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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kookalouris" data-source="post: 4456146" data-attributes="member: 23872">Background, PART 1:  ROUGH DRAFTFEEDBACK ON ANY OF THIS IS WELCOME!!!    The McKnights are a travelling clan of nomads that migrate around the edges (in every sense) of human society.  In the 22nd-Century, this typically meant extrasolar colonies.  Insular and old-fashioned, the clan claims to be descended from actual British nobility.  Whatever the truth, the McKnights seems at times obsessed with apparently trivial matters of lineage and bloodline.  Currently, given the near non-existence of Britain as a political power, such a morbid fascination with ancestry seems near pathetic to outsiders.    In any case, the McKnight's insistence on living in the past has allowed them to eke out a living making home-made crafts and specializing in archaic forms of entertainment, despite (or perhaps BECAUSE of) the ease of modern manufacturing and the deliberate trending of the modern age.  Depending on which McKnight you meet or who you talk to, the McKnight are good but backward people OR con men, carnies and thieves, maybe both at once.    What is known about the Clan McKnight is that they were amongst the first to emigrate to Britain's Camelot lunar base (now colony) in the mid-2000's.  When the Aberrant's finally left the Moon for parts unknown, some McKnights went left with them, willingly, or so it seemed.  To the eyes of most, those McKnights who left were Aberrant collaborators, and those who remained were Aberrant sympathizers (at the very least).  The majority of the remaining clan left Camelot for the first extrasolar colonies as soon as they were opened, the McKnights now learning to keep a low profile and not to stay in one place too long...    (Game possibilities:  Like any closed society, the McKnights have their fair share of conspiracy nuts keeping tabs on them, not too many, the group isn't that well-known or THAT interesting minus conspiracies.    The theories run something like this:  The explosion of Hammersmith's Telluric Engine in 1920's London (which is possibly suspected, if not public knowledge in the 2120's) irradiated a local Briton with mutagenic Z-Rays, this led to a long and fruitful dynasty with a 'special' member every generation or so.  This yet unrevealed 'Inspired' was an early, but not founding, member of the Aeon Society for Gentleman (although not necessarily gentle and/or a man).  When the Inspired first child had signs of Z-Ray exposure, the Aeon Society used its influence to get the family into the nobility (using one of the last hereditary peerages granted by the Crown).  The kind of family structures that would perserve 'blue bloods' would work very well to keep track of very uncommon blood, indeed.    A century later, it became terribly apparent that the Novas were beginning a slow but inevitable slide into Aberration, the McKnight clan would have a higher chance of Aberrant children.  The clan decided to disappear from society at large and to make sure no Aberrant child was ever discovered.  Whether pressure from other mysterious groups delivered this decision or the clan decided to 'thin' the herd before someone else forced that decision on them, few know.  In any case, there has been no DOCUMENTED Aberrant child born to the clan.  Whether Abberant children don't happen or are unrevealed, or just plain 'disappeared' is unknown, the isolation and structure of the Clan does not lend itself to a census.    With the recent discovery of psionic potential, it has occured to the McKnight and others that the clan might spawn a savior psion now and then, not just the rare abberration.  True or not, psionic talent scouts, sponsored by the Aeon Trinity would visit the outer colonies once a year looking for potential.  It certainly seemed that the McKnights were sure to be visited, no matter how far out in Space they were...)2100 - Pat    Pat McKnight was born on Luna but was soon travelling with the rest of the clan to faraway colonies.  The life was hard, cramped and restrictive, unless you were little and had known no other life.    To young Pat, Karoo Mining Colony was just this side of Heaven, there was always a new tunnel or cranny to explore, a new family to get to know, and the iridescent beauty of the Crab Nebula outside every window.2113 - The chance of a lifetime    Pat was thirteen when the nice folks from Trinity arrived for their yearly visit but this time was special, but this time, they said that Pat might be 'special' too.If Pat wanted, there would be a trip to Old Earth itself, a year of testing and even dunking for a luckly few.  Pat's family was so proud and the money Pat could send back would be great help even just for agreeing to testing.    The next day, Pat and a few other hopeful students from the outer colonies were 'jumped' to Earth.  Of all of the proxies the Trinity represented, Pat favored the Ministry or the Teleporters best.  The psi orders said Pat's potential for any order was even, it was simply a matter of choice.2114 -     Pat was at the Trinity base in London trying to volunteer for the resuce mission of Karoo from those...THINGS.  The ace card was when Pat threatened to join the Legion, THEY would take any warm body, even a desparate underage latent.  Psions of various orders were trying to calm the young latent, even the telepath was having trouble.    There was something on the holonews about a space station.  No one paid any attention, the ISRA psion had just enough foreknowledge to scream.    The telekinetic froze solid, the electrokinetic was shocked to death by the nearby biotech, the ISRA rep had already been holding them both.  Three corpses hit the floor, one shattering and Pat still didn't understand.    It wasn't until the telepath psi-screamed, putting the pain and agony of 'millions of people crying out in terror and suddenly silenced' into Pat's mind.  A horror so terrible most nearby psis suicided.  The telepath shut off her mind forever and the nearby Pat was knocked into merciful oblivion and didn't awaken until the shockwave from Paris blew out the windows an hour later...    And the teleporter couldn't be found anywhere.MORE AS FAST AS I CAN GET IT TO YOU...</blockquote>

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