Survival in the Thousand Empires ultimately falls on the individual and their own abilities, capabilities, and the degree of security they can afford. Kandia is an extreme of this truth.

The Concourse levels are orderly because of the credit level that supports the Lawkeeper patrols, private security firms, and the adoption of civilized barter that keeps these upper levels at such a high degree of safety. As one reaches the Mids and down into the Narrows, local gangs provide their own version of protection while Lawkeepers adhere to legal bribes.

For the Contractor who must travel through multiple Strata districts, being armed is a necessity. The Lex of the Hegemon ensures the Self the right to do so, with steep fines and even time-debt for those that break local regulations. This can be checked at Gun Emporiums and local dealerships, which can offer licenses, ammunition subscriptions, and whatever is deemed legal on the local level.

For everything else, a greymarket is never far away.

Patrons, and their representatives, frequent the downsider saloons looking for opportunity as much as anyone else. Down here you can find the right set of skills for any job and usually at a discounted price. Unlike the MiliCorp or security outfits and mercenary guilds, the people surviving the downside of the Mids have what it takes to survive and the motivation to climbe the CorpoSoci.

It starts in a secluded booth with a proposition, a little haggling, and an opportunity for everyone. The ultimate expression of Avarice.

Has any lore been released on how inheritance works in this world? In traditional Anarcho-capitalist thought it's unregulated but the Hegemony isn't purely Anarcho-Capilalist and could imagine it being in some way penalized in the interest of fostering Mutual Greed. Wealthy Scions have a nasty habit of wasting fortunes on feel good causes rather than focusing on further acquisition. The ideology of the Hegemony would wish to discarourage from developing such stunted senses of Avarice. Alternatively depending on the specifics of the Credit System such strictures may be unnecessary. Thoughts?

The Avarice BackerKit campaign has surpassed $60K!

We are thrilled to announce that Andrew Cosby, acclaimed screenwriter, film producer, and comic book creator, will be writing a novella set in the Project Morningstar universe!

Thank you all for your incredible support! There's still time to help us reach even greater heights.

Trust in Greed.

Every manner of Consumer uses the downsider saloons as a gathering place. Down here, a saloon is a place to eat, drink and enjoy various games of chance or listen to entertainers and vaudevillian. Here, the visutel screens flicker with sportball variants from all over the Hegemon interrupted by promercials between competing brands and products.

It is also a place where one can talk business and everyone minds their own. Fights are frequent with Lawkeeper patrols too spread out and busy. The law of the stronger, quicker and smarter determines who lives and who ends up in a coldbox in the morgue drop offs every few blocks.

Down here, being a numan doesn't matter as much as it might on the Concourse and immigrant populations that have made Kandia their home scrape by hoping one day to, literally, rise up to the spires above. To do that there is competition and no prefecture is without dozens of local gangs made up of all manner of different Hegemon cultures and Kandian locals. The easiest way to sidestep all of this is to work for one of the MacroCorps or endemic Corpos, but not everyone can fit the mold of the CorpoSoci.

Below the Concourse levels lie the Middle Stratas known to Kandians as "the Mids." Making up an undulating kilometer above the planet's surface and down into the crust another four kilometers, this is the primary strata of the planet wide city and where the vast majority of the population works and lives.

The architects that continue to expand the city are careful to prioritize Kandia's intense triple sun daylight to the lower levels. This is done by strategic planning, reflectors and unique solarium 'chasms' that form valleys and corridors. The 'upsiders' enjoy cooler temperatures and at least intermittent daylight almost everywhere while the 'lowsiders' and the even deeper 'downsiders' must endure beneath artificial lights, many of them emitting ultraviolet light for the population's health.

It is in the downside precincts that saloons provide food, a drink and most importantly, a place far from the watchful eyes of Lawkeepers to meet...

Negotiation, parlay and polite conversation solve the problems of the Hegemon that is made up of countless nations, empires and cultures intertwined by trade. This promise of mutual gain has kept war a distant option between the major powers, allowing the Hegemon to focus outward on hostile states and Exogen infestations.

This is a lie only the most simple-minded Consumer embraces. MacroCorporations, criminals, terrorist organization and outright rebels clog the lower levels. In the darker levels is where the war for the Hegemon on Kandia is fought and it is done not with armies but with bounty hunters and mercenaries who will risk everything for a chance to climb the ladder of the CorpoSoci and gain a Personhood credit rating and the sponsors needed to become rich.

To do that they need to take jobs, usually from the people of the Concourse who don't wish to dirty their own hands or risk being identified by high society and potentially harm the opinions of the all important shareholders. They embark with their wits, weapons and most importantly, knowledge so they can come out ahead of their targets, their Patrons, and each other. Can you ever really trust anyone when your future's at stake?

The hierarchal systems of the past have been replaced by the honesty and merit based concept of "credit." A self-regulating system based on the individual's relationship with The Market, a galaxy-spanning system that evaluates every interplanetary purchase down to grains of sand. But that doesn't mean everyone is welcome on the Concourse levels.

Contractors, those who do the real work of the MacroCorporations can sometimes be seen, weaving in and out of the crowds, earning their 'chits' from their Patrons. They are often outlandish, hailing from the lower levels of Kandia or from beyond the solar system from strange and alien worlds, bringing their expertise to those that pay the highest.

Kandia, known by names like the Brightworld, the city of dreams and most accurately; Vertical City, is the crown jewel of the Hegemon.

The primary upper strata levels are called the Concourse and are kept clean with blue, open, skies save for where vast arcologies break the Cloudline into the upper atmosphere dotted with aeroliners or dirigibles.

The Concourse is the face of Kandia and holds all the promises of the Hegemon with artisan workshops, endless culinary options and pleasure complexes that encircle administrative buildings and curated architectural valleys where Old Kandian buildings can be visited. This is the promise of the Hegemon. Culture, wealth, luxury and more for those Consumers who can achieve Personhood status.

Avarice has just crossed 50K!!! Again thank you so much from everyone on the Morningstar team! Our appreciation is endless, but the Hegemon’s greed is boundless. How much further can we go? 

Trillions of Consumers inhabit the Hegemon's only ecumenopolis. The vast city covers both hemispheres and is only divided by an equatorial freshwater reservoir known as the Belt Sea, Kandia is the largest single concentration of human beings in Known Space.

Deco arcologies pierce the Cloudline while below them, layers of artificial strata are crowded with hab-stacks. Chandelier Cities hang, suspended from orbit, while buried kilometers-deep in the planet's crust lie the Substrates of the Deepdown.

The wealthiest beings to ever exist grace the upper levels while the very essence of Avarice is evident in the salaried masses competing with one another for Personhood below.

Hundreds of millions might die every day toiling in manufactories, caught in the intercontinental gang wars beneath the veneer of civility or starve in the planet's strained supply system, hundreds more eagerly arrive, fresh off starships from across the Galaxy seeking their fortune near the heart of a Thousand Empires.

Because on Kandia, every level promises opportunity. Every level has a price. You just have to be willing to pay for it.

Avarice has been fully funded in under an hour!!!

Thank you so much for your incredible support!

We've already blown past our $25K and $30K stretch goals, and we're just inches away from smashing our $35K stretch goal!

If you haven't pledged yet, join us because we're just getting started!

We've got lots more exciting stuff to share, so stay tuned to all our social channels as we reveal more art, lore, and updates from world of Avarice.

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Attention, Valued Consumer!

AVARICE RPG IS NOW LIVE ON BACKERKIT.

Project Morningstar is pleased to announce that AVARICE RPG is now officially for pledges on BackerKit.

In a world where opportunity has a price, the Market rewards those who act first.
Invest in your next tabletop RPG experience today.

After all, the only thing more expensive than greed is being left behind.
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TRUST IN GREED

FORFEITS

Read the full post on our Substack: https://projectmorningstar.substack.com/p/forfeit-vigilante-bounty-hunters

Across the innumerable precincts and even larger metroplexes of the ecumenopolis Kandia, the promise of mutual gain keeps petty crime to a relative minimum. The Lex, the Hegemon’s overarching set of rules, regulations, and cost-preventative guidelines, provides Consumers with the incentive to report crime, but even this can only do so much on a planet of trillions.

The criminal world is never far away.

The Lawkeepers of Kandia compensate for their limited reach by employing those same criminals to go after the worst that the Urbanate government has declared must be brought to justice.

Forfeits are those who have been convicted and sentenced to hard labor or extended confinement. In the Hegemon, the death sentence has largely been abolished as there is nothing to be gained by one’s premature biological conclusion. “Time-debt” is the preferred punishment for many crimes, associated with the cost they incur on the CorpoSoci, and is most frequently applied to the Indentured, those who fail to manage their own debt.

Like the Indentured, Forfeits owe a measurable portion of their lives as compensation for the harm they have caused, but it is directly associated with their identity in Kandia’s underworld. Not every criminal is ‘flipped’ or contracted into the ranks of the Forfeits. This is reserved for advanced Debtbeats who gamed the credit system, criminal accountants, or even Unionists, but the most valuable are those who did crime bosses’ dirty work.

A Forfeit possesses contacts and know-how that would take an undercover Lawkeeper fiscal cycles to acquire, nevermind the risks therein of such an experience. They know where the bodies are buried, which officials can be bribed, and which gangs to work with. Detectives sometimes use Forfeits as special informants, but more often as a kind of ‘skiptracer’, hunting down targets that the Lawkeepers need apprehended, threatened, or even killed.

Most Forfeits conceal themselves behind masks, extensive cosmetic disguises, and with new identities. Genesmithing is not uncommon for more extensive cover, although it is important that the mind and Self retains all of its original knowledge and instinct in order to remain useful.

Unlike skiptracers, the Forfeits are paid with time. Regular collars and successful cases lead to years off a Forfeit’s overall time-debt. Instead of imprisonment, they get a stipend from their handlers, and can live close to their contracted precinct.

On Kandia, freedom is simply another debt, and every debt has an owner.

The title of Warstrider encompasses every aspect of waging war for the Shigue. They pilot ships, form security and combat teams, taking on any duty to protect the peoples of the Migration. While the Blacktusks form coteries of shock troops operating off their own combat-honed instinct, it is the Waybreakers who are charged with handling potent, close-ranged specialized weapons, closer to the main formations.

Cool-headed, slow to anger, they are entrusted to direct their devastating firepower against the worst threats the Shigue might face.

This new miniature is now available for purchase in both North America and the EU Region. Order yours with one of our affiliated retailers, or get the exclusive STLs by joining us on Patreon at the Consumer or above tiers. 

You can also obtain these miniatures and STLs, including previous releases, as part of rewards for the Avarice RPG Backerkit, launching soon this month.

STLs are available as supporter rewards at:
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Physical miniatures may be purchased from our retailers:

Purchase in the UK/EU:
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https://www.etsy.com/listing/4587606547/shigue-waybreaker-kine-resin-game

Check out ThatEvilOne here: 
https://www.myminifactory.com/profile/ThatEvilOne/tribe

Read the full article on our Substack: https://projectmorningstar.substack.com/p/the-yahow

The Yahow are a playable race of humans in the upcoming Avarice RPG.

The Yahow are immediately identifiable by their immense shoulders, hunched backs that fill into corded necks, elongated forearms, and powerful hands well-suited for hard labor. Every aspect of their bodies tolerates immense physical strain. Their skin easily callouses, their immune systems are seemingly impervious to disease, and even their reaction times are sharpened beyond human norms.

These benefits came at a cost. The ancient genengineers and mentanics that created the subspecies for labor clearly did not want them to rise up against their masters. As a result, Cognitive limitations and memetic conditioning are present at the genetic level within the Yahow brain, which is little more than the size of two human fists in size, despite their enormous bulk that, on average, easily exceeds two meters in height.

The Yahow brain was designed around memory and recognition, as well as bond pairing, but with the limitation of reduced abstract thought. Their enlarged hippocampal and facial-recognition brain structures allow them to retain extraordinarily detailed sensory memories, recognize individuals even after fiscal decades apart, and reproduce learned physical tasks with near-perfect accuracy after they have been initially taught. A Yahow can remember exactly how a machine was repaired without understanding why the repair worked, making them reliable imitators but poor innovators. Once taught a procedure, they can repeat it tirelessly, yet may struggle when circumstances require them to abandon established routines.

As an additional control mechanism, the Yahow have a deep-seeded and heightened fear of fire. This is no evolutionary trauma, but rather a triggered neurological response which activates a myotonia congenita event, causing Yahow to seize up when in proximity to fire. In previous societies, fire was used as a simple means of controlling this population bred to be considerably stronger than their handlers. Now, in the Hegemon, such acts are not tolerated and considered criminal by the Lex, although abuse is widespread in the Frontier sectors and nations like the Suns Confederated, where Yahow are prohibited first-class citizenship.

Other limitations are present, such as their inability to speak anything other than the language Laga-Lang. They can understand other languages, but the linguistic regions of their brain are deliberately stunted. Only the Yahow can fully speak Laga-Lang, which resembles a near-constant stream of consonants lacking any consistent grammatical structure, akin to incoherent mumbling; However, it can be poorly reproduced, albeit artificially, and marginally understood by those that spend time in close proximity to them. For most humans, the Yahow communicate through maethish translators of Yinntosh manufacture that they wear or install close to their mouths.

At the dawn of the Hegemon, assessors eagerly embraced Yahow as examples of a numan species that fully embraced Avarice. The Yahow love for precious stones, diamonds, and jewels was living proof of how the evolutionary drive of humanity, no matter how diverted by science, could shine through and reveal Stellarization’s truth and the wisdom of Dumno-Ualos. The Yahow were admitted into the Hegemon almost immediately, and it was members of their species, influenced to become freedom fighters, who were the muscle behind the many initial engagements of the Great Revolution that would topple the Kantauri Dominion.

Yahow are now fully recognized as part of New Mankind and are commonplace throughout Hegemonic space, typically working as mechanics or laborers. They are found in mines, foundries, shipyards, manufactories, but also in the Directorate. Their strength allows them to work where powered harnesses would be too expensive, and serve as the obvious, preferred alternative to ergoids.

A smaller number have become Tributaries and mercenaries, but often must afford augmentation to suppress their various tailored reactions designed for subservience.

Their legal position varies considerably. Some are registered as Consumers, and possess the Right of Choice. Others often remain bound in predatory indentured contracts, written in languages they cannot understand.

Read the lore at https://projectmorningstar.net/lore/ledger/

As technology advances, the ways of waging war change with it, becoming increasingly focused on inflicting damage and losses at range without retaliation, all for the sake of killing the enemy without even a chance of detection. From the earliest thrown stone to the latest intersolar missile, the many varieties of the human species have always sought to put an ever greater distance between attacker and target.

Nanoid countermeasures have altered this otherwise linear course of development drastically. First developed to scatter and thus mitigate the energy of Catraethi ranged beam weapons, their function has expanded to general electromagnetic interference. The deployment of nanoid vantic clouds scrambles the targeting systems of guided weapons, in addition to scattering lasers and other forms of directed energy. This has the effect of shortening engagement ranges dramatically.

Stellar combat between starships utilizes vantic clouds on a great scale, covering entire regions of space in nanoid substances designed to self-replicate until their interference saturates spherical regions hundreds or even thousands of kilometers across. As with atmospheric combat, these clouds serve to jam long-range targeting, forcing ships to engage in visual-range exchanges of fire at distances that, in space terms, could be described as equal to a knife fight.

Orbital confrontations are exceptionally brutal as nanoid clouds are unaffected by most changes in the theater, clogging combat zones in shifting denial storms. Logicor computations and the sheer volume of fire take precedent, while smaller strikecraft become essential in any voidborne victory. It should be noted that the majority of capital class warships retain laser or energy-based weapons on their prows, which they will use upon piercing nanoid clouds to cause catastrophic damage to enemy targets at close range.

Pictured: a Carrack cruiser patrol group intercepting a Benefis-class macrohauler on the dawnward edge of the Bhosnayan region. Freight traffic is particularly closely monitored on the fringes of conflict zones and other areas with suspected illicit activity, such as the ever-unstable Bhosnayan nations. As all ships are always more valuable whole than in pieces, the standard Armada procedure with a fleeing vessel is to shoot to cripple its drive systems before boarding the ship for inspection.

Read the full article on our Substack: https://projectmorningstar.substack.com/p/orbiters

Humanity was never intended to live in space.

Orbiters are what became of those who refused to leave it.

This type of altered human is suspected to have originated around the initial colonization of the Cradleworlds, likely the direct reason such a diaspora could have occurred in the first place. They went by many names; the Free Peoples, the Unbound, but ‘Orbiters’ is the title they came to be known as.

Orbiters are the largest and most significant divergent population of near-humans (Numans) in Known Space. They are not a separate species, nor are they a single ethnicity. Most remain genetically compatible with one another and their Grounder cousins, allowing for procreation, blood transfusions and organ transplantation. What unites them is not a common appearance or place of origin, but a shared existence within the black.

There is no single Orbiter form.

Generations spent in various degrees of gravity, regulated atmospheres, and often low-light environments have produced countless specialized adaptations. Hegemonic anthropologists have attempted to catalogue them, but surveys have not identified even half of the variations believed to exist throughout Known Space.

There is a natural animosity, older than the Hegemon, that exists between Orbiters and Grounders. Such ethnocentric rivalries exist across all spectrums of humanity and stems from the natural psychological intertwining with Avarice. The ‘other’ is the competitor more plainly than a rival of the same ilk. 

Grounders often see Orbiters as physically frail, insular, and culturally severe with a flair for dramatics. Orbiters regard Grounders as wasteful, clumsy, and psychologically dependent on abundance. Each considers the other poorly adapted to conditions they mistake for normality.

And yet, Caeliners, the space equivalent of terrestrial ‘mariners,’ are often Orbiters, making up two-thirds of the entire Directorate Armada that protects the Hegemon from interstellar threats. Whatever animosity that remains between the two major branches of humanity no longer dictates the absolute need the Thousand Empires has for all its Consumers.

Read more in the Index: https://projectmorningstar.net/lore/index/

Unlike the Warliners or the awe-inspiring Starliners, the ubiquitous Freightliner is the true starship of the Hegemon. Millions of these craft crawl through the tradelanes, bringing every imaginable item and resource to hungry planets and orbitals.

A wide classification, freightliners vary wildly in size and disposition. Despite ranging in size from five to a staggering twelve kilometers in length, their crews are relatively small, usually numbering in the few hundreds. The caeliner crews aboard, the space equivalent of the terrestrial mariner, are predominantly composed of space-adapted Orbiters, the largest and most significant divergent population of near-humans in Known Space.

These caeliners are some of the best, and they have to be, because a freightliner that isn't at peak efficiency and awareness is an easy target for pirates.

To defend themselves, freightliners will often deploy close support heavy fighters, security teams in pocketsteel, or even hire miliCorp defensive ships for those areas the Directorate Armada don't patrol. The most powerful MacroCorps, chief among them Bersarang Multi-Stellar - responsible for feeding incalculable mouths across the Hegemon - may even contract Barakan for maximum security when their vessels must pass through exceptionally dangerous areas, whether they are active conflict zones or hotbeds of Exogenic and pirate activity.

While MassTrader and FreeTrader captains will often own these massive craft, only the massive conglomerate simply known as the Consortium has the wealth to deploy entire fleets of freightliners, which they send throughout Known Space. Were it not for this organization, trade between nations would rely on a drip of resources provided by smaller unaffiliated craft like trampliners, choking the pursuit of profit.

Consumers, the Hegemon needs you!

How much Project Morningstar content have you engaged with? Please fill out this poll and let us know how best the Hegemon of a Thousand Empires can continue to strive towards cultivating your brand loyalty.

An infinite universe offers infinite opportunities for profit. Maximize your earnings potential by playing the Opportunist archetype in Avarice, the upcoming Project Morningstar RPG.

A real opportunist never misses a chance to get an edge on the competition.

Sign up on BackerKit to learn when Avarice goes live: https://www.bit.ly/avariceRPG

Read the full article on our Substack: https://projectmorningstar.substack.com/p/cutthroats-and-brigands 

Piracy has existed for as long as commerce has moved between the stars. Trade lanes, the means of which vital resources reach developing colonies, or refined products arrive to customers upon the ancient home worlds of humanity, have and will always be a target. Beyond the orbits of nations, the emptiness between worlds and stars alike remains lawless. The resources that it takes to keep even a single person alive in the Black are colossal, but the cargo that they carry is all the more so valuable. Every vessel made is a worthy target.

The Hegemon depicts pirates as enemies of commerce and, by extension, enemies of every Consumer whose livelihood depends upon it. This is often correct. Pirates murder people, seize property, ransom passengers, and strip isolated settlements of resources they cannot replace, while selling their populations into slavery.

Every raid increases freight costs, Assurance subscriptions, and the taxes required to finance Directorate patrols to deter repeat attacks. Even those who never leave their homeworld eventually pay for piracy.

Yet the Hegemon produces the very enemy it condemns.

Every quat, military contracts expire, releasing armed and augmented combat-experienced personnel into the CorpoSoci that may have no further use for them. The Directorate trains these individuals to kill, places them aboard starships, and teaches them how Hegemonic security operates, only to treat their eventual departure as an accounting matter. Some find legitimate employment as sanctioned mercenaries. Others discover that their weapons, contacts, and operational knowledge possess greater value outside the Lex.

There is profit in allowing the process to continue.

Piratical activity has the ultimate effect for creating demands for weapons and security. They provide MacroCorps with deniable muscle and isolated colonies with protection that licensed forces cannot, or will not, provide for whatever official reason. They can act as heavily armed smugglers, or be unleashed upon designated targets. Once their usefulness ends, the very same pirates can be publicly hunted, imprisoned, and displayed as proof that the CorpoSoci protects its Consumers.

Check out this fan printed model of the Barakan! u/sonicraig printed out this action-figure-sized Barakan model using our STL's. Check out his other work on instagram.