As long-time readers know, I've been struggling with the idea of Icons for a while now, and today I think I've finally figured out how they're going to work. This is a synthesis of some ideas that I've had before, fade's original concept, and my recent study of ancient Greek philosophy. Comments are, as always, welcome.
I've decided to post this even though it's not finished, both to get something up and to see if I can get feedback. Also, the concepts that went into this gave me a way to work Icons in that I like a lot, so this is laying the groundwork for that as well. Enjoy!
I've been doing some thinking on Icons recently -- you may remember them from the distant past of this weblog, ten months ago -- specifically about how and when I should introduce them, and, more importantly, whether I should introduce them.
If the councillors from Duligne and Madera had angered the council, the ratification of Underwood's constitution made them utterly livid. The constitution established several states, each built around one of the cities of FFC1079; it also abolished the colonial council and created a Senate, to which each state's population directly elected representatives, of a number in proportion to the number of residents of that state. It also established, separate from the Senate, a Colonial President, who served as the Federation's satrap on FFC1079. Perhaps more offensive to the councillors was the provision for term limits on both the President and the Senators; a President was elected to four-year terms with a limit of two terms, and the Senators to two-year terms with a limit of three.
Continue reading "A Brief History of Frontier: Expanding the Colony, pt. 2" »
(See this post for the history leading up to this point.)
Council President Marratt was the youngest member of the council when he was elected. He had arrived on Frontier as a child, and had inherited his position on the council after the death of his father, so many of the councillors had distrusted him at first. However, his natural charisma and progressive attitudes had won him friends among the council, and when he was elected to the position of council president, his primary aim was to expand the colony beyond Dodge City and Madera, the only official cities on FFC1079's map.
Continue reading "A Brief History of Frontier: Expanding the Colony, pt. 1" »
One of the inevitabilities of colonizing alien planets is that any given planet is significantly unlikely to have rotational and revolutionary periods that coincide with the orthodox years and days. Eiluphates Gamma - that is, Federal Frontier Colony 1079 - is no exception to this, although its periods are much closer to the Federal measurements than some other colonies.
That less than three quarters of the colonists did not leave Dodge City with the
Separatists does not mean that the remaining population universally favored
Michael Spader's policies - or his new militia. In fact, it is safe to say
that most of them did not; the choice
was not as simple as staying and agreeing with Spade or disagreeing with him and
leaving, and within those colonists who stayed in Dodge City there was still a
range of political opinions.
Some of you, particularly Selentic, have asked about the details of the Separation War. I hope this provides some useful background and detail on this important part of Frontier's history.
It is worth noting that the Separation War is not merely significant in that it is the only real war ever fought on Frontier; it is also a turning point for the colonists. FFC1079 had, before this point, operated largely under the benign neglect of the Federal government. With the arrival and intervention of the Federal Police, however, the colonists began losing more and more autonomy to the Federal government, and a century later the Federales were pretty much running everything - which made it even harder to make the transition back to self-government when the Federal government disappeared in FY722.
Continue reading "A Brief History of Frontier: The Separation War" »
A Brief History of Frontier
Frontier's recorded history begins four hundred and twenty-four years before the present, in the Federal Year 398,
when a Federal probe ship discovered a solar system around the star
Eiluphates, a yellow-white main sequence star orbited by five
planets. Only one, initially designated Eiluphates Gamma, was
capable of bearing life; two of its siblings were much smaller and
closer to the sun, and the other two were distant gas giants, ten and
thirty times farther from the star than Gamma. (There were large
outer-belt objects, and two significant asteroid fields, but none were
considered significant planets by the probe ship.) In FY407, a
terraforming ship arrived in the Eiluphates system to begin operations
on Gamma; its operations were largely limited to replacing the heavy
carbon monoxide and ozone concentrations in the air with a breathable
nitrogen-oxygen mix and to pre-populating the world with plants and
animals. By FY585 the Federal Interior Commission was prepared to
declare Eiluphates Gamma open for commission, renamed the planet
Federal Frontier Colony 1079, and opened the system for colonization.
Why didn't anybody tell me that I'd forgotten to say anything about the government that took over after the Federal government disappeared?
Okay, this weekend, look for a post on the current government of Frontier, and the relatively bloodless revolution that put it in place. (And the minor border war that happened when a few hundred colonists decided that they wanted to be a separate state...)
I finally figured out what was missing from the Federales post. I've replaced the last paragraph with some more exposition; check out the previous post, or peek beneath the cut, to see the changes.
And all the Federales say
They coulda had him any day
They only let 'im slip away
Out of kindness, I suppose
- Townes van Zant, "Pancho and Lefty"
It's said, although none of them are around anymore to tell it straight, that of the people on Frontier who were left behind when the Federal Government disappeared, the most surprised and dismayed were the Federales themselves. They'd been used to positions of power and prestige among the colonists, and the Federal seal could be seen throughout Dodge City, and widely in the satellite cities. When the ships stopped coming and the people of Frontier realized that the Federal employees didn't have the might of the Government to back them up anymore, the Federal institutions gave way to independent stores and utilities, and thousands of Federales were displaced. At the end of the first decade, the only Federal institution still in operation was the police force.
The Federal police took in the unemployed Federal employees and retrained them, in the process building a training facility that is still unmatched on Frontier. When they ran out of former Federales, they began recruiting from the colonists, and they've been doing so ever since. With their Federal equipment and training, the Federales - although the term originally meant anyone employed by the Federal Government, these days it refers strictly to the Federal Police Force - are widely considered to be the second-highest authority on the planet, answering only to the new people's government of Frontier. (As a rule, the places which do not consider them the penultimate authority are the lawless fringes, and even there a wary respect for the Federales lives in the public consciousness.)
The Federales make their home in District Zero, in the heart of Dodge City, near the administrative buildings that house the government. Dodge has five Districts, including Zero; each is a fifth of the city, with Zero in the center, One in the north, Two in the east, Three in the south, and Four in the west. Outside Dodge, the districts get somewhat larger in scale, although they are generally even as far as population is concerned, and never too large for a Federale to ride across on horseback in a single day. Federales are equipped with the latest advancements in armor and weapons (which, incidentally, makes the "on horseback" clauses somewhat obsolete, since these days the Federales use frame buggies, which are much faster and sturdier than horses, for long-distance travel), and have a well-funded research laboratory in District Zero whose employees are dedicated to making Frontier life safer and more secure through better policing (and superior firepower).
It is commonly understood that the Federales will not accept an applicant after his or her - the Federales do employ men and women without discrimination to either - 24th birthday, but this is not, strictly speaking, true; a promising candidate will be taken regardless of age, as long as the applicant passes the physical and mental examinations. Candidates spend two years attending Richards Training Center in District Zero, and graduate to the lowest Federal rank (Officer). Ranks are awarded based on merit and performance, although time spent is a mitigating factor - someone barely a month out of the Center will not be awarded the rank of Inspector absent some truly amazing performance, and a chronic underachiever might never pass Officer even after forty years in the Federales (and may be asked to leave, if the Federale in question is not performing the assigned duties). The highest rank among the Federales is High Marshal; below that are the Marshals, Vice Marshals, Chiefs, Inspectors, Troubleshooters, Agents, and Officers.
There are, of course, other police forces, usually local, with a Sheriff at the head of the chain of command; local police almost always defer to Federales when they are present, but by the same token, the Federales prefer to let the local law handle local matters when possible. The only places in which the Federales are the only law enforcement are Dodge itself and in new towns, when the people have not had the chance to set up local law enforcement.
The Federales also fill the role of Frontier's military force, although they have never been called upon to act in that role. The government has a standing agreement with the Federal Police Force to this effect; the government will not form a standing military, and the Federales will defend the people of Frontier against outside attackers or insurgencies. This is cause for alarm among some of the people of Frontier who are distrustful of the Federales' motives; they also wonder how the Federales will react if the Federal Government returns and the former colonists resist Federal rule.
Herein lies a treatment - again, partial - of energy sources on Frontier. This doesn't include certain sources, like a hydroelectric plant in the western reaches of the continent, but for the most part it's accurate.
I'm back! And, as promised, I have bits and pieces for you.
As the topic indicates, this is a partial treatment of the Frontier economy. For reference, the Federales are what I've previously referred to as the Government; the Interstitium is the "official" term for the period since the Federal starships stopped coming. (Many people refer to the period as "the Independence", if they refer to it at all beyond "nowadays".)
Continue reading "Fistful of Dollars: The Economy of Frontier" »
So I haven't been posting much lately. Part of this is because I haven't really had much to say, part of it is because I am, I confess, a little discouraged by the lack of comments on the last few posts, and part of it is that I think I've been approaching this wrong.
See, I've been thinking of Aleae Iaciens as a place for me to keep finished thoughts about gaming and about Frontier in particular, and so I haven't been posting, because I haven't really thought anything through to its natural conclusion lately. I have random thoughts on magic, on "natives" (the First Colonists), and so on and so forth, but nothing that I'd call complete.
I think treating Aleae this way is a mistake not only as an updating strategy but as a getting-people-interested strategy. So I'm going to try to change my approach - so that instead of waiting for an idea to come to fruition, I'm just posting random thoughts about gaming and Frontier - and see if anything happens.
Hiya - remember me? Even if NaNo fizzled out for me (although I do still intend to finish that story), I have still been thinking about Frontier, and I had a thought about the background the other day that really resonated with me. Tell me what you think of this:
I feel prolific tonight! (Not as prolific as Fade, but prolific nonetheless.) Here's chapter 3, weighing in at a meaty 1523 words; total so far is 5028.
Previous chapters:
Finally, chapter 2 of my NaNo project is done. 1795 words, total 3502.
Chapter One can be found here.
I don't know who I've told about this, but I'm setting my NaNoWriMo novel for this year in the Frontier world. Not everything in the novel is canon, although much of it is; I'll make a note if I decide that I've written something that's not canon for the world.
In the meantime, I figure I'll post what I have here, in the (possibly vain) hope that it'll give folks a feel for the world and the sort of story I expect the world to support. I think Michael's right in calling it "steampunk Wild West" - that's pretty much exactly the style I want, in really basic terms. (And Michael, all of your points are valid, and I actually do have responses to them. I'll answer your comment once I'm home and not limited by memory and screen real estate. (Right now, I'm at the café in Borders, which seems to be more conducive to writing for me than most places. Plus, the barísta is cute.)
Anyway, Chapter One of my 2004 NaNoWriMo novel follows.
Here's a quick mock-up of a world map for Frontier. It doesn't have any cities, roads, etc. listed; I'll put them in when I do the detailed maps.
The large vertical continent to the east is where the colony is (well, the first one, at least); you can see the Crater Sea in the west-northwest. The double-continent to the west is where the second colony will live, if I put one there. The large desert islands are desert because the Government decided that they weren't worth the effort of soil reclamation.
(Before I go into the actual substance of the post, I just wanted to note that I think it's funny that one of the consistent links I get is when Eric - I assume it's Eric - checks Technorati to see who's linking to Websnark.)
It occurred to me that I've been thinking of Frontier pretty much as a sphere with occasional ocean beds - as though the entire planet were Kansas - and that really doesn't work very well in terms of verisimilitude. So I really do need to draw up a map that gives me (and my four readers) an idea of what Frontier actually looks like.
In the meantime, I'm going to expand what's currently known about the world just a bit.
Most of the continent is grasslands, although this is slowly turning to desert along the equator. There are, however, two (or three, depending on how you count) major areas where this is not the case. First is the forest to the far north and south, which is entirely luxury hardwood. The forests are there not only to promote continued oxygenation but to provide lumber for furniture, luxury construction, etc. The second is the mountain range along the eastern edge of the continent; these mountains are riddled with rich veins of coal, iron, and other industrial metals, providing the settlers with not only fossil fuels but the materials to effect repairs on existing equipment and to create new equipment. The third is the Crater Sea, which is nestled up against the western side of the mountains and was created by a mistimed comet strike back when the world was first being terraformed. The capital city of the colony has been created on the shore of the Crater Sea, and there are four other secondary cities scattered across the continent connected to the capital by railroads and seldom-used surface roads.
Thoughts? Comments?
So I mentioned last night that I wanted to include magic in the setting, and I thought I'd elaborate on that a little more.
I'm not looking for flashy, powerful magic; this isn't going to be Wild West Wizards (although that could be interesting in its own right). What I want is subtle, low-key, low-power magic, and mostly what I'd consider "clerical" magic: healing, helping others, minor weather control, that sort of thing. Magic should be uncommon, enough so that having two characters in an adventuring party with the ability will draw attention.
In addition, I have one particular meta-effect in mind for magic: the ability to remove one card from your hand and add it to the community cards, or to trade one card from your hand with one card from the board.
Okay, it's been an hour since I started this and I've completely lost track, so I'm going to stop here and pick up the thread in another post.
The setting for this game, on the other hand, I don't know very much about at all. Right now, this is what I have:
Frontier (for lack of a better name) is a planet at the edges of a decaying interstellar government. Once a hot, dry world, the government terraformed it centuries ago, turning it into a world of grasslands and, where the air was colder and snow fell more often than rain, evergreen forests and tundra as far toward the poles as they were viable. Colonists settled and expanded, and the planet was soon a vast prairie supplying grain and hardwood to the government.
Then the government stopped showing up, and the terraforming began to break down. The grasslands at the equator has given way to a hundred miles of desert, and society - without the assistance of the government - has begun to give way to localized feudalism and global anarchy. In many of the smaller towns, the law is what the gunmen and the sheriffs make it - and in the desert, the law is whatever you can lay your hands on.
Questions? Comments? I'm open to suggestions. One of the things I do want to find a way to include is magic - whether it's of the "terraforming has awoken the planet's thaumic nature" or the "sufficiently advanced technology" model, or another variety entirely.