Getting started #

Well, hello there, spacefarer. New to these parts? Excellent, so glad you could make it – it gets lonely out here, you know. Now, there are a few things you should read before we get started – call them best practices, if you will. Friendly advice. Helpful tips from those who have gone before.

Principles of play #

As a player, your role is to create and inhabit a character who is eager to learn the dark arts, expose themselves to perilous situations, and interact with horrifying creatures for a shot at immortality.

You’ll work with the facilitator and the other players to craft a collaborative story. Role playing is a team effort and in a safe and healthy game, everyone should have an opportunity to contribute meaningfully.

Agency + teamwork #

Your character exists in a dark and dangerous world and is toying with forces beyond their comprehension, but they are always yours to control.

• The numbers on your character sheet act as tools to engage with the game’s mechanics, but they do not wholly define your character. Use your character’s successes, failures, and growth to inform your play.
• When you are playing as a group, remember to support others at the table so that everyone has a chance to participate.
• Your player characters don’t always have to be aligned, but, as players, you should always be working toward the goal of creating memorable stories and having fun with friends.

Caution + planning #

You can’t realize a great reward without bearing a significant risk. However, you don’t need to be foolhardy — generally, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

• Remember that the consequences of violence are long lasting and that a shattered mind is just as debilitating as a broken body.
• Preparation can stave off certain doom, so use reconnaissance, subtlety, and fact-finding to understand the threats you face.
• There are no mechanics for intelligence or perception, so ask questions of the facilitator and other characters. How you engage with the world hinges on how you use the information provided.

Engagement #

To create a great experience, make sure to engage with the facilitator, the other player characters, and the world you’re creating together.

• Remember that facilitator characters have wants, needs, fears, and flaws, too. Engage with them and build relationships — having friends and rivals makes for a richer game.
• Understand your character’s goals and the goals of your team, then use them to drive the narrative forward.
• Failure can be just as exciting as success. Your character may die, but your story will continue.

What to expect #

As a resident of the Alfajiri stellar system, there are a few things that your character regards as common knowledge. These are, as far as everyone knows, basic facts about your world.

Alfajiri #

The stellar system you call home was settled by East Africa Stellar Engineering over three thousand years ago. Humans have thrived in the Alfajiri system, which is now part of the galaxy-spanning Terran Republic, ever since.

The multiverse #

You and everyone you know are part of the physical universe — the primary plane of existence where human beings are born and live and die. In addition to this universe, though, lie a handful of others that are collectively referred to as the multiverse:

• Negaverse — a realm of entropy, decay, and negative energy where the souls of humans are drawn upon death. At the center of the Negaverse is the Great Gaping Maw, which will eventually consume everyone that has ever existed.
• Hyperspace — a liminal realm between the physical universe and the Negaverse where time and space become meaningless. Enables instantaneous travel over impossibly large distances.
• Overworld — a divine plane that is home to the Great Architect and the arbiters of the Law. Some believe that, by showing their devotion to the Great Architect, they can enter the Overworld upon death, but history has no record of someone successfully doing so.

The walking dead #

When a human dies, their spirit typically enters the Negaverse, where it is eventually consumed by the Great Gaping Maw.

Aside from a small handful of exceptions known as the Sanctified, the body a spirit leaves behind is invariably animated by the dark energy of the Negaverse. Most rise as a zombie within a day — but they occasionally animate as something far more dangerous.

As a consequence, the humans of the Alfajiri system take their funerary practices very seriously. To avoid becoming overrun by undead, every culture has developed its own methods of dealing with human remains.

The charnel houses #

Over the three millennia that humans have resided in the Alfajiri system, the following four groups have gained dominance over funerary practices.

The Black Gate Company #

The first settlers continued the tradition of their colony ship ancestors by sending corpses elsewhere. They quickly realized that the rocky, uninhabitable moon that orbited their new home was a perfect elsewhere, so they dubbed it Makaburini — “graveyard.”

The Black Gate Company, which developed the technology to create uni-directional portals to the moon, now controls the remains disposal business on Nyumbani.

Our Lady of Eternal Sorrow #

The religious pilgrims who settled the desert world, Jangwa, rejected the long-standing and deeply held taboo against directly harming a corpse and decided to burn their dead. The Sorrowers, as they prefer to be known, believe that fire is the key to cleansing body and soul of the eternal sorrow that humans are born into.

This belief is reflected in their meditation practice which involves gazing upon the crimson stone monoliths that dot the surface of Jangwa. In the red stone, they see a cleansing fire.

The Society of the Fruiting Body #

The Society of the Fruiting Body uses the divine spores of the Great Mycelium to inoculate corpses against undeath. Once exposed to the spores, dead bodies become inert and are shipped to the mycelial belt to be recycled by the multiverse.

Chapter houses of the SFB can be found throughout the Alfajiri system.

The Stellar Temple #

Residents of the jump gate, Maono, typically follow the practices of the Stellar Temple and send the bodies of their dead out into space to bask in the radiance of Alfajiri. Inevitably, these dead are captured by the gravity of the star and eventually turned to ash, but in the meantime, one can spot the steady stream of zombies that trails Maono in its orbit.

The Symbol #

A year ago, a new constellation suddenly appeared in the night sky. Its appearance was greeted with interest, consternation, skepticism, despair, and jubilation — sometimes within a single person. Scientists debated its cause, theologians debated its meaning, and occultists got right to work.

The constellation became known as “the Symbol,” and its presence changed something fundamental in how the multiverse functioned. The invisible became visible — what was hidden was now revealed — and everyone rushed to take advantage of it.