When the word ship fell from the sky it was full of visitors, with a population well over a million aliens. Many fled, using saucers to flee the stricken vessel and eventually landing or crashing on the planet below. Many died, either in sections with failing inertial dampers or through starvation and conflict that continued after the impact. The lucky ones were either in the front of the ship or endured hardship to make it there.
But all was not safe, the admiralty took charge of the main control systems and flight decks forming the Admiralty Control Zone. Drawing on the hierarchical nature of their culture they used the emergency to rule with an iron fist, creating a divide in their people. Terran aggression to the south resulted in a bitter and drawn out conflict, eventually seeing them losing control of the port thruster control reactors. To the starboard, the lower-class technicians, sick of the admiralties missteps and inefficiencies succeeded from the admiralty to form the Technocracy. To this day the Technocracy maintains control of the starboard reactor control systems. These two states are technically allies, but a simmering distrust remains to this day.
The Admiralty control zone
Formed after the impact, this empire of visitors controls the original forward control systems of the worldship. Culturally they are hierarchical and classist in nature. Social status is based on their egg mother and passes from mother to daughter with little room for social mobility. A powerful guild of telepaths maintains order and control through their territory.
Koucrilita
The capital of the Admiralty control zone. This city is situated in the open spaces around the core with towering spires of crystal and metal. It is said that a temple guards the entrance to the core where priestesses guard ancient secrets and the key source of the visitors' power.
The Throat
An ancient mainline passage that once opened to the front of the vessel but is now full of earth from swallowing up surface matter and rock during the impact. This mile wide passage was lined with tractor beams like the teeth of a shark designed to pull objects from the outside in. Its reality filters were the strongest in the vessel, outside those seen around the core.
The Core
The core is only accessible from the grand temple in Koucrilita. It forms a sphere with solid and unbreachable metal rumoured to be a mile thick. From within the etheric emanations of reality filters distort arcane magic cast within proximity to its skin. What lies within is a mystery, some say it is the ultimate source of the visitor's energy crystals, explaining why they are still able to operate their extensive machinery, though in what appears to be a rationed form.Demographics of the ACZ
The control zone consists 71 six-mile hexes (excluding the core) that uses technology to its fullest. Using a population density of 90 people per square mile to reflect this gives us an average population per hex of 550 families, for a population of 39,050 families. This places it firmly in the size of a traditional ACKs dutchy. Being highly urbanised I shift the urban population down two on city placement giving around a 40% urban population of 15,620 urban population. That gives Koucrilita a population of 3,124 families (20% of urban) making it a city with a market class of III. That's even assuming the players could visit there surrounded by telepaths it would be an impressive feat to pull off...
The Technocracy
This separate visitor power formed during the initial wars with what became the Terran Enclave. Left to fend for themselves, while the admiralty threw their people at the terrans to little avail, the technicians and knowledge masters of the lesser prole class rose up to form their own separate union. Their focus has been on restoring the various hab-zones found within their territory, this has not been easy as invisible alien assailants have worked against them since the early days of the impact and they must maintain a constant vigilance against this threat.
Yilo
Lacking the large energy crystal reserves of the Admiralty, the city of Yilo is less impressive than Koucrilita but nonetheless it is an alien place. Formed along energy conduits and reinforced structural beams, it has the appearance of fungus growing on the bones of the old ship. The knowledge masters of this city focus on the secrets of the energy crystals and are examining alternative fuel sources to power their extensive robot proxy network.
Thruster control
Similar to the port side control system found within the Terran Enclave, this was originally both a reactor and energy conduit junction for the thruster pylons that were ripped off during the impact. They left behind old power systems that are the essential edge of the empire to this day, though they are unable to create energy crystals using these systems they can still power their cities with them.Demographics of the Technocracy
The Technocracy consists 31 six-mile hexes (excluding the thruster control) that uses technology extensively, though it is not as populated as its neighbooring realm. Using a population density of 50 people per square mile gives us an average population per hex 300 families, for a population of 9,300 families. This places it as barely a dutchy in ACKS terms, closer to a County. Being highly urbanised I shift the urban population down two on city placement giving around a 40% urban population of 3,720 urban population. That gives Koucrilita a population of 744 families (20% of urban) making it a large town with a market class of IV. Humans would never be welcome here, but nephil traders from the Boarder Kingdoms would be regular attendants to their markets.Traveling through visitor territory
The visitors don’t like intruders into their territories. While they consider the whole worldship to be their territory ultimately the main political zones form their core controlled territory. Not only do any characters venturing within these zones need to deal with patrols but also the psionic screening network and technological sensors. This network has three levels of awareness regarding the party of characters travelling through their territory starting at unaware through to suspected and alerted. As the characters encounter patrols their alert status rises bringing the attention of the security network upon them. The alert status is relative to the players group themselves, even if they split up.
Any encounter with visitors or visitor controlled units increases this rating by one level if the players are detected. Other encounters that result in a combat encounter raise the level by one due to psionic emissions caused by the stresses of combat. A full week is required to pass without tripping an alert to lower the level by one.
This status has several effects on the character's travels as the visitors use their telepathic and technological web to cut off pathways and direct the characters towards their forces. In travelling through the worldship the concept of walkways, subways and mainlines was discussed. Where the group is suspected they cannot travel to new walkways, and known walkway paths must roll for crossing test failure to pass. Failure on this test at any point along the path results in that pathway being rendered unusable from that point on. Where the characters are at alerted status they cannot travel to new subways, with known subway paths being potentially blocked as above. Mainline travel remains available regardless of alert level.
The following visitor zone wilderness encounter table replaces the general table when inside visitor territory. Encounters are rolled using the traverse summary table from travelling through the worldship (1d20, +5 for subway, +10 for mainline). Encounters within are either linked to the visitors or relate to giant insects and vermin beyond their control. Absent are the plant based monsters, fantastic creatures and dinosaurs present in other areas of the Worldship. This is due to the regular patrols and maintenance within these zones. Note that encounters with visitors are of such numbers that they should be played as villages or cities due to the numbers present (Consider increasing the lair roll here to 60%).
Visitor zone encounter table
* Under the mental influence of the visitors
** Double lair roll to 60% at judges discretion
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