Mass Effect: One Year On

Local Cluster

The Local Cluster is likely to form the centre of any new galactic civilisation that emerges. The mass of Reaper remains the Citadel/Crucible wreck, the destroyed relay and the remnants of the victory fleet make it the most cosmopolitan and well equipped cluster in the galaxy after the fall of the relays. The only real hope for a connected, civilised galaxy rests upon how this system copes with the aftermath and what it does with this opportunity.

Mercury

Mercury’s small population of technicians were left unmolested during the destruction otherwise visited on the Sol system. The numbers present were reduced to 300 due to suicides and an ill-fated attempt to reach Earth with a shuttle, but otherwise were found intact and alive. Some in cryostasis in the remaining shuttles in order to stretch supplies. Mercury’s power output is less needed on Earth now, but is invaluable to the burgeoning and self-constructing industry that has taken its place. Mercury has been heavily settled by the Geth who can withstand the harsh environment and use the energy to power huge server clusters and to construct more units.

Population: 350 humans, 1,000 Geth.

Venus

Venus was virtually uninhabited and was, thus, also overlooked by The Reapers who had bigger fish to fry. The aerostat research posts here were not self-sustaining but emergency supplies and a larger population helped them weather the trials of Earth’s occupations better than Mercury. The situation on Earth being what it is, the aerostat colonies have taken on some refugees from the fleets to ease the burden elsewhere, though they’re still not self sustaining.

Population: 800 humans, 100 Turians, 100 Asari, 50 Quarians.

Earth

Earth has been devastated by The Reaver occupation, a population of 11.4 billion reduced to around 4 billion during the occupation. The survivors are largely from rural populations which in the bitter mathematics of survival has actually been useful. Rural populations have been more self-reliant, more self-sustaining and they have been able to return to the farmland to provide ¨C as best they can ¨C for the influx of people from the fleet.

Population: 3 billion humans, 2 million Quarians, 5,000 Asari, 15,000 Salarians, 10,000 Turians, 2,000 Elcor, 2,000 Volus, 500 Hanar, 100 Drell, 1,000 Batarians, 50,000 Geth, 1,000 Batarians, 5,000 Krogan, Unknown numbers of Vorcha.

Moon

The Lunar colony and military assets were annihilated in the first days of The Reaper occupation. There were no survivors. As a valuable source of He-3 the Moon has been rapidly resettled using prefab colony material. The Geth has also been given a lot of free-rein to settle and industrialise the moon, repairing the shattered colony so that it can be resettled. Refugees from Earth’s urban areas will soon be able to be settled in the rebuilt domes. The Lagrange orbital settlements were scoured and processed, but not destroyed. They are still in the process of being fixed and replenished, converted to house Quarian and Turian refugees and to produce dextro-amino based plants and animal food species taken from the Quarian live-ships.

Population: 500 humans, 50 Quarians, 10,000 Geth, handful of ‘misc’.

Mars

Mars was the site of conflict between Cerberus and The Alliance, mostly over the Prothean ruins. Resistance to the occupying Cerberus forces was stiff, eventually forming a civilian resistance. Casualties were high on both sides but Cerberus had constant resupply, often made up of indoctrinated and converted people from the civilian populace, turned against their own friends and families. Once the Reapers turned on Cerberus they got little or no backup, though The Reapers never attacked. Cerberus is still entrenched and hidden and a campaign is ongoing to dislodge them.

Population: 2 million humans, 1,000 Turians, 100 Quarians, 500 Asari, 500 Salarians.

Asteroid Belt

The Asteroid belt is scattered with largely automated mining platforms and small processing stations. Civilian vessels hid, pretending to be ‘dead’, amongst the asteroids during the occupation, preserving a reasonable amount of in-system shipping vessels.

Population A few thousand humans scattered between stations.

Jupiter

Jupiter was not significantly settled prior to The Reaper War. The harsh radiation and deep gravity well made it unappealing, despite all the resources of the Moons. The chief settlement was a Binary Helix corporation base under Europa’s ice sheet, studying the strange life to be found in its subterranean oceans. While a couple of military outposts were destroyed the Binary Helix base survived, as did other small research bases. The Geth have moved rapidly to construct in Jupiter’s area, able to withstand the punishing conditions and exploit the resources to help the solar system rebuild.

Population: 6,000 humans, 10,000 Geth.

Saturn

Saturn was a key fuelling point for Sol’s industrial and military infrastructure and as such was hit very hard as The Reapers came in through the solar system. Virtually nothing survived in the system and it has taken the Geth being unleashed to get things back up to speed this quickly. The remnants of the Volus fleet have also moved out here, Titan having the raw chemistry that they need to replenish their atmosphere.

Population: 10,000 humans, 1,000 Turians, 500 Quarians, 100 Asari, 50,000 Geth.

Uranus

Uranus was ahead of Saturn as an He-3 mining station, being a relatively small gas giant. As such it suffered the same fate as Saturn and has pummelled by The Reaper Fleet in short order, on its way in-system. As with Saturn the Geth have been employed to rapidly rebuild the Uranian industrial base and restore the supply of He-3.

Population: 10,000 humans, 1,000 Turians, 1,000 Quarians, 100 Asari, 100 Volus, 100,000 Geth.

Neptune

 

Triton station was left alone during the Reaper sweep. There are persistent rumours about a leftover Cerberus station in system but nothing has come of it yet. Triton station has been abandoned.

Population: Zero.

Pluto & Kuiper Belt

As The Reapers emerged from the relay they annihilated the gateway stations and swept the area clean, destroying the defensive fleets before heading deeper into the system. Wreckage from that battle and from the destroyed mass relay litter Pluto’s surface and the current coalition government offers a bounty for Eezo and other usable material gathered from the surface. The remnants of the Batarian and Mercenary fleets have taken up station here, nominally independent, constructing modular space stations and scouring Pluto for salvage.

Population: 10,000 Batarians, 5,000 Krogan, 10,000 Vorcha, 10,000 Salarians, 10,000 Asari, 200 Elcor, 200 Volus.

Ships: 70 mercenary vessels, 50 Batarian vessels.

Citadel/Crucible Reclamation Project

The Citadel and Crucible were critically damaged in the explosion of energy that destroyed the Reapers but were not utterly destroyed. They were simply too big. The central ring took the most damage, followed by the connection areas of The Crucible. The wards were the least damaged, though still rendered largely uninhabitable. The refugee-swollen population of The Citadel largely tried to flee when the Citadel came under Reaper attack and control and its population was further slashed in the devastation. The few inhabitable areas are now held by reclamation workers. The Keepers, surprisingly, still seem to function in some cases and continue to try to repair what remains of The Citadel, despite being heavily depleted in number.

Population: 100,000 mixed races, 80% reclamation workers and their families.

Relay Reclamation Project

The Relay Reclamation Project is the more official side of the salvage operation in the Kuiper Belt and around Pluto. A small group of research vessels the RRP clusters around the stabilised remains of the Charon Relay and tries to fathom its secrets and reconstruct parts of it to understand it.

Population: 100 Humans, 25 Asari, 25 Salarians.

Victory Fleet

What remains of the Victory Fleet and its forces orbits the Earth and disperses itself throughout the system to lend aid and power where it can. The stats below do not include the majority of ground troops which are mostly stationed on Earth, nor does it include fighters.

Population: 3,000 Rachni, 5,000 Volus, 60,000 humans, 1,000 Elcor, 2,000 Hanar, 2,000 Drell, 20,000 Asari, 20,000 Turians, 12,000 Salarians, 30,000 Geth, 30,000 Krogan, 30,000 Quarians,

Vessels:1 Volus Dreadnaught, 20 Volus bombers,  10 Elcor Troop transports, 20 Hanar ships, 300 Human vessels, 150 Asari vessels, 150 Geth vessels, 300 Quarian ships, 100 Salarian ships, 100 Turian vessels.

Arcturus Stream

The Arcturus Stream is the only viable system that can be reached by existing frigates in a reasonable amount of time. An expedition has been sent and comm buoys are being established for regular FTL communication between the Local Cluster and the Arcturus Stream. The first step towards galactic re-integration.

Arcturus

Arcturus Station

Completely destroyed by The Reapers, the station is nothing but floating debris and bodies.

Population: 0

Eirene

Once a fuelling station for ships, nothing remains after The Reapers destroyed it.

Population: 0

Eunomia

A few escape pods, shuttles and merchant ships from Arcturus Station and the Eirene infrastructure managed to land on the ice-ball planet Euonmia and formed a ramshackle base. Since the destruction of The Relay the few merchant vessels have spent their fuel retrieving material from the debris fields but the situation there is now desperate.

Population: 500 humans.

Themis

A hydrogen-helium gas giant, it was not exploited in the way Eirene was.

Population: 0

Euler

Benning

An important agricultural world, Benning was spared the worst of the Reaper attentions though Cerberus was conducting abductions here. There is still a sizeable population and a massive agricultural surplus, though fighting with Cerberus troops and husks is still ongoing – if sporadic.

Population: 1 million humans.

Fermi

Fermi once had a small scientific station, which was destroyed by The Reapers on their fly-through.

Population: 0

Silva

Once an He-3 mining planet (a gas giant) with an important colony on its moon it is now a debris-filled wasteland. The colony may be recoverable.

Population: 0

Yukawa

Briefly used as a mining colony this old infrastructure is still in place and has been re-activated by the population of Benning as a cheaper, easier option to get the minerals that they need to keep their agricultural automation going, especially with Cerberus targeting those. A small and armed population maintains these creakingly old and outdated facilities.

Population: 1,500 humans.

Stories

Indoctrinated Cults

There’s Reaper tech everywhere and there are still husks to deal with as well as indoctrinated cults. Some of them may even try to remake, rebuild or repair The Reapers and, being already indoctrinated, there’s not much to hold them back from exploiting the Reaper tech, whereas the free people have much to fear from ‘poking’ at it. Only free Rachni and Geth are immune to indoctrination by conventional means, while Asari can be resilient to it. This will make progress for others extremely difficult.

Tech Recovery

Humanity and The Victory Fleet are, essentially, limited in access to two systems with the best conventional FTL. Reaper FTL could double their range, if copied and developed and it may be possible to refine it further. A major limitation on FTL travel is the need to dump charge from the Eezo cores, a problem the Reapers, again, seem to have overcome. Another possibility might be ships fitted with dumpable capacitors, serving the same purpose for FTL as thermal clips do for weapons. Efforts to rebuild and reclaim relay technology and higher speed FTL are likely to be to the fore, especially as a concern for the alien races present in the Sol system.

Tension

There are Batarians and mercenaries who fought for victory but aren’t necessarily the nicest of people. They’re owed a debt of gratitude but how long before they revert to piracy, violence and criminality to live? What about the Vorcha who breed fast and adapt? They’re on Earth now, and everywhere else. What about the Geth, they might be peaceful but they can bootstrap themselves to enormous numbers very rapidly.

Of all the races it is the Krogan and the Quarians that are most likely to want to get home the fastest. The Quarians now that they have Rannoch to return to, the Krogan because they can now breed, only to have that hope stolen away by being stranded in Sol.

Re-Contact

Even with a 30+ light year/day drive, there aren’t that many systems that can be reached that quickly. Many of them will have suffered or changed unrecognisibly by the time the successors to The Victory Fleet arrive to contact them in twenty or fifty years. Even if relays are rediscovered and rebuilt, it will take at the very least ten years to disseminate the new relays across the galaxy and probably longer given construction and transit issues. Cluster of close stars are likely to have formed their own alliances, where there is food and material to use, and they may not be so welcoming.

Camelot Cosmos: Organisations

The Camelot Cosmos has a great many organisations, mostly guilds, which band together to protect their expertise and to exert more control than they would alone. These guilds are much more important in most people’s day-to-day lives than the affairs of kings and princes as almost everyone with any marketable skill will belong to one. The guilds take their rules very seriously and look after their people, so long as they conform to those rules.

Thieves Guild

The Hollow Men are found everywhere and while there’s little to no honour amongst thieves they at least know their own kind and that they need to stick together against outsiders. The guild is organised in part like organised crime and in part like a terrorist cell. Each town or city has its own group and their affiliations are loose but, put together, they are one of the largest guilds.

The Assassin’s Guild

One can hire any thug as a tuppenny killer, but an assassin is something different. There’s an art, a style and a perfection to their way of doing things. They don’t just kill someone, any fool can do that. They eliminate them. Rumours abound around the guild, a testament to their secrecy, the most persistent that they are not truly a guild but a cult, dedicated to the Nephilic aspect Barbatos.

The Merchant’s Guild

The Sons of Florin are rich beyond the wildest dreams of most. They control the weekly markets, the great guildhalls, they control the purse-strings and the money of empires. The Merchant’s Guild often has ideas above and beyond its station and believes that money cures all problems. A conviction they must repeatedly be disavowed of.

The Fighter’s Guild

The Blade Brothers are an independent fighting body, not exactly mercenaries but some of the way there. Adventurers, body guards, bodies for hire but always mindful of the purpose they’re most commonly employed securing merchant caravans or escorting dignitaries. Their chain of independent forts, almost little towns to themselves, make some of the other guilds and nobles wary.

The Wizard’s Guild

The Arcane Brotherhood are dedicated to understanding and exploiting the past. Their mastery of the old ways is kept largely to themselves and all manner of rumours about what they can do abound. Can they turn lead into gold? Live forever? Who really knows, but they do have tricks and wisdom beyond that of other groups.

The Seraphic Church

The White Lodge is found everywhere in Kingsland, it’s power second only to the King. There are priests or monks everywhere, all bowing their head to the Archbishop of Camelot. The church is wealthy, claims many as its members but has lost ground to the King’s authority in more recent years. While they continue to persecute and root out heresy they have much less capability to do so without the direct aid of others and instead seem to be consolidating their own land and material strength.

The Nephilic Church

The Black Lodge is a scattered group of cults, often disguised within or around Seraphic churches, lodges and monasteries. They are more indulgent, less ‘pure’, but on the surface many of their rituals and beliefs are the same, despite their reputation for evil.

The Druidic Church

Dedicated to balance, maintenance and protection of the environment the Druidic Church is strongest amongst the stonedweller tribes and the people of the countryside. The ‘Old Way’ beliefs have fallen away in more civilised times but echoes of them remain in many villages that still observe naturalistic superstitions involving plants, animals, dance and song.

The Slaver’s Guild

Almost universally hated, The Slaver’s Guild is illegal in Kingsland and barely tolerated in Queensland, despite the vital service they provide. They take vulnerable people and well them, mainly in The Vorean Repiblic, Lower Tintagel and Morgan’s Curse. Those who end up body slaves are considered fortunate. The Guild has a powerful militia and are little better than pirates in many instances, but this only gives them more impunity to act.

The Tomb Robber’s Guild

Adventurers in the purest sense, the Tomb Robber’s Guild pays little or no heed to warnings or curses and pursues ancient lore, wealth, technology and magic with a singleminded determination. They pursue every thread of evidence, every rumour with dogged endurance. Much of what they find is empty or monstrous and many die but those who remain enrich themselves and the Cosmos as a whole.

The Pendragon Legion

The ‘police’ of Kingsland the Legion can be identified by their deep blue cloaks. Stern and humourless they dispense brutal justice (unless you’re a noble) and patrol the roads and byways of Pendragon and beyond to hold them secure and safe.

The Fyrd

Queen Morgan’s soldiers, secret police and enforcers. The military and police of Queensland are much the same. Little more than brutes they can be a fierce force but often suffer large amounts of casualties due to being considered expendable. Vicious, ruthless, they pay little or no heed to chivalry or the rules of battle and enforce their whims as much as laws.

The Prince’s Guard

Poor knights by most standards the Prince’s Guard make up for their poverty with richness of character. Honour-bound and chivalrous they keep to their code and enforce it evenly. They particularly see themselves as defenders of women’s honour and safety. A weakness that their enemies do tend to exploit.

The Black Guard

The Blaggards of lower tintagel are cunning enforcers and collectors of King Mark’s taxes. A guerilla force in times of battle they are rightly feared for their skill in torture and hit-and-fade tactics. Over the civilian population they are ruthless and merciless in their pursuit of what’s owed.

The Brotherhood of Progression

A secretive order of monks unaffiliated with the churches. The Brotherhood is close to the King and seems to know more about First Age magic and relics than anyone. They are small in number, but their influence over the King seems great.

The Dungeoneer’s Guild

Closely affiliated with the Tomb Robber’s Guild, the Dungeoneers concentrate their efforts more or clearing and rendering safe the insane complexes and twisted beasts that still haunt the Cosmos in the wake of mad Lucifer and his experiments. They base themselves on the edges of the wild lands to support those adventurers willing to risk all within these deathtraps.

The Beggar’s Guild

An alliance of the mad, the infirm and the impoverished. They band together what little resources they have in order to aid their people as a whole. More and more petty crime has come under their remit, threatening to put them at odds with the Thieve’s Guild.

The Linnorm Society

They worship these loathesome beasts and take slaves and prisoners to feed to them, to appease them. They, themselves, are not killed or eaten for some unknown reason. Their disgusting and cannibalistic practices disgust both Kingsmen and Queensmen alike who can even unite against them.

The Dust Cabal

On Avalon, beyond the settled areas, lies the dust. The Cabal plies these wastes, looking for relic, for remnants and they hold Merlin in esteem as a god. Eccentric and obsessive they are, nonetheless, the best guides beyond the border.