Armournaut takes place far from the ruins of a devastated Earth. Connected by corridor space and the vast alien megastructures known as the pillars. This cluster of habitable worlds is filled with countless different peoples and competing ideologies that have developed during centuries of isolation from one another. It has 6 macro regions Temple Sphere, lunar union territories, Venti space are controlled by their respective super powers whilst the core, jambes and frontier are controlled by a patchwork of states and movements. These regions have countless systems with worlds and orbital communities the cluster refers to all know human worlds connected by corridor travel. Their is evidence that likely many more worlds uncontacted and unconnected just waiting for a viable corridor route to be discovered.
Armournauts are adventurers for hire who must use every resource at their disposal to navigate the dangers of conflict stricken systems while keeping numerous pay masters happy. The Life of an Armournaut is fraught with danger, where every job could change the delicate balance between entire nations. One word could be the difference between peace and war and the only thing standing between you and death is the gun on your hip, the armor on your vehicle, and the comrades at your side.
The pillars are vast alien megastructures of unknown composition and origin. They were first discovered by the temple and since then have continued to trouble the brightest minds of the cluster. They are believed to create or interact with corridor space, which is a network of highly curved space time that allows for faster than light travel over vast distances. The corridor network links most star systems in the cluster and permits trade and travel to exist between systems. 4 pillars have been discovered to date and there maybe unknown number still to be discovered. 2 of the pillars lie within temple space, while the other 2 reside in lunar union territory. It would be wrong to say these nations control these pillars, rather they cordoned them as best they can. The pillars themselves are light years in length all with a radius slightly larger than that of earth’s. Their mass alone ought to make the structures impossible, but significant fluctuating curvatures in space time around the pillars indicate some higher technology is actively altering their mass, matter or physical law. They appear to be hollow at points, with large portions broken away revealing their interior. That said they are almost impossible to image, the curving space time around warps light. Moreover it has been advanced that massive time dilation makes all observations highly unreliable. All attempts to land on the surface with probes or manned missions have resulted in failure. Most success in studying the pillars has been in sampling ejecta and the debris fields from around them. The pillars appear shed swathes of material at consistent rates Samples vary wildly but are collectively known as Pillarite. Pillarite can have miraculous properties, housing energy densities, volume, mass, boiling and freezing point, hardness, flexibility electrical conductivities incongruous with matter of this universe. Rare samples or pillarite objects have been rumored to be truly remarkable, teleportation, cellular regeneration, perpetual motion are just a few of these lofty claims. This has given pillarite the nickname of Pillarite and made it highly prized across the cluster. However most pillarite is inert. After a time pillarite objects and artifacts begin to conform to the physical laws of this reality, losing their remarkable qualities. Another observed phenomena is that pillarite becomes radioactive as it decays. over long enough timescales it turns the unknown element or elements that compose pillarite into heavier known elements. There are theories that this correlates to useage of the pillarite object and how recently it had become ejected from one of the pillars. The black market for pillarite has proven to be as dangerous as it is profitable. Consequently possession of pillarite is highly illegal and there are no known publicly accessible examples in the cluster. Aside from the pillars the frontier planet of castigor is the only place know place in the cluster where pillarite can be sourced. Castigor possessed a large and secretive pillarite stockpile that was damaged following a terrorist attack. Since then the colonies on the world have been abandoned and exclusion zones have been established. Despite these efforts the zones posses a steady population of prospectors the brave the lawless contaminated ruins, evading the mutated wildlife each other and the tracking patrols to make their fortunes. The pillars have confounded humanity since their discovery, they are ineffable and they remain the centre of speculation by academics, conspiracy theorists and religious groups. If they are evidence of aliens they left vanishingly little of there civilisation. Perhaps the only other trace is the high number of earth like workds within the cluster and frontier. Although this seems inconsistent with pre-scattering observations and theory it cannot be conclusively said that the number or of earth like worlds is odd. It is also hard to imagine how a such advanced civilisation could vanish so completely and if the do persist within the pillars why are they so reclusive.
This new region of space is vied over by all of humanity; lawless and far larger than the core of the cluster it promises a boundless future. More densely packed with habitable worlds than any other region of space it has been the target of mankind’s ceaseless expansion. Though it was only discovered recently with the activation of the 4th pillar and its corridor network, it has seen 10s billions of colonists flocking to its worlds and gravity wells. The superpowers have failed to control it over the last 84 years but now have redoubled their efforts with tensions in the cluster reaching an all-time high. Aside from them countless minor nations, mega corporations and private citizens have been enticed by hundreds or perhaps thousands of unclaimed systems. Some claim the frontier corridor network goes on forever, another link in the chain of a galaxy spanning faster than light transit systems made by the ancient unknowable creators of the pillars. Other suspect like the last time a pillar was activated, that they will find some other scattered remnant of humanity that might prove to be a new great friend or enemy to the current order. All agree that economic and ideological competition for the frontier will decide the future of the cluster and humanity.
Abandoned and lost to humanity the world that birthed it exists only in history. Even then it has proved to be a contentious history. It is known that earth declined as the result of a changing climate and ensuing resource wars. Contemporary humanity, the inhabitants of the cluster are descendants of roughly a billion humans who were able to leave the sol system in a massive exodus flotilla. Their reasoning is a matter of speculation, but it is assumed that conditions on earth and the wider sol system had declined so dramatically that there must have been great urgency and need for such an organized mass colonial effort. The initial target of the flotilla was proxima centari, proxima b specifically. However tension in the flotilla boiled over only 8 years into the generational journey. War and the extinction of humanity seemed a certainty and was only avoided an event that has become known as the scattering. The flotilla is believed to have unknowingly collided with a pocket of corridor space, this transported humanity at faster than light speeds the hundreds of new systems at a rate that was thought to be impossible. This is just one theory however examining alternatives lends credence to why this is the dominant one. No faster than light drives seem feasible in observable physics in the modern cluster much less in the resource rationing promixa b flotilla. Even drives based on the curvature of space time would require energies that are insurmountable even with the most exotic fuel sources or methods and at sizes that would dwarf even the largest human made megastructures. It is no wonder how when presented with the pillars that 2 options present themselves in the minds of most people when confronted with the mystery of the scattering. 1 that some unknown pillar related corridor space phenomena occurred, 2 the scattering itself is such an unreliable recounting of how humanity came to be in the cluster that it can't meaningfully be studied. Other options quickly diverge into conspiratorial or mythological supposition.
The scattering was random, a cosmic luck of the draw, some portions of the flotilla found verdant new home worlds teeming with hospitable biospheres and atmospheres. Most landed on far harsher world assuming they could land on these words at all. Most colonies failed, destroying themselves or their worlds if they lasted long enough to do so. Those that persisted created nations, each a successor to the flotilla and old earth. When the pillars were discovered and corridor space more fully understood these nations across the scattered systems of the cluster were suddenly connected again, rediscovering each other and their old tensions. Contact wars were common for a time but they subsided as the three superpowers came to secure dominance. Today humanity seems poised to the repeat the same history on countless new worlds. War and ecological collapse have been predicted to make the majority on planetary colonies unviable within the next 500 years. Perhaps because of this their in s a growing sentiment amongst a portion of humanity to return to old earth, to see what has become the homeworld. Efforts are contained to private ventures or religious movements however few are seriously entertaining it. No known corridor leads to earth, at sublight speeds it would take generations to reach it. The voyage seems all the more impossible given that it was only made possible the first time by the scattering or corridor space or some other unknown astronomical phenomena. Earth remains history but it is succeeded by new worlds and a new humanity, for better or worse.
The cluster is far from a unified society; humanity is more polarized than ever before. Its future is being fiercely contested by three superpowers: The Temple, the Venti Republic, and the Lunar Union, each championing their own ideals of Progress, Prosperity, and Parity. Each has reached prominence in their own right and each stands poised through political, economic and military force to secure dominance over the cluster. Many fear that before that happens a cluster wide conflict is inevitable, one that will be carried on a scale never before seen. However, for the time being the superpowers seem content with the current cold conflict. In reality the conflict is anything but cold. Although the superpowers are not formerly at war with one another their proxies, allies and mercenaries have been clashing for hundreds of years. This conflict has largely been contained to the Jambles, a region of the cluster so called because it is a highly unstable border region between the 3 superpowers. The planetary and interplanetary nations of this region are highly unstable and insurrection, revolution and civil war are common. These tensions are fuelled and funded by the superpowers as means for them to erode each other's security and test out military hardware. Though in recent years the discovery of the 4th pillar and the frontier has diverted some of these resources from the Jambles. While tensions their have relatively dropped the frontier is seeing rapid militarisation. The lawless nature of the frontier and its numerous disputed territories leads to frequent clashes. Unlike the jambles the frontier sees superpowers actively fighting one another albeit usually being limited too small patrols and battle groups. Technically these flashpoints are considered policing actions and although retaliation and general escalation is almost guaranteed, It is rare that news of these events would leave the frontier. Formally, the superpowers are military allies, the cluster Defense council, trade freely with one another and share executive authority in interplanetary nations coalition (INC). Though the superpowers act with a degree of cordiality their ideological goals are fundamentally irreconcilable. The Temple is a highly directive technocratic society, broadly it strives for progress and scientific advancement, specifically they aim to create simulated realities to upload themselves and the wider species into. They see this as the only viable way to reach a perfect society and experts are the only ones who can bring about its creation. The Venti Repubic is a collection of sovereign states and families unified around their common aim of prosperity. Theirs is a highly individualistic society, where its members strive for success and security of their families. They seek to live well here and now and have historically resented centralized civil authority, viewing it as vulnerable to corruption. They believe that a perfect society is one that amplifies the wealth of its members, it is permissive and should never serve to constrain the individual. The Lunar Union is a blended democracy that has invested great effort into increasing the Parity of its populace. Education, healthcare, housing and economic intervention have allowed it to achieve the highest direct population in the cluster along with some of the highest standards of living. This achievement has not been easy, and the Union has had to endure a great deal of hardship and conflict to reach their current position. Because of this they have traditionally valued strong proactive military involvement, this is reflected in their culture and policy. Military service is highly incentivised affording a higher standard and more participation in direct democracy. They feel that have already created as close to a perfect society as possible, they main priority now is protecting it.