Roleplay / Void of the Stars

"Magical space ponies, wormholes that act like black holes, drive systems that can decimate entire solar systems, and a backstory where two universes crash into each other.
To think I like hard sci-fi."

—Keyguyperson, Roleplay's GM

Void of the Stars is a Play-by-Post Nation Roleplay set IN SPACE. It also has a wiki and a forum.

Only a hundred years in the future from 2013, a war broke out between the fifteen planets of humanity. It wasn't a rebellion, it wasn't an alien invasion, it was a thousand interconnected genocides, a religious war dubbed the "Common Sense War". The death toll by the time the war ended was three-hundred billion. The whole thing ended with an Earth-Shattering Kaboom on Gliese 581g, courtesy of ludicrous numbers of Fantastic Nukes. When an entire planet got destroyed, humanity realized that they had to clean up their act, and thus the Earth Alliance was formed and the Common Sense Doctrine set in place. That Doctrine stated that humans were inferior to all other sentient species. Perhaps a minor overreaction.

Jump forward though a whole bunch of somewhat repetitive and boring wars, and we come to the Multiversal War. An extradimensional species known as the Reapers invaded the universe. Seemingly unstoppable, the Triarian Collective put together a horrifying weapon capable of destroying an entire universe. It was unleashed into the Reaper's home universe, and worked too well- not just destroying it, but causing the remnants to collide and merge together with the 'primary' universe. This caused tears to open in the fabric of space-time, and the civilisations of the Milky Way Galaxy were flung back to a 21st-century level of technology.

The current roleplay takes place just as the civilizations of the Milky Way are beginning to go back out into space, some are exactly the same due to either surviving the Multiversal War or being preserved by their respective Gods/Goddesses. Multiple species are ripped directly from other works, but the Void Of The Stars community doesn't do anything illegal. We make no money off of this, and everything taken from other works is adapted or expanded on.

---

Void of the Stars contains examples of:

• Ancient Astronauts: Of a sort. The Boskops and Ethra'Hirel are Terran natives, but left Earth when the humans started getting bloodthirsty. Aside from that detail, they are a perfect example of this trope, having been credited with the myth of Prometheus, Atlantis, and multiple others.
• Apocalypse How:
  • On varying levels. Everything from Regional/Societal Disruption to Multiversal/Metaphysical Annihilation. Of course, the Milky Way was completely unaffected. By absolute chance, as well. The Milky Way just randomly happened to not be torn apart like everything else in existence.
  • The Aetherii were taken from Universal Dominating master race to having only a handful of people protected by their own children. How? Uh... there was... a darkness... and a plague and... yeah.
• Artistic License – Physics:
  • The most realistic part of the roleplay is the FTL used by the humans and their affiliated species. That's exactly how physically inaccurate the roleplay is.
  • Magic, psychic powers, and the entire universe crashing backstory are the largest offenders, although there are others. Such as two characters from different galaxies being in communication since before the invention of FTL on either of their worlds.
  • The Triarian Collective breaks into another universe every time they want to travel across the stars.
  • The Allied Interstellar Federation used standard plasma shielding to protect them from the fact that the universe they eventually used for interstellar travel as two-dimensional. This was retconned in the sequel, with their starships creating a mini-universe around them for travel in "Planespace".
• Author Avatar: Fergus McClain/Fairlan Miklan for the AIF and LCF respectively, and Duck deSteelhorn for the Equestrian Empire. Both usually get a nice little Deus ex Machina if anything slight bad happens to them ever. Sometimes Fergus/Fairlan ends up suffering, but only if Keyguyperson feels sadistic that day. There appear to be two alternate Fergus McClains, one who is sickeningly optimistic and thinks all species can live together in one big happy family, and another that wants to destroy all life in the multiverse. Of course, the Primary Universe one isn't any less crazy, as he wants to know literally everything.
• Badass Army: The Collective Equitem. They have weapons that can destroy half a person in a single hit or destroy entire sections of wall as one of their standard issue rifles, as well as weapons which are capable of annihilating planets.
• Big Brother Is Watching: The Hyacintho Mental Collective, part of the Lakfakalle Cooperative Federation. All of its citizens are connected by a natural hive mind, thus there are no internal secrets. Of course, if you fall in love with a non-citizen...

• Bio-Augmentation:
  • Defied with the humans, the Common Sense Doctrine makes it taboo and illegal to genetically modify humans. Subspecies creation is fine though.
  • Played straight with the Triarian Collective, almost all their soldiers have some form of bioaugmentations.
  • The Equestrians also make frequent use of genetic modification.

• Brainwashing for the Greater Good:
  • All Collective soldiers, and pretty much anyone who is important, comes close to important, meets with anyone important, sees or passes close to anything important in order to keep everything safe and secure. Ironically they have a Doctrine that's literally called 'The Greater Good'. All this is about as ethical and moral as it sounds.
  • The Hyacintho Mental Collective. Don't even think about dating a non-Delphan.
  • While not for the Greater Good, The Equestrian Empire does technically do brainwashing. Propaganda and constant influence from Equestrian religion and culture is used to keep everyone on the same ideology and friendly to one another. The reason the Greater Good does not apply as is because Equestrian beliefs dictate the importance of individual freedom and liberty.
• Collateral Angst: The Sazkarjhit managed to do this when they tried to destroy someone for their religious beliefs. The Delphans also have a shade of this, as the Collective are not enthused that these seemingly all powerful beings have been hiding among the LCF for millennia and haven't helped with all the universal invasions. Fortunately for the Delphans, they are collateral angst because of the massive universal invasion coming this way.
• Crapsaccharine World:
  • You've got a race with magic and cute little cities with princesses ruling it, a human race which advancements come from accidental jokes and a progressive social structure involving many different races... wait, hang on, there's also a dictatorship which enslaves anyone it comes across and mind fucks it's people on a daily basis; not one, not two but three evil alien bug like races which love to consume all life, a race which often leads religious wars and a race which enslaved it's predecessors. Oh, and that human Empire? It's had two massive race/religious wars with it's self.
  • The Equestrians to a extent. On the outside there all sunshine and rainbows, but on the inside they turn people into synths, horrifying things of both cybernetics and genetic modification. They are also fine with creating sub-species and cloning them for testing. And proceed to murder these test subjects the minute they try to find the rest of their kind.
  • Even the Abh Empire, which appears to be too liberal for liberals, forcibly genetically modify all children with at least one Abh parent so that they are genetically perfect Abh. If the process fails and they are missing a certain Abh gene, then they are either cast out of the Empire or just killed off right there.
• Crapsack World: The Collective. It's overpopulated due to the universal war, is facing high poverty levels, has a huge Big Brother program supported by a police force which is supplied with APC's armed with weapons which could probably bring down a building in just over a minute, where you can be prosecuted for Running, swearing or insulting other people, with a state run eugenics program and god save your soul if you are caught reproducing without the governments permission. Don't try to mess with them though, they may sound like North Korea but they have weapons which can destroy planets if they go to war, and they've exterminated and conquered many races

• Cyborg: Both the Collective and Equestrians make frequent use of cybernetics. Cybernetics is one of the few enhancement processes permitted for humans, it was used by the Allied Interstellar Federation to form a human hive mind.

• The Dreaded:
  • The Collective in general embodies this. Not only are they extremely dangerous, but you're probably better off dead than surrendering to them.
  • Admiral Yuuki Sora, the somewhat insane and bloodthirsty AIF officer. When you see her ship in a battle, you know that you either destroy her fleet or she destroys yours. Usually the latter.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom:
  • Done by the Triarian Collective and Equestrian Empire, both of which are generally considered the good guys. That specific example is taken from the War of Morn, where the Triarian Collective was trying to conduct an archaeological dig (albeit using the natives as slaves), and the Equestrians came in and blew up the planet to save the natives.
  • The Triarian Collective doesn't want their technology to be captured and used for ill or their people to be captured and tortured. Solution? Blow up the planet if the invaders are winning.
  • Theoretically, given enough time and energy, the Lakfakalle Cooperative Federation fleet could destroy a planet.
  • Sazkarjhia's Delta VIII Experimental Atomic Resonance Cannon is basically a giant orbital MAC that fires a spaceship-sized nuclear slug. If ever used the kinetic impact alone would be devastating but also comes with the added bonus of a nuclear explosion.

• Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion: Sazkarjhia tried ethnically cleansing a planet and force-convert them to their religion. Not only did they lose miserably but also received the Collateral Angst of several other empires and ended up enduring a several-year occupation of their homeworld.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • The Collective and the Equestrians. Not entirely unwarranted, considering the Equestrians stole DNA from a Triarian (resulting in her having a miscarriage due to the toxin used) and then used it to create Triarian clones that were supposed to be loyal to the Equestrians.
  • The Supremes and Equestrians, as the Supremes remember when the Equestrians were a warmongering hypocritical nation.
  • Lakfakalle Cooperative Federation posts suffer from this as well, it seems Keyguyperson absolutely loves to explain how all his technology works. He also likes to explain the culture of Lakfakalle, although not quite as much as the technology. Especially the Warp Drive. Keyguyperson loves his Warp Drive.
  • Triarian posts are the largest offenders, from cultural descriptions to improbable science workings to simple descriptions of every day life, nothing seems to be safe from being turned into exposition.
• Fantastic Nuke: The Equestrian Balefire spell, the human antimatter bombs, and the Triarian standard main weapon.
• Fluffy the Terrible: The Equestrians. They are rainbow colored equines that are very nice but have weapons capable of mass destruction and can very easily kill a lot of people if they wanted. Actually, they aren't even that nice. Point in question, they grow some Triarian clones, and then when the children try to escape to find their own kind, they recapture and then brutally destroy them.
• Four-Star Badass:
  • The Triarian Supreme Overlord and Overlords, and to a lesser extent the Fleet, Field and Defence Masters.
  • Equestrian Admirals, they usually under-go massive amounts of training and are very disciplined and intelligent. A lot are even veterans from the 2nd Changeling War, which was the most brutal war in Equestrian history prior to the Space-Age.
  • Sazkarjhia's Military Cabinet, which consists of the Army Commander, the Naval Commander and the Supreme Commander of the military. All three have decades upon decades of experience both in the field and in officer positions and serve as de facto leaders of Sazkarhia if the Grand Vessel goes missing or is killed.
• God-Emperor: The Sazkarjhit leader, known as a "Grand Vessel" is believed to be a prophet of the highest god in Sazkarjhian religion, and thus is in almost complete dictatorial control of Sazkarjhia.
• Holy Ground:
  • Mount Karbor is the holiest site in Sazkarjhia. If it gets destroyed the whole empire's culture will unravel. Also the site of an execution of a Grand Vessel when Sazkarjhia attacked the Haches.
  • Equiis. The place is general is considered to be the center of Faust's influence, and contains many holy relics.
• Infodump: All over the place, present in nearly every In Character post.
• Insufficiently Advanced Alien: Compared to the other empires, Sazkarjhia is much smaller and out of all of them, the least advanced.

• Lawful Stupid: The Collective's Civilis Protectione. Accidental entry into their space? You're trespassing, prepare to receive civil judgement! Ran down the street? You're travelling at unauthorised velocities, prepare to receive civil judgement!

• Macross Missile Massacre: What happens when the humans aren't close enough to use their antiproton streamers. Usually with FTL-equipped antimatter missiles.
• Meaningful Name:
  • All Triarian names have meanings, for instance 'Postumus' meaning 'Born After the Fathers Death', or Aculeo, meaning 'Unfriendly'.
  • The Triarian castes fall into this. For example, Primicerii means Leaders and Argutus means Thinker.

• Mood Dissonance: The Equestrian Empire is a fluffy, cutesy little monarchy where all is good and well and works simply because magic. The Collective is a dark, dystopian empire that's core value has become corrupted, filled with well-intentioned extremists and soldiers who have no empathy, even for their comrades and civilians. Oh, and Big Brother Is Watching
• The Mothership: The Sazkarjhit's Supreme Fleetmaster has a ~20 km long flagship with a planetoid-destroying coilgun on the front. However, it's very rarely used due to cost of its armament and maintenance.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Happens a lot with humans. E.g.: The Common Sense War, the Doctrinal Conflict, any time they sacrifice people for the greater good.
  • Averted with the Triarians. They almost never feel regret, and their entire way of life is based off of The Needs Of The Many.
• Newspeak: Medical terminology is used by the Collective for government reports, military orders and sometimes even casual conversation. The main reason? Medical terminology has less empathy attached to it.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • The Equestrians at the War of Morn. They went in to try and free the natives, but the result was the destruction of Morn and huge loss of life. Actually, pretty much any time the Equestrians try to interfere with the Collective's plans.
  • The Collective is guilty of this, as they managed to save the universe from the Reapers, but the device they used to do so ravaged all other galaxies, killing countless sentient beings.

• Noble Bird of Prey: The Bird which attacked the Equestrian GSF on the Triarian world counts as this. Even their blood can be dangerous, luckily they were wearing environment suits to protect them.
• No Transhumanism Allowed Averted, almost completely. It seems nobody in the universe at all has any ethical, moral or even personal bias against the idea of transhumanism. This is especially strange when you consider that the Humans have had multiple civil wars involving huge numbers of religious people, and yet no one has ever voiced opposition to this idea... The humans were actually violently opposed to anything beyond convenient neural transmitters and mind uploading, but only in themselves. Any other species could do it, but human genetic modification? Your house would be bombarded from orbit and all of your relatives imprisoned.
• Police State:
  • The O.G.V.S. is a Sazkarjhit private military force, but also Sazkarjhia's police. They serve and enact justice directly under the Grand Vessel.
  • The Collective. Their government's way of doing things when it comes to policing is basically 1984.
• Powers Do the Fighting: Equestrian Unicorns. They usually go into battle with only there horns and magic. Hell they don't even bring armor or a respiratory mask if there entering a dangerous environment, they just use more magic.

• Purposely Overpowered: All the true Big Bads of the roleplay. The GM considers powerful enemies a way to spice things up, and thus allows truly evil things to be ridiculously overpowered compared to the more standard nations.
• Recursive Creators: How the humans expand their negative mass production capabilities. The Warp Drive needs absolutely insane amounts of the stuff to make a jump.
• Recycled In Space: The whole thing is a Nation Roleplay set IN SPACE.

• Space Pirates: The Sylve Faction, a major antagonistic NPC group in the Vot S, are half-narcotics and gun-running corporation and half-nomadic pirate organization.

• Tele-Frag: Phase tanks. While they aren't exactly teleporting, they are phasing between universes... and the Collective just loves to use this phasing ability to sacrifice the Phase tank to destroy something bigger and stronger.

• Transhuman: Played straight with the Collective's Equitem. Not just Transhumans either, but Trans-Triarii, Trans-Saeva Simius... pretty much anything the Collective owns with the word 'trans' put before it, or 'Auctum' after it.
• Unperson:
  • The Collective. Not only can they make everyone else forget you exist, they can make you forget you exist and give you an entirely new personality and life if they please.
  • The Hyacintho Mental Collective will wipe your memory if you fall in love with anyone outside of it. Though this is justified, as the Delphans are hinted at being omniscient.

• Wave-Motion Gun:
  • What you get when you don't activate the bow particle tractor on the Warp Drive.
  • The Antiproton Streamer, which fires a solid stream of antiprotons at the target vessel.

• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • The Triarian Collective wants to end all wars in the Universe, create a universal union and bring about a golden age of universal prosperity and peace. How do they get there? Brainwashing, genetic manipulation, massive wars, theft, assassination, genocide and mind control. Lovely.
  • One of the alternate universe Fergus McClains wants to end all evil in the multiverse. How does he do it? By vowing to destroy all life that ever existed anywhere.

---