Diasporex: Background changes

[Zelnik]

Hey folks.

After working on this project for over a year now, I took the time to go back and read through the old warp rift 15 article on the Diasporex. 

Wow, it's amazing how things change if you don't pay attention. The old story rather captivated me, I want your opinions on a few things.

Old story: The Diasporex are  the survivors of the outermost colony worlds of humanity, managing to survive the iron man revolt due to their isolation from the rest of the empire and close ties with surrounding alien life forms in their region.

New Story: The Diasporex began as a small colony fleet that left Earth the same day the iron man revolt began, and for some reason were spared the fire (through luck or intervention).

I kinda like the old story better..

Old Story: The earthseed is just one of many colony ships, it just happens to be the "home away from home" for most of the fleet, and holds thousands of lost flora and fauna from old earth. It is a playable in the game, and only holds a few thousand humans at a time.

New Story: the Earthseed is a gigantic hollowed out dwarf planet (roughly the size of Phobos and Deimos) constructed specifically for terraform on a massive scale. Inside is an example of just about every biome old earth could muster, and is large enough to hold several million humans. 

I was thinking a sort of mixing of these two.  I want the Earthseed on the table in scenareo's, or perhaps a standard "colony ship" template, using the earthseed as an example.


Old Story: The Diasporex are spread out in nomadic groups across the galaxy, loosely tied by a senate.

New story: the Diasporex are unified.

This is simply going to have to deal with the new story.  You cannot be a group in this universe and hope to survive if your not unified under one organizing banner. 

Old story: Diasporex are kind, accepting, and altruistic, they work with rogue traders and several alien races outside their alliance. They view the humans in the imperium as oppressed, ignorant and those to be pitied.

New story: The Diasporex are Diplomatic with other races, but are heavily skeptical about their motives.  Only the civilian population view humanity in the imperium as something to be pitied, the military views them as sub-human, alien, or worse.

Again... the new story provides a damn good reason why the fleet doesn't just 'surrender' to the rest of humanity in an attempt to uplift them to their old ideals.


Old story: The Diasporex have examples of ancient STC data, and their ships are heavily modified with alien technology.  This brings them into conflict with the Adeptus Mechanis for the theft and debasement of the machine god's works.  On the whole, they prefer to remain undisturbed and alone in the galaxy.

New Story: The Diasporex have, and actively hunt ancient STC data, their ships are old, and require refits to keep in pace with modern combat craft of the era, requiring innovation on human and alien sides of the spectrum.  They are actively hunted by the Adeptus Mechanis, and hate them with a passion, blaming them for the technophobia which has gripped humanity. 

The new story gives them a reason to use certain missions in the campaign section of the book, like planetary assault.  It also gives them a reason to attack other factions if they have found something they deem "too dangerous" to fall into their hands.


Old Story: The Diasporex fleet is spread out, but massive. Filled with alien and human ships of indeterminate number.

New Story: The Diasporex Fleet in M41 consists of 13 Jupiter Command Battleships, 1 Saturn Command Carrier, 5 Io Space Superiority Cruisers, roughly 60 Human cruisers of varying class, roughly 50 Ceti Bulwark Cruisers, and countless Frigates, destroyers, and escorting vessels. They are organized and centralized around the colony fleet.

This provides numbers, nuff said. 


Any opinions? anything you want to see?

[afterimagedan]

My thoughts,

I prefer some of the old and new. I will be brief because im typing on a friends ipad (not so easy)

I prefer these things you  listed...

Outmost colonies of humanity, united to survive. They could be unified but also by a senate. They need a negative side, just like playable race we know. I think they shouldnt just be a kind diplomatic race. Maybe they could be split into violent corporations and the senate is made from reps from each one?

I like the new technology part but i dont think it should go so far as the older rules did and say that their tech is superior to the mechanicus, etc. It should just be "forbidden" because they are using xenos ideas and mods.   I prefer the new numbers idea. I think they should still be cautious of xenos but more open to working with them than the imperium.

Hope that helps!     

[Zelnik]

After some 25 thousand years, any sort of corporation would have long since dissolved without a stable grounding for it to develop influence. A nomadic lifestyle would obliterate it over night i am afraid.

I utterly reject the "evil side" of all races that 40k LOVES to perpetuate, but do not forget, the military (which makes up the majority of the Diasporex) views the rest of humanity with significant levels of disdain, even outright hatred.

They have technology as it was at the end of the empire, with their own and other technological advancements. Things have progressed since then, and more modern ships are still a match for the ancient design (in some cases, more then a match!). Remember that technology means more then big guns that shoot things, it means life support, automation, computer, science and miniaturization. The surest sign of their advancement by comparison is that a Diasporex cruiser class vessel can function fully with a crew of roughly 5500 individuals.  Compare that to the Imperium, where a cruiser will have anywhere between 2-400,000 individuals. 


Here is what I think is the best.
The colony worlds uniting works very well, and keeping the Earthseed a smaller but historic and centralizing force is going to stay.  The Civilian population, who mostly live on the retro-fitted colony ships, are very forgiving of their human counterparts, but the military has seen the brutality of the imperium first-hand, and do not show mercy.  They hunt Adeptus Mechanis vessels who dare to try and find them, which frequently brings them into conflict with the Imperium.

In order to gain raw materials faster then solar farming, they occasionally raid isolated imperial convoys and ships, taking what they can use, breaking down ships for raw materials, and if the crew is feeling compassionate, dumping the imperium survivors on an agri world.

[afterimagedan]

I don't agree with what you say about corporations.

Are you trying to make another human faction that is more of a good guy and better tech than the rest of the humans? What is their standing with the other Xenos races?

[Thinking Stone]

Hello Zelnik,
It is nice that I'm not the only one who thinks someone in the 41st millenium can be nice! I think that it might be interesting if the Diasporex had a Senate but while some factions are the more kind and altruistic type first mentioned (e.g. the Civilian types, friendly religious orders with morals, etc.) other factions are much more warlike and unpleasant (but better for wargaming! As with other 40K races...) (e.g. military faction originating from original colony alliance, ancient corporations that have survived on the colonly worlds due to hereditary practices, mean colony worlds, technologically advanced worlds that hate the Adeptus Mechanicus for their stealing of knowledge and forbidding of it). Alien-friends and Xenophobes could be potential members, too, but I think it provides a cooler story if the Diasporex 'nation' consists of the old human colonies and one or two integrated/assimilated/closely associated alien races, in dialogue with other, meaner alien races and the distant fringes of the Imperium.

In my opinion, it also seems that the Diasporex Senate would try not to irritate the Imperium (with the threat of a Space Marine Crusade being launched, this seems moderately likely) but would rather try to attempt to work with the outlying worlds (which invariably are less advanced and have cruel Imperial overlords...  ), while some factions might clandestinely support raiding. Perhaps some ostracised group actively pursues piracy and conflict (maybe an Istvaanian-type mentality like in Inquisitor?) as their idea of the best way to do things, but the Senate cannot/is not willing to confront them directly (since they are related to the Diasporex and aren't doing any direct harm etc...). The Diasporex Senate might also restrain themselves from conquering outlying Imperial worlds because they believe there is a better way (despite their internal troubles) and because they feel a sort of 'brotherhood' with their human cousins (after all, they might have records of friendly relations with nearby worlds not a part of the Diasporex that did not survive the Age of Strife intactly).

I think that the Earthseed is best as a cross between the large and small versions if it is intended to be the most advanced terraforming ship in existence and the jealously guarded jewel of the Diasporex (thus providing impetus to protect it and reasons for nearby aliens to be hostile against the Diasporex). It is reasonable to suggest that the difficult process of terraforming planets takes much, much longer without the Earthseed (e.g. centuries, millenia) and that even with Dark Age technology it is a very difficult process. The Eldar are only supposed to have really mastered the process at the height of their empire. Alternitively it could also be a good 'capital ship' for the Diasporex Senate (like in Halo with High Charity, and other examples) and so function a bit like an Eldar Craftworld in BFG.

I like the fleet idea and the theme of it being much more advanced but much smaller in number than Imperial fleets due to a relative lack of resources. Ships would probably also be smaller in terms of hits (as I seem to recall in the original Diasporex rules was the case for some ships). Is there any contact with the Necrons?

The Diasporex now seem a lot more like my own invented race of (mainly) humans that survived the Dark Age at the rim of the Galaxy (I had originally thought of them as existing as a wandering fleet centred around the Earthseed). Perhaps they know each other? Kressalia is very involved in local politics, shall we say.

[Zelnik]

I apologize, but the whole point of the Diasporex was that they were the last surviving remnants of the best that humanity had to offer to the galaxy. This means there really can not be a massive antagonistic force involved like corrupt corporate bodies. Pretty much everything is run by the Senate or the Navy, and as such, there really is no room for a corporate body to gain influence.

Interacting with the imperium is dangerous at any level, and rogue traders are unsavory enough as it is. The Tau did exactly as you suggested and the ended up with the Damocles Gulf crusade!

The Diasporex are cautious of everyone, the aliens that joined the alliance do so by sacrificing some of their surviving ships (which is all they have left) to defend the colony fleet at all costs, while more are sent on military missions (which are incredibly dangerous). It is a risk-benefit system that for many, it becomes their only option.  While they have good relations with the Tau, they would never join the Tau empire, and while they have decent relations with the Eldar, the Eldar would never join the Diasporex.

[afterimagedan]

It seems like you have the majority of the answers you are looking for. Excited to see the rules.

[BaronIveagh]

I'm working on some concept drawings, but all Mang gave me was 'more sci-fi ish' to work with.  Any ideas on shape, etc?  I was thinking a more sleek looking variations on the older Imperial designs. 

[Zelnik]

Alright folks. I am working on the final draft. 

Here are some details you may like to see.

There is a complete fleet manifest of the Diasporex Nomads

the Earthseed will be a playable craft in scenarios

All of the ship names have been updated to describe the ships original function


I am considering creating rules to allow players to make their own Diasporex ally.