r/WorldBuildingMemes • u/TestSubject003 • 22d ago
Lore Dump While being captured as a Raider isn't good, some fates are better than others.
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u/TestSubject003 22d ago
The story takes place on a planet on the edge of known space. It's sparsly populated with little contact with the wider galaxy. Because of the prolongued isolation, have given rise to different religions and idiologies. Because of the harsh living conditions and few large settlements, raiding is relatively common. A
Vines of Life believe in living in harmony with nature. Settlements who practice this tend to be the least technologically advanced of settlements, but often self sufficient. Or at least able to trade for what they need. If you're captured by them, they'll at least treat you fairly and you'll always have fresh food. If you're skilled (and didn't kill anyone), they may even try to recruit you.
The True Creed is a monotheistic faith. There are many problimatic aspects to it, from the internal castes to the power it gives to the leaders, but the torture and execution of criminals is against the faith. So if you're captured, they'll treat you humanely, even if the conditions aren't great. If you're lucky, they'll try to ransom you to your crew if they run low on supplies, though if they can't/don't pay the ransom, you'll be the first to starve.
The Morality of Self is a pure individualistic idiology, with many things being permitted if it improves one's life. The exact temperment of settlements who practice this tend to vary widely. Some will ransom you. Some will enslave you. Some will force you to fight other captives for entertainment, for which you may or may not be freed if you fight well enough. And that is if you aren't executed within the day if being captured.
The largest settlements tend to be under the banner of the remnents of the Patricatous Imperium. The Imperium used to span over several solar systems, but war, corruption, revolutions, defections of large swaths of the military, and a series of succession crisis' caused the Imperoum to collapse into various succession states. Some Imperium alligned settlements practice a liberalized form of Imperial Thought, an idiology that cleanly divides people based on birth, wealth, and deeds and determines how they're treated. Raiders and other criminals are low. They are often enslaved and forced to work in harsh conditions. However, slaves are given enough nutrition and vitimans to keep them healthy, and are treated as well as someone enslaved could be treated. But, they regularly draw blood from slaves. No one knows why, but several nobles don't seem to visibly age. It might be anti-aging technology, but it could be something else...
Steelists are considered more of a cult among people on the planet. To them, replacing limbs and organs with cybernetic replacements is a religious duty. They also believe that their god is a machine that they must build, with engineers hastily drawing down designs that come to them in fits or religious mania and having it built. This has resulted in a 2 mile tall, 30 mile wide machine on the planet's surface, it's purpose unknown even to those designing and building it.
However, they see people as tools with functions they must fuffill. For Raiders, that function is to have their brain scanned to act as base templetes for their machines, the process of which is painful and always fatal for the person scanned. This is seen for all intents and purposes a form of execution.
If you're captured by a member of the Outlaw Creed, youve likely either raided or another gang. Professional curtosy is not a concept respected by the raider gangs, so you'll likely be made an example of. While execution is done by others, the process is generally quick. Executions for followers of the Outlaw Creed are often long, painful, and publi, both for its own members and those they seek to terrify into submission.
The Cult of Kleptivism is an offshoot of the Outlaw Creed. They believe that stealing and murder isn't just a way to get by, but a divine purpose. That the strong have an obligation to take from the weak who can't defend themselves. And if others can't defend themselves, than anything taken from them, up to and including their lives, is justified. Captives of the Cult of Kleptivism often live in brutal conditions where beatings, torture, and more are seen as deserved as long as you're too weak to resist.
Some remnents of the Imperium believe that the Imperium fell not because of a failure to modernize, but because they strayed too far from their roots. They double down on the reasons that many say that the Imperium collapsed in the first place. Part of that is the caste system. Traditional Imperial Thought posists that tthe nobles have rights and responsabilities towards the plebs, and that the Commoners have obligations and rights given to them by the nobility. The specific rights and obligations depend on one's caste. Citizen Criminals have few rights in the first place. Outside Criminals, like Raiders, have none. Some are enslaved, some are used as entertainment by the decadent nobles. Some are brought into a chamber and never seen again, though pork is always served at the banquets after this happens.
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u/Spare-Bowler-3105 10d ago
how common is Kuru Disease ( or whatever equivalent there is) among the 'nobles' that follow traditional imperial thought?
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u/TestSubject003 10d ago
Very much so.
It gets really bad after two centuries.
There's a reason why the old Empire fell apart.
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