The Setting

The game is set on the backwater world of Aquila, a minor planet in the Galactic Imperium. The time in in the early thirty-sixth century (3525 CE), but for Aquila it might as well be the early eighteenth century, for the way of life on this half-forgotten planet is sleepy and - as far as most of the galaxy is concerned - woefully backward. There are printing presses, but no guns. The most advanced technology is medicine, and even that is limited to the big cities like Aquila and Torre.

There is a spaceport on Aquila. Located thirty miles from the city of Aquila (the capital), it is guarded by tight Lasse security.

Brief History of Aquila
Social Organisation
The Role of the Lasses
The Hoberty Scandal
Scar Gill and the Badlands

Brief History

Ages ago, human beings united to form a single Empire. The Early Empire existed in the years between 2250 and 2417 A.D., in a time when space travel was slow, but ever broadening, and becoming gradually cheaper, so that interplanetary trade became much easier.

In 2400 A.D., a group of wealthy merchants, who believed they could trace their diverse lineages to the contrades of Siena, Italy, back on earth, founded a colony on the distant, dusty planet they named Aquila, after a contrade believed long-lost. The merchants, including a family called Lasse, began terraforming the planet, to cultivate it into a vacation paradise for their families. In 2415, an ore was discovered on Aquila, which, in 2417, was implemented as the hull of a new starcraft. The super-strength of the metal, combined with its phenomenal quality of near weightlessness made it ideal for constructing stellar craft, and so turned Aquila into a mining colony of great wealth.

The Emperor at the time made the discoverer of the ore, one Erasmus Niklaus, hereditary lord of Aquila, naming him Duke, and investing him with authority to rule Aquila as he liked, so long as they were all loyal to the Empire.

Niklaus took his authority very seriously. He changed his name to Aquila, to replace the lost contrade, and tie his family forever to the planet, by name. Niklaus Aquila, First of His Name, made the other families who were helping to terraform the planet his Lords and vassals: Anderon, Hoberty, Bahlmis, Maun, Carlysle, Mountjoy, Lasse, de Mur, Clover, Rostay, Windhaven, Lagoran, Noyen, Martts, Termontaine, Cavendish, Rutherwold, Silverbridge, Quincey, Ffrench, Burgess, and Oswestry.

He created the current system of government known on Aquila today, though when he founded it, it was more out of love of ceremony than necessity for order. He also established that the capitol city of Aquila, like Siena, would be divided into diverse districts, and that each Lord would base his House in his own district of the city.

The system of government functions in this way:

A man grows up or arrives on Aquila, and wishes to practice a particular trade. If his trade is particularly dangerous, or requires training, it is presumed to be the duty of the Duchy to see that he is properly protected by the Aquilan guard, and licensed by Aquilan officials. Also, taxes must be collected on every sale and transaction made.

Therefore, all the Houses of Aquila are given charge of regulating a given trade or profession. Anyone wishing to practice that trade or profession must "look to" a House; by which it is meant that he trains under House-certified practitioners, applies for license to the House, pays license fees to the House, and keeps the House abreast of all financial transactions his business conducts, for tax purposes.

House Maun was originally created as an independent authority charged with collecting all the tax information, including the data on the various Houses, and to see that all taxes were being paid. It should be noted that every House, including House Maun, is expected to pay the Ducal House for these various privileges.

The possession of the Dukedom has changed several times, being held by different Houses at different points in Aquila's history. Currently, the Dukedom is held by House Maun, although who should be Duke is the subject of a long-running dispute. As a result, the planet is governed by a Regent - Delan, Lord Anderon, until it can be resolved whether Lord Harold Maun or Lord Decuma Maun is the rightful heir.
 

Social Organisation

There are Two Orders of House:. Houses Major and Minor. Only Major Houses may claim the Duchy under their own names, and all successions must be ratified by the heads of the Houses Major, known collectively as the Greater Cabinet. All other questions crossing House boundaries would be decided by the entire Aquilan Cabinet, composed of the Heads of all the Houses.

In the past, however, the Dukedom has been claimed by force of arms. Indeed, a coup was attempted by House Bahlmis twenty-five years ago - but this failed.

Every House Minor now must look to a House Major, as the House Major in turn must look to the Duke.

HOUSE	SYMBOL	TASK	HEAD
MAJOR
Maun	Wolf	Administration	Disputed
Anderon	Owl	Banking & Industry	Delan, Lord Anderon
Carlysle (o)	Unicorn	The Army	Grayson, Lord Carlysle
Bahlmis	Panther	formerly Trade; currently without responsibility in the wake of the coup	Rosalor, Lady Bahlmis
Hoberty	Ram	Agriculture	Willif, Lord Hoberty (MB - Stone Hoberty, the eldest surviving son of the last Lord Hoberty, is currently in hiding, wanted in connection with his father's murder:
Acciaio (formerly known as Mountjoy )	Dragon	The Law	Nicola, Lord Acciaio
MINOR
Lasse	Porcupine	formerly Slavery, now Trade	Kenton, Lord Lasse
Tremontaine	Waves	Harbours	Lucien, Lord Tremontaine
Oswestry	Goose	Livestock	Roderigo, Lord Oswestry
Windhaven	Wood	Timber & Woodworking	Christophe, Lord Windhaven
Lagoran	Snail	Sanitation	Farquar, Lord Lagoran
Rostay	Tortoise	Quarries & Mines	Stafford, Lord Rostay
Clover	Giraffe	Foundries	Maxim, Lord Clover
Creoni	Tower	Construction	Justin, Lord Creoni
Cavendish	Seashell	The Navy	( un-claimed )
Greywood	Caterpillar	Textiles	Ethan, Lord Greywood

The name of the House, i.e. Anderon or Bahlmis, is NOT the name of the animal.

Example: Vladimontone (the Ram) is not the name of the House whose emblem is the Ram. De Torre (the Tower) is not the name of the House whose emblem is the Tower. Those houses are Hoberty and Creoni, respectively.

It is best to think of the Houses as families, or households. John, Lord Smith has a son, whose name is also Smith. The family has an arms, and their heraldic symbol is a crescent moon. They may be called Moons, or the Moon Family, or the Moon House, by someone talking about them in third-person, but you would never call a Smith "Lord Moon", or "Lord of House Moon," because neither his name, nor his House's name is Moon.

Education, medicine and religion do not come within the remit of any House. Aquila is a Catholic planet (a reflection of the fact that many of the first colonists were either Italian or of Italian descent). However, the Catholicism practised by Aquilans (in some way akin to that practised by the inhabitants of Borgia Italy) is regarded with some embarrassment by the modern Galactic Catholic Church on Nuova Roma.
 

The Role of the Lasses

The reason why Aquila is so technologically backward in the galaxy is an unusual one.

House Lasse, a Minor House formerly merely in charge of slavery, long since began extending its range through the Galactic Empire. Now the name of the KLO (the Ky Lasse Organisation) is known and feared throughout the galaxy as the leading criminal organisation. So large and powerful has it grown that - in a perverse way - it is almost respectable.

But not quite.

Long ago, quiet arrangements were made between House Lasse and the then reigning Duke that House Lasse would ensure the safety of Aquila, by disarming it on-world and defending it from attack in space, if in return House Lasse could use whatever technology it wanted to do so, to step down (by force, if necessary) the technological level of life on Aquila, and to maintain their Aquilan fief as House Lasse's own palatial vacation retreat, as had been intended all along. In the face of their vast wealth and not inconsequential army of mercenaries, the Duke had felt compelled to agree.

Since then, Aquila has remained a largely tranquil world, where the predominant culture is roughly equivalent to the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century on earth, with strict rules on the possession of any weapons apart from swords, spears, daggers and bows and arrows. As a concomitant to this, terra-forming has proceeded very slowly, for slash and burn is the commonest method used, under guidelines from the Federation of Chartered Worlds (a group of environmentally protected planets who use extremely low tech methods).

However, in recent years, it has become accepted that the status quo can no longer be maintained. Fifteen years ago, a final agreement was drawn up that in fifty years time, Aquila would be slowly opened to technological advances. That agreement still has thirty-five years to run.
 

The Hoberty Scandal

The House of Hoberty has, since time immemorial, been something of a law unto themselves. The House responsible for agriculture, they have a vital role to play on the planet, but, as is often the way, they are despised as rural clodhoppers. They tend to keep pretty much to themselves (they have been accused of in-breeding but they are, after all, a vast clan - or were so once).

Twenty-five years ago, Merian, Lord Hoberty, the Head of House Hoberty and the huge Hoberty clan, was murdered - some said by his own wife, Gylda. The event is still wrapped in mystery - but what is certain is that Lady Gylda and her sons fled the capital city and were lost in the vast under-explored hinterlands of Aquila.

For most of Aquila, what happened to them is still a complete mystery ...

For the residents of Scar Gill, they know that twenty-five years ago, a new family took up residence in the big local manor house of the edge of the small town. A large extended family called Byeroth - who kept themselves to themselves. But over the years, as a younger generation has grown up, the Byeroths have mixed with the village folk, and no-one under the age of thirty really thinks about what drew the Byeroths to Scar Gill.

And those over the age of thirty tend to keep quiet about such things ...

Scar Gill and the Badlands

The game takes place in Scar Gill, a small town on the edge of the mountains. There are silver mines close to the town, mostly worked out now, although a few people still scratch a living from them, and there is one larger mine that employs fifty or so men. More people work in agriculture, with small holdings or larger farms.

Sheep and goats are grazed on the mountains in the summer and brought down to winter folds. As it is currently summer, the green mountains some five miles away are dotted with white sheep and brown and white goats. When you get closer, you can hear the bells they wear.

The locals tend to think of it as a quiet place, a place where nothing really happens.