15/04/2020 - A Mission of Culture

History Moves On

5,000 years have passed since Humans were settled on Cordillion. The Empire of the Droyne has expanded massively. There are hundreds of well-developed planets and more being developed. The population has boomed and it is becoming extremely difficult to administer the Empire from the centre. The Empire is beginning to falling apart.

Grandfather takes action by cloning himself. He creates 20 Sons and then each of those creates 20 more Sons. He has them spread out across the Empire to help administer the vast regions more locally, with a lot of autonomy, while also helping move forward his experiments.

The Kingdoms of Cordillion

On Cordillion, Human civilization has bloomed under careful observation and intervention over the last 5000 years. Human society has reached Tech Level 4 (Medieval) and there four significant Kingdoms.

Jol, located on the original landing site, was for a long time the largest and most dominant civilisation, but over time it has split and been in conflict with neighbours until it lost its most powerful position. It is now mostly a trading Kingdom, with a large navy that helps keep its trading advantage and many small overseas colonies. Culturally Jol is the most cosmopolitan but the culture of its colonies is more dominant than its own.

Perid is a northern Kingdom which was forged from a loose confederation of smaller Kingdoms that were conquered and integrated under the leadership of a skilled Queen, Laja. They have a very militaristic culture.

Dunsan is now the largest Kingdom of Cordillion and the seat of the Church of the Sky Gods. However, it is ruled by jealous petty nobles who bicker amongst themselves and society is decadent. Its culture looks to its past and has not changed or moved forward for generations.

Thalio is a mostly isolated Kingdom and relies heavily on a martial and ritualistic culture, but its culture is also rich and interesting. It is ruled by a Secret Master, the identity of whom is not revealed.

There is also the Church of the Sky Gods, the major religion on the planet, who venerate the Sky Gods, who brought the people to the Promised Land. The four main Sky Gods closely resemble the four Travellers.

A Cultural Revolution

The mission for the Travellers is to raise the cultural output of the Human civilisation on Cordillion over the next 10 years and make it a cultural hub for helping to raise Droyne culture too.

The Travellers assess what they are dealing with and discuss what to do. Cyrus proposes direct intervention, though Drent warns that could back fire and the countries war with each other for their favour. Grant suggests a world-wide festival of culture that each of the countries compete in.

They discuss what incentives to give them to take part. Cyrus suggests drugging them with psychedelics to raise their creativity, but this is considered too extreme.

Make a Decision!

The Travellers are very engaged by this task and take a lot of time discussing through all the possibilities. However, Grandfather intervenes and pushes them along, ruling that they must make a decision soon and implement it. It seems he is in a hurry and although this is a 10 year scheme there is some sort of “real time” limit on their activities.

Del suggests each of them “adopt” a Kingdom and appear to that Kingdom. They settle on this idea and propose that they begin offering each country a new crop that will boost their agricultural output and say the winner of the Cultural Fair every year will gain a special gift just for that Kingdom.

Perid Intervention

Del takes Perid and appears before its young, dynamic Queen, who has rejected the Church of the Sky Gods, which she sees as corrupt and decadent, but still accepts the Sky Gods themselves. She tells Del in a private meeting how she was abused in a Nunnery as a child and wants to destroy the Church. Del says she should concentrate on the wellbeing of her people and advance them culturally through the Cultural Fair.

After the meeting, Queen Laja announces that the Sky Gods have told her that it is her holy mission to destroy the Church of the Sky Gods and invades Dunsan, the seat of the Church.

Del is furious and meets the Queen again, only to find her firmly of the belief he told her to destroy the Church for the wellbeing of her people. When he tells her this is not so and she must stop the war, she agrees to do so very reluctantly. After Del is gone, she renounces the Sky Gods as false and has no intention of taking part in their Cultural Fair, but also withdraws her army back across the border.

Dunsan Intervention

Drent takes the Kingdom of Dunsan and meets their young Queen and her noble court. The Queen seems a little disappointed to be given crops, she quietly asks if she could be given weapons to help her consolidate her power but Drent says that only crops are on offer.

The Dunsans initially begin to work on the Cultural Fair, mostly by repeating things they have done before, but they are caught off guard by the invasion from Perid. A significant portion of the country is overrun and Dunsan is losing. They now have little time for culture.

Drent secretly gives the Dunsan Queen access to gunpowder weapons in order to help her defend her country. However, she uses them mostly to eliminate her opponents amongst the nobility. Then the Peridians withdraw and the situation eases.

Jol Intervention

Grant visits Jol, meeting its elderly and slightly demented Queen and soon realises her Ministers hold the power. He tells them about the Cultural Fair and they agree to take part. Once Grant is gone, the Jolians instruct their overseas colonies, who are the main source of their culture, to do the work on their behalf and have each of them compete to create the greatest prize to please the Sky Gods, which will be used as Jol’s submission to the Festival. The Travellers are disappointed by this lazy contracting out of the work.

Thalio Intervention

Cyrus goes to Thalio, where he is greeted coolly but they soon warm to him. He does not meet the Secret Master but his Vasier, who quickly agrees to everything he says. Cyrus leaves before the fawning Vizier can ask for more.

Thalio enthusiastically embraces the Cultural Fair and creates new dances and rituals, with great displays of colour.

The Travellers decide at the end of the first year that Thalio has definitely won the Cultural Fair and give them a gift. They agree amongst themselves that they may fix the results to try to give something to each Kingdom over the years.

Invasions and More Interventions

In the next year, the Dunsans invade Perid looking for revenge. Using their new gunpowder weapons are able to defeat the Perid army. Del visits the Perid Queen, Laja, but she is bitter and tells him she has no intention of taking part in his stupid Fair.

Del has her killed by bombardment from space. Her Kingdom then begins to break up into the former tribes that only the Queen had been able to unite. The Dunsans advance in face of the disarray of their enemies and occupy most of Perid.

Del encourages another warlord to step up and take over Perid, but to stop having such a militaristic culture. He agrees to obey but asks how he can do this when his country is occupied and his people are hunted and oppressed by their enemies.

Del asks Drent if he could have a word with the Dunsan Queen and she agrees to pull back her armies as the Peridians are no longer a threat. With her enemies defeated and her Throne secure, the Queen is now happy to focus more on the Cultural Fair.

Secret Master Unmasked

Cyrus visits the Thalio again and there is an attempt to kidnap him by the Vizier. He thwarts it using his advanced technology and decides to find out what is going on. The Vizier take him to see the Secret Master, who reveals himself as a Dronye!

He tells Cyrus his ship crashed many years ago with communications lost the rest of the crew dead. He had no way to repair the ship, but used his advanced knowledge and the fact that he looks like a Sky God to work his way into becoming the ruler of this Kingdom. He used the guise of a Secret Master as he wanted to hide that he is not human from all but his most trusted servants.

Cyrus makes a deal with him that if Thalio continues to take the Cultural Fairs seriously for the next 10 years, he will arrange for him to get back to civilisation.

System Invasion

Over the next few years, which pass quickly in the minds of the Travellers, the four kingdoms settle down and compete in the Cultural Fairs, with Thalio continuously the most enthusiastic of the competitors and Perid the least.

Watching Cordillion from their orbiting space station, the Travellers start to think that their culture mission is going to be a success. Then suddenly they are alerted to the fact that more than 500 unidentified ships have jumped into the Cordillion system. Their configuration is not recognised and they do not answer hales. They appear to be a swarm of small ships.

The ships are more than a day away at sub-light speed and the Travellers discuss what to do. Del’s assessment of the military situation is that the limited resources they have in the system, just observation stations and a few robotic ships and shuttles, are no match for the invading force.

Run Away!

They have a message drone jump out of the system asking for help, but it will take a few days to arrive and the authorities respond. The invading ships will reach Cordillion by then.

The Travellers decide to board the only decent ship they have in the system and move away from the Invaders at maximum sub-light speed. They should be able to remain outside weapons range for a few days. Cyrus makes sure that the Droyne Secret Master of Thalio is rescued first.

As they move away from Cordillion, the Invading drones follow them. When they reach Cordillion, the drones destroy the orbiting space station and the small number of robotic ships that are sent against them. A small number of the 500 ships stay behind to salvage the technology but the rest continue to pursue the Travellers at sub-light speed.

Then suddenly a message drone jumps into the system broadcasting an automated message. The Empire is under attack from robotic drones from a long-dead civilisation near the Core of the Galaxy. The Invaders appear to target advanced technology and leave simple civilisations alone. The Travellers are instructed to observe and obtain as much intelligence about the Invaders as possible. Son Seventeen-Four is co-ordinating the counter attack and will response when possible.

Seventeen-Four to the Rescue

After a couple of days chase, the drones are slowly closing in. The Travellers decide to make a hyper-space jump and get out of the system, but before they can they are somehow teleported from their ship to another, a large ship of some new design with what looks like very advanced technology.

At the centre of the large bridge, is a figure that looks like a younger version of Grandfather. They can feel the same power and awe from him. He asks them what intelligence they have gained from the Invaders and is dismissive of them when they reveal they have little to tell him.

Their lack of intelligence causes the War against the Invaders to be long and protracted. A lot of Droyne are killed in the fighting before Son Seventeen-Four is able to use advanced technology to overcome the tenacious and determined robot invaders.

Grandfather seems to take some time making sure they are aware of the consequences of their failure. It is apparent that this story has come to an end, but Grandfather has one more to show them.

End of Episode Two