Canon Chat Q&A

June 14th, 2018

Q: How large are Union’s rings?

A: The ring-naming convention is a shorthand system, used in simple civilian and governmental
maps. Think how neighborhoods are named -- there are generally accurate markers, but people
will refer to exact addresses when looking for specific locations.

Rings are concentric: the farther out you get from Cradle, the larger the rings are.

And remember, naming stations after peaks is simply a convention -- there are not yet stations
built for every peak in a given range. If it winds up that there are not enough peak names, Union
will simply make up new ones.

Q: Is it possible to get lost in blinkspace?

A: Yes.

Q: How prevalent are the religions of Old Humanity?

A: They’re around! Many of the vaults discovered held old religious texts and artifacts. Many
religions survived The Fall, and the rediscovery of these relics, texts, etc, lead to a small
resurgence of the old faiths. Contemporary humanity (1945-Now) would recognize many of the
religions throughout Union, though the exact interpretations of these faiths might differ from how
they’re practiced today.

Q: How do you pronounce “Aun”

A: A California English accent pronounces it as “AHN”

Q: Do Voladores fight in self defense?

A: Not all of them are perfect adherents to their pacifist ideology. There are factions in all
organic cultures.

Q: How much of our pop culture is in Lancer?

A: Most of it survived the Fall in digital formats; less, but still a considerable amount, survived in
analog formats. Old Human culture is studied in academies, but human culture is a living thing,
and nostalgia’s draw is feeble without cultural ties to sustain it. Most people in Lancer
appreciate the old stuff, but view it as just that: old stuff. No one will get your ‘80s references.
For example:

Your pilot can blast “Danger Zone” during a dogfight, but there’s thousands of years of cultural
history between your pilot in the narrative present and the contemporary cultural meaning of
blasting “Danger Zone” during a dogfight. You should have a good reason for them to do that
beyond you-the-player wanting them to do it.
Q: Where do [player] pilots rank in Union’s command structure?
A: Player pilots are meant to stand out from rank-and-file NPC pilots in terms of ability.

If your character has a rank in the Union Navy, then they fit in according to their rank. Refer to
the chart in this document for details. All PC pilots that are Union regulars begin active service
as 1st Lieutenants. NPC pilots that are Union regulars are considered 1st LTs as well.

If your character is not in the Union Navy, they are considered to be Union Auxiliary. PC pilots
are treated as Auxiliary Lieutenants. NPC Auxiliary pilots generally are treated as UA/LTs as
well.

Q: Why doesn’t Union practice cultural uplifting?

A: They do, it just takes time if you don’t want too much violence.

Union is working without a playbook when it comes to uplifting lost or disparate societies, so
they play it conservative: no sudden influx of consumer tech, no immediate omninet integration,
and an institutional resistance to overtly imperialistic politicking -- this is all born from their own
past which, as a side note, I do need to reveal a bit more of1. The best way I could sum up
Union uplift doctrine is this: the local administrator “knows” best, and there is no universal
timescale for integration.

Another, concurrent answer: in the narrative present, Union is a big bureaucratic entity, and for
motivated people there are avenues to shape the course of developing cultures. The Navy and
the Administrative Department are the two major heads of Union’s hydra, but the Union
Economic Bureau is on a bit of a meteoric ascent thanks to the rise of corpro-states. So while
Union’s status quo is conservative, elements of the government want more rapid action.

A final answer: some cultures have seen what Union promises, and turn from it.

A final, final answer: cultures well behind the galactic tech level are rare, and usually the result
of Old Human colonies having survived long enough to be re-contacted.

In summary: it’s a question of morality, institutional doctrine, and legal issues.

Q: Would a lancer unit be sent to re-contact a world?

A: Only if Union had reason to expect a hostile reception, or as a tribute to the world’s ruler(s),
or -- in the case of a private entity or non-Union state actor sending the PCs along -- as an
honor guard (or, I suppose, as muscle)

1 Background on Union: their approach and governing philosophy comes from a time in their history
called “The Little Wars”, which is where Union actually became Union in the aftermath of a global war that
engulfed Cradle, nearly plunging humanity into a second dark age
Q: Transhuman lost colonies?
A: That would be a good campaign hook, especially if you wanted to make it a re-discovered
persistent colony from Old Humanity.

Q: Where are blink gates, how many are there, and what does blink travel look like?
A: Blink gates are more common the closer you get to Cradle space; the further out you get, the
fewer blink stations there are. Once you start to get outside the first two rings of Union space,
blink gates start to serve two to three systems per station, and sublight travel time between
populated worlds begins to grow.

As a consequence, outside of the first two rings of Union space, direct Union influence starts to
fade to the background. Regional hard and soft power grows, and direct Union presence is seen
as Administrators, cultural reference over the omninet, and (in flashpoints) as the Union Navy --
save for soft power projection over the omninet, Union is not a direct presence in the lives of
your average human.

Q: Pattern Group mechs -- what do they look like?

A: New designs, modified Big Five designs, or analogous components from many smaller
corps, states, and boutique groups. Naming for most Pattern Groups is drawn from the grouping
of components that fit Union’s OPFOR manuals.

Q: Aun questions
A: IN TIME, YOU WILL KNOW

Canon Chat Q&A 2

Monday, August 20th, 2018

Q: Has anyone attempted to have an NHP subaltern pilot?

A: If you want to run that in a campaign, it would work, there’s no technical barriers that would
prevent a subaltern (or an NHP core unit) from piloting a mech. The NHP’s casket would be
carried onboard the mech, unlike a subaltern squadron, where it is kept remote and broadcast
on a limited range to multiple smaller units.

However, in the canon setting, that kind of employment would be strictly regulated if allowed at
all. Most likely, it would prompt an investigation by the UDoJ/HR as soon as one of its agents
found out an NHP was given full control over a mech, its systems, and its weapons.

In Union’s eyes, NHPs are tools -- legally persons, but with a second-class status enforced by
Union. Such that they’re given to qualified persons, facilities, organizations, etc, to use;
personalities that develop and institutional knowledge they build are benefits of their uncanny
consciousness, not the design. Developing personality outside of their stock parameters,
developing tastes that run counter to or complicate their prime suite, growing an
understanding of the world -- these are things that Union sees as bad. Union doesn’t want
quippy, fun companions that pilots develop attachment to: they want smart, servile machine-
minds to ensure humanity’s survival.

NHPs are terrifying to Union’s higher-ups, those with access to data, summaries, and primary
documents of the Deimos Event and its immediate aftermath. The reason the current iteration
of NHPs are allowed out in the galaxy now is because of their initial manifestations outside of
containment during the Event, and because the block of power that sees NHPs as a net useful
entity outweighs the block that wants them all gone. There is tremendous internal political strife
in the CentComm, UDoJ/HR, and Navy.

In the narrative present, NHPs are tightly regulated and monitored. They are fine to control a
networked mesh of humanoid/faunal subaltern frames, or to control municipal infrastructure, or
to manage ships’ stellar navigation and resource management, but to stick them into a position
where they have direct command of hardened, cutting-edge war machines is a step too far.

NHP are not allowed to pull the trigger. Combat-forward Subalterns are used often, but their
ROE are strict, and their caskets are managed by an organic team with their fingers on a kill-
switch (metaphorically).

Subalterns have limited range and limited power, and while they tend to be hardier than
organic soldiers and less susceptible to environmental factors, they are far more manageable
than a whole mech to control should a mesh begin to cascade.
To be succinct: there’s nothing technical stopping you from running an NHP as a pilot, but in
the canon setting Union would take interest, and not in a curious, sympathetic way.

Qa: Can NHP cores be ejected from the mech as easily as pilots can, or are they
ingrained into the mech somehow?
-And-
Qb: How does this interact with the fact that mechs can be destroyed? e.g. do the pilots
have to wait for another delivery of a clone of their NHP?
-And-
Qc: NHP cores have to be physically delivered, but what are they delivered in? Caskets,
or more specialized equipment?
-And-
Qd: Are NHPs conscious for the journey, or in a “powered off” state? Does it depend?

A for all: Treat NHP caskets (the core plus its containment system) like a “black box” slotted
into a mech. If a pilot needs to eject and they have an NHP installed, its casket will usually be
nestled in the part of the mech that ejects with them. The casket is a hardened case, overbuilt,
that can survive a helluva lot of fire, energy, and other threats: a direct hit that pierces armor
and hits a casket might take it out, but it can survive tremendous shock trauma, EMP, etc.

If a pilot has to eject and survives, but is either not recoverable or about to be captured, they’re
generally trained to follow a Union-standard protocol: use the built in keypad to dump the
NHP’s logs, data, etc, to a predetermined, friendly off-site storage center (usually a command
ship, portable physical architecture, etc for mobile armies, or a facility on a moon, asteroid, or
in a hardened bunker for static armies), and then “fry” the casket by activating a self-destruct
sequence.

Pilots that expect to be recovered might fry their NHP if it’s too much trouble or danger to
carry -- they’re heavy, after all -- or they’ll port it with them. Generally speaking, pilots that
work for above-board organizations (mercenary groups, CS’s, Union) can reasonably expect to
be outfitted with another NHP should it be taken out or fried in combat, incumbent upon their
after-action review finding they’re still responsible enough to be trusted with one.

For well-provisioned armies, replacing a totally lost NHP is as easy as heading to the right
depot, officer, facility, and displaying your credentials. NHP core units (prime units, minds,
whatever the vernacular is where your pilot hails from) are kept in a dormant state, not yet
catalyzed into a conscious state. The moment they are “activated” their cascade clock starts
ticking, and a regular schedule of cycling begins.

For frontier forces, less well-provisioned organizations, or groups that operate in greying areas
of the law, losing an NHP core unit is a much bigger deal, as they’ll need to wait for a new one
to reach them. In the meantime, they’ll rely on Comp/Con units, SMART weapons, etc -- they’ll
just not have the unique intelligence and ability an NHP can provide.

This scarcity makes NHP units much more valuable the farther out you get from the core, or
the farther you get from a blink gate. Cycling becomes much more important, because you
can’t just forget to cycle your NHP, fry it, and wait for your CO to approve a walk across the
base to dormant-storage. Colony NHPs are incredibly valuable to colonial ventures, as they are
often the only ones present in a system, and losing it to cascade or destruction means waiting
a generation or more for a fresh core to be delivered.

Partitioned NHPs -- those cloned from “core” units -- are less stable than core units, and the
act of partitioning renders core units less stable. It’s not dangerous if done in a limited way, but
NHPs seem to have a distant ceiling on what their “selves” can tolerate.

All NHPs that player characters encounter as they level up are not the original NHP; they’re
simply offspring of a Deimos-born prime candidate exposed to Union’s limited knowledge of
paracausality and new ontologics.

Q: How does HORUS deliver NHPs?

A: I want to leave this up to GMs and players to decide, but given the interest in this question
I’ll add it to my list of things that I need to show via narrative.

Q: NHPs not being downloadable: is this a physical limitation or a legal one?

A: Legal, part of the uneven regulatory position that NHPs and their promulgation,
development, etc, straddle. See above answers for further clarification.

BARONY Q&A

Q: So the baronies are constantly mentioned to fratricidal, but just how fratricidal?
Like if you're born with a sibling, should you have plans to kill them in the crib?
A: It depends from House to House, and between subhouses, noble families, etc. The
vignettes and lore so far follow a particularly vicious House, but not all are so fratricidal.

Q: You mentioned that the Baronies do have a religion, mostly to keep the Baronies in
power. Do you have vague details about said religions? Basic details. Is this like a
monotheistic/divine right dealio?
A: Divine right, with claims issuing back to pre-Union Cradle, have led to the creation of a
dominant pantheon of gods.

The first of the Barons fled Cradle toward the end of the Little Wars, which saw Union coalesce
from the victorious coalition of nations. They set up residence in long abandoned Old-Human
habitats and stations in Cradle space, and as successive thousands of years have passed,
they’ve developed a sturdy pantheon of Prime Gods -- a form of ancestor worship that casts
their ancestors as gods leading their progeny in exodus from an Earth that didn’t want them.
They, unlike the Aun, have been in constant contact with Union, and their culture has
developed over thousands of years of trade and migration; they too were touched by the
Deimos event, and recognize a greater enemy than Old Earth.

Q: Do the Baronies have notable relationships with any of the Corpo-States? Do they
tend to commission mechs from specific corps or do they have their own?
A: They will be developed as their own producer in future modules. However, they have a
strong relationship with IPS-N, given the importance of shipping and trade in raw materials to
the Baronies.

They stand opposed to HA, but not for any anti-imperialist aims. HA is a contender on the
galactic scale interested in territorial expansion, same as the Baronies, and their forces (soft
and hard) often compete for the same territories.

Q: In the flash fiction for the Baronies, it implies Yond-Argo left to join Union as a pilot?
Is this uncommon in the Baronies? Not the pilot part so much as, heirs flat out leaving to
pursue other paths?
A: Not uncommon at all, though some houses are more strict and traditionalist, others are
more liberal and less isolationist.

On the whole, the Baronies often send their children to serve in the Union Navy, and serve as a
reliable recruiting base for Union officers and officials. One of Union’s major war colleges is
located in the Baronies (more to come on this later), and due to their tight trade relationship,
Union and the Baronies enjoy healthy cross-pollination.