Thor
Thor
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Founded -
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Major Species Vlaka
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Vlaka

Population: 1.5 billion humans.

Turn ons: Being viking expys, albeit with less rape-and-pillage and more explore-and-colonize; living in the coldest and most inhospitable regions of the sphere; the highest level of technology in the sphere; fur trading; being the most widely-liked faction in the sphere largely due to their overall lack of interest in fucking others over.

Turn offs: Always being cold

Again, ignore the racial adjustments and just make them the same as all other humans. The Thoric are a loosely allied culture not joined under a single imperial government. They are obviously designed off a Norse/Viking template and DM's are encouraged to follow this mold, including incorporating ideas and possibly magic from HR1 The Vikings (a historical reference book for 2nd Edition AD&D put out by TSR). DMs should remember that the historical Norse weren't simply feared raiders but that they were also master traders and explorers who traveled long distances to trade (hence the Thoric tradesman). I suggest that the Thoric of AC have once belonged to a single culture that was scattered by the cataclysm. Since regaining the ability to travel through space they've been finding other enclaves of their people who still maintain very similar cultures and have the same language and religion. This has enabled them to grow quickly as what seems to most outsiders to be a single nation. The Thoric may even one day develop into the highly feared raiders their European counterparts on earth did, neighbors beware.

The Thoric have a long tradition of hardiness and martial prowess and have needed it, living in the colder outer regions of the cluster. Warriors are given the highest honors and greatest respect among the Thoric with both fighters and rangers being very common. Paladins are rare or unknown in Thoric lands and culture. Bards, especially skalds, as well as druids, clerics, and specialty priests are all given special respect and rights in Thoric culture but in turn they can never become direct leaders of their people. Instead they act as advisors, mediators, and intercessors (often interceding with the gods, not just other mortals). Magic-users who are not runecasters are deeply distrusted for the most part and none develop in Thoric culture except the occasional mystic. In 3e sorcerers are reviled by the Thoric, their powers come from strange curses or ancient evils and not taught by the intercession of the gods. Thoric are more understanding of outsiders, or at least they accept that outsiders have different ways and so will tolerate outsiders who come to trade and possess skills they'd be more careful of in their own culture. Those Thoric who travel as explorers and traders are quite used to the strange ways of other cultures.

The Thoric should be dedicated followers of the Norse pantheon, probably exclusively. This is in keeping with their design and place in the campaign. DMs should feel free to add or remove deities appropriately, however.

Thor


Traders and mer­chants of mid­dling power, the Thoric have set­tled them­selves in the out­er­most reaches of the Clus­ter. Because of the lack of earth upon which to build and farm, the Thoric are nat­ural sailors, always on the look­out for new places to settle. They also enjoy the high­est level of tech­nol­ogy any­where in the Clus­ter, due to their access to ships enter­ing the Clus­ter and the infor­ma­tion they carry.

The Thoric garner most of their wealth from the fab­u­lous furs and hides that they trade, most of which are taken from beasts found only in the remote areas the Thoric pop­u­late. Other rare items come from the icy worlds of the Thoric as well, and none can sur­pass the qual­ity of their excel­lent cold weather cloth­ing. Other races have tried to settle in the colder regions of Clus­ter­space specif­i­cally to chal­lenge the Thoric trade in furs, but none have been suc­cess­ful.

A pro­lific people, the Thoric are present almost every­where there is civ­i­liza­tion in addi­tion to their secluded set­tle­ments. Trav­el­ing as they do among the var­i­ous peo­ples of the Clus­ter, spell­jam­ming Thoric are great fonts of infor­ma­tion. Still, they can keep a secret, and gain­ing infor­ma­tion from them can be very dif­fi­cult and very costly.

Most other races hold the Thoric in high regard. As traders they are fair and even-handed in their deal­ings, and as a people they are gen­er­ally open and honest. They have no dreams of con­quest and are happy with their simple life, which has allowed them to steer clear of Clusterspace’s many con­flicts.

Indi­vid­u­als

The Thoric are a hardy race, but that doesn’t mean they like living in the harsh­est envi­ron­ment in the Clus­ter. Thoric often grum­ble about where they live, but secretly pride them­selves on having sur­vived in such a harsh envi­ron­ment. Unlike the Calid­i­ans who ​“tone-down” around other races, the Thoric are usu­ally row­dier around non-Thoric!

Worlds



There is no hope and You Can't Go Home Again. The Empire is spreading out. Even The Federation has too many Obstructive Bureaucrats. There is no way for free men to get out of the reaches of The Government and even mounting La Résistance will be of no avail. So what do you do? You become Space Cossacks. You flee to the border and live in a tough area where you all have to be sharp. You set up as Space Pirates or as Hired Guns or as Intrepid Merchants. Or all of these at once. With you are various dissidents like people who feared being Made a Slave. There might be a Noble Fugitive or two, perhaps even a Defector from Decadence. You and your brave band of Fire-Forged Friends will struggle on to survive and maintain your freedom and heed no laws but your own and respect no authority but that of your Team Mom and/or Team Dad. Songs will be written of your deeds.

The Empire most likely officially considers these guys outlaws, either in the sense that they're to be shot on sight, or in the sense that they're "outside the law" and are to be left alone as long as they stay out of the way. Either way, they probably consider them useful, as they both screen the empire from external threats and tame the fringe worlds into a state ready to be colonised. They may also provide a handy place to send people who are to be Reassigned to Antarctica.

This was the background for H. Beam Piper's Space Vikings, in the book of the same title. "At the end of the Big War, ten thousand men and women on Abigor, refusing to surrender, had taken the remnant of the System States Alliance navy to space, seeking a world the Federation had never heard of and wouldn't find for a long time." Eight centuries later, their descendants have begun raiding into the territory once held by the now-collapsed Terran Federation.

The Maquis. Average Federation colonists who found themselves under the Cardassians after a treaty in which they had no say. They won numerous engagements against both the Cardassians and Starfleet, with large numbers of Starfleet officers even defecting to join the 'good fight.'

Traveller: Has a lot of examples of this. Among them are the Vilani Kimashargur, The Classic Traveller volume "Pocket Empires". And much of the history of the Sword Worlds as well a sample campaign from the Gurps volume of that name. Many others.

Stellaris has multiple randomly-generated versions:Privateers are a conglomeration of species from past empires who subsist by piracyNomads are the peaceful version who put you in contact with other empires and might sell your empire ships or ask to settle on one of your planets.Marauders, added in the Apocalypse DLC, are more like Space Mongols. They occasionally raid systems or extort tribute but can also be hired as mercenaries until the Great Khan arises.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine introduces the Karemma, merchants who are members of the Dominion. A couple of episodes showed Quark and some Karemma doing trade deals. Unlike Ferengi, they believe in being completely honest in their deals. Oddly, this gets exaggerated to using fixed prices based on manufacturing costs; in other words, they are traders with no concept of market forces or basic economics. Somewhat understandable since they operate under the Dominion, where all aspects of life, including economics, are tightly monitored and controlled. Hilariously, this would make them a "Proud Planned Economy Race".They also sometimes make shoddy merchandise. When the Defiant is hit by a Dominion torpedo, it ends up getting stuck in the hull instead of exploding. When the Karemma trader points out that his people make and sell these weapons to the Dominion, Quark notes that they lack proper quality control. The trader jokes that he should offer a refund on the defective weapon.

Warcraft orc cultyre?

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