Due to the growing size of the Story Notes and for easy review, you'll find a copy of this batch of updates below.
- Brian
Herald of the Stars Table of Contents page updates:
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Aldrich Isengrund page updates:
(updated title) Margos Explorator, Navigator, Lord Captain of the Distant Sun (c0096)
- Navigator Conversion Ritual Completed. Aldrich is now 2.5 m tall. His fingers are longer and thinner, with an additional joint. His toes and proportions remain unchanged. There is a small lump in the centre of Aldrich's forehead, but there is no break in the skin, nor can he detect new muscles he can control. The eye still needs to grow. (c0096)
- Aldrich believes in doing something once, doing it right, and preparing in advance for all contingencies. Do not scrimp and save on costs to save one budget, and wreck all the following budgets with debilitating maintenance costs. I do not mind if projects take time to do right. That's no excuse to dally or chase that final one percent of performance for double the price. Be smart about it. (c0098)
- (At this time) Aldrich believes he is comparable to a Space Marine Librarian. Powerful on a small scale and able to tip the scales to victory in a planetary war or small fleet battle. In this galaxy, though, calling him a small potato is generous. (c0116)
Characters and Groups page updates:
Aileen Nan Sop - Headmaster and leader of Marwolv psykers. A man in his fifties, with thick, shoulder-length red curls. (c0045) --- Aileen will be Margo Aldrich Issengrund's representative on Marwolv while Aldrich is away. Aileen's new official designation is Overseer Prime, or Prime Sop when there is a need to keep things brief. (c0097)
Callen Gunn, Governor of Marwolv - HIs role is to oversee all civilian work and social engineering on Marwolv. Primarily, the construction of the Hive City Agri-Spire. (c0097)
Domelch de Búrca, Commodore of Marwolv - Domelch will build and command the Marwolv monitor fleet. (c0098)
Dougal MacCrane, Commander of Stellar Corps - Based at Dimpsy Fortress. Dougal's role is expanding to all Stellar Corps forces throughout the Marwolv system. Responsible for the Heralds within Commodore de Búrca's Monitor Fleet and remote bases, as well as Goibhniu Yards. (c0098)
Eochaid ó Buadhaigh, Arch-Deacon of the Adeptus Ministorum - Guides the Imperial Cult to guard Marwolv citizens against the predations of the Great Enemy. "One we have come to know and loathe after the tumultuous events of the past few years." (c0097)
Erin Oglivie, Marshal of the Adeptus Arbites - Erin was the chief bosun on the Distant Sun for eight years. Now the Marshal for the Adeptus Arbites, responsible for civilian law enforcement on Marwolv and throughout the system. "Fair warning, while we will be adopting the same sentencing structure as the Magos’s fleet and its simplified code of laws, Imperial justice is brutal, with a focus on labour extraction and fear. Try to keep your noses clean, eh?” (c0097)
Luan Moggach, Prefect and Administrator of Goibhniu Yards - Goibhniu Yards, a Mandeville point void station, shipyard, and navy fortress for the Marwolv system. While these roles are essential, Luan's most important duty will be to construct and secure the Astropathic Relay on Goibhniu Yards. It is through this marvellous technology and the hard work of Prime Sop’s Psy-Errants and Psychic Servitors that we will remain in contact with Magos Issengrund. (c0098)
Ronnat Caird, Logis - Responsible for logistics with the Marwolv system. Based at Goibhniu Yards most of the time. (c0098)
Ylien Keltadh, Eldar, formally of Alaitoc - Ylien's voice is melodious, though there is a slight rasp to it, likely from some poorly healed wound. Ylien was previously a slave of the Dark Eldar and was captured on Marwolv. Aldrich offers Ylien a choice: death or service. To accept three apprentices every twenty years for eighty years. Ylien will teach them everything he knows about the warp, how to manipulate it, and how to avoid its perils. Ylien will teach properly, with effort, patience, and good manners, withholding nothing. In return, after one hundred years, Ylien will be granted a servitor crew and a class three D-POT, a large macro-lander capable of extensive intrasystem travel. Ylien will be dropped off at a safe location of his choosing, within reason, and be left free to roam as he wishes. Alternatively, Aldrich will apply for sanctioned Xeno status, and Ylien may remain with the Stellar Fleet as a paid consultant, remaining free of the strictures of Eldar craftworlds and able to embrace the path of outcast without fear of death and depravity. During the time Ylien is aboard the ship, he will be granted a room of his own in the Xeno quarters and the same stipend all crew are allotted, as well as a wage fitting for a member of my retinue. Like the Tau on board, or those serving criminal sentences, Ylien will be a second-class citizen and required to pay for everything, including the air he breathes. The one exception to this will be the medical care Ylien will receive, so that Aldrich can remove all those nasty traps and tracking devices in Ylien's body and heal the wounds he suffered from the Dark Eldar. A fresh start from Aldrich to Ylien as a gesture of goodwill, regardless of what option Ylien chooses. At no time will Ylien be required to teach Eldar stratagems or explain the workings of his species’ technology, though Ylien may sell such information for additional funds. Neither will Ylien need to perform additional tasks beyond teaching, unless he chooses to do so, at which time additional compensation will be offered. To summarise, one hundred years of service at a decent wage in exchange for a chance to start your life anew, hale in mind and body. (c0094) --- Ylien chooses, “Service. I did not survive my vile cousins to choose death at the hands of another, for, as you were swift to point out, even in death my torment would not end.” (c0095)
Uurad Selkirk, Rune Priest of the Machine Cult - Uurad leads the Machine Cult in Magos Issengrund’s absence. It is his duty and pleasure to secure, through appropriate rituals, all machines and their spirits against mundane and arcane degradation as well as lead services on behalf of the Omnissiah for the glory of the Machine God. It is work similar to Uurad's counterpart, Arch-Deacon Buadhaigh. Uurad's only concern is the spirit of the tools we use, rather than the souls of those who use them. His main roles will be teaching and administration, ensuring everyone has access to the facilities, knowledge, and materials they require to perform the necessary rituals that keep the Great Enemy at bay. (c0098)
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E-SIM page updates:
Full Bionic Conversion — Apart from the brain, a Full Bionic Conversion consists of myriad mechanical devices that mimic and exceed the human body many times over, likely putting the body on par with a Custodes, or maybe even a Primarch. The Polymer Tissue Replacement module is required to replace the brain. (c0116)
Polymer Tissue Replacement — The Polymer Tissue Replacement multiplies the effects of all the other brain modules. Given how many servitors Aldrich will need to control, he will need it. However, it does have drawbacks. The module would likely have Aldrich labeled as an abominable intelligence by the Mechanics, as my brain would be non-organic. It also comes with the warning that the module is not compatible with anything from the soul tier upgrades, but those are all corrupt and greyed out, so I’m not too worried about that. If Aldrich wants to keep his "organic processing unit," as E-SIM lovingly mocks Aldrich with, and remain even remotely human, there are impressive genetic modifications available that grant hyper-intelligence, though god-like wisdom is still a distant dream, and limited multitasking, but that’s all. (c0026) --- The Polymer Tissue Replacement is not compatible with Warp energy, such as for navigators and other psykers. (c0168)
Weavefield Projector — A Weavefield Projector has a higher mitigation threshold than a conversion or refractor shield, the imperial standard for VIP personal protection. For example, the maximum amount of energy a Weavefield Projector can neutralise in one strike, without overloading, within the same power, weight, and size category for the device, is approximately thirty percent higher, depending on the specific threat. This is great, but not mind-blowing. One can always use a more power-hungry void shield, and hook it up to a power armour’s micro-fusion core, or take a bigger conversion shield. Where it shines is its comprehensive protection and sustainability, protecting one from even the most exotic of weaponry, like the ones favoured by assassins and sadistic aeldari, without having to banish everything into the warp at a huge energy cost. Not only that, a Weavefield Projector will mitigate a greater total quantity of energy over time compared to other shields in the same category. A void shield would normally overload pretty quickly under the sustained fire that this Weavefield Projector is intended to mitigate, though void shields do have a more rapid cycle time. Void shields require big energy sinks and need time to dump or recycle the energy they’ve displaced, as opposed to refraction and conversion shields, which have a limited pool of energy they use to counter hostile energies. The Weavefield Projector is more of a mix of the two technologies. With this particular Weavefield Projector, I could cover an entire company of Heralds in a protective dome and weather the fire from a Voidraven Bomber’s void lances, mines, and exotic missiles, arguably the most dangerous weapons in the galaxy at this scale. I’d probably survive the rest of the bomber squadron, too. I don’t think a conversion or refractor shield would even stand up to dark lance, let alone a void lance, and a void shield would probably be saturated after a single strafing run. Bones from psykers, called Psychic Blanks, and Noctilith, also called Blackstone, are both required for this design. The Weavefield Projector itself doesn’t need such strange materials, but the weird heatsink for its design does. The heat sink forms a pair of mechanical wings from which will hang a series of pipes, reminiscent of a church organ or wind chimes, that allow for the dissipation of heat and exotic energies, including excessive warp energy; these pipes are also a form of null rod, a rare type of psychic protection hoarded by the Grey Knights. These wings do allow flight as well. The Weavefield Projection also requires a Full Bionic Conversion beforehand. (c0091)
Stars, Planets, and Stations page updates:
Goibhniu Yards, Void Station - The new void station that is being built out in the Kuiper belt near the Mandeville point. (c0097) --- It will be a shipyard, a navy fortress, and an astropathic relay for the Marwolv system. (c0098) --- Named after the Celtic god of blacksmithing and architecture. It will be a well-armoured structure, one hundred kilometres in length and twelve kilometres wide, mostly built from ferrocrete made from refinery slag. Not only will Goibhniu Yards build new vessels like the Adder and others of greater size, but it will also nurture millions of people. (c0101)
Marwolv, Planet - Aldrich arrived X073.018.M42, the 27th of January, in 41,018. Discovered in X330.559.M33 by the Mechanicus. The last visitor was X667.022.M40, or Sept. 1st, 39022. Marwolv is a feudal world with a medieval level of industry. (c0033) --- Marwolv produces one psyker in a hundred births. (c0034) --- Hypothesis: Marwolv was a game reserve, populated with hardened terrestrial wildlife for entertainment, during the Age of Expansion. With technology kept to a minimum for an ‘authentic’ experience, Marwolv lost its technology during the Age of Strife until it was rediscovered during an undocumented expedition to the Koronus Expanse, only to be lost again in the millennia that followed. (c0043) --- The Tau ritual that briefly summoned a giant bird, likely an avatar of Tzeentch, flattened a range of mountains into great piles of jagged rock and tossed three Ork Roks into the system. (c0067) --- Hive Spire construction begins, Agri-Spire is the first. (c0097) --- All psykers join the Psy-Errants, the Stellar Fleet’s version of Twist Catchers, and must endure disciplined and extensive training. It is a challenging and prestigious role; Psy-Errants are seen as guardians against corruption and frequently patrol all our vessels. (c0180)
STC Library page updates:
Hive City Spire — The site for each spire covers 576 square kilometers. From sea level, they're 192 kilometers tall and 24 kilometers wide, with a slenderness ratio of 1:8. They are tall enough to act as space ports for void and monitor ships. They can also be used as anchor points for orbital rings. Orbital rings are often used for manufacturing. Aldrich could use a slimmer design, but prefers to treat each as if it were a self-sufficient battleship or void station, with quadruple the armor, double the shields, and enough PDF lasers and internal defenses to take out a fleet or army. Aldrich also builds consciousness of the biosphere and seeks to preserve it. Each spire will be powered by relying on Marwolv’s highly active, molten core that is kept extra hot by the constant squeezing it undergoes from the system’s planetary bodies. The spire plans allow for dozens of secondary fusion reactors and a similar number of high-temperature tertiary fission reactors as well. Fission reactors are an efficient way of splitting water into fuel and air if, for some reason, the heat in the mantle can’t be accessed for a while, and a backup is needed. They will also generate decent power and medical atomics, too. As such, the most interesting part of the spire isn’t above ground or the tip thrusting up through the thermosphere, but what will be buried beneath them. Once that is complete, the foundations will be cast with special ferrocrete into grand floats, which will stop the tower from sinking into the mantle. The foundations will then be slowly lowered as the earth is excavated, and the tower will be forty kilometres tall, or deep, before it even reaches above sea level, let alone above the ground level of the site. The nifty part about the whole thing, though, is the great spheres that will be hung from the ferrocrete foundation floats. These spheres will be filled with tanks of water or mineral salts to absorb the heat of the mantle and generate heat for power, homes, and industrial processes while also adjusting for the buoyancy of the spire. Once it’s built, the whole tower will bob up and down, possibly as much as two hundred metres, as its weight is carefully managed. Everything is calculated to withstand worst-case scenarios with an additional fifteen percent to account for unforeseen circumstances. Each spire is an icositetragon, or a twenty-four-sided polygon, rather than being a perfect rectangle. If each main floor is one hundred metres tall, there will be approximately 2,340 floors above and below ground. Each floor could hold thirty million people at a density of 19.2 square metres per person, for a maximum of 70,200,000,000 people per spire. It won’t be anything like that, as space is needed to manufacture and grow the resources all these people require. Even if a more reasonable 1,000 square metres per person, which is over 6.6 times more space per person, including servitors, on Distant Sun, it could still house 1,347,840,000 people per spire, before splitting each major floor into its subfloors. As it is, the planned construction time for this one spire is two hundred to two hundred and fifteen years, and construction estimates are always way off, no matter how hard one tries, especially the first time you try to build something. Even then, ground conditions vary massively between sites, meaning each spire will require special considerations. (c0097)
Macro-Crawler — Massive tracked vehicles used for a variety of purposes: Accommodation, Administration, Hospitality, Manufacturing, Storage, Shipping, and more. Each is approximately 400 meters long, 120 meters wide, and 60 meters high, with a weight of approximately 233,000 gross tons. (c0097)
Melodium, Improved — Typically a small room filled with moving brass panels, gilded pipes, horns, and hundreds of other musical instruments, all plucked and played by skeletal hands and false lungs. It is a bizarre mix of recorded sounds, played live, and gently transmitted through the void ship, or captured within its wheezing walls for a small audience. Much like nature, all things bright and beautiful in the Imperium hold a sinister purpose, for the Melodium can, with subliminal infra-harmonics, permanently boost the loyalty and motivation of all who hear it, or carefully tease open the tightest of purses in a difficult negotiation. It doesn’t even have to be playing music to do this; a normal ear won’t pick up on the special sounds it broadcasts. Aldrich has to be careful with the melodium, as all of his personnel are highly educated. As Stellar Fleet personnel increase the quantity and quality of their implants, they may notice the strange frequencies hidden within the vox broadcasts throughout the vessel, or they may notice Aldrich has installed unusually complex vox hardware. Aldrich didn’t build it to brainwash his people, though. He doesn't need to because he doesn’t treat them like shit. Instead, Aldrich is running three experiments. (c0095)
1) Aldrich is hoping he can use the music to transfer the Tau prisoners’ brainwashing from their ethereal leadership to himself. The Tau, like my own personnel with their subservient genetic propensity, are vulnerable to such manipulations. (c0095)
2) The second experiment Aldrich wishes to run is to see if the mental conditioning used on space marines, commissars, and other Imperials that require hyper-robust psychies can be done via the Melodium, rather than the more direct and brute force hypnosis devices and drug regimens that are usually used. While these standard methods are fast and effective, they forcefully set the subject’s brain in specific patterns that cannot be changed. This usually results in somewhat static thinking and inflexible commanders. It isn’t feasible to condition everyone in such a manner either, even with my wealth, nor does Aldrich have the special mindwiping drug they use to remove any personal attachments a subject might form before they begin training. Aldrich uses the standard Imperial conditioning for the Twist Catchers, who prowl the ship for warp corruption among the crew and machinery, or unwanted, demonic boarders hidden in the shadows. It helps them resist the fear of such creatures and hardens their minds against hostile manipulations. However, Aldrich doesn't want to use it on his officers unless needed. Ideally, Aldrich would like to use music to encourage the natural formation of resilient psyches over months or years, making my whole crew resistant to hostile mental manipulation, fear, and trauma. (c0095)
3) Last of all, Aldrich wants to find music that can weaken and repel demonic influence. Aldrich has set the Machine and Imperial Cult rituals to music and spread the belief that specific music will keep a person safe. Aldrich believes that, combined with the hypnotic capabilities of the Melodium to boost confidence, it will become a self-fulfilling process. In theory, this should build up the power of faith required to create anti-demonic music, even if none existed before. Aldrich believes, "If the dumbass Chaos Noise Marines can manage the opposite effect, invoking fear and bursting eyeballs, I don’t see why I can’t manage a similar, more subtle and positive effect." Aldrich won’t be summoning demons in double-blind studies to confirm the effects, so creating and testing music as an anti-demon weapon will be challenging. Aldrich will likely need to acquire data from other, less scrupulous studies and deploy specialised vox broadcasters when tackling demonic foes. (c0095)
Wyrm, Scavenger — Mechanical Wyrms come in multiple sizes. The giant ones measure two hundred and fifty metres in length and ten metres wide, as they chomp through the earth. They are currently configured to sort and compact powdered minerals into dense bricks and store liquids and gases in their internal bladders. The smaller ones measure eight meters long and three meters wide. They are used for transportation, collecting compressed bricks, fluids, and gases, to be delivered to collection points. (c0097)
Source Chapter: “(c9999)”
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Thanks,
Brian
