Collaborative Post-By-Post Universe Game

[Tangith]

Rocs

Rocs are giant birds of Dirty whose sole nourishment comes from the consumption of Giant Worms. Their size is so immense that Man has captured many to turn them into commercial jetliners and fighter planes.

Aerospace Rocs are those whom can subsist on low oxygen, and whom are able to fly at the top of the atmospheric layers of Dirty with the greatest of ease.

[speaker-to-trolls]

The Black Bar

The Black Bar is a huge oblong object ten miles long buried beneath the surface of Mars, it is not of Martian construction but the Martians consider it of the greatest importance to their interests. Millions of chocolate bar vouchers go towards the scientific enterprise of making the Bar work, as it was believed to have been created by the master race for the purposes of destroying their greatest creations, and would therefore be able to kill the sun.

[Invictus]

Generalissimo Guy de Sang-Froid

The current Great Dirty Bastard and Master of Man and Mang, his corpulent bulk conceals the characteristic cunning and underhandedness possessed by all holders of his office. From his great stone palace he controls the countless militant arms that holds Man together, including the dreaded Spectral Cybermen and the secret stocks of Martian warcraft dating back to the last civil war. Though he already has his hands full from maintaining his power over his subjects, he secretly dreams of grandiose plans such as the invasion of Mars or gathering a harem of exotic Wo-Mang from Venus.

His teeth are brown and rotting from chewing copious amounts of sugarcane, his only vice.

[speaker-to-trolls]

Manumoles

Manumoles are huge burrowing predators, often growing to up to a ton in weight, whose main prey is the great worms of Planet Dirty. They are true predators on the young of the great worms, which are small enough for them to kill and devour whole, but are micropredators (taking only a small amound of tissue and not killing their prey) on the adults. The adult worms are easily able to survive this as they are enormous and have great powers of regeneration, though this is not to say they will not thrash against the sides of their tunnels in an attempt to crush the manumoles afflicting them.

Manumoles are blind but are very sensitive to vibrations and have an excellent sense of taste and smell, facilitated by their huge noses, which are tipped by a 12 fingered hand. This hand is both a tasting organ and a manipulatory one, which can dig its fingers into objects such as worm hide or the bodies of unfortunate Men or Mangs.

Attack Manumoles are used by rebel tribes of Mangs who live in the cave systems, who wear manumole fur in order to not be attacked by the beasts and direct them to savage intruders with their nasal claws and terrible worm-rending fangs.

[Invictus]

The Jo'vi

Named after their mother planet, the children of the Lady of Storms are a species of radial nautilics whose spiral shells are dominated by a single central eye. They navigate the endless skies of JoVi with controlled bursts from their gas-ballasts and make their homes in massive sail-cities that dot the wandering strata of their homeworld. The Jo'vi are a species of artists and philosophers without much care for trade or conquest - the sheer size of their planet provides an endless bounty of everything they need. This comes as a great disappointment to the far traders who brave the perils of the Asteroid Belt to tap the exotic wealth of the outer worlds.

As the Jo'vi derive far more of their warmth from the shrouded fusion heart of JoVi than the distant visage of the Sun, the revere the former at the expense of the latter. To the Sun-fearing peoples of the the inner planets, the Jo'vi can appear to be strange heretics with almost inverted worldviews. In fact, some communities of deep-dwelling anchorites deny the existence of anything outside the bounds of their homeworld's atmosphere altogether.

[speaker-to-trolls]

The S3 Parliament of Stockholders

Everyone who owns shares in the Stellar Shipping Society is entitled to vote in the elections which determine who will helm the company and what they will do with it, but only those people who own enough to matter are actually invited to the annual Parliament of Stockholders. The Parliament is held on the Trade World, which is controlled by the S3 and moves about the Solar System so that each meeting suits the pleasure and convenience of the Stockholders.

Each Stockholder is a Member of Parliament, and are referred to as 'The Right Honourably Sharing (X)' during the Parliament itself (and maybe afterwards depending on how self satisfied they are), they vote to elect a new Board (fully Board of Ruling Administrative Trustees) and to vote on what actions to take and what to do with their money. Members of the Board can serve an unlimited number of terms, and those who are voted out are looked down upon and often suffer the disdain of their fellow Parliamentarians for whatever failure caused their ejection. Common forms of this disdain are for them to be left out in Astroraptor infested territory in a big iron ball full of pure oxygen, or to be fired into the sun to appease it and make it smile on the company.

Status in the Parliament is dependant on the number of stocks one owns, this determines how much voting power a member has. It is possible, even common, for members to compete for money, shares and power in various ritualistic duels, the winner of whom will gain the losers money. Forms of these duels include Deimos Style Poker, 9-colours Jacqueline, Concealment and Space Chicken.

[Invictus]

Skyscrapers

The tallest structures on Dirty are the aptly-named Skyscraper Trees, which can dominate the otherwise dull and meddy landscape of the planet for miles around. Men regard these trees as prime real estate and carve entire cities into their gargantuan trunks. There are many advantages to living in, or near a Skyscraper Tree: their vast canopies protect inhabitants from the Sun's occasional temper tantrums; their roots anchor the surrounding mud and emit a chemical that repels giant earthworms; their branches provide natural roosts for Rocs which Men can conveniently capture and train; and their fruits can sustain entire cities. For these reasons, the largest settlements on Dirty are invariably clustered around one of these behemoths. Some argue that the mere presence of these biological marvels are proof of the Master Race's existence and benevolence.

[Tangith]

Queen Axe, derived from Atara Xavana Elustruvara or A.X.E.

Queen of Venus and the Wo-Mang. She wields Power Axe Scepters in her right hand, coat of arms in her left, and is a master huntsman with trophies of Venusian wildebeasts all over her internal throne hall. She rides out in the front upon her Maldruik Cow Space Steeds during space warfare clad in her astrowarrior's suit to lead her armies, consisting of light highly maneuverable space infantry and ships, and heavy long-range hitters, to victory. She is as skilled in battle is as she is with political intrigue. Her citizenry is multicultural and multiracial, primarily composed of civilian Men, Mang, native Wo-Mang, and the unfortunate slave castes.

[Invictus]

The Good Morning

The glare of the Sun is familiar to all, illuminated by its own light. However, the mouth of the Sun also moves, spitting out words which are quite inconsiderately lost to the vacuum of interplanetary space. The Good Morning is allegedly a collection of these words of wisdom, a document that forms the central gospel of almost all inner world heliolatry.* However, innumerable versions of the Good Morning exist, each being held valid by their body of followers. Some claim that the book was transmitted to them by messenger Sun Flarites, whole and infallible. Other schools point to their proud and painstaking records made by generations of lip-reading astronomers, each word double-checked and each revision a potential schism. The latter tend to be in the majority, their churches bearing their characteristic observatory towers a common sight in the inner worlds.

*Save for those cults that dismiss the Sun's words as meaningless, holding that any method of communication the all-wise Master Race did not account for when they engineered the self-aware star was self-evidently irrelevant. These dissenters instead divine their message by decoding minute variations in the expression of the Sun.

[speaker-to-trolls]

Venusian Sulphur Dragons

Sulphur Dragons are the largest and most unusual of all the bizarre wildlife of the planet Venus. Their biochemistry is a subject on which whole fields of science have been based, suffice it to say that it allows them three strange abilities, each one being the main feature of one stage of its life cycle. The first is that the eggs of Sulphur Dragons are almost completely impervious to anything, and are capable of drifting through space more or less indefinitely without any harm coming to the zygote inside, and that they seem to home in on planets. Second is that the infant stage of the Sulphur Dragon, which usually hatches after coming to rest on Venus, grows to maturity in the shallow seas of sulphuric acid which dot the surface of the planet, even though it will also deliberately inhale oxygen and water vapour. The third trait is that which is expressed in its adult stage, when the dragon will grow to its full potential size and develope its biological rocket system, which allows it to speed across the skies of Venus, distributing its eggs as it goes. Adult Sulphur Dragons are no less resilient than their younger selves, indeed they are even more so, and are capable of spitting unfathomably corrosive acids onto their enemies.

Sulphur Dragons have for centuries been used by the Queens of Venus for commercial and military use, much like the Rocs of Planet Dirty, but much more useful, because Sulphur Dragons can be used as viable space transports. Selective breeding and genetic engineering has produced breeds of War Dragon perfectly capable of flying around in the vacuum of space indefinitely, carrying whole battalions of space-suited Venusian Warriors in their mouths and various other bodily cavities whilst spitting bubbles of acid and reactants onto the hulls of hostile craft. Their main use, though, is simply as lifters, as they are easily capable of lifting enormous loads up into orbit over Venus, which does not have the infrastructure of Mars or even Dirty where it comes to space transportation.

[Tangith]

The World Serpent of Venus

Gigantic serpent wrapped around the planet with its tail in its mouth. It sleeps indefinitely; when it wakes it is but a short period of time, but turns the planet on its axis thus causing catastrophic climate changes (which explains the legendary hardiness and survivability of the wilderbeasts of Venus, as well as its sapient denizens). Legends have it that the World Serpent was one of the pets of whomever created this world (confirmed to be one of the so called Master Race) and got lost and decided that it rather likes the warm climate and size of Venus. Natives of Venus call the serpent Mons Serpentis, or The Mountain Range of the Live Serpent.

[Shroom Man 777]

The Subterranean Sun Schism

One of the great historic conflicts between Man and Mang was brought about by a religious disagreement when missionaries from the Sun Church sought to convert Mang as Man colonized the catacombs in the name of the three Ss - namely for Silver, Sun and Supremacy.

In order to cow down the heathen primitives, the Church of the Sun attempted to instill upon the godless Mangs religiosity and thus it was resolved that the best way to do this was to show the Mangs the true radiant glory of the Sun itself. However, when the prospective Mang converts saw the glare and grin of the Sun, their feeble eyes were blinded by the intense light and thus they ran back to their abyssal homes screaming and covering their eyes.

There they told their brethren of the horrors they saw and beheld - none more so than the painful visage of a wicked sneering Sun that had been revealed to them by the cruel Man. Word of this spread amongst the Mangs and as one they renounced the Sun Church's doctrines as anathema and rejected the Good Morning espoused by Man. This, in turn, confirmed the prejudices of Man that the Mangs were true heathens and could not let these blasphorities go unpunished. Thus, in wake of this schism, both Man and Mang declared holy war upon one another in the War of Sun and Shadow.

[Invictus]

The Lost Planet of the Wo-Man

The scientists of Man have always regarded the twin species of Mang and Wo-Mang as a puzzle. They were obviously genetic siblings to each other, yet in temperament they could not be more different. The one they were familiar with were sniveling, pathetic creatures who feared the Sun and the worm, while their distaff counterparts were warlike, master hunters and suffered not the least under their blazing proximity to the Sun. Perhaps, they speculated, that the species of Man had a similar counterpart?

Thus was born the legend of the Planet Fair, a world that shared its orbit with Dirty but was supposedly concealed on the other side of the Sol System. Its inhabitants were the legendary Wo-Man, about whom a thousand hypothetical social studies have been written. They generally agree that the Wo-Man live in a splendid and immaculate utopia just as Man lives in mud, war and squalor. Martian explorers very much doubt the existence of such a planet altogether, but there are many who believe the place exists, simply waiting to be discovered by a lucky Man.

[Tangith]

Moon-Man

Those of Planet Dirty know well of the Face on the Moon, and how it speaks of the words "Good Night" when darkness comes around. Worshiped by the Mang, what both Man and slave Mang do not know is that the Moon is home to the lunarians, or Moon-Man, a race of secluded high-tech beings with origins from Dirty as an explorer ship. Now that Moon-Man has stranded themselves on the Moon, they subsist on the plentiful Moon Cheese and evolved over time to adapt to its high lactic-acid content. Moon-men make their homes out of Moon Stone and wield the mysterious Moon Dust, a powder that is said to allow man to explore space without leaving their planet. When they explore in such a manner, what one will see is a "holographic" projection of their light bodies, as though ghosts (but not to be confused as Ghosts).

[Invictus]

The Tyrant of Mars

The ruler of the Red Planet is known as the Tyrant. He or she is elected to the position by a vote of all Martian citizens, with a single term lasting ten Martian years. For that ten years the Tyrant is responsible for guiding the development of Martian civilization, balancing and sometimes fighting the numerous entrenched interests of the planet. To aid him or her in this task, the office of the Tyrant comes with it a veritable host of privileges, the most visible of which is a luxurious palace overlooking the entire twilight world from the moon of Phobos, tethered to its parent planet by the might of science. The palace-moon is also the the port of the mighty Red Fleet, whose freighters and warships have cast a shadow over world in the Inner System. Furthermore, the Tyrant gains the significant number of SSS shares owned hereditary by the office itself, making him or her a member of the great guild's Parliament of Stockholders; as well as the keys to the Chocolate Factories, the gated cathederal-manufactories that produce and hoard Mars' most sacred foodstuff and most valuable currency - the Mars Bar. For all these reasons, every Tyrant of Mars spends ten Mars-years as one of the most powerful figures in the Sol System, but Martian law dictates that once he or she leaves the position, he or she must be exiled from Mars altogether for at least ten years, as to disabuse the ex-Tyrant of any lingering ambition.

[Shroom Man 777]

The brilliant radiance of the smiling Sun has been a subject of worship and fear. Paradoxically, the Mans on the much nearer Planet Dirty are the ones who venerate the Sun's shining visage - while the Martians of faraway Mars are the ones enraged at the melting of their Mars Bars. How can this be so, for the Sun to cause great heatwaves on a much more distant planet it dislikes without likewise boiling the oceans of a much closer world that has won its good will (through sacrifice)?

The answer to this great mystery is Sun Spit.

For the Sun, in its infinite wisdom, watches the Red Planet as it makes its orbit around the heliocenter and in its infinite patience, waits until the exact right moment when the worlds are properly aligned. When the orbit of Mars will bring it in line with the mouth of the Sun, the Sun then puckers up its lips and spits out a big wad of plasmaphlegmatic ejecta at the poor world!

Carried forth by solar wind, these wads threaten Mars every decade. Should one of these wads ever hit Mars directly, the resulting cataclysm would be unfathomable - but such an apocalypse has not happened in eons, and its memory only exists in the legends of old. Nevertheless, though the danger of a direct impact is remote, the Sun Spit's miniscule spittles nonetheless can cause harm upon the Martian lands should they strike the surface like a shower of sticky phlegmy plasmatic meteorites. Also, the great wad of Sun Spit's mere passing is enough to illuminate the Martian sky with incredible brilliance - enough to melt the precious chocolates that coat Olympus Mons. It is this threat that has spurned the Tyrants of Mars to construct their Space Mirrors, the largest of which orbits Mars' greatest mountain.

Droplets of the Sun's spittle have long since been the bane of farmers on Mars, for the spittle sets ablaze their wheat fields before the time of harvest comes. The wheats to ashes before the farmers have a chance to coat them in chocolate to create the Kroko Krunch. Because of this, a popular curse for Martian farmers is to say:

"I hope the Sun spits on your face."

[speaker-to-trolls]

The Last Dirty Civil War

50 years ago the Great Dirty Bastard was visiting the Stockholders Parliament and got into a game of poker against a prominent Martian landowner. He lost the game and a good number of his shares, which was something of an embarrassment for the race of Man as a whole, but that was not the most important thing that happened, that came when this exchange occurred between two Martians:
Martian 1: Oh my, he let the Sun spit in his face and didn't even notice!
Martian 2: I think he noticed, but he is a Man, they rather enjoy it!
This inconsiderate ejaculation from the two Martians perturbed the then Bastard, for he was a deeply religious Man, and would not stand for this insult against the Sun!

So when he returned to Planet Dirty the Bastard gathered his closest advisors and began a plan so audatious no Bastard before had ever dreamed of it; he would invade and conquer the Anti-Helian heretics of Mars! He would melt their chocolate and bring their gleaming warships and Silver Martian Spiders back to Dirty to use for himself, and as trophies to adorn his palace in its Skyscraper Tree. His plan was rather ingenious, and involved smuggling a battallion of troops onto a freighter, commandeering it and threatening to melt the chocolate of Olympus Mons if the Martians would not relent. Through various other deceptions he then planned to capture the Tyrant and his government and thereby control all of Mars! It was the perfect plan, save that it would never, ever have worked.

One Man who knew this was Colonel Guy de Sang-Froid, who realised the Martians would not relent, would not let their government be captured, and would in fact destroy the interlopers before bombing everything on Planet Dirty that looked as if someone could hide behind it when their Spiders descended to burn everything else. He knew he had to stop the Bastard, and that he could come out of the situation fairly well, so he asked a question to stall for time "yes, but is it right, religiously speaking?"

This paralysed the Bastard and his ministers, and a long, incredibly tedious religious debate broke out, lasting for three years, with the Bastards religious convictions making him completely unable to act until it was resolved. Unfortunately for him Guy de Sang-Froid and his supporters used this time to gather a wealth of evidence against him, and to fabricate evidence that he was actually an impostor who had killed the real Bastard. They then declared him an Enemy of Man and took their evidence to the Martians, who agreed to give them an unreasonable amount of heavy weaponry if they would stop this shapeshifting lunatic and keep the chocolate flowing.

The civil war was long and arduous, probably due to the fact that Guy de Sang-Froid and his men knew that a prolonged war would encourage the Martians to give them more weaponry, which is precisely what they did. After the war was over, the Bastards Skyscraper reduced to a charred stump and he himself ceremonially thrown to the wild Mangs. Guy de Sang Froid was declared the new Great Dirty Bastard, and told the Martians that the dastardly shapeshifter had made off with a great number of their weapons, but he would dedicate all efforts to finding them and returning them to Mars.

For which he needed a few new ones.

[Tangith]

Weremangs

On Dirty, it is generally well known that while those of Man worship the Sun, those of the Mang worship the darkness and the moon. There are a few of the priestly Mangs, however, whom worship the Moon too fervently, and these are the known as the Weremangs, or those whom are able to turn into large wild wolf-like monstrosities simply by looking directly into a full smiling Moon. Theirs is a genetic alteration, a project by Man of which merged bestial DNA with that of the Mang to create a race of fearsome sub-sapient (to take orders) supersoldiers so that all of Sol will tremble with anxiety from the power of the Dirty planet. The experiment failed, for the supersoldiers were neither subservient enough nor could they operate in an organized matter; as such, the Weremangs were kicked out of the Canopy Cities of Man to the mud muck and dangerous dirty surface below.

Weremangs since then have learned to tap into their wolf genes to operate more or less effectively in packs, whom operate in the Mang rebel army as spies, assassins, manhunters, and pack soldiers.

"Good boy!"
~ The Smiling Moon

-----

Note: Brief summary coming up soon.

[Acatalepsy]

The Banished Planet

Among the planets of the solar system, most of them manage to get along well enough. Sure, occassionally Dirty gets uppity and has little catfights with moon, and the Sun occasionally lays a smackdown on Mars - but most of the time, they get along. One of the planets, however, is so despised by its comrades that they tried - unsuccessfully - to eject it from the solar system entirely. That planet's name is Pluto, and when it passes its closest to the Sun - the closest it dares get, lest the sun give it a smiling smackdown - it rains its deadly plutonium on the planets of the solar system, melting through ships, tearing apart cities, and causing entire town populations to disappear. There is little in the way of an explination for some of Pluto's Vengence. Theories range from clutches of astroraptor eggs hidden in the plutonium to a secret agreement between the Moon and Pluto to mess things up.

It's not known exactly what caused such a violent conflict between Pluto and the rest of the solar system. But if there's one thing the rest of the Solar System agrees on, its that Pluto can such mud and die for all they care. Even fair Jupiter throw a temper tantrum when Pluto comes into town.

[Tangith]

The Death Lord of Pluto

On the icy fringes of Sol lies the Banish Planet's wicked orbit, and on this planet lies the seat of the Death Lord Oberion. His is of the evil robot race of Plutoans engineered by Doctor Doom to conquer the stars with their self-autonomous fleets and space infantrymen. Him and his Plutoan Monitor-Minds only have a few things on their minds and that is the ruthless destruction of organics, and the extraction of ore from planets and the asteroid fields to replicate more of their own. They, unlike the organic denizens of other worlds of Sol, are immune the Pluto's plutonium radiation, and have often utilized this fact to their advantage.

[speaker-to-trolls]

The Mysticons of Cold Mystico
Far out beyond the sorrowful orbit of JoVi, almost infinitely removed from the glorious, gleaming visage of the sun, there are the Far Spheres of the Sol System. Here the the hollow void of space yawns infinitely vast, flecked here and there with immense mountains of ice that are lost in the void, and among all this are the rich and exotic Far Worlds, and it is here, on the planet Mysticos, that the Mysticons dwell.

The Mysticons are an ancient, slow culture dwelling beneath the frozen skies of their planet, musing on philosophies and mysteries and economics. For the Mysticons have developed extremely valuable and exotic materials, which they may sell to the denizens of the inner worlds for any price they desire, chief among these is the Black Cloth, which has strange properties to do with hyperspace that makes even a small hat able to contain all manner of things. The Miraculous Mysticon Mercatoria rules the trade routes of the Far System, and is considered by the inner system to be the Far branch of the Sx3, which is certainly one way of seeing things, since the Mysticon Merchants have, between them, a huge number of shares and influence among the Stockholders.

[Tangith]

The Galaxions

Giant glittering humanoids whom are able to walk across worlds quite literally with one step; these are but one of the ancient beings whom have engineered many planets to sentience for reasons still clouded and unknown to their denizens. They, along with the Pinkos (giant pink space elephants) and many other sub-factions have called themselves the master race.

-----

Note: All right, the summary is up.

[Invictus]

(We're still allowed to continue, right? )

The Videodomes of Mars

Both community hubs and public entertainment venues, no respectable metropolis on Mars is without one of these gargantuan globular buildings. Their curved roofs are masterfully constructed and can be rendered transparent through the power of science, revealing themselves to be lenses of such immenseness that they would not be able to support their own weight outside the light gravity of Mars. With the cunning arrangement of Mars Mirrors at Lagrange Points, these lenses allow anyone under the Videodome to peer across interplanetary distances. The proles of Mars in particular use them to view their favorite entertainment - the going ons on the surface of Dirty. Under the reflected light from the distant planet, thousands of bets are exchanged every day, millions of oblivious Men are cheered for and leagues of armchair Bastards rise and fall.

[speaker-to-trolls]

(^Hey I don't see why not, no one's said to stop, afterall )
The Cult of Caloric Culmination and the search for the ideal chocolate
The chocolate Mars Bars are the principle food of the Martians, providing all the nutrients a Martian requires to grow and sustain themselves throughout their lives. This is in stark contrast to the other races of the solar system, since if Men or Mangs were to eat them in the same way they would gain only sugar, and thus become corpulent, rotten-toothed and eventually dead as their hearts failed to cope with their newly accumulated fat. The reason for this is that the cultivators of the Martian chocolate have worked ceaselessly for hundreds of years to ensure that the chocolate which goes to making the Mars Bars is perfectly suited to the Martian metabolism, and to this end they have modified not only the chocolate but the physiology of the Martians themselves.

For, gentle reader, to the Martians the improvement of their staple food is not merely a nutritional, agricultural or economic excercise, oh no, it is far more than that. It is one of the driving forces in their culture, a philosophical, almost religious drive towards the principle of Calorific Culmination, or in other words, the quest to create the Ideal Chocolate. There are many thoughts about what the ideal chocolate might actually do: some say it would simply provide the maximum possible nutrients and calories to its recipient, others say it would do this and encourage in them the modesty not to overly consume it and the wisdom to productively apply the energy it delivered, others still say that the ideal chocolate would surely be FAR beyond such limited vision, and confer on its consumer powers and understanding far beyond those currently attained by Martians. Some say that there is a singular ideal form of chocolate, others say it can never be finalised, but the ideal itself is to constantly improve upon the recipe and the consumers appreciation for it. It is agreed by most that the chocolate must, obviously, be dark and contain toffee, but should the toffee be hard or soft? should it also contain biscuit? Should it contain nuts? what should be the ratio of the toffee to the main body of chocolate? These are all questions which are debated by the greatest minds on Mars as they take the myriad varieties of Martian chocolate and devise new and more sublime recipes in their quest for Condimentary perfection.

The Men of Planet Dirty have no idea of the subtleties in the different kinds of chocolate they grow for the Martians, when asked about the quality of different kind of Mars Bars they will usually say something displaying their barbarous ignorance, such as "tastes just like the last one if you ask me".

[Invictus]

Secret Societies

Almost all are at least dimly aware that the Sol System is seeded with ancient mysteries and littered with frustrating enigmas beyond the understanding of its dwellers. The shadow of the Master Races never cease to strike awe and wonder in Men, Mangs, Womangs, Martians and all others, yet at the same time inspire them to the hope that one day they will harness the same knowledge and power that these star-shaping beings possessed. Knowledge is the true currency of the civilized worlds, carefully rationed and hoarded by those who seek power over their fellows. Some go even further and even deny others knowledge of their own existence, seeking to become the masters of all - or simply to achieve their ideals unnoticed and unmolested.

The Aces of Savage Steel value individual power and dynamicism above all. They see themselves as thriving upon conflict and seek to engender it wherever their is peace and overthrow order wherever they see a surfeit of it. Master warriors and provocateurs, their membership is small and uncertain, with a tendency for infighting that limits the extent of their threat to the governments of the Inner Worlds. Almost every member is in possession of his own spaceship, in addition to a weapon of Martian Steel - it is said that that their agents were the ones who earned the eternal enmity of Mars when they stole the Seven Master Swords for their own use, each of the blades reputedly equal to the Tyrant's personal regalium, Ribboncutter. The closest thing the Aces have to a base of operations is the cursed moon of Ceres at the heart of the Asteroid Belt, which they use to hold their initiation battles.

The Sages of the Tenebrous Tree are comprised mostly of Men but also of Martians, sharing an insatiable curiosity about the structure of life and especially of the monumental living creations of the Master Races. They believe the Living Worlds and the World Serpent to be truly impressive achievements of engineering, but refuse to hold them sacred as the vast majority of planet-dwellers do. To these they combine the twin taboos of radical gene-tampering and aspirations to become gods themselves, seeking opportunities to study and dissect their objects of curiosity and somehow unlock the principles of cosmic wisdom within them, then implant these properties into Man and Martian to make them become Master Races themselves. The Sages disdain qualities like patience and spirituality and believe that their way will usher in a new age for Sol, if those in power would simply cast aside their objections to highly destructive studies of vital bodies in the system.

The Keepers of Unyielding Umbrage believe that the planet Dirty as we know it is a lie. They cannot accept that it is Man's lot to wallow in giant trees on a ball of mud, fending off twisted albino mockeries of themselves from below ground and forced to toil to satisfy the sweet tooth of beings from another planet. They find it ridiculous on an unexplainable level that their life-giving star is also a distant, unappeasable creature whose mere temper could wreak great destruction among them. They do not only feel that Man deserve something more, but also that they should always have and that their current place in the cosmos is the result of some fundamental error in reality. To correct this mistake, the Keepers quest endlessly for some sort of reset button, a key to reverse the entire sad state of affairs with a single stroke.