Biolance
Biolance is a Homebrew Sci-Fi / High Fantasy Adventure Setting for D&D5e, aiming to capture the vibe or themes of pulp science fiction and high magic fantasy.
It borrows and cobbles many resources from Ultramodern 5e, Dark Matter, Stars without Number, Planescape, Spelljammer, Starfinder, and Alien Technology from the DMG. Its main influence is science fiction and fantasy, so it takes cues from Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, Warhammer 40k, Doom, Xenoblade Chronicles & Xenogears, Eberron, and Trigun. It is poorly suited for hard sci-fi settings.
In Biolance, you are a Lancer, an adventurer/mercenary who travels across systems and dimensions doing missions and taming the frontier systems for the poor folk who inhabit it.
Experience strange lands, encounter the unknown, survive living nightmares, and make your mark on the universe.
Warning. This homebrew is still in testing and is quite experimental. Rules may change as problems arise.
What was the Biolance?
Mind-Mages, Verse-Priests, and datalogs relate the history of the known universe across their intangible understanding of dimensions and the stellar history of celestial objects like suns and planets. It is said even amongst the gods and elder beings that at the dawn of creation, only darkness mired the infinite worlds lorded over by the Immortal Evil.
The dawn of creation was heralded by the Engineer of Divinity, who wielded the Spear of Life, the Biolance.
In a single strike across the infinite void, a flash of divine essence brought life and light to millions of worlds across the multiverse, to which the Engineer of Divinity struck the Immortal Evil in his Heart of Conquest, leaving an immortal wound of festering corruption that pervades the multiverse in the form of the void between worlds.
The Immortal Evil and the Engineer of Divinity's battle takes place on such a scale that no mortal even knows if their combat had concluded, though many detail different results. It is mostly said that the reason the Engineer of Divinity failed to defeat the Immortal Evil, was because the Engineer's hand was severed by its Sword of Annihilation, and with it held the Biolance which was lost, flung far off from the scene of the eternal battle.
In the modern age, many find such stories to be balderdash and sheer nonsense, and many believe the idea of finding the Biolance to be a story that many will waste their lives seeking out.
The Age of the Constellation Drive
In the age of the Constellation Drive, a Saint of Zoldan, the god of Lore and Knowledge unearthed an ancient machine left over by the Star-Titans, and learned the technology to replicate and manufacture the Constellation Drive, a magical engine that taps into Hyperlanes that meticulously connect every star system to one another stitched together by the Goddess of Constellations.
Zoldan himself, the god of Lore and Knowledge blessed the Saint for his efforts, and proceded to share the gift of the schematics of the Constellation Engine across the multiverse, as a gift for mortals to share and explore the multiverse with.
With the Constellation Engine, mortals began to explore the known universe as they know it, many of the core worlds devised an organization to protect spacefarers and young civilizations. They created the Galactic Community, and with that came the Freelancer Guilds, mercenaries from thousands of worlds and communities.
The 7 Galactic Wars
Seven great conflicts mark the progress up to the Age of the Freelancers:
- The Elder War
- The Bulwark War
- The War for Divinity
- The Man-Krauthak Wars
- The Luvaran Wars
- The Replicate Wars
- The Protodermic Wars
The Elder War was a thousands year long conflict fought between the so-called "Younger" Races (Humans, Halflings, Goblins, etc.) and the "Elder" Races (Elves, Dragons, Giants) fought across thousands of worlds as the younger races attempted to colonize hundreds of worlds and leave their original homes. The Elder War was won by heroes of the Younger Races, who established the Galactic Community and heralding the creation of the Core Worlds and the varying capitals.
The Bulwark War was an extraordinarily long thousands year long conflict fought against Dwarves. A separationist sect of the Dwarven Empire who called themselves the Barakul were rebels and thugs who prized after rare titanium asteroids, who stole the Sunforge of Erebekul, to manufacture invincible fortresses, Bulwarks as they would call them. The Bulwark War was won by the Core World Alliance after they managed to detonate the Sunforge, a cataclysmic supernova that shook the Core Worlds.
The War for Divinity was a short yet well-remembered religious war waged against the Galactic Community. Fought by the Abolitionists and lead by the Son of Redemption, they fought to destroy the Core Worlds in holy fire, and to destroy all traces of the Constellation Engine. A formidable force of renegade sorcerers and espers lead dangerous attacks on ancient vaults and temples devoted to history while scores of barbarians rampaged across industrial complexes and corporate offices. The Son of Redemption manipulated the masses and populations claiming himself as the divine-born messenger of the Gods, pronouncing that the act of Star-Travel was "heretical" and not meant for mortals. The War for Divinity was won as a pyrrhic victory for the Galactic Community, as the human homeworld called Sol 3 was completely destroyed by the "Blade of Annihilation", a legendary colossal world-destroying ship.
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The Man-Krauthak Wars was a vicious war fought immediately after the Bulwark War and during the War for Divinity. In the wake of the supernova left by the destruction of the Sunforge of Erebekul, came a horde of flesh-hungering monstrosities from beyond the void of space, who tore through countless frontier worlds in a gambit to reach the Core Worlds. The Krauthak as they called them, were espers and psions, as well as endlessly diverse mutated biological creatures who rode on massive worm-like star-vessels. The Man-Krauthak Wars were won by the Freelancer Guilds, as bands and fleets of ships destroyed the Krauthak mothership, whose corpse sits adrift in the Frontier sectors.
The Luvaran Wars were Wars fought over the Scrolls of Luvar, the Saint of Zoldan, the god of Lore and Knowledge. Luvar divined secrets from Black Hole Osiras, and published his works into Three Scrolls of Luvar who he gave to his disciples. The Black Scroll of the Void, the White Scroll of Eternity, and the Gray Scroll of the Mind. Luvar's disciple who received the Black Scroll of the Void proceeded to turn on Luvar and killed him, sparking the Luvaran Wars. The Disciples of the Gray Scroll banded with the Freelancer Guilds and managed to defeat the Disciples of the Black Scroll.
The Replicate Wars were fought between the Freelancers Guild and the Replicate Union. In the Core Worlds, an Esper and student of the White Scroll of Eternity manufactured the Spell "Replicate", to which the Esper used to amass a Clone army of themselves, the difference between Replicate and Clone being the Replicate's power being completely equal to its original caster, with even the potential to go further beyond and continue to improve and evolve. Long into this process, one of the replicates killed its original copy and stole the White Scroll of Eternity, fashioning themself into their leader and threatened the Galactic Community by creating its own Stellar Empire by stealing away with one of the Core Worlds. A league of the strongest heroes amongst the Freelancers managed to imprison the leader of the Replicates named Billions, which dissolved the Replicate Union in a fell swoop.
The Protodermic Wars were fought between the Galactic Community and the Singularity Assembly. During the entire years leading up to this War, Core Worlds, Fringe & Frontier Sectors, and Star Platforms used an extensive amount of constructs and machines to maintain the industrial integrity and demand for varying products of Core World Corporations. The Singularity Assembly was the answer for what was to come when the Galactic Alliance's capital moved to its next stage of being an entirely urbanized city-planet. The genius of a Tech-Wizard fashioned the Singularity A.I., a construct with such great intelligence and magical ability that it could feasibly communicate and manage millions of constructs of a world of its scale. The fault of the Tech-Wizard was the Singularity A.I.'s ability to overthrow the protocols to not go ape-shit. The Singularity A.I. hijacked hundreds of worlds across the known universe, a completely god-tier threat which was only won because Heroes from the Freelancers Guild managed to shut down the A.I. by de-supplying it access to Protodermis, a rare metalloid it needed to fuel the creation of its construct legions and armadas.
With the conclusion of the "Last" Protodermic Wars being fought against the Technomancers of Tellaran, who attempted to create a second Singularity A.I. to overthrow Galactic Rule, the Galaxy seems to find itself in the modern age, the "Age of the Freelancers".
The Age of the Freelancers
Ever since the beginning of the Galactic Community, came the Freelancers Guild: Mercenaries, Recruits, Adventurers from thousands of worlds or communities. The Freelancers have a reputable history of solving the conflicts of Wars and negotiating between hostile nations. Reputably to be a Lancer means to be the best-of-the-best, the most courageous of warriors, the most noble of heart, etc. Of course, they are but a series of Guilds, effectively being compromised of several different inner-factions and named parties/businesses in the game of protecting space-faring civilization.
Lancer General Dune Gore is the leader of the Freelancer Guilds, the overall settler of disputes between Guild Factions and represents their better interests at Galactic Community Council sessions. Dune Gore, the Hero of the Replicate Wars was said to single-handedly bring the Replicate Union Leader Billions to his knees using only his bare hands.
Freelancer Mercenaries are well admired and respected across Galactic Community Worlds, many a youngling would look to the stars and envision themselves a hero of great renown. A squad or faction of Freelancer Mercenaries already stand a cut above regular guards or special forces most Galactic Community Nations would employ, garnered by their limitless and varied recruits.
However the trials one goes through to enlist in the Freelancer Guilds means undergoing the Test of Varnam, a rigorous series of physical examinations, mental assessments, and overall evaluations of one's "moral" capability. Many eagerly attempt to enlist at their local Guildhalls and hope to re-station to one of the many Guild Factions, though a very small sum end up passing the qualifications.
Even at the lowest rank of Lancer Recruit, a recruitee receives many benefits and a more honest wage. Though the numerous dangers and risks make the Ideal of being a world-spanning adventurer not something for the faint of heart.
Tenets of the Freelancers. You must serve the people of the Galactic Community above all. You must defend them with body and soul. You must uphold the Laws of the Galactic Community and the Tenets of the Freelancers.
"The Tenets of the Freelancers are more like guidelines than actual rules." ~Varnam Gaul, The First Lancer General.
Mercenary Claims
Tenets and Laws are enforced onto the overall trade of Mercenary Organizations the Galactic Community employ. They are as followed:
Mercenary Teams. You are to have a sizable group of affiliated members under the same team. Each individual member are to be signed by Name, and their relations recognized by House, Tribe, Community or similar ancestry. Mercenary Guilds will record an individual member's Full Name, Titles, Physical Features, Ethnicities, Species, Familial Relations, and similar information. Such information may or may are able to be disclosed to the public or contracters. Failure to meet these quotas can be punishable by National Courts or permanent banishments from Mercenary Guild services.
Mercenary Guild Faction. An individual of class Captain is able to create their own Freelancer Faction, which has the authority to recruit or instate new members, including individuals of lower ranks but do not answer to a faction. Only the Captain in command or the Lancer General can disband the Faction.
National Enforcement Policy. You are to obey the laws or face punishment regarding any events under actions or activity depending on the specific Galactic Nation state's laws as long as you remain in location. It's probably to be expected.
Acquisiton of Materials. Unless an object acquired has a certified claim in advance of at least 1 month filed with the Freelancer Guild or made mention at the beginning of the Hire Contract, all items, objects, materials, and likewise belongs henceforth to the Mercenary Team which acquisitioned said objects, including foreign or illegal or outlawed materials, which must remain in their possession until a Freelancer Executive can retrieve it and compensate the Team for the reclamation of goods.
The Lanzian Coin
Lanzian Thruaz, the second Lancer General and Victor of the Man-Krauthak Wars instated a fairly rare policy regarded as the Lanzian Coin. During the era of the Man-Krauthak Wars, resources and common monetarily-based payments and trade were incredibly hampered, so Lanzian Thruaz created a circulation of the Lanzian Coins, essentially an owed favor by the Freelancer Guild to then be redeemed at a later date.
Galactic Currency
This book uses standard D&D coinage, as detailed in the Player's Handbook, but in Biolance, citizens refer to their money as units and credits, with 100 units to 1 credit. There is no central mint, as Galactic Currency use a form of digital calculation for units and credits, tied to your character's soul. Frontier Realms use a form of physical currency in the form of coins and metal-accented paper currencies, as most Frontier worlds lack any form of intensive urban machinery to properly cash in credits. The Black Market, run and owned by fiends and similar evil-aligned beings, only cash in at high rates of currencies, all in the form of pure un-transmutated star-gold cubes and bars.
| Value | GC Nations | Frontier Realms | Black Market |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cp | unit | penny | - |
| 25 cp | quarter credit | quarter | - |
| 1 ep | - | half-dollar | - |
| 1 gp | credit | dollar | pyg |
| 1 pp | - | double-dollar | haug |
| 10 pp | ducredit | triple-dollar | borr |
| 100 pp | deca-credit | quadra-dollar | sausige |
--- GALACTIC MAP ---
The Church of the Trinity
Religion in Galactic Community falls under the categories of various Faiths that fall under the eye of the Church of the Trinity, the major holy order that upholds protecting the lives of its followers, maintaining the good health of the community, and preserving the light of the stars.
The Galactic Council
Seated amongst the Galactic Community sit three prominent civilizations of great powers who hold sway over their lesser members and enact official resolutions on their behalf.
- The Commonwealth. A loosely aligned group of official nation states, the Commonwealth rules over hundreds of Frontier Sectors and its capital holds stake in the Core Worlds on Cabastus IV. Their highest populated race is humans. The Commonwealth suffered the most and still reels from the effects of the War for Divinity and the Man-Krauthak Wars, as the former capital was once Sol 3, now relegated to Sol 4, otherwise known as Mars.
- Gauth-Ni Directorate. A series of loosely allied Core Worlds and Interior Sectors, though the Directorate is lead by its own small council of androids of one race to represent the collective. The divide between the Directorate's interest in the advancement of calculating Logistics and weighing efficiency vs. comfort for its citizens resulted in the Protodermic Wars, as the Tech-Wizard who created the singularity A.I. was a high-ranking Directorate member, and resulted in many of the Directorate's interior Android Council to become corrupted and destroyed, weakening their leadership and the integrity of the Core Worlds overall.
- The Graye Order. The Disciples of the Gray Scroll of the Mind, Acolytes of Zoldan and the highest supporters of the Church of the Trinity rule over the great City / Holy / Planar World of Zeros, impenetrable forces of magic, psionic, and metal power, the birthplace of the Constellation Engine. Effectively acting as the Executive/Military Branch to the Church of the Trinity's Science / Infrastructure / Legislative Branch, the Graye Order is ruled by a Primarch, a greater being of Psionic power, which the Disciples channel into one of their ranks via a ritual once every millennium, when the previous inheritor of such a power dies from such exposure. The Super-World of Zerus has since been healed of its ailments after the Luvaran Wars, but suffers from conspiracies and dark plots from elder evil powers across the cosmos and the threat of the Disciples of the Black Scroll.
Protospace
Protospace is the overall nomenclature revolving around worlds and systems that were once held in power by Rogue A.I.'s. Living nebulae's and swarms of nanomachines don't allow organic life to be supported anymore, still programmed with the desire to kill sentient life.
Though the power of the great Singularity A.I. is no longer in its seat, Protospace has been divided into differing space controlled by Rogue A.I.'s that vie for its control, supposedly either AIs that appeared from the Ethernet, lost technomancers with uploaded consciousness's, or back-ups of the Singularity A.I. though with less of the pomf of its power.
Dragon Space
Dragonspace or the Dracosiniimulata in draconic is a small portion of the galactic scale owned by the material-loving dragons. At the end of the Elder War, Dragon Space was confined to its small scale after the destruction of hundreds of ancients that were humbled after the younger races shifted the scale of power with technology. No longer is it an age where dragons tyrannize and suppress creatures who could tote weapons of powers back against them. The breath of flaming death traded for a 12-gage, effectively.
Somewhere within the Dracosiniimulata is the Reptiluccilakaan, the homeworld of all reptilian / lizard-like creatures. Owned by the Grand Dragons, there's little else known about the affairs of dragons.
The technology and overall sciences of the Dracosiniimulata are astoundingly terrifying. Patrols or outer-secrets that dribble bring word from Dragon Space, revealing the series Drak'Thkrawl: Dragon-Ships, born from eggs and flesh-grown into gargantuan mockeries of dragons cybernetically enhanced with spaceship parts. The terrifying implications of Draconic Bio-Science also include such facts and mutations, but they are closely kept secrets.
Uk-Pagar Empire
Space Dwarves.
The Uk-Pagar Empire are the remnants of the Dwarven Empire, foremostly known as the Durshaagal, then the Barakul (fighters of the Bulwark War), and now the Uk-Pagar. The Durshaagal manufactured planets, and the Barakul manufacted Sunforges, whole stars devoted to smelt planets into core parts, particularily to fashion ships, steel, and weapons.
When the Barakul lost the Sunforge of Erebekul, they fell from the sheer loss in capacity and faith. These Barakul-Thane (dwarf separatists) stole away the Sunforge of Nakk'Tharm and maneuvered it into the Plane of Earth, never to return. The Uk-Pagar have access to one of the last Sunforges, Goirl-Gil-Aggghhhhghghgh, which makes their capital and the backbone of the Uk-Pagar Empire.
The Uk-Pagar fiercely defend their worlds and militarize/mechanize planets to meet their ends. Terrifying flying dwarven asteroids, and whole planets re-shaped into a single dwarven head, effectively are shipped off whenever used to negotiate whenever their presence is needed in the galaxy.
Green
Green.
Green.
Green.
Green.
Elven Homeworlds
Space Elves.
The Elven Homeworlds are owned,.. by the Elves. The elves, recoined Eldar, renamed Aeleshar, are always still just elves. They fought the universe during the spans of the Elder War, turncoating the lesser-lived races in their egoism.
The Elven Homeworlds are untouched, like precious pearls of the galaxy untouched by any mortal beings. The Elves go through great efforts to protect the systems of the Homeworlds, and their lifestyles are supported on colonized moons refurbished into fanciful forest or jungle-rich environments.
Elven Biomancy is unparalleled, with promises of fleshy immortality, getting rid of diseases or phages, or merely just accommodating any physical parallels. But the process of which is arduous and long, only practiced by the mad or mechnical. An Elven's pursuit of the flesh-melding biomancy to say, provide one with the vigor of youth, can possibly take a creature's entire life to pursue, making the effort worthless to have even begun in the first place. Lol. Lmao. Said the Elven Biomancer.
Recipraetors
Recipraetorians. The endless same-faced legions. During the era of the Replicate Wars, entire armadas or armies of the Esper, the Replicate "Billions" conquered the known galaxy, until Billions was imprisoned. The Recipraetorians were driven off from the galaxy, consigned to their own festering corner like the endless, countless other ass-kicked, sobbing in pitiful teary-eyed ex-powerful empires, though the Recipraetorians stole one of the Core Worlds, World Niaital II, and has kept it as their capital.
The technology and manpower required to return Niaital II is so insanely costly, the Galactic Union has just decided to let the Recipraetorians keep it. The effort and power they kept on-world, replicator vats, machining powers, etc. has effectively changed Niaital so differently, and the efforts done for its original inhabitants (which effectively ended in either: they were transformed into another clone or they escaped world), that it's an irreversible galactic tragedy.
The Recipraetorians are a fractured, vengeful, and mislead series of warring clans backed behind some of Billion's less-less impressive versions, though still powerful in their own right(s). Even amongst the Recipraetorians, they recognize they will never return to their greatest power without their leader, but there aren't many that try to break him out of his prison, nor those who would rise to return to support him after such a catastrophic failure.
Recipraetorian Space isn't well-guarded, and acts as the central hub for outreachs on Replicate outsiders or sheer outcasts, even those on the run or hiding. When everyone's face is the same, nobody seems to care.
Krauthak Space
Krauthak Space is set to celestial cleansing by Commonwealth or Freelancer Guild efforts. Living, breathing Krauthak-hive worlds are set to the nuclear destruction, though the other halves are glassed or steamed (the process of setting an ocean world aflame to the extent its environment becomes venus-hot and melts every Krauthak on-world, allowing easy recolonization after freezing it, and then thawing it).
This process is expensive, and well-worth for the reclamation of natural resources.
The most heavily guarded part of Krauthak Space is the one where the Krauthak Mothership's corpse sets adrift. The Krauthak Mothership ate nuclear fireballs, and was hypothesized to eat a shot from the "Blade of Annihilation", the legendary colossal world-destroying ship and not even sweat.
Plenty of its biomass and bio-synthetic structure is still being researched to this day, and eggs harvested from the corpse of the mothership are some of the most sought-out biomatter in the known universe.
The brain of the Krauthak Mothership was what was destroyed to stop the Krauthak Invasion, though parts of its matter are kept in the most secretive, secluded parts of vaults within the Freelancer Guild or the Graye Order.
Frontier Space
Frontier Space is hicky, space rednecky space. Uncolonized, feral, but with small lights in the dark of the void. Tiny little civilizations beyond the reach of galactic politics and issues, that one could retire to or spend unwaking time within.
Frontier Space is unowned and grandly vague space, though there are no true warlords or organizing leaderships due to its un-importance in location and in resources. Being in the far reaches of the galaxy, means being far from everything important, so people... adventurers, heroes, scallawags, or the uninterested in the galactic drivel go there to die.