Futuristic The Galaxy at Large (Lore for my Upcoming sci-fi RP set in the Fifth Age D&D Homebrew Setting)

[Rusty of Shackleford]

Hi! So I'm gonna run an RP set in the excellent D&D Homebrew universe, Fifth Age. It's a hard sci fi setting, meaning that there's no magical space powers or techno jargon. Everything is explained, and say, you go into space and get pushed. You ain't stopping until something or someone makes you stop. Anyway, there's a lot, so I'll try and abridge what I can from the PDF. I'll definitely paraphrase everything so I can go ahead and get this going, but whatever. Here we go!

Dawn of the Fifth Age:
Present day Earth. On a distant planet, far beyond our reach, there lies a race of extraterrestrial life. Aliens. These aliens are known as the K’Titch’Zaa lived on a nearly inhospitable world. Their world had very little resources, and they had very little technology besides basic hypserdrives and ships. The galactic community saw them as beneath them, above only savages in intelligence and civility. You see, the only player on the civilization market, so to speak, was the Galactic Hegemony. This was a group of dozens of races ruled by the High Council, made up of the most prestigious of an elder race. These Councilmen were virtually untouchable, and had full dominance over the government and her people. They had strict policies on first contact, the main one being that no species may obtain hyperdrive technology before they breach the stars. The K’Titch’Zaa, called "Greyliens," soon found Earth, and kept an eye on them. They progressed faster than any previous race, and the Greyliens begged the Hegemony for permission to make first contact. They were, of course, brushed off. They saw humanity as simply another race that would kill itself with the atom. But, amazingly, they didn't. By 2055, they had sent a large group of colonists out into space, sealed cryogenically to find new world's. Well, they just so happened to crash land on the homeworld of the K’Titch’Zaa. Happy to lend aid, the helped the colonists, and even gave them a ride home. It was smooth sailing until the ship was shit down by Earth, killing everyone on board. But this was a freak accident, and after reverse engineering the hyperdrive, humanity became close friends with the Greyliens. Humanity spread like fire across the Galaxy, toppling economies with it's mass expansion. The Hegemony was furious, and took out it's anger on the poor Greyliens. They were all labeled terrorists, and they were all gathered up from whatever home that wasn't their homeworld and shipped there. Entire towns were either deported or genocided, and a blockade was placed on their world. They'd simply let the K’Titch’Zaa die. But humanity wasn't going to let the Greyliens just die. They assembled their massive fleet, and slowly but surely, pushed the Hegemony back. Now under the banner of the LSN, or "League of Stellar Nations," races from several Hegemony world's left to join the LSN. It was a democracy, after all. Soon, a peace treaty was called, and all seemed calm in the Galaxy. For now...

Centuries have passed since then. The 25th century has dawned, and new opportunities awaot humanity. But war is on the horizon. The Hegemony doesn't take any insult, especially one of the magnitude humanity delivered. Crime is at an all time high, with mega cities and ships housing massive street gangs and crime syndicates. But among this. There is opportunity. A chance to find new things, make money. This is the life of a spacer. To be a spacer is to throw everything away for the chance to make it big. To find those new experiences, and live an eventful, if short life. Some are born spacers, some become spacers. It doesn't matter. They all live for adventure. Do you?​

 

[Rusty of Shackleford]

Hyperdrives:
To put it simply, a hyperdrive opens up a portal to a strange, unknown dimension for a ship to go into, then teleports them out. Kind of like a wormhole. Time doesn't...work the same way in hyperspace as it does in normal space. It's very strange in hyperspace. You could go into hyperspace in the Sol system, and end up at Alpha Centatauri in a few days your time, while practically no time passed for everyone outside hyperspace. How did someone make hyperdrives, you ask? Well...we have no fucking clue. The High Council claim that they made them eons ago, but there's no records of theme ever making it outside of their own. The most commonly accepted theory is that they were created by a race so ancient that all signs of them have been wiped from the Galaxy, and that they ascended to another dimension or some trite like that. The jist is we don't know who made the hyperdrive, and we don't really need to know.​

 

[Rusty of Shackleford]

Weaponry:
Against popular belief, aliens did not invent laser and blaster weapons. In fact, they considered it insanely impractical compared to their other weapons. But then here comes humanity, in the middle of a pissing contest between the US and China in the 21st century, to make efficient laser weaponry. Ironically, every alien wants an authentic human laser. Even then, most of the Galaxy, including humans, use gauss and rail weapons. Technology has advanced so that both can be used effectively by frontline troops. For the uninitiated, a rail or gauss weapon uses electromagnetic forces to propel a metal slug at extremely high velocity. Right now, it's only in testing for taking out tanks, but the railguns of the 25th century come in all shapes and sizes. Handguns, SMGs, assault rifles, you name it. Also, everyone loves nukes. Especially in space, since it isn't as devastating to anyone but the enemy.​