powers as well as act as a high court. The three main laws are: One must act with honor, One must never act the Flotilla, One must never disobey the Court of the Winterking. Punishment is almost exclusively given in the form of community service or in cases of extreme crime Banishment or imprisonment in the Gilded Cage. The Gilded Cage is a prison ship with very little lights and no life support across vast sections of the vessel. The guards of this place are known as The Silver and Golden Tigers, who act as Guards and Wardens.

Economy:

Most of the collective efforts of the Flotilla are devoted to maintenance or exploration. They often sell survey services as well as trained personnel for parts, credits, or in extreme cases even whole ships. As such it is not uncommon to see entire groups of Engineers or soldiers suddenly appear somewhere for a few weeks after the Flotilla enters a system and vanish as soon as it departs.

[Tablespoon]

So a bunch of cultists on old generational ships to nowhere?

Sounds pretty cool. I forget when exactly bluespace drives were invented (or their warp precursors or w/e) but as long as this is before that timeframe, it makes sense to me.

Do you plan on having the flotilla enter the Tau Ceti System, or have people migrant to the Aurora on their own due to selling their services/exile/etc. ?

[Omnivac]

So a bunch of cultists on old generational ships to nowhere?

Sounds pretty cool. I forget when exactly bluespace drives were invented (or their warp precursors or w/e) but as long as this is before that timeframe, it makes sense to me.

Do you plan on having the flotilla enter the Tau Ceti System, or have people migrant to the Aurora on their own due to selling their services/exile/etc. ?

 

It can be any number of things. With the scope of humanity in the setting Flotilla's seem like they'd be actually pretty common, especially more nefarious groups. Moon for example would have been exiled.

[Guest]

Interesting. Basically Quarians from ME, but since our lore is bursting with references, why not.

An extension on Tablespoon's question: The primary issue with million or so human factions that have been created so far is that, while interesting, they have no relevant connection to the primary, already existing empires. The end result is that they get forgotten as soon as the player that made them leaves. The faction becomes completely irrelevant. So, how exactly are the citizens of and flottila itself being treated by governments and empires? What dealings have they had? Are they treated as space gypsies?

[Omnivac]

Interesting. Basically Quarians from ME, but since our lore is bursting with references, why not.

An extension on Tablespoon's question: The primary issue with million or so human factions that have been created so far is that, while interesting, they have no relevant connection to the primary, already existing empires. The end result is that they get forgotten as soon as the player that made them leaves. The faction becomes completely irrelevant. So, how exactly are the citizens of and flottila itself being treated by governments and empires? What dealings have they had? Are they treated as space gypsies?

 

They're useful in a lot of cases, but there's the whole "They're taking our jobs" aspect among common people.

[Guest]

You don't think they would be xenophobic (and I don't mean aliens) as hell? Considering they are basically a crazy cult people. Is their existence well known to the public? I mean, sure, they could be known to exist by most people, it would be mostly trivia, but what sort of interactions do they have with the governments whose systems they pass through. In Mass Effect, the Quarian fleet appearing was considered a massive annoyance, due to their habit to stripping the system of asteroids at high efficiency and flooding the local market with junk and vagrants. Suffice to say, these folks have a much lower population, so they shouldn't be that big of an issue. But still, how are they more 'useful' than any other group of people. What makes them stand out?

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

As per the changes to lore canonization practices you can consider pretty much anything reasonable that you write for your backstories as canonized. Lore canonization applications are for things that we want to see integrated on the wiki or given to the lore team to expand and explore through events, news articles, antag contests, etc.

Is there anything like that that you want to see with this? Are people other than your characters utilizing this faction?

[Jennalele]

I would like to. It's cool as heck, and I've got ideas.

[Owen]

I would also make a character who is from this flotilla. It seems like a really cool idea!

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

No no, I mean

You don't need to apply this in lore canonization to have characters from it, you can do that whenever! Unless people complain and the lore team needs to work with the player on changing things, your background factions are automatically canon once you create them for yourself and other players.

 

If you think it's reasonable a place to live then just have it in your background and it's automatically canon. If you think it's toeing the line ask for loredev opinions in Lore Questions. We eventually get complaints or comments about outlandish locations or backgrounds so there's no reason to have all factions canonized officially, especially if it's just for a single character or a handful of characters.

Change in Canonization for Factions and Backgrounds

Having it be accepted in lore canonization means that you sort of agree to share it with the lore team, and we put it on the wiki, integrate it into the lore as a whole, and run with it in events of our narratives like news posts or antag contests. That means it becomes a dynamic part of the lore, and could change or be affected by the events in our lore in ways that you probably didn't originally intend! Do you want to do that?

[Killerhurtz]

This is cool as all balls and Boots approve, so I'm canonizing the FUCK out of this. Also, if you don't mind, I'm totes going to make different parties with the other three constituents. This gave me a lot of ideas.

Marking as "Processing" until I get to writing about it.

[Omnivac]

No no, I mean

You don't need to apply this in lore canonization to have characters from it, you can do that whenever! Unless people complain and the lore team needs to work with the player on changing things, your background factions are automatically canon once you create them for yourself and other players.

 

If you think it's reasonable a place to live then just have it in your background and it's automatically canon. If you think it's toeing the line ask for loredev opinions in Lore Questions. We eventually get complaints or comments about outlandish locations or backgrounds so there's no reason to have all factions canonized officially, especially if it's just for a single character or a handful of characters.

Change in Canonization for Factions and Backgrounds

Having it be accepted in lore canonization means that you sort of agree to share it with the lore team, and we put it on the wiki, integrate it into the lore as a whole, and run with it in events of our narratives like news posts or antag contests. That means it becomes a dynamic part of the lore, and could change or be affected by the events in our lore in ways that you probably didn't originally intend! Do you want to do that?

yes

[Guest]

I wonder if we ever wanted to do anything with this or if any work was set forward with it.

Well, we'll see. I won't touch this yet but I'll put it into consideration. I'm just mopping up the needs-to-be-disposed topics first.

I'm taking being the janitor too seriously.

[Shadow]

Marked as processing. Will start integrating it ASAP.

[Omnivac]

Marked as processing. Will start integrating it ASAP.

 

I love you.

[Muncorn]

As per Jackboot's weird thingy, all frontier planets are automatically canon until otherwise stated. You can personally bug the wiki maintainers if you really want it on the wiki, but best course of action is to place this lore in a more easily accessible part of the forum and direct people there. I'll be archiving this post.