A Guide To the Army Of The Red Spear, Part Four

[Aotrs Commander]

Guide to the Army Of The Red Spear: Part Four

Here we are again - and Worse News - people Have Encouraged Me such that inbetween this guff which coincides with the monthly releases, I will also be starting to do lore-dumps on the other powers out there (though to varying levels of detail), so you have all that to dread coming as well!

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Denizens of the Aotrs

The Army Of The Red Spear state is composed of a wide variety of races and species native to the multiple HPE-L worlds within its borders. Furthermore, due to the recruitment policies of the Aotrs proper, the military has an even wider range, with a handful of members from alien species. A few examples of nearly every race that has been known for any length of time can likely be found somewhere.
However, despite this diversity, the bulk of the populace of the Aotrs in composed of a relatively few races, which we will look at today.
As the most important component in the Aotrs make-up and one least familiar in their capabilities, we will first look into Liches in detail.

(Pronunciation note: “lich” (or “liche” as occasionally spelled, though the ‘e’ is considered something of an embellishment) is always pronounced as to rhyme with “witch” and never “lick.”)

Spirit-Bound Liches

The Aotrs proper (i.e. the military) is composed predominantly of Spirit-Bound Liches. The prevailing make-up of the liches itself is a microcosm of the Aotrs’ overall population distribution. The greatest majority are of former human or elven stock, since these two races make up the largest proportion of the civilian populace (and of the local powers outside the Aotrs), with a smaller proportion of orc-kin.

Spirit-Bound Liches are a form of created Undead. Spirit-Bound Liches are distinct from Phylactery-Bound Liches in that the soul is bound directly to the body, not to a specially prepared artefact. The process of creating a Spirit-Bound Lich is comparatively simple, requiring only spells. Unlike the ritual to bind the caster’s soul to an artefact that produces a Phylactery-Bound Lich, this has one disadvantage that the would-be lich cannot cast these spells on themselves, since to be bound, the creature need to be dead and the soul separated from the body.

It is possible, under very rare circumstances, for a Spirit-Bound Lich to form “naturally.” This requires a necromancer to be killed at the precisely right moment during the casting of the right sort of necromantic spell and the negative energy and magic to intermix in the exactly right way. It is certainly a sufficiently small chance that it would far too risky to try deliberately, but it can happen inadvertently. Lord Death Despoil himself is the result of such an instance and it was his Lichdom that prompted the Aotrs in that direction.

Thus most Spirit-Bound Liches in the Aotrs are created by the Aotrs, using the spells that have been refined over the centuries. Unlike a Phylactery-Bound Lich, who must be a spellcaster to use the rituals involved, a Spirit-Bound Lich can be created from a nonspellcaster. Such individuals are typically referred to as Skeleton Warriors – as the liches that retain any flesh are very few and far between – but this is nomenclature only. As Aotrs basic training requires learning basic necromancy spells (e.g. creating animated undead), only those individuals completely unable to learn magic of any sort – a very rare phenomena – are Skeleton Warriors in Aotrs service. Skeleton Warriors thus make a smaller proportion than even the number of living beings in the Aotrs proper.

A Spirit-Bound Lich is created with the appropriate spells first by animating a dead body as a skeleton (typically the body of the soul in question), summoning a spirit (i.e. the soul or ghost) of a given creature and the binding it to the animated body, transforming it into a Spirit-Bound Undead. The body does not have to be a skeleton – or necessarily, the creature’s own body – but the former is Aotrs cultural preference and the latter is preferred for other reasons, such as Spirit Vessel Will Reinforcement (discussed below). At the most advanced levels, it does not strictly have to be a body at all, though such a binding is beyond the level of the basic Aotrs training packages and is the remit of powerful casters.

The spirit-binding process – like so much magic – varies from world to world, depending on the functioning of magic. The specific version of Aotrs-standard spirit-binding is the most advanced, since it has been refined to perfection over the course of almost three millennia.

Spirit-binding is similar to how a living soul is attached to a body. There are ultimately only so many ways in which a soul can be tied to the physical plane. Consider how to attach two objects to one another. There are, when down to basics, only so many ways of doing so. They can be melded together (e.g. welding), or attached them via some sort of physical link (screws or nails or rope) or stuck together by some sort of adhesive. While the specific details of those methods may vary, the broad conceptual methods are few.

Spirit-Binding in this fashion ties the soul to the body much closer than a living soul’s bond. This close bond allows a lich to consciously and subconsciously affect their body in ways that a non-Spirit-Bound undead cannot. It is illustrative to imagine a typical haunted house scenario, and all the sort of tricks and abilities that a haunted house is often shown to use; the noises, speech, the mysterious lights, blood appearing spontaneously, poltergeist activity (as opposed to a free-roaming poltergeist); regeneration of damaged parts and so on. A Spirit-Bound Lich is in the same position, but “haunting” their own body instead of a location. Because the volume is smaller (and in the case of Aotrs Spirit-Binding, the bond itself much more advanced and engineered), the effect is more pronounced.

A Spirit-Bound Lich on the physical plane appears as a skeleton with glowing red points of light (“eyeglows”) in their eye sockets. (While it is possible for Liches to have other eyeglow colours, it is extremely rare.) These eyeglows convey emotion in a manner not unlike the subset of the living eye and eyebrow. An intense emotion (hate, rage, triumph) will causes the glow to brighten or even spill luridly forth from the eyesockets; quieter, more retrospective moments cause the glow dim soften, perhaps even to a dark pink. The expansion or contraction of an eyeglow is akin to the widening or narrowing of the eye; and a single expanded eyeglow is the equivalent of a raised eyebrow. A lich can even “close their eyes,” which turns off the glow – or to blink. It is thus surprisingly possible to read the emotions of a lich, despite the lack of a facial expressions (or mobile bones, as many inaccurate depictions show), once the differences are understood.

A Spirit-Bound Lich observed on the ethereal plane – especially one who is young (i.e. has not been a lich for very long) will typically appear as a ghostly version of themselves in life. This image is, however, determined by what the soul sees itself as, rather than strictly what it was. An image may appear to be younger, or as the gender, if different from the sex – or in very rare, but not unheard of cases, as a different species. As it is tied intrinsically to a lich’s self-image, over time, most liches naturally transition to their skeletal forms being what they are. And so that is all that will be seen even in the ethereal plane, except to the most observant viewer using appropriate magic or technology – and even those might only be able glean a hazy, half-remembered image.

Powers and Abilities

As is the case with a lot of Undead, the specific powers of one individual can vary considerably, as by the very nature of the effect of the soul on the body, it will manifest in different ways. Aotrs Spirit-Binding tends to produce more standardised result than other methods, but even there, the common abilities may be present to a greater or lesser degree. Age and experience also has an effect.

The general plethora of powers granted to a lich by Aotrs Spirit-Binding run as follows.

• By the nature of the bond itself, it means that a resurrection or other life-restoring spell simply cannot function against a Spirit-Bound Undead, since there is no free soul to restore. Nor can it harm a lich since the bond of soul to body is different from, but analogous to, the bond of a living creature’s soul to its body.

• Extremely high resistance (more-or-less immunity in practise) to almost all forms mind-attack and control. Almost all of these effects typically work on the brain and as well as the mind at some base level, and Spirit-Bound Undead don’t have any actual physical brain structure to work on, nor even an analogue to one, like technological creatures do. As an analogy, a typical mind-control spell would still work on a Cybertank (a xenocidal, tank-shaped technological creature), as they have a brain, just not an organic one; but not on a lich. The lack of physical brain is not the only factor at work in granting this resistance, but one single most important one. But even those effects which do not affect or work in from a physical brain struggle to gain any purchase on a lich’s mind.

• Regeneration of damage from most sources at a rate that varies from several orders of magnitude above natural healing (i.e. damage heals in minutes, not weeks), to outright full body-regeneration, depending on the individual. Portions of the body severed will slide back towards each other and reassemble over time.

This regeneration does not apply to everything – attacks imbued with holy (and/or positive) energy attacks, and attacks which deal heat damage (i.e. fire, lasers and most energy weapons) deal “permanent” damage. “Permanent” damage is like damage to a living creature; it will heal, but at more a conventional rates, akin to a living being’s natural healing rate. By the nature of this effect, it means that positive energy harms, rather than heals, undead in the reverse of what it does to living creatures.

The same process essentially renders a lich immune to most-shape-altering magics. This is not quite a blanket immunity; a lich forced into another form will likewise tend to gravitate quickly back towards their natural form, nor does it stop such changes if they are initiated by the lich him or herself.
As a by-product of this, liches will over time alter their bodies towards their own self-image state. Thus a the body of a female lich bound into the body of a male (either due to having to be bound into the only corpse available or naturally transgender) will over time alter to become female – though admittedly, such changes are likely only perceptible to bone specialists. Similarly, a lich bound not into their own body will over time, will eventually transform the new body into a copy of their old one. The rate of these changes varies, but is typically on the scale of decades to centuries, though body dysphoria can accelerate the process.

• An aura of supernatural fear and awe, as emitted like powerful supernatural creatures (angels, demons, dragons, demi-gods etc.). The size of the radius depends on the individual and their power, but usually starts at about ten feet and is not usually more than twenty or thirty. A lich can simply choose not to emanate this aura if they choose (the Aotrs tend to refer to it as “turning it on/off”).

• The ability to drain the life-force and health of a living creature, on touch, and to a lesser degree, merely by standing in proximity; as a by-product, both of these effects also produce a great deal of elemental cold energy, increasing the harm further. The life-drain is essentially permanent and irreversible, aside from rare magic (or even rarer very high technology) or over a long period of natural healing (as in, often years, if ever completely in a mortal’s lifetime).

These effects are strongest on contact, but, depending on the individual, the radius of effect can vary from 5 feet to much greater. The strength and radius of both these and the fears effects are the most variable of the typical Lich traits and a lot depends on personality, strength and even desire. Like the fear aura, a lich can suppress (“turn off”) one or both of the effects at will, and independently of radius and contact.

A skilled lich can further control the rate of the effect – it is possible, with some training, so stand next to someone and slowly turn the aura up until their life subtly drains away, with the first indication the moment they collapse but seconds from death.

• Because the nature of Undeath and negative energy, the status of Undeath combined with the bond provides significant protection to privatives energies. (I.e. the forms of energy that only exist without magic or high technology as absences of their opposite energy form – cold to heat and shadow to light – and, of course, negative energy to positive energy.)

This grants absorption (i.e. the energy heals, not harms) of both negative energy and elemental shadow energy (i.e. the privative of light, best thought of as being like a darkness-version of a laser). Similarly, a Spirit-Bound Lich is highly resistant (to the point of immunity on a practical level) to cold energy (and totally immune to the harmful effects natural non-energy cold). This does not necessarily preclude the sensation, just any potential harm.

• Considerable innate resistance to magic, psionics and similar supernatural energies.

• Slightly enhanced senses, especially with regard to vision and hearing; liches can see much further into the EM spectrum and hear higher and lower frequency sounds than humans. They can also see the emanations of life-energy coming from living creatures; this ability is best thought of as seeing life-energy as a “colour” rather than an illumination.

• Enhanced speed and strength due to the “haunting” effect, and increased intelligence and the projection of one’s will (going hand-in-hand with the fear aura). The intelligence boost is a combination of both the lack of physical brain capping thought-speed and various other factors (including some inherent boosts laid down by the Aotrs Spirit-Binding spells in addition).

• The “haunting” effect also allows the Spirit-Bound Lich to perform other “minor haunting” effects on their own body – essentially allowing manipulation of the immediate physical world. What this boils down to is that a lich has the ability to do pretty much any action a living creature could do in life (except excrete and perform sexual activity), including eat, speak or sigh in exasperation.
Consumption bears special note. Ingested food does not visibly drop down into the stomach (nor drop out of it like in a cartoon), but disappears into the ethereal body.

As an anecdotal side-note, it is possible to surprise a lich who has just drunk something enough to do a spit-take, but rather than spew out what was just “swallowed,” it either creates or pulls a random liquid from somewhere in the universe. (Again this is due to the “haunting” effect.) Most of the time, it is usually related to what has been consumed (which has, of course, been absorbed and re-radiated as energy on the ethereal plane), but not always.

Comparison to Phylactery-Binding

As a comparison, Phylactery-Binding has only two major advantages over Spirit-Binding. Firstly, and most notably, a Phylactery-Bound Lich is only killed when the phylactery is destroyed. If the body is destroyed, it can re-form. A Spirit-Bound Lich is killed if the physical body is destroyed (by sufficient amounts of “permanent” energy damage). A Phylactery-Bound Lich can also ascend themselves to undeath, whereas a Spirit-Bound Lich needs to be dead (not Undead) so its spirit can be rebound into the body. (In the same way a resurrection spell is used on a living being.)

The former advantage is the most notable, but the trade-off is that, in general, a Phylactery-Bound Lich does not get anywhere near the amount of abilities as a Spirit-Bound Lich.

As their souls are not bound into the body, Phylactery-Bound Liches fundamentally cannot be affected by Spirit Vessel Will Reinforcement. At best, the long-term effects might see a slight benefit to the strength of their phylactery, but no more than this and they are incapable of getting the sudden surges that some Spirit-Bound Liches get. This lack is caused simply by the degree of splitting the soul bind between the phylactery and the body. In theory, a lich bound solely into an object via advanced Spirit-Binding could eventually undergo Spirit Vessel Will Reinforcement, though this would have the obvious mental side-effects on the psyche for being trapped in an object for centuries.

The general cultural consensus held by the Aotrs is that a Phylactery is a good stop-gap measure to avoid death, but being stronger and thus less likely to be killed in the first place (and/or being part of an organisation that will make an effort to get you back even if killed) is more preferable. That said, there are a few Phylactery-Bound Liches in the Aotrs and on occasion, their specific primary talents can prove very useful.

Phylactery-Binding also has several other disadvantages – it is much more risky, can only be accomplished by a (living, usually) spellcaster and requires a large amount of time and money and resources to create the Phylactery. By comparison, an Aotrs-trained spellcaster can create a Spirit-Bound Lich permanently in the time it takes them to cast three (component-less) spells.

Spirit Vessel Will Reinforcement

Spirit Vessel Will Reinforcement or “SpiV-Wi-Re-ment” as it is commonly abbreviated to, is the process by which, over time, a Spirit-Bound Lich ‘s soul’s bond to the body intensifies, granting further and improved abilities, granting increased physical, magical and often mental abilities.

The abbreviation of “SpiV-Wi-Re-ment” was coined on Lord Yeller’s insistence, by all accounts simply because he found it funny to pronounce it in that fashion. Lord Death Despoil, who has never been known for his lack of sense of humour, understated though his own often is, was apparently amused enough made it official. Despite this humorous and perhaps undignified appellation, SpiV-Wi-Re-ment is no laughing matter. (This is, of course, precisely why Lord Yeller found such levity in using such a reductionist absurdity.)

For many liches, SpiV-Wi-Re-ment happens as a very slow gradual incremental improvement that comes along with experience and practise over centuries – indeed, the previously mentioned changes to a lich’s appearance of body is a mild part of the process. It is a passive process that occurs simply by the lich existing; the longer they spend as lich, the closer the bond between soul and bound-body becomes. While training and experience does have something of an effect on lich abilities as with anything else, the increases that come from SpiV-Wi-Re-ment specifically are more to do with subconscious self-image and self-acceptance.

But for some liches, SpiV-Wi-Re-ment can occur in a sudden dramatic leap once every few centuries. As the will portion is deeply personal, such leaps tend to come at moments of drama, or crisis or enlightenment. These sudden instances can and often do have profound effects on the lich, sometimes granting entirely new mutations or powers.

Aside from a spike in physical, mental and magical power, such an occurrence will often feature abrupt changes in body pertaining to sex, species or stature that normally only occurs over centuries. In very rare cases, a lich’s entire body might be transmuted from bone to metal or crystal or a lich might regain (or lose) flesh or develop extra limbs or wings or even might permanently manifest some form of energy like an internal flame or wings of energy. All of which depends on the personality and desires (conscious or subconscious) of the lich in question. Such extreme instances are very rare, but over the Aotrs history they have happened enough not to be particularly remarkable.

For the majority of liches, a sudden SpiV-Wi-Re-ment event is not something that happens until they are already old and powerful, but particularly adept and driven younger liches have been recorded to have such events in mere decades.

Names

It is traditional for the Aotrs, upon ascending to lichdom, to choose a new name for themselves. On a symbolic level, this represents leaving behind what they were, acceptance of their new state, allegiance to the Aotrs and the self-admission that they are, ultimately, joining the unhallowed ranks of an Evil power. It has also, and perhaps not unjustifiably, been likened to a superhero (or more accurately, perhaps, a super-villain) choosing their pseudonym.

There is a certain thematic style which started from Lord Death Despoil himself, and has pervaded through the millennia – one that is rooted in Undeath, aggression and generally intimidating nature.

Rather than strictly a forename and surname structure, these names form rather a primary name and secondary name.

Some liches take only a single (primary) name, which may be one or two words; notable examples of the former are Lord Deather or Lord Yeller and of the latter Lord Foul Skream and Lord Death Despoil himself.

(It should be noted in passing that such two-word names are not a forename and surname, but a single one – thus it is always “Death Despoil” and never “Lord Despoil” nor “Death.”)

In the more modern times – and with the Aotrs being many orders of magnitude larger and thus being less space for uniqueness – it is not untypical to have a primary and secondary name. Sometimes, a lich will retain from life their forename or a surname or both; while the practise of taking a new name is widespread, it is not universal – a good number of liches retain their names in life.

The primary name (which is often analogous the surname for liches with a secondary name) is what the lich is officially called in the line of duty or by friends; the secondary name is used usually only on occasions where differentiation or a full name is required.

Occasionally, this practise is performed by someone who is not a lich, but is joining the Aotrs proper or as a direct sign of allegiance. The most celebrated example is Lord Lungrender, the living Dark Elf who is the head of the Dark Elf Troopers and the primary overseer of the Aotrs civilian administration.

Humans, Elves and Half-Elves

Humans, elves and half-elves are collectively by far the numerically largest proportion of the Aotrs civilian make-up. The pre-space-flight worlds that formed the backbone of the Aotrs were all HPE-L planets and those typically have large human and elven populations. The exact ratio of human, elf and half-elf varies from world to world, with Kalanoth skewing to an elven majority on the one hand and Semilkar to human on the other.

Kalanoth was the first world the Aotrs completely conquered. It was there that Lord Death Despoil met and recruited the Dark Elf known now as Lungrender and his Dark Elves. Once national and racial boundaries common to pre-industrial societies had begun to dissolve following the conquest, interbreeding between the various peoples became a natural facet of society. Like many of the worlds in the Royal Elven Kingdoms, but atypically among HPE-L worlds, the Kalanoth elves blood runs dominant. The Kalanothi Dark Elves in particular have strong genes, and they are ultimately responsible for a disproportionate amount of the ethnicity of the Aotrs-wide elven populations.

In many other worlds, interbreeding of elven and human populations often results in the elven population slowly fading out over time. On Kalanoth, as in the Royal Elven Kingdoms, the reverse is true. The human population of Kalanoth has largely been absorbed over the millennia by interbreeding with the Dark Elves; Kalanoth’s native dwarf and halfling population functionally disappeared quite early, due to interbreeding with both the genetically dominant Kalanothi humans and elves. There are small enclaves of dwarf and halfling populations on other worlds, though they are not large. The human population has only remained in existence as a notable minority at all due to the constant flow of population from other worlds – such as the later conquered Semilkar, with an entirely human native population that has more dominant genes than the humans of Kalanoth.

The boundaries of ethnicity (both of humans and elves) on the oldest worlds have largely been dissolved – ethnicity is typically not given any more thought than skin or eye-colour. However, there remains, especially on worlds more recently conquered, geographical areas of populations of human or elven ethnicities. This is most notable on the shattered world of Tusharnos, where the devastation following the Xakkath Demon Wars broke the planet and left it a world full of valleys and lowlands separated by near-impassable cliffs. Aside from the areas wherein the Aotrs have modernised the world, these self-contained valleys hold their own little civilisations, though all are under the overall control of the Aotrs.

The elven populations of the Aotrs worlds have immortal longevity (in that they do not die of old age). The number of elven ethnic groups on the only two worlds which merely had long-lived elves was always very small; one of these worlds was Fearmore and that population was obliterated when the planet was Scoured along with almost all other life. In the remaining population on Akamo, the trait is recessive (and in later years, easily repaired with minor gene-therapy).

Due to the inbreeding with elves over the centuries, a significant portion of the remaining the human populations outside of human-dominant Semilkar have a marked tendency towards longer longevity even before the application of modern medical techniques, due to trace elven blood. However, with their shorter-by-comparison lifespan, a larger proportion of humans are more motivated to work to enter the Aotrs proper and achieve lichdom than the elves, who can take their time. (This is especially true on Kalanoth.) Thus there is a slight bias in the Aotrs military populations towards former-human liches than former-elven.

Orc-Kin

Orc-kin are traditionally among the most varied of races commonly found on HPE-L worlds (their classification even varies on local terminology). It is uncertain why this is, when humans and dwarves in particular are so much more frequently identical, and elves show relatively minor physical differences.

As a result, then, the orc-kin of the Aotrs show a marked variation between various worlds. The populations on Kalanoth and Raytayne are functionally identical, with differences no more than between humans of any two worlds. This group of orc-kin (referred to collectively as Kalanothi orc-kin), being among the earliest recruited to the Aotrs and the most favoured now comprises the largest populations of orc-kin throughout Aotrs space.
Kalanothi orc-kin and divided into the four traditional groups of descending builds – orcs, hobgoblins, goblins and kobolds. Orcs are generally slightly taller and more heavily built than humans, hobgoblins about the same height but more slenderly built, goblins about the height of dwarves or a little less (about four to four and a half feet) and kobolds little more than three and a half at most (with the notable exception of Lord Unlucky). All have green to dark green skin colouration. While (originally) culturally brutish and genetically disposed to aggression, Kalanothi orc-kin also proved the most manageable to the Aotrs’ disciplined state. While they can theoretically interbreed with other humanoids, even after the many centuries of cultural hegemonic drift, there is still a divide in the desired qualities of mates between orc-kin and humans and elves. While more open than the other varieties of orc-kin, even Kalanothi orc-kin are still largely de facto segregated into their own enclaves (though they all retain the same legal status and rights as the other species).

Little is now known of the orc-kin populations of Fearmore, as they were wiped out entirely by the Scouring and were encountered only in small numbers of orc bands on the continent the Aotrs was operational on prior to the Scouring ritual. They were believed to be more porcine and barbaric. No notable hobgoblin or goblin races are known, though a small dog- or -rat-like race were locally called kobolds.

The orcs of Akamo were both different from those of Fearmore and the Kalanothi orc-kin. “Orc” was an appellation given to a race which resembles Kalanothi orcs in stature and broad appearance, but was otherwise unrelated. Goblins and Hobgoblins existed close to the Kalanothi standard, and there was a third, larger group locally called bugbears which were significantly bigger than Kalanothi orcs, verging towards ogre-sized. All three groups locally were called goblinoids. “Kobold” was applied locally to a race of small reptiloids. The Akamo orcs proved too chaotic and rebellious and their enclaves were eventually exterminated. The goblinoids remain in small enclaves, but as genetically recessive to Kalanothi orc-kins and Akamo humans, it is only the semi-segregated state that preserves them as a distinct ethnicity. Akamo “kobolds” survive as a minority (as they cannot interbreed with the more prevalent mammalian races), but are now known as “Saraki” (their name for themselves in their own language).

The orcs of Temnis are different again, though in later years it has been discovered that this group is functionally identical to the genetic stock of the orcs of the Orc Fearcrushy from their homeworld Grotfang. The Temnis orcs also are divided into the four traditional analogous orc-kin groups – though in this case, “breeds” is more appropriate. The Temnis orcs are slightly larger, and tougher than Kalanothi orcs (and a little more bestial in appearance) but notably are intellectually inferior the human standard, with only an occasional mutant exception. This is not to say they are truly stupid, exactly, as they can have a certain cunning, but they have a brute-force approach to problem solving that does not gel well with the elite and organised, meticulous approach the Aotrs are famed for. So while they can be more easily corralled and controlled than the Akamo orcs were, they do not generally have the ability to function as part of the Aotrs proper, given their propensity for recklessness and inability to truly grasp complex concepts. The Orc Stormsoldiers retain a few regiments of the more promising recruits as shock-troopers, but otherwise the Temnis orcs are generally confined to their enclaves and left largely to their own devices. Interbreeding with Kalanothi orcs has not had significantly improved results, as neither genepool is dominant.

(It is worth noting in passing that High Shaman Gutrug of the Orc Fearcrushy managing to wield this version of orcs into a space-faring power of slightly-below galactic average technology level through sheer dint of effort over almost twice the length of time the Aotrs existed is an astounding achievement.)

Other Undead

Due to the nature of the Aotrs, there is a small fraction of the populace and thus the military arm that is nonLich Undead. The most common of these Undead are vampires, ghosts, wights and wraiths. Vampires are the most commonly seen serving among regular troops, followed by wights, where the incorporeal ghosts and wraiths tend to serve in support or specialist capacities (though by no means all).

Vampires, notably, are the only group in the Aotrs where there is a culturally-accepted level of animosity between them and other Undead (largely one-sided in their direction). This stems from the typically-held (external) beliefs that vampires are the most powerful (or popular) form of Undead, which is something that apparently aggravates even Lord Death Despoil and the backlash to that thought thereof. This is in the vast majority, confined to good-natured ribbing and vampires occupying the tradition idiot’s punchline role in jokes requiring the rule of three, or centred around the vampires traditionally (and widely known) vulnerabilities (which most other Undead are not subject to). However, it is also notable that the largest contingent of hostile Undead the Aotrs have to occasionally deal with (from outside their own space) is statistically vampires, so there is an element of truth to the adages. (Like everything else, such behaviour is sharply stepped upon if it interferes with duties or imperils a serving officer.)

There is a scattering of every kind of intelligent Undead throughout the Aotrs, including unique Undead (who often because of that uniqueness, are well-placed for recruitment if their personalities match).

Unintelligent Undead see some use. Notably, animated skeletons and zombies (the Aotrs has a traditional preference for the former) are used in many places – most notably the labyrinthine Citadel on Fearmore – for very simple household duties that do not require significant oversight (such as cleaning) where other powers might use a simple robot. Animated Undead, being mindless, are not well-equipped for the modern battlefield. Even the advanced magic of the Aotrs can only impart a relatively limited amount of programming (as animated Undead do not use the soul of the body’s former occupant), working on top of the psychic residue left by the body’s death. This programming is much more advanced than in the early days, but it is still crude. On the battlefield, then, animated Undead are used mostly as cannon fodder, or in ambushes or during a close assault. They are dangerous enough that an enemy force can’t ignore them, but into doing so, they have to expend ammunition and worse, be pulled out of position and formation, leaving themselves open. This allows a follow-up attack by Aotrs troopers while the enemy is disorganised following the melee, placing the liches at a significant advantage. As this sort of basic necromancy is part and parcel of the basic magical training all Aotrs personnel receive, it is always an option on the table if there are corpses around.

Technologicals

Like almost every other technologically advanced power, the Aotrs uses robots, drones and droids for a variety of purposes in utility, maintenance and even combat roles. Also as is typical, the Aotrs has a small percentage of intelligent (i.e. sapient and sentient) technology-based entities (e.g. androids and the like) among the military and the civilian populace. This includes recruits from outside Aotrs territory in the Aotrs proper from the recruitment methods as well as a few ascended War Droids. Intelligent technologicals are treated with the same rights and privileges as organics (living or otherwise). A vanishing few of these are Undead themselves.

One of the drawbacks of the Aotrs particular method of operation is that their liches are inherently valuable assets and not a resource of limitless depth. And sometimes, a situation simply calls for additional bodies on the field. It has often been practise to thus bulk out the elite forces. In the earliest days, this was with animated undead, but as warfare advanced and as the Aotrs got geographically bigger and spread thinner, it became more practical to use robotic troops for this purpose.

As every power that has dabbled in robotic troops has discovered, there is a very fine line to be walked. The smarter a robot or computer is, the more the chances of it becoming sapient/sentient rise sharply. And this almost inevitably ends in some sort of strife between the technologicals and their masters, just as with any other minority. The Aotrs skirted the worst troubles early on, with forward thinking so that when the first instances took place, Lord Death Despoil already knew how it was to be handled. In their cases, with necromancy to hand, it was relatively trivial to identify such instances, as the very action of becoming sapient/sentient means there is a detectable soul, albeit one that nonadvanced necromancy often cannot recognise as such. (The study of souls in the scientifically necromantic sense is a very complex technical topic, but it suffices to say Aotrs necromancy can detect the difference in this case quite easily.)

The solution, then, implemented by almost all the powers wishing to use robotic troops (or even advanced computer systems) en masse as disposable, has been, almost invariably, creating anti-sapient programming. Even notable heavy war droid users like the Herosine Empire have done so; not through any moral reason, but when such troops outnumber their biological ones, they could not afford such a rebellion. Anti-sapient programming functionally makes a robot or computer brain be unable to become sapient/sentient (and become a true person, not a machine), cutting it off before it can even begin to form; in essence, keeping them as Artificial Intelligence and not Artificial Sapience. These are very difficult and complex problems to solve; and what it fundamentally means is that such robotic troops are generally fairly stupid by comparison. While not entirely dumb, they are not capable of innovative thinking and tend to operate in very straight-line ways.

While the Aotrs had used general robotic troops for some time prior, it was not until the introduction of the War Droids their use proliferated significantly. The 1st generation War Droids were bought directly from the Herosine Empire’s arms merchants, starting in the closing years of the 22nd century, during the period of the Supercruisers were taking the majority of the Aotrs on in-house manufacturing. Since then, the Aotrs have steadily switched over to the on internal production. Unlike the Herosine Empire, which has sufficient wealth it can throw out bleeding-edge top-of-the-line equipment and still treat is as disposable, the Aotrs has had to take a more circumspect approach.

Modern 4th generation War Droids are comparatively easy to mass produce (in comparison to training up new soldiers), and can be transported in large numbers easily. They are relentless troops, but focussing on cost-effectiveness over efficacy means that their intelligence and initiative is somewhat lacking. To be effective, they have to be controlled by a dedicated command droid (which uses a more advanced, higher-value brain), which is attached at the top level of an attack force, to avoid the possibility of conflicting orders. They are, however, treated as drones and fundamentally disposable. The basic War Droid brain is used in the humanoid robots, the Hunter Drones and a slightly-more cut-down version in Scarab Mines and Sentry Drones.

The Enrager Mk 1 and new Mk 2 Heavy War Droids and Profaner Siege Droids are larger and more valuable targets, and so a correspondingly greater expense was made on their intelligence, though they are by no means bright.

As intimated earlier, even this programming is not always 100% effective, and sometimes extreme circumstances can cause a war droid or robot to develop sentience. In the Aotrs, in such an instance, they are immediately evaluated and (most often) transitioned into the regular forces and no longer treated as a disposable asset.

Finally of note are the Desolation Commandoes. This is an elite branch of the Aotrs special forces, composed of (originally organic) liches who have been spirit-bound into a robotic body (which is essentially a highly modified War Droid). While terrifyingly effective, the methods uses and stresses it imposes mean that very few liches pass the psychological analysis to undergo the process. Of the ones that are, even the Aotrs liches themselves tend to find the Desolation Commandos unsettling.

[Aotrs Commander]

Spoiler: Ships of the Aotrs Navy, Part Four

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Dark Fear A Destroyer

(Note: measurements are taken from bounding box extremities.)




Length 413.0m
Width 207.7m
Height 128.2m

The Dark Fear Destroyer had a troubled design history. Planned since the conception stage of the modern 10th generation fleet in 2319, the Dark Fear was plagued with technical issues and problems from the very start. This earliest version was a typical ship-of-the-line warship, akin to the Frostbeam, but on a larger scale. The first prototype woefully underperformed and the process began, moving through no less than five prototypes and subsequent re-designs before the original Dark Fear was scrapped entirely.

The name Dark Fear and its attendant the ship category (destroyer) was appended to numerous other prototypes as the need for new ship designs changed. The Dark Fear’s numerous alternate designs attempted to forge it into something to meet the current requirements, but it never seemed to work right, and was out-paced by other designs. The Dark Fear name was appended to a missile ship (scrapped), a point-defence vessel (out-performed by the Spiritwrack), a standard warship (inferior to the existing Shadowfang and Overwhelmer) and at least one abortive try that failed to even get off the drawing board as a long-range recon/carrier. It was long-rumoured the name itself was cursed (despite Dark Fear previously having a long, storied history as a vessel in the Aotrs starfleet right back to the 1st generation). It had even been investigated, but no evidence of an actual curse could be found.

Finally, in 2340, work began on a new heavy destroyer version of the Dark Fear, using the solid and proven base of the Shadowfang MkII and Overwhelmer, between which it fitted in scale. But even this too was had issues – the primary armament (and thus function) was in hot debate between whether it should be a coldbeam vessel, a railgun warship or a missile ship. Eventually, the unfinished prototype – unarmed save for the point-defence turrets – was taken out for a test flight. A series of apparently unrelated happenstances followed; three highly improbable mechanical failures occurred (in systems identical to those used by other 10th generation ships for twenty years with only a single instance in one case of failure), an encounter with a spacial anomaly and finally an attack by a pirate band. But the Lichemaster had hand-picked the test-flight crew personally, from a variety of disparate sources. This new crew came together in the crisis, and defeated each and every problem them were beset with. (It can be speculated that this was the Lichemaster’s intention, given his foresight abilities.) The Dark Fear prototype returned triumphantly to the spacedock, damaged but victorious, having won its first space battle without even being completed. From that point forward, whatever misfortune had dogged the Dark Fear seemed to melt away.

The Dark Fear finally entered service in 2345, the name-ship being crewed by the same crew that had taken it out for its maiden voyage. The armament problem was solved in the end – not least to a discovery made as part of that shake-down cruise – by simply having four configurations of the Dark Fear to meet all the roles. The configurations are not modular (though that was considered), though refitting one to another would be possible as part of a general refit (except for the Dark Fear C configuration, where the changes are more extensive).

The Dark Fear A is armed with six fixed-mount coldbeam cannons, of the same type as the Shadowfang MkII and intended to function in the same role. The coldbeams are mounted in three pairs; port and starboard double mount like the Shadowfangs and one dorsal double mount. Each of the configurations replaces these weapons.

With the great manoeuvrability provided by the engines and shielding equivalent to some less advanced battleships twice its size, the Dark Fear A’s lack of anti-capital-ship weapons in the other arcs is not an easy one to take advantage of.

Dark Fear B Destroyer



Length 284.0m
Width 191.8m
Height 142.9m

The Dark Fear B replaces the fixed coldbeams of the A version with six turreted coldbeam cannons. With a similar range to the A’s fixed guns, the B performs as escort, either covering the unguarded arcs of the A and D Dark Fears, or accompanying larger capital ships such as the Midnight and providing additional firepower and point-defence.

Dark Fear C Destroyer



Length 274.2m
Width 207.7m
Height 128.2m

The Dark Fear C carries six warhead launchers, each capable of hurling five missiles in a single burst (twice that with the smaller semi-guided rockets and point-defence missiles). It can carry over five hundred missiles and a torpedoes. A typical load splits this between long range, standard and point-defence missiles, salvo rockets and standard and ioniser torpedoes, with enough quantities to fill any required role. More specialist vessel carry load-outs biased towards their particular job.

Because the missiles make it a higher-value target, the Dark Fear C carries almost twice the amount of shielding as the other versions, making it an extremely difficult nut to crack. In addition, it has a second fire-control suite to allow it to strike at more targets. Given the plentiful size of the warhead launchers, it is not even an easy task out attempt to out-last the storm of missiles, when the vessel would be largely defenceless.

Dark Fear D Destroyer



Length 488.0m
Width 207.7m
Height 128.2m

The Dark Fear D is a railgun destroyer, carrying six heavy railguns. Though seemingly of a similar in mission profile to the A, the D is principally an artillery vessel, using its agility to stay at range to pound away at enemy vessels. It often acts in concert with the Dark Fear A and Bs, with the other vessels forming a screen. Another common companion is the Sorrow Skean – the Sorrow Skean, being even more agile, is much more suited to closing to short range with its own railguns, while the Dark Fear Ds can support from longer ranges.

Despite this, a vessel getting too close to a Dark Fear D is only more likely to be hit by the massive railguns, quite capable of punching through shields to strike armour on most conventional vessels. The Dark Fear’s native agility means it is still quite capable of performing in the close attack role, though not as adeptly as the larger and faster Sorrow Skean.

Suicide Stellar Missile



Length 116.5m
Width 20.0m
Height 20.0m

The Suicide Stellar Missile is an intersystem capital missile. The Suicide was never intended to function as part of a fleet, though it is fully automated and technically meets the qualifications (and capability) to function as a capital starship. Should a need arise (perhaps for a specific target at long-range), the Suicide can travel with a fleet until the point it can be deployed to attack.

While a few of such designs have been created over the generations by the Aotrs, the Suicide was the most prevalent. The Suicide is the oldest unit operational in the Aotrs fleet, dating back to the early 8th generation in design. During the age of the supercruiser, the Suicide enjoyed a brief period where targets were potentially plentiful, and a considerable stock of them was created. They saw only occasional use, however, and their principal prey, supercruisers, waned in time. Aotrs doctrine rarely calls for the deployment of apocalyptic weapons (not least for the dangers of rousing the galactic community that that would bring), so the Suicides have been tacitly mothballed. The number that remains made decommissioning them not practical, and their warhead technology is now dated compared to the Aotrs’ current technology, so there would be little to recycle in any case. Given the rarity of the use of such weapons, no new design was seen as necessary, so the Suicides that remain are still kept in operational status in the various shipyards. When the stocks become sufficiently depleted, an upgraded version could be developed and manufactured relatively quickly, but given the low rate of expenditure, the Suicides will be waiting in their moorings for many years to come.