Star*Drive

The main far-future setting of the Alternity line. Star*Drive is set at the dawn of the 26th century, and humanity has spread out across the Orion Arm. The first galactic war saw the end of colonial rule from Earth, while the century-long second galactic war forged the colonies into a dozen powerful stellar nations united into three alliances. The growing nations have encountered dozens of sentient species, of which several stand out. Much of the lore was reused for d20 Modern's d20 Future supplement.

The Great Alliances and Stellar Nations

Known space in the Star*Drive setting is divided under the governance of 13 stellar nations. In the century long crucible of the Second Galactic War, these nations formed three military alliances which persist to the present.

• Expansion Pentad: Generally regarded (even by themselves) as the aggressors of the Second War, the Pentad is not a unified force but rather an agreement to divide the galaxy between two powers (a'la the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), namely the the Thuldan Empire and Voidcorp. The junior members, Hatire and the Nariacs, are effectively client states of their respective neighbors. A second puppet of Voidcorp, the Dreth Commonwealth, was destroyed in the war and most of their space was used to form one of the Concord neutralities.

• FreeSpace Alliance: The principle obstacle to the ambitions of the Pentad was the twin states of the Orion League and the Orlamu. Sharing a common border and similar societal values, the two combined are more than a match for either Voidcorp or the Thuldans on their own. Their chief accomplishment in the war was preserving the Borelian Republic from being annexed by the Pentad. For much of the war FreeSpace was on good or neutral terms with the nations of the Profit Confederation, although whenever the Pentad threat was checked the two would engage in standoffs and skirmishes over disputed border colonies.

• Profit Confederation: By far the least stable of the three alliances, the Confederation formed essentially in desperation by nations caught between the Pentad and FreeSpace. But each brought unique qualities that made the alliance an effective if not necessarily unified force. The combination of well armed Austrin armies backed by the peerless StarMech navy, operating from the centralized space of the Solar Union, and financed with the economic might of the Rigunmors preserved them all from the Pentad's aggression.

Alien Races

• Fraal: The gray aliens; slender, telepathic humanoids with black eyes, the fraal arrived in the Sol system thousands of years ago, having forgotten both their homeworld and their destination. Over the centuries they attempted to communicate with humanity but without success until humans began to colonize the solar system. The combination of terran mass reactor technology and fraal gravitic propulsion made the stardrive possible, allowing faster than light travel. After contact, Fraal society divided into the builders, who live among humans, and the wanderers, who went back into isolation.

• Aleerians (Mechalus): The nice borg; a fully cyborgized species. Typically pacifists but they don't regard cyberwar to be violence. Their trade agreement with the Rigunmor Consortium leases mechalus recruits as contract hackers and tech experts to anyone who can pay.

• Weren: Hulked out trolls with fur. Weren are a brutish pre-modern species that recently invented flintlocks and printing, with the same effect that those inventions had on Earth (ie, fuckhueg holy wars). A small recruiting outpost in the wastelands allows individual weren to take their chances in the stars, but those who leave may never return. While most who emigrate become soldiers or mercenaries, a surprising number adopt the Orlamu faith and become missionaries.

• Sesheyans: Batpeople. A primitive race of nocturnal avians, the sesheyans have the ignominious distinction of being the first species enslaved by humanity due to not reading the fine print on their trade agreement. Most free Sesheyans live outside the law as pirates and criminals.

• T'sa: Excitable velociraptors. The t'sa colonized several systems without FTL before humanity encountered them, and consider themselves to be a sovereign stellar nation (despite being as outnumbered as the Tau). However, the t'sa have an inquisitive and cosmopolitan nature, and have emigrated throughout human space even as their home nation has continued to grow.

Stellar Nations

• Austrin-Ontis Unlimited: Austrins are every stereotype of a redneck gun nut. Their nation is run as a minarchist corporation, where every citizen is a voting shareholder. The nation's primary export is weaponry, and their unifying cultural hallmark is an appreciation of personal autonomy, honor, and possession of firearms. Perhaps predictably, dueling is legal in Austrin territory provided the dispute is sufficiently grievous and the forms are followed to the letter. As a people, the Austrins have a special dislike of Nariacs due to the events of the second war. The Austrin-Nariac frontline was quite simply the most brutal and barbaric of all the war's many theaters, with advanced weapons and cybernetic soldiers reducing battlefields to bloodsport.

• Borealis Republic: The Borealis Republic began as an experiment in neo-monarchical government. Through the widespread use of cloning, a small wealthy elite colonized several planets with an army of serfs to do their bidding. This initially worked fairly well, with their territory growing by leaps. However, during the first galactic war a clone revolt triggered a civil war that kept Borealis occupied and largely out of the colonial campaign against Terra. The civil war ended with the simultaneous elevation of all clones to the rank of knight, and the abdication of the king. Since then, Borealis has shifted to a more intellectual peerage, with academic achievement as a stand-in for noble titles. The second war did not go well for Borealis, and were it not for the assistance of other nations they would almost certainly have been destroyed.

• Hatire Community: The Hatire started as literal Space Amish. They emigrated from Earth to found a new colony based on their ideals of simple living with minimal technology. No sooner had they done this when they discovered an ancient alien holy site on their new world, which they interpreted as nothing less than A SIGN FROM DA'LAUD! After completing the generational task of deciphering the alien works, they began sending missionaries out to spread the Cosmir's wisdom; and their first target was their godless imperial neighbor, the Thuldan Empire. Politically and militarily, the Hatire were a client state of the Thuldans even before the second war, but during that conflict the Hatire methodically spread their faith until today almost a third of the empire worships Cosmir.

• Insight: Insight was originally a division of VoidCorp responsible for the development of gridspace hardware and software. Given the value and importance of this field, they were given a great deal of latitude in how they ran themselves and it became a lavishly well funded bastion of freespeaking radicals in the company. However during the second war this division began using the war to organize its own secession behind the scenes. Geographically concentrating its assets and consolidating its control over elements of the security division, Insight's secession cut a deep gouge into VoidCorp that they were in no position to address due to their precarious war situation, and hastened the acceptance of the Orion-Thuldan peace process. Since then, Insight has been an upstart rogue in interstellar politics; it is by far the smallest and militarily weakest nation, but their mastery of gridspace is rivaled only by the Mechalus of Rigunmore.

• Nariac Domain: The Nariacs did not originally set out to be Space Communists, it just sort of worked out that way. They were a group of settlers who founded a colony on a marginally habitable planet with little margin for error or waste. Through tight social and economic control they were able to thrive, and subsequently began settling other worlds using the same ethos. Because they need to get maximum utility out of every one of their scarce population, cybernetic enhancement is common and accepted. When the second war began, the Nariacs were quickly annexed by VoidCorp as a client state and tasked with keeping the Austrins busy. Nariac cybersoldiers clashed with Austrin fireteams on countless worlds for almost a century. But the Nariacs don't reciprocate the Austrin's dislike of them, instead resenting VoidCorp for putting them in that position.

• Orion League: The Orion League was formed by the voluntary union of four small colonies that banded together for mutual defense against pirates. Their founding set out a bold, idealistic goal of a free, republican democracy. Their lofty idealism made them very appealing to the Fraal, and more of their kind settled in Orion space than anywhere else. In the 26th century, Orion is by far the most diverse and open society in the stellar ring; while it isn't the largest nation by territory, economy, population, or military strength, the Orions are overall a very strong and stable country that doesn't blink at the threats of its rivals.

• Orlamu Theocracy: The Orlamu are often described as the sister state of the Orions, as the two share a mutual border, have mutual respect for rights and liberty, and were allies throughout the second war. However, the Orlamu are in some ways the most inscrutable of the stellar nations. They are governed by a technocratic priesthood that worships drivespace, and outside of ensuring basic law and order, this religious order is rather removed from the daily lives of the citizenry. Oddly this doesn't foster much resentment and strife, as it is a government that basically works and anyone who wants a say in things is free to take the cloth or leave and join the Orions. The Orlamu produce by far the most advanced and powerful stardrives, giving their navy and their favored allies an enormous military advantage in projecting power.

• Rigunmor Star Consortium: An entire nation of rogue traders. They discovered the Mechalus and are filthy rich. Instead of elections they have periodic audits and whomever is richest is in charge.

• StarMech Collective: Lazy corellians. StarMechs are expert engineers with a hedonism streak. They have lots of robots to do the actual work. Another corporate nation where citizens are shareholders, although it's effectively a liberal democracy.

• Thuldan Empire: The Imperium of Man. The largest stellar nation, thinks they should rule the galaxy and has tried to. Really into genetic engineering, really not into xenos.

• Union of Sol: Terra and everything within 50 light years of Terra. Overcrowded, their main export is prisoners. Resents the Galactic Concord for usurping Earth's rightful role.

• VoidCorp: 90's era Microsoft in space. Enslaved the Sesheyans. The only corporate nation to treat citizens as employees who can't quit. Universally despised by the rest of humanity but they are one of the strongest nations.

• Galactic Concord: The New Republic. Formed to govern buffer zones after the second galactic war. Most of their territory consists of ruined battlefield systems, but they have a very powerful navy tithed from all the other nations. The T'sa cluster is in Concord space.