Master of Orion

Master of Orion is a game of interstellar intrigue and combat. Players will contend against the conquering Antarans, ravaging Harvesters and vicious space monsters for fame and fortune — and sometimes for their very survival! The Master of Orion rpg includes material from all three Master of Orion games.

HISTORY

Long ago, in a past so distant that beings who have themselves passed into legend remembered it only as myth, there was a civilization called Center One. Center One was a nexus of commerce and culture whose denizens commanded technologies that would seem magical to the peoples of today.

At some point in this shadowy past the primary star of the Center One system became unstable, and some scientists predicted that it would go nova. The society’s leaders scoffed at this and branded anyone who subscribed to the “nova theory” as delusional or dissident. Those who wished to flee the system were encouraged to do so. FTL travel wasn’t possible at that time except by one means. The Center One system boasted a stable wormhole that provided the only way into or out of the system using STL drives. Hundreds of ships left Center One through the wormhole to become the Traveler Tribes. Fewer than 2 Tribes would survive to become the ancestors of today’s peoples. Those who stayed behind died when Center One’s star did indeed go nova ? and the disruption of the space-time continuum that followed that explosion made FTL travel impossible for centuries to come.

The surviving Tribes prospered (or failed to) largely due to their choices of where to settle. Two Tribes in particular made excellent choices. One group settled in the Orion star system because of the abundance of habitable and mineral rich planets there. A second group was just as fortunate in finding the equally rich Antares system. When the hyperspace disruptions from the Center One nova finally calmed down it was the Orions and Antarans who first ventured out into the larger galaxy to contact their lost kin. This head start allowed these two races to dominate their respectiveregions of space.

With their empires established the Antarans and Orions both started to develop their genetic sciences. The idea of unlocking the secrets of evolution appealed to the inquisitive Orions, while the Antarans saw genetics as a means to create super-soldiers. The Orions’ announcement of their discoveries lead to the first Orion-Antaran war. The Elder Races fought each other ? with the help of minor races on each side ? for over 4 years. The war ended when Orion scientists found a way to “fold” space around the Antaran homeworld so as to isolate the planet from the rest of the galaxy. Whether or not the spatial disruption that followed was the Orions’ fault has never been determined. What is know is that space-time was once again altered so that FTL travel was impossible, and most other civilizations blamed the Orions. The Long Night lasted for over 15 millennia ? plenty of time for knowledge to be lost and empires to collapse.

When the Orion Sector finally awoke from the Long Night the various races expanded into space once again. The inevitable conflicts over territory blossomed into the Orion Civil War. The Human race proved to be the dominant force in this conflict. Through a combination of shrewd diplomacy and military might the Humans founded the Orion Senate with themselves at the head. The Orion Civil War ended with the establishment of the Pax Humanica. The galaxy remained at peace for nearly 1, years.

Meanwhile, the Antarans had not been idle within their bubble of nonspace. They had developed their technology and their space fleet to terrifying capacities with no fear of outside interference. Mastery of dimensional science finally allowed the Antarans to escape their prison, which they left intact as a kind of fortress ? the Antarans reasoned that getting in would be just as hard as getting out. Scouts rediscovered the former Antaran Empire’s subject races and reunited them under the new Antaran Hegemony. The Hegemony then began a slow build-up of military power in preparation to conquer the rest of the galaxy.

The Pax Humanica ended when other races tired of Human rule. The Orion Senate fractured, and a second Orion Civil War broke out. This time the Orion Sector races succeeded only in weakening each other enough that the Antarans could move in and dominate them all. The Antarans declared themselves the new Orions ? the original race had disappeared during the Long Night ? and established the New Orion Senate. The six races that openly opposed the Antarans ? the Alkari, Bulrathi, Darloks, Elerians, Gnolams and Mrrshan ? were ruthlessly put down by the Antaran fleets. After this example the other races settled down and pretended to be content with their new roles as Antaran subjects.

The modern day has brought many changes to the Orion Sector. The peoples of the Antaran Hegemony, once unknown to the Orion peoples, are now common sights on Orion worlds. The mysterious Ethereans no longer hide on the gas giant worlds that other races dismiss as uninhabitable. Worst of all, the Antarans’ early genetic experiments have borne fruit in the form of the Harvesters ? living weapons who have become intelligent beings. The people of the Orion Sector now struggle to survive in the face of extinction at the hands of the Antarans, attacks by space monsters and consumption by the Harvesters. Any hope that remains is in the hands of brave adventurers who can discover the lost secrets of the Orions or some clue to the continued existence of the Orions themselves, who may not be extinct. After all, if the Antarans could remain safe in another dimension, the creators of dimensional science could do the same. In spite of the dangers ranged against them, those who unlock the secrets of the galaxy still have a chance to make themselves masters of Orion!


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