Astra Byzantium Apotheosis

It has been ten thousand years since the light of Old Terra was extinguished by the ravening hordes of the Machine Gods. The subsequent flight from darkness into the unknown reaches of the universe scattered humanity far and wide, bringing the children of Earth into contact with a multitude of previously unknown species. With the aid and knowledge of these new allies, humanity led a great crusade against the Machine Gods, finally casting them down from their iron thrones and paving the way into a brighter future—a future in which humanity would sit upon a throne over the whole galaxy.

The empire of Astra Byzantium—better known to its people as the New Terran Empire—controls countless systems across an almost unthinkably large region of space. For millennia, it has been guided by faith and science in equal measure, embodied in the personage of its emperoxes, living avatars of the One True God, and the soldier-saints produced by humanity’s cathedral-factories.

Though once allied with numerous alien races, the imperial ambitions of humanity have long since soured those relationships, driving away all but the most dedicated and fervent. Today, the allies of man stand at but three: the elves, immortal blood-drinkers; the dwarves, militant forge-masters; and the cynocephaloi, hound-headed beasts of war.

The vastness of space is filled with life, some of which languishes under the heavy hand of the empire, unwilling servants of the Adamant Throne. These “vassal races” are accorded many rights by the empire, but are not full citizens and have little say in their own governance. This inequality sometimes boils over into resentment, which in turn gives way to rebellion—and rebellion is not tolerated by the emperox or their servants.

Yet the sprawling New Terran Empire, though home to countless trillions, is not the only power in the galaxy. Though theoretically subject peoples of the empire, the elves and dwarves have their own massive polities whose goals are sometimes at odds with those of the Adamant Throne. On the fringes of the empire, the forces of the Stellar Caliphate gobble up neglected systems, converting them to their own faith—one that rejects the emperox’s claims of divinity.

Alien forces build their own civilizations outside the watchful eye of the empire, looking with greed at the green and pleasant worlds hoarded by humankind. Space-dwelling nomads and pirates haunt the lost systems, turning them from lonely shortcuts on the hyperspace ways into lethal ambush points.

And in the deep blackness of the void, the last remnants of the Machine Gods still sleep, occasionally half-waking to disgorge hordes of lethal drones onto their old foes in an eternal war of extermination.

***

That's the basic pitch for a Savage Worlds space-fantasy setting I'm calling Astra Byzantium Apotheosis. The basic premise is "What if Warhammer 40K, but less with less fascism?" Obviously, the setting has a lot more influence from Byzantine culture than the Western Roman Empire, and the "present day" of the setting is entirely intended to be a snapshot of the reign of Justinian... IN SPACE!!!

I might put up some more info about the setting over the coming weeks. In the meantime, I'm still working on Barrow County, Children of the Dark, and other projects, including a revamp of Exalted: Blood and Fire!