Introduction
Note: This information is all contained in the flyer from Fresher's Fair.
The Lystran Empire is an empire founded on honour - the force that unites a hundred worlds and countless lives towards a common end. The first tenet of the honourable life is service to the Empire. Nobles are expected to serve the Empire, be brave and valiant, and always keep their Word.
Within the Lystran Empire there are 5 Noble Houses, who govern planets in the name of the Emperor and his Imperial House Lystra. Each House consists of around 200 Nobles who are each Preserved and have individual wealth and status. In most Houses, Nobility is a virtue of a person's birth; House Truniss is the most extreme example of this, with only a select few bloodline preserved, whilst in Karpeer the ties are much looser, with Nobles chosen by talent rather than breeding.
The PCs in Legacy will each be Nobles who have been invited to the biannual Imperial Court Meetings, which take place aboard the Imperial City Ship. Some Nobles govern one or more of the 60 or so planets controlled by each House, monitoring the populace and their productivity. Governorship is not the only pursuit of the nobility: scholars work tirelessly to understand the texts of the Forerunners, whilst explorers journey to worlds far from the Empire’s reach. Technologists invent new contraptions of wonder, while Chirurgeons work to heal. The Nobility also command the Empire’s military and police forces and many major religions and businesses have Noble backers.
Long before the Lystran Empire began, there was a race that walked the stars and created wonders we can barely fathom. They were the Forerunners. The titular Legacy is the immense amount of technology seemingly abandoned by them - for they have disappeared, for reasons unknown. The Empire now exploits this legacy to its own ends, although understanding the great Autofactories and Spaceships is no easy matter - the knowledge of the workings of the devices is long lost. The Empire has developed its own technologies, but these are still primitive by comparison.
Preservation is one of the most important Legacy technologies and its discovery aboard the City Ships sparked a revolution when the Emperor decreed it to be the preserve of his House alone. Simply put, the devices make it impossible for a Preserved individual to die from unnatural means. Their body is simply regrown in tubes aboard the Ships and their memory is intact apart from their final day. The Preservation devices were of such great import that control of them was put in the hands of the impartial Guild of Chirurgeons who are sworn to maintain them for the good of all.
Psychics are scarce, yet play an increasingly large role in the Empire. They have powers over forces, heat, healing, or hear the echoes of the past. The School of Psychic Study takes any and all promising pupils to hone their talents and ensures that all can control their power by the time they are allowed to leave and take up their place in society.
The Lystran Empire is not alone in the galaxy - the League of Free States and the Independent Worlds provide a free haven for pirates and smugglers away from the justice of the Empire and the alien Triquetra sit ever at the Empire’s borders. The Triquetra have proved peaceful and amenable to trade, but concerns over their true motives grow every day amongst the Empire’s generals.
More distressing are the infrequent but dangerous outbreaks of entities known as Demons. Little is known of these living tendrils of darkness, except that they mindlessly destroy or corrupt all they encounter.