General The Imperium re-imagined

[mike wightman]

A couple of recent threads, Marc's Agent of the Imperium novel, and T5 have me re-appraising how I am going to present the Imperium as the background off stage empire.

First, the Spinward Marches have only been settled by the Imperium for 600 years, there were land grabs by Imperial citizens prior to this but the Imperium proper didn't move into the Marches until 497.

This allows me to to present the Marches as a frontier.

Imperial ex-service personnel tend to be augmented - wafer jacks, bio-augmented physical stats, drug glands

ex-Marches personnel lack these

biological synthetics and "lobotomised" clone families are regularly seen on Imperial worlds, they are often owned by megacorporations and nobles and are treated as slaves.

I am shrinking the Marches down to only four subsectors, relocating every world I have a rumour/adventure seed for to these four subsectors. Civilian star charts only exist for Imperial territory.

My daughter and her boyfriend are starting their adventures (with Death Station) this weekend.

edit - forgot this bit. Everyone gets a DeePA - a digital personal assistant - think ChatGPT+Siri/Cortana/Alexa. Augmented reality via glasses or contact lens, VR with metaverse via headsets and haptic body suits as options.

 

[Spenser TR]

Ha, I love all of this. I just finished a re-read of AotI, and also happen to be making notes on common/useful devices I could see Travellers having. I'm also making notes on glasses, and would love to compare at some point. Obviously I'm a fan of fleshing out the Imperium in a custom way, and "retrotech" makes my eyes ache.

 

[mike wightman]

The DeePA is a specialised program that makes interaction with the smart environment surrounding a character, on worlds with a TL of 8+ and all Imperial starports, much easier. It can have any appearance of the users choosing and also has a personality that can be tailored. It learns the preferences of the character, and over time its personality may develop in a unique way. The DeePA can do digital errands, and can be seen in displays, AU and VR. It responds to verbal commands, recognises gestures and can communicate via comdots or other microphone/speaker/headphone systems it can connect with.

The contact lens and earbuds/commdots are the characters' direct interface with the AU world around them and their DeePA.
Some people do not like the contact lens and will opt for a pair of glasses with built in video and audio display and receiver.

On worlds that lack the infrastructure then the lens/DeePA system is limited to the character and any other characters or devices within a few metres, although interface with a ship's comm system and satellite may provide enhanced usefulness.

Inspirations - Blade Runner 2049, Minority Report, Ready Player One, The Peripheral, Anon, Black Mirror

 

[Diveguy]

I will be following this project with great interest...