The Lost Tribes

[Dan Stack]

Icarus players read no further....


As Dan, the flighty narrator, struggles to avoid the lure of the Star Wars universe (must make it to ST:TMP DVD... ) I've been tinkering with a background for the Constitution-class Icarus during the 23rd century.

Inspired by the Middle East during the Cold War, I have the beginnings of an idea. Basically, we have a civilization, a deeply religious people who a few hundred years ago had achieved major scientific advancements on their homeworld, just short of FTL travel (which they had "proven" as impossible). They sent out colony ships, colonizing a dozen worlds in nearby systems. However, their civilization, limited by sublight travel, stagnated and was damaged by civil wars on the homeworld.

Move forward to the 23rd century. These peoples (not a united government but rather a dozen or so pricipalities) have purchased warp drive from the Orions and find themselves as minor powers, though wealthy ones, due to the high concentration of dilithium (i.e. oil) on most of their worlds.

In the Cold War between the Klingon Empire and Federation, the various principalities have ever-shifting alliances between the various major goverments, with the Orions always seeming to make the most money. However, things will soon be coming to a head with a major religious revolution (orchestrated by the Klingons) on a fairly secular world currently allied with the Federation - I have visions of students storming the Federation embassy.

Obviously this is just the beginings of an idea, but comments as always are appreciated. What I'm especially interested in is some religion which unites the various worlds. Despite the obvious cultural parallels with the Middle East, I'd prefer to avoid basing their religion off of Islam or Judaism. I'm looking to create a religion with tons of possible variants. I also have a tendency to whip out the Iconians every fourth adventure so to avoid being a cliche I'm trying to avoid making the religion based on any "godlike alien of the week".

These worlds will not be the be-all, end-all of the campaign - there will be many unexplored worlds in the region as well, along with the occasional Klingon or Federation colony.

[ghosty]

How about a variant of the G'auld (sp) from Stargate SG-1. Each of the planets was controlled by a parasitic alien from the same "pantheon" so they have the same "religion" but their "philosophy" is coloured by the personality of their homeworld's "deity".

Over the years migration has spread various cults and sub-groups to every planet but in most cases they are a minority, sometimes tolerated, sometimes oppressed by their host worlds.

Once in a while, one cult manages to "infect" the populace of a world, and that could lead to a religious revolution.

The alien "Gods" are long dead although their descendants may return...through their Starga...

[Robbert Raets]

You could make their religion a bit klingon-esque by taking a mythical hero rather than a divine being.

$0.02

[Highway Hoss]

Dan here are a couple of articles I found at the Way with Worlds website: Writing Religion into your continuity and Creating a Religion. I hope these help a little.

[ghosty]

I thought the Klingons have Gods. Khaless is not a God just a legendary folk hero who examplifies all that is supposed to be good about being Klingon.

[calguard66]

Originally posted by ghosty
I thought the Klingons have Gods. Khaless is not a God just a legendary folk hero who examplifies all that is supposed to be good about being Klingon.

The Klingons killed all their gods, because they were more trouble than they were worth.

[Thundergod]

Do you remember Tyree? Kirk visited his world prior to the TOS series. They were freinds, but Tyree didn't know Kirk was a Starfleet officer.
Whatever governmental body you choose to utilize it might make a better adventure if you focus on the small family unit and there day to day struggles. We are watching on the news as we bring food and resources to Afganhistan, and yet we are at war with them. There is a fundamental divergence in this warlord like culture a strict stratification that should be noted.
Whoever is in control might not be what these people are about.

How do you tell this story?
Read no further if you have already started or dont give a hoot about how I run games.

Here is what I would do.

Start off with a duckblind operation or a covert ops (depending on your players intrests) Have it go south and two or three of the players are stuck in this alien culture. If they are caught it looks bad on the Federation and they might be nixed...If they can somehow get out and expose the evil Klingon (breen tholian, random badguy) influence they will make the federation look like pimps and save the day.
Meanwhile...
The other players are stuck waiting for the landing party to return and get exposed by the Klingons (breen tholians random badguy) and are now in a tricky political situation. A Federation starship near Taliban controled waters isn't illegal, but isn't wanted. (ie. The uss Cole)

The essence of this would be teaching the players about a new race or culture that has a severe dichotomy to it. It could paralel current world politics and would have sustainance. I sometime worry that sustainance isn't enough to feed my PC's, but it works out in the end. A little high morality a few photon torpedoes.

They Landing party would learn of the kind gentle oppressed people who barely can feed themselves, and yet have a rich culture and great pride for themselves and their beliefes.

the Ship would learn of an evil government who only wants control of a vast dilithium reserve and will stop at nothing to maintain that control.

This game is what I call a back and forth paced game, with each scene complementing and building on the other. My general format would be to develop in that sense. Divide the game into various scenes that give information and that information will lead to a conclusion that is end game.

Endgame should be the result of a significant understanding of this cultures ways.. The threads that bind the commoners to the higher ups. The things that make these two radically different peoples one people.

In our modern world it is the religion that is the common ground for the Taliban controlers and the common people.

It gets tricky....cause even though there is a warp society the Prime directive will still apply for internal conflicts.

Wow that looks like a cool game....I think Im gonna run it next.
PAX
JLA

[Perrryyy]

I could be spilling the beans here, but..

This sounds a lot like Maximum Warp: Book 1, with interesting twists, minus the ideological dilemna.

[Dan Stack]

Was working with one of my players on the background for her character, a specialist in alien cultures and xenobiology.

One of her previous assignments was to a world of passionate Vulcanoids. Putting two and two together, the original homeworld of these lost tribes isn't actually they're homeworld, it's the first world they colonized when fleeing Vulcan. Fighting amonst themselves, they nearly destroyed it, causing them to further scatter to the twelve worlds, where they can follow their own version of pre-Reformation Vulcan religion...

[Lancer]

While I have no idea if there is anything canon written about pro-reformation vulcan religion I'll throw in my 0.02$ anyway.

Vulcan has allways been a world of harsh climatic conditions. In a world that is dominated by deserts, rocks, the sun and maybe sandstorms I would go for a religion that sees the divine in natural phenomena. With daily survival depending for a large part on your immediate surroundings this would seem logical to me.

That could lead to a shamanistic tradition or something like japanese Shinto.
Both should be exotic enough to appear 'alien' to most players.