Encarta

Created by: Garry Stahl cribbing a lot from GURPS Aliens.
Appearance: STB-600 game
Number of Members: Unknown. The Encarta have refused to answer that question, their world cannot be scanned for life forms and they are seldom seen more than one at a time. Speculation runs anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand. (GM note It is in the several thousands. The population has not changed in several thousand years.)
Nature of Members: 5 foot tall elfin, large-eyed androgynous humanoids. They usually wear loose figure hiding robes and sport improbable hairdos in unlikely colors.
Organization: Unknown. They don't speak about government either, except to comment on how primitive yours is. (GM note: Encarta is an oligarchy, but since everyone is in the ruling class, it really doesn't matter now does it? Machines take care of all mundane tasks invisibly and without personality.)
Game Role: To cause people to grind their teeth
World Role: Ancient race that missed the boat to YAGLAhood.
Relative Influence: Minor. They mind their business, protect themselves and never get involved in the messy affairs of lessor races
Public or Secret?: Public in that they exist, secret in every aspect of that existence.
Publicly Stated Goal: Silly, lessor races have goals, we have achieved ours.
Relative Wealth: Usually filthy rich once the locals start ponying up to live forever.
Group advantages: Science! Encarta have a near godlike science, their ships are faster and more powerful, they have abolished all the messy biological things, they live forever.
Special Abilities: They will claim everything short of the actual creation of the universe (but they were consulted). While their technology is stunning, they are personally not powerful.
Group disadvantages: There are few of them. they depend totally on their technology.
Special disadvantages: Ennui. The Encarta are jaded and bored. Their solution to living much longer than any biological should was solved by shorting out any really long term memory. So a hundred years after you sky dive until you never want to do that again. "That again" looks good. This drives the Ane nuts as any true Encarta history is lost.
Those who favor them: Right now no one.
Those opposed to them: Again no one, and they like it that way.
Area of Operation: STB-600 sector
Headquarters Location: Encarta. The Encarta system is some 4 light years from Avaya.
Public Face: Jaded merchants of immortality.
Notable Members: Keeray Encarta androgynous, (might be both, not even Ane noses can tell.) Keeray is the Encarta representative and pusher on Renaissance Station. "He" advertises the super tech Encarta medical life enhancement and prolongation treatments (They DO work as advertised) and as a buyer of art and luxury goods for the Encarta trade.
History of the Organization: The Encarta have lost their history. All that can be surmised about them is what has happened recently. Over 500 years ago Aneilog warp ships encountered them. There were then as they are now. No, they didn't have any of that useless history around, they couldn't even remember their very long lives to any detail.
       Tens of thousands of years ago the Encarta deliberately removed any vestige of psionic ability they might have, it was inconvenient to be empathic you see. To handle endless life, they shorted out memory. Encarta have to consult their logs to remember new things for more than a decade. For as long as any local race can remember they have been there. When the Ane founded Oz over 100,000 years ago the Encarta were there, and much as they are now.
       Once the Kligese'chee had flattened Oz, they moved to the next target. Two more worlds had nothing to threaten them, but the Encarta did. For fifty years the Comptrollers sent fleet after fleet at the Encarta. The debris field a light year from Encarta continued to build until tens of thousands of dead ships and hundreds of thousands of dead Kligese'chee floated in the void. This ship graveyard is now used as a resource by Avaya and Oz.
       The Encarta are a dead race. No new Encarta has been born in over 50,000 years. Those that remain, remain. They no longer create, they no longer innovate, they lead their shallow jaded lives. Once in a great while something snaps, and some Encarta does something totally sane that even an Encarta cannot survive. Fellow Encarta will find they have also deleted all personality records so they cannot be recreated. That means one less Encarta.
       For more detail on personality and possible reactions check the Engay in GURPS Aliens.
 
 

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and situations are fictional. Any resemblance to persons, places, or situations living or dead is coincidental.

© Garry Stahl: 1997-2006 unless other Copyrights apply. All rights reserved, re-print only with permission.

 
 
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