House Intrepid

The rise of House Intrepid

The Intrepid was a cryogenic ark ship sent out from Earth prior to the discovery of wormhole travel. It contained 5000 brave souls: a culturally and ethnically diverse mix of men and women, united only in their high IQs, breeding potential, perfect teeth and excellent hair. The ship never reached its destination—a planet long since settled by House Reeft. They were discovered deep in interstellar space, thawed out and pressed into service as Reeft vassals. Reeft rapidly decided that the Intrepids were more trouble than they were worth, and cunningly traded them with Gwyne in exchange for a stake in Sraa'na (the so-called "planet of hats").

House Gwyne, in turn, quickly tired of the Intrepids, and eventually settled them all on Arroyo, a land of windswept tundra and flash floods, where they joined the native Avestruz (sentient reptilian ostriches) in the hyperidot mines. Opportunities were few: the lifelong service of hard-working and loyal Intrepids might be rewarded by seeing their children trained as Gwyne manservants, or Ostrich Polo players. An underground resistance movement started, with humans and ostriches as equal partners, but the cause seemed hopeless. One by one the original Intrepids died off (lacking the longevity genes now common to the rest of the human race) and their stories of Old Earth were elevated to the status of legend.

Then, just six months ago, everything changed. The empire was rocked by political upheaval; Gwyne consolidated their forces on their home worlds, cutting back their garrison on Arroyo and promoting some Intrepids to take up the slack. The Intrepids and their Avestruz allies immediately grabbed their chance: the cruel Gwyne oppressors were overthrown in an astonishingly successful and relatively bloodless revolution. It's not clear whether this has quite registered yet on House Gwyne, but it can't be long before somebody notices that the hyperidot shipments have stopped...

Their planet: Almost out of pity, House Intrepid received the planet of Arroyo. It's a dry, windswept place, except when it's racked by flash floods. The native sentient lifeform is the Avestruz, which looks sort of like a reptilian ostrich. They had reached an Iron Age level of technology before contact.

Timeline:

 -- a while back: house intrepid gets unthawed    
 -- six months ago: political upheaval   
 -- a month or so ago: the Intrepid lands on Arroyo and takes over the colony from House Gwyne

About twelve years ago, someone discovered that the planet contains an abundance of hyperidot, one of the crystals required for tri-axis drive operation. Prospectors flocked to the region, putting pressure on the local government to maintain control. The Intrepid Rangers were formed to bring peace and order to the wild mining towns.

Technologies and equipment typical to House Intrepid: cavalry (mounted on other large indigenous bipedal quasi-birds), blasters of all sorts, obsidian vibraswords, smaller-than-usual spaceships generally in private hands, medical treatments based on cryogenic stasis, other stuff considered antiques by the Empire.

They are still behind the curve when it comes to technology; a lot of things that would be done by droids on any civilized planet are still done manually here, including the dangerous mining of hyperidot. In an attempt to remedy this, the government has quietly formed the Dreamcatchers, who are tasked with obtaining technological and scientific advances by any means.

Possible Aspects

• Meat Popsicles
• Back in MY day, we did things differently.
• Don't ask me how it works.
• When it doubt, hit it with a big rock.
• Emperor? I didn't vote for you.
• Thanks, but I'll do it myself.