Balbergulbness , was Sentient Species in Homemade Settings, World Building & Galaxy Construction

I've been thinking how to describe this: In setting up a Lewis Carroll reference, I used a Star Wars reference. Dropping in Star Wars directly seemed a bit heavy-handed, so I brought in the Far Away Land equivalent. Notwithstanding that I talked about the FAL creature, I kept thinking about SW associated species and also about unique FAL beings.

Now I'd like to develop the region further, indirectly using both of these influences, though not literally importing them.

The balbergulbness (domain of the balbergulbs), then, resembles Hutt Space by the presence of several more or less exploited client species, including human colonists, and resembles Far Away Land by the intrusion or bordering presence of various bizarre beings.

In Star*Drive, I wanted to find a spot that could have remained a frontier and a limit to human influence for a long time, but on the other hand not shifted greatly due to GW II, and that set up a suitable relationship between the former Carpenters and my Far Reach ideas. One possibility might lie outside the edge of Hatire space, a nation that has grown slowly but remained relatively stable. The humans interacting with balbergulbs would have been independents from the beginning, constantly displaced outwards by their disagreement with the expanding and solidifying Thuldan and Hatire dominions.

This post has been edited by uncle_jimbo on Oct 5 2015, 03:58

Some of the not-Star Wars denizens:

• Independent humans and fraal arrived in the time of the Terran Empire. Like others in that era, they invented their own names for species that already had well-established cultures of their own,
• mastari, known to humans as pugrans or pugnace, are aggressive and militaristic pack maulers with heavy jowls, gripping fangs and three small eyes in an upward-pointing wedge. They organise by packs and warbands in a culture that befits them as loyal and favoured guards,
• grawls, who humans call hograns, were once content as subordinates to the balbergulbs, but developed too great an appetite for trade, power and even for food. In competition with the invertebrates, they were crushed and hunted, now rarely seen,
• sabracians are a lithe and colourful, technically-inclined, salamander-like species, spacefaring for at least three millennia alongside balbergulbs, though long ago reduced to servitude,
• tothul, sinister stalkers with resemblances to mantis and wolf-spiders, hulking, armour-plated, but creepily quiet, are infamous as bounty hunters and other purveyors of bloodshed, though many live as quite civilised traders and artisans. They collect finger-bones as ornaments and enjoy morsels of sentient flesh, and are just as content to pay for these luxuries as hunt for them. They act as solitary hunters or in small master-apprentice groups of two or three. Some tothul are found in Concord Sagittarius.

This post has been edited by uncle_jimbo on Sep 16 2015, 12:10

Besides the digitally-haunted Mad Worlds:

• I'm inclined just to give noknil starships and use them more or less as is, particularly using the description of a noknil facility in Barkoon. Rather than literally emulating a human statesman, they could model themselves on some alien culture-hero. A short story for Eclipse Phase comes to mind,
• in the realm known as Headspace, the zoordrooz aspired to become as the Primordials once were (I haven't got to the Primordials yet) by constructing an artificial ruling class of giant, cyber-enhanced, blaster-armed, respirator-masked heads - some Mad Max influences here. A segment of the species remain loyal in their core systems while others rove the balbergulbness as mercenaries and brigands,
• some of the earliest human venturers into these dangerous stars met an unpleasant fate, transformed in captivity into various weird and barbarous Slave Tribe cultures (named for their past, not necessarily their present state) such as the self-denying tac tenders and violent agnuns.

This post has been edited by uncle_jimbo on Sep 16 2015, 12:12

do you have any stats on these new species ? or art work ? I do love good art work !!

I've made a start on Alternity stats for balbergulbs and the new species, some more developed than others at the moment. I should look at converting Far Away Land statistics at some point.

No original artwork unfortunately. I think it would help a lot to convey some of the concepts I have for them.

This one: Kalevala

Or Monty Python.

This post has been edited by uncle_jimbo on Oct 5 2015, 10:31

This looks useful, or at least parallel: Abhorrans

I have a feeling I could complete this corner of the setting by stirring in something else, just as a small domain or even a single planet, but I'm not quite sure what - maybe one of Jack Vance's or Neal Asher's creations, or some minor RPG.

How about Machinations of the Space Princess or Titansgrave?

This post has been edited by uncle_jimbo on Jan 4 2016, 10:02

I think I have a better use for MSP, or a place that looks a lot like it.

Space Gamer #40 offers extensive information for Tschai, Jack Vance's Planet of Adventure. Parts of that might suit and even provide some encounters elsewhere in the region.

This post has been edited by uncle_jimbo on Mar 27 2016, 07:35