{%hackmd hackmd-dark-theme %} <style> div#doc {max-width: 100%;} </style> [ToC] ## Intent / Optics (For Dev Team Use) * Avoiding the cross-server lore and player culture of baby-talking, violent xenophobia, and racial caricature. * Removing the species/factional monoculture thing to be better aligned with Shiptest * Equipping players with a uniquely old galactic people to allow them to draw from or invent elements of the very fractious Vox cultures. * Their defining (and, arguably, ongoing) cultural disaster is the adoption of technology far beyond their cultural wisdom, and the damage of the hubris that comes with it. * Vox history is shrouded in mystery and hotly debated by all. No two accounts told by the Vox agree on details, owing to biases, agendas, and a lack of much historical evidence. Moodboard: * Morrowind - Bone and chitin biopunk-esque designs, clothing derivied from harvested insectoid parts. * Mad Max Fury Road - Simple, practical leather and cloth, scrap armour * Atlantis The Lost Empire - Squatting in the ruins of their own civilisation * Sumeria and Akkadia - Design notes evoking ancient times * Dark Crystal Skeksis - The Vox Empire is an embodiment of their brilliance, but also their worst impulses. * Endless Space 2 Hissho - Thrown into a future they were not ready for, culturally * Dune Fremen - For the Celestial Fleet, obsessive and ritualistic customs for survivors in a harsh world * Arcane Undercity / Firelights * Kill Six Billion Demons - Throne as inspiration for the Shoal In-Game Representation * 1-2 outfits for the three Vox groups. * For the species profiles this equates to 3 groups x 4 profiles x n sprites = 12 sprites for each item (uniform, head, suit, or accessory) * Vox-themed decals for factional ship re-skins. * At least one factional ship. I feel like I could feasibly map this myself now that I have some idea of how to create ships. Theming it would be the harder part. * Talismans and ritual items. Reasons to use them. Detail rituals, allow crew to argue over the correct interpretation of them? I'd like to try and write something akin to a Spacer folk religion. * EVERY COPY OF VOX MYTHOLOGY IS PERSONALISED: Use a seed based on character name to determine randomly-generated variations within Vox lore books in-game. * Look at Cult + Eris NeoTheo for examples of group rituals and the like. * Quills: not sure how to represent these in-game but they should probably be able to be written on and signed as with paper? * Cuisine - Food and drink. Space carp as a staple, alongside the many exotic species from across the galaxy. Horrendous maintenance hooch and exotic wines from distant worlds. * PR: Salt to neutralise Carpotoxin? * Ruin ideas: a foxhole base/smugglers hideout for someone laying low in the frontier, a crashed Shoal vessel, a sigil shrine. * A spoonful of biopunk tech aesthetic? They probably have the most varied tech because of their eagerness to acquire new tools. See following note: * Memory pods. This is probably the idea that will take the most work. Some way to impart stored memories to those who find them. A lore-dump macguffin, essentially, with the benefit of being damaged, incomplete, or coloured by the recorder's perception and therefore unable to be taken as pure truth. Some minigame involved with exploring these? May not be a worthwhile concept to pursue for the effort. * Spacer Combat thoughts: * Hull patch kits which double as bucklers * Very powerful but single-purpose energy "spikes" to punch through heavy armour * Combat medical gel injectors for being used on injured people inside suits. ## Lore Overview The Vox cultures are ancient, with a spacefaring history stretching back farther than anyone can accurately recount. Their most populous home throughout their history has been the Shoal, a planet-sized station more akin to a shanty town than a habitat. Modern Vox cultures are divided roughly into three major groups: Shoal-Dwellers, the Celestial Fleets, and Freewalkers. Shoal-Dwellers are those who call the Shoal their home, and represent the largest contingent of the cultures. Marked by a long and anarchic history, the Shoal is an ever-changing mosaic of communes, gangs, and commerce. Crime and intrigue run rampant here, but the Shoal is also a vibrant, lively society which thrives on conflict. Personal gain and glory are seen as high ideals to the Shoal, and its inhabitants strive endlessly to claw their way to the top. The Celestial Fleets are a catch-all moniker referring to those who have made a permanent home aboard space-going ships, despite these groups often being starky different and at odds with each other. The most famous of the Fleets are the Arkships, which travel the stars in enormous spacecraft designed for indefinite habitation. Ritualistic and disciplined, Celestials dedicate themselves tirelessly to their ships, their gear, and their crew. The final notable group originating from the Vox cultures are known as Freewalkers. Those who reject the cutthroat Shoal or rigid life of the Celestials carve out their own paths. These groups are as varied as they are numerous, from those seeking to preserve what they feel are the best elements of Vox culture, to those who simply tire of the lifestyles of the other groups and wish to be left alone. Freewalkers have proven thus far to be too disparate and divided to form a coherent society, but adversity and external threats conspire to give them common ground - or at least common enemies. Owing to their eagerness to establish avenues of trade with the cultures they encountered, Vox Pidgin is often spoken as a lingua franca which pre-dates Galactic Common. For the lack of other species living amongst them when first contact was made, it is likely that the Vox were very early in becoming a spacefaring culture. The Vox cultures are very used to the presence of other species around them and in their midst in the modern day, having spent many hundreds of years engaging with outsiders. ### A People Divided No homeworld culture in the known galaxy can claim to be as fractured as those of the Vox. Despite the venerable age of their societies, they possess little that could be called a government. Their people have lived in anarchic, volatile communities for what may have been upwards of millennia, according to estimates by historians. First contacts between the Vox and the wider galaxy have been fraught with chaotic attempts by the hundreds of scattered groups trying to ensure their voices are heard and represented diplomatically. ### A Fallen Empire It has been theorised that in the dim and distant past, the Vox were once a pre-eminent galactic power. They likely evolved on a frigid, terrestrial planet, but even this may be questionable as Vox genetics have been postulated to be artificial or at least altered, possessing few inactivated genes or viral DNA as is found in most natural species. At some point during their history, the Vox civilisation underwent a sudden and violent collapse. It is believed the disaster was technological in nature, caused by an as-yet unknown form of bluespace manipulation. The catastrophic results of this are still felt to this day, with the region of space around the Shoal rendered almost unnavigable by bluespace drives. Further beyond the Shoal, in what is theorised to have been Vox space, the bluespace topology is too deadly for even the most robust ships and pilots, claiming the lives of many who have tried their fortunes as their ships were torn asunder. For now, whatever history that lies there remains buried in the graves of the Vox worlds. ### The Shoal No account of Vox cultural history would be complete without detailing the Shoal. The Shoal is an ancient, artificial structure encompassing a volume comparable to that of the planet Mercury. Whatever form the Shoal originally took, in present day it is space station of truly colossal size. Its labyrinthine, bustling structures are built upon deeper layers of station, with rarely any oversight or care given to prudent urban planning. It is a favela housing its many millions of residents, endlessly being built taller and collapsing into itself. Crime is rampant, comforts are expensive, and basic utilities such as food and water are precious. Scattered biodomes provide for some of their needs, alongside off-world imports, and mysterious sources coming from deeper within its shell. The Shoal orbits a faint red dwarf star, one which burns so dim that it may be one of the last stars in the universe to fade. The region of space around the Shoal is an ominous graveyard of planets. Debris fields and worlds stripped wholly-bare of their resources are all there is to be found, offering little respite to the travellers braving this region of space. Pirates, smugglers, and all manner of those who ply the stars for unscrupulous reasons find refuge in these barren systems. An ecosystem of sorts exists within the Shoal, with plants providing oxygen and rogue moisture creating whole weather systems within enclosed areas and their many connected tunnels. Species of plants, animals, micro-organisms and many more exotic forms of life from all across the galaxy can be found aboard the Shoal, some invasive and noxious, others crucial to their ways of life. Such as it is, all Vox cultures regard the Shoal as the centre of their civilisation, whether they call it home or not. Pre-spaceflight cultures that developed bluespace receivers would doubtlessly have been intrigued and puzzled by the washed-out transmissions emanating from the Shoal. Any notions of discovering a wise, benevolent old culture would have been quickly dashed however, by deciphering these fragmented signals to be urgent distress calls drowned out by advertising, media broadcasts, and uncouth political posturing. The Signal, as it is known, is an ancient distress beacon embedded deep within the Shoal, which calls all Vox to rendezvous at the Shoal pending further instructions. While many tales exist of people attempting to disable it, the source of it has never been found. It is regular enough that Vox signal processors simply account for it as background noise. The Signal acts as a lighthouse in the highly-turbulent area of bluespace surrounding the Shoal, which is so difficult to navigate that even skilled pilots struggle to traverse it. The Shoal sits in the very eye of this storm, an island of calm left isolated from the wider galaxy. The deepest mystery of the Shoal however, is what lies beneath the outer Shroud. Buried deep beneath the cities above are ancient and abandoned parts of the Shoal, left to decay as the Shoal grew over them. Vicious, predatory beasts and the true outcasts of the Shoal are said to lurk in these places, snatching up unwary explorers. Below the treacherous passages of the "mantle" lie troves of technological marvels, and the vast wealth of empires long dead. Very few who adventure into the Shoal deeps ever return, and the legend only grows with each account of its secrets. Those who return bring tales of long-lost genetic and cybernetic tech, overgrown with plant life never seen by the surface. These passages have barely been explored or charted, and not for a lack of effort by adventurers. Archaeologists, collectors, and researchers have offered obscene sums of money to those who do return, but the good fortune of those explorers often doesn't last, and many vanish mysteriously in the machinations of the Shoal's inhabitants. Others decide to make use of the augments they find on themselves, providing themselves with enhanced lifespans and ability, should they prove compatible. Deeper still lies the one place in the Shoal from which no one has ever returned: the Core. The innermost heart of the Shoal is a mystery above all mysteries, spoken of with deep reverence. Some believe there are riches beyond the wildest imagination, teachings of enlightenment, granters of wishes, and more... If one is only brave, clever, and lucky enough to survive the journey. ### Superstition and Mysticism All Vox cultures are deeply-rooted in folklore and spiritual beliefs. While this might seem at odds with the pragmatic, materialistic bent of the Shoal, many elaborate rituals and cultural practices pervade their society. While some deny that these beliefs hold any power it has over them, they nonetheless place heavy importance on symbolism and omens, fortune-telling and magic. The Shoal's proximity to the strange phenomena of the Frontier and its supernatural occurrences also serve to fuel these beliefs. Between two individuals however, these practices can rarely be agreed upon, leading to many arguments over the correct way to perform rites or interpret these omens. Of all the homeworlds, the Shoal is the place most heavily-steeped in belief in magic and that which exists beyond the ability of the sciences to explain. Sages, oracles, and prophets- candid in their beliefs of otherwise- are common amidst each of the Vox cultures, offering and seeking spiritual wisdom. ### The Quill One rare facet of Vox culture that is agreed upon by most of their number is a system of favours and bartering called Quills. While the system may seem odd to outsiders, a Quill put simply is a favour that its maker swears in total solemnity to honour. Amidst the cut-throat society of the Shoal, Quills are a rare and sacred bond of trust. Quills themselves take many forms, often emblematic of the kind of favour they represent, or even for the number of favours a Quill represents. For instance, a Quill from a chef may be bound with a number of rings, each representing a meal before the Quill is fully redeemed. Quills are rarely made of valuable materials, sharing few common features besides measures to prevent counterfeit. To fail to uphold a Quill is a grievous taboo, and usually renders any other Quills by that maker worthless in the process. When their recipients or buyers realise this, they often try to redeem their Quills, leading to the indenture or imprisonment of the maker, and seizure of their fortunes should they be unable to honour them. As one can imagine, Quills are not without their catches as their value relies entirely on the ability of the Quill-maker to uphold them. If they are given too flippantly, or too numerously, their value becomes dubious. This has many ramifications on their role in Shoal society. Crucially, a Quill becomes worthless if its maker dies. While this means the owner of a Quill would rather not see its maker die, others may not be so kind. A Shoal-Dweller whose fortune resides in Quills may find themselves targeted by a rival who goes after their Quill-makers. Either by assassination or discrediting their Quill-makers' honour, a Shoal-Dweller may quickly discover their fortune worthless. ## The Vox Species Vox bear a resemblance to a flightless Solarian avian, with feathers covering their body, keratinous scales on their limbs, and a sharp beak and talons. Many Vox possess a crest of longer "quills" on their scalps, which can be tied up or styled, but are less flexible than hair. Vox are large in comparison to most other species. Their body mass, along with their insulating coat of feathers, means they create and retain too much body heat to live in standard ship conditions. As a result, even though they can breathe galactic-standard air, the temperature of it is quickly lethal to them. They often must wear environmental regulators to keep themselves cool enough to co-exist with other species. Their biochemistry also differs from other species, causing many common medicines to provoke potentially-lethal allergic reactions in Vox. These medicines include: - Ephedrine - Atropine - Epinephrine - Mannitol - Antihol - common stimulant mixtures - Inaprovaline Treatment for an allergic reaction should include diphenhydramine (antihistamine), as well as treatment for toxins and oxygen deprivation in severe cases. Many misconceptions exist around Vox biology, owing to early attempts to study them being muddied by misinformation from the Shoal. The modern understanding of Vox biology is as follows: - Vox are not grown artificially from larval states, and reproduce oviparously (via egg-laying). - Vox do not have "cortical stack" implants that preserve their memories and consciousness on death. They are just as mortal as any other organic species. - Vox castes do not exist as social strata in any of their known societies. The notions of "Primalis", "Armalis", and "Auralis" seem to reflect the archetypes of very specialised, and heavily-augmented individual Vox. - Some advanced bio-technology seems to be of Vox origin, but the understanding of it has been largely lost, and the use of it is very limited in modern day. - According to their own sources, Vox possess some latent psionic talent, but this has never been provable in a laboratory setting. # Cultural Groups > lore speed run below, to be fleshed out later ## Presence in the Frontier The Shoal lies on the far side of the Frontier, and the ICW has stirred some of them into action. ## The Shoal ### Shoal-Dwellers ### The Sigillographs / Sphragisters Pending a better name, these are the really ancient sects of Vox belief which are still clinging to the idea of the rest of the Empire still being out there. They claim responsibility for the Signal, but have never delivered proof of such. ## Celestial Fleets ### The Arkships Enormous permanent residences for their crew, they prepare themselves for a long journey, cultivating their skills and growing their ranks with outside recruits in preparation for the long dark. They believe a filter event is coming for them, and that the best solution is to run as far and as fast as they can from it. ### Skipjack Raiders These notorious raiders are much more organised than the ganger ships of the Shoal, and much more discerning in their attacks. ### The Chorus Former Raiders who grew tired of being outcasts in galactic society, the Chorus now sell their skills as mercenaries, either with their own ships or employed on other crews. ## Freewalkers ### Wayfarers Freewalkers who instead opt for nomadic lifestyles are known to their cousins as Wayfarers. Beyond their Vox-originated cultural mores, these groups resemble the average Spacer crew, often accruing new members as they travel the Frontier and other worlds. # Interstellar Diplomacy ## Syebenaltch Unions The earliest of their contacts, the Rachnids surprised the Vox by arriving with a nearly-complete translation of their language derived from their bluespace broadcasts. ## Haruspex Collective Shaped by their technological exchange? ## Kalixcians Pan-Gezenan Federation Zohil Explorat Antechannel League Zale Kingdoms ## SolCon Despite their relative proximity, neither group were intersted in pursuing relations due to many cultural differences. Immigration between the two has been steady however. ## Corporate ### Nanotrasen ### Inteq Risk Management Group Gorlex Marauders ACLF GEC SUNS Cybersun Donk Co. ## Syndicate Moderates ## Syndicate Hardliners ## Other Independents ### Colonial Minutemen ### Saint-Roumain Militia ### Frontiersmen # Dubious Accounts of Vox Pre-History ## Yihika and the Watcher's Eye Gather, you who seek, and hear Yihika's tale. The tale of Yihika and the Watcher's Eye. Many aeons ago, in the days woven alone by the Vox, there lived Yihika, and her ship: Scales of Red. She named him for the way his mirror-shine plating shone in the Shoal-Sun, for these were the days of the Fall. In those times the Vox still kept many handsome ships, but even among them, Yihika and Scales of Red were bold. Their coming and going was like the slither of mercury in warmth - quick and agile, and her lot was one of greatness. Their legend was one of daring, and her woven tales are many, and so in the Shoal of those days brewed a furious envy. What star would dare to shine so much brighter than the rest! And so the Fleet (in those days the name belonged to a much different thing, not our distant Celestial cousins) tried a scheme. I will tell you quickly about the Fleet in those times. When the Shroud was built, it was the Fleet who laid the first lattice. Their ships were the pride of the Empire, but only scraps remained from our battle against the Great Foe. Even so, they were rugged things, ships of our greatest triumph, and they saw themselves inheritors of the Empire and rulers of all Vox! But in building the Shoal we know, they had stripped them for parts and woven their systems into the Shroud's blood and life. If you ask a Sphragister, they will tell you those ships still lie buried, and you had better not meddle with them. And so, having torn their ships apart- and you know how deeply a Spacer is cut by sentimentality, angry eyes looked upwards to spy Scales of Red darting in the Shoal's sky. Exhausted by their duty, sacrificing their very homes and pride in the building of a future for the Vox, the Fleet became greedy. They berated those of us who flew carelessly, without a care for becoming a stone in the foundation of our new world. The Fleet tasked Kreeyah with this duty. Kreeyah, whose name has been burned many times from the weave but who could never be erased. And Kreeyah called for Yihika to set an example. Surely, if even the great adventurer would supplicate and give her ship and oath to the Shoal, our way and our path could be restored! If the Elders could only spare their thought beyond mere survival and to the repair of our seas, we could trust them to complete our restoration. In a garden of plants from across the Empire, Yihika set down her ship and met with her seeker, each testing the resolve of the other. Kreeyah first spoke in hidden blades, professing the ideal but would brook no refusal. Yihika told them this: "Kreeyah, your duty is heavy," she said, in the tired way of another suffering soul, "But [untranslatable idiom, approximated meaning:] your skin has holes in it that are bleeding. Should you not attend to those before spending effort on this?" Kreeyah held up their hand, their wrist bound with the Eighty-Five Quills whose legend you already know. Their weight in metal and glass made this quite an effort. "Yihika," they chided, "You have made a mockery of us. The Vox cry out for your strength, your cunning. Our family is still out there, waiting for us to recover them. Will you not join us?" Yihika thought with unusual care about her next words. She was given to scathing wit but did not want to use it further that day. "Kreeyah, I shall honour in candour to name you as the deepest fundament of our new home. But I take burdens you do not. I take burdens you *cannot*." Yihika pointed out towards the stars of the old worlds, and grew sullen. "Their voices are silent. I have flown the length and span of our borders. There is no way back. The tides have snapped every ship to try too far, as if they were brittle Skere-bone. Even I cannot pass these waters." At this, Kreeyah grew incensed. They pointed at her, incandescent with rage and their quills bristling. "They may yet live, and you would discard them!" And Yihika bared her palms to them, her body trembling with grief. "Old friend, this is beyond us," she closed her hands, with their many worn claws, "Do you not see I grieve? I do not shy from it. My sister and my brothers were left behind and I will not see them again. You must accept this too." Kreeyah's voice grew to a shriek, echoing in the sacred glade. "You are a fool to dare to speak of burdens! Yihika, swiftest runner of the stars. Yihika, who ran from the Battle of Blue Flames!" Yihika knew this would go only one way, and drew her star-metal needle-blade. "This is beyond even the Elders, Kreeyah," she sighed, weighing death, "They promised victory but broke the world to gain it. You would trust them blindly again and call me the fool? You take on more burdens than you can carry." And at that, Kreeyah's blade was out of its scabbard too, theirs was a heavy, archaic thing which they were known to surprise with their deftness in using it. "Scales of Red and all his crew belongs to the Shoal," Kreeyah stated: this already a fact in their mind before even speaking with Yihika, "And your strength must join with ours." Yihika's crew had come at the commotion, but she warned them back. With one last plea, she looked into the eyes of Kreeyah, her old comrade, and saw their grief had already decided the matter. Perhaps if she was to fall now, Kreeyah would at least remember Yihika's words. "It already has, Kreeyah. I brave the worlds of death filled with the horrors we unshackled. Their treasures become ours. If you pluck all the wanderers from the sky you will stifle us in this place. Let us go, and we can find new wealth for us all!" Kreeyah said nothing, testing Yihika's guard with their blade. The two leapt into battle, their swords gleaming like red fins on Yihika's ship as they thrashed and swung! Neither meant to kill the other, but that was no reason to trust a blade not to cut. Kreeyah's strength against Yihika's swiftness had never been tested, though each knew quickly that the other was a worthy foe. Yihika leapt upon her beloved ship, her practiced steps along its glimmering hull were far more graceful than Kreeyah lumbering to chase her! But Kreeyah had her on the retreat, Yihika dancing back, and back, and back away from their long blade. In one quick swipe, Yihika's blade was ripped from her hand, skewering the earth below. Kreeyah levelled their blade at her heart, point just shy of Yihika's chest. "Yield and swear to the Shoal," they said, heaving with exertion. And Yihika... made to bow. But in her hand, something caught the glint of the light. Kreeyah did not find this comedic. "If that is a knife you had better put it where it matters," Kreeyah spat. But in her hand, Yihika held a flawless Frost Diamond, and thrust it to the sky. The Shoal-Sun's red light shone through it into Kreeyah's eye, blinding them! Clutching their face in pain, Kreeyah was brushed aside as Yihika shoved them off her ship's back, where they fell heavily into the grove bushes below. Yihika gave a cry, and her crew rushed aboard with her, and they flew with all haste. And there was clever Yihika, her skiff engines screaming as she burned phoro-fuel away from the Shoal! Ten times she crooked Scales of Red's course, swimming him deft like stars-fish between the Fleet's chasing ships. As she vanished into the Blue, word spread of her escape, and a great many Vox fled the clutches of the Shoal. The Shroud, though partly made, now lacked for much that had come from daring Spacers they had thought to close their talons around. And forever after, Yihika kept that Watcher's Eye.