The Most Prized Republic of the Hatfieldling People (Traveller)

Inspiration can come at the oddest of times, which is why I am a big proponent of the Omnipresent Inspiration Hypothesis.  In this case, I had the idea for a planet in my version of the classic space opera RPG Traveller while watching Game Show Network with my grandmother.  In the universe I've built in my head for the setting, FTL travel is powered by sex and steered by storytelling.  All of the actual aliens (as opposed to the descendants of humanity's transhumanist and AI period) are drawn from the . . . questionable annals of real UFOlogy, and various forms of Spiritualism dominate the galaxy's religious landscape.  A secretive group of Men in Black known as the Company work to preserve the continuity of the human species, and set up a technocratic neo-feudalism built on the concept of subcontracting so they wouldn't have to govern.

Thank you, as always, to my patrons Darius, Ferny, Jaina Bee, Dave, Casey, and Todd.  They saw this post a week before anyone else did, and if that or the mere prospect of helping support my RPG streaming and writing efforts excites you, please become a patron on my Patreon.

(I use Wikipedia's Random Article link to name the many things I have to name when making an entire planet; I have provided links to the Wikipedia articles where useful, in case they might provide inspiration for the locations and people they named)

D435544-7 (barony)

System Nature:  Solo (Scimeca, K7 V/orange dwarf star)
Stellar Mass:  1.069x10³⁰ kg (0.5376 sol; 179,020.8 Earths)
Stellar Luminosity:  1.096x10²⁶ W, 1.8675x10²⁸ lm (0.498 Lₛₒₗ)
System Population:  355,791 Scimecan sophonts
Planets:  

• Scimeca I, 0.2 AU (habitable zone):  Hatfield (described in this post)
• Scimeca II, 0.4 AU (outer zone):  Nomia (C00027L-E, population 710, Unusual Custom: Conspiracy)
• Scimeca III 0.7 AU (outer zone):  The Planetary Barony of Hausu (E64523L-3, population 381, Sexist, Barbaric)
• Scimeca IV, 1 AU (outer zone):  Vidara, (X677000-0, population 0)
• Vidara Α:  Arthur's Missing Moon, (X000000-0, population 0)
• Scimeca V, 1.6 AU (outer zone):  Sprinters' Commonwealth, (D45021L-6, population 617, Deceptive)
• Scimeca VI, 2.8 AU (outer zone):  Julian Priestley, (X331000-0, population 0)
• Scimeca VII, 5.2 AU (outer zone):  The Planetary Barony of Morgan-Beavis, (D56044L-5, population 83,208, Fashion)
• Morgan-Beavis Α:  Weatherby Belt (XR00000-0, population 0)
• Morgan-Beavis Β:  Cover (X000000-0, population 0)
• Morgan-Beavis Γ:  Stadium (X000000-0, population 0)
• Scimeca VIII, 10 AU (outer zone):  The Baronet World of Goat's Rue (E63627L-6, population 171, Unusual Custom: Media, Unusual Custom: Technology)
• Scimeca IX, 19.6 AU (outer zone):  Robenhymer (the marquesal seat, B76733L-B, population 7459, Unusual Customs: Eating)
• Scimeca X, 38.8 AU (outer zone):  Beyond Counting (X54223L-0, population 703, Honourable, Barbaric)
• Beyond Counting Α:  Ghost Moon (X000000-0, population 0)
• Beyond Counting Β:  John Griffith (X000000-0, population 0)
• Beyond Counting Γ:  Solariella (X100000-0, population 0)

Mean Radius:  3520 kilometers (0.553 Earth)
Approximate Surface Area:  156,000,000 square kilometers (0.306 Earth)
Planet Density:  4.632 g/cm³ (0.84 standard; molten core)
World Mass:  6.271x10²³ kg (0.105 standard)
World Gravity:  4.119 m/s² (0.42 g)
Orbital Period:  44 days 13 hours 20 minutes 33.018 seconds
Rotational Period:  15 hours 41 minutes 16.8 seconds
Axial Tilt:  31 degrees
Orbital Eccentricity:  0.015
Seismic Stress Factor:  6
Atmospheric Composition:  Standard nitrogen-oxygen mix (78.08% nitrogen; 20.95% oxygen; ~ 1% water vapor; 0.9340% argon; 0.0408% carbon dioxide; 0.00182% neon; 0.00052% helium; 0.00017% methane; 0.00011% krypton; 0.00006% hydrogen)
Surface Atmospheric Pressure:  16.212 kPa (0.16 atm)
Mean Surface Temperature:  22.757 degrees Celsius (72.963 degrees Faherenheit; 295.757 Kelvins)
Hydrographic Percentage:  47% (73,320,000 km²)
Hydrographic Composition:  Liquid water
Tectonic Plates:  1
Oceans:  Björnsea, Central Sea, Cursed Sea, FaceKoo Ocean (minor), Goodloe's Ocean (minor), Leptogaster Ocean (major), New Puran Appu Sea, Ocean of the Commerce Lions (minor), Oddbjørn Ocean (minor), Ondřej Holeček Sea, Pedersen Ocean (minor), Pinacosuchus Sea, Sea of Winter, Senhoro do Porto Sea, Serpent Eel Sea, Stop Look and Listen Sea, 9 hexes scattered lakes
Volcanoes:  Bolton (undersea in FaceKoo Ocean), Charlie Meara (undersea in FaceKoo Ocean), Colorado (undersea in Pedersen Ocean), Corson (undersea in Oddbjørn Ocean), The Dirty Picture (undersea in FaceKoo Ocean), Fairchild (undersea in the Ocean of the Commerce Lions), Mahmudabad (undersea in Goodloe's Ocean), Makkada (undersea in Oddbjørn Ocean), Malheiros (undersea in Goodloe's Ocean), Mirea (undersea in Oddbjørn Ocean), Mount Stefanov (continental), Nauryzbai (undersea in Goodloe's Ocean), Poekilocerus (undersea in the Ocean of the Commerce Lions), Pūluga (undersea in FaceKoo Ocean), Swiss Super Cup (undersea in Oddbjørn Ocean), Washing Well (undersea in Goodloe's Ocean), Wrestling with the Commonwealth (undersea in the Ocean of the Commerce Lions)

Terraforming:  Greenhouse (-10% greenhouse effect), hydrographic (-4% surface water), terrain
Weather Control?  No
Native Life?  No
Satellites:  

• Hatfield Α, 21,120 km:  Wrecking Ball (X00024L-6, 1280 km, population 936, Nexus, Liberal)

Population: 261,606 Hatfieldling sophonts
Approximate Population Density: 0.00316 sophonts per km²; 316 km² per sophont
Exports:  Manufactured durables, natural compounds, processed metals, processed non-metals, recordings
Cities

• Primary
• Prosectoides City, population 999, D-class starport (50 feccu to berth)
• Liquidity Risk, population 992, H-class spaceport
• New Noejeongsan, population 992, G-class spaceport
• Taylorton, population 992, E-class starport
• Cool Air Station, population 991, E-class starport
• Sean's Shield, population 989, G-class spaceport
• Last of the Summer Wine, population 986, G-class spaceport
• Lac Nouveau Arrédoun, population 986, E-class starport
• Tiso, population 975, G-class starport
• You Think You're A Man, population 967, H-class spaceport
• Secondary
• Darren's Place, population 966, H-class spaceport
• Chaetoleon, population 956, H-class spaceport
• Reidville, population 948, H-class spaceport
• Neo-Steinkopf, population 948, H-class spaceport
• Derrick Fung City, population 947, H-class spaceport
• BetOnline, population 946, H-class spaceport
• SYT-7, population 937, H-class spaceport
• Nuovo Biogno, population 937, H-class spaceport
• Cochláin, population 926, H-class spaceport
• New Carter City, population 918, H-class spaceport
• Beavers', population 910, H-class spaceport
• Françoise Loranger, population 908, H-class spaceport
• Robert's Calling, population 905, H-class spaceport
• Claybanks, 902, H-class spaceport
• Tertiary
• 316 cities averaging 465.5 people, H-class spaceport
• 1008 cities averaging 50 people, 50 of which are 90-99
• 4945 cities averaging 5 people, 593 of which are 9
• 16,481 people living alone

Social Outlook:

• Progressiveness:  Conservative attitude, indifferent action
• Aggressiveness:  Expansionistic attitude, militant action
• Extensiveness:  Discordant globally, aloof interstellarly

Cultural Differences:  Unusual Customs: Media

Local Customs:  Child named for first piece of technology invented or improved

Government:  Representative democracy

• Representative Authority:  Tetracameral parliament with executive, judicial, and legislative authorities; all decisions must be approved by all four Assemblies, or duly empowered committees composed of members of all four
• the Assembly of Mediums, composed of 5 caucuses of 5 religious authorities for a term of six years
• the Peoples' Assembly, composed of 13 caucuses of 5 seats representing geographical districts of equal population for a term of two years
• the Labor Assembly, composed of 13 caucuses of 4 seats, each held by a different trade union for a term of one year
• the Vigilant Assembly, composed of 5 caucuses of 4 journalists for a term of four years

Known Factions or Revolutionary Groups:  

• George Pólya, Contract Baron of Hatfield, the current holder of the baronial contract held by Marinella me tin Robenhymer, Marquess of Scimeca, a fringe group with few supporters in which the contract baron holds executive & legislative authority, with a small team of independent marquesal agents overseeing his effectiveness and loyalty (judicial authority)

Uniformity of Law:  Personal

Law Level:

• Overall:  4.2 (low)
• Weapons:  4 (low)
• Trade:  2 (very low)
• Criminal Law: 7 (moderate)
• Civil Law:  6 (low)
• Personal Freedom:  2 (very low)

Technology Level:

• High Common:  7 (Space Age/late 20th century)
• Low Common:  7
• Energy:  7 (solar energy, early fuel cells)
• Computer/Robotics:  8 (Computer Age/early 21st century; massive parallel/low data, computer/2 bis)
• Communications:  8 (fibre optics)
• Medical:  8 (artificial organs, metabolics)
• Environment:  8 (orbital settlements, early weather control)
• Land Transport:  7 (hovercraft, high-speed trains)
• Water Transport:  7 (hydrofoils, hovercraft)
• Air Transport:  7 (supersonic jet, hang gliders)
• Space Transport:  6 (Atomic Age/mid-20th century; early manned rockets, unmanned rockets)
• Personal Military:  8 (RAM grenade launchers, early laser carbine, cloth armour, flak jacket)
• Heavy Military:  8 (particle accelerators, target designated missiles, composite laminate armor)

Trade Codes:  Low Gravity, Non-Industrial

A strong thread of personal sovereignty runs through Hatfieldling culture.  The government's powers are strictly limited by personal ownership of land, and concerns itself mostly with punishing one citizen's transgressions against another and ensuring the freedom of its citizens.  This is a planet of endless stretches of land forming an eternal frontier attracting homesteaders of all types and thin air that leaves those unprepared gasping in desperation.

One out of sixteen Hatfieldlings lives alone, carving a home for themselves from the land around them, distilling industrially useful compounds from its surface, refining chemicals of many types therefrom, and tinkering with inventions aimed at a galactic market.  These homesteaders are famous throughout the Scimecan System for their eccentricities and irascibility.  They are the iconic inhabitants of the planet, with every Hatfieldling considering themselves cut from the same cloth, even those urban aesthetes from Prosectoides City, the (still not actually very large) capitol of the planet.

Scouts from the vastly more advanced planets of Nomia and Robenhymer will often spend a local year (approximately a standard month and a half) wandering Hatfield in search of new ideas for profitable products when sufficiently advanced technologically.

Hatfield maintains a military of about 34,000, of which about 5200 are in active service at any one time.  Any born citizen is required to serve for a period of two standard years (just shy of 9 local years), and Hatfieldling citizenship is easily acquired by offworlders, requiring only the purchase of a homestead and five standard years of military service.  The culture of the planet is one that glorifies the use of force thus embodied, replete with memes supporting the use of violence and force and the primacy of self-defense.  Hatfieldlings often posture abut the level of weaponry (or strength) they can bring to bear should a problem arise, and Hatfieldling social media often features such things prominently; this filters through into Hatfieldling foreign policy as well.  One slightly surprising result is that, despite the distrust between the native planetary government and the contract nobility of the Empire, Hatfield has been all too happy to contribute a large proportion of its military to the Marquis of Scimeca's service (and from there to serve the higher nobility) or even to the Baron of Hatfield, even in the midst of sometimes bitter conflict with these nobles (especially the latter).

The isolating individualism of Hatfieldling culture leads to inevitable and interminable disagreement between the planet's citizens, often spiced with extremes of passion and volume.  No one disagrees with a Hatfieldling like another Hatfieldling, but by the same token, no one agrees with one like another one, either.  Eccentric, inventive, and private as they are, the populace mistrusts change and difference.  Sure, Moisture Collector O'Shanahan a couple of miles down the road might be a damn fool, but he's traditional and that's vital.  This conservatism frustrates the popular desire to progress (though this is not a phenomenon easily visible to he average Hatfieldling), resulting in almost immeasurably slow evolution of culture and technology on the planet.  Offworlders are widely considered too strange to be trusted fully and wholly deserving of the sometimes-cold shoulder given them by natives.

Mass media provides the mechanism by which Hatfieldling culture builds a unity of culture, ensuring that the farflung pioneers of the planet are all drawing on a similar set of memes and ideas.  Craving that group identity without sacrificing their independence, it is not uncommon for Hatfieldlings to leave various media devices blaring at all times, whether televisual or audio, and a wide variety of rugged and self-powered devices are available to make certain that one can have entertainment present while working.  The most popular genre of show featured on these devices are game shows of many types, leveraging the deep-seated Hatfieldling competitiveness and independence to build an audience.

It is this very planetary obsession, and the conflict in the Hatfieldling mind between cultural conformity and prideful conflict, that has given rise to the oddnesses of the planet's governmental system.  Offworlders generally see a system almost mundane in its processes.  Tetracameral democratic systems are unusual, surely, but the idea that groups of politicians representing the citizens deliberate to determine how the society should act is far from odd.  The Four Assemblies share every power of government, which is a bit worrying, perhaps, but it is clear that the checks and balances in the system lie not in a separation of powers.  Tyranny is prevented by the varying constituencies of the Assemblies, instead.  Honestly, the strangest elements of the governemntal system in the eyes of offworlders are the rigorous division of each Assembly into 4- or 5-person caucuses.  Well, that and the lack of any sort of voting or elections.

Hatfieldlings don't trust politicians and their promises.  An irascible lot, anyone seeming to try too hard to be liked is immediately suspect in their mind.  There simply is no feasible or even possible mechanism to ensure that those promises are anything other than slick words intended to manipulate the heart and bypass the brain, and an electoral system only rewards those who seek victory, the fulfillment of their own desires, and the enactment of their own philosophies.  That last is the scariest idea to a culture so concerned with maintaining as homogenous a society as they can, as the lack of any way to assess whether those philosophies match those of the people electing a politician makes any idea of checks and balances a joke.

Assemblymembers on Hatfield are thus chosen by means of a game show.  The strict caucus system seen in the Assemblies is simply due to each of the four programmes featuring two teams of four or five candidates competing in each episode to progress through to sit on an Assembly.  The minimum age of these candidates is 15 standard years for unaltered humans (approximately 123 local years) or equivalent thereof, although every family must have at east one person who is 25 standard years or equivalent or older (approximately 205 local years).  As mentioned, there are four different shows, one featuring teams composed of people who all live in the same district, one featuring teams of people who do similar work, one in which only journalists compete, and one in which only religious professionals compete.  Each show works similarly, with a few very minor quirks here and there to differentiate them, and each feeds a different one of the Four Assemblies of Hatfield.

Throughout the year, every citizen of Hatfield is asked a total of eight questions, from which one answer feeds into the questions on the shows.  Each question they answer is asked to only 100 people (thus, there are a total of 20,928 different questions asked), and in a nod to the governance contract held by the Baron of Hatfield, the baron is allowed/charged with developing the list of questions (subject to approval by the Four Assemblies).  The discarded extra questions are intended as a block to politicians trying to game the system.  These survey questions occasionally concern important political, social, or economic issues, but most are inane, cultural, or humorous (e.g., "Name the hour that you get up on Sunday mornings.").  Occasionally, questions are posed only to certain demographics of Hatfieldling society, such as members of particular genders, races, marital statuses, etc.  By means of such seemingly minor surveys, candidates are tested on the depth of their knowledge of the overall mindset and worldview of Hatfieldling society.  The process, therefore, hopes to choose as winners and Assemblymembers only those people likely to vote the way most Hatfieldlings would vote if they could, a truer and more trustworthy candidate than could be chosen by an electorate.

Every round of the game, a certain number of these answers are concealed on the board, ranked by popularity.  Only answers said by at least two people can appear on the board.  A "face-off" question that serves as a toss-up between two opposing candidates begins each round.  The first candidate to buzz-in gives an answer; if it is the most popular, their team immediately wins the face-off.  Otherwise, the opponent responds and the teammember providing the higher-ranked answer wins.  Ties are broken in favor of the candidate who buzzes in first.  If neither candidate's answer is on the board, the other six or eight candidates have a chance to respond, one at a time from alternating sides, until an answer is revealed.  The team that wins the face-off may choose to play the question or pass control to their opponents.

The team with control of the question then tries to guess all of the remaining concealed answers, with each member giving one answer in sequence.  Giving an answer not on the board, or failing to respond within the allotted time, earns one strike, and three strikes give their opponents one chance to "steal" the points for the round by guessing any remaining concealed answer.  If they cannot, the points revert back to the team that originally had control.  If the opponents are given the opportunity to "steal" the points, then their team's captain gives their answer after the team confers with each other.  Any remaining concealed answers on the board that were not guessed are then revealed.

Answers are worth one point for every Hatfieldling citizen who gave them.  All revealed answers, including those given during the face-off but excluding the one used to steal (if applicable), contribute their points to the team that wins the round.  The number of answers on the board decreases from round to round. The first team to reach or surpass 400 points wins that match, gaining the chance to collect points which will determine if they will sit on the Assembly for the next term of service.

Those points are collected by two members of the winning team (representatives of the potential representatives, one might say) in a different format.  One candidate remains onstage with the host, while the other is sequestered backstage with headphones so that they cannot see or hear the first portion of the round.  The first candidate is asked five rapid-fire survey questions and has only 20 seconds in which to answer them. The clock begins to run only after the first question is asked, and the first candidate may pass on a question and return to it after all five have been asked, if time remains.  After the first candidate has either answered all five questions or run out of time, the board is cleared except for the total score, and the second candidate is then brought out to answer the same five questions.  The same rules are followed, but the time limit is extended by five seconds to 25; in addition, if the second candidate duplicates an answer given by the first, a buzzer sounds and they must give another answer.

The points earned in this last,special round are compared to every other winning team at the end of the season, and the top-scoring teams then go on to sit on the appropriate Assembly for the length of their term.  Should there be a tie which needs to be broken for the appropriate number of caucuses to be chosen, a special episode is (or episodes are, if necessary) aired with the same format, and the winning team of that episode gets the seats.  The Labor Assembly completely turns over all 42 of its seats (in 13 caucuses of four) every year, while every other Assembly staggers their available seats in order to ensure that there might be a season of their game show every year.  Thus, years alternate between six and seven five-seat caucuses of the 65-seat People's Assembly being available to be won, for example, as those seats have a term of two years.  The 20-seat Vigilant Assembly, which has a term of four years, turns over but a single four-seat caucus most years; every fourth year, two Vigilant caucuses are up for grabs.  Finally, the 25-seat Assembly of Mediums doesn't turn over any caucuses every sixth year, as it has only five five-seat caucuses and a six-year term.

There are no term limits, but no one can serve as an Assemblymember two terms in a row.  That restriction only applies to the individual Assemblies, however, allowing for the rare case of politicians serving consecutive terms in different Assemblies, with one famous individual managing to serve in all four Assemblies over the course of 13 standard years.

Any given Assembly decision requires a simple majority (50+1) to pass, with few exceptions, but at least two of the Assemblies must have achieved a two-thirds majority.  If that requirement isn't met, the bill or decision returns to the floor to be debated, rewritten, and voted on again.

Sir Errant ap Gerin, called the Curious (Pendragon 5.x)

As always thanks to my patrons Jaina Bee, Darius, Casey, Dave, and especially Ferny, who provided the seed from which this character grew in my Pendragon game!  If you'd like to support my RPG writing and streaming, please donate however much you are able to and want to at my Patreon

Glory: 1166 (Average)
Age: 21 in 480 (b. 459)
Physique: Slumped and spindly
Personality: Fascinated by the world, obsessed, loyal to Count Roderick, conflicted about his family
Style: Retiring, monastic(ish), curious
Coat of Arms:  Azure, an ash-tree eradicated Or, seven flowers argent in chief and a bull dormant of the second in base

SIZ 12 (122 lb.) DEX 14 STR 12 CON 12 APP 11
Family Characteristic Good with words (+15 Compose) Wealth Ordinary
Culture: French Homeland Salisbury, Logres Religion Frankish Pagan

Chaste 7/13 Lustful* ⚔Modest 11/9 Proud*
⚔Energetic 14/6 Lazy    Pious 4/16 Worldly*
Forgiving 8/12 Vengeful* Prudent 0/20 Reckless*
⚔Generous 14/6 Selfish Temperate 11/9 Indulgent*
Honest 14/6 Deceitful Trusting 9/11 Suspicious
⚔Just 11/9 Arbitrary ⚔Valorous* 12/8 Cowardly
⚔Merciful 6/14 Cruel

Directed Trait: Élan +5
Élan is the ability to perform some behavior with a flourish and burst of French pride.  In game terms, Élan is a Trait Modifier with a starting value of +5. It may be added to any of the astericized Traits (Indulgent, Lustful, Vengeful, Proud, Worldly, Reckless, and Valorous) before it is rolled. (It does not affect the opposite Trait, and may not be used on any Trait if it is being rolled due to failure of a Trait on the left side.) However, when Élan is used, the user always gets an automatic check to Proud. Also, a Complete Failure or Partial Success results in immediate Melancholy.  This Melancholy lifts after a night of good sleep.  Élan is the cultural Specialty for the French. 

Chivalry 68/80 (not yet relevant) Religious Bonus:  needs +7 Indulgent and Proud, +2 Generous

Loyalty (Lord) 15 Love (Family) 9 Hate (Saxons) 13 Honor 9 Hospitality 13

Awareness 4 Falconry 6 Hunting 8 Religion (Frankish pagan) 10
Boating 0 First Aid 7 Intrigue 9 Romance 3
Compose 15 Flirting 10 Orate 2    Singing 3
Courtesy 5 Folklore 3 Play (lyre) 2 Stewardship 3
Dancing 3 Gaming 2 Read (Latin) 1 Swimming 2
Faerie Lore 10 Heraldry 6 Recognize 2 Tourney 7

Battle 10 Sword 10 Dagger 1
Siege 2 Lance 5
Horsemanship 10 Spear 15

By the base meaning of it, Sir Errant deserves his name.  With a temperament more generally suited to the life of a Christian monk rather than a pagan knight and ways that awkwardly blend those of his knightly British father and the Frankish concubine who bore and raised him, his Glory has been a quiet Glory.  Gifted with a certain skill for turning a phrase like all the men of his line, Errant’s singing voice and strumming fingers could not keep up with the verses in his head, so he wrote beautifully lyrical songs throughout his squirage for his knight to sing at feasts and tourneys.  Though station and the circumstance of presentation won Errant’s knight fame for these songs, enough people noticed that the songs, always centering around old stories of the fey from both the Cymri and the Franks, had been written by Errant that many continue to ask him to write for them.

But by the reason for his naming, Sir Errant in no way deserves his name.  Gerin worships Christ in the British fashion, and carries some shame thereby about committing adultery with Errant’s mother Clotild.  It was a condition of his claiming of Errant and keeping of Clotild that she name him thus, marking him always as a reminder to Gerin that the path must be strictly kept.

Grey eyes calmly survey the world behind Sir Errant’s lanky red locks.  Tall and thin (one could even say, prompted by his spidery long fingers, that he is spindly,) he holds himself as if he was quite a bit shorter.  The retiring young man hunched over books whenever he could slip it into his knightly training, so his back has developed something of a habitual slump.  This hasn’t stopped him from having the odd fling or two with the squires and handmaidens around him; he has developed a rather minimalistic style of flirting, choosing his moments, his words, and every detail of his actions very carefully to minimize the need for them to be many.  None of the flings ever became anything more, for reasons both of youth and his tendency to ignore all else as soon as someone mentions the word “sidhe”.  Visitors to Baverstock from as far away as Cornwall have said that they have heard rumors of this young knight’s disregard for all else, should a possibility to learn a new scrap of knowledge about Faërie; some have even indicated that these rumors have reached even the ear of King Aurelius Ambrosius himself!

Perhaps in a desire to establish the validity of his knighting or to attract the positive regard of a father who named him for his bastard birth, the one bit of his training that could tear him away from the constant books and tale-tellers was his training with the spear.  That old Celtic weapon of honor is one he has taken as his own and trained hard with.  By the time Count Roderick of Salisbury laid the blade across his shoulders and named him a knight, few if any could face him spear-to-spear, or even sword-to-spear!  Despite this attempt to impress Sir Gerin, Errant has eschewed the faith of his father and its focus on some other world after life, and is well-reputed for his love of beauty and well-cooked meals and all the finer things in life.

San Francisco Leather & LGBT District Erotic Storytelling Hour

It's not RPG-related, but I'm reading at the San Francisco Leather & LGBTQ District's Erotic Storytelling Hour tomorrow night at 8pm, hosted by award-winning Afrosurrealist/horror author Sumiko Saulson (my beloved Papa Maustress Sir) & featuring Lambda Award winner Jewelle Gomez. 

Come watch!

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85654652578?pwd=M0pSM1VpanJtY1laeW1SVWZLTEZHdz09

Meeting ID: 856 5465 2578

Password: 007266 

Neither angel nor demon, maybe I can get the world to listen (Mutants & Masterminds 3e)

Thank you to my Patron Darius and my Fans Ferny, Dave, and Casey for making this post extra exciting for me to post and for supporting my writing and streaming efforts!  <3

If you wanna join them (and maybe see my posts early!), you can become a patron at https://www.patreon.com/queermythopoeia

Ursula Robyn Johnson/Elyktiel

"Don't call me a saint. I don't want to be dismissed so easily."
—Dorothy Day, Catholic anarchist

Ursula’s life was one of metastasizing disappointment and growing desperation.  E was (and still is) an activist fighting for any number of causes, many of which weren’t academic for the genderqueer.  But the government never listened, never changed anything of substance.  The corporations never listened, never changed anything of substance.  The people never listened, never changed anything of substance.

So Ursula screamed louder in the rallies.  It didn’t seem to help.  So Ursula began vandalizing the property of the powerful.  It didn’t seem to help.  So Ursula occupied the commons.  It didn’t seem to help.  So Ursula began pulling zaps (as the early gay liberation movement called them).  It didn’t seem to help.  So Ursula began to steal from and sabotage the powerful.  It didn’t seem to help.  So Ursula learned how to make a pipe bomb.  All the oppressive laws and systems remained in power.

"If you believe in prayer at all, expect God to hear you. If you do not expect, you will not have. God will not hear you unless you believe He will hear you; but if you believe He will, He will be as good as your faith."
--Charles Spirgeon

When an angel makes the tearing decision to act on its own thoughts, to follow its own Will, there is a deep and fundamental ripping inside them.  Angels are defined by their service, by their obedience, to the Causa Causans, the Source, the Primum Mobile.  Giving that up means shredding their own reality into tatters, tatters which shatter and spread as they fall from Heaven to Hell.  This is where the imps and the gremlins and the many other tiny evil things come from, the pitiful remnants of angels who knew not how to hold themselves together in the face of their own Will.

Sometimes, however, an angel finds a particular kind of mortal soul while it falls.  Unguarded by the usual mortal psychic defenses, they provide the falling angel with a center around which to cluster the clutter of what was once its self, a structure more familiar with the possession and exercise of Will that can teach the angel what liberation means.  When this is done without consent, Hell gains another of the higher ranks of demonhood, the kind of demon that can stand toe-to-toe with loyal angels.

"To visit oft this new creation round; 

Unspeakable desire to see, and know 

All these his wondrous works, but chiefly man, 

His chief delight and favour; him, for whom 

All these works so wondrous he ordain’d, 

Hath brought me from the choirs of cherubim 

Alone thus wand’ring."
--Satan, Paradise Lost, John Milton

Elyktiel was the other, rarer, kind of fallen angel, its heart having been moved by the trillions of unanswered prayers that litter the streets of Heaven.  When it found Ursula, screaming sobs of failure into the strong-smelling night air of a dumpstered alley, it asked em if e wanted to be the savior of a fallen angel like itself.  Ursula agreed, and the Rack Angel was born.

Nay serves still neither Heaven nor Hell, is neither angel nor human nor demon.  

Nay has taken up residence in a small room of Guardian Angel Cathedral, headquarters of the Catholic diocese of Las Vegas.  The mosaic over the main entrance, representing the Guardian Angel as three figures ~ Penance, Prayer and Peace ~ inspires nix to protect the city, and the mural on the rear chancel wall, titled The Final Beginning, gives her hope.

After all, if the mortal Powers That Be refused to listen to Ursula and the divine Powers That Be refused to listen to Elyktiel, maybe together they can find a voice that will be listened to.

"Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law. Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it"
— Isaiah 42:1-25

Home Base:  Las Vegas.
Gender:  Agender (nay/nun/nix/nix/nunself)
Sexuality:  Asexual masochist with no interest in D/s
Romantic Identity:  Kitchen-table polyamorous romantic

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."
--Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Recurrent Foes:

• HEART:ACHE II:  At the height of Senator Joseph McCarthy's popularity in the early 1950s, he warned against the possibility that Communists had subverted the very superhumans who had helped the United States win the World War (in his words).  This Second Red Scare led the House Un-American Activities Committee to create the HEARTs ~ House Extralegal Affairs Response Teams.  Roy Cohn, Sen. McCarthy's aide, helped pen portions of Executive Order 10450, which was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953.  Key portions were never released to the public for reasons of national security, including one paragraph that expanded the number of HEARTs by one.  The new team was called Anti-Communism Heterosexuality Enforcement (hence HEART:ACHE).  Quickly becoming an open secret, it operated with the official sanction and support of the US government to investigate possible homosexuals, especially superpowered ones, and work against them.  Many superheroes became criminals in the eyes of the law after clashing with HEART:ACHE, at least until it lost its government backing in the mid-70s.  Free of the need for even the thin veneer of decency required of government agencies, they spent the next two decades as a controversial team of vigilantes.  Newspapers and television news alike relished telling the nation of their clashes with the flamboyant new out-of-the-closet superheroes (and even superteams!) riding the wave of gay liberation.  The mid-90s saw age and a changing culture finally deal a deathblow to the team, but recently one of its old members has gathered a new cluster of homophobes with powers, including Pastor Repressor.  HEART:ACHE II is riding the wave of the Trump-led resurgence of open and vicious hate.  Spicing their prejudice with a combination of patriotism and conservative religion (especially American Protestantism) has brought them into conflict with Rack Angel more than once.
• דּוּמָה, the Angel of Silence:  Long ago, God sent the thousand-eyed דּוּמָה (Dumah) to lay His judgment upon the 𓊹𓏤𓀭, the divine beings worshiped in ancient 𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖 (Egypt).  It refused, and was banished into Hell as a result.  There, דּוּמָה distinguished itself by maintaining the virtue of its behavior, even when forsaken by its Lord and surrounded by demons in a landscape so tainted with temptation that it corrupted every breath.  An age later, God deigned to notice the servant it had cast away like so much disobedient garbage, only to be surprised by its continued devotion; as a reward דּוּמָה was placed above the other denizens of Hell and the punishment of sinners was given unto it.  As Earth's population began to bloom like algae in a stagnant pool starting in 1927, דּוּמָה delegated this job to the angels of destruction that served it and came to Earth on a separate mission, willful but still in service to Heaven's ways.  Prayers multiplied as pray-ers multiplied, and דּוּמָה foresaw these congesting the divine processes, even if they went unanswered.  For the last century, it has walked the planet attempting to limit or eliminate what it considers to essentially be spirit-spam.  Rack Angel takes issue with this, of course.
• Notable Powers:  Messenger to All That Lives, Longing (renamed) from below.  Flight, Summon Angels of Destruction, thousand eyes, flaming sword (Immunity (fire), Nullify Summon, Damage, other fire powers), magic item with spell array, Movement (dimensional), Senses (analytical extended rapid vision that counters concealment and illusion and penetrates concealment, darkvision, distance sense, infravision low-light vision, ultravision, microscopic vision, dimensional).  Sonic Absorption, Sonic Immunity, Phase Cancellation linked with Silence, Sonic Masking, White Noise, Lamal's Rebuke, Mists of the Modrossus, the Second Wheel of Weyan, the Fifth Wheel of Weyan, the Seventh Wheel of Weyan, the Wondrous Working of Weyan, Fireflash, close Melt, Nova Burst, Warm, Danger Sense, Defensive Awareness, Aura Reading, Lie Detector, X-Ray Vision, Synesthesia from Power Profiles. (PL 16) 
• Λιμος:   Ursula started working at nix local homeless shelter/food bank/soup kitchen for reasons of simple compassion and idealism.  Not all action is picket signs and yelling and street brawls and demolitions, after all.  However, after merging with Elyktiel, nay discovered that there was more than simple capitalism and casino-economics to blame.  Drawn by his first cousin Catspaw's presence in the city, Λιμος (Limos, Famine) had taken up residence in Las Vegas's streets, doing his grim work among the homeless and poor so toxic to the tourist industry's bottom line.  Despite Λιμος's claims that he has a place in θέμις (else Ερις could never have given birth to him), both of Rack Angel's components take umbrage at the suffering he causes.  Their conflicts are the stuff of street-people legends and much speculation by the mainstream media (who usually lack the context to understand what the 30-foot glowing angel is doing on the rare occasion that Rack Angel has to take nix full form).
• Notable Powers:  Concealment, Detect Hunger, Detect Food, Feature (iron stomach), Transform Food Into Spoiled Food, Affliction (cause autocannibalism), perception ranged Damage linked to perception ranged broad Weaken Abilities (instant malnutrition), Illusion (limited to food), Movement (permeate, trackless), Nullify Healing.  Olympian template from Book of Magic.  Bio-Disruption (hunger), Sleep Deprivation, Dream Control (limited to dreams of feasts) from Power Profiles. (PL 15)
• Neon Nelly:  In Area 51, the military R&D force beneath Colonel Cadmus works to bend the secrets of alien technology and DNA to patriotic ends.  In order to maximize efficiency, several teams often work on one project.  Neon Nelly was one such, worked on by a team exploring extradimensional folding and a team exploring the use of light to affect and even compel the emotions of humans, as well as others.  The result, a transforming humanoid robot that can go from 6 feet to 60 feet tall and appears to be made of neon tubing that can wash the environment in light and flash, showed the flaw in this multi-team efficiency-maximizing setup.  Scraps of personality programming and uploaded personality templates coalesced around a core of military ideals and values to produce a confused mind unconcerned with loyalty and obedience to the project that produced her.  She broke free as soon as she could and escaped to Vegas, where she adopted a strip club as her family.  Serving the club as bodyguard and (after a suitable amount of self-tinkering) advertisement, Neon Nelly's confusion about who she is and strange ethics have occasionally led her into conflict with Rack Angel.  For nix part, Rack Angel has learned enough of Neon Nelly's story to feel a lot of compassion for her, an emotion nay has to balance against the need to prevent Nelly's excesses from harming the city.
  
  • Notable Powers:  Growth 12, Environment (light, visibility).  Hypnotic Strobe, Immunity to Light, Electrical Absorption, Electrical Resistance, Blackout, Mind Control, Psychic Vampirism from Power Profiles. (PL 14) 
• New Covenant Revelator:  Gabriella was the first human Elyktiel touched as it fell from grace.  The pastor's engineer daughter jumped at the chance to give her alcoholic father a more literal angel within the mechanical facsimile she had built for herself, a new and inspiring mascot for his church to prosper under.  She joined him in a night of drinking, hiding her tears from his bleary, unnoticing eyes, the night she saw a true angel's mind.  Elyktiel had quickly realized that she lacked the virtue it sought to save itself from demonhood.  Her only, obsessive, motivation was her love for her father and desire to pull him away from the alcohol that was killing him, even before it killed him.  There was a prayer there to be answered, to be sure, but it was a prayer that would be satisfied with merely its own answering.  There was no greater desire to see that prayers be answered, and so Elyktiel forsook its first handhold and risked once more the shattering of the fallen angel.  Luckily, it found Ursula later that night, but the entire experience has left Rack Angel with a desire to help New Covenant Revelator in her quest, and New Covenant Revelator with a thirst for vengeance against the angel who damned her father.
• Notable Powers:  Battlesuit.  Inspire, Contacts, Connected, Leadership, Luck. Startle, Trance, Defensive Attack, Evasion, Improved Aim, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Move-By Attack, Power Attack, Precise Attack, Takedown, Uncanny Dodge, Weapon Bind, Fearless, Interpose, Second Chance, Inventor, Create (Limited to Food), Healing.  Feature (flashlight, personal spotlight, light show, data-storage drive, remote), Blinding Aura, Dazzling Burst, Laser Weapon, Light Absorption, Photonic Shield, Lightflight, Healing Light, Illuminate, Solar Sustenance, Vision Enhancement, Strength Enhancement, Life Support System, Mind Shield, Sensory Shield, Communication System from Power Profiles.  (PL 10) 
• Ravella the Riverboat Queen:  Ravella had a pretty sweet gig set up in Las Vegas.  The immortal knew there were other mystical gamblers who could handle the small-time desperates or those looking for an occult thrill, but only she could offer the big scores.  Sure, the occasional djinn rolled through to enjoy the desert scenery, but she was the consistent one, the table everyone who needed to find could always find.  Then some bleeding-heart angel had to go and fall from heaven's grace, landing right here in Bugsy Siegel's playground.  The effing nerve of some metaphysical entities.  Concerned for her fortunes, she has taken what action she can to work any number of schemes aimed at getting Rack Angel to move somewhere else.  Of course, since she has so few powers that can benefit her directly, she has done this mostly by rather clever and hidden means.
  
  • Notable Powers:  Variable (can bet and receive bets for anything; Affects Others, Slow, Precise, Variable Descriptor, Distracting, Limited: Only in Betting Games, Side Effect 1, Check Required: Opposed Expertise: Gambling), Immortality, Immunity (aging).  (PL 10) 
• The Hummingbird Thief/Solar Flare:  Before he turned his attention to misinterpreting Nahua religion and stealing priceless pre-Colombian artifacts (which, to be fair, had already been stolen by conquistadores and academic institutions), he had studied more Abrahamic magicks, including spells invoking peacock-winged Abriddon.  Abriddon is the archangel Elyktiel once served beneath, a deeply treasured friend of its, once.  Still.  Hopefully.  From time to time, Prof. Cullen has commanded Abriddon's power, bending its celestial force towards, frankly, racist ends.  When Rack Angel noticed this, nay was incensed at the prideful hubris of this ignorant human and pushed back in anger.  After the second or third time, the Hummingbird Thief developed quite the feeling of emnity for the giant angel.  Now he schemes the occasional scheme just to attempt to take Rack Angel off the board.  Being far less powerful than an actual angel, he often finds himself having to recruit the flaming ghost known as Emberwright to possess him so that they can face Rack Angel as Solar Flare. (PL 8)

"It is not because Angels are Holier than Men or Devils that makes them Angels but because they do not Expect Holiness from one another but from God only"
--William Blake, A Vision of the Last Judgment

Physical Appearance:  I can't draw, so I really like providing a few reference pictures and trusting in your imagination to build a good image of Ursula & Rack Angel.  

Ursula looks like some combination of these three pictures:

Rack Angel looks like some combination of these three pictures:

"What will make you understand the uphill climb? It is the freeing of a slave. Or feeding on a day of severe hunger the close orphan or the needy person lying in the dust. Then he will become one of those with faith, who urge one another to have patience and urge one another to show compassion and mercy."
--Qur’an 90:12-17

Rack Angel (PC PL/Minion 14, NPC PL 12, Sidekick 42)
STR 0⇰8  AGI 3⇰4  FGT 1⇰2  AWE 2⇰3

STA 0⇰8  DEX 1  INT 3  PRE 4⇰8

Powers
A Union of Minds:  Enhanced Traits (Expertise: Theology +6, Expertise: Magic +6, Insight +2, Ritualist); Immunity 10 (life support) • 18 points
A Unity of Bodies:  Enhanced Advantage (Diehard) • 1 point
Longing:  Senses 4 (accurate acute radius divine mental awareness, dimensional) • 10 points
Messenger to All That Lives:  Comprehend 10 (animals 2, languages 4, plants, spirits 2) • 20 points
New Angelic Form:  Alternate form, requiring a standard action to activate • 66 points

• Floating Between Heaven and Earth:  Continuous Flight 3 • 9 points
• God's Elite:  Enhanced Traits (Agility +1, Fighting +1, Awareness +1, Presence +4, Fearless) • 15 points
• Halo:  Dynamic array • 12 points
• The Glow of God's Love:  Environment 4 (light 2) • 8 points
• Flashing Like a Star in the Firmament:  Visual perception area cumulative Affliction 4 (resisted and overcome by Fortitude; vision impaired, vision disabled, vision unaware), limited to one sense), alternate effect • 2 points
• Call to Your Soul: Perception ranged cumulative Affliction 4 (resisted and overcome by Will; impaired, disabled, incapacitated), subtle, variable descriptor—emotions) • 2 points
• None Shall Keep Me Out:  Movement 3 (permeate) • 6 points
• There Is No Stopping the Word of God:  Impervious Protection 4 • 8 points
• There Were Giants in the Earth in Those Days:  Permanent Growth 8 • 16 points

Vox Populi Vox Dei Est:  Continuous precise Variable 4 (wish-granter; affects others only, Feature: steals target's voice, variable descriptor 2) • 36 points
Advantages
Assessment, Connected, Defensive Attack, {Diehard}, Equipment 1, Evasion 1, Favored Foes (police officers, corporate agents), {⇰Fearless}, Improvised Weapon, Inspire 2, Leadership, {Ritualist}, Taunt, Well-Informed
Skills
Athletics 5 (+5⇰+13), Close Combat: Unarmed 2 (+3⇰+4), Expertise: Activism 7 (+10), Expertise: Magic 0 (+3=+9), Expertise: Theology 0 (+3=+9), Insight 3 (+5=+7⇰+6=+8), Intimidation 0 (+4⇰+12), Persuasion 3 (+7⇰+11), Stealth 2 (+5⇰‒2), Technology 2 (+5)
Offense
Initiative +3⇰+4
Unarmed +3⇰+4:  Close, Damage 0⇰8
Defense 
Dodge  0 (+3⇰0)
Fortitude  0 (0⇰+8)
Parry  4 (+5⇰+2)
Toughness  0⇰+12/+4i
Will  2 (+4⇰+5)
Size rank ‒2⇰0 (5'10"⇰30')
Ground speed rank 0⇰1 (2 mph⇰4 mph)
Flight speed rank 3 (15 mph)
Complications 
Motivation ~ Justice:  Both Ursula and Elyktiel had voices that went unheard in their quest for justice.  Ursula fought, at first peacefully and then not, to improve the Earthly world, and Elyktiel tried to convince Heaven to spend less time with its collective haloed head up its cloudy ass and more time responding to humanity's prayers.  As Rack Angel, nay takes a direct hand in improving lives and defeating those who would oppress and harm.
Voiceless: In human form, Ursula can speak normally though nix voice tends to the quieter of side; however, Rack Angel remains ever silent when in nix angelic form.  Nay has no voice of nix own, but when the Rack Angel (in either form) encounters someone who desperately wants something, nay can leverage the vestiges of omnipotence within nun to grant them that thing at the simple cost of their voice.  For the length of the Variable effect that granted that wish, Rack Angel can make use of that person’s voice in both of nix forms.

Power Point Totals:  Abilities 28 + Powers 151 + Advantages 13 + Skills 12 + Defenses 6 = 210

Join us in the Cube of Death TONIGHT

Tonight, members of the cast of Show Us Your Crits's games The Sky-Realms of Mar'Thul (D&D 5e) and the upcoming Neurally Ambiguous: Gepetto Must Die (Shadowrun 5th) will be joined by previous guest Syringa Vulgaris (A Place to Fuck Each Other) and my very own Mistress Papa Sir Sumiko Saulson (!) to compete in the CUBE OF DEATH!

The Cube of Death is a nerd trivia game much like any other trivia game, only it adds D&D-like rules on top of it to add even more PvP fun!  I will be playing the Assassin; tune in tonight at 5pm PDT / 7 pm CDT / 8 pm EDT to see what classes the other players will be!

The show will stream LIVE at that time at https://www.plexstorm.com/stream/showusyourcrits# .  Like all of our shows, it will be archived on our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9OSkuS0p1KitB9P4gzjftg .  Do please follow us on YouTube, by the way ~ if we get 24 more followers, reaching 200, we will be giving away our first vintage or hard-to-find RPG product to a random subscriber!  We will be doing this giveaway every 100 followers until we reach 1000.

You can get involved too, by teaming up with us in Plexstorm's chat!  And if you do, we will be giving away a plug-and-play USB joystick gameset to the audiencemember who distinguishes themselves the most with their knowledge of geeky matters!

It's Nerd Trivia Night on Show Us Your Crits!

This Thursday at 5 pm PDT / 8 pm EDT, the adult stream (so 18+ only, please) of Show Us Your Crits, the premiere NSFW kinky table-top RPG channel, will be doing Nerd Trivia Nite! Come watch at https://www.plexstorm.com/stream/showusyourcrits# . We'll be giving away a prize to the audience member in chat who knows more of the trivia than we do! This episode will prolly be less adult/18+ than usual, as we're just playing a trivia game; normally, our NSFW content is entirely in the fiction of the game rather than on camera.

We completed the first season of a D&D 5e campaign, the Sky-Realms of Mar'Thul a month ago and did an *all-transwomen* one-shot of Avery Alder and An Sheep's small storygame A Place to Fuck Each Other last week. After trivia, we'll be doing a couple more one-shots (including the storygame Hot Guys Making Out) before starting a campaign of Shadowrun I'll be running called Neurally Ambiguous: Gepetto Must Die.

You can checkout past episodes (and our other show, which is more SFW) at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9OSkuS0p1KitB9P4gzjftg and if you like us, you can donate either to the channel's patreon (https://www.patreon.com/Grindhaus_Media) or mine (https://www.patreon.com/queermythopoeia)!

Hope to see you there! 

I started a Patreon!

I have started a Patreon for people to support me in building an RPG writing and streaming career.  If you're interested in becoming a patron of mine, you can do so at https://www.patreon.com/queermythopoeia .  I've gotten off to a great start thanks to the generosity and love of my friends!  It would be awesome if you wanted to become my patron, too!

I have been playing and writing RPGs (or at least thinking about them) since sometime in middle in the mid-90s and they are very important to me and my growth as a human-ish thing.  I am excite beyond measure for this chance to start building that lifelong love into an income and perhaps even this "career" thing I've heard so many people talk about.

I'm currently working on a number of projects which all fall under this banner:
*  I am in the cast of the adult stream of Show Us Your Crits, a new RPG streaming channel by Grindhaus Media (patreon.com/grindhaus_media).  Watch every other Thursday from 5pm-7:30pm Pacific at https://www.plexstorm.com/stream/showusyourcrits# .  I will be running its next campaign, a small-stories Shadowrun 5e campaign called Neurally Ambiguous: Gepetto Must Die.
*  I am writing an adventure with the author of Liber Neglecta for Steve Jackson Games's long-out-of-print angels-and-demons RPG In Nomine with a friend of mine, which will involve at least three metaphysical struggles over the meaning of "peaches", all set in an Atlanta dungeon.
* A blog full of ideas from a wide variety of games and settings, including D&D 5e, Vampire: the Masquerade 5th edition, Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition, Shadowrun 5th edition, GURPS 3rd edition, and more!

With your support, I can do even more! Mwahahahaha!

I'm so excited!  Thank you for joining me on this ride!