Things are moving right along on Architect of Worlds. I’m confident that I’ll be able to hit my objective of page 70 out of 180 by the end of this month, and probably a few pages beyond that. So while I’m working on Architect, I’m also giving some thought to what’s likely to be my next big RPG project: Fourth Millennium.
Fourth Millennium is envisioned as an alternate-historical fantasy, set in the Mediterranean world sometime in the middle of what we would think of as the first century BCE. The setting is the same one in which I’m writing the novel Twice-Crowned – I’ve already written a few short pieces in it too, and will likely write more as the muse moves me.
The underlying game system is probably going to be the Cypher System from Monte Cook Games, under their (very generous) creative license. Assuming I live and stay motivated long enough to produce the whole thing, it’s going to have three major components:
The core Cypher System-compatible rules for building characters and roleplaying in the setting, with rules for not only personal-combat-heavy adventures, but mass combat, social and political conflict, and so on. There will be a magic system based heavily around spirit-derived and divine magic, with a strong trace of neo-Platonist hermeticism as well.
A gazetteer of the Mediterranean world in the setting, somewhat familiar from our own history, but also full of divergences (a surviving Minoan-derived state, a Roman Republic that hasn’t been quite as fortunate but still has the potential to conquer widely, an emerging Hellenistic world-empire derived from the Alexandrian οἰκουμένη, and so on).
At least one One Ring– or Pendragon-inspired “grand campaign” that organizes adventures in annual cycles, letting characters start out as minor figures, work their way up to being movers and shakers, and change the course of the setting’s future history. So (e.g.) in a Roman Grand Campaign, characters might start out as clients supporting an ambitious Roman senator, but while assisting him they would build up their own wealth and clout, eventually setting out on the cursus honorum and standing for the offices of praetor and consul in their own right, all the while dealing with the perennial crises facing the Republic.
It’s that last item that has me cogitating heavily. I’m concerned that a single book that contains all three of these components is going to be huge, especially if I go all-in on building multiple interlocking Grand Campaigns based on different cultures. I could see building at least three of those: one set in the Roman Republic, one in the Hellenistic empire, one in the Minoan-derived culture that occupies an uneasy space between the two.
So suppose I instead build a single book that contains character-design and adventuring rules, the extra rules needed to support Grand Campaign play, and the gazetteer describing the setting. That book would be enough for players and GMs to build their own adventures and campaigns. Big, but not outrageously so. Then there would be one or more follow-on books that describe each Grand Campaign in detail.
The thing I’m wrestling with is, which campaign book to plan to work on first.
The Roman book would have the advantage of being the most well-documented in primary sources and extant fiction, and the most familiar to the audience. No trouble building a plausible political and social system here, with plenty of room for adventures. Of course, Roman society was very problematic by modern standards – strong misogyny, a very equivocal view of LGBT+ behavior and lives, rampant slave-holding. Good portion of the audience would probably be repelled by that, even if I were to work hard to provide alternatives.
The Hellenistic book would be most attractive to me, given that I’m a Hellenophile of long standing, but it would carry a lot of disadvantages. Primary-source documentation of the details of society and politics among the Hellenistic kingdoms isn’t as rich, since most our sources were (of course) Roman. I’d have a harder time developing social and grand-campaign mechanisms for this piece of the setting to the same level of detail. Maybe not quite as much values dissonance for the audience, but the difference would be pretty slim. Hellenistic societies tended to be just as nasty as the Roman by modern standards.
The Minoan-derived society would have its own set of trade-offs. In this case, I’d be making the details up almost out of whole cloth – we’re talking about a culture that just didn’t exist in the corresponding era of our real-world history. Which would probably mean that I’d have to work all the harder to get the audience on board, since this would be the most historical-fantasy piece of the setting. On the other hand, the post-Minoans would be a lot less problematic for the modern audience – very little misogyny or patriarchy, a much more liberal view of LGBT+ people, slavery present but not nearly as prevalent as in Rome or the Hellenistic world. Not to mention, this society’s location between the other two would add a certain degree of tension and potential conflict to the setting, possibly helping to engage the audience.
Mental note: this project is really going to need some effort spent on consent-and-safety tools.
So yeah, in the short run I’m not going to need to make any decisions, but by the time Architect is in release and I’m starting to produce rough-draft material for Fourth Millennium, I’m going to have to have a lot of this figured out.
I’d be interested in hearing from my readers and patrons on this one. If you have any interest in Fourth Millennium at all, which of the three grand-campaign sourcebooks do you think you’d find most interesting and useful? Feel free to drop me a comment or an email if you have any insight.
I came across this article a few days ago, and it’s making me think I need to make a small adjustment to the Architect of Worlds planetary design sequence: “Astronomers identify a new class of habitable planet” (Astronomy.com, September 2021).
The case in question is one that we should all have been aware of for a while: super-Earths with very dense atmospheres dominated by hydrogen, with deep world-spanning liquid-water oceans. Architect would call these Class 2 (Dulcinea-type, after Mu Arae c) worlds with Massive prevalence of water.
The problem is that if these worlds are too warm, the current Architect design sequence quickly turns them into Class 1 (Venus-type) worlds: very hot due to a runaway greenhouse, but very dry because their primordial oceans have been boiled away and lost to photodissociation. But if I understand the physics correctly, this shouldn’t happen in these specific cases.
If a Dulcinea-type world has a rocky surface, it’s buried under many kilometers of ocean, and atmospheric heat isn’t going to bake carbon dioxide out of the rocks to cause a runaway greenhouse. Now, these worlds are likely to have a ton of water vapor in their atmospheres, and water vapor is itself a really effective greenhouse gas. But that doesn’t seem likely to boil the ocean itself away. With a really dense atmosphere, the boiling point of water soars and you can keep liquid-water oceans with surface temperatures well above 370 K. Meanwhile, these worlds aren’t going to lose their water due to photodissociation, because they’re massive enough to retain molecular hydrogen anyway. Any water vapor that gets into the upper atmosphere may break down due to high-energy sunlight, but the hydrogen won’t just fly off into space, it’ll stick around to recombine with oxygen again.
Fortunately I think adjusting for this will be an easy fix in the Architect draft, something I can do on the fly while I’m doing the rough layout. Basically, I’ll build an exception into the sequence for Dulcinea-types, forbidding them to make the usual transition to a runaway greenhouse somewhere just above a blackbody temperature of 300 K. I may need to add a provision in the procedure to compute surface temperature for these worlds – if they’re already hot, they’re going to have a fierce greenhouse due to water vapor in the atmosphere and yet will still keep their liquid-water envelope.
These strike me as odd worlds to call “habitable,” although in the scientific literature astronomers generally use that word to just mean “probably has liquid water.” You could theoretically land on one of these, but it wouldn’t be a remotely shirt-sleeve environment for humans.
The core of the Architect of Worlds design sequence is the series of steps in which the user places planets in orbit around a given star. Right now, that’s Steps Nine through Twelve:
Step Nine: Structure of Protoplanetary Disk
Step Ten: Outer Planetary System
Step Eleven: Inner Planetary System
Step Twelve: Eccentricity of Planetary Orbits
This is the section of the design sequence that’s been rewritten the most times, largely driven by the discovery of new exoplanets or new planetary systems in formation over the past few years. It works . . . but it doesn’t work well. Frankly, it’s a mess, it requires a lot of complicated and fiddly special cases, and I’m told it’s a bear to try to automate.
I’ve been thinking about doing yet another rewrite, as part of the process of producing a fully integrated draft of the book for the first time.
Now, as often happens, this gets into a peculiarity of my design process. There are times when I go for days or even weeks without writing a single word on a given project, because I’m chewing on some thorny problem. In a novel, it might be a bit of plot or character development that isn’t coming clear. In a game design, it’s a mechanic or subsystem that doesn’t want to work the way I would like. In either case, I do a convincing imitation of a writer who’s creatively blocked – but that’s not really the case. What’s really happening is that my brain is mulling over the problem with every spare cycle. Eventually, usually at the subconscious level, some inspiration comes along and I see a way forward.
I’m not quite at that point with this piece of Architect, but I think I’m getting close.
The way the system works now, you start by sketching out the mass and structure of the protoplanetary disk. Then you place planets roughly in the order in which they form – gas giants due to disk instability first, then gas giants due to rapid accretion, then rocky terrestrial worlds in the inner system. The results of each step can affect the parameters of the next, of course. That means lots of special cases where you have to put constraints on a mechanic, or where you have to fiddle with the outcome to make it fit.
This gets particularly annoying when the mechanics for planetary migration (i.e., movement inward or outward across the disk during formation) interact with the final placement of planetary orbits. Easy to get a case where you’re placing planets later in the process and you get an arrangement that interferes with planets you placed earlier on. Annoying.
So it occurred to me, possibly some night recently while I was drifting off to sleep, that I could just turn the whole process on its head. Instead of placing the young planets and then using a bunch of rules to shift them around due to disk migration and other factors, why not just do something like the following:
Determine with a few random numbers and table lookups how many planets survive the formation process in each of the three categories (disk-instability gas giants, rapid-accretion gas giants, rocky terrestrials). Assume these three categories of planets always fall in that order, outer orbits to inner.
Determine the orbital radii of the innermost planet and the outermost planet.
Space all the other planetary orbits more or less evenly in between, using a procedure that won’t generate impossible cases that have to be fixed.
Then, and only then, generate the masses of each planet.
One of the neat features of a system like this is that it can take into account things like disk migration and a Grand Tack for the system’s largest gas giant, without having to explicitly recapitulate all that evolution. If there aren’t any rocky terrestrials, that must mean that your innermost rapid-accretion gas giant migrated inward and stayed close to its primary, a “hot Jupiter.” If there are several rocky terrestrials, then that gas giant either didn’t migrate in very far, or it got pulled back outward by a Grand Tack. Done – no need to work through a several-step process, full of exceptions and special cases, to capture all the possibilities.
Hopefully this will be quite a bit easier to use. Ought to be a lot easier to automate, too. I can already hear K. Nakamura cheering, off in the distance.
I’m not quite ready to start rewriting this section of the sequence – I still need to work through some of the implications in my head first – but I might start taking a crack at it within a few days. If it works out, that will be a big step toward having a complete version 1.0 draft of the whole book that I’d be willing to share with my beta readers and patrons. Stay tuned.
Quirks: Broad-Minded; Congenial; Convinced of a higher purpose; Hums or whistles while thinking; Likes fine cigars and brandy. [‑5]
Skills
Administration (A) IQ-1 [1]-14; Astronomy/TL9 (H) IQ+1 [4]-16 *; Beam Weapons/TL9 (Pistol) (E) DX [1]-10; Chemistry/TL9 (H) IQ-2 [1]-13; Computer Operation/TL9 (E) IQ+1 [2]-16; Computer Programming/TL9 (H) IQ [4]-15; Diplomacy (H) IQ-1 [2]-14; Driving/TL9 (Automobile) (A) DX [1]-10; Electronics Operation/TL9 (Communications) (A) IQ [2]-15; Electronics Operation/TL9 (Scientific) (A) IQ [2]-15; Electronics Operation/TL9 (Sensors) (A) IQ [2]-15; Electronics Repair/TL9 (Force Shields) (A) IQ [2]-15; Electronics Repair/TL9 (Scientific) (A) IQ [2]-15; Engineer/TL9 (Civil) (H) IQ [2]-15 *; Engineer/TL9 (Gravitics) (H) IQ+1 [4]-16 *; Literature (H) IQ-2 [1]-13; Mathematics/TL9 (Applied) (H) IQ+1 [3]-16 *; Mathematics/TL9 (Pure) (H) IQ [2]-15 *; Philosophy (Humanist) (H) IQ-2 [1]-13; Physics/TL9 (VH) IQ+4 [20]-19 *; Public Speaking (Debate) (E) IQ [1]-15; Research/TL9 (A) IQ [2]-15; Savoir-Faire (Military) (E) IQ [1]-15; Teaching (A) IQ+1 [4]-16; Vacc Suit/TL9 (A) DX [2]-10; Writing (A) IQ [2]-15.
* Includes +1 from Mathematical Ability.
Biographical Information
Victor Bergman was born in 1990 in London, in the United Kingdom. He was recognized as a mathematical prodigy at a very young age, earning doctorates in mathematics and astrophysics at the University of Cambridge by the time he was 21. Bergman has formed many close friendships and mentor-relationships over the years, but he has never become romantically involved, and some observers have concluded that he is effectively asexual.
Bergman disappointed many in the scientific world when he accepted a teaching position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012, but he soon proved able to do pioneering theoretical research even while mentoring younger students. It was at MIT in 2016 that Bergman had an annus mirabilis comparable to that of Albert Einstein, publishing several papers that ended in revolutionizing modern physics.
Bergman’s work opened the door to the direct control of gravity as a force, suggesting applications as diverse as artificial gravity in space habitats, antigravity lift systems for spacecraft, and “reactionless” drives for deep-space travel. As such, by the 2020s Bergman was already being recognized as the seminal figure in a new Space Age.
Bergman’s work might have made him a valuable asset to the American or British governments, but his staunch pacificism led him to refuse most such state connections. His open criticism of NASA and the United States Space Force led to considerable political controversy throughout the late 2020s and early 2030s, especially after he was awarded the 2033 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Only after the Pacific War and the foundation of the World Space Commission did Bergman begin to personally support the space program. He finally left MIT and accepted a position as a scientific advisor for the WSC in 2038. Working both on Earth and at Moonbase Alpha, Bergman provided invaluable advice in the application of the gravitic technologies his work had made possible. He was instrumental in the designs for Moonbase Alpha and the Eagle series of gravitic spacecraft.
Now of advanced years, Bergman continues to serve as a scientific advisor and mentor for a number of WSC leaders, including Commissioner Gerald Simmonds and astronauts Anthony Cellini and John Koenig.
Bergman’s outgoing personality, along with his undoubted scientific genius, have made him almost universally beloved among members of the space program. Even in his advanced years, he loves to throw himself into new scientific conundrums, and remains capable of coming up with unique (and effective) solutions. He has also gained a reputation as a humanistic philosopher, advocating an almost mystic understanding of humankind’s role in space.
Bergman’s major weakness is his artificial heart, acquired after a serious laboratory accident in the early 2030s. Although this bionic organ helps Bergman to regulate his emotional responses – giving him some resistance to fear and panic – it also renders him vulnerable to electric shock.
Helena Russell is 40 years old, with delicate features, carefully coiffed blonde hair, and grey eyes.
ST 10 [0]; DX 11 [20]; IQ 14 [80]; HT 10 [0].
Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 10 [0]; Will 14 [0]; Per 14 [0]; FP 10 [0].
Basic Speed 6.25 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0]; Dodge 8.
5’9”; 135 lbs.
Social Background
TL: 9 [0].
CF: Western [0].
Languages: English (Native) [0].
Advantages
Appearance (Attractive) [4]; Empathy [15]; Military Rank 3 (World Space Commission) [15].
Disadvantages
Code of Honor (Professional) [-5]; Combat Paralysis [-15]; Sense of Duty (Large Group; Moonbase Alpha Inhabitants) [-10]; Stubbornness [-5].
Quirks: Attentive; Prefers mundane explanations for unusual occurrences; Responsive; Tends to diagnose problems as “radiation sickness”; Very soft-spoken. [‑5]
Helena Russell was born Helena Goldmann in 2009 in Denver, in the United States. Her parents were physicians; she followed in their footsteps, earning advanced degrees in medicine and psychology from Columbia University in New York. It was there that she met Lee Russell, a fellow student who was specializing in space medicine. After finishing their graduate work, the two of them married in 2035. They spent the years of the Pacific War serving the United States Space Force as medical officers.
After the war, the Russells joined the World Space Commission, becoming deeply involved in the push for long-term expeditions and permanent manned outposts in space. In particular, Helena Russell became highly influential in the design of space habitats. Her introduction of solariums and “green spaces” into Moonbase Alpha residential sections did much to improve crew morale, and earned her the prestigious Donnelmyer Award in 2043.
Dr. Lee Russell went missing, and was presumed dead, in the loss of the second manned Jupiter expedition in 2044. Dr. Helena Russell has not remarried. She responded to the tragedy by throwing herself into her work, and beginning to accept deep-space assignments of her own. She was posted to Moonbase Alpha in late 2048 as its Chief Medical Officer.
Dr. Russell is a committed and effective physician, who cares deeply for her patients and has a gift for understanding the human psyche. If she has a weakness in her role, it is in her ability to adjust to the dangers and strangeness of life in deep space. She has a tendency to “freeze up” in situations of immediate danger or violence. She also tends to look for tried and familiar solutions to problems, often overlooking evidence that a situation is genuinely new and unprecedented.
John Koenig was born in 2007 in New York City, in the United States. He was orphaned in his late teens and has no close family. He studied astrophysics and space engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he met and struck up an enduring friendship with Victor Bergman. The world-famous scientist has served Koenig as a mentor and father-figure for most of his adult life.
Koenig joined the American astronaut program, but his career was interrupted by the outbreak of the Pacific War in 2035. Throughout the war he served in the United States Space Force, flying several combat missions. Koenig’s wife was killed in the Chinese missile strike on Los Angeles in 2037. He has not remarried.
After the Pacific War, Koenig resumed his career as an astronaut, this time working for the new World Space Commission. He served several tours at the growing Moonbase Alpha from 2038 onward, and was posted as the base’s commanding officer just before Breakaway in 2049.
Koenig has a good reputation as an administrator and commander, known for ruthlessly practical decision-making. He is often short-tempered, capable of outbursts of anger or frustration, more likely to bark orders than to seek consensus among his subordinates. However, he is also deeply concerned for the welfare of his crew and the success of his assigned mission.
One of my guilty pleasures is the 1970s TV show Space: 1999. I’ve been rewatching it lately, and something about it seems to have engaged one of my spare backup Muses.
Space: 1999 was a very odd duck, kind of the epitome of the kind of science-fiction programming you’d find on British TV in the 1970s. Probably due to its creators, the inestimable Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. It’s a mix of hard SF and wild space-operatic fantasy, with FX that were superb at the time but that look very dated today, and writing that veered from interesting to horrible. The cast were very good, and they did the best they could with the material they were handed.
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been thinking about building a RPG scenario around a similar premise. It seemed likely that I would need to update the technology a bit, and the timeline, and find a way to make the core premise more palatable. Still, I find the basic notion – a near-future space outpost, on a course it can’t control, its crew trying to survive a series of challenges – quite appealing.
So here’s a side project that I might post freebies for, on an occasional basis. The working title is Space: 2049, and it will probably end up as a collection of notes and RPG material updating the original show for a more modern sensibility. I’ll probably use GURPS for the game-oriented pieces, since this is all going to be fan-derivative work for free anyway.
To begin with, have a timeline!
Timeline of Moonbase Alpha – to Breakaway
1990
Birth of Victor Bergman, in London, United Kingdom.
2007
Birth of John Koenig, in New York City, United States.
2009
Birth of Helena Russell, in Denver, United States.
2011
Birth of David Kano, in St. Andrew, Jamaica.
2013
Birth of Robert Mathias, in New York City, United States.
2016
Birth of Alan Carter, in Sydney, Australia.
Birth of Antony Verdeschi, in Florence, Italy.
While teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Victor Bergman has an annus mirabilis, publishing no fewer than five papers to revolutionize modern physics. In particular, Bergman’s theories suggest the possibility of direct control of gravitational forces.
2017
Birth of Paul Morrow, in London, United Kingdom.
2018
Birth of Tanya Aleksandr, in Weimar, Germany.
2023
Birth of Sandra Benes, in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei.
2028
First practical applications of Bergman gravitational technology are developed. The new technology promises to revolutionize transportation, especially in space.
2029
While attending MIT, John Koenig meets Victor Bergman, who becomes his lifelong mentor and advisor.
2033
Victor Bergman is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Construction of Moonbase Alpha begins in the crater Plato, by the American space agency NASA. The new base is intended as an industrial center, and a headquarters to coordinate exploration of the solar system.
2035
Launch of the Sojourner One probe, an unmanned vehicle using the experimental fast-neutron drive invented by Dr. Ernst Queller. The probe appears to be successful, but vanishes without a trace within days of launch.
Launch of the Sojourner Two probe ends in disaster when the Queller drive cuts in too early, killing hundreds of people. Dr. Ernst Queller is found not to be at fault, but he goes into seclusion regardless.
Outbreak of the Pacific War, a global conflict between democratic and authoritarian power blocs. Construction of Moonbase Alpha, and other space exploration activity, is paused during the conflict.
2038
End of the Pacific War, after Earth narrowly avoids a nuclear exchange.
A number of new international institutions are established in the aftermath, to stabilize the global community and deal with several ongoing crises. Among these is the World Space Commission, a unified body coordinating human space-exploration efforts. A new era in manned exploration of the solar system begins.
The World Space Commission takes oversight of the Moonbase Alpha project, resuming construction. Bergman gravitational technology is integrated into the base’s design and architecture.
World Space Commission awards contracts for the development of a new transport spacecraft applying Bergman gravitational technology – the Eagle.
2042
First Eagle transport spacecraft are deployed.
2044
Manned expedition to Jupiter is lost after a massive engine failure. Lee Russell, medical officer and husband of Dr. Helena Russell, is presumed dead.
Discovery of the “ninth planet,” a small ice giant orbiting Sol at distances between 360 and 600 AU. The new planet is named Ultra.
2046
Several Hawk fighter craft are deployed to defend against a putative attack on Earth from space.
Manned expedition to Ultra departs, commanded by Tony Cellini.
2047
Expedition to Ultra returns to Earth, with Tony Cellini as its sole survivor. Cellini is grounded after a diagnosis of severe psychological strain and paranoid delusions, but has a partial recovery and is later reassigned to Moonbase Alpha.
Working at Moonbase Alpha, Victor Bergman discovers the so-called Meta Signal, a pattern of phased gravitational waves that seems to carry considerable encoded information. World Space Commission announces the first evidence of intelligent life in space.
2048
Victor Bergman hypothesizes that humans could use gravitational waves to respond to the Meta Signal. He begins an effort to decode and translate the signal, but progress is very slow.
2049
A scientific expedition is planned to the apparent source of the Meta Signal. Construction of the spacecraft begins at Moonbase Alpha.
9 September: John Koenig arrives on Moonbase Alpha as its new Commander, replacing Anton Gorski. Koenig has been assigned to get the Meta expedition launched, but he discovers an outbreak of medical and psychological issues among the crew, far worse than he had been led to believe.
12 September: Commissioner Gerald Simmonds arrives on Moonbase Alpha and immediately comes into conflict with Commander Koenig, who remains cautious about pushing forward the Meta project. Simmonds begins to insist that the expedition move into its next phase without further delay, and also presses to have Dr. Bergman issue an immediate response to the Meta Signal.
13 September: “Breakaway.” On the insistence of Commissioner Simmonds, Koenig authorizes a first response to the Meta Signal. The result is catastrophic – intensely focused artificial gravitation, which reaches out from deep space and accelerates the Moon out of Earth’s orbit. Moonbase Alpha finds itself hurtling into deep space, at speeds which make any evacuation back to Earth problematic.
16 September: The runaway Moon disappears entirely from Earth’s view, and all contact with Moonbase Alpha is lost. In fact, the human response to the Meta Signal has engaged a billions-of-years-old Forerunner stargate network. The Moon is now being conveyed through the network to an unknown destination.
Alexander Putting his Seal Ring over Hephaistion’s Lips, by Johann Heinrich Tischbein (1781)
While I slog through the Architect of Worlds draft, I’m still thinking about Hellenic alternate histories for my Danassos setting.
One of the most popular premises for a Hellenistic AH is the one in which Alexander the Great lives longer, perhaps long enough to see a legitimate heir born and recognized. Lots of people have played with that one . . . but I think I’ve found another one that’s just as interesting.
Suppose Hephaistion had lived longer?
Hephaistion, son of Amyntor, was Alexander’s closest friend and companion from boyhood, possibly his lover, certainly one of his most talented officers. Alexander trusted Hephaistion absolutely and without reservation – and that trust was apparently well-earned.
Hephaistion wasn’t just lucky enough to strike up a close relationship with his king. He was a competent diplomat and battlefield officer in his own right, often entrusted with important missions. He was apparently quite intelligent, patronizing the arts, maintaining his own years-long correspondence with Aristotle. With one or two exceptions, he got along well with his colleagues on Alexander’s staff. Most importantly, he understood Alexander – his ambitions, his ideas about building and governing a world-empire, his desire to build bridges between the Hellenic and Persian worlds. He was well-respected both among Makedonians and among Persians.
When Hephaistion died in 324 BCE, possibly due to complications of a bout of typhoid fever, it just about unhinged Alexander. The king lived only another eight months afterward, and it seems that the loss of his life-long companion had robbed him of something vital. When Alexander died in turn, at Babylon, he had made no provision for a regency or succession. That omission led the Makedonians to revert to their historical pattern of behavior, fighting ruthlessly over the throne, only this time on a much grander scale than before. The result was the complete extinction of Alexander’s royal line, and the permanent division of his empire. In the end, while Hellenistic culture came into its own, it was the rival empires of Rome and Parthia that inherited Alexander’s political ambitions.
If Hephaistion had survived to a decent age, it might not have added too many years to Alexander’s tally. By the time of his arrival in Babylon, Alexander had pretty thoroughly burned himself out and wrecked his physical health. Yet if Hephaistion had survived his king, there would have been no question of who would serve as Regent. He would also have been a competent guardian and foster father for Alexander’s son by Roxane. Doubtless others among Alexander’s generals would still have reached for their own ambitions, hoping to unseat Hephaistion or carve out their own kingdoms, but the imperial structure would have started out on a much sounder footing. It’s possible that Alexander’s empire would have remained intact for at least another generation.
This has possibilities – not least because I’m not aware of anyone else who has run with this specific premise. I’m going to tinker with the idea as time allows.
Here’s a small sample of material for the Human Destiny setting and game book that’s slowly taking shape. In the Cepheus Engine and related tabletop games, there’s often a system of “technology levels” that helps characterize what kind of gear and weapons one might expect to find on a given world. The concept has its problems, but it’s a quick shorthand that’s useful for game purposes. Since Human Destiny is eventually going to be published as a Cepheus Engine game, it seems useful to put together a set of “tech level” tables for the setting.
Here’s a first very rough draft for that section of the Human Destiny sourcebook.
Technology Levels in the Human Destiny Setting
The Khedai Hegemony maintains a sophisticated scheme for classifying the technological and social progress of emerging civilizations. The following system of “tech levels” is a (vastly simplified) shorthand for the Hegemony’s scheme.
General Technology
As is the standard in any Cepheus Engine game, Technology Level or Tech Level is a measure of the social, scientific, and industrial progress of a given world or society. In Hegemony documents, each TL has an evocative descriptor, and can be associated with an approximate era in human history.
TL
Descriptor
Approximate Date or Typical World
0
Era of Stone Tools
Paleolithic, Mesolithic, or Neolithic society
1
Era of Metal Tools
3000 BCE
2
Era of Exploration
1500 CE
3
Era of Mechanization
1750 CE
4
Era of Electricity
1900 CE
5
Era of Radio
1930 CE
6
Era of Atomic Power
1950 CE
7
Era of Space Exploration
1970 CE
8
Era of Information
1990 CE
9
Era of Crisis
2020 CE
10 (A)
Low Interstellar Society
Minor human colony world or outpost
11 (B)
Low Interstellar Society
Major human colony world or outpost
12 (C)
Average Interstellar Society
Maximum level for the Human Protectorate
13 (D)
Average Interstellar Society
Maximum level for a second-tier client society
14 (E)
High Interstellar Society
Maximum level for a first-tier client society
15 (F)
High Interstellar Society
Maximum level for the Khedai Hegemony as a whole
It may not be immediately obvious, but the Hegemony’s scheme for classifying technological progress includes two singularities, each of which creates a discontinuity in the above table.
The normal pattern for any newly evolving technological civilization is to progress from TL 0, passing through the higher levels in order, finally reaching some maximum level of social and technological progress. At this point the civilization invariably suffers an existential crisis that, at a minimum, forces all its component societies back to some lower TL. This may happen multiple times before the sapient species in question is finally driven into extinction. The highest point of independent development is almost never higher than TL 9. In fact, civilizations that reach TL 9 on their own almost always suffer particularly deadly collapses, likely to cause immediate species extinction – hence the term “Era of Crisis.”
The transition from TL 9 to TL A represents the first discontinuity or singularity in the scheme. Very few civilizations manage to pass the Era of Crisis on their own. Almost all societies that survive the transition and attain interstellar status do so only because an older civilization intervenes, as the Khedai Hegemony did with humanity.
Under the Praxis observed by the Khedai Hegemony, newly discovered sapient societies at TL 0-3 are observed from a distance under a strict non-interference policy. Societies at TL 4-9 are subject to close observation, and possibly annexation if (as in almost all cases) they appear unlikely to survive on their own.
The interstellar levels that follow (TL A through TL F) do not represent a hierarchy of new technologies that appear one after the other in a progressive fashion. Instead, they represent an array of mature technologies, all millions of years old, which are all available throughout the Hegemony. The TL of a world which falls in this range represents the kind of technology that is widely available on that world, because it is locally manufactured and can be supported by existing infrastructure. Items from a higher TL will also be available, but possibly at a higher cost in social credit, or with specific limitations under the Praxis.
Humans know nothing about any technologies above TL F. Humans may speculate, and the khedai doubtless know what technologies might be possible, but under the Praxis such possibilities are cloaked in silence. A few humans suspect that this silence conceals a second discontinuity or singularity, beyond which even the Hegemony dares not go.
Energy Technologies
The Hegemony’s scheme for classifying technologies is most strongly determined by a society’s ability to harness and direct energy to carry out the work of civilization.
TL
Typical Developments
0
Muscle power Domesticated animals Slave labor
1
Hydromechanical power Water wheels
2
Wind power Windmills
3
Steam power Exploitation of fossil fuels (coal) Crude electrical transmission and storage
4
Widespread use of electrical power Exploitation of fossil fuels (oil, natural gas) Oil refining to produce high-quality fuels Hydroelectric power
5
Rural electrification Urban power grids
6
Nuclear fission reactors Regional power grids
7
Increasing use of solar power Continental power grids
8
Mass application of renewable energy
9
Crude “smart grids” Possible abandonment of fossil fuels
10 (A)
Advanced “smart grids” Advanced fission power Superconducting power transmission Hyper-efficient power cells Solar power satellites Complete abandonment of fossil fuels
11 (B)
Nuclear fusion reactors
12 (C)
Advanced fusion power
13 (D)
Antimatter generation and transport
14 (E)
Advanced antimatter power Portable fusion power Catalyzed fusion
15 (F)
Miniaturized fusion power
Communications and Information
This category covers technologies for generating, transmitting, storing, and applying information. It also includes various forms of artificial intelligence and artificial sapience.
TL
Typical Developments
0
Oral communication
1
Written communication Printing press (block printing) Crude cryptography
Radio broadcasting Massive special-purpose computing devices
6
Television broadcasting Massive general-purpose computing devices Information theory
7
Early packet-switched networks Personal computers Industrial automation Advanced cryptography (digital) Public-key cryptography
8
Global Internet Advanced personal computers Advanced ICS/SCADA systems Large-scale public-key infrastructures
9
Miniaturized personal computers Early natural-language interfaces Early automatic translation Sophisticated robots and drones “Cloud” computing Crude quantum computation
Sophisticated personal assistants Advanced expert systems Advanced cybershells Sophisticated personality emulation
12 (C)
Early Virtual Sapience systems Fully Turing-capable systems Undirected machine learning “City minds”
13 (D)
Advanced Virtual Sapience systems
14 (E)
Early Artificial Sapience systems Proof-of-consciousness systems “World minds”
15 (F)
Advanced Artificial Sapience systems Transapience threshold
Environmental
This category covers technologies that can alter or maintain planetary environments. It also covers common developments in environmental awareness – the process by which a civilization learns how its own activities can impact the environment upon which it relies for support.
TL
Typical Developments
0
Agriculture and pastoralism Early trade networks Forest clearing Overhunting Megafaunal extinction
1
Early cities Basic aqueducts and sanitation Advanced trade networks Continental empires
2
Global trade networks Transcontinental empires and colonization
3
Indoor plumbing Advanced sanitation Large-scale use of fossil fuels Large-scale habitat destruction begins
4
Super-cities (>1 million) Large-scale water treatment Sophontogenic climate change begins
5
Super-cities (>10 million)
6
Megalopolitan regions (>50 million) “Green Revolution” in agriculture Awareness of global harms from pollution
7
Megalopolitan regions (>100 million) Sophontogenic mass extinction begins Awareness of sophontogenic climate change
8
Gene-modified crop species Awareness of sophontogenic mass extinction
9
Crude geoengineering Civilizational collapse
10 (A)
Organic urban reserves Advanced geoengineering Climate and ecological remediation De-extinction
11 (B)
Domed cities Artificial species to fill ecological niches Type I (Mars) terraforming
12 (C)
Advanced climate and ecological remediation “Biome minds” monitor wild ecosystems
13 (D)
Type II (Venus, Mercury, Luna) terraforming
14 (E)
“World minds” monitor global ecosystems
15 (F)
Type III (extremal) terraforming
Medical
This category covers medical and biological technologies.
TL
Typical Developments
0
Herbal remedies Crude surgery and prosthetics
1
Diagnostic process Basic understanding of anatomy
2
Advanced understanding of anatomy Crude immunization techniques
3
Germ theory and bacteriology Epidemiology Antiseptic surgery Advanced anesthesia Crude psychiatry
4
Antibiotics X-rays and other internal imaging Public health measures Mass vaccination
5
Blood transfusions Discovery of transplant rejection
6
Eradication of some infectious diseases Discovery of the structure of DNA
7
Theories of molecular evolution Crude genetic engineering Advanced prosthetics
As sometimes happens, my plan for creative work for the current month has taken a big leap out into left field. My original plan for May was to write up the last open section of Architect of Worlds, and release that for my patrons. Instead, I think I’m going to be living on Mars this month.
One of my Human Destiny subprojects is to develop the future history of colonization and terraforming of Mars in that universe. In a sense, Mars is where human beings first figure out how they might fit into the Hegemony’s interstellar society – setting aside the follies of old Earth, disciplining themselves to a centuries-long project in a harsh environment, learning galactic technologies and ways of life. I’ve already written one piece of fiction set on the planet, and Mars is going to be important for the story of my lead character, Aminata Ndoye. Meanwhile, I anticipate dedicating a lengthy section of the Atlas of the Human Protectorate just to describe late-23rd-Century Mars.
The spark for getting back to this subproject was the computer game Per Aspera. This is a logistics-engine game, focused on the colonization and terraforming of Mars. Early in May, the developers of Per Aspera released a new DLC which added a bunch of useful features to the game’s model. I sat down to spend a little time experimenting with the new version, thinking I would just spend an evening or two on it . . . but the result was a superb run which gave me all kinds of setting and story ideas. Forget devoting a section of the Atlas to Mars, I suspect I could write a complete tabletop RPG dedicated to this one planet.
Okay, that’s probably an excessive notion. Still, right now I think I could easily write a first draft of that section of the Atlas. I’m also experimenting with the QGIS software package as a tool for making useful maps of Mars. We have a lot of data about the topographical layout of the planet, so producing plausible maps is not going to be a problem.
So that’s the new plan for May: at the very least, produce a new interim partial draft of the Atlas for my patrons and readers. That will be a charged release if there’s at least ten or twelve thousand words of new material. If time permits, maybe knock out one or two maps of terraformed Mars to go with the new text. If I can get Mars out of my system over the new couple of weeks, then I should be able to turn back to that last section of Architect in June.
