Traveller - Mongoose 2E - Aliens Of Charted Space - Volume 2.pdf

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A L I E N S O F C H A R T E D S PA C E VO LU M E 2
CREDITS
CLASSIC TRAVELLER
Marc Miller
Loren Wiseman, John Harshman, Frank Chadwick, Darryl Hany,
Winston Hamilton, Tony Svajlenka, Scott Renner, Doug Poe,
David MacDonald, Wayne Roth, Paul R. Banner.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
THE SOLOMANI
A HISTORY OF THE SOLOMANI
THE SOLOMANI CONFEDERATION
SOLOMANI SOCIETY
GOVERNANCE
CONFEDERATION ARMED FORCES
SOLOMANI SECURITY
COMMERCE, LAW AND ECONOMICS
WORLDS OF THE CONFEDERATION
HIGH GUARD: SOLOMANI
SOLOMANI EQUIPMENT
SOLOMANI TRAVELLERS
THE DROYNE
A HISTORY OF THE DROYNE
DROYNE, CHIRPERS AND RELATED BEINGS
MILITARY AND NAVY
POLITICS AND COMMERCE
DROYNE WORLDS
DROYNE PSIONICS
HIGH GUARD: DROYNE
DROYNE EQUIPMENT
DROYNE TRAVELLERS
DROYNE AS TRAVELLERS
THE HIVERS
HISTORY OF THE HIVE FEDERATION
RACES OF THE HIVE FEDERATION
MODERN HIVER SOCIETY
MILITARY AND NAVY
COMMERCE AND EXPLORATION
THE HIVE FEDERATION
HIVER WORLDS
HIGH GUARD: HIVE FEDERATION
HIVER STARSHIPS AND SPACECRAFT
HIVE FEDERATION EQUIPMENT
HIVER TRAVELLERS
HIVERS AS TRAVELLERS
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MONGOOSE TRAVELLER
M J Dougherty
Author
Editor
Matthew Sprange
Morné Schaap, Cassie Gregory
Layout
Amy Perrett, Anderson Maia, Cassie Gregory,
Damjan Gjorgievski, Douglas Deri, Mark Graham,
Michael Leonard, Nikita Vasylchuk, Xavier Bernard
Interior Illustrations
Angel Muro
Cover Art
TRAVELLER INNER CIRCLE
Andrew James Alan Welty, Colin Dunn, M. J. Dougherty,
Rob Eaglestone, Sam Wissa, Joshua Bell, Maksim Smelchak
Marc Miller, Loren Wiseman
Traveller
©2020 Mongoose Publishing. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this
work by any means without the written permission of the publisher is expressly
forbidden. All significant characters, names, places, items, art and text herein
are copyrighted by Mongoose Publishing.
This game product contains no Open Game Content. No portion of this work
may be reproduced in any form without written permission. To learn more about
the Open Game License, please go to www.mongoosepublishing.com.
This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United Kingdom and
of the United States. This product is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual
people, organisations, places or events is purely coincidental.
Traveller is a trademark of Far Future Enterprises and is used under licence.
Printed in China
Special Thanks
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INTRODUCTION
Alien races and cultures often make handy ‘bad guys’ or
plot vehicles for entertainment. For example, in low-
budget Imperial dramas it is not uncommon to find that a
Hiver has manipulated everyone to create a bad situation
or a Solomani agent has done something horrible. These
actions need not be explained; they have become tropes
in entertainment and provide a convenient way of getting
on with the plot without needing to provide a backstory
or motivation for the character. This does the cultures
in question a disservice, of course, and hardly furthers
interstellar diplomacy and understanding.
The reality of these cultures is rather more complex. The
Solomani, for example, are often portrayed as jackbooted
racists but in fact can be better thought of as snobs
rather than haters. They have good and – some would
say – provable reasons for ‘knowing’ they are the ultimate
expression of Humaniti. It is their destiny to lead and to
show others the path to greatness. This can represent
itself as racism and a view that others are inferior, but
the typical Solomani is not an alien-hater.
The Droyne are widely known for their caste system and
general weirdness, but there is much more to them than
that. They have reasons for everything they do; reasons
based on millennia of specialised evolution that led
to their caste system. Understanding how the Droyne
think is the key to portraying them effectively. A Droyne
is not mindless, like an insect or part of a hive-mind,
but they think in terms of community rather than self.
Without their community a Droyne is worthless and will
probably just die, so sacrifice on behalf of the community
may make more sense than self-preservation. Droyne
thinking is also directed by the caste system – a Worker
or Technician thinks in terms of accomplishing the
tasks they have been given; a Drone thinks in terms of
protecting and nurturing the young, and seeing to the
common good of the community.
The Hivers’ mindset is based on cooperation, but
cooperation in which others act to the benefit of
the individual. From this comes the concept of
manipulation; getting others to do what you want
without necessarily realising they are serving your ends.
Given that they are physically weak and cowardly, the
idea of working through others without direct coercion
makes perfect sense to Hivers.
Travellers and referees alike can benefit from
learning more about the cultures they encounter,
and remembering that everyone does what they do
for a reason that makes sense at the time. Master
manipulators do make mistakes, of course, and a society-
minded Droyne might occasionally go off task, but for the
most part the actions of these societies can be predicted
by outsiders even if they cannot be understood.
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THE SOLOMANI
The word ‘Solomani’ has a number of different meanings,
most of which overlap. It roughly translates as ‘people
of Sol’ but this, too, has varying connotations. It can
refer to the humans who consider the Sol system to be
their spiritual home or a cultural and political movement
based around those people. The word Solomani is
sometimes also used to refer to a wider group of species
including uplifted creatures native to Terra, such as
Apes and Dolphins. It can be used, with equal fervour,
to describe those who belong to the Solomani culture or
those who belong to the Solomani race – these two are
not always the same thing. Indeed, for all they are the
original human genetic stock and their culture is largely
derived from the values of the societies of Old Earth, the
Solomani are one of the misunderstood racial or cultural
groups in Charted Space.
C
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Humans are the most common starfaring race in Charted
Space. There are at least 45 nearly identical subspecies,
each of which developed some form of civilisation on its
own homeworld. Of the Major Races of Charted Space
– defined as a culture that developed the jump drive
without outside assistance – three are human. These
are the Vilani, the Zhodani and the Solomani. The Vilani
and Zhodani were transplanted to other worlds by the
Ancients, whilst the Solomani developed on Earth, the
original homeworld of Humaniti.
By the time the Solomani ventured out into space
and developed the jump drive, other human groups
were already on the cosmic stage. Most notably, from
a Solomani point of view, the Vilani had created a
large empire whose borders lay close to Terra. Upon
encountering the Vilani, humans from Terra learned of
the existence of other human races. The collective term
‘Humaniti’ was applied to all human races and is still
used today.
Prior to contact with the Solomani the other races of
Humaniti had no good explanation for two fundamental
questions. How did so many genetically human races
come to evolve in widely separated star systems at
approximately the same time? Why were none of the
races of Humaniti biologically related to the other life
forms of their homeworlds?
THE ORIGINAL HUMANS
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