Jack

by on January 13, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Character Profiles

I grew up in the Boundary Waters between the United States and Canada west of the Great Lakes. There’s water everywhere up there, and I think I learned to swim before I could walk. My life revolved around water. Swimming. Fishing. Partying. I could walk out of my door, down the hill, and straight into the water. I knew the feel of minnows nibbling on my toes. I knew exactly how much tension to put on rod and reel, what the line could handle, and how long a fish could fight. I ice fished in winter, and yes, I made a fair bit of money showing my little part of paradise to all the city slickers who wanted to see it for a weekend or maybe a weeklong vacation. Yes, I was one of those guys who flirted with the pretty daughters of rich bankers and business owners while showing the family a romanticized version of my life. The most beautiful and safe parts of it. I loved that life. I never wanted it to end.

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Lucas Cats

by on January 12, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

San Lucas was the center of a moral dilemma for humanity. Elements of the Gangani, indigenous intelligent cats, asked us for help in overthrowing their current government. This brought up many questions for us when it comes to the morality of interfering with indigenous cultures. Many people promoted a Star Trek-like Prime Directive that all humanity should ascribe to, while others detailed all the times our most successful empires used requests for help just like this to overthrow less powerful governments for our own benefit. And others asked if it would be moral to ignore a request for help from someone who was obviously intelligent enough to ask for it. After much internal debate, the human government of San Lucas chose to answer the call for help, and that has affected our relations with the San Lucas cats ever since.

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San Lucas – Hankou

by on January 11, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Essential Galactic Atlas

The eastern continent of San Lucas is named Hankou, and is home to the Toshi and Laohu civilizations that are embroiled in a contentious religious war to this day. Hankou is a roughly circular continent dominated by lowland jungles and a few tree-covered mountain ranges spiraling out from the single massive volcano in the continent’s center. It had been largely dormant for thousands of years when we arrived, but geological evidence showed periodic eruptions that covered the lowlands in volcanic ash over and over again. That made the lowlands amazingly fertile, and the jungles that filled them flourished. And so did the cats who lived there. It was an excellent place to grow a new civilization, as long as the volcano remained dormant.

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Jack

by on January 10, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Character Profiles

I grew up in Northern Minnesota. I could step out of my room and see a deer walking in the trees. I could step out onto the dock and catch my evening meal out of the lake. I thought that was normal when I was young. Even in school, my International Falls classmates included a lot of kids like me. They lived away from the town center, in the middle of nature. Sure, some of them lived in town, but even they had family or friends outside and could enjoy the same life I did on the weekends. We grew up on the lake, in the woods, under the stars, breathing crisp morning air. It was paradise. I didn’t realize at the time how rare it was. Now I do, and I can say without reservation that I was blessed to grow up on the edge of civilization.

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Lucas Cats

by on January 9, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

San Lucas is home to several species of large cats genetically modified from Terran species. The panther-derived Gangani ruled an empire hundreds of years old when we arrived. Our ships painted fire in the sky as they came down and sparked rebellions from those the Gangani ruled, both other panthers and the jaguar-derived cats they had conquered centuries ago. It was a slow serious of rebellions, some cold and others hot, as province after province chose to leave. The Gangani let some go with little to no response. Those were invariably on the outskirts of the empire, backwaters they did not care about. The important regions that wanted to leave garnered a different response, and several bloody rebellions were in progress when reformists inside the Gangani made Contact with us. They had been watching us, you see. And some among them thought we could help.

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