Pre-empire terra adventure Idea

[rfmcdpei]

Earth is the most advance human civilization the Vilani have yet encountered, so assimilation with the Vilani culture is somewhat problematic, especially in the region of Earth known as the Middle East.

Dear. Let's hope that some of the more misogynistic regimes in the region don't mistreat the Vilani scouts and ambassadors, if only for the sakes of the populations they govern. (Do the Vilani retain their scorched-earth methods of war in your variant?)

 

[Whipsnade]

Tom Kalbfus wrote:

"The Traveller Universe establishes that some humans originate from other planets such as Vland rather than all coming from Earth."


Mr. Kalbfus,

I don't quite understand what you mean by that. Are you saying that humans evolved on Vland and Earth? In the OTU or in your setting? (Which is rather interesting by the way)

"Earth is the most advance human civilization the Vilani have yet encountered..."

This bit refers to your setting, right? None of the OTU's Seurrat with their sector-sized STL empire or the Geonee with their relic jump drives?

Intriguing setting, especially the matriarchy bits.


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[TKalbfus]

Tom Kalbfus wrote:

"The Traveller Universe establishes that some humans originate from other planets such as Vland rather than all coming from Earth."


Mr. Kalbfus,

I don't quite understand what you mean by that. Are you saying that humans evolved on Vland and Earth? In the OTU or in your setting? (Which is rather interesting by the way)

According to the Imperial Fringe Library Data, the Vilani discovered the Jump Drive in 4714 BC if you translate into the Terran Dating System, this predates Earth's Early Mesopotamian Civilization At this point the Vilani civilization was at TL 9. It could be surmized that the Vilani humans were planted on Vland in roughly 10,200 BC or before, at a time when their tech level was 0. This is the time of Earth's most recent Ice Age. Since the current date is 2004, that means the Vilani have had 12,200 years to evolve separately from Earth Humans, 6717 of those years was as a civilization of TL 9 or greater. For 6717 years the Vilani had the ability to alter their DNA and engineer themselves to suit. 6717 years of high technology means that the greater strength of the human male matters less, and for 6717 year the Vilani women don't even need men to reproduce, they could clone themselves via parthenogenesis or through genetic insertion. They could have at some point produced artificial sperm cells as a vehicle to transport DNA from Woman to Woman, or perhaps a few men are kept around for reproduction, but women outnumber men by about 10 to 1 through use of artificial sex selection. Perhaps a population control program such as the one in China except that women had higher social status than men and so women were preferred. I don't know about those other human civilizations, but according to the book, the Vilani encountered them when they were primitive and some worlds advanced separately without being assimilated. The Vilani later conquered those worlds, but they hav never had a first contact with a world whose tech level was above TL 7, they may have been out there, but the Vilani haven't encountered them yet. The Vagyr, they know about, but they aren't human. A glance at the map indicates Vland to be coreward of Earth, everything rimward of Earth is therefore unexplored territory. Prometheus is an uninhabited garden world with a dense atmosphere and Vland is very far away. Because of Earth's high population, the Vilani find this to be a valuable resource so an arrangement is established. the Earth's Nations retain their independence and Earth remains Balkanized, but in exchange for remitting 5% of each Nation's GDP, the individual nations gain access to TL 12 technology supplied by the Vilani who keep technology above that to themselves, just about all the ships in the T20 book are available for sale except for the System Defense boat. Large corporations and government purchase these starships and spaceships and their first goal is to colonize the planet Prometheus. Much of the TL 12 technology has yet to filter down to the personal level, as the Vilani merchants are bringing it in as fast as they can, but it isn't fast enough to meet demand so many personal weapons from the d20 Modern handbook are still in wide use, Government Militaries get first dibs on all the TL 12 stuff and since they compete with other nations they bid up the price of this stuff quite considerably. Any personal item above TL7 is at 5 times its listed price. The US government equips its elite military units with laser rifles while the Vilani keep the better stuff to themselves. The Vilani have also begun recruiting Earth humans into their services with preferences towards females. Generally the Navy and Marines are all women. The Scouts are accepting men. There is no Vilani Army in the area, so Army characters belong to National Armies such as the US Army. The US Army has purchased a number of Mercenary Cruisers to carry their troops around. Established Merchants tend to be Vilani, while newly organized Terran Merchant companies are up an running, they end up hiring Vilani crew members as they know how to pilot and operate the ships.

 

[Whipsnade]

Tom Kalbfus explained:

"It could be surmized that the Vilani humans were planted on Vland in roughly 10,200 BC or before, at a time when their tech level was 0. This is the time of Earth's most recent Ice Age. Since the current date is 2004, that means the Vilani have had 12,200 years to evolve separately from Earth Humans, 6717 of those years was as a civilization of TL 9 or greater."


Mr. Kalbfus,

Okay, I understand now. You're talking about your very interesting Vilani-2004 setting and not the OTU. By the way, that's what makes your setting interesting - It's not the OTU!

Here are some ideas and dates from the OTU you might fold into your setting. Please note, I said might. If they don't match your setting, ignore them and have fun!

- About 395K BC: The Ancients remove humans from Earth and transplant them on many worlds throughout Chartered Space. This would give your setting's Vilani even more time to 'evolve'; either naturally or through engineering, in different ways. (BTW, for a species with our procreational lifespan, 6700 years is an eye blink in terms of natural evolution. Any evolution would have to be directed via engineering.)

- The Vilani met plenty of other technological human civilizations before reaching Earth. The only difference is that the Vilani had both jump drive and numbers. The Seurrat had the numbers, but their sector-sized STL empire held together by generation ships and the Vilani could move faster. The Geonee had jump drive; reverse engineered from Ancient wrecks, but they had only explored outward for a subsector or so, thus the Vilani had more numbers.

"For 6717 years the Vilani had the ability to alter their DNA and engineer themselves to suit."

A very good point. The OTU seems 'lite' on widespread bio-engineering. You may want to purchase GURPS:Transhuman Space for some ideas on just how your Vilani changed themselves.

Anyway, it sounds like an extremely interesting setting and I hope you keep us informed as to how it plays out.


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[TKalbfus]

Mr. Kalbfus,

Okay, I understand now. You're talking about your very interesting Vilani-2004 setting and not the OTU. By the way, that's what makes your setting interesting - It's not the OTU!

If it was the OTU, the future would be all mapped out. I'd also have research volumes of material before beginning play and there is always the uncertainty about getting everything right. As it is I looked throug the Library in the reprints supplement. I don't know where you looked to find the 395,000 BC, perhaps you have some materials I don't. I deduced the 12,200 BC figure from the date in which the Vilani invented the Jump Drive basically by subtracting the amount of years between the first earth Civilization and today from about 4718 BC. One thing I forgot to take into account is that the Vilani are much slower than Earth Humans in technological innovations. Paleontology supports this view, there were humans in 395,000 BC, maybe not quite modern Homo Sapiens, but humans nonetheless, it was these humans that the Ancients abducted. The ones left on Earth continued chipping the same stone tools and building the same stone fires with little change for 385,000 years, then something changed on earth. The rate of technological innovation changed, but this was after the Ancients have come and gone. The Ancients had their group of humans and perhaps made some improvements on them, the Vilani were ahead of the Earth Humans reaching TL 9 just when the first Earth Civilizations arose, but the Earthlings caught up with the Vilani and defeated them in the first Interstellar war. So apparently the Vilani are cousins to Homo Sapiens on the Evolutionary tree, much like the Neanderthal were. Neanderthal could just of easily have been removed to another planet by the ancients.

 

[Whipsnade]

Tom Kalbfus explained further:

"If it was the OTU, the future would be all mapped out."


Mr. Kalbfus,

Yup, that's what makes your setting so very interesting.

I do hope you can find the time to write up a guide of sorts to your 'Vilani-2004' setting. I'm certain many folks here would find your setting extremely useful. (BTW, V-2004 is my name for it, we should really use YOUR name for it!)


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[Flynn]

Tom,

If it helps, here's a link to an accumulated Timeline of the OTU, based on CT, MT and T4 products (sources are cited, so you can pick and choose as you wish):

http://winterwar.prairienet.org/dmckinne/trav.html

Hope this proves helpful for you,
Flynn