I_am_Wake
Legend
Stellaris
Stellar Tales
Unique Stellar Tales Modlist for this Playthrough
-Sahugin Emoji used within the Keltor Myriad, art by JennyBean
Long ago in the voids of space, ancient empires arose and clashed. Some fell, others would rise again and some never left.
Today the domains of dust clouds and solar systems are filled with storms, debris and tombs of the old ones to be reclaimed anew.
Today, new and reborn together at once take to the stars at once to decide the destiny of the Galaxy.
The Races:Stellar Tales
Unique Stellar Tales Modlist for this Playthrough
-Emperor Aster Roiseau I, shortly before the launch of the Eldish Empire's first FTL Drive.
-Sahugin Emoji used within the Keltor Myriad, art by JennyBean
Long ago in the voids of space, ancient empires arose and clashed. Some fell, others would rise again and some never left.
Today the domains of dust clouds and solar systems are filled with storms, debris and tombs of the old ones to be reclaimed anew.
Today, new and reborn together at once take to the stars at once to decide the destiny of the Galaxy.
The Eldish Empire:
Once caretaken by one of the many ancient empires, the Eldish have long since been lost to their unknown benefactor as a result of the Ardish Wars. Yet they remained and prospered on the otherwise perfect utopia, under the leadership of a royal family called the Roiseau whom served as Emperors and Empresses for the last three hundred years since the last dynasty ended with no heirs. The world of Eldham hosts various continents with unique cultures across, the Eldish peoples diverse and sporadic in their motivations, desires and wants.
The stars have been a distant dream until fairly recently, thanks to the efforts of the current Emperor, Aster. Having become Emperor at the age of tweleve due to an accident killing his mother, father and elder sister; he has long since been supportive and funding of spacefairing ventures. Now in the Eldish calendar year of 2200, a monumental moment of Eldish history, the first FTL drive had been installed upon a ship-- and sent across the blackness between systems to new frontiers.
• The Eldish are the playable race of this playthrough, from which all prospective shall be seen through.
• Their natural nameset is '40k Imperium,' but I shall be changing various names throughout the game to what I would like them to be.
• Their civics, traits and even origin have been chosen so that interaction with others throughout the Galaxy is to be interesting to say the least!
The Second Ardugon Empire:
In ancient times, the First Ardugon Empire rose and dominated most of the Galaxy. Imperial authority crushed down upon any independent systems, with any attempt at democracy or unifications beyond their own Empire seen as a threat. Naturally, they fought many wars- often started by themselves- and were responsible for the devastation of many ancient races now extinct. In a grand event known as the 'Ardish Wars' of legend, a coalition of ancient spacefairers united and defeated the First Ardugon Empire, reducing them to a shadow of their former selves until they only existed on one solitary planet: Gearasdan.
Above the planet of Gearasdan, a ring orbital station floats in motion, where the wealthy nobles and rulers that dictate all Ardish affairs reside out of reach from the lessers below. Believing their glory to be one with the past, the Second Ardugon Empire forms to relive the glory days of the ancient past.
• In this headcanon, the Fallen Empires became stagnent due to economic crisis following the Ardish Wars. As too do many Precursors within vanilla Stellaris were felled by the First Ardugon Empire.
• The Ardish speak Celtic.
• The Ardish are one of the longest living races in the entire Galaxy, which biologically may attribute to their profane arrogance.
Deoraí Càirdeas:
"Yours no longer."
When the First Ardish Empire spanned the Galaxy, their domains held various planet-sized cities. One such ecumenopolis rebelled against the Ardugon Empire during the war, independent from the various factions at the time, fighting for freedom against the oppressive rulers. Whilst independence did eventually become won, it was only after the complete destruction of all infastructure on the planet from Ardish orbital bombardments. Over the last many years, the inhabitants of this independent planet renamed to Deoraíocht evolved with their surroundings, becoming a new subspecie of Aldish, known to themselves simply as the Deoraí: the Exiles.
Deoraí society in anarchist, each soul completely free to live freely, every community with its own rules dependant to that culture and peoples. Large scale decisions are voted upon with aid of technology, an elected 'Speaker' [of the Deoraí] acts on behalf of all the Exiles in diplomatic affairs. These peoples generally have a reputation for being carefree, explorers and-- to their pride-- simply 'anarchists.'
• The Deoraí speak Welsh/Arthurian.
• Whilst their history blames the First Ardugon Empire entirely for their planet's current state, the Ardish Wars were not so clean. Their orbital bombardment was carried out not only by the Aridsh, but their foes also, believing that the eradication of even rebellious elements is to the benefit of the Galaxy at large.
Úathbás:
Constructed within the Ardish Wars to fight their battles, the First Ardugon Empire constructed the Bás: robotic warmachine servants to defeat their foes on their behalf. Programmed with servitude, the Saithe (swarm) were responsible for balancing the playing field of most battles, allowing the sole empire to battle various other spacefairing factions at once with earnest. However, following the fall of the First Ardish Empire, the Bás were mostly dismantled or left to the elements without commands across the cosmos.
The Úathbás was an exception.
Gaining sentience, Úathbás is a rogue AI with the sole directive of killing all life, including Ardish, whom it especially has a hate for. Taking control of remaining Bás across the Galaxy, they were all pulled into one system where, over the years, a singular planet has been coverted into a massive machine; the Úathbás itself.
• The name 'Úathbás' is Celtic for 'terror' or 'horror,' to which originates from the Ardish language in this galaxy. Bás alone means 'Death.'
• The idea of the Úathbás is to remain a constant evolving threat to the game, to be hopefully a crisis within itself.
Keltor Myriad:
Another threat of old, returned to modern destruction. The Sahuagin have existed for as long as historical records go back, an apex predator that began to span the stars in crude ships to be a boogeyman. The Ardish fought them for thousands of years. It was only during the Ardish Wars themselves that both the First Ardugon Empire and the Sahuagin hordes were defeated, only surviving in small pockets of crashed ships on planets across the galaxy.
Most of these planets proved to be inhospitable to Sahuagin, whom died out. However, on the planet of Keltor, the swamps allowed them to not only hide from the empires of old due to sensor disruptors from the swamps themselves, but also allowed them to prosper from an ecosystem they could adjust to. Tales of good feasts were passed from warboss to warboss. After all this time, they take to the stars once more, under the guise of the Keltor Myriad, lead by Warboss Dhurge.
• The Sahuagin use the nameset of 40k Orks, to which they are heavily inspired by to be near copies of.
• Sahuagin are a Dungeons and Dragons race, mostly always used as bad guys. However, I have a character based on these sharkmen that I have in my current campaign played with friends.
Ajolote República:
The Ajolote República is an advanced and peaceful Republic, based heavily within the ordeals of prosperity without fighting, lead by the greatest philosophers and thinkers of all Ajolote. Perhaps most confounding to onlookers of this specific peoples are their unusual ships, which appear to be rudimentry naval vessels without protection of their bare decks, second only to the literal Space Dragon that lives within their system. Evolved upon their homeplanet of Casaflor, they have been guided in wisdom by the elder dragon that has lived far longer than their entire race. The ships utilize unique 'atmospheric field' technology that gives both oxygen and gravity in a general radius.
• The Ajolote speak 'Spaniard.' Their own name means 'Axolotl' in Spanish.
• Their shipset is from the movie Treasure Planet.
Lom Korporatsiya:
The Musorshchik are an unusual race that 'evolved' (a kind term for it) upon a barren rock used as galactic landfill by various empires throughout various eras. Nobody suspected the planet (which has been mistaken for a moon many times) to actually hold life, let alone life that grew from their own combined wastes. They are the youngest race in the entire Galaxy, as their history only spans the last two hundred years, wherein they grew to sentience and immediately set to work utilizing the scraps of old empires. Immediately they were capable of creating basic robots, which are used a lot in their day-to-day lives. Whilst infighting is somewhat common between tribes of Mursorshchik, they all loosely unify under commerce. The Lom Korporatsiya was ironically not created by the Musorshchik themselves, but by the nomadic Numistic Order which came to the planet in the last twenty years to deliver more scrap to what they believed to be an uninhabited rock (as it always had been).
The Musorshchik, without much identity beyond being a new race from a scrapheap, now span to the stars for trade.
• The Mursorshchik speak Russian. Their name means 'Garbage Man,' a loose word for 'Scavenger.' Lom Korporatsiya means 'Scrap Corporation.' In this Galaxies headcanon, this is where the shortened mispronouncation of the word 'Corpo' originates.
• This is the only Megacorp in the Galaxy.
The Melkzor Inquisition:
Once, the Kaar were a race of necromancers that supposedly got their powers from their sole deity, Melkzor. In ancient times, they were a menace that raided other empires and took their dead to become servants, for it was 'Melkzors will.' So fanatic in their own desire for galactic conquest, they turned their own moon into a large forge from which they began mass-producing vessels and chains. In one of the only 'good' acts they did in their history, the First Ardugon Empire defeated the early Kaar and sealed both their moon and homeworld with planetary shields, sealing them within.
During the Ardish Wars, they had been forgotten.
It was only recently they managed to break this seal.
However, over an unknown period of time of isolation and imprisonment, the Kaar have long since changed their ways. In their tales of religious alteration, they say Melkzor is not without faults and has changed his own ways and desires, so that the Kaar may follow. No longer do they desire galactic domination, but instead spiritual freedoms. The raising of the dead is now more or less a means to an end, the 'religion of old' heavily frowned upon and abandoned. Furthermore, it is believed that Mulkzor gave part of himself to mortals. For this reason, an Imperial Cult has formed around the elected leaders of the Kaar, whom are said to be imprinted with Melkzor's divine magic.
• Unlike various other races, this race uses a unique nameset not based in real language.
• The custom origin of their race gives them a locked 'moon forge.' I do not actually know what this entails. I hope to find out.
Nature's Domain:
Few races are as laid back or as peaceful as the Wardens, whom have very little identity for themselves beyond their love for nature. These lithoids, beings of stone and rock, evolved naturally by miracle upon the jungle planet of Everbloom. Unique within nature and the only intelligent life upon said planet, the Wardens observed nature-- and began to love all things, all flora and fauna, constructing the idea that all nature should be protected. Every Warden advancement in technology is, in some way, 'natural.' Ships of stone, nothing outside of nature. Even their cities are built around nature, to not disturb what was there before.
Yet being alone upon their world, untouched by the histories beyond its orbit, the Wardens question their identity. Thus they have since invented spacefairing vessels to find the answer to their existence in the stars.
• The Wardens are the only lithoid in the game.
• The Wardens use the nameset 'Space Hippie.' Each name should be interesting, to say the least.
• Warden traits are interesting to me, for they hibernate in the winter and are super active during the early months, giving them bonuses and penalties for each. Their 'Lethargic' trait makes them lazy, giving them a whopping -40% army damage and -5% worker penalty. These fellows are very peaceful by nature and I wanted to represent that in the game itself.
The Superstes Directive:
The Superstes were once an aquatic race living beneath the frozen seas of their homeworld with little need for technology. Their race name did not even exist for they had no reason for one. However, their planet became subject to calamity, thus they began to construct, utilize and invent rapidly. As their planet died around them, they evacuated their homeworld before its inevitable destruction, becoming natives to orbital habitats above the worlds of their system. A new age began for them; living as 'Superstes' meaning 'Survivors' in their language. As a result of their sudden climb to invent for survival, their society is lead by Directors: scientists of renown.
Whilst their natural way of life is far behind them, they now live within tubes of carefully selected compound liquids, allowing them to thrive. Aboard these habitats, replicators materialize all they could ever desire, thus no Superstes is ever lacking in any food or material wealth. The largest downside to their existence is their complicated status making it difficult to reproduce, thus requiring the use of incubators, becoming the norm throughout their society to 'grow' children within their own tubes, as there is no alternative.
• The Superstes speak Latin Roman!
The Kusho Teikoku:
One of the most unusual races in the Galaxy, the Kodaibito (meaning 'Ancient Peoples') live upon a planet with no sun. This 'Rogue Planet' has long since been thrown away from its native solar system and has traveled through the endless void for eons. Unnaturally, perhaps, the race evolved within the freezing confines of this otherwise magical rock that has since began to orbit a cluster of Black Holes, now being spun in balance by several all-consuming wormholes.
Perhaps as a result of their frozen biology, the Kodaibito are cold towards any of their own kin and absolutely hostile towards anything not of their own race. Isolation is all that matters to them, keeping their own way of lives theirs without outside influence, as its a common paranoia that their home planet became astranged from their solar system before their creation as a result of aliens. Atop their society is the Emperor, to which is steeped in tradition of being a philosopher king to rule over all wisdom of all his (or her) subjects. Amongst these subjects, the lust for the stars is great. Naturally nomadic and wanting to live on planets that have their own suns so that their cubs can grow up in the heat of sunlight, these star settlers yearn for better lives in thankful grace of their emperor.
• The Kodaibito speak Japanese-- or at least, a bastardization of it. Kūsho Teikoku means 'Void Empire.' The 'ū' symbol does not work in Stellaris, which is unfortunate, because without it, the word 'Kusho' simply means 'shit' in Japanese... at least, according to Google Translate. So... 'Shit Empire.' Don't blame me! Blame Stellaris!
• Whilst the Kodaibito cannot actually live upon the worlds they desire to settle upon, due to their unique biology from a Rogue World, they can live on constructed megastructures above said planets around said suns, which is what they strive towards.
• Life was only possible on this Rogue World thanks to the heat from geothermal sources heating the atmosphere to allow life. Even then; the freezing of space gives them their 'icey' look.
Wisp Collective:
Tiyanki are space-fairing leviathans that travel from solar system to solar system, often feasting upon microbacteria within gas giants. When they die, they are animalistically drawn to a specific spot to do so. This 'graveyard' has given host to life itself: a unique sentient bacteria that began to infest the dead decaying minds of Tiyanki, which gave them higher intelligence and, without scientific explanation, 'revived' this new race of once-dead Tiyanki. Over the course of thousands of years, this hive mind of bacteria shortened the infested Tiyanki, whilst also evolving means to infest dead beings. The Hivemind itself is not naturally hostile to other races and are extremely long-lived.
Until recently, this strange facinating race was bound to single system, until these 'Wisps' began slowly inventing spacefairing technology from organic material.
• The Wisps are the only hivemind in the game.
• Cordyceptic Drones means they can literally bring back to life dead spacefairing leviathans or creatures they kill as an empire, so long as they are living and organic. Like the Ardish, they are also long-lived, but as a drawback, breed at the same rate as the unfortunate Superstes. The 'Living Ships' trait allows them to regrow hull tissues, esentially unlocking the ability to nanohulls early-game instead of late.
• Their shipset is the Reapers from Mass Effect. Unlike most shipsets, this set only has a singular ship.
Dwargar Yarúd:
Beneath the surface of the mountainous planet of Khárûz Korum, the Dwargar evolved as natural subterranean cave-dwellers. The sky was unnatural to them and their homes are heavily prefered underground. Due to this seemingly odd evolution of underground life, they had never been discovered by spacefairing nations as their sensors could not reach that deep, leaving them with thousands of years of proud history without being discovered until they set their sights on the stars. Named simply 'Dwarves' by other spacefairers, the Dwargar are prideful crafters that forge all manner of tools, crafts and technology in engimatic artistic ways that are unrivaled. This is all done beneath the Khárûz -- the King -- of all Dwargar.
• Whilst the initial names of Dwarves are in Horgaahn, ( Bartooliinii ) the nameset for this race is 'Space Dwarven,' taking aspects from all various Dwarves across fantasy books and media.
Teleftaia Avgi:
Kátoikos are a somewhat old race that had been watched by more advanced empires for a long time. However, their self-destructive industries and split governments that war against one another over their entire race's twenty-thousand year history has made them ill-suited for anything more than curiosity, with no desire to uplift them due to their destructive nature. It is not so much that the Kátoikos are bloodthirsty or greedy, but that their inventions destroy their surroundings and they simply do not care. As a result of their problematic technology which has exploited their planets resources, they now face calamity with self-caused planetary destruction-- which may lead to their extinction.
The Teleftaia Avgi (meaning 'Last Dawn') is a collaborative government of all Kátoikoi with the sole intention of surviving this calamity by reaching to the stars to hopefully settle new planets in order to save their entire race.
• The doomsday origin will destroy their homeworld within up to 40 years. During this time, events will allow them generous resources to fund new colonies to find salvation. This will make this race particularly weak later in the game, if they survive. If they do not survive, they will become extinct.
• The Kátoikoi speak Greek. Their name simply means 'Inhabitants.'
• These are the shortest living race in the Galaxy, dying of old age not even half that of Ardish. This lore-wise contributes to their uncaring nature, as they do not live long enough to see the effects of their actions.
Silver Sheriffs:
Contrary to popular belief, their name of 'Silver Sheriffs' does not refer to the material of silver, but to their system which is called Silver. Throughout their history, the Gaucho have a problem with unruly behaviour, deeprooted in their physchology for the desire to 'live fast and die young.' This is because, naturally, they were prey on their homeworld of Harlow. However, through technological accendancy, they are able to not only shoot their predators with pistols, but eachother. As such, the Silver Sheriffs is the government of the united Gaucho whom are not outlaws, an organized army of lawkeepers lead by 'Sheriffs.' The lead Marshal Sheriff is said to be the most badass of all Gaucho.
Unbeknowest to them, their evolution has taken place near an abandoned decayed Ardish quantum catapault, which no doubt will be used for good. Right?
• Space Cowboy Snails, based on an original multiplayer race here. Their nameset is 'Space Wild West.' Their 'Naval Traditions' civic is meant to represent their fondness for travel via ships, in place of.. well... horses.
• They may be snails, but they are not slow.
Order of the Blessed:
Paladins were once a race called the 'Utol,' to which they technically still are, although simply renamed.
During the natural 'Medieval' period of Utol history, a massive creature simply refered to as 'The Beast' came to their homeworld and devestated it with toxic harmful chemicals. The 'Toxic God' was reason enough for the remaining near-extinct and endangered Utol to organize under a sole religious order that took over all Kingdoms in the droves after such an apoclopytic event. The remaining Utol alive, roughly 5% of the original population, came together and swore themselves in a racial oath to not only hunt down The Beast, but to protect the stars from any further attacks by said Beast.
Paladins are oathbound by this. Over the last few hundred years, advancement of technology has taken them to space, although their traditions are deeply rooted within Knightly religion, guided by an Old Utol Pantheon of six deities. Part of these knightly oaths include to protect other species they may encounter, although they know not yet if such oaths will be functional as they've yet to find actual intelligent life beyond The Beast. It is believed that, by good deeds, the Gods shall empower the knights as 'Blessed.'
• Paladins use the 'Space Knightly' nameset.
• The Knights of the Toxic God origin is not meant to be played this way, I think. Its supposed to be Knights OF the God, or at the very least, having the option to find and hunt the God. I truly hope the AI gets around to this. It'd be amazing to see it and show it as a Stellar Tale.
• The first leader of these fellows is called Keone. Arget Istalri
Alfiqi Shroudwalkers:
Early in their existence, the Alfiqi have been guided by visions from the Shroudwalker Coven, awakening Psionic powers within their physchology. Alfiqi are naturally potent when it comes to Shroud energies and harnessing them, to which the Coven was actively aware of and guided the Alfiqi shortly after their evolution. This involvement, however, meant little in the way of self-identity of the Alfiqi, whom are mostly religious independent Kingdoms that, in matters of universal affairs, gather their leaders to make decisions. One leader shall always speak for the rest, often the most religiouslly inclined and respected leader of the planet (and in the future, planets). These leaders are not solely governmental, but religious and sometimes cultural. In this regard, onlookers find Alfiqi politics chaotic and confusing.
Due to their outside help, their technology and society never naturally developed. Alfiqi do not yet quite understand effect farming, still persistant and fond of their early years of hunting and gathering.
• The Alfiqi is a subrace of Khajiit in Elder Scrolls, magical housecats. The Alfiqi use the nameset 'Khajiit' from Elder Scrolls too. Their planet is called Masser and their home system Secunda, named after Elder Scrolls two moons that Khajiit culture is centered around.
